Ideas for non-traditional jobs

[Kalise]

If you collect monsters it's the same argument they're using about collecting blue spells, with the possibility of creating barriers to players who don't have/use the best skills/monsters. Now, I don't agree that that requires the job to be limited, but I think it is what SE would almost certainly argue.

Though, that's really, really, really easy to remedy.

Just make the "Core" spells/beasts part of their Job Quests. Thus, everyone is guaranteed to have access to said "Best" or "Required" skills.

Or just make it a requirement in order to queue up to Duty Finder, so that no-one will be ostracised in there for not having said skills.

Of course, this isn't to account for the fact that DF content is currently so faceroll that you get people not using 90% of their class skills. Like I've seen TONS of SAM who don't EVER get their Shifu/Jinpu buffs up, let alone do the combos to get Sen to perform Iaijutsu. Or NIN that never use a single Mudra and thus Ninjutsu, BRD that never use songs, DRG that never use Blood of the Dragon or any jump skills, BLM that just spam Fire 1 until they OOM and then wait for AF to drop before using Blizzard 1 and regaining mana...

So, what's the big issue about maybe some BLU/BST might not have the "Best" spells/monsters and so require them to never be allowed into the general populous because the second they enter DF the entire game is going to implode?

[TheHeavenAbyss]

Though, that's really, really, really easy to remedy.

Just make the "Core" spells/beasts part of their Job Quests. Thus, everyone is guaranteed to have access to said "Best" or "Required" skills.

Or just make it a requirement in order to queue up to Duty Finder, so that no-one will be ostracised in there for not having said skills.

Of course, this isn't to account for the fact that DF content is currently so faceroll that you get people not using 90% of their class skills. Like I've seen TONS of SAM who don't EVER get their Shifu/Jinpu buffs up, let alone do the combos to get Sen to perform Iaijutsu. Or NIN that never use a single Mudra and thus Ninjutsu, BRD that never use songs, DRG that never use Blood of the Dragon or any jump skills, BLM that just spam Fire 1 until they OOM and then wait for AF to drop before using Blizzard 1 and regaining mana...

So, what's the big issue about maybe some BLU/BST might not have the "Best" spells/monsters and so require them to never be allowed into the general populous because the second they enter DF the entire game is going to implode?

I don't actually disagree with you, but that apparently wasn't enough to make Blue Mage a regular job (at least for now). I've been saying the same kind of stuff in the Blue Mage threads. I just don't like the idea of Beastmaster being a limited job too, so I merely presented how it could work with what they already have.

Another thing that worries me is that eventually people would just have the best monster to use and everyone would be running around with a behemoth or something, instead of each having their favorite monsters. That's why some people have been saying that primal egis like Ravana and Ramuh, if added eventually to SMN, could work as glamours to the attacker, caster and tank pets. I honestly don't care that much about having a dozen different pets if I only end up using one in end-game content, so glamour would be a way to actually have more variety at least aesthetically. Unless the job had some pet switching mechanic to different scenarios or other mechanic that makes use of the different pets, I guess.

[Kalise]

-snip-

I suppose they could always group the beasts into categories. So instead of it being something like "Behemoth = best" it would be something like "Behemoth, and all these other monsters = Best for X scenario" with them having similar stats/kits. So you have options within each "Type" of monster.

Similar to if they decide to add more Egi's they could fill different roles by providing different utility (Kind of like how although Ifrit is higher DPS, Garuda has a nice debuff).

Heck, it's not beyond the realms of possibility for allowing a class (Be it SMN or BST) to have multiple pets active at once. Especially if you have different categories, so then you can customise your menagerie a little bit more.

But yeah, it all depends on whether SE comes up with some dumb excuses to limit them...

Which I imagine they would rather do than make pet AI not hot garbage so as to allow for a second pet focused class to exist without being yelled at constantly for the derp AI...

[Valdegarde]

That and they could come up with a brand new name (Sort of like how AST wasn't necessarily a job name from a previous title)

Astrologian was Warren Omon's title in Tactics Ogre, which is where Astrologian seems to have gotten its card element from, it's also Orran's job in FFT (Astral Stasis, etc.)
That being said, I do agree with you 100%.

[Dmhlucky]

Mystic Knight/Rune Fencer could be a "magical" tank role. Instead of using hard elements, since they basically do nothing in this game just use spirit magic or aeither. Cold wield a crest and offhand an orb, which based on the "stance" would imbue them with magical power, the crest could "pulse" damaging abilities or short range normal pulses for Auto attacks, and the Orb would put up a barrier for defensive abilities and block procs similar to a shield.
Would have magical abilities to draw hate and combo abilities.

Chemist could be used as a healer or a DPS. Healer with the "potions" as their spells, (not actual potions) but in name. They could also have an ability called Drink like in other games, similar to what someone else suggested, but have it draw from a set list, like AST cards for various effects, or like Ninjitsu, enter a combo of 3 "ingredients" for a final result, ranging from healing to damage. Obvious Poison Dots, or "frost/Burn" dots via Fire/Ice potion. "Damaging Gas" attacks as DPS.

Puppetmaster is also an option. Would be another pet Job, but not with all of the attachments like in 11. Would have 3 frames, Melee, Ranged/Support, Tank. Only ideas i have for this would be similar to how it played in 11, a H2H type job, but would use different weapon types than a monk. Maybe the varied rotations trigger the Automaton to do different "finishing moves" 1, 2, 3, would trigger a high damage attack, 1, 4, 5 a medium damage dot, 1, 6, 7 a conal AoE, and have the effect vary based on the Automaton frame.

Gambler similar to what others have said. Throwing cards as weapon, and dice as an alternate similar to the AST cards for various effects, could be buffs or attacks/debuffs, having other "rolls" like Cor in 11, for Movement speed or EXP plus etc (obtained through Job level quests for fairness)

Mime i think could be fun, but incredibly difficult to pull off. Tailored based on your current party, with a few unique standard abilities. "mimic" could be an ability that when activated you have to enter an on screen combination within a few seconds, 3 characters again, similar to Ninja, but not set, if successful you mimic the last action taken, if failed, goes on cool down. Would need to somehow identify which party member to mimic, could be yourself too. As far as a role, i think it would have to be a tank, as other jobs mimicking a provoke could be disastrous.

[Sylvain]

I know many people are happy for the Dancer, but I really wish they would add the Chemist instead, I just don't like the Dancer x_x

I wouldn't be surprised to see the Mystic Knight at some point though. Visually and thematically speaking it gives enough freedom to do plenty of things.

[Fuzzy_Navel]

I would absolutely LOVE to see Beastmaster added, I don't think it would work well with the game's party dynamic though, at least not in a way that would satisfy the people who want that unique type of playstyle that Beastmaster is capable of delivering, things like knowing the ins and out of the land, and familiarizing yourself with the strengths and weakness, and even the weird little quarks off all the creatures spread throughout it. I also would hate to see it get the same "limited job" treatment that was given to BLU. When I level any class I want to feel like I'm building toward overall progress on my character, not playing some side content that once I'm finished with I might never touch again.

So I've had this idea for BST floating through my head the couple days, it might seem a little out there, so bare with me. Now, I don't keep well up to date on all the news and interviews that come out, but I have heard that Yoshi P has at least toyed with the idea of creating a new gathering class, one for gather skins and furs and I assume all other types of MOB drops. Well what if BST was introduced as not a full on battle class but rather a gathering class with battle capabilities used to take down MOBs for their drops? It would play like any other battle class with various attack abilities, combos, the whole nine yards, and of course pets. The caveat? It would be significantly weaker than it's actual battle class counter-parts, significant enough that even overworld trash MOBs can present a bit of a challenge, also, each of it's attacks would have additional effects attached to them related to gathering, similar to the abilities MIN and BTN get, enhancing drop rate, yield, and HQ chance. For example:

Hunters Slice: Single attack with a potency of XX
Additional effect, increases drop rate by 10%

Carve: Multi-Hit attack with a potency of XX.
Additional effect, increases yield by 25%

Precision Strike: Single Focused attack with a potency of XX
Additional effect, damage over time with a potency of XX
Additional effect, increases HQ chance by 5%
(because with DoT, in theory you're striking less, therefore less likely to damage the pelt)

[Fuzzy_Navel]

The additional effects of these would be stackable, and they could even combo to enhance each other's effects further. Maybe even critical hits, rather than dealing extra damage, could enhance these bonuses. So in theory you could stretch a fight out trying to achieve max yield HQ. This would also affect your choice of pet you call on, do you want a pet with healing and support capabilities so you can drawl out and maximize each fight, or powerful enough to finish fights quickly so you can move on to the next? Of course, being a weaker battle class, the wild would pose threats, and there would be times you might need to end a fight quickly. For those times you would have some more powerful attacks, closer to but not equal to that of the normal battle classes. But these would have drawbacks to using.

Rush: Powerful single attack
Additional effect, decreases drop rate by 5%

Hasty Flurry: Multi-hit attack with a potency of XX
Addition effect, decreases HQ chance by 10%

This way it would be sort of a balancing act between raising your gathering chances while trying to kill quickly enough to be efficient. Similar to a crafter having to balance quality with progress. The job would be useless though without the ability to control which item the MOB drops from it's pool. For that I propose the use of positional finishing moves. Something like...

Skinning: Powerful Blow dealing damage equal to 20% of enemy's total HPs. Can only be performed when enemy is at 20% HP or below.
Additional effect, focuses gathering efforts on enemy's outer skin.
Conditional, Additional effect only applies when performed from the enemy's rear.

Fillet: Powerful Blow dealing damage equal to 20% of enemy's total HPs. Can only be performed when enemy is at 20% HP or below.
Additional effect, focuses gathering effort on enemy's meat
Conditional, additional effect only applies when performed from the enemies flank

Also one from the front for fangs and claws and eyeballs and whatever else. Your pet would also come in very handy for the positionals, you can have some sort of "focus attack" ability forcing whatever you're fighting to attack your pet allowing you to set up your finisher.

[Fuzzy_Navel]

As far as how the charming of your pets would go, I personally like having to charm on the fly in the wild, it's sort of exciting the danger of it, plus doing it that way forces you to be aware of your surroundings and to know the prime locations where a suitable pet is in proximity to a worthwhile prey. But I understand a lot of people probably would rather have summonable pets. So a system where you have a charm ability, that once used on a MOB that MOB type becomes one of you summonable 'familiars'. You could have a 'familiar guide' keeping track of all your pets, as well as a 'creature log' keeping track of what drops you've gotten off of what creatures. There could even be a progression system for your pets, like a 'familiar rating' for each one, that once it maxes out gets upgraded, so a Mandragora would eventually become a King Mandragora, which could be a slightly larger more powerful version, or something. And to simplify pet commands to allow having the vast majority of Eorzea's wildlife population charmable without the dev team having to code hundreds of abilities into pet commands, you could just give pets more general orders, like stances or something.