Possible Gunblade Job teacher?

[Bright-Flower]

If thats the case, then it would seem that the gunblade is an extremely common weapon of choice. Meaning that the closer we get to garlemald, the more options we have. My thinking is that it will be a brand new character as well. I can't think of a single new job taught by existing NPCs. The reason for this is that it limits them in terms of MSQ. Yugiri was made out to be the NIN trainer, but she had nothing to do with that questline, same with gosetsu and SAM, and Alisae with RDM.

Yeah. Estinine got 'promoted' to MSQ character in HW and as then gone for HW's dragoon story, but then returned for SB's dragoon story when his msq story was greatly reduced in SB.

I'm kind of surprised the monk npc was never mentioned in the SB msq, I thought he might be as the technical heir to the throne, but since he doesn't want to rule and nobody wants another monarchy there I guess it makes sense to leave him out.

[Zohar_Lahar]

The best candidates besides a new character:

• Cid: In theory, Garlond Ironworks would be the simplest avenue. However, I don't recall seeing Cid, Biggs, or Wedge use a gunblade, and Jessie might be a long shot. Plus, it'd be weird if they're only just now in 5.0 teaching Eorzeans how to gunblade and not earlier like when Cid first showed up in 1.xx.
• Nero: An easier choice, not only because he uses gunblades but also would be available after Praetorium. The only problem is both the Crystal Tower and Omega storylines have segments where Nero is out of commission, which would make Job quests potentially awkward.
• Shadowhunter: The good news is he's also available right after Praetorium. The bad news is it would clash with Stormblood's late reveal.

[EdwinLi]

I honestly can only expect a new character.

However, the new NPC history may have some relation to characters we know in MSQ due how he may be Garlean in origin or someone from Ironworks trying to develop a new generation of Gunblades.

[KageTokage]

I'm expecting it be another defector since it's hard to imagine Cid and his gang to be the only ones who grew sick of the empire's methods.

Perhaps a proper soldier this time.

[Seraphor]

The best candidates besides a new character:

• Cid: In theory, Garlond Ironworks would be the simplest avenue. However, I don't recall seeing Cid, Biggs, or Wedge use a gunblade, and Jessie might be a long shot. Plus, it'd be weird if they're only just now in 5.0 teaching Eorzeans how to gunblade and not earlier like when Cid first showed up in 1.xx.
• Nero: An easier choice, not only because he uses gunblades but also would be available after Praetorium. The only problem is both the Crystal Tower and Omega storylines have segments where Nero is out of commission, which would make Job quests potentially awkward.
• Shadowhunter: The good news is he's also available right after Praetorium. The bad news is it would clash with Stormblood's late reveal.

Being 'out of action' at certain points wouldnt really rule Nero out.
Estinien isnt available in postgame HW but that doesn't stop you from picking up Dragoon at that point in the story.
I think Nero would be the best fit out of any exusting characters, as his 'mysterious absences' provide the opportunity for him to act as the job mentor.

[Cybylt]

Estinien is available then because those Dragoon quests happen before Heavensward starts. Doesn't matter when you personally take it, that's when it happens.

[DarthSanguine]

The best candidates besides a new character:

• Cid: In theory, Garlond Ironworks would be the simplest avenue. However, I don't recall seeing Cid, Biggs, or Wedge use a gunblade, and Jessie might be a long shot. Plus, it'd be weird if they're only just now in 5.0 teaching Eorzeans how to gunblade and not earlier like when Cid first showed up in 1.xx.
• Nero: An easier choice, not only because he uses gunblades but also would be available after Praetorium. The only problem is both the Crystal Tower and Omega storylines have segments where Nero is out of commission, which would make Job quests potentially awkward.
• Shadowhunter: The good news is he's also available right after Praetorium. The bad news is it would clash with Stormblood's late reveal.

The latter half of your 2nd point is moot, since all quests in the game canonically take place in release order. They just don't mention side content in other content if you haven't done it yet, purely to avoid both confusion (due to events being mentioned that you don't recall due to having not done the content yet) and spoilers.

[HamiltonCalder]

I kind of hope Fordola features in the gunblade class quests, in the same way Hilda featured for Machinists in Stormblood. She's the only gunblade-user we know of that isn't Gaius, and I feel like this would be a good way to give her something to do now that her role in MSQ looks to be pretty well wrapped up.

[Iscah]

My thinking is that it will be a brand new character as well. I can't think of a single new job taught by existing NPCs. The reason for this is that it limits them in terms of MSQ. Yugiri was made out to be the NIN trainer, but she had nothing to do with that questline, same with gosetsu and SAM, and Alisae with RDM.

I can't judge for Yugiri, since I'd already picked up ninja class by the time I'd progressed to post-ARR for her introduction (and I think I also picked up RDM early), but I definitely never got any impression that Gosetsu was supposed to be the samurai trainer just because he was the first samurai we met. Maybe when you're left to debate everything patch by patch, people started having the equivalent of this conversation and picking out the one existing [job] NPC as an obvious teacher for this new job that they're showing off.

So I agree that it's unlikely an existing MSQ character will be our teacher, but not that the previous new-job NPCs were ever 'made out' to be future teachers. Maybe Yugiri, but not the others.

[Crushnight]

So I agree that it's unlikely an existing MSQ character will be our teacher, but not that the previous new-job NPCs were ever 'made out' to be future teachers. Maybe Yugiri, but not the others.

During 2.2 MSQ Yugiri goes to The rogue's guild to train them in the art of the shinobi as a repayment to the admiral for aiding the doman refugees Ninja was not releases till 2.4 this was plenty of time for people to think she could be our teacher however once it was revealed that you could do 2.0 story as ninja she couldn't be our teacher as be very disjointed for the player come 2.2 and Yugiri re-arrives in Eorzea this also makes Yugiri's gift in 2.2 a bit weaker and i attribute this to early writing trying to find its way than any rewriting due to the fact it be possible not all the guild could learn shinobi techniques