Concept for a Magic Melee DPS

[Archwizard]

So, some milestones to note for our project, using other melee as examples:

• Amusingly, every melee gains a mitigation or recovery skill by the time they reach level 15. (If you stretch it and say Life Surge is "recovery" for DRG anyway, who otherwise only has Elusive Jump at 35.)
  If nothing else I concept makes it this far, note that Runic and Critical Shell are common to Spellblade designs, so some kind of anti-magic barrier wouldn't go amiss this early. (Though NIN previously got flak for having an anti-magic barrier until ShB so, maybe just a general barrier with a bonus to magic?)
• With MNK as the major exception, every melee appears to learn a ranged attack at level 15. (MNK instead gains stances to increase mitigation or personal movement speed.)
• MNK and SAM learn their first AoE skills at level 26. NIN and DRG don't learn until 38/40, respectively. (While tanks need them early for threat purposes, it's an interesting contrast to casters -- SMN get their first at 10, RDM at 15, and BLM at 18.)
• DRG, MNK and NIN all learn their first movement skills between level 35 and 40. (SAM is the odd man out here, not learning its gap closer until 54, which I expect is related to its state as an unlocked job and the below...)
• SAM, interestingly, learns all of its weaponskills by the time it's unlocked at level 50, and only gains abilities from there-on (though I expect that's due to the iaijutsu "quick swings" style) -- consequently it only starts with 1 ability, a mitigation skill. NIN and MNK similarly only gain two weaponskills after level 50, though DRG cheats by being a late bloomer with regards to AoE.
• MNK has its job gauge unlocked at level 6 and expanded at 15 and 70, SAM at 30/52, NIN at 45/62, while DRG doesn't unlock its until 54 or expand until 70.

While I'm sure we all expect any future jobs to unlock around level 60-70, maybe even 80 by the time they get around to melee, this type of general progression is something to keep in mind for level synched content like dungeon roulettes -- don't want to be stuck without an AoE for MSQ, don't want to be accused of being OP by having one for Sastasha before other melee.

I'm on the same page with you there. I earlier mentioned that saying Nin's dual knives are the same as DRK's greatsword is basically like saying DRG's lance is the same as the bow and arrow.

Even just dual swords would be fine. NIN back wields his knives (a rather ineffective style to be honest, but expertly flashy) True dual weilding is best done with a longsword and a shorter parrying dagger. The biggest historical example of a truly successful dual wielder is Musashi Miyamoto, who basically one man armied against up to 24 warriors once using two swords. (including opponents with bows) Accounts differ greatly, but a few things are fact, He knowingly came to the "duel" that was actually an ambush with murdering intent and he turned it around. I mean he came out of it half dead and was basically unconscious for a few days after according to some reports. But seriously impressive. At one point the guy literally stopped using real swords because he kept killing his opponents, and then he started killing them with wooden sword strikes too @_@.

Anyways that's enough mild Historical musashi fan for the moment. Please note my above paragraph holds discrepancies that some scholars argue about.

But of the swords we have each is extremely unique fighting style. Sword and Board PLD classic, Greatsword/claymore style. Katana Iai Style. RDM fencing is absolutely unique and restricts one from using slashes in favor of flourished stabs and ripostes. NIN dual knives is less practical in reality, but basically acrobatic.

Personally I'm weary of giving Spellblade dual weapons, and not just because of NIN, but for more aesthetic reasons (which, to be fair, which weapon each job gets is largely aesthetic in the first place).

1. Dual-wielding, and by extension NIN's access to twin weapons, is supposed to be symbolic of a role as a high attacks-per-minute melee job -- you push more buttons because you're swinging more rapidly, main-hand and off-hand. If we were to put our pet project here in the same position, we'd be talking about designing a job with high APM focused around abilities, which I feel is somewhat limiting from a design perspective in "how do we execute the sense of dual wielding without doing the same high APM thing as NIN" and invites much of the same issues NIN faces at present with its present balance, "we push more buttons and my fingers are cramping but we don't necessarily do much more damage."
   I rather think the Spellblade's forte should rather be in empowering individual strikes of a more... average tempo.
2. Which brings me to the other point, unless we take Duelle's example where each sword gets a different enchantment at a time, there's very little practical reason to have two weapons in terms of animation, particularly in cases where one swing would do. I grant I've already suggested the possibility of having each individual swing inflict multiple hits at once, but that's supposed to highlight the enchantments themselves (which to address Wayfinder's point, would allow the elemental effect to inherit bonuses to physical damage by scaling off an initial physical swing) rather than multiple swings in succession.
3. The longsword and parry dagger combo is tricky as well. Not only would the longsword mean having to work around PLD or, god forbid, RDM in terms of weapon design (which I admit isn't impossible for the devs to accomplish, given both BLM and WHM have very different staves for instance), but the mismatched weapons would be frustrating as well from a player perspective -- either they're joined together like RDM's rapier and focus (in which case you have to deal with the glamour pain of "this sword is nice but I hate the dagger" and vice versa -- which unlike RDM doesn't carry the practicality of the two being a linked weapon), or they're separated in which case you'll face similar practical gearing troubles as PLD (and I wouldn't doubt that there's a reason only PLD has that trouble).
   Besides, the parrying dagger is literally supposed to be a substitute for a shield -- hence parrying dagger. Swordbreaker daggers were even made to catch onto oncoming weapons. If we're not a tank there's not really a reason to have one.
4. There appear to largely be two major cosmetic appearances for Spellblade armor throughout FF that stand out: The West European fencer/duelist appearance they've had since Tactics, and the Indian or Middle Eastern-inspired armor sets they've had since FF5. One of those is an aesthetic shared with another existing job, no points for guessing who. If we go with the longsword and parry dagger, it would either need to be tied to a completely new aesthetic that isn't shared with an existing job (good luck!), or explain why we're mixing cultural visual cues, which is a whole area I don't think anyone here wants to get into.
5. And lastly, I can't think of a single example of a Spellblade, Mystic Knight, Rune Fencer, etc. that dual-wielded.

I'd never say never to it, but unless we find the design demands two weapons, let's maybe start with just one?