The new melee job and its weapon, theory time!

[Sorzai]

Lol i guess in his defense RDM isn't melee and isn't a magical melee dps sadly..
But SAM on the other hand is a melee dps that uses a sword lol.

[Rymi64]

Lol i guess in his defense RDM isn't melee and isn't a magical melee dps sadly..
But SAM on the other hand is a melee dps that uses a sword lol.

To be fair in the case for RDM They only said dps not specifically a melee dps that uses a sword. Semantics I know.

I feel like they are heavily leaning towards a scythe because of all the shirts, and before someone says the reaper shirt was during a LL Yoshida had no reason to switch to another shirt and we only are getting two "fanfests" this time so they might be doing something different this time. I also personally don't think a traditional mystic knight would work well in ff14 (lest they meant essentially a reverse rdm)

[VictorTheed]

If the new melee weapon turns out to be a scythe can we please, either for artifact gear or some random gear set for it and drg, get a grim reaper glam.

I'd like the skull to be part of the hood or if no skull face then a really good grim reaper glam.

I been trying for years to do a grim reaper glam but can't find anything that looks the part.

[BasicBlake]

We have 0 evidence of new job's weapon (skeleton tshirt is the same proof as spiderman tshirt), so every guess is baseless. But if it's melee, I want to believe in some form of mystic knight. We don't have magical melee dps, and we don't have any DPS that uses sword.

I get what you’re saying. A more DoM flavor melee would be a great addition.

Though we do have ninja and samurai, who by the nature of what they are, are magic melee.

I would love a sword melee, but we already have so many sword variations. One handed, 2 handed, rapier, technically katana.

A blunt weapon user would be my personal dream.

[Cetek14]

RDM and SAM would like a word

RDM is ranged so this rapier is there but it's not really used that often (and thats ok, but we need new spellsword).
SAM has katana, while tanks have "real manly european sword". DPS needs that too.

[Saefinn]

I can see the logic of the Radz-at-han connection. But I feel like if we are getting a scythe user, the Radz-at-han variation of the weapon would be as described.

But the odds are currently in favour of a 'reaper' type I think. Yoshi P said it would be something new, so I'm ruling out ones that exist in the FF universe. But given AST takes cues from Time Mage, Geomancer and Corsair and GNB takes Squall's weapon and formalises a job out of it, I think it's safe to say it'll probably still take cues from existing jobs in the universe. I feel the most likely candidate of that is FFXI's DRK because I think that's the closest we've got to a "reaper" type and would be a good fit for a maiming melee job.

Evidence I feel in favour of a Reaper-like job is:
- The Grim Reaper T-Shirt
- The follow up Children of Bodom T-shirt, who have "Follow the Reaper" and the Grim Reaper is a common theme for Children of Bodom.
- The trailer detail showing could /could/ be a part of a scythe, but not detailed enough to be a guarantee
- The pretending to not know what a necromancer is, feeling like there is a tie, death & scythes are a common theme between necromancers and reapers.
- The fact it's a maiming melee job (although it doesn't specifically mean reaper, it's an argument for reaper over necromancer)

Looking at FFXI's DRK I know we can dismiss as "but DRK exists" but I think FFXI's DRK takes on two identities. DRK in the Final Fantasy universe has often been about internal dark forces that you draw upon to use your own life force to empower yourself. Normally thought Souleater/Darkside.FFXI added the reaper aesthetic through a scythe, its weapon skills and it series of drain abilities. This did not carry over into FFXIV's DRK, except in Abyssal Drain.

So this could be an opportunity to take that part of the aesthetic and make it entirely into its own thing, where the emphasis is on stealing life energy and executing your foes. Maybe handling the "drain" aspect of it differently and in a way more appropriate to FFXIV.

And thinking to weaponskills, FFXI's scythes played more to a reaper aesthetic in the weaponskills, to list a few:
- Dark Harvest
- Shadow of Death
- Nightmare Scythe
- Vorpal Scythe
- Guillotiine
- Cross Reaper
- Infernal Scythe
- Spiral Hell

Given quite a few of the game's skill names are lifted straight from FFXI, I feel like some of these would be recycled.