What Classes Do You Want to See Next?

[RitsukoSonoda]

Green Mage!
> Bring back Protect, Stoneskin, et al and give them to Green Mage
> Add in some stat reduction debuffs like defaith and deshell.
> Main DPS spell can be something along the lines of a weaker version of Comet.
> Weapon type can be scales of some sort.

Hmm... toss out the rocks from space as a basic DPS spell and change it's weapon from scales into a shillelagh. Then make it's "spells" instant case magic infused melee attacks. At least those are my first thoughts on this suggestion.

[Wolfsbane706]

Not to be the wet towel, but... isn't that just a Conjurer with a somehow even smaller/duller kit in solo play?

Now, start laying ground effects, summoning root systems you could grow with healing spells, detonating earthen shields or previous-laid spires, etc., and I'd be pretty well sold.

But a mere buff-bot + Stone-but-from-space... ehhhh~...
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That being said, I kind of wish we had a better feel for the distinctions between the "colors" of magic. Red might as well be "grey", Blue Mages have nothing reminiscent of their color (unless somehow blue was the general/iconic color of monsters), and Black and White end up similarly just based around nukish casts with (now) zero attached effects. It's a bit disappointing, to say the least.

In other IPs, you'd tend to see a more integral theme to how each of those magics (or "colors" of magic) work that'd actually play into their actions. Perhaps Red magic would be more about leveraging instability from critical mixtures of opposed elements to generate a greater-than-their-sum release of magic. Maybe Blue magic would be about the "flow" between, say, one's mana and one's eikos (the sort of persistant archetype or idea of a creature, especially one with inherent mana, that has seeped into and is then partly maintained by a worldsoul -- sometimes collecting into an avatar of its/those aspects, an eikon). Such would give a bit more situation for RDM's 'mana balance' or BLU's spell-stealing and monster interactions, etc., especially if we led with those ideas to how the magic works and built upon them. Instead, what we're left with just seems like arbitrary and empty prefixes, gimmicks, etc., to give guise to old actions as new. That's perhaps a bit hyperbolic in regard to the nuts and bolts of those jobs, but I can't help feeling that way about them on the whole. And it only gets worse if I compare such against other works with differentiated colors of magic, such as Magic: The Gathering, Brent Weeks's Lightbringer series, etc.

To be fair, Red Mage has pretty much always been "grey" mage with a sword. FFXIV, near as I know, is the most unique application of the class since its inception, though I don't know much to be honest. Your GRM ideas are pretty clever, though a bit difficult to pull off for console players.

Hmm... toss out the rocks from space as a basic DPS spell and change it's weapon from scales into a shillelagh. Then make it's "spells" instant case magic infused melee attacks. At least those are my first thoughts on this suggestion.

In all honesty, I feel like "Comet" should be the name of AST's primary DPS spell and give "Malefic" to GRM.

[Shurrikhan]

To be fair, Red Mage has pretty much always been "grey" mage with a sword. FFXIV, near as I know, is the most unique application of the class since its inception, though I don't know much to be honest. Your GRM ideas are pretty clever, though a bit difficult to pull off for console players.

Tbf, I feel like if we keep ground-targeting effects at all, they need a rework. For GRM, I'd want basic control of the roots to be a channel, during which your movement stick instead snaps to the furthest roots in that contiguous direction and allows you from that point to essentially pilot and extend their growth. During that time, certain actions would convert over to root-affecting ones, such as spending resource for a further burst of growth, to arm them with traps, or to immediately spring for an enemy in front of you (preferring your hard target but otherwise going for whoever's/whatever's in front of your facing while controlling said roots). Such would be mutually exclusive with your typical spells during the channel, anyways.

The first cast, with nothing around you, would basically just send out roots from beneath your feet, allowing you to go any which way at your current movement speed. But, if there are roots already in place, your control snaps slightly to their position, strengthening them per tick (this HP draining over time and with actions used by that space of roots) as you pass over them and moving far faster down their length until reaching a new, not yet grown-over space.

In all honesty, I feel like "Comet" should be the name of AST's primary DPS spell and give "Malefic" to GRM.

I feel like the Benefic/Malefic pairing works pretty well for AST, in that sense of weal and woe as set by the stars. But, a similar "curse"-like attack could fit GRM as well.

That said, I really would prefer to have a job that, for once, does not have a spammed filler.

Give GRM an offensive debuff or DoT with interesting Additional Effect interactions, and otherwise works towards offense through compounded weaves, and I'd be happier for the complexity so long as it's well polished, even if it takes more effort (proportionate, perhaps, to its added opportunities) to utilize.