Yeah, I know. It is EARLY for this kind of topic, though I think a lot of the groundwork for such projects have to get started early, especially as we slowly but surely get more expansions. Onto the main topic: a new role.

Or rather, a new category for DPS: Melee Magic. It would work very much like a mirror of Ranged Physical. Instead of buffing, it would debuff. Now which job currently has a debuff that is considered premier raid utility...Ninja.

With Ninja being the focal point for "melee magic" dps, you have to consider the fact that much of its DPS isn't from the weapon skills, but rather the abilities that revolve around using Ninki and Mudra.

I have two job concepts that will fit with the thematic elements that Ninja puts in place: Trick Attack, and ability damage. One is a very expected one given the theme suggest, the other might surprise you.

Rune Knight and Green Mage.

Rune Knight will be the "selfish" job of the melee magic DPS, with no raid utility. This will keep this pattern in line with other DPS roles each having one selfish job outside of Role Actions. Green Mage will then take the other end and have a lot more raid utility at the cost of its personal damage.

I am not sure about posting EVERYTHING all at once, because I dislike having walls of text, so instead I will follow up this post with additional information for both if there is interest in this discussion topic. So, for now, quick rundown for how I see both jobs operating and playing like.

Rune Knight (RNK) will use Dual Axes as their weapon, pulling from the Viking and Rune Fencer thematically (and we have enough swords). RNK will use 6 elemental runes for specific effects and use them in order to generate an Astral Rune, Umbral Rune, and a Neutral Rune. Once all three are amassed, they activate a Runic Storm, which will cause each Rune to be activated in a short window to deal damage and have a big finisher based on if they were used in the right order or not. After the Storm, you repeat the base use of Runes to build up to the storm again.

Proper rune order is taught via initial questline, as it is also taught in lore. Lightning > Fire > Earth > Ice > Water > Wind. Runes will also have an astral or umbral component, and ever 2 used unlocks one of the runes I mentioned earlier: astral, umbral and neutral. The idea is to have RNKs use the runes together for optimal DPS, activate the proper secondary rune, to get into Runic Storm all while still using their weapon combo to build up a meter for oGCD spenders.