What's next for new jobs after Endwalker.

[SeverianLyonesse]

Weapon archetypes barely matters really...

I heavily disagree with this ontological frivolity. Just because a casual player can list off weapons with two seconds of thought does not mean that every weapon design has potential to be refined into something of the caliber of FF XIV's job design. Good design as we have seen in FFXIV requires researching, assembling, vetting, harmonizing ideas in a way that creates an original, faceted whole. It's not and has never been as simple as throwing out "Viking" or "dual pistols" and believing that the devs have an endless wealth of ingenuity to fill in the 99% percent of the design and contextual considerations that you lacked the imagination and discipline to reason out yourself. Art does not just "make itself" for you to consume--in many cases, and definitely in XIV's case--these things are far more considered than just shitting ideas into a forum and trusting the myth of man's omnipotence will manifest them.

I don't see a lot of these happening, simply because they don't match the same level of spectacle and gimmickry that FF XIV job design is selling itself around.

Every expansion has had at least one really out-of-the-box weapon design:

* Astrolabe
* Rapier + Focus Staff
* Gunblade
* Wings/Fins

And if you look at the remaining jobs, they tend to be DPS with very dynamic slashy weapons that afford unique and "weighty" attack animations:

* Greatsword ("heavy")
* Katana ("flurry")
* Chakrams ("flurry")
* Warscythe ("heavy/flurry")

In both cases, they also need to be large and stylized enough to afford enough creativity when designing weapon skins. XIV is an extremely visuals-oriented game and weapon glams are a major component of the job fantasy appeal.

So, looking at some of your proposals:

* Geomancer bell - kinda boring. Not a very original/complicated/flashy weapon design like the first category. Not a very dynamic/weighty weapon like the second category. Overall not very engaging and not encouraging much by way of versatile visual design, be it the weapon itself or the animations. It might have been fine three expansions ago, but it's just not a very "hype" weapon that would keep XIV's momentum going. I don't expect to see it at all, barring a final expansion wrapping things up. Also, GEO lore is just too convoluted a job fantasy and just feels like a confused retread of AST/WHM that would play mostly like SMN. We could maaaaaaybe get a greathammer/bell weapon design with a tanky feel, but it feels like it might be stretching a bit...and on top of that expressly goes against the established GEO weapon design from Swallow's Compass (also, rule of thumb: if a job has already appeared in XIV as an enemy design--and especially if it has underwhelming weapon design choices like BST or PUP--that is practically a tacit admission that we aren't getting that job anytime soon, if ever).

* Dice - Also doesn't hit either category well: Not flashy, and not weighty. Also far too small to design cool-looking weapon variants. I could see some sort of cannoneer or the like getting like *one* "big dice" shot, and even that isn't likely because XIV is killing job randomness left and right. Not gonna happen.

* Zidane weapon and nunchaku - both occupy a similar space in that by themselves they are pretty basic and unexciting, certainly not on the level of a Gunblade, Nouliths, or Warscythe. Both and especially the Zidane weapon kind of tread on NIN's job fantasy. Both might work as a *jumping off* point, but as you observed by themselves are underwhelming and unlikely. I would expect any sort of "nunchaku" to be combined with a staff and/or whip/flail design to open up design space. And I would expect a Zidane weapon to be combinable ala a Judge weapon (which, again, could go in the direction of incorporating "staff" attacks, or as I previously observed, possibly sharing design space with hammers and clubs).

* Crossbow - Not as bad the others, but when you account for MCH having pistols and BRD having bows, what is left does not feel like we are getting much potential for a distinct weapon design and attack animation niche. Because of how much it is treading on MCH/BRD job fantasies, I would sooner expect the devs to move any sort of crossbow design into cannon/bazooka territory.

* Puppets - Probably not gonna happen. There is a slim chance we may see a modular pet job in a limited capacity (in fact I think that is more likely and a better direction to take a P-ranged limited job than BST). But I do not expect it to be the PUP fantasy when MCH has automatons and RPR covers the Necro fantasy. Also, with respect to the above points: not really a weapon, and not very dynamic/engaging. In fact I think this may be one of the biggest reasons why we will never have more pet jobs: an implied theme underlying pet job complaints is that they are fairly non-interactive in a game that is extremely attack/DPS-oriented in a way XI never was. Just standing there and rooting for your pet just isn't very fun.

Also, like I said, "double pistol" likely isn't happening because most of MCH's weapons are already called "pistols" or "revolvers". The devs have overall been very consistent about limiting weapon naming conventions to be associated with only one job, and it is very clear that MCH is *the* pistol job.

Again, none of these are "ruled out" as long as the game continues to be developed. But as long as stronger (and more marketable) design concepts exist like whips or Blitzballs the devs are going to be hammering those out first. Especially for 7.0 because they really need to rein back in all the player goodwill and establish that the game will continue to be exciting after the main story.