My “Next job” predictions: “Scouting” and “Fending”

[seolhyun]

lol they are NOT gonna add 2 melee in a row. theres a higher chance they merge scouting and striking gear than add a melee so soon.

[Dzonathan]

Aaaanyway, sort of back on topic, anyone have any ideas for what type of weapon a scouting class could use that doesn't get too close to anyone else's territory? There's already a handful of jobs that just use different lengths/types of swords so that's a possibility, but a boring one.

2x 1 handed Axes or 2x 1 handed swords. Poacher/Trapper kind of class.

[BasicBlake]

Red Mage uses Stone and Aero and they're specifically called out as being "White Mana".

Geomancer doesn't fit in since it borrows too much from other classes considering the one example we see uses Conjurer spells and it's stated in the lore to be a far-eastern type of Conjurer/Astrologian, just like how Onmyoji is stated to be a far-eastern Thaumaturge. I don't see the devs giving themselves more work having to completely redo Conjurer and all of its quests, flavor, story, and lore as well as parts of Gridania's story, in addition to 10 levels of Astrologian quests and a change to Red Mage just to add 1 job in the game with reused assets from a lower level class and effectively only 20 levels of actual progressive gameplay.

It would be nice if Red Mage branches out and gets something with ice and water between 90-100 though since those are the only elements it's missing and they're obviously related to each other.


In all likelihood, we shouldn't expect a job that comes from the existing FF roster and the devs have said as much. I don't see a new tank being added since they're now balanced with healers and all content only needs 1-2 tanks per party, same as healers, with alliance raids only needing 3 in the entire instance compared to 6 healers. I can see just 1 job being added with scouting armor since that will balance everything out on different levels but it would also mean 5 jobs crowding the aiming accessories since it would need to be DEX.

I’m sorry but saying “no that can’t happen because a sub level 30 starter class” when white mage is going on 4 years of no actual stone/aero animations is an interesting train of thought.

[BasicBlake]

What I said was If the dev team doesn't see them as split between magic and physical ranged then why did they make the effort to represent them that way in game and in all media?. You said I know players think the possibility is high for a new magical and physical ranged DPS because there are three of each, but this is wishful thinking. SE does not view the job roster in this fashion.

They are actually listed as separate in the official 14 site. As well as having a whole separate list of Role Actions. You don’t see Bard’s out there using Addle.

[ForsakenRoe]

lol they are NOT gonna add 2 melee in a row. theres a higher chance they merge scouting and striking gear than add a melee so soon.

Once upon a time, I was advocating for DRG to merge into MNK/SAM (would allow for those classes to get more 'armored' gear appearances, so you can have your Shogun style SAM glams), and move NIN onto Aiming with the rest of the Dex classes. Now that RPR has come out, that's thrown a wrench in things somewhat. I don't get what their obsession with having the melee so split across 3 gearsets, with the merges I outlined they'd be able to go down from 7 sets to 5, eliminating the need to 'design' two whole armor sets (and lets be real, 2-3 of them are recolors of a different role anyway), and players would be able to more easily swap across their role. A Melee player would have easier access to DRG/MNK/SAM (and I guess RPR now), whereas now they have only DRG/RPR, or MNK SAM, and if they want to swap from DRG to SAM, tough luck, they gotta spend extra tomes on the leftside gear again.

Only issue is that NIN is a melee lumped in with the ranged. This wouldn't be such an issue if SE would add more Dex Melee classes. Like, why is SAM not a Dex user? What about a katana says 'strength' instead of 'dexterity'?

I’m sorry but saying “no that can’t happen because a sub level 30 starter class” when white mage is going on 4 years of no actual stone/aero animations is an interesting train of thought.

WHM losing it's elemental themes in favor of 'pretty twinkly lights', only for it to be given back on a new class called GEO, would be almost as much of a kick in the balls as if SE released Time Mage, having taken all of the Time related skills away from AST. I also don't see how they could do GEO without bastardizing how it works. Like, to truly capture the 'identity and aesthetic' of GEO, you'd have to place zones on the ground, which modify the 'Geomancy' skill on your hotbar depending which you stand in. So, Ley Lines: the job. I don't think anyone wants the 'boss put an aoe on my ley lines' throughout their entire rotation, do they?

[BasicBlake]

Once upon a time, I was advocating for DRG to merge into MNK/SAM (would allow for those classes to get more 'armored' gear appearances, so you can have your Shogun style SAM glams), and move NIN onto Aiming with the rest of the Dex classes. Now that RPR has come out, that's thrown a wrench in things somewhat. I don't get what their obsession with having the melee so split across 3 gearsets, with the merges I outlined they'd be able to go down from 7 sets to 5, eliminating the need to 'design' two whole armor sets (and lets be real, 2-3 of them are recolors of a different role anyway), and players would be able to more easily swap across their role. A Melee player would have easier access to DRG/MNK/SAM (and I guess RPR now), whereas now they have only DRG/RPR, or MNK SAM, and if they want to swap from DRG to SAM, tough luck, they gotta spend extra tomes on the leftside gear again.

Only issue is that NIN is a melee lumped in with the ranged. This wouldn't be such an issue if SE would add more Dex Melee classes. Like, why is SAM not a Dex user? What about a katana says 'strength' instead of 'dexterity'?



WHM losing it's elemental themes in favor of 'pretty twinkly lights', only for it to be given back on a new class called GEO, would be almost as much of a kick in the balls as if SE released Time Mage, having taken all of the Time related skills away from AST. I also don't see how they could do GEO without bastardizing how it works. Like, to truly capture the 'identity and aesthetic' of GEO, you'd have to place zones on the ground, which modify the 'Geomancy' skill on your hotbar depending which you stand in. So, Ley Lines: the job. I don't think anyone wants the 'boss put an aoe on my ley lines' throughout their entire rotation, do they?

So rather than give it to anyone, no one is allowed to have it for the rest of FF14’s lifespan? Because they finally made whitemage, thematically a whitemage.

If Geomancer in the 14 story was based on placing fields, then yes they should. Geomancer in the 14 story is Feng Shui warrior though, and exorcising spirits.

[MikkoAkure]

I’m sorry but saying “no that can’t happen because a sub level 30 starter class” when white mage is going on 4 years of no actual stone/aero animations is an interesting train of thought.

It would be one thing if they removed all traces of classes from the game in favor of jobs, but Conjurer is tied directly into Gridania's aesthetic and background more than most other classes in the game and they're not going to change a decade worth of story and redo Red Mage's existing skills for the sake of just one job.

Red Mage is already slinging Stone and Aero. I'm 100% down with it getting Water too. I think White Mage should also get a return of more Water-type spells/abilities since I don't believe it would necessarily clash with its class fantasy. But removing CNJ from the game and giving its spells to a new job unrelated to WHM would put RDM in an awkward position since the whole point of both its lore and its gameplay is that it's a combination of Amdapori and Mhachi mages and builds up white magic and black magic bars using Stone, Aero, Fire, and Thunder.

White Mage still has a lot of plant themes ingrained into it already as a holdover from its Conjurer days. It also still has 1 water-themed ability, Aquaveil. Again, I don't see the devs giving themselves more work and dismantling parts of existing jobs and redoing quests just for Geomancer.

[BasicBlake]

It would be one thing if they removed all traces of classes from the game in favor of jobs, but Conjurer is tied directly into Gridania's aesthetic and background more than most other classes in the game and they're not going to change a decade worth of story and redo Red Mage's existing skills for the sake of just one job.

Red Mage is already slinging Stone and Aero. I'm 100% down with it getting Water too. I think White Mage should also get a return of more Water-type spells/abilities since I don't believe it would necessarily clash with its class fantasy. But removing CNJ from the game and giving its spells to a new job unrelated to WHM would put RDM in an awkward position since the whole point of both its lore and its gameplay is that it's a combination of Amdapori and Mhachi mages and builds up white magic and black magic bars using Stone, Aero, Fire, and Thunder.

White Mage still has a lot of plant themes ingrained into it already as a holdover from its Conjurer days. It also still has 1 water-themed ability, Aquaveil. Again, I don't see the devs giving themselves more work and dismantling parts of existing jobs and redoing quests just for Geomancer.

Why would red mage need to be changed?

In regards to Amdapori vs Machi, that also has nothing to do with CNJ. It was white vs black mages. And with white mage already losing access to stone/aero, and it LOOSELY using any water abilities, that lore was invalidated 4 years ago. CNJ only exists for 1.0 WHM to have a starter class. Even in the lore you are the ONLY CNJ to be elevated to the lofty position of WHM. Holding the rest of an mmo’s progression hostage due to old and outdated things isn’t always the best option. Especially when they have spoken in interviews about disliking starter classes and wanting to remove them as is. Notice how the last 9 jobs haven’t required one.

[CaptainLagbeard]

lol they are NOT gonna add 2 melee in a row. theres a higher chance they merge scouting and striking gear than add a melee so soon.

The biggest factor why there is a genuine chance for a new melee class for the next expansion despite RPR coming in EW is because there's currently 5 melee and 6 ranged. They may want to even it out to 6 of both.

And a melee using Scouting gear is the most likely if they do add in a new Melee as SAM and MNK share Striking, DRG and RPR share Maiming. NIN is the only melee to not share with a second class yet.

[MikkoAkure]

Why would red mage need to be changed?

In regards to Amdapori vs Machi, that also has nothing to do with CNJ. It was white vs black mages. And with white mage already losing access to stone/aero, and it LOOSELY using any water abilities, that lore was invalidated 4 years ago. CNJ only exists for 1.0 WHM to have a starter class. Even in the lore you are the ONLY CNJ to be elevated to the lofty position of WHM. Holding the rest of an mmo’s progression hostage due to old and outdated things isn’t always the best option. Especially when they have spoken in interviews about disliking starter classes and wanting to remove them as is. Notice how the last 9 jobs haven’t required one.

It's already established that Stone and Aero are white magic. The whole point of Red Mage is that those spells came to it from Amdapori mages. Its gameplay revolves around balancing using Stone and Aero with Fire and Thunder because thematically it's a mix of White Mages and Black Mages. Nothing is invalidated just because the spells evolved to light spells, they're still in the game if you play a new White Mage or get level sync'd.

Geomancer is already stated in-game to just be an alternate Astrologian and out-of-game to be a combination of Astromancy and Conjury.

You're gonna have to a lot of retconning in order to fit GEO in the game as a playable job when you could just add something new that doesn't clash with anything else.