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

[Firework]

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.

Geomancer isn't an alternate version of anything. They just note similarities to conjury and astromancy in that it derives its magic from nature and uses it for divination. Furthermore, historically when a class has been teased that wasn't in the game yet, the devs had to use another class as a base and the actual class turned out to be quite different upon release. There is also no reason to take anything away from CNJ to give us GEO. CNJ just uses stone and aero. Geomancers have access to all 6 elements and some non-elemental magic in various games in the form of weather and terrain spells. It's more versatile than white magic

[ElysiumDragon]

My guess will be a Caster and a Phys Ranged, as neither of these roles received a new job in Endwalker, and a new Tank/Healer would upset the current balance the devs have going on. Each of those roles only has 3 (no, BLU doesn't count) jobs, and whilst Scouting gear is still unique, there's no reason that say, a 6th melee couldn't be added in 8.0, to bring the total number to 6 melee DPS, 8 Ranged DPS, 4 Tanks, and 4 Healers. Ergo, a grand total of 22 jobs (23 including BLU), which would equal the total number of jobs in FF11. 2 Slaying, 2 Striking, 2 Scouting, 4 Aiming, 4 Casting would be a good place to go "Okay, that's enough jobs, let's focus on making each of them unique", and with 7.0 bringing Level 100 with it, 8.0 would likely be busy with trying to change up the leveling system in some way, so there's be a justification for only having a single job.

That, and I could definitely see a 'split' for tanks (much like with the healers) to try and better distinguish them from each other.

[CaptainLagbeard]

That, and I could definitely see a 'split' for tanks (much like with the healers) to try and better distinguish them from each other.

Could always go back to the sort of split where tanks are better at dealing with either Magic damage or Physical Damage... Much like how it was back in HW when DRK first got introduced and had more ways of surviving magic damage, while PLD's blocking only worked on physical damage.

[Rithy255]

I want a caster more then anything personally, I'd hope it would have something similar to BLM where your hard casting, I'd be really hoping it doesn't feel similar to the SMN design of not really "casting"

Just my opinion but I really don't want yet another Melee DPS job. When you look at the melee jobs we got they all are fulfilling the same basic role of "close ranged, positional job" I don't feel like any of the 5 melee DPS really differ from another outside basic rotations. If we did get a new melee DPS I'd at least hope they'd try something unique (idk a proc based melee might be interesting). we know Dragoon is going to be largely reworked, so it would basically be like getting 2 new melee's depending on how much the job is redesigned.

I also want the idea of "Scouting" or different melee gear to not be a thing, it just seems like a annoying way to prevent you from gearing melees at the same time It's not like wearing Scouting or Maiming gear suddenly brings this interesting dynamic to the Jobs, it's just different gear... I wouldn't mind as much if gearing different jobs wasn't a task in itself.

For tanks I don't really know? It would be interesting to see a new tank, but at the same time I want tanks to see a small overhaul in 7.0 The Shb design for tanks basically carried over to EW and it's "ok" but I'd really want some serious evolution from it, but as Gunbreaker came with the new redesign maybe theirs hope that something interesting in general will be done to tanks if we get a new one. Obviously No old aggro management, but I'd like to see some love to tanks, I feel like War/drk need to feel different from their core rotations, PLD's rework really wasn't great to me (It had some nice ideas but it's generally not refined).

I also don't think we will see two close ranged jobs, it's normally 1Melee (tank/dps) 1ranged (caster/pranged/healer), theirs generally always been that balance, Which I think its likely going to be Caster & Scouting melee or Tank.

[Sotaris]

I second a magical caster. I would love something that heavy on the dot side like the old SMNbut I wonder if we ever get that again, similar to Affliction warlock in wow I suppose.
Or something similar to BLM but with a twist. Looking at the library of FF jobs, I'm not really sure what would fit the bill though.

GEO is a caster/buffer/healer hybrid in 11 but in 14 lore it is more of a healer, right?

[Firework]

I second a magical caster. I would love something that heavy on the dot side like the old SMNbut I wonder if we ever get that again, similar to Affliction warlock in wow I suppose.
Or something similar to BLM but with a twist. Looking at the library of FF jobs, I'm not really sure what would fit the bill though.

GEO is a caster/buffer/healer hybrid in 11 but in 14 lore it is more of a healer, right?

The game doesn't state that it's a healer. It was just compared to CNJ and the playerbase took that and ran with it. There's honestly quite a bit of misinformation spread about its lore in XIV due to pure assumptions

[CaptainLagbeard]

One thing people seem to forget about Geomancer is that they're tied to AST... And there are actual reasons for it that don't inherently come across in the english translation necessarily as the job in past FF games in Japanese has always been more related to Feng Shui and it's ways of making predictions and what not... Rather than being an earth mage, I suppose the English is taking the actual translation of "Geomancy" from greek which apparently is "Earth Divination".

[Naraku_Diabolos]

If anything, we do need something that uses crossbows. So either Ranger/Hunter could be it. You could lay down traps or something that damages upon stepping on, act like NIN’s Doton with the AOE ground patch, or acts like the turret from MCH but lasts longer.

[MikkoAkure]

Geomancer isn't an alternate version of anything. They just note similarities to conjury and astromancy in that it derives its magic from nature and uses it for divination. Furthermore, historically when a class has been teased that wasn't in the game yet, the devs had to use another class as a base and the actual class turned out to be quite different upon release. There is also no reason to take anything away from CNJ to give us GEO. CNJ just uses stone and aero. Geomancers have access to all 6 elements and some non-elemental magic in various games in the form of weather and terrain spells. It's more versatile than white magic

Except that it is an alternate version, and there's nothing in FFXIV's lore that says it uses ice, thunder, or fire.

Kyokuho picks up astromancy extremely quick. astromancy magic is able to restore barriers created with geomancy. And at the end of the Astologian quests in Kugane, Kyokuho adapts astromancy to geomancy as a 4th element in order to solve the questline while Levava considers the wall broken between the schools of geomancy and astromancy.

Where it connects to Conjurer is that our one example of a GEO who isn't just a Feng Shui consultant uses a Conjurer's 1-handed wand and uses water, stone, and wind spells.

Geomancy is an art wherein the practitioner delves into the currents of air, earth, and water, and combines their energies with his own to produce arcane phenomena.
[...]
With regards to the mastery it grants over wind, earth, and water, as well as its affinity for barriers, geomancy is thought to share many similarities with conjury. Scholars have also pointed out how certain aspects of the art have a kinship with Sharlayan astrology. In the nation of Hingashi, however, the geomancer’s banishing and binding of evil has been misconstrued as a means to manipulate the land and invite good fortune, leading the populace to consider these mages little more than advisors for aspiring merchants.

The scrolls─they contained knowledge of the complete ritual. Wind, water, earth. Creation of the bonds calls for the energies of all three. Though this much even a first-year novice of geomancy could tell you.

Having acquired a fundamental knoweldge of astrology under the tutelage of Levava and her associates, and further receiving aid from a certain adventurer, [Kyokuho] succeeded in combing the three geomantic energies of wind, water, and earth with a fourth energy─that of the stars─to seal away the vengeful spirit of the fox once more.

The art of geomancy, with its command over wind, earth, and water, can be employed as a method for constructing Tenkoto.

I can't find the interview right now (there really needs to be a compilation somewhere), but I believe it was Koji who mentioned that Conjurers and Thaumaturges don't have a monopoly on elemental magic and that other civilizations across the world have different structures around doing the same thing. The lore book equating GEO to CNJ/AST and Onmyoji to THM is an example of that. It's just like how Ala Mhigo, Ishgard, and Gridania have their own techniques for using the same weapon: the polearm. And warriors on the Azim Steppe and Abalathia's Spine independently discovered the same battle art on opposite ends of the planet.

There are three reasons I'm against having a geomancer job. The first is that as presented to us so far in FFXIV, the job is not unique enough to stand on its own and this game already has a problem with homogenizing everything that I really don't want to continue. The second is that there is only 1 living practitioner of the art in the entire game and he is tied up in another job's storyline. And thirdly, it can be assumed that there are also no job stones for geomancers because the art has basically died out, with the successors having to find things out by reading scrolls or misinterpreting geomancy altogether.

Kyokuho does say that he's going to train an army of geomancers, but again, that's locked into the astrologian questline.

[Gemina]

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.

Please point to the rule book that states the devs aren't allowed to do this. Plus, they've already done it when you include tanks as another melee fighter, which it is. If you want to include job reworks as well then you can add MNK into what has been three expansions in a row of time devoted to melee job releases. Plus, DRG is getting reworked in 7.0. If you want to go back even further you can include DRK in the HW release, and NIN as a post release during ARR. If you only want to include melee DPS, the question still quickly becomes: What makes you think that there wouldn't be a melee release in 7.0 based on their previous decisions?

Now let's look at ranged jobs: MCH in HW (AST if you include healers), RDM in SB, DNC in ShB and a ground up MCH rework, SGE (if you include healers) in EW and a ground up SMN rework. Seems a little less, doesn't it? Yet, despite that the game still has more ranged jobs overall compared to melee. Even from strictly a DPS standpoint, players have six to choose from. Those who favor melee DPS only have five. If a gap in job releases is the basis for the belief that the game needs another caster and physical ranged, then what happens if you somehow split the melee classes into two sub roles? You then have one with three and another with two.

Also, there is zero chance they merge Scouting and Striking sets. They would have to delete a ton of gear to accomplish this, and then make decisions on what stays and what goes. The only possible merging is making all melee classes use the Slaying set of accessories. This would require changing NINs primary stat to STR, which is a hell of a lot easier to do than merging two existing sets of left side gear, and should have been this way initially in the first place. This is the path of least resistance.

Of course, I am not the one who greenlights the decisions at SE. It is still possible that they do release more ranged jobs, but it most certainly isn't where I would wager my money based on the current state of the game, and their track record.