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

[Seraphor]

I'm so confused...? Someone please let me know if my wording is as poor as she claims.

This Pattern.
ARR:Melee, Healer, Caster
HW:Tank, Healer, Ranged
SB:Melee, Caster
SHB:Tank, Ranged
EW:Melee, Healer

Farming likes? What am I gonna do with likes? I don't control who likes my posts.

As for the "gameplay" additions you mentioned, literally nothing new, just a new coat of paint. New jobs are the only new things we can interact with. I agree, it is sad.

I think this is more of a case of seeing the pattern you want to see.
Can you say the same thing about Healers and Casters for example?

Other people would sooner group Tanks and Healers together than Tanks and Melee, and we went one expansion with neither of them.

[kaynide]

I would be very surprised with we get another Tank/Healer job so soon (if at all).
If we get two jobs in 7.0, then it's most likely Scouting and Casting. But we're probably approaching the time we start to get only one job per expansion, so my money would be on Caster.

I expect they will add only 1 job in this or the next expansion, but if 2 I would also bet scouting and casting.

I have a feeling with 7.0 being a 1 and done story, they will want to see how it plays out/how well received the idea is without a long term overarching plot. I imagine this means a lot of focus/energy spent on making the expac successful, especially with the mixed bag that EW was…with how much work it takes to make a unique job, I’m not sure there is time to develop a second.

…that said, they do have perfectly good removed DoT mechanics from SMN that might make a welcome return.

[Iyrnthota]

I expect they will add only 1 job in this or the next expansion, but if 2 I would also bet scouting and casting.

I have a feeling with 7.0 being a 1 and done story, they will want to see how it plays out/how well received the idea is without a long term overarching plot. I imagine this means a lot of focus/energy spent on making the expac successful, especially with the mixed bag that EW was…with how much work it takes to make a unique job, I’m not sure there is time to develop a second.

…that said, they do have perfectly good removed DoT mechanics from SMN that might make a welcome return.

There's also the graphical update which is bound to be taking up significant dev time. I'm honestly kind of expecting 7.0 to be a much more down-tuned expac because of it, so only 1 new job would make sense to me.

[CaptainLagbeard]

I have a feeling with 7.0 being a 1 and done story, they will want to see how it plays out/how well received the idea is without a long term overarching plot. I imagine this means a lot of focus/energy spent on making the expac successful, especially with the mixed bag that EW was…with how much work it takes to make a unique job, I’m not sure there is time to develop a second.

My personal guess is that Golbez in 6.4 will Exposition Dump at us, which will lead to 6.5 setting us up on the next big overarching story

[Aluja89]

I think this is more of a case of seeing the pattern you want to see.
Can you say the same thing about Healers and Casters for example?

Other people would sooner group Tanks and Healers together than Tanks and Melee, and we went one expansion with neither of them.

I mean, it's literally there so I could say the same to you for ignoring it. The melee+tank job has always been used as a marketing tool each new expansion I don't see it changing any time soon, as we've seen how rigid they are developing for this game.

I can say the same for healers, because we only had WHM in 1.0 it obviously needed more jobs so we got SCH and AST back to back, this is also the reason healers skipped an expansion. Caster is in its predicted rotation.

We went one expansion with no healer or tank and hell ensued but this was more because we stopped getting 3 new jobs and we were promised they'd never do it again and it hasn't happened nor will it IMO.

[Seraphor]

I mean, it's literally there so I could say the same to you for ignoring it. The melee+tank job has always been used as a marketing tool each new expansion I don't see it changing any time soon, as we've seen how rigid they are developing for this game.

I can say the same for healers, because we only had WHM in 1.0 it obviously needed more jobs so we got SCH and AST back to back, this is also the reason healers skipped an expansion. Caster is in its predicted rotation.

We went one expansion with no healer or tank and hell ensued but this was more because we stopped getting 3 new jobs and we were promised they'd never do it again and it hasn't happened nor will it IMO.

Sure the pattern is there, you've helpfully bolded it too. But patterns exist everywhere (people see the face of the virgin Mary in their toast, and numerology, boy where do I start with that) that doesn't mean they're intentional even if you can rationalise them, and it certainly doesn't mean they're immutable. They can, and do, change.

I certainly wouldn't say they've demonstrated that they're rigid with their patterns. The fact that we have several ways of classifying job roles (tank/healer/melee, or physical/magical, or melee/ranged, or gearset, etc.) and that they change up every expansion, is a clear indicator that they've left room to have the freedom to change this pattern at any point they wish to. (In fact, they specifically cited a lack of Maiming classes as a reason for implementing Reaper, I would argue that "the role/gear subset that has gone the longest without an update" is a higher priority factor than any 'pattern'.)

Furthermore, they haven't always used the new job as the marketing tool. Shadowbringers was marketed around Dark Knight, not Gunbreaker, Endwalker was marketed around paladin, not Reaper. They don't need a new melee job to sell an expansion when we already have options to choose from for the poster class, and we certainly don't specifically need a Tank to fill that melee role. (I know you've claimed that new jobs are the only selling point of an expansion, but that's nonsense considering there are people who still play jobs that aren't Reaper or Sage. The fact that you don't see any value in any other aspect of an expansion is a 'you' problem)

With 20 jobs now in the game (FF11 finished at 22) and each one added increasing their workloads exponentially, it has to slow down at some point. It might not be 7.0 that starts that process, but it could be given that EW was the end of the core arc of the MSQ. Maybe I'm wrong and SE miraculously decides to plough more funding into FF14 now that 16 is finished, but I wouldn't be placing any bets on that yet.

[Aluja89]

Sure the pattern is there, you've helpfully bolded it too. But patterns exist everywhere (people see the face of the virgin Mary in their toast, and numerology, boy where do I start with that) that doesn't mean they're intentional even if you can rationalise them, and it certainly doesn't mean they're immutable. They can, and do, change.

I certainly wouldn't say they've demonstrated that they're rigid with their patterns. The fact that we have several ways of classifying job roles (tank/healer/melee, or physical/magical, or melee/ranged, or gearset, etc.) and that they change up every expansion, is a clear indicator that they've left room to have the freedom to change this pattern at any point they wish to. (In fact, they specifically cited a lack of Maiming classes as a reason for implementing Reaper, I would argue that "the role/gear subset that has gone the longest without an update" is a higher priority factor than any 'pattern'.)

Furthermore, they haven't always used the new job as the marketing tool. Shadowbringers was marketed around Dark Knight, not Gunbreaker, Endwalker was marketed around paladin, not Reaper. They don't need a new melee job to sell an expansion when we already have options to choose from for the poster class, and we certainly don't specifically need a Tank to fill that melee role. (I know you've claimed that new jobs are the only selling point of an expansion, but that's nonsense considering there are people who still play jobs that aren't Reaper or Sage. The fact that you don't see any value in any other aspect of an expansion is a 'you' problem)

With 20 jobs now in the game (FF11 finished at 22) and each one added increasing their workloads exponentially, it has to slow down at some point. It might not be 7.0 that starts that process, but it could be given that EW was the end of the core arc of the MSQ. Maybe I'm wrong and SE miraculously decides to plough more funding into FF14 now that 16 is finished, but I wouldn't be placing any bets on that yet.

I just can't rationalize how it's random, I don't see it. If it happens for a decade, surely there's a reason for it?

I believe they've said the things they develop have been decided for years in advance, if that's not rigid I don't know what is. And people always play around with classifications to give merit to their ideas. I mean, that's what the last few pages has been about. I wouldn't give it that much thought.

I disagree, DRK and PLD were used as posterboys but not as marketing tools, I remember how people speculated what role Thancred's new job would be for months as they cleverly left that part out, or how Zeno's weapon was concealed during both in game cutscene and in the initial EW trailer, that also had people talk about it for months.

This is certainly not a me problem, it's simply how the game is. Extremely rigid, there are simply no new things other than jobs. Obviously people still play old jobs, new jobs just make it more fun, brings more people to a specific role, broadens playstyle for a dedicated tank/healer/dps.

FF11 has customization, FF14 does not. As for balance, why do you think they've opted to a 2min meta? The devs aren't the brightest but some things are intentional even if they're bad. It's to ease their workload and keep pumping out jobs because they know it's the only thing they have for new expansions.

[Seraphor]

I just can't rationalize how it's random, I don't see it. If it happens for a decade, surely there's a reason for it?

I believe they've said the things they develop have been decided for years in advance, if that's not rigid I don't know what is. And people always play around with classifications to give merit to their ideas. I mean, that's what the last few pages has been about. I wouldn't give it that much thought.

I disagree, DRK and PLD were used as posterboys but not as marketing tools, I remember how people speculated what role Thancred's new job would be for months as they cleverly left that part out, or how Zeno's weapon was concealed during both in game cutscene and in the initial EW trailer, that also had people talk about it for months.

So what happens when they inevitably drop to 1 new job per expansion? How does your pattern work then? Do we only get alternating Tank/Melee DPS for the next 'however many expansions are left in the game'?
They will be forced to change it up.

Also claiming that this pattern has been going for a decade is a bit of a stretch, when ARR hardly counts as it featured every role, and HW had the benefit of three jobs to cover all main roles. At most this is a pattern they've stuck to for three expansions, and the first of those was not part of any pattern because it was the first two-job expansion.

In every other aspect of the game, they've demonstrated they want to change things, and this will apply to jobs at some point.

[Aluja89]

So what happens when they inevitably drop to 1 new job per expansion? How does your pattern work then? Do we only get alternating Tank/Melee DPS for the next 'however many expansions are left in the game'?
They will be forced to change it up.

Also claiming that this pattern has been going for a decade is a bit of a stretch, when ARR hardly counts as it featured every role, and HW had the benefit of three jobs to cover all main roles. At most this is a pattern they've stuck to for three expansions, and the first of those was not part of any pattern because it was the first two-job expansion.

In every other aspect of the game, they've demonstrated they want to change things, and this will apply to jobs at some point.

They won't drop it to 1, I already explained why this won't happen unless the raiding community dies out it will always be 2.

How is it a stretch if it already happened? Even if you don't count ARR, it's still there also we didn't get a new ranged(but back then DPS were just DPS, we didn't have subroles) or tank.

They have demonstrated that in HW and SB but not anymore they haven't, designs have been extremely stale anyone could tell you this.

[Seraphor]

They won't drop it to 1, I already explained why this won't happen unless the raiding community dies out it will always be 2.

This is a non-sequitur, and also delusional.

They cannot sustain 2 jobs per expansion indefinitely, and yet the game isn't dead enough to stop releasing expansions yet.