Give me your most unhinged Job take that you still genuinely believe in.

[fulminating]

The addition of new jobs starting with ninja has been only a detriment to the game.

[Turnintino]

My unhinged take is Square Enix made a serious mistake when they came up with the design of white mages. There is no reason we should have holy spells.

It's just because white magic is tantamount to holy magic in most FF titles, and Holy is one of the job's signature spells in that same context. So, historically speaking, the elementalist bent in FFXIV is the real outlier. They didn't want to completely do away with WHM's broader identity despite the reimagining, though, and what we got here consequently lacks coherence because of it. ┐(￣ヘ￣)┌

The addition of new jobs starting with ninja has been only a detriment to the game.

I don't think we can count NIN, since it was intended to be included from the start. Development just lagged.

[VeyaAkemi]

It's just because white magic is tantamount to holy magic in most FF titles, and Holy is one of the job's signature spells in that same context. So, historically speaking, the elementalist bent in FFXIV is the real outlier. They didn't want to completely do away with WHM's broader identity despite the reimagining, though, and what we got here consequently lacks coherence because of it. ┐(￣ヘ￣)┌

I always interpreted it as Elementals being sore losers.

They didn't choose us, A-Towa-Cant decided to us to be his successor without their input, I imagined that they don't like this, to the Elementals, we are still nothing but a Conjurer, as a result they refuse to convene with us the same depth they do with the Padjals... but we surpassed them, we do not need the Elementals anymore, the Calamity made it so they are nowhere near as powerful as they once were, and perhaps because of experiences with the First's Primordial Light, we learn to wield Light from the modicum of Light magic that was already there from Holy, and we completely cast out the Elements from our magic and make it our own.

Yeah it's just a headcanon, but it lines up shockingly well with the MSQ, you learn Glare and Dia at level 72, and Holminster Switch happens at level 71, meaning we learn the spells immmediately after the WoL absorbs the first chunk of Primordial Light.

[Turnintino]

I always interpreted it as Elementals being sore losers.

They didn't choose us, A-Towa-Cant decided to us to be his successor without their input, I imagined that they don't like this, to the Elementals, we are still nothing but a Conjurer, as a result they refuse to convene with us the same depth they do with the Padjals... but we surpassed them, we do not need the Elementals anymore, the Calamity made it so they are nowhere near as powerful as they once were, and perhaps because of experiences with the First's Primordial Light, we learn to wield Light from the modicum of Light magic that was already there from Holy, and we completely cast out the Elements from our magic and make it our own.

Yeah it's just a headcanon, but it lines up shockingly well with the MSQ, you learn Glare and Dia at level 72, and Holminster Switch happens at level 71, meaning we learn the spells immmediately after the WoL absorbs the first chunk of Primordial Light.

I really dig that. And if nothing else, I wouldn't be surprised if the timing at least was something the game designers actually considered.