How can they add more classes and make them unique and have their own flavor?

[Slappah]

The same way dark Knight, ast, machinist and ninja feel unique compared to the other jobs in their role

[RiceisNice]

I remember I read somewhere that Yoshi P said that they will add more jobs instead of giving jobs more specializations (IE DPS Paladin, Heal Paladin).

The primary reason they can't do this is because even if you try to change the role of a job, it doesn't change the fact that they're drawing from the same level 1-50 class abilties, which is hwere the foundation of their gameplay is built upon. Take a DPSing SCH and SMN for example, back in 2.x they shared identical dps rotations minus fester (in which case they'd just use energy drain instead). Even if you had put a dps warrior, they'd still have the same BB and maim combos, not to mention deliverance makes it sort of a redundant concept.

The same way dark Knight, ast, machinist and ninja feel unique compared to the other jobs in their role

My sides.

But on a serious note though, they just have to take the idea and run with it, not play it safe. If a job ends being undertuned or overpowered numerically, you can always adjust the numbers. Mechanics on the other hand you can't really cut corners around (much like how they scrapped the idea of attachments and ammunition on MCH). You have unused concepts like a swinging TP resource, spellblade, stance dancing for dps (not tank/healing), or even a stationary melee that moves with abilities.

[Saccharin]

The same way dark Knight, ast, machinist and ninja feel unique compared to the other jobs in their role

Well DRK begins very similar to GLD and AST is essentially WHM until 50, or was it 40. I've not tried MCH yet.

[Ultimatecalibur]

Well DRK begins very similar to GLD and AST is essentially WHM until 50, or was it 40. I've not tried MCH yet.

Dark Knight may start out similar to Gladiator, but it ends up in a very different place once it gets Dark Arts. Much of its high level play is built around proper management of MP consumption/generation.
Much of the Astrologian's play is built around proper use of its cards.
Machinist uses a fairly unique proc based combo system.

[Kaurie]

As a side note, I don't anticipate that future jobs will hold much variation. With the changes in HW and the new jobs, Square has shown they'd rather keep things relatively homogenized for the sake of balance and simplicity.

I remember I read somewhere that Yoshi P said that they will add more jobs instead of giving jobs more specializations (IE DPS Paladin, Heal Paladin).

Dancer I can understand being different because I heard it is a melee healer(?)

How can they make the new jobs unique enough to make them not be copy and pastes/combination of the other jobs we have now?

There are plenty of ways such as

- Illusion magic
- Class built around CC and utility with encounters to support that design
- Healers who have life drain and can apply life drain to party members
- Tanks who manually block/dodge/parry using their GCD skills



They could also add cross jobs combo's - Guild Wars 2 has a system like this, i.e. a Ranger (BRD) could shoot arrows at the same time that an Elementalist (BLM) places a fire AoE down. The fire ignites the arrows and increase their damage accordingly. That's one of the more simple iterations of the combo system. However, I think if FFXIV added something similar, the differences in jobs could be amplified with how they combo with other jobs.

The same way dark Knight, ast, machinist and ninja feel unique compared to the other jobs in their role

Huh, I guess we view those very different.

AST feels like a WHM with cards and without Cure III
MCH is like Bard 2.o
DRK feels like they decided to take what was good about PLD and what was good about WAR, put them together, add some MP/magic 'variation' and then toned it down a bit for balance
NIN was probably the best of the 4, but from my perspective as someone who generally dislikes melee classes, I don't see a huge difference between DRG MNK and NIN.

[YGSLlew]

The same way dark Knight, ast, machinist and ninja feel unique compared to the other jobs in their role

Since when does a machinist feel significantly different than a bard?