New roles for existing jobs idea

[Gokki]

Aside from the bluemage/geomancer stuff that might actually be coming in 5.0 i would love to share this idea/fantasy of additional roles to existing jobs with a seamless integration with current systems.

The premise is pretty simple: Introduce new weapons for existing jobs with a new role for them. If we're going to Garlemald in next expansion what better place to introduce a new weapon: The Gunblade.

This is a second weapon that Machinists can equip in place of their existing Muskets. The rolemodel for this is Gaius van Baelsar - a melee fighter with some ranged abilities that lets the Machinist be a Tank for Duty purposes. [Promo image link]

Another weapon that could be introduced is the Two-Handed Hammer for Paladins. It would let them fulfil the role of Melee Damage. [Promo image link]

The Orb would allow the Black Mage to become a tank. To differentiate the them from Astrologians the mage would hold the orb under their hands [like this]. [Promo image link] Alternatively this could be a secondary weapon to be equipped [like this].

The last example will be the incense burner for Monks. This would allow them to become healers. [Promo image link]

Other weapons:
Javelin for ranged Warriors.
Dark Knights have Darkside, just use that for melee damager. (I really want dps DRK)
Padjali Rings for caster White Mages.
A magical garlean Pen for caster Scholars.
A hand-held radio telescope for caster Astrologians so they learn to do some actual science for once.
A pet dragon for tanking Dragoons (you ride the dragon like a mount).
Bandages for a healing Ninja. Yes, you become Sakura from Naruto
An Odachi for tanking Samurai.
A garlean Microphone and speakers for singing and dancing healing Bards.
A Tomestone for sophisticated tanking Summoners. They become the primal avatars - ifrit for aoe tanking and titan for singletarget tanking.
A dagger+focus for healing redmages. Similar gameplay but reversed for healing.

These are examples to explore this idea, some of them are silly, yes, but i think it's cool to explore something like this that expands existing jobs.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

The developers have already said they will never do another hybrid job evolutions like Scholar and Summoner again. Not only has it created a balancing nightmare for them, they would prefer to simply release a new job entirely in lieu of having it branch off an existing one. Furthermore, what you're proposing is the equivalent of adding fifteen new jobs since everything has to be balanced. For example, Dragoon, Samurai, Summoner and Machinist all need a full tank kit otherwise they've effectively worthless compared to actual tank jobs. This is a substantial amount of work for not really any benefit, especially when they can simply create a new job which wouldn't need massive reworks to its existing abilities to fit a role it wasn't ever designed to be.

[Gokki]

I didn't mean to add ALL of them, maybe one or two? But since otheres Liked your reply i guess there's no point debating this. Oh well, i tried.

[HyoMinPark]

Even with just adding one or two, the developers have struggled since ARR with the SMN/SCH split, and they've said that they'll never do another class split like they did with SMN/SCH. The developers also have it very ingrained in their "vision" for the game how each job should be played. So flexibility of jobs into multiple roles seems unlikely.

And, as Bourne_Endeavor said, balance would be a nightmare. SB still has troubles balancing jobs within the same role (though it is better now than it was at 4.0 launch with regards to some, still worse for others, though); balancing of jobs across all three would be nightmarish, I'd imagine.

[Fredco191]

I always wanted to play as a DPS version of Warrior.
I know deliverance is a thing but I’d love to never tank as that job.

[Paladinleeds]

Not only have the developers gone on record saying it isn't happening, I also believe they've said they're looking to split off SMN and SCH into separate ones (perhaps have SCH be a job that you pick up at level 30, but works like the new expansion jobs that you can be any level 30 to get it?), such that they no longer have the base Arcanist class. Could be wrong on that particular part though.

[Iscah]

Aside of them not being keen on introducing more 'split jobs', classes are defined by their weapons. The one existing split job Scholar/Summoner continues to use spellbooks in both forms.

I think they may not like giving people a "free class" that they don't have to level independently.

In the specific case of scholar, I like the idea of it but I'm very poor at playing it. Because I can level summoner instead, I never use it and yet I could technically jump into Lv70 content with zero practice or experience of raising it. (So basically, probably a bad design choice but one that I'm glad of.)

[Mimilu]

Not only have the developers gone on record saying it isn't happening, I also believe they've said they're looking to split off SMN and SCH into separate ones (perhaps have SCH be a job that you pick up at level 30, but works like the new expansion jobs that you can be any level 30 to get it?), such that they no longer have the base Arcanist class. Could be wrong on that particular part though.

They've been saying that since ARR. >w>

[DeaconMoore]

Not only have the developers gone on record saying it isn't happening, I also believe they've said they're looking to split off SMN and SCH into separate ones (perhaps have SCH be a job that you pick up at level 30, but works like the new expansion jobs that you can be any level 30 to get it?), such that they no longer have the base Arcanist class. Could be wrong on that particular part though.

Hmm, kinda baffling to me. I mean, is it really so hard to say hey you got a scholar stone equipped, miasma does X; hey you have a summoner stone equipped, miasma does Y; hey you don't have a soul stone equipped miasma does Z? I mean, they do manage to change our classes up in pvp...

Is the spaghetti code that is the core of FFXIV so tangled up they can't?

[Iscah]

Hmm, kinda baffling to me. I mean, is it really so hard to say hey you got a scholar stone equipped, miasma does X; hey you have a summoner stone equipped, miasma does Y; hey you don't have a soul stone equipped miasma does Z? I mean, they do manage to change our classes up in pvp...

Is the spaghetti code that is the core of FFXIV so tangled up they can't?

I think Miasma can be switched out for something else (as with scholar eventually swapping Ruin for Broil) but the effect of Miasma cannot be changed.