New class ideas

[Inkyrus]

A couple of job ideas i had, shared just for fun!

Job 1: Jester
My initial thoughts for a Jester class were about making them a tank, primarily based around dodging attacks, or rolling with punches. A jester's tank cooldowns would be to "reduce damage by moving with incoming hits" and could perhaps allow them to completely negate basic attacks from ordinary enemies for several seconds. Useful during large pulls for recovery time.
They could have an AOE provoke (taunt). I also had an idea for a sort of "reverse cover" if you will. Rather than using a shield to block, the jester would leap to the position of an ally and take all damage intended for them for the duration of the ability. GET DOWN MR PRESIDENT!
I then had a wonderfully interesting idea...
What if there was a class similar to arcanist, but that was split into ALL THREE roles?
Jester could be a melee tank, a healer, AND a dps all of which use throwing knives. DPS comes to any class (but would primarily be ranged for the jester), tank would be melee (perhaps with a ranged damage rotation to keep it interesting) and then the healer jester could use magically empowered words of encouragement to inspire and heal allies. Consider it! A single class new players could pick up at the start of an expansion and be able to change roles throughout the content while retaining their current level.

Job 2: Time Mage (chronomancer?)
I haven't played enough final fantasy games to know if there have been previous time mages, but it would make for a great healing class. Reverse wounds, perhaps give small temperary hastes or slows, maybe even an ability that for just a few seconds lets players run very fast around them (to help during difficult mechanics). And rather than using shields or regen, they could cause players to recieve damage at a delayed rate, giving more time to heal up.

Job 3: Bloodmage
Had this idea for a MELEE HEALER. The blood mage would use a scythe or some other interesting blade (sickle?) to perform their melee hits (bare in mind that healers may only use spells for ranged damage even now). However my idea is that blood mages empower their abilities by gaining blood as a resource through melee hits an damaging abilities. Their healing spells would target an ally, and then target the enemy that ally is currently attacking to leech healing or spike damage out onto other targets. By reducing a bloodmage's ability to perform secondary tasks like shielding or regeneration, and allowing them to spend their own hp as well as syphon hp back from enemies, they could increase risk to weave damage into their healing and even perhaps link to a tank and heal them BY dealing damage in a rotation.
With enough testing to make sure the damage wasn't too high or usability wasn't too low, i'd have a great time playing a melee healer. I think lots of people would find it an interesting and unique class o/

Let me know what you think, and speculate on abilities!

[Garnix]

I think Time Mage is going to be a DPS. Of course it is just my theory, but Yoshi-P seemed to hint about the fact that Gaia hammer is important, which led some of us to think a new job will use it. The spells Gaia is using through the second part of Eden look like time magic to me. First she kills a monster with a delayed magic attack (the spell is cast, and a few seconds after the spell effect stops, it explodes out of nowhere). And then the effect of the magic she uses at the end of E8N shows a clock. + E3 had a lot of time/delayed magic attacks involved. Now my personal hope for it would be for it to be a DoT based mage, and for Summoner to be revamped to rely almost exclusively on pets.

Jester I don't know....in traditional FF job concepts, I would associate jester with gambler, which means : a lot of RNG. So I think that could become a fun limited job if anything. Throwing dices for random effects etc.

A melee healer is a popular request. I am not sure the devs would take this risk though.
They reduced the complexity of healing jobs quite a bit in 5.0 (fewer DPS spells, easier card usage etc).
Having a melee healer would make it more stressful, which doesn't seem to be something they would do.
I would like a non-caster healer though. Chemist comes to mind. Throw potions, throw bombs, throw poison bottles as a DoT. etc.

[Enkidoh]

I think Time Mage is going to be a DPS. Of course it is just my theory, but Yoshi-P seemed to hint about the fact that Gaia hammer is important, which led some of us to think a new job will use it. The spells Gaia is using through the second part of Eden look like time magic to me. First she kills a monster with a delayed magic attack (the spell is cast, and a few seconds after the spell effect stops, it explodes out of nowhere). And then the effect of the magic she uses at the end of E8N shows a clock. + E3 had a lot of time/delayed magic attacks involved. Now my personal hope for it would be for it to be a DoT based mage, and for Summoner to be revamped to rely almost exclusively on pets.

Gaia's hammer was actually a mistake made by Tetsuya Nomura who was unaware there wasn't a hammer-wielding already in the game, but Yoshi just laughed and kept it in anyway for the 'coolness factor'. Besides, NPCs are a poor indication of new classes because since day 1 of 1.0 they've had access to weapons and skills that players have never been given (like Rostnsthal dual wielding a pistol in one hand and a single handed axe in the other, simply because it's 'cool').

Job 2: Time Mage (chronomancer?)
I haven't played enough final fantasy games to know if there have been previous time mages, but it would make for a great healing class. Reverse wounds, perhaps give small temperary hastes or slows, maybe even an ability that for just a few seconds lets players run very fast around them (to help during difficult mechanics). And rather than using shields or regen, they could cause players to recieve damage at a delayed rate, giving more time to heal up.

Time Mage's role and abilities are already taken by AST anyway (AST has, or had, a lot of abilities that dealt with manipualting time and space, like Lightspeed being effectively Haste), so AST is really just Time Mage under a different name. Hence it would be rather redundant to include an actual Time Mage at this point (to say nothing of back during the Beta Yoshi all but ruled out an actual Time Mage by saying he thinks spells like Haste would make the game "too easy").

Job 1: Jester
My initial thoughts for a Jester class were about making them a tank, primarily based around dodging attacks, or rolling with punches. A jester's tank cooldowns would be to "reduce damage by moving with incoming hits" and could perhaps allow them to completely negate basic attacks from ordinary enemies for several seconds. Useful during large pulls for recovery time.
They could have an AOE provoke (taunt). I also had an idea for a sort of "reverse cover" if you will. Rather than using a shield to block, the jester would leap to the position of an ally and take all damage intended for them for the duration of the ability. GET DOWN MR PRESIDENT!

What if there was a class similar to arcanist, but that was split into ALL THREE roles?
Jester could be a melee tank, a healer, AND a dps all of which use throwing knives. DPS comes to any class (but would primarily be ranged for the jester), tank would be melee (perhaps with a ranged damage rotation to keep it interesting) and then the healer jester could use magically empowered words of encouragement to inspire and heal allies. Consider it! A single class new players could pick up at the start of an expansion and be able to change roles throughout the content while retaining their current level.

Your initial idea for Jester basically is an evasion tank that players made NIN into in FFXI, and that was all very well and good, except they abused it for it was worth, and once their shadows went down they were torn to pieces (and SE increasinly made enemies capable of tearing through NIN shadows with ease just to muck up these players). It sounds good on paper but in practice is a nightmare for healers.

The second idea you had for Jester sounds too mechanically complex for SE to bother with, to say nothing of being too overpowered as it pretty much could satisfy any duty requirement without restriction, practically invalidating the role of every other Job. There is a reason the Crystal Exarch has this very role adaptability in the Trust System during Holminster Switch and that was simply because there was no other story character available to be used in Trusts in that part of the storyline (the only dedicated tank in the Trust system, Thancred, doesn't appear til much later) and so he is an exception rather than a rule.

Also throwing knives are already a ROG/NIN ability so this is already taken by an existing class.

Job 3: Bloodmage
Had this idea for a MELEE HEALER. The blood mage would use a scythe or some other interesting blade (sickle?) to perform their melee hits (bare in mind that healers may only use spells for ranged damage even now). However my idea is that blood mages empower their abilities by gaining blood as a resource through melee hits an damaging abilities. Their healing spells would target an ally, and then target the enemy that ally is currently attacking to leech healing or spike damage out onto other targets. By reducing a bloodmage's ability to perform secondary tasks like shielding or regeneration, and allowing them to spend their own hp as well as syphon hp back from enemies, they could increase risk to weave damage into their healing and even perhaps link to a tank and heal them BY dealing damage in a rotation.
With enough testing to make sure the damage wasn't too high or usability wasn't too low, i'd have a great time playing a melee healer. I think lots of people would find it an interesting and unique class o/!

Bloodmage is pretty much what THM was like in the original launch version of FFXIV (version 1.0). There, THM did not have Fire, Ice and Lightning spells (those were CNJ spells). Instead, THM's original gimmick was using drain spells to steal enemy HP to replenish their own or their party's, while also having access to debuff spells and even Light and Darkness elemental spells like Dia. This was all scrapped when the Jobs were added in a patch and the classes were redesigned to make them more appropriate for their Jobs - hence THM was radically altered, probably the class given the greatest makeover in the game. They lost the drain healing, with CNJ becoming the dedicated healer class, and gained instead Fire, Ice and Lightning spells so it could be a better fit for BLM, retaining only the Astral/Umbral aspect as a focus shift mechanic.

As THM has never regained those abilities it's lost, it's pretty clear SE considers the original form a failed idea and so I do not seem them reviving it I'm sorry to say.

[Garnix]

Gaia's hammer was actually a mistake made by Tetsuya Nomura who was unaware there wasn't a hammer-wielding already in the game, but Yoshi just laughed and kept it in anyway for the 'coolness factor'. Besides, NPCs are a poor indication of new classes because since day 1 of 1.0 they've had access to weapons and skills that players have never been given (like Rostnsthal dual wielding a pistol in one hand and a single handed axe in the other, simply because it's 'cool').



Time Mage's role and abilities are already taken by AST anyway (AST has, or had, a lot of abilities that dealt with manipualting time and space, like Lightspeed being effectively Haste), so AST is really just Time Mage under a different name. Hence it would be rather redundant to include an actual Time Mage at this point (to say nothing of back during the Beta Yoshi all but ruled out an actual Time Mage by saying he thinks spells like Haste would make the game "too easy").

I know that Gaia is no confirmed indication, and I know about it being a Nomura mistake. But I will stick to my theory for now. I might be proven wrong at the end, but no big deal. I wouldn't be disappointed either way.
Also, the AST 'time manipulation' tricks are pretty much gone aside from Lightspeed. I guess they are still using time magic to heal though.
Anything is possible anyways, so we will see.

[Tulzscha]

Time Mage could make a very interesting dps that works by manipulating and lining up different effects. Say they have a clock-like job gauge which they can speed up or slow down and buffs and/or debuffs with delayed effects that change depending on the gauge's position when they go off. Or applying a buff/debuff starts a timer which stops when you cast another spell on the same target, maybe multiple times to trigger different effects or simply bonus damage when used at the right time. It'd be kind of like a dot spec but instead of piling on debuffs that slowly deal damage over time their debuffs don't do anything until they expire or when other spells are used in specific windows for huge bursts of dmg.

Another example of the same idea: They could have one long duration debuff that acts as a timer and a short duration debuff that stacks up to a certain number; when the long debuff expires it deals damage based on the stacks of the short one. If you stack the short one too quickly you won't be able to stack any more and it'll drop before the long one, too slow and you lose out on some dmg.

Something too fixed would only result in a repeating rotation though, it'd be better with some rng to force more on the fly decision making based on the time remaining on this or how long it'd take to do that.

[Recon1o6]

I reckon that chemist if it comes out (They've already tried once back in hw) it should use Astrologian's seal system as a mix gauge, different ingrediants for different effects

Time mage is called astrologian.
This is not up for debate as the many astrologians desperately miss its 4.0 iteration, it had time magic in its healing, cards, lightspeed, a stun that extended positive buffs...

The jester idea...well tbh its functionally too similar to a paladin (cover and intervention) and it has an amazing heal and good dps. The allrounder role however is not possible due to how df works apparently


Bloodmage is also not a thing, on account of how damage works in this game. That's why drk uses mp not hp like previous ff games
I want a melee healer though, or a none magic one like chemist.

[MirronTulaxia]

Time Mage isn't the same thing as Astrologian. And they can very easily have both in the game. And the healing/cards aren't Time Magic at all. They probably won't do one, but the aesthetics and mechanics of Astro aren't really lined up with Time. They work very differently if you actually think about how they work out.

[Vatom]

Honestly I would love to see chemist or a gunner class that kinda like ninja but with duel pistols

[Jirah]

I’m sick of hearing about Chemist and Time Mage. They worked in FF5 because every job was small. They wouldn’t work in FF14 due to how one-note they are. If you can’t think of at least 24 skills for them they won’t work unless you fuse jobs together like what Bard is

[Vatom]

I’m sick of hearing about Chemist and Time Mage. They worked in FF5 because every job was small. They wouldn’t work in FF14 due to how one-note they are. If you can’t think of at least 24 skills for them they won’t work unless you fuse jobs together like what Bard is

Not to jump on you but any class can fit in a game it’s called game development it’s a job to do such things and dancer proves it but honestly I agree with the time mage stuff it going to be impossible to make since Astro had or has time spells it may not be the same but it’s like making geo a healer why have two healers that cast stone that’s dumb and SE not going to bother but just cause in the old games they didn’t have a lot of skills doesn’t mean they can’t create some like why do we act like SE doesn’t have imagination