Next Jobs

[Beddict]

I just want Necromancer. I know it probably won't happen, and even if it does, not in a way I'd approve. But I still want it.

Necromancer - Healer (Scythes and Sickles): A dark cleric of Belah'dia who uses sacrificial magic to pull allies from the brink of death. Weave damage-dealing with healing through Drain spells and risky transfusions. Turn allies into undead to give them temporary survival bonuses, or curse foes to receive more and deal less damage.

So I would love to see a Necromancer as well because it's just an archetype I really enjoy. My favourite class in D&D 3.5 was Dread Necromancer, my favourite class in Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2 was Necromancer, it would be real cool to see it in FFXIV and I love the ideas presented whenever I read them. However, the chance of it happening is probably incredibly low just because of the lore surrounding it.

Consider the two big Necromancers that we actually know about already: Mumuepo and Edda. Mumuepo was part of the elite in Ul'dah, head of the Thaumaturge Guild and member of the Order of Nald'thal, and I'm 50% sure he was their representative on the Syndicate before Dewlala took over. Point is, the guy was living the life. When it was discovered that he was messing around with necromancy though, he was stripped of his position as head of the Thaumaturge Guild, booted from the Order of Nald'thal, possibly kicked off the Syndicate (if he was actually on the Syndicate to begin with, again, not entirely sure), and then sentenced to a life in solitary confinement with his only reprieve being the occasional bout as an indentured slave on the blood sands of the Colosseum. That's a pretty massive fall for someone in Ul'dah high society, and all he did was make a dagger that may or may not raise the dead. As for Edda, she went bonkers, started kidnapping people and killing people, summoned Voidsent, crammed said Voidsent into corpses, and was generally an unpleasant nutjob. She may not have been a prominent member of society like Mumuepo, but her fall was pretty glaring and cases like hers are why there's such a stigma against Necromancers in Eorzea.

Edda also highlights one of the other problems associated with Necromancy in FFXIV: summoning Voidsent. Think about those old ARR Leves, the Necrologos ones. Collect some ancient book, read it aloud and hey, a Voidsent popped out. Necrologos, Word of the Dead, and there it is summoning Voidsent, and as seen with Edda, those Voidsent can be crammed into corpses to create undead. Copies of the Necrologos are burned on sight because messing with the Void just isn't something that sane people do, and that demon summoning falls under the domain of Necromancy.

So yeah, I love the idea of a Necromancer Job. It's got history in the entire Final Fantasy universe as a whole where it appeared as a Job in FFV. There are plenty of great ideas on how it could be unique mechanically. Unfortunately, Necromancy falls into the category of "don't you dare mess with that shit" in the actual lore of FFXIV. If the WoL starts taking up Necromancy and raising the dead then there are gonna be problems. The Order of Nald'thal would pitch a fit, there would be fear over the summoning of Voidsent, of the desecration of deceased loved ones. It would be a nightmare to work in Necromancer when all the lore we have has clearly established that it's taboo and that practicing it will absolutely destroy a person no matter their station. I imagine the writers could do it, but I think it would be a massive stretch to make it lore friendly.

[Archwizard]

So I would love to see a Necromancer as well because it's just an archetype I really enjoy. My favourite class in D&D 3.5 was Dread Necromancer, my favourite class in Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2 was Necromancer, it would be real cool to see it in FFXIV and I love the ideas presented whenever I read them. However, the chance of it happening is probably incredibly low just because of the lore surrounding it.

Something that was brought to my attention recently as an alternative thanks to BasicBlake, is the Witch Doctors of Meracydia.

Since "Witch Doctor" in itself is such a vague concept, the devs would have a lot of freedom to work with as long as it's a healer job in fitting with that "doctor" aspect. All we know about the Witch Doctors is that they sometimes trade for ingredients for their potions and that's it. So on the one hand you have this job that could incorporate some of the classic Chemist, but isn't so centered around it as to be crippled by lack of options and doesn't have to cross over with Thavnarian alchemy.

And on the other hand, one of the most iconic Witch Doctor concepts in gaming is from Diablo 3, where you have this job that mixes a D&D Druid with a classical Necromancer. This tribal, ritualistic, athame-wielding dark spellcaster who speaks with spirits, leeches from enemies, calls up swarms and sacrifices them for its own benefit. Meracydia is a region where we know surprisingly little about how it turned out after the Allagans ravaged it, and even before then we only really know the Warring Triad and Bahamut came out of it; it's a completely foreign nation from Eorzea, where its magic may be seen as bizarre and otherworldly, perhaps even verging on taboo, but still has its own environment in which to be practiced, without necessarily being tied to the practices of summoning Voidsent at all.

I would happily take Witch Doctors as a lore-friendly substitute, and not even be mad if they cannibalized that type of Necromancer Healer concept I was proposing. I'm not attached to the "title" of Necromancer, I just want to see jobs with unique mechanics and aesthetics, which this could go above and beyond to do very well.

[Sqwall]

Honestly the most logical choice is chemist imo. When you look back on all the FF titles and the lore. Chemist would fit perfectly as a healer. Now that being said there isn't any reason why it couldn't be a DPS also.

This just makes me want support roles more and more. Understanding the boss you are fighting knowing the elements associated with each encounter. Having a log of "scanned" enemies and using there weaknesses against them. What debuffs they are susceptible to and using that against them. Sounds kind of fun imo.

Geomancer and Chemist just get lobbed into support roles and party size for dungeons goes up to 5. 8 Man becomes 10 man, so on and so forth. Just increase the HP values and adjust the damage from the mob.

I think it's time we got a dedicated support role job that has a lot to do with elements and buffing the party, and debuffing the boss. Astro is kind of like this, only think of the support role as just KEEPING those buffs up to "DPS". Instead of just straight out DPS from a weapon, they enhance all DPS.

There is quite a lot of emphasis on DPS from all classes, but not emphasis on one class devoted to holding a buff up and giving en-fire, en-thunder, to enhance DPS to counter an element. Or Shock Spikes, Blaze Spikes thorns. Status effects like blind, slow, stop or dare I say Fury. Fury the boss takes more damage but also hit's harder.

I don't know I think it would be fun to just play a strait debuffing/buffing class. I used to get that from astro, but not it's just damage increase. Miss my spread and royal road.

[Archwizard]

-snip-

I think there's room for many of those buffs to be added to the game without having to create a role dedicated to it. Several games have tried to reinvent the Trinity before or at least suggested the possibility, but I'm not sure any have ever managed to balance it to a point it's worthwhile; either you create situations where certain buffs and debuffs are always expected anyway as a bare minimum for all raid DPS and encounter mechanics, thereby crippling your composition if you don't have X specific job in the party (which is why we have Role Actions for those types of mechanics); or you create wildly imbalanced scenarios where some buffs work too well for certain encounters and others have no effect too much of the time to be remembered when they are useful or sustainable as their own abilities in the long-term (like the attitudes toward non-stun CC in this game).

I'm reminded of Instructor Razuvious from WoW, where one of his mechanics required players to mind control his minions in order to break through his mitigation. Since only one spec was capable of mind control (out of 27 when it was current content), it meant at least 2 players in each raid were required to be Shadow Priests to beat the boss. The devs later reworked the encounter so that mind control crystals were available inside the arena to avoid forcing any one class into or out of the raid, and future encounters that required CC usually had access to CCing items within the arena.
Or of how one class, Shaman, was given exclusive access to the Bloodlust spell that gave the entire raid a massive damage buff once per encounter. Encounters were then balanced with Bloodlust taken into account for DPS checks, or build with short windows where this buff could be used at all, which then necessitated spreading out that buff to other classes.

I'm 100% for certain jobs gaining effects like En-elemental buffs or Thorns, or even increasing the viability of debuffs like Blind and Slow so that CC has a place and more diverse/complex tactics can be deployed for high level encounters. (Bearing mind that elemental vulnerabilities aren't actually a thing in 14 since ARR, and that all elements are just flavored "Magic" damage, so that each job's access to certain elements, particularly BLM, is more focused on relation to mechanics than damage types.)
I also think these are things that jobs we already have could do. We already have Bard, Dancer and Astrologian casting regular buffs in addition to their main role, and I'd be happy to see GEO introduced with its own spin on that. Effects like Slow and Stop would be perfectly fitting in AST's arsenal, both aesthetically and as mechanics for reducing damage intake to fit its role. I'd love to see SCH's Selene reworked so that her Fey Union puts Spikes/Thorns on her target or some channeled AoE attack that follows an ally, or have their Repose replaced with Toad.

[Sqwall]

I'm 100% for certain jobs gaining effects like En-elemental buffs or Thorns, or even increasing the viability of debuffs like Blind and Slow so that CC has a place and more diverse/complex tactics can be deployed for high level encounters. (Bearing mind that elemental vulnerabilities aren't actually a thing in 14 since ARR, and that all elements are just flavored "Magic" damage, so that each job's access to certain elements, particularly BLM, is more focused on relation to mechanics than damage types.)
I also think these are things that jobs we already have could do. We already have Bard, Dancer and Astrologian casting regular buffs in addition to their main role, and I'd be happy to see GEO introduced with its own spin on that. Effects like Slow and Stop would be perfectly fitting in AST's arsenal, both aesthetically and as mechanics for reducing damage intake to fit its role. I'd love to see SCH's Selene reworked so that her Fey Union puts Spikes/Thorns on her target or some channeled AoE attack that follows an ally, or have their Repose replaced with Toad.

Yeah I remember the same situation in the early versions of LOTRO where you had to bring certain classes with you to pass content. I used to play as a captain and that class was the only class in the game that had 2 seperate battle rez's, could place banners on the ground to give HP bonuses or regen bonuses, and dispel fear effects on raid members. This was also a specialized skill tree for buffing and raid centric play style. I have had numerous discussions how FFXIV will never have a class like this, and for the most part I think everyone is correct. We will never see a sole buffer in the game due to how SE designs endgame content to be non-exclusive.

I suppose I will always think of the days I was a complete support role that did minor healing, did minor dps, but offered amazing utility in the form of in-combat regen for sustainability. Captain was sort of like dragoon and dancer rolled into one job! At that time the content was designed around every role though, and LOTRO has lost it's way since then changing developers, and FTP model ruining the hardcore scene.

Rift of Nurz Ghashu was a prime example of where endgame content could go. You had to have every class represented to pass anything in there. Each encounter leaned into 1 class more then the other for certain mechanics. Communication had to be on point. If you see the videos of the raid now it's more then likely dumbed down, or maybe it's the same as it was 13 years ago. LoL sorry just reminiscing.

[BasicBlake]

Honestly the most logical choice is chemist imo. When you look back on all the FF titles and the lore. Chemist would fit perfectly as a healer. Now that being said there isn't any reason why it couldn't be a DPS also.

This just makes me want support roles more and more. Understanding the boss you are fighting knowing the elements associated with each encounter. Having a log of "scanned" enemies and using there weaknesses against them. What debuffs they are susceptible to and using that against them. Sounds kind of fun imo.

Geomancer and Chemist just get lobbed into support roles and party size for dungeons goes up to 5. 8 Man becomes 10 man, so on and so forth. Just increase the HP values and adjust the damage from the mob.

I think it's time we got a dedicated support role job that has a lot to do with elements and buffing the party, and debuffing the boss. Astro is kind of like this, only think of the support role as just KEEPING those buffs up to "DPS". Instead of just straight out DPS from a weapon, they enhance all DPS.

There is quite a lot of emphasis on DPS from all classes, but not emphasis on one class devoted to holding a buff up and giving en-fire, en-thunder, to enhance DPS to counter an element. Or Shock Spikes, Blaze Spikes thorns. Status effects like blind, slow, stop or dare I say Fury. Fury the boss takes more damage but also hit's harder.

I don't know I think it would be fun to just play a strait debuffing/buffing class. I used to get that from astro, but not it's just damage increase. Miss my spread and royal road.

I think the Devs have stated that because of the massive game overhaul that would require, and how then you would be required to have this new class for every encounter in the game, it would destroy queue times. So I wouldn't put my money on it.

[ItMe]

I low key hope we don't get Chemist or Geomancer if only because I'm getting kind of sick of them through all the predictions.
(Also cuz I probably wouldn't play either)

[MirronTulaxia]

I low key hope we don't get Chemist or Geomancer if only because I'm getting kind of sick of them through all the predictions.
(Also cuz I probably wouldn't play either)

I mean I'm not super excited for a hypothetical Chemist myself. Geomancer would be potentially interesting, but I just don't have much interest in the things people throw around for Chemist.

[EdwinLi]

I low key hope we don't get Chemist or Geomancer if only because I'm getting kind of sick of them through all the predictions.
(Also cuz I probably wouldn't play either)

That will only make people want them more and continue to mention them until they are released.

[BasicBlake]

I low key hope we don't get Chemist or Geomancer if only because I'm getting kind of sick of them through all the predictions.
(Also cuz I probably wouldn't play either)

How do you think us people that want Geomancer feel being teased sinec 1.0 about it?