Class aesthetic and weapon selection

[Momo_Kozuki]

Warrior has a greenish Glaive if your GC is Twin Adder.


Gunbreaker has a spiky club as a 3,000-wolf mark pvp reward (Frontline dailies for 2-3 days). Same with DRK that has bigger club.



For Lalafell, most of Paladin's shields are obnoxiously huge. Just speaking.

[Equitable_Remedy]

paladin

Warrior

GB's

DK

but this is more like a lack of choice.

You literally named four choices in your post.

[Tsiron]

It really just comes down to taste, but... as someone clamouring for Samurai straight swords I understand your pain, OP.

I imagine one reason for the fairly narrow selection of weapons is, quite literally, in case they need them for a new Job (e.g. a mace+tower shield Tank)

[Vrankyl]

There are quite a few shields that are rather large, even for the Au Ra model. You just have to get further. The AF gear shields tend to be fairly large in size, and there are others. As for something like a true tower shield... it wouldn't work with the aesthetic of paladin and would be rather impractical. Any game that has tower shields causes them to limit a character, and rightfully so. With how large they are they tend to reduce a characters speed greatly. They are truly unwieldy items and were only ever used IRL in very specific circumstances, such as the front line on a battle field and paired with a pike or spear.

In regards to the request for a straight sword for Samurai... I am not sure what this means? Most Katanas do have a slight curve to them, that is just the style of the sword. Though some in game do have a straight blade. Or are you asking for a traditional western sword for Samurai? In which case... why? That isn't what a Samurai is.

[ItMe]

In regards to the request for a straight sword for Samurai... I am not sure what this means? Most Katanas do have a slight curve to them, that is just the style of the sword. Though some in game do have a straight blade. Or are you asking for a traditional western sword for Samurai? In which case... why? That isn't what a Samurai is.

It's all being discussed in this thread:

https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...ds-for-Samurai

Tl : Dr straight blade katana exist, and not just as some historical oddity. It would be cool if we had more straight blade options in game.

[Absurdity]

GB's gunblades are so tiny and buffy like toy swords.

The gunblades are onehanded weapons so most of them are rather slim, I get what you mean because I like comically oversized weapons. You do however have a few gunblades that are quite big, Deepshadow Manatrigger, Scaevan Magitek Gunblade (this one turns big when you draw it because it has a retractable blade), Edenchoir Gunblade, Ronkan Manatrigger, Dwarven Mythril Manatrigger and the final GnB Relic.


Those are however all lvl 70+, from savage raids, behind longer grinds or a combination of it.

Warriors can get a couple of hammers.

You have exactly 1, the Dwarven Hammer, which is undyeable and an odd green. The Genji Greataxe might look like one but it turns into an axe as soon as you draw it so that doesn't really count.
Then you have the option of 2 scythes for warrior but one is from the mogstation and the other from the feast.

[Tsiron]

In regards to the request for a straight sword for Samurai... I am not sure what this means? Most Katanas do have a slight curve to them, that is just the style of the sword. Though some in game do have a straight blade. Or are you asking for a traditional western sword for Samurai? In which case... why? That isn't what a Samurai is.

ItMe was kind enough to link my thread (I really ought to update its OP at some point)...

It's all being discussed in this thread:

https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...ds-for-Samurai

Tl : Dr straight blade katana exist, and not just as some historical oddity. It would be cool if we had more straight blade options in game.

but to provide a brief TLDR, katanas and longswords are not that different in use and, at the end of the day, this is a (sci-)fantasy game where most everything goes. The odds of them adding a dedicated "longsword" Job is close to none, since it would be superfluous, so I don't think this is too much to ask. They're certainly not shy when it comes to giving others Katana-looking weapons.

The gunblades are onehanded weapons so most of them are rather slim, I get what you mean because I like comically oversized weapons. You do however have a few gunblades that are quite big, Deepshadow Manatrigger, Scaevan Magitek Gunblade (this one turns big when you draw it because it has a retractable blade), Edenchoir Gunblade, Ronkan Manatrigger, Dwarven Mythril Manatrigger and the final GnB Relic.

Those are however all lvl 70+, from savage raids, behind longer grinds or a combination of it.

You have exactly 1, the Dwarven Hammer, which is undyeable and an odd green. The Genji Greataxe might look like one but it turns into an axe as soon as you draw it so that doesn't really count.
Then you have the option of 2 scythes for warrior but one is from the mogstation and the other from the feast.

The Crystarium gunblade is also quite long, though its aesthetic might not be your thing, it's very quasi-historical(?) looking. I'm personally okay with the size of most GNB weapons, but there are some, especially early on, that can only be described as "tiny" lol.

You mean this Feast axe? I never thought of it as a scythe but I guess it can read as a (really chunky) one. And, yeah, like I mentioned earlier, turns out they were saving scythes for Reaper... although idk how far in advance they plan this stuff.

[Vrankyl]

ItMe was kind enough to link my thread (I really ought to update its OP at some point)...



but to provide a brief TLDR, katanas and longswords are not that different in use and, at the end of the day, this is a (sci-)fantasy game where most everything goes. The odds of them adding a dedicated "longsword" Job is close to none, since it would be superfluous, so I don't think this is too much to ask. They're certainly not shy when it comes to giving others Katana-looking weapons.
.

So a couple of misconceptions here. One the RDM weapons you are showing are Sabers which are very different from Katanas. Sabers were cavalry swords and you can note the difference between them and Katanas in the make of their blade. As for the DRK weapon that is not a Katana but rather a Nodachi, which is a Japanese Greatsword, aka just a Japanese version of what DKRs already use. Now, as I stated, there are indeed straight blade options, and some similarities to sabers in some of the Katana styles. Which is a good thing. Options are great. That said, for aesthetic and for practicality purposes giving Samurais longswords would make no sense. Yes, both types of blade had relatively the same purpose but their build and actual use in practice were very different. The use of differential hardening resulted in Katanas have a sharper blade than longswords and a more flexible blade as well. In addition their center of mass is completely different. The center of mass for katanas allowed for more maneuverability in closer quarters without losing the slashing force they have. Where as the center of weight of a longsword is all in the hilt allowing them to be more useful in hacking. In addition Katanas are usually shorter than longswords, which is why they are more useful in tight quarters than their western counterpart and allows them the quicker slash movement. Longswords style makes them more effective at hacking and stabbing with pure raw stopping power. Also I would argue that Paladin is fairly close to a dedicated longsword. While they do have sabers, scimitars, and cutlasses, their AF weapon more often than not is styled in the image of a traditional longsword. If there is one thing SE is picky about, it's the AF gear and maintaining that unique image.

[Shougun]

The use of differential hardening resulted in Katanas have a sharper blade than longswords and a more flexible blade as well.

Katanas are not, stereotypically speaking, more flexible than longswords. Longswords were made of a spring steel (or generally 'spring steel-like'), they were massively flexible to a point that surprises people (like you can bend them in your hand into an arch, release, and they bounce back, able to take a lot of abuse). Meanwhile Katanas if hit wrong would bend and stay bent (even when cutting tatami mats), range of hand bending significantly reduced comparatively to longswords and again reduced ability to and sometimes complete inability to return to original form without help (meaning they had to be straightened, breaking easier in general as well).

Katanas did have very sharp edges due to their hardness, and that was in part due to the fact that the quality of materials available to the Japanese (to make swords) was really poor, so they had to be very creative and come up with this method. Though if we're just talking weapon power, we should be talking spears since that was the ubiquitous, melee first choice (if you were in a situation to have a choice), go to for pretty much everyone everywhere (swords being a nice side arm, like having a rifle as your main hand weapon but also having a handgun because you may need it).

[Tsiron]

...

While the shape of the RDM weapons does indeed diverge from the typical curvature of a katana, there's still no mistaking that hilt wrapping (and therefore their intent). All in all though I think you're overhyping katanas a bit... but Shougun already wrote up a great reply.

While Paladin does indeed have weapons named "longswords", some of which do look the part... but what I had in mind was specifically the historical, two-handed weapon. Too big to be effectively used single handed (except maybe on horseback), but not greatsword length either