Additional Variant Jobs?

[Insidhe]

You know that thing the Arcanist has, where it can promote into Summoner and Scholar both? I always found it a little strange more classes didn't do that, and it got me thinking a big think, figuring 'Yanno, there's other classes that could have variant jobs like that, to cast their abilities in a new light!'. Also, figured I'd try two ways to give the wand-and-shield combo a bit more use, as it...kinda falls off. These four are what I got so far(no mechanics...I'm not confident enough in my jargon to say such things) If anyone else has some too, I'd LOVE to hear, and brainstorming is also fine. But without further ado:


-The Geomancer(GMC)(casting DPS, derives from White Mage)
Imagine, if you would, that some NPCs were as sick of WHM's relative helplessness as the players are. Imagine if one of these poeple, an elezen by name of Tambouraine, had his frustrations, as well as his hatred of those damned Stropers, boil over so hard, he was removed from the Conjurer's Guild. Did he give up? Hell no! Instead, he retreated deep into the Twelveswood to refine his art and commune with the elementals as best he could, so as to come up with ways to make better use of the power of nature for offensive purposes, so as to destroy the enemies of the Twelves wood(and those damned Stropers!) with greater ease. People had thought Tambouraine had vanished(likely down some Stroper's maw) but rumors of his activity have picked up steam, especially around Camp Tranquil, plagued as they are with Stropers...

-The Bulwark(BLW)(tank, derives from Lancer)
What could a Lancer learn from the Ishgardians? It was this question that prompted Hepapa Manpapa, skilled lancer, armor affectionado and self-styled 'manliest lalafell around', to venture there and see how they go about their business. And what he saw inspired him. Gleaming maille! Iron plate! Majestic shields! Hepapa wasted no time in adapting what he learned in the colds of Coerthas and ended up developing his own style, with light lances, heavy armor and massive Greatshields used for offense and defense alike. It's said that, nowadays, he's been sighted around Camp Dragonhead seeking out rough, tumble and willing disciples...

[Insidhe]

And here's the other two:


-The Berserker(BSK)(melee DPS, derives from Marauder)
The Marauders are ever taught to defend others with their axes and their powerful bodies, but not all of them take well to such a role. So it was with formerly famed pirate facebreaker J'Rakna Tia, also known as 'Black Lightning' by others and 'J'Rakna Nunh' by himself. He was all about defending others with his ax, yes, but he always focused more on doing so by smashing his foes into the pavement quickly. Noticing the diffrences in style, he parted from the Marauder's Guild amicably, with advice to refine his own style and raise it up, which is exactly what he set out to do. He's since settled down in Swiftperch, where a swift, brutal axe is always helpful in subduing the Serpent Reavers...

-The Necromancer(NCR)(healer, derives from Black Mage)
The funerary arts of Ul'Dah are well known to double as powerful offensive magic, but that is not all they can be used for. Some of their arts were also known to wield great healing applications, staving off death where it was unwelcome, though the minds of the wicked twisted those arts into necromancy, which caused them to be banned, and justly so. But secrets have a way of cropping back up, and this time, it was a noble soul who found them: mild-mannered Roegadyn thaumaturge and doctor Gentle Mercy, during an expedition to Sil'Dih, is said to have found some of the writings the ancient Necromancers left behind, good and ill alike...

[Enjuden]

Oh, that thing SE has been trying to get rid of since Heavensward?

[Enkidoh]

The 'Two Jobs from one Class' idea was an experiment that sadly SE determined was a failure a long time ago and hence they have long abandoned any further plans to expand the system - as it is all new Jobs are classless so the idea is moot anyway (and it seems that they're trying to subtly move SCH away from ACN/SMN, suggesting it may be eventually remade into it's own independent Job completely).

And, although your ideas have merit, three of the classes you've mentioned are already kind of in the game anyway in a different form and so would be redundant and the fourth is basically a revival of a class SE scrapped in 1.0 and rolled into GLA/PLD (SE stated they'll never add an actual Necromancer class due to cultural concerns in Asian countries about depicting skeletons and the dead, specifically China - RPR is the compromise and thus the closest that you will ever get to that sort of thing; Berserker is literally a more aggressive WAR; Geomancer is actually what CNJ is called in the Far East (with a little bit of AST on the side); and Bulwark sounds like adding the scrapped Sentinel class from 1.0 to lances (which is an impossibility given lances are considered two-handed weapons and sp prevent a shield in the offhand anyway).

I'm really sorry for pouring cold water on your ideas (and it's clear you have given them a lot of thought), but all too often it's too easy to fall into the trap of coming up with a new class idea, only to end with something that merely rehashes an existing class with a different skin, something that SE themselves are all too mindful of (it's why I'm loathe to make up my own class/Job ideas).

[Insidhe]

It's fine, man, feedback's feedback. Good call about the Necromancer, though I'll admit I was a little inspired by the Spectral Necromancer for that one. Suppose I can always retool the idea some(unless someone else has ideas).

That said, for the Bulwark, I'm not talking about what the game calls lances(which are just spears with lance heads). I'm talking ACTUAL lances, which are held in one hand traditionally.

As for the Marauder...well, giant axes are, as far as I know, a fairly traditional DPS weapon, so I figured, why not try and devise something around using it that way while keeping mobile, as classical Berserkers were known to eschew heavy armor?

And the Geomancer...well, that stems from some of my own frustrations around WHM. I really dig the idea of using natural phenomena to deal damage, but loathe the idea of it being chained to a borderline-helpless healer class, which to me just feels like a waste of a perfectly good concept(which is partly why I cast Tambouraine the way I did).

[Jandor]

I kind of hope they cap us at 99 in 7.0, and instead let us level new sub-jobs after that, so you'd have 99+10 levels. Level 99 Scholar plus 10 levels of Geomancer or Onmyoji or whatever healer sub-job stuck on top.

Unlikely, but hey, a guy can dream.

[Wanzzo]

All those ideas are awesome and quite old. Geomancer would be awesome along the others as deviations from known jobs, as you said. But I pretty much think they wont do it. Instead, I think they would do them in future expansions related to the "new world" (a continent not yet explored in the world Hydaelyn - Source). Sometimes I dream about jobs like Oracle, Geomancer, Druid, Warden, Seeker, etc. With a base from tribal cultures well organized, using animals and spiritual realm as their power source and with a new race to make our chars.

Geomancer would be a DPS using elemental materials as weapons (such as vines, stones, water, etc. Like a "DPS version" of the Conjurer).
Druid could be a healer using chants and spirits from animals (maybe old primals?) as a souce of their power. They could use spiritual sources for their spells on the animations.
Warden (based on D&D), would be a tanker that can change parts of their body for a moment in different forms (wolf, bear, wood, etc) each having different results (agility, defense buffs, etc).
And Oracle is pretty much covered by scholars and AST right now. But the job could be a DPS version of those two, somehow. They could use stars, cards and "visions" as their power source. (orbs as their weapons, also).
The Seeker would be a type of "Scoult" like the archers, but instead of going into music (bard) they chose to go as trackers and hunters. They could use an animal (not spiritual, or summoned, just an actual and real animal like a fox, a wolf or a hawk) as a companion using them to create "combos" and effects.

Your idea is amazing! But I think they would go for something "done" and linked to the new places they will create (sadly).

But, what you said could be used as "advanced classes" for each job that actually exists (like specializations since lv90 to vary the building of each character focusing them on more dps, or heals or tankings). Yeah, they probably wont do that as well, but whatever

[kaynide]

Welcome! This is a pretty regular topic and gets shot down a lot, even by the Devs...but if it's something you're interested in and feel strongly about, by all means go for it.

Who knows right?

[Insidhe]

I personally find it fun to come up with these things, and then brainstorm about it. Who knows, even if not VARIANT classes, we might come up with entirely new ones. And I'm thinking on how to do this too.

[ty_taurus]

It's fine, man, feedback's feedback. Good call about the Necromancer, though I'll admit I was a little inspired by the Spectral Necromancer for that one. Suppose I can always retool the idea some(unless someone else has ideas).

That said, for the Bulwark, I'm not talking about what the game calls lances(which are just spears with lance heads). I'm talking ACTUAL lances, which are held in one hand traditionally.

As for the Marauder...well, giant axes are, as far as I know, a fairly traditional DPS weapon, so I figured, why not try and devise something around using it that way while keeping mobile, as classical Berserkers were known to eschew heavy armor?

And the Geomancer...well, that stems from some of my own frustrations around WHM. I really dig the idea of using natural phenomena to deal damage, but loathe the idea of it being chained to a borderline-helpless healer class, which to me just feels like a waste of a perfectly good concept(which is partly why I cast Tambouraine the way I did).

The Spectral Job bosses in Hero's Gauntlet are actually the 3 officially deconfirmed jobs from Final Fantasy past. In one way or another, Thief, Berserker, and Necromancer were all stated to not be jobs that will get added to the game.

For Thief and Necromancer, the reasoning is due to a concern of morality. Yoshida does not want the WoL to be associated with necromancy which has been painted as objectively wrong in this world's lore, nor theft which is just always morally wrong.

For Berserker, it's more that WAR kind of is Berserker. Though Warrior in older Final Fantasies is a very staple job, it's identity has always just been "uses the attack command," and so to give WAR more identity in XIV, they basically made it more Berserker.