What Class Archetypes Are We Missing?

[RitsukoSonoda]

And why they did the same to WHM with elemental magic.

Kinda did the same to RDM imo. Job has pretty much only seen development in ranged casting. The melee aspect of it feels like it's been forgotten by the dev team so your sword is mostly just a sharp staff.

[Senn]

One archetype I am interested in particular would be oracle/geomancer (Eastern themed magic. Uses bells, talismans, or both)
I think it would also be cool to have a whip blade class.

[RitsukoSonoda]

One archetype I am interested in particular would be oracle/geomancer (Eastern themed magic. Uses bells, talismans, or both)
I think it would also be cool to have a whip blade class.

Whip blade class... Would the artifact armor be a super skimpy leotard?

[Senn]

Whip blade class... Would the artifact armor be a super skimpy leotard?

lol you could certainly go down the soul calibur route

although I was thinking more this vibe


You could even call it a spell blade. A cool concept for this class would be infusing your sword with different elements. Like a fire whip blade like you see in the picture. But could be water, electric, etc...

[Heroman3003]

Since Elemental damage has no real effect in this game everyone might as well be casting non-elemental damage. I feel like making an arcange based DPS would just be a reskinned BLM or RDM.

Well, we're talking aesthetics, I assumed, not gameplay. Gameplay-wise, any job can be anything with right creativity, and with design being more streamlined as of late, it doesn't matter much which gameplay mechanics it employs, it will likely fall into similar cycles as other jobs in its role. And aesthetics-wise, Id say all DPS mages are heavily focused on elemental attacks, even Pictomancer seems to have their more basic skills be painted versions of Fire/Blizzard/Thunder/Stone. Closest we have is SMN's ruin (un-enhanced) and BLM's polyglot skills, but I'd like to see an mDPS centered entirely around this aesthetic of non-elemental kinda magical attacks.

[PaulH]

Scholar had 6'ish dots at one point - would like them back please lol or a dot class.....

[Absurdity]

A job that actually uses a shield. Paladin has like 3 abilities that use it, one of which you never press, so most of the time it's just kind of there.

[Rithy255]

Kinda did the same to RDM imo. Job has pretty much only seen development in ranged casting. The melee aspect of it feels like it's been forgotten by the dev team so your sword is mostly just a sharp staff.

This is why I'd want a Soft red mage rework.

Personally I don't think sword strikes should be for burst, but instead should be a slight gain that your able to use outside burst for mobility when near bosses, In general I'd want more sword action on red mage, with burst it should be fully ranged Imo, at least how RDM kinda struggles with the "2minute meta" due to being forced into melee when they don't always want to be.

I don't know how much of a rework they should go for, but currently RDM's design just really doesn't work with bursts, It could if you made the Melee phase much more of a small gain while making it's burst something separate, I doubt they would but honestly I just want RDM to shine more as a unique caster.
I really would love to see RDM, become stronger in the white magic department akasupport elements (without just punishing the job as harshly as they do for said support elements, the current "damage trade" for verraise and magick barrier is way too much).

A job that actually uses a shield. Paladin has like 3 abilities that use it, one of which you never press, so most of the time it's just kind of there.

PLD also needs a rework (it got a half quick rework that just made it slightly more functional, but the job is still a mess in some areas), Shield bash needs to be a actual skill, I wouldn't also mind more shield attacks, Sword play with shield play, Protecting allies/party and some magic should be PLD's identity

[AnotherPerson]

Some potential gaps:

- Pet / zoo classes (yes I know SE feels they can't figure it out, maybe they should try to lol)

It's been confirmed the next limited job will be Beastmaster sometime in next expansion. Since this is a limited job, it will most likely fall into this category.

[Reinhardt_Azureheim]

Fencer from Bravely Second, Melee DPS, could rework it's stances into being sort of mini-phases in the same way current SMN does.

Someone bringing up the Bravely series <3 funny we mention this because Pictomancer also appeared in Bravely Default II, so Dawntrail bringing in Pictomancer brings joy to me. The Bravely series being SE IP draws heavily on FF elements and has some jobs I'd love to see happen.

NOTE: I will hide the job information as well as appearance design in layered spoiler blocks so anyone wishing to play Bravely Default II can stay spoiler-free.

Swordmaster

A recurring job in the Bravely series. In case of BD2, Swordmaster's signature identity were utilizing Solid Stance to enhance the standard Attack command with double hits and utilize devastating Solid abilities as well as Fluid Stance which emphasized Counter mechanics with the job's passive + Fluid abilities. As such, it's a DPS/Tank hybrid.

It also used Fourfold Flurry and Ninefold Flurry, which reminded me of Cloud Strife's Omnislash a bit.[/B]

Design

The design in BD2 has a viking-like appearance using greatswords. Weaponry is adjustable to avoid sword-inflation and overlap with Dark Knight.

Shieldmaster

Shieldmaster is a signature BD2 job with common abilities that essentially acted similar to Cover (Bodyguard, Defender of the People) and using (Harsh) Reprisal to send 50% (100%) of damage taken back to the attacker. Multiple bonuses were gained when guarding damage for allies.

It uses the game's weight system getting stronger with (Super) Heavy Hitter the heavier their equipment is (FFXIV idea - self-heavy + damage buff?) and using abilities and passives to mitigate the speed and weight penalties.

Design

Shieldmaster's design is a heavily fortified knight, the signature equipment is a Hammer & Shield combo. However, unlike the 1H + shield similarity to Paladin, Shieldmasters (and Knights in BD1/BS) are able to equip a shield on each hand, making them look like a tank enthusiast's wet dream.

Bastion (JP: Judgment)

Bastion is a knight-like tank job that allows to further bolster their defenses with Bulwark (phys), Phalanx (magic) and Wall (both, but not an attack) and sacrificing a bit of HP to apply 1-time barriers to nullify hits with Rampart (physical) or Vallation. It also can deploy a field that completely halts any HP/MP/BP changes from both sides... which obviously isn't viable in FFXIV.

Point is, it is a job that requires knowledge of the enemy to correctly mitigate damage and timely application to soak up critical parts of damage.

Offensive moves include Light of Justice & Holy Light as hard-hitting physical attacks, Bulwark and Phalanx as defensive-boosting attacks and Corporal Punishment, which scales with physical defense (buffs included) - so the job hits by no means like a wet noodle.

Design

Bastion's design is that of a holy knight using a Spear & Shield combo, often referred to as a Hoplite by others. It dons a gallant heavy armor + mantle combo with shoulder guards shaped like scales, representing the Scales of Judgment.

Hellblade

Hellblade is functionally a hybrid between two FF jobs, Dark Knight and Spellblade.

The Dark Knight aspect comes from using HP to deploy strong attacks and using the signature attack Minus Strike* to deal increased damage as well as Last Resort passive to further boost all attacks the closer their HP is to 0. They can boost it even further using Death Throes, which inflicts Doom on themselves. Dying gets extremely punished, setting Bravery Points to -3 (i.e. like getting Brink of Death on 1st death).
*PvP DRK has this signature within Bloodspiller as of patch 6.1+

The Spellblade aspect comes from using physical element-aspected attacks that deploy up to three elemental blades raining down on the enemy periodically as well as Ultima Blade, dropping the entire MP pool to deal monstrous amount of damage relative to MP spent (basically Despair/Flare on crack).

Facilitating all this it bolsters a high statline of HP, attack and defense stats as well as passive HP/MP regen. It also lets you learn the Break Damage Limit passive.

Hellblade's design in BD2 is a more demonic take on the classical FF Dark Knight look with the signature weapon being a black sword.