NEXT PHYS RANGED CLASS CONCEPT: MIME

[primadonna_lovestory]

So in an effort to send energy into the universe for the next phys ranged to be Mime, I came up with a concept. Im praying a dev comes across this message in a bottle lol.

ROLE: High-mobility, bursty DPS with mimicry-themed attacks and party utility. The aesthetics of the class revolve around theatre troupe/classic mime, but also iconic jobs from FF franchise history. The key point here is that Mime mimics jobs with skills in their toolkit, it DOES NOT mimic skills used by party members in real-time as this wouldn't work for our game. If they can turn Bard into an archer they can do anything.

WEAPON: "Phantom Blades & Theatre Mask” (like PLD sword and shield and RDM rapier and focus, two separate objects held in each hand)
Phantom Blades – Small, kunai-like daggers worn between the knuckles (almost like hidden blades). Used for quick, precise ranged strikes thats throw elegantly but discreetly and reappear in their knuckles.
Theatre Mask – Held in the off-hand (like a RDM’s focus). The mime will put the mask up to their face when using certain skills, holding it there while casting when mimicking Black Mage for example.

JOB LORE: A once-renowned theatrical group, the "Phantoms of the Final Act", specialized in void-tinged performances: using illusions so real, they blurred the line between performance and reality. After a disastrous performance where they "conjured a horror from the audience’s nightmares", the troupe vanished overnight and was forgotten through time.

The WoL uncovers an old play script in a ruined theater (new dungeon?), learning fragments of their art. A surviving member (or void-touched echo of one) becomes the Job Mentor, teaching the WoL to "mime the unmimicable" weaving illusions into lethal combat techniques.

ROTATION SUMMARY: The Mime builds its "Applause" gauge via a basic 3-hit combo (Silent Strike → Pantomime Slash → Final Curtain), then spends gauge on "Encore" skills that mimic iconic FF job abilities (e.g., Phantom Dive for DRG’s jump, Faux Flare for BLM’s nuke). Unleashing a mimicry attack build guage, and every 2 minutes, it channels a "Grand Illusion" (100% gauge)—a massive AoE burst with party utility. Throughout, the Mime swaps theatrical masks (Tragedy/Comedy/Epic) to tweak effects, while weaving in performance-themed utility like Invisible Wall (barrier) or Trap Box (ground snare).

KEY ABILITIES:
1. Basic Rotation (Build Gauge)
"Silent Strike" → "Pantomime Slash" → "Final Curtain" (3-hit combo).

2. Mimicry Skills (Spend Gauge)
"Faux Flare" (Mimics BLM – big magic explosion).

"Phantom Dive" (Mimics DRG – jump attack).

"Invisible Bulwark" (Mimics PLD – party shield).

etc.

3. Burst & Utility
1-Minute Burst: Use one 50% gauge skill

2-Minute Burst: "Grand Illusion" (big AoE + damage buff).

Utility: Trap Box (ground snare/aoe), Invisible Wall (line barrier).



Let me know what you think! I really want mime to be the next phys ranged class.

[Nero-Voidstails]

I like the idea but you know that if they add it they will strip it out of everything that make it a decent job

[Eraden]

Mao thinkings Devs will change Mime so thats when Mimes performs actions, all sound effects gets turned off for everyones and Mimes slowly walkings around invisible walls to gets to Boss while teammates and Boss stand there and watch as it all plays out overs course of 10 minutes.

[Carighan]

Despite the cool theme, this sounds utterly... bland. Mechanically.

And that's FFXIV's biggest problem: We factually only have one type of combat gameplay. There's no need to even have 4+ jobs if all they do is share 1 gameplay, so adding more and more on top feels utterly unnecessary. Just add skins/themes to existing jobs to do this, for example what you describe could, with marginal tweaks, just be a retheme of Dancer (theater, fluid, bursty already all present) or Red Mage (idea of mixing things from other jobs + sexy style).

FFXIV needs deeper changes first, and probably scrapping a whole lot of jobs to make the remaining ones truly deep in gameplay.

[Mimilu]

This could be an interesting limited job where you get a mimicry skill when you get its corresponding job to level 100. (´∇｀)
I'm also interested in hearing about the different masks, what they do, and how they interact with the kit. While ancient Greek theater only has the two masks (tragedy and comedy), you could also use something like Noh masks or the Commedia dell'arte characters for inspiration as well.

[Arohk]

sounds lame,

anything but Blitzballer is unacceptable.

[primadonna_lovestory]

Despite the cool theme, this sounds utterly... bland. Mechanically.

And that's FFXIV's biggest problem: We factually only have one type of combat gameplay. There's no need to even have 4+ jobs if all they do is share 1 gameplay, so adding more and more on top feels utterly unnecessary. Just add skins/themes to existing jobs to do this, for example what you describe could, with marginal tweaks, just be a retheme of Dancer (theater, fluid, bursty already all present) or Red Mage (idea of mixing things from other jobs + sexy style).

FFXIV needs deeper changes first, and probably scrapping a whole lot of jobs to make the remaining ones truly deep in gameplay.

I don't necessarily disagree but this sounds like a conversation to be had on a different thread I'm just sharing a fun concept I came up with on the fly.

[primadonna_lovestory]

This could be an interesting limited job where you get a mimicry skill when you get its corresponding job to level 100. (´∇｀)
I'm also interested in hearing about the different masks, what they do, and how they interact with the kit. While ancient Greek theater only has the two masks (tragedy and comedy), you could also use something like Noh masks or the Commedia dell'arte characters for inspiration as well.

I love your idea about the different masks! That would be a great way to add nuance to the mime class which has been mostly undeveloped in the franchise history. My dream is that they introduce it as a full class however.