There are a whole lot of jobs within the Final Fantasy universe and only a few are featured in FFXIV. I remember Keen mentioned to me recently that the devs were already thinking up new ways to incorporate new jobs and how they would work. The two of us got to talking for a while and here are some of the things we came up with along with several jobs we would love to see.
Thief Base Class and more Base Classes
There needs to be some sort of thief base class. It seems curiously absent from this game as it’s been in several other FF titles that have a job system. From here you can obviously expand upon it with the NINJA job and or ASSASSIN job.
More base classes would also allow for additional jobs without the need to increase the level cap. There definitely needs to be more magic base classes. I’m already clueless as to how archer helps make a black mage. They could easily add in some kind of Animist or Caller base class or even something Blue/Green mage related to work up to.
Additional Jobs and How to Unlock them
So right now you need to be level 30 with a main class and level 15 with a sub-class in order to unlock a job. The job then takes on the level of your main class. By the time new jobs come around I imagine people will already have maxed several classes/jobs so any new combination is just going to end up being max level. That kinda seems to take all of the fun out of actually playing the character. I’m not really sure what they could do to fix this aside from a level cap increase, which basically means we wont see any new jobs until an expansion.
One idea might be to combine existing job gems into a new advanced job. Like, say, combining a Dragoon gem with a Warrior gem to create a SAMURAI class. Another way they could do it would be combining multiple base classes like like gladiator/theurgist/conjurer in order to make a RED MAGE. Or you could combine an existing Job with a base class or two.
Combining Battle Classes with Field Classes
I thought this would actually be a pretty interesting idea. Combine some battle class with a crafting class and get something like a MACHINIST or TINKER. Probably not something that would appeal to most people but it’s something different.
Jobs WE want to see
There are many, many, jobs out there but these are the ones that are currently on the top of our list:
NINJA – One of my favorite jobs and one I’d love to see. A better fighter than thieves and also some sweet mystical Ninjitsu powers.
RED MAGE – Red Mages are a lot of fun a hybrid classes never go out of style. It’s a combo of Black Mage/White Mage/Fighter
GUNNER/SNIPER – Any additional ranged type job. It’s kind of a bummer that archer turns into Bard and not something like these
SAGE – Black and White magic hybrid that would be pretty neat.
TIME MAGE – Not sure how they would implement this one other than generic slow and haste abilities. They could do some cool stuff with their gravity powers, however. One of my favorite jobs.
Mog Knight – Kind of a pipe dream since it would require playable Moogles but wouldn’t that be awesome?
What are your thoughts of adding additional jobs to the game? Any in particular you’d like to see?
I really like your idea on how to implement classes like Tinkerer and Machinist. I feel like these would be the easiest to implement with how their current system works. However, thinking about it, how would these classes fit into the “Holy Trinity” queue system? Tinkerer (at least in the FF games I’ve used them in) are traditionally a “coin flip” debuffing/buffing class. In an MMO, it would be rather inconvenient to Blind or Poison my entire party. Would they be damage dealers or healers?
Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoy that “gambling” aspect of Tinkerer, but how do you think they would change it in order to become more viable in an MMO setting?
Some I’d love to see that you didn’t mention would be Blue Mage, Dancer, Beast Master, and Alchemist. Would love to see Alchemist be all about AoE damage/buffs by throwing flasks and whatnot around. Could work well with Gunner as well.
Blue Mage was the first job I thought of, it would be very cool.
Time Mages also cast Meteor. But they gave Meteor to caster dps as limit break so who knows. Time Mages also get Stop but that would create problems if it isn’t done right. Still having Stop as a spell would be awesome.
Geomancer would be cool as well.
I’d like to see Red Mage. They sound particularly fun to me for some reason. When Graev pitched the idea for mixing crafting/gathering with base classes to make jobs, I thought that was by far the best of all the ideas because it’s something they can do within their current system.
I think they’ve implied that we can expect more something (not clear if it’s jobs or base or both) BEFORE any expansion during some of the PAX interviews. I agree that thief->ninja is the most obvious omission, probably followed by red mage.
Perhaps they may consider fixing the pre-req’s in the future when they have more options in-game?
Personally, I’m waiting on Dark Knight, Thief, and Samurai. Those were my favorite classes in XI, along with Warrior.
While i really enjoy Warrior in XIV, i don’t like the fact that I’m stuck having to tank with no option to queue as a dps without changing jobs/classes.
I’m also waiting on an expansion of the combat system so I’m not stuck with one weapon type all the time.
Fear not, many have found themselves discussing the same thing, and the discussion has been interesting. There’s definitely an agreement that Samurai will somehow come from lancer and most likely gladiator, and it’d be great if it were a tank class. Would be cool to see a tank lancer build. On the same note, it’d be nice to see some heavy armored dps with a focus on some non-trinity roles such as buff or debuff. Not sure why people keep saying Black Knight should come from gladiator, cause it should obviously come straight out of the marauder class… What would make a cool dps job for gladiator would be Mystic Knight. Blue mage, Time mage, and Red mage are all classes I’d be interested in seeing. The idea to mix crafting and combat classes is genius! I’d also like to see some gun based classes, just have them all be based out of the empire eh? XD And yes, some more unique classes like dancer, assassin, corsair, etc. would be cool to get our hands on.
I see redmage coming from Gladiator with thaumaturg secondary, and conjurer optional. Think about it- one of the main things that the jobs and the classes have in common are their weapon/secondary slots. Specifically Arcanist/Scholar/Summoner. All three use tomes as their primary (though the stat emphasis are obviously changed.)
Redmage has traditionally been a Longsword and Targe (smallshield). And we have a class in game that uses those. They’ve already got a sword skill that replenishes mana. That would make it a fast drain/fast replenish mana using DPS/Buff class. En-element skills that can go to all melee, secondary elemental damage and heals/res… I think it could work really well.
I’m gonna be honest, I put a LOT of thought into most of the existing classes secondary jobs…
Marauder-> Warrior/Dark Knight
Gladiator-> Paladin/Redmage
Lancer-> Dragoon/??? (something… I’m trying to keep to specific FF hats for the jobs…)
Archer-> Bard/Ranger (give ’em a pet.)
I think they’ve got to add a couple magic classes, but I don’t really know where to go from where they are. 😛
I think the DoW classes could be narrowed down pretty easily my hope is:
Scoundrel-> Thief(DPS/Debuff)/Ninja(Tank)
Vanguard-> Berserker(DPS)/Samurai(DPS/Buff- Like a melee bard)
…. Grain of salt. 🙂
What if machinist rode like a small mount kind of thing into battle or had a small robot to help with? Werid sounding but would be interesting. Maybe red mages could duel weild on there or like a small sword and staff? What about a wander class could be base class for thief then go from there? And so many awesome things to be added green mage would have buffs and rebuffs for sure and maybe like a poison that damaged and caused poison since ruin 2 can blind and damage as well. I would love to see sage as a summoner and scholar advance class could summon two small pets one heals and one attacks? Just a thought since in FFIII the sages could summon,and use black and white magic. Dancer would be a cool class to try out would love to see a pirate class that advanced into sky pirate class with a limit break shooting cannon fire against the enemies!,,