New Job Speculation

[Areya]

This is just a random topic I'm starting detailing possible ideas for the new jobs SE may be adding to the game.  They have said that WotG will have some new ones.  I've been doing some brainstorming about what kind of roles they need to fill and such and I've come up with some ideas.  Note that these are all jobs that have showed up in the FF series before (and some other Square games), and I've applied some of their old tricks.

For my first post, I'll put in one, and then I'll add more possibilities later.

-------------
Mystic Knight
-------------
Background: This job showed up in Final Fantasy V.  It has also been called Sorcerer.  It used magic spells that imbued spell effects to its attacks.  It
also had a Magic Barrier effect that activated when their HP was low and
good magic defense.

Role: Tank / DD

Paladins and Ninjas are both good at tanking, but one area of weakness for
both of these is magic style damage.  Paladin have gotten a few tricks to
help combat magic (Rampart, Fealty) but still take a pounding, particularly
from AM.  Ninjas (and any job that's /NIN) can blink single target spells with
Utsusemi but AoE magic effects particularly rip into them.

Hence, I could see a Mystic Knight being designed to be an anti-magic tank.

Weapons: Sword (A or A- rating), Great Sword (B rating), Shield (B rating)

Spells: Saber Magic

Rather than just dump old things like Enthunder on them, I thought up of
a special category of spells.  Among these would be added elemental
damage (Flame Saber, Aqua Saber, Frost Saber, Holy Saber, Chaos Saber,
Storm Saber, Geo Saber, Wind Saber) for all eight elements.  But also
they would gain the ability to add even more exotic spells on their attacks,
such as Mute Saber, Bind Saber, Leech Saber, Aspir Saber, etc.  To keep
the job from being very unbalanced, the activation rate on the status
ailment one would not be 100% (similar to normal added effect weapons)
and the amount drained from Leech/Aspir Sabers would be low.

The damage and effectiveness of sabers would depend on Enhancing
Magic stat.  And the sabers would be low enough to where you could
get some of them on subjob.  (PLD/MYS would be a viable option, for
example.)

Job Abilities: Since this class has no spells other than sabers, JAs are
needed to help it tank.  Here are some ideas:

Deflect - Hate generating move that severely reduces magic based
damage temporarily.  Think Sentinel, for magic.

Runic Blade - A take off of Celes's move.  The next spell that is
cast upon you will restore some of your hp/mp, based on the mp of
the spell used, and any damage would be nullified.

Barrier - While active, your magic defense will be increased but your
normal defense will be decreased.

Job Traits - Magic Defense Bonus up to IV, Arcana Killer

Two Hour - Mystic Wall

For the duration of this effect, the Mystic Knight is granted a magic shield.
All spell damage is reduced to 0, and all effects that are achieved through
magical means (magic based TP moves, spells such as Sleep and Lullaby,
etc.) are resisted.

Stat Distributions: high INT and MND, good VIT and CHR, okay STR, low AGI
and DEX

good HP, fairly low MP

Armor: Medium - Heavy

Drawbacks:

This job will take a pounding against physical powerhouses, and can't deal
out the type of damage a traditional DD can muster.


---

More to come...

[Areya]

Ready to continue?

----------
Time Mage
----------
Background:  Time Mage shows up prominently in FF5 and FFT.
Basically a master of support/enfeeble magic with some very
bizarre damage spells.

Role: Support / Nuke

In many ways this job is basically a finer-tuned Red Mage.  A
lot of the traits that FFXI's Red Mage was actually taken from
Time Mage.

Spells: White and Black Magic

Time Mage would have strong enfeeble skill, much like a red mage.
Spells like Paralyze, Bind, Gravity would be staples.  Also, this job
would acquire Slow and Haste spells earlier than other jobs.  They
would also get Slow II, Haste II, Slowga, Hastega.

They would also get access to a few spells only used by mobs so
far.  These would include Break, Comet, and possibly Meteor.

Other tricks include Warp and Escape, but at higher levels than
BLM.

Possibly give them other nice tricks like a Refresh-style ability.

Weapons: Staff (B-), Club (C+), Dagger (C+)

Job Abilities:
Time Seal - Halves casting time of next enfeeble/enhancing spell,
doubles duration.

Job Traits: Fast Cast, Conserve MP, Max MP Boost?

Two Hour: Demi

A special DoT attack, taking off a certain % of all targets' HP, much
like Ruinous Omen, but slowly over a period of time.  HNM would be
able to resist this ability, but not be completely immune.

Armor: Mage

Stat Distribution: high INT and MND, low everything else
high MP, low HP

Downsides:

This job has no healing capabilities outside of subjob, and the MP
costs of some of the spells would probably be ridiculously high.

[Zerila]

Wow, those are well thought out. I'm thinking Time Mage is almost a shoe-in... this next expansion deals with time travel, and fans have wanted this almost as much as Blue Mage.

Before Puppetmaster came along, I was really hoping for some kind of Engineer job... You could build/upgrade your automaton, but you could also "charm" (or hack) into various Arcana. So you could run around with a Doll or a Magic Pot pet

Maybe that's just the Beastmaster in me...

Another possible job would be Chemist, though it would only work if there were Chemist-only powders that they could use. Non-magical healing/buffing/debuffing would be handy in places with magic aggro

I'm trying to think of other jobs that could fit in that have been in other Final Fantasy games... Maybe Geomancer? Really strong elemental-based magic, buffs and debuffs... but that really just feels like a rehash of other mage jobs to me. Mimes would be too dangerous, I think... Dancers? Nah. Too similar to Bards.

Even though I'd like another pet job, I don't like the thought of Necromancers... it just doesn't feel like FF to me.

One thing I'm really hoping for is some major upgrades to many of the jobs in the next expansion. And I mean upgrades, not nerfs

I'd like a series of Enspell 2's for Red Mage, and maybe spells like Endrain and Enaspir to make it so that fighting during an XP party makes sense (and also granting more solo-ability). The Aspir effect in Enaspir would need to be low enough to make it not overpowered, maybe so that a RDM could drain enough mp over a fight to equal roughly the amount of mp they could have rested for (or a little less). Some new RDM only enfeebles would be nice, too. Or stronger versions of ones that are out now.

WHM should get some more support spells... Haste2 maybe? Hastega? Something, anyway, to make them more in-demand at endgame

Beastmasters... well, heck. I'd love to see a lot of upgrades on BST! Some of the ideas that have been floating around on various BST forums include:
Swap BST and Pet's TP
BST takes on some traits from pet (double attack, counter, etc.)
Uncap all HQ jugs (yes, please!)
More jugs (give us one of every type of pet... we're missing birds and amorphs, for example)
There are quite a few more, but I'll spare you guys

The other jobs probably need upgrades, too... but I haven't played anything but BST, RDM and NIN (which is fine as is... heh) past 75

Anyway, enough from me. Nice job, Areya!

[Areya]

The tricky part of making new jobs is to make them interesting enough to seperate them from existing jobs, without making them so overpowered no one will want to
play the existing jobs.

A lot of times new jobs get substituted for old jobs that they're not really suited
for, such as a Blue Mage or Summoner main healing.

On that note, I'll add my third and last choice, which Zerila mentioned.

--------
Chemist
--------

Background: The Chemist job shows up in FF5 and FFT.  Rikku from FFX also
shared some of the chemist abilities.  Masters of item use.

Role: Healer / Support

As Ninja spends gil to tank in leiu of a Paladin, so does Chemist spend gil to
heal in leiu of a White Mage.

I've thought long and hard about how this could be implemented into a FFXI
system.  I've come up with some insight.  First off, there would be a new
class of items known as Reagents, which would correspond to Ninja Tools.
Much like Ninja Tools, these would stack to 99.  The main difference would
be requiring multiple tools to make one item.

Instead of scrolls, the Chemist would learn Formulae.

Now, I've thought of two options for what actually happens when you mix
a formula.  The first option is to make it entirely like a spell.  The second
option is to place the newly acquired formula into the temporary item pool,
as seen in Besieged and in Assaults.  The second option would let you
pre-mix a lot of potions, for example, in a BCNM.

Formulae: Existing items such as Potions, Hi-Potions, Ethers, Elixirs, Healing
Powder (Curaga), Mana Powder (MP for everyone), etc.  Also new items
such as Phoenix Downs and Phoenix Pinions (Raisega).

In addition, the Chemist could throw status potions at a foe, such as
Sleeping Potion, Silence Potion, Vitriol, etc.

There would be level requirements for the formulae.  Obviously, Potion
and Antidotes would be low level, while Phoenix Pinions and Elixirs
would be very high level.  In addition, the ingredients for the crazier
items would obviously be higher level.

Instead of using normal alchemy items, the Reagents would be NPC bought
or crafted from alchemy ingredients.  Think items such as "Malboro Extract"
or "Xzomit Plasma".

Weapons: Gun (B), Dagger (B-), Sword (C), Staff (D), Club (D)

The gun skill is mostly a tribute to FFT.

Job Abilities:
Mix - command used to mix reagents
Lob - ranged JA used to toss offensive potions

Job Traits:
Item Mastery - Allows the use of items on party/alliance members.  This also
works on normal potions!

Medicine (I, II, III) - increases the effect of potions by (10%, 25%, 50%)

Resist Paralyze

Two Hour: Arcane Lore

Here's a unique one:  Allows you to use special forbidden recipes.  Make
things like Giant's Drink, Wizard's Drink, Fool's Drink, Fanatic's Drink, etc.
Unlike normal recipes these wouldn't require learning the formulae, but
you would have to have the reagents!

Armor: Light~Medium (Leathers, Harnesses)

Stat Distribution: average MND INT CHR DEX and AGI, low STR VIT
medium-high HP

Downsides:

Some of the reagents will be quite expensive, so this could be a pricey
job to run.  Not too skilled at combat.

[Evanesce]

All three seem highly feasible; I like the Mystic Knight in particular (despite my bias towards the FFT Time Mage), because tank variety is lacking and attack enhancements are rather plain at the moment. My favorite class ever is Oracle, but they're essentially Red Mages with a few extra spells and a stick.

Since I have it done, I guess I'll throw my Gambler up here (even though it may be outdated, wrote it 2 years ago):

~~~

Gambler

Gamblers are those mages who wield -la spells, those that damage, heal, enfeeble, or enhance at different levels based on the ever-changing, unmeasurable energy level of the magical atmospheric pressure around them, which makes Gambler a job a bit involved with luck, but not so much as to rely on getting lucky all the time.

*-la spells are spells that Gamblers use, that give a slightly wider range of damage/healing/enfeebling/enhancing and are based a bit on luck, although still give decently consistent damage, healing, enfeebling, or enhancing. They do, however, concentrate more on enfeebling and enhancing. Most of them are low in MP and cast time, although they have a bit of a longer recast time than usual, and there are some Gambler-specific spells that are purely new in what kind of effect they bring, a couple of examples will be mentioned later. Also, -la spells' effectiveness are based 75% on CHR and 25% on MND or INT, depending on whether it is Black Magic or White Magic. So let's say "Stonela's" range of damage would be based on both INT and CHR, not just INT*

~~~~~

The History of Gambler in Final Fantasy

I admit, the history for Gambler is short, but does exist. The two main Gamblers in Final Fantasy were Setzer in FFVI and Lady Luck in FFX-2. However, Final Fantasy games have occasionally had Gambler-like abilities, such as Wakka's Overdrive in FFX or the ability "Roulette", which was used to randomly kill one person on the field. Also, Gil Toss or other related moves have been apparent in many Final Fantasy games, including FFV, where Samurai had the ability Gil Toss, (which may have actually been a joke about Samurais and the amount of money they had during a certain period of time; however, it was an extremely effective move) FFIII/VI, where Setzer could use the ability Gil Toss while wearing a certain accessory, and in FFX, where you would pay the Aeon Yojimbo in order for him to execute a move against your enemies.

~~~~~

Job Abilities

*note: there may be multiple Job Abilities listed for a certain level or too close together, these are all merely thoughts and ideas of myself or other posters*

lvl. 1 Roulette: Randomly casts -la spells on the enemy and on your allies for no cost, at double potency without extra hate addition. Cast and Recast times are halved.
Time:Random (actually around 55-60 secs)
Recharge time:2 hours

lvl. 5 High Roller: Gives a higher range of effect (i.e, Stonela is 10-20 without, 13-23 with, not counting elemental weakness and strength) for -la spells.
Time:1 minute
Recharge time:4 minutes

lvl. 15 Magic Boost: Gives a random boost to CHR. (in a reasonable range, of course)
Time: 1 minute
Recharge time:4 minutes

lvl. 15 Lucky Dice: All spells cast while this ability is in effect will be near the cap.
Time: 30 seconds
Recharge time: 4 minutes.

lvl. 25 Slots: Gives a random status boost to every member of your party.
Time: Random (actually 40-60 secs.)
Recharge time: 7 minutes

lvl. 41 All In: Uses double MP on next spell, gives tripled output when spell is casted. (Caster takes same amount of hate as regular spell, though)
Time: Instant
Recharge time:5 minutes

lvl. 50 Gil Toss: Decides a random amount of Gil to throw for damage by use of Goblin Dice. The amount of Gil thrown is decided in this manner:

a*b*c

So, if the three Dice landed as 2, 3, and 5, it would be like this:

2*3*5=30

You would throw 30 Gil and deal 30 damage. The numbers would appear in the chat log as shown below:

Evanesce uses Gil Toss!
2... 3... 5... The Goblin Antiglomper takes 30 points of damage.

As these are Goblin Dice, one is most prone to get 6 and 7 and least prone to get 1 and 12. (See Throwing for details on Goblin Dice explanation)

Time: Instant
Recharge time: 15 minutes

~~~~~

Job Traits

*note: Once again, these are simply thoughts and ideas of the posters and myself*

lvl. 10 CHR Boost I

lvl. 10 Throwing Bonus I

lvl. 15 Break Even (This is a trait that will randomly retain any Throwing item, including those used by other jobs. With Break Even, I'm thinking around a 1/3 to 1/4 chance of keeping the Throwing item you use.)

lvl. 20 CHR Boost II

lvl. 30 MND Boost I (a rather weak boost)

lvl. 30 INT Boost I (a rather weak boost)

lvl. 30 Throwing Bonus II

lvl. 40 Break Even II (Increases the Break Even effect. I'm thinking that this ability would increase the effect to a 1/2 chance of retaining the item Thrown.)

lvl. 50 Throwing Bonus III

lvl. 60 CHR Boost III

Once again, these all wouldn't be included, of course, these are ideas as to what could be given ^^

~~~~~

Gambler-Specific Spells

*note: These are, yet again, merely ideas and thoughts of the posters and myself*

(these could be Gambler-specific spells altogether, many other variations of spells [Curela, Stonela, Firela, etc.] would also be available)

Critila-Enhancing Spell
Slightly increases the chance of a critical hit by one party member by a varying amount.

Acritila-Enfeebling Spell
Slightly decreases the chance of a critical hit by one mob by a varying amount.

Adacont-Enhancing Spell
Slightly increases the amount of aggro on one character by a varying amount.

Minacont-Enhancing Spell
Slightly decreases the amount of aggro on one character by a varying amount.

Weaken-Enfeebling Spell
Adds 1-3 negative status effects to target, not including De*th or Petrify.

Strengthen-Enhancing Spell
Adds 2-4 positive status effects to target, including Bar- spells. (This is why the range is higher)

Nullify-Enfeebling Spell
Will weaken the mob's next special attack by a varying amount. (The recast time on this would be pretty high, at least a minute)

Magnify-Enfeebling Spell
Will make the mob more susceptible to Skill Chain effects. (ex. Fusion)

Intensify-Enfeebling Spell
Will make the mob more susceptible to Magic Burst damage multipliers.

Endow-Enhancing Spell
Will give the receiver of the spell a random En- element enhancement. (Basically a random En- spell that can be casted on party members)

Duplicate-Enhancing Spell
Will give the receiver of the spell 1-3 shadows to absorb damage. (Note: Will have a 2 and a half minute recast so it cannot be abused, even with 3-4 Gamblers in your party)

Envelop-Enhancing Spell
Will give the receiver a random element of "Spikes" enhancement.
(Recharge on this would probably be around a couple minutes)

...and others, of course.

~~~~~

The weapons a Gambler would be able to equip would be something like this:

Staves, Clubs, Daggers, Katanas (I figure Katanas need another Job that can equip them~)

Gamblers would be able to equip an armor set similar to WHM, BLM, and SMN.

Also, an idea for Gamblers: The addition of throwing as an offense for Gamblers while severely limiting their Black Magic is something being considered right now. The idea is for Gamblers to specialize in throwing darts/cards/dice, perhaps for damage, or perhaps for enfeebling.

~~~~~

Here's my view on Throwing. For cards, each suit will weaken the enemy in 2 different categories. Depending on what value of the suit the card is, the values ranging from 2 to Ace, the enfeebling will be stronger.

Swords: Mind and Strength

Coins: Intelligence and Vitality

Batons: Agility and Magic Points

Cups: Dexterity and Charisma

Each have one enfeeblement that is desirable no matter what mob you're fighting, and one that is for more specific situations.

The cards would need to be made more readily available somehow, maybe there could be a place in Jeuno to buy them, and they *could* be farmed if you wanted.

Now, you want to do damage? Not a problem, time to throw Goblin Dice!

Now, if I am correct, a Goblin Die has 12 sides, and these sides are uneven due to the fact that they shape easily. I'll explain where that comes into effect later. Now, the amount of damage you do is based on a combination of your Throwing Skill and the # you roll. Goblin Dice *do not* miss their target. Here are examples of what kind of damage different numbers would do, assuming your Throwing skill is near capped or capped, and all the skills needed in the below examples are also capped:

1-3: Pitiful, will hardly dent the mob.

4-8: Decent, the damage is worthwhile at this point.

9-10: Good, like a critical hit for a DD.

11-12: Excellent, very substantial damage.

Now, there isn't a 1 in 12 chance of getting these, it's a Goblin Die, the sides are uneven. So, instead, the middle numbers such as 6 and 7 have the greatest chance of being rolled, while the 1 and the 12 will hardly ever show up, but when they do, you'll be happy or annoyed ^^

A couple more things on Goblin Dice: They have a delay of around 800 since they always hit, and no matter what # you roll, the amount of aggro you receive will always be the same.

~~~~~

As for stats, I'll just give an estimate as to how high everything would be, on a scale from 1-10.

HP--1 (about SMN level)
MP--8 (about BLM level)
STR--3
DEX--4
VIT--1
AGI--4
MND--8.5
INT--8.5
CHR--10 (tied with BST)

As you can see, it would be subbable also, but who says it couldn't be used as a Main Job?

Now, for Skill Ratings, I'm thinking somewhere along the lines of this...

*Magic*

Enfeebling- A-
Enhancing- A-
Healing- B-
Elemental- C+

*Combat*

Throwing- A+
Katana- B
Dagger- C-
Club- B-
Stave- C+
Evasion- C+

As you can see, the Gambler's focus in magic is on Enhancing and Enfeebling, while its focus in combat is on Throwing, with all the other stats being mediocre or lower.

~~~~~

Example of fluctuating damage/healing/etc. amounts:

*the BLM and Gambler in this situation have the same INT value or INT/CHR value and the same Elemental Magic Level*

BLM-Fire, deals damage in range of 16-20 dmg.

Gambler-Firela, deals damage in range of 10-22 dmg.

This is to express that Gamblers would not be risking the party's life, but that their spells have a wider range of possibilities in effect. Also, it's clear that the BLM has the advantage here, without even taking into account the fact that the BLM's Elemental Magic Cap would be higher.

As for MP costs, probably the same or 1-2 MP lower for the Gambler. The recasts on the -la spells would probably be higher.

~~~~~~~

I edged it up a little, but it's more or less the same as it was a couple years ago.

[Areya]

Gil Toss is definitely a flavor move that I wouldn't mind seeing again.  Even if it's not very practical.

Corsair encompassed a few of the things you mentioned for Gambler, but I do like some of the ideas, maybe they could tweak Corsair some more.  Personally I want some sort of slot style attack.

[Zerila]

The more I think about it, the more I like Chemist. The Reagents could be made by a variety of different crafts, and could help pump new life into crafting. And being able to cure in magic-aggro zones is a biggie.

The question is, what would work better balance-wise? A Chemist casting a spell (Using a formula) and the results happening instantly, or a chemist having to create a bunch of items to be used during a fight, which would use up inventory space and require a Chemist to constantly make up items during a battle? I think it would make a lot more sense to do it the second way... otherwise, nobody would invite a WHM, ever, because a Chemist would be a main healer that never needed to rest. And some things, I think, should remain WHM-Only, like Raise2 and Raise 3.

Of course, the Chemist would have some tricks up their sleeves too... Like AoE Sneak and Invisible, or a Formula that gives temporary stat boosts to PC's (Strength, Dex, Int, etc.). And Chemists should be able to cure Amnesia!

[Areya]

Another job that seems to be popular in discussions is Geomancer.  There's a few issues here however.

1) How would Geomancy skills be implemented?  Would it be dependant on the
ground you're standing on or just on the area?  What about weather?

2) There are basically three incarnations of Geomancer.  In FFV, they were very magelike, using daggers and bells as weapons, and their spells varied on where
they were fighting.  In FFVI, Mog was basically a Geomancer, he had to fight
in different terrains to learn different dances.  And in FFT, Geomancers were
basically fighters using axes and swords, and they could use elemental skills
based on the tile they were standing on.  Which one would they choose to
base a FFXI version of the job on?


As for the Chemist issues, indeed balance would be a problem.  Perhaps formula
would have "cast times" which would be fairly lengthy, as opposed to instant
use.  Obviously you'd want potions to be fairly low in this regard.

Another thing to note is, Chemist would be a viable sub job for nonmage classes.
Instead of relying on a very limited MP pool as, say, a COR/WHM, you could
instead go COR/CHM and bring healing items/etc.

And yeah, the idea of reagents is, it would be another consumable that different
crafts would be able to produce.  Naturally most of them would be Alchemy but
there would probably be room for other crafts, such as Cooking, Goldsmithing,
etc.