Class Predictions?

[Katchii]

Double checked. I was mistaken.

Thanks for responding, was just wanting to make sure I didn't miss anything that may have been said rather than written or something.

[Wangming]

I'm still saying it is Necromancer. A rather unorthodox necromancer, but a necromancer nonetheless.

[Graeham]

I'm still saying it is Necromancer. A rather unorthodox necromancer, but a necromancer nonetheless.

Honestly? Whether we get necromancer or not, I really want to see more undead enemies in-game. Especially rotten, creepy looking ones.

To this very day, Vagrant Story remains one of my favourite games ever. I just loved the creepy atmosphere of shambling corpses roaming an abandoned city filled with monsters. I really hope we see more of that in FFXIV, especially with it being heavily inspired by such games.

[Wangming]

Honestly? Whether we get necromancer or not, I really want to see more undead enemies in-game. Especially rotten, creepy looking ones.

To this very day, Vagrant Story remains one of my favourite games ever. I just loved the creepy atmosphere of shambling corpses roaming an abandoned city filled with monsters. I really hope we see more of that in FFXIV, especially with it being heavily inspired by such games.

Well I'm fine with a gothic reaper even if it is not called a necro. But let's look at the facts:

1) It is a highly requested job and Yoshie-P absolutely takes that into account.
2) It appeared in a Final Fantasy game before so there is a precedent.
3) The Heroe's Gauntlet had a Necromancer as a boss and Elidibus summoned Warriors of Light from other shards.
4) Necro is a popular class in MMOs nowadays. (ESO and GW2 has very cool necromancers)
5) We already have a scythe wielding character in game. Edda, who is a necromancer.
6) WoW players really want a necromancer so it is good business for the competition to provide it.

[Echocho]

Templar wielding a two-handed mace.

[KrayZ33]

Templar wielding a two-handed mace.

Something like that, probably umbral-phase shifting focused

[ExiHext]

Templar wielding a two-handed mace.

This would make me come back ngl. Holy knight is my favourite archetype, but I don't like tanking so PLD is not my cup of tea. I also like the more unholy version of knights but DRK is a tank either, so here is hoping for a heavy armor wearing melee with magic attacks. But knowing Squenix it is going to be some crazy weeb stuff I will probably not be interested in.

[TidalConflux]

Its not going to be Necromancer -- last considered, Necromancer is considered an evil job and people have argued that Necromancer in the Heroes Gauntlet is just a corrupted version of White Mage.

Like how Berserker is corrupted Warrior, and Thief is corrupted Rogue/Ninja.

Going by the logic of "its something not widely suggested" and DRG armor matching: Its most likely Mystic Knight or Templar. Templar only became a popular after the shirt theory with that Endwalker reveal (meaning it wasnt a theory until after initial speculation was out).

The only thing about Templar is how do you differentiate it enough from Paladin without literally just taking Paladin and making it a DPS? Same thing goes with the Reaper idea.

Hence why: Mystic Knight is probably the answer. Its an older job from FF-V that had a Middle Eastern aesthetic (remember Thavnair will be a location come Endwalker and would completely work with that aesthetic and location). Mystic Knight in FFV was a melee job besides Dragoon within the same game.

The only issue with Mystic Knight is -- how would they redesign it, since its basically Red Mage but melee focused with magic attunement. Seeing Sage was redesigned (Sage used the dual White and Black mana like Red Mage did), I am guessing we will see something similar with this case as well with a unique weapon and possibly elemental attunement mechanics for melee battling.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

The only thing about Templar is how do you differentiate it enough from Paladin without literally just taking Paladin and making it a DPS? Same thing goes with the Reaper idea.

FFXIV Paladins are not your traditional D&D paladin who is a holy crusader in the name of the Light or the god expy. In FFXIV, Paladins are simply the Sultana's royal guard. Free Paladins are royal guards who just roam the countryside doing good deeds, but not in the name of the Light or god like in D&D. The light elementally aspected abilities of Paladins are not derived from a holy deity, but is instead just an arbitrary element they use.

A Templar job could differentiate itself from Paladin by being like a tradition D&D paladin who is explicitly fighting in the name of the Light or a god expy, and their powers are explicitly holy. The problem is that FFXIV's lore doesn't really lend itself well to this. There isn't really any god or force of holiness in the FFXIV setting. Well, Hydaelyn fulfilled that role... up until 5.0's lore reveals. None of the Twelve are a good fit (except for Azeyma, the Warden, but... for story reasons it could be weird trying to make her out to be a deity you worship or derive powers from). So I think a D&D esque paladin would require a new deity being hard retconned into the game, which just wouldn't fly.

[threads]

FFXIV Paladins are not your traditional D&D paladin who is a holy crusader in the name of the Light or the god expy. In FFXIV, Paladins are simply the Sultana's royal guard. Free Paladins are royal guards who just roam the countryside doing good deeds, but not in the name of the Light or god like in D&D. The light elementally aspected abilities of Paladins are not derived from a holy deity, but is instead just an arbitrary element they use.

A Templar job could differentiate itself from Paladin by being like a tradition D&D paladin who is explicitly fighting in the name of the Light or a god expy, and their powers are explicitly holy. The problem is that FFXIV's lore doesn't really lend itself well to this. There isn't really any god or force of holiness in the FFXIV setting. Well, Hydaelyn fulfilled that role... up until 5.0's lore reveals. None of the Twelve are a good fit (except for Azeyma, the Warden, but... for story reasons it could be weird trying to make her out to be a deity you worship or derive powers from). So I think a D&D esque paladin would require a new deity being hard retconned into the game, which just wouldn't fly.

dont the ishgard knights worship halone?

[Val the Moofia Boss]

dont the ishgard knights worship halone?

Hm... Yeah, Ishgard has the Temple Knights and the Heaven's Ward, so those are two organizations that could worship her.

The thing is, Halone is affiliated with Ice... but the Heaven's Ward used light aspected abilities, which is weird.

[TidalConflux]

FFXIV Paladins are not your traditional D&D paladin who is a holy crusader in the name of the Light or the god expy. In FFXIV, Paladins are simply the Sultana's royal guard. Free Paladins are royal guards who just roam the countryside doing good deeds, but not in the name of the Light or god like in D&D. The light elementally aspected abilities of Paladins are not derived from a holy deity, but is instead just an arbitrary element they use.

A Templar job could differentiate itself from Paladin by being like a tradition D&D paladin who is explicitly fighting in the name of the Light or a god expy, and their powers are explicitly holy. The problem is that FFXIV's lore doesn't really lend itself well to this. There isn't really any god or force of holiness in the FFXIV setting. Well, Hydaelyn fulfilled that role... up until 5.0's lore reveals. None of the Twelve are a good fit (except for Azeyma, the Warden, but... for story reasons it could be weird trying to make her out to be a deity you worship or derive powers from). So I think a D&D esque paladin would require a new deity being hard retconned into the game, which just wouldn't fly.

The issue is that the FF Tactics jobs of Templar (Temple Knight) was just the banjaa-version of Paladin. They had very similar stats, they were primarily defense focused jobs, and used the various same arms that Paladins did in those games. Its not hard fetched to say -- they were just paladins for another race in Tactics. That being said Templar could work if they updated it a lot more than its Tactics versions -- since the job was not really seen or expanded in mainline FF games.

[Kongnic11]

A class with 10 button rotation.

[KrayZ33]

Hm... Yeah, Ishgard has the Temple Knights and the Heaven's Ward, so those are two organizations that could worship her.

The thing is, Halone is affiliated with Ice... but the Heaven's Ward used light aspected abilities, which is weird.

Ice is usually light/astral atuned. Although we know that it can be either.

There is no Dark or Light magic in ffxiv.
There is only "light/dark version of aspected element magic" (fire, thunder, water, ice, wind, earth)

What you identify as "light aspected" is actually non-aspected aether in astral/umbral form (depending on the First's or Source's interpretation of light/dark polarities that might differ - i.e. the people in the First would call "Astral Fire" -> "Umbral Fire".)

So the white mage ability Holy is "balanced aether" that has all element properties in equal amounts. (which is why it deals unaspected damge)

[draugril]

Its not going to be Necromancer -- last considered, Necromancer is considered an evil job and people have argued that Necromancer in the Heroes Gauntlet is just a corrupted version of White Mage.

Like how Berserker is corrupted Warrior, and Thief is corrupted Rogue/Ninja.

Going by the logic of "its something not widely suggested" and DRG armor matching: Its most likely Mystic Knight or Templar. Templar only became a popular after the shirt theory with that Endwalker reveal (meaning it wasnt a theory until after initial speculation was out).

The only thing about Templar is how do you differentiate it enough from Paladin without literally just taking Paladin and making it a DPS? Same thing goes with the Reaper idea.

Hence why: Mystic Knight is probably the answer. Its an older job from FF-V that had a Middle Eastern aesthetic (remember Thavnair will be a location come Endwalker and would completely work with that aesthetic and location). Mystic Knight in FFV was a melee job besides Dragoon within the same game.

The only issue with Mystic Knight is -- how would they redesign it, since its basically Red Mage but melee focused with magic attunement. Seeing Sage was redesigned (Sage used the dual White and Black mana like Red Mage did), I am guessing we will see something similar with this case as well with a unique weapon and possibly elemental attunement mechanics for melee battling.

Honestly, an inverted Red Mage sounds great! Melee builders, ranged spenders.

[Wraethion]

Using FF6 as a base:

If its Rune Knight, it might be a melee version of dancer that focuses on lots of offensive and defensive buff spells. Think a more supporty Red Mage that was buff oriented.

Magitek Elite, which was from Terra, featured her being able to enter a trance. Which itself ranges from the equivalent of Summoner's trance ability to Ysale's (aka Iceheart's) ability to become Shiva temporarily based on what game she is in.

Gambler would basically be a melee dancer minus the support abilities. Take that for how you will.

Pictomancer is more like what summoner old school would be. Your character paints and briefly summons a monster, it does its attack, then that monster vanishes.

Feral Youth (or) Mime is not gonna happen unless Feral Youth is in name only. As both basically got rolled into blue mage.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Now for other potential options...

Necromancer: Not gonna lie, this just sounds like if Summoner went melee and replaced all its demis and egis with the 'pets' that machinist has from resource spending. Pets, dots, debuffs galore.

Beastmaster: Hard nope. If they are gonna make blue mage jump through the hoops to make it authentic by making you get each individual spell. Then I bet they are gonna make you do the same thing with beastmaster.

Templar: Sounds like a very 'I shall smite thee!' type of class. Not saying it can't happen, certainly a possibility.

[Absintheminded]

Well, if we're to assume that Yoshida's shirt with scythes and skulls are a hint, then something necromancer/reaper-esque. But Ran'jit also uses something scythe-like when he changes forms, so possibly something related to that.

[Katchii]

Am tentatively anxious for the unveiling this Saturday.

I'm personally hoping for a scythe wielding class that augments themselves and their attacks with magic (like Blue Mage in FFXI), with a decent amount of abilities that can be cast at range to give flexibility in movement heavy encounters.

[WhereAmI]

The issue is that the FF Tactics jobs of Templar (Temple Knight) was just the banjaa-version of Paladin. They had very similar stats, they were primarily defense focused jobs, and used the various same arms that Paladins did in those games. Its not hard fetched to say -- they were just paladins for another race in Tactics. That being said Templar could work if they updated it a lot more than its Tactics versions -- since the job was not really seen or expanded in mainline FF games.

Except Templar (TA1/2) and Temple Knight (FFT) weren't really holy/light focused jobs. In Tactics Advance they were heavily armored anti-mage units; they could damage MP with multiple attacks, silence targets, protect against debuffs, haste allies and slow enemies, and even had a dark element attack that dealt more damage the more HP they're missing. Paladins on the other hand had multiple light-based attacks and focused more on supporting allies. Temple Knight in Final Fantasy Tactics was all about inflicting debuffs with spell sword attacks, and if IIRC they were almost all non-elemental.

Those are really the only two widely known uses of the Templar job in FF, and in my opinion they could easily make something unique and different from the Paladin in FF14.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

I just hope that the scythe job doesn't have a dark and edgy aesthetic (Zenos can be that, but playable scythe job? No please). Also don't want to feel like a knock off of Dark Knight.