It's a pretty trivial complaint, but I definitely find it unusual that the core "classes" even still exist. After all, what does a Gladiator have to do with a Paladin, other than using a sword-and-shield?
Well, it's something I've put a lot of thought into. And frankly, I've wondered if ***PERHAPS*** it would be worth considering changing these classes (some or all) into full-fledged Jobs?
Let me use the Gladiator as an example:
THEMATICALLY speaking, there is zero correlation between a Gladiator and a Paladin. Paladins are essentially Holy Knights, whereas when I think of a "Gladiator", honestly I think of Raubaun, or even just Roman gladiators in general.
What if -- again, WHAT IF -- the Gladiator was instead treated as a completely different job?
Instead of being glued to a sword-and-board, you would instead have three difference "stances": Sword Stance, Shield Stance, and Open Stance.
Using the magic of this-is-a-video-game, each of these stances would change what you are holding in your off-hand.
In Sword stance, you literally create a copy of your sword, dual-wielding just like our boy Raubaun used to. This would understandably increase your damage-dealing potential. Some attacks might be "channeled", meaning you remain rooted in-place while delivering an onslaught of attacks.
In Shield stance, you bust out that hunk of metal on your back. But instead of being a "tanking stance", it would still be focused on dealing damage. The difference being, it would exchange some of those channeled frenzy-attacks for more stuns and defensive properties. Because you're not a tank, you're going to be fairly squishy, but Shield stance helps offset that. Maybe visually, a lot of your attacks see you bashing enemies with your shield, just to emphasize the brute force of your character.
Finally in "Open stance", you sheathe both your shield and your second sword, in favor of simply holding the one sword in your main-hand, and nothing in your off-hand. This stance would favor highly increased mobility, but also more "dirty tricks". Throwing sand in your enemies' eyes to blind or lower their accuracy, being able to "tumble" large distances to avoid attacks, maybe even being able to throw a bola to trip or slow your enemies.
Now obviously, none of this is NECESSARY for the game!
However, the reason I honestly kind of like the idea is that... well, so much of FFXIV is about nostalgia for past games in the franchise, right? And I love that stuff. But to me, my FAVORITE things in FFXIV are the things unique to itself! The Xaela, for example, are SO interesting to me, and yet the only appear in FFXIV! And I've heard that, as much as 1.0 was clearly a mess and an unsuccessful game, I've heard many people say that actually, the "classes" it had were actually pretty unique and interesting, and also very different from the "traditional Final Fantasy Jobs" they later became.
What if some of those Classes were actually fully affirmed as their own unique Jobs?
Now truthfully, I don't know enough about the other Classes and their individual Lore to make suggestions. The Lancer, for example, just SEEMS like it would be super boring. The Pugilist, on the other hand, I could totally see becoming a "Tanking job", being more of a rowdy brawler than a skilled martial artist.
But at least in the case of the Gladiator, I actually think there's enough there to constitute an entirely separate Job from the Paladin. And if so, then perhaps the Paladin would be completely unlinked from the Gladiator at all, simply unlocking it at lvl 30 (in the manner newer jobs are unlockable at higher levels without needing "core classes" leveled), making the Paladin even more of the "Holy Knight" archetype (if they so wanted to; they already fill that niche pretty much perfectly as-is).
I dunno. Just something I've been thinking a lot about, and thought it would be interesting seeing you guys' thoughts. Do you think there's merit to the idea? Some "classes" that are more interesting or more compelling than others? Maybe you even have your own ideas how you could distinguish them from the existing "jobs"?
Continue reading...
Well, it's something I've put a lot of thought into. And frankly, I've wondered if ***PERHAPS*** it would be worth considering changing these classes (some or all) into full-fledged Jobs?
Let me use the Gladiator as an example:
THEMATICALLY speaking, there is zero correlation between a Gladiator and a Paladin. Paladins are essentially Holy Knights, whereas when I think of a "Gladiator", honestly I think of Raubaun, or even just Roman gladiators in general.
What if -- again, WHAT IF -- the Gladiator was instead treated as a completely different job?
Instead of being glued to a sword-and-board, you would instead have three difference "stances": Sword Stance, Shield Stance, and Open Stance.
Using the magic of this-is-a-video-game, each of these stances would change what you are holding in your off-hand.
In Sword stance, you literally create a copy of your sword, dual-wielding just like our boy Raubaun used to. This would understandably increase your damage-dealing potential. Some attacks might be "channeled", meaning you remain rooted in-place while delivering an onslaught of attacks.
In Shield stance, you bust out that hunk of metal on your back. But instead of being a "tanking stance", it would still be focused on dealing damage. The difference being, it would exchange some of those channeled frenzy-attacks for more stuns and defensive properties. Because you're not a tank, you're going to be fairly squishy, but Shield stance helps offset that. Maybe visually, a lot of your attacks see you bashing enemies with your shield, just to emphasize the brute force of your character.
Finally in "Open stance", you sheathe both your shield and your second sword, in favor of simply holding the one sword in your main-hand, and nothing in your off-hand. This stance would favor highly increased mobility, but also more "dirty tricks". Throwing sand in your enemies' eyes to blind or lower their accuracy, being able to "tumble" large distances to avoid attacks, maybe even being able to throw a bola to trip or slow your enemies.
Now obviously, none of this is NECESSARY for the game!
However, the reason I honestly kind of like the idea is that... well, so much of FFXIV is about nostalgia for past games in the franchise, right? And I love that stuff. But to me, my FAVORITE things in FFXIV are the things unique to itself! The Xaela, for example, are SO interesting to me, and yet the only appear in FFXIV! And I've heard that, as much as 1.0 was clearly a mess and an unsuccessful game, I've heard many people say that actually, the "classes" it had were actually pretty unique and interesting, and also very different from the "traditional Final Fantasy Jobs" they later became.
What if some of those Classes were actually fully affirmed as their own unique Jobs?
Now truthfully, I don't know enough about the other Classes and their individual Lore to make suggestions. The Lancer, for example, just SEEMS like it would be super boring. The Pugilist, on the other hand, I could totally see becoming a "Tanking job", being more of a rowdy brawler than a skilled martial artist.
But at least in the case of the Gladiator, I actually think there's enough there to constitute an entirely separate Job from the Paladin. And if so, then perhaps the Paladin would be completely unlinked from the Gladiator at all, simply unlocking it at lvl 30 (in the manner newer jobs are unlockable at higher levels without needing "core classes" leveled), making the Paladin even more of the "Holy Knight" archetype (if they so wanted to; they already fill that niche pretty much perfectly as-is).
I dunno. Just something I've been thinking a lot about, and thought it would be interesting seeing you guys' thoughts. Do you think there's merit to the idea? Some "classes" that are more interesting or more compelling than others? Maybe you even have your own ideas how you could distinguish them from the existing "jobs"?
Continue reading...