Welcome to the third issue of Into The Aether! This is the third in a series where we are speculating the next possibly classes and jobs for FFXIV! Last week on Into the Aether, we revealed the Gunslinger, Templar and Astrologer!
This weeks Reveal/s:
BERSERKER (BSK)
Requirements: MRD 30 LNC 15
Seeking to refine their mastery of heavy weapons: the more “forward” members of the Marauders guild trained with the great spears of gridania. These axe-wielding madmen had seemingly lost their sense of self-preservation somewhere along the line. These “Weaponmasters” soon found a new unofficial, but more fitting, name amongst the people. The Berserkers.
Core skills – what makes the BSK a Berserker?
Bloodlust (Stance) – Every combo finish grants one stack of Unstoppable, each stack of Unstoppable grants 2% Damage Increase and a 5% chance to resist all forms of disable.
Bloodboil – Consumes all stacks of Bloodlust and decreases total enmity, Grants a 20% increase in Skill Speed for 20s for each stack consumed.
Hatred – For the next 20s, all enmity gained during this time is converted into damage. Enmity gained during this time is 0.
Wild Cleave – All basic attacks and weapon skills will now cleave during the duration. Consumes all stacks of Bloodlust and decreases total enmity. (Also changes animations of each skill)
Reckless Abandon – Gives full stacks of Unstoppable. During the duration, skills no longer require the previous skill to gain its additional combo effects but also increase damage taken by 15%.
Since enmity was such a big part of the Marauder package, we needed to think of some way to use that into a DPS class. Now, the Berserker can use this emnity as a damage source as well. He also needs to manage his enmity levels because of the default emnity gains on his highest damage combo skill.
Berserkers in other FF’s: FFV, FFX-2, FFTTA2, Berserkers were most memorable to me in FFV, where you couldn’t give them any commands! They just purely attacked any enemy target with a huge bonus to ATK power. While this would be stupid implemented in an MMO, you can learn more about the history of the Berserk Status.
I really hope they retain the look of wearing animal hides!
FIGHTER (FTR)
Requirements: PGL 30 MRD 15
Just like the Monks of old from the ruins of Ala Mhigo, Fighters were once thought of as a lost art of the Ala Mhigan army. After the defeat of the Garlean forces in Eorzea, lost tribes are now reappearing from the dunes, eager to join society once more. Unlike Monks who choose to train to destroy their enemy with pure combat mastery, Fighters train to use the enemies strength against themselves. From the harshness of the sand dunes, Fighters seem to have equal parts of finesse and fury when disposing of his enemies.
Core skills – what makes the FTR a Fighter?
Harsh Training (Trait) – Fist of Earth is now renamed to Fist of the Sands. All combo skills now generate increased enmity. Reduces damage dealt by 20%.
Fist of the Sands – Reduce damage taken by 10%, increase dodge by 15%.
Crippling Punch – Must be used in Raptor form. Gives enemies a debuff that has a 3% chance to miss attacks or skills. Stackable to 3. Changes form to Coeurl.
Debilitating Strike – Must be used in Coeurl form. Reduces enemy damage by 5%. Stackable to 2. Changes form to Opo-Opo
Ironwill Strike – Combo from Haymaker. Reduces enemy damage by 15%. Also applies paralyze.
Rush – Jumps to a target enemy and taunts them. Increases dodge by 10%. Must be 5 yards away to use.
Steel Body – Increases magic and physical damage resistance by 50%. Reduces skill speed and move speed by 50%.
Fighters in other FF’s: Hmmm… they’re usually associated with the Warrior Class. While we wanted to speculate the infinitely more popular “Samurai”, we tried to stick with the limitation that the advanced jobs will use the same weapon as the base class.
A “martial arts” tank isn’t really a popular theme in FF. Strangely, the Monk from FFTactics would be the most similar. Do you remember any “tanky” martial fighter from other FF’s? Please let us know!
SPELLBOW (SPB)
Requirements: ARC 30 ACN 15
Core skills – what makes the SPB a Spellbow?
Vengeful Aria – (Song) Increase unaspected Magic damage dealt by party members by 10%.
Forest Nocturne – (Song) Increase healing potency of party members by 10%.
Essence Break – combo from Bloodletter – A long duration DoT.
Poison Kiss – a “DoT” which gains potency if Windbite/Venombite/Essence Break are present on the target.
Bondfracture – Increase DoT damage taken by target by 20% for 15 seconds.
We wanted another Unaspected Magic Damage dealer to round things out! Similar to SMN, these guys are DoT based.
Spellbow in other FF’s: I really cannot think of a heavily spell based archer. The Sniper from FFTA2 comes to mind, however. This is more popular in the DnD world, Eldritch Archers / Arcane Archers are pretty commonplace in that lore!
So here’s our weekly tracker:
Plain Text = Already Known
Italicized = Our Speculation
Bold = To be revealed next week!
GLD – PLD DKN
MRD – WAR BSK
CNJ – WHM ???
ACN – SCH SMN
THM – BLM AST
PGL – MNK FTR
LNC – DRG TMP
MSK – GNS ???
ARC – BRD ELE
Gear Distribution
Fending – WAR PLD TMP FTR
Striking – MNK BSK
Maiming – DRG DKN
Aiming – BRD GNS
Healing – SCH WHM AST ???
Casting – BLM SMN ELE ???
What’s in store for next weeks Into the Aether? We will be revealing the last two of our speculated new jobs coming from Musketeer and Conjurer. Stay tuned!
For ‘Tanky’ Martial Artists in other FFs – you can look to Tifa and Zell (FF7 and 8, respectively) as their using fists didn’t define their tankyness (or lack thereof) – Their Materia/Junctions did – either could be specced to be Tanky as well as any other character in the game. (Cover, Counter and HP+ were my big go-tos for Tifa)
I really like the berserker and fighter idea, though I think the fighter needs a better name. I don’t like the idea behind the spellbow however. I think that instead you should have went with a healer idea for the spellbow. Give him things like cure shot and change things like the fire circle shot into stuff like a healing circle shot. Stuff like that.
Hey there! (fist post on this site hehe) :)
Must say I love all the info on the site, been really helpful to me as a new player, and the speculations(spelling?) in these “Into the Aether” are awsome!
Any idea when “Into the Aether 004” will be ready`? ^^ Really looking forward to it, keep up the good work!
Sachikou over and out.
(and sorry or any misspelling, eng ain’t my first language hehe)
(P.S; bring back my BLU & PUP classes from FFXI! xD )
Keeping me in the dark on your thoughts about CNJ for another week. :( These are more interesting ideas. Nice speculation. Though you all certainly like the building stacks mechanic. Nothing wrong with that, just an observation. I’m interested to see what you plan to do with MSK as a healer, as you said the other CNJ wouldn’t be a healing job.
IMO if Square Enix adds new tanks/healers there will be only 3 of them, not 4. It is way easier to design a new dps class then a new way of tanking/healing.
Something creative RIFT did is a healer that heals through its dps, I don’t remember if it was good but I liked the idea. Because right now we have high heal potencies and shield+Reduction of damage. The only one else I can think of would be a HoT healer that would stack many HoTs on tank and group. Except that WHM already have Regen and Medica II.
I don’t play tank a lot so I don’t know much about the role. PLD looks like he has a lot of mitigation while WAR have higher health, stronger heals and much more group control (aoe).
If I’m not mistaken, FF X-2 had gunmages, that could be the precedent for the spellbow. I can’t think of any martial artist tank type character in the series.
I like the idea of a tank that uses fists, but because it is nonexistent in the FF series, I think it is more likely for the pugilist to become a Dancer. More of a support DPS role like the Bard is. Also, Dancers appear in V, VI, and FF LD. I like your ideas on Berserker, especially consuming built enmity for increased damage.
Because things like spell bows don’t exist outside of Bard in the FF series, I don’t think that was the way to go with the speculation. Sadly, I can’t think of anything else that would use a bow besides a Ranger, but isn’t that the Archer class anyway. So, Spellbow is the only logical way to go.
I didn’t see Charly’s post when I wrote this, but I like the Beastmaster thought.
Yeah speculating the second archer class while staying within our preset rules for the exercise was unfulfilling compared to the other classes!
I dont like the archer one! I was hoping to have a tank. Tank from archer!? Yes! Hunter! Tanking with pets or beastmaster if you like a ff name hehehhe
Haha, to be honest, we didn’t like the archer one either. Trust me, we thought of a bunch of different combinations for all classes. We’re thinking of making a post on the “alternate” 8 without going too in-depth.
Really you guys didn’t think of Ranger? I thought that one was fairly obvious.
Yes, but that would involve archer having 2 dex based advanced jobs, both doing physical DPS and both having to use the “aiming” gear subset. “Ranger” doesn’t so obviously connote the MDPS we wanted.