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There was talk about classes Yoshida would like to do. That included Thief, Blue Mage, and Ninja, and Samurai. But for ARR launch we'll be seeing:

Gladiator/Paladin
Thaumaturge/Black Mage
Marauder/Warrior
Conjurer/White Mage
Lancer/Dragoon
Pugilist/Monk
Archer/Bard
Arcanist/Summoner

Also: I before E.

Edited, Mar 5th 2013 3:04am by UltKnightGrover

Edited, Mar 5th 2013 3:05am by UltKnightGrover

Well i haven't seen anything but, if i am to guess, i would say it does exactly what a rogue does in all the MMOs. Stealth, sneak attacks etc. But the thief class is what Yoshida would LIKE to have in ARR probably in later updates so until he starts working towards it we won't know much about the class.

Edited, Mar 5th 2013 7:15am by teravibe

In XI, in order for Thief to be an effective damage dealer it was all about positioning (this was also a means of hate control for the group)... I've never played any version of FFXIV but as far as I'm aware, position played a role for all DDs in 1.0 (not sure about ARR?) so that essentially becomes an obsolete playing style for thief.

I don't think any speculation can really be made about up coming roles until we've experienced the revamped battle system for ourselves and see what niche Thief could fill in a group situation. I hope it is one of the next jobs to be implemented though as I mained THF in FFXI and I loved it. I love being all evasive and sneaky ^^

EDIT: Sorry to repeat catwho - slow typing!

Edited, Mar 5th 2013 7:52am by cazzles

In XI, Blue Mages have a complex set of spells that they acquire from observing and killing monsters. Most of the spells mimic effects of normal magic, but BLU also had some unique physical magic attacks that allowed them to actually be aggressive DPS players as opposed to mid line or back line like all the other mages. They also have job abilities that enhance or combine with their magic. (Mmmmm self skill chains...) A BLU is super effective in dungeons where you'll encounter monsters with immunity to some types of damage.

Red Mage is more versatile, as it generally functions as back line and support in parties, but can also pick up a sword and stab stuff with anyone else. They are XI's jack of all trades, and master of exactly one - enfeebling magic. Red mage has fallen out of favor, as scholar is a better back line/support role, white mage is a better healer, bard is a better buffer, SMN and BLM are better back line damage dealers, and BLU and DNC (and THF/DNC and NIN/DNC and pretty much anything/DNC) are better soloers. It still has its uses (I had to beat a dungeon crawl mission on RDM because when I went on WHM I ran out of mp!) but it is not the powerhouse it once was.

There is no green mage in XI, nor is there any "green" magic. The category of enhancing spells are spread out among red mage, white mage, and scholar, with mirrors in summoner and blue mage. They're adding geomancer, which is going to overlap somewhat with scholar, but it'll be interesting to see if they get the category of magic known as "green" in the FF series.

Edited, Mar 5th 2013 7:29pm by catwho

On a random "Thief" related note, I found this just now.

Me too now!!

Taking from the ESO versus XIV thread, if they implement Thief I would LOVE to see Nightingale armor as their AF

LOL looks like lady ga ga's meat suit but with leather haha looks sweet, i do like the idea of being all sneaky n shizz

Edited, Mar 6th 2013 7:33am by jarradstone

Yeah i want Thief in FFXIV too. I ALWAYS play as a Rogue/Thief?Assassin in ANY MMO.. I wouldnt know how to play any other job (well I would as I did level every job in FFXI to 75 and fully merit them all but yeah) But until then Ill be playing Pugilist/Monk as that seems to be the closest job to thief in FFXIV at the moment (as thy have a steal technique, something that increases their evasion and i THINK they also had a sneak attack (or more damage from behind the enemy) like technique (though that coulda been lancer)

Pug had Blindside (Sneak attack), and LNC used to have collusion (Trick attack). They patched it and gave collusion to WAR as an ability to take the take enmity from the person's next attack after you use it on them. Who knows what they're going to do with it in ARR.

With those moves already occupied, they might go a different path for Thief. Or may not have it all together.

Edited, Apr 21st 2013 4:21am by GDLYL

Thief -> Ninja is the most logical (and canonical) option.
Unless you argue that this is not possible, because Thief already is a classic job, and not a class.
Which, once again, would illuminate how absurd the whole class/job distinction actually is.

One of the things that disappointed me about 1.0 was how antiquated the ability sets typically were. I felt like classes like PUP and BLU from FFXI had achieved a level of depth between their build mechanics and combat flexibility that made them really interesting classes, while most of the older classes have gotten a bit more fleshed out over the years, but started out extremely dry with a finite array of 'push button-> get bacon' attacks. XIV seemed to be a marginal improvement with positional attacks, pushback attacks, etc., but overall still very hollow.

One of the greatest weaknesses of contemporary MMOs, WoW clones or otherwise, is that they really don't let you DO a lot of things with your character. When they do, it's just an action button--nothing that challenges you to interact with the game in a meaningful way. It's a lot of 'target X-> push button-> win' (GW2 is a repeat offender of this in nearly every other quest). They reduced the fetch quest to a micro scale.

Let me create some interesting effects, is all I'm saying. Put some physics into it. If it's all just numbers ticking away while I press my best buttons, I'm hard pressed to give a ****.