The Eorzean 18

SE unveils the classes for FFXIV's launch

The speculation about classes in Final Fantasy XIV is over -- for now.

With the new MMO poised for a Sept. 30 global release date, Square Enix has revealed the 18 classes that will be playable at launch. These classes feature seven combat classes and 11 classes that specialize in crafting and gathering. Square Enix unveiled this news via a press release reported by Famitsu magizine.

Now that all the initial classes are known, soon-to-be adventurers can decide which roles they will play upon arriving in Eorzea. However, the nuances and specific abilities of each job remain a mystery.

The initial seven combat classes are comprised of five melee classes and two magic classes. The melee classes -- formally called Disciples of War -- are gladiator, marauder, archer, lancer and pugilist. The two magic classes, or Disciples of Magic, are conjurer and thaumaturge.

Gathering classes, called Disciples of the Land, include botanist, fisherman and miner. The Disciples of the Hand classes, which focus on crafting, include woodworker, blacksmith, armourer, goldsmith, tanner, weaver, culinarian and alchemist.

It's unclear how much time will pass before additional classes are added to the game. In time, we'll know whether unexpected delays in developing the Playstation 3 version of FFXIV will cause new content to be delayed as well.

That said, Final Fantasy XI has 20 combat jobs and zero crafting jobs. That means the creative folks at Square Enix have left themselves plenty of room to introduce new and exciting classes for their flagship title.

Comments

Post Comment
Meh...Still so much to learn about the game.
# Jul 31 2010 at 8:50 AM Rating: Decent
As far as them releasing more classes I could see them just adding new abilities to certain classes down the road to give people more options as well as adding weapons that haven't been shown or been said to belong to a certain class like Katana's, Throwing Stars, Instruments, and Guns. I am still hoping they bring in some form of Pet job(s) doesn't seem right without having a Summoner...and Beast Master, Puppet Master, and Dragoon had there fun moments as well I can't see them leaving all of them out but then again who knows. They have to leave some things for expansions and I'm still curious what the max levels are and if they will increase with each expansion. I just hope they don't go the route of add-on scenarios instead of full fledged expansions.
classes
# Jul 24 2010 at 10:36 PM Rating: Decent
Im confused with class combining. IF theres only a couple main classes all of those classes have the moves to make others? How can 1 mage have heal and dps of all types, im confused.
Bontanist
# Jul 24 2010 at 11:10 AM Rating: Decent
**
656 posts
Hey Thayos.
Harvester should be called Botanist :)
Surely we can be more creative!!!
# Jul 24 2010 at 5:55 AM Rating: Default
**
751 posts
I think people might be missing the point here regarding classes.

FFXIV appears to have tried to break the mould in terms of classes. Instead of having defined classes that can only do certain things, we have hybrid class development where you can learn skills of classes and share with other classes.

Imagine, you want to play as a Paladin, combat healer. You level up gladiator (for example) and you level up Conjurer (for heal spells). Then you equip the skills you need to form your hybrid class, and away you go.

So you want to play as a dark night, you level up Thaumaturge, you level up glad, select the right skills and away you go.

People need to be able to see beyond traditional job specs to play this game, you are only limited by your imagination as to the type of characteer you want to develop. These classes create almost hundreds of potential different avenues for job development.

WoW has a lot to answer for - boil these things down so that the game is just so easy that all you have to do is bash buttons and suddenly no-one wants to think anymore!!! I want to play a set class, and I dont want to have to think about how to develop it.

Bring on FFXIV and a new way of playing a bored genre!
Article error
# Jul 23 2010 at 5:52 PM Rating: Good
**
784 posts
People complain too much.

They will add more classes later. And more options are always good, so why are non combat classes bad?

Edited, Jul 23rd 2010 11:53pm by Fetter
fail blog, crafting too open to interpretation
# Jul 23 2010 at 11:44 AM Rating: Default
Quote:
The reason why the crafting now consist of jobs is beacuse your job changes as your active weapon changes. So to be fisherman you hae to equip a fishing rod, pick axe for miner, etc. This is the the same system as FFXI. It just that know the crafters get a bit more respect. And I would also assume that craftign armour will be much easier to come by making crafting a more interestin option for players that strayed from it crafting in FFXI.



That's the point of the new system. It'll be easier to play less often with a slight focus on crafting. More crafting jobs gives players more to do in terms of character management. Laize-faire ownership is probablly NOT going to be the norm, and democratic partying will likely BE the refuge for some players, while totalitarian market fascism IS going to reign supreme at the market boards.

Quote:
Hahaha Yeah I was one of those people who was basically frothing at the mouth over Musketeer lololol.


If a lot more people pull from stereotypes constructed from FFXI, we're probably going to see more UPDATES than new jobs/larger weapon options in the future. Coming from SE's point of view, they'd better be ready to hear the parade of new voices they'll have to cater to, that is we're going to want equality among classes (and among crafting jobs) before any thought or appearance of new jobs. If the new jobs aren't stable in the party scenario, many people will either switch to FFXI or go the route of a crafter, which offers less party cooperation and more city-state downtime. Attractiveness of the crafting vs. party job debate matters here, as I'm sure many a new player may stray from the crafting jobs in the onset of the release and keep their head on the level of partying and farming. What I see is a lot more people wincing at the long-time players who craft, who solo, who go straight to the company system, and turning a blind eye to the opportunities offered by SE. I guess what I'm saying is, it looks like SE has constructed a game made for all ages, it is inviting to young players and also offers quick additions to gaming for the older MMORPGer, but the scenario they're putting the players in to the game with, are ones that will either bomb the myth and mystic they've (we've) built around the game, or will lead to the corruption of the jobs they've polished (a la Ninja from FFXI), or could, in either way, even bring an inflating market value median destroying the only reputable aspect to these games, open market competition. I think where SE is trying to GO with this game may be best achieved if they left the light of future job options in the dark and kept frame on their "oh so open" crafting jobs.
Much more to come
# Jul 23 2010 at 11:05 AM Rating: Decent
Scholar
33 posts
Quote:
Bleh... sorry SE, but that is fail. Not a single melee class that seems to be very unique, its the standard ones everyone has, the "been there done that" classes, and only two magic classes. Again.. bleh. I guess we'll have to wait and see, but I have to say, I was expecting a lot more from FF14 release in terms of races/classes.


SE never said they were going for unique. This is obvious when you look at the playable races, although they do offer a little more variety with the clans. However, they have been emphasizing customization. Your class becomes unique with the way that you blend abilities from other classes. Now if this system will work is a whole other story. We'll just have to wait and see.

Quote:
To everyone that said "OMG Musketeer!" and "OMG Arcanist"...lolz.


If anyone thought these would be available at release then I agree. However, don't forget this is only launch. How many classes where available when FFXI first started? I can guarantee almost %100 that there will eventually be a musketeer class seeing that there is already a guild for it and a few other things that hint toward it.

Give it some time. I think this game has a ton of potential and so far we have only seen a small fragment of what SE has in store.
____________________________
FFXIV: Kaynel Daermon; Ultros
Much more to come
# Jul 23 2010 at 11:37 AM Rating: Decent
Scholar
***
3,599 posts
Don't forget, you can use skills learned in one job when playing another.


Everyone is thinking "Only this many melee???" but no one is thinking about the ability to make a combat caster class like a Paladin, or a tanking Great Axeman, etc etc.

I'm sure there will be enough cross-class customization to keep everyone happy until new jobs are released.
____________________________

[ffxivsig]1183812[/ffxivsig]
Missing the point
# Jul 23 2010 at 10:30 AM Rating: Decent
25 posts
The reason why the crafting now consist of jobs is because your job changes as your active weapon changes. So to be fisherman you have to equip a fishing rod, pick axe for miner, etc. This is the the same system as FFXI. It's just that now the crafters get a bit more respect. And I would also assume that crafting armour will be much easier to come by making crafting a more interesting option for players that strayed from crafting in FFXI.

I'm curious if we'll ever see a hybrid class like red mage. Since all abilities earned tranfer to all jobs, it would be nice to see a class that can use a more diverse set of the abilities effectively with a few unique abilities. Instead of just melee sucking at maigc and maigc sucking at melee.

*Typos*

Edited, Jul 26th 2010 9:23am by skluse
#REDACTED, Posted: Jul 23 2010 at 4:31 AM, Rating: Sub-Default, (Expand Post) Bleh... sorry SE, but that is fail. Not a single melee class that seems to be very unique, its the standard ones everyone has, the "been there done that" classes, and only two magic classes. Again.. bleh. I guess we'll have to wait and see, but I have to say, I was expecting a lot more from FF14 release in terms of races/classes.
Meh
# Jul 25 2010 at 9:40 PM Rating: Good
***
1,566 posts
Quote:
Bleh... sorry SE, but that is fail. Not a single melee class that seems to be very unique, its the standard ones everyone has, the "been there done that" classes, and only two magic classes. Again.. bleh. I guess we'll have to wait and see, but I have to say, I was expecting a lot more from FF14 release in terms of races/classes.


You have two varieties of cat girl, dog man, human, elf and hobbit-like folks. Plus a plethora of customization options so your character can look incredibly unique from the majority of players on your server.

There are 18 classes, from which you can pick and choose which abilities you want in order to create your own unique melee.

What more options do people need at launch? Once SE gets a feel for how the masses are adapting the system they're presenting, they'll offer more. Just look at ninja from XI for example. SE released it as an MP-free equivalent to red mage, and the community turned it into a tank, so SE supported that.
crafting equal to battling? not in my book.
# Jul 23 2010 at 1:31 AM Rating: Decent
**
626 posts
im all for making crafting jobs alot more involved and worth playing, but to equate them as actual classes is way underwhelming to me. im a crafter junkie myself, but i would never equate my armor smithing to a nuking black mage.

like many ive talked to, i think its sad how few ACTUAL classes there are this time around. games looks ultra fun, but offers very little variety for me. heres to hoping for a pet class by ps3 release. i refuse to believe FF14 will be the only mmo in existance without a cool pet class.
pooooppyyy
# Jul 23 2010 at 1:24 AM Rating: Decent
Hahaha Yeah I was one of those people who was basically frothing at the mouth over Musketeer lololol.

This is just lol. hahaha
Eorzean 18 ?
# Jul 23 2010 at 12:26 AM Rating: Decent
Crafting is probably going to be much more of an lightly involved player-job, much more like a sport than a life-long quest of a job, as many of the jobs were in Final Fantasy XI, than it is going to be an ultimatum of achievement. Having a wider range of options to choose from while crafting brings more to the board in terms of player communication, item availability, and NPC cooperation. The emphasis on crafting is due mainly, I'd guess, to the rise in slow-core jobs like Draeni Death Knights from Wow, and even buyable job classes from League of Legends. It seems SE is trying to border the younger player market with a line of attractive jobs with easy and arguably all-too-simple abilities with the bored and over-enthused elites interested in taking what was learned from Final Fantasy XI to new places. In terms of anticipation, this is all too welcoming of a herald for this player. Lastly, I'm glad the market system in this build isn't going to ****. AH out! (Thank you)

-mathias179
?
# Jul 22 2010 at 10:33 PM Rating: Excellent
17 posts
wait so crafting counts as a job on FFXIV and since FFXI setup is different they act like FFXI crafting doesn't exist or what?

I know smiths can throw stones or something but i haven't heard that they can be used in a serious boss situation...it makes it sound like you'd switch to your craft after battle.
Fail
# Jul 22 2010 at 10:29 PM Rating: Decent
To everyone that said "OMG Musketeer!" and "OMG Arcanist"...lolz.
Post Comment

Free account required to post

You must log in or create an account to post messages.