So at this point, yes, we have a pretty clear picture of what our new ranged DPS job in Final Fantasy XIV is going to be, and it’s going to be a while until we get another new one. (You have to imagine the next expansion will feature a new DPS, yes, but my personal bet is that it’ll be another melee DPS and a healer. Let’s see what happens.) But like before, we’ve got to figure out from what we’ve got what the new ranged DPS options are going to be starting primarily from the point of view of the arsenal. This is the first and final part of what turned out to be a four-part series, so let’s look at what ranged weapons we even still have available.
The bright side is that even with crossbows out of the mix, as they are, we actually still have a fair number of different options! Not as many as we did before then, but a fair number of them just the same. And it’s with that understanding that we can wrap up this particular series. I hope you like thinking about weapons! Some of the obvious big categories are out of the question at this point, but I think we’ve still got enough.
Kicky balls (or otherwise)
The fundamental problem with Blitzballer is that Blitzball doesn’t exist inFFXIV at this point. In fact, at this point we do not have any knowledge of any ball-based sport inFFXIV, which is a bit wild. Like, “make a ball and knock it in a direction” is one of the first games human beings came up with. Once we’ve figured out hunting, reproduction, and killing other humans we don’t like (a subset of hunting), it’s pretty early.
But the fact that we don’t have ityet doesn’t mean that we won’t have it. And the thing about these things is that once you introduce a ball, it is very easy to have variants of a ball. Maybe we have a kicky ball so we’re juggling it most of the time like we’re playing [INSERT YOUR REGIONAL NAME FOR THE GAME THAT IS FOOTBALL IN MOST OF THE WORLD AND SOCCER IN AMERICA]. Maybe you have a holdy ball so you’re clutching it like you’re playing [INSERT YOUR REGIONAL NAME FOR THE GAME THAT IS FOOTBALL IN AMERICA AND BASICALLY RUGBY EVERYWHERE ELSE]. Maybe for some reason that makes senseonly to the designers, you’re playing lacrosse. Or golf. Who cares.
Now, the biggest problem here is that this would be the biggest deviation from whatFFXIV has done up until now. Traditionally,FFXIV jobs use weapons that look like and behave like weapons. You can have joke weapons mixed in there, but the default is a weapon. This would be the default being… well, a piece of sports equipment. But if you’re looking for something that will immediately look and feel unique, this would hit the target.
Dual pistols
Currently, Machinist has the Ninja Problem. It’s trying to be both The Job What Has A Gun and The Job That Assembles Machines. This is not unusual for the game, considering I just called it “the Ninja Problem” after the problem that got solved with Viper; Bardalso has that problem, and I suspect that whatever our crossbow-wielding job will be called is meant to alleviate that problem in a similar “close enough” fashion. Of course, the flip side is that one-handed pistols have been in the game, are wielded by a bunch of NPCs in various story moments (including Merlwyb), and generally keep getting brought back out as reminders.
I have no ideawhy they keep getting brought up when we keep not being able to interact with them beyond set dressing, but that’s the scenario we find ourselves in.
The obvious counter to this is to cite the idea that having a job just using a gun was uninteresting enough that it’s why we no longer get base classes, but that’s not true; the problem was that there was no way to make that new classnot just feel like Machinist (and that wouldn’t be an issue any longer, if we’re being realistic). Having this in the game would make a whole lot of sense and solve a lot of problems. The bigger problem is that itis just More Guns, so it might need some extra elements to make it really sing. But I think the space is there.
Bombs
Traditionally, bombs inFinal Fantasy games show up as main weapons when a given character is not supposed to use their main weapon. They’re not usually all that useful because their damage values are highly erratic and they’re more useful for inflicting status effects. Which might all sound like reasons why we can never and should never see them in the game, but I would point out that they’re actually pretty well-suited for the game as a result.
Why? Well, let’s break this down a few ways. First of all, bombs in this circumstance are something that we have definitely seenevidence of roaming throughout the game world (Bozja alone, right?) and they would fit for certain forms of warfare we know take place. A grenadier-style job could also map pretty naturally with a job that has something of a support role, packing bombs with debuffs to make the team more useful. It’s kind of a brute-force solution, but it could work!
Of course, the main problem with it is both that bombs are never very good weapons and also the fundamental weirdness that unlike every other sort of weapon, bombsare their own ammunition. The fact that Bards and Machinists seem to have a supply of arrows and bullets we never see isweird, but it’s way less weird than if the weapon they’reusing is also the weapon they should beusing up. Both of these issues aren’t inherently disqualifying, but it does make The Mad Bomber What Bombs At Midnight feel slightly less reasonable.
Cards/Darts
I’m grouping these together because these are both primarily seen as Weird Gambler Weapons that don’t make a whole lot ofsense but are definitely visually cool. Like, everyone knows that. Playing cards are not an actual throwing weapon, but they get pulled out as one more than occasionally because the idea of the ultimate card shark being able to do that is just worthy. And if you can’t get away with that, darts are something that have at least theadjacency to being a weapon while also still having the connection to a game.
Of course, the flip side is that these kind of naturally need to go with some kind of gambling-related job, which means that these have a much narrower field of potential themes to be considered. That doesn’t mean it’s impossible or even necessarily unlikely; it just means that unlike other weapons that could have a bunch of themes, this one is going to create a pretty clear limitation.
Feedback, like always, is welcome in the comments down below. Next week, I want to take a look at Crucible of the Unbroken in greater detail, both what went right with the content and what really didn’t.
The Nymian civilization hosted an immense amount of knowledge and learning, but so much of it has been lost to the people of Eorzea. That doesn’t stop Eliot Lefebvre from scrutinizingFinal Fantasy XIV each week in Wisdom of Nym, hosting guides, discussion, and opinions without so much as a trace of rancor.
