Wisdom of Nym: Guessing at the next jobs of Final Fantasy XIV beyond Endwalker

So what are our next few jobs in Final Fantasy XIV? No, I don’t mean for Endwalker, we already know what we’re getting there. I mean what are our next few jobs after the next expansion? What do you mean there’s no point in speculating about that because it’s not going to be here for more than two years? That makes it the perfect time to speculate because it means that it’s going to be a lot more fun to predict these things correctly when there’s nothing to go off of!

Now I will freely admit to having gotten predictions wrong before now, and that I will no doubt get predictions wrong again, and it’s entirely possible that what I’m using here for my criteria will be proven wrong and this will all be incorrect speculation. That having been said, based on the data points we currently have, I feel quite comfortable laying down some rules and making some speculation. So let’s dive in, shall we?

Let’s start with the premise, which is that with four expansions’ worth of job additions, I think we can make some pretty clear assertions about how the developers decide on new jobs being added to the game. While we can’t always be sure of exactly what those jobs will be, we can still feel reasonably confident that they’ll adhere to a few basic rules.

First and foremost, it seems as if a a two-expansion gap for something new added to a role is the maximum. Sage is the first new healer since Heavensward, as neither Stormblood nor Shadowbringers included a healer. That means that we had the longest wait time for a new healer up until now, but we’re no doubt going to have other roles with a long wait time. After all, with two new jobs per expansion and five roles, someone is going to be the odd one out after two expansions. It’s just basic math.

Second of all, we seem to have a subtle trend that’s been extant for every expansion: at least one melee option and one ranged option. Some people just really like being at range and some people really prefer getting into the paint. This ultimately works all right simply because melee can also include tanks and ranged can include healers, but it seems like the goal has consistently been to avoid having two ranged or two melee jobs in any given release.

No, Red Mage darting in and out of melee range does not count here.

Third and finally, no roles repeat for the immediately subsequent expansion. Again, this just makes sense. People speculated a new tank, DPS, and healer were possible for Stormblood, before it became clear we were getting just two new jobs, and they were both DPS that didn’t mirror what we got in Heavensward. We were specifically told that Gunbreaker was a tank in part to avoid making it another melee DPS. This is pretty straightforward.

So with all of these presumptions in place, can we guess at what’s coming next? I think we can pretty conclusively, so let’s start moving forward.

7.0: Aftermathwalkers: One of our new jobs is going to be a magical DPS. This much is obvious. We haven’t gotten a new one since Stormblood, and that means there’s a clear space to be filled here with a new caster of some type.

As for the other new job? Well, it’s obviously going to be melee and it’s not going to be another melee DPS because we have that in Endwalker, which means it’s going to be another tank. This makes a certain amount of sense, too; adding in another ranged DPS here would risk a certain amount of uniformity across new DPS, while this keeps a balance for two different roles.

8.0: Mathfighters: I’m curious to see how the game is going to handle the level cap at this point, since the game really does love its traditional series stuff and by this point the level cap will be over 100 compared to the traditional cap of 99. Sure, you can figure out some trick to give you a “mastery” symbol that’s functionally level 100, but for this expansion they’ll need another 10 levels or doing something really unusual…

Where was I? Oh, right, new jobs. Well, by this point we’ve been without a new ranged DPS for two expansions, so that’s an obvious fit for one of our new jobs here. Beyond that, though, if you want to keep the melee rule that probably means our other addition will be a new melee DPS as well. This one will almost certainly share Ninja gear, even if we’ve gotten a Limited job by that point sharing it.

9.0: Catmockers: By now you may have noticed a slight limitation with this model. With five roles, three of them ranged and two of them melee, melee does seem to be a little over-represented here. How else could you explain that you’re likely to see another tank with this particular expansion, meaning that tanks now outnumber healers? That’s a bit of a problem!

It’s not a huge problem, though, because this expansion should also feature a new healer since we won’t have seen one of those since Endwalker. I can’t help but feel like the game will be winding down a little bit by 2027, but hey, why be pessimistic for reasons beyond my natural omnipresent anxiety?

10.0: Codaplayers: That says codaplayers not Coldplay. Look, it’s a silly joke.

Anyhow, by this point we’re due for another magical DPS and another melee DPS… although I have to imagine the game is running down by this point with another MMO either released or in the works. Heck, for all I know this will be the last expansion-level update. That’s not a bad run, especially since we’re talking about something that’s way the heck out at this point.

Is any of this certain? Of course not. It’s totally possible that we’ll get two ranged DPS options in 7.0 and this will all be proven entirely wrong and get derailed pretty early on. These are observed rules rather than stated rules, and one thing that I think we’ve had repeatedly drilled into our heads at this point is that nothing explicitly stated as a rule is actually quite off-limits.

But I do think that it lines up with what we know at this point and what we’ve seen as a consistent operating philosophy throughout FFXIV. It means that we’re getting new jobs consistently and those new jobs serve a mix of roles and preferences, without any given expansion offering more of the exact same thing as the prior one. And it also speculates that we’ll see some pretty out-there offerings, since I don’t even want to start speculating on some of the things the developers will be drawing on to facilitate the necessary roles.

And hey, would I be me if I didn’t occasionally swing for the fences for predictions knowing that I could be wrong? Because if I get all this right then I’m going to look brilliant for guessing. Plus, you know, now we can start speculating more early!

Feedback, as always, is welcome via mail to eliot@massivelyop.com or down in the comments below. Next time, I want to take a look at what could be added to the game’s various magical jobs in Endwalker.