Not enough Mage Jobs available?

[mikelantel]

Do you guys agree or disagree? There are only two high level jobs for mages. Summoner and Bard. If you're going to do summoner, you really have to be dedicated and specifically get some help for those avatars. But seriously, they say you can do the avatars around level 60. So I have 15 levels of avatar fun? Yeah right. Screw that. Now you could be a bard. But if you sub bard you're horribly screwed. Bard can only really be used as a main. Not really fair if you ask me.
Now if you're a warrior you can be a dragoon, samurai, ninja, dark, or paladin. C'mon, am I the only one that sees the lame imbalance here? How many whm/blm, blm/whm characters do you see running around? Alot. So summoner isn't useful unless you have very high level friends, speak japanese, or have alot of patience to wait till 60. And bard? Can really only have it be your main job. SE needs to make a couple more mage jobs. Agree? Disagree?

[Caitsith]

Completely disagree, bard is a job u take at 30 and go, most are brd/whm which is an awesome job, summoner is a great sub for a large mp boost. Alot of blm or whm sub this and the garduda party blink at 50 is a nice bonus but what other jobs would be usefull in a pt i mean rdm, whm, and blm can handle anything what more do u need, the nice array of melee make pt's more interesting i mean there whm, rdm, blm, smn, and brd what else could u have, u have 2 main tank type pld and nin, u got drg, sam, drk thf and rng, and mnk which i find really rare as ur melee and bst is a solo i dont see hows its imbalanced 5-6-2 unless i forgot a job X_X

[CarbonFibre]

Since this game is my first experience with an MMORPG and the Final Fantasy series, I don't know much about this. I wanted to ask what types of jobs they've had in the other games that aren't in FFXI. The only one I know of (someone mentioned it to me) is the Blue Mage.

[Caitsith]

There arent many that are different they are basically all the same with different names, the only one i have yet to see not in Xi with really no job like it would be a necromancer

[Rones]

Now you could be a bard. But if you sub bard you're horribly screwed. Bard can only really be used as a main.

Not true for lvl 50+ whm/brd.

I really don't see a problem with it. The melees all have a lot of redudency in them, such as lots of different jobs all for the role of dmg dealing (sam, drk, war, rng). Each mage class has a fairly specfic role except be it healing, enfeebling, magic bursting, or mp management. SE would be hard pressed to add another mage class that wasn't just a mirror of one they already had.

So I have 15 levels of avatar fun?

Do it the proper way and lvl a job (whm works) to 60, get the avatars, and then begin lvling smn from lvl 1. That way you get all 75 lvls to use them and don't spend 60 lvls as a gimped smn.

[Dux]

Originally posted by Rones
Do it the proper way and lvl a job (whm works) to 60, get the avatars, and then begin lvling smn from lvl 1. That way you get all 75 lvls to use them and don't spend 60 lvls as a gimped smn.

I second that.

[mikelantel]

I agree, you really need to do the summoner job first with a high level character. I may have to do that. The only problem with bard as a sub is you can't use an instrument and can only do one at a time, with less potency, as you have no instrument. That's what sucks. I am currently trying to make the decision on whm/brd and figured I'd give it a try. When I'm in a party I hardly ever use my blm spells anyway. I only use them for magic burst now.

[FFXITsukasa]

I think they could use more Magic aligned Advanced Jobs. I mean Summoner is the only one, Bard can be losely called a Mage job. I want to see maybe just one more Mage Advanced Job. Im gonna be BLM/SMN and I get bad mouthed about it all the time, maybe if they had another Mage Advanced Job I would try it out. (Most likely not cause Summoning shit is just way too cool)

[Karinya]

Everything you thought you knew about SMN is now obsolete...

ok, not EVERYTHING, but the requirements to obtain Ifrit, Leviathan, Ramuh, Titan, Garuda and Shiva. There's now another set of quests to obtain them, which involves fighting them one-on-one. You must be a summoner main, capped at 20, and can't use any summon except Carbuncle.

Good luck - you'll need it.

But if you can do it, it's a hell of a lot faster than leveling to 60.

Anyway, with SMN now more accessible, there are five "mage" jobs (bard works like a mage job even though it has 0 MP), out of fifteen total jobs. No wonder melees (and yes, this includes hybrids like PLD and DRK - even RNG because of their lack of utility) have trouble finding parties.

[riceburner4540]

Im gonna be BLM/SMN and I get bad mouthed about it all the time, maybe if they had another Mage Advanced Job I would try it out. (Most likely not cause Summoning shit is just way too cool)

there is good reason that you are being badmouthed about blm/smn. it honestly just isn't very good. think summoning shit is cool? watch your summon die after 2 hits from the mob while missing every single hit. the only reason i can see for you subbing smn is for that extra 1 mp/tick, a slightly larger mana pool, and aerial armor (blinkga). if you insist on subbing summoner though, make sure you're always in a static party of 1 whm/mage and rdm/whm or brd/whm. those extra status cures, DS and cure spells are very useful. having your whm silenced would mean death to your party otherwise.

[Pilsbane]

Yeah, the balance of casters to melees in FFXI is way out of wack. 3 of the 6 starting jobs are casters, that is awesome balance. But then only 1 of the 9 advanced jobs is a caster (well 2 of 9 if you include bards as mages). 2 more of those melee advanced jobs (at least) should have been casters instead!

Edit: Instead of focusing on the negatives I thought I'd offer a possible mage advanced job idea...

--------------------------------------------

Call it Druid or Nature Mage or something like that. It would have to have a powerful role without stepping on the toes of the other mages too badly.

--------------------------------------------

Spells/Abilities would include:

Thorns, a player-targetable damage shield. Much like blaze spikes but can be cast on another person, such as the tank.

Wood Barrier, a player-targetable HP buff. Whitemages buff physical and magic defense but don't really buff HP directly. This would have several versions available over the levels, starting with a 50 HP buff at level 10.

Shapeshift Wolf/Tiger, turns caster into a wolf or sabertooth tiger. Would enhance speed (both run speed and attack speed, but not spell-casting speed) and defense.

Life Vine, a vine follows one player and regenerates hp for that player every 3 seconds. Basically a single-target Paeon-type spell that can only be on one player at a time. So if you cast Life Vine on one player then cast it on a second player, the vine will leave the first player and move to the second.

Spirit Vine, a vine follows one player and regenerates mp for that player every 3 seconds. Again like ballad but can only be on one player at a time. So if you cast it on the whitemage in the party then the other mages in the party will not have it. The vine would refresh 1 mp/3 seconds at level 25, 2 mp at 40 and 3 mp at 55.

Thunderstorm, a single target damage over time spell dealing a huge amount of wind and thunder damage. While costing a large amount of MP it does a lot more damage than the blackmage's shock.

Eruption, a single target damage over time spell dealing a huge amount of earth and fire damage. Same idea of Thunderstorm just different elements.

--------------------------------------------

For equipment the druid would be limited to leather-type armor or robes. For weapons the druid would have a B+ in hand-to-hand and would use claws. The druid would also be able to use wands for stats but in wolf or tiger form all attacks would be considered hand-to-hand.

HP-wise more than a Whitemage, less than a Redmage.
MP-wise less than a Whitemage, more than a Redmage.

The druid could use another mage job as a subjob, or even monk since it builds on the hand-to-hand idea. Druid/whitemage would probably be the most powerful combination for grouping but others would be plausible.

With the balance of shapeshifting, damage-shields, dots, hp-buffs and regen/refresh vines the job would be excellent both solo and in groups without making the others mages seem irrelevent. You'd still want a blackmage for nukes. You'd still want a whitemage for heals. You'd still want a redmage or bard for dispel and refresh. Being able to refresh/ballad all the casters as a redmage or bard would be much better than "refreshing" only one person as a druid.

[CarbonFibre]

I think a magic job (maybe) focused on the shapeshifting aspect of your idea would be cool. You could use a certain amount of MP to be able to morph into any mob that you or your party has previously defeated. You could morph into something that is strong against what you are fighting and use its special moves and stuff once you gain a certain amount of experience using that shapeshift.

*edit: The job may be too much like BST from what I just said.

[Nodoka]

I'd rather see a mage focus in Dark/Light magic. BLM don't get many dark magic spells (Drain, Aspir, Stun.. wow), so there really isn't a dark element you can do much damage with. Maybe they can get the entire banish line with flash, and all the dark spells (absorbs), with skills only in Divine/Dark/Enhancing. Would be cool if they got some support stuff, and maybe endark and enlight. ;D

[Valcarde]

Originally posted by Pilsbane

Call it Druid or Nature Mage or something like that. It would have to have a powerful role without stepping on the toes of the other mages too badly.

Heh. After reading the spells and abilites, sounds like someone is a Diablo II fan =P

[Cooncon]

Well, I honestly think there is just a lack of healing classes in general, since it seems like such a requirement to have a whm in the party.

I personally feel that the summoner should have an effective curing/buffing summoning or two.

Also to see a Blue Mage that can also gather effective healing magic.

This way not all parties have to be dependent on having a white mage.