The first installment of our new theory crafting series for FFXIV Jobs.
The update video: https://youtu.be/C_bSfjXLq-c
Intro – 0:00
The Format – 01:16
Disclaimer – 02:00
Overview of Corsair – 03:34
Main Gimmick – 06:20
AOE Rotation – 08:00
OGCD Abilities – 08:25
Limit Break – 09:45
Current Design Issues – 10:28
Closing Thoughts – 11:26
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No offense treasure hunter wouldn't version 1 where they have to search around the arena for items wouldn't work 🙄
I think if it's supposed to be a hybrid melee and ranged, it should have at least one GCD button that lets it use the range opposite its chosen stance, and rather than being locked down to any stance or having incentives, you could just have the stance swap button have like a 30s cooldown and make melee do a bit more damage because uptime is pain.
As a necessary consequence though, the ranged attack in melee stance would have to suck, and the melee attack in ranged stance could be fairly strong but won't combo into anything
One thing to note when playing with alcohol or drugs in media:
If there is perceived benefit from said items, it's normally a cause to either increase the classification to higher to Adults Only or, in the case of Australia, outright ban the media itself.
Would only recommend having rum related attacks but maybe not buffs
Going to be honest, I'm not sure I'm really behind the concept of a "versatile" job. Let's be honest, the jobs in ffxiv don't really allow for a lot of variation in how they are played. BLM, for example, needs to be played as swapping between astral fire and umbral ice, you can't really play are pure ice mage or fire mage like you would in WoW. So having a job focused on being versatile is already extremely at odds with the rest of the jobs, to the point where I worry that they will clash. I like sugar, but I wouldn't pour it on a salad.
I also don't love the First Mate concept, because it sounds like it effectively completely changes the job playstyle depending on if you play solo or with a group. The only time you're going to use First Mate is in a party setting, most likely one that's being strategic and planning beforehand, meaning that you likely never have a reason to use it outside of that, so you have completely different rotations there. I just feel that the job playstyle should be more consistant.
I actually like the various rum moves, I think it goes well with the idea that pirates wouldn't fight be orthodox methods and disciplined fighting styles. There is a lot of item equiping and un-equiping, though: you start with a sword and a pistol, then sheath the sword to pull out another pistol, than switch them back, then put the pistol away to throw a bottle of rum, then take the gun again, then put it back for dual swords…it's a lot of hand movements and redrawing weapons. Not impossible, since MCH does the same thing, but needs to be careful visually. I'd actually suggest that the treasure chest BE the weapon instead, to justify the number of things that get swapped in and out.
Sorry if it sounds like I'm just complaining. I tend to have an easier time pointing out (what I think are) flaws then coming up with benefits.
I've always seen corsair as a sort of reverse red mage, having primarily melee focus with ranged gauge spenders.
I don't know much on how to design a job but i woes thinking maybe to have the melee rotation bee the rotation where you plunder loot depending on the combo you get different chest like a Blue chest (Magic base buffs) Red chest (Physical base buff) Green Chest (Defensive base chest) and a Golden chest after you discover all the chest that empower the last chest you did, while have the range to be like a seeking face where you collect "resources" to find the chests
so in theory you start range building a something (nothing is coming in mi mind) and then plunder by doing a certain combo to get a color chest then you back off to range again do this 3 time to get a golden chest so its like Blue to Red to Green to empower Green
and depending on the fight you can empower Red Blue or Green
sorry if its messy i just woke up seeing this video and the idea pop out im just curios to see if someone finds it interesting or can evolve this idea knowing more than me
i see it working in the same fashion as RDM where you swap between ranged and melee, but it would be interesting to see some hybrids put it place. it seems like all the bases are covered so it seems the logical path is to embraces a new kind of play style.
I like the direction so far, and you answered my concern about the hybrid gauge with First Mate, but here are my ideas for things to change:
Treasure Chest: I like the idea of it being a tiered mechanic, where you can use it immediately for a small effect or wait for a big one. I'd actually like to suggest making the first tier something like the Corsair pulling out an orange and munching it for a heal (100-150 potency?). It would make the mechanic a lot more solo friendly, and I don't think it would affect party play as you'd have to give up your built up gauge to do it. Tier 2 could be something like throwing (cursed) coins (little reference to pirates of the Caribbean) at the enemy for significant damage (~270 potency?), and tier 3 could be sending up a signal flare/throwing coins/throwing the entire chest backwards off screen and having a ship's cannon be fired from off screen that does massive damage to the target (350+ potency?). I think the cannon fits better as a big finisher type thing than an OGCD. You could also give both coins and cannon the "split damage if aoe" clause that way you have incentive to use them during pulls in dungeons. I would also tie this into X marks the Spot, using that spell as the activator, and causing each damaging ability used against the target to generate Treasure (Could represent it as gold coins and every X coins makes the chest icon visually fancier). I think you could keep or remove the damage buff from that ability, I don't really see an issue with it still providing a damage buff while being the job mechanic activator. If you do remove it, you could attach it to the cursed coins from Tier 2, so every Tier has an enticing purpose.]
Blank Shot: I'd definitely make this a crit buff and not a damage buff. I think it just fits better for a Corsair thematically.
Cannon: As previously mentioned, this doesn't really feel like it would make as much sense as an OGCD. You could replace it with the Oppo-oppo appearing, pulling out two guns (or swords if used in melee), and giving the enemy a quick one-two, then you could just rename it to "Captain's Buddy" or something like that?
Throw Anchor: Make it a rope/grappling hook instead? Anchors are heavy, so a dex character throwing one like it's no big deal doesn't vibe well in my head.
As for the limit break, my vote is for a ghost ship, kraken, or maybe a couple smaller ships. Maybe ranged gets the ship(s) and melee gets the kraken?
Regarding the design issues, I think it's fine to let players pick a role and stick with it, or let them change their First Mate on a 400sec recast timer or something. For incentives to play melee, I think melee combos already do more damage than ranged so I think it's fine to let that extra dps be the incentive to play melee. Otherwise you're going to risk pulling players towards one or the other if you give one benefits the other doesn't get.
I love it
So, LB3 could easily be a ranged dps LB3. Big ship rises up behind you and fires all the cannons on one side in a line over you.
As for the melee/ranged skills, they could always work in a similar aspect to red mage. Ranged skills power up your melee skills/engage and disengage skills. And as a corsair it could involve fighting dirty too. Traps and tricks being a part of it's toolkit.
The first mate idea sounds amazing, though.
The gauge idea is good but how about you expend the whole gauge to change role so you change from cutlass to gun by expending the gauge do that cause then that way it doesn't get in the of all the roles in the party
I liked the idea of the Ghost Ship LB3, though in keeping it as a Physical Ranged effect, why not have a "Brace for Impact!" style to it, where the ship literally rushes in a straight line from the sky (think Pendulum style), before taking off again? Incorporates the ship, as well as a leaning heavily into the Ghost aspect that was mentioned then and there, not even counting the aspect of a Hit and Run tactic used with Ramming Ships to cause chaos.
Additionally, before I go and read/thumbs up some comments, I thought I'd drop these as well, to see what people think of.
For AoE rotation, you could toss a Molotov before shooting it midair, or for melee, the Blunderbuss was an absolutely fantastic idea. If you wanted a follow up, to follow the 1-2 rotation NIN has (as they share gear), you could then have them toss a hand bomb, or (like mentioned in the video), pull out a cannon from nowhere and stand proudly next to it, before it shoots, blowing itself backward into the aether.
Finally, I would LOVE some kind of Plank Stun. I know that all the Melee and Ranged lost their separate stuns and silences, now sharing Leg Sweep and Head Graze, but I would adore the ability to "plank" someone, by stepping on a board on one end, having it pop up/out and hit them. Yes, very old fashion cartoony style, but it would be hilarious, and an "accidental attack" would totally be something a Pirate in FFXIV would have and repurpose.
Great idea and a fun theme for the class but…
It needs a lot of focusing on the theme. A short way you can describe in three words (or ideas) and get the idea of everything the job does. Spear + Dragon + Jump = Dragoon, Fists + Martial forms + Speed = Monk, Gun + Gadgets + Automata = Machinist, Fortune + Heavens + Manipulation = Astrologian, BIG sword + Dark magic + Edge/grit = Dark Knight etc.
Currently the Corsair idea is Cutlass + Flintlock + Animal pals + Range shift + Booze + Fire + Treasure + Crew + Cannon + Ghosts. Way to many ideas. It's one thing to have something stick out from the theme such as Scathe for Black Mage not being fire or ice but it doesn't really try to add its own theme and is there to fill a practical purpose of being a filler skill to use while moving.
I think any of the themes mentioned can fit a Corsair but at the moment there are to many and you can split them off into multiple Job ideas.
I really like the dual weapon idea with the cutlass and flintlock. It also fits the world really well. Very Limsan. Though I think the hybrid style suggested isn't as flexible as you imagine. A corsair would not be able to flex freely to fill in either a melee or ranged spot for a raid mechanic but would instead require the raid to flex around what part of their rotation they are in or loose damage which in turn might delay a phase change and end up changing what empowerment they end up ready with again. Delaying the melee/ranged empowered phase on a job whos identity is based on melee/ranged flexibility would feel pretty bad.
preferred
Going back to the three words/ideas concept at the top of this post I think Corsair could have Cutlass & Flintlock as one idea if they both feel integral to the Job rather than options and they work in tandem. Example being that all GCD skills and abilities use the Cutlass and all oGCD skills use the Flintlock in some way or if you had to balance your starboard/larboard attacks (cutlass/flintlock) in some way similar to black and white mana. I don't think they'd work as a single idea if they complement each other such as single target and AoE abilities or purely melee and ranged. Complementing each other they'd still, in my mind, take up two slots.
For the Treasure Hunter I'd like to throw in my own take on the idea based on your suggestions. If there is one thing Pirates are known for more than digging up treasure it would be burying it. The chest would contain three to five different treasures (buffs or effects) and you'd build up to plunder it for one piece of treasure. However, once you have taken a treasure it is out of the chest and your option next time it comes around will be to plunder it again for one of the remaining treasures or to bury all your booty, returning them to the chest so that they can be pulled again. If you pull a "bad" treasure I'd keep plundering it as only the goodies remain and if you only have a "bad" one left you'd opt to bury your haul before emptying the chest fully.
I hope I've not come off as purely negative. I really do like the idea of the Job suggestion.
The three words/ideas is also not some rule I've pilfered from the Square-Enix office but something I made on the spot that felt like a good guideline or tool to keep the idea focused. It can be discarded as easily as it was made up but I do feel that it has at least some merit.
Okay I kinda really rather the melee stance more seems more fun to me, but I'm a MCH main. Do like the use of rum and well the Ghost Ship gets my vote for limit break. I think the pulling big cannons out and using animals to help though are just too goofy. I know we have reaper but as I really want Necromancer and might never get it the idea of summoning a ghostly crew could really make it less goofy. So for the cannon it is actually the cannoneer's ghost. Lean into the ghost pirate stuff. Sure it might be like reaper but rather then fuse with the voidsent you are bossing around a gang of ghost or skeleton or ghost skeleton pirates. The treasure mechanic could be tied to the crew looking for their lost booty and whatever they find is cursed but as the crew is dead it harms the enemy or buffs the party cause again crew is dead. The job teacher could be the skull of the pirate captain. Like the vid though!
DRAK, YOU AND I HAVE THE SAME BRAIN ?! GIVE ME BACK MY THOUGHTS
A class like this could be really fun, but I doubt SE would put something like this in the game since its not really following the trend that is emerging within the game and that is to make everything as "dumb" as they can get away with. Look at SMN, was it bloated and beginner unfriendly ? Yes, but when mastered, the class was really fun for those who enjoy a more complicated job, now its literally 6 to 8 buttons spam.
Something with switching roles is maybe, as you are in the ranged role it would fill the melee guage, and when you switch to melee it would be buffed untill that guage depletes, and while in the melee role a ranged guage would fill, so that when you switch to ranged, the ranged attacks would be buffed, adding a sort of rotation. Maybe while your using a buffed role it would increase the chances of finding the treasure you look for, or even allow certain abilities to be available while In a buffed role.
wtf, Im halfway through as I type this and am sold already! very smart breakdown of how it can be implemented while also using stuff we have in game already.
this is gonna sound weird but I feel like your design would work a lot better in a different MMO that wasn't constrained by FFXIV's party sizes and roles. I think the concept has some solid stuff in it, but it feels like you're already adding a lot of exceptions at the concept stage. Particularly considering the overall streamlining that the FFXIV dev team seems to strive towards, such a mold breaker as your corsair really clashes with their designs.
It's really late so I can't expand too much but i feel like if you want to keep it centered around FFXIV the design would benefit a lot from being a melee dps first and foremost. You could then have some melee finishers/OGCDs drop treasure behind you (so you control when and where the treasure goes to an extent), and switch to using your pistol for a short time ala MCH overcharge to go pick up the treasure without losing uptime. If this doesn't make sense, i'll come back tomorrow morning and try and elaborate lol
In general, I like where you're going. Something that always has to be kept in mind is the min/max crowd and their effect on how jobs are perceived. If one mode results in higher rdps than the other, that's it boys, pack it up. I still think First Mate is a great idea, but maybe just a more general buff to your off-stance meter that isn't role dependent.
I love the idea of a melee and ranged cycle, though. I just don't see a way to "main" one or the other without one of them ending up being "wrong." Especially since now you're stuck making two separate but equally engaging combat loops.
The random buff/damage sounds really cool, but I don't think an arena collectible is the solution here (too many variables). What about a dice roll mechanic tied into the finisher combo like continuation, and you get some combination of 3 effects (or up to triple the strength of a single effect)?
I'm generally against sidekicks, just a personal thing, but I'm not a fan of the helping critters. Instead of a colibri carpet bomb, perhaps a cannon shot from offshore?
I fondly remember Corsair from back in the day, and I'd be super enthused to pick up a modernized take on the job!
I like the idea of treasures of getting items to make it stronger kind of like samurai(getting stuff from rotations)but I would think to have it be knocked off the boss and have to fill the bar to grab the items. so grab the items so something like dragoons jump that switches your stance form sword to gun and vice versa.
The main hand weapon could be melee and off hand could be range. Would be useful for glam.
Another idea. Make the job as a melee support and add dice mechanic from ffxi.
Alright so to start the base theming of the Corsair is good maybe a different name to something more Limsa related if that is the intended starting location.
I also enjoy the cyclical nature of the core abilities. The main problem I can foresee is it being classified as a physical ranged job while roughly half its kit designed to be standing in melee, this to me would have been better suited as a being declared as melee DPS as then they would be able to do their full loop without having to move from the boss, to preform a "ranged mechanic".
Also with the current implementation of First Mate; just to smooth out consistency it would be better to specify that giving it to a healer or tank would count as a ranged and melee respectively as this then accounts for double ranged/melee dungeon groups.
As for the treasure chest ideas I would lean toward the third option as this the one least likely to interfere with mechanics and fight design, because it is the most basic implementation.
Finally I thought the OGCD's were neat and quirky and would round out the corsair as they swapped between cutlass and pistol, not sure about the oppo oppo and parrot but they would be neat as effects but definitely not as constant things on the battlefield.
Thanks for the video and I look forward to the next iteration!
I'd love an exorcist support job as a caster.
Using talismans to buffs allies
As much as I enjoy the whole 'running around the arena for loot' system of filling the gauge, it would feel incredibly bad if the loot fell away from you and you couldn't go to it because of mechanics, so it just sits there taunting you the entire time; especially if it has a duration so it fades out before you can get over to it after the mechanic.
I feel like corsair would have to go on a similar route to what it is known as 'Outlaw Rogue' from WoW. One of the problems I find with it is that it would probably clip a little too much with Machinist and Ninja (at least the Rogue part) in the aspect of animations and with Red Mage in the aspect of class design (the whole ranged into melee and viceversa). Also, adding randomness on a "melee" class could be an interesting idea, since it would be the only one with a random proc or some random process on the melee side, although I struggle to think about the 'finding' treasure part and how it would be implemented to not bloat animations on the boss. It is a good idea tho, supported by the lore of the game and I can see me having fun using it.
my initial thought of a Corsair was "that would be an interesting tank class" and I immediately jumped to a range of skills that focus on lowering enemies's physical parameters like atk or def down, a resource gimmick that rewards killing mobs with said resource or slowly plundering from combo actions. don't get me wrong, a physical ranged hybrid is also a cool idea, but tank was just my first thought because pirates in fantasy genres are often chauvinistic and taunt other of their journeys and treaures.
I was also thinking that maybe not so much a pirate the thieves we see in world, but more so a sky pirate like FF12 since that world is already tied to Eorzea.
my only concern with a hybrid class is that with the way bosses and raids are evolving, I wouldn't want to forcibly switch from melee or ranged to finish big damage combos like red mage, id much rather a penalty closer to black mage, where as if I stay in in ranged stance for too long, my pistol runs out of ammo and I do reduced damage, or my cutlass gets dull from sword fighting too long, just something that keeps me switching both stances without relying on switching to finish out my combo but rather keep my uptime damage.
I am happy everyone thinks like I am. I wanna be a pirate D:
Overall, I love the concepts presented here – Corsair is a flashy, bombastic choice – it fits the nimble aesthetic Scouting gear already gives, and it offers a new avenue of immersion and roleplay that has been a part of FFXIV ever since even 1.0 – we literally have a whole city full of pirates as a starting location, how is there not a pirate class!?
My current thinking, having gone through the concepts presented, is the overall focus needs to be pulled inwards, rather than dabbling outwards. While monkeys, rum, parrots, and cannons are part of the visual oeuvre we associate with corsairs, pirates, and swashbucklers, I do not think they necessarily belong within the kit. Machinist already has the niche of bringing a wide variety of tools and weapons to suit their needs, and given there already being overlap with the shared use of firearms, care needs to be taken in keeping their identities separate – we do not want people looking at Corsairs lobbing explosive barrels and just thinking it's a variation on Machinist's flamethrower.
In my opinion, the goal should be to define a clear niche for the job in the melee category, and one stands out clearly to me that you touch upon in the video – support melee DPS. Ninja for years had a suite of tools to play into the support fantasy, but many of those have been lost over the years – they no longer play a role in enmity management, interrupts, TP management, or reduced resistances. Ninja's current support claim-to-fame is still Trick Attack/Mug, and that's just increasing damage for the party – Dragoons have Battle Litany, Monk has Brotherhood and Mantra, and Reaper has Arcane Circle and Arcane Crest. At-current, most melees have support abilities for the party, but there is no clear frontrunner in who the 'support melee DPS' is.
So, what do we do? We make Corsair the support melee DPS.
I think a prime area of exploration should be looking to FFXI's Corsair for inspiration. FFXI's Corsair was a not-too-shabby melee DPS with a big emphasis on utility support via rolling dice and essentially gambling. Gambler is sometimes mentioned as a potential new job for XIV, and while pure chance for effects is a really awful idea (talk to Dancer Mains and Bards for how they feel when their openers don't give enough procs), the aesthetic style could be retained and used. Maybe the Corsair fantasy revolves around using loaded dice to confer buffs to their allies, leading the crew with roaring rallying cries or debuffing the enemy with jeering japes and insults. Ninja fulfills the mystical, brooding, pensive shinobi aesthetic – make Corsair loud, bombastic, and the center of any brawl he finds himself in.
Mechanically, you could have it work within the system laid out here – a paired set of melee and ranged combos that interact with each other, but perhaps replace the gauges with 'Loaded Dice'. Loaded Dice would function similar to Samurai's Sen and Astrologian's Signs – the goal would be to accumulate these Loaded Dice, then spend them on big, bombastic finishers that act as party support tools. Perhaps the combos would belong to shared chains that, depending on the order of completion, would grant you different Loaded Dice – Melee 1, 2, and 3 grants the Melee Dice, Ranged 1, 2, and 3 grants the Ranged Dice, and some combination of Melee and Ranged grants the Mixed Dice; you could string together Melee 1, Ranged 2, and Melee 3 and still have it count as combo, sort of taking the idea of branching combos to their extreme (and acting similar to Monk's stances, but with less options). Then, you could spend them on various finishers based on the dice accumulated, with different combinations of dice granting differing effects – Three Melee is your basic filler finisher, Three Ranged could be some sort of utility, and 1 Melee 2 Ranged and 2 Melee 1 Ranged could be some other variety of buffs/party utility tools. In this way, you would be encouraged to stay in melee with the boss – you need/want access to your melee combo to generate your Melee Dice, but if you disengage with the boss, you still have windows where you can do so without losing as much uptime – think Ninjas outside of Ten-Chi-Jin being able to execute most of their Mudra phase skills outside of melee range. There are a ton of options on how this could play out, or how it would allow for flexibility in the role similar to how Ninja has in some instances, while still avoiding the issue presented of essentially becoming a budget ranged physical DPS – you could sit in ranged for parts of your rotation, but if you can't access your melee combo, you're only having access to your Ranged Dice finishers, which would severely limit who and what you could do – if you're coming up on a 3 Ranged Dice finisher, you can easily disengage the boss for ~20-30 seconds for mechanics and still be just as effective, but it would ensure that you can't always stay at ranged and still benefit from being a melee DPS – very much how Paladin right now can disengage from melee during Requiescat for ~20 seconds and do other mechanics, but ultimately they have to go back to melee. Think that, but with more potential flexibility in where in the fight you could execute that particular portion of the rotation.
This is a very surface-level read of the concept – I have no head for balancing and will not pretend to do so here, but I do feel it would be an area to explore if we were to tighten the concept of Corsair a bit further than it is presented here. specters
I have a few ideas I'd be happy to discuss with you regarding Corsair. Is there a Discord or site I can contact you at? If not I'll just tell you here. Sadly I don't do Twitch.
Initially, this idea sounds wack haha, almost like designing the ultimate DPS. As you pointed out a lot of things do indeed need to be considered and I am looking forward to seeing how this gets refined.
The idea of the scattered "loot" the corsair has to retrieve sounds good in theory, but how does it get placed is something to consider, is it thrown around the target? How would you prevent it from landing in death zones or out of bounds? IF they have fixed spots tied to arenas what about dungeons, more importantly historic ones. Assuming that the treasure mechanic isn't the max level capstone ability there could be a lot of dungeons that would need spawn points added to them for the corsair loots.
Hopefully that's something you tackle in the refinement 😀
Intriguing. You missed two obvious limits that I'm kinda surprised didn't show up in your chat. First for the ranged. Sticking to the line AoE other ranged have why not have a ship appear and barrage the area. A cannonade idea. For the melee you "could" take from the ninja with a multi attack idea, but with other pirates rushing with a large explosion finisher. Those would keep the class more in line with the other XIV classes and not force the devs to make a new limit style just for 1 class.
Aaaaaa, my Starboard/larboard idea made in the video! <3
Love this format by the way
The treasure idea is neat. The buffs/debuff treasures is good. Since you went with Dex melee/ranged maybe try to keep it with a similar raid role as NIN and DNC. That looks like what you are going for. Current ff14 doesn't have many debuffs so having a class doing both could be a great help. Using the treasure makes it so you cant keep all of them at once so other debuffs ans raid utility isnt over shadowed just more options
the first mate idea is striking to me but feels like it could be inherently flawed with this class setup. The relation to the sects AST used to have was apt in that regard, like maybe you can't change them while in combat. Then, First Mate seems like it would be an excellent ability. But later you introduced the idea of swapping stances in combat – that would mean, if you're swapping a lot, that possibly at LEAST 50% of the time your first mate buff would be useless. I feel like you need to choose one or the other – either make it possible to swap in combat with no first mate buff as described here, or make it locked once combat starts so that the chosen first mate buff will be guaranteed to provide some benefit. Either way, it's still a fun idea. I would constantly be begging to be first mate lmao. I can see my bf and I playing COR and DNC together and just buffing each other tbh rofl.
Also! A suggestion for the melee and ranged combo, is that it can more or less be made to play like RDM and RPR combined! Perhaps when your gauge fills in one form, it allows you to enter a stance not unlike shroud. In this stance, you get a set number of attacks you can spend, which come from the opposite stance but are empowered for the duration of this timer. So that means if you are ranged, your burst brings you into melee like for rdm – where you leap into the fray to deliver your melee attacks, and leap out for a finisher. Swap it around for melee stance.
The basic rotation moves do already sound fun, though, in name alone if nothing else. I think the idea of having a canon' out of nowhere' for ogcd is fine too, considering the MASSIVE tool that MCH pulls outta their A** for using drill, air anchor, etc.. And I like the idea that in design it would use a little animal companion of some sort. It hearkens back to Sastasha, where the pirate captain has a colibri pet, for the most simple and spoiler free example.
I also would LOVE to see more made out of the Sky Pirates in the game too, and feel like they could heavily be involved in the lore of a corsair as you level one up. They're such a unique story and faction in ff14 and I would absolutely love to see more of them, distinct from the Mhachi stuff.
My main gripe is that the description here of treasure hunter abilities and how they might possibly work is just so vague. I do kind of like the idea that, since it shares scouting gear, it could be an equally challenging and busy job (AKA, treasure hunting is basically just mudras). I especially like the idea because having another type of doton-like ability would be really fun. I enjoy the classes that like to jump in and mess up the battlefield for their benefit. So the caltrops thing sounded really fun, esp cuz it brings a bit of a D&D feeling into the game – that was one of the most useful low level things I could do sometimes as a rogue type hahaha. Don't underestimate the power of STEPPING ON LEGOS!
I cannot believe you didn't consider the Agni Rudra sword master combo or something like rebellion and ebony/ivory combo lb. Keeping it to its wildly crazy antics. Also I think the gun can be an off-hand like a shield for asthetic effect.