We continue the (unofficial) development of Corsair for FFXIV.
Big thanks to Veriiatsu & ScribbleLiz for the artwork.
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If this is the first you're seeing of this series, be sure to check out the first video for more context: https://youtu.be/pLa6CqqAEKQ
We aren't trying to get a job made in the game, just engaging in a creative exercise to see if we can come up with something functional and interesting in line with FFXIV design concepts we're already familiar with. So have fun with the discussion 🙂
I was thinking of a class that unlike Machinist, is more damage inducing but at the expense of not having too much movement. Was thinking the name could be HeadHunter or something and it would have the snipe attack from the Machinists PvP moveset.
Hmmm the buff banner throw, unless the aoe is small, I dont think would make a lot of sense to throw it off you. With the most recent 2 min buffs will all classes there would be no situation where you wouldn't want to throw the banner at someone else. The best way to use the banner throw would be to make it have a defensive or regen buff in like the area of a Cure 3 radius then it would make more sense to throw it then the regular damage buff would be the 30 yalms.
Ok, so…
The aoe with blind ability is a good idea. Not many melees have utility like that. However, the caltrops are a bit much and would almost make this proposed job a bit too much of a 'necessity' for dungeons. That level of mitigation/control on enemies is quite a lot. Remember, there's more than just normal dungeons, there's deep dungeons and with criterion slowly becoming a thing, we might see a return of harder dungeons if they figure out how loot works.
First mate is not a bad idea but giving responsibility of one class to another is more of a hindrance for the first mate. Especially ones who have a very specific rotation or during their burst.
2 min burst, sadly, a necessity in this day and age, but seems…odd. FFXIV's stats are wonky at best, you tell me what piety does, so having something that flatly increases direct hit rate and not damage makes me tilt my head at how that could be beneficial moreso than, say, Bard songs or Technical step.
The full ammo pack leading to a 50% dmg buff from the gun just firing on its own…I'll be blunt, needs to be cut. You want the player to spend them almost as soon as possible to get to the black spot and keep it in line with party buffs. You'd have to make the corsair's rotation VERY weak to justify to the player to expend their resources. If the black spot is even considered to be in their burst and not the dual wield (Spelled wrong, I'm sorry for pointing it out)
Overall, this is just a fun exercise, take criticisms with a grain of salt.
I love this idea and concept so much.
I was after a Gambler for the next class, since I love old fashioned ff rng abilities. I thought a magic melee would be nice
I forgot this was gonna be parts
Guess I'll have to make another video too lol. Though this video is much more streamlined so I might have to wince to take some decent notes
As a controller player i too hate having to position stuff so i appreciate it just being at my feet. the only exception i have is Asylum but thats because generally i like being able to aim that wherever the tank and boss are
AT LONG LAST, PART 2 LIIIIIIIIVES!!! In all seriousness, this was dope to find since I really enjoyed the Original concept you threw out forever ago
Maybe streamline a few of the concepts given; the suggestions below are assuming the intended role is DPS:
– Melee combo generates job gauge resource "Avarice", step one grants 5, step two grants another 5, and step three grants 10. Avarice is also built up from their two-part AoE combo, with step one granting 5, and step two granting 15. Avarice is spent on either a high-damage single-target GCD or an AoE variant, both of which would cost 20 gauge to use (Avarice gauge caps at 100). Use of the before mentioned GCD grants stacks of Plunder (up to 3), and having even a single stack of Plunder grants access to an AoE damaging oGCD without fall-off, call it "Man the Cannons!", which has higher potency the more stacks you're sitting on. This would be the main basic rotation.
– Corsair 60 second ability "To the Depths" would grant the Corsair a +15% damage buff and +10% damage taken debuff and grant 8 stacks of Dread on a 20 second timer; while under the effects of Dread, GCD weaponskill recast time is reduced to 1 second. To the Depths can also be cancelled manually through an ability that would share it's button, "Return to Surface", which would also reduce the recast time for To the Depths depending on remaining charges of Dread. This ensures Corsair can freely engage encounters and enter their high-damage rotation quickly, and also allows for skill expression in old-school stance dancing to avoid boosted damage taken.
– Corsair 120s utility "Rally to the Roger!" would function as a direct hit buff, but would be a placed 30-yalm AoE that you would have to be in to receive the benefit of. To differentiate this from other similar utility buffs, Rally to the Roger would share a button with another ability, "Pirate's Delight", which would provide a mid-potency heal to everyone inside the AoE. This would automatically be triggered at the end of the effect duration.
– For the Reload ability, it'd be better to not have it tied to the main rotation and automatically consume stacks, it'd be too easy to skip using it; instead, we could have a Blunderbuss ability that ties into the Avarice mechanic and can only be used when Avarice exceeds 10, and using Blunderbuss would shoot a 30-yalm huge conal AoE and will remove all accumulated Avarice for more damage dealt the more Avarice is consumed, and grants only grants one stack of Plunder while over 20 Avarice expended. This would help to burn leftover Avarice before phase changes.
– Corsair ranged attack would be a flintlock pistol.
– Additional ideas: Keelhaul, oGCD grants 40 Avarice on a 30s recast. Boarding Party, 15-yalm gap closer. Cast Off, 15-yalm backstep. Undertow, oGCD grants a single stack of Plunder on a 60s recast. Hardtack, heals self or party member for a mid-potency heal and grants a 10%-HP shield on a 90s recast.
– Corsair's melee limit break could be summoning an ethereal pirate ship to turn and unload a full point-blank broadside, appropriately titled "Broadside Barrage".
I can see how this theorycraft would be pretty boring as it doesn't really bring any new mechanics to the table, but it's a start.
Drak, did you have fun saying Booty so many times?
god i just really want a Gambler Combat Job in the similar vein that WAKFU has. ALSO ALCHEMIST COMBAT JOBS FUCK, Ninja atm is a Melee Alchemist if you just replace Mudra with Chemicals and Ninjutsu with Reactions. I know why so many games dont try for either of these, Inbalance and Inconsistency due to their Nature as Jobs, but wow i would fucking love either of them
it sounds kind of like you want the pistol to be both part of the main combo and something you save for being away from the boss which sounds like it doesn't mix well.
corsair has a 3 gcd combo. switching stances swaps between gun and sword and resets combos.
gun stance does more damage than melee stance; allows you to reload bullets one at a time, works like monk's chakra and up the max to 6 so you can store a full combo; and generates less/no booty
melee stance generates more booty and allows you to reload while doing damage.
first mate generates booty by hitting enemies. I don't know if I want the buff to change any based on the class you pick or the stance.
on a personal note I think it would be cool if corsair's ogcd's that generated booty were stuff like calling ghost pirates or sending a parrot at an enemy and the booty is spent on the ship
I really appreciate the hard work you and your team go through for these and I feel like this is a great second draft of the Corsair, I think personally that the stances are great though I wonder if they will be able to switch stances similar to how red mage can. As far as the smokescreen I do like the idea of a debuff, though instead of a dot how about some kind of status effect instead? Something like a CC effect like paralysis or sleep. This way we could say the powder in the smokescreen was made with herbs as well as gunpowder. Likewise for the DoT I could see it being applied to the caltrops though at a higher level, the base caltrops would slow movement for a number of seconds. also why not make it stackable up to 3 times lowering mobs speed by around 75% and the upgraded version would do like up to 15% of damage over time. Or something like that.
I want a Corsair class to be implemented so badly. Same with a Beastmaster type class. But I love this concept and would have far too much fun talking about grabbing my First Mate's booty.
This iteration runs into major issues of making all existing ranged jobs obsolete.
Black spot finisher is hyperdrive
Booty dual wield is a hyper hyperdrive.
First mate is still a lot like dance partner, but a resource booster for yourself instead of dmg boosting the partner.
Jolly Roger completely eliminates Battle Voice, which along with Radiant Finale, are 2 of bard's most potent buffs due to the 2 minute window of max dmg sync.
The skills by their nature are copying all the good and unique things from the 3 current ranged DPS classes and putting it into 1 class. So why would anyone want a ranged DPS class when you can take Corsair and have all 3.
I'm liking the concept so far Drak, especially the changes you implemented with the feedback you got, and it's making me want to see what you would do for something more like Rune/Mystic Knight, or Viking, or even an Evoker(that might just be the Summoner in me wanting a 'melee' version to see how that would go down.)
With the removal of the blackjack system from Corsair, it would allow design space for Gambler to be a thing… you know if they do something like this. (I know Astro is a thing, but I want my Gambler!)
feel like Gangplank from League of Legends helps in the inspiration of this creation.
I think it might be a bit too much for modern ff14 job design with the booty stuff. but overall I like the idea presented. having the first mate thing is also a really interesting touch.
I like the idea of having stuff that can be put on tank so maybe having it so that firstmate makes it so when they're hit they give aomthing or there's like a retaliation ability that deals damage back to the attacker
I love the vibe of the class, especially the different feel between getting chosen for Dance Partner. In a flowery, exaggeration of the feel of getting the buff: DP is like being specially chosen out of the masses and elevated to 'make beautiful damage together.' Meanwhile Corsair's First Mate is like being grabbed at gun point and told "You work for me now." XD
I've always wanted the devs to create a new gathering class that would make it easier to gather animal products like wool, milk, feathers and eggs without killing the animal. I'd call it Shepard. You would use a crook as your main tool and basket as your secondary. You would have a pacify ability and your target would become a gathering node and based on your lvl depends on what you get. It might be hard on the devs though to make roaming mobs switch to a gathering node, but I would love to see this happen.
How about making one pistol attack from the ammo an instant ability? COR would still be a melee focosed job but you could spend the ammo either on weaker instant attackes like for your (melee) burst window and gather ammo again prior to a disengagement phase on equal-to-melee attacks which would be part of the gcd.
one thing you can do with the weapon to mitigate confusion is to have both the sword and gun in the display kind of like how the older paladin sword and shields used to be two separate items (i understand that they still are) but drop as a unique "coffer" saying that the sword and shield both reside in this one item instead of having to roll on the sword and shield separately.
ngl i thought , based on the diagram, that first mate would be an ability like mch or drks summon, in which they fight alongside you for a few moments and can access certain abilities without your input. the booty mechanic does feel like it should just be the secondary gauge, like how samurai has kenki and the sen gauges. additionally, this feels like a tank with the constant talk of stance dancing or a melee red mage where it swaps between verflare combo and verholy depending on mana at the time. additionally, the cannon barrage sounds like it could be its limit break rather than a mighty ability. the ghost pirates could work like the aftforementioned drk and mch summons or alternatively like smn's, where it imbues certain attacks with a new form for a short time. thordly, a gap closer is needed on this class , and i will name it "swing from the ropes" in order for the corsair to fluidly swap back into melee after a large aoe forces them away. Finally, something that occured to me was making the ranged and melee stances work like monk (or ninjas mudra) where you execute a certain combo in the right order and unlock a new more powerful attack. Hoist the flag shouldnt be placed on a first mate but should instead work like battle litany or brotherhood: a party wide buff that gives you buffs as they execute weaponskills.
Looks like a fun job
I'm liking what I see with this theorycrafting (the placed party buff is very cool), but one thing does stand out with this current iteration. (assuming this applies to the current XIV meta) If I can bring a melee that has comparable ranged skills, why would I bring a ranged?
This is a job i would definitely consider maining. The pirate thematic is on-point, in both playstyle and abilities as well as in the weapon choice. You would look at this job and immediately be able to tell what the job does/is about which, sure it's not something SUPER important but, i really value. Like, you look at PLD and you immediately know "Holy sword and board knight" or BLM and think "Chuuni Explosion Wizard" and that's always a good sign to me that the class is executed well. You could look at this job in the wild and immediately know it's all about the classic fun pirate fantasy, which the game sadly stops having after the Rogue Questline is over.
If we could get this or a legitimate tank class that has the twin blade gimmick I'd be happy! (Tbh I just want the twin blade for the gabranth or zidane glamour)
I like the ideas here, but I think some things should be spaced out. For example, let's say we got Corsair with the Black Spot Finisher in 7.0. In that case, the bounty mechanics should probably be an 8.0 thing. This would allow for the devs to introduce something huge and exciting with every expansion. As a point of comparison, Paladin had Passage, Confiteor, and the Blade combo introduced in SB, ShB, and EW respectively. If all those flashy abilities were introduced all at once, they wouldn't have the chance to be as impactful as being able to highlight each one in their own expac.
Fun fact: Booty was said 16 times in this video 🙂
Hey here is an idea I would like to see you try to work out in a similar format. A caster (Magical Range) that attacks using portal-based spell preferable hard casting the spells (I do not care for what was done to SMN and making it a physical range in all but it's damage, even the melee Samurai cast more than SMN now).
The theming I thought of would pull from something similar to Gaia's Savage Raid fight/ what is shown in the normal raid cutscenes, the end of the ShadowBringer Role quest with the hollows/void gates, and even MSQ theme of rift travel.
Obviously, the weapon would have to be somewhat hammer themed but given that Gaia found the large hammer tacky, I think a Kendama (like Genis's weapon from Tales of Symphonia) or something smaller like would work.
The name of the job could fall under the naming of Time Mage (Using rifts to speed up/slow down spell effects)/Portal Mage/ or even Dimensional Mage.
As for the teacher I thought that a rouge Black Mask Ascian could work, given the job will be a level 80 requirement (would be the point where we know of the ancients and better knowledge of the Ascian history) and would fit the Ascian theme since Gaia, and Nabriales used time based magics, or someone who has crossed the rift to the source for some reason bounty hunting someone.
While many want to point a Krile to be the new caster, she only fits the healer role due to her pacifistic nature, and it also feels like she will replace Alphinaud due to him still aiding Garlemald. A better fit would be Gaia herself as the showcase, since the MSQ is pointing at using the First's abundance of light, and really only the Empty would be the prime candidate to extract that from, not to mention at Fanfest back when Eden was announced they did claim that this raid would be more tied into the MSQ, and so far that has been that the Scions leaving the first.
I’ve been thinking up on how Blitzball job would work lately, and I would love to hear your thoughts on it whenever I get a chance write it up.
I have a few questions and a bit of critique:
Does the Ranged Stance use one ammunition stack per attack or per combo? Does it even have a Combo? If yes, wouldn't it be awkward to have a 3-part combo with 5 ammunition? Wouldn't 6 make more sense, if you spent one per attack? Or is it a 5-part combo? Or am I just supposed to Reload during the Combo?
Speaking of which: How much Ammunition does one use of Reload actually give? And how long is the Cooldown? I don't need a precise answer but there would be a big difference in how to use it between e.g. 2s, 10s and something like 30s. And can it be used while in Meele Stance?
And does the Ranged Stance auto-deactivate if I'm out of ammunition since you said I can only go into it if I have some? Doesn't that go against the point of being free to choose between the stances depending on your preferences? If the CD on Reload is short enough so I can be in the stance indefinitely then I don't really see why you would restrict it by only allowing me to go into it when I have ammo.
And I am unsure If I understood one thing correctly:
Let's assume a full Meele Combo would have 3 Hits, and a total potency of 1000 (250, 350, 400) and that the potency of the Ranged Combo is the same (again, I will assume a 3 Part Combo). That would mean that a Meele Combo while having full ammunition would deal 1200 Potency of dmg (250, 350, 400 + 200), Meaning you would always want to be in Meele Stance in order to deal way more dmg.
This leads me to believe you spent one ammo per attack while in ranged stance since that way you would get access to the Finisher Attack way more often. But you have to be very careful with the potencies in order to balance both stances.
Is that the way you intend it to function?
As for the AoEs:
I play a lot of tank and I personally think binding them in place would be more annoying than helpful. Especially if you intend to make it part of the main AoE-Combo or a dmg-dealing oGCD since that would mean that people would use it for dmg, not for the additional effect. But even if it has 0 potency I'm still not a fan of it.
As for Blindness, I guess it's no more of an annoyance if you play WAR (Vengeance) or DRK (TBN) than if you have to play with a WHM's Holy, so I'm fine with that.
Regarding Plunder:
How often do I use it and how many times do I have to use it in order to summon ghosts?
Why would I summon my spooky-scary-skele eh pirates? Again I think immobilizing enemies is not that good to begin with, especially if you could use the resource to deal dmg to them instead. What is the use case?
And if I use Booty to Dual Wield I will probably want to do that in my burst phase. Wouldn't it be immensely frustrating if I can't do that because of Crit-Varient?
What does Collect Bounty do exactly? Just give you more Booty? basically something like Manafication or Ikishouten? Calling it the Capstone Ability seems a bit off then.
The entire Plunder section sounds really cool but the explanation of how it would work was rather confusing to me. :'D
Flag & First Mate:
With the recent increase in range of Raidbuffs and Mitigation, does it really matter if you are the centre of it or your First Mate?
And in AoE in Dungeons you don't want to be in Narnia anyway, making your first mate drop the smoke bomb/caltrops kinda gimmicky.
This leaves the only thing the First Mate is really useful for to be Plunder. But that could be solved just as easily by centring the ability around the primary target instead of yourself/your First Mate.
I'm sorry the First Mate in this iteration seems to be all style no substance to be blunt…
Overall, I think it is a vast improvement over the first iteration, which I could hardly see how it would fit in the game.
The current version still needs some work, but I'm looking forward to the next iteration!
While I like that overcapping isn't punished, a 50% bonus would be too much if there isn't some sort of downside attached to it. People would just stay in melee range as much as possible and only spend their ranged resources when absolutely necessary (like a normal melee).
Long comment incoming
First things first, I really found the visualizations for the different abilities really helpful as I was one of the people confused by the initial presentation last time. Additionally, you have changed my mind on the weapon similarity situation. I think I hadn't considered other duplicate or similar weapons already in the game since its just become normalized over the years.
Onto specifics about the job that I really like
1. The caltrops and smoke bomb is really cool and provides a sort of parallel to Doton and Hyoton for NIN (even tho hyoton is never used but whatever). I also like how it interacts with First Mate in an really novel and interesting way. I would love for other FFXIV jobs to add stuff like this.
2. The booty and ammo system is straightforward but allows for some neat optimization choices such as potentially spending booty to get more ammo to allow for more away from boss time to keep another melee from needing to do something (or any number of other situations).
3. The flavor is much cleaner and more prevalent throughout the job's abilities this time around too.
Suggestions I have
1. The First Mate storing booty system seems a little clunky as you presented it. Instead of them storing it and you getting booty when you run low, instead the corsair could give Morale stacks to their first mate that when the first mate gets to a certain amount of them, the corsair gets a Back-Up charge in return. This Back-Up charge would let you use a booty skill for free. This way the corsair can still get free abilities but it makes the relationship less "be my piggy bank" and more "be my partner" which feels a bit closer to the theme
2. I think instead of golden weapons, the dual wield stance should be using a ghostly mist weapon to fit the mistbeard flavor a bit more. I'd also prefer to rename Black Spot stacks to something like Wanted stacks or Navigator's blessing stacks since its a bit more FFXIV flavored.
All-in-all, I really like this version of the job and I am genuinely excited to see how it evolves even further.
This kind of job sounds like the best for solo stuff like PotD, HoH or EO!
My only feedback is that there is too much resource generation/management. At most some jobs have 2 resources but this has 3, booty, ammo, and black spots. The idea that you have a melee with a ranged rotation could be interesting if you built it like a gnb where it builds some sort of ammo and then can burst from range or up close and make it distance sensitive but having this feeds that which feeds this but that feeds in over here sounds like a recipe for over complication, in my opinion.