Well, we already know they will not be increasing the party sizes. They are pretty dead set on light party content being for 4 people and full party content being for 8. Yoshi-P himself stated that this full party content is to be 8 man so that it can have two people for each role (2 tanks, 2 healers, 2 dd, and 2 hybrid).
Further, GLA will probably not be getting Great Sword. 1.) They would lose access to all of their shield based abilities (no shield bash, no shield swipe, no use for bulwark, and so on). 2.) There is a class for that they are messing with on test servers.Â
It would be nice, but that does not seem to be their intent. Their intent for classes is that each class has one specific sort of weapon (or weapon set) linked to it. Granted their are variations in look, style, and stats covered by the linked weapon. SCH/ACN books and SMN only books are a bit of an example. Also consider the variations in HtH weapons which include; punch daggers/katars, knuckles, cesti, hora, and so on. This speaks to the idea of their being a cosmetic difference between weapons, but no actual mechanical difference when it comes to animations and the like. 1 class, 1 weapon type is the very heart of the armory system. I really do not think they are going to change something that integral to the game. Yes, I know that THMs and CNJs can use either wands or staves. Neither of those classes have any abilities tied to having a shield, though. Short conclusion. Great Sword use will be tied to the new class, which will likely come out in the first expansion.Â
We know we are getting Musketeer at some point. It is has been teased/owed to us since 1.0. My personal hope is that they will release it semi-under the radar in the "Through the Maelstrom" patch in March. Probably a bit of a pipe dream though. Likely we will not see it until the expansion either, but I can dream.
We also know we are getting some sort of Scout class. It could be Musketeer, it could not be Musketeer. We don't know at this point. In short, 2-3 new classes and associated jobs coming down the pipe already. This is not to say that what you propose is not neat and interesting. It just does not seem to be in line with what the devs have been/are working on. I myself totally believe that if the new Scout class thing is not Musketeer, it will be a class that dual wields with daggers and such. Likely similar to how PUG and MNK dual wield, the weapons will be bought/acquired/crafted and twinned weapon sets.
I realize you said this is your ideal scenario. I am just cautioning that this will likely not be something that comes about anytime soon. Whatever the "Hybrid" roll is needs exist and be messed with in parties before they even think of raising the party cap. Not to mention there would need to be a complete upheaval and re-coding of a lot of existing content to achieve what you are hoping for. Yar.
Some final notes. A THM class that also heals could easily fill the RDM slot. I do not particularly like this idea. I would rather see RDM be one of these speculated and mentioned jobs that require multiple jobs to get. It allows for more flexibility and staying truer to the heart of what RDM is. I would also love to see PUP. Pretty sure they are not going to have it come off of ARC. Rather, I'd like for it to branch from anything but ACN, because if that is the case we are not going to see it anytime soon. Likely some time after they have caught all the other classes up as far as job count. I think that there will be DD options for both Musketeer and Archer, likely of different flavors. This just seems natural progression for both classes. Particularly for Archer. Lastly, how is Berserker different conceptually from WAR. That concept and balliwick seems to have been covered already.
My two cents. Rawr.
Further, GLA will probably not be getting Great Sword. 1.) They would lose access to all of their shield based abilities (no shield bash, no shield swipe, no use for bulwark, and so on). 2.) There is a class for that they are messing with on test servers.Â
It would be nice, but that does not seem to be their intent. Their intent for classes is that each class has one specific sort of weapon (or weapon set) linked to it. Granted their are variations in look, style, and stats covered by the linked weapon. SCH/ACN books and SMN only books are a bit of an example. Also consider the variations in HtH weapons which include; punch daggers/katars, knuckles, cesti, hora, and so on. This speaks to the idea of their being a cosmetic difference between weapons, but no actual mechanical difference when it comes to animations and the like. 1 class, 1 weapon type is the very heart of the armory system. I really do not think they are going to change something that integral to the game. Yes, I know that THMs and CNJs can use either wands or staves. Neither of those classes have any abilities tied to having a shield, though. Short conclusion. Great Sword use will be tied to the new class, which will likely come out in the first expansion.Â
We know we are getting Musketeer at some point. It is has been teased/owed to us since 1.0. My personal hope is that they will release it semi-under the radar in the "Through the Maelstrom" patch in March. Probably a bit of a pipe dream though. Likely we will not see it until the expansion either, but I can dream.
We also know we are getting some sort of Scout class. It could be Musketeer, it could not be Musketeer. We don't know at this point. In short, 2-3 new classes and associated jobs coming down the pipe already. This is not to say that what you propose is not neat and interesting. It just does not seem to be in line with what the devs have been/are working on. I myself totally believe that if the new Scout class thing is not Musketeer, it will be a class that dual wields with daggers and such. Likely similar to how PUG and MNK dual wield, the weapons will be bought/acquired/crafted and twinned weapon sets.
I realize you said this is your ideal scenario. I am just cautioning that this will likely not be something that comes about anytime soon. Whatever the "Hybrid" roll is needs exist and be messed with in parties before they even think of raising the party cap. Not to mention there would need to be a complete upheaval and re-coding of a lot of existing content to achieve what you are hoping for. Yar.
Some final notes. A THM class that also heals could easily fill the RDM slot. I do not particularly like this idea. I would rather see RDM be one of these speculated and mentioned jobs that require multiple jobs to get. It allows for more flexibility and staying truer to the heart of what RDM is. I would also love to see PUP. Pretty sure they are not going to have it come off of ARC. Rather, I'd like for it to branch from anything but ACN, because if that is the case we are not going to see it anytime soon. Likely some time after they have caught all the other classes up as far as job count. I think that there will be DD options for both Musketeer and Archer, likely of different flavors. This just seems natural progression for both classes. Particularly for Archer. Lastly, how is Berserker different conceptually from WAR. That concept and balliwick seems to have been covered already.
My two cents. Rawr.
