[Poll] Job, Class or I Can't Be Labeled Yo

[Knight Kat]

A discussion took place in FC chat last night over how many players play characters that are ICly "Jobs" (Dragoon, Paladin, Scholar, Black Mage, Warrior, etc.), and how many play IC "Classes" (Archer, Lancer, Gladiator, Thaumaturge, etc.).

 

I believed most, or a large percentage of characters play Jobs. Another believed most play Classes. It was a lighthearted discussion, and I hope to keep this the same way.

 

I am not looking to scrutinize characters, or argue against someone playing certain types of characters.

 

I am not really looking to make anyone feel like they need to present lore information to support their character (even though I usually like to discuss lore).

 

I also know that many characters fall into categories outside of the narrow Jobs and Classes of the game. I tried to include as many options as I could think of in the poll.

 

Please vote. If you feel like it, I'd love to read about what your character is, and maybe why you chose to make them that way.

 

Edit: Oops, I didn't allow multiple choices in the poll. Choose the best poll choice for your main character, but feel free to post about your other characters as well.

--

 

I'll start.

 

 

Kiht Jakkya has skill in several classes. She was a Lancer for the longest time, but trained as an Archer for hunting. She uses knives as secondary weapons.

 

Now Kiht is primarily an Archer. She still uses knives, and pole-arms are more of a thing she will use in the occasional spar, but no longer in serious battles.

 

I'd say she falls into the Class category, and does not have Job-related powers. She is a Hunter and a Scout but those titles are more descriptors of what she does for a living (which are jobs by dictionary definition, I know, but tell SE that!)

 

It just so happens none of the Jobs in the game suited my plan for Kiht despite the countless times people have given her the needed hooks and plot devices to be a Dragoon.

 

If the game had a Ranger or Beastmaster Job at least mentioned in the lore, I'd have Kiht be either one in a heartbeat. I'm sure some people have gone that route regardless of lore, and they may be on to something. I'm very cautious with character development though.

 

Interestingly enough, she has two Dragoon soul stones that she does -not- use. 90% of the time, she doesn't even have them on her person. They are plot devices I have been left with from past RP. They may have use in a future story, but in most of her RP, they never come up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Qara Hotgo is a Dark Knight apprentice. That means she fits the bill of being a Job.

 

I decided to take her this route because I wanted to explore the story dynamics of a relatively ordinary Xaela refugee having the desire to become something more powerful in order to change things.

 

But why Dark Knight? I wanted to meet the challenges that the swiftly-developed stigma and stereotypes have cast onto the Job, and make a character who is one, but -isn't- what many people might expect.

 

I have my own idea of what a genuine Dark Knight should be, and wish to portray that, and believe I can abide by lore when doing so.

 

Otherwise, Qara is seemingly ordinary aside form the unique nature of being an individual.

 

 

[Virella]

I sat here squinting for a while, but I think both jobs and classes are equally played? Maybe jobs a bit more. As for my two 'mains' not counting in the oddly played alt, one is a class, the other a job. So I fear if I'd vote, it wouldn't be fair as I really count them equal for roleplay. One is a THM, the other a MNK. Hell, I guess Virella could go as civilians as well, because she used to be an Astrologer (not Astrologian) first and foremost. So I guess I won't be of any help there

 

But yeah, I think most people play jobs still, but there's also a heap of people who play classes... I'm really not sure which gets played more. But hopefully your poll with gives some clarity on what at least the RPC prefers. Although I'm going to abstain due to both my characters being very different, and I don't want to pick between either. But I suppose you can count a +1 on job and class both if you want to.

[Kellach Woods]

Depends on character, really.

 

MOST of my characters strive to (or already attained) a class/job or a combination that they feel represents them.

 

Sasati > Paladin/White Mage (never really play the character so)

Sylvie > Lancer (Until she kills a dragon, ofc.)

 

Except Kell, Kell will be a Mime. This is PARTIALLY why I'm aiming for all-60.

[ExAtomos]

Hmm... one of my characters states he is affiliated with a certain class's guild, another mentions the job (He's SCH so...). The rest are still adventurers/fighters, but don't really swear allegiance. Makes this a bit tough.

 

Lore wise, none? They all just kind of "did a thing". Well, except the Scholar. He's the one exception.

[Sounsyy]

This was kind of a hard choice for me. Both of my main characters fit into the Class and Civilian/Non-Adventurer categories pretty evenly.

 

Sounsyy used to be an IC gladiator who fought on the Bloodsands. She still uses these gladiatorial skills as her primary method of combat, so I count her as IC class. However, since she's now a Lominsan citizen and a Knight of the Barracuda and later Maelstrom captain, she fits less squarely in the Class category and is more civilian/non-adventurer. As a Knight of the Barracuda, she became an IC musketeer, someone who uses Lominsan pistols, but is NOT a machinist.

 

Razia is a fishmonger and culinarian who owned a restaurant in Thavnair. Since she's come to Eorzea, she's taken up as a freelancer in both trades for the most part, wandering between the city-states looking for a place to set up shop. When she first got to Limsa Lominsa though, she registered with the Fishermens' Guild, making her IC Class as well as Civilian/Non-Adventurer. She also has training as a herbalist and limited practice with aetherial healing from Thavnair, but I would not consider her an actual healer/conjurer by any of the game definitions.

 

Honorable mention to R'jahkob Nunh who is an IC marauder and pirate Nunh of a seafaring sect of the Raptor tribe. Though I hesitate to say he's affiliated with the Guild now that it is run out of the Coral Tower instead of the pirate underworld of the Astalicia, but he's a marauder none-the-less. He's also in his early 50s putting him up there with Merlwyb and Wylfred and Mistbeard as his contemporaries. So his ideals of being a pirate are a bit different than the modern one.

[Rusty Knight]

I'm hev guilty of playing IC Jobs.

 

Scarlet definitely falls into the IC Job option; she hails directly from the Spine and her abilities are literally what we see in terms of mechanics and fluff for the Warrior Job. The emphasis for her was being able to explore the entire gameworld ICly, with an Adventurer character who can actually defend herself, thus she is rather OP for the day to day stuff.

 

Alueaux again is an IC Job, Ishgardian Dragoon born and bred and does nothing but kill dragons for a living and screw with whores in secret. The intentions were to use him to dive into the political/militaristic Ishgard roleplay but sadly it never seemed to materilise how I envisioned; soon to be mothballed for a new character.

 

Leoric is a temple trained Fist of Rhalgr from Ala Mhigo, being old enough to actually be a proper fist and having actual first hand experience of fighting with others before the fall. A bit like Scarlet for the day to day stuff he is too OP but his character means a lot of his power and ability is never really used, more like a docile tiger. Ironically he rarely fights too.

 

Soon I'm going to get more involved in playing classes rather than jobs; with jobs being so overpowered (Especially when you play them as experienced) it can nullify event/RP options unless you have IC friends of equal or greater abilities.

 

Take for example any of the characters above, none of them would have much difficulty taking down some powerful foes provided they were suited to it. (EG Dragoon for Dragon, Humanoids for Monk, anything that she can reach for Scarlet.)

[Coatleque]

I guess Crofte would fit along the lines of IC Job. And not "Job" as in IC Class, but in actual job. The rat race. The daily grind. A Sultansworn first, a Paladin second, and after that she's still just an average citizen.

[Roen]

Roen would fall into the Job category, that of a Paladin. She idolized Sultansworns when she first arrived in Thanalan, and jumped at the first opportunity to train as a Paladin soon as she got to Ul'dah, with hopes of becoming a Sultansworn. But she also has some training in conjury too, so there is a little bit of a class mixed in.

 

Brynnalia would be a "bard" in that she likes to entertain and sing and a bow is her preferred weapon in battle (so she is not within melee reach), but I don't consider a Bard in terms of how FFXIV defines a Bard.

 

Raelisanne/Josette is a "scientist" who studies and dabbles in all sorts of things. So she does not have a true Job nor does she fit into a particular Class.

[Unnamed Mercenary]

I voted for class, but non-adventurer/other were close contenders.

 

For the most part, I treat Franz as being a weird mix between a Marauder and an Arcanist. Moving up to RP within a job means accepting the lore and knowledge that that job brings, which is not something I wanted for him as a character. (I have dabbled in some SCH things, but after a while, I didn't think it fit as well. It's on the backburner). but RPing a Garlean is also weird. They have similar classes for combat-y stuff, but we don't really know enough about their culture to have class names, to me. ...it's why I just say Franz is a MRD-ACN combo, but he's not affiliated with either of the guilds because it wouldn't make sense for him to be.

 

For some of the class->jobs, skills make sense. For others, I feel like it was a brand new concept, just sorta latched onto an existing class as a base.

 

CNJ -> WHM felt like a natural progression. By strengthening your CNJ abilities, you commune with the Elementals and they trust you.

 

THM -> BLM was weird though, as an example. THM was traditionally more like a blood mage and they used sacrifices and all that. When it was shifted to being fire/ice/lightning/BOOM magic, BLM just felt like it was there to say "here's a new source for bigger spells. Go wild."

 

ARC -> BRD was another weird one. Why does a person who basically fights with song require any skills in archery besides the game saying "oh, well this bard guy was really good with a bow and arrow. Since you like archery, you should hit him up."

[PhantasticPanda]

Zanzan Yanzan commonly classifies himself as a Thaumaturge to people he meets though he's a bit of a hybrid between jobs and other classes. A more appropriate term would simply be the generic term of "Mage". The reason why he calls himself a Thaumaturge however, is because of his method of channeling and shaping aether and into destructive magics, and also his specialization in combating dark magic such as voidal magic. He also was minor knowledge of Conjury and average knowledge of Arcanium. He wasn't taught at the guilds however. He was home-taught by parents who were independent mages as well, with his mother, also played by another player, having extensive knowledge of several types of magic though she is more closer to a Black Mage. And some of those aspects do show in Zanzan's spellcasting. Not many would notice it unless they were a secret Black Mage that took note of how his spells worked. He is nowhere or even close to as powerful as a true Black Mage but there are some aspects to it in his spells.

 

He's also under-going a phase of his progression that is turning him into a Dark Knight however, and his training and usage in the magic of the Dark Arts. I thought it was appropriate because he is a "mage" but also his philosophies and goals in life falls in line with those of the Dark Knights. I too have my own interpretation of what a true Dark Knight is that may fall out of the usual stereotypical views on them.

 

Remove all of these classes, and the knowledge that he wields magic and many will see him as a simple poet and bard (in a non-job way), inspiring both civilians and adventurers alike with his tales and songs.

 

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My alt, Claude Duval, is an Ishgardian-born dragoon. He is all rights a dragoon, his primary initiative to stay in Coerthas and in Ishgard to defend and slay dragoons. Very rarely can you find him anywhere else as he takes his "job" as a Dragoon with utmost duty and honor. While it limits his RP, I believe it was realistic. Plus, due to the limited RP outside of plots and hooks, I'm able to progress with my younger character, 23 year old Zanzan, who has more potential to grow than the 40-something year old Claude.

[Nero]

Dark Knight doesn't utilize a mundane base class so I guess Kas technically falls under self-created? I really just wanted him to use a two-handed sword.

[Shoshopu]

I voted Job because Shoshopu is still (ostensibly) my main, but my characters are as follows:

 

Shoshopu is an IC summoner

 

Awyrbyrt is an IC lancer, and specializes in mounted combat

 

Dyrstswys is an IC... astrologian? Maybe it's more like a self-created class??? She uses a starglobe-like thing but it's more for maritime navigation and the like, because that's her job. It's like a magical aether-powered octant or sextant, basically, and it's a focus for healing magic, as well.

 

Her older sister Merlgeim is just an arcanist

 

The never-played Lahzlona is just an archer

 

And Eaubront is... well, he... just swings a one-handed sword around... and sometimes holds it with both hands. He doesn't use a shield and he doesn't aether, he just tries to hit things and be fast enough to not get hit himself. There's not really an ingame class or job analogous to what he does, currently, but OOC he's a paladin because that's the only one-handed sword class there is ,__,

[Caspar]

Pugilist, but I feel the form and function is not the same. It is something between Monk and Pugilist, in all honesty.

[Klynzahr]

Between them my two characters have four classes and zero jobs, which puts me pretty squarely in the class category.

 

Klynzahr spent two years fighting in the coliseum, alternating between the traditional sword/shield and the great axe. Ultimately she preferred the classic gladiator style and used her sword in combat years after she had quit the ring.

 

She also has previous arcanist experience, despite never joining the guild. It is mentioned in the quest line that many arcanist act as surgeons at sea and I decided that Klynzahr had been taught to read by an arcanist aboard her vessel. Since loosing her sight she has began to focus more on the art. I consider Arcanist to be her current class, despite the fact that she will probably never work at Mealven's Gate.

 

Kuina is a conjuror first and foremost. However she received the bulk of her training in the garlean army, giving her a very different perspective from other conjurors. For all intents and purposes her variant of conjury is exactly the same as that taught in Stillglade Fane. The one slight exception is that she is able to access the elements of fire, ice, and lightening, which were part of the 1.0 skill set but are not technically conjury by the 2.0 standards.

 

This has lead to her second interest in Thaumaturgy and a great deal of self-study. Once again she is not a guild member, but conforms very closely to the in game class.

 

So in conclusion my characters are somewhere between class and "can't be labeled". They stick pretty firmly to the in game class system but remain mostly independent of the organized guilds.

[desmond28]

I voted other because I don't RP my character as a class or job. He's just a guy who is highly skilled in martial arts, weapons, and military tactics. He can use a sword, or he can use a lance, or unarmed combat. Think Jet Li or Jackie Chan in any of their movies, or The Equalizer or Jason Bourne. They just pick up an object and are deadly with it. These characters heavily inspired my character and his... role I guess you could say.

 

That said he also uses these skills as a detective.

[Branson Thorne]

Voted "Other" as well.

 

As said above, I just play a guy who knows how to handle and sword & bow. That's really all there is to him.

[Raeje]

I play Raeje as her job: a bard, because she does poetry, and music, and is a performer. It fits her better than her class, which is more of her life's background/fluff.

As for Chrys, I use none of it. He's also a performer, but he's more of a comedy performer, so not really a bard.

[Caspar]

I play Raeje as her job: a bard, because she does poetry, and music, and is a performer. It fits her better than her class, which is more of her life's background/fluff.

As for Chrys, I use none of it. He's also a performer, but he's more of a comedy performer, so not really a bard.

In the context of the game Jobs, yeah he wouldn't be, but it's fun to imagine ways in which the song could be performed. I don't know much about how Bard songs worked; I always figured magic infused morale boosting. If it's just boosting you allies with souped up performance, maybe the performance type matters less than the feeling it expresses? It's just an idea.

[Mia Moui]

Mia isn't an adventurer and I don't roleplay her as being a part of a specific class or having a job.

 

She travels Eorzea doing whatever it takes to finance her continued search for her sisters.  Sometimes this is bounty hunting, sometimes it's cleaning fish, sometimes it's trying to slaughter giant wayward buffaloes.

 

I imagine her being an interesting background character but not anyone of significance. She believes that she's wanted by law enforcement for some of her deeds, but she's not even that important.

 

If she was in a movie, she'd be a character that interacted with one of the support characters to the protagonist.  The audience might desire that they could learn more about her or her story but the camera and the cast moves on.

 

tl;dr she works odd jobs

[Ravean Blutsinger]

I debated what to vote for it was either class or other, but in the end, I voted other, as I am one of the few stubborn few who kept my char a 1.0 oriented thaumaturge in character, to keep to her roots.

 

This actually made things quite interesting in RP about politics and debate as thanks to the letters we got in 1st year anniversary it gives a bit of an interesting story. My character despised the Sultana now for her actions of altering the thaumaturge guild, viewing her as weakening Ul'dah, makes her look at those who train under the lalafells in charge now as weaker mages who desire to chase the black.

 

I also have quite a love to the 1.0 astral and umbral spells, and just couldn't see this duality removed from my character. I made sure to keep a solid list of these abilities before the 1.23 change so I always have reference to them, and I like when they pop up in game, confirming that they still exist in lore (Banish, Banish III for example).

 

All in all, Ravusa refers to herself as a 'thaumaturge' or a previous 'priestess of nald'thal', only because she is loyal to the old ways and to the old guild she used to be part of, despite learning more from when she first started and having much more knowledge under her belt from all those years.

[Grave]

I personally voted "Job" for Tristen, though I came close to picking the "I made it up option" due to the fact that I've elaborated a lot on what being a Monk/Fist of Rhalgr means to him.

 

Basically, he is a ol'Monk who favors not only the Destroyer, but all Twelve Gods as a whole, acting like a proper holy man would by assisting the poor, sick, and generally just about anyone willing to let him.

 

So long story short, I use a 'Job' for him but with my own ideals and practices associated with it.

[Teadrinker]

What of AST, DRK, MCH?

 

Class/Job in terms of voting? I'd say job but playing a MCH is very different from say...any kind of mage and will skew results.

[Andromeda]

I haven't gone so far as to invent a Job Crystal or anything, though that might be a fun Photoshop adventure, but I consider Andromeda to be inching closer to becoming a proper Final Fantasy Thief. At present, she's still considered a Rogue ICly, but given her interests, history and the fact that Ninja doesn't really suit her IC, a Thief would be a good way to go about this.

 

I'm curious, how taboo would it be to create a Job Crystal for a Final Fantasy job that isn't in XIV? How lorebreaking, particularly if very little of the lore behind it is explored in preparation for one eventually potentially being implemented?

[GhostlyMaiden]

Nanagi is easy to explain. She learned the ways of a Thaumaturge and because of the abundance of Aether in her, was fairly strong. When certain plot circumstances came along, she had to undergo the teachings of Black Magic. She isn't a master, nor is she a novice. She'll only use Black Magic when it is necessary (can't use her own preserves, casting a stronger spell, etc). For simplicity reasons, I say she is primarily a Thaumaturge.

 

Kanako on the other hand is a bit more tricky. She could be classified as just a civilian OR a fighter (class). She is primarily a merchant and use her honeyed words to get out of situations that could lead to fights. However, if a circumstance were to arise where she would ave to fight, she'll do it and have the mindset of being the one who comes out on top. Back in her caravan, she learned from a hunter how to use a lance. With a lot of practice, teachings from her hunter teacher, and close friend, she became fairly adept with fighting with a lance. She is mostly self taught and will sometimes use techniques you wouldn't usually see. She is a lancer.

[Chip]

Azrael is by no means a "Disciple of War/Magic" at heart, and when you take away his tainted aether and leave him like he used to be as Chip, he is most likely the in-game class of Fisher. The boy does display bestial traits and seems incredibly violent, but these powers come from his tainted aether which is actually not a part of his true nature.

 

Asher is definitely the in-game class of Rogue. He uses stabbers as he pleases and sneaks around enough to make proper use of, well, Stealth. He also was part of the Rogue's Guild in his past. Had to make coin somehow!

 

Endel is an ex-Temple Knight so he falls under in-game class of Lancer. Obviously. Not to mention he joined the Lancer's Guild in Gridania for a time, undertaking levequests as a means of income.

 

Though at one point I did consider whipping up a plot that would awaken the dragon within him and turn him into a dragoon...