Summary
- Final Fantasy 14 players can look forward to a new melee DPS and caster DPS Job in the upcoming Dawntrail expansion, with the caster DPS being the first since the addition of the Red Mage in the Stormblood expansion.
- Naoki Yoshida, the producer and director of Final Fantasy 14, has been dropping clues about the new caster DPS Job through the T-shirts he wore at fan festivals. The TMNT shirt he wore in Las Vegas is a clue to what the Job will be, and it will be revealed at the Tokyo Fan Fest in January 2024.
- The Green Mage and Pictomancer are popular guesses among players for the new caster DPS Job based on hints and references in the game. The Green Mage has historically been a Job that buffs allies and debuffs foes, while the Pictomancer's abilities involve painting enemies and reflecting their attacks.
WARNING: The following Feature contains Spoilers for Final Fantasy 14. With plenty of Jobs to pick from, it is always exciting when a new Job arrives in Final Fantasy 14, particularly within a role that has not seen a new Job added in some time. When the Dawntrail expansion arrives in Summer 2024, Final Fantasy 14 players will have a fast melee DPS and a mysterious caster DPS to play when Patch 7.0 goes live.
The addition of a caster DPS into Final Fantasy 14 will be the first since the Stormblood expansion added the Red Mage. Though FF14's Viper was revealed to be the melee DPS at the 2023 London FanFest, the ranged magical DPS was kept a secret from audiences. As a result, Final Fantasy 14 players have taken to social media to make their best guesses as to what this new spellcaster will be. However, there is evidence that could clue players in on what this new Job could be.
Naoki Yoshida's T-Shirt Might Be The Key
At the 2023 Las Vegas Fan Fest, Square Enix pulled back the curtain on Dawntrail and gave players a glimpse of what to expect. During the keynote, Final Fantasy 14 producer and director Naoki Yoshida stuck to his traditional method of providing clues through the t-shirt he wore to Las Vegas. In this case, the shirt depicted art from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, which confused some Final Fantasy 14 players. However, at the London Fan Fest, Yoshida reiterated that the TMNT shirt he wore in Las Vegas was a clue to figuring out what the caster DPS would be. Yoshida then confirmed that the caster DPS would be revealed at the Tokyo Fan Fest in early January 2024.
It's Not Easy Being A Green Mage
Since the Las Vegas Fan Fest, one of the most popular guesses among Final Fantasy 14 players has been the Green Mage. Following the defeat of Zeromus in Patch 6.5, the Warrior of Light and their comrades took part in a feast in Radz-at-Han to honor their safe return from the Void. At the same time, one of the Warrior's allies, Krile Baldesion, rummaged through some old documents in Old Sharlayan. She stumbled across an invitation to the New World of Tural addressed to Galuf, her late grandfather. Inside the faded envelope was a green and silver earring shaped like a three-leaf clover. This clover-shaped bauble bore a striking resemblance to the brooch that the Green Mages wore in some Final Fantasy Tactics entries. As for what a Green Mage could do in Final Fantasy 14, it has historically been a Final Fantasy Job that can buff allies with spells such as Protect, Shell, and Bravery, and hinder foes with debuffs and damage-over-time spells.
Painting A Case For the Pictomancer
While Dawntrail is littered with references to Final Fantasy 11, particularly with the Alliance Raid series and the Mamool-Ja of Tural, another Final Fantasy game may make an impact on the expansion. Final Fantasy 6 was the origin of one of the confirmed bosses for Dawntrail, the winged serpent Valigarmanda, and is also where the Pictomancer job came from. A girl named Relm Arrowny, who was the granddaughter of the Blue Mage Strago, used her abilities to paint enemies and send their attacks back at them. While a Pictomancer would be a tricky Job to work with in Final Fantasy 14, the development team subverted expectations in the past.
Like the Viper, Something Completely Different
Before the 2023 Las Vegas Fan Fest, many Final Fantasy 14 players predicted other Jobs such as the Geomancer, Blitzer, and Corsair as potential additions. While this could still happen in the future, the Viper threw a proverbial wrench into the expectations of players. Given the fact that jobs such as Sage, Reaper, and Viper have come from original concepts specific to the Endwalker and Dawntrail expansions, only time will tell how Square Enix will go about designing the upcoming spellcaster.
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 86 /100 Critics Rec: 92%
- Released
- August 27, 2013
- ESRB
- T for Teen: Alcohol Reference, Animated Blood, Language, Suggestive Themes, Violence
- Developer(s)
- Square Enix
- Publisher(s)
- Square Enix
- Engine
- Crystal Tools
- Multiplayer
- Online Multiplayer
- Cross-Platform Play
- PC, PS4, PS5 & Xbox Series X|S
WHERE TO PLAY
- Franchise
- Final Fantasy
- Platform(s)
- PC, PS3, PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S
- Genre(s)
- MMORPG
- Metascore
- 90
- Platforms That Support Crossplay
- PC, PS4 & PS5
- PS Plus Availability
- N/A
