A new class, Beastmaster, will soon appear in Final Fantasy 14

A New Class Beastmaster Will Soon Appear in Final Fantasy 14

One of the jobs players have been asking for — long and loudly — is finally making an appearance in the next major patch cycle for Final Fantasy 14.

Square Enix plans to introduce the "limited job" Beastmaster at the tail end of April with patch series 7.5. It's a relief for longtime fans, though the label "limited" means you should expect some caveats.

To pick up Beastmaster you only need the Dawntrail expansion and the A Realm Reborn storyline finished; i.e., no extra expansions beyond Dawntrail are required. Characters start at level 1 as a melee fighter wielding an axe — think close-quarters, pet-focused play from the get-go.

Right now the job will level to 50 (not beyond, at launch). Players can tame as many as 50 different beasts to build a menagerie, at least initially.

Taming itself will require weakening foes first, then performing the tame action; once captured, the creatures go into the Beastmaster's Bestiary. That Bestiary lists a creature's attack types — active skills and auto-attacks, e.g., — and records other notes like size and typical habitats.

According to the team, taming can be done solo. You can bring up to three pets into combat at once, each with distinct abilities that alter how fights play out. The patch slides also name an "Instinct System," but they stopped short of explaining how it works.

After a successful tame you unlock what the devs called a "completely new type of quest, unlike anything else in FFXIV so far" for solo play, where you can "raise" beasts — a line that sounds promising if a bit mysterious.

Bear in mind the precedent: Blue Mage is another limited job and carries content access restrictions regardless of level. Odds are Beastmaster will face similar limits; that will please some players and frustrate others, no doubt.