I thought it was fairly noticable that on PlayOnline's section on the new expansion it has a section titled "New Jobs" as in plural. I thought anyone would be able to figure that one out with or without an interview.

You want speculation? I'll give you speculation.

My bet is geomancer is most likely to appear. Mage class with an axe? Hell yes!

Chemist may work as a support job as well. Throw in a knife, a gun, and potion-making skills and you've got a nice combination.

I suppose oracle is possible, but seeing as NIN and RDM have enfeebling spells down, SE would have to come up with some crazy new enfeebles. It could be done, but I'm not holding my breath.

In case you didn't notice, those are jobs that have appeared in Final Fantasy Tactics that haven't been used yet. Calculator was too broken to be put in FFXI, dancer is the same as BRD, battles have too much going on for mime to work, and squire and knight are already covered by WAR and PLD. I'm not even going to bother with FFTA jobs because some of those were the same thing only with different names for different races. I don't think we'll ever see race-specific jobs in FFXI.

I've had conversations with my linkshell members, and we've decided that it's highly unlikely that they'll introduce jobs to FFXI that have never before been seen in a Final Fantasy title. If they didn't decide to do that though, I've got two possibilities.

Necromancer. Necromancers are commented on in the story. Pirates that attack the Selbina-Mhaura boat are necromancers. Seeing as, from my understand anyway, the new expansion will have a good deal to do with pirates, it's a possibility, however slim, that necromancer could pop up in there. The biggest thing that kills necromancer is the fact that throughout FF history, the undead have always been the bad guys. To suddenly be able to control undead minions would be kind of funky. Kudos to Armando for pointing that one out.

Alchemist. Alchemy is already a crafting skill, but other kinds of alchemy have been referenced. The philosopher's stone and red water seem to be a direct reference to Fullmetal Alchemist. Also, in the description of the lamiae in POL's section of Treasures, it explains that the lamiae are not beastmen but rather chimeras. It describes chimeras as biological weapons created by alchemists. Obviously this is a different kind of alchemist than the people who study the alchemy craft. Biggest thing against alchemists is transmutation circles. Those take some time to draw, and it would either mean really long casting times, or requiring equipment with circles on them. Also, one would need the supplies to create something from the transmutation, so I suppose it would become a lot like NIN (as they require powders) in that respect.

There. Speculation. Happy? I am.