At this past weekend's Final Fantasy XIV Fan Festival in Anaheim, Naoki "Yoshi-P" Yoshida pulled a classic move: answering a question by technically not answering it at all. During a stage Q&A, he asked the crowd what new weapons they'd want to see added with future jobs. Fans shouted out crossbows, hammers, morning stars, punches, a dual-wielded gun and sword combo. Two suggestions got direct reactions from Yoshida: yo-yos would "be easy to make," while whips would be "really challenging to animate."
Then came the kicker.
"We heard a lot of different ideas come up," Yoshida told the crowd, “and, you know, we actually heard one that pertains to the new job. But I will not say which one it is.”
So somewhere in that chaotic crowd of shouting players, at least one person accidentally landed on the correct weapon for one of the two new Evercold jobs. Yoshida confirmed it, smiled about it, and then said absolutely nothing useful beyond that. Peak Yoshi-P energy.
What the team is actually building for Evercold
The two confirmed job roles for the Evercold expansion are a new tank and a new ranged physical DPS. That much has been public knowledge for a while now, and Yoshida has been teasing both with his now-infamous T-shirt approach to marketing, wearing shirts that allegedly hint at the new jobs without spelling anything out.
Here's the thing: the ranged physical DPS slot is where most of the community speculation has landed, and for good reason. The existing ranged physical jobs (Bard, Machinist, Dancer) each have a distinct identity built around their weapon. A whip fits thematically for a ranged DPS, and Yoshida's comment that it would be "really challenging to animate" could easily be a misdirect from someone who already has animators working on exactly that.
Yoshida confirmed during the Q&A that the new Evercold tank and ranged physical DPS are both "14-original" jobs, meaning they won't be pulled directly from elsewhere in the Final Fantasy franchise.
That last detail matters. Yoshida revealed that during the Evercold development process, the battle system team ran an internal pitch contest: 5 ideas for the tank role, narrowed down to 3 for the ranged DPS. After he joined the discussion to refine things further, the team landed on jobs that felt different enough from anything previously in the Final Fantasy series to qualify as original creations rather than adaptations of existing FF archetypes.
Why DPS keeps getting priority
Yoshida also pulled back the curtain on how the team decides which roles get new jobs each expansion. The answer is pretty straightforward: player data shows DPS is consistently the most popular role by mains, so the team tries to ensure at least one new job per expansion appeals to as wide a player base as possible.
The second job slot is more deliberate. The team looks at how existing tanks and healers are being played and decides whether the current roster needs a new addition or whether a second DPS makes more sense. Yoshida acknowledged this formula "might change down the line," but for now it explains why nearly every expansion cycle has included at least one new damage dealer.
The next major reveal is locked in for the Berlin Fan Festival on July 25, where the actual job announcements are expected. Between now and then, the community has a list of shouted-out weapons and exactly zero confirmation of which one was right.
For players wanting to stay on top of every Evercold reveal as it drops, browse our latest gaming news to keep up with all the FF14 coverage heading into the Berlin event. The guessing game is very much still on, and Yoshida is clearly enjoying every second of it.
The Berlin Fan Festival on July 25 is shaping up to be the real answer to all of this. Until then, the whip crowd and the crossbow crowd both have a case to make.
