FFXIV players - what jobs do you like or dislike?

[signal]

UPDATE: THIS IS OLDISH AND PRE-MONK REWORK

So I've been playing FFXIV again and was deciding on new alts to choose and was curious what jobs people like / dislike that they've tried. From reddit 6 months ago, there was a job satisfaction survey, and the results:

For me:

- BLM - I always thought this was a fun job. Fire IV is a satisfying sound, Ley Lines are cool, Aetherial Manipulation is fun. Both solo and party play is fun, as are dungeons and trials / raids. I like how the rotation changes throughout levelling as well.
- PLD - This was the first class I ever played but this was years ago so don't really have any great thoughts on it. Levelling an alt now so we'll see. PLD zodiac weapon is cool looking.
- DRG - Same as above, was the second class I got to max but this was like pre-HW so no recent opinions. The satisfaction results are good though and Shadowbringers changes seem well received.
- MNK - Like DRG I had this at max before HW and I remember liking it, if only to speed up GCD. Levelled from 1-30 today on a new account and the solo experience is pretty bad. I think Monk is fun when the positionals matter and you get to play the way it's intended, but otherwise 👎 . Satisfaction seems really low as well, and 50 - 80 sounds boring.

I think that's all I have enough experience with to comment. I might try Samurai just to have a melee DPS class because I don't feel like using Monk anymore. Curious about updated Dragoon so maybe that as well. Also interested to try Dark Knight, Gunbreaker, and Red Mage.

So what jobs have you tried out and which did you like / dislike, and why?

 

[Pandora012]

My poor astro

 

[Dark Knight]

I more or less only play Dark Knight and Gunbreaker. I have a rocky relationship with DPS since my latency sucks and I feel like the rotations are often too stressful.

But tanking is pretty straight forward and satisfying. I'm pretty happy with Dark Knight the way it is right now, but if I'm being honest I find Living Shadow a boring skill that pales in comparison to the awesomeness that is The Blackest Night.

 

[CollegeFootballCoach]

I'm playing for my first time ever! (and this is one of the first MMO's that I've really dove into) and I am doing Summoner/Scholar and really enjoying it. (Casual Player for sure) -- About to start HW!

 

[Moara]

Monk is what I've played since the game came out and it is both the most fun job for me, and the most mishandled job in the game lol. I love pressing lots of buttons and moving around a lot for positionals. At its core, no other class satisfies that aspect for me as much as Monk does. On the other hand, no other class has so many redundant moves that all do the same thing (keeping greased lightning up), with ultimate moves that the game actively encourages you to not do (Tornado Kick and Six-Sided Star)

I'm looking forward to the rework next patch, though hopefully they don't mess with the core identity of the class too much.

 

[Dreamboum]

- MNK - Like DRG I had this at max before HW and I remember liking it, if only to speed up GCD. Levelled from 1-30 today on a new account and the solo experience is pretty bad. I think Monk is fun when the positionals matter and you get to play the way it's intended, but otherwise 👎 . Satisfaction seems really low as well, and 50 - 80 sounds boring.

Click to shrink...

Monk satisfaction is bad because they destroyed the job into something unfun but that is not something you can feel until level 80. Before that, the job is almost the same as it was in ARR.

 

[signal]

I more or less only play Dark Knight and Gunbreaker. I have a rocky relationship with DPS since my latency sucks and I feel like the rotations are often too stressful.

But tanking is pretty straight forward and satisfying. I'm pretty happy with Dark Knight the way it is right now, but if I'm being honest I find Living Shadow a boring skill that pales in comparison to the awesomeness that is The Blackest Night.

Click to shrink...

Name checks out.

Monk satisfaction is bad because they destroyed the job into something unfun but that is not something you can feel until level 80. Before that, the job is almost the same as it was in ARR.

Click to shrink...

Yeah from reading that's what the reason seems to be. Just saying I'm surprised how boring I found it now. At least the levelling process.

 

[Keyouta]

I like gunbreaker a lot, got the latest relic weapon upgrade for it. Feels fun to play, faster paced than warrior.

I've been leveling my samurai too and have been liking it. Got him almost to Lv 65.

As for classes I dislike, I'm not too into astrologian. Only have it at like Lv 57 or so, but I much prefer white mage, who I have at 80. I think it'll just take me more time to figure out how to play the job rather than really hating it. (Please Yoshi P I want a new healer in 6.0!)

 

[Ashrak]

I don't like Red Mage and i live and breath black magic.

 

[Wyze]

dragoon is almost perfect, just needs the aoe rotation to refresh disembowel buff, like the other melee dps jobs and their aoe rotations.

 

[Boclfon479]

I played when ARR first came out for a bit (maybe 2-3 weeks), and I remember I really liked Summoner a lot.

Actually the reason I quit was because of a combo of debuff limits and not being able to see which were mine. It made it really hard to watch the uptime of debuffs on enemies, which is HUGE for a DoT class

 

[Pancho]

Even though I complain about the current state of the Scholar every chance I get, its still my favorite Job. SCH in end game content feels great. But I can't stand the other 2 healer jobs

 

[Lunatic]

I despise playing bard. Spend the fight staring at my hotbar waiting for procs to appear.

 

[DrArchon]

I'm only at the start of HW and on the free-trial (so nothing above 60), but I'm loving Ninja and Warrior.

Ninja sucks from 1-30, but it's so cool when you hit the higher levels and have tons of options at your disposal. Warrior is my favorite tank job so far but I wish there was an easier way to just throw out big aoe moves like Paladin and Dark Knight can. Monk was better 1-30 than Ninja but I'm not feeling too much after that, and I haven't really gotten deep in with that much else.

 

[lightning16]

I only play Dragoon and Ninja. Both are fun. I think Dragoon is the better-designed class at lvl 80, but it's completely terrible before level 60 or so and overly simplistic. By Lvl 80 on Dragoon you reach a point where you're constantly chaining abilities into each other and position yourself to get the improved version of your main ability, and the class has several low-ish CD abilities to weave into the never-ending combo.

Ninja is also fun but I do think it's a bit weaker-designed than Dragoon. I think in comparison to Dragoon, my issue with Ninja is that it feels very upfront in its damage (as in, you use a ton of abilities together and then the whole thing goes on CD for 60 seconds) and feels more awkward to weave its abilities into the class's main weapon skill combos. It's still fun, but at Lvl 80 it feels worse to play than Dragoon. The plus side is that doing content in the 50-60 range is far better, and also better in the 60-70 range probably.

That is my very limited perspective on some FFXIV classes.

 

[B.K.]

dragoon is almost perfect, just needs the aoe rotation to refresh disembowel buff, like the other melee dps jobs and their aoe rotations.

Click to shrink...

Dragoon needs a low level AoE. It's miserable leveling it or getting a low level dungeon in roulette and not having an AoE until level 40.

 

[Kuro]

I really don't like what they've done with AST and that was the only heal class I played. I haven't played MNK since 60 so I don't know how that's going but I enjoyed it around that level at least.

I'm surprised BRD is so low but I guess the dot crit change really upset people.

 

[Viale]

I started a bit after 5.3's release, and the ones I've played in for any decent amount of time have been MNK, RDM, GNB, and AST. I dabbled in SCH/SMN, but I'm not sure I have as good of a handle on them to really comment about them especially since I didn't get high enough in SMN to get the really neat stuff (only got to early 50s)


MNK was my ARR class, and I found it rather boring to be honest. It got the job done, but every class I've played since then has been notably more enjoyable and its' placement doesn't surprise me. Solo experience especially is pretty garbage since you can't really do positionals.

RDM is a lot of fun personally. For me, it's suitably flashy and isn't a difficult class to pick up. I feel nice weight behind my attacks, and it's porbably the job quests that I enjoyed the most so far.

I don't have a whole lot to say about GNB? It's the only tank I really play, and I enjoy it. It's fun to combo together.

AST - I love AST personally. The skills are all flashy and it's generally a really fun class to play imo. The homogenous cards were not as big an issue for me which I think might be why my opinion is different? The general homogenization of healers in general is something I can see the complaint for though and would like to see addressed in future releases/expansions.

 

[Shoot]

What is wrong with Scholar? I was considering that as my next job.

 

[Deleted member 18021]

IMO:

Monk really just needs a complete redesign at this point. Go steal how Tifa plays in FFVIIR.

 

[signal]

What is wrong with Scholar? I was considering that as my next job.

Click to shrink...

Maybe an informative comment - https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comments/g5e5fw/ffxiv_525_job_satisfaction_survey_results/fo38n21/

 

[LiQuid!]

Disclaimer that this post is from someone that hasn't played since ARR in like early 2015...

Surprised to see BLM so high. Maybe the job has changed in recent years, but as a BLM main in FF11 I was severely disappointed with the BLM mechanics back in 2015 where you were just balancing Fire and Ice magic back and forth to keep damage as high as possible. Only thing more disappointing to me was SMN because instead of summoning big classic FF summons like in 11 they were just little generic looking elementals.

I don't really like the WOW/FF14 style combat system with global cooldowns and dial-a-combo DPS but I mained DRG and PLD at the time and both were fun. PLD was probably the most fun I had with the game but it was also a lot of pressure cause the tank felt like the defacto leader of the group and I wasn't ever that confident in my ability, outside of running some of the easier dungeons where you just group everything together and AOE murder it

 

[DarthBuzzard]

I'm not a big fan of FF14's battle system, so I kind of dislike all battle classes? I use them as a means to an end.

I really like crafting and gathering personally. Would love to see new crafting jobs at some point.

 

[Musubi]

I've seriously played (i.e done high level content in a static group) as Black Mage, Red Mage , Samurai and Dancer during my time playing FFXIV.

I really think Dancer is a lot of fun. Not super high damage potential but dang its fun.

 

[Saiyaman]

I almost exclusively play as Samurai, and it is hands down the most satisfying class I've played in an MMO in a really long time. I also have Dragoon and Ninja leveled up, and they're ight, but they don't reach sam's height for me.

I really wanted to love Red Mage though, but every time I try, I just can't get into it.

 

[Wyze]

I dislike Dark Knight as it is right now. It's just WAR without the Direct Critical hits and with more oGCDs, only TBN feels truly unique to the class. Also TBN needs an audio cue when it breaks.

 

[Deleted member 3040]

Monk is getting some changes in 5.4, so I wonder what that'll be like.

The jobs I play are:
- Dragoon
- Black Mage
- Dancer
- Dark Knight
- Astrologian
- White Mage (mainly dungeons)

And honestly they're all a blast. The reason I like using WHM in dungeons is because of Holy, which just feels so satisfying to use. Otherwise AST is easily my favorite healer as there's always something to do, whether it be planned on when to use certain skills (as you need to pre-plan some) or giving out buff cards. I'm just not a fan of the nerfed Sleeve Draw - frankly, I wish they change it back as the current version is a mess - but I guess people found it too hard with 3 given cards or something?

Dark Knight is my favorite tank and I'll never stop loving The Blackest Night. Besides that, it just feels so smooth with so many oGCDs.

Dragoon is my starter job and it's incredibly solid all around. Black Mage is fun as it's a very different and stationary job, so it tests your limits. Dancer is something I've grown to really like, as there's quite a bit of planning a round the RNG, and you build things up for burst attacks - plus you feel useful for the party with its various buffs. Also, as some attacks are close ranged, it means you sorta... dance back and forth from enemies/bosses, giving it a nice rhythm.

So far I don't really dislike any job, but Scholar never clicked with me as its healing is very different. And Gunbreaker - which is supposedly really popular for new tanks as it feels different - seemingly isn't for me. Bard is pretty boring, though, I admit.

 

[RROCKMAN]

SAM for life

 

[N1corex]

Black mage and Red mage is all I played I usually always only play dps because I dont like the pressure of being a healer or a tank in a dungeon or raid.

 

[Geldboom]

I'm pretty new in FF14

I got a lvl 69 Dragoon, lvl 66 Sam and 51 DRK

Dragoon is getting pretty complex and I'm not sure yet if I like it.

Sam is really fun and pretty simple.

DRK is interesting and tanking is pretty different from playing a dps class.

I enjoy all 3 pretty much, I also wanna try out monk or ninja at some point.

 

[Wyze]

Dragoon needs a low level AoE. It's miserable leveling it or getting a low level dungeon in roulette and not having an AoE until level 40.

Click to shrink...

you are right, that would be a neat QoL change. Every class should have at least one AoE GCD by level 16.

 

[SirKai]

I love, LOVE, Samurai, Red Mage, Dancer, and Machinist. Machinist especially is super active and after Lvl50 you rarely feel beholden to the GCD.

Scholar has quite grown on me and I enjoy it a lot, and Gunbreaker is also a blast. I'm just too chicken shit to play Tank very often lol.

 

[TheZynster]

Love love love Samurai, it also helps its rotation once learned is very easy to get into.

 

[Bebpo]

From the stuff I play:

Dark Knight - Used to be fun rotation, now the only fun is mechanics since rotation is basically 1->2->3 over and over with popping TBN on tankbusters. I know people didn't like how it felt in Stormblood, but they went too far the other way in simplifying it. I hope next expansion they add a little more depth to DRK. I still play DRK for progression though because it's ez pz and you can fuck up constantly and survive/not wipe. thumbs down

White Mage - Enjoy it a lot. Really frantic, fun and good DPS, good healing. In a good place. thumbs up

Ninja - Thought this job was perfect in Stormblood, then a mess in Shadowbringers and then after the revamp...idk, it's ok? I haven't invested the time to really learn it since the revamp so I can't tell how it is. It seems fun and not too simple, not too complex, so it's probably ok. thumbs mildly up

Red Mage - I'm still leveling this (just hit 69 today), and at first I didn't like the job because it just felt too simple, but at this point after playing it for a couple months and maybe 15-20 hours and with a more complete rotation...it's pretty fun. Like it's simple in rotation but you're almost constantly hitting buttons and it's a mage but you're free to constantly move and dodge stuff. It's deeper than Dark Knight and does more satisfying damage so I'm enjoying it. Can't comment on it at 80 since not there yet. thumbs mildly up

I think after I finish Red Mage, if I try another job before the next expansion drops, I'll probably try Gunbreaker. I like tanking itself in FFXIV, but I'd just like a better rotation than current DRK.

I dislike Dark Knight as it is right now. It's just WAR without the Direct Critical hits and with more CDs, only TBN feels truly unique to the class. Also TBN needs an audio cue when it breaks.

Click to shrink...

Yep.

 

[Vault]

Ninja is a really fun job once you have your full kit

 

[Dreamboum]

Monk

Click to shrink...

It would need a rework of untold proportions at this point. This job is scuffed. It's just an ARR job with bandaids all over it. I don't know how I feel about removing uptime of greased lighting but its current state is a job that is being prevented from going fast

 

[Avis]

IMO:

Monk really just needs a complete redesign at this point. Go steal how Tifa plays in FFVIIR.

Click to shrink...

Neat idea, I'll make my own version of the ones I've played and based on what I've heard and tested of the others.

 

[Garlador]

I wish I was more confident as a tank. I go into a dungeon as a tank and I always feel like I'm doing it wrong or I can't lead a party forward at the right pace...

 

[demosthenes]

My 3 jobs I have at 80 are PLD, BRD, and WHM. I've really only ever played BRD through high end content though. I level PLD and WHM on daily type stuff. I've dungeon with them here and there but I'm always afraid of screwing up. Much easier to be ranged DD! I enjoy all of them. Wish I could get better at PLD and WHM.

 

[Deleted member 70788]

I haven't played in ages, but I have always enjoyed healing classes the most.

 

[Avis]

I dislike Dark Knight as it is right now. It's just WAR without the Direct Critical hits and with more oGCDs, only TBN feels truly unique to the class. Also TBN needs an audio cue when it breaks.

Click to shrink...

There is one though? At least when you get dark arts from the break. Maybe I'm misremembering, haven't played it in a bit.

 

[Niceguydan8]

I'm actually shocked that White Mage is the highest healer in terms of satisfaction. I use it in savage raids because it's mind numbingly easy, the other two healers are much more satisfying and engaging in my opinion.

My personal favorites are PLD, BLM, and MNK

 

[Xevren]

Ninja is my fav followed by monk.

 

[Deleted member 17643]

I have 9 jobs, 7 of which are at 80. I play all of them on controller.

Healers (all three at 80):
I dislike scholar, flat out. I hate keeping an eye on Eos's positioning, and it feels like every heal needs multiple button presses before you can actually use it. Also shields just don't seem as good as heals over time.

Astrologian is incredibly fun, and not nearly as complicated as I was expecting. That said if you want to play it flawlessly and not miss a single global that's another story, but for unoptimized "good enough" healing it's awesome. You feel like you're genuinely making a massive difference with your cards, and lightspeed is one of the coolest cooldowns in the game. "Here just delete your cast times for a bit."

White Mage is my favorite healer, by far. They are simply the healer as far as I'm concerned. They have absurdly powerful "oh shit" heals that can get you out of binds, a super fun DPS skill that you build up through heals, and overall are simple to play, which allows you to focus on the fight.

Tanks:
So far I've maxed out Paladin and am working on a Warrior (nearly 60).

Paladin uses the most hotkeys of all my jobs. I have to double up some of them to make it feel comfortable on controller, but it DOES feel comfortable. It's rotation is long, and swapping between physical and magical attacks, ending with a massive finisher, is very satisfying. It's especially cool when you know a fight and can swap to your magic right as you need to move, and continue casting the entire time. You also have really great utility and overall the job feels like the ultimate protector.

Warrior is actually quite different. Off the bat I didn't like that it's AOE starter is a cone, but slowly found some key benefits that actually make it very useful. It's moveset seems a lot more simplistic than Paladin, but I do like how damage focused it is. You get to see massive numbers on a tank, consistently. It plays well into its lore... you are the hero who gets in front of your party members and angrily smashes the enemy until it's dead.

Melee DPS:
I only have one, Samurai, and they're at cap. I love the idea behind this job but in practice I find it really uncomfortable to play. It has this weird clunky feel to it, and its AOE rotation feels like a mess. You have two insanely powerful buffs you have to get up before you can AOE, and while there are some shortcuts that get you there, it still feels like you're "missing out" on the pull. Once you have those buffs up you have this weird mix of cone and circle AOE, ending with a cone finisher. The whole time you're doing this somewhat complex rotation you have to dance around and make sure you're in position for each move. It's messy and I dislike it. Also I'm having trouble finding an optimized set up for controller. It feels like there's too many moves I want on the face buttons, and not enough face button options to go around. I feel if you can really dive into this job and practice the hell out of it, you would be a god. Its damage is absurd.

Physical Ranged DPS:
So far I just have the Dancer, who's in their mid 70s, but thanks to Bozja I have experienced their full moveset. They are simple, fun, elegant, and possibly my favorite DPS job. Apparently they were designed for beginners, but that doesn't mean they're too easy or boring to play. Their AOE is absurd and everything just bleeds together so well. It honestly feels like you're playing to a rhythm at times. This is one of the newest jobs and it shows.

Magical DPS:
Summoner levels simultaneously with Scholar, and unfortunately I haven't actually played it much. I did practice its level 80 rotation on a dummy and it seems incredibly cool, but outside of that I don't have enough experience to really speak on it. I intend to get back to it at some point, because it seems like a very powerful, but also very fun job.

I also have a Red Mage and love this job. Like the Dancer their "rotation" is simple, but also like the Dancer it feels impeccably designed. You can tell they nailed it because it only minorly changes from 50 to 80, but it does get more complex in some key ways. It's a super good controller job-- it feels like I stumbled on to the developer intended hotkey setup, and honestly I bet everyone feels that way. Just a super fun job, highly recommended.

(A note on Red Mage and Dancer, they're both very proc-based, so I feel like I have to look at my hotkeys a bit too much at times. Probably the only real criticism I have when it comes to both of them, and it's something that will improve with more practice.)

And that's all of them! I think my next job will be a Gunbreaker, as I love tanking and I hear nothing but good things.

 

[taepoppuri]

Like
Aesthetic-wise
- Astrologian
- Dark Knight
- Dragoon

Gameplay-wise (Savage raids, Extreme trial)
- Gunbreaker
- Monk (yeah, I'm one of the nearly extinct monk main lol)
- Samurai
- Scholar

Casual contents
- Black mage. I love playing blm in alliance raid or normal raid, but have no skill (and confidence) to tackle savage with it. It's one of the job that easy to play but hard to master.
- White mage. Easiest healer to play new content with.

Dislike
Paladin and bard. I have both at 80 and found them pretty boring.

 

[Wyze]

There is one though? At least when you get dark arts from the break. Maybe I'm misremembering, haven't played it in a bit.

Click to shrink...

if there is one then it's so muted it might as well not have any. I mean something like when SAM gets full Meditation stacks.

 

[KeRaSh]

Dragoon will always be my favorite because that was my main in FFXI. Played it until ARR endgame and loved it outside of the queues...
When I came back to the game for SB I went with WHM and enjoyed it quite a bit as well.

 

[jon bones]

I used to love Scholar back when I played - surprised it's so low

 

[Zen Hero]

I play pretty casually and I main both Red Mage and Samurai, really like them both.

I like how Red Mage has an extra niche of being great at raising. At first I wanted to be a healer but I tried it and couldn't take the stress. I like how Red Mage is a class that is mostly DPS but also has a tiny bit of healer in them.

I've also tried dancer and summoner and didn't like them. Summoner had too many buttons and too many mechanics and was too difficult for me. On the other hand dancer seemed too easy and therefore boring. I have to find a balance that works for me.

 

[Wispmetas]

I love paladin! Tanking is super fun.
Didn't like scholar very much.
Now trying Read Mage. Seems fun.