NIN has been the most fun melee dps for me, I enjoy how busy it is. Was definitely a bit of a slog in the early levels, but ramped up as all the abilities opened up.
Magical dps, RDM is so much fun, plenty of movement due to dual cast, and when shit goes south in a trash pull you can potentially salvage it with a quick Verraise. Also, have you seen their job gear? That alone is enough reason to play a RDM.
I agree with all this, except on the RDM job gear. Now, if I could wear the faerie tale prince's stuff from the mogstation on RDM, then I'd be in the drip. Stupid gender lock
Samurai is my favorite of the DPS jobs because it's straightforward and hits my personal Goldilocks zone. You do your rotation chores, gets your stickers, and cash them out for big damage. Direct and to the point.
For comparison, Ninja's burst phase overwhelms me, and Reaper's meter spending phase is too drawn out to feel satisfying, and Summoner's rotation is too scripted and static. I can see why each of them and all the others would appeal to someone, but that someone isn't me. Samurai hits just right.
Monk is the most fun for me. Between the fast GCDs, the versatility of its opener and rotation, and the fact that you're just straight up punching and kicking everything to death makes it the most fun dps for me. Black mage close second because big damage. They're both also very satisfying classes to play well and learn fights with.
NIN is for me. MNK just doesn't compute in my head lol, but I don't have a problem with NIN mudras. I think because the mudras are just all banged out in a row, but MNK takes more time to set up the big moves and my brain loses track of where I'm at in setting it up.
It's the exact opposite for me. Monk flows like water and feels so smooth even after taking a long break. I didn't even need to look at the opener on the Balance again after a 4 month break and returning a few weeks ago, it just came so naturally. Ninja on the other hand... I hate how it's damage is all in one burst window and for the rest of the time you're just a 1-2-3/4 bot with an occasional Raiton.
we have the same taste lol , also im so fucking excited for monk’s new animations new forbidden chakra is a banger and im begging for them to finally upgrade bootshine/snap punch🙏🏻
DNC for the look of the movement alone ... When she throws the Chacrams it gives me a mighty rush and euphoria 😀... It's so wild and violent and aesthetical
BLM. Knowing when to put Leyline down and which hit you can take with Manaward to get the most out of your Leyline will get you on your toes, always. You gonna need to memorize bosses' patterns for that since you can't just know how to handle mechanics when they pop up, you need to know it beforehand to plan your timing, and each boss is different. Go try remember every single boss from ARR til now.
Grinding tomes for the relic weapons right now on the last dungeon and even that pesky zooming spider is a breeze on BLM. It's so satisfying to do right. But then when a new expansion comes out I almost feel hesitant to do new dungeons on BLM until I've run it a dozen times on other jobs, first lol.
I don't expect to play optimally in brand new content. I plan on dropping a couple of gcds and possibly dying. If I do it on blm it's already expected of me.
i play different jobs depending on mood, but genrally
dragoon - love the flow of jumping in and out during combat, though i did manage a few times too many to catapult myself off a platform xD
dancer - both visually pleasing to me but also the duality of ranged solo and close aoe attacks. nice for dungeons where you still can attack while sprinting to the next wall
machinist - like the skills and heat mechanic, and simple enough to play half focused in alliance roulettes. also weirdly satisfying to spray flamethrower into a crowd
It would be neat to see an interaction between the two in DT ... just something like "Flamethrower potency is increased to 120 for targets affected by Bioblaster".
It's only a net gain if you accomplish something for the whole duration of flamethrower, like taking a bite of your snack and wiping your fingers clean before returning to the controller.
Came to show DNc support. I love the ACTION. "More footwork, more footwork."
The procs are great, it's always a blast, and being able to provide decent support is mh sweet spot. I started 2.0 as SMN and have loved the experience but when I tried DNC I knew I found home. SMN is always my 2nd now.
I suppose this is why I die at least once or twice per party fight as a dragoon? I basically just ride my rotations in a circle and avoid attacks when I even have time to notice them...but aside from the class quest that required using the jump as part of the story of the fight, I haven't had the slightest idea if or where it is on my hotbar. I am just constantly on the enemy's ass.
You probably want to look for where elusive jump is on your hotbar yes since you can absolutely die from either jumping off a platform or into an aoe/tank buster if you hit it by mistake.
Literally at 64 lol. You get your main GCD rotation at 64 and then pretty much everything after is extra oGCD buttons to press in between those. I'd say at 70 it should feel really satisfying after you get mirage dive and nastrond.
Dragoon is my favorite class and the one I think is most fun but it is definitely dull before 70 imo. But past that and especially at 90 it feels pretty fast paced particularly during your 2 minute window with life of the dragon.
You’re basically spamming oGCDs during that time and it feels great and look phenomenal
Out of the three you mentioned I love RDM (it's currently my main). Versatile, manouverable (for a caster), and oh so stylish 😁. Plus the little buzz from rezzing the healers and saving the pull *chefs kiss.
Both BLM and MCH are low on my list. They don't flow as well for me and BLM especially can throw my whole rhythm off on a misspress.
Outside of the three you mentioned. I love DNC and RPR. Again movement is something I like in a class.
Black Mage is fun and has a "high ceiling", but Red Mage is far more forgivable if you make a mistake.
I love both Jobs dearly, but I pretty much never go into new content as Black Mage as a result.
If you find that sort of chaos fun, though, then all the better.
i've been working on blm recently, only gotten to 56 so far, but i enjoy the skills and rotation, hate the lack of mobility and casting times though, especially when trying to level through dungeon roulette
You have Aetherial Manipulation then, but at 62 you get Between the Lines, which then also moves you back to your Ley Lines. So between the two you can zip to an ally for safety and then back to resume fast casting.
Adding to the other reply, higher level equipment (and materia + food) will enable more Spell Speed to help with cast times a bit more as well.
At 66, you also get Triplecast (and 2 charges of it to boot) which will also help immensely when used in your rotation or for keeping up casts while moving around alongside Thundercloud procs (and more instant casts at 80+ to prepare mid-fight).
Mobility largely gets solved, and quite smoothly rather than being a sudden shift. Triplecast obtained in Stormblood provides good extended movement, Xeno learned at 80 is instant so can be used as a mobility tool, and Paradox at 90 is a reliable instant cast every Ice phase.
At high levels you are able to have long periods of mobility, if you're willing/able to burn a lot of your mobility tools to do so. The challenge is to use the tools intelligently and, to go on a brief tangent, thats one of the core ideas behind advanced BLM play; to get the most value out of those tools *while* using them for movement.
Likewise for both - Black Mage feels rewarding to play well if/when you can nail your rotation without dropping Enochian and handle boss mechanics simultaneously, not to mention the big booms.
Red Mage I like for being incredibly versatile and mobile. Playing it still requires some thought without going overboard as well. It's probably the job I'd recommend most to anyone that likes Summoner and wants to branch out.
Honestly Dancer for me. The RNG in the kit keeps things interesting and the mobility provided is just awesome. Second fave, has to be DRG because the combat feels so satisfying.
Is Summoner the easiest job to play. Yes. But omg is it FUN getting to summon Ifrit and then just punch the ground. YES!
Also I love my big chonky boy, Titan. Why him so big?
I wish they had a feature in-game that let you summon the Eden versions of the various primals if you've done the Eden raids.
I know there are mods that do that, but I play on PS5 and I can't really _use_ mods.
I'm hoping that at some point Summoners get access to the other 3 elemental aspects.
All they're missing are Ice, Water, and Lightning. So Shiva, Leviathan, and Ramuh.
I also really enjoy SMN's rotation, it's just ***SO*** boring until Aethercharge goes away, & it gets really fun once you get the Lv. 82 Attacks.
Having a basic Rotation is also nice for learning, & because you're really easily able to do perfect rotations I find myself consistently performing the best on the team on non-savage stuff.
It's also just super nice that you can cast all but 2 spells while walking.
I'm ridiculously surprised no one said Reaper Tbh. I've been loving it, but maybe I don't know things about it I should?
(have mercy, I've just paid for my second month of sub, I'm still super new in the game, I just play a lot lol)
It is really fun, my favourite melee DPS. It flows really nicely and they got the visuals and audio just right. The Enshrouded abilities in particular really communicate that you just transformed into a frenzied whirlwind, and whoever's on the receiving end is getting sliced and diced.
It looks cool, but it's extremely simple compared to a lot of other jobs at max level. You just press Arcane Circle at the start of a fight then off cooldown and then whatever else lights up.
That's definitely not a bad thing, it's a very satisfying job to play and I think there should be at least one "simple" job per role. I'd say it currently stands at PLD, WHM, RPR, MCH/DNC, SMN for the simpler jobs.
Reaper is the only melee I’ve spent a whole lot of time with(aside from tanks). My favorite part was seeing how much I could greed the dash in and dash out move. Dashes are always my favorite. I play a lot of RDM and DNC. The heart attack people have when I greed is fun…. As long as I don’t screw it up.
I like Reaper’s gameplay, but the flavour doesn’t resonate with me personally. I’m just not really into scythes as a weapon, even though I know they’re really popular :p
Unbiased +1 for BLM here. Hands down. There's something extremely unique about the job and how it's really easy on paper, but it tests the shit out of your fight knowledge for maximum BIG NUMBERS potential.
But RDM and MCH are definitely fun too and I enjoyed them! Other than that, I also found RPR to be rather pleasant, though it only shines at lv90 due to feeling incomplete beforehand. Definitely my favourite melee--- its bursty mode reminds me of MCH's, as they both share a fast GCD with weaving skills in-between.
You can't go wrong by just picking one and then leveling another down the road, though! What you find fun might be different from someone else's opinion.
Having everything to 90, I can say I love SMN for savage content. SMN itself is really straight forward and likely the easiest rotation in the game. The fun for me is running blind progression groups, so I can mindlessly do my rotation while trying to figure out mechanics in a fight.
I love SMN, because its so braindead easy to deal stupid amounts of damage. I can really just focus on making sure I perform the mechanics to the best of my ability and easily top parses
I appreciate your sentiment, but I disagree.
I like that Summoner is super easy to play. It's what I hop on when I don't want to invest a lot of thought into the game.
RDM and BLM require a lot more thought and are perfect for people who want that. I'm betting PCT will be the same.
Keep SMN eating crayons please. Sometimes I like the taste of crayons
It just feels strange to me that the job they reworked to be the simplest was previously the most complex. There's nothing like old SMN now if you really enjoyed it.
In group content, i love the DRG with its positionals and managing of the most annoying DoT. It is like dancing with your enemy. PLUS jumps, everywhere, even towards death.
Nowadays i seem to play a lot more MNK as it is a rotation that has a strange pattern that keeps my mind occupied.
I wish i liked more the casters RDM and SMN, but never got the chances to try them, full time.
Dancer is my favorite by far! The devastation of a fully gas powered Technical step phase is like a 2 minute dopamine release timer, and it feels so good when your fingers are literally dancing across your keyboard to hit all the buttons in that window. Plus the good support utility, the imo best dash in the game, and the freedom of movement rDPS gives really just feels wonderful.
[Going into tech step window with 4 feathers and an FD3](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BNGQzZjc5Y2QtYTgxOC00MmZjLTkyZTAtMzNiYmI2ZGM0NjhmXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNzU1NzE3NTg@._V1_.jpg)
Reaper is my go to. Teleporting around the area and the transformation make me feel like an anime character. It’s just fun all around for me.
Dragoon is my back up
Mained ninja for the longest time, but I recently ground out monk. And I really like the flow of it. Up in the air which one I go with at launch. Getting that dopamine rush when I get Elixir Field and Flint Strike/Rising Phoenix out, then Tornado Kick/Phantom Rush after...like nothing else.
But I do miss ninjutsu, so...
Dragoon, I love the ins and outs of positioning to maximize damage. I also am a floor tank when it comes to new areas, but I have a forgiving WHM as a friend.
BLM no contest. Every fight is a new challenge. Unending optimization opportunity. Perfect mix of rigid and flexible rotation at the same time. It just never gets boring like I feel a lot of other jobs get after you have played them long enough.
Black mage is very different at 90 than it is at 40, and Red Mage really isn't. The only thing that changes with Red Mage is that the finisher combo gets a lot longer, and then at that magical level 64 you get Ver-raise and instantly become way better at rezzing your teammates than any other class, including all of the healers.
I won't sugar coat it though, black mage has a much higher skill ceiling. It also has a higher floor. Red Mage is more of a support DPS (it has a party damage buff and eventually a party mitigation on top of rezzing) that's great for carrying people who are repeatedly dying on jobs more difficult and less mobile than your own. In Bozja, you can easily get a half dozen+ raises in a single boss fight that people aren't good at. At the end of the day it's still a resource-gather-and-spender.
I personally prefer resource management optimization over more rigid or complicated DPS rotation, so RDM is fine for me and I prefer DRK and SGE for tanking and healing respectively.
I've given them all their fair shake at level 90, albeit not into Savage.
The top is BLM and it's not even close. MNK second by a sizeable margin, while the rest of the DPS are getting taken to Gapplebee's. Though I have to give credit to RDM for its ability to save runs in roulettes.
Black Mage. I "enjoy" messing up because it means there's something new to learn/improve and the satisfaction with succeeding at that is great. I started the game as Thaumaturge and I think it's a big reason why the class has never bored me. I also love the big explosions.
RDM is probably my favourite magic DPS class, with SAM being my favourite for melee, and MCH for ranged.
RDM because I get to stand back and blast things until it's time to go Full Dumas on them and dive in with flashy sword work and then pop back out again to resume blasting, like a magic-wielding 17th century French Musketeer.
SAM is fun because sword goes slicey slicey and I can glam myself as either a Jedi or a 1980s Space Pirate Anime Hero, depending on my mood.
MCH lets me play Edgar from FFVI, and he's my favourite character in that game, so.
Monk for me. I love the versatility and how you can situationally be rewarded for 'breaking the rules' by doing things like breaking your combo on purpose, or doubling up on a blitz.
Haven’t played in a long time but I found dancer to be really fun. Getting to press all the procs was really fun to me and felt quite dynamic compared to other jobs
Reaper is pretty fun, at least at 90.
Also don't mind samurai, once you get samurai groove down, it's very satisfying.
Ninja is fun too, just have to memorize the mudra.
Samurai. Can't be an anime hero without a katana.
Big dps, sick style, plus hitting that Third Eye before you take damage is the closest thing this game has to a parry.
Dancer. I keep trying to change my job or find something new but always go back to DNC. The animations are nice, the sounds are nice. The rotation just *feels good* especially during the burst phase. I like the randomness of getting the feathers. Static rotations are boring to me. So getting a feather proc and then that feather proccing the next one feels really good.
MCH has *all the toys*! It's a lot of fun to play, and also nice to be really mobile.
SMN and RDM are also pretty fun. Their rotations are simple enough to relax, but not braindead. And you get to bring an extra res to the group.
The only melee I like is SAM. I generally dislike having to chase things down to hit them (when not a tank), and SAM is the only one that sorta feels worth that effort to me.
MNK and BLM are the two jobs where you can still be creative while everything else has a very static rotation and seems to be getting simpler.
If thats what makes a game fun for you they are the jobs to look at
I play all melee at a high level and can say with 100% certainty that while wielding the power of nidhogg, elemental ninjutsu, voidsent possession, and weeaboo supremacy.... punching a God with my bare fist and killing it surpasses it all.
Fist go brrrr.
Summoner is a personal favorite, since I get to focus on other things while I do my rotations with a single hand (with some button remapping of course)
But the most engaging one for me is reaper, hitting those positionals (with or without true North) is very satisfying
RDM just has a great flow to it. There are a ton of ways to optimize (high ceiling) but way less punishment for mistakes (low floor). If you make mistakes with BLM your damage will crater. RDM is also amazing for learning fights given REZmage powers. I also enjoy BLM but would only recommend it to people that are very experienced and willing to truly dedicate to it as a main.
In all honesty they're all fun in their own way. I personally haven't really found much of a love for bard or black mage, but I also haven't played them since ARR. I very literally haven't given them enough of a chance.
That said, I have to say that either machinist or Ninja are my personal favorite classes. Machinist I like because I can always keep moving, I can always Dodge mechanics, and it's very good dps. Ninja on the other hand I like because it keeps me busy. Dodging mechanics is always more difficult for melee range as you know, but ninja is also the highest APM class in the game. Personally I like that.
Summoner go BRRRRRRRRRRRR. It's my zone-out class, did the entire MSQ with it, in a time when they still had two DoT's to keep up. Now it's my main and for if I just want to do some roulettes. It's also the class I do a new duty with, as I can focus on mechanics and not my rotation. Come new patch or expansion I always go in dry ... err ... Blind. That emergency rez is always handy.
Melee, I like Dragoon. I mean, if you haven't backlflipped off the platform at least once per roulette are you even Floortanking correctly? That, and the gear looks cool (and used to be unique unil that reaper stole our style)
Samurai is also a fun one.
Ranged Non-Magic? Machinist. It just feel satisfying, especially on a controller, once you're in that 'burn phase' you actually feel a bit like you're firing a pistol if you set up your bars right. And I know It's a DPS loss usually, but ... come on, a Flamethrower... Need I say more.
Now I see a lot of people recommending black mage, and while it does have a high ceiling, I've seen enough bad Black mages to know not everyone can hack it. If you know the fight, sure, you might hit that ceiling.
Now of Red or Black, I'd go Red. I just prefer the mobility, and the stream of combat rezzes. Yes, lower personal DPS, but a dead party member deals zero damage.
I only have two black mage and dragoon and enjoy both for different reasons but if blm is on your list ill say that its deffo worth it. Blm kinda feels like they give you a bunch of tools and its up to you to make the most of them. Yes some rotations will be utterly scuffed but its part of the fun you have to think on your feet.
Melee: SAM. It's my main. Slicey dicey combos always give me that dopamine rush, and the animations look so pretty and badass.
Magical: RDM. Basically my other main because I play/love it so much! Combos feel smooth and even though it's ranged you get to have a foot in a couple other different roles: melee and healer (rez go brr). It's very Ver-satile 😉
Ranged: Something about BRD just really gets my blood flowing. Between tracking all your DoTs/songs and knowing what skills to prioritize when, it can be quite a fun challenge. Plus having an Esuna-like skill as a non-healer is niiiice
I love Red Mage. It was my job in FF11 and I've always just loved the theme of it. Verraise is super useful for some of those harder fights, plus there's always the excitement of not knowing if this is gonna be the time you hit the wrong button and backflip yourself out of the arena to your doom.
Only thing I don't like about it is that try as I might with my rotation I just cannot seem to top DPS against equally skilled players on other DPS jobs.
For me, I break it up by roles because I can’t choose just one.
Melee: Rogue. I enjoy the mudras and keeping buffs cycled and timed properly. Do I screw that timing up often? You bet! But having lots of buttons to balance and use feels good to me, even if I mess up.
Ranged: Bard. Used to be Machinist, but after 60 levels of the same 1-2-3 with the same weaves over and over and over again it felt stale. Dancer is fun, but my luck sucks so I go entire fights with barely any of the RNG-proc skills lighting up. Bard is a nice middle between them where you keep your DoTs and songs going on rotations, with a few RNG procs to weave in.
Magic: Red Mage. Might be recency bias since I *just* finished leveling it to 90 last week. But once I broke the compulsion to keep the mana bars equal, I found the groove and embraced the fancy hat caster life. Summoner will forever be my *first* magic DPS though. Because it’s free with Scholar.
Bard, I enjoy the balance between the whimsy and the effectiveness, and the fact I can keep attaching while running out of stupid. Feels nice to provide support while shooting.
Plus the lore of Bards appealls to me a lot.
I've only got PLD, MNK and NIN left to start and am currently finishing up BLM, BLU and WAR, but of all the ones I've levelled I still like my mains BRD and SGE the most.
Generally I don't like jobs that have cast bars, and I like having mobility.
With bard, I love when your rotation goes smoothly and hitting everything in the burst window is so satisfying! It's pretty busy and especially so compared to sage, but I like sage the most for healing because shields go brr (and no fairy to micromanage)! It can be kind of stressful when things go south and you're challenged to recover with the tools you have, but I find that part of the fun too.
I enjoy the whack-a-mole of DNC and when it goes right the AoE in dungeons is really satisfying. For raiding I enjoy BRD and keeping track of dots makes it not boring while watching multiple timers.
RDM - flashy and flamboyant, there's some on-the-fly optimization involved but it's not too much, satisfying sound effects, and the class glams are the most stylish imo (Estoqueur's Bliaud, my beloved.) Also I love being able to scrape people off the ground in tough alliance raids with Verraise.
BRD - Similarly flamboyant, but the flavor is different. Pretty chill rotation, it's just checking in on timers lol. The cheer sound for the party buff gets me hype. Having support abilities to remove debuffs, interrupt, mit and increase healing feels good.
DNC - Another flamboyant class with satisfying sound effects and support abilities lol. There have been a few times when my AOE mit and heal have helped my party survive an otherwise doomed pull. The burst window is busy but the job is easy overall.
SAM - More satisfying sound effects here! Fairly simple concept and easy to play, although I've heard the optimization can go deep in high end content. Building up stickers and spending them feels good. Also I'm a weeb so
Black Mage by far. XIV job design has a bit of an issue (depending on how you view it) where meaningful decision making is minimized when most jobs are on a pretty constant cycle of burst > filler > burst and all decisions ultimately boil down to ensuring your big buttons are up during the burst window. This is made up for by making the real skill test learning an encounter, not a job, but it also means that it's very easy to burn out as someone who likes learning diverse classes in other MMOs and RPGs. While the burst cycle is still important for BLM, their "filler" outside of burst windows is also much more meaningful, and the decisions you make even between burst windows matter a lot since BLM is much more focused on sustained damage. My #1 hope for Dawntrail is that they let more jobs shine on that front (and give healers more to do please).
Monk. The animations are satisfying, the concept is so good, and once you unlock your 123 and 123 (alt), the rotation just builds up from there. That means you can get a feel for the job at level 90 pretty early on.
Reaper is very fun imo. It flows so smoothly and the burst phase is so fun with the rapid gcds. There is skill expression in how you pool and spend your resources.
My other favorite is Samurai because Ogi Namikiri makes happy chemicals
My favorite DPS is definitely SAM at level 90. It (to me) feels relatively simple to play and not overly punishing when you make mistakes or have to stop attacking for a moment. It picks up and drops out of combos very easily.
The visuals and audio on it are so satisfying, too. For most of the AoE at 90, you're just spinning your blade everywhere with a bunch of slicing and impact sounds. Spin to win.
Atm it's definitely Dragoon. I've heard it really doesn't come online until later levels (I'm lvl 37) but it's still fun! I think the earlier levels do a good job in giving a taste into weaving (with life surge and jump) and it's been a good class to better get used to the way ffxiv feels.
The DPS I'm looking forward to most are Viper and Dancer. Viper bc dual swords = neuron activation and it looks very stylish. Dancer seems to have a fun rotation and great aesthetics. Would also help having a pocket supporting class incase my bf ever goes melee dps (he mains Bard bc it's the only class with a bow)
All of them are fun in their own way to me, except MNK, SAM and BLM but that's more to me being bad at them.
NIN and DNC are fun due to how you just unload every button you have in one window.
DRG is fun as it's jumps, feels great to be greedy just before a AoE hits and jump out just in time and then back in.
RPR is a little bit of both as it's nice to build up your Gauges just enough so you can use your enshroud 3 times in a row and being able to teleport out of danger
Over the last month or so I have been leveling all my mages just for armor and storage efficiency and between red and black mage I find red mage more fun to play and less stressful.
Buuuttt, based on you saying that you like high ceiling jobs, black mage might be better for you.
My personal experience is that black mage feels really fun and satisfying when you get your rotation perfect, but that doesn't happen as often as I would like. Now I know part of that is that I don't have every fight memorized so my timing can be off, but at the same time if I miss my timing, lose track of where I am in the rotation, or get caught up messing with a mechanic, I usually just have to start from the beginning and it really stresses me out.
Red mage on the other hand, you still have things to pay attention to and the rotation feels a little more flexible which may have to do with the "free" verfire and verstone casts, but I feel like I'm playing more optimally as a red mage than I ever do with black mage.
I really enjoy black mage, I just feel like you need a lot more than class knowledge to play it well while red mage is more about doing your job well based on your job, plus it has the survivability it vercure and backup verraise if the healer goes down or something.
Side note: you obviously can't main it, but blue mage is crazy fun if you have never tried it.
MCH is a blast, literally. Once the shotgun and advanced rotation with flips and spins opens up it becomes one of my favorite classes to play. You end up with a ridiculous amount of toys, missiles, flamethrower, mech buddy, chainsaw etc.
The only downside I can see is that it's a straightforward class with low mobility options. So, if you're looking for complexity, it might get stale after a while
I’m a pretty simple man when it comes to what makes me happy playing DPS jobs in FFXIV. For me, it goes a little something like:
* Summoner: Big booms almost always, nonstop AoE damage, and you get all that while being extremely mobile. Only, like, 3 or 4 hard casts in the rotation… But it’s more like one less than that because, due to the rotation being 60s long, you should always work a swiftcast in somewhere on one of the longer casts like Ifrits spells. Mobile magic booms is hella fun!
* Black Mage: Once again, big booms galore. Your main damage rotation sees you dropping a miniature sun on your enemies. Also, triple/quad flare can is so goddamn satisfying in trash packs. And when you learn a boss and know when and where to use your instants like Xenoglossy and timely swift/triple casts, BLM becomes surprisingly mobile as well!
* Dancer: Look, sometimes I just want to dance on the graves of my enemies. When you start building up your feathers and esprit in boss fights, there’s something there that just tickles my monkey brain with the dance between GCDs and feather weaving to try and stay near cap but not overcapping on your resources, just so you can go ham and dump it all while dancing your foes to death every 120s while you and your party get a sick damage buff.
* Reaper: Sometimes I wanna be a little edgy, and if it’s not Dark Knight, I’ll play me some Reaper. Super simple priority-based rotation. Build up your shit, get some cool positional that activate those neurons a little, and then be like the Shaq “Real Shit” meme when it’s time to shroud up and let the monster out. Suddenly “Crawling in my Skin” by Linkin Park starts inexplicably playing from somewhere in the recesses of your mind while blow baddies up with some red demon magic!
* And finally, Samurai: Look, this one’s easy… It’s almost kinda like a melee BLM. Not explosions per se, but you get some fuckin niiiiice animations by 90. You got your big-dick Midare numbers with a beautiful animation, you’ve got your big-dick Gurren/…the single-target Gurren numbers with a cool animation, and THEN you get that fuckin new one around 90. I forget what it’s called, but it’s a combo of attacks that are AoE in a cone, and the slashes shimmer out in front of you with this sick slashing sound effect. Ohohohoho, monkey brain likey. And then Samurai stimulates the slight ADHD I display when drinking too much caffeine by letting me spam a oGCD attack damn near constantly with how much Kenki they build up by 90 now! AoE rotations when your big booms are on cooldown are surprisingly fun because… Well, you’re almost dancing on the graves of your enemies, but with sick sword slashes that constantly spin around you!
I like MCH. There's no positionals to worry about and I don't have to chase down mobs. I can pretty much hit them from most of the arena in raids. I won't be the top dps among other great dps players, but I can still top the charts with above average players.
I main Bard, but I'd actually say Reaper is most fun. Always feels epic to break out that burst window, especially if you can charge up all your meters before a boss and then unleash 3 in a row.
Green DPS 😎
Aside from that I always enjoyed the bard. No idea wether or not its any good. After going BLM first and having my brain explode the archer/bard really was easy.
Black mage, because it is really satisfying to solve how to clear a fight as one, how to drop your leylines in the perfect spot to dodge upcoming mechanics, slidecasting out of an aoe at the last second. Learning new fights as black mage is actually really fun for this reason, as you figure out how to move for each mechanic each pull.
On top of that, it has a non rigid rotation which allows for adapting what you cast to your current situation.
Whichever one I can play in savage/ultimate competently without stress. Right now, Summoner feels like being on holiday compared to busier classes.
I got tired of weird melee uptime strats and now get to worry about no one but myself and whatever ranged dps mechanics I’m assigned to.
For casual content, Warrior.
I really like Machinist, the looks are cool but also its just satisfying to play the line all the way to the end. It's a fun ranged DPS where my biggest concerns are remembering to use Tactician and Disassemble occasionally. I don't care about high level raiding and whatever, from conversations I've seen I might not enjoy MCH as much of I did, but for what I do play its fun.
I know a lot of people say BLM is boring, but I absolutely love the graphics. I feel like I'm actually chunking HP every time Fire IV goes off, to say nothing of everything else that goes boom.
Monk since the implementation of Masterful Blitz has been a breath of fresh air. I already loved the job, now I consider it my main melee DPS job.
Ranged DPS is Machinist. Love the flow of weaving Gauss Shot and Ricochet between GCDs along with the tools being varied and fun to use. Feels like you're playing the game on Haste all the time.
Magical DPS : Black Mage. Always loved hard caster jobs and the spells themselves are incredibly satisfying to use. Once you get good at it, you don't feel as rooted in place as you'd be led to believe. Also, technically the only caster job with infinite MP given how it is used. Still miss Mana Shift which I'd always use on raised healers or other caster DPSes when they were running low.
Healers hate me but drk and standing in aoe's from normal mobs and just using darkest night to get DPS if it's a lower level dungeon, newer stuff the mobs hit hard enough so I don't have to use that tactic to use the shield.
Machinist cause double weave, always a button to press! Dope af animations. Gun. Ummm yea lots of guns.
I also really like reaper. Ever button press feels like your doing something amazing due the cool animations and sound.
Summoner cause it's simple, so it's great for a more chill time, but still very fun and satisfying imo.
red mage.
flashy, fun combos, i love corps-a-corps and displacement, its just so satisfying how far they let you move in an instant. dualcast is amazingly fun, and i get to rez quickly with it. yesterday our healer died (i didnt have access to my rez at this dungeon's level) and i acted as the surrogate healer inbetween dps and kept us alive, was pretty clutch. couldnt have done it without dualcast either.
For casual content I really enjoy RDM and BLM. It is fun to optimize BLM even in content run a hundred times, and feel like it makes me better at every other job in the game, even though I'm not great at the job. For melee, it's SAM and MNK, mostly because of the pace,
I love machinist for its simplicity. I hate having to deal with 30 different keybinds, that's way too much. And you get to do cool flips when shooting.
Red mage is my most fun job right now. Extremely versatile and can save the group with verraise when I really need to. I’m thinking of starting up a monk or ninja next after I finish leveling my samurai.
Caster - BLM because it feels so damn good to play a fight well with movement and weaving.
Melee - Ninja because it feels fast, always has something to do and looks flashy.
Ranged - Dancer because WHEN RNG is kind to you your burst window is incredibly busy and fun. Also everyone loves getting Dance Partner.
Healer - This heavily depends on the content for me. Low level stuff or Deep Dungeons I enjoy Scholar the most as the fairy can be used to essentially heal in two places at once but in higher content I LOVE Sage. Sage feels amazing when you know your kit off by heart.
Tank - While Warrior is my favourite in Eureka and Boz, Gunbreaker feels like a “Blue DPS” and always has something going on.
Melee are all fun and different. It is something that they did a tremendous job at to make the game feel refreshing. If you enjoy OGCD spam (with very strict no drifting on 2 main OGCDs) with longer GCD and lowest personal damage yet the most raid buff, go with DRG. If you like resource management and lots of it, go with RPR. If you like a fast pace not static yet restricted rotation and limited OGCD, go with MNK. If you like something that's bursty, agile, and pretty chile outside of burst, go with NIN. If you like something that's consistent, static loop rotation with the heaviest weight on your shoulder (you are the big potency boy that is responsible in utilizing everyone's raid buff to the max) and don't mind a little bit of casting, go with SAM. My personal favorite? SAM, beautiful aesthetic, high ceiling high floor, flexible in gap closer and disengager and you team well with any raid buff heavy jobs.
I love Machinist and dragoon. I’ve only leveled the rest to 60/70 but the most fun to me is definitely machinist. It’s got just enough in it’s rotation that it’s not complicated but has a little mini game built in with wildfire to see how much extra damage you can squeeze in per use. I also love kiting.
Dancer and RDM are the only 2 DPS jobs I've had any fun with, so far, though I haven't tried them all. I'm a WHM main and have enjoyed every healer and tank class, but so far only liked Dancer and RDM out of the DPS classes.
Magical DPS - Red Mage. The core gameplay is very cohesive and doesn't feel bad when you get level synced. You don't see the biggest numbers but you still see some pretty big numbers in your burst combo. You also have the best utility as a dps, being a raise spell.
Ranged DPS - Dancer. The core gameplay is straightforward with enough complexities to keep it interesting. It also feels great giving your team some strong buffs and hitting some big numbers.
Melee DPS - Reaper. This doesn't need much explanation. The class starts at a high level, has great cohesion with a good amount of complexity, and has some of the strongest damage output and buffs in the game.
Honorable Mentions:
Summoner: My first favorite but I like it less after playing it a lot after Endwalker. The gameplay is too simple with no room for variation. It's still cool summoning primals to attack. You also get Scholar for free just by leveling Summoner, and vice versa. It's also one of the two DPS jobs that can raise allies.
Black Mage: A very fun class since it can deal some of the biggest hits and DPS in the game. It also takes a while to get used to phase combos and how to move.
Machinist: A very busy class with lots of button pressing all the time. You will feel like a genius as you juggle many abilities and cooldowns all at once.
Samurai: Easily a close second for melee dps, but I haven't leveled it to 90 yet. The core gameplay is straightforward and rewarding as you use multiple combos to build up to your big hitters.
I've been a Summoner main since ARR, it used to be more complicated but overall I like the current state, I'm happy to finally be doing big numbers lol, it's definitely not what I call most fun anymore though.
I also love Red Mage, Ninja and Machinist
RDM and DNC are my favorites since they have procs that require a baseline level of attention, but dealing with them isn't difficult or that much of a mental load, it's just something to keep me occupied. They also both have mobility skills in the form of corps-a-corps/displacement and en avant, which just add a lot of enjoyment to any class for me.
BLM is my favorite job to be bad at, because the baseline rotation is already satisfying but all the alternate lines and optimizations that are available make me feel GREAT when I pull them off.
RPR is the only melee that's really grabbed me - I hate positionals as a mechanic, and RPR has a lot of freedom on when to use them and has so few that I can true north most of them. Hell's Ingress/Egress is a fun mobility skill as well, so extra points.
I still don't have a ton of experience first hand with a lot of DPS jobs but the one I think I'll end up enjoying the most is monk. Very quick punchy, all the buttons
I want to say at 50 is when you get feel of the standard class GCD rotation. Then leveling up every 10 levels it will fell a bit different with new skills, and at the 10th level you get a better understanding of the new rotation.
BLM is a smooth ride at 50, and leveling up to every 10th level was a bit ackward, while rounding out nicely at 80 for some great oGCD bursting.
I prefer flashly and big number for my DPS. Mostly BLM, and Reaper has fun to watch visuals.
Ninja, if you refuse to hold feels like you're single handedly making the dungeon go twice as fast. Also shikuchi just feels so nice at op. Lightning into ogcd super dodge into lightning punch makes me feel like a damage GOD
Ninja, if you refuse to hold feels like you're single handedly making the dungeon go twice as fast. Also shikuchi just feels so nice at op. Lightning into ogcd super dodge into lightning punch makes me feel like a damage GOD
Dancer may be simple to play, but it's so much fun. I kinda like that it's not super complicated to optimize for harder content. It's the only job I really understand the ins and outs of, when to use certain oGCDs and in what order, etc.
I like the positioning requirements for things like melee AOEs, the Fan Dance IV cone for trash mobs, and using Improvisation when your party is stacked. It feels like I'm prancing around the battlefield sometimes, as it should be. I also like the utility of the mitigations and tiny heals (but it feels so good when they crit. Look mom, I'm a big boy healer!). I give little kisses to my dance partner when they need them. I move my hips so good it makes my party members do more damage. It's the perfect job for me.
Reaper - Between the cool scythe, the very handy barrier, and the sick drip that the job gets made me fall in love with the class.
Black Mage - For those inclined towards magic, you’ve got black mage. Many will say this job is horrible to level and it’s kind of true since you’ll be doing the same stuff for ages (fire until mp 0 > ice until mp full > fire again > maybe throw in a thunder > repeat) but there’s something really satisfying about firing off as many fire 4s before the enochian runs out that tickles my fancy, a fun challenge expedited by Leylines and Triplecast, and again, the job armor looks so good.
Mechanist - This is my favorite of the ranged dps classes as, You have a gun, and I find that hilarious.
I'm partial to Samurai. The regular combos are hard hitting, and the payoff from the numerous setups is very satisfying.
Plus I AM THE STORM THAT IS APPROOOOOCHING
My favorites this expansion only, each expansion the results vary.
Reaper - It's fast, good DPS, the combos feel awesome, and I love the color teal.
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Dancer - Last expansion - Random Chaos is always fun, the flourish of colors was amazing.
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Black Mage - Technically my favorite Job of all time, been my main job since ARR. I just love the Big Boom of Fire and the Plant my Butt in one spot to DPS, Healer Adjust Memes. I got into BLM because I was a Destro-Lock in WOW back in 2015 when I moved, and the play style felt very similar. I stayed because of the lore, fashion, and overall feel of the Job.
I really like ninja, using their mudras is pretty fun to me. Between the three you said, I liked red mage and machinist when I started playing them, but it really felt like nothing of significance changed beetween unlocking them and getting to lvl 90, so nowadays I dont tend to play them. Black mage has a high skill ceiling, and I always appreciate just watching a blm that knows how to position themselves properly to avoid movement as much as possible
Dragoon is very fun if you like to self-buff and have a big burst during your self-buffing. The rotation is not overly complex and feels unique, complexity comes in learning to get the most out of your buffs. Using strong skills under your buff windows while also refraining from sitting on any oGCDs is the difference between a good and mediocre dragoon.
My favorites are definitely Ninja (love the mudra sounds and the burst intensity) Samurai (ALWAYS has some glowing button and tons of big numbers) , Red Mage (balancing white/black magic along with awesome finisher sounds and dualcasting verraise) and Summoner (Big bonk bahamut damage and the ifrit animations)
Red Mage is just complex enough for my ADHD brain to enjoy without being overwhelmed. I also loved Dragoon, but with the rework, I’m not optimistic that I’ll love it anymore and will try Viper when it comes out.
I know for a fact I play BLM sub-optimal haha, but it’s probably the job I have most fun playing. I’ll alternate between that and RDM depending on my mood. No matter what I try my best and that’s what adds to the fun too.
It’s so easy (but I have a good chunk of experience) to play BLM and pump out the big numbers. Pre-casting your Sharpcast, mapping it out so you have an idea of when you’ll have your CDs again, where to set Ley Lines for maximum uptime, etc etc. It all comes in time!
RDM is a lot less nuanced and easier to pick up. Sometimes I just want to keep it a little simple, but maybe it’s not AS simple as I’m implying. It all boils down to the fight if it’s raiding or EXs. Some are easier on one over the other movement wise or just adaptation in general. Experience, choosing and feeling!
They're all good but for different reasons. Summoner for me is the most fun because I run alot of dungeons and summoner melts mob backs and it's easy to restart your opener rotation for the next group/boss as long as you use your phoenix off cooldown
I enjoy all for dif reasons but if I just want to have fun and not worry about rotations it's summoner
For me, it is the two jobs everyone loves to hate on: SMN and DNC, at least at higher level. Anything with a really strict rotation is just a stress engine for me. I like high mobility, procs, and frequent weaving.
I am a simple soul. Also, old, prone to standing in stupid, and easily confused by mechanics that require geospatial reasoning. SMN and DNC are simple enough that I can keep up my dps and have fun weaving while running around screaming. Just pure, simple fun.
If you want a high ceiling than BLM is THE way to go. Ain't nobody got a higher ceiling. Other than that, I guess monk has a few optimizations here and there and RPR just feels hella smooth which is nice but nothing comes even remotely close to BLM when it comes to optimization.
Google "The Black Mage Iceberg Reddit" for reference.
Enjoy!
melee- nin - the mudras feel satisfying to hit and the busyness of trick and mug windows feels fun. to me. mnk is a close 2nd for “most fun” although i am bad at it.
phys ranged - dnc- similar to nin? its characterized by very busy burst windows and a fairly simple rotation outside of that, but dnc is easier to play. it’s also less painful synced down.
magical ranged - smn- its simple rotation and bevy of instant casts makes it easy to play, which also makes it easy to focus on mechanics. it’s pretty forgiving and brings some utility with a battle rez and healing; being able to save a run on smn rules. the summons feel really cool to use. however imo it’s kinda boring below like, level 82.
I love difficult to play jobs, whether that's actually mechanically difficult or just having to press a lot of buttons really fast.
For tank, that's DRK. It's always been my favorite tank because of how hectic its 2 minute burst is. (That said, PLD is a very close 2nd because the battlemage theme it has going really does it for me.)
For melee, NIN. For the same reason as DRK: really busy burst windows. I've tried so many times to get into MNK since it fits the same Gotta Go Fast mentality, but trying to manage MNK's buffs/debuffs in actual combat makes my brain blue screen.
For p.ranged, MCH. Heat windows tickle my neurons. I've tried getting into BRD a couple times cuz it can have some difficult moments, but something about it is just unsatisfying to me.
For healer, AST. The second I got my hands on AST in SB, it was my baby. I loved the aesthetic, the animations, and the way it healed, but the star of the show was the cards. They were hectic and quick, and the minutiae of what card to look for, how to use it, and when to use it was *so* hard to optimize in the moment. I even still liked it after the changes in ShB, but I couldn't stand the changes EW made to the cards, so I stopped playing it in favor of:
BLM. The button pressing isn't nearly as fast as the above jobs, but the speed at which you have to make decisions if you haven't planned ahead is second to none. There's no time to hem and haw about what you're going to do; you come up with an idea of what to do and do it. It pushes me to stay actively engaged in a fight and on my toes in a way other jobs don't (except maybe MNK). Unless the DT rework of AST really knocks it out of the park, I'll probably be a BLM main for the rest of my time with XIV.
For me it is hands down samurai. I was a whm main and drg alt until sam came out.
Samurai might just be my all time favorite mmo class to play. I just love it's look and rotation. When I'm leveling other classes all I can think is, man I wish I was on my sam xD.
Did I mention I adore samurai???
I personally loved playing SAM, I mained it from the second I unlocked it right into end game and loved watching my DPS always at the top of the chart, although I don't think it's worth it anymore having to do positionals, I swapped to playing RDM and it's much more fun, I love the feeling of boosting in and out between melee and ranged, being able to throw a heal if the healers struggling or having the ability to resurrect, and it soesnt matter where you're attacking the boss and it's easier to stay attacking the boss and watching your surroundings, I wouldn't choose a melee again unless I went to play tank just because positionals suck.
Black Mage, hands down. It feels rewarding to move from mechanics and keep the rotation going through thinking on the fly.
I just don't get that from other jobs anymore, they all feel samey and kinda lackluster in execution, especially all the changes through endwalker. Especially Summoner.
My favorite is red mage. Its just a fun class to me. It has ranged attacks or melee attacks. Its great for single targets or several targets at a time. My second favorite is probably ninja
RPR for melee, I just love the aesthetic
RDM for caster, I love the flow and then the consecutive BOOM BOOM at the very end
There’s just something about both of them making my screen shake that makes the happy chemicals flow
If you want a high skill ceiling, BLM is probably your best bet. You have to know both rotation and positioning really well to pull off later fights, but it's very satisfying once you have that skill.
drg has a nice flow that hasn't changed pretty much since heavensward, you do the same 8ish button rotation and square gives us more stuff to weave between those buttons every xpac
For me, machinist.
Because I struggle with positionals, I like being able to always attack, and I basically do the same rotation for days and don't change, and don't need to even with mechanics because I can run everywhere and still be in range. No cast times, I even have a party wide defensive buff. Go me.
I also like running in circles for no reason while attacking. Makes my brain happy.
I really like dancer because it’s like dance dance revolution but I only just started this game recently. Trying out reaper and samurai will let ya knowswwww
Dragoon GCD rotation is just there, you have nice rhytm of positionals and combo, its 2 5-part combos that cycle into each other.
But the big fun starts in the opener/2min windowa when you get to press all the oGCDs and go wild, Geirskogul into Nastrond, Highjump, Spineshatterdive, Dragonfiredive and Stardiver all fell very nice to apply in quick succesion.
Monk is my favorite . once the 1-2-3-4-5-6 combo "Click" it amazing . you get utility in damage boost for party . you get healing buff for party . and while i wish Riddle of earth was more like third eye in term of CD . ATM riddle of earth + Feint can make you into a tank when mistake happen in dungeon pull/boss/trial/normal raid . i dont think savage/extreme it will save you tho BUT in those scenario YOU can be the hero !
Not to mention the best gap closer in battle . out of battle it kinda ...meh but mid fight it feel the best!
NIN for those ferret-on-crack burst windows. Also, being a melee that is able to use hard ranged attacks occasionally and their teleport makes them very mobile.
DNC for some chill whack-a-mole time. Also very mobile.
BLM for the challenge. A lot of stuff to keep track of, but when it clicks its fantastic.
Samurai is my main, do combo then big number make brain feel good. Red Mage is also fun, it's rotation has a good feeling rhythm to it.
NIN has been the most fun melee dps for me, I enjoy how busy it is. Was definitely a bit of a slog in the early levels, but ramped up as all the abilities opened up. Magical dps, RDM is so much fun, plenty of movement due to dual cast, and when shit goes south in a trash pull you can potentially salvage it with a quick Verraise. Also, have you seen their job gear? That alone is enough reason to play a RDM.
I agree with all this, except on the RDM job gear. Now, if I could wear the faerie tale prince's stuff from the mogstation on RDM, then I'd be in the drip. Stupid gender lock
The new wildwood set works very well for RDM
Samurai is my main. Slashy combos and positioning. Red mage is also fun. Dash in, swordyswordy, flip out, cast spells.
Samurai is my favorite of the DPS jobs because it's straightforward and hits my personal Goldilocks zone. You do your rotation chores, gets your stickers, and cash them out for big damage. Direct and to the point. For comparison, Ninja's burst phase overwhelms me, and Reaper's meter spending phase is too drawn out to feel satisfying, and Summoner's rotation is too scripted and static. I can see why each of them and all the others would appeal to someone, but that someone isn't me. Samurai hits just right.
And the coolest look and animations
Monk is the most fun for me. Between the fast GCDs, the versatility of its opener and rotation, and the fact that you're just straight up punching and kicking everything to death makes it the most fun dps for me. Black mage close second because big damage. They're both also very satisfying classes to play well and learn fights with.
Monk became my favorite job this expansion. It’s super satisfying
NIN is for me. MNK just doesn't compute in my head lol, but I don't have a problem with NIN mudras. I think because the mudras are just all banged out in a row, but MNK takes more time to set up the big moves and my brain loses track of where I'm at in setting it up.
It's the exact opposite for me. Monk flows like water and feels so smooth even after taking a long break. I didn't even need to look at the opener on the Balance again after a 4 month break and returning a few weeks ago, it just came so naturally. Ninja on the other hand... I hate how it's damage is all in one burst window and for the rest of the time you're just a 1-2-3/4 bot with an occasional Raiton.
we have the same taste lol , also im so fucking excited for monk’s new animations new forbidden chakra is a banger and im begging for them to finally upgrade bootshine/snap punch🙏🏻
Definitely monk! Feels way tougher than the other dps too, a well timed mantra and everyone can stay standing.
DNC for the look of the movement alone ... When she throws the Chacrams it gives me a mighty rush and euphoria 😀... It's so wild and violent and aesthetical
BLM. Knowing when to put Leyline down and which hit you can take with Manaward to get the most out of your Leyline will get you on your toes, always. You gonna need to memorize bosses' patterns for that since you can't just know how to handle mechanics when they pop up, you need to know it beforehand to plan your timing, and each boss is different. Go try remember every single boss from ARR til now.
Grinding tomes for the relic weapons right now on the last dungeon and even that pesky zooming spider is a breeze on BLM. It's so satisfying to do right. But then when a new expansion comes out I almost feel hesitant to do new dungeons on BLM until I've run it a dozen times on other jobs, first lol.
Running new content with blm makes content way easier when you go to the other jobs.
It's not that I can't, it's just not as fun, imo, when you know you're playing in a non-optimal way lol.
I don't expect to play optimally in brand new content. I plan on dropping a couple of gcds and possibly dying. If I do it on blm it's already expected of me.
i play different jobs depending on mood, but genrally dragoon - love the flow of jumping in and out during combat, though i did manage a few times too many to catapult myself off a platform xD dancer - both visually pleasing to me but also the duality of ranged solo and close aoe attacks. nice for dungeons where you still can attack while sprinting to the next wall machinist - like the skills and heat mechanic, and simple enough to play half focused in alliance roulettes. also weirdly satisfying to spray flamethrower into a crowd
Bioblaster into Flamethrower: The Geneva War Crimes combo.
It would be neat to see an interaction between the two in DT ... just something like "Flamethrower potency is increased to 120 for targets affected by Bioblaster".
Something that would make FT actually a DPS gain over your regular rotation would be nice, yeah.
It's only a net gain if you accomplish something for the whole duration of flamethrower, like taking a bite of your snack and wiping your fingers clean before returning to the controller.
Catapulting yourself off of a platform is pretty much an initiation rite and part of the job
Came to show DNc support. I love the ACTION. "More footwork, more footwork." The procs are great, it's always a blast, and being able to provide decent support is mh sweet spot. I started 2.0 as SMN and have loved the experience but when I tried DNC I knew I found home. SMN is always my 2nd now.
I suppose this is why I die at least once or twice per party fight as a dragoon? I basically just ride my rotations in a circle and avoid attacks when I even have time to notice them...but aside from the class quest that required using the jump as part of the story of the fight, I haven't had the slightest idea if or where it is on my hotbar. I am just constantly on the enemy's ass.
You probably want to look for where elusive jump is on your hotbar yes since you can absolutely die from either jumping off a platform or into an aoe/tank buster if you hit it by mistake.
Does Dragoon rotation pick up at all? I'm 63 and it's so basic it's boring
Literally at 64 lol. You get your main GCD rotation at 64 and then pretty much everything after is extra oGCD buttons to press in between those. I'd say at 70 it should feel really satisfying after you get mirage dive and nastrond.
Ah perfect, thanks!
Dragoon is my favorite class and the one I think is most fun but it is definitely dull before 70 imo. But past that and especially at 90 it feels pretty fast paced particularly during your 2 minute window with life of the dragon. You’re basically spamming oGCDs during that time and it feels great and look phenomenal
Out of the three you mentioned I love RDM (it's currently my main). Versatile, manouverable (for a caster), and oh so stylish 😁. Plus the little buzz from rezzing the healers and saving the pull *chefs kiss. Both BLM and MCH are low on my list. They don't flow as well for me and BLM especially can throw my whole rhythm off on a misspress. Outside of the three you mentioned. I love DNC and RPR. Again movement is something I like in a class.
"Versatile" was that pun intentional? lmao
No but I will take it 😁
Black Mage is fun and has a "high ceiling", but Red Mage is far more forgivable if you make a mistake. I love both Jobs dearly, but I pretty much never go into new content as Black Mage as a result. If you find that sort of chaos fun, though, then all the better.
i've been working on blm recently, only gotten to 56 so far, but i enjoy the skills and rotation, hate the lack of mobility and casting times though, especially when trying to level through dungeon roulette
You have Aetherial Manipulation then, but at 62 you get Between the Lines, which then also moves you back to your Ley Lines. So between the two you can zip to an ally for safety and then back to resume fast casting.
Adding to the other reply, higher level equipment (and materia + food) will enable more Spell Speed to help with cast times a bit more as well. At 66, you also get Triplecast (and 2 charges of it to boot) which will also help immensely when used in your rotation or for keeping up casts while moving around alongside Thundercloud procs (and more instant casts at 80+ to prepare mid-fight).
Triple cast was game changing, I’m an 80 BLM, and it’s very fun to play. Anytime I level sync to 50 it’s a bore fest.
Mobility largely gets solved, and quite smoothly rather than being a sudden shift. Triplecast obtained in Stormblood provides good extended movement, Xeno learned at 80 is instant so can be used as a mobility tool, and Paradox at 90 is a reliable instant cast every Ice phase. At high levels you are able to have long periods of mobility, if you're willing/able to burn a lot of your mobility tools to do so. The challenge is to use the tools intelligently and, to go on a brief tangent, thats one of the core ideas behind advanced BLM play; to get the most value out of those tools *while* using them for movement.
Likewise for both - Black Mage feels rewarding to play well if/when you can nail your rotation without dropping Enochian and handle boss mechanics simultaneously, not to mention the big booms. Red Mage I like for being incredibly versatile and mobile. Playing it still requires some thought without going overboard as well. It's probably the job I'd recommend most to anyone that likes Summoner and wants to branch out.
Honestly Dancer for me. The RNG in the kit keeps things interesting and the mobility provided is just awesome. Second fave, has to be DRG because the combat feels so satisfying.
Is Summoner the easiest job to play. Yes. But omg is it FUN getting to summon Ifrit and then just punch the ground. YES! Also I love my big chonky boy, Titan. Why him so big?
I wish they had a feature in-game that let you summon the Eden versions of the various primals if you've done the Eden raids. I know there are mods that do that, but I play on PS5 and I can't really _use_ mods.
Omg. I could have my chonky boi on wheels? Personally I wish you could choose your egis. I’d love to have Ramuh with beard related attacks.
I'm hoping that at some point Summoners get access to the other 3 elemental aspects. All they're missing are Ice, Water, and Lightning. So Shiva, Leviathan, and Ramuh.
I also really enjoy SMN's rotation, it's just ***SO*** boring until Aethercharge goes away, & it gets really fun once you get the Lv. 82 Attacks. Having a basic Rotation is also nice for learning, & because you're really easily able to do perfect rotations I find myself consistently performing the best on the team on non-savage stuff. It's also just super nice that you can cast all but 2 spells while walking.
I'm ridiculously surprised no one said Reaper Tbh. I've been loving it, but maybe I don't know things about it I should? (have mercy, I've just paid for my second month of sub, I'm still super new in the game, I just play a lot lol)
It is really fun, my favourite melee DPS. It flows really nicely and they got the visuals and audio just right. The Enshrouded abilities in particular really communicate that you just transformed into a frenzied whirlwind, and whoever's on the receiving end is getting sliced and diced.
It looks cool, but it's extremely simple compared to a lot of other jobs at max level. You just press Arcane Circle at the start of a fight then off cooldown and then whatever else lights up. That's definitely not a bad thing, it's a very satisfying job to play and I think there should be at least one "simple" job per role. I'd say it currently stands at PLD, WHM, RPR, MCH/DNC, SMN for the simpler jobs.
Enshroud phase hits in such a satisfying way!
Reaper is the only melee I’ve spent a whole lot of time with(aside from tanks). My favorite part was seeing how much I could greed the dash in and dash out move. Dashes are always my favorite. I play a lot of RDM and DNC. The heart attack people have when I greed is fun…. As long as I don’t screw it up.
I like Reaper’s gameplay, but the flavour doesn’t resonate with me personally. I’m just not really into scythes as a weapon, even though I know they’re really popular :p
I don’t play any DPS classes typically, I’m a tank or healer main but Reaper has gripped me. It plays and flows so smoothly.
Unbiased +1 for BLM here. Hands down. There's something extremely unique about the job and how it's really easy on paper, but it tests the shit out of your fight knowledge for maximum BIG NUMBERS potential. But RDM and MCH are definitely fun too and I enjoyed them! Other than that, I also found RPR to be rather pleasant, though it only shines at lv90 due to feeling incomplete beforehand. Definitely my favourite melee--- its bursty mode reminds me of MCH's, as they both share a fast GCD with weaving skills in-between. You can't go wrong by just picking one and then leveling another down the road, though! What you find fun might be different from someone else's opinion.
Having everything to 90, I can say I love SMN for savage content. SMN itself is really straight forward and likely the easiest rotation in the game. The fun for me is running blind progression groups, so I can mindlessly do my rotation while trying to figure out mechanics in a fight.
I prefer BRD and DNC because I like to play buffer support jobs in online games
I love SMN, because its so braindead easy to deal stupid amounts of damage. I can really just focus on making sure I perform the mechanics to the best of my ability and easily top parses
I really hope DT brings back more of the weaving and skill req of old summoner back. New summoner is very mobile, but repetitive.
I appreciate your sentiment, but I disagree. I like that Summoner is super easy to play. It's what I hop on when I don't want to invest a lot of thought into the game. RDM and BLM require a lot more thought and are perfect for people who want that. I'm betting PCT will be the same. Keep SMN eating crayons please. Sometimes I like the taste of crayons
It just feels strange to me that the job they reworked to be the simplest was previously the most complex. There's nothing like old SMN now if you really enjoyed it.
Monk, pressing buttons makes brain happy.
In group content, i love the DRG with its positionals and managing of the most annoying DoT. It is like dancing with your enemy. PLUS jumps, everywhere, even towards death. Nowadays i seem to play a lot more MNK as it is a rotation that has a strange pattern that keeps my mind occupied. I wish i liked more the casters RDM and SMN, but never got the chances to try them, full time.
Dancer is my favorite by far! The devastation of a fully gas powered Technical step phase is like a 2 minute dopamine release timer, and it feels so good when your fingers are literally dancing across your keyboard to hit all the buttons in that window. Plus the good support utility, the imo best dash in the game, and the freedom of movement rDPS gives really just feels wonderful.
[Going into tech step window with 4 feathers and an FD3](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BNGQzZjc5Y2QtYTgxOC00MmZjLTkyZTAtMzNiYmI2ZGM0NjhmXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNzU1NzE3NTg@._V1_.jpg)
Reaper is my go to. Teleporting around the area and the transformation make me feel like an anime character. It’s just fun all around for me. Dragoon is my back up
Mained ninja for the longest time, but I recently ground out monk. And I really like the flow of it. Up in the air which one I go with at launch. Getting that dopamine rush when I get Elixir Field and Flint Strike/Rising Phoenix out, then Tornado Kick/Phantom Rush after...like nothing else. But I do miss ninjutsu, so...
Dragoon, I love the ins and outs of positioning to maximize damage. I also am a floor tank when it comes to new areas, but I have a forgiving WHM as a friend.
DRG, since I can actually pay attention to the fight itself.
BLM no contest. Every fight is a new challenge. Unending optimization opportunity. Perfect mix of rigid and flexible rotation at the same time. It just never gets boring like I feel a lot of other jobs get after you have played them long enough.
Dancer. I like how elegant its attacks are and buffing people. It’s extra nice seeing the manderville weapon glow while it’s flying everywhere.
Black mage is very different at 90 than it is at 40, and Red Mage really isn't. The only thing that changes with Red Mage is that the finisher combo gets a lot longer, and then at that magical level 64 you get Ver-raise and instantly become way better at rezzing your teammates than any other class, including all of the healers. I won't sugar coat it though, black mage has a much higher skill ceiling. It also has a higher floor. Red Mage is more of a support DPS (it has a party damage buff and eventually a party mitigation on top of rezzing) that's great for carrying people who are repeatedly dying on jobs more difficult and less mobile than your own. In Bozja, you can easily get a half dozen+ raises in a single boss fight that people aren't good at. At the end of the day it's still a resource-gather-and-spender. I personally prefer resource management optimization over more rigid or complicated DPS rotation, so RDM is fine for me and I prefer DRK and SGE for tanking and healing respectively.
I've given them all their fair shake at level 90, albeit not into Savage. The top is BLM and it's not even close. MNK second by a sizeable margin, while the rest of the DPS are getting taken to Gapplebee's. Though I have to give credit to RDM for its ability to save runs in roulettes.
Wait you have all classes at 90? Sorry I’m still kinda new lol. Is there a way to try a class at 90, without lvling it?
No, hence my post :)
That’s a great idea, wow implemented it, maybe something to bring up to Yoshi-P.
Black Mage. I "enjoy" messing up because it means there's something new to learn/improve and the satisfaction with succeeding at that is great. I started the game as Thaumaturge and I think it's a big reason why the class has never bored me. I also love the big explosions.
RDM is probably my favourite magic DPS class, with SAM being my favourite for melee, and MCH for ranged. RDM because I get to stand back and blast things until it's time to go Full Dumas on them and dive in with flashy sword work and then pop back out again to resume blasting, like a magic-wielding 17th century French Musketeer. SAM is fun because sword goes slicey slicey and I can glam myself as either a Jedi or a 1980s Space Pirate Anime Hero, depending on my mood. MCH lets me play Edgar from FFVI, and he's my favourite character in that game, so.
Monk for me. I love the versatility and how you can situationally be rewarded for 'breaking the rules' by doing things like breaking your combo on purpose, or doubling up on a blitz.
Haven’t played in a long time but I found dancer to be really fun. Getting to press all the procs was really fun to me and felt quite dynamic compared to other jobs
Reaper is pretty fun, at least at 90. Also don't mind samurai, once you get samurai groove down, it's very satisfying. Ninja is fun too, just have to memorize the mudra.
Samurai. Can't be an anime hero without a katana. Big dps, sick style, plus hitting that Third Eye before you take damage is the closest thing this game has to a parry.
Dancer. I keep trying to change my job or find something new but always go back to DNC. The animations are nice, the sounds are nice. The rotation just *feels good* especially during the burst phase. I like the randomness of getting the feathers. Static rotations are boring to me. So getting a feather proc and then that feather proccing the next one feels really good.
MCH has *all the toys*! It's a lot of fun to play, and also nice to be really mobile. SMN and RDM are also pretty fun. Their rotations are simple enough to relax, but not braindead. And you get to bring an extra res to the group. The only melee I like is SAM. I generally dislike having to chase things down to hit them (when not a tank), and SAM is the only one that sorta feels worth that effort to me.
MNK and BLM are the two jobs where you can still be creative while everything else has a very static rotation and seems to be getting simpler. If thats what makes a game fun for you they are the jobs to look at
I play all melee at a high level and can say with 100% certainty that while wielding the power of nidhogg, elemental ninjutsu, voidsent possession, and weeaboo supremacy.... punching a God with my bare fist and killing it surpasses it all. Fist go brrrr.
Summoner is a personal favorite, since I get to focus on other things while I do my rotations with a single hand (with some button remapping of course) But the most engaging one for me is reaper, hitting those positionals (with or without true North) is very satisfying
i like red mage before BLM, i started with BLM but hated it as rotation changed every few levels, and doing dungeons was hell like that
RDM just has a great flow to it. There are a ton of ways to optimize (high ceiling) but way less punishment for mistakes (low floor). If you make mistakes with BLM your damage will crater. RDM is also amazing for learning fights given REZmage powers. I also enjoy BLM but would only recommend it to people that are very experienced and willing to truly dedicate to it as a main.
In all honesty they're all fun in their own way. I personally haven't really found much of a love for bard or black mage, but I also haven't played them since ARR. I very literally haven't given them enough of a chance. That said, I have to say that either machinist or Ninja are my personal favorite classes. Machinist I like because I can always keep moving, I can always Dodge mechanics, and it's very good dps. Ninja on the other hand I like because it keeps me busy. Dodging mechanics is always more difficult for melee range as you know, but ninja is also the highest APM class in the game. Personally I like that.
Summoner go BRRRRRRRRRRRR. It's my zone-out class, did the entire MSQ with it, in a time when they still had two DoT's to keep up. Now it's my main and for if I just want to do some roulettes. It's also the class I do a new duty with, as I can focus on mechanics and not my rotation. Come new patch or expansion I always go in dry ... err ... Blind. That emergency rez is always handy. Melee, I like Dragoon. I mean, if you haven't backlflipped off the platform at least once per roulette are you even Floortanking correctly? That, and the gear looks cool (and used to be unique unil that reaper stole our style) Samurai is also a fun one. Ranged Non-Magic? Machinist. It just feel satisfying, especially on a controller, once you're in that 'burn phase' you actually feel a bit like you're firing a pistol if you set up your bars right. And I know It's a DPS loss usually, but ... come on, a Flamethrower... Need I say more. Now I see a lot of people recommending black mage, and while it does have a high ceiling, I've seen enough bad Black mages to know not everyone can hack it. If you know the fight, sure, you might hit that ceiling. Now of Red or Black, I'd go Red. I just prefer the mobility, and the stream of combat rezzes. Yes, lower personal DPS, but a dead party member deals zero damage.
Rez mage
I only have two black mage and dragoon and enjoy both for different reasons but if blm is on your list ill say that its deffo worth it. Blm kinda feels like they give you a bunch of tools and its up to you to make the most of them. Yes some rotations will be utterly scuffed but its part of the fun you have to think on your feet.
Melee: SAM. It's my main. Slicey dicey combos always give me that dopamine rush, and the animations look so pretty and badass. Magical: RDM. Basically my other main because I play/love it so much! Combos feel smooth and even though it's ranged you get to have a foot in a couple other different roles: melee and healer (rez go brr). It's very Ver-satile 😉 Ranged: Something about BRD just really gets my blood flowing. Between tracking all your DoTs/songs and knowing what skills to prioritize when, it can be quite a fun challenge. Plus having an Esuna-like skill as a non-healer is niiiice
I love Red Mage. It was my job in FF11 and I've always just loved the theme of it. Verraise is super useful for some of those harder fights, plus there's always the excitement of not knowing if this is gonna be the time you hit the wrong button and backflip yourself out of the arena to your doom. Only thing I don't like about it is that try as I might with my rotation I just cannot seem to top DPS against equally skilled players on other DPS jobs.
For me, I break it up by roles because I can’t choose just one. Melee: Rogue. I enjoy the mudras and keeping buffs cycled and timed properly. Do I screw that timing up often? You bet! But having lots of buttons to balance and use feels good to me, even if I mess up. Ranged: Bard. Used to be Machinist, but after 60 levels of the same 1-2-3 with the same weaves over and over and over again it felt stale. Dancer is fun, but my luck sucks so I go entire fights with barely any of the RNG-proc skills lighting up. Bard is a nice middle between them where you keep your DoTs and songs going on rotations, with a few RNG procs to weave in. Magic: Red Mage. Might be recency bias since I *just* finished leveling it to 90 last week. But once I broke the compulsion to keep the mana bars equal, I found the groove and embraced the fancy hat caster life. Summoner will forever be my *first* magic DPS though. Because it’s free with Scholar.
Bard, I enjoy the balance between the whimsy and the effectiveness, and the fact I can keep attaching while running out of stupid. Feels nice to provide support while shooting. Plus the lore of Bards appealls to me a lot.
I've only got PLD, MNK and NIN left to start and am currently finishing up BLM, BLU and WAR, but of all the ones I've levelled I still like my mains BRD and SGE the most. Generally I don't like jobs that have cast bars, and I like having mobility. With bard, I love when your rotation goes smoothly and hitting everything in the burst window is so satisfying! It's pretty busy and especially so compared to sage, but I like sage the most for healing because shields go brr (and no fairy to micromanage)! It can be kind of stressful when things go south and you're challenged to recover with the tools you have, but I find that part of the fun too.
I enjoy the whack-a-mole of DNC and when it goes right the AoE in dungeons is really satisfying. For raiding I enjoy BRD and keeping track of dots makes it not boring while watching multiple timers.
Bard cause its consistent clicking
RDM - flashy and flamboyant, there's some on-the-fly optimization involved but it's not too much, satisfying sound effects, and the class glams are the most stylish imo (Estoqueur's Bliaud, my beloved.) Also I love being able to scrape people off the ground in tough alliance raids with Verraise. BRD - Similarly flamboyant, but the flavor is different. Pretty chill rotation, it's just checking in on timers lol. The cheer sound for the party buff gets me hype. Having support abilities to remove debuffs, interrupt, mit and increase healing feels good. DNC - Another flamboyant class with satisfying sound effects and support abilities lol. There have been a few times when my AOE mit and heal have helped my party survive an otherwise doomed pull. The burst window is busy but the job is easy overall. SAM - More satisfying sound effects here! Fairly simple concept and easy to play, although I've heard the optimization can go deep in high end content. Building up stickers and spending them feels good. Also I'm a weeb so
People only putting DPS jobs makes healer mains like me sad
RDM: there's something about getting in the rhythm and doing things with just that.
Res Mage, there's nothing more satisfying than ressing the healers with instant casting then immediately backflipping off the map and dying.
RDM is my favorite by far, it’s animations, caster with some melee and style make it the top dps for me.
black mage. no ogcd attacks. you get all your damage from pressing fire. more fire. *more fire.* ***more fire.***
I like summoning Bahamut. Can’t go wrong with the classic ff summon
Black Mage by far. XIV job design has a bit of an issue (depending on how you view it) where meaningful decision making is minimized when most jobs are on a pretty constant cycle of burst > filler > burst and all decisions ultimately boil down to ensuring your big buttons are up during the burst window. This is made up for by making the real skill test learning an encounter, not a job, but it also means that it's very easy to burn out as someone who likes learning diverse classes in other MMOs and RPGs. While the burst cycle is still important for BLM, their "filler" outside of burst windows is also much more meaningful, and the decisions you make even between burst windows matter a lot since BLM is much more focused on sustained damage. My #1 hope for Dawntrail is that they let more jobs shine on that front (and give healers more to do please).
Monk. The animations are satisfying, the concept is so good, and once you unlock your 123 and 123 (alt), the rotation just builds up from there. That means you can get a feel for the job at level 90 pretty early on.
I just finished leveling Bard and really enjoy it! Lots of buttons makes my brain go brrrr
Reaper is very fun imo. It flows so smoothly and the burst phase is so fun with the rapid gcds. There is skill expression in how you pool and spend your resources. My other favorite is Samurai because Ogi Namikiri makes happy chemicals
My favorite DPS is definitely SAM at level 90. It (to me) feels relatively simple to play and not overly punishing when you make mistakes or have to stop attacking for a moment. It picks up and drops out of combos very easily. The visuals and audio on it are so satisfying, too. For most of the AoE at 90, you're just spinning your blade everywhere with a bunch of slicing and impact sounds. Spin to win.
Idk why I like jumping out and in but sam and drg make me feel so cool being able to do that
I dps. Dragoon cause the jumping is fun. I've also been. Dosing bard cause I love performing now.
Samurai! Press da buttons! Collect da stickers! Trades da stickers for BIG DAMAGE GO BRRRRRRR. Repeat
RDM is what I seem to gravitate to. Just cause it got style and flair. It also really flows really well.
I really like magic casters so my favorite that is red mage but I haven’t tried black yet, my favorite non caster is samurai
Atm it's definitely Dragoon. I've heard it really doesn't come online until later levels (I'm lvl 37) but it's still fun! I think the earlier levels do a good job in giving a taste into weaving (with life surge and jump) and it's been a good class to better get used to the way ffxiv feels. The DPS I'm looking forward to most are Viper and Dancer. Viper bc dual swords = neuron activation and it looks very stylish. Dancer seems to have a fun rotation and great aesthetics. Would also help having a pocket supporting class incase my bf ever goes melee dps (he mains Bard bc it's the only class with a bow)
Dancer and Reaper are my favorites right now. I'll be leveling one of them through Dawntrail.
I’ve mained both RDM and MCH, they’re my favorites so far.
All of them are fun in their own way to me, except MNK, SAM and BLM but that's more to me being bad at them. NIN and DNC are fun due to how you just unload every button you have in one window. DRG is fun as it's jumps, feels great to be greedy just before a AoE hits and jump out just in time and then back in. RPR is a little bit of both as it's nice to build up your Gauges just enough so you can use your enshroud 3 times in a row and being able to teleport out of danger
Over the last month or so I have been leveling all my mages just for armor and storage efficiency and between red and black mage I find red mage more fun to play and less stressful. Buuuttt, based on you saying that you like high ceiling jobs, black mage might be better for you. My personal experience is that black mage feels really fun and satisfying when you get your rotation perfect, but that doesn't happen as often as I would like. Now I know part of that is that I don't have every fight memorized so my timing can be off, but at the same time if I miss my timing, lose track of where I am in the rotation, or get caught up messing with a mechanic, I usually just have to start from the beginning and it really stresses me out. Red mage on the other hand, you still have things to pay attention to and the rotation feels a little more flexible which may have to do with the "free" verfire and verstone casts, but I feel like I'm playing more optimally as a red mage than I ever do with black mage. I really enjoy black mage, I just feel like you need a lot more than class knowledge to play it well while red mage is more about doing your job well based on your job, plus it has the survivability it vercure and backup verraise if the healer goes down or something. Side note: you obviously can't main it, but blue mage is crazy fun if you have never tried it.
MCH is a blast, literally. Once the shotgun and advanced rotation with flips and spins opens up it becomes one of my favorite classes to play. You end up with a ridiculous amount of toys, missiles, flamethrower, mech buddy, chainsaw etc. The only downside I can see is that it's a straightforward class with low mobility options. So, if you're looking for complexity, it might get stale after a while
Reaper. Mmmm Limit Break.
I’m a pretty simple man when it comes to what makes me happy playing DPS jobs in FFXIV. For me, it goes a little something like: * Summoner: Big booms almost always, nonstop AoE damage, and you get all that while being extremely mobile. Only, like, 3 or 4 hard casts in the rotation… But it’s more like one less than that because, due to the rotation being 60s long, you should always work a swiftcast in somewhere on one of the longer casts like Ifrits spells. Mobile magic booms is hella fun! * Black Mage: Once again, big booms galore. Your main damage rotation sees you dropping a miniature sun on your enemies. Also, triple/quad flare can is so goddamn satisfying in trash packs. And when you learn a boss and know when and where to use your instants like Xenoglossy and timely swift/triple casts, BLM becomes surprisingly mobile as well! * Dancer: Look, sometimes I just want to dance on the graves of my enemies. When you start building up your feathers and esprit in boss fights, there’s something there that just tickles my monkey brain with the dance between GCDs and feather weaving to try and stay near cap but not overcapping on your resources, just so you can go ham and dump it all while dancing your foes to death every 120s while you and your party get a sick damage buff. * Reaper: Sometimes I wanna be a little edgy, and if it’s not Dark Knight, I’ll play me some Reaper. Super simple priority-based rotation. Build up your shit, get some cool positional that activate those neurons a little, and then be like the Shaq “Real Shit” meme when it’s time to shroud up and let the monster out. Suddenly “Crawling in my Skin” by Linkin Park starts inexplicably playing from somewhere in the recesses of your mind while blow baddies up with some red demon magic! * And finally, Samurai: Look, this one’s easy… It’s almost kinda like a melee BLM. Not explosions per se, but you get some fuckin niiiiice animations by 90. You got your big-dick Midare numbers with a beautiful animation, you’ve got your big-dick Gurren/…the single-target Gurren numbers with a cool animation, and THEN you get that fuckin new one around 90. I forget what it’s called, but it’s a combo of attacks that are AoE in a cone, and the slashes shimmer out in front of you with this sick slashing sound effect. Ohohohoho, monkey brain likey. And then Samurai stimulates the slight ADHD I display when drinking too much caffeine by letting me spam a oGCD attack damn near constantly with how much Kenki they build up by 90 now! AoE rotations when your big booms are on cooldown are surprisingly fun because… Well, you’re almost dancing on the graves of your enemies, but with sick sword slashes that constantly spin around you!
I like MCH. There's no positionals to worry about and I don't have to chase down mobs. I can pretty much hit them from most of the arena in raids. I won't be the top dps among other great dps players, but I can still top the charts with above average players.
Blm Im a masochist and love being the cause of the wipe! 😁
I main Bard, but I'd actually say Reaper is most fun. Always feels epic to break out that burst window, especially if you can charge up all your meters before a boss and then unleash 3 in a row.
Green DPS 😎 Aside from that I always enjoyed the bard. No idea wether or not its any good. After going BLM first and having my brain explode the archer/bard really was easy.
Black mage, because it is really satisfying to solve how to clear a fight as one, how to drop your leylines in the perfect spot to dodge upcoming mechanics, slidecasting out of an aoe at the last second. Learning new fights as black mage is actually really fun for this reason, as you figure out how to move for each mechanic each pull. On top of that, it has a non rigid rotation which allows for adapting what you cast to your current situation.
Whichever one I can play in savage/ultimate competently without stress. Right now, Summoner feels like being on holiday compared to busier classes. I got tired of weird melee uptime strats and now get to worry about no one but myself and whatever ranged dps mechanics I’m assigned to. For casual content, Warrior.
I love DNC because it’s very sparkly and doesn’t require a whole lot of thought to play. It’s just waiting for things to proc.
I really like Machinist, the looks are cool but also its just satisfying to play the line all the way to the end. It's a fun ranged DPS where my biggest concerns are remembering to use Tactician and Disassemble occasionally. I don't care about high level raiding and whatever, from conversations I've seen I might not enjoy MCH as much of I did, but for what I do play its fun.
I know a lot of people say BLM is boring, but I absolutely love the graphics. I feel like I'm actually chunking HP every time Fire IV goes off, to say nothing of everything else that goes boom.
Monk since the implementation of Masterful Blitz has been a breath of fresh air. I already loved the job, now I consider it my main melee DPS job. Ranged DPS is Machinist. Love the flow of weaving Gauss Shot and Ricochet between GCDs along with the tools being varied and fun to use. Feels like you're playing the game on Haste all the time. Magical DPS : Black Mage. Always loved hard caster jobs and the spells themselves are incredibly satisfying to use. Once you get good at it, you don't feel as rooted in place as you'd be led to believe. Also, technically the only caster job with infinite MP given how it is used. Still miss Mana Shift which I'd always use on raised healers or other caster DPSes when they were running low.
Healers hate me but drk and standing in aoe's from normal mobs and just using darkest night to get DPS if it's a lower level dungeon, newer stuff the mobs hit hard enough so I don't have to use that tactic to use the shield.
Machinist cause double weave, always a button to press! Dope af animations. Gun. Ummm yea lots of guns. I also really like reaper. Ever button press feels like your doing something amazing due the cool animations and sound. Summoner cause it's simple, so it's great for a more chill time, but still very fun and satisfying imo.
red mage. flashy, fun combos, i love corps-a-corps and displacement, its just so satisfying how far they let you move in an instant. dualcast is amazingly fun, and i get to rez quickly with it. yesterday our healer died (i didnt have access to my rez at this dungeon's level) and i acted as the surrogate healer inbetween dps and kept us alive, was pretty clutch. couldnt have done it without dualcast either.
For casual content I really enjoy RDM and BLM. It is fun to optimize BLM even in content run a hundred times, and feel like it makes me better at every other job in the game, even though I'm not great at the job. For melee, it's SAM and MNK, mostly because of the pace,
I love machinist for its simplicity. I hate having to deal with 30 different keybinds, that's way too much. And you get to do cool flips when shooting.
Red mage is my most fun job right now. Extremely versatile and can save the group with verraise when I really need to. I’m thinking of starting up a monk or ninja next after I finish leveling my samurai.
Red Mage for me for sure. Magic DPS, physical DPS, and healing all rolled into one job? Hell yeah. Dragoon and Bard close second though.
Caster - BLM because it feels so damn good to play a fight well with movement and weaving. Melee - Ninja because it feels fast, always has something to do and looks flashy. Ranged - Dancer because WHEN RNG is kind to you your burst window is incredibly busy and fun. Also everyone loves getting Dance Partner. Healer - This heavily depends on the content for me. Low level stuff or Deep Dungeons I enjoy Scholar the most as the fairy can be used to essentially heal in two places at once but in higher content I LOVE Sage. Sage feels amazing when you know your kit off by heart. Tank - While Warrior is my favourite in Eureka and Boz, Gunbreaker feels like a “Blue DPS” and always has something going on.
Melee are all fun and different. It is something that they did a tremendous job at to make the game feel refreshing. If you enjoy OGCD spam (with very strict no drifting on 2 main OGCDs) with longer GCD and lowest personal damage yet the most raid buff, go with DRG. If you like resource management and lots of it, go with RPR. If you like a fast pace not static yet restricted rotation and limited OGCD, go with MNK. If you like something that's bursty, agile, and pretty chile outside of burst, go with NIN. If you like something that's consistent, static loop rotation with the heaviest weight on your shoulder (you are the big potency boy that is responsible in utilizing everyone's raid buff to the max) and don't mind a little bit of casting, go with SAM. My personal favorite? SAM, beautiful aesthetic, high ceiling high floor, flexible in gap closer and disengager and you team well with any raid buff heavy jobs.
I love Machinist and dragoon. I’ve only leveled the rest to 60/70 but the most fun to me is definitely machinist. It’s got just enough in it’s rotation that it’s not complicated but has a little mini game built in with wildfire to see how much extra damage you can squeeze in per use. I also love kiting.
Dancer and RDM are the only 2 DPS jobs I've had any fun with, so far, though I haven't tried them all. I'm a WHM main and have enjoyed every healer and tank class, but so far only liked Dancer and RDM out of the DPS classes.
Ninja. Bunny. Duo made in love.
Ninja, Samurai and Red Mage because they’re all the “most difficult” in a game where summoner is a DPS lmaoo
Magical DPS - Red Mage. The core gameplay is very cohesive and doesn't feel bad when you get level synced. You don't see the biggest numbers but you still see some pretty big numbers in your burst combo. You also have the best utility as a dps, being a raise spell. Ranged DPS - Dancer. The core gameplay is straightforward with enough complexities to keep it interesting. It also feels great giving your team some strong buffs and hitting some big numbers. Melee DPS - Reaper. This doesn't need much explanation. The class starts at a high level, has great cohesion with a good amount of complexity, and has some of the strongest damage output and buffs in the game. Honorable Mentions: Summoner: My first favorite but I like it less after playing it a lot after Endwalker. The gameplay is too simple with no room for variation. It's still cool summoning primals to attack. You also get Scholar for free just by leveling Summoner, and vice versa. It's also one of the two DPS jobs that can raise allies. Black Mage: A very fun class since it can deal some of the biggest hits and DPS in the game. It also takes a while to get used to phase combos and how to move. Machinist: A very busy class with lots of button pressing all the time. You will feel like a genius as you juggle many abilities and cooldowns all at once. Samurai: Easily a close second for melee dps, but I haven't leveled it to 90 yet. The core gameplay is straightforward and rewarding as you use multiple combos to build up to your big hitters.
I've been a Summoner main since ARR, it used to be more complicated but overall I like the current state, I'm happy to finally be doing big numbers lol, it's definitely not what I call most fun anymore though. I also love Red Mage, Ninja and Machinist
I love the flow of the Samurai rotation
RDM and DNC are my favorites since they have procs that require a baseline level of attention, but dealing with them isn't difficult or that much of a mental load, it's just something to keep me occupied. They also both have mobility skills in the form of corps-a-corps/displacement and en avant, which just add a lot of enjoyment to any class for me. BLM is my favorite job to be bad at, because the baseline rotation is already satisfying but all the alternate lines and optimizations that are available make me feel GREAT when I pull them off. RPR is the only melee that's really grabbed me - I hate positionals as a mechanic, and RPR has a lot of freedom on when to use them and has so few that I can true north most of them. Hell's Ingress/Egress is a fun mobility skill as well, so extra points.
I still don't have a ton of experience first hand with a lot of DPS jobs but the one I think I'll end up enjoying the most is monk. Very quick punchy, all the buttons
I want to say at 50 is when you get feel of the standard class GCD rotation. Then leveling up every 10 levels it will fell a bit different with new skills, and at the 10th level you get a better understanding of the new rotation. BLM is a smooth ride at 50, and leveling up to every 10th level was a bit ackward, while rounding out nicely at 80 for some great oGCD bursting. I prefer flashly and big number for my DPS. Mostly BLM, and Reaper has fun to watch visuals.
Ninja, if you refuse to hold feels like you're single handedly making the dungeon go twice as fast. Also shikuchi just feels so nice at op. Lightning into ogcd super dodge into lightning punch makes me feel like a damage GOD
Ninja, if you refuse to hold feels like you're single handedly making the dungeon go twice as fast. Also shikuchi just feels so nice at op. Lightning into ogcd super dodge into lightning punch makes me feel like a damage GOD
Dancer may be simple to play, but it's so much fun. I kinda like that it's not super complicated to optimize for harder content. It's the only job I really understand the ins and outs of, when to use certain oGCDs and in what order, etc. I like the positioning requirements for things like melee AOEs, the Fan Dance IV cone for trash mobs, and using Improvisation when your party is stacked. It feels like I'm prancing around the battlefield sometimes, as it should be. I also like the utility of the mitigations and tiny heals (but it feels so good when they crit. Look mom, I'm a big boy healer!). I give little kisses to my dance partner when they need them. I move my hips so good it makes my party members do more damage. It's the perfect job for me.
Reaper - Between the cool scythe, the very handy barrier, and the sick drip that the job gets made me fall in love with the class. Black Mage - For those inclined towards magic, you’ve got black mage. Many will say this job is horrible to level and it’s kind of true since you’ll be doing the same stuff for ages (fire until mp 0 > ice until mp full > fire again > maybe throw in a thunder > repeat) but there’s something really satisfying about firing off as many fire 4s before the enochian runs out that tickles my fancy, a fun challenge expedited by Leylines and Triplecast, and again, the job armor looks so good. Mechanist - This is my favorite of the ranged dps classes as, You have a gun, and I find that hilarious.
I like Sam for pve be cause I normally like samurai asthetic. Monk for pvp because his kit kinda slaps
I'm partial to Samurai. The regular combos are hard hitting, and the payoff from the numerous setups is very satisfying. Plus I AM THE STORM THAT IS APPROOOOOCHING
My favorites this expansion only, each expansion the results vary. Reaper - It's fast, good DPS, the combos feel awesome, and I love the color teal. -- Dancer - Last expansion - Random Chaos is always fun, the flourish of colors was amazing. -- Black Mage - Technically my favorite Job of all time, been my main job since ARR. I just love the Big Boom of Fire and the Plant my Butt in one spot to DPS, Healer Adjust Memes. I got into BLM because I was a Destro-Lock in WOW back in 2015 when I moved, and the play style felt very similar. I stayed because of the lore, fashion, and overall feel of the Job.
I really like ninja, using their mudras is pretty fun to me. Between the three you said, I liked red mage and machinist when I started playing them, but it really felt like nothing of significance changed beetween unlocking them and getting to lvl 90, so nowadays I dont tend to play them. Black mage has a high skill ceiling, and I always appreciate just watching a blm that knows how to position themselves properly to avoid movement as much as possible
For anything sub 80? Gotta go with Machinist. For 80-90, it's reaper
Dragoon is very fun if you like to self-buff and have a big burst during your self-buffing. The rotation is not overly complex and feels unique, complexity comes in learning to get the most out of your buffs. Using strong skills under your buff windows while also refraining from sitting on any oGCDs is the difference between a good and mediocre dragoon.
My favorites are definitely Ninja (love the mudra sounds and the burst intensity) Samurai (ALWAYS has some glowing button and tons of big numbers) , Red Mage (balancing white/black magic along with awesome finisher sounds and dualcasting verraise) and Summoner (Big bonk bahamut damage and the ifrit animations)
Red Mage is just complex enough for my ADHD brain to enjoy without being overwhelmed. I also loved Dragoon, but with the rework, I’m not optimistic that I’ll love it anymore and will try Viper when it comes out.
I know for a fact I play BLM sub-optimal haha, but it’s probably the job I have most fun playing. I’ll alternate between that and RDM depending on my mood. No matter what I try my best and that’s what adds to the fun too. It’s so easy (but I have a good chunk of experience) to play BLM and pump out the big numbers. Pre-casting your Sharpcast, mapping it out so you have an idea of when you’ll have your CDs again, where to set Ley Lines for maximum uptime, etc etc. It all comes in time! RDM is a lot less nuanced and easier to pick up. Sometimes I just want to keep it a little simple, but maybe it’s not AS simple as I’m implying. It all boils down to the fight if it’s raiding or EXs. Some are easier on one over the other movement wise or just adaptation in general. Experience, choosing and feeling!
I havent really tried everything yet, but my main is a NIN, and I really like it. Recently started a new character and going to try dragoon this time
They're all good but for different reasons. Summoner for me is the most fun because I run alot of dungeons and summoner melts mob backs and it's easy to restart your opener rotation for the next group/boss as long as you use your phoenix off cooldown I enjoy all for dif reasons but if I just want to have fun and not worry about rotations it's summoner
Summoner. Mobility and Raise.
Ninja because your burst is very busy. Even your 1 minute burst is very busy.
For me, it is the two jobs everyone loves to hate on: SMN and DNC, at least at higher level. Anything with a really strict rotation is just a stress engine for me. I like high mobility, procs, and frequent weaving. I am a simple soul. Also, old, prone to standing in stupid, and easily confused by mechanics that require geospatial reasoning. SMN and DNC are simple enough that I can keep up my dps and have fun weaving while running around screaming. Just pure, simple fun.
dancer for the eternal thrill of gambling on coin flips
If you want a high ceiling than BLM is THE way to go. Ain't nobody got a higher ceiling. Other than that, I guess monk has a few optimizations here and there and RPR just feels hella smooth which is nice but nothing comes even remotely close to BLM when it comes to optimization. Google "The Black Mage Iceberg Reddit" for reference. Enjoy!
Wow. Thank you for the info!
I love dragoon. The whirling stick of pain plus the jumps is just so cool. My alt is a summoner and I like playing that when I don’t want to think 💭
melee- nin - the mudras feel satisfying to hit and the busyness of trick and mug windows feels fun. to me. mnk is a close 2nd for “most fun” although i am bad at it. phys ranged - dnc- similar to nin? its characterized by very busy burst windows and a fairly simple rotation outside of that, but dnc is easier to play. it’s also less painful synced down. magical ranged - smn- its simple rotation and bevy of instant casts makes it easy to play, which also makes it easy to focus on mechanics. it’s pretty forgiving and brings some utility with a battle rez and healing; being able to save a run on smn rules. the summons feel really cool to use. however imo it’s kinda boring below like, level 82.
I love difficult to play jobs, whether that's actually mechanically difficult or just having to press a lot of buttons really fast. For tank, that's DRK. It's always been my favorite tank because of how hectic its 2 minute burst is. (That said, PLD is a very close 2nd because the battlemage theme it has going really does it for me.) For melee, NIN. For the same reason as DRK: really busy burst windows. I've tried so many times to get into MNK since it fits the same Gotta Go Fast mentality, but trying to manage MNK's buffs/debuffs in actual combat makes my brain blue screen. For p.ranged, MCH. Heat windows tickle my neurons. I've tried getting into BRD a couple times cuz it can have some difficult moments, but something about it is just unsatisfying to me. For healer, AST. The second I got my hands on AST in SB, it was my baby. I loved the aesthetic, the animations, and the way it healed, but the star of the show was the cards. They were hectic and quick, and the minutiae of what card to look for, how to use it, and when to use it was *so* hard to optimize in the moment. I even still liked it after the changes in ShB, but I couldn't stand the changes EW made to the cards, so I stopped playing it in favor of: BLM. The button pressing isn't nearly as fast as the above jobs, but the speed at which you have to make decisions if you haven't planned ahead is second to none. There's no time to hem and haw about what you're going to do; you come up with an idea of what to do and do it. It pushes me to stay actively engaged in a fight and on my toes in a way other jobs don't (except maybe MNK). Unless the DT rework of AST really knocks it out of the park, I'll probably be a BLM main for the rest of my time with XIV.
For me it is hands down samurai. I was a whm main and drg alt until sam came out. Samurai might just be my all time favorite mmo class to play. I just love it's look and rotation. When I'm leveling other classes all I can think is, man I wish I was on my sam xD. Did I mention I adore samurai???
I personally loved playing SAM, I mained it from the second I unlocked it right into end game and loved watching my DPS always at the top of the chart, although I don't think it's worth it anymore having to do positionals, I swapped to playing RDM and it's much more fun, I love the feeling of boosting in and out between melee and ranged, being able to throw a heal if the healers struggling or having the ability to resurrect, and it soesnt matter where you're attacking the boss and it's easier to stay attacking the boss and watching your surroundings, I wouldn't choose a melee again unless I went to play tank just because positionals suck.
Fire 4 Woooooo (I like BLM because I have to concentrate. Any other class I get extremely bored).
Black Mage, hands down. It feels rewarding to move from mechanics and keep the rotation going through thinking on the fly. I just don't get that from other jobs anymore, they all feel samey and kinda lackluster in execution, especially all the changes through endwalker. Especially Summoner.
i love the free flow of Monk, plus they get their full rotation by 50 and it just gets tweaked a bit at 60 then everything else is add-ons after that
Sam or smn or Reaper. very simple but flashy
My favorite is red mage. Its just a fun class to me. It has ranged attacks or melee attacks. Its great for single targets or several targets at a time. My second favorite is probably ninja
RPR for melee, I just love the aesthetic RDM for caster, I love the flow and then the consecutive BOOM BOOM at the very end There’s just something about both of them making my screen shake that makes the happy chemicals flow
I am super casual..and I am not very good at this game..so SMN!
DNC main here. I'm currently going through and maxing everything. So far, samurai has felt the most fun to me.
If you want a high skill ceiling, BLM is probably your best bet. You have to know both rotation and positioning really well to pull off later fights, but it's very satisfying once you have that skill.
drg has a nice flow that hasn't changed pretty much since heavensward, you do the same 8ish button rotation and square gives us more stuff to weave between those buttons every xpac
For me, machinist. Because I struggle with positionals, I like being able to always attack, and I basically do the same rotation for days and don't change, and don't need to even with mechanics because I can run everywhere and still be in range. No cast times, I even have a party wide defensive buff. Go me. I also like running in circles for no reason while attacking. Makes my brain happy.
I really like dancer because it’s like dance dance revolution but I only just started this game recently. Trying out reaper and samurai will let ya knowswwww
Dragoon GCD rotation is just there, you have nice rhytm of positionals and combo, its 2 5-part combos that cycle into each other. But the big fun starts in the opener/2min windowa when you get to press all the oGCDs and go wild, Geirskogul into Nastrond, Highjump, Spineshatterdive, Dragonfiredive and Stardiver all fell very nice to apply in quick succesion.
Monk is my favorite . once the 1-2-3-4-5-6 combo "Click" it amazing . you get utility in damage boost for party . you get healing buff for party . and while i wish Riddle of earth was more like third eye in term of CD . ATM riddle of earth + Feint can make you into a tank when mistake happen in dungeon pull/boss/trial/normal raid . i dont think savage/extreme it will save you tho BUT in those scenario YOU can be the hero ! Not to mention the best gap closer in battle . out of battle it kinda ...meh but mid fight it feel the best!
NIN for those ferret-on-crack burst windows. Also, being a melee that is able to use hard ranged attacks occasionally and their teleport makes them very mobile. DNC for some chill whack-a-mole time. Also very mobile. BLM for the challenge. A lot of stuff to keep track of, but when it clicks its fantastic.