Complementary to yesterday’s post, here’s what I think of the jobs I’ve leveled to 90, in the order I took them up:
- Bard: My first job, and my least favorite of this bunch. I don’t like that it’s support-oriented rather than being a good direct damage dealer, but more importantly it has too many abilities to manage at once. I leveled it to 90 off Crystal Tower alliance raids, but when I try to use it in nontrivial fights, I fall all over myself trying to manage all my abilities, and eat a lot of unnecessary deaths.
- Warrior: My second job, and my main. I took it up because I wanted to not die when I failed a mechanic in an unfamiliar fight, and the responsibilities of tanking seemed like an okay trade in return for being tanky. Because I didn’t like managing a lot of abilities, I made a chart of how many abilities each tank job had at each level; I chose Warrior because it had, at every level, the fewest abilities. In retrospect I didn’t understand the distinction between abilities and actual buttons to press, or the effect of a job’s resource management design, but Warrior was still a great decision. Other people say Warrior is too slow paced and lacking in things to do; I like being able to pay more attention to the fight and less to my ability suite. And the massive self-heals are so nice to have, either when things go bad or when my healer is inattentive.
- Sage: A fun, mobile healer. This was my first healer, which might not have been a good move — certainly my unfamiliarity with the role, combined with being undergeared (I started Sage while I was still in the 3.x MSQ, so I didn’t even have access to the level 70 tomestone gear), led to me failing the first job quest solo duty about 15 times, then stopping playing FFXIV for a week out of frustration. But I learned to play it pretty well, and these days it’s probably my second most played job.
- Dark Knight: Such a flavorful job! I really like the quests and the theming. Dark Knight is a lot to handle, maybe the most difficult tank to master, but I quite enjoy it. While it has a lot of buttons to press, I find it easier to manage than Gunbreaker, probably because its burst system and resource management are generally similar to Warrior’s. I’m merely a decent Dark Knight, not an excellent one, but I can play it and enjoy it; I keep my hand in both for variety and so I have a backup job in case Warrior gets reworked and my gravy train on it ends.
- White Mage: After leveling and getting used to Sage, I thought I should learn a pure healer too, not just a barrier healer. I really vibed with the flavor of the base Conjurer class, although the later White Mage job quests left me a bit flat. As for the job gameplay, I found it to be an awkward assemblage of abilities that didn’t really integrate with each other, I and flailed a lot as I first leveled it, but I have come back to it recently and I have somehow improved despite not having played it for months. At this point I like it fairly well and will probably be playing it more in the future.
- Samurai: My experience with Bard soured me on DPS as a role for a long time, and my experience with Dragoon up into the low 50s didn’t help matters, but I eventually decided to try Samurai. I understood the basics immediately, and I appreciated the flexibility of the job’s mechanics. I did find, however, that the job’s complexity really ran away from me as I leveled more. By the time I reached level 90, I was still having fun, but I had also realized that I was a thoroughly mediocre Samurai. I appreciate the job, and I think it’s extremely well designed, but because I don’t like being mediocre I don’t play it much any more.
- Red Mage: My first caster DPS. I had a bit of trouble getting used to the dualcast system at first, but once I had that handled, I found it to be a pretty fun and straightforward job! It was the first DPS job I both liked and felt good at, and I also appreciate its party support abilities. My only real complaints are that its personal damage output is fairly poor, and that it seems to be easy for me to get rusty at. All in all, though, a solid, fun, and well-designed job.