FFXI Needs Job Balance Again: Niche Shouldn’t Mean Useless

[dmuller30]

Now that FFXI seems to be getting more players again, I really think it is time for Square Enix to bring back regular job adjustments and seriously look at job balance across the board.

FFXI has 22 jobs, and that variety is one of the best parts of the game. The problem is that modern endgame often makes the game feel much smaller than that. Too many jobs are treated as niche, outdated, or only useful in very specific situations.

And before anyone says it: niche does not always mean useful.

Every job does not need to be the best. Every job does not need to play the same. But every job should have a real reason to exist in current content.

Tanking is a good example. PLD, RUN, WAR, and NIN should all be able to tank the same general content with different strengths, weaknesses, and difficulty levels. The tank identities already exist. The issue is that modern mob design makes most of them hard to use. Enemies spam AoE, wipe shadows, punish evasion-based tanking, and hit in ways that make anything outside of PLD or RUN feel like a liability.

So when someone levels and gears NIN to tank, the answer should not be, “Too bad, go level PLD or RUN.” NIN’s shadow and evasion style should actually matter in modern content, or the job needs tools that let it survive modern mechanics.

This problem goes way beyond NIN.

SMN could be a great support or hybrid support/DPS job, but both sides of its kit feel neglected. Its support tools are awkward or too niche, and its DPS does not justify bringing it to most serious content.

BST and PUP are also great examples. FFXI has some of the coolest pet job ideas in any MMO, but modern content often makes pets feel awkward, fragile, or hard to justify compared to safer, stronger meta jobs.

RNG has a clear identity, but ranged damage rarely feels like something groups build around anymore outside of specific fights. THF has Treasure Hunter, but a job should not feel like its main value is tagging a mob and then being replaced. BLM, DNC, DRG, MNK, BLU, and other jobs can work in certain places, but too often the question becomes, “Why bring this instead of a safer meta option?”

That is the real issue.

A job being usable somewhere does not mean it is healthy. Being good for solo, older content, Ambuscade, or one niche strategy does not mean a job has a strong place in current endgame.

Right now, too much serious content funnels players into the same small group of jobs: PLD, RUN, COR, BRD, GEO, WHM, RDM, SCH, WAR, SAM, and a few others depending on the fight. Those jobs should stay strong, but they should not make so many other jobs feel pointless.

This also matters because gearing jobs in FFXI is a massive time investment. You do not casually swap mains in this game. You farm gear, upgrade pieces, build sets, make macros, organize inventory, and actually learn the job. Then on top of that, inventory management is already horrendous, and Mog Wardrobes become expensive when you need multiple geared jobs.

So telling players to “just level something else” is not a good answer.

And yes, I understand FFXI still carries old technical debt. The game was built in a different era, and I am not pretending every change is simple. But the PS2 client itself is gone. That should not be used as a blanket excuse forever to avoid job adjustments, inventory improvements, or basic modernization.

Nobody is asking for FFXI to become a brand-new game overnight. We are asking for meaningful balance passes in a game people are still paying monthly to play.

Square Enix, please start doing real job adjustments again. Not every job needs to be meta, but every job should feel like it belongs in modern FFXI.

[Frededde]

We need more secondary forms of reliable haste. March song or indi-bubble is all but required. If a small handful of jobs had a viable alternative bard would not be in the manditory position it currently holds.

[Voidstorm]

Agreed.

We also need a greater variety of methods to cap attack, lowering the resistance rank of magics, and methods to boost TP gain.
COR for chaos/sam rolls or RUN are basically required for their respective style parties.

[Sodaru]

I have no solution to the problem, but I can definitely agree. I play BST and I love the job. It feels very much like "Well, this is a serious thing, time to get back on WHM"

[Alhanelem]

SMN BST and PUP (though it does have specialized uses) really all need some love. I think it's time to do away with most of the restrictions relating to pets. For as long as FFXIV had pets, they could be buffed and healed just like anything else and it was never a problem, no one ever said it was overpowered, except maybe on one boss early in the game's history that could be done without any tanks by using SMN with Titan (about the only time titan was ever useful in a party at all in that game). Even then it was a delicate balance because it didn't keep the best hate so it really wasn't OP.

Here in FFXIV, jobs with pets have continued to fall behind as the power that is distrubted to the pet is much harder to enhance. I play SMN for almost everything, and while swinging Claustrum and doing solo skillchains and bursts with Gate of Tartarus and various summons speeds things up a little bit, I still feel woefully inadequate. But I do these things because there are only so many gains to be realized on the pet side. COR is the only support role job that can directly buff pets and it comes at the cost of NOT buffing other non-pet users, so we're extremely lucky if we can ever get these buffs.

[dmuller30]

One thing I would add is that job balance and inventory are connected more than people admit.

FFXI is built around job variety, but the way modern content works often pushes players into maintaining jobs they may not actually want to main. That would be less frustrating if switching jobs were simple, but in FFXI it is a huge commitment. Each job comes with multiple weapons, armor sets, accessories, capes, situational pieces, macros, and storage needs.

So when the answer to balance problems is “just play something else,” that answer creates another problem.

Players are not just switching to another class with one gear set. They are building another fully functional job, often because the job they actually enjoy is not supported well enough by current content. Then when inventory becomes unbearable, the solution is paid Mog Wardrobes.

That is what feels wrong to me.

The game pressures players to gear multiple jobs because certain jobs are not viable enough, then charges extra for the storage needed to manage those extra jobs. Inventory would still be tight no matter what, because FFXI is a gear-heavy game, but it would not feel as unfair if players were not constantly pushed away from the jobs they actually want to play.

Job balance is not only about damage meters or party invites. It also affects how much time, gil, and real money players have to spend just to participate in the game.

[dmuller30]

**FFXI’s Mage Problem Needs Attention Too**

Offensive mages also need a serious look.

Magic bursting used to feel like one of FFXI’s coolest forms of teamwork: melees create the skillchain, mages punish it with big elemental damage. The problem is that modern combat often moves too fast for that to feel worth building around.

When melee jobs can spam strong weapon skills and skillchains back to back, waiting for a mage to burst can feel like a damage loss instead of a reward. Even if magic burst setups still work in some fights, that does not mean offensive mages are in a healthy place.

That is the issue. Mages should not only matter when content forces players to use magic damage. Magic bursting should be strong enough, smooth enough, and rewarding enough that groups actually want to coordinate around it.

Melee jobs should stay strong, but offensive magic should not feel like a slower, more complicated way to do less damage.

[Voidstorm]

Not closing a Magic burst window just because the skillchain was broken by the savage blade spam would help.
That way you get the full 10s window to MB while melee just keep going at it.

[Alhanelem]

oh I LOVE when my trusts WS during the burst window.... not.

[Sueno]

There is 2 very easy changes that address most of the complaints I hear often.

1: Samurai ability Sengikori
Change it to something similar to Konzen-ittai; however instead of chainbound status it gives a special status that reduces weaponskill dmg by 50% and completely removes the Magic Burst and Blood Pact wall. Let the effect last 30 seconds and the recast on the ability 60 seconds.

This would greatly increase the desire for skillchain and magic burst strategies.

2: Dark Knight ability Last Resort
Change recast from 5 min to 3 min

This will give 2h jobs 70% haste from just a haste 2 spell(25% equip/30% magic/15% job ability) and a huge boost to attack to fill all of the PDL equip we have now. Also it would not effect casting times for mage jobs. This change would give players the damage output needed to move away from all of the savage blade spamming and promote more job diversity during events. This would also lessen the need for multiple buffing jobs in the party and open up more spots to other jobs.

I have been playing around with Smn/Drk and Blm/Drk. When last resort is up the damage and tp gain is amazing. This change would let Sch/Blm/Smn participate in the skillchain and magic burst at the same time.

Blm example:
Shell Crusher> Tachi: Mumei> Tachi: Mumei> Gate of Tartarus
After opening with Shell Crusher the Blm can triple magic burst then close the double darkness and magic burst 1 more time. The Shell Crusher puts defense down to increase the Tachi: Mumei damage and the 3 magic burst will give enough tp to the Blm to close the skillchain. The closing Gate of Tartarus will do ~20k and the double darkness will do 99999 dmg. The total damage is ~700k dmg in 1 skillchain. That is enough damage to 1 shot a upstairs Sortie boss.