Why are Ranged DPS so unfun to play?

A friend of mine actually said something on the spot:
"It's an ungrateful role".

Those are jobs with low risks but also very low rewards and very low party contribution. The skill floor and skill ceiling are imposed upon the player.
But you need someone to be the physical ranged otherwise you miss the 1% buff. And that's the only reason you're here, not for mechanics or for anything unique you bring, just for a game mechanic that adds 1% to all main stats.

SQEX removed what made ranged DPS a ranged DPS.
Removal of resources restoration, removal of ranged casts, removal of support abilities.

Ranged are now melees without melee ranged or Casters with no casts. They've lost what made their identity, DNC is the job that remains an actual support DPS but its gameplay feels lacking.
All ranged are hit a very precise target or miss.

Lack of oomph.

Maybe it's an age thing but in days of old the physical ranged dps class was the hardest hitting dps in many games. Crazy high damage, high mobility. But a wet paper bag for armor. These jobs used to be dubbed "glass cannons" as a result and took a lot of skill and effort to play which ultimately made them feel rewarding...

In contrast. Xivs physical ranged classes have essentially traded all that oomph and wow factor for extra armor and hp and well they're dull and boring as a result.. widely regarded as a "safe" job because they bring nothing but an increased ability to survive a fight.

What exactly do you find unfun or uninspired about the Physical Ranged DPS?

There are a couple of things:

1. Melee and Casters both have meta mechanisms which require an extra layer of thought process during encounters. Those are melee range limitations and positionals for melee and casting time for casters. Each job has their tools that can be used as a way of overcoming those mechanisms (e.g. gap closers, instacasts, true north, etc). Ranged Physical doesn't have this extra layer. They don't need to worry as much about positioning because they can just move if they need to.

2. The jobs largely rely on your team to make the most out of them, DNC and BRD at the very least. They're designed (or rather...advertised) as "support" jobs that are there to provide support for the rest of the team. The thing is, FF14 is a damage focused game, so the only truly useful support is...well... damage. You can either play one of these jobs and hope that your party can make good use of your buffs, or you can play a job that does high damage. Also, the buffs are largely passive. It's one thing to have a support job that has active support (e.g. AST with cards), but BRD/DNC don't really have any decision making whenever it comes to support, you just do your rotation, and even if you play better than everyone else in the group, chances are you'll be on the lower end in terms of performance.

3. Lack of interesting/good job mechanisms. Some of them are good, don't get me wrong.

DNC's dancing is a nice Simon-says, but you only use it 3 times every 2 minutes, the rest of the time is basically the same as BRD with an extra button to press. BRD is 1-1-1-1-1-1-1 until proc then 2; DNC is just 1-2-1-2-1-2-1-2 until proc.

BRD is the last of the DoT classes and probably won't be for much longer. they just don't do anything interesting with the DoTs, if you miss a refresh you lose a GCD that's about it. Pitch Perfect is an interesting concept, but the other songs are fairly uninspired.

MCH is just "Hit these 3 attacks when they come up" and managing 2 "boring" job gauges between a normal 1-2-3.


They seem to be DESIGNED to be simpler. But they could definitely still make them engaging.

I think ranged DPS is fun. It's my preferred role by a long shot (heh).

What isn't fun is being basically worthless to a party outside of the 1% buff.

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Originally Posted by Mimilu

What exactly do you find unfun or uninspired about the Physical Ranged DPS?

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That's probably the weirdest part about it, in this expansion, the Ranged DPS classes are the last ones for me to level to 90 (with the exception of Dragoon because it's getting reworked and I'm holding off on it on purpose just for that reason, currently sitting at lv 82.) I find that weird because even though I'm a healer first, and tanking is something that I generally do not like to do, and yet after playing a little of all the roles, it was ranged DPS that I felt was the most boring. I literally fell asleep at one point while trying to level bard, that's how bored I was with the job, I actually dreaded queueing up for roulettes as a bard a few times because it felt so not fun. Hit a song, double DoT, go through the cooldowns wait for the proc, hit the proc, hit the auto proc and raging strikes, then hit the proc, mash weapon skill, wash and repeat, sure sometimes I'd hit things like battle cry or use the one that reduces damage every so often, but it didn't feel like a true challenge or chain of abilities, I needed to master. I'm sure someone else could explain it better, but compared to say playing Samurai, or Monk where it feels like there is a definite skill challenge, where you can determine when certain skills will become active and you're building towards the point you want to activate those skills, for a big payday, and it feels good, and it's not like it takes forever to do it either, but with Bard even that new 2ndary song bar you get that allows you to unleash the big laser arrow beam doesn't feel as rewarding.

the reason why ranged classes are unfun to play is cause the dev team class making team is first very small and they dont have any healer or caster mains in it. and also they like to take away from classes till they all feel the same. look at healers for that. and look at smn of what the classes will feel once they take out everything that made it stand out to begin with. currently there philosophy besides making everything easer and a low level entry but no high gains, is to break another class so new one fits in. bard broke when they added dancer. and the same with astro when they made sage. there is a point when making classes feel the same goes to far and starts to hinder the community, and i feel that we are at the point now with this expansion with the smn rework that leaves much to be desired, the fact that healers are still feeling unheard like 2 expansions later, then the identify crisis that all jobs go though with this expansions reworks.


not saying that all the taking away individuality is bad like some of it is good like thetank stance dancing which was one of the worst things in the game at the time in specific fights.

Not gunna lie but the pvp versions of the range users feels so much better then the pve versions. it's a nice middle ground for bowmage and current range dps.
MCH: needs something more interesting then just focusing on 2 resources. I would love it if they went the full gun route and just gave us multiple weaponskills that use different gun types. We see it briefly with the shotgun/sniper rifle in pvp and flamethrower with the omnigun you briefly see get pulled out. Hell I even take the full robot route and let us summon multiple different robots at the same time. Could make it so nanomachines come out and shield the party or have small robots come out and hover each party member's shoulder and add dps to their attacks.
Bard: Dont play it but can ya give them a electric guitar to play that increases the party's attack/spell speed or something like it. I just want to see bards rock out.
DNC: im stil leveling it but so far im not a fan of the rng aspect of it. id rather they just give us the combos. maybe reduce the amount of fan attacks by upgrading 1 into 3 instead of separating them. the dances could also be upgraded from the standard into technical after reaching 70.

MCH for me have the best ''gunner'' aesthetic of all MMO's i have played, but the gameplay is the worst, PvP MCH is so much better and fun.

I only try the DNC at lvl 80 and feels like is missing something in the kit, i dont like the RNG too, sometimes i am stuck at 1-2 combo for 20 seconds because back luck.

BRD i find really fun to play, but the kit is completly lost between a Archer and a Bard, the job tries to be both but its none of them.

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Originally Posted by Selvokaz

Why are Ranged DPS so unfun to play?

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They...are fun to play? o.O

I mean, I don't care much for DNC, but I like MCH and I like BRD and both feel fun to me. And the thing I dislike about DNC is more its aesthetic and I still have a grudge from it not being a healer. :p

I think, as others have noted, the answer here is "personal preference is personal". I strongly dislike Melee DPS, but many people live those Jobs. I very much like Ranged DPS and you do not. We're all different, and that's great. :)