Has Any Damage Dealing Job Surprised You?

BRD definitely. As a melee player, I was super impressed with how much fun I had with it up to 50, and presumably, it's the same to 70. It's got a deceptive simplicity to it that allows you to focus on the actual mechanics in a fight, while also getting the rush of performing a good rotation.

Actually DRG has. Recently I've found it more fun to play than even NIN, although only using it's later levels in things like Palace. The plethora of skills and slick animations definitely has been geeking out over it. Glad I started leveling it again.

I love RDM of course, and I was actually quite surprised as to how well it was actually implemented. It's ease of use coupled with it's utility make it a fine addition to the FFXIV family of jobs. I hope they leave it where it's at potency/ability wise and give the other casters more love down the road (looking at you SMN).

Ninja. I was intimidated by the complexity of juggling ninjutsu and all the tools but over time I'm warming up to it. Still getting used to knowing when to use Shadewalker, Smokescreen, and Goad after tweaking targeting on PS4 (once an enemy is engaged I couldn't target party members, but I found a way). My only gripe is that I hate seeing myself third place or higher on the aggro list, so used to being neck and neck with the tank or whoever has aggro in 8-mans.

Got the frog ability so my AoE rotation is better. It's creating a conflict of what should I main now, NIN or MNK for raid. SAM is not gonna happen since majority of people are maining that, most comps I've seen so far are SAM, NIN, BRD(or MCH), RDM or SAM, MNK, BRD(or MCH), RDM.

RDM. I didn't really care for it at first. It felt simple and the heavy reliance on procs felt sluggish and unintuitive. After leveling SAM to 70, I decided to give RDM another go.

Once I got accustomed to the proc heavy playstyle, and altered my UI to better track/see things, I fell in love with RDM. It is simpler compared to SAM but some of SAM's complicatedness (that's word!?) didn't amount to enjoyment but rather frustration. What I love about RDM is how fast paced it feels. Being in caster range doesn't feel like a bore and the rush of hitting Corps-a-corps, hitting those sweet melee stabs and swipes, and then backflipping away and unleashing an uber spell is sooooo satisfying. There is something incredibly freeing about not having to worry about upkeep on buffs, dots, etc. (my only other dps experience has been with SAM and SMN so a good bit of upkeep).

My only major complaint with RDM is that their aoe is boring as hell. I wish they'd alter Impact to where Scatter could also trigger it and in doing so makes Impact deal aoe damage. That would make our lvl 66 talent a bigger deal while also make our aoe rotation more interesting at 4+ targets.

I've never enjoyed jobs that use Bows in literally anything, or casters in anything, but Heavensward Bard was a lot of fun to the point where it was my tertiary DPS job for a while.

Haven't tried all yet but have to say BRD.
Not having cast bars and from the instant Empyreal Arrow to the new Song mechanics, it all hit me as enjoyable and amazing.
I'm still staying NIN but they share accessories so I may be able to swap jobs in Raids if I want once every now and then.

BLM. Normally don't like to play turret classes in MMOs, but Fire 4's spell animation sold me on trying them out and loving how they look.

Going with one a lot of people have said of RDM. What surprises me about it most is the mobility and how much I have enjoyed the animations. I use to play SMN, which I do have at 70, and switching to RDM has been a lot of fun. I feel more active and mobile even though I know SMN can be just as mobile. I think having no pet as RDM helps with that feel along with the melee combo. The animations, minus the run animation which I will cover, are all great. Veraero is a lob of air, verthunder is a bolt from you to the target, verfire is your traditional fireball and verstone is an explosion of stone at the target. But, the best animations are impact, fleche, verholy, and contre sixte. There are some things that I am not a fan. Impact is such a cool animation to be wasted as a single target filler spell. The run with weapon out is so hilariously silly and impractical. Verflare is also quite boring animation wise. Still it to me is a lot of fun and graphically interesing to keep my interests.

Machinist was completely surprising in a negative way. I was elated at the job video reveal and hearing about the heat mechanic... then being puzzled and anxious about the heat mechanic. Was overheating going to be awesome or was it some kind of debuff.

Welp, turns out it doesn't matter, even after the 4.05 adjustments. You can either push slightly higher wildfires by overheating or avoid pushing an extra two oGCDs to reapply your gauss barrel and stabilizer. The overall potency difference for the whole evolution is washed out by a single direct hit for either method.

So... yeah.

Surprise!

Honestly, probably not a popular one, but Summoner. I like the look of the spells, and I feel that it's a good amount to do while I'm dpsing. I enjoyed samurai, and rdm to an extent, but found them both feeling kind of lackluster and boring at 70. Even if SMN isn't in the best spot right now, I'm having way more fun than I thought I would.