Picking a class that suits me

Hello,

My playstyle is a melee dps although I'm not opposed to playing ranged, I just prefer melee. I've made a few characters (monk and dragoon) so far but have only leveled them up to about 12 and have mixed feelings about them.

I've seen a few monks in boss fights have issues with keeping greased lightning up so they lose dps, not to mention the positional issues that they faced when fighting certain bosses. But my understanding from what people are saying is that they do top dps and have some utility which I like.

Next is the Dragoon and from what I gather they have great burst but they slowly lose the race in the long fight. They also don't have utility like some other classes do but that's not as important to me because I roll a dps to dps honestly. Also, every time I talk about a Dragoon to someone in game, I get this response "LOL Dragoon".

Are they a bad class?

What about Ninjas?

Dragoons have very long rotations that are quite a lot to manage to maximise dps. That's probably the core issue they seem to have playstyle wise. Damage wise I am not experience enough to know but I've been told they can hold their own if they are played right. Thematically I like Dragoons but they have a hell of a lot of buttons. I need to use macros to fit everything I want on my hotkeys.

Can't really comment on the other two since Ive not gotten past 25 on either.

When picking a class, it boils down to what in your own opinion feels the most comfortable class to play with. Each class has it’s pro’s and cons. The game currently has the following classes available:

Tank:

• Gladiator - Branches into Paladin when you have Gladiator at 30 and Conjurer at 15, can also equip cross class skills from Marauder.
  The Paladin is mostly known for it’s Damage Mitigation.
• Marauder - Branches into Warrior when you have Marauder at 30 and Gladiator at 15, can also equip cross class skills from Pugilist.
  The Warrior is mostly known for it’s increased HP, with the ability to heal itself and dishing out decent dps.

Melee DPS:

• Pugilist - Branches into Monk when you have Pugilist at 30 and Lancer at 15, can also equip cross class skills from Marauder.
  The Monk is mostly known as the top Melee DPS job, its Greased Lightning increases attack speed and damage dealt (but can be a challenge to keep up), can also apply a reduce blunt resistance and intelligence debuff on the target.
• Lancer - Branches into Dragoon when you have Lancer at 30 and Marauder at 15, can also equip cross class skills from Pugilist.
  The Dragoon is mostly known for its Single target dps and Damage Increasing / Armor Piercing Debuffs.
• Rogue - Branches into Ninja when you have Rogue at 30 and Pugilist at 15, can also equip cross class skills from Lancer. (Job Quest unlocks after finishing certain Main Story Mission)
  The Ninja is mostly known for its utility through debuffs and the ability to give TP to another party member. The Ninja uses hand gestures to cast Mudra’s, which will be tricky to master.

Ranged DPS:

• Archer - Branches into Bard when you have Archer at 30 and Pugilist at 15, can also equip cross class skills from Lancer.
  The Bard is mostly know for it’s ability to move while attacking and the usage of songs to either regenerate MP or TP, or reducing Magic Resistance of it’s target.
• Thaumaturge - Branches into Black Mage when you have Thaumaturge at 30 and Archer at 15, can also equip cross class skills from Arcanist.
  The Black Mage is mostly known for it’s powerful AoE spells and strong crowd control abilities (f.i. AoE Sleep).
• Arcanist - Branches into Summoner when you have Arcanist at 30 and Thaumaturge at 15, can also equip cross class skills from Archer.
  The Summoner is mostly known for it’s versatile Primal-egi’s (pets) and ability to place DoT’s on multiple targets.

Healers:

• Conjurer - Branches into White Mage when you have Conjurer at 30 and Arcanist at 15, can also equip cross class skills from Thaumaturge.
  The White Mage is mostly known for its burst healing, both single target as well as AoE healing and the addition of Regen.
• Arcanist - Branches into Scholar when you have Arcanist at 30 and Conjurer at 15, can also equip cross class skills from Thaumaturge.
  The Scholar is mostly known for its Mitigation healing, by healing and applying shields on their targets, while having its Faery (pet) heal and/or buff the target(s).

Final Fantasy XIV relies heavy on it’s Job System and the cross class abilities, so it’s wise to level multiple classes in order to unlock specific abilities which will supplement your current (main) class.

The best advice i can give you is to unlock both the Pugilist and the Lancer and play around with both of them. See which of the two feels right. At the same time, you will unlock skills you can use on either class but also work your way up to unlocking the Monk Job.

If you feel that Lancer suits you better, be sure to pick up Marauder as well. By leveling Marauder, you will gain access to skills you can use on both the Dragoon as well as the Monk and you will work your way up to unlocking the Dragoon Job.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by joejccva71

I've seen a few monks in boss fights have issues with keeping greased lightning up so they lose dps, not to mention the positional issues that they faced when fighting certain bosses.

---

A good monk will know how to keep their stacks up - it's a challenge on top of the usual melee stuff. A monk I must say is a very fun job to play. The positionals on bosses tend to be a non issue most of the time. And if you are good you'll handle them fine on trash as well. Note: monks still hit even when not in position - they just lose a certain amount of dps to it.

Quote:

---

Next is the Dragoon and from what I gather they have great burst but they slowly lose the race in the long fight.

---

A good dragoon will keep pace with a monk and a nin. They are mostly equal in that. As someone said dragoons have quite a bit of a rotation.

Quote:

---

They also don't have utility like some other classes do but that's not as important to me because I roll a dps to dps honestly.

---

Arguably they don't have raid wide utility like monks do(dragon kick for the debuff). But they do have a buff that helps them and any bards in the team.

And each job has some utility/support skills available to them. Some a lot more(bards songs and silence and bind) while others quite a few(monks mantra, dragon kick, silence and stun) while some one or two or limited(dragoons disembowel(piercing debuff) and stun).

Quote:

---

Also, every time I talk about a Dragoon to someone in game, I get this response "LOL Dragoon".

---

Apparently an old joke form FFXI but in FFXIV it mostly applies to the fact that dragoons die a lot - and are often the first ones to die due to what used to be a bigger issue of animation lock for jumps(this has been slowly adjusted over time with patches so I believe it's not as big an issue anymore).

Quote:

---

Are they a bad class?

---

No job is outright bad. They all have their own learning curves and if you put in the effort to learn what you are doing you won't have a problem. The only imbalance atm is summoner in final coil.

Quote:

---

What about Ninjas?

---

They work as well. There is an issue with mudra lag but I would say a good nin knows that and adjusts for it. To me personally the whole mudra system seems like tacked on to rogue for no real good reason. Feels clunky as if it was an after thought instead of the core of the class. While most other jobs still work more or less the same as pre job mudras seem to not fit that.

The sum up of the classes above is great. My thoughts is firstly play what you have fun playing; but to really test that? Get them at least to 30. I'd recommend getting all three melee to 30, do their job quests and run a dungeon on them. See how you feel about them.

I can't talk about monk, as I can't seem to level mine past 15. My DRG is 34 (for its cross-class, Blood for Blood) and after about 25ish was a lot more fun then it was 1-24 for me. My Ninja is 50. This is quite the accomplishment for me being as I normally avoid melee classes. While my Bard is my main class, I'll play Ninja as much as possible and it helps that they share accessories.

Mudra Lag...SUCKS. It can sometimes be their whole problem. Worst lag I've had was about 5-6 seconds before they'd register so I stopped using them for that fight unless it was just one. This is a huge dps loss that Monk or Dragoon don't have even when the player is lagging.

Anyway, good luck picking your class/job!