Most basic DPS: Advice

Hi everyone,

Main tank here & just looking to try out DPS,

Which is the easiest & very less button press DPS job there is?

I am aware dragoon & monk are rotational & has far too many combos,

I am not sure about the rest,

I am liking Machinist but get anxious as i level up more abilities are added & i get this anxious state because coming as an experienced tank i am normally used to situational awareness & straightforward buttons.


Any tips my fellow dpsers?

Dancer has the fewest buttons and is most straightforward. Basically DNC:

Is a button highlighted?
Yes) Press it.
No) Press 1.

Honestly I'd have recommended Monk because even though it has 2 combos, that's almost all it has aside from a few oGCDs and buffs.

But if you want the simplest class, I agree with Rongway that Dancer is probably your best bet. It has 4 primary buttons, a 12 combo and then 2 other buttons that have a 50% chance of proc'ing off of 1 and 2 (consider them 3 and 4). And 3 and 4 have a 50% chance of proc'ing a feather that you use between attacks for more damage.

It does have other buttons (and to be honest, all the classes have more than a few buttons that get used), but it's still considered the simplest class in the game. And it's basic gameplay is set in stone by level 50.

SMN isn't hard too and you get a healer as a plus.

Red Mage is fairly straightforward. Just make sure you keep black and white mana balanced. Other than that it’s fairly standard.

I would say Bard is the simplest job, that i(n a nutshell) just presses the same spammable action while watching a proc from it, always keep a song rolling and watch 2 dots.

You're going to get answers for each job here. As you almost already have. My suggestions are Dancer or Red Mage.

DNC is actually something I'm new to. Unlike Red Mage, I don't have another character for it. So, feel free to disregard my suggestion on it. But! It's rotation is literally an RNG proc chain. You press your first 1-2 combo. Did something light up? Press them. Did something else light up? Press it (which one you press depends on if you're Single Target or AoE). Again, did something else light up? Press it. It's the same for AoE. That's the "meat and potatoes" to DNC DPS. You also have two Step attacks. Standard step is you press the button to start it. A button will light up. Press it! Another one will light up. Press it! Then, your Standard Step will light up and you press it again to activate. Techenical Step at level 70 is the same thing except with 4 button presses.

If you can press buttons that light up, then you're already mostly there with DNC. Another nice feature is you never have to stop moving and have a Dash with 1/2/3 charges depending on level. Mechanics are much easier with all the movement afforded to you.

Red Mage has a gauge that you have to balance close to each other between White and Black magic. Because of this, it's relatively difficult to not know what to press next. It perfect conditions, it has a flow to it that is easy to get used to. It goes even further with this idea because of Dualcast. Dualcast makes it so whenever you hardcast a spell, the next one will be instant. Your spells will be broken up into "short cast" spells such and "long cast" spells. Use your short casts to prime your longer ones. Then, you just throw in your oGCD abilities and you've pretty much have RDM figured out. It has a bit more technique to it to min/max with proper timing of your buffs and oCGDs that move you. But, it's still relatively easy to get used to.

Out of DNC and RDM, I personally think DNC is a bit easier. I've been really enjoying it lately. Could just be because it's new and because I have a friend I play with that I enjoy buffing. Another reason I'd suggest DNC over RDM is at lower levels, RDM can be a little bit wonky whenever you don't have your full melee combo or certain buffs. DNC has a majority of its basic DPS tools early on.

Definitely Dancer or Red Mage.

Dancer's DPS is RNG based so go for it if you like gambling and being useful for the team.

RDM has some RNG as well but it's not very impactful, so it's personal DPS is 100% reliable unlike the Dancer.

Yeah, Dancer is definitely the easiest. And as long as you're hitting your dances (which is extremely easy) your dance partner and team will be largely benefitted regardless of your own personal play so you don't even have to be perfect on Dancer anyway.

I also find Machinist very simple. You do have to hit certain buttons a lot but outside of that the basic play is not complicated at all. It's very obvious when you need to hit certain buttons and despite having guages the use of them is extremely simplified. As long as you have decent ping, Machinist is dead easy.

Red Mage or Dancer. RDM is boring but effective and Dancer is Simon Says the Job class.

I should probably level dancer because of how casual it can be.