Looking for an easy DPS Class

Hello, I just started playing like 2 weeks ago. I'm almost level 60 on my paladin, which is my first class. I want to start a DPS class but I don't know which one to choose. They all seem cool and interesting. Which one should I choose? I guess my biggest concern is that I don't want the class to be to confusing. I want a simple DPS class. Maybe one which not to much moving I guess.
I looked up online what other people are saying and i'm just confused.

Perhaps you want to make a summoner or bard if you want easy to learn dps jobs.

Summoner is the last class a new player would want to learn for ease of playing. Bard, Black Mage, or Ninja would be your choices.

I usually encourage players asking this to choose simply whichever appeals to them most. Honestly, most jobs are a bit tricky since Heavensward to be absolutely optimal at. As long as you stick at it while leveling and make sure you fully understand what each new skill does as you go - all of them *should* come together by the end.

As an aside though...people get really defensive these days when SMN is recommended as an "easy" class, but come on. Even if you don't play optimally it's not hard to get "sufficient" numbers out of. Throw dots up, use aetherflow stuff, dreadwyrm, boom. I don't encourage lazy play, and SMN is certainly no easy task to optimise, but no job is - and along with the other jobs suggested it's rather forgiving. Learning pet management - which ultimately really isn't that hard when you realise you don't even need to manually map half of the moves, maybe even a quarter - can come with time as you go.

OK, So what classes don't require much movement and aren't confusing. How's monk, dragoon and ninja?
Also this might sound dumb but how does the chocobo companion work with the summoner? Like can you have your chocobo and your pet?

The not much moving partni cant understand how it could be a contributing factor, do you mean positioning?

As for the less confusing one it really depends on you there is no real class at is over the top confusing I mean just not how it works so just really depends on if you're willing to learn that class or not.

If movement outside of dodging aoes are your concern then I'd say pick any of the ranged (caster) dps

Bard is probably the easiest in that regard, but by lv 52 you'll end up getting Wanderers Minuet which means you'll have a 1.5 casting time for each of your attack; same thing for Machinists, but at least if you have procs up you can attack while moving.

DRG, MNK, and NIN all have to avoid the aoes/cleaves + worry about positioning for max dps. Though if I have to choose I'd say NIN is the easiest of the close-ranged dps

Honestly, in 3.0 most jobs have become a lot harder

Bard, summoner or ninja.

And that is from a " easy enough to be not totally crap w/o trying hard" perspective. Those classes are not terribly difficult or complex to not be atrocious on.

But don't think for 1 second that any dps is "easy to do good dps" on. Every dps is incredibly difficult to min max on, and sure those 3 probably are the easiest, but lol if "easy" is the right word here.

Bard are the only eaisest class there is due to Range DPS

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Originally Posted by megaflare13

OK, So what classes don't require much movement and aren't confusing. How's monk, dragoon and ninja?
Also this might sound dumb but how does the chocobo companion work with the summoner? Like can you have your chocobo and your pet?

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Yes you can have both a summon and a chocobo out.

If it helps, it might be better to read how each class plays rather than just opinions on what is considered easy or hard:
Dragoon: has a somewhat strict skill usage pattern, a few minor positional moves, and several skill enhancements to weave. After level 50 they gain a buff, the timer of which can be extended or consumed with the use of 2 other moves: end-gameplay involves balancing that timer on top of their clear cut regular rotation. Most mobile melee with 2 gap closers and a versatile jump.

Monk: vast majority of its core skills have positional needs, you'll be moving around the enemy a lot. Has innate speed and involves upkeep of several short but strong buffs/debuffs. Lose your main one and your dps sinks and have to ramp up again.

Ninja: goes through several combos to keep up buffs, a handful with positional requirements. Has some good team utility with enmity tools and increasing all incoming damage on a target briefly. Uses mudra casts in between all this to do strong magical moves. Also fast paced like monk thanks to a speed buff that needs to be up.

Bard: not many actual GCDs, but lots of things to weave. Mainly focuses on the upkeep of 2 dots while weaving and keeping an eye out for skill procs. At level 52 you get a brief cast time to most skills making movement a bit less free. Can play songs to help replenish MP/TP or increase magic damage on enemies.

Machinist: similar to bard with not many GCDs and a lot (a LOT) of things to weave. They only have 1 dot to upkeep though, and rely on random procs for a 3 hit combo, the randomness being removed at points by an ammo system, in between cooldown management. Has some strong on-demand burst. Has to also keep an eye on their turrets which can also support the party with MP/TP. Can be a bit more tunnel-vision inducing than other jobs but maybe it's just me.

Summoner: most damage comes from dots, also has pets to assist. When all dots are ticking they can fill in with other moves, the strongest of which use a 3-stack aetherflow system. Towards 60 they get a stance that boosts damage briefly.

Black Mage: Shifts between Fire and Ice buffs, the former is big damage mode that consumes MP, the latter is "recovery" mode. Simple to learn, but the system has a lot of nuances, and especially beyond 50 your grasp on the timing of these stances as well as other timed buffs will be put to the test. In a perfect world would love to move as little as possible.

If you like lot button go for drg and smn
if you dont like lot button go for mnk, nin, blm and brd

NIN has alot of buttons though

If you like standing still while blasting away, BLM fits the bill since that's pretty much their play style. Though since you still have to dodge aoes, you'll have to learn to maintaining your dps while moving to be good at the job.
Or do Bard, their much shorter cast time makes them more mobile for the times that you do have to move (which is quite often), damage isn't as good as most, but their utilities make up for that. While they do have a good number of ogcd to weave, they dont have many gcds to worry about. (In fact, with Iron Jaws, refreshing your 2 dots is now 1 button!)

Whatever you do don't level BLM if you want an easy class. ppl are on crack.

Summoner or bard

To play at an adequate level, I'd probably say bard, machinist, ninja, and summoner, in that order. These jobs require the least amount of movement, positional attacks, and fussing with timers.

Black Mage is easy until expansion content but then goes crazy with the inclusion of enochian. Dragoon has always had a pretty intricate combo system and lots of off-global abilities to weave in. Monk has to continually be moving to keep hitting positional attacks.

Doing top-tier damage is another question entirely. All DPS jobs are difficult to perform at their absolute best. It takes a lot of practice.

Like you can see from the comments, asking what "which is the easiest DPS job?", will give you lots of different answers...

It depends on what you consider to be easy, and what you're more willing to learn. Personally I like more simple static rotations, and rather have more challenge when it comes to movement etc.

For example, I main MNK, and I think they are one of the easiest jobs to play currently, but many would disagree. MNK have a very simple rotation with very few abilities that you actually use. The challenge with MNK, is to always stand at the right position to get the full damage (when possible), and hardest of all, keeping up the greased lightning buff at all times possible. You have to know the fights you're doing very well, to get the most out of MNK.

You then have a job like SMN, which is ranged, can move around a lot(most skills can be used while running), and overall just doesn't have to deal with anything like MNK have to do with always having to move or keeping up some buff or something... But, SMN has a lot to keep track of, and you also have a pet to manage too. To get the most out of SMN, you have to be very aware and be able to quickly determine the next ability to use. It's not as straight-forward as MNK's rotation.

So you have to decide/find out, if you think heavy management of skills, or heavy movement/mechanics based jobs are for you.

Those 2 are the extremes of both ends though. NIN is melee, but they barely have any requirements for position, or anything really hard to keep up during fights... they have more skills to manage etc though. EDIT: to clarify, NIN isn't as heavy on skill management as SMN. They are more in the middle of being a movement/mechanics based job, and being a skill management job. Think of it like there being a scale 1 to 10, and NIN being a 5

BLM is another job that has an easy rotation, which is pretty static, and the challenging part is to do that rotation, while dodging mechanics. You have to plan ahead, so that you move as little as possible, and to keep up Enochian, like others have mentioned. Haven't personally played BLM at 60 yet, but I would say that BLM is harder to play than MNK for example.

Without going on too long, I'm just gonna say that, BRD probably is the easiest to play at the moment... Just like they were in 2.0, but the difference is that you can't be braindead and still do a decent job this time. Overall, all jobs are hard to play in one way or another, and it's simply what you are good at, that determines what you think is the easiest.

Thank a lot guys for the information, really! I feel like I'm leaning towards NIN but my only concern about them is I hear that they are very squishy, like they die very easily. Is that true?

Well all dps class are going to require you to move out of AoE. Ninja isn't anymore or any less squishy than any other if you dodge. Best suggest is level all your dps to 36ish and see what you like. This will also unlock all the cross class skills you'll need for dpsing.

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Originally Posted by megaflare13

Thank a lot guys for the information, really! I feel like I'm leaning towards NIN but my only concern about them is I hear that they are very squishy, like they die very easily. Is that true?

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NIN has abilities that can keep you from getting hit and it has some self healing abilities. Also in dungeons you shouldn't be getting hit too much anyways.

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Originally Posted by megaflare13

Thank a lot guys for the information, really! I feel like I'm leaning towards NIN but my only concern about them is I hear that they are very squishy, like they die very easily. Is that true?

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Not really, in PvP maybe, but like other's have said, I guess compared to other melee DPS NINs are the squishiest, but they do have access to skills to reduce damage (Shade Shift)

Although I can imagine Assassination's animation lock might end up harming NINs if they don't get out of an aoe in time, but that's also a DRG problem

NIN and MNK are similar in turns of toughness, DRG has the best armor, but really none of that saves any of them if you get hit by something you are suppose to dodge.

Can you guys tell me more about Summoner. Are they really hard to be good with or complicated?

Summoners actually changed the least with the expansion, so there's less of a learning curve for veteran players. The problems with the pet ai have also been fixed, so it is a lot easier to play now.

The class basically requires you to keep DoTs, manage your pet, and certain cooldowns. It's not terribly complicated and you'll definitely master the DoTs by 50. Pets may take a little longer to really master, but you'll be passable if you can hotkey pet abilities and slowly learn how and when to use them.

There is a high skill ceiling with pets. Some summoners can actually tank some primals with their pets and do a passably good job with it. When you're playing at that level, pet management is really complicated. You probably don't need that kind of skill for any of the content, but some raid groups may ask about it (because it's good to know if you can).

SMN is in a great position now and is probably one of the most improved jobs of 2.0 with the introduction of Dreadwyrm stance, 2.5 m cooldown for Enkindle and bane affecting all in its range.

SMN doesn't really have a standard rotation. Just be sure to maintain dots and use your aetherflow stacks wisely. It's quite fun being able to set your pet one obey and use each of their respective abilities. But if you're new most people set Ifrit of sic (auto) and typically on mobs, and use Garuda on obey for her Contagion (doubles the dot duration)

Compared to BLM though I have to press *a lot* of buttons just to get nearly the same burst dmg as a blm for ads phases.

Easiest dps, id probably have to go with monk. they have like 7 buttons in their main rotation, the only thing you really have to keep up with is positionals

or warrior, i mean have you seen that shit? you dont even need positionals for fell cleaves!

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Originally Posted by megaflare13

Can you guys tell me more about Summoner. Are they really hard to be good with or complicated?

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as for summoner, immensely overpowering aoe, but they have extremely complicated and button bloated openers. youre probably not going to be able to maximize dps on it if you want easy

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Originally Posted by myahele

Not really, in PvP maybe, but like other's have said, I guess compared to other melee DPS NINs are the squishiest, but they do have access to skills to reduce damage (Shade Shift)

Although I can imagine Assassination's animation lock might end up harming NINs if they don't get out of an aoe in time, but that's also a DRG problem

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Ninjas have never got any of the numerous animation lock reductions drgs have. Just another small way in which nin gets the second class "separate but equal" dps treatment.

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Originally Posted by Kaisersoke

Easiest dps, id probably have to go with monk. they have like 7 buttons in their main rotation, the only thing you really have to keep up with is positionals

or warrior, i mean have you seen that shit? you dont even need positionals for fell cleaves!

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This right here is why the majority of monks suck.

Summoner has a very low skill floor. It's the most mobile ranged DPS job and is not nearly as punished by mechanics as BLM is. To put it in perspective - I leveled Arcanist purely though Scholar. Once I hit 60, I did the SMN job quests, changed some keybinds, read Hai Hai's SMN guide, and my first run through fractal I pushed 950 single target just winging it. Optimizing SMN is a completely different story, but if you want a class where you can be lazy and still outdps most of the DF populace, you can't go wrong with SMN.

SMN is pretty easy to get to a minimal level of acceptable play. You may love it if you like managing dots and pets. The only real new portion of SMN in heavensward other than a straightforward buff to AOE is optimal use of their trance especially in fights with downtime windows etc. It isn't difficult; it just requires planning.

Personally I find the class tedious and don't care for it but conceptually it isn't difficult. It just has a lot of skills, timers to watch and micromanaging. I think it is hard to tell you what you will find easiest. Different classes feel easier to different people.

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Originally Posted by RocheKat

This right here is why the majority of monks suck.

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Monk is pretty simple compared to summoner.

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Originally Posted by RocheKat

This right here is why the majority of monks suck.

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(And Warriors)

2 questions for you DPS peeps:

Rotation aside, which DPS class has the least bloated opener? Also, button count aside, which would you guys say has the most fluid opener?

For the openers, I would say blackmage. It is essentially 3 buttons to get in their opener: swiftcast -> firaga -> enochian -> fire spam and use buffs until you're blue in the face.