What DPS job do you find the most fun and why?

Trying to decide on one so I'm curious to hear which ones others prefer and why they do.

BLM
Its rotation past 72 is just so smooth, and it's really satifying to pull off successfully with movement tools like triplecast and between the lines

I am only like lvl 60 or so BLM, but I am finding it very fun to play. It simply melts mobs and bosses. I have not really had a chance to play many of the DPS classes yet. Mostly in MMO's I play classes that include self-heals (because I have trust issues O.o), so FF14 is the first game that I've really expanded on a DPS role. Have to say though, BLM is super cool so far. I feel as though I am going to be going back to it a lot, even when I get other classes leveled up.

I don't have a lot of dps jobs leveled up, but I find BLM pretty satisfying : the actual rotation is not that hard in itself, but you must know the fight to really push all the dps you have out ; you melt bosses, and you will feel it (some bosses have "rotations" of spells, so you will see if you kill them faster or not when compared to your other dps jobs) ; AoE is a blast, literally, bless you Flare (it's just so... beautiful to hear and see, it makes the screen shake a little)...

And I'm only lvl59. I get better it seems.

I should add that the rotation changes a lot as you level. It can feel underwhelming when you lose most of your spells during daily dungeons etc.

Hmm I main DRG & I enjoy it a lot. My fav DPS so far.
Why? I love the aestethic & theme of Dragoon, i love their animations & the rotation flows very well.

I really like RDM as well.
Same as Dragoon, I love the theme, aestethic, animations & rotation flows very well.
One downside to me is that it's a bit too easy for me personally.

MCH seems like a lot of fun too so far.
I love how they whip out different weapons to blast enemies. Rotation is fast paced & its' a very busy job. One of the harder jobs in the game to my knowledge.

Red Mage with Dancer and Samurai as close seconds.

Simple but satisfying to use. Little to no bloat in their rotation/priority system. Very smooth.

Having taken BRD, MCH, DNC, NIN to 80 so far, I liked MCH the best (which was a surprise to me, since I've been maining BRD since forever). MCH keeps me busy pressing buttons most of the time, but still has the flexibility of shootin' and scootin' (attacking while moving). Strictly speaking of my own personal enjoyment (regardless of damage/utility), I rate them MCH > NIN > BRD > DNC.

I've heard great things about BLM though, and that will be the next DPS I take to 80.

NIN is still my favorite, despite it being a lil lackluster atm. It's a complicated mess and I love it...and the aesthetics are nice.

Despite all the hubbub, I honestly can't see myself ever not using MNK.

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Originally Posted by Nakkir

NIN is still my favorite, despite it being a lil lackluster atm. It's a complicated mess and I love it...and the aesthetics are nice.

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Agreed, I'm leveling NIN purely based on being able to summon a Hellfrog.

IchiExorz, do you have both RDM and DRG lvl 80? I've been contemplating rolling RDM but I'm worried that you found it a bit easier than DRG. My DRG is only 71, but I didn't find it quite as engaging as I hoped it would be (although I love their aesthetics etc). I was hoping RDM would be fun and unique with a proc-based system, but if it's painfully easy I'm not sure how much I'll enjoy it.

I used to love bard. Right now, they're all pretty monotonous.

MCH is currently winning as my favorite job of ShB. Fast paced, pew pew, explosions and guns and robots. It's everything MCH was meant to be from the beginning.

Personally I absolutely love Dancer. The animations look great, having a load of support options feels really fun and I feel like I can contribute to the party in a different way from other DPS like Black Mage or Samurai. It has amazing mobility thanks to En Avant charges, plenty of buffs to help out the party like Shield Samba and Improvisation, plus Curing Waltz (though the potency is very low to compensate for it being used twice on one go). It can feel very fast paced when hitting procs during Flourish phases, and seeing those 100k+ Direct Critical Quadruple Technical Finish (bit wordy lol) is always really satisfying. The downsides to the job are that since the procs are RNG, you can sometimes go a few GCDs without getting anything, which means you’re just spamming Casade / Fountain. Your personal DPS is also the lowest of the damage dealers, so making the most of your buffs and utility is key to making your contribution to the party, which is something I really enjoy

At this point, I sort of don't have a main DPS anymore. I love MNK but it just keeps getting worse with each expansion. I miss HW MNK.

SMN was usually my back up DPS and he's currently 75 atm but the rotation just feels off right now. Maybe it gets better at 80 or maybe I'm doing something wrong but I'm not really feeling it either.

Thank god I still have my WHM to fall back on, until they nerf him too QQ

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Originally Posted by osutin

IchiExorz, do you have both RDM and DRG lvl 80? I've been contemplating rolling RDM but I'm worried that you found it a bit easier than DRG. My DRG is only 71, but I didn't find it quite as engaging as I hoped it would be (although I love their aesthetics etc). I was hoping RDM would be fun and unique with a proc-based system, but if it's painfully easy I'm not sure how much I'll enjoy it.

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Yeah I do have both at 80.
Well DRG is considered rather easy but I find RDM to be even easier. The procs don't really make the rotation much more interesting imo. If you want something proc based I think bard is a better choice. The rotation feels very fluid though.
They're easy to learn fights with though.
And I really REALLY like the aestethic of RDM. And I love the idea of being a caster with some melee mixed into it.

This expansion I love MCH. It was a slower buildup during Stormblood, but now it is literally melting the enemies. Fast pace, high burst and yet the rotation is simple enough that I don't have to be a hotbar watcher. The next job that I love is DNC. I heard so many good things about BLM, so I'd probably try to level that from 63 to 80 one day.

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Originally Posted by osutin

Agreed, I'm leveling NIN purely based on being able to summon a Hellfrog.

IchiExorz, do you have both RDM and DRG lvl 80? I've been contemplating rolling RDM but I'm worried that you found it a bit easier than DRG. My DRG is only 71, but I didn't find it quite as engaging as I hoped it would be (although I love their aesthetics etc). I was hoping RDM would be fun and unique with a proc-based system, but if it's painfully easy I'm not sure how much I'll enjoy it.

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Tbh RDM is very reaction based and very front sided gameplay, I wouldn’t say it’s easier.

RDM has always been a job which it isn’t a case of a lack of room to improve, it’s always been a little closer in jobs between dps numbers between being good and average compared to some other jobs.

With how smooth and simplified jobs are I wouldn’t really say RDM is easier. I wouldn’t say it’s painfully easily, but I wouldn’t say it’s hard either.

I’ve been messing around with mine abit and it is pretty fun, and the rotation doesn’t rly get stale as it isn’t just learning to repeat the same openers and rotations.

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Originally Posted by IchiExorz

Yeah I do have both at 80.
Well DRG is considered rather easy but I find RDM to be even easier. The procs don't really make the rotation much more interesting imo. If you want something proc based I think bard is a better choice. The rotation feels very fluid though.
They're easy to learn fights with though.
And I really REALLY like the aestethic of RDM. And I love the idea of being a caster with some melee mixed into it.

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Tbh I wouldn’t say bard is harder then RDM anymore :p

It’s litterally pop songs in correct order, press burst shot, hit ogcds use emp for free procs. It’s opener is now like 9 skills long which makes it actually smaller then RDMs.

Bards gotten ALOT easier to play, as the only maintaince in it is really holding the 30sec DoTs which has iron jaws to refresh both instantly with.

It’s difficulty defiantly came down a long way after SB where it had a lot more decisions to make throughout a fight

As I'm still for a long, long time in the leveling phase, I'll only talk about first impressions and aesthetics:

Personally, I quite enjoy Dragoon (my starting job career) and Samurai, even though SAM's impressions are restricted to the inital job quest and some random meddling with open world trash mobs. For both jobs, I adore their job-specific armor appearance, and the skill animations of SAM. So currently my inital job satisfaction is "battling" with my inner japanese fanboyism for SAM *lol*. When I first unlocked, for example, SAM and RDM and was confronted with two skill bars worth of skills at once, I also thought SAM's skill flow was more intuitive, especially after some slight rearrangements. I've read some valuable first timer tips for RDM since then and will also spend some more time with the latter as I want at least one of each role (Tank, Healer, Physical DPS, Magical DPS) for the distant future job role quests. As a sidenote: RDM's starting job quest seems to play in a time much later post-ARR, which I found a bit weird. But given when it was released, understandable.

Blm. I love the new skills, we are more mobile than ever and the 2 more seconds on AF and UI are really nice to have.
And who doesn't like doing lots of damage with throwing explosions at peoples heads.

And Dancer so far. Most of the animations look pretty and it's fun to play.

I really like my RDM. Fun and easy.
Also lvled BRD to 70, that was fun, too, bit more complicated.
ATM working on DNC, great with aoe and the dancing is fun.
Looking at MCH too, ranged physical dps seem to be in a really good state atm.

Since i don´t like melees i can´t say much about them.

Sam. I love the style. I love the animations. I love the damage. I can't play any other dps.

Since 5.0 changes, so far BLM mainly because the rotation is so smooth. It's so unfair it does so much damage with such a smooth rotation when you have more complicated smn and nin that can't even come close.

Still a big fan of ninja, but it's not worth it to be a trick attack bitch. It's all they're good for now since they lost their enmity manipulation.

My personal favorite is the Dragoon. And Machinist of Stormblood. Despise the new one, tho. Why Dragoon? Stylish, durable, "that's a lot of damage!" out of the ass, great Job storyline and history. Love to jump around and dodge AoE's and other hazards in fight, just to jump in a second later. Feels so active and smooth. It's just like the Job was made for me to play.

Enjoying DRG a lot more this expansion. The streamlining of heavy thrust into the combos and having only one source of dive-ready significantly reduced the amount of mental load needed to execute DRG.

It was sorely needed. I played both BLM and DRG in stormblood and BLM was infinitely more simple while producing absurd amounts more pDPS... with the advantage of range and lack of need for positionals. DRG felt like 10 times the work for significantly less DPS contribution, where people were struggling to meet enrage timers in savages.

I still feel SQE underestimates the difficulty/workload of positionals and overestimates the difficulty of needing to move as a caster (even BLM). I do very much appreciate the two-stacks on true-north for this reason. BLM has a myriad of tools to assist casting on the move. As long as you learn the fight mechanics you can easily continuously cast on most bosses... but it's not that easy to always satisfy positionals.

I’m a monk main till I die, even though it’s very unfun to play right now. Machinist on the other hand has been so fun to play because of how busy yet fluid it is

I'm not really partial to a specific job, as I am more focused on a role: ranged DPS.

Admittedly, BRD feels a lot like more of the same from SB, and that's not a bad thing as a far as I am concerned. It is a comfortable pair of slippers I can slide into when I'm feeling lazy. DNC, despite the low personal DPS that I don't like, makes me feel very useful to the party (as it should) - and the RNG-based gameplay usually keeps me pretty engaged in whatever I'm doing. Also - En Avant is awesome.

I'm completely in love with the revised MCH, and I consider this to be my preferred main in content where there isn't a better geared or higher optimized MCH around. I thrive in jobs that have a high APM.

Granted, I have zero experience with any of my other DPS jobs in the context of ShB reworks/additions/subtractions, but I really have no desire to branch outside of this role for this expansion. So far.

I've only played BLM and DRG. They're both really fun. The BLM is crazy though. It's like they were watching Konosuba and were like, "Let's do that!" The Lv72 skill Despair is throwing a miniature sun before exploding it. Feel like we need Klaxons going off when we use it. Between Between the Line and Aetherskate and the 15 sec timer, everything is so smooth. And the most important change of all, Freeze is useful. With the zero MP trait, you can go from Flare straight into it. Burning big pulls has never felt better. And Sharpcast is now 30 seconds. So much sparking.

https://66.media.tumblr.com/058a1bc3...0o2_r1_540.gif

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Originally Posted by Heliantheae

I've only played BLM and DRG. They're both really fun. The BLM is crazy though. It's like they were watching Konosuba and were like, "Let's do that!" The Lv72 skill Despair is throwing a miniature sun before exploding it. Feel like we need Klaxons going off when we use it. Between Between the Line and Aetherskate and the 15 sec timer, everything is so smooth. And the most important change of all, Freeze is useful. With the zero MP trait, you can go from Flare straight into it. Burning big pulls has never felt better. And Sharpcast is now 30 seconds. So much sparking.

https://66.media.tumblr.com/058a1bc3...0o2_r1_540.gif

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Geez, BLM actually sounds amazing right now. I may need to finish leveling mine.

MCH just feels good. Its busy (and I'm only 62), but everything just seems like it flows into the next move without delay. I really liked how DNC felt initially, until MCH pulled me away.

I would love to say I love my SMN as it was my main and the first I brought to 80, but... Well, I am not in love with the job (currently), which is why I switch to SCH as my main (and I love SCH, but we are talking about DPS class here). SMN is just too clunky. The rotation is simple enough (for me. 4 phases, pets and a lot of oGCD) and not even busier than BLM, with dmg that is comparable with MCH, but the transition is not user-friendly at all, too many multiple timers to watch make dodging boss AoE a lot harder. I just wish the devs can simplify SMN to make it as fun as BLM. Fingers cross. Wishful thinking. Maybe.

Anything but NIN, MNK, or SMN to be honest. All three of those jobs have some serious issues.

RDM, cause is edgy and have a mix of range and melee attacks. Which feels nice for people that cannot decide what to play like me.

NIN, DRG, BRD, BLM, MCH, GNB, and WHM for me so far.

NIN's complex but, comparative to that, awfully smooth.
DRG's simple but still appealing.
BRD's just got a ton of stuff going on in certain situations that's just really fun when everything's blowing up.
BLM? Others here have summed this up just fine.
MCH's not quite at exciting as BRD to me so far, but it's got stupid-fun quirks.
GNB is decently busy in a way that's rare-ish in a tank these days.
WHM is just godly. I wish it had a bit more going on, but still... stupidly strong in dungeons.

Also MCH/BLM lover here! I loved both jobs before Shb, but now they feel even better. Especially the new MCH skills are great. :)
I chose MCH, when I want to be very moveable and know that I have to dodge a lot, for example, and chose BLM, when I feel like casting (and explosions xD). But since Shb BLM also feels more flexible and it's easier to keep the rotation up.

In SB my favorites were bard/monk/red mage/summoner/ninja. In ShB I have only gotten dancer/summoner to 80 so far. But I can already tell I will enjoy bard/monk and I will give Dragoon a shot as they changed it enough to better fit my personal play style.