A tank asks: How does maining a melee DPS class in MSQ feel?

Hey FFXIV community. This here player with long-ingrained WoW habits has some questions and a discussion I would like to get into today in regards with how the FFXIV questing game treats various job types.

In WoW, I always main a tank class whenever possible because (and this does ring true in FFXIV) tanks generally rule the open world. They can pull the zone, hold everything, and when story quests ask them “defend this spot from a wave battle,” it’s literally what they are built for. In FFXIV, arguably no job type pairs better with a chocobo companion than a tank.

Thing is, the problem with leading with a tank job in FFXIV means eventually I’m tanking the trial boss. Trusts (blissfully) are my default MSQ dungeon party forever now, but trials still suffer from “being new on other people’s time,” more severely than a DPS.

Here comes the question part: I love samurai very much now. It occurs to me that leading Endwalker as a samurai, every hole in the lead-with-a-tank approach is shored up except one. How does solo content feel, leading as samurai?

Traditionally speaking how do melee DPS handle any and all solo duties or potential wave battle scenarios in the MSQ? Does FFXIV take into account that some people will lead with the especially squishy jobs? My “in between chapters experience grind” is covered by trusts, I can safely learn trials as a DPS, but how do melee DPS jobs handle the inevitable “you’re going to get hit now” MSQ moments that my tank jobs laugh off?

To be clear: This is coming from someone that plans around “what will stress me out least,” not an “is this possible” angle. Of course every job can do the MSQ, just like every WoW class can solo, but as WoW players will attest to: mages and guardian druids are almost playing completely different games, are at vastly different stress levels and engage in very different “effortconomics” in WoW’s open world or solo content. I don’t play MMOs to be challenged, and as a tank in the MSQ, the only challenges are for my party in trials.

How does this disparity on the solo content front present itself in FFXIV?

So as someone who leveled Paladin through MSQ I know what you did. After that I did Dragoon and the game was pretty nice with no many issues but it was slow because well dps for dungeon queue timers. The hardest class I found to level up was mage because of the cast times and FF14 loves to make you move lol

Easiest was Machnist because of the almost constant feel of spamming some type of button and then big burst phases. Like for example in Eureka I could pull MASSIVE amounts of NPC's and be just fine as a Paladin but any other job and I was getting wrecked.

I’m fairly new to this game as well, and while I too am loving building up a tanking job (as well as healing), I started with a dps job (BLM) and this far I’ve had absolutely no issues with completing any and all quests.

I know what you mean from WoW, tanks could do open world content SUPER easy compared to the other specs, but so far in FFXIV I’ve found it to be pretty even in terms of completion speed for world content. Tanks do have better survivability, but conversely dps specs do so much damage it’s usually not a concern, lol

As a monk main....

Solo instances aren't so much an issue for damage coming at you. Additionally, most instances have an NPC healer that helps keep you alive, so as far as being squishier is concerned, this isn't really that much of an issue, except that maybe you have to be a little more aware of damage mechanics than you'd have to be on a tank/healer role as failing might mean you take more damage than the healer is going to realistically top you back up from.

BUT the the big problem for monks espeically, but for all melees. The solo instance bosses still have standard hit rings meaning that unless your solo instance also pairs you with an NPC tank, hitting positionals on attacks is, for the most part, impossible. Sure you have True North to help if you're going to burst out a lot of damage, but the fights last longer than your position nullifying effects last meaning for the most part you'll be hitting for lower damage than is possible in normal dungeon or raid scenarios.

To answer your question more directly, samurai you will notice this disparity, not because your GCD skills will hit for less damage, as that's not how samurai positionals work, but you'll notice you don't gain as much kenki, which will still impact things like what OGC moves you have available to you at any given time and will mess with the flow of the rotation you've come to expect.

And on this point.... Square really should be making these hit rings for areas you're likely or required to be solo omnipositional. So solo instances for sure as well as open world mobs.

I always suggest a first run through normal content be done with a support job (as in tank or healer) rather than a dps. None of the options are particularly stressful or difficult, but you’ll be pushed into learning mechanics that will build up over time.

In the very long run, the temptation to just 123 as one of “those dps” can get to be too much to resist, and some get to the point where open world mobs are “too hard” because they’ve not been required to pay any attention at all to tooltips or mechanics.

As a tank, you really just need to get over yourself and ask if you’re unsure. You’re not going to be flawless, so wipes are going to happen— just figure out what went wrong and don’t make the same mistake twice.

If you find yourself in a situation where you feel like you’ve been carried, just repeat the content until you feel like you’ve made a contribution.

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Originally Posted by Omedon

How does solo content feel, leading as samurai?

Traditionally speaking how do melee DPS handle any and all solo duties or potential wave battle scenarios in the MSQ? Does FFXIV take into account that some people will lead with the especially squishy jobs?

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All roles are taken into account, so if you can die, there is usually an ally that tanks or heals for you, or both. When you wipe enough you get The Echo and you can increase your gear to make it easier, so it's not much to worry about. The story and anything required for it is meant to be easy, with challenging content being optional.

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Originally Posted by Omedon

My “in between chapters experience grind” is covered by trusts, I can safely learn trials as a DPS, but how do melee DPS jobs handle the inevitable “you’re going to get hit now” MSQ moments that my tank jobs laugh off?

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You have a defensive ability called Third Eye, if it blocks before expiring you can use a heal called Merciful Eyes. You can also heal with the role actions Second Wind and Bloodbath. You could buy some high quality super potions to heal yourself. Kiting works a lot of the time. Of course, you have your chocobo outside of solo duties.

I've played all the jobs to 80, now I've not played all the jobs in all sorts of MSQ content in multiple play throughs, but I can say that all the jobs can get the job, huehue, done.

If you want to main Samurai then you do that! As you can absolutely complete the MSQ under that situation. Of course the main consequence of not being healer or tank though is when you do get to the content that requires a party and can't use trusts that you will then have a longer waiting time than usual.

All the content that you need to do in order to achieve a complete MSQ playthrough can be done on any job :)

If you're not rushing and don't mind though, you can always bring a few jobs with Samurai being your go to and the others being options. Like if I'm confident I'd choose Paladin, not confident but want a quick queue then I'd go white mage, or if I don't want to look up the guide and not cause wipe issues probably go Red Mage or Summoner (decent mobility, ranged, has raise). So I keep multiple jobs leveled as I go along, but I also don't play for the savage content and can afford to mosey along (anymore, it was fun to do when I had more time, and I'm not one to think that stuff should be remooved (thinking ultimate threads), but certainly doesn't fit the life style I've right now, work, wife, games, games gets a bit cut out lol).

For taking care of content designed for groups via solo overleveling, content that you're overpowering- not speaking of doing normal MSQ stuff, you may want to have Paladin, Red Mage, and I've heard (never bothered trying) SCH can do well sometimes (pet healing you while you do other stuff).

MSQ instances grant you the "Brilliant Conviction" buff that balances it all out as it behaves differerently based on your role.

For a tank, it increases damage dealt and grants you a regen buff that gets stronger as your HP falls.
For a DPS, it reduces damage taken and grants you a regen buff that gets stronger as your HP falls.
For a healer, it reduces damage taken and increases damage dealt.

Solo fights are tuned to be done as any job and role. Generally you have an npc healer that will keep you in a generally ok health pool. Otherwise the only way to fail a fight is to fail too many mechanics/eat too much avoidable damage.

Overworld-related combat is just a joke. The worst thing that can happen is someone regretting not investing into a healer chocobo companion for that little bit of sustain.

DF que times are the only real negative, but trusts have removed that blockade for the sake of story progression starting in ShB.

Really there isn't much of any difference. Just as a tank or healer stuff may die slower from lower damage out-put but that's a moot thing.

Once you go Monk you never go back.

That didn't rhyme the way I thought it would.

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Originally Posted by wereotter

BUT the the big problem for monks espeically, but for all melees. The solo instance bosses still have standard hit rings meaning that unless your solo instance also pairs you with an NPC tank, hitting positionals on attacks is, for the most part, impossible.

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Correction: Hitting positionals when solo is gimmicky but entirely possible. You just have to play within the enemy hitbox and time your movement to your skills so enemies don't turn before the attack actuates.

You press bloodbath and you win, and npcs will heal you. It's not like you can stand in every orange circle and expect to win like tanks can, but it isn't difficult. Samurai should by far be the fastest to clear MSQ instances if you know what you are doing. You just focus on what is hitting you instead of pulling everything (which I assume you do since you asked that question). It should not frustrate you unless you are severely behind in gear, or try to shore up your ilvl by putting on abnormally high gear compared to your average and make those pieces accessories instead of left side.