the 2016 Frontline tier list

[Kyani]

Tiering, huh? Based off of my experience on Aether, I would probably rank classes like this:

S:
Paladin*, Warrior

A:
Astrologian, Scholar, Summoner, Black Mage, Ninja

B:
White Mage, Machinist, Dragoon, Bard

C:
Paladin, Monk, Dark Knight

Paladin is incredibly powerful. They provide the best utility of any class, do respectable damage, and are amazing at keeping their party alive even relative to a warrior thanks to Testudo. You only really need 1 or 2, though, and the rest are not very good at all.

On healers:

Scholar has the highest skill ceiling of the 3 healers, and the best single-target burst. Its only real weakness is relatively inefficent sustained healing, but Scholar's incredibly powerful OCGD heals carry it in bursty encounters.

White Mage has the highest potential AoE healing, but has trouble when focused. Their single target healing is okay, but can't really match a Scholar turreting with Dispersion.

Astrologian has a very high skill floor, but doesn't have the tools to excel at turret-style healing - Synastry is good, but doesn't match the power of Adlo+Lustrate, and they can't hold a candle to WHM AoE.

[Kyani]

On dps:

- Summoner is obviously known to be amazing, but it has real trouble against Testudo and tank LB in general. If you can stifle a summoner, it's basically useless for the next minute against decent healers.
- Black Mage is the best utility of all DPS, with sleep and freeze. Its damage isn't as good as Summoner, but Swift+Sharp Thunder gives you some good sustained potential.
- Ninjas are great at ambushing people and are probably the best class at landing a limit break
- Machinists are annoying as hell on nodes, but aren't actually that interesting otherwise afaik. Between the Eyes does silly damage, though, and turrets are powerful enough where you'd really like some around.
- Dragoon does a ton of damage, but can have trouble with uptime compared to Warrior.
- Bards don't do great damage, but they're great at interrupting casts at a distance that no one else can really match.
- If you're not Nex Cross, please don't play Monk.

Also, Dark Knight is bad and your best case scenario is being a slightly beefier Machinist turret.

[CeveArthu]

White Mage has the highest potential AoE healing, but has trouble when focused. Their single target healing is okay, but can't really match a Scholar turreting with Dispersion.

it isnt supposed to be a single target healer, the biggest problem people have with white mage is that they think its a power healer when its not

Think of it as a black mage with regens and you will go far further than playing it like a conventional power healer

in terms of skill ceiling sch and whm are quite close but for entirely different reasons

[Kyani]

it isnt supposed to be a single target healer, the biggest problem people have with white mage is that they think its a power healer when its not

Think of it as a black mage with regens and you will go far further than playing it like a conventional power healer

in terms of skill ceiling sch and whm are quite close but for entirely different reasons

Yeah, I don't really think WHM works at all if you're trying to just beast through damage, but that doesn't stop people from trying (then blaming the Scholars who did all the work for "not healing enough" compared to Medica II ticks >_>).

I still don't think i've ever seen a (Noct) Astrologian really pull their weight in large fights; while I know Diurnal is better at it, Noct is so much more popular because of how mindless A. Benefic is, and Noct is just.. not a good teamfighter compared to WHM and especially Scholar.


vv see, like that

[UlricCraft]

"My class isn't any weaker than the others! NUUUH" - Salty Blums and Pluds in this thread

Tier 1:

• AST - Broken ass insta shields are broken.
• SMN - Bane 3gud, mobility, burst.
• WAR - Step 1: Berserk, Step 2: Deliverance, Step 3: Fell Cleave.

Tier 2:

• MCH - Kill stealing scumbags with their ogcd procs! Their burst is amazing but their survivability is naff. Hard to 1v1 with their knockbacks, silences, stuns and weaknesses. Their mobility is 2nd only to SMN.
• WHM - Always at least 2.5x more healing than the others, their instant heals aren't as good as the AST, but their HoTs are awesome.
• DRG - More deeps than other melees, less utility.
• MNK - Shoulder Tackle -> LB is super annoying. One Ilm Punch.
• PLD - Can't get the kills like a WAR, but stuns, silences, knockbacks, disrupts and 1/1,000,000 clutch heal saves.

Tier 3:

• BLM - Interrupted by everything. Squishy. Sleep always gets ruined by a BRD doing Rain. You're not that good, a WHM does more CC than you, a SMN does more DPS than you.
• NIN - You froze me in ice, oh no.
• DRK - Less useful than a PLD, less DPS than a WAR. When I heal vs these you almost just ignore them.
• SCH - Lustrate x3 - AFK for 1min. (They're actually pretty good, but for the sake of having 1tank/heal in each tier this is how I'd have them)
• BRD - BRD's are actually pretty good, it's just they're not as potent as the other classes. They have some awesome disruption, AoE DPS, some decent burst with their cooldowns... But they're just not as good at bursting a target like a MCH.

The classes are honestly super balanced in XIV it's really hard to put them in tiers. Like; how I've put BRD in Tier 3? It can easily achieve the most DPS or kills in any given game.

However there are 3 classes that are distinctly better than any other. When healing, if I see a WAR running at me I panic. When targeted by a SMN I prepare Purify just for their damage, and when you're trying to chase an AST, prepare a sleeping bag because you'll be a while.

*List is subject to my opinion

[Kyani]

I think mentioning WHM's higher displayed healing #s as an upside betrays your lack of understanding of healer strength - a single Medica II outputs more "healing" than a Scholar might in an entire fight, but so much of that is either unnecessary or overhealing that it paints a very different picture compared to how things really play out.

[UlricCraft]

Snip

Assumes I was referencing the post-screen overheal nonsense. :^)

[xxczx]

I still don't think i've ever seen a (Noct) Astrologian really pull their weight in large fights; while I know Diurnal is better at it, Noct is so much more popular because of how mindless A. Benefic is, and Noct is just.. not a good teamfighter compared to WHM and especially Scholar.

It's quite easy tbh but most AST are the typical spam A. Benefic thinking it actually does anything.

Synastry before incoming damage is major and most people use it as an "oh shit" button when someone is nearly dead, paired with Lightspeed > Luminiferous Aether > Celestial Opposition if your party is getting heavy damage, ezpz.

[Praesul]

Whoever says DRK doesn't do as much damage as WAR in Seal Rock has NO idea what they're talking about. They have some of the best 2 - 3 GCD burst in the game, mainly because most of it can be prepped BEFORE you even engage. Darkside is up all the time, it's DRK's maim equivalent that doesn't require 2 GCD's to activate, you can prep dark arts Carve and Spit, pop Blood Weapon too for even faster GCDs. Now plunge low blow, hard slash + fullswing carve & spite, Syphon strike + dark passenger.

Dead. It's also available more often than berserk since C&S has a shorter cooldown. Not only that, but DRK has some of the strongest debuffs for pvp, an aoe heavy and aoe damage reduction that can be traited to be 20% reduced damage in an aoe around your target. Pop Living dead, plunge into an entire alliance and aoe heavy the fuck out of them and watch as they purify it just to be tri-binded or slept right after or vice versa (sleep first to bait out the purify, then plunge + aoe heavy). Have fun running out of the caster LBs with that. They're also the only tank that can stop capping with ranged aoe that requires no cast time.


Don't get me wrong, WAR and PLD are both very strong in their own ways and I play all 3, but saying DRK is the weakest is because most DRKs in seal rock are loldrks that leave grit on or just don't have enough experience with the job in general, and give the job a bad reputation.

[UlricCraft]

DRKS are good

People Purify heavy? Nobody does that.

Darkside: +15% damage
Carve: 450 potency

Maim: +20% damage
Deliverance: +5% damage
Deliverance 5 stack: +10% Crit
Internal Release: +10% Crit
Berserk: +50% attack power
Fell Cleave: 500 Potency

OK. DRK does as much damage. I don't know what I'm talking about.