In the FFXIV world, lore-wise which job is the strongest if there was a tourney?

[SendohJin]

PLD actually has 1v1 tourney quest at level 70. No help just 1v1, 3 matches for 'Ul Cup Champion' title (Level 70 PLD title), againsts guildmate, an Ishgardian knight and a master swordsman.

exactly, those are average joes, not other quests where they have to fight ancient demons and demi-gods. if you put that master swordsman from the PLD quest in the Black Mage quest in the WoL's place the world would have most likely ended.

actually looking back i overrated the opponent in the NIN quest a bit as well, he's also not that special.

the BLM quest has the highest stakes but it can be argued that the BLM quest has the strongest helper.
the RDM and SMN quests can be argued that what you're fighting are weakened versions of their true selves but their true versions are the most powerful beings any of the job quests i've seen are faced with. AST too but you have a metric crapload of help in the AST quest.

[Aosha]

I'd say it's largely a matter or
1) circumstances and rules?
2) do we go with the apparent efficiency we see in-game, or with how effective these things would be in real life?

for 1), scholars for example are intended as strategists, and thus should have an advantage in a team fight, but possibly a disadvantage in a 1v1. Ninjas would have an advantage if the terrain is uneven and would allow for hiding, not so much otherwise. The further away the combatants start from each other, the bigger of an advantage the ranged jobs would get. Also consider setup time etc.

for 2), going by real-life efficiency, bards and machinists get a leg up on everyone else (non-tanks at least), since bows/guns are just that good (reloading and firing rate due to level of gun technology might drop MCH). Beyond that I'd say casters have it pretty good, I mean what do you do when someone starts flinging napalm in your face? Ain't no armor gonna help you there. And further still, how literally do we take the animations of tank cooldowns for example? There's a big difference between "I now have a magical shield floating around myself" and "things hurt less now".
And I'd say us monks may get pretty much shafted (depending on our degree of supposed super strength) unless we get to start in shoulder tackle range against a squishy caster or healer. :P

And then there could even be situation of "X class can beat Y class which can beat Z class which can beat X", individual matchups.
It's a fun thing to think about, but we'd need to set a whole bunch of ground rules first to reach any conclusions.

[Wyssahtyn]

Beyond that I'd say casters have it pretty good, I mean what do you do when someone starts flinging napalm in your face? Ain't no armor gonna help you there.

Lucia blocks dragonfire with her shield during the lead up to the Nidhogg trial, so I'd say armor would actually help.

[Aosha]

Lucia blocks dragonfire with her shield during the lead up to the Nidhogg trial, so I'd say armor would actually help.

Yeah thinking back on it, at least a black mage's basic Fire spell should be blockable (although it was also mentioned in the Heavensward side stories that strong fire spells would eventually melt shields/armor: http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodest.../#sidestory_05). But what about, say, Flare? There's no projectile to block, it's just a giant fire storm that forms on you. Goes back to the question of how literally do we take animations (which I just added to my original comment). And then we get to Thunder, which by all means should be unblockable, etc, but then we also take into account that Paladins are probably using some form defensive magic on their shields, and then it just keeps spiraling out into more and more questions on what setup we use.

[Balipu]

I'd say red mage as they have so many different skills that they would surely find the right tools for every situation. Melee combat, white magic, black magic, anything. They create gaps, close gaps, heal and attack.

As for ninja not being able to hide....well Suiton is a solution for that.

[Shippuu]

Monks are likely at the top, even just unlocking 7 chakras they're capable of extraordinary superhuman feats, with all 14 it's been mentioned their power can be similar to deific levels. Bullets and arrows lose any effectiveness when your opponent is capable of superhuman speed, endurance, and strength so that easily rules out brd and mch.

After that it'd be the 3 mages, smn, blm, and rdm. Rdm is only there if they discard the whole premise and code of ethics of a red mage however, as the very art itself is purposefully restricting. Blm and smn have incredibly high power ceilings and raw destructive capabilities, but they'd be put down pretty quickly by a full Chakra monk I feel. Again it's hard to fight an opponent who could win the fight in the blink of an eye due to superhuman speed and strength. Casters need time to get off the big spells generally.

[Alleo]

Well I am totally not biased or anything (who am I kidding) but I would say that at least in lore we summoners would be part of the top jobs. We do not fight alone thanks to our pet and we even have a Bahamut nuke right now. Also if we would wear our horns we would totally blind our opponents with awe.

[Shippuu]

The thing about summoner is the conditions of being one. You essentially must have the echo in order to reliably and and safely withstand encounters with various primals. You also have to encounter and likely defeat said primals in order to draw upon their specific aether.

Even drawing on the dreadwyrm trance required bahamut to be summoned and then ceremoniously destroyed, scattering his aether to the land.

There's no doubt they are powerful but it requires a lot of special circumstances to fall into place beforehand, primarily being gifted with the echo.

[The_Last_Dragoon]

Lore-wise and assuming that the competitors involved are not Warriors of Light, the strongest job based character whose power is based solely on their job is Estinien. While he is essentially the "best of the best" when it comes to Dragoons, he is still on a whole other level compared to other "master level" characters based on the jobs. This is probably because at this point, all of the other characters are there to make the Warrior of Light feel powerful while Estinien's role is to be a peer and rival in terms of the Warrior of Light's growth.

[Quor]

If we're going by old school FF rules, WHM and BLM. Sleep target > nuke until dead, because magic doesn't wake up a slept target.