Most challenging and wanted DPS class?

[Shiroe]

hardest/ most challenging rotations? nin, sam & smn (edit: pet "obey") and (especially early on) probably mnk too

hardest / most challenging in endraids? blm

[Azerhan]

hardest/ most challenging rotations? nin, sam & smn (pet sync) and (especially early on) probably mnk too

hardest / most challenging in endraids? blm

NIN is not really hard in term of rotation... Neither the MNK. I even would said DRG > MNK in difficulty of rotation.
SAM is not really hard too. I was maining SAM since the beginning, I don't see where is the complexity, and I was like... 5k on Shinryu with PUG. And I still don't understand those who have difficulties on it, really.

I feel BRD, MCH and DRG harder. The first because we need to manage: dot, buff, team utilities and song.
And the two others because need to calculate the good time for burst, since it during a long time, not easy to get and if the boss flies away...

[Shiroe]

drg is imo the easiest melee to play

nin has a lot to look out for too, besides the "core" rotation..

shinryu doesnt have postionals, so its not a good comparison for melee..
... personally dont find sam that difficult either, but maxing it isnt that easy compared to other melee (still do a lot of damage when playing average, but sometimes also due to getting all the raid buffs)

[Bourne_Endeavor]

Despite what people say, managing your Kenki and GCDs right is hard. It is punishing if you screw up your rotation, because every lost Kenki is lost dps. It is punishing to let your buffs fall off or use Hagakure a few seconds too late. Dps loss again. Clip your abilities and dps loss again. All that while paying attention to mechanics, and you are always right on the boss having to hit your main positionals to generate the most Kenki.

The best Samurais out there, one of them currently teaching me, is doing 5.3k in O3S. That is an insane number and required dozens of runs and hours on training your rotation in high end content, as well as knowing exactly how to exploit uptime.

No offense, but you either lack Savage or melee experience. The DPS losses on mismanaged Kenki or Shifu/Jinpu buffs are negligible unless it's consistent. Outside the opener, Samurai's base rotation is incredibly simplified and Kenki management boils down to spam Shinten whenever above 60. You cannot cite clipping or rotation hiccups since both impact the other melee, albeit far more severely. Fat finger your rotation on DRG and you lose two GCDs or bunny your murdas—the latter of which needs to be executed quickly lest you lose uptime not attacking. Dropping Greased Lightning, Huton or Blood of the Dragon is absolutely brutal, with all three jobs losing a massive amount of damage if it can't be refreshed quickly. Samurai, comparatively, has no such issue. Even death impacts it the least due to its minimal build up requirements. Ninja can recast Huton, but not only does that hurt its damage more so, the entire raid suffers since now Trick Attack is put off an extra 20 seconds. Dragoons and Monks, meanwhile, would rather just stay dead and beg the party to wipe, especially Monk.

Samurais pulling 3.5k now are simply bad or inexperienced players. It speaks nothing to the complexity of the job or lack thereof as they would pull comparatively low numbers on any job. For reference sake, I pulled 3.2k on my second Alte Roite clear with two deaths and wearing mostly 310 gear.

[SwarleyMcSwarls]

Summon and machinist for this. 100%. Probably machinist over summon too. Because less competition for the one spot. And there just appears to be far fewer ranged dps players than casters. Bard is also a sought after job and is quite strong with its party utility, but machinist is much more challenging than bard at the moment.

For melee, I'd definitely say Ninja is the most sought after job. Even though it's been (arguably) the best melee job for raid since its release, ninjas are still fairly hard to come by. And it does have some difficulty to it with its different timing windows and with proper usage of its utility.

[Llugen]

BLM is "tough" for all the wrong reasons and I would not recommend playing it in endgame content until this issue is resolved.

[AmaSagahl]

No offense, but you either lack Savage or melee experience.

Yes, that's right. No offense taken. I started playing 3-4 months ago with Monk and then switched to Samurai right at level 50 - so no, I had no experience in Savage before.
But I disagree - mismanaged Kenki and buffs cost you a lot of dps. I have spent hours on the dummy, and it ranges between 4.2k with mismanaged kenki and buffs to less screw ups 4.8k to a perfect rotation like my mentor does - 5.5k.

I also disagree that every inexperienced player would pull low numbers on any job. There are better classes to start off than Samurai. I levelled RDM for a while and it was a walk in the park compared - I just didn't enjoy it. But of course, you are right that melee experience plays a role - exploiting the uptime is what makes a huge difference in your dps.

[AmaSagahl]

.... but when you get up there, and dont mess up on mechanics and it becomes muscle memory, you will see how easy it really is at the top

You are probably right.

[Llugen]

All jobs are "easy" after practice/muscle memory set in, this is how the best players became the best players in the first place. This is why striking dummies exist and are encouraged to use; the more unconscious the rotations become, the easier time you'll have trying to keep up rotation and handle mechanics at the same time.

[Shiroe]

BLM is "tough" for all the wrong reasons and I would not recommend playing it in endgame content until this issue is resolved.

^ this in terms of "challenging"

even when blm didnt have issues, it was one if the hardest if not hardest in endraids..

now its even beeing boycotted, its that bad atm

(hope devs are noticing this)