Ninja just ruins the feeling of Rogue

[TaleraRistain]

Sounds like you want Pugilist into Monk. You start out punchy-kicky and you just get punchier and kickier and you have to move around to punchy-kicky from the right angles.

And sometimes you can do epic punchy-kicky things cause of chakras but it's not a mage thing.

[Styrmwyda]

From the four melees we currently have in the game, monk or samurai might be your best bets - both have some flashy animations (you could always consider turning them off, though), but both are more about melee rotations than magic.

Speaking from a lore-perspective (which bleeds into the gameplay a little bite): Every job uses aether (aka magic) in some shape or form. So you'll always get some more flashy animations for the jobs than the base classes have. If thats whats bothering you when it comes to magic-use, you're better off limiting the animations for your own character.
If its the mechanics, I think any other melee would be fine (even dragoon, which I didnt mention before because its not traditionally in light armor) - they're mostly about dps-rotation, but all have little sidebits added, of course - like party-buffs, dot-management and so on.

In regards to the light armor: There is always glamour and there are a couple of light armor glamour options that every job can use - so... any job appear to wear light if you want that.

I think the jobs that use magic the least are Machinist (Ranged DPS) and Gunbreaker (Tank),

[7x9000]

I think the jobs that use magic the least are Machinist (Ranged DPS) and Gunbreaker (Tank),

Gunbreaker and machinist are both very magical. GNB's attacks are powered via magically-charged cartridges which are basically used to cast spells, while machinst's whole gist is that it uses condensed magic constantly as both projectiles and power sources.

[TeraRamis]

Gunbreaker and machinist are both very magical. GNB's attacks are powered via magically-charged cartridges which are basically used to cast spells, while machinst's whole gist is that it uses condensed magic constantly as both projectiles and power sources.

Machinists are just goofy - nobody should play one. All the unnecessary leaping and acrobatics while shooting make it easily the game's most obnoxious job. If SE wanted machinists to have movements, they should have introduced prone and cover mechanics for the job - you know, the kind of stuff people do while firing GUNS? The backflips and twirls are ridiculous - they don't look athletic, just needlessly showy and disjointed.

[Atreides]

I was also very disappointed when Ninja was revealed back then in ARR, I was always hoping for Thief instead but with the comming of Ninja the chances for it went down to 0.

[Vyrerus]

Machinists are just goofy - nobody should play one. All the unnecessary leaping and acrobatics while shooting make it easily the game's most obnoxious job. If SE wanted machinists to have movements, they should have introduced prone and cover mechanics for the job - you know, the kind of stuff people do while firing GUNS? The backflips and twirls are ridiculous - they don't look athletic, just needlessly showy and disjointed.

You have a lot of terrible opinions. Each Heated shot for MCH is visually distinct from the rest, whereas prior to heated shots, Slug Shot and Split Shot are virtually identical. The point is to make them distinct. Also it's only gotten cooler with the addition of FFVI references in Drill, Air Anchor, Bio Blaster, and Autocrossbow.

[Shurrikhan]

You have a lot of terrible opinions. Each Heated shot for MCH is visually distinct from the rest, whereas prior to heated shots, Slug Shot and Split Shot are virtually identical. The point is to make them distinct. Also it's only gotten cooler with the addition of FFVI references in Drill, Air Anchor, Bio Blaster, and Autocrossbow.

Different. Simply, different. And apparently, to you, abhorrent.

For me, Split Shot <--> Clean Shot was about perfect in terms of animation diversity, while Slug Shot was certainly dull (and worse, glided awfully) and needed something more -- Cooldown/Heat Blast's animation, for instance. The Heated VFX on the other hand... pure incongruous eyesore.

Meanwhile, I'd appreciate Drill, Air Anchor, and the like if and only if they actually did something warranting those animations instead of just being yet another ST attack, ST-attack-but-also-slowly-unlocks-what-was-previously-a-baseline-and-core-aspect-of-your-identity, conal AoE, or conal AoE-but-with-a-DoT-this-time.

[Vyrerus]

Different. Simply, different. And apparently, to you, abhorrent.

For me, Split Shot <--> Clean Shot was about perfect in terms of animation diversity, while Slug Shot was certainly dull (and worse, glided awfully) and needed something more -- Cooldown/Heat Blast's animation, for instance. The Heated VFX on the other hand... pure incongruous eyesore.

Meanwhile, I'd appreciate Drill, Air Anchor, and the like if and only if they actually did something warranting those animations instead of just being yet another ST attack, ST-attack-but-also-slowly-unlocks-what-was-previously-a-baseline-and-core-aspect-of-your-identity, conal AoE, or conal AoE-but-with-a-DoT-this-time.

Nah, TeraRamis is full of bad opinions. I have a few myself. Sometimes opinions are bad. Deal.

Split Shot and Slug Shot are basically auto attacks with the only difference being speed on the animation of the shot being fired. Clean Shot is the only one unheated that is visually distinct at all, because you do a 360 jump into the double shot. Cool as heck. The heated shots have a lot of impact up till Heated Clean Shot, which is an interesting use of bit like machines that rattle off flare blasts. Their sound effects are crisp and distinct as well. They definitely don't seem like a combo from the same line though. I'll grant you that.

You'd likely appreciate them more if you appreciated Edgar from FFVI. They're justified with their big animations because they have long cooldowns that are still based on your skill speed, lending weight to that substat in small terms, while keeping dots away from the job. They certainly aren't the direction that I saw them taking the job, but they took it that way, and they're cool as heck, no matter how you try to deride them with terms of derision that could be applied to any set of attacks in the game. Also, other than its use in quests as a de facto shot, Hot Shot was just an attack buff. MCH was never gonna be remembered as the Hot Shot job though. It's just the one with the gun. I'd take Air Anchor any day of the week over it, and I've been playing MCH since 3.1.

[Styrmwyda]

Gunbreaker and machinist are both very magical. GNB's attacks are powered via magically-charged cartridges which are basically used to cast spells, while machinst's whole gist is that it uses condensed magic constantly as both projectiles and power sources.

Maybe I should have reworded it: Machinist and Gunbreaker are the jobs that don't require as much PERSONAL aether, which is why Thancred is able to be a Gunbreaker and do fairly well despite his handicap. It's also why Machinist is seen as a way to arm the Ishgard common folk, as it requires very little aether to create the projectiles and other affects.

[Shurrikhan]

You'd likely appreciate them more if you appreciated Edgar from FFVI.

As much as I may like Edgar, generally speaking, if you have to sell me on another game to sell me on your game, your game's already failed.

They definitely don't seem like a combo from the same line though. I'll grant you that.

Yet you'd say that calling the combo "disjointed" is an irreconcilably "bad opinion"?

They're justified with their big animations because they have long cooldowns that are still based on your skill speed, lending weight to that substat in small terms, while keeping dots away from the job.

Long cooldowns have nothing to do with justifying their animations. You've summoned a drill-cannon. How? And why did you summon the cannon, instead of simply summoning the drill in a given direction once it'd already been fired? Why don't the drills do anything uniquely drill-like?

If I summon Air Anchor I'd much rather it, say, actually draw in and anchor something (perhaps even from the... air). It's effectively just a improved Ishgardian dragon-cabler, after all. So why is it charging a battery instead of having anything to do with the chains being fired?

I'd like for the possibilities implied by the animation to actually be played on. That it.

Similarly, what's the supposed synergy for Bio-Blaster? Why does it take precisely the same amount of time to teleport in a smaller spray-tank of poison than a massive drill-firing cannon?

They're all just visual fluff on basic and barebone-as-hell toolkit when they could be so much more.

I'll fully agree that Hot Shot was a terrible skill. Admittedly, I had higher hopes when they announced the Heat Gauge. Those hopes were quickly dashed. But imagine, for instance, a Hot Shot that actually meaningfully interacted with the Heat Gauge, be it as a way to quickly reheat the weapon, a way to spend Heat, a CD accelerated per server tick at an amount based on current Heat, or whatever else. That's my minimum expectation, and instead, after having got rid of generic fluff skills buoyed only by decent overlying mechanical depth, we instead just lost that mechanical depth and got even more generic skills, albeit with higher visual flair that has nothing to with how those skills actually work.