DIFFERENT kind of question: Asside from Healers, Roles/Jobs you like and why?

[Renathras]

I play all three roles, though my preference is Heal > Tank > Caster >> Ranged >>> Melee.

Tanks: I honestly can't pick a favorite, but I like three of them.

I like WAR because it's straightforward and just...fun. Something about a simple rotation that has a big chainsaw attack (looks hilarious with a Lala) and the giant saw blades is fun, and the self-sustain makes it pretty chill in dungeons. It really captures the berserker unga bunga class fantasy, and while that isn't my favorite (and one I typically avoid), somehow I like it in this case. I also like PLD and GNB, though a bit less and for different reasons. WAR is just good, clean fun. Keeping up Storm's Eye is a minor inconvenience, but the double application makes it pretty lenient, and on the whole, the Job is just simple and clean and fun owing to how approachable it is and how it just kinda...works, all without massive button bloat or overly complex mechanics. It does the job, it does it well, and it does it with a big grin. And seriously, Primal Rend on a Lala is just amazing - animation lock? Bah! WAR isn't worried about that! If I'm going into an encounter new or even completely blind and have been drafted or PF'd into a Tank, WAR is my go-to because it's still fun, it's going to work no matter what's going on, and it's not going to have such overwhelming mechanics that they overshadow the boss fight and make learning the dance for a new encounter an exercise in misery.

I've always liked PLD because it really nails the class fantasy of protecting your allies, from having a shield to Cover and Passage of Arms (abilities people kinda malign, but which really sell the fantasy of being a guardian), and I like the idea of protecting my friends and allies. I also like that it has a good "If this was real life, what would I try to learn?" slate of abilities, having single target and AOE attack spells and a utility heal. It's just a fun class fantasy, and New PLD is straightforward to understand and play, but also FLEXIBLE offering a good deal of choice on when to use Holy Spirit and even allowing HS swaps with Atonement if needed/useful for a minor DPS loss that nets some self-sustain and utility. The only real downside to me is that it has a bit too much button bloat, but...I guess nothing's perfect.

Finally...GNB I like because gunblade, and I like that the rotation is simple yet rigid, which makes it easy to keep my place while doing encounters. While it feels a bit demanding in higher end encounters or learning encounters, and doesn't feel like it has the sustain or utility tools that WAR and PLD do, it feels well put together and (especially after Bloodfest became 120 sec CD) everything fits together well. Also the burst phase is oddly satisfying (not Sonic Break, but the rest of it), with Double Down being just a fun button to press between the visual and sound effect. GNB can be a bit much in some cases, but when it's not, it's fairly enjoyable, and you play it the same more or less each time, letting you learn mechanic timings based on rotation and stuff. GNB flirts with button bloat, but doesn't QUITE get too overwhelming, and I find I can still cram most everything I need onto my Hotbars without too much difficulty. The other downside is, despite all that, it again doesn't feel as party support focused as WAR or PLD do to me, and that's an aspect of Tanking I actually enjoy. Heart of Corundum is a cool ability with a neat visual effect, but once that and Auorora are on someone...that's all you can actually do for them. Which is fine - GNB is more geared towards people that like the DPS aspects - but it is something that puts it lower on my list than the other two.

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DPS: In general, I don't like playing DPS because I don't like not being able to control healtbars, particularly my own, and I HATE when in a 4 or 8 man the Healer(s) go down and no one else in the party can bring them back, so we just...have to wipe it. It's also why RDM and SMN are the only two DPS I really play at all often. I also tend to dislike rotations/procs/CDs that make me spend more time with my eyes on my hotbars than the fight. Makes me think of WoW Healing when I spent entire fights with my eyes on my party frames/health bars and never really saw what the boss was doing or what was going on. But that said...

Melee:

NIN...I like NIN okay, but I really don't play it enough to be good at it. I think this is more I like the Rogue/Thief class fantasy of a warrior who fights with cunning and agility...and NIN's as close to that as I can get, lol I do like the Mudra system, though, as it's easy (yes, it is...to me anyway) to get, though I kinda DISlike that I can't really understand the names. "Snap Punch" is so much easier for e to remember and think about than Hoshito Ranryu. (Actually, since I played and enjoyed Fire Emblem: Fates, both Hoshido and Nohr paths...I'd probably remember that better than its actual name, which I can't remember). FORTUNATELY, I'm a visual person, and can see little stories, so "The cunning of Man" being a 3 Mudra ending with the symbol for Man (cunning = Trick Attack, obviously) I can remember, even if I can't remember if it's Suiton or Suton. Likewise, "Faster than the winds of Heaven" gives me a speed buff. See? Easy! And I also like Lightning element, and NIN is the only Job in the game that has it (NO! BLM's little purple volley ball DOESN'T COUNT!!, and they stole RDM's cool lightning bolt, so I don't like the new one...), so I like that. Its filler rotation is also super easy, just a 1-2-3 with the occasional -4, with a Job Gauge that actually displays the time remaining on your self-buff, which shockingly others like WAR and DRG do not...and I have no idea why they don't, but NIN does. NIN is fast, mobile, and in theory Mudras could prevent button bloat.......though sadly, in reality, they do not, and NIN has too many buttons. Though I do like most of them, even if I think the Job isn't QUITE as straightforward as it could be...

Ranged:

I like MCH. It's straightforward, it's got guns, the class fantasy of Edgar from FF6 is fun, the rotation just seems chill (outside of the burst...which honestly isn't too bad since it's just 1-a-1-b-1-a-1-b-1-ab), and it has a freakin' SHOTGUN. I don't know what more you could want.

...okay, Defibrillate as a combat Raise. But we can't have EVERYTHING, I guess...

BRD I like the IDEA of - a party support buffer and an archer, two things I've always liked in RPGs going back to Baldur's Gate - but...I just don't like FFXIV's implementation. Two stupid DoTs to track, songs that have weird timers and can't be overlapped or weaved together like Everquest Bards, the buffs themselves seem weaker than DNC or, indeed, a lot of other support/buff Jobs like AST, and oh god the procs just just...SO disruptive to anything approaching a rotation. Sure, it only has ONE spam GCD and you weave things around it, but...I dunno, I just dislike that. Compared to MCH, which has a static rotation that you fill in GCDs as they come off CD, BRD is just a massive oGCD proc fest that's feast or famine RNG. And DNC is that PLUS an aesthetic/class fantasy I just don't care for anyway. Not to mention I still have an unofficial boycott of DNC due to it not being a Healer after kind of being teased to maybe be one. (Yes, I AM still salty about that. )

Caster:

RDM I like okay. I used to like it a bit more, but it seems to have become less freeform and more rigid and technical, which combined with the proc system makes it less fun. But it still retains good utility, and I still think the Dualcast system is a great invention. I also like the Jack-of-all-Trades class fantasy, even if it's a BIT muted - RDM can't play like a Melee, and its Healing is generally malagined rather than lauded (same with PLD, unfortunately), but being able to quickly combat Raise half a party in 24 mans or Extremes is a pretty good feeling, and the 1-2-3 melee combo, owing to the reduced GCD for Enchanted abilities, feels zippy. RDM is still one of the most straightforward to understand and pick up Jobs in the game, even if optimizing it is a bit of an exercise in "How many guides would you like to read?" "Yes.", but again, can't have everything.

...well, unless you have SMN.

SMN has everything. Well, okay, the tooltips are a mess to read, but if you ignore "reading tooltips" (or actually sit down and spend time with them, like I did at level 82 in EW while playing through the MSQ on SCH), it's a fantastic Job. New SMN has it all. It has a party buff, it has a combat Raise, it has some utility healing (Phoenix, not Physic...why NOT Physic? I have no idea why they don't Vercure it already; surely it wouldn't be OP since SMN doesn't even have Dualcast...), flashy abilities, non-bloated Hotbars, fantastic mobility, and it's just...FUN to play.

The rotation feels slick and doesn't have a lot of wonky stuff to worry about like DoTs or (many) timers, so you feel like you're fighting bosses instead of gluing your eyes to your Hotbar for 9-12 minutes and then getting loot. You can honestly play it without having to look at your Hotbars, which...is actually a refreshing experience and feels like playing an RPG or Adventure game (I never have to spend all my time looking at my action bars when playing Breath of the Wild...). And it just WORKS. The rotation just interlocks together pretty much perfectly and is flexible and, while being variable (you can swap the Primal order), is still easy to get while doing stuff. With RDM, a Fire/Stone/Neither proc (or non-proc) changes what I'm doing but I have to see it and adjust to it. With SMN, I'm in control, choosing Ifrit or Titan, but when I choose those mini-phases, I know what's in them. It's not some RNG proc fest or "variable" rotation...and yet it's only as same as I want it to be. Honestly, the segmented Primals is a great idea. When I use Titan, I know my next buttons will be 12-12-12-12, Garuda I know it will be 2-1111, while for Ifrit, I know I'm going to be considering whether I can stand and cast or need to use the gap closer/slam, and if the mechanics allow for it or not, often keeping Swiftcast and Ruin 4 on standby. Once active, I know what each sub-segment of the rotation is for the GCDs of its duration, so I can act accordingly without having to try and see if a proc or DoT or buff or debuff icon is floating around, and my party buff lines up with my big attack (Bahamut, or Phoenix if it's pushed) unless I'm doing some crazy optimizing...in which case due to the low Hotbar bloat, I can keep it stuck in a prominent location easy to track.

It's just a REALLY well put together Job that I honestly love a lot. I DO wish they'd have split off the DoT stuff from it and added it in as a new Green Mage Caster Job for the people that like it, but I cannot say enough good things about New SMN. It's the only DPS Job in the game I really somewhat enjoy playing. Honestly, my only problem with this Job is it's TOO POPULAR, so a lot of times if I'm looking for a PF and the Healer and Tank roles are full, and I consider going in as DPS, I might have to go as RDM since there's very often a SMN already in the party. But even so, 2 SMNs isn't too bad for older/farm parties - I just move my party buff to Phoenix and rock on anyway.

[Kele_Star]

I play all three roles, though my preference is Heal > Tank > Caster >> Ranged >>> Melee.

Tanks: I honestly can't pick a favorite, but I like three of them.

Haha wow you put alot of thought into that. I usually dont think that hard about what im playing im a pretty simple lala, i main astro basically because pretty space magic. I do agree with you 100% with paladin though especially in the fantasy department, i think it nails it and especially if your the type to look out for others (which i think all healers probably are to some extent) its nice as the other player to be able to look at a nobel pally and think "heck yeah this guy/girl has my back"

Also what you said about Redmage and HP bars is exactly why i almost always play healer XD. I tried warrier once and spent the entire time watching my partys hp bars haha.

[Renathras]

Haha wow you put alot of thought into that. I usually dont think that hard about what im playing im a pretty simple lala, i main astro basically because pretty space magic. I do agree with you 100% with paladin though especially in the fantasy department, i think it nails it and especially if your the type to look out for others (which i think all healers probably are to some extent) its nice as the other player to be able to look at a nobel pally and think "heck yeah this guy/girl has my back"

Also what you said about Redmage and HP bars is exactly why i almost always play healer XD. I tried warrier once and spent the entire time watching my partys hp bars haha.

Haha, great minds think alike. Yeah, same way here. Funny how that works out.

I honestly hate playing DPS that don't have Raises. It's just so frustrating when I see people KO'ed and can't do anything about it. I decided a long time ago that any MMO I ever play, even if I don't play a main Healer, I want my class to be able to do at least SOME healing/raising (as the case may be for that MMO - not all MMOs have combat raises). Even back in ARR, one reason I liked PLD was because it could Cross-Class Raise from CNJ (it couldn't use it in COMBAT, but it was still helpful in party runs of PotD and stuff)

And yeah on PLD. I've been on both ends of PLD Covering Healer in DF 8 mans before - where I was the only Healer still up after a bunch of mechanics in a couple cases and on the other end where I was a PLD and only one Healer was up and I used Cover on them - so that the lone Healer up could Raise some people and get the party back on their feet. It's such a neat ability and it's a shame it's so maligned and locked to both a CD and a gauge cost for...I'm not really sure what reason. But I still love that ability.