Which Job, in your opinion, has the biggest identity issue?

[Oizen]

Man, what a surprise. The class that requires the least braincells to rub together is the most played class, how incredible.

Well there's a bit more to it than that. SMN isn't the most played job in the game for player choice reasons.
Its entirely because of the arbitrary system in place that mandates you have one of each DPS type for an artificial damage boost in your party.
So SMN isn't competing with every other job, its competing with 2 other jobs.
RDM, the worst dps in the game at the moment, and BLM, a clunky yet difficult job thats pretty difficult to do well on, let alone ask someone to flex onto.

SMN is quite literally the path of least resistance for a lot of players

[Mostly_Raxus]

If it was really all about fun then people wouldn’t care if SMNs dps was terrible, but the fact it does comparable damage (hint it shouldn’t) to rdm is a factor brought up everytime this discussion is brought up

Sorry but you can’t have your cake and eat it too

by who? if you want to scour my post history and tag me where i said smn needs a dmg buff then by all means use that argument against me, but if your trying to take the words of the very crowd i'm criticizing in that reply and state them as my opinion then you have no argument, take your straw-man and go.
also i believe the community as a hole has been asking for RDM buffs all xpax, but as i'm sure your aware the devs fell you exist as a tool to rez dead players and nothing more..
now stop projecting your insecurity on me.

*eats cake with smug satisfaction*

[ty_taurus]

Well there's a bit more to it than that. SMN isn't the most played job in the game for player choice reasons.
Its entirely because of the arbitrary system in place that mandates you have one of each DPS type for an artificial damage boost in your party.
So SMN isn't competing with every other job, its competing with 2 other jobs.
RDM, the worst dps in the game at the moment, and BLM, a clunky yet difficult job thats pretty difficult to do easily on, let alone ask someone to flex onto.

SMN is quite literally the path of least resistance for a lot of players

You also get a free healer leveled out of it, a role a lot of people have no interest in, especially nowerdays.

[Mostly_Raxus]

You also get a free healer leveled out of it, a role a lot of people have no interest in, especially nowerdays.

i dont know about that, there seem to be more "DPS in need" queues than i've ever seen before here lately..
reguardless to that tho..

i wish they would uncouple scholar from SMN, as it sits your MSQ toon is generally a dps or tank for damage profile, thus SMN will win that fight 9 of 10 time against scholar,
yet scholar is the one healer that doesn't feel like 90% a copy paste of WHM..
its kind of the largest healer learning curve in my opinion, yet most dont even get to have a leveling experience on it.
just food for thought..

[BRVV]

Well there's a bit more to it than that. SMN isn't the most played job in the game for player choice reasons.

Flavour is also a big factor. It might be why White Mage doesn't get a rework. White Mage, Black Mage, Paladin, Samurai & Summoner will (almost) always have somewhat high player numbers due to players wanting to play as those.

Its entirely because of the arbitrary system in place that mandates you have one of each DPS type for an artificial damage boost in your party.

Is there proof of that? I heard the devs want every type of dsp on the team but i didn't hear about that

[Wilhelm_Frost]

Dancer. It's a dps class with buff/utility that has minor damage mitigation, minor healing, and minor buffs, none of which do enough to be a real hook. It's ranged and an AOE machine which is nice, but the raw output is super variable thanks to the core mechanics being rng based. The OGCD bursts are nice, if you can set them up, but it's not enough to truly 1:1 keep up with more pure DPS jobs, and the utility not enough to make it feel a fair trade.

And it's basically useless in PVP.

[OgruMogru]

Dancer. It's a dps class with buff/utility that has minor damage mitigation, minor healing, and minor buffs, none of which do enough to be a real hook. It's ranged and an AOE machine which is nice, but the raw output is super variable thanks to the core mechanics being rng based. The OGCD bursts are nice, if you can set them up, but it's not enough to truly 1:1 keep up with more pure DPS jobs, and the utility not enough to make it feel a fair trade.

And it's basically useless in PVP.

they should rework it to work like a rhythm game and your rotation needs to be hit in time like that one christmas carol minigame we got a few years ago.

I'm joking of course, of course!!!

....unless!?.....

[LilimoLimomo]

Gunbreaker 100%. It's the tank that's also there, the one without an identity.

Nobody needs me to explain what a Paladin is, because it's an archetypes that is well-established even outside the FF series. It's a knight that uses the power of light to protect. Generally leaning towards "lawful good", which the job narrative recognizes and sliiightly subverts.

Dark Knights are also well-established outside of FF, but they're more varied and FF puts their own spin on it: they're a good-aligned knight that fights against the oppressive powers of the status quo, and they wield the power of darkness in their quest for unwavering justice. They're sort of the flip side of a Paladin, where Paladins are more hopeful and tend to operate within the establishment, while Dark Knights are more jaded and thus operate outside of the establishment.

Warrior could have just been a dude with an axe, but FF14 provides some great lore on what it means to be a Warrior: they experience a phenomenon known as the Inner Beast, which gives them great destructive power but also makes them a liability if they can't control it. Being a Warrior is about having this overwhelming physical power and the rage to effectively use it, but also finding a sort of balance and inner peace that allows you to channel that power and use it not to destroy, but to protect.

So what does it mean to be a Gunbreaker? I feel like the game has never told me. It's given me the history of Gunbreaker origin, how they fought in a war for a specific purpose, and that's neat, but that's a history, not an identity. If I pick up a Gunblade and put on Dante's coat, I'm not fighting for Bozja. So what does it mean for me to be a Gunbreaker now? As far as I can tell, it just means being a person with a gun that can shoot bullets, and trying to do a protect, but without any substance. And that's disappointing. It's an aesthetic with no soul.

[SieyaM]

WAR generates magical barriers and syphons life force from their enemies with a single digit INT score.

This sounds like it should be how DRK is described, I think something has gone wrong with design here.

[Xlantaa]

I think the bard. Not because I dislike it, but because it is a weird mix between archer and bard. But I understand that a bard-only class may not be possible with the current battle system. probably no one will like to play a non offensive buffer. They would need to dedicate a new role that can give enough support to compensate the lack of DPS. So I guess this is why they decide to make the bard an archer too.

However, that-s is if we take the classic FF jobs. On DnD based games, such Neverwinter Nigths, bard is often a bow user too. So it is not really so weird if we take this into consideration.

But I still like how it is. Just it is weird they decide to mix them. They could give bards DPS skills anyways.