Which job has the lowest skill cap?

[warren-ragnarok]

1) smn
2) mnk
3) drg
4) brd
5) blm

i disagree with this list for the most part, mainly because its easy to be decent with all the classes, just by reading the abilities should give a decent idea....also play styles by players will make a difference. that being said, being a very great/solid player is a totally different argument, me personally, i say for that case for hardest to easiest

1) blm
2) drg
3) smn
4) mnk
5) brd


now dont get the wrong idea, i do think mnk is fairly tough, and is my main class, but i find being a good blm pretty tough (knowing WHEN to use your spells, and plan out all your movement in advance) and the super anal rotations for drg, along with the super uptight positioning on all of their combos, being amazing on those two classes are super tough.

i put smn above mnk because it seems alot more timing and micromanaging your pet to be super effective. mnk, while has a pretty big curve to be great, it isnt as anal as drg with position, and if the person knows how to play, can get some decent utility.

[Marin_Karin]

It's safe to say that BRDs have the easiest rotation.

[skaterger]

snip

Interesting, I have not come across a single person that thinks blm is the hardest class to play. We have something in common, that is we seem to find both our main classes to be faceroll easy .

While there is no technically right answer, I'm curious when you mention about positioning and planning movement. I have done all content in game except for Ifrit Ex (Damn titan ex), and the only fight which I have to carefully plan my movement and rotation is titan ex. Its generally accepted that boss mechanics are more skewered towards favoring ranged over melee so in that sense there are not that many fights where you have to be constantly moving.

[RegnumMagik]

I have to say it's a little tough to say which class has the lowest skill caps.

If we're talking about the Highest skill cap to do the maximized damage:

Monk
Dragoon
Summoner
Black Mage
Bard

But if we're just talking about Highest skill cap to just play:

Dragoon
Monk
Summoner
Bard
Black Mage

I find dragoon the most difficult to play, due to the fact that your combo ends if you miss a position either from your end or your tank/boss movements.

As for most difficult to maximize dps, there are many fights that can easily drop monk's GL stacks and making it difficult to upkeep.

[T1M0N]

Bard is definitely the easiest.
No combo,can move while dpsing,fast out-GCD(is that the correct term?) skills with low CD.
And i'm not the only one thinking this.But even if it's the "easiest" job there are a lot of players who still can't dps properly sometimes.
It's like any class/job they're all "easy" in my opinion but there are details or sometimes more importants actions to do/not do that show to everyone if you can play this class.When i see a BLM going fire/fire/fire to reach astral fire 3.... i can't hardly believe this by example.

[Marcusow86]

When i see a BLM going fire/fire/fire to reach astral fire 3.... i can't hardly believe this by example.

Education is all they need.

My static (T1-T4) coil BLM used to do that until we 'advice' him nicely on how to do his rotation for AOE and Single target.

He is grateful and doing fine ever since

[Empressia]

Errr no actually DRG is much more difficult (maximising dps using all available skills, those very situtational JUMPS) compared to MNK and have a much more unforgiving rotation than MNK (missing ur Impulse Drive or Heavy Thrust is much more DPS LOSS compared to MNK's easily switchable flank-rear instant rotation eveytime ur damn target is spinning chaotically)

[Tharian]

However I feel that blm doesn't allow me to do that as for the most part i am just watching for fs and tc procs while fire 1 spamming and refreshing thunder 2 when it falls off.

First off, if all you are doing is spamming Astral Fire spells with the oddball Thunder Spell while waiting for Firestarter and Thundercloud to proc.... I find it absolutely amazing you don't run out of MP so fast and regularly that you are constantly unable to optimize your DPS. Even making liberal use of Convert won't help you if that is all you are doing to attempt to optimize your DPS.

Rather you should be alternating between casting Astral Fire spells and Umbral Ice spells so that you never run short on MP inbetween uses of Convert. That also will enable you to be constantly applying pressure and to have next to no downtime on your DPS.

[skaterger]

First off, if all you are doing is spamming Astral Fire spells with the oddball Thunder Spell while waiting for Firestarter and Thundercloud to proc.... I find it absolutely amazing you don't run out of MP so fast and regularly that you are constantly unable to optimize your DPS. Even making liberal use of Convert won't help you if that is all you are doing to attempt to optimize your DPS.

Rather you should be alternating between casting Astral Fire spells and Umbral Ice spells so that you never run short on MP inbetween uses of Convert. That also will enable you to be constantly applying pressure and to have next to no downtime on your DPS.

I'm not really sure what you mean by alternating AF and UI spells. Care to elaborate? And I don't see how you can run out of mp. Mana management is the most important part of playing a blm and is taught to you at level 4. Convert is on a 3 min cooldown, so its not like it can be used liberally.

Obviously you have never played an Archer/Bard in this game. The Archer/Bard's attacks are impossible to interrupt. Additionally they can be fired in a 360 degree firing arc. What this means is that no matter which way you are facing, so long as you have a selected target, you will hit that target, even if you are moving when you launch your attack! The only problem the Bard faces is that they must have line of attack, but not necessarily line of sight. This means that they don't need to be able to see their target, but the path to their target needs to be unobstructed by tangible barriers of any kind.

Please note, I said its attacks are impossible to interrupt, not it's songs.

I do have a bard although he's only 32. I think you are missing my point. I am not arguing that pressing buttons while moving is hard, but it isnt any harder when I don't have to press anything while moving on my blm.

When you say bard can run around while doing near top dps, all I see is a bard hitting buttons while moving and a blm just moving. Which is "easier"?

If you're trying to be the absolute best you can possibly be, you're going to hit 3 times as many buttons as a BLM over the course of a fight.
So I just don't see it in a thread asking about absolute skill cap.

Thank you. You helped to explain it better than I did.

Or to put it another way, if i want to separate myself from your typical run of the mill blm, there is not much more I can do/add/deviate to my rotation from the "standard" while I think as a bard, there are many more small nuances that can be incorporated/improved on to see a difference in dps output.

snip

Yep just as dragoons have to time their bfb and IR with HT and Dis. So in that sense I see dragoons quite similar to bards but they have to worry about their positioning for attacks. On the other hand, blms only have raging strikes as a damage buff and is either used at the start of the fight or timing it to end with SC flare. So in that sense, there really isn't much chance to screw things up.

[Aresaka]

snip

I really hope you're saying your rotation should be T2>F3>F1 spam>B3>repeat, otherwise you are playing the class very, very, wrong. I only use Convert for double flaring and nothing more. Its CD is perfectly timed with Raging Strikes so you get the most out of both.

As for my order:

1: MNK
2: SMN
3: DRG
4: BLM
5: BRD

Ive barely played the top two simply because i dont appeal to it and it seems very confusing managing the class later on. DRG all it is keeping up your buffs and dots and making sure your enemy is already weakened (piercing res.) before using your jumps. BLM its simply a rotation with one dot. I've seen BLM 50's who for whatever reason just spam blizzard 3 after a few fires, which im guessing is so that they "never run out of mp", i hope isnt what Tharian is talking about. Its literally a class where you waste all of your mp as quick as possible and gain it all back while applying dots and buffs...