I know you guys hate this question but... I gotta try and ask anyway. :(

[Powe]

Are either Dragoon or Ninja Controller friendly? I do have Drg at 50 as I played it a short while in ARR but ended up going back to caster since my FC (which is now dead as a doorknob) was filled with melee. I have Nin in the 40s but looking at the skills earlier today, I feel like it wouldn't be very controller friendly, but not sure.

well Ninja is controller friendly( for me at least) not sure about the floor tank

[SwarleyMcSwarls]

I was expecting a post about stat weights. So anything besides that is totally fine and not redundant. With that said, RDM is totally fine right now. The issue it has is it generally competes with two other jobs for one slot. Where melee (generally) competes for two slots, and the utility + damage of bard and machinist make them welcome in almost any party. For damage, it isn't so far behind that it's not worth taking. Any good red mage player is going to do more damage than an average player on any other job (with comparable gear) still. And red mage offers great utility with the near instant battle rez as well as the physical damage buff it provides with embolden.

So I wouldn't worry about changing from red mage if you like it. It's mostly just that there are SO MANY people playing dps jobs that that's what fills up first in party finder. And as a caster you are generally fighting for one spot in that party. So you have even smaller odds of getting in. Outside of that, if people are directly excluding you from a party finder group JUST because you are on red mage, they are doing something wrong.

Also, if you are looking to play a melee that is desired in groups it would go NIN > DRG >> MNK >> SAM. BUT, in regular party finder groups and nearly every group in general, just having good players is all that matters. You can run about any composition and clear all content that isn't super savage raiding.

[SwarleyMcSwarls]

If you are looking to play a dps that is most "welcome" in groups, I'd say bard and machinist followed by ninja though.

[Renryuu]

If you are looking to play a dps that is most "welcome" in groups, I'd say bard and machinist followed by ninja though.

I guess of those 3, Ninja would be my only current option. While I don't mind the archer aspect, I've never been a bard person and usually don't use that job in FF games. I love the idea of Machinist and did play it a short bit in HW, but the SB version of Mch has me a bit confused with the timing of Wildfire and overheating so I don't think I'd be able to manage to play it at a decent level. I could try and play Ninja, though as I mentioned before, my biggest problem with it will be trying to find a skill layout that is comfortable for me. Though to be honest, Sam is really the only melee dps I have an interest in since when it comes to melee, I've always been a fan of swords and Sam is the only sword dps job at the moment.

[NorthernLadMSP]

Probably not seeing a demand for RDM because the supply is so high.

Hell, last PF I joined for some unsynced farming, literally 6/8 of the people that joined (actually one or two more that later dropped out), were all RDM. Started getting funny after the third.

Sheep do tend to flock to the easiest option.

[dotsforlife]

RDM is fine for progression groups but other than that they tend to get shunned. Since many groups are already on farm for this tier you'll likely find less PF groups for progression purposes.

Melee wise, go with NIN if you like to be the "go to" class everyone wants, have the best utility but lowest melee dps. Go SAM if you want to be a selfish (I don't mean that negatively either) dps that puts up the highest numbers but no utility. Both have that weeb factor. NIN is more complex to play and more reliant on internet speed/stable connection as well so there's that.

Every class is mostly controller friendly but certain classes, even though they have a smaller amount of skills in their main rotation, have a lot of oGCD's or several needed for one use (NIN mudras/AST card management) so they tend to have more clutter. Still do able though you just need to situate everything to your liking.

[Tzain]

Keep in mind though, balance is constantly in shift. So todays goat is tomorrows G.O.A.T.
It's been my experience o'er these many mmo years that the class that has a playstyle that feels most comfortable to you will be the one you perform best in. And that synchronicity is the thing that really defines how well a player handles the class.
I've met many many players who have single handedly redefined what a job/class/etc could do compared to what I've seen others accomplish, and each of them when asked how they manage to perform so well just sort of /shrug and say "I don't know, I just do it" which I've come to realize means "This playstyle fits me".

[Renryuu]

I've been thinking, I really would prefer to stick to a caster dps as magic is what I love most, so I was wondering, how is Black Mage? Would it be a good choice to play or is it's turret style gameplay just not able to keep up with content?

[Zetsumei_Tsunarashi]

It's funny because it seems like only a few weeks ago people were saying rdm is God tier and smn was trash.

[Dualgunner]

I've been thinking, I really would prefer to stick to a caster dps as magic is what I love most, so I was wondering, how is Black Mage? Would it be a good choice to play or is it's turret style gameplay just not able to keep up with content?

Unfortunately black mage is in a worse spot than red mage. Less output than summoner and brings no utility whatsoever.