Do you find playing melee more difficult?

[Lium]

I main an RDM and love it. But I've recently switched to SAM to try something different. My SAM is only lvl 56 so far and I find it's way more challenging.

Basically, in FFXIV, every single boss fight from like level 50 on up has instant death mechanics. Every single one. As a caster, I could actually avoid these because I could see the whole room and what the boss was doing. So it was easier to move out of the way of bad stuff.

As a melee, I find this more difficult. I always position myself behind the boss to do more damage so sometimes it's hard to see everything that's going on. Particularly if there are adds that have to be burned down quickly, or a party member is trapped, like in The Aery. Add to that, samurai are super squishy at this level. One AoE from the boss could take half my life.

Is this just a melee thing in general? Or is it just this specific job?

[ManuelBravo]

Healing and Tanking is way more difficult than DPS in my opinion and this is why;

As a Tank; we have to deal with people who think they know their job, to be fair, there a lot of decent players however that credibility goes out the window when they are poorly geared, can avoid aoes ( or understand that it's better to avoid then let action / spell trigger ), or follow simple mechanics thinking Healers and Tanks are to blame for short comings. Also healers who lack common sense of not healing while pulling or adding regen.

As a Healer; Same above, just add tanks that don't use their CD or stick around to get hit, can't face mobs properly, or think too much of themselves not using tank stance giving healers a hard time.

Over all DPS can be power houses and a Decent DPS will be able to keep tanks on their toes. ( Extremely rare as of resent )

[Tsubaki75]

I play all of my jobs and I will say that melee is more engaging for me. When i play bard or a mage it does feel like i am "taking a break". Now bear in mind that while i play all classes, I main melee dps so my play on other jobs isn't as optimized either and each job has it's own challenges at endgame.

[Pastahnak]

I'm the exact opposite, I played rdm and whm through the msq and when I picked up tank/melee dps I found myself actually learning the mechanics (playing rdm I found I could basically just not care about most mechanics so I never learned most). After I finish Drk to lvl 61 I want to try out mnk just because I'm having more fun up close.

[ManuelBravo]

I'm the exact opposite, I played rdm and whm through the msq and when I picked up tank/melee dps I found myself actually learning the mechanics (playing rdm I found I could basically just not care about most mechanics so I never learned most). After I finish Drk to lvl 61 I want to try out mnk just because I'm having more fun up close.

Tank mechanics can add more steps than dps ones depending on raids and battles. Example tank swapping.

[AppleJinx]

Melee relies a lot more on your tank and teammates not doing stupid stuff by positioning the boss badly and taking over your safe space etc

[Kabooa]

Dragoon is the bane of my existence. Just can't wrap my head around it.

[ShaolinMike]

Melee is definitely more involved:
1. You have to stay close enough to the boss to do damage.
2. Being close to the boss at the wrong time will result in your death.
3. You have to pay attention to your positioning in relation to the boss to maximize your damage.

[Tempest222]

Yes that’s why I prefer ranged. Melee just has more to worry about what with having to be right on top of the boss and having positionals. Why play a class where I have to straddle the line between side and back and slide back and forth between them constantly while also worrying about everything else when I can not.

I’m sure it would just take more time to get used to this and then it wouldn’t feel more stressful than ranged.

[CainCrimson]

no

...and im happy with that for now.