A Happy Post

[Tex_Mex]

Forums are too negative most of the time, so here is a happy question!

Are there any DPS classes/class designs in ShB that you are really happy with?

[Myon88]

Black mage. So much care and attention has been given to the additions to the job in Shadowbringers it almost beggars belief. None of their new skills and traits are lemons, they all synergize with each other, and they all add a little bit of depth to the job and help it play much more smoothly.

Take the MP revamp for instance, now that all jobs have a flat amount of 10,000 MP, their MP costs have been tuned such that many variations of the standard fire phase will all play out smoothly. Coupled with extensions to the AF timer, you're even able to hardcast thunder in astral fire if you wish, as it won't negatively affect the number of fire4s you have access to. In a typical rotation, you end at 1200 MP if thunder was not cast, and 800 if it was, and 800 so happens to be the minimum MP level required to cast despair/flare. This also plays very well with the 30s sharpcast cooldown they received, as you'll practically always be able to make good use of it no matter where in the rotation you are.

Despair, incidentally, is also a well rounded single-target counterpart to flare and allows you to efficiently make use of any remaining MP at the end of a fire phase. And you have no qualms about ending a fire phase with 0 MP because of aspect mastery, a great quality of life trait that eliminates a lot of clunk the blm rotation used to have when switching elements. This, coupled with the buffs to freeze, has also made blm aoe much more fluid in Shadowbringers.

Umbral soul is a big upgrade over transpose when it comes to dealing with downtime. Instead of being stuck in af1/ui1 (and having to juggle between both to ensure you're in the right one when combat restarts), you can freeze (heh) your gauge in the much superior ui3 and accumulate umbral hearts to boot. It's a huge boon, both in terms of simple quality of life and in their ability to prepare a strong reopener when combat restarts which translates to more dps.

Xenoglossy is a fantastic addition to the job and fully deserves its place as a level 80 capstone skill. Though some experienced black mages will no doubt say it lowers the difficulty of the job, that only speaks to how effective of a tool it is. And it's only enhanced even more by polyglot having 2 stacks, as you have an incredible amount of freedom to save them up and use them at your discretion. When enochian was badly received as a job mechanic back in Heavensward, Yoshida went on record to say that (by adding polyglot) they wanted to change it from something that felt like you were being punished for dropping it, to something that felt like you were being rewarded for maintaining it instead. Foul was a decent first step, but with xeno I think they have now fully realized that vision. Having this amount of agency over the timing and use of your offensive tools is a privilege not many jobs in the game currently possess.

[Brandedblade]

Despite its issues in the numbers department I still really enjoy red mage. Just having a proper aoe rotation alone makes it feel better to play in dungeons. Impact feels...well...impactful. I think once they tweak its potencies to be more competitive it will be perfect for me.

[Tex_Mex]

I'm probably in the minority here, but I really like the feel of NIN this expansion. It may be a hot mess of GCD clipping at times, but it is extremely fast paced and feels great. There's no telling what the class will be in 5.1 lol, but I am enjoying levelling it now! I'm at 76, so the rotation is pretty much 100% complete, just have to add bunshin at 80, but 99% of the kit is there.

[moxzie]

I've played every job to at least 70 and it's definitely taught me what I prefer and what I'd like to avoid. Long casts, keeping up more than one dot, and "Do %damage more damage for x seconds" buffs aren't for me. Being a class with a buffing gimmick (dancer/ninja) also isn't for me, especially since they only really shine with great group coordination.

Machinist has a fun pace and has a nice priority flow to weave in with the 1-2-3 combo. It doesn't have anything I don't like, other than it's potency being a little low. By far my favorite physical ranged class.

Red mage feels good to play and it's awesome when you can save the day as a DPS class. Being a magic class and having low damage are going to keep it on the bench for me now that it's 80, but it's my favorite caster at least.

Samurai is what I just swapped over to as my main. I was planning on going monk, for aesthetic reasons and for that damage, but it didn't click with me like Samurai did. The Open Eyes abilities are too weak to feel rewarding. Using a buff skill (Kaiten) every single time I use Iajutsu, and only for that skill makes me wonder why it was created as a separate ability. Shoha may as well not exist in its current state. But even with these little annoyances, the class itself just feels great to play. Managing it's resources and buffs flows right. Other than the Open Eyes abilities and Shoha, the rest of its skills all feel useful and have their place. Having a couple of positionals forces in a little extra movement and makes it a tad more engaging. I've found I enjoy being melee rather than ranged, even if it stings a bit when I have to be disconnected from a boss and just meditate or toss a weak ranged skill at it. In spite of having a few skills that need some work, the damage and feel of playing Samurai make it my current favorite.

[HyoMinPark]

I enjoy DNC despite how weak it is. I like the gameplay. It feels really smooth and fun. The RNG doesn’t bother me at all. And it is satisfying to see your Quadruple Technical Finish crit-direct hit for 130,000+.

[ownagepuffs]

Can we talk about blue DPS?

I'm a really big fan of how Paladin is designed. It has a consistent, accessible resource that you can access for 2 useful skills. Every tool in its kit is useful for something, its animations are godlike and fluid, and even though its rotation is relatively static (although doesn't every class have an optimal static rotation?), it feels pretty active and busy throughout. It's rotation lines up as well as GNB while filling that feeling of BEING a tank that GNB somewhat lacks. It also has great damage.

[BloodRubyXII]

BLM doesn't have literally a single thing wrong with it atm lol. Most mobility out of the three casters, best damage out of the 3 casters and smoothest to play out of the three casters.

[odym82]

Despite its issues in the numbers department I still really enjoy red mage. Just having a proper aoe rotation alone makes it feel better to play in dungeons. Impact feels...well...impactful. I think once they tweak its potencies to be more competitive it will be perfect for me.

Red Mage definitely feels very satisfying to play
(And dragoon too.... yeah i said it)

[Dogempire]

I really enjoy playing Machinist, it's one of those classes I feel like I can consistently play with only 1 or 2 minor mistakes over a 12 minute parse, it's just a shame I can't really break 14k dps without a dancer.