What did your favorite job used to play like?

[ItMe]

I joined around 4.4 and love reading about how the game used to be.
There are plenty of sites that break down how the jobs currently work, but I've been trying to read about how the jobs USED to play... but can't seem to find that anywhere.
So I though I'd ask all of you to share your personal highlights. How did your favorite job used to play?


(And please, tell me what the skills do.
If you just describe it's gameplay as "I'd open with Chaos Thrust and then pop Quirk of the Undead and Hammer of Nuance" I'm just gonna be lost. I don't know the old skills so their names will mean nothing to me.)

[ReiMakoto]

I was one of the weirdos who liked SB DRK. Basically imagine drk as it currently is but bloodweapon gave an attack speed buff and lasted longer, and delrium extended the duration. Class got memed on for just "spamming dark arts", and I will admit you did press a lot of dark arts (about 8-10 casts per min so about double the rate of edge of shadow), it was essentially what edge of shadow is now, but instead of being straight up damage, it buffed your next attack in some way, and it was able to be pressed way way more frequently. The class itself was fun to play because it was a rescource management job the other way round, instead of having a limited amount of rescource you slowly built, your resource built way too fast and you were constantly having to dump it, which made it incredibly satisfying when you could line up your mana and blood to maximise a trick window. I always described it as having 2 settings, Blend, and blend harder. It was also more interesting to play in dungeons than the other 2 imo, cos your feedback loop of abyssal drain -> quietus -> tbn -> abyssal drain was fun AF. There was also a fair few neat optimisations you could do using dark passenger for snap aggro on an add as a dps gain, and your powerslash combo being so powerful aggro wise meant you legit never need a tank stance even with no ninja. I understand it wasnt that popular so it got changed, but nothing quite feels like it now, especially as none of the tanks have a haste buff now.

I also liked HW machinist, the cast times just didnt bother me, and if you stacked your ammo right you basically had free mobility when you needed it anyway, pluss the wildfire burst when done right was super satisfying, also just liked that you just shot things a lot with your gun, I'm a sucker for that and the more technomancer approach to mch these days just doesn't appeal to me.

[Valic]

I was one of the weirdos who liked SB DRK. Basically imagine drk as it currently is but bloodweapon gave an attack speed buff and lasted longer, and delrium extended the duration. Class got memed on for just "spamming dark arts", and I will admit you did press a lot of dark arts, it was essentially what edge of shadow is now, but instead of being straight up damage, it buffed your next attack in some way, and it was able to be pressed way way more frequently, but the class itself was fun to play because it was a rescource management job the other way round, instead of having a limited amount of rescource you slowly built, your resource build way too fast and you were constantly having to dump it, which made it incredibly satisfying when you could line up your mana and blood to maximise a trick window. I always described it as having 2 settings, Blend, and blend harder. It was also more interesting to play in dungeons than the other 2 imo, cos your feedback loop of abyssal drain -> quietus -> tbn -> abyssal drain was fun AF. There was also a fair few neat optimisations you could do using dark passenger for snap aggro on an add as a dps gain, and your powerslash combo being so powerful aggro wise meant you legit never need a tank stance even with no ninja. I understand it wasnt that popular so it got changed, but nothing quite feels like it now, especially as none of the tanks have a haste buff now.

I also liked HW machinist, the cast times just didnt bother me, and if you stacked your ammo right you basically had free mobility when you needed it anyway, pluss the wildfire burst when done right was super satisfying, also just liked that you just shot things a lot with you're gun, I'm a sucker for that and the more technomancer approach to mch these days just doesn't appeal to me.

Same here for DRK. I thought at least back in SB DRK had purpose and identity that was unique to itself. The concept of wanting to be attacked and the aoe'ing as a result of pulling a zillion enemies was such a thrill. Also the fact that while Dark Arts WAS ANNOYING.... you at least had the agency over your own MP pool that you do not have now.

[ItMe]

hahah ReiMakoto that sounds like a really interesting job design.
My cup overfloweth with darkness and I've gotta figure out the best way to stop from capping.
AND it came with some sick dungeon loops?
I can see why you dug it so much~

Yeah, MCH doesn't really shoot with a gun so much these days, huh.
It's more like a funny wand that casts magic missile lol (not that I don't still main MCH...)

[elioaiko]

SB AST. After they got the Malefic change, I personally thought the job was perfect. The cards and it's system felt so impactful to use. It had much more depth.

I understand as to why they changed for balancing purposes, I just wish there could been a way to have it. Using Royal Road and having to choose between Spread, Enhanced, or Extended will always beat what we have now. Also the time aspects were very fun to use too.

Overall, it had more freedom to decide how you wanted things to be done. It's not just "damage."

Also gonna say that SB DRK wasn't that bad. Yes Dark Arts spam was meme worth but at least Delirium wasn't a straight up Inner Release copy.

[ReiMakoto]

Same here for DRK. I thought at least back in SB DRK had purpose and identity that was unique to itself. The concept of wanting to be attacked and the aoe'ing as a result of pulling a zillion enemies was such a thrill. Also the fact that while Dark Arts WAS ANNOYING.... you at least had the agency over your own MP pool that you do not have now.

Well the thing was, dark arts spam wasn't actually as much on the release of SB drk, but the class was in desperate need of buffs at the start of its life, so instead of buffing drks actual damage, they kept buffing its mp generation (delirium going from 120s to 80s, sole survior being able to proc with no kill ect) and expanded what dark arts could be used on in the case of plunge, which was what lead to dark arts spam memes as it became more balanced. I still never personally found it annoying though (except maybe when double weaving for carve and spit when I was running maximum skillspeed drk at the end of alphascape)

[shao32]

Heavensward DRK guide when the job use to be unique and more well designed overall, this is my favourite version of the job and despite i loved SB too right now i only can rely in my memories to remember my favourite job of the game.

https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...k-Knight-Guide

[Billythepancake]

SB SCH. To me it was the perfect healer/DPS hybrid. You had just enough DPS abilities to keep track of without it being overwhelming and because of their dot nature, rather than a flat rotation, it wasn't a huge hamper if you had to drop a dot here or there to get a heal. You had a responsive and impactful fairy, both of which did different things, that helped you DPS more. Hell the 2 different fairies even worked with its identity, you had a more offensive fairy and a more defensive one. This also paired well with its risk/reward gameplay it had with ED and Miasma II.

God I miss SB SCH so much.

[ItMe]

Also the time aspects were very fun to use too.

Wow, that sounds great. I'm sorry I missed out.

What were the time aspects and what did they do?

Heavensward DRK guide when the job use to be unique and more well designed overall, this is my favourite version of the job and despite i loved SB too right now i only can rely in my memories to remember my favourite job of the game.

https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...k-Knight-Guide

Wow, thanks for the link. I'll be giving this a deep read

SB SCH. To me it was the perfect healer/DPS hybrid. You had just enough DPS abilities to keep track of without it being overwhelming and because of their dot nature, rather than a flat rotation, it wasn't a huge hamper if you had to drop a dot here or there to get a heal. You had a responsive and impactful fairy, both of which did different things, that helped you DPS more. Hell the 2 different fairies even worked with its identity, you had a more offensive fairy and a more defensive one. This also paired well with its risk/reward gameplay it had with ED and Miasma II.

God I miss SB SCH so much.

Wait, SCH's fairies used to be different?
An offensive fairy sounds like a really interesting concept. It kinda goes against the gentle happy helpful kinda vibe they're leaning into and I wish they were still exploring that.
Now a days if they tried to make the fairies different I half expect one would shield and the other would give regen

[ReiMakoto]

SB SCH. To me it was the perfect healer/DPS hybrid. You had just enough DPS abilities to keep track of without it being overwhelming and because of their dot nature, rather than a flat rotation, it wasn't a huge hamper if you had to drop a dot here or there to get a heal. You had a responsive and impactful fairy, both of which did different things, that helped you DPS more. Hell the 2 different fairies even worked with its identity, you had a more offensive fairy and a more defensive one. This also paired well with its risk/reward gameplay it had with ED and Miasma II.

God I miss SB SCH so much.

I miss HW SCH even though I was an absolute massive casual at it, mostly because I LOVE dots, and HW SCH had dots in spades between Bio, Bio 2, Miasma, Miasma 2 (although it was pretty naff here) Shadowflare and Aero, its so annoying that theyve cut back on dots and debuffs in the game now just because of their limitations on how many can be displayed on a boss at once, rather than fixing that limitation.