Ninja just ruins the feeling of Rogue

[lolzyking]

I've played lots of rogues(and their similar classes where applicable) over many games, a new player I thought I would enjoy rogue here in ff14.

I was mistaken when I became a ninja, gone was the thematic stabbery and subterfuge, now I am a battle caster akin to a mage, doing big explosions, lightning bolts, bursts of ice and misty waters. I didn't want to be a mage, I wanted a class with one or two daggers, that did things with those daggers, maybe got some dashing attacks, positionals, more ways to get into stealth in combat. I was really enjoying everything that rogue was doing up until I got to the 30's and ninja happened.

I understand from looking into the games history there was once thoughts of multiple jobs per class but that was dumped after a bad experience when trying to implement it on a mage class.

Now, instead of giving me a history lesson on why that can't be implemented, or that rogue becomes ninja in ff1, can someone please tell me which class is a lightly armored non mage, that doesn't do any magery, with fun positionals just a melee rotation to learn. If I can't trust rogue to not do magic I'm afraid to just blindly level something else hoping for a mechanic I will like.

[Vidu]

From the four melees we currently have in the game, monk or samurai might be your best bets - both have some flashy animations (you could always consider turning them off, though), but both are more about melee rotations than magic.

Speaking from a lore-perspective (which bleeds into the gameplay a little bite): Every job uses aether (aka magic) in some shape or form. So you'll always get some more flashy animations for the jobs than the base classes have. If thats whats bothering you when it comes to magic-use, you're better off limiting the animations for your own character.
If its the mechanics, I think any other melee would be fine (even dragoon, which I didnt mention before because its not traditionally in light armor) - they're mostly about dps-rotation, but all have little sidebits added, of course - like party-buffs, dot-management and so on.

In regards to the light armor: There is always glamour and there are a couple of light armor glamour options that every job can use - so... any job appear to wear light if you want that.

[Flay_wind]

Now, instead of giving me a history lesson on why that can't be implemented, or that rogue becomes ninja in ff1, can someone please tell me which class is a lightly armored non mage, that doesn't do any magery, with fun positionals just a melee rotation to learn.

Pugilist/Monk is probably the closest you'd get. It's mainly punching and kicking stuff, but there's some enegy blasts here and there.

[lolzyking]

thank you I'll look into those two then, I just was worried that pugilist/monk would have some sort of ki mini game like how ninja has ninjutsu (I'm not trashing the class or the mechanic, its just not for me)

[CKNovel]

I agree, Rogue and Ninja are complete different cultures.
I think the initial goal was to create a Ninja mixed with Eastern and Western techniques. But in the end, it just became Ninja.
Rogue/Thief doesn't have a good representation in the game beyond being a class. Thief was actually a job with characters to represent it, Locke from VI or Zidane from IX. Last one is a bit more fantasy magic thief.
In any cases...

SAM is your best choice to go. No big madgery, just sword swoosh and low positionnals count.
MNK has a lot of positionnals, it's the identity of the job. No magic except Chakra thing and punches.
Dragoon is heavy armor but you can glam light armors.

Other than that, Tanks and ranged are the non-magic jobs.

[Ralph2449]

I mean it is in the name, I also expected Ninja to be more of a rogue aka more backstab/assassinate type of abilities but they actually are naruto Ninjas which makes them a pretty cool and interesting job, just not a rogue.

Though I can understand the problem, I would love to play an Archer/Marksman job but all FF14 has is bard which I am not gonna play because I dont like the bard fantasy and all the singing, I am here to shoot things, not sing to buff people...

[Jeeqbit]

I agree with you. I enjoyed rogue and its rotation and was disappointed it turned into a ninja and started doing these other things over the top of it. That's just how it is so I don't play Ninja beyond RP for quests sometimes.

[Iscah]

SAM is your best choice to go. No big madgery, just sword swoosh and low positionnals count.

You do still need to cast a spell every few combos.

I would love to play an Archer/Marksman job but all FF14 has is bard which I am not gonna play because I dont like the bard fantasy and all the singing, I am here to shoot things, not sing to buff people...

Bard is still primarily archer with just a few song-spells to enhance your archery.

[Faafetai]

I honestly thought there would be a class split when I first started playing and summoner/scholar did not help with this initial thought because that splits. So you could choose Bard for the support hybrid or Archer the more hunter/marksman class with a pet or something similar to guild wars. Rogue would be the thief kind of class with more cut throat abilities, and Ninja more of the precision assassin with ninjutsu. It would be cool, but alas it was not meant to be.

[SniperCT]

As a person who also loves rogues, I was also kind of... NIN was not what I wanted. Love the class, but not what I wanted for a rogue archetype.

I actually gravitated towards Dragoon as my main melee class, though Monk is very fun and melee punchy punch kickboxer type stuff. I'd argue, lore and story-wise, the DRK has some rogue-like elements. Basically you're Batman. With a giant claymore. Very appropriate class for me to pick up after finishing ARR and entering Ishgard...

Samurai is...everything you'd want a Samurai to be tbh.