Seeking Melee/DPS advice

[Vencio]

Hello everyone,

Hope your weekend is going by,

Lately I have been undecisive which melee class is the most simplest than rest.

I keep hearing Dragoon is “streamlined” whatever that means,

On the other hand I hear Reaper is simple, yet also busiest,

Lastly I hear Samurai is straightforward,

Without giving negative reviews, I am discouraged Ninja & Monk are far complex & just had wayyyyy too many rotations to follow + buttons etc.,

My main is Paladin & had been a tank over almost a period of 2 years. It is my first time trying out melee DPS classes. I never thought what they all have in common its the number of abilities & rotations they have it gives me anxiety & diverts my “spatial awareness” focus that I am so usef to as a tank for long.

Yes I did tried them all including using the boost level system, and yet somehow they’re all overwhelming to me & I do want to try out melee DPS just to do its role quest before 6.1

Without further ado. Which melee DPS is at least more straightforward, less buttons, pragmatic & easier to adjust?

Would truly appreciate any insights,

Thanks fellow ffxiv community people!

[Mikey_R]

Since DPS rotations are more involved, it seems you have just been overwhelmed by the amount of buttons. What I would suggest is to find a training dummy and limit yourself to all the actions up to level 50 and then just smack the dummy. The idea is that at level 50, no jobs have too much going for them, so it should be easy to get the flow of combat with them. Once you think you know how the job flows at 50, go up to level 60 actions. You should just be building on the foundation you have already built, so it should be easy to incorporate them into your gameplay. Do the same thing at 70, 80 and finally 90.

This is the method I use to learn new jobs that start at a higher level. You could also do dungeons at each X0 level to put into practice what you have learned.

[Shurrikhan]

SAM and Monk are probably the smoothest while offering rotational depth.

Reaper has complexity, but in a sense that borders on system-bloat and very, very rigid minutia (at the full optimization level) more closely than any in-practice nuance.

NIN has complexity for at most a third of the time, and therefore can feel either overcrowded or left on hold.

DRG's a middle of the road if you enjoy hitting lots of different buttons to just continue down a single, inflexible decision (their combos) while having moderate oGCD depth, mostly due to certain skills like Stardiver and Mirage Dive being quite bankable (and Nostrand slightly so), though that depth has definitely decreased since StB.

[Hasrat]

I'd argue Monk is probably easiest to grasp. Pretty straightforward 1-2-3-4-5-6 rotation with Beast gauge thrown in. I'd say every other job has significantly more optimization tweaking which can be just a bit more confusing to see how everything fits together.

[Tulzscha]

Yes I did tried them all including using the boost level system, and yet somehow they’re all overwhelming to me

Think that's the problem. Every job is going to seem overwhelming until you have some time to get used to them.

Of the melee I can only speak on Reaper, it has a couple odd quirks but overall is very straightforward. Very few ogcds or positionals, flexible resources and mobility. It took me a bit to find a comfy keybind setup, once I did it felt much better.

[Bad_Luck]

You consider monk difficult? Oh no….

[deadman1204]

drg is actually pretty busy, with a bunch of OGCDs. Maybe it was streamlined awhile ago, but its certainly not anymore heh

[FlareVyzar]

Picking up order of difficulty (from easiest to hardest)

RPR>DRG/SAM>MNK>NIN

Mastery Difficulty (easiest to hardest)

NIN>RPR>MNK/DRG>SAM

Reaper: Low floor/ceiling, priority system. Low amount of 0GCDS. Burst window fast every 2 minutes. Lots of freedom to play. Can be frustrating to play at high ping on burst windows.

Dragoon: Straightforward Job, most powerful melee currently due to how strong litany is. Strict 1 2 3 4 5 with a lot of 0gcds in between. Plays relatively the same as ShB.

Ninja: Busy job every 1 min, whereby trick attack features all your burst at once. And goes 1 2 3 outside that. Once you learn what to do in trick, everything else is braindead.

Monk: 0GCDs gutted in EW, one of most powerful melees right now. Relatively easy to pick up. Mastering it, can get tricky on certain fights. Job is slightly more forgiving due to less positionals now.

Samurai: Looping burst every 1 min for your standard rotation. Has more leeway to fix downtime compared to ShB. Mastering the job is one of the hardest in the game due to the amount of factors involved in playing it optimally, per situation and doing non loop rotations. Very versatile job. Has the most damage in every 2 minute bursts.

[Gemina]

I don't play RPR or DRG. My quick summation out of the remaining three are:

MNK: Fewer buttons, but ridiculously fast and innately so. SAM and NIN at least have some breathers in their rotation. Between MNK's lower GCD, nature of rotation, forbidden chakra and lack of skills that cause delays such as animation lock or cast times; it is just constantly go, go, go. This job has taken me the longest to continuously perform my rotation flawlessly whether on a dummy or a mob target, but is also the most forgiving. I constantly used the wrong skill in the beginning, and when I am learning new fights it goes right back in the crapper. Without question it has been the most fun learning to optimize while still causing respectable damage.

SAM: Crazy amount of buttons. Have to keep an eye out for your buffs and your DoT on high HP targets. Rotation is so streamlined I'm surprised it's not confirmed with green checkmarks and red X's throughout the fight. It also picks up very easily if you have to break your rotation. The job's weakness is its lack of pizazz; so-to-speak. It's not a very flashy job, and doesn't leave much room to showboat. While some jobs can look a littler cooler dancing around the boss and the arena. SAM is a bit different, and you look more cool the less you move. Even the animations favor you if you stand still.

NIN: This job is actually not as difficult to pick up as some might think. Its rotation isn't all over the place like one might have the impression of, and the downtime between burst phases just might leave you bored out of your mind. However, unlike SAM the job possesses a TON of gimmicks that makes you like a dagger wielding dragonfly. I haven't got my NIN to 90 yet, but it along with SAM were my go-to DPS jobs in ShB. Ninja is actually the job I would change the most if I had my hands on it. They are just now finally getting the potential of the mudra system, and I seek to expand it further.