Quote Originally Posted by Mithron View Post
Damage is what determines "reward" in this game. Yes, you'll have fun on any job the first few hundred hours you play it simply because it's fresh and new and exciting, but when you have thousands of hours in different jobs, you look for mastery, and the only true metric of mastery in this game as it's designed is damage dealt. I agree that playstyle is much more important than numbers for job design, but both must be addressed for a job to truly feel rewarding after the "fresh" feeling wears off. Otherwise you will always have a nagging feeling of "I could be contributing so much more on a better job, but I choose to suffer because this is the playstyle I like" and that drains your soul over time.
I mained SAM in Stormblood when it was one of the "worst" dps in the game, and i also enjoyed it the most out of any job i've played since.

In my opinion, playstlye matters quite a bit more than effectiveness. Mastery of a certain playstyle is all you need for that kind of enjoyment. Playing a job just because it's optimal isn't fun if i don't enjoy how it plays.

The only time it's fair to feel like you're bringing down your group by playing a sub-optimal class, is if you're going for world 1st or a top of the charts speedrun. It really doesn't matter otherwise.