Easiest class rankings?

[Ralphe2449]

I keep seeing this argument where if a class is easy and simple, it should do the least dps.

So I am curious, how would people rank the dps classes in terms of difficulty?

Melee definitely does not feel harder these days, double true north, huge hitboxes, bosses without positionals at all or few positional requirements, gap closers, I do enjoy reaper but I cant pretend it is some ultra complicated class.

If anything I would imagine black mage is the hardest class to play perfectly, even machinist would be harder than some melee with all the things that need to be tracked and timed appropriately.

So if you were to rank DPS classes in terms of difficulty to play optimally, how would you rank them?

[Valence]

That's a question that will yield you as many different answers as there is people. Not only is it subjective, but the feedback will also be dramatically coloured by a lot factors like, in what actual content the players go through and base their opinion on, what level of play (meaning, skill floor and accessibility, skill ceiling and skill expression/optimization?), etc. Just having a proc system makes it more confusing and less intuitive to order a rotation properly for a new player, but that doesn't mean that the actual rotation at endgame level is harder. That doesn't mean that its execution is harder, because then you run into loopium and burst alignment shenanigans and not all jobs are equal there too. Then there is uptime considerations, and for some jobs like monk (optimal drift, double solar, etc) and black mage (transpose lines), actual advanced optimization is completely out of this world.

And one of the biggest, if not the biggest factor is that people will by definition rate what they main a lot lower than the rest because they have countless hours of practice behind. Some will rate it higher than it actually is out of bad faith as well. It's... well. I hope the hidden message of such a thread is really to show that it's pointless.

You'd really need a lot of finer filters to rate them and put people somewhat on a the same page/context. Well I guess you said optimally, so it's on me to diverge I guess.

[Ralphe2449]

That's a question that will yield you as many different answers as there is people.

Well yeah I am not expecting perfect unbiased answers, but I assume there is some degree of agreement in what the community TM considers easy and what they consider hard in a very general term

[AxelDH]

Physical ranged, SMN and RDM are considered fairly easy to play by most peoples standards. At least at an entry level. If you know your rotation, you can pretty much go into a fight blind and still do acceptable DPS.

Melee DPS are in the middle. Some of them have straight forward rotations, but there is usually a bit more consideration required when it comes to your own positioning, where your allies are, where and when the boss is being moved, etc.

BLM is probably the hardest. It tends to need the most knowledge about each specific encounter in order to do at least decently well.

[Aurora428]

The easiest jobs are the ones that let you do the most amount of damage with the least amount of effort.

Since damage taxing is not at all proportional to effort, that should be considered (your job is less complex, but the price being paid is larger than the value of just screwing up that aspect on another job)

As such I would say SAM as it requires very little skill to outpace yourself on any other jobs deemed "less busy" by SE.

[CelestiCer]

So if you were to rank DPS classes in terms of difficulty to play optimally, how would you rank them?

This will vary and differ from player to player.

- Uptime Difficulty
Melee's and BLM, requiring positionals, preposition, dealing with boss movement. Specially if you consider FFXIV to house a bit more content then just Endwalker's P567 and 8 Savage.

- Optimization Difficulty
DNC often deemed a easy job, suddenly becomes extremely difficult when you try to optimize it.

- Speed to learn said Job
How fast rotation/raidbuff/burst alignment/openers/skill name and symbols/muscle memory/standing still to DPS is learned and clicks with players presents a difficulty.

- CPM/APM (Casts/Actions per minute)
Here you'll find MCH and NIN at the top for example,

- Most buttons to bind or press
BLM I consider the most difficult job, yet it has very little buttons to press or bind in comparison to some other DPS jobs.

- Job with most long Casts
Here you'll find to BLM at the top, but to my surprise for example? SAM being higher then SMN. Many will find this also to be easy while others find slide-casting Iaijutsu to be challenging when it's not 2nd nature.

- Ping
Some jobs actually become more difficult to play properly when a player has bad ping. MCH probably at the top of that.

Most, some or all of the above can affect difficulty of playing a Job optimally. You'll need some amount of statistics from a credible source to back up why x is at x difficulty cause there's more then just " x Job does x number performance there for x easy ". That's a bit of a linear way of looking at it.

• The hardest I believe is BLM.
• Then DNC naturally due to its Kit
• Then MNK and NIN probably at the top
• Then DRG in the middle
• RPR and SAM at the bottom of the Melee's.
• BRD harder to play, though not as hard to optimize as DNC.
• Followed by RDM
• MCH/SMN easiest to optimize.

**Though I could be severely wrong**
and also players opinions can differ because difficulty is subjective. A survey somewhere with a good sample size might help this topic, preferably something recent. Or of course good ole FFlogs as a source.

[FireMage]

The correct answer from easiest to hardest is

SMN, MCH/DNC, BRD/RPR, RDM/SAM, DRG, MNK, NIN/BLM

A / represents a tiering separation due to various factors

[VictorSpoils]

My ranking from hardest to easiest at 90 is probably:
BLM>NIN>MNK>BRD>RPR>MCH>DRG>SAM>DNC>RDM>SMN

• BLM has long casts, random procs, the worst survivability, the worst weaving, the worst mobility, etc. I still don't like this job.
• NIN has six (really four) Ninjutsu skills to go with its job gauge and two vulnerability debuffs, and Shukuchi is still more complex than other movement abilities. BTW, did you forget Enhanced Shukuchi exists? Because I did.
• MNK could be above NIN because it has three statuses to constantly reapply, but they're not too difficult to maintain, though doing it for an entire fight with no mistakes is another thing.
• NIN, MNK, and SAM all have permanent speed buffs, the latter two being heightened at higher levels. BRD also gets one from a song.
• BRD and RPR suddenly have a lot of resources to manage. BRD especially has a random GCD proc, Bloodletter charges, a 15-second and 60-second oGCD, a constant song rotation, a job gauge, two DoTs to keep up, and some support abilities. Better not use Iron Jaws too soon or too late.
• RPR and MCH bursts are high-APM and easy to clip. RDM as well to a much lesser degree.
• MCH gets two resources to manage, Reassemble skills have to be used at different intervals with Hypercharge, Wildfire and Barrel Stabilizer can't be used if you're not ready, and you'd better not waste any Gauss/Ricochet charges.
• DRG has a surprising amount of weaving and you can't double-weave jumps. Very tempting to use Geirskogul too soon. Kind of a diet version of MNK with its statuses.
• SAM is definitely easier without Kaiten/Seigan and it still probably hits the hardest of them all, so it's nice all around. Just remember to (re)apply Higanbana when needed.
• DNC has random procs and you can waste feathers and Saber Dances. Changing dance partners isn't quite as easy as Kardia.
• RDM at least has a resource to manage and more things to weave than SMN. Magick Barrier and Manafication can be a bit finicky to use too.
• SMN doesn't even have to use Swiftcast anymore and most of its strategy comes from using AoEs on as many enemies as possible in dungeons, which also means using summons in the right order. Oh, and having enough spell speed to get that 6th cast reliably.

[ZiraZ]

My ranking from hardest to easiest at 90 is probably:
BLM>NIN>MNK>BRD>RPR>MCH>DRG>SAM>DNC>RDM>SMN

• DRG has a surprising amount of weaving and you can't double-weave jumps. Very tempting to use Geirskogul too soon. Kind of a diet version of MNK with its statuses.

You can 100% double weave jumps, you can even double weave jumps with other jumps with low enough ping, only exception being Stardiver* which can't be weaved at all. edit: * meant cant be double weaved.

[Mithron]

Why do people consider NIN so hard? I've always found it to be the easiest melee personally, it's my go-to when I want to play melee or learn new fights on. I can execute and optimize it far easier than any of the other 4 melee by a significant margin. Obviously difficulty is subjective but NIN is just single weaving constantly and minimal positionals, what are people finding difficult? I know SAM on a base level feels easier, but I find optimizing it much more difficult than NIN personally.