Which Job, in your opinion, has the biggest identity issue?

[Aldath]

This isn't a thread to necessarily say a class is bad, you can have a fun or functional kit yet it can still clash with the intended identity of a class in terms of its lore, aesthetics or even mechanics.

I know some people are quick to say SMN but dang, GNB is a walking crisis from my point of view.

• Inspired by a FFVIII hero, in an expansion with a raid that has FFVIII elements. I don't believe anyone thinks "tank" when Squall comes to mind.
• Has a gunblade, builds up cartridges, doesn't has a ranged phase. Its ranged attack is a small power wave by scratching the gound.
• Its kit and rotation screams DPS, the mitigations feel like an afterthought, and seem to do little for the party when compared to PLD and WAR
• Initial gear makes him look like a Striking/Scouting class, then wears heavy armor almost exclussively unless you glamour.
• Lore says its name is Gunbreaker because they rushed into the enemy backline to cut artillery down, yet nothing in our kit makes it feel that way. We end up tanking because our mentor decided to become a bodyguard.
• GNB wields Garlean Technology, yet the attack animations make it seem you're using any other sword that occasionally uses a fire attack.

[Tsiron]

- Squall is basically Rinoa's bodyguard (or... well, the knight to her sorceress, a recurring motif in FFVIII), so it's not that far-fetched.
- Gunbreaker weapons aren't meant to shoot bullets, instead they imbue the blade with various effects (consistent with FFVIII lore). That there are numerous actual GNB weapons in-game with seemingly functional barrels is... wrong, they shouldn't, yet they do.
- They do not use "Garlean" technology, not sure where you got that from? Gunbreakers supposedly predate the Garlean Empire by quite a bit, going as far back as the Allagan Empire... somehow...

[Bonoki]

Bard

It's the one job that functionally changes drastically every expansion. Has had probably the most egregious changes between expansions. Is horribly divided between those that want an Archer job and those that want a Bard job fighting among each other for which identity the job will focus with. Rarely get's any job balances, changes, or even potency buffs in patches. If it does, it's like 10 potency gain to Burst Shot and that's it. Has many gutted fan favorited skills that players want back. It's dots are probably on the chopping block after watching SMN and other jobs lose their DoTs. The battle over job identity tends to make the job worse and balanced horribly because it just can't figure it's self out.

[Luluya]

I'd also go with Bard as most of its later actions are just glowy arrow attacks and not really 'music' themed other than sometimes the name.

Another reason I'd say Bard is that the relic weapons in my opinion do not properly reflect Bard being the advancement from Archer in that they start with a Bard-themed weapon (a 'harpbow') and then later lose the harp portion of it to just become an extravagant bow.

[BRVV]

Also Bard

You are an archer, with two poison(?) DoTs but you also jam one note of a song from time to time with the mentioned "harp-bow" thing... most bard weapons look weird. Not to mention that it has a somewhat difficult rotation (at least for me) for almost no dps because ranged and not machinist.

[Mostly_Raxus]

really depends on what you mean by identity. not talking story ill say DRK;

Dark Knight:
AKA the class that has been reworked, gutted, changed, and re thought to the point of having very little of its original self left.
The class that had its toolkit ripped from its class fantasy and turned in to generic "tank skills" that are passed around to every tank. (looking at you Rampart.)
The tank that has its identity squashed every time it tries to re-find itself, the healing tank? the magic tank? the damage tank? the absorb shield tank? the /gpose tank?

It has gone from the most complicated tank we had,(really fun and rewarding to play,) to being reduced to face roll opening burst dump refill do it again in 2 mins..
Its now called "too easy" to be better then it already is as a result...

we DRK players never asked for it to be gutted, simplified, redistributed, but now its just a dps with a taunt and a nak for making healers frustrated its not a warrior when it queues in to your dungeon.

Went from "DRK can't be the only tank that does X its not fair." to now "We can't give every tank X they will be to homogenized."

(sorry for the edits, typed it in a hurry and had to clean it up a bit)

[Jeeqbit]

From an aesthetic point of view, I can't think of one, really.

I know some people are quick to say SMN

SMN used to have an identity issue, but it was completely fixed in Endwalker.

I don't believe anyone thinks "tank" when Squall comes to mind.

However, if you look at FFXIV's version of gunblades, Gaius looked like he could hold his own and wasn't just some sort of support. In FFXIV there is more emphasis on the blade part.

Has a gunblade, builds up cartridges, doesn't has a ranged phase. Its ranged attack is a small power wave by scratching the gound.

That would have been good and maybe it could have been like Red Mage if it was a DPS, but the best it can really do as a tank is be like Paladin who, most of the time, are using their magic attacks in melee range anyway. They do have the ranged attack for when they are actually at ranged and I'm not really sure how creative they could get with ranged attacks. They could have you fire some explosions or a satellite beam, but you're just going to be in melee range mostly anyway.

Before it released, I did used to imagine that gunbreaker could do what Gaius does and put some sort of blue thing there to draw the boss' attention while they go ranged, but then it was revealed it would be completely different to the garlean version and that idea shattered.

Its kit and rotation screams DPS, the mitigations feel like an afterthought, and seem to do little for the party when compared to PLD and WAR

PLD is pretty similar now, just less weaving. Goring Blade is like the ST dot, Requiescat+Confiteor are like Gnashing Fang all in a burst window, and Atonement/Holy Spirit/Circle is like Burst Strike/Fated Circle. Meanwhile, DRK has a lot of weaving as well but simpler on the GCD side.

Mitigations are as important as any other tank but it is a jack of all trades, rather than a master of one thing. It doesn't focus heavy on the shield like DRK, nor heavy on the self-heals like WAR, but just has bits of every type of mit and sustain spread throughout the kit.

GNB wields Garlean Technology

The lore is actually that the hrothgar developed the technology.

"The Hrothgar of northern Ilsabard have passed the art of the gunblade from one generation to the next. The weapon itself combines a sword with a firing mechanism, emitting a range of magical effects by utilizing aetherically imbued cartridges. Originally employed by Queen Gunnhildr's personal guard, they were once known as "Gunnhildr's Blades" and differ greatly from the similarly named weapons used in the Garlean Empire."

[sindriiisgaming]

mch... i feel like im supposed to be a gunner. but the use of gadgets is getting to the point im questioning why i even have a gun and not a bazooka. the job is really confused if its a gunslinger or an engineer. wish theyde add more gun skills and not to mention the lack of bishop/knight makes my queen feel utterly usless in aoe desite getting aoe battery. also wish theyde continue with the chess theme on mch... it was quirky and unique

[Lyth]

WAR generates magical barriers and syphons life force from their enemies with a single digit INT score.

[Connor]

100 million percent Bard.

Almost no relation or similarities to previous FF Bards, fails at the ‘ffxiv unique barcher’ iteration, fails gameplay-wise (extremely unpopular), it even fails aesthetically because it’s so confused about whether it’s a laser beam archer or a magic musician. Support is primarily full passive, boring, or borderline unnecessary (Paean / Minne / Troubadour).

The devs have literally said that Bard was a mistake before lol, kinda says it all

In my opinion the only way they’ll ever actually resolve this is if they ever separate Bard and Archer. Players numbers pretty clearly show the current iteration is not well-received at all. Except that would require actual effort and admitting they were wrong, so yeah, crappy Barcher that nobody wants to play is here to stay sadly