Best AoE classes in a war?

[MahthildisMMORPG]

Dynasty Warriors battle, FFXIV edition
What class has the best AOE in the game, EXCLUDING Dancer? Dancer is an AOE god, unfair to compare.

Like, let\\'s theoretically put each class in a fight against one hundred level 90 Garlean henchmen on a battlefield Dynasty/Samurai warriors style, give the class food, all its buffs, tincture, max melded, and bis gear, which class would go full Doom Slayer on them?

Yes, we can also use Eureka and Bozja as a reference point.

Please include a class for this for Healer, DPS, and Tank separately. Remember no Dancer.

2nd Part of the Gauntlet would be a final battle against another WoL using PvE abilities at the enemy base, not PvP abilities. Please include who can win the first gauntlet, and who can win both separately. The boss WoL can be any class.


Note: I should have banned Summoner from this, but I already posted this outside the forums without mentioning Summoner, so I guess it's allowed in the Gauntlet.

[MahthildisMMORPG]

Note: The Garlean npcs will work using Dynasty/Samurai Warriors mechanics but with the aggro of Eureka mobs. Which includes compound roaming, attacking you based on sight and proximity, coming at you in a horde, etc.

If Eureka npc aggro is too busted, then it could be excluded.

[Renathras]

Hands down SMN. SMN has the best AOE in the game since every attack they have has an AOE version, and a lot do AOE basline (the Primals/Demis/Enkindles, and Astral Flows are all AOE by default).

In a lore sense, a Job that can send an Ifrit or Titan rampaging through the enemy lines...and do so over and over again, is going to be devastating to rank and file non-magical troops like the standard Garlean infantry.

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I see you say now you should have banned SMN. But yeah, SMN is hands down the top.

...lorewise, the next most powerful at laying waste to large groups is PROBABLY BLM. Spells like Flare are extremely powerful in lore terms, and can be used at range, devastating enemy lines long before they can even make contact. In the ARR opening trailer, you can see two mages basically one-shotting Magitech armor and the nearby troops with fire and lightning spells. And in the Siege of Ala Mhigo (in-game) cinematic, the THM guild joins together to batter the walls, and BLMs are far and away more powerful than any single THM is, so can probably replicate similar feats themselves.

I'm not sure how close RDM is to that, but they have to engage in melee (in lore) to cast their more powerful spells since they basically use their bodies and sword motions like how Arcanists use Arcane Geometries. So while a RDM would be formidable and Verholy, Verflare, Scorch, and Resolution (not to mention the PvP Northern Cross LB) are powerful, in lore, they'd require getting into melee range to access, and that means being nose to nose with 100 people trying to kill you.

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The rest are more tricky.

Ranged: Probably MCH. BRD and DNC both are based on empowering allies, while MCH in lore has a lot of gun techniques, gadgets, and their Automaton Queen and Bishop Turrets. While clearly not at SMN/BLM levels, they'd probably be the best of the Ranged trio in AOE (better than Dancer).

Tanks: Hard to be sure, honestly. They're all durable, strong combatants in single and one vs many situations. I'd probably give it to PLD just because their shield combined with their Aether manipulation and limited magic tools would probably make them the most difficult to kill, thus being able to defeat the enemy in a battle of attrition.

Healers: PROBABLY WHM, possibly SCH. AST is like BRD and DNC a thing that empowers others, with their spells themselves not being supremely powerful on their own, even if we include things like AST Celestial River, that doesn't work that well if the AST is all alone. SGE seems like it would be an obvious choice, but in lore, SGEs tend to act a lot more defensively. Forchanault's ultimate ability in the role quest capstone fight is using a big barrier that the NPCs and WoL hide behind, and this is also reflected in its PvP LB. On the other hand, WHM has Holy (a powerful spell in lore, far stronger than the player one, which is still strong in 4 man dungeons), not to mention the Amdapori's powerful healing AND attack magics. Remember that the Amdapori were able to fight on even terms against the BLM's of Mhach. WHM is probably easily the most powerful healer, offensively, in lore. Honorable mention goes to SCH depending on how we establish the parameters of the fight since it has more abilities to defend itself (in the level 50 capstone quest, Alka Zolka mentions how fighting under a SCH's shields fields very well protected and almost like he's not taking any blows at all), and the ability to spread (Bane/PvP Deployment Tactics) bio could disable large swaths of the enemy and defeat them through attrition, their health ticking down while the SCH shields itself and is healed and further shielded by Eos/Selene. SCH isn't as outright powerful pound for pound as WHM, but the attrition scenario could see it come out on top (if you look at the rankings at the end of Frontlines, it's not unheard of for SCHs to be top damage because of just how much damage well placed Recitation Bio Deployment Tactics can do if you catch a ton of people on the enemy teams each time you do it. Now imagine that to 100 Garlean infantry...)

Melee: Probably the hardest to rank. If we look at Estinian, DRG wins hands down, but I'm not sure he's what we should consider a "typical DRG" to be. If we look at WoL DRG, then that's probably a similar enough case. Outside of that, it's kind of a crap shoot that depends on the scenario. SB WoL SAM one-shot like 5 Garlean troops (when he cuts the musket ball in half), showing tremendous speed and power. NIN can, if the scenario allows, move in targeting and one-shooting key enemy targets, and it does have Ninjutsu, which seems potentially powerful in some AOE situations.. RPR is more aimed at attacking Voidsent than people, but does have a decent AOE with the Avatar, though it's not clear how much in lore. And MNK seems more of a one-vs-one main focused combatant. So it's really a toss-up between DRG, SAM, and RPR, depending on how we outline the parameters of the fight, with NIN possibly in there depending on the fight.

[Xirean]

If we are going off of lore I'd say it's a toss up between BLM, WHM, and SMN. If we are going off of in game ability then DNC, SMN, BLM, RPR. IIRC DNC doesn't actually have the crazy AOE power they do in game as they are primarily about buffing spirits of allies. BLM and WHM both have the reputation in game of completely ruining the area they fight in because they draw Aether from around them. This is not only really powerful in huge battles for raw destruction but also in terms of a drawn out fight you can basically make the area your enemy resides in horrendous to live in. I say RPR based on in game stuff because of the aoe soul siphon ability. They would essentially have endless resource the more people die around them. Considering they are usually assassins in lore I don't think that would carry over