What's the "best" AoE classes in the game for specific situations?

[Akamu_Aniketos]

if a fight required aoe over a long period a Monk might be superior to the classes.

Am I being punk'd? Superior to other classes in aoe? Rockbreaker has a short aoe radius. It's combo dependent, spamable only if perfect balance happens to be available . Arm of destroyer is weak. Howling Fist is use-able once in a blue moon. Meanwhile my bard has 3 aoes that I can spam freely with NO restrictions or pre-requirements, with higher damage potency. On top of that, they benefit each other when using them.

No one is saying to make every class the same. There is just certain things that don't make sense or need a boost in functionality.

Arm of the destroyer costs 130 TP, the damage potency should be higher then 50. If the potency was at least 100, it would make it a viable option for monks to use when there is a ton of adds that need to be burned down quickly, instead of jumping from one mob to the other trying to get them down individually.

[NeoAmon]

lawl at anyone who thinks there is comparison between BLM AOE and anyone else. It does not matter if the AOE is needed for short period or long period, BLM are kings when it comes to AOE.

Earlier today in AK speed run I did 3.5k-4k~ dmg within 5 seconds on grouped up trash mobs, with each eating a massive crit from Flare (2.4k~) followed by another swift cast Flare for 1.2k~ non crit.

In turn 4 at the start of it I hit the bugs for 450+ each using fire II and around 670~ when it crits. I don't know why would anyone even think it is possible for Monk or Bards to top that.

[Astralis]

Bards are widely prefered in aoe runs as well mainly because of their spammable arrow shower with a huge radius. But in terms of dmg ofcourse blm will always be on top in aoe


Actually i forgot to add the only class who can contend to a blm's aoe.
Those white mages with holy. The holy dmg is freaking strong. My white mage friend deals 500-600 per holy and it has stun.

[RazzleDazzle]

Dragoon - RoT - Potency 100 but only 120 TP cost so is much easier to spam. Doom Spike which has to be in a "line" but thats easy when mobs get clumped up on one tank with a potency of 160. Lastly, Dragonfire dive which is a whopping 250 potency though it can only be used every 3 minutes. Our spammable abilities are far more powerful AOE than bards, and in fact are probably more powerful than BLM because BLM has to switch off of Astral Fire to restore their mana so can't spam constantly.

Cool story, but you also forgot to mention we also have Flaming Arrow a pulsating no cost aoe dot on the floor. Not to mention Wide Volley has a 15 % chance to make Rain free and Rain has a 15% chance to make Quick Nock free. Not counting RNG, Flaming Arrow + Quicker Nock are more TP/DMG efficient than your spells.

[Trihuuger]

The encounter's type of AoE is largely going to determine who is best between Bard, Summoner, and BLM. If they're clumped up and low HP, the BLM is going to win out. If they're spread out so that the Bard's extra range is hitting more things, obviously he wins. If the adds are going to survive a while, namely long enough for the BLM to need to go into regeneration mode, AND the Summoner can prepare a little bit (dropping Shadow Flare, getting up close to pop Miasma II, already having the 3 spreadable DoT's ticking, etc.) then the SMN wins.

Honestly as long as the SMN can prepare to AoE and Bane will actually spread the love to everything (IE they need to be damned close) there's nothing that's going to stack up to that. W/ just an Ifrit book my 3 DoT's + Flare do 400 damage every 3s and I'm freely able to nuke and do other things during this time. It is just EXTREMELY rare that the stars all align in any given scenario for a SMN to beat a BLM. In general though, BLM > SMN > BRD > lolEverythingElse for most scenarios.

[Vodomir]

Dragoon - RoT - Potency 100 but only 120 TP cost so is much easier to spam. Doom Spike which has to be in a "line" but thats easy when mobs get clumped up on one tank with a potency of 160. Lastly, Dragonfire dive which is a whopping 250 potency though it can only be used every 3 minutes.

This. Dragoons can spam for 160 Potency every GCD and dmg can further be improved with Heavy Thrust (can be kept up all of the time, you'll just have to sacrifice a GCD to renew the buff) and Blood for Blood (Off-GCD dmg buff). I expect Dragoons to be very competitive in terms of AoE DPS, once the mobs are all clumped together.

So around 140 potency every GCD, whether you are tab thundering for <5 targets, or miasma2 + tri disaster for more than 5 targets.

140 potency per GCD with fancy tab targetting? I guess you missed the point where Dragoons can spam for 160 potency every GCD with the ability to put buffs and off-GCD AoE Skills on top of that.

[Eldaena]

Surprisingly... White Mage has a viable aoe in Holy. I use it in castrum and it deals over 580ish damage normally and stuns. When it crits I've seen over 900 on each. Not sure how it compares to other AoEs but as far as situation use, it's pretty high effectiveness for stunning mobs or hammering down smaller mobs during bosses.


Edit: That is if you switch on cleric stance, mind you.

[Thotor]

Earlier today in AK speed run I did 3.5k-4k~ dmg within 5 seconds on grouped up trash mobs, with each eating a massive crit from Flare (2.4k~) followed by another swift cast Flare for 1.2k~ non crit.

^ This. BLM is unbeatable in AoE.

[Darkstride]

Specific situations?

Garuda = Summoner.

Raging Strikes + all DoTs and Shadowflare on Garuda. As soon as adds are about to pop, you set Tri-Disaster to bind and keep them from scattering. Bane to spread the DoT love. Adds dead.

[pandabearcat]

140 potency per GCD with fancy tab targetting? I guess you missed the point where Dragoons can spam for 160 potency every GCD with the ability to put buffs and off-GCD AoE Skills on top of that.

Sorry, in case I wasn't being clear, I wasn't attempting to actually say which class was better.

Just wanted to throw out some numbers.

Also, dragoon weapon damage is roughly 70% of caster classes, making casters (because of no autoattack correction on multitargets) much better at it.

This is something you need to consider.

Also, I've never seen anyone top BLM burst with Flare, so I'm going to go with BLM. I've also never had trash mobs stay alive long enough that burst isn't viable.

On top of that, caster classes are the only ones that can consistently AoE without running out of resource...tp is bad and in prolonged situations you will run dry (hell it doesn't even have to be very prolonged, in 8 wide volley's a bard is dry, 3 more with invig).