FFXIV: Trying Alt Jobs

As I’m approaching the end of the current story – just started 5.3. content, and that’s only 3 chapters left to go – I inevitably turn my attention to other activities. The first and the most exciting of them is, of course, trying new classes, or jobs.

I did not try them all so far, yet I’ll try to break it one by one, my impressions about the jobs which I already played and which and why I’m reluctant to play – yet.

Before we start though:

Sidenote 1: I think eventually I will try them all, because you never know which class/job might appear your piece of cake and ruin/exceed your expectations.

Sidenote 2: my characters are always characters, so I need (and have) at least two alts. Class/race combinations build a character, a personality, so your perception of the job might vary depending on how you shape your character. My Miqo’te is leaning to a calm, serene, dreamy side, while Lalafell is a bit more mischievous, down-to-earth and wild, hence I can safely split the jobs between the two of them and not bother about that aspect.

Ok, let’s go.

TANKS

Tanks in general are not my piece of cake due to exceptional knowledge of encounter the role requires, and the high price of your mistakes, hence the stress. I’ve tanked successfully in WoW’s Legion LFRs on all tanking specs and occasionally in BfA raids, and found it not impossible, valid (in fact, when I had to jump into a tank spec to replace a kicked toxic/constantly failing tank, an LFR group would immediately slay a problem boss), but nevertheless stressful activity. Of course, I want to try the role in FFXIV too – at least to see the differences from WoW tanking, and understand my party members better. What of the jobs?

Warrior – I was never a fan of playing a big ass brute swinging a big ass sword or an axe. That guy is at the bottom list of jobs to try.

Dark Knight – sharing vibe with WoW’s Blood DK, it’s playing with dark magic, and that’s normally a cringe to me. All the cackling, causing pain and suffer, and tapping into void/necro energies has ever averted me from every “dark” class/race/faction in every game. But at least he adds some magic on top of his big ass sword, so probably one point up from Warrior.

Paladin – well… I dream of a game where sword-and-board would not necessarily mean a tank, because I’m rather fond of hitting stuff with sword-and-board. I guess not in this lifetime. Probably bottom of the trying list, because so traditional and boring.

Gunbreaker – well, this job caught my attention at once. First of all, cool name! Second – iconic and unique weapon: a blade with an attached gun? Shut up and take my money! Third – as I understand, a very lively gameplay, judging from youtube videos, observing GBR tanks in dungeons and a “free trial” when you vehicle-fight with Thancred against Ran’jit. Top of the jobs to try, and not just among tanks.

HEALERS

The very same concern as with tanks. In WoW, I healed in Legion with all possible classes and specs, and generally liked it, but not as much as DPS, so they all switched to proper damage dealing specs once the need of artifact weapons was gone. By Shadowlands, I have a Holy Priest, which is my healer, period.

FFXIV, judging by my DPS dungeon/raid experience, is a stressful role for healers: because there are so many hard hitting and deadly boss abilities, you need an exceptional knowledge of the encounters, and you have three tasks to perform at once which seems too much. First, you’re doing all your best to support and rez other players (well, normal healing stuff), second, avoiding bad things applies to you big time, because you cannot ever allow being caught in a void zone, because they’re too punishing, and in case you die, you would 100% wipe the group, third, you need to split your attention between DPSing and player health bars – this all looks like a ton of stress from afar. Maybe it would not be that awful once I try it myself, but all this presumed stress and immense concentration has a huge perspective of abandoning the role very soon.

White Mage – as I understand, is an iconic, straightforward healer not unlike my WoW Holy Priest with a very cool flower-based theme and weapons, so I’m going for it first.

Astrologian – attracts me with its unique theme of spells, so yes, by all means I mean to try it and soon.

Scholar – as I understand, it’s sort of an old version of WoW’s Discipline Priest, shield-prevention-based, so not my piece of cake. It’s a pass until I have literally nothing else to do.

MELEE DPS

Dragoon – that’s my main, and I like everything about it. I love the complex, but straightforward and planned rotation, the positioning dance around the boss, the not-so-bad survivability due to fat armor type, the extreme mobility, the noble knight-in-shining-armor vibe, and most and foremost – spears. Wielding a spear, even if any other game allowed it, has ever been a side weapon, not the coolest weapon, and rarely with specific animations, so having a spear-only designed class is rare, unique and precious treat in the gaming history. Everything about playing a dragoon in FFXIV is enjoyable and cool to me, so yes, top-1 job, and my main job whatever happens.

Monk – love from the first sight, immediately. I don’t know whether Pugilist/Monk experience changes as I gain more abilities, percs and animations, but it’s been a total pleasure to play it level 1-16, and I hope it remains so. Animations and vibe surpass WoW’s monk by a mile, being more exciting and authentic. That’s definitely a side job I’ll be playing eagerly.

Samurai – I barely started it yesterday evening, and only managed to play with a hitting dummy, not sure about the rotation yet, but it seems nice. My first experience was Hien’s vehicle fight with Zenos, and that was boring and uninspiring, while the actual job experience improved my mood quite a lot. Slashes are spectacular and inspiring, so definitely worth playing. The only no-no is how a samurai carries an unsheathed katana, it’s authentic again, but I cannot shake off an impression she’s dragging a very heavy metal pipe. We shall see if I can live with it, but all in all, not the top one, but a very seducing job to play.

Ninja – FFXIV’s take on rogue. Can’t say anything about it apart from YouTube videos, but animations seemed quite cool. Worth trying and soon.

RANGED DPS

Strange enough, but my favorite type of role is kinda on the downside in FFXIV. Classes/jobs are quite interesting, but each has a certain number of flaws.

Black Mage – fire/ice/lightning, a classic mage operating destructive elements, and this was the first job I started, because, duh, mages. I’m at peace with its very slow casting in exchange for immense destruction, so that’s not an issue. Animations are really spectacular, Exploooooooo-shun! at its prime. I’m ok with operating mana pool and swinging between fire/ice, not unlike WoW’s Balance druid star/sun swings, that’s actually enjoyable. What killed my immersion to an extent was introduction of ley lines, dropping an ugly circle which pins you to a place, or else you can’t do max Exloooooooo-shun. It’s still a viable job, yes, but it dropped from top priority to a side activity as it developed through leveling.

Machinist – that’s my Lalafell’s main job so far. I’m very invested in tinker/gnome/steampunk vibes, and one of the most exciting rotations ever, with all the burst windows and such. One thing that bugs me though is: flashy in this case makes it worse. I really enjoyed the initial pistol shooting animations, and now the abilities “upgrade” and start summoning a firework festival value of robots and devices, which I’m eyeing with a bit-too-much eye. I really want to keep this job as a main for my Lalafell, because I enjoy gameplay so much, we’ll see if I get used to it.

Bard – that’s a hunter/archer archetype which is rocking a muscial instrument for buff, so a DPS/support hybrid. Haven’t played it yet, but if all the shooting power is mitigated by party buffs, I’m not actually too excited. Rumor is, it’s also the weakest job, so I would try it someday, but totally expecting to be underwhelmed. So far, the bottom of my job trying list.

Dancer – this one is at the very least interesting. I played with a training dummy quite a while yesterday, and I got a grip of the rotation. No question, the proc-based rotation was interesting, with weaving in dance move abilities, and in general spectacular, even if lacking some power vibe. So far, I think it’s a side job for leisure purposes, totally valid.

Summoner – is FFXIV’s warlock, evil DoTs and stuff, tapping in local “evil” things like primals. Same as with Dark Knight, not a fan of the vibe. The only thing that could make me play it were squirrel pokemons, but then I read that they upgrade to big ass demons, so that’s a hard pass. Don’t even want to try it.

Red Mage – that’s a hard pass. For reasons, it’s listed as a ranged DPS, when you cannot perform half of your abilities outside of melee range. If you like fencing and musketeers, the job’s your call. I wasn’t impressed at all with rapier pokes, and abandoned it for good. If I play it ever again, it means I had literally nothing else to do with my life.

Blue Mage – an abomination as planned. It’s a crazy idea, yes, I acknowledge that, but under no circumstances I would endorse it in my job roster. Not my version of fun, although I won’t deny the fun to others which may like it. Anyways, not a real job by design :)

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And so, I’m splitting the jobs between my two alts this way:

• Sanya Ginsu (miqo’te) – dragoon (main), monk, dancer, samurai, astrologian
• Lolo Poppa (lalafell) – machinist (main), black mage, gunbreaker, ninja, white mage

Red Mage, Blue Mage, Bard, Warrior, Paladin, Dark Knight, Scholar, Summoner and the upcoming Sage/Reaper – so far, not interested. Someday – maybe, never say never.