Best Jobs/Classes To Start With | Tier List

[@jesterxreverie152]

As someone who was a Bard main from level 1, transitioning to being a Reaper main was so smooth and satisfying. I love Reaper's ease of use

[@SekiberiusWelkesh]

Ninja to date is still one of my favorite classes, I started as it, and I always find myself going back to it. Once you get into the grove it's such a fluid class to play, you're constantly pressing buttons and have a very straightforward but versatile rotation. The hardest part about playing it is memorizing your mantras but once you do it feels so fun to do them.

[@JamieBarrington]

Ninja is a blast to play. However, it can be both embarrassing and funny when my failed Mudra leaves me with bunny ears to make my shame visible for the world, haha

[@darksora32111]

As a person that switched from Pally to GBK before starting Heavensward, (and as a person that's still very new to the game) one thing I will mention is that although GBK is a very busy class, its very straightforward. Sure you press a lot of buttons but not only is decent damage a pretty good advantage, is the fact that you have a very simple gauge to manage and you have very straightforward defensive and offensive skills. If you're someone that's used to fast-paced and busy action games like Devil May Cry, I'd say you'll be right at home with GBK. Just don't forget to activate your mitigations, eh? The combos are fun but you're also a tank!

[@KeoneSpirit]

Been playing GNB as my primary class since I beat Ultima (alongside Paladin) and I have to agree. I’ve played a lot of fast-paced games so the uptime needed to run GNB and AST is super easy for me to keep up. Just because you can go fast though doesn’t mean you should skip guides for your class, we all know GNB mains are crackheads and if you don’t know how mitigation’s work you will wipe your team over and over again.

[@danielbarnes1241]

@@KeoneSpirit I can't even be mad at being called a crackhead. I remember my dumbass was so eager to shoot things in the face that I forgot my tank stance and mitigation multiple times.

[@spiderknight217]

That's honestly what gravitated me to DRK. Felt like I was playing Dante or Vergil with how busy it is

[@mismismism]

My friend just started playing and I suggested BRD or SMN just because BRD has a good pace and teaches you to manage more and more stuff without feeling overwhelming while SMN is very easy, you have a touch of management but it's minimal and you have the option of SCH if you want a challenge or just to try healing, if RDM was available as a starting job I'd probably pick that as the best starting job though, very straight forward and easy to learn but complicated enough to stay fun and with the support abilities it does teach you other things like being aware of party buffs and the health of other party members, slidecasting and because you have to go in melee, it kinda teaches you to be more aware of the enemy cast bar and positioning on the map for your backflips. It trains a lot of good habits IMO.

[@mectic5149]

I started as summoner and fell asleep in a dungeon

[@Rejykted]

Started at the end of Shadowbringers as WHM, switched to AST at 50 and SGE at 70. Felt like Goldie Locks looking for that perfect porridge; WHM was too slow, AST was super busy, but SGE was a good balance. Enough to do so your not bored, but not overwhelming like AST can seem sometimes(plus lasers)

[@lingdumpling5967]

Oh really now ? Here i though AST is busy that make me not bored of them. Fun to make our eyes keep open

[@aerieleah533]

Astro might be busy, but the buffs mechanic is so fun I honestly don't care

[@w0Mbol0Gy]

What are the abbreviations? I’m new to the game and haven’t gotten them all done yet

[@FelipeOliveir4]

I started as a BLM, now I will go to RDM.

[@FelipeOliveir4]

@@aerieleah533 As a BLM is so cool when the buff accelerate my spells, in combination with Ley Lines, is almost insta cast lol 😆

[@aohisdfapsodg3097]

As a monk main who participates in a good amount of high end content I would put monk near ninja on difficulty. PB having a weird timer with your buffs and can cause your Phantom Rush to end up on weird buff windows. And even the basic GCD buffs do not line up together so you have to constantly be refreshing awkwardly timed buffs/dots

[@DesperiusFFXIV]

Yeah, just played it today and it is definitely not easy

[@NemoTheBeastGamer]

Started as a marauder/warrior at launch then switched to scholar forever, last expansion black mage and now dancer. 😀 All nearly maxed, most others on their way there and I agree with this list 100%

[@maxmuller6791]

"5 straight seconds of casting during combat is wrong" *anxiously hard casting flare on blm*👀

[@migurusu-saint9160]

I felt this.

[@JD-hp1ls]

Can’t recommend arcanist enough. You get a healer and dps all in one. So short queue and lots of learning experience plus a solid learning dps and healer all in one nice little package.

[@LeftyPencil]

Is there a way to queue as a healer? I'm placed as DPS by default. Perhaps level locked? I read it available at lvl30?

[@brettcloud8550]

@@LeftyPencil So here's how it works. You see on any starting class you get, you get that classes experience gained. Examples - You gained X Marauder/Arcanist/Conjurer experience. That line of text continues even after you pick up the respective job advancement for those classes (Warrior/Summoner/Scholar/White Mage). Arcanist is unique in this situation as at 30 they get both the option to become a Summoner (ranged magical dps) or Scholar (healer). As both jobs gain Arcanist experience, whether you're leveling up a Summoner or Scholar, you're getting Arcanist experience, not Summoner/Scholar experience. Because of this, despite whichever of the two you level up, you'll naturally be leveling the other option as well due to the Arcanist experience gain. If you level this class, when you advance to a job and you continue leveling, check your job page. You'll see you have the same level of the other job you didn't choose to level.

[@zaboolovescodex]

For newbies wanting dps for starting in ARR I always recommend Archer/Bard. VERY VERY easy to play, early access to AOE, decent damage compared to other classes at that level, speed buff, no real downsides. And if they want to switch later they can just pick up an expansion advanced job and continue. Hands down best starting class. S++ tier for me. For easiest dps progression go BRD to 50, then swap to SAM to 60, Dancer to 70 then Reaper to 90. (probably could even just skip dancer all together)

[@Markness]

Thank you.. going to follow your progression path and go from there!

[@MessiahOfRodents]

Nobody should swap off bard before getting to experience refulgent arrow IMO

[@CaptainGarlicHD]

I don't understand how astro and blm is harder than monk , once you see how monk is actually played with its rotation you'll see that you have to make another tier below D

[@ElZamo92]

AH… I started out as a black mage and transitioned to sage in Shadowbringers… my learning experience of the game was an almost literal trial by fire.

[@chikoskiii7767]

i started with white mage actually and i’m very happy i did. Sure some may say it’s “boring” but for a fresh brand new player, it was enough to manage and did not find it too boring. Queue times are very fast. the longest i’ve waited was like 2 minutes but usually queues were instant. and the beginning of the MSQ was a very cute and wholesome experience for me :) healer class is, in my opinion, a great class to learn the game. FF14 is a very busy game (compared to what i’m used to in ESO, only 2 hot bars versus… at least 3 in the endgame) and i feel like i learned about how the combat mechanics work with ease. white mage is much easier than scholar. healers also have to do dps too which makes it more interesting. TLDR; white mage is a beginner, new player friendly starting class and i’m very happy i picked conjurer lmao. plus a fairy forest is cozy to walk around in

[@paulm3316]

I’ve leveled BLM, RDM, DNC, and Sage. I felt like Sage was easy to learn, once I watched a few videos and played around with all of the skills. It’s by far the best job I’ve played in FFXIV so far.

[@wadeyyy]

Agree! It seems like a lot at first but once you learn the abilities it's extremely intuitive. Plus the aesthetics and sound effects are simply unmatched. It's my favorite job as well :)

[@SubduedRadical]

As for controller tier list, here's my method: Count how many Job actions they have. I did this before 6.0, but the same thing should carry over to today. My rule (as a controller player on PC) is that if a Job has more than 29 abilities, it's a bit painful on controller. Why 29? One crossbar side (RT or LT) has 8 total abilities: left, right, up, and down on the + and the four face buttons like A, B, X, Y (X-Box) or circle, square, triangle, and X (PS) You have two of these on a tab, one for Right Trigger and one for Left Trigger. So 8 + 8 = 16 By tapping Right Bumper, you will cycle through tabs. If you have two tabs, a single tap will always swap you to the other set. This means 16 x 2 = 32 buttons with easy access. If you have even ONE button on a third tab, you have to get into wonky solutions to access them. A third tab means more RB presses to cycle to the tabs you need to be on, or you have to hold RB and hit the buttons to go directly to tab 1, 2, or 3 (wherever you need to go), or you have to do those "press and hold" things where you hold one trigger then press the other while still holding the first, and so on. Many people do this, but it's also not intuitive, especially for new players. "But you said 29?", you might as me. Yes, because you should have Sprint, Limit Break, and Potion (raiding) or Mount (field) on your bars. Those take up 3 more slots. 32 - 3 = 29. So, who makes the cut? Well, again, I haven't re-checked since 6.0 (I suppose I can do that), but I know before 6.0, WHM was the only healer and I think it had 30 (but Repose is pretty useless, so you can leave Repose OR Rescue off your bars and have enough spots). WAR for Tanks (GNB and DRK come close but have to leave something off, and unfortunately most tank abilities are kind of must-have-on-bars). If I remember right, the Casters all fit (or came REALLY close and you can leave things like Sleep off your bars for boss fights since bosses are immune to them anyway), with RDM at the time having the second least hotbar slots in the game (because of the way Stone/Thunder change to Holy/Flare and Jolt to Scorch and that all your melee strikes change to their enchanted versions; this means you don't need separate buttons taking up more slots!), and if I remember right, all three Ranged physical also came in well under the 29 limit. Melee, PLD, SCH, and AST did not at all fit. XD (And I typically play SCH...no Repose, no Rescue, and I hate Dissipation so much.......) Not sure about RPR, but SGE can fit all their buttons just like WHM, maybe going one over, but again, dump Repose and you're good. Remember that Eurkasia is only one button, and for that one button, you get three (Eukrasian Diagnosis, Eu-Prognosis, and Eu-Dosis), having them slip in. I thought this might be the case with NIN and Mudras (you get a lot of extra abilities accessed through Mudras, but collectively all Mudras "fit" on your hotbar as only four buttons since the three signs and the Ninjutsu button are all you need...but at the same time, NIN also has a lot of OTHER buttons, and so doesn't fare well. . NOTE: There IS a second consideration, which is "how often do you use these abilities/how visible are the things coming off CD. In general, you want your Job to have 16 (or less) COMMONLY USED actions, so they can all fit one one hotbar. This minimizes having to swap back and forth in the middle of a combo, for example, or having to do so every 2-3 abilities of a rotation, etc which can get a bit tedious. So that is another thing to consider as well (which I really haven't enough), but MOST of the Jobs I mentioned above as being easy you can do on one bar set. SMN, for example, I can fit all my single target stuff one one bar set and all my AOE trash stuff on a second set. Also note that 30 buttons IS A LOT OF BUTTONS. So even if you have Keyboard and Mouse players or are comfortable with the press and hold bar switching in the middle of crazy fights, 30 abilities could be a lot to juggle anyway for anyone. NOT ALWAYS, but OFTEN, having more buttons means a more complex to play Job (for a given role) while having less buttons is PROBABLY easier/less complex to play. . I still have my .doc file that I posted on Reddit talking about all this if you're really interested. I could update it for 6.1, too, as I find this kind of analysis interesting to engage in. A sample of what it looks like (the start of the section on healers and the first one, WHM): "Healer Role Actions: 6 ASSESSMENT: Repose can generally be left off your bar safely. Rescue is VERY situational, so can GENERALLY be left of if you need more space. More than any Role, Healers should always have LB on their bars since it can potentially recover a run from a total wipe. Of the healers, WHM has the fewest overall abilities, and is the only one that can COMFORABLY fit into the 29 button model without having to make sacrifices. By dropping Repose and Fluid Aura, WHM’s can even free up two slots in case they want to have some specific ability on both bars for whatever reason (so whichever bar you’re on that button always does what you want it to do, for example). SCH has a lot of extra abilities related to Lily (Eos/Selene) and AST related to their deck (Arcanum; drawing, converting, etc), leading both to be uncomfortably above that line. SCH can try to wiggle below it by making some sacrifices, but it DOES mean making sacrifices. AST can drop their stances and Repose, but then needs to drop 3 more abilities to make the 29, which is…painful. WHM: Class/Job: 23* Role: +6 Total: 29 Adjusted Total: 27 * Aero1/2 upgrade to Dia, Stone1/2/3/4 upgrade to Glare. (-6) ** Fluid Aura is useless in most group content, and rarely useful in solo content. You can include it (and Repose) for solo duties, but generally can drop them from your bars if you need space. This lowers the total by 2." I analyzed all role actions to see if there were any that could reasonably be dropped from one's hotbar (e.g. Repose), and I also looked at Job abilities that could be left off because they just aren't useful or used (e.g. Fluid Aura). I also made sure to count abilities that upgrade but use the same hotbar button (e.g. Stone 1-4 then Glare) as only taking ONE button because you don't need separate buttons for them, the ability just goes to the next tier as you level and down-ranks itself when you do synced content. I looked at Class/Job abilities, Role abilities, what that total was, and what a reasonable adjusted total was considering the buttons you COULD safely drop from your bars if you needed to free up more space. . I may just do this again for fun. :)

[@WarlordPayne]

I have sprint macro'd onto L3 and mount on R3, and LB really doesn't need a spot on a main bar

[@SubduedRadical]

@ashtreedweller - I see a message from someone saying "A lot of text with a TL:DR I'm bad at using controllers", but oddly, it doesn't show up in my replies so I can reply to it. Regardless, no, that was not the TL:DR. That's you showing that you both (a) couldn't be bothered to read it and (b) decided to ignore reality and view someone as bad as you could because you're probably a mean person. My skills are fine, I'm pointing out that some Jobs are easier on controller than others. Zip your yap if you have nothing better to say.

[@Niki_0001]

This is an "old" comment and I don't know if they changed how controllers work since this, but in case any other controller player reads this: you get easy access to up to 48 keybinds on a controller without even needing to swap crossbars. That is enough to play any class and leaves you with enough free open slots for some nifty targeting macros if need be; 16 from the default cross hotbars 16 from double cross hotbars (same as the default cross bars but you double tap the trigger to access them) 16 from holding both triggers, 8 on each side depending on which trigger you pressed first. If you want to simplify it to a "hold both triggers" bar, you can bind each combination to the same half of a crossbar which allows you to press the triggers in either order and get the same result. This does cut the number of binds in half to 8 though. Are those extra bars unintuitive to access? At first, yeah, but I find myself getting more and more comfortable with them as time goes on. It's a learning experience. You can find and enable those extra bars in the settings, I can't recall exactly which menus they hidden behind, unfortunately. If you STILL need more keybinds for some reason, you can use crossbar swapping (press rb/r1 or hold rb/r1 + facebuttons/dpad) to add several extra bars. I personally use those ones for emotes and menus.

[@jo_mesquita]

Your videos helped me when I was on free trial, now that I just started Heavensward (a beginner, no less), this is exactly what I was looking for. I started as Summoner and I'm having a lot of fun so far (I'm lvl 60), but I'm definetly trying some of these A and S tier later on (Warrior and Red Mage to be precise). Thank you for your considerations through the video, it helped me a lot.

[@WarMonkeyPlays]

Just in terms of fun, SMN starts pretty good and only gets better. If you do get the game, I don't think you'll regret taking SMN to cap first. It also feels _amazing_ in pvp right now.

[@MNtoCali]

Do warrior for sure. It’s nice to have a different role you’ll que super fast as tanks for roulettes to level it up fast. It’s also really nice to place both ranged and melee classes to get different perspectives on the encounters across the game. Good luck!

[@jo_mesquita]

Thank you guys, I just bought the latest expansion and I'm going all the way to 90 now, I'll try the other jobs for sure.

[@Hey_AJ]

WAR is really fun as a tank. I started out with monk and did warrior to help with my tank anxiety. The pros of that job is you can heal while being tanky. Redmage is the combo of black and white mage. It's really fun.

[@cynthiahembree3957]

I would recommend people who are new to mmos as a whole to level a dps first. Remember you can always level a tank or healer later. I mained astrologian all the way from heavens ward to stormblood and it was not an easy task to heal a fight as I was learning mmo mechanics. Ultimately up to you but just keep in mind your survival isn't just relevant to you as a healer or tank but the entire party. Play what your comfortable with and have fun

[@SomeoneNr9]

I agree for any other MMO, but for FFXIV in particular I recommend tanks. Tanking in Final Fantasy is much easier than DPS, as a tank you are basically a Melee DPS, but with "Oh shit!"-buttons. Also, as Desperius pointed out, don't start as Black Mage if you are new to MMOs. I did that, because I like mages, but it was a mistake. I did not have fun, because you are heavily punished for messing up mechanics and mispositioning, the job changes a lot more as you lvl up than other jobs, you basically have different rotations every 10 lvls and you need to already know mechanics. Switched to SAM on 50, that was pretty straightforward but still really satisfying and engaging and if you wanna be a melee DPS, SAM is actually the job that I would recommend to lvl first (would be RPR if you didn't unlock it so late). But I honestly think that tanks are the easiest role for beginners to learn the game with. I don't play tanks in other MMOs, but in this game I love it and I can honestly wholeheartedly recommend it. My personal recommendations for every role would be: - Tanks: WAR (PLD if you value more complex gameplay) - Melee DPS: SAM (not overly easy, but still straightforward and very satisfying) - Mage: SMN (RDM if you value more complex gameplay) - Ranged DPS: BRD (most complete package out of the ranged DPS classes) - Healer: Can't give a good recommendation for this if I'm gonna be honest, I have not leveled up a single healer yet. Would go for WHM if I had to, but I don't like healing in this game. Don't let it discourage you tho.

[@MayHugger]

I very much disagree, Tanking is so easy in this game, just use aoes so everything looks at you, use mitigation when tankbusters come your way. Boom, you are now a decent tank. If you mess up, you’re beefy enough and have mitigation so you’ll probably easily faceplant through most rough situations anyway.

[@Moraalridder123]

I would never recommend starting with anything but a dps, but thats my opinion.

[@fpowell02]

Same....

[@AvengerofWarcraft]

Ironically, I’d only recommend DPS the moment the whole MSQ is covered by the Trust system. Otherwise, tank or healer.

[@RaccoonBrigade]

@@AvengerofWarcraft leveling a dps isn’t that bad. I played through the msq on a blm and there’s plenty to do while waiting for queues. Plus, you can join a guild and get people to help.

[@one_eyeddd473]

Either 3 present a unique gameplay and the slope of ff difficulty is so slow and gradual your actually begging for hard content ready to go by the time u get to extremes. Im so happy i started as a tank n still main all tanks to this day. I didnt even know you could die to mobs in tbe open world til i played dps so it depends how you look at it....by the time i playrd dps i unferstood tanking n would literally make my chocobo tank everyrhing while i learned my dps rotations. But it was the experience from tank thats the root of all mechanics imo. Recently started healing and wow is it different. Everyone has their bias. But starting as a tank is an absolutelyvgreat safe option by the time u need to do swaps n other pull mechs n aggro management with adds youve already gradually worked up to that

[@jackjohnson2309]

In this game I’d argue that tank is the easiest in general, especially MAR. Damage and survivability in early game hen learning the ropes is amazing.

[@acertainanimeindex420]

Watching videos while downloading the free trial..this helped alot!

[@WarMonkeyPlays]

Great takes. I almost 100% agree on all your placements. For me, DNC is much easier than RDM so I'd swap those. but they both are great classes for someone wanting to jump in on.

[@Hardivh]

I honestly can't understand how people say RDM is easy... I have several jobs at max level and everytime I try to level my RDM I feel overwhelmed as hell

[@itallomarcus137]

@@Hardivh as a rdm main looks busy, but in endgame the rotation is so repetitive not in a bad way, but is resumed to alt bewteen wich mana is lower 50/50, melee -> spam insta cast speels -> go back icnreasing mana and repeat

[@techdeth]

Glad to see dragoons placing. I feel like I'm going MAD on my controller most of the time trying to optimize damage .. I'm pressing a LOT of buttons. Always had me curious how much more busy a job can really get. I've only played like 4 jobs seriously.

[@rajabuta]

Yeah, endgame goon is busy. Especially after we can double weave. Oh God.

[@rangersmith4652]

I'm a 10-year FFXIV veteran, and yesterday I made a new character to run ARR as Thaumaturge/Black Mage. The absolute hardest thing about this is simply staying alive. Black Mage is quite powerful in DPS terms, but so squishy in HP terms, and so immobile. If you stay on level with the MSQ, it can be very challenging to not die, especially when so often the area you must enter to do MSQ is also hosting a FATE. It happened several times between level 1 and level 19, which is where I got during the first session.

[@DronesOverTheMoon]

Found my place with dragoon. It is surprisingly simple once you get around the Ogcd order and the Positionalls are very good to hit sincenthey don't Force you to continuously move from hear to flank from 2 to 2 seconds

[@KHALK008]

I main a black mage from the start and i find it very fun to play

[@Rashadmcka]

Last year I started playing with black mage and played it to 90, I switched because I over levelled and didn’t want to waste MSQ XP lol. On my ult as a Paladin Duty’s have been much easier so far lol.

[@jugo1023456]

My brethren ✊🏾same idk I loved the challenge while leveling. Ever dungeon, trial was a challenge because of trying to master blm

[@jugo1023456]

Or my sister💀

[@Havaldr]

Dragoon to be honest is often depicted as a beginner class since it has high armor and an easy rotation early on and pretty streight forward to play. Only fails you can make is your jumping timing and that was made easier with the shortening of the animation

[@TheGreektrojan]

DRG is pretty simple through ARR but then it starts going off the rails from there. I leveled the class for class quests (DRG being my favorite flavor) and by 60 I was ilvl scumming roulettes because I didn't want to try ShB on content with a DRG.

[@imbawling]

@@TheGreektrojan i love how cracked out drg rotation becomes

[@beckham3533]

@@imbawling yeah everything feels so nice and colorful when you learn to weave those jumps into the rotation

[@Turbulence911]

It's easy in the beginning but gets pretty crazy after lvl 60

[@ElfosDeMordor]

Whm is extremely boring levels 1-50 imo, actually 0 ogcds, almost made me drop the game

[@andrewan1225]

When I started back in 5.2 I chose Conjurer bc I wanted to not eat shit in the field bc my knowledge of mmos was nonexistant. I LOVE white mage but god I wish they gave it some love in Endwalker like turn down Assize or Tetras lv to lv49 or something every other healer has enough ogcds to heal between casts but whm only has Bene. Which is on a 3minute cooldown so its reliable exactly once. Scholar has 3 lustrates, Ast ED and multiple regens whereas whm only gets medica2 at 50. White Mage needs something at lower levels.

[@vanillaffxiv]

For real

[@idealandthereal8090]

Fr it's so annoying :/

[@ex0stasis72]

As a WHM main and a sprout as well as someone who is new to the group content aspect of all MMOs, I can highly recommend WHM to those wanting a short queue times for MSQ, the ability to ignore all DPS mechanics (you still have to dodge AOEs), and a feeling of weight on your shoulders knowing that you are the last line of defense for your party not to wipe.

[@MNtoCali]

Lancer is the same 1-30 its 5 weapon skills over and over that look like an upward slash and then 30-50 you slowly get dragoon skills but nothing really interesting until later

[@FelipeOliveir4]

I'm a beginner and I like the BLM, I choose just for the slow peace, the rotation changes a lot but it's always cyclical. Fire causes more damage and Ice restore your mana.

[@x_Xith_x]

I started as Thaumaturge/Black mage

[@StriderZessei]

Writing this before watching: For a melee DPS, I think SAM has become a lot more beginner-friendly since its release. However, the level 50 requirement to play it leaves me thinking DRG is the absolute best. Next easiest would be RPR; lastly, NIN and MNK are hardest, and so not what I would suggest for a new player.

[@imbawling]

i find mnk easiest, you quite literally cant gimp your combo now

[@ThePolarpop]

I think the thing with dragoon is if ur maining it since lvl 1 it has a clean learning curve during your long road of leveling

[@SemperVII]

SAM and RPR are definitely way easier than the other 3 melees, but IMO RPR is easier than SAM. You just have so much leeway for everything, you have a 10% hp shield + regen every 30 sec, you're tankier with maiming tier armor, and there's no part in your rotation where you're really that busy. Enshroud is faster but you're just spamming 3 buttons basically. You have less room for mistake as SAM as you really don't want to drift your big hitting abilities out of the buff windows, you're a bit squishier, you have 2 buffs to manage (although it's easy in EW) and your rotation is overall busier. But yeah, they're both in the easier classes category.

[@StriderZessei]

@@SemperVII yeah, I wrote it messy, but I think easiest to hardest now is: 1. DRG 2. RPR 3. SAM 4. NIN 5. MNK

[@Turbulence911]

@@StriderZessei nah, dragoon on number 3 or 4. You clearly haven't played end game dragoon.

[@DannyOE4]

So what you're saying is... my starting as a BLM makes leveling any new classes super nice lol got it

[@mikejackson2868]

Great video bro the only thing i would say is Monk is definitely in the C tier with Dragoon and ninja. That job is not really beginner friendly.

[@MyWorldIsSquare]

My FFXIV journey so far: BRD to 50 RDM to 80 (just finished 5.3) PLD to 76 (planning to finish Shadowbringers and then do Endwalker as a Paladin) Yet I really, really want to play an Astro as my first healer. I play on PS5 with a controller so I know I'm asking for trouble, but after getting into Tarot, Astrology and Witchcraft this year...I mean it's just too perfect of an aesthetic.

[@dennisengelen2517]

I feel you! I really like the aspect of being a pretty pointy eared elegant guy drawing cards and using Cosmic spells 😂

[@AnActualRealPotato]

idk man, I played SCH until heavensward and got really fed up with it because it felt like I had to do a lot for not a lot of payoff, and then I switched to AST and everything just made sense. I started AST in Shadowbringers even, so now in Endwalker its even simpler. Only real drawback on AST was that you start it at 30 and don't even get some of your most essential tools until then. I remember that in Shadowbringers you'd also get Dirunal Sect before you get Aspected Benefic, which was really stupid. Otherwise, I'd say AST is easier to start out with than SCH in terms of gameplay

[@WatchingFromWork6636]

I'm fairly new to FF14 but have played a lot of MMO's. I usually play a "traditional" healer but tried Scholar (because it unlocked as I was playing astrologian. I tried Scholar just to get Grand Company credits easier (Class in Need bonus) and after about two dungeons it seemed to flow fairly easily for me. I'm not max level so maybe that changes, but up to level 60 it's really not that hard to keep a group vertical. I very much liked the insight to each class, great video.

[@beatricelafenestre2183]

the only thing i'd have changed probably would be red mage, the utility caster, super easy rotation, dual cast res, healing, it's definitely solid, but i can understand the A for the late introduction

[@SubduedRadical]

If we're talking true beginners, starting at level 1, who are new to FFXIV and maybe new to MMOs, and a Job that they can start with at level 1 and that they can use all the way to 90 and main at 90 and it still be easy for them to play well...using THAT metric: Tank: MRD/WAR Healer: CNJ/WHM DPS: ARC/SMN WAR is the most simple and straightforward of all the tanks. It does the job, it does it well, it's not hard, and you BASICALLY have the full rotation by level 50, so whether syncing down or leveling up, you're building great muscle memory that will still serve you well at 90 and it's just...good. WAR is a powerful tank on trash, powerful tank on bosses, and the burst allows it to deal with solo content with ease. It's borderline TOO good, but the "unga bunga" playstyle that is suited to a "Hulk Smash!" tank is just fun and straightforward and easy to understand and do well in. It just does all it needs. IF YOUR BRAIN works for tanking (some people's don't), WAR is definitely the easiest of them, and may be the easiest Job in the game for you. WHM is the easiest healer in the game, but it's not weak. Most of the complaints about it come from FFLogs/"the abacus" and parsers complaining about Misery not being DPS neutral. When it comes to just learning, playing, clearing content, and being functional-to-good, WHM is the easiest healer bar none. The healers have similar DPS kits, but WHM's is the simplest and has some nice utility on the side (Holy's stuns), with Misery being accessible and easy to use (ranged AOE attack that is instant cast) vs things like Toxicon/Phlegma or optimizing Energy Drain. Its oGCDs are good and powerful, and its GCDs are straightforward and strong if you need to lean on them as a crutch. The only real thing is (since I played SCH so much) it kind of sucks that WHM doesn't have more mitigation (Temperance and Aquaveil are really it), but it's easy, pretty fun ("More blood for the blood lilly!"), and while AST does more for the party, it's easier to flub up while WHM is always consistent and easy to do well with. While it may not always be top/meta healer, it's always going to be FUNCTIONAL, meaning if you start it at level 1 and choose it as your main forever...it won't ever truly fail you. IF YOUR BRAIN works for healing (some people's don't), WHM may be the easiest Job in the game...period. SMN is great. I'm NOT SURE what the tooltips look like at level 1, but when I changed to my level 80 SMN to look at the new abilities (I picked SCH as my first Job to level to 90) after 6.0, the tooltips were so different and complex, I probably spent half an hour just reading them. But I THINK starting at level 1 it probably makes more sense and you'd just get used to the additions as you went (instead of having them all thrown at you at once!), and as you level it gets more fun. It's also easy to play at level 90, thematically and visually cool when you pull out the big summons, and is fun and easy to play for my non-dpsing healer brain that sucks at rotations. It also has some great utility between the party damage buff, battle raise (I dislike playing DPS, but nothing's worse than being a DPS in a 4 man and the healer goes down, or in an 8 man and BOTH healers go down and there's no one there to raise the heals), and Firebird's healing is not insubstantial. Physic sucks past level 40 or so, but otherwise the Job is great and will do you well as you level while also still being really useful when you get to level cap. Unless you just can't DPS at all, SMN is a easy Job and far and away the easiest of the DPS Jobs in the game, as far as I can tell. Honorable mentions: RDM is fairly straightforward if you have a BIT more of a dps mind than I do and enjoy playing with procs to change up your playstyle while dashing in and out of combat with style. RDM is pretty easy to understand (so is BLM), but UNLIKE BLM, RDM is easy to execute as well. And it also has the great party utility with Omnibolden and battle raise. Obviously, you can't start as it, but you could start as ARC/SMN and swap to RDM at 50 and go from there. It's a good choice for a beginner/starter Job if you don't mind making that swap. And, unlike the HW three, you can just pick it up at level 50 and continue the game from there. DNC is similar to RDM and basically similar arguments apply. It doesn't have the battle raise, but has party utility, and the rotation is somewhat straightforward with proc based gameplay. And you can pick it up as soon as you hit level 60 and go on with the game from there. If you want to play a DPS that ISN'T a Caster but is still easy, this is probably a good option for you. MCH, if you don't have bad latency, is easier to play than DNC...but you also have that 20 level reversion. MCH has one of the easiest rotations in the game if you can get past that, though. . I haven't played Melee other than leveling NIN for the Role quests, and played MNK some, but honestly, they all seem hard/complex to me, though I'm not exactly sure WHY. They all kind of hurt my brain. Haven't tried RPR yet, but you can't even start it until level 70, so it's out of the question for a "starter" anyway. Same thing for SGE for the healer, even if it's probably the second easiest healer. THAT SAID, if you're already at level cap and just wanting to pick up a new ROLE that (melee or healer or ranged physical) that you haven't done before, RPR, SGE, and DNC are all good choices. But again, that makes them not "starter" classes because you can't unlock them until so late. SGE isn't necessarily EASY, but its mechanics are often easier to execute than SCH. SCH, though, seems to have more panic buttons when things go off the rails. I think the reason you see few REALLY bad SGEs is because many people who play it are already healer mains (not always, but often) or people that are seriously wanting to get into healing. It's the same reason you seldom see bad ASTs. You can see bad WHM's because everyone and their dog does it, but AST and SGE are, in a way, more...I guess "esoteric" would be the word. Like in Dungeons and Dragons a magic user. It's more "off the beaten path" for people to try it in the first place. SCH would be that except you also get the people that leveled SMN and just decide at level cap to try SCH since they want a healer and haven't looked into it in depth as much. But you also have the people really into it that are god tier. . Aside: DRK/AST/MCH starting at 30 makes sense, just like SGE/RPR start at level 70, not level 80. The time it takes to level 30-50 is similar to 50-60 (SAM/RDM), 60-70 (GNB/DNC), and 70-80 (SGE/RPR) in order to start the new expansion. The only real thing that I feel is wrong - which you noted - is having to get to 50 to unlock it whereas all the other Jobs you can unlock at their starting level. I get WHY, since you pick them up in Ishgard and can't go there until level 50, but I agree it would be nice if you could just pick those three up at level 30 and go on through ARR from there. Like level some starting class to 30 then you could pick up DRK/AST/MCH right at level 30. But because of the guilds, I'm not sure that will ever happen. :(

[@WarlordPayne]

Misery is dps neutral now isn't it?

[@SubduedRadical]

@@WarlordPayne Correct. I mean in 6.0 when people were saying "WHM is bad/sucks", they mostly meant "Misery isn't DPS neutral so I refuse to cast a Lily heal or any GCD heal!" WHM hasn't sucked, it's just that before to do optimal damage meant never using a GCD heal while the Job is focused on having and at least SOMEtimes using GCD heals. All that changed by making Misery DPS neutral was that elitist hyper-parsers are now okay with spending Lilies, so they use the Job's GCD instant cast Lily heals, and the Job works a lot better. Imo, the bigger change (for the general community who doesn't care if WHM outdamages Sage or not) is that the Lily refresh rate went from 30 to 20 seconds. This adds up to a great MP efficiency increase and there's ALMOST always a Lily up when you need one. And for the hyper-parsers, it means more uses of Misery that aren't DPS losses to them, which also means 1600 more MP per minute (4 less Glare casts since a DPS Neutral Misery means they can use Lilies even if they don't need to heal but have to move as it builds towards a Misery, and it's 3x Lily heals + Misery every minute [or minute and 2.5 seconds]), so everyone wins. All of which is to say: WHM wasn't bad in 6.0. It was just underperforming compared to the other healers and the Thin Air nerf and bumped spell costs hit their mana pool too hard. The 6.1 changes seem to have more or less fixed all that. More or less...

[@hemaka482]

Months later, as some who's gonna try out the game with a free trial and wants to play healer, this summary was really helpful! I was thinking about starting arcanist -> scholar, but after watching few videos and reading great comments like yours - I'm gonna go with white mage, thank you :)

[@SubduedRadical]

@@hemaka482 Honestly, they're both good choices. When I first started way back when, I played WHM up to level 30 then played ARC to level 30 to unlock SCH. I think I got WHM to 50 first then SCH a bit later. They're both good Jobs, and SCH has the benefit of also giving you SMN (they're the only two Jobs in the game that level together, which is handy), SCH's just a little harder to learn. But if you are into it, it's totally doable. And the nice thing with FFXIV is, you can level all Jobs on a single character, so there's no downside to leveling them both if you want and swapping on the fly. :D I have WHM, SCH, and SGE all at level 90 and frequently play just whichever one I feel like or, if the party has one or the other of shield or pure healer, I'll swap to the other to fill the gap. It's really nice that you're never locked out of anything.

[@N.G.H.]

Black Mage and Ninja both have very high learning ceilings, I think.

[@muhannabasalem574]

warrior is best beginner friendly for tanks, but gotta say paladin is also beginner friendly if you're gonna play casually but pretty big brain to optimize

[@argosfe7445]

I absolutely agree that Astrologian is kind of busy, but I think if you can pass that, it is actually the easiest healer to play (but I have a mmo mouse so that might be it). Just my own experience.

[@TheOptimistDelusion]

Uhh what? How is it easier than whm? Astro is not only busy but you also gotta learn your cards and target the right people while watching party HP and attacking the boss. Not to mention the fight knowledge you need to have in order to make good use of earthly star, horoscope, and macro

[@argosfe7445]

@@TheOptimistDelusion I was exited about learning the draw system at first, but I quickly demystified it and it turned out to be quite mundane once figured out. As long as my priorities are... 1. Heals 2. Buffs 3. Dps ... in that order, everything feels fluid and flexible; I never feel out of option. I personally find the White Mage a bit clunky compared to AST. That's just my own experience, but I suspect people who prefer to pay more attention on supporting the group and less on damaging enemies will find AST easier to play than WHM (if being busy is not an issue for them).

[@NoName-zh1jz]

Astro is not easier than WHM lmao

[@TheOptimistDelusion]

@@argosfe7445 A bad whm will undeniably contribute more to healing and dps than a bad ast. Less things to juggle means less things to mess up, simple as that

[@argosfe7445]

@@TheOptimistDelusion Now that I think of it, maybe the mana buff across all healers and the blood lilly changes make WHM less clunky. I might have to try WHM with the changes. That said, before 6.1 AST felt much easier to me. Maybe that's just me. *shrugs*

[@XU70YT]

I am a warrior and dragoon player. I believe that dragoon is more of a B tier job. The rotation on its own is very straight forward but there are a lot of CDs to keep track of, which can be daunting for some people. As a controller player, it took some time for me to get used to it.

[@Yokai_Yuri]

anyone can presss buttons as dragoon. The idea is to do your positional,OGC and align your buff to maximize dps. Many classes do this but I feel for DRG is pretty mandatory to keep up with other classes. Namely samurai and monk

[@gainsdolph6225]

@Omega Storm he's a controller player. Don't even bother trying to tell him how to play properly. He is forever going to be a casual.

[@ffedericowh]

​@@gainsdolph6225 lol take it easy killer machine, we know you are a beast

[@noamto]

SMN/SCH also have double the job quests which means easy XP.

[@obviouslykaleb7998]

unfortunately that also means double the gear required. if you're swapping between SMN and SCH every 2-5 levels, you're going to be quickly undergeared on one or both of your jobs. one might just say tomestone gear, but you don't get tomestones that fast if you're not doing MSQ, and you don't need XP if you're doing the MSQ

[@danlin8662]

This could be a good video for beginners, but using lots of terms and acronyms that a beginner might not know about and focusing almost entirely on endgame utility makes it weirdly inaccessible.

[@Moraalridder123]

best starting class is arcanist imo, summoner is braindead after rework and you get a free healer for instant queues

[@TheGreektrojan]

Leveling summoner now as an alt and I have to agree. Its rotation is set pretty early and does good, consistent damage. Even more so, outside of 1-2 minor things, its pretty much impossible to really mess up your dps. You are a walking 90% parse as long as you keep uptime. Even with WAR you can easy overcap resources if you aren't being intentional. SCH is definately takes some learning to get a handle on so I'm not sure if its the biggest selling point except that you get the healer role quests done without having to level another one. Bonus points: Astro and SCH are two of the only jobs have have solid class stories.

[@rubberdogmagnus8536]

I really enjoy Warrior, he had great selfheal and the aoe MP bomb he had pre crossclass skills balance was fun

[@NikitaBikita]

Idk about drg being c tier, it's not very hard, has a very static rotation. Easy to learn as you gain more skills while leveling, and has plenty of room for improvement as you get better at the game. I'd place it in A or S for a starting job imo.

[@BlobFGC]

Yeah, this is not a great list.

[@yammez1]

It's easy to learn, hard to master. It is a difficult job, but the perfect one to learn how it feels to play melee DPSs.

[@BlobFGC]

@@yammez1 DRG is really not hard to master. I'd argue it's the easiest. You could make a case for SHB Dragoon, where you had to play around with Mirage Dive timings to delay Life Cycles for buffs. But now that it's been streamlined to being a 2mn burst job, you simply execute the opener and hit everything roughly on cooldown. I've cleared Asphodelos fights on every melee znd I can guarantee there is zero player expression and zero thought required to play it well.

[@yammez1]

@@BlobFGC Being streamlined to 2 min burst is every job. You could make this argument about any job. At least DRG has the animation locks to keep it relatively interesting.

[@BlobFGC]

@@yammez1 MNK has been streamlined to 2mins but still has a decently high skill ceiling. You cannot make this argument about any job.

[@MrSoloDolo20100]

Is this guys background Levi Ackerman? If so I like his style 😎

[@jimdale9143]

Nicely done! I didn't find myself disagreeing strongly with any of your choices, but feel one needs to add a caveat. The easiest job for me is the one I have the most fun playing. If I'm having fun I don't notice technical difficulties because I'm enjoying myself and am motivated to keep at it. For example, I agree with you that Summoner is technically easier than Red Mage but personally I find Red Mage more fun. A friend of mine finds Summoner more fun and would say that is easier. We're both right because it's a matter of preference. I think people should be encouraged to experiment with different jobs to see what works for them.

[@LethinGabbins]

I was suggested to msq a RR dps class as a 1st job through msq, mainly so it levels really quickly and dps have a slower grind to catch up because it takes forever to get duties unless you wanna do the npc assisted ones but they hate to AOE and takes forever. The reasoning apperently was that Healers and tanks can just spam duties for leveling later on and can catch up really fast. In the end it's all down to what you think looks cool.

[@One-Watermelon]

WHM is so nice to start with. Loved it, but after 2 years break.... I have no idea how to play again!

[@nolabel7705]

Thanks for the video. I started 30day trial yesterday on PS4, lol. I have years of MMO experience so I'm hoping for the best.

[@PlazDreamweaver]

I've wanted to play FFXIV so bad and have always wanted to be BLM. Almost a decade ago, I would watch videos on the game and watch videos on BLM. A few years ago, I started FFXIV and chose BLM. I have been BLM ever since and will always be BLM. I love it. And it isn't as bad leveling as people say, but in difficult content, it is easily far and away much more difficult than every other job in the game. I've played RDM, DRG, SMN, and a bit if NIN, but none of them feel like BLM. It is so rewarding and no other job requires me to put that level of effort in. But as fun as it is, it is equally stressful at times. But it's amazing and I love it. It's definitely the worst beginner job, but it's a job everybody should try. It operates so differently than the rest of the game, which is both a good and bad thing.

[@junivanofdragonia]

My choices for starting jobs: Tanks: PLD WAR and GNB and DRK tied with last. Heals: WHM and AST tied in first and SCH and SGE tied last mgDPS: RDM BLM SMN rDPS: DNC MCH BRD meDPS: SAM NIN RPR MNK

[@junivanofdragonia]

I actually main WAR, RDM, and WHM. I think WAR is great, but we talking as a starter. And tanking as war in early and mid game requires knowing more tools than what is required for PLD.

[@obviouslykaleb7998]

i dont mean to sound rude, but i think you forget just how long the MSQ is when placing these jobs. you get dozens of hours to get used to each class' expansion's toolkit, and that greatly helps you familiarize yourself with the job's rotation. leveling 1-80 with DRG and WHM simultaneously (generally DRG thru MSQ content and WHM in dungeons/trials), i got what i thought was rather skilled with both. the only real issue i had learning was that i forgot to use my raid buffs because i had it on some esoteric Shift+CTRL+E bind and out of the way, as well as not aligning my personal buffs with raid buffs and instead acted generally as if i was playing solo without any consideration of others' raid buffs. neither of these are problems with the class itself, nor do i think high-end complexity itself is any indication of whether or not something is "beginner friendly," as it still takes likely hundreds of hours to even get to where the jobs get complex. in other words, the absolute amount of practice you get with these jobs is more than enough to teach a new player their job in a comfortable way, to the point where these jobs become boring due to their repetition.

[@obviouslykaleb7998]

dont get me wrong, i agree with BLM's placement; it's unique in how it interacts with new content. yet classes like DRK, DRG and GNB i feel are placed too low.

[@ushinkou8569]

Next tier list is Drip or style or skill animations tier list.

[@imbawling]

now you’re speaking my language. feel like early on drg and drk would win on all accounts but ew would be hard since every job af set is saucy.

[@patrickv1080]

Doesnt matter if you cant start with red mage class but nothing beats red mage. i go all in for redmage. why you ask ? cause he give you seizures with all the animations, he can magic of color black, he has unlimited times instant rezz, and not only that but he got fucking style and got a rapier and is pecking the enemies with that in melee.

[@DesperiusFFXIV]

It is fire indeed ! Would have granted it S spot but cannot place it above a Summoner at the moment

[@nyappynen]

As someone who wanted to heal and started the game as a SCH, astro was the easiest job in the game to learn in comparison to SCH and WHM. My brain could not understand those at all, especially SCH.

[@ofanichan]

Right?? Im leveling Scholar now (Ast main) and I am really struggling in some dungeons

[@CanBouiS94]

I wanted the Astro so bad, as a new player i’m Having a realy hard time with it .still, i do prefer the utility of the ast over the whm, but i feel more useless than when i played whm :x

[@idealandthereal8090]

Ast is easier cuz it has lots of ogcds and it's rly flexible

[@ThePolarpop]

If ur sticking w it longterm all the way to 90 itll work its way out as long as u enioy it

[@GARJV]

the hardest part of ASTRO for new players is recognizing jobs symbol and knowing whose malee and whose range...

[@CanBouiS94]

@@GARJV Tbh, i don’t struggle that much with those symboles. My biggest problem comes from my brain, it’s less straightforward than the white mage (more actions per minute, more OGCDs to weave and Time well. For now (i didn’t played since the first com’) i just feel that i need far less effort with the WHM to do the same thing (i mean keep the party alive and safe). I’ll probably stick with the ast anyway even if i’m bad. Hopefully i’ll get better.

[@TheOptimistDelusion]

@@idealandthereal8090 Absolutely not. A mediocre player will contribute much more playing whm than ast. Ast is a high skill floor & high skill ceiling job

[@NotExplicable]

There are simple hacks to make Sage easier to play, once you learn the mechanics of a fight mitigation or party tendancy, healing to DPS is easy on sage.

[@ThePolarpop]

Guess im just an elitist or a masochist or both. This list only helped confirm for me that the classes i want to try the most are Dark knight, Ninja, Astrologian, and Black Mage lol

[@Cimegs5088]

After leveling all job while at least understanding how to min max each, here’s my recommendation for trying out jobs For healer, start with whm, then you have the choice of going AST or sch. If you prefer the barrier healing instead, SAge is the step up from Sch for pure preventive healing. For tank, start with warrior, then drk, then you have a choice of going a more party utility paladin or one more focus on dishing out dmg as GNB DPS wise, dancer, smn, drg, bard are good starter, drg can progress into monk, dancer can sorta progress into reaper, but yeah dps are mostly unique and not as homegenised as tank/healers

[@kevinsaladar2745]

I remember ARR days when you have to stance dance and players are afraid to touch WAR.

[@CyberMonkey03]

Scanning through this video and comment section is a nightmare as a new player, the symbols and the abbreviations are completely alien to me 😂

[@CyberMonkey03]

The timestamp a help a ton tho, enjoyed the video

[@dalouma-1]

As a newer player, I have been playing BLM through the msq ever since I started and now im currently level 60 near the end of HW. I recently began to understand the difficulty when I realized that fire iv doesn't refresh enochian. I get nervous whenever i see the max level job gauge

[@TheBarracudaProject]

I’ve just started doing Savages as a BLM and it’s definitely a lot to learn but everything is introduced to you a step at a time allowing you to learn it thoroughly if you put the effort in!

[@NeocrimsonX]

Black mage is the best starting class and here is why. Because it isn't

[@benc2972]

I used it through the whole MSQ. It made me a better player. I’m sure of it.

[@RaccoonBrigade]

I played through msq with blm and wouldn’t do it over. When I started playing other classes though i found some of them kind of boring compared to the trials I had been through hardcasting for 3 seconds.

[@indaDark]

i switched to "whatever comes before summoner i forgot and i dont care" thinking "i wana play dps, but i wana rush through msq, so why not? healer for dungeons, dps for anything else, EZ" didnt think for a moment that summoner was bad for raiding. abit clunky and weird sure, but it wasnt a coinflip between clear or 0.1% enrage. now with endwalker, its my recomendation for doing endgame for the first time.

[@skullwolff9442]

even with kaiten, samurai is easy. but than again. all melee's are easy if you main ninja for 5 years.

[@eviljoshy3402]

On the topic of drk starting at lvl 30. I actually agree with that. Id like people to learn the job before being thrown into a dungeon with them. I didn't use to feel that way until I lvled rpr. Learning a job that starts at lvl 70. That was a lot of buttons to learn. I haven't even tried to figure out sage.

[@JD-hp1ls]

If you learn SCH you’ll understand sage. It’s all just managing your charges for ogcds and shielding damage before it hits. It’s almost more learning the fights than the class in a lot of fights. Plus Haima and Panhaima are amazing

[@brycekillor318parker6]

I took to sage pretty well, but I main healers and focus pretty well on getting my head around systems.

[@ThePolarpop]

I don't main healer but am a very "learn my systems well and fully" type of person, got any more insight on healers as someome wanting to both pick up a healer and ff14? (Wow/moba/etc. Vet)

[@brycekillor318parker6]

For healers in general, I'd probably start with read your ability tool tips (a given for every job) and get familiar theoretically of the types of situations each ability could be used in. Get used to maintaining your damage over time spell on important targets as a bare minimum amount of healer dps. The only health point on party members that matters is the very last one. Lastly, all healers in this game have multiple area of effect heal over time spells, and as long as everyone doesn't keep taking damage, one should top everyone off from 1hp over its duration.

[@Bobskater1000]

I started with black mage as my main as my first job lmao

[@happyellowl7973]

I would still recommend new players to start with hard job, such as astrologian it will help to understand what party buffs are, what hard weaving is, what's burst damage is, what casting is and in general healer knowledge is extremely important to play other jobs. Then I will recommend start as a meele to teach players what the postionals and uptime are and their importance. Only after having astro and meele experience you can start to tank, why only after healing and meele? Because I've seen a lot of tanks tanking boss in such way that meele have work their ass off for dealing good damage and healer experience provides good knowledge in using mitigation. And ONLY in the end you can start playing as black mage. This job is easy only on the cover but inside holds extreme complexity in trying optimizing it, the rotation of this job optimized is not standard to any existing jobs. It requires good knowledge of almost everything in the game, at level 90 don't be discouraged to see low damage even you're doing damage non stop and doing your standard rotation correctly . Because, yes... the standard rotation will cause you to lose dps even with bis, why you'd say? Because for dealing good damage on black mage requires you to use your transpose almost every single line on LEVEL 90.

[@ECO_Damesis267]

how is monk in the same level of dificulty than dancer and machinist. somethings off here. you need to manage and keep a 18s DoT and a 15s DMG buff, you have lots of decisions to make on each fight just because your normal rotation is not the usual 1-2-3. you dont have a ranged attack to keep uptime so its the most greed heavy class along with BLM, meaning you have to use your stacks of thundeclap masterfuly. depending on your opener, and on the fight , you need to use diferent chakra beast combinations, messing up your chakra beast gauge is a big F on your rotation most of the time. running monk on skill speed higher than 1.94 feels awful, not to mention since its the highes skill speed oriented class, if you dont have Excelent ping, you can forget about double weaving, making your bursts super awkward because you wont be able to weave a lot of forbiden chakras, making you lose dps.

[@eazyaspiez1282]

hmm what did i do? so i started out with arcanist and thought it was going to be a healing class (didn’t know about jobs stones) so i dropped it because i didn’t want to do that… then I created a gladiator… got bored of that didn’t really like tanking that much, then i created a black mage and whew i fell in love with that class instantly.

[@LuquiLuck]

I've never played healer and I unlocked sage. It feels easy and powerful to use, but you need to know precisely what do your skills do otherwise u will be wasting nice healing in most important moments of the fight. I would put it on B-C tier

[@glu9165]

It’s funny, I chose BLM because I heard it was one of the least beginner friendly jobs lol.

[@88Spint]

MCH was so hard to get into. No clear rotation to gleam from just reading the abilities nor any good way to manage keybindings to fit how I laid it out for every other job. You need to watch a guide on how to play it and why you do stuff in certain orders before you can even begin to do damage. In the end it might be strait forward but the first few levels are really confusing.

[@88Spint]

Especially when comparing it to RDM which is extremely strait forward. They even color coded it's abilities xD

[@shakeweller]

Healers have to sadly deal with the crappy party frames and targeting system.

[@ragingsensei275]

Astro on console is a nightmare ‘Down, down, down, down, card’

[@ex0stasis72]

@@ragingsensei275 You can use keyboard and mouse on console, and you can use a controller on PC.

[@uchihasenjuu]

As a tank main playing DRK I got grouped with a sprout AST in Aurum Vale who couldn’t communicate in English. Had to reduce my mob pulling to not more than 5 per pull…

[@ofanichan]

Hard disagree with Red Mage. I think the main issue with the job from my perspective is how it starts at level 50 with so many spells at the ready. It’s a lot to get into for a new player for sure. I will also say that Scholar is definitly harder to play than Astrologian (Ast main here) Sure, Astrologian is busy, but what makes the Scholar hard is how stressfull things become once people really need to be healed. I feel like Scholar requires you a bit to keep a shield on people at all times. Because once they’re at less than 50% health, its really nervewrecking. Astrologian doesnt really struggle like that. Healing is easy, especially now. And healing is it’s main job afterall.

[@LemonInYourEyes]

I mostly agree with your take on RDM. As a new player myself I had to really ask for a lot of help from friends when I first started playing RDM just to understand the basic ranged rotation, with doublecast and everything. And since it starts at 50 I would say it is one of the more difficult jobs to learn straight off the bat.

[@Moonlight__vibes]

As a Spanish speaker I couldn’t stop hearing the color morada every time he would say marauder 😂 Good content!

[@88Spint]

BLM has the best story of all jobs. I know people like the DRK story but BLM personifies the job identity perfectly. I know people don't like the little guys but trust that this story fit the powerfantasy so fking well it makes me wanna play the job more. The hard part of BLM is found pretty much only in raids and in fast dungeon clearing. If you pick BLM then you really should just play BLM and nothing ells in order to preform. You will need to practice and know fights. You will need to think and realize that your damage MATTER. So put down that mountain dew, cus It's time to blow some shit up!

[@TheRealDlo]

Loved the Witcher 3 music 🎶

[@DioAngys]

That Levi background 👌🏼🤙🏼😁

[@rueIeofIight]

at first thought this was an overall tier list and was coming to say wtf to astro being bottom. I then used my eyes and read (like I initially should have) and realized I am a peanut.

[@GarnetDust24]

I hope next expansion the make a class that has a tank/dps split similar to scholar summoner.

[@adrevenue726]

what about healer /tank?

[@ALLIX79]

All I could think of while listening to this guy talk... "For lunch we have something cool like a cigarette."

[@elliejoestar]

I started as a BLM back before stormblood released and I remember thinking it was ridiculously easy at 60, I swapped to SAM as early as possible and now how everyone talks terrifies me to go back to BLM now omg

[@insolace8077]

started black mage, forever black mage

[@IGotsBadFeeling]

I wouldn't really recommend a tank job as something to start with.

[@ReyOfLight]

Indeed, I wouldn’t recommend starting off as tank in FFXIV, unless you have previous experience of tanking from similar games, so you can implement that in FFXIV. The tank just has so much responsibility in dungeons with essentially leading the party, and if you mess up on mitigation and the healer can’t keep up, the team usually wipes if tank goes down. I did MSQ as BLM, then leveled Reaper and did 6.2 on Reaper, now I also have a lvl 90 Sage (as of earlier this week) so learning healer more now too. I’m not very comfortable with tanking yet even now, almost 6 months into the game, but I do have lvl 50 DRK and 65 GNB and of the two, GNB fits my play style better. I’m a DPS player at heart so by nature I guess, I prefer jobs that do a lot of damage even if it’s a tank or healer job. DRK feels a bit clonky to me, and not enough mitigation for me yet as I’m not an experienced tank. GNB feels balanced because it has good damage along with quite a bit of mitigation. Sage to me is fun, and I’m doing ok on it considering I haven’t played it much, and again a high damage job despite not being a DPS job. I went to Elpis earlier just to do some fates for fun, and it sure is fun to casually hit enemies for over 14K with Dosis, and enemies hitting you for 0 because you have a barrier going XD

[@YuriusSan]

Bro sage is S. its an entry level barrier healer because they need 2 healer jobs for beginners to play, WHM/SGE entry level regens/shields , AST/SCH advanced.

[@KeyserTheRedBeard]

exceptional video Desperius FFXIV. I shattered that thumbs up on your video. Continue to keep up the wonderful work.

[@aaroncobeng]

50 minute queue for monk for castrum meridianum made me nope away from dps. (pre patch)

[@CrazedSpartania]

There hasn't been fairy management since storms blood...

[@DaDavid1193]

Sick, I started with BLM and started a DRK as soon as I could try that. Never thought I was having less fun than possible but I guess I don't know what the grass was like on the other side.

[@FelineElaj]

Upgraded my free trial to basic version of the game today. I have level 55 Summoner/Scholar, planning to switch to Red Mage. Edit: kinda sad that they switched Summoner from big-brain job to "hurr-durr, me press pet button" job, lol. I was just starting to get into the playstyle.

[@berniecat8756]

Just started playing Astro (I’m a sprout) after playing summoner until lv 65. It has been a terrible ride so far. The job is a lot of fun but there are so many things to take care of that it gets overwhelming. I force myself to play conservatively and keep the tank at full health. If I get greedy the party wipes. Definitely a tough learning curve that requires a lot of apologizing in party chat.

[@sorush93]

I dont agree with this at all! I dont play all these Classes, but those i have on 90 il tell my experience. Tanks: Warrior and DK and GB, both Warr and DK are easy, and as you lvl and progress you basically learn everything, so Warr For S and DK for A. GNB does have more spells, and is a faster type of Tank and do in fact feels like a dps, but the rotation has a clear red thread and it follows eachother so i would but it on B-C tier. Mel dps: Reaper, Dragoon, and Samurai, both Reaper and Dragoon i would put on A, they are easy as hell, however Samurai i would put on C because even though Kaiten is removed they have MANY spells, and you need to memorize what you did before, and its frustrating like hell if your new. Sure when you get a hang of it its damn fun but its not an Easy first Job. Ranged Dps: Summoner, easy, fun, and insane burst dmg, perfect starting class, S tier. In the end, choose what you like, because with practice you will learn it, like everything else, people right now are scared like hell for Ninja, but i tried it and lvling one now (84) and its damn fun and not THAT hard. So pick whatever you think feels good and looks good, easy as that.

[@youtousim]

Starting just recently, i was pretty overwhelmed by Archanist at first. Still don't really know what the benefits of the different carbuncles/summons is after unlocking the job crystals. That being said, after figuing to spam ruin and then the elemental skills it does work for MSQ content. Just not sure if it is the best class for a new player, as it has the most skills and resources to manage early on, constantly keeping an eye on charges and timers.

[@mismismism]

It's good in the sense that most jobs have something like that you need to manage but SMN really doesn't actually need to manage much of anything, especially lower level since you really just spam abilities and you'll almost always use you summon skills way before the timer runs out unless you killed the mob. SCH is def one of the harder jobs though. But I do kind of agree, it's probably not the best choice for starting job other than the upside of getting 2 jobs leveled at once. But most starting jobs have some micro management, Bards have DoTs, melee jobs have positionals and most also have a buff they have to keep up at all times while Black Mage is arguably the hardest job in the game, SMN feels more complicated than it actually is once you get used to it.

[@youtousim]

@@mismismism Good insight. What i still couldn't figure out is when to use which elemental invocation, and why e.g. Ifrit only has two charges. Nothing watching a tutorial can't fix, though.

[@mismismism]

@@youtousim It's way more simple than it comes off reading the skills, and in lower levels the only real difference is that Ifrit phase has cast times, you don't really have to pick between them until like level 86 when they each get a secondary ability and then Ifrit has a gap closer, Garuda gets a slow cast tornado that stays on the ground for a long time that does damage over time as long as the enemies are standing in it and Titan gets an extra instant oGCD attack to weave between each so it's like 8 instant casts really fast back to back, so that's when you gotta pick, until then it's just making sure you use Ifrit when you have time to stand and cast.

[@youtousim]

@@mismismism Was wondering for the longest time. Thanks for the guide!

[@CYMainA.I]

@@mismismism sorry but, black mage is thaumaturge? Because I just started, and I can see why I have so much difficult playing 😅.

[@Deadman775]

I just need to get over my Tankxiety

[@bari3108]

Ok so clearly I like to suffer in my game because I started with NIN and after getting to HW I switched full-time to AST because I was tired of the long duty queues. I'm still an AST main roughly 500h later because I love the job, even though I get finger cramps after a longer duty haha.