Comparing All Casters in FFXIV Dawntrail - Job Picking Guide

[@Jolsn]

Sponsored - Check out Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds using my link here: wehy.pe/y/1/Jolsn

[@bladecrustacean]

Where's FSH?

[@keeper2335]

FSH deserves its own video, clearly.

[@RottenMilk313]

Too powerful

[@vincentbeton]

They got "Rest", so now they're too OP. Not even joking, it's really useful

[@GzzGtu20]

..What's FSH? 😅

[@teaisbetter2508]

​@@GzzGtu20fisher

[@Gemini_Godhand]

Red Mage. I rezzed too many raid groups to forget that healers OWE ME A DEBT!

[@RatKingRussian]

Leveled blm: "I adore this i am now a BLM main" Leveled pictomancer : "I am a caster main"

[@fobtasz4693]

Eksu the shade

[@tkhero7045]

stop don't call me out like this

[@lartisteautravail]

BLM is the only caster I enjoy. The big booms are life.

[@simj202]

​@@lartisteautravail I do not play casters for mobility and utility. I play BLM for giant explosions. He who plays casters for mobility and utility has forgotten the face of his father.

[@TheArnoldification]

A video like this containing actual good information and isn't just extreme surface level slop mixed with bad jokes is rare, good job

[@sjaak9568]

I think it's a shame they went with Solar Bahamut instead of something like adding Shiva, Ramuh and Leviathan for the inbetween phases to switch it up or something.

[@dragonhearthx8369]

If you wanted swords, Shiva would have been perfect. Ramuh could have been floating lightning bolts.

[@thomasklein9823]

Alexander would have been an interesting alternative to Solar Bahamut which would have still matched most of the aesthetic

[@dragonhearthx8369]

@@thomasklein9823 especially since you actually go inside of it. You could have a quest where you get the egi like the others. But you do have a minion of it, so maybe thats why. If it is? It is so lame.

[@michaelbowman6684]

Why Summoner isn't just summoning, like, _all_ the Primals countered in the story so far is a mystery to me. Imagine summoning (potential Spoilers ahead:) Ravana, or Susano, or Shinryu.

[@paysonfox88]

I have a random little poem for these casters. I met a pictomancer, who was a necr-o-mancer... And when I ask about POD, I found they had the answer! For the 4 winds, I wondered at ag-en The broadness of black mages' hat and from the fire in his staff, I felt the suns' heat and had to laugh! And when I looked to raise to peerage Ver mage of red's pers-on-age I found Ver Holy spells of light and zombies dancing in delight as ver raise ver cured the deathly sight Of fallen comrades in sa-va-ges!!! Then when I needed companionship on this life's all rocky ship I looked to the dating simulator from whom there is one non-hater when you need a companion "Summon her" So I ran to the local summoner, now not LATER!

[@octaviaautumn3656]

Black Mage my beloved

[@paysonfox88]

I like big booms and I cannot lie you other mothers can't deny when I see an itty bitty flame it looks lame, I Get SPRUNG! On jeweled staff I'm hung! and Stuck! deep in the Hat I'm wearing, you're hooked and you can't stop staring Oh baby, I wanna get with ya, and take a picture! Lay that big boom on me!, Cuz that nuclear boom make me so Ornery! And use the , use the, flare like you're a groupie! I hear frost is the new thing, and bullets some will bring get the average black mage and ask em that? He want's a boom to pack! (background chorus)--- Oakwood, to da black shroud! Ul Duh is a dead cow! La Noche by the Ocean is erased by my explosion! Cuz I'm MEGUMI!!! Crimson Mage Megumi!!

[@icykuikinu6757]

Quick tip about picto and their paint lines You can get rid of them super quickly by using all of your subtractive palette casts + Comet in Black + Star prism first, and then you can use the rest of your hammer strikes and rainbow drip for the rest of the burst with ease and no stress of having to sit and cast in them while the boss is doing mechanics. Conversely, if the boss is doing big mechanics while you're doing your burst, you can delay getting rid of the paint lines a bit by using your hammer strikes first. Hope this helps all you painters :D

[@Jolsn]

True, but also consider that the circle gives you 5 stacks of hyperphantasia - from a damage standpoint, it doesn't actually matter if you stand inside the circle the whole time. You can use some stacks, move out, and move back in and your damage will be identical! As long as you put everything into the other buffs that are up.

[@TheSqueezey]

I noticed that your solar bahamut is still default huge size while the other 2 are not. Sorry if you already knew but you have to re-apply the command to decrease its size, too! lot of peeps do not know that :)

[@dtaggartofRTD]

I was wondering about that. I'll have to shrink it next time I'm on.

[@ridoranalighthouse]

i've gone from being a shield healer main (with physrange being my secondary pick) in endwalker to being a full-time caster main in dawntrail. when pictomancer was revealed as the 2nd new dawntrail job i was intrigued, and when early access started i picked picto up first thing. love at first cast. pictomancer is such a wonderful job with a plethora of cheeky little optimisations that all comes together to make it an incredibly fun job to play! the beauty of casters is that they truly all shine in different encounters. in valigarmanda ex i've loved playing summoner and red mage for their movement tools, but in zoraal ja ex they're less exciting while picto and blm are just brilliant with their sporadic burst movement. m2s was annoying to plan bursts on as rdm while progging, but it was no problem while playing picto. in m4s on the other hand i have my movement and bursts for rdm in a mental spreadsheet, but with picto i'm still a bit lost despite it being the job i cleared on. the dash is an absolute godsend in (almost) any encounter though, and i've only managed to zoom myself off the arena with it a few times, while on rdm i've sent myself verflipping just one ilm too far a bit more often than i'd like to admit ^^ i have a lot more i could say about casters, but in conclusion i think i've found my true calling in spellslinging

[@N.G.H.]

Blue Mage is right for everyone.

[@ADCVr]

Red Mage for the drips ✨

[@ericteichmiller5721]

Do you plan to release one for Melee/physical DPS?

[@raarasunai4896]

I like the black mage changes, especially now that Ice Paradox has been added back in. Fire Paradox being instant, not having RNG on whether it gives Firestarter, thunder not being RNG, and yes, I even like the changes to the mana Regen that ties it to spells instead of timer. I know Black Mage mains absolutely hate that, and I say to each his own. The new changes have made the job friendlier towards casual players, especially giving Umbral Soul within ARR and making it just freeze the Umbral Ice timer

[@BGrimoire]

The time freezing of Umbral Ice was a damn right call

[@DannyPotato]

Why hate requiring to use an ice spell to restore mana when you need to use one to charge umbral Hearts anyway?

[@raarasunai4896]

@@DannyPotato Because “wah wah my nonstandard play is gone now wah wah.” That’s pretty much what it boils down to for those who hate it because they don’t want things accessible because they don’t feel as special when they do it right

[@jereboy2005]

I have played almost solely summoner sice i started when endwalker hit. And i liked its looks and flow, but definitely wanted more and the solar bahamut is not it. I decided ti branch out and start trying the other casters. Leveled up blm to 70, and just unlocked pct. I definitely think caster is for me even thiugh ive not even unlocked any melee or tanks haha. Red mage seems fun. I would have loced ti stay smn but they just kinda didnt make it any more fun this expansion

[@dragonhearthx8369]

If you want to vranch out more i recommend physical range. Machinist to start with.

[@Reoh0z]

Pictomancer confused the heck out of me until I spent some time on a training dummy. But once I got it, it is indeed a lot of fun.

[@Kyolt_tsu]

As a SMN main who's lvl 100,I didn't know that I could enkindle other party members till just now, I thought it just sent out the raid wide everlasting flight, make sure to read what your abilitys do 😅

[@IzzetNilson]

I hadn't really played summoner until this expansion and i swear i thought it was a damaging ability 😭 So I was just blasting it not realizing i was hitting myself with it

[@Luxia-f1e]

the biggest problem i have with blm is how radically different your rotation is every ten levels and how miserably slow it can be below 50

[@TheLunarLegend]

Rdm is the most fun to play for me, but blm is my favorite. I like the big numbers

[@Lukaz2009]

Have gotten Picto, Black Mage, and Summoner to level 100 of the caster DPS so far. Mained Picto for MSQ and love it to death. Summoner is the same as it was in Endwalker. Enjoyed it then and enjoy it now. I just wish that the Demi summons had a bit more uniqueness to them. Black Mage is in quite a sad state. Like, it isn't unplayably bad after some of the patch changes, but it is so sad. Still need to levek Red Mage from 90 to 100, but I don't expect it to have changed much from Endwalker so it should be a good time.

[@DeathDragon1730]

ngl, i think this video showed me how reliant i am on guides. i just spent the last 10 minutes staring at your hotbar in the pictomancer part because i have no idea what i'm doing when it comes to keybinds. i have no regrets, though a good amount of shame.

[@jeteriksen-gaming8643]

Who snuck the phys ranged and Melee DPS into this video?

[@dragonhearthx8369]

Me

[@IzzetNilson]

I loved this video. I most certainly identify as a caster main, though the only job I don't have up is RDM - mostly for personal character flavor. (I don't see my character using rapier, so someone else can have that lol) I think Lunar Bahamet, while cool, does feel really redundant. I initially wasn't thinking I'd play SMN cuz blue eyes white luster dragon felt a little out of place, and would have been happy to have some other summon instead. Mostly, I thought lunar bahamet was supposed to be an upgraded version of regular bahamet, and not some other summon entirely. But then again, I also roleplay as a dragon worshipper so I am living the best life right now lol

[@Seth6097]

Can’t wait for your melee guide ❤

[@IAmMugel]

Honestly...blue mage. I kind of wish I didn't level one because it's way too much fun and I hate that it's a solo job

[@hasseo195]

Black mage. It feels the best for me. Summoner is ok. Red mage feels something weird. Its spells doesnt look as impactfull as the others. Its gimmick to ignore casting time each second spell is nice. But can bring you out of flow sometimes (and was usefull, when i needed to do mass ressurection in the raid, a few days ago)

[@SanitySan]

1st time player going black mage no clue what the actual differences are mechanically / dps but as a wise man once said, JUST DO IT.

[@davepumphernickel9568]

White mage: Am I a joke to you? Scholar: Yes.

[@AriaValentini]

Love your vids keep it up

[@Jolsn]

Thank you!

[@leotle6309]

No point playing BLM now since PCT is more mobile, easier to play and most importantly, it tops almost all the dps chart in savage.

[@icykuikinu6757]

Regarding summoner tho, I still think tho that Dancer is still easier than Summoner, it is really hard to mess up Dancer, as opposed to using the wrong rotation and summoning ifrit in bad times can easily kill you in quite a lot of high end fights. Tbh I wish they gave Solar Bahamut and the 3 summons after it, along with phoenix and it's 3 summons, were all casting focused, while Bahamut 1.0 was the movement focused one. Would make the job feel more interesting imo. I still enjoy the job, and I find the hidden lore about Solar Bahamut REALLY cool, but just want to play a *caster* and not a physical ranged haha (And before you say just okay Picto, I already do and it's my favorite caster, but I started this game as Arcanist and i have a soft spot for it)

[@Jolsn]

I think all they had to do with Solar Bahamut was giving it two oGCDs that aren't used exactly the same way as Bahamut, and I'd be pretty fine with it. Maybe a slightly harder burst window by making you press each of the buttons twice instead, like so you'd get into some weaving troubles during it, especially if you try to fit four uses of Necrotize as well. Kind of like a double-time bahamut.

[@xKayges]

Fantastic vid, thanks. (:

[@jakegallant2021]

I have never seen so many people drop their jobs for a new job before. I’m sure by the end of the expansion, many players will switch jobs or go back. I think this is largely due to SMN not changing in any meaningful way. BLM also has a lot more jank and is dealing less damage than PCT.

[@Jolsn]

I hope BLM gets a serious buff. Double potency on Flare Star or something

[@davepumphernickel9568]

Funny how they could have avoided all this and just added in a Tank and white mage. Instead became slaves to the big number gods sitting in prayer on 30-40 min wait times for levelling dungeons.

[@SmithyJones]

No blu?

[@derginadaydream]

sam spends more time doing casts than smn

[@Emma-rr6kf]

Black mage is still and always will be my favorite ^~^

[@kennys6288]

I see 3 casters and a phys ranged.

[@snaplash]

I've been playing SMN as an alt, but I'm getting tired of all the dead time that comes with each summon. I should have taken another caster to 100 first.

[@Czasoniks]

Done with Janthir Wilds so I can play more FF14, I'm back to Janthir anyway 😂

[@raishinshah]

I am a RDM main since stormblood. Not because i love the job, but because it is necessary for oh shiet moment during raids. I have lost count of how many raids i have saved by ress-ing healers when both of them f-ed up. Truth be said, RDM playstyle is so boring regarding the need to balance the mana.

[@Kashido23]

Ill be a caster main until PICnerfs or BLM buffs then ill go back to BLM main

[@Ramladon]

Sometimes the answer is none. I enjoy Tanks, heals, support, and some of the melee classes, I don't enjoy any of the casters. So they get leveled and dumped to the next expansion again and again.

[@虎瀬野]

next melee damage dealers

[@tkhero7045]

was a B.mage main up until post shadowbringers and it was awesome but after i swapped to sage for dawntrail after skipping EW (dont regret it i wanted to do the last eden raids with friends and i did NOT want to do any more post msq bullshit) i just kinda never looked back. ive even gotten it to 100 but after doing the same with picto B.mage just doesnt feel the same sadly

[@Qwerty95ish]

Maxed BLM, wasnt impressed. Maxed Pictomacer had a ball, super fun.

[@OkanDiodoros]

beo where is the keybinds vid

[@ofanichan]

I hate casters in mmos with all my heart, so they’re the only one I havent maxed leveled yet lmao. Maybe this video could be helpful in finding one I’d be willing to give a chance.

[@backslash4141]

Personally I'm not a huge fan of casters but I definitely found my niche with red mage. It having a melee combo burst is nice and the dual cast just works in my brain as I were using something like continuation on gunbreaker. It does take a bit of getting used to though and the biggest reward for playing them only comes when everyone else dies and you can rez mage the whole team. I'd still recommend giving it a try though.

[@ofanichan]

@@backslash4141 Yeah Red mage has definitly been the one I have been eyeing the most. It's just that a class starting at level 50 can be a bit of a headache learning what all the spells do, but I should honestly give them a shot.

[@nightstrider15]

I surprisingly enjoyed Summoner. I was never a summoner main, but its simplicity I saw as a boon not a con. It’s essentially the Warrior of casters. Easy to learn, not hard to master. That said, stylistically, I prefer Red Mage. 😁

[@Jolsn]

I don't think it's bad either, I just think they could have done a lot more with it in Dawntrail. I think a game like this should have easy options like Summoner too

[@GEMINIVice1]

@@Jolsn…this dev team made FF16 Where the main character is a badass Smn, but for the XIV xpac post FF16…..Shiny Seahorse/Bahumut 2 was all they could think for Smn in XIV

[@Shipwrck86]

All caster are good for me, physicals are a drag to play

[@Jinxyoutoheaven]

Housing in gw2? Well time head back there.

[@dylanusmagnus]

Picto, next question.

[@KnightOfCarim2]

what is the question?

[@dylanusmagnus]

@@KnightOfCarim2 lol the video was originally titled "Which Caster is right for you?"

[@markmessi9020]

On this day 8/22/24? The answer is Pictomancer for everyone! 🎭 🎨

[@lyconxero457]

I haven't leveled Black Mage yet in Dawntrail so I've not personally experienced the changes post 90 but I have leveled all the other casters to 100 and it's honestly not even close. Pictomancer is such a fun job to play that it was actually hard for me to level other jobs because I just wanted to level it more. In fact, the only job that I've enjoyed playing as much as Pictomancer...is Viper! SE really cooked with these new jobs and I've gotta say that I actually really like the changes that they made to Viper in 7.05 as the job feels silky smooth in action. But back to the casters, I honestly found that Red Mage is the most boring to play which surprised me as Summoner is essentially the same job as before but I just found Red Mage to be very ineffective at movement as compared to all the other casters. Pictomancer has super long cast times but with a little practice you can find opportune times to get them off while stockpiling things that allow for easy movement while maintaining your damage. Summoner is basically just a ranged physical DPS so movement is not really a problem the vast majority of the time and what I realized after leveling both Red Mage and SMN was that there's no situation where i'd rather take the Red Mage over the SMN as Red Mage feels like I have to work really hard for very little DPS whereas SMN feels like I have to work very little for very little DPS but with neither of them being particularly fun for me to play the choice becomes clear as to which I'd rather use when I'm forced to use one at all. 9/10 if I'm playing caster I'm playing Pictomancer as of right now but who knows if that'll change once I start leveling BLM. On the surface, the changes seem interesting...but I can't see it being more fun than Pictomancer as I personally got over casting the same spell over and over again and thinking that was fun back in Heavensward. Honestly, it's to the point now that I'm really hoping that they completely revamp Black Mage because it's just boring to play for me currently but I'm just really thankful that there are plenty of other jobs that I really enjoy playing in the game AND the actual battle content this expansion has been fantastic thus far.

[@alexmmin]

i dont have brain so i choose summoner

[@TheLMBLucas]

Posted 18 min ago LMAO I've just decided to level a caster next and decided to check a comparison guide 😂😂

[@Jolsn]

Any idea what you're gonna pick?

[@TheLMBLucas]

@@Jolsn Your video was very helpful but... nope lol. I used to main caster dps, specially SMN, but I got bored with it. I might end up going with Picto because it's the one I have at highest level now

[@kiretan8599]

You can tell if one just gets sponsored without even trying the game😂 warclaw aint a new mount 😂 they just trying to repurpose an old mount 😂 kudos to arenanet i guess, at least they are trying to market their game nowadays.

[@YUXKE]

Blue Mage?? :)

[@floofzykitty5072]

SMN has so many little quirks that tick me off. It's like it inherited all the clunk SCH shed after the QoL improvements in EW. In Savage raiding it felt really bad when I would do my rotation 100% perfectly and everything would drift and become misaligned because Garuda and Ifirit do not properly balance each other out. Garuda being the slow clunky summon is also an odd decision that I feel doesn't embody the flavor of the summon. I remember using my Swiftcast on the ground DoT and it felt better. Titan and Ifirt both have better mobility compared to Garuda, the wind summon. I like my classes to have flavor that aligns with the mechanics. And then there was the phonix healing basically just being for flavor. Very rarely does the phonix healing align with some big raidwide damage. I remember asking the healers if the healing helped, and they would say they don't even notice it because it never happened when big damage was going down.

[@KogasaYosikage]

Was pictomancer, but switched to Redmage because I got tired of wiping in normal raids daily

[@Reoh0z]

At times I find BLM frustrating. Its very easy to lose your combat buffs due to slight but frequent movements as your buffs have very short timers. Other jobs might suffer a slight DPS loss because of the movement but BLM might reset themselves back to the beginning in terms of setting up their rotation. Less of an issue later on but still prevalent.

[@acemurasaki2166]

the answer is pictomancer for everyone. why? tonsa dmg- u can move while "casting" half of your stuff. well in all honesty 1/3rd ....and DAMAGE. Also its cute. (personal opinon)

[@GamingAdjacent]

Not subbed but Algorithm brought me here less than 40 mins after upload.

[@Nodnarb59]

RDM for me, the fact PIC has no oGCDs kills it for me.

[@jeteriksen-gaming8643]

You have all your Living muses, mog laser, Madeen, subtractive palette, swift cast, hammer activation, starry sky, and your defensive. What do you mean no OGCD's?

[@icykuikinu6757]

I think the only caster with no offensive oGCDs is Black Mage xD (key word, offensive, as in does damage directly) Picto has like, 5k potency worth of damage in oGCDs haha

[@Aoestandingway]

Where is THM

[@DannyPotato]

Hahahaha

[@Hunterbw93]

Summoner is just the cuckolded version of Red Mage. Cant multi raise, doesnt have party mitigation, its heal doesnt scale off of its main stat and it literally does less damage. Red Mage can do every single thing Summoner can do but better and even more.

[@ridoranalighthouse]

the Only downside to red mage compared to summoner is not having a personal mit. going between red mage and pictomancer in current savage i absolutely wish rdm had its own version of radiant aegis/manaward/tempera coat. some of these hits HURT, man

[@jaquanepatterson2537]

The developers have on note said they’re probably gonna remove summoners rez in the next expac too.

[@UnstoppableSmooze]

​@@jaquanepatterson2537i at let them remove it at this point, they're so insistamt on kneecapping summoner just because it has a res. In any content where that res matters you almost always will just hit enrage

[@icykuikinu6757]

Just saying as a SMN, I have no issue killing bosses before enrage casts in savage xD Also it's ONLY physick that doesn't scale with INT, their other heals do and they're pretty significant heals too (Lux Solaris can crit for around 30k, which is no joke). I don't think the rez is the issue though, it's the fact that the class is far more lenient with movement than the other casters., which ends up making them hit like a phys ranged than a caster. It's not particularly a class philosophy I enjoy, and why I wish we had more casting themed summons that come after Solar Bahamut and Phoenix, while Bahamut 1.0 is the more movement focused one.

[@aicon2071]

First

[@Jolsn]

Nuh uh, that's me

[@astrealove1]

As someone who despise playing as Caster, here's my thoughts. SMN & RDM hit like a wet noodle, and are boring af. BLM just sucks, it's too complicated and not fun at all. PCT is the only one I haven't tried yet, and it's the last job i'll level.