FFXIV Ranged Comparison! Easy/Hard? Strong/Weak? Randomness?

[@marmalar]

Merry Xmas, Caetsu. Your videos have helped me to understand soooo much in this game! I try to find information on specific things like the different tomestones and other creators always include small spoilers. I appreciate you answering a ton of questions while being mindful of spoilers and being chill in all your vids :)

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

Thank you so much and merry Xmas to you Sidney! That means so much to me I am Actually about to cry 😭😊 I hope I can continue to live up to your expectations as we go in to the new year and beyond! I hope you had/have a merry Xmas and a great new year and beyond of course! ❤️

[@sergel02]

It’s the one role I actually like all jobs in it. Surprisingly I found Bard really hard at first but I’ve gotten more used to it now and I find it the most fun.

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

Bard is very satisfying to get right! 😁

[@LanakFFXIV]

Another great video! Good info and easily digestable. Personally, I don't play many physical ranged jobs outside of dancer. Dancer is a good beginner choice, feels kinda like a support job with dance partner (dps buff for a party member, etc), party-wide heal, shield samba (a defence buff for party), etc, so if you are into that then give it a shot. Dancer is also good if you just want more RNG in your life.

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

Thank you! I am glad to hear that! 😊 Yes that does sound just right!

[@starofaetherius]

The game calls me dancer but i think of myself as a gambler 😎 (Help I'm in crippling debt to the mob)

[@ProgenitorGoblin]

I really love your videos, they’re so well composed, written and performed (and funny). Easy sub 👍

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

Thank you so much! I'm really glad to hear that! 😄🥰

[@ugxsan]

The hardest thing about DNC is not getting spooked by the low personal damage and large number of buttons it throws at you when you pick it up. Weed out those buttons and I promise you’ll pick it up crazy fast beyond that. Optimizing your bursts is a little trickier just because of the juggling act you have to perform between not capping Esprit and still using all your procs every two minutes, but beyond that, it’s a pretty no thoughts, head empty job which I found GREAT for doing call outs since I had way more freedom than most of my party to look around for tells.

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

I personally find dancer very approachable myself too! But I have seen a lot of players have trouble with the job because they feel they have to track their random procs all the time 😅 Yes, there are many ways to easily track it without looking at the buttons all the time, but that is of course also part of the learning process! 😊

[@gfdf511]

Great vid! I learned a lot I didn't know. Here's to hoping Machinst gets another gun one day or can use flamethrower outside of mob killing haha

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

Thank you! I'm glad to hear that! 😊 That would be awesome! 😁

[@dalgona4819]

I started out as Pugilist/Monk bc I like the idea of my WoL weaponizing their bodies in battle. So when I saw Dancer, I was fascinated by the idea of some graceful wreaking havoc in battlefield. It's legit the reason I decided to buy the game XD

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

That is awesome! And it is awesome that Dancer sounds like it lived up to your expectations too!

[@dalgona4819]

@@CaetsuChaijiCh indeed! My MNK is now lvl 90 and I'm on my way to maxing DNC as well ☺️

[@Zanador]

"Machinist combines the style of a FF Gunner and Gadgeteer" It's more accurate to say that it follows the template of previous Machinists pretty closely, in particular Edgar Figaro from FF6, the original Machinist in the series. He's the original user of Drill, Chainsaw, Air Anchor, Bioblaster, and Auto-Crossbow. I would argue that Edgar is the Machinist as Squall is to Gunbreaker.

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

That is a very good point! I hadn't actually considered that 😊

[@djosmi5083]

When I tried dancer for the first time I fell in love. I was bored of doing the same 1-2-3 combos with other jobs, so when I saw that there are a lot of rng in dancer's basic combo I knew this job was for me. Now it's my main dps job.

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

That's awesome! Yeah dancers somewhat random aspects make it stand out quite a lot from the majority of jobs 😊

[@206Zelda]

See, if I had a Rocket Hammer, then my Melee *and* Ranged problems of choice would be over! *Eyes Nero and Square Enix*

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

We need more ranged melee hybrid jobs like red mage! And more importantly we also need a hammer job and warrior getting hammer shaped axes don't count!

[@206Zelda]

@@CaetsuChaijiCh Or my Reaper with a Hammer-Glamour! It's the only way I cope!

[@Majima_Nowhere]

I personally just call phys ranged DPS jobs "ranged." It's less specific, yes, but until we get a melee caster you can just say caster, ranged, or melee and everyone knows what you're talking about.

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

I suppose that is true, although there are situations where ranged accounts for both casters and ranged physical, because it is related to positioning 😊 but you are right that in context just saying ranged is enough!

[@lp1spiritguidance577]

Sage is borderline melee caster from what I’ve played so far at this point lol I’mjust trying to get accused of dry jumping the tank as sage 😂😂😂

[@SubduedRadical]

Ranged. I just call them "Ranged" now. We don't call Casters "Ranged Magical", so there's no confusion. When I say "Tanks, Healers, Melee, Ranged, Caster", everyone gets it. Trying to start a trend, here! :D

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

You can never be too specific! Sometimes people will count Healers as mages because they also are disciples of magic! 😆 But simply Ranged would be way easier!

[@Jenskot-fg7xl]

What would be your quick update given thd recent changes to all three jobs?

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

There are no significant changes to bard or dancer since the making of this video. (nature's minne becoming raid wide, but slightly weaker ultimately makes bard's defense rating the same to me) While machinist received a quality of life change with hyper charge and wildfire getting a small adjustment, this changes nearly nothing as far as this video is concerned - the change mainly helps players with a worse connection i think. However, Machinist being given dismantle does mean that it has some party utility. I think I would adjust machinists star rating for defense from 1 star to 3 stars. I think that is it 😊

[@Hugo-MTX96]

12:35 if there isnt many other non dncs around you can dnc partner other dancers, the personal buff and parnter buff are different, which is why you can "stack" with other dancers but you two cant stack the same dps single dps

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

This is correct! You can partner up with another dancer if you like, as the Standard Finish buff has distinctly different "giver" and "receiver" buffs! It is however, worth pointing out that this is not the case for Devilment, and optimally two dancers partnering up should try to stagger these so they don't overlap! Dancer is known to be in the lower range of personal damage output though, so partnering up with another dancer should generally only be done if the alternative is to partner up with a tank or a healer (outside of certain exceptions)

[@mikakimchi]

8:43 Flamethrower ticks every second unlike other dots so it roughly equals out to Auto Crossbow dps

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

I state the average potencies per second of flamethrower versus using scattergun / auto crossbow at 8:30 😊 Flamethrowers potency per second being 80 is intended to imply the fact it ticks every second, but it is true that it is a unique mechanic! As stated, the reason flamethrowers superior average potency is made irrelevant because of other factors like the cone itself being shorter! Auto crossbow itself also does more than 90 potency per second itself, but the fact that you get five uses out of 50 heat means for every five cross bows you'll need five scatterguns means that those sort of even out (which is how I arrived at the average potency per second of 72.5) 😊

[@Level_1_Frog]

"Marksman" jobs, maybe? Implies using material/ballistic weapons as opposed to calling them 'ranged', which could mean long distance magic or something like that.

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

Yeah this could work! I think part of the problem is that the Ingame interfaces themselves refer to the role as "Physical Ranged" too, so it would require explaining sometimes despite that I could imagine (despite how intuitive marksman sounds!) 😊

[@Level_1_Frog]

@@CaetsuChaijiCh I think anyone that's actually engaging with the content and listens to context would know what you're talking about if you call a job a 'marksman' x) I mean, you could always call them PRDPS but that's... that's just bad and even more confusing, right? 😅

[@Ashgrom]

I only have MCH at 90. DNC is unlocked and got like 1 lvl on it but I just feel it doesn't really do anything. The one thing that hits like a truck has no umpfh to it. I've not tried bard yet tho. But I adore MCH. The big crits, the FF VI Edgar toolkit (AutoXbow, Bio Blaster, Drill etc) are wonderful. The only thing that can stress you out sometimes is using the OGCD rounds but that is more due to wanting to weave both during a GCD window. Else, it's rather easy to play casually. Definitely me fav to do hunt trains with. Pop a bit of the big ones onto anything any you have your bonus.

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

It does sound like MCH is just right for you! 😊 I do understand why DNC's standard finish doesn't feel that explosive, the effect and sound isn't anywhere in the same area of "WHAM!" as any of the big MCH attacks 😅 and you are right, from a casual or otherwise non-perfectionist perspective, MCH is very approachable! It's front loaded rotation also lends itself extremely well to open world content 😁

[@ugxsan]

Not to dissuade you, but you are missing a lot of DNCs good damage moves including their biggest single hit in the form of Technical Finish, the Stardriver that always crits, and Saber Dance which keeps you dealing high AoE damage theoughout. That said, it does lack a heavy-hitting impact move that makes you feel like you’re exploding planets, so that’s entirely fair. That’s a criticism I’d never really considered.

[@Scerttle]

My favourite thing about levelling BRD early (even if it's not your starting class) is you make dungeons runs MUCH faster cause you get AOE so early. Conversely, when I'm tanking and I get any ranged DPS in my party in a low level dungeon I'm excited cause I can still wall to wall no problem! Strangely enough, because you spend so long with BRD during its levelling process I find it the most straightforward ranged DPS (though they're all fine easing into, really).

[@Scerttle]

One tip I will say to make BRD easy: Forget about trying to keep similar hotbars with other jobs and just set it up so one hand is your maintenance rotation and the other hand is your burst (so 1-6 is regular rotation stuff, 7-= is your burst/2 minute stuff). I honestly can't remember the bard opener because my hotkeys are in the ideal order for it if I alternate between each hand (1, 7, 2, 8, etc). Still gotta tap procs but that's the easy part.

[@Scerttle]

(IDK if this is how people typically set up their jobs... usually because I don't know how to choose a main I go for consistency across jobs rather than optimising my bars for each job individually... except BRD lmao)

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

That is certainly a different way to set up hotbars! For some players setting it up this way might certainly help 😊 Bard being the way it is also means that even if you know the order things go in for the burst, it can still be hard to memorize or get right! 😅 Thank you for adding these tips, Scerttle! 😊

[@Scerttle]

The number of times I've been about to limit break as a WHM in PVP at a crucial moment and been one-shot by a MCH chainsaw.... more times than I like to admit.

[@Scerttle]

@@CaetsuChaijiCh Any time! Your videos are giving me an opportunity to think about how I think about jobs and see where I can improve, so thanks to you also!

[@miso.1993]

Looking for another class now, im scared of close combat LOL currently maining a Bard and White Mage which I love🎉 level 60+

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

Well both dancer and machinist are great to try next if you want more ranged physical! I would say machinist can get more complex of the two depending on what you like! 😊

[@miso.1993]

@@CaetsuChaijiCh im leaning heavily toward Dancer!🥰

[@Bzk--]

Im new/returning to the game after a looooong time and interested in machinist as i HATE positionals for melee. But i dont know how i feel about the fact ranged dps have a lot less dmg than melee as far as i know. Can i play a machinist without having to fear being automatically worse than melees?

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

In a coordinated raid group, at least one ranged physical is required due to the party bonus, so you would never be sorted out of a group due to melee being stronger. With that said, in terms of personal dps machinist is very close to the melee in performance (beats some of them in fact) Bard and dancer rely on their raid buffs to compensate for their damage. Overall you should not need to worry about how strong the other jobs are in relation to yours unless you are in a world first racing raid team, as all the jobs are close enough to each other in performance that this should not be an issue. I hope this sort of. Answers your question 😊

[@Gralysin]

i could not enjoy the bard gameplay section because i was way too distracted by the gnb not having kardia

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

Ha i didn't even notice myself! 😂

[@borin192]

You never use pitch perfect with 2 stacks, only if the song is ending, if empyreal arrow is about to be up you either wait for it to get the third stack or double weave it. Also it’s impossible to use 3 empyreal arrows on the burst, the window is about 20s (15 if you consider only when all buffs are up) so you can use it 2 times or only 1 depending on how you consider it

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

Depending on your gcd timing, empyreal arrow cooldown, and song timing, empyreal arrow and song tick may overlap. If you are sitting on 2 stacks and are about to use empyreal arrow, and song will tick as well, there is an 80% chance you will miss a stack in the half second between empyreal and pitch perfect (at least 100 potency lost due to losing the stack). If you instead do 2 stack pitch perfect first then empyreal, then there is a 20% chance you did this unnecessarily, and don't get that extra stack (at most a 20 potency loss) Using this trick of using pitch perfect then empyreal if you are on 2 stacks if song tick is happening now as well will on average be a bigger damage gain than taking the 20% gamble. Delaying empyreal a GCD is a far greater loss.

[@Alen725]

Stop trying to teach other people when you are clearly behind in terms of skill and knowledge.

[@borin192]

@@Alen725 yeah sure clearing all ultimates as a bard isn’t enough to have knowledge lol ok buddy

[@whodis3489]

@@borin192 Clearly someone got carried lol. Try clearning T7S MINE on BRD then come talk.

[@JetEriksen]

You seem to have left out summoner. Oh well! I'll have a look at this once christmas is over.

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

Hahaha it might as well be ranged physical summoner with how mobile it is 😆 it is in the mage comparison because the game says its a mage 🤣 And happy holidays Jet! 😊

[@JetEriksen]

@@CaetsuChaijiCh Truly too mobile. Heck Samurai has more cast time than a summoner!

[@Xeanowos]

machinist has a low entry and low mastery. im not sure how you got 5/5 and 4/5 from

[@Xeanowos]

speed doesnt equal difficulty

[@Donky_Kongs_Baby]

It's fairly difficult compared to other dps actually. When you look at rotation charts and how liner some are like reaper you start to realize how odd and intense your burst window/ skill usage is on Machinist. Plus when you look at Barrier to entry you get it at 30 while most dps you can already have played from 1 - 90 which makes you understanding of the class a lot simpler because you have used the building blocks for so much longer going into end game content.

[@Moonbrony]

Seriously? Only one star out of five for dancer damage? Dancer is my main and a lot of the time the only dps higher on the aggro list is my dance partner

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

The star ratings are relative to the other Ranged Physical jobs, and in a party of equally geared and equally skilled players, Dancer will unfortunately be dealing the lowest damage amongst the DPS jobs at large. This does not mean that Dancer is bad, as the big benefit of the job is the fact that it boosts everyone else's damage (technical finish), as well as especially your dance partner (Standard finish and Devilment). Besides, the average damage difference between the Ranged Physical Jobs compared here are about 5% at most. However, I suppose in certain fights, some jobs may have a particular advantage, which causes them to do better than usual. I know Dancer has quite an impressive initial burst with Standard/Technical Finish among other things. Great that you are doing a lot of damage as Dancer though! And don't let a silly ratings chart change that! The relative damage difference between the 5 starred MCH and the 1 starred DNC is around 5% 😊

[@ugxsan]

Aggro doesn’t only take into account personal damage, but also defensives, healing, boosted aggro moves, and to some extent rDPS, which is something DNC excels at. More importantly, the kind of content you’re doing affects this greatly, as DNC AoEs are extremely strong.

[@chef416]

If you're new to the game. Please do not play Bard, please play literally anything else. There's a 90% chance you'll be griefing every duty you're in for at least a year if you start on Bard. You'll drift your buffs, mess up your song order/durations or perhaps go songless entirely somehow. It's not worth it.

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

Some players enjoy a challenge, but I do agree that bard is surprisingly mean for a new player to start on 😅

[@schmidth]

L take, even WITHOUT songs Bard do amazing DPS in all leveling content. Maybe play with a dps meter before coming with misinformation, bozo

[@chef416]

@@schmidth No they don't. Bard damage is absolutely pitiful if they don't know what they're doing, very often being outdamaged by decent Tanks. Even when I'm hitting high 99s on Bard I am getting outdamaged by low purple Melee jobs. Bard is literally the worst job in the game to put a beginner/bad player on. I can list reasons if you'd like? 1. It suffers from being phys ranged. 2. It's a BUFFING job, meaning most of the value comes from buffing your team who are statistically not going to be very good most of the time. 3. Song rotations. Whether they be fight specific or general use it's very rarely just "leave them on until they run out and swap" because that's wrong and the game never tells you. You end up with buff windows being under the wrong song very frequently. 4. Radiant Finale is a 110s buff that scales with the amount of songs used prior to its activation. People rarely delay those 10s so it gets misaligned for most of every fight. Most Bards I see also don't use it in the opener because they didn't use 3 songs beforehand, so again it's misaligned even further. 5. Bloodletter pooling. 6. DoTs. Both upkeep and snapshotting them into buffs for max length buffed DoTs are not good for beginner players. 7. Proc usage and understanding when you're able to get a proc so you're prepared. Most players don't read that your proc can happen every 3s during a song. 8. Apex Gauge isn't supposed to be used at 100 every time either which the game also never tells you. Odd minute Apex Arrows should be used at around 21s left on 2nd Song or 100 if you manage to get lucky enough to hit that beforehand. I'm making it sound like a bad job, it's not. So where is it useful? 1. In a group that will actually take advantage of a good Bard player's correctly aligned buffs. 2. In very early game dungeons where most other DPS jobs don't have AoE yet. TLDR: DoT/Gauge/Buff management that is more complicated than simply "use x when x runs out or when it's off cooldown" is not good for new players considering the majority of players in this game can't even do the bare minimum of reading what their new skills do. Having to play almost completely optimally to almost compete with the damage of mediocre players in other roles is not good for beginners.

[@schmidth]

@@chef416 Brainlet lmao

[@chef416]

@@schmidth If you're going to troll at least try to be decent at it. Could have been a somewhat believable argument if we were talking about a different job. But come on nobody is going to believe that you actually think BRD is a good DPS for beginners. On the very low chance you're actually not trolling and you see BRD at the top of your DPS meter often then you're playing with some truly awful players lol, like people who brag about having cleared UWU as if it's not just a slightly longer EX trial. I hope you find help.