How do the Melee Jobs compare to Each Other?! FFXIV Dawntrail

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

Which Melee is your favorite?! Personally, I really enjoy Viper for how easy it is to just pick up and go! But sometimes I will also mess around with monk!

[@Theoden48]

As someone who has played MNK for years I'm right there with ya, been loving VPR and its pretty much become my main at this point but MNK will always hold a special place for me

[@marcellnigro]

I’m trying my hardest to make Monk my main melee, but oh boy….its rotation is very hard to keep up. You always have to be ready to use riddle of fire when it’s off CD and then both riddle of fire and brotherhood!! Sometimes it’s impossible to do it because of boss’ mechanics then it messes up everything!! :( I either pay attention to the HUD or to the actual screen haha! I even made a power ranger transformation dude! I want to learn how to play Monk very badly! Maybe I should try Viper instead….lets see what’s going to happen on 7.1.

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

@marcellnigro if you are dedicated i am sure you'll improve with monk with more practice!

[@MarkusAndersen96]

NIN is my favorite but I'm also pretty stoked on getting VPR to share gear with. When I want to chill a little more I run VPR. NIN will always be my favorite though. I'm not perfect or ideal with the opener but the mudras are incredilby fun, high APM, and mobility! Also been enjoying RPR a lot lately.

[@098lightfall]

i enjoy reaper most. though i have a statement: you do not partner with a voidsent, you partner with an evil sheet. that is all.

[@Lynmaru_]

"Gap Widener" 🔥✍️

[@docsigma]

would be a great brand name for amyl nitrite

[@Xorua]

I personally would’ve given Dragoon a much higher rating in the gear dependency category since the job rapidly falls apart with pretty much any amount of skill speed. I still love it, though, even if gearing can be frustrating

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

I can kind of see it, since it gets a bit awkward with speed. I guess I sort of just concluded it was more a mild inconvenience than total chaos! 😅

[@WardsROverrated]

@@CaetsuChaijiCh I can confirm, us DRG mains evade SKS like the plague, there is so much double weaving during burst windows that any amount of SKS will cause drifting that very, very quickly causes oGCDs to fall out of burst window, or even worse, drifting buffs.

[@kayladefour5665]

I built my dragoon around skill speed for memes and to see if its a viable option since it shares accesories with my samurai main, so i made my dragoon 2.40 speed. at 2.40 dragoon no longer becomes a random burst window job, the GCD combo perfectly lines up with burst windows to make the 2 minute burst exactly the same as your opener. I still parsed a 86 and it felt alot more fun to play but.. if you have bad internet or anything less then good internet.. double weaving becomes a nightmare lol

[@KINGOFTHESPARKS755]

Rpr is tge same, but I feel like it suffers even worse in that regard

[@jacobtridef48]

i appreciate that these vids are pretty unbiased. im used to hearing people claim their fave jobs are the "most skilled/hardest" and everything else is "easy", but most the opinions you've had on tanks/dps seem pretty unbiased and true

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

I'm glad to hear that! Even when I main a job I try to not be too attached, so maybe that helps! 😄

[@annieruthietv]

I'm a melee main! The six melee jobs were my first jobs to get to 100 once Dawntrail released! I have and always will be a Ninja main, however. Its intricate burst and all of its stipulations have become ingrained into my very being. While I do like Viper, and hardcore agree in it being the simplest melee dps (I can really only attest to its difficult in comparison to the other melees), I find it exceptionally boring a lot of the time, especially in comparison to Ninja's complexity. Reaper is the other melee dps I play regularly, and I really enjoy it! It's also very very simple in my opinion, but the speed of its Enshroud burst offers more entertainment and comfort than something like Viper, for example. Outside of those three dps jobs, I have not seriously played the other melees too much. I can easily pick them up for casual content, but have not made much of an effort in terms of optimization or consistency. I have to say, my favorite of those three is Monk, i think. Its high skill speed reminds me of the business of the Ninja burst, and its simple, telegraphed rotation helps in learning the ins-and-outs of the rest of its burst. Overall, my melee ranking is as follows: Ninja > Reaper > Viper > Monk > Dragoon/Samurai

[@TheTowerwatcher]

As a veteran player and casual coach, I know a lot of these details already, but it is so very nice to have you lay out all the details with succinct and helpful descriptions and visuals. I will pass this along next time a player asks me about which melee DPS they should play, thank you! 😊

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

I'm glad to hear that! Thank you and I hope it will help many looking forward 😄

[@toxxproductions2202]

Earth's Reply always has my back. I remember doing M4 for the first time and she pulls out the big ahh laser gun and everyone was figuring out the side by side blasts, and then the giga laser. Since we were basically huddled under Wicked Thunder at that point, that limited ranged of Earth's Reply is good for extra heals

[@kurufeemo8076]

Thank you for the video! Waiting for Let's compare magic dps!

[@kitsunehanyou09]

I like the addition of the guide for how the star rating works, though I'll admit the "worse vs better" wording took me a minute to understand. I'm enjoying these comparison series!

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

I'm glad to hear that! Thank you! And yeah I do understand it can be a bit confusing to follow, but I am sure the star ratings are a better shorthand once we are on the same page on how it works!

[@OriginatorXIII]

I started Stormblood last month and after watching the trailer for it, I knew I wanted to play Samurai for that expansion! Glad to say so far it is one of my favorite jobs to play!

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

I'm glad to hear you're enjoying it! It gets even more fun once you unlock tsubame gaeshi in shadowbringers levels if you decide to stick with it! 😁

[@Sky_Ler2000]

It looks fun but good lord it looks complicated. Time will make it easier but man that entry point is not kind.

[@TizzmantineUK]

​@Sky_Ler2000 it looks far more complicated than it actually is, once you practice generating your 3 "stickers" and get comfortable with their rotations it's a relitivily easy class, with some fun CDs 1 sticker for a dot 2 for an aoe and 3 for big single target, it's very fun

[@bipolarprobe]

I'm a dragoon main and I fiddled a bit with mirage dive smuggling this tier. I have to say I do not recommend it at all. Whether or not it's a gain is dependent on kill time and when doing it you often run into collisions with wymrwind thrusts. Since wyrmwind is 440 potency, when you can fit two of them under buffs that's a better gain than the extra 200 from mirage dive and the sheer volume of ogcds in the burst often means the extra mirage dive gets crowded out of buffs anyway. It's a cool optimization, but I think it's only really useful for specific kill time/parse optimization where you've mapped the damage rotation for the entire fight precisely. Edit: well the 7.1 changes certainly surprised me. I will say if you're not looking to optimize dps to the maximum you can still comfortably ignore mirage dive smuggling, but the potency buff makes it a much more attractive optimization for high level play now.

[@linhilde]

Videos like this have been a help for me to find jobs that I feel like I should try out. I love optimization, but, ironically, that leads to me feeling frustrated once a job starts feeling super linear. Ideally, I want to play jobs where I feel like I can do what I want, how I want to do it, all while still aligning with what others need. Red Mage has mostly met that with the B&W mana balancing and its various OGCDs that require accel/swift use to displace GCDs to use as soon as possible. For the Melee jobs, I've struggled to find a job that fits that feeling, but Ninja, for some odd reason, has felt the closest. I want to feel, exactly how Susano would put it, "wild, pure, and forever free."

[@axis1247]

I find what you said kinda funny in regards to monk because functionally monks normal rotation is basically the same as when it had the buff and DoT now its just even more obvious than it was before because now you just follow the blips

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

Indeed! The only times there would be a difference is if there is any delay in the endwalker version, or the exact order you'd do the combo during bursts! 😅

[@tenjiechin]

I don't super agree with Ninja having low gear dependency, in fact it's always the weakest melee until near current bis. It also relies on everyone else being geared to actually contribute the the highest melee rDPS it's known for That being said I love NIN and VPR is growing on me, I love that they share gear and each has their own use case and play feel

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

I get that, I should clarify that while "gear dependency" is a poor way to word it on my part, it was more intended as "do you need *specific* kinds of gear" For example, it ninja had a proc that relied on crit chance, then it relies on having a high crit chance to even function. Ninja as it stands doesn't have such an issue beyond the fact that most jobs with a big burst attack (like hyosho ranryu) get more reliable with more crit chance! But it does mean ninja is... Mostly indifferent to how much speed it has 🤔 I hope that makes sense! It is perfectly possible ninja scales better with gear and so there is an argument to be made about that! 😅

[@arixbray1975]

I need to relearn ninja (tried raiding on it last tier but due to IRL stuff I had to stop). Picked up viper for Dawntrail and honestly... even though it's really simple, I just love the aesthetic of it. Ninja is my secret little project because I find it super fun. I just want to get better at it. Dragoon is also on my list to learn since I've always been drawn to it.

[@Gabbreillenicole]

When I first started playing the game, I started as an Arcanist, I slowly worked my way to all of the classes after I actually bought the game (was a free trial player up until I completed Heavensward), I was drawn to Dancer immediately when I first got the chance to unlock it, same with Reaper. Reaper was my first melee I unlocked, and the class I mained up until I got to Garlemald in EW when I capped it (EW was the current expansion at the time). I returned to Dancer and stayed with it until DT dropped.

[@siosilvar]

I think 4 stars is overselling the difficulty of starting Dragoon, especially after Dawntrail's release relaxed the positionals by a *lot*. I'd swap it with Samurai - though maybe that's just me, because I can manage Dragoon's order-doesn't-really-matter double weaving better than I can manage Samurai's cognitive complexity of not getting the same sticker twice, Meikyo Shisui shifting around a bit based on the Higanbana timer and number of stickers I have, and remembering to spend Kenki. Both are fun, though. My two favorite jobs, with Sage and Reaper in 3rd and 4th.

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

I can see it. I guess I just feel it is a lot easier to do alright with samurai than with dragoon exactly because of how all the things go in a special burst window for dragoon (which is a similar thing for a few of the other melees of course!) But for some that's actually a trait that makes the job easier rather than harder!

[@notGeist]

As a stupid person I think swapping the two would be a mistake. SAM is much easier for us idiots xD

[@lethaltoconcrete2194]

@@notGeist Dragoon just hits things on cooldown. All nuance of accessing its power has been removed, and it doesn't even have a very busy burst anymore. On Samurai, you actually have to plan and think things through to keep your burst aligned.

[@Taldemarr]

Great discussion as always! Found myself in the position to choose which melee dps to play for the current tier and I started with Reaper. However after leveling all of them to 100 I had such a good time with the reworked Dragoon I knew I had to go with it and ended up loving it. The lack of a traditional build/spend gauge also gave me a lot of leeway learning a new job in savage. Alas, after clearing the raid healer jail called to me once more. Back to scholar it is!

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

The funny thing about playing dps in your group of friends is that, if you can play a support role, it feels like if you don't outright say no, you will become the default support person 😂

[@Scorchlette]

Honestly, I think Samurai isn't a bad choice for a first melee, thanks to its somewhat cyclical nature sub-90 (I haven't leveled it to 100 yet, so I'm not sure if that changes). I may be a little biased, though, since I played it from Heavensward all the way to Endwalker in early 2022.

[@eiji_akuma]

I wanna play Reaper and Viper but right now I'm playing Samurai til I get up to those

[@LarkyLuna]

This made me realize it might be good to see how much nin scales in chaotic raids

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

It would be pretty funny if the meta becomes 6 ninjas across the alliances for permanent dokumori!

[@aicilespear4122]

A funny thing about the two jobs with the lowest rating of defense is that both DRG and VPR makes the most efficient use out of Bloodbath by virtue of having a lot of physical damage weaves, since each of them would count as a heal. Meanwhile, NIN probably utilizes this the least since a lot of their damage sources are magic, which doesn't proc bloodbath.

[@Spiritchuckpvp]

Yeah there's definitely pros and cons, but the thing about Bloodbath is that it doesn't stop you from getting 1-shot, which isn't a rarity in high end content. In DSR for example, in Phase 6 WB2 has a chance to hit the melees especially hard even with proper mitigation, and one of those melees will be carrying a debuff that constantly ticks damage on them. I've seen plenty of Vipers and Dragoons fall over there due to the lack of personal mitigation, it can be solved by healers spot healing them but not everyone is perfect and mistakes happen.

[@JamBugz7]

Man.. i'm pretty glad i started playing ff14 with ninja because theres no way id have the patience to learn it now 😅

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

I could see that! It is surprisingly involved to get into so getting it while you are still getting into the game in general makes a lot more sense! 😁

[@Meka-k9q]

I think it depends on how much the job click with you. While I play easier jobs like Red mage and Summoner. Jobs like Monk really click with me. The healer that clicks the most with is Scholar.

[@CulturedDegenerate]

I'd argue the entry difficulty rating for MNK should be higher, if only because the freeflowing rotation is so different from every other melee dps. It's not hard in a general sense, but people coming from other jobs take a long time to get used to it in my experience, even if it's essentially just variations of 123 when you simplify it. Otherwise, I agree with all your other points 👍

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

Yeah I suppose that it being more unique would make it slightly harder to get into!

[@Spiritchuckpvp]

I'd also say that MNK has a higher skill ceiling than is suggested, especially when you consider nonstandard rotation choices and ultimate raids. For example, in The Epic of Alexander, for the first phase it is optimal to let your Riddle of Fire drift for about 7 GCDs. This is because it will let you get 2 Blitzes into that Riddle of Fire, both of which cleave damage because there are two bosses. And RoF will be up in time for the next 2 minute window because of the forced downtime of Limit Cut. You also do some downtime Blitz prep later into the fight, what this means is you press Perfect Balance while the boss in untargettable and then press your aoe GCDs to stack up your Blitz so you can use it when the boss comes back, this also avoids overcapping stacks of Perfect Balance. Edit: And in terms of non-standard rotation choices, the one that is most common is setting your burst windows up in such a way that it moves a Dragon Kick outside of Riddle of Fire. Dragon Kick is Monk's worst core GCD by far, and while it does lead into Bootshine, that doesn't matter if that DK was one of your last 2 GCD's in RoF as you could have done a Raptor or Coeurl GCD instead for more potency within that burst window. If none if that made any sense, all the more reason to bump up the skill ceiling rating 😂😂😂

[@Sals-Clips]

I agree. When i first started playing this game (ShadowBringers), MNK was my first class, and I just stuck with it as my main to this day. The class changes a little bit with every expansion and as usual with this expansion the MNK rotation isn't static at all. It changes as we play and it even punishes us if we do our rotation wrong with the lovely Celestial Revolution skill. To maximize our dps we have positionals that we have to consider AND we have to keep our Beast Chakraka Gauge lit before we use our strongest attacks i.e. Rising Raptor and Pouncing Coerl and Leaping Opo. And even before we use a Leaping Opo not only do we want the Chakara for that skill lit up we also want to make sure opo-opo buff is up for that guaranted crit. There's a lot more to consider with this class when trying to perfect our damage as we learn the fights that I don't want to get into lol.

[@Spiritchuckpvp]

@Sals-Clips Monk in full uptime fights is actually a pretty static rotation, the only real considerations you need to make is whether it's best to do a Double Lunar opener (2 Elixir Bursts) or a Solar Lunar opener (1 Rising Phoenix + 1 Elixir Burst). It may seem weird and unintuitive to do a double Lunar opener as that delays Phantom Rush until the 2 minute mark of the fight, but that's actually what you want, depending on the kill time. If the fight ends on an even minute, Double Lunar will be better because you'll end the fight with 2 minute buffs and a Phantom Rush. If the fight ends on an odd minute, Lunar Solar will be better since you'll get out an extra Phantom Rush. Where Monk gets really interesting for me personally are fights with forced downtime, ie. the boss goes untargetable for a mechanic. For example in P9S you would prep a Blitz during the downtime of Levinstrike, press Formless Fist, then do DK > Twin > Demo > Boot > Blitz > DK into another Blitz with 2 minute buffs. You do a similar thing in TEA nowadays during Alexander Prime, Inception specifically. I still miss Endwalker Monk, it had a much higher skill ceiling and more complexity, but Dawntrail Monk isn't without things to optimize :)

[@theholydragoon5475]

Yes hello hi, ex-dragoon main I play Viper now because as much as I love the ff legacy and dragons? I ADORE fast, active game play, and optimizing vipers unique aspects this savage tier has been a blast. I also play a lot of gunbreaker, and continuation has always made my brain happy, so since we have a melee dps that does that now, why wouldn't I play it??

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

It's awesome that viper sounds like it perfectly hit the aspects you like! 😄

[@XxkrazymagexX]

I like viper just because it does what i want it to when i want it to which i consider valuable in endgame content . Savage and ultimates are hard enough as is . The drip on viper is also 🔥

[@Viech54]

My first melee was reaper. I like scythes. That's the only reason I leveled it. Fast forward to like a month ago. Then I leveled samurai because I needed a job to feed EXP to. I didn't do any samurai job quests after unlocking it (bad, I know, I'll fix it someday... Maybe) and so far, melee DPS really taught me that I might not want to be great at all jobs/roles/sub-roles. I want to have them all at max level and be able to play them well enough to do most content, but I wouldn't bring them into any current extremes/savages/ultimates. Well, maybe I would bring reaper if I had to choose between not doing a fight or being a reaper. Not samurai, though. That's not even me disliking the role, I'm just a tank main and have way more experience being a blue DPS than being a red DPS. So my ranking so far is reaper, then samurai, then nothing because I haven't even unlocked the rest. Maybe I will revisit this video in late Dawntrail. That's when I want to have all jobs at max level. So far, I couldn't do that, there was too much that I wanted to do instead. It is a reminder that I only started playing XIV in March last year and still have a lot to catch up on while also playing other games every now and then.

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

That's very relatable! I feel comfortable with being "good enough" with most jobs, and that level of mastery is at a point where I would just prefer to play some rather specific jobs in really hard content! 😊

[@JS-kr8fs]

So far it's been (the ones I like) MNK: do a really fast rotation that constantly changes, adhere and add to raid buff scheduling, keep track of light or dark side rotations every 40 seconds, use the fidget spinner when unable to melee, be a co-healer when Riddle of Earth is up NIN: do a fast rotation involving managing kunai that comes in even numbers but cap at an odd, manage a list of Ninjitsu, execute your vuln and damage ups in line with raid buff schedule, weave, throw ranged when unable to melee, use an outdated and awkward gap closer SAM: hahah, sword go SHINK, big SHINK every 60-120 seconds, don't care, didn't ask what the raid is doing

[@TheSuperion123]

Fidget spinner? What move is that?

[@northrnsword]

Great video! Just started watching your channel to plan what I play next and improve on what I currently play but I have to ask; what is the little carbuncle icon you have on alt+-? Been noticing it and my own speculation is driving me crazy lol

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

It's my mount! 😊 And thank you!

[@Smarfton]

Not gonna lie, I watched mostly to hear how you were going to pronounce Geirskogul, because I sure as hell can't. Also VPR boils down to taking NIN ninjutsu opening them up and then going apeshit the second the buff comes up. Spot on with SAM with ratings. MNK I'd make entry difficulty higher.

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

It's a hard one, even for a Scandinavian! 😂

[@RagnarokiaNG]

Viper is the most fitting job for Dawntrail, while other jobs are demanding you focus, Viper is off relaxing on the beach with a drink letting you do whatever you want

[@ShitOwl]

frfr viper can safely be played with 1 hand

[@danielf.7151]

Do you have a video on your key bindings? I'm interested, since I'm looking for a layout that suits me.

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

It's a bit old now, but I still use the same key bindings. This video goes a bit into my thought process for my key binds and also shows how my keys are bound exactly 😊 kzbin.info/www/bejne/rJqcl2ZsqZKEqMUsi=tr0mW4wtGagKhzhX

[@tatlxtael2303]

laughed so hard about you mentioning ten chi jen and movement. and by laugh, i mean had ptsd flashbacks to the final tier of pandamonium. Why did they put Bonds 1 and Super Chain 1 right when ten chi jen came up?! orz

[@tatlxtael2303]

I would have also added in that Ninja is sadly a bit lag dependant- when my ping spikes cause of shitty tmobile, it'll eat my mudras up and not cast what i input even though it rolls on my screen, sometimes itll just revert back to fuma shuriken and make me cry ;n;

[@TheGreatDanish]

6 Melee classes? I thought there were only two? Ninja and Not Ninja.

[@Dzyntara]

I can't figure out why, but I find Dragoon's double-weaving unbearable but find it really fun on Viper. I intend to main Melee in endgame content after getting comfortable with fights on Summoner, and I think Monk still might be the job for me. Theme and comfort really carries it above other melee or me!

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

I feel like the reason might be related to the quantity of double weaves perhaps! And hey monk is a great choice! 😁

[@WardsROverrated]

Maybe because of Dragoon animation locks! high jump, dragonfire dive and star diver have animations that basically root you in place for like half a second when you use them and that 100% gives it a clunkier feeling.

[@ew275x]

15:24 Because FFXIV is the way it is, Kamaitachi does benefit from Mug/Dokumori but not Trick Attack/Kunai's Bane due to it being counted as Pet Potency and not Ninja damage.

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

Ah of course 😰😂 mild oversight on my part, that of course makes sense!

[@KieronWolf]

This is false. Bunshin and PK are pet potency but they are your pet. They will benefit from mug as well as trick. The reason we push PK into Mug and not trick in the opener is because there are more important gcds to put into trick. Raitons and raijus are far more important in 2m windows and you have limited gcd slots to fit in trick.

[@ew275x]

@ Ah fair enough, though it was only done because it only caught mug, but yeah, still you don't want Kamaitachi in the Trick Window.

[@vespi57]

My favorite melees are: Dragoon, Reaper, Viper, Ninja, Samurai, Monk. I like playing melees as DPS. I don't fully agree with Dragoon having 5 star raid support. It only has Battle Litany. While very powerful, in my book it's not enough for 5 star. It may be just enough for 4 stars.

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

Battle litany is the strongest raid buff among the melees, so relative to them all, they're the five star 😊 Battle litany granting 10% crit rate averages over 5%, often closer to 6% damage output gain due to jobs stacking crit. Dokumori is only 5% Arcane circle is only 3%, and due to reapers personal concerns may even sometimes be used out of sync with the raid in the opener! 😊 But fair point, with only three jobs in the running, maybe putting dragoon at 4 stars for that might have made more sense 🤔😊

[@Xahaka1986]

@@CaetsuChaijiCh But what about Monk's Brotherhood? The effect it gives is a flat 5% damage to everyone, which is multiplicative with any %damage a job has up at the time. And do you only consider damage raid utility for that and not their non-damage raid supporting abilities? I personally would consider them, and give Monk the 5 stars instead. Earth's Reply can be okay when used to its fullest. Mantra, however, I would say is a very strong raid utility. Especially while dealing with the heal checks in harder content a group is progging.

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

@@Xahaka1986 The defense rating covers defensive support. Monk and Ninja both grant a 5% damage bonus that is multiplicative with other damage bonuses. Reaper grants a 3% damage bonus that is multiplicative with other damage bonuses. Dragoons Battle Litany grants 10% Crit Chance, which, in proper gear, is closer to a relative *6%* damage bonus that is technically multiplicative with other damage bonuses You can see in the initial Ratings Explained that defense covers job specific defensive options. It is implied this covers both personal and raid options. The same explanation indicates that Raid Support (while perhaps a bit strangely named) covers supporting the raids damage!

[@KieronWolf]

I agree with this list other than drg difficulty. It should be closer to 3 for entry and master difficulty.

[@oltro15]

I still don't like the MNK changes even if it functionally plays the same because I liked keeping track of the Dot and Buffs. Same with viper. Its almost mechanically the same as before but feels completly different to play because of the lack of something extra to keep track of. I kind of wish they would revert one or both but I know that a lot of players enjoy the changes 😞

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

I do understand that hollow feeling 😰

[@oltro15]

@@CaetsuChaijiCh Yep your video about it still holds true

[@johntravis7304]

Mastery needs to be broken up into 3 subcategories: 1. Button presses/second (# OGCD + GCD speed) 2. Positionals (how many, how often) 3. Downtime (punishment for playing safe*****) My personal take on these 3 from what I've played so far in savage: 1. Monk: Buttons/sec not bad, gcd fast but few ogcd. Positionals every 3rd gcd but predictable. Not punished for downtime/doesn't care. S tier/easy 2. Ninja: Nightmare buttons during burst only. Simple positionals. Not punished for downtime/doesn't care. A/B tier/medium. 3. Samurai: Actually many Shinten ogcds during burst + fast GCD. Unpredictable/optimizable positionals. Falls behind on rotation with downtime***** C tier/hard 4. Reaper: Carpel tunnel during burst only. Rare positionals. Harpe cast time = still punished slightly on downtime (reaper gauge falls behind). A tier/mostly easy Doing next tier/my guesses 5. Dragoon: Many OGCD burst but slow gcd. 1-2 positional every 5 buttons. Not punished for downtime but lower mobility. B tier medium? Doing next expansion/too many playing 6. Viper: Haven't touched yet. Looks easy. Makes me angry. W/E. Recommendation from a safe savage/ult player to newer melee players: Do MNK or RPR. Never SAM first. GL.

[@Rambo007-_-]

Comments are good for the KZbin algorithm

[@benjaminfast5496]

I mostly focus on caster type jobs. WHM, SGE, SCH/SMN, BLK, RDM, and I also have MCH all at 90. Almost done EW, so haven't started DT yet. I have leveled NIN to 57. SAM is 52. DRG/MNK are around 35. Everytime I return to one of these to try and level them, I usually end up playing NIN. I've only played SAM for 2 levels though, and I'd like to start playing that one more I think. I just find that the boss mechanics force you out of melee ALL THE TIME so I usually get annoyed and return to a ranged class. And Healer classes seem to be my sweet spot, and the shorter Q times is nice. Question about Defense. Does this mean they have a higher defense rating on their gear, or that they have more skills available to mitigate incoming damage? Or a combination of both? Dragoon uses "heavy" armor but has the lowest Defense rating. I'm kind of confused as to how that works.

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

Defense rating in this comparison refers to a combined force of everything that is used defensively by the job. This means that for dragoon, it's gap closers and disengage options count. Technically it's higher base physical defense on gear counts (but not by much). 😊 Life surge doesn't really count because dragoons rarely use it for defense (healing) ever anyway 😅

[@benjaminfast5496]

@@CaetsuChaijiCh I see, thank you for the explanation! I would have thought Dragoon had the highest, but I guess not when everything is taken into account.

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

@@benjaminfast5496 Theres also the fact that Reaper has the same armor as Dragoon, but also Arcane Crest, so in any aspect where Dragoon ranks in defense, Reaper would always have to rank higher than that!

[@0MNI]

Viper is literally the duel wielding sword job I've been waiting years for. I love it but i wish it had its own defense option other than the standard options for every dps and it got its noxious nash back in some way. How you gonna have a viper without poison?

[@94Mooni]

isnt the samurai part a little outdated? I thought they changed it in 7.05 so you always get Kaeshi: Setsugekka on every Midare. Sorry if I'm mistaken, I havent played samurai outside of fates so far in dawntrail :p

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

The section talking about building up two midare setsugekkas but not spending is exactly talking about the fact that using Midare gives you a Kaeshi, which you can sit on for 30 seconds, to carry to the burst. It is very up to date! ^^

[@94Mooni]

@@CaetsuChaijiCh oh alright, I see thats really smart actually.

[@alexhaupt2134]

I usually hear the backglips called a "disengage", which technically couldn include CC but thats pretty downplayed in XIV for the most part

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

Yeah that also makes sense. I think my brain was skipping over disengage because it also sounds like a way to exit combat entirely, like cc could be for as well! 😅

[@reloadpsi]

I believe the monk forms opo-opo, raptor, and coeurl are supposed to be analogous to monkey, crane, and tiger.

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

Very likely! 😁

[@HakureiIllusion]

O b e y t h e b a l l s

[@petrusspinelli6661]

Viper all the way Everytine i press Reawaken and all thoae beeg numbers start poping up i have a braingasm No Raid Buff? Babygirl, i AM the Raid Buff

[@toychristopher]

But which one has the least buttons and is easiest?

[@ek9750]

viper has the least buttons by far and is also the easiest by far but it has a very fast playstyle

[@mikereyes2269]

Reaper, Ninja and Samurai are my favorite because I'm a filthy weeb edgelord.

[@CulltureShock]

The one major question mark i had was, "What does the different colered stars mean?" cause we know More stars means Harder or better, but the Colors had me confused.

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

Red worst scenario (harder, weaker, etc.) Orange bad Yellow neutral Green good Pink best scenario (easier, stronger etc.) Examples: 1 red means, for example, the jobs damage is the weakest relative to the other jobs in comparison. 1 pink means, for example, that it is the easiest job to master relative to the other jobs. I hope this clears things up!

[@ShikiRyougi05]

9:54 Well well well...

[@SSiXaXiS]

Reaper main, it's the only dps I can use without getting a degree

[@wolrereaper]

haven’t played in months i’ve been very busy. buff reaper!

[@WhtCrstlJudgmntDrgn]

Well, as you know, I am abysmal with DPS. Not scared of playing them, but I just feel at home with tanking and healing. But DT has forced me to play DPS (Which is odd, considering the opportunities of EW) so I decided to sit and listen to the entire video, with the assumption that everything is played at max level (which would make sense for a class analysis). This has been kinda eye-opening. Maybe I was looking at DPS the wrong way. But it seems like with an explanation on how each melee DPS works, I feel a bit better about trying them. Amazed I've been playing for over a decade and haven't even leveled a single one. I will sit down and watch the individual class videos (which I think is a cool idea), but seeing them compared to the others in their group is a great way to look at them as a whole and how cohesion works in party and raid groups. Also, the term you're looking for instead of "gap widener" (lol) would be "disengager/spacing tool" Great Video. Probably will try Monk or Reaper first, as I am comfortable with resource management being used to playing a lot of Dark Knight/Sage.

[@purplefreedom1631]

"Obey the balls" yes sir!

[@snowdrifter6187]

SE took the venom out of the viper, which still hurts.

[@Millet117]

Sam. Entry difficulty. Is max. Master difficulty is about 8 out of 5 star and damage is lower than all the other melee and 2 of the caster. In end walker. You can see every melee show up atleast once on top 10 in almost every fight. And the highest dps Sam is No.240 ish. Out of all the best dps in game. DT is about the same. Now they just can’t allow dragoon not be on top and won’t let Sam catch up with the rest melee even. And was Already a pain in the ass to optimize in ultimate. Now I don’t even know 😂. Your rotation is already different every minute. There are no such thing for even minute and odd minute. Even when you have 100% uptime.

[@Millet117]

Also ninja is one of the most easy job this game have rn. They even removed the buff you have. So you don’t have to worry about the timer. Even and odd minute burst are about the same. Once you understand how to do opener you know how to play the job.

[@Freddie_ssm]

wait a minute, this isn't super smash bros

[@whovegas]

Idk man. Monk feels pretty survivor friendly these days.

[@BlobFGC]

You should really get expert players to fact check your videos

[@shibukamiya8428]

am i really that early?.

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

Surprise!

[@GoatOfWar]

Drg a 5 star raid support? Calm down, it has 1 (one) crit buff lol. Which it is taxed for on it's personal damage anyways. It does nothing else for a raid.

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

Raid support as described is based on raid buffs specifically. And it is relative to the other melee dps, and the competition is suddenly not very big is it?! 😂 Edit: take note that 10% crit rate typically averages more than 5% damage gain in value due to how most jobs stack crit anyway! 😊

[@GoatOfWar]

@@CaetsuChaijiCh Yeah idk, nothing towards you in particular but i don't really think Drg is any more supportive than Monk or Rpr, who can at least sorta help with raidwides. I would love some more raid utility as Drg though.

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

@GoatOfWar the defensive cooldowns you're thinking of are included in the "defense" rating 😊 and you can see both reaper and monk ranked much higher on those! 😁 As I said, while perhaps a bit inaccurate because of shorthand, raid support in my ranking here is entirely about supporting the raids damage output! 😊

[@GoatOfWar]

@@CaetsuChaijiCh Fair enough i guess.

[@ew275x]

​@@CaetsuChaijiCh Confused about Dragoon getting 2 stars on defense because Life Surge's thing is more a neat bonus for a DPS skill. If it is covering Gap closers and disengagement tools even there Viper I'd say is better because Elusive Jump just gets people killed and slither can be targeted towards the enemy or allies.

[@ew275x]

My problem with the Melee category is very secondary but more that they have the worst stereotypes in the game like: - Dragoon: Bad player who loves dying and tanking the floor - Ninja and Samurai: Weeb loser - Reaper: Edgelord who loves Shadow the Hedgehog and Zenos too much - Viper: Weeb Kirito loser fanboy - Monk: Haha it sounds like Monkey. You just mash the monkey buttons. (OK think Monks have the least stigma out of them)

[@GuerreiroAventureiro]

i disagree with mastery difficulty for sam, i would give a 1 star since its the most easy melee dps job to master, its not really that hard and as for entry i would give also 1 star

[@Elaine19899]

You are so clueless, please bring your pink Sam parses before speaking please

[@GuerreiroAventureiro]

@@Elaine19899 "please bring your pink Sam parses before speaking please" he says.

[@Elaine19899]

@@GuerreiroAventureiro Because you are clueless if you think Sam's skill ceiling isnt high

[@Hoolagun]

My rating would put vpr so far down, its in the trash. The poor design, disuades me from joining a (high end) pf if there is one present.