With over 17 jobs to choose from in Final Fantasy XIV it’s tough for players to know which one to choose. Fans will largely agree that no one class is superior to others as much of the game is based around group play and everyone has their job to do.
Instead what matters is how well the player masters their job in battle. There’s no point in being the strongest job on paper if the player doesn’t know how to do the job well, so this guide will rank the jobs based on how easy they are for the average player to pick up.
17 Red Mage
The Red Mage is easily one of the easiest classes for players to master. Its main role in combat is to deal as much ranged damage as quickly as possible to the enemy. Granted they do have access to white mage which enables them to heal allies, but this is more of a fallback if the main healers die rather than a priority for the Red Mage.
There is a little bit of timing and resource management, but nothing like the other classes. It’s a simple job that’s great for beginners to the game.
16 Monk
The Monk is a close-ranged DPS brawler. They’re required to chain and combo attacks together to boost and sustain their DPS output. They use their abilities to stun and silence enemies which makes them important team members as they can put a stop to problems quickly. It’s a great melee class for new players looking to get into group play.
15 White Mage
The White Mage is the group’s primary healer. Their job is to keep allies on their feet with a variety of healing and reviving spells. The act of triage in the middle of a fight can be tricky at times and balancing resources to have spells at the ready is a learning process. But it’s very easy to pick up and become effective at.
14 Paladin
Paladin is probably the easiest tank job for players starting in the game. Their main job is to keep the enemies attention on them and not the other players. This means using skills to bring the hordes in and using different skills to survive the onslaught as long as possible. While the job is relatively easy to master the group role is another story and might not be the best class for players looking for something more passive.
13 Samurai
The Samurai is very similar to the Monk in many ways in that it’s all about mastering the timing and flow of combo attacks. The Samurai tends to ignore what the group is doing and focus on the enemies in front of them. This pure DPS based job makes it very easy to pick up as they’re focused on cutting enemies down one by one.
12 Bard
The Bard is an interesting job as their main priority is to support and benefit their allies through song. They do fight with a bow, but because the job is oriented towards support the damage is more to help others take down something faster.
Knowing when to trigger a ballad can be tricky and maintaining awareness of the entire group and the enemy isn’t for everyone.
11 Ninja
The Ninja is one of the more hands-on jobs in the game. It’s similar to the Monk or Samurai in that the player is stringing combos together to take opponents out, but these combos are a bit more complex with hand-signs. This is a good melee class to practice transitioning into more complicated jobs.
10 Warrior
The Warrior is a more complex tank than the Paladin. Not only are they keeping the enemies’ attention on them, but they also have to manage the damage they receive to their advantage. It’s a tricky dance knowing when to trigger abilities and when to let the enemies carve and slice just a little longer to manage cooldowns better.
9 Machinist
The Machinist has powerful attacks that can function a bit oddly at times. Most of the difficulty with this job is knowing when to unleash an attack and when to keep the powder dry. There’s also a bit of resource management thanks to overheating gear and having enough juice in the batteries.
8 Astrologian
The Astrologian is another healer, but one that isn’t as straight forward as the White Mage. Part of this is because they have three main responsibilities; heal allies, shield allies, and buff them. For some players, that’s a lot of responsibility to handle and knowing whether it's better to heal or shield can get tricky.
7 Dancer
The infamous Dancer class makes an appearance in Shadowbringers and they can be a bit tricky. Dancing combos are important to providing the right buffs. It’s also a balance of knowing when to start doing damage and when to provide support to an ally. It’s a class that takes some time to pick up and much longer to truly master.
6 Gunbreaker
The Gunbreaker is an interesting tank in that it focuses more on damage mitigation and reduction. Where other tanks will simply draw in the enemy and keep them occupied the Gunbreaker is focused on crowd control and minimizing the damage they and others receive. Unlike standard tanks they also can fire off magical bullets for some decent DPS of their own adding yet another layer of complexity to the class.
5 Dragoon
Dragoons are melee fighters that obsess over positioning. They possess many abilities that can only be fully utilized if they’re at a certain position in regard to the target. This means Dragoons are constantly moving on the battlefield to try and flank the enemy to use their abilities to the fullest. Failure to do this properly results in a significant drop in DPS.
4 Scholar
Scholars are probably the quirkiest healers in the game. What makes them unusual is that their most effective healing comes from pet fairies and not the Scholar themselves.
This means not only do they have to manage themselves, but they also have to manage pets on the battlefield to ensure everyone is properly healed.
3 Dark Knight
The Dark Knight is probably the trickiest tank to get a handle on in this game. Their job is to keep the enemy at bay and shield allies. There’s also a lot of resource managing that goes on and timing that shield is incredibly important to getting the most out of it. Trigger too soon and they’ll have to grind for resources but trigger too late and their allies will likely die.
2 Black Mage
The Black Mage is devastating in combat thanks to high DPS, great range, and incredibly burst damage. The trouble is that the Black Mage must hold perfectly still to do any of this and their attacks take a while. Even with an effective tank and healer, this can be tough in latter boss battles where position and maneuvering is almost a requirement to survive.
1 Summoner
Yet as tough as the Black Mage is, the Summoner is by far the most complicated job to master in the game. Like the Scholar the Summoner does all their work through pets but unlock the Scholar they must use their pets to attack, control the crowd, and still utilize their own spells.
It’s one of the most engaging jobs in the game that requires constant attention and a lot of micromanagement, something that can be very challenging to the average player.