Your Most Fun Jobs To Play, And Why?

Hi all, would love to hear what jobs you enjoy playing the most and why? The reasons can be anything, ranging from 'feels great to be useful in the team' to 'I like the intensity' to even just 'love the aesthetics and noises in battle'.

I'll go first and list everything I can, though I haven't geared some of them so I have no idea and am keen to know if you guys have thoughts.

MNK

• Super fun just punching and kicking and dealing so much auto damage as well as multistrike.
  

• Impetus feels great to pop, and all the abilities just push towards more hits.

• The kit also makes you super defensive and gives you some counter, so feels great to walk around with usually the highest HP (unless a DRK uses absorb), and the 1hrs feel like great clutch tools for survival or quick dps.

• Subtle blow, chi blast, shijin, suppresses enemies which feels nice when it works.

RDM

• The idea of the closest thing to a spellblade in this game is cool. Enspells feel great, and not just the damage but with temper 2 and multihits it feels so nice to spam slashes and hear all those noises.

• In bosses you can end up doing several things which feel super intense and fun, ranging from debuffing to healing. I feel like not enough people know how many tricks RDM can come up with in battle.

BLU

• All the blu effects are very unique, and some are downright ridiculous and I love them, even if they're useless spells.

WAR

• Actually interested in hearing how WAR high-end feels, but I imagine after reading what all the JSE offers that it's some crazy multihitting machine, getting TP insanely fast and just spamming huge chunks of WS damage?

• I'm assuming WAR is the main Greataxe user; I love most of the animations, I haven't got a Chango yet but the idea of spamming upheaval makes me really happy, I wonder if it makes other WARs happy.

SAM

• Skillchains are fun, and I'm assuming doing it with SAM is super fun given that the job is catered to it, but it's not geared well enough for me to have enjoyed it.

• Some of the animations make me want to instantly switch to the job, my favourite is probably Gekko.

DNC

• Began obsessing over it after I joined an LS friend in Ambu as a MNK and saw them take 20% off the boss with a single SC; the amount I took with my MNK after 5 separate WS.

• Waltzes feel so damn fun to use, no casting, just keep hitting and feeding HP to people. I wonder if this sort of utility has room in Ody or high-end content anywhere. Erase is also super nice to use in a pinch to make people wonder where it came from.

• As an inherent DW job, feels fun to use with stacked multihit and minimal required DW stat for fast animations and TPing. I find evisc spam super fun even though rudra would be more useful once someone gets a Twashtar and a good Ody set for it.

• I wouldn't say steps are entirely fun, but I find it fun to see them being put to work and giving a defense down.

WHM

• Haven't geared it but if I find RDM healing fun, I have a feeling I'd love this. Coming from FF14, I always found healing fun, especially in endgame. What are main healers' thoughts so far here?

COR

• Bolter's roll is just too addicting, this alone makes me want to 24/7 the job, running around in town with flee speed (with lanun knife or higher ofc).

• Unfortunately I don't find the job too fun besides the above, and doing rolls and seeing the chaos roll and store tp come to life.

NIN

• Still need to gear, but the animations for katana are super nice, Shun, Ten and Ku especially for me.

• Daken throws being used frequently is fun.

• I like the idea of SCing and MABing, it's like RDM and DNC mixed in somehow with SAM. Having said that I've only seen NextGames do it, I haven't built sets to try. Curious how others feel playing NIN.

Other Jobs
I haven't played enough of the other jobs to comment. I feel like RUN and PLD could be fun but I haven't geared them.
GEO seems useful but I wonder if it's fun? Unless it's a pretty intense job with them nuking and healing by the side.
Haven't tried SMN but interested in hearing how it plays out for people, same for PUP.
I've tried a bit of DRG and found some pole animations fun, but I don't think anything else resonated with me.
I worry RNG may be boring if I found COR boring, but I may be extremely wrong.
Haven't tried BST, DRK or BLM; though I'm curious how strong BLM can nuke stuff at high-end gear. The idea of just running around one-shotting mobs appeals to me a lot.
THF is fun, though I found it a bit like a lesser DNC with its only utility being TH.
I found BRD's gameplay interesting but haven't tried it after giving up on even playing it with the REMA requirements.
SCH I tried for a while and found it fun, but a bit too intense and somewhat confusing, but this was also one of my first lv99 jobs so if people recommend giving it a go again if it's fun then I may; I've heard a lot about the nuking / solo potential.

mnk was my first job, simple yet very powerful. still one of my top 3 today.

bst taught me the most about the game. soloing 1-75 during CoP era you learn tons of things about the world just by exploring new zones, enemy abilities, how to manage aggro and links, etc. unfortunately most of that is not relevant any more.

blu is similar in that you get to experience everything FFXI has to offer by fighting enemies you normally would ignore. collecting spells for me was ultimately more fun than playing it at cap today.

I love MNK so much it's unreal. It may lack the flair and immense spike capabilities of other DD jobs, but there is great satisfaction in its consistency and ultra minimal TP feed. Super excellent to lowman content with, which is perfect for me since that is pretty much exclusively all I do these days. Unga bunga me punch, me kick.

BLU was my "first love" and it still holds a special place in my heart. As Kaffy mentioned the process of learning spells was an experience in of itself. Going through that the first time immensely boosted my early experiences in exploring the many areas of XI. Learning how to open my mind to the job's possibilities at level cap (pre-item level days) was also a very rewarding experience. Nowadays I let my friend take over the BLU throne between us but I dust mine off for cleaving and misc. farming here and there.

PLD was the first job that I ardently desired REMAs for back when I started. At the time, PLD tanking was kind of moot due to enmity cap issues in old content and evasion+shadows still being the main thing, but I didn't let that dissuade me. I'm glad I stuck with it over the years, even if I don't bring it out quite as much since I'm not doing quite as much top end content these days.

NIN has always been a lot of fun to me, of course I initially got into it as a necessity back on the Abyssea days for self explanatory reasons. Opened up progression capability but I always liked the aesthetic. Fast forward many years later, I made an alt a few years ago to redo the game on NIN for the hell of it after being inspired by Logical's videos and it has been really fun. With the recent bonanza allowing me to get Yagyu Darkblade on that character, it's been a blast to be able to mess around with.

BRD is the support that speaks to me the most among all the support-focused jobs. I enjoy the song juggling for some reason. Way back when I initially made a dualbox with the intent "ok, just making a basic barebones BRD to buff my friend and I when we farm content".... but bit by bit as I played it more my desire to actually learn and get better gear exponentially increased. It helped increase my awareness of stat buffing a lot.

I could go on for some more but those are the ones I have the most to blather about while I'm stuck at work lol. All in all, XI has such fantastic job design that I adore to this day. The unique differences and niches between them all is impressive. Even if there are clear gaps in efficiency and effectiveness in the top end content, the general malleable nature of being able to make things work with various compositions has kept this game appealing to me (and likely why I keep periodically coming back).

My main job has been Warrior since 2005. It's still one of my most favorite jobs to play, and what I have the most fun on.

Nowadays it's a bit absurd, too! You can get 100% double attack, so that literally every swing in TP set is x2.

This gets really fun when you dual wield or use hand to hand, because it makes every attack round 4 hits. Sprinkle in a little Quad attack, and you're always swing x4~8 times.

The Empyrean +3 also still rettains its Abyssea era set effect in doubling double attack damage, gaining something like 1% chance per piece equipped. My set uses 3/5ths, so sometimes even without REMA equipped, my autos get THICC.

This set effect stacks with Relic/Prime hidden and Empyrean aftermath, so you can see absurdly high damage amounts of x4~6 damage on auto attacks. This also can stack with the Moonshade: Damage varies with TP +5% augment, to where at 3000 TP your attack attacks can sometimes deal as high as x12 damage. You can see upwards of 15000(25k with Ukon) damage auto attacks with Farsha AM3, for instance. Very very fun, in spite of not being optimal.

Then there's the whole "class/job fantasy" of being a weapons master. A lotta folks have always liked to pigeon hole jobs to their A ranked weapons or highest rank weapons. Warrior doesn't care about that, in reality. Warrior can use just about any weapon in the game, and hit very hard with it. Nowadays you even have to be careful/strip naked when doing Aby procs with 1dmg Great Katanas, cause Hybrid weaponskills are insane but also procs, and the number of times I've accidentally killed the NM with Tachi: Koki or TachiL Jinpu with my Ark Tachi is too damn high!

But WAR and weaponskills are amazing. Any weaponskill you can take advantage of with Fencer build can hit max damage. Savage Blade, Calamity, Mistral Axe, Judgment, Black Halo, and Fast Blade II can be forced to hit 99999 on demand with Mighty Strikes. Two handers are also still a solid option for Warrior as it gets several instances of the newish Smite trait, in addition to some TP bonus on its Empy legs.

WAR is very deadly with any two handed weapon that it has innate skill with. Great Axe is its premier weapon, of course, and also offers a great utility with the status debuff Break WSes that now work pretty much all of the time. Upheaval is super fun, even without Chango. It has the same properties as Tachi: Kasha, and with Steel Cyclone having Detonation property, this lets you do either SC path to Light or Darkness with a Great Axe, regardless of REMA acquisition (you do need to learn King's Justice and/or Ukko's Fury for Light path however).

Scythe is an under utilized tool on Warrior, I feel. With even just 1 merit in Entropy, which WAR can merit, WAR may do a single step Darkness with Spiral Hell > Entropy. If you pick up a Drepanum from Ambuscade, this gives WAR a really strong darkness option without picking up a Prime. It's much stronger than the innate 2 step Great Axe option for Darkness. Spiral Hell with Drepanum and Warcry is near Savage levels. You can also get fancy and extend the steps, as Scythe is actually a weapon where a lot of its early weaponskills have interesting properties for making level 2 SCs that you can play off of. If you need to, you can elongate the skillchain path to darkness by starting with them instead.

Polearm is often mentioned as being something Warrior should have. It's non-negotiable imho. Shining One is an incredible weapon, and Blood Rage from Warrior influences the Crit Rate of your Weaponskills when paired with Shining One. This makes Warrior a very potent Polearm user, and one of the best piercing jobs in the game. It's very easy to max damage Impulse Drive, and even not too hard to max damage Stardiver. Warrior is also one of 3 polearm jobs that get Sonic Thrust innately(SAM has to sub DRG, WAR or PLD to have it), the other 2 being DRG and PLD. Sonic Thrust allows any Polearm user to 2 step Darkness, via Sonic Thrust x2 > Impulse Drive. It's even more potent, though less quick than Drepanum's 1 step.

Staff is something of an unsung hero to Warrior. WAR has a B in it, but Staff itself is in a similar position to Katana, in that not a lot of its weaponskills are super powerful. However, it sports Cataclysm, which is WAR's innate magical cleaving option. It can be quite potent in Dynamis Divergence when you don't want to pull as much hate. It takes full advantage of the weather in Dynamis, and is very easy to boost up.

WAR's weakest weapon options are the ranged options and dagger. It innately gets to learn Evisceration, but without subbing one of the higher end dagger jobs, WAR can't do Aeolian Edge, and it can't do any of the fTP modifier dagger weaponskills like Shark Bite. Ranged weapons continue to be the domain of Rangers and Corsairs. Best WAR can do is jerry rig a ranged setup that's more or less just full Nyame, which is also the WS set (though some Volte pieces might take exception to this). It can use the Su2 Bow/Xbow and Ullr, so it doesn't HAVE to sub Ranger to get a decent weaponskill, but it's not gonna do anything fancy without Ranger sub. Fun fact though, with Ranger sub and Su2 Crossbow, Warrior can self Light with Marksmanship, which I guess technically leaves Archery and Dagger as its true weakest options.

It's just a lot of fun to be able to crack out with almost any weapon. Something I've enjoyed recently is using Karambits and /mnk in Limbus just to *** around with Raging Fists and Asuran Fists on Warrior on Magic Pots. You get like half the fun of Monk, and can force max damage Raging Fists on the right target.

All it's just so much fun. You can learn so much about every weapon type, and use Warrior as a gateway drug to other jobs.

MNK - My first job, it's simply punching stuff to death and I love it. I was always a fan of MNKish characters everywhere. I love MNK's HP, I was obsessed with HP gear at 75 and later. I remember how fun was to hit 10k+ HP in abyssea. I remember how amazing MNK felt with Veret in abyssea and voidwatch. I remember how stupid, but fun was boosting for nearly 3 min to hit bosses with kameha.. I mean chi blast. It feels awesome to do high white damage and how whole MNK's kit is focused (pun intended!) on that.

BLU - I love all the niche uses of BLU. TP reset, aoe magic, stunlock, mighty guard etc. Tizona is one of the best best REMAP weapon complementing the job too. White wind utility feels great. You really feel like you contribute more than damage in fights like Kalunga, when you throw 1400 aoe cure on demand. BLU being king of traits can also fit any subjob, which opens up /drg for damage, /run or /rdm for utility, anything else really and you have no problems with losing DW, TA, acc, att etc. Having 4 basic buffs cocoon, occultation, erratic flutter and nature's meditation giving you 50% def, 20% attack, 30% haste and 10+ blinks just sets you so damn well offensively and defensively, that it simply feels amazing. Versatility of this job can only be matched by RDM probably and I remember how it always found it's palce in the meta, either being able to sneak attack Cannonball, spam Regurgitation or simply having massive accuracy.

WAR - Here I only love Ukonvasara WAR now. As a fan of white damage builds, I simply cannot ignore the best one. Doing 30k damage rounds is just fantastic. I remember how fun was to stack moonshade, empy+3 and fish for those nearly 50k crits. I need to get back to this at some point :) Historically I also loved to push Steel Cyclone sneak attack damage on HNMs :P

DRK - I love how much potency this job has when you stack everything. Absorb 90+ STR, Drain few k HP, fish for good Scarlet Delirium and suddenly you are doing 40% more damage having 7k HP. Also Apocalypse is imo the best REMA ever, Catastrophe is the best WS ever and Foenaria/Origin is copying the best and makes it even stronger.

DNC - Stacking climactic for massive damage is no longer that strong in most cases, because many job can now stack buffs/debuffs to hit 99k, but because I play DNC for a long time, it still feels super powerful. Similar to BLU, you have that very good feeling that you can do a lot of damage, but you contribute by a lot supporting others too.

DRG - I was soloing a lot on DRG/BLU at 75 and while I don't do it anymore, it built the love for the job and the wyvern. Currently one of the few jobs fully exploiting Kraken Club, which is a pure fun toy.

RNG - Armageddon build only. Possibly the highest potential for white damage dps in the game now with 25 hover stacks, but it's kinda impossible to find a target for that, so I don't really play it.

MNK - only game with anything like it.

EDIT: AND DRK (sorry dp and Ayasha)

Pet jobs have always been my favourite.

THF was the very first job I picked when starting the game, and I had so much trouble joining parties that I ended up playing solo for a very long time. Because of that I gravitated mainly towards solo jobs and I spend most of the 75 era as main PUP with a sprinkle of BST and SMN on the side.

Now days it’s still the same BST, PUP, SMN and DRG are the jobs I enjoy the most even though I rarely get to play those in group content.

Most fun tier WAR,SAM,RUN,PLD,DNC,MNK

2nd Tier DRG,BRD,GEO,SCH,PUP,COR,BLU,THF

If I must Tier DRK,BST,RDM,WHM,RNG

Nope Tier SMN,BLM,NIN

NIN - My first main job all the way from ToAU through Abyssea. Going entire NMs without taking a single point of damage always felt incredibly cool and satisfying. I stopped playing it around Adoulin where Delve basically made shadows completely worthless. I wish Utsusemi or even Migawari were still relevant today. Despite me never really playing NIN anymore, I still picked up Yagyu Darkblade for my bonanza weapon purely for my love of the job.

SAM - My DD job of choice. The moment I first saw the animation for Tachi: Gekko I thought it was the coolest ***ever and decided right then and there that I'd level up SAM. I still play it regularly to this day and consider it my current main. I always enjoyed making skillchains and it's nice they're still powerful today. I just wish I didn't have to stand in front of NMs to bring out its full potential since a lot of NMs punish you for standing there.

RUN - Sort of brings me back to how I felt playing NIN where taking almost no damage at all makes me feel powerful, but I can extend that feeling to the party through Valiance and OFA which is great. Tanking v25 Kalunga was some of the most recent fun I've had in the game. A lot of stuff I go RUN to don't really pose a threat in the slightest, so fighting something that can actually threaten to kill me if I'm not paying attention was a fun change of pace.

BLU - The versatility to fit in to a variety of different setups and strategies is nice to tinker around with. Being able to bring numerous debuffs and buffs to support the party always makes me feel like I'm earning my spot on BLU, plus it has 2 of the very few instances of non-resistable Dispel that can be fun to take advantage of in some scenarios.

Since I gushed about WAR overly much, I didn't list any other jobs, but despite being a meat head DD as the infamous Felgarr puts it, I do enjoy several other jobs to a high degree. Those being:

Blue Mage - Prior to Seekers of Adoulin I leveled the job twice to 99, and learned all its spells pre-Adoulin twice. I leveled it a third time, and learned all spells including post Adoulin spells within the last couple of years. I love learning spells, as I love any system that moves away from Gil. I love its AF quests and storyline. I love its Genkai fight against Raubahn. Literally the best interpretation of Blue Mage in the whole Final Fantasy series. Plus it's super effective for Nyzul, Incursion, and many other things.

Red Mage - It's the Warrior of magic, more or less. I used it extensively during my Let's Play when I was keeping myself to 75, so that story battles would stay alive to showcase monster/boss abilities. I love it in the original Final Fantasy, where it's my favorite job. I love in XI, because I feel like it nails that feeling perfectly. I haven't mastered it yet though, as other jobs have taken precedence in the way that I get things done. In the old days I only leveled it post-Abyssea, as I didn't wanna be stuck on the backlines.

Corsair - Phantom Roll is really cool, and always has been. I started to level it prior to Abyssea, but didn't put the pedal down on it until Abyssea had already come out. It was slated to be my 5th or 6th 75, but I kept alternating to leveling Monk, and just didn't get it up. Like BLU it has a really cool AF story imo, and the link to Ephramad and Ephramad's world building/link to Odin and such just makes it a very cool job to me. It's also like a perfect hybrid melee/ranged job that excels in both areas while also being a buffing support, so it brings a lot to a group setting. It's my preferred job for doing a lot of Assaults and Voidwalker NMs on, because Bolter's Roll takes away a lot of frustrations. It's super flexible and fits into basically any party comp.

I like every job in XI to some degree. Trying to think of my least favorite job is hard. I think it's Black Mage, but saying something in XI is a least favorite is like choosing which meat is my least favorite to eat. I still like it.

Think the ones I enjoyed we're already named but;

DRK- 1st job I picked up, enjoyed just being a heavy hitter, dark magic was neat(and is actually pretty good these days) and atleast in the past souleater was a nice risk:reward JA that im sad hasnt aged with ilvl powercreeep

BLU- Been said already BLU was and still is just a true jack of all trades job and can do just about everything in some capacity, loved this job when it came out and stuck with it for majority of my playing time

PUP- Real strange feelings with this job, I really love this job when it works proper but its a fickle thing with its AI, attachments playing with its AI, and just being quite clunky for the higher speed of the game, keep hoping it (and pet jobs in general really) get some additional updates to work out some of the jank

For me it will always be geo. Love it. Its a bit of a rdm with bubles. A good geared geo can change the result of any battle :)

RNG back in the day. Not the step left and right for more damage *** of today. Feel like more of a dancer than when playing DNC.

Traditionally I liked jobs with good solo potential just because I could go do what I wanted without 'needing' help. Trusts have mitigated that somewhat, but i'd say: DRG, NIN, BLU, SCH are the short list for the moment, I just enjoy the versatility.

I never thought I’d initially like it because I usually prefer Mages and I’m pretty terrible on melee in games but I had so much fun playing as MNK tank in salvage and Abyssea. I mostly play BRD or COR now

I find THF to be my favorite job; hundred fists like speed, crazy Rudra's Storm damage with a Twashtar. It's a shame its a TP feeder, otherwise it would see more use in endgame content (for reasons other than TH).

DD BRD is, surprisingly, a lot of fun. I've heard stories of people tossing BRD REMA, to never have to play the job again, but I wonder how many of them picked up a Naegling and sported Bunzi/Ashera for maximum damage. Also can get decent hybrid -DT%, so I've found it more durable than COR in some situations.

It is hard to give the top three an specific order so i guess chronological makes the most sense.

First Love: PUP, i clearly hated myself and made pup my main job and it was the first one I actually got to 75. I somehow found an Dyna LS who would let me come pup and it worked pretty well. then Abyssea landed and every update was exciting to see "what will my Genta learn with his higher magic skill"

Second Love: SCH, I just loved the AF/Relic :D so i started playing it, with Embrava I ended up in a ADL shell and then ran my own for a while. Then I joined Math on Fenrir as a stun gun during Delve, and later I was the main sch for aeonic runs. I miss all the schill chains shenanigans

Third Love: RUN, I played PLD and enjoyed tanking but once I got my hands on RUN is just seemed so much more fun. Getting big numbers as a tank and making my epeo.


SCH is probably the job I have play the most end game content with.

WHITE MAGE - Because I like to have peoples lives on my watch haha

BLUE MAGE - Because it is so damn powerful and versatile

BARD - Because a Mithra Bard is just so damn sexy looking and useful in every situation imaginable

GEO - Because I like powerful bubbles and its SFX on the bubbles spells are probably my favorite.

PALADIN - Specifically only if a taru because they look so cool and tough as a rock

MNK in 75 cap salvage was great

Bst - idk, I kinda like the solitude and the adventure of BST. Now if they allowed bsts to make camp and cook food in the wilderness....

Rng - I like the pew pew. Always liked it.

Mnk - Nothing beats cool attack moves.

WHM - Because it's the hardest job in the game. You're constantly juggling priorities based on the content you're doing and the pace your group is doing it. Someone is yellow HP and paralyzed. Do you heal them first or remove the paralyze first? Depends on the fight. If it's V25 then you usually heal them first or they could die. Other times a good WHM might know that there's no risk of them dying in the time it takes to cast Paralyna, so you can remove it first, and the DD will love you for it. They don't care that they're yellow HP, that's your job to look after, they just care that their attacks are getting paralyzed and it's preventing them from getting TP and making them afraid to use Job Abilities that they really want to be using. Or maybe it's a tank and you know that if you remove Paralyze, they can heal themselves, or even worse, that they need to do something to avoid losing hate or some other disaster happening and so you know you need to get the paralyze off.

And that's just one example of two conflicting priorities! There are tons of ailments, each with their own risks to leaving them up versus removing them immediately. Curse and HP Down are more great examples. Do you remove those so that you can cure them back up to a reasonable HP and get them safe, or are other things a higher priority? Or maybe casting Erase/Cursna followed by a Cure is too slow to save them (you know they're about to take more damage than they could survive with their reduced HP, such as Kyou cursing people right before doing Unfaltering Bravado), maybe instead you Cure them first to give them a stoneskin effect to keep them alive, then you Erase/Cursna, and then heal them again to get their HP up.

Do you know a strong move is coming? Maybe you don't cast whatever you were going to cast, and instead wait for that move to go off so you aren't caught mid-Haste or something. Or maybe instead, you do Accession Cure4 to give the party stoneskin before it lands. Maybe you aren't sure if damage is coming, but your buffs are falling off, so you Accession Cure4 to give them stoneskin and buy you a window of safety to reapply your buff without worrying (I do this a lot in seg farms). There are so many tools in a WHM's toolbox, it's a shame that most just settle for keeping their party's HP topped off and call it good enough. (Or settle for a crappy curebot that can't adapt to the situation at all.)

Also, there's nothing I love more than keeping a group operating efficiently and seeing everyone get to smash things without worrying that they won't be kept alive. I love seeing people have the opportunity to perform at their peak.

It's often a thankless job, but in my experience, people do notice. They may not acknowledge it much, but they definitely notice when things are running so smoothly that it feels like "man, this is how the game is supposed to be!"

I have to say my experience is very similiar.
My first job was mnk. Its a wonderful first job to have. Low Cost for equipment, and low demand to learn how the abilities work when entering a new (at the time) and complex game.
I ran into a problem leveling in the mid-30's though (back in 2004?). Accuracy was a huge problem. It was such a problem that I couldn't get into parties to level up anymore. and I couldn't get acc gear because it was all dominated by RMT.

So I came up w/ the grand plan to get an Astral Ring from Wings of Fury BCNM, (RMT can't block me from getting that fight!) sell it for 1 Million gil on ah, (wow that was so much GIL!) and then buy some gear for my mnk to level again! I leveled up Beastmaster to 20 and got the best Charm gear I could (thank you level 34~38ish monk!) for the express purpose of taking on the BCNM.

The plan worked! Except I enjoyed beastmaster so much I made that my main job instead from then on!


Like Kaffy said, playing bst taught me the most about the game. and then I added blu to the experience which was very rich.

Both BST and Blue setup so much exploration and discovery in the game.

Beastmaster you were always hunting for the best leveling location. There were many possibilities to choose from. You had to pay attention to map layout to take advantage, you had to learn the pros and cons of all the beasts, because not only were they your prey, but they were your weapons. The death of charm was a huge pain. You kill and bury your companion who you relied upon throughout a rich and colorful journey.

I have often repeated one my favorite Bst leveling experience was hunting Djinn (the grey bombs) in Vunkerl inlet. Like all bombs, the blow up. but they had this fun mechanic, that if you hit them with offensive magic matching the day of the week, they gain 1000 TP. so bst/rdm or bst/sch were perfect for charming crab or pugil, sending them at the Djinn (which outleveled them tremendously) while you cast tier 1 elemental magic from max casting range, and run like hell if you pull hate. You can get them to explode VERY quickly.
It was a high-risk, high-reward experience point camp, which I sometimes would search for beastmasters in the right level range, just to level sync down to them and show them the camp, so I could play it again. It was very fast leveling for the time whether solo, duo, or trio. And getting blown up once in awhile was just part of the fun. bst can even level while weakened this way just fine!

How many layers of peculiar mechanics are in that one hunting camp? How many players today know that Djinn have that mechanic? How many experience parties would ever hunt Djinn of all things!? Such fun!

The plethora of jug pets that replaced charm are really fun and interesting as well. figuring out their mechanics and balancing how to use their abilities to handle different situations keeps a that aspect of the Beastmaster experience intact. Without the pet, the beastmaster is a gimp warrior w/ no abilities. With the pets, you have a swiss army knife of physical and magical tools, support, damage, tanking, nuking, crowd control, etc. but the limitations are also built-in. you only get 1 pet at at time. And can only swap them out so often.

Bluemage is so much fun to build different builds on. There are alot of tried and true, very useful builds, but there is always another tweak to put on it. Healing, Tanking, Melee, Nuking, Crowd control, Tp suppression, Evasion, defense, magic defense. Blue can do it all, but not all at once. its really fun to get just the right mix of tools for the occasion.

I have 20/22 jobs leveled and geared across 3 characters now. (it made more sense to level alts to play different jobs for inventory reasons :P) Most are quite fun and have unique playstyles to them. Many I don't know as well as I would like to.


in general I like versatile jobs which I can adapt in fun and peculiar ways.

BST is by far the top of my list.

Blu, Pup, Dancer and Scholar are next, in no particular order.

Rune Fencer is more fun than Paladin when it comes to tanks imo, but Paladin is pretty fun when you have a perfect SIRD/Cure Potency/DT set. There is such catharsis i knowing, "my spells will not be interrupted" and "I can cure all day, and you can't hurt me!"

I REALLY wish I had the enmity tools on bst for more serious tanking because bst tanking is fun, but enmity management is too weak.


I want to do more with geo and figure it out. Bubbles alone are boring, but it feels like I should be able to do so much more with it.

Beastmaster, Bard, Paladin, Dragoon at 119
Ranger and ninja during abyssea era
Ninja and Red mage at 75 cap
Bst mnk drg 60 cap ballista

A lot of the jobs I favored at earlier stages of the game I would never play today ranger ninja red mage
Ranger was great during abyssea with an annihilator or gandiva always being top on parse never pulling hate usually a small set up tank support and rng doing their thing I quit playing rng when trueflight took off
Ninja I loved at 75 now at 119 I can’t stand the current meta for nin I just don’t like how fast you ws back then a self sc or mb was big and now it’s expected
Red mage again at 75 soloing in sky or sea or just random nms so much fun I get on every now and then to play with Excalibur but I don’t like it enough to gear much

Summoner I’ve always loved the idea of avatars and leviathan is my favorite I just don’t like the actual gameplay on smn

With that out of the way, jobs I actually like at 119
Bst brd pld drg
Dragoon is just to have a dd on my top tier list
I like the wyvern the most about drg polearm isn’t my favorite weapon but it’s alright does decent dmg
Takes me back to seeing drg for the first time in east saruta and tripping on the idea of an advanced job

Paladin aegis and excal looks so nice the souveran set has always been a favorite looking set for me
Tanking something big having really good gear being able to hold it better than the average pld so much fun
But dds are so strong and so many fights have hate gimmicks I don’t like pld as much as I once did

Bard with all the rmeas all the song duration it really is nice casting songs once every 13 mins or so I’ve grown to really enjoy carnwenhan dding in exemplar parties this is my go to job to get exemplar parties and not really care about getting ml 50 asap because it is what I do for fun in game

Beastmaster Guttler does it for me bst is pretty weak as far as dding goes but if you just join a ls exemplar party no one really cares much that you’re only doing like 25% what a monk or drg or war or any dd can do you’re able to stick a -def that helps everyone I like the af and relic gear
I played at 75 cap and loved that experience loving to 75 solo that was some of the best times for me in 11

Bst mnk and drg in 60 cap
I started using sword/shield going /pld on Bst and drg and the saves you could make with bash or being able to heal your teammates could easily be the difference in a win vs a loss
Mnk so strong and chakra so good at 60 cap it is one of the most fun options

RDM - Jack of all trades, master of none, but really good at a lot of them these days. This job was my main in every expac except ToAU, where I thought BLU did what I wanted from RDM better.

COR - I didn't like this job at 75 cap. Standing around in a staff firing your wallet at a mob is annoying. These days, they can be played melee or ranged based on the target while being a great support, all while shooting rema bullets.

GEO - Playing this job like Sylvie is boring; very boring. However, GEO/DRK in Sortie is one of the funnest things I've done in a while. Slap bosses w/ Judgment, Absorb-TP Aminion, and use an Occult Accumen set to get tp fast is amazing.

DRG - My favorite of the 2-hand DD. The utilty it gets isn't used much anymore but back in the day was awesome. I'm more than ok w/ sword DRG -- they are on every Epee type weapon -- it's just annoying they aren't good w/ more swords. Staff DRG should be better than it is...


I generally don't hate any of the jobs, I just shy away from ones that are less flexible in some regard, whether that is damage types or roles.

WAR
sword
gaxe
club
pole
great sword

RDM - My first ever job to 75 (Fck You, SE for making RDM Maat fight the hardest). Loved the versatility of it and how impactful it was to fights. A good RDM is usually able to soften up a hard fight considerably and I’ve always liked that.

WAR - Solid powerful DD, can use any weapon.

MNK - Always enjoyed punching and it being so great at subtle blow is very useful in some fights. Hopefully the meta shifts back in MNKs favor soon. Or update Formless Strikes do the same thing for WSs without penalty (YES, it can done. Just copy/paste whatever’s going on with Murasamemaru)

Spamurai - is Cracked. Just really good at slashing and SCing things to death. Super simple but still really good.

BLU - Unbridled freedom. It’s like RDM’s more arcane brother in a sense. Can do whatever you want with this job, just might not be the best at it. If sword was better at Skillchaining, SE would probably nerf this job into oblivion haha.

BLM - Big Boom!

THF - is fun because you can do ludicrous amounts of damage with a simple JA and relatively low prep… the only issue is it’s Glassy as all hell the last I played with it.

RNG - is powerful and I’ve always liked the distance aspect. Plus, you can fully Zombie with RNG, and only RNG and COR can do that.

COR - versatile and some of the best buffs in the game.

Cliche list but it’s what I like about these jobs

BRD: I love support jobs and it is one of the best. Also, this game suck *** without a BRD.

WHM: it has so many tools in this era that there's always something to do. I like that it keeps me active.

PLD: Few people want to tank and it also functions as a healer. It lets my friends have more flexibility with their jobs. I like being able to fill in any role that's needed.

Current RDM: This is how I envisioned it when I started. Sadly people wanted me to sit on the back line and heal. I dropped the job because meleeing was not encouraged. But loved seeing people solo stuff at 75.

I rediscovered RDM recently and it's definitely my favorite DD now. The TP gain is fast, and Mandau/Excal are pretty damn nice with Temper II. Even Ullr has it's place once you get some MLVLs/Additional Skill. It's insanely flexible. It has Slashing/Piercing/Blunt/Ranged/Magical Damage types.

It's solo potential without trusts is pretty amazing. You can completely turn a wipe around

SAM: It's fun, I love using Hybrids, also started using my Yoichi on occasion. It's situational but over all Zanhasso is insanely fun. SAM can also cap counter pretty easy now. You can sonic thrust cleave and abuse it a bit.

BST: It's in a weird place right now compared to how it originally was. But I kinda like it. It's like an odd mix between WAR/GEO/DRG at this point. I definitely love taking it to Dynamis/Domain Invasion/Besieged. You can lower the max HP of many different NMs whether it is Mireui/Helms/W3 Bosses/Odyssey NMs/Etc.

I was gifted a Pangu awhile back, and went with path B. It's definitely the play style I wanted. Pangu/Aymur kinda fix the TP speed issue of the job.

DRG: Always my favorite. I don't play it as much lately.

WAR: Loved this job, but kind of lost interest once it became meta to sword and board. I was using a shield before it got super popular. Imagine my surprise returning from hiatus when everyone else was doing it lol. I love how WAR can use any weapon and put out decent numbers just playing around.

GEO: Still working on Idris, so I don't get to play it much. But I had a ton of fun going melee GEO to events and stuff. Flash Nova/Seraph Strike can hit some nice numbers using Daybreak offhand.

Kinda suffers from limited melee options though. Nyame is the best you will really have.

RNG: I loved this job, decked it out. Sadly it's only used for a few fights now.

THF


Pro's:
Can tank because almost nothing can hit me.
Can hold hate like better than a PLD because Collaborator + Empy Cap is broken.
Has amazing WS damage with Twashtar when buffed.
Has amazing WS damage with Vajra when not buffed.
Gets massive tp feed for endless AEdge cleave (Gandring).
Moving around for best positioning is fun.

Cons:
tp feed.
Oh.....also people are thf racists.

Personal favorite thing about thf:
when I do something and I get massWTF checks trying to figure out how I'm doing what they are seeing.