As you probably already know, there are currently 18 Jobs in FFXIV Online, each consisting of DPS, Tanks and Healers. I’ve compiled the Jobs that I find the most interesting, gameplay-wise or aesthetic-wise. Note that I won’t be going into much depth about how to play each Job but more about how interesting they are to play as a whole. 

Feel free to read on and discover my top picks!

Known for their swiftness and utility, Ninjas are extremely powerful, even despite their lack of raw strength.

The most intricate and interesting job to play in FFXIV Online is Ninja, thanks to how fast-paced it is and the sheer amount of utility it possesses.

What I like about Ninja is how fast-paced and rewarding it is to play; there’s no other job in the game that allows you to feel the absolute high of having all of your most potent attacks line up at once and then proceeding to hurl them at the enemy for a few seconds. But my absolute favourite part about this job is how its Mudra system works. It requires you to learn the different combinations to activate the necessary Ninjutsu. 

After using it extensively in both casual and hardcore content, from Shadowbringers to Endwalker, I can safely say that almost no job comes close to Ninja’s complexity since it requires you to understand the inner workings of the job before you can begin to use it effectively in battle. 

I think the FFXIV devs truly struck gold with this job’s mechanics since it demands your attention and focus. I honestly wish more jobs were built around this kind of intuitive system. 

Introducing Scholar, the king of shields and strategies

Scholar’s aesthetic is probably my favourite in the entirety of FFXIV. I love everything about it, the tie-in with fairies, the book, the academic Artifact gear. Simply put, playing the job and wearing its unique gear makes me feel more competent, especially since this healer takes a bit of brainpower to learn initially. 

As for the actual gameplay, Scholar relies on shielding allies from damage, but it also has a few decent regen skills, thanks to its pet fairies: Eos, Selene and Seraph; these guys are great at providing additional support for the entire party; just don’t forget to summon them!

But in all honesty, Scholar is more than capable of healing by itself, especially with abilities like Sacred Soil, Excogitation and Aldoquium; this also makes it the perfect shield-healer for high-end content since it has ideal synergy with regen-healers, like White Mage and Astrologian. 

A pair of Monks displaying their true power

Monk is a job that the FFXIV devs didn’t know how to balance, so as a result, it’s always been in a sort of limbo, making the job inconsistent and difficult to work with.

In Endwalker, I find Monk the most fun it has ever been. I finally feel like a martial artist instead of a pugilist with extra steps. I enjoy how this job doesn’t have a set rotation, and you’re free to use whatever skills you want to so long as they’re within your buffs. Monk’s new defining feature, Masterful Blitz, is entertaining because it requires you to learn a combination of attacks to use various powerful techniques, like Phantom Rush or Elixir Field. 

Outside of gameplay mechanics, Monk really feels unique. I especially enjoy its idle and sprinting animation as they perfectly capture the job’s essence. Naturally, I love all of its Artifact gear and variety of weapons as well. Still, I prefer to fight bare-handed, with the brilliant Kettle Knuckle Nexus being the sole exception. 

Where would a Samurai be without his trusty blade?

The long, vibrant-looking robes. The simple-looking sandals. Their intricate and deadly katana, sitting at their side… 

FFXIV Online truly encapsulates the interesting job identity of being a cool, calm-minded samurai. Despite the tragic loss of Kaiten (Rest in peace). Every animation that Samurai has is incredibly clean and elegant-looking; you really feel like a master swordsman while dodging attacks and slashing your foes to ribbons. 

I find the job’s core gameplay is straightforward and not very hard to understand since you perform three combos to gather various resources and then spend them to do different types of attacks. Samurai also boasts serious damage, making it an easy-to-learn physical DPS job, but remember that there is a notable difference between a very skilled Samurai player and a bad one.

I especially love using Midare Setsugekka, Ogi Namikiri and Tsubame-gaeshi. since I get to watch my character slowly sheath their weapon and then effortlessly unleash a devastating attack a second later. In terms of job identity, Samurai wins hands down; now, all they have to do is bring back Hissatsu-Kaiten…

Explosions and Gunbreakers simply go hand-in-hand.

I love using the Gnashing Fang Combo.

That’s the whole section. 

But no, seriously; this is my favourite Tank by far. Not only does the job revolve around using a gunblade, but it’s the busiest and most fast-paced Tank job FFXIV Online has to offer, ensuring that you always have something interesting to do. 

Many people in the FFXIV community joke that Gunbreaker plays more like a physical DPS than a tank, and I couldn’t be more thankful that it does. It’s fast-paced and has an actual burst, where you have to squeeze in all of your most potent attacks within its ‘No Mercy’ buff window. That means you’ll get very familiar with attacks like Double Down, Burst Strike and Hypervelocity. 

Gunbreaker also has its own healing spells called Aurora and Heart of Corundum, making it a fantastic off-tank for high-end content since it excels at healing and mitigation. It’s almost like having a fast-paced, bulky DPS with regenerative spells and plenty of mitigation.   

Not to mention that seeing the explosions, gunpowder and spark effects flying off of your gunblade as you perform a variety of powerful techniques is something that compelled me to make Gunbreaker my first choice for a Tank. I always find myself having fun using this Job regardless of what type of content I’m tanking. 

The king of massive swords and darkness, Dark Knight, definitely leaves an impression!

To play Dark Knight is to walk hand-in-hand with pain and suffering, which is very fitting to the lore of the job. But I have died way too many times to trash mobs as a Dark Knight than I would care to admit, especially before the recent change to Living Dead. 

I mainly play Dark Knight when I want to have some level of a challenge. Considering it’s the only interesting Tank job in FFXIV Online that doesn’t have a decent self-heal skill and relies on MP management to use specific, valuable skills. This means you have to time when to use your mitigation instead of just running into a pack of mobs and going crazy. (Looking at you, Warrior…) 

Luckily, Dark Knight compensates for its lack of sustainability with the most useful defensive ever created, a humungous greatsword and one of the best Job Quest storylines in the game. Not to mention you have a lot of cool-looking skills at your disposal like Salted Earth, Bloodspiller and Living Shadow. 

Overall, Dark Knight has some solid DPS mitigation and presents some difficulty for Tanks, who don’t want to fall asleep whilst spamming their AoE attacks. 

Not only are they powerful casters, but Red Mages also have a natural, fashionable flair to them as well!

As I mentioned previously, I’m more of a Melee DPS player, so usually, I wouldn’t even consider playing a caster. Especially not with Black Mage’s lack of mobility and Summoner’s recent changes.

Red Mage solves all of those issues, though. It’s one of FFXIV Online’s complex, interesting and flashy Caster job with a extensive melee combo. With a rapier and a magical Medium at hand, these casters are super interesting to watch and even more so to play. 

Regarding gameplay, these casters are jack of all trades, masters of none; since they use both Black and White magic. This means they can cast several different spells, like Fire or Aero. However, these spells are not all that powerful cast by themselves, so Red Mages must balance how much they use the two to use unique and powerful attacks.

The Balance Gauge will be your new best friend as it tells you exactly how much Black or White Mana you’ve collected. Note that if you amass too much of one colour, it will become more challenging to build up the other.

During the casting phase, I recommend building up either 50 or 80 of each Mana type to execute a full melee combo; this requires you to instantly get close to the enemy and perform a flurry of thrusts and slashes with Enchanted Riposte, Zwerchhau and Redoublement before backflipping away and bombarding them with heavy-hitting spells, like Verflare, Verholy, Scorch and Resolution. 

I love the general flair that Red Mage has. From blasting my enemies with spells before diving in head first and slicing them to ribbons with my sword is all-around great fun. It perfectly balances the best sides of the Melee and Caster jobs. 

Jumping, lances and dragon blood. Yep, that’s Dragoon for you.

I’m almost positive there isn’t a job as synonymous with Final Fantasy as Dragoon

Gameplay-wise, it’s pretty simple. You’ll get up close and personal with the enemy with various jumps and spear thrusts. You’ll also boost the party’s damage with skills like Battle Litany and Dragon Sight.

Aside from jumping about, Dragoon’s core gameplay revolves around using its spear. You’ll constantly be switching between the Chaos Thrust DoT combo or Full Thrust raw damage combo. 

On top of this, you’ll also be channelling the Life of the Dragon throughyour veins to use abilities like High Jump, Geirskogul and Mirage Dive; once you’ve used two Mirage Dives, you will gain the effect of the First Brood’s Gaze, which will allow you to execute powerful techniques, like Stardiver, a mesmerising, scarlet red, fire-based AoE.  

I have a particular soft spot for Dragoons since I played as one from FFXIV: A Realm Reborn to the FFXIV: Shadowbringers expansion. Not to mention that going through Heavensward as a Dragoon was one hell of an experience. But despite all of that, I find their battle style and armour awe-inspiring and, frankly, really incredible. 

Despite having a simple rotation, you can’t deny that Reaper looks damn cool!

Reaper is the new scythe-wielding physical DPS job introduced in FFXIV: Endwalker. When I first tried it out on release day, I was confused about how it worked. It took a while, but after dragging it through levelling roulettes, I realised that’s a straightforward job to play. Even more so than Dragoon. 

I play Reaper when I feel like taking it easy as a physical DPS. The gameplay is very straightforward since it revolves around using its basic three-hit combo to build up your gauges, which you then spend on entering a short, high-damage mode. 

For me, Reaper is all about the aesthetic. The giant scythe, the ripped and worn-out level 90 artifact gear. Oh, and getting possessed by a grotesque, dark avatar makes the job fun. I don’t think the job’s basic rotation would get overlooked so much, if it wasn’t for its aesthetic and high damage. Thanks to its signature ability, Shadow of Death, which increases the amount of damage the Reaper does to the target by 10%. 

Reaper is a solid physical DPS job that boasts decent damage and an excellent aesthetic. However, this is at the cost of having a somewhat dull rotation. But if you ask me, it’s totally worth it.  

I’ve got you in my sights…

I’m the type of guy who likes to be up close and personal with the enemy. Ranged DPS in FFXIV Online have never come across as very interesting jobs to me, but I can make an exception for Machinist. 

I like this job because of how fast-paced it is since the whole gimmick of Machinist is building up its two gauges during battle and then spending those gauges on powerful Weaponskills or Abilities. This speed requires you to pay attention to both your rotation and the mechanics happening during the battle. In turn, this causes you always to feel engaged and involved in the fight. You know, instead of just pressing a few buttons and waiting to dodge telegraphed AoEs. 

I also enjoy calling in my mechs, the Rook Turret and the Automaton Queen. It makes Machinist feel more like an engineer/tinkerer rather than just a person who uses a gun. 

As a whole, Machinist offers you a more exciting and fast-paced, high-potency rotation whilst also allowing you to keep your distance, which is always helpful for dodging raid mechanics.

Overall, these jobs bring something unique to the table that the others simply don’t. 

Gameplay-wise, jobs like Ninja, Monk and Scholar demand a level of skill just to play and aren’t particularly beginner-friendly. This essentially forces the players to properly understand their inner workings before being able to do dish out significant damage. I personally find it somewhat refreshing since FFXIV Online seems to get less intricate and less complex as more expansions release. 

Simply put, I like all of these jobs because they look cool and are a bit complex to play. Saying that, every player has different preferences and I’m curious to see how your own list compares to mine. Feel free to comment it down below!

Now, for other news and updates regarding FFXIV Online, start with checking out the latest patch notes.

If you’re a fresh-faced MMORPG newcomer or a returning veteran on the look out for the next big name game to sink your time into, you might want to check this out. 

Catch up with the newest job actions for the current Endwalker expansion here,

Coffee, games and cats are Ben’s lifeblood. You can usually find him playing RPGs or haphazardly scribbling down notes for his next writing project.

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