When Final Fantasy 14 arrived for gamers, Square Enix managed to transform its hit fantasy RPG franchise into a spectacular MMO experience. Within the main FF14 game, Final Fantasy fans can take on iconic Jobs and embark on an adventure with their friends. Moreover, its roster of 20 Classes that transition into one of 10 Final Fantasy Jobs provides a ton of flexibility in terms of gameplay. In fact, some beginners might express confusion on the matter.
After all, transitioning into FF 14 from other MMOs might be tough. Thanks to the game’s fast-paced nature and conventional party roles with their respective twists, all characters are expected to know just when to move, cast spells, use their skills, and even retreat. For beginners who want to take it slow and get familiar with the game, just which Classes should they try first?
9 Samurai (Job)
To fit with the eastern flair of Stormblood, Samurai was added into the expansion as a new and improved combat job. Available upon reaching level 50, the Samurai boasts very high DPS… but not much else. After all, what sort of DPS needs situational buffs and debuffs when the best way to dispatch enemies is to overkill them? In this way, Samurai is best compared to a melee Black Mage in its usefulness in party compositions.
Unlike Black Mage, however, Samurai has a very low skill floor. The job is easy to pick up and the rotations are pretty self-explanatory. It’s a fairly forgiving melee DPS as well since positional attacks are not entirely necessary for those unconcerned with maxing out DPS. Just keep in mind the job has a high skill ceiling, with a lot of room for optimization. With enough practice, the job can put out serious numbers. It’s a safe job to pick up and one that looks cool as well.
What’s New In Endwalker?
Endwalker doesn’t offer a lot of changes to the Samurai. However, its expanded skill set does still allow the Samurai to dominate early as a decent all-rounder in the frontlines:
8 Reaper (Job)
Endwalker introduces the Reaper, a melee DPS with a penchant for fast-paced attacks. Thanks to their dual resource focus (Shroud Gauge and Soul Gauge), the Reaper has strong engagement and disengagement tools, very few position-heavy attacks, and multiple burst opportunities. However, players do need to take note of debuff maintenance and ability cooldowns, as these determine their key usefulness in combat.
To be more precise, the Reaper’s movement-heavy mechanic gives players a lot of room to play around the battlefield. Their primary jumps and dashes eventually evolve into portals they can zip through - giving them the potential to go back and forth across mobs. Combat-wise, Reapers will gain Souls in the Soul Gauge, to be used to gain the Reavers buffs when using special attacks. Likewise, Shrouds in the Shroud Gauge can access Enshroud, a burst phase that gives them enhanced attacks. At Level 90, the ultimate Communio is a nuke AOE that gives access to a new burst mode that upgrades the Reaper’s best abilities.
7 Sage (Job)
Endwalker introduces the Sage, another Healing Job that specializes in ensuring the party stays alive throughout any type of encounter. Unlike other Healers, the Sage is a focused Barrier Healer - mitigating damage through a wide array of abilities. This excellence in healing comes at a trade-off with damage, but the Sage is quite a decent Healer when it comes to sustained cures across the board.
Kardia serves as the key healing gimmick of the Sage, which assigns a “partner” to the Sage. Whenever the Sage deals magic damage, the Kardia’s linked Kardion partner receives HP. Another key ability is Eukrasia, which adds a barrier element to the Sage’s heals, essentially boosting defense. Meanwhile, the Sage’s Job Gauge is called the Addersgall, which accumulates stacks that could be used to trigger special healing abilities.
6 Dancer (Job)
The other Shadowbringers job, Dancer, is another one long-anticipated by fans. Many expected it to be added in Stormblood, based on wrong theories about Lyse in the reveal trailer, but it did finally arrive. And, to the surprise of the community, it was a DPS instead of a Healer. Healers are too hard to design in a way that’s unique and balanced, apparently.
Regardless, Dancer is a pretty ideal job for those who like ranged physical DPS and have hit level 60. If maintaining multiple buffs and DoTs on Bard is too annoying and Machinist is too arcane, Dancer is perfect. The job is based around RNG activations of powerful abilities, revolving around a very simple damage rotation. Its utility is easy to use as well, and there’s nowhere near the button bloat other jobs have at max level. Dancer is perfect for players looking to be effective at all levels without a lot of effort.
Thanks to Endwalker, Dancers can finally get a break with how they manage their rotations. In terms of newer skills, the Dancer has quite a few to offer that enhance their potential as quick damage-dealers and steady healers:
5 Conjurer (Class, White Mage Job)
Players who want to practice the Healer Role will find the Conjurer an easy healing Class to get into. In fact, Conjurers have the best healing abilities in the early game. Despite their lack of damage-over-time spells, they have a ton of buffs and healing to go around that Conjurers can easily solo their way into the White Mage Job. They also have a surprising amount of damage at higher levels, which is why they’re sometimes called a “green DPS.”
Conjurers rely on Cure 2 and Medica 2 for their primary healing abilities, with Stone and Aero serving as their main offensive attacks. Moreover, Conjurers have spells that give regeneration buffs with longer sustains, which enables Conjurers to avoid micromanaging the Healer role. Thanks to the easy-to-master nature of the Conjurer, players can ease into the Healer role in no time.
Given how the Conjurer evolves into the White Mage, it may help to understand what’s changed in the Job in the new expansion. Thankfully, the White Mage Job doesn’t receive a lot of updates in Endwalker, except for a few that already enhance its rather methodical healing superiority. Changes include:
4 Gladiator (Class, Paladin Job)
Gladiators serve as great Tanks early in the game, in preparation for the more heavy-duty Paladin Job later down the line. Thankfully, the Gladiator’s skill set provides newcomers to the game with decent crowd control abilities and retains aggro. As such, the Gladiator offers a relatively-easy way for beginners to practice tanking.
Unlike the Marauder, Gladiators enjoy higher defense in place for lower HP. Moreover, despite dealing moderate damage unlike other DPS classes, the Gladiator has a great array of tanking skills that their Paladin Job also relies on upon the late-game. While the Paladin offers some healing capabilities, the Gladiator should hopefully offer players enough opportunities to practice mowing down bosses without having to rely on emergency heals.
The Paladin Job carries over the Gladiator’s emphasis of heavy-hitting attacks, making it a more streamlined tank with “partial” healing compared to Paladins of other games. Endwalker changes this dynamic by boosting both its damage and healing potential:
3 Lancer (Class, Dragoon Job)
Lancers specialize in wielding polearms and attacking with vicious speed. As they soon evolve into the flashier Dragoon Job, Lancers position themselves as one of the best in terms of melee DPS. Lancers can pick off single targets much easier. Moreover, as Lancers also wear plate armor, they have the same defensive advantage as other Tank Classes.
Thanks to the distance and attack speed offering of their polearms, Lancers can easily take on damage roles without worrying about their health. Interestingly, the Lancer prepares players for the more technical aspects of the Dragoon Job. A lot of the Lancer’s skills rely on great positioning, meaning players need to learn to either position themselves on the rear or sides of enemies to deal maximum damage.
The Lancer sets up players to understand the mobility-heavy focus of the Dragoon. In fact, the Dragoon gets a lot of flak for its rather intense need to balance positioning and rotations, making it a very technical Job to use despite its massive damage output. Thankfully, Endwalker tries streamlining these with its updates:
2 Thaumaturge (Class, Black Mage Job)
Players with a penchant for the dark arts should tap into the Thaumaturge for their first Class. Thaumaturges possess Astral Fire and Umbral Ice, states which adjust their gameplay depending on their favored element. Astral Fire increases MP consumption but beefs up Fire spells. Meanwhile, Umbral Ice helps Blizzard spells regenerate MP. When Thaumaturges master switching between these states, they can dish out huge numbers easily.
Moreover, unlike other spellcasters and most DPS classes, Thaumaturges have the potential to deal the most damage in early-level raids – indicative of the massive DPS spike of their Black Mage evolution. Unfortunately, Thaumaturges also need to focus on positioning, as AOEs and enemy abilities can interrupt their casts.
The Thaumaturge’s focus on blasting foes to oblivion is a good setup for its evolution as the Black Mage. Given the DPS superiority of Black Mages, it makes sense for the Job not to have as much changes in Endwalker. However, newcomers who plan on maining Black Mages might want to take these things to heart:
1 Arcanist (Class, Summoner Job Focus)
Arcanists study the arcane arts, gaining enough mastery to either hex enemies with curses or even summon allies to their aid. Interestingly, the Arcanist is the only Class to branch out into two Jobs. This factor makes this Class perhaps the most recommended for spellcasters who want to maximize their experience.
For instance, Arcanists can enjoy the solo route with the Summoner Job since their pets can serve as tanks. Arcanists enjoy the benefits of a DPS-oriented pet with Summon and a tanking pet with Summon 2. Thanks to the relative ease of access to buffing spells, the Arcanist-Summoner will get early training on buffing and supporting their allies. Moreover, their minions can easily get them through difficult dungeons.
Arcanists that want to become Summoners should brace themselves for yet another slate of changes to their Job evolution. Aside from the removal of damage over time spells, certain skills got retooled to have different properties:
Final Fantasy 14: Endwalker was released last December 7, 2021, and is playable on the PS4, PS5, Windows, and macOS.
