Greetings and welcome to another article. Yes, a tier list again, but one that shall stand out heavily compared to the others because it’s the most subjective one I possibly made.
Final Fantasy 14: Ranking the Coolest Jobs
Yeah, of course, the others are very subjective too, but however, nobody with a sane mind will inject objectivity on this one because how cool or badass a job feels and looks is definitely ranging inside personal preference territory.
So here’s my personal take on the coolest jobs of Final Fantasy 14, starting with the tanks. There’s no way around the first S tier spot for The Dark Knight, as this job is literally a dream come true for everyone being involved with their Dark Side, even though the fitting skill had been removed a long time ago, or at least being integrated into another mechanic now. But just the quest line alone might be one of the best of all jobs, and the animations are so cool.
You can even summon a shadowy version of yourself to inflict pain and suffering to your enemies, which, on top, is also a reference to the job quest, except your conviction leading more into light than darkness.
The Dark Knight: Unrivaled Coolness
The Dark Knight is the obvious choice for a job that might even be unrivaled on its coolness, outside of Final Fantasy. Those leaning towards the other side of the spectrum will prefer a Paladin, and while the sword and shield play style does lack a distinctive shield behavior and move set, it does visually incline to have one. So, just from the looks of skills and spells, it feels like a true sword and shield Paladin indeed. On the other hand, Endwalker did grant the Paladin an impressive arsenal of climatic attacks, calling forth the full glory and power of magical blade sword attacks. This alone makes it a solid A tier.
Other Jobs: The Warrior and Paladin
The Warrior, while being a powerhouse and one-man army in nearly everything, I simply feel to lack the epicness of Darket and Padin. While Fel Cleave might be a cool side activity for true hipster lumberjacks, it does get boring after a while, and even Primal Rend or Inner Chaos cannot redeem us from low blow animations. It’s a raw power job with simple attack schemes and brutality but nothing exceptional.
Final Fantasy 14: The Coolest Jobs Reviewed
I would never have believed that Squall and Lightning, being combined and mixed into one MMO job, would make so much sense, and it takes this to the next level when showing off its magnitude. Definitely very close to a Paladin in my opinion.
Alright, let us talk about casters a bit. All of them offer the big explosions and, compared to other MMOs where spells simply look ridiculous, this is a big selling point for me. I don’t know if it’s an actual meme or simply a fact, but Black Mage spell animations are simply breathtaking. Big fire force, while being repeated over and over again, still don’t lose their attraction. It is indeed something spiritual to see our enemies getting melted down to their bones.
Gunbreaker and Black Mage: A Visual Spectacle
However, Summoner does fulfill the same purpose, while it feels dull rotationally. Calling forth the massive power and cheeks of Titan, the ice-searing blast of Bahamut, or fiery incantations of Phoenix will always have a big place in my heart. If you like the Final Fantasy 16 Primal fights, you will love the Summoner, and animation-wise, they made it become a banger job in Endwalker.
Red Mage, in my opinion, drops down a tier because I personally love the mix between melee combat and casting, especially with the triple blast glory of Verholy and its follow-up spells. Like I said multiple times, Scorch has something enigmatic, and I would even dare to say that it feels amatory in the way how the Red Mage is struggling to hold the power in, just until it’s getting released in a full blast.
Though it’s a special taste indeed, and falls a bit short compared to the big explosion duo of Summoner and Black Mage.
Summoner and Red Mage: The Art of Spellcasting
Yes, it has a unique trait with its performance feature, but battle-wise, while the big cooldown face looks appealing, compared to other jobs, the dances afterward always look boring and a bit dated. It has a very distinct look to it, which might appeal to fans of archer range classes in general, but it’s just not enough to shine in this game.
Exploring the Unique Fighting Styles in Final Fantasy 14
As much as other jobs do, which can be said for the Dancer as well, how unique its fighting style may be, dancing to deal damage simply cannot work right. I mean, throwing glaives is one thing, but dancing in place to grant you and your party certain buffs is just too special, in my opinion.
Playing Dancer never makes me feel that I’m fighting against enemies, but something in between of highlighting the muscles of my fellow Samurai mate, which indeed reflects its play perfectly. And I must grant Square some props for making it happen. But for players with a main character approach, Dancer simply lacks the grit to make it, except when you’re Ricardo Milos.
However, there’s one that I would definitely grant a high spot on this list, and that is The Machinist. Just take a look at Flamethrower, this and offering a true Gunslinger job in a fantasy game might feel out of place, but its lore and background explain it quite decently, especially as you also have a Mech joining the fight frequently. Just some character movement physics make it look weird from time to time, so no contestant for the S tier Podium.
The Dancer and Machinist: A Contrast in Styles
Melee jobs are even more subjective in my opinion, as it heavily depends on the weapon or weapons the jobs are using. This brings me to Monk, as it’s basically not using any weapons at all, except for some knuckles, claws, and other hand extensions.
To be fair, though, the serious Monk player uses the Emperor’s fist, which replaces your weapons with bare hands. Then finally, all the JoJo memes, Dragon Ball, or Street Fighter spirit can be applied to this job, making it a redeeming factor to land anywhere higher than the last tier.
These animations are really special for fist fighting but very boring and unspectacular compared to a bamed oreno glossy, for example.
Monk: The Art of Fist Fighting
Samurai I would definitely place a step above Monk due to the katana having many fans, and the sound effects really sold this job to me when it had been released in Stormblood. Still, the double Midare is a high point in its visual design, especially with the added Oami Kiri, making the finishes a striking argument for the Samurai’s coolness.
Apart from that, though, the Samurai’s feel and look very boring, and outside of these phases, can become visually and playfully tedious. Ninja, on the other hand, has a trick up its sleeve, and that is the overall move set leading to very big attacks that feel fast and powerful alike while having little extras at hand like the Bunin double-hit effect that I find visually stunning.
But of course, it all comes down to the big Yosho Randu and the Endwalker finishes that look and feel awesome. And while I’m actually not a big fan of weaving jutsus, it does look cool in-game, and Square did a fantastic job in realizing the idea of a ninja in Final Fantasy 14, especially as you have a whole different approach in PvP, where it becomes more like a rogue and stealth killer that also feels amazing.
Final Fantasy 14: A Closer Look at Job Animations
Regardless of whether you like the play style or not, the animations and jumps are a big selling point for me as a long-time Final Fantasy Tactics fan. This is just fan service all around, and its off-global cooldown (oGCD) heavy burst window, or the double life of the Dragoon, there’s just so much going on with a Dragoon that you would be astonished watching it.
Unfortunately, your eyes are hard-pressed onto your hotbar, so you will never be able to truly enjoy this spectacle unless you have a couple of days played with this job already. And basically, all these arguments and traits lead us to the almighty Reaper, which simply takes all the good aspects and combines them with the badass darkness and death vibes of a Dark Knight, while also taking combat animations to a whole new level.
Reaper’s Might: Epic Battles and Striking Animations in Gaming
The in-out phase might be one of the most epic-looking battle sequences I have seen in any game yet, and due to the fast oGCD and GCD switching inside of it, you really feel the power of that phase, yet you also have the time and focus to watch these beautiful screen-shaking strikes.
So, Reaper takes the cake for me, and due to how new and up-to-date these animations look, it even outmatches The Dark Knight. And if you’re still not sold on this job yet, just take a closer look at your character during your intro phase; it just looks awesome.
The Dragoon and Reaper: Spectacular Animations
Last but not least, healers. While, of course, it is tougher to decide on healers who are mostly focused on keeping things safe and sound around them, I feel like in Final Fantasy 14, Square did manage to pull off very distinct features and visuals between them.
Starting with the Astrologian, I would simply put it in the middle ground due to how awesome the big Stellar explosions look, and in general, the animations are decently fleshed out to begin with. Just the card draw system, while bearing many references to a famous card game anime, is just not my style of dealing with buff applications. Though, all the other star and space-focused spells offer a very cool and fitting framework for the healer.
Healer Aesthetics: White Mage Simplicity vs. Scholar Playfulness
White Mage, on the other hand, has Holy and, well, everything else are just simple healing spells with not much impact or style to them. Yes, Glare might be a meme-worthy spell, but that’s basically it. The only redeeming factor are its wings, and that the animations look kind of smooth most of the times.
And in my opinion, the worst of them is the Scholar. I guess it’s just lacking visual fidelity, and all the fairy interactions are cool and might appeal to some players, but for me, and probably some part of the majority, it could be too playful.
The Unique Appeal of Final Fantasy 14 Jobs
Bahamut or Phoenix equivalents, even though the Seraph tries to be one, and while I like the Sprint ability, Scholar just falls short compared to the competition. It is a very special job, but for me, the whole design and animations are definitely a bit unappealing, which its weapon definitely can’t compensate for.
Sage, on the other hand, kind of gets the Reaper treatment, and the animations definitely look very cool and new to me. I’m not yet sure if I like its playstyle-wise because it had been the last job I just recently unlocked, but so far, it does look good playing it. The weapon is also something I’m a big fan of, as they make lots of visual noise around their caster and its party, so definitely a very good overall package and one of my favorite healers on the style department.
Hell yeah, finally a tier list that is able to have room for Blue Mage because let us be real, with access to so many spells and a whole gameplay aspect designed around receiving and using them properly, this is definitely an S-tier choice. People that have played Blue Mage content will agree.
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