With so many jobs in the world of Final Fantasy XIV, it is really hard to choose, or even stick with one job that you originally picked. Soon two more new jobs will be added with Endwalker expansion – Reaper and Sage, and people around me are talking about switching allegiance to the new jobs.
Will always stick with my Conjurer / White Mage roots unless they royally screwed it up
It is true that you picked a start class (instead of job) when you first started the game in the character creation screen, but how many of you did stick with what you started with throughout the whole game? I still remember when Heavensward first launched, all the healer friends switched over to Astrologian. They are willing to spend time to level them up from 30 to 50 before continuing with the storyline (cos you need to be at 50 to continue the story). For me I just stuck with my trustful White Mage. Then Astrologian’s popularity suddenly dropped because of its lack of healing power and shielding power. Making it a great on paper but lacking in battles. Several adjustments were made before the uptake of Astrologian went back up again. With further changes with the Astrologian job, I wonder how it will fare.
That’s same for rapid shift of Bards to Machinists in this era and then moving back to Bard. Machinist nowadays plays like a completely different job, and the Bard Mage now is a real Bard again.
For me I have also stick with my White Mage as my main job. In every expansion I just continued with the story with my White Mage before I levelled up any other jobs. So White Mage is usually the job I finished with the expansion story. I play the game for the story so I just don’t have that patience of levelling a new job for catching up. Just not my style. Also, finishing the expansion story and trying all the new dungeons as a White Mage reduces the learning curve for me for most of the time, as I am still familiar with the job to a certain extent, avoiding a huge cultural shock (well, except for those damn lilies initially in Stormblood).
I do miss my Summoner at times. Hope the changes in Endwalker will be the reason I go back
However, for my main DPS job I did experience a switch of allegiance in Shadowbringers. Since the start of A Realm Reborn, Summoner was my main DPS. Partly because when I level my Scholar I levelled my Summoner too, and partly because Summoner was a mobile caster. All I need to do at that time was to maintain the Damage over Time (DoTs) while either stand and cast or run and cast. I was so dedicated to the job to a point that I have macros to remind me when Bio, Bio II, Miasm, Miasma II and Shadowflare were wearing off, so I have enough time to reapply while busily doing other spell casting things. With being able to summon Bahamut in Stormblood I just thought there are no other jobs better than Summoner. But things changed with Shadowbringers. Yeah, with the addition of Phoenix it was cool, but the job became very routine and one dimensional. You do this and this and this, the gauge fills up, here comes Bahamut, and you do more of this and this and this, Phoenix comes, and you start all over again. Somehow, I feel a lot less engaged with the job than before, and did not feel connected to it anymore.
I played Red Mage in Stormblood for some of the contents so I tried switching over to Red Mage for a while. While it is cool but it is a less challenging job for me, though I still love its mobility and versatility. I still play Red Mage for a number of contents for this reason, but for my main DPS, I eventually settled with Black Mage in Shadowbringers. I think in Shadowbringers, they have streamlined the resource management yet maintain a level of engagement with the job. The requirements to manage your Enochian, Astra and Umbra stacks made the job very engaging and strategic, as you need to learn the fight to understand when you put down Leylines, and when you execute your fast movements and instant casts. Also, the fact that you could see those huge numbers popping up when they were critical hits made the job even more exciting and fulfilling. So, for the first time in my FF XIV history, Summoner lost its prominence in my Eorzean life. Nonetheless, after watching the job action trailer, I had renewed my interest with Summoner, as it looks a lot more interesting all over again.
Feel bad leaving Warrior for Paladin, but I was forced to do so :P
In terms of my preferred tank, I used to play Warrior as my preferred tank as it has a lot of utilities for self-healing (yes, Vengeance used to reduce damage, reflects damage and absorbs all reflected damages as self-heals; also, Warrior used to have access to Bloodbath too), especially during big pulls for mobs in dungeons. Subsequent updates throughout expansions and patches had, in my opinion, changed the job quite a bit, and I became no longer confident tanking as a Warrior anymore. This was a pity as I did like the job a lot, just that I was no longer confident with it. As a result, I have switched over to Paladin, which with emergency heals like Clemency, I feel a lot more confident, cos I know if anything happened to the healer, I would be ok to sustain for a while. Though I did miss the days that Paladin can revive. Also, the combination of Circle of Scorn and Total Eclipse made me feel more confident holding aggro together.
What were your original start out class /job? Are you still sticking with the same job your initially chose? Let me know in the comments below 😊
