When choosing the class for your Final Fantasy XIV Online journey, you have a few selections at the start. These classes are the building blocks of your character, and when you reach level 30, you’ll have the option of becoming even more powerful and selecting your character’s Job. Your Job will be a more refined profession of your character, giving you a distinct series of abilities and weapons, and refining your playstyle alongside other players. In this guide, we will detail the best jobs for each class in Final Fantasy XIV Online.
It’s important to note that you can always swap out your Job regardless of your starting class whenever you want. You will have to complete the prerequisite for a Job, though. For example, if you start the game as an Archer and become a Bard and want to become a Dragoon, you will need to become a Lancer and reach level 30. Keep that in mind for any class you initially pick.
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Arcanist
The Arcanist is a unique class in Final Fantasy XIV. It’s the only class in the game that can simultaneously level both available jobs, namely Summoner or Scholar. That means if you pick to become a Summoner Job, you’ll also be leveling up your character’s Scholar job at the same time. So if you swap to a Scholar in the future, you’ll be at the same level as your Summoner. Your decision depends on whether you’re looking to become a damage-dealing character or want to continue playing as a support healer. You offer an array of damage attacks that make you extremely useful as a Scholar while you’re not healing your party members or giving them shields. Of the two, most players want to stick to Summoner to do some heavy ranged DPS.
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As you progress through the game, it might be a good idea to check out another ranged healing class, the Sage. It’s a decisively powerful class, as players can deal out a good amount of DPS while also healing allies. It is required to have the Endwalker expansion to unlock this class, though.
Archer
The only Job the Archer can learn once they reach level 30 will be Bard, a ranged DPS job that also gives supportive buffs to teammates that increases the damage they’re going to do. Bards can be highly effective if the party already has plenty of melee damaging characters by boosting them and increasing their damage output. While Bards won’t be hitting the top of the damage charts, their supportive ranged attacks and buffs make them a critical part of a party that needs a slight boost in damage to clear minion waves and bosses just a bit faster.
Conjurer
The Conjurer also has a single Job that it will become when it reaches level 30, a White Mage. A White Mage in Final Fantasy XIV has the best AoE heal of the healing classes, so it’s considered the easiest of the healing classes to learn and is highly recommended for players learning the basics of the game. Because it has some of the best healing in the game, you want to make sure you’re spending additional time doing damage to the enemies while your party has close to full, or at least half, health. After you go, Conjurer, we’d recommend trying out Astrologian.
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Gladiator
The Gladiator is a heavy tank class in Final Fantasy XIV, and it eventually becomes a Paladin at level 30. The Paladin can take a heaping pile of damage and still keep going during a fight. The Paladin also has a heal that it can give to itself, or another party member, allowing the main group’s healer to take a break to regain their mana, even for a few seconds. The Paladin doesn’t deal the most damage, relying on the party’s damage dealers to eliminate most of the forces, while the Paladin keeps the minions and bosses’ attention. Overall, the Paladin is a robust, heavy tank that is superb for this class. Alternatively, we also recommend trying out Warrior or Dark Knight after mastering this Job.
Lancer
The Lancer is a melee DPS class that will eventually become the Dragoon at level 30. They have some of the longest combinations of attacks in the game and give most tanks a small amount of relief during combat to DPS. Despite supporting the group’s tank, the Lancer has potent single-target attacks that make it superb at focusing on a target, eliminating it, and moving on to the next one. If you enjoy Lancer, we’d recommend branching off and trying to play as a Samurai.
Marauder
The Marauder is a tanky class that will eventually become a Warrior at level 30. Even though they’re a tank, they can do quite a bit of damage themselves, making them a risky choice. They’ll be focused on remaining alive and using their damage reduction abilities to keep the aggro off of the party. Still, they’re also handy for ensuring the party can effectively cleave through enemies without taking forever. If you enjoy playing the Marauder’s Warrior job, the Dark Knight is also an effective choice to try out later on.
Pugilist
A Pugilist is a melee DPS class that will become a Monk at level 30. The Monk has several forms that it transitions through during a battle, capable of dealing quite a bit of AoE damage to their foes as they fight against large groups. Monk can be one of the weaker DPS classes than Samurai or Ninja, but the animations are quite satisfying for you to watch. When you nail the combinations, there’s a distinct satisfaction upon hitting them all effectively. Monk is one of the more difficult jobs to get right off the bat, so you might want to try Samurai, Reaper, or Ninja before adventuring through this class.
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Rogue
The Rogue is a melee DPS class that levels up into a Ninja at level 30. The class struggles a bit more than the other ones at lower levels, but once it reaches a high enough threshold, many of its passive skills and combinations come online, giving it plenty of diversity as a damage class. You want to make sure you’re learning your ability, and attacks order because you’ll gain a combo bonus for doing these correctly. Missing these bonuses means you won’t be doing as much damage, and you’re going to pull your party down. So long as you can keep up the many combinations and attacks you want to perform, Ninja can be a solid damage option for you to consider.
Taumaturge
The Thaumaturge is a ranged magical DPS that becomes a Black Mage at level 30. The Black Mage is considered the most cast heavy magic user of any magical-based Jobs in Final Fantasy XIV. You’ll be switching from your Astral Fire stance to deal heavy damage and then into Umbral Ice to refuel all of the MP you’ve just lost, throwing large numbers against the enemies. A big focus for Black Mages is to adapt. They have a fairly standard ability rotation, but based on what occurs during the fight, they may need to change things up to accommodate the team as a whole. We highly recommend playing as Red Mages or Blue Mages after learning how to cast as a Black Mage.
