hi. i'm a neet and ffxiv is practically my life atm; i play it a lot. i currently play as a dragoon for raid content; our static is pushing for an a4s kill after seeing enrage last week. this post is about my personal opinion on the how jobs are currently balanced and their state in the progression meta. i write in a very bad & wordy way, so i hope it isn't too bad for everyone to read.

for context, i have all jobs leveled to 60, and have had savage experience in all roles and all jobs (learning parties in pf etc). i've played ffxiv for a bit under 2 years on and off, always raiding when i did play, and always enjoying the various raid fights from the pov of different jobs and roles.

for the rating system, i will rate in 2 ways for DPS, 3 for tanks/healers. DPS contribution, Utility are the main two, and for tanks/healers, role effectiveness (so, mitigation/thoroughput). the ratings are in context of the role rather than all jobs entirely. with that, let's start!

**Tanks**
*Warrior*
DPS Contribution - 10
Utility - 9
Role Effectiveness - 9
Role Effectiveness in A4S - 8

This is the strongest tank currently, hands down. They boast the highest tank DPS, amazing utility, amazing AoE, amazing mitigation and self-sustain abilities for both HP and TP. Their only visible weakness compared to the other tanks is that their invincible-type skill is arguably the weakest and is tied to their anti-knock back, yet it is still very usable, and it has the shortest cooldown as well. The only reason you would consider not taking 2x WAR even is due to job-stacking drawbacks for limit break, and lack of utility variety that PLD/DRK would offer in place of another WAR.

Under DPS contribution, WAR obviously is very strong. Deliverance, Fell Cleave/Decimate and Critical Hit Rate are the big three things here really. Deliverance is by far the strongest OT mode, because it gives stacking CHR % while also giving a damage boost and allowing access to Fell Cleave, which speaks for itself. WAR is also the only tank class with access to PGL cross-class, which comes with Internal Release; a fair portion of the reason for their DPS advantage. Double/Triple Fell Cleaves under Berserk offer insane burst as well. Then when it comes to AoE, Decimate is obviously very strong, and WAR is the the only tank class with a TP regen skill, which lets them AoE and be able to sustain it. When main tanking, WAR has very respectable DPS still, due to the ease of swapping into Deliverance and CDs like Unchained.

For Utility, Storm's Path really is the biggest thing. It's an exclusive, up to 100% up-time 10% overall damage decrease on the boss; no other job has this. It has an extreme importance in progression, and even after raid HP hits a comfortable level, the amount of damage that it can mitigate is no joke. Storm's Eye as well is also a great utility; they naturally provide it for the other tank and the NIN if they are in the party, increasing their damage substantially. And all a WAR has to do to maintain that, is to do their regular rotation. For CC, a WAR brings the shorter oGCD stun, fairly vanilla.

In Role Effectiveness, the myriad of cooldowns that WAR has really shine here. Holmgang having such a short CD time lets them be able to use it multiple times in a fight; a WAR in A1S for example can easily spread their CDs for the 1st and 3rd Hypercompressed Plasma to alleviate healers during moments such as double prey, by using Holmgang and healing to a safe level with Equilibrium+Second Wind. Vengeance is an extremely strong CD because of it's reflect, short CD, long duration and high mitigation %; compared to Sentinel (40% for 10s, 3m CD) and Shadow Wall (30% for 10s, 3m CD) it's honestly a bit overwhelmingly strong. Inner Beast, being an on-demand self heal and 20% mitigation is a bit more difficult to use compared to Rampart/Shadow Wall, but once you get the timings for when to use it down, it's a very potent on demand mitigation skill, especially when doubled up with Infuriate. Equilibrium brings amazing self-sustain, with up to 11k heals under berserk on a short 60s CD. Raw Intuition is again, another very strong CD (do you see a pattern yet?). 20s of full frontal parries is a very strong buff vs physical attacking monsters; its only con in Savage is that it has effectively 0 mitigation use on A4S other than on the adds, due to the heavy magical nature of A4S. The rest of the skills are effectively small CDs that don't mitigate much by themselves; things such as Enhanced Foresight, Enhanced Bloodbath, Awareness can help a fair amount when used effectively; especially Awareness when combined with Raw Intuition.

When it comes to aggro, WAR is also, hands down, the best. Their highest potency combo is their aggro combo; enough said. Unchained also offers an insane enmity burst when used as well.

In A4S, Raw Intuition loses a bit of its use outside of adds, but it's still a very potent cooldown, for both DPS and for the adds that you would tank until the last phase. Warrior is still very strong here.

*Paladin*
DPS Contribution - 4
Utility - 6.5
Role Effectiveness - 8
Role Effectiveness in A4S - 2

Currently, PLD is not in a good spot. They bring the lowest tank DPS; their utility is not amazing in practical situations, and in the current most difficult fight in the game, their shield is worthless for more than half the fight, along with one of their big cooldowns. PLD has decent HP sustain at the cost of DPS; their TP sustain is awful, relying on an RNG DPS+threat loss skill (Shield Swipe) to sustain TP. Hallowed Ground in the current raid meta is not as effective due to its long CD. In the past, you would bring a PLD because they offered strong mitigation abilities, and also the highest OT DPS; this is not the case anymore sadly.

Under DPS Contribution, PLD is very low. Their single target DPS is the worst of the three tanks, and their AoE effectively is non-existent. The lack of proper scaling of Sword Oath and the fact that they need to lose a GCD to enter DPS stance is very crippling to them when compared to flawless switching/stance dropping for WAR and DRK. PLD burst, as well, is completely garbage even with Fight or Flight sadly.

For Utility, PLD still brings the traditional Halone STR debuff and Stoneskin/Protect utility. However, the Halone STR debuff, especially in this content, is very underwhelming. Most of the big hitting hits in Savage currently are magical; so it would only affect monster auto attacks. The addition of Divine Veil is the biggest boost the PLD utility in Heavensward; it is a fairly strong CD to use and help healing; it's only drawback is its need to be procced by a heal. Its biggest uses include A1S after Quick Landing (to cover Gunnery Pod) and A3S for Cascade. Stoneskin/Clemency can offer a helping hand to healing; but the issue is that to use this utility, PLD has to sacrifice their DPS; a sacrifice that very often is not worth it. Sure a PLD can stoneskin/clemency to help a DPS live through a prey; but at a cost to their DPS, it's more efficient to have healers simply heal well, on top of of the issue of being interrupted mid-cast as PLD. Their stun is both good and bad; because it's on the GCD, it can be spammed in A3S on the adds in tornado phase to stun multiple adds in place; but because it is on GCD and costs 150 TP, it is very impractical for a PLD to stun in A4S.

In Role Effectiveness, PLD still has most of their shining traits. Hallowed Ground is still the best CD in the game, and it still has one of the biggest cons; its long CD. In A1S/A2S, you would expect to use Hallowed Ground effectively once at most; in A3S, you can use it twice, and in A4S, there's no relevant place to use it other than once in the last phase currently. Sentinel is still one of the strongest mitigation cooldowns in the game, and Rampart/Traited Convalescence are also regulars here. Bulwark currently is not as strong as a CD as it used to be in FCoB because of the new block rates, but it's still a fairly decent cooldown vs physical attacks; because it does not work on magical attacks, it has very little use in A4S. Traited Awareness, Bloodbath and Foresight still have their place as smaller cooldowns, but not nearly as effective as WAR.

For aggro, PLD is the weakest. On top of being the lowest tank DPS, their MT DPS is especially abysmal, and the Halone combo is the lowest potency combo, while also having no way to increase the enmity it gives. PLD aggro issues are a very real thing when a PLD wants to maximize their (already low) damage.

Unfortunately, in A4S is really where PLD's weakness shows. Their low DPS in an intense DPS check of a fight, on top of having their shield be rendered effectively worthless for more than half the fight (100% of the time vs the main boss) makes them a very weak pick. For a job that is supposed to take less damage, the fact that they do poor damage means that they end up taking more damage from Quarantine adds/Straf Dolls because of their increased stacks.

*Dark Knight*
DPS Contribution - 8
Utility - 8
Role Effectiveness - 7
Role Effectiveness in A4S - 9

My personal opinion on DRK, is that it's a poorly designed class when it comes to raiding, and that its relevance in the current raid meta is due to the absurd amount of catering that goes towards it (magical damage heavy, NIN>MNK for 2nd melee slot, the other choice, PLD, is extremely gimp in comparison) Right now, DRK is the heavily preferred co-tank to go with WAR. They bring good DPS, good utility, good mitigation, decent self-sustain. The RNG nature of the job (parry dependent) can make it a bit unreliable sometimes, but the strengths a DRK brings greatly compliment WAR in the current meta, and they are a solid pick.

For DPS, DRK is fairly good. Their single target, with slash debuff provided, is very competitive when compared to WAR DPS. DRK AoE isn't as great as WAR, but again, it is still fairly good, due to Salted Earth, multidotting with Scourge, Unleash/Abyssal/DP, etc. DRK DPS is fairly consistent and sustained, but they can burst a good amount too, with an ample mana pool for Dark Arts. Compared to PLD, a DRK can simply drop Grit to enter DPS stance and not lose any GCD uptime, which is fairly good. As the only tank with an access to a gap closer as well, DRK can maintain a high uptime even after disconnects or knockbacks.

DRK utility really is their biggest draw. Delirium outright replaces the need for a MNK in Savage content, letting raids bring the higher raid DPS option of NIN. Reprisal can be a very clutch mitigation utility (Hyperplasma, Cascade) as well, with the only downside being that it relies on a parry to be procced beforehand.

**Healers**

*White Mage*
*Astrologian*
*Scholar*

**Melee DPS**
*Dragoon*
*Monk*
*Ninja*

**Ranged Physical DPS**
*Bard*
*Machinist*

**Casters**
*Summoner*
*Black Mage*