What would you catagorize jobs as...Follow

My brother and I we discusing whats jobs are considered in the game, I say there are only Tank, DD and Support he says there are Tank, DD, Support and Healer. I don't think there is a "Healer" catagory since only one job is going to be in that catagory and it is a more specific catagory unlike support which is more generalized. I feel "Healer" would be considered support and not have it's own catagory. Here are my picks for each catagory:

Tank

Paladin

Ninja (Pseudo Tank)

Warrior (up until a certain point)

Damage Dealer

Dark Knight

Warrior

Dragoon

Beastmaster

Ranger

Black Mage

Summoner

Samurai

Ninja (Pseudo DD)

Monk

Thief

Support

Red Mage

White Mage

Summoner

Bard

Thief

As you can see I have some of the same jobs in different catagories, this is because they can play more then one role depending on SJ/Gear/PT make up.

My brother feels that WHM is in it's own class (Healer) all because a WHM just uses healing type spells. I told him that the word "support" means to help endure which is what a WHM does by curing the PT and using -na spells to help keep the EXP flowing.

I did not post this to say I'm right or he is wrong but I wanted other people opinions to show too my brother that what he thinks isn't the general concensus with the majority of the players of FFXI. Feedback would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

EDIT: Forgot about adding WAR to tank spot, thanks CapnCharlie.

Edited, Mon Oct 17 23:23:23 2005 by ChaosMogul

Edited, Tue Oct 18 00:03:04 2005 by ChaosMogul

Why do people continually say WARs can only tank up to a certain point when people have tanked from 1-75?

You also forgot THF. I'd put them under DD, and support, but that's me.

Edited, Mon Oct 17 23:45:02 2005 by BrianJ

Tank:
Paladin
Ninja
Warrior

Melee-DD:
Warrior
Thief
Monk
Ranger
Dragoon
Beastmaster
Samuri
Dark Knight

Mage-DD:
Black Mage
Summoner

Support:
Red Mage
Bard

Healing:
White Mage



I seperate mage/melee-DD's because the jobs really don't compete against each other for party slots(well endgame is a different story but that is such a small part of lvls 1-75 that I don't bother counting). This is why I think SMN is the most ****** job in this game.

Everyone says DRG needs fixed. But AT LEAST a DRG is considered a DD lvls 1-75 where as SMN isn't considered DD till lvl 70. I think SMN gets a very unfair lot in this game, and this is coming from a BLM. Most(99%) of invites I have got as a SMN were to be a gimped White Mage. I quit leveling the job after level 25 due to me refusing to level White Mage twice. It is quite clear to me that SMN was in mind as a DD, not as a gimped whm.

Though I know there are other jobs that can main heal, I just put what I think the jobs were designed for.

Um, I think it's a little more complicated than just "tank, DD, support/healer"

Every job has different abilities, which sets them up for specific roles in a party. Example, SAM isn’t just DD. With meditate and their 2hrs, they’re SkillChain management. A lot of jobs can also function in more than one way in a party. For example, RDM and SMN can be support, but are also DD. DRG is also like this, but the sub needs to be changed for the flexibility. (WHM,RDM,BLM sub creates a healing wyvern, turning DRG into support/DD)

Simplifying the jobs into categories like this is a huge problem in this game, its why everyone want Xjob and Xjob for their party when there’s more types of setups than just Healer-support/backup healer-tank-DD-blm-puller.


Sorry, just venting.

LOL I think you're going to annoy a lot of people by calling nin a "pseudo tank".

I would have a healer category, personally. It's a slot in a party that people try to fill, whm can do it, rdm can do it, smn can do it.

I also wouldn't call it support, I'd call it refresher- and the jobs are rdm or brd. No-one gets someone for a pt so they can enfeeble the mob or buff the players- they get brd or rdm for refresh and that's it- the other stuff is a bonus.

I also wouldn't put thf in support category. Yes, their sata is a hate control mechanism but so is the sata that other dd can do post-60. Thf to me is a DD. They have differences, but then so do all the other DD. You might as well say that drk should go in support because of their absorb spells and stun...

OK, just my thoughts.

I would also put rdm in healing to I play rdm and I have been the main healer lots of time also smn/whm brd/whm and blm/whm can also heal. Lot of jobs like war can be consider a tank, dd or combination . It all depend on the needs of the party. But I basically agree with both list.

TANK: PLD, NIN, WAR (up to a point)

HEALER: WHM, RDM, SMN

REFRESHER: RDM, BRD

DD: WAR, MNK, THF, DRK, RNG, SAM, DRG, BST, BLM, SMN (only at the highest level)

I tend to say "Refresher" vs. "Support", because it seems the only "support" most parties care about is Refresh/Ballad.

Face it people, while you might tank well as a WAR at any level, most WARs out there can't (or downright refuse) to tank at higher levels. That's why most people will discount a WAR as a tank after a certain point.

Tank: PLD, NIN, WAR
Melee: lol.... lotz
Support: whm, brd, rdm, smn
Mage DD: smn, blm

So far it seems this topic is very divided, some people say there should be a healer catagory (which is a sub catagory of support) calling a RDM or BRD a refresher is just an insult IMO but "refresher" is still a supporting role it could also be called a sub catagory.



Yeah I think I would but it doesn't change the fact that a NIN isn't a true tank like a PLD is (built to tank and nothing else with all abilities geared tword hate control). A NIN can do much more then just tank but not a lot of people will allow them too, a PLD can only tank and can probably do as much damage as my BST with a dagger and no pet. =\



I know this would **** some people off but it doesn't change the fact that WAR isn't a very effective tank past a certain level, hell a BST could do just as well as a WAR tanking in upper levels since they will have just about the same stats and JA (a WAR wouldn't think about using Aggressor or other offensive JA to help hold hate cause it would cause them to recieve more damage.) Someone please introduce me too a player that has tanked as a WAR for every level all the way to Lv.75 and I may consider retracting my statment.

By making more catagories other than Tank, DD, Support you are actually being more specific, this doesn't change the fact that these other catagories are just off shoots of the main catagories of Tank, DD and Support.

As far as THF being a DD and not a support role just remember that a THFs main purpose is hate management he cann't deal a lot of damage even over time on most mobs but can do it the best on Bird catagory mobs, this is why I say they are support because they are primarly hate management.

I'm gonna break this down a lot further than anyone has yet (which will probably get me yelled at, but whatever it's the way I see things).

Tank:
PLD/WAR
NIN/WAR
WAR/MNK,NIN
MNK/WAR (conditional on gear/food)
SAM/WAR (conditional on gear/food)
RDM/WAR (conditional on gear/food)

Physical DD:
DRK/
MNK/
SAM/
BST/
DRG/
WAR/THF,MNK,NIN (dependant on level and gear)
RNG/
THF/

Mage DD:
RDM/
BLM/
SMN/
NIN/BLM
DRK/ (sort of)

Support:
RDM/
BLM/WHM
SMN/
BRD/
WHM/BLM
DRG/WHM,BLM,RDM
NIN/
BST/WHM
THF/
DRK/ (later levels)

I suppose I should explain my categories slightly. Tanks are pretty self explanatory. Anything that stands there and takes hits for the party. While PLD, NIN, and WAR are the only commonly accepted ones, SAM, MNK, and RDM can all tank quite well if geared correctly, eat good tanking food, and are played by a competent player. Physical DD's hit things with weapons... Again pretty straightforward (though I'm only including those that actually hit things for reasonable damage in XP setting). Mage DD use spells (whether Summons, Ninjitsu, or normal spells) to cause damage (not talking about debuffs). My support category is a bit broader than the others. I'm including party buffs (BRD, SMN), debuffs (RDM, BLM, DRK), healing (WHM, RDM, BRD, DRG/mage), crowd control (RDM, BLM, BST), and hate management in here (THF, DRG). As I said, that's just my take on things. I'm sure there are job combos that I've left out that are usefull (trying to only cover reasonably common and usefull XP combos... no PLD/DRG here). I suppose that my overall point here is that it's very difficult to classify jobs in FFXI. Not only can gear and food make a tremendous difference in your role in a party, but throw in subjobs and it makes things even more complicated...

That is all

I always thought it looked something like:

Tank:
WAR
MNK
NIN
PLD
RDM(at certain levels

DD-Melee:
WAR
MNK
THF
BST
DRK
DRG
NIN
PLD(i've had a few really awesome DD PLDs)
RNG
SAM

DD-Mage:
BLM
SMN

Support:
RDM
BRD
SMN

Heal:
RDM
WHM
SMN

Solo: (not counting Sub Job BST, any job can do that)
BST
DRG
BLM
SMN
RDM

Single-Double Job parties:
WAR
MNK (Bone)
SMN (Avatar Burn)
BLM (ManaBurn)
BST (Duo-Trio-etc)
RNG (Arrow Burn)
DRG (Wyvern Burn?)

I'd do this a different way.

Categories:
Tank - control the damage taken by the party
DD - do damage (sub-categories physical, magical although often it doesn't matter)
HP restore - heal
MP restore - refresh/ballad
Gap reduction - reduce the effective level gap between mob and players, i.e. buff/debuff

Jobs:
PLD - 80% tank, 10% hp restore, 10% dd
NIN - played as tank - 70% tank, 20% dd, 10% gap reduction
NIN - played as DD - 80% dd, 20% gap reduction
WAR - very gear/subjob dependent
DD gear: 90% dd, 10% gap reduction (with g.axe)
tank gear: 50% tank, 50% dd
MNK - 100% dd
RNG - 100% dd
SAM - 90% dd, 10% gap reduction
THF - 20% tank (hate control only), 80% dd
DRK - 80% dd, 20% gap reduction (abs/stun)
DRG - melee sub - 100% dd
mage sub - 80% dd, 20% hp restore
BST - BST - 100% dd
BST's pet - 30% tank (poor hate control), 70% dd
combined in party - 10% tank, 90% dd
RDM - 10% dd, 40% gap reduction, 20% mp restore, 30% hp restore
BLM - 100% dd
WHM - 30% gap reduction, 70% hp restore
SMN - 25% dd, 60% gap reduction, 15% hp restore (/whm adds a bunch of % of hp restore)
BRD - 65% gap reduction, 25% mp restore, 10% hp restore

I think it's rather silly to list each job in a binary fashion in each category. BRD can restore HPs, but not to the same degree as a WHM. RDM can do some damage, but not like a MNK.

Usually a party is looking for some minimum amount of competency in each category (divied up however amongst party members) and then as much damage as will fit in the remaining space (to speed kills and hence xp).

Hmm, haven't quite reached that point yet. I'll let you know if they ever raise the level cap and something drastic happens.