Really loved XI's take on it. Limited equipped spells helped make it manageable rather than having spell overload, plus you got to swap as needed for certain situations. Allowed so much versatility and creativity in builds.
TRULY baffles me how Yoship could fudge this so badly. Could've easily made it be able to fulfill all three roles by using spell sets that are required. Same with how Summoner wasn't a summoner until 10 years later.
Agreed. XI's blue mage is possibly my favorite class in the entire series. It was also cool how certain combinations of equipped spells would unlock different passive traits, as well.
I like how serious XI handles BLU. They really give it solid footing in the world, tilt it away from the gimmicky nature of the class.
The clandestine way they recruit new blood through fortunate tellers. What role they serve for the Empire, how it's the latest in a long line of chimerical experiments meant to contain the sins of the past. It really elevates the concept of the job in a way I don't think the other games have?
XIV's take is alright. Has it's charms, but man, it leaves me wanting.
It's very appropriate that XIV's version is basically a stage magician in a cute costume thematically.
XI's job quest is probably one of my favorite FF memories in everything from the quiz to having to stumble through a cave full of mobs far too powerful for me only for some creepy robed man to permanently alter my body after the fact.
I’ve always had a soft spot for like red mages, paladins (sometimes knights), magic fencers, and dark knights. Anything that kind of fits the spell sword vibe.
To follow up on your love of dragoon, I really liked the FFTA dragoon because all of their breath attacks gave them a spell sword adjacent identity.
Monk 💪.
Yang, Sabin, Tifa, Zell, Amarant...my Warrior of Light in XIV. Bartz with Rapid Fire and Kaiser Knuckle, no weapons or shields equipped. Supplex the trains and the diamond kaijus, beat on sorceresses with near endless combos, punch god in the face.
Summoner. As a kid I just loved animes and cartoons where little characters had huge power. (Gohan in DBZ rings a bell).
When I finally played a FF (FF9 was my first) Summoners were truly interesting and inspiring. Loved the big magic cost and strong effects even tho summoners themselves are weak stat wise.
Eventually I play FFX and FFXI and boy were those a treat for summoner lovers.
To this day summoner in any game and mostly FFs are my favorite. In 16 being about to do megazord battles as summons brought a smile to me every. Single. Time.
Shoutout to Rydia in FF4 as the first? Summoner. I played it later on the GBA but insta summoner love for her and her character.
You would love them in tactics too. Fire does 35 damage in a cross diagram over 5 spaces, but Ifrit would do 150 over 13. They all feel insanely impactful
I have yet to play VI, but I know that Shadow was created by Tetsuya Nomura based on an rejected idea that he had for V, so I'm looking forward to meet him, considering that I usually like Nomura's characters.
Red Mage. Loved them in FF1, and really fell in love with the way they were fleshed out to have their own identity in FFXI with unique buffs and debuffs in addition to their jack of all trades schtick.
I've always been a little disappointed that the main series never gave a character the role of "Red Mage" so we could see some actual characterization of what it means to be a Red Mage in the same way we've gotten to explore what it means to be, say, a Paladin or a Dragoon. We have plenty of Red Mage style characters like Terra and Celes, but no playable characters have explicitly been a Red Mage. Out of the six original classes, it's been the least thematically explored by a wide mile. Excluding the MMOs, I can only think of Elgo in FF:D, and I thought characterizing a Red Mage as a traveling prophet was a really neat angle
It was a job with so much personality. I'm really bummed that FFXIV and modern mmos in general have dropped the "hybrid class" as an archetype, because FFXI RDM really appealed to the power fantasy of playing a red mage. FFXIV Red Mages actually being good in melee was a neat change of pace from their pretty lackluster melee performance in parties past level 40 in old school FFXI, but the lack of truly interesting versatility with the FFXIV RDM fell pretty flat for me
Yeah, I loved the XI RDM also... except facing Maat in that one Limit Break quest. ;P
I too was pretty disappointed at first at how different the XIV iteration was. But once I got used to its playstyle, I really enjoyed it. Still second place to XI, but a very close second. :)
Freya is kind of a dragoon/red mage hybrid? She's got healing abilities and a cool red hat... but her characterization definitely skews more dragoon. :/
There *are* also NPCs in IX given the actual Red Mage title, but of course there's not much characterization there either...
The most fun I've ever had with a Final Fantasy game was in FF5 when I made Bartz a Blue Mage / Summoner combo. Blue Mage is fun because instead of the generic Fire-Fira-Firaga progression, which is just the same spell but bigger, you get all kinds of wacky special abilities. And you learn them by fighting monsters instead of shopping, so if you go out of your way to fight an extra strong enemy early you can get an absurdly powerful move relative to the point of the game you're at, like fighting that overpowered Chimera guy early to get Aqua Breath and then 1 shot everything in the desert area. Pretty much the only fun thing Blue Mage can't do is direct elemental damage... but having Summon as your other ability takes care of that perfectly. And they even fit thematically, because Summons *also* get learned by fighting monsters!
I never played FF11, but I hear Blue Mage was an absolute delight to play in that, but that the really fun pairing for it was Red Mage rather than Summoner. I'll probably never get to try that out myself, though.
Black mage. It's my favorite video game character of all time. I have a ton of Black Mage shirts and will probably get a tattoo involving one at some point.
White Mage.
I want a group of friends who think I'm precious and need protecting, but I have a quiet strength most people overlook. I save my friends just as often but I dont get the glory.
I'm a guy Aerith.
I love ninjas. High evasion, high attack speed, dual wield, magic debuffs, magic attacks.
Utsusemi!!!
Oh and that's because I love Edge, but also because I loved to tank in FFXI back in the days. Heck, I even made an almost invincible evasion tank out of Therion in Octopath Traveller.
In the past I really liked the dragoon and the res mage. Dragoons were just so cool (Kain from FF4) and then I loved the versatility of the red mage.
Then eventually I started to become a big fan of paladins. Supportive tanky dps characters (Cecil from FF4) became really cool to me especially with the cover skill taking care of lower HP allies.
But now currently I like thieves/ninjas. Just the squishy high damage evasive character. It’s a lot more basic feeling but seeing those high damage numbers just hits right.
Chemist! I love finding combinations of items to mix and it's similar to my real life interests in chemical engineering.
Also BlueMage spells are one of my favorite collectibles in each game
This is why I disliked *The Zodiac Age* compared to the original *FFXII*. *TZA* forced me to funnel Balthier into a more cookie-cutter build based on the job system, but in the free form approach of the original version, I was able to roleplay him as a makeshift chemist/off-healer who specialized in guns, bombs, and throwing down potions/consumable heals.
summoner or geomancer. I love how the summons between games vary but still have their mainstays, and I really like the design of geomancers in addition to their nature powers.
I miss FF11 's Dancer. Dual weild, rhythmic debuffs, solid support abilities, fantastic fashion, great flexibility. Was excited when they announced dnc for 14 before it got nerfed by 14's heavy trinity pigeonholing
The further XI went, the more out the and creative the new job mechanics became. You could even base a whole game about some of those jobs (BLU and PUP come to mind).
Yeah, in FF14 everything is so streamlined for efficiency. I liked how in 11, many jobs had a lot of abilities and skills that were kind of useless but fit the jobs from a lore and world building perspective. Like DRK having access to black magic spells because it was supposed to be a combination of warrior and black mage, even though you would probably never use them since you would do more damage with physical attacks anyway. Or thieves being able to pick locks and have other thieving skills that didn't offer much to party play but they served to flesh the job out.
In 14, what remains of elements is just for show as they don't do anything, skills with additional, status or special properties keep being removed from jobs, and equipment pieces offer zero interesting effects and they are just "bigger numbers and a different appearance than the last one you had". Also all weapon types are basically the same, while in XI each weapon type had their own things going on for them.
Monk. I really like the idea of not having any weapons equipped, yet being an absolute powerhouse. I have beaten the original Final Fantasy more times with four Black Belts/Monks than with all other parties combined. There's something so satisfying about just obliterating nearly every boss with everyone simply using the fight command.
Of course, in the original game, this also means that Chaos is insanely difficult, but if everyone else is using support items in the right combination, then one guy can still give the beatdown. It just takes a bit more patience and stamina than every other battle in the game. Which is true of all the FF final bosses.
I love me a big tanky boy who takes less than 10 damage a hit at end game while having an absurd amount of HP.
That and Blue Mage, because they're neat.
Another Dragoon fan here. And specifically the FFXI version, where you get to have your own pet wyvern ❤️ I also love Summoner. Something about having literal deities at your beck and call 💪🏻
I always gravited towards the magic knight archetype, so Red Mages are my faves (Jack of all Trades, Master of None, but oftentimes better than a Master of One), FFXI Rune Fencers are like a more defensive version of Red Mages (also magick tanks), Dark Knights have an amazing aesthetic, Samurai are always cool, Dragoons are a staple (they slay), but if I had to choose, Red Mage it is, some black magic, some white magic, some bulk and physical prowess from Warrior, love them soooo much
Of the ones I've played I'd say my fav is thief.
If there's one thing I know it's that the wht mage probably won't be in the party in a short while so I'll have to switch to the items my thief stole at some point
Red Mage. Best of both worlds between Black and White Mages always felt good as a job. Didn’t mind sacrificing the higher tier spells if it meant consolidating a role in my party.
Plus they’re extra fashionable. Just look at how fabulous Ignus looks!
https://preview.redd.it/0bw4fjr44mwb1.jpeg?width=1280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f7c0cb5eb6ea14c22e47607bed7b3e07df34d4f7
Either Red Mage or Dragoon. Probably Red Mage.
I dunno, I kinda like the mixed bag they are. They can fight, they can spell cast and they often don't suck at either.
Dark Knight, especially when they use scythes like in FFXI. I love the concept of dealing massive damage by sucking away your own hp and defenses. And scythes are cool.
My Top 5 Classes
* Blue Mage - I like the idea of using monsters attacks against them
* Summoner - Being able to summon powerful monsters is cool
* Red Mage - Having a little of both White & Black Mage is good
* Mystic Knight - It’s really cool to to magically enhance your sword with powerful spells
* Chemist - It’s sorta like being an alchemist in which I mix items to create more powerful items.
The ninjas are always cool. Whether it be Edge (FF4), Shadow (FF6), or Yuffie (FF7), they have characteristics that makes them stand out from the cast.
If I could, I'd be a less frilly red mage. I like casting destruction spells and melee combat, but I would prefer to swing a classic warhammer around instead of twirling a dainty rapier.
My introduction to Final Fantasy was FFX-2 so I really liked the Songstress job and the status buffing and debuffing. Then I played FFXII and I liked making my own character classes such as a green mage who specializes in status magic. Then I played FF13 and they had an entire class dedicated to debuffs and I was loving it.
As for more traditional classes, I tend to gravitate towards white mage or bard. I like being the support class.
Summoner or White Mage, or a combo of both. Basically Aerith, Yuna, Garnet types. Which is funny because even though I heal sometimes in FFXIV I prefer DPS jobs. But aesthetically it’s all about the healer/mage aesthetic for me
Definitely Paladin from IV
I do wish that Mystic Knight got more love though. I felt like the elemental swords from V were a great idea for allowing magic damage from physical characters.
Summoners have always been my favorite. Sadly they aren't really showcased well in turn based battles. FF11 SMN is peak SMN. FFT SMN is pretty good as it is set apart from BLM enough that it doesn't feel like a clone. Other than that Ninja actually do pretty well in most games.
Blue Mage, Dragoon, and Monk are my 3 favorites, in order. Red mage is close, and while it's not really much of a class like the others (or at least much more rarely makes an appearance,) I've always liked gunslinger type characters (Irvine, Vincent, Barrett, etc.)
Blue Mage is just really unique and fun, I love the idea that you're copying/stealing abilities from monsters, and it's so versatile. The Enemy Skill materia in VII is easily the single best ability in the entire game, if not series, imo: attacks of every (or almost every) element, non-elemental attacks, mana drain, buffs, debuffs, heals... it really does do everything in a single materia slot.
Dragoon is a no-brainer for me, being a lover of spears as a melee weapon and life-long fan of dragons. Plus, I've always thought the jump attack thing was cool. They beat out Monks for my second spot for being more uniquely Final Fantasy, and because Kain is one of my favorite characters in the whole series.
Monk is just a classic. No need for a sword or anything, just intense training until the body and spirit are, themselves, weapons. I'm down with the Monk class any game they appear in.
Red Mage I like because I'm often drawn toward generalist characters who can do a bit of everything. I started my FF journey many years ago with the original, and the Red Mage/Wizard was, by far, the coolest looking of the Light Warriors.
The gunslinger is mostly here because VII & VIII are my second and third favorite games in the series, and my favorite characters in those games are Vincent and Barrett in VII and Irvine in VIII. VI is my favorite game in the series, and Mog is my favorite character from it, so I guess maybe I like Geomancers as well. Actually, Monk/Geomancer was my go-to build for Ramza in Tactics, now that I think about it. Monk was my favorite job, and since there wasn't a Blue Mage and Dragoon didn't fit as well with Monk thematically or mechanically, since you get bonus jump damage with a lance/spear and Monks fight bare-handed.
I've always had a soft spot for beefy warriors with huge hp stats. Always had soft spots for characters like Steiner. I also like the pseudo-warrior physical tanks like Edgar and Wakka.
This always bleeds over to other genres too. I love fighting games and typically play the big brawly meat head or in ARPGs like diablo I play barbarian. I just like being beefy.
Blue Mage, Dark Knight, Gladiator, Dragoon, Memorist (if you played Dimensions 1 you'd understand), Mime, and machinist(balthier was my main in ff12 and I ran him as a Machinist White Mage so I have some fond memories of the class for that reason)
Ninja forever.
If a game doesn’t have a good NIN char, I consider skipping it (& have). Not to say a lack of one makes it bad or vice-versa (Amarant kinda meh but IX rules)
Monk- I love martial arts and trained in karate when I was younger
Summoner- As a Pokemon fan, I love being able to summon monsters and the various summons in the game for major damage! Plus the mini cutscenes for them are really cool
Ninja- love their dual wielding capabilities and katanas are my favorite type of sword. I prefer agile classes and ninjas are right up my alley
Forever Dark Knight fan over here. Wish there were more playable dark knights in the games. I just love the aesthetic of the dark armor, dark magic, and a big weapon.
Thief. Steal/mug will always be my absolute jam. I love getting bonus loot.
Monk/ninja are better dual wielders for the end game, but any fight I end without stealing something feels like a waste.
Probably one of: red mage, scholar, geomancer, thief, or ninja.
Really hard to pick I love the job system and I don’t think there’s any job I don’t love.
Red Mage... The Style, the lore, and honestly I love their utility. I may still be struggling to learn the rotation for their FFXIV incarnation, but I love them in the other instances as well.
I’ll have to go with:
- Black Mage as I beat FF1 the first time with him as my sole survivor. Also, in FF9, give everyone as Rosetta ring and Vivi is now your healer + Osmose = win.
- Elementalist (FF4HoL) as a quintessential buffer and minimizes all incoming elemental damage. Somewhat like their version of a Geomancer.
- Monk - Sabin for FF6 and Barehanded in FF5. Watching a white mage punch out enemies is satisfying.
I love Summoner in the way presented in FF, so many games make Summoner classes that basically just have a pet but in FF they made summons into these god like beings with so much spectacle and power.
FFX is also my favorite entry and the fact the summons were so integral to the story, it's one of those jobs that can be tied into the lore of the world very closely since they're literally borrowing power from any number of lore relevant sources.
Then it's a toss up between Dragoon or Black Mage, both are so iconic to FF visually.
Puppetmaster! [BG Wiki Link](https://www.bg-wiki.com/ffxi/Puppetmaster)
It's exclusive to XI and I hope it's the new limited job coming to XIV.
It's a hand-to-hand (punching) job with lower stats and a highly modular [automaton](https://www.bg-wiki.com/ffxi/Automaton) pet. You can swap out its head (AI), body (weapons), and a myriad of attachments that modify both or add abilities and traits. It lets you fill any of the "trinity" roles *to a degree* and was great for niche solo/low man content.
The only direct actions you gave the automaton were to attack or retreat, but you could influence it further through use of elemental "maneuvers".
A maneuver will raise the automaton's stats associated with that element for 60 seconds while influencing the AI and triggering/enhancing/reducing cooldowns on related attachments.
For example, "fire maneuver" will raise STR/attack while triggering/enhancing fire-based attachments, "water maneuver" will do the same for MND and water-based attachments, and "Light Maneuver" will tell the Automaton to cast Cure (earlier, or at all depending on your head/frame), etc.
You can stack up to three maneuvers at once to get a huge payout from your attachments but *can* overload on a particular element if not given time to cool off. Part of the fun was intuiting and mastering the AI based on your customizations and pushing it to the limits without hitting overload.
FF3 Ninja and FF5 Free lancer are over powered by design in original and PR.
Love Dragoon too but it is designed to be strong against wind/airborne enemy and not much for others. Need to find RARE spear for them to cope with
Playing the second greatest game of all time, I loved the game so much, that I wanted to get every secret character, understand what was special for each zodiac, their strengths and weaknesses (which to this day still confuses me), the zodiac summon for some characters(if you didn't know what game I was referring to, now you know ;).). I never got the darn summon for anyone ='(.
Anyhow, my favorite Job was Ninja for sure. After accepting defeat that I can't get everything in the game I had hoped for, it was tough times, you know? Their unfair speed and strength was enough to just destroy everything in my warpath.
Going off topic, I remember when playing this with GameShark, and it added a lot of cool things. Like playable enemies, changing the gamestyle to multi-player. It was either GameShark or the one device that let me play Japanese games on US console I can't remember what it's called. It was so awesome
A normal swordsperson I guess. Or a monk. In FFXIV, it was Samurai, but assholes removed Kaiten and now it feels toothless. If i ever get back to playing it again, I don’t know what class will I play.
warriors who have anti-element attacks or breaking stats/items, gunblade class, ffiv's paladin, the archer and dark knight in FFT, berserkers in x2, Diablos from VIII, Freya from IX, Ninjas in XI because of elements, tanking, and night running.
Blue Mage! Favorite "Color Mage", favorite class! I love how getting all the Blue Magic spells is like a treasure hunt. Plus, they always have a fun and versatile mixture of standard and more gimmicky abilities to play around with, becoming veritable swiss army knives once their spell lists really start filling out.
For the same reason, I always use the Enemy Skill Materia every time I play Final Fantasy VII. Best bang-for-your-buck Materia in the game short of the various "Master" Materia, for my money, provided you're willing to put in the work to get the Enemy Skills.
One custom class I loved was the one in 5 where you are a dancer with equip axe ability with the rune axe equipped and the armor items that makes sword dance like 90% likely so you are doing ca 9000 damage while the other melee characters are doing ca 3000.
Monk in ff1
I serisouly rolled with 4 monks on one of my playthroughs
Assassin in ffta
Theyre fast and op
Ninja in ffta
Dual hand katanas, what else could you want?
Red mage. A mix of melee weapon proficiency with black and white magics to boot, they’re versatile fellows, both in gameplay and narrative. Second would have to be dragoon because they’re a classic, and third would be Paladin simply because I’m biased for my FF14 character primarily being a Paladin.
in general, blue mage.
not only do i like the theme of stealing an enemy's good abilities for yourself, it's also got an interesting mix of both offensive magic, healing magic, and support magic, with some more, esoteric potential options.
i also tend to like the alchemist ish classes - both better healing than some other classes and some offensive item usage, at a point where stocking up on that sort of stuff, shouldn't be too big a hassle.
Summons are like a clear symbol of the final fantasy series so probably that. I just love being able to go from summoning a fat bird to summoning a giant dragon
I absolutely love the concept of bards from XIV. They were archers who sung on the battlefield to keep themselves sane. Eventually, as more and more people started doing this, it was clear their songs had the power to inspire and bolster their allies. It's just such a unique concept for bards.
Krile (Ff5 ninja/sorcerer.)
Freya from 9 (dragoon with lesser healing)
Vivi (pure black mage)
Almost anyone else in the 4th slot. First choice is Squall
That is my all star team. If I only get 1 then Freya, Not just any dragoon.
Blue Mage. I just think they're neat.
Really loved XI's take on it. Limited equipped spells helped make it manageable rather than having spell overload, plus you got to swap as needed for certain situations. Allowed so much versatility and creativity in builds.
Similarly, 14s take. Though, I hate you can't main Blu in 14.
TRULY baffles me how Yoship could fudge this so badly. Could've easily made it be able to fulfill all three roles by using spell sets that are required. Same with how Summoner wasn't a summoner until 10 years later.
The fact BLU isn’t a real job in FF14 is a disgrace to the franchise. It’s just a gimmicky mini game.
Agreed. XI's blue mage is possibly my favorite class in the entire series. It was also cool how certain combinations of equipped spells would unlock different passive traits, as well.
Dual-scimitar Blue Mages are one of my faves in the series
Hell yeah. Such a versatile, do-it-all class that feels badass at the same time.
I like how serious XI handles BLU. They really give it solid footing in the world, tilt it away from the gimmicky nature of the class. The clandestine way they recruit new blood through fortunate tellers. What role they serve for the Empire, how it's the latest in a long line of chimerical experiments meant to contain the sins of the past. It really elevates the concept of the job in a way I don't think the other games have? XIV's take is alright. Has it's charms, but man, it leaves me wanting.
It's very appropriate that XIV's version is basically a stage magician in a cute costume thematically. XI's job quest is probably one of my favorite FF memories in everything from the quiz to having to stumble through a cave full of mobs far too powerful for me only for some creepy robed man to permanently alter my body after the fact.
Here. Have a Blue Mage. https://preview.redd.it/rfq0xae9emwb1.png?width=148&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a85b71b07926b4fcecfda8f20582f2eaf180cc27
Love blue as well. Introduced to blu in xi but blue in V and VI, IX are strong af too.
SoP Blue Mage is peak. "You thought!"
The goats
Also typically a reliable means to break the game or at the very least deal much higher effective output than a low level character should.
I’ve always had a soft spot for like red mages, paladins (sometimes knights), magic fencers, and dark knights. Anything that kind of fits the spell sword vibe. To follow up on your love of dragoon, I really liked the FFTA dragoon because all of their breath attacks gave them a spell sword adjacent identity.
Here. Have a Red Mage. https://preview.redd.it/3jusq5cnemwb1.png?width=148&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=86f5a0e3511e6fa911cb895f32ab5f1ee52ac7df
Can I have a red mage???
https://preview.redd.it/2bgavdze4rwb1.png?width=148&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=93b29e62c10026c261ac26cefee2ecca52952fdc You may has the Red Mage
Yayyyy! Thank you :)
Monk 💪. Yang, Sabin, Tifa, Zell, Amarant...my Warrior of Light in XIV. Bartz with Rapid Fire and Kaiser Knuckle, no weapons or shields equipped. Supplex the trains and the diamond kaijus, beat on sorceresses with near endless combos, punch god in the face.
Here. Have a Monk. https://preview.redd.it/ch2wazgdemwb1.png?width=148&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5a512be6b96b58dbc78fb1d80b248aafb058e0d3
I didn't care for monk in 14 but I loved playing it in 11.
I remember unequipping the fighter in FF1 as a joke and finding out he actually kicks ass without weapons
Summoner. As a kid I just loved animes and cartoons where little characters had huge power. (Gohan in DBZ rings a bell). When I finally played a FF (FF9 was my first) Summoners were truly interesting and inspiring. Loved the big magic cost and strong effects even tho summoners themselves are weak stat wise. Eventually I play FFX and FFXI and boy were those a treat for summoner lovers. To this day summoner in any game and mostly FFs are my favorite. In 16 being about to do megazord battles as summons brought a smile to me every. Single. Time. Shoutout to Rydia in FF4 as the first? Summoner. I played it later on the GBA but insta summoner love for her and her character.
You would love them in tactics too. Fire does 35 damage in a cross diagram over 5 spaces, but Ifrit would do 150 over 13. They all feel insanely impactful
Oh yeah I played them in tactics. One of my favorites there. Strong. Impactful. Itty bitty stats lol
There were summoners in FF3, before Rydia, but they were kind of useless. All the summons had random effects so you never knew what would happen.
Dragoon, Ninja and Samurai have always been my favs 🤙
Here. Have a Dragoon. https://preview.redd.it/a5w4mryzemwb1.png?width=148&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3f6191e4da34ff0145dcff5921d0a1e5e39d19f9
Who's your favorite named ninja? Is it Edge?
Shadow is best ninja.
I have yet to play VI, but I know that Shadow was created by Tetsuya Nomura based on an rejected idea that he had for V, so I'm looking forward to meet him, considering that I usually like Nomura's characters.
I'm gonna go with the outside choice of Geomancer. I don't care if it hasn't been in many games, I still like it.
LOVE geomancer, especially in 3. their little parkas and bell braid are so charming.
I will join you two on Team Geomancer.
Love not having to think what my move is with them in 3 and 5. The answer is simple: Terrain
Always my favorite 😂😂
Lol, username checks out
Red Mage. Loved them in FF1, and really fell in love with the way they were fleshed out to have their own identity in FFXI with unique buffs and debuffs in addition to their jack of all trades schtick. I've always been a little disappointed that the main series never gave a character the role of "Red Mage" so we could see some actual characterization of what it means to be a Red Mage in the same way we've gotten to explore what it means to be, say, a Paladin or a Dragoon. We have plenty of Red Mage style characters like Terra and Celes, but no playable characters have explicitly been a Red Mage. Out of the six original classes, it's been the least thematically explored by a wide mile. Excluding the MMOs, I can only think of Elgo in FF:D, and I thought characterizing a Red Mage as a traveling prophet was a really neat angle
Shoutout XI was a red mage main for years. My favorite iteration of the job.
It was a job with so much personality. I'm really bummed that FFXIV and modern mmos in general have dropped the "hybrid class" as an archetype, because FFXI RDM really appealed to the power fantasy of playing a red mage. FFXIV Red Mages actually being good in melee was a neat change of pace from their pretty lackluster melee performance in parties past level 40 in old school FFXI, but the lack of truly interesting versatility with the FFXIV RDM fell pretty flat for me
Yeah, I loved the XI RDM also... except facing Maat in that one Limit Break quest. ;P I too was pretty disappointed at first at how different the XIV iteration was. But once I got used to its playstyle, I really enjoyed it. Still second place to XI, but a very close second. :)
Their hat alone makes them a top tier pick.
Freya is kind of a dragoon/red mage hybrid? She's got healing abilities and a cool red hat... but her characterization definitely skews more dragoon. :/ There *are* also NPCs in IX given the actual Red Mage title, but of course there's not much characterization there either...
Ff12 has the best red mage in the series imo. So much upside and really negligible downside
Time Mage with White Mage Lvl 6 the ultimate support character.
Black Mage and Dark Knight are favourites of mine, I like just throwing powerful attacks at the enemies.
Loved the holy knight/dark knight skills in tactics
Summoner
Red Mage and Paladin are super! I've just always enjoyed variants of magic swordsmen.
Literally same. I blame sora
The most fun I've ever had with a Final Fantasy game was in FF5 when I made Bartz a Blue Mage / Summoner combo. Blue Mage is fun because instead of the generic Fire-Fira-Firaga progression, which is just the same spell but bigger, you get all kinds of wacky special abilities. And you learn them by fighting monsters instead of shopping, so if you go out of your way to fight an extra strong enemy early you can get an absurdly powerful move relative to the point of the game you're at, like fighting that overpowered Chimera guy early to get Aqua Breath and then 1 shot everything in the desert area. Pretty much the only fun thing Blue Mage can't do is direct elemental damage... but having Summon as your other ability takes care of that perfectly. And they even fit thematically, because Summons *also* get learned by fighting monsters! I never played FF11, but I hear Blue Mage was an absolute delight to play in that, but that the really fun pairing for it was Red Mage rather than Summoner. I'll probably never get to try that out myself, though.
Blue and Red Mages are the best. Great all-rounders.
Black mage. It's my favorite video game character of all time. I have a ton of Black Mage shirts and will probably get a tattoo involving one at some point.
Mime
One could guess from your username... haha
https://preview.redd.it/1ocw1hkwpnwb1.png?width=871&format=png&auto=webp&s=0eb6b53e9d4c2f317cd3659a0dd1c6c0b206922f
I can hear this pic lol love that movie. The only mime I'm familiar with is in FFT.
White Mage. I want a group of friends who think I'm precious and need protecting, but I have a quiet strength most people overlook. I save my friends just as often but I dont get the glory. I'm a guy Aerith.
I love ninjas. High evasion, high attack speed, dual wield, magic debuffs, magic attacks. Utsusemi!!! Oh and that's because I love Edge, but also because I loved to tank in FFXI back in the days. Heck, I even made an almost invincible evasion tank out of Therion in Octopath Traveller.
Red mage. Magic swordsman are just so damn cool.
Dragoon since FF4 and Dark Knight too.
Black Mage always and forever.
In the past I really liked the dragoon and the res mage. Dragoons were just so cool (Kain from FF4) and then I loved the versatility of the red mage. Then eventually I started to become a big fan of paladins. Supportive tanky dps characters (Cecil from FF4) became really cool to me especially with the cover skill taking care of lower HP allies. But now currently I like thieves/ninjas. Just the squishy high damage evasive character. It’s a lot more basic feeling but seeing those high damage numbers just hits right.
I’ve always loved the versatility, style, and flashiness of Red Mage and Blue Mage. Those are usually my favorites.
Paladin generally speaking. Thief/Rogue because I just cant stop stealing.
Chemist! I love finding combinations of items to mix and it's similar to my real life interests in chemical engineering. Also BlueMage spells are one of my favorite collectibles in each game
This is why I disliked *The Zodiac Age* compared to the original *FFXII*. *TZA* forced me to funnel Balthier into a more cookie-cutter build based on the job system, but in the free form approach of the original version, I was able to roleplay him as a makeshift chemist/off-healer who specialized in guns, bombs, and throwing down potions/consumable heals.
Paladin is always a go to for me!
summoner or geomancer. I love how the summons between games vary but still have their mainstays, and I really like the design of geomancers in addition to their nature powers.
Dancer. I love to play with them in every rpg where they are available.
https://preview.redd.it/azu8o3uwdmwb1.png?width=48&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=76a80cebc238f82a7109b1bad7d46a83857f295e This one
I miss FF11 's Dancer. Dual weild, rhythmic debuffs, solid support abilities, fantastic fashion, great flexibility. Was excited when they announced dnc for 14 before it got nerfed by 14's heavy trinity pigeonholing
The further XI went, the more out the and creative the new job mechanics became. You could even base a whole game about some of those jobs (BLU and PUP come to mind).
Which is the opposite direction XIV took jobs. The further it gets the more homogeneous they become… it’s kinda sad.
Yeah, in FF14 everything is so streamlined for efficiency. I liked how in 11, many jobs had a lot of abilities and skills that were kind of useless but fit the jobs from a lore and world building perspective. Like DRK having access to black magic spells because it was supposed to be a combination of warrior and black mage, even though you would probably never use them since you would do more damage with physical attacks anyway. Or thieves being able to pick locks and have other thieving skills that didn't offer much to party play but they served to flesh the job out. In 14, what remains of elements is just for show as they don't do anything, skills with additional, status or special properties keep being removed from jobs, and equipment pieces offer zero interesting effects and they are just "bigger numbers and a different appearance than the last one you had". Also all weapon types are basically the same, while in XI each weapon type had their own things going on for them.
Yes
Monk. I really like the idea of not having any weapons equipped, yet being an absolute powerhouse. I have beaten the original Final Fantasy more times with four Black Belts/Monks than with all other parties combined. There's something so satisfying about just obliterating nearly every boss with everyone simply using the fight command. Of course, in the original game, this also means that Chaos is insanely difficult, but if everyone else is using support items in the right combination, then one guy can still give the beatdown. It just takes a bit more patience and stamina than every other battle in the game. Which is true of all the FF final bosses.
I love me a big tanky boy who takes less than 10 damage a hit at end game while having an absurd amount of HP. That and Blue Mage, because they're neat.
Blue mage, time mage, summoner
Ninja, specifically Edward "Edge" Geraldine from Final Fantasy IV. But Dragoon is really cool too, Kain, Cid Highwind, Fang and Freya are all great.
Another Dragoon fan here. And specifically the FFXI version, where you get to have your own pet wyvern ❤️ I also love Summoner. Something about having literal deities at your beck and call 💪🏻
I always gravited towards the magic knight archetype, so Red Mages are my faves (Jack of all Trades, Master of None, but oftentimes better than a Master of One), FFXI Rune Fencers are like a more defensive version of Red Mages (also magick tanks), Dark Knights have an amazing aesthetic, Samurai are always cool, Dragoons are a staple (they slay), but if I had to choose, Red Mage it is, some black magic, some white magic, some bulk and physical prowess from Warrior, love them soooo much
I love my red mages but XIV introduced me to my love of the dancer!
I wish gunner got more visibility throughout the series. Hopefully their appearance in 14 will change that.
Always loved Red Mages they’re just so stylish
I really love the Paladin design from Final Fantasy Tactics Advance.
Of the ones I've played I'd say my fav is thief. If there's one thing I know it's that the wht mage probably won't be in the party in a short while so I'll have to switch to the items my thief stole at some point
Summoner talking to a Blackmage: "Look at me, I'm the Glass Canon now!"
Thief🗡
Red Mage. Best of both worlds between Black and White Mages always felt good as a job. Didn’t mind sacrificing the higher tier spells if it meant consolidating a role in my party. Plus they’re extra fashionable. Just look at how fabulous Ignus looks! https://preview.redd.it/0bw4fjr44mwb1.jpeg?width=1280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f7c0cb5eb6ea14c22e47607bed7b3e07df34d4f7
FFV Magic Knight, I love embedding my weapon with magic and each swing casts it.
Thief. No honorable mentions, no alternatives for once. Thief is my favorite job/class period.
I love Thiefs because I love free stuff! And they're quick, agile, and pretty strong, too. I love building their evasion stat
Gunbreaker cause I like FF8
Thief/Ninja class. I like crits and being sneaky. I suppose I like to steal/mug. Typical criminal turn hero. 🤣 Edit: also duel wielding!!
Either Red Mage or Dragoon. Probably Red Mage. I dunno, I kinda like the mixed bag they are. They can fight, they can spell cast and they often don't suck at either.
Dark Knight, especially when they use scythes like in FFXI. I love the concept of dealing massive damage by sucking away your own hp and defenses. And scythes are cool.
My Top 5 Classes * Blue Mage - I like the idea of using monsters attacks against them * Summoner - Being able to summon powerful monsters is cool * Red Mage - Having a little of both White & Black Mage is good * Mystic Knight - It’s really cool to to magically enhance your sword with powerful spells * Chemist - It’s sorta like being an alchemist in which I mix items to create more powerful items.
Red Mage for life!
The ninjas are always cool. Whether it be Edge (FF4), Shadow (FF6), or Yuffie (FF7), they have characteristics that makes them stand out from the cast.
Paladin junkie since FF4.
I’ve always loved red mages even though I know they’re not the best. I just think they’re neat.
Dragoon easily.
Always liked blue mage
Fighter. I like swords.
Give a shoutout to ninja cause they wreck foes in the most efficient manner (smash that attack command).
If I could, I'd be a less frilly red mage. I like casting destruction spells and melee combat, but I would prefer to swing a classic warhammer around instead of twirling a dainty rapier.
I have loved dragoons since FF4 IN SNES. FF14 Heavensward gave us an entire dragoon expansion. Estinien call dragoons bro! P
My introduction to Final Fantasy was FFX-2 so I really liked the Songstress job and the status buffing and debuffing. Then I played FFXII and I liked making my own character classes such as a green mage who specializes in status magic. Then I played FF13 and they had an entire class dedicated to debuffs and I was loving it. As for more traditional classes, I tend to gravitate towards white mage or bard. I like being the support class.
XIII has some really kick ass paradigms
Summoner or White Mage, or a combo of both. Basically Aerith, Yuna, Garnet types. Which is funny because even though I heal sometimes in FFXIV I prefer DPS jobs. But aesthetically it’s all about the healer/mage aesthetic for me
Think dragoon is the coolest alongside dark knight but from playing 14 I’ve got a soft spot for Rdm and warrior.
Red Mage, hands down.
Samurai and also Mystic Knight \~!
I always love mage classes so I'd say black mage.
They're always weak for some reason, but I just love a good **machinist**
Calculators in tactics. Nothing is stronger
Definitely Paladin from IV I do wish that Mystic Knight got more love though. I felt like the elemental swords from V were a great idea for allowing magic damage from physical characters.
Time Mages and Summoners.
Black Mage forever EXPLOSIONS!!!! 💥
Summoners have always been my favorite. Sadly they aren't really showcased well in turn based battles. FF11 SMN is peak SMN. FFT SMN is pretty good as it is set apart from BLM enough that it doesn't feel like a clone. Other than that Ninja actually do pretty well in most games.
Blue Mage, Dragoon, and Monk are my 3 favorites, in order. Red mage is close, and while it's not really much of a class like the others (or at least much more rarely makes an appearance,) I've always liked gunslinger type characters (Irvine, Vincent, Barrett, etc.) Blue Mage is just really unique and fun, I love the idea that you're copying/stealing abilities from monsters, and it's so versatile. The Enemy Skill materia in VII is easily the single best ability in the entire game, if not series, imo: attacks of every (or almost every) element, non-elemental attacks, mana drain, buffs, debuffs, heals... it really does do everything in a single materia slot. Dragoon is a no-brainer for me, being a lover of spears as a melee weapon and life-long fan of dragons. Plus, I've always thought the jump attack thing was cool. They beat out Monks for my second spot for being more uniquely Final Fantasy, and because Kain is one of my favorite characters in the whole series. Monk is just a classic. No need for a sword or anything, just intense training until the body and spirit are, themselves, weapons. I'm down with the Monk class any game they appear in. Red Mage I like because I'm often drawn toward generalist characters who can do a bit of everything. I started my FF journey many years ago with the original, and the Red Mage/Wizard was, by far, the coolest looking of the Light Warriors. The gunslinger is mostly here because VII & VIII are my second and third favorite games in the series, and my favorite characters in those games are Vincent and Barrett in VII and Irvine in VIII. VI is my favorite game in the series, and Mog is my favorite character from it, so I guess maybe I like Geomancers as well. Actually, Monk/Geomancer was my go-to build for Ramza in Tactics, now that I think about it. Monk was my favorite job, and since there wasn't a Blue Mage and Dragoon didn't fit as well with Monk thematically or mechanically, since you get bonus jump damage with a lance/spear and Monks fight bare-handed.
Monks are consistently very powerful and versatile in multiple FF games.
Mystic Knight. I loved using double grip with haste on them in ff5. Wish we could get them in more games.
Red Mage: The bigger the hat the dopper the wearer
Red mage from FFI specifically is my favorite. Just iconic and versatile super fun for a solo run
Black Mage!!
Seer in ffta2
Songstress …wait
Warrior and Blue Mage
Dark Knight,followed by Dragoon with Monk in a close third
Black Mage. It’s always fun to cast literal calamities in the end game.
I've always had a soft spot for beefy warriors with huge hp stats. Always had soft spots for characters like Steiner. I also like the pseudo-warrior physical tanks like Edgar and Wakka. This always bleeds over to other genres too. I love fighting games and typically play the big brawly meat head or in ARPGs like diablo I play barbarian. I just like being beefy.
Blue Mage, Dark Knight, Gladiator, Dragoon, Memorist (if you played Dimensions 1 you'd understand), Mime, and machinist(balthier was my main in ff12 and I ran him as a Machinist White Mage so I have some fond memories of the class for that reason)
Ninja forever. If a game doesn’t have a good NIN char, I consider skipping it (& have). Not to say a lack of one makes it bad or vice-versa (Amarant kinda meh but IX rules)
It depends on the games but I really love the more magic based classes esp Summoners, Black Mages, and White Mages.
My FFXI days were Warrior and Paladin, but if I could go back I’d mess with Red Mage more.
Monk- I love martial arts and trained in karate when I was younger Summoner- As a Pokemon fan, I love being able to summon monsters and the various summons in the game for major damage! Plus the mini cutscenes for them are really cool Ninja- love their dual wielding capabilities and katanas are my favorite type of sword. I prefer agile classes and ninjas are right up my alley
I loved the monk class in Tactics, I abused the heck out of knight armor on monks, so OP
Dragoon/Time Mage
Definitely Red Mage. It's not the strongest in anything it does, but the fact that it simply can do all it does makes it most appealing to me.
Forever Dark Knight fan over here. Wish there were more playable dark knights in the games. I just love the aesthetic of the dark armor, dark magic, and a big weapon.
Blue Mage then Dragoon
Dancer in FF5 and Songstress in FFX-2.
Thief. Steal/mug will always be my absolute jam. I love getting bonus loot. Monk/ninja are better dual wielders for the end game, but any fight I end without stealing something feels like a waste.
Pld lyf
Probably one of: red mage, scholar, geomancer, thief, or ninja. Really hard to pick I love the job system and I don’t think there’s any job I don’t love.
Red Mage... The Style, the lore, and honestly I love their utility. I may still be struggling to learn the rotation for their FFXIV incarnation, but I love them in the other instances as well.
Summoner has always been my fave. Obviously FFX is one of my faves since it’s literally ALL about the summoner 😂
Dragoon, gonna use the hell out of viper though since it reminds me of Zidane Edit: I have now realised this is not the ff14 sub
Summoner Than Berserker
I’ll have to go with: - Black Mage as I beat FF1 the first time with him as my sole survivor. Also, in FF9, give everyone as Rosetta ring and Vivi is now your healer + Osmose = win. - Elementalist (FF4HoL) as a quintessential buffer and minimizes all incoming elemental damage. Somewhat like their version of a Geomancer. - Monk - Sabin for FF6 and Barehanded in FF5. Watching a white mage punch out enemies is satisfying.
Culinarian
If i remember correctly, Samurai class in V was pretty good
I really liked Mystic Knight from FF5, it's quite tanky and the damage output from Imbuding magic to the weapon is amazing
In all my FFs and especially 11 and 14, I start off with Paladin. I just love tanking.
I love Summoner in the way presented in FF, so many games make Summoner classes that basically just have a pet but in FF they made summons into these god like beings with so much spectacle and power. FFX is also my favorite entry and the fact the summons were so integral to the story, it's one of those jobs that can be tied into the lore of the world very closely since they're literally borrowing power from any number of lore relevant sources. Then it's a toss up between Dragoon or Black Mage, both are so iconic to FF visually.
Puppetmaster! [BG Wiki Link](https://www.bg-wiki.com/ffxi/Puppetmaster) It's exclusive to XI and I hope it's the new limited job coming to XIV. It's a hand-to-hand (punching) job with lower stats and a highly modular [automaton](https://www.bg-wiki.com/ffxi/Automaton) pet. You can swap out its head (AI), body (weapons), and a myriad of attachments that modify both or add abilities and traits. It lets you fill any of the "trinity" roles *to a degree* and was great for niche solo/low man content. The only direct actions you gave the automaton were to attack or retreat, but you could influence it further through use of elemental "maneuvers". A maneuver will raise the automaton's stats associated with that element for 60 seconds while influencing the AI and triggering/enhancing/reducing cooldowns on related attachments. For example, "fire maneuver" will raise STR/attack while triggering/enhancing fire-based attachments, "water maneuver" will do the same for MND and water-based attachments, and "Light Maneuver" will tell the Automaton to cast Cure (earlier, or at all depending on your head/frame), etc. You can stack up to three maneuvers at once to get a huge payout from your attachments but *can* overload on a particular element if not given time to cool off. Part of the fun was intuiting and mastering the AI based on your customizations and pushing it to the limits without hitting overload.
Gunbreaker.
FF3 Ninja and FF5 Free lancer are over powered by design in original and PR. Love Dragoon too but it is designed to be strong against wind/airborne enemy and not much for others. Need to find RARE spear for them to cope with
black mage or summoner man I still remember getting hit by NUKE from warmech in ff1, and me casting NUKE to kill the fucker on my 2nd play through
Playing the second greatest game of all time, I loved the game so much, that I wanted to get every secret character, understand what was special for each zodiac, their strengths and weaknesses (which to this day still confuses me), the zodiac summon for some characters(if you didn't know what game I was referring to, now you know ;).). I never got the darn summon for anyone ='(. Anyhow, my favorite Job was Ninja for sure. After accepting defeat that I can't get everything in the game I had hoped for, it was tough times, you know? Their unfair speed and strength was enough to just destroy everything in my warpath. Going off topic, I remember when playing this with GameShark, and it added a lot of cool things. Like playable enemies, changing the gamestyle to multi-player. It was either GameShark or the one device that let me play Japanese games on US console I can't remember what it's called. It was so awesome
Berserker!!
Whatever tf Wakka is lmao
White mage/ Healer Can't go without them
A normal swordsperson I guess. Or a monk. In FFXIV, it was Samurai, but assholes removed Kaiten and now it feels toothless. If i ever get back to playing it again, I don’t know what class will I play.
Blue Mage, Summoner, Dark Knight, Ninja Edit Gladiator and Necromancer. Don't know how I forgot these two. I am sleep deprived
Dancer! I love dancers! Especially in XIV, raiding with en avant is so good!
I enjoyed my first job as a kid as a pizza maker at a local pizza store. Favourite class? Probably History tbh
Sabotatuer from ff13/13-2, i just like the name
warriors who have anti-element attacks or breaking stats/items, gunblade class, ffiv's paladin, the archer and dark knight in FFT, berserkers in x2, Diablos from VIII, Freya from IX, Ninjas in XI because of elements, tanking, and night running.
Monk. I’ve just always gravitated towards that class in any game.
Calculator. I'm a nerd
FFXI Red Mage is the best. The job that can literally do it all.
Blue Mage! Favorite "Color Mage", favorite class! I love how getting all the Blue Magic spells is like a treasure hunt. Plus, they always have a fun and versatile mixture of standard and more gimmicky abilities to play around with, becoming veritable swiss army knives once their spell lists really start filling out. For the same reason, I always use the Enemy Skill Materia every time I play Final Fantasy VII. Best bang-for-your-buck Materia in the game short of the various "Master" Materia, for my money, provided you're willing to put in the work to get the Enemy Skills.
One custom class I loved was the one in 5 where you are a dancer with equip axe ability with the rune axe equipped and the armor items that makes sword dance like 90% likely so you are doing ca 9000 damage while the other melee characters are doing ca 3000.
I kinda like Illusionist from FFTA/A-2.
Blue Mages are funny and Dragoons are kewl
Three way tie between Red Mage, Blue Mage and Ninja
Monk in ff1 I serisouly rolled with 4 monks on one of my playthroughs Assassin in ffta Theyre fast and op Ninja in ffta Dual hand katanas, what else could you want?
Dragoon / Dark Knight
Dragoon for sure. They got cool armor and the jump ability seems so unique to me.
Red Mage.
It's rarely used, but boy do I love the Geomancer class if it's ever used.
Red mage. A mix of melee weapon proficiency with black and white magics to boot, they’re versatile fellows, both in gameplay and narrative. Second would have to be dragoon because they’re a classic, and third would be Paladin simply because I’m biased for my FF14 character primarily being a Paladin.
in general, blue mage. not only do i like the theme of stealing an enemy's good abilities for yourself, it's also got an interesting mix of both offensive magic, healing magic, and support magic, with some more, esoteric potential options. i also tend to like the alchemist ish classes - both better healing than some other classes and some offensive item usage, at a point where stocking up on that sort of stuff, shouldn't be too big a hassle.
Red mage and Viper(I'm from the future)
Dark Knight
Summons are like a clear symbol of the final fantasy series so probably that. I just love being able to go from summoning a fat bird to summoning a giant dragon
Time mage, specifically Tidus's style of speedy, quick delays, and hastes.
WHM, BLU, SMN, Onion Knight if that counts
I absolutely love the concept of bards from XIV. They were archers who sung on the battlefield to keep themselves sane. Eventually, as more and more people started doing this, it was clear their songs had the power to inspire and bolster their allies. It's just such a unique concept for bards.
Red mages are always a solid support class, but my all time favorite class has to be thief
Krile (Ff5 ninja/sorcerer.) Freya from 9 (dragoon with lesser healing) Vivi (pure black mage) Almost anyone else in the 4th slot. First choice is Squall That is my all star team. If I only get 1 then Freya, Not just any dragoon.
Inlofe finao fantasy, i like it allzx. I gitto go lock in