Final Fantasy XIV - Melee Classes / Characters

The quintessential frontline fighters who deal damage up close and personal, melee fighters take advantage of their positioning to strike enemies from different angles to increase their damage output. Boasting high damage output out of the DPS classes, these classes are a staple addition to any group.

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Melee in General

Back Stab: All melee jobs have some attacks that give the player bonuses when used from the right angle, where Monk has the most and the Samurai has the least. The Ninja also has the most traditional example of this with Trick Attack which is executed from stealth or by cover of water.
BFS: The shared melee DPS Limit Breaks have them slash up enemies with a copy of Cloud’s Buster Sword, regardless of whatever weapon they normally use.
Close-Range Combatant: Melee Jobs must be close to use the vast majority of their skills, forcing them to move out of range for the enemies melee attacks. But all melee jobs except the Monk have a ranged attack that allows them to keep up a weak attack from the distance and another skill that lets them quickly get out of the attack range of their enemy.
Color-Coded for Your Convenience: As a DPS role, they all have red class icons.
Crippling Overspecialization: In high-end content, the melee DPS Limit Break is in the unfavourable position of being used only if no other Limit Break is needed. A Tank LB is required to survive attacks in several duties; a Healer LB3 is an excellent way to come Back from the Brink when the party is on the verge of wiping, and the Area of Effect on a ranged LB can make short work of adds when an add phase is on a timer. A melee LB, though dealing the most damage, only strikes a single target, and as such is best used when "striking a single target" is the only viable use of the Limit Break.
Glass Cannon: The melee jobs all deal above average to high damage, but they also have to stay close to their target and will quickly crumble to an enemy's attacks. Compared to each other, the Samurai and Monk are both full Glass Cannons, the Ninja runs closer to Fragile Speedster territory while the Reaper and Dragoon are both Mighty Glacier, with them leaning very slightly towards Lightning Bruiser.
Heal Thyself: "Second Wind" restores some of the user’s HP. Melee DPS jobs share this with Ranged DPS jobs.
Life Drain: "Bloodbath" is a Status Buff that heals the user for a portion of the damage they inflict for 20 seconds.
Limit Break: Melee DPS Limit Breaks hit a single target for massive damage, with higher-level Limit Breaks doing greater damage. These deal significantly more damage per-target than Caster or Ranged Limit Breaks, making them preferred for clearing boss encounters.
Status Buff: "True North" removes the positional requirements for the extra effects of a Melee job’s abilities for 10 seconds, letting them gain those benefits without needing to be in the correct position. They also share "Arm’s Length" with the Tanks and Ranged DPS Jobs.
Status Effects: "Leg Sweep" stuns the target, and "Feint" lowers the target’s dealt damage, with a focus on physical damage as of Endwalker, previously lowering the target's physical attributes by 10% for 10 seconds.

Pugilist and Monk

Preferred Weapons: Fist Weapons
Armor Type: Striking
Guild Location: Steps of Nald, Ul'dah

Masters of hand to hand combat that augment their strikes with a Power Fist, favoring speed over attack the Pugilist uses a unique Stance System to execute their martial arts and grow more powerful the longer they remain on the offense. The Monk enhances the pugilists already extreme power by gifting the class with more Ki Manipulation to better round out their arsenal

Pugilist

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/0c5c2213_540e_49cc_bba1_4a9c1ac04a75.jpeg

Abbreviation: PGL
Unlocking Requirements: Available at the start of the story

Animal-Themed Fighting Style: The Pugilist's Stance System is modeled after Animal Kung Fu having Opo-Opo Form, Raptor Form and Coeurl Form.
Badass Back: Enforced with "Steel Peak" which actually strikes the enemy with your back.
Bare-Fisted Monk: Not quite, since they must equip a cestus to be the class, but the look can be achieved by equipping or glamouring the appearance of The Emperor's New Fists, which is completely invisible, or the Makai Fists, which take the form of fingerless gloves.
Close-Range Combatant: Pugilists and Monks are notably the only disciplines in the game without any sort of long-ranged attack, with only the situational AoE Enlightenment caping out at a mere 10y. Every other discipline has at least one ranged attack with a 20y range.
Counter-Attack: Previously had one in "Haymaker", which could only be used immediately after evading an attack. "Featherfoot", another defunct skill, would temporarily increases the user's evasion rate to aid in this process.
Dual Wielding: Pugilist and Monks fight with a matching pair of Power Fist weapons in both hands. Although this has no impact on the actual gameplay and the cesti are treated as a single weapon as with any other class.
Fragile Speedster: They attack quickly and relentlessly and can lay on a ton of damage and have a flexible teleport with several charges, but this is balanced out by low health and defense even among damage dealers.
Heal Thyself: "Second Wind". It's been since reclassified as a Role Skill, but they were the origin of it.
Pressure Point: Prior to its removal in Stormblood, the "Touch of Death" skill, which caused Damage Over Time by striking vital organs.
Roundhouse Kick: The pugilists basic attack is one. The damage-over-time skill Demolish comboes into one as well as a whip kick.
Shockwave Stomp: "Arm of the Destroyer" is one that does AoE damage to enemies nearby as does "Rockbreaker".
Stance System:
- The Pugilist can only execute certain attacks if they are in a certain stance.
- Until Endwalker removed them, Pugilists and Monks also had access to a more traditional stance system with three stances: "Fists of Earth" (improved defenses), "Fists of Wind" (increased movement speed and an extra stack of Greased Lightning in Shadowbringers), and "Fists of Fire" (increased attack power).
Status Buff:
- Prior to Patch 5.4, each Greased Lightning stack increased the damage and attack speed of the Pugilist by 10 % and 5 % respectively.
- The "Twin Snakes" weaponskill applies a 15 % damage buff for 15 seconds. Keeping this buff active most of the time is crucial for the Pugilists/Monks damage output.
- The skill "Mantra" provides a 10% buff to any healing ability, skill, or spell, to all allies in range. This also applies to the Pugilist themselves, so a solo PGL in peril can use this and follow up with Second Wind and Bloodbath to stay alive.
Power Fist: The weapons of a Pugilist, from the more simple knuckledusters/cesti, the bladed bagh nakh ("tiger claw"), a few katars as well.

Monk

Abbreviation: MNK
Unlocking Requirements: Level up Pugilist to 30

Achilles' Heel: In lore, the Mad King Theodoric created the Corpse Brigade specifically to counter and assassinate Monks. The Brigade thus razed the temple and all but exterminated the order from the face of Eorzea. It is not until the Warrior of Light, who trained as a Pugilist first and is thus the child of mixed schools, teaches the surviving Monks how to cover their weaknesses that they finally defeat the Corpse Brigade.
An Adventurer Is You:
- The Scrapper type DPS. Monks have the shortest global cooldown of all melee DPS jobs thanks to their Greased Lightning trait. This encourages them to constantly keep their fists flying to build up their Chakra Gauge for extra damage with "The Forbidden Chakra" and "Enlightenment". "Perfect Balance" also grants special Beast Chakra and Nadi depending on the combination used while under Perfect Balance's effects. These can be spent to perform incredibly strong finisher attacks that hit in a small AOE around the target.
- In PvP, they are instead the Nuker. While they can harry foes with their basic attack combo, Monks lack the raw AOE pressure of a Dragoon or the tricky play potential of a Ninja. But they're uniquely capable of being able to take a squishier target from full health to zero without any chance of retaliation with a well-timed combo. They also play like The Regenerator Tank with "Riddle of Earth", storing up the damage they take before healing it back up while damaging nearby enemies.
Animal Battle Aura: The Rising Phoenix skill causes an eruption of fiery aether in the shape of a cawing phoenix.
Anti-Frustration Features: While they are rather mechanically demanding to play, Monks have a fair amount of skills to ease the difficulty a bit.
- "Form Shift" allows the usage of a single weaponskill without the needed form, making it useful when refreshing Twin Snakes and Demolish is needed quickly.
- "Riddle of Earth" decreases damage received by 20 % and nullifies directional requirements for three attacks. It holds up to 3 charges.
- "Anatman" prevents "Twin Snakes" and the Monk's current stance from expiring for up to 30 seconds. It is primarily meant to be used during downtime, as any movement will cancel the skill.
Armor-Piercing Attack: In PvP, both "Earth's Reply" and "Meteodrive" can bypass the target's Guard ability. Earth's Reply ignores it when calculating damage while Meteodrive removes it before dealing damage (though it deals double damage if the target wasn't Guarding beforehand).
Awesome, but Impractical: "Tornado Kick" has gone through a long and tortuous path:
- Originally, the skill was designed to sacrifice all three of the Monk's Greased Lightning stacks to deliver what was (at the time) bar-none the hardest hitting attack available to the job. However, sacrificing greased lightning ruined a Monk's combat flow so severely that it was actually a significant DPS loss to use it. The only time "Tornado Kick" was sensibly useful was when an enemy was about to go invincible long enough that GL would fall off anyway, which also requires foreknowledge of boss fights and their rotations. Patch 4.4 made it a bit more practical to use, where updates to certain abilities made it much easier to recover from the loss of greased lightning and TK thus became a part of the optimal (if difficult) rotation. Unfortunately, Shadowbringers relegated it back to being impractical to use, what with the introduction of a fourth stack of Greased Lightning, and "Form Shift" also refreshes the duration of Greased Lightning anyway, further reducing the situations that it sees use. Finally averted with the release of Patch 5.4—with the rework of Greased Lightning into a trait, Tornado Kick became a simple damaging ability off the global cooldown with a 45 second cooldown. Then, Endwalker turned Tornado Kick into the ultimate Masterful Blitz starting at level 60, available only after building up all Beast Chakra... until it is completely replaced by the level 90 capstone skill, Phantom Rush.
- "Six-sided Star" is a powerful 540 potency attack that also significantly increases the user's movement speed for 5 seconds, allowing for easier disengages. The downside is that it's a weaponskill with a lengthy recast time of an average of 4 seconds, even with Greased Lightning and using it applies said lengthy recast time to all other weaponskills, making it a DPS loss if used incorrectly. Even in later Shadowbringers patches (which reworked Greased Lightning into a trait) and Endwalker (which overhauled the Monk skillset) Six Sided Star's best use case is still exclusively as a disengage move, and even then, only if it doesn't disrupt the Monk's rotation.
But Thou Must!: In the level 45 quest "Good Vibrations", Widergelt invites you to "give yourself to [his] cause" and fight beside him to free Ala Mhigo from the Garleans. Choosing not to leads to him asking you to reconsider; only by accepting will the quest proceed.
Combined Energy Attack: The level 70 capstone skill Brotherhood. The Monk channels their ki to empower themselves and their entire party (read: a 5% damage buff, and all skills are guaranteed critical hits for you after level 88); in return, attacks landed by their teammates can open the Monk's Chakra gates and help them unleash Forbidden Chakra and Enlightenment much faster than the Monk doing it on their own.
Combo:
- Level 60 onward, "Perfect Balance" rewards players with Beast Chakra and Nadi for either performing three attacks of the same stance or three attacks of all different stances while under Perfect Balance's effects. These can be spent on "Masterful Blitz" to unleash a powerful attack that damages all nearby enemies. Furthermore, unlocking both the Solar and Lunar Nadi by using "Elixir Field" and "Flint Strike" will unlock "Tornado Kick" for the next Perfect Balance combo, which boasts even more power. At level 90, Tornado Kick is replaced by Phantom Rush, which is explicitly a combo of strikes too fast for the eye to see, landing from all directions.
- Of all the potential weaponskill combinations to use while under "Perfect Balance", a combo of "Bootshine" and "Dragon Kick" is the most popular by far, thanks to their relatively high potency and the latter guaranteeing that the former will crit with its Leaden Fist buff. They're also both used in Opo-Opo Form, making it the ideal combo for unlocking the Lunar Nadi.
Close-Range Combatant: The Monk has no long-ranged attacks. Their only ability with greater-than-melee range is the line AoE Enlightenment, which has a mere 10y reach and can't be used regurlarly as it expends the Chakra Gauge. If forced out of melee range, all a Monk can do is maintain their stance and charge their Chakra.
Crisscross Attack: "Phantom Rush" has the monk flash stepping to rush the enemy from different angles before coming down from above with a heeldrop.
Critical Hit Class: After unlocking the "Deep Meditation" trait, Monks are more reliant on landing critical hits in order to charge their chakras mid-battle.
Damage Reduction: Riddle of Earth reduces the incoming damage by 20 % for the Monk.
Dance Battler: When using their "Four Point Fury" ability, they're basically breakdancing.
Dash Attack: "Shoulder Tackle", which used to only be usable if you are at least 10 yalms from an opponent, charges at the enemy. Endwalker replaced "Shoulder Tackle" with the non-damaging "Thunderclap".
Difficult, but Awesome: Monk has had a very long history with its balance between playing well and doing extremely high damage, or doing poorly and doing negligible output.
- Monks are quite mechanically demanding to play, requiring you to constantly stay close to the enemy and keep attacking from the right positions just to maintain Greased Lightning and attain maximum damage, not to mention their lack of a projectile based attack in the case of a distant enemy. A bad Monk will deal very poor damage that's even lower than a Ninja, but a good Monk offers both incredible damage output and impressive utility with frequent buffs for everyone in their party. Patch 5.4 reduced their difficulty considerably, with the rework of Greased Lightning into a trait that passively boosts their attack speed. Endwalker zigzagged with some easing up and some added complexity with the addition of Masterful Blitz mechanics, which effectively turns the job's one "burst" window into two halves executed 90 seconds apart, leaving little room for error in the Monk's rotation, though because of the added complexity they also went from having the most positional requirements of any job to only having them on Demolish and Snap Punch, so they don't have to worry about positioning while they're trying to balance attacks for their beast Chakri and Nadi.
- In PvP, "Riddle of Earth" causes the Monk to store the damage they take during the ability's duration. The ability can then be reactivated to trigger "Earth's Reply", healing the Monk and dishing out AOE damage around them proportional to the amount of damage taken. However, Earth's Reply is lost if not used before Riddle of Earth's expiration, leaving a damaged Monk vulnerable to being finished off. The best Monks will dance the line between life and death to dish out a lethal counterattack and top themselves up at the same time.
- Also in PvP, "Enlightenment" inflicts the Pressure Point debuff on the victim if they're successfully knocked back, dealing a whopping 12,000 damage if triggered by an additional attack from the Monk. But the debuff only lasts three seconds, requiring players to quickly dash at the reeling target to follow up immediately lest they lose out on serious burst damage.
Enhanced Punch: The Forbidden Chakra which will throw out a few chakra enhanced punches that are enhanced with a wave of energy.
Elemental Punch: Tornado Kick has the monk finish the attack with a blast of wind from a palm strike, Rising Phoenix will generate a roaring bird of flames from a spinkick.
Explosive Punch: The Limit Break Final Heaven takes the cake where the Monk concentrates enough aether into their fist to generate an explosive torrent of energy in their wake.
Flash Step: In Endwalker, the monk can use "Thunderclap" quickly teleport to the side of an enemy or an ally, allowing them to cover distance very quickly and flexibly.
Fluffy Fashion Feathers: Wears a Lu Bu-esque quail feather coming from their Martial Arts Headband.
Ground Punch: "Howling Fist" is one that opens a powerful fissure of energy to burst from the earth.
Ground-Shattering Landing:
- "Flint Strike" has the monk flip forward in the air and come down on enemies with an earthbreaking heel drop.
- In Endwalker, their ultimate ability "Phantom Rush" finishes a multi-hit-attack with a similar heel drop.
The Greatest Style: Played with. The Fists of Rhalgr's style is widely known and feared because it imbues the users with superhuman ability, but then the King of Ruin formed the Corpse Brigade to specifically study and create martial techniques to counter it. When the Corpse Brigade becomes the primary enemies for the Stormblood class quests, the Warrior of Light ends up being the first of the group who can properly fight them off because they incorporated the Fists' style on top of Ul'dahn pugilism, which they eventually teach to the rest of the rebuilt order to give them a fighting chance.
Hoist by Their Own Petard: A Monk's PvP Limit Break, Meteodrive, does a huge amount of damage to the target and bypasses Guard while locking the target in place, all but ensuring the target's demise if teammates are present to continue piling damage on top of Monk's already unsurpassed single-target burst. But the Monk is also locked in place during the three-second-long animation. Using it carelessly can allow the victim's teammates to pile on the Monk and kill them while they're defenseless.
Hurricane Kick: "Shadow of the Destroyer" is an Area of Effect attack that attacks with a double spin kick, while "Four-Point Fury" is spinning handstand split-kick.
Kamehame Hadoken: The Monk has two:
- Elixir Field, basically a Kamehameha aimed down— The Monk leaps up, cups their hands by their side, and pushes them down to fire off a concentrated stream of ki that splashes into the ground.
- Enlightenment, a Hadoken in visuals and execution—The Monk rears back, cups their hands by their side again, and quickly whips them forward to unleash a massive fireball that smashes through everything in its path for a range of 10 yards.
Ki Manipulation: Starting at level 15, the Pugilist learns how to open their Chakra. This allows a regular Pugilist access to attack with Steel Peak and later the area attack Howling Fist, but, for a fully-fledged Monk at level 50, this upgrades Steel Peak to Forbidden Chakra, a one-two-uppercut combo that explodes the accummulated chakra into a huge column of energy. And at level 74, Howling Fist upgrades to Enlightenment, an area-attack that unleashes the chakra as a short-range fireball.
- Upon learning the Masterful Blitz ability, a Monk can channel Beast Chakra in addition to the regular kind. Aside from the traditional empowered skills, Beast Chakra can be unleashed as Elixir Field, in which a Monk leaps gain an ability called Elixir Field which bears a great resemblance to the famous Kamehameha.
- Despite being called "Shoulder Tackle," this now-defunct ability actually consisted of the Monk rushing to the enemy to deliver a small, open-palmed bolt of ki directly into the enemy's body at point-blank range.
Lightning Bruiser: In PvP, Monks are equal parts damaging, tanky, and quick, able to dash to enemies and quickly dish out massive hurt if left unattended. "Riddle of Earth" and "Earth's Reply" allows Monks to absorb a lot of damage before healing themselves and dishing it back out to nearby enemies. Monk's main weakness is their ramp up time to access Phantom Rush and its lack of options for dealing with ranged enemies other than dashing in to hit them.
Limit Break: Level 3 has "Final Heaven", a massive charged punch delivered at light-speed that causes a massive explosion. In PvP, they have "Meteodrive", a powerful attack that cancels an enemy's Guard stance and renders them unable to move for 3 seconds. If the enemy does not have Guard up, the potency of the attack is doubled.
Meditation Power Up: The Monk's aptly named "Meditate" skill opens one of the monk's chakras (or all five if used outside of combat, and by opening five they can execute the powerful "Forbidden Chakra". The trait Deep Meditation allows them to potentially gain chakra with every Critical Hit. They also have the skill "Anatman" where they go into meditation to keep their Twin Snakes buff and current form during the length of the meditation.
Mythology Gag:
- The Masterful Blitzes that were introduced in Endwalker, Rising Phoenix and Phantom Rush, are based on and named after the same named skills of the monk Sabin in Final Fantasy VI.
- Their Level 3 Limit Break is "Final Heaven", named for the ultimate move of Tifa in Final Fantasy VII, who is that game's Bare-Fisted Monk.
Non-Indicative Name: "Shoulder Tackle's" animation is actually a palm strike rather than a shoulder tackle.
Playing with Fire: By using AoE attacks as part of their Perfect Balance, Monks are able to unleash a fiery aura as a Blitz that resembles a flaming phoenix.
Pressure Point: Enlightenment in PvP inflicts this status on the first target it hits, causing the next weaponskill or Meteodrive to inflict an additional heavy hit.
Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs: The Monk's mechanics rely on this concept, boasting on the shortest global cooldown and more powerful and frequent auto-attacks with Greased Lightning. The ability Riddle of Wind also enhances how quickly they make auto attacks, letting them throw even more fisticuffs, and the removed 1.0 ability Thousand Fists, which is still rarely used by pugilist or monk enemies, completely removed the auto attack cooldown timer.
Regenerating Mana: Prior to its removal, the Monk could restore their own TP by spending their Chakra stacks on the "Purification" skill.
Rival Dojos:
- The Sect of Shadow to the players' Sect of Light school of fighting. These two dojos are meant to be pit against one another so the survivors can open all fourteen of the chakras within the body in the process.
- A more friendly example is enforced when Widargelt sets up a martial arts exhibition between Ul'dah's Pugilist's Guild and his newly reformed Fists of Rhalgr in order to generate interest and attract new pupils. Sadly, their intended Tournament Arc is cut short before it can even begin due to the Corpse Brigade returning to finish the job of exterminating all Monks.
She-Fu: The Monk's fighting techniques are filled with gratuitous flip kicks and acrobatics regardless of gender.
Status Buff:
- "Mantra" applies a buff on everyone in the Monks's team, increasing the effect of all healing actions by 10 % for 15 seconds.
- "Brotherhood" also applies a buff on everyone in the Monks's team, increasing the damage output by 5 % for 15 seconds.
- "Riddle Of Earth" grants three stacks of the ability for 10 seconds. It decreases damage received by 20 % and each stack nullifies directional requirements for weaponskills.
- "Riddle Of Fire" increases the damage output for the Monk by 15 % for 20 seconds. This is the buff around which the Monk's burst windows in Endwalker-era rotations revolve.
- "Riddle Of Wind" decreases the autoattack delay by 50 % for 15 seconds. Considering the Monk is already the fastest job in the game with a cooldown under 2 seconds at level 90, this buff essentially turns the humble autoattack into a powerful damage-over-time skill.
Strong and Skilled: Monks usually have (depending on the current game expansion / patch) the third or second highest damage output of all the DPS, can switch between their single target and AoE damage rotation without delay, and can buff their team members in regular intervals.
Supernatural Martial Arts: The Monks gain their unmatched physical strength by opening the Chakras within their body. By the time they're max level, Monks frequently throw around Ki attacks, shockwaves, and elemental magics as easily as punching.
Warrior Monk: Monks were previously warrior priests from Ala Mhigo devoted to the worship of the Rhalgr the Destroyer.
Whole Costume Reference: The Monk's second Artifact armor, the "Tantra" set, from Heavensward is inspired by Yang's costume, particularly the pants.
Wuxia: The Monk's "Temple" Artifact armor from is visually inspired by the genre.
Yin-Yang Bomb: As part of their Endwalker design, they accumulate Lunar and Solar Nadi by using Masterful Blitz. When they have accumulated both Nadi and three Beast Chakra they can unleash Tornado Kick or Phantom Rush.

Lancer and Dragoon

Preferred Weapons: Spears
Armor Type: Maiming
Guild Location: Old Gridania

Wielders of lances that can pepper enemies with rapid stabbing attacks that allow for powerful damage dealing. After becoming a Dragoon this allows the character to use its signature Death from Above attacks and rain death In a Single Bound.

Lancer

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fb728ff7_0368_4b93_b00d_4354abbf968b.jpeg

Abbreviation: LNC
Unlocking Requirements: Available at the start of the story

Blade Spam: "Chaos Thrust" involves several rapid slash attacks. The Dragoon’s "Sonic Thrust" is a flurry of stabs.
Boring, but Practical:
- Lancers only have two real rotations to keep track: "True Thrust" -> "Disembowel" for the Status Buff followed by "True Thrust" -> "Vorpal Thrust" -> "Full Thrust". The rest of their skills are either debuffs or personal status buffs until Level 50. Nothing too flashy, but it's easy to remember and deals good damage.
- Even after reaching Level 50, a Lancer's rotation just tacks on "Chaos Thrust" after "Disembowel". It's the Dragoon skills that finally move the class away from this as the job's rotations become more complex and situational.
- "Leg Sweep" is a skill with an average cooldown of 45 seconds that kicks sand in the opponent's face to stun them. Flashy? No. Helpful for stopping enemies in their tracks before they can hit your party with an Area of Effect attack? Yes.
Damage-Increasing Debuff: Prior to Shadowbringers, "Disembowel" reduced the enemy's piercing resistance, making them take more damage from classes that use that type of damage (other Lancers/Dragoons and the ranged physical classes). Shadowbringers ultimately turned it into a personal damage increasing buff for the Dragoon to allow the removal of Heavy Thrust, retiring this trope in the process.
Damage Over Time: "Chaos Thrust" inflicts damage-over-time when used as a combo finisher.
Glass Cannon: They definitely qualified the early days of 2.0 but this is ultimately averted in the present day. In the past, they had below average magic defenses, which posed problems in raid environments that focused on magic damage. This was mitigated by the access to tools that let them take a hit really well when they had to, in addition to healing abilities from the kits of other Jobs. Later updates slowly pulled them away from being glassy, with "Blood for Blood" being the lone remnant of their status, giving themselves a defensive penalty for more power. It wasn't until Shadowbringers released that this aspect was effectively retired, removing the defense debuff from "Blood for Blood" altogether and renamed it into "Lance Charge".
Javelin Thrower: They can hurl their spears like them for ranged attacks with the "Piercing Talon" skill.
Life Drain: "Life Surge" makes their next weapon skill do this, in addition to forcing a Critical Hit.
Nerves of Steel: Ywain, guildmaster of the Lancers' Guild, states that these are a requirement of the job, as the lancer's role is to face danger head on without flinching at the point of contact, and emphasises that this is not the same thing as blindly flinging yourself into danger. The Warrior of light then gets to demonstrate this quality during their first meeting with The Rival, making it a nice Establishing Character Moment at the same time.
Status Buff: "Disembowel" is an attack which temporarily boosts the Dragoon’s damage output when used in a combo, "Life Surge" turns the Lancer’s next weaponskill into a guaranteed Critical Hit, and "Lance Charge" increases the damage that the Lancer inflicts.
Slice-and-Dice Swordsmanship: There is a lot of Wushu inspired spear slashes involved in the Lancer's fighting style.

Dragoon

Abbreviation: DRG
Unlocking Requirements: Level up Lancer to 30

An Adventurer Is You: The Blademaster DPS, with moderately high to high potency attacks and bursts of damage provided by their "Jump" attacks. Their Party buffs, "Battle Litany" and "Dragon Sight", are focused on pumping their own and allies damage as high as possible. They also have some of the best Area of Effect power for a Melee DPS, thanks to getting one a full AOE rotation that has almost as extensive of a rotation process as their single target rotations, aided by "Dragonfire Dive", "Geirskogul", "Stardiver", and "Wyrmwind Thrust" all having AOE damage.
Animal Battle Aura: Dragoons explicitly use draconic aether in their combat arts, so once the start to tap into their inner Spellblade, most of their attacks are shaped like or themed after dragons.
- "Blood of the Dragon" wreathes the Dragoon in a blue aura which resembles Midgardsormr’s scales. While active, it makes the Dragoon’s "Jump" and "Spineshatter" Dive abilities more powerful, adds a fourth attack to their weaponskill combos, and lets them use "Geirskogul", a powerful line AoE. Stormblood upgrades it to "Life of the Dragon", which makes the aura turn red and converts "Geirskogul" into the more powerful (and more frequently usable) "Nastrond". Both Blood and Life also wreath the Dragoon in a more typical fire-like energy. As of Endwalker, "Blood of the Dragon" has been removed, but the Turns Red aspect remains.
- "Mirage Dive" launches a projection of the power of the dragon within the Dragoon at an enemy to damage them.
- The Dragon’s Level 3 Limit Break, "Dragonsong Dive", envelops the Dragoon in an aura shaped like Midgardsormr’s head.
- "Wyrmwind Thrust" has the Dragoon hurl their spear straight ahead while an aura shaped like two serpentine dragons spirals around it.
Back Stab: "Chaos Thrust" and "Wheeling Thrust" do more damage when attacking from behind, while "Fang and Claw" does more damage when attacking from the side. Pulling off the latter two back-to-back while in the proper positions will upgrade the next use of "True Thrust" into "Raiden Thrust" at higher levels.
Blade Spam: "Sonic Thrust" has the user throw a dozen spear thrusts in an instant to damage all enemies in a thin line in front of them.
Blue Is Calm: The Wyrm Armor obtained after the completion of the Dragoon job quests in A Realm Reborn is said to have belonged to the original Azure Dragoon. Its brilliant blue sheen is a reminder of its precursor from Final Fantasy IV, Kain, the stoic and aloof Foil to Cecil. In addition, dragoons must remain in control of their emotions at all times, lest the power of the dragon consume them.
The Chosen One: While many knights can become dragoons if they so choose, the Warrior of Light becomes the Azure Dragoon, greatest of them all, after being chosen by the Eye. Notably, this is the first time the Eye has chosen two Azure Dragoons at once, with the other being Estinien.
Cool Helmet: Dragon-themed, modeled after Kain's very famous helmet.
Combat Parkour:
- "Elusive Jump" is a nimble backflip that crosses a sizable distance to get you out of range of enemy AoE attacks. You can then jump back into the fray with "Spineshatter Dive".
- In the trailer for Heavensward, a dragoon is seen leaping into the air before spinning into a downward dive to plunge his spear into a dragon.
Crippling Overspecialization: Avoided by the player character, played straight with Ishgardian dragoons. In Heavensward a very high-ranking dragoon notes that because the player character fights all manner of man and beast in their travels throughout Eorzea that they've taken the Dragoon's overall fighting style and turned it into something unique and deadly against more than just dragons and even more effective against dragons themeslves! As a result, the player character seems to make other dragoons look like amateurs to the point that said high-ranked dragoon asks for tutelage under them.
Damage Over Time: "Chaos Thrust" inflicts a sizable amount of damage over 22 seconds if used as part of a weaponskill combo after "Disembowel".
Dangerous Forbidden Technique: Just being a Dragoon is often referred to as being one. Having a dragoon soul crystal resonate means that the individual has a dragon's spirit inside of them, and that dragon's spirit tends to be very displeased with having its powers used to kill its kin. Dragoons who develop their art to the point of tapping in the Blood of the Dragon have to hold tight to their human will, otherwise, they'll be overwhelmed by the power of the dragon within them and transform into one, even if they're not of Ishgardian heritage.
Desperately Seeking A Purpose In Life: Post-Heavensward there's a general sensation of loss of purpose within the rank and file of the Dragoons. The end of the Dragonsong War, disbanding of Nidhogg's brood, and peaceful relations with Hraesvelgr's has led to the end of Dragoons' existence as dragonslayers. People like Huestienne and Estinien have found a new purpose in acting as intermediaries in mankind's new relationship with dragons however, finally achieving peace with the power of the dragon within them and unlocking exceptional powers for it. Finally being able to do the same is what allows the Warrior of Light to access Nastrond and Life of the Dragon.
Death from Above: As always, Jump attacks are the Dragoon's trademark.
Dragon Knight:
- Though Dragoons take the imagery of Dragons, in Eorzea they are the dragons' sworn enemy. The short story From Azure Ashes reveals that before they were dragonslayers, Dragoons were dragon riders who were unstoppable in combat thanks to their dragon allies giving them the altitude for their jumps. The level 70 relic armor is an artifact from this time period, which was given to Estinien and the player as a gift.
- As the expansions have gone on, Dragoon has drifted closer to being this trope played straight, as their attacks start to weave in magical effects from the power of the dragon they channel in harmony, rather than by force. Their artifact armors even reflect this, losing the Spikes of Doom and doubling down on the draconic features to represent their shift from dragonslayers to dragon ambassadors.
The Dragon Slayer: Dragoons are famed for their skills at killing dragons. The Azure Dragoon, of which there is (normally) only one at any one time, is even more renowned in this regard. However, after Heavensward their dragonslaying skills are no longer needed, changing their purpose entirely from what it originally was at the start of the game's life.
Evolving Attack:
- "Jump" is permanently upgraded to the faster and stronger "High Jump" at level 74.
- At level 76, the Lance Mastery II trait permanently increases the potency of several attacks. It also upgrades "True Thrust" to "Raiden Thrust" whenever the Dragoon properly pulls off any combo of "Fang and Claw" and "Wheeling Thrust".
- At level 86, "Full Thrust" and "Chaos Thrust" are permanently upgraded to the stronger "Heaven's Thrust" and "Chaotic Spring", respectively.
Gathering Steam: The Dragoon needs to "strengthen the gaze of the First Brood" by using Mirage Dive twice before they can enter Life of the Dragon and use its associated attacks.
Goomba Stomp: Most of their unique skills are either jumping on things, away from things or powering up said jumps for more damage.
Herd-Hitting Attack: The "Doom Spike" > "Sonic Thrust" > "Coerthan Torment" combo strikes all enemies in a line extending from the Dragoon. "Geirskogul", "Nastrond" and "Wyrmwind Thrust" also strike enemies in a line, while "Dragonfire Dive" and "Stardiver" hit all enemies within a few yalms of the Dragoon’s target.
In a Single Bound: Jumps can be used to enter or exit combat depending on which you use. In cutscenes, dragoons are able to leap enormous distances to get places quickly and chase down fleeing dragons trying to make a break for it.
Incompletely Trained: The Dragoon story quests essentially have the Warrior of Light getting a serious crash course in being a dragoon in order to catch up to Estinien and get to the bottom of the mystery behind his sudden departure. As a result, the Warrior of Light only has a rudimentary understanding of what it means to be a dragoon and a brief of Ishgard's history while also lacking training in the more esoteric things like controlling the Eye as the Azure Dragoon. This doesn't slow them down though, as their vast wealth of experience as an adventurer more than makes up for it, letting them clear their trials with flying colors.
Instant Runes: "Stardiver" leaves a cylinder of red runes in the Dragoon’s wake as they dive toward their target, and forms a large circular glyph at the point of impact.
Interface Screw: A minor example: after reaching level 70, certain dragoon abilities build up a meter called the "Gaze of the First Brood". When it's full it allows the Dragoon to unleash attacks imbued with dragon aether; the UI element indicating that it's ready comes with a draconic eye that pulsates out of its own border and seems to be looking directly at the player.
Jousting Lance: Dragoons prefer heavy lances in combat to add weight to their devastating jump attacks. Several usable lances, such as the Titanium Lance and the Holy Lance, have the shape of a jousting lance. In addition, Ishgard is famous for its chocobo cavalry, though this is not seen in the story.
Lightning Bruiser: Dragoons are this compared to all the non-Tank Jobs. Their average weapon potency is second only to the Samurai, they (together with the Reaper) have higher physical defense than all the other non-Tank jobs^note, they have an ability for use in their regular damage rotation that restores a small amount of HP, and their various jumps lets them quickly get in or out of combat.
Limit Break: At level 3 their Limit Break is "Dragonsong Dive", the Dragoon is consumed by an aura appearing as Midgardsormr, the king of dragons, before taking a mighty leap that crashes down and consumes the enemy in blue fire as Midgardsormr's visage rushes through the target. In PvP, they have "Sky High", becoming untargetable for 5 seconds, before using "Sky Shatter", crashing down on an area, dealing increased damage to enemies in close proximity to the crash, and granting the Dragoon a barrier.
Martial Arts Staff: The Dragoon has a couple of fighting staves it can use instead of a polearm like the Eastern Journey Battle Staff and Mythrite Pugil Stick.
Mighty Glacier: Compared to the other Melee DPS jobs, the Dragoon lacks any way to grant themselves reduced weaponskill recast time, leaving their damage rotation fairly slow unless they build skill speed through materia. It turns out that due to the long animation times of their Jump abilities, Dragoons will generally eschew skill speed as they have less room for error in their GCD windows.
Not Quite Flight: While a case of Gameplay and Story Segregation as it doesn't figure into their gameplay, when Cutscene Power to the Max is in effect dragoons have demonstrated the ability to stay in the air far longer than even their In a Single Bound would allow by conjuring tiny platforms of aether under their feet, allowing them to halt their momentum and change trajectory in midair.
Out of the Frying Pan: "Elusive Jump" allows a Dragoon to take a huge leap backward to get out of harm's way, making it exceptionally useful for dodging Area of Effect attacks. Unfortunately, the backstep is so large that you're just as likely to simply hop off a ledge to your doom if you're not careful, especially in battles where the arena is small and has no objects to stop your movement like Titan's.
Playing with Fire: "Dragonfire Dive" is a jump that engulfs the point of impact in fire, damaging all nearby enemies in the process.
Religious and Mythological Theme Naming: "Geirskogul" takes its name from a Valkyrie in Norse Mythology. It means "spear-shaker", fittingly enough. Similarly, "Nastrond" is the name of the mythological Nidhogg’s domain.
- For the 2.0 Relic Weapon, Gae Bolg is the spear of Cú Chulainn. For the Zodiac Weapon, Longinus is this, being the spearman who pierced Jesus at the crucifixion.
- The Anima weapon has one of its stages being Rhongomiant, a variant spelling of Rhongomyniad and a lesser known weapon, the spear belonging to King Arthur. The final stage, Areadbhar, is the spear of Lugh.
Spell Blade: "Dragonfire Dive" which is a supercharged fiery jump attack. All of their attacks delivered under "Blood of the Dragon" add dragon aether to their swings as well.
Spikes of Doom: Several of their artifact armors are covered in multiple jagged spikes. These actually make sense as a feature of the armor, as it discourages dragons from stepping on or eating them lest they die from the injuries caused by doing such. They also have an ability called "Doom Spike" that sends a trio of Sword Beams as a thin line AOE to hit all enemies in its path.
Stance System: At level 54 Dragoons can enter "Blood of the Dragon", a stance which powers up their "Jump" and "Spineshatter Dive" abilities while also letting them use "Fang and Claw", "Wheeling Thrust" and "Geirskogul". From level 70 onward they can temporarily upgrade this to "Life of the Dragon", which replaces "Geirskogul" with "Nastrond" and lets them use "Stardiver".
Status Buff: The Dragoon retains the Lancer’s status buffs, and gains two of its own. "Battle Litany" gives the entire party a significant boost to critical hit rate, while "Dragon Sight" boosts the damage output of the Dragoon and a player of their choice as long as they remain close to each other.
Sword Beam: "Geirskogul", "Nastrond", "Doom Spike", "Draconian Fury", and "Coerthan Torment" all have the Dragoon launch tendrils of energy from their lance, striking multiple enemies at once.
Tyke-Bomb: The player themself is exempt from this, but traditionally the Dragoon order fills in its ranks from the Sole Survivor children of Doomed Hometowns burned down by dragons, these children are adopted by elder Dragoons who then temper their hatred and lust for vengeance as a weapon against the dragons.
Weapon Twirling: "Nastrond" is fired by the user spinning their lance in their hands.
Whole Costume Reference: The Dragoon's "Drachen" Artifact armor is based on the armor of Kain Highwind as drawn by Yoshitaka Amano while the "Dragonlancer" Artifact Armor in Heavensward is based on the armor of Dark Kain.

Rogue and Ninja

Preferred Weapons: Daggers
Armor Type: Scouting
Guild Location: Limsa Lominsa Lower Decks

Members of a secret society born in the shadows of Limsa Lominsa, Rogues fight using a dagger in each hand. Rogues will later train in the exotic martial arts of Doma to become Ninjas. Rogues and Ninjas were added to the game in patch 2.4. While not an Extra Job, Rogue cannot be chosen by new players, requiring level 10 in another class and the ability to get to Limsa Lominsa.

Rogue

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/2d6347e4_ba73_4850_946a_041f54ed7fea.png

Abbreviation: ROG
Unlocking Requirements: Reach level 10 in any combat class

Aesop Enforcer: Invoked. The Rogues' Guild is there to enforce a very strict code of Honor Among Thieves. Steal from a fellow pirate, commit murder against an innocent, or otherwise do harm to Limsa Lominsa, and the rogues will be paying you a visit with a very pointed reminder of how a pirate must never break the code.
Anti-Hero: The Rogues' Guild of Limsa Lominsa are an order as old as the city-state itself, enforcing a semblance of order by milling anyone who breaks the Pirate's Code. While they do it to protect the innocent, they have no delusions about the shadiness of their work and only recruit those who've proven themselves altruistic and ruthless enough for the job.
Back Stab: They're a stealth class so this is to be expected. "Trick Attack" functions best when performed this way. In a bit of an inversion though, the removed "Sneak Attack", their strongest direct damage attack from stealth, actually required you to be in front of the enemy.
The Blade Always Lands Pointy End In: Being masters of knife throwing though, this should be expected from a rogue, and later a ninja.
Colossus Climb: Rogues can do this to a weakened foe with the "Assassinate" ability, Flash Steping over top of whatever they happen to be murdering.
Damage-Increasing Debuff: "Trick Attack" makes the target more vulnerable to the user's damage for 15 seconds. It used to include everyone else, but that effect was transferred to "Mug".
Devious Daggers: The Rogues' Guild exclusively use their stabbers to mill those who have broken the Pirate's Code. Due to their propensity for staying in the shadows and ambushing unwary marks, swords, axes, and heavy armor are far too conspicuous and unwieldy for their work. Hence their preference for easily concealed knives, daggers, and short swords that can be used within a densely packed crowd and tucked out of sight when the job is done. Doman and Hingan Ninja also prefer knives for the same reasons.
Jacke: A rogue needs to be light on his dew beaters to stay on a mark's trail. The job might have ye fightin' across a deck or weavin' through a mob, an' the last thing ye want is a bleedin' great battleaxe what hooks itself on every rope an' post. That's why we stick to daggers, they let ye slip through the streets just as easily as they slip through a rook's ribs.
The Dreaded: The Rogues' actively cultivate their reputation as terrifying assassins and enforcers of the Pirate's Code in hopes that the pirates of Limsa Lominsa will avoid breaking it, lest they face the Rogues' daggers. Only members of the most powerful pirate crews or those that are Too Dumb to Live and think they can get away with breaking the code operate without fear of the Rogues.
Dual Wielding: Rogues fight with a dagger in each hand, although this has no impact on the actual gameplay and the daggers are treated as a single weapon as with any other class.
Expy: Of the classic Thief class. A new armor design reminiscent of the Thief Artifact armor from FFXI and the classic game was added alongside the class. In-game it's noted that Rogues used to be known as the "Upright Thieves" before they were reformed as the Rogues' Guild by the Admiral.
Flechette Storm: "Death Blossom", which hurls a bunch of knives in an area around the Rogue.
Good Is Not Soft: The rogues are an affable bunch sincerely devoted to protecting their fellow Lominsans from harm. They're also specialize in theft, deception, intelligence-gathering, and assassination as Limsa Lominsa's Secret Police. They're The Dreaded for their ability to kill anyone who break the Pirate's Code and makes examples of their victims to strike fear into their enemies.
Hidden in Plain Sight: Part of the rogues' infilitration strategy is dressing like any other Lominsan. They and their associates have prying eyes everywhere thanks to dressing in plain clothes rather than armor or military uniforms. The Dainty Demolishers, a crew of pirate upstarts, have no idea that they've wandered into the Rogues' den at first because they look like everyone else.
Honor Among Thieves: When Limsa Lominsa was first formed, a basic code of conduct was put in place to prevent the city of crooks and pirates from tearing itself apart. The most well-known rules are: first, no stealing from fellow Lominsans; second, no cheating other pirates out of their hard-won loot; and third, no treating people as goods. The Rogue's Guild are the enforcers of this code, even in the present day, as despite Merlwyb's efforts to clean up the city there's still plenty of work for them to do in the shady back alleys and black markets.
The Lightfooted: Rogues learn a pair of unique passive skills that increase their movement speed and reduce their fall damage.
Meaningful Rename: When Limsa Lominsa was founded, the Rogues' Guild was known as the Upright Thieves, a group of deadly but altruistic ex-pirates who willingly left their crews for the sake of upholding the Pirate's Code and keeping a semblance of order in the city-state. After Merlwyb became the admiral, she wanted to keep the Upright Thieves in action as a necessary Secret Police even as she moved the nation away from thievery and piracy. Hence the Upright Thieves became the Rogues' Guild to give it more legitimacy.
Ninja Log: Thematically the "Perfect Dodge" skill used to be this, the next attack would cause your character to disappear into smoke for a split second dodging the attack. Heavensward redesigned the ability into shade shift, a shield for 20% of your max HP.
Not the Intended Use: "Hide" as a stealth ability is pretty useless (at least not in the context of PVP), as there's very commonplace factors that dispel it. What it is useful for is its secondary effect: it resets the cooldown on your Mudras, allowing you to apply Huton just before a pull and still have access to other Ninjutsu. Prior to it being patched out in Endwalker, it was possible for a fast-fingered ninja to perform Doton, and then Hide to reset their Mudras before the damage from Doton hits the enemy and disables Hide.
Prestige Class: A Downplayed example, becoming a Rogue requires having unlocked the armory system (completing the level 10 class quest) and being able to go to Limsa Lominsa (if you didn't start as a Marauder or Arcanist, this requires doing the story until unlocking airship travel).
Reverse Grip: Like Zidane, Rikku and the Final Fantasy XI Ninja class before them, Rogues hold their dual-wielded daggers in the "icepick" grip.
Secret Police: The Rogue's Guild is a rare heroic variant of a secret police force in Limsa Lominsa. Because of Limsa Lominsa's origins as a Wretched Hive, there are parts of the city where Merlwyb can't maintain order with the Yellowjackets or the Maelstrom. The rogues' job is to punish those who break the original Pirate's Code, striking fear into those who would cause unrest and undue harm to their fellow Lominsans.
Slavery Is a Special Kind of Evil: Part of the rogues' code of honor is that people aren't goods. However, that doesn't mean people don't try, and the narrative paints slavers as unrepentantly despicable. You have to "mill" a few slavers and free their would-be slaves as part of the Rogue questline, with each would-be slaver made into a straight Jerkass with no redeeming qualities.
Status Buff: "Shade Shift" gives the Rogue a damage-absorbing shield for 20 seconds, while "Hide" makes them undetectable to most enemies.
Stealth Expert: Rogues and Ninjas are masters of stealth and can go invisible to execute surprise attacks for bonus damage. That said, their "Hide" skill is a Useless Useful Spell due to being unable to apply it in combat and because it slows the user to a crawl. But it's incredibly powerful in PvP, as Rogues and Ninjas are the only classes with access to outright invisibility, letting them sneak up on and strike down an unwary high priority target.
Thieves' Cant: The rogues talk with their own code, which can be picked up on when speaking to them. The rogues don't kill or assassinate people, they "mill" them. They don't go after criminals, but "rooks".
Useless Useful Spell: "Hide", outside of PVP. There are several reasons that it's nowhere near as good as it sounds on paper. While good for sneaking directly in front of enemies in the world, the game's aggro works on line of sight so a skillful player can sneak around mobs anyway by running behind them when they're not looking. In dungeons, every enemy has True Sight and fully radial aggro sight, which causes Hide to fall off if any other party member enters combat, or the rogue makes their move (which shouldn't happen). It's telling that the big bread and butter of using stealth (Trick Attack) has a second, much less situational way of triggering via the Ninja's Suiton.
Video Game Stealing: Mug deals a slight amount of damage and has a chance to make the enemy drop an extra item when slain ^notekilling blow or killed shortly after. However, because of Competitive Balance, the odds of actually stealing something is hilariously low, so most players just use it when it's ready for a bit of extra damage. It eventually got reworked to be a variation of "Trick Attack", inheriting the former's effects at the same time it got reworked too.

Ninja

Abbreviation: NIN
Unlocking Requirements: Level up Rogue to 30

An Adventurer Is You: A hybrid Scrapper/Backstabber DPS. They focus on attacking very rapidly (sometimes multiple times with one attack), as well as weakening the enemy's defenses. They can also dip into The Nuker as of Shadowbringers patch 5.1, being able to cast several hard hitting Ninjutsu in a very short timeframe.
Anti-Frustration Features: "Armor Crush" and "Hakke Mujinsatsu" will both extend the duration of the Huton buff, letting higher-level Ninjas maintain said buff without using a valuable ninjutsu to reapply it during combat.
Blade Spam: "Dream Within a Dream" is a rapid three-hit combo. In addition, Ninja's PvE Limit Break is Chimatsuri, an attack that has the ninja use a rapid series of hand signs to summon a multitude of blades made of moonlight that rush forward to impale the target.
Breath Weapon: The Ninja's "Katon", “Goka Mekkakyu”, and "Hyoton" ninjutsu have them breathe fire or ice at enemies.
Chain Lethality Enabler: The Ninja's PvP Limit Break, Seiton Tenchu, grants a status effect allowing it to be immediately reused if the target is KO'd by the attack or another attack within 4 seconds of the Limit Break being used. It's also a One-Hit Kill against anyone with less than half health, making it good for mopping up wounded enemy teams.
Cooldown Manipulation: "Kassatsu" resets the cooldown of the Ninjutsu skill, and increases the damage of the next ninjutsu cast by thirty percent. "Ten Chi Jin" also resets the cooldown of the Ninjutsu skill, and allows the Ninja to perform up to 3 jutsu in a row depending on what mudra they use (for example: The Ninja casts Ten then uses "Fuma Shuriken", next they cast Chi to use "Raiton", and lastly Jin to use "Suiton"), with the caveat that they must not move or use any other skill for its duration, or else the skill automatically cancels or results in an Epic Fail rabbit.
- "Hide" allows you to reset the Ninjutsu cooldown as well, but can only be used outside of battle.
Critical Hit: As of Shadowbringers, the "Assassinate" attack is always a critical direct hit.
Damage-Increasing Debuff: Prior to Shadowbringers, "Shadow Fang" made the target more vulnerable to slashing damage for 21 seconds.
Discard and Draw: "Meisui" dispels the "Suiton" buff to give the Ninja enough Ninki for a single use of "Hellfrog Medium", "Bhavacakra", or "Bunshin".
Doppleganger Attack: In Shadowbringers they get to use the fourth mudra with the Bunshin skill which lets them conjure a clone to mimic their moves on enemies. They will also have the abilities "Phantom Kamaitachi" which launches the ninja's shadow clone to attack the enemy with wind ninjutsu.
Difficult, but Awesome: The Ninja is generally the one who initiates the party's "burst window" with "Mug", and knowing the right opportunity to use it, on top of maintaining DPS uptime on the enemy and constantly using their ninjutsu over the course of the fight, makes the job a welcome addition to any party.
Elemental Powers: 6 out of the 7 Ninjutsu are aspected to each of the 6 elements.
- An Ice Person: "Hyoton", an Ice-aspected attack that binds the target. "Kassatsu" upgrades it into “Hyosho Ranryu”, a flurry of shuriken formed from ice that deals massive damage.
- Blow You Away: "Huton", a Wind-aspected status buff that increases speed for 60 seconds, and "Phantom Kamaitachi", a blast of wind created by the Ninja's "Bunshin" shadow that damages all enemies in the area.
- Dishing Out Dirt: "Doton", an Earth-aspected that works like Shadow Flare creating a patch of corrupted earth to damage foes and "Hollow Nozuchi" will cause snake like mud constructions to rise up and attack enemies in your Doton.
- Making a Splash: "Suiton", a Water-aspected attack that can cloak the ninja, allowing them to use "Trick Attack", or it can be dispelled with "Meisui" to grant extra Ninki gauge when "Trick Attack" isn't ready.
- Playing with Fire: "Katon", a Fire-aspected Area of Effect attack. "Kassatsu" upgrades it into "Goka Mekkakyu", an even stronger burst of fire.
- Shock and Awe: "Raiton", A Lightning-aspected attack with the strongest single-target potency of the ninjutsu outside of "Hyosho Ranryu". At level 90, the Ninja also learns "Forked Raiju" and "Fleeting Raiju", an additional lightning attack that can be used right after using "Raiton".
- Non-Elemental: "Fuma Shuriken" as the basic ninjutsu. Technically, "Doton" has the appearance of an earth attack but deals unaspected damage.
Elemental Punch: Fleeting Raiju is a lightning charged diving palm thrust.
Epic Fail: Mess up a mudra combo or use a skill between the mudras and the Ninjutsu, and instead of a successful ninjutsu cast, you get an ineffectual rabbit on your head.
Fuuma Shuriken: The most basic Ninjutsu ability. Boasts relatively average potency but the best range of any Mudra. It's mostly useful with the level 70 ability "Ten Chi Jin".
- "Hyosho Ranryu" throws a handful of ice-charged throwing stars that generate icicles on impact with enemies.
Fragile Speedster: The Ninja usually deals less damage than the other melee DPS-Jobs but their mobility is only rivaled by the Dancer thanks to their inherently higher movement speed, the "Shukuchi" skill and the option to attack from afar or on the move with their Ninjutsu.
Frog Ninja: The Ninja's "Hellfrog Medium" spell uses ninjutsu to summon a lava spewing toad for AoE damage, this of course is just one of the ninja's many shout outs to Naruto.
Hand Seals:
- Ninjas use hand seals called Mudras, combining seals representing "Heaven" (Ten), "Earth" (Chi), and "Man" (Jin) to cast powerful magic spells that create giant shurikens, call down lightning, and grant the speed of wind... or summon a rabbit dressed as a black mage if you mess up. This gives them an advantage over traditional mages, as they can quickly and wordlessly use ninjutsu while remaining on the move, hence the lack of a cast bar.
- When Ninjas are performing their Limit Break, they can be seen chaining a long line of Hand Seals.
Highly-Visible Ninja: Zigzagged. The shinobi of Doma and Hingashi make use of stealth tactics, disguises, and deception to gather information and track unwary foes. But their combat gear often features colorful armor with gold and silver accents. Nevermind their use of flashy ninjutsu on the battlefield.
Instant Runes: Many of the ninja's abilities conjure magical geometries of a more eastern flavor such as "Hakke Mujinsatsu", "Doton" and "Ten-Chi-Jin".
Intangible Theft: The "Mug" skill can give a minuscule chance to get items but its real use is to steal Ninki from enemies, as well as increasing the damage the enemy takes from everyone.
Jack of All Trades: Ninja is well equipped to deal with most situations with their versatile ninjutsu. They can use a number of strong AOE moves, or powerful single target moves, while also being beaten in both areas by other classes.
Ki Manipulation: As a secondary resource, the Ninja can build Ninki by auto attacking and mugging enemies to cast unique ninjutsu skills.
Kill Streak: The Ninja's "Seiton Tenchu" in PvP can be used again and again, as long as the attack kills an enemy below 50% HP. Played well, a Ninja can wipe out an entire enemy team on their own.
Kung-Fu Wizard: Ninjas use many acrobatic martial arts along with their ninjutsu.
Limit Break: At level 3 their limit break is "Chimatsuri", the Ninja summons giant daggers made of energy to impale the enemy from multiple directions. In PvP, they use "Seiton Tenchu", an attack that instantly kills any target below 50% HP. If the attack kills, the Ninja can use the attack again within the next 10 seconds to potentially kill another target.
Long-Range Fighter: Downplayed. Their melee attacks require the Ninja to stand directly by their adversary, but most of the Ninjutsu abilities and thus most powerful attacks have quite the good range.
Magic Knight: Ninjas are one of the few non-Disciples of Magic capable of dealing magic damage, in their case via their Ninjutsu.
Master of None: The Ninja was this during Shadowbringers 5.0 til patch 5.1. Ninjas had to work very hard to even reach the average damage dealt by other DPS and not even their utility could compensate for the low damage they dished out. Patch 5.1 gave them a much-needed buff, massively boosting the potency of all their attacks, and reducing their reliance on Trick Attack, making them very powerful in their own right.
Mechanically Unusual Class:
- Most of the Ninja's abilities are not readily available; they must perform Mudras in a specific order before using the Ninjutsu skill to activate the effect.
- The Ninja is the only job who can wear Scouting armor and they use the same accessory gear as the ranged DPS classes. This is because like them and unlike the other melee-based jobs, the Ninja's offensive power is based on their dexterity stat and not on their strength stat.
Mythology Gag:
- During the Ninja Job unlock quest, you're taught the password to get into the Shinobi's hideout by your job's teacher. The password in question being the guard saying Ayame, and the player is to answer Kaede. The names are references to the sisters Ayame and Kaede from Final Fantasy XI, who also supplied the name for that game's Ninja Job Unlock quest as well.
- The Black Mage-esque bunny that appears when you fail a Ninjutsu is the Mysidian Rabbit, which served a similar function as a dud result for the Ranger's Animals ability in Final Fantasy V and Setzer's Slots in Final Fantasy VI.
Ninja: This one is a given though.
Ninja Run: They do the Airplane Arms version and have greater than normal footspeed because of it. Sprinting with your weapon drawn gives you the more traditional version.
Noiseless Walker: Being able to walk about silently is a necessity for a ninja. Oboro commends the Warrior for walking around without a sound during a job quest.
No-Sell: Status Effects which fiddle with the directional movement inputs can for the most part be ignored by Ninjas once they learn the "Shukuchi" skill, because they can use it to teleport directly into a safe spot.
Rival Dojos: The Hingan ninja clans have a very low opinion of their Doman counterparts and a bloody feud between them is at the center of the level 60-70 storyline.
Smoke Out: "Shukuchi" has the Ninja throw a smoke bomb to vanish then rapidly move to a different spot before reappearing. Another skill, "Smoke Screen", uses the smoke to conceal an ally, reducing their enmity generation. In PVP, this also makes them Hidden, granting an extra level of sneakiness.
Shout-Out: The Ninja's abilities are heavily inspired by Naruto, to the point that Yoshida even advised his staff to re-read the first volumes of the series again before they started working on the job. The job feels it with the constant usage of handsigns to cast their justsu, running with Airplane Arms when their weapons are drawn, and is especially noticeable with the job's high level abilities like "Hellfrog Medium" (Summoning Ninja frogs was one of the titular character's signature moves), "Bunshin" (also one of his signature moves), "Fleeting Raiju" (heavily inspired by his rival Sasuke Uchiha's signature move Chidori) and "Gokka Mekkyaku" (A massive pillar of fire used by the antagonistic Madara Uchiha).
Status Buff: Ninjas have quite a few. In addition to the Rogue’s "Shade Shift" and "Hide", they get the following as of Shadowbringers:
- "Huton" greatly increases the Ninja’s attack speed for sixty seconds, while "Suiton" lets them use "Trick Attack" without being hidden from their target.
- "Kassatsu" lets them use a ninjutsu without consuming any Mudra charges, and makes that ninjutsu do more damage. From level 76 onward it also upgrades the next use of "Katon" or "Hyoton" into "Goka Mekkyaku" or "Hyosho Ranryu", respectively.
- "Ten Chi Jin" turns their Mudra actions into separate ninjutsu, letting them string together three separate ninjutsu within the next six seconds as long as they don’t move, repeat a Mudra, or take any other action.
- "Bunshin" creates a shadow clone of the Ninja, which will attack five times in tandem with them over the next thirty seconds.
Stealth Expert: The Hidden buff in PVP makes them completely invisible to the enemy, allowing them to blindside any poor sap of their choosing.
Stealth Hi/Bye: In one Stormblood quest, the Warrior is balanced upon a string of streetlights above the streets of Kugane to drop some dye on a vain mark's head to distract her. When she looks up to investigate the source of it, the Warrior is long gone.
Summon Magic: In Stormblood Ninja learn the skill "Hellfrog Medium", which summons a firebreathing toad.
Spell Blade: Huraijin attacks with a wind ninjutsu enhanced sword attack, while Forked Raiju and Fleeting Raiju will channel lightning.
Sword and Fist: Many of the ninja's attack animations combine acrobatic flip kicks with their knifework.
Teleport Spam: At higher levels, the Ninja unlocks passive traits which refresh "Shukuchi" whenever they use certain ninjutsu, and give it an extra charge. These let a skilled Ninja teleport a lot more frequently than "Shukuchi"’s minute-long cooldown would indicate.
Too Long; Didn't Dub: The Ninja's skills are left untranslated in the Doman and Hingan tongue (or in other words, real life Japanese) to emphasize how they come from a land far away from Eorzea.
Useless Useful Spell: "Hyoton" is generally considered to be the worst of the ninjutsu, since it inflicts the rather useless Bind status, and has fairly low potency. Its only useful trait is that it can reset "Shukuchi", but "Katon" and "Raiton" can do that too.
- Subverted in PvP , however, as it is a very powerful Crowd Control skill. As of patch 4.5, it applies a 2-second unbreakable-by-damage immobilize that, if used well, can punish bad positioning severely. This is especially true in the Feast, where positioning can mean the difference between life and death.
- It becomes a Magikarp Power spell for PvE in Shadowbringers onwards, as Ninjas at Level 76 and above can use Kassatsu beforehand to upgrade Hyoton into Hyosho Ranryu, a very powerful 1200 potency attack, and the hardest hitting single target Ninjutsu in the Ninja's arsenal.
Weak, but Skilled:
- The Ninja doesn't deal out as much personal DPS as their fellow melee damage dealers, but their coveted "Mug" and the utility they offer makes their position very coveted. Shadowbringers (come patch 5.1) slightly tones down the "skilled" and practically drops the "weak" part.
Jacke: Aye, ye must think o' yourself as a dancer—not a bleedin' butcher. Ye only need so much force to ram a shortblade in to the hilt. Precision an' speed—that's how ye get the most outta yer stabbers.
- This trope goes with them to PvP, as well. As of patch 4.5, they have an infrequent optimal burst rotation (the weakest of all melee DPS jobs). Yet, they make it up with a toolkit loaded with Crowd Control skills (and the only job so far with access to stealth). They have an Area-of-Effect Heavy -50%, an unbreakable-by-damage bind, a 2-second stun built into their hardest hitting ability, and a 2-second Silence. The Area-of-Effect heavy and the bind are especially deadly in large scale battles, most notably in Rival Wings with all those hard-hitting Area-of-Effect damage from the mechs. It is hard to play it well to high ranking in the Feast, but masters of the job (not many of them), more often than not, dictate the flow of battle in their favor.
- Following the 6.1 PvP rework, Ninjas are a highly damaging and highly mobile job with heaps of utility and crowd control to help pin unwary players and open them to kills. However, their skillset is not conducive to direct confrontation against say, a Red Mage, and they will almost always lose a straight fight against anyone they can't kill in a few seconds. As such, Ninjas players tend to whittle foes down from a distance before diving onto vulnerable, unwary foes to make them easy pickings.
With Catlike Tread: Invoked. The quest "Ninja Assassin" involves purposely attracting the attention of nearby guards with the thunderclap of "Raiton" before sprinting out of sight to lead them out of the way and open an exit path for Yuki.
Whole Costume Reference: The Ninja Relic Gear is clearly based on Shadow from Final Fantasy VI.

Samurai

Abbreviation: SAM
Unlocking Requirements: Exclusive to Stormblood and onwards; must reach level 50 in any of the combat classes
Preferred Weapons: Katanas
Armor Type: Striking
Guild Location: Steps of Nald, Ul'dah

Masters of the blade trained in Othard swordplay techniques, wielding their katana, they use their exotic swordplay to build Sen and Kenki, storing energy within their blade to unleash powerful iaijutsu and hissatsu abilities.

An Adventurer Is You: The Blademaster DPS. Almost entirely dedicated on boosting their own damage output alone, when they're fully buffed a Samurai's Midare Setsugekka can score Critical Direct hits that hit harder than a level 1 Limit Break.
Armor-Piercing Attack: In PvP, Mineuchi will both stun the target and deal ten percent of the target's current HP in damage. Mineuchi also ignores if the target is guarding. Their Zantetsuken Limit Break similarly ignores Guard for its splash damage.
Attack! Attack! Attack!: The Samurai's kit has absolutely nothing in the way of utility outside of role abilities, which they share with the other melee DPS, so they make up for it with their massive damage output instead.
Blade Spam: Higabana unleashes several bleeding cuts on the enemy so quickly that you never see the sword leave its sheath. The Samurai's Limit Break Doom of the Living is also a rapid five hit combo with a massive Sword Beam finisher.
Cool Mask: The samurai's Kasuga helmet is a menpo, a mouthguard worn by samurai.
Counter-Attack: In PvP, Samurai have access to Hissatsu: Chiten, a defensive buff that reduces the damage they take by 50%. It also inflicts any enemy who strikes them with Kuzushi, a Damage-Increasing Debuff that allows their Limit Break to be a One-Hit Kill.
Critical Hit: Patch 6.1 reduced the potency of Midare Setsugekka and Ogi Namikiri, but to compensate, both are guaranteed to deal critical damage.
Difficult, but Awesome: While the Samurai has a fairly low skill floor, with lenient positional skills not tied to potency, and naturally high damage, it also has an incredibly high skill ceiling from having to utilize all of the skills and tools they have to their full advantage to keep pumping out consistently high damage. A poorly played Samurai will drag their team down with average damage and zero utility, but a well played Samurai offers some of the highest damage potential in the game, surpassed only by a well played Black Mage.
Dual Wielding: "Hissatsu: Senei" has the Samurai strike the target with both their katana and sheath in an X pattern.
Fashionable Asymmetry: The level 80 Kasuga artifact gear of the Samurai is half of a kimono worn over a formfitting full-body armor.
Glass Cannon: They had a very small amount of mitigation and sustain through the Third Eyes-Merciful Eyes combo until it was removed in Endwalker, but otherwise Samurai can't take much punishment whatsoever. They trade it off by doing leaps and bounds the most raw damage of any fellow melee.
Gratuitous Japanese: The Samurai's abilities are almost all in Japanese. This could reflect the Japanese version of the game going extra-strength Japanese by writing all the ability names in Kanji. This is admittedly less gratuitous than many examples, being a class based on a Japanese cultural icon, in a game made by a Japanese studio.
Iaijutsu Practitioner: The Samurai uses their "Iaijutsu" skill to unleash a powerful attack when they have generated enough Sen:
- "Higanbana" (1 Sen): The Samurai in the blink of an eye, inflicts numerous bleeding cuts on the foe, dealing low damage and a long duration Damage Over Time status effect.
- "Tenka Goken" (2 Sen): As the Samurai draws their sword, they unleash a wave of Sword Beams, hitting all nearby foes for moderate damage.
- "Midare Setsugekka" (3 Sen): The Samurai unleashes a powerful vertical slash, followed by a horizontal slash, inflicting extremely high damage to a single target.
- Shadowbringers introduces "Tsubame Gaeshi", which repeats the previous Iaijutsu with increased potency, without any casting time.
- Endwalker cranks it up with the addition of Ogi Namikiri, a iaijutsu available after using Ikishoten.
Katanas Are Just Better: The primary arms of the Samurai are the katana complete with a unique sheath for every blade. True to form the Samurai boasts the single highest average potency of all weapon based attacks despite using such a delicate, modestly-sized blade. This however can be averted because the samurai has a few western inspired sabers and middle eastern shamshirs among their weapon types.
Ki Manipulation: The Samurai has Kenki as a secondary resource for spending on Hissatsu attacks. Kenki is mostly slowly built up by using weaponskills, but they have a few abilities to generate it by other means.
Limit Break: At level three the Samurai's Limit Break is "Doom of the Living", a rapid barrage of slashes finishing off with a large Sword Beam. In PvP, they use "Zantetsuken", rushing toward an enemy for massive damage. If the enemy was afflicted with Kuzushi from Hissatsu: Chiten, the attack instantly kills them.
Lunacy: The Samurai's "Gekkou" attack is punctuated by imagery of the moon, and grants the "Getsu" sen, which represents the moon.
Master Swordsman: Several jobs use swords (Gunbreakers, Dark Knights, Paladins, and Red Mages), but Samurai are the most reliant on pure technique rather than brute force and/or magical gimmickry. They also deal the joint highest personal damage in the game alongside Black Mages.
Mechanically Unusual Class: Samurai is more standard than its fellow Stormblood Job Red Mage, however, their Iaijutsu attacks stand out by having them actively pause combat to initiate a small cast bar for strong attacks, making them only Melee DPS to mess with cast bars outside of using Limit Breaks.
Mythology Gag: The Samurai's artifact equipment draws more than a few cues from Auron. Their playstyle, which has them pause actively attacking to initiate devastating attacks after a small cast time, is a pragmatic way of adapting the Bushido ability used by Samurai in Final Fantasy V and Cyan's to MMO gameplay.
One-Hit Kill: The Samurai's PvP Limit Break, Zantetsuken, can potentially kill an opponent in one hit. If the enemy was afflicted with the Kuzushi debuff from Hissatsu: Chiten, using Zantetsuken will deal enough damage to instantly kill them. It's also a Mythology Gag, since Zantetsuken is the name of eidolon Odin's signature attack, which is also a One-Hit Kill.
Parrying Bullets: In the opening video for Stormblood, the mascot character is able to cleave a barrage of musket balls in half with one draw of his sword.
Petal Power: The "Shifu" weaponskill has Cherry Blossoms scattering with the Samurai's sword strikes. It combos into Kasha, a skill which grants the "Ka" sen, representing cherry blossom.
Prestige Class: Samurai can only be unlocked at level 50, and the job itself begins at a high level 50 rather than level 1.
Rōnin: The playable Samurai have this style and flair about them, being dressed in kimonos instead of thick armor and the Warrior of Light and the Elezen in the class concept art above looking rather scruffy. In the game proper it's a bit... complicated. The Player does have a master in Musosai, but once he exits the story, the Warrior of Light fits the trope to a T as a roaming, masterless badass master swordsman.
Scarf of Asskicking: The Samurai artifact gear comes with a long black scarf for that dynamic flair.
Sheath Strike:
- In the opening video for Stormblood, the mascot defeats a pursuing mook by striking him with his sheathed katana.
- The "Hissatsu: Senei" attack has the Samurai attack the enemy with their sheath in tandem with their sword for a combo attack.
Snow Means Death: The weaponskill "Yukikaze" means "Snow Wind" and invokes a blizzard spell like visual effect on use. It also grants the "Setsu" Sen, representing a snowflake.
Spam Attack: Tsubame-gaeshi repeats the last Iaijutsu used with 50% increased potency, letting the Samurai use two Higanbana, Tenka Goken, or Midare Setsugekka in rapid succession.
Spell Blade: Samurai, like every other job, augment their combat with their aether to help them become more efficient. They in particular have the majority of aether for their combat stored in their sword sheaths and need to periodically "steep" the blade in aether to keep striking. This is why they all use Iajutsu-style attacks and why said Iajutsu attacks are among their most powerful - it's the first attack made after giving their swords a fresh coat of aether. This is also why before becoming a resonant, Zenos has that giant three-sword magitek golf bag, as it serves as an artificial aether-filled sheath to make up for his lack of natural aether manipulation.
Spin Attack: Several of the Samurai's area-of-effect attacks involve spinning in place to slash nearby enemies.
Status Buff: The Samurai has a few buffs, most focused on amplifying their personal damage output.
- When used in a combo, "Jinpu" will increase your damage output and "Shifu" will increase your attack speed.
- "Meikyo Shisui" lets you perform three combo finishers in a row, getting all their benefits without needing to go through the actual combos.
- "Hissatsu: Kaiten" gives a massive damage boost to the Samurai's next weaponskill.
- "Hissatsu: Yaten" grants the "Enhanced Enpi" buff, which triples the power of your next "Enpi" attack.
- Prior to Endwalker, getting hit while under the effect of "Third Eye" would proc the "Eyes Open" buff, which let you use "Merciful Eyes" for self-healing or "Hissatsu: Seigan" for a counterattack.
Swipe Your Blade Off: As part of the Victory emote, the samurai will wipe off their blade with the crook of their arm.
Sword Beam: The Samurai can launch a triad of melee ranged sword beams for Area of Effect using "Tenka Goken" and can launch a ranged one with "Enpi". "Hissatsu: Guren" sends a flurry of x-shaped beams not unlike Gaius van Baelsar's Terminus Est in a line in front of the user.
Too Long; Didn't Dub: Like the Ninja before it, the Samurai's skills are left largely untranslated from the Hingan and Doman language to emphasize how they come from a land far from Eorzea.
Unskilled, but Strong: Samurai have extremely high damage output compared to other melee DPS, at the cost of providing zero utility to their party whatsoever.
Warrior Poet: The Samurai's attack system revolves around the three Sen; Setsu (Snow), Getsu (Moon) and Ka (Flower) a motif in Japanese artwork referring to the seasons. Furthermore, most of the Samurai's weapon skills have translations often with poetic meanings and visual effects that invoke the themes, particularly the combo finishers which grant the Sen. The ability that requires all three Sen to use, Midare Setsugekka, can be translated as "Chaotic Beauty of the Seasons" and channels the imagery of all three Sen (even the name of the attack is the three Sen names combined), a large snowflake appearing beneath the Samurai as they focus on the Iaijutsu attack before unleashing a pair of crescent moon-like slashes and a storm of Cherry Blossoms.
Western Samurai: A number of characters from Hingashi are surprised to see an Eorzean samurai and question the Warrior's credentials. In particular, Makoto sets up a secret test involving an ambush of low-level monsters to prove that the Warrior was truly trained by Musosai.
Wooden Katanas Are Even Better: The Bokuto is a glamour option you can purchase at the Gold Saucer. It's zig-zagged in that you can use it as a weapon on its own, which is as weak as you'd expect, but you're supposed to glamour higher-level weapons to look like it to get the proper effect.

Reaper

Abbreviation: RPR
Unlocking Requirements: Exclusive to Endwalker and onwards; must reach level 70 in any of the combat classes
Preferred Weapons: Scythes
Armor Type: Maiming
Guild Location: Steps of Thal, Ul'dah

A discipline founded by Garlean farmers in a time before magitek, these ordinary men and women incapable of magic forged covenants with voidsent in order to obtain magical strength to fight back against their enemies and took up their scythes with a new purpose.

Absurdly Sharp Blade: In the last Reaper quest, the Warrior of Light has no problems stabbing the point of Drusilla's scythe into the stone floor of Dusk Vigil, implying that all reaper scythes are honed to an extremely sharp edge.
Alternate Self: Encyclopedia Eorzea III heavily implies this the true identity of a Reaper's Avatar.
An Adventurer Is You: The Blademaster DPS. Slow but high potency attacks, building up to an Hour of Power by casting "Enshroud" where the slow goes out the window, which is then capped off with a massive potency AoE "Communio". Their party buff "Arcane Circle" leads into another huge potency attack, "Plentiful Harvest", which also lets them pop off another Enshroud immediately.
Ascended Meme: Upon the class' reveal, many people joked Reapers are just angry botanists, since that class also uses a scythe as their secondary gathering tool. Come the release of the class' lore, it turns out that the original generation of Reapers were in fact farmers, explaining why they use a scythe.
Attack! Attack! Attack!: Of the chain mail DPS. While Reaper doesn't have zero utility, the utility they do have is relatively miniscule compared to Dragoon, consisting of only a 3% party damage buff on a long cooldown, and a party regen if their shield is broken. Both effectively serve as selfish buffs that just happen to splash benefit the party, being more served towards allowing the use of Plentiful Harvest, and a biproduct of shielding themselves from damage. Besides that, Reapers are all about slow, hard hitting attacks leading up to periods of rapidly doing massive damage.
Bad Powers, Good People: The Reaper wields the powers of a voidsent, maliciously mutated demonic specters from the void. Doing so does not diminish the Warrior of Light's heroism.
- The original reapers were also farmers who were forced to take up arms against the enemies that drove them from their homelands. Their pact with a Voidsent was done out of desperation rather than a drive to power.
- Subverted with Zenos, who picks up the scythe as his weapon of choice in Endwalker, and essentially acted as a teaser preview for the class mere moments before its official reveal. This contrasts with the CGI/promotional Warrior of Light, who takes up paladin as his class of choice for this expansion. And then it turns out he was an outright Power Parasite, making the subversion his even harder; his Avatar, Zero, is relieved he's gone.
- Considering that we eventually learn that the denizens of the 13th, the voidsent, are essentially in a constant state of starvation, unable to generate aether of their own, the Reaper's Pact could even be considered a form of charity.
Badass Cape: As part of its gothic motifs, the Reaper's relic gear has a tattered black cape to amp up their edge factor.
Beehive Barrier: "Arcane Crest" creates a very short lasting barrier which will grant your party Gradual Regeneration when broken.
Black Cloak: When in your Lemure form, their clothes will change into a grim reaper-esque set of hooded robes regardless of what you were wearing previously.
Call to Agriculture: Inverted, with 'agriculture' meant in the most literal sense; the original reapers were former farmers who were forced to turn their tools into weapons to survive when forced out of their homes.
Casting a Shadow: Reapers draw their power from the void and can summon an avatar to fight alongside them. Every swing of their scythe is wreathed with shadowy energy and they can shoot dark energy blasts with "Harpe" and "Communio".
Chainsaw Good: The Scaevan Magitek Scythe has a scythe blade lined with running chainsaw teeth. The scythe even gives a revving engine sound effect when first unfolded.
Combined Energy Attack: "Plentiful Harvest" will deal more damage depending on how many allies make an attack while the "Arcane Circle" buff is applied to them. Fittingly, the move itself also has the effect of being one of the only attacks the Reaper and Avatar make together without being in Enshroud mode.
Damage-Increasing Debuff: Shadow of Death and Whorl of Death inflict the Death's Design debuff on one enemy and a group of enemies respectively, which increases the damage they take from the Reaper who inflicted it by 10% for up to one minute, and if the enemy dies while the debuff is active, the Reaper gains 10 Soul Gauge.
Dark Is Not Evil: Even moreso than the Dark Knight! The Reaper has dark, edgy, and evil-looking attacks, and straight up has a sinister voidsent companion that feeds on aether, but again, you are the Warrior of Light. The first Reapers were also assassins who defended their homes by going after the commanding officers of invading armies to sow discord. In their job quests, Drusilla specifically looks after those who defect from Garlemald because they can't bear its tyranny and cruelty, and eventually explains that her grandfather, seeing the then republic of Garlemald slipping into tyranny, resolved to kill Solus to stop it. Sadly, he had no idea what Solus really was.
Deadly Gas: The "Grim Swathe" ability has the Avatar conjure a cloud of evil smoke to deal Area of Effect damage.
Deal with the Devil:
- The Warrior of Light gains the powers of a Reaper by entering a pact with a voidsent, who lends the Warrior its powers in exchange for a portion of the aether from kills. The job's originators were Garleans who made such pacts to overcome their natural inability to use aether.
- Subverted in a rather twisted way by Zenos; his Avatar, Zero, reveals he was a Power Parasite who seemed to have bound her against her will. In effect, the Devil in the situation was the victim.
Demonic Possession: "Enshroud" involves the Reaper willingly allowing their Avatar to inhabit their body to gain access to new attacks and allow them to attack with much greater spear and ferocity. However, this is considered highly dangerous, as a reaper can potentially have their body stolen from them if there's enough wiggle room in the contract for the voidsent to do so. Numerous characters in the story will warn the Warrior to be wary of their Avatar, lest the servant become the master.
Difficult, but Awesome: In contrast to its PvE kit being among the simplest to play, Reapers need a great deal of skill and dexterity to be used effectively in PvP. Unlike most other DPS jobs, Reaper's skills are mostly locked to the global cooldown and the telegraphed nature of "Death's Warrant" enables skilled players to simply no-sell any burst that's poorly timed by simply running away or popping Guard. In addition, Reaper is mainly a menace with their Limit Break and deals significantly less damage outside of it. But a skilled Reaper can put out tremendous burst damage to eliminate weaker targets while being deceptively difficult to take down.
Empowered Badass Normal: Pureblooded Garleans are incapable of performing magic, a handicap the first Reapers circumvented though their covenant with voidsent.
Eyeless Face: The Avatar has a smooth white face with no eyes or nose.
Eyepatch of Power: The Level 70 and Level 80 Reaper job sets include an eyepatch to cover one eye.
Fighting Spirit: The Avatar can come out to attack for the Reaper for some of their abilities.
Gathering Steam: A Reaper's DPS is only fairly-decent as they build up their Void Shroud gauge over time with a variety of Avatar combo attacks. Roughly every 45 seconds to a minute Enshroud is available for them to hit much harder, significantly faster, and finish off with a tremendous 1000 potency attack in "Communio".
Glowing Eyes of Doom: When possessed by the Avatar, the Reaper's eyes will glow red.
The Grim Reaper: The inspiration of the Reaper when it comes down to powers and aesthetics.
Hand Blast: The powerful finishing move "Communio" is a large explosion fired this way at the end of Lemure form, while the "Harpe" spell is a much smaller standard ranged attack.
He Who Must Not Be Seen: The voidsent Reapers form their pacts with remain in the Void and go unseen. The Avatar is a physical manifestation of the link between Reaper and voidsent, not the voidsent itself.
Hunter of His Own Kind: There is nothing preventing a Reaper from slaying other voidsent, as the voidsent they are bound to is happy to consume the aether of their own kind as well.
In the Hood: While a Reaper is possessed by their Avatar, their clothes transform into a grim reaper-like hooded black robe.
Instant Runes:
- The ability "Gluttony" has the Avatar conjure a large magic circle that explodes with dark energy in a Pillar of Light for Area of Effect damage.
- The "Shadow of Death" and "Whorl of Death" weaponskills will create an arcane geometry on the enemy to put the Death's Design debuff on them.
- The Reaper's Limit Break also forms a magic circle on the ground beneath them during the cast, while they draw in dark energy.
Irony: The Reaper is the very first job taught in game that originated from Garlemald, rather than a copy of their technology like the Machinist, or a fighting style that the Garleans took for themselves like the Gunbreakers. And not only does it not have anything to do with Magitek, it revolves around a pact with an inhuman creature in search for more aether, something that goes against everything that The Empire supposedly stood for.
Lightning Bruiser: Overall compared to all the non-Tank Jobs, just like the Dragoon. Reapers deal very high damage, they have higher physical defense than all the other non-Tank jobs, they have a litte bit of self-sustainment with "Arcane Crest", they can quickly get in and out of battle with "Hell's Ingress/Egress", and in Lemure form their attacks have greatly decreased cooldowns, letting them unleash some of their most powerful attacks in a rapid-fire blitz.
Limit Break: The Reaper and Avatar perform "The End", a Combination Attack ending by rising into the air together and combining into their Lemure form to strike downwards with a massive energy scythe. In PvP, they use "Tenebrae Lemurum", putting them into their Enshrouded form, and inflicts Hysteria on nearby enemies.
Magic Knight: Thematically, the Reaper draws upon the dark magic of voidsent to attack. Mechanically, while the overwhelming majority of their toolkit is melee, "Harpe", "Soulsow"/"Harvest Moon", and "Communio" are ranged spells complete with cast times (though the former two's can be circumvented under certain circumstances).
Mechanically Unusual Fighter: Unlike the other Melee DPS jobs (and most physical DPS and tank jobs), the majority of the Reaper's damage comes from abilities other than the standard 1-2-3 weaponskill combo, which acts primarily as filler to build up the Soul Gauge while waiting to prepare to use their attacks that summon their Avatar for much meatier chunks of damage.
Mighty Glacier: Like the Dragoon, the Reaper doesn't have any way to increase their attack speed outside of materia, and their rotation is mostly on the global cooldown, only having a few off-global damage attacks. They have very high potencies on their weaponskills to compensate.
Mythology Gag: The Reaper borrows a lot from the Final Fantasy XI version of the Dark Knight class, and fittingly the Death Scythe weapon from that game comes as a special edition bonus for the Collector's Edition of Endwalker.
Original Generation: Unlike past jobs, Reaper has never been in a previous Final Fantasy title, and is a complete and total newcomer to the franchise, only borrowing a few elements from the Final Fantasy XI version of the Dark Knight.
Out of the Frying Pan: "Hell's Ingress" and "Hell's Egress" allow the Reaper to warp forward or backwards, respectively, letting them close the gap or evade enemy attacks. However, like the Dragoon's "Elusive Jump", improper positioning can lead the Reaper into accidentally warping off the edge of the area to their death, or warp into the area's hazardous edge, also leading to their death.
Powers via Possession: The Reaper can allow their Avatar to possess them as a Super Mode with their "Enshroud" ability.
Red Eyes, Take Warning: One of the side effects of "Enshroud" is that the user's eyes glow red while under its effects to emphasize that they've gotten much more dangerous.
Retractable Weapon: Many scythes have the blade fold inward when not in use, preventing many an accident when the reaper is walking around with their weapon strapped to their back.
Secret Art: The Reapers were once shadowy protectors of the Garlean people who assassinated enemy authority figures to prevent them from coordinating invasions of the Garlean homeland. But the gruesome nature of the martial art meant that its practitioners are few in number and gathered in places where the walls of reality separating the world from the void are thin. Following Rullus' failed assassination of Solus zos Galvus, the order was largely disbanded and its members scattered to the winds. The only named reapers left by the events of Endwalker are Drusilla, Zenos, and the Warrior of Light, though an unnamed reaper attacks Thancred for being an outsider in the Endwalker side story, "Bringer of Shadow, Bringer of Light".
Significant Name Overlap: The Garlean Reaper job shares its name with the Garlean Magitek Reaper. A lore note in Lapis Manalis reveals that this is because the latter was named after the former, with the writer very scornful that after their long legacy of service, the Reapers are being replaced by machines.
Simple, yet Awesome: For all of its power, the Reaper is very simple to use effectively, with a very straightforward damage rotation alongside very lenient positional skills, and they sport some of the highest personal DPS in the game along with a strong damage boost and a useful shield.
Sinister Scythe: Their main weapon is a scythe, with ample amounts of Weapon Twirling.
Spikes of Doom: "Plentiful Harvest" and the final part of Communio's animation both barrage the enemy with spikes made by the Reaper's magic.
Sword and Fist: When possessed by the Avatar, they can attack by manifesting the Avatar's Wolverine Claws as well as use their scythe.
Super Mode: "Enshroud" has the Reaper offer their flesh to the Avatar of the voidsent they're contracted with, greatly increasing the speed of their attacks. This form also enables new attacks, including the incredibly powerful "Communio".
Supernatural Fear Inducer: In PvP, Reaper's Limit Break causes all nearby opponents to be inflicted with Hysteria, causing them to become uncontrollable and run away from the Reaper for a few seconds. This effect bypasses Guard, making it incredibly useful for opening up otherwise protected opponents to a beating, forcing them off objectives, or sending them running into hazards.
Technicolor Fire: Whenever they swing their scythe, the trail left behind lights up with a supernatural looking mix of teal blue and black flames and energy.
Thinking Up Portals: The Reaper's backstep and gap closing abilities "Hell's Ingress" and "Hell's Egress" will when high enough level, leave behind shadowy portal which they can return to using the opposite ability.
Throwing Your Sword Always Works: The "Harvest Moon" ability will have the Reaper throw their scythe as powerful attack, but it cannot be used without first casting "Soul Sow", a long spell cast which is reserved primarily for downtime in a fight. There is also the "Soul Scythe" ability, a scythe throw that orbits around the Reaper to mow down enemies around their immediate vicinity.
Tornado Move: They can conjure a cyclone of dark magic by throwing their scythes at enemies with the powerful "Harvest Moon" spell, but only after first using "Soulsow" which is a long cast in combat, but instant cast out-of-combat, making it a perfect opener and something to do during downtime in fights.
Weapons of Their Trade: The original Reapers were humble Garlean farmers who were forced to use their farming tools to protect themselves from invaders. After forming their covenants with voidsent, the Reapers continued to use their scythes for the metaphorical harvesting of their enemies.
Weapon Twirling: The "Battle Stance" emote has the Reaper spin the weapon all around them and across their back.
Wolverine Claws: The Avatar uses its clawed Creepy Long Fingers as its method of attacking enemies.
Your Soul Is Mine!: When a Reaper slays a foe, they and the voidsent they are connected to absorb the aether of their victim's soul to grow stronger. The first Reapers were Garleans naturally incapable of manipulating aether, so they needed the voidsent covenants to overcome that weakness.

Characters / Final Fantasy XIV - Melee Classes

Pugilist and Monk

Pugilist

Monk

Lancer and Dragoon

Lancer

Dragoon

Rogue and Ninja

Rogue

Ninja

Samurai

Reaper

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Characters / Final Fantasy XIV - Melee Classes

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Pugilist and Monk

Pugilist

Monk

Lancer and Dragoon

Lancer

Dragoon

Rogue and Ninja

Rogue

Ninja

Samurai

Reaper

Previous

Index

Next