Final Fantasy XIV - Ranged Classes / Characters

Whether it's bows, firearms, or chakrams, these ranged fighters are highly mobile and can attack from a safe distance, letting them stay on the attack relentlessly from a safe vantage point. Though they have the safety and comfort in attacking from the back line, their role lies in not just raw damage, but the extra utilities that make them highly desired for support.

open/close all folders

Ranged in General

Color-Coded for Your Convenience: As a DPS role, they all have red class icons.
Damage Reduction: Each of the ranged jobs have a unique party wide defensive buff that cannot be stacked with the equivalent ability of another ranged job.
Fragile Speedster: All three jobs can move and attack at the same time, letting them avoid enemy attacks more easily. While most classes have abilities that let them attack while moving, a Physical Ranged DPS can dish out the damage while on the run better than the others can due to nearly all of their abilities being focused on fighting at long-range, thus allowing them to have a near-constant uptime. But their defenses are quite poor, and their attack power varies greatly between the three classes. ^note
Guns Akimbo: Their shared level 2 Limit Break, "Desperado", has them whip out a pair of crossbows before unloading on their targets.
Limit Break: Ranged DPS Limit Breaks are Herd Hitting Attacks that strike all enemies in a line extending from the user in the direction of their target.
Long-Range Fighter: Ranged Jobs all favor fighting at a distance safe and away from the melee, Dancers however must be fairly close to use their AoE attacks but are given mobility skills to help them enter and escape range.
Knee Capping: Leg Graze and Foot Graze will slow down enemy movement or bind them respectively.
Mythology Gag: Their Level 1 and 2 Limit Breaks are Big Shot and Desperado, which are Limit Breaks used respectively by Barret from Final Fantasy VII and Laguna from Final Fantasy VIII. The Machinist also gets Satellite Beam as their Level 3 Limit Break, another of Barret's Limit Breaks that was also used by Laguna in Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy.
Sprint Shoes: "Peloton", which speeds up the party's movement for 30s as long as they're out of battle, making the walk from A to B a bit faster.
Support Party Member: As a rule of thumb, a ranged fighter relies on its mobility to have consistent up-time and have at least a shield to help them in this role in exchange for lower damage then that of casters and melee jobs. Machinist, however, has no other utility but a higher damage output to compensate.
Wave-Motion Gun: Their level 1 Limit Break, Big Shot, sees them pulling out a large crossbow and firing a huge energy bolt forward in a line.
Weak, but Skilled: Downplayed, since they're still DPS jobs, but their raw damage output isn't quite as high as the Melee and Caster DPS jobs. Instead, their ability to constantly be on the move while attacking lets them compensate for it with the ability to attack nonstop. The Machinist is an even more downplayed example, being more of a Glass Cannon.

Archer and Bard

Preferred Weapons: Bows
Armor Type: Aiming
Guild Location: New Gridania

Physical ranged damage class that wields bows, they specialize in dealing rapid damage while staying at a safe distance from the enemy. Through this class The Bard job is unlocked which gives gives the character Magic Music abilities that grant buffs and debuffs for allies and enemies.

Archer

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/d248d1c6_f445_404b_b2cc_4723cdce71fc.jpeg

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

Arrows on Fire:
- Archers used to have the "Flaming Arrow" ability which left a patch of fire on the ground burning enemies that walked on it, before it was removed in Stormblood.
- More infamously, they were originally planned to possess a kind of Combination Attack with Conjurers (back when CNJ had access to all elements) that would imbue their arrows with elemental powers, including fire; this ability lasted so long in the planning stages that it was prominently shown in the opening cinematic for 1.0. The ability, however, did not survive the development process and never made it to a version of the game players got to play.
Bottomless Quiver: In the original release, arrows needed to be purchased, but now are infinite for balance purposes.
Damage Over Time: Archers can inflict damage-over-time with their Venombite and Windbite attacks. These DoTs form a very important part of the Bard's gameplay, as they have a chance to trigger extra effects for the Bard's current song with each tick.
Energy Bow: Several of their abilities such as "Bloodletter" generate an arrow composed completely of magic.
Finishing Move: Before Shadowbringers removed it, "Misery's End" was a powerful attack that only became available when the target has 20% health or less remaining.
Instrument of Murder: Archers are promoted to Bards upon reaching Level 30, gaining Magic Music but retaining their archery skills. Their high level (Relic and Anima) weapons are either bows with a harp/lyre built into it... or a very large harp that doubles as a bow. ^note
Great Bow: Many high-level bows are immense relative to the character's size, especially those wielded by Roegadyn players.
Long-Range Fighter: Ranged DPS like Archers have the longest range for their attacks to hit their targets. There's even the bonus "Repelling Shot", which causes the Archer to jump backward while attacking should an enemy get close.
Multi Shot: "Empyreal Arrow" fires two magical arrows at once. "Quick Nock" follows a similar pattern, as while only one arrow is launched at a time, the archer using it fires off half a dozen arrows in one second to hit multiple enemies in a cone.
Poisoned Weapons: "Venomous Bite" fires a poisoned arrow at enemies.
Spell Blade: The Windbite and Stormbite attacks will enchant the archers arrow with wind elemental magic.
Status Buff:
- Several of the Archer's attacks have a chance of proccing "Straight Shot Ready", allowing them to use the powerful "Straight Shot" attack (and later its upgraded form, "Refulgent Arrow").
- "Raging Strikes" boosts the Archer's damage output by 10% for 20 seconds.
- "Barrage" makes the Archer's next single-target weaponskill hit three times. As of Shadowbringers, it also procs "Straight Shot Ready".
The Straight and Arrow Path: Even though guns are invented, archery has still not yet been fully displaced in Eorzea due to the technology differences between Eorzean firearms and Garlean firearms and the ability to weave magic through archery.
Shadow Pin: Before its removal, "Shadowbind" does no damage, but binds the target for 10 seconds, or until they're attacked.
Trick Arrow: Archers carry a few of them for multiple different purposes.

Bard

Abbreviation: BRD
Unlocking Requirements: Level up Archer to 30

An Adventurer Is You:
- The list includes the Archer and DoT Master DPS, The Buffer, and The Power Re-generator, depending on what song effects and Role abilities they have up.
- In an emergency situation, they can also take on the role of Avoidance Tank. Their ability to shoot on the move, as well as having several abilities to bind and slow enemies, means that if the party's actual tank is distracted or downed, the Bard can draw attention and kite melee enemies. They won't last long if the enemy catches up to them, but they can pull aggro away from the healer and other DPS until the situation can be recovered.
Annoying Arrows:
- They're the bow-wielding job, and have the lowest average personal damage of any DPS job at max level, alongside Dancers. They make up for it with team damage buffs and some handy utility actions (like being able to remove debuffs like a healer).
- In PvP, they have very low DPS compared to the other Phys Ranged, but make up for it by being able to buff the entire party's damage, cleanse debuffs/create anti-debuff shields, and their long-range fighting style makes them really good harassers that can remain safe while behind the frontline fighters.
Anti-Frustration Features: In Shadowbringers, Shadowbite was an AOE attack that increases in potency based on whether Caustic Bite and Stormbite were active on the target. If the target selected had both effects inflicted on them, the increased potency would apply to all other targets near it, eliminating the need to manually apply both Bites to every target in the vicinity.
Badass Fingersnap: After firing the initial shot for "Sidewinder", the Bard waves their hand then snaps their fingers to cause a Magic Missile Storm.
Balance Buff: Bards got some substantial buffs and quality-of-life changes to their abilities in Endwalker.
- Their songs are no longer reliant on their Damage Over Time skills, becoming a flat 80% trigger chance every 3 seconds, and now last for 45 seconds.
- Sidewinder and Shadowbite were changed to always have the same potency even without the Bites, and Shadowbite was reworked into an AOE version of Refulgent Arrow.
- Bloodletter and Rain of Death now have a charge based system, letting the Bard stockpile them for a burst window, and not be forced to use them when Mage's Ballad triggers.
- Battle Voice finally buffs the Bard alongside their party.
The Bard: This part should be obvious, but yes Bards are Bards. In this case, they're elite archers who choose to branch out to other stringed instruments as well in order to enhance their own skill with a bow and empower and inspire their comrades.
Charge Meter: At level 80 Bards unlock the Soul Voice Gauge, which fills up as their DoTs trigger the special effects of their songs. The gauge can be spent to fire "Apex Arrow", an attack which becomes more powerful if the gauge is fuller. At level 88, if they use "Apex Arrow" when the Soul Voice gauge is at 80 or higher, the Bard gets to use "Blast Arrow", a powerful additional attack after "Apex Arrow".
Cooldown Manipulation: Two of the Bard's songs manipulate the cooldowns for some of their abilities:
- "Mage's Ballad" reduces the shared cooldown for "Bloodletter" and "Rain of Death" by seven seconds whenever it procs "Repertoire".
- "Army's Paeon" reduces the Bard's auto-attack delay and weaponskill recast time by 4% whenever "Repertoire" procs. The effect can stack up to four times, letting the Bard attack significantly faster.
- In Shadowbringers, the "Enhanced Quick Nock" trait gives a 30% chance to reset the shared cooldown for "Bloodletter" and "Rain of Death" whenever the Bard uses "Quick Nock".
Critical Hit Class: In Stormblood, Bards made the most use out of critical hits as their critical hits with their damage over time attacks either give them haste, reset the cooldown of "Bloodletter" (their hardest hitting regularly-usable attack) or build up charges towards "Pitch Perfect", a very powerful burst, depending on which of their three songs they're singing. Their reliance on critical hits is not nearly as demanding in Shadowbringers, where the corresponding procs are now based on a 40% chance per tick of damage.
Damage-Increasing Debuff: The now-removed "Foe Requiem" lowered the defense and resistance of all nearby enemies, an effect which lasted for as long as the Bard had MP.
Damage Over Time: The Bard's Caustic Bite and Stormbite are upgrades of the Archer's Venomous Bite and Windbite, respectively. Prior to Endwalker, the majority of the Bard's damage and rotation revolved around maintaining these DoTs to trigger the effects of their song abilities and dealing extra damage with Sidewinder and Shadowbite. When Endwalker came around, their reliance on these DoTs was drastically toned down, to the point where none of their skills (except Iron Jaws, which works the same as it did before) rely on them now, becoming standalone skills that supplement the Bard's damage output instead.
Death of a Thousand Cuts: A Bard's raw potency per attack pales in comparison to most other DPS jobs. But the sheer quantity of attacks they can put out is nearly unrivaled. Between their Cooldown Manipulation skills, two DoTs, and multiple oGCD skills, they can quickly burn down both single targets and groups with a storm of arrows.
Dispel Magic: The Bard can dispel status ailments using "the Warden's Paean".
Emotional Powers: The source of a Bard's Magic Music is their empathy with those they fight beside. The first Bard was an Archer who sang to himself to calm his nerves during battle. Seeing his fellow soldiers fall pushed him to sing more and his song began to magically strengthen his allies to carry the day. The art nearly went extinct because Bards began to lose the empathy needed to channel their magic.
Evolving Attack: The Bard's "Venombite" and "Windbite" attacks eventually get upgraded to the stronger "Caustic Bite" and "Stormbite", respectively. "Straight Shot" becomes "Refulgent Arrow" at level 70, while the basic "Heavy Shot" becomes the stronger "Burst Shot" at level 76.
Fluffy Fashion Feathers: The Bard armor has a feathered fedora as typical for the class.
Gathering Steam: At level 80, the Bard generates 5 Soul Voice whenever they gain a stack of Repertoire. At 20 Soul Voice, they can use Apex Arrow, a 120 potency ranged attack that hits everything in its trajectory. If they hold off on using it, however, its power increases as the gauge fills further, up to to a powerful 600 potency at 100 Soul Voice.
Hyperspace Arsenal: The Bard whips out a lyre from nowhere when performing a song. Even if they're using the Artemis Bow which has a lyre built into it, which we're told was designed specifically for the purpose of switching between harp playing and shooting on the fly easier, they'll still stick it to their back and whip out the standard lyre.
Instrument of Murder: The Bard's Anima Weapon is a harp which doubles as a bow rather than a bow with a built-in harp.
Jack of All Stats: They stand out as this among the Ranged jobs. They don't hit as hard as the Machinist, but they offer more utility, they don't offer as much utility as the Dancer, but have higher damage output, and they are lightly more nimble than the Machinist, but muss less so than the Dancer.
- They are also this compared to all the other Jobs. They deal more damage than the Tanks and Healers (and Dancer, of course), but not as much as the other DPS. The have better mobilty than the Tanks, Healers and most of the DPS Jobs, but they can't hold a candle to the Ninja or the Dancer. And while they offer more utility than most of the DPS, they pale in comparison to the Tanks, the Healers, the Red Mage, the Summoner and the Dancer.
Limit Break: At level 3 their limit break is "Sagittarius Arrow", a golden portal opens above the enemies' heads and an absolutely massive Rain of Arrows shoots down while the Archer gives a showman-like bow. In the past, Bards shared their limit breaks with healers, which made them a standby medic if something went wrong. In PVP, they use "Final Fantasia", which buffs all nearby allies' attack speed and gradually fills their Limit gauges.
Luck Manipulation Mechanic: At higher levels, Bards unlock passive traits which help offset the RNG-based nature of their abilities.
- The "Enhanced Empyreal Arrow" trait triggers the Repertoire effect of the Bard's current song whenever they hit an enemy with "Empyreal Arrow".
- "Straight Shot" and "Refulgent Arrow" can only be used when the Bard procs "Straight Shot Ready" with their basic "Heavy Shot" weaponskill. From level 76 onward, "Straight Shot Ready" can also be procced with "Caustic Bite", "Stormbite", or "Iron Jaws".
Mage Marksman: The Bard combines the use of Magic Music and songs with their archery skills.
Magical Flutist: The Bard uses a flute for their "Troubadour" skill which grants the party a defensive buff. The role skill "Peloton" is depicted with a flute performance as well.
Magic Missile Storm: "Empyreal Arrow" creates a large number of energy arrows to surround and fire on one enemy. "Refulgent Arrow" also conjures a cluster of Instant Runes which fire arrows of magic light.
Magic Music: The Bard's abilities revolve around singing different songs to impart different effects from damage, buffs and debuffs.
Master Archer: Bards are elite Gridanian archers who incorporate magical music into their fighting style, and can perform incredible, unmatched feats with a bow and arrow. By the later levels, you're an archer of unrivalled skill who can drown their enemies in a deluge of mystical bowfire.
Musical Assassin: From Stormblood onwards, "Mage's Ballad", "Army's Paeon" and "Wanderer's Minuet" all deal damage as well as imparting their buffs.
Rain of Arrows: "Rain of Death" bombards the target and other adjacent enemies with dozens of arrows. While this move can normally be used once every fifteen seconds, it becomes spammable during "Mage's Ballad", and from level 74 onward its cooldown has a chance to reset every time the Bard uses "Quick Knock".
Regenerating Mana: In older expansions, the Bard's songs would gradually regenerate the MP or TP of nearby party members. Stormblood changed these into role abilities shared by all ranged DPS classes, and Shadowbringers got rid of them altogether.
Religious and Mythological Theme Naming: The 2.0 Relic Weapon, the Artemis Bow, is named after the goddess Artemis. The Zodiac Weapon, the Yoichi Bow is named after Nasu no Yoichi, a legendary archer who fought alongside the Minamoto Clan in the Genpei War.
Situational Damage Attack:
- Sidewinder is a fairly weak attack on its own, but it becomes significantly more powerful if the target is suffering from one or both of the Bard's Damage Over Time abilities. At level 72 Bards learn "Shadowbite", which is effectively an AOE version of Sidewinder. Averted in Endwalker, as it reworks Sidewinder to always deal the same damage no matter what.
- Pitch Perfect can only be used while the Bard is playing the Wanderer's Minuet, and its potency depends on the number of stacks generated by their Damage Over Time critical hits. At 1 stack, Pitch Perfect is fairly weak; at 3 stacks, it is one of the most powerful attacks in the Bard's arsenal.
- All of the Bard's damaging attacks in PvP give a boost to damage the further away they are to the enemy, encouraging Bards to stay far from the enemy team and harass them with a barrage of arrows.
Sprint Shoes: The originator of "Peloton"'s speed boost effect, which was formerly known as "Swiftsong".
Status Buff: They can provide many different kinds with their song abilities. In addition to the Archer's two buffs, Bards gain:
- "Battle Voice", which boosts the party's direct hit rate by 20% for 20 seconds. The Bard can only use it while playing one of their songs.
- "Troubadour", which grants the party 10% Damage Reduction for 15 seconds.
- "Nature's Minne", which makes one party member recover 20% more health from healing actions for 15 seconds.
- Prior to Shadowbringers, each of the Bard's songs would give a slight buff to nearby party members' critical hit rate. This aspect was removed at 5.0's launch, only to be brought back in Patch 5.1 with more diverse effects: "Mage's Ballad" buffs damage output, "Army's Paean" buffs direct hit rate, and "Wanderer's Minuet" buffs critical hit rate.
- Endwalker introduces "Radiant Finale" at level 90, which buffs the party's damage dealt by up to 6% based on how many Codas the Bard has accumulated from using their three Song abilities.
Stance System: In Stormblood, "Mage's Ballad", "Army's Paeon" and "Wanderer's Minuet" were reworked into stances that the Bard must cycle through. Each one generates different effects whenever the Bard's Damage Over Time abilities proc Repertoire: for "Mage's Ballad", it reset the recast timer for "Bloodletter" and "Rain of Death"; for "Army's Paean", it grants up to four stacks of 4% haste; and for "Wanderer's Minuet", it allows them to use Pitch Perfect, a Situational Damage Attack.
Street Musician: A Bard-specific sidequest unlocks the ability to play twenty different instruments at any time, in any location: Piano, Harp, Lute, Fiddle, Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Fife, Panpipes, Timpani, Bongo, Bass Drum, Snare Drum, Cymbal, Trumpet, Trombone, Tuba, Horn, Saxophone, and Electric Guitar. Officially, you're not supposed to play non-Final Fantasy music^{It means...}, but that doesn't stop players from pulling out a lyre in a heavily-populated area to belt out "At Doom's Gate," "Life Will Change," or the Song of Storms. You can even grab an extra Bard buddy or two (or more) to perform together with Ensemble Mode.
Support Party Member: The Bard is well-known for this status since its beginnings, even before sharing its role with Dancer. Though they can bring on some damage themselves, most of their utility comes from the buffs their songs offer, as well as their own version of the Healers' "Esuna" called "Warden's Paean". Before obtaining their own Ranged DPS Limit Break, theirs was the healer Limit Break, so their damage output is limited. Later patches eventually made Bards more of a DPS class, though in-between the Machinist and Dancer for damage.
Vapor Wear: The Bard's "Choral" artifact armor is cut rather low on both the front and the back. Male characters wear a white undershirt beneath it. Females... don't.
Wandering Minstrel: Famed in Eorzean history for their playing ability. So much so, that army commanders held their ability to inspire their comrades in higher esteem than their equally skilled archery capabilities.
Warrior Poet: Archers well versed in lore, music, and poetry. It's the "Warrior" aspect that grants a Bard their magic. They need to be able to empathize with their fellow soldiers in order for their songs to carry magic. The art nearly died out due to armies hiring minstrels who didn't know combat to sing ineffectually or existing Bards embellishing their tales to the point of disconnect and losing their song's power.
Weak, but Skilled: The Bard's personal damage output isn't that high, but they boast an incredible amount of utility for their party. Although in Shadowbringers, they trade in some of that utility in exchange for more damage output.

Machinist

Abbreviation: MCH
Unlocking Requirements: Exclusive to Heavensward onwards; must be level 50 in any of the combat classes
Preferred Weapons: Guns
Armor Type: Aiming
Guild Location: Skysteel Manufactory, Ishgard

Masters of machina and marksmanship that use their skill with Magitek engineering and carbines to attack enemies from afar. Through their engineering skills, they can call Attack Drones to aid them in combat and use custom ammunition to boost their damage output.

Abnormal Ammo: They fire just as many crossbow bolts, drills, flames, acids, chains,and sawblades as they do bullets, all from the same BFG.
An Adventurer Is You: The Archer (or Sniper/Gunslinger as the case may be), with shades of The Beastmaster (or Turretmaster rather). Activating their Hypercharge ability causes them to become The Nuker for 8 seconds, focusing entirely on pumping out as much increased damage as possible.
Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better: The primary concept for equipping non-Garleans with Magitek. Being one's own aether reserve certainly comes in handy.
Armor-Piercing Attack: In PvP, an Analysis-buffed "Drill" can punch right through a player's precious Guard ability, bypassing its defensive buff and dealing full critical damage. Expect many unwary players to fall victim to this attack when they use Guard too late.
Assist Character: In Shadowbringers, Machinists can summon an "Automaton Queen", an android that engages enemies at close range for several seconds before finishing with a Pile Bunker.
Attack! Attack! Attack!: Compared to the Bard and Dancer, the Machinist trades in utility for higher damage output, having more abilities which directly boost damage with their skills.
Attack Drone:
- The Machinist's "Heated Clean Shot" ability creates turrets that attack their enemy. They can also briefly deploy a floating turret called the "Rook Automaton".
- In PvP, they also have access to a "Bishop Autoturret" instead, which periodically sends out pulses that damage enemies and reduces their damage output for a short time. It will also provide a small shield to allies who touch the pulse.
Automatic Crossbow: The "Auto Crossbow" fires a large volley of quarrels for an AoE damage.
Badass Normal: Every other job, even the outwardly more mundane Warrior, draws on some source of metaphysics or aether control for their combat, especially at higher levels. Machinist is unique in that regard compared to every other class in that all of its attacks are various forms of machines and deadeye marksmanship that allow it to stand tall with the other more fantastical jobs. The only aether it needs is what it draws via the aetherotransformer to power various gadgets, which even the most aether-deficient mundane smallfolk has enough to manage.
BFG: Shadowbringers adds a slew of skills that make use of larger magitek weapons, from the Auto-Crossbow to the Bio-Blaster.
Bizarre and Improbable Ballistics: The "Heated Slug Shot" skill fires a line of bullets which will hang in the air for a moment before all shooting at an enemy at once.
Boring, but Practical: The Machinist's PvP Limit Break has no bells or whistles, simply doing a massive 36,000 potency hit to the target from an enormous 50 yalm range. Perfect for picking off a fleeing enemy or striking down a key target before they can properly defend themselves.
Bottomless Magazines: Despite most Machinist weapons' designs and their animations suggesting a single-shot breechloader, you're never outright unable to attack because your gun is out of ammo, with the closest you can get as of Shadowbringers is running out of charges for Gauss Rounds and Ricochet, which recharge on their own.
Chain Pain: The "Air Anchor" fires a barrage of harpoons on chains from a large gun at the enemy. In PvP, "Air Anchor" binds the target in place when used. The bind is turned into a stun if the attack is buffed with "Analysis" first.
Chainsaw-Grip BFG: The BFG used in many of their skills is held this way, namely Auto Crossbow, Drill, Bioblaster, Air Anchor, and yes, Chain Saw.
Chess Motifs: The Machinist's turret is called the Rook Automaton. Shadowbringers also introduces the "Automaton Queen", a powerful attack robot the Machinist can call out. Prior to Shadowbringers they had a second turret known as the Bishop, and before that they had an ability called Promotion, which switched the currently deployed Turret into a support mode.
Cooldown Manipulation: "Heat Blast" shaves 15 seconds off the cooldown timers for "Gauss Round" and "Ricochet" with every use.
Cowboy: The Machinist's Gunslinger set dresses them as a high fantasy version of one.
Deadly Disc: The "Chain Saw" attack actually fires a barrage of circular saws at the enemy (i.e. a chain of saws) rather then the traditional chainsaw that Edgar used on a critical hit.
Delayed Explosion: "Wildfire" covers the enemy in a slow-burning pitch that adds damage every time it's hit with a weaponskill, exploding once the duration expires for all of the stored damage at once.
Difficult, but Awesome: Averted as of Shadowbringers, as many of the skills that made the Job complex have either been removed or changed to reduce the difficulty of properly playing the class. During Stormblood, the Machinist's rotation on paper seemed rather simple and straightforward, but once you took into account all the other skills they had at their disposal, their rotation became very strict with very little room for error. In addition to weaving in multiple reloads of their ammunition, they had to carefully manage their heat gauge in order to keep their Gauss Barrel from overheating, and when the time to overheat was necessary, ensure all their buffs align perfectly when they utilize "Wildfire" to maximize its damage output. If they messed even one step up, their entire rotation and damage potential went flying out the window, but when correctly executed, they had seriously high damage output for a ranged class with a good amount of the utility that goes with it. The sheer effort needed to maximize their damage output was widely seen as Awesome, but Impractical, which led to its much more straightforward rework in Shadowbringers.
Elemental Punch: The Automaton Queen gets an electrified punch finisher called "Crowned Collider" in Endwalker.
The Engineer: The Machinist can use machina such as turrets and other Attack Drones to attack.
Evolving Attack: As of Shadowbringers, the heated versions of "Split Shot", "Slug Shot", and "Clean Shot" that were previously tied to "Gauss Barrel" became the upgrades for their respective shots at level 54, 60, and 64 respectively. "Hot Shot" would upgrade into the more powerful "Air Anchor" at level 76. "Promotion", which previously swapped out the Autoturret's role, is now a trait that upgrades "Rook Autoturret" into "Automaton Queen" at level 80.
Explosive Overclocking: At a certain level, the Machinist's primary three abilities change to "Heated" versions which significantly increase their damage. They also have a Heat Gauge that, upon reaching a certain level, can activate their "Hypercharge" ability, which not only increases the damage of other skills, but allows the use of the two additional hard hitting abilities until the heat is depleted.
Fantasy Gun Control: With Eorzea's mastery over magic, guns were widely unpopular, with black powder weaponry only found in Limsa Lominsa and, as briefly discussed in a class quest, strictly controlled (only two non-Garleans are shown to use guns before the expansion, Merlwyb and a Yellowjacket). But with Garlond Ironworks bringing Garlean magitek to Eorzea, Ishgard has recently begun adopting new weapons technology and more advanced firearms in their Forever War with dragons. Notably, the Machinist's soul crystal is the only one (apart from the Blue Mage) whose description shows that it has yet to be engraved with memories, showing how new the job is.
Finger Gun: The Machinist's Victory Emote uses his free hand to finger gun and blow off the imaginary smoke.
Fire-Breathing Weapon: Machinists gain the "Flamethrower" ability at Level 70 and after the quest, "The Mongrel and the Knight."
Firing One-Handed: Most of their abilities involve doing this in order to keep one hand free to manage the aetherotransformer and throw out gadgets. It's rather more impressive than it sounds given that machinists typically don't use pistols, but carbines and musketoons, short-barrelled rifles and muskets designed for cavalry use.
Gadgeteer Genius: While a number of devices used by the class seem to be invented by Stephanivien or reverse-engineered from Garlean magitek devices such as the Rook Autoturret (Which was said to be designed by Cid and Nero), the rest of the various weaponry you can develop just sort of appears as you learn the skills to use them, dialogue from the Machinist's level 80 quest implies that the Warrior of Light created them themselves.
Glass Cannon: They deal much more damage than the other two Ranged DPS in exchange for less skills to support their teammates. And they still go down in a few hits.
Goggles Do Nothing: They wear welding goggles as part of their job gear, and it makes sense for them to in this case, they're engineers, after all... but then this trope comes into play because players will have the option to simply wear them up on their forehead with the visor option.
Gun Fu: The Machinist does a lot of fancy twirls and flips with their gun once they upgrade to their heated shots.
The Gunslinger: As of Shadowbringers, they're equal parts Trick Shots and the Vaporizer, this is exemplified by their level 80 artifact gear set being known as the "Gunslinger's Attire".
Hand Cannon: While machinists mostly use carbines and musketoons (short-barreled longarms designed to be easily portable), and sometimes even hold them appropriately when the Rule of Cool relents for a moment, some of their guns are very clearly designed as oversized pistols instead.
Holographic Terminal: The Machinist's "Barrel Stabilizer" skill deploys a series of these.
Improbable Aiming Skills: Machinists are incredibly flashy in their gunplay, including coming out of it in a spin ("Clean Shot") and taking a trick shot off of scattered reflective paneling, hitting the enemy multiple times with a single bullet ("Ricochet"). Their heated versions become even more insane by doing things like going into a sideways somersault, shooting at the ground and letting the bullet skid into the enemy, and shooting out a row of "smart" bullets that hang in the air before launching forward.
Instant Knots: The "Air-Anchor" will entangle enemies in chains before electrocuting them.
Limit Break: Their limit break "Satellite Beam" has the Machinist summon a mobile missile platform like those used by the Empire to call down a laser strike on the enemies. In PVP, they use "Marksman's Spite", an extremely powerful sniping shot from fifty yalms away.
Lightning Gun: The "Gauss Shot" fires a triad of mechanical disks that electrocute the enemy.
Long-Range Fighter: Like the Bard, this Job favors dealing death at a distance; beyond weapons and some high-level gear, they even share the same armor and accessories. Their PVP Limit Break, "Marksman's Spite" has a ludicrous range of fifty yalms, one of the highest ranges of any attack in the game, letting the Machinist pick off key targets with relative ease.
Luck Manipulation Mechanic: Before Shadowbringers nixed it, Machinists had Ammo they can reload periodically, holding up to three at a time. One round forces the next shot in the combo to be enhanced, increases its potency by 50%.
Magitek: The Machinist powers their machines with the Aetherotransformer, a device that channels the Lightning and Fire aspected aether in the user's body to be used as energy. This is a notable departure from Garlean Magitek, which uses a naturally occurring aether-rich fuel called ceruleum to power its magical effects.
Memory Jar: Machinist was the first job to avert this; machinistry is so new that there are no "machinists of eras past" yet to lend their memories to the soul crystal. Instead, the Soul of the Machinist is simply a medium by which the aetherotransformer channels the user's aether to power their devices.
Multi-Ranged Master: Machinist's use their equipped firearm with a multipurpose BFG.
More Dakka: This is one of the job's hats. Spread Shot unleashes a large amount of bullets in a cone. Auto Crossbow does the same thing with crossbow bolts. Heat Blast reduces the recast timers of both Gauss Round and Ricochet, allowing the Machinist to effectively spam both abilities in between Heat Blast uses.
Mythology Gag: Shadowbringers gives the Machinist an arsenal of tools nearly identical to those used by Edgar in Final Fantasy VI.
Overheating: The Machinist's heat gauge, upon reaching a certain level, allows the use of "Hypercharge", which not only increases weaponskill damage, but also allows the use of two hard-hitting abilities until the heat dissipates. In Stormblood, it used to be tied to the removed Gauss Barrel ability. Firing with the attachment made heat rise during combat, opening a 10-second window of increased damage once the heat gauge hit its maximum before forcing the barrel off.
Pile Bunker: The Machinist's "Queen Automaton" has one on its arm that it uses when they use Overload.
Pinball Projectile: "Ricochet" sees the Machinist throw several reflective panels around the enemy, followed by trick-shooting a single bullet off them multiple times, making it an area-of-effect counterpart to the single-target Gauss Round.
Poisoned Weapons: The "Bio-Blaster" ability fires out clouds of poison gas at enemies.
Prestige Class: Machinist can only be unlocked on a character level 50 or above who has completed the main story up to the start of Heavensward, and instead of beginning at level 1 as a class, they begin at level 30 as a full job.
Robot Buddy: The Machinist can create an android known as the Queen Automaton to help them in battle.
Shotguns Are Just Better: Reaching level 82 in Endwalker upgrades their Spread Shot Area of Effect ability to "Scattergun", wherein they pull out a shotgun via One-Handed Shotgun Pump then fire it to hit enemies in a cone in front of them, which deals slightly better damage and doubles its addition to the Heat Gauge.
Simple, yet Awesome: The Machinist in Shadowbringers has a simple and straightforward rotation, with a bunch of very high damage abilities to further bring on the pain, while keeping its archetype's mobility. Notably, Endwalker changed almost nothing about its existing rotation, beyond the standard reduction of damage to keep player stats from overloading the servers, due to how effective it was already.
Spam Attack: "Heat Blast" and "Auto Crossbow" have incredibly short cooldowns. This lets them spam it for a short period of time to build up stacks for "Wildfire", maximizing the damage of the final explosion.
Sticky Bomb: "Wildfire" is one, and the explosion it causes becomes more powerful the more Weaponskills you land while it's still ticking.
Swiss-Army Gun: It doesn't matter whether the machinist is equipped with a carbine, pistol, machinegun or flintlock they will all be used in the same manner which includes single shots, fully automatic fire and as a flame-thrower. This also extends to the BFG used for many other skills, where the only thing that will change is a customizable head to indicate what skill is being used.
This Is a Drill: The "Drill" is a powerful 700 potency attack that fires a gigantic drill round at enemies. And since it's counted as a weaponskill, it can be Reassembled beforehand to guarantee it's a critical direct hit, resulting in massive damage.
The Turret Master: Machinists can deploy the Rook Autoturret, essentially a floating gun. They can also overload it to unleash a more powerful attack, at the cost of shutting the turret down.
Trick Bullet: Machinists have many trick bullets in their arsenal such as the smart bullets which hang in the air before firing in sequence with Heated Slug Shot, the Pinball Projectile used in Ricochet, the electrical rounds fired with Gauss Round and the superheated bullet fired with Heat Blast.
Useless Useful Spell: "Flamethrower" is a cone area of effect that does 80 potency damage over the course of ten seconds, and is learned at level 70. In theory, it totals up to 800 potency worth of damage, due to its damage ticking every second. The issue is that the skill is channeled, so you're forced to plant your feet while you burn your enemies down, potentially cutting your damage if you attempt to move merely an ilm to readjust your aim. You could also cast "Spread Shot" for just as much, if not more damage within that same timeframe, with less of the headache of losing your target. "Spread Shot" even gets upgraded to "Scattergun", further discouraging use of "Flamethrower" altogether.
Utility Belt: Every Machinist gun comes with an Aetherotransformer worn on their left hip. This is the bread and butter of the Machinist as it converts the user's aether into lightning-aspected energy to power all of their gadgets. It also has the appearance of an all-in-one tool box.
Weaponized Exhaust: "Heat Blast", a skill that can only be used while the Machinist overheats their weapon, has the appearance of this.
Wrench Whack: The "Disassemble" skill, where they pull out a wrench and fling it at the enemy, reducing their damage by presumably hitting a weak point in their weapon or crippling a limb.

Dancer

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/9jeud8th9a8hz2lvnf3cndro3y.jpg

Abbreviation: DNC
Unlocking Requirements: Exclusive to Shadowbringers and onwards; must reach level 60 in any of the combat classes
Preferred Weapons: Chakram
Armor Type: Aiming
Guild Location: Limsa Lominsa Lower Decks

Graceful wielders of throwing weapons who use their dances to harry enemies and support their allies.

An Adventurer Is You: A version of The Buffer who can also provide powerful bursts of AoE damage.
Animal Motifs: Fittingly the Dancer garb has showy peacock feathers decorating their outfit and use peacock feathered fans to attack.
Animal Battle Aura: In Endwalker they get "Fan Dance IV" that launches a magical projection of a large peacock at enemies.
Blade Spam: The Dancer's Limit Break, "Crimson Lotus", creates several flowers as they dance around the enemy, which then explode into countless slices afterwards.
Charm Person: The Dancer's PvP Limit Break, Contradance, has the user perform a dance that entrances all nearby enemies for 2 seconds, making them walk helplessly toward the user and bypassing the effects of Guard. This duration can be extended to up to 5 seconds if the Dancer hits targets while they're afflicted, creating breathing room for the Dancer's teammates to either recover or wipe out the helpless enemies.
Combat Hand Fan: The Dancer can pull out a pair of peacock feather fans for the "Fan Dance" series of attacks with their Fourfold Feather mechanic, launching fanned winds at enemies.
Crutch Character: Downplayed. Dancers are one of the few classes that can use AoE attacks in low-level dungeons, having access to Standard Step, which pumps out ludicrously high AoE damage every 30 seconds. This makes the trash mobs in those dungeons much less annoying to deal with at a time when most DPS classes can only use single-target attacks. Their damage output begins to fall off in later dungeons, where the other DPS classes have more of their kit to really crank out the big numbers. They're still welcome additions to the party, but for their buffs, not their damage.
Dance Battler: They're Dancers, and they're a DPS class. This trope comes with the territory. Most of their attacks involve using dance moves to send chakrams and bladed fans hurtling into the enemy, but their two devastating 'nuke' attacks, Standard Finish and Technical Finish, cap off a multi-action dance routine by blasting everything in a wide area with raw, unadulterated funk.
Flash Step: "En Avant" is a three-charge dash that quickly moves the Dancer 10 yalms in the direction they're facing, and it's the only non-step spell that can be used while performing a dance.
Flechette Storm: "Starfall Dance" hurls a veritable volley of throwing weapons at the enemy.
Feather Flechettes: The Fan Dance series of skills has the effect of launching wind and peacock feathers at enemies as part of its animation effects.
Fluffy Fashion Feathers: The Dancer artifact's sashes have showy peacock feathers on them to boot.
Flying Weapon: The Dancers can control their weapons with their Magic Dance to keep them spinning and launching at enemies.
Form-Fitting Wardrobe: The Etoile gear set goes for this, ensuring the dancer's physique is exhibited despite being more covered-up.
Fragile Speedster: All three Ranged DPS are Fragile Speedsters but the Dancer leans into this slightly more than the Bard or Machinist. Dancers deal the lowest personal damage of all DPS classes, focusing more on support and buffs, particularly for their chosen dance partner. What gives them the edge in mobilty over the two other Ranged DPS is their "En Avant" dash skill, which quickly moves the Dancer in the direction they're facing. (The only other Job that can keep up with this is the Ninja.)
Gendered Outfit: Both versions provocative in their own way. The female's level 80 artifact armor has a Show Girl Skirt and a tube top, while the male's version has a chest-baring vest. The level 90 "Etoile" set goes for form-fitting clothes that accentuate the wearer's curvatures, the women getting a sleeveless top and short shorts, while the males still keep their dancer vest and pants, but with an undershirt.
Gratuitous German: Troupe Falsaim's signature dance, the Kriegstanz, means "war dance" in German, referring to its potential for combat. It also alludes to the dance's secret purpose as a means of giving form to the despair so it can be slain to ease the burdens of the downtrodden.
Healing Hands: The "Curing Waltz" ability lets them heal all allies near themselves and their dance partner. While weak on its own, both instances of the heal can stack if the dancer and their partner are close enough, making it about as effective as a Cure II.
Hope Bringer: Their lore describes them as traveling all over the world bringing hope and joy to downtrodden places and depressed people through their magically-imbued dances. In the course of their job quest, you even learn they have a special dance that can draw out and give form to others' Despair, making it able to be physically slain to lighten the hearts of those who witness it.
Hollywood Exorcism: The true purpose of the Troupe Falsiam is to preform the Kriegstanz, a dance that will give physical form to the despair of the downtrodden and to vanquish it in a spectacle of combat, easing the hearts of the afflicted.
Leitmotif: The Dancer reveal trailer and a handful of their quests are accompanied with a new rendition of Vamo' Alla Flamenco from Final Fantasy IX.
Improbable Use of a Weapon: The "Rising Windmill" and "Bloodshower" weapon skills have the Dancer use their throwing weapons as melee weapons, slashing nearby enemies around them.
Limit Break: "Crimson Lotus", where the Dancer creates a series of flowers which explode into countless slices. In PVP, they use "Contradance", which charms all nearby enemies for 2 seconds, extending the duration when the Dancer attacks them.
Luck Manipulation Mechanic: Quite a few of the Dancer's skills need to be procced before they can be used. Their level 72 ability, "Flourish", grants the Flourishing Symmetry, Flourishing Flow, and Threefold Fan Dance statuses, allowing immediate usage of those skills.
Magic Dance: Their dances can harm enemies by controlling their weapons or aiding allies with effects such as shielding, healing or buffing and when a Standard or Technical Step is finished it will deal a high potency attack to enemies.
Martial Arts for Mundane Purposes: Nashmeira notes that the Warrior of Light carries themselves with a kind of poise and grace that can only be earned through their vast experience on every kind of battlefield. This grace is what lets them take up dancing so easily with the help of a Soul Crystal: the coordination and skill is all there, it's simply being applied to dance rather than combat (until they use their dancing in combat that is).
Mechanically Unusual Class:
- The Dancer's dances are unique to them: setting up a dance changes their attack skills into dance steps that have to be done in a proper order within a time limit, not unlike a Ninja's Mudras (though unlike Mudras, hitting the wrong button does nothing but waste time; the only way to fail is to let the timer expire) and successfully completing a dance imparts buffs of varying strength and range to other players. They cannot do damage while dancing — even their auto-attacks are halted — but finishing comes with an extremely potent AoE burst.
- Despite being a ranged DPS, their frequently-usable AoE attacks are centered on them ^note, so they have to get just as close as a melee DPS to do their AoE rotation.
Petal Power: Their Limit Break, Crimson Lotus will have magically created lotus flowers exploding into showers of flower petals and slashes.
Precision-Guided Boomerang: The Dancers' weapons will return to their hands after they throw them. It's justified as they use their Magic Dance to direct their movements.
Prestige Class: Dancer is only available to players with an existing level 60 Combat class or Job and the purchse of Shadowbringers. They start at the same level to compensate. They are not locked behind any story requirement, allowing a new player that's reached 60 during Heavensward content to finish the story as a Dancer.
Rings of Death: The majority of Dancer weapons are paired chakrams, though their arms are technically defined as "Throwing Weapons" so there is room for variations like shuriken and boomerangs. They are quite similar to the throwing weapons specific to Final Fantasy VI and Final Fantasy VIII.
Spectacular Spinning: Many of their attacks incorporate lots of spins and twirls. This is most prominent in their PvP action, "Honing Dance", which has them spin continuously for several seconds, damaging all nearby enemies before healing and shielding all allies at the dance's completion.
Stripperific: As one can expect from a Dancer class, the artifact armor leaves little to the imagination. The male version has pants, but goes bare-chested.
Support Party Member: Dancers are still a DPS job, and are still good at killing things fast, but are tied with Bards (the other Support Party Member DPS job) for the lowest average personal damage. They make up for it by being able to share their buffs and support actions with another player (or their chocobo companion, if playing solo) through the Closed Position/Dance Partner skill. This has a number of uses (like the action Healing Waltz, which creates two weak AOE heals around you and your partner which stack when you're next to each other), but the main selling point is that it lets other DPS jobs do far more damage, compensating for your own relative lack of hitting power.
Sultry Belly Dancer: As Thavnair is an "Arabian Nights" Days Fantasy Counterpart Culture, the Dancer is mostly themed with this aesthetic in contrast to the more flamenco-styled versions from other games; the most directly comparable dancers from previous games would be (unsurprisingly, for XIV) the Tactics ones.
Status Buff: A specialty of theirs, with their Devilment, Shielding Samba, Standard Step and Technical Step.
Weak, but Skilled: On paper, Dancers take the Bard's place for this trope, having lower overall damage output in exchange for providing fantastic utility for their dance partner as well as the entire party. In practice though, thanks to a mix of their stat priorities and power creep on endgame gear Dancer can end up in the middle of the road or even upper tier of damage output, making them Skilled And Strong in inclusion to their game-changingly powerful buffs.
Weapon Twirling: Done a lot by the Dancers as part of their dance.

Characters / Final Fantasy XIV - Ranged Classes

Archer and Bard

Archer

Bard

Machinist

Dancer

Previous

Index

Next

Characters / Final Fantasy XIV - Ranged Classes

Edit Locked

Archer and Bard

Archer

Bard

Machinist

Dancer

Previous

Index

Next