Do all classes require 15+ buttons rotations?

[The Oblivion]

there are a few REALLY simple jobs to play

Caster = RDM
Ranged = MCH
Healer = WHM
Tank = WAR

these are what id call the close to faceroll jobs in ffxiv. MCH and WHM likely being the least buttons to use if thats what you value.

[StrawberryZebra]

Imagine saying that black mage is straight forward at max level.

Conceptually, it boils down to "Cast Fire 4 as many times as possible". It's easier said than done, but there are no layers to the damage like Summoner has, nor anything like Mudras that can throw you.

There are lots of ways you can optimise that of course, but thats best learned through experience rather than a guide. I'd encourage anyone who's interested in it to give it a go, it's really not as hard as you might think to play competantly enough to be effective as a DPS.

[Polybius]

Surprised OP’s main issue is overlooked, I’ve seen countless players post videos with them clicking those extra GCDs and screenshots of unbound abilities. It’s not about rotation, and this does turn players away like it or not. Not that anyone seems to care, so no need for passive aggression.

Between WoW and XIV the difference varies. There are more spells on Priest than any healer I’ve played on XIV for example, but you have the advantage of addons to free up keybinds. In WoW you’ll always press a button so you don’t need more GCDs or slots. There are spells in XIV you can get away with not using, can’t say the same for WoW save for unpruned spells.

[Khain]

This is one of the things that turned me off in FF, mostly because i started to play as dragoon, and the rotation is so long that it was hard to pay attention to anything else in order to do it perfectly.

[threads]

ffxiv dps rotations might look like a lot of buttons, but then you realize that half of it is off-gcds that you mindlessly press on cd. it makes it way easier if you have an mmo mouse as i just put all of the ogcds on the mouse. i also have lots of empty slots in shadowbringers because they removed a lot of abilities from stormblood so it's not nearly as bad as it used to be.

[BiggestNoob]

BLM is straightforward at 80, the only annoying thing is that optimal play technically requires a server tick timer, but for 99.9% of people it doesn't matter.

[dlld]

The thing is, you're not really "memorizing" it. That's why all those infographics and such annoy me, it's like they're crafted to give some players a elitist boner over how complex and galaxy brain their class is.

The essence is, "Fire 4 a shitload, go into ice when you're out of mana, go back to Fire" and anything else you're managing feeds into maintaining that cycle.

There's more to it, of course, but you don't need to sit there and actually memorize 30+ motions.

This is one place where I think the WoW theorycrafting community is generally much better about communicating things. A WoW guide might say, "Keep this buff up and spam your damage filler." while an XIV infographic presents it like, "Enochian > Blizzard 3 > Sharpcast > Thunder 3 > Blizzard 4 > Fire 3 > Fire 4 > Fire 4 > Fire 4 > Fire 1 > Fire 4 > Fire 4 > Fire 4 > Despair > Blizzard 3 > Blizzard 4 > Xenoglossy > Fire 3 > Fire 4 > Fire 4 > Fire 4 MAKE SURE YOU REMEMBER THISSSSS"

Of course I'm exaggerating a little bit, but yeah.

Well you're not seeing that for wow since that isn't how wow functions with all it's rng. In ff14 afaik most class have a optimal rotation that if you play perfectly you know exactly what button you should be pressing at the exact 3m mark every single time in a fight, in wow you can't.

[Cthulhu 2020]

That's the thing, if you're looking for optimal damage rotations in FF then yeah, the guides you're going to get are filled with tons of buttons you need to press. There are very precise "rotations" that you do. Learning your class is all about learning that full rotation. If you want a class where you just hit whatever button lights up then yeah, WoW is your game. Either that or dancer. Dancer is probably the closest thing to playing a WoW class.

Otherwise you're going to want to memorize your optimal opener and rotation like this:



That said, there's a reason many people suggest not boosting. Gradually gaining skills and adding them slowly to what you know is what you're supposed to do really helps. Otherwise you're going to jump into the class needing to memorize your rotation on a target dummy.

[Biomega]

There's more to it, of course, but you don't need to sit there and actually memorize 30+ motions.

Not unless you want to play things optimally, in which case you kind of do because those long "infographic" chains are set up in a way that actually creates a repeatable loop with optimal skill usage. SWTOR is the same way.

That's why (proactive) cooldowns ARE part of what you'd call "rotation". There's very little reactive stuff going on, it's mostly just maintaining the proper sequence over long periods of time.

If you DON'T care about optimal play then sure, there's probably easy heuristics by which you can eyeball a rotation and it'll do reasonably well.

[Cthulhu 2020]

And to add to my post above, if you're not doing savage raiding, you don't really need to worry about optimal rotation. But if you're in savage, yes, you need your optimal damage rotation, and you'll also have to learn your support skills like arm's length, reprisal, true north etc. If you're doing ultimate, you're basically using every single skill in at your disposal at just the right time. How much you need to learn about your class depends on what content you want to conquer.

[kiramon]

Fishing for "free" Cure II procs is a trap/noob bait.

This is actually a lie perpetuated by the current state of the game. It's neither a trap nor a noob bait. It just doesn't work anymore in the current game, because you should be damaging, not slowly topping people off.

Don't just spread things you hear from random sources, though. It's how those things stick around.

The real trap/noob bait is calling things traps/noob baits cuz you heard someone else say it.

(No, I don't cast Cure)

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That's the thing, if you're looking for optimal damage rotations in FF then yeah, the guides you're going to get are filled with tons of buttons you need to press. There are very precise "rotations" that you do. Learning your class is all about learning that full rotation. If you want a class where you just hit whatever button lights up then yeah, WoW is your game. Either that or dancer. Dancer is probably the closest thing to playing a WoW class.

Otherwise you're going to want to memorize your optimal opener and rotation like this:



That said, there's a reason many people suggest not boosting. Gradually gaining skills and adding them slowly to what you know is what you're supposed to do really helps. Otherwise you're going to jump into the class needing to memorize your rotation on a target dummy.

Those things are the most ridiculous grand-standing rotations ever. All of them.

They say things in the most convoluted stupid ways. Even the ones that do it with a video, and then proceed to not do what they say in the video VERSUS A DUMMY.

I take their max-level-brain things with a grain of salt. Maybe cuz I used to be in a LS with one of them and they were definitely theorycrafting rotations, lol.

[FossilFree]

I'd rather have more complexity not less.

If you have a hard time managing them, simply bind ctrl, alt, and shift to your mouse buttons using your mouse software and then set your keybinds in the game to use them. I typically only use ctrl and alt combined with numbers 1-5, but sometimes end up using shift for another pane of abilities.

[Ragu4]

You're probably looking at those weird infographics that people make to - apparently - scare away new players or something.

If anything, Black Mage is actually one of the more straightforward rotations. Even at max level.

Most rotations aren't actually that complex in XIV. Openers can be - especially since there's a specific timing to raid buffs that everyone expects. But the rest of the rotations tend to be pretty easy to understand.

Ya I still mess up my openers alot, but once you get into position i find combat to flow nicely (new to the game, playing paladin).

[Tietoso]

There's some nuance there, though. You don't use Cure I once you get Cure II unless you get downsynced. Fishing for "free" Cure II procs is a trap/noob bait. You don't use Medica I much once you get Medica II and eventually you get an AOE heal (Afflatus Rapture? maybe) that is always preferable. So you do eventually develop a "core rotation" mentality after certain content. Cure III is super powerful, but you need to use it while everyone is stacked or it loses a lot of its potency. I mean honestly if you want to meme it, White Mage has a 3 button rotation if you don't count swift casting raise on the person you let die because you couldn't stop Glare and Holy spam.

So I forget to use Cure 1? I was getting annoyed that it didn't proc cure 2 more ofter, but wouldn't I run out of mana quicker? When I do dungeons or one of the quest raids I am mostly spamming the hell out of heal with the tank pulling everything on sight. And to this day I haven't found a party that is able to kill Ramuh on the highest difficulty of my level,(im currently 65).

And that is why one the reasons I use Medica 1 over cure 3 since most of the time the party is not stacked when AOE damage goes out. But I am mostly leveling and pugging the content so I suppose that would be later at lvl 80.

[Cthulhu 2020]

But what are you actually "memorizing" there?

"Use physical buff and oGCDs. Keep DoT up. Do your 1-2-3 combo. Spam Atonement filler. Switch to magical buff. Spam Holy Spirit. Switch back to physical."

It's way more intuitive than these silly graphics and telling people "you gotta MEMORIZE each step!" make it seem. I mean, half the button presses there are 1-2-3 combos and the other half are the filler spam.

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But it's not about "learning your class", it's about dispelling the notion that you have to sit there and memorize these long chains of ability presses. About people laboring under the misconception that you have to drill these crazy 40+ button rotations or something, as if they don't just flow with the class mechanics most of the time.

If anything, I'd argue that you're "learning your class" a lot better knowing the underlying concepts instead of just trying to do rotations with rote memorization.

You're right. You don't have to learn the class rotation. You have to learn combos within a rotation, and the proper order to execute them, and the priority of each part of the rotation. There is a lot to learn, and if you want to do ultimate, you're pretty much using the exact same button at the exact same time every single pull. Your skills for ultimates are all planned down to each GCD. Again, it depends on what content you want to do. The harder it is, the more you memorize.

[ippollite]

My whm is, at level 79, currently the following for 4 mans:

Holy, assize, holy, dia (replaces aero), dia dia (dot adds), holy, glare (replaces stone). If ive been a good whm, i can throw in a freecast afflatus misery. Thats my aoe rotation. For single target just remove the holy, and glare spam instead.

For healing... its medica 2, regen, shield, then dps away for a bit with some free afflatus solas (free cure 2 instant cast), to build up blood lily stacks (afflatus misery). Its mostly really dpsing to be honest with spot healing. Cure 1 isnt on my bar, cure 3 is only really used in 8 man, and even then, honestly its never that tough (in msq). Cure 2 is only weaved in when i havent got any lillies (afflatus solas). Theres also an aoe afflatus, but the msq is currently below it (lvl74 i think). But it'll be part of my rotation soon enough and replace medica 2.

To be honest, its super easy. Where you currently are: medica, regen and cure 2 will get you through most pre 50 content. At 50, its medica 2, regen, and cure 2 with a benediction here and there (plus the mana regen spell when you hit about 6000 mana).

Thatll basically carry you through all dungeons until you get the lillies (level 70?). For actually difficult content.... yeah, you use the full toolkit, probably? What would i know?. But for normal msq stuff, its pretty basic. Dont worry!

[Aliven]

Engagement and Reprise are niche use abilities so that's already 2 abilities you don't need to worry about.

Reprise is ability to use on a move heavy encounter. Better than doing nothing. Engagement is used when backflip would kill you.

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do you consider forward/back/strafe left/strafe right part of your rotation also?

So you dont have any counter arguments. Good talk.

[TomGreen]

If you want simple classes, then archer and pugilist might better for you in order to get used to the mechanics of FFXIV.

Don't these classes have high apm? Might be a bit hectic for a new player

[Osmeric]

Excessively complex rotations is, in my opinion, the biggest flaw of FF14.

[TheRevenantHero]

Don't these classes have high apm? Might be a bit hectic for a new player

I started with pugilist when I first started playing. It's a really easy class.