If you spend any amount of time on Final Fantasy XIV, you’re going to have to deal with mobs of enemies at some point. In dungeons, mobs are the main adversaries you’ll face between bosses, and in many scenarios they can be even more challenging than the bosses themselves. That’s why all classes in Final Fantasy XIV have AoE options, so all classes can handle these challenges. But not all AoE abilities were made equally, so let's look at which classes have the best AoE capabilities in their respective roles.
Caster DPS: Black Mage
I’ll admit, I was a little torn between Black Mage and Red Mage for this one. Red Mage has a very easy 1-2 AoE combo that can build into their melee AoE, but Black Mage has Foul and Flare. The Black Mage AoE rotation is also very simple, at least by 80 when you can forget all about Fire II and how awful it is. Blow the mobs up with Flare, refresh your mana with Freeze, rinse and repeat. Throw out some Thunder IVs or Fouls. Simple, but oh-so-satisfying.
TL;DR:
- Simple AoE rotation
- Big damage AoE abilities
- Minimal resource management
Physical Ranged DPS: Dancer
There was no contest here. Despite being a ranged DPS, Dancer almost feels like it was designed around its AoE abilities before the developers started tackling single target. Technical Step is an AoE buff for your party that also does 1,500 potency damage if all 4 steps are correctly executed. The AoE skills also have their own procs, just like their single target counterparts. And, being a ranged physical DPS, the Dancer never has to stop moving when doing any of these abilities. Just try not to En Avant off the stage.
TL;DR:
- Powerful AoE and party buff
- Simple, proc-based rotation
- Supremely mobile
Melee Physical DPS: Ninja
Okay, I’m gonna be super honest here. Physical Melee DPS classes are a lot closer in AoE damage output than I realized when I started this article, so I chose Ninja because of the frog. While every Melee DPS has the same kind of 1-2 AoE DPS rotation (with some slight variances for some), the Ninja summoning a big frog to spit an explosive fireball at a mob was too unique to not include on this list.
TL;DR:
- Fire breathing frog
- Simple 1-2 combo rotation for AoE
- Naruto
Tank: Warrior
Once again, the difference between these classes isn’t too far from one another. Which I suppose makes sense, since Square Enix doesn’t want the melee characters in the middle of the mobs outperforming each other too hard. So I asked my tank friends which AoE rotation they preferred on tanks, and their answers were: Dark Knight for extra variance in rotation, but Warrior for damage and style.
TL;DR:
- Simple AoE rotation
- Best AoE damage output on tanks
- Self heals so your healer can DPS more
Healer: White Mage
When it comes to AoE among healers, White Mage puts their peers to shame. While Holy, White Mage’s spammable AoE attack has less potency than the Scholar’s Art of War it also stuns mobs so you have less healing to worry about. But it’s really Assize and Afflatus Misery that puts White Mage so far ahead of the other healers, who typically don’t have many options for AoE damage. (Remember, kids: Blood for the Blood Lily.)
TL;DR:
- Holy stuns mobs
- Has the most AoE damage abilities of all healers
- Afflatus Misery
And there we have it! While I’m fairly confident in this list I want to point out that all classes in Final Fantasy are capable of clearing all content, and all have serviceable AoE rotations. However, if you’d like more in-depth guides regarding a class’s rotation (both AoE or single target) check out Ilya Dalamiq on Youtube. Here’s their Black Mage rotation guide, and they have plenty of other informative FFXIV videos covering a variety of topics:
