Welcome to our Final Fantasy XIV Job Guide for melee DPS! So, you’ve heard of the critically-acclaimed MMORPG, Final Fantasy XIV? You’d like to give the game a try, but aren’t sure which melee DPS is right for you?

There are currently 17 different jobs playable in the game right now. Two more are coming in the Endwalker expansion this November. All jobs are playable on the same character, so you certainly won’t be at a loss for choices. Out of these 17 jobs, 4 are melee DPS. We’ll give you a quick overview of them here.

Final Fantasy XIV Job Guide: Melee DPS

The melee DPS role in Final Fantasy XIV is a diverse one, with each of the four having very different playstyles. However, all of them do focus on executing combos and pulling off positionals. In layman's terms, there's a specific button order and a particular position relative to the boss that the player must be standing in to maximize damage. Being melee jobs also mean they'll be standing near the boss and need to be within range to damage them. This makes their playing field more limited than ranged jobs. This added challenge is offset by their DPS potential, as all four of them can output solid damage numbers.

Dragoon

Dragoon was the poster-boy job for the Heavensward expansion. In the FFXIV community, they have a reputation for being “floor tanks” – that is, dying a lot. This is mostly due to their animation lock mechanics, which make newer players prone to staying a little too long in AoEs. However, animation lock aside, Dragoons have a very static rotation. It is basically, an extended combo that gets longer as you level up and unlock the whole kit. They also have a plethora of different damage buffs with different applications. One of these is Dragon Sight, which tethers them to another player and gives the Dragoon a 10% damage buff, while giving their partner a 5% damage buff. They also have access to Battle Litany, which increases the whole party's critical hit rate by 10%.

Dragoons are relatively newcomer-friendly due to their static rotation and less demanding positionals. However, new players might need to acclimatize to the animation lock timing for jumps. Once they learn these timings, Dragoon's different Jump abilities will allow them to realize that Dragoon is one of the most mobile melee jobs in the game. Aspiring Dragoons will begin their journey as Lancers in New Gridania.

Samurai

Samurai's long-awaited addition with the Stormblood expansion brought melee DPS its most “selfish” job. A samurai-main friend of mine always says, “my DPS is my utility.” As Samurai is one of the jobs with the highest damage potentials in the game, it's easy to see why. Samurai is deceptively easy to pick up and learn, with their rotation revolving around collecting three different Sen. Samurai collect Sen by executing different specific attacks. Sen is then spent on different Iaijutsu – with the most costly and most powerful, Midare Setsugekka, requiring all three Sen. Later on, players will also gain access to the Kenki Gauge, a secondary resource topped up by correctly executing positionals. This is spent on yet another set of different attacks.

However, despite Samurai being quite friendly for beginners, it requires quite a bit of mastery to truly optimize at the highest levels. Aspiring Samurai must have the Stormblood expansion and any other job at Level 50 to unlock the job in Ul'dah.

Ninja

Ninjas in FFXIV used to be a must-have in every raid party due to their superior utility, and most especially, the debuff Trick Attack. Now, they're still a welcome addition to any party but aren't a nigh-prerequisite as they were before. These days, Trick Attack applies a debuff that increases the enemy's damage taken by 5%. What makes Ninja unique are, of course, its different ninjutsu skills. Ninjas execute ninjutsu by pressing the pre-requisite Ten-Chi-Jin mudra commands in the corresponding order. For example, Doton, which creates a ground AoE that deals continuous damage to any enemies within it, requires the Ten-Jin-Chi or Jin-Ten-Chi mudra combination to be executed before the ninjutsu can be triggered.

This layer of complexity in memorizing the different mudra combinations, and when to use each ninjutsu adds some difficulty to learning the job. Ninja is also a fairly high-APM job to play, rewarding players that prefer a very active playstyle. Aspiring Ninjas can unlock the quest for Rogue, the pre-requisite class, in Limsa Lominsa at level 1.

Monk

Monk, before its rework in Shadowbringers, used to have to maintain its Greased Lightning buff on top of executing its positionals. Now that Greased Lightning is a trait gained through leveling up, Monks have a little more breathing room. On paper, the Monk single-target rotation is quite simple, with two different three-hit combos that change their “form.” The challenge, however, is in the execution, as each and every one of these skills require rear or flank positionals. You'll see Monk players darting to a boss's side and rear to hit these with every button press. Thish becomes quite a challenge when you consider all the mechanics that need to be dodged. Monks also have the fastest global cooldown in the game and are an extremely active class to play.

This difficulty, of course, is rewarded with a considerable damage potential, not quite putting them alongside Samurai and Black Mage, but pretty close. Unlike those two more “selfish” DPS jobs, Monk also brings some utility to the table. It has access to Brotherhood, which increases the party's damage by 5%. Monk is a challenging job to learn and master, but quite rewarding for players who enjoy a fast-paced, execution-heavy playstyle.

Reaper

The Reaper melee job is arriving with the Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker expansion, and if the latest Job Action Trailer is anything to go by, it will certainly be quite a flashy job to play. We don't have the nitty-gritty details on the job just yet, so we can't exactly recommend it here in our Final Fantasy XIV Job Guide, but it is quite appealing aesthetic-wise, and has some interesting implications about voidsent lore. We do know that it will feature at least one party-utility skill, so it won't be a pure DPS like Samurai or Black Mage, and it has a pretty neat teleport ability. We'll make sure to update this guide as more details come out.

Final Fantasy XIV Job Guide: Melee DPS – Conclusion

When it comes to bringing melee DPS to high-end content, don’t fret too much, as any standard team composition can clear any content in the game. Pick what feels the most fun to you and go with it. All four of the melee DPS jobs offer very distinct playstyles, allowing them to cater different kinds of players. Whether you're looking unleash your inner Samurai and deal the most damage, or got completely sold on Dragoon after watching the Heavensward trailer, there's no harm in trying out a melee job in FFXIV.

If you’re set on beginning your Final Fantasy XIV journey but have been confused by the frankly convoluted Free Trial registration process, we’ve got a guide that walks you through it right here.