Dragoon is slow to start off but gets a bit more interesting after 50 when you start unlocking more things. Samurai is by design meant to do the most damage, and really isn’t too difficult of a job to play correctly. Though that said, a lot of Samurais refuse to do this and do what’s called “Freestyle Samurai” and do absolutely no damage.
I think given the playerbase and what I’ve seen. Dragoon isn’t widely appealing compared to other options, but the people that play it love it. While Samurai seems to have a wider appeal, definitely see more of them, but a lot of people don’t really bother with playing it correctly. So I guess it’s a fun job to play even when you don’t know what you’re doing.
You will end up playing every job in the end believe me. But for now just stick with one and do msq. They are both fun
Biggest differences for me:
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Mobility: Samurai has more mobility in that Hissatsu: Gyoten (gap closer) and Hissatsu: Yaten (backstep) have only a 10s cooldown and can be used mostly for mobility whereas Dragoon’s gap closers (Spineshatter Dive and Dragonfire Dive are on 60s and 120s CD’s are part of the DPS rotation), and Elusive Jump (backjump) is on a 30s CD.
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Positionals: Dragoon has two very very long alternating weapon skill chains that revolve around alternative rear and flank positionals, which can be a real pain in the butt. On the other hand, Samurai has three short weapon skill chains that give a unique resource (and buff) each, and has to root briefly to “cast” their special move every so often whereas Dragoon doesn’t.
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Maintaining Self-Buffs: Both have buffs to maintain, but Samurai’s are just on all the time as part of the rotation and are hard to mess up. They also have one DoT to maintain. Dragoon on the other hand has Blood of the Dragon, which is a self buff that needs to be maintained all the time and the ability that triggers is is on a 25s CD, but is extended by successful completion of weaponskill chains. Overall they’re pretty close with Samurai being a bit easier.
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Party buffs: Dragoon has Battle Litany, which is a group wide crit buff, and Dragon Sight, which is a targeted buff between you and another party member that increases their damage. Samurai…have nothing.
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Animation locks: Dragoon abilities often cause an animation lock where you can’t actually move for a moment after executing an action such as jump. This can get you killed if you time improperly. Samurai doesn’t have this issue.
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Special Resource: Dragoon, while under Blood of the Dragon, collects “Eyes” from each successful Mirage Dive while under Blood of the Dragon, which when you get two, lets you go Super Saiyan for a little bit. Samurai generates Kenki, which can be used for mobility or damage.
Overall Samurai has better flow and the lack of positionals make it more fun. It’s a selfish DPS job, but that’s okay because they’re all selfish in their own way and all contribute in their own way anyway. The Dragoon weaponskill chains to me become tedious and feel just long and drawn out. And the fact their mobility is so bad, it makes it a chore to play.
Ironically, FF14 actually has the stuff that WoW players used to love about WoW. The FF14 dev team looked to WotLK-era WoW as its inspiration. FF14 today is basically a better version of WoW.
I’d say monk is a pretty fun melee to play. Especially since they changed the greased lightning system so that you don’t have to do that janky Anatman opener that you had to use for the first 2 tiers of Eden.
They’re both great, but I like samurai more. It’s very subjective.
