Anyone have recommendations for a dps job? I know SMN is strong but I hate the rotation for some reason.
I've had them all to 80, but DPS is always gonna be viewed on personal experience. I'll give you my thoughts on them tho (this is just my general primer on them too):
Melee:
Dragoon (Drg): I'd compare it to Ryu from Street Fighter. It's well rounded, has two sets positionals (with two extensions for each), has buffs (Battle Litany being amazing), can move around well with OGCDs (With Spineshatter, Dragonfire, and Stardriver). The only problems I see people have is getting used to weaving some of the moves for party comps. The rotation as a whole is solid.
Monk (Mnk): I hope you fucking like positionals because that's all this job is. You are pressing buttons like a madman constantly and moving around to hit the boss all the time. When you get Riddle of Earth you can use it to make every move count as a positional so it makes life much better. You feel insanely fast doing it and when a fight is memorized well enough MNK's can do insane damage. They have good party buffs through Mantra for healers and Brotherhood for all of the melee, getting off Forbidden Chakra constantly feels super nice. Tornado Kick still sucks ass though.
Ninja (Nin): I play this one personally on a Savage level (Alt job). This job is the epitome of blowing your load super early and trying to keep the momentum up. The Nin early burst is fucking nuts, and you're weaving stuff more then MNK. The job is entirely ping reliant though, so if you ping is shit you will mess up jutsus, and jutsus are your biggest damage dealer (Especially when you use Kassatsu). When you learn the opener for it you feel like a god, and the rotation falls really well with party buffs. You're supplying trick attack and trick (while nerfed now) is still fantastic for everyone.
Samurai (Sam): This job offers nothing but damage. If you like doing big dick DPS this is the job for you. This is the melee dps most people pick up first since it starts at 50. Hitting stuff like Midare feels so fucking good, and keeping momentum in a fight is awesome. The rotation is super strict on a 60 second timer (Due to Tsubame) but when you get it off your numbers are nuts. Learn the rotation before playing this job because people make memes about SAMs who play the job just to look cool and have no fucking clue what the hell they are doing
Phys Ranged:
Bard (Brd): Procs procs procs. The entire job for this is based on setting up DoTs, songs, and praying to the gods you get procs to do lots of damage. You're nimble (like all phys ranged) but your health pool is lower then a melee so you die very easily. Songs all offer utility for the party, and you have your party wide mitigation to help out. It def needs work but I enjoy playing it.
Machinist (Mch): I don't fucking understand this job at all now. It's basically like the Sam of ranged, but the rotation and battery gauge is so weird. I played it in Stormblood and knew the idea behind it, but I currently don't understand how the hell you play it rotation wise. You do big damage and get to deploy a robot to beat shit out of whatever you're fighting. So it's the most stylish of the three ranged imo
Dancer (Dnc): Imagine brd, but you give one person a fuckton of buffs. You're the most nimble of all the ranged with a stacked dash and your rotation is pretty straight forward. Your dance partner (the person you supply your buffs too) need to know how to play their job or otherwise you're not gonna cap out on damage. It doesn't really become fun till you get the esprit gauge(Around 76) but when you do I personally find it a lot of fun. It's great in PVP if you ever play it.
Magic Ranged:
Black Mage (Blm): I hope you like not fucking moving and telling people to adjust because of you. This job is you being a turret. You stand there, do your thing, and people come to you. It's basically the magic version of Sam, so no utility at all. But the damage you can get is fucking nuts. The job however requires you to KNOW A FIGHT IN AND OUT to get that high damage or else you will either be moving constantly and not casting spells, or just flat out dying. Foul is probably my favorite spell in the game and hearing it go off is so fucking nice.
Summoner (Smn): This job has this longest opener of any of the jobs (I believe it's like 2-3 minutes long) but you space out what you do overtime. It's the most nimble of three magic ranged due to it's spells mainly being insta/ogcds. So you're able to focus on dodging while doing damaging and adjusting. It also has a raise so it can help the healers if you're having trouble potentially saving runs if you rez the healer and they lb3. The rotation takes a long time to learn so you need to have patience and being in the lab often to test if you're getting it all
Red Mage (Rdm): The easiest one of three to pick up and is the epitome of easy to learn, difficult to master. It has both melee combos and magic so you get to try both lifestyles. It starts at 50 so it's like Sam in usually being the first one people try playing. I raided it with back in Stormblood and it's really fun when you learn how it works and the rotation hasn't changed much since Stormblood. You will probably kill yourself constantly using displacement if you don't know the fight and how to land it all good. Can also raise just like SMN so the two are usually brought to prog parties to see mechs.