Machinist

Physical Ranged DPS
Job Mastery Difficulty: Attack Rotation: Advanced ; Skill Knowledge: Intermediate
RP Non-WoL: Yes
Pros: Solid damage with mobility
Cons: The weakest “selfish” DPS of the three selfish jobs. Trading in a lot of DPS for mobility.

Best Used By

• Players who need the extra mobility to evade mechanics, but want to deal solid DPS damage.

Special Notes

• Always be stacking attacks for two minute burst windows to fully utilize raid buffs.
• The Queen will snapshot your buffs/debuffs at the time of summon.

Rotational Tips

• After the opener, start pooling resources for two minute buffs, but do not overcap.
• While the Queen is summoned at 50 battery for the opener all uses of the Queen will be used with a full battery gauge for maximum DPS.
• Reassemble can be safely held for two minute windows.
• Have at least 50 Heat going into two minute windows. It is okay to overcap Heat by 5.

Patch 7.0 Opener and Rotations | The Balance: Machinist

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Dancer

Physical Ranged DPS
Job Mastery Difficulty: Attack Rotation: Easy ; Skill Knowledge: Intermediate
RP Non-WoL: Yes
Pros: An easy to use class with no rotation except around their steps.
Cons: RNG based feather building system. More channeled abilities and skills than other classes

Best Used By

• Players looking to help their team and have solid knowledge of their party. Casual Friendly.

Special Notes

• Dance Partners priority will always be: SAM > NIN > MNK > RPR > DRG > BLM > SMN > RDM > MCH > BRD > DNC
• Do not be afraid to partner swap mid battle if your chosen partner tends to die often.
• Double Weaving FD3 then FD1 is the ideal way versus FD1 to FD3 due to FD1’s cooldown.

Rotational Tips

• Remember to always aim to get four feathers built up and use them during the Technical Step damage buff window. Weave the four feathers between GCDs during the window.
• Keep Technical Step and Flourish on Cooldown.
• Re-up Standard Step every 30-32 seconds.
• Make sure to burn off any procs before Flourish is used, but do not delay Flourish

Patch 7.0 Opener and Rotations | The Balance: Dancer

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Bard

Physical Ranged DPS
Job Mastery Difficulty: Attack Rotation: Advanced ; Skill Knowledge: Intermediate
Non-WoL: Archer: Yes; Bard: Probable
Pros: No rotations except their buffs/songs with a large suite of party utility
Cons: Mistiming any party buffs/debuffs/actions is costly, dying is the kiss of death to a Bard’s DPS and should be avoided at all costs.

Best Used by:

• Players who enjoy utility, juggling debuffs and make weaving an art form. Must be adept at mechanics to avoid serious DPS loss.

Special Notes:

• Use Wanderer’s Minuet first then Mage’s Ballad then Army’s Paeon. Always switch out songs at the 3s mark (exception is Mage’s Ballad at 12s). To try and get back to using Wanderer’s Minuet as soon as it comes back up. This allows for a more fixed rotation and fits the Radiant Finale window better.

Rotational Tips:

• If you do die or screw up, always make sure to get Army’s Muse to 4 stacks of repertoire before Wanderer’s Minuet and your 2 minute rotation.
• If you do need to realign, use the last song you used as a guide marker, if ~78s left on the cooldown of either Wanderer’s Minuet or Army’s Paeon, use the next song. If there is ~87s left on CD of Mage’s Ballad, use the next song.
• Always keep Empyreal Arrow on cooldown.
• If you have a solid song rotation, Apex Arrow should be used once during Mage’s Ballad and then held until Wanderer’s Minuet. Even if you are overcapping on the gauge, do not fire until the start of the two minute burst.
• Use Barrage for 4 or more targets when using Shadowbite. Otherwise, use Refulgent Arrow.

Patch 7.0 Opener and Rotations | The Balance: Bard

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Black Mage

Magical Ranged DPS
Job Mastery Difficulty: Attack Rotation: Expert ; Skill Knowledge: Expert
RP Non-WoL: Thaumaturge: Yes; Black Mage: No
Pros: A solid class of pure damage. Just like the Monk, deceptively simple but notoriously difficult to master.
Cons: Dropping your Umbral Ice and/or Astral Fire makes it difficult to keep this class running “hot” for extended periods of downtime.

Best Used By

• Players who are knowledgeable about instances are great at pre-planning. Full mastery of the job’s movement skills are required to survive instances when dealing damage. Best utilized by Expert players

Special Notes

• Due to the static nature of Ley Lines, pre-planning where to place Ley Lines is key to dealing maximum amount of damage while avoiding mechanics. By making a macro for “Aetherial Manipulation” to a skilled player that has a strong understanding of mechanics can greatly increase damage uptime.
• Prepping Resources during downtime is essential. If downtime is >15 or if there will be an inability to cast, BLMs can prep by ending on Umbral Ice III and transposing twice to have a Paradox ready to go. At the end of the double transpose, BLMs should have Umbral Ice II with three Umbral Hearts. One more Umbral Soul will grant Umbral Ice III.

Rotational Tips

• Since the Thunder Debuff can fall off in either Ice or Fire phase, it is critical to time when to reup.
• Hold Polyglot stacks for movement/weaving/damage as needed but try to hold them for the two minute windows.
• Triplecast and Swiftcast should be used for movement to avoid not casting at all. Maximize Swiftcast use to gain additional time for really tight windows is another option.
• Sharpcast primarily should be used for Thunder III as it will allow the thundercloud proc to be used when needed. However, it can be used for the Firestarter proc if necessary. On average, Thundercloud is the better option.
• For cases of dropped Astral Fire/Umbral Ice, it is better to restart with a shortened Fire Phase. If the BLM has less than 2800 MP, then use Blizzard III and restart the rotation.

Patch 7.0 Opener and Rotations | The Balance: Black Mage

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Summoner

Magical Ranged DPS
Job Mastery Difficulty: Attack Rotation: Easy ; Skill Knowledge: Easy
RP Non-WoL: Yes (w/limitations)
Pros: A very simple rotation, good utility, and good movement.
Cons: Nothing major

Best Used By

• Players looking to do solid damage and can assist with utilities. Because of its simple rotation this is a solid class to deal damage and learn mechanics. Extremely Casual Friendly.

Special Notes

• Your pet does count as part of your party so they should be included into any stack mechanics.

Rotational Tips

• Further Ruin should never be used in the Demi windows. Always push this into the primal windows, the best place is to replace one of your Emerald Rites with Further Ruin
• Keep Searing Light on cooldown.
• From Strongest to Weakest for Phases is: Titan > Ifrit > Garuda; This does not mean that Garuda phase should be avoided for openers, just means that future two minute windows should ideally use Titan phase during them.
• Swiftcast should always be used with Garuda’s Slipstream ability
• If you need to restart your rotation for any reason, do not delay the Demi-summon for any reason. If you still have time, you can rush through the rest of the phases to have a full primal summoning damage (Must use two spells for each phase). If you do not have enough time, cut the uses of primal summons and go straight to the demi-summon.

Patch 7.0 Opener and Rotations | The Balance: Summoner

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Red Mage

Magical Ranged DPS
Job Mastery Difficulty: Attack Rotation: Intermediate ; Skill Knowledge: Advanced
RP Non-WoL: No
Pros: A solid choice between caster and melee with speedy utility
Cons: Many of its combos can be easily broken leading to really hurting your output for damage.

Best Used By

• Players who are skilled at snap decisions and are knowledgeable with the class.

Special Notes

• Single target attacks should always be paired with single target and AoEs with AoEs. (Ex. Never go Verthunder to Verthunder II). Keep in mind that Verholy and Verflare should always be used for the mana you have less of to proc Verstone/Verfire. A beginning mistake is to alternate White and Black mana raising. Raise each manapool one at a time to 50 (single-target) or 60 (multi-target) to maximize the chance to have one manapool lower than the other to proc during the Verstone/fire during the Verholy/flare phase of your rotation.

Rotational Tips

• Acceleration and Swiftcast are primarily for movement. If used, it should be used to plan out everything during the course of the fight. Alway aim to use Swiftcast the same as Acceleration and use it for Verthunder/Veraero.
• The Melee combo is also another way to obtain free movement to deal with mechanics.
• While Embolden should be kept on cooldown, aim to have your melee combo included in the Embolden window. It is possible to use Embolden at the end of Enchanted Zwerchhau to fit two Resolutions. But never delay Embolden.
• Never Use Manafication during your melee combo or when Scorch or Resolution is proc’d as it will break that portion of your combo. However, you can safely use Manafication when VerHoly/VerFlare is proc’d.

Patch 7.0 Opener and Rotations | The Balance: Red Mage

Flexible Opener

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Pictomancer

Magical Ranged DPS
Job Mastery Difficulty: Attack Rotation: Advanced ; Skill Knowledge: Intermediate
RP Non-WoL: Yes (w/limitations)
Pros: A very simple rotation, good utility and good movement.
Cons: Nothing major

Best Used By

• Players looking for very free form play.

Special Notes

• Painting a Motif does not do DPS.
• Nothing breaks combos. Use any spells/abilities when necessary
• Comet in Black is a buff that requires a white. You can absolutely use Subtractive Palette with no white banked and when you do get a white, you can use Comet in Black

Rotational Tips

• Holy is a gain on >3 Targets
• Holy only nets a small DPS loss, use when necessary for movement, but opt for Hammer when possible.
• Pool resources for burst. Make sure all three motifs are available for use
• After the opener, make sure to have a Madeen ready for your 2 minute burst.

Patch 7.0 Opener and Rotations | The Balance: Pictomancer

Strongest Burst

Situational

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