Caster Tier List for FFXIV (Patch 7.3)

Tier lists in Final Fantasy XIV are fairly nuanced, so if you'd like a more detailed explanation on the jobs within this role, feel free to read on beyond the initial tier list we've provided.

Caster balance is tricky to assess. It is very dependent on the nature of the content, party strengths/weaknesses, and encounter design. But all three casters are viable in most scenarios.

• Normal/Alliance Raids, Unreal/Extreme Trials: Every job is viable in this type of content. However, it is worth noting that Red Mage’s Verraise is almost broken for casual content where DPS checks are forgiving and most mechanics don’t require everybody to be alive at the same time. This especially applies to Normal Raids and Alliance Raids, which generally don't have enrage timers and very few party wipe mechanics. That said, Summoner’s Resurrection is powerful too, and both Pictomancer's and Black Mage's damage helps the party kill the boss faster.
• Early week Savage Prog: This tends to depend on the party composition and party goals. Summoner is popular in blind progression because of its mobility, easy rotation, and Radiant Aegis, allowing more focus on mechanics while still having a combat raise. On the other hand, Red Mage is often played on the first three floors of a raid tier for its ability to raise multiple people more quickly. During the fourth floor(s), the pure DPS casters become more valuable to meet strict DPS checks and less leeway to clear with deaths. In Dawntrail so far, Pictomancer and Black Mage are both viable to meet damage checks, though Pictomancer is often a bit easier to run due to shared gear with the res casters and a bit more party utility
• Savage Reclears: Entirely subjective. With gear, DPS checks tend to be lighter, so one can make an argument for res casters being valuable to res people who make mistakes during reclears so you don't have to reset the pull if healers die. On the other hand, your static or party might be comfortable enough with the fight that you want more damage to skip a later mechanic. For simple reclears, play what you like best.
• Speed Kills: Black Mage was historically the undisputed ruler of this, but Pictomancer is now a very common pick as well, particularly due to its burst damage and ability to play around downtime. In speed kills, it is expected that there are zero party deaths, so combat raises have little to no practical value outside of practicing strats. Red Mage and Summoner have historically had some niche representation in high ranking speed kills, but this is not expected to continue in Dawntrail.
• Ultimate: This varies largely based on the encounter. Ultimates have a lot of “phasing”, and some casters are better than others in different phases. The value of res casters depends on how strict the body checks are and how the DPS checks are distributed between the phases. Between the damage-dealing casters, Pictomancer has performed quite favorably, especially due to how its Motifs work during downtime. While damage tuning is more balanced now, Pictomancer was broken for Futures Rewritten (Ultimate), and was often paired with Red Mage in world progression. For older Ultimates, both res casters and Pictomancer have generally performed better.
• Double Caster: Double caster compositions in an 8-player party are less popular now than they were in Shadowbringers. The Omega Protocol (Ultimate) in particular also "soft enforces" a double melee composition with the final phase's limit break mechanics, making it much harder to clear with double caster. That said, in Futures Rewritten (Ultimate), Savage, or some older Ultimates, double caster compositions can remain a powerful alternative with double Addle and more flexibility for the party to spread out for certain mechanics.

Difficulty can often be subjective, so the list below should not be considered an "objective" or "strict" one. Instead, it is more of a reflection of common opinions based on several factors. Difficulty between Red Mage and Pictomancer, in particular, is debatable due to their challenges coming from different aspects of their gameplay.

• Summoner is almost universally considered the easiest of the caster jobs, if not all DPS jobs. It has the lowest number of casts in its rotation. Summoner's rotation is also fairly straightforward, has some flexibility, and will not vary as significantly between fights or when optimizing, making it a good choice for beginner caster players or players who like to do mechanics callouts in their static.
• Black Mage has become much easier than previous versions due to recent changes to its kit and cast times. That said, even with various movement tools available, some level of planning is still needed to optimize the job due to some of its cast times.
• Red Mage is generally considered one of the hardest casters now to keep uptime perfectly. Red Mage has an intuitive, priority system base rotation that is very easy to understand, but it tends to take the most effort to maintain uptime in raid without DPS loss. Red Mage also has a moderately complex skill ceiling, in part due to its unorthodox oGCD cooldown timers.
• Pictomancer is generally also considered one of the hardest casters. However, its difficulty lies more in complex rotation planning, min-maxing potencies out of certain spells or abilities, and its base rotation being less intuitive. In terms of keeping uptime, however, it is generally easier than Red Mage.

While these are just general guidelines for job difficulty, different players will have different experiences playing each job.

The caster DPS jobs in Final Fantasy XIV have similarities in how they play with cast times, but their playstyles and what they bring to a party can be quite different, mostly with regard to different utility abilities and combat reviving capabilities.

Pictomancer and Black Mage bring a noticeable damage increase, while Red Mage and Summoner can raise fallen allies in combat. The type of party and/or personal utility they bring is different, and can also affect party mitigation planning.

Flexing between at least one damage caster and one res caster is ideal. As of Dawntrail, Pictomancer Red Mage and Summoner all share a preference for lower spell speed values. Black Mage is alone in wanting more of it, at least up to a point of comfort. However, this does not mean Black Mage has to go "full" spell speed; it is still entirely possible to limit the number of swapped gear to a few pieces.

The role of caster DPS is quite job and context specific. The universal aspects to the role are the use of Addle and other job-specific defensive tools for mitigation, the need to maximize damage, the 1% role bonus, and the need to adjust and take a "ranged" spot for certain mechanics, allowing melees and tanks to keep uptime.

In progression or reclears, when playing Red Mage or Summoner, you are the most important DPS for survival, because you can help the healers with raising fallen allies (or even raise the healers themselves). The impact of a DPS combat raise should not be underestimated. This is especially true if bothers healers have died, or if the whole party is dead, but Limit Break 3 is available, thus allowing you to raise one of the healers to use it. Even with healers alive, it can be valuable to raise fallen party members to preserve healer MP, or so they can focus on protecting the party from incoming damage.

On the other hand, you have Pictomancer and Black Mage, trading recovery for offense. Assuming equal proficiency and gear, they do more damage than both Red Mage or Summoner. In some cases, they can do more than melees, though where the "pure DPS" casters stand relative to other melees is something that is expected to change patch to patch, and at times depending on the encounter. While you lose a very important safety net, you bring additional firepower, which can result in skipping mechanics or meeting DPS checks more comfortably.

All that said, player skill is still the number one factor. An optimized Red Mage or Summoner player will still out-DPS a Pictomancer or Black Mage player who does not really know what they are doing. Likewise, a Pictomancer or Black Mage player who has mastered the job may be more of an asset in progression than an inconsistent Red Mage or Summoner player, even with their combat raise spells.

Caster role actions help with keeping uptime, survival, and party support.

• Swiftcast: All casters (and healers) have Swiftcast, which allows the next spell to be used instantly. The preferred usage depends for each caster due to nuances in each job's rotation.
• Addle: As casters, it is imperative for us to coordinate mitigations with the rest of the party. We should be communicating with teammates to ensure mitigations are appropriately spread out across a raid. It is also worth noting that Addle has a 90 second cooldown, which is the same as a lot of other AOE mitigation abilities used by tanks and other DPS. This is why coordination matters: don't all blow your mitigations on the same raidwide, then nobody has anything up for a hard hitting raidwide that follows shortly after. Addle is also a debuff that is applied to the boss, so it might not be effective in situations where the enemy is untargetable.
• Sleep: Very niche, as the Sleep effect wears off at the next instance of damage. This is generally not used in end-game raids, and tends to be used more in Deep Dungeons or overworld content like Eureka to keep certain mobs at bay.
• Lucid Dreaming: All casters use MP to cast spells. There is not much complexity to using this ability for Pictomancer, Red Mage or Summoner: just press it when your MP is around the 70% mark. For Black Mage, this does not generally need to be used due to Astral Fire blocking MP replenishing effects and Umbral Ice recovering MP.
• Surecast: This prevents knockback or draw-in effects, and prevents our casts from being interrupted. This is a useful tool for keeping uptime if a knockback mechanic occurs while we are casting spells.

Party utility is a major consideration when picking a caster to play. In addition to the Addle role action described earlier, there are a few job-specific tools as well. Understanding how these abilities work is essential to being a successful caster player and making the right decision for your group.

• Verraise: Red Mage's raise is unique in that it can be used back-to-back, MP permitting (typically three to four times). It has a long cast-time if hardcasted, but it can always be cast instantly with a Dualcast proc up.
• Resurrection: Summoner's resurrection is effectively the same as a healer raise. It has a very long cast-time, so it should always be paired with Swiftcast if possible.
• Magick Barrier: Unlike Addle, Red Mage's Magick Barrier is a party buff that requires members to be within range to gain its effect. On the other hand, this means it can help mitigate damage from untargetable enemies. Due to the 5% healing buff effect, this ability is especially useful for repeated instances of damage that require a lot of healing.
• Radiant Aegis / Manaward / Tempera Coat: Other than Red Mage, the other three casters can mitigate incoming damage by putting an oGCD shield on themselves. Due to casters having the lowest HP among DPS, this can be especially valuable during crises or progression. Tempera Coat can also spread its shield to the party via Tempera Grassa, making it a useful survival tool for the party.
• Everlasting Flight / Rekindle / Lux Solaris: During Summoner's phoenix phase, the party will receive Everlasting Flight, a passive AOE regen. Rekindle, a strong single target heal with an added regen effect, can also be used during phoenix phase. Rekindle should be used as much as possible, as it provides a free heal worth up to 1200 healing potency. However, these phases are essentially part of Summoner's base rotation, so there is less flexibility in terms of when you use these healing abilities.
• Vercure: Red Mage lacks the self-mitigation that Summoner and Black Mage has, but instead have access to a GCD healing spell. While it should not be used for sustained healing due to the DPS opportunity cost of doing so, it can come in handy during phases where the boss is untargetable, or as a last resort "clutch" heal if you notice one party member is at risk of dying to an upcoming raidwide.