The meta in Final Fantasy XIV is often misunderstood, poorly explained, and difficult to comprehend. Today I want to explain what it means when a class is meta, why that meta exists, and more importantly, all of the different metas that exist in FFXIV.
Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lynxkameli
Twitter: https://twitter.com/lynxkameli
Discord: https://discord.gg/MXWYtv3
0:00 Intro
0:38 What does meta mean?
0:59 Why the DPS meta exists
4:07 What it means to be “in the meta”
6:48 All of the different metas that exist
7:36 The nuance of classes and its impact on the meta
9:07 Why the potential damage meta is most often the best
11:20 Outro
source
Me guardian, me DarkKnight, me protect – me META
I have played for a good few months now and can safely say that the META is simply…
Pick a Job, learn the Job,. Master the Job.
I have seen Machinists push out insane numbers, Black Mages Xenoglossy for 6 figure hits, Dancers drop fat stacks on bosses, Dragoon Bursts go through the roof.
I've even seen god tier tanks out-DPS average Dmg based players.
Let's not forget the Glare Mages (WHM) rip mobs apart like they were tracing paper.
The real META is become the most competent player you can at whichever job you do.
i think you should have started this video by saying that you can play any class and go with basically an comp in any form of content even ultimates and still succeed, some people especially those coming from other mmos might watch this and get the impression that you need to pick x class in order to do well. The meta only matters when you are competing for rankings which arent even an in game thing.
Do you do snes drunk?
What’s the name of the damage meter you have in the bottom right? New to the game and that would help since no one talks in dungeons outside of initial “hi/hello”
just play samurai, melees arent nearly as punished as ranged, black mages omegalol, imagine playing that shit suffering from 10 times less boss backhit time because as ranged it takes you 5 times longer to move to the boss backside. And to all the richards barking that melees get no dps when bosses do melee specific mechanics that need to be dodged….to that i say….stop kidding yourself those happen so rarely you shouldnt even use them as an excuse.
I dont even understand what the point of black mage is, samurai (or any melee actually) does the job better and if black mage cant excel at the one thing its supposed to do which is dps (since it brings ZERO utility to the party) then why exist? Who the fk wants to struggle getting off 1 year long casts only to be forced to cancel the cast to avoid mechanics? Why do that when you can melee, do your ENTIRE rotations on the move no biggy AND have 10 times easier access to boss backside?
Great video, I especially loved the breakdown of the burst windows, gave me some great insight into what makes a job good for a fight.
Now, I agree with some of the comments say about how playing a job you like is more important than a meta 'job' for mid-level players, and he did say that 'most players will be most effective when they adhere to the potential damage meta'. Which if we think of that as referring to the casual player base, would probably be wrong, because I never want to play anything other than my Monk, and I would perform poorly on other jobs. However, I still get his key point. Which is that for players that are going into ultimate raiding, and are trying to speed run it, going with the potential damage meta jobs would yield more results than trying to learn multiple jobs across multiple fights. That's the point.
I read through some of the comments, and some people really seem up and arms about that last comment he said about the meta for mid-level players, and how forcing new players to play 'meta' jobs is detrimental to the game and the community. To me, that seems like it's just focusing on him forcing people to play jobs they don't wanna play. Yea it would be pretty toxic if you went into fights and forced them to play certain classes. But I am really sure he isn't referring to people who just wanna try to clear ultimate fights. I am pretty sure his definition of 'mid-level players' and 'most of the players' refers to people who are trying to speed run ultimate fights. Yes, maybe it was worded wrongly. But I just dislike that everyone is focusing on his last comment rather than the other things in the video.
Sorry that this wasn't worded really well, I couldn't really put together a cohesive line of thought.
Honestly thoughts this was going to be a Transmog Meta discussion
so basically.. just play well and do the mechanics right. Meta = pointless
Wait, Meta was an ACRONYM all this time?? Or did you just make that shit up?
The potencial damage meta to me really looks absolutley pointless.
Dude excellent video once more! Keep it up! 👍💯
Alg or
Bard and Warrior would never see the META. No one follows potential.
This is grasping at straws. This game is too balanced. Usually metas form because there is a tangible benefit but if every class is represented in the top speed kills basing team comp across a statistical perceived advantage is nonsense. While the video is well made it does more harm than good because people want there to be a meta and they will point at things like this to shame others into playing a meta job.
Something that is tolerated when the game balance has one clear winner. But since this game doesn’t, it’s just a harm to the community.
This is a very informative, well explained, yet surprisingly simplified way of saying "just play the job you want, no job is truly unplayable."
what setup do you have where DRK's 1-2-3 can be on 1-7-9?
Meta is always a cancer lol. Period. It's supposed to only affect the very top end of endgame players, but it doesnt. It trickles down to the very bottom because idiots who dont know anything about the game just hear, DRG better, SAM bad, never play with sam. Without even knowing enough about the game to know why. And then Sam's get ostracised from most content, and if it's not SAM it's some other class. meta has to exist and will always exist. But meta slaves in MMO's are cancer and will always be cancer.
"Warrior was never in the meta." Me looking back in HW, sure ok…
im going to be honest i feel like the dps meta causes less clears, i really despise that it is the main focus on western servers.
Who was this for? Practically for the middle of the pack players the meta doesn't exist, its not something they should be concerned with. The gains of the meta comp are only realized when preforming at a meta level. I.E speed running parse running.
As you move up in skill level then yes, pick up on of these jobs if you wish so you can take part in actually benefiting from using the meta. This whole video is just preaching to the choir, Higher end players have known this for years and middle ground players who wanna move up have plenty of resources already to study up. The other middle core players don't know that this exists and will continue to take things out of context from the balance discord.
It's kinda funny the only Tank with a Sheild doesn't have the most defense.
Meta is more of a backronym, it actually comes from metagame aka the game outside the game. Talking about the game to determine what's best.
The Meta: HAHA your class suck dude, can't even put 69k DPS. What are you doing, bro? Just switch classes because you are NEVER CLEARING SAVAGE, LET ALONE ULTIMATE. HAHAA THIS GUY.
Some guy who knows how to play: Well geez, I just cleared Ultimate with my bard or whatever class is out of the meta.
Remember when Ultimate Bahamut came and they labelled DRK as the worst tank class to get in? how it was "impossible" if you went DRK in ultimate bahamut? Well, the world first was a dark knight. So much for the meta. Meanwhile the meta dudes struggle with floor 3 in savage.
This is not to antagonize the meta. It is good that people learn what classes are better, what melding, rotations and so on; however, some people take that WAY too much at heart and they think that if they play a class that is meta then they are the hot shit and can clear anything. No. If the meta was a must thing then you wouldn't have 8 tanks clearing ultimate.
Why are 2 tanks and healers meta? Do most savage and ultimate fights require tank swaps and the regen-shield combo? If not, then wouldn't 6 dps be meta?
Thank you for saying this. I've been playing for years and I remember people getting MAD that I was playing MCH or BLM or something instead of the "META" but their "META" classmates were dead most of the fight. You're only as good as your own ability to do the mechanics.
The acronym thing bugs me probably more than it should. That is not what meta means! Given your wording, I am not sure that you necessarily think that is the actual meaning of meta, but I've certainly met people who do believe that.
Meta is short for "metagame". It means the game that is not part of the game itself. In this instance, what that refers to is the general ways of playing (strategies, gearing, compositions etc) that are used and propagated by the playerbase. Although players will often try to make things more effective, the acronym doesn't really work that well because there are plenty of different things that players also consider important. Is it getting the fastest clear? Is it minimizing the likelihood of wipes? Is it finding a way to do it that works with low gear or people who don't put out high dps for other reasons? Is it using classes that perform better in unfamiliar encounters even if their dps in perfected encounters is worse?
In guild wars 2 for example, the "meta" for clearing fractals was for a long while to bring a lot of necromancers and one healer – even though it was considerably slower than other methods, it was widely adopted because of the ease of the approach. That's a meta that you wouldn't think is possible if you just go by the definition provided by this acronym.
Every time I hear someone say that "meta" is "Most Effective Tactic Available", I die inside.
No, it is not the most effective tactic available. It is everything about the game that exists outside of the game, including discussions about the game between players, decisions that people make about how they play the game, websites and communities like the Balance discord that theorycraft about the game. A good example of this is how underplayed the MNK class currently is, and how overplayed the SAM class is. Practically speaking, both classes perform at a very similar level to each other in endgame content, and the playerbase overall would be better off with a more even distribution of MNK and SAM players. However, we currently exist in a SAM meta because people are choosing to play SAM more often, regardless of whether or not it is actually the Most Effective Tactic.
That's pretty dumb considering more heals= more opportunities for damage, and more tanking = more opportunities for damage
Coming from WoW and seeing the excellent balancing of the Jobs DPS i had hoped to get away from exclusory metas and loved the idea everyone could just play what they enjoyed and still be viable for all content.
where do i find the dps meter that you are using?
New to the game – I really enjoy this idea that there is no specifically superior way or group comp to play that completely disregards all other options available.
Don't want the meta ruining FFXIV
What game doesnt have a dps meta?