Final Fantasy XIV's aesthetic experience and gameplay varies wildly depending on which role you play and which job you pick. Below is a brief description of each job's specialty, as well as racial options for flavor. It is important to keep in mind that you can play as every job on a single character, switching with a click of a button!
As the front of the party, tanks are the bastions that shield their party from harm. With an ability that makes enemies prioritize them first, tanks are also able to weather large damage that the frailer members of the party could not handle. Should the enemy prove too much to handle, tanks are able to temporarily defy defeat with their own unique invulnerabilities. Their Limit Break heavily reduces damage taken by the whole party.
As the heart of the party, healers are the guardian angels that keep their party alive. Healers employ tools such as health restoration, temporary health shields, damage reduction, health regeneration, and debuff nullifiers to ensure their party can continue fighting. Of course, Healers also contribute to the enemy's defeat with their own offensive spells. Their Limit Break instantly revives and restores the health of all party members.
As the blade of the party, melee DPS are the jobs that prioritize instant high damage attacks from up close. Each melee DPS has abilities that require them to attack from the foe's rear or flank, called positionals. Similar to tanks, They execute their attacks in a defined order to perform combinations, although a melee DPS's combination sequence is much more complex and involved in order to deal as much damage as possible. Their Limit Break deals heavy damage to a single target.