Final Fantasy 14: Dawntrail's release has led to a meta shakeup. From changes to some Job skills and cooldowns to new raids to explore, players are diving into uncharted waters. As a result, many wonder what foods and gear they should be spending limited resources on. What is every job's Best in Slot food for raiding?

The simple answer is that every job has between two and three decent options for meals. Which a player prefers will depend on the stats provided by the rest of their loadout, their personal situation, and playstyle. Keep reading for tips on the top raid foods for each job, and how to choose which is right for you.

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Best In Slot Food For Melee DPS Jobs

A male miqo'te Viper with their swords drawn, from Final Fantasy 14: Dawntrail.

Melee DPS Jobs such as the Monk, the new Viper, or Samuri benefit from similar stats to Tanks, with an extra concentration on crit. As a result, they will typically have the same BIS food. As of patch 7.01, Vegetable Soup or Fruit and Aloe Jelly are both serviceable for raiding. However, Fruit and Aloe Jelly is the number one pick.

Vegetable Soup

  • Vegetable Soup

    • Direct Hit Rate +8% (Max 96)
    • Vitality +8% (Max 141)
    • Determination +8% (Max 58)

This meal is universally good due to its high IL and combination of Direct Hit and Vitality. For melee DPS specifically, Vitality and Determination in small amounts greatly improve survivability while giving a modest damage buff. However, this meal does lack crit, so players who use it may fall slightly behind on damage output.

Fruit and Aloe Jelly

  • Fruit and Aloe Jelly

    • Determination +8% (Max 90)
    • Vitality +8% (Max 132)
    • Critical Hit +8% (Max 54)

Fruit and Aloe Jelly has the perfect blend of statistics for a Melee DPS player, due to a combination of a sizable Critical Hit bonus, and its Vitality, and its Determination. Not only should players see a significant increase in damage from the determination and Critical Hit stats, but it also provides nearly as much Vitality as the Vegetable Soup does.

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Best In Slot Food For Ranged DPS

final-fantasy-14-a-realm-reborn-screenshot-alphinaud-dancer-class

Ranged DPS typically focuses on Determination and Direct Hit, although Skill Speed to reduce GCDs and therefore increase the frequency of your party buffs is important. Determination and Direct Hit are always good, while Skill Speed is usually raised to a specific tier. As a result, Vegetable Soup or Mesquite Soup are the preferred meals, depending on your needed stats.

Vegetable Soup

  • Vegetable Soup

    • Direct Hit Rate +8% (Max 96)
    • Vitality +8% (Max 141)
    • Determination +8% (Max 58)

Vegetable Soup is ideal for raw damage output and is the slightly more selfish choice. This makes it a typical meal choice for Machinists. Other Ranged DPS jobs may use it if they have already reached their desired GCD tier via their gear.

Mesquite Soup

  • Mesquite Soup

    • Skill Speed +8% (Max 96)
    • Vitality +8% (Max 141)
    • Direct Hit Rate +8% (Max 58)

Conversely, Mesquite Soup can bring the player's GCDs to the next tier simply by eating it, while still providing a solid Direct Hit increase. This makes the Bard and Dancer's buffs have a longer overall uptime throughout the fight, so while this won't increase the player's own numbers as much as Vegetable Soup, it will increase the overall party damage significantly.

Best In Slot Food For Magical DPS

Final Fantasy 14: Dawntrail Full Trailer - Krile as the Pictomancer

Somewhat unsurprisingly, Magical DPS Jobs prefer as much straight damage as possible, followed by enough Spell Speed to reach a GCD breaking point of the player's choice. The best meals to eat, keeping in mind the available endgame gear in Dawntrail, are Vegetable Soup and Creamy Alpaca Pasta.

Vegetable Soup

  • Vegetable Soup

    • Direct Hit Rate +8% (Max 96)
    • Vitality +8% (Max 141)
    • Determination +8% (Max 58)

Vegetable Soup will generally suit jobs that want to maximize their damage output without regard to GCDs, such as Black Mages, and those who have already reached their desired Spell Speed Cap.

Creamy Alpaca Pasta

  • Creamy Alpaca Pasta

    • Spell Speed +8% (Max 96)
    • Vitality +8% (Max 141)
    • Direct Hit Rate +8% (Max 58)

Creamy Alpaca Pasta can help players hit their next Spell Speed breakpoint if required, while still providing Direct Hit Rate in moderate amounts. This may be most useful for jobs that have most of their damage tied up in skills with long cooldowns, such as the Summoner or the new Pictomancer.

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Best In Slot Food For Tanks

ff14-power-creep-jobs-gunbreaker-thancred

Tanks typically look for Vitality, Tenacity, and Determination or Critical Hit in their food. With the introduction of the Dawntrail Raids and Culinarian Recipes, most tanks will reach for one of three options: Vegetable Soup, Fruit and Aloe Jelly, or Tacos De Carne Asada. For most Tank jobs, Vegetable Soup is the Best in Slot. However, Gunbreakers will typically lean toward one of the other two.

Vegetable Soup

  • Vegetable Soup

    • Direct Hit Rate +8% (Max 96)
    • Vitality +8% (Max 141)
    • Determination +8% (Max 58)

It is perhaps unsurprising that Vegetable Soup is once again a BiS food. After all, it is hard to compete with Vitality, Determination, and Direct Hit Rate. Players that should take this food include those that have limited crit buffs in their group (no Devilment, Litany, etc.). The extra Vitality can also be useful in some damage-heavy trials.

Fruit And Aloe Jelly

  • Fruit and Aloe Jelly

    • Determination +8% (Max 90)
    • Vitality +8% (Max 132)
    • Critical Hit +8% (Max 54)

However, if your static/Party Finder has substantial Critical Hit Buffs, then Tanks will likely get more mileage out of the Fruit and Aloe Jelly meal. This meal has very similar statistics to Vegetable Soup, except for having Critical Hit instead of Direct Hit. Gunbreakers will benefit especially from this meal, as their rotations include higher damage and crits to begin with.

Tacos De Carne Asada

  • Tacos De Carne Asada

    • Tenacity +8% (Max 96)
    • Vitality +8% (Max 141)
    • Determination +8% (Max 58)

Tacos De Carne Asada has the lowest DPS of the three meals, but the trade-off is its survivability. Tanks receive substantial buffs from having Tenacity, as it acts similarly to armor in most other games, as well as makes healing magic more potent. This meal can be a good choice if you are struggling to survive Tank Busters and want to reduce the strain on your healers, or if you are playing Dark Knight due to its' natively high damage and lower mitigation potential.

Best In Slot Food For Healers

The character Urianger Augurelt enjoying a pineapple drink, from the trailer of Final Fantasy 14: Dawntrail

Healers in Final Fantasy 14 will aim for food with Determination, Critical Hit, or Direct Hit bonuses. Spell Speed, while increasing your damage and healing output dramatically, will severely tax your MP reserves if used in excess. Because of this, Vegetable Soup or Fruit and Aloe Jelly is the best food to consume during raids.

Vegetable Soup

  • Vegetable Soup

    • Direct Hit Rate +8% (Max 96)
    • Vitality +8% (Max 141)
    • Determination +8% (Max 58)

Vegetable Soup provides Determination and Vitality in spades, both of which are useful for healing jobs. The third stat, Direct Hit, while not assisting the player in their primary function of keeping people alive, will nonetheless drastically increase their damage output between healing. Healers generally have very little Direct Hit naturally in their loadout, causing any added to have a dramatic effect.

Fruit And Aloe Jelly

  • Fruit and Aloe Jelly

    • Determination +8% (Max 90)
    • Vitality +8% (Max 132)
    • Critical Hit +8% (Max 54)

Conversely, Fruit and Aloe Jelly is more healing-focused, because while it provides slightly less overall in stats (due to the IL and subsequent max values) it provides Critical Hit instead of Direct Hit. Critical Hit not only affects the player's damage skills but can also proc on healing casts. Critical Heals are game-changing in high-level content, and increased chances of them are never to be turned down.

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Final Fantasy 14 (2010)
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MMORPG
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Systems
PC-1 PlayStation-1 Xbox-1
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Top Critic Avg: 86 /100 Critics Rec: 92%
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Released
August 27, 2013
ESRB
T for Teen: Alcohol Reference, Animated Blood, Language, Suggestive Themes, Violence
Developer(s)
Square Enix
Publisher(s)
Square Enix
Engine
Crystal Tools
Multiplayer
Online Multiplayer
Cross-Platform Play
PC, PS4, PS5 & Xbox Series X|S
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WHERE TO PLAY

DIGITAL
PHYSICAL
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Franchise
Final Fantasy
Genre(s)
MMORPG
Metascore
90