FFXIV Frontline, Complete Player Guide

Win conditions · mechanics · per-map playbook · military doctrine · 14 named plays

Reference patch: 7.5 (Dawntrail era). Frontline balance changes often, re-verify the numbers in Part 1/Part 2 after any major PvP patch.

Sources are listed in full at the end. Everything here is either a verified game mechanic (Lodestone patch notes, consolegameswiki) or explicitly labelled as doctrine/opinion.

Table of contents

• Part 0, What Frontline is#part-0--what-frontline-is
• Part 1, Mechanics reference (the numbers that decide matches)#part-1--mechanics-reference-the-numbers-that-decide-matches
• Part 2, The five maps, in full#part-2--the-five-maps-in-full
• Part 3, The five levers that actually move win rate#part-3--the-five-levers-that-actually-move-win-rate
• Part 4, Per-map playbook#part-4--per-map-playbook
• Part 5, Jobs, role actions and compositions#part-5--jobs-role-actions-and-compositions
• Part 6, Pre-match checklist#part-6--pre-match-checklist
• Part 7, The doctrine: nine principles of war applied#part-7--the-doctrine-nine-principles-of-war-applied
• Part 8, Lanchester and the mathematics of the death ball#part-8--lanchester-and-the-mathematics-of-the-death-ball
• Part 9, Concentration, the reserve, and interior lines#part-9--concentration-the-reserve-and-interior-lines
• Part 10, The indirect approach: winning without the fight#part-10--the-indirect-approach-winning-without-the-fight
• Part 11, Time: the OODA loop and pre-loading#part-11--time-the-ooda-loop-and-pre-loading
• Part 12, The culminating point, and the pursuit that loses matches#part-12--the-culminating-point-and-the-pursuit-that-loses-matches
• Part 13, Coalition dynamics: how to play 1st, 2nd and 3rd#part-13--coalition-dynamics-how-to-play-1st-2nd-and-3rd
• Part 14, The 14 named plays#part-14--the-14-named-plays
• Part 15, The call sheet (command structure)#part-15--the-call-sheet-command-structure
• Part 16, The doctrinal error checklist#part-16--the-doctrinal-error-checklist
• Part 17, Posture by match phase#part-17--posture-by-match-phase
• Part 18, Quick reference card#part-18--quick-reference-card
• Sources#sources

Companion document: `ffxiv-frontline-jobs.md`ffxiv-frontline-jobs.md, the full job/role workup (five roles, all fifteen role actions, the kill chain, counter-pairs, 21 job profiles, per-map affinity matrix, selection strategy). Part 5 below is the short version.

Part 0, What Frontline is

Frontline is FFXIV's large-scale PvP mode, added in patch 2.3. Three teams of up to 24 players fight under the banners of the three Grand Companies, The Maelstrom, The Twin Adder and The Immortal Flames, for a maximum of 72 combatants on one map.

• Match length: 20 minutes maximum. Most matches are decided by rating, not by the timer running out.
• Team assignment: random. You cannot choose your Grand Company team.
• Achievement credit: PvP progress counts toward the Grand Company you are pledged to, not the one you're randomly assigned to.
• Party size: you may queue alone or as a premade of up to four players. This is the hard cap, you cannot bring a full 8-man party.

Requirements and unlock

• Level 30+, Disciple of War or Magic.
• A Soul Crystal equipped (i.e. the first level-30 job quest for your class, or an expansion job unlocked on a base class).
• Enlisted in a Grand Company.
• Unlocked via the quest "Like Civilized Men and Women" from your Grand Company.
• Mounts are not required but are effectively mandatory, every Frontline map makes heavy use of mounts to cross large distances.

The daily rotation

• The available campaign changes at daily reset (7:00 a.m. PST / 8:00 a.m. PDT).
• Only the currently available campaign can be reached through Daily Challenge: Frontline in the Duty Finder.
• The classic maps rotate in the order Secure → Seize → Shatter → Danshig Naadam, and since patch 7.4 Worqor Chirteh (Triumph) is paired alongside the rotating map (the 7.4 notes list the rotation as Seize/Triumph, Shatter/Triumph, Onsal/Triumph, Secure/Triumph).

Rewards

• Tomestones are only awarded to players level 50 or higher.
• Consolation mechanic: if your team ranked 3rd, PvP EXP, Series EXP and Wolf Marks are increased by 10% for each consecutive 3rd-place finish, up to +50%. The bonus carries over if you then place 2nd, and resets entirely on a 1st-place finish.

The landing platform

• Each Grand Company has a landing platform, a safe zone where jobs may be changed freely and PvP Role Actions set, and where you are revived after being KO'd.
• Each team gets 45 seconds confined to their platform at the start for preparation.
• Players who leave the landing platform receive a 10-second Invincibility buff, which exists specifically to prevent spawn camping.
• You can return to your platform at any time with Return, which is how you change jobs mid-match (this resets your Battle High to zero).

Mounts

• Mounts are freely usable. Flying and pillion riding are disabled.
• Any incoming attack forcibly dismounts you and applies the Hoofing It debuff. This debuff must be waited out, it cannot be cleansed with Purify.
• Practical consequence: mount for rotation, dismount voluntarily before contact.

Communication and conduct

• Chat is unrestricted and enemies cannot see it. Use it. Emotes are unrestricted.
• Excessively emoting at downed opponents is a Prohibited Activity that may result in account sanctions.
• Performance Actions are disabled.

The map

• All objective states are marked on the standard map.
• The map shows all friendly players, and shows enemy players only if they are within sight range of any friendly player (as coloured triangles).
• This is the single most important information asymmetry in the mode, and Part 10 exploits it deliberately.

Part 1, Mechanics reference (the numbers that decide matches)

KDA, Knockout, Defeat, Assist

If you land the finishing blow (Knockout) or contribute to it (Assist) you gain Battle High rating. The amount depends on the defeated player's own Battle High rating:

Being knocked out loses your team points, and awards points to the team that killed you. In Secure this is an explicit −10 / +10; in Shatter a KO is worth +8 data to the killer's team.

Battle High

Battle High is a status that increases damage dealt and HP restored by healing actions (including barriers such as Burst).

• Maximum rating is 100; every increment of 20 raises the tier.
• A player reaching Battle High V is announced to the entire match. Expect to be focused.
• As of patch 7.5, being incapacitated no longer reduces your Battle High rating. (Historically a death halved it.) The cost of dying is now tempo and rating, not your power curve.
• Changing jobs completely resets the Battle High gauge. This is the most common self-inflicted loss of a match in progress.
• In Secure, Battle High is also earned by fulfilling objectives (notably defeating the mid-map Allagan machinery).

Limit Break charge times

To promote balanced matches, Limit Break charge time varies with your Grand Company's current standing:

• 1st place: 25% slower charge time
• 2nd place: normal
• 3rd place: 25% faster charge time

This is a deliberate rubber band. If you are behind, the game has handed you a tool, spend it on the leader.

Job modifiers

Damage dealt, damage taken and Limit Break charge time all vary by job. This table is what determines who can physically stand in a fight.

Read this table as a survival ranking. Tanks and melee soak −40% to −55% damage. Ranged and casters take only −25% to −35%. A Black Mage, White Mage or Astrologian caught in the open is a free kill; a Warrior, Gunbreaker, Monk or Samurai is not.

Role Actions (PvP), added in patch 7.2

Available only in Frontline, Rival Wings and the Wolves' Den Pier. Each of the five roles (tank, healer, melee DPS, physical ranged DPS, magical ranged DPS) has three actions, of which you may select one. You set it in PvP Profile under Character in the main menu, outside large-scale PvP, or while in the starting area inside a large-scale PvP duty.

Tank

Melee DPS

Healer

The physical ranged and magical ranged role-action sets are not enumerated in the sources used here; the physical ranged set includes Dervish (damage near the point of impact). Check your PvP Profile for the current lists.

Frontline Campaign Info

A HUD element added in patch 7.2 showing the time to the next objective spawn (and, on Worqor Chirteh, capture progress and weather changes). Watch it constantly, it is the difference between arriving at an objective and reacting to it.

Part 2, The five maps, in full

2.1 The Borderland Ruins (Secure), Carteneau Flats

Added patch 2.3. Removed in 6.4 for revision; returned in patch 7.2 significantly reworked.

Victory: reach 2,400 tactical rating, or hold the highest rating when time expires. Simultaneous 2,400 = draw.

Rating changes as of patch 7.25:

Key locations. Nine occupiable locations (outposts and Allagan ruins) marked by flags, all unoccupied at the start. Standing in proximity to a flag captures it; capture speed scales with the number of your players in proximity. An enemy coming within proximity of your flag turns it neutral. There is a capture jingle and a "Torn from the Heavens" motif when you lose one.

Standing inside the flag circle grants Sheer Will, a large damage-dealt buff, so attacking a defended flag is a bad fight for the attacker.

Sustained rating per three seconds:

The breakpoint is 4. Going from 3 to 4 nodes jumps your rate from 6 to 10 per tick. Four nodes is the floor; more is better but the curve is flattest between 5 and 7.

Teams usually capture in a clockwise or counter-clockwise ring. The location directly in front of each Grand Company's base is tilted in favour of its defender, and many teams simply stop their advance there.

The middle: Allagan weaponry. Periodically the weaponry displacement system spawns Allagan machinery in the centre. The time to the next deployment is on the Frontline Campaign Info HUD.

• 30 seconds before a spawn, one-way personnel displacement panels on three sides of the map activate. Entering one teleports you rapidly to the centre with a 3-second Invincibility buff, but dismounts you.
• The centre is a raised pillar a considerable distance above the ground. Many jobs (tanks with Full Swing in particular) will punt players off the ledges, which usually means an instant KO from fall damage. The areas around the ramps are safest (guardrails); the areas around the teleporters are the most dangerous.
• Interceptor Drones spawn on the six outer hexagonal tiles, use Auto Cannon (a line AoE with roughly a 30-yalm knockback), and continuously respawn while the system is active. The party contributing the most damage gains the rating, Battle High and Prime Air achievement credit. Gold drones award more rating and Battle High.
• Interceptor Command Systems deploy as a new enemy (patch 7.2) using Perimeter Cannon; absorbing this attack increases your rating and gains tactical points for your team.
• Interceptor Nodes are worth +150, by far the largest single objective swing on the map.

Other patch 7.2/7.25 notes: terrain adjusted, key location distribution adjusted, rating per node count adjusted, Sheer Will added, enemy spawn patterns and drone/node actions adjusted, and the team contributing most damage to a drone now grants Battle High rating for all its members.

2.2 Seal Rock (Seize)

Added patch 3.05 (Heavensward).

Victory: accumulate the required amount of Data, 700 in the 72-player campaign, following the patch 6.4 reduction from 800 (the wiki no longer publishes a figure, so confirm on the HUD), or hold the most Data at expiry. Rewards are ranked by Data collected.

Data comes from two sources: occupying Allagan Tomeliths, and defeating enemy players (which both adds to your total and subtracts from theirs).

Allagan Tomeliths, when they activate.

• All are inactive at the start. The map holds roughly 16 tomeliths and they activate at set intervals.
• The opening is scripted: four tomeliths activate 30 seconds after the match begins. After that, activation follows extraction, not the clock.
• Spawn points are fixed; the order is random.
• Each holds a limited quantity of data and deactivates when it is drained. It pays for as long as it holds data, so somebody has to stay on it.
• A drained tomelith is replaced about 15 seconds later by another one activating somewhere else. Watch the map, not the spot you were standing on.
• Full extraction takes about two minutes, and the total is fixed by rank:

A rank is therefore a duration as much as a value: a B is only worth taking if you can hold it for most of two minutes.

• The map thins out and gets richer. The maximum number active at once changes over the campaign: it opens at four, and as the match runs the number that spawn decreases while the rank that spawns rises. Expect a wide, cheap, B-heavy opening and a narrow, expensive, A-and-S endgame.
• Tomeliths activate at one of three ranks, B, A, S, higher ranks are rarer but hold more data. As the match progresses, higher ranks become more likely.
• They can be stolen. Occupying is a long channel that is interrupted by any hit, and an enemy team can claim it after your team has activated it. The ongoing ticks are what pay, so steal back for the denial rather than for any bonus on the claim itself.

The team's Data total is shown on the dedicated scoring banner.

2.3 The Fields of Glory (Shatter)

Added patch 3.3 (Heavensward).

Victory: collect 1,600 Data, or hold the most at expiry. Simultaneous 1,600 = draw. (Raised 1,600 → 2,000 in patch 6.4, then lowered back to 1,600 in patch 6.57.)

Data comes from two sources:

• Destroying Icebound Tomeliths: +1 to ~200 depending on the size of the tomelith and the damage you inflicted. Rewards cap at 50 for a small tomelith and 200 for a large tomelith.
• Defeating enemy players: +8 data.

Icebound Tomeliths ("ice"), when they activate.

• Small ice has 300,000 HP; large ice has 3,000,000 HP. Data: small caps at 50, large at 200.
• Ice is only damageable while active. Every tomelith on the map is inactive at the start, and the order in which they activate differs every match.
• You always get 30 seconds of warning. An activation-forecast icon appears on the 2D map 30 seconds before an ice becomes active, and the tomelith lights up where it stands. That warning is the whole map: it is how you arrive before the other two companies instead of after them.
• The four map states, in order. Read these off the map and you always know what is about to happen:

• The opening. The first forecast shows as the match starts and the first ice becomes damageable roughly 15 to 30 seconds in, with two large ice activating together. In general there are always two large ice primed to activate and a maximum of two large ice active at once.
• Small ice activates in waves. The two wave times you can plan around are 12:30 and 4:30 remaining on the timer. These are community-observed rather than an official figure, and they do not reconcile exactly with the official timers below, so trust the map outline over the clock.
• The official timers (patch 6.55, unchanged since):

• Large ice comes back in a minute; small ice does not. Large ice respawns in 60 seconds, so the contest over it never really ends. Small ice is gone for six minutes, so a small ice your company takes is one the others cannot answer for a long time. That asymmetry should decide late target choice.
• By the end of the campaign every tomelith on the map will have activated at least once.
• Battle High is critical here. Faster kills of ice = faster score. A successful Grand Company places equal or greater importance on Battle High than on anything else.

Positioning and plays.

• Three of the four large ice are connected via a ramp to the left of a Grand Company's landing platform. Attacking another company's large ice is extremely risky. Attacking from the middle field in particular invites a flank ("pinch") by the third Grand Company.
• Dropping down from the cliffs to the right of the landing platforms cuts off your own retreat, a committal play usually best avoided.
• The middle large ice is the scene of the most intense fighting, since it is freely accessible to all three companies.

2.4 Onsal Hakair (Danshig Naadam)

Added patch 5.15 (Shadowbringers).

Victory: reach 1,400 tactical rating, or hold the highest at expiry. (Lowered 1,800 → 1,600 in patch 5.18, then 1,600 → 1,400 in patch 6.4.) Rating comes from claiming ovoos and defeating enemy players (which raises yours and lowers theirs).

Ovoos are sacred sites with four states:

1. Inactive, cannot be claimed, but you should note the position for when it activates.
2. Activating, a symbol appears above it showing its rank and time to activation; the symbol gradually completes.
3. Active, claimable by interacting. If you are attacked while claiming, the process is interrupted.
4. Claimed, it increases that team's rating over time.

Critical difference from Seize: a claimed ovoo cannot be seized by the opposition. Once claimed, the points are yours for its duration. After a time it simply returns to inactive.

Rank, and what a claim actually pays. When an ovoo activates it is randomly assigned B, A or S, shown by its shape:

An ovoo pays out continuously for 30 seconds after the claim, then vanishes and a new ovoo appears immediately. Therefore a claim is worth rate × seconds left in the match, capped at its rank total. A tick lands every 3 seconds, so a partial final window still pays:

In a 1,400-point match a full S claim is 14% of the win in one action; a B claim is 3.6%. If your alliance sits at 1,350 and an S ovoo is up with 20 seconds left, that claim ends the match.

Higher ranks are rarer and the closer to the centre of the battlefield, the greater the likelihood of a high rank. As the battle progresses the number of simultaneously active ovoos decreases while the likelihood of high ranks increases, the late game is typically one or two S-rank ovoos and few A-ranks. Late-game ovoo value is concentrated, not reduced: this is the one map where the endgame is more about objectives than the midgame is.

Kills on this map. A KO is +8 and being KO'd is −8, flat, not scaled by the victim's Battle High (Battle High scales only your own damage and healing). A death is therefore a 16-point swing: about a third of a B-rank ovoo, 8% of an S. You cannot win this map by farming kills; you can lose it by feeding them.

The centre S-rank ovoo is intended to be contested by all three teams and frequently becomes a long stalemate.

Community doctrine for the endgame.

• Claims, not kills, decide the map. Claim any ovoo you can complete unchallenged, because a claimed ovoo cannot be taken back, with 30 seconds left that is uncontestable insurance.
• Denial is cheap. Breaking an enemy claim costs one ranged hit from outside the circle. While leading, shadow the ovoo the trailing team needs rather than fighting their main body.
• Do not garrison a claimed ovoo. Claim it and leave; the points are already yours.
• One claimer, the rest screening. Because any damage interrupts the claim, put one player on the ovoo and everyone else in a ring facing outward.
• The map's phases are legible from what is spawning: early = many B, occasional A · mid = two or three A at once, rare S · late = one or two S, rare A. Chase rank as the match matures.
• Pincer the highest-scoring alliance. Handing space, even points, to the lowest-ranked alliance is often correct: you win when someone else collapses, and the leader is the only team that can beat you.
• If you are 3rd, never fight the team just above you. You need them to overtake the leader.

Claim or fight?, the endgame decision matrix.

The rate race. Because everything in Frontline pays per 3 seconds, breadth beats quality: six B ovoos held = 30 rating/3s; one S held = 20 rating/3s. Take the cheap ovoos nobody wants, not only the shiny one.

2.5 Worqor Chirteh (Triumph)

Added patch 7.4 (Dawntrail).

Victory: reach 1,400 tactical rating, or hold the highest at expiry.

Triumphs have four states: Inactive → Activating → Unclaimed → Claimed.

Fields of Triumph. When a triumph is unclaimed, several fields appear around it. Once a single team secures all fields, that team claims the triumph.

• The number of fields equals the vertices of the triumph shape, a triangle has three fields, a diamond has four.
• Only one player is required to stand in each field to capture it. More players do not speed it up. Once a field is captured, the player may leave it and move to another.
• Fields cannot be captured while a member of an opposing Grand Company is inside the contested area.
• Capture progress is shown in the Frontline Campaign Info HUD element.
• A claimed triumph increases rating over time and cannot be seized by the opposition; after a while it reverts to inactive and a triumph elsewhere becomes unclaimed.

Rank. On activation a triumph is randomly assigned B, A or S, indicated by its shape. Higher ranks are rarer but generate rating faster. Higher rank = more fields to capture.

Terrain. Triumphs in the central gully are harder to capture, because ranged jobs can attack from above.

Weather. Two weather events, on a fixed schedule:

• Snow, approximately 16:00 remaining. Snow spirits appear and cast "Soldiers of 'Fridgeration", creating snow troops of various sizes around the arena as obstacles. The triple crossroads in the central gully is blocked by a large snow soldier, forcing the long way around. The spirits also repeatedly cast Blessed Blast, icy circle AoEs, slowly filled in, and players caught in the blast are protected by a Snow Fort barrier that nullifies damage (a usable absorb/bait tool).
• Auroras, approximately 9:00 remaining. Two effects: increases the likelihood that triumphs activate at a higher rank, and gradually fills the limit gauge of all players.

Claimed triumphs and weather changes are announced in the battle log.

Part 3, The five levers that actually move win rate

1. Someone has to call the shots. Every credible guide says the same thing: a shot-caller with macro'd calls beats raw job quality. If nobody is leading, lead, even badly. This is the highest-return action available to an individual player.
2. Fight as one mass. A 20-player body beats three roving six-man groups every time: it wins the fight, farms Battle High from it, and then takes the objective with the damage buff. Scattered players feed Battle High to whoever is grouped.
3. Farm Battle High early, then protect your position. You want Battle High before the first big objective. Take safe fights only, gang up on stragglers, never 1v2, never dive a guarded group. Once you are BH IV, V you are announced to the whole match: stay inside your body, not on its edge.
4. Play the leader, not the scoreboard. As 2nd or 3rd, your target is the 1st-place team: deny their objectives, pinch them while they are engaged with the other team, and never let them farm free kills off the weakest team.
5. Minimap up at all times, rotate on mounts. Objectives and enemy triangles exist only on the map. Fringe objectives nobody is defending are free points; the middle is where you go with your team only.

Discipline rule that saves runs: start overly cautious. Disengage at roughly half MP, retreat toward your team (never toward your spawn), and treat not dying as worth more than chasing a kill, deaths hand the enemy both rating and Battle High.

Part 4, Per-map playbook

Secure, the node ring

• Treat four nodes as your floor. The 3→4 breakpoint doubles your income rate (6 → 10 per tick).
• Rotate the ring clockwise, and collapse to the middle when the weaponry timer is close. Be on the pad 30 seconds early; the teleport dismounts you, so mount up again before you land in a fight.
• Mid objectives in value order: Nodes (+150) > gold/α drones (+30) > Command Systems (+24) > drones (+10).
• Fight on the ramps with guardrails, not near the teleport pad edges, the centre is a raised pillar and knockbacks (Full Swing, MCH/MNK/WAR toolkits) turn fights into fall-death KOs.
• Take the node off the enemy, then kill the enemy, the party with the most damage on a drone gets Battle High for all its members.

Seize, hold and contest

• Tomeliths are stealable and the channel is interrupted by any damage. The correct sequence is always: win the fight at the tomelith, then channel.
• A KO both adds your Data and subtracts theirs, fights at S-rank tomeliths are worth double.
• Stay mobile. Flank the leader. If you are leading, secure the tomeliths on your own side of the map and watch the 2nd-place team specifically.

Shatter, damage race

• Only damage dealt to ice pays. Small ice caps at 50 data, large at 200; small ice is 300k HP, large is 3M HP.
• Battle High literally converts into score here, because 50% more damage means faster breaks.
• Small ice always spawns at 12:30 and 4:30 remaining. Be in position beforehand.
• Never attack another company's large ice from the middle field, that lane invites the third team's pinch. Never drop off the cliffs to the right of a landing platform; it commits you with no retreat.
• The centre large ice is the set-piece fight. Win it or deny it; do not lose 8 players trying to solo it.

Danshig Naadam, first to the ovoo wins it

• Claimed ovoos cannot be stolen, so this is a pure race: be there before it activates.
• Interrupt enemy claims with AoE, any hit breaks the channel, and one AoE can interrupt several players at once.
• Rank rises toward the centre (B → A → S), and late game means fewer but richer ovoos.
• The centre S ovoo is a deliberate three-way stalemate. Decide as a team whether to commit or to farm contested A-ranks and stragglers while the other two bleed each other.
• If you are 1st, sit on the ovoo side of the map. If you are 2nd or 3rd, deny the leader and let them fight the third team.
• Roving players who ignore the central stalemate can quietly take objectives and win under everyone's nose.

Triumph, spread thin, then concentrate

• A triumph needs all its fields captured, each field needing one player and being blocked by any enemy inside it. So this map rewards three or four small squads covering fields simultaneously and punishes 3v15 fights at safe nodes.
• The central gully is a ranged job's dream (attack down from the rim) and the hard way to capture from below.
• Snow (~16:00): reroute early, the triple crossroads is blocked by a large snow soldier. Use the Blessed Blast indicators deliberately: standing in one gives you a Snow Fort shield that nullifies damage.
• Auroras (~9:00): higher-rank triumphs become likely and everyone's Limit Break gauge fills. Hold your LB for this window.
• Community consensus (r/ffxiv): the death ball still wins this map. A team that only farms uncontested nodes will lose the moment either other team starts contesting objectives.

Part 5, Jobs, role actions and compositions

Full treatment in the companion document `ffxiv-frontline-jobs.md`ffxiv-frontline-jobs.md, the five roles, all fifteen role actions with the JP community's pick per job, the five-stage kill chain, counter-pairs, 21 job workups, a 21×5 map-affinity matrix, and selection strategy. The below is the short version.

Where the meta sits

From role modifiers plus community reporting:

• Warrior, denies Guard with minimal risk, survives everything, useful even at low skill.
• Ninja, absorbs substantial damage, deals significant damage even when played badly, hard to kill when played well. Strong solo pick.
• Bard, constant group-wide Limit Break gauge support; one of the few jobs whose value rises dramatically with experience.
• Gunbreaker, good durability and tide-turning burst, but precision-dependent.
• Reaper, commonly cited top solo pick.
• Dark Knight, solid, but carries a stigma from its over-tuned past; many players never learned to play it properly and dive in and die.
• Viper, strong but complex; rarely played well in random matches.
• Machinist, punts players off ledges on Secure; situational elsewhere.

The honest summary: job fit beats tier lists. Role modifiers mean tanky jobs are the ones who can stand on an objective while it ticks. A coordinated WAR + healer + two melee quartet out-wins an uncoordinated team of higher-tier picks.

Compositions

You can only queue with three other players, so build the standard four-piece:

• Tank, the vanguard. Front of the formation, always the initiator. The party does not engage until the tank engages.
• Healer, rear of the formation, out of enemy range but within healing range. Priority one is the tank; top up DPS if the situation allows. If the tank dies, the group usually follows.
• Two DPS, several steps behind the tank, out of harm's way but close enough to burst a target the moment the tank commits.

Voice chat is a large advantage but macros can substitute. The key is that everyone follows the caller in a split second.

Role-action picks that matter

• Tank → Full Swing on Secure (the ledge punt), Rampart if you are being focused, Rampage when the enemy healer is the target.
• Melee → Smite for the reset-on-kill snowball, Swift to escape a collapsing fight, Bloodbath for extended solo duels.
• Healer → Diabrosis is the anti-healer button (−33% healing received); Stoneskin II if your group is eating AoE.
• Physical ranged → Bravery almost always: *+25% damage dealt and −25% damage taken for 15s on a 30s* recast, the strongest role action in the mode.
• Magical ranged → Phantom Dart (+25% damage taken on the target, 15s recast); Comet (20,000 potency) only when you can stand still for the 2.4s uncancellable cast.

Part 6, Pre-match checklist

1. Set your role action and hotbars in the PvP Profile before queueing.
2. Open the map the second you load, and leave it open.
3. Decide your job before the gate. You may swap at the base, but swapping resets Battle High, decide once and commit.
4. Read the Frontline Campaign Info timer: it tells you before Secure weaponry and other mid objectives go live.
5. Mount before the gate opens.
6. First fights: pick stragglers only, build Battle High, then commit.
7. Nominate or become the caller. One voice.

Part 7, The doctrine: nine principles of war applied

Military doctrine compresses strategy into nine principles, conventionally memorised as MOOSEMUSS: Mass, Objective, Offensive, Security, Economy of force, Manoeuvre, Unity of command, Surprise, Simplicity.

Run a Frontline match through them and the failures are legible at a glance.

Doctrinal note: the nine principles are linked through the master principle, the objective. Everything else exists to serve it.

Part 8, Lanchester and the mathematics of the death ball

Lanchester's square law: when forces engage with aimed fire at range, where each unit can shoot at any target and receive fire from any direction, combat power is proportional not to the number of units but to the square of the number of units.

Worked examples from the literature:

• 2 vs 3 units → the advantage is 3² − 2² = 5
• 2 vs 4 units → 4² − 2² = 12
• 2 vs 5 units → 5² − 2² = 21
• A 2:1 numerical advantage yields 4× the firepower and inflicts four times the punishment.
• A 3:1 numerical advantage is a 9:1 combat-power advantage.
• Also: group fighting ability rises with the square of group size but only linearly with individual fighting ability. Defeating an adversary three times as numerous would require fighters nine times as effective.

Frontline is square-law warfare: AoE damage means every player can hit every target in a blob. Three derived rules:

The 4× Rule

Before any engagement, count.

• ≥1.5× their numbers → engage, fully and immediately. Half-committing throws away the advantage you paid for.
• Roughly even → do not take the fight. Take the objective. Walk past them.
• Outnumbered → do not engage at all. Bait, delay, withdraw toward allies.

The Defile (converting the square law to a linear law)

The square law holds only where fire can be concentrated. Lanchester's own conclusion: concentrated fire favours a square-law outcome, whereas positional fire and one-to-one combat favour a linear-law outcome.

So when outnumbered, fight where fire cannot concentrate: corridors, corners, stairs, narrow ramps, line-of-sight-breaking terrain. This converts the enemy's n² into n¹, and it is the only doctrinally sound way a smaller group beats a larger one in Frontline. It is also why chasing a routed enemy into a bottleneck is a gift to them.

Split Forcing (inverting the law onto the enemy)

You do not have to kill their 24 bodies, you have to separate them. Splitting a 24 into 12 + 12 destroys half their combat power without a single kill. Frontline's maps hand you the weapon: multiple simultaneously active objectives. Every objective you credibly threaten forces a detachment.

This reframes objectives entirely: objectives are not just income, they are a dispersion machine. Threaten three, and an enemy who responds to all three is defeated in detail by whichever two-thirds of your mass you keep together.

The 7.5 amendment

Because Battle High no longer drops on death, death is now cheap in power terms and expensive only in tempo (respawn travel) and rating (Secure −10, Shatter 8 data to the enemy). Post-7.5 doctrine therefore shifts from "preserve your Battle High above all" to "preserve your bodies and your position", and deliberate aggressive trades at objectives are more defensible than they were before 7.5. Job-swapping still zeroes Battle High and remains its own category of self-inflicted failure.

Part 9, Concentration, the reserve, and interior lines

The Schwerpunkt

Clausewitz's centre of gravity (Schwerpunkt) is "the hub of all power and movement, on which everything depends", "the point against which all our energies should be directed." Doctrine demands you name one and put everything on it: "MID PILLAR, EVERYONE, NOW." Everything else is economy of force.

The Floating Squad (the decisive reserve)

The most alien concept in pub Frontline and the highest-value one. Keep 6, 8 players permanently uncommitted. The reserve has three doctrinal jobs:

• Security, the third team will arrive at every fight; the reserve plugs the flank the main body cannot see.
• Exploitation, a won fight is worthless unconverted. The main body breaks them; the reserve takes the objective while they are broken. "You cannot hit the enemy with effect unless you have first created the opportunity; you cannot make that effect decisive unless you exploit the second opportunity that comes before he can recover."
• Counter-punch, the reserve strikes while the enemy is committed to your main body, which is the only moment a six-man group can beat a ten-man group.

A team with a reserve beats a team of identical skill without one, every time.

Interior lines and the pivot

Jomini defined interior lines as those which let a commander "concentrate the masses and maneuver with his whole force in a shorter period of time than it would require for the enemy to oppose to them a greater force." In battlefield terms, interior lines allow more rapid concentration of firepower and manpower, and greater tactical flexibility, letting a numerically inferior force achieve local superiority.

The central position is a force multiplier because you can reinforce any front faster than the enemy can concentrate against you. In Frontline:

• Secure: the mid-ring plus the pillar is the pivot. Holding it means reaching either flank objective before the enemy can, so mid control is worth more than its tick rate.
• Triumph: the central gully is the pivot and the ranged high ground. Own it and you can shift to any triumph; lose it and you spend the match on exterior lines.
• Onsal: the centre is where S-ranks spawn, so the centre is the income source and the pivot.
• The corollary holds in reverse: exterior lines are a trap. Attacking both flanks at once divides you into fractions the enemy can crush successively.

Part 10, The indirect approach: winning without the fight

Liddell Hart, building on Sun Tzu's cheng (direct/fixing) and ch'i (indirect/striking) forces: "Dislocation is the aim of strategy; its sequel may be either the enemy's dissolution or his easier disruption in battle." And: the greater the psychological surprise and dislocation, the greater the victory. Dislocation is physical (separate them, endanger their supply and retreat routes) and psychological (induce the feeling of being trapped).

Liddell Hart's study of 280 campaigns across 25 centuries found that only six times did a decisive result follow a plan of direct strategic approach to the enemy's main army.

Trade the Centre for the Ring

The centre objective on Onsal, Triumph and Secure is the line of greatest expectation, expected, contested, and the site of the three-way stalemate that consumes most of a pub match. Doctrine says the line of least expectation and line of least resistance lie elsewhere. Deliberately cede the S-rank glory objective and take three mid-tier objectives simultaneously: the rate you accumulate while 30 players fight over one S-ovoo will out-produce it, and they will feel entitled to a win they are not earning.

The Rear-Ring Raid

Liddell Hart: endanger the enemy's lines of retreat and rear. Every map has objectives near each base that teams consider "safe" and therefore under-defend. Mount a squad, ride the flank, take the enemy's home-side nodes while their main body is forward, with one caveat: their respawns emerge at the landing platform right behind you, with 10 seconds of Invincibility when they leave it. Doctrine: raid, don't occupy. You are buying a 60-second income spike and forcing a change of front, not a permanent holding.

The Anvil and the Hammer (cheng / ch'i)

Formalise the split: roughly one third of your force fixes (visible, engaged, absorbing attention) while two thirds strike the enemy's exposed fraction. This is classical defeat in detail, and it is a different play from the death ball, it is the death ball applied to the enemy's weakest piece rather than their centre.

Defeat in detail, in its original form, is "to place masses of your army in contact with fractions of your enemy": contain one fraction with a detachment while falling on the other with the bulk of your forces. This is economy of force applied offensively.

The Ghost Flank (deception)

Sun Tzu: "All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must seem inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near." And: "Hiding order beneath the cloak of disorder is simply a question of subdivision."

Frontline enforces a beautiful, exploitable rule: the enemy map only shows players within sight range of their own units. Therefore:

• Manufacture strength. Eight players riding in a tight visible column read as a 20-man push. The enemy commits to defend; you do not go.
• Manufacture absence. Hold your main body out of sight behind terrain while two players show themselves; the enemy assumes the rest is where the two are.
• Ghost flank. A squad visibly rides toward objective A, turns at the last moment, and hits objective C.

In an MMO with 72 players and no voice comms between teams, the enemy's only sensor is the map. Deception has an unusually high return here, and almost nobody uses it.

Part 11, Time: the OODA loop and pre-loading

John Boyd's OODA loop, Observe, Orient, Decide, Act, holds that the aim is to operate inside the adversary's decision cycle, to "change the situation more rapidly than the opponent can comprehend," forcing him to re-observe, re-orient, re-decide and re-act. Getting inside the enemy's time cycle inflicts disorder upon him. Timing and tempo are not about out-speeding an opponent for its own sake, the point is to make his orientation fail.

The Pre-Load

Frontline has publicly known timers:

• Shatter: small ice always activates at 12:30 and 4:30 remaining.
• Triumph: snow at ~16:00, auroras at ~9:00 (higher triumph ranks + Limit Break gauge fills for everyone).
• Secure: the weaponry timer is on the HUD, and teleport pads go live 30 seconds before the spawn.

Doctrine: be standing on the objective before it becomes an objective. You win the fight before it starts, because the enemy's decision cycle begins when the marker appears and yours began 30 seconds earlier. Pre-declare the rotation in chat: "at 9 minutes we are all on the gully."

The Sunk-Cost Strike

To break their loop, attack a team at the exact moment it has committed to an objective. Their decision becomes forced: disengage and forfeit what they have already paid for, or stay and eat the fight. A choice between two losses is the ideal strategic attack, it is the only way to make an enemy fight on your terms while you keep the initiative.

Part 12, The culminating point, and the pursuit that loses matches

Clausewitz: the attacker's superiority diminishes as the attack advances, until he reaches the culminating point of the attack, the point at which "the superior strength of the attack... is just enough to maintain a defense and wait for peace." Beyond it, "the scale turns and the reaction follows with a force that is usually much stronger than that of the original attacker."

The correlated culminating point of victory: moral and physical superiority gained through a successful battle generally augments the victor's strength, but only to a certain extent.

Break Contact on Victory

The most common way of throwing away a won fight in Frontline is the pursuit. Chase the enemy back toward their landing platform and you have passed your culminating point: strung out, wounded, out of cooldowns, and now facing fresh respawns with 10 seconds of Invincibility streaming off the platform.

Doctrine: stop at the objective line. The won fight was for the objective, not for their bodies. Take the node, remount, redeploy.

Never reinforce failure

If a fight is going badly, more bodies feeds the enemy Battle High, and on Secure, feeds their rating. Accept the loss and spend those bodies on an undefended objective. Liddell Hart's formulation of the same rule: reinforce success, never failure. Trickling in is the enemy defeating you in detail.

Part 13, Coalition dynamics: how to play 1st, 2nd and 3rd

A three-way game is not a two-way game. Game theory and history agree: at each stage, the weakest players align against the strongest player, alliances form to restore the balance of power. There is a documented paradox of power in which a player can suffer from being "too strong," because a runaway leader becomes everyone's target.

Applied to Frontline:

If you are 1st, the Quiet Leader. Accumulate quietly, hold what you have, stay out of the centre melee, and never present a single clumped mass that invites a 2-vs-1 pinch. A leader who farms in the open converts a won game into a 2v1. Your enemy is the clock, not the other teams.

If you are 2nd, attack the leader's rate, not their existence. Your enemy is 1st's income. Deny their objectives and pinch them when they are engaged. The biggest mistake 2nd place makes is helping annihilate 1st for free, which simply crowns 3rd.

If you are 3rd, you need chaos. Your enemy is the stalemate. Seek to create and prolong fights between the other two, then sweep objectives while they grind. Let them fight: every minute two enemies spend killing each other is a minute of uncontested points for a team that is elsewhere.

Part 14, The 14 named plays

Expanded:

1. The 4× Rule, Before any engagement, count. ≥1.5× their numbers: engage fully and immediately, because half-commitment wastes the square-law advantage you paid for. Roughly even: do not take the fight, take the objective, walk past them. Outnumbered: do not engage at all; bait, delay, withdraw toward allies. Doubling the enemy's numbers quadruples their damage output and quarters your survival.
2. The Defile, The square law needs open ground where fire can concentrate. When outnumbered, fight in corridors, corners, stairwells and narrow ramps. You are converting their n² into n¹. This is the only sound way a smaller group beats a larger one, and it is why pursuing a routed enemy into a bottleneck is a gift to them.
3. The Split Forcing, You do not need to kill their 24, you need to separate them. Splitting 24 into 12 + 12 destroys half their combat power with no kills. Threaten three objectives credibly and whoever answers all three is beaten in detail. Objectives are not just income; they are a dispersion machine.
4. The Schwerpunkt, Name one decisive point per phase and put the mass on it: "MID PILLAR, EVERYONE, NOW." Anything else is economy of force. Rotate the schwerpunkt on the timer, never opportunistically.
5. The Floating Squad, Six to eight players permanently uncommitted. They plug the flank the third team always attacks, convert a won fight into a captured objective, and counter-punch while the enemy is committed to your main body. This is the single highest-value habit a caller can institute.
6. The Pivot, Hold the central position on the map and you can reach any front faster than the enemy can concentrate against you. On Secure that is the mid-ring plus the pillar; on Triumph it is the gully; on Onsal it is the centre where the S-ranks spawn. Attacking on both flanks simultaneously (exterior lines) divides you into crushable fractions.
7. Trade the Centre for the Ring, The centre objective is the line of greatest expectation and eats most of a pub match in a stalemate. Cede it deliberately and take three flanking objectives at once. You will out-produce the melee while its participants believe they are winning.
8. The Rear-Ring Raid, Take the nodes near the enemy base that they consider safe. Mount, ride the flank, take the objective, withdraw before their respawns arrive with fresh Invincibility. Raid, do not occupy.
9. The Anvil and the Hammer, Split into roughly one third fixing (visible, engaged, absorbing attention) and two thirds striking the exposed enemy fraction. This is defeat in detail: contain one portion while destroying another.
10. The Ghost Flank, Because the enemy map only shows what their units can see, eight riders can read as twenty. Feint visibly at objective A, turn, hit objective C. Also: keep the main body out of sight while two players are visible, to make the enemy misplace the rest of you.
11. The Pre-Load, Use the public timers (Shatter 12:30/4:30, Triumph 16:00 snow and 9:00 auroras, Secure weaponry + pads 30s early). Be standing there before the marker appears. Pre-declare rotations in chat.
12. The Sunk-Cost Strike, Attack exactly when the enemy has committed to an objective. Their choice becomes losing the objective or losing the fight; either way you own the initiative.
13. Break Contact on Victory, Stop at the objective line. Pursuit past your culminating point runs you into respawns with Invincibility. Take the node, remount, redeploy. And never reinforce a losing fight, that is how the enemy defeats you in detail.
14. The Quiet Leader, As 1st, accumulate without clumping and stay out of the centre; a visible runaway leader is a 2-v-1 waiting to happen. As 3rd, manufacture chaos between the other two. As 2nd, attack the leader's income but keep the third team alive as a distraction.

Part 15, The call sheet (command structure)

Doctrine is worthless without a command structure. Simplicity demands one-clause orders; unity of command demands one voice.

Standing orders (short, unambiguous, announced before they are needed):

REGROUP <place> · PUSH <objective> NOW · HOLD · BAIL · PINCH INCOMING <direction> · FLOAT · NO CHASE

Rules of engagement as a decision tree:

1. Count first. ≥1.5× → engage completely and immediately.
2. Even → do not fight; take the objective and make them come to you on your ground.
3. <1× → bait, delay, disengage toward allies (never toward base), and look for a defile.
4. Won the fight → stop, remount, take the objective. No pursuit.
5. Losing a fight → do not reinforce it. Redeploy.

Two more caller habits:

• Two scouts minimum, mounted. Remember the map only shows enemies within friendly sight range, treat the absence of enemy triangles as unknown, not safe.
• Declare disengagements early. Calling "BAIL" one GCD before you need to is worth more than calling it perfectly at the last moment.

Part 16, The doctrinal error checklist

Each of these is a named violation. Calling them out in chat actually corrects pub behaviour.

Part 17, Posture by match phase

The framing question that resolves most mid-match arguments: who is your enemy right now?

• 1st place → your enemy is the clock.
• 2nd place → your enemy is 1st's rate.
• 3rd place → your enemy is the stalemate.

Part 18, Quick reference card

Engagement gate: ≥1.5× numbers engage · even → take the objective · fewer → disengage.

Battle High: max 100 · +10% damage and healing per 20 · BH V is announced match-wide · 7.5: no loss on death · job change resets it.

Kill value: victim's BH tier at 4/6/8/12/16/20 (KO) or 2/3/4/6/8/10 (assist).

Limit Break: 1st place +25% slower charge · 3rd place +25% faster.

Survivability: tanks/melee −40% to −55% damage taken; ranged/casters −25% to −35%.

Map rules: 72 players · 20 minutes · 24 per team · premade max 4 · random Grand Company · 10s Invincibility on leaving the landing platform · any hit dismounts you and applies uncleansable Hoofing It.

Thresholds: Secure 2,400 (node breakpoint at 4) · Seize 700 data (lowered from 800 in 6.4, verify on the HUD) · Shatter 1,600 data (KO = 8; small ice caps 50, large 200) · Onsal 1,400 · Triumph 1,400.

Ovoo payout (Onsal): B 50 · A 100 · S 200, paid at 5 / 10 / 20 per 3 seconds over 30 seconds, a claim is worth rate × time left, capped at the rank total. KO +8 · death −8 (flat; a 16-point swing).

Timers: Shatter small ice at 12:30 and 4:30 remaining · Triumph snow ~16:00, auroras ~9:00 · Secure teleport pads live 30s before weaponry spawn.

Secure mid values: Nodes +150 · α drones +30 · Command Systems +24 · drones +10 · KO +10 · death −10.

Secure node rate per 3s: 1→2, 2→4, 3→6, 4→10, 5→12, 6→14, 7→18, 8→20, 9→22.

Triumph capture: one player per field; extra bodies do not speed it; any enemy inside a field blocks it; claimed triumphs cannot be seized.

Sources

Game mechanics

• Frontline, Final Fantasy XIV Online Wikihttps://ffxiv.consolegameswiki.com/wiki/Frontline (KDA, Battle High, job modifiers, Limit Break charge times, landing platform, mounts, map, rewards)
• The Borderland Ruins (Secure), FFXIV Online Wikihttps://ffxiv.consolegameswiki.com/wiki/The_Borderland_Ruins_(Secure)
• Seal Rock (Seize), FFXIV Online Wikihttps://ffxiv.consolegameswiki.com/wiki/Seal_Rock_(Seize)
• The Fields of Glory (Shatter), FFXIV Online Wikihttps://ffxiv.consolegameswiki.com/wiki/The_Fields_of_Glory_(Shatter)
• Onsal Hakair (Danshig Naadam), FFXIV Online Wikihttps://ffxiv.consolegameswiki.com/wiki/Onsal_Hakair_(Danshig_Naadam)
• Worqor Chirteh (Triumph), FFXIV Online Wikihttps://ffxiv.consolegameswiki.com/wiki/Worqor_Chirteh_(Triumph)
• Role Actions (PvP), FFXIV Online Wikihttps://ffxiv.consolegameswiki.com/wiki/Role_Actions_(PvP)
• Frontline, The Lodestone play guidehttps://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodestone/playguide/contentsguide/frontline/
• Worqor Chirteh (Triumph), The Lodestonehttps://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodestone/playguide/contentsguide/frontline/6/
• Patch 7.2 notes (Secure rework, role actions)https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodestone/topics/detail/3c4910f373e497acd3428c37f6358e341e4cc06d/
• Patch 7.4 notes (Triumph added)https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodestone/topics/detail/06944d892fd98cc00b2a28ff77edbafa4f7eef54/
• Patch 5.18 notes, Naadam rating 1,800 → 1,600, KO/death value 10 → 8 (JP Lodestone)https://jp.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodestone/topics/detail/f586b313e4f6c76c0cc18d99fc15c6058bb0f5ee
• Patch 6.4 notes, Naadam rating 1,600 → 1,400; **Seize data 800 → 700**; Shatter data 1,600 → 2,000 with Allagan tomeliths removed from Shatterhttps://www.ign.com/wikis/ffxiv/FFXIV_6.4_The_Dark_Throne_Patch_Notes_and_Release_Date
• Patch 6.55 notes, Shatter ice timers: first small ice 420 s, reactivation 420 s, destroyed small reappears 360 s, destroyed large respawns 60 s, 15 small and 2 large active at once; max HP 300,000 / 3,000,000https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodestone/topics/detail/012d8e96b662a92eb4405c25b9958184db248348
• Shatter patch history including 6.57 (Shatter data back to 1,600, KO 5 → 8) and the 6.4 rework, FF14 Online Wikihttps://ff14wiki.info/?%E3%83%95%E3%82%A3%E3%83%BC%E3%83%AB%E3%83%89%E3%83%BB%E3%82%AA%E3%83%96%E3%83%BB%E3%82%B0%E3%83%AD%E3%83%BC%E3%83%AA%E3%83%BC
• Seize tomelith cadence: four activate 30 s after the start, each lasting a random 2 to 3 minutes, 攻略:arkhttps://ff14a.net/pvp-seal-rock.php
• Seize 6.5 rules: 700 to win, a drained tomelith replaced after about 15 s, spawn count falls and rank rises as the match runs, うわさの調べhttps://uwasablog.com/game230406/
• Seal Rock (Seize) strategy, incl. the 600-plus endgame, FFXIV Online Wikihttps://consolegameswiki.com/wiki/Seal_Rock_(Seize_Strategy)
• うわさの調べ, フロントラインの各ルール簡易解説【6.5】https://uwasablog.com/game230406/ (ovoo tick rates, 30-second payout, no re-claiming)
• ララのおもちゃ箱, オンサルハカイルの基礎https://lala-toybox.com/pvp/flontline/onsal/ (rank payout table)
• INUISM, 【FL】オンサル・ハカイル(終節戦)https://inuism.com/ff14_fl_onsalhakair (score sources, KO ±8)
• 巴哈姆特, 72人！オンサル・ハカイルhttps://forum.gamer.com.tw/C.php?bsn=17608&snA=15282 (phase composition, three-team endgame doctrine)
• Live Letter 86 summary, patch 7.2 PvPhttps://novacrystallis.com/2025/03/final-fantasy-xiv-live-letter-86-summary-patch-7-2-arrives-march-25-2025/

Player strategy

• AkhMorning, FFXIV Frontline guidehttps://www.akhmorning.com/pvp/frontline/
• r/ffxiv, How to greatly improve your odds of winning Frontlineshttps://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comments/qi6bc6/how_to_greatly_improve_your_odds_of_winning/
• r/ffxiv, Olivia's Updated Frontline Guide 7.1https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comments/1id3d9a/olivias_updated_frontline_guide_71/
• r/ffxiv, Worqor Chirteh (Triumph) discussionhttps://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comments/1pxax9h/worqor_chirteh_triumph_the_new_frontline_map_is/
• Late to the Party Finder, Onsal Hakair (Danshig Naadam)https://latetothepartyfinder.com/ffxiv-onsal-hakair-danshig-naadam/
• Red Bull, How to master the battlefield of FFXIV's PvP daily dutyhttps://www.redbull.com/ca-en/final-fantasy-14-frontlines-pvp-guide

Military doctrine

• The nine principles of war (MOOSEMUSS), DTIChttps://apps.dtic.mil/sti/tr/pdf/ADA503932.pdf
• What is military strategy? (Oxford Academic), principles of warhttps://academic.oup.com/book/57480/chapter/466865884
• Lanchester's lawshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lanchester%27s_laws
• Force concentration (square-law worked examples)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_concentration
• The Designer's Notebook: Lanchester's Lawshttps://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/the-designer-s-notebook-kicking-butt-by-the-numbers-lanchester-s-laws
• Clausewitz: fog, friction, centre of gravity, culminating pointhttps://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/report/1991/HHT.htm
• Clausewitz and his treatise On Warhttps://www.lebarmy.gov.lb/en/content/clausewitz-and-his-treatise-war-and-its-relevance-21st-century
• Centers of gravity and strategic planning (Army University Press)https://www.armyupress.army.mil/Journals/Military-Review/English-Edition-Archives/January-February-2022/Metz-Centers-Gravity-1988/
• Liddell Hart, Strategy (1954), dislocation and the indirect approachhttps://classicsofstrategy.com/2016/01/19/liddell-hart-strategy-1954/
• The Indirect Approach, Strategy: A Historyhttps://erenow.org/ww/strategy-a-history/12.php
• Boyd's OODA Loop, operating inside the decision cyclehttps://www.mca-marines.org/wp-content/uploads/Let-Boyd-Speak.pdf
• Interior lines (Jomini)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interior_lines
• FMFRP 12-13, Maneuver in War, Napoleon, interior lines, defeat in detailhttps://www.marines.mil/Portals/1/Publications/FMFRP%2012-13%20%20Maneuver%20in%20War.pdf
• The Art of War, Sun Tzu (MIT Classics)https://classics.mit.edu/Tzu/artwar.html
• Endogenous formation of alliances in conflicts, balance of powerhttps://sites.socsci.uci.edu/~mrgarfin/OUP/papers/Bloch.pdf
• Too Big to Prevail: The Paradox of Power in Coalition Formationhttps://www.ifo.de/DocDL/cesifo1_wp8980.pdf

FFXIV Frontline, Jobs, Roles, and How They Interact

Companion to ffxiv-frontline-complete-guide.md. That guide's Part 5 is a summary; this is the full workup.

Reference patch: 7.5. Job balance in Frontline is re-tuned most patches. The framework here (roles, role actions, the kill chain, counter-pairs) is stable; the rankings are a snapshot.

Reliability note up front: per-job claims below come from a Japanese Frontline commander's 7.5 job analysis (6,972 matches, 42% win rate) and a second JP practitioner's per-role series, cross-checked against the consolegameswiki for every number. Where an English-language tier list disagrees, the disagreement is stated rather than averaged.

Table of contents

• Part 1, There are five roles, and the role is not the job#part-1
• Part 2, The durability ladder: damage-taken modifiers#part-2
• Part 3, Role actions: the fifteenth ability#part-3
• Part 4, How the roles interact: the kill chain#part-4
• Part 5, Counter-pairs: what beats what#part-5
• Part 6, Three-team geometry, and what each role does about it#part-6
• Part 7, The 21 jobs, role by role#part-7
• Part 8, Map affinity matrix#part-8
• Part 9, Job selection strategy#part-9
• Part 10, Tier lists, and how much to trust them#part-10
• Sources#sources

Part 1, There are five roles, and the role is not the job

Twenty-one jobs, five roles:

What the role actually decides, exactly three things:

1. Which role action you may equip. Every role has its own pool of three, and you pick one. A Dancer can never take Rampart.
2. Your damage-taken modifier. Tanks and melee take sharply less damage than ranged; this is the single biggest determinant of whether you can stand in a Frontline fight.
3. The rough shape of your kit, HP pool, whether your damage needs you in melee range, whether you have a barrier.

*What the role does not decide: your battlefield function.* This is the most important thing in this document, and the reason tier lists look contradictory. In Frontline:

• Paladin is not a tank. It is the highest-burst job in the game (see Part 7). The commander's own line: "もはやメレーと考えた方がいい", think of it as a melee.
• Sage is not a healer. It is a pull-and-burst assassin with a 25-yalm blink. "断じてヒーラーではない", it is decidedly not a healer.
• Scholar is not a healer either, and its healing is the weakest of the four; it is a DoT-pressure and shield-support job that cannot participate in a burst window.
• Bard is not a fragile ranged job. With its role action it out-survives most melee, "メレーを超える耐久", and its job is to make one ally monstrous.
• Red Mage fights in melee range on purpose and takes damage like a melee job.
• Monk and Samurai behave like tanky bruisers; Samurai's cooldown is a 4-second tank button.

So: read the job, not the role. The role tells you your role action and your damage-taken modifier and nothing else.

Part 2, The durability ladder: damage-taken modifiers

Frontline applies a job-specific multiplier to incoming damage. The bands:

Individual values reported by the 7.5 JP analysis:

• Paladin, 45%, which the commander calls low for a melee, and therefore unsuited to absorbing damage like a tank. Paladin's mitigation is deliberately the shallowest in the melee band; if you want to be the wall, this is the wrong job.
• Red Mage, 45%, called excellent for a ranged. Red Mage sits at or above the top of the ranged band, so it can stand in melee range and brawl.
• Sage, high for a ranged, only about 5% below Dark Knight. A ranged job with near-melee mitigation, plus barriers. That is why Sage dives.

Two consequences that decide matches:

1. A ranged job focused by three people dies in a global cooldown or two. Positioning is not a preference for ranged jobs, it is the entire skill.
2. The anvil of a Frontline fight is the melee+healer mass, not the DPS. Whoever can hold space longest decides where the next fight happens.

Modifiers are also applied to damage dealt on some jobs, Dragoon and Warrior both carry reduced damage output in Frontline (Dragoon's is the famous "main-character tax" 主人公補正), and these corrections are why the PvE tier list does not transfer.

Part 3, Role actions: the fifteenth ability

Added in patch 7.2. Each role gets three, and you equip exactly one. They are only usable in Frontline, Rival Wars, and the Wolves' Den Pier, and can only be changed in the spawn area, i.e. before the gates open.

Tank

Melee DPS

Physical Ranged DPS

Magical Ranged DPS

Healer

What the JP community actually equips

A 6,972-match practitioner's per-job ratings (◎ = "just take it", × = "never"):

Three role actions are outliers in power:

• Bravery, +25% damage and −25% damage taken for 15 seconds on a 30-second recast. The JP write-up's verdict: the printed effects are so strong it reads like a Limit Break. It is why Bard works, and the reason a Bard should be glued to your best melee player.
• Rampage, 8,000 AoE with a +25% damage-taken debuff on a 45-second recast. Called the skill that defines the current environment, it turns any coordinated burst into a wipe.
• Smite, 6,000 → 18,000 potency that ignores Guard and resets on every KO or assist. This is the single best cleanup tool in the game, and it makes a kill chain self-sustaining.

The knock-on effect on the maps: role actions raised total damage so much that Shatter's large ice, which used to take a minimum of ~40 seconds of focused fire, now breaks in as little as ~15. Timings written before patch 7.2 for objective races are optimistic.

Part 4, How the roles interact: the kill chain

A Frontline kill is not one player doing damage. It is a five-stage chain, and each role owns a stage. If a stage is missing, the fight is a stalemate; if the chain completes, the target dies regardless of skill.

How to read a losing fight: find the missing stage.

• Enemies diving you and nobody dies → you have no amplification or no denial. Take Rampage, Phantom Dart, or Diabrosis.
• Your dive keeps dying at 30% → you have no sustain. Guard on the way out, or pick a job with a barrier.
• You keep getting kills but not converting them → you have no finisher. That is Ninja's entire purpose.
• You keep getting caught and never get to choose a fight → you have no initiation. That is Dark Knight's.

Part 5, Counter-pairs: what beats what

Some matchups are close to deterministic. Learning five of them is worth more than learning a tier list.

Part 6, Three-team geometry, and what each role does about it

Frontline is not a duel, it is a three-body problem, and the third team decides most fights. Role behaviour has to change with your current standing:

• Whoever is 1st charges Limit Break 25% slower, and 3rd charges 25% faster. So the trailing team's win conditions, big AoE LBs (DRG, DNC, RPR, SAM, DRK), come online sooner, automatically. A trailing team is not out of the match; it is on a faster clock.
• A pincer resolves a stalemate. The standard death wants to be true; the third team's arrival is what punishes it. This is why "do not be the team that commits into the middle" is doctrine.
• The roles that can disengage are the ones that survive being pinched. Swift (any melee), Shukuchi (NIN), Dragoon's jumps, Dancer's 4-stack blink, Red Mage's Corps-a-corps, Pictomancer's Smudge, Sage's Ikaros. Jobs with no escape, Machinist, Summoner, Bard, Black Mage, must never be the deepest player on the field.
• Coalition logic: as 1st you want the other two to fight each other; as 3rd you never fight 2nd (you need them to overtake the leader). Jobs with strong denial (Rampage, Diabrosis, Full Swing) are the tools for a leading team that must not take fair fights.

Part 7, The 21 jobs, role by role

Format per role: one table, then notes on the jobs that need them.

7.1 Tanks

Paladin's real identity: it is a burst job. The commander's summary is blunt, Holy Sheltron's barrier explodes for damage, Battle High raises both the barrier's size and the damage it deals, so Paladin scales harder with Battle High than any other job. Using invulnerability to keep the barrier intact and fire the maximum burst is "the strongest use the developers probably never intended". If you take Paladin expecting to tank, you will do neither job well.

The Dark Knight, Reaper pair: Dark Knight's pull exists to set up someone else's kill; Reaper's single-target damage and its panic LB are the natural follow-up. Nicely, Reaper's job value rose and fell with Dark Knight's across patches, because they are used together.

7.2 Healers

The healer paradox: the JP analysis of this patch is unambiguous that Astrologian is the only healer whose support pays for itself, that Sage is not a healer, and that Scholar cannot affect a Frontline fight. White Mage sits in between: its value is the AoE stun and the LB, not the healing. If your team has exactly one healer and it is a Scholar, the team has no healer.

7.3 Melee DPS

7.4 Physical Ranged DPS

7.5 Magical Ranged DPS

Part 8, Map affinity matrix

One practitioner's per-map ratings for all 21 jobs (◎ excellent · 〇 good · △ situational · × poor). Map names in JP-execution order: 制圧戦 Secure, 争奪戦 Seize, 砕氷戦 Shatter, 終節戦 Naadam, 演習戦 Triumph.

Read the matrix, not the tier list:

• Dancer is rated top on every single map. If you want one job that is never wrong, this is the empirical answer.
• Shatter and Naadam reward sustained damage and objective play (Black Mage, Red Mage, Paladin, Dragoon strong); Secure and Seize reward burst and AoE (Dragoon, Reaper, Dark Knight, Dancer, Samurai strong).
• Bard is worst on the two "take and hold" maps where it cannot set the pace, and best where fights are long lines.
• Ninja's best map is Triumph, the spread-field map where isolated players exist to be finished.
• Scholar is rated poor on all five. Reverse-engineering the cause: DoT damage cannot stop an objective being taken, and every map is decided by burst on a point.

Part 9, Job selection strategy

The one hard rule

Pick your job and role action before you queue, and do not change it mid-match. Changing jobs resets Battle High to 0, and you can only change role actions in the spawn area. Your job choice is a commitment for 20 minutes.

Pick by purpose, not by tier

Pick by team shape (you can only queue with 3 others)

The standard four-piece, and it still works:

One tank/vanguard + one healer + two DPS, with the tank forward, the healer behind, and the DPS a step behind the tank so they arrive the instant the tank commits.

Job-specific four-pieces with documented synergy:

• Dark Knight + Reaper + Astrologian + Viper, Dark Knight's Salt Earth is the initiation, Reaper's panic and single-target damage is the follow-up, Astrologian's Astrodyne raises both by 30%, and Viper is the standing damage. The JP analysis explicitly links Dark Knight and Reaper's value across patches.
• Warrior + White Mage + two melee, Warrior's CC chain plus White Mage's AoE stun and party regen is the most forgiving quartet in the game.
• Two or more Dancers, Contra Dance stacking is described as a legitimate and very strong composition; the counterplay is limited.
• Bard + your best melee, Bravery and Wardens Paean on a Viper or Dragoon is, in the source's words, "almost cheating".
• Avoid: no healer. Not because of healing, but because you lose the AoE stun (WHM), the 30% damage buff (AST), or the pull (SGE). Note that if the one healer is a Scholar, this is effectively a no-healer team.

Pick by map

Use the affinity matrix in Part 8. The short version: Dancer anywhere; Dragoon/Warrior/Reaper on the burst maps; Black Mage/Red Mage on the sustained maps; Ninja on Triumph; never Scholar.

Difficulty ladder (be honest with yourself)

• Easy to get value from on match one: Warrior, White Mage, Astrologian, Summoner, Pictomancer, Dancer.
• Medium, needs you to know one combo and one escape: Paladin, Gunbreaker, Dragoon, Samurai, Red Mage, Black Mage.
• Hard, punishes imprecision, and the failure mode is feeding: Dark Knight, Ninja, Reaper, Monk, Machinist, Sage, Bard.
• The trap: Bard and Summoner feel like ranged jobs you can play safely. The JP practitioner's line about Summoner is that it looks beginner-friendly but the exit from its forward dash is genuinely hard; about Bard, that it is popular with beginners and is in fact an advanced job. "There is not one ranged job that is genuinely beginner-friendly if you intend to play it properly."

The habit that beats job choice

Because both meta lists agree that job fit beats tier lists, the best use of this document is:

1. Pick two jobs, one you can play without thinking (your safe pick), one you are learning.
2. Learn one role action per role properly rather than cycling through them.
3. Learn the five counter-pairs in Part 5.
4. Then stop changing jobs and start changing positioning, the JP analysis closes with the observation that in Frontline, movement matters more than the job, especially in the last five minutes.

Part 10, Tier lists, and how much to trust them

Two published views disagree, and the disagreement is instructive.

An English PvP-service tier list (patch 7.56) ranks Frontline: S, Dark Knight, Dragoon, Scholar, Reaper. A, Monk, Gunbreaker, Ninja, Samurai, Viper, Bard, Summoner, Red Mage, Pictomancer, Sage.

The JP practitioner view (patch 7.5, 6,972 matches): Best-in-class, Paladin (burst), Dark Knight (initiation), Dancer (LB), Dragoon (AoE), Astrologian (support), Viper (all-round), Warrior (forgiving). Weak, Scholar ("cannot move the needle"), Machinist (lacks everything Frontline wants), Monk (low Frontline suitability), Sage-as-a-healer.

Where they collide: Scholar. The service site puts Scholar in S-tier; the practitioner says its damage is meaningless in a mode decided by burst. Two things explain the gap: (a) a boosting site's list is partly SEO content and partly aspirational about coordinated play, where a pre-made can exploit DoT stacking; (b) the practitioner is describing a solo-queue reality where a DoT cannot stop a point being taken. For solo queue, trust the practitioner. For a coordinated four-piece that can build around it, the service site is not absurd, but you would be building around the least valuable role in the mode.

A caution that both sources share: no job in Frontline is unplayable, and the practitioner's own closing line is that working out how to excel on every job is the goal. Treat these rankings as a description of how much work each job needs to reach the same output, not as a list of what is allowed.

Sources

Verified mechanics and role actions

• Role Actions (PvP), FFXIV Online Wikihttps://ffxiv.consolegameswiki.com/wiki/Role_Actions_(PvP), all fifteen role actions, potencies, recasts, ranges, and the "one per role, spawn area only" rule
• Frontline, FFXIV Online Wikihttps://ffxiv.consolegameswiki.com/wiki/Frontline, job damage modifiers, Battle High, Limit Break charge scaling
• Patch 7.2 noteshttps://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodestone/topics/detail/3c4910f373e497acd3428c37f6358e341e4cc06d/, role actions introduced

Japanese practitioner analysis

• 【FF14】7.5環境フロントラインジョブ考察｜FL王Mの指揮論https://note.com/fl_king_m/n/n6c6052dad1c9, the 7.5 per-job commander analysis; per-job damage-taken figures, burst windows, and the "Paladin is a melee / Sage is not a healer / Scholar cannot move the needle" verdicts
• フロントラインの各ジョブ簡易解説【7.5】https://uwasablog.com/game220803/, three-line summary of every job, 6,972-match record disclosed in the article
• フロントラインのタンク解説https://uwasablog.com/game220927/ · ヒーラー解説https://uwasablog.com/game220928/ · 近接物理DPS解説https://uwasablog.com/game220929/ · 遠隔物理・魔法DPS解説https://uwasablog.com/game220930/, per-role playbooks, per-job role-action ratings, and the per-map affinity ratings reproduced in Part 8
• PVPロールアクション簡易解説【7.5】https://uwasablog.com/game250510/, the 7.5 review of all fifteen role actions, including the Bravery/Rampage "these are insane" verdicts and the Shatter ice-timing change

English tier lists (see Part 10 for the caveats)

• Best FFXIV PvP Jobs 7.56, Crystalline Conflict & Frontlinehttps://boostroom.com/blog/best-pvp-jobs-in-ffxiv-patch-756-crystalline-conflict-frontline-tier-list
• r/ffxiv, What would a Frontlines tier list look like as of the current patch?https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comments/1ioduvi/what_would_a_frontlines_tier_list_look_like_as_of/

FFXIV Frontline, Bilingual Callout Macro Pack (EN / JP)

Every macro fires English + Japanese on the same line, so it reads instantly for both a JP reader and an EN reader. Channel is /a (alliance), in Frontline your 24-player team is an alliance of three parties, so /a reaches all 23 teammates regardless of distance. Enemies cannot see alliance chat.

Companion to ffxiv-frontline-complete-guide.md. Patch 7.5 era.

0. Install

1. System menu → User Macros (or type /macro).
2. Pick a free slot → name it → paste the lines into the big text box.
3. Line 1 must be /micon …, otherwise the icon line is ignored. (Also optional, skip it and the macro uses a plain icon.)
4. Right-click the macro → Register to Hotbar, then place it on a hotbar or the cross hotbar.
5. /micon takes an action name. For callout macros the cleanest choices are marker icons:

• /micon attack1 marking, the "1" attack-marker icon, ideal for BURST calls
• /micon square marking, the square icon, ideal for COMMAND calls
• /micon A fieldmarking, an A-marker icon, ideal for the rally-point macro
• or just any action name you recognise, e.g. /micon "Sprint"

1. Technical rules you must respect

These are the real client limits, break them and calls silently fail.

Do not put two /a messages on consecutive lines. Either join them on one line with / , or put <wait.1> between them.

2. Design rules

• One line, two languages. ■ RETREAT / 撤退 <se.16> costs one line, no throttle risk, readable to everyone at a glance.
• ■ bullet prefix. Universal in JP Frontline callouts, it makes your message stand out in a scrolling log.
• 卍 optional flourish. JP commanders often append 卍 (manji) as a stylistic marker. It reads as native JP front-line culture and is harmless. Add it if you want to look like a JP commander; drop it if you want to look neutral. Nothing about it is offensive or religious in this context.
• Boundary markers in ALL CAPS. 【RETREAT】 / 【撤退】 so it's distinguishable at a glance mid-fight.
• Sound only on the calls that must be obeyed instantly. Every call with <se> is an interrupt to 23 people. The JP community calls firing a macro 「鳴らす」 ("ringing it") and warns against spamming, over-ringing your alliance is the fastest way to be ignored.
• Arrows for direction: →→東→→ etc. is the JP convention and is language-neutral. Keep it.
• Never two callouts at once. One voice, one instruction (unity of command).

3. The sound-effect convention

Use the same mapping the JP commander community uses, so your calls sound familiar to JP players even before they read them.

4. The macro set

Group A, Rally & positioning

M01, RALLY: follow the D marker (moving waypoint)

/micon A fieldmarking
/a ■ FOLLOW ME / 集合・追従 <se.10>
/fmk D <me><wait.1>
/fmk D <me><wait.2>
/fmk D <me><wait.2>
/fmk D <me><wait.2>

JP: 集合・追従, shūgō / tsujū, "gather / follow". Places field marker D at your feet and refreshes it four times over ~7 seconds, so a moving rally point tracks you. /fmk is /fieldmarking; /fmk D <me> drops marker D on your character. This is the JP commander's standard "follow me" macro.

M02, REGROUP (static)

/micon square marking
/a ■【REGROUP】/【集合】<se.1>

JP: 集合, shūgō.

M03, CENTRE

/a ■ 卍 CENTRE 卍 / 中央 <se.1>

JP: 中央, chūō.

M04, DIRECTIONS (four macros)

/a ■→→ EAST →→ / 東 <se.1>
/a ■←← WEST ←← / 西 <se.1>
/a ■↓↓ SOUTH ↓↓ / 南 <se.1>
/a ■↑↑ NORTH ↑↑ / 北 <se.1>

JP: 東 higashi / 西 nishi / 南 minami / 北 kita. Arrows are language-neutral; keep them.

M05, CLIMB / DESCEND THE CLIFF (Shatter, Onsal)

/a ■↑【CLIFF】UP / 崖を登ります <se.7>
/a ■↓【CLIFF】DOWN / 崖を降ります <se.7>

JP: 崖, gake, "cliff". Warns the mass before you commit it to a drop with no retreat.

M06, HOLD / WAIT

/a ■【HOLD】/【待機】<se.13>

JP: 待機, taiki, "stand by".

M07, SPREAD / TAKE THE FIELDS (Triumph, Onsal)

/a ■【SPREAD - TAKE FIELDS】/【分散・フィールド確保】<se.7>

JP: 分散, bunsan, "disperse / spread out".

Group B, Engage & burst

M08, BURST PREP (marker 1)

/micon attack1 marking
/a ■【MARKER 1】BURST PREP /【1タゲ付近】バースト準備 <se.4>

JP: 1タゲ付近, wan-tage fukin, "near target marker 1"; バースト準備, bāsuto junbi, "burst preparation".

M09, BURST COUNTDOWN (the one multi-line macro worth having)

/merror off
/mlock
/a ■ COUNTDOWN / カウントダウン開始 <se.1><wait.1>
/a ■ 3 <se.3><wait.1>
/a ■ 2 <se.3><wait.1>
/a ■ 1 <se.3><wait.1>
/a ■【BURST NOW】/【突撃】<se.6>

JP: カウントダウン, kauntodaun; 突撃, totsugeki, "charge". /mlock stops another macro interrupting the sequence. The <wait.1> between lines defeats the 1-message-per-second throttle. 8 lines, well inside the 15-line limit.

M10, PUSH / GO

/a ■【PUSH】/【押し上げ】<se.6>

JP: 押し上げ, oshi-age, "push up". (JP players also use 「凸」/to read as a charge-in slang; keep 押し上げ for a command.)

M11, FOCUS THIS TARGET

/merror off
/a ■【FOCUS - KILL THIS】/【これ集中・落とす】<se.10>
/mk attack1 <t><wait.1>
/mk attack1 <t>

JP: これ集中, kore shūchū, "focus this"; 落とす, otosu, "take them down". Places marker 1 on your current target twice (the second application sticks after any instant cleanse).

M12, TURN AROUND AND FIGHT (they're bursting into us)

/a ■ THEY BURST FIRST - DODGE / 先にバースト来ます・回避 <se.5>
/a ■ TURN & FIGHT / 反転して迎撃 <se.6>

JP: 先にバースト, saki ni bāsuto, "they burst first"; 回避, kaihi, "evade"; 反転, hanten, "turn around". Note the <wait.1> implied by using two lines, the throttle drops rapid doubles, so if you want both lines guaranteed, insert <wait.1> at the end of line 1.

M13, ATTACK THE LEADING GRAND COMPANY (three variants)

/a ■ ATTACK THE LEADER / 1位を攻撃 <se.2>
/a ■ TARGET: MAELSTROM【RED】 / 黒渦団【赤】 <se.2>
/a ■ TARGET: TWIN ADDER【YELLOW】 / 双蛇党【黄】 <se.2>
/a ■ TARGET: FLAMES【BLUE】 / 不滅隊【青】 <se.2>

JP: 黒渦団 kuro-udan (Maelstrom, red) / 双蛇党 sōjadan (Twin Adder, yellow) / 不滅隊 fumetsutai (Immortal Flames, blue). Use these when your team is fighting the wrong team while the leader takes the win.

Group C, Withdraw & safety

M14, PINCER WARNING

/a ■【PINCER INCOMING】/【挟撃注意】<se.9>

JP: 挟撃注意, kyōgeki chūi, "beware of a pincer". Fire this the moment you see triangles closing from a third direction. Usually paired with M15.

M15, RETREAT

/a ■【RETREAT】/【撤退】<se.16>

JP: 撤退, tettai.

M16, FALL BACK A LITTLE (not a full retreat)

/a ■【PULL BACK A BIT】/【少し下がって】<se.5>

JP: 少し下がって, sukoshi sagatte, "back off a little".

M17, RECALL TO BASE (use Return)

/a ■【TO BASE - USE RETURN】/【自陣OPまで・デジョン】<se.7>

JP: 自陣OP, jijin OP, "own base / home OP"; デジョン, dejon, the JP nickname for Return. Recalling resets your position and lets you rebuild; the base is a safe zone. Note it also resets Battle High if you swap jobs, recall to regroup, not to job-swap.

M18, NO DEEP CHASE

/a ■【NO CHASE】/【深追い注意】<se.5>

JP: 深追い注意, fukaoi chūi, "beware of over-pursuing". Fire this the instant the fight is won. It is the single highest-value macro in the pack because pursuit is where matches get thrown.

M19, PLAY SAFE / DON'T DIE

/a ■【PLAY SAFE - DON'T DIE】/【いのちだいじに】<se.7>

JP: いのちだいじに, inochi daiji ni, literally "take good care of your life", a JP gaming idiom for "play defensively". Fire when you already have the score to win.

M20, REGROUP AFTER A WIPE (anti-trickle)

/a ■【REGROUP - NO TRICKLE】/【立て直し・バラバラ禁止】<se.1>

JP: 立て直し, tate-naoshi, "rebuild / re-form"; バラバラ禁止, barabara kinshi, "no going in piecemeal". This is the call that stops your team being defeated in detail.

M21, CORRECTION

/a ■【CORRECTION - IGNORE LAST】/【訂正します】<se.16>

JP: 訂正します, teisei shimasu, "I'm correcting that". Always correct a bad call loudly rather than letting 20 people walk into it.

Group D, Objectives

M22, SECURE AND DEFEND OBJECTIVES

/a ■【SECURE & DEFEND】/【拠点を確保・防衛】<se.7>

JP: 拠点, kyoten, "stronghold/objective"; 確保 kakuho "secure", 防衛 bōei "defend". On Seize, JP players usually call tomeliths リス (risu, from アラガントームリス). If your group is JP-heavy you can use 「リス確保・防衛」 instead.

M23, ICE PRIORITY (Shatter)

/a ■【BIG ICE FIRST】/【大氷優先】<se.2>
/a ■【SMALL ICE FIRST】/【小氷優先】<se.2>

JP: 大氷, dai-kōri, "large ice"; 小氷, shō-kōri, "small ice".

M24, THE SPLIT CALL (main body / light party)

/a ------------
/a ■ MAIN BODY / 本体は
/a ■ LIGHT PARTY / 少人数ライトパーティは

JP: 本体, hontai, "the main body"; 少人数ライトパーティ, shō-ninzū raito pātī, "the small light party". Fire this followed by M03/M04/M22 to task each element separately. This is how you threaten three objectives at once without splitting your mass evenly.

Group E, Utility

M25, TARGET MARKER 1 (no chat spam)

/merror off
/ta <attack1>

Targets whatever bears marker 1. Most bursts are called on marker 1; some groups use the circle marker (/ta <circle>). Recently added to the action list: Target Attack, which automatically targets the lowest-numbered marker, if you have it on your bars you may not need this macro at all.

M26, MARK THE PRIORITY TARGET (square = the enemy commander)

/merror off
/mk square <t>
/mk bind1 <t>

JP convention: 四角 (square) marks the enemy commander; 足止め (bind markers) mark whoever must be locked down. Community practice is to use the lowest number available so everyone knows the focus.

M27, LIGHT PARTY REPORT (LB / action ready)

/a ■ LB READY / LB準備完了 <se.7>

JP: 準備完了, junbi kanryō, "preparation complete". Keep these rare, they are the most commonly spammed and most commonly resented macros in the mode.

5. Hotbar layout

Two rows of eight covers the core set on keyboard or cross-hotbar. Row 1 = react, Row 2 = direct.

The three you will press most: M01 (rally), M15 (retreat), M18 (no chase).

Minimal starter set if you only want six macros: M01 rally · M08 burst prep · M09 countdown · M14 pincer · M15 retreat · M18 no chase.

6. Auto-translate (定型文), the language-proof option

FFXIV has a built-in auto-translate dictionary: certain phrases are sent as special tokens and are displayed in each reader's own client language (the dictionary supports English, Japanese, French and German). A phrase you insert as a token will appear as Japanese in a JP client and English in an EN client, no bilingual line needed.

How to insert one:

1. In the macro editor text box, type the first character or two of the JP phrase (e.g. しゅう for 集合).
2. Press Tab (PC) or R1/RB (controller) to open the dictionary and pick the phrase.
3. The phrase is inserted wrapped in the special green/red tokens. Do not type it by hand, a hand-typed phrase sends as plain text and does not translate.

Phrases that exist in the dictionary and are useful in Frontline (JP → what a JP client shows):

Trade-off: dictionary phrases are language-proof but slow to insert and limited in vocabulary. ■ bullets, 卍, arrows and the ALL-CAPS 【…】 form are not dictionary entries, you get those only by typing them literally, which is why every macro in §4 carries an explicit EN + JP line instead. Use both: dictionary tokens where a phrase exists and speed isn't critical, literal bilingual lines for fast tactical calls.

7. JP Frontline glossary (for reading what comes back)

8. Sources

• うわさの調べ, フロントライン指揮マクロ紹介【PvP】https://uwasablog.com/game250831/ (the JP commander macro set this pack is modelled on: /a, /mlock, /fmk D <me>, SE conventions, the 卍 flourish, the 定型文 list)
• うわさの調べ, フロントラインで使えるマクロ紹介【PvP】https://uwasablog.com/game230207/ (marker targeting, /targetenemy, focus-target macros, alliance report macros and the anti-spam etiquette)
• FFXIV Online Wiki, Macrohttps://ffxiv.consolegameswiki.com/wiki/Macro (15-line limit, /alliance)
• FFXIV Online Wiki, Auto-Translatehttps://ffxiv.consolegameswiki.com/wiki/Auto-Translate
• Macrology, macro line and character limits, the 1-message-per-second throttlehttps://github.com/FFXIVMacrology/Macrology/blob/main/%5Ben%5DMacrology(the%20Third%20Edition.md)
• FF14 Online Wiki, テキストコマンドhttps://ff14wiki.info/?%E3%83%86%E3%82%AD%E3%82%B9%E3%83%88%E3%82%B3%E3%83%9E%E3%83%B3%E3%83%89 (/fmk = /fieldmarking; /micon icon syntax)
• JP Lodestone, フロントラインhttps://jp.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodestone/playguide/contentsguide/frontline/ (official JP names: ウォーコー・チーテ（演習戦）etc.)

Frontline Call Sheet, personal reference

One page. Read it in the 45-second prep window, then keep it on a second monitor. Companion files: ffxiv-frontline-complete-guide.md (the full doctrine) and ffxiv-frontline-macros.md (the macro pack).

1. What you are

You are the caller, the single voice. If nobody else is calling, you are. A bad call that 20 people follow beats a good call that 5 follow.

The reserve is the whole doctrine. It plugs the third team's flank, converts a won fight into a captured objective, and counter-punches while the enemy is committed to your main body. A caller with a reserve beats an identical caller without one, every time.

2. The calls (with macro slots)

Fired on /a, the alliance channel. Full macro text in ffxiv-frontline-macros.md.

Press these three most: M01, M15, M18.

3. Rules of engagement (count before you commit)

1. Count first. Their numbers on the map, yours on the minimap.
2. ≥1.5× their numbers → engage, fully and immediately. Half-committing wastes the advantage (2:1 numbers = 4:1 killing power, Lanchester).
3. Roughly even → don't fight, take the objective. Walk past them. Let them come to your ground.
4. Fewer than them → bait, delay, withdraw toward allies (never toward your own base), and look for a defile, a corridor, corner or ramp where their numbers can't concentrate.
5. Won the fight → stop. Remount. Take the objective. No pursuit.
6. Losing a fight → do not reinforce it. Redeploy to something undefended. Reinforcing failure is how you get defeated in detail.

Standing orders: REGROUP <place> · PUSH <objective> NOW · HOLD · BAIL · PINCH INCOMING <dir> · FLOAT · NO CHASE.

4. Pre-match, the 45-second window

• [ ] Role action set in the PvP Profile (Tank: Full Swing on Secure, Rampart if focused; Melee: Smite for the reset-on-kill, Swift to escape; Healer: Diabrosis vs enemy healers, Stoneskin II if you're eating AoE).
• [ ] Mount up.
• [ ] Map open and staying open.
• [ ] Job decided. Do not swap after you build Battle High, it resets to zero.
• [ ] Note the Frontline Campaign Info timer for the first mid objective.
• [ ] Say one line in /a: "caller here, follow my calls, I'll ring for retreat", people follow a named voice.

5. Phase script

0:00, 4:00, the approach

Cautious and asymmetric. Do not commit the reserve. Take the objective nobody is contesting, gang up on stragglers only, and build Battle High. Goal: be the team with Battle High when the first real fight happens.

4:00, 14:00, the main battle

Mass on the pivot. Contest the centre only as a 2-v-1 against whoever is leading, never as an even three-way brawl. Rotate on the timer, not on instinct.

14:00, 20:00, the decision

• Leading? Quiet accumulation. Hold what you have, avoid the open melee, stay unclumped. Your enemy is the clock.
• Behind? Force the leader to split. Threaten three objectives, take what they can't defend, and let the 2nd and 3rd bleed each other.

Ask yourself at every pause: who is my enemy right now? 1st → the clock. 2nd → 1st's rate. 3rd → the stalemate.

6. Map timings to call ahead of

7. Secure, extra notes (the most mechanical map)

• 4 nodes is the floor. 1→2, 2→4, 3→6, 4→10, 5→12, 6→14, 7→18, 8→20, 9→22 per 3s.
• Mid values: Nodes +150 · α drones +30 · Command Systems +24 · drones +10 · KO +10 · death −10.
• Standing in a flag circle grants Sheer Will (+damage), so a defended flag is a bad fight for the attacker.
• Fight on the guardrailed ramps, never near the pad edges. The centre is a raised pillar; knockbacks (Full Swing, MCH/MNK/WAR toolkits) turn fights into fall-death KOs.
• The party with the most damage on a drone gets Battle High for all its members, worth a coordinated burn.

8. Live decision table (the doctrine plays as reflexes)

9. Do / Don't

Do

• Say the instruction, then stop talking. Silence is a command style.
• Announce a retreat before you need it.
• Correct a bad call immediately and loudly (M21).
• Name the objective, not the direction, "MID PILLAR", not "over there".
• Use <se> sounds so people react without reading.
• Praise one good action per match; cohesion is a moral force, and morale is what actually collapses in the last five minutes.

Don't

• Spam. Every <se> interrupts 23 people. Over-ringing is how callers get muted by the team.
• Run two plans at once.
• Let the reserve get sucked into the first fight.
• Chase to their landing platform.
• Feed a lost fight with reinforcements.
• Swap jobs mid-match after building Battle High.
• Emote at downed opponents, that's a prohibited activity and can be sanctioned.

10. Numbers on one line

Rating: Secure 2,400 · Seize 700 data · Shatter 1,600 data · Onsal 1,400 · Triumph 1,400. Ovoo (Onsal): B 50 / A 100 / S 200 · paid 5/10/20 per 3s over 30s, value decays if the match ends mid-payout · KO +8, death −8 (16-point swing). Battle High: max 100 · +10% damage & healing per 20 · BH V is announced match-wide · no loss on death (7.5) · job change zeroes it. Kill value: 4/6/8/12/16/20 (KO) · 2/3/4/6/8/10 (assist), scaled by the victim's Battle High. Limit Break: 1st place +25% slower charge · 3rd place +25% faster. Survivability: tanks/melee −40% to −55% damage taken · ranged/casters only −25% to −35%. Objective: 72 players · 24 per team · 20 minutes · premade max 4 · 10s Invincibility on leaving the base · any hit dismounts you (uncleansable Hoofing It). Objective clocks: Seize, four tomeliths at 0:30, each pays for ~2 min, replaced ~15s later, B/A/S 80/120/160. Shatter, 30s forecast before every activation, first ice ~15 to 30s in, small waves at 12:30/4:30, large ice back in 60s, small ice gone 6 min, max 15 small / 2 large active.

Written 2026-10-05, updated 2026-10-09, patch 7.5 era. Re-verify thresholds and job modifiers the patch after any major PvP balance change.

FFXIV Frontline

Scope: the 24v24v24 Grand Company battleground, strategy, map playbooks, mechanics numbers, and command structure. Not Crystalline Conflict (4v4) or Rival Wings.

Live tool: FrontlineAdvisor (D:\XIVPlugins Self\FrontlineAdvisor) is a Dalamud plugin built on this doctrine, it reads the game's own Frontline score board and calls the leader, the focus target (the imminent winner), the emerging threat (fastest scorer) and every lead change. Its advice strings ARE this guide's doctrine; keep them in step when the doctrine changes.

Canonical artifacts: the full unabridged write-up lives in the shared vault at C:/ObsidianVaults/Notebook/Agents/ffxiv/guides/, ffxiv-frontline-complete-guide.md (mechanics, the five maps, doctrine, the 14 plays), ffxiv-frontline-jobs.md (roles, role actions, the kill chain, 21 job profiles, map affinity), ffxiv-frontline-macros.md and ffxiv-frontline-call-sheet.md. Reproduce from those files rather than re-researching; they are the shareable versions with every table and citation. The vault is canonical, and the user also keeps a flat reading copy at D:/FFXIV Frontline/ with its own README index, that copy is a snapshot taken at export time, so refresh it when a guide changes, and describe it as a snapshot rather than implying it tracks.

When to Use

User asks for Frontline strategy, how to win, map tips, meta/job advice, or "why do I keep losing". Deliver:

1. the mechanics that decide the match (numbers, below),
2. the map playbook,
3. doctrine-derived plays (references/military-doctrine.md),
4. the call sheet and rules of engagement.

Research pitfall, read first

A web search for "Frontline strategy" returns World of Tanks' Frontline (tanks, artillery strikes, pillboxes, hull-down play) as a top result. It is a different game entirely. Filter it out; only FFXIV sources are usable.

Authoritative sources, in order: Lodestone patch notes (the only source that settles a changed number), consolegameswiki pages (rules and scoring tables, read with the caveat below), Japanese practitioner write-ups (uwasablog.com 「うわさの調べ」 per-role and per-job series, the note.com Frontline commander analyses, 5ch threads, deepest and most current on numbers and matchups), then English strategy sites and r/ffxiv threads for meta.

How to settle a disputed number. Values move between patches and the English sources do not all follow: the wiki will sometimes drop a figure entirely rather than update it, while community posts keep repeating the old one. Settle it from the patch-note chain, Naadam 1,800 → 1,600 (5.18) → 1,400 (6.4); Seize data 1,600 → 2,000 (6.4); Naadam KO/death 10 → 8 (5.18), and tell the user the in-game Frontline Campaign Info panel is the final authority. Prefer a JP practitioner with a disclosed match count over an English tier list or a boosting-service page: those lists read as SEO content and rate jobs for coordinated pre-made play, which contradicts solo queue (they rank Scholar top tier; practitioners say its damage cannot decide a fight).

Re-verify after every major PvP patch. Balance-sensitive items: Battle High behaviour on death, job damage-taken modifiers, rating thresholds per map, role-action lists. Patch 7.5 = no Battle High loss on death; patch 7.2 = Secure rework + role actions.

Core mechanics (verified reference)

• 24 per team, 72 total, 20-minute limit, random Grand Company, premade max 4.
• Win condition is a rating threshold, never kill count. Most matches decided by rating, not the clock.
• Leaving the landing platform grants 10s Invincibility; respawns come back at the platform.
• Any hit dismounts you and applies Hoofing It, which Purify cannot cleanse. Dismount voluntarily before contact.
• The map shows enemy players only within sight range of your own units. Absence of enemy triangles = unknown, not safe. This is the main information asymmetry in the mode and the basis of the deception plays.

Battle High

Max 100; every 20 points = +10% damage dealt and healing potency (BH V = +50%). BH V is announced to the whole match, expect focus. Death no longer reduces it (patch 7.5). Changing jobs resets it to zero, the most common self-inflicted loss of a match.

Gain depends on the victim's tier: KO 4/6/8/12/16/20, assist 2/3/4/6/8/10 (none / BH I / II / III / IV / V).

Rubber banding

1st place charges Limit Break 25% slower, 3rd place 25% faster. The game hands the losing team tempo, spend it on the leader.

Survivability (job damage taken)

Read as a survival ranking. A BLM/WHM/AST caught in the open is a free kill; a WAR/GNB/MNK/SAM is not. Many jobs also take a damage-dealt penalty (−5% to −15%), casters and healers pay twice.

The role is not the job. The role decides exactly two things: which role action you may equip, and your damage-taken modifier. Frontline function frequently contradicts the label, Paladin is a burst DPS (the highest instantaneous burst in the game; 45% damage taken is shallow for a melee), Sage is a pull-and-burst assassin, not a healer, Scholar contributes little to a burst-decided fight, Bard with Bravery out-tanks most melee, Red Mage deliberately fights in melee range. Never advise by role label; advise by function.

Role Actions (7.2+, one of three per role, set in PvP Profile)

• Tank, Rampage (AoE, target +25% damage taken), Rampart (−50% taken, +25% healing received), Full Swing (30-yalm knockback, strips Guard, the Secure ledge punt).
• Melee, Bloodbath, Swift (100% movement + full CC/knockback immunity 4s), Smite (scales up to 18k on low HP; recast resets on kill or assist).
• Healer, Haelan, Stoneskin II (15-yalm ally barrier), Diabrosis (9k AoE, −33% healing received, the anti-healer button).
• Physical ranged, Dervish (party −10% cast/recast, +33% movement, crosses cover), Bravery (+25% damage dealt AND −25% damage taken, 15s, 30s recast, the single strongest role action in the mode), Eagle Eye Shot (12k, ignores Guard, 40 yalms).
• Magical ranged, Comet (20k AoE, 2.4s cast you cannot move or cancel), Phantom Dart (+25% damage taken on the target, 15s recast, take it on Shatter for ice), Rust (−33% damage dealt and healing on target + nearby).

Community picks per job: tanks Rampage (Rampart on DRK/GNB) · melee Smite (Bloodbath on DRG/SAM, Swift on Reaper) · healers Diabrosis unanimously · physical ranged Bravery · casters Phantom Dart or Comet.

Three outliers: Bravery (LB-grade effects on a 30s recast), Rampage (+25% damage taken, 45s), Smite (ignores Guard, recast resets on every KO or assist, the best cleanup tool in the mode).

Thresholds and timers

Secure node rate per 3s: 1→2, 2→4, 3→6, 4→10, 5→12, 6→14, 7→18, 8→20, 9→22. Standing in a flag circle grants Sheer Will (+damage). Secure teleport pads go live 30s before the weaponry spawn, grant 3s Invincibility, and dismount you. The centre pillar has fall-death punts, fight on the guardrailed ramps, not the pad edges.

Triumph weather: snow spawns blocking snow soldiers (the central gully crossroads is blocked, reroute early) and Blessed Blast AoEs that grant a Snow Fort barrier nullifying damage if you stand in them. Auroras raise triumph ranks and fill everyone's Limit Break gauge, hold LB for that window.

Per-map playbook (compressed)

• Secure, hold 4+ nodes in a ring; collapse to the middle on the weaponry timer; nodes (+150) are the biggest single swing; never fight near the pad edges.
• Seize, be standing on the nearest tomelith for the 30-second opening spawn (four activate together); win the fight at the tomelith, then channel; hold it to the end of the extraction or the value is wasted; a KO adds your data and subtracts theirs, so S-ranks are worth double.
• Shatter, Battle High converts directly into score; watch the 30-second forecast icons and pre-position on the outline, not on the fight; small ice at 12:30/4:30; large ice is back in 60 s, so taking a small ice is the more permanent gain; never attack another company's large ice from the middle field (it invites the pinch) and never drop off the cliffs on the right.
• Danshig Naadam, a race, not a defence: claimed ovoos cannot be stolen. Interrupt enemy claims with AoE. Decide as a team whether to commit to the central S-rank stalemate or farm A-ranks and stragglers while the other two bleed.
• Triumph, needs 3, 4 small squads covering fields simultaneously; fields are blocked by any enemy inside, so harassment works; the central gully is ranged high ground; the death ball still wins it (community consensus).

The 14 named plays

Full derivations and citations: references/military-doctrine.md.

Call sheet

Standing orders (one clause, announced before needed): REGROUP <place> · PUSH <objective> NOW · HOLD · BAIL · PINCH INCOMING <dir> · FLOAT · NO CHASE.

Rules of engagement: 1) count first; 2) ≥1.5× → engage fully; 3) even → take the objective, don't fight; 4) fewer → bait, delay, disengage toward allies, find a defile; 5) won → stop, remount, take the objective, no pursuit; 6) losing → don't reinforce, redeploy.

Doctrine audit, the ten named errors

Named violations correct pub behaviour better than generic advice: 8/8/8 split (Mass) · zerging off-objective (Objective) · no reserve (Security) · silence/six plans (Unity of Command) · marching into the contested centre (Manoeuvre) · chasing to the landing platform (Culminating point) · trickling back after a wipe (Economy of force, you are being defeated in detail) · job-swapping with Battle High (self-inflicted) · 1st place brawling in the open (invites a 2v1) · treating empty map squares as safe (Security).

Posture by phase

• 0:00, 4:00, asymmetric and cautious; farm Battle High on stragglers; take the safe objective; never commit the reserve.
• 4:00, 14:00, mass + pivot; hold the interior position; contest the centre only as a 2-v-1 against the leader.
• 14:00, 20:00, if leading, quiet accumulation and no open melee; if behind, force the leader to split, no over-extension.

The framing question that resolves mid-match arguments: who is your enemy right now? 1st → the clock. 2nd → 1st's rate. 3rd → the stalemate.

Callouts, macros and the call sheet

Three companion artifacts in the vault (C:/ObsidianVaults/Notebook/Agents/ffxiv/guides/):

• ffxiv-frontline-macros.md, 27 bilingual (EN/JP) callout macros with romaji, the sound-effect convention, hotbar layout, auto-translate appendix and a JP glossary.
• ffxiv-frontline-call-sheet.md, the one-page caller reference.
• ffxiv-frontline-jobs.md, the full job/role workup: what the five roles decide, the durability ladder, all fifteen role actions with the JP community's pick per job, the five-stage kill chain, counter-pairs, 21 job profiles, a 21×5 map-affinity matrix, and job-selection strategy. Load it for any "which job should I play / how do the roles interact" question.

Client limits that silently break macros if ignored:

• 15 lines per macro; 180 characters per line; a blank line ends the macro.
• Chat is throttled to roughly one message per second. Two /a lines fired back-to-back lose the second one for readers, put both languages on a single line (■ RETREAT / 撤退 <se.16>) or insert <wait.1>.
• Only one /micon is honoured per macro. Placement convention differs: EN references say line 1; JP guides put it last in combat-action macros so the action fires first. For text callouts, line 1.
• /a = alliance chat = your entire 24-player Frontline team; enemies cannot see it.
• /fmk D <me> (/fieldmarking) drops field marker D at your feet, repeating it with <wait.2> creates a moving rally point ("follow me"), the JP commander standard. /mk attack1 <t> marks enemy targets; square marks the enemy commander by JP convention.
• /mlock stops another macro interrupting a multi-line sequence (use it on burst countdowns).
• <se.1>, <se.16> carry the message audibly, the JP community SE mapping is in the macro file.

Bilingual strategy: one line, EN / JP, ■ bullet prefix. Auto-translate dictionary phrases (定型文) render in the reader's own client language and are the only truly language-proof option, but they must be inserted with Tab in the macro editor, hand-typing them sends plain text that does not translate. So the literal bilingual line is the default and the dictionary is the supplement.

JP vocabulary worth recognising: 鳴らす (to fire a macro) · 軍師 (shot-caller) · リス (tomelith) · 大氷/小氷 (big/small ice) · 挟撃注意 (pincer) · 撤退 (retreat) · 深追い注意 (no over-pursuit) · 自陣OP (own base) · デジョン (Return) · 床ペロ (dying) · 凸る (charge in) · 芋る (play passively).

Etiquette: over-ringing alliance macros is the fastest way to be ignored, JP commanders explicitly warn against it. One call, one sound, then silence.

Related skills

• ffxiv-chat-translation, JP↔EN callouts and macros for PvP parties.

Military doctrine applied to FFXIV Frontline

Derivations, citations and reasoning behind the 14 named plays. Companion to SKILL.md.

1. The nine principles of war (MOOSEMUSS)

Mass, Objective, Offensive, Security, Economy of force, Manoeuvre, Unity of command, Surprise, Simplicity. The principles are linked through the master principle, the objective.

Sources: DTIC, A Model to Study Modern Warhttps://apps.dtic.mil/sti/tr/pdf/ADA503932.pdf · Oxford Academic, What is military strategy?https://academic.oup.com/book/57480/chapter/466865884

2. Lanchester's square law

With aimed fire where each unit can shoot at any target and receive fire from any direction, combat power ∝ n², not n.

• 2 vs 3 → advantage 3² − 2² = 5
• 2 vs 4 → 4² − 2² = 12
• 2 vs 5 → 5² − 2² = 21
• A 2:1 numerical edge = 4× firepower; a 3:1 edge = 9× combat power.
• Group fighting ability rises with the square of group size but only linearly with individual fighting ability, defeating a force three times as numerous requires fighters nine times as effective.

Frontline is square-law warfare because AoE damage lets every player hit every target in a blob. This is why the death ball wins and why an individually skilled player cannot carry.

Where the law breaks: Lanchester's own model set, concentrated fire favours a square-law outcome, whereas positional fire and one-to-one combat favour a linear-law outcome. Corridors, corners, ramps and LoS-breaking terrain convert an n² fight into an n¹ fight. Hence The Defile, and hence never pursuing a routed enemy into a bottleneck.

Inversion for the attacker: splitting an enemy 24 into 12 + 12 destroys half their combat power without a kill. Frontline's multiple simultaneous objectives are the mechanism to force that split, objectives are a dispersion machine, not merely income.

7.5 amendment: Battle High no longer drops on death, so dying costs tempo (respawn travel) and rating (Secure −10; Shatter +8 to the enemy), not your power curve. Post-7.5 doctrine shifts from preserve Battle High above all to preserve bodies and position, and makes deliberate aggressive trades at objectives more defensible.

Sources: Lanchester's lawshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lanchester%27s_laws · Force concentrationhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_concentration · Lanchester's laws for game designhttps://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/the-designer-s-notebook-kicking-butt-by-the-numbers-lanchester-s-laws

3. Concentration, the reserve, interior lines

Schwerpunkt / centre of gravity. Clausewitz: "the hub of all power and movement, on which everything depends… the point against which all our energies should be directed." Name one decisive point per phase and mass on it.

The decisive reserve. Economy of force allocates minimum essential power to secondary efforts, accepting risk in selected areas to achieve overwhelming effect in decisive operations. In Frontline that reserve has three jobs:

1. Security, the third team will arrive at every fight the other two can see.
2. Exploitation, Liddell Hart: "You cannot hit the enemy with effect unless you have first created the opportunity; you cannot make that effect decisive unless you exploit the second opportunity that comes before he can recover."
3. Counter-punch, the only moment six players beat ten is while the ten are committed to your main body.

Interior lines (Jomini). "…those adopted by one or two armies to oppose several hostile bodies, and having such a direction that the general can concentrate the masses and maneuver with his whole force in a shorter period of time than it would require for the enemy to oppose to them a greater force." Interior lines let a numerically inferior force achieve local superiority; exterior lines divide you into fractions the enemy crushes successively.

Frontline pivots: Secure mid-ring + pillar · Triumph central gully (also the ranged high ground) · Onsal the centre, where S-rank ovoos spawn.

Sources: Clausewitz: fog, friction, centre of gravity, culminating pointhttps://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/report/1991/HHT.htm · Interior lineshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interior_lines · FMFRP 12-13, Maneuver in Warhttps://www.marines.mil/Portals/1/Publications/FMFRP%2012-13%20%20Maneuver%20in%20War.pdf

4. The indirect approach and deception

Liddell Hart: "Dislocation is the aim of strategy; its sequel may be either the enemy's dissolution or his easier disruption in battle." His study of 280 campaigns in 25 centuries found only six occasions where a decisive result followed a direct strategic approach to the enemy's main army. Aim for the line of least expectation and the line of least resistance.

Sun Tzu: "All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must seem inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near." The cheng (direct/fixing) force distracts; the ch'i (extraordinary/indirect) force strikes where the blow is not anticipated.

Frontline's mechanical gift: the enemy map shows only players within sight range of their own units. The enemy's entire sensor picture is therefore spoofable, tight visible columns read as larger forces, hidden main bodies read as smaller. Almost nobody exploits this.

Sources: Liddell Hart, Strategy (1954)https://classicsofstrategy.com/2016/01/19/liddell-hart-strategy-1954/ · The Indirect Approach, Strategy: A Historyhttps://erenow.org/ww/strategy-a-history/12.php · The Art of War, ch. I and VIhttps://classics.mit.edu/Tzu/artwar.html

5. Time: Boyd's OODA loop

Boyd: operate inside the adversary's observe, orient, decide, act cycle, "change the situation more rapidly than the opponent can comprehend," forcing him to re-observe, re-orient, re-decide, re-act. Getting inside his time cycle inflicts disorder on him. The point is not raw speed but making his orientation fail.

Frontline timers are public, which is unusual and exploitable: Shatter small ice at 12:30 and 4:30; Triumph snow ~16:00 and auroras ~9:00; Secure teleport pads live 30s before the weaponry spawn. Pre-declare the rotation and be on the objective before it becomes an objective.

Sunk-cost strike: attack exactly when a team has committed to an objective. Their options become "forfeit what we've paid for" or "stay and eat the fight", a choice between two losses is the ideal attack.

Source: Let Boyd Speak!, OODA and maneuver warfare (Marine Corps Association)https://www.mca-marines.org/wp-content/uploads/Let-Boyd-Speak.pdf

6. The culminating point

Clausewitz: the attacker's superiority diminishes as the attack advances until the culminating point of the attack, at which "the superior strength of the attack… is just enough to maintain a defense and wait for peace." Beyond it "the scale turns and the reaction follows with a force that is usually much stronger than that of the original attacker."

Frontline translation: do not pursue to the landing platform. Respawns emerge there with 10 seconds of Invincibility; a pursuing, wounded, cooldown-less force is exactly the "stronger reaction" Clausewitz describes. Stop at the objective line, remount, redeploy.

Corollary, never reinforce failure (Liddell Hart: reinforce success, not failure). Committing more bodies to a losing fight feeds the enemy Battle High and rating. Trickling in is the enemy defeating you in detail.

Source: Clausewitz, via GlobalSecurityhttps://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/report/1991/HHT.htm

7. Coalition dynamics in a three-way game

Game theory and history agree that at each stage the weakest players align against the strongest, alliances form to restore the balance of power. There is also a documented paradox of power: a player can suffer from being too strong, because a runaway leader becomes everyone's target and finds it hard to partner with weaker players.

Applied:

• 1st place, Quiet Leader: accumulate, stay unc lumped, avoid the centre. Your enemy is the clock. A visible runaway leader converts a won game into a 2-v-1.
• 2nd place, attack the leader's rate, not their existence. Annihilating 1st for free simply crowns 3rd; keep the third team alive as a distraction.
• 3rd place, you need chaos. Your enemy is the stalemate. Create and prolong fights between the other two, then sweep objectives while they grind.

Sources: Endogenous formation of alliances in conflictshttps://sites.socsci.uci.edu/~mrgarfin/OUP/papers/Bloch.pdf · Too Big to Prevail: The Paradox of Power in Coalition Formationhttps://www.ifo.de/DocDL/cesifo1_wp8980.pdf

8. Play-to-doctrine index

FFXIV Macro Authoring

Scope: /macro user macros for any purpose, callouts and alerts, ally-targeted actions, ground-targeted actions, crafting sequences, greetings, reports. This is the general authoring skill; ffxiv-frontline carries the PvP callout pack built with it.

When to Use

• The user asks for a macro of any kind, or asks you to adapt one.
• A macro "doesn't work" / does nothing / only half-fires.
• A macro works on one client language but not another (the JP↔EN trap, below).
• Authoring bilingual or alliance-wide callouts, or report/alert macros.

Hard limits, check these before authoring anything

The eight ways a macro silently fails

Failure is quiet: an unexecutable line is skipped and processing continues to the next line. So a broken macro often does nothing at all with no error shown.

1. Action names are client-language-specific. /ac and /micon resolve names in your client's language. A macro written with Japanese action names stops working on an English client, and vice versa, this is the single most common cross-language failure. Fix: use the auto-translate dictionary for the action name (/ac 【…】, inserted with Tab), or Tab-complete the name so the client writes it correctly. Never copy action names out of a guide written in another language.
2. PvP actions need /pvpac, not /ac. /action does not fire PvP actions. Use /pvpaction (/pvpac). For the icon, /micon "Name" pvpaction, with a plain /micon "Name" the PvE icon is used and stays greyed out with no recast timer.
3. A full-width character or full-width space anywhere in the line kills it. Commands must be half-width; the separator between command and argument must be a half-width space. A line copied from a blog with a full-width space after /p will silently do nothing.
4. A stray blank line truncates the macro. Everything below it is dead.
5. Starting a macro cancels the running one, and mashing a button restarts it from line 1. Two macros cannot run concurrently. Protect a multi-line sequence with /mlock on/near line 1.
6. The chat throttle eats rapid messages. Two chat lines fired back-to-back lose the second one for readers. Join them on one line, or put <wait.1> between them. Mashing the button also spams duplicates, press once.
7. /wait too short for the animation, or an action macro used for a rotation. A macro'd rotation loses DPS permanently because the action queue is bypassed. Macro only: ally-targeted single actions, ground-targeted actions, and report/alert lines.
8. Auto-translate hand-typed instead of Tab-inserted. See below, a hand-typed phrase sends as plain text and does not translate.

Command reference

Chat channels, always name the channel explicitly

Omit the channel and it goes to whatever your current chat mode is, usually Say. That is how a private callout ends up in public chat.

Actions

• /ac /action, "action name" [placeholder]. Quotes are conventional and stripped by the parser; both forms work.
• /pvpac /pvpaction, PvP actions only.
• /pac /petaction, pet actions.
• /micon /macroicon, Name or Name category. Categories seen in the wild: pvpaction, emote, minion, marking, fieldmarking. Macro-only command.
• /recast Name, prints the remaining cooldown as a command. Distinct from the <recast.Name> placeholder, which inserts the number into a chat line.

Placeholders

<t> <target> target · <tt> <t2t> target's target · <f> <focus> focus target · <mo> <mouse> whatever is under the cursor (or the party/ally UI entry), the best choice for healing and support macros on mouse · <1>, <8> party slot · gtoff ground-targeting off · <recast.Name> inline cooldown (e.g. <recast.Summon Seraph> → 1:32) · <se.1>, <se.16> play a sound effect with the line.

Targeting and markers

• /ta /target, target by name or placeholder (/ta <attack1>).
• /targetenemy, nearest enemy. The action-list entry Target Attack also auto-targets the lowest-numbered marker, which often removes the need for a targeting macro in PvP.
• /mk /marking /enemysign, attack1, attack8, bind1, bind3, square, circle, cross, triangle on a target. JP convention: square = the enemy commander, bind markers = lock-down targets, lowest number = the focus.
• /fmk /fieldmarking /waymark /wmark, ground markers. Subcommands a, d, 1, 4, clear, save <1-5>. /fmk D <me> drops marker D at your feet, repeated with <wait.2> it becomes a moving rally point that tracks you.

Control

• /wait n <wait.n>, macro-only, 1, 60 integer seconds.
• /mlock /macrolock, macro-only. From this line onward, no other macro may run until this one finishes.
• /merror off, stop "cannot use that yet" text filling the log.

Placement

• /mlock and /merror off go first, before anything that can fail.
• /micon placement is contested. The EN reference says the icon line must be first to take effect; JP guides conventionally put it last in combat-action macros so the action is the first line executed. The one hard rule is that only one /micon is honoured. Practical rule: text-only callout macros → /micon on line 1. Action macros → /ac first, /micon after.
• Repeat an /ac 2, 4 times to build a fallback chain, because failed lines are skipped silently.

Bilingual macros and auto-translate (定型文)

FFXIV's auto-translate dictionary sends a phrase as a special token that each reader's client renders in their own language (English, Japanese, French, German). This is the only genuinely language-proof option, and the only way to reference an action name that works across client languages.

How to insert: in the chat box or the macro editor, type the first character or two, then press Tab (PC) or R1/RB (controller) and pick from the dictionary. The phrase is inserted wrapped in special coloured brackets. Never type it by hand, a hand-typed phrase has no token and does not translate. Pasting a token from the chat log into the macro editor also preserves it.

Design rules for bilingual callouts:

• One line, both languages, ■ RETREAT / 撤退 <se.16>, rather than two lines, which trips the 1-message-per-second throttle.
• Prefix with ■; JP commanders often append 卍 as a flourish.
• Reserve <se> for calls that must be obeyed instantly; sound on everything trains people to ignore it.
• The JP community calls firing a macro 「鳴らす」 and explicitly warns against over-ringing the alliance.

Etiquette

• No <se> on greeting macros.
• Never place a greeting/callout macro next to a combat action on the hotbar, it gets mashed mid-rotation. Use an extended cross-hotbar page or a second palette.
• One approved chat line or two per macro; repeated presses re-run from line 1 and spam the log.

Worked example

The complete PvP callout pack, 27 bilingual macros with sound-effect convention, hotbar layout and a JP glossary, is in the vault at sources/03-callout-macros.md. Use it as the template for any callout set.

Pre-flight checklist

1. Half-width only; half-width space after every command.
2. No blank lines inside the macro.
3. /mlock, /merror off near the top if the macro is multi-line or can be mashed.
4. Channel named explicitly on every chat line.
5. Action names match the client language this macro will run on (or are auto-translate tokens).
6. /pvpac for PvP actions, /micon … pvpaction for their icons.
7. /wait long enough for the animation.
8. Chat lines that must both be seen are joined into one line, or separated by <wait.1>.
9. Test with /e before going live, and press the button once.

Sources

• FFXIV Online Wiki, Macrohttps://ffxiv.consolegameswiki.com/wiki/Macro (command table, placeholders, <recast.X>, alliance chat)
• FFXIV Online Wiki, Auto-Translatehttps://ffxiv.consolegameswiki.com/wiki/Auto-Translate
• Macrology (3rd edition)https://github.com/FFXIVMacrology/Macrology/blob/main/%5Ben%5DMacrology(the%20Third%20Edition.md) (15-line/180-char limits, throttle, /pvpac)
• Lodestone, /pvpactionhttps://eu.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodestone/playguide/db/text_command/195d3255bd3/
• エオリーマン, マクロが正しく動かない時に確認すべきことhttps://eoryman.com/2019/11/30/macro-error/ (silent line skips, overwrite, /mlock)
• エオリーマン, マクロの教科書https://eoryman.com/2020/05/11/macro-beginner/
• FF14の井戸端, マクロのアレコレhttps://ff14-idobata.blog.jp/archives/5667344.html (no nesting/loops, /micon placement convention)
• はてなブログ, マクロについてhttps://irischang.hateblo.jp/entry/2024/03/16/140436 and コトリログ, 言語設定https://kotorilog.com/ff14/language-settings/ (action names are client-language-specific; the auto-translate fix)
• FF14定型文マクロの正しい作り方https://stage-intranet.joshsoftware.com/akiruno-bara/9044596/ (Tab-insert requirement, no action queue)
• テキストコマンド一覧http://ff14.ffo.jp/html/28.html (macro-only command markers)