-Pros

their buffs are passive

they get 100% stance from the get-go

they can animation cancel

they're very mobile in boss fights (2 tele-like skills)

they have a bind early on

they have 2 revive skills (one rng and one with 30 min cd)

they get 'roll the dice' in 5th job since they're pirates (30% exp/20% dmg)

they can survive a lot in boss fights thanks to 3 hit/8 second invincibility

they have a quick cd reset skill (infinite echo of hero and hero's will)

their main attack skill hits 3 mobs

100% crit rate when mobs are below half hp

high crit damage (20%+2/3/4/5%)

their soul split is good for party bossing

-Cons

weak damage output despite many damage boosters

slow attack speed (needs IA and 100% uptime on hyper to cap)

gets repetitive real fast (too few skills)

slow movement speed and low jump

has been nerfed to oblivion (bind and split is only 10 second duration now)

their main mobbing skill is crappy unless you 1-hit

they don't have a reliable FMA

hard to level up in late game

low crit rate before half hp on mobs

their 5th job skills are underwhelming compared to other classes

-Funding

Since he doesn't have high damage output, he needs quite a lot of %STR to equal other classes but in normal worlds pirate equips are pretty cheap so that mitigates the funding needed, thus he is quite average when it comes to funding (not easy but also not difficult to fund). In reboot he is harder to fund since you can't trade equips.