Sub job: RDM, BLM, WHM, or SCH?

[Crevox]

All the guides I see are really old/outdated.

Can anyone give me some pros/cons from end game experience and stuff?

[Infidi]

RDM was always the staple for its Refresh, if having trouble with perp. WHM if soloing and need debuffs and no problems with perp. A lot of people are running SCH nowadays, I think? Has a pretty good MP getter backer JA and pretty sure it has all the na spells WHM gets ?

[Economizer]

All the guides I see are really old/outdated.

Can anyone give me some pros/cons from end game experience and stuff?

Make sure you're not just relying on the dying wiki. Bgwiki and FFXIAH are good resources, particularly in the FFXIAH forums, where there are commonly guides written, and the FFXIAH search function isn't bad for gearing up.

Yeah, for a lower level player you're going to see a lot of the advice be a bit different here and there, as are the events.

For example, if you were in Abyssea with a set of good Atmas soloing, and you were trying to get red procs for a certain weapon, White Mage is a good sub because it gives you access to all the Staff weapon skills, including Earth Crusher and Sunburst (which both have the potential to proc red).

White Mage also gives you Haste, Cure IV, (but so does Red Mage), Raise, as well as most status removal including Stona (SCH doesn't get Stona), and Repose (light based sleep). You also get Reraise (great for saving money at the cost of MP when soloing), Sneak and Invisible, Magic Defense Bonus II, AoE barspells, Shell II (take less magic damage), Protect III, Aquaveil, Blink, Stoneskin, Flash (for when you need to cast a Summon and all your other defenses are starting to fail), and most of White Mage's teleports for when you want to go home.

Red Mage gives you Haste and Cure IV like White Mage, you don't get any status removal, but you do get Magic Attack Bonus II while retaining Magic Defense Bonus II, and you also get Fast Cast II so you can summon things faster. Red Mage gets defensive spells like Aquaveil, Blink, Stoneskin, and also Phalanx (but so does SCH), as well as the standard Sneak and Invisible. You also get Sleep, Sleep II, Dispel, single target barspells, and you get light nukes for doing quick pulling (and very occasionally some damage) with. The biggest gains come from Refresh and Convert though, which will propel your MP pool higher.

Scholar is a bit different from WHM or RDM. You have to switch modes between Light Arts and Dark Arts, and while you'll spend most time in Light Arts however, and Light Arts boosts your Healing Magic skill greatly, meaning a Cure III (which is all /SCH gives you, no Cure IV) comes very close in healing power to a subjob's typical Cure IV. You get just about all of the defensive spells Red Mage sub does, Aquaveil, Blink, Stoneskin, and Phalanx, and you can use a stratagem to make them AoE, or if you're solo, burn a strat to make one cast faster. You can use the casting strat to cast more Raise spells in a short amount of time when desperate as well. You have to use Addendum: White for /WHM's status removals (but you'll be missing Stona), and Reraise, and under Dark Arts you'll need to use Addendum: Black for Sleep and Dispel, and with Manifestation you can AoE Sleep if you're desperate. You also net a few weather spells that can be used in conjunction with certain items to lower perp costs, such as Sandstorm, Rainstorm, Windstorm, but you'll mostly be using Sandstorm and the Desert Boots to move faster if your summon's bloodpacts aren't enough for you. Scholar's MP longevity as a sub job comes a little from Dark Arts + Aspir (using Alacrity to recast it faster in a small timeframe helps), a little from saving MP with Light Art's MP conservation, but mostly from Sublimation, which is similar to Refresh, but doesn't stack and takes time to charge by draining your health.

Black Mage is very niche. You do get some low level nukes and Magic Attack Bonus, but so does Red Mage. You get Sleep, Sleep II, and Sleepga, but White Mage can get you the equivalent to Sleep II, and your avatars have more accurate AoE sleep spells. Black Mage's Aspir doesn't typically drain very much MP to yourself, even with Elemental Seal (which you'll probably be using to land a Sleep spell). Your main draw is Stun, but avatars duplicate that ability, making it hard to justify. Warp (and Warp II, Escape, and Tractor) is very useful, but you can usually get a bunch of teleportation items for that if your standard issue Instant Warp Scroll isn't good enough for you unless you're doing a quest where you run around a lot.

There are a few other jobs you might look into for niche uses as well, especially if you like hitting things with a stick (more viable when you can use Trust to get someone to heal you so you don't have to sub something that can self heal), but mostly you'll be sticking to WHM, RDM, SCH depending on what you need or what you prefer.

[Calatilla]

Eco, /sch doesn't get phalanx. I personally use /rdm for 99% of my time on smn, but I occasionally use /sch if I'm solo'ing which isn't very often.

[Secondplanet]

i use whm for tele's incase things go sour and also for the support i give my friends with debuffs etc.