New Player, seeking advice on job choice

Pre-empting the next question... plus DOL jobs have a neat 'stealth' ability... let's you get past a lot of things.

Mining. And a wee bit of Botany.

Armorsmith will provide you access to most heavy armor (pants may require weaving). You will also use some leather (leatherworker) and precious metal (goldsmith) in some crafts, but can easily purchase the quantity of materials you need for that. Blacksmithing will make most of your weapons although some GLD can also be made with Carpenter. You will want a lv.50 blacksmith on hand to meld materia for your relic, although you could probably get a friend or fc-mate to meld it for you at this point. Keep in mind materia is the most expensive part of the relic quest, so have some gil saved up for it or convert lv 45+ tank equipment for your 2 "battledance iii" materia.

Also, if you are serious about crafting, consider leveling culinarian, carpenter, goldsmith, and alchemist to at least lv.15. These will provide crossclass skills that make it much easier for you to reliably high-quality an item. HQ items have better stats, give 3x the xp for a successful craft, give 2x the reward from leves, and spiritbind faster. This is extremely useful if you are leveling the craft, using the items, or turning the items in to materia to sell for gil.

Also, to supply your crafts, you will want to specialize mostly in mining to have ready access to ore. Botany is required to some extent for wood and cloth, but you may find it more time-efficient to buy most of those materials on the marketboard. The remaining horns and raw leather can be hunted by killing monsters and dungeons or the marketboard.

If you like playing as a Tank, level a Tank.
Consider both the PLD and WAR jobs as tools in your belt.

As at least one person has correctly mentioned above, at endgame the main difference between PLD and WAR is that WAR is better at handling regular short spikes of extreme damage and PLD is better at handling constant levels of high damage. This is mainly because WAR has an ability called "Inner Beast" that reduces incoming damage for a short time and can be used fairly regularly... whereas PLD has several abilities that reduce incoming damage for longer periods of time, but which take longer to recharge (as well as a chance to block physical damage with a shield).

There are a few other more minor differences, such as a Warrior's ability to grab AoE hate a lot quicker than a Paladin (though the Paladin can usually keep generating AoE hate after the Warrior has run out of steam) and the ability of a Paladin to completely avoid certain debuffs via "Hallowed Ground" or cleanse them via "Tempered Will". WAR has two debuffs (Strorm's Eye and Storm's Path) that stacks with PLD, and PLD has one debuff (Rage of Halone) that stacks with WAR.

WAR tends to be seen as needing more skill to play well - you need to save up buff stacks to react ahead of time, so it helps to learn the fights in order to play effectively. Paladin is seen as a bit "simpler" since their buffs are more straightforward and they only really have one attack combo to worry about (WAR has three)... but they also have a wider range of utility skills (PLD's Stun, Silence, Pacify, Blind and "Stoneskin" to WAR's Stun and Slow). There is a little bit of difference in DPS (in favour of the WAR, mainly due to one of their debuffs) but it's not enough to justify playing one over the other; and whenever both tanks are hitting the same target at the same time their DPS is extremely similar.

Generally speaking, for endgame raids an 8-man group will want to be bringing both a Warrior and a Paladin rather than two of the same class.

For leveling your first character, I'd choose PLD over WAR simply because PLD needs very very little in the way of cross class skills to play effectively.
A WAR will need at least Provoke and probably Flash; and will be gimping themselves without Convalescence and Featherfoot.
A PLD's best cross class ability is Stoneskin, which it doesn't really need until level 50 (and even then, you can get by without it...)

Aside from PLD easier to use i think it is because Warrior only really gets it's better abilities at a much higher level then that of Glad/PLD.
honestly i have played in dungeons with both classes and if the player is good it make s no difference.

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Originally Posted by Full-Paragon

1. What job is best for tanking, Paladin or Warrior? (being easy to level with little support would be a plus)

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to answer this question specifically, it is HARDER to level Paladin through dungeons then it is to level Warrior at low levels. The reason being, is Paladins get Shield oath @Lv40 (which is a long time). Please keep in mind, I am only talking about leveling pre level 40, especially if you are a new player. You might que for a dungeon, and that full HQ geared bard in your party will really make you work for your money. I bring this all up, because you added the comment "with little support."

Now I'm not trying to dissuade you from leveling a gladiator, nor am I trying to make a comparison on which is better. All I'm trying to point out, is I highly recommend that you make sure you always keep your weapon up to date, giving you the best possible chances of holding agro if you choose the Paladin as your Main Class.

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Originally Posted by Full-Paragon

1. What job is best for tanking, Paladin or Warrior? (being easy to level with little support would be a plus)

2. Are tanks in a high demand? If so, which class is in the most demand?

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I think Warrior is easier to level, but Paladins/Gladiators have better overall defense and can take hits better whereas Warriors tend to go for higher HP and attack. Not only that, Paladins have Flash and Shield Lob, which are both incredibly useful Tanking skills that the Warrior doesn't get in their skill tree. (Although Flash is cross class.)

I will say that, as a healer, it's easier to heal Paladins than it is to heal Warriors. Paladins just have much better DEF, which means that they take a lot less damage and so the healer doesn't have to worry as much about using high potency cure spells.

Tanks are also always in high demand. They offer EXP and Gil bonuses to Tanks in the Duty Roulette (Random Dungeon Finder) literally all the time.

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Originally Posted by ColorOfSakura

I think Warrior is easier to level, but Paladins have Flash and Shield Lob, which are both incredibly useful Tanking skills that the Warrior doesn't get in their skill tree. (Although Flash is cross class.)

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FYI, Warriors get Tomahawk (basically Shield lob) and Overpower (AoE Cone +Enmity) plus Steel Cyclone (PBAoE +Enmity) plus the cross-class Flash. They're actually technically better at grabbing AoE hate than Paladins.

Both Tanks can equip the same armor and essentially have exactly the same Defence stats and effective HP from their tanking stances (Warriors getting access to Defiance at level 30 whereas Paladins have to wait until level 40 for Shield Oath). The only real difference at endgame is that Paladins are better at mitigating ongoing heavy damage over time (Shield blocks and cooldown durations) and Warriors are better at mitigating short spikes of extreme damage providing that they know that it's coming and have time to prepare (Inner Beast).

I personally prefer playing as a PLD, and find PLD generally more straightforward to heal when I'm playing a healing class. But that doesn't mean that they survive any longer than a Warrior, just that their health bar tends not to fluctuate quite as much - particularly whenever they don't know the fight.

You can focus on playing Paladin and switch to play Warrior (Marauder) to change the mood sometimes.
I suggest you to play both tank so you can notice the different in playstyle and strong point of both job then you'll find which is suited you more (and it will be your "better" tank job)
If I must say different between PLD and WAR,
Paladin is fortress with high defense and have more utilities.
Warrior can burst more damage and temporary flexing your muscle to endure incoming big hit.

For crafting,
Armorsmith will help you by making your own gears (but you can just exchange them from npc) and reduce repairing expense.
Blacksmith is rather making just weapons and tools for other classes.

hope this help :)