New Player

Hi and welcome to Eorzea!

Since you've been given all these informations, you seem to be coming down to a decision already. However, since I haven't seen any Archer/Bard specific posts, I'll just chime in to lay out some information on that class for you, in case you may want to try it out later.

So like all classes, Archer is your starting class, and when you get to level 30, you unlock the Bard job. In order to unlock Bard, you do have to level Pugilist to level 15, so you're pretty much forced to try out that class as well. Anyways, let's get started.

Archer pre-level 30 is mainly a DPS class. It has a much lower damage output compared to other DPS classes. That's the offset of this class, however, it does have 100% uptime on damage output due to it being a Ranged class, and still be able to attack while mobile. So this class is pretty useful for AoE-heavy fights.

At level 30 when you unlock Bard, it's still heavily a DPS class, but as you progress further in level and content, Bard will start to lean towards being a support class. In other words, in end-game contents, you're playing support more than half the time. Bard has songs that lowers its damage output by 10-20% while active, by boosting caster classes' DPS/help Healer's MP regen. Examples: Black Mage, and White Mage respectively.
Bard also the role of inflicting "Silence" in end-game for interrupts.

So that's the general gameplay of a Archer/Bard. Hope this helps you in deciding, and good luck with whichever path you decide to take!

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Originally Posted by Bixby

The character limit doesn't apply to edits. Anyone you see with large posts has edited to add the text over 1000.

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That's good to know. I tried to quote some posts, and they were for sure over 1000 characters. I was thinking there was a limit for new players or something lol.

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Originally Posted by DxWings

Hi and welcome to Eorzea!

Since you've been given all these informations, you seem to be coming down to a decision already. However, since I haven't seen any Archer/Bard specific posts, I'll just chime in to lay out some information on that class for you, in case you may want to try it out later.

So like all classes, Archer is your starting class, and when you get to level 30, you unlock the Bard job. In order to unlock Bard, you do have to level Pugilist to level 15, so you're pretty much forced to try out that class as well. Anyways, let's get started.

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I am also considering bard for sure. Ranged DPS with a bow has always been my go to choice, but I also love pet classes. The choice is really hard !!! I really think, I'm going to level like every class to level 10, and pick the one I like the best at this point.

Good evening, Emeposk!

I'm only a noob that started to game recently, a few weeks... But, maybe because that I could try to help you a little telling you my little experiences with the classes I managed to raise to 15 during a certain time, I'll also give you a recommendation.

When you get to level 10 then you can try all the classes and see what fits best with you... So which class should you start first to becoming 10 quick and without troubles?.... I'd recommend you Arcanist.

I used the following ones: Thaumaturge, Conjurer, Archer, Arcanist.

With the thaumaturge you have no problems with the MP, but... You can't heal yourself in low levels (Later you can use a cross skill ability like physick or heal... But not in your first class, of course.) So you would have serious troubles at the beggining with the heal.

With the Conjurer, it's ok, you can use some damage with stone + aero in cleric stance, then remove the cleric stance before healing, heal, and come back to making some damage, but you'll still having probably problems with the MP in important battles you have to do (Especially some instances where you can't do party)

With the arcanist in the 5-6 few levels you already have a pet helping you and attacking, a heal magic, so you could heal the pet if is obtaining all the attention, or heal yourself and run while the pet attacks. You can also put Bio that make damage over time, and if you are not healing yourself, use ruin. Only with bios and the pet you have already a good damage until becoming 10 and you can also heal yourself or others.

Unlike the other three, with the archer you can enjoy a full movility, attacking while dodging, moving away from your enemies without having a loss in DPS, you deal quick ranged and easy damage. You could also achieve easily level 10 with this class, because despite the vitality is not so high and can't heal, at least you can run a lot and mantain away. But still, you won't be able of doing for example a FATE alone with a boss like the arcanist could.

It's just my experience and opinion playing those classes, And I found really easy raising the first levels arcanist and archer!

PS: And now I have my own little doubt about Disciples of War and healing... How could they do it...? I doubt physick and cure spells that use the mind attribute would be useful for physical classes... I want to guess they have their own ways to recover HP in higher levels

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Originally Posted by Adrian74

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Starting out as Disciple of War can be tough. I mostly relied on using Potions. My first character on another server (before I made my current character on Tonberry) was a Lancer. I believe you unlocked Life Surge at Level 10 or so? That was a rather unreliable healing skill I had, but for the purposes of solo content it was fine.

Arcanist is a good class to start with. You get a bit of everything. You get to heal, you get to DPS, you get a tank pet. Later on in dungeons, you can double up as a raiser as well.

When I played Lancer for a bit, I realized how much I liked dungeons and that DPS queue times were too long. So when I made my current character on Tonberry, I decided she was going to be the cutest Lalafell tanker ever. Never looked back. I still love dungeons, even now, so I cringe when I have to level DPS classes.

Also consider that for any class to be useful end game, you need to get the relevant cross-class skills. For example, to get a Summoner, you need Arcanist 30 and Thaumaturge 15. However, to be a really effective Summoner, you will need to level up that Thaumaturge to at least 26 for Swiftcast, because it's such a necessary skill to have for mages. Certain DPS classes like Monk or Bard would have to level a Lancer to 34 for Blood for Blood. In that sense, I find that Gladiator/Paladin is the easiest class to play if you want to fast track it to end-game. This class does not "require" any cross-class skills compared to all the other classes that I know, it can be largely independant and still be really effective. The best cross-class skills a Paladin can have are Stoneskin, Foresight, and Bloodbath. However, they are not mandatory to have, compared to having Swiftcast (THM 26) on a White Mage/Quelling Strikes (ARC 34) on a Black Mage/Blood for Blood (LNC 34) on a Monk or Bard. The only thing is I read earlier you may not want to be a tank, but if you want a class that you don't need to invest too much time in, consider a Gladiator.

While I am not encouraging you to not get any cross-class skills as a Gladiator, I am just saying the class is fairly self-sufficient. Eventually I would still recommend you to get the cross-class skills you need, but for the purposes of end-game, you can go without those skills.

Ok so I started out as Conjurer, went White Mage, leveled Archer / Bard for group content and then later went on to Summoner for soloing, I have played every class to at least 10. I truly wish I had just gone Summoner when I started, your Titan pet can tank nearly anything, your Dps is comparable to anything single target except Black Mage. and it can be as simple or as complicated as you want it. You want to micro-manage your pet and give specific commands go for it. you want it to act on its own with only basic direction also fine. Have to go afk because of a RL emergency for 30 seconds odds are you wont come back to a corpse :)

Not to mention they have some of the best looking armor in the game :)

An update, my daughter was nice enough to allow me to play last night. I got to level 7, well actually 10 points shy of level 8. I found it mostly enjoyable, except for when a fate boss killed me. It was me, and another dude. He was level 5, and I was level 3. I waited for him to attack the boss, and then I attacked once. I immediately pulled aggro, and the boss continued to attack me even though I stopped attacking after I pulled aggro. No worries though, a couple of levels later I got my revenge on him.

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Originally Posted by emeposk

An update, my daughter was nice enough to allow me to play last night. I got to level 7, well actually 10 points shy of level 8. I found it mostly enjoyable, except for when a fate boss killed me. It was me, and another dude. He was level 5, and I was level 3. I waited for him to attack the boss, and then I attacked once. I immediately pulled aggro, and the boss continued to attack me even though I stopped attacking after I pulled aggro. No worries though, a couple of levels later I got my revenge on him.

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As a point on this all the monsters in this game are on a fairly short "leash" especially FATES, so in most cases if your outmatched you can just run after a short run the monster will reset back to its starting point, losing all agro :)

as far as hate goes, theres a little colored indicator next to your character name as long as it isnt solid Red the mob isnt after you specifically, get used to watching this now if you dont want to get unplanned hate

I understand your reservations on going tank but with how things are at up with the duty finder system people in your group can get a new tank most of the time if you had to drop. Dps queues can be horrible. Bard is also a good idea if you want to play a dps. They are easy to play, mobile, and not so punishing if you mess up your rotations. They are also well loved in end game content.

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Read up where you said you are enjoying arcanist. It's a really fun class. I enjoy scholar and in lower level dungeons you can literally put yourself on follow and have your fairy auto heal everyone. Good luck in your travels!

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Originally Posted by emeposk

Sounds a lot like a warlock from WOW.

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It is very similar, but you can rezz. Good class to start and solo level fast to 50. Then you can level BLM and WHM for cross skills adn maybe archmage. As a top BLM you will need BRD to 34, so you could try out several jobs and get them to 20, then decide.