Need help deciding on class/job

Ok so I been playing around for a few days with different classes and honestly I am having a really hard time deciding on what to pick. A little background I am experienced in mmorpgs but not this one. So basically I'm trying to pick my main class.This is pretty much what I am using for search criteria on what to pick so any help would be appreciated!

1. What class would be the best at teaching me mechanics?
2. Would it be ok to just jump into tanking for first character? (I try not to do this for the first character)
3. What class overall guides you the best to the more complicated rotations
4. I am honestly torn between SMN,BLM,DRG,and BRD they seem to interest me the most but if you have another suggestion I will gladly hear it out
5. In the end I like to be useful to the group and but still be able to push some good numbers (no I don't care about topping the charts but I don't want to be struggling too much just to be viable for the first time anyway)

Rip i lied. Edited.

I will try my best to answer the questions first.

1. All the classes have their specific gimmicks to master in order to push their performance high. Although I would probably suggest the classes Rogue / Ninja and Red Mage. Both of them are more minimal on positional requirements. Their rotations generally allow you to get out of fire without losing too much DPS as well.
2. As long as you know how to stagger your defensive cooldowns and use AoEs to hold multiple enemies, it is okay to start tanking first. Make sure you have the role skills Rampart, Provoke, and Convalescence ready as soon as you can.
3. Generally the Monk is more complex to master on the rotation. You use attacks to generate self buffs and you have to be properly at the enemy flanks and rear areas to inflict the most damage depending on the spell used.
4. The Bard will most definitely be desired the most out of the four due to very high utility offered. The DPS will be a bit lower being support though. The other 3 classes you listed I haven't yet read much agreement from other players if they have something special. Just some whispers that Bards love Dragoons for the Pierce Debuff on enemies.
5. The classes that offer a balance of good utility with good DPS are usually Ninja (Trick Attack and threat control abilities) and Red Mage (minor heals and Embolden). Bard is more heavier on the end of high utility.

Much of what I said is more applicable towards what I hear in Savage Mode raids. All the classes are viable for normal dungeons and expert roulette (which are usually the 2 newest level capped normal dungeons).

General advice is play what you enjoy. As of now this game is balanced fairly well and everyone can be a viable contributor in any content. Some classes have to work harder then others, but everyone can fit in if they work at it. Why does any of this matter? It doesnt, its just a reassurance that once you find something you enjoy you can make it work.

1. So when you say "teaching me mechanics", do you mean the mechanics of the class in question or game-wide mechanics? Im going to answer as though you mean non-class specific mechanics. Id give the edge to the casters/bard. Its easier to see the thing you need to dodge if you dont have an enemies behind right in your face. You can get a leg up on this sort of learning by completing the Hall of the Novice training at level 15(accessible from any "The Smith" npc, or from its physical location in outside Aleport). In general, the game is decent about not throwing everything at you all at once. Early dungeons and trials have simpler things to do/avoid then later ones.

2. Sure. Lots of people pick a tank first. "Leading" in a dungeon you cant get lost in isnt really that hard. Tank advice is something like "point out that youre new and take constructive advice, take it slow until you learn to go fast, learn to control hate and position enemies, learn when/why to use your defensive abilities(also, USE THEM - a tank afraid to use a defensive skill is a sad sad thing), and finally learn when you can switch from hate generation to damage".

3. Most of the classes are a bit deficient in teaching their tricks. Sure, when you hit the first move of a combo on dragoon the second move will highlight to indicate what you should do next. But the game wont teach you the difference between their two combos and how to most effectively balance them(one hits harder, the other has nice bonus effects - how much/when you alternate changes a bit as you level). Reading tooltips, looking at traits and action descriptions... doing a bit of in-game(or out of game) research basically is the key here. And even then, sometimes the importance of something can be hard to notice if it isnt pointed out by another player(for instance the ideal down-cycle of the black mage rotation changes completely the second you get the blizzard 3 spell, but its not at all obvious because its the opposite of what youve done until then and the tooltip you need to read to pick up on it lacks proper emphasis). So this point is kinda a wash.

4. Of those 4, black mage and bard are probly slightly easier to "get right" from the start, then dragoon, with summoner needing the most learning and management. The things that make the BLM easy to learn(easy rotation, long casting times) eventually make it harder to master and optimize. The utility that bard picks up somewhat complicates its patterns. Summoner is a bit finicky over pretty much all levels, but their combination of damage and utility(one of only 2 non-healers who can res) is nice. Dragoon gets a couple of the best buffs in the game, and the melee side of combat gives it a more visceral edge then the others you highlighted.

5. None of those classes do abysmal damage as long as you learn what to do(summoners should use dots and learn the keys to their pets, dragoons should finish combos and for the love of all that is holy keep your buffs up, bards want to use their dots procs and songs, black mage needs to take proper advantage of the elemental stances). If utility is the tiebreaker, bard has most, summoner and dragoon are basically tied, and black mage is lowest.

No idea if any of that helped. But i typed it.

No thank you very much for your response it's been a very good resource for me to pull from I think I will take the advice of frizze and try blm out and maybe switch to dragoon when I feel like being melee thank you all for your input it's helped alot

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sinizter86

1. What class would be the best at teaching me mechanics?
2. Would it be ok to just jump into tanking for first character? (I try not to do this for the first character)
3. What class overall guides you the best to the more complicated rotations
4. I am honestly torn between SMN,BLM,DRG,and BRD they seem to interest me the most but if you have another suggestion I will gladly hear it out
5. In the end I like to be useful to the group and but still be able to push some good numbers (no I don't care about topping the charts but I don't want to be struggling too much just to be viable for the first time anyway)

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Lets break it up;

First thing if you haven't done go to the training hall for what ever class you choose. Second Keep in mind gear plays a huge role and food later on will help you a lot if possible I would suggest raising DoH and DoL on your down time or do daily turn in at a minimum. Repairing gear in dungeons is a huge plus later on. In a perfect world everyone should have one class minimum for each role to understand how they work and what they prioritize in. I would start up with;



1. What class would be the best at teaching me mechanics?

Gladiator until 30 then get Paladin right away. Paladin will help with enmity mechanics, offer nice deference, and teach you about stunning mobs when needed. You would be surprise how many tanks don't know when to stun -.-. This job will help you learn flow of pulls, gauging your teams abilities, and communication skills as needed. DO NOT BE AFRAID TO SPEAK OUT IF YOUR HAVING TROUBLE.



2. Would it be ok to just jump into tanking for first character? (I try not to do this for the first character)

It will make queues go by faster compared to healer and DPS, eventually you don't have to however you can do Crafting or gathering while you wait with other classes to kill time. It all depends on your play style.

3. What class overall guides you the best to the more complicated rotations

Depends on your style:

In my opinion : Tank WAR ( I main DRK second PLD) / Mage DPS I prefer BLM / Healer : AST ( I like AST later on but WHM easy ) Range DPS BRD is always nice / Close range DPS DRG ( I main ) Nin / Mnk are my second choice.


4. I am honestly torn between SMN,BLM,DRG,and BRD they seem to interest me the most but if you have another suggestion I will gladly hear it out

Play what makes you happy those are good choices you kind of want to have a variety if your planing to do End game later on like raids and such. I would trow in NIN it's really nice as well.

5. In the end I like to be useful to the group and but still be able to push some good numbers (no I don't care about topping the charts but I don't want to be struggling too much just to be viable for the first time anyway)

As long as you ask questions, communicate, understand your job actions, stay well geared you should do fine. Take advantage of the weekly company turn ins, challenge book, and mentors that are willing to help. Don't get get disappointed with trolls, play your way but be flexible to the groups dynamics.

Hope this helps.

Quick BLM highlights then. Read and try to make sure you understand the two stances - umbral ice and astral fire. Ill summarize here, but look at the actual info. Astral fire(granted by casting fire spells, stacks up to 3 at higher levels) does 3 main things. First, it completely shuts off your mana regen. Second, it makes your fire spells hit harder(higher stacks increase the damage bonus). And finally, it raises the mana cost to cast fire spells while reducing the mana it takes to cast an ice spell. Umbral Ice(same as AF) does 2 main things. First it boosts your mana regen to crazy high levels(natural mana regen is 1/10th per tick outside of combat - UI at one stack gives you 1/4 per tick in combat and at the highest stack gives you roughly 67% per tick). And second, it reduces the cost(and i think damage done by) fire spells.

So what you want to do is get into your fire stance to buff your damage and cast as many fire spells as you can, then when you run out of mana switch to ice to get it all back, then back to fire to repeat(at higher levels you also add a thunder dot at some point in the mix). The Transpose skill(level 3 or 4 - switches current element stack to 1 of the opposite) helps with this at early levels, Fire 3 and Blizzard 3 have special properties that allow them to be used as your "switch" spells later on. And finally, read your spell descriptions. In other FF games Fire 2 might just be a more powerful fire spell, but here it has different properties and is used in a different way then fire 1 completely(specifically, fire 2 is your primary AoE for most of your career). Theres a lot more to learn to optimize and master the destructive arts, but getting that much right will take you far. That and of course, asking if you need help with something more.

I will add in a few other things for Black Mage.

Since the class uses cast times a lot, the main hurdle is minimizing unneeded movement so you can continue to do high damage. It is better to get out of fire than to finish casting, but you will have some spells and abilities you can use to help keep up the numbers while moving.

Swiftcast and Triplecast can make your spells instant so you can move out of fire while pumping out your own damage. I also use Swiftcast at the start of boss fights with Fire 3 to instantly get the 3 stack Astral Fire.

Ley Lines and Between the Lines I didn't get to experiment yet. I believe you can use Aetherial Manipulation to teleport to a person already out of fire, then use Between the Lines to return to your circle for your Haste buff.

This advice probably won't need to be done much with Enochian being a 30 second cooldown, but here it is. Transpose I found can have a bit of minor use even after you get Fire 3 and Blizzard 3. If you cannot complete a spellcast in time for maintaining Astral Fire / Umbral Ice to keep your Enochian buff up, Transpose can be used to save it. It drops your stacks to 1, but it is better than losing Enochian if the ability spell is still on cooldown. Fire 4, Blizzard 4 and Foul all need Enochian up to use.

You're overthinking stuff. It really doesn't matter, all classes are at the same difficulty (except for Archer which is probably the easiest one and the most boring tbh lol)
What matters is how much fun you think you will have.
1. Mechanics of what exactly? Archer was the easiest class, and many who have played several classes say that Archer (Bard) is the easiest one.
2. It would be OK, novice training will really help btw so do them before going into a dungeon. You can run a few dungeons and people are willing to help as long as you listen.
3. All classes are the same, to be honest. (except maybe arcanist, it's a slightly more difficult not in a noticable way)
It really depends on the person, i'd say. some might say arcanist is difficult, some might say it's just right.
4. Whatever you feel like playing, just go with it! you can always start with another class, it's not a fixed choice.