How Long Do You Give?

This was spawned from a talk with an FC member and I'd like to hear some thoughts. Not as some sort of 'ammo' or back up against my FC member, I just thought I would bring it up here than get buried elsewhere. I suppose this also isn't just for DPS but the Jobs in general.

I have come back to the game after basically 2 years? I'm going through the jobs I had leveled, trying to feel what feels good still to play. And while going through what I liked, didn't like, or dropped; and FC member chimed up that it's not only been awhile but I'm missing about 2 expansions worth of abilities on some of them. It's going to feel weird and akward to relearn them. Or in some cases, learn them.

But after a few dungeon runs, the jobs I dropped don't feel any better. And others I had mildly tried don't feel that enjoyable either.

This got me thinking; how long is it to give a job a 'Fair shot'? Should we grade by Dungeon runs or Trials? Should we judge based on level or how much time is played? Do people ignore how it feels to play most the game and focus on how well it does in Extremes? Or people just shrug and go for the look all the way to end game and beyond? Answer to those is probably all Yes to some degree.

For as much as I see the forums go on about this or that Job, good or bad, I wonder how long people play around with the changes before making their choice, or seeing how long people try a new job before they shrug and go "Not for me".

Given that the game does let us just hot swap from job to job to job at will, I'm curious to see what some people judge a 'fair chance/try' as.

Some jobs don’t really complete their toolkit until late. I’m talking 70-90. However other like ninja for example Don’t really change all that much from like level 45-90. Generally level 60 you start seeing most jobs however begin to round off their themes.

As for how to judge, I’m sorry but a dungeon isn’t a setting where you can truly use the fullest potential and in most cases story mode trials you can’t either. You need a fight with enough mechanics to make you think but not so many you can’t learn your rotations.

Tldr; to answer your question bluntly I’d say by level 60 you’ll begin to feel whether you enjoy a job or not

Depends on the job.
Most jobs see their core complete at early level and others needs an ability very late to feel "complete".
After that, it's mainly buttons that slaps themselves onto the existing rotation to make it evolves or "AoE variant" that are the exact same function as single target except it deals AoE damages.

MCH has a complete rotation at lv66 and anything will barely move after that.
MNK at lv70 won't change a lot.
SMN gets its whole base kit at... Lv86.
GNB you can have a solid idea at lv70.
DRG at lv70 gets its whole kit, it's only QoLs and extra buttons onward.
SAM can give you a good idea at lv70.

Most jobs gets their keystone ability that completes the rotation at lv60, but the core will always remain.

A "Fair shot", is pretty subjective. Far easier to recommend that you give a job a fair shot before dropping it than it is to answer what that actually is.

To get kind of philosophical, I think fair shots are innately given to the jobs you resonate with the most. Many people often seek out new main jobs only to go back to their old ones after a time. In those cases, any job you take up, and no matter how much time you put into it, never truly gets a fair shot. Doomed from the moment its starter weapon went into your armory. In retrospect to this, in order to truly give a job a fair shot, you kind of have to be mainless. In which case, all of them get a fair shot; no matter which ones, or how much time you spend playing them.

Some jobs definitly need to be at some level to be enjoyed, in complement of that has already being said (personnal opinion here) :
-BLM is utterly boring until 60 five Fire IV and Enochian stuff, and getting more and more fun every 10 lvl.
-RDM feels complete at level 70 with VerHoly and VerFlare.
-WAR feel complete at lvl 70 (Inner Release). Paladin it's at level 68 (Requiescat).

But it's all about personnal tastes. I was main dragon but really enjoyed BLM when i leveled it up on ShadowBringer when i reach lvl 72 with Despair.

To be honest, i think the best way to choose a job is about fantasy and key rules of it. 1st is about personnal tastes, the 2nd need some research. Also, once the level cap is reach, it's better to train on dummy to understand and learn the job well enough to know if we will playing it on end content.

As a personnal exemple, i enjoy leveling MCH, but never played it on end content because i'm way to focus on CD to do any fight mechanics well. While on dungeon is not such a big deal.

What I’m getting from this is actually some good stuff. Though the tinfoil in me is going ‘Oh this explains why they sell level skips’.

Honestly to me that fair chance time comes a lot sooner than levels listed here. If it doesn’t feel good after a couple levels or even dungeon runs, back into storage. Does job X get better? Probably but I don’t have the will or drive to do it if the job doesn’t hook me. That or in a bid to force myself to like it because ‘oh it must be good right’ my memory of it is such a blur I kick myself for wasting time on it.

BLM is probably my example of that as while I can recall some leveling bits and enjoyment in other Jobs, my mind sees my time as BLM as going into the dust bin. And this is a job I got to 60. I’m not sure I have it in me to try and force more levels when I barely remember playing it.

There’s other examples, like the mental war of old and new jobs(Old MCH vs New MCH) I have going on, and just bouncing off stuff that I find boring or cumbersome when I could just play something else(GNB and PLD I just keep bouncing off, WAR is right there I enjoy/stand), among others(SMN/MNK never clicking regardless of what happens to them).

I was just curious as to how other people decided when they felt “Okay I gave this a shot, off to something else/back to main”.

While it's true that jobs change a lot throughout the levels, the general feel of the job doesn't.
I personally found that if I don't like a job at the start, I also won't like it at cap, no matter how much I try to convince myself to like it (for some reason or another).

Eventually you'll probably try all classes anyway, and get them all to cap, but sticking first with the ones you like already, all the way through, should be the way to go, and the most fun one.

I remember back when I was first levelling SAM, at about lvl 60 I commented in fc on how so far I wasn't hating the job but I also wasn't loving it, just a meh neutral stance. And I got attacked right away for it, by someone who said you can't rate a job at all until not only you have maxed it, but you have played it in edngame (extremes or even better savage). Long story short, even after maxing it (to 80 back then, I still haven't gotten it to 90 after EW) my opinion of it was completely unchanged, and I see 0 reason to bring into any serious content a class you don't even care about, nevermind gearing it.

tl;dr: play what is fun for you, level what is fun for you while levelling it

Personally, I just go for whichever job looks the coolest. After that, I focus on learning. No matter how hard, easy, or clunky it feels, I just adapt and build up the muscle memory.