Finding the right second class

I'm mainly playing Paladin, as I have been for years in other MMOs (though there were some variations to Warrior-tank and DK-tank but that's a different story) and fairly happy so far, as I like to have a more varying role in gameplay (read: tanks and healers have to often react to a specific situation like adds or a dps getting aggro etc. while dps mostly focusses on dps - no hate intended^^) and being "active on the front" lol.

Anyway, since it's a bit of a hassle doing dailies with poor damage and it's also much less do-able to "chill" in a group as a tank (I might come around as a douche here, what I mean is as a DPS it's a bit less stressfull to play imo) I want to play a secondary class so I can get a change of pace from tanking and can make dailies quicker / Fates etc. also go faster.

I looked through some videos and generally speaking I liked BRD/BLM/DRG best so far, though I'm not sure if especially DRG will be a much different experience than tanking.

I also have a problem tracking dots.

A last question I have is about the BRD specifically: I'm leveling a Druid (as a paladin needs a shiny horse^^) and tried to level a bard for now, but my bard is sooo much weaker - even in dpsing, than the druid, it's shocking. I'm a doing something horribly wrong, or do you actually need to kite mobs that are your level as a bard to beat them? (I'm level 20ish with both and both have the weapons you can buy @ your grandcompany)

Thanks!

By Druid do you mean Conjurer?

As an Archer you shouldn't need to kite single mobs your level. You will need to do some kiting to finish the class quests though. One of the major advantages of Archer/Bard over the magic dps classes is the ability to attack constantly while moving. The later Bard abilities are really only useful in parties, so that is something to keep in mind. There are also a couple of dots to keep track of.

The melee dps take a lot of movement to keep your positioning correct. I've heard Monk is harder than Dragoon due to needing to build up and keep stacks.

Personally I get most bored using Thaumaturge/Black Mage but Archer/Bard is the easiest in terms of not having to worry about spell interrupts.

Thanks for the quick response ^.^

Yes, I do mean Conjurer. Sorry, I thought SE's translators would be... a bit more direct, seing as there is an actual word for "Druide" in english (and Conjurer does not really translate to it^^)

I understand Bard / Archer is a support-DPS class, but yes, at same equip (full Grand Company Equip for lv 20 / weapon 22 and a bit of random stuff) my Conjurer deals way more damage. Of course kiting helps a lot, but it's still really depressing. Survivability is about the same, except CNJ can heal itself^^ I don't get it :/

BLM seems fairly boring from what I've read, maybe someone else disagrees though^^
Spell interrupting does seem fairly bad with those long casttimes in FF XIV.

Mostly worried about melees playing too similarly to tanking, though rotations for those seem more complex. Movement is pretty important for all the classes anyway^^
Tracking Dots seems fairly horrible with this UI >.< dunno if I really want to do that haha

If you're only looking for a DPS for dailies, Bard or Dragoon would be your best options. Unfortunately, none of these aid your primary class in any sort of way. If you wanted that luxury as well, Warrior would be your best pick. It deals rather good damage and is pretty ideal for solo play (dmg/tanky)

I only have BLM and MNK at 50 and though my MNK has much better gear I always do dailies on BLM. It's fast and easy. Melees will deal less damage when you can't attack from the correct position (while solo) which gets pretty annoying. MNK in particular never gets to maximum attack power solo unless you're chaining enemies. With BLM most enemies for daily quests take about 3-4 casts to kill, so somewhere around 10 seconds. You can also sleep all the enemies that are in the way of you interacting with quest objects. It can certainly be boring though because BLM has very little to keep track of outside of their own mp (and really you just can't cast fire anymore if you get too low -- hard not to notice). In regular combat they have 1 DOT and a 'rotation' that mostly consists of spamming the same spell repeatedly. It is fun doing a ton of damage in bursts, but not terribly exciting in dungeons, etc. but that's what you have PLD for.

Don't be fooled, the bard is very much a magic dps class. The limit breaks are identical to the conjurer.
The only difference is the spells are attached to arrow commands.
So if you think of the bard as a mage you'll understand the weakness of the class. Upgrade your gear often and practice kiting early on to avoid damage.

The second class to gladiator is conjuruer...a good 3rd class to pick up might be marauder or pugilist. Although I'm not sure of how many skills are available from those classes after you eqip the job stone.

Bard is an easiest to play class in a game. Damage is ok, once you learn the basic rotation, and with their mobile nature archers are a nice change of pace from tanks.
Outside of T1-T2 BCoB, almost zero responsibilities, just pew-pew and look for a whole lot of TWO dots. ^_^

As a Bard I can stand in front of mobs no problem, right?
Mhhh, I really don't get how I'm having such trouble while questing, but I'll give it another try.

Thanks for all the responses, as of now I'm definitely leaning on BLM or BRD seeing as being a melee class wouldn't help me a lot for Dailies and solo-play while it's probably also closest to tanking gameplay-vise.


Did something interesting to compare Archer to Conjurer and took both of them @ lv 22 to make the lv 30 mob for the Hunting Log (which happens to be the same mob). The CON fared better, seeing as the mob reached me on like 50-60%, got knocked back and after taking like 1 or 2 hits it was down. With the archer I honestly had to kite the whole fight, though obviously that made it close to no damage received, I ran the risk of adding and dying^^ are there some needed cross-class skills, or is damage this low? I guess it works out fine with kiting, but still^^"

I've played everythng and I can tell you all classes have something interesting to offer. Do not be afraid to try them out. The most relaxing damage dealing class, for me anyway, is the Black Mage. Huge crit numbers and infinite MP are always quite awesome.

Dragoon and Bard are both fun classes with lot more skills and thus, more complex rotations, but they are not too position dependent so they are not much more complex to play. Monk would be the most complicated of the lot since you have a ton of skills and most of them require you to be either on the flank or at the back of the opponent. Great fun to play, but you need to be awake and paying attention to what you're doing.

I guess the easiest class of all to play would be the Summoner since you get dps, healing and a tanky pet, all on the same character. Add to that a chocobo and you're golden. Even a new player can solo content 5-10 levels above his own as a Summoner. Plus you get the Scholar job for free, so it's not a bad one to level.

But whatever we say here, the best thing to do is just to try them out for yourself and see what works for you. Make the most of the Armoury system.

Bard/Archer do have lower DPS but they do have consistent DPS since you can move and attack all the time. And you can cross class under archer from Conjurer to heal yourself. But really archer shouldn't be much of a problem.

Another variant: Str-based MRD a.k.a. barbarian. Cross-class archer's Raging Strikes and go smash things with yer olde ax!

If you want something that's easy to solo dailies on then go with Warrior or Summoner. Both make it incredibly easy. On SMN use Titan, the tank pet. On WAR just hit things with your axe. I was doing a daily last night on WAR where I had 4 mobs on me at once I barely even noticed.

Allright, getting back at this, since I finally got my Unicorn and Titan HM isn't happening with DF it would seem^^

So for now I did the following:

Conjurer 30 (while I like healing in dungeons, soloing is pretty lame, as it's basically a slower Thaumaturg that need sto selfheal from time to time. also often dpsing in dungeons since nothing to heal^^)
Thaumaturg 17 seemed awesome at first, but especially when having 10+ seconds of pause the dmg isn't that great, while survivability seems low
Archer 25 actually fun, since kiting is kinda fun, but it's also pretty stressfull x)

From what I've lived through in DF I think I prefer not having a cast-bar (I always want to finish this cast, but have to stop it or stand in aoe ^^).

I'm always very undecided when playing "twinks" since I'm really a tank at heart, and FF XIVs classes all actually look pretty nice. Silly 1000 letters.

I've loved playing DK in Wow, since I hat the ability to solo an awful lot and I loved being able to somewhat "make up" for undergeared heal. So maybe I would be better of as a Warrior than Paladin anyway (thoough it doesn't seem Warrior comes close to DKs selfheal^^), which makes me kind of lean to try and go STR Warrior. Then again wouldn't Dragoon be more effective at that point?

I still definitely like the idea of being a bard, as being able to move nearly unlimited seems awesome in aoe-rich encounters (had my first encounter with Pharos Sirius today, oh boy^^) and I generally prefer constant dps to burst (my 2nd class besides Paladin/DK in Wow was always Warlock for that reason).

That being said I still love those FF3-9 Black Mages and thus kinda wanna play that too. From all the videos I still can't decide on what to play and I'll have to work in 2 weeks again xD so not that much time to level all of those classes.

Thank you guys for bearing with me!

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Originally Posted by GerMagic

Silly 1000 letters.

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That restriction doesn't apply to edited posts.

If you ever played a boomkin in WoW, that's what BLM kind of ends up being like, minus a good deal of depth (but that's the case across the board; FFXIV hasn't had the chance to develop much depth or twists). The solar/lunar thing is quite a bit like the astral/umbral thing.

I wouldn't say Warrior gets all that close to DK at all. It's a tank, so it's got survivability. You can solo several things at once, but the self-heals don't get nearly to DK level. And there's nothing close to the depth of the runes/runic power interaction. You build and spend Wrath, but building it is practically automatic, since it just comes from your normal rotations. It's a very satisfying class to play (IMO), but if you go into expecting DK, or WoW Warrior, you're probably going to be disappointed.

Personally, I think that's true of most jobs in the game. Try to take them at face value and see how they play here. Comparing them to other games just leads to lots of "Well, it's nice, but it doesn't have this one thing I really liked." (The reverse is also true.)

On a random note, GerMagic, you might want to take your Conjurer up to 34, to get Stoneskin, which is the last skill you can use on your Paladin =)

As for me, I'm also mainly playing tanks, as I find that more relaxing/rewarding than many other things. For me, however, healing comes second on my "fun" scale ^^; (Although I suppose with the DF queue times, that's a good thing XD )

Yeah, I guess I'll do that :>

Updates standing:

Conjurer 30
Marauder 26
Archer 26
Thaumaturg 21

and guess what, now I'm also thinking of trying the Summoner-thingy x)

Also wondering if it makes sense to make an alt, because I'd love to have for example a Lalafell Blackmage, tho theres quite some downside to that (upside too though, for instance I can get him Myth stuff and go CT for his loot), then again it seems like a lot of work and if they ever bring more advanced classes I might want to have Thaumaturg levelled on my main.

Don't bother with alts just for Myth Stones. The weekly cap will be lifted in a few weeks anyway, and you aren't high level enough yet for it to be worth the effort.

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Originally Posted by ShadowDan

Don't bother with alts just for Myth Stones. The weekly cap will be lifted in a few weeks anyway, and you aren't high level enough yet for it to be worth the effort.

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But at the same time, we'll be getting a new kind of tome that will almost certainly have a weekly cap.

Honestly, it's just a matter of what you enjoy more and what your priorities are. What's more annoying, weekly lockouts or having to repeat content/leveling? If you enjoy having an alt, have an alt. If you don't, don't. It's not a definitively good or bad decision either way.

For now I went with not making an alt, though I might at some point (those Lalafell BLM are just too cute^^).

If anyones interested in how I fared, here's another update:


Blackmage 38 : It's pretty chilling to play, though I'm always bummed when I have to cancel a cast due to an AoE^^ the damage doesn't seem too impressive.
Monk 35 : Somehow this guy has a better killspeed than BLM even while questing and in dungeons it's fairly absurd.
Bard 35 : Fun to play and kite, also with a bit of dungeon gear kiting becomes more of a fun/perfect thing instead of being necessary like it was in earlier levels, at least for me^^

Whitemage : 30 - nothing new here, I'm not too fond on healing^^
Marauder : 26 gotte get this up to try Warrior, was also fairly fun but without the Wrath emchanic I can't say much yet
Lancer : 19 and currently playing. I'd need it on 34 for Monk anyway and it seems fairly fun so far
Summoner : 15 also not too fond with this guy yet. Soloing seems fairly nice and chilled, tracking dots is surprisingly easy in dungeons as well (seeing as you don't have to move as much as a monk) though my damage feels awfully bad. I think it's not bad though, but more of a "how bad is ruin?!" thing and not actually bad damage^^