New player - help picking a class/job

So i'm new to FF but been playing MMORPGs for 10+ years. I'm looking for a good dps class/job that is great at solo leveling but still good in dungeons/raids. Don't care at all about PvP and don't care about how difficult the class/job is to play. I prefer ranged but would be fine with melee if it was stronger solo/PvE. Thanks.

I would argue for... arcanist branching off to summoner job as the best solo dps in terms of... surviving. Having a pet tank the enemy while you dps and are in no real danger makes solo content a cakewalk.

Based on your information given...

Pros:
-Caster = ranged
-Tank pet for solo play
-Melee and caster pets for dps in a group
-Easy to play, damage over time (dot) enemy up and win

Cons:
-Main damage is from damage over time spells chipping away at enemy health, and 30 percent of your damage is from pet, so you may not "feel" powerful


But, honestly any class/job can do the current solo content. You can also get a chocobo companion at level 20-ish and spec the chocobo into a tank/healer/dps role as you like, if you want some extra help.

Thanks for the info. My only concern with summoner is are they wanted in groups/raids? Do they do comparable dps in to other non-pet dps?

Archer sounded very appealing to me but going Bard (which sounds from the description like it's more support/heal) is not.

If by solo-levelling, you mean grinding fates, I would suggest Arcanist. You'll get a tank pet, that pretty much mean you're a light party already.

If you want some good solo-levelling and also great addition to parties, I would suggest Bard. You can kite the enemies around, plus songs that can benefit the team.

When HW comes, your way of playstyle would perfectly match with Machinist. Great support + survivability, albeit less DPS, on par with Bard.

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Originally Posted by Spurloc

Archer sounded very appealing to me but going Bard (which sounds from the description like it's more support/heal) is not.

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Bard is support DPS. Your songs will give your team mana regen, tp regen, speed boost or lower enemy magic resistance. If you have a BRD in your raid, there's a bigger chance that your raid will be successful.

Plus, your DPS wouldn't fall behind other DPS also because of your high CRIT chances and Dots.

If you want a high dmg pure DPS go with monk... I think so.

Pure DPS would seriously be Dragoon.

As long as you don't kiss the ground too much.

Honestly, the classes and jobs we have so far are pretty well balanced, enough that there's no bad choice or obvious choice. Hopefully, SE will be able to maintain that as the new ones are added, though of course the more jobs we get the harder it will be to keep them both unique in flavor and yet equally useful.

Archer/Bard does some solid DPS, with advantages in both range and mobility that make avoiding enemy AoE, as well as a lot of dungeon mechanics, easier. As Bard, you'll also pick up some songs for group support abilities. In a straight out DPS race it may not be quite at the top, but you can usually make up for that in better up-time than casters whose spells can be interrupted or melee when they need to dodge out of the way of something and are momentarily stuck beyond the attack range of their primary skills.

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Originally Posted by EdenArchangel

But, honestly any class/job can do the current solo content. You can also get a chocobo companion at level 20-ish and spec the chocobo into a tank/healer/dps role as you like, if you want some extra help.

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You get the sidequest for a chocobo companion at 30. You'll also have to level up the companion a bit before you can start asking it for healer or tank behavior.

Personally I suggest thaumaturge / black mage, it's ranged and a good DPS job. You get single mob DPS, AoE (many) mobs DPS, CC (Sleep), wards that protect you. So you can handle one mob, many mobs, you can sleep them, use wards to protect yourself, etc. I did the main story on my black mage and it makes it easier.

There isn't really much of "solo leveling" in this game, as the most effective way of leveling is doing dungeons (fastest exp, always in party) and FATEs (usually with others). The two jobs based on Arcanist: Summoner and Scholar are very strong solo jobs alongside White Mage. The current strongest DD jobs are Ninja, Monk, Dragoon and Black Mage. Good Bards are currently wanted in all endgame groups and can deal some very nice DPS numbers as well. Honestly, just try all the DD jobs that appeal to you and then pick your favourite.

Edit: Also, the job balances and endgame setups may very well change when the expansion is released in only two weeks.

You can switch job as much as you like in this game, so just try everything, and even if you find a favorite, you will still want to switch sometimes for fun.

Honestly, if you spend any time at end game with a class, you will be leveling multiple classes for the cross-class skills.

You can start off as arcanist (summoner), and this will introduce you to thaumaturge (black mage) and archer (bard). If you decide you actually like one of the other classes better, you can jump ship then.

Summoner is a very mobile caster dps. Most of their DPS come in the form of DoTs, so while you won't get big bursts of damage like Black Mage, the damage is actually comparable. It helps with solo work too as you simply have to tag all the enemies you want to kill with DoTs and kite them. In Raids, especially second coil of bahamut, Summoners were the preferred magic dps because many of the mechanics required dps to move. In 1st coil and final coil, dps had to move less and Black Mages were preferred. The meta is rather finicky, but summoners are popular. Just be aware of the summoner's strengths in relation to their main rival, black mage.

Black Mage essentially stands in one spot and spams spells until they're out of MP. They have a few skills that nullify physical or magical damage, so you can take 1 or 2 big hits without having to interrupt your cast and move. They are the masters of AoE though, and can deal incredible amounts of burst damage if given enough time to cast and build up Astral Fire stacks.

Bard is a DPS, but they have to switch between a pure DPS form and a half-DPS support form. Specifically, Bards can regen the party's MP and TP, valuable resources in long drawn out fights at endgame raids. In DPS mode, they can eschew any song and focus on damage or they can turn on a song that reduces an enemy's magic defense. This is ideal for farming and speedrunning as your party's blackmage and summoner will receive a huge damage boost. This damage song is also a DPS song as it does not reduce your damage, whereas the MP and TP recovery ones will reduce bard damage by 30%.

Many classes are good at soloing. It all depends on your preferred play style. If you take of your job stone at higher levels they all have access to good cross class skills for solo play, but I'll tell you my favorite jobs.

Bard is the most mobile, because they have no cast times to worry about. They can take on melee with lots of health by kiting it around. With 5 dps cooldowns they can put out impressive burst damage. Downside is that difficult caster enemies might burn you alive, because you have very little self healing and defensives.

Summoner has access to a tank pet and a healing spell and can easily solo most Fate bosses. They are quite mobile but their strongest spells to their damage slowly. Downside is the lack of cc in case their pet pulls too much or dies. I would say this job is the best for soloing.

Black mage can pick their battles since they can AoE sleep enemies for 30 seconds from afar and just walk past them. They also have the best defensives for a ranged class and can put out really big burst for single or multiple targets. Their weakness is their lack of armor if they get taken by surprise or if the fight lasts for too long.

If you are more into melee classes, consider trying ninja or warrior. Ninja can sneak past mobs with their stealth ability but lacks armor, and warrior has really good defensives but doesn't do quite as much damage as dps jobs.

The other classes don't really have anything that would make them stand out from the rest when it comes to solo play. All jobs are wanted in end game like raiding. If you like fast duty finder queues I suggest you go for warrior because it's a tank. Black mages are the best when it comes to AoE fights in raids or speed running dungeons. Most groups that do serious raiding always take one bard so that's something to consider. It could change now that machinist is coming though.

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Originally Posted by Spurloc

Thanks for the info. My only concern with summoner is are they wanted in groups/raids? Do they do comparable dps in to other non-pet dps?

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Didn't see this answered so I'll take a shot at it.

There are rumors going around that Summoner is not capable of top tier DPS, and so some people do exclude them from their raid groups. However, they're idiots: Summoners can top the DPS charts depending on the group, and are competitive with other DPS. Moving also doesn't hurt them as much as it does a Black Mage. There are also plenty that will accept a SMN (Aside from DPS, they have some excellent raid utility).

Summoner is also getting a major overhaul with the expansion soon that should hopefully do away with rumors of SMN being subpar.

Good luck!

Summoner will have Ark Mon the strongest Bahamut skill :p
And also Virus.. if no Scholar around you're raid life saver

I'd recommend trying out all the classes. Even tanks and healers. The game is remarkably well designed, as tanks and healers get DPS stances to deal increased damage both when soloing, and during lulls in group play (party near full HP, or another tank currently holding the boss). While the damage isn't as good as a pure DPS, the added survivability allows you to do things you otherwise cannot, and lowers downtime between fights considerably. Plus, tanks and healers are far more desirable for group content.

Well I'd say try out Ninja..Its quite easy to survive and solo level with it. Has good damage outputs with abilities that further increases your damage + you get skill speed buff as well with a food that increases skill speed too.

Monk is the best single target damage dealer and black mage is the best aoe damage dealer. Both still have horrible wait times in the duty finder queue.