I chose BRD for swift gameplay, if I wanted to cast I would have chosen a Mage.

[JarinArenos]

"not useful until later" seems to be a common theme in the new job abilities. Blood of the Dragon is basically useless without Fang and Claw, and then getting Wheeling Thrust actually actively weakens you (rotation and position suddenly becomes unpredictable, for no given benefit). Ruin III is literally useless without Dreadwyrm Trance, four levels later...

Mostly, I think it's not really useful to discuss the functionality of new abilities pre-60, since a lot of classes have abilities that are explicitly designed to be used together, but due to the structure of quests, had to be given individually. While it's not the best design, it also costs you nothing to simply... not use it until you get the other parts of the intended "ability set"

[Raist]

While it's not the best design, it also costs you nothing to simply... not use it until you get the other parts of the intended "ability set"

and that statement cuts through to the heart of the matter...people taking an aggressive stance against the players not wanting to use them until they feel viable in their kit.