Looking for easy to pick up and sturdy DPS class

[Frizze]

Also, every job has some kind of self healing.
Some have a oGCD insta heal, others have a lifesteal buff for a few seconds. But the CD of these skills is a bit higher.

Black mage says hello. Unless youre counting potion use as self healing. We used to be able to cross-class the arcanist heal(and physick is really too weak to count as a heal since it uses a stat that isnt on arc/smn gear after level 49, but thats another conversation), and we used to have the role skill Drain(also too weak to count as a heal - im gonna steal 2500 hp from an enemy hitting me for 3k+?). We currently have nothing. My over-world survivability is based on killing things before they kill me, avoiding pointless fights, and my chocobo.

OP - Try dragoon, and try summoner. Once youve leveled up high enough, you can try red mage too. Those are the best matches for what you described. By all means, try black mage and anything else that strikes you as well. You can try every class on the same character with no penalty, so a few test drives are perfectly valid.

[Shurrikhan]

Black mage says hello.

You... have the best self-sustain skill of any DPS, unless you're somehow going to discount shielding. Manaward's 30% of HP, and as a long-lasting shield of all things, rather than about 15% HP per the same 120 seconds, says hello.

Or is being able to pre-pop that self-sustain, and to use it survive attacks no other DPS can, a weakness?

[Frizze]

You... have the best self-sustain skill of any DPS, unless you're somehow going to discount shielding. Manaward's 30% of HP, and as a long-lasting shield of all things, rather than about 15% HP per the same 120 seconds, says hello.

Or is being able to pre-pop that self-sustain, and to use it survive attacks no other DPS can, a weakness?

Ive used manaward to take tankbusters(even surviving them on a few occasions), to stay alive for 10+ seconds with a multi-pack pull focusing on me while the healer gets the tank back up and he(hopefully) takes a crack at getting aggro back, to cover up for not doing mechanics(both intentionally and situationally), and to cover for inattentive or dead healers during alliance runs(if it comes to that point in a smaller group we're probly wiping and my staying up for 1-2 more hits wont matter). Ive also failed to pop it in time and died to all sorts of things(or had it on cooldown because i already used it for something else and subsequently died). That doesnt make it a heal any more then my sleep spell is a heal. They both prevent a certain amount of damage for a limited amount of time, while i hopefully figure out how to end the fight(or lose aggro) without dying.

[Shurrikhan]

Ive used manaward to take tankbusters(even surviving them on a few occasions), to stay alive for 10+ seconds with a multi-pack pull focusing on me while the healer gets the tank back up and he(hopefully) takes a crack at getting aggro back, to cover up for not doing mechanics(both intentionally and situationally), and to cover for inattentive or dead healers during alliance runs(if it comes to that point in a smaller group we're probly wiping and my staying up for 1-2 more hits wont matter). Ive also failed to pop it in time and died to all sorts of things(or had it on cooldown because i already used it for something else and subsequently died). That doesnt make it a heal any more then my sleep spell is a heal. They both prevent a certain amount of damage for a limited amount of time, while i hopefully figure out how to end the fight(or lose aggro) without dying.

If a heal prevents death, and a shield prevents death (but far better), and Manaward is provides at least twice the 'death-prevention' throughput, if you like, of its competitors... what exactly are you complaining about?

Or are SCH and Noct AST just absurdly bad healers now because part of their healing is capable of preventing one-shots while no other spells are?

On-topic:

They're all plenty sturdy as long as you're not pulling mobs well above your level. Overall, NIN seemed the easiest to manage, followed by DRG, SAM, and BLM if you're just looking for something sturdy with no kiting required. Otherwise, MCH, closely followed by DNC, BRD, and then RDM/SMN? Again, it really doesn't matter much.