Bad job?

[Tarryme]

A question.
From time to time the game will through you a banana skin in the form of 3 pretty hard enemy's. They are ranged melee and have AOE. My first instinct as a magic user is to Kite and dodge while getting the odd shot of my own in, but this doesn't seem to work in ffxiv and I am knocked out. So is it better to go toe to toe and grit it out?

[Kennar]

A question.
From time to time the game will through you a banana skin in the form of 3 pretty hard enemy's. They are ranged melee and have AOE. My first instinct as a magic user is to Kite and dodge while getting the odd shot of my own in, but this doesn't seem to work in ffxiv and I am knocked out. So is it better to go toe to toe and grit it out?

Don't kite anything; you won't avoid auto attacks and you'll just make your tank unhappy when you get to group content. Speaking of group content, if you have aggro, bring it to the tank so he can pull it off you. Running around like a maniac just causes problems. ACN/SMN has good mobility for a caster, but the main idea is to move only to avoid AoEs/cleaves or handle certain mechanics, and then only move as far as you need to. Instant-cast abilities can be used on the run, but anything with a cast timer requires you to stand still for the duration.

It's been a long time since I was a low-level ACN (I have SMN leveled on a different character), so my memory of what abilities you have available is a little foggy. Your Damage over Time spells are very strong, so be sure to hit enemies with Bio and Miasma at the start. If you're lvl15, Topaz Carbuncle (Summon II) can tank for you. You'll have Physic, a weak heal, that might help you stay alive at those low levels, but if you continue as a summoner it will be pretty much worthless in short order.

Make sure you do your class quests every five levels, as they grant you new abilities and/or gear.

Also, just in case there is a little misunderstanding, you don't need to create a new character to try a new class/job. Once you reach level 10 in one class you may freely unlock any of the others that are available.

Good luck!

[Jeeqbit]

A question.
From time to time the game will through you a banana skin in the form of 3 pretty hard enemy's. They are ranged melee and have AOE. My first instinct as a magic user is to Kite and dodge while getting the odd shot of my own in, but this doesn't seem to work in ffxiv and I am knocked out. So is it better to go toe to toe and grit it out?

The concept of enemies that don't follow you around is fairly common in ARR but stops happening in most dungeons after that, because it's annoying when enemies don't follow you. Unfortunately it is a thing in the solo battles that you do, where even the melee enemies don't always like to follow you.

You can play all classes on one character and even change races once for free when you beat ARR, so you didn't have to make a new character. Although you started at Ul'dah on your other character, you would have eventually arrived at Limsa Lominsa when doing the level 15 quests and been able to unlock arcanist that way.

After you unlock another class, you switch to it just by changing weapon.