New Player - Best Leveling Strategy?

[Frizze]

And one specific fact that no one else highlighted. Leveling a 2nd(3rd, etc) class is quicker then leveling a first, because you get an exp bonus for having a higher level class. So pushing one class ahead a little ways usually ends up speeding up the process as a whole(for the bonus exp and all the bonus leveling options that Urth hints at).

As for tanking in a dungeon you dont know... dont worry about it. If you feel self conscious, just tell the group youre new up front. The people who dont want to deal with a new player will leave(good riddance), the rest will cut you plenty of slack(and maybe offer tips and pointers). Most of the dungeons are laid out in a fairly straightforward way, so getting lost isnt typically an issue. And every major patch new dungeons are added, so every few months every tank(and healer and DPS) is put back into the situation of running a few dungeons they dont already know. So essentially, we're all used to it happening from time to time. But if you want to try something different first, by all means have fun with it.

[Niwashi]

I am thinking I would like to main Bard, Monk, Ninja if that is possible? I am just curious if that is something that would be recommended? Or should I level a tank type and healer type?

You should level whichever you're interested in playing. Don't choose jobs based on what other people say is "useful". They're all useful. Choose based on which you think you'll enjoy the most. Those will generally be the ones you're best at. (Of course it doesn't hurt to try out others as well. Who knows, maybe you'll find you enjoy one you hadn't really considered. That would be the biggest advantage to branching out to tank and healer roles as well. Familiarizing yourself with what your teammates are dealing with is a secondary advantage of further diversification.)

Oh, and I wouldn't worry too much about which has faster or slower dungeon queues. Yes, it's true that with damage dealers you might have to wait a few minutes to get a team together, whereas with a tank you wouldn't. But it's not long enough to really matter, and certainly not something anyone should be choosing their main job for.

Until you reach endgame in all the jobs that you're interested in leveling, I wouldn't even bother considering what constitutes a "main" and what doesn't. Just level everything that interests you. Whatever you enjoy most at the moment is your "main" for the moment, but expect that to change around occasionally. By the time you're at endgame, whether you have one main or several depends on whether you have one favorite by then or several.

Should I work all of them up at the same time switching between jobs etc or should I get one to 50 or so before focusing on the others.

Having one reach 50 will unlock access to glamour so you can equip whichever of your gear has the best stats but make it look like gear you like aesthetically. And it's one of the requirements for getting personal housing. Nothing else that it unlocks is relevant when going back to level lower classes/jobs, so it's not really worth pushing one ahead of the others unless you're just really in a hurry to get access to glamour.

My thought is to level:

Pugilist 15
Lancer 15
Archer 15
Rogue 15

And then take Pugilist, Archer, and Rogue to 30. But I am just not sure that is the best strategy.

That's pretty much a good plan, except that you might want to take one or two of them a little above 15 to reach some of the feature unlocks in the Main Scenario. Access to retainers (NPC assistants who give you access to extra storage and selling stuff on the Market Boards) comes from a level 17 Main Scenario Quest. Joining a Grand Company (giving access to a chocobo and other mounts, and to collecting another type of currency -Grand Company seals-) comes from a level 20 Main Scenario Quest. So I'd focus on getting your Main Scenario progress up to 20 before going back and leveling other classes.

Once you've progressed far enough in the storyline to join one of the three Grand Companies, then go back and get the other classes you're interested in up to 15, and then your mains to 30 for their job unlocks.

Other than that, press onward to 60 with your chosen job. The reason for this is to unlock more things to do. Glamours, events, travel options, gilmaking opportunities, having a level 60 class opens up a lot of doors for you that will make leveling subsequent things easier.

Most of that opens up by 20, except for glamour at level 50. But for the most part, getting to 50 unlocks a ton of level 50 content and getting to 60 unlocks a ton of level 60 content, but since you won't be doing level 50 or 60 content while going back to level your lower classes, it doesn't really pertain to whether that branching out to other classes should be before or after hitting either of those milestones.

And one specific fact that no one else highlighted. Leveling a 2nd(3rd, etc) class is quicker then leveling a first, because you get an exp bonus for having a higher level class. So pushing one class ahead a little ways usually ends up speeding up the process as a whole(for the bonus exp and all the bonus leveling options that Urth hints at).

That happens regardless of whether you push one class a little ahead or not. The only difference in it if you're alternating a few at similar levels is that you might periodically swap out which one is your highest and which ones aren't. But there will always be exactly one that gets normal experience and all others getting the bonus.

(If, however, you find you enjoy one class more than the others, it's worth keeping that one ahead, so the ones you don't care for as much level faster and you spend more time leveling the one you most enjoy. That's only relevant, though, once you've played each enough to know which you enjoy the most.)