Is it better to start a new character or just simply change classes?

[KilimYolo]

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THOSE RESPONSES!!!!!!!!!!

So BLM have some healing spells already (chocobo) AND it will have far better healing spell than what i am using right now.

Now i'm happy again. Otherwise every time i join a cool MMO, devs break casters... its like my presence alone destroys parts of games...
I'm web developer so you can understand where this thinking comes from...

Question:
How is tha mana management for BLM? from random review it seemed that Thaumaturge atleast at start have HUUUUUGE mana problems.

[Frizze]

Mana management? On BLM? I have infinite mana. I cast nonstop, every fight unless im forced to move. For BLM, you need to understand the 2 stances - astral fire and umbral ice. Astral fire boosts your outgoing damage(while essentially shutting down mana regen), so you do most of your damage with it up. Umbral ice boosts your mana regen to the moon(default mana regen is 1/10th your full total per server tick, with 1 umbral stack you get 1/4 of your mana back per tick while a full umbral stack is like 66% of your mana per tick) but doesnt boost damage. So you go into fire mode -> do a bunch of damage -> switch to ice mode -> regen a bunch of mana -> go back to fire to destroy things again. At level 4 you get Transpose, a 0 mana skill which switches your current stance to the opposite stance with 1 stack - meaning you can cast down to literally 0 mana then instantly switch to the regen stance to start getting your mana back quickly. At higher levels you also get spells(Fire 3, Bliz 3) that let you switch stances with full stacks. So... no. The review you read was wrong, mana isnt one of our problems.

[KilimYolo]

Question - is there any easy way of switching gear?
for example when i started learning crafting (yesterday) my char turned necked... good thing i had lvl 1 gear left (looks just too good to sell... (hides)). Never new that i will need all that junk so i sold some of it...
So after that i had to search items 1 by 1... :/
Now i can imagine when my BLM will be lvl 50 and Summoner lvl 35, its gona be fun switching between those classes with 1 million clothes...

[Chrallmal]

Question - is there any easy way of switching gear?

On your character sheet (C on the keyboard. No idea what it is on PS4), you should see an icon above your character's portrait. I think it's the one that looks like a piece of paper with lines on it. Don't quote me on that one. This will bring up your gear set list. It's a way to save equipment loadouts for fast loading and switching between classes/jobs, or even different sets of equipment within the same job. I do believe there is a limit to how many slots you can have, but you get at least one slot per class/job you have unlocked.

On the Gear Set list menu, you click the plus symbol to create a new loadout. Now, whenever you want to switch to it, you simply highlight your saved loadout from the menu and click the equip button. You can even make a hotbar icon for it so you don't even have to fumble with menus.

Granted, when you first unlock a new class/job, you're going to start naked unless you were already wearing level 1 equipment in a given slot. Example: A level 1 ACN won't be able to wear level 10 gear that a BLM was using until they get to level 10 or higher as well. Because you can level all classes on the same character, old equipment may always find another use on another class. It's often wise to stow away lower level equipment if you have plans to level another class that could use it. BLM, ACN, CNJ, and AST will find good mileage out of a lot of the Level 1-50 gear. However, if you've already sold off a lot of gear, it's no sweat. You get plenty of money from the story and side quests to re-buy it. You also get plenty of gear flat-out from said quests.

In short, Gear Sets will save you time and frustration.

[KilimYolo]

Chrallmal, thank you

[KilimYolo]

Frizze, thank you for your answers.
I was reading that old players see newbies getting wrecked cause of running out of mana, some lacking skills and generally having 0 knowledge of what they are doing.
I translated this into crappy mana management, extreme need for heal that they dont have (ahem...) when reality is 100% oposite of this.

Well... i dont regret playing arcanist and a chance to get 2 nice classes in future from arcanist also sounds good.
Please correct me if i'm wrong, but it allmoust looks as if BLM and Summoner can use the same stats? I mean if i adjust for BLM, i can still use the same gear on Summoner and still be OK.
Right? If so than great, super easy switching on future.

[Frizze]

Please correct me if i'm wrong, but it allmoust looks as if BLM and Summoner can use the same stats? I mean if i adjust for BLM, i can still use the same gear on Summoner and still be OK.
Right? If so than great, super easy switching on future.

So the answer to this is 99% yes. Both classes have Int as their main stat, and both classes have the same general purpose, so both classes want a similar stat profile. If we're being SUPER specific, they value their secondary stats a little differently. The values of these are changing on friday with the early access patch, so i cant say what the order will be in Stormblood(someone will do the math). But currently both classes want just enough accuracy to hit whatever theyre going to fight(most important - misses suck), then for BLM the accepted priority is Spell speed, critical, and finally determination. My understanding is that currently summoners want(after hitting accuracy) as much Crit as possible, as much Det as possible, and a specific amount of speed(not too much, not too little).

With that said, that level of detail into stat weights and priorities wont do you much good until you get to very high levels when you can start to get a LOT of the stats in question. And again, all this changes on friday. Accuracy wont even be a stat anymore(being replaced by "direct hit" which sounds like a weaker crit that happens more often and can stack with it). But if you took a "best" gear set for BLM it would play slightly worse for SMN, and vice versa. None of this is the difference between good and bad, its more the difference between great and very good.