Come from WoW. Which class is the best for me?

[Ruiriel]

Hello everyone!

I’ve recently started this game from WoW, and I must say everything about this game is breathtaking, the buildings, the music, the environment. Well my question is:

I have a DRG at level 35 at the moment, however as I level up, I saw that a lot of skills will be added to the class and it frightenes me so much. I mean, I think I can handle the positioning issue, but having 15-20+ skills in my rotation may be very confusing for me in comparison to WoW’s several skills. I’ve tried BRD too, but the class felt slow to kill things with all the dots and low potency skills (for the leveling process btw). Also, I thought that I can be a Red Mage, but I’ve heard the class get clunky after 70 and doesn’t do much damage. I’m a casual player, and I want to raid on at most medium level. In WoW, I’ve mained ret pally, fury warrior and outlaw rogue. Which classes are similar to these three? Or should I continue from BRD or DRG or RDM?

[Hestzhyen]

If you're going to DPS in XIV, you're going to have to get used to 15-20 buttons being pushed in the correct sequence to do damage. That's just how the game is. Even healers and tanks have lots of buttons- you can't escape it, though you can control your learning experience.

I don't know WoW classes that well but if you're looking for something gentle and not too complicated, RDM really is your best bet. It's straightforward, intuitive to pick up, and you don't have to worry about many combo chain sequences like other DPS do. Even mediocre players can get good damage from the job- you only start to notice the fall-off if you are good enough to be in the top 20% of players or so. The only drawback to the job is that it starts at 50 and you need another job at 60(?) to unlock it. In my personal opinion I found Black Mage to be relatively easy to pick up too- it's dead simple up to 50 and the additions after that change how you play but don't add too much overhead. So you could give Thaumaturge/BLM a try to see if being a nuke turret is a good fit.

DRG is also straightforward as far as melee DPS go but it has a LOT of buttons to push in a specific order. If you don't like where it's heading already, you might want to switch. BRD is even worse in that way- you're constantly pushing buttons and managing DoTs, procs, buffs, and songs as you do fight mechanics. It's fun as heck but I don't think I'd recommend it to a beginner who's scared of APM with a large selection of skills to be used.

Last note: if you aren't going to be a hard-core/speedrun raider then RDM is fine. People love it for prog especially, and since it shares most of it's gear with SMN and BLM, you can switch to those higher damage dealing classes after you have the fights on farm if you want to. Regardless of what the meta dictates, all jobs really can clear all content if the player behind the screen is good enough. So don't feel pressured to take a high value job just because it's currently in demand for O8S speedkills.

[TheMightyMollusk]

I don't know WoW classes that well but if you're looking for something gentle and not too complicated, RDM really is your best bet. It's straightforward, intuitive to pick up, and you don't have to worry about many combo chain sequences like other DPS do. Even mediocre players can get good damage from the job- you only start to notice the fall-off if you are good enough to be in the top 20% of players or so. The only drawback to the job is that it starts at 50 and you need another job at 60(?) to unlock it.

You need to be level 50 and clear the two main scenario dungeons. Then you can start Red Mage (and/or Samurai) in Ul'dah.

Speaking as someone who levels everything; Bard and Red Mage are the easiest DPS jobs to pick up the basics. However, they're also support-based, so they do lower personal damage overall (Bard has high burst damage, but over the course of the fight, it evens out) in exchange for helping out the party more.

[Rongway]

I think I can handle the positioning issue

We don't actually have any significant "positioning issue"; the difference between flank and rear is a half step, once you know how to read the target circle. There's a gap in the rear that denotes "rear", and just outside that gap is "flank". If there is no gap in the target circle, then the target doesn't care where you're standing for any attack. So feel free to base your decision on bigger aspects of job play styles! In the end, if you play proficiently, there is not a big difference in how much one job has to move compared to another.*

*unless you're a BRD/MCH in a fight with knockback.