(And my highest class level is currently Gladiator L17, I believe...Behold the fruits of perfectionism!)

I keep sine-waving back and forth between "main whatever you'd role-play best as" (that would be Paladin or Bard) and "main whatever you'd play most comfortably as"...which I'm not sure is Right and Proper™ for an RPG. Granted I have a general backstory set up for my Duskwight (she'd like to see Gelmorra resuscitated, and does not see why trying to elicit help from Ul'dah is out of bounds. They'd probably love a new trading partner, even if they have to invest at first.)...

Anyway, the salient thing for the Comfortable option is that my favorite class back in WoW was Enhancement Shaman. When they still had totems (and Paladins of all stripes still had auras). Unfortunately, we don't seem to have a melee class that fits the bill that well. In fact, the precept can be seen as divided between the Dragoon and the Bard...

--DRAGOON

+Mail armor, melee, has utility in the form of Battle Litany and Dragon Sight
-What non-offense utility?

--BARD

+Plenty of utility both offense and defense
-I'd rather be up close and personal with the enemy, not pelting from afar

- for both: Where's the healing?! Nature's Minne doesn't quite count. At least Wanderer's Paean fills in for removing banes.

(Come to think of it, are there widespread defensive boons besides Protect and Troubadour?)

I suppose a better question to resolve the whole tangle might be, what level does one normally get a class/job to to get a sense of their way of fighting, their essence?