Recently started, having decision paralysis with what job to target

[Mebahiah]

(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?

[Raldo]

It's not hard to level anything and everything, so I wouldn't really fret over it that much. You'll probably level every job you're interested in eventually anyway.

Where's the healing?
Healing is for healers. PLD does get a single healing spell, but you won't use it much unless things are going bad.

Are there any widespread defensive boons besides Protect and Troubadour?
Most buffs are offensive, but... Healers commonly get AOE regens/heals/shields, but aside from that Paladin and Warrior both get an AOE shield move (PLD Divine Veil, Lv56; WAR Shake it Off, Lv68). Summoner does technically get a minor one (Devotion, Lv64) that decreases damage taken by 2% whilst increasing damage dealt by 2%, but I've never actually heard of anyone caring about the defensive part of that ability. If you don't care if the ability is AOE, then there are a few more on offer (since you mentioned Bard, I would suggest looking up Palisade; it's great).

What level does one normally get a class/job to to get a sense of their way of fighting, their essence?
It can vary from job to job, but most jobs get their core mechanic at 30. Bard gets their DoT-crits-let-me-do-extra-stuff thing at 30. Tanks get their defensive stance at 30. Dragoon does get their first Jump at 30, but the job actually changes more later on.


I never played WoW, but if you're looking for a job that throws buffs on other people, you should probably check out Astrologian (but you can't access the job until you've cleared the lv50 part of the main story). With that said, AST is a healer. FFXIV definitely lacks the concept of a class mainly dedicated to support.

[Mebahiah]

Now that I think of it, my usual totem setup didn't usually involve all-defensive buffs. Usual setup was, by my recollection:

--Strength of Earth (+STR; made melee fighters in range of the totem deal more damage)
--Searing (periodically deals damage to nearest target)
--Healing Tide (periodic healing of all in range) or Mana Spring (periodic refresh)
--Windfury (basically give everyone in range a chance of Duality per attack)

So it does make me wonder if Dragoon would fit, with the above-mentioned Battle Litany and Dragon Sight essentially filling in for Strength of Earth and Windfury (both being ways to increase everyone's DpS). Although I do worry about it having no way to gain haste. Must keep a lookout for food that increases skill speed...

EDIT: For the record, the Enhancement Shaman was a hybrid warrior/spellcaster, imbuing their weapons with elemental forces for stronger attacks/greater utility, along with several long-range spells and healing/curing utility. For the possibly obvious answer, I don't think the Red Mage is going to work for this, as they seem to be a hit-and-run sort (Tether, Vermilion spells, Displacement+Tether when enemy reaches you again, Corps-a-Corps+Riposte combo when enough mana is built up, Displacement, repeat).

[Raldo]

Although I do worry about it having no way to gain haste. Must keep a lookout for food that increases skill speed...

There are remarkably few ways to increase attack speed in this game. I assume that's because haste in FFXI was overpowered, so they're reluctant to delve too deeply down that avenue again. For most jobs, skill speed is at, or near, the bottom of the list of stats to prioritize. Even if you stack on as much speed as you can (at the expense of other stats), you might speed yourself up by a little more than 10%~20% (pushing your GCD from 2.5sec down to 2-ish). Food doesn't have particularly strong effects either (so much so that most people generally don't bother eating food at all), so you're not likely to notice its effects.

I'm told that FFXIV has more abilities that are off the global cooldown than most games, and since skill speed doesn't affect those abilities (doesn't reduce their recast timer, for some reason??) it's valued far less. On the plus side, that means there are still a fair number of things to do while you're waiting on your GCD to roll back around, but the early game will definitely feel slow until you start gaining those abilities. For DRG specifically, all your self-buffs, all your Jumps, and a few other things are off the GCD. If you go to the job guide, anything without a 2.5s GCD is an oGCD ability.

[Mebahiah]

Heh, I was referring to the fact that the Dragoon is the only melee DpS job that doesn't have a built-in haste ability (q.v. the Monk's coeurl form skills, Huton, Shifu).

[Astrus]

You're not going to find a DPS job that has great healing support. Or even decent healing support. There are DPS jobs that can heal, somewhat, but in general it's really more of an emergency measure and wholly inefficient.
Support for DPS Jobs in FFXIV falls broadly under these categories that a job may or may not offer:

General moar damage type of deals: Out of the DPS Jobs most offer these in one way or another, be it the crit buffs from Dragoons or Monks' physical damage increase or skills that generally increase the damage taken by the target like Ninja's Trick Attack or Bard's Foe's Requiem. Notable outliers here are really only Samurai and Black Mage who are the "selfish" DPS that offer little in the way of group utility.

Resource replenishment: All physical Melee DPS get Goad which restores a single ally's TP over time. All magical DPS get Mana Shift which gives some of their MP to an ally. Physical ranged DPS, that is Bard and Machinist, get skills that gradually increase the TP or MP regeneration of all allies in range.

Resurrection: The one ability you should never have to use that can salvage a run that may otherwise end in a wipe. Sadly aside from the healers resurrection skills are exclusive to Summoner and RezRed Mage so not really relevant to what you're looking for.

If you are looking for the DPS Job with the most varied "support" portfolio I'd point at the Bard. They get skills to replenish the party's TP and MP, Palisade to soften a blow someone is about to take, Warden's Paean as an emergency debuff removal, Nature's Minne (it does have it's uses), Foe's Requiem to temporarily increase the party's damage output, Battle Voice for a Direct Hit buff and the general (if small) crit buff in effect while one of their songs is running.

If you're looking for something that very loosely resembles the Enhancement Shaman class fantasy (at least as I remember it, I quit WoW ages ago) you might also want to have a look at Monk. They use fist weapons, get faster as they build Greased Lightning stacks and get different elemental stances that do things (though generally you'll mostly be using Fists of Fire). For support they only get Goad as a Role Action along with Brotherhood (a physical damage increase for the party) and Mantra (it's like Nature's Minne but as an AoE) but at least it's something.