Bad job?

[Kennar]

A question.
From time to time the game will through you a banana skin in the form of 3 pretty hard enemy's. They are ranged melee and have AOE. My first instinct as a magic user is to Kite and dodge while getting the odd shot of my own in, but this doesn't seem to work in ffxiv and I am knocked out. So is it better to go toe to toe and grit it out?

Don't kite anything; you won't avoid auto attacks and you'll just make your tank unhappy when you get to group content. Speaking of group content, if you have aggro, bring it to the tank so he can pull it off you. Running around like a maniac just causes problems. ACN/SMN has good mobility for a caster, but the main idea is to move only to avoid AoEs/cleaves or handle certain mechanics, and then only move as far as you need to. Instant-cast abilities can be used on the run, but anything with a cast timer requires you to stand still for the duration.

It's been a long time since I was a low-level ACN (I have SMN leveled on a different character), so my memory of what abilities you have available is a little foggy. Your Damage over Time spells are very strong, so be sure to hit enemies with Bio and Miasma at the start. If you're lvl15, Topaz Carbuncle (Summon II) can tank for you. You'll have Physic, a weak heal, that might help you stay alive at those low levels, but if you continue as a summoner it will be pretty much worthless in short order.

Make sure you do your class quests every five levels, as they grant you new abilities and/or gear.

Also, just in case there is a little misunderstanding, you don't need to create a new character to try a new class/job. Once you reach level 10 in one class you may freely unlock any of the others that are available.

Good luck!

[Tarryme]

Yeah I think I've cracked it. It's a case of forgetting everything I know and learning anew.
Loving my new class (arcanist). Think Ill be sticking with this one.
I was trying to get the money off my old character to feed my new character and someone on the net came up with the great idea of putting a broken twig on the market for 50,000 gil and then my old character would buy it. It's a win-win. Even if another player snipes my twig I still get gil. Sadly I can't seem to put stuff on the market yet. I'm guessing this becomes unlocked at later levels.

[Iscah]

If you're lvl15, Topaz Carbuncle (Summon II) can tank for you.

Not in the current design of the job. It can cast a shield on you but it can't tank any more.

It does have the benefit of being a single-target attacker vs Emerald being AOE and prone to attracting multiple enemies to you at once.

Sadly I can't seem to put stuff on the market yet. I'm guessing this becomes unlocked at later levels.

You'll be able to list stuff on the market when you get access to retainers around level 17 of the story. They're not available in the free trial though.

Also re. having issues with a particular enemy type, if you're out in the field you can just run away and they'll stop chasing you when you get far enough.

[Tarryme]

Not trial, subbed.
I do tend to aggro the entire field it's true.
I wouldn't run at first because I felt tight leaving Glowie the bunny to fight on his own but then I noticed the heal command.

[Vuxra]

Yeah I think I've cracked it. It's a case of forgetting everything I know and learning anew.
Loving my new class (arcanist). Think Ill be sticking with this one.
I was trying to get the money off my old character to feed my new character and someone on the net came up with the great idea of putting a broken twig on the market for 50,000 gil and then my old character would buy it. It's a win-win. Even if another player snipes my twig I still get gil. Sadly I can't seem to put stuff on the market yet. I'm guessing this becomes unlocked at later levels.

Just FYI - You don't need to make a new character to use a new Class/Job. You just need to do the quest to unlock it. Your class is determined by the weapon you are holding, for Thaumaturge its a staff and for Arcanist its a book. You can go to the Arcanists Guild in Limsa Lominsa on your main character and do the quest marked with a blue plus sign to unlock Arcanist on your main character. You can do this for all classes. Later you will find jobs that unlock at high levels, for example the Dancer job unlocks at level 60. Jobs that are lower level than your highest level job get an EXP boost too. So if you have Thaumaturge at level 20 and start leveling Arcanist, you'll get an exp boost up to level 19.

[Iscah]

You can go to the Arcanists Guild in Limsa Lominsa on your main character and do the quest marked with a blue plus sign to unlock Arcanist on your main character. You can do this for all classes.

I looked up the quest he was stuck on and it's before you get access to the airship and other cities, so not an immediate option or I would have suggested it earlier.

[Jeeqbit]

A question.
From time to time the game will through you a banana skin in the form of 3 pretty hard enemy's. They are ranged melee and have AOE. My first instinct as a magic user is to Kite and dodge while getting the odd shot of my own in, but this doesn't seem to work in ffxiv and I am knocked out. So is it better to go toe to toe and grit it out?

The concept of enemies that don't follow you around is fairly common in ARR but stops happening in most dungeons after that, because it's annoying when enemies don't follow you. Unfortunately it is a thing in the solo battles that you do, where even the melee enemies don't always like to follow you.

You can play all classes on one character and even change races once for free when you beat ARR, so you didn't have to make a new character. Although you started at Ul'dah on your other character, you would have eventually arrived at Limsa Lominsa when doing the level 15 quests and been able to unlock arcanist that way.

After you unlock another class, you switch to it just by changing weapon.

[Tarryme]

It was Glowie the bunny all the time. It's he that aggro's everything from 4.3 miles around. I have had him kennelled so that I may live through my encounters.

[Iscah]

It was Glowie the bunny all the time. It's he that aggro's everything from 4.3 miles around. I have had him kennelled so that I may live through my encounters.

Hah, yes. Once you get... er... Goldie the Other Bunny from the level 15 class quest, you'll have an easier time with that because it'll only attack one thing at a time.

It's a weird side-effect of them redesigning what the pets do and making Emerald specialise in AOE without realising the effect on low-level players. From memory the pets used to be ranged/tank/melee but now they're AOE/shield/single-target.