Class Advice, from gameplay POV.

[E'irawen]

So...ever since I was a wee lass, I've always been the healy type. Or at least some sort of caster. But mostly a healer. 

 

It's been no different in XIV, as I've been a Conjurer about 99% of my time playing it. So..I wanna try being a pugilist, and I think it looks pretty fun.

 

But it's sort of tank-y right? I have no idea how to be that kind of a useful player.

 

Could I please have advice for pugilist play?

 

(and maybe Thaumaturge and Archer).

[Nox]

I always thought Pugilist was melee dps along with Lancer and that MAR and WAR were the tanks. I might be wrong about that.

 

Edit: HOW ABOUT SOME ACTUAL ADVICE, NOX, HOW ABOUT THAT? Yeah, in case I'm right, melee dps is one of the easier roles to play. You just know your skills (like what they do and how much damage you can generate, ect.) and use the skill that's fitting to that time. Most of the time its "what does the most damage" (be it a combo or whatever), but sometimes you need to use a debuff (if you have them). I hope my half awake ramblings help in some way.

[Tabrett]

Nox would be correct. Pugilist is pure damage. Gladiators and Marauders are the ones that need to worry about tanking issues. For PLG, it's all about your damage. You want to be able to do as much damage as possible without pulling hate that will kill you. PLG also makes use of moving around the mob to get the best positioning, so it can be a pretty active job. 

 

Give it a try! Like most things, you will learn as you go.

 

Edit: is it pgl? Or something else?? Oh well, you know what I'm talking about.

[Myxie Tryxle]

http://www.ffxivinfo.com/class/conjurer.php

http://lodestone.finalfantasyxiv.com/pl/guide/armoury01.html

 

Here's a website that gives you a list of all the class and job skills for the different classes that are currently available, so you can get a feeling for how a class might play as well as what cross-class skills it has to offer.  The second website provides descriptions of the different jobs and how to unlock them.

 

I've been playing Thaumaturge (THM) in the beta up to level 17, and I can describe a little bit of the starting experience.  In a word:  painful.  At least until you figure things out and unlock some other magic classes to build up your cross-class versatility, which took me a few levels.

 

The best comparison I can make as far as gameplay is that THM is similar to a balance druid from WoW, if you're familiar with that game.  With that being said, I hated balance druid, but I'm loving THM.

 

The core of playing a THM comes down to two elements:  fire and ice.  Proper management of these elements will determine your success or failure.

 

Fire (If it burns, I can kill it)

Fire is your primary means of dealing damage.  As you cast your fire spells, you gain a buff called Astral Fire.  Through the power of the sun, your fire spells deal bonus damage based on the number of charges.  They also cost more mana, and you can't regenerate mana while this buff is active.

 

Ice (Cool off while I recharge)

Ice is your primary means of regenerating and controlling your enemies.  Ice spells generate charges of Umbral Ice.  This either negates charges of Astral Fire or builds up its own buff.  Umbral Ice provides a multiplier to your mana regeneration, and ice spells tend to slow or immobilize the enemy.

 

You have to manage your buffs to be the most efficient at thaumaturgy.  Generally this means rotating between the two at a regular rate.  Happily, you get a skill called Transpose that makes managing your buffs easier.  It's on a 12 second cooldown and swaps your charges of Astral Fire or Umbral Ice for an identical number of charges of the opposite type.

 

It makes for an interesting rotation.  You cast fire spells to quickly burn through your mana and deal nasty damage.  Once your mana drops below the 50-75 range, you Transpose your fire buff into an ice buff to regenerate your mana while rooting, slowing, or sleeping the enemy to reposition and cast a few ice attacks.  Once the Transpose cooldown completes after 12 seconds (during which time you've regenerated your entire mana pool), you Transpose back to your fire buff and burn the enemy down.

 

Conjuror (Great cross-class versatility)

Thaumaturge makes a great secondary class for Conjurors.  First, it uses much the same gear, so you can easily level them concurrently rather than having to craft, purchase, or quest another area to get gear for a Disciple of War class.  Second, there's major carry-over on skills.  Cross-class skills from a pugilist or lancer are generally based on the physical stats, which you'll be lacking.  In fact, most of the cross-class skills available to cross-discipline classes are cooldowns that give a percentile boost to either DPS/healing (X% higher chance to crit) or survival (Y% higher chance to dodge/parry).  Most of the useful cross-class skills for a magic class that come from a physical class (like the DPS/healing or survival cooldowns) come in the first five to ten levels, reducing any incentive to diversify your CNJ with high levels from DoW classes.  Convalescence, for example, increases your healing by 20% for 20 seconds every 120 seconds, but only requires 10 levels of gladiator.  I suppose an argument could be made for leveling pugilist to 42 for mantra, but mantra only affects heals on one target, lasts only 15 seconds, and only boosts healing by 5%, making it far less effective for a CNJ than Convalescence.

 

The specifically useful skills you can gain for your CNJ through THM are Thunder I and II (a second DOT spell that allows you to stack some more damage while solo), Surecast (next spell casts without interruption!), and swiftcast at level 26 (next spell casts immediately!).

 

In the opposite direction, THM gains a lot from CNJ secondary.  Stone makes for a great opener due to its slow, allowing a THM to stack Astral Fire faster when opening on a mob versus using an ice spell which will generate a charge of Umbral Ice.  Aero is as great for a THM as Thunder is for a CNJ.  Protect, Raise, and Stoneskin provide useful group versatility.  Also, thanks to the ridiculous mana regen from Umbral Ice, a THM with Cure makes a decent healer for small group play, while still being able to do some DOT damage during periods of downtime.

 

There are two advanced jobs besides white mage that require levels in CNJ - Paladin and Bard, so you may wish to consider gladiator or archer as your secondary classes.  Ultimately it comes down to what you enjoy.  There's no penalty for raising multiple classes as high as you care to play them, so test them all out and go with what you like.  It seems like each class has at least one CNJ cross-class skill to make it enticing to play for at least 15 levels, which should give you an idea for how fun it is.