What's the best class for me?

[Chickpea]

Hi all!

 

If any of you have seen my introduction thread, or my other posts, you'll know that I'm completely new to the world of Eorzea. Because of this, I'm feeling...a little overwhelmed, I guess, by all the choices. I'm not used to a lot of these classes. I've tried looking it up with the googles, but I guess I'm still confused what the difference is between jobs and classes?

 

I plan on playing a Lalafell. I don't like making a bunch of new characters at launch and then jumping from one to the other in an attempt to find one I like - I kinda like getting it right the first time. That said, here's what I'm looking for. Can you help me pick the right path?

 

- Dragoon looks very interesting, because I loved the character Freya from FFIX. I know this is a terrible thing to base the class on. Is it anything like this? Because she's the only example I have of a dragoon.

 

- What's the difference between summoners and scholars? I see that they both have access to a pet system, which I like, but I'm wondering what the main differences are.

 

- I want to stay away from healing classes this time around, but I love ranged dps, that tends to be the most fun for me. 

 

- I really dig flashy and I really care about my character's outward appearance and clothing options.

 

Thank you for helping me with this.

[shotgunbadger]

Summoners are ranged DPS, Scholars are healers. It sounds like if you want an Arcanist type you want Summoner (the best class 8-))

[Chickpea]

Summoners are ranged DPS, Scholars are healers. It sounds like if you want an Arcanist type you want Summoner (the best class 8-))

 

Hrrm, very very interesting. Thank you. So that's one for summoner! There are so many classes o__o

[Vlll]

Summoners are DoT classes, Scholar are Healing over Time. They both branch out from Arcanist, but still we don't really know how they will play.

 

All the races have similar stats, the differences are very small, so pick the race for the looks and the class for the playstyle.

 

Overall, it seems you might like Lancer (Dragoon). Their armour looks great, they learn some Jump moves and their DPS is great. The good (or bad) thing is that you'll probably need to level some crossclasses to get skills useful to your main (for example, Archer gets some good crit skills that Lancer can benefit from), so you'll end up trying lots of them.

 

Check this video and see what's flashy enough for you:

 

q2RghB8r4tA

[Myxie Tryxle]

If you're looking for information on the specific classes and their skills, I suggest using this site, FFXIV Info. I linked it to the dragoon, since that was your first question. With my limited experience in FF games, Freya is the closest example I can think of to FFXIV dragoons, as both use a lance and jump around for their attacks.

 

We have very little info on summoners and scholars, but from what I've read, summoners will be DPS with maybe a potential to tank a little and scholars will use their pets for healing. Arcanists, summoners, and scholars are still very speculative as they haven't been available for play.

 

Archers, thaumaturges/black mages, and arcanists would probably appeal to you as ranged DPS classes.

 

In my experience playing the beta, no one is flashier than thaumaturge, though I didn't get archer high enough for group play or AoE attacks. Every class is going to have cool armor choices, so that really comes down to personal preference.

[AkhutaiAngura]

Summoners are ranged DPS, Scholars are healers. It sounds like if you want an Arcanist type you want Summoner (the best class 8-))

 

Hrrm, very very interesting. Thank you. So that's one for summoner! There are so many classes o__o

Alright, so I'll go over some of the basics, and then a quick touch on the entire system that -might- just make it easier for ya.

 

First off, jobs and classes.

 

Classes are the basics. Everyone starts off with a class. Pugilist, gladiator, conjurer, marauder, lancer, archer, Thaumaturge, arcanist, and the various crafting/gathering classes.

 

Jobs are.. Well, I'm hoping you're familiar with D&D terms. Jobs are 'prestige' classes. Like.. The Arcane ARcher from D&D 2.5 is a prestige class for a Ranger. Well, the paladin, monk, warrior, Dragoon, bard, white/black mages, summoner and scholar are all prestige classes of various basic classes.

 

So, for example.. We'll just do ranged, since that's what you're interested in. An Archer will become a bard, a Lancer becomes a Dragoon (Added in because you mentioned it), a Thaumaturge becomes a black mage, a conjurer becomes a white mage, an Arcanist becomes a Summoner or a Scholar. 

 

Now, there's a little more to it than just leveling X class to level 30.. They all also require a secondary class to level 15. So, if you wanted to be a Black Mage, because they're badass and throw big fireballs around and blow crap up, you'd have to have a level 30 Thaumaturge and a level 15 Pugilist. 

 

A summoner, which you mentioned liking, requires a level 30 Arcanist, and.. -possibly- a level 15 Thaumaturge. Summoners will be new, starting in beta phase 4/open beta, so all we know is what SE wants us to know.

 

Lastly, and this is hinted at through my entire post... You don't have to make a new character for each class.

 

One character can be -every- class. All you do is equip a different weapon, and it switches your class to the proper one. Want to be a Thaumaturge? Cool, equip a scepter thing. Want to be a Pugilist? Awesome, equip some fist weapons. So, you can literally try every class and only have one character doing it.

 

Lastly, since you have to do a base class first, I'd look at Thaumaturge or Arcanist. Conjurer's are healers, I believe.

[Moltove]

You pretty much want Thief-- the real best class! (oh wait, it's not out yet...*sigh*)

 

I know what you mean by how overwhelming things are. But I would strongly suggest trying out some of these classes for yourself. For the most part, though, they're pretty straight forward (minus Arcanistses)--

 

GLD - Tank (sword and board tank) [crusader/guardian archtype]

MAR - OT/Melee DPS (Two hander tank) [beserker archtype]

 

PUG - Melee DPS (Combos/situational?) [scout archtype]

LNC - Melee DPS (Spike dmg?)

 

ARC - Range DPS [Ranger archtype]

 

THM - Magic DPS [mage/warlock archtype]

 

CNJ Magic healer [Cleric Archtype]

 

Arcanists Magic DPS/support [Possibly typical buff mage (illusionist) archtype with some heals]

 

I forget what LNC's archtype would be in a stereotypical MMO, but it's more or less just straight damage with /maybe/ a slight increase in range (hardly noticable to me, really).

 

Jobs are (as of right now, and not including Summoner/Scholars) so far just more 'powerful' versions of their respective class.

 

Gladiators grow up to be Paladins, Lancers to Dragoons, Archers to Bards, ect.... At lvl 40+ you can do a Job quest to get a stone to "apply" the job to your class. At any time you can take it off and revert to being a regular class. The difference between a class and a job is 5 Job-only abilities, relic armor, and  you can't use as many abilities from other classes when you have a job equipped.

 

Arcanists break the mold-- they have two potential jobs to go into, but it's still just their own gig, for the most part. Like in all jobs, you'll need a secondary class leveled up to start the quest to get a job, but I'm guessing for scholar it's 40 Arcanist, 15 cnj and summoner is 40 arcanist, 15 thm.

[LeCard]

* edit: I was beaten to the punch while typing. Touche Moltove Touche

 

So just going to throw in a basic list of class=job and what type of combatant that class/job is.

 

Disciple of war (melee)

 

Gladiator     > Paladin       = tank (some healing as paladin)

 

Pugilist        > Monk          = Close range DPS

 

Marauder     > Warrior       = tank/ off tank DPS

 

Lancer         > Dragoon     = DPS

 

Archer         > Bard           = Ranged DPS (bard has buffing)

 

Disciple of Magic (mage)

 

Conjurer      > White mage = Healer (some damage)

 

Thamaturge > Black Mage  = Ranged DPS with AoE 

 

Arcanist       > Summoner  = DoT with pet off tank(other option possible)*

 

Arcanist       > Scholar       = HoT with pet (possible AoE healing potential for

                                                                 some DoT and others)*

 

*Speculation based on what little SE has given us

 

 

Tank= living meat shield to take the damage for the party

 

DPS= damage the enemy as much as possible as fast a possible

 

AoE= Area of effect

 

DoT= Deals the damage over a length of time instead of all at once(typically

         stackable effects)

 

HoT= same as above but healing/ buffing

[Moltove]

Fair enough, LeCard. I was just thinking the same, but I like your style better.

 

Summoner is HoT? hot damn...that's my heal style if I ever had one.

.

.

Well, as far as appearance goes, in 1.0 our Job class armor was a good start for 'end game' content as you ran more difficult dungeons to get stuff like Darksteel armor and such. It got to a point where af was pretty easy to get, so you judged people in a pug group by what they wore-- if it was AF armor, they were new, if they wore mix-matched armor with materia, then they knew what they were doing.

 

In ARR, I noticed that the relic armor's stats were improved, but you still can't affix materia onto it, so I don't know how long they'll be good for.

 

After the first or second major patch, they'll be introducing a vanity system to pretty much fix the mix/match issue.

 

I personally have grown tired of the Job armors and cannot await new sets, like the lvl 20 armor in the Character Creation Benchmark! But just know that a lot of classes share the same armor types, so class has a limited effect on what looks good with what.

[Sounsyy]

The Armoury System seems to be one of the most misunderstood aspects of FFXIV. So I actually made this little post on the beta forums a long while ago. It basically explains the key differences between Classes and Jobs. Hope it helps!

 

 

Classes are versatile basic jobs. Each class has it's role in the party (tank, dps, healer) however, they are allowed to borrow select abilities from other previously leveled classes as a kind of reward/incentive for leveling multiple classes. These abilities are limited to and mainly used for their utility.Remember that classes (while not advanced jobs) still have solid party roles that they can't effectively deviate from no matter how much cross-classing you do. A Gladiator will always be a tank, a Conjurer your main healer. The ability to cross-class foreign utility abilities allows these classes to supplement an area where the class is naturally weak. An example would be cross-classing Cure and Protect onto your Lancer, so that you may have some way to heal/support yourself when soloing or tanking in a small low level party where you may not have a Gladiator among your group of friends. It's important to note that a Lancer's cures will not be as potent as a Conjurer's because of a significantly lower Mind stat and many other cross-class abilities lose potency because they lack Class specific Traits that boost their effectiveness on their intended class. (This is a countermeasure so that no class can be replaced by another in a party setting.) This is where classes shine. This is their purpose. They do not make an all-in-one all-powerful class. They supplement your survivability in a situation where traditional party roles are not present or ineffective.

 

Jobs are the paragon of their respective class's job role. Meaning that they specialize in tanking, dpsing, or healing and aren't really equipped to step outside of those roles. Along with a name change, the first real change between the class and the job are the addition of 5 powerful job-specific abilities that embody their respective party role, and the loss of 5 cross-class ability slots to balance the 5 job ability gains. So, you lose a little variety to gain a lot of role defining abilities. (Like Dragoon's Jump, White Mage's Holy, Paladin's Invincibility.) The second major change is having your cross-class abilities limited to two Job-specific preset subclasses. SE takes the work and embarrassment out of learning which classes make optimal subjobs and does it for you. When you change from class to job, you gain that Job's subclass's cross-class abilities and stats. (Example: Gladiator -> Paladin. Subclasses are Marauder and Conjurer. So you see an increase in VIT and MND during the switch. And your Paladin can use MRD and CNJ abilities.)

 

So, why have both?

 

As stated before, classes really shine in low-man or solo content. The ability to pull utility from all other leveled classes helps fill in gaps left by the loss of having other classes to fill traditional party roles. Some examples would be a Thaumaturge wanting to pull in defensive abilities or abilities that allow him to dodge powerful attacks or self heals. A lancer needing to equip protect so that they can supplement their lower defense rating. A gladiator wishing to equip attack enhancing abilities to supplement having a low STR stat and attack points.

 

Jobs shine in full party content where all traditional and necessary party roles are covered by other players. You have a dedicated healer so your DDs can focus on dps instead of having to cure themselves. A tank doesn't need to pull attack abilities because he has dedicated damage dealers to do it for him. Instead they are given abilities that reinforce their party roles so that they can better themselves at their job. You'd want your tank to have the ability to go Invincible or be able to Cover another party member or have a powerful self cure when you're fighting a boss like Bahamut would you not? 

 

 

Now, this is why classes got a lot of flak in 1.0 and some of that may carry over to ARR. In 1.0, there was no such thing as low-man content. All 1.0 game content was L45+ 8 man raids. AKA Job territory. So in 1.0, there was literally no content where classes shined, and so people thought, "why do we even have classes anymore? They serve no purpose." Which was right, they didn't really have a place in 1.0. HOWEVER, in A Realm Reborn, guess what, we do have low man lower level content. We have FATEs, we have Guildhests, we have L15, 25, 30 dungeons for 4 and 8 party members with varying difficulties. We have Hunting Logs. We have many more reasons to use Classes in the way they were meant to be used. So this Jobs > Classes will soon disappear hopefully. Each works effectively as intended.

 

 

 

Based off the posts so far, I'd definitely say give Archer and Thaumaturge a try. They're both ranged dps. Archer lays down some good ranged damage as well as inflicts enemies with a good number of debuffs. They also have a good balance of single target and area of effect capabilities, making them great at crowd control. Thaumaturges are the glass cannons of FFXIV. They are power houses that focus on burst damage. They increase their magical damage by casting powerful fire spells, then recover their mana by switching to ice type spells. They also have some powerful damage over time spells.

 

Lancer/Dragoon is another fun class. They are the sustained damage dealers of ARR. They like to get right up close with their enemies and strike the enemy where they are vulnerable. Most all of their attacks are positional, so there's a lot of maneuvering necessary with the Lancer. But if you get into the right position, you gain some good buffs and inflicts decent debuffs on the enemy all while dealing a lot of damage.

 

Based off of SE's description (and some data mined info) Arcanist is a Damage over Time caster and a Healing over Time healer. They like to inflict powerful debuffs on enemies and then either increase their potency or spread those debuffs to nearby enemies. They also have control of a pet which focuses more on support dps. It can also function as a backup healer and tank for the Arcanist if necessary. Of their two jobs, Summoner is the Damage Dealer of the two and Scholar is the Healer.

 

Hope this helps!

[Ellion Goto]

Summoners are DoT classes, Scholar are Healing over Time. They both branch out from Arcanist, but still we don't really know how they will play.

 

All the races have similar stats, the differences are very small, so pick the race for the looks and the class for the playstyle.

 

Overall, it seems you might like Lancer (Dragoon). Their armour looks great, they learn some Jump moves and their DPS is great. The good (or bad) thing is that you'll probably need to level some crossclasses to get skills useful to your main (for example, Archer gets some good crit skills that Lancer can benefit from), so you'll end up trying lots of them.

 

Check this video and see what's flashy enough for you:

 

 

They're changing around the core dependencies of the cross-class abilities. I believe LNC/DRG is getting reworked to pull from Maurader instead of Archer due to how crazy strong the Archer abilities were making Dragoons in Beta 2 and 3.

 

With that said though, it's hard to give you specifics when it comes to the diversity that will be available at launch. I would look at the overall style first as a priority. They summed them up pretty well so far, so give yourself kind of an overview and work down:

 

Arcanist < Summoner (DoT) pet class (Warlock from WoW), Scholar (HoT) pet class

Lancer < Dragoon (Solid Burst DPS, positional based)

Maurader < Warrior (Hybrid Tank/DPS) Solid AoE capability and sturdy to boot. Most HP.

Gladiator < Paladin (Tank) Extremely sturdy, high solo play capability, very pretty.

Pugilist < Monk (Stance dance class, high combo flow for sustained DPS)

Thaumaturge < Black Mage (Great DD, Strong AoE, interesting MP management system, Crowd Control capability)

Conjurer < White Mage (Healer, Buffer, surprisingly decent DPS)

Archer < Bard (Utility Buffer, solid DPS, heavily wanted in party play)

 

It's kind of simple, but really... there are enough images and aesthetics floating around to satisfy anything more complex you have. Such as the video linked above.

[Fiona Swift]

The beauty of this system that FF14 brings to the table is the ability of choice.

 

With FF14 you can change your class to be whatever you want; But, to me it sounds like you might get along best with a Lancer (Dragoon) or an Arcanist (Summoner)

 

Both specialize in doing damage, and both avoid having to take a secondary "healing/support" route in order to learn the respective Jobs.

 

I tested the game with a THM and LNC during Beta and even did a few minutes of archer. All the classes do feel rather unique with their own set of mechanics.. Don't feel as if you have to lock yourself into something. If anything come time for Phase 4 perhaps spend some time making random characters and test out the first few levels of each starting class; find the one that feels the most "you"

....

What I always do when creating a character is try to imagine the world that I am going to be putting them in. Do I feel a male or female character suits this world better for me?

 

Once I get a clear image of the character I want in terms of looks and feel, I begin to look for inspiration for a story be it from other games (role models), or through music to help envision a past.

 

Fiona's Theme Song

 

Sometimes it might be good to just take a step back and just close your eyes and think .... what am I? ...

 

Good Theme for a Dragoon?

 

Good Theme for a Summoner?

 

 

edit

cool it makes like an embedded youtube vid. Very awesome!!!

[Chickpea]

So many *awesome* suggestions and lots of helpful information. I'm very excited and feeling more confident about how the system works, now. I'm pretty happy to hear that I don't need to constantly reroll if I want to make a new class. I love the flexibility.

[Fiona Swift]

edit: corrected information

 

Yep, it works the following way.

 

 

Upon creation of a character you will be "locked" into a role that you pick. This role is your first class and can not be changed until you unlock the armory system at level 10 on your first class. There is a level 15 quest which allows you to travel between the 3 major cities(unless you really want to hoof it). Once you can do this you can go to any "guild" and learn their class.

 

While you can still level it to 50, at this point your next set of class quests is about converting said class into a "job". For a Bard.. I plan on leveling my archer to 30. Once that happens I need to learn Conjurer and hit level 15.

 

Now I can return to the archer guild and receive a quest to learn BARD. As a Bard I am basically a specialized version of my base class (archer). As I level up bard, as does archer. A level 40 archer = lv 40 bard. I quest as a bard and hit lv 41... my Archer is now lv 41.

 

^^ dated video but it might help explain Classes and Jobs

[LeCard]

Upon creation of a character you will be "locked" into a role that you pick.  This role is your first class and can not be changed until you complete the level 15 story quest which allows you to travel between the 3 major cities.    Once you can do this you can go to any "guild" and learn their class.

 

 

 

You can change class (take up any disciple of the hand/land/magic/war) after the level 10 class quest. (unless they upped the requirement since Phase three beta)

 

The level 15 class quest unlocks the airship travel to other city states. (though you can run between Gridania and Ul'dah before that, I don't think you can get to/leave Limsa before the level 15 quest. correct me if I am wrong)

[FreelanceWizard]

I don't think you can get to/leave Limsa before the level 15 quest. correct me if I am wrong)

 

There's a ferry that will take you from Limsa Lominsa to Ul'dah, more or less, but in P3 it had an obscene price (something like 50k gil). The devs confirmed that was a bug, so it should be a more viable option in P4 and launch.

[LeCard]

I don't think you can get to/leave Limsa before the level 15 quest. correct me if I am wrong)

 

There's a ferry that will take you from Limsa Lominsa to Ul'dah, more or less, but in P3 it had an obscene price (something like 50k gil). The devs confirmed that was a bug, so it should be a more viable option in P4 and launch.

That's good to know. I remember trying to use it once and it just turned me around. I figured it wasn't open/ was connected to a quest. So at least you can physically walk somewhere. Just no fast trips unless you finish the lvl 15 quest or remember to touch the Aetherite crystal after you run to the city for the first time.

[Sounsyy]

Yep, it works the following way.

 

 

Upon creation of a character you will be "locked" into a role that you pick.  This role is your first class and can not be changed until you complete the level 15 story quest which allows you to travel between the 3 major cities.    Once you can do this you can go to any "guild" and learn their class.

 

This becomes important later on because once you hit level 30 in a class that class basically is going to stop giving you quests.  While you can still level it to 50, at this point your next set of class quests is about converting said class into a "job".     For a Bard.. I plan on leveling my archer to 30.  Once that happens I need to learn Conjurer and hit level 15 (complete the lv 15 class quest basically).

 

Wanted to clarify a couple things about what I put in bold.

After completing your first Lv10 class quest you unlock the Armoury System, which will allow you to equip gear sets and unlock new combat classes as well as crafting and gathering classes. So you only have to complete the Lv10 class quest in order to do this. However, you will be limited to classes within your starter city until you complete the Lv15 Main Story Quest which grants you airship access to the other starter cities. You can walk in between all starter cities whenever, but its a trek and you'll have to bypass some higher level mobs.

 

So here's an example. You start as an Arcanist in Limsa Lominsa. After you complete the Lv10 Arcanist quest you can go unlock Marauder or Culinarian or Fisher, etc. But since you are stuck on Vylebrand you will not be able to go to Gridania to unlock Conjurer or Lancer, etc until you complete the Lv15 Main Storyline quest that grants you airship access off the island. Again, you can take a ferry off at any time, but it's a long trek. Airship is by far easier. Also you will have to go all the way back to progress in your main storyline which is tied to your starter city for a time at least.

 

The second thing is about Class Quests post-Lv30. We don't know how many class quests there are. In 1.0 we had class specific quests up to Lv36. So who knows if Class quests will go higher. This leads into Job Quests. Again, we haven't seen these yet in Beta. But based on 1.0, these quests were not tied intrinsically to their respective class's guild. (ie. You got Dragoon quests from Alberic outside Ishgard in Coerthas, not the Lancer's guild in Gridania.) Lore-wise Classes and their respective Jobs are not necessarily related. (ie. PLD, BRD, WHM, WAR, MNK)

[LeCard]

Also you will have to run all the way back to progress in your main storyline which is tied to your starter city for a time at least.

 

 

You do not have to run. I tested this out in phase three. just use the return spell(assuming you touched your starting cities Aetherite crystal.)

and if you touch the Aetherite crystal in (for an example say you start in Limsa and run to Ul'dah) Ul'dah you can freely transport (well not free, it cost gil each trip) between the two cities to your hearts content(or your last gil, whichever comes first)

 

Edit: don't want to sound like I am only here to critique.

 

Other than that one point Everything you said was a very nice description of how the system works.

[Fiona Swift]

I'm sorry that was definitely my mistake. I got the two different elements crossed; Edited the post to remove the bad information so not to confuse anyone

[Sounsyy]

Lol edited that sentence to say "go" instead of "run." Yeah, you can always return or teleport, assuming you have the gil to do so. I had ruled out returning in my head because if I were making that journey I would be visiting and setting my homepoint at every aetheryte I passed on the way. Cuz you don't want to make a mistake, die, then have to start all over.

[Fiona Swift]

Yeah during the Beta I decided to make the runs to test it out.

 

It took me something like 15-20 mins to go from Gridania to Ul'dah. I was surprised how easy it was; There were plenty of teleport spots as well in case you die (unlock them as you go).

 

The only snag I ran into was I couldn't take the Ferry to Limsa Lominsa .

 

Lots of super high level mobs on the way too. I think I saw a level 40 wandering around at some point. I am very tempted to do the run again, but on the other hand it totally breaks immersion to do such a thing.