starting job

[oka5]

is RDM a good starting job?

[Feba]

Re: starting job

As good as any other.

Possibly better, since it teaches you the most about various parts of the combat system earliest.

[Icemage]

Re: starting job

The only bad thing about red mage as a starting job is that a lot of players who play RDM to start with end up going down the usual "want to do everything well including swing a sword and cast all types of magic" route and end up in either culture shock or denial when they discover that Red Mage is jack of all trades, master of none. Can't really swing swords very well. Can't really nuke very well. Oh, but lots of MP recovery to make up for it.

As long as people are aware that Red Mage ends up being a 95% spellcaster role that rarely gets to actually hit anything in melee, then I have no quibbles.


Icemage

[oka5]

Re: starting job

well i dnt plan on going that far with it i just want to get to lvl 30 so i can a real job

[Feba]

Re: starting job

so i can a real job

ouch.

Ok, read http://www.ffxionline.com/forums/race-job-type-q-17/ until you get sick. Get a glass of water, and then start reading again. You have much to learn.

[ItazuraNhomango]

Re: starting job

No. Red Mage is bad--if that's only one you level.

You must level each and every one of the six starter jobs to Lv.10, and make some gil off of what the monsters drop while doing that. Figure out what sells fast and profitably on AH, and put those up. Get rid of the rest via NPC, or toss the very low value ones.

Once you've acquired a substantial bankroll, then you can decide which job is your "starter job", and buy decent equipment for it. >_>

* * *

If you must level only one job to start, then I'd say White Mage is the one. It has a weighty responsibility and a clear focus: Keep people alive and well. WHM is wanted and appreciated in parties, especially at lower levels.

Other perks include no distraction of trying to melee and cast spell at the same time in parties (which is very hectic, compared to low level soloing). When not casting, you're resting for MP, and have opportunity to observe the rest of the party and learn the dynamics involved. Plus, even if you only take WHM to Lv.25, you'd still get all kinds of useful spells, including Sneak and Invisible--good for running around doing quests in dangerous zones without spending a lot of gil on Silent Oil and Prism/Rainbow Powder.

[Silent Howler]

Re: starting job

Keep in mind that there is nothing stopping you from switching jobs (given that you have unlocked them). With this thought in mind, the first job I picked up was Warrior, since it was considered the most basic job and good for getting a taste of how battle works. However I only took it to about lvl 3 or 4 before I switched out for Thief, and so on. Eventually soloed Monk up to 16 and then came back around to White Mage, which was the first job I had gotten into a party with and is currently my highest job at 38.

So don't stress yourself over which job you should start out as. You have six to choose from and can freely switch between those six whenever you want. But if I were to recommend one, I would say Warrior.

[Prons]

Re: starting job

There's no bad job in this game. You just have to learn what their strengths and weaknesses are. Then when you are level 18 you are expected to take on a sub-job. Go here and read the SubJob\Advanced job FAQ.

If you want to do a lot of damage, Warrior is a good starting job. You start with a good sword, it's apprently easier to solo the low level monsters, and then when you get to level 18, you can level up mnk or whatever subs warrior well.

Oh by the way, just because the advanced jobs have cooler names and sound really cool doesn't mean the basic jobs aren't slouches.

[Ellipses]

Re: starting job

Go here and read the SubJob\Advanced job FAQ.

Then think to yourself, "Wow, this hasn't been updated since 2003, calls Extra Jobs 'Advanced' when they're not, doesn't have much detail, and gets some things completely wrong. Why in God's name am I touching GameFAQs with a ten-foot-pole? I should stick to forums and FFXIClopedia and the BG Wiki from now on."

Study the forums and wikis for the Extra Job(s) you're interested in. That'll tell you what jobs make good subjobs for it, and what make good subjobs for that. From there, you should be able to figure out a good combination to take to 18, then 37. Assuming you really don't want to just experiment and have fun trying them all out and stuff.

[Ameroth]

Re: starting job

well i dnt plan on going that far with it i just want to get to lvl 30 so i can a real job

Red Mage is a real job. If it wasn't, it wouldn't be in the game.

A common logical fallacy many new players make is that the unlockable jobs are somehow better or more important than the jobs you start with. This is simply not true. Of all the unlockable jobs, none of them can be a WHM. None of them are a WAR, one of the most basic and used subjobs for almost every melee class. None of them give you the sheer firepower of a BLM. Do some research pal.

You have much to learn.

[Sabaron]

Re: starting job

Red Mage is incredibly versatile, but as has been stated before, you should level all of the low-level jobs especially the ones on this list:

1. WHM to 37 - You cannot yet conceive how useful this will be.
2. BLM to 18 - Just for Warp at least and to 37 if you ever plan on being a mage.
3. WAR to 37 - If you plan to play melee. Ninja and Paladin must both have this sub available at all times.
4. THF to 15 - For Treasure Hunter, and to 37 if you plan to use certain melee jobs that sub this for SATA.

MNK and RDM are not strictly required, but the other 4 jobs are basically the 4 most useful subs in the game barring Ninja.

[Prons]

Re: starting job

Then think to yourself, "Wow, this hasn't been updated since 2003, calls Extra Jobs 'Advanced' when they're not, doesn't have much detail, and gets some things completely wrong. Why in God's name am I touching GameFAQs with a ten-foot-pole? I should stick to forums and FFXIClopedia and the BG Wiki from now on."

Yeah what he said. Sorry my incompetence

[Lunaryn]

Re: starting job

The main consideration for starting out is generally a few key factors:

1) Limited resources -- If this is your first character, or first character on a server, you may find it somewhat difficult to get by and upgrade things as you would like. Your equipment to 5 at least will probably suck. Most veteran players starting a new character send their new character either a bunch of gear, or about 10k gil, or both, just to get it on a good starting footing. You won't have this advantage, so you may need to work on getting gil, and leveling more than one job at low levels may help, but is not necessary (particularly if you follow the leveling tactic of killing lots of weak enemies quickly rather than sticking to long battles against high-level enemies).

Mage jobs have a certain advantage here in that they have very specialized requirements which are fairly easy to meet, and aside from that don't call for much equipment. A wand, rings, and earrings are all the gear you'll need for a while, though WHM and RDM should definitely grab a Justice Badge for neck (questable in Windurst), and do watch for the levels where more equipment becomes available. Melee tend to need to invest more in every slot, though even that has its limits at earlier levels. Do some research here. Unless you're a job likely to tank, your armor will lag in importance compared to things like weapons and stat rings. THF does give some help in terms of farming for gil, particularly due to Steal at 5 (Free Beastcoins :p ) and Treasure Hunter at 15, though it's also the most painful to level 1-15.

2) No subjob -- Every character goes through this, and it is a pain. It is in fact so much of a pain that some people go so far as to suggest that MNK and RDM are the only jobs anyone should think of leveling until they unlock subjob at 18. I won't suggest this (I took THF to 18 subless, myself), but some jobs are more challenging to level subless than others.

The major one to watch out for here IMO is THF. It gets pretty much nothing of note combat-wise until level 15, and without subjob you can't even sub WAR for early tanking duty. BLM and WHM also have their challenges, though once you get BLM to 10 or WHM to 11 things are easier (11 is the level I'd recommend WHMs solo to before a party, Cure II makes a huge difference; BLM gets Magic Attack Bonus I at 10, which makes their magic noticeably more potent). The main drawback I see to RDM is that you might get asked to main heal in parties, and before level 14 this is very difficult, as your only healing spell is Cure, which caps at ~30HP recovered. WAR and MNK both seem fairly straightforward subless, I wouldn't expect a whole lot of difficulty.

3) Did I mention no subjob? -- Not only does the lack of a subjob present difficulties for your first chosen job, it presents difficulties for any job you might switch to before you do the subjob quest. This is a significant motivating factor in taking one job to 18 right away, rather than bringing multiple jobs to 10, as someone else suggested. It is much easier to raise a second job with the benefit of subjobs, even if you end up having to bounce back and forth between jobs to get the levels you need.

4) Resource and inventory management -- People usually prefer to sell old gear to offset new gear costs and keep inventory usage low. This can have downsides, and it is often useful to keep a set of gear aimed toward level caps you expect to work under, but a lot of people plan out their job level progression to minimize the amount of equipment they have to cope with at one time. There are two basic strategies I've seen here: consolidated leveling, and balanced leveling. By consolidated leveling, I mean that people level a job as high as they need it or as high as they situationally can before changing it at all. Some examples are a MNK/WAR path: MNK to 18, WAR to 37, MNK to 75; a THF path: MNK to 18, WAR to 37, NIN to 37, THF to 75; another THF path: WAR to 18, MNK to 15, WAR to 30, NIN to 37, THF to 75. (THF/NIN is not the only combination people use, but it's arguably the most popular. Stick with /MNK or /RNG through the dunes, though.) By balanced leveling, I mean that people switch continuously between the jobs they want to level so that the jobs that they aren't finished with stay about the same level, (e.g. level RDM to 18, then level WHM to 20, BLM to 20, RDM to 20, WHM to 25, BLM to 25, RDM to 25, WHM to 30, etc.)

For each case, consider not only what job your chosen main job will want to sub, but what the subjob(s) will want to sub. Your starting job may not be the one you intend to take to 30 to unlock jobs, or to 37 for your chosen main's sub, but rather it may be a job that will make a good subjob for the job you intend to take to 30 or 37. It is somewhat convenient for the consolidated leveling approach that 18 (subjob quest level) is the highest level a job needs to be in order to sub for a job being taken to 37, which itself is the highest level a job needs to be in order to sub for a job being taken to the game's maximum level of 75.

[Silent Howler]

Re: starting job

2. BLM to 18 - Just for Warp at least and to 37 if you ever plan on being a mage.

BLM actually gets warp at lvl 17.