For solo starter, Thaumaturge or Conjurer?

[Mordy]

Which would have easier time leveling up to 30+ where the story lines, at least according to a friend who used to play this, converge and job/class swapping becomes possible?

Bonus option: Arcanist, which i am unsure about since it seems to be less about permanent summons and more about temporary.. buff type skills?

[GeminiEclipse]

Job swapping is available after the level 10 class quest. With the main cities being available for travel after the level 15 MSQ. Which makes getting other jobs easier.

Arcanist becomes two different jobs. Scholar which is a healer, and Summoner which attacks with summons. It's not permanent companions, it's just instead of a fireball to attack you summon a fire dude to attack.

It really doesn't matter what you pick. Conjurer is technically easier because you can press 1 button instead of 2. And then 2 instead of 3.

The early jobs are pretty bare bones.

[DthBlayde]

Your friends' information is a few years out of date. The main story lines converge and line up round about the late teens, once you've finished the "starting city" quests and unlock airship travel to the other two. At that point, it doesn't matter where you started or what class you are.

Class switching and swapping unlocks around level 10, with the actual "Jobs" and their respective story lines kicking in at 30 (Conjurer becomes White Mage, Thaum becomes Black Mage etc).

Conjurer may be easier for soloing due to self heals, but outside of a dungeon or certain FATES, the overworld mobs are extremely easy and manageable by any class.

Arcanist is a sort of mixed bag now, because it unlocks two separate Jobs at 30: the DPS Summoner and Healer Scholar. But prior to that it's a general sort of DPS and the buffs are more self oriented. For example as the Summoner, the buff changes the damage type for X amount of seconds. So all your attacks are now fire based. Oh, now they're wind, OH! Now they're earth.

It's not buffs in the sense of a more traditional party "support" class

[𝒞𝒶𝓉𝓎𝒶♡]

Originally posted by Mordy:

Which would have easier time leveling up to 30+ where the story lines, at least according to a friend who used to play this, converge and job/class swapping becomes possible?

Bonus option: Arcanist, which i am unsure about since it seems to be less about permanent summons and more about temporary.. buff type skills?

Well, all are good choices as any. But can switch classes earlier, maybe you talk about the specialization that happens at level 30? It's sort of upgrade these days to your base class.

BUT, most importantly.. if you end up as a "main" of one of those, the weapon glamour (looks changed from the real weapon) might have weight in some people for choosing.

Conjurer will have staves (and some short wands also) type of weapons, so fancy Gandalf glowing staves possible to get a bit later on levels. Meanwhile Arcanist weapons are always books in looks, alltho some can be rather fancy books with effects also, but both on Summoner and Scholar specialization,

Thaumaturge/Black mage will have staves also for that blasting stance enjoyment. =)

Personally i'd pick Conjurer, just because especially since if solo, the 1st touch on overland is nice to have self heals, a lot of people forgets what it's like when not even chocobo helper yet and if class with no heals or just second wind with long af cooldown on some FATEs. :D

Easier times when experienced, naturally. :) Also, you can then help others when going by if so choose on fates. You can also eventually level up and learn ALL classes/jobs on same character if so want. You switch classes by switching the weapon. Save class gear setups for one button functions that switches everything at once, just mentioning that since seen some people skipped reading that help text and did switch manually for long time.

Most importantly, have fun on whatever you choose and have a great journey! =)

[Justin]

Just about every class is boring starting out, as the game really takes its time giving you new skills.

Thaumaturge is probably the most boring for the longest, as you'll just be spamming fire spells for the most part until you run out of MP, then cast Blizzard spells to get your MP back just to dump it into more fire spells. Eventually it grows into IMO one of the hardest classes in the game, requiring the largest amount of foreknowledge of boss mechanics to play.

Conjurer, like other healers in 14, gets mostly healing spells, obviously. It has only a few attack skills, but the ones it does have hit like a truck. But unless your team is really bad, chances are they won't be taking huge hits and will only need a bit of healing, so you'll just be spamming your single attack skill for the most part. Once you get later into the game where failing mechanics can hurt, healers in general can be pretty challenging.

Arcanist, as it was mentioned, unlocks both Summoner and Scholar. As was mentioned before, Summoner's elemental skills change, but ultimately it's all just attacks, as the game did away with elemental weaknesses a long time ago. Summoner is one of the most mobile casters, and a lot of people complain that it's too simple nowadays.

Scholar's probably the closest thing you can get to a defensive buff class, as its healing skills also apply a shield (to use a more broad term, an "overheal") to teammates. Later on it gets a few buffs, but the shielding is what makes scholar stand out from other healers (I could mention Sage but that's not till much later in the game).

A thing to consider is that because Summoner and Scholar share an experience point bar, it is entirely possible to level summoner to 80 and become a master-class summoner, then switch to Scholar and then suddenly have no idea what you're doing, then get murdered in dungeons when you didn't use your healing skills properly. The reverse is...theoretically possible, but Summoner is much easier to pick up and learn than Scholar is.

[𝒞𝒶𝓉𝓎𝒶♡]

Originally posted by Justin:

Just about every class is boring starting out, as the game really takes its time giving you new skills.

Thaumaturge is probably the most boring for the longest, as you'll just be spamming fire spells for the most part until you run out of MP, then cast Blizzard spells to get your MP back just to dump it into more fire spells. Eventually it grows into IMO one of the hardest classes in the game, requiring the largest amount of foreknowledge of boss mechanics to play.

Conjurer, like other healers in 14, gets mostly healing spells, obviously. It has only a few attack skills, but the ones it does have hit like a truck. But unless your team is really bad, chances are they won't be taking huge hits and will only need a bit of healing, so you'll just be spamming your single attack skill for the most part. Once you get later into the game where failing mechanics can hurt, healers in general can be pretty challenging.

Arcanist, as it was mentioned, unlocks both Summoner and Scholar. As was mentioned before, Summoner's elemental skills change, but ultimately it's all just attacks, as the game did away with elemental weaknesses a long time ago. Summoner is one of the most mobile casters, and a lot of people complain that it's too simple nowadays.

Scholar's probably the closest thing you can get to a defensive buff class, as its healing skills also apply a shield (to use a more broad term, an "overheal") to teammates. Later on it gets a few buffs, but the shielding is what makes scholar stand out from other healers (I could mention Sage but that's not till much later in the game).

A thing to consider is that because Summoner and Scholar share an experience point bar, it is entirely possible to level summoner to 80 and become a master-class summoner, then switch to Scholar and then suddenly have no idea what you're doing, then get murdered in dungeons when you didn't use your healing skills properly. The reverse is...theoretically possible, but Summoner is much easier to pick up and learn than Scholar is.

Always nice to read when someone actually gives a good explanation. =)

Not even sarcasm, my own reply was catgirl nonsense on making class decisions based on weapon glamours. :D I tried my best tho. But true endgame, aka glams MUST be the consideration when picking your class. :P

[Alternity]

tl;dr there is not best class to solo with. The only thing maybe you'd want to worry about is queue time if you don't want to use the trust system, so I'd go for either healer or tank if that's a concern, else, just play whatever you want, and if you don't like the job you chose, just swap and try something else.

[Oberon]

Originally posted by GeminiEclipse:

Job swapping is available after the level 15 msq.

Job swapping becomes available after your first level 10 class quest.

[Alternity]

Originally posted by The Mayor of Murder Town:

Originally posted by GeminiEclipse:

Job swapping is available after the level 15 msq.

Job swapping becomes available after your first level 10 class quest.

While it's technically true, I still would say level 15 because at level 10 you're still limited to your starting zone, unless you want to take a very long trip.

[Oberon]

Originally posted by Alternity:

Originally posted by The Mayor of Murder Town:

Job swapping becomes available after your first level 10 class quest.

While it's technically true, I still would say level 15 because at level 10 you're still limited to your starting zone, unless you want to take a very long trip.

That's not really relevant, is it? That's only for swapping to specific classes. The ability to swap classes in general is at 10.

[Alternity]

Originally posted by The Mayor of Murder Town:

Originally posted by Alternity:

While it's technically true, I still would say level 15 because at level 10 you're still limited to your starting zone, unless you want to take a very long trip.

That's not really relevant, is it? That's only for swapping to specific classes. The ability to swap classes in general is at 10.

It's totally relevant, unless you don't value your time.

[Ally Bobo]

Originally posted by Alternity:

It's totally relevant, unless you don't value your time.

If you're playing an MMO you don't value your time.

[Alternity]

Originally posted by Ally Bobo Pipe:

Originally posted by Alternity:

It's totally relevant, unless you don't value your time.

If you're playing an MMO you don't value your time.

That's debatable. It's not because you play an MMO that you would volountarely take the longst path (in time) towards something.

[Oberon]

Originally posted by Alternity:

Originally posted by The Mayor of Murder Town:

That's not really relevant, is it? That's only for swapping to specific classes. The ability to swap classes in general is at 10.

It's totally relevant, unless you don't value your time.

What does that have to do with anything? Class swapping unlocks at 10, not having immediate access to every class doesn't change that. Saying it's level 15 is just spreading misinformation.

[Alternity]

Originally posted by The Mayor of Murder Town:

Originally posted by Alternity:

It's totally relevant, unless you don't value your time.

What does that have to do with anything? Class swapping unlocks at 10, not having immediate access to every class doesn't change that. Saying it's level 15 is just spreading misinformation.

Semantics, gotta love em.

[Oberon]

Originally posted by Alternity:

Originally posted by The Mayor of Murder Town:

What does that have to do with anything? Class swapping unlocks at 10, not having immediate access to every class doesn't change that. Saying it's level 15 is just spreading misinformation.

Semantics, gotta love em.

No one here is arguing semantics. I'm explaining that a mechanic unlocks at 10, and you're lying and saying it actually unlocks at 15 because you think "access to every class" is a prerequisite, when it isn't.