Need some advice

[Kyahh]

Hey everyone, I need some job advice. I'm a player returning back to the game after a few years, I never got too high level only like 30ish but I've been reading the forums and have had some concerns. I just made a Monk as my first character but all of the forums I've been reading have been saying to level up a caster first to make money then come back as a Monk after getting another character to a high level. Now I've been thinking of going this route, but I was wondering which would be easier to level up quickly first, Red Mage or Black Mage. I don't have much of a desire to level a White Mage besides as a subjob since that was what I played before and I don't really want to go mainly into healing. So if anyone could just help with some advice that would be great, thanks!

[DakAttack]

You would most likely find Red Mage more fun to level at the earlier levels, and Black Mage more tolerable towards mid game.

If it's just a spot in a party you want I'd go with Red Mage.

[Ameroth]

Not sure who gave you the advice to level mages first to make money. Last time I checked, a MNK30/thf15 is going to out-perform a rdm30/thf15 when it comes to farming critters. Farming on mage jobs isn't impossible, but I'd say impractical when compared to a damage dealing melee job.

However, if you do choose to level a mage first, I would personally suggest WHM to 18 or 37 first as you'll need that for sure to sub for either of the other mages (RDM and BLM). Also, you might find Scholar is something to consider because it tends to be a pretty good subjob for mages, specifically WHM.

Go ahead and level what you want though, but if leveling RDM is your priority, you're going to have to stop at level 18-20 to take WHM up to sub-level.

In the end, no matter which of the 3 mages (RDM, WHM, BLM) you choose to start with, you'll most likely end up leveling the other two at least to 37 (depending if you want to go to 75RDM).

[Kitalrez]

I don't recommend starting on WHM right off. I did that and it's kind of rough to cap skills on WHM for the first 10-15 levels. Maybe go with MNK or WAR for now, then switch over to a mage job and level it when you hit low teens on your melee. That way, your mage actually survives the first 10 levels relatively unscathed. RDM will have a slightly easier time, being more melee based than WHM, but WHM is really hard when you have 0 skill in anything defensive or offensive.

[Kyahh]

This is good advice but now that I think about it I don't know if I even want to take Monk to 75 right off the bat, I might just hit 30 and go Samurai or something. Would you guys still reccomend going the caster route for quick levels or just sticking it out with Monk, I'm only level 7 right now so I wouldn't be too upset to change jobs.

[Kitalrez]

Take it to at least 10, maybe 15. It's a really good melee sub til about 30 on many other jobs, like THF and WAR. Also, you'll get skill in evasion and melee, plus you'll have some gear and gil that you can use for those other jobs.

[Kyahh]

Alright, I think I'll go with that, thanks for all the advice!

[Pteryx]

If you don't want to go into healing primarily, you'll never get a mage job to 75 faster than you will MNK. RDM is expected to heal a lot, and generally its nukes are a waste of MP. Nukers are rarely desired in parties anymore; BLMs solo to 75 nowadays through various techniques. SCH is better at nuking given /BLM (or, later, /RDM) for Magic Attack Bonus, but is more likely to be called in for healing purposes, particularly in the end; still, as a SCH you're more likely to get away with nuking on the side than as a RDM, and you could even get invites to actually nuke (on the assumption that you'll also be able to help heal).

Thus, if you don't like healing and want to get to 75 fast, mage jobs probably aren't the way to go. -- Pteryx

[MrMageo]

RDM is nice to level because you are able to work on capping alot of stats in magic and melee. Even if you take it to 30 first to open Advanced jobs using RDM will get you a nice jump start in a lot of categories, (especially if you choose to solo till 20)