Funnest of the Versatile Classes?

[Anzo]

Right now I am a level 15 hume warrior and its pretty boring.. I only picked warrior because I thought it would be a good lead in for a future dark knight career. I've been rethinking classes and mages and highly versatile classes in particular are sounding fun (played a beastlord in EQ, man, they do EVERYTHING).

Here are some possibilities I was thinking about:

Red Mage / xxx - This sounds fun but 2 things scare me: being forced to play healer, (I love being able to be a small support or downtime healer like say a Paladin in EQ but having the chore of main healing responsibility sucks - I like to heal when its not expected of me, not because I have to), and that melee is going to suck down the road. I do like the sound of a solid mage with a lot of spells that can wear armor/swords, and fight.

Black Mage / Red Mage - Nice variety of offensive spells, utility spells like warp, no real responsibility to do anything other than do damage and stay alive.

Black Mage / White Mage - Same but with more of a healer role maybe

Paladin / Warrior - Kind of versatile in that you get to melee and have good mana for support healing. Sounds like fun but I don't know if I would want to be the tank all the time. Wanted in groups, lev 30 just to get it.

Dark Knight / xxx - Like PLD, melee and spells, but different spells and not having to tank. Not so wanted in groups, lev 30 just to get it.

I'm sure there are more, those were the ones that popped out as being fun to me. Right now I'm thinking RDM and BLM (unknown subs) are sounding like they would be the most fun over the long haul? What do you guys think about those or other choices not listed? Why or why not to go with one, particularly Red Mage and Black Mage with various subs?

[Star8urst]

I don't have much experience at the high end of the game, however at the low to mid level the RDM is fun to play, unless you are the main healer. I try to avoid parties where I am the only healer, is not my style.

From what I gathered as RDM level up they become less and less melee and more caster, so if you like to melee in the long run, RDM may not be the class for you. Another thing with RDM, they are good for farming low level stuff, so if you like to get your own tradeskill components, RDM is a bonus.

If you like to mix melee with spells, DRK is the way to go (you can even sub RDM for more spells).

If you like to do lots of fun support stuff, try a bard or a summoner.

Hope this helps.

[Icemage]

One of the nicest features about FFXI is that you can switch jobs.

Feel like tanking? Go to your mog house and switch your main job to WAR or PLD. Feel like nuking? Swap out and become BLM.

No one job in FFXI does everything - but that's the real beauty - you can focus on what you are doing "right now" - and then if you're not in the mood, go back to town and switch to something else.

So just level up the jobs that you think you'd like to play.


Icemage