Hi everyone,

The reason for the post
I recently joined and have found buying equipment/spells quite tricky (yes I’ve seen the gil-making guide/s) as everything seems high priced on AH/vendors. I don’t have a great deal of time to spend farming etc, but I want to enjoy the game again, the storyline, missions, levelling and so on. That’s not to say I want everything spoon-fed and easy mode, I’m willing to spend some time gil-making and upgrading as and when necessary, but I don’t want to have to buy expensive +1 gear to operate decently, and won’t playing Nin with it’s tools, for example

The Aim
So I’m looking to ignite some discussion here with opinions based on the recent stage of the game (not from 2 year old threads etc because prices vary).

So, which jobs are some of the cheapest to play and to level. Maybe because they aren’t so gear dependent, or they have cheap equipment or spells etc.

The Conditions
- Cheap!
- Playable by new players, so no special rare/ex drops that are unrealistic to attain.
- If Bard is cheap, can we discount that as I’m Bard in my retail past and fancy a change.
- Would be nice if it’s an invite-friendly job, as I’d like to party, but it’s not a requirement!

If you reply, please elaborate on your choice and give some reasoning. Why/what makes it suitable?

Thanks everyone for reading and I look forward to your replies

BRD is by far the cheapest and easiest job to level here.

COR is 2nd easiest to level but much more expensive due to bullets/dice/cards. Not to mention unless you want to be a roll-bot, the gear gets pretty expensive.

My best advice is pick the job(s) you want to play but also level BLM or RDM to 40 so you can do OWNM40s for gil.

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For endgame considerations, there's really only BRD, SMN, and to lesser extent WHM. I don't know how hard smn is to party these days since lunar cry has been fixed (it used to lower mobs evasion to 0; I really can't imagine them getting too many parties now). WHM is also a pain to level since many people have 2box healers.

Any melee is fairly cheap to level, but also 95% useless in the grand scheme of things. If you just want to experience the game and have fun, you can do it on any job, and you don't have to spend a lot of gil on it. NQ gear is perfectly acceptable as long as you're using the right gear and the appropriate macros. You just won't be the best.

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BLM is cheap (relatively), easy, and full of opportunity.

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I would say BST for cheap, but prolly not too invite friendly. Sure Bst can be expensive, but you can scrubby it up with NQ crabs and be fine or rely on charming. Most of the good +CHR gear is easily camped. Just get a monster sig and ribbon and you'll be fine.

Every job can be leveled cheaply, besides jobs with consumables like COR/RNG/NIN. No one sees your gear until you show up at the party, and honestly most leaders don't kick folks for having terrible gear.

BRD is probably the easiest and cheapest.

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I started as RDM and it's pretty expensive to keep up on spells and gear but my friend started MNK and it's so damn cheap... I think MNK don't get a lot of love because people always think end game, but for lvling and doing missions it's a good pick I would say.

I've elected to level two SMN as my first jobs for similar reasons. I'll go back and level my BLM and THF and whatever else after I have a job that can contribute (and get invites to) end-game. I hit 40 last night with Carby only and literally haven't spent 10 gil on gear for the job (though I did have a few very generous souls help me with Carbuncle Mitts).

SMN, pretty sure you can just solo the whole way if you want so gear is whatever you wanna use (obviously better gear does help a lot though). Currently lvl 33 off of solely kiting suicidal mobs, fortunately in some great LS that helped me get carby mitts (didn't get till 30 tho so they ain't needed by any means) and some additional summons/whispers. If you do do the bombing route get at least 1 spirit pact, as they can save your life when you bork a pull.

If you want to party probably WHM, I seriously doubt you'll ever get kicked for having crap gear, maybe if you're a galka without a subjob or something extreme like that, but most will take whatever WHM they can get.

WHMs don't get pts nearly as often as you think due to so many people having alts to PL with. Why bother with a WHM when you can just bring a 75 RDM PL and get another DD or support? Thats not to say you won't get pts, but its by no means a top tier invite-grabber like on early retail.