ffxizol wrote:
Start off as a DD class, MNK or WAR. Progressing at low levels tends to be quicker and a bit easier on your solo attempts. BLM doesn't become a decent solo job until much higher
A lot of truth here... especially for a Taru BLM. Mages are squishy enough with no subjob, being a Taru compounds the problem too. BUT, later with proper subjob and good gear a BLM Taru is a force to reckon with.
Just keep in mind that the traditional playstyles of BLM are glass cannons. You can set up for crazy damage spikes, which grabs a lot of hate... and you aren't typically geared for much damage mitigation. So you will have to experiment to find the right balance for clean take downs and what not. Solo play or all mage parties will call for a cycle of nuking and sleep/bind until the target is dead. You may find yourself kiting a lot during solo play as well, so you will also need to be mindful of your surroundings... knowing safe escape routes, places where you may have landscape physics to alter/slow a targets path to you so you can sleep/bind again if it resists your first cast.
Basically... there is a lot to learn about mage classes in and of themselves, on top of everything else to learn about the world and such. Once you pick up on the finer points of their limits and capacities though, they are a lot of fun. But it can be a bit overwhelming to start off with when new to the game.
Warrior and Monk tend to be a LOT more forgiving for learning the ropes of the game itself. A lot of the gear you will use on them can also transfer over to be used on Red Mage, which can give you a glimpse into the worlds of both Black Mage and White Mage, so you are a bit more comfortable with taking on one of those two.
If you were to go this toute, a good bit of Monk gear will transfer over to not just RDM, but also BLM and WHM when starting off. So, that is usually how I start off... MNK then the mages. RDM can be a key subjob for both BLM and WHM for specific situations, not to mention it is really good at holding it's own, even before it gets the boost from a subjob. It is crazy just how durable a RDM/MNK can be when you first unlock subjob access.
Basically, I took MNK to around 12-ish, then hopped on RDM... used that to focus on unlocking subjobs around 18-20. If you do the subjob quest through the Selbina/Dunes path (not Mauhra/Buburimi), you can solo farm most the items on RDM by that point if you haven't started playing in parties yet. May need a bit of help for one item, but there will be plenty of people around to assist... they even cycle players in/out of parties there to get all their items. Once you have subjobs unlocked and such, you can quickly run RDM up to 30 to unlock some of the specialty jobs also (Summoner, Ranger, Ninja, Dragoon, etc).
Please understand, I don't mean to be pushing some kind of RDM agenda on you or anythimg. It is just that RDM is one of those jobs of utility like NIN and WAR that is just good to have leveled to 37 to use as a subjob if you aren't going to main them, and because of the blended nature of the job you can learn a LOT about the system mechanics. It almost literally is the jack of all trades... allowing you to learn a little about a LOT of skills in both melee and magic camps, so can be well worth using it while learning all the other details about the game. Once you get your sea legs, then you can narrow down a job you really want to focus on, and you will have some skills already preleveled for them, as well as some gear you can also use as you bring those jobs up through their early levels.