Getting into Final Fantasy XIV is easier than ever with its expanded free trial which includes the award-winning Stormblood expansion up to level 70. But when you finally concede to your friends’ incessant chanting, which job should you pick to start your journey?
The Best Starting Jobs in FFXIV
With a total of 18 different jobs to choose from in Endwalker (19 if you count Blue Mage) and two more being cooked for Dawntrail as we speak, picking your starting class might be a hard choice to make so early. You can easily change jobs any time you want without making a new character, but the first impression is always important, so pick wisely.
Some other easy-to-pick-up jobs are only available once you reach a certain level, so while they’re good for beginners, they’re not exactly “starting jobs”. We’ll also briefly mention a few of those later, so don’t worry.
Honorable Mention – Ninja (Rogue)
| Role | Starting City |
| DPS (Melee) | Limsa Lominsa |
Rogue isn’t exactly a “starting job”, but you can unlock it without any prerequisites other than unlocking the Armory System and completing the Rogue starting quest in Limsa Lominsa Lower Decks (X:8 Y:16). The Armory is unlocked as soon as you complete your Level 10 Job Quest, which is also the required level for Rogue’s quest.
If you want to get Rogue early, start with either Marauder or Arcanist since they also start in Limsa Lominsa. Marauder might be a better choice due to sharing some early Disciple of War gear.
Rogue gets some utility with Hide and Mug, and the Mudra system makes you really feel like a Ninja when you get it. It’s simpler than it seems, and you’ll probably love the job once you figure it out. Its combos are fairly simple, even though its Level 90 opener gets messy. You can learn about positionals and weaving skills perfectly with Ninja, and bringing some big baddies down with Jutsus is one of the coolest things to do in the game.
5 – Bard (Archer)
| Role | Starting City |
| DPS (Ranged) | Gridania |
The ranger archetype is more present than the musician archetype in this FFXIV job, so this can be divisive for some aspiring Bards. But identity crisis aside, it’s by far one of the easiest jobs to play and complete quests early thanks to its range and simple rotation. Don’t worry, things will get harder (in a fun way) as you level up.
A good portion of your damage is hidden behind your DoTs, so don’t expect to see big numbers here. But as long as you’re using your cooldowns, you should be contributing enough to your team. You also have some great AoE options to help in dungeons, which makes everyone’s life way easier.
4 – Monk (Pugilist)
| Role | Starting City |
| DPS (Melee) | Ul’dah |
Monk got a mini-rework in Endwalker which removed most of its positional requirements for skills, so you’re no longer dancing around the enemy while kicking its ass. You have earlier access to AoEs too, so dungeons are less insufferable. This made the job easier than ever for newcomers, so you might wanna consider starting the game with this fast-paced job.
Monk is one of the fastest jobs skill-wise, so you’ll be pressing buttons faster as you level up. Your head might start spinning once you get a few extra skills, but you should be fine if you manage to learn the basic combo loop. And you can always switch to another job if punching’s really not your thing. Early game’s quite comfortable with it, at least.
3 – White Mage (Conjurer)
| Role | Starting City |
| Healer | Gridania |
Conjurers struggle at the beginning of the game, but White Mage is the most straightforward healer available and probably the best one to learn the role. You get to experience little to no queue times, and your DPS rotation is as simple as it could get. As long as the tank lives, you get to spam Stone/Glare as much as you want.
Healing is not that complicated in FFXIV, so don’t worry if you never healed before in MMOs. But make sure to keep your gear updated so you won’t suddenly die from an errant AoE and can keep up with the increasing healing checks. This job has the strongest instant heals of all healers, so keep your calm and you’ll do an amazing job.
2 – Warrior (Marauder)
| Role | Starting City |
| Tank | Limsa Lominsa |
Axe goes brrrr. Marauder has good damage, an easy rotation, and the most survivability of all tanks in the game once it becomes Warrior. It’s not uncommon to see them solo sustaining themselves in late-game dungeons because the job’s just that strong. And fairly easy to play too, making it one of the best choices for tackling unknown content.
You only get to live that healing fantasy close to Level 60, but you also get your invulnerability cooldown earlier than all other tanks, and it also has the lowest cooldown of them all, so abuse it. Seriously. You don’t need to worry about ever dying if you use all your tools right.
1 – Summoner (Arcanist)
| Role | Starting City |
| DPS (Caster) | Limsa Lominsa |
Arcanist received many key changes that turned Summoner into the ultimate beginner job. Your Carbuncle pet is much more responsive and the general rotation is simpler than ever, while also having some complexity to make some bigger numbers pop up later. Being a Caster with almost no casting is somehow strange, but boy it feels smooth.
Your early rotation will be carried over up to 90, in which you should have no trouble engaging into harder content with your incredible damage and amazing mobility. As a bonus, leveling Arcanist also levels Scholar (even if you haven’t unlocked it yet), so you get a Healer for free!
Best Easy to Pick Up Jobs in FFXIV
These jobs aren’t available from the creation screen, but can be obtained by reaching a certain level and completing their introductory quest. They’re great if you want to learn a different role/job after putting a few hours in or if you’re unsatisfied with your starting job.
Sage
| Role | Starting City |
| Healer | Limsa Lominsa (Requires Lvl. 70) |
Shield healers are trickier to play than Regen healers as you have to prevent damage before it happens. But it’s easier to do that with Sage thanks to its superior mobility while casting, more controllable gauge and quick direct heals.
Scholar is amazing due to its valuable utilities (mainly Expedient and Chain Stratagem), but Sage makes up for that with more raw damage and comfort when healing, which makes it easier to pick up for newbies than its pet-using counterpart. White Mage is still a better introduction to healing, but Sage does the job fairly well too.
Dancer
| Role | Starting City |
| DPS (Ranged) | Limsa Lominsa (Requires Lvl. 60) |
While the Dancer’s the heart of the show, the main star of the performance is whoever they partnered with. The lucky DPS who was chosen by the Dancer will share its main buffs, including its amazing Critical increase every two minutes. Dancer doesn’t have that big of a DPS, being more support-focused while still being able to fend off any opponents by themselves.
They also have a very laidback rotation compared to most jobs, where some of their damage comes from pure RNG. Don’t worry about inconsistency, though. You should always have enough damage if you’ve been using your dances, which are almost like a minigame of their own. This is the most popular Physical Ranged job for a good reason.
Red Mage
| Role | Starting City |
| DPS (Caster) | Ul’dah (Requires Lvl. 50) |
If you want an alternative to Summoner’s straightforwardness, Red Mage might be what you’re looking for. At the expense of some personal damage, this job brings buffs, heals, more teamwide mitigation and instant resses to the party, which makes a huge difference during 8-man content and Alliance Raids.
Balancing your White and Black manas makes for a fun little challenge, and few things are more satisfying than landing a full melee combo ending with Scorch and Resolution. This is also an amazing job for earlier dungeons due to its high potencies on lower levels, so it’s great for farming those duties if you need to.
Reaper
| Role | Starting City |
| DPS (Melee) | Ul’dah (Requires Lvl. 70) |
To close off this list, we have Reaper which could be considered the perfect melee. It has everything: enhanced mobility, two different disengage options, a raidwide buff and a spammable defensive cooldown that results in a small party regen. Oh, you also have no positional requirements on your regular combo. And you start at 70. Also, you get a voidsent friend. What else could you ask for?
I cannot recommend Reaper more to anyone who wants to start playing Melee. It teaches you everything you need to know about close combat and managing damage resources, as well as being easier to hit positionals since you choose when you want to do it. This makes it one of the best DPS in the game when played well. And scythes are cool, if you aren’t just convinced yet.
