What is......

Is the most rounded out class in the game???I hopw to upgrade my computer just want to know so I dont screw up like alot of my other online games.

i would say red mage, get healing, elemental, and enhancing magic as well as the sword and shield with some armour...its the jack of all trades i find...i'm just lvling it now, i'm at 13 and its lots of fun

Redmage and Summoner, I think, though there aren't any jack of all trades slots in parties. That's why Redmage becomes Refresh *Expletive Deleted* at 41, and Summoners become their Whm subjob at level 10. You'd be better off picking out the part of "Jack of all trades" you like most, and picking a specialist in it, because you can rest assured that if you have no specialty, you'll be doing whatever you like least - it's the way things go.

I'm a ranger and shooting things up for mad damage, even moreso than the BLM at times (at level 30 something) is what I like to do :).

I dont agree with any of the above besides RDM.

RDM = THe most well rounded MAGIC user, able to solo things with the right spells and buffs and outlast things. Even tho their primary usage is Refresh and Enfeebling, they can also heal and nuke effectively enough(just ENOUGH) to make it ok

the most rounded MELEE will have to be WAR, able to tank with DEF gear and a MNK or NIN sub, or able to atk with ATK gear and THF or NIN sub(and in some casts post 60, SAM sub). WAR can tank and DD VERY nicely all the way throughout their lives provided they spend the money on the appropiate gears.

Summoners can form skillchains in place of a samurai, add control like a beastmaster, nuke and magic burst in place of a Black mage, cure in place of a White mage, buff in place of a bard, pull w/o links, and do paladin level damage in between. They're pretty well rounded. Just because parties are narrow minded doesn't take away their potential.

Red Mages were intended to be a melee/mage hybrid. They're well rounded in all senses of the word, but parties only use most jobs for only a small fraction of what they can do. Anything else is derided in the name of efficiency.

SMN skillchains are not that efficient anyway, what element are their atks? We arent that sure yet and plus what SMN actually uses their pet to fight in a prolonged period? Most buff, special atk or whatever then go back to conserve MP. Also the Blood Pact timer is set to 1 minute, therefore if they SC they cannot MB and they cannot also do other jobs. Not to mention the BloodPact timer might also limit their options when they CAN SC or not after casting a buff. Without the timer i would say its more convienent, otherwise its not viable to SC with a SMN due to Bloodpact timer and MP issues.

BRD buffs are in a TOTALLY different league than the SMNs, Acc up and things like that are BRD only and are much more efficient than whatever a SMN can do. Avatars also have lower life than the pet, the pet is EM most likely and have thousands of HP while the pet is very limited in HP. While they can be controlling the mob it really depends on the party set up, do you have a RDM or WHM there? What tank? Otherwise your MP will run clean dry if you have a link and need to main heal at the same time.

RDMs are not intended to be the most super well-rounded in a party in the sense of meleeing anyway. They miss tons, and who would want to swap out mage gear for something like Life Belt or Sniper Rings anyway?

Even if they did their accuracy with a B Sword will miss alot especially as the lvls go higher and higher, and their atks arent going to be up to snuff. Not that a B Sword even at low lvls suck, its just they dont have the right upgrades than a WAR. And who would sub WAR and give up Conserve MP, elemental seal, Aspir and Drain? And thats only a BLM sub. Theres another set of better abilities in a WHM sub. RDM at battlia with Enspell=0 dmg + 0 additional dmg on IT..that RDM didnt melee more than that battle...

I have no trouble with RDM meleeing as long as they do their job of refreshing and enfeebling as their job is to support, not melee and do it all. Also if the monster as AoE, stay away that minute and dont make me waste MP on you. What they were before Dispel and Refresh spells were added, was that they were pretty balanced..and they were broken at that time. Efficientcy is alot when things are 13K tnl...and later 36K tnl...but the point is that, you are a unit in the party, and not many people understand that a unit is like a chain, only as good as their weakest member.

I agree with you that summoner buffs are nowhere near as good as bard buffs, but then, summoner healing is nowhere near as good as whm healing, and summoner MB's are nowhere near as good as a blm's MB. Summoners are ok at doing a lot of things, but are outclassed at everything they do by a specialist. Summoners should be used to fill any missing gap a party might have. They can do any role except tank in a pinch. The only reason they get pidgeon-holed into a healing role is because there's a 9,999,999:1 Damage Dealer to Healer ratio on most servers. I've main healed as a Blm/whm so I understand that much first hand.

Mmm now that i can really agree with ^^; But they are still missing the element of Refresh. Alot of the times no RDM or BRD = no PT, if SMN can refresh on a different scale than those two, then i would say, they can do it all and are desirable. I agree that they can nuke decently(less than RDM i think..not exactly sure since some SMNs dont MB), buff decently, and can control hate ok too. With a WHM sub they can even heal decently. So yea i agree with that, a RDM in a way, but yet also more specialized even more in spells and magic instead of getting an ok atk. ^^;