Well, after studying this game for a good while I have come to the conclusion that I want to go down one of two paths. Before I tell what they are I must let you know that my goal is to master the game in one area and then go back and explore other jobs. But at first I just want a simple path that leads me all the way up to being able to party with other GT members. I have came up with a system of attack to how I'm going to level for my first few months on the game.
Step 1: get first job up to lvl18
Step 2: get whatever I plan to be my future sub job up to lvl 36
Step 3: continue leveling main job until cap level reached (the long step)
Of course step 1 and step 3 can be the same job if I go on path #1:
The Mage
The reason I call it "The Mage" instead of WHM, RDM, and BLM outright is because I simply don't know what combination I want to go for. I know one thing for certain though, I don't want to be a healer and I'd much rather be a damage dealer. So WHM no matter what will not be my main class. My two main choices here are between RDM/BLM or BLM/WHM. The reason I want the WHM in me is to heal good ol #1 (myself

) if I have to.
From the looks of things, I can imagine going the BLM/WHM way because lvling up a WHM apparently is "easy" because of the amount of group invites, and the fact that BLM would be in both step one and step 3 of my plan would make lvling up to the sky a much faster process than taking on any advanced job that can't account for both step one and step three.
Plus I can't see a Red mage being very effective as a damage dealer in any team he is in. They are seen as "secondary healers".. somthing I defenently don't want to be seen as... unless I have some other purpose that outweighs my healing ability all together.
Weird enough, the other path I'm thinking of taking is one that is an advanced job:
The Ranger
I don't know what it is about this job, but I feel that it is the elite damage dealing class of the game. While it has many upsides like the ability to detect creatures and an easy quest to obtain the class, it has many downsides. First of all it's damn expensive to get ammo for this class... and at first, like I said before, I would have to lvl a class that is completly irrelevant just to have a sub class for the 20's. (I'm thinking step one MNK, step 2 THF, and step 3 RNG)
But because of the fact that they are the strongest damage dealers of the game, and are (apparently) very Rare, it has a pretty big draw to me.
I can tell you honestly that chances are I'll be a mage to start, but if I'm not you know where I'm going. Do you guys have any thoughts on this subject?
Also, for the sake of knowing.. what classes/races are all of you right now, and what lvl are you up to?