Best way to start this game?

[Treize]

Okay, I'll level up the blue mage one last time and switch her out for something else.

I don't think you understood what I meant. I meant that once a character learns "Learning" and "!Blue"(?) it is pretty pointless to be a blue mage because their stats aren't the greatest.

Blue Mages can be useful later in the game when you get White Wind, Mighty Guard, etc, but early in the game they aren't helpful. If you want to use a blue mage, I would recommend that you learn the two things that I just mentioned, and then switch the character to a different job. Blue Mage is really more meant as a secondary job than the primary one.

[Rocky]

Blue mages have good equipment they can use for the beginning part of the game, giving them the similar build of a Knight. Plus, they come with a built-in class physical evade of 15%. Pick em!

I went Blue Mage/Monk/White Mage/whatever else you want. Black Mage isn't really that great but if you have one it makes boss battles easy peezy if you wanna carry the squishy frail guy around.

and Treize, you trolling man? lol you can learn Aqua Rake before getting the Fire Crystal for Christ's crackers, hell yeah they can get great magic at the beginning of the game.

[Treize]

Blue mages have good equipment they can use for the beginning part of the game, giving them the similar build of a Knight. Plus, they come with a built-in class physical evade of 15%. Pick em!

If you want your character to be a physical attacker, you're better off with being a Knight after you learn "Learning" and "!Blue." You'll have much better attack and defense. If you want to be a magic using character, you'd be much better off being a white or black mage, so that you can learn their abilities along the way. They will also be much better at using magic because their magic stats are much higher. The only bad part would be their defense, but I didn't have much trouble with my white/black mages dying in the beginning of the game... Even if you did, leveling up two or three levels would solve that easily. I suppose their physical attacks would be much weaker too, but mages aren't really meant for physical attacking. If I wanted a mage that could attack, I would rather be using a red mage, which you also get pretty quickly, anyway.

and Treize, you trolling man? lol you can learn Aqua Rake before getting the Fire Crystal for Christ's crackers, hell yeah they can get great magic at the beginning of the game.

I must not be remembering right. I thought that Shiva did more damage, and I think you can get Shiva before you can get Aqua Rake too. I'm not sure how much damage Ice 2 was doing in comparison, though. I thought they were pretty similar, but I could be wrong. Black Mages could also cast Thunder 2 and Fire 2, though, if an enemy was weak against those instead of water/ice.

I still stick with my stance on blue mages not being the best. They can certainly be useful at times and late in the game, but I like other jobs more.