General

Dawn Warrior.

Being a warrior, they are naturally tanks, even if not on the level of a Pally. They are not weaksauce either, although still not on the level of a Pally. Pallies are OP, man.

Their skills don't need mastery book [b]at all[/b], like all other revamped Cygnus Knights.

Class is flashy with huge-ish animations, and bright and beautiful colours constrasting from orange to blue. Plus their 'neutral' yellow soul colour. Radiant as hell. Yet, still not the most popular class out there. Skills can be spammed held down, and Equinox Cycle switches your modes for you.

Has Cygnus-tier flash jump and high jump. Not the best at either, but still good. Not sure if you'd call his 'high mobility' in this day and age, but there are still some classes without flash jumps, so I'd suppose it is high mobility.

No class requires significant amount of funding before late game. If you're asking whether their early game skills are strong, so training is quick, I suppose so, but I haven't played one myself so I don't know how good it actually is.

Every class needs significant funding for the profitable bosses. This is after all a game so if you are looking to go cheap then forget about the profitable bosses unless you have rich friends who will take you when they go.

[quote=Narutards]-Tank but can still dish out damage
-Preferably no mastery books as I hate hunting for them
-Flashy but uncommon class, skills don't require too much strain (i.e. Aran)
-High mobility and preferably a rope climb skill
-Doesn't require significant amount of funding until it's time for bossing/late-game grinding

Looking for a class that can generally fit most of this criteria but doesn't have to be perfect, the more the better, currently working on a Cygnus for the blessing

Input much appreciated [/quote]

Mastery books don't need to be hunted for, you buy them.
All classes are flashy. If you want uncommon take a look at the dps chart and pick from the bottom half, excepting Xenons and mule classes. The only classes that require significant coordination are Arans, Zeros, and Hayatos as far as I'm aware. Probably a few missing there.
Almost all classes have high mobility. Almost all have a way to get decent vertical distance.
Every class requires a significant amount of funding to reach end game bossing.

If you want my suggestion, keep making link/blessing mules. By the time you're done getting them all to 120, you should have a class that you like.

Generally you should do
1. Mercedes
2. Zero
3. Xenon
4. Kanna
5. Demon Avenger
6. Phantom
7. Beast Tamer

After that just burn through the rest of the link skills. 1-120 should take you less than a day.

[quote=xlxlxlxl]Dawn Warrior meets all your criteria. It has a vertical jump so you don't need to climb often.[/quote]

That right there. Nothing else comes close.

BaM. Tankiest non warrior

Shade

Dawn Warrior meets all your criteria. It has a vertical jump so you don't need to climb often.

Pally

lolol shade.

Have you tried tb? From my limited knowledge, tv seems to have a unique play style, somewhat decent damage and ok mobility?

The class that is fun for you.