What is the best all-around class?

Mage - people usuually start mage first to farm adena and items before they looking into what class they really like to spend time playing. it is a very easy and cheap class to start with, you do not need much items to begin with, and it offer a very good boss farming.

Then I will say Elf second, it is also a very good class to start, but you may need a bit items to start. The diff. play style on elf allow you to have more option (range vs swing, wind, water, fire, earth). it is also good adena farming but less efficiency compare to mage. However, it offer little more on the boss hunting part and late game pvp. 

Knight - not really a all-around class if you do not have items. Not recommended for new player because it required to have good items to be "all-around" and if you do not have items, you cannot face many of the bosses. BUT if you do have all late game items, fid/cb, etc. Knight will be the strongest class and killing machine.

Dark elf is expensive and slowest to level at this moment.

dragonknight/ill - from what i heard, it has very high output. however, i dont have much experience on them.

Others will have their own answers, but I have a hunch most will somewhat agree.

First of all, "Best All Arounder" is subject to a couple of questions:

1. Is time investment or adena investment something to consider? Are we assuming an unlimited amount of each, or do you want to know what's the best class to start with (all around)?

2. Are we talking about PVP or PVE, or because you said "All Arounder," both?

If adena and time are no object, Knight is the best all around class. It's super expensive to gear, there's a really large amount of gear competition, and level is more valuable for knight than it is for other classes because of the importance of stun, so you'll spend more time leveling. Once you have end-game gear and spells (-110+ AC, Fid, CB), you're the best class in PVP and you're able to handle 99% of content solo PVE.

If those things are of some consideration, Elf and Mage are kind of tied. It's cheap (compared to Knight and Mage) to gear an Elf for end game, and they're great PVP support and serviceable in PVE, they take slightly longer to level than Mage/Knight, but still faster/easier to level than DE/Illu/DK/Royal. Mage end-game gear is expensive compared to Elf, but they level faster than any other class, they're indispensable in PVP, and they're the best PVE class.

If you're looking for the best starting point, Mage. Mage makes money the fastest and is the easiest to level.

If you are talking about PVE, imo

1. Illusionist 

2. Mage

3. Elf

4. Dragon Knight

5. Dark elf

6. Knight

7.Royal

I have a lv75+ illusionist and i have a lv60+ mage, i only play mage just to farm and use up the rested exp on him lol

Illusionist is awesome, and it does really well against other melee in PvP, too (particularly 1v1). It's definitely really, really good in PVE, but better than Mage? Mage levels faster, has access to better AOE, uses fewer pots, and can handle more bosses than Illu.

If you have a high lvl illus, you wont go back playing mage....may be just me

illu maybe the worst char to recommend as best allrounder....

especially for a beginner

I have a level 76 illu on Zelgo (or DID...), and I love it. It was my favorite toon. That said, I still wouldn't say it's better than a mage all around by any stretch of the imagination. I DO recommend people play one, though, at some point.

Totally agree with Gilderoy.  

If you start out with no adena, i recommend go play Mage because you need to farm adena as your priority. Best place to farm with adena even with your Ivory gears are in SKT wasteland to kill those Black Knight. You can make 3-4M per hour good for new players. Of course you can make more in other area but this place is good to farm adena for low level/low ac. 

I would also say Knight is the best for PVP in end game. 

All classes are good at most things with enough time investment. If you're asking which class is the best all around earlier on, probably Elf or Mage.

Knight

it's mage by far, they have the largest options of soloable content in all the end game categories as well as a required pvp class regardless of levels/gear

I like how no one even mentions Royal LOL

No one mentions Royal cus its not even good at 1 thing over other classes unless you count being an AFK buff alt.