FFXIV: catch all

The kids are all right.

Today I got my Chocobo. I named him Herman (after my first doggie) and I luffs him.

IMAGE(https://i.ibb.co/jy0QQDK/20210623162317-1.jpg)

I also became a monk!

In getting hype for the release of the other great use of the letter "F," the Fast and Furious' F9: The Fast Saga and after binging the first 7 movies in 3 days, I decided why not create a glam for series MVP, Leticia "Letty" Ortiz.
IMAGE(https://64.media.tumblr.com/c273ad8aa3d818ace4532c10bf73f317/tumblr_nomnp3itjl1uw3rg1o1_500.gif)

The turtleneck element of the Calfskin jacket ruled it out as Letty-worthy, so I decided to go for the look in which she attended the unfortunately named "Race Wars":
IMAGE(https://studentedgeapplication.azureedge.net/articles/f9f75065-a69d-437f-a723-3bfca3309e1e.jpg)

Simple enough:
IMAGE(https://i.ibb.co/54vKWyX/Vaylen-Troubador-06-25-2021-00-01-14.jpg)

Sunglasses, the Skyworker Singlet, Calfskin pants, it was the early 2000s, after all. But I absolutely had to capture some aspect of the iconic boots that are the first glimpse of the character:
IMAGE(https://data.whicdn.com/images/340412908/original.jpg)

I’m sure there’s a great explanation for this on the internet but I haven’t been able to find it but I’m a bit confused how the whole class/job system works.

I started as a Gladiator and got to level 30 and got a quest to get the Paladin job/soul crystal which I did. When I equipped the soul crystal I became a level 30 Paladin. Does that mean that I stop leveling as a Gladiator and am now strictly leveling Paladin??

I’m looking at the Dark Knight as a more long term solution so if I start that at some point do I revert back to level 30 and thus lose all my gear that requires a higher level than 30 to equip? So does it make sense to level multiple jobs evenly?

How do the crafting jobs even work?? Do you lose everything and become a level 1 carpenter and essentially have no combat skills?? Sorry as a WoW veteran this concept makes no sense and I can’t find anything but superficial descriptions of classes and jobs.

IIRC FF 14 has gear scaling/caps. In it current iteration, what weapon you use determines what job you are leveling. So you can be a level 30 paladin that equips a bow to gain experience on the level 5 archer job.

There are basic jobs some of which are required to unlock advanced jobs.
You pick one basic job at the start and then talk to the basic job trainers to be able to level them. I am pretty sure there is a basic quest involved to unlock other jobs too. This will give you the job crystal that unlocks the job for you.

The other advanced classes were introduced in expansions and start at the level you can acquire them. So if you can get a dark knight at level 50 then you will be a level 50 dark knight when you start leveling it whether you are level 50 or level 72 in another class.

Leveling in a class provides passive benefits when you are leveling another job.

Here is a resource on the job system:
https://ffxivrealm.com/guides/job-cl...

Yes, once you unlock Paladin, you'll never go back on "just" a Gladiator. It used to be that you leveled two classes to unlock the specialized Job. Now classes just move smoothly into another Job, and it's relatively seamless.

When you unlock another Job, you don't lose your level or progress in your prior one. You just equip the weapon (and Job stone) and you ARE that job. It has its own level. While moving through the story, as long as you have any combat job equipped at the required level for the quest, you can continue.

As fangblackbone said, expansion Jobs have no prerequisite class, so when you unlock Dark Knight, it'll start at 30. Samurai starts at 50, Dancer at 60, etc.

Gathering and crafting classes are fully fledged classes that you level and have their own gear and ability rotation.

And a single character can unlock, and level, every class/job in the game.

...has there been any word on if Viera will be able to wear more head pieces in the new expansion? It's so infuriating how little they can wear. Clip them bunny ears out the top of the helmet for all I care.

To further clarify, crafters and gatherers do not participate in combat. Generally you do crafting in town or other safe spaces. Gatherers get "sneak" which allows them to not get aggroed by mobs up to 4 levels higher than you. In other words, you can gather in level appropriate areas without getting tagged by mobs.

I would say it only makes sense to level multiple jobs evenly after you have a main that is done with the MSQ, and possibly even one in all three roles up to 80. I do know some people that decided to level that way, though.

To answer your question though TGG, you need to be around 50 and complete all of the ARR base game quests and post-game patch content in order to unlock Ishgard where you can pick up the expansion jobs of Machinist, Astrologian, and Dark Knight. Those jobs start at 30. I would save my armor from 30 and on so you don't have to buy or loot more as Paladin and Dark Knight share armor sets.

Paladin is the advanced job of Gladiator, like White Mage is the advanced job of Conjurer. Those initial jobs only give you skills up to level 30 so while you cans till run around as a conjurer or gladiator if you like you're basically limiting yourself for no reason.

Switching to a sword makes you a gladiator but equipping the soul crystal makes you a paladin. That's how all the base classes work with their advanced jobs with Arcanist having two advanced jobs, they can become Summoner or Scholar and those share a level. So I leveled a summoner to 60 which means I also have a scholar at 60. The difference is those two need very different armor sets to be effective.

The idea with jobs is to be more like real life. TGG is TGG but if he picks up a fishing pole and starts fishing with it he could be considered a fisherman whether he's good at it or not. Jobs in FF14 are basically the same way. The weapon or tool determines what job you are actively doing and that is the thing that will gain the experience. Gathering and Crafting is it's own thing and not a supplement to your combat role.

I would encourage you to stick with one job and level it to max. FF14 has this thing called an armoury bonus. Armoury Bonus' kick in when you're leveling a job that is a lower level than your max and adds an XP bonus for all combat and fates. The bigger the level gap the higher the bonus. So if you have an 80 and you start leveling a 1 it's going to be a much larger bonus.

But also, just do whatever you find fun. I frequently stop in my main story quest(MSQ) journey to level botanist and weaver.

One other quick note about job availability: the Heavensward jobs (Astrologian, Dark Knight, and Machinist) are locked behind completing all of the ARR patch content (which is a VERY healthy chunk of story that happens after the first credits roll for ARR) since you need to have access to the city from the expansion to unlock them, and they start at 30. However, the jobs for the other expansions are actually available solely based on your level, without story progress locks.

The Stormblood classes (Red Mage and Samurai) are available as soon as you hit 50, and start at 50, and the Shadowbringers classes (Dancer and Gunbreaker) are available at 60, and start at 60. So, the Stormblood classes will actually be the first you have access to, and theoretically you could actually hit 60 doing patch and side content before ever reaching the Heavensward city, so strangely the Heavensward classes could be the last you unlock.

I would encourage you to stick with one job and level it to max.

This is excellent advice, and in many ways the most optimal way to play the game.

Buuuuuuutttt...

Unlike many (most) (all?) other MMOs, this is a game that can easily be about smelling the roses and enjoying things along the way, depending on your mood and the type of player you are. It genuinely has interesting story, character, and world development that happens throughout the game -- and for many people, myself very much included, THAT is very much the point of the game entirely. Granted, the earliest parts of the game (like, most ARR pre patch content) are maybe a bit rough, but everywhere you go there's interesting side stories and compelling moments scattered along the way (including quite a few that happen in the job quests for various classes, including crafting and gathering jobs). None of it is technically required to play the main story, but often it informs or expands upon the core story in very interesting ways.

For example, as I wrapped up ARR and worked my way through the patch content as an archer/bard, I started red mage intending it to be my one and only alt job. But then as the story content leading into Heavensward pulled me into the start of the expansion, I quickly found myself thinking maybe I should just quickly play through the dragoon story to add background context to the main quest story. Then I was like, okay, I'll run dragoon as my main class through Heavensward, since it's thematically appropriate, but that's it! But before long I was dramatically out leveling content because I was having so much fun hitting every little side quest to learn more about the world, so I started swapping classes around to make sure I didn't trivialize things too much. Anyway, long story short, things escalated quickly from there for a number of reasons, and now (only about a quarter of the way into Stormblood) this is where my character stands:

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/bvWsVCn.png)

Actually, I might have gained another level or two as a samurai (the job I'm playing as a primary in Stormblood for thematic reasons) since this status capture was taken.

So yeah, if you're mostly interested in catching up and being able to run endgame raiding content, then definitely mainline the story with a single class. But I'd recommend and least being open to the idea that contrary to standard MMO wisdom, just taking your time and playing whatever strikes your fancy might be a great way to enjoy what this game has to offer.

Edit to add:

FF14 has this thing called an armoury bonus. Armoury Bonus' kick in when you're leveling a job that is a lower level than your max and adds an XP bonus for all combat and fates. The bigger the level gap the higher the bonus. So if you have an 80 and you start leveling a 1 it's going to be a much larger bonus.

This actually isn't quite correct. (Or maybe it was a one point? But it doesn't seem to be anymore). You receive the full armory bonus any time you are not playing your highest level job, regardless of WHAT level that highest level job is, or what the gap between them might be.

Tangentially related, it's also worth noting that this bonus only applies between combat classes -- no such system exists for crafting/gathering jobs.

One other quick note about job availability: the Heavensward jobs (Astrologian, Dark Knight, and Machinist) are locked behind completing all of the ARR patch content

That sounds... awful
I really really really want to play the machinist too. They have done so many revisions, I am surprised they left those requirements in since it seems they learned from that and just have a level requirement for the newer jobs.

But 80 quests to unlock a job? Wow! Who would want to play those jobs if they already haven't gone through the content?

I didn't realize they changed Armoury Bonus to just be anything less than your max class gets a set boost. That's great to know!

Also it takes a lot of Main story progress but if you have finished heavensward and some of it's post-expansion patched content there is a brilliant place to level crafters and gathers called the firmament. In the firmament you can gather in an instance called the diadem and use the materials from the diadem to craft specific ishgard restoration items and turn in for huge xp chunks. I went from 10 to 50 in botanist in....5 or 6 hours of total game time? It's wild how quickly you boost up.

fangblackbone wrote:
One other quick note about job availability: the Heavensward jobs (Astrologian, Dark Knight, and Machinist) are locked behind completing all of the ARR patch content

That sounds... awful
I really really really want to play the machinist too. They have done so many revisions, I am surprised they left those requirements in since it seems they learned from that and just have a level requirement for the newer jobs.

But 80 quests to unlock a job? Wow! Who would want to play those jobs if they already haven't gone through the content?

This is actually why I finally just gave up on the game. I started out playing like zero describes above, Warrior then Lancer/Dragoon then when I got access to Red Mage REALLY enjoyed it. I then decided my goal was to use Red Mage to push through and make it to Machinist and/or Astrologian and - despite my trying really hard - life just took me away from the game before I could get there.

Getting from the beginning through ARR is just an incredible grind.

Yeah, they learned their lesson as far as new jobs go after Heavensward. Everything in the game has some narrative justification (so the reason the city is inaccessible is for story reasons), but they've learned they need to balance that with player accessibility in mind. So all new jobs show up in the base game cities for Stormblood and Shadowbringers jobs.

A friend of mine managed to finish the 2.0 quests last night after a month of play. Next up is the 2.X series of quests leading up to Heavensward. Now that you get flying in the base game zones after finishing 2.0, it should make those in-between quests a lot faster to finish. That may give some idea of the playtime required to get to the first expansion.

For me, one video said stick with one job until you unlock flight, then go have fun with the increased mobility, which is what I'm totally doing. Having a great time.

Welp, my Monk is now level 43, having a lovely time with the MSQ, and have done several dungeons now. Each time the randos have been SUPER nice and helpful. I usually tell them it's my first time and they've been great about explaining elements of each dungeon, like stand on that, or use recall now, etc etc. Really just having a delightful time.

I have been roaming around doing fate hunting. My arcanist is 20, but I have fancied leveling the rogue who is now 11 because ninja seems fun. Almost all of the other base classes are level 8 except for conjurer which is 0.

Is it true at level 10 you can unlock mounts? I haven't figured that one out yet. And flying sounds fun but I have no idea what that entails...

As someone who balks at doing dungeons with groups in any MMO due to social anxiety, FFXIV had the nicest folks when I made my way to lvl 45 2 years ago. I have put more time into WoW in my life, and only done one dungeon ever in that game.

For FFXIV I would watch a tanks guide on youtube for the dungeon, before I ran it, just so I had the mechanics of the bosses down.

I don't remember the details, but you unlock ground mounts at a certain point in the story, when you are at least level 20. Since you have an Arcanist at 20, keep doing the main story and you will eventually get a mount. You will be able to use it with any class at any level.

You get to fly in many zones when you finish the final Main Story Quest of A Realm Reborn at level 50 or so.

fangblackbone wrote:

I have been roaming around doing fate hunting. My arcanist is 20, but I have fancied leveling the rogue who is now 11 because ninja seems fun. Almost all of the other base classes are level 8 except for conjurer which is 0.

Is it true at level 10 you can unlock mounts? I haven't figured that one out yet. And flying sounds fun but I have no idea what that entails...

IIRC you get mounts when you join a grand company, which is a level 20 quest, but you might be beyond level 20 when you get to it.

You get mounts at a level 20 quest, but IIRC, there are so many leveling bonuses nowadays, I was in the 40s by the time I actually got my mount.

Yeah. I'm 23 now and just realizing that I'm on the level 16 msq. So I'll be 30 by the time I get the level 20 mount quest.

Druidpeak wrote:

For FFXIV I would watch a tanks guide on youtube for the dungeon, before I ran it, just so I had the mechanics of the bosses down.

This is a 100% valid approach that, now that I have the perspective of a confident veteran, I feel more than a little guilty about, just because it feels like someone else doing homework. For anyone new, if this makes you comfortable by all means do this research, but there's also a "Let's See How Far We Get the First Time" approach that a few end game coaches have brought, and I really like it, so, honestly, when I'm the tank, that's my method for new people. I'll answer questions, no doubt, but, you know, perfection is not a given, if we wipe, we wipe but we also can identify where the problems are and react accordingly. Going in blind kinda rules. Also, to be perfectly honest, some of my favorite times in the game are when things have gone to absolute sh*t. I was in an Alliance raid, main tanking, when some ignored mechanics left 4 people alive: me, the 2 other tanks, and the best healer I know, and we pulled that out and it was amazing.

Also, by the Twelve, don't apologize for watching cutscenes! That's when I get to read a book, eat apples, and dance!

Going in blind is pretty awesome, but there are assholes out there who will chew you out for dying. I stopped doing Shadowbringers MSQ for a few weeks because my rejection-sensitive dysphoria really kicked in after getting reamed by a healer (who straight-up told me I should have watched videos before coming in) for dying a few too many times as a bard in a dungeon.

sometimesdee wrote:

Going in blind is pretty awesome, but there are assholes out there who will chew you out for dying. I stopped doing Shadowbringers MSQ for a few weeks because my rejection-sensitive dysphoria really kicked in after getting reamed by a healer (who straight-up told me I should have watched videos before coming in) for dying a few too many times as a bard in a dungeon.

Ah the MMO tale as old as time, song as old as rhyme...snooty when deceased.

Okay, this needs to be a song.

...empathy in the least!

So I hit level 50 and saw that the Samurai job was available, so I gave it a whirl and I'm not sure I like it. Maybe I'm too used to a Monk at this point but the Samurai just felt a bit off to me. I suppose I can try it later once I'm done the MSQ.

I wonder how all the other melees will feel to you, compared to Monk. They only have a limited number of positionals compared to monk. I did like Samurai's overall flow, though.

Red Mage is also available at 50, if you're looking to try a caster job.