The Commander's Field Guide - Starting out and understanding Classes!

[CommanderFlynn]

Final Fantasy 14 – A beginners guide to Eorzea

So – you want to join the Cohhalition on our adventures within Eorzea? Well that’s fine and dandy, but go in now and you’ll get chewed up, stabbed, burned, poisoned, crushed, decapitated, set on fire, frozen, cursed and so much more. They say knowledge is power and I happen to agree with that statement. Knowledge Is /KEY/ to navigating the dangerous land of Eorzea.


So what are we going to cover? Well, we’re starting off with a basic introduction to A Realm Reborn, followed by general city and class information after that followed by the Cross-class system and going from there.


Please note: This guide is a WIP. I can only update as much as I play. This will eventually include dungeons – PvP and so on so forth.


Just what is Final Fantasy 14(XIV) a Realm Reborn?

Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn is the second version of FF14. Several years earlier the game launched to bad reception due to its poor UI elements, lacklustre gameplay and overall frustration at navigating the menus and world. Several months after launch they took it offline and spent the last few years rebuilding the game from the ground up.


A Realm Reborn is the 2.0 game of FF14 – an MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) in which you take the role of a character within the game world and go on endless adventures solo or with friends (but since you’re reading this, you’re grouping with the Cohhalition, more on that later.) You can do almost anything. Want to hunt monsters for profit, selling the materials to crafters? Sure, why not! Want to become a fisherman? By all means! (Although…kinda boring.) The main appeal is grouping together for epic quests in typical Final Fantasy Style.


Classes and their Starting Towns

I’m going to skip the character creation stuff. If you’ve played an RPG before this stuff should be second nature to you. So after that you’ll be asked what class you want to play. NOTE: This is by no means the class you /HAVE/ to play as throughout your time in Eorzea. I shall elaborate on this later when I talk about Cross-class. But for now, pick one that you think you’ll enjoy, as you will be stuck with that for at least the first ten levels. Pick by either the class weapons, their looks, what they do, or by their starting town.


You can start out in one of three starting towns. Ul’dah, Gridania or Lima Lominsa. All three have their own unique flavour but more importantly. They all host guilds pertaining to your class.


Ul’Dah: A City based in the middle of a desert. They house the Gladiator, Puglist and Thaumaturge Guilds.

Gridania: A city built within the grand forest. They house the Archer, Conjurer and Lancer Guilds

Limsa Lominsa: A port/Pirate town near one of the grand oceans. They house the Arcanist and Marauder Guilds.


It’s important to note that your starting class choice will dump you in one of three of these towns. So by all means pick one class that fits into one of the towns that you think you’ll like best. Or ignore that but choose a class you know you’ll play as.


Classes – An Extended look

Classes in FF14 are varied and unique. While you might say a Lancer is the same as a Gladiator you’d be correct in that they use Melee combat, but incorrect at the same time.

All the classes are split up into one of two group’s dependant on their combat style: Disciples of War and Disciples of Magic – each using melee/physical attacks and Magical/ranged attacks respectively.


Arcanist – (My personal favourite) Starts out in Limsa Lominsa and is a Disciple of Magic. They use Cloth armour typical of mage characters and focus on intelligence, mind and piety attributes. The Arcanist has the unique ability to summon a primal called Carbuncle (and is adorable as hell) and can be a primary damage dealer which mostly deals in Damage over Time spells, but can also use some limited healing spells. Their progression can go into a summoner or a scholar. At the time of writing the Arcanist is the only class that has two job options


Marauder – Also starts off within Limsa Lominsa and is a Disicple of War, focusing on Strength and Vitality. The Marauder is that berserker type character you see in most games, having access to some of the heavier armours in the game, making them great tanks for groups. Unlike the Gladiator the Marauder uses a large 2 handed axe for their attacks and typically makes use of Area of Effect attacks. Depending on how you gear a Marauder, you can make this into a great tank, a great damage dealer, or both. The job upgrade is a Warrior.


Archer – Starts of within Gridania (and rightfully so) and as a Disciple of War, will use medium armour like chainmail and leather. As you would expect, the Archer is an expert bowsman, using a large variety of long range shots that can be used on the move. The main attributes you should focus on is Dexterity and Vitality. The Archer should be geared with Damage in mind as you have the potential to do massive burst damage at distance, Their job upgrade is to a Bard.


Lancers – start of in Gridania too (you’ll notice guard NPC’s tend to use spears as their weapon of choice) and is also a Disciple of War, also focusing on medium armour like leather and chainmail and uses a lance or spear. If you’ve ever played a Dragoon within a Final Fantasy game you’ll know what to expect. They are also capable of massive single target damage at close range. Their job progression? A Dragoon. (I would assume this mean you can use the iconic ‘Jump’) - They have many abilities that give them buffs and additional damage output if you flank or back stab opponents


Conjurer – Also starts in Gridania, preferring the serene nature of the forest to listen to elementals. As a Disciple of Magic they use cloth armour and favour staffs or wands (with shields) This class is heavily focused on Mind to make use of healing abilities and make them more effective, however they also make use of both Intelligence and Piety. This is the main healer class of the game as they provide the best healing and recovery at the early game. So pick this and you’ll find you are suddenly very popular. You’ll eventually upgrade to the Iconic White Mage job.



Gladiator – Stars off in the desert town of Ul’Dah. Being a Disciple of War they make use of heavy plate armour with the standard sword and shield affair. They are designed as a tanking class, to keep enemies from the weaker, squishy members of the group and to take that damage themselves. They have high emphasis on Strength and Vitality. As a tank you’ll be in high demand. Note: Tanking is NOT for the faint of heart! It requires dedication to learning how to tank effectively and working in almost perfect sync with a healer. That said – they progress to Paladin.


Puglists (My second favourite) also starts in Ul’Dah. They are a Disciple of War however, they use light armour like cloth and leather. The Puglist is a straight up damage dealer with an emphasis on Strength. Their abilities focus on ‘stances’ to deal massive amount of damage to their opponents. Think of them as a sort of combat rogue. They eventually progress to the Monk Job.


Thaumaturge – They also start in Ul’dah and are the Disciple of Magic there. They use light cloth armour and use cudgels, staves or sceptres. They are a damage dealer, dealing massive amounts of area of effect damage through spells. They can also debuff the enemy with a sleep spell, stopping them in their tracks. They progress to the Black Mage Job.



Will more classes be added in later? Possibly? I’ll update if we are still together to see them.


Still with me? Good. Because this is about to get complicated.

[CommanderFlynn]

Cross-Class and learning a secondary Job.

Hitting level ten of your main job class enables you to learn a secondary job. To do this you find the guild of the job you are interested in learning. (For example I want to learn a Conjurer as my second job) And talk to the Guild receptionist at the guild. Follow a mini quest and hey presto you learnt a new job! But what’s this?! You’re back to level 1?!

Yeah – each job’s level is independent to each other. Just because you are a level 15 Arcanist doesn’t mean you’ll be a level 15 conjurer. To switch between your learned jobs, simply equip a weapon that belongs to that class. Such as swords for Gladiators, tomes/books for Arcanists, etc. The game does have a save feature to save each class “loadout” you choose so you can quickly switch between a number of loadout as the situation demands it as you can change mid-battle.


Cross class is the true reason to learn all the jobs and level them up. Each class allows you to take a skill or spell from Class A and use it in class B.


For Example: At level 8(ish) for a Conjurer I learn Protect, a defensive spell that increases defence. If I wanted I could use that skill on my Gladiator, enhancing my tanking abilities somewhat. Or maybe use the Arcanist’s Bio spell to poison an enemy as an Archer. The only restriction to this system is that you can only have X amount of abilities from other classes and you have to be that level to use them on others. (I cannot use Protect right off the bat. I have to learn that as a Conjurer)

HOWEVER.

Once you have unlocked it, you are free to use it on a new level one job. Protect might make levelling up a Pugilist so much easier at the start of your journey of punching stuff. As you increase in levels the possibilities will grow with many abilities fully enhancing other classes.


Understanding Jobs.

The job progression system is one that allows you to further enhance a class. A summoner, instead of just summoning Carbuncle can also summon a primal Ifrift to the field. A Thaumatrge’s spells might increase in potency up to –ga level spells. (Thunderga) However this increase in power comes at a cost. The cross class system reduces the amount of skills you can take from other classes and restricts you to three classes. Usually two that make up the job class and one other.


In order to actually get to the upgrade you have to have an upgrade “crystal” For your job. For example I have to have a Summoner Crystal to become a Summoner.
The following is a Handy guide as to the requirements to become one of the jobs.


Monk – Level 30 Pugilist and a 15 lancer to become a Monk.


Dragoon – level 30 Lancer and a 15 Marauder to become a Dragoon.


Bard – level 30 Archer and a 15 Pugilist to become a Bard.

Warrior – level 30 Marauder and a 15 gladiator to become a warrior.

Paladin – level 30 Gladiator and a 15 conjurer to become a Paladin.

White Mage – level 30 Conjurer and a 15 Arcanist to become a White Mage.

Black Mage – level 30 Thaumaturge and a 15 Archer to become a Black Mage.

Scholar – Level 30 Arcanist and 15 Conjurer to become a Scholar

Summoner - Level 30 Arcanist and 15 Thaumaturge to become a Summoner

As of writing - Arcanist is the only class to have two job upgrades.


To make finding your secondary job easier – at level 15/20 you can find a quest to get an Airship pass to make travelling Eorzea’s main cities easier.

PVP - Dungeons and other stuff shall be covered in individual guides!

[CohhCarnage]

NICE! Looking excellent!