Super Character vs Multiple

So, in the end how could anyone even consider not leveling the classes they want on one character when doing otherwise comes with so many cons.
- The inability to ride a choco early
- Having no use for the incredibly important cross class skill slots (never underestimate being able to use heal as a dps or tank when you are soloing)
- Needing to move items and gil from character to character (the armory chest system was designed for a reason)
- The inability to specialize a job because you've only leveled one class
- The inability to help your party in a pitch if they really need someone to switch jobs to suit situations
- More more more, too much to list here.

There are sooo many cons to not leveling the classes on one character that I would be amazed if anyone levels one class per character, and I'd be amazed if their reasons are anything but foolish.

- I realize this may come off as terse but I don't intend for it to be, just trying to help out.

I'm going the 3 character route because i like doing quests and paying attention to the story so i want to see how it turns out for all 3 starting locations.

I feel I should clarify this a bit further. If you want multiple characters that is fine, but just know that in order to play whatever job you choose to play correctly, you MUST level at least 2 other classes to 34 on each character. For example Black Mage pulls abilities from Arcanist and Archer. So to play my Black Mage correctly, I must also level an archer to 34 and an Arcanist to 34.

This means it becomes instantly more cost effective to get more and more max level classes on ONE character, since if I say choose to go Bard at some point in the future, I have already done over half the work of leveling him. Chances are, if you want to level 3 jobs to the max, it is going to REQUIRE you to have achieved at LEAST 34 on every single class in the game. Combine that, with the xp boost you get on subsequent classes and sticking to one character instantly becomes a better choice.

If you are doing multiple characters for looks, it will save you time, energy, effort, and pain by just buying a bottle of fantasia (when they start selling them directly) and then completely changing your look.

I haven't done them all but I'm relatively sure the main story does not differ between the 3 starting cities. It will be slightly different until the level 15 quest to gain access to air travel of course. But I very highly doubt the *entire* main story will be different simply because of your starting city. In fact, considering the fact that the story missions after air travel start to put you into dungeons/instances, the story lines must converge before that starts to happen. I love paying attention to the story as well, and that's all the more reason to stick with one character. It will take you 3 times as long to find out the entire story as it would if you stuck with 1 character. Not only that, but you're gimping yourself for the higher level quests by not broadening your character skills much. In the end it's your decision, but before you do something that I would bet is a huge waste of time you might want to get a definitive answer on how much the story differs per starting city.

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Originally Posted by ChickensEvil

I feel I should clarify this a bit further. If you want multiple characters that is fine, but just know that in order to play whatever job you choose to play correctly, you MUST level at least 2 other classes to 34 on each character. For example Black Mage pulls abilities from Arcanist and Archer. So to play my Black Mage correctly, I must also level an archer to 34 and an Arcanist to 34.

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Explain? Everything I've read says a specialization (a "job") requires the main class for that job to be 30, and the secondary to be 15. I'm not sure where your 34 is coming from. From one of the many guides I've read:

"At Lvl 30, you will be able to obtain a Job (enhanced version of your main class). In order to be eligible for a Job however, you must have lvl’d an alt/sub class. The combinations required to obtain the specific Jobs are as follows;

WHM (White Mage) – Conjurer Lvl 30/Arcanist Lvl 15
SCH (Scholar) – Arcanist Lvl 30/Conjurer Lvl 15
SMN (Summoner) – Arcanist Lvl 30/Thaumaturge Lvl 15
BRD (Bard) – Archer Lvl 30/Pugilist 15
PLD (Paladin) – Gladiator Lvl 30/Conjurer Lvl 15
DRG (Dragoon) – Lancer Lvl 30/Marauder Lvl 15
WAR (Warrior) – Marauder Lvl 30/Gladiator Lvl 15
MNK (Monk) – Pugilist Lvl 30/Lancer 15
BLM (Black Mage) – Thaumaturge Lvl 30/Archer 15"

Some people are more interested in aesthetics than numbers and efficiency. My Miqo'te is aiming to be a Bard (pun intended) and a Monk, but I rolled a more-intimidating Roegadyn to be a Warrior, just based on appearance. Does that mean more work and some drawbacks? Of course it does, but I don't care...that's how I want to play it. :)

For me, I didn't like how when I played WoW that I had to go through all the story and rep grinds again just to get my alt up to the point of being able to participate in the same content as my main. In this game, all I have to do is level them up. Yes, it's going to be a bit slower not having the side quests available, but I think it's an acceptable trade off being that you won't be locked out of all the things that are unavailable to you from the start:

- Can't swap classes till level 10 (not an issue I guess if you plan on rolling a new char for every class)
- Can't use inn room initially.
- Can't do guildleves initially.
- Can't do guildhests initially.
- Can't use airship initially.
- Have to go through story again just to queue up for dungeons rather than just doing them once they're level appropriate.
- Can't use retainers initially.
- Can't use chocobo initially.

By the time you've gotten your first char to level 20 on a class, all of those things are available for you to use as you please. Is the quicker leveling pace for leveling a brand new char just for one class really worth not having those things?

Also, although it's not really an important thing to a lot of people, I find it harder to associate with someone's alt character over their main. In WoW I do all the raiding with these people's main chars, then when there's no raiding to do, they swap to another char that could be a totally different gender and/or race. That's just something that's weird for me as I have this image of their main char as I'm talking to them and they're something completely different.

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Originally Posted by KhyaraBloodvayne

Explain? Everything I've read says a specialization (a "job") requires the main class for that job to be 30, and the secondary to be 15. I'm not sure where your 34 is coming from.

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The person you quoted was talking about how far you need to level to play the job as its maximum efficiency. 34 on both Archer and Arcanist give access to cross class abilities that are very helpful. (Quelling Strikes to reduce enmity and Eye for an Eye for party utility.) There's also Physick if you want a heal, Raging Strikes for damage boost, Virus to debuff monsters and Hawk's Eye if you need an accuracy boost for some reason.

By the way, no one said they were planing on making an alt for each class. The most anyone mentioned was three. I don't know where the thought of leveling 8 characters came from...

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Originally Posted by Kincade

By the way, no one said they were planing on making an alt for each class. The most anyone mentioned was three. I don't know where the thought of leveling 8 characters came from...

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The OP never specified, and many people that have played MMOs have played WoW, so I was just using that as a comparison as every class = a new character.

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Originally Posted by Kincade

Some people are more interested in aesthetics than numbers and efficiency. My Miqo'te is aiming to be a Bard (pun intended) and a Monk, but I rolled a more-intimidating Roegadyn to be a Warrior, just based on appearance. Does that mean more work and some drawbacks? Of course it does, but I don't care...that's how I want to play it. :)

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and that's a total valid reason; one of the few. I was addressing the two people who cited doing it per class, and doing it per starting city for the story alone.

Although I can't stand WoW :/ I still agree with Oro's points, he elaborated on what I was trying to point out. I'm about to hit 23 in a moment and the only sidequests I've done have been those on the way through the Gridania origin story. Beyond that I've had no problems staying with (and actually beyond) level for the story quests just by the occasional FATE, leves, and hests. I'd think it'd be easy to save some sidequests for each new class you switch to.