Just started a few days ago. Quite a few general questions please.

Hey all, so I started not too long ago and only have clocked in a few hours. So far I'm enjoying the Final Fantasy feel and I'm not fully immersed into the MMO part of it yet (which is a good thing). Currently I'm playing a level 16 Lancer whom I want to be a dragoon (initially I wanted a tank, but I like this faster playstyle. Wish I chose highlander for their rugged appearance).

After reading a few guides I had formed some questions for myself that I couldn't really find the answer to, so they may seem all over the place but please bare with me:

-I'm a perfectionist, that being said I like to do all the hunter logs, guildhests, and sidequests as I level. I read a guide that said to not do any of those until later.. Am I really hurting myself by doing them now? Will I have enough to do to level another class later, or to level my dragoon/pugilist?

-As I'm leveling, should I take Lancer to 50 before I take Dragoon? Or do the non-advanced jobs have a lower cap?

-What is the difference between a Linkshell and Free company?

-Is there a place I can bank all my crafting materials I'm finding? I'm still learning the basics and I don't want to overwhelm myself with the crafting.

Thanks everyone for your help. Sorry if it's all over the place or redundant. I'm just trying to get a better understanding of things before I ruin my playing experience. Thank you !

(Such a low cap limit on forum posts!)

It's an MMO, you're open to play the game anyway you want to play. So if you're going through the hunters log while you level and enjoying that, just do that.
If you want to quickly level up to join in on the end game, then you can do FATEs and all that, but if you don't mind going a little slower, your method of leveling is perfectly fine.

Once you hit lv30 on your Lancer you unlock your dragoon quest, your dragoon level carries over whatever level your lancer is. Lv40 Lancer == Lv40 Dragoon, Lv50 Dragoon == Lv50 Lancer.

Linkshell = Just think of it as a chat room
Free Company = Guild

Once you hit lv15 I think, don't remember what level, maybe it was 20ish, through the main story you unlock the Retainer system, where you hire a NPC to hold items for you, once you get that unlocked you can store your craftings mats there.

I appreciate the advice. I'm afraid of playing it that way because I'm worried if content will run out by the time I start to play some other classes.

I was just playing right now in fact and I'm being sent to visit the other regions. Currently I was leveling in Gridania, now without spoiling anything.. will I be sent back here to explore the north/south/east Gridania zones, or am I supposed to explore that now before I take off?

Just follow the storyline and you'll pretty much visit all the zones, there is tons of going back and forth, which can be good but annoying sometimes lol.
Just make sure once you hit every 5th level 15, 20, 25, 30... to check back in with your lancer guild for new quests as you learn new actions that can help in later dungeons once you start grouping up with other players.

I would check out as many things as you want while you are there, when I leveled through the story I made sure to gather all the aethernet shards in the main cities, I'd grab any other class or crafting job I might want to check out at some point, but being an MMO you can play however you want just like the other guy said. There isn't really a "wrong" way to play, you are the one that pays to play :)

if you do all the sidequests etc, there will be almost nothing left for the next class you're gonna level.
On the other hand, there's still leve's, dungeons, hunting logs ( every class has it's own) and fates to levels those.
I skipped quite a few side quests on my first class, and i'm not regretting it.
For the jobs (in your case the dragoon), you need a second class to 15 (marauder).
After that, being a dragoon, you can use some skills of 2 other classes (marauder and pug i believe), you might wanna level those 2 classes as well to a certain level, since some cross class skills can be very worthwhile for your dragoon.
Retainers are level 20. Which is basically your bank, and you can have 2, aka 150 slots.

Brut.

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Originally Posted by coldheart21

-I'm a perfectionist, that being said I like to do all the hunter logs, guildhests, and sidequests as I level. I read a guide that said to not do any of those until later.. Am I really hurting myself by doing them now? Will I have enough to do to level another class later, or to level my dragoon/pugilist?

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I did them all on my main, kept the two starter areas for my "side" classes. (gridania for conj, Uldah for Thaum) I got the two side classes to 15 each from those, but after that it was only one path for getting the main up. It's not terrible, but you do run out of quests and the guildhest bonus for first time is great, other times not so much. Depends on how you really want to play. If Dragoon is your main goal, then it wouldn't really hurt you.

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Originally Posted by coldheart21

-As I'm leveling, should I take Lancer to 50 before I take Dragoon? Or do the non-advanced jobs have a lower cap?

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I feel it's best to take a job when you can instead of waiting until 50, they are helpful once you get them, and level the same as the class they come from.

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Originally Posted by coldheart21

-What is the difference between a Linkshell and Free company?

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Linkshell you can have 8 or so, and are mainly chats, but can be really helpful. Free companies are guilds from other games, with more bonuses but also only one.

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Originally Posted by coldheart21

-Is there a place I can bank all my crafting materials I'm finding? I'm still learning the basics and I don't want to overwhelm myself with the crafting.

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Retainer, you will open it with a quest. You can have two now, each with 7 slots (i believe) each one is good sized. You can store a lot in them.

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Originally Posted by coldheart21

(Such a low cap limit on forum posts!)

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Edit later to add more, i agree, it's annoying.

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Originally Posted by coldheart21

Hey all, so I started not too long ago and only have clocked in a few hours. So far I'm enjoying the Final Fantasy feel and I'm not fully immersed into the MMO part of it yet (which is a good thing). Currently I'm playing a level 16 Lancer whom I want to be a dragoon (initially I wanted a tank, but I like this faster playstyle. Wish I chose highlander for their rugged appearance).

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when you pay for your first 30 days of subscription (after the 30 days you get for free when you buy the game) you will get a fantasia potion that will allow you to change your characters appearance once.

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Originally Posted by coldheart21

I like to do all the hunter logs, guildhests, and sidequests as I level. ... Am I really hurting myself by doing them now? Will I have enough to do to level another class later

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I'm no further than you are, so can't comment on most of your questions, but thought I'd mention that at least the hunting log is specific to each class. You'll have one set of hunting log targets as a lancer, a different set as a marauder, etc. So you can go ahead and be a completionist on that part without hurting your later classes any.

It's mostly the sidequests that are in short supply, so many people try to ration those between different classes. Whether you need to depends a lot on how much you plan to level other classes. If you're just going to do the minimum 15 levels of Marauder to unlock your Dragoon job, but otherwise stick with Lancer/Dragoon, then I wouldn't worry about it. If you plan to level several classes to cap, it gets more challenging.