Increasing stats, switching jobs, and other questions

Hello,

I am another new player, just purchased Feb 9, 2014. I have been reading as much as I can to learn as much as I can but there are some things I haven't been able to discover. One of the biggest draws for me was the ability to play every class/job on a single char. I have always suffered from alt-itis. I guess I have never clearly related to any single class. However if I was to first level up as an archer/bard, but then switch to a Glad/Paladin, then to a Thau/BLM how do I go about increasing stats? Can the stats be reset or changed depending on which class/job I am currently playing? Or do I have to decide upfront which class/job will be my main and choose the stats accordingly, then play the other class sub-optimally?

Addition questions in first reply due to character limitation.

Also, is there no Zone, Class, or Global chat channels? This game is very quiet as is, and feels empty, even though I see others running around. I am glad there is no RMT spam however.

What are the best places to get information on the dungeons/raids to read about the boss abilities and strategies? I like to really prepare before I enter a dungeon. I don't like not knowing what I am doing.

Is there a way or command to see my ping?

That's all for now. I appreciate everyone's assistance. Thank you!

Each class gets its own bonus stats to distribute. Put all DEX on your ARC, and you'll still be able to put all VIT on your GLA, all INT on your THM.

The only jobs where this is currently an issue are Scholar and Summoner, because they share the same base class, ACN, and use different main stats (MND and INT). You can split them between the stats, go all out for the job you want to play most, or respec every time you want to switch (there's an item to respect for 10,000 grand company seals from your grand company).

/shout reaches the entire zone. You'll find things a bit noisier in higher level areas, but it's mostly people shouting for groups for various things or advertising their FC, etc.

For dungeon guides, I generally just google for "such and such instance guide". There are videos on youtube for most of them, and the first few links after the videos are usually a text guide of some sort.

Nothing in game to see your ping. The IP addresses for each server are out there somewhere, so you can find those (google for FFXI ARR Gilgamesh IP or something) and ping them to get an estimate.

Best way to learn a dungeon is to first make some friends (maybe join a free company) and then run it with them, pressure free. They'll be able to explain the mechanics to you. Even if you were to just DF it, most people will be very helpful if you mention it at the start of the run that it's your first time and that you'd like some pointers.

And you can always read up on it here, on the wiki or simply google it.

A note on the stats for different classes - you don't have an overall character level, each class levels separately. The number of attribute points available is based on the level of the class. So if you level ARC/BRD to 50, then switch to level 1 GLD you won't have any attribute points immediately available but only because GLD isn't high enough level (attribute bonuses start at level 10).

Also check your settings for what is being displayed in each chat window. The default display might not be showing shouts.

And you can edit your posts to get over 1000 characters.

Thanks all those are great tips. I am relieved now concerning the stats, whew!

I believe if you want to see your ping you can mouse over the symbol that look like a wireless connection symbol near your map (it might only give a general text version, however)

For chat, there is say (near you), yell (somewhat near you), the ever overused shout (same map), as well as a few group chats (FC, party, alliance and linkshell)

Thanks Forte, the wireless symbol in he upper right actually displays packets being sent and received, not the ping time it takes for the packets to reach the datacenter. I found a site that was able to give me an estimate. WTFast. I did a trial version, and I only got a 12% boost on a 36ms ping, so I have about a 40 ms average ping on my own. The datacenters are in Montreal, CA, and am in Maryland.