A couple questions about: spells & class reform, linkshells, and new player advice

Hey guys, new player here from Balmung.
Just recently got the game and haven't played a FF game since FFXI which I quit a few years back.
Glad to see the amount of people in Ul'Dah running around.

A few questions I have.

When I first thought about getting the game I wanted to see what spells each class could get and the list over at ZAM was pretty expansive. It showed multiple spells for the classes, even at lvl 1. Though when I started I only got 1 spell... After searching some more I saw that there was some class reform and the other spells were no longer being used.

My question is, is there a way to get more than thunder and blizzard for THM at my lower lvls? Will I never see the other spells that THM used to have? I want to have variety and right now spamming thunder and blizzard is a bit boring..

Another questions, about linkshells. When I started FFXI I came in to a game with friends who were already established and was welcomed into their linkshell. I didn't have to search for one. How should I go about getting into a linkshell at my low level and what should I be looking for in a linkshell as a new player?

Is there anything else I should know being a new player who's been out of FF games for a long while?

Thanks for your guys help.

You learn a new skill or trait every 2 levels, more often than not it's skills so your repertoire will expand fairly quickly as levels come a lot quicker in this game than in 11 (especially on a class as powerful as THM). It might feel like you are more limited if you looked over the old skill lists but trust me when I say that the older skill lists were full of a ton of fluff and a lot of it had extremely limited applications at best. Multiple tiers of skills are also not needed like before now that skills scale in strength based on your level.

That said, you can expand what skills are available to you by leveling multiple classes. Most classes have several low-level skills that you can take from them and use on other classes, and you have a few cross-class slots that you can use. The number goes up as your level increases.

To get you started, some useful classes to level would be Pugilist for Featherfoot (evade and MP recovery) and Second Wind (Free HP restoration), both which are available by Level 6. Conjurer gets Cure, Stone, Aero, and Protect by level 6, which gives you some more elemental options with added debuffs (the Damage over Time from Aero is pretty nice) as well as a heal and defense buff. You won't be able to use them all at the same time immediately on THM but you can steadily add more as your cross-class slots increase. For future reference, you can check all the abilities each class learns in your Abilities menu. If the skill has "Disciples of Magic" or "All classes" in its requirements then you can use it on your THM.

If you need some gear for the other classes (namely weapons to change to them), there are NPCs in the adventurer's guild that sell level 1 gear for extremely cheap.

On Linkshells: Post on your server section in these forums, shout in town that you need a LS, and reply to any shouts from anyone that says they are looking for members. Ask around if you manage to get into a party if anyone is looking for members. With server merges happening recently most people are trying to expand their LS's.

Cool, thanks for the very good response.

I appreciate the tips.

When does the amount of additional actions increment so I can use more?

According to the chart in the old patch notes, you get 1 to begin with, a second slot at level 10, and every 5 levels gains you another slot thereafter.

Cool, thanks!

As for lvling, is there any common lvling places that I should know about?

FFXI had the Dunes at lvl 10, then more places from there.. just curious to know where I should be trying to be and at what lvls.

Mooglebox.com has a mob location tool that is really useful for finding groups of enemies. If you're solo you will want to target enemies that are at your level, up to 2 levels above you. Generally, if you explore around the leve camps of a similar level, you can find enemies around your level that you can XP off of... so for example, if you look around the Level 10 leve camp you will be bound to find groups of enemies that are 9-11, 10-13, upper teens, etc. FF14 is different from FF11 in that enemies from different families are roughly around the same strength if they are the same level, so you're usually fine leveling off of whatever you can find.