If two players start in different cities.. can they play together since level 1?

For example if I play Pugilist and a friend plays Arcanist.. can we play together since level 1 o we have to level up to have similar quests?

You can play together once you hit level 15 after the gargoyle fight. cause from there you will almost have the same story line. Since you have different city your quest and his quest are correspond to the area around it, including hunting log. But if you want to level together and do hunting together, at level 10 you can have a quest that gives you ability to change class. Then either one of you go to the city of each other and get a class that they offer there. You will have the same hunting log and sub quests on that area.

If your friend is playing an Arcanist, there is no way you two can play together until around level 15. The only way you can get to Limsa is by an air boat and you unlock this your main story line.

I ran into this exact issue with me and my girl friend playing together (Her wanting to be a Thaumaturge and me and Arcanist). What we did is I rolled a Thaumaturge with her until we got to Limsa via the main story quest line. Once we got there, we both switched over to an Arcanist. We are currently leveling together with those character until we get to level 15 (the same level as our Thaumaturges). Once we hit 15, she will switch back to her Thaumaturges and I will stay on my Arcanist. When you level a 2nd war or magic job you get bonus exp from the hunting log and monster kills. We hit level 8 last night in about an hour by just grinding fates and the hunting log. You might want to try this method out as it seems to be working for us.

Hope this helps!

-Psi