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.

This may help you, or may not, I have it in a private wiki for friends starting the game, so I'll just paste it here.

It is a general starting guide with the must knows for newbies in order to make their life easier / not miss on stuff they would probably not want to miss

• Everything is autoloot (no trash loot, just yellow gold bags to be sold)
• Menders repair gear
• Only one main scenario quest line per character, one class quest line per class, side quests are unique
• When turning in an item RIGHT click the grey item on the turn-in miniwindow, then left click on the newly-appeared icon
• If you attack a mob someone else is killing you still get exp/rewards/quest objectives
• Needed mobs have a golden icon over them, main story have a meteor, and hunting log ones have a bullseye
• Linkshells are chat channels with a member panel (L), Free companies are guilds
• At some points it is important to keep main story quests up to date (chocobo level 20, and all the dungeon unlocks)
• Important: If at some point you can't take your next main story quest (level requirement), NOTE down where this NPC is to avoid losing it
• Log out in a Sanctuary for an experience bonus built up while offline! If you are in one, a moon will appear below your exp bar (Sanctuaries are the Inn in the cities, and the areas around the blue teleport crystals out of the cities)
• Touch (attune to) EVERY small teleport crystal (blue icons) in the cities; they allow you to freely teleport around them
• Touch EVERY big teleport crystal around the world, they allow you to teleport (for a fee) around the world (favourite them for cheaper costs, up to 3)
• Touch EVERY chocobo taxi NPC in the camps, they allow transport between them intra-zone for a very very small fee
• Arch arrows coming from NPCs means they're aggroing/casting something on you.
• Mouseovering a mob (specially in dungeons) will let you know if it is linked to others by displaying yellow beams between them
• The letter next to a mob tab is just an identifier for communication
• Private communication (tell) and linkshell/guild panels are NOT available when in a Duty (instanced quest, dungeon, etc…)
• Chat text between green and red arrows is autotranslated depending on the client (you can use it by TABbing when chatting)
• Remember to spend your stats when leveling up (research where to), these can be reset, but cost 10k gil
• There's a button to Join instances already in progress in the U window
• Retainers are the banks of this game in case you are running out of inv space, they're also used to sell items to other players
• R and mousewheel are autorun shortcuts
• There's a Recommend button in the Duty icon (bottom right), this will list recommended stuff to do at your current zone
• If possible, get in party with a tank or a healer when joining queue in the Duty Finder (U), speeds up the queue by A LOT
• Leveling a second/third/… class comes with a 50% bonus exp
• At level 45 you get a full class quest gear upgrade (don't take gear from quests when around those levels)
• Overhealing generates aggro (beware of regen/fairy on pulls!)
• Don't hesitate to ask high levels for help, they might have lower classes they want to level, or even be just nice!
• EXP possibilities
  -Hunting log (H), keep it up to date!
  -Side quests
  -Main story quest
  -Class quests (every 5 levels, visit your trainer, they give exp, gear, and skills!)
  -FATEs (public quests), do all the ones you cross by specially from level 35 onwards
  -Levequests (repeatables, you get allowances every day, better leave them as a last resort)
  -Guildhests, small short raids, approximately every 5 levels, DO THEM! big exp bonus the first time!
  -Discovering whole areas (do this only at high level)
• Important checkpoints
  -Every 5 levels (class quest)
  -Everytime a dungeon is available (get story up to date, or go fetch the side quest to unlock it)
  -Level 20: Join a Grand Company, get your chocobo (you have to farm 2K company seals, recommended to do Halatali dungeon for the GC hunting log) - Chocobo guide
  -Level 30: Quest to use Chocobo in combat (requires Gysahl Greens)
  -Level 30: Get your job (for example, MNK if you started as pugilist)

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Originally Posted by Vektrat

[*] At level 45 you get a full class quest gear upgrade (don't take gear from quests when around those levels)

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This isn't totally correct - the Job quest you get at level 45 only gives you the first four pieces of your Artifact Armour (AF) - this is special Job-only armour that takes the appearence of that Job from past FF games (for instance, White Mage (WHM) AF is a white robe with red triangles).

This quest only gives you the hands, feet, legs and headpiece - the body piece isn't given til you complete the final quest at level 50, so you'll still need to find another replacement body piece to tide you over til then. But what you do get at that level, definetely equip, as it's the best gear you can get at that time.

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Originally Posted by Vektrat

[*] Bards are mostly played by retards, beware

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I'm sorry but this is a stupid comment and is purely subjective - personally I dislike Bard (BRD), but that's for other reasons completely unrelated to FFXIV (spoony Edward in FFIV forever ruined that Job for me ;)), and I definitely would not call a player a 'retard' simply based on what class/Job they prefer to play as.

There are plenty of stupid/incompetent players out there who play as other classes/Jobs. This is nothing more than personal opinion, and should not have been mentioned I'm sorry to say.

Other than that, I agree with everything you've mentioned. Well done! :D

All BRDs are retards? You put that in a guide? Really? I mean, otherwise good stuff, but you could drop the offensive, insulting and utterly useless part about BRDs.

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Originally Posted by Naberrie

All BRDs are retards? You put that in a guide? Really? I mean, otherwise good stuff, but you could drop the offensive, insulting and utterly useless part about BRDs.

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I'm sorry this slipped, this "guide" is a private thing for friends, and it resulted an obvious joke for them, sorry if it failed to reach you.

Either way, it is true that BRDs are the class that screws up most pre-50, together with tanks; or at least the most evident.

In any case, this wasn't meant to be a "guide" point or an opinion, as I said, a joke, so nevermind it.

Wow there is a ton of useful information here that I didn't know before! Thank you all for your contributions! Ill be referring back to this thread when I get home or when I come across other things I don't know. Thanks again everyone!

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Private communication (tell) and linkshell/guild panels are NOT available when in a Duty (instanced quest, dungeon, etc…)

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However, Linkshell and Free Company chat is still available, so if you want to be able to chat with friends while doing a dungeon, get into a Linkshell with them, (Just don't get distracted from doing your job ;) )

I think he means the actual tabs for them in the menu are not clickable (they're greyed out), so you can't utilize actual functions from them until you're out of the duty.

But if you already have a LS/FC set up before entering you can still use them to chat, you just can't join or leave any while inside.