Is it silly to level an Alt?

New to the game playing on PS4

I levelled 2 characters to 15 and then going to decide which one I stuck with. Turns out I am enjoying both. Was planning on having a paladin/glad as my main and a white mage as my alt.

Never realised you could do all this with one char and just swap classes. Would I be silly to keep levelling 2 characters? should I just do it all on one? Kind of nice to have a change of scenery with an alt , something different to look at.

edit- I also noticed subscription is cheaper with one character , that seems a bit mental. though I probably could live with that.

The only problems will be no means to share inventory between the two and having to level things twice for cross class abilities. There is a bonus to this though as you'll get twice the inventory, twice the retainers to sell things, twice the weekly cap for Soldiery, twice the daily roulette and 2 separate lockouts for coil.
Worth the inconvenience.

ah so there's no shared bank or anything ? . I could do it through a guild bank or other players? could I mail my other character stuff?

You get a 50% xp bonus if you have any battle class higher level than your current one so it helps with leveling alt classes/jobs on the same character.

Unless you seriously have no time on your hands there is no real reason to have multiple characters as far as lockouts are concerned.

There is a guild bank of sorts called a "Company Chest" but you have to gain access to it and sometimes the money chest isn't available. (Plus the chance of someone stealing it before you can get to it)
But no, you can't mail to alts.

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Originally Posted by gingerbill

ah so there's no shared bank or anything ? . I could do it through a guild bank or other players? could I mail my other character stuff?

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You can use other players or the Free Company bank (if available) for things that you can trade anyway (mostly just not high end gear/ any gear you've used before) to move things around. If you have a lot of time on your hands some people like doing this so that they can run the current version of Coil twice per week and cap tomes twice per week. For me the caps aren't restrictive so it wouldn't be of any benefit. It just depends on what you want to do and how much of it.

That said, I'd recommend sticking to one character through to some end game stuff and then see if you feel restricted by the lock outs and what not. By then you'll have a good idea of what you'd need to do to get the other character to 50 (not much really, but you'll be faster with it) and an idea of what the benefits will be to you.

sounds like the game really wants you to use on character , I'm a fan of having alts for variety :( , thanks for the replies.

How does it work for example....... I'm levelling my gladiator to become a paladin so I am spending my attribute points on VIT , what happens if I then want to play as a white mage ? , do you get to spend separate attribute points? or will I just be a white mage with all his points spent on VIT? will that really matter ? I assume having 40 less attribute points in your main skill would matter?

Attribute points are separate for each class. The only class you have to think about will be Arcanist as it can become either a Summoner (INT-based) or Scholar (MND-based) but the points won't hurt you too much in either case.

thanks again . Sounds like I should do as you suggested and just stick to 1 character . I'll miss my other character , poor little sod be abandoned :) . Be strange as I usually end up with an army of alts.

I suppose one good thing is its easier to keep track of people when not everyone has 5 characters like in WOW :)

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Originally Posted by Estellios

You get a 50% xp bonus if you have any battle class higher level than your current one so it helps with leveling alts.

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He meant having 2 diff characters, 2 Mains, no alts.

Like a Miqote PLD and a lalafell WHM. Bonus won't apply here.

On the plus side, you can enjoy 2 different town stories, and you should make some Gil.

I chose to stick with getting all classes (19 so far) on the same character to cap. You never know when the next Job (ninja?) will require some alts to be lvl 15, and some cross-class abilities gained (sometimes need up to lvl 34)

I won't ever have to worry about it.

oh so the 50% xp bonus is on your alt when levelling ? so say my gladiator named bob is 30 , If I play my conjuer alt character she will get a 50% xp bonus as long as she is below 30?

the xp bonus isn't when levelling a different class on the same character?

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Originally Posted by KingOfAbyss

He meant having 2 diff characters, 2 Mains, no alts.

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I meant "alt job" not "alt character" and was offering a reason why having one character would be beneficial.

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oh so the 50% xp bonus is on your alt when levelling ? so say my gladiator named bob is 30 , If I play my conjuer alt character she will get a 50% xp bonus as long as she is below 30?

the xp bonus isn't when levelling a different class on the same character?

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Sorry for the confusion. It's only if the same character has a class leveled higher than your current one. An entirely different character does not get the bonus.

thanks for clarifying. that's what I originally thought you meant , before KingOfAbyss poisoned my mind :)

I'm a little confused about this. I can level an archer to lvl 30 and then switch gear somehow and I'll have a lvl 30 Conjuror?

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Originally Posted by Ecosmith

I'm a little confused about this. I can level an archer to lvl 30 and then switch gear somehow and I'll have a lvl 30 Conjuror?

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Not exactly. The class of your character is determined by your main hand weapon. Switch weapons and you switch classes. But, those classes level separately. You can level every class to 50 on one character if you want. For instance, I currently have a 50 Warrior and a 46 Monk. If I equip a Warrior weapon I become my level 50 Warrior. If I equip a Monk weapon I become my level 46 Monk. All on the same character.

I have different characters because I like variety. I wanted to check out the main story from all starting cities, but since they all converge at lvl 15, it's not a good enough reason to have 3 characters. However, one character is big and burly, so I play him as a tank and getting into monk. Another is a magic user, mostly black mage for now but will eventually level summoner, but I never did like being a healer. Another character is kinda stealthy and likes ranged weapons, so I'm playing him as a bard and will go to musketeer when that releases, and probably thief or ninja later on. One character is genuinely all you NEED for this game, but with 8 character slots per world and up to 40 total (depending on what plan you have) there is no reason why you can't play with more.

Lol you should see my face. After lvl 15 there's only one questline?

And the thing about levelling different classes on the same character. Does thst mean I can have a lvl 50 Gladiator, but if I give him a bow he turns into a lvl 1 archer?

How are we supposed to do it? Do a bot of conjuring, then switch to pugilist for a level or two, then switch to the pet class, etc?

Is there enough content to level all classes on the same character? Can we 'outlevel' content?

Eco

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Originally Posted by Ecosmith

Lol you should see my face. After lvl 15 there's only one questline?

And the thing about levelling different classes on the same character. Does thst mean I can have a lvl 50 Gladiator, but if I give him a bow he turns into a lvl 1 archer?

How are we supposed to do it? Do a bot of conjuring, then switch to pugilist for a level or two, then switch to the pet class, etc?

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The main questline will be a long, but there are a lot of side quests and ultimately class and job quests tied to all disciples respectively.
Yes, you can have a lvl 50 Gladiator, and when you equip a bow, he will turn into a level 1 archer if you haven't leveled archer before. You can have all the classes to 50 if you level them. You can change class by simply changing main hand equip.

At later time (around level 30) you'll get Jobs that those classes evolve into, but they will be explained later. For a Job you need to have the main class (say gladiator) to 30 and a sub class to 15 (for gladiator that would be conjurer). That would make you into a Paladin, which is Gladiator's Job. After getting the Job, you will most likely only use that.

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Originally Posted by Ecosmith

Is there enough content to level all classes on the same character? Can we 'outlevel' content?

Eco

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There are many ways to level. There are many, many quests, but ultimately the easiest ways to level are doing FATEs (the blue circles around the map) that match your level and dungeons (in which you also get loot). You can't outlevel content by much, as your level will be lowered during FATEs or dungeons that are way under your current level.

As someone who has an alt I've experienced several issues. First being the story quests are really terrible to have to do on two characters. At the launch of 2.0 finishing the main scenario on two characters was not a big deal. But now that there are two needlessly long addendums to the main scenario it really brings to light that the dev team is using fetch quests and stop gaps to try and extend what really equates to a very short actual story.

Second, grinding tomes sucks. My second character reached 50 just before 2.1 came out. I pretty much lost all desire to farm mythology tomes for both characters about a month later. Now I don't farm any tomes at all on one character and the other has only capped soldiery tomes twice since 2.2 came out.

Nothing wrong per SE with having alts, I'd just advise against trying to have two separate characters trying to progress in end game.

I've done a few FATEs already. So far they've been 'head into circle and kill X things before timer runs out'. Are they more interesting mechanically or narratively later on?

Eco

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Originally Posted by Ecosmith

I've done a few FATEs already. So far they've been 'head into circle and kill X things before timer runs out'. Are they more interesting mechanically or narratively later on?

Eco

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Short answer: No.

Long answer: No, they're the plague of FFXIV and I do not suggest them for anyone as they don't even teach you to play your class right - all you need to do is aoe the crap out of everything. Sure they're fast exp, but they are tedious, mind-number clusterf*cks that do not qualify as content imo whatsoever. The only time they're worth any of your time, is when you're waiting for a Duty Finder to pop.

Just stick with dungeons - but that's just me...

I would HIGHLY recommend doing the Guildhests as you unlock them. They are instanced tutorials that teach you various mechanics you'll use in dungeons and against bosses. You get 2 bonuses for doing a guildhest: 1st bonus is first time completing the guildhest on that character. 2nd bonus is first time completing it for that class.

You can do Guildhest A for the first time on GLA say. You'll get the EXP bonus for your first time doing it, and you'll get a 2nd bonus for your first time doing it on GLA. You can then switch to say, ARC and do Guildhest A again, you won't get the first time bonus since you already did it, but you WILL get the bonus for doing it for the first time on ARC. If that makes sense.

Disclaimer: I haven't done guildhests in awhile, I THINK there's a bonus for first time completion on a character. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong.

Anyway, some helpful advice, every 5 levels, do the 2 guildhests you unlock. They prepare you for dungeons without being so intimidating. They are better than FATEs at teaching you how to play that class/job. Once you do 2 guildhests, you unlock the guildhest roulette which really gives you another EXP bonus, but only once a day.

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Originally Posted by Ecosmith

Is there enough content to level all classes on the same character?

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There isn't enough quest content, because regular quests can only be done once per character, so the ones you've used on one class are not available for leveling other classes. However, there are several types of repeatable content available: guildleves, guildhests, dungeons, and (once you're into the upper levels of the game) beast tribe quests. Plus, each class gets its own class quests and hunting log. The combination of all of them provide plenty of content for as many classes as you want to level.

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Originally Posted by Ferth

As someone who has an alt I've experienced several issues. First being the story quests are really terrible to have to do on two characters. At the launch of 2.0 finishing the main scenario on two characters was not a big deal. But now that there are two needlessly long addendums to the main scenario it really brings to light that the dev team is using fetch quests and stop gaps to try and extend what really equates to a very short actual story. .

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that sounds a very good point .

Having gained about 10 more levels since making the original post I can say I'm already getting bored of running around back and forth . It's silly how bad most of the quests are , dreadful to be honest. Run there for 10 minutes speak to someone then run back for 10 mins , that's garbage.