New guy trying to wrap my head around jobs in this game...

I hope everyone is doing well and I'm sorry that I have to bother you with such random questions but in all honesty I'm lost as to what I should be doing in terms of jobs. (I believe they are called jobs)

I have played a few MMO's before, many of the orignals, some of the newer but I never did play FF XI, not sure why but it didn't pop out at me, however FF XIV popped, as soon as I saw the graphics and the depth I knew it was something I could enjoy.

So my questions would be this ~

For a new player, what jobs.. :

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Alchemist
Armorer
Blacksmith
Carpenter
Culinarian
Goldsmith
Leatherworker
Weaver

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...should I be leveling in order to be able to be efficient, what i mean by this is I want to be able to make my own items, I want to be able to help people and I want to be the best I can be, now I know you can learn every single one of those jobs and master them but I really don't have a years worth of time to invest in to a game and i mean a year in literal terms, not just casual playing over a year.

I have started mining up as I have a feeling that mining is going to be a base for quite a few of the jobs here but aside from that I really don't know.. Also, what is the fastest way to level these jobs? Is it leves for the specific jobs or is it recipes?

Thanks in advance!

You might have seen this answer coming, but it's a resounding 'it depends'. Thankfully, you mentioned that you have started to take up mining, so I would suggest blacksmithing, goldsmithing, and/or armorer. Goldsmithing, along with Culinarian and Alchemist, will be getting their synthesis recipes changed in the coming large patch, so until then, I would avoid them. That leaves blacksmith and armorer. I can't really suggest between the two, so I'll just tell you what they're good for and let you pick.

Blacksmiths make weapons and tools. Armorers make shields and armor. There are exceptions to these rules, but for the most part, that's the difference between the two. Which profession you take up is up to you, but I ask... why not both?

For a more general answer, I would say...
Plan on being a fisherman? Culinarian and Alchemist work well with this.
Plan on being a miner? Blacksmith, Armorer, and Goldsmith work well with this.
Plan on being a botanist? Carpenter and Weaver work well with this.
Don't plan on doing any DoL jobs? LTW doesn't rely on DoL jobs much at all. Of course, none of the crafting jobs require a DoL job, and you can level any of them off of monster drops and/or buying stuff, so take your pick! Heck, you don't even have to craft at all!

Fastest way to level DoH jobs is leves and/or regular synthesis at low levels. At high levels (30+) it's fastest to do mostly leves. Don't forget to keep your tools/gear up to date! Crafstmanship/M.Craftsmanship/Control

As a note, however, Preserve is a *very* useful ability; as a crafter you should level Alchemist to 10 just so you'll have it. Also, particularly for a casual gamer, leves are very nice. You don't have to worry about getting your raw materials, and you get cash, items *and* bonus experience at the end of them (assuming you succeed).

Edit :

What are the best ways to get matts for Alch?

http://www.ffxivpro.com/recipes/8/alchemy

It depends what you plan to level as a battle class really.

[GLA, MRD, LNC] > [Blacksmithing, Armorer] > [Mining]
[THM, CNJ] > [Weaving, Leather] > [Botany]
[PGL] > [Leather, Blacksmithing] > [Mining]
[ARC] > [Leather, Carpenter] > [Botany] + [Fishing later on]

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Originally Posted by Jinko

It depends what you plan to level as a battle class really.

[GLA, MRD, LNC] > [Blacksmithing, Armorer] > [Mining]
[THM, CNJ] > [Weaving, Leather] > [Botany]
[PGL] > [Leather, Blacksmithing] > [Mining]
[ARC] > [Leather, Carpenter] > [Botany] + [Fishing later on]

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Should probably also add Goldsmithing to THM and PUG on that list.

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Originally Posted by Disposition96

Edit :

What are the best ways to get matts for Alch?

http://www.ffxivpro.com/recipes/8/alchemy

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For just grinding synths to level up, Fishing will give you the fish you need for the shard/crystal synths. Botany has most of the other stuff for alchemy, but I would hesitate to make any firm declarations about alchemy yet, since it's going to get a recipe revamp in 1.21. Most of the Alchemy recipes are dated and many can't be crafted anymore.

So as my two mains are Pug/LNC, I'm going to level Alch to 10, than focus on [Blacksmithing, Armorer, Goldsmithing] > [Mining] & [Weaving, Leather] > [Botany]

That sounds like a lot of work haha. D:

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Originally Posted by Disposition96

So as my two mains are Pug/LNC, I'm going to level Alch to 10, than focus on [Blacksmithing, Armorer, Goldsmithing] > [Mining] & [Weaving, Leather] > [Botany]

That sounds like a lot of work haha. D:

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It's kind of hard to be 100% self sufficient in this game, get a good LS/friends and help each other out is what I suggest.

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Originally Posted by Raldo

You might have seen this answer coming, but it's a resounding 'it depends'. Thankfully, you mentioned that you have started to take up mining, so I would suggest blacksmithing, goldsmithing, and/or armorer. Goldsmithing, along with Culinarian and Alchemist, will be getting their synthesis recipes changed in the coming large patch, so until then, I would avoid them. That leaves blacksmith and armorer. I can't really suggest between the two, so I'll just tell you what they're good for and let you pick.

Blacksmiths make weapons and tools. Armorers make shields and armor. There are exceptions to these rules, but for the most part, that's the difference between the two. Which profession you take up is up to you, but I ask... why not both?

For a more general answer, I would say...
Plan on being a fisherman? Culinarian and Alchemist work well with this.
Plan on being a miner? Blacksmith, Armorer, and Goldsmith work well with this.
Plan on being a botanist? Carpenter and Weaver work well with this.
Don't plan on doing any DoL jobs? LTW doesn't rely on DoL jobs much at all. Of course, none of the crafting jobs require a DoL job, and you can level any of them off of monster drops and/or buying stuff, so take your pick! Heck, you don't even have to craft at all!

Fastest way to level DoH jobs is leves and/or regular synthesis at low levels. At high levels (30+) it's fastest to do mostly leves. Don't forget to keep your tools/gear up to date! Crafstmanship/M.Craftsmanship/Control

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What do you mean keep you equips up to date... Cuz half my stuff says 'dated'

Up to date level-wise. Make sure your gear is at or very near your level, if you get more than several levels above it and the required/optimal level text greys out, it's time to get new gear. This is especially true for crafting tools. Getting a higher level tool you should see a noticeable difference in the difficulty of items that were giving you a lot of trouble previously.

"Dated" items are items that were made with old recipes before the crafting reform. Their stats are generally not as good as non-dated items and you can't attach materia to them, so you want to try and get non-dated gear as much as possible, but there is nothing wrong with using dated gear.

What Estellios said. It is worth noting that some "dated" gear is actually superior to non-dated gear in some cases, though usually not for very many levels. The main one that comes to mind is the Dated Velveteen Wedge Cap -- highest all-DoH craftsmanship hat for four levels.

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Originally Posted by Gramis

What do you mean keep you equips up to date... Cuz half my stuff says 'dated'

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Dated means that they are items created before the materia patch. Pretty much we'll get to keep them until SE takes them out. I wouldn't be surprised if that'd be soon either because with job gear coming soon, dated gear won't be used as high-end gear anymore(hopefully).

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Originally Posted by Dawiichan

Dated means that they are items created before the materia patch. Pretty much we'll get to keep them until SE takes them out. I wouldn't be surprised if that'd be soon either because with job gear coming soon, dated gear won't be used as high-end gear anymore(hopefully).

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I expect that any dated gear in existence will not be tampered with. You already can't obtain them from as rewards or from vendor NPCs (except for dated accessories, because their replacements haven't been fielded yet). In the coming months, the synthesis recipes for them will be retired and crafters won't be able to make them any more either (you already can't get any new materials for the old-fashioned dyes required to make a lot of them). At that point the dated items will slowly disappear as they are converted to materia, sold to NPCs, or their owners quit the game.

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Originally Posted by Conradus

I expect that any dated gear in existence will not be tampered with. You already can't obtain them from as rewards or from vendor NPCs (except for dated accessories, because their replacements haven't been fielded yet). In the coming months, the synthesis recipes for them will be retired and crafters won't be able to make them any more either (you already can't get any new materials for the old-fashioned dyes required to make a lot of them). At that point the dated items will slowly disappear as they are converted to materia, sold to NPCs, or their owners quit the game.

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Correct me if I'm wrong but I do believe Yoshi-P said dated gear will eventually be phased out.

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Originally Posted by Dawiichan

Correct me if I'm wrong but I do believe Yoshi-P said dated gear will eventually be phased out.

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Yes. I believe my previous statement is what he meant. They aren't going to want to interfere with items people already possess, but once no more can be created, the ones in existence will gradually disappear through natural attrition.

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Originally Posted by Estellios

"Dated" items are items that were made with old recipes before the crafting reform. Their stats are generally not as good as non-dated items and you can't attach materia to them, so you want to try and get non-dated gear as much as possible, but there is nothing wrong with using dated gear.

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I would add a HUGE caveat to your second sentence though. There's a lot of Dated gear that fills "holes" left behind with the reformed non-dated gear. Without dated gear there would be certain level gaps in between levels that you simply cannot fill with the current stuff. I can't think of anything offhand that's great for low level synthers that you can wear on your legs (Dated Cotton Tights, for example). I would personally hang onto the Dated gear and make absolutely sure that you have something else that can fill the role - I don't think necessarily all the reformed gear are that much better than their dated counterparts, and some of them have level/class restrictions that the Dated stuff didn't have.

Hopefully with newer patches they fill in these "holes" and class/level requirement discrepancies with the reformed stuff.

It's mostly true at lower levels, but you do have a point. With the changes to stats while wearing non-optimal, non-favored gear, though, I don't see level/class requirements a hindrance at all, except maybe costing you an inventory slot.

They seem to be working on fixing that issue since one of the goals of the next patch is to add more lower level gear and gear rewards to low level leves/quests.