Lancer Tips

[juniglee]

I'm a new player and I've started with a Lancer as well. When would you recommend I take up a second class, be it a battle or crafting one, and which do you recommend? I was planning on waiting until I could become a Dragoon before playing with other play styles, but I see a lot of walk throughs recommend I also have the ability to heal myself.


The Summoner job seems really interesting to me as well since summons were always my favorite part of other Final Fantasy games (which is why IX is my favorite in the series, but X and XIII did it well for me too), but I'm worried that the two classes won't have the correct synergy to really work well together for just starting out.

I think using Potions are more effective for you than using Physick/Cure. Because Lancers in general, don't have the MND stat to make them work. What I can suggest you do is level a Conjurer to 8 (?) for Protect. At least that helps you when you are doing overworld farming/questing.

I recommend these classes, based on personal opinion of what goes well with Lancer/Dragoon:

Battle:

Marauder - you need to get this to 15 anyway in order to become a Dragoon. Try getting this class to 26 for Mercy Stroke, an ability off the global cooldown that deals damage, and if you land the killing blow with it, recovers 20% of your max health. Other skills you can get include Foresight (Level 2 - +20 Defense), and Bloodbath (Level 8 - heals you for 25% of damage dealt after every attack). This is also a good class to learn if you eventually want to get into tanking.

Pugilist - Internal Release increases your crit rate, and Second Wind gives you another source of healing outside of Potions/Life Surge. Might not be worth it to get it to 44 for Mantra, but that's an option later down the road. Get this class to 12 at least. Pugilist being the other melee DPS class in the game might also be more familiar for you, since Lancer is a melee DPS class, although they both play rather differently.

Crafting:

Carpenter - allows you to craft your own spears. Could be useful for when you hit 50 and are attempting to do your Relic quest. Note that the Level 50 Carpenter skill is one of the most powerful cross-class crafting skills in the game, so it is really useful if you decide to go serious in crafting.

Weaver - has a really useful Level 50 skill for cross-class crafting. Outside of that, allows you to craft your own crafting/gathering gear.

Armorer - allows you to craft plate mail armors. One of the main benefits of playing Dragoon is that you can equip plate armor which gives you more defense than light armor (Dragoons are really tanky). This is one of the harder classes to level however.

Alchemist - more Potions are always useful. Really useful Level 15 and Level 50 cross-class crafting skills too.

Culinarian - food is always good. Really useful Level 15 and Level 37 skills, and the Level 37 skill is highly recommended to get if you want to get serious about crafting.

Leatherworker - has some gear that is useful for Lancers. Mostly belts, or pants. This is an option if you prefer not to use plate armor.

Gathering:

Botanist - if you intend to level Carpenter, Weaver, and Culinarian. Most of the items you can get from Botany are used in the above 3 classes.

I'm kinda biased towards crafting since I love crafting in this game, but outside of that, crafting has not much purpose in end game, so you can safely ignore the crafting and gathering class recommendations.