Leveling Classes

[Kerberon]

Ok new player here looking for some advice. I started playing a gladiator with the end goal being a paladin. When I was able to travel I picked up the conjurer and I think that's at level 2 and I have cure as a cross class. Now my gladiator is at 18. What's everyone's thoughts about when it's best to work on conjurer? Should I level gladiator to 30 then go back to conjurer, do a few levels at a time in each? I know that there is an xp bonus the farther the split is.

[KizunaBlade]

I personally would go level glad to 30 then go back to cnj. With the level difference bonus the race to 15 is insane fast, specially if you do leves. I have done this on quite a few of my characters =w=. But its just my opinion, feel free to wait for more before you make your choice and good luck owo.

[Anova]

The xp bonus is the same regardless of how varied the level gap is, a flat 50% xp gain for any combat class lower than your highest combat class.

The benefit to having a higher level character is to have more money to keep your equipment up-to-date and have more options (leves, roulettes, challenges, etc) to level the lower level classes.

Generally though, you will want a lv.15 conjurer to unlock paladin by lv.30. Tanks and healers are the two roles that benefit the most from the raw attribute upgrade of the classes, so obtaining the class quest is a priority for you. DPS loses some potentially useful cross-class abilities so it's not as important for them until lv.35.

As far as cross-class skills go, the conjurer's lv.8 protect buff is handy for solo content and i would recommend it asap for any class. The lv.34 stoneskin is the skill you want as you approach endgame content as a paladin (HM dungeons and primals). These are just recommendations and many players do fine without it.

[Enkidoh]

I concur with Protect and Stoneskin being the best Conjurer abilities to cross-class with Gladiator and Paladin.

Cure can be also useful, especially used with the native GLA ability Convalescence (which boosts the potency of healing spells cast on you), but later on especially it becomes rather impotent for proper healing, so a lot of players don't bother with it (although when soloing it can still be a help). Raise can be useful too in a backup situation, or if you come across someone KO'd and there's no CNJ/WHM/ACN/SMN/SCH around to raise them.

Stoneskin and Protect are pretty much the most useful spells Conjurer gives to Gladiator and Paladin though.

[Kerberon]

Thanks everyone. I think I'm going to get conjurer to at least 8 right away since that's probably going to be very fast to do. I appreciate it, I used to play a game called DDO, which let you switch classes and gain benefits for it, kind of similar in some ways to this but you could only switch at level cap, so planning out when to do all of this is interesting to me.

[Urthdigger]

My own two cents is that between Conjurer and Gladiator, it doesn't matter too much when you do it (outside of making sure to get your requirements for Paladin).

However, if you would like to increase your versatility and level Marauder, I would recommend leveling it alongside your gladiator. They literally use all the exact gear, minus the weapon, so gearing up is far simpler than if you were to level up one, then the other. The same applies to both casters, both healers (though SCH is only 30+), the three physical DPS (only up to 30-ish, when you start getting chainmail that caters to lancer, and gear that doesn't have both STR and DEX on it to share between archer and pugilist), the three disciplines of land, and the eight disciplines of hand.