Disciplines of the hand/land question

[Elvie]

I'm new too, and based on my past behaviour in mmos I was expecting to level to 50 pretty quickly. Instead I've been smelling the roses a bit, and have been having amazing fun!

I thought I'd just take one gathering and one crafting skill and level them as I levelled my DoW, but I've ended up doing everything! It's proved very useful and a cheap way of keeping myself in gear - but only because I have the time and inclination to spend a lot of time as Disciple of the Land!

Having said that, part of me thinks it would have been easier to just focus on leveling to 50 as DoW first, and then taken up all these hobbies. But ultimately I think it comes down to what is most fun for you?

At the rate I'm going, I doubt I'll see 50 for another month, but by the time I get there I'll have maxed gathering skills and near maxed crafting skills, and have a good number of cross-class skills for my job, and feel in a good place to start taking on endgame stuff. I'm also having a blast. And that last sentance is the most important one. If it wasn't fun for me this way, I wouldn't do it. Other people would find it more fun to get to 50 in one class first, and then pick and choose what to do next. Some may never want to level DoH or DoL at all (it's very time-sinky!). I think you just have to do go with the flow, and find what's going to be best for you.

[Taecyeon]

Elvie... I have a feeling I will be taking that long to get to 50 also... lol maybe longer! I too am trying all the gathering and crafting skills I find myself doing them more than the main questing.

[Odd]

You sounds just like me! Would like to be in a FC like yours....

Come on over to Balmung and you can be!

[damofitz]

Ive got a 34 Warrior, 16 gladiator, 20 blacksmith and 5-10 in most other jobs. I started as a marauder then read that I needed the gladiator to add the warrior class as my job so levelled him. I then decided I wanted to attach materia to my main characters weapons, so levelled up the blacksmith before realising that you can only attach to the weapon level your blacksmith is at, (still a ways to go). So for me, I enjoy the benefits of having higher alt classes, but it does take a long time to level to get the full benefits. I'm just a sucker for being side tracked

On a side note, apart from asking for money and some exp bonuses, what does your free company do for you and what can you do for it? Does my progression go towards the over all fc rank? How do your progress out of the first rank tier as it seems to me only friends of founders and people paying a lot of gil make it past the first fc rank, (just like real life lol). Not sure I understand the system fully

[Urthdigger]

Ok, first off I'd recommend getting out of that FC now. If you need to pay the leaders to get anything, it's not worth it. Now, that said, a free company is basically a collection of players, with the emphasis on progress (For a collection with a social aspect, linkshells are better suited). A free company has a chest they can use to share gear, FC-wide buffs they can apply, housing, and a number of smaller benefits like crests you can add to gear.

The buffs are likely the biggest reason to join an FC, and they cost points. These points are earned by members doing... well, just about anything, so a larger FC tends to get points rather easily so they can keep buffs up full time. Earning points also increases FC rank (overall rank, not individual member rank. Member rank, which is what you asked about, is solely increased by promotions from high-ranking members with the power to do so), which can eventually allow two buffs at once, and higher potency. Though, that all said, a smaller FC may have less arguments over WHICH buff should be applied.

[damofitz]

I see, well looking through the fc menu, I see ours has 98 members, 83 at the lowest rank, so I'm not the only one. I deposit gil every now and then but not a huge amount, the odd couple of hundred here, thousand there, the most I've had at on my person at one time was about 80,000 and that soon went once I decided to upgrade gear in bulk, (didn't realise my market money is kept by retainers, nice surprise when I found out). I get the benefit of the exp buffs when one is active through the fc so I'm getting something out of it at least

[Urthdigger]

I'd still say if they ask you to give them money and the only thing you're getting is the occasional xp buff, it's a bad FC. Especially since the xp buffs aren't even that good: They only give bonus xp for actions, but the biggest source of xp like levequests, FATEs, and duty roulette, do NOT benefit from the buff.