I just started and I'm so lost - Help!

[Enkidoh]

A bit of both really. Also as you do your class quests you should be rewarded with new gear equippable by that class too - in fact, some of the early class quests have unique gear that you can't get anywhere else (Custom Robe of Healing for CNJ, Custom Cuirass for GLA etc).

Levequests also reward gear as well - in particular, during a leve there is a chance you may come across a treasure chest which will often have a piece of 'pink' aetherial gear inside, which have unique stats and can be better than the equivalent gear you can buy from a shop at that stage. But yes, later in the game dungeon gear is usually better than crafted gear or gear bought from stores.

[Bixby]

Did you keep your starting Hyur gear? If not, you can grab a new set from any of the vendors listed here (yeah, it's a Lalafell shirt, but they all sell all the racial gear), so at least you're not naked.

Personally, I wear that stuff all the way up to level 10 (since I solo that far and I just can't be bothered), sometimes all the way to 15, mixing in whatever I happen to have left over from other classes and/or whatever I happen to pick up from quests. When it's dungeon time, I'll find a vendor and upgrade anything that isn't level 15ish. From there on, it's whatever dungeon drops I get, and vendor upgrades for any slots that fall behind by 5ish levels.

[Foghorn755]

okay i just now actually hit 30 for Archer.. would you guys advise I get 15 on Pugilist so I could unlock bard or just keep going to 50?

[Skander]

Definitely pick up pugilist for bard... Ya get a nice stat boost and it'll give you access to your job quests (which unlock job abilities) along the way. Plus, I find that learning when and where it's optimal to use your songs and such is best done while leveling.

[Foghorn755]

so what happens when i hit 15 for Pugilist? do I start as a level 1 bard or does it take one of the levels from the other 2 classes needed for it?

im 12 as Pug right now and i gotta say its kinda hard getting exp to level up outside of the hunting log and levequests

[Sagittarian]

When you hit 15 pugilist go back to the archer guild. There will be a quest there to go to south shroud and pick up bard.

Your archer level and bard level are the same. Bard is basically an add-on to archer. So you will 'start' as a lvl 30 bard and any xp you earn as bard counts for archer.

[PetiteMalFleur]

You can also get gear from leves. You can obtain gear from both the completion reward and in random coffers you find while the leve is active.

[Foghorn755]

okay i got it! so as i level up bard i inherently level up archer... so each "job" has a main skill and a sub skill (main - archer sub - pugilist for bard at least)

so to unlock access to every dungeon/guildhest/trial its all done through the main story quest I'm guessing, and not by level?

[Bixby]

Right about the leveling. Each job is a piece of equipment (soul crystal) that you wear on its base class. When you are a bard, you are a level X archer wearing a bard soul stone. You don't technically level Bard, you just level Archer (edit: which happens regardless of whether you currently have the Bard soul crystal equipped or not).

Each job also has two classes that it can pull cross-class skills from. For Bard, that's Pugilist and Lancer. For each job, one of those two classes is also required to be at 15 to open up the quest that gets you the soul crystal (Pugilist for Bard).

In the end, once you've unlocked the job, the "sub" classes are nothing more than cross-class skills. You don't adapt anything else from Pugilist or Lancer game play, you don't get stats or anything from them. Just cross-class skills.

Not everything opens up through the main story. Here's a nice list of when and how all sorts of features (including dungeons and trials) get unlocked. Guildhests are a little unique in that once you unlock Guildhests at all, they all just unlock by level (2 hests every 5 levels up until 40).

[Foghorn755]

okay, so basically I level my main class/job (bard in this case) through the story quests and side quests or whatever, and then any other class I'm basically forced to level through Leves FATEs and dungeons?