Question About Classes

[avalky]

So I'm aware of this whole class 'upgrade' as it were. For instance, pugilists 'upgrade' to monks at level 30 pugilist and 15 lancer. All well and fine.

Do you 'have' to upgrade? For instance, archers become bards, can they stay archers or is this not viable?

Then there's the shiny new rogues, do they have to become ninja? So on, so forth.

The next question is the '15' portion of these upgrades. I would assume there's at least some benefit in leveling up the other side of these jobs?

[Dark_Legacy]

Do you 'have' to upgrade? For instance, archers become bards, can they stay archers or is this not viable?

While you do not have to upgrade, you will miss out on the huge stat boost you get from equipping your job stone and you also miss out on the 5 job specific abilities available to each job. for example this is what bard gets and if you stay archer you won't have access to the 5 actions listed, also groups may shun you, while not so bad at first once level 50 people may start to boot you from everything.

The next question is the '15' portion of these upgrades. I would assume there's at least some benefit in leveling up the other side of these jobs?

Yes their is a benefit, you get access to what they call "cross-class abilities" each job gets access to certain cross class abilities, but only if that certain job has been leveled to the required level, in the link above it also shows you what cross class abilities are available for bard and what the required level of the original job is needed to obtain them.

[Miyu20]

Hello, this is a very good question.

I think that the only reason to level your (other) class to 15 is to teach you what kind of gameplay your new "job" will integrate into your current class. I have never ever seen in the endgame (meaning Level 50 dungeon and beyond) someone who is a level 50 class and not a level 50 job.

I am not the most experienced in this game by any means but I think there has been a lot of math done to calculate the optimal DPS, or ways to Tank or Heal and it seems like if you don't follow the job progression, then you will be losing out. I am also pretty sure that with every new job you get 5 new skills. Granted you lose a couple of moves from your main class along the way but I think that if you went into a level 50 dungeon as a Lancer for example, people might rage...I am not sure and I have never heard of this happen.

I just haven't seen a level 50 class do any endgame content but it might be worth a shot. Sadly there is no extra benefit in leveling up the other side of these jobs save for some cross-class ability possibly being unlocked but this all depends on which class and job you are discussing.

EDIT: Also the stat post in the above posters post. I did not know about that. ^_^ This is actually a huge boost. Also, I thought of something else. The very high level equipment (not sure about i135) but i110 equipment is job specific and if you were a dragoon, it would not fit your lancer. Don't know why they made it that way but I think your class was just meant to teach you how to be that job...I think this is how the developers designed the battle system.

[FyrmurlFloerasksyn]

You don't HAVE to upgrade to a job, but if you don't, you WILL get yelled at for not having your job lol.

[ruskie]

I have seen a MRD 50 taking iffy hm... but that was with overgearing and stuff. Overall yes at most get your job by the time you need to enter brayflox longstop. I see classes in a lvl35 trial and frankly... it rarely turns out good.

Also there is gear that is only exclusive to jobs(not a lot of it but there is - mostly AF and the AF reskin and your job relic).

[Camalott]

Honestly, the only good I see from not upgrading to the implied job is that you get to equip ten cross-class abilities (at level 50) instead of five, and you can choose cross class skills from any class instead of two.

Example: MNK can only pull up to five abilities from MRD and/or LNC. PUG can pull ten abilities from any combat class so long as it is a skill that can be cross classed. However, it will lose the five specific MNK abilities.

For MNK, that would mean loosing our gap closer (Shoulder Tackle), Fist of Fire (our Bread and Butter +5% damage buff), and Dragon Kick (10% blunt resistance debuff). RockBreaker and One Ilm Punch are more situational things.

In return, you get.... Raging Strikes from ARC? A CD damage booster with a pretty long reload.

Granted - that is just for MNK. Others might see a greater benefit. Won't go into the stat boosts associated with equipping a job stone.

[Garlyle]

Honestly, the only good I see from not upgrading to the implied job is that you get to equip ten cross-class abilities (at level 50) instead of five, and you can choose cross class skills from any class instead of two.

It's important to note that it's very, very rare for the expanded list of cross-class abilities to outdo the job abilities in value. The jobs still get the significant majority of valuable cross-class options; there's usually maybe one or two they lose out on total. By comparison, the techniques from your Job, plus the stat boost and equipment access, is extremely valuable.

The ONLY time I can think of that you might opt out of your Job for party content is if you're a Warrior. The Warrior job's skills are all reliant on Defiance, which is "-Damage but +HP/Healing/Aggro Generation". If you're ever in a situation where you wouldn't ever be turning on Defiance, then in that case, Marauder has access to several DPS-boosting abilities that Warrior would give up and can deal a lot more damage - hell, enough to keep up with some DPS! BUT, that's very specific.

As for solo play, staying in Class is actually not a bad idea. That said, nobody cares what you do in solo. Outside of that, while playing in a group post-30 (maybe ~35, not every class gets a major ability at 30), you should be in your Job unless you know exactly what you're doing.

[Anova]

Yes, you should upgrade, at the very latest by lv.40 if you ever plan to play with a party.

I'm not going to say its impossible to play well with just one class and no cross-classing, but you will face a lot of uphill opposition. I only know of one professional gaming guild who's managed to beat coil1 with base classes (although the tanks and healers were still jobbed, and they had all the cross-class skills, and 80-hour week playtimes to refine everything), but I haven't heard anything from them for coil2 or more recent dungeons though.

Needless to say, it is considered a suboptimal playstyle and you'll be relying on friends and family for any sort of group play outside of FATEs.

[-DMR-]

Just so you know, I got SMN at Lv34 ACN. I may go above Lv30 on the classes before it changes to the job

[Lollie]

If you are unfamiliar with all the abilities in the game not getting your job as soon as you can and not leveling your sub classes for that job is a major disadvantage. You can while sub 50 out perfom the job on the respective class, this will however be marginal, and requires you have the ability tool kit and knowledge to do so. Based off your current levels you do not have that tool kit.