Inquiry About Combat

[AskaRay]

More great input, thank you all ;-; Now I am stuck wondering if I should go Scholar or Summoner. I grew up being a healer, however I have always admire all of the summoners from the Final Fantasy series. Basically, I am great at being a healer yet I have little actual frontline experience. It is still exciting nonetheless!

I am almost sold for this MMO, still have a couple of inquiries left but I should save it for another post.

Well if you like SMN from all the Final Fantasys... this summoner is really nothing like it.
Good news is you can do both, you can switch between the two. If you're more comfortable with healing I'd say stick with that for now, and you can go back and do the summoner stuff after you've leveled Scholar (they share levels because they both share the same base class).

[Anova]

You can main as both if you want. You can reset the class' stats at the Grand Company vendors for 250 seals (easily 1 or 2 FATEs worth, or 1 i100 item's worth of expert turn-ins). This will let you reset it to change between INT and MND at a moment's notice. It's totally doable up to 3 times a day if you only get one Expert dungeon drop a day.

As Askaray said, Summoner is very different from previous Final Fantasies. It is more of a dot class and your summon really adds utility and some extra attacks equal to 30% of the total damage you can do. Give it a try, but enter it with the expectation of playing a WoW warlock than say... FFX's Yuna.

[Michou]

That is really good to know! I was afraid I would not be able to reset my stats if I ever changed my mind about classes. And good to know about the Summoner class as well.

So I think for my final question, if I were to buy this game for the PS3, what version do I buy? A Realm Reborn version or the Heavensward version? Also, could I choose the Collector's edition as my first? Or is it that I have to buy the regular first?

[Anova]

You might be able to buy them together as a set somewhere, but you need both ARR and Heavensward for the expansion. Also, you can choose to get the standard or collectors version of either. Both have their own bonuses. If you don't want the material items and just the in-game items of the collectors edition though, you can digitally upgrade to collectors for $20 any time after purchasing the standard.

You don't even touch Heavensward content until level 50 (and unlock the 3 new jobs then too), so there's no point in getting the expansion unless you want to start off as an Au'ra. Even then, you get a free fantasia after your first month and can change your character's race and gender. You will also retroactively change all your cutscenes that way too (which can be seen in the journal at your inn room). I'd try waiting for Black Friday or Cyber Monday to get Heavensward unless you find yourself burning through ARR before November or can get a deal on it now.

Also, here's a friend code if you're open to one: 88TAQAKD
It gives some nice bonuses including a 20% xp boost and some items. Full details are here. Register it when you set up your subscription on the Mog Station. It's a type of extra bonus item code. Just be aware the code only kicks in when you pay your subscription and won't work if you plug it in after paying. That means you might have to wait a month for the automatic subscription to kick in and give you the items unless you use a time card, at which point you would want to plug the friend code in and then the time card code to get all the benefits.

Have fun! and I hope to see you on Leviathan.

[Eye_Gore]

You don't even touch Heavensward content until level 50 (and unlock the 3 new jobs then too)

Just to expand on this. You have to finish the 2.0 MSQ line in order to access the real content of HW. Otherwise, its just access to the new race and level cap.

[Niwashi]

You'd need A Realm Reborn first before Heavensward (though if you're confident that you'll eventually want both, there's also a bundled deal where you get both together).

For the Collector's Edition, if you want the physical items that come with it you'd want to get the Collector's Edition box version when you buy the game, but if you only care about the in-game CE bonuses you have the option of either getting the Collector's Edition when you buy the game, or buying the regular edition of the game and doing a digital upgrade to Collector's Edition later.