New player looking for help

[Seeker0fTruth]

And since your a lancer if you wanna go for dragoon job Get your marauder to level 26 for mercy stroke and pugilist to 15 for interal release and second wind both are very helpful.

So even though all the classes are ranked separately (Almost like an entirely different character), there are actions I can assign to my hotbar that are only unlocked once I level up a second class? Then that action can be used on either class? Am I understanding that right? Sorry I know these seem like noob questions that are probably second nature for you, but theres just so much to learn at first.

[Anova]

Not quite. You can use skills and abilities from other classes with your own, to augment them. Most of these are utility abilities, such as damage buffs or %damage leech (recover hp dependent on how much damage you deal). You can also use stuff like protect and cure on your lancer, just to make solo leveling faster. A complete list can be found here.

When you get to level 30 lancer, you can choose to specialize in what is called a Job (Dragoon in this case for Lancer). Doing so requires that you have a second class leveled to at least lv.15 (for Dragoon, it is a level 15 marauder). These Jobs provide extra stats, unique abilities, and access to very powerful unique equipment only usable by that Job (not the class) at the cost of some versatility. You can generally put off a dps job until level 35 or 40 (although Dragoon's lv.30 ability is really useful, being a free attack that's off gcd every 30 seconds), but you should have the job unlocked as soon as you can.

The best thing is that these Jobs do not start at level 1 but start at level 30 or higher. The Jobs are the same level as the base class they are based on (for Dragoon, it is always the same level as Lancer). Any exp you earn as a Dragoon will also level your Lancer, so if you gain a level as a Dragoon, you gain a level as a Lancer too and vice-versa.

[TheBlastMage]

So even though all the classes are ranked separately (Almost like an entirely different character), there are actions I can assign to my hotbar that are only unlocked once I level up a second class? Then that action can be used on either class? Am I understanding that right? Sorry I know these seem like noob questions that are probably second nature for you, but theres just so much to learn at first.

Yeah, each class has certain skills that can be shared with another class. If you open your menu and go to "Actions and Traits" you'll find an option with all of the class symbols in it. Clicking on each symbol will show all of the skills that you can borrow from that class. You can only borrow 5 skills total at a time.

[Niwashi]

So even though all the classes are ranked separately (Almost like an entirely different character), there are actions I can assign to my hotbar that are only unlocked once I level up a second class? Then that action can be used on either class? Am I understanding that right?

Essentially, yes. There are certain skills that, once learned by one class, can then be used by other classes as well.

Only certain skills can be used cross-class this way. In the skill tooltip, there's a line for the skill's "Affinity". That shows which classes and jobs can access it. Most attack skills are like your True Thrust, which has an affinity of only Lancers and Dragoons, so you won't be able to cross-class that one. A few others (mostly buffs for your character) are like your Keen Flurry skill, which also has an affinity for all the other combat classes and a few select jobs (BRD, MCH, MNK, and NIN). Once you unlock another combat class, you'll be able to assign Keen Flurry to one of its cross-class slots. Not all jobs will be able to use it, though. Each job has two particular classes that it can draw cross skills from.

The "Additional" section in the Actions & Traits window is where you select from your available cross-class skills. To use them, they'll have to be assigned to a cross-class skill slot on the class/job that wants that access. You have a limited number of cross-class skill slots available depending on your level and on whether you're on a class (1 slot for each 5 levels) or a job (1 slot for each 10 levels). So eventually you'll have to start making choices about which of your unlocked cross-class skills you want to make available. For the ones you add to those slots, yes, you can put them on your hotbar and use them just as though they were native skills to your current class.