Cross-class/job leveling

[Frizze]

As far as i know, they havent released any details about the changes theyre making to the battle system as it relates to cross-class abilities. Theyve just said some general nonsense about there being a change, and we've been stuck speculating for months. We should hear actual info soon though, as the expansion is less then 3 months away.

As for crafting and gathering... So having a class at level 50 before you start crafting offers you a couple small advantages, but no big ones. The game gives you bonus exp for any class at a lower level then your highest one, so extra experience is obviously a plus(but not really a direct advantage, just less time spent leveling). And if the item you want to craft has a component that drops from an NPC, being higher level means you can more easily go out and get it. I dont consider that a big advantage because generally the thing youd need to kill would be close in level to what you need to craft the item(if not far lower), and often these drops end up selling for pennies on the market board because their use isnt obvious and they drop often. The advantage to trying to work in tandem is that you could potentially make things you currently or will soon need. With that said, most people who do get into crafting eventually level up all the classes because the cross-class skills in crafting make a world of difference in finishing things easily/at high quality/both. My general advice is to pick a class(for instance armorsmith to potentially make your own gear) and level it to about 15. Generally this can be done in around an hour without leaving the crafting guild, as they have a material salesperson right there. If you like the crafting system, then you can do the same thing for the other 7 classes(level 15 is also where you get your first crafting cross skills, the rest are at 37 50 and 54). If you do go all the way, its a little easier to level them all roughly equally. That way they can share gear, and you can make your own components to save money(for instance, a lot of armor recipes will have some leatherworker components as padding).

Gathering will also help you save money on crafting supplies(or make some money if you decide to sell what you dig up). It works differently though, as there arent really any cross-class skills to worry about(they exist but they arent useful). They can share gear though, and both botany and mining are really easy to get into and get what you need out of. The gathering log tells you roughly where things are, you have skills to pinpoint their exact location, you go there, choose what you want to try to dig up, and get it. Fishing, much like in real life, is its own separate thing. If you need a specific fish you need to know where it lives, what it eats, and when it comes out(only at night? usually when it rains? other even worse scenarios?). Sometimes this is all super easy, sometimes it feels punishingly random. At its basic level, you pick a spot, bait your line, cast, and wait to see what(if anything) you catch. As someone who doesnt enjoy fishing in any form, im probly not the right person to advocate for it.

[Niwashi]

I do have one more question, this time concerning Disciplines of the Hand/Land—is it recommended that these are done in tandem with leveling a Discipline of War, similar to WoW/ESO? Or is it better to wait until I've reached 50 with a class? I've never been a serious craft-a-holic, but I also don't want to miss out on an opportunity to level a job that'll net me some worthwhile benefits south of max level (and continue to pull its weight even after I've reached the endgame).

It can be beneficial to have your crafting classes keep up with your main combat class. Typically, the levels tend to match (or come relatively close at any rate). So, for instance, items dropped from level 30 mobs and gathered by level 30 DoL classes can be used by level 30 DoH to make level 30 gear. So leveling them in tandem (or with crafting just slightly ahead if you want good stats for getting HQ items) is helpful if you like the self-sufficiency of making your own gear.

But the downside to that is that it can take up a lot of time, especially if you're trying to keep all eight crafting classes up to that level. A lot of players don't want to slow down advancement through the storyline enough to do all that crafting, so it's pretty common for people's first combat job to end up pulling ahead of their ability to craft for it, though they may be able to craft gear by the time they get to leveling up additional jobs later.

It sort of comes down to how much you care about self-sufficiency and making your own items, versus how much of a hurry you're in to advance through the story. And to some degree to how much you enjoy crafting compared to combat.

As for crafting and gathering... So having a class at level 50 before you start crafting offers you a couple small advantages, but no big ones. The game gives you bonus exp for any class at a lower level then your highest one, so extra experience is obviously a plus(but not really a direct advantage, just less time spent leveling).

That bonus doesn't actually apply to crafting, though. It's only other combat classes that get additional XP, not DoH/DoL.

(level 15 is also where you get your first crafting cross skills, the rest are at 37 50 and 54)

It's perhaps worth mentioning that most of the really good ones are at 15 or 50. Culinarian has a really good level 37 skill, but the ones from the other classes at that level aren't nearly as useful. So the cross-class priorities are: everything to 15, then CUL to 37, then everything to 50, (then I'm not sure about the level 54 ones, as I'm only to 50 myself).