ARR and Beyond!

[Mikazuki]

So last night at 2am I finished ARR. For me the last few missions was fast paced and epic; I very much enjoyed it. In work today I regret nothing.

So can you really call me a new player? In the grand scheme of things I would say YES!

Now ARR is complete a great deal of "stuff" has opened up for me, a lot I won't even realise until I'm looking for it specifically. What I'm asking for is a little direction for a newbie overwhelmed with content. I don't have a great deal of play time available so what do you think I should focus my time on? Is there anything specific I should do before HW? Shall I try out the new classed? (e.g. SAM/DRK - SAM in particular appeals to me from FF11 being my main and I'm the demon samurai after all ).

Anyway, what do you guys recommend? Thank you

[Rufalus]

I would just grab all the side quests you come across but still focus primarily on the main scenario. Any time you feel like a break from the story then work on knocking off some of those side quests you collected. When you're finally at the end of expansion story then go back and clear all leftover quests.

[Raldo]

You should definitely try whatever jobs interest you, but I generally advocate getting at least one job to cap (unless you start to dislike your current job) before bothering with others, and working on plowing through the main story so when someone asks "Hey, want to do XYZ?" you aren't forced to say "Sorry, I don't have access to that content/zone/whatever" (which has happened quite often in my FC recently with those who drag their feet on the main story...).

Aside from that, it's worth noting that important quests (quest chains that unlock various content) are somewhat blue and marked with a little + sign on the ! marker. You should definitely prioritize those over other sidequests.

Hopefully this image displaying the !+ sign works...

[Iscah]

I generally advocate getting at least one job to cap (unless you start to dislike your current job) before bothering with others

I don't feel like that's the best approach - there's no real point to being max level before you get to the end of the game. It's more useful to keep your main job roughly equal with the MSQ so you can continue to earn EXP from quests throughout the game. (I'd suggest "two levels above current MSQ quest level" as a good balance - you'll never get caught out by the quest level going up and locking you out of continuing the story.)

It's also fairly easy to raise two classes at once, especially if you like to do all the side content - I was leveling summoner and white mage equally throughout Stormblood, using summoner for story progression and white mage to run daily roulettes.

[Frizze]

Anyway, what do you guys recommend? Thank you

So based on your post im assuming you bought SB. The quest gap between praetorium and setting foot in ishgard is long, so my biggest advice would be to continue working to shorten it. You dont need to try to sprint through, but if you get at least one or two quests from the chain done every time you log in(by all means, do more if youre so inclined) then if/when you decide to pick up the pace you wont have as far to go. This is certainly a good time to pick up SAM and see how it plays(DRK requires getting into ishgard first). Grabbing all the optional unlock quests is a good idea(the ones Raldo describes), just dont feel you have to complete them all at once. The first cap level that youve now reached has 15 optional dungeons, 13 optional raids, 3 optional alliance raids(3 groups of 8 working together), and 14 optional trials(of varying degrees of difficulty) - and thats certainly a lot to try and take in all at once. My advice would be to slowly work through the dungeons at your own pace, and try the alliance raids(they can be a lot of fun). Side benefit of doing those, is that once you have enough of the dungeons and alliance raids unlocked you get access to new daily roulettes which can help you in leveling. The normal raids are fairly difficult to do at level, and most groups complete them unsync'd these days - the same for the harder trials. So maybe skip those unless you want two challenges(finding groups and finishing them). If you dont mind a little humor in your game, this is the time to start the Hildy sidequest line(Rise and Fall of the Gentleman - in Uldah). If you want some more worldbuilding details, look into the Postmoogle line(Of Errant Epistles in Mor Dhona). You can build a relic weapon if you like, but this is only recommended for glamour as the effort required to complete it far outstrips its combat value compared to other options you have.

Beyond all that, keep doing the parts that you find fun. The story for the next couple patches of content that youre working through has its peaks and valleys, and anytime one of those valleys threatens to derail you would be a great time to do one of those extra fun activities to keep yourself going. Best of luck!

[Okamimaru]

I don't feel like that's the best approach - there's no real point to being max level before you get to the end of the game. It's more useful to keep your main job roughly equal with the MSQ so you can continue to earn EXP from quests throughout the game. (I'd suggest "two levels above current MSQ quest level" as a good balance - you'll never get caught out by the quest level going up and locking you out of continuing the story.)

It's also fairly easy to raise two classes at once, especially if you like to do all the side content - I was leveling summoner and white mage equally throughout Stormblood, using summoner for story progression and white mage to run daily roulettes.

You get a nice exp bonus for your second job if your first job is maxed...

[Canadane]

You get a nice exp bonus for your second job if your first job is maxed...

You don't need it maxed.
Anything under your highest level will get the bonus exp. Maxing one out won't improve exp gains of another.

[Lucke]

You don't need it maxed.
Anything under your highest level will get the bonus exp. Maxing one out won't improve exp gains of another.

Doesn't the level difference affect EXP gain? A Level 1 with a level 70 job will earn far more EXP than a level 1 when their highest job is 10?

[Raldo]

Doesn't the level difference affect EXP gain? A Level 1 with a level 70 job will earn far more EXP than a level 1 when their highest job is 10?

Pretty sure it's +50% exp for any job lower than your highest, regardless of what the gap might be.

[Lucke]

Pretty sure it's +50% exp for any job lower than your highest, regardless of what the gap might be.

That's what I thought, wasn't 100% though. That, plus the Ala Mhigan earrings (if you have them) plus rested EXP + EXP manuals + FC EXP buffs (if you have one)....makes it very easy to level up nowadays.