How can the WoL master 20 jobs in 1 year?

[ZmireTia]

Unlike many other characters, the Wol possesses the ability to utilize multiple jobs at a high level of mastery in a relatively short amount of time. It is never brought up in the game or lorebook, so how can the wol master so many jobs in a matter of months?

[Cleretic]

Unlike many other characters, the Wol possesses the ability to utilize multiple jobs at a high level of mastery in a relatively short amount of time. It is never brought up in the game or lorebook, so how can the wol master so many jobs in a matter of months?

They've got nothing better to do.

(In seriousness, you will not find an answer other than 'they're just that good', so accept whatever level of tongue-in-cheek response works for you.)

[Enkidoh]

It's fantasy... fantasy is about "making the impossible probable."

Also there is the benefit of

having Azem's soul and they were just that amazing before the Sundering, and they're still being amazing 12000 years later.

Being able to quickly master complicated martial, magical and crafting and gathering techniques quickly is something they take in their stride accordingly.

[Anonymoose]

Short Answer: However you want!

Long Answer:

This is one of the topics where SE doesn't really step in. You have a blank check. Maybe you only play one job. Maybe you play all of them. They're not going to tell you what that "should" look like.

You also have a blank check to cash in for as much time as you want for the story to take place. The open world is trapped in a one-year bubble for the sake of making world-management easier and for the sake of allowing all players new and old to share the same spaces. That doesn't mean the game canonically takes place in a year, though. You can use that "time never moves" baseline and add however many years "feel right" for your Warrior of Light. (Example: Personally, I use real-life Earth time since the day I started playing. The story so far has taken Moose 3,928 days and counting since he exited the the 1.x rift.)

Given the Warrior of Light possesses high inherent skill modified by the Echo and being chosen as Hydaelyn's champion, if you choose to be a master of many jobs, you have a lot of room to say, "well, they're a very quick learner and exceedingly above-average at leveraging their skills and unlocking the whispers of soulstones". There are a few story beats that suggest the Warrior of Light can just vibe much better than most. Especially the DRG stone being like, "Hey, wow, another Azure Dragoon...for...reasons".

[LilimoLimomo]

Unlike many other characters, the Wol possesses the ability to utilize multiple jobs at a high level of mastery in a relatively short amount of time. It is never brought up in the game or lorebook, so how can the wol master so many jobs in a matter of months?

I'm going to tackle this question from a different angle than the others by pointing out that the premise of the question is faulty: the Warrior of Light is not a master of any job. They're highly capable and skilled at combat, but they are a jack of all trades and a master of none.

Supporting evidence:

• The Warrior of Light is rarely able to hold their own against a single skilled opponent in a fight. Ilberd, Mistbeard, the Thief and Berserker summoned by Elidibus...there are plenty of normal individuals that the Warrior of Light fights with the aid of a full team of buddies. The clear implication is that these individuals are significantly stronger than the Warrior of Light.
  
  
• The game is full of examples of characters who achieved greater mastery over specific arts than the Warrior of Light does. Look at the achievements of Allagan Summoners, the Black Mages of Mhachi, Padjal White Mages, etc. Look at the powerful, encounter-ending abilities that folks like Y'shtola, Yugiri, Magnai, Sadu, etc have. These are heights that the Warrior of Light simply never reaches.

So yeah, the Warrior of Light is pretty good, and it's certainly impressive how much breadth they've developed. But they never demonstrate mastery of their crafts.

[Lyth]

I think the answer relates to the job stones. The job stones have some parallels to the Convocation crystals in that they bear the memories of the deeds of their previous bearers. If you bring a Convocation stone to the appropriate matched soul, you can restore their memories of their previous life. The job stones likewise seem to have specific affinities for their users. During the SGE questline, for example, your presence produces an uncharacteristic reaction in the SGE job stone (it becomes very hot to the touch), suggesting that you have some sort of special affinity for it.

My working theory is that prior iterations of Azem were all prior bearers of these various job crystals at some point in the past, which is why the Azem soul shards have affinities for all of the playable jobs. So picking up the job crystal restores your soul's prior memory of those fighting arts, allowing you to accelerate your training in them (i.e. Neo's 'I know Kung Fu'). In theory, there are probably some job crystals out there that we have no affinity for as well, but they're just not playable as a result (i.e. perhaps Doman Geomancy).

[MistakeNot]

I think the answer relates to the job stones. The job stones have some parallels to the Convocation crystals in that they bear the memories of the deeds of their previous bearers. If you bring a Convocation stone to the appropriate matched soul, you can restore their memories of their previous life. The job stones likewise seem to have specific affinities for their users. During the SGE questline, for example, your presence produces an uncharacteristic reaction in the SGE job stone (it becomes very hot to the touch), suggesting that you have some sort of special affinity for it.

My working theory is that prior iterations of Azem were all prior bearers of these various job crystals at some point in the past, which is why the Azem soul shards have affinities for all of the playable jobs. So picking up the job crystal restores your soul's prior memory of those fighting arts, allowing you to accelerate your training in them (i.e. Neo's 'I know Kung Fu'). In theory, there are probably some job crystals out there that we have no affinity for as well, but they're just not playable as a result (i.e. perhaps Doman Geomancy).

The very purpose of job crystals is to accelerate the learning process. Job crystals absorb memories from previous users, so when you have one you can learn the job much faster than normal by drawing on those memories.

Of course, in some cases, like Machinist, the job crystal we get is new and blank because the job is brand new so there hasn't been any previous users.

[E4EO]

Job stones/crystals grant you immense amounts of knowledge and know how about a job as soon as you obtain one. Alphinaud became a Sage in under a minute after he got one from his mother early on in EW.

We can assume the WoL did the same thing, he just used his special protagonist privileges to get a ton of job stones.

Also, the WoL in the trailers hasn't had 20 jobs. He's only been a archer, WAR, DRG, MNK, SAM, DRK, PLD, and VPR. Given how all of those are all historical melee orientated minus archer, you could infer he's a capable man-at-arms and is able to quickly master martial skills. So even if you think the job stones are a lame excuse, there's already a explanation in the trailers.

[kaynide]

Something something Azem, something something Job Crystals, something something chosen one.