BLM: Archer or Arcanist?

[mark7five7]

I keep seeing different information on this. I will be getting my THM to level 30 first and some web sites say you need Archer then to 15 while others say Arcanist.

Which is it? I understand that I will eventually need skills from both but really want to focus on unlocking the job and then getting the skills.

[cornbread]

arcanist, not archer.

[Covate]

It is Archer, you can check my main character on lodestone Lilimiku Sesemiku - I'm blm and my arcanist is only level 7. Had to get Archer to 15.

[Astralis]

Archer 15 Thm 30 for the blm. Im a blm

[cornbread]

i was wrong

[HEC]

This is down to the confusion what ARC means ... (As ACN is for Arcanist and ARC for Archer indeed)

[mark7five7]

Thank you for the clarification! Any idea lore wise why this decision was made? lol. I see how some Archer skills would help BLM but it just seems so random... "of course no one could become a BLM without knowing how to be an Archer first!" uhhh what?

[Orophin]

I don't think there is any lore reason. I think they just picked the two classes that would benefit most from its sub skills. (Raging Strikes, Quelling Strikes from Archer and Physick, Virus and Eye for an Eye from Arcanist)

[Hornbeam]

Thank you for the clarification! Any idea lore wise why this decision was made? lol. I see how some Archer skills would help BLM but it just seems so random... "of course no one could become a BLM without knowing how to be an Archer first!" uhhh what?

It's not about lore, it's about class symmetry. With one exception (the addition of the Scholar job messed up the symmetry a bit), each class is the primary class for one job and the secondary class for one job.

[RaphaelDDL]

This is down to the confusion what ARC means ... (As ACN is for Arcanist and ARC for Archer indeed)

^This.

But by just looking, you would go for ACN because looks kinda nonsense to be ARC