Archer Past 30

[Sobaus]

Being new to FFXIV I would like to know if it is wise to play Archer past 30? I don't see anyone running this job past 30 and just move on to BRD. Honestly I don't want to stop lvling or questing the main story line to lvl another job.

Is it a waste of time lvling Archer past 30, will I be gimping my dungeon groups and struggle with the solo content?

[Burritoboy]

In order for you to attain Bard you will need to lvl pugilist to 15 then go talk to your Quest Giver in the Archer's Guild. He will then award you Bard upon completing the quest. To answer your question when you level bard at 30 it will also level your Archer. Please let me know if you don't understand.

[Dubheitte]

I sometimes switch to Archer if I feel I may need cure to solo content. However as Bard I feel powerful and I don't know if it is gear or not, but even though I can no longer cure myself, I don't seem to take much damage. In dungeons though , especially Brayflox I would definitely go Bard as it is more geared for party play. Hope that helps ^^

[Brises]

When you start leveling a job at 30, you will also continue to achieve all the abilities of the base class. Some cross class abilities are not available to the job, that are available to the class. But you can switch whenever you want, except during a dungeon run.

[SteelyHermit]

if you're soloing its perfectly fine to be an archer so you can use cure/protect etc. during raids you'll have other classes which will be able to provide that kind of utility so it will be better to play as a bard for the bonus stats from your soul stone as well a the utility given to the raids by your songs, as well as rain of death. Either way, bard and archer share levels so you won't lose out on exp for one by playing as the other.

[Bardo]

As others have explained, you don't start over at level 1 when you equip a Job.
In fact you don't level them separately at all.
When you are "Bard", you are also still Archer.
You retain all the Archer skills and traits and they level together.
Equipping a Job soulstone is sort of like filling out a skilltree in other MMO's.
It's just a specialization for the class, it's not a new class.


In the case of Bard, you have to give up any cross class skills that aren't from pugilist or lancer and you can only equip a max of 5 cross class skills instead of 10.
That means you can't use cure/protect/raise from conjurer anymore, nor can you use fracture/bloodbath/mercystroke from marauder.

But in exchange, you get 5 new specialized group utility spells, higher base stats, and access to artifact gear.

[Psytrance]

The Soul Crystal that you use for a job also gives a significant amount stats even though it's not listed.