So I need some advice regarding jobs in FFXIV. You see I have played a fair share of the game with a previous character but have decided to start afresh with a new character because unfortunately I haven't had much time to play these past two to three months. Anyway, with my previous character I took on all the jobs and dabbled with a large selection of them, which I enjoyed but it did get a little overwhelming. It appears that at least taking on one crafting and one gathering job is essential to a point, but is it best to concentrate on a select few instead of joining all job guilds at once?

I'd really like to know how some of you tackled this, I love that FFXIV gives you the chance to vary up what jobs you can do and I doubt I could go back to other MMO's which restrict you down the one path but it can be a little overwhelming especially when you start collecting so much stuff you don't know what to do with it.

What's the best way to handle jobs in general? By the way I've started as a Gladiator.
Thanks.

There really isnt a right or wrong way to do the job systen in FF14, just do whatever feels fun.

Some people love unlocking all jobs right away and dabbling in them all a few levels at a time.

Personally I max one out before moving on. Took my DRG to 60 then took ky Fisher to 50, gotta get him to 60 now. After that ill probably do a crafter to 60.

If you picked up Heavensward and really wanna do one of the 3 new classes, you need to complete the 2.0 storyline and all patches, and arrive in the expansion town. So if thats a goal of yours, I would focus on one combat class to 50.

If not, do what you enjoy! The game is amazing in how it lets you do what you feel like when you want to.

Pick a combat class and stick with it, you will need to level a couple other classes for cross class skills, but this isn't too tedious (especially with the new armoury bonus before level 50). There is no need to do any crafting or gathering, it is however a good way to make some gold, as well as something to do in your down time if you are waiting for a dungeon queue or something. Then if you feel like it put some time into something else. To try and keep up more than a few jobs is madness, I have my main job that I focus on, then when I'm all geared I like to play a different roll just to change things up and stay engaged.

If you do want to level crafting it used to be the case that you NEED the level 50 skills from all the classes (except armourer) to attempt any top level stuff, but they have attempted to change this in HW and even point you in the direction of focusing on a few things by giving you extra skills in 3 classes that you specialise in. I haven't really tried any of the new skills yet as I had everything at 50 and the rotations are really effective up to the the new level cap.

Gathering is purely a way to make gold and support your crafting by farming your own materials.

Like @takayamasama said, there really is no right or wrong way to do things, but seeing as how you found your previous methods overwhelming, I would suggest maybe focusing on one or two jobs max and maybe a gatherer as well. You don't have to craft or gather mind you, but you'll probably be poor....then again, you don't really need much gil anyway unless you want a house or see some cool shit on the market board that you want.

Personally, I stick to one job even when I hit max level so I'm probably more of an edge case. I may dabble in others from time to time, but for the most part I have my one main job and that's it for me. I do crafting and gathering from time to time, but that's just to kill time more than anything else.

I'm a bit curious as to why you decided to start over. Your old character should still be there.

There definitely is no wrong way to go about it. It's best to just start walking down a path and if you don't like what you see, put on another weapon and start walking down that one. Keep doing that until you find something you like. I would say to level one battle class (Disciple of War or Disciple of Magic) to level cap before you get into crafting but even that's not necessary (it will just make the crafting/gathering game a little bit easier on you). I sampled all the jobs but in the end decided that I'd stick with one DPS, one Healer, and one tank job (the tank being the one I primarily focus on). My only interest in crafting was for the benefit of our free company and we have multiple master crafters in the guild now so I don't have to worry about that these days. I just pay them gil to do what I need instead.

As someone else leveling from the start, I ended up with 2 crafting classes and mining by virtue of enjoying the zen nature of it and the early levels fly by. I've since cooled off on it but it still ends up paying dividends by doing it once a day for Grand Company Supply and Provisioning because it seems to give disproportionate amounts of GC seals compared to other low level sources.

It seems the only hard and fast rule for your adventuring class is to stick to one at least until you get far enough in the story to get Grand Company membership. There's stuff with cross class skills that encourage (or require if you are really into min/maxing) leveling your job's cousin classes but that's as far into the future as you want it to be.

@machofantastico: I would say stick to one class until at least you get it to 50 and get through the main 2.0 branch of the story. After that assess if you want to keep going with that class or not. Crafting/Gathering is NON essential. Most crafted items are used mostly for fashion more than function. And there is enough cheaply sold vendor armor/weapons along with dungeon drops that will keep you supplied with gear to get you leveled.

Only do crafting if you really feel like you want to. You can get through the entire game without ever putting a second into a crafting class. It is however a nice distraction and time sink to keep you busy when you start running out of content to do.

I recommend you level one class to 50 before experimenting with crafting and gathering classes. That way every class below your highest level receives an XP gain bonus. As well, you'll have access to the higher level roulettes on the Duty Finder, which is a quick and easy way to get decent cash. Doing 2 or 3 roulettes will give you ample funding to quickly get any class from 1 to 20 in a very short amount of time.

When leveling your classes don't be afraid to buy gear from the NPCs to speed things along. Pre-20 gear is dirt cheap, and even after that it doesn't start to get costly until around 40. Keep in mind that you can re-use a lot of your gear between classes. For example, you can hold onto all the gathering gear you purchase and use that to help level up your other gathering classes. I also recommend that you purchase the appropriate foodstuffs to give yourself a cheap boost to XP gain and stats.

Make sure you're spending your Grand Company seals, either by raising your rank or by purchasing crafting/gathering manuals + cordial potions to grind through your levels. You never want to be sitting on max seals.

PS: Use retainers to store excess inventory. They're free, and you can always replace them later.

Wow, didn't expect such a great response so quickly.

Thanks for the help and advice, seems limiting my classes/jobs is the best route. I love having so much choice but it would seem best to hold out till I level out my main class, though I think I might try out a gathering class or two to change things up and for gil. Previously having jumped into all the jobs I think I found both the armoury chest and the amount of options available to me overwhelming (but still fun to a point). Guess I'll see how it develops. Again, thanks for the information and advice on this.

Having not played in a while I know it would have taken me a good amount of time to readjust to that character, plus for the reasons I created this thread. I felt like I'd overwhelmed myself with the path I'd taken. I'd sort of lost where I was in the story to, its pretty rare for a MMO to actually capture my interest with its story and I was enjoying the story quite a bit so it made some sense to restart.

Oh and I was keen on joining the same server as the Giant Bomb Company, even though I'm UK based it made some sense for me to join that server.

My advice is to figure out which job you sort of want to be your main class to 60, research what cross classes that job gets. Level up the cross classes to appropriate levels(leveling them to 35 usually gets you most cross class abilities), then level up your main job to the max level. Ex: You want to level a dragoon to 60, they have Marauder and Pugilist as cross classes, so MRD to 26 and pugilist to 42 (though you can probably live without Mantra(lvl 42 skill) and get by with pugilist to level 12(crit buff abilitiy at lvl 12) ) will get you all their cross class abilities for dragoon.

@machofantastico: Sure, makes sense. This is easily the best story in an mmo I've experienced.