was wondering if i should max out my MRD before i switch to WAR or should i just start leveling for WAR right as i hit lvl 30?

Marauder and Warrior use the same level. So when you unlock Warrior, it will be at lvl 30. They use the same level. Think of the "Jobs" as party-oriented version. Like a toggle switch thats Solo or Party.

Assuming that's the question you're getting at.

you can not level marauder anymore after 30. Ok you can if you remove the crystal but you won't get any new skills or so. War is just how your job will be called with level 30. and you also don't lose your level. From then on you will be a level 30 WAR.

@darji: No, that's incorrect. The classes still get new skills all the way to 50, and the jobs get separate skills.

It is as Seikenfreak said above, all the jobs are there for is party situations. If you're doing solo content after 30, you want to switch back to your class.

This is how it works.

Your job, in this case Marauder, can level to 50. There is no such thing as a "Warrior Level". You get your Warrior skills by equipping the Warrior soulstone and doing the Warrior class quests. Your level when the Warrior Soulstone is in use is determined by your Marauder level. All main jobs continue to gain new skills as you level. The quests to learn the sub job skills normally come at specific level intervals but you don't get them just because you hit that level. You still have to do the quest associated with it, just like you had to do certain class quests to learn some marauder skills previously. The only real transition is that at 30 your base job no longer has class quests, but now your sub jobs do.

Make sense?

You can not get skills as a lvl 30 and above gladiator for example if I know this correctly. I am playing a summoner and when I remove my crystal I don't have any skills beside the level 30 ones.

Your both wrong.... but ok... Your main class as a summoner is "Arcanist". You still learn Arcanist skills as you level, you just stop getting arcanist specific quests at 30 so you learn no more new skills for Arcanist from quests. If you level to 50 and remove your summoner soulgem all you lose is your summoner skills. Most of your skills are actually coming from Arcanist though and you do learn new skills past 30. For example as a Gladiator I have learned bulwark at 40 something and learn circle of scorn at 50. The trade off to having no "sub job" is you get more "additional" skill slots for your own use. The bad part is you lose the use of your sub job skills.... and possibly the ability to equip the job related gear.

Additionally, as an Arcanist if you go out and meet the requirements for Scholar you can go do the Scholar quests and get a Scholar soulgem. Once you have the Scholar soulgem you are immediately a level 50 Scholar because you are a level 50 Arcanist. Like I said in my earlier post... sub jobs do not have "levels". The only catch is you still have to do all the quests to get the Scholar skills and gear.

well thats not so bad, i mean not having to lvl up the WAR class from lvl 1. Thx for the info. Does the WAR class give you any extra stats like faster attack speed, more STR and more VIT, or is it just new weapons, armor and skills?

Also after getting the warrior class if i want to level up my MRD skills I need to remove the 'WAR crystal'? Or do I still get MRD skills with the WAR crystal in as I lvl up?

As a person who's been considering buying this game I'm a bit disappointed to see how this is how sub-jobs work, because it seems like it takes even less time to max out a specific job than I originally thought.

So how was I wrong? We pretty much said the same thing.

@bane122 said:

I actually haven't really switched back since I got my job. I haven't felt a few extra cross-class skills was worth the trouble of switching and losing the stat buff and job skills. But that could be dependent on the class/job.

Having to start over from level 1 as soon as you hit 30 would have suuucked. Leveling several other classes to obtain cross-class skills can already feel tedious enough, but at least it's not entirely mandatory.

Ah, perhaps that is what Karkarov meant. I was thinking more the classes and jobs having separate skills.

I'm only in the early 30's on my paladin but as I've read it you do more damage as a gladiator for solo content. Is that not true or does it vary per job?

I could see a GLD doing more damage, simply because you have access to more cross-class skills that could buff your damage. PLD only has access to MRD and CNJ skills, and those aren't exactly damage oriented. You do get a stat buff when you equip a job crystal though, so I'm not sure how large of a difference it would make.

I play a DRG, who already does good damage and has pretty good defense, so I haven't felt like I really need the extra cross-class skills, even if a few of them could potentially make me stronger overall.

Keep in mind that if you're soloing you can use your chocobo companion to cover your deficiencies. The only thing I'm really lacking is a solid way to heal, and now my chocobo can cover that. The attacker chocobo could help with damage while you tank.

@zeik: Since reading your earlier reply I've been soloing as PLD and it is nothing like what I'd read. I saw people talking about it like it was FFXI, where killing a mob of equal level took forever because of the low damage. I'm not really noticing it being any slower than GLA since I didn't bother putting many offensive cross skills on that one.

This pleases me.

Yeah, that is what I mean... there is no reason not to use a sub job unless you just think you are better off mix and matching skills.

As for paladin trust me, turn on Sword Oath and you will see a clear dps improvement. Your auto attacks will actually be doing double their normal damage and I think your specials will go up a little too. The person you were talking to is probably a dunce who leaves Shield Oath on all the time. Shield Oath makes you deal 20% less damage, but you take 20% less damage, and generate 20% more threat. At 45 you actually can do a quest as paladin that will get you a single target attack called .... sigh.... Spirits Within that actually hits harder than a full power Rage of Halone. Not only does it hit hard it puts like a half second silence on the mob (great interrupt for spells) and has it's own 30 second cool down. The cooldown is neat because that means it is not tied to the GCD, doesn't break your combos, and it costs no TP to use it. You make your chocobo go DPS to boot and you will have no problem at all solo'ing.

The only issue with paladin is Sword Oath/Shield Oath obviously only work one at a time and one is only good for solo and one only good for groups. That combined with one mostly useless ability called Cover... It is the ol "I take damage for that guy" skill, but you have to be close to each other, it only lasts 15 seconds or so, you take ALL the damage, and you get none of their threat. So use it at the wrong time and you will kill yourself, and it is almost always faster to just pull the aggro since you have to do that anyway. Only other issue is... none of the skills are aoe's so you still have to work hard for good group tanking.

This is a pretty good description of the games system, dont suppose we can get it flagged up somewhere or placed on an FAQ? I find it hard explaining this to people but dude, you nailed it!

@kagato: :P Thanks! Maybe I will edit it into the wiki. I have actually been planning to do some instructional videos on the game just haven't gotten around to it yet.

The site double posting everything you post is getting mildly old... course it does buff my post count!