Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn FAQ/Strategy Guide

Final Fantasy XIV - The Allagan Tomestone of Strategy

Introduction

Having achieved the titles of The Professional (all Disciple of War and Magic classes at level 50, and all job quests cleared), Builder of the Realm (all Disciple of the Hand classes at level 50), and Provider of the Realm (all Disciples of the Land classes at level 50), I decided to write this guide to help people learn a new class, or learn how to improve their game in their current class. If you are brand new to the game or you haven't played it before, then this guide is for you. If you have some playing experience, then I hope you can still learn something from this guide.

This guide is not a walkthrough for the main quest, or any battles in the game. It is 100% spoiler-free.

This guide is by no means the definitive guide to anything! Mechanics change, strategies change, and people often find new and creative ways to do things that are better than the old strategies. If you have feedback, please send it to me - moc.liamg@namzkcin (spell that backwards for an e-mail address).

License

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts.

In other words, I make no warranties regarding the content of this guide. And you can feel free to share and spread it around, but the latest version will always be posted first on GameFAQs.

The entire license is available online at the following URL: <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/fdl.html>

The Differences Between Game Clients

In case anyone was wondering, here are the major differences between the three current game clients:

The PS4 client is a huge upgrade from the PS3 client, which runs at a low resolution, does not support the mouse-driven UI (although it does support USB or Bluetooth mice, just not as a primary input device), and intentionally skips drawing objects in a busy area. The Windows and PS4 clients are pretty comparable in terms of graphics and features. The Windows client will be a little bit better on a high-end PC.

Both the PS3 and PS4 clients require PSN access, and cannot be played if the PSN is down. Sony allows third-parties to use the PSN as a gateway to a third-party network, but will not allow games on their platform to run exclusively through a third-party network. (The reason is because game consoles have a long history of laissez-faire policies contributing to the console's early demise.)

You must buy each client separately if you want to play on both a PlayStation and a PC. Square Enix charges full retail, but it pays for an extra month on your account. PS3 and PS4 players must also link their account to a PSN ID, so if you share PSN IDs with someone else, you'll have to separate them if you want to play together.

Until March 31, 2015, you can upgrade a PS3 version to the PS4 version for free. However, you need to have both a PS3 and PS4 to do this, you must have installed the PS3 version at least once, and once you upgrade, you can't go back. (I don't think you'd want to go back...)

An FAQ on Abbreviations and Acronyms

Here's a list of some of the abbreviations and acronyms you may see people use in chat. I excluded standard English chat acronyms, such as "LOL" and "IDK." I also excluded class & job acronyms, which are described in the Disciples of War & Magic section. Note that each server has its own little culture, so some abbreviations may vary between servers.

Disciples of War and Magic (DPSing, Healing, and Tanking)

So You Want to Be a Hero?

Disciples of War (DoW) and Disciples of Magic (DoM) are the typical adventuring classes. Final Fantasy XIV, like many of the Final Fantasy games before it, uses the "holy trinity" system in which there are three kinds of adventurers; tanks (who have high defense and attract enemy attention), healers (who keep the party afloat in combat), and DPS (pronounced "dee-pee-ess" or "deeps", who attack the enemy).

You get the start in the game by making a character, and picking an initial DoW or DoM class for that character. After hitting level 10 and clearing the level 10 class quest, you will unlock multi-classing. To learn a new class, simply show up at its guild, tell the guildmaster you have what it takes (they'll always believe you), and then equip the class' weapon to switch to that class. Each class has a separate pool of XP (eXperience Points), so you'll go back to level 1 initially. Unlike Final Fantasy V, class stats are not shared by other classes, so each class has its own separate set of stats.

Starting at level 10, each class will also dole out bonus stat points you can apply to a class' stats. In general, you should dump it all into your class' most important stat. I will give recommendations in my guide below. If you screw up, it's okay! You don't have to create a new character to correct your mistakes. All three Grand Companies sell items that will reset a class' stat allocation.

You get the title "Seeker of Blood" for clearing every DoW level 30 class quest, "Seeker of Truth" for clearing every DoM level 30 class quest, "Warmonger" for getting every DoW class to level 50, and "Archmage" for getting every DoM class to level 50.

What Race Should You Choose?

It doesn't matter! Races in the game are mostly cosmetic, and have very little effect on a character's abilities. Just pick the one that is the most appealing to you.

There's one "little" exception: Lalafell Black Mages can slightly out-DPS non-lalfell Black Mages due to their higher Piety stat, which allows them to get off one extra spell before they must recharge. But this is not a big deal, seriously. Okay, that's enough stupid puns.

What Class Should You Choose?

This doesn't matter, either! All of the classes and jobs in the game are very well balanced, and all of them are viable for end-game play, so it's all a matter of your personal preference. No class is perfect; all of them have strengths and weaknesses. Just pick the one you like best.

Why Don't You Get a Job?!

Disciples of War and Magic have classes, and they also have jobs. The difference is, a "class" is the base of what you do, while a "job" is a sub-class that goes on top of the class, and adds several stat buffs. Every experience point you earn while in a job goes straight to the underlying class, every stat you allocate while in a job goes to the class as well, and all abilities of the underlying class are inherited by the job.

Each class in the game has one job associated with it, except for Arcanist, which gets the Summoner (offensive Arcanist) and Scholar (defensive Arcanist) jobs.

In addition, jobs have their own job quest line, with one new quest becoming available on every experience level evenly divisible by 5. Almost every job quest in the game will grant the player a job-exclusive ability, e.g. Flare for Black Mages, Adloquium for Scholars, etc. At levels 45 and 50, there are also some quests that will unlock "artifact" armor, which is armor based on classic Final Fantasy character designs that will tide you over until you are ready for the end-game, and is certainly better than just about anything else you can equip prior to level 50.

Each job has a secondary class and a tertiary class. These are used to set your cross-class abilities while in a job. Which gets me to the downside of having a job: Once you equip one, you cannot use cross-class skills at all, except in the secondary class, the tertiary class, Botanist, and Miner. But is it worth it? The answer is a resounding yes! The stats and skills you get from a job are a must for end-game play, and you won't miss unlimited cross-classing at all. After you hit level 30 in your class, you should waste no time in acquiring & equipping your class' job(s), even if it means you have to take time out to level a sub-class.

To unlock a job, you must be level 30 or higher in your base class, you must be level 15 or higher in the job's secondary class, you must have completed the class' quest line (it is not a coincidence that DoW and DoM quest lines run out at level 30), and you must clear the main quest scenario "Sylph-management". After you clear the opening quest, you'll be given your job "soul" item, which you must equip to take on the job, as well as your first job skill. The opening quest(s) is/are always available in the class' guild.

You get the title "The Professional" if you get every DoW and DoM class to level 50, and clear every job quest in the game. Each relic weapon you acquire will give you a class-specific title, and you also get the title "The Insatiable" if you also collect all of the relic weapons.

How to Get to Level 50

In an RPG or Rogue-like game, there are two methods of progression: Horizontal (leveling up, skilling up) and vertical (gearing up). Most of the previous Final Fantasy games did a little bit of both, but the vertical progression tended to run out far before hitting the level cap. Final Fantasy VIII was an almost pure vertical progression game, and Final Fantasy X was an almost pure horizontal progression game.

Final Fantasy XIV is mostly about the horizontal progression, until you hit the level cap, which is level 50, and then the game becomes all about the vertical progression. Unlike the single-player Final Fantasy games, you must hit the level cap in order to run end-game content and equip end-game gear. The good news is, it's not too grind-y an experience.

If you have not yet completed the main scenario, then here is how to get to level 50, ordered by preference:

1. Complete the main scenario! This may seem like a "well, duh" thing to do, but if you follow the main scenario, the quests will give you enough XP necessary to get your first level 50 just by following them.
2. Dungeons (always queue for the highest available low-level dungeons you have unlocked)
3. FATEs
4. Levequests (ad-hoc quests that give you XP and gil, and Grand Company seals if done for a Grand Company, for clearing them)
5. Do your class & job guild quests! You get your first one at level 1, and each subsequent quest is unlocked after you hit a level evenly divisible by 5. Class quests run out at level 30, but then job quests begin after that. Class quests, and level 45 and 50 job quests, will also give you useful gear for free.
6. Hunting log (which you will acquire by doing class quests if you haven't acquired it already)
7. Daily beast tribe quests (except for the Ix'al tribe, which is for crafting classes only)
8. Challenge log
9. Guildhests (mini-raids that are practice sessions for end-game raiding)
10. Mapping achievements (which you can only win once per character)
11. Scripted quests handed out by NPCs

You get XP by defeating monsters out in the field, too, but after level 10, the effectiveness of doing that to level up wears off.

If you already have a class at level 50, then the list looks the same as above, with one difference: Low Level Duty Roulette, run once per day, will give you a huge amount of XP if you clear the dungeon. You'll even get a bonus on top of that bonus if you queue as an adventurer in demand. At least on my server, that alternates between tanks & healers.

In version 2.0, FATEs were the best way to level up outside of the main quest. Fortunately, the experience has improved a lot since then, since dungeons and levequests were modified to give out far more XP.

So You Hit 50. Now What?

Once you hit the level cap, it's time to start gearing up. This may seem like a treadmill that gets longer after every patch, but in every patch, the developers make it easier to progress as well, so you don't have to be on the cutting edge unless you only run the hardcore raid at the moment (currently the Final Coil of Bahamut).

So, here is what you should do:

1. First, if you haven't done so already, complete the main story quest "The Ultimate Weapon." Completing this quest unlocks all of the end-game content, plus the extended story.
2. Complete your job's level 50 quest. You need to do this to get your job's relic weapon, as well as the job's level 50 skill. The "artifact" armor may seem neat, but it'll be obsoleted pretty quickly, so don't hold onto it for long. You can store unwanted artifact armor in your armoire at the inn.
3. Run dungeons, starting with the easy ones (e.g. Wanderer's Palace and Amdapor Keep), and progressing to the more difficult ones as you go. Each dungeon drops progressively better gear.
4. If you haven't done so already, get promoted to officer in your Grand Company. Currently, Lieutenant is the highest rank attainable. The gear the Grand Company awards for officers is okay for starting out, but the real reason why you want to be an officer is to join The Hunt, which will make it easier to gear up. Try finding a hunts linkshell on your server; there ought to be many of them that aren't terribly exclusive.
5. You'll find the quest that unlocks the Crystal Tower raids in Saint Coinarch's Find. The Crystal Tower raids are 24-character raids and are super-casual, so they should be pretty easy to complete as long as you are matched with a good group of other players. (These raids can be troll magnets, though, particularly the Labyrinth of the Ancients, so be aware of that.)
6. If you haven't done so already, unlock Gerolt, the relic weapon maker in Hyrstmill. The quest for this, called "The Weaponsmith of Legend," starts in Vesper Bay.
7. The "A Relic Reborn" relic weapon quest starts in Hyrstmill. Gerolt gives you the quest if you performed the above, and finished your level 50 job quest. Gerolt awards the quests in LIFO order, so the quest will be available from your most to least recently completed job quest (if you have a queue of them). Gear up, and complete the quest to get your relic weapon. There are additional upgrades to the weapon; look around in Hyrstmill for more information.
8. As you do dungeons, you'll earn Allagan tomestones. There are two available at any given time, one of which limits you to only 450 tomestones collected per week, which resets each Tuesday morning. Spend them in Revenant's Toll for gear.
9. After you clear the original three hard mode primals (Ifrit, Garuda, and Titan), you can run the Binding Coil of Bahamut. Turns 1, 2, 4, and 5 drop item-level 90 gear. Turn 3 is a pass-through area that can be skipped. You must clear Turn 5 to unlock the Second Coil of Bahamut.
10. The Second Coil of Bahamut is considerably more difficult than the first, but all except Turn 9 can be PUG'd these days. All four turns drop item-level 110 gear. You must clear Turn 9 to unlcok the Final Coil. If you cleared Turn 9 and Ultima Hard, you unlock the Savage Second Coil, which is more difficult than the original, but awards the same gear as the original.
11. Logs acquired from hunting, and raid loot from the Syrcus Tower and the Second and Final Coils of Bahamut, will give you items that will upgrade "weathered" or "ironworks" gear to even better versions of the gear. These items are the Sands of Time, Oil of Time, Carboncoat, and Carbontwine. You can take them to Gerolt's place in Hyrstmill to perform each upgrade.
12. The best gear in the game can be found inside the Final Coil of Bahamut...

Tanks: Let's Get Smashed! 

General Tips for Tanks

The tank, or "sentinel" for you Final Fantasy XIII transplants, is a high-defense & low-offense role that specializes in drawing enemy fire as a distraction.

Tanking requires a totally different mind-set than DPSing. Unless you are playing alone, your goal as the tank is not to defeat the enemy, but to instead hold the enemy's attention on you, the most heavily-defended target, while the DPS take down the enemy, and the healers alternate between propping you up and taking down the enemy. Meanwhile, while the healers carry much of the burden of keeping you standing up, you have to share some of the burden by popping cool-downs at the appropriate times.

When you are not in a boss battle, it is critical that you (1) keep the enemy's attention on you at all times, and (2) pop cool-downs if you are taking too much damage. Unlike some other MMORPGs, you will need to use cool-downs outside of boss battles, and you will especially need to use them wisely when pulling a large mob. When you are in a boss battle, depending on the battle, you might not need to hold the attention of the adds; often-times, the DPS and healers can take care of the adds without you needing to pick them up. The exceptions are adds that hit particularly hard (e.g. Chirada and Suparna during the Garuda Extreme fight).

When I'm tanking, unless the DPS I got are heavily AoE-optimized classes (such as Black Mages and Summoners), I also find it helpful to mark the targets I'm going to attack in ascending order, so that it makes it less likely the DPS will attack some target I'm not targeting and grab aggro. It's also useful in fights where there are multiple targets, but only one of them actually increases progress in the battle (e.g. the first boss of Qarn Hard). I recommend you place the marks in your hotbar for easy access; you will use them quite often.

In order to be an effective end-game tank, you also must know how to tank-swap. There are quite a few end-game fights that require that tanks either swap holding the boss, or holding some additional target, due to some incurable stacking debuff that increases tank damage or sucker-punches the tank. Tank-swapping is actually pretty easy; all you have to do is use Provoke on the target, and with the exception of invincible targets, you must also hit it with some emnity-generating skill (typically Shield Lob or Tomahawk). Provoke is a level 22 Gladiator skill; no Gladiator/Paladin will be without it, and no Marauder/Warrior should be without it.

Out of all the party roles, on all servers, tanks are by far the most demanded adventurers in the game. If you queue for a duty as a tank, you'll most likely get into the duty instantly. Tanks are also by far the most likely to be adventurers in need in Duty Roulette. There are also two mounts that are exclusive to tanks, the war-lion and the war-bear, and are unlocked by successfully tanking extreme mode primals and Coil a number of times.

In any given situation in the game, tanks are looked upon to be the party leaders. They lead the party into battle, and they generally get to call the shots in battle. A party can probably survive pre-Brayflox dungeons without a functioning tank, but starting with Brayflox, they become the most powerful characters in the party. With great power comes great responsibility. Don't abuse that power by being a jerk to other players. If your teammates don't know a battle, or don't know how to correctly play as their class/job, then teach them. Don't call them "noobs" or put them down, since that helps no one get better. Polite, helpful, funny tanks get both results and commendations. Asshole tanks get 30 minute Duty Finder lockouts due to rage-quitting.

Gladiator/Paladin (GLD/PLD)

Gladiators and Paladins are defensive, active-damage-reduction tanks. They have the second-highest HP of any job in the game and the highest defense, and most of their skills involve either emnity generation or defense improvement. In addition to getting some stat increases, Paladins also gain a DPS mode (Sword Oath) and a Tank mode (Shield Oath), plus some other useful additional skills.

The Gladiator & Paladin's single most important ability is Flash. You must keep Flash on your hotbar, and you must use it often. The second most important ability is the Rage of Halone combo (Fast Blade -> Savage Blade -> Rage of Halone; I think this is supposed to be pronounced like "hah-low-nay"), which greatly increases enmity on a single target.

Gladiators & Paladins have three different rotations, depending on whether you have a single target, or multiple targets:

1. For single targets, your opening move should always be Shield Lob. After that, just do your Rage of Halone combo, and pop a cooldown if you see a big hit coming, or if you're in trouble. If you have Circle of Scorn, go ahead and lay it down to get your one and only DoT ticking.
2. For multiple targets, if you have a small mob (3 or less targets), after setting up your order of attack with markers (if necessary), use Shield Lob as your opening move. Then use Flash, Rage of Halone combo, Flash, Rage of Halone combo, and just keep repeating that. (Some guides recommend using Flash twice at the start, but I've never found that to be necessary; once is enough.) If you have Circle of Scorn, use it early on. The important thing is to never stop using Flash. If you stop using it, you will lose aggro on the enemies. This isn't a problem early on in the game, but after you reach Brayflox's Longstop, your healer can get easily sacked if you can't hold aggro.
3. For multiple targets, if you have a large mob (4 or more targets), you will have to employ a slightly more sophisticated trick, or you will run out of MP. Here, instead of using the Rage of Halone combo, you will need to use the Riot Blade combo (Fast Blade -> Riot Blade) instead. Riot Blade won't generate much emnity, but it will regenerate your MP, and allow you to Flash more times than you would be able to if you didn't regenerate. (In most other cases, you will never need to use this combo, since you and your team will defeat the mob before you ever run out of MP.)

New Gladiators often complain about how difficult it is to hold aggro on all targets. This is true, because Flash is a rather weak emnity generator (though the developers made it a little stronger in patch 2.40 due to the complaints they received). It gets better after you (1) unlock Paladin, and (2) do the level 40 Paladin job quest and learn Shield Oath. Not only does Shield Oath increase your defense somewhat, but it also increases emnity, and makes it much easier to hold aggro on multiple targets at once. My best advice for those of you who are under level 40 is to hang in there! Oh, and mark your targets, and ask your DPS to please not use their AoE attacks. (If you do all of this, and they're still pulling aggro, it's their fault, not yours.)

Speaking of holding aggro, I need to talk about Provoke here. You will need to use Provoke when (1) you lose aggro on some mob target and want to easily pull them back, or (2) you're in a fight that requires a tank swap and it's time to swap. Provoke simply makes it so that you move to the top of the target's aggro list, and only by a hair. It does nothing if you already have aggro on the target, and unless the target is invincible, you can lose that aggro easily if you don't immediately do something that generates emnity, which is why you must then use Shield Lob or Circle of Scorn or something.

If you are off-tanking, and don't need to hold aggro on anything in particular, you might find it useful to switch to Sword Oath, which will increase your DPS somewhat by way of giving you two auto-attacks at a time. You can't have both Sword Oath and Shield Oath on at the same time, so choose your Oath depending on your role at the moment.

The last bit of advice I can give is to be smart about using your cooldowns. Gladiators get Rampart (10% damage reduction), Fight or Flight (30% damage increase), Convalescence (20% healing increase), Awareness (25% less critical hits taken), Sentinel (40% damage reduction), and Bulwark (60% blocking increase). Paladins also get Hallowed Ground (100% damage reduction). I've seen some Paladins blow all of their cooldowns at the start of the fight. Please don't be that guy. Most of your cooldowns should be used right before, or immediately after, a big hit or multiple small hits. Hallowed Ground has such a long recharge time that it should only ever be used during emergency situations. If you don't know the fight, then at least watch a video, so you have an idea of when the big hits are coming.

Marauder/Warrior (MRD/WAR)

Marauders & Warriors are offensive, active-damage-mitigation tanks. They have the highest HP of any job in the game and the second-highest defense, so they take more punishment from enemy targets, but they can take that punishment easily enough and deal out more damage than the average tank. In particular, they will find it somewhat easier to hold aggro on multiple targets than Paladins, but somewhat more difficult to hold aggro on single targets.

The Marauder's #1 most important skill is Overpower, which works like Flash, except that it's conal instead of circular, it consumes TP instead of MP, and it does a small amount of physical damage. Overpower generates considerably more emnity than Flash, which is why Marauders will generally have an easier time holding the aggro of multiple targets, especially in low-level dungeons.

That said, don't discount the use of Flash! Flash is the Marauder's #2 most important skill, and you'll need it for when you run low or out of TP (and that is a when, not an if). Also, if the DPS put the mob to sleep, Overpower will wake them up, but Flash will not.

The Marauder's rotation is pretty similar to the Gladiator's:

1. For single targets, open with Tomahawk. Do your rage combo (Heavy Swing -> Skull Sunder -> Butcher's Block) at least once. You can keep doing that as necessary, but you really should then keep up your two debuffs, which are Storm's Path (Heavy Swing -> Maim -> Storm's Path) and Storm's Eye (Heavy Swing -> Maim -> Storm's Eye). If you have a Ninja in your party, please advise him/her not to use their Dancing Edge combo. Dancing Edge does not stack with Storm's Eye, and it'll improve his/her DPS a little if you handle the debuff.
2. For multiple targets, do the same as above, but you will need to Overpower all the mobs, and re-apply Overpower after each combo. If you're running low or need to preserve your TP, or the enemy is right behind you, then use Flash instead. You do not need to use Flash or Overpower on single targets.
3. For Warriors: If you have Defiance up, then your combos (as well as Berserk) will generate stacks of rage. At five stacks, you will be Infuriated. When you are Infuruated, you should use Inner Beast on single targets (or when you need the additional defense the buff applies), or Steel Cyclone on multiple targets (which you can use in place of Overpower or Flash, because it does increase emnity). If you don't need the extra defense but you could use the extra damage, use Unchained. After using Unchained, you ought to immediately use Berserk in order to do even more damage. You should be able to pull off an Inner Beast while under the effects of Berserk & Unchained for big tank damage & healing.

The Warrior's tank mode is Defiance, which is unlocked at the same time that you unlock Warrior. Always remember to use it when you are the main tank. If you are the off-tank and don't need to hold aggro on something, you can turn it off. If your healer is casting Stoneskin, then you might want to turn it on, and then back off again after being buffed, because Defiance will increase Stoneskin's effectiveness somewhat when it is applied.

New Marauders will notice that Marauders & Warriors are a bit more "squishy" than similarly-geared Gladiators & Paladins. To reduce that squishiness, you will need to use your cooldowns and debuffs wisely, such as Inner Beast (which you can apply on demand at level 50, by first using Infuriate), Foresight, Thrill of Battle, Convalesence, and the Storm's Path combo. There's Bloodbath as well, but I have never found it to be a particularly useful skill.

Marauders and Warriors also run out of TP very, very easily, and it's mainly due to excessive Overpower usage. Having a Bard or a Rogue/Ninja in your party can allieviate this somewhat. If you find yourself running out of TP too easily, you should consider Overpowering less and Flashing more.

The Marauder & Warrior's only DoT skill is Fracture. I really can't really recommend using it while you are tanking, because Fracture, unlike the Gladiator's Circle of Scorn, does little to increase emnity. It's fine to use if you are DPSing, however.

Marauders & pre-end-game Warriors can go up until the end-game without having to under-study Gladiator past level 15. However, once you hit end-game tanking, if you don't know Provoke, you will be wasting everyones' time in a fight that requires a tank swap. (Also, see my notes about proper usage of Provoke under Gladiator/Paladin above.)

Healers: Physician, heal yourself!

General Tips for Healers

There's no sugar-coating it - healing is a stressful job. It's also one of the most important roles in a party, because the party will fall like a stack of cards without its healers standing on two feet. Healers also benefit from instant and near-instant queues for dungeons, and are the second most in demand role in any party. They are, in my experience, the second most likely players to be commended after a duty is over. Tanks, in particular, like to lavish commendations on good healers.

Probably the most important thing healers need to learn is how to quickly get heals off on specific party members. I've found through practice that the single best way to do this is to play the game with a keyboard plugged in, and use the function keys to quickly target players. (Yes, you can do this even if you are using a PS3 or PS4, and even if you are using the controller-driven UI.) By default, F1 targets yourself, F2 through F8 targets your party members, and F9 targets your pet if you are playing as a Arcanist/Summoner/Scholar. The second best way is to press Up and Down on the controller to cycle through party targets. Mousing around is the third best way, and is the best way to heal members of an alliance that are not members of your party, since you can't easily target alliance members with the keybord or controller.

Your priorities for healing are always yourself -> the main tank -> the off-tank -> everyone else. That may sound really selfish, but if you get knocked out of combat, and there are no Arcanists/Summoners or other healers around to save you, then the party is going to fail unless something stupendous happens. If you have multiple healers and multiple tanks, you may need to decide between yourselves which healer prioritizes which tank. Generally, Scholars work better with Warriors, and White Mages work better with Gladiators, because the jobs complement each other better.

The best way to watch the enemy while healing is to use the "Focus Target" feature. To use it, select the target you want to watch, and either press Shift-F, or choose "Focus Target" from the controller/mouse contextual menu. Activating this feature allows you to keep an eye on the enemy while you have an ally targeted, so you'll be able to see when big hits or a phase transition are coming, and act accordingly.

If the party's not in trouble, don't forget to target the enemy and start DPSing! The Conjurer's class storyline tries to drive this point home, but don't let anyone discourage you from DPSing at all, unless you're completely blowing off your healer duties and the tank is in deep trouble.

Conjurer/White Mage (CNJ/WHM)

The White Mage is a job with a lot of history behind it in the Final Fantasy games, and just like the previous games, it is a defensive job with several offensive abilities. Depending on how you feel about that, it can be a boring class to level up when playing alone, but a Conjurer or White Mage is an absolutely critical component of any party situation.

Conjurers & White Mages don't have a rotation. Instead, they react when members of the party take damage. Their #1 most important skill is Cure. Yes, Cure II is more potent than Cure, but it also consumes far more MP, so it doesn't totally replace Cure as it did in most of the previous Final Fantasy games. Using Cure will sometimes reward Conjurers with a proc for a free Cure II, which will sometimes reward Conjurers with a 50% off proc for Cure III.

White Mages also get Benediction, which is an almost-instant-cast 100% healing skill with a long cool-down. That's right, it's almost-instant-cast. It's supposed to be the White Mage's panic button, but because it takes a few micro-seconds to cast, if an ally is about to die, you need to waste no time in using it or it'll be too late. It's kind of annoying, actually.

The Conjurer & White Mage is the undisputed king/queen of AoE heals. Their bread-and-butter AoE healing skill is Medica, which is less potent than Cure, but hits every ally in a medium-sized radius around the caster. Medica II is even less potent, but it inflicts HoT (healing over time), which makes it more powerful over time. Cure III is less potent than Cure II, but it hits everyone in a very small radius around the target.

White Mages also get Regen, which is the most powerful HoT skill in the game, and is quite useful for either mending DPS' boo-boos, or keeping the tank alive under heavy fire.

Be careful when using Cure III and Medica II! In Final Fantasy XIV, all healing spells generate emnity, but none generate more emnity than those two skills. You can accidentally pull aggro if you use them, so don't do it until the tank has a pretty strong lock on the nearby enemies.

It is for that reason that you should never use your HoT skills out of battle. You'll pull aggro every time, and there's a good chance that you'll get sacked before the tank can fix your mistake.

Conjurers get only two damage reduction spells, Protect (reduces physical damage, and magical damage after level 16), and Stoneskin (makes the target invincible until either time runs out or he/she has taken the equivalent of 10% of his/her max HP, or 18% after level 36). Stoneskin II puts Stoneskin on the entire party, but it can't be used in combat. It's up to you to put both buffs on everyone at the start of the dungeon, and keep Stoneskin up when the tank is about to take a big hit. I also re-apply Stoneskin on players whenever I get the chance, especially before any given boss battle.

If a party member is knocked out of combat (HP falls to 0), don't worry; it happens, and it probably wasn't your fault if you were doing your best. If they fall, then use Raise to get them back up. At level 28 you can use Raise in combat, but before that, you will have to wait until the battle is over. Raise takes a long time to cast, though, so if you have Swiftcast (and you absolutely should, if you want to be successful in the end-game), use that before casting Raise. I would recommend making a macro that mashes them together, like this:

(You can change the party message to whatever you want; that is just an example. Make it funny, and you might even get some commendations.)

Esuna will remove one debuff or DoT from a party member. It doesn't work on some particularly evil debuffs, such as Enfeebled or some forms of Paralysis. But you should use it on a player who got hit with a debuff or DoT, even if it's self-inflicted, like the Marauder/Warrior's Pacification (which happens when Berserk wears off).

The biggest problem Conjurers & White Mages face, especially in the end-game, is running out of MP, because they can run out of MP really easily, and unlike most other classes, it's difficult for them to regenerate MP on their own, since Shroud of Saints is their only MP regeneration skill, and it's not terribly potent. The best way to regenerate MP is to play with a Bard, and ask him/her to play Mage's Ballad when you start to run low on MP. If you aren't playing with a Bard, and you run out of MP, and Shroud of Saints is on cooldown, you're screwed. After your party gets wiped out (which will probably happen if you can no longer support them), you will need to alter your strategy to use cheaper spells next time.

Healing isn't the only thing Conjurers & White Mages do; if the party isn't in trouble, a good Conjurer/White Mage will also DPS the enemy. Their main skills are Stone (small damage & slows down targets' movement), Aero (DoT), Stone II (larger damage but no slow debuff), and Aero II (DoT, stacks with Aero). White Mages also get Holy at level 45, which is their most powerful DPS skill, but it drains MP like candy, so be careful about over-using it. If you do start DPSing the enemy, make sure you activate the Conjurer's DPS mode, which is Cleric's Stance, which will improve your DPS somewhat. Just don't forget to turn it off when you need to start healing again!

Scholar (SCH)

(Note: All of my advice for Arcanists elsewhere in this guide also apply to Scholars. Please read that section as well.)

Scholars are proactive healers. Their healing magic is quite a bit weaker than White Mages' healing magic. It is for that reason that, for outsiders to the job & people who remember Final Fantasy III, Scholar might seem like a poor man's healing job. But that's not true! Scholars are actually very powerful healers, because they have several buffs that reduce the party's damage taken. Plus, they get a fairy that helps support the party.

Scholars get one fairy that has two personalities: Eos (Summon I) and Selene (Summon II; I think this is supposed to be pronounced like "say-lay-nay" and not "sell-een"). Both of them will automatically heal nearby targets whose HP has dropped below a certain threshold, while Eos gets several healing buffs, and Selene gets several party support buffs. You generally want to keep Selene summoned, but you ought to summon Eos instead if you know the battle will involve a lot of AoE damage. Make sure you keep Eos on obey and use her buffs manually, or else she'll blow all of her buffs at once, since the pet AI in this game isn't particularly intelligent. Selene, on the other hand, can be kept on Sic if you don't care much for micro-management.

The Scholar's most important skills are Physick and Adloquium. Both heal the target somewhat. Adloquium is less potent than Physick, and costs more MP to cast, but it puts a short-lasting buff called "Galvanize" on the target that absorbs all damage on the target until either its time runs out, or the target would've taken as much damage as it healed. If you score a critical hit, Adloquium will absorb three times more damage than normal! You'll definitely want to cast Adloquium on your tank before a big hit comes. But don't spam it or you'll run out of MP really easily.

Succor is the Scholar's only AoE healing skill, and it's pretty weak, but it inflicts everyone it hits with the Galvanize buff, which means it's useful to cast before a big AoE hits the party. Eos also gets Whispering Dawn, which is a weaker version of the Conjurer's Medica II, and inflicts HoT on all nearby allies.

Leeches is the Scholar's version of the Conjurer's Esuna, in that it removes a single debuff or DoT from a target. It doesn't work on some particularly evil debuffs, such as Enfeebled, or some forms of Paralysis.

Sacred Soil creates a bubble that reduces the damage taken by everyone inside the bubble while it's up. You'll want to use Sacred Soil when you know that a big, unavoidable AoE attack is coming. It's especially useful when fighting extreme mode primals and raiding Coil.

Lustrate restores 25% of a target's total HP, is instant-cast, and uses Aetherflow stacks instead of MP to cast, and that isn't the #1 reason why you should use it. It turns out that Lustrate ignores healing debuffs that enemies sometimes inflict on your party, such as Enfeebled, so using Lustrate is the best way to heal fights where this debuff is inflicted often, such as Coil Turn 5 and Stone Vigil Hard.

If a party member is knocked out of combat (HP falls to 0), don't worry; it happens, and it probably wasn't your fault if you were doing your best. If they fall, then use Resurrection to get them back up. Resurrection takes a long time to cast, though, so if you have Swiftcast (and you absolutely should, if you want to be successful in the end-game), use that before casting Resurrection. I would recommend making a macro that mashes them together, like this:

(You can change the party message to whatever you want; that is just an example. Make it funny, and you might even get some commendations.)

If you go into a low-level dungeon as a Scholar, and end up in either Haukke Manor or an earlier dungeon, you can safely DPS the entire time by using Ruin (II) & your DoTs while allowing Eos or Selene to heal the party. Otherwise, you'll want to prioritize healing, and then switch to Cleric's Stance (if you have it) and lay down some DoTs when you have the chance.

If you end up in a party with a White Mage, then you should let him/her cast Protect and Stoneskin prior to the fight. Otherwise, the burden's on you to at least put up & keep up Protect, while laying down Stoneskin if you can.

DPS: Pounding Out Aggression Turns Into Obsession

General Tips for DPS

The DPS (Damage Per Second), known to Final Fantasy XI migrants as the DD (Damage Dealer), is in the business of attacking and slaying the enemy. Although Gladiator and White Mage are the two most popular jobs in the game according to xivsoul.com, more people play the game with a DPS class/job than any other category. That means that, if you roll as a DPS, you're going to have the longest Duty Finder queue times. Expect to spend 10-30 minutes waiting on the queue to pop. DPS are also almost never the adventurers in demand for Duty Roulette, and are the least likely to be commended at the end of the duty.. This is Square Enix's subtle way of telling you that you ought to consider a career in healing or tanking.

The job of the DPS is to kill the enemy as quickly as possible. To do that, DPS need to show up well-geared, and usually must follow a rotation to do as much damage as quickly as possible. The game, in turn, challenges DPSes with DPS checks that must be finished in time in order to continue with certain dungeons, trials, or raids. With the exception of trials with a stacking Echo buff that stacks each time the party wipes, scrappiness will never overcome a DPS check. If you're not overcoming a DPS check, you need to gear up, check your rotation (preferably against a target dummy), and then try again.

Every job in the game has at least one DoT (Damage over Time) skill. Don't discard these skills! They may look useless, since they don't do damage immediately, but over time, they are more potent than a single use of a non-DoT skill (with the exceptions of some AoE DoTs, which must be applied to multiple targets to be effective). The Arcanist in particular is all about using DoTs.

When you're playing in a party, you want the tank to hold aggro. Always let the tank make the first move. Do not intentionally pull aggro for the tank; that is rude and trollish. (Archers/Bards and Rogues/Ninjas, take note.) If you face-pull a mob, that means you walked too close, and you ought to stay behind the tank. If the tank marks the targets, then you need to attack them in the tank's order. If you pull aggro on a target that was marked out of order, then it's your fault.

If you're still pulling aggro off the tank, and your tank is a level 40+ Paladin or any level Warrior, then you should remind them to turn on Shield Oath or Defiance. It's an honest mistake every tank makes, because they're not on by default.

If you're still pulling aggro off the tank, then there's a chance that the tank may be new to the game, especially if you're in a low-level dungeon. Don't call them a bad tank. Ask them politely, "hey, are you new to tanking?" If they say yes, then you should tell them how to mark targets, and use Flash & Overpower as prescribed in the Tanks section above, to hold aggro. If they don't respond to party chat despite repeated communication attempts, then they could be a badly programmed tank-bot. If you are certain that someone is playing the game with a tank-bot, then please report them; bot usage is not allowed.

Arcanist/Summoner (ACN/SMN, sometimes incorrectly abbreviated as "ARC")

Arcanists & Summoners defeat the enemy by giving them a case of night-time sniffiness. That's right; they win battles by making the enemy ill. This makes Arcanist the slowest DPS in the game, since their damage is applied gradually, but they are among the most powerful single target DPS classes, and they are the second-best AoE DPS class. Arcanist is also the only DPS class in the game that receives defensive abilities, and the main reason for that is because Arcanists get two career paths: offense-oriented Summoners, and defense-oriented Scholars (see their section for details). If you'd like, you can even do both!

Arcanists can summon two different pets, though only one can be used at a time: Emerald Carbuncle (Summon I), which is a DPS pet, and Topaz Carbuncle (Summon II), which is a tank pet. Summoners lose the ability to summon Topaz Carbuncle after completing the level 35 job quest and instead gain Titan-Egi, which is a more powerful version of Topaz Carbuncle. They also lose the ability to summon Emerald Carbuncle after completing the level 45 job quest and instead gain Garuda-Egi, which is a more powerful version of Emerald Carbuncle. A third summon, Ifrit-Egi (Summon III), is exclusive to Summoners.

You should only ever summon Topaz Carbuncle/Titan-Egi if you are playing solo, or if you're in a group with no (functioning) tank. Don't summon your tank pet to "help" a perfectly fine party tank; that's not helping, that's trolling. In general, you should always keep Emerald Carbuncle/Garuda-Egi summoned. Ifrit-Egi is all but obsoleted by Garuda-Egi, unfortunately.

Arcanists & Summoners have a pretty loose rotation. The only thing they need to do is to make sure all of their possible DoTs - Bio II, Miasma, Bio, and Shadow Flare - are up on the enemy at all times. If one is falling off (5 or less seconds left), it needs to be re-applied. Your pet will also help you DPS or tank.

And here's where Garuda-Egi comes in: Garuda-Egi's killer feature is Plague, which, when cast on a target, extends the duration of every DoT that you inflicted on that target. This can do big damage to a single target, and cut your MP costs a little bit as well. I strongly recommend you keep Garuda-Egi on Obey so you can apply Plague manually, since the pet AI in this game isn't terribly intelligent, and Garuda-Egi will most likely cast it at an innappropriate time if you keep her on Sic. All other pets can be kept on Sic if you'd like.

When you use Sic or Obey on your pet, unless (1) you are a Scholar or (2) you are already in combat, make sure you do not have an enemy targeted when you give the command. If you do, then your pet will go LEEEEEROYYYYYY JENKINSSSSS! all over that target. Besides being embarrassing, it'll probably wipe your party if it happens in a trial or raid that can't be reset by exiting the room. (I know this from experience; can you tell?)

Arcanists can regenerate MP through use of Aetherflow, which also gives them 1-3 stacks that are spent by special-use instant-cast abilities, such as Energy Drain, which can be used to recover even more MP and some HP. The other main ability Aetherflow powers is Bane, which spreads your DoTs to other nearby enemies. (And for really big AoE damage, try using Bane after Plague...) Summoners also get Fester, which does big damage if you have all your DoTs up.

Always use Aetherflow at the start of any encounter, so you get your initial set of stacks. But if you're an end-game Summoner or Scholar, unless Aetherflow's cooldown is over, don't ever blow all of your Aetherflow stacks at once! You might need them later on, so you'll have to learn to pace yourself. (It's okay to use one of your only stacks in low-level dungeons if you must.)

So, what about Miasma II? Well, Miasma II is a special case, since it's not potent enough to justify the MP expendature, unless (1) it hits multiple targets, or (2) Garuda-Egi uses Plague while Miasma II is in effect. Good thing it's an AoE spell, then. So I can't really recommend using it on single targets, but it's a must-apply DoT on a large mob.

While your debuffs are up, and Fester is on cooldown, you can spam Ruin and Ruin II on the target. Ruin II does not obsolete Ruin; even though it's an instant-cast spell, it consumes more MP, and inflicts Blind on the target (which isn't a very useful debuff in this game). So it's a good spell to cast while moving, but if you're not in a movement-heavy fight, Ruin is better.

Arcanists' defensive abilities are Physick (a healing spell that is as potent as the Conjurer's Cure), Virus (decreases enemy DPS for 10 seconds, then can't be re-applied to the enemy by any player for 60 seconds afterwards), Eye for an Eye (a viral skill that buffs a player, which debuffs an enemy, which then decreases their DPS for a little while), and Resurrection (see my notes about Resurrection in the Scholar section). All of these skills are intended for Scholars, but don't write them off! Clever use of these skills can be the difference between a win and a loss in a battle, particularly if your healer gets knocked out.

Archer/Bard (ARC/BRD)

Archers are the only ranged DPS in the game that can move and attack at the same time. Bards also acquire some passive skills that buff the party or debuff the enemy. Although Archer is the least powerful DPS class in the game, the Bard is an absolutely essential job to end-game play due to its unique passive abilities.

A bad Archer/Bard will just sit back and pew-pew-pew the enemies. A good Archer/Bard will pew-pew the enemies while keeping Straight Shot (II), Venomous Bite, and Windbite up at all times while using Bloodletter in between turns as it comes up. A great Bard will be on the ball, and sing songs for the party before they even need to ask for them. It's all about the noon-chi; the Korean art of anticipating others' needs before they have to ask for them.

Archers & Bards do have a rotation, and that rotation is very simple: Keep your DoTs up at all times (that's Venomous Bite and Windbite), and re-apply them when they fall off or have 5 or less seconds left. Spam Straight Shot and Heavy Shot, and use Bloodletter in between turns if it's not on cooldown. If you've reached a DPS check or need to kill something quickly, use your offensive cooldowns, such as Barrage, Raging Strikes, Blood for Blood, Internal Release, or Hawk's Eye. (Using Barrage with some other buff is okay, but I don't recommend popping them all at once.) If you have multiple targets, once the tank has established aggro, use Wide Volley and Rain of Death. If you accidentally pull aggro, or could pull aggro, then use Quelling Strikes. If you find yourself running out of TP, then either use Invigorate (preferably), or sing Army's Paeon.

If you happen to pull aggro, then you should use Quelling Strikes to help the tank re-establish aggro. Actually, if there's a chance you could pull aggro, then I'd recommend popping Quelling Strikes anyway, just to be safe.

If you want to be a really great Bard, you'll keep your eye on the party's status at all times, and sing songs as appropriate:

1. If your White Mage is almost out of MP, then sing Mage's Ballad. (And it's almost always the White Mage. All other classes/jobs that use MP, except for Marauder/Warrior, have ways of easily regenerating MP. White Mages get only one skill, and it's on a long cooldown. Scholars may need it, too, but only in emergencies. Marauders/Warriors don't depend on MP to hold aggro, so you can ignore them. Thaumaturges/Black Mages will never need Mage's Ballad.)
2. If your Warrior has been spamming Overpower, then sing Army's Paeon. (And it's almost always the Warrior. Dragoons & other Bards can run out of TP easily, but they get Invigorate, and the Warrior doesn't.)
3. If you have a Thaumaturge/Black Mage, Arcanist/Summoner, or any DPSing healer in your party, you can improve his/her DPS by singing Foe Requiem. Don't let it consume all of your MP, though, or you might not have enough for emergency Mage's Ballad use.
4. If your situation is really desperate, e.g. your White Mage just got resurrected and has almost no MP, then sing your song and then use Battle Voice if you can.
5. When the battle is over, sing Swiftsong to help the party move along faster.

Archers also get Blunt Arrow and Shadowbind. Both skills may seem kind of useless at first, but Blunt Arrow is essential for interrupting enemy spells (e.g. Succubus' spells in Amdapor Keep), and Shadowbind's main use is for pinning targets in place, which you will definitely need to use in Coil Turn 7.

Lancer/Dragoon (LNC/DRG)

Lancers & Dragoons are the slowest DPS in the game, but they hit really, really, really hard. They're one of the best single-target DPSes in the game, and the third-best AoE DPS in the game. They are the only DPS that can use (some) heavy armor, and they have the best physical defense of all DPSes. They also have a complicated rotation involving positional skills that they need to follow to the letter to achieve maximum DPS, and unlike Pugilists/Monks, if their position isn't right, they don't get points for trying. They have several skills that induce position lock, which makes effective dodging a bit more difficult. That, combined with their low magic defense, cause them to get knocked out of battle really easily. If you want to be a Dragoon, you must be aware of the "loldrg" stereotype held by a lot of players; that a lot of people pick the class because the armor looks cool, or because they have fond memories of Final Fantasy IV, and then they just screw around and get themselves (and possibly others) wiped. Don't be an loldrg! I will try to help you not be an loldrg.

The Lancer/Dragoon rotation is based on priorities. Your priorities are: Buffing yourself (Heavy Thrust, Blood for Blood, Power Surge, Invigorate if you're below 600 TP) -> debuffing the enemy (Chaos Thrust combo, Impluse Drive -> Disembowel -> Chaos Thrust) -> DoT (Phlebotomize) -> Dragoon jumps only if it is safe to use them & they're off cool-down (Jump, Spineshatter Drive, Dragonfire Drive) -> damage (Full Thrust combo, True Thrust -> Vorpal Thrust -> Full Thrust).

You must keep Heavy Thrust up at all times if you want to do maximum DPS! At first glance, the skill doesn't seem to do anything important, but if you stand to the enemy's flank (their left or right side), using Heavy Thrust will give you a DPS buff. Blood for Blood also helps, but be careful about using it, because it reduces your physical defense while it's in use, so don't use it right before the enemy delivers a scripted big hit.

The Chaos Thrust combo will give you both a DoT and extra DPS, but there's a catch - you must be standing behind the target when you use Impulse Drive, or no debuffs for you. After that, you should put up Phlebotomize, your stand-alone DoT skill.

Your Dragoon jumps come next, if they're ready to be used. Just be careful when using them, because if you jump in the middle of an AoE, you will get hit by the AoE, because the Dragoon jumps come with temporary position lock. Your 1-2-3 damage combo comes last.

After all of this, your buffs and debuffs will probably start to fall off, so you've got to keep track of them and re-apply them as necessary. If they're at 5 seconds or less, it's time to re-apply each one of them.

In my opinion, the Dragoon's most overrated skill is Elusive Jump. It takes you away from the enemy instead of moving closer to them, and it can send you sailing off a cliff when fighting Titan. Ring of Thorns, on the other hand, is the best physical AoE DPS skill in the game, and you should spam it on a large mob after using Heavy Thrust (which will even give you a combo bonus the first time).

If it is not safe to move into a position where you can apply a buff or debuff, e.g. Coil Turn 8 or Titan Extreme, then you can make exceptions to the rotation if it's necessary to keep you and the party alive. You will never put up the DPS numbers you get fighting Titan Extreme as you get fighting a target dummy.

Pugilist/Monk (PGL/MNK, sometimes incorrectly abbreviated as "PUG")

Pugilists & Monks don't hit the enemy particularly hard per blow, but they're really, really fast. They are the best single-target DPS in the game, but their AoE skills are pretty weak, their armor is pretty light, and all of their attacks have positional bonuses you need to remember.

Pugilist & Monk are unique among all DPSes in that they not only have a rotation, but they have a forced rotation. Except when you pop Perfect Balance, the game will force you to stick to a rotation: Opo-opo (default) form (Bootshine, Arm of the Destroyer, Dragon Kick), Raptor form (True Strike, Twin Snakes, One-ilm Punch), and Coeurl form (Snap Punch, Demolish, Rockbreaker). After completing a rotation, or using a Coeurl form skill while in Perfect Balance, you will get a stack of Greased Lightning, which will increase your skill speed. At the maximum 3 stacks, you will be Damage Inc. You then have 12 seconds to repeat your rotation, or you lose your stacks, and become slow again.

If you lose your stacks, then the fastest way to get them back is to pop Perfect Balance and use your Coeurl form skills three times in a row. In no other situation should you ever spam a single skill.

Although you can deliver attacks from any position to advance in your rotation, to get maximum DPS, with the exceptions of One-ilm Punch and your AoEs, you must deliver attacks standing in certain positions. Bootshine and Demolish are most effective when used in the rear, while Dragon Kick, True Strike, Twin Snakes, and Snap Punch all work best from the flank (left or right side). As usual, if you can't safely move to get a positional bonus, then don't move, and it'll be okay. As I told Lancers/Dragoons above, you will never put up the DPS numbers you get fighting Titan Extreme as you get fighting a target dummy.

Twin Snakes and Dragon Kick are your two most critical buff/debuff skills, so make sure you keep them up at all times. Unlike Lancers/Dragoons, you do not need the positional bonus to get the buff/debuff. If you don't need to use them, then you should use Bootshine and True Strike instead, for slightly better DPS.

Demolish and Touch of Death are your two DoTs, so keep them up at all times. If you have Fracture, and full Greased Lightning, then go ahead and put that up as well. One-ilm Punch isn't a PvP-only skill, but it's only ever useful in PvP, because outside of PvP, it never works when you need it to work the most.

If you're fighting a mob, then just about the best you can do is use Arm of the Destroyer -> Twin Snakes/True Strike -> Rockbreaker repeatedly. Yeah, Monk DPS vs. mobs is not impressive, but it's better than nothing.

Of your passive Fists skills, you will generally want to keep Fists of Fire up at all times. If you don't have/can't use Fists of Fire, then use Fists of Earth instead. Fists of Wind is rarely ever a useful skill.

Rogue/Ninja (ROG/NIN)

Rogues & Ninjas are melee finesse DPSes. Their main advantages are they're fast, they can ambush the enemy more easily than any other DPS, they can acquire item drops more easily than any other DPS, and they have only one skill with a positional bonus. Ninjas also get the passive bonus of being able to move slightly faster with their weapons drawn.  The downside is, the Ninja job is crazy complicated due to the free-form mudra entry system, and requires a good deal of knowing what you're doing in order to achieve maximum DPS. Their AoE attacks are good but not great. And Rogue is the only class in the game that isn't available as a starting class, and is not a secondary or tertiary class for any other job, which is kind of a bummer. (It's because the class was added in patch 2.40 instead of being available from the start.)

The Rogue/Ninja rotation is also priority-based: Huton (pronounced "fff-tone"; there is no "who" sound in Japanese) -> your DoTs (Mutliate, Shadow Fang combo, Doton (pronounced "doe-tone")) -> debuffs (Dancing Edge combo, Spinning Edge -> Gust Slash -> Dancing Edge) -> other mudras (in particular Raiton (pronounced "lie-tone")) -> damage (Aeolian Edge combo, Spinning Edge -> Gust Slash -> Aeolian Edge).

If you have a Marauder or Warrior in your party, then don't use the Dancing Edge combo. The reason is because Dancing Edge conflicts with Storm's Eye instead of stacking with it, so instead of fighting over the debuff, just let them apply it. You'll benefit from Storm's Eye being up, anyway. If you have multiple Rogues/Ninjas in your party, then only the most recently applied Dancing Edge will be applied to a target; it will not stack.

You don't unlock Huton until you do the level 45 Ninja job quest, so it's okay if you're not to that point yet. The mudra greatly increases your skill speed, which is why it is your #1 priority for getting good DPS. Doton is your best AoE mudra, while Raiton is your best single target mudra (especially when used immediately after popping Kassatsu). All other mudras are only situatuaionally useful. Fuma Shuriken shouldn't be used at all, except between levels 30 and 34. If you dial a mudra incorrectly, you'll wind up with Mysidian Rabbit, a "fail" state that has history going back to Final Fantasy V.

Perfect Dodge is like a slightly weaker version of the Black Mage's Manawall, in that it only works once instead of twice. Still, that's one more time than all other melee DPS get, so make sure you use it when you see a big hit coming.

One of the nice things about Rogue/Ninja is they get two different passive DPS buffs, and they don't necessarily obsolete one another. In general, if you have Kiss of the Viper, you want to use that. But if you're in a fight that requires that some enemy get stunned instead of silenced, such as Leviathan Extreme or Coil Turn 5, you will need to use Kiss of the Wasp instead, because Kiss of the Wasp changes Jugulate to stun instead of silence.

I've seen too many end-game Ninjas throw Goad off of their hotbars, because it couldn't be cast on themselves. Please, don't be that Ninja. Goad is a very useful skill in party play if used correctly. Unfortunately, since as of now, you can't see other players' TP bars, so you'll have to play it by ear and use your noon-chi skills. Is your party's Warrior spamming Overpower? Use Goad on them. Is your party's Bard spamming Wide Volley? Use Goad on them. Is your party's Dragoon spamming Ring of Thorns? Goad. Another Ninja spamming Death Blossom for some reason? Goad. Paladins doing their 1-2-3 combo for five minutes straight? Goad. Did some non-magic user accidentally use Sprint in the middle of a fight? Goad. Just don't use Goad on an Arcanist/Summoner/Scholar, Conjurer/White Mage, or Thaumaturge/Black Mage, ever. They don't need the TP in order to fight; they only use it to use Sprint.

Thaumaturge/Black Mage (THM/BLM)

Thaumaturges & Black Mages defeat the enemy by setting the enemy's pants on fire. While they are okay at single-target DPS, they are by far the best AoE DPS in the game. The downside? They can't move and attack at the same time, except to use Scathe, which is their weakest skill. Having a good Black Mage in your party will make dungeon runs proceed at a much faster rate. But in movement-heavy fights, such as Titan Hard and Titan Extreme, Black Mages are at a bit of a disadvantage.

Thaumaturges/Black Mages have a rotation, and it goes against how you most likely commanded your mages in previous Final Fantasy games:

1. Your opening move should always be Fire III. If you don't have/can't use Fire III, then use Fire instead until your stacks are full. You get a maximum of 1 stack of Astral Fire until level 20, and a maximum of 2 stacks until level 40. After your stacks are full, you should never use Fire III again, unless you get a Firestarter proc, or you need to convert from Umbral Ice. (Fire III does more damage than Fire, but it takes a while to cast unless you use a Firestarter proc. You can do more damage in that time by casting Fire repeatedly, but you can get your stacks faster by using Fire III.)
2. Are you facing multiple targets? Is your tank a Marauder, Warrior, or a Paladin using Shield Oath? If so, then it's your turn to shine! Spam the enemy with repeated casts of Fire II. When your MP starts running low, if you have & can use Flare, and you have about 400 MP remaining, use Swiftcast & Flare. (Flare consumes all of your MP, but has the undocumented requirement of a minimum of around 400 MP to work.) After you're done with Flare, use Transpose. If you didn't use Flare, then keep casting Fire II until you can't anymore, then cast Blizzard III. If you don't know/can't use Blizzard III, then use Transpose instead. (Never use Fire II or Flare when you are playing with a Gladiator, or a Paladin without Shield Oath. You'll pull aggro every time!)
3. On single targets, just cast Thunder once, and Fire repeatedly. If you get a Thunderbolt or Firestarter proc, use it. (If you start casting your next spell before you notice you got a proc, let the spell finish before using your proc. Interrupting a spell will cost you some DPS.) When you're down to your last 400 MP, use Flare if you have/can use it, then Transpose. Otherwise, keep casting Fire until you can't anymore. If you have/can use Blizzard III, then cast that; otherwise, use Transpose. (Flare is okay to use on a single target due to the immense damage it does. Don't use Fire II on a single target; it is a waste.)
4. Get your maximum number of stacks of Umbral Ice if you don't have maximum stacks already. Your MP ought to fully recharge in no time. Then, if you have Fire III, use it. Otherwise, use Transpose when the skill becomes available again. Now, do your rotation all over again.
5. If you have 0 MP and no Umbral Ice, well, you done goofed. You'll have to either pop an ether, or wait until you can put together the MP to spend on Blizzard.

Astral Fire increases your DPS, but stunts your MP regeneration. Umbral Ice decreases your DPS, but increases your MP regeneration. You need to effectively cycle through the two in order to achieve maximum DPS as a Thaumaturge/Black Mage. If you simply spam Blizzard because you don't want to spend MP, then you are wasting your team's time. Thaumaturges/Black Mages are made for going for broke with their MP usage, then flipping and getting it back again.

You normally don't use Fire III except as an opening move, or Blizzard III. The exception is when your Umbral Ice stacks are full, and your MP is full, and it's time to transpose. Casting the opposite spell at full stacks actually goes several times faster than normal, so it's the best way to transpose. The Transpose skill is useful if you don't have, or can't cast, or don't have enough MP to cast, Blizzard III, but it only gives you one stack of the opposite buff. You'll want to transpose to Umbral Ice after each battle in order to recharge your MP for the next fight.

You can even cast Flare multiple times in a row. After using Flare once, you can use Convert & Flare again, use a Hi-Elixir and Flare again, use a Hi-Ether and Flare again, and so on. Of course, if you cast Flare multiple times, one thing you will notice about Thaumaturges/Black Mages is they tend to pull aggro far more easily than any other DPS. That is why Quelling Strikes is an absolute must-have cross-class skill for post-game play.

Thunder (I/II/III) is the Thaumaturge's only DoT, and the three levels don't stack, unlike the Arcanist's & Conjurer's DoTs. Bummer. You ought to keep it up when DPSing a single target, however. If you get a Thunderstorm proc, always spend it on the most powerful Thunder spell you can cast.

I actually don't use Aethereal Manipulation much; I prefer to dodge incoming attacks by moving manually. But if you can make it work for you, that's great.

All that Surecast does is it makes it so taking a critical hit won't interrupt your casting. It won't let you move and cast, and you can still get interrupted by Paralysis, which limits its usefulness greatly. Swiftcast, on the other hand, is one of the most useful cooldowns in the game. I recommend you use it right before Flare whenever possible, since Flare does take a while to cast. You also get Manawall, which can save you from taking up to two big hits (physical damage) from enemies, so make sure you put it to good use.

Scathe is your one and only skill that can be used while moving (without Swiftcast active), but I've never found it to be particularly useful. Blizzard II is, likewise, only situationally useful, and shouldn't be used in a rotation. Freeze is the Black Mage's most useless skill.

How to Speed Run

All of the dungeons in the game are structured to take around 20 minutes to so to clear, unless something bad happens. There are several different ways to blow through them even more quickly:

1. The Multi-Pull: The tank grabs multiple mobs, and pops cooldowns while the DPS hit the mobs with every AoE they have, and the healer keeps the tank from collapsing. This is the most common method of speeding up duties, though it requires high-level gear, particularly on the healer & tank, so I don't recommend doing this in low-level dungeons. It'll also go faster with a Black Mage.
2. The Lockout Pull: The tank pulls everything to the (mini-)boss, the DPS or healer pulls the boss, while the tank stands just inside the aethereal door. After 15 seconds, the door closes, and the locked-out mobs go back to their post. The tank then uses Provoke on the boss, and proceeds as normal. This method is super-risky, because it depends on everything going exactly to plan. If the tank wipes, and the party wipes afterwards, then it would've been better if you had chosen a different method. It also will not work in duties with gates in them, such as Snowcloak or Tam-Tara Hard. (A "gate" here is some barrier that blocks your progress until the mobs are defeated.)
3. The Sacrifice Pull (no checkpoints): The tank pulls everything to the (mini-)boss. The DPS and healers do absolutely nothing except follow the tank. Summoners can keep their pets on obey, but Scholars must put away their pet. After the DPS and healers get safely out of the mob's way, the tank intentionally wipes. If the mobs didn't notice the DPS or healer, and they were far enough away that they didn't face-pull after the tank fell, then the mobs will go away, and the tank can be revived. This method, too, is very risky, and also won't work in duties with gates in them.
4. The Sacrifice Pull (checkpoints): Same as (3), except that the tank carries everything off to some remote corner, while the rest of the party does not follow the tank, and instead activates the next checkpoint, so the tank can wipe and reset back to their position. This is less risky, but it only works in duties where checkpoints aren't tied to a mini-boss. Currently, that means it only works in the Praetorium and Coil Turn 1.
5. The Kamikaze Pull: Same as (3), but this time, everyone makes a mad rush for the end of the duty. Players who wipe just respawn and try again. This only works in duties with no gates and no bosses, which means it only works in Coil Turn 3.

Disciples of the Hand (Crafting)

Do You Want to Build a Snowman?

Disciples of the Hand (DoH) include all of the game's crafting classes - Armorer for heavy armor, Blacksmith for metallic weapons & tools, Goldsmith for various other metallic things, Carpenter for wooden weapons & tools, Leatherworker and Weaver for light armor, Alchemist for drugs & books, and Culinarian for food & dyes. All of them can make housing gear. Excpet for Culinarian, all of them can meld materia, mend equipment, and make glamour prisms.

Prior to hitting level 50, crafting is a money sink. After hitting level 50, crafting is a temporary money sink, since you need to spend money to gear & meld up. But at level 50, you can sell your services to others, and make a lot of money that way, even if you can't craft 2-star high-quality items initially. Experience with gathering will reduce the cost of leveling up crafting somewhat.

You can play the game purely as a crafter, if you'd like. You ought to get a DoW or DoM job to level 50 just so you can get safe passage to Saint Coinarch's Find, which is where the level 45 levequests are located.

You are awarded the title "Seeker of Skill" if you complete all level 30 crafting quests, and "Builder of the Realm" if you get all crafting classes to level 50.

How to Build a Snowman (and it doesn't have to be a snowman)

In Final Fantasy XIV, you begin crafting by switching to the appropriate crafting class, bringing up the crafting log, choosing the item you want to make, deciding between NQ (Normal Quality) and HQ (High Quality) ingredients (NQ are used by default; you have to manually activate HQ ingredients), and if everything's in order, begin the craft. Using HQ items will increase the initial quality, which will make it somewhat easier to get an HQ craft. All crafting in the game is turn-based, so there is no cooldown, and you are not on a timer to complete the craft. You then have to watch four things:

1. Durability: Intermediate crafting materials have a maximum durability of 40, while most everything else has a maximum durability of 60 or 80. Each progress-increasing or quality-increasing action, whether they succeed or fail, will consume 10 durability, unless Waste Not (or Waste Not II) is in effect, in which case they consume 5 durability. Activating a buff uses a turn, but consumes 0 durability. If a craft runs out of durability before its progress hits 100%, the craft fails. If it fails, there's a random chance that you'll get your ingredients back, but you won't get your crystals back.
2. Progress: Synthesis abilities increase progress. How much it increases depends on the item's level, the ability you used, and your Craftsmanship stat. When progress has reached 100%, you will have completed the craft, even if durability ran out on your last turn. Depending on how much you put into the item's quality, and depending on whether an HQ variant of the item exists (equipment, food, and most crafting materials have HQ variants; all other items do not), you have a chance to obtain an HQ item. Which gets me to...
3. Quality: Touch abilities increase quality. How much it increases depends on the ability you used, and your Control stat. The higher the quality, the greater the chance you will obtain an HQ craft, if the crafted item has an HQ variation available. Your HQ chance % in this game is on a logarithmic curve instead of a linear curve, so if the quality meter is only half-way full, you'll only have a 15% chance of crafting an HQ item, and that chance starts to rocket upwards after the bar is about 2/3 of the way full. You are never guaranteed an HQ item unless the quality bar is full. I can't tell you how many times I got the HQ chance to 92% and ended up with an NQ item.
4. Condition: Usually, this is Normal. On each turn it's at Normal, it has a random chance of becoming Good or Excellent. At Good condition, if you use a touch action, it will always register as a "critical hit", and give you a certain percentage of extra quality. At Excellent condition, successful touches will result in a huge quality increase. Excellent condition will always degrade to Poor condition, where any quality increase will be stunted by 50%. Poor condition will always upgrade back to Normal condition. Good condition will always degrade to Normal condition. Condition has zero effect on progress, durability, whether or not you will get an HQ item, or the price of tea in Ul'dah.

All crafting classes have a universal rotation. If you're just going for an NQ item, then you should just spam your synthesis skills, or use Quick Synthesis if it's available. But if you want an HQ item:

1. If you have Comfort Zone, then that should be your opening move, followed by Inner Quiet. Otherwise, start with Inner Quiet.
2. If you have Steady Hand II, then activate that, and spam Hasty Touch. It's the cheapest way to increase quality. If not, then just use Steady Hand and your touch skills. Make sure you have either Waste Not (II) or Manipulation active for more turns. If you use Waste Not, then don't apply any buffs while it's still in effect. Use Great Strides before any touch action for a boost.
3. If you have Byregot's Blessing, then activate that after you've built up 8+ stacks of Inner Quiet for a big quality boost. Otherwise, do what you can to increase quality, but don't get too ambitious, or you'll run out of CP or durability. You'll have to discover your limits for yourself.
4. Before you run out of durability, use your synthesis skills to complete the craft.

And for what it's worth, I never use Master's Mend or Observe. Observe may be situationally useful if the condition becomes Poor, but if you have Byregot's Blessing, you need the stack of Inner Quiet more than you need to skip the turn, so Observe is useless for end-game crafting.

How to Get to Level 50

You can't exactly run dungeons as a crafter, so here are the fastest methods of leveling up:

1. Grand Comapny supply turn-ins, especially HQ turn-ins, especially especially items in need
2. Levequest turn-ins, especially HQ turn-ins
3. Daily Ix'al beast tribe quests (you can craft the item using your highest level crafting class, then switch to a lower-level class for the actual turn in, and the XP will go to the lower-level class)
4. Crafting new items
5. Crafting HQ items
6. Crafting NQ items
7. Don't forget to do your class quests for free equipment and XP!

If you want to be a successful level 50 crafter, I recommend you do the following:

1. Join every crafting guild, even ones where you aren't really that interested.
2. Get all of your crafting classes to level 15.
3. Get Culinarian to level 37, for Steady Hand II.
4. Get Weaver, Carpenter, and Blacksmith to level 50.
5. Get everything else to level 50. The order actually isn't important, but the level 50 skills granted by Weaver, Carpenter, and Blacksmith are very important for end-game crafting. The level 50 skill granted by Armorer will become important much later.

The Master Crafter's Path

Gearing up a DoH class is not as obvious as gearing up a DoW/DoM class, because you can't exactly go raiding for crafting gear. So here's how you currently gear up a crafter:

1. Get to level 50.
2. Clear the final class quest to get your level 55 weapon.
3. Get a complete set of item-level 55 HQ crafting gear for your class. Most of it is made by Weavers, Leatherworkers, and Goldsmiths. You can make it yourself if you have the minumum required level of control (255) and HQ ingredients. If you have any friends who craft, you can ask them to bootstrap you. The last resort is buying the gear from the Market Board, which is going to be expensive.
4. Get the Ehcatl Smithing Gloves by becoming Sworn by the Ix'al beast tribe. The tribe merchant will sell them to you afterwards. The gloves are a very close 2nd place BiS, and will serve you well for a long time.
5. If you haven't done so already, complete the "Melding Materia Muchly" quest in Central Thanalan to unlock overmelding.
6. Meld and overmeld your gear. Each item has an undocumented-in-game limit on how good its stats can get, so make sure you use Ariyala's Final Fantasy XIV Toolkit to figure out your game plan. Always start by melding your right-hand side gear (other than the off-hand tool) and your belt; anything you attach to them will work on all of your classes. Always learn the current cost of the materia you need, and meld them in order of most expensive to cheapest.
7. Get the Master Craft I book for your class(es). Speak to Talan in Revenant's Toll to figure out what you need to turn in. All of the recipes involve items sold in Grand Company stores, and dropped in some high-level dungeons (e.g. Brayflox Hard, Halatali Hard, and Lost City of Amdapor).
8. Work towards the Artisan's Spectacles and then the Artisan's weapon(s), which will require HQ Master Craft item turn-ins to Talan. Talan will also trade you item-level 70 Artisan gear as well, which will save you a ton of money on melding your crafting classes that use item-level 55 gear, but except for the spectacles, it's not quite BiS.
9. Get the item-level 75 weapon, by trading in NQ Master Craft items to Talan, plus demimateria. You can get demimateria through desynthesis, or by buying it on the market board.
10. If you have the materials, I recommend you find a master crafter who can make you the crafted item-level 60 Artisan's gear. This gear is currently BiS when fully melded. But the materials are expensive to acquire, and actually making the craft is quite an experience, so pick your crafter wisely.
11. If you got the crafted Artisan's gear, meld it up. The shirt, gloves, pants, shoes, and off-hand weapon are all BiS with the appropriate overmelds. All but the off-hand weapon can be used by all crafting classes, too.
12. Get the Master Craft II book for your class(es). Talan will sell it to you for HQ Master Craft items.
13. When you have fully melded equipment and the Supra weapon, the last step is to get the Lucis weapon, also from Talan.

The over-melding is the most expensive part. Once you have melds and gear upgrades, you can make pretty much anything. The Master Craft books are cheap and easy for a Culinarian to acquire, and far more expensive for everyone else, since Cooking Sherry & Coeurl Meat are cheap and Coke & Potash are not.

My Recommended Cross-Class Skills

I use these skills on all of my crafting class, and I would recommend you use these as well.

Temporary cross-class skills:

1. Careful Synthesis (Level 15 Weaver): This skill isn't the best progress booster, but it'll always work, so it's good to use to put the finishing touches on the item. Obsoleted by Careful Synthesis II.
2. Ingenuity (Level 15 Blacksmith): Use this skill to make progress increase a little faster when you use a synthesis skill. Obsoleted by Ingenuity II.
3. Runination (Level 15 Carpenter): This is your first "panic button" skill, that gives you increasing amounts of CP for each stack of Inner Quiet you acquired. It isn't obsoleted by anything, but it doesn't work with Byregot's Blessing, so it becomes less important later.

Permanent cross-class skills:

1. Waste Not (Level 15 Leatherworker): Who wouldn't want 4 more turns? The catch is, you have to use them or lose them, because this skill is wasted if you do nothing that decreases durability in a turn.
2. Steady Hand II (Level 37 Culinarian): Use it, and your risky progress and quality-increasing skills will start working most of the time. Also, your standard skills will now always work. Obsoletes Steady Hand.
3. Hasty Touch (Level 15 Culinarian): It's a risky way to increase quality, but hey, it's free! Spam this skill after using Steady Hand II to raise quality and build Inner Quiet stacks for a minimal amount of CP.
4. Tricks of the Trade (Level 15 Alchemist): If you are awarded Good condition and you weren't planning on increasing quality, use this skill for free CP. It can bail you out if you run out/low on CP.
5. Byregot's Blessing (Level 50 Carpenter): This, and Inner Quiet, are the two most important skills for crafting HQ items in the end-game. It works with Great Strides, too, so unless you're running low on CP, you should use Great Strides before using Byregot's Blessing.
6. Comfort Zone (Level 50 Alchemist): Make sure you activate this skill immeidately when you start crafting. It's expensive, but it awards you more CP than it costs.
7. Ingenuity II (Level 50 Blacksmith): This skill will save you a great deal of durability when crafting 1- and 2-star items, since having it activated will greatly improve the efficiency of your synthesis skills.
8. Manipulation (Level 15 Goldsmith): It's like Waste Not, but it's more expensive, and you're not wasting turns while it works unless the durability was already full.
9. Careful Synthesis II (Level 50 Weaver): This progress-increasing skill is so awesome, it obsoletes both Careful Synthesis and Basic Synthesis. Use it with Ingenuity II, and you'll become a far more successful crafter!
10. Reclaim (Level 50 Culinarian): If you screw up your rotation, here's your panic button. I recommend you add it as a cross-class skill, because you may only ever need it once, but you don't know which "once" until it happens to you.

Also, the following are situationally useful:

1. Waste Not II (Level 50 Leatherworker): I don't think this skill is useless. I actually use it when I'm trying to make an HQ item with 40 durability. But otherwise, it's not that good, because it outlasts all of your other buffs, which means you have to re-apply them, which means you lose Waste Not turns.
2. Piece by Piece (Level 50 Armorer): For 2-star and easier crafts, Ingenuity II is a better deal. For 3-star and more difficult crafts, this progress skill cannot be beat.

I really can't recommend the following skills:

1. Rapid Synthesis (Level 15 Armorer): Without Steady Hand II, using this skill is like playing Russian Roulette with your craft. With Steady Hand II and Ingenuity II, it'll work wonders for your progress, but it's still risky. I still prefer Careful Synthesis II, even though it's not as powerful.
2. All of the level 37 skills other than Steady Hand II. Sadly, they're worthless.
3. Innovation (Level 50 Goldsmith): I'd rather spend the extra turn on building Inner Quiet stacks for Byregot's Blessing.

Disciples of the Land (Gathering)

And So, God Made a Farmer

Of course, the raw ingredients for your crafts have to come from somewhere, so that's where gathering comes in. Gathering in Final Fantasy XIV is a simple, relaxing way of getting loot and making money. There are time limits when gathering, but only when you are gathering on an unspoiled node, or when you're trying to catch a fish that only spawns at certain times or under certain weather conditions. Only the Fisher gathers in real-time; the other gathering classes are turn-based.

Gathering can be a time sink, but with the exception of melding up end-game gear, it is not a money sink. You'll be able to make money at all levels in all classes, although Miners tend to make the most money, followed closely by Botanists.

You are awarded the title "Seeker of Bounty" if you complete all of the level 30 gathering quests, and "Provider of the Realm" if you get all gathering classes to level 50. The bonus titles "The Ambitious Angler" and "Of Dragons Deep" are available to Fishers who do the post-50 fishing quests.

How to Get to Level 50

You can't exactly run dungeons as a gatherer, so here are the fastest methods of leveling up:

1. Grand Comapny provisioning turn-ins, especially HQ turn-ins, especially especially items in need
2. Levequests (Botanists and Miners get mini-games, Fishers get turn-ins)
3. Gathering new items
4. Gathering HQ items
5. Gathering NQ items
6. Don't forget to do your class quests for free equipment and XP!

Unlike with crafting, you do not need to join all of the guilds to be successful at gathering. However, I do recommend you level both Botanist and Miner to level 20, since each class has three skills that increase crystal harvesting yields, and they can be cross-classed.

The Master Gatherer's Path

It's not much different for DoL as it is for DoH:

1. Get to level 50.
2. Clear the final quest to get your level 55 weapon.
3. Get a complete set of item-level 55 gear HQ gathering gear for your class. I hope you have end-game crafters, or you know people who are end-game crafters, because this gear is going to be expensive if purchased from the Market Board.
4. Meld and overmeld your gear. Again, having a level 50 Leatherworker and Goldsmith helps immensely. Use Ariyala's Final Fantasy XIV Toolkit to plan your course of action, and always meld materia in order of most expensive to cheapest. Fishers do not need GP, except to make it easier to switch to a different gathering class, so if you plan to only fish, you can ignore GP melds. Botanists and Miners need at least 600 GP.
5. Get the Forager's Hat, which is acquired by turning in items to Talan in Revenant's Toll. Botanists need to turn in HQ Fragrant Logs, which can be gathered from the unspoiled node that spawns in the South Shroud at 2 AM Eorzea time. Miners need to turn in HQ Umbral Rocks, which can be gathered from the unspoiled node that spawns in the South Shroud at 6 AM Eorzea time. Fishers need to turn in HQ Silver Soverigns, which can be fished during the day at Oschon's Torch in Lower La Noscea.
6. Get the Forager's weapon by turning in even more HQ items.
7. When you have enough Perception and Gathering, you can start working on your Supra weapon, which is acquired by trading with Talan.
8. The item-level 60 Forager's gear is BiS, but it can only be made by a master 4-star crafter, and the materials are super expensive. If you go for it, you'll have to meld and overmeld it as well.
9. Once you've mastered everything else, the last step is to work on your Lucis weapon. It, too, can be acquired from Talan.

More Good Things to Know

Why The Game Highlighted a Skill on your Hotbar

If a skill on your hotbar has a yellow highlight around it, it means one of the following things:

1. Conjurers and Scholars: You have been awarded a proc! Using the highlighted spell will either be free or reduced-cost for a limited time.
2. Thaumaturges: You have been awarded a proc! Not only will the highlighted spell be free for a limited time, but it'll also be instant-cast.
3. Gladiators, Marauders, Lancers, and Rogues: This is the next skill to activate in your combo.
4. Archers: If Straight Shot is highlighted, then the game will award you the Straight Shot II buff on your next usage of Straight Shot. If an AoE skill is highlighted, then see (1) above.
5. All DoH and DoL: You did/gathered something that made this normally unavailable action available. Use it when the time is right, which, depending on the action, might be right now.

How to Make Money

There are a number of ways to make gil (the general-purpose currency) in the game; here are some ideas:

1. Gathering, particularly items that are in high demand. You can charge a premium for HQ gathered items.
2. Crafting, particularly end-game and housing items.
3. Gardening, if you have a house, since there are certain gathered items that can only be acquired through gardening.
4. Melding for other players, if you have a level 50 DoH class other than Culinarian. Other players can choose to tip you for the meld.
5. Spiritbonding. Get some convertable item-level 45 or higher gear, drink a Spiritbonding Potion, head to Urth's Gift in the South Shroud, and grind away. Level IV materia can often be sold for a lot of money.
6. Sell your services as a DoW/DoM or DoH to other players. Sell common levequest turn-ins on the Market Board to help others power-level through levequests. Selling difficult craft builds to players with the materials can also bring in money. Selling duty clears is controversial, but not against the rules.
7. Ventures. With a few exceptions, you can sell the goods your retainer acquires for you. Some of those exceptions are unique gear that can be turned in for seals to your Grand Company.
8. Flipping items purchased using Allagan tomestones or Grand Company seals, except for those that are marked as unsellable.
9. Running Duty Roulette, particularly as an adventurer in need. Be on the lookout for unusual crafting materials, since some low-level duties contain rare crafting materials that are worth a good bit of money, such as the fine wax in Haukke Manor.

In case you're wondering, the game does not legally allow you to pursue a career in real estate, so you can't buy up houses and then rent or flip them to other players. (Anyone who is trying to sell a house is trying to rip you off.)

Please, please, please don't buy gil from gil farmers using real money! Third-party real money transactions are against the game's terms of service for a reason; because it breaks the balance of the game, and the extra money they bring into circulation causes inflation.

Other Resources I Find Useful

• Square Enix's own Libra Eorzea app, available for iOS and Android. It's a must have app that will help you find every quest and every item in the game. ("Libra" was the name of the scanning spell used in previous Final Fantasy games.)
• The Lodestone, www.finalfantasyxiv.com. It's a social networking site for all players.
• XIVDB, www.xivdb.com. Contains, among other things, the location of every FATE and every mob spawn location for your hunting log.
• Ariyala's Final Fantasy XIV Toolkit, ffxiv.ariyala.com. Contains a complete guide to end-game gear, as well as the spawn times for unspoiled gathering nodes.
• XIV Soul, www.xivsoul.com, for basic demographic information. It's not a complete census, but it's better than nothing.
• Disciples of the Land, www.disciplesoftheland.com, for fishing advice and locations.
• Cat Became Hungry, en.ff14angler.com, for more fishing advice.
• FF XIV Console Games Wiki, ffxiv.consolegameswiki.com, for misc. information.
• The Hunt, thehunt.tk, for end-game hunters.