Overpower

Day 430

There will eventually be a time where FFXIV isn't the only game I'm playing, but now is now that time. MMOs are very time-consuming. I could easily be splitting my time between it and other games, but I tend to get pretty singleminded with MMOs, at least for a little while. I'm still irritated that I never hit max level in Rift because that's a blemish on my backlog. I might go back one of these days, grind out two levels, and call it a day, but hey, who knows.

In FFXIV, there are several classes the game gives you the option of starting out with. These classes can be cycled through on an individual character simply by wielding a different weapon. This make it easy and simple for a player to experiment with different classes and I like that aspect a lot. Once you reach level 30 in a class, you can undertake a quest to unlock a job, which is a more focused version of these starter classes. Lancer becomes Dragoon, for instance. Once you equip the requisite Soul Crystal associated with that job, you begin to unlock new job-specific abilities through quests given to you by a specific NPC. At level 30, a new Dragoon quickly gains access to Jump, that iconic Dragoon skill that pops up in every Final Fantasy title in which Dragoons exist, all the way back to Final Fantasy IV. Like those titles, the jump returns the character back to their original location afteward--which is a little odd, but it is interesting.

It looks like I'll be unlocking new skills about every five levels, meaning I should get four job-specific skills in all. I can only imagine these skills are different varieties of Jump, but I'd rather not read ahead to find out. It's fun when these new skills are a surprise. So far, I am reasonably satisfied with the number of skills at my disposal, and especially with the ability to retain certain skills from other classes you have leveled. To unlock Dragoon, I also had to level the Marauder class to 15 so I have access to several of those skills. I also leveled Pugilist to 10, however, meaning I have access to skills like Second Wind for a quick burst of healing when things get tough.

I still haven't been able to try tanking or healing in dungeons. I have Marauder at level 15 so I could theoretically do some tanking, but I just haven't given it a shot just yet. It seems like it would be a fairly simple thing to do at this level, given that I have access to a point blank area of effect attack that can be used over and over. Although it burns through TP quickly, I could see it making it pretty easy to hold threat on a large group of enemies. The lack of mobility skills at my disposal does seem a little troubling, though. I hope that I'll have some of that later. I can only think of the warrior class from World of Warcraft and how he can charge and stomp all over the battlefield in order to protect his allies. I hope the Marauder (and subsequently the Warrior) class has access to some similar skills.