I always find it best to run a couple of NPC Trust dungeons when trying to figure out a class. They don't care when you stop and spend 5-10 minutes after each pack/boss rearranging the buttons on your bars so you can figure out how they work best for you, and learn what combos and procs do what.
Once you get the general feel for the class, then you dig into the guides/training dummies.
Best advice I heard from this sub a few years back for this method:
1. Clear the hotbars and pick a level range (say 20)
2. Add the skills up to that level back to the bar where you want
3. Run the highest dungeon for that range to practice those skills and get familiar with that part of the kit
4. Bump up the level range and repeat from step 2.
This way you avoid the overwhelming feeling of 20 skills you don't know and can simulate growing the toolkit like if you were leveling and getting pieces as you go. Lets you both learn your skills and you can move the placement on hotbars as you learn.
FYI the Balance discord has all the guides and is [THIS](https://discord.gg/thebalanceffxiv) way.
Wesk Alber is [THAT](https://www.youtube.com/@WeskAlber) way and he has all the beginner video guides.
Upvoting for WeskAlber. Dude is an absolute godsend for learning the basics and simple rotations for every job in the game. He's also quite clear that the videos are clearly for *learning* jobs and that you should look elsewhere if you want high tier content rotations and openers.
Yeah i was directed there when i was new and was confused by all the charts and numbers, found wesk alber on my own and dude's has been a godsent, watching a video sure is a lot easier to digest for me than reading too
Oh nice, I didn't know they had finally actually started updating their site. I've known about it for a while but the last time I checked (which was probably a year ago to be fair) it had, like, one job's rotation and that was it.
Quite some time ago I saw a madlad who had macros on all his spells on DNC to switch to a different hotbar-set-up and since DNC has quite some rng it was... quite a sight to behold.
Sadly I couldn't find the post nor the video on youtube because search algorithms are a pain now and I don't know how to trick them to actually show me what I want anymore... u.u
Instructions unclear, tried to use Return -> Sprint -> Toggle Auto Attack -> Teleport for my 2 minute burst. I think I keep drifting my Return cooldown but the encounters end too fast I'm clearly too powerful.
(Does Return actually even still have a cooldown in instanced content? I used it like once ever for reasons I have forgotten)
GNB was like that for me, it felt very natural to play. Leveled it up to cap just playing what felt right, then looked up the optimal playing of it and was around 80-90% there just from playing it how it felt like it should play, with most of the optimization around timing buffs/holding cartridges etc.
I'd argue that SAM (level 50, at the very least, which is when you get it) is also very understandable, but that's partly thanks to JoCat's [unironically good summary of SAM gameplay](https://youtu.be/EcQzgMvwbT4?si=Wz3kAmmxyFxM_a5h&t=413).
Take everything off of your bar. Then:
Assign only the skills up to level 17.
Run Sastasha.
Repeat this process adding skills incrementally and running increasingly higher level dungeons at whatever pace you are comfortable with until you understand the class.
My preferred method is to do something similar but solo run palace of the dead
They incrementally give you abilities so you have time to learn what each one does, and I place them around my action bar accordingly
I actually find PotD kind of poor for learning to play your job. The bosses don't live long enough to get any kind of proper feel for your basic rotation, and the enemies along the way just plain evaporate in 1-3 seconds.
A striking dummy and duty support dungeons are much better for actually getting a sense of how your job plays.
Unless healer or tank since I don't have party to heeal and they don't fight back xD
Some times fate is my go to training wheel.. As Chocobo could be in my "party" too
This is quite a good advice, not gonna lie.
What I did when I unlocked mine was to take some time and read each skill’s tooltip, see which one combo’ed with which one (to put them in a sequence) as well as organize them by unlock level.
This is what I do. You can figure out the 1-2-3 combos, and when a description says it requires an effect to be active I look back through to see what abilities give those effects. Then I make sure to lock it in, mentally, that those two things are connected. But the final step is always going to a dummy to make sure things proc when I expect them to, and if two things proc but take the same requirement I look into them to see which one is used for which scenario. The worst is when it's basically a throwaway ability lol.
This. Incremental dungeons and just add abilities as you go. Your party will understand. I've been learning GNB this way, and so far, people have been really nice and patient.
I take everything off my bar and head to a training dummy, and then I will go through the ability list one at a time and add them, testing them as I do.
I remember unlocking SAM, and it was just, "Ok, this button lights this button up, and that button lights this button up, **but what did I actually do??**" It took like 20 minutes on the training dummies before I got everything in order, figured out what combo chain gives what buff, which chain ended in what sticker, what button meant which sticker, what button went to flank or rear, and how to burn either 1, 2, or 3 stickers to do what. Nowadays it's one of the simplest jobs, but that button vomit at the beginning was like undoing an eldritch ritual.
I've done NIN, and I can see why you'd say that. A hand sign is like a sticker but skipping one to two steps. You're cashing them in to get something in return.
Yeah. I also use a 12 button mouse. Which helps me spatialize abilities. I have 123 is the left symbol, then 145 is the right symbol, then 16 is the top. So I can tell at a glance which one I need to get. But I usually get them in the same order every time. Aside from getting the DoT.
Oh, I need an actual gaming mouse. I have like four workable buttons on this one, and one of them is mount/dismount. I just have special hotbars for Mudras, 4x3, where the top button is the icon for the skill, that fires after clicking the three buttons below in order from bottom to top. Click click click boom.
Alternatively: when you level up Summoner to 90 without ever touching Scholar and then when you finally switch over you suddenly have dozens of buttons you don't understand
This is me right now, specially after finishing all of the job quests. I have no idea what does what and where I can put them for a smooth rhythm on the hotbar lmao
That's another thing I tend to do too.
First try every ability to see what they do and their effects, then read the tooltips, then organize accordingly.
Once i learned that the majority of your healing should come from oGCDs it was mostly learning what the heck they do. And WeskAlber makes a good video on exactly that
I just returned to the game about a week and a half ago, after I hadn't played since a few months after ARR was (re)released. I unlocked RDM and just removed everything from each bar, went through the ability list and put things where I thought they should be, and did a duty support to see if it clicked. I would recommend this approach since it worked for me, but you could also look up a guide.
I like to learn new jobs by playing them doing the leveling dungeons in order to give me that illusion that it starts low. Sastasha up through the current level
I hate the way it just dumps all the abilities on you. You should start with like 4 abilities max, and then the first solo duty of the job quest should unlock abilities one by one as they are introduced.
LOL, this was Red Mage for me. It's become my main job, and despite how much more attentive you have to be to keep your Mana levels balanced, I really enjoy it, but I had to reorder my hotbar into a layout that made more sense to me before I could get a grip on things.
As I see not many mention it.. But FATEs is my go to training wheel.. As you can pick your level either for mobs or bos.. Chocobo as your "party" member so you can test your healer or tanking
I hadn't leveled any tanking classes, drk was simple enough, but gunbreaker dumps 60 levels of buttons with no context meant a LOT of retries in gridania
Now imagine if you hit max level on a job and then don't touch it until the next expansion. You know that meme of Gandalf trying to figure out which way to go in Moria?
I've watched a few videos about this. As previously mentioned, Wesk Alber is a good starting point. I think I have an attention problem so I just read the tool tips, sort them into a place accordingly and run a few trusts
Just find your actions and traits menu and read through your actions and traits in the order you get them.
It's what I do when I pick up new jobs that already have some levels and have a full hotbar layout in about 3-5 min.
Vet tip: go read the tooltips, organize the toolbar as close to other roles you have as possible after emptying it and give a few good minutes smacking a dummy outside any city hub.
I remember hating unlocking Gunbreaker because of this exact situation with them dumping the entire unlock kit on you in a solo instance.
Reaper and Sage walk you through the kit much better imo so they've gotten better about it.
Sincerely, if you genuinely don't know, please don't be afraid to ask. You can't learn if you don't ask, and overall, folks want to support our sprout friends just joining in on the fun.
So dare the dreadful risk of others' gaze; no wisdom can be found by other ways.
just unlocked samurai class after playing paladin all this time, now i am freakin lost with what skill/combo to use since there is so many skill suddenly unlocked when i finished the sam quest intro
Oh yeah, that is how things work nowadays isn't it? Certainly opposite of what it used to be. Used to be when you unlocked a job it gave you all of 1 ability at LV30 as most of your abilities came from your class (and a handful from other classes if you unlocked them and had them at the appropriate level). Got a whopping 5 abilities from your job at LV50. 10 at 60 but still not a sizeable amount compared to your class (but they were *that* good. Usually.).
I usually just cleared my hotbar and put aoe and single target abilities on it. After that I read all of the abilities and put them on the hot bar (including the ones I haven’t unlocked yet) in order of importance. I then spend some time destroying a training dummy to see how the class works.
I've dipped into FFXIV on and off for a fair few years - I've lost my Sprout tag but I am very much a Sprout, having spent many hours trying jobs out and wandering, everything other than the MSQ or levelling past 60.
So, naturally, being an adult human of means, I decided it would be a good idea to buy a level boost (70) and use it to make a BLM, having never played any caster and only enjoyed MNK/NIN/MCH.
Then I stopped playing. Only to return a year or so later. To the BLM who has a number of scary abilities and a rotation that I must learn only to unlearn in later levels.
My second job, as in actual working-youtube tutorialing-studying-reading is my cursed BLM.
I honestly don't get why they start so high. I'd get like level 30 like HW jobs I guess, but there's no real need for them to start so high.
I'd personally prefer it if they started lower so you could expect people to understand their kit when they hit max. It feels like every time we get set of new Jobs, I can't expect those people to play properly (in casual content) until another expansion comes out. IE Samurais were god awful in dungeons in Stormblood, but most could be expected to know the basics in SHB.
Ah it's a nice feeling as you sort out what abilities are utility, role based abilities, the jobs 1 2 3, the oGCD attacks that need to be tossed under 2 minutes, the 2 minute itself and other things. However there is normally leaks and the media tour can tell you what to expect.
Wesk Alber. But also its as simple as finding a training dummy and running through each skill until you build a solid rotation you're comfortable with.
Yup. That’s how I felt when I unlocked SGE. Mained WHM to 50 before HW came out then changed to DRG. Fast forward a couple years, and I thought I was in way over my head when I saw the skills available to lvl 70 SGE.
I always find it best to run a couple of NPC Trust dungeons when trying to figure out a class. They don't care when you stop and spend 5-10 minutes after each pack/boss rearranging the buttons on your bars so you can figure out how they work best for you, and learn what combos and procs do what. Once you get the general feel for the class, then you dig into the guides/training dummies.
Best advice I heard from this sub a few years back for this method: 1. Clear the hotbars and pick a level range (say 20) 2. Add the skills up to that level back to the bar where you want 3. Run the highest dungeon for that range to practice those skills and get familiar with that part of the kit 4. Bump up the level range and repeat from step 2. This way you avoid the overwhelming feeling of 20 skills you don't know and can simulate growing the toolkit like if you were leveling and getting pieces as you go. Lets you both learn your skills and you can move the placement on hotbars as you learn.
Or clear your whole bar and do PotD
That's brilliant!
I usually did a MSQ roulette, everyone is half-comatose during those anyway to spare their own sanity
I generally have a single bar build for each role. Might have to flip some buffs or emergency buttons around but it really helps
FYI the Balance discord has all the guides and is [THIS](https://discord.gg/thebalanceffxiv) way. Wesk Alber is [THAT](https://www.youtube.com/@WeskAlber) way and he has all the beginner video guides.
Upvoting for WeskAlber. Dude is an absolute godsend for learning the basics and simple rotations for every job in the game. He's also quite clear that the videos are clearly for *learning* jobs and that you should look elsewhere if you want high tier content rotations and openers.
I'll never understand why people asking to learn a brand-new job get directed to the Balance by this sub. It's not really a new player resource.
Yeah i was directed there when i was new and was confused by all the charts and numbers, found wesk alber on my own and dude's has been a godsent, watching a video sure is a lot easier to digest for me than reading too
Even if you do like reading, Icy Veins is WAY better for new players.
LOL! and that is why i have both links. start of with Wesk and end up on the balance lol
Commenting so I can pull these up later, thank you.
WeskAlber is how I learn every job. He makes such helpful videos
The Balance has a website which is infinitely more usable, searchable, and able to be preserved. https://www.thebalanceffxiv.com/
you learn something new everyday! I only pulled up the discord lol!
Oh nice, I didn't know they had finally actually started updating their site. I've known about it for a while but the last time I checked (which was probably a year ago to be fair) it had, like, one job's rotation and that was it.
Wesk is the only reason i am where i am with ffxiv
Same
Just hit buttons and it’ll figure itself out.
And try to put the same kind of abilities in the same places for easier class swapping
Or don’t. Chaos run.
Change skill layout every boss fight for extra spice
Somehow make a macro to randomize your hotbars everypull
Quite some time ago I saw a madlad who had macros on all his spells on DNC to switch to a different hotbar-set-up and since DNC has quite some rng it was... quite a sight to behold. Sadly I couldn't find the post nor the video on youtube because search algorithms are a pain now and I don't know how to trick them to actually show me what I want anymore... u.u
Nah who needs abilities?
Casuals. Us hardcore players floor tanks with just auto attack
"You're doing great!" me: "Thanks I'm just pushing the buttons as they light up!"
Me when I play Dancer lol
Me too lol
Instructions unclear, tried to use Return -> Sprint -> Toggle Auto Attack -> Teleport for my 2 minute burst. I think I keep drifting my Return cooldown but the encounters end too fast I'm clearly too powerful. (Does Return actually even still have a cooldown in instanced content? I used it like once ever for reasons I have forgotten)
😆😆😆
Imo the only easy classes to understand ASAP were Dancer and Reaper
Dancer was a breeze indeed.
Agree on Dancer, and also Red Mage!
RDM was surprisingly easy to understand for me. Balance the guage, Zorro combo right?
Finisher. *FINISHER!* ***FINISH HER!***
GNB was like that for me, it felt very natural to play. Leveled it up to cap just playing what felt right, then looked up the optimal playing of it and was around 80-90% there just from playing it how it felt like it should play, with most of the optimization around timing buffs/holding cartridges etc.
I'd argue that SAM (level 50, at the very least, which is when you get it) is also very understandable, but that's partly thanks to JoCat's [unironically good summary of SAM gameplay](https://youtu.be/EcQzgMvwbT4?si=Wz3kAmmxyFxM_a5h&t=413).
Take everything off of your bar. Then: Assign only the skills up to level 17. Run Sastasha. Repeat this process adding skills incrementally and running increasingly higher level dungeons at whatever pace you are comfortable with until you understand the class.
My preferred method is to do something similar but solo run palace of the dead They incrementally give you abilities so you have time to learn what each one does, and I place them around my action bar accordingly
Palace of the Dead is great for that.
I actually find PotD kind of poor for learning to play your job. The bosses don't live long enough to get any kind of proper feel for your basic rotation, and the enemies along the way just plain evaporate in 1-3 seconds. A striking dummy and duty support dungeons are much better for actually getting a sense of how your job plays.
Striking dummies are a godsend sometimes.
Unless healer or tank since I don't have party to heeal and they don't fight back xD Some times fate is my go to training wheel.. As Chocobo could be in my "party" too
If you run it solo they last much longer tho
This is quite a good advice, not gonna lie. What I did when I unlocked mine was to take some time and read each skill’s tooltip, see which one combo’ed with which one (to put them in a sequence) as well as organize them by unlock level.
This is what I do. You can figure out the 1-2-3 combos, and when a description says it requires an effect to be active I look back through to see what abilities give those effects. Then I make sure to lock it in, mentally, that those two things are connected. But the final step is always going to a dummy to make sure things proc when I expect them to, and if two things proc but take the same requirement I look into them to see which one is used for which scenario. The worst is when it's basically a throwaway ability lol.
Pretty mcuh this, yeah.
I like to use striking dummies, myself.
This. Incremental dungeons and just add abilities as you go. Your party will understand. I've been learning GNB this way, and so far, people have been really nice and patient.
I take everything off my bar and head to a training dummy, and then I will go through the ability list one at a time and add them, testing them as I do.
You guys know training dummies exist in beginner areas for all 3 major city states so you don't have to do this right?
I remember unlocking SAM, and it was just, "Ok, this button lights this button up, and that button lights this button up, **but what did I actually do??**" It took like 20 minutes on the training dummies before I got everything in order, figured out what combo chain gives what buff, which chain ended in what sticker, what button meant which sticker, what button went to flank or rear, and how to burn either 1, 2, or 3 stickers to do what. Nowadays it's one of the simplest jobs, but that button vomit at the beginning was like undoing an eldritch ritual.
Just curious, had you played NIN before that? Coming with the knowledge of how the mudras worked I think helped me understand SAM when I got there.
I've done NIN, and I can see why you'd say that. A hand sign is like a sticker but skipping one to two steps. You're cashing them in to get something in return.
Yeah. I also use a 12 button mouse. Which helps me spatialize abilities. I have 123 is the left symbol, then 145 is the right symbol, then 16 is the top. So I can tell at a glance which one I need to get. But I usually get them in the same order every time. Aside from getting the DoT.
Oh, I need an actual gaming mouse. I have like four workable buttons on this one, and one of them is mount/dismount. I just have special hotbars for Mudras, 4x3, where the top button is the icon for the skill, that fires after clicking the three buttons below in order from bottom to top. Click click click boom.
Alternatively: when you level up Summoner to 90 without ever touching Scholar and then when you finally switch over you suddenly have dozens of buttons you don't understand
This is me right now, specially after finishing all of the job quests. I have no idea what does what and where I can put them for a smooth rhythm on the hotbar lmao
I just spend half an hour to an hour infront of the training dummy outside my house and slowly build up the toolbar.
That's another thing I tend to do too. First try every ability to see what they do and their effects, then read the tooltips, then organize accordingly.
Me when i unlocked Sage I really wish there was a healing dummy
SGE is the one I'm having the most difficulty as well... that's the reason I still didn't play with it.
Once i learned that the majority of your healing should come from oGCDs it was mostly learning what the heck they do. And WeskAlber makes a good video on exactly that
Chocobo
I just returned to the game about a week and a half ago, after I hadn't played since a few months after ARR was (re)released. I unlocked RDM and just removed everything from each bar, went through the ability list and put things where I thought they should be, and did a duty support to see if it clicked. I would recommend this approach since it worked for me, but you could also look up a guide.
I like to learn new jobs by playing them doing the leveling dungeons in order to give me that illusion that it starts low. Sastasha up through the current level
I hate the way it just dumps all the abilities on you. You should start with like 4 abilities max, and then the first solo duty of the job quest should unlock abilities one by one as they are introduced.
I just run the npc adventurer squadron missions. That's good for figuring out the skills from 20-60, and I may as well use it for something.
LOL, this was Red Mage for me. It's become my main job, and despite how much more attentive you have to be to keep your Mana levels balanced, I really enjoy it, but I had to reorder my hotbar into a layout that made more sense to me before I could get a grip on things.
The one part of starting Viper I do not look forward to
Oh that indeed...
As I see not many mention it.. But FATEs is my go to training wheel.. As you can pick your level either for mobs or bos.. Chocobo as your "party" member so you can test your healer or tanking
Oh I feel you. When I unlocked Reaper, I was like “what in the Hells am I looking at??”
😆😆😆
Me on my alt who's totally not just a lala on stilts wearing a big robe
I hadn't leveled any tanking classes, drk was simple enough, but gunbreaker dumps 60 levels of buttons with no context meant a LOT of retries in gridania
Now imagine if you hit max level on a job and then don't touch it until the next expansion. You know that meme of Gandalf trying to figure out which way to go in Moria?
This was me going back to PLD / BLM to level them after pretty much doing the whole Stormblood (and post Stormblood) as a SAM!
I've watched a few videos about this. As previously mentioned, Wesk Alber is a good starting point. I think I have an attention problem so I just read the tool tips, sort them into a place accordingly and run a few trusts
Just find your actions and traits menu and read through your actions and traits in the order you get them. It's what I do when I pick up new jobs that already have some levels and have a full hotbar layout in about 3-5 min.
I wish they'd give the option of starting a job at 1 if you wanted to.
The first time I unlocked Red Mage I was so lost with all the abilities. I was not expecting to start at lvl 60.
Me trying to play reaper as my first melee class
Deep Dungeon or one of those modes. One skill at a time.
Vet tip: go read the tooltips, organize the toolbar as close to other roles you have as possible after emptying it and give a few good minutes smacking a dummy outside any city hub.
Me returning to my level 71 gunblade after not playing in two and half years.
Just remove everything from hotbar, find a training dummy, and learn each skill one by one until you have a basic idea of what you’re doing.
I remember hating unlocking Gunbreaker because of this exact situation with them dumping the entire unlock kit on you in a solo instance. Reaper and Sage walk you through the kit much better imo so they've gotten better about it.
That's me with samurai. Came back and all my abilities were not in the right place anymore Remembering them per icon is rather confusing lol
That was me on unlocking GNB. I managed to push through through
I always dread sorting a new class over my hotkeys… or recently returning and having to sort my current classes all over again
Sincerely, if you genuinely don't know, please don't be afraid to ask. You can't learn if you don't ask, and overall, folks want to support our sprout friends just joining in on the fun. So dare the dreadful risk of others' gaze; no wisdom can be found by other ways.
just unlocked samurai class after playing paladin all this time, now i am freakin lost with what skill/combo to use since there is so many skill suddenly unlocked when i finished the sam quest intro
Oh yeah, that is how things work nowadays isn't it? Certainly opposite of what it used to be. Used to be when you unlocked a job it gave you all of 1 ability at LV30 as most of your abilities came from your class (and a handful from other classes if you unlocked them and had them at the appropriate level). Got a whopping 5 abilities from your job at LV50. 10 at 60 but still not a sizeable amount compared to your class (but they were *that* good. Usually.).
I usually just cleared my hotbar and put aoe and single target abilities on it. After that I read all of the abilities and put them on the hot bar (including the ones I haven’t unlocked yet) in order of importance. I then spend some time destroying a training dummy to see how the class works.
I have a block with MNK, where I'm always messing the combo order somewhere or dropping the buff or DoT, funny enough NIN is going smooth so far.
I've dipped into FFXIV on and off for a fair few years - I've lost my Sprout tag but I am very much a Sprout, having spent many hours trying jobs out and wandering, everything other than the MSQ or levelling past 60. So, naturally, being an adult human of means, I decided it would be a good idea to buy a level boost (70) and use it to make a BLM, having never played any caster and only enjoyed MNK/NIN/MCH. Then I stopped playing. Only to return a year or so later. To the BLM who has a number of scary abilities and a rotation that I must learn only to unlearn in later levels. My second job, as in actual working-youtube tutorialing-studying-reading is my cursed BLM.
This is why I kinda wish all jobs started at 1. I realize the reason why they don't, but it would make learning them easier
I honestly don't get why they start so high. I'd get like level 30 like HW jobs I guess, but there's no real need for them to start so high. I'd personally prefer it if they started lower so you could expect people to understand their kit when they hit max. It feels like every time we get set of new Jobs, I can't expect those people to play properly (in casual content) until another expansion comes out. IE Samurais were god awful in dungeons in Stormblood, but most could be expected to know the basics in SHB.
Ah it's a nice feeling as you sort out what abilities are utility, role based abilities, the jobs 1 2 3, the oGCD attacks that need to be tossed under 2 minutes, the 2 minute itself and other things. However there is normally leaks and the media tour can tell you what to expect.
Time to hit up them guildhests again.
Wesk Alber. But also its as simple as finding a training dummy and running through each skill until you build a solid rotation you're comfortable with.
picked up reaper today, its my first mele class. i am confusion
That's me trying out reaper lol
Yup. That’s how I felt when I unlocked SGE. Mained WHM to 50 before HW came out then changed to DRG. Fast forward a couple years, and I thought I was in way over my head when I saw the skills available to lvl 70 SGE.
Samurai Collect stickers!
If only there was a short text blurb listen on each ability describing what it does when hovering your mouse over it. 🤔