Difference Between Classes vs. Jobs in FFXIV

In Final Fantasy XIV, your character’s growth and abilities start with the class you choose.

Jobs are specialities for that role that let your character settle into a certain way of playing at a high level.

Understandably, some of the words used in XIV might be hard to understand at first.

Most of the time, when you start a new adventure in an MMO, you’ll make a choice and stick with it for months or even years.

In Final Fantasy XIV, that’s not the case.

Yes, you’ll choose a class right away, but you’ll be able to change your mind before too long.

If you don’t want to, you never have to play your first choice again.

You can just drop your first class and start over with something else.

There are a few problems that come up because of this fluidity, though.

For one thing, you might end up carrying a lot of gear because you need it for different jobs.

It can also be hard to keep track of which classes lead to which jobs and to understand what makes them different.

I’ll easily explain all of this later on in this piece.

Right now, all you need to know is that everyone starts with one of the basic classes and moves on to something else when they reach level 30.

Jobs can stand on their own, or there can be “promotions” from classes.

Most of the time, though, you’ll start with a class and end with a job.

Both classes and jobs have different fields of study.

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For combat, this is Disciple of War, which includes tanks, DPS from a distance, and DPS from close range.

In Disciple of Magic, there are both DPS and healer roles that use magic.

Later on, you can get jobs in the Disciple of the Land/Hand category, which is for gathering and making things.

I won’t include Disciples of the Land/Hand in the lists below because they don’t level up or get better as classes do.

What Are The Classes in FFXIV?

Classes vs. Jobs
  1. – Pugilist (Upgrades to Monk)
  2. – Thaumaturge (Upgrades to Black Mage)
  3. Rogue (Upgrades to Ninja)
  4. – Lancer (Upgrades to Dragoon)
  5. – Archer (Upgrades to Bard)
  6. – Marauder (Upgrades to Warrior)
  7. – Gladiator (Upgrades to Paladin)
  8. – Arcanist (Upgrades to Scholar or Summoner, allowing it to become either healer or DPS)

Once you reach level 30 in your starting class, you can do a job quest that gives you access to your job.

Think of the class as a way to help you learn.

Once you’ve mastered the basics, you’ll be able to specialize and unlock more advanced skills.

You don’t have to make a new character if you don’t like your starting class.

When you reach the level 10 job quest, you can change jobs whenever you want.

To do this, just go to the guild for your class in any of the three main cities and pick up a quest.

You can take your starting class to level 80 if you want to.

One of my Free Company members played as a Pugilist all the way to level 80 because he didn’t do the Monk quest.

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It can be done, but it’s not a good idea because you won’t have as much fun and you’ll miss out on a lot of important skills.

And getting your specialized job does not make your original class go away.

When the quest is done, you’ll get a soul crystal, which has its place in your inventory.

Changing your job is as easy as putting on a different crystal.

What Are The Jobs in FFXIV?

Tanks:
Gunbreaker
– Paladin
– Dark Knight
– Warrior

Healers:
– White Mage
– Scholar
– Astrologian

Melee DPS:
– Monk
– Dragoon
– Ninja
– Samurai

Ranged DPS:
– Bard
– Machinist
– Dancer

Magical DPS:
– Black Mage
– Summoner
– Red Mage
Blue Mage

And from that list, there are two things to think about.

First, there are a lot more jobs than classes.

Most of the available jobs don’t upgrade from a class.

Instead, you can get them on their own once your character has reached a certain level in any job or class.

Secondly, you might wonder why there are so many jobs when they all do the same things that classes do.

Even if two jobs have the same title, they can do very different things.

For example, the Machinist is an easy-to-use ranged DPS with a high DPS output.

Bards would usually give up some of their DPS to have a more complicated character that can help the party through songs.

Do you want to be a hard-core DPS machine, or do you also want to be able to help your party in other ways?

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This lets you, the player, go beyond the basic requirements of your chosen role and become an expert in a certain area.

Flexibility in FFXIV’s Job System

Because of this job system, XIV can add more play styles without removing everything that players have already invested time and effort into mastering.

In the past, whenever World of Warcraft introduced a new class, players had to either start a new character and level them up from scratch or pay real money to switch classes.

The result is that they waste time constantly switching classes and maintaining a large number of secondary characters.

So, before choosing your class in XIV, consider the role you want to play.

Once you have a clear idea of how you want to fill that position, you can choose a profession in which to excel.

Change your mind if boredom sets in or you simply feel like trying something fresh.

This is as easy as it sounds.