After Rolling in Ffxiv Can You Main a Different Class

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In the event of wanting to start a class that isn't beneficial to your current character in terms of cross-class skills, what are the positives and negatives to these two approaches?
Off the top of my head:

If you re-roll you get the benefit of being able to level through quests again, and can build up money that you may or may not want to send to your original character. Superficially, you get the fun of creating a new character again.

If you go multi-multi class, you might already have some gear, money, seals etc. to help you speed along, you can accept sidequests that you still have left as your leveling class and do the heavy lifting with your higher class, and you get the 50% XP bonus while leveling.

What else can people think of to compare and contrast the two approaches?
Multi-Class you may be able to use the useful abilities from your main.
For me, multi-class is pretty much a no-brainer. I've got a lot of lvl 50 equipments from greeding when there was no eligible class playing with me in a dungeon, including some Ifrit and AK stuff. When I decide to lvl THM, I'll have a full set by lvl 50 .
I contemplated this just today. I wanted to try archanist but there is a new character restriction again on my server. So I did consider just trying it on my main.
I think so far this is the strongest thing pulling me towards just sticking with one character. (Not specifically lvl50 gear, but just gear that I have picked up "in general" going through the game)
Well, actually I think I've got more THM lvl 50 gear from dungeons(which I am lvl 0 right now) than DRG, which is my main class and all.
Multi class all the way. There is no incentive to play a different character unless you really hate your appearance.
Myself, I love that you can do multi for the fact I am mainly a caster rather it be support, healing or dos its great for me for a few reasons since my first two classes were arcanist and conjurer I had access to raise, resurrection, physik, and cure as well as protect do when I decided to go ahead and do thrm I was able to not worry about potion or when running dungeons I could secondary heal or at least heal myself taking the load off of the healer I am primary healer so I know how helpful that can be right now I'm white mage, summoned, scholar and I'm going for black mage then bard. I don't enjoy melee but I'll probably go ahead and go monk/dragoon and eventually I'll run a pally possibly warrior but myself running the dungeons and groups for my fc its great when my members know I have made myself widely diverse and flexible so no matter the situation I can help my members that's my main goal.as I have one particular crafter that every time I look over his search info I get baffled since the beginning of last week he has his dragoon now level 48 since then he has focus on nothing but crafting and gathering across the board he averaged level for those is 33 and he has said multi classing these he virtually is our main supplier of mats since he can gather and make them all just about so multi class is an amazing aspect rather it be battle, crafting or gathering.
Reroll perks;
- Fresh appearance/race/etc.
- New starting city and thus new Main Story Line for the first 15 levels at least (more if you choose a different GC).
- Quests previously done available again.
- Far, far less inventory clutter.
Multi-class perks;
- Easier to switch to a needed class for group content (no relogging etc).
- Everything you find is instantly available instead of having to use an intermediary like a friend to pass stuff along.
- No need to level up certain classes twice (to a certain level) for the cross-class skills.
- Only need 1 crafting class to attach materia etc.
Note that I didn't add 'armoury bonus' to the list. that's because it's not relevant to this issue. If you level a second character, you'll have access to the Main Story quests. This is the same or at times even better than having the armoury bonus (because it breaks the monotomy of fate grinding etc). And once you've got a character levelled through the Main Story quests, you'll once again have the armoury bonus.
I also didn't specify anything about crafting classes for repairs etc. This is because if you want to repair everything yourself, you'll need to level multiple crafting classes anyway. That, and repair costs have been lowered by a crapton anyway.

My personal descision is having two seperate characters. One is my Disciple of Magic class (female Catgirl™) and my second character is a Disciple of War (The Can Be Only One™-race). I chose this simply because it completely and utterly breaks my immersion to see a scrawny little girl wielding a two-handed battleaxe while clad in what must be at least 30+ kilograms of heavy armor. Despite being a huge FF fan, it bothers me almost as much as the rediculously stupid and humongous swords like Cloud's or the completely retarded 'Gunsword' in previous FF games (and yes, I know gunswords are actually in this game as well... at least in a cutscene on an NPC).

And contrary to what I've seen being claimed on various forums/Reddit/etc, the difference in effort/time really doesn't differ between either method. If you enjoy having everything on one character, you should. If you're like me and like to have distinctive characters that don't break immersion, I'd advocate having two seperate characters.

Just my two cents after having lurked here for the past couple of weeks
Thanks for the detailed post! Now I'm really tempted to re-roll. :s
I see you are a fellow Odin-er, are you in the forum ls?
First post and I got some likes. I wuv you guys!
In the end it's more of a personal preference than an actual gameplay related question. You could always just try for the first 15 levels and simply check out a different city's Main Story Line. After that You can always decide to press on with two characters or change back to a multi-class approach. Not like getting to 15 takes a huge amount of time anyway.

This is something I would suggest to anyone with even a passing interest in the story anyway. It's great to see the different perspectives!

Oh, btw, added perk for multiple characters; You'll always be rested after switching to the other character. Playing 1 character for a day is basically a full level of rested exp on the other character fom an inn.
Didn't even think of effectively gaining rested XP even while you're playing! Re-rolling as soon as I get home from work, lol. (Seriously though)

Elisar and xusha like this.
Re-rolling is always fun, especially when starting with a new class/location.
Since all dungeon loot is untradable, right now it's almost impossible to share loot, with or without a friend to pass stuff along anyway.
True, but you could still want to trade crystals and other mats, HQ crafted gear (including crafting/gathering gear), gil, etc.
But somehow I feel like housing in 2.1 will present a solution to this problem anyway. Just guessing on that though
One of the biggest obstacle for me to play an Alt is not the equipment, or the quest exp, or even the storage issue.
it is the GC grinding >.<;;;
Just this point to address:
1. You cannot meld for your alt.
2. You can only meld materia to items for which your crafting class is associated. If you are not a Weaver, good luck melding to your cloth gear. That's bows, fishing poles, some offhand crafting tools, and some spears for Carpenters, plate armor/mail for Armorers, most other mainhand/offhand weapons and craft tools for Blacksmiths, cloth legs and chest (and some headwear) for Weaver, further headwear, some weapons, most gloves and practically all non-plate footwear, as well as a lot of gathering clothing and accessories (excluding earrings) for Leatherworker, and some weapons, most accessories, and all earrings for Goldsmith. To meld to these, you'll need to find a crafter, or level it yourself.
The additional perks for cross-classing are related to the reasons I have three Jobs, and will soon be having FOUR (Dragoon):

The ability to pull in some high level Job cross-class skills (such as Blood for Blood for Monk) demand that other Jobs be leveled up to a particular level. At the moment, I have all Battle classes at 15 save Conjurer in order to use cross-class skills for just THREE Jobs. I had to push some Jobs higher to get their skills, and some even higher because there are better skills.

Finally, it should be noted that leveling a second class up if you have a level 50 class comes with a 50% bonus while in FATEs or any mob kills (including dungeons). This allows you to powerlevel your sub-classes, in addition to the use of the Hunting Log. I have not found it tedious save when I had other things to do, such as leveling Miner, Blacksmith, or Black Mage; or getting my Ifrit weapon so I can tackle Amdapor and Wanderer's Palace, etc..

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I highly suggest not "rerolling" your characters* for the purpose of removing inventory space, because the same problem will arise before you get to 50. I only suggest you do this if you find yourself discomfitted with the look of your character. It should be further noted that Phials of Fantasia exist, and you get one for subscribing for 1 month.

If you want to re-do the story missions in a different city, then that's fine.

*"rerolling" is a term used to suggest tossing out an old character to make a fresh one. You "re-roll" the stats by discarding the original and going again. Perhaps you should say "I want to level a new character," in which case you're just "rolling a new one."
I speak only for the people that are coming from XI with this; having multiple characters with one job each is a hassle for those in charge of FC, leading groups, etc. Having to play the guessing game of who is who when someone switches characters is no fun. Also, it makes things confusing for others in raids/events if someone is calling cadence for one name, and another name is responding. I know that's how things work in other MMOs, and frankly, it makes me cringe.
One of the biggest drawbacks to multiple characters, though, is your lack of identity. In XI, you built your identity with your one character, and it followed you wherever you went(even across servers, if you were an asshole). Having your identity linked to one name encouraged people to not take that for granted, but also allowed you to be able to build a good reputation with others, be it for your crafting skills, your personality, or your skills at playing your job(s) properly. When you switch to a new character, people will be confused, and have no reason to believe you are who you claim to be.

The cross-class skills and being able to level multiple jobs on one character is a huge benefit in this game, that only one other MMO has had(that I know of, XI). It allows for much more convenience. Rolling multiple alternative characters seems to be more of a stigma in this game than a benefit.
Did all the loading screens take this long on my first character? I honestly don't remember them doing so.
Also jeez... it doesn't store keybinds across characters, nor UI customizations.
Yes, rolling a new one. By rolling for the second time. Or "re-rolling" as some might call it.
Your post did help convince me to re-roll (Again. For the first time. Something), though, I think it's most obviously the right choice if you want to play through the story again at any time (which I usually end up doing with FF games), and especially to see a different city's opening arc.