make your own party

But also level your sub job

Eventually started as WHM and maybe once I get it to ~13 maybe I'll also start BLM before heading to the dunes again.

I'm levelling all my jobs and sub jobs at the same time. It's a pain at the beginning, but I find it pays off in the end.

To clarify, for anyone new here, here's what I meant.

If your main job is going to be something like PLD SAM NIN etc (something that uses WAR as subjob) then it's much more efficient to just level Warrior to 30 without a subjob and then do your quest for PLD SAM NIN etc and then level that job to 60 and go back to WAR and finish to 37. Then end at 75 on your main.

If you wanna play multiple jobs, then yea, who cares what you level.

White Mage is probably the most useful job to level up even if you are not interested in healing in the long term. As a subjob it gives you great soloability via healing and access to Sneak/Invisible spells to bypass most mobs and run around the world all by yourself. I assure you your time as WHM is well-spent indeed!

If physical-oriented jobs interest you, Warrior has great stats and grants useful abilities to most of them (Berserk for damage dealers, Provoke and Defender for tanks).

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Baleful Badger

My Path:

WHM -> 30
NIN -> 12
BRD -> 75

then finished all the other various SJs up to 37 and beyond.

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If you are planning to level bard or corsair, have friends that will PL or otherwise carry you, or are both aggressively competent and proactive about building your own parties, initially skipping your subjob might make sense. If none of these apply (and probably even if you think they do, since you are only 17 after a couple of weeks), you should probably level a subjob as soon as you hit 18 (WHM, specifically, if you plan to main RDM).

I agree. I really only went my route because I was having to start over.

It was pretty tough to find WHM invites from like 19-30 without a SJ honestly. This be good advice.

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No, don't ever do this. Always unlock your subjob right away, always keep your subjobs leveled. Level Monk or Thief to 18, swap to Warrior, then go to 30 to unlock advanced jobs.