Originally Posted by
ippollite
Whee! I love this question. For reference, obviously im doing a best guess from my own experience, and not giving an authoritative guide.
Okie dokie, first complication is whether youre level 35 in your job or in the story. With the legendary servers, its fairly easy to be lvl 35 on your job whilst barely starting the level 20 story quest. So assuming both and for a quick answer before i go into more general advice:
At 35 on the story, the main thing youre working on is your job and msqs. Follow those two breadcrumbs and youre golden. Your next main feature to unlock is around level 41 with the beast tribes. Aside that, its just dungeons and the usual stuff. I would advise spending some time with your grand company though and leveling through the ranks doing some of the leves (also, although the game guides you to only one GC leve giver, there are several at higher levels if you dont just want to keep doing the same level 10/15 leves in your starting zone). Your aim is to hit second lieutenant so you can open up your own little crew of ragammufins. So getting through the ranks will definitely give you something to work on if you feel like stepping away from the msq a bit.
Alternatively, you could just push to level 50 on your job and unlock samurai and red mage if you want to try out another class. You DONT have to be level 50 in the story, just level 50 on ANY job. So push some levels doing whatever you like.
Speaking of doing what you like: Some features you should have unlocked: Grand companies; dungeon running; challenge log (definitely look at this); hunting logs; fates; and of course the MSQ. All of these will help you push your level pretty swiftly to 50 if that's your goal. Priority is obviously MSQ because its the main feature unlock system in the game.
Secondly, on jobs, in ARR in particular (and if you are on a legacy server with bonus xp), and if you arent just trying to blast to 80 or open up the MSQ asap, id DEFINITELY level up two jobs, if only to keep your job level roughly in line with your story level. If you've got a dps, try rolling a tank or healer as a side gig. I went rogue for my world stuff, and white mage for dungeons/trials. It was a nice balance. It also gives a bunch of new job quests to unlock with some nice story elements. Id STRONGLY recommend doing the rogue guild stuff in Limsa. Its a super fun storyline.
Finally, if you just mean your job is at 35 but your MSQ is lower (probs 20ish), then id focus heavily on MSQ because you want to a) open up your grand company; and b) get your mount. That should be a strong priority for every player.
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So more generally, you can easily find a list of game feature unlocks using a google search, but honestly its a wall of text until you've played the game a bit. So to try and help simplify it, i'll go through some of them and explain why you might want to do them (and around what levels). This is gonna be more of a 'what are my goals right now in game at level x?' type post, if that makes sense. Some of this is job level, some is story unlocks (which is super confusing).
ETA: I realise this is getting super long already (im only at level 15) so perhaps i should do this with a few breaks.
Level 1-15 is really just the exploration/discovery phase. There's no real need to switch jobs unless you hate how your current one plays. Its mainly just following the breadcrumbs, getting a feel for the world, and just interacting with stuff. You get a nice self contained storyline attached to your home city. Its fairly on rails (despite me calling it the exploration/discovery phase). So you wont really get too confused or overwhelmed by systems. At this point you only really have the hunting log.
Why should you do the hunting log? Well, aside the gil and xp, it's a means to encourage exploration. Once you leave the main city, your priority is to get those teleport zones and do the story, but the hunting log also gives you this decently rewarding side quest whilst encouraging you to discover new landmarks and areas (and new quests) that the main story might not push you toward. It just immerses you in the world a bit more. It comes in 4 ranks. Rank 1: 1-10 level mobs. Rank 2: 11-20 level... etc. So doing the log while its current level and youre actively in the zones doing the content is definitely a nice use of your time.
Level 10: Levequests. I still dont really know what they're for other than xp and gil, but heyho, side repeatable daily content. Great source of xp if youre playing catchup on an alt job. But on your main, i'd only really do the unlock quest for them (you get one in most hubs). This isn't solid advice. Its just my opinion. They do play a part soon though.
Level 15: Job. You unlock the golden saucer, some cosmetic quests, and some pets/minions.
Level 15: Story: Airship, Dungeon and Challenge log.
Two of these stick out: 1. The golden saucer. To be honest, i found it incredibly overwhelming. I havent been back. So i cant really talk about it much. I think its something id be more interested in at end game when im looking for daily stuff to do. But thats just me. Im probs missing out on something (the ff15 collab perhaps in a month or so?). Have a lookie, see if you enjoy it. Its not really for me, is all (i dont really like darkmoon faire either, so you know...).
The second one though is kind of a big deal and easily overlooked: The challenge log: Its mainly just a source of xp and gil, but what it does is tie up all those mini-systems into a nice bow giving you clear things you can work through every week. Its like a meta-weekly quest. If you're ever feeling a bit lost ambling around and wondering what you could do, its a nice thing to work on. To give you an idea of what kind of things: Do 3 dungeons on the roulette; Craft 30 items; Do 10 unique levequests (i said we'd come back to that); send your retainer on 10 missions; Commend 5 players; Do 5 fates with 100% rating; Finish 15 beast tribe quests etc etc. Its just all the side stuff you dont have to do, but you might want to do. If you ever feel a bit confused or overwhelmed, just open up your challenge log, pick something to work on and go do it. It also comes with an important drop later on for your grand company, but i suppose we'll come to that later.
Anyways:
Level 15-20: Emissary. You've done all your quests, youve explored your city and its surroundings, you've collected all your aethyryte nodes, youve got your airship pass. Its time to see the other 2 main cities.
So, youre gonna once again want to really focus on collecting your teleports. Your MSQ is going to have you do a few quests around the place to help you familiarise yourself with the new areas. But WHY NOT... Im just saying...
Why not try it on a new job? Why not have fun playing a new class, doing those little fetch quests, doing a new hunting log (i forgot to mention, each class has its own hunting log), running some of those fates, levequests for the weekly challenge log, and just taking everything you know in the game already and seeing what its like on a brand new class with its own unique storyline. I would STRONGLY recommend this. It's literally the perfect way to absorb yourself in these zones without feeling like you're just running from aetheryte crystal to aetheryte crystal. Its a great way to just slow the game down a bit and immerse yourself in each of the zones. It also lets you play about with other jobs and see if they're more suited to you than the one you started with. I cant honestly think of a better time to investigate the other jobs and play around with them. You have a grounding in the basic systems of the game so far, you've likely realised the MSQ is a LOT of fetch quests. Why not break it up a bit with a new class when there's all this content that's designed for those levels?
I'll finish there so far. This basically takes you through the two new cities and environs along with a couple of dungeons (which then opens up the dungeon roulette (basically a random dungeon finder with some bonus rewards so you can just chain run them outside the MSQ if that's your poison)). By the end of it you should be on your way to the level 20 stuff (grand comapany and chocobo mount), which are your next big priorities.