FFXIV Alpha Leveling/Discipline Information

A Final Fantasy XIV alpha tester going by the name “FredTheTaru” has been sharing some wonderful information on the BlueGartr forums. One of the more interesting pieces is how the leveling system works.

NOTE: All of this information is from the Final Fantasy XIV Alpha. Much of it is subject to change before the game is released, so don’t take anything written below as final.

You have 2 levels associated with your character: Physical Level and Discipline (class) Level. The physical level (also referred to as Rank) will continuously increase no matter what discipline you are playing. This means if you are play a Marauder up to level 3, and switch to a level 1 Conjurer, your physical level will remain the same. Also, each rank you gain from your physical level gives you attribute points you can assign to the various stats associated to your character, as seen in the image above. Right now you get 70+ attribute points per rank to assign to your various stats. The cost of a stat will increase as you point more and more points into it. We have a basic simulator for stat point allocation (it’s a work in progress).

Your Discipline Level dictates what abilities you have access to. So as a level 1 Conjurer you’ll have access to some basic attack spells, at level 2 they get an ability called Trance Chant. Now lets say you switch to Marauder, your physical level will remain the same, but your discipline level is now level 1. When you hit level 2 with Maruader, the level 2 Chanter spell is available for the marauder to equip. Some abilities have restrictions (like a Marauder ability will say “Marauder only”, or it could say “Discipline of War only” or “Disciplines of War and Magic only”. As well, when equipping an non-main spec ability (a Marauder equipping a casters “cure” spell) it may have higher cast times, cooldowns or cost. For example, if you look at the image below, “Trance Chant” has a 120 second cooldown when a Marauder equips it. This same ability has no cooldown when a Conjurer equips it.

Notice that this is a level 2 axe (marauder) with a Conjurer spell equipped.

Notice that this is a level 2 axe (marauder) with a Conjurer spell equipped.

You have 20 available abilities points (slots) to equip spells/abilities into, so you need to choose which to use. You can only switch these out of combat. Right now, all abilities/spells cost 1 action point to equip, so you can equip 20 abilities. It’s thought that some abilities may cost more than 1 point later on.

In the later levels as you have multiple disciplines that are high level, you will be able to pick your main-class abilities and then equip off-class abilities that compliments your base class. This is one of the ways that you can customize your character so you are unique from others that are your same class. But since these can be changed on a whim, you do not need to make any permanent choices. The hardest choice you’ll have is which disciplines you want to level first.