There are many fighting and crafting jobs to choose from in Final Fantasy XIV, and it can be confusing for new players. In comparison with many other MMOs, this one allows for much flexibility on job choices. Switching between two jobs is as easy as one button, and all of them are pretty well balanced.
On the crafting side, it’s also true—you will find a use for every Disciple of the Hand and Disciple of the Land job. Leveling them up is very important, since they offer functionalities that will improve your game experiences, like Materia melding and Desynthesis.
The best crafting and gathering jobs to level up in Final Fantasy XIV
You have two choices: level all crafting and gathering jobs up at the same time or chose a precise order. Many use omnicrafting as a slow but steady way to level up jobs at once, while others prefer to go one at a time. Omnicrafting is cheaper but takes longer, and leveling each one separately can be far quicker but also might cost more money if you have to buy crafting and gathering gear instead of making it, and buying ingredients and materials instead of gathering them.
Disciple of the Land
There are only three options for gathering jobs: Botanist, Fisher, and Miner. Those are useful, each for different reasons, and ultimately, it’ll be useful to have them all leveled up to 80. But if you want to start with only one job to level, we recommend opting for Botanist first.
The Fisher is the Disciple of the Land job you’ll use less. Some fish are required for Culinarian recipes and even for some gear, but it’s uncommon. On the other side, the Fisher gives access to Ocean fishing, which is a fun activity to test out. It’s easy to get it to level 80, and you’ll earn some cool cosmetic items on the way, including a shark mount, minions, and the “World-class troller” title.
The Miner, on the other hand, provides many items required to craft gear such as ingots, but the NPC sells those in the first levels. The Botanist is important in FFXIV because it allows you to gather wood, which is not always easy to get and sometimes expensive on the market, as well as harvest plants. It has good synergy with Blacksmith recipes, a job many players choose to level up first.
All three options will get you Treasure Maps that can be used in Treasure Hunts, which is a great way to earn money in the game, but you will need a max level Disciple of the Land in order to gather the ones that are most recent.
Disciple of the Hand
There are a couple of advantages to leveling up different DoH jobs. The main one is the synergy from crafting recipes. Many of them include items such as cloth, crafted by a Weaver, leather from the Leatherworker, or wood from Carpenter recipes. So if you have roughly the same levels on all DoH jobs, you won’t need to buy everything in Market Boards and it’ll save you gil. On the other hand, it takes more time and fills up a good part of your inventory, which is an issue you’ll want to delay.
If it’s not your priority but you want the advantages of having one DoH job leveled up, you can focus Blacksmith first. Many players begin with this job because it allows crafting tools and weapons, which are very useful. Being a metal-related job, it’s also very useful for all base items common with other jobs like Goldsmith and Armorer: ingots, rivets, and other base items that are required in many jobs’ recipes.
Blacksmith also has good synergy with Botanist materials. By leveling them up at the same time, you won’t need to buy many ingredients in the Market Board. If you like ocean fishing and are leveling up your Fisher job, you can also start with Culinarian, because the experience buff from food and stats increase at higher levels are very useful. The level 90 food from Culinarians also sells very well on the Market Board, since they are used for Savage and Extreme raiding.
