FFXIV Best Solo Class 2021

Arcanist Arcanist is a great way to start if you want the ease of soloing content, taking it to summoner after. You will have a pet that can tank for you and one of your skills heals it over time.

FFXIV Best Solo Class: Arcanist

Arcanist Arcanist is the best FFXIV class for solo players. I recommend the Arcanist for beginners. You have a Partner at the beginning who fights by your side and you learn as a damage class also to heal spells. Further, you are leveling two Jobs at the same time later, the scholar (healer) and summoner (damage dealer).

Before the advent of Red Mage Red Mage, Summoner Summoner was said to be the most solo-friendly DPS due to the pet. And Summoner does technically have a heal, though it sucks. But the reason why Summoner has a heal is that it shares levels and some actions with Scholar - both are Arcanist as the base class, so leveling Summoner also levels up Scholar simultaneously. The gear is different, but the levels are shared. This means that if you do need a faster queue pop, you CAN be a healer for group content, and it means that if you run into something where your Summoner isn't soloing it so well for whatever reason, you could try going in as the Scholar instead. Granted, the question is whether you like the Scholar or Summoner playstyles. It is a pet class, some people like that, others do not, and Summoners are said to have had a very finicky rotation and are hard to optimize at a high level of play. I have no experience with this myself, but that is what Summoner's main friends have told me. Though if you're running solo, you probably don't NEED to be fully efficient with your Summoner gameplay, so the 'Summoner is hard lol' aspect may not even be relevant.

Level Arcanist. You get both scholar and summoner for the price of one. If you need to queue for dungeons, play as a scholar. If you would like to do fates, play as a summoner and summon titan-egi. You just have to get gear for either job but your leveling is the same for both.

Class Class Code Disciple of Role Starting City Weapons Armor Job Job Code
Arcanist Arcanist ACN Magic Ranged Magical DPS Limsa Lominsa Books Cloth Summoner Summoner
Scholar Scholar		 SMN
SCH

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The Arcanist’s Guild is in the Marine City of Limsa Lominsa. If you choose arcanist as your first class, you will start off in the city of Limsa Lominsa. At level 30, arcanists may specialize into either summoner or scholar.

The arcanist is a disciple of magic and wears cloth armor. They use books as weapons. The following crafting classes can create items that are useful to the arcanist:

  • Alchemist Alchemist — Books.
  • Weaver Weaver — Cloth armor.
  • Goldsmith Goldsmith — Earrings, bracelets, necklaces and rings.

Core mechanics

The arcanists can build stacks with aetherflow to cast strong abilities at their enemies. They can also summon minor primals to help them in fight.

  • Aetherflow – Restores 10% of maximum MP.
  • Summon – Summons a caster-type pet to fight at your side.
  • Summon II – Summons a support-type pet to fight at your side.

Every time the arcanist uses aetherflow, an aether gauge is filled with three stacks. They may then consume these stacks to cast certain abilities which become vital as the class develops into one of the available jobs – summoner and scholar. Arcanist Arcanist gameplay consists of correctly positioning their pets, coupled with aetherflow management and casting damage-over-time spells.

PvE actions

Arcanist Arcanist has the best solo endurance and mistake recovery while you learn to play, but if you don’t like its flavor or play style feel free to pick another class.

Action Acquired Level Type MP Casting Recast Description
Ruin ACN 1 Spell 200 2.5s 2.5s Deals unaspected damage with a potency of 180.
Bio ACN 2 Spell 400 Instant 2.5s Deals unaspected damage over time.
Physick ACN 4 Spell 400 1.5s 2.5s Restores target’s HP.
Summon ACN 4 Ability Instant 3s Summons a caster-type pet to fight at your side.
Miasma ACN 6 Spell 500 2.5s 2.5s Deals unaspected damage with a potency of 20.
Egi Assault ACN 10 Spell Instant 30s Orders your Egi to use Aerial Slash if Garuda-Egi is summoned, Crimson Cyclone if Ifrit-Egi is summoned, or Earthen Armor if Titan-Egi is summoned.
Resurrection ACN 12 Spell 2,400 8s 2.5s Resurrects target to a weakened state.
Summon II ACN 15 Ability Instant 3s Summons a support-type pet to fight at your side.
Fester ACN 18 Ability Instant 5s Deals unaspected damage with a potency of 100.
Energy Drain SCH 45 Ability Instant 3s Deals unaspected damage with a potency of 100.
Bio II ACN 26 Spell 600 Instant 2.5s Deals unaspected damage over time.
Bane ACN 30 Ability Instant 10s Spreads a target’s Bio and Miasma effects to nearby enemies.
Summon III SMN 30 Ability Instant 3s Summons an attacker-type pet to fight at your side.
Energy Siphon SMN 35 Ability Instant 30s Deals unaspected damage with a potency of 40 to target and all enemies nearby it.
Ruin II ACN 38 Spell 400 Instant 2.5s Deals unaspected damage with a potency of 150.
Outburst SMN 40 Spell 400 2.5s 2.5s Deals unaspected damage with a potency of 70 to target and all enemies nearby it.
Egi Assault II ACN 40 Spell Instant 30s Orders your Egi to use Slipstream if Garuda-Egi is summoned, Flaming Crush if Ifrit-Egi is summoned, or Mountain Buster if Titan-Egi is summoned.
Enkindle SMN 50 Ability Instant 120s Commands pet to use its signature attack.

Magic Ranged DPS actions

If you’re looking for a DPS that can solo alright, give arcanist/summoner a try. They have a tank-type summon that can let you play solo with a lot of non-endgame PVE content if you want to relax a bit and not dodge as much.

Action Acquired Level Type Casting Recast Description
Addle Magic Ranged DPS 8 Ability Instant 90s Lowers target’s intelligence and mind by 10%.
Swiftcast Magic Ranged DPS
Healer		 18 Ability Instant 60s Next spell is cast immediately.
Lucid Dreaming Magic Ranged DPS
Healer		 24 Ability Instant 60s Gradually restores own MP.
Surecast Magic Ranged DPS
Healer		 44 Ability Instant 120s Spells can be cast without interruption.

Shared pet actions

Arcanist Arcanist is a fine class to start with. It unlocks a tank pet relatively early (level 15) which can keep enemies off you when you’re doing solo stuff like quests — really good if you’re inexperienced and need a little more protection. Being able to heal yourself is great too.

Arcanist is pretty solo-friendly since it has a tank pet. The following are shared actions used to control a pet behavior.

Action Description
Away Order pet to leave the battlefield.
Heel Order pet to follow behind you.
Place Order pet to move to a specific location.
Stay Order pet to remain where it is.
Guard Order pet to refrain from attacking until you attack or are attacked.
Steady Order pet to refrain from attacking until ordered to do so.
Sic Order pet to attack.

Emerald Carbuncle

Action Acquired Level Type Casting Recast Description
Gust Emerald Carbuncle 1 Spell 1s 3s Deals wind damage with a potency of 20 to target and all enemies nearby it.
Downburst Emerald Carbuncle 10 Spell Instant 1.5s Deals wind damage with a potency of 100 to target and all enemies nearby it.
Glittering Emerald Emerald Carbuncle 40 Spell Instant 1.5s Deals wind damage with a potency of 30 to target and all enemies nearby it.

Topaz Carbuncle

Action Acquired Level Type Casting Recast Description
Gouge Topaz Carbuncle 1 Spell Instant 3s Deals earth damage with a potency of 40.
Glittering Topaz Topaz Carbuncle 10 Spell Instant 1.5s Creates a barrier around you that absorbs damage totaling 30% of your maximum HP.
Shining Topaz Topaz Carbuncle 40 Spell Instant 1.5s Deals earth damage with a potency of 200 to all nearby enemies.

PvE traits

Trait Acquired Level Effect
Maim and Mend CNJ
ACN
RDM		 20 Increases base action damage and HP restoration by 10%.
Corruption Mastery ACN 26 Upgrades Bio to Bio II.
Maim and Mend II CNJ
ACN
RDM		 40 Increases base action damage and HP restoration by 30%.

Jobs

The best Solo class in FFXIV tends to be Arcanist. You get to double up a DPS caster and healer class at the same time all the way to 80.

The arcanist is a rather unique class in that they may specialize into two jobs:

  •  SMN – a DPS job.
  •  SCH – a healing job.

Quests

Quest Level Quest Giver Unlocks
Way of the Arcanist 1 Murie
My First Grimoire 1 Thubyrgeim
What’s in the Box 5 Thubyrgeim
Tactical Planning 10 Thubyrgeim
Topaz Teachings 15 Thubyrgeim Summon II
Over the Rails 15 Thubyrgeim
Pincer Maneuver 20 Thubyrgeim
Grimoire Fandango 25 Thubyrgeim
Sinking Doesmaga 30 Thubyrgeim Bane

At 15 you should catch up and do your class quests, as you do get a skill form it – Summon II, which is pretty alright. It’s a better summon for soloing.

I would definitely recommend Arcanist Arcanist if it’s your first class. You’ll do great DPS and you’ll have a pet to help with it and to, eventually, tank. And once you hit 30, you can use a Chocobo as well (for soloing) and you could either go all-out DPS or have your pet’s tank and heal for you, while you do the bulk of the DPS. It’s like having your own personal party and it’s kind of awesome.

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