FFXIV Archer (ARC) Leveling Guide & Rotation | ShB UPDATED

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This page is strictly for Archer – focusing more on ARC specific info like skills, traits, and playstyle notes. The GENERAL PROCESS that you should be following is outlined in our GENERAL LEVELING GUIDE: Which you should be using ALONGSIDE THIS GUIDE.

Leveling Methods, References and Reminders

In these boxes, I’ll put info that you’ll likely be referring to (or discovering) while leveling up your Archer.

Last but not least of these reminders, always logout at a sanctuary. It’s noted by the moon icon on the right side of your EXP bar. You gain rested EXP in these areas!

Archer Leveling – 01 to 30

If this is your first character:
MAIN SCENARIO QUEST IS YOUR FIRST PRIORITY.

Just became an Archer, huh? Start sniping your hunting log. A level one character doing hunting logs + participating in level appropriate FATES is super value THIS EARLY IN. The entire ARC Tier 1 hunting log can be found in Central and North Shroud. (You can do this while queued up for POTD).

You can refer to the table above regarding “what to do” after that.

L1 Skill Unlocked – Heavy Shot: For all intents and purposes – your basic attack.

L2 Skill Unlocked – Straight Shot: Gives a passive bonus to critical strike chance when you do it. Always keep this buff up on yourself!

L4 Skill Unlocked – Raging Strikes: A hefty DPS cooldown. Use it on large packs, or on fat guys.

L5 ARC Class Quest – check in on your guildmaster in Gridania – Archers’ Guild. These spawn every 5 levels up until 50, and can give you notable rewards (besides, you NEED to do them to become a Bard).

L6 Skill Unlocked – Venomous Bite: Your first Damage over Time (DoT) skill! Always open with this (or refresh it) if the enemy is going to survive for more than a few attacks.

L8 Trait Unlocked – Heavier Shot: There’s a small chance your Heavy Shot causes your next Straight Shot to be an auto-crit. This is easily indicated by your Straight Shot icon blinking. It would be good practice to have this very obvious in your HUD.

L8 Role Action slot I unlocked – Second Wind: No choice but to pick this one up – it’s great for soloing in any case. A self-heal is always welcome, and every little bit of downtime reduced, or death prevented, is value.

L10 Skill Unlocked – Misery’s End: An “execute” that can only be done when the target is low. Use whenever able.

L10 ARC Class Quest – check in on your guildmaster in Gridania – Archers’ Guild.

L12 Skill Unlocked – Bloodletter: A very important “off-gcd” (OGCD) skill. Use it as often as you can since it’s “free”. It’s a significant part of your future rotation – I suggest making it very obvious in your HUD when Bloodletter is available to use.

L12 Role Action slot II unlocked – Foot Graze: Pretty terrible for soloing. Has a niche use to bind enemies so they cant attack you while you interact. Not too important of a skill, don’t stress out to find a good bind for it.

L15 ARC Class Quest unlocks Repelling Shot: check in on your guildmaster in Gridania – Archers’ Guild.

Repelling Shot is a repositioning skill that has only a few niche practical uses. While soloing, just use it to “prevent getting hit for a bit”. It’s useful in raids to quickly spread out from your friends.

L16 Role Action Slot III Unlocked – Leg Graze: Not too bad for soloing tougher mobs, but admittedly quite poor overall. You don’t have much of a choice but put it in your role actions for now, but like its predecessor don’t stress out to find a good bind for it.

L18 Skill Unlocked – Quick Nock: Your first Area of Effect (AoE) skill. It does good damage on packs larger than 3. Be wary of its hefty TP cost. It has a deceptively long reach (much more than the skill shows), but the cone isn’t as wide as people initially presume.

L20 Role Actions Slot IV unlocked – Peleton: AMAZING for soloing (dungeons too) and movement in general. It has a small cooldown so use it ALWAYS. You’ll be surprised how much time this cuts in towns, and in scenarios wherein you wouldn’t want to mount up. Keep note it doesn’t stack with Sprint.

L20 ARC Class Quest – check in on your guildmaster in Gridania – Archers’ Guild.

L24 Role Actions Slot V unlocked – Invigorate: Sickeningly good for dungeons (where spamming Quick Nock happens alot), Invigorate is part of many DPS classes repertoire in the endgame.

L25 ARC Class Quest – check in on your guildmaster in Gridania – Archers’ Guild.

Once you hit level 30 FULL STOP! It’s time you evolve into a job class – in your case that’s Bard (BRD)! The prerequisites to unlocking the quest are simply finishing ALL ARC class quests up to level 30.

L30 Class quest unlocks – Windbite, and the prereq for Bard:

Windbite: is your other DoT skill – Windbite and Venomous Bite play a vital role in Bard DPS. Open with both DoTs and refresh them if the enemy will live for more than a few hits.

Completing this quest marks your final class quest as Archer. You now have the right to become a Bard!

How to become a Bard?

The quest to become a Bard is A Song of Bards and Bowmen, found in Archers’ Guild. Completing this quest gives you Soul of the Bard, and Mage’s Ballad skill.

Soul of the Bard is your job soul crystal. To become a Bard you merely have to equip it (it’s on the lower right most equipment slot). Equipping the soul crystal is a tiny bit of a hassle since you have to rebind your skills, and reconfigure your equipment set. But it’s okay since you’ll likely never be a Archer again.

And with that YOU’RE DONE WITH LEVELING Archer! Congrats! Feel free to proceed to the Bard Leveling Guide. Hopefully our Archer Leveling Guide helped you out. May your arrows always find their mark!

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