FFXIV Lancer (LNC) Leveling Guide & Rotation (Shb Updated)

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“Stick them with the pointy end”. Being here means you’re leveling up a Lancer! Well fate has THRUST you into the right place! Get past the early game FAST with our Lancer Leveling Guide! Good thing for you, Lancers are pretty resilient soloing!

HOLD UP! this Lancer Leveling Guide should be used along side the FFXIV General Leveling Guide. Of course, if this is your first character – follow your story quest! You might as well check out the basics of a Lancer, too, if you’re new.

Don’t know where the LNC guild is? It’s in Gridania. Got some Accuracy Food? good. Is your battle chocobo (+Gyashl Greens) ready? Good.

Wait a sec, I’m above L30 – I’m a DRG! Then check out the Dragoon Leveling Guide.

Lancer: the early levels.

A newbie lancer are ye?! Get to work ASAP skewering your hunting log! A low level character doing hunting logs + participating in level appropriate FATES is the most efficient EXP source early on. For you (Lancer), you’ll be wandering around Central and North Shroud a lot. Your objective right now is to get past the early levels. If you feel like using leves, you can gain some EXP doing levequests in The Bannock (Level 1 & Level 5), it’s  north of Bentbranch Meadows (Central Shroud). Feel free to smash any FATE you might encounter!

protip: If you have cross-class skills, use them! Second Wind (PGL 8), Bloodbath (MRD 8) and Protect (CNJ 8) are hands down the most useful cross-class skills. They allow you to tackle enemies you have no business being up against! They also prevent a lot of deaths which are the main cause of leveling downtime.

Level 4 skill reminder – Vorpal Thrust: Your first COMBO attack. This combos FROM True Thrust. Get used to the concept of combos and how they work. You’ll be doing it a lot.

Level 8 skill reminder – Impulse Drive: (FOR THE MORE EXPERIENCED PLAYERS) ID gives a bonus of +10 average potency versus TT+VT combo. While I don’t recommend doing this… since they removed the back attack off ID this is actually a thing. It’s dead boring, though.

Just do whats mentioned above and you’ll reach 10 in not time… 10 now? Grats! Complete all your hunting logs in this tier. You’ve also gained your first unallocated attribute points: dump them all into STR. Before you go, Check the Lancer guildmaster every 5 levels – level 1 5 and 10 for now – Don’t delay your class quests! Try to check in every 5 levels for the remainder of your leveling process!

Level 10 skill reminder – Leg Sweep: Your first OFF GCD attack. Mainly you’ll be using this to boost your damage. However, keep in mind you can save it to STUN and CANCEL annoying monster attacks.

Lancer Level 10 to 16

Right after hitting level 10 the first thing you wanna do is Guildhests. Haven’t got them unlocked? Travel to almost any nearby town (likely Bentbranch Meadows) and unlock it. Doing Guildhests gives a beefy first-time completion EXP bonus on ANY class. ALSO UNLOCKED is the ability to queue up for Daily Roulette: Guildhests, to get bonus exp once every day! For now, queue up the guildhests Under the Armor and Basic Training: Enemy Parties. IF YOU DIDN’T HEAR IT: EXP bonus for first completion is for ALL CLASSES!!

Make your way (hopefully via teleport) to Aleport in Western La Noscea. This place is THE place level up around this range. Lots of FATES, lots of PEOPLE = profit. FATEs not showing up? Get some Levequests in Aleport. Too easy? Scale it up to +4! Too hard? Swiftperch has leves that can be tuned to level 10 to 14!! Grind in this map until your Lancer reaches level 16.

Level 12 skill reminder – Heavy Thrust: Gives a +DMG buff that is VERY SIGNIFICANT. Always keep this up even if you do not hit from flank! You can change your opener to ‘Approach enemy and flank attack them with Heavy Thrust”

Reminder Level 15: Queue up for the two new Guildhests – Basic Training: Enemy Strongholds, and Hero on the Halfshell.

Level 16 – the turning point: FINALLY! Lancer level 16! You’ve unlocked Duty Roulette: Low level  dungeon. Successful completion of this gives a GIGANTIC EXP BONUS ONCE A DAY. ((Challenge Log)) ((Do you have it)) Unlocked? Do it now!! (It initially unlocks at level 16) Unlocking challenge log is detailed in the General Leveling Guide. After hitting 16, the road to max level is much, much easier.

Dungeons as LNC: You might do too much damage for low level tanks to keep aggro sometimes (depends on tank quality). One trick is to cross-class a DoT (Venomous Bite or Fracture), so you can spread out damage. Don’t be too harsh on low level tanks… they might actually be NEW to it! It isn’t cool to purposefully pull aggro from your tank.

Skill reminder level 18 – Life Surge: A welcome cooldown for soloing and otherwise. An ensured crit with lifesteal! Use it on your strongest attacks (Vorpal Thrust for now) to keep your life up. Do not forget its damage potential either.

Lancer: finishing up to level 20: Finish your hunting log if it’s not done. If you want to try another place (Don’t blame you if you’re sick of aleport) Go to: Bentbranch Meadows (East Shroud) and Camp Drybone (Eastern Thanalan). They’re both similarly leveled (15~) zones. Double check and complete all LNC class quests (head to your guildmaster)and place all unspent stat points in STR! Ok? Go!!!

Lancer Level 20 – 30

You know what to do at this point: Daily Guildhest, Daily Low Level Roulette, FATES + Leves. See if you can handle Quarrymill (South Shroud) and continue FATE grinding and Levequesting there. If you’re here and your gear is really bad, you’re gonna feel it! But you’ve been doing daily Dungeon Roulette – hmm… HMM?!  If I haven’t told you enough, Accuracy Food REALLY helps out!

Reminder Level 20: Queue up for the two new Guildhests – Pulling Poison Posies & Stinging Back.

Skill reminder level 22 – Invigorate: A KEY skill in the endgame. You might be reading this guide purely to be getting this (or Blood for Blood). Regains TP, nuff said. In a solo/leveling perspective, use it to sprint!

Alternate FATE spot mid 20’s: One mildly popular but oft forgotten spot is the Highbridge Area in Eastern Thanalan (Like this). This place is great for both active and AFK farming! This FATE chain is great to camp or while queued for dungeon (Melee DPS and waiting for queues go hand in hand).

Reminder Level 25: Queue up for the two new Guildhests – All’s Well that Ends in the Well & Flicking Sticks and Taking Names.

Level 26 Skill Reminder – Full Thrust: This is your first combo finisher. Does massive damage, and comboes from True -> Vorpal -> Full. Usage of life surge should now be paired up with this. This makes leveling a lot easier since things die significantly faster with Full Thrust combo!

At Level 28: Try your luck at the tropic waterscape we all love: Costa Del Sol, Eastern La Noscea! Levequest and FATE here until you reach L30 (You might need a party if your gear is bad). Levelled up to 30? I’ll remind you yet again… allocate all stat points into STR, smash any unfinished hunting logs, and and finish your class quests in Gridania before doing ANYTHING ELSE.

Skill reminder Level 30 – Phlebotomize: ‘Phleb’ comboes off Heavy Thrust, which means it comes out early on in our rotation. Not a bad thing since it’s a DoT. While it may feel wasted on weaker monsters, Phlebs high potency won’t make you regret using it in most scenarios.

Lancer 30 onwards: What to do?

So, if you’ve completed your (final) L30 LNC class quest (Phlebotimize learned means you’ve done it). From here you have two main choices:

• Dragoon (requires Marauder 15 and LNC 30)
• Alternate job path for Lancer not yet released.

If you’re going Dragoon – continue with our Dragoon Leveling Guide. If you still need Marauder 15, go ahead and use the Marauder Leveling Guide.

Sadly, there is no second job path for Lancers yet – but i’m looking forward to updating this filler sentence in the near future :)

Good job piercing into the heavens of EXP! I certainly wish the Lancer Leveling Guide was useful! You’ve still got a ways to go – but you’ve done good so far! For more awesome FFXIV updates, go ahead and Like us on Facebook – and if you need to drop a line, follow us on Twitter!