DAWNTRAIL Guides! Dawntrail L90-100 Miner Leveling, Botanist Leveling
Dawntrail Normal Raid Guide (Quick, Spoiler Free)
See: Viper STARTER Guide / Rotation | Pictomancer Starter Guide / Rotation
Tempted by the song of “ez ranged deeps”, ey? Aren’t we all! Well if you’re looking to have a shot at Archer, you’ve found the right place. Hopefully, our Archer Leveling Guide helps you out!
While this page focuses on Archer info like skills, traits, rotation, and playstyle notes. The GENERAL PROCESS that you follow is outlined in our FFXIV General Leveling Guide – use it alongside this guide. Looking at that, we’re in the “A Realm Reborn Tier” as we’re only looking to level our Archer up to 30.
This guide has three major segments:
- Archer Leveling Rotation & Skill Changes – How new skills affect your play.
- Archer L1 to L16 – General reminders and notes.
- Archer L16 to 30 – General reminders and notes.
- I’ll mention it again, knowledge from General Leveling Guide is REQUIRED.
I put rotation changes up top as you might reference it often. Without further ado, let’s get to it.
Archer Rotation for Leveling, Skills, Traits, Etc.
In this segment we run down how each skill and trait affects your Archer’s rotation during the leveling process.
L1 Skill Unlocked Heavy Shot – ROTATION AFFECTED: This is your “basic attack”.
L2 Skill Unlocked Straight Shot – ROTATION AFFECTED: There is a small chance after using Heavy Shot that Straight Shot becomes usable. Basically, “Spam Heavy Shot, then Straight Shot when Available”.
L2 Trait Unlocked Heavier Shot – This trait is what allows you to use Straight Shot. How it affects your rotation is already mentioned above.
L4 Skill Unlocked Raging Strikes – ROTATION AFFECTED: Your first DPS cooldown! Use it liberally while soloing or in dungeons. In dungeons, I suggest using this at the start of a new pack, and during bosses. Don’t hold on to it too much. Ultimately DPS cooldowns can be a very high level topic, but this is not the place for that.
L6 Skill Unlocked Venomous Bite – ROTATION AFFECTED: Your first DoT (Damage over Time) skill! OPEN every fight with this skill (Unless the monster is so weak that the DoT isn’t worth it – just heavy shot instead). Obviously, refresh it if it’s about to fall off. Typically in FFXIV you want to refresh DoT’s with a duration of 3s or less. If you’re fighting multiple monsters, using this on all of ‘em is legit.
L6 Role Action Unlocked Leg Graze – Your first Physical Ranged DPS Role Action! Causes Heavy on an enemy (slows movespeed). There is really not much of a use here, except letting enemies get to you slower. Only for desperation in dungeons or soloing… Very slim usage – can often be left unbinded as there are very few encounters where this is irrelevant.
L8 Role Action Unlocked Second Wind – A burst self-heal which you’ll grow to be very familiar with. Helps with all types of content! Sustain during Boss FATES, emergency healing in Raids, etc.
L10 Role Action Unlocked Foot Graze – A ranged Bind (Target cannot move)! Useful for preventing melee enemies from reaching you. Practically speaking, this skill is great for stopping enemies so you can run away or interact with objects / NPC’s without being interrupted by damage.
L12 Skill Unlocked Bloodletter – ROTATION AFFECTED: Use it every time it’s available. Simple as that. It’s Off-GCD (OGCD) So you have no reason to delay firing this off ASAP.
L15 Skill Unlocked Repelling Shot – (Requires CLASS QUEST completion) Your basic mobility skill. For soloing, it simply helps you move faster in between mobs. For dungeons and especially raids, this is a great repositioning tool.
L18 Skill Unlocked Quick Nock – AoE ROTATION AFFECTED: An INCREDIBLY EFFICIENT AoE attack that’s effective to use even against 2 targets. Obviously incredible at 3+ targets.
L20 Trait Unlocked Increased Action Damage – This does nothing that actually affects your gameplay, but simply increases your damage dealt by a %. Can’t complain.
L20 Role Action Unlocked Peloton – AMAZING skill for movement! You’ll be surprised how much time this cuts in towns, questing, dungeons, make it a habit to always have Peloton up when you can! Keep note it doesn’t stack with Sprint. Newer players might think I’m memeing, but you too will come to love Peloton!
L24 Role Action Unlocked Head Graze – A ranged interrupt! Stop enemies from casting their skills – while not super useful solo, it has niche applications in dungeons and raids. Just be aware you have it!
L30 Skill Unlocked Windbite – ROTATION AFFECTED: (Required CLASS QUEST completion) Another DoT, which has many OP connotations in 2/3 multi-target scenarios. Windbite should be your opening shot on enemies that will survive majority of its duration. Simply add it into your rotation “BEFORE” you’d usually do Venombite.
Completing this quest and unlocking Windbite marks your final class quest as Archer. You now have the right to become a Bard!
Archer Rotation – L1 to 30 SUMMARY
Here’s an overarching shot of what your ARC rotation is in the early leveling process. Adjust to your currently learned skills.
ARC L30 Single Target Rotation
- Fire Bloodletter whenever it’s available.
- Windbite if enemy will survive more than 9s
- Venombite if enemy will survive more than 9s
- Straight Shot if available.
- Heavy Shot spam.
- Use Raging Strikes liberally.
ARC L30 AoE Rotation
- Quick Nock spam if 4+ Targets (Don’t Multi DoT)
- Quick Nock if 3 Targets (Multi DoT still viable)
- Multi DoT’s if 2 Targets > Quick Nock spam.
- For any scenario, use Bloodletter whenever available.
- Use Raging Strikes liberally.
DoT’s still have the quick “9s lifespan” rule. If they die too quickly after the DoT, value is lost.
Archer Leveling: L1 to 30
As per the general leveling guide, this tier is divided into two sub-chunks. So I’ll be sub-chunking the following segments into two “tabs” as well. These two tabs represent A) L1 to 16, and B) L16 to 30.
Archer Leveling L1 to 30 Activity Flowchart
A rundown of things you can do to gain EXP – again split “to 16”, and “to 30”.
ARC Leveling Activities to L16
Remember the universal truths: Main Scenario Quest is king, and always have your passive EXP buffs (FC, Food, Chocobo, etc)
Renewable EXP sources
- FATES (Great when you're in queue)
- Levequests (Actually good EXP but better saved for DoH or DoL)
- Deep Dungeon -Palace of the Dead (Repetitive, terrible for LOW levels)
Burst EXP sources
- Challenge Log* (Complete passively until nearing reset, then force it)
- Guildhests (First completions per class is mega bonus EXP)
- Hunting Log (Great source of EXP this early on)
- Sidequests (Personal preference. Better if in tandem with MSQ!)
- Duty Roulette: Guildhest (Pretty irrelevant...)
*Challenge Log won't be unlocked in this tier if it's your first time around. While you need to be L16 to initially unlock it, it can be used by any level character thereafter.
Well, there’s not much to point your bow at this early on, but here’s where the arrow falls nonetheless. It’s slim, but you gotta start somewhere.
Of course, adjust this to your own personal preference.
ARC Leveling Activities to L30
Remember the universal truths: Main Scenario Quest is king, and always have your passive EXP buffs (FC, Food, Chocobo, etc)
Renewable EXP sources
- Dungeons (Stable, "fun", massive EXP easpecially with rested bonus)
- FATES (Great when you're in queue)
- Deep Dungeon -Palace of the Dead (Repetitive, but fast)
- Levequests (Actually good EXP but better saved for DoH or DoL)
- Beast Tribe (EXP is meh, but great for getting cosmetic items)
Burst EXP sources
- Duty Roulette: Leveling (The ultimate EXP source until L50)
- Challenge Log (Complete passively until nearing reset, then force it)
- Guildhests (First completions per class is mega bonus EXP)
- Hunting Log (More for completionism or first timers, it's "alright")
- Sidequests (Personal preference. Better if in tandem with MSQ!)
- Duty Roulette: Guildhest (Pretty irrelevant...)
A few adjustments to your leveling mentality here, mainly the addition of Duty Roulette: Leveling, as a daily burst, and straight queuing Dungeons as an option as well.
Of course, adjust this to your own personal preference.
Archer Leveling L1 to 30 Important Notes
Here we talk about important things to keep in mind during the process – essentially some straight shots to make sure you hit so you don’t get shafted.
ARC L1 to 30 Gear Updates: Needed?
TLDR: Not really significant. This applies to both sub-tiers. Just make sure to pick up whatever along the way, or find dirt cheap upgrades in the MB or wherever (quests etc).
Important notes to keep in mind
As always, Main Scenario Quest takes the highest priority.
There are too many skills that get unlocked here for me to talk about individually, which is why the skill unlock / rotation segment above should be your guiding light in that regard.
Limited Burst EXP sources take priority: Newly unlocked Guildhests, Challenge Log entries, Hunting Log.
Renewable EXP sources if you need to grind: FATE’s are great, followed by Levequests and if so you choose, Sidequests. (Deep Dungeon: POTD – can you zone it from Level 1? Even if you could, I don’t think I would…)
At level 15 you get access to your first Dungeon, Sastasha, but I don’t see much reason to grind there, unless you wanna burn rested EXP and want to hit 16 ASAP.
At 15 you should catch up and do your class quests, as you do get a skill form it – Repelling Shot. It’s not much, but it does help walking around. Typically you don’t want to keep your class quests incomplete anyway.
A note on Levequests: Can be an attractive source of EXP. Every tier has “good and bad” levequests so it’s up to you if you wanna go try them out. Main downside is using them up in place of DoH / DoL. Consider using them if you’re at or near the Levequest allowance cap!
As always, Main Scenario Quest takes the highest priority.
Starting L16, you open up Duty Roulette: Leveling, which is you should be doing everyday! This is an important source of EXP – it’s a huge daily burst! Also at L16 you can unlock Challenge Log if you haven’t already.
Overall, the same concept applies. Daily and Weekly bursts of EXP > Basic Renewable EXP sources of your choice > Other side activities to alleviate boredom or monotony.
Renewable EXP sources? At this point it’s Dungeons, FATES and Deep Dungeons, and maybe some Levequests. Weirdly enough, Archer feels terrible in Deep Dungeons, but great in Dungeons (and “ok” in FATEs). Burst EXP sources? Roulettes, new Guildhests, Hunting and Challenge Logs.
L18 unlocks Quick Nock skill: This is a pretty damn underrated “breakpoint” for Archer leveling. Honestly, this skill is so unbelievably powerful for this level. It allows you to AoE down mobs efficiently while most other classes simply don’t even HAVE an AoE skill. This places dungeons a little higher on your “priority” list, as there’s quite a bit of AoEing down mobs here.
The early ARR dungeons aren’t that exciting, but at least Quick Nock makes it a little faster for you. No joke, it’s relevant. Imagine running a dungeon with zero AoE (It’s the reason why most tanks will not speedrun / pile up these low level dungeons).
at L20 If you haven’t unlocked your Companion (combat Chocobo), do so now. You can begin the process now – it entails getting your first mount as well (at least for most new players).
At L20, you unlock the Role Action Peloton, which you should get used to using all the time. I mentioned it in the rotation segment, but it bears repeating here – any increase in speed is welcome.
At level 30 get your class quests done, as it’s one of the prerequisites to transform into Bard!
Levequests notes, same as usual. Sad to take ’em away from crafters and gatherers, but it’s viable EXP. Definitely use them up if you’re overcapped on allowances.
Stop at Level 30! Unlock your advanced job as soon as you can!
(Archer turns into Bard at Level 30)
Archer L30 Onward: Unlocking Bard
STOP WHAT YOU’RE DOING ONCE YOU HIT ARCHER LEVEL 30.
Unlock Bard ASAP!
How to become a Bard? Unlocking Bard requires a Level 30 Archer, and completion of the L30 ARC Class Quest. From there, return to your guild and it should point you to the quest! See: Unlocking all jobs.
The reason we unlock ASAP is, not only to get a new skill at L30 (In your case Mage’s Ballad), but most if not all new skills and traits going forward are for BARD and not ARCHER, so you have no reason to stay as an ARC any longer.
Archer Leveling – Related Reads
Some good reads and related links here:
- General Leveling Guide – Oft mentioned here, but bears mentioning again.
- Archer General Basics Guide – Basic info regarding the ARC class.
- Bard General Basics Guide – Basic info about ARC’s advanced job, BRD.
- Unlocking all Jobs and Classes – Summary on how to become the various jobs.
- Ranged DPS Role Actions – Use cases and information on ranged role actions.
Summary and Closing
And with that YOU’RE DONE WITH LEVELING Archer! Congrats! Hopefully our Archer Leveling Guide helped you out. May your arrows always find their mark.
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