Final Fantasy XIV – The Arcanist’s Guidebook

Where the Conjurer looks after the team’s wounds and afflictions, the Gladiator takes the brunt force of the harpoon-wielding pirates and fire-breathing clamshell monstrosities — it’s a clear fact that just about any class in an MMO can dish out the damage no matter what their primary role in group may be — but there’s always one that’s versatile to just about any scenario they may find themselves in — and the Arcanist is just the one to do that in Final Fantasy XIV.

While the description of the Arcanist may put them across as a support class, that doesn’t mean they’re any less capable of picking up the slack in any hashed-out 4-man party. They can play with the big boys and will commonly be at the forefront of a group whether you like it not. Just like the Druids of Azeroth or even the Red Mage of past Final Fantasy titles the Arcanist will never be left out of a group specifically looking for a Tank, healer or damage dealer — as they can just either one of those roles just fine should the favourable option meet their maker. Of course, where hybrid play comes into effect, the advantage of versatility often comes at a price. And that’s no different here. The Arcanist will handle anything that’s thrown at them, but they’re typically the on-call backup player for all three at once.

The idea behind the Arcanist and there myriad of spells, conjurations, and concoctions certainly pins them as a support class — but they’re not to be mistaken as a one-hit-wonder. Arcanists called into the front-lines of duty will often be tasked — and taxed — to be on high alert throughout a fight and be ready to flip the pages of their tome of Arcane annotations away from the instruction of destructive arts to the summoning of a beast capable of easing the weight of the tank’s battered bulwark or on hand to help offer succor and relief to the team when the enemy onslaught is proving a tad much for a single healer to manage.

While the Arcanist may enter the group expected to help tear through the creepy crawlies of Toto-Rak or ghastly gnats of Halatali, they should always be ready and willing to fling their varied arts whenever constant spamming of Ruin and Miasma isn’t enough to keep someone from losing an arm in battle. Of course, the budding magic-wielding number cruncher won’t be relying solely on group play and hybrid roles to get by in Eorzea. The early leveling of any class takes place far outside the Duty Finder and, instead, out in the field — mostly alone. When you first pick up the book of Arcane connotations you’ll begin with only a single spell — Ruin — a household name to anyone who’s played Final Fantasy in the past.

Despite the ambitious and strong nature of the spell’s name, Ruin isn’t going to searing faces of rabid dogs or rogue plunderers in a single blow, and you’re going to have accustom yourself to the art of ‘kiting’ if you’re looking kill a far away target before it starts to jab through your weak cloth armour. Just think yourself lucky that you’ll have to depend on the singular spell to dispatch a few of the easy pickings of Eorzea’s plains before you gain access to your second ability — the equally reminiscent ‘Bio’. Bio acts much the same as Aero did for the Conjurer. An instant-cast lightly damaging spell with a Damage-over-Time (DoT) effect that’ll slowly burn through recipient as their getting more a barrage of more potent abilities thrown into their chests.

To make better use of the instant cast nature of the Arcanist’s eventual debuff and DoT skills, you’ll find that firing them off directly after the use of a channelled cast spell will enable you to stack each effect on top of each other in no time at all, leaving you to concentrate on knocking off more chunks of the target’s HP bar with your harder hitting magicks. Though you may think gaining the use of more abilities like Bio and Virus will give up the upper hand to shoot down a target before they get within stabbing range with their lance, you’ve got another thing coming.

It’ll only take you around 30 minutes or so to unlock the Arcanist’s fabled conjuration — the summonable mass of aether energy known at Carbuncle. This brightly glowing rodent acts as the forefront of the Arcanist’s ability to work their skills to fit a multitude of situations. And the early days of Carbuncle-slinging will be key to your survival out in the field. Make sure to have your mystical companion ready and waiting before you even target that sandwich-stealing spy you’ve been shipped out to apprehend — you’ll quickly fall to your knees should you find yourself without said furry friend to keep you away from the blade.

Though your summon may only Conjurer up a damage dealing bullet sponge, the sheer amount of hurt given off by the dynamic duo will be enough to have you wondering how you managed to live long enough to grab the little fella. As time goes on you’ll grow you summoning arts to allow the creation of ‘Topaz Carbuncle’; an version of the classic guardian that can hold the attention of multiple bad guys at a time, leaving you to fire out your growing destructive arts from afar with less of a worry about become the swift victim of a counter attack.

With the Arcanists quickly growing roster of skills you’ll level up and out of your gear faster than you can muster up the will to replace it back in town — and that’s a likely cause of Arcanist death out in the field. The cloth-clad einsteins wear little to protect them from their adversaries, and that major issue starts to rear its ugly head before they happen to unlock the ability to cure their wounds with their ‘Physick’ cast. So keep an eye on that health meter and remember to micro-manage your Carbuncle out into the front-lines before you start raining heavy equations down upon your foes — that way they’re less likely to turn their attention to you and knock you out of the ball park.

Solo leveling is generally going to consist of applying debuffs and damage-over-time spells with Bio and Miasma and following up with a few casts of Ruin. Once you start to fight the bigger adversaries in party play, FATE encounters or your storyline quests, you’ll have to start focusing on keeping your detrimental effects up and running while using your Virus cooldown to deal an extra blow and spin your Aetherflow and Energy Drain spells together when you’re low on resources to build them back up and deal an extra chunk of damage when in the process. You’ll often be hitting two birds with one stone as a conjurer, and having your action bars full by the time you’re level 15 is a common example of the multitasking you’ll be managing even in the early days.

Party play will combine all the elements of your solo-adventure into a single ball of arcane spell spinning. Not only will you have to put away your Topaz Carbuncle in favor of your original destruction-wielding copy, but you’ll also be expected to keep an eye on not only your own HP bar, but that of the rest of the team too. Sure, the roped-in Conjurer/White mage will be the one on hand to fix up your wounds and cull the poison coursing through your veins, but what happens when you’re all at 30% with 4 stacks of potent toxins flooding your bodies? You’ll need to be ready and willing to chip in your mana to help the cause. What if the tank falls? Well, you’d better get breaking out your old friend Mr. Topaz and get down into the trenches.

You’re the last line of defence when a party is about to enter hell’s highway. Do you need to put yourself out there? Not at all. But it’s just good etiquette to do so. You can certainly opt-in to a Duty/Light Party as a bonafide healer should a group be eagre to go without a Conjurer in sight. Your Physick spell can do the job if the rest of the team knows what they’re doing. But you’ll most likely never serve in the big leagues of party management when you’re trudging into that 20-man Primal brawl — you just don’t have the moves to refresh that many people.

Around the level 30 mark the Arcanist is going to look into advancing their class into a fully-fledged ‘Job’ role. While each other class only gets the singular advancement, the spell-weaving bookworm gets two — the further supporting role of the Scholar, or the wielder of arcane-born living conjurations, the Summoner. If you found yourself enjoying the off-healing aspects of your former role, you’ll probably enjoy the mix of strengthening and weakening of allies and enemies that comes packaged with the Scholar — else you’re going to want to bolster your summoning abilities and craft up tiny Primals to fight by your side with the Summoner class.

General Arcanist Rotation for Damage Dealing

1. Summon Carbuncle (Topaz = Solo / Emerald = Duty)

2. Miasma

3. Bio

4. Virus (If against a boss or duty level mob)

5. Bane (if target is one of many)

6. Ruin

7. Miasma/Bio to keep debuffs in effect

8. Ruin

9. Aetherflow (if HP or Mana is below comfortable amount or excessively static)

10. Energy Drain (When Aetherflow is active)

11. Repeat steps 2 onward

Regardless of your choice, the choice of the Arcanist comes with a single purpose — to give you a taste of each role before you take the plunge and dive into the deep end.

You’ll start by tanking enemies with your pet while dishing out the damage and healing the two of you when you need it — but sooner or later you’re going to find your true calling and progress those skills into something far more potent knowing you got there by simply shoving your face in a book and wagging your finger without relying on the skills of your past ventures into Conjury, axe-swinging, or the like to get you by.

This article was originally commissioned by Team Dignitas for the Alienware Arena project but was ultimately cut due to the demise of the publication.