Sukutak here with another part of the “101” series, which gives an overview of the game’s classes and roles. This is not an extensive how-to guide and won’t provide optimal skill rotations, but it should give you most of the information you need to start poisoning your enemies and summoning adorable creatures!
A Little Lore
Accompanied by a familiar in battle, adepts of the art of arcanum derive their might from symbols of power born of geometric techniques hailing from across the southern seas. Held within special grimoires, these symbols lend shape to the arcanist’s aether, thereby allowing them to produce a myriad of powerful spells.
Using magicked gemstones upon which the selfsame symbols are graven, arcanists are also able to summon forth the ephemeral being Carbuncle to carry out their bidding.
Arcanist’s Role
See the DPS 101 guide for an introduction to the DPS role.
Where to Start
The arcanist class can be unlocked in Limsa Lominsa at the Arcanist’s Guild. Thubyrgeim and K’lyhia will train you in the art of summoning carbuncles and inflicting diseases on your foes. Every five levels, you should return here for another quest to get gear upgrades and (at level 15 and 30) abilities.
As You Level
Arcanists tend to rely on their damage over time (DoT) spells for damage alongside properly managing their pets, who gain abilities that the arcanist can command them to use. They also manage a resource called Aetherflow in order to use stronger abilities.
To start with your spells, Ruin is your most basic damage spell. If your DoTs are up on your targets, you generally want to use Ruin. Eventually you will get Ruin II, which surprisingly is not a damage increase over Ruin. It costs more mana (so you will still generally use Ruin instead of Ruin II), but is instant so that you can use abilities that are off the global cooldown (oGCD) such as Energy Drain or Bane. This also lets you move while casting, as you won’t need to wait for a cast bar.
Your DoTs are your major source of damage, however. While the initial damage of a DoT is not very high, they will continue to do more damage every three seconds for their duration. They come in two flavors: Bio and Miasma. As you level up, Bio will eventually upgrade to Bio II and will do more damage. You generally want to have both Bio and Miasma up on any target you are trying to take down. Because of their durations, if you cast Bio first then Miasma, things will line up such that casting Miasma when the original spell is about to run out will also be the proper timing to cast Bio immediately afterwards to refresh it. In essence, your basic rotation is Bio –> Miasma –> Ruin until Miasma is about to run out –> Miasma –> Bio. After that things won’t line up quite so nicely, but that isn’t something you need to worry too much about when just starting the game.
Your next major class mechanic is Aetherflow. Aetherflow is an ability on a one minute cooldown that will give you “stacks” of Aetherflow depending on your level. At first you will only get one, but eventually you will get three per use. In addition, casting Aetherflow gives you back 10% of your MP. Aetherflow stacks may be spent to cast powerful magic. At first, you will only have Energy Drain available. It is oGCD, meaning that you can use it whenever you want regardless of if you just cast a spell. It will deal damage, heal you, and give you MP, but it will remove one of your Aetherflow stacks. At level 30, you will get Bane. Bane helps you hurt a large group of enemies all at once. It also consumes an Aetherflow stack. When you use Bane on an enemy, all the DoTs you have on it will spread to nearby enemies, as if you had cast Bio and Miasma on them as well. While the DoTs won’t do as much damage to the targets that they are spread to as they do on the initial target, Bane is still a very useful ability when you are dealing with a group of monsters, such as when you are in a dungeon.
Pets are a major part of your damage as an arcanist. To start, you will have access to two of them. One major thing that you should keep in mind is that pets come in two modes: Obey and Sic. In Sic mode (which pets generally start in once summoned), a pet will try to use its skills whenever available. That is fine when starting out, but eventually you will want to get used to Obey mode, in which your pet will only use its abilities when you tell it to. This allows you to have it use its abilities when they are most useful, instead of potentially wasting them by using them at ineffective times as your pet will often do in Sic mode. You should try to get used to Obey mode as soon as you can in order to get the most out of the class!
At level 4 you will unlock your first pet, Emerald Carbuncle. After finishing the level 15 class quest you will get a second pet, Topaz Carbuncle. Emerald is a caster, doing damage from far away. In dungeons, you will want to stick with it. One thing of note: it has an ability called Backdraft which knocks an enemy backward. While this is useful when soloing to keep an enemy from hitting you, and can be used strategically to interrupt an enemy from using abilities, you generally do not want to use this in dungeons as it will knock the enemy away from any melee range players. Aside from making sure it doesn’t do that (by keeping it on Obey), it will mostly do its own thing and contribute damage just by being there.
Topaz Carbuncle, on the other hand, is a tank pet. It will try to get your enemies to attack it, giving you more space to deal damage. It can be useful for soloing, but it should never be used in dungeons as it does less damage than Emerald Carbuncle and may disrupt your actual tank from keeping the attention of your enemies.
Finally, arcanists get some healing spells. Physick is a very weak heal and you will almost never use it as arcanist aside from topping your HP off between fights. More useful is your ability to cast Resurrection, bringing a party member back from death. By resurrecting dead teammates, you can greatly help out your healer and possibly save the party from a full wipe.
Cross-Role Skills
Please see the DPSing 101 guide for more information about cross-role skills.
Acquiring Your Job
Arcanists are unique in that they can pick from two jobs (or get both! Since both are based on ACN, leveling one levels the other as well) at level 30. Each one increases your stats and lets you unlock more abilities and spells, possibly to such an extent as to change your role in parties! Summoners are a direct continuation of arcanist, getting better DoT spells and enhanced combat pets. Scholars change things up a bit more: they are healers, summoning fairies and using shield magic to help keep the party alive. Both are available through quests once you complete the level 30 arcanist quest. It is no longer necessary to level a sub-class to 15 to unlock your job, as of Stormblood.
That should be enough to get you started as arcanist! Go wreak havoc with poisons and magical fluffy friends.