FFXIV Arcanist (ACN) Basics Guide & FAQ – Shadowbringers Updated!

MIN & BTN Leveling Guides updated. Other notes...

Botanist Leveling to 90, as well as Miner Leveling to 90 are updated for the Endwalker tier. Older tiers needs some fixing, although I modernized what I could quickly – I placed the important notes on the top of the aforementioned guides reflecting the major things that you need to take note of.

I will post a personal update soon, for those that are curious…

Ascertaining to be an Arcanist? Arrive unto answers with our FFXIV Arcanist Basics Guide & FAQ. As implied, this is for players wanting to know the absolute basics, and answer some of the most common questions regarding ACN.

Likely, one of the main reasons you’re here is either unlocking Arcanist, or wondering about the eventual advanced jobs you can evolve into, Scholar or Summoner.

How to become an Arcanist? Unlocking ACN:

Primarily, you can begin your journey into Eorzea and start the game as an Arcanist – simply choose it as your starting option upon character creation. 

If you didn’t start as an ACN, you can unlock the Arcanist class by going to the Arcanist Guild in Limsa Lominsa Lower Decks (around 5,11), look out for the quests either “Way of the Arcanist”, or “So you want to be an Arcanist”.

Other unlocking prerequisites? I’m 99% sure you need to complete the Level 10 class quest of your STARTING CLASS if you want to unlock any other new ones.

Why should I play or choose Arcanist?

This question is semi irrelevant as, along with any of the other base classes, the only reason you’re an Arcanist is simply a stepping stone into both Scholar and Summoner. But, I’ll give you a little description of what to expect anyway.

Scholars are a technical shielding / mitigation healer job (which still retains the pet, don’t worry). They’re a type of healer which rewards encounter knowledge and healer duo cohesion more so than its peers. While not known for sheer power, they are hyper efficient and have tools to help any situation.

Summoners are a DoT / Pet based magical DPS job which has been known to have a multi-phase rotation. Their job identity has been the most “fluid” of all, as they’ve been soft reworked quite a bit over the years.

So if either or both of these jobs got you thinking, go get your Arcanist levels dinging! You’ll do well to learn a little more about what you’ll eventually BECOME:
FFXIV Scholar Basics Guide, FFXIV Summoner Basics Guide.

Arcanist Crafters and Gatherers?

I often get asked “What Disciple of Hand or Disciple of Land classes go well with ACN?” Another related question to this is “Should I level them with my Arcanist simultaneously”? 

Leveling up your DoH and DoL classes should be thought of as a separate goal all on its own. I suggest leveling up DoH classes all together, and all DoL classes together (except the optional Fishing). Do not try to align your combat class levels to your non-combat levels. Trust me.

My only advice related to this is to never cap your levequests. If you’re at max leve allowances, feel free to spend them on Fieldcraft, Tradecraft, or Battlecraft leves just to uncap ‘em.

What’s the best race for Arcanist?

TLDR: I don’t know a single person who changes race for their main class for stats. The gain is not even .1% from worst to best. My advice? Choose for aesthetics.

If you REALLY wanna do it, check out our FFXIV Racial Stats Guide, which, FAIR WARNING – I am about to recheck and update next week. But honestly, it’s best you don’t even click on that – THE MICROSCOPIC INCREASE IN STATS IS NEAR IRRELEVANT.

Related Arcanist Guides – Read More!

Here are a few useful links for you:

Upcoming Odds and Ends

Here’s a few things we’ll be adding on here in the near future:

  • A small skill list for “human readability”, as the in-game one seems like the best source for EXACT information.
  • List of relevant links for Arcanist, and some links for Scholar and/or Summoner.

Feel free to suggest anything else via comment or socials!

Summary & In Closing

Well that’s it for our Arcanist Basics Guide & FAQ. There’s not much to say but these are really basic little guides to help out the budding or confused ACN, and hopefully future SCH and/or SMN! Hopefully we answered a few of your questions.


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7 thoughts on “FFXIV Arcanist (ACN) Basics Guide & FAQ – Shadowbringers Updated!”

  1. Thanks for the info i haven’t play it enough so i dont really know much as an arcanist but this is a great help.

  2. For those who like me were first reluctant to try the arcanist class, I tell you that the arcanist is one of the most enjoyable classes in the game! I started the game with a thaumaturge, which is a great DPS class, but then I said let me try the arcanist, and I dont regret it. I’ve decided to lvl up my arcanist as my main, and thaumaturge as my alt to get the summoner job. I also have a conjurer lvled up to be able to switch to scholar if I wanted.

    A very quick and short guide:
    The only class that can switch to two jobs is the arcanist. Arcanists can become either summoners (DPS) or scholars (Healer), so you have to decide beforehand what you want, because you could only add attribute points to INT or MND. The arcanists attack through DoTs (Damage over Time) and debuffs. In a dungeon for example you would wait until the tank has taken the enmity, and then keep casting DoTs and debuffs on the main mob and the surrounding ones also. Arcanists can also summon pets, one is a DPS-type pet (Emerald Carbunkle) and the other is a tank-type pet (Topaz Carbunkle). Summon one of them depending on what you need. Generally, when you already have a tank in the party, Emerald Carbunkle is the pet to summon to help in DPS.

    You will really enjoy playing with arcanists if you like this kind of class. Your damage might be less than thaumaturges for example, but if you calculate the damage over time, I think it might be more or less the same. Arcanists are important in dungeons. For example, if you are fighting two mobs, puts DoTs on both mobs, so that when the party has finished attacking the first mob and switched to the second mob, most of its HP would have gone because of the DoTs. It saves time.

    Correcting mistakes in skills:
    -Summon: (Edit) Summons a caster-type pet to fight at your side.
    -Energy Drain: (Add) Only available when under the effect of Aetherflow.
    -Virus: (Add) Duration 10s.
    -Summon II: (Edit) Summons a tank-type pet to fight at your side.
    -Rouse: (Edit): While roused, pet will be immune to stun, sleep, bind, heavy, paralysis, and disease.

    -You forgot to add “Physick”:
    lvl: 4. MP: 18. Cast: 2s. Recast: 2.5s. Range: 30y.
    Restores target’s HP.
    Cure Potency 400.

    Correcting mistakes in Traits:
    -lvl 8. Aetherdam: Allows the stacking of one Aetherflow.
    -lvl 14. Enhanced Intelligence: Increases Intelligence by 2.
    -lvl 16. Enhanced Intelligence II: Increases Intelligence by 4.
    -lvl 20. Maim and Mend: Increases base action damage and HP restoration by 10%.
    -lvl 20. Aetherdam II: Allows the stacking of up to two Aetherflows.
    -lvl 24. Enhanced Pet Actions: 20% chance of increasing spell speed by 20% for 8 seconds when pet deals critical damage.
    -lvl 28. Supervirus: Adds 15% Intelligence and mind enfeeblement to Virus for 12 seconds.
    -lvl 32. Enhanced Intelligence III: Increases Intelligence by 6.
    -lvl 40. Maim and Mend II: Increases base action damage and HP restoration by 30%.
    -lvl 40. Aetherdam III: Allows the stacking of up to three Aetherflows.
    -lvl 44. Enhanced Eye for an Eye: Shortens Eye for an Eye cooldown to 120 seconds.
    -lvl 48: Enhanced Rouse: Shortens Rouse cooldown to 60 seconds.

    You can also add pet actions. They are listed here: http://ffxiv.consolegameswiki.com/wiki/Arcanist_Pet_Actions

    Thank you.
    Lord Narmo
    World: Lich

  3. you forgot the ability physick gained at level 4….. and you guys just throwing my comments aside on your pages as spam even though i am trying to help makes me want to leave this site and never come back

    1. Dude, we’re also trying to play the game, so we can gather more information. We’re sorry you feel this way, considering we do this for the sake of the game.

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