There are two types of progress to be made in FFXIV and these are Class Ranks and Physical Level.
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Class Ranks refer to the rank of your currently selected class and nothing else while Physical Level is your character’s strength regardless of class. For example; you are Physical Level 10 and are a Rank 6 Pugilist. This rank is retained even if you change to a different class and also opens up the customization options available to you as certain abilities, traits and spells can be interchanged once you have learned them. If you then changed to Lancer Rank 1, you would still be Physical Level 10.
Rank increases by gaining skill in the weapon or tool you are required to equip in order to play as that class. This might display like “Your Hand-to-Hand skill improves by 45” after killing an enemy.






