Most abilities available to a unit can be trained up to 20 points (some are automatically maxed and don't need to be trained). The cost of training an ability increases with each level. You have 99 skill up points available to use, and they regenerate at 1 every minute when used. Typically this cooldown should not be a problem unless you are leveling multiple abilities for multiple units in a short period of time.
Effects of Ability Leveling[]
Unlocking Skills[]
For main and basic job abilities, additional skills are unlocked as you level the ability to certain levels. To determine what level you need to unlock specific skills you can hold down on the ability in question in the abilities list. This will bring up an interface where you can see what skills are available and what level is required to unlock the skill.
Increased Skill Scaling[]
Many skills granted by abilities have benefits which scale based on the level of the ability. To determine if a specific skill scales with the ability level, you can look up the skill on the unit job page in Alchemist Code Database. If the Skill Effect section lists a different value for Min and Max, that means the ability scales (the min would be the scaling at ability level 1, and the max at ability level 20).
Which Abilities Not To Level[]
With the advent of the Ability Limit feature, there is no longer any compelling reason to skip leveling abilities to avoid them being used on auto. The only reason to skip training abilities is if you aren't using them or if they don't scale with level.
Ability Does Not Scale With Level[]
If the ability is a passive or reactive, there are some cases where the ability does not gain anything from leveling above 1 and is not automatically maxed. It is not harmful to max these, but it does not do anything useful and costs you zeni you might prefer to save. To check if the ability scales with level, you can look up the ability on the unit job page in Alchemist Code Database. If the Skill Effect section does not list a different value for Min and Max, that means the ability does not scale and does not need to be leveled. Some examples of passive/reactive abilities that don't scale with level are:
- Cross-Counter ( Holy Brawler)
- Counter Snipe ( Sniper)
- Clock Resist ( Chronomancer)
- Angel's Prayer ( Bishop)
Configuring Abilities via Ability Limit[]
You can use the Ability Limit feature to configure which abilities a unit will use on auto. This will not change the unit's AI priority (you can check the job page for the job you are using on this site to see the AI priority), but disabling certain abilities can still result in better auto behavior from a unit.
For example, on diviners if you don't want them to use their weak mapwide Rain Snail ability when they aren't in range of units instead of moving towards the units, you can disable this ability. There may also be cases where you would like to force a unit to focus on a specific skill, such as an ability that uses CT down, so you might disable all other skills on the unit.
You can turn on and off the ability limit feature. You can also configure it separately within arena.