Board 8 > Now trying the FF14 beta

(+) Yeah! (+)

Don't usually like MMOs buy I've heard enough good things about this from people who say it to give it a shot

Tips are appreciated, playing on PS5 in Aether rn

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/6/9/AAeolZAAEhJx.jpg

Really though don't worry too much about looking into things until you reach dungeons (Quest level 16).

My only tip for what to look out for at the very start is to not worry about doing generic sidequests but to make sure and do all the blue sidequests.

My world is full and I am in a queue

Welp

That was a fast queue

You will basically always end up in queue but it's usually very fast. Even on patch days usually it's 2 minutes tops.

Now expansion releases, different beast.

Yeah unless you're on a very small server there is usually a short queue.

The only times queues get bad are on expansion release for the first couple days so I wouldn't worry about it much.

Why's there a beta?

paperwarior posted...

Why's there a beta?

I guess trial qould be better, you can play up to level 60 free

RuneterranSnap posted...

I guess trial qould be better, you can play up to level 60 free

Have you heard of the critically acclaimed MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV? With an expanded free trial which you can play through the entirety of A Realm Reborn and the award-winning Heavensward expansion up to level 60 for free with no restrictions on playtime.

https://youtu.be/DY-S28YQfss

I'm still not level 60

Welcome!

if you can, I would try to roll on a Preferred or New World. If you do, you get a double experience buff. Doing the main story quest in this game gives your class enough experience to always stay on track with the content, so you never have to stop to grind exp or anything. If you get the double experience buff, you can actually just level two classes while playing through the story, and it doesn't really add any time to your play through. I personally levelled Summoner and Dragoon this way and it was fun being able to just swap playstyles when I felt like it as long as I kept both levelled up through the story.

A bit of overall context:

The game has something called the "Main Story Quests" or MSQ. Quests relating to the MSQ have little flames the ! icon, so you always know which quest it is, and it actually always remains present in the corner of your screens so you can easily find the current MSQ quest you are on if you aren't sure what you should be doing right now. The MSQ is the main thing for you to actually do, and it's what people are talking about when they say FFXIV has a phemonenal single player story.

It'll start off pretty generic adventury stuff but you'll start to see a recurring cast of characters develop over time.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/7/0/8/AADbkVAAEhPE.png

If you see this little quest icon - these are sidequests meant to fill in the world. You don't need to do them - they usually aren't especially well written compared to the MSQ, and it would take you an enormous amount of time to do them all. You aren't really intended to do them either unless you really like a zone. Generally, just ignore them and do your MSQ in an area and move on, and eventually if you want to level up more classes you could come do them then (though there are other options for leveling too). I think doing these sidequests in the first major city to get familiar with it isn't a bad idea, but just ignore them after that

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/7/0/9/AADbkVAAEhPF.png

These blue quests are usually worth doing though - they typically relate to some new feature you've come across like unlocking a dungeon or something. Your job quests are also these blue things - you should always do your job quests every five levels since they unlock new abilities and stuff.

If you start doing a blue quest and it looks like a whole rigamorole and isn't just unlocking something for you quickly, you can always just put it aside and think about if you want or need to do it later.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/7/1/0/AADbkVAAEhPG.png

Also - not sure how much you know about classes, but its extremely fluid and quick to switch between different classes in this game. You just have to equip a weapon for a class and you switch to it once you've unlocked it. You can drag a gear set for a class to a spot on your hotbar and easily swap between them that way.

You'll pick a class at the start, and that'll put you near one of the three major cities. Once you get to level 10, you can then join the guilds for the other classes present in that city. Each city only has a few guilds, but you'll get to go to the other two major cities soon enough and you can unlock the other classes then. You can join all the guilds if you want, there's no restriction, and then you can choose to play any class you want any time you want.

Each class has their own level though, so if you start the game as a Lancer and get to level 10 and then pick up Black Mage, your Black Mage is only level 1. That's what nice about that double exp thing I mentioned at the start - you get an extra class kept up basically for free.

Also it's not that difficult to play with people across different worlds or even Data Centers, so I wouldn't worry too much about that stopping you from making a new character on a Dynamis world

Anyways that seems like a lot for now. Good luck and have fun!

Oh wow, it's me from two years ago

Anyway, if you're like me you'll find actually controlling this on a PS5 controller a bit of a nightmare at first. Honestly you might want to take some time just practicing how to open/close menus, set up your hot bar, and arrange the HUD. I found it to be extremely cluttered starting out and ended up removing a lot of notification windows.

As far as actually playing it, just stick to MSQ's. I recommend not being a Tank class to start out with - it's a lot of pressure when you're playing dungeons with people who have probably already done them.

Also ARR sucks for 80% of its 100 hour running time. Every FFXIV fan will tell you that it's worth it to get to the expansions but I'll never know. I will never feel comfortable playing online with strangers due to my own personal tastes/issues and they haven't made everything possible with one-player yet. .

RuneterranSnap posted...

I guess trial qould be better, you can play up to level 60 free

Yeah I was gonna say, the actual beta was 10 years ago.

colliding posted...

Also ARR sucks for 80% of its 100 hour running time. Every FFXIV fan will tell you that it's worth it to get to the expansions but I'll never know. I will never feel comfortable playing online with strangers due to my own personal tastes/issues and they haven't made everything possible with one-player yet. .

To be clear though (and I'm just providing extra info, not commenting one way or another on your own personal issue, colliding) like 95% of everything in the main story is soloable now. It's only the Stormblood patch dungeons and every (as in, not limited to Stormblood, but every) Trial AKA big story boss fights that aren't.

It's optional soloable, for the record, in case TC has any feelings on it one way or the other.

look up a controller guide. i had no idea what i was doing until i did that. now i will never use KBM controls

tcaz2 posted...

To be clear though (and I'm just providing extra info, not commenting one way or another on your own personal issue, colliding) like 95% of everything in the main story is soloable now. It's only the Stormblood patch dungeons and every (as in, not limited to Stormblood, but every) Trial AKA big story boss fights that aren't.

It's optional soloable, for the record, in case TC has any feelings on it one way or the other.

The post ARR stuff isn't available, which is where I'm at. Playing online with others shouldn't be an issue for most people - I just hate feeling "pushed through" dungeons by other people.

If that's the case, then: 1.) Play DPS. 2.) Don't die.

Seriously even in endgame I have people that have no idea what they're doing, but it is extremely poor form to rag on your teammates. About the only cardinal sins you can make as a DPS early on are:
1.) Not keeping up with the group in dungeons (say "first-timer here" when duty commences and you usually get out of jail free for this.)
2.) Failing to raise people if a Summoner and your healer is occupied (Redmage gets it late.)
3.) Failing to Dance Partner someone as Dancer.

Since you dont have Endwalker, you only have #1 to worry about.

Yeah if you're a DPS literally nobody will ever care how you're doing in any normal content as long as you're hitting buttons, lol. People only pay attention to healers and tanks.

In fact I'd even just make a quick macro with an out of the way button combination that just goes "/party Hiya, first time!" Considering people get bonuses for first time runs, they'll usually be really nice about it. Usually. Not like WoW where if you fuck up a mechanic the whole group wipes.

Your cardinal things to worry about, per job available pre-HW
Paladin: Turn on tank stance and go slowly if your healer is a rookie.
Warrior: same.

White Mage: Don't cast Holy if the tank is on the move, or you'll botch your team's AoEs. Do not heal people unless they actually get hurt.
Scholar: Summon your faerie and then do DPS. Embrace is stupid strong passive healing in ARR, and you have panic buttons to work with otherwise.

Summoner: learn to slidecast. I forget early summoner at this point because it changed so heavily during EW.
Black Mage: if the tank is running away with a mob, cease hardcasting your 4s spells and Scathe-chase. Or Swiftcast a spell to keep your timer going.

Dragoon: dont even bother messing with your Disengage early on, or you will become the LOLDRG on fights with death zones. Learn your positional and burst windows.
Monk: Learn your normal attack rhythm and if your Twin Snakes buff is going to run out, focus on refreshing it. If you screw up your Blitz, cast it anyway, since it should still fill a Chakra.
Ninja: Try to get a feel for when your party is doing personal buffs to unload your Trick Attack. You'll know how to time it when you level it up some. Take your hand-seals slow if you aren't comfortable with your memory or ping.

Bard: Keep your DoTs up and unload Straight Shot whenever it procs. Don't forget to weave your songs in, too, because the party buff is sizable and hits you too.

With basically all the positional having been removed, I can't even imagine how easy early Monk is now.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

With basically all the positional having been removed, I can't even imagine how easy early Monk is now.

It's still relevant for some of your second and third combo hits, but given Perfect Balance still exists you can largely ignore it in favor of managing your buff uptime.

I'll take it over memorizing 6 positional and an offset bouncing rotation any day of the week.

....Who am I kidding I'm never playing anything outside of Samurai outside of expansion leveling again lol.