Current Events > Started playing FFXIV a couple of weeks ago

(+) Yeah! (+)

It's a lot to get into but I'm somewhat enjoying it so far. It's free so I can't really complain. Anyone have any advice?

Did you make a catgirl waifu?

Crimsoness posted...

Did you make a catgirl waifu?

What the FUCK how did you know <_>

focus msq until you get my little chocobo quest so you have a mount to make travel less tedious
don't neglect grand company (where you get the chocobo from), turn in dailies to level crafting jobs really fast among a bunch of other good stuff

DocileOrangeCup posted...

It's a lot to get into but I'm somewhat enjoying it so far. It's free so I can't really complain. Anyone have any advice?

Ignore every side quest that has no blue sign.

Just play around and try other classes out too, once in a while.

Don't rush it. Enjoy the cutscenes and the story, even if 2.X drags on quite a bit.

Try to get all the daily roulette rewards. The EXP you get will push you quite a bit, including the PvP one. Even if you are overwhelmed by the strange pvp system, even when you lose and act like a headless chicken, you get a bunch of EXP once a day.

The true endgame content is fashion and housing, so if you find some equipment that looks neat to you, keep it. Even some random lvl ~30 gear looks nice.

DocileOrangeCup posted...

What the FUCK how did you know <_>

Hey, chances were there that you did a cute dragongirl waifu.

DocileOrangeCup posted...

What the FUCK how did you know <_>

I've played FFXIV too

Do you ever get self conscious that your catgirl is like half the height or less than those giant races I forgot what theyre called

ignoring the side quests isn't a good idea. They are a good source of free gear.

Zikten posted...

ignoring the side quests isn't a good idea. They are a good source of free gear.

During 2.x you are leveling so fast that the gear you can get from quests is outleveled as soon as you got it, and from lvl 50 onwards you just get the gear from stones.

That's more than enough until the end of the expansion around ~x7. You wont find better gear until ~x5 at all anyways.

What class/job are you going through MSQ with?

If you're a tank, make sure you're using your mitigations and avoid moving the boss too much.
If you're a healer, try maximize your DPS without letting your tank die.
If you're DPS, make sure you get a feel for how your rotation goes (applies for any job really).

Other than that, do blue quests and make sure you're doing your job quests as soon as you get them.

Back_Stabbath posted...

focus msq until you get my little chocobo quest so you have a mount to make travel less tedious
don't neglect grand company (where you get the chocobo from), turn in dailies to level gather/crafting jobs really fast among a bunch of other good stuff

Also do the quest to get the chocobo as a companion fighting at your side.

Rika_Furude posted...

Do you ever get self conscious that your catgirl is like half the height or less than those giant races I forgot what theyre called

Roegadyn. That's what I play as. Our mounts are insanely huge. Not much I can really add that everyone else hasn't said. Oh when you get to them don't neglect doing your beast tribe quests either. Once your high enough they can sell specific mounts.

just going by what new players seem to have issues with - and this isn't on them, i think the game could communicate better - tank stance is a thing and you should practically always have it up.

combat itself follows the big rule of mmos and that is always be casting. get used to queuing up your next attack early. you can queue up your next attack at like, a quarter of the cooldown left or something like that.

I really want to get back into it but I don't want to spend the money on the sub. I'm near the very end of shadowbringers.

If I had a working PC, time, money, energy to no-life Ff14 again I would! Love it.

Back_Stabbath posted...

focus msq until you get my little chocobo quest so you have a mount to make travel less tedious
don't neglect grand company (where you get the chocobo from), turn in dailies to level gather/crafting jobs really fast among a bunch of other good stuff

Yeah I need to do that. I'm trying to get fun shit from Vegas land or whatever it's called atm.
Wait what are dailies >_>

Karovorak posted...

Ignore every side quest that has no blue sign.

Just play around and try other classes out too, once in a while.

Don't rush it. Enjoy the cutscenes and the story, even if 2.X drags on quite a bit.

Try to get all the daily roulette rewards. The EXP you get will push you quite a bit, including the PvP one. Even if you are overwhelmed by the strange pvp system, even when you lose and act like a headless chicken, you get a bunch of EXP once a day.

The true endgame content is fashion and housing, so if you find some equipment that looks neat to you, keep it. Even some random lvl ~30 gear looks nice.

Thanks for the advice! I will make clearer that I am playing the free version, so I hope that's all available for me.

Karovorak posted...

Hey, chances were there that you did a cute dragongirl waifu.

Wait there's Dragon gorls??!

Crimsoness posted...

I've played FFXIV too

Nice... I played it with Reis for like 2 hours and never played again.

Rika_Furude posted...

Do you ever get self conscious that your catgirl is like half the height or less than those giant races I forgot what theyre called

No because I am those giant girl races in real life.

Zikten posted...

ignoring the side quests isn't a good idea. They are a good source of free gear.

Huh..... Hmmm....

Karovorak posted...

During 2.x you are leveling so fast that the gear you can get from quests is outleveled as soon as you got it, and from lvl 50 onwards you just get the gear from stones.

That's more than enough until the end of the expansion around ~x7. You wont find better gear until ~x5 at all anyways.

What are all these number x guys lol sorry

MorganTJ posted...

What class/job are you going through MSQ with?

If you're a tank, make sure you're using your mitigations and avoid moving the boss too much.
If you're a healer, try maximize your DPS without letting your tank die.
If you're DPS, make sure you get a feel for how your rotation goes (applies for any job really).

Other than that, do blue quests and make sure you're doing your job quests as soon as you get them.

I'm assuming msq is main story.... Quest??

I'm using 2 guys alternatively now, bein a boxer and a thaumaturge guys.

Yeah I need to prioritize the quests I actually attempt, but navigation is surprisingly difficult for me.

Funkydog posted...

Also do the quest to get the chocobo as a companion fighting at your side.

Whoa you can do that??!

Nirvanas_Nox posted...

Roegadyn. That's what I play as. Our mounts are insanely huge. Not much I can really add that everyone else hasn't said. Oh when you get to them don't neglect doing your beast tribe quests either. Once your high enough they can sell specific mounts.

I've still a lot to learn....

Fluttershy posted...

just going by what new players seem to have issues with - and this isn't on them, i think the game could communicate better - tank stance is a thing and you should practically always have it up.

combat itself follows the big rule of mmos and that is always be casting. get used to queuing up your next attack early. you can queue up your next attack at like, a quarter of the cooldown left or something like that.

Sorry is that only a thing for a tank class?
Also thanks for the tip, I had figured that out pretty early on because I'm ancy, but that's very good advice for a new player.

Relient_K posted...

I really want to get back into it but I don't want to spend the money on the sub. I'm near the very end of shadowbringers.

If you buy the full game, can you not play it without a subscription?

FF_Redux posted...

If I had a working PC, time, money, energy to no-life Ff14 again I would! Love it.

It sounds fun but costly lol...

I haven't played in forever but I was at the end of endgame and doing patch quests before I grew bored. But that happens all the time. I've been playing for ten years so its bound to happen. I still have my sub up to keep my house and whenever the new expac comes out.

DocileOrangeCup posted...

Yeah I need to do that. I'm trying to get fun shit from Vegas land or whatever it's called atm.
Wait what are dailies >_>

https://ffxiv.consolegameswiki.com/wiki/Grand_Company#Missions are the ones I'm talking about in that post, but there are a few turn ins that reset daily/weekly that you can unlock.
https://ffxiv.consolegameswiki.com/wiki/Daily_and_Weekly_Checklist

I would hold off on doing too many jobs too early (the two youre doing now are probably fine, maybe also do a healer or tank go faster queue times). You get bonus EXP for leveling up other jobs if you have a higher leveled job, so youre encouraged to favor one job a little bit more starting out. Plus as you hit level 50 and onwards, youll get access to jobs from later expansions.

Back_Stabbath posted...

https://ffxiv.consolegameswiki.com/wiki/Grand_Company#Missions are the ones I'm talking about in that post, but there are a few turn ins that reset daily/weekly that you can unlock.
https://ffxiv.consolegameswiki.com/wiki/Daily_and_Weekly_Checklist

Oh shit I totally forgot about the non combat classes.... I'm honestly not sure how those work really >_>

the_real_Naruto posted...

I haven't played in forever but I was at the end of endgame and doing patch quests before I grew bored. But that happens all the time. I've been playing for ten years so its bound to happen. I still have my sub up to keep my house and whenever the new expac comes out.

Damn does your stuff expire if you stop your subscription?

DocileOrangeCup posted...

Damn does your stuff expire if you stop your subscription?

The housing are all in zones and there's a limited amount of houses. If you don't enter your house for so long, it will 'rot' and then you'll be kicked out to give room for those who want to buy it. I could just stop my sub but I'd have to start it over the moment that my days are up just to keep it.

Also, I'd try to do just stick to one job and focus on that. I'd say finish the main story and then you can focus on the rest of the game such as grinding jobs and gearing up and doing all the side things. You want to unlock as much as you can and beating the main story unlocks everything you need.

I've seen some people try to level multiple jobs up as they go and then end up burning out before they get to the end of the game.

Sorry is that only a thing for a tank class?

yeah.

the other thing i want to mention is that there are attacks that work off of the global cooldown and you're meant to use them in between attacks. like, if you're playing a lancer and you've got life surge, you're meant to pop that between vorpal thrust and true thrust.

I've tried to get into FFXIV a bunch of times, and even got decently far, but it just never fully clicked with me. Past a certain point, I felt like I had to look up boss fights in advance to avoid making critical mistakes on particularly punishing mechanics, because I don't want to be the guy who stands in the wrong place and ends up getting blasted off the cliff, or who doesn't notice the crystals or whatever in the corner causing heavy damage to the whole party. I always end up spending too much time on side content like the Gold Saucer as an alternative that it ultimately becomes not worth the subscription.

Fluttershy posted...

Sorry is that only a thing for a tank class?

yeah.

the other thing i want to mention is that there are attacks that work off of the global cooldown and you're meant to use them in between attacks. like, if you're playing a lancer and you've got life surge, you're meant to pop that between vorpal thrust and true thrust.

Same can be said with Pugilist/Monk. You're basically using your rotation with global cooldowns in between since you have to wait a second before you can use the next skill in the rotation. This means that in that second you used the combo skill, you use your GCD.

There's a strict 'right way' rotation for all jobs sadly so there isn't like 3 different kinds of rotations for one class/job like you'd see in WoW so it makes it impossible for you to 'customize'. You want to follow your rotation to a T to get the best results.

Prototypic posted...

I've tried to get into FFXIV a bunch of times, and even got decently far, but it just never fully clicked with me. Past a certain point, I felt like I had to look up boss fights in advance to avoid making critical mistakes on particularly punishing mechanics, because I don't want to be the guy who stands in the wrong place and ends up getting blasted off the cliff, or who doesn't notice the crystals or whatever in the corner causing heavy damage to the whole party. I always end up spending too much time on side content like the Gold Saucer as an alternative that it ultimately becomes not worth the subscription.

You need to get used to failing and being okay with it. People will bitch sometimes but you should try and be a DPS so you can learn the inner workings of the game. Although it sucks if you die as a DPS you aren't as critical as the rest of the group.

Plus its not TOO bad. People aren't going to throw you off the deep end for not doing it correctly. I have anxiety and have been kicked a couple of times for screwing up. Or hell, I remember playing healer with my anxiety and when I would go to heal the tank, I'd accidentally not hard click on him(I use controller) so I kept healing myself(at the first mob of the fight) and he died. Instead of understanding that I screwed up and I can fix that, he left.

I stopped healing for awhile after that. It caused a lot of issue but I was able to slowly become more and more confident. I don't heal too often but I can tank a little better than I used to even though I can sorta say I still suck lol. I'm not as frightful of it.

Prototypic posted...

I've tried to get into FFXIV a bunch of times, and even got decently far, but it just never fully clicked with me. Past a certain point, I felt like I had to look up boss fights in advance to avoid making critical mistakes on particularly punishing mechanics, because I don't want to be the guy who stands in the wrong place and ends up getting blasted off the cliff, or who doesn't notice the crystals or whatever in the corner causing heavy damage to the whole party. I always end up spending too much time on side content like the Gold Saucer as an alternative that it ultimately becomes not worth the subscription.

Honestly most people are pretty chill with new players, as long as you let the group know that your new most wont have a problem if you make mistakes or if you ask if there is anything special they will explain things to you, Not everyone but most are pretty chill IMO

the_real_Naruto posted...

You need to get used to failing and being okay with it. People will bitch sometimes but you should try and be a DPS so you can learn the inner workings of the game. Although it sucks if you die as a DPS you aren't as critical as the rest of the group.

Plus its not TOO bad. People aren't going to throw you off the deep end for not doing it correctly. I have anxiety and have been kicked a couple of times for screwing up. Or hell, I remember playing healer with my anxiety and when I would go to heal the tank, I'd accidentally not hard click on him(I use controller) so I kept healing myself(at the first mob of the fight) and he died. Instead of understanding that I screwed up and I can fix that, he left.

I stopped healing for awhile after that. It caused a lot of issue but I was able to slowly become more and more confident. I don't heal too often but I can tank a little better than I used to even though I can sorta say I still suck lol. I'm not as frightful of it.

You're not wrong, it's definitely anxiety-driven, irrational behavior, especially since I never actually messed up that badly, but being excessively conscientious so as to avoid inconveniencing others is what I do. I guess I just never felt quite so pressed to know the mechanics in advance in other MMOs, like WoW (endgame raids notwithstanding), where I felt like generally I could join a PUG and heal or dps my way through just fine by reacting to whatever happened. FFXIV, even as early as Copperbell Mines there are non-obvious mechanics the game seems to expect you to know (though at that point as long as someone knows what's going on it's generally fine).

Raiden2909 posted...

Honestly most people are pretty chill with new players, as long as you let the group know that your new most wont have a problem if you make mistakes or if you ask if there is anything special they will explain things to you, Not everyone but most are pretty chill IMO

I think a big issues for me was that I was mostly playing solo and never really got into any of the FCs I joined, and while I tried to get some real life friends to play, it just never happened. Playing with strangers in roulettes or whatever for me generally ranges between neutral and bad, and while most randoms are inoffensive, I guess the overall experience wasn't positive enough that the occasional asshole, even if not directed at me, kind of ruined it.

Also, at a certain point, I wouldn't have considered myself new, exactly, but there's just so much content that when the roulette random selects some instance I did once six months ago, I might not remember that I have to, say, hide behind a snowball or whatever in order to not get frozen and killed.

I only have one tip for a new player: For the love of god have your job stones equipped before doing a dungeon

DocileOrangeCup posted...

It's a lot to get into but I'm somewhat enjoying it so far. It's free so I can't really complain. Anyone have any advice?

Also here this helps a ton.
https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/1ULIp7x1VgC0sNmp3sO17M8ADZtV45dLy0wW2rz4xzAY/mobilebasic?pli=1

Prototypic posted...

You're not wrong, it's definitely anxiety-driven, irrational behavior, especially since I never actually messed up that badly, but being excessively conscientious so as to avoid inconveniencing others is what I do. I guess I just never felt quite so pressed to know the mechanics in advance in other MMOs, like WoW (endgame raids notwithstanding), where I felt like generally I could join a PUG and heal or dps my way through just fine by reacting to whatever happened. FFXIV, even as early as Copperbell Mines there are non-obvious mechanics the game seems to expect you to know (though at that point as long as someone knows what's going on it's generally fine).

I get it. I was playing WoW for awhile because of that very reason. I was just jumping in and responding to what came at me.

In FFXIV the bosses feel like a dance and if you don't have the choreography down you'll mess up.

Honestly the vast majority of bosses in dungeons are so forgiving you have time to figure out their gimmicks mid boss fight without dying unless your party's healer is real bad. Even in normal and alliance raids, you can mess up quite a few times and be fine. Plus there's a dozen people dying to every boss in the alliance raids anyway so nobody will even care.

DarthAragorn posted...

I only have one tip for a new player: For the love of god have your job stones equipped before doing a dungeon

And do your job quests, too. Seriously, do them. A lot of critical abilities and traits are locked behind those, along with free relevant gear

When you say "free", you mean the Free Trial, right? I've read a lot of people are getting the Starter Edition through Game Pass "for free" but that's just putting them on track to a subscription fee once that "free" period ends.

I mean the free trial is up to Stormblood. So he has a ton of stuff he can do and yeah gamepass is doing the starter edition.

When you do dungeons with other players as thaum/blm, try to stay in the vicinity of the healer. Being new you will no doubt take damage, and something that irks a healer are the ranged dps taking AOE damage who is far from the healer, and their AOE heals not reaching you. And when you see the orange/yellow arrow pulsing above another player, that is your cue to run and stack with them (overlap on top of them). If it is pulsing over you, don't stay standing far away from everyone, run towards the middle of the fight so others can reach you easier. Doing lv 50 msq the last 2-3 weeks I ran into way too many sprouts who have no clue what stack mechanics were. And these sprouts were usually level 70 range. Which is...sad. Especially sad is no one took the time to tell them.

DocileOrangeCup posted...

What are all these number x guys lol sorry

2.x is the base game, A Realm Reborn.
3.x is the first expansion, Heavensward
4.x is Stormblood
5.x is Shadowbringer
6.x is Endwalker
7.x will be Dawntrail.

That's how the content is usually seperated, even within their official patchnotes.

About the level x5 stuff, I was just shorting it a bit.

The lvl 50 stone gear should be able to keep you aflot till level 55~57 for sure, the 60 for 65~67 and that's also true for 70 and 80.

That's why I was using lvl x5~x7, it's true for all the gear you can buy there.

EDIT: About "reading all the guides in advance" and such.

I don't think it's necessary for your main story progress at all, at least not for the older content. This includes all the dungeons, trials and crystal tower raid.

When you hit the end of the content, or want to do some other former endgame content from the older expensions (like the stormblood raids or extrem trials synced), you should get some information in advance.

For anything else you should be more than fine if you just go in there and see the fight yourself.

Sasquatchimo posted...

When you do dungeons with other players as thaum/blm, try to stay in the vicinity of the healer. Being new you will no doubt take damage, and something that irks a healer are the ranged dps taking AOE damage who is far from the healer, and their AOE heals not reaching you.

Part of BLM life is the suffering and pain of staying in enemy AoE's too long and being too far from the healer.

Funkydog posted...

Part of BLM life is the suffering and pain of staying in enemy AoE's too long and being too far from the healer.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/7/7b54a3cf.jpg

I don't know why I am the way I am.

They've put a lot of effort into the visuals for mechanics in the game. While it's not 100%, especially in ARR, taking a look at the actual marker can help parse what's about to happen. A circle with arrows pulsing inward? Get in the circle. Arrows on the ground flowing in a direction? You'll be pushed in that direction. Eye symbol? Don't look at it. Everybody gets a tracking AoE? Spread them out so you stand in as little bad as possible. Edit: most mechanics also have a unique sound effect attached to the marker. You can listen for mechanics too.

One thing I didn't notice if it was mentioned is to zoom the camera out to better see mechanics. Personally I play with the camera fully zoomed out at all times.

Most bosses, especially dungeon bosses with 4-person groups, have it built in to "safely" eat Vuln stacks the first time mechanics appear, so you can figure them out. Especially if you say it's your first time, people will be lenient. For larger groups in content, deaths are expected.

Lastly, to build on #36's advice, in general all jobs should stick relatively close to the boss, or at least close enough to other party members that you'll get AoE heals. Some mechanics will force a spread, but you should move back in after.

In general, for thaumaturge/black mage, the best place to be is right on the line between donut/point blank range. That lets you reposition with minimal movement, and shouldn't intrude on melee range for spreads on most bosses. Some bosses with tiny donuts, melee will appreciate if you're a little further back so there's no hesitation on spreads.

If you see quests with a + on the symbol, it means it unlocks something. It's generally worth doing them when you see them. This can be jobs, dungeons, mounts, flying in an area, abilities and full on gameplay features like materia melding or glamour.

Watch JoCat's crap guides to FF14, they're actually full of surprisingly good advice for playing and they're short.

Most important: Enjoy your time in Eorzea. Fun is the most important thing.

Error1355 posted...

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/7/7b54a3cf.jpg

I don't know why I am the way I am.

wtf

reincarnator07 posted...

If you see quests with a + on the symbol, it means it unlocks something. It's generally worth doing them when you see them. This can be jobs, dungeons, mounts, flying in an area, abilities and full on gameplay features like materia melding or glamour.

Watch JoCat's crap guides to FF14, they're actually full of surprisingly good advice for playing and they're short.

Most important: Enjoy your time in Eorzea. Fun is the most important thing.

To add on to that first part, the quests with a blue quest marker are the ones that unlock new stuff. Main story quests have that kind of flame looking symbol (you'll see that same symbol in the top left of your screen by default for comparison)

I strongly recommend not doing most regular yellow marker side quests unless you think they sound really interesting. The rewards are not worth the time and there's so many that it makes it really easy to get burned out. You can level one job from 1-90 easily without ever touching one. And secondary jobs you'll level faster through dungeons.

Bumo. This is a lot to get back to but I'll reply to EVERYONE soon

I've been thinking about trying FFXIV playing solo to see if I like it and to learn some mechanics without screwing things up for others.

Apparently, solo mode has been getting more viable as the game is updated. Anyone have info on how that's working now?

Soloing works until you beat the base game (NPC groups can be used on all base dungeons and even the base game final boss). Then you will be forced to group up online for a "boss" fight post base game, pre-first expansion. Most, if not all dungeons through 90 that can be "soloed" using NPC groups. But sporadically the game will force you to group up to beat bosses. It will generally be 2-4 online bosses per expansion. The game also forces you to do three 24 man... or was it reduced to 12 man? Been awhile, don't remember... online level 50 raids (not one right after the other though) between the first 2 expansions. What happens is you cannot continue on with the main story quests until you beat said level 50 raids.

Sasquatchimo posted...

Soloing works until you beat the base game (NPC groups can be used on all base dungeons and even the base game final boss). Then you will be forced to group up online for a "boss" fight post base game, pre-first expansion. Most, if not all dungeons through 90 that can be "soloed" using NPC groups. But sporadically the game will force you to group up to beat bosses. It will generally be 2-4 online bosses per expansion. The game also forces you to do three 24 man... or was it reduced to 12 man? Been awhile, don't remember... online level 50 raids (not one right after the other though) between the first 2 expansions. What happens is you cannot continue on with the main story quests until you beat said level 50 raids.

This.

Most main story content can be done solo by now, with the exceptions of trials (boss fight only), the old main scenario end of 2.0 (lvl 50 mainquest), and the crystal tower raids (lvl 50 alliance raid, with 3x8 = 24 people).

The crystal tower raid is a bit special, because originally it wasn't part of the main story, but true endgame content, but Shadowbringers extremly built up on that raid story wise, so they made it mandatory (and beyond easy).

Don't be afraid of doing them blindly.

There may be a handful of bosses total in there that could be messy if half of the party has no idea what they are doing, but usually no one should even care if you mess up.

You will be carried, and the others usually only notice it if you end up dead on the ground, without minding it anyways.

Error1355 posted...

I don't know why I am the way I am.

Because BLM is the best class.

Free Company for increased EXP rates/reduced teleport fees. Remember to attune to every aetherytes/shards you come across.

Error1355 posted...

I don't know why I am the way I am.

This is hilarious.

Also as far as advice goes - when you get to those dungeons or fights where you have to queue up with people, you can always let them know that it's your first time doing it. People will generally call out any weird mechanics (and it personally helps me since I hate being that guy who screws up)