Questions from a MMORPG NooB

[Manowjoe]

Hello.

 

So, I’m a Final Fantasy Fan, (FF VII basically taught me all the English that I know), and at the moment FF XIV Complete Edition it’s on sale (also, there's a quarantine going on), so I'm debating if i should get it or not.

 

My problem is that I've never played a MMORPG, and because of that I have some questions:

 

1.       Is it possible to experience the full game + DLCs without going hardcore in the game? I mean, doing raids / dungeons at the hardest level of difficulty?

 

2.       As a follow up to the previous question. I'm still a trophy Hunter, would I have to min / max in any way to get the platinum for this game?

 

3.       For a newcomer, would you recommend any specific server?

 

4.       I know this is a MMORPG, but I don’t have any gamer friends, that would hinder my experience too much?

 

5.       Would you recommend any guides, youtube channels or any source to make my journey easier if I happen to have any questions / problems

 

Probably I will play this game mostly solo, (which honestly it’s not a problem to me), but since this game it’s a MMO I don’t know if that it’s a good mix.

 

Basically I just want to have chill sessions with one of my favorite game series. I guess that what I’m asking is that if that’s possible for someone in my position and requests (Experience the game + DLC + platinum the game).

 

Thanks in advance.

[Jelly Soup]

1. Short answer is yes. You'll have to do some dungeon, raids and trials, but I don't believe store progression requires anything beyond normal mode (someone correct me for Stormblood).

2. No, the trophies are all stuff you can do in the base game. Some classes might be able to clear the levequests faster, but you'll still be limited on how many you can complete in a 12 hour window regardless of clear speed. You will need a group for the Coil raid, as it's hardly run these days (and wasn't really run that much when it was current content).

3. Not sure about PSN, but on PC I like Hyperion.

4. Friends help make MMOs more fun, but it's not a requirement. The game is slanted towards finding a guild/free company, so look into that. You'll find plenty of people to chat with that will likely be willing to play with you.

5. I don't have a link handy, there is a FF14 wiki with guides on the more tricky solo-trials and job-quests.

Edited June 6, 2020 by Jelly Soup

[Tetho_mig]

3) For obvious reasons, play on a server located in your region. Which for you should be North America :/

Then create your character on a designated world, this will give you not only x2 XP for your first 90 days but also 15 free more day as soon as you reach lv 30 with any class.

If all the designated worlds are full when you try to create your character, wait a few minutes and try again.

 

4) A bit, as there's a lot of content do do with friends or other players, but the main story quest is designed to be done solo. There's a joke among players that FFXIV is a solo MMO as you can't really be in a party with friends as you are progressing through it because as soon as there is a story fight you will have to leave the party to access it ? So don't worry about that, you'll be able to enjoy most content even while playing solo. And as Jelly Soup said, if you want to play with peoples there's a lot of free company (guilds) that are recruiting for casual play.

 

5) best site I can direct you to are : 
-https://ffxivteamcraft.com : the go-to site for everything crafting in FFXIV. You can find the recipes for any craftable item, where to gather or buy the resources to craft it and much more. 

-https://fr.ff14angler.com : the site if you want to dabble into fishing, which can be a bit intimidating at first as the game won't tell you where to find a particular fish and which bait to use. But this site will.

[Neputyunu]

1. You will get every now and then mainquests for specific dungeons or trials. Later in the game you would also need to do some of them in hard mode. But it is okay, do not chicken out yet. :3 Hard modes are not that hard at all. There are even an extreme mode and a savage mode, but IIRC these are completely optional. And from my experience, the community in this game is very friendly. I never had any troubles with anyone. Aside from some mainquests, you do not need to do any dungeons at all, if you are not interested in doing that. Sure, FF14 -IS- harder than eg WoW, but it is also very beginner friendly. If you have any questions, ask. If you are too scared to ask, just follow the others and watch what is going on. FF14 is even putting red areas on the floor to show you that something bad is going to happen there soon, so cancel your spell and run out of it asap. For demonstration purposes, and because I assume you want to be prepared as best as you can, I am going to show you two videos. Do yourself a favor and subscribe to this channel. They have guides for everything.

 

 

You do NOT need to do any raid at all, if you do not feel like it. At least as far I remember. There is one trophy for a base game raid, but you can tackle that with a friend when you are on max level and geared up. You do not even need to do the whole raid. Just the last wing is enough.

 

2. Trophies are very easy. Most of them are from doing jobs. Create 1000 items with every job. You can even craft a lvl1 thing in automatic mode. Mining 1000 ore and getting 1000 wood sounds much at first, but you will probably get that on the same day as you started these. Only the fishing might take a while.   Aside from doing that one raid and PARTICIPATING (you do not even need to win) in PvP once, everything can be done solo. (well aside these dungeon mainquests.)

 

3. I cannot answer this. But if you are in EU, try Omega. Last time I played this server had a permanent XP-Boost and you can play through the basegame in 2-3 days while only doing mainquests.

 

4. Not at all. When I first started on Omega I was playing with two girls. One of them started hating me, so I played alone for a while. Different to WoW, playing random in FF14 is not any problem at all. I would recommend you playing as a healer though, because being a healer in FF14 is not just super easy but also shortens the waiting time for dungeons by a loooooot. I have played all healers and can tell you, that the White Mage is the easiest of them. So you might want to start as a Conjurer. The only tipp I can give you is, to visit your class master often and to do their quests asap, because they will unlock new skills and will give you an item at some point that enhanced your class. Which would turn the Conjurer into a White Mage. This Wiki might come in handy. https://ffxiv.consolegameswiki.com/wiki/White_Mage

(You can ignore the healing gauge part if that sounds too complicated for now. As a non-raid-healer you do not need to care about that at all anyway. At least I never did and I never had any problems.)

Being a White Mage does not make you a weakling while playing solo. You have an offensive spell and a DoT spell. That is good enough. And you can heal yourself when you are in troubles, while others need to run away.

 

5. Yes. That Wiki in 4 might come in handy. Also the Youtube channel in 1.

[Manowjoe]

15 hours ago, Jelly Soup said:

 

2. No, the trophies are all stuff you can do in the base game. Some classes might be able to clear the levequests faster, but you'll still be limited on how many you can complete in a 12 hour window regardless of clear speed. You will need a group for the Coil raid, as it's hardly run these days (and wasn't really run that much when it was current content).

 

 

So by your comment I assume there's no way around soloing raids. But I suspect that by the time I'm ready to tackle this raid It would be easy to find others for help.

Thank you for the reply.

 

 

 

12 hours ago, Tetho_mig said:

3) For obvious reasons, play on a server located in your region. Which for you should be North America :/

Then create your character on a designated world, this will give you not only x2 XP for your first 90 days but also 15 free more day as soon as you reach lv 30 with any class.

If all the designated worlds are full when you try to create your character, wait a few minutes and try again.

 

4) A bit, as there's a lot of content do do with friends or other players, but the main story quest is designed to be done solo. There's a joke among players that FFXIV is a solo MMO as you can't really be in a party with friends as you are progressing through it because as soon as there is a story fight you will have to leave the party to access it  So don't worry about that, you'll be able to enjoy most content even while playing solo. And as Jelly Soup said, if you want to play with peoples there's a lot of free company (guilds) that are recruiting for casual play.

 

I'm confused about the designated world. They are a specific world? They will be highlighted in the UI when I'm creating a character / selecting a world?

Thanks for the information, I'll be sure to keep an eye out for those types of guilds.

 

12 hours ago, Neputyunu said:

 

4. Not at all. When I first started on Omega I was playing with two girls. One of them started hating me, so I played alone for a while. Different to WoW, playing random in FF14 is not any problem at all. I would recommend you playing as a healer though, because being a healer in FF14 is not just super easy but also shortens the waiting time for dungeons by a loooooot. I have played all healers and can tell you, that the White Mage is the easiest of them. So you might want to start as a Conjurer. The only tipp I can give you is, to visit your class master often and to do their quests asap, because they will unlock new skills and will give you an item at some point that enhanced your class. Which would turn the Conjurer into a White Mage. This Wiki might come in handy. https://ffxiv.consolegameswiki.com/wiki/White_Mage

(You can ignore the healing gauge part if that sounds too complicated for now. As a non-raid-healer you do not need to care about that at all anyway. At least I never did and I never had any problems.)

Being a White Mage does not make you a weakling while playing solo. You have an offensive spell and a DoT spell. That is good enough. And you can heal yourself when you are in troubles, while others need to run away.

 

 

 

I had to idea about how job choices could affect the waiting time. Thanks for the reply, appreciate the information and the links.

Honestly thank you all for taking the time to write all those replies. Seems like FF XIV will be the next game I'll play, TLoU II will have to wait a bit.

[Tetho_mig]

For the designated worlds its easy.

On the main menu you have a "world" option, select it and choose a datacenter in your region, chose any one of them, if you're not joining friends it's not important.

Then proceed to create your character, take your time until your satisfied with it and proceed to the next step. When the game ask if you want to save your creation data, do so. You may need it later.
Then you will arrive at this screen (pardon my (UI in) french) :

 

 

As you can see, currently on the "Crystal" datacenter the "Zaleda", "Mateus" and "Goblin" worlds (servers) are preferred, they have a star next to their name, and will give you the aforementioned bonus. And if you look closely, Zaleda and Mateus have tehir name greyed out, meaning that you can't create a character on them right now. If your chosen datacenter has preferred worlds but they are greyed out, wait until you can finally do it. If there are no preferred worlds on your chosen datacenter, quit character creation, change your datacenter and recreate a character by loading your saved data.

 

Here is the current status of all servers on the official website. As you can see, right now your best choice is to go to Goblin on Crystal, but this can change at any moment's notice so keep an eye on it.

 

 

Also, another advice, the Main Story Quest (MSQ) already gives you A LOT of XP to go through the main story, but with the preferred server bonus you will quickly go way beyond the recommended level. I suggest that as soon as you can (Lv10 with your main class) you start working on a second and a third combat class in the two other roles (those being DPs, tank and healer), so that you can make good use of all those XP and adjust your playstyle to the situation ingame.
Working on the gatherer and craft class while you have the bonus is also a good idea, you will fly through their questline in no time without any need for leveling. Being proficient in craft can be quite useful as it will give you the capacity to sustain most of your needs.

[Caesar Clown]

The "hardcore" stuff is Savage Trials, and they're 100% completely optional. They add nothing to the story, the whole idea behind them is some bard is imagining a more exciting version of a battle. They give good weapons or armor that are a few items levels higher than what can be made or earned in the non-Savage raids. The big raids can be done with randoms in the Duty Finder without a problem, they allow for many errors in the fights.

[Jelly Soup]

3 hours ago, Manowjoe said:

 

So by your comment I assume there's no way around soloing raids. But I suspect that by the time I'm ready to tackle this raid It would be easy to find others for help.

Thank you for the reply.

 

Well, firstly it's important to understand that FF14 isn't like other MMOs in that dungeons and raids aren't really solo-able. They all scale to level and I think all of them can't even be entered unless you're in a group. Second thing is the particular raid you'll need for the trophy, Binding Coil, is not popular at all. It wasn't when it was new content and it's even less popular now. Outside of getting an in-game achievement, there's little point to running it. Now, because there is a PSN trophy connected to it, there might be more people willing to run, particularly so with the influx of players from the last free trial period. You can ask around in game, but I'd suggest hitting up a discord community or seeing if any of the achievement trackers has a boosting group.

[HealedFiend13]

I highly recommend the game, as it is a great time sink and you will love (almost) every minute of it. As for the Binding Coils, you can run them unsynched with just a couple lvl 80 people and be all set. As an ok geared lvl 80 Warrior I can solo all of the coils myself, so if you get a couple nice people in the party finder you should be all set.

 

[Tetho_mig]

12 minutes ago, Jelly Soup said:

 

Well, firstly it's important to understand that FF14 isn't like other MMOs in that dungeons and raids aren't really solo-able. They all scale to level and I think all of them can't even be entered unless you're in a group.

You can run most of them them unsynced, meaning with an incomplete party whose levels aren't scaled to the dungeon or the raid recommended level. And so if you're overleveled and overequipped enough you can solo most of the ARR and HS raids.
But in return you don't get any loot for clearing them.

 

15 minutes ago, Jelly Soup said:

Binding Coil, is not popular at all. It wasn't when it was new content and it's even less popular now. Outside of getting an in-game achievement, there's little point to running it.

Its storyquest is quite nice, tho. It's mainly directed to those who played the 1.0, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

[Geridian]

I started playing FFXIV when the first wave of the current pandemic arrived in Germany and will try to share some thoughts of mine with you and other players which are interested in this game. 

Detailed answers to questions are in spoilers. Also please be aware that every content which is accessed through links contains spoilers! 

 

On 6.6.2020 at 4:40 AM, Manowjoe said:

1.       Is it possible to experience the full game + DLCs without going hardcore in the game? I mean, doing raids / dungeons at the hardest level of difficulty?

 

Spoiler

• First of all it is important to clarify that FFXIV does not have DLCs like other games:
  • The add-ons that continue the main story would be advertised as direct sequels in some games.
  • Also there is no "Pay to win" content.
  • Here you can find an overview page for all services that can be purchased with real money: https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodestone/playguide/option_service/

• This MMO also differs from other MMOs in the way that you can learn and master all character classes (in FFXIV they are called "Jobs") for battle, harvesting  and crafting with the same character!
  • You do not need alternative characters! Just do the level 10 class quest with your first class (Job) and you will be introduced to switching classes.
• You can experience the complete main story of the original game and all add-ons by just following the MSQ (Main Scenario Quest) which starts with the basic game "A Ream Reborn" and continues through all add-ins.
  • Just follow this main story line by completing the quests, which are indicated by a "meteor icon".
• You will also see some quests which are indicated with a blue icon. These are "Feature Quests" which unlock optional dungeons and other features.

• All necessary features will be unlocked when you follow the MSQ and when you reach new experience levels.
• Here you can find lists regarding "Main Scenario Quests" (MSQ) and "Feature Quests":
  • Main Scenario Quests (MSQ): https://ffxiv.consolegameswiki.com/wiki/Main_Scenario_Quests
  • Feature Quests: https://ffxiv.consolegameswiki.com/wiki/Feature_Quests

• By following the Main Scenario Quest you will also be confronted with the first dungeon and trials (= boss fights against "Primals" = group fight against classic Espers from the FF universe like Ifrit, Titan etc.). 
• This content will be carried out in a group of 4 players consisting of a tank (character who binds the enemies to himself), a healer (heals damaged characters and neutralizes negative condition effects) and two damage dealers (decimation of the life points of enemies).
  • Later content groups may also consist of 2 groups, i.e. a total of 2 tanks, 2 healers and 4 damage dealers.

• Although there are also "hard" versions of the dungeons and trials, you only have to play the first versions of these contents within the Main Story.
  • Although later trials that you do in the MSQ are usually always shown with the difficulty level "Hard", this is due to the fact that these trials are not available in the difficulty level "Normal". But they are not harder than the other trials.
  • There are also "High-end Trials" in the difficulty levels "Hard" and "Extreme", but these are completely optional just like the "Hard" dungeons.

• Speaking of "Hard Dungeons": These are not simple hard modes of the normal dungeons where damage dealt by enemies and the life points of the enemies are simply increased, but they are complete adaptations of the known dungeon with other enemies and bosses which even have new mechanics.

• There are also raids which are conducted in groups of 8 or 24 players, but these are also completely optional. Exception: "The Binding Coil of Bahamut - Turn 5" for the "Seeker of Truth" trophy. But as far as I understand it you can go in solo into this raid when your characters level is 70+ and geared with add-on stuff.
• Here you can find lists concerning the dungeons, trials and raids:
  • Dungeons: https://ffxiv.consolegameswiki.com/wiki/Dungeons
  • Trials: https://ffxiv.consolegameswiki.com/wiki/Trials
  • Raids: https://ffxiv.consolegameswiki.com/wiki/Raids

 

Quote

2.       As a follow up to the previous question. I'm still a trophy Hunter, would I have to min / max in any way to get the platinum for this game?

 

Spoiler

Those trophies come naturally while following the MSQ without doing optional stuff:

• Page One >> Complete your first quest.    
• To Crush Your Enemy >> Defeat your first enemy.
• In and Out >> Clear your first instanced raid.
• Warrior of Light >> Complete the main scenario.

• To Crush 10,000 Enemies >>Defeat 10,000 enemies.
  • This also comes naturally at some point while playing this game because you will defeat A LOT of enemies.
  • And it is also important to say that all enemies from Dungeon, Trials, FATEs and across all AddIns count!
    • I got this trophy a long time before I reached the content of the first AddOn.

• FATE related stuff:
  • Destiny's Child >> Join a FATE
  • Destiny's >> Complete 1,000 FATEs.
    • I recommend to not just „grind“ 1000 FATEs away because you will have to play ~ 167 days for two trophies which are all about levequests („An Adventurer's Duty“ and „An Adventurer's Life“).
    • Calculation: If you do 6 FATEs per day you will have the trophy for the 1000 FATEs at about the same time as the 100 Levequests trophy.

• Levequest related stuff:
  • An Adventurer's Duty >> Complete your first levequest.
  • An Adventurer's Life >> Complete 1,000 levequests.
    • You need a total of 1000 levequests done but you only get 3 allowances every 12 earth hours (1 allowance every 4 earth hours).
    • When my math is right that means that the earliest time you will have 1000 levequests done is after 167 days!
    • Remember that you can only hold on to 100 allowances at a time so just do some if the threshold is near 100.
  • The fastest way to do levequests is with this tipp I found here on PSNP:

• Also when you do it this way you will farm ingredients for healing potions as a botanist and craft the potions as alchemist which means that you will also make progess for 2 other trophies.
• You can also do another levequest to do levequests fast which is described here: https://www.(URL not allowed)/t65062/an-adventurers-life-trophy.

 

When I find the time I will write some things about more trophies...

 

Quote

3.       For a newcomer, would you recommend any specific server?

 

Spoiler

• As previous users have already written: Choose a server from the data center corresponding to your country.
• If you urgently want to play on a full server but can't create a character there, wait a few minutes and update the selection window from time to time or try to create a character at another time.
  • The reason is that the character creation locks as I read it are mostly time based.
• Also playing on a full server is not a problem in itself: It can happen that you are queued up when you log in and therefore you have to wait a maximum of one minute before your character is loaded.
• Basically, if you can read and understand English you can play on any Server in US and Europe. 

 

Quote

4.       I know this is a MMORPG, but I don’t have any gamer friends, that would hinder my experience too much?

 

Spoiler

• For dungeons and trials the game searches other random players for you if you join the queue for the dungeon or trial you want to do.
• Waiting time depends on the role you want to participate in.
• But since you can do other things while waiting until the group is formed this is not an issue.
• I had zero issues with completing all dungeons and trials which belong to the MSQ with random players.

 

Quote

5.       Would you recommend any guides, youtube channels or any source to make my journey easier if I happen to have any questions / problems

 

Spoiler

• Think about whether you want to become a tank, healer or damage dealer.
  • The best way to do this is to look at the websites https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/jobguide/battle/?utm_source=lodestone&utm_medium=pc_banner&utm_campaign=na_jobguide and https://ffxiv.consolegameswiki.com/wiki/Class
• There are also many class guides on the internet and on YouTube, but in the end I only found the guides of Desperius FFXIV helpful: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQrsppE2lUCgGoWo70yfUmA/videos
• Have a look (even if you spoil yourself) at the guides for dungeons and trials to prevent you from making stupid mistakes >> See my links above on this topic).
• To get an overview of possible side-tasks per character level reached, use the following list and pay attention to the comments if necessary: https://ffxiv.gamerescape.com/wiki/Guide:Progression_and_Level_Locked_Content

 

Edited June 8, 2020 by Geridian
Fixed some wording

[Jelly Soup]

On 6/6/2020 at 3:33 PM, Tetho_mig said:

You can run most of them them unsynced, meaning with an incomplete party whose levels aren't scaled to the dungeon or the raid recommended level. And so if you're overleveled and overequipped enough you can solo most of the ARR and HS raids.
But in return you don't get any loot for clearing them.

 

Didn't even know that was possible, I've learned something new about the game today.

[Manowjoe]

On 06/06/2020 at 4:38 PM, Tetho_mig said:

Here is the current status of all servers on the official website. As you can see, right now your best choice is to go to Goblin on Crystal, but this can change at any moment's notice so keep an eye on it.

 

 

Also, another advice, the Main Story Quest (MSQ) already gives you A LOT of XP to go through the main story, but with the preferred server bonus you will quickly go way beyond the recommended level. I suggest that as soon as you can (Lv10 with your main class) you start working on a second and a third combat class in the two other roles (those being DPs, tank and healer), so that you can make good use of all those XP and adjust your playstyle to the situation ingame.
Working on the gatherer and craft class while you have the bonus is also a good idea, you will fly through their questline in no time without any need for leveling. Being proficient in craft can be quite useful as it will give you the capacity to sustain most of your needs.

 

Thanks for the clarification, the link, and the info about the Jobs, I'll keep that in mind.

 

On 06/06/2020 at 5:27 PM, Caesar Clown said:

The "hardcore" stuff is Savage Trials, and they're 100% completely optional. They add nothing to the story, the whole idea behind them is some bard is imagining a more exciting version of a battle. They give good weapons or armor that are a few items levels higher than what can be made or earned in the non-Savage raids. The big raids can be done with randoms in the Duty Finder without a problem, they allow for many errors in the fights.

 

The Lore justification it's just too good haha. I see, looks like I can make this game as hardcore as I want it too.

 

On 06/06/2020 at 7:21 PM, HealedFiend13 said:

I highly recommend the game, as it is a great time sink and you will love (almost) every minute of it. As for the Binding Coils, you can run them unsynched with just a couple lvl 80 people and be all set. As an ok geared lvl 80 Warrior I can solo all of the coils myself, so if you get a couple nice people in the party finder you should be all set.

 

 

Seems like this game it's pretty user friendly, it gives many options on how to tackle things, I like that. Since I'm going to all the main story stuff, it's reasonable that I'll get close to the level cap with at least one of the Jobs?

On 07/06/2020 at 6:48 AM, Geridian said:

I started playing FFXIV when the first wave of the current pandemic arrived in Germany and will try to share some thoughts of mine with you and other players which are interested in this game. 

-snip-

 

Thanks for all the information, I'll be sure to check the links you provided when the need for them show up.
 

Thank you all again for all the replys, apreciate it.
 

As a side note, I've watched the NoClip documentary about FF XIV, and after that I could do nothing but buy the game. After I'm done with The Witcher 3 I'll jump on this hell of a grindfest.

[CJ-Olly6]

On 6/5/2020 at 9:40 PM, Manowjoe said:

5.       Would you recommend any guides, youtube channels or any source to make my journey easier if I happen to have any questions / problems

I know this is an old post, but I like to recommend these Youtube channels:

 

(1)

This is the first video of an entire let's play series by the Youtuber MrHappy1227, who discusses various aspects of the game as he plays through a new character. The first few videos should help you out.

 

But if you really need help, I strongly recommend this guy, WeskAlber, and this video:

 

 

It details everything a newbie to MMOs needs to know to survive and thrive in FFXIV. He follows up with a fishing guide to get you to Level 50 in Fishing and describes how fishing works in the game, and the video after that describes the next 15 levels of progression and what you get from those. I'm sure he'll create a playlist soon with more videos, his next video he will put out will describe how to do Botany and Mining, the other gathering classes, and succeed in them. These videos really helped me out. He also has a guide for the job skills of every job in the game from when you get it to Level 80 and describes how to use them to the utmost efficiently, showing off guideline rotations you should use in combat for these classes as you progress.