TYFP

All right big homies, it’s time for some tips!

If you’d rather listen instead of read this list, you can click here for a video that contains the same information, word for word! Thanks for supporting my youtube channel as well!

As I have been playing this game almost daily since 2014, I feel like I’ve learned a thing or two.  I mean, there’s plenty of people who do things for years and are terrible at them, but even if that’s me I’ve still come across some tidbits that can make your start a bit easier. Think of it like learning from my mistakes, as I spent my first handful of months in Eorzea stumbling around like a lost idiot.

1. MSQ should be your primary focus. Unlike other MMORPGS, you will not have to grind to level, and the leveling experience is more about the story than character creation/advancement. You will have some options to tweak your character with materia as you go through the story, but it is very unimportant. Everything you want to do with your friends is locked behind the story, and a majority of the story will be single player, with the exception of the dungeons you must progress through for the story. Sidequests for more stories or their miniscule rewards can be done later.
2. Abilities: All jobs start off very weak and slow, your global cooldown will only increase with materia and that will often upset the delicate timing of your abilities later. As your kit increases with more abilities you’ll end up with a mix of global cooldown abilities and off global cooldown abilities. The name of the game is weaving. You will want to start practicing using your OGCD abilities in between your GCD abilities, and by late to end game you’ll find yourself playing quite frantically to maximize your output. After learning about macros you may be tempted to macro your combos to one button, and on occasion someone in a facebook group will say its fine to do so. I’m here to tell you that it is not. It will hamper your damage since the timing of macro lines is in whole seconds and the global cooldown ranges from 2.3-2.5 seconds roughly depending on gear and materia. In addition to this you lose your ability to properly weave in your other abilities, and will likely cause yourself to fail combo actions, decreasing damage, threat generation and more. This will also stop you from forming good habits early that will help you when you want to do harder content for mounts or gear that you want later. Put in a few hours of practice as you play and it will become second nature to you and will benefit you later.
   In addition to this, you will have access to ‘role abilities.’ Role abilities are available to every class or job in a set role (tank, healer, or dps). These are ‘optional’ in name only, and need to be on your bars. Some of the most important abilities in the game are in this category, such as provoke for tanks, swift cast for mages, and more.
3. Combat: fights in this game are all about DPS. Unlike in other MMORPGs, tanks and healers are required to do DPS to clear content effectively. Tanking is less about threat generation, than actual protection from incoming damage, for you and your party, which makes you feel more like a protetor as you play it. You have multiple abilities to protect yourself and your party, and you will feel like an absolute chad when you cast a shield ability over a wounded friend and it absorbs an incoming wave of lethal damage, saving their life. Tanks also all have pretty robust damage dealing combos and boosts to maximize your contribution to the party. Healer’s have DOTs and spells that do not involve a combo, so they can be cast in between OGCD healing abilities. All classes have powerful AOE options to handle packs of enemies, and any time there are 3 or more enemies you should be spamming your AOE abilities. 
4. Unlock Quests/Job Quests: As you progress through the game you will find quests that have a blue icon instead of green. These unlock important features, such as the hair stylist, dying your gear, glamouring your gear (transmog system), optional dungeons, raids, pvp, and more. As you level each class and job you will also have a specific questline for that class, including the extra jobs, crafters and gatherers. These have entertaining stories, but they also unlock important abilities, and are critical to your success.
5. Dungeons: communicate with your team. If you are new, even if you have a sprout above your head, tell them you are new and still learning the dungeon, especially if you are a tank or healer. The preferred method and the expected method is that you do big pulls of more than one group of enemies, so if you don’t know the layout or your kit yet, you need to say so. You’ll be surprised at how accepting and helpful players in-game will be. As you learn your abilities as a tank or healer, you’ll be surprised how easy it is to manage the bigger pulls that people expect.

Bonus Tips:

1. Join social media groups with caution. Meeting people in a game is very different from meeting other players on social media. Facebook groups are notoriously toxic, highly clannish, and usually full of very bad advice, and sometimes extremely uncomfortable in their stance on age of consent. I would add most major discords to this caution, the exception being the balance and revival wings. The balance is known for its drama, but it also has some of the best resources for learning optimal openers and rotations. The Revival Wings discord is a relatively wholesome server that focuses on PvP, has helpful guides, and organizes lots of PvP related events. 
2. If you play with a controller, use the expanded cross hotbar. It takes a little practice to get, but makes your experience so much better. Playing mouse and keyboard is rough on your wrists, and with proper setup, a controller is faster and more comfortable, even if you’re playing on PC like me.
3. If you’re coming from WoW and haven’t played FFXIV before, the first thing you need to do is ignore anyone on the internet whining about WoW refugees. WoW may have once had a reputation for having toxic raiders, but they are nowhere near as bad as the toxic casuals in Final Fantasy. You don’t need that energy. Ignore those dicks.

That will be it for now, if you have any other helpful tips put them in the comments. As I compile more I’ll make more posts and tag them so that they can be viewed relatively easily.