Greetings and Salutations, Friends!

[Hafgrim Wildfang]

Noob here!

 

So I've been around here and there in the Final Fantasy Universe for awhile now, actually dating back to it's Chrono Trigger days and finally decided to give FFXIV a try.. I've been playing SWtOR since launch, bought FFXIV a little after it launched but was too wrapped up in SWtOR and it's RP to venture out and try anything new.

 

I'm still fairly new to RP but my hopes are to get into either Balmung or Gilgamesh, feel out the game for a few levels and hopefully join up with any Guilds/Free Companies/Linkshells that might be recruiting.. Not sure on what race/class I'll be playing just yet or even what I'd go with RP-wise, but we'll see.. Any tips, tricks, ideas or advice in regards to the game and/or RP is more than welcome, otherwise I hope to see you all in game!

 

- JB

[C'laihn]

Welcome to FFXIV!

 

I hope you enjoy the game and find yourself pleased with trying it out. Since you're looking into RPing, I would highly recommend focusing on getting onto Balmung more that Gilgamesh. I love Gilgamesh, as it was the server I was one before I transferred. However, while Gilgamesh is highly populated and active for PvE, Balmung's RP scene is miles beyond Gilga. Especially from a walk-up and "see RP around in the world" stand point.

 

Balmung is difficult to get onto since it's a high population server, so if you do attempt it you'll want to try early in the morning or right after maintenance opens up. Another thing you can do is make a character on a low population server and then, if you find you enjoy the game from a PvE stand point, transfer the character to Balmung. It costs a little extra money, but tends to be easier than fighting with sneaking in the open windows that Balmung is open to new characters. Not impossible though, just have to be patient.

 

Once you have a taste for the RP scene, definitely use this place as a resource! You'll find a bunch of different types of Free Companies, Linkshells, people looking to make connections and things in between! Some geared more towards finding RP, others that are social-based... etc! People are are super friendly and I'm pretty new myself and it's been a lot of fun.

 

Enjoy!

[Faye]

Hello there, welcome to the RPC! I hope you can make it onto Balmung!

[Kage]

I've made a 'guide' of sorts about Getting into Balmung describing some ways to get in and what's working or not working.

 

Early mornings (typically 4-5am Pacific NA) used to work in the past but Balmung is almost always closed to character creation that waiting will eat at your subscription or the 30 days you get with the license. Waiting for after maintenance can also be a time gamble as it requires you to be online when maintenance ends for the window that only lasts about less than 4 minutes and maintenance also tends to end early.

 

So my recommendation is that if you -really- enjoy RP, make a character on a server that lets you. Play the game. Do you enjoy it? Want to continue playing but you think RP is -really fun- and you just need to get into it and see it for yourself? Then I recommend doing the transfer to Balmung. It's a little more than a month of subscription time but I don't think you will find the RP lacking.

 

If you don't mind that you'll have to do quite a bit of search or networking to get the RP, there are non-Balmung/Gilgamesh Server Linkshells in the tab at the top that will help direct you to people who RP there.

[Miss Gaz]

Welcome!

[Hafgrim Wildfang]

Thanks for such a warm welcome.

 

As someone previously recommended, I think I'll create a toon on an open server and then just transfer to Balmung. I'm going to try to play the game through even if I don't RP, but so long as the RP is as grand as I've heard, I'd like to make some connections there while I level, instead of leveling somewhere else and then coming over. Anyone know what timezone Balmung is on?

 

Also, just a couple questions pertaining to RP.. Any race overly used or completely unused? What do most people RP as here? ex:Wizards, Mercs for hire, Nobles, ect..

 

- JB

[Kage]

Your mileage may vary but Balmung is definitely active for North American timezones and active during EU. You can find EU players and linkshells for RP in the Linkshells tab, particularly Europa iirc.

 

Generally you can find a wide array of people roleplaying certain races more than others, a lot of Au Ra, Miqo'te, Midlander Hyurs. Lesser so that you will find Highlander Hyurs, Roegadyn and Lalafell.

[Hafgrim Wildfang]

You're saying that Balmung is a NA server but plenty of EU players are on it as well? Just hoping that there's plenty of play for an Eastern timezone, NA player. As far as the races go, I'm thinking of maybe a Hyur or Lalafell caster.. Not sure which caster is "best" for DPS yet, but I'm still looking into it.

[Kage]

You're saying that Balmung is a NA server but plenty of EU players are on it as well? Just hoping that there's plenty of play for an Eastern timezone, NA player. As far as the races go, I'm thinking of maybe a Hyur or Lalafell caster.. Not sure which caster is "best" for DPS yet, but I'm still looking into it.

The game doesn't really have a real min-max for races as it's relatively negligible that you can have any race do any job. During 2.0 people favored dunesfolk lalafell for black mages as there was just a teeny tiny amount of additional mp that they get for an extra fire cast.

 

Yes Balmung is really quite active but can you specify what times you'd actually play? You might be on the eastern timezone for NA but maybe you work graveyard etc.

[Hafgrim Wildfang]

Play times would mostly be Mon-Fri 7pm-10pm or 12pm, Eastern. I'm sure there will be plenty of people still playing, I just was wondering if it was an Eastcoast server or Westcoast server.

 

For the casters, do they all get the typical "wizard" look, or do they stay pretty specific to how their end game gear looks? Does this game feature a way to wear gear for it's stats but equip a look different than the gear you wear for stats?

[Miss Gaz]

Well there's gear that's designated Disciple of Magic which has a caster look to it but. I feel there's enough of a variances in the end game gears for each caster class to look different.

[Miss Gaz]

Play times would mostly be Mon-Fri 7pm-10pm or 12pm, Eastern. I'm sure there will be plenty of people still playing, I just was wondering if it was an Eastcoast server or Westcoast server.

 

For the casters, do they all get the typical "wizard" look, or do they stay pretty specific to how their end game gear looks? Does this game feature a way to wear gear for it's stats but equip a look different than the gear you wear for stats?

 

 

 

 

 

[Kage]

Play times would mostly be Mon-Fri 7pm-10pm or 12pm, Eastern. I'm sure there will be plenty of people still playing, I just was wondering if it was an Eastcoast server or Westcoast server.

 

For the casters, do they all get the typical "wizard" look, or do they stay pretty specific to how their end game gear looks? Does this game feature a way to wear gear for it's stats but equip a look different than the gear you wear for stats?

 

You'll do fine. There's really no west coat or east coast server times in the servers.

 

You can do something similar to this with the glamor system however there are small rules. I believe you can only do it when you are level 50? There's a quest required for it.

[Miss Gaz]

Play times would mostly be Mon-Fri 7pm-10pm or 12pm, Eastern. I'm sure there will be plenty of people still playing, I just was wondering if it was an Eastcoast server or Westcoast server.

 

For the casters, do they all get the typical "wizard" look, or do they stay pretty specific to how their end game gear looks? Does this game feature a way to wear gear for it's stats but equip a look different than the gear you wear for stats?

 

You'll do fine. There's really no west coat or east coast server times in the servers.

 

You can do something similar to this with the glamor system however there are small rules. I believe you can only do it when you are level 50? There's a quest required for it.

Yes only at level 50. you get a quest in one of the hubs called Mor Dhona

[Hafgrim Wildfang]

Good deal..

 

Thanks for all the info btw. I think I just have one last question, when you pick a Disciple of the Hand, do you also get gear/clothes specific to that selected profession? I'm seeing each one has their own "look" but I wasn't sure if that was a look you could get as a player or just how they showed the different professions..

[Miss Gaz]

Good deal..

 

Thanks for all the info btw. I think I just have one last question, when you pick a Disciple of the Hand, do you also get gear/clothes specific to that selected profession? I'm seeing each one has their own "look" but I wasn't sure if that was a look you could get as a player or just how they showed the different professions..

Both DoH and DoL have their own endgame gear sets as well. But leveling all the classes for DoH have the same look same goes for DoL.

[Kage]

You can level -all- jobs and classes all at the same time.

 

At certain levels (50) and (60) each job/class will have unique gear depending on if they are PLD/WAR/SCH/WHM/SMN/BLM/BRD/DRG/MNK/NIN, or AST/DRK/MCH.

 

PLD - Paladin

WAR - Warrior

SCH - Scholar

SMN - Summoner

BLM - Black Mage

DRG - Dragoon

BRD - Bard

MNK - Monk

NIN - Ninja

 

AST - Astrologian

DRK - Dark Knight

MCH - Machinist

 

The first set all have unique gear at 50 and at 60. The latter 3 only have unique gear set similar to the ones posted earlier at 60.

 

DoH/DoL like CRP,LTW,ALC,CUL,BSM,ARM,WVR,GSM and BTN,MIN,FSH are also 50 and 60 unique sets.

 

CRP - Carpenter

LTW - Leatherworker

ALC - Alchemist

CUL - Culinarian

BSM - Blacksmith

ARM - Armorer

WVR - Weaver

GSM - GOldsmith

 

BTN - Botanist

MIN - Miner

FSH - Fisher

 

You can see that these sets are referred to as Artifact gear or AF. AF, AF+1 (Myth gear) or AF2.

 

If you are curious, look through this database here. http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodestone/playguide/db/item/

 

You can see the level requirements and who can wear what.

[Hafgrim Wildfang]

Thanks, I appreciate all the info. From an RP standpoint, racially, who would you say has the most potential to be used as any of the mage classes? I'm sure they can all be used, just didn't know if there are races that aren't attuned to the use of magic or races that excel over others in the use of magic, or does each race have it's own magic users? Maybe the Miqo'te have "shamans" that use magic or something like that for each race..

[FreelanceWizard]

Thanks, I appreciate all the info. From an RP standpoint, racially, who would you say has the most potential to be used as any of the mage classes? I'm sure they can all be used, just didn't know if there are races that aren't attuned to the use of magic or races that excel over others in the use of magic, or does each race have it's own magic users? Maybe the Miqo'te have "shamans" that use magic or something like that for each race..

 

In terms of who the trainers and students are, the thaumaturges' guild is run by lalafell, the conjurers' guild is run by a padjal, and the arcanists' guild is run by a roegadyn currently (it's complicated ). There are canonical examples of casters of all races; two miqo'te figure prominently into the arcanist storyline and a hyur girl with a special talent is key to the conjurer storyline. Anyone with the talent and inclination can join one of the guilds and learn to use magic. However, different guilds measure "talent and inclination" differently. As an example, the thaumaturges' guild won't train people with insufficient aetheric capacity, as their use of thaumaturgy would either be impossible or extremely hazardous.

 

The only races that have special connections to magic are non-player races. Pureblooded Garleans, as opposed to people the Empire has conquered, are genetically incapable of using magic, which is why they developed magitek. Padjal are all chosen by the elementals of the Shroud and so have a connection to them, and are also the keepers of the art of Succor (White Magic). Other than those two, no particular race is especially better or worse at using magic outside of differences in starting stats.

 

In terms of magical traditions, there's nothing saying that a group of people might not pass down magic in a specific way, but the majority of mages are trained by one of the three guilds and so hew to their practices. There's actually a fair amount of lore in game about on the canonical ways and means of magic; as you do the class quest lines for a guild, they'll go into detail about how magic operates (from their point of view).

[Hafgrim Wildfang]

Awesome. Thanks. I just wasn't sure if it'd make more sense from an IC standpoint for my mage to be any particular race. I think I'm stuck between a Hyur, Lalafell and a Miqo'te.. And still not sure if I want to play as a Thaumaturge/Black Mage or an Arcanist/Summoner.. I know I just want to be of the Wizardry sort.

[Hafgrim Wildfang]

Subbing tomorrow!! I'm pretty excited!:moogle:

[Valence]

If you are looking for pure stat min maxing, then all lalafells, hellsguard roegadyn, keeper mi'qote, offer generally the best average magical traits. 

 

However, it's maybe a difference of 3 points, or more, which is literally nothing compared to the 500-800 total pool you will get endgame. So I would say, stick with the race you wish to play the most. Read its lore, see if you enjoy it.

 

Good thing to know on crafting gear too: it isn't limited by your job or class, you can wear it as long as you have the level to do so with any class, which is kind of nice for RP stuff.

[Hafgrim Wildfang]

Alright! It's official! Just got transferred to Balmung today.

 

- Jotah'ra Bhonga

 

- Seeker of the Sun, Miqo'te

 

- Rogue