Super important questions from a brand new FFXIV player!

[Phonicrose]

Hi everyone, I'm basically brand new to the entirety of Final Fantasy. My first experience with the characters came from the Kingdom Hearts Franchise. My second encounter, and first FF game was Dissidia & Dissidia 012 for the PSP,and they had amazing story lines! After that I played FFXI & the FFXIII Saga for a little while. XIII-2 was the only one I really played enough or was able to process properly one could say. So in general I don't know too much about FF characters or how they'd interact in the world. I absolutely love RPing in various MMOs, but I don't have the slightest clue about the species' back stories or anything. The in game summary is useful, but not really.

 

Also, I read a bit that Gilgamesh & Balmung where the only two RP servers really for NA. But they don't allow for new characters. Either way, I'd like to find a social server even if RP is practically unexistent, in order to help me understand things more in the universe of FF & the game particularly.

 

I also read about an $18 transfer process but the website says you can't transfer into a realm that doesn't allow for new character creation, so is it even still possible for one to transfer into the 2 big ones later on? If so, what all needs to be done to maximize the transfer & does the sever population cause lag on the PS4? (I have a USB keyboard for typing, so don't worry about that part, lol.)

 

At the moment I'm on a 14 day free trial, once that goes out, would I be able to just pay $15 to pick up a sub, or better yet be able to go ahead an buy Heavensword to my account? (Also how do you add game time/expansions to your account on a PS4?) Or would I need to purchase a game disc from GS/Walmart or something in order to keep playing? If I need to buy a game disc, does it come with a month subscription? Also, do you get a month when you buy Heavensword (I assume not for the latter), but I wanted to ask.

[Lydia Lightfoot]

You can definitely still transfer onto Balmung even right now (ignore that stipulation of the transfer rules, Square Enix is happy to take your money), and if your account is the subscription type which permits multiple characters on the same server you may transfer up to the entire server load of 8 characters for the same single $18 fee (so if you like alts, pre-make a full stable of them and save money).

 

I've known others who play via PS4 and didn't have lag issues.

 

When your trial ends, you'll need to buy the base game for $20. Don't buy the expansion yet, it doesn't add anything of consequence for characters who have not yet completed the entire base game's core story (which itself requires the character to have reached level 50). So, my advice is, make sure you actually like the game. You won't miss anything by waiting to buy Heavensward until you reach the point of actually needing to have it.

 

The base game (whether bought as disc or digital) includes 1 month of subscription time. I'm unsure how setup of subscriptions or adding game time card codes works via PS4 though, since I play by PC.  However, you get only one free month per account, so adding Heavensward later doesn't give you an additional free month.

[Unnamed Mercenary]

I'll try to go through a couple of these.

 

1) You can transfer into servers regardless. While the website sites the server isn't supposed to be able to be open to transfers, I've only heard of it failing once, that that's when someone tried to transfer in on a new patch day. Depending on your game service, you can transfer up to 8 characters from one server to another with one transfer fee, as long as the origin and destination match.

 

2) FFXIV has nothing to do lore/story/canon-wise compared to other Final Fantasy games. Like FFXI, there will be certain elements worked into the game, none of them are directly sliced out of their respective games.

 

3) One of our more lore-centric users, Sounsyy, has a great Racial Lore compilation thread and many others. Here's a few.

 

Eorzean Lore Starter Kit

-Racial Lore Compilation

-Class/Job Lore Compilation

-Hydaelyn Geography Lore

-Settlements in Eorzea Pre-Calamity

-Eorzean City-states' Political Structures Lore

-Eorzean Units of Time and Measurement Lore

 

4) You will still need to buy the game. You can add the serial using the Mog Station. (As well as add time cards, payment details, Optional Items, REcruitment codes, etc). I'd recommend just buying A Real Reborn first, to see if you like the game. It lasts until lv50 and up to Patch 2.55 content. If you decide you like the game, you can then get the 3.0 expansion, Heavensward, which is getting ready for patch 3.3 (Monday).

 

Buying the game typically will give a free 30 days. I don't know if this affects trial users. You can either get physical discs and patch, or download them. ...chances are, if you're on the trial, you're already patched for all of A Realm Reborn and other shared content. No extra time for buying expansions.

[Phonicrose]

Thanks so much you guys! I'm un sure if I'm gonna just wait out the trial before I buy the base game or not. But if I do that, is there any route in particular you recommend me to go for making my characters before the switch to Balmung? (Assuming that's the better of the 2 mega RP servers). And once I'm there, where is the best place to start making friends? Would it be best to post here once I make the transfer, and go from there?

[Steel Wolf]

I definitely advocate using this forum to the fullest if you decide to take the plunge. You can make connections, discuss character development and find lore details. Heck, you can even write your character in the RP forum to get your feet wet or maybe tide you over until such time as you elect to buy in fully.

 

For what it's worth in any case, welcome to the RPC and to the game's roleplay community. Here's hoping you have fun!

[Lydia Lightfoot]

Thanks so much you guys! I'm un sure if I'm gonna just wait out the trial before I buy the base game or not. But if I do that, is there any route in particular you recommend me to go for making my characters before the switch to Balmung? (Assuming that's the better of the 2 mega RP servers). And once I'm there, where is the best place to start making friends? Would it be best to post here once I make the transfer, and go from there?

 

Whether or not you play out the trial is up to you, except that the trial limits you to one character on a given server and only up to level 20 (this is changing to level 35, though, as of next Tuesday's patch). Whether or not you achieve that level (and are thus dead-ended) or not within the timespan of your free trial depends on how frequently and aggressively that you play.

 

You do in fact get the free 30 days with your game purchase in spite of being a free trial, so that's a nice benefit at least.

 

As far as your other question regarding a route, that all depends on what kind of role you like in PVE content in an MMO. From an RP perspective your character can be whomever you decide, regardless of levels or class choices for PVE, the only limit on RP is that if you really want the character's avatar to visually display a particular type of equipment or weapon then of course you'd need to level the appropriate class (though, again, the levels don't matter for RP - if you have only 10 levels of Gladiator and you want to say your character has a lifetime of experience using a sword, that's going to be just fine to most players).

[Phonicrose]

Thanks! I know other MMOs have stricter people as far as character confines to RP. So having a more open slate is amazing! Personally I always loved magic users in every game I've played. Occasionally I go for melee classes, but it's rare, lol. As far as PVE group content, I usually heal as its the best guarantee into every dungeon and stuff, plus it's fun to be like the life beam of the party. Although, not gonna lie, the Thaumaturge/Black Mage is appealing because it seems like what KH has Donald based on. Not 100% though, Im very excited about all of the class combinations and mixing of abilities I've read about though. It'll be very interesting how it pans out, definitely the most creative MMO I've experienced.

[Lydia Lightfoot]

Mm, the mixing of skills is pretty downplayed since Heavensward... for the most part anymore your job is your job. Each one only has a small number of "cross-class" skills they can even use, and there's general agreement as to which ones are more useful/needed than others.

 

If you're thinking of a healer, you really have two options (a third exists, but you'll have to have completed the entire main game's story to unlock it, which is.... hours and hours and hours of gameplay, so it's not an option worth even worrying over as a newbie).

 

The Conjurer class is a healer from level 1, and ultimately becomes called White Mage after level 30 when you get your job crystal. In order to be an effective White Mage, you'll also need 26 levels in Thaumaturge in order to get the Swiftcast cross-class skill (it's a buff which makes your next cast-time spell instant-cast, which is a nearly mandatory lifesaver if your tank dies in a dungeon, because revive spells have a long casting time). You'd also need at least 15 levels in Arcanist because that's a requirement to get the White Mage job crystal at all. You unlock a pretty useful cross-class skill at Arcanist 34, too, if you put the extra time into getting Arcanist to there. Those are the only two other classes you'd need to level alongside Conjurer, if you're looking to be efficient about your time.

 

The Arcanist class is a DPS class, but it gets a healing spell and a revive spell. There's a reason for that which we'll get into later, but, you can play an Arcanist as a healer even as of low levels, provided that you're only doing dungeons with a fully pre-made party (because in a pre-made party, the specific roles aren't mandatory, so you could function as a healer even though you'd normally slot into the DPS role in a party). Anyway, ultimately, Arcanist gets two job crystals, and is the only class which does that. Since your level is based on your class and not your job crystal, that means an Arcanist technically gets to level two different roles simultaneously. One of these is the Summoner (a DPS job) and the other is the Scholar (a healer job).

 

For the Scholar, you'd also want 26 levels in Thaumaturge (for the same reason as you would for a White Mage), and, a minimum of 15 Conjurer levels as a base requirement to get the Scholar job crystal. However, going all the way to 34 White Mage lets you cross-class the Stoneskin spell. Scholars can already use their own spells to create HP shields, so Stoneskin isn't quite a must-have for a Scholar (since it's also an HP shield). However, Stoneskin does stack with the Scholar's own HP shield effects, so it certainly doesn't hurt to have it.

 

The playstyle of the two is fairly different. 

 

As a White Mage you'll have a more active focus on using your healing spells in a group, though if nobody needs a heal you'd still be wise to throw out some damage spells now and then. If you're attentive about reapplying Stoneskin in between fights and using Regen to help heal-over-time you can often have quite a bit of opportunity to contribute to the group's damage. You can bring someone back from the brink a lot more easily than a Scholar can, too - your heals are big and they're beefy.

 

As a Scholar, some of your healing is done automatically by your pet (you get a pet fairy that heals and can do some other useful support spells - it can be set to do this automatically and you'll do okay with it being automatic, though the top-notch players will suggest controlling it manually to have the greatest potency of when and where the spells get used, since AI is kinda meh). Since your main heals have an HP shield effect, too, you'll tend to spend less time actually healing and more time spreading your wide array of DOTs around to enemies to contribute to the party's damage output. But, the trade-off is that Scholars also have to take greater care in ensuring that they maintain high HP in their party, because they have less ability than a White Mage to suddenly compensate for severely low HP.

 

Both classes are fun to play. I prefer Scholar, personally, because I feel like I have more to do when I play a Scholar (White Mage, at least to me, feels a bit spammy and I find myself bored).

[Phonicrose]

Thats really cool! This game is really in depth, and interesting, kind of a shame that Jobs take out the class mixing, but it's still versitle since you switch jobs at will I belive? Haven't done so yet.

[Lydia Lightfoot]

Thats really cool! This game is really in depth, and interesting, kind of a shame that Jobs take out the class mixing, but it's still versitle since you switch jobs at will I belive? Haven't done so yet.

 

You can switch jobs, but not while inside an instance. So once you queue up to enter a dungeon, you're locked into the job you'd picked when you queued up. Since you can level multiple jobs on the same character though you could change up what you'd be dungeon to dungeon depending on what your friends need in the party or what you feel like playing. The only downside to leveling multiple jobs is that there's not a ton of questing content in the game, so you end up having to kinda grind a lot if you do several jobs on the same character.

[Cassandra]

While the RP aspect has more or less been covered, in terms of gameplay make sure to both complete the Hall of Novice and use a Recruit a Friend code. The game points you directly to the former while the latter can be given by anyone and entered on your Mog Station account should you choose to buy the base game. Doing so nets you two items that boost your EXP a massive 55% until level 26, then 30% until 31. This will let you breeze through early leveling and possibly get a feel for multiple classes/jobs without having to grind much at all.

 

Also if you're willing to wait, patch 3.3 will be released on June 7th. Due to this, all servers will be shut down a day prior and reopened around 6am EST. This is a rare time Balmung may allow new characters if you're up at that time to spam the refresh option. Might let you save $18 on a transfer.

[Valence]

Take that from a main WhM, it will feel spammy at first, because the job is rather straightforward and probably the healer the most novice friendly. 

 

The thing is though, while the job is the easiest to handle among the 3 healing jobs, it is also hard to master. There is a LOT of little subtleties and tricks to discover that will create huge gaps of efficiency between a good WhM and a normal one.

 

If I had to say it in a few words, the difference between a SCH and a WhM also lies in the way to handle things. If you play a SCH, it's a lot of planning and things applying over time. SCH has a piss poor reaction time but is strong in terms of damage mitigation and sustained DPS.

 

WhM is all about huge bursts of healing or DPS. Like, HUGE. Which also tends to deplete your mana like nothing (that's where the main difficulties in playing WhM lies, SCH is more technical overall).

[Chidori]

Most have given you great info.

 

Just to add..unless Gilgamesh has changed, Balmung is where you want to go. I transferred from Gilgamesh to Balmung for RP (Almost 2 years ago). Gilgamesh used to have it out in the open world..but it almost suddenly seemed to die down. Maybe due to housing? Not certain really.