Final Fantasy XIV (Guide in first post)

Excidium

Trakanon Raider
832
1,275
Im trying this game again since my brother has been playing it. What jobs are fun and good to level? I normally play a healer in MMOs but they tend to level slower. I’m interested in tanking too.
My brother gave me the “play whatever they are all good” but he only had a single 85 job so I’d like some other opinions. I’ll mainly be playing it to level and enjoy the story.
 

Pyros

<Silver Donator>
11,054
2,260
Im trying this game again since my brother has been playing it. What jobs are fun and good to level? I normally play a healer in MMOs but they tend to level slower. I’m interested in tanking too.
My brother gave me the “play whatever they are all good” but he only had a single 85 job so I’d like some other opinions. I’ll mainly be playing it to level and enjoy the story.
Every job being good is for the most part true. Obviously not every job is equal but no job is so bad that they can't get content done, especially casual content, the differences between the top tier of a given category and the lower tier is generally within 5%, with a few outliers that generally get buffed/nerfed.

For leveling, healer will be slower when soloing for sure, but a lot of the leveling involves running dungeons(because of the story and also because it's just very good xp especially the daily roulette bonus which is basically a random dungeon and once a day you get a massive xp boost for it). And for these, as per usual in mmos, healers have very fast queues, while DPS have long queues, so healers actually level just fine and probably faster than DPS overall, with tanks being even faster(but not as much of a difference as between healer and DPS, only slightly faster).

You could also pick the one option that lets you play both sides, Arcanist, which counts as both Summoner(DPS) and Scholar(Healer), and while gearing both can be a bit harder, you can keep your summoner geared with secondary stuff to do solo quests with, and then put all the good gear on Scholar to do dungeons efficiently with(and carry the retards that can't play).

If you don't care that much about healer really go for whatever sounds good to you. Note however that Heavensward jobs(Dark Knight, Astrologian and Machinist) unlock like really late since they're locked behind HW access which takes a long time, while Samurai and Red Mage will unlock instantly at 50(so if you want to play these you can switch right away) and Dancer/Gunbreaker unlock instantly at 60.
 

Excidium

Trakanon Raider
832
1,275
Every job being good is for the most part true. Obviously not every job is equal but no job is so bad that they can't get content done, especially casual content, the differences between the top tier of a given category and the lower tier is generally within 5%, with a few outliers that generally get buffed/nerfed.

For leveling, healer will be slower when soloing for sure, but a lot of the leveling involves running dungeons(because of the story and also because it's just very good xp especially the daily roulette bonus which is basically a random dungeon and once a day you get a massive xp boost for it). And for these, as per usual in mmos, healers have very fast queues, while DPS have long queues, so healers actually level just fine and probably faster than DPS overall, with tanks being even faster(but not as much of a difference as between healer and DPS, only slightly faster).

You could also pick the one option that lets you play both sides, Arcanist, which counts as both Summoner(DPS) and Scholar(Healer), and while gearing both can be a bit harder, you can keep your summoner geared with secondary stuff to do solo quests with, and then put all the good gear on Scholar to do dungeons efficiently with(and carry the retards that can't play).

If you don't care that much about healer really go for whatever sounds good to you. Note however that Heavensward jobs(Dark Knight, Astrologian and Machinist) unlock like really late since they're locked behind HW access which takes a long time, while Samurai and Red Mage will unlock instantly at 50(so if you want to play these you can switch right away) and Dancer/Gunbreaker unlock instantly at 60.
I like the idea of a healer but I just want a fun healer too. In other mmos healers were rare so I’d play one to make groups. I found it was easier to control dungeons as a tank though since they set the pace normally. I loved playing shaman in wow and EQ and love high utility healer classes. Which healing job would that fall under in your opinion?
 

Folanlron

Trakanon Raider
2,220
639
I like the idea of a healer but I just want a fun healer too. In other mmos healers were rare so I’d play one to make groups. I found it was easier to control dungeons as a tank though since they set the pace normally. I loved playing shaman in wow and EQ and love high utility healer classes. Which healing job would that fall under in your opinion?

WHM/Scholar go nutz
 

Grizzlebeard

Ahn'Qiraj Raider
2,177
2,311
I picked Shadowbringers up the other day and unlocked both Dancer and Gunbreaker.

Pretty much tossed the idea of playing DNC initially as I'm missing a shitload of post 50 Dex gear.

How does GBR fare against WAR and PLD? I have the latter two at 70 and 50 and was thinking of using a tank for first playthrough. I'm guessing I could take GBR to 70 pretty fast but how squishy is it compared to the other two and what is its threat generation like (Snap and Sustained)?
 

a_skeleton_02

<Banned>
8,130
14,248
I picked Shadowbringers up the other day and unlocked both Dancer and Gunbreaker.

Pretty much tossed the idea of playing DNC initially as I'm missing a shitload of post 50 Dex gear.

How does GBR fare against WAR and PLD? I have the latter two at 70 and 50 and was thinking of using a tank for first playthrough. I'm guessing I could take GBR to 70 pretty fast but how squishy is it compared to the other two and what is its threat generation like (Snap and Sustained)?

They are all the same
 
  • 1Mother of God
Reactions: 1 user

Pyros

<Silver Donator>
11,054
2,260
Yeah tanks are very well balanced overall, there's some downsides here and there but they're generally compensated(Living Dead but also The Blackest Night). Gunbreaker is also fun to play so that helps, although it's quite button bloated I feel they could have used switching keys and shit instead of the nonsense they ended up with and they'll most likely have to do it next expansion.

It has a proper DPS-like rotation though so you don't get bored too much but it also means it's more high maintenance and more prone to fucking up when you're just trying to do mechanics and time your cooldowns well, while other tanks are more fire and forget.

It's missing a bunch of the cool stuff early on though it's not that interesting until you start getting the oGCDs and shit which mostly happen around, 70 iirc?

Oh and threat is a non factor this expansion. Literally doesn't fucking matter what you do if you have tank stance on(and you should since it doesn't have a damage reduction anymore so it's free) as long as you're pressing buttons every ~5seconds you'll hold aggro.
 
  • 1Like
Reactions: 1 user

nicksw

Molten Core Raider
55
46
Hi! I am thinking about playing for month or so and my account is eligible for recruit a friend code so if anyone wants to send me a friend code it would be nice. Have only tha base game (EU).
 

Valorath

Trakanon Raider
922
1,477
Buddy of mine wants to play this, so I’m gonna resub. Have they done anything with AST since the changes for SB? I’ve got AST, BLM, PLD, and DRG at max. Figure I’ll play either tank or healer for my buddy to help with the queues
 

dvoraen

Lord Nagafen Raider
515
181
Buddy of mine wants to play this, so I’m gonna resub. Have they done anything with AST since the changes for SB? I’ve got AST, BLM, PLD, and DRG at max. Figure I’ll play either tank or healer for my buddy to help with the queues
AST got a mini-buff (potencies) and some cast time improvements, but they didn't get a huge amount of change. The biggest change AST was given was the QoL upgrade to Sleeve Draw and Minor Arcana, to reduce your OGCD usage and streamline it more. Celestial Opposition got a healthy buff, whereas Collective Unconscious still suffers from TooMuchTinkering (they can't seem to settle on an effect that's useful for both Sects rather than it being one-sided -- no one is going to channel the Nocturnal effect to maintain the regen, it's too weak for that).

Not much, but the play pattern is improved, and the numbers a little higher so it encroaches on the other two healers.
 
  • 1Like
Reactions: 1 user

sleevedraw

Revolver Ocelot
<Bronze Donator>
1,782
5,998
Buddy of mine wants to play this, so I’m gonna resub. Have they done anything with AST since the changes for SB? I’ve got AST, BLM, PLD, and DRG at max. Figure I’ll play either tank or healer for my buddy to help with the queues

The healing output is mostly fine now. It still just feels cancerous to play and requires 50% more APM/effort than WHM and SCH for only slightly better rDPS when played ideally. I gave up and went back to WHM, and I was an AST loyalist since 3.0 when they were underpowered (but at least fun.) Hopefully they'll unfuck it come 6.0.
 
Last edited:
  • 1Like
Reactions: 1 user

a_skeleton_05

<Banned>
13,843
34,508
Provided anyone remembers, tagging me when they next have a sale would be appreciated. I don't watch the thread. I should have bought it for the Xmas sale, but of course I didn't feel like playing until after the sale was over.
 

Folanlron

Trakanon Raider
2,220
639
Provided anyone remembers, tagging me when they next have a sale would be appreciated. I don't watch the thread. I should have bought it for the Xmas sale, but of course I didn't feel like playing until after the sale was over.

Next sell will either be at the next FF gathering, both JP/US they will usually run sales off for them, maybe E3 but other then that x-mas/new years are the major sales they usually hold..(don't even look at the steam version of the game such a pita)
 
  • 1Like
Reactions: 1 user

Malakriss

Golden Baronet of the Realm
12,340
11,730
FYI there's an exploit going around now, probably been in the game for years but the specific application has been in since Heavensward. People are going into The Aery, clearing to Nidhogg, then timing a 10 minute afk kick at exactly the same time they get Draconian Light from Estinen (95% damage reduction). This persists when they load back into the open world and they can freely do whatever with it. Likely works with any other persistent effects that a boss script is meant to remove.

Expect a patch and bans to come from this.
 

StoiCynic

Trakanon Raider
2,683
989
Finally got through the ShB story (great btw), now I have the daunting task of RE-figuring out all the different currency and the quickest way to get caught up for 5.2. Anyone have a priority optimization guide they can link? I remember someone posted a pretty good one for SB way back when.
 

moonarchia

The Scientific Shitlord
21,398
38,877
Just run Eden and CF until you are in full 450/460. If you want to craft get them all to 80 and you can be up and running on the bleeding edge in a couple weeks. And I do mean bleeding.
 
  • 1Like
Reactions: 1 user