Final Fantasy XIV (Guide in first post)

Crone

Bronze Baronet of the Realm
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3,210
I still hate that the different versions must all be purchased. I have a gaming PC but my work computer is a MacBook and then of course we have a PS4. After all this time, why do they make you purchase every stupid version of this game?

Just out of curiosity, for someone who hasn't played in years, I believe since the first expansion, how long does it take to get back into the swing of this game? How is the housing compared to EQ2? (be generous :) ) I really enjoyed EQ2 house. It was a fun side MMO hobby. I don't think I ever raided on FFXIV but do we still have a presence on Gilgamesh?
Sucks to have to buy copies for all the systems, but back when I played, it was so damn nice to be able to do boring shit on my couch with a controller, and then switch to PC for other shit.
 

skylan

Trakanon Raider
85
97
Sam actually has more mobility, probably the best mobility out of a melee class with fast responsive low cost low cooldown abilities. Although Ninja, and to a lesser extent Dragoon, can move to specific spots that are not in melee range/away from something.

Utility generally means raid damage in this. Specifically, Ninja has Trick Attack, which gives 10% dmg taken as a debuff for 10sec every... 2mins? 1min? Been a while, whatever the Suiton cooldown is. On top of that, they have aggro tools, Smoke Bomb which has limited uses to drop the threat from a healer and Shadewalker which is the important one, since it lets you solidify threat wipes and tank swaps very easily, which means your tanks can be in DPS stance more, which means more damage. They also apply a slash debuff but every other class seems to do that anyway so no one really gives a shit.

Pretty much what makes NIN the more wanted class is Trick Attack, and how it synergizes with other classes using their cooldowns at the same time. SAM only has self DPS, and the amount added by TA is higher than the difference between NIN and SAM personal DPS.

If you're not doing savage raids though shit kinda doesn't matter at all. For normal raids/5man dungeons, SAM is fine, great even, the higher personnal DPS means you can carry retards better, since buffing retards' damage isn't doing shit for anyone(buffing retarded tanks' aggro is pretty useful though).

Nice, I have been using the agro tools to drop healer agro but 8 have to be honest lol, how does a ninja re-stealth during a fight to apply trick attacks more than once?
 

skylan

Trakanon Raider
85
97
Nice, I have been using the agro tools to drop healer agro but i have to be honest lol, how does a ninja re-stealth during a fight to apply trick attacks more than once?
Corrected, typing on phone
 
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Fennin

Golden Knight of the Realm
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As others have stated, any job can clear content in this game. Job choice only makes a difference if you intend to join a progression static, or speed-run group. The core design of the current meta revolves around critical hit group synergy. Here is an overview of the current meta, and the reasons for bringing each class.

Core of the meta: Ninja, Dragoon, Bard, Scholar.

Ninja brings trick attack, which is a 10% damage buff for 10 seconds every 1 minute. Because of the 1 minute cooldown, all group buff timings revolve around a ninja. Ninjas also bring massive tank assistance with shadewalker, smoke bomb, and a slashing debuff. The slashing debuff is important if not running a Warrior. Dragoon brings Battle Litany, increases critical hit rate by 15% for 20 secs, on a 3 minute cooldown. They also bring dragon sight, which increases the damage of a party member by 5% for 20 secs. Lastly dragoon brings a piercing debuff which increases the damage of Bard and Machinist. Bard brings a massive amount of group buffs and utility. Battle Voice brings a 15% increase to to direct hit for 20 seconds. Foe's Requiem increases magic damage of all party members. Bard brings a rolling 2% crit buff to the entire party, while also bringing aoe mitigation, mana and tp refresh, and single target mitigation. Scholar brings chain strategem, increases rate at which target takes critical hits by 15%. They can also bring fey wind from the selene pet, Reduces weaponskill cast time and recast time, spell cast time and recast time, and auto-attack delay of self and nearby party members by 3%.

Substitutes of the meta: Paladin, Warrior, Dark Knight, White Mage, Summoner.

Many would consider Paladin a staple of the meta, due to the massive support kit it carries. I did not include paladin in the core jobs because it does not bring a group damage buff, but it still has the best synergy with trick attack, and the most utility of the three tanks. Dark Knight mitigation was buffed in 4.3, this made Dark Knight a very good option for progression content, but they still lack the damage and utility of Warrior and Paladin. Warrior does the most damage and has the most synergy playing with a paladin. All three tanks were used in Ultima progression.

White mage still has the highest throughput of any healer, making them a great choice for progression content. White mage brings high personal dps, but no group synergy. Astrolgian is the go to second healer for speed clears because of card buffs. Summoner can also be considered part of the core meta. Summoner brings devotion, Increases damage dealt and reduces damage taken by all party members within a 15-yalm radius by 2%. Devotion also increases healing magic potency of all party members by 5%. Paired with its high damage and ability to resurrect party members, Summoner is the go to progression caster.

Outliers of the meta: Samurai, Black Mage, Monk, Red Mage, Machinist.

Red mage is only an outlier because Summoner does everything better. Monk does not bring enough group synergy or damage to replace a ninja or dragoon. Monk does bring brotherhood, which increases physical damage of the party by 5% for 15 secs. Brotherhood puts monk ahead of samurai in triple melee speed-run compositions. Samurai only brings a slashing debuff and high individual damage. Black mage only brings high dps, and Machinist is only really played alongside bard in speed run comps, as they lack the utility of a bard.

I think the best advice you can give someone trying to get into progression based content is to tell them to learn a role instead of a job. Meaning you should pick what role you want to fill in a group and play all of the jobs associated with that role.
 
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Fennin

Golden Knight of the Realm
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58
Nice, I have been using the agro tools to drop healer agro but 8 have to be honest lol, how does a ninja re-stealth during a fight to apply trick attacks more than once?

Suiton Ninjitsu,
Delivers water damage with a potency of 180.
Additional Effect: Grants Suiton
Duration: 10s
Suiton Effect: Allows execution of weaponskills which require the effect of Hide, without being under that effect.
 

skylan

Trakanon Raider
85
97
Suiton Ninjitsu,
Delivers water damage with a potency of 180.
Additional Effect: Grants Suiton
Duration: 10s
Suiton Effect: Allows execution of weaponskills which require the effect of Hide, without being under that effect.
Ah, crap! I really should read the skill text better. Since the icon only shows when doing the ninjitsu I tend to ignore it after reading once. Thanks for the info
 

Neuad

Trakanon Raider
62
25
Black Mage does have the hidden passive of attracting every single AoE to their leylines. I swear people drop them on me on purpose.
 
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Folanlron

Trakanon Raider
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639
got 88 on HoH(solo) man it becomes a RNG'athon after 70's gotta hope for the right materia chunks to keep going.
 

Neuad

Trakanon Raider
62
25
We had an aetherpool/exp farming group that turned into a deep run with a few friends. I was tanking despite being a very new tank and after 70 my lack of knowledge of the class and role really started to show, those mobs start to turn into mini raid bosses quick.
 
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a_skeleton_02

<Banned>
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I'm making friends.

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Malakriss

Golden Baronet of the Realm
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Not going to find much of that on Gilg, they're either all taken or bailed during the lockdown.
 

Kirun

Buzzfeed Editor
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Looking for an MMO that I can "music and chill" with. Does FFXIV fit that category? I'm getting too old to deal with the recent trend in MMOs where they turn it into a DDR game of twitch.

If I want a twitch-based experience, I'll fire up about a million different BR or MOBA games that do that sort of thing 100x better.
 

Rangoth

Blackwing Lair Raider
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Looking for an MMO that I can "music and chill" with. Does FFXIV fit that category? I'm getting too old to deal with the recent trend in MMOs where they turn it into a DDR game of twitch.

If I want a twitch-based experience, I'll fire up about a million different BR or MOBA games that do that sort of thing 100x better.

I mean, the thread has those answers but basically yes you can do that with fxiv. It only gets twitchy at the top top level. Otherwise plenty to do and pretty fun in my opinion. Plus you can play any class on a whim without switching characters
 

Fennin

Golden Knight of the Realm
555
58
Looking for an MMO that I can "music and chill" with. Does FFXIV fit that category? I'm getting too old to deal with the recent trend in MMOs where they turn it into a DDR game of twitch.

If I want a twitch-based experience, I'll fire up about a million different BR or MOBA games that do that sort of thing 100x better.

FF14 has a 2.5 second gcd. Some jobs have abilities that lower the gcd to about 2.0 seconds. CPM for ff14 ranges from 30-50 cpm, compared to WoW's 40-90 cpm. All combat is choreographed except for a couple abilities that may require decision making. The game is well optimized for controller players, which makes ff14 one of the more couch friendly MMO's.
 

Kirun

Buzzfeed Editor
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FF14 has a 2.5 second gcd. Some jobs have abilities that lower the gcd to about 2.0 seconds. CPM for ff14 ranges from 30-50 cpm, compared to WoW's 40-90 cpm. All combat is choreographed except for a couple abilities that may require decision making. The game is well optimized for controller players, which makes ff14 one of the more couch friendly MMO's.

Good info, thanks guys.

Now, is there a class that tends to be more "faceroll" than others? I know you listed average CPM, but like a lot of MMOs, I'm sure there are the classes that are on the higher end of that scale and those on the lower. Which classes in FFXIV tend to gravitate toward the lower end?
 

sleevedraw

Revolver Ocelot
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Good info, thanks guys.

Now, is there a class that tends to be more "faceroll" than others? I know you listed average CPM, but like a lot of MMOs, I'm sure there are the classes that are on the higher end of that scale and those on the lower. Which classes in FFXIV tend to gravitate toward the lower end?

Conjurer/White Mage is probably the "slowest" class in terms of DPS rotation complexity (technically Astrologian or AST is THE easiest, but you can't unlock it until 50). However, both WHM and AST are healer classes, so they have other responsibilities, especially AST, which is continually fishing for buffs to dispense to others.

DPS easiness is kind of subjective; each class has different characteristics that make it somewhat of a pain in the ass.

Monk (MNK): "Flow" DPS; continually whacks enemies with mid-damage hits. High CPM. Predictable rotation, but you have a speed buff called Greased Lightning that you need to keep up. Large number of positionals. High DPS, low utility.
Dragoon (DRG): Extremely rigid, linear rotation. Has jump skills which cause animation lock and can fuck you over if an enemy drops a telegraph under you. Mid-high DPS, mid utility.
Ninja (NIN): Easy maintenance rotation, difficult opener. Has a skill called Ninjutsu which requires very fast inputs. Has a speed buff. High CPM. Mid DPS, high utility.
Samurai (SAM): Freeform-style selfish DPS with high burst. High DPS, very low utility. Unlocks at 50.

Bard (BRD): Apply two dots, keep them up, and cycle through 3 different song stances that each have different effects when your dots crit. Extremely fun to play, but very busy. Continually mashing oGCD buttons. Extremely high utility.
Machinist (MCH): Burst ranged physical DPS. Your aim is to put as much damage as you possibly can during the duration of Wildfire, which tallies the damage you inflict while it up; it then hits for additional damage based on how much you caused during the duration. Unlocks at 50.

Black Mage (BLM): Burst DPS. The class you want to play if you like fapping to big damage numbers. Slow casts, but it's a turret DPS in a game where 99% of mechanics involve movement, so there's a lot of optimization that goes into performing well. The caster variant of SAM; selfish DPS with low utility.
Summoner (SMN): Pet class. Mid-high DPS, high mobility for a caster, high utility. Inflicts most of its damage with dots, has a burst phase every couple of minutes.
Red Mage (RDM): Like SMN in terms of utility, but no dot or pet upkeep and simpler to play. Middling mobility. Lowest DPS of all DPS classes. Unlocks at 50.
 
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