After getting a great deal of encouragement from both Twitter and commenters, and getting a final extra push from the fiance who finally bought me the dang thing:
Final Fantasy XIV, the new MMO hotness. It’s downloaded and installed. I’ve yet to play it, so I don’t have any first impressions yet. Look for those tomorrow, probably!
To those of you who have played it: what do you think? Any tips for a newbie?
Hmmm…
Cactaur is best server. Join us.
Prioritize main story quests (they have a fancier icon). Lots and lots of game feature are unlocked by progressing the main story, including bank space, airship travel, chocobo mount, etc
If you decide you don’t like your starting class as much as you hoped, don’t worry. You can pick up other classes once you hit level 10 in your first class, and leveling a second class to 10 goes pretty fast.
That’s what immediately comes to mind.
YAY!
Hmm, newbie tips.
There are good websites, here are a few:
http://ffxiv.gamerescape.com/
http://www.ffxivguild.com/
If you haven’t gotten a recruit-a-friend link from someone, get one before you pay for a month (you get a free month with purchase.) You get a cool feather to wear that gives you bunches of extra XP whenever you’re playing a class that’s level 25 or less. Even if you’ve been synched down from a high level, as long as you can still earn XP.
Crafting is actually useful in this game, but is a big inventory sink. Also its own minigame with gear, rotations, and endgame goals.
Almost all quest rewards are also crafted items. With the exception of a few chestpieces available at level 5, you can always get armor and weapons back.
Roll on Catuar, where the cool kids are. Hit me up for gear 🙂
Even total strangers are generally nice in this game (or at least just hush and get on with their job.) There are exceptions, but not many and the rest will be very likely to help you out.
I also highly recommend not rolling a tank to start out (that’d be Gladiator or Marauder) but you can ALWAYS pick up a new class (after you get one to level 10) if you don’t like what you’ve got. You get ALL THE CLASSES. ALL.
Levels 1 and 2 sidequests are tutorial sidequests basically – run from place to place. Level 3 starts the kill “so and so mob” quests. Save these for alt classes.
Your class determines your starting city: Marauder and Arcanist is Limsa (pirate town), Pugilist, Gladiator, and Thamauturge is Ul’dah (desert town), and Conjurer, Archer, Lancer is in Gridania (forest town). Rogue is in Limsa but not a starting class.
Marauder – Axe tank
Arcanist – pet healer/DPS
Rogue – dagger DPS
Pugilist – hand-to-hand DPS
Gladiator – sword and shield Tank
Thamauturge – staff weilding mage DPS
Conjurer – staff weilding mage Healer
Archer – bow and arrow DPS
Lancer – lance weilding DPS
Your class can evolve into a “job” but this will require you to get another class to 15 (30 for your main). There is also a third class that goes with it and it has cross class skills.
Do your class quests (its how you unlock abilities, traits, and after level 10, use other classes).
At level 15, after the main quest, there is a quest in the Drowning Wench that unlocks the Challenge Log – a weekly log of challenges that rewards experience for completing them.
2.5 GCD – Pugilist and Rogue are the best to use if it bugs you too much and gear will slowly decrease the time.
There is forced grouping.
Only important cutscenes are voiced and the voice acting is meh at first.
Attune to aetherytes.
Expect delivery quests.
Expect to run around A LOT.
Read the help menus when they pop out – SE can do things in a way you don’t realize.
You get a Chocobo after you enter your Grand Company AND you buy the license with enough seals (best earned through FATEs).
Announce when you are new – game gives a bonus anyway and most players will help instead of jeer.
You can’t enter Heavensward until you finished 2.0 – 2.55 story quests. Some parts can be a slog in 2.0 and 2.1 with an occassional hitch in the others.
NPCs can be wordy but there’s a lot of lore in this game.
If you are aggroed and jump somewhere too steep, you will die. If you are not, you will have 1 HP left.
Loading screens and invisible walls.
The map can be a bit difficult to read. Pay more attention to your surroundings.
Subligar is a right of passage.
Squeee, I am so excited. You better be on Cactuar! 🙂
You got a lot of valuable advice already but I can’t stress it enough. Stick with the main story quests and ignore all side quests, even though the amount of available quests will beckon. Side quests are for when you want to level other classes/jobs!
In dungeons, always say you are new if you’ve never run it before. People will take the time to explain bosses, and they get an exp bonus just because you are new!
Pro tip that I didn’t find out until I was already 50: after level 15 you will get sent to Vesper Bay to the Waking Sands a lot. The shortest route to get there is to teleport to Limsa Lominsa, Aethernet to the Arcanist’s Guild and take the ferry to Vesper Bay. I wish I had known this so much earlier.