Wow refugees, what are you enjoying about the game?

[NineSpine]

does it matter if its FF early game? if i have to slog through boring stuff for days before i get to something i enjoy more then what is the point? at least WoW i enjoy it all the way through.

and not everyone in the room is saying that. you're assuming they are. USUALLY in my experience, the most vocal community in WoW are usually the smallest in all reality.

then there are also many people scared to even run instanced content (probably with good reason but whatever)

Yeah yeah yeah, wows awful reputation is some elaborate conspiracy. I’ve heard it a million times. Sadly, your conspiracy theories don’t chnage that my wife stopped playing because of the volume of rape threats she got in wow, which she coincidentally doesn’t get in other MMOs.

[ippollite]

Running dungeons with recruits and having recruits at all.

Then im super stoked you got something new and fun to play with out of my massive wall'o'text.

[Zyrinx]

Whee! I love this question. For reference, obviously im doing a best guess from my own experience, and not giving an authoritative guide.

Okie dokie, first complication is whether youre level 35 in your job or in the story. With the legendary servers, its fairly easy to be lvl 35 on your job whilst barely starting the level 20 story quest. So assuming both and for a quick answer before i go into more general advice:

At 35 on the story, the main thing youre working on is your job and msqs. Follow those two breadcrumbs and youre golden. Your next main feature to unlock is around level 41 with the beast tribes. Aside that, its just dungeons and the usual stuff. I would advise spending some time with your grand company though and leveling through the ranks doing some of the leves (also, although the game guides you to only one GC leve giver, there are several at higher levels if you dont just want to keep doing the same level 10/15 leves in your starting zone). Your aim is to hit second lieutenant so you can open up your own little crew of ragammufins. So getting through the ranks will definitely give you something to work on if you feel like stepping away from the msq a bit.
Alternatively, you could just push to level 50 on your job and unlock samurai and red mage if you want to try out another class. You DONT have to be level 50 in the story, just level 50 on ANY job. So push some levels doing whatever you like.

Speaking of doing what you like: Some features you should have unlocked: Grand companies; dungeon running; challenge log (definitely look at this); hunting logs; fates; and of course the MSQ. All of these will help you push your level pretty swiftly to 50 if that's your goal. Priority is obviously MSQ because its the main feature unlock system in the game.

Secondly, on jobs, in ARR in particular (and if you are on a legacy server with bonus xp), and if you arent just trying to blast to 80 or open up the MSQ asap, id DEFINITELY level up two jobs, if only to keep your job level roughly in line with your story level. If you've got a dps, try rolling a tank or healer as a side gig. I went rogue for my world stuff, and white mage for dungeons/trials. It was a nice balance. It also gives a bunch of new job quests to unlock with some nice story elements. Id STRONGLY recommend doing the rogue guild stuff in Limsa. Its a super fun storyline.

Finally, if you just mean your job is at 35 but your MSQ is lower (probs 20ish), then id focus heavily on MSQ because you want to a) open up your grand company; and b) get your mount. That should be a strong priority for every player.

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So more generally, you can easily find a list of game feature unlocks using a google search, but honestly its a wall of text until you've played the game a bit. So to try and help simplify it, i'll go through some of them and explain why you might want to do them (and around what levels). This is gonna be more of a 'what are my goals right now in game at level x?' type post, if that makes sense. Some of this is job level, some is story unlocks (which is super confusing).

ETA: I realise this is getting super long already (im only at level 15) so perhaps i should do this with a few breaks.

Level 1-15 is really just the exploration/discovery phase. There's no real need to switch jobs unless you hate how your current one plays. Its mainly just following the breadcrumbs, getting a feel for the world, and just interacting with stuff. You get a nice self contained storyline attached to your home city. Its fairly on rails (despite me calling it the exploration/discovery phase). So you wont really get too confused or overwhelmed by systems. At this point you only really have the hunting log.

Why should you do the hunting log? Well, aside the gil and xp, it's a means to encourage exploration. Once you leave the main city, your priority is to get those teleport zones and do the story, but the hunting log also gives you this decently rewarding side quest whilst encouraging you to discover new landmarks and areas (and new quests) that the main story might not push you toward. It just immerses you in the world a bit more. It comes in 4 ranks. Rank 1: 1-10 level mobs. Rank 2: 11-20 level... etc. So doing the log while its current level and youre actively in the zones doing the content is definitely a nice use of your time.

Level 10: Levequests. I still dont really know what they're for other than xp and gil, but heyho, side repeatable daily content. Great source of xp if youre playing catchup on an alt job. But on your main, i'd only really do the unlock quest for them (you get one in most hubs). This isn't solid advice. Its just my opinion. They do play a part soon though.

Level 15: Job. You unlock the golden saucer, some cosmetic quests, and some pets/minions.
Level 15: Story: Airship, Dungeon and Challenge log.

Two of these stick out: 1. The golden saucer. To be honest, i found it incredibly overwhelming. I havent been back. So i cant really talk about it much. I think its something id be more interested in at end game when im looking for daily stuff to do. But thats just me. Im probs missing out on something (the ff15 collab perhaps in a month or so?). Have a lookie, see if you enjoy it. Its not really for me, is all (i dont really like darkmoon faire either, so you know...).

The second one though is kind of a big deal and easily overlooked: The challenge log: Its mainly just a source of xp and gil, but what it does is tie up all those mini-systems into a nice bow giving you clear things you can work through every week. Its like a meta-weekly quest. If you're ever feeling a bit lost ambling around and wondering what you could do, its a nice thing to work on. To give you an idea of what kind of things: Do 3 dungeons on the roulette; Craft 30 items; Do 10 unique levequests (i said we'd come back to that); send your retainer on 10 missions; Commend 5 players; Do 5 fates with 100% rating; Finish 15 beast tribe quests etc etc. Its just all the side stuff you dont have to do, but you might want to do. If you ever feel a bit confused or overwhelmed, just open up your challenge log, pick something to work on and go do it. It also comes with an important drop later on for your grand company, but i suppose we'll come to that later.

Anyways:

Level 15-20: Emissary. You've done all your quests, youve explored your city and its surroundings, you've collected all your aethyryte nodes, youve got your airship pass. Its time to see the other 2 main cities.

So, youre gonna once again want to really focus on collecting your teleports. Your MSQ is going to have you do a few quests around the place to help you familiarise yourself with the new areas. But WHY NOT... Im just saying...

Why not try it on a new job? Why not have fun playing a new class, doing those little fetch quests, doing a new hunting log (i forgot to mention, each class has its own hunting log), running some of those fates, levequests for the weekly challenge log, and just taking everything you know in the game already and seeing what its like on a brand new class with its own unique storyline. I would STRONGLY recommend this. It's literally the perfect way to absorb yourself in these zones without feeling like you're just running from aetheryte crystal to aetheryte crystal. Its a great way to just slow the game down a bit and immerse yourself in each of the zones. It also lets you play about with other jobs and see if they're more suited to you than the one you started with. I cant honestly think of a better time to investigate the other jobs and play around with them. You have a grounding in the basic systems of the game so far, you've likely realised the MSQ is a LOT of fetch quests. Why not break it up a bit with a new class when there's all this content that's designed for those levels?

I'll finish there so far. This basically takes you through the two new cities and environs along with a couple of dungeons (which then opens up the dungeon roulette (basically a random dungeon finder with some bonus rewards so you can just chain run them outside the MSQ if that's your poison)). By the end of it you should be on your way to the level 20 stuff (grand comapany and chocobo mount), which are your next big priorities.

Ty very much for this. So my actual level is now 37 I believe, bit my current MSQs are more like 23 (I have my Chocobo and GC, for reference). So they are dead easy, and the Fates I find around them delevel.me and I lose my fun Bard abilities.

If I'm reading this right, you're saying to grab an alt Job and get that up to low 20s maybe via hunting log or Leves, or the Roulette, and do MSQ on that till I catch up to my Main level more or less. Then maybe keep both jobs progressing?

Followup, other than quest rewards, how to gear up in these levels? Right now as I said I'm 37 with 23 gear, and I get rolled in the world if I try to fight tougher mobs at my level. Is vendor gear worth the gil?

[Reinaerd]

Only played it for 2 weeks or so, the combat and animation aren't my cup of tea.

But the community however, bloody fantastic.

[Neolithic]

then there are also many people scared to even run instanced content (probably with good reason but whatever)

This should be a giant red flag something is wrong...

[ippollite]

Ty very much for this. So my actual level is now 37 I believe, bit my current MSQs are more like 23 (I have my Chocobo and GC, for reference). So they are dead easy, and the Fates I find around them delevel.me and I lose my fun Bard abilities.

If I'm reading this right, you're saying to grab an alt Job and get that up to low 20s maybe via hunting log or Leves, or the Roulette, and do MSQ on that till I catch up to my Main level more or less. Then maybe keep both jobs progressing?

Followup, other than quest rewards, how to gear up in these levels? Right now as I said I'm 37 with 23 gear, and I get rolled in the world if I try to fight tougher mobs at my level. Is vendor gear worth the gil?

In the previous page (15) theres a follow up to this post. You cant miss it! it covers 20-50.

But more generally, thats a matter of preference. My only rejoinder is that the disparity between general leveling and msq is often so wide that you might as well level up a second job while youre in those zones for the msq. Once you go to heavensward, youll have far less reason to come back to these areas, and so, far less interest in trying out these classes.

To speed level it up, focus on hunting logs and challenge log along with roulettes and fates (and job quests of course). Should be caught up in no time. As for gear, vendors in the world can definitely be used to boost some holes in your gear. You wont really be short of gill to be honest. So 500gil here and there wont break the bank. You may find stuff cheaper on the market board, but id always check current vendor prices just to make sure you aint being ripped off.

[Zyrinx]

Cool cool I will check out page 20.

I'm deffo not in a hurry, I'll almost certainly never play endgame stuff here. But who knows.

[nacixems]

I am enjoying FFXIV the community as well as a ton of stuff to do. once you get into the later expansions the story and gameplay takes off into something short of great and fantastic. so much to do, keeps me logging back on often.

[bloodykiller86]

Yeah yeah yeah, wows awful reputation is some elaborate conspiracy. I’ve heard it a million times. Sadly, your conspiracy theories don’t chnage that my wife stopped playing because of the volume of rape threats she got in wow, which she coincidentally doesn’t get in other MMOs.

rape threats!? wtf that ive never heard of happening....idk what region/server your on but that sucks

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This should be a giant red flag something is wrong...

by "good reason" i mean they have somehow rationalized it lol like theyre scared because theyre bad and dont want to be ridiculed etc etc. The one thats really upset me is when people ask how to become better....you give them the info....they say its to hard and continue being bad. at that point you're just being bad on purpose

[TheRevenantHero]

rape threats!? wtf that ive never heard of happening....idk what region/server your on but that sucks

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by "good reason" i mean they have somehow rationalized it lol like theyre scared because theyre bad and dont want to be ridiculed etc etc. The one thats really upset me is when people ask how to become better....you give them the info....they say its to hard and continue being bad. at that point you're just being bad on purpose

It happens A LOT on MoonGuard. It's honestly sickening and Blizzard rarely does anything about it when you report it.

[ippollite]

by "good reason" i mean they have somehow rationalized it lol like theyre scared because theyre bad and dont want to be ridiculed etc etc. The one thats really upset me is when people ask how to become better....you give them the info....they say its to hard and continue being bad. at that point you're just being bad on purpose

We could look at this in another way. First, full disclosure, im one of those players who now gets incredibly anxious when running group content. I want to stress that this is NOT because of any particular negative experience in either game. I tend to be one of those cheerful, positive and vocal players. So i can often set the tone of the conversation in a dungeon (being one of the more vocal people in chat). But my interest in dungeon running slid off a cliff in Wrath, and its likely not a coincidence that this was the real birth of the gogogo dungeon running experience. Obviously not at the high end, im sure they were always running go go go dungeons throughout vanilla and tbc, but more for the wider playerbase. Okay, thats just stage setting. If i had to explain why i dont enjoy it, its likely a combination of increased pressure with a decrease in tolerance for failure. This trips my anxiety and makes me less inclined to run dungeons. And as the game progressed, the psychological wall to just 'jump in' builds up (increasing my anxiety about performance and pressure). Again, to stress, its not derived from the individuals ive ran dungeons with. Ive never encountered abuse (personally).

So coming to ff14. I think a lot of players are really attracted to the story element of the game more than the group element of the game. (the rpg over the mmo - though it should be stressed that the game does facilitate socialising in other ways). If players honestly could, i would bet on a great many never looking at a trial or a dungeon in game and they'd be more than satisfied. But they have to run those dungeons and trials. So here's what i think is happening (and also why i wrote that opening paragraph - because this is mostly how ive played through the game): They run the dungeon once. Then move onto the next one where everything is once again new. Over time they'll pick up stuff as they play through this content, but mostly, its just a hurdle the game makes them jump to do the things they want to do in game. Eventually they'll feel more confident playing the game and dealing with the mechanics, but they arent really looking to parse or perform optimally. They just want to get through the dungeon and move onto the next chunk of story.

Now perhaps at end game this is going to be slightly different. Once a player runs out of new content, then they're likely to start specialising or focusing in on the elements of the game they enjoy (it could be roulettes, it could be progression, it could just be leveling up jobs or mucking about with the repeatable side stuff). The point is, unless they're particularly focused on dungeons and trials, they will never likely care about peak performance in those environments. If anything, they're likely going to avoid it unless absolutely necessary. Its just not a playstyle they're into.

The reason i point all this out is so we can see the other side of the coin: I dont really want to run the dungeons or do the trials. I only do them because the game makes me do them. If i suck at them its because im probably in there for the first and only time. I havent done this dungeon a 100 times. As such, im too busy focusing on mechanics and making sure no one dies to worry about optimal performance. As far as im concerned, if the boss died and we didnt wipe, (and i can now move on) im happy. You're only going to get good at something in game if you do it a fair amount. If you dont, you're probably gonna suck at it until you do. And given that the dungeons in ff14 are a roadblock to the much more engaging storyline for a great many players, its likely they're not gonna sit around and practice at least until they've run through that story to its current conclusion. Its not that these players are being 'bad on purpose' its that your priorities and their priorities do not align.

[Ludek]

I'm not exactly a refugee - just playing XIV when I have absolutely nothing to do in WoW (WoD content drought - finished ARR, BFA - Heavensward, now I'm finishing Stormblood).

I'm also a fan of the Final Fantasy series / jRPG-s in general, so for me it's more like finishing another game in a franchise I like, rather than playing an MMORPG.

What I like in the game (aside of it being pretty nice jRPG) is the laid back atmosphere, there is no rush at all, noone pays attention to the imaginary skill ratings, I have plenty of content to do even without reaching the endgame. I set myself a personal goal to finish Shadowbringers before Endwalker happens so I can for once experience the "new expansion hype" in a different MMORPG, yet there still is no rush.

I also like that due to how job system and dungeon scaling works, there is technically no old content, I never run into "gray quests" because if I start to outlevel the content, i can just switch job.

Music is great, but I know I'm pretty biased towards jRPG soundtracks (western games have way too much ambient, I cannot feel that I'm on an epic adventure while all I hear are random strings once every 5 minutes)

Also all the previous Final Fantasy references are just an added bonus for me.

[ippollite]

I started in Rhalgar's rest. Perhaps this should be in spoiler tags... hang on... and i was seriously underwhelmed. Is this the main city of the expansion? and then i reached Kasuga and now im blown the eff away! Its so beautiful. I literally had to quit the game on the spot so i could enjoy it all tomorrow nice and fresh! I cant wait! .

[bloodykiller86]

We could look at this in another way. First, full disclosure, im one of those players who now gets incredibly anxious when running group content. I want to stress that this is NOT because of any particular negative experience in either game. I tend to be one of those cheerful, positive and vocal players. So i can often set the tone of the conversation in a dungeon (being one of the more vocal people in chat). But my interest in dungeon running slid off a cliff in Wrath, and its likely not a coincidence that this was the real birth of the gogogo dungeon running experience. Obviously not at the high end, im sure they were always running go go go dungeons throughout vanilla and tbc, but more for the wider playerbase. Okay, thats just stage setting. If i had to explain why i dont enjoy it, its likely a combination of increased pressure with a decrease in tolerance for failure. This trips my anxiety and makes me less inclined to run dungeons. And as the game progressed, the psychological wall to just 'jump in' builds up (increasing my anxiety about performance and pressure). Again, to stress, its not derived from the individuals ive ran dungeons with. Ive never encountered abuse (personally).

So coming to ff14. I think a lot of players are really attracted to the story element of the game more than the group element of the game. (the rpg over the mmo - though it should be stressed that the game does facilitate socialising in other ways). If players honestly could, i would bet on a great many never looking at a trial or a dungeon in game and they'd be more than satisfied. But they have to run those dungeons and trials. So here's what i think is happening (and also why i wrote that opening paragraph - because this is mostly how ive played through the game): They run the dungeon once. Then move onto the next one where everything is once again new. Over time they'll pick up stuff as they play through this content, but mostly, its just a hurdle the game makes them jump to do the things they want to do in game. Eventually they'll feel more confident playing the game and dealing with the mechanics, but they arent really looking to parse or perform optimally. They just want to get through the dungeon and move onto the next chunk of story.

Now perhaps at end game this is going to be slightly different. Once a player runs out of new content, then they're likely to start specialising or focusing in on the elements of the game they enjoy (it could be roulettes, it could be progression, it could just be leveling up jobs or mucking about with the repeatable side stuff). The point is, unless they're particularly focused on dungeons and trials, they will never likely care about peak performance in those environments. If anything, they're likely going to avoid it unless absolutely necessary. Its just not a playstyle they're into.

The reason i point all this out is so we can see the other side of the coin: I dont really want to run the dungeons or do the trials. I only do them because the game makes me do them. If i suck at them its because im probably in there for the first and only time. I havent done this dungeon a 100 times. As such, im too busy focusing on mechanics and making sure no one dies to worry about optimal performance. As far as im concerned, if the boss died and we didnt wipe, (and i can now move on) im happy. You're only going to get good at something in game if you do it a fair amount. If you dont, you're probably gonna suck at it until you do. And given that the dungeons in ff14 are a roadblock to the much more engaging storyline for a great many players, its likely they're not gonna sit around and practice at least until they've run through that story to its current conclusion. Its not that these players are being 'bad on purpose' its that your priorities and their priorities do not align.

by being bad on purpose i mean they refuse to actually learn their class and rotation etc etc even when presented with information. nothing with dungeon performance as that varies and can change in each dungeon. i usually dont give people shit in dungeons as long as theyre following along for the most part. tanks on the other hand i try and at least tell them that their pathing is not great and they should study up on better paths to take. As DPS i have no issues carrying others through since i can top fights as Fury without issue

Honestly everything is hard until you actually try and learn it. Even as a mythic raider i still make mistakes in raid and/or dunegons here and there and it upsets me because i know better. we all make mistakes as we're not robots but we gotta learn from them. Personally i try and help people as easily as possible but if i sense push back i stop because its not business at the end of the day. But when people like this complain about not being in groups or whatever it just upsets me. I love min maxing in this game, its my favorite part of it honestly. Best combo's or gear and spec etc etc to optimize your personal performance as much as possible

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It happens A LOT on MoonGuard. It's honestly sickening and Blizzard rarely does anything about it when you report it.

wow thats nuts i have never seen anything like that before....

[Moozart]

There has never been a single dungeon in WoW where I wasn't immediately kicked from the group when I said I was new.

Watch it there Pinocchio your going to put someone's eye out.

[Echo of Soul]

It happens A LOT on MoonGuard. It's honestly sickening and Blizzard rarely does anything about it when you report it.

That's because they fired all the GMs in favor of $$$

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There has never been a single dungeon in WoW where I wasn't immediately kicked from the group when I said I was new.

You're probably exaggerating a bit for effect but yes showing weakness or ignorance is a risky move in WoW.

I've been learning to tank every single dungeon in FFXIV, a huge undertaking since there are like 100+. Anyway as I go through the dungeons one by one until I've mastered them I start of by saying that I'm new to tanking the dungeon and appreciate any tips they might have.
Not a single person has said a single negative word so far and we're talking hundreds of dungeon runs. If I mess up then someone explains what I did wrong, if there's something I need to know beforehand they're quick to throw in a FYI before I pull.
Say what you WA t about the FFXIV community but they're absolutely amazing in this regard.

[RampageBW1]

Wait, really? I haven't bothered using a mount other than my company chocobo so had no clue this is a thing.

Magitek Armor...



Nostalgia! Best thing, you get this mount at the end of the 2.0 MSQ campaign. I just wish the Magitek Predator mount had the same BGM.

One of the other things I like about FFXIV is that the journey to "endgame" is a lot more fun in FFXIV than it is in WoW. I haven't even completed the 5.0 MSQ yet, and I am still having a blast playing the game. Whereas with WoW, it seems the only thing that matters IS the endgame.

[valrchron]

This game wasn't for me.
Feeling burnt out on WoW, I figured I'd try FFXIV since there's lots of content in the free trial.
I've tried tons of MMOs throughout the years, WoW, SWTOR, TESO, GW2, Warhammer Online, Age of Conan, Neverwinter and a bunch more.
Yet my new player experience in FFXIV was, by far, the worst in any MMO I've played. It took me legit about one hour before I even got into my first combat.
I know that you probably can get to the first fighting quest faster, but for me as a new player who doesn't know where stuff is and who read all the quests (fairly slow reader), and spent some time moving around my UI, it took a lot of time just running around. I also found the map to be clunky which didn't help. So I spent about an hour doing delivery and fetch quests in the city you start in before finally getting outside and into combat. At that point I was bored out of my mind, and just uninstalled it.

Most MMO's start you off with a "Kill 5 pigs" quest or something like that, and even that is much more fun than "Go talk to X" "Now go talk to Y" "Now deliver this to Z".

Maybe I just did the quests in the wrong order or something, or maybe I should've just skipped all the quest text, but by the point I was about an hour in, and had lost any enthusiasm I had.

[Echo of Soul]

This game wasn't for me.
Feeling burnt out on WoW, I figured I'd try FFXIV since there's lots of content in the free trial.
I've tried tons of MMOs throughout the years, WoW, SWTOR, TESO, GW2, Warhammer Online, Age of Conan, Neverwinter and a bunch more.
Yet my new player experience in FFXIV was, by far, the worst in any MMO I've played. It took me legit about one hour before I even got into my first combat.
I know that you probably can get to the first fighting quest faster, but for me as a new player who doesn't know where stuff is and who read all the quests (fairly slow reader), and spent some time moving around my UI, it took a lot of time just running around. I also found the map to be clunky which didn't help. So I spent about an hour doing delivery and fetch quests in the city you start in before finally getting outside and into combat. At that point I was bored out of my mind, and just uninstalled it.

Most MMO's start you off with a "Kill 5 pigs" quest or something like that, and even that is much more fun than "Go talk to X" "Now go talk to Y" "Now deliver this to Z".

Maybe I just did the quests in the wrong order or something, or maybe I should've just skipped all the quest text, but by the point I was about an hour in, and had lost any enthusiasm I had.

The thread is called "Wow refugees, what are you ENJOYING about the game?"

[TheRevenantHero]

Magitek Armor...



Nostalgia! Best thing, you get this mount at the end of the 2.0 MSQ campaign. I just wish the Magitek Predator mount had the same BGM.

One of the other things I like about FFXIV is that the journey to "endgame" is a lot more fun in FFXIV than it is in WoW. I haven't even completed the 5.0 MSQ yet, and I am still having a blast playing the game. Whereas with WoW, it seems the only thing that matters IS the endgame.

Hands down my favorite mount theme in the game.