[Megathread] Final Fantasy XIV

[Cattleya]

• Once you are at 80, then do the rest of the Fisher quests, if you want.

• Once you are at 80, then do the rest of the Miner/Botanist quests, if you want.

• Once you cap your crafters at level 80, then do their job storylines, if you want.

Anyone doing the crafting/gathering class quests (which for gatherers at least you should, as skills and traits are locked behind them) should do it before 80 because they give a huge amount of experience. Doing one crafting/gathering job's 60-70 quests nets you about 40 million exp, for example.

There are quicker ways to get that exp, but if you're gonna do them anyway, might as well do it and not waste more exp than you'd need for even level 79-80

[Lane]

Dragoon seemed to be the job to be throughout HW both thematically and with occasional bonus dialog from other NPCs, is that true for other expansions as well? Does being a dark knight through ShB make a difference?

[Drindorai]

Dragoon seemed to be the job to be throughout HW both thematically and with occasional bonus dialog from other NPCs, is that true for other expansions as well? Does being a dark knight through ShB make a difference?

That's mostly because Estinien is so intimately involved in Heavensward. If you're a Monk during Stormblood, that is referenced during a quest unlocking a specific dungeon.

What they do more often is that if you're a healer, characters will mention this fact in conversations and/or you'll be healing people in cutscenes alongside specific Scions when they also are due to things happening in the story. There's at least two in Stormblood I can recall and at least one in Shadowbringers.

I've heard if you're a Ninja a specific character will mention this in Stormblood as well, but I hadn't seen it myself.

[Lane]

That's mostly because Estinien is so intimately involved in Heavensward. If you're a Monk during Stormblood, that is referenced during a quest unlocking a specific dungeon.

What they do more often is that if you're a healer, characters will mention this fact in conversations and/or you'll be healing people in cutscenes alongside specific Scions when they also are due to things happening in the story. There's at least two in Stormblood I can recall and at least one in Shadowbringers.

Some of the dragons make mention of you being a DRG too. A healer wasn't exactly next on my classes to level, maybe I'll save that for NG+.

[Kyriani]

They do?
The only one that does is the Warrior tank afaik.

From my observations, they are so much faster because the +80% dmg buff (or was it 60? It's been a while) makes them deal significant amounts of damage.
I haven't parsed it, but I wouldn't be suprised if it's way higher than your own DPS. At least the Archer DPS seems busted.
It helps that they use old - now basically "lost actions" - skills as well.

Squadron leveling is actually pretty insane. You get way more than one level every run, while you'd have to do like 4-5 POTD or something that take just as long *each*.
You can stack so much +% XP and you get the +% kill-streak XP as well.
I remember leveling my 2nd DPS job while being AFK up to HW content on a weekend.
I stopped when I had to fight in that dungeon with the T-rex as that one just couldn't be done while AFK.

The archers also aoe occasionally using Quick Nock. Whenever I was the tank or healer in a squadron run, I'd have 2 archers dpsing and everything melted. And when I was a dps, even 1 archer was enough to clear everything while I watched netflix :P

[Dakhath]

Double archer is 100 percent the way to go if you are not playing dps for squadrons.

[Lex Icon]

how many classes have that super loud gauge sound effect that machinist and samurai share?
been leveling some alt ones but if more of them have it i'll probably skip them.

[Vasilisa]

Out of curiosity, could anybody explain to me why is Dragoon considered a "floor mopping" job? I've heard it few times already and I admit that if somebody is dead in many cases it's a dragoon. What is so specific about this job that it dies so often?

[Vasilisa]

Their jumps are animation locked, meaning you can't move during them, which if they're in a bad position for any upcoming attacks like cleaves or AoEs they have a bigger tendency to get hit by them. They also have a back flip gap generator that can send them over the arena edge if they're not paying attention.

Thanks for an explanation. Guess it means dragoon is going to be far on the list of jobs to level

[RampageBW1]

Thanks for an explanation. Guess it means dragoon is going to be far on the list of jobs to level

It's not so bad, I mained Dragoon through my time through Stormblood (content) and had fun with it. You just got to be careful.

[Swnem]

Thanks for an explanation. Guess it means dragoon is going to be far on the list of jobs to level

It's fine these days. They increased the speed of the jumps. If you get hit by something these days, it's more your fault than anything.
Dragoon is a really fun job though. I love the rotation and that mirage dive.

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my biggest gripe about this game is that I have to drind out 50 levels of the most boring MSQ just to play the job I want. Feels bad.

If you don't enjoy the story, i'm not sure it's the game for you.
This game does not have a leveling experience. That's not what it's about. It has story, you play the story and the levels happen naturally.

Leveling "experience" is only for alt jobs.

- - - Updated - - -

How are you guys doing it?.

It feels like it takes me forever to get 1 level after 50. I'm doing Duty activities for now, in order to get most kills as possible. I have the trinket and ring (level30) with XP bonus.

Ignore the other sugestions you got. The first time around, you just do the msq to level.
There is no point trying to get levels from other places because the game will not let you join end game content without finishing the story first.

What you are experiencing is the patch content of ARR. It's kind of long and a bit slow but will pay off, but everytime you hit the level cap, you have these patch story quests and their xp will be low. The XP gain will pick back up once you start the following expansion.

This game is not about rushing to end-game. It's about the journey. I strongly recommend everyone not to play it like they do WoW cause they won't enjoy it and there is no big power grind waiting for you at the end. Enjoy, have fun, take your time, do other things for variety. There is lots to do in the game. There is no reason to rush to the end.

[Lane]

When does bard get better or does it? I've managed to get it to level 45 and it doesn't play like it's improved since the early levels. A couple cooldowns added, that's mostly it. The DPS compared to other jobs feels awful too. I usually love archer classes, but this one has been consistently disappointing.

Edit: Ugh, tried to get in a MSQ roulette before reset. I forgot how ridiculously long Praetorium was, lasted until 10 minutes after reset.

[Dakhath]

When does bard get better or does it? I've managed to get it to level 45 and it doesn't play like it's improved since the early levels. A couple cooldowns added, that's mostly it. The DPS compared to other jobs feels awful too. I usually love archer classes, but this one has been consistently disappointing.

I wasn't a big fan until you get the ability that allows you to refresh the dots, I think thats at 60.

[Graeham]

I'm slowly chipping away at random achievements. There's a few goals I hope to reach before Endwalker launches, but other than that I'm pretty much 'done' with Shadowbringers for now. I might try and see if I can solo Heaven on High or Palace of the Dead sometime.

[Granyala]

I mostly mess around with CMTool these days.

Would love to kill Legolas to get the dyable DNC dress but meeeh randoms.

[TidalConflux]

The Rising event items this year just look lazy to me.

[xmirrors]

When does bard get better or does it?

Once you have all 3 songs to cycle through (level 52 I think). It's not drastic but each distinct song alters gameplay slightly. You're only missing one, so if you're bored with the gameplay right now it isn't going to change too much I'm afraid. Just some OGCDs to weave, DoT QoL and a new resource/spender. BRD does not get or use any combos.

Core gameplay at 80: Apply and maintain DoTs, cycle songs, Apex Arrow at max gauge, spam Burst Shot, spend Straight Shot Ready procs, weave GCDs. Most of your time is spent spamming Burst Shot.

[Lane]

I don't understand what's so difficult about saying you're new to a dungeon and don't know where to go or how to do boss fights. I have no issue typing out a quick summary. Yesterday was particularly bad with deaths in low level dungeons because people aren't up front about not knowing what to do. I'm now 3 for 3 on healers getting knocked off the Titan platform and the tank in Halatali spent the entire second boss fight dead because of trying to tank it in the middle while the rest of us were waiting on the ramp.

You're only missing one, so if you're bored with the gameplay right now it isn't going to change too much I'm afraid.

Disappointing, but thanks. I've been leveling a machinist and so far I like it a lot more. One of these days I'll get to try dancer. As much as I love DRG, I think I'll be a lot happier with a ranged physical DPS for group content.

[Xilurm]

Doubt this is gonna be linked on the front page anymore.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Doubt this is gonna be linked on the front page anymore.

I'm surprised we aren't seeing an explosion of machinima for FFXIV yet. WoW had a huge machinima scene, but FFXIV's machinima scene was pretty dead, despite FFXIV having better inbuilt tools for making them (as well as allowing mods so you can model swap without being banned). I'd imagine WoW players coming from a game that had a machinima culture would have taken up machinima making. It's an easy, untapped market to move into and swoop up a a ton of attention.