Hi all, a friend convinced me to give FFXIV a try, and I’ve just made myself a Conjurer character. I’m barely 5-10 minutes in and damn this game’s pretty. Also pleasantly surprised by how solid the controller support is so far.

Curious if there are any pitfalls I should avoid, or if any of you seasoned players have advice for someone who’s just starting out.

  • Currently on the free trial. Does the subscription ever go on sale? I don’t doubt its value, but ~$150 USD / year is steep for any game (imo).
  • Are the classes/races decently balanced? I’ve played other MMOs where the game’s just not viable with certain classes.
  • I saw a menu option for macros, and I’d assume that’s keyboard-only? Are there any other players using just a controller, or does that become a hinderance at some point?
  • MrQuallzin@lemmy.world
    6·
    11 months ago
    • There’s no sale on the subscription. It’s a flat monthly fee. Considering the time sink that it is for many players (And maybe for you as well at some point!) I’d say it’s a fair price. After Stormblood you’ll still need to buy the later expansions, and I think those might sometimes go on sale?
    • As far as I’m aware, there’s no significant difference between any races. Play what you like, dress how you want. All the classes are fun to play and powerful in their own way.
    • Macros can be useful for many things, even with controllers! You don’t put in key combinations and instead put in actual spell and action names, so they work on PC and console.

    Have fun, it’s a great community. You’ve got a long and wonderful experience ahead of you. A Realm Reborn can be a bit of a slog (It’s not as bad as it used to be, they’ve removed a number of Main Story Quests to help), but the payoff at the end of the base game is worth it.

    • HeartyOfGlass@lemm.eeOPEnglish
      2·
      11 months ago

      Interested to see what a “slog” is like for FFXIV. I’ve sunk ~2,000 hours into Warframe, and a lot of that endgame is pure tedium to the point where I just can’t get into it anymore.

      From the comments I’ve been reading, I have a hunch I’ll be playing FFXIV a bunch. Thank you!

      • computergeek125@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        11 months ago

        ARR - the base game up to the level 50 “finale” quest plus the level 50 “patch” content before level 51 - took me 125h and 261h respectively on a new character, with a note that I spent quite a good bit of time in a recent seasonal farming event so the patch content might be closer to 150-160h. I will caveat this that that ~390h total was done as a player that knew the game (I’m at around probably 7000h total across all characters). The most important thing in the game is to take the quests at your speed. You won’t be punished for taking your time*, so sit back and enjoy the scenery. Do side quests. Learn crafting. Learn raiding. Have fun!

        (* There are active time events in some trials and solo bosses. Please press the button :P)

        It’s DEFINITELY gotten much less sloggy compared to when I cleared ARR on my first character several years ago. They’ve been taking steps ~2y ago to reduce the “chore” quests and improve or replace dungeons and trials that had aged very poorly. I don’t expect them to do that much if at all to the expansions: ARR and it’s subsequent patches had a lot of issues since they were learning how to make a game.