NEW PLAYER - Doubts about Free Companies/cooperation on FF XIV

[Sinocci]

This is my first post, sorry if it's in the wrong place.

I played a little bit of this game on the free trial and I loved it. I really want to buy and play this game for a long time, but, before I do, some doubts:

1.1 - My intention is to go to max level and find a group of players to join. I wonder if it's difficult to find people to play with since the majority of the players are far ahead on skills/experience on this game. I'm really concerned about finding people to play with me

1.2 - When is the best time to try to find a FC? Also, how FC's work

1.3 - My ideia is to play every day, so, are people normally into "harding" every day for itens and other stuff, or most of the players play casually?

2- I'm hoping for some really good RAIDS in the future, but I don't know how people play them/how they work. A FC need to group with other FC's, people just go on the matchmaking... how do you guys group up for raids?

3 - Ping here is around 150ms, is this a problem?

[Deathgiver]

1.1 There are several quite large fcs on your server. In my experience in a large fc you can usually find at least a couple of people to help out with dungeons at any given time, even if they are max level.

1.2 The sooner the better. You're not locked to an fc just because you join one, you can switch at any time if the particular fc isn't giving you what you need. FCs provide buffs to their members, and most large fcs have a leveling xp buff up at all times or on request. They also provide a dedicated group of people to get to know and play with.

1.3 At most maybe a quarter of the games population do the top tier raids, so you'll likely be able to find fc members to help for the more casual stuff as you level up, even if they're already max level.

2. At endgame their are several different difficulties of content. The top tier (savage) usually requires a static group to progress all the way through in a reasonable amount of time. Statics can be made up of all fc members, but it's not a requirement by any means. You'll see linkshell statics probably just as much as fc statics. Raid finder is the other option for savage content, but can be kind of hit or miss on the skill of your party since you're grouping with randoms. The next most difficult content is probably extreme primal fights which are basically just a boss fight in an arena. Statics make these easier but are certainly not a requirement to clear. For pretty much any other content you can either group with party-finder, or queue as an incomplete party in duty-finder.

3. I play with fairly high ping too. It's doable but you need to know the fights better than most people so you can time your movement better. If you're on pc you could try a gaming vpn service to try and lower the ping, but depending on location that might not work.

[Sinocci]

Thanks, helped a lot! xD