New player questions re. classes and grouping.

Hello all. Bought and installed this game after relaunch. Played for one day and uninstalled. Think I was burned out on gaming at the time and decided to give it another try because of all the great things I have heard.

I will be rolling on Bamung (sp) server as pretty much always pick the rp or unofficial rp server to play on.

Just curious as to class distribution etc. Seems like a totally different setup from other games. Are there roles needed and such? If it is like most games, I am assuming tank or healer. But thought I would ask in case things are different here.

Also, are there significant opportunities to group in this game? I'm in the mood to play a game where I can spend the majority of my leveling time in a group as opposed to solo.

Lastly, I usually play tanks or sometimes melee dps. Long ago I used to play a healer so I open to that or possibly a dps caster, and am kind of in the mood to play a cloth wearer. Any suggestions?

Thanks!

Welcome! :D

Class roles in FFXIV come down to the so-called 'trinity' of tank, healer and DD. Each class/Job will be specifically listed as one of these roles.

As for what role is the most needed, every role has their part to play, but statistically tanks and healers are the most sort after simply because there are physically more DD classes in the game, plus there is a perceived preference for playing as a DD class due to players regarding them as more straightforward to play because tanks and healers have the most responsibility in a party, and who therefore tend to be painted as the scapegoats if things go wrong.

Party wise the first 15 levels of the game are pretty much solo only as far as quests go, but the main storyline will require you to complete instanced dungeons at level 15, which require a party (that you can either let the Duty Finder create for you or grab three others and pre form the party and enter the dungeon that way - the later has the advantage of not having role restrictions to enter, you can literally be any class, where as letting Duty Finder create a party for you requires specific roles - a tank, healer and two DDs. But it's usually the easiest way to enter a dungeon. Don't worry though - once it's unlocked and dungeons and trials become available you can queue for a dungeon party in Duty Finder as many times as you wish. :)

Finally, if you're unsure what class to play and are unsure what role a certain class is, the party list on the left side of the screen shows your current class icon beside your name. The colour of the class icon in this particular list shows what role that class is - blue is a tank, green is a healer, and red is a DD (crafting and gathering classes are default grey however). But to make things easier for you, these are the class/Job roles:

Tank: Gladiator (GLA)/Paladin (PLD) and Marauder (MRD)/Warrior (WAR)
Healer: Conjurer (CNJ)/White Mage (WHM) and Scholar (SCH)
DD/DPS: Arcanist (ACN)/Summoner (SMN), Thaumaturge (THM)/Black Mage (BLM), Pugilist (PGL)/Monk (MNK), Archer (ARC)/Bard (BRD), Lancer (LNC)/Dragoon (DRG), and the soon to be added Rogue (RGE)/Ninja (NIN)

Disciples of Magic are ACN/SMN/SCH, CNJ/WHM and THM/BLM so if you're thinking of a caster type class then any of these is good for you (ACN would probably be the best choice in that regard as it's the only class that has two Jobs that you can upgrade from instead of one, which can also vary it's role in a party). But it's up to you. :)

You are able to do group content of FATEs low-level, and many Levequests can also be completed as a group starting at level 10. What I like about this game is it doesn't force you to do things in a group, but it doesn't restrict group participation if you want it (except in instanced story battles that are designed to have NPCs to assist you to accomplish objectives.) If you want required group participation, play FFXI, that's what made me dislike and quit that game.

If you want to know about class distribution, this link will take you to this years census: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/197811

Will have distribution of the classes and roles. It's probably got a huge margin of error, however. Our Armory system dictates that you could be any given class at any given time.

Regardless, it should give you a general idea of what you are working with. Please note that these values are not server specific - and only represent the community as a whole.

Thanks so much for the great answers. They were very helpful :)

Oh btw, tanks tend to be in most demand in random dungeon queues followed by healers. Might feel pretty natural if you're used to MMORPG, but just so you know what to expect.

Scholar, the *other* healing class of the game, doesn't get counted as ine until it becomes. SCH. Until then the ACN is a dps.

This game lets you freely try all the classes, alternate between them, and advance any or all you wish to, so you aren't locked into the class you begin the game with except for the first 10 levels. (It's your level 10 class quest that unlocks the ability to add other classes.) I recommend at least trying all of them. Once you've advanced each of them a bit, you can decide which ones you enjoy enough to continue them through the later levels.

As for group/solo content, there's a mix. You'll need to advance the main scenario in order to unlock content. It alternates some group dungeon runs with a lot of quests designed to be run solo but that could be done in a duo with someone if you want (or technically even a full group, though that would be overkill) and occasionally some short solo-only instances. The dungeons, however, once unlocked can be repeated as often as you like. Repeating them is done either to get better gear or gain XP, but it's also one of the primary ways you get more group play opportunities, as the dungeons require being done in a group. (4 players for early dungeons. 8 for some of the end-game dungeons, and some end-game raids with I think it's 24.)

There is also open world group content (FATEs at all levels and Hunts once you get near level-cap) that's not linked with the story but can offer some nice rewards. And it's rather fun to tackle a huge monster along with a hundred other players all going after it at the same time (provided your computer/console can handle displaying everyone at once - some lower-end machines have issues with that). It's only once you get near end-game that you're likely to see the really crowded ones like that, though. Earlier FATEs can be done in a group, and you may see a couple or several other people involved in it as well, but the sort that draw in what seems like half the players on the server are level 50 stuff.

once you able to get to Limsa get the quest called "Rising to the challenge" to get the challenge log it give you bonus exp and gil as you do stuff on it and rest every week on Tuesday.