Newbie needs help learning to play

Hey all,

I have just started playing this week and am completely new to the game and the series ( well I played FFI - IV back in the NES/SNES days ). The only other MMO I've played seriously was WoW where I played tank for best part of 8 years. I'm now completely tired/bored of tanking and decided new game, new beginning, new class. I been playing a THM and although I don't have a clue what I'm doing I seem to be enjoying myself doing it :)

So I hit level 20 today and my main quest is to enter a dungeon, however I am rather shy and really embarrassed to group with people I don't know especially playing a class I haven't a clue about playing in a game I've only played for a couple of days. I'm bound to wipe the group or find a group of experienced players who noob kick me. I don't even know if I'm wearing the right gear or using the right spells as I've solo played up to this level and just done what I thought made sense, it seems quite easy to level but having been tank for so long I've really only played with friends prior to this who used to do all the dps'ing :P

I'm not really seeing anything occur in the chat when I'm on-line so I assume everyone is either in their own group chats or free companies so was hoping for some friendly people to help me become a better player and guide me to playing a THM successfully and maybe join a free company? I will of course grind levels, grind items, grind gear/mats whatever for the free company and always put others before myself.

Hope to see you in game

Cheers
Shacalock

If the Lodestone has your profile up-to-date, your gear looks pretty decent for your level, except you may want to upgrade your weapon to a level 20 one. (Take your next class quest at the THM guild if you haven't yet. The level 20 class quest there will give you a Staghorn Staff.)

When you run a dungeon for the first time, it's a good idea to let the other members of your party know that you're new at it. They'll often offer advice or explain boss fight mechanics, or maybe just take it a bit slower so you can better familiarize yourself with the place. If you're more comfortable going in with people you know, you can join a Free Company or Linkshell and ask people from there to run it with you. That may increase your chances of being with friendly helpful teammates, but I've had a fair amount of luck finding friendly helpful players even with the random groups Duty Finder puts together. (I'm on a different server, so can't recommend a particular FC, but ask in-game if any are recruiting if nobody from Cerberus chimes in here to invite you.)

The main difference in playing with a group instead of solo is that you need to give the tank a chance to establish aggro. If you've played tank in other games, you've already seen this from the other direction, but from the POV of a DPS class, it basically means let the tank go first and then attack the same target the tank is attacking.

In the enemy list on the left side of your screen (unless you've moved it elsewhere), there are colored icons by each mob's name, indicating whether you have or are on the verge of gaining primary aggro:
• Green circle = someone else (hopefully the tank) is holding the mob's attention.
• Yellow triangle = You're on the verge of taking aggro from the tank.
• Orange = You have primary aggro (though barely).
• Red square = The mob is really focused on you.
You want to keep those indicators green, so if any start shifting towards red, scale back your attacks for a moment or at least shift them off of that mob onto another.

In the boss fights, however, there are sometimes specific targets that are more important than others, and that may require focusing DPS attention on a different mob than the tank is focusing, but for that, you need to learn the specific dungeon. (General rule of thumb: On trash mobs, attack what the tank attacks. On boss fights, you'll often need to kill the adds first, and sometimes that outweighs the rule of avoiding aggro.)

As for playing Thaumaturge in general, the first few skills you got will remain your primary skills that you use more than any others. THM is about balancing the higher damage output of Astral Fire with the MP-regeneration of Umbral Ice. Basically, you want to stay in Astral Fire mode as much as you can, but switch to Umbral Ice when you run out of MP. Use Transpose to switch directly from one to the other without having to build it up again from scratch each time. For the first few dungeons, getting used to that pattern is probably as much class skill as you're expected to have. Then you can interweave Thunder into the mix to add some Damage over Time, or alternate a Fire II rather than Fire I when there are enough mobs close together for its AoE effect to outweigh the higher MP cost, and so on. Go through the descriptions of each of your skills and see where it might be most useful, when its MP cost is worthwhile, and when you can fit it in without losing your Astral Fire or Umbral Ice status.

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Originally Posted by Shacalock

I seem to be enjoying myself doing it :)

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So long as you've got that part down, you're probably doing pretty good.

From experience with both low level duty roulette and playing around on an alt, I can say most people seem to be pretty easy going in the low level dungeons as long as you are participating. There are exceptions of course, but those exceptions have thankfully not been the norm. If being in that type of situation still makes you uncomfortable though, then joining a friendly free company may help. You may find shouts in game advertising free companies, or you may be able to find one that suits your needs on your server's page at http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/f...rberus%28EU%29. It can be funner to do content with a group that you know.

If I'm new to a dungeon that is already established, one of the things I like to do is to scout it first. If you would like to see the basics of the dungeons as well as boss mechanics before going in, you may be interested in MTQcapture's videos on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5B...Nvds5sgE-JI6KA. MTQ usually does a good job at condensing the information so that it is not overwhelming, but she still gets the important points across. Certainly not a requirement, but if you don't like to go in blind, then her videos may help.

Concerning THM, I do not have much to add. But I will give this bit of advice. Try your best to keep up with the class quest. You should receive a new one every 5 levels. In particular, the level 15 class quests will reward you with a new skill, which in the case of THMs is a spell called Scathe. Also, don't be afraid to use the Sleep spell when your tank is having trouble with multiple adds. Although it can be tougher to do with a WAR tank, as they deal damage with their main hate generating tool at that level, participating in a little crowd control by throwing out a sleep spell here and there may help out a bit, especially if your tank is new as well.

The good news is that your early dungeon experiences are actually very, very forgiving. Even if you do draw aggro, you'll probably survive the fight just fine. This will change in time, but you don't need to stress out.

Much of what you learned in WoW will likely still be true. Even though DPS is new to you, you're familiar with much of the basic procedure. The key rules to remember when playing as a DPS are this:

1. Study your skills and learn what your rotation is. Thaumaturge unfortunately is not quite super 1-2-3 simple, but the theory is easy to learn (see what's been posted above). Very, very few skills in this game are really 'useless', although some may be phased out as you level up and simply get more useful things (Transpose, for instance, is incredibly important now but comparatively less key down the road).

2. Don't get aggro. Someone covered aggro meters above. In XIV, the tank will be responsible for pulling groups of adds. You may wish to wait a second or two until they've used an AoE (Flash or Overpower) to hit all the mobs before you start throwing out your own. Especially early on, your AoE aggro generation can quickly outpace what a tank can actually generate in threat! This is as much your responsibility to watch as it is the tank's! Also, watch and target whatever mob the tank targetted and attacked first - that's usually the one they'll be focusing their main aggro generation on initially. If you do get aggro, your tank will likely notice and try to pick the add up, so stop attacking it and let the tank do their thing! If they don't seem to notice go drag the enemy back over to the tank manually.

3. Dodge the AoEs. As a THM you don't want to be moving excessively, but you do want to learn to get out of AoEs. If you are able to see the boss' cast bar, the AoE is locked the moment the cast bar ends, not when you see the animation playing. Get into the habit and learn to dodge early, not late. Early on, yeah, AoEs might do like a couple hundred damage. Later, these can be downright fatal to you.

4. Don't stand next to the tank. In fact, try to be behind whatever you're attacking. Not only are you less likely to be hit by localized AoEs or cleaves, but you also are more accurate when attacking from behind your target, or even to the side.

5. Adds during boss fights: The tank will pick them up. It's your duty as a DPS to get them dead. Generally speaking, while there are absolutely exceptions (The second boss of the level 17 dungeon, for instance, has an add you need to not kill; your party will tell you!), if it spawns during a boss fight it needs to die. Often as soon as possible. Keep your eyes out at all times for additional targets that might pop up during the fight.

6. Mechanics are generally on you. While there are absolutely mechanics the tanks and healers specifically will have to deal with, a lot of specialized boss mechanics will be expected to be dealt with by the DPS. The tank can't afford to drag a giant boss around the arena and the healer's likely busy. Be ready to take up additional duties during boss fights later on.

Hello Shacalock and welcome! :)
I am on Cerberus too, if I can help you in any way don't hesitate to contact me ingame!
If you can't send me a tell you can send me a letter with the mail/delivery Moogle and I will try to answer as fast as possible :)
See you ingame!

I'm on Cerberus too, if you need help, you can find me online mostly in the evenings - Aster Frost :)
Same as Bella said, I can help you with answering your questions and help other ways.

Wow that was more than I expected. Thank you all for the useful tips and pointers I will definitely take those on board and will watch some videos as i don't like going in blind. I think one of the things that are going to be tough for me is the fact that when I started tanking it was back in WoW beta and there was not much know how on the net, so you had no choice but to learn yourself and maybe from others in game in the multi tank raids. I got to be a decent tank back in vanilla and therefore had no confidence issues, but I should have switched around during my time in the game instead of mastering just a single class which I ended up being bored with after 8 years ( as well as the game itself :) )

I haven't really touched the social side of FFXIV yet as it seems so empty in in-game chat in general and not belonging to an FC I'm not sure even who to start a conversation with :confused:

But again a couple of friendly replies here may point me in the right direction ( I also play only evenings too ) so thank you. I'll head over to world forums now and take a look at recruitment, hopefully there are some not looking for end game raiders ( not saying I don't want to do that eventually though :) )

Find Some FC but don't too big, just a active FC with 30-50 peoples.
They normally will help you with each dungeons you unlock and let you watch the cutscene.
Because FC like this are not too hardcore and normally they just dwaddle around doing nothing.
They would be happy to have a new Junior.