Returning Player question.

Hello all, i am currently in the process of downloading ARR again. Havent played in a long while.

My question is, what is a good server. I am EST (ohio) and want a good size population to learn and play with. I have played MMO's since UO and recently have been back into WOW...that needs to stop!
So i am coming home to ff14. But i do not want to start playing somewhere invest a ton of time, just to find out the population is dead/server economy is fubar.

I really appreciate any advice on this topic.

( i am heavy end game PVE goal oriented. will main a tank or a healer)

Lorithian M'hael

Lamia is fun. Its a casual server but very populated and has a decent raid scene , if you go to one of those hardcore raiding servers they tend to suck (elitists). I heard behemoth and gilgamesh are good servers too.

Well if you are from NA, Gilgamesh(end-game server) and Balmung(RP server) are the most populated ones.
If you are from EU, both Odin and Ragnarok are the most populated ones and end game driven.

I'd consider Zodiark(EU), Jenova(NA) it has casual players and end game players as well. And people there are mostly very very helpful and generous, while in Odin/Gilgamesh/Balmung/Ragnarok you'll come across way more elitist type of players.

If you're EST, consider Leviathan too. It's smaller than Balmung and Gilgamesh, but that just makes it easier to get in to. It is very active from 6pm to 12pm EST, so it's an ideal time slot for most EST players. Make a new char and check out Gridania and Limsa Lominsa there if you like.

I play on Behemoth and Lamia and they're both good, still active, a friendly and helpful community, lots of people still leveling for you to play with, and tend to be up late so it will suit your hours fairly well. Either one is good.

#Zalera

/thread

Don't let people talk you into joining a "friendly, casual" server. That usually means the server has either low population or at least few people that strive to do serious endgame raiding.
If you are goal-oriented, join a server that fits your needs, like Gilgamesh. Populated servers have huge, helpful communities too, and although the way people deal with each other in end-game may be a bit rougher, they actually have people that get shit done.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Atoli

Don't let people talk you into joining a "friendly, casual" server. That usually means the server has either low population or at least few people that strive to do serious endgame raiding.
If you are goal-oriented, join a server that fits your needs, like Gilgamesh. Populated servers have huge, helpful communities too, and although the way people deal with each other in end-game may be a bit rougher, they actually have people that get shit done.

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Ragnarok elistim right there.

"they actually have people that get shit done"

Because others servers dont?

Most people just suggest that new players join their server to raise the activity there. I'm not even suggesting he should join the server I'm playing on, I'm just saying the servers that advertise themselves as friendly and casual are not actually friendlier in normal PvE encounters or the overworld, they are usually just less populated which makes it harder to find players to do content with once you reach the end.

Also, I'm speaking from personal experience and don't want others to go through the same things I experienced. I played on Ragnarok since the start of ARR, but at some point I got sick of the game and when I returned, I wanted a fresh start. I looked for a new server and got talked into joining a so-called "casual" server with "an active, friendly community"...which actually meant the server was pretty much dead.
That was true for everything to some degree, but especially for end-game content. The amounts of statics (or even just randoms through pf that were capable of farming) was so low that I could count them on one hand (slight exaggeration here, but you get the gist ;)). The few that were there actually tried to leave the server because it was so hard to find a good replacement if one person left the static.

So no, other servers don't get "shit done" like bigger servers do, because if you sit in pf for 8 hours trying to fill up a farm party because no one joins serious content OR the ones who join have a "we aaaall love each other here and want to live in harmony, so let's not even try to find out who is the reason we don't meet dps checks"-mentality, I wouldn't call that catering to anyone who is actually interested in raiding and the like.
Of course, even low-pop servers have great, dedicated players, but they tend to keep to themselves in tight-knit groups that a new player will not profit from in any way.