New Player (Wow Refugee)

After playing WoW since beta I think the time has come to move on, I started playing this and enjoying enough that I bought the Starter.

I was wondering though if guilds work the same here as WoW and also that the best path for leveling is main quest only?

Any other noob advice welcome.

From what I did: You can level any class on one character, healer and tank level a bit faster because of less Ini queue time. First class: main story, hunting log and the first 25 or so levels take quick FATEs if they are on your way. Do duty roulette every day even Main Scenario once you got that. Unlock the challenge log ASAP. Next classes: Leves and FATEs up to lv 15, then Palace of the Dead in Southern Shroud. Or same level dungeons as tank or healer.

Welcome! i feel your pain about WoW as well (another beta player) but i left back in Cata rather than sticking it out any longer. You will want to do the main story quest as often as possible as it will be locking content. there are more efficient ways of leveling and Gavanri did a pretty good job summing them up. I'm not sure what guilds evolved into in WoW but when i played, how FFXIV free companies differ is, i find that they are more just friends gathered together. in WoW guilds were all about forming a group for raiding content while in FF i find it easyer to just find a different group to do end game content (static group) with out having to form a Free company with the group. Though i am sure this is how some Free Companies work.

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Originally Posted by Gavanri

From what I did: You can level any class on one character, healer and tank level a bit faster because of less Ini queue time. First class: main story, hunting log and the first 25 or so levels take quick FATEs if they are on your way. Do duty roulette every day even Main Scenario once you got that. Unlock the challenge log ASAP. Next classes: Leves and FATEs up to lv 15, then Palace of the Dead in Southern Shroud. Or same level dungeons as tank or healer.

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How is tanking in this game?

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Originally Posted by Varyntheos

How is tanking in this game?

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I really enjoy tanking. I played through ARR, HW, and vanilla SB as a DPS but switched to tank for the better queue times and because I tent to think I'm a nice guy to play with and had too many bad experiences with end toxic tanks. I main as a PLD now and if you are new to taking in FFXIV I would recommend starting with that.

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Originally Posted by Varyntheos

I was wondering though if guilds work the same here as WoW and also that the best path for leveling is main quest only?

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I don't have experience with wow but if guilds are the player organization - called free companies here - they're optional. The can give minor guild-wide buffs though, such as a small experience bonus or a small discount to teleports.

You definitely want to keep up on the main questline because a lot of the game's content is gated behind it - unlocking new areas, dungeons, and game systems included. Also keep an eye out for quests with a blue icon as they unlock things - sometimes minor stuff, but sometimes rather important stuff. For example, at level 14 in Limsa Lominsa there is a blue quest that unlocks the "challenge log", which gives you extra money and experience for running a certain number of dungeons in a week and other things you would do anyways.

As for leveling, once you get to dungeons you'll start unlocking what's called "duty roulettes", the first being duty roulette: leveling. If you're short on levels for the next main story quest, start with this - you get a big bonus for doing it once per day, and it scales up as you level up.

Secondly - again at level 14 - unlock Palace of the Dead via a blue quest in Gridania's tavern. Palace of the Dead is a special dungeon with no requirements for tanks or healers, and gives a lot of exp in a short time if you find yourself in need of extra levels.

Lastly when you're level 15, make sure to complete the "hall of the novice" (NPC with a big green plant icon on the map near every dungeon entrance and in the cities' taverns). Since you have MMO experience it may seem unnecessary for you, but you get a very good set of starting gear for finishing it.

Welcome! I've barely played WoW but heard things went downhill there. I hope this ends up being a better experience for you.
Some things I've found useful...

- Do class/job quests when possible. You get gear for it and new moves that will not unlock by leveling alone.

- Use the market board. You can buy better gear and sell items you don't need for extra gil. During the MSQ, for a while you get rewarded with free gear. If you already have gear you want at a higher level you can sell this. Selling to NPC vendors is usually a waste and they will under pay you dramatically.

- Duty Finder and Party Finder are different beasts. Duty Finder you're likely to get matched up with some random strangers of uncertain skill level in a dungeon, raid, boss fight, etc. This can be fine but sometimes you get horror stories lol. Party Finder I usually use if I'm trying to accomplish something very specific or queues are too long. Party Finder is usually more experienced.

- The story is actually good and it's worth watching cutscenes! A Realm Reborn lasts stupid long, its early phase in particular I think can be awkward. It gets way better.

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Originally Posted by Varyntheos

the best path for leveling is main quest only?

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There are three important types of quests:

• Main Scenario Quests
• Class/Job quests
• sidequests that unlock features or dungeons

The main scenario questline unlocks (or gates the ability to unlock) the vast majority of content in the game, as well as providing the game's main story, so those quests are always important.

Every five levels up to level 50 and every couple levels after that, there will be a quest (or occasionally a couple quests) with your class or job trainer. Some of these class/job quests unlock important skills, so they're important as well. You'll have a separate series of these quests for each class/job you unlock, and will want to keep up to date with all of them. (There's also another story for each class and job going on within these quests.)

Sometimes other sidequests unlock extra features or dungeons as well. When they do, they'll be marked with a special quest icon. Instead of the tan color of regular sidequests, it will be blue with a little plus sign in the lower left corner. (Actually, the class/job quests could be considered a sub-category of these, since they get that plus-sign quest icon as well.) These feature unlocking sidequests are generally worth doing whenever you get to them.

The only exceptions to doing those plus-sign quests whenever you reach them might be when you reach one of the previous endgame points at levels 50, 60, (and 70 if Shadowbringers is out by the time you get there), and that only because you'll get a huge number of them coming available all at once, most of them for unlocking all the dungeons that used to be endgame content during their relevant expansion. (Those quests are also still worth doing, just not worth trying to get them all done before moving along through the next part of the story. When you reach one of these points, it may be worth looking up what all those quests are for, so you can decide which are important to you and which you can hold off on.)

Other sidequests (the ones with the regular tan Q quest icon) are less important. Many players prefer to leave those for when they're leveling up additional jobs rather than trying to do them on their first one.

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Originally Posted by Risvertasashi

Lastly when you're level 15, make sure to complete the "hall of the novice" (NPC with a big green plant icon on the map near every dungeon entrance and in the cities' taverns). Since you have MMO experience it may seem unnecessary for you, but you get a very good set of starting gear for finishing it.

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And these can actually provide three different sets of good starting gear, one for magic casters and healers, one for physical damage dealers, and one for tanks. So if you decide to level multiple classes in different roles, it can be worth repeating with a class in each of those categories. (The ring that you get as the final reward you're only going to get once, though.)

All very good advice and I learnt some new stuff too :D

I focused on the best path of leveling for a new player, but definitely do the Novice Missions at Lv 15, because this gear will be your BiS for around 5-10 levels - especially useful because this is when your first dungeons happen.

Never played tank, new player of three weeks myself. Tank is the least played role it seems and very needed. From what I saw a good tank should know the dungeons down to what to pull (Aurum Vale at lv 48 is the first dungeon that really punishes "pulling everything" lol...), should know how to mitigate incoming damage at the right time and how to keep aggro off his squishy companions (even when they got a pesky overhealing WHM in their group ;D).

Just in case some of the terms from before were confusing (was on the mobile phone):

Hunting Log
FATE - at later levels those will cap at EXP and start being useless.
Duty Roulette - my "secret" to quick levelling I suppose. Had only one bad experience with randoms so far. Can also be run with guildies and friends (pre-made party).
Challenge Log - will run at the same time with FATEs and dungeon roulette etc. You pretty much only need to unlock it once and play the game. Feel free to scroll through the tasks though, some are a bit more specific.
Leve