Here I am, again!

Hello everyone! Well, this is my first post and yeah, it had to be about this specific subject: a returning player.

Before I jump into it, let me explain my situation. I started playing on January, for a month and I totally loved the game. I managed to scratch some time and level up my character up to 48, a bard (Playing on Lich). However, due to various reasons I had to stop playing until now.

2 days ago, I renewed my subscription again. I feel overwhelmed. I tried to pick up my character and get on tracks again but I have the feeling that I forgot not only all the mechanics but also about every other matter in the game.

I\\'m still following the MSQ (I\\'m doing that thing about Cid\\'s airship in Cohertas) and trying to stick to it. Reviewing my past actions, I did too many sidequests and neglected the story...

So, i\\'m basically asking l/begging for some advice about how to pick up again a massive game like this and not feel too overwhelmed while doing it.

I saw a tons of videos about people returning to the game and bla bla bla but, I\\'m open to some recommendations in here.

Also, if there are some guides or someone knows about a good reference website/wiki about rotations, mechanics etc., I\\'ll definitely look into it.

I actually don\\'t have too much time to spend on gaming but the little breaks I have, I love devoting my time into FFXIV. That\\'s why I\\'m trying to have a less bumpy comeback into it.

...and that\\'s it! Thanks everyone for reading!

Can just go to FC house (if you have one) or go to a location with a target dummy and there you can practice your new buttons and rotation.

Open your spell book, read the tooltips and arrenge them in whatever position works best for you on your hotbar.

In the upper left of your screen you have the MSQ guide thing that will point you to where the next quest is.

Good luck.

There are dummies to practice on at these locations
Central Shroud - The Bannock (X: 24.0, Y: 19.5) (X:23.4, Y: 20.5)
Middle La Noscea - Summerford Farm (X: 26.2, Y: 17.4)
Western Thanalan - Scorpion Crossing (X: 26.3, Y: 24.7) (X: 26.3, Y: 23.7)
Coerthas Central Highlands - Whitebrim Front (X: 13.1, Y: 17.1)

well, lvl 40 something bard isn't too complicated. keep your songs up as often as you can, use damage over time spells in addition to direct attacks whn attacking single targets, use area of effect attacks on pretty much anything more than one since we now have no tp so you can just keep aoe-ing until your finger falls off. if you want to start with fewer skills and work your way up just run the dungeons in order by level in the duty finder.

edit: oh yeah, read the tool tips. they are pretty straight forward. and make sure you have all your current abilities on your hot bar, since they may have changed since you last logged in.

Thanks everyone for the tips! I'm re-reading all the tips and tutorials and I'll be starting again raiding with other people as well (I did some things alone to mess the party).

About gear, I've seen that I don't need to worry about it, usually with what the merchs sell is enough to clear de MSQ, right?

For the most part while leveling, standard merchant gear or whatever you get from quests is fine. At the previous level caps (50, 60, and 70) there's a pretty huge jump in gear levels, so at those points many people pick up tome gear.

At level 50, for instance, by the time you get past the first couple level 50 quests (and the climax of the original 2.0 story), you'll have enough Tomestones of Poetics (from those first two dungeons) to get yourself an Augmented Ironworks Magitek Bow. Then you can upgrade the rest of your gear either with more poetics as you start accumulating them from there on, or with early Heavensward (51+) merchant/crafted gear.

At 60 and 70, you'll be able to equip yourself with a full set of tomestone gear in advance if you want, since all prior level caps share the same Poetics tomes for their tome gear.

For gear you ideally want a weapon close to your level(weapon matters the most), armor within 10(make sure its the kind designed for your class), and jewelry... jewelry barely matters before level 50, so jewelry with the right stats(dex) for your class. Vendor gear is fine if you dont have dungeon drops to use. Once youve done some solo fights to get back into the groove it wouldnt hurt to try one or two of the easier instances first before jumping directly into the next one the story will send you to. You could do a couple guildhests, or maybe one of the dungeons around level 30. Then once youre comfortable jump right back in where you left off. Welcome back, and good luck!