Is paying for 2 additional retainers worth it?

Howdy, Blue Castle here

So another pay month has come, and im looking at my account and thinking about
how much i spend to maintain it...

So with an advance account and 4 retainers i pay around 20 bucks a month to play

im spending so much money a month... is it worth it i ask myself...
I only play on 1 character, yeah im a crafter and i have TONS of items
but could

If i removed the retainers and got rid of my additional characters i could pay a around
12 a month and save 6 bucks.

a beginners account you spend around 150 bucks a year to maintain a subscription

a standard account you spend around 180 bucks a year to maintain a subscription

with 2 additional retainers its around 230 bucks a year... so much money wasted

So i ask you all you FF14 players who do or dont have the 2 extra retainers... is it
Really WORTH IT?

this is not a complaint thread or asking to change anything with the game.

this is just a player thinking out loud and maybe wants to see what others think

"Worth" is subjective. If you like to hoard things or do lots of crafting, it might be worth it.

I find it worth it just to double my market presence without having to shuffle items around through the FC storage to an alt. It's also very nice to have the storage space (I'm an avid crafter, so I have tons of junk laying around).

As a main crafter, I can't even wrap my head around the concept of using "only" two retainers.
How I lasted until they let us upgrade is still a mystery to today's me.

As someone who wanted to buy extra retainers in 1.0 as soon as they announced the feature, I think it's totally worth it to me.

personally i only have 1 extra retainer, its been enough for me to sustain materials and equips for all my crafters (all 50 btw) so yeah you can save yourself not 6 but 4 bucks a month, it doesn't hurt you and you gain something out of it or unless you like the idea that your presence in the fm with the extra retainers makes you a little bit more being able to sell more stuff, 3 is such a magical number :p

but yeah 2 extra retainer is kinda overkill imho yes theres lotsa material to be thrown in but how much of that stuff do you use to craft or sell and looking back its alotta stuff that needs to get thrown out (which btw SE needs to implement discard in the retainers inventory)

I agree with Silent Abyss. This matter is subjective. In my case I recently started to focus on crafting and I'm leveling all jobs simultaneously to make sure that they share the same gear. But I'm using only 2 retainers with some inventory management. The only challenge is that most of my inventory space in second retainers are gears saved for other disciples, if that happen to be waived then I think 2 retainers are just ok. Remember that culinary takes the most space so you might need to focus on either GC or normal leves till you are High enough to ditch items u no longer need.

Personally I can get by easily with just the free retainers and still have almost 200 slots total still free between them, even with all 50s. Depends if you want the clear advantage on the markets really, and the convenience of having more shards and mats gathered. As convenient as it might be it's just an extra service in an MMO, personally I'd rather buy more real games and bundles than rent an extra monthly service on top of a sub, nothing is really worth spending extra in any MMO no matter how much it's tried to be justified and have gladly never done so, but that's up to you to decide really.

I just finished off all my DoH classes with only 2 retainers. Each one at any given time has around 150-160 items, with a full list for sale at all times in the market. I usually have around 3 of my inventory pages full. Now that I leveled them all also frees up some armory space. Once I start leveling other DoW or DoM classes may become tight, so to me its not worth it or needed.

Only real reasons to have 4 retainers are if you are an avid crafter, want to sell more items at a time or utilize ventures. If you do none of these things then the extras aren't worth it.

I have 4 retainers over 3 characters and just the miner ventures alone are worth it .... those shards pile up. I personally have multiple 4star crafts with the rest 3 star so I have mats all but filling up 2 of them lol. Up to your playstyle.

I've survived using 2 retainers for a whole year before I bought an extra retainer. After collecting too many weapons and clothes, I was forced to get an extra retainer. I only use the extra retainer to hold my old gear since I don't like to throw them away and I like to use them for new classes or jobs I will be leveling. It is very hard trying to balance Jobs & Crafter gears & tools, plus material used in crafting with so limited storage space. I just wish I could swap items from retainer to retainer without using my character inventory space.

In the end, the extra retainers are useful depending on how & what you play. If you're a collector or a crafter, you need space. If you get gear and once it's outdated you turn it into materia and meld it to current gear, then maybe not so much since your getting rid of clutter that much quicker.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ashkendor

I find it worth it just to double my market presence without having to shuffle items around through the FC storage to an alt. It's also very nice to have the storage space (I'm an avid crafter, so I have tons of junk laying around).

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^ This :)

Thank you everyone for all your amazing replies. /bow much appreciated!!

I like not having to ever think about crystals/shards due to ventures as well as doubling the amount of items I can sell. Don't bother with it unless u really feel that 2 retainers is crunching ur selling power.

One retainer: Vanity gear
two retainer: Potions, materias and foods
three retainer: gathering raw
Four retainer: Crafting and items dropped by mobs

I keep all kinds of shits. I need more retainers :(

As it has been said, it depends on your play style. I have thought about it, it's practical to have disciple of land retainers too for the ventures, on top of the space and selling opportunities. But taking care of the retainers every day needs time, and I don't want to have to take care of 2 more retainers. If you craft a lot or want more ventures and storage space, and don't mind to spend more daily time with the retainers (and the extra expense) it may be worth it.

I have 3 retainers and the extra one was well worth it.
2 of them are gatherers so they help me out, haha

If you pay for 6 months at a time the Standard and Entry plans cost the same amount.

Standard 180 days ($77.94)
Entry (can only be purchased in month intervals) 30 days ($12.99)

77.94/6 = 12.99

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ashkendor

I find it worth it just to double my market presence without having to shuffle items around through the FC storage to an alt. It's also very nice to have the storage space (I'm an avid crafter, so I have tons of junk laying around).

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You do know that whatever alts you may have will also get the benefit of additional retainers, right?

I actively play on 3 characters all with the 1 extra retainer (I pay for) for 9 retainers in use (Even though I only pay for 1 extra, its 1 extra per character) . If I need to transfer anything I pass it to my wifes account ;P She also pays for an extra retainer as well.

The convenience is worth it but the consequences are graver.

Once they start adding more optional items and P2W services then they stop being worth it.

IMO, extra retainers are not really worth it.

I'm crafter too, and I still manage quite well with 2 retainers only. And since all my gathering classes also capped and quite well geared, I consider every gather node as my endless supply of mats, unless I'm really lazy to travel and gather. lol

Just hint from mine though: Don't stock up those culinary/alchemist mats because they are one of big reason why you never have enough space. Just store what you really need the most, like for end-game raid needs or doing high level crafting/gathering.

I keep an entry level account (8 characters total, 1 per server) and use the two additional retainers. I use 1 for gear, second hold/sells the things that go towards my FC's funds, third is materia and fourth is crafting