Perspective of a Newer Player

TLDR; Would love it if the game was new player friendly, less grindy quests and nerf ilvl requirements.

I just wanted to voice my opinion on the game so far as someone who was invited to join FFXIV 2 weeks prior to Heavensward.

I've originally played WoW for years and only recently decided to take my gaming career from the no content Blizzard Entertainment has chosen to provide the player base aka WoD. Much like the other 3 million subscribers who found mindless grinding of Apexis Crystal grind life disgusting, I've chosen to heed some of my old friends both from WoW and off it to try out FFXIV.

Despite all these invitation what really sold it to me was the trailers of Heavensward and the fact that Dark Knights will be introduced as a playable class. As someone who played a Death Knight tank since WotLK I was pretty hyped to get into the game and start my exploration of Eorzea as a Dark Knight.

Little did I know that there would be a ginormous quest grind I would need to tackle before I'm even allowed to set foot in the only city with the job trainer that will let you take on the mantle of a Dark Knight.

As a new player who knew more or less nothing about the game I naturally thought if I bought the expansion I would get to play as one of the three new classes. Further I levelled I slowly began to realize that one of the requirements to enter Ishgard would be that I would need to reach Lv50 so I've grinded out my levels in any way I can find. Main story quests, dungeon grinding, fates, etc. When I finally got to Lv50 I then realized the content would be hidden away behind the many gates of further questing and by this stage I was almost convinced that maybe just maybe those Apexis Crystals might not be so bad afterall.

Most of the main scenario cinematics? I've skipped more or less the whole lot of them. The story seemed too linear and forced you to become a hero of the light aka Minfillia's personal man slave who travels from A to B to C to A and then back to C then to D and then finally back to A to click on Minfilia your master. The whole time I felt like I was the Scion's instrumental bitch who took orders from first Minfilia and then from a elezen teenager who could easily pass off as a girl if you put him in a dress.

That wasn't too bad though. What really frustrated me was when there were quests popping up every now and then, demanding you meet a greater ilvl than what you can find in dungeon grinding and questing.

As a new player this can mean one of the two things, I can either go purchase gil from a gil farmer to afford some of the upgrades on auction for ridiculous prices just so I can finally queue up for the dungeons, or make gil in any way I can be it from crafting (take note I have not leveled any since grinding lv50 was my sole goal at this point) or hoping a rare drops from a dungeon grinding.

I was frustrated that nowhere in that god damn main scenario quests did they offer you gear that will boosts up your ilvl necessary to set foot in these dungeons. It might be easier to understand all this if I'd been playing for months and amassed a small fortune to meet the gear requirements. Is FFXIV new player friendly? At this point I'm going to say no.

The new expansion was clearly aimed at the older veteran players and as a new player starting out I found this game to be one of the grindiest game ever so far.

If it wasn't for enormous helping hands from my friends who crafted me gear to meet the ilvl and their contributions towards helping me through some of the harder contents, I think I probably never would have made it to Ishgard.

Heavensward was not designed with newer players interests in mind at all. If I didn't receive all the help I've gotten from my FC then I most likely would not have made it to Ishgard to start my Dark Knight. More than likely I would probably have gone back on the shit hole of a game WoW has become... hoping the next expansion they might implement "Fun" into their gameplay experience.

EDIT:
Regarding the ilvl requirement, so they have been implemented earlier. I personally didn't see this in effect because I was already Lv50 and grinded through halfway through Main Scenario Quest/Before The Fall by the time it was supposedly implemented. Kudos to SuddenStorm8 for informing the ignorant noob.

unfortunatly, the dark knight you are thinking of, is a death knight, its undead.... Dark knights in Final fantasy are dark wielders, they wield the power of darkness, and command the Aether, much like the Ascians, only they are big tanks, and such.. Think of FF4, Cecil, was a dark knight. he was human, alive, healthy, but he was able to command aether, or Magicks, that revolve around darkness.

TL;DR: dont get excited, they dont play like a Death Knight from Wow. but the gameplay, the style, and etc is pretty cool. have fun, and what not, Im from famfrit.

But what about other new players who haven't received help from their FC like I have? Would they really sit it out and hope they can reach Heavensward to play with their friends?

On that note, I've still yet to reach lv50 so haven't really made any progress exploring the new expansion. While my friends are already lv55 and exploring I'm still playing with random players I find on Duty Finder, something I was hoping to get away from when I've quit WoW and the atrocious LFR gatherings.

Actually from what I understand, they added a bunch of high ilvl gear to the main story quests with the expansion, making it much easier to bypass the ilvl now.

You can just EDIT the first post and paste everything into one single post. Saves on your daily posting limit, too.

Yes I understand new players who want to try all three new jobs will be in for a rude awakening since they have a huge wall in about 100-150 hours worth of contents to go through. For most normal casual player, it will take a good two weeks before they can reach Ishgard, or longer for others. In any case, think of it this way, you get your money's worth. Take your time, enjoy the beautiful game. Try to mix up your daily activities between dungeons, main story quests, side quests, crafting, gathering, levequest, leveling other classes, etc...

In a way it is good to have one tank job already leveled when you unlock Dark Knight, you will have all your gears at the ready - and you know what to do with the dungeons encounter and bosses. No need to rush, just have fun and make new friends in the game.

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Originally Posted by Hexceed

But what about other new players who haven't received help from their FC like I have? Would they really sit it out and hope they can reach Heavensward to play with their friends?

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they would do fine? new players to content get priority meaning they get in before everyone else.

main quest gives high lvl gear (i hear i100-i110)

not sure what grind you had to do but MQ has been given double exp (from when the expansion started) so it's even easier to lvl (you can lvl to 50 with doing main story and just a tiny bit of extra stuff this also doesn't include if you do side quests)

You follow the main quest straight to lvl 50 while queue for instance.
I believe it will bring you to lvl 50 in no time.

There is a lot going in your thread, but I'll address a few points.

-New jobs being gated behind non-expansion completion was known about at least a month in advance. If you really checked out the game more closely or asked around you could have found that out beforehand.

-Skipping cutscenes is your choice. Final Fantasy itself as a series has its roots deeply based in storyline/lore. If you choose not to immerse yourself in it that is your choice. As someone who watches them all and reads every line, I can tell you that some of it is boring as you say, but some of it is quite awesome too.

-Not liking Minfilia & Alphinaud is a fair point. Most people don't like them. All I can tell you without spoiling anything is that if you finally make it to expansion content, Alphinaud improves a lot.

-I think you are mistaken on the ilvl requirements?? Do you mean character level, or item level? For most of the starting game (levels 1-49) item level requirements is quite lax. It's not until character Level 50 that the item level requirement ramps up... Trust me when I tell you at this point that you'll really need it. Minimum ilvl requirements are FAR below what is recommended. People can overgear some content and still struggle on it. There is a large number of places to find gear (even NPCs have decent usable gear in the 40s pre-expansion). Maybe you just didn't know about them?

-Do you know about trading in Tomes for items in Mor Dhona? They just stopped using Soldiery Tomes already and the smallest currency Poetic Tomes can be traded in for some pretty high ilvl gear (i120 to be exact, which is a huge jump from any pre-character-level-50 gear). You can start buying these right away for free* (*no gil involved) once you hit Level 50. Just one or two pieces makes your ilvl jump leaps and bounds.

-Heavensward being designed for veteran players and not new players is a fair point. I always wondered why they didn't add any new content for lower level people. Pretty much all new content that has come out since the game was released 2 years ago has always focused on endgame/maxlevel players.

-Finally, you can edit your post to bypass the character limit, eliminating the need for multi-posting.

First, this game pans out like an RPG where you have to follow the storyline. Gonna use blizzard examples since u are a wow player - think diablo II: no horadric cube until you have completed act II; think wacraft III campaign: you couldnt use death knight until arthas was corrupted. Back to some final fantasy examples: you couldnt use certain characters and typically airship until you have progressed through the storyline. This is something many MMORPG players today cannot accept for some reason but it is how this game will be like.

Secondly, the ilevel requirement is not an issue for new players because quest rewards starting from 45 are now items of much higher ilevel. For example, the AF quests now give BOTh the original AF and the ilvl90 AF i.e. at level 50 upon completing the AF quests new players will be decked out in ilevel90 gear. As they progress through the 2.1 to 2.55 MSQ they will be awarded with the corresponding gear to complete the story so that's not an issue either.

Thirdly, new player progression is hardly affected because the duty roulette system can pair up higher level players with lower level players when they are doing certain trials/dungeons for the fist time; also, new players get priority in the queue.

Ultimately, I think your main concern is that you wish to dive right into the new jobs and fly around the new expansion areas; another observation is that you do not care about the story. I do feel that gating the jobs behind the MSQ is not the wisest choice but just like in WoW where you cant have a DK until you hit lvl55 iirc, this shouldnt bother you as much as you claim. As for the point about you not caring about the storyline, there is nothing anyone can do. I do, however, emphathise with how some of the 2.1-2.55 quests are too convoluted and an abridged version would be great.

Shame about the length and filler causing you to skip story scenes. The important parts of the story are actually amazing, and by the time you reach Heavensward there is more amazing story than there is filler padding quests. Really a high amount of epic battles, revelations and character development. It would be sad to see new players deterred by the grind to reach Heavensward... maybe in a future expansion when the amount of content has become extremely long, they can allow players to skip ahead to newer content while receiving a summary video of the story so far.

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Originally Posted by Hexceed

As a new player who knew more or less nothing about the game I naturally thought if I bought the expansion I would get to play as one of the three new classes. .

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You played Death Knight in WoW. To become a Death Knight there is a pre-req of having WoTLK registered, AND having a L55+ character. Sorry to say but you should have seen this coming to an extent.

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Originally Posted by Shuon

Ultimately, I think your main concern is that you wish to dive right into the new jobs and fly around the new expansion areas; another observation is that you do not care about the story. I do feel that gating the jobs behind the MSQ is not the wisest choice but just like in WoW where you cant have a DK until you hit lvl55 iirc, this shouldnt bother you as much as you claim. As for the point about you not caring about the storyline, there is nothing anyone can do. I do, however, emphathise with how some of the 2.1-2.55 quests are too convoluted and an abridged version would be great.

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Reaching Lv50 wasn't hard at all. Gaiting the new jobs behind a great wall of MSQ was frustrating. If I had to compare it with WoW, it would be like telling WoW players that they can't play a Death Knight unless they've done all the following.

- Full run through AQ 40, AQ Ruins 40, Blackwing Lair 40, Onyxia's Lair 40 while having your level capped at lv60 and making it so that these raids are only accessible if you meet a certain ilvl. As far as I understand Vanilla raiders had to be Attuned to enter these raids so I guess in a sense this is probably similar to MSQ in FFXIV
- Full run through Burning Crusade's Hard Mode Dungeons, and Raids while capped at lv70, Attunement Quest (aka MSQ)

Only requirement we had was reaching lv55, an achievement that's not very difficult to achieve (nor is it that time consuming considering most people can reach lv60 in a few hours of dungeoneering) even as a new player.

As much as I would endorse the gating of Ishgard and Heavensward behind the story, I cannot get behind gating the three new jobs behind all of that. I believe this was unnecessary. That being said, I could have swore they made it so you got i110 gear just from doing the MSQ now? This problem you said you had with the gear...it puzzles me.

While Heavensward may have been more made for veterans, I believe Realm Reborn does a more than adequate job of easing new players into the game, more than most MMOs you will find. In fact, I've heard from many MMO players that they have been bored the first five levels because of all the tutorial type non-combat quests in the starting city. On top of that, guildhests exist to teach new players combat basics. This on top of countless tutorial tooltips that appear throughout the leveling process.

You sir or madam are playing this game for the wrong reasons.

If you don't care about the story, just go back to WoW already. This is a story-based game. You are not supposed to just rush through it to get to the expansion. All you will be doing in the expansion is continuing the same story after all, and if you've been skipping it until now, you won't care about it then either.

The leveling and ilvl thing was also nerfed massively when the expansion came out, so you don't have to do any grinding whatsoever. You gain a ton more exp and get all the gear you need just from playing the story now. I have no idea how you've managed to not be high enough ilvl to do a dungeon, since I never had that problem and I did it BEFORE you started getting free gear. You NEVER have to craft or buy gear in this game. Trust me, because I never have.

You've probably not been paying attention and missed out on the gear you should have gotten. Like not doing your Job quests, or not using your Tomestones of Poetics to get easy ilvl 120 gear.

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Originally Posted by Zabuza

As much as I would endorse the gating of Ishgard and Heavensward behind the story, I cannot get behind gating the three new jobs behind all of that. I believe this was unnecessary. That being said, I could have swore they made it so you got i110 gear just from doing the MSQ now? This problem you said you had with the gear...it puzzles me.

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When were these ilv110 gears implemented? I've started playing since about 2~3 weeks ago and haven't seen any of these while grinding out my first lv50 as a Paladin. My average ilvl by the time I reached the first ilvl requirement was around 48~49 and that was as a Lv50 Paladin.

At current I'm a lv48 Dark Knight.

You lost me at ilvl requirements.

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Originally Posted by Hexceed

When were these ilv110 gears implemented? I've started playing since about 2~3 weeks ago and haven't seen any of these while grinding out my first lv50 as a Paladin. My average ilvl by the time I reached the first ilvl requirement was around 48~49 and that was as a Lv50 Paladin.

At current I'm a lv48 Dark Knight.

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I believe the higher lvl gear with the MSQ was implimented back on friday when the HW early access began

I'm still baffled at people who play this game and not read the story..I know a few, but they're here for friends, and even they have started reading the story/catching up.

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Originally Posted by Takfloyd

You sir or madam are playing this game for the wrong reasons.

If you don't care about the story, just go back to WoW already. This is a story-based game. You are not supposed to just rush through it to get to the expansion. All you will be doing in the expansion is continuing the same story after all, and if you've been skipping it until now, you won't care about it then either.

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To a certain extent yes I do care about the story, sadly I can't seem to get into it with this game but telling me to gtfo seems a little rude? As for my intentions of rushing through the MSQ, I bought the game so I can play with my friends who are already lv50 and last I remember MMO was a game you play with friends, it's not designed to be a single player RPG so if you're telling me my reasons for wanting to play with my friends faster is misguided then perhaps you're playing the wrong game and should be playing a single player RPG.

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Originally Posted by Takfloyd

You've probably not been paying attention and missed out on the gear you should have gotten. Like not doing your Job quests, or not using your Tomestones of Poetics to get easy ilvl 120 gear.

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I'm afraid I've done all of my job quests and they did give me a fancy looking plate set which were ilvl45. Tomestones and Poetics on the other hand, no I didn't use them and in that regard you have a good point. I most likely skipped any helpful tips on where and how to use them while mindlessly grinding out MSQ acting as Minfilia's errand bitch.

You basically started at the "worst possible time".
It was very close to the expansion, so you felt rushed. And it was just before the help for new players was implemented (higher MSQ exp and i100+ gear for MSQ after 50).

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Originally Posted by sirDarts

You basically started at the "worst possible time".
It was very close to the expansion, so you felt rushed. And it was just before the help for new players was implemented (higher MSQ exp and i100+ gear for MSQ after 50).

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Yes I see that now. How ironic since I originally thought starting 3 weeks ahead of time would actually work to my advantage only to lead me to feeling discontent with alot of misunderstanding about the "help for new players" that was implemented only to never received them when I actually needed them.

The changes to exp gain and the awarding of proper gear to level 50s began the day the expansion went live. Plus the Ishgard quests tend to hand out HQ 115 gears as well.
That being said FFXIV is not a game with some story. It is a story with the added perk of having a game to bring the story to life. The story is the game. Without it you have no idea why you're fighting or what you're fighting for. It may as well just be a generic series of back to back boring dungeons

Seems to me that somebody was blinded by their own hype. Trailers are mean't to highlight the best aspects of a game, not tell you when you're going to get it. This game has a lot to offer and most of it comes from the story. You coming in and assuming you can do everything in the game straight off the bat is just insane...

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Originally Posted by T2teddy

Plus the Ishgard quests tend to hand out HQ 115 gears as well.

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One of my FC friends gave me these and it's helped alot.

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Originally Posted by Onikimaru

Seems to me that somebody was blinded by their own hype. Trailers are mean't to highlight the best aspects of a game, not tell you when you're going to get it. This game has a lot to offer and most of it comes from the story. You coming in and assuming you can do everything in the game straight off the bat is just insane...

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Haha well put it this way. Say if you were super hyped about Halo 3 but never played Halo and Halo 2. All of your friends pre-ordered Halo 3 and they've played through Halo and Halo 2.

You then pre-order Halo 3 as well and look forward to playing the same game with them. Instead you get the joy of playing through Halo and after that Halo 2 while your friends are constantly exclaiming their excitement over their exploration in Halo 3 while you are stuck playing through old content feeling left behind. If there was any warnings in the trailer that everything if gaited by a wall of past content and you probably won't be joining your veteran friends on Day 1 launch, I most likely wouldn't have bought the game, simple.

Even without any help or the new easy gear, you would never have been too low on ilvl if you just got the gear you were supposed to. You get enough tomestones from each set of content to reach the next ilvl requirement, every time.

And again your mistake was to think that you should be rushing through the story to "play with friends at level 50". There is no difference whether you're level 1 or 50 in terms of playing with friends, since the level syncs to the content anyway. What your friends are doing in the expansion content is exactly the same as you're doing - the story, with occasional multiplayer dungeons and bosses. And the story IS good, not that you would know if you skipped most of it.

In short, your bad experiences are 100% self-inflicted.

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Originally Posted by Hexceed

Haha well put it this way. Say if you were super hyped about Halo 3 but never played Halo and Halo 2. All of your friends pre-ordered Halo 3 and they've played through Halo and Halo 2.

You then pre-order Halo 3 as well and look forward to playing the same game with them. Instead you get the joy of playing through Halo and after that Halo 2 while your friends are constantly exclaiming their excitement over their exploration in Halo 3 while you are stuck playing through old content feeling left behind. If there was any warnings in the trailer that everything if gaited by a wall of past content and you probably won't be joining your veteran friends on Day 1 launch, I most likely wouldn't have bought the game, simple.

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No, the real comparison is your friends getting hyped over the newest episode of Game of Thrones and you wanting to skip right to watching that without having watched the rest of the show.

This is a story-based game first and foremost, like every FF game. It just has the added perk of being multiplayer.

I think you are just playing this game the wrong way. Well, SE is well-know for "you play my game my style or GTFO".
That being sad, I highly recommend taking a look at the ending of 2.55 if you skipped them all, then follow the 3.0 storyline. It's a pity if you miss the best part of 3.0 in the name of the grind ( the very reason you quitted wow). Cutscenes, character development, main storyline and even sidequests are over the top in term of quality for a mmorpg.

I think MCH, AST and DRK are the "advanced classes".
These classes are for people who already have grasp game contents, mechanics, other classes, etc.
That's why they aren't be given straight away at the starting cities.
It's not that these new 3 classes aren't for new players but, I don't know, maybe because newer players still can't utilize them fully. Heck even for veteran players, some are having hard time with maximizing the classes' utility.

For newer player, I think the starting classes offered are the preparation for these classes.
So, i think for newer players, be patient and learn about the game's contents and mechanics first and also enjoy the story.
It's a progress.

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Originally Posted by Hexceed

One of my FC friends gave me these and it's helped alot.

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I was going to suggest leveling marauder/warrior to earn the i90 from its job quests and farm tomes with it to buy gear for your pld (most of which is used across all tanks) since you would have access to gladiator and marauder actions to cross-class on DRK. It would kill a few chocobos with one stone and help you further along with Dark Knight once you obtain it.

Also, you can rewatch any and all cutscenes you skip in any inn room via The Unending Journey giving you the chance to go back and enjoy the story without other players telling you how to play the game. Hope this helps :D

Different people play FFXIV for different reasons. Some people skip all story stuff so they can get back to killing things. Other people (like many FF fans) tend to get into the story. Many people are somewhere in between, for example paying attention to the main story but not worrying too much about why they're defending Aleport from another dodo attack. Some of my favorite stories so far have come from the job quests, but other people hate them and just click through them.

There are certainly a lot of fetch quests and running from A to B to C to B to A. This is not unique to Square Enix RPGs, but it is a well-known feature of many of them, so caveat emptor.

One thing I have noted is that new FFXIV content and rewards are often gated behind some irritatingly difficult tasks, which tend become easier over time. However, I don't know whether this will ever apply to things like flying, the new jobs, or access to Ishgard, because the 2.x story seems to require Ishgard to be locked until you complete it.

Regarding levels 1-50, Yoshi-P has described them as the "tutorial" of the game. They can be completed rather quickly if you're in a rush, or slowly if you want to enjoy things at a more leisurely pace. I recommend the latter, but you should do whatever is fun.

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Originally Posted by Takfloyd

Even without any help or the new easy gear, you would never have been too low on ilvl if you just got the gear you were supposed to. You get enough tomestones from each set of content to reach the next ilvl requirement, every time.

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Like I said, I never fully understood what they were for and how they were spent to good use. In a sense yes you are absolutely right that it's self inflicted bad experience but at the same time I wished there was a better explanation on what those were for than a pop-up box I've instinctively closed on sight. Tutorial quest would have been great imho.

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Originally Posted by Takfloyd

And again your mistake was to think that you should be rushing through the story to "play with friends at level 50". There is no difference whether you're level 1 or 50 in terms of playing with friends, since the level syncs to the content anyway. What your friends are doing in the expansion content is exactly the same as you're doing - the story, with occasional multiplayer dungeons and bosses. And the story IS good, not that you would know if you skipped most of it.

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True that, it's designed so that higher level players can play with lower levels and they can come join me for few dungeons runs and guildhests but realistically asking them to level with me at my own pace is something I wouldn't ever demand anyone.

As for story and whether it was good or not? Isn't this entirely up to every individual to decide? Also try to understand not everyone necessarily agrees with the choices the Scions make, I for one disliked them from Day 1 but that's because I'm a Garlea supporter. I spit at the career path of a stereotypical hero of the world bullshit. But hey it's up to every individual to make that choice too.

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Originally Posted by Takfloyd

In short, your bad experiences are 100% self-inflicted.

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I'm willing to say yes and no. I agree with some of the points you've raised.

I can understand why you'd be bummed that you can't access the new hw content with your friends. It's like being Charlie from Charlie in the the chocolate factory and he's watching the kids at the shop eat all of the goodies from the outside window. Dunno how far you are in the story, but I got more into it as time went on. If you don't like it so much now you might like it a lot more later down the road.

I do have to agree with one part of se's gating of hw, it's related to what one of the above posters already stated. I haven't started many of my new jobs yet, but the new ones seem to have a bit higher of a learning curve tagged to them. It's most likely a combination of them being brand new and everyone learning to optimize them yet, but the classes are going to be easier to learn if you already know the battle system and what's expected of you from previous experience with the pre existing jobs. Anyone could pick them up, but it'll be easier in skilled hands.

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Originally Posted by Its_Elodie

I can understand why you'd be bummed that you can't access the new hw content with your friends. It's like being Charlie from Charlie in the the chocolate factory and he's watching the kids at the shop eat all of the goodies from the outside window. Dunno how far you are in the story, but I got more into it as time went on. If you don't like it so much now you might like it a lot more later down the road.

I do have to agree with one part of se's gating of hw, it's related to what one of the above posters already stated. I haven't started many of my new jobs yet, but the new ones seem to have a bit higher of a learning curve tagged to them. It's most likely a combination of them being brand new and everyone learning to optimize them yet, but the classes are going to be easier to learn if you already know the battle system and what's expected of you from previous experience with the pre existing jobs. Anyone could pick them up, but it'll be easier in skilled hands.

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Charlie haha. Yes that's a pretty good comparison.


I agree that tanking became very easy after reaching lv50 as a paladin and some levels on Marauder. Learning curve wasn't too difficult to grasp since I've tanked on other games too. I'm only a level away from reaching 50 on my Dark Knight so hopefully Ishgard is something I can take my time to enjoy exploring at leisure.

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Originally Posted by Hexceed

Charlie haha. Yes that's a pretty good comparison.


I agree that tanking became very easy after reaching lv50 as a paladin and some levels on Marauder. Learning curve wasn't too difficult to grasp since I've tanked on other games too. I'm only a level away from reaching 50 on my Dark Knight so hopefully Ishgard is something I can take my time to enjoy exploring at leisure.

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Don't forget to unlock and clear dungeons while at it, for the sake of gearing up.
Tomes are abundant from daily quests.

2.0 story was especially boring with lots of backtracking/filler quests. After 2.1 I feel the story got much better though and I actually enjoy it now. Oh except the majority of the scions, I still don't really like them. You aren't alone in the imperial support either. lol