What to work on solo.

I love FFXIV, but with 2 kids I find it really hard to commit to group content. Which is making getting through the main story quest quite hard. But what are some other solo things I can work on? I've been doing some crafting, working on my hunting logs, etc. What are some other fun/useful solo things I should working on?

Sounds great. Good news is that there are a TON of solo things to work on in FFXIV. Here are a few ideas:

1) Gold Saucer Chocobo Breeding
2) 2.0 Relic Weapons for Glamour (I would recommend it for your main class since completing it can help you skip phase 1 of 3.0 relic questline)
3) Fishing, Gardening, Sightseeing, Running FATEs for fun/GC Seals (GC Seals can be used to buy crafting mats that you can sell on Market Board for profit)
4) Beast Tribe Quests

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Originally Posted by rxnin

Sounds great. Good news is that there are a TON of solo things to work on in FFXIV. Here are a few ideas:

1) Gold Saucer Chocobo Breeding
2) 2.0 Relic Weapons for Glamour (I would recommend it for your main class since completing it can help you skip phase 1 of 3.0 relic questline)
3) Fishing, Gardening, Sightseeing, Running FATEs for fun/GC Seals (GC Seals can be used to buy crafting mats that you can sell on Market Board for profit)
4) Beast Tribe Quests

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Just want to point out the phase 1 of the 3.0 relic is super easy compared to completing an entire 2.0 relic and can be done on any job high enough to complete the FATEs in Heavensward zones, not just the one you are doing the relic for.

Based on the character level in your profile, I'm sad to say there's nothing else to do in addition to what you listed, assuming you meant to include gathering, except for Gold Saucer. The quest to access it is directly across from the main aetheryte in Ul'dah. That might sound disappointing, but you really are expected to be going through the main scenario and sidequests at that level.

Thanks for the advice/help. I'll check out the gold saucer and add some gathering to the list. Yeah, I figured I really am supposed to be doing MSQ. I might have to ask some people in my FC to help out, and hope they're not too annoyed if I have to log out mid dungeon to help kid who's woken up!

Another option for solo content is Palace of the Dead. It's mostly standalone content that turns FFXIV into a Roguelike.

You need to be level 17 to access it. And when you enter your character starts at level 1 and gains levels independently from your job/class levels outside of the content. You can enter solo or with a fixed party of up to four people, or with a "mixed" group that fills out a party of four with other random people.

Most of the things you do in PoTD won't carry over to the rest of the game, but if you are under the level cap when you enter you get a fair amount of exp per completion.

Nowadays, dungeons will almost never take longer than 30 mins, and as a healer you should be spending almost no time in a queue, so you can try planning around that.

I play about 1 hour per day (if lucky), mostly just on weekends.
If you're healer or tank, dungeon queue takes no time, and they last under 1hr almost always. Aside from that, beast tribe rep grind, gold saucer, fishing, etc. Lots of stuff to kill time with.

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Originally Posted by Teiren

Nowadays, dungeons will almost never take longer than 30 mins, and as a healer you should be spending almost no time in a queue, so you can try planning around that.

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What's happened in the past is I get 10 mins in, and a child will wake up. I can't leave them crying in bed for 20 mins. I need a guaranteed hour to myself, which rarely happens. Hmm. Maybe I shouldn't be playing an mmo.

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Originally Posted by RedSunset

What's happened in the past is I get 10 mins in, and a child will wake up. I can't leave them crying in bed for 20 mins. I need a guaranteed hour to myself, which rarely happens. Hmm. Maybe I shouldn't be playing an mmo.

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Not ideal for an MMO. However, if you look around I bet you could find people with similar constraints to run things with, and do the other solo-friendly stuff (PotD is pretty fun) when they aren't around.

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Originally Posted by RedSunset

I might have to ask some people in my FC to help out, and hope they're not too annoyed if I have to log out mid dungeon to help kid who's woken up!

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This. The answer is 100% this. Keep doing your soloing, but whenever you need to do group content(trial/dungeon/etc) try to do it with a group of friends. With people who know what theyre doing and can explain for you no dungeon should really take more then 20-25 mins, and the easy/story mode for trials should never run as long as 10 mins in the same scenario. The only exceptions to this are the 2 dungeons that end the ARR story. They can still be run in 20 mins each(or less), but it requires cutscene skipping to do that quickly as those 2 dungeons(castrum and praetorium) include multiple mid-run cutscenes rather then just the typical start-boss-pose ones. So for those 2 dungeons, your options will be skip cutscenes(you can rewatch them later from your inn room) or schedule these playthroughs in advance when you know you shouldnt have RL issues to interfere(youll also want to use party finder/friends rather then duty finder to make sure the team plays along with letting you see the cutscenes).

Best of luck!

Ironically, the old style of MMORPGs would be better suited for a life like that, now that I think about it. I'm talking about games like Everquest, Final Fantasy XI, Ragnarok Online, and practically all Korean MMORPGs of that time before 2006. Because they were largely only about levelling or grinding (except some of FFXI) with no set objective such as duties, there was a ton of freedom in playing them. Overall, MMORPGs today consume exponentially less time to get things done, but they are certainly built in blocks of time rather than all of time.

Anyway, MMOs indeed have no pause button, and while I believe that's half the reason people play them, I get how that can make it difficult to play. I hope you find something.

I really appreciate all the responses and suggestions. The FFXIV community is great. I'm just going to keep plugging away, and I'll add the things you guys have suggested. I'm still having fun. And hopefully I get some alone time to plough through the MSQ at some point soon. Thanks again.

Well, luckily the majority of the main scenario quests can be soloed. It's just that when you get to one of its dungeons/trials, you're stuck there until you have a chance to complete it.

I've certainly been in runs when someone had to AFK for a while to deal with real life. Most people are pretty understanding about that. If you're wary about asking that understanding from strangers, then ask it of your friends. Just let them know your home situation, and you should be able to find some who don't mind an occasional interruption.

Actually, I can't believe I didn't say this earlier. It can't hurt to try recruiting people with the Party Finder. In fact someone mentioned it earlier, but it bears repeating.

So I took the plunge last night and asked for help from my FC, with a warning that I might have to go at short notice. They were absolutely fine with it and I finally got through Brayflox's Longstop. Winning!

Good! I've been surprised all the time by the community in FFXIV. I think the fact it's overall easier and so much slower than WoW is why not much toxicity has taken hold yet. WoW is a great game too, but I think the people there get really high-strung because of the gameplay's pacing.