Just a brain dump... maybe a little burnt out?

I'm not sure I really have a direct question or anything, but just wanted a place to dump some thoughts and maybe see what you all think.

I like the game a lot, but after about 2 months or so I find myself burning out a little I guess. I have Paladin to 50 and Dragoon to 50. My endgame (until I change my mind lol) is to unlock Dark Knight and probably main that the rest of my time here.

I'm at a bit of an impasse though. I can't unlock DRK until I get to Heavensward, but I don't think I'm even halfway through the ARR MSQ yet. I don't really want to level DRG or PLD anymore when I'm planning on maining DRK, and I've tried starting up new classes to spice things up but obviously I can't continue in the story til I level them up (and the DPS roulette queue is worse than I remember from leveling DRG lol, tank queue must've spoiled me)... so that's kinda moot.

I guess the answer is easy, if I'm going to main a tank I should just push through the story as my PLD and switch to DRK when I can... but man, I'm having a hard time motivating myself to get through the rest of the ARR MSQ. And I'm not thrilled about piling levels into PLD but it is what it is in that case. Hell, maybe I just main PLD... the armor is pretty cool. :D

Not sure where I'm going with this. MMO's usually aren't for me since I'm pretty casual with gaming, but I fell in love with FFXIV early and don't really want to let go yet. The story feels like a bit of a slog and is killing my motivation to keep going a little bit. Guess I'm wondering if anyone has any suggestions for my particular situation to reinvigorate a little bit and make the looong process of completing the MSQ more palatable?



As a sidenote, one thing I'm thinking about doing is joining a free company since the chat, distraction and extracurricular participation might help me settle in a bit more. But I'm not sure how I'd go about finding a casual-friendly free company to hang with? Any thoughts there would also be appreciated.

From the sound of it, I'd wager you've spammed your roulettes more than necessary. Basically everything in the game is gated by story. MSQ is largely sufficient to keep you at-level to proceed with story quests. Running roulettes should mostly be unnecessary unless you're leveling multiple jobs. If you're wanting to main one, and trying to push into HW to get to what you actually want, yeah, roulettes may have been the wrong choice.

But, if you also feel the story is a slog, yet you still enjoy playing the game otherwise, probably your best option is to just buy the story and job boosts. Skip the story that you're not interested in, unlock many more options, jump past much of the leveling process, and get straight into... whatever it is you do.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Hasrat

From the sound of it, I'd wager you've spammed your roulettes more than necessary. Basically everything in the game is gated by story. MSQ is largely sufficient to keep you at-level to proceed with story quests. Running roulettes should mostly be unnecessary unless you're leveling multiple jobs. If you're wanting to main one, and trying to push into HW to get to what you actually want, yeah, roulettes may have been the wrong choice.

But, if you also feel the story is a slog, yet you still enjoy playing the game otherwise, probably your best option is to just buy the story and job boosts. Skip the story that you're not interested in, unlock many more options, jump past much of the leveling process, and get straight into... whatever it is you do.

---

I would agree that I did the roulette's more than necessary. Partially because I didn't really know what I wanted to do at first so being "gated" didn't effect me, partially because the story did/does feel like a bit of a slog (at least earlier on), partially because that felt like the most "fun" part of the game to me.

I'm pretty old fashioned with stuff, I don't necessarily want to skip the story outright (even moreso if I have to "buy" it). Though I do kind of wish expansion jobs weren't locked behind MSQ (though I understand it perhaps for story purposes). Because whether I avoided the roulette's or not, I'm still stuck leveling jobs I may not care about as much to get to the ones I think I will.

Though I am super indecisive with this stuff and DRK may not pan out when I get there anyways lol. So maybe I just roll with my PLD job through the rest of the story and see how it goes... since I do think the tank role could end up being the one thing I stick with, regardless of the specific job I main. /shrug

Still interested in the whole free company thing though, however I'd go about finding one for someone like me. I think the camaraderie could help the day to day story grind (among other things).

Someone on Mateus could give you a better idea of the FC scene there. A question i had though is exactly where youre at in the story? It has a few hills and valleys, and id be curious if youre getting close to the next really good bit.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Frizze

A question i had though is exactly where youre at in the story? It has a few hills and valleys, and id be curious if youre getting close to the next really good bit.

---

Just did the quest "In Pursuit of the Past" that unlocks/requires completion of The Stone Vigil duty.

The story has had its moments, I don't mean to be down on the whole thing. But overall it's pretty fetch quest-y (thankfully the game itself is so much fun to play!) I hear good things about the expansions at least, and not-so-good things about the story that divides the 1-50 stuff and Heavensward lol. :D

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Dreakon13

The story has had its moments, I don't mean to be down on the whole thing. But overall it's pretty fetch quest-y. I hear good things about the expansions at least, and not-so-good things about the story that divides the 1-50 stuff and Heavensward lol. :D

---

You have heard correctly.

That being said, SE have announced that they will be condensing the post-ARR story quests in order to allow people to get to HW faster.

Alternatively - the best solution for burnout is either doing something else in the game or just something else entirely. Personally I'm going through a phase where I feel like I need to play something else otherwise I'll just be levelling classes and leaving nothing for later. We all go through burnout patches :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by JowyAtreides

Alternatively - the best solution for burnout is either doing something else in the game or just something else entirely. Personally I'm going through a phase where I feel like I need to play something else otherwise I'll just be levelling classes and leaving nothing for later. We all go through burnout patches :)

---

The funny thing is, FFXIV was my answer to burning out elsewhere. ;)

Haven't quite decided if it's time for a break, but like I've said... I don't think I want to bail on the game quite yet. Feels like there's plenty if interesting ground left uncovered if I just gut through the MSQ for a while longer.

The only three jobs that are locked behind another expasion are the ones that came out during Heavensward. The rest just has lv 50 locks and havening completed the 2.0 patch story.

I'd really recommend joining a casual fc, they are shouting in the cities often, or maybe just ask somebody, it does give you exp boost and discounts on travlling.^^

Def try to join an FC. As you surmise, I think the chat and having others willing to help will ease the burnout.

Although you may decide to main a different job later, adding levels to PLD in the meantime won't hurt anything. The game is flexible in giving people the ability to level everything in a variety (fun also varies) of ways. And the instant you hit Heavensward you can pick up DRK and get it up to continue the story with, or whatever class may hold your fancy.

If an FC is difficult to find, you can also look into just a social LS. Being you're on Mateus, maybe give roleplaying a try? I didn't think of doing it much myself but I took a dive and met some real fun folks and it's a nice distraction from the level grind (in my case, grinding up crafters).

Indeed, joining a FC and just having people to talk to can make all the difference, even if you're like me and not usually the social butterfly, instead prefering to do their own thing usually.

Also, adding to Kirdria's comments about levelling PLD still, FFXIV has a trait where if you level any class or Job that is lower in level than your first one, it will gain bonus EXP until it reaches that same level, so even if you are wanting to switch to DRK eventually, keep taking PLD through the story to that point at the very least as you'll find when you do get to Ishgard and gain DRK, it will make switching to DRK and levelling it much easier. :)

Either way, don't get discouraged! :D

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Dreakon13

Just did the quest "In Pursuit of the Past" that unlocks/requires completion of The Stone Vigil duty.

---

The lead up to the garuda fight. Ok. Theres a lot of interesting things happening, and ive gotta spend the next 4? levels doing inane fetching to get the door to the next important fight to finally open. Not a highlight. The stretch from garuda herself through the end of 2.0 is fairly well done. The patch series(2.1-2.55) gets a bad wrap. Sure, its too long and its not obvious how important a lot of it is until later in the game. But from basically the ramuh fight until you find yourself standing at the gates of ishgard it gets better and better(this ends up being almost half the patchline). Then youre training DRK and into a highly praised story arch.