Casual-Midcore, Solo players.. How do you play Final Fantasy 14?

[keroo]

I'm quite busy at work that makes me play FF14 for about 1-2 hours only which is just quite a few dungeon runs(plus long queue time for DPS, longer if offpeak).

Solo- Since I have no time to chit chat around people because of daily time constraints, I play the game fully solo, of course given the fact you play FF14 with PUGs which form a party.

What do you suggest?
How do you play it?

[Welsper59]

Something that everyone who wants to solo in an MMORPG, regardless of how soloable the game might present itself, is that these games are designed around groups. Meaning that anything that is not designed specifically to be soloed (like daily quests here) is often content you will not be able to do solo no matter what you do. The DF system is there to help you experience these things with the time restraints you have (within some reason of course).

I play solo 95% of the time, as I rarely ever run things with DF unless I'm either used to the content beforehand or somewhat forced to do it to progress (e.g. story primal fights, CM, etc). I have never run Coil, WP, a majority of HM dungeons, Extreme fights, etc. I really don't care to neither, so that may or may not be how someone else feels in the same position. You really can't do very much in this game if you don't utilize the DF system. I have done things that I've wanted to though that defy the group intention, such as soloing some low level dungeons as SCH, which is how soloing in MMORPGs should always be understood. Asked a few friends/FC members to queue with me and drop. You're limiting yourself immensely to the variety of content in doing so though. If you choose to solo in a game that is not solo friendly with the bulk of its interesting repeat content (e.g. dungeons/raids require queuing a full group to do), you will run into problems. Thankfully, I've always been a crafter at heart, so that's where the majority of my time is spent... making dat gil. Not to mention leveling from time to time. I just really wish they'd abolish the need to run stuff with a full group. I'd love to try to find a way to solo more dungeons without any sort of nerf to the content. Or underman dungeons/raids with a few friends.

[Squintina]

For the time being I'm a solo casual.

I spend my time crafting and gathering and farming on my battle classes. Every once in a while I'll DF to do a story quest dungeon.
I chat with my FC, help them out, and they help me out too. I do like my solo play so I try not to ask for too much, but every once in a while it's nice to get a little help.

I want to enjoy the leveling and crafting content for the time being. That isn't to say I won't go softcore/midcore, or even hardcore somewhere down the line.

Part of it is also that I have time constraints. Another part of it is that in the game I played previously I was an endgame raider and I feel like taking a break from that for a while. I'll probably start doing raids once I finish all the non-raid content I care about.

[Wolfo]

Hey, whats up!^^

I play mainly with my partner. I'm studying the preparatory year before university (we call it here "Bachiller"). It gives me almost no time between monday-thursday, so we do everything we can do except Coil (for obvious reasons).
Our weeks consist in: Monday to thurday: Tend or fertilize plants, log in at the exact time to gather soil, check retainers / marketboards AND sometimes a roulette for the daily alexandrite.
Friday to sunday: Cap poetics like crazy (dungeons & ST), crafting, spiritbond (relic upgrade), beastmen daily missions aaaand playing with our houses (redecorating, moving furnishing, etc...).

This game have plenty of things to do that sometimes we feel overwhelmed.

Just play the game at your own pace. ^^

[Songi]

Buy a ton of stuff from the cash shop and /drool over what your hard earned paycheck got you for the week.

[Reokudo]

I log in, I do dailies, my roulette, log off unless doing raids that night. That's about it. Oh, and frontlines ever so rarely.

[Sadana]

Hmm, my suggestion as a leader of a casual mid-sized FC (therefore the viewpoint of someone NOT a solo player) is to perhaps look for a FC that welcomes solo players or mature gamers (ie those with full time jobs, families, and/or other time consuming responsibilities) and is there just to help with forming parties and reducing your queue times and is okay with minimal chit-chat from you.

[GucciGucci]

I work every weekday and have only about 2 hours max per night to play (excluding weekends). I run a small, casual FC with people who are in similar situations related to work, school, friends, etc so more often than not I can find a member or three to help run leveling dungeons. I don't have time to dedicate myself to a progression group but I have my hands full soloing PvP and leveling crafting/gathering classes. A lot of the content outside of Coil is easily soloable for me but it is much more enjoyable when you can find friends or FC members to hang around with. Believe it or not, it doesn't take too much time to make casual friends in-game!

[Noshpan]

I play with my hands. Oh, I also make use of my eyeballs.

[Illmaeran]

I prefer to use a mouse and keyboard.

I fit your profile well (though I have more than 1-2 hrs). I typically do what I find relaxing and/or enjoyable that day. It may be queuing for a DF and gathering animal bits for my crafts, straight-out gathering, or running a dungeon with my FC mates.

I'm not going to say an MMO isn't for you, given your time constraints, but you may need to accept that there will be things you won't be able to do if you've only got an hour to play. I found that relaxing my expectations and doing whatever was fun at the moment improved my gameplay satisfaction greatly during periods when I couldn't log on for extended periods in one go.