Which do you prefer? Miqo'te or Au Ra?

[Local_Custard]

I am miqo'te bias, however I will lay out some pros and cons... and what both fantasy races have in common. A pro for someone else may be a con for another (and vice versa). Keep in mind, I am more experienced with playing miqo'te, but I will try my best. Anyone is free to chime in with their thoughts or further expand this list.

what they have in common: no human shaped ears, a tail, some physical traits to make them a little less human in appearance (some skin color options, scales, for masc miqo'te models you get the eye markings, and eyes)

miqo'te are a very common choice. They come equipped with feline traits which players love. They were introduced as playable since beta.

Pros of miqo'te:
-very easy to glam. Besides some hats, a lot of gear look good on miqo'te
-teeth. Keepers of the moon have fangs. This is a small detail that will go unnoticed when zoomed out. But it does impact some gposes (I like to do /groundsit + /pain for max scrunge face)
-emotes are very expressive. They show their emotions well. Not only that but their ears and tail translate it pretty decently too.
-masc miqo'te default sit is kind of funny

cons:
-masc miqo'te have a very weird standing pose. You can change it but when stopping after walking it'll persist for a few seconds. Their hands are clenched like they are trying to emulate claws. This might have looked better if they did have claws. But then there is the issue of their back- it looks a little like they have scoliosis. Fem miqo'te don't share this problem.
-they are so common that your fem miqo'te may blend in. For some people this is actually a boon- they would rather not be noticed. However, it may make having your glam noticed a bit more difficult.

Now for au ra. Au ra are also common, fem au ra being the second most common character choice. However, masc au ra are not as populous. They were introduced as playable in Heavensward.

pros of au ra:
-many think of them as dragons- they look kind of like dragon people. Dragon lovers may pick au ra because they get horns and a tail. While lore states their ancestors are not related to dragons, that doesn't deter people. You get a variety of horns and tails to pick from.
-masc raen au ra get blue tongues. Yes, another small detail! You can have a blue tongue!
-Armor will often look really really good on an au ra. The horns and tail have shapes that favor the hard edges of armor... granted if the armor is well designed (some armor looks like walking buckets)
-au ra have a lot of skin color options. Be it red, blue, purple, or earthy. Or the almost never seen green (I have only seen a green au ra once in my entire time playing the game). Au ra have a wide range of colors to choose from.

cons of au ra:
-horns are linked to face types. This may be the first thing you noticed when making your au ra. You cannot just choose the face independent from the horns.
-the masc au ra run animation has been dubbed the "bandicoot run". The run overall is awkward. (However, I may need to further investigate why the run looks awkward.) I would like to also note that masc au ra movement seems a bit cartoonish in general.
-much like fem miqote, fem au ra may blend in with each other. Once again, for some this is a boon. Getting your glams to be noticed can be difficult sometimes.
-masc au ra can be difficult to create because their faces are difficult to not make look angry. For some, they enjoy the serious look of masc au ra, for other's it may be a deterrent.
-the horns have made me (and some other players) question how they do certain things like sleep, use headphones, and put on shirts.

[TheMightyMollusk]

-the masc au ra run animation has been dubbed the "bandicoot run". The run overall is awkward. (However, I may need to further investigate why the run looks awkward.)

To me, at least, it looks like the animation wasn't synced well with their actual movement pace. They look kinda floaty. Combined with the exaggerated motions, it's just kinda weird.

[Local_Custard]

To me, at least, it looks like the animation wasn't synced well with their actual movement pace. They look kinda floaty. Combined with the exaggerated motions, it's just kinda weird.

oh good point! Masc au ra jumps seem very fast with fewer frames per movement. Though, their run seems awkward for more reasons than just how it is synced- I suspect it might be something about their gate

[Xirean]

For myself I prefer Miqote. For others, it's a toss up. I'm not a fan of the horns as ears thing for Au Ra but similarly I wish Miqotes ears were bigger and attached at the part of the head where ears actually are as opposed to the top of the head. Animation wise Miqote win by a land slide. I'm a big fan of all their cat animations and just wish they had more, however the Au Ra idles are very nice. Makes me wish we could pick which animations we want (run, walk, idle, jump, etc). Both races could use A LOT more tail options though. The lack of a true fluffy tail is just criminal for Miqote and Au Ra I feel could look better with longer/slender/chunky options.

Also a heat lamp housing item would be hilarious for Au Ra gposes lol

[Remolia]

Hyur female has the best running animation.

[AdventZero]

Au Ra for me, at least the female, neutral about the males.

For me I love being a short elegant feminine knight girl, and Au Ra ticks all those boxes just right. I also love the fact that they can be really small (or Smol, if you like that spelling better) while still having curves and properly grown breasts. A lot of games, namely anime type games, tend to think "small = child" and make you less curvy/grown the shorter you get. Since I like being a short but properly grown up girl it normally leaves me having to pick one or the other, so the fact FFXIV's Au Ra let me say "both" and get both is awesome.

I will be honest, though, I don't really care for the horns/scales and other such things. I'm more of an "elf/pointed ear enjoyer" myself. But it doesn't bother me enough to not enjoy playing an Au Ra. That, and most elf types in FFXIV are pretty tall, even a half-elf (based on Hilda's height) would be fairly tall too, so I'm good with my Au Ra for now.

Final bonus note, my favorite Au Ra animation is probably the running jump landing animation. I love the way they gently land leading with one foot ahead of the other, bending their knees to absorb the impact, before standing back up into the run animation. When I first started playing one I was jumping off anything I could to see it, and I don't normally jump around a lot in game. xD

[Rehayem]

I started the game as male Miqo'te. Males have a bad case of stiff fingers in their hands, females looks like they wanna stab you for taking their cake. Auri males have their classic crash Bandicoot run and females look like you stole their toy and are about to cry.

Jokes aside, I like all races because they have some uniqueness to them, specially with lore. I always play male characters, and male Au'Ra fits my character best for many reasons I mentioned in a different forum post asking about our characters.

[Fyrebrand]

I would like to extend a friendly "Meowdy!" and an enthusiastic "NYANI-HO!" to all my fellow miqo'te enjoyers.

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

Midlander.



Tails, ears, and horns clip in gear.

[Oizen]

Catgirls are cliche. Not just in this game but in literally everything.

I'm also not a fan of the fact we have 2 races of people who can be described as "cat people".