The faults of just starting

[NefarioCall]

I'd say it's just a lot of poor timing.
I mean ... there's only one month left and very few low level players at all...
Or at least, the next 4 weeks are level 50 oriented.
plus, there seems to be a misconception that stats don't matter, at least to some.
I partied a couple weeks back with a fellow Pug, and i was hitting melee for 50dmg with my double melds,
he with his basic cheap end whatever gear was hitting for 7.
So if you're trying to do stuff in the 20's and 30's, it's an uphill battle this month by default.

Also, there's no way in the current version to boot inactive players from your linkshell,
so people have adapted to be cautious about inviting ... at least enough of them to limit Ul'dah shouts for open invites. but if you google it with your server name, you can find plenty and apply on the main website and usually they are very welcoming. In general, i have found this community to be much more welcoming than any other MMO i have ever played.

[Leep]

PUG = Pick Up Group. E.g. random party of random people vs set party of people you know. Context is everything.

Ah alright. I'm still getting used to the terms.

Can always try shouting in town for a new player/social linkshell.

The one I'm in is pretty nice, I could probably toss you a pearl later if we can track each other down. My wife and I just restarted fresh about 2 weeks ago ourselves, so we have tons of stuff to lvl and things to do.

I'd like that very much.

[LittleBraver]

I imagined when I first started this game about a week ago, I would make tons of friends and be invited to tons of parties. Alas, it seems to me that since the game as of a few days ago is not for sale anymore, I'm on the track to a one in a lifetime experience on my own.

On top of that, there are still tons of things I don't know about in the game. I was making a huge deal about seeing these giant airships in the sky, when someone in my vicinity called me a Noob.

/sulk

Anyone else having/has had this experience?

Honestly you couldn't have started playing at a worse time. Most everyone that currently plays has been since launch. There should be a flood of new players when 2.0 launches though. So hopefully you'll find newer players around that time to share your experience with.

[Denmo]

It's a bad time to start, but it IS your last chance to see the one-time content.

My advice to you would be to

- find a new-player friendly linkshell, there should be at least one recruiting in your world. Check the forums and shout in Uldah for it.
- create parties for levequests! This is accomplished pretty easily by using the new player search function. Just make sure you ask nice in your /tells.
- Get to 50 in one job as quickly as possible. My recommendation would be WHM/CNJ, since it's always needed and you don't need crazy gear for it to be useful. I always see shouts for WHM's in Uldah.
- Getting to 50 is easy, you don't even need to be PL'd. Just do light/full parties in levequests until you hit 40. At 40, you want to join a Natalan EXP party. Natalan gives crazy awesome EXP to a good full party, and you can get to 50 from there in one night. It took me about a week to get THM/BLM to 50, but I had help with my LS. Outside that, I was organizing my own parties.
- By the time you hit 30 you'll want to start doing quests for a Grand Company so you can obtain your Chocobo (sorry, you missed out on the free Goobbue if you don't have it already). Having a friend help you teleport around and run Toto-Rak with you.


The one-time content you really should take part in is the Grand Company quests and the Primal Fights. When you have a job at 50, most of it just requires a good Full Party. The rest of the game's content is passable, and/or will be returning in 2.0. You have a month and a half or so to complete this! Good luck!

[Yves]

I imagined when I first started this game about a week ago, I would make tons of friends and be invited to tons of parties. Alas, it seems to me that since the game as of a few days ago is not for sale anymore, I'm on the track to a one in a lifetime experience on my own.

On top of that, there are still tons of things I don't know about in the game. I was making a huge deal about seeing these giant airships in the sky, when someone in my vicinity called me a Noob.

/sulk

Anyone else having/has had this experience?

Not sure if anyone hit on this yet but you're in a kind of a bad spot in regards to timing. A lot of experienced players left and went into "afk until 2.0" mode while some people just started about 2-5 months ago. This leaves you in the new-and-too-new-to-be-helpful spot.

Aside from this, a large percentage of the remaining experienced players are focused on relics and really can't dedicate time to helping newer players get comfortable. Sadly, those 2-5 month players aren't really solid enough to do the same, either.

On top of all of this the game's UI just doesn't make social interaction easy.

If you want to play just focus on building up your character and learning the nuances of combat and classes (there aren't many.) Try to find a new shell and keep your expectations low. Make friends in the EXP parties that you get into. Things will at least be a bit more bearable.

Sorry you're having a rough run of it, bud.

[Zumi]

Here is my experience with FFXIV. Bought it at launch pretty much stopped playing it after the first month because it was just not good. Played on and off since it was free to play. When it went pay to play played on and off but eventually leveled all 7 battle classes to 50.

I finished all the job quests got full AF for all 7 jobs mostly through pugs occasionally would have a friend or two help. I found this rather annoying often sitting in town 2-3 hours while the group fills. DRG was my last job I made that group myself took over 5 hours of shouting eventually ended up doing it with 5 since couldn't fill the group but it was a win.

Pugged a bunch of Ifrit and Moogle fights over the course of a month or so. Did a couple of them with a few friends but the majority of them were pugs. Ended up getting 5/7 Ifrit and 7/7 Mog weapons. Pugged all the GC missions that required a party and finished the story line.

The only thing I have left to do in FFXIV is get relics or darklight armor from AV or CC. However anything beyond Ifrit and mog is really not pugable. Occasionally you will see a Garuda, CC, AV, Hamlet shout in fact I have joined a few all ending in failure. AV and CC require a degree of familiarity with the dungeon which a lot of pug members don't have or they have never bothered to watch one of the many videos on youtube so they can better expect to know whats coming. For an uncoordinated pug the difficulty level seems too hard.

Generally speaking finding a set group to do relics (hamlets, CC, AV) is pretty hard. Most people have their own click. Set group of people are not recruiting and don't really talk to people outside their LS too much.

Although it sounded like I did a lot I only played hardcore for about 2 months got all 7 jobs to level cap full set of mog weapons and 5 ifrit ones and can't really do anything else due to the content being not pugable. You run out of stuff to do in FFXIV rather fast and the stuff you can do is often a lot of sitting around waiting for the group to fill in Uldah.

SE needs to give me a reason to log in to play their game but they aren't due to how everything is so based on having set groups to go through content.

[Leep]

I'm sure the first parties to do those kind of things didn't know what their getting into. Communities should help the ignorant, not shoo them away.

[Yves]

I'm sure the first parties to do those kind of things didn't know what their getting into. Communities should help the ignorant, not shoo them away.

Not to bust your balls here, but to be logical about the situation, the community has no duty to do so. The player has the responsibility to learn for themselves. Anything you could want to know from the community can be found via google. Nobody has a duty to help you.

Now should they? Absolutely! But saying or acting like they have a duty or responsibility to do so isn't going to help you.

[Zumi]

More or less FFXIV community as a whole is pretty unaccepting to new players, will that change in 2.0 who knows. I never played a MMO where endgame was so hard to get into before.

[Leep]

Not to bust your balls here, but to be logical about the situation, the community has no duty to do so. The player has the responsibility to learn for themselves. Anything you could want to know from the community can be found via google. Nobody has a duty to help you.

Now should they? Absolutely! But saying or acting like they have a duty or responsibility to do so isn't going to help you.

Twas why I implied the word "should", friend.

More or less FFXIV community as a whole is pretty unaccepting to new players, will that change in 2.0 who knows. I never played a MMO where endgame was so hard to get into before.

Good thing I got two IRL friends coming over once 2.0 hits. Maybe the experience will change. We'll see. <:T