Is there any way to play the game as DPS? Or just end subscription?

[Ultear_Milkovich]

Another whining post. Ive been playing DPS only for 18 months now and never get pissed by the queues. You just need to find something else to do during the wait: crafting etc. Or try to make friends and go as a full party. The solution is on your hands no need for SE to fix anything that cant be fixed (maths)

[Mugiawara]

The solution is on your hands no need for SE to fix anything that cant be fixed (maths)

There is nothing else they can do unless they really pull out the stops and give them real like cash and try to make people tank.
Inb4 bad tanks. We may get a little spike because of the new job's but for every 1 tank there is like 500 DPS trying to do the same thing.
I still say open another DPS slot.

[h0tNstilettos]

A good MMO is one where you are playing in a world where other players exist in the world at the same time, and if you want to party with them that is an option, not a requirement. I'm waiting for the day a proper MMO like that comes along that does not force party play, at least until endgame, so then things would be more enjoyable. This would solve many of the problems MMOs like this face.

As for this particular issue, putting the challenge log on an infinite loop would solve the problem. This way once you finish whatever category it immediately starts back over. So then you repeat the requirements again for the reward. The challenge log cannot be abused if you still have to meet the requirements again. So I see no reason for the weekly limit unless it has to do with a prevention method for botters. If so my reply is to just let them bot. Not many people know how to do that, so I don't think it's worth hampering the game for the majority that do not bot just to prevent a couple people from leveling up with bots.

The queue times on Balmung are pretty quick. I usually go tank or healer for dungeons, but if I queue expert roulette as a dps, its about 5 mins. At most it will be 10 but that's rare. Syrcus tower and WoD are practically instant queue for dps. LotA is a bit longer since it requires more tanks.

Honestly though it sounds like to me that you just need to take a break if you are not having fun with this game. After all, the reason why we play games is to enjoy them.

Maybe I should switch servers, lol.

I don't know what you expected as a DPS, long queue times are a normal thing for them because they are the most played role. Plus dungeons shouldn't be soloable there is enough solo content in the game to levelup. And even if fates are not your cup of tea there are leves. if you ran out of charges do something else SE didn't make this game to beat it in one day.

SE has already said they are implementing a way to solo dungeons, mainly the 4p dungeons. The idea they talked about is hiring NPC party members from your grand company. This is needed due to dead low level content because leveling up is so fast in this game that compared to other MMOs, FFXIV has a much higher ratio of endgame to pre-endgame player pool. This was an issue that was widely predicted and talked about around the first months of the game. As for queues, 30 minute queues for dps have only happened twice since the game launched. Once was at some point in 2014 when the population was dying before SE announced release date of Gold Saucer. Once that was announced the population rose again and queues were back to normal, now queues are down again. Typical dps queue times on Leviathan had always been 15 minutes at most, but usually 8 minutes average.

Playing with friends will generally speaking solve this issue - as long as some of you are willing to play as tank/healer while others dps.

It's a multiplayer game, not solo, making friends is kind of part of what makes the game actually work.

Friends do not help when they are all busy doing their own thing and 80% of them no longer play or rarely get on.

You're choosing to ignore all the things that you can do while waiting for DF, so that's really your problem if you don't want to try to utilize the most effective way of leveling outside of a dungeon. If your FC isn't willing to help then maybe it's time to find a new one. You're playing an MMO, a genre that revolves around interacting with other people. If you're trying to circumvent that aspect of the game, then why are you here in the first place? Make friends that are willing to help you out.

And your "I'm not going tank or healer" statement only exacerbates the problem that you're experiencing. DPS DF queues are long partially due to that very reason. That said, if you've never experienced this problem in 14 years then I don't know what MMOs you're playing.

I'm not choosing to ignore anything. Hunting Log, Challenge Log, leves, all have limits. You can't do them infinitely. For challenge log you have to wait for reset. For leves you have to wait for allowances. For hunting log, once you reach the amount for each enemy that's it. As for Fates, the experience amount vs time to complete is extremely minimal. Only a Fate party would make Fates viable. As for the tank and healer thing, you forget what an MMO is. An MMO isn't "You're required to play all roles including ones you hate." An MMO is play the role or roles you like, and the class/jobs you like. It's the developers job to make sure this is possible. Another reason your tank/heal comment makes no sense is because you can't level your DPS classes by playing a healer or tank. That would only level the healer or tank you are playing. If each challenge log category would reset upon completion this would no longer be an issue as there would always be a decent way to progress when waiting long time on queues.

I just leveled WAR/BLM/PLD to finally get my crown. Did it all via FATES/farming/leves - mainly because I was trying to get my Choco to Rank 10. I play very off and on and tend to spend a lot of time crafting, messing with my house, and other stuff. It didn't seem to take too long. I'm just not sure if by 'decent method' you mean 2-3 days or if a couple of weeks. Then again I played FFXI so 3 weeks to go from 1-50 seems like an instant.

In any case I would disagree with "not playable" and "waste of time" assessment -- it just doesn't match your more hurried style of play.

None of this has to do with how long leveling takes. It has to do with being able to play the game while waiting on queue and getting some kind of decent progress for whatever I'm leveling. Hunting log and challenge log are examples of decent progress outside of duties, while Fates and leves are horrendous and almost pointless, though leves are excellent 15 and under. By decent I was referring to the amount of experience or tomes you get. All of the duties that give a decent amount have insane queue times. So if I'm going to wait 30 minutes there needs to be a way to make some decent progress while waiting.

My goal is to also get all DoW/DoM class to 50.
Find me in-game; I can help.

If I don't unsub I will. ^_^

Must not have played FFXI then.

30 minute waits would've been a *blessing*, as opposed to 4 hours sitting in Jeuno/Whitegate waiting for a party invite as a DPS.

No, I never played FFXI. I've played Everquest, Maplestory, WoW, Runes of Magic, Allods Online, Atlantica Online, Dragon Saga, Shaiya, and a few other less popular ones whose names I don't remember. Sure, Everquest, WoW, and Maplestory are the only big name MMOs listed, but an MMO is still an MMO and that's still a decent selection. Never played EQII, Eve Online, Aion, Tera, Guild Wars 2, SW:ToR, or a couple of the other big ones.

It's mathematics. Each group needs 1 heal, 1 tank and 2 DPS. SO, each tank and each healer queueing can only "host" 2 DPS. which means that in a perfect world, there'd be the double the ammount of players playing as DPS than there is of tank/healers.

HOWEVER, in FFXIV we have
- 2 tanks (PLD and WAR)
- 2 healers (WHM and SCH)
- and *6* DPS (NIN, MNK, DRG, BRD, SMN and BLM)

So, yeah, there are much much much more than 2 DPS for each tank or heal. That being, all those DPS need to wait till there's a tank or a heal available for you, quite possibly on a first-come-first-serve basis. So, there's nothing much to be done to help that, short of stimulating people to play more as tank/heal.

maybe Heavensward and the DRK will help with that. Since it's gonna be all the craze

I know why the queues are long. The length is not the problem. It's actually being able to do something for decent progression while waiting.

Another whining post. Ive been playing DPS only for 18 months now and never get pissed by the queues. You just need to find something else to do during the wait: crafting etc. Or try to make friends and go as a full party. The solution is on your hands no need for SE to fix anything that cant be fixed (maths)

No the solution is not on my end. Queue times are not the same each server. My reply to your insult is a mix of things I have replied to others in the above quotes this post.

[TheRogueX]

A good MMO is one where you are playing in a world where other players exist in the world at the same time, and if you want to party with them that is an option, not a requirement. I'm waiting for the day a proper MMO like that comes along that does not force party play, at least until endgame, so then things would be more enjoyable.

LOL, no. A good MMO is a game where grouping is the way to go, but that soloing through the central questline is a possible option. What you're looking for is a single-player game that has optional co-op. There's tons of those, and most of them don't have monthly fees. Also, you say 'does not force party play, at least until endgame' but your initial complaint was about all queues, including endgame queues.

Maybe I should switch servers, lol.

That is a viable option. Perhaps the server you are on is just full of boring players.

As for queues, 30 minute queues for dps have only happened twice since the game launched. Once was at some point in 2014 when the population was dying before SE announced release date of Gold Saucer. Once that was announced the population rose again and queues were back to normal, now queues are down again.

"Population was dying"? Ooookaaaay.

Friends do not help when they are all busy doing their own thing and 80% of them no longer play or rarely get on.

Make some new friends. I never have trouble finding groups; I'm in 8 linkshells, 6 of which are non-hunt.

As for Fates, the experience amount vs time to complete is extremely minimal. Only a Fate party would make Fates viable.

That's a lie. I leveled both WHM and NIN recently, mostly via FATES and Challenge Log. I pretty much never used dungeons to level. It almost sounds like you're just in too impatient.

If each challenge log category would reset upon completion this would no longer be an issue as there would always be a decent way to progress when waiting long time on queues.

No, all it would do would be make things worse because then people could race through all classes/jobs... only to get super bored because they have nothing do to. Then they'd come to the forums and complain and threaten to quit.

Hunting log and challenge log are examples of decent progress outside of duties, while Fates and leves are horrendous and almost pointless, though leves are excellent 15 and under. By decent I was referring to the amount of experience or tomes you get. All of the duties that give a decent amount have insane queue times. So if I'm going to wait 30 minutes there needs to be a way to make some decent progress while waiting.

FATES. Seriously. FATES are excellent. I have no freaking clue what you're talking about, re: FATES. On a good day in Coerthas, you can get 15-20k per FATE, and they pop one after another after another. You don't need a group. You don't need a queue. Just go.

It's actually being able to do something for decent progression while waiting.

FATES.

No the solution is not on my end.

Yes, yes it is. It is completely on your end.

Who said anything about not being social? I clearly said I'm in an FC. I'm also in various link shells. As I said party finder is a dud and everyone in FC, friendslist, link shells, etc are either too bored with low level content and always seem to be busy doing something to avoid doing them, or many no longer play or get on much.

*snip*

I never said anything about not having friends or not being social. As I said in the OP no one wants to do low level content or always have something to do to avoid them, or never online, etc. The issue was about having something to do for decent progress while waiting to be able to group with people, such as duty queues.

Find new friends. Find new Linkshells. Find a new FC. Move to a different server.

[kyuven]

A good MMO is one where you are playing in a world where other players exist in the world at the same time, and if you want to party with them that is an option, not a requirement.I'm waiting for the day a proper MMO like that comes along that does not force party play, at least until endgame, so then things would be more enjoyable. This would solve many of the problems MMOs like this face.

It IS an option, not a requirement.
It just makes life easier.
You can totally get all lvl 50 classes with as much soldiery and poetics gear as you need without grouping...it's just slow.
This isn't a single player game, and that's not really the attitude you should be taking.
Games like that DO exist, but they're not MMOs. Not being able to find groups to do content is an inherent problem with the genre that you must assume going in. If you play an MMO "single player" you may as well be playing Monopoly single player. It's the same experience.

Not wanting to group in an MMO is like playing a fighting game and not wanting to throw punches.

[Krr]

i really love the creepy materialistic approach people on the OF take to friendships. "my friends cant help me win at a video game" "FIND NEW FRIENDS, ABANDON YOUR OLD, THEY ARE UNWORTHY. WHY ARENT YOU ACCUMULATING HUNDREDS OF FRIENDS TO USE LIKE TOOLS"

also 'you should find a group' no, really, you mean that thing people use df/pf to do isn't being accomplished effectively by df/pf?

the dps queues are baaad y'all, I'm over here leveling my alt's paladin job solely so I can farm my black mage zodiac in a reasonable time frame. that's obscene. i literally cannot make reasonable progress on my black mage weapon while playing black mage. is your answer to not having friends willing to run the piss cave between 5 and 10 times straight to seriously "get new friends?" i seriously want you to find 3 people who will hear the phrase "please run aurum vale with me potentially infinite times" and not begin clawing their eyes out in tyol 2015

am i doing it? yes. is it a valid solution? yes. do i fault anyone for deciding to just friggin' unsub rather than do that? absolutely not. the players willing to put up with this are minority contingent and it shows when content droughts like this are happening

we literally have over twice as many DPS jobs as non-DPS jobs. and while I believe there's no magic bullet solution to tank and healer shortages, queues of up to an hour for DPS players trying to do casual endgame content is literally something I have never experienced in any other major game ever, including several literally dead ones like aion. something can and hopefully will be done in heavensward between shiny new jobs and the ability to solo or semi-solo very casual content, but "basic things sensible players hope are fixed in heavensward" is kind of an endlessly growing list of basic design competencies this should have exhibited by 2.3

[Quesse]

None of this has to do with how long leveling takes. It has to do with being able to play the game while waiting on queue and getting some kind of decent progress for whatever I'm leveling... Fates and leves are horrendous and almost pointless, though leves are excellent 15 and under.... there needs to be a way to make some decent progress while waiting.

I guess you missed the part where I said I just leveled WAR/BLM/PLD to 50 only on fates/leves/farming. I only started at the beginning of the year. In the same time I've crafted all the decorations for my house, got my choco from Rank 7 to 10, got artisan tools for all my DoH. Oh got FSH to 1-50. I mean.... your definition of pointless is different than mine I guess >.>

With leves you get 20k every 2 minute leve. so that's 500k XP an hour. I mean.. how much faster do you want it exactly???? *confused* Its like you just want to be mad at something.