New player experience

[Sapphic]

Final Fantasy games are very storycentric, so to be honest you pretty much have to expect a lot of text for the story.

Agree with the GCD that when you are starting out it does seem slow, but when you get more and more skills plus skills that can weaved between the GCDs then add on having to dodge mechanics then it becomes perfectly fine.

But welcome to Eorzea and stick with it

Also not all servers are plagued by continuos gil speller spam, on Odin it's pretty rare. But I wouldn't be surprised if gil sellers target more the players under a certain level. not 100% on that tho.

[GenJoe]

The problem with 2.5 sec GCD is that it feels like it's designed for an 80 year old.. Yet, the game expects you to move around like a teenager at times.

So when I'm in combat, I'm basically moving around, stutter stepping like a mad man but I can't cast any skills so I'm auto attacking half the time

I keep myself entertained by going in circles around every mob I fight, doing mini jumping puzzles while fighting etc...

[JimboTCB]

About the gear rewards from quests... it's not like in WOW where quest rewards are unique and quite good and you end up replacing most of your gear every other level, the only rewards you get are the same as standard-quality stuff you can either craft yourself or just buy from NPCs. Pretty much every hub zone has an NPC who sells level-appropriate NQ gear, but the gear curve is pretty low so if you get any drops from dungeons they're usually good for 5-10 levels anyway.

The only time you ever get anything genuinely unique from quests is at levels 45 and 50 when you get your job-specific armour set, and you get given the entire set anyway with no need to pick and choose. The rest of the time you're basically just choosing whichever piece of vendor trash you've replaced least recently, and you can just buy everything else from a vendor stood nearby anyway.

[Kiara1]

I agree with some parts, but I really agree with the 2,5 seconds gcd. The fights ARE slow and that is something I was hoping they would change with the expansion but I haven't heard anything about it.

[Garlyle]

I'm honestly fine with XIV's combat pacing. I've been through MMORPGs with absolutely 0 cooldown time, where you're gated only by how fast you can spam the button... and I've been through XI's, where you're waiting a minute just to be able to do anything at low levels. XIV's GCD system seems a really nice midpoint between the two, allowing for more complex rotations and skill weaving where execution and speed still matters, while giving you enough "breathing room" to handle the other aspects of fights later on that require your attention.

It does drag at low levels, however, when you don't have many off-GCD abilities nor particularly complex rotations either (And Gladiator is like, the worst, in terms of rotation complexity)

[sciondar]

Gladiator/paladin is probably the slowest of the combat classes because you're meant to stand in the monster's face and annoy him with your shield. The marauder/warrior tank is a faster paced tank that helps you not notice the gcd as you get higher leveled. If you really want fast combat I'd suggest looking at the rogue/ninja then. That one has you doing flips and spins and you gain an ability to speed up your own attacks. Hope you continue enjoying the game!

[MageBlack]

If you liked the aesthetician then you will love the Hildebrand quests!

The combat speed really picks up when you have all your skills and good gear with skill/spell speed on it. Trust me, once you get to end game, its not as bad.

Most of your other complaints are coming from beta and the 1.0 experience is my guess. the time on dungeons is not really an issue like it was, there is more than enough time to complete the dungeon in its entirety way before the timer is up. Gil selling is an ongoing issue i'm afraid. using the /busy status helps with the tells or so I hear.

Keep plugging away and I would love to hear how things feel for you once you hit 50 then again once you complete all the MSQ. Good luck and I hope you enjoy the game!