A Few Newbie Questions

[Niluriel]

Hello, I tried this game out a little while back and wasn't too sure about it... to be honest I felt a little intimidated by the abundance of new systems, rotations and terms to learn. Recently however, I decided to come back and give it another go. Didn't want to let some silly, little fear make me miss out!

Although I am new too FFXIV and I have played, at least somewhat "skillfully", many other online games from Ultima to Ragnarok to Lineage, Rift, WoW, Aion, Tera, SWtOR, LotRO, etc... but I hope to make my next home here for a very long while. However, since beginning my journey to Dragoon I ran into a few questions I was hoping a more experienced member of the community might be able to answer.

Thanks in advance to anyone who takes the time to read this and reply! My questions are as follows:

1. Should I level to max before learning another class?

One NPC at the lancer guild suggested in some quest dialogue that I should level to 50 before anything, but I thought I needed to raise another class before I could learn my job? Does it really matter?

2. What is the best way to make moola in FFXIV?

I have to admit, in just about every game I ever played I am always the poorest person I know. It probably doesn't help that I have virtually no self control when it comes to vanity items like pretty hats and cute pets but I am determined to spend my currency more responsibly this time around. So if one were interested in joining the local millionaires class, what is the best way to go about doing that? Do I start now or after max level?

3. Do I need to do any homework before Satasha?

I have been leveling via quests, fates and recently discovered battlecraft leves as well. However I hit a bit of a wall quest wise as I am required to use the duty finder to enter the dungeon Satasha before I can progress any further in my main story. Is this something I need to study up on rotations and boss mechanics for? Or since it's low level is it just the typical tank & spank stuff? Or maybe its farmed by high level people who like to blow through it? Does that mean I need to find a lowbie friendly FC first?

5. What are linkshells?

I have heard a bit about linkshells but am not too sure what they are... they sound a bit like chat rooms? Wouldn't being connected to a few of them be too chaotic and too hard to follow? Or am I understanding this wrong?

6. Does this game have any known issues with 4k display support? Or other resolutions?

I recently made the not so bright decision of upgrading to a 4k display setup. Just about every game I tried to play (including this one) could not load the native res in spite of my video card (Nvidia GTX980) being powerful enough. Futhermore I absolutely hated all the scaling issues in windows and other programs so I downgraded to a 28" 1080p... however I noticed when I tab out of FFXIV to Firefox, VLC or other things (on a second moniter) the game window doesn't minimize or stay put, but rather shrinks into some 1/4 screen squished mess. Is this normal? Should I be worried?

Thanks so much again to anyone who replies and sorry for my being so long-winded. I'm a wordy person, I just can't help it.

[Niwashi]

1. Should I level to max before learning another class?

You should at the very least take a detour at level 30 to pick up the secondary class needed to unlock your job.

Whether you want to do more than that is a personal preference sort of issue. Getting secondary and tertiary classes high enough for all their cross-class skills is useful, (and since you'll definitely want it eventually at endgame, may as well do it early so you have those skills available while leveling as well). Adding additional classes/jobs besides your main gives you more flexibility in what you want to focus on any particular day. Some people like to leave all that for after they get their first job fully leveled. Others like to do several of them side by side. There's no major advantage either way.

2. What is the best way to make moola in FFXIV?

Crafting and gathering. But to do it well, you need to level all eight of the crafting classes and two or three of the gathering classes, so it's a major time commitment.

3. Do I need to do any homework before Satasha?

It's not truly necessary, but you can look up a guide or two if you want an idea of what's coming, like:
eorzeareborn.com/sastasha-dungeon-guide
finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Sastasha
As you get into later dungeons with more complex mechanics, more people will start expecting you to know how to deal with them in advance. In the first few dungeons, people will be happy if you know your class skills and your role.

There's some mechanics even in Sastasha, like clams that can only be attacked when their shell is open, or grates in the floor of the final boss room that bubble when an add is about to spawn, and you can prevent the add spawn by interacting with the bubbling grate. But the mechanics don't have major consequences for failure until later dungeons, so some players just ignore them and treat it as a basic tank and spank.

5. What are linkshells?

private chat channels. If all are highly active, being in several could be rather chaotic, but lots of them sit idle until a conversation gets started. You won't necessarily have simultaneous conversations going on in several linkshells at once. If yours are active enough that that happens regularly, you can seperate them out to different chat tabs to help keep them clear.

6. Does this game have any known issues with 4k display support? Or other resolutions?

I don't know personally, but saw this in a recent Letter from the Producer thread:

4K resolution support
We’ve been receiving comments from players who have high-spec PCs and 4K displays mentioning that the UI is too small. We will be addressing this over multiple patches.

[Yukileonhart]

First welcome to the game ^^ hope you enjoy your time
Ok to answer your questions :
1- you can do all jobs and explore all the possibilities in the game and classes you might get an interest in another class .
2- about the gil if you save up abit from just the main story and the side quests reward you might end up with more that 1mil by reaching 50 as for minions and glamour gear youll find minions a cross the game and glamour gear youll get the ability to do it after lvl 50
3- home work is needed tbh in dungs after lvl50 before you can speed read it or just ask if ylu get lucky in a party
4- linkshells it's basically a group of ppl not from the same FC gathered togther mostly used for raids and hunts
5- as far as i know no the game has no prob with that .
And once again enjoy your time in the game .

[WeekendSoja]

Everyone nailed all the questions just missed one detail about that NPC talking about level 50 and all that jazz. It's just in reference to the "armoury bonus". This bonus is active for all dow/dom jobs that are lower level than your highest class and it grants those lower level jobs a xp bonus of 50%. The NPC is just referencing the previous maximum level but again this bonus works for lower level jobs. So if your highest level is 30, all jobs lower will get 50% more xp

[Joe_Schmoe]

From one newbie to another:

1. Should I level to max before learning another class?

With the way classes work you're best off leveling all of them fairly evenly, cross-class/discipline skills, job requirements etc. Not to mention that a lot of those crafting skills require materials from other skills as well, and the market boards can have some price gougers in there (voice of experience), so you're best off going DIY, provided you have the time.

2. What is the best way to make moola in FFXIV?

By not spending it, ideally. Nearly everything you do in this game makes you money in various degrees, so you'll never have a problem in that department. It's just a matter of not blowing a hole in your pocket, especially if it would only save you a few minutes of time (again, voice of experience on that one :\ ).

3. Do I need to do any homework before Satasha?

Just a YouTube video and/or Google, just to get a feel for what you're up against. The early dungeons at least, have mechanics that have to be respected, but they're not rocket science. Basically, you get better at running dungeons by running dungeons, not by /dancing.

[Urthdigger]

As far as Sastasha homework, all that's really needed is to learn your role. For lancer, this means understanding your skills and working out a rotation to use. Not 100% certain on this, but this will likely involve starting off with Heavy Thrust for the buff (preferably do it from the monster's side for bonus damage), then spam Impulse Drive from behind (This will actually do more damage than your True Thrust + Vorpal Thrust, which is 150 + 200 potency over two turns, or average 175 potency per turn, while Impulse Drive is straight up 180 potency per attack). Put Heavy Thrust back up whenever your buff falls off, use Leg Sweep periodically for damage (On some mobs you may wish to avoid using stunning moves so they can be stunned to interrupt certain moves. No monsters really require this in Sastasha), and you should be golden. I wouldn't really worry about Feint, it can reduce damage dealt to the tank, but the healer should be more than capable of keeping the tank up and DPSing without the enfeeble.

Naturally, your rotation will change as you level up and learn new skills. Of particular note, damage over time abilities like Phlebotomize at level 30 should be kept up whenever possible (Unless the mob is close to death), as they basically function as your most powerful attacks once all the damage has been dealt from it.

[Kosmos992k]

Regarding making gil in this game;

Crafting and gathering. any and all HQ precursors that you can sell will always sell at a premium and sell reasonably well. By pre-cursor, I mean raw materials and/or basic crafted items used as ingredients in other recipes. The best two examples are lumber and ingots. that So you might sell ores or logs/branches - for example, but depending on the items, you may find that the finished lumber sells better than the logs (so you can always level your CRP and use a simple macro to HQ the lumber. The same is true of blacksmith and armorer, make ingots, plates, nails and seel the HQ ones. These are relatively easy to HQ once you are a few levels beyond the level of the recipe. Leather is also good in the same manner, and there are good items for weaver too. To a great extent your ability to make gil this way depends on the time you are willing to put into it.

Retainers can be a good source, they occasionally bring home something rare from the ventures that you send them on (depends on their level and ilvl), sometimes it's something very rare that you may be able to sell for millions of gil on the market board. They can also be used to gather raw materials as well as shards and the like.

Finally, the Challenge log is a reliable source of gil, not a huge source, but it's kind of an incidental bonus, so pay attention to it, you might find that with a little change to your routine, you can gain additional, 'free' gil.

[Niwashi]

Before getting into dungeons (on any of the melee damage dealer classes), go back over the descriptions of each of your skills, paying particular attention to ones that have bonus damage when attacking from a particular direction. Since getting those positional bonuses is rarely possible while soloing, a lot of players disregard that aspect when they first get the skills and then forget about it by the time they get into a group. In a group, you'll hopefully have a tank keeping the mobs stationary enough that you have the freedom to move around them to wherever you need to be for those positional bonuses. They finally become useful, so you'll want to learn which attacks are best from which direction.


Oh, and if you haven't yet, you need to learn to recognize when a mob is readying an Area of Effect attack, and get into the habit of always moving out of the way of them. For some attacks this matters more than for others, but it's never a good idea to stand in that attack range if you don't have to. In most cases, the area is shown by a reddish orange mark on the floor. (A few primals and bosses have specialized markers to show their attacks' area, rather than the default orange glow. When they do, it's generally something pretty obvious, and you won't have to worry about that in Sastasha, anyway. I think the first time you see a specialized AoE marker rather than the default one is when you fight the primal Ifrit at level 20.)

If you have your visual effects on their default (showing "All" effects for everyone), the screen can sometimes get obscured by so many flashing flaming effects that it becomes hard to see those markers on the ground, so I recommend going into Character Settings and lowing the visual effects at least for other members of your party to "Limited" or "None" rather than "All".

[Niluriel]

Thank you everyone for the very warm welcome and helpful replies!

It's not truly necessary, but you can look up a guide or two if you want an idea of what's coming, like:
eorzeareborn.com/sastasha-dungeon-guide
finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Sastasha

I don't know personally, but saw this in a recent Letter from the Producer thread:

Thank you for the links (and advice too!)

Everyone nailed all the questions just missed one detail about that NPC talking about level 50 and all that jazz. It's just in reference to the "armoury bonus". This bonus is active for all dow/dom jobs that are lower level than your highest class and it grants those lower level jobs a xp bonus of 50%.

Oh I see... thanks for clearing that up! Also, good to know for leveling other classes.

As far as Sastasha homework, all that's really needed is to learn your role. For lancer, this means understanding your skills and working out a rotation to use. Not 100% certain on this, but this will likely involve starting off with Heavy Thrust for the buff (preferably do it from the monster's side for bonus damage), then spam Impulse Drive from behind (This will actually do more damage than your True Thrust + Vorpal Thrust, which is 150 + 200 potency over two turns, or average 175 potency per turn, while Impulse Drive is straight up 180 potency per attack). Put Heavy Thrust back up whenever your buff falls off, use Leg Sweep periodically for damage (On some mobs you may wish to avoid using stunning moves so they can be stunned to interrupt certain moves. No monsters really require this in Sastasha), and you should be golden. I wouldn't really worry about Feint, it can reduce damage dealt to the tank, but the healer should be more than capable of keeping the tank up and DPSing without the enfeeble.

Naturally, your rotation will change as you level up and learn new skills. Of particular note, damage over time abilities like Phlebotomize at level 30 should be kept up whenever possible (Unless the mob is close to death), as they basically function as your most powerful attacks once all the damage has been dealt from it.

Thanks for this! I did actually notice Impulse drive (twice consecutively) did marginally more damage than my combo would... wasn't sure if that would change at higher levels but was a bit worried people would accuse me of button mashing if they saw me spamming one skill.

Regarding making gil in this game;

Crafting and gathering. any and all HQ precursors that you can sell will always sell at a premium and sell reasonably well. By pre-cursor, I mean raw materials and/or basic crafted items used as ingredients in other recipes...

A lot of great material here! Thanks you!

If you have your visual effects on their default (showing "All" effects for everyone), the screen can sometimes get obscured by so many flashing flaming effects that it becomes hard to see those markers on the ground, so I recommend going into Character Settings and lowing the visual effects at least for other members of your party to "Limited" or "None" rather than "All".

A very good tip, thanks I will do that! Also, don't worry... I did read my positional bonuses (like using heavy thrust on flank) and try to step out of the orange aoe or "bad" as quickly as possible.

By not spending it, ideally. Nearly everything you do in this game makes you money in various degrees, so you'll never have a problem in that department. It's just a matter of not blowing a hole in your pocket, especially if it would only save you a few minutes of time (again, voice of experience on that one :\ ).

Lol... hopefully my self control is better this time around.

2- about the gil if you save up abit from just the main story and the side quests reward you might end up with more that 1mil by reaching 50 as for minions and glamour gear youll find minions a cross the game and glamour gear youll get the ability to do it after lvl 50

Can't wait! And thanks again so much for the warm welcome!

[Niwashi]

I did actually notice Impulse drive (twice consecutively) did marginally more damage than my combo would... wasn't sure if that would change at higher levels but was a bit worried people would accuse me of button mashing if they saw me spamming one skill.

Once you get Full Thrust (level 26 I believe), then the True Thrust > Vorpal Thrust > Full Thrust combo is more effective. It's just while you only have 2/3 of the final combo that Impulse drive outweighs it.