Quote Originally Posted by Dement View Post
If you're going to try to get onto Balmung or Gilgamesh, you actually have a golden opportunity coming up. The restrictions are typically lifted for a brief time after a major patch as no one is logged in when the servers come back online. I've heard this grants an opportunity to create a new character before the restrictions are triggered again. It just so happens that the next major patch will be taking place next Monday night with the servers coming back online a 2 AM Pacific Time (5 AM Eastern Time). If you get up early and try to make a new character at 5 AM Eastern, you should have a decent chance of getting on one of the higher population servers.
The restrictions are entirely based on the amount of people logged in or trying to log in. The second maintenance finishes after a major patch is notorious for some of the longest queues actually and a couple other times causing problems with the servers due to the amount of people trying to log in. The better chances are the maintenances that usually occur during the following week.

I've seen TeamSpeak, Mumble, and Discord used for voice chat.