Newb questions @_@

[KungPaoChicken]

Hi! I've been playing for like 4 days >.< (5th now)
and I'm wondering like how does someone bypass the "character restriction" thing when making a new character? I'm trying to make someone join but the server is grayed out.

I also want to try Balmung but will it always be never open? I sacrificed a day without sleep and it never opened.

Lastly, are scholars that bad? I'm having fun as a scholar but as I got to 40s, I had a few tanks abandon asap after everyone skipped the cinematic...
So far the only tanks that died on me was due to tank rushing and me dying from getting aggro'd (even though I turn off cleric stance while healing).

[SundayTrash]

First Balmung is always full, only way to get in is by xfer or right when the server goes down or come back up. Second, Sch is one of the most demanding jobs, ppl probably leave due to the lenght of the dungeon or new player bonus.

[Naria]

Hi! Welcome to Eorzea!

1) The only way to bypass the lock out is to pay for a character transfer. Otherwise you just have to wait for the restriction to be lifted. The resctrictions are based on how many characters are logged into the server at that moment. Since we just had a patch last week, people are playing more. As people return to their normal play schedules, most servers will open back up in a week or two. I'd recommend that your friend save their character data so that when the server does open up, they can join quickly.

2) Balmung is an incredibly large server. The only over server in the game that has a larger population is Gilgamesh. I've heard that sometimes Balmung can open for new characters right after maintenance, but I've never seen it myself. If you want to play there you're probably going to just have to pay for the server transfer.

3)SCHs are generally considered the most OP healer in the game (although this has less to do with the power of their heals than is does to do with their ability to heal and dps at the same time by controlling their fairy). I have no idea what is going on with your tanks. Cleric's should always be off while healing, since it completly nerfs heals. Don't be afraid to turn it on and do some damage though, when it is safe. If you are concerned it is because of some mistake you are making then perhaps give a bit more detail of what is happen in your parties?

[Niwashi]

The character creation restrictions are based on the number of players currently online, so just trying to create a character at low-traffic times (like early morning weekdays) is enough in many cases. When there's a maintenance window you can get an even better chance in the last few minutes before maintenance, when people are logging off in preparation for the shutdown, or the first few minutes after the maintenance window is finished, when most haven't logged back on yet. (Oh, and you should go through the character designing stage ahead of time, make all the choices you'll want, and then save the character appearance, so you can select that saved appearance when actually trying to create the character at a specific time.)

Balmung is one of the hardest to get on. It's crowded enough that the early morning windows don't usually open up (though occasionally it might, if you get really lucky). Before/after maintenance may work better. Or if you're willing to spend money on it, there's the World Transfer Service as a fallback solution. Despite the description saying you can't transfer to worlds closed for creation, many people do it and it seems to always work. (A possible theory is that it's just better able to find momentary windows of opportunity that someone trying to manually check and check again would tend to miss.)


As to your second question, scholars can be great when played well. Sometimes people abandon for stupid reasons or for no apparent reason. It can happen occasionally no matter what job you're on, and if they're just exiting without explanation, it may have nothing to do with you. Maybe they were hoping for an in-progress run, or were doing roulette and hoping for a dungeon they liked better, or any of a number of other reasons. I wouldn't be too concerned unless it's happening a lot.

[KungPaoChicken]

I tried making a character on Balmung and it never opened when I camped the character selection screen the whole day and night after the last maintenance. So gave up on that, not like I have friends there anyways. I just thought that with more players = shorter queues. Someone told me to always leave stance on which I don't understand well since I feel like my stats are jumbled. When I was still an arca, I invested alot on INT having no idea that sch are sharing stats with arca so when I reached 30, I started putting more on mnd. I've had people tell me that whm are the best healers in game but I really love having a fairy since it keeps me company when I'm solo like most of the time. tbh I'm confused how Cleric stance exactly switches int to mnd or vice versa..So should I just pour all my stats on mnd still? Also what if I want to try smn, wouldn't that mean I need to stat reset to pour all my stats to int?

[Powe]

Honestly, depending on what situation and what level you are, you can leave cleric on since you have eos( Selene is weak in my opinion) but later when you get aldoqium and succor you'll need to have cleric off when you use that. Also for the whole int and mind stats, there's a item you get from your grand company store it's called the something hyme, it resets your bonus attribute points so it's great for that situation. Also not sure if this was said but always leave your fairys, egis and pets on obey, you'll save time that way.

[Niwashi]

I just thought that with more players = shorter queues.

More players can mean more Party Finder listings to join (or more people to join yours). And particularly in the case of Balmung, it can mean more player-created events, parties, and other activities going on. But it won't speed up Duty Finder queues, since those pull in players from all worlds on a data center. Any world in the Aether data center will have the same DF queues as Balmung.

Someone told me to always leave stance on which I don't understand well since I feel like my stats are jumbled.

Yeah, that's not very good advice. Cleric Stance does three things. (1) It trades out your Int stat and your Mind stat. Particularly once you reach level 50 and above so are using healer-specific gear (rather than the generic DoM leveling gear), you'll have a lot more Mind than Intelligence, so trading those two values makes your attacks stronger. (2) It raises the power of your attacks by 10%. And (3) It lowers the power of your healing spells by 20%.

What you should be doing is switching the stance on and off according to what you're doing at the time. Whenever you cast a healing spell, have the stance off, and whenever you attack, have the stance on. The only case in which you might just leave Cleric Stance on is if you're DPSing throughout the entire run. (Occasionally in really low-level content, your fairy can take care of all the healing while you just DPS. The stance only affects your own attacks and heals, not your fairy's.) If you're running new content you're not comfortable with yet and want to avoid the distraction of stance-dancing back and forth, it's better to just leave Cleric Stance off so at least your heals are at full power than to leave it on the whole time making your attacks better at the cost of not healing as well. (It's good to do some of both, but prioritize the one your role calls for.)

When I was still an arca, I invested alot on INT having no idea that sch are sharing stats with arca so when I reached 30, I started putting more on mnd. I've had people tell me that whm are the best healers in game but I really love having a fairy since it keeps me company when I'm solo like most of the time. tbh I'm confused how Cleric stance exactly switches int to mnd or vice versa..So should I just pour all my stats on mnd still? Also what if I want to try smn, wouldn't that mean I need to stat reset to pour all my stats to int?

Scholar is better off with all points in Mind, and Summoner is better off with all points in Intelligence. But except for the hardest of content where you have to completely optimize everything, either one does fine with splitting the points some to one and some to the other. (You'll get a lot more points from your gear than those bonus points anyway.)

Whether you want to optimize the job you play more at a slight detriment to the other, balance both of them, or keep resetting your points back and forth according to which job you're playing at the time, is up to you. At least the item to reset them can be gotten pretty cheap from your GC.

[KungPaoChicken]

I usually leave my fairies on obey and I usually change the fairies depending the situation. I often run selene for bosses that debuff alot which saved my party on numerous occasions. On the other hand eos is saved my party on dungeons I'm running for the first time.

Also I don't understand what's so bad with the new player bonus in dungeons..shouldn't that be a good thing due to more exp? Or is there more?

[Naria]

As a sch it would be a good idea to check out this thread: How to train your fairy. The problem is if a person wants to do a speed run, they are more likely to take off if they see someone is new. Honestly, it is just people being brats, and I don't see it that often in leveling content. If they are taking off right before any pulls, then you are having a run of bad luck. As for whm being the "best healer" they certainly have the most powerful heals and heals over time in the game. Due to how the game works at endgame though that doesn't necessary make them the "best healer". That said all three healers have a function and are perfectly viable at 60. You generally don't want to double up on the same healer (i.e sch/sch, ast/ast, etc) but other than that which healers you have are not really going to matter.

[Anova]

Scholar is widely considered to be the best healer (admittedly, healers have become much more balanced lately), but makes up for it by also having the highest skill cap. White mage is the easiest healer to master and is considered the best healer for beginners to the MMO genre in general. If you've had even a month or so playing any MMO made in the last 10 years, the white mage healing mechanics will be familiar. Considering you spent this long as a scholar, there's no reason to question changing now; although having a second healer class can help you learn how to synergize with them better in 8 and 24-man content.

As for the Server issue, it's fine as long as you're in the same shard as Balmung. You won't get access to the social network, but all servers in the same shard (or server group) share dutyfinder and player matching queues. The problem is if you want to meet with friends or specific parties/linkshells/free companies on Balmung. Balmung has a very large and active rp community, which contributes to its popularity.

And on your tanks: it's really hard to say. Most players are generally okay with new players. Your character is a little under-geared for your level, but it's not a huge difference. There are also some dungeons that are hugely unpopular at your level, mostly because they're more difficult, longer, or have some mechanic that players don't like. Players are generally hesitant about playing with a new tank on Brayflox, while Cutter's Cry and Stone Vigil are considered too long for some, and people just hate Aurum Vale because of all the debuffs (spoiler: it's the Malboro dungeon) and the complex mob pathing that can potentially pull adds from the entire room.