New/Returning Player, Having Difficuly Adjusting to The Game

[Avenfell]

Hello everyone, I spent approx. 12 years playing FFXI. I was pretty hardcore camping ground kings, assembled 2 relics in the original dynamis era when groups were required, and solo'd an additional 2 relics years later when the game shifted. I also solod several empyrean weapons and would consider myself a fairly skilled overall player in 11.
However since trying 14 I just feel completely lost, the job rotations at 60 are just far too complex for me to keep up while in these massive laser tag dodgeball multiple mechanic fights. Anytime I make 1 mistake I am 1shot the majority of the time and people either verbally undress me or just leave me down without an rez the remainder of the fight or instance.
I took brd, blm, and smn to 60 last year before getting overwhelmed and leaving, I have recently come back wanting to give it another go but so far I just sit in duty finder all day and everything feels the same. Anyone else experience this?

[Zeonsilt]

I quit in 2014 and returned in summer, 2016. While everything feels the same, i discovered a new "Machinist" class, which i really like atm. (So far i only play 3 classes - PLD, WAR and MCH)
Playing lasertag dodgeball while dishing a lot of DPS is our job, though. Learning mechanics/strategies/etc is a part of gameplay, they are not that hard to dodge when you expect them & prepared.


p.s. You can also try "Palace of the Dead" it's a "game-in-a-game", with separate "levels and equipment". Simplier version of roguelike/diablostyle games. It will also provide you with some Gil from Potsherds and bags.

[Ghastly]

My guess is that you're having problems with WASD and the number keys to do skills.

I really really really suggest you get a mouse with buttons if you don't have one so you can use mouse buttons for half or your skills.
Right now I only use 1-5 keys on the keyboard, rest on mouse.

Also try joining a good FC, an FC that won't run content with you is not a good FC. Try a different one.


I also suggest moving the HUD around so that important things are more in centered like the Focus target bar (focus target on pc is Shift + F). Focus target is 100% needed in this game, can't say that enough. I know too many new people who ignore it and they pay the price when boss does "Dragon's voice" or "Ram's voice" and they get killed.

[JunseiKei]

Practice your rotations outside of a fight until you can do them without having to think. For a fight, focus on mechanics before DPS. Often times, you'll fail to simply not having enough people alive over an actual DPS check. Once you know a fight, that's when you try and push your DPS to your heart's content. As stated above, focus target is a godsend and will help pull your eyes back to what the boss is about to do.

Forget everything you learned in FFXI. I've had so many FC mates compare this game with FFXI and try to play it like FFXI; don't. It's like comparing a first-person shooter to a side-scrolling or top-down shooter.

[Thunda_Cat_SMASH]

If you keep having difficulties with keyboard and mouse, you could always give a controller a try. The cross hotbar in this game works very well, so might help with any controller issues. Besides that though, in most fights you can focus more on mechanics while learning, then steadily put out more and more of the deeps once you're comfortable. Hang in there!

[Canadane]

Well you're on my server, so if you'd like someone to pair up with and give you a once over on what you could do to help, I'd be happy to assist. Just shoot me a tell.

Though my overall advice would be to keep trying different classes and jobs. One may clique with you and everything will become fantastic.

[Avenfell]

Thankyou for the feedback, currently using an controller, playing FFXI for 12 years of my life I never learned to play keyboard/mouse. I managed on games like TESO b/c I was able to just rebind keys to the numberpads and use the arrows, just never learned to use WASD.
I understand what some of you are saying on muscle memory, using a rotation long enough lets you pick your head up more and watch the action but its hard for me atm b/c I play bard primarily and its a priority system, I am constantly having to look at my crossbar to see if straight shot procd or bloodletter reset etc etc and its just so hard to keep an eye on my skills and see what everyone else is doing, I'm always a second late on getting the fk out of the way and get lit up.

[Ghastly]

Yeah this is where I would move everything to a better place in the HUD
I notice that the enemy bar is too high


Having to look at enemy bar up there and t hen your hotbar down on the screen is terrible. I moved most of my HUD to the middle. Move them around, you'll see how much it helps

I would also say that maybe you're more of a keyboard/mouse person but you don't know it yet. It could be the last resort that might work :P
Try moving the HUD around and see if that helps

[Serilda]

With the ability procs, the way I handle this is to have a fixed bar (the kind keyboard/mouse players use) right below my Focus Target bar and put all of my abilities with critically important cooldowns/proc conditions there. The bar is set up to be invisible for slots with no abilities so it doesn't add much clutter. I still trigger the skills from my crossbar as normal, but I watch the special extra bar for procs instead of dragging my eyes all the way to the bottom of my TV screen while I play to see whether Firestarter or Freecure is ready for use. It made my life a lot less miserable, and enabled me to put things with long cooldowns off the main crossbar so I could actually make some room.

[Avenfell]

Thanks again for the information, after moving things around today on my HUD and altering sizes etc I did see an improvement, will take some more tinkering. The main reason I came back though was the news that in 4.0 they would be addressing the bloated rotations, I know a lot of people have np with these 67 button rotations but for many others its just too much, I played BLM and BRD before HW, after WM and Enochian I lost all desire to play 14. I am trying to get re-used to BRD, it seems doable with some more practice but BLM is perma-retired aslong as enochian stays as is.