Which Aether world to join?

[Caladir]

I'm returning to FFXIV and this time I'm bringing two friends with me. We were wondering which of the Aether (or even Primal, don't know the difference) would be best suited for new players? One of of loves crafting, another loves to PvP, and another loves a mixture of all of it.

It is my understanding that the market boards aren't cross-world, so whichever world we choose we're stuck with that market, however big or small. Our goal is to eventually have a medium to large land plot though!

I played on Jenova in the past but I'm looking for some fresh input.


Thanks!

[Risvertasashi]

The smaller the server is, the higher the prices are and the more markup crafters can charge (thus, more easily earned housing). PvP is done via duty finder and so the particular world doesn't matter.

The main reason to pick a larger server is social scenes outside of instanced content. If you don't particularly care about that (and the cross world PF gives less reason to), then your crafter friend would probably prefer the smaller world where markups are more generous and gil can be earned easily.

[Talraen]

The smaller the server is, the higher the prices are and the more markup crafters can charge (thus, more easily earned housing). PvP is done via duty finder and so the particular world doesn't matter.

I recently moved from Gilgamesh to Mateus, which is about as big a switch from high population to low population as you can manage, and that has not been my experience at all. Basic items and gear are worth far less, and sell much more slowly. However, I'm not talking about top end stuff, I'm talking about day to day leveling. Maybe the high end stuff is super expensive, I have no idea. But my feeling is a smaller server is not particularly conducive to leveling up crafts.

That said, if you love crafting and gathering, you can level them for free by leveling all 11 jobs in parallel and getting all your own mats. This works just as well on any server, because other people are irrelevant to the process. So if you want to craft for the fun of it, do whatever; if you want to become super rich, I can't give you any advice because that's not what I do so I have no input there.

Also if you want a house, definitely go to a smaller server. There are no large houses on Mateus, but plenty of medium and small. That was... not the case on Gilgamesh, lol.

[Risvertasashi]

I am indeed referring to high end items. I've been researching markets in prep for a transfer myself. While some things can be close, others can be as much as 6.4x times as expensive...Just among the items I've tracked.

Gilgamesh and Balmung, being the highest population NA servers, tend to have much lower prices for high end items. Anything from IW crafting gear to the latest glamor outfits, and so on. The upside to this is, transferring away from those servers, you can also make quite a bit of profit if you play your cards right.

[ToasterMan]

I am indeed referring to high end items. I've been researching markets in prep for a transfer myself. While some things can be close, others can be as much as 6.4x times as expensive...Just among the items I've tracked.

There's just something I'm wondering about. Do these high end items actually sell on those servers? Who's going to buy them if the population is so small?

[sarehptar]

I normally wouldn't have recommended Coeurl, but with the cross-world party finder now making it easy to find parties to clear even savage raids, there's really no reason not to come to a small server anymore unless you're playing specifically to meet new people and socialize online. Coeurl has only a few truly dedicated crafters, so our prices are quite high and crafters can make a pretty penny. One of the crafters from our server actually hit the maximum cap on gil, so...

Not to mention, we also have housing available. Because it is a small server, you can achieve your dreams of a medium (and probably as soon as Stormblood hits, large too) housing plot very easily on Coeurl. And there are plenty enough FCs that I'm sure you could find one that well suits you. We're definitely not an hugely bustling world like say Balmung or Gilgamesh, but I feel like there's enough people here that it's not boring or dead.

I feel like people from Coeurl tend to be very sarcastic though, so if that's not your cup of tea...

[ErikMynhier]

Balmung baby! Come join the madness!

[technole]

Gilgamesh and Balmung, being the highest population NA servers, tend to have much lower prices for high end items. Anything from IW crafting gear to the latest glamor outfits, and so on. The upside to this is, transferring away from those servers, you can also make quite a bit of profit if you play your cards right.

Pretty much. I moved a character out of Gilgamesh to a smaller server and made about 5x the amount I would have on Gilga.

On the flip-side, raid consumables are 20-25% more expensive than they were on Gilgamesh. Amount of raiders and end-game crafters on the server matters.

[Makeda]

If your goal is to have a plot of land... just set aside the money for a server transfer now. By the time you have fund there's likely to only be one housing plot across all servers available anyway - and where it is where you will go.

For now... focus on a server where you can play the market as fast as possible, and focus on doing that... so you can hopefully get there before that last plot is sold... and not have to wait for someone to abandon theirs... somewhere...

I am expecting all of the new Stormblood ones to be gone by the end of week one of launch, across most servers... maybe even before launch if pre-purchase people can reach the zone in time...

That said... there will be some people who are prepping to abandon their plots now... in the hopes that they can win that rush out of the gate on Stormblood... so between now and June 20th is likely the last time in FFXIV for the next few years that houses will be available...

[Talraen]

If your goal is to have a plot of land... just set aside the money for a server transfer now. By the time you have fund there's likely to only be one housing plot across all servers available anyway - and where it is where you will go.

You can't currently transfer enough money to buy anything but a small house (and even that would take extra retainers). But they did say in the Live Letter they may start removing the gil transfer cap when transferring to certain servers (i.e., small ones).

But there are tons of small and medium houses on Mateus (which is the lowest-populated Aether server), so you can absolutely get a house right now if that's your priority. Just be aware that once you have that house, you'll lose it if you transfer. It doesn't sound like the "moving" implementation will help with that, either, but who knows.