new/returning player's random questions.

[dragonstrike]

I see that a new expansion is coming out soon so I thought I would give this game another try. I always like playing support, and the dancer is sounding like a dps/support class. Might have to give that a try. Anyway I am still new to the game. Last time I played I never unlocked a higher level job. I am going with arcainest (sp) to get to summoner. Also doing Archer to get to bard. I remember liking being at range so I could see what was going on better. I thought about trying healer too, but I am worried I am not a good enough mmo player to handle that role. That is part of the reason I don't tank. I like the idea of being the meat shield, but I don't want to learn the dungeons. I am more casual I guess. Anyway sorry for the rambling. I just wanted to post some random questions on here. Sorry if these questions upset anyone. I don't mean to.

*I am a male, but I made my character a female because I rather look at a female avatar for how many hours I plan to put into this game. Do you think that is a bad idea? I don't want people to think I am trying to trick them. I wondering if I should buy the item that lets me switch to male.

*I like the idea of being able to summon cool monsters to fight for me. Just wondering how hard it will be to control a pet with a ps4 controller. Also what kind of summons can you get in this game? Do you get any the classic Final Fantasy summon monsters?

*As stated above I am not the most hardcore player. I am more a causal. Is that going to be a problem for joining guilds or anything? One of my favorite things about this game last time was playing Triple Triad.

I think that is it for now. I appreciate your time and input.

[Seraph522]

1) You are by no means alone in playing a character of a different gender than your own (it's actually relatively common, even accounting for stereotypes regarding people playing catgirls, etc.), and pretty much no one will actually care unless you make a big deal out of it yourself.

2) Summoner gains access to 'Egi' versions of some of the classic FF summons you fight in the main storyline - Ifrit, Titan, and Garuda. You also can summon a version of Bahamut at level 70 and once Shadowbringers drops, you'll be able to do the same for Phoenix. I don't play with a controller, so I can't speak to the difficulty of control, but especially in casual content you don't need to worry too much about micro-managing your pet, especially as a summoner; setting Ifrit to Sic and letting it do its thing is pretty straightforward.

3) Free Companies - this game's equivalent of guilds - are mostly social communities rather than devoted specifically to running content types, and there are plenty that mostly just act as places to hang out. There's a subreddit (r/FFXIVRECRUITMENT) and subforums here that are good places to look for guilds recruiting new members, and of course you can always end up joining one just through people you meet in game.

Also, don't feel bad about being a casual player - you're actually part of the majority who play the game. If you're enjoying Arcanist/Summoner, know that you can also gain access to the healer job Scholar that levels up at the same time as those two, so swapping over to healer should be pretty easy.

[Iscah]

I play summoner on PS4 - manual pet management is a bit of a pain, but at a casual playing level, it's fine to just summon Ifrit and leave him on "sic" so he does his own thing most of the time.


On character gender, I'm female but I've got a male alt character, so when he first joined an FC I had the same internal debate over whwther I needed to tell people or not. I did after a few days and nobody was bothered by it, and half the other members were playing characters opposite their own gender too!

If you're enjoying Arcanist/Summoner, know that you can also gain access to the healer job Scholar that levels up at the same time as those two, so swapping over to healer should be pretty easy.

I don't recommend Scholar for a first-time healer - it's relatively complicated with shields and aetherflow and managing the faerie.

If you want to try healing, sign up to the conjurers' guild in Gridania. That's the simplest of the three healers and a good introduction to the role.

[White_Wolf_X]

I see that a new expansion is coming out soon so I thought I would give this game another try. I always like playing support, and the dancer is sounding like a dps/support class. Might have to give that a try. Anyway I am still new to the game. Last time I played I never unlocked a higher level job. I am going with arcainest (sp) to get to summoner. Also doing Archer to get to bard. I remember liking being at range so I could see what was going on better. I thought about trying healer too, but I am worried I am not a good enough mmo player to handle that role. That is part of the reason I don't tank. I like the idea of being the meat shield, but I don't want to learn the dungeons. I am more casual I guess. Anyway sorry for the rambling. I just wanted to post some random questions on here. Sorry if these questions upset anyone. I don't mean to.

*I am a male, but I made my character a female because I rather look at a female avatar for how many hours I plan to put into this game. Do you think that is a bad idea? I don't want people to think I am trying to trick them. I wondering if I should buy the item that lets me switch to male.

*I like the idea of being able to summon cool monsters to fight for me. Just wondering how hard it will be to control a pet with a ps4 controller. Also what kind of summons can you get in this game? Do you get any the classic Final Fantasy summon monsters?

*As stated above I am not the most hardcore player. I am more a causal. Is that going to be a problem for joining guilds or anything? One of my favorite things about this game last time was playing Triple Triad.

I think that is it for now. I appreciate your time and input.

1: If you don't want to then no you should not, is all up to you.

2: Can't help with that as i only play on PC ( keyboard/mouse )

3: Just look for a casual free company and it should not matter.

[Cranky_Pantaloons]

*I am a male, but I made my character a female because I rather look at a female avatar for how many hours I plan to put into this game. Do you think that is a bad idea? I don't want people to think I am trying to trick them. I wondering if I should buy the item that lets me switch to male.

I'm new to FFXIV but not to MMOs and, let me tell you, this is a common thing across ALL games in the genre (and, supposedly, for the exact same reason as yours). In fact, it's so common that when meeting a "female" in game these days, you could probably just assume it's a male behind the keyboard and you'd be right about 90% of the time. I've personally never been one to play female characters in games, but to each their own. I think, so long as you don't try and attempt to pass yourself off as a female in RL in order to curry some kind of favor or gifts, you are ok. That doesn't mean you have to announce to the world every 2 minutes that you are, in fact, a dude ...but if someone asks or you think someone believes you are female and they are treating your differently because of it, you should be straightforward. Beyond that, no one really cares.

[Kemiko]

1) Play the avatar you want for whatever personal reason you have.

2) The game is not easier or more difficult on console or PC. Additionally, you can use a controller on PC or keyboard and mouse on console if you so choose. I prefer to use both on both.

3) Being a casual player is not beneficial or detrimental in any way. It is a choice, usually but not limited to lifestyle circumstance. What casual and hardcore means differs from person to person and neither are playing the game right or wrong. It's just a preference and you're free to play how you choose, within the restrictions of the ToS.

[Niwashi]

*I am a male, but I made my character a female because I rather look at a female avatar for how many hours I plan to put into this game. Do you think that is a bad idea? I don't want people to think I am trying to trick them. I wondering if I should buy the item that lets me switch to male.

As a woman whose main character is male (for pretty much the same reason) I've never seen an issue with it. It seems to be pretty common, in fact.

The only thing is that you need to be aware that in a game where we don't know the players' genders, the usual default for choosing pronouns is to base them on your character's gender. If you're going to freak out whenever someone refers to you as "she" then maybe you shouldn't play a woman character. But if that doesn't bother you, then go ahead, enjoy your pretty girl character.

*I like the idea of being able to summon cool monsters to fight for me. Just wondering how hard it will be to control a pet with a ps4 controller.

If you're going to micromanage your pet's actions (which is only really necessary in hard content) that takes some extra effort regardless of what control scheme you use. Personally, I think the controller is easier than keyboard, but it may take a bit of setup to get skills where you want them. (I recommend turning off the built-in "pet hotbar" and adding the pet skills to a regular cross hotbar —perhaps the one you use as your extended crossbar— so you can arrange them better.)

But I've heard Summoner and Scholar are among the jobs which are getting a pretty major revamp when the next expansion hits, with pet actions being treated more like character actions, so we'll have to see how it goes after that.

Also what kind of summons can you get in this game? Do you get any the classic Final Fantasy summon monsters?

Not in the big, flashy, visually exciting sense. Summoner pets are thematically related to primals that we've defeated, and those primals are classic Final Fantasy summons. But the pet versions we create from their leftover aetherical energy are much smaller and less visually impressive (presumably because a full blown classic FF summon would be too distracting to the rest of the party, but there are also story reasons why summoning a full-blown primal would be a bad thing).

*As stated above I am not the most hardcore player. I am more a causal. Is that going to be a problem for joining guilds or anything? One of my favorite things about this game last time was playing Triple Triad.

While there are some free companies looking specifically for hardcore players to join their raid parties, casual social FCs seem to be more common. So long as you're honest about what you're interested in when asking to join them it shouldn't be too hard to find a like-minded group.