If disciples of the land/hand were available from level 1, my friends would play

[Komoritane]

I wish that the devs would make one small change to the game, to allow players to avoid combat completely by removing the requirement to complete class quests to level 10 before you can gather or craft.

I have friends who do not wish to do combat at all, and personally I'm also becoming more tired of combat in videogames the older I get.

There is another mmo with very aggressive combat and pvp on all servers, which has a large community of gathering/crafting players who stay under level 50 and do zero combat. FFXIV is so much better of a match for casual players, I wish that I could recommend it to my friends who just want to gather or craft.

I even tried very hard to find a way to get through the level 10 job quest without killing anything (i.e. healing other players who are killing ladybugs), but it's just not peaceful or practical. Then if you complete the level 10 quest, you get hunt logs unlocked, and you forever have flags on your target enemies unless you kill them too, so where does it end?

The only other option is to use a jump/skip potion, but then you have a lot of npc's thanking you for killing enemies and saving the world, so I feel like that's not the best option for peaceful new players.

I imagine that the limitation of completing a disciple of war or magic job quest at level 10 was probably intended to minimize botting. However, it seems like gathering bots have managed to get past this limitation anyway, so maybe it is no longer relevant or necessary.

I think there are a lot of farming/simulation gamers who would enjoy joining in on the social aspect of an mmo game. I'd rather be able to talk people into playing FFXIV than see everyone go over to one of the upcoming low-combat mmos when they release, but no matter how much I recommend FFXIV, it's not interesting to my casual friend groups who don't want to play combat games.

It seems like the Island Sanctuary might have been intended to attract casual gamers, but unfortunately I will not be able to convince my friends to kill a lot of monsters so that they can get to endgame and trap alligators on an island, it won't work! Haha

I've seen posts on reddit of, for example, a max level fisher with a DRG at level 10, so I can't be the only person wishing for this, right?

[Jojoya]

This game is a combat game. It was not designed with a pacifist mode in mind. The player character is the Warrior of Light, not a random anonymous person free to choose what path they take.

Gathering bots don't get past the limitation. They still go through needed parts of the MSQ before getting switched to gathering.

There are ways for your friends to experience the social side of this game but they're going to be very limiting if they are unwilling to engage in combat through at least the level 20 MSQ.

Start a character as Arcanist or Marauder on one of the Dynamis worlds (important - that way they have the Road to 80 buff to get to level 10 with the absolute minimum of combat). Join a FC that has a FC house in Lavender Beds or Goblet. That will give them the ability to explore all the ARR zones in the game plus access Ocean Voyages. They'll be able to teleport between Limsa/La Noscea and their FC house at first then unlock other Aetherytes as they explore.

They will not get access to the Chocobo Porter. They will not be able to get Retainers. They will not get to participate in Seasonal Events. They will not be able to go to the Gold Saucer. They will not be able to get to any of the non-ARR zones though they will be able to visit friend houses in Empyreum and Shirogane.

If they're willing to deal with combat at least though the level 20 MSQ, then they can get access to those things with the exception of a couple of the Seasonal Events and the non-ARR zones.

Considering the MSQ really is not that combat heavy overall, I'd suggest to them that they at least give the game a try. If they're playing with friends who aren't combat adverse, they can be carried through the combat content with the exception of the solo duties and the current max level dungeons/trials. Or it could they decide the combat is not as bad as they fear.

If they truly want nothing to do with combat, then this is not the game for them. Not every game is intended to be suitable for every type of player. There are many other games out there to explore that don't have combat but do have social communities.

[Ransu]

I have friends who do not wish to do combat at all, and personally I'm also becoming more tired of combat in videogames the older I get.

This game is simply not for them then. Its really that simple.

[dspguy]

The Warrior of Light only gains access to many of these zones by completing quests, trials, etc. A gatherer would not be able to do that. Even if they allowed you to pick up DoH/L jobs at 1, it wouldn't get you very far. At a bare minimum, content would be locked at 50.

[boopadoop]

i think if that's what you want it's time to put down ffxiv and find a different game to get invested in unfortunately :t ffxiv is firstly an mmoRPG with a big story to tell that is only achievable through participating in the combat part of the game, there's a loooot of the game you're not touching with just gathering/crafting, n the same can be said if you're only playing for the combat n not touching the gathering/crafting, but - it's the foremost part of the game to tell its story. there are other games out there that tell its own story through a different gameplay like the harvest moon games, which i get, not MMO, but...there are things. i guess. minecraft peaceful?? staxel? i guess? staxel seems kinda dead tho. you'd just have to look.

but ffxiv isn't what you want anymore then, and that's okay. i'm not here for the super challenging stuff like savage and ultimate but I'm invested in the story and playing with friends when there are some to play with is fun. crafting/gathering is kind of a solo task anyway in this game so even if you had friends playing for that they'd be mostly doing their own thing you yours at the same time. you can play single player games n do the same thing and talk about it, same thing i guess, just make a discord server with them to chat about it with maybe?

[Canadane]

This is something 1.0 did and they distanced themselves from that a lot.

[Stepjam]

Honestly, sounds like this just isn't the game for you. Which is fine.