What's a good NA server to make a new character on?

[sharplysurreal]

I want to start fresh I like to do high level stuff but more important is a good community and good vibes

[Anienai]

Dynamis - Halicarnassus

[vetch]

If you want to do the endgame content you may as well pick a server in the Aether cluster.

That's where 90% of the high-end party finder groups get listed. If you don't live on Aether you'll be server-hopping over to it for all your high-end content anyway, and not being from there removes your access to retainers (the main way to make money in-game) for as long as you're away from your home server.

[Swordsman]

If you want to do the endgame content you may as well pick a server in the Aether cluster.

That's where 90% of the high-end party finder groups get listed. If you don't live on Aether you'll be server-hopping over to it for all your high-end content anyway, and not being from there removes your access to retainers (the main way to make money in-game) for as long as you're away from your home server.

This. Just stick to Aether DC if you want to get things done.

[Jojoya]

I want to start fresh I like to do high level stuff but more important is a good community and good vibes

How often do you play a week?

Do you plan to watch the cutscenes and read the dialogue for the MSQ or are you going to skip them in a rush to reach endgame?

Do you intend to purchase a job boost and story skip to reach end game even faster?

The Aether data center will probably be best for you in the long run if you're the most interested in high end raiding but you may want to start out on a New or Preferred world if you're going to level your character the "normal" way and don't have a huge amount of time to play each week.

Starting your character on a New or Preferred world gives you a large XP bonus until your selected job(s) reaches level 80. The bonus if started on a New world does not expire until the world's status changes or you transfer it to a different world, The bonus if started on a Preferred world lasts for 90 days. In both cases, you would have to wait 90 days after creating the character before you could transfer it to a different world.

The bonus is big enough that you can usually get at least 2 if not 3 jobs to level cap by doing MSQ with only a minimum of side content. Without the bonus, you'd have to do a fair amount of side content to get more than one job to 90 by the time you complete the 6.0 MSQ (which has to be completed to unlock current end game content).

What makes good community and/or good vibes is subjective. We do have data center travel so you can make one world in the same region your character's home world for the good vibes while traveling to another world when you're ready to raid. You can only join a FC, purchase a house/apartment and access your retainers (extra storage, selling items on the Marketboard) on your home world but otherwise you can do just about any content in the game on the world of your choice as long as it's in the same region.

It's hard to say what the right choice would be for you without knowing more about you and how you intend to approach the game. If your intent is to get to end game as fast as possible using the job boost and story skips, then creating your character on one of the Aether worlds is probably your best bet. If you plan to fully experience the MSQ as you go, then I would suggest a New or Preferred world.

[Amenara]

Join Aether (greg is the best ofc) if you don't want to go through the hassle and complications of DC travel, otherwise if that doesn't bother you than anything on Dynamis.

[Jojoya]

Join Aether (greg is the best ofc) if you don't want to go through the hassle and complications of DC travel, otherwise if that doesn't bother you than anything on Dynamis.

DC travel is rarely a hassle or complication. I use it frequently, just about daily on one character or another.

Generally it only takes about a minute. The exception would be patch week or the start of an expansion due to the higher volume of players online trying to use it.

I'd still agree that it sounds like an Aether world would be the OP's best bet in the long run.

[sharplysurreal]

Join Aether (greg is the best ofc) if you don't want to go through the hassle and complications of DC travel, otherwise if that doesn't bother you than anything on Dynamis.

what is greg like? i was thinking either there or jenova

[Myrany]

what is greg like? i was thinking either there or jenova

I liked Jenova when I played there. I moved off to be able to help real life family getting started on Dynamis when there was a free transfer and not because of anything wrong on Jenova.

[Toutatis]

DC travel is rarely a hassle or complication. I use it frequently, just about daily on one character or another.

Generally it only takes about a minute. The exception would be patch week or the start of an expansion due to the higher volume of players online trying to use it.

Personally I find DC travel to be a hassle. I’ve made a character on Dynamis for housing and every time I had to run a dungeon, I would have to DC travel which also meant no fc bonuses, no retainers, no selling on the MB, no crafting while waiting because it would fill up my inventory with mats and crafted items, no fc chat or linkshells from the home dc, no visiting my house, no fc chest, high travel costs on low level chars, gimped gold saucer while waiting (essentially none of the activities I do normally while I wait for the queue to pop or PF to fill) . I ended up abandoning that character. .

I have a character on Aether but my main is on Primal and I have pretty much stopped doing anything requiring PF on that char because I would just end up waiting idle while it fills (or refills if someone abandons). Primal used to have a healthy PF and the current situation is very annoying.

If I were starting with the game and was interested in end game content like OP, I would pick Aether. XP comes easy nowadays and levelling up 2-3 jobs with regular fc or gc and gear bonuses is very easy to do.