WoW to FFXIV transition guide..

[Masamune1004]

Be prepared to not know what you should do next. This game will not hold your hand.

[neorei]

Be prepared to not know what you should do next. This game will not hold your hand.

unless you have good people around you, if not, this game will punch you in the throat

[Punainen]

I'm not sure what 'transition' guidance is needed beyond...

Step one: Don't expect this game to be WoW.

Done.

[Priya]

Kids are learning and adapting machines. Old fogies not so much.

As far as them not liking the default control scheme tell them to "quit yer bitchen and fix it". The keyboard is fully configurable in game under the config menu. Outside of that just make sure they know the basics. But i don't know what the new user experience looks like these days. So I dont know where to start giving advice.

It's actually NOT fully configurable. Not at all. Honestly, the complete LACK OF configuration is going to be a HUGE turn off for someone coming from a game that let's them use virtually any button they want for their skills.

Unless you boot up some AutoHotkey script or something similar, your options are 1-0, ctrl+1-0, and alt+1-0. You don't get shift as a modifier, you do not get to map skills to letters or to your mouse. You do not get mouse over macro capabilities (it will always be click thing to target it > hit applicable button) Your life as a mouse/keyboard user is going to involve an awful lot of clicking as well. The best way I've personally found to deal with any of this is map my action bar shifts to Q and E-- at least then I can scroll to my next bar and hit 1-5 a bit more quickly.

I played XI as my first MMO for 3.5 years (and I still LOVE it) before I touched WoW, but I can't go back to the two hands on the keyboard now. The only reason I don't ditch this game over keybinds is because 2.0 promises I will have more control.

It's going to be hard for anyone without loving nostalgia for a game like XI to stick with a game like XIV when most of the controls are so outrageously sub par. That's where this game tries to "hand-hold." They give you very few options for anything other than their way.

If you love Final Fantasy in general and are very lore-centric, it helps deal with the lack of functionality in other areas. The two Final Fantasy MMOs present their stories more prominently and much better than WoW does.

[Valantrix]

Hey thank you to everyone who has replied with helpful advice.

[Hycinthus]

I think the most apparent difference for me, between WoW-style MMOs (WoW, TERA, Rift, Aion, SWTOR, AoC, EQ2, LOTRO, GW) and FF14, is the questing system. All of the WoW-style MMOs have quest hubs. You go into this quest hub, pick up 8-10 quests, and you do a loop through the zone, and finally, the final quest leads you to the next hub. And then to the next zone. Your hand is being held the entire time through. When you logon, you continue questing. Usually these quests have their own mini-arch-plot. At the end of the zone, the quest usually concludes with defeating a mini-NM, or some group quests.

In FFXI and the current FFXIV, there is no such thing really. That's what they have to understand. They cannot expect to go to one quest hub, and pick up 8-10 quests. But this may change for 2.0? I don't know because Yoshida says he has been looking at WoW for their systems, etc. For me this is the major cultural shock.

In reply to my own post, I just read this interview:

RPG Site: As far as gameplay goes, how will grinding vs. quests work for leveling? Will players find more reward from taking on more quests as opposed to just outright level grinding?
Yoshida: We will be moving away from a grind-oriented leveling system to a quest/content-driven leveling system. No longer will randomly defeating public monsters be the most efficient way to level your character.


So there we go, hopefully in 2.0 it will be easier for your friend to transition, because it is more questing system now.

[fusional]

Tell them that everything in this game is like farming Ashes of Al'ar from Kael but with a group needed and they'll have the right mindset. Well, maybe minus the lockout.

this is amusingly accurate

[Altera]

When I came to XIV after playing WOW for 6 years. I completely pushed everything I knew about WOW and got to learn how to play XIV from a whole different perspective. If people try to compare WOW to XIV, it wont go well imo.
Playing with a controller and finetuning macros etc has made it so I dont want to go back to WOWs type of button mashing system.

In XIV, I love watching the animations as my character casts spells or goes nuts as Monk. Over seeing just flashy things appear, arms flailing hitting every single abilities on every GCDs as a Deathknight.

Just need to learn to time when to use the special attacks that locks you in place during the animation.

And yes. As someone already mentioned. This game will not hold your hands and always guide you to the next "questing hub". You need to explore, ask around ingame etc
I actually love it being like that too. As it makes me explore more of Eorzea. While in WoW its more fly/portal to next questing area. Love that there is also no flying mounts in XIV. Not being able to fly over everything really makes the world look big. A feeling that I felt was lacking in WOW, specially Cataclysm.

[Catalyst67]

The thing that makes me want to uninstall FFXIV is the animation locks and the unresponsive actions that you use. I mean seriously, when I use an ability, I don't want my character to squat down for two seconds and take a sh1t (for example: invigorate). That is precious time in battle I don't want to waste, for DD and for the animation lock trying to move or dodge something.

[Giit]

from my pov, as someone who came from a game with everything i wanted in it, including pvp (but a lack of players/decent management) it took a HUGE leap of faith to get into XIV. if a friend of mine that already played FF games for many years didn't keep telling me "it gets so much better once you're 50!" I would have quit at around level 20.

there's no room or reason to stop and breath along the way like there is in others games that you have things like twink pvp, or mid level events (locked out to higher levels) in. it's just a straight shot from 1 to the very top heavy top of 50.

XIV feels very umm..."suffocating" at first ^^ esp. if you're used to jumping, being able to take shortcuts over obstacles, flying around, etc. and the total lack of a regional chat was frustrating as well, leaving you to feel very alone at times.

get them into a linkshell, show them the reading material, and def show them all the plans for the future 2.0. but don't hold their hand the whole way and ruin the experience for them.

p.s. - I love that everything isn't instant, it forces you to think more, and faceroll less. it just takes forever to see any reason behind some of the stuff that's different in this game. let WoW be for the kids that need instant gratification, let XIV be for people who prefer to think a little.