Crystal Conflict Guide for Beginner to Intermediate Players

[Sinstrel]

Hello, I'm a DRG main who mainly played solo in Frontlines during the Stormblood and SHB Era. I reached T100 and T30 in CC a few times in the past. I have not participated in CC recently due to my lack of interest in the state of FFXIV as a whole these days... But I have coached members of my FC, friends, and my sister to multi T300 and T100 ranks over many seasons during my absence.

This is also just my personal interpretation.

I just casually enjoy competitive games like fighting games and other MMOs with PvP (WoW, Aion, DAoC).

Please don’t take everything here as gospel—take it with a grain of salt and develop your own interpretation.

This "guide" will be full of advice I've given to my FC in our discord over the years from gameplay VODs, knowledge I picked up from various forums and JPFFXIV blog posts, and skills from other players who are much, much better than me. (Check out Brian Ricardo's or Suhr Zarek's streams on Twitch sometime!). I decided to write this on the forums since there seems to be a big shortage or resources for the casual player or the player who does not want to join discords just to participate in high-level PvP.

So let's get started --

“Setting Goals to Improve at PvP”

In FFXIV PvP, it’s important to steadily add new skills and habits to your arsenal, one by one.

So each day, set a goal like: “Today, I’m going to focus on improving this one thing!”

Try it in matches, and if you succeed, move on to the next goal. If not, aim for the same goal again the next day.

You might not see results immediately, but before you know it, it’ll become second nature. It’s much like practicing mechanics for high-end PvE content—gradual progress wins out.

Now, how exactly should you set goals?
Let’s take two specific examples:

Guard and Recuperate.


Guard Progression

1. Press Guard
2. Press Guard to reduce damage without getting KO'ed
3. Learn to Guard before taking damage
4. Plan your escape after using Guard

Recuperate Progression

1. Press Recuperate
2. Use Recuperate to heal back damage you’ve taken
3. Burn all your MP before getting knocked down
4-a. With a potion nearby, avoid overhealing (don’t waste MP when a 30,000 HP potion is available)
4-b. Deliberately withhold Recuperate to bait enemies abilities, and press Recuperate just before they land

In general:

Beginners often haven’t even reached stage 1
Advanced players are executing at stage 4

Personally, I feel that even many players in the top 100-300 rankings tend to cap around stage 3.

By making step-by-step improvements like this, your PvP performance naturally improves. At the same time, this process clarifies what you can and can’t do yet—You’ll avoid being stuck in the frustrating “I don’t even know what I don’t know” stage. And that makes it much easier to ask others for specific advice!


Guide continues in the posts below: