Whether starting more than a decade ago during the ill-fated release of Final Fantasy XIV Online or like me and getting involved in the game a few expansion packs in – everyone was a novice in the game at once. While the responses to congestion have made it rather difficult for new players to even access the game as of writing, over the last few months, many new Warriors of Light have taken their first steps in Eorzea. This is due to both the sudden surge in popularity, kudos of streamers and word-of-mouth, and the release of FFXIV’s Endwalker expansion pack.
I first started playing the game alongside the launch of Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood back in 2017 and went in completely blind. Expecting to be able to grasp Black Mage right from the start, I got my butt severely thwacked by even the most basic of overworld mobs and very nearly quit there and then. But instead, I opted to learn from my mistakes, deep-diving into learning about the game and ultimately becoming a better player for it. With many new players now joining the game, I would like to impart some of my learnings to hopefully keep more WoL’s on the path to saving Eorzea.
Did you enjoy this first instalment of Teach Us Lalafell-Sensei!? Expect to see more in the coming weeks. Did this post encourage you to join the Lalafell race in-game? You can buy a Fantasia via the Final Fantasy XIV Online Store and become one, today!
Warning: Copious amounts of cute Lalafells are included in this article.
1For your first run through the game, don’t use level boosts or story skips
As mentioned above, I started playing during the launch of Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood, simultaneous with Square Enix releasing both Level Boosts and Story Skips to the game. Available via the Final Fantasy XIV Online Store for real-life money, these items will either boost a single job up to the level cap of the previous expansion or skip you to the storyline of a chosen expansion pack. I was a little cocky at first and opted to do both before realising my mistake and having to go back to the start so I could have an enjoyable Final Fantasy XIV experience without lots of needless and rewardless catching up. There are different reasons for both level boosts and story skips as to why I would recommend leaving them for alternate characters – or at the very least until you are more comfortable with the game. These are:
Story Skips
It is understandable that not every player would be interested in the storyline of Final Fantasy XIV. If so, story skip right ahead, however for those with even the slightest inkling of enjoying the main story, I would highly recommend you play through it from start to finish. Being in active development for many years, there is a lot of content to work your way through in Final Fantasy XIV. But as this is a Final Fantasy game, much of the game’s meatier content and weighting is built around the story until reaching the endgame.
Every expansion pack provides content that is relevant to the overarching narrative, and you can’t cookie-cutter the tale and still expect to understand what takes place. You can go back and replay chunks of each expansion’s storyline, but all it will leave you is with a couple of dozen hours of skipping Endwalker’s cutscenes and button mashing your way through dialogue.
Level Boosts
Jobs in Final Fantasy XIV do not necessarily match their counterparts in other MMORPG titles. For example, while many other games expect healers to heal exclusively, you will be expected to weave in recovery while dishing out ample DPS. Furthermore, DPS classes can come down to dishing out precisely timed combos while having an awareness of others on the battlefield to provide utility or resurrection support to other players. From a healing class with an RNG mechanic to a job that will have you doing zoomies from flank to rear and back again to provide optimal DPS, there is a diverse range of classes to choose from. Part of the fun is getting to experience the different jobs and find what works for you. If you have reached the endgame and have the time to fully explore a new class you have grown to love, then I would not blink an eye at anyone using a job boost to dive into meatier content and learning on the fly.
With your original class, there is much value in starting from Level 1 and working your way up to Level 90. As mentioned above, each job has an optimal combo. As you incrementally unlock new abilities level-by-level, you gain increased familiarity with the different combos. You should theoretically be a master of your chosen class when you reach the endgame, and hopefully, be able to transition from clicking buttons on your skills hud to using hotkeys. Having an insightful knowledge of your class is beneficial for two reasons:
1/ Final Fantasy XIV uses a scaling system that makes all unlocked content relevant to players at any time by reducing each players’ job level to that which meets the dungeon/trial/raid maximum. This also changes the skillset to match that level so – if you are unfamiliar with the combo you need to use at level 50/60/70, then knowing your rotation at Level 90 may be worthless. Fortunately with most content you are able to learn as you go, but if you are going into your daily roulettes, knowing how to pump out a little bit more DPS is good for your sanity.
2/ A lot of the main endgame content in Final Fantasy XIV takes the form of Extreme, Savage and Ultimate level raids. A majority of these raids can be timed down to the second, and conclude with an ‘Enrage’ – meaning that if your party hasn’t defeated the enemy by the X minute mark, you will instantly wipe and have to start from the beginning. Knowing and mastering your chosen class is essential to have any success, and having the time to learn your job as you go puts you in a better position to avoid reaching endgame and doing substantially less damage than the healers and tanks. While the game theoretically prohibits the use of DPS monitors, you will find that most endgame players do use them, so you shouldn’t expect to go in and blend in with the other party members.
If you do decide to Level Boost, then I would highly recommend reading guides for your class relevant to the most current expansion pack. One such resource I will recommend is The Balance, a series of guides and a Discord channel which can provide plenty of advice for each class.
2Use the Hall of Novice to Learn the Basics of Your Class
Very early in the main story of Final Fantasy XIV, after you unlock travel to the three main hub cities of A Realm Reborn, you will gain immediate access to the Hall of the Novice. Available directly from your hot bar as an insta-pop instance, these are designed to guide you through the basic mechanics of each class type (DPS, Healer, Tank), through exercises around assisting allies, avoiding AoE, engaging with enemy reinforcements, healing a single or multiple allies, managing enmity and more.
While primarily built for players who have never played an MMORPG before, and is made available just before diving into dungeons and trials for the first time, the Hall of Novice is a good refresher of basic mechanics. But it also shows off some of the core mechanics unique to Final Fantasy XIV that you will use going forward.
Once you have completed the Hall of the Novice, your learning is not yet over. More advanced but essential skills are detailed in Guildheists available from Levels 10-50, each an instanced mission of between 4-8 players, which focuses on indispensable mechanics in upcoming dungeons in the A Realm Reborn storyline.
While the game will continue throwing new mechanics at you all the way through to the end of Endwalker, being equipped with the basics will set you up for success in the later levels. Plus, as someone who regularly does levelling roulettes, if you know from the start what you need to do as a tank/healer, expect many more commendations coming your way.
3Use Tomestones of Poetics at Level 50, 60, 70, 80
As the endgame of each expansion has typically extended over two years, the equipment you can collect from story dungeons versus what you can collect through collecting patch-specific tomestones can be noticeably different. Fortunately, you are not expected to grind content from previous expansions to handle the jumps in the desired item level. One of the most plentiful resources in-game is the Tomestones of Poetics, which can be collected from early on through various means, with the maximum you can collect being 2,000.
Through specific locations spaced throughout the game (usually the second hub city of each expansion), you can trade these in for endgame weapons and equipment from that expansion. These will give you a fighting chance to tackle content from the subsequent expansion and, typically, get you through to the next expansions level cap without too much difficulty. At which point, you rinse and repeat.
These items typically have Augmented… included in their name, and should be done for every class you are hoping to level.
4Don’t Limit Yourself to One Class, Take Advantage of being able to play every class!
One of the main features of Final Fantasy XIV as an MMORPG is that you can potentially max-level every single job on a single character. Gone are the days that you need to create a new character to play a slightly different variation of your job – you can do one raid as a healing White Mage before pivoting towards the way of the Ninja and bombard enemies with dozens upon dozens of knives. As a core foundation of the game, you can do this from approximately Level 10 on your first job, allowing you to try out what suits you from the very beginning.
In my opinion, this should be taken full advantage of as you aren’t necessarily going to know what you enjoy the most at first. I saw myself purely as a Black Mage at first, before maining Astrologian during Stormblood, Ninja during Shadowbringers, and finally White Mage and Sage during Endwalker. And when you want to take a break from traditional combat, you can pass the time as any number of the game’s crafter/gatherer classes (again, with no accessibility restrictions) or trying your hand at the Blue Mage subclass.
With set party compositions for most content, having a bit of variety will also make you more adaptable to the needs of different party compositions.
5Healers and Tanks Need to DPS
As mentioned in Point #1, every class should be considered a DPS class, both before and during endgame content. As a tank or healer, your #1 priority should be ensuring that enmity is with you at the right time or that you have adequately healed your party to a good enough level that the next hit won’t immediately kill them. But with the risk of ‘enrage’ always looming over the party or just the threat of dungeons taking a lot longer than expected – when you are not fulfilling the duties of your role, you should be doing as much DPS as possible.
This is typically already built into your rotation for tanks, with often one or two rotations based around dealing damage and DoT. For healers, you do need to transition away from your healing rotation, but on the plus side, it is usually a single button press rotation, alternating to a second skill for DoT. If you can do that, you have a much greater chance of success and are not milling around for 60% of a battle.
While a 1 or 2 button rotation may not seem so entertaining as a healer, speaking from experience, there is a lot of complexity around dealing lots of damage – from how you move around as little as possible to avoid breaking cast times, to how you balance the needs of healing vs dealing damage. Even White Mage, a class that some may consider dry, can offer a lot.
Want to know more about Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker? Click HERE for my review of the latest expansion!
Final Fantasy XIV is now available on the PC, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5.
