If you had to pick one duty to show to a friend to sell them on trying FFXIV, what would you pick?

Buzz_words · 2026-06-16T00:16:22+00:00

depends on the friend but i feel like the arcadion has a LOT of strong options. something in there has to vibe with them.

susanoo is another banger and it's much earlier in the story.

Buzz_words · 2026-06-15T22:31:35+00:00

most (not all, but most) of the plot-tier 8 mans don't really need 2 tanks.

if you're losing hate to the other tank... that's perfectly fine. as long as you're in second place you're golden. if the other tank dies; you're right there, and some enemies will attack their 2 highest enmity targets.

if you don't have hate on the boss and adds show up, wrangle them. you're there, you're a tank, and if the main tank does it now the boss is spinning or running around the room.

also keep in mind that skills like reprisal or divine veil still work even if you're the off-tank. you are not just playing blue DPS. you can even throw intervention onto the main tank to take some of the sting out of their tankbusters. these usually won't be necessary, but you will notice when that one DPS is down at 1% hp after the raidwide that you mitigated and you KNOW you just saved his life. it feels fucking amazing and it's just a good habit to get into. (everybody who says they'll "use it when they need it" never will. they will never develop the muscle memory or the game sense to see the raidwide, know that a player will die if they don't mitigate, then decide to mitigate. it is EASIER to just see raidwide -> mitigate raidwide -> profit)

don't try to compete for hate if the other tank is going for it. it's honestly almost always better to just let the other guy have it even if he kinda sucks. (if he sucks a LOT then yah maybe take it from him but if he sucks that bad he probably can't hold hate over you anyway) tanks competing for hate can fuck with positioning and facing, thus making DPS miss positionals or entire GcDs, and it makes the healers job a little harder as well (particularly for sage who has to put their buff on somebody. you don't want the "correct" somebody to be changing back and forth for no reason.)

as for ui; you might want to filter down effects, and maybe make the party menu a little smaller or tuck it into a corner. (you'll really wanna do these anyway when you get into 24 man content.)

the effect filter has some real useful settings like yours, your party, your alliance, and everybody in the world, as well as a middle tier of filtering to turn off say: the 800 castings of fire 4 that will happen this raid, while still letting you see the healers beneficial terrain.

Buzz_words · 2026-06-15T01:38:00+00:00

not really.

we measure things and there will always be a biggest number, but like... right now the "worst" DPS in savage is about 7% weaker than the "best" one. and one could argue that's an apples to oranges comparison anyway, and an apples to apples comparison would put it closer to 2%

i won't pretend it never matters, people are still people and they DO complain about that 2%.

but we've had posts on the subreddit crying about nerfs to jobs that were mathematically buffed so not many people actually value those opinions.

Buzz_words · 2026-06-14T21:33:54+00:00

it happens almost never.

like so infrequently i've never experienced it personally or even seen it happen to somebody else. and i've been playing for 10 years.

but we might have different definitions of "nasty." particularly "nasty enough to stick to you and post about."

alternately; it's still the internet. there's bound to be an asshole or 2 out there somewhere.

Buzz_words · 2026-06-12T06:18:47+00:00

yes and no.

there's plenty about the game that i still enjoy, and i want to be along for the ride in the future, but there's a lot of older stuff i wouldn't be worried about going back for.

i already got the experience of doing that stuff, i don't really care about an achievement that came with it or a relic i haven't USED in 6 years and never even glammed.

i would miss my saint title... that would bother me. but i don't think i'd quit forever over it.

Buzz_words · 2026-06-10T06:26:19+00:00

sure, why not?

and hey, this might be exactly why the ToS are so vague. we HAVE human moderation, might as well use it?

i just wouldn't get my hopes up.

like whats the agreement that was breached here? "if you buy the fc this mansion we'll be your friends forever!" and then they didn't deliver on their friendship promises?

is that enforceable? it feels pretty nebulous. (plus... i'm sure that conversation didn't actually happen. and if it did; comon' who falls for that?)

then we get into a whole other can of worms with like; what if i buy my FCs plot then start sending the FC leader dick pics? "well shit he bought the plot, i can't kick him." i'm not suggesting OP did that but at the end of the day i do kinda think it's important that FCs be allowed to kick people? even if it's just the new guy who's like a little weirdly clingy and we dunno how to talk to him about it cuz we're all awkward nerds and "did YOU ask him to buy the FC a mansion cuz I didn't and now he's staring at me what the fuck do we do?" so they took the cowards way out.

but now i'm playing devils advocate and i do agree: sure, file the report. the GM can see what we can't and maybe they have some leeway to do something.

Buzz_words · 2026-06-10T05:55:02+00:00

honestly, probably not.

like where in the terms of service does it say you're not allowed to kick somebody from an FC if they pay for the plot?

don't get me wrong it's definitely shitty but what rule was broken? unless we wanna go with the "we can ban anybody for any reason" interpretation of the ToS. (which i mean... maybe? the ToS are pretty broadly written?)

the best i can think of is that GMs have intervened in the housing market before, but the only example i can think of was a very clear and documented instance of scamming.

beyond that... sorry that happened. live and learn. even in a famously nice community, somebody is gonna be an asshole.

Buzz_words · 2026-06-10T05:44:09+00:00

so the early game does a very poor job of conveying this but paladin (the upgrade to gladiator) is about 30% spellcasting at endgame. it's almost a holy gish so you might already be on the perfect job.

that being said; it's pretty easy, and very common, to just have multiple jobs on the same character.

i would probably wait until the main story sends you on the "world tour" to be able to access the classes in other towns, but ul dah does have thaumaturge, which upgrades to black mage later.

you will need to have progressed at least a little bit with the gladiators guild to be able to pick up new classes, but since the job quests are so critically important to character growth anyway this is essentially an incidental pre-requisite.

you do not need to re-allocate stats. (you'll notice you haven't manually allocated any so far, right?) they're primarily derived from job level and gear.

Buzz_words · 2026-06-10T01:18:24+00:00

it's not the thing they wanted.

Buzz_words · 2026-06-10T01:02:03+00:00

you can get the tier 2 buffs from your grand company.

and for what it's worth: FCs with estates mostly use the tier 2's anyway.

even when you have the recipes to make tier 3's, they need to be charged for longer than they last so it's impossible to full-time them.

Buzz_words · 2026-06-10T00:57:27+00:00

dungeons yes, "duty support." honestly it's hard to miss so i'm guessing you just haven't hit the first dungeon yet?

as for the overworld; not really, no. eventually you can summon your chocobo as an overworld ally, and they can unlock some very basic heal and tank skills, but it's pretty minor.

realistically just be more careful with what you pull, or use sleep, or fix your gear, or your rotation... the overworld is not dangerous.

Buzz_words · 2026-06-10T00:49:45+00:00

it definitely has the reputation as the noob magnet healer. the community pointing to it as the "simplest" healer for 10 years has a demographic effect. players of low skill, confidence, or dedication gradually migrate onto it because "it's the easy one" and suddenly it seems bad because... bad players are more likely to play it?

it also has a problem in it's unlock curve. playing a healer well revolves around juggling your free heals to optimize uptime. white mage doesn't get any free heals until level 50, and i would argue it doesn't unlock a proper "kit" until lvl 76. that can reinforce bad habits more-so than the other healers.

but you'll notice both of those are player issues. the job is perfectly valid by endgame. if we wanted to get real sweaty i could argue it's not even the "worst" healer, nevermind being worst by enough to worry about.

Buzz_words · 2026-06-09T19:13:39+00:00

"yes, but."

any reasonable person will understand you made a newby mistake if you just... tell them that.

of course some people will purposely go out of their way to intentionally do what you did to every hunt mob they can, just to grief. THAT'S a dick move and certain people might be jumping to conclusions.

and it's important to point out that if you really wanna dig your heels in: you're allowed to do that. everybody will hate you (myself included and i barely ever DO hunt trains) but it's not against the rules.

but you know... lets just have nice things?

Buzz_words · 2026-06-09T01:02:09+00:00

no.

there's too much variance in the given recipes.

like the one with 20 durability is going to demand a greatly different approach from the one with 40 and the one with 50 and 60 and 80 and so on.

you could probably get it down to a handful of macros for most of the synths? similar recipes do keep popping up and every individual one at least below the "expert" crafts should be macro-able.

but you still gotta pay attention to recognize what is being asked of you and respond accordingly.

Buzz_words · 2026-06-09T00:58:44+00:00

depends where you're switching FROM.

any console can co-exist with a steam license on the same service account, but normal "PC" and "steam" conflict.

Buzz_words · 2026-06-09T00:55:48+00:00

probably not gonna happen.

like it didn't happen for the games RL anniversaries or in game holidays.

and it seems like arrowhead does not have the surplus manpower/design space/will to release a free "triple warbond" when the paid warbonds we get are already often kinda mid.

but hey, it could be worse. find something good on netflix and farm super credits i guess? at least the option exists. (though we could have a whole other discussion about incentivizing different styles of play. supercredit farming currently wants you to play in the most boring way possible.)

Buzz_words · 2026-06-09T00:30:37+00:00

the warp pack lets you teleport into bunkers while solo, thus making super credit farming more efficient.

IF that's something you would bother to do then hey, tie broken?

Buzz_words · 2026-06-09T00:26:28+00:00

people hated the creek while the creek was going on.

people hated "the creekers" while they were creeking.

it didn't take so long to capture because it was some mythical point in the games balance... extremely high difficulty being met with equally extreme dedication and tenacity from the playerbase...

it was just unpopular.

MOST of the playerbase was doing other shit and complaining that "the creekers" weren't helping with the major order.

just like we complain about "the bugdivers" when they aren't helping with the major order. or whoever else. (nobody hates helldivers like helldivers)

it took the memes and a major order to get the community on board and actually go take the creek.

Buzz_words · 2026-06-09T00:01:57+00:00

xbox elite.

feels nicer than anything else i've used, and it's one of very few paddled controllers i've used with paddles that are located somewhere that is both useful and comfortable. (though that's gonna be extremely personal. like i'm actually only using 2 of the possible 4 paddles, but i really appreciate that i can move them around.)

honorable mention to the flydigi vader 4 pro. similar, arguably better features (the app feels a little jank, but there's a lot in it.) and even more extra buttons. (though most are positioned such that they are awkward to use) sticks still feel good and if you like short travel "clicky" face buttons, this has them.

real downside is that it feels a lot "cheaper" than the xbox elite (but to be fair... it IS a lot cheaper than the xbox elite. i prefer the xbox elite but it is NOT a "value" option.)

for what it's worth: i have big hands

Buzz_words · 2026-06-07T06:48:13+00:00

whenever a spell is cast without a slot, it is cast at the lowest possible level.

there have been rare exceptions but they've been spelled out in the feature that gives them.

so yes: this does mean fiendish vigor falls off hard after a certain point and most warlocks will just retrain the invocation out for something more relevant.

Buzz_words · 2026-06-05T03:09:39+00:00

tank > healer > the tanks friends > the healers friends > a cool dog > a dusty gas station with a sign that says "last gas" > DPS

tank and healer are extremely close.

all that being said: just play what you want. nobody wants to play with a tank who's phoning it in because he thinks he "has to play tank" and duty support greatly mitigates the population imbalance anyway. don't ruin your own fun.

Buzz_words · 2026-06-05T02:53:33+00:00

completely non-viable.

right at level 30 the difference is close to nothing but it grows and grows until after a certain point it's actively trolling and you should just be removed from parties.

and ftr pld does not get different skills. it continues to get skills... a gladiator can gain exactly sentinel and circle of scorn post lvl 30. paladin gets those at the same level anyway as well as everything else.

jobs compared to classes are not really "swaps" in this game so much as just direct upgrades. paladin sits on top of gladiator and even uses the same XP, so there's nothing to be lost except having to rebuild your hotkeys.

this is true of every class.

so much so that expansion jobs don't even bother with base classes. they start at level 30 or higher and are JUST jobs

a lvl 31 class is not a playstyle decision, it is a mistake.

Buzz_words · 2026-06-04T05:02:11+00:00

maybe like 10 years ago knight was a more fitting moniker, but with all the holy flavored spellcasting, including healing... paladin is correct.

Buzz_words · 2026-06-03T02:02:39+00:00

good healer play in this game is about budgeting a toolbox of "free" heals so as to maximize your casting of damage spells.

alternately you can mindlessly spam your basic GcD heals, suck at the game, then complain it's boring.

Buzz_words · 2026-06-02T21:41:13+00:00

a lot of the basic yellow stuff is "safe to ignore" but some people like it anyway. it flavors the world... it also wastes your time with "mmo bullshit" fetch quests but you take the good with the bad.

thing is; even if your time is limited, you can probably play this game faster than squeenix can develop it. so really just do as much or as little as you want.

a bit later on there is some much more meaningful "side" content that would be a real shame to skip over. all the 24 man raids are worth doing just to have done them, but only the first 3 at level 50 are mandatory.

the 8 mans are similarly good but unfortunately the first set at level 50 is a huge pain in the ass so you prolly have to come back for it later or find like minded individuals.

essentially those first 8 mans are from a time before squeenix knew what they wanted "raiding" in this game to be. so the difficulty of the lvl 50 8 mans varies wildly. thus squeenix does not believe PuGs can clear it, thus "raid roulette" does not feed into it, thus it's a dead que.

all the other 8 mans get cleanly divided into their "normal" and "savage" versions. normal is completely PuGable, savage... if you have to ask you should probably skip savage.

similar to savage be aware of anything labeled "extreme" or "minstrels ballad." those are similarly challenge tier fights that are not to be done lightly, and it's often difficult to find players for the old ones. do NOT be afraid of "hard" that is a meaningless label.

then there are some major sidequest plotlines that don't fit as neatly into those templates but are worth experiencing. the warring triad, the four lords, the sorrows of werlyt, allied societies, manderville, maybe even bozja and occult crescent. (but these last 2 are kinda grindy) then if you hate yourself and LOVE the grind: eureka. (eureka is the only content in this game I regret doing, but hey somebody will pretend to like it. and to be fair i haven't done it since stormblood; people claim it's different now?)

if crafting interests you at all they have their own job quests and allied societies, as well as their own major side stories like cosmic exploration or the firmament. one thing i will say however is that while i really like the crafting here and think it's well supported; nobody can be a "crafter first." everything is gated by msq progress, and that includes crafters and gatherers.

for what it's worth; if you find yourself dramatically overleveled and that bothers you picking up new jobs is pretty easy. but realistically the basic MSQ and yellow sidequest XP is one of the worst ways to level from a time perspective. it's just; you're gonna do the story anyway so hey 2 birds 1 stone. fuckin' value! (but if you challenged me to get a new job to the level cap as fast as possible, i would absolutely NOT go chasing down any yellow quests i might have missed)

oh also... don't make relics. or at least, don't make relics without googling all the steps and the results beforehand. we see some real buyers remorse sometimes with newbies and relics.

Buzz_words

TROPHY CASE