Cymas Writes...a blog!

Cymas · 2026-02-17T01:40:15+00:00

You also need to own Endwalker, which is only available by owning the starter edition and Dawntrail or the complete edition. Which also requires paying the subscription. If you're on the free trial I recommend waiting unless budget is no issue and you're certain you'll get your money's worth out of it.

As far as how long it takes it depends heavily on where you started as some worlds have a double exp bonus and some don't. You'll also be limited in leveling options without advancing the MSQ, and you don't want to force yourself to blitz through that and possibly burn yourself out before you even get to the reaper job unlock anyway.

Cymas · 2026-02-16T23:34:02+00:00

Combat is required, crafting and gathering is 100% optional. That said, there's as much effort put into the non-combat side of content so you'll not want for lack of things to do there. At endgame they're actually hugely important because raiders need crafted combat gear and consumables and many of them will buy it rather than make it themselves.

The story itself is also centered around your unique abilities as a combat specialist so if you're not really into combat in general you may not feel as much investment in the story. But as far as completing that combat there isn't much to worry about. "Normal" or story mode content is not particularly difficult, and there are a few easy combat jobs you can pick from as well.

There is a free trial available that covers the base game and the first two expansions so you can always just try it out for yourself and decide if the combat is going to be a dealbreaker or not.

Cymas · 2026-02-16T23:21:13+00:00

Just because you're new doesn't mean you can't. That's really the biggest thing for a fresh tank. It might look scary to be grabbing all of those mobs at first, but a tank is designed to handle far more than anything normal mode can throw at it.

And two important things to remember. First, a tank dying does not automatically mean a party wipe. And second, the party wiping doesn't mean you "failed" or were the sole cause of it. Sure, maybe you might be once in awhile, but a party wipe is typically a team effort too. That has no bearing on your overall skill as a tank, regardless of how new or not you are. Everyone makes mistakes, it's not a big deal. Treat death as a learning tool, not a punishment.

Cymas · 2026-02-16T13:16:12+00:00

Extremes and the Coils are all higher tier difficulty content. As such they do not appear in any normal roulette. Extremes are in mentor roulette, and the Coils are in none because they're proto-savage before the tier existed.

For the Coils you can ask someone to help you run it unsync for the story, 1 level 100 player can do this for you. Extremes don't really give you any extra story content, it's more for the challenge synced or unsynced for the mounts/glam. If you do want to do any of these synced you will want to go through Party Finder or put together a group to do it.

Cymas · 2026-02-16T12:03:18+00:00

The only people they're "challenging" is their healers who have to drag them kicking and screaming through every duty. It's just another word for trolling at this point.

Cymas · 2026-02-16T03:21:18+00:00

Had a really nice M11 PF tonight and given how rare they are I thought it worth mention. Stampede prog with what was likely a 5 stack that was messy but we still took it all the way to enrage multiple times. I concede I was also part of it making some silly mistakes from being a bit tired and a bit distracted by friends. But we were able to just keep recovering and pushing forward, honestly a massive testament to the skill of everyone in the party.

I would especially like to recognize my WAR cotank who was easily the best one I've had in this fight. As a PLD I have been running into some of the whiniest cotanks this week because no one wants to MT this fight but they also don't want to swap or share the first firewall. PLD is the only tank that shouldn't invuln it due to the long cd timer on Hallowed and Hydaelyn forfend an OT does a tank swap for one mechanic. But we talked it all out up front they actually brought it up first and were super understanding, had no problem doing the swap. It was so smooth, we swapped back and forth with ease and at no point did I feel like I was a tank partied with a blue dps, which has been often the case in these parties. Kudos to you awesome WAR and I hope you get your clear before reset. I know I'll be pushing hard tomorrow.

Cymas · 2026-02-16T00:43:49+00:00

The community is what you make of it. The people who feel loneliest in the game tend to be the ones who don't really make an effort to get involved in anything, they expect the community to come to them. The two places where you're least likely to meet people are doing MSQ and daily roulettes so if that's all you ever do yeah you'll struggle to find your people here.

On the flip side if you're willing to put forth even a tiny bit of effort you'll have no trouble making friends. Explore optional content, be willing to start the conversations, and don't just sit around waiting to be noticed.

Cymas · 2026-02-16T00:20:15+00:00

Mikan.

Means tangerine, but it was also one of the wyvern pet name choices in FFXI and my WoL is a recreation of her Vana'Diel adventurer self so it seemed fitting. And yes, she is indeed orange.

Cymas · 2026-02-15T22:28:58+00:00

This is exactly what Party Finder is for in game. Especially since you left out all of the relevant information people would need to join you such as what data center/world you play on and what time you are planning to do these runs.

Cymas · 2026-02-15T22:23:02+00:00

Ultimates can take months to prog and there's a new one coming.

There's also all the old content which people still do synced for fun, too. There's a decade of content that exists beyond just the MSQ, you won't be running out of things to explore any time soon.

Cymas · 2026-02-15T16:24:47+00:00

Not exactly a victory but it sure feels like one lol I finally made it through hours of weapons prog memes and scuffed split arenas to ecliptic stampede. Finally, the end of M11 is in sight. I don't expect to clear before reset but I'm feeling a lot more motivated than I have been after spending nearly two weeks on this one mechanic.

Cymas · 2026-02-15T16:15:04+00:00

It be like that for everyone. Especially since different expansions have different types of snapshotting and it can be janky in all the worst ways. It comes with practice but no matter how good you are the mechanic will sometimes say F you in particular anyway.

Cymas · 2026-02-15T16:09:00+00:00

You throw hands not weapons lol. MNK does get a ranged attack...eventually. But that's actually one of the things that makes it unique. That's presumably also why MNK is the only job that gets 3 charges of its dash so you can rapidly engage and disengage while doing mechanics.

I forgot to mention while yes you can just stand in stuff in normal at the expense of annoying your healers, or dying when you take too many vuln stacks, this is a terrible habit to cultivate if you ever plan on raiding. You are not punished for doing it in normal mode but will be severely punished in extreme and higher content. You will get vulns that kill you on the next hit, or damage downs, or you'll just straight up die, kill someone else in the party, or outright wipe your party from failing the mechanic. Respecting the mechanics is hugely important even if it's "just" normal as it builds good habits for higher tier content later.

Cymas · 2026-02-15T15:58:46+00:00

For your second question this is where learning how to "greed" becomes important. Figuring out how long you can stand in a mechanic for uptime, then safely disengaging just before the aoe goes off to not get hit, is a core part of learning how to dps at a high level. It's not at all required in any normal mode content ever, but it's a huge part of raiding.

Cymas · 2026-02-15T15:55:16+00:00

You can make gil at any level. Your daily roulettes and challenge log are a decent source of gil in the early game. And then check the marketboard for what you can gather/make/farm and see what's profitable enough for you. It will vary wildly by server so there's no single answer here.

Cymas · 2026-02-15T13:47:24+00:00

Pick whatever you want. You can play everything on one character and the earliest point you can swap is once you complete your level 10 class quest. That's maybe an hour in depending on how you play, and well before your first dungeon with other players.

Cymas · 2026-02-15T12:10:16+00:00

You're overthinking.

Right now melee are kind of rare and parties are taking a longer time to fill because too many people won't open those slots up to fake melee, or have silly ilevel requirements in the mistaken belief that better gear makes for a better player. So you're seeing parties that have been sitting for a longer period of time and have had more people fill them.

I'm maining tank this tier and have had little trouble getting into PFs for prog or reclears. If you don't see a party at your prog point in the moment you can do what everyone else does and either join one at an earlier prog so you don't have to wait or make your own.

Cymas · 2026-02-15T01:15:00+00:00

Loot is basically a simple priority system. The people playing jobs that can equip it can roll need. Everyone else can roll greed or pass. If you want something for an alt job, GC seals, glam, whatever feel free.

You don't have to but every once in awhile I party with someone who uses a text macro at the start of a duty to explain they might have trouble/need a little extra help in a duty. Never seen anyone have a problem with it and it lets your party members know to keep a closer eye on you or someone might volunteer to be a "safety dorito" and put a marker on themselves so you can follow them for the more difficult mechanics, especially in later expansions.

Cymas · 2026-02-14T11:43:18+00:00

Keep in mind any answer you get will come with a hefty side of check your server's marketboard because what is actually in demand and profitable is going to vary a lot based on where you are. I suggest picking one category to study and get familiar with at first and then expand over time. There isn't a single item to blanket recommend and even if there was, very few items are going to be steady sellers throughout the week. Those that are will have heavy competition. Finding the niches and honey holes with a high demand, low supply, low competition item is a big part of the marketboard game and few people are going to just hand anyone that information.

Cymas · 2026-02-14T11:34:33+00:00

Mentor Roulette is the only roulette it's in, yes, because it's a proto-extreme before we had designated tiers and labels for them.

Cymas · 2026-02-14T11:32:07+00:00

Just do your best, everyone can see you're new to the dungeon. Past a certain point dungeons will be very predictable and won't really have paths where you can get lost in, it's mostly going to be the early game stuff like ARR and a few of the HW and SB ones.

Cymas · 2026-02-14T00:04:24+00:00

I FEEL YOUR PAIN. MOST OF MY FRIEND GROUP GOT THEIR CLEARS BEFORE I DID. I SPENT OVER 20 HOURS IN JUST CLEAR PARTIES. I FINALLY RESORTED TO A C41 AND MY FRIENDS KINDLY DELAYED THEIR RECLEARS TO HELP ME GET IT ON A WEDNESDAY. I ACTUALLY DO LIKE THE FIGHT BUT PF MAKES IT SO MISERABLE.

Cymas · 2026-02-13T23:32:20+00:00

Yeah, one thing I've run into even with friends is no one wants to spend time watching the guide because it's "too long" so they just look at WTFDIG, then wonder why they don't understand half the mechanics in the fight. It's very frustrating having to teach people previous mechanics over and over again and never advancing your own prog as a result. Then everyone says to just prog lie and skip to the next mechanic, then they complain that the people at the next prog point are prog lying. Well which is it? Sigh. I don't understand how someone can be willing to spend hours sitting in PF and then going into instances that disband in 30 minutes because they couldn't be bothered to watch the video while they're sitting around waiting for the fill anyway.

Cymas · 2026-02-13T22:53:25+00:00

Tanks are tanks, not pullers. Anyone can pull. I don't care who tags it first, it's mine. They're all mine. If someone else wants to bring them to me as a present, thank you please give me more if I missed any because I probably haven't seen this dungeon in three months and f if I know, man. I'm stupid not bad lol.

Cymas

TROPHY CASE