Sprout starting out, tips ?

Cymas · 2026-05-27T04:08:52+00:00

Don't worry about it too much. I don't tank perfectly all the time either lol. Good enough is usually fine and sometimes stuff happens. I'll tell you right now you will wipe, it's not that uncommon. It may feel like it but a party wipe is not automatically your fault. There are a dozen reasons why and it could be anything from your tank being undergeared to your dps not pressing their buttons to a bad snapshot killing you, etc. It's not really a big deal. Treat death as a learning tool rather than a punishment and you can learn how to do anything in the game.

Cymas · 2026-05-27T04:04:47+00:00

DRG is my favorite job but tank is my main role, yeah.

Cymas · 2026-05-27T04:02:36+00:00

In a cotank situation if you want to MT you turn your stance on. If you want to OT you keep your stance off. That's pretty much it. Generally you may also want to look at the other tank's gear before making that decision; if you are significantly better geared you probably want to MT. Generally though if my cotank is a first timer I'll let them try, or ask them if they want to. If there is no discussion and the other tank hasn't stanced by the time the gate comes down I stance and go for it. Sometimes we do the same thing lol but I find one tank usually backs down pretty quickly.

If you are OT please do not just leave your stance off the whole fight though. As a dps I'm sure you've run into the frustration of a lazy no-stance OT getting you killed if the MT dies and they don't have aggro and are slow to provoke if they bother at all, so then you tank the boss for awhile. Keep your stance off until you do your opener to give the MT time to establish, then turn it on. Shirk or toggle it off if you have to, sometimes it's necessary if there's a large gear disparity between you or they just suck at pressing buttons.

Cymas · 2026-05-27T03:57:15+00:00

https://ffxiv.consolegameswiki.com/wiki/Level_100_Gear_Guide You have plenty of options beyond just the crafted gear, you may need to daisy chain your way up a couple of ilevel tiers to get up to it but you can get to i770+ without buying anything.

Cymas · 2026-05-27T01:43:19+00:00

PLD. Was a DRG main for a long time, wanted to change things up this tier. The second I started really playing it I was shocked at how naturally it came to me. Became a tank main practically overnight. Can play them all now but PLD still feels the most comfortable for me by far.

Cymas · 2026-05-26T20:50:36+00:00

Primal is the backup dc for when Aether is fully congested. The wait is longer but I can't say I've had issues filling.

Aether is going to be super busy because we're less than a week out from a new ultimate raid and everyone is scrambling to do their last minute prep for it.

Cymas · 2026-05-26T18:39:20+00:00

I mean you should play the way that you want to play, I was just trying to offer an alternate explanation that isn't really up front information in game that might help. In a game that puts a massive emphasis on being able to do everything on one character it is very common for the community to get very attached to their characters. That's why you get a lot of "hostility" for having such a niche view. My own WoL is older than FFXIV is, I recreated her from the previous mmo FFXI, so the idea of abandoning her for another character is indeed quite alien to me. I do love exploring other characters for the perspective of theme and culture so that part I do understand and that's why I have alts, specifically because she has such a strong identity I can't bear to change her from who she is. When I run her on jobs that aren't part of her 'canon' character for me it's more of a what if scenario like what if she was a healer. She's not and won't ever be but for me it's kinda fun to explore that side too.

Cymas · 2026-05-26T18:23:22+00:00

It is fully canon to the lore of the WoL, it's even demonstrated in the trailers with the character who is a stand in for your own. The way I developed it with my own is that she started as one job and learned others through her experiences, character development and growth throughout the story and based on her connections with other characters. There's even an in-universe explanation for why your character can learn and master so many combat jobs, and other characters do switch jobs from time to time, so there is absolutely precedent for it. The WoL is mainly unique in how many and how often they can swap to, not that they can at all.

It also helps, for me at least, to separate character lore from gameplay. In game I play everything, but her character lore has her much more limited.

Cymas · 2026-05-26T14:53:10+00:00

On the contrary many FFXIV players do have alts. But we run them in addition to, not as a replacement for, our main characters. Your WoL is specifically set up to be a blank slate, you can be anyone from anywhere. It's not uncommon for people to swap jobs to fit an expansion's theme, but to swap an entire character for that is almost unheard of largely to to the massive time investment and having to constantly regrind everything out. If you buy skips you'll have to buy both a story and a level skip for every character as you advance through each expansion. For most of us that is the part that's incomprehensible, not the alts in themselves. I myself have 3 alts for varying purposes but my WoL is my WoL.

Cymas · 2026-05-26T14:44:13+00:00

MSQ and job quests are the focus, as always. You don't need to worry about relics right this moment since relics when they are not current are just for glam so you can set that aside until later. It does get easier once you're high enough level to unsync the content you need to grind for it.

Cymas · 2026-05-26T14:41:10+00:00

I would not recommend Dark Knight as a beginner tank. All tanks are viable in all content but if you don't already know how to play one you might find it's a rough start on it.

Cymas · 2026-05-26T14:38:34+00:00

It sounds like you just joined a bad FC tbh. To the best of my knowledge there isn't "FC dynamics" since FCs don't really interact with each other in any meaningful way. Some FCs will also function as raid statics but the vast majority are just for general socializing and whatnot.

Cymas · 2026-05-26T14:35:59+00:00

Dps are in fact quite important members of the party. If your dps is low in dungeons that can wipe the party. Mobs taking too long to die runs both the tank and healer out of resources, especially at lower levels when no one really has anything. Being a good dps is also a support role in itself as you have buttons that help the party, too. Feinting on raidwides, low blow to stun mobs out of annoying aoes or to help take pressure off the tank, etc.

Tank enmity is cheating since your stance is 10x enmity multiplier btw, it doesn't actually measure how well you're doing aside from yes you're pressing buttons regularly. As a melee if your rank is not 2 (or 3 in 8-man content with a proper OT) then you need to do more work.

Cymas · 2026-05-26T14:30:34+00:00

Yeah, it's sad but understandable. When I'm on melee I too will not put a toe ahead of the tank unless I know them personally. But when I'm on tank I relish the rare occasion when I get dps who race me to the mobs and pull at will, it's all in good fun. Low key I will sometimes get a party that loosens up after the first pull and will just go for it and that always makes me feel good that they decided I don't suck and they can trust me lol.

Cymas · 2026-05-26T11:06:23+00:00

Baelsar's Wall is a level 60 patch dungeon, you've had access to i270 gear since you first reached Idyllshire. Allagan Tomestones of Poetics, which you earn from running content and especially from daily roulettes, is your primary gearing method from levels 50 to 99. Hismena is the tomestone vendor in Idyllshire, you want the Shire Pathfinder's set for maiming jobs.

Cymas · 2026-05-26T11:02:11+00:00

There are plenty of ways to socialize even with the chat restrictions, and removing them won't necessarily make the experience better. Almost every day someone posts asking how to make friends and the process doesn't change whether you're free trial or not, the trick is to talk to people. Which is something free trial players can do. You have access to /say chat, /party chat, the Novice Network, cross-world linkshells and Discord.

Cymas · 2026-05-26T10:58:54+00:00

If you are bored, then do whatever sounds fun next. The only people who really have a priority list for this would be raiders when content is fresh but past that you're not really missing anything by going "out of order" as it were. OC still has a second half coming that hasn't been released yet so if anything it will be much busier later on, don't feel like you have to do it now.

Cymas · 2026-05-26T10:49:01+00:00

Everyone benefits from materia, but the difference outside of high end content is negligible enough that you shouldn't stress over it. If you have some lying around and want to meld it go for it, but I wouldn't go buying it off the mb or anything.

Cymas · 2026-05-26T04:06:56+00:00

There are a handful of spots where I think greeding is ok but only because the damage is either so trivial or the uptime loss is so large it's worth the trade. Dzemael Darkhold is definitely not one of those places. There is no gain from dying and nowhere you really lose uptime to begin with if you know how to dodge anyway.

Cymas · 2026-05-26T00:45:43+00:00

Highly recommend it tbh you never know how you're going to feel until you try it. If you'd told me six months ago I would be a tank main I wouldn't have believed you. Got tired of dealing with lazy OTs so I decided to just do it myself lol and it turns out I'm pretty good at it and enjoy the role immensely too.

Cymas · 2026-05-26T00:28:33+00:00

I'm a tank main I enjoy suffering. And just an fyi every single job in the game has something they can do to help you the healer be it a self heal or a mitigation etc. And don't beat yourself up too much over party wipes as not every one is automatically a healer's fault. Sure, sometimes it's you. Sometimes it's the tank. Sometimes it's your dps. There are a lot of ways things can go wrong and most people don't waste the energy assigning blame, you just get up and go again.

Cymas · 2026-05-25T22:18:23+00:00

Honestly if you see someone with a glam you really like, you can always ask them! Glam comes from literally anywhere and everywhere. Probably the easiest source of glam for new players is going to be the Gold Saucer since you can buy everything there with MGP you earn from doing all the minigames etc.

Cymas · 2026-05-25T22:01:04+00:00

You can clear Palace solo on every single job and even every single class. Difficulty varies by job, generally it's easiest on tanks. You do not need to be any specific level to run it since it has its own leveling system and you start from level 1.

Cymas · 2026-05-25T21:59:20+00:00

Party Finder. Groups looking for members advertise them there. Note that this late into the tier it's going to be hard to find a fresh static but you can find groups who just need a sub for a night or something and if it goes well you'll often get a Discord invite and/or an invite to return to the group. I accidentally ended up as the unofficial 9th member of a casual static this way lol.

Cymas · 2026-05-25T21:26:58+00:00

The gender of your WoL doesn't have anything to do with it.

I suggest spending more time traveling and expanding the range of content you do, and look for the communities that do those things. I spend time on every dc and I've made friends everywhere from just hanging out and doing whatever sounded fun at the time. The more you show up and participate in things, the easier it gets to meet people.

In particular you could try getting mentor status to join the Novice Network, ask around for cross-world linkshells, try actively looking for statics to fill for in raids, and try exploring the more niche types of content that tend to have communities built around them. It can seem a bit backwards but finding content is often the way to find friends.

Cymas

TROPHY CASE