FF14 is a blast! I am eagerly awaiting female hrothgar.

I made a Viera archer because I love archers and buns, but I might delete it and make a Hrothgar instead simply because I find the idea of a big, burly Hrothgar prancing around as a dancer

I also want to do a... Sage? The healer with the pew-pew lasers. I'M GONNA LASGUN YOU TO HEALTH BITCH!

I have alts out the yinyang. Terrible case of alt-itis. My main is a lala, but I also have a hrothgar that always wears the butler suit and uses classes that have weapons you could hide in it. Ninja, monk, conjurer, machinist.

If you're on Midgardsormr and are looking for a Free Company, I'm in Myth Arcanum and it's full of friendly folks. They even tolerate my terrible puns.

I flip-floped between a Lala, a Hroth and a Viera and last I opted for a Viera. Did play Hroth a bunch but something about the way their model hunches makes me (very slightly) dislike it. Plus limited hats, but I think Viera also has that issue.

I do appreciate that, unlike other MMOs, you can have all classes (and crafts) in one toon. Was very pleasantly surprised when I found that out.

Also..WHO LET HIROHIKO GET THEIR HANDS IN FINAL FANTASY?!!! Seriously, the freaking aesthetician is a Jojo character, down to the pose and no one can tell me otherwise!

And I'm playing EU side. For now just vibing solo, taking my time discovering everything for the first time. Prob with group playing is that everyone is zipping around clearing stuff as fast as they can, which is fine, but doesn't let someone who's experiencing it for the first time the opportunity to actually see and process it. I played a lot of WoW, and to this day there's dungeons I did, which I can't tell you anything about it 'cause I was following the group around at breakneck speeds. Ya can only experience things for the first time once, so I'm gonna do it at my pace (particularly since FF has hella good writing or so I'm told).

I get where you're coming from with the speedy-people issue, though it's my experience that in FFXIV if you start a dungeon and say 'Hey I'm actually new and never did this, do you mind if I watch the cutscenes?' people will be 'Oh, sure! And welcome, new person!'

There are occasional asshats, to be sure, but not that many. But you can also just do the story dungeons with NPCs. It'll take longer - they're not very good at AoE attacks, for instance, so the trash mobs go down slow. But it's a fun way to explore all the nooks and crannies.

Oooh I can do story dungeons with NPCs? That's good to know!

That's one thing I wanted MMOs to have, the option to practice dungeons solo. I've always felt that it's bad design if a game needs outside resources to be played, like you're expected to see YT vids of a dungeon before attempting it (and you know.. spoiling yourself on it).

It's always good no matter your role, but you got that extra weight if you're playing support like tank or healer, so attempting a dungeon without knowing it and with people you don't know either can be stressful.

Then again maybe it's my past experience as a healer in WoW that got me PTSD

The FFXIV community is MUCH nicer than WoW's. Also, in WoW dungeons were pretty much optional. You could just never do them. In XIV, they're a mandatory part of progression. You can't even get a mount till after some.

Also only the required dungeons have NPC options - the optional, side ones don't.

(Also as an aside, healers in XIV spend a lot of time doing damage, especially at low levels! After all, damage dealt now is just incoming damage you don't have to heal later. :3 )

Oh yeah I know about the damage lol, big fan of Jocat's and in fact that was what tipped me over and made me get FF14.

https://youtu.be/osvUOqeDwD0?si=uX5-GIBynjk3y5oA

ffxiv is nice, the story starts off kinda slow but really picks up towards the first expansion, it's worth keeping up with it imo.
Also been meaning to play BG3 myself, wild how there's straight up sex speedruns for the game now

Oh nice! Maybe we can play sometime.

Ayy, ffxiv?
I don't own bg3 yet :B

Wha? Yeah FFXIV

Will note :p

I mean... not like I put... certain mods... in skyrim or anything... 😗

I've sweet! Maybe we can play sometime?

Playin' solo for the time being, 'cause I wanna experience the game for the first time at my own pace (especially since FF has hella good writing or so I was told). In other games I did that and it kinda robbed me of that experience, in WoW to this day there's dungeons I did I can't tell you anything of it 'cause I was following the group at breakneck speeds.

With FF 14 I wanna take my time to smell the proverbial roses, read the quests, enjoy the scenery and so on. You can only experience things for the first time once after all!

Wha? No I mean running rouletes and dailies. Not play through the story with you.

Story is a bit yiffy (pun intended) with folks being kicked out of the party during cutscenes or so I heard anyways. But yeah, like when Diablo 3 first came out, some friends grouped up with me during the campaign and all I got was "Quest completed" and "go here", and empty maps because they'd zip around killing everything before I even got there. That's why I enjoy things solo first. When I have jobs completed and story done, sure, but until then just gonna vibe.

I'm on EU side btw, that needs saying!

But I wasn't talking about the story, I just said for dailies and rouletes, leveling stuff. How have you been progressing without playing dungeons with people? Sorry if I'm not being clear enough. I prefer not to rush when I start in new dungeons anyway. And ok I mean I've played with people I'm EU before.

But ok never mind. I'm sorry for bothering you about it. I meant no disrespect.

Fam you ain't bothering lol, you're reading feelings that ain't there. I was merely giving context as to why I play solo when I first play a game.

As for how am I progressing solo without playing dungeons? Easy. I got the game like a week ago and been dead tired from work so I haven't played much. I've been making and deleting toons to see what race I feel like playing the most (opted for Viera) and the furthest I got was doing the starter stuff in Gridania until I unlocked the airship flight and did a bit in Limsa.

I simply haven't had a need to go to a dungeon yet lol

Currently playing Conjurer as I love my casters and all the healing classes looked fun to me. I do have a question tho, like I know you can be all classes with one toon (unlike WoW), but is it better to focus on a single one or just dabble as you please?

Like I'm not asking for optimal leveling paths 'cause the first time playing should be for fun, but I kinda wanted to know if "Oh it's fine don't worry" or "Oh better focus on one until you unlock some quality of life stuff like mounts that will make leveling the other classes more fun".

Oh ok. I'm sorry I didn't know.

To answer your question is you should play what feels right too you. All of the Jobs are playable casually and hard core. You can get all existing jobs for one Avatar without having to make alts. And Lving them is pretty easy when you know the various options.

Also word of advice the community is pretty understanding, so when you do run dungeons and play with others, just say it's your first time here and ask for small pulls especially if your a healer. More the likely they will completely understand. That's the difference between that and WoW in that regard from what I've heard and know. This is coming from someone who has played FFXIV for...6 years now?

So correct me if I'm wrong, you got the default classes, and then you unlock the others at around lvl 70, as well as the "evolved" versions of the starter classes yeh?

Still not sure if I should go all in with one class 'till max or just dabble on the others.

You have Classes and get Jobs at Lv 30. There's no "evolved" versions unless you meant the Jobs.

You can unlock other classes to obtain after finishing a Lv10 quest of your starting class.

A class is the precursor of a job, it's a leftover from 1.0 and applies only to ARR jobs. An archer is a class, which then upgrades to the bard job. FFXIV doesn't have an equivalent to specs or subclasses, every class/job can only be played in one specific way (except for Blue Mage which is not part of the regular class/job roster, but more of a side activity).

Side quests cannot be repeated. Side quests are also one of the worst ways to level up secondary classes/jobs, you can level up much faster trough FATEs or Dungeons and Deep Dungeons.

There are no cons to leveling up multiple jobs on one character, it's one of the main selling points of the game, and plenty of people level up every single job available.

Every new class/job you unlock has its own level. What level it starts on depends on the class/job. The classes/jobs introduced in ARR start at level 1. Machinist, Astrologian and Dark Knight start at level 30. Samurai and Red Mage start at 50. Gunbreaker and Dancer start at 60.

Me personally, It's best to stick to one class till I finish the Main story and level other classes afterwards. The main story can get one class up to a level if you just stick to one especially in expansions.

I mean evolved in that for instance the conjurer eventually turns into the White Mage. I'm almost at 30 in conjurer, which is the highest one I have so far.

Been having fun with it and glad I picked up the game when I did, 'cause work has been rather shitty lately and FF14 has been my pick me up that makes me go "I really wanna get home and play some!"

I never heard people say used that for Jobs. Glad you're having fun.

Oh it's a holdover from my youth. I played a lot of games in which you'd "evolve" or "promote" your class/ job. In Shining Force 2, Slade the rat thief would become a Ninja (like the rogue becomes the ninja in FF actually), in Langrisser a lancer would become a phalanx, a mage could become a necromancer or a summoner, in Seiken Densetsu 3 (legend of mana, another of my favorites), you'd pick one of 6 characters (each a class), and upon reaching certain levels you'd pick a Light or Dark promotion of that class. You'd do that twice for a total of 4 different ending classes per character. That term just stuck with me. Fire Emblem and Tactics Ogre also had that IIRC.

In FF 14 it´s different in that you don't stop being a dancer to become a dragoon, the exception being the core classes being "upgraded", lancer to dragoon, archer to bard (that was one career that took a weird turn lol, "hey we know you're a good shot and all, but have you considered playing the drums?" ), and so on.

I just got home from work and tried out the pugilist, it's so fun! I don't think I've tried a class I haven't enjoyed yet.

I still kinda like the idea of making a Lalafel, it amuses me the idea of a little rascal going around punching Bahamut in the nuts!

Pugilist/Monk is a fun class.

A Lalafell as a Tank is pretty funny too.

Supposedly, every Larian game has a really strong first act, after which it deteriorates into an increasingly buggy, half-finished mess.

I don't know about their other games, having never played them, but BG3 broke partway through the second act for me. It's a shame, because the writing and characters are good and I want to finish it. Here's hoping you have better luck making it all the way through.

Only heard good things about Divinity (and BG3 for that matter). Not dismissing what you said tho, but that's the first I heard of it. You sure it wasn't because of the giant dragon schlong mod? Because that one gave me issues in skyrim.. 😗

No, I didn't start adding mods until after the game started breaking. And there are no jiggle physics or scripting on the models, at least not the ones I swapped in, so it's unlikely they'd cause issues.

If you're on an AMD GPU, crank your graphics settings all the way down and launch in DX11 mode when you get to the Grymforge section of the Underdark. Otherwise it'll start crashing. You can turn them back up whenever you aren't on that map. (You can also skip the Underdark entirely, but as you'd expect, you miss out on a lot of XP and loot by doing so. Also the game tries to scare you with a warning message about your party's level if you try to skip the Underdark.)

Save before talking to anyone, because there are two different dialogue softlocks that can happen (as early as the first act, at that). In one, the conversation won't terminate properly, so your character and the NPC will just stare at each other forever. In the other, the conversation will terminate but the UI will remain in dialogue mode instead of returning to the normal UI; you'll be able to move your characters and trigger battles by running into enemy sightlines, but you won't actually be able to do anything.

Also, once you have more than three companions recruited, get into the habit of saving before going to camp. There's a really nasty bug that causes unused party members to go berserk and attack each other (and the active party) whenever you go back to camp from certain areas—but there's no way to know which areas will trigger it; it seems to be different for each person. Three years agp(!) a lot of people on Reddit were having it trigger when they went to camp from the Blighted Village; I didn't have it happen then, but I did become aware of it toward the end of the second act, because it started happening in a certain temple and a certain enemy fortress.

As far as I can tell, none of these are hardlocks, so reloading an earlier save and following these recommendations will get you through just fine. It's annoying, especially that last one since it's been in the game since Early Access, but at least it doesn't corrupt your saves.

Was joking about the mods lol. Obviously if one adds mods and the game starts crashing, then that's the first thing you look at. Skyrim made me quite good at that

I kinda already do all that on account I'm a save scummer and I enjoy seeing what the several options do out of curiosity, so loooooot's of save states. Still, good stuff to know, thanks!

I'm just sad I can't give my gnome a knee-knocker. Or make her less ugly. Someone on the art direction side of things really doesn't like gnomes.

Must... not... say it....

Must... not...

BEEG GNOMMY MILKERS!! \( °3°)/

Eh, I more about ass, personally. And dicks. And faces that don't look like they were carved out of olive loaf with a rusty pencil sharpener.

Also, only real ones know about the Gnomish Kama Sutra.

I feels ya lol. I made the character I play in my table top campaign, which is a dwarven war cleric and.. it looks so weird if you make a dwarf without beard. My character does have a beard mind you, it was just that I happen on that option while I was costumizing.

Oh and I was watching a FF14 VoD yesterday and the folks playing mentioned the whole issue with the later acts of BG3 that you mentioned!

Humans look good, tieflings look good, halflings look fairly good, elves and half-elves look good, even half-orcs look good, but gnomes look like they fell out of the ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down. It's rough.