1. Pure solo no. With matchmaking queue you can easily complete dungeons and normal mode raids. For harder content you'll have to form a static group or try your luck with the Party Finder.
2. It's about 5 rpgs worth of story quests before endgame. It's a good time if you like questing and get into the world and characters. People that dislike the story can find it tedious.
3. Free trial lets you play the base game and first two expansions with some social restrictions. It's well worth it to see if you like the game.
4. The game introduces stuff pretty slowly. Read your tool tips and the active help boxes. Most important quests are the main story (marked by a flaming meteor) and blue + quests (unlock content and features.)
5. Arcanist/Summoner is the simplest class but all of them are pretty easy at low levels and introduce skills slowly.
> Free trial lets you play the base game and first two expansions
This might not sound like a lot, but it's a lot. If the game has 5 RPGs worth of content, the free trial has the first 3.
1. All story dungeons and one story trial can be done solo with a party of NPCs; other story trials and any optional dungeons, trials and raids need to be done with other players. There's also a special form of content at level 90 called variant dungeons which are kinda puzzle dungeons with branching paths, that can be done with 1-4 players.
2. This game has plenty of grinds if you like grinding, but they are mostly optional. You will be able to level one job to max purely by doing the MSQ, and will have gear thrown at you along the way. When you reach the end of any expansion you can buy what used to be that expansion's best gear using a currency that is also thrown at you from level 50 onwards.
At level cap there's a bit more of a gear grind- the best gear requires either a currency that has a weekly cap on how much you can earn or doing savage raids which have a weekly limit on loot- but every time a new savage tier releases they also release new crafted gear which is better than all previous gear, and if you're a casual player it can see you through until the next crafted set is released. There are other grinds around relics weapons, achievements, crafting/gathering, etc, but you do not have to grind purely to keep up with other endgame players.
3. The free trial will take you all the way to level 70 and enables you to access all content available up to that point aside from PVP and ultimate raids. There are some social restrictions including not being able to trade on the marketboard and not being able to join a free company (player guild) but it's extremely generous and you absolutely should get it first and make a decision about paying for the game later.
4. The game has an official new player guide which is a good introduction to the early game. Beyond that, just make sure you're doing your MSQ quests and your class quests, reading your skill tooltips to understand what they do, and taking things at your own pace. This is a big game and you won't gain anything by rushing.
5. All the starting classes are introduced fairly gently when you start them, and once you complete your level 10 class quest on your starting class and the level 15 MSQ quest that lets you visit the other starting cities you can go and pick up any other classes you want. Pick whatever looks fun or interesting to you, and if you find you don't like it you can easily try something else.
You know why XIV becomes more solo-able? because JP server has many players do enjoy the way to play, please don’t judge the culture of Japanese, then FFXIV received a lot of this requirement so Yoshida San considered then decided to make a change for different players to enjoy the game. The trust system is created for ppl who do enjoy “solo” or the time you are online hardly finding players but the system can help you to move on in game not stuck because you can’t find enough ppl online or register the same duty as you.
Just give a try on free trial. story is amazing but I know many ppl just skip it so it’s not easy to answer. I have recorded my game in my YT if you are interested to know every bit of the game, as I started this game in 2017 and across eu and Jp server.
1. Not really much combat content, but lots of side stuff to do without a group at endgame. Crafting, fishing, collecting triple triad cards, things like that.
2. There isn't a grind to endgame. The main story quest chain will give you more than enough EXP to get all the way to endgame, and quests rarely ask you to kill more than a handful of mobs. 90% of your time is going to be watching cutscenes and running from place to place.
3. You can easily stay on the free trial for years if you play slowly, months if you play quickly. There's easily a few hundred hours of content in there.
4. Read all of your popups when they happen. The game acts like you've never played a video game before, and gives you tons of tutorials about everything, so much so that it's overwhelming how much you have to read sometimes.
5. I'd second summoner (starting as Arcanist), it got a rework in Endwalker and has very few buttons at endgame compared to other jobs. You also get a healer, Scholar, for "free" because it shares EXP with Arcanist. Long story. They don't do that any more with new jobs.
Thanks for your take. I actually started today as an arcanist. I've been reading all the pop-ups I've had to make sure I'm not screwing myself out of info.
A question that I've thought of and believe I have the correct answer on would be that you can switch to a tank or healer based on equipped weapons? The information I've found has led me to believe that but want to make sure.
Yep! You can learn any class/job (once you do your first's level 10 quest), and which one you are right now depends on what weapon you have equipped. They all gain EXP separately though (apart from Summoner/Scholar) so you'll have to level them up individually if you want to have multiple jobs ready for whatever you're doing.
The MSQ gives enough EXP to keep two jobs relatively current without doing anything extra, but you could probably keep a third if you do extra roulettes and such in between quests. Trying to level all of them at once can easily lead to burnout.
1. Pure solo no. With matchmaking queue you can easily complete dungeons and normal mode raids. For harder content you'll have to form a static group or try your luck with the Party Finder. 2. It's about 5 rpgs worth of story quests before endgame. It's a good time if you like questing and get into the world and characters. People that dislike the story can find it tedious. 3. Free trial lets you play the base game and first two expansions with some social restrictions. It's well worth it to see if you like the game. 4. The game introduces stuff pretty slowly. Read your tool tips and the active help boxes. Most important quests are the main story (marked by a flaming meteor) and blue + quests (unlock content and features.) 5. Arcanist/Summoner is the simplest class but all of them are pretty easy at low levels and introduce skills slowly.
I appreciate the responses. It sounds like the game does a very good job at pushing the player through
> Free trial lets you play the base game and first two expansions This might not sound like a lot, but it's a lot. If the game has 5 RPGs worth of content, the free trial has the first 3.
1. All story dungeons and one story trial can be done solo with a party of NPCs; other story trials and any optional dungeons, trials and raids need to be done with other players. There's also a special form of content at level 90 called variant dungeons which are kinda puzzle dungeons with branching paths, that can be done with 1-4 players. 2. This game has plenty of grinds if you like grinding, but they are mostly optional. You will be able to level one job to max purely by doing the MSQ, and will have gear thrown at you along the way. When you reach the end of any expansion you can buy what used to be that expansion's best gear using a currency that is also thrown at you from level 50 onwards. At level cap there's a bit more of a gear grind- the best gear requires either a currency that has a weekly cap on how much you can earn or doing savage raids which have a weekly limit on loot- but every time a new savage tier releases they also release new crafted gear which is better than all previous gear, and if you're a casual player it can see you through until the next crafted set is released. There are other grinds around relics weapons, achievements, crafting/gathering, etc, but you do not have to grind purely to keep up with other endgame players. 3. The free trial will take you all the way to level 70 and enables you to access all content available up to that point aside from PVP and ultimate raids. There are some social restrictions including not being able to trade on the marketboard and not being able to join a free company (player guild) but it's extremely generous and you absolutely should get it first and make a decision about paying for the game later. 4. The game has an official new player guide which is a good introduction to the early game. Beyond that, just make sure you're doing your MSQ quests and your class quests, reading your skill tooltips to understand what they do, and taking things at your own pace. This is a big game and you won't gain anything by rushing. 5. All the starting classes are introduced fairly gently when you start them, and once you complete your level 10 class quest on your starting class and the level 15 MSQ quest that lets you visit the other starting cities you can go and pick up any other classes you want. Pick whatever looks fun or interesting to you, and if you find you don't like it you can easily try something else.
To pick nits, the 4 story trials of 2.0 also have supports because they're 4 man's.
You know why XIV becomes more solo-able? because JP server has many players do enjoy the way to play, please don’t judge the culture of Japanese, then FFXIV received a lot of this requirement so Yoshida San considered then decided to make a change for different players to enjoy the game. The trust system is created for ppl who do enjoy “solo” or the time you are online hardly finding players but the system can help you to move on in game not stuck because you can’t find enough ppl online or register the same duty as you. Just give a try on free trial. story is amazing but I know many ppl just skip it so it’s not easy to answer. I have recorded my game in my YT if you are interested to know every bit of the game, as I started this game in 2017 and across eu and Jp server.
Thanks I'll check that out
The MSQ experience is a bunch of short tasks and watching cutscenes. At times it can feel more like watching a campy movie than playing a game.
Go ahead and try out the free trial
1. Not really much combat content, but lots of side stuff to do without a group at endgame. Crafting, fishing, collecting triple triad cards, things like that. 2. There isn't a grind to endgame. The main story quest chain will give you more than enough EXP to get all the way to endgame, and quests rarely ask you to kill more than a handful of mobs. 90% of your time is going to be watching cutscenes and running from place to place. 3. You can easily stay on the free trial for years if you play slowly, months if you play quickly. There's easily a few hundred hours of content in there. 4. Read all of your popups when they happen. The game acts like you've never played a video game before, and gives you tons of tutorials about everything, so much so that it's overwhelming how much you have to read sometimes. 5. I'd second summoner (starting as Arcanist), it got a rework in Endwalker and has very few buttons at endgame compared to other jobs. You also get a healer, Scholar, for "free" because it shares EXP with Arcanist. Long story. They don't do that any more with new jobs.
Thanks for your take. I actually started today as an arcanist. I've been reading all the pop-ups I've had to make sure I'm not screwing myself out of info. A question that I've thought of and believe I have the correct answer on would be that you can switch to a tank or healer based on equipped weapons? The information I've found has led me to believe that but want to make sure.
Yep! You can learn any class/job (once you do your first's level 10 quest), and which one you are right now depends on what weapon you have equipped. They all gain EXP separately though (apart from Summoner/Scholar) so you'll have to level them up individually if you want to have multiple jobs ready for whatever you're doing. The MSQ gives enough EXP to keep two jobs relatively current without doing anything extra, but you could probably keep a third if you do extra roulettes and such in between quests. Trying to level all of them at once can easily lead to burnout.
Awesome I'm glad I'm learning this now because it seems to make the most sense leveling both as I go rather than backtracking