I recognize that it’s a bit weird writing a post about whether FFXIV is a game that is worth the subscription, especially when it’s clear that I genuinely love the game and have rarely put it down.
Truthfully, there have only been two times since I started playing FFXIV that I didn’t renew my subscription and that was when the pandemic first hit since I had just lost my job and early on in my Twitch streaming career when I struggled to grow a community who wanted hang out when I was playing FFXIV.
Excluding these two breaks, FFXIV has been a staple game for me over the past 6 years and while there have been slower times for the game and patches that I didn’t really care for, I always found something to do that I enjoyed.
I won’t pretend that FFXIV is a game that everyone should play or that everyone would enjoy and quite frankly there have been friends of mine who have asked if they should pick it up and my response was “no.” So, in hopes of giving you a better idea about what the game has in store for you and whether it’s worth paying a monthly subscription for I thought I would break down my likes and dislikes of the game and provide you with a general idea of things you may be interested in.
Note: If you have any questions about FFXIV that you want me to cover feel free to leave them in a comment below, you can also ask me while I am streaming on Twitch, YouTube or in our community discord.
THE STORY IS GENUINELY GOOD
If you don’t know much about me, then you may not know that I initially skipped all of the story in FFXIV and focused on getting to the endgame as fast as possible. I initially got FFXIV so I could have a game to play with my siblings and while we played other games together in the past, they tended to lose interest rather quickly and we’d be on the hunt again.
Though I tried reading the story at first, the first chunk of FFXIV (A Realm Reborn) was very dry and uninteresting to me. It genuinely takes a while for the story to build up since the initial chapters are meant for world-building. I was sadly under the impression that the whole story would be as dry as the start and I really didn’t want to stress myself out with reading, as I’m dyslexic, if I wasn’t captivated by a story.
It wasn’t until 6 years later when Twitch community members encouraged me to stream my first-time read-through of the game, beginning about 3/4ths into A Realm Reborn and let me tell you… damn, it’s been worth it.
While there are still some lulls in all of the expansions, I haven’t been as invested in the game as I have been these past few months. Ultimately it’s reading the main story that convinced me to become a full-time FFXIV streamer as it was the first time I felt so passionate about streaming.
Though I’m not done with the main story yet, I cannot express just how excited I am each time I stream the game and I’m not surprised that FFXIV has received so many awards for the writing.
Without spoiling, players can be ready for several twists and turns with lots of tears and laughter. You may even find your future RPG significant other as I have… *cough* or multiple.
In my opinion, the only downfall to the story of FFXIV is that several cutscenes are not voiced. Some scenes are tremendously longwinded and can take a good chunk of time to get through and while the game becomes more regularly voiced there are always long portions of heavy reading that often leave me exhausted due to the dyslexia.
Unfortunately, there is no accessibility function built into the game for this and the only recommendation I have received from other dyslexic players is to pay for a screen reader for the times when symptoms are too overwhelming, but at this time the only decent screen reader requires you to pay by the word, making this a non-option for many individuals.
As a player who skipped everything the first time through I can say that the story is not the most impactful element of the game for me and while it has made me much more invested in the game, I would have still been passionate about the game because the actual gameplay is highly enjoyable. You also get the option to replay the game on New Game+, allowing you to either replay the parts you love or simply read them for the first time. This wasn’t originally a feature, however, now whenever a player completes a “chapter” of the game this function unlocks.
This includes the majority of side quests, though it does not include one-off quests that aren’t as impactful to the story, so you won’t want to rush through these if you get invested.
THE FFXIV COMMUNITY IS NOT KNOWN TO BE TOXIC
Although the culture of players is going to vary from server to server, the community in FFXIV is known to be one of the least toxic MMOs. There are several reasons for this and luckily it doesn’t manifest as toxic positivity or players pretending things are going great when they are not.
A lot of the non-toxic culture can be credited to the moderation that takes place in-game as the rules are pretty strict and specific when it comes to flaming and trolling. Although the general takeaway from the rules is don’t be a dick and don’t bully other players, some of the recommendations of how to get your message across are hilarious due to poor translation, so even if you don’t plan on being a jerk, I’d recommend giving them a read because it feels like a bad google translate at some points.
At most, the toxicity I’ve experienced players actively trying to wipe parties during 24-man content or general trolling with gameplay. It doesn’t happen often and when it does it can be annoying, but when players know mechanics well enough they can help ensure that the troll does not succeed.
I have personally never experienced any extreme in-chat flaming and due to the heavy moderation I have not seen any slurs take place. There has been a bit of inter-personal drama I’ve witnessed, however, this is somewhat unavoidable as it’s what happens when humans congregate. The only other flaming or toxicity I’ve experienced are general “wow, you suck” messages or poor behaviour when playing PVP, though even this is limited, especially after being a full-time League of Legends player.
In regular entry-level content, I have never witnessed any poor behaviour or name-calling, though this may be because I am of a certain skill level as a few of my community members have reported that they have been candidates for discouraging words and behaviour. Still, they state it has been limited.
At the end of the day, there is no way to guarantee a player does not experience any negativity when playing with others, however, players can always limit chat functionality if they become overwhelmed and can send in screenshots and reports which unlike many games are taken very seriously.
In my experience, players tend to be more of the helpful type and will generally explain mechanics to Sprouts (new players) as the premise of the game is about teamwork. Players want to see others do well and achieve the things they want and they understand that helping someone become a better player is more helpful to the community than putting players down because they are not perfect.
In fact, there’s still a really good amount of leeway and high-end content and players will regularly create “learning groups” whose main focus is not to clear but to either learn together or help teach first-timers how that content works. It’s not uncommon to see players spread information about how to make fights easier or how to improve one’s rotation and while newer players may see this as passive aggressiveness depending on what the tact of the player is, it is more often not and simply a player sharing something they learned along the way that will help you enjoy the game more. I’ll talk more about this in the next section as that’s when it becomes more prevalent when and why this happens.
At this point, all of the MSQ can be done solo by using NPCs, though many players only choose to do this if they cannot form parties due to playing during a lull period when queues take a long time. This varies from server to server and while on my main account’s server, it is generally quick to get into an instance, my alt’s server can take 30 minutes to an hour in peak hours to get into an instance simply because players are more invested in Roleplay.
While all servers will typically run all forms of content, it is a good idea to look into your server before joining it, especially if there is a form of content you want to take part in more. The main types of servers there are include Roleplay servers, casual battle content servers and high-end content servers. While players can hop between data centers and worlds to complete content with others, players cannot hop regions, but this has greatly reduced the importance of finding a server (or world) that caters to your wants. I personally data center hop when levelling my alt because I didn’t realize the server I joined was predominantly RP. As someone who is generally more battle-focused I generally want to log in, do my content and log out.
No matter what server you are on and what it is known for, generally there is an air of team spirit and community. FFXIV implements a variety of ways to form groups, whether it’s Social or Combat.
Players have access to Free Companies (somewhat like a guild), Linkshells/Crossworld Linkshells (group chats that require invites) and a Party Finder that essentially allows players to signal what content they want to complete and whether they are aiming to learn or clear. There are multiple-player-run Discord communities which are meat for niche content such as Blue Mage (a unique Job which has its own content), battle strategies, side content advice and guides, and many more. As I said, players are generally very happy to share knowledge and strategy and the majority of the FFXIV community is simply passionate about the game and ready to share knowledge.
CONTENT RANGES IN DIFFICULTY AND ALLOWS FOR PLAYERS OF ALL LEVELS
The coolest thing about FFXIV is the fact that content ranges drastically in difficulty. Though all fights are scripted and I regularly compare Duties (Dungeons, Trials, Raids, etc.) to dances that players learn and move to, there are variations to each battle that generally keep content fresh.
The best part of this is that the majority of content is completely optional, so if players want to only play casually they can with no judgement or pressure to do anything more difficult. I will cover more of this in the next section so you can expect what a day can look like depending on how much you want to play.
CASUAL ENTRY-LEVEL CONTENT
There are three types of entry-level content in FFXIV, though only two types are required to progress the story. As mentioned, for the most part, players will be able to run these on their own by using NPCs and whatever a player cannot currently run on their own will be made possible in time.
This is the only tier of content which can be completed using NPCs and while I personally don’t enjoy using NPCs as content tends to be slower, it’s perfect for those who want to learn at their own pace or are at risk of being overwhelmed when things go too quickly.
I have been known to use the NPCs when queues are too long, especially when I am playing on my alt as it is on an NA server and I live in the EU, but I have also run instances every so often when it has just come out with NPCs when I want to learn mechanics and don’t want the pressure of having other players around me. These are perfect for days when I am feeling overstimulated or days when my motor function is impaired and I don’t really want to spend time with other players. Though I typically still run these instances with others more often than with NPCs, the fact that I have an option is really lovely.
It is typically in this content that players will switch what jobs they play and will try out new strategies or practice their rotation (the order you press your attacks to maximize damage output). Most players will not take this content seriously and there is quite a bit of room for mistakes. Typically players will not comment on other players’ skills, though there can be occurrences where a player recommends certain tactics or for you to try certain things out. This will typically happen in lower-level content where a player recognizes another player is new to the game or Job they are playing.
DUNGEONS
The first type of Duty which is entry-level content is a Dungeon. Dungeons range from 5-15 minutes in length on average and take players through 2-4 mob packs before reaching a boss. Every Dungeon has 3 main bosses, though on rare occasions there will be more bosses. For the most part, mechanics are tremendously simple in Dungeons, typically avoiding AoEs and stacking on other players when necessary.
Dungeons always involve a maximum of 4 players: a Tank, 2 DPS and a Healer.
Damage in Dungeons is not very punishing and players can generally fail a few mechanics before they die. This isn’t always true, but in most content, if you have a good healer they can outheal or shield any damage.
Admittedly, sometimes running Dungeons can become boring because you see a number of them over and over again, but given that there are hundreds of Dungeons in the game with varying mechanics, it will take you a while before you start to feel them become mundane.
For the most part, a new Dungeon is released in each patch and every time an expansion is released at least 5 new Dungeons are added to the game. Players have the option to run Dungeons every day and can either queue for specific ones or enter Roulletes which randomize which Dungeon you get based on the type of Roulette you queue for. On average most casual players run 5 Dungeons a week, though this varies based on how committed a player is to the game. I personally run about 3 Dungeons per day, taking breaks whenever I want to.
It is very rare for everyone to die in a Dungeon and on the off chance that it happens it is typically because of an obscure mechanic or a team that gets too greedy with damage and refuses to complete a mechanic correctly.
TRIALS
Trials are the introduction to higher-end content. While their difficulty is typically on par with Dungeons, they will sometimes contain difficult-to-read mechanics and can sometimes wipe a team.
For the most part, Trials are easy to complete and won’t end in a wipe, however, there are a few that have mechanics that will wipe a team if one person fails. Though this is a possibility, end-game players typically know which of these instances have commonly failed or difficult mechanics and are generally understanding if there is a wipe.
Most often a player will let the group know of a difficult mechanic before the mob is pulled, especially if there is a notification that a player has not done that specific Duty. Otherwise, if a Trial is straight forward typically players will not offer any advice and instead will allow you to simply do it blind unless you ask questions.
Trials generally take between 5-10 minutes at most, though this varies based on the team’s damage output. It is also the first time players will see 8-man content.
Teams are comprised of 2 Tanks (one main tank, one off-tank), 2 Healers and 4 DPS. For the most part, one of the Tanks will simply act as an extra DPS, but there are a few instances where we see mechanics that require the main Tank to swap aggro with the off-tank. This is in preparation for content I will mention later, however, when a player out-levels the content with Gear these mechanics in a regular Trial can sometimes be ignored and powered through. While not advisable as it’s important to complete mechanics as intended so players can learn, it can be useful in dire situations where your off-tank or main-tank has died.
ALLIANCE RAIDS
Arguably my favourite kind of content is Alliance Raids. They are the only instance where you see 24 players in a duty comprising of 3 teams that each have 1 Tank, 2 Healers and 5 DPS.
Alliance Raids are some of the most unique content, having some nifty mechanics and will regularly separate the groups of players and reunite them.
At first, Alliance Raids are very difficult, especially because the group is so large and players will have to watch over multiple players. It’s not uncommon for Healers to have to heal members who are not part of their alliance. It is also not uncommon for the main Tank to die and require another Tank to take over while they are down. All of these struggles tend to be remedied as the gear score gets higher, but until then get ready for some fun.
While most Alliance Raids are stomp fests where players can skip major mechanics and new players may not ever see said mechanics appear in their whole time playing the game, there are quite a number that incorporate unskippable mechanics that if not done properly will lead to all 24 players dying. Quite frankly, this is why I enjoy Alliance Raids the most. Not only do I get a thrill healing so many players, but the fact that you can’t just mindlessly complete certain Alliance Raids has me engaged in the game.
There are only a few Alliance Raids which are required to complete for the main story, however, beyond these three a player doesn’t have to touch any others. Generally, players will not go out of their way to unlock Alliance Raids that are not from the current expansion, however, I think this is a bit sad but that’s because I enjoy them so much.
Though mechanics can be difficult to navigate in Alliance Raids, the fact that you have 24 players generally reduces the stress a player should feel when completing said content. Skilled players can typically pick up the slack of newer players and players like my husband and I recognize the importance of picking certain roles for this content to ensure the safety of the group. What do I mean by that? Well, I don’t typically play healer as I enjoy Tanking and DPS much more, but whenever I queue for an Alliance Raid I will always play Healer because I know the mechanics like the back of my hand and will make sure players won’t die from raid-wide damage and are generally safe when they fail mechanics.
When I’m not healing, I will play a job called Red Mage because I can resurrect players every other attack as long as I have the mana. While I will typically play this job only when content is new and then switch to a greedier DPS job for speed, I’d rather guarantee the safety of the group when running Roulletes, especially because you don’t know how many newer players there will be.
I can’t say players function the same way or else we’d have more skilled healers in the game, but know that several players will let you know what’s up and give you that extra padding when mechanics are tough. It’s extremely, extremely common for players to explain mechanics that can lead to a wipe even if there are no new players in the instance. This is because it’s overly common for players to forget the mechanics of Alliance Raids as they are not the most common content players run.
Players tend to ignore explaining mechanics that are generally skipped, so some Alliance Raids will still end in a wipe.
RAIDS
The final tier of “casual content” are Raids. Raids are a small step up above Trials and contain many of the same types of mechanics as Trials, however, the damage taken is significantly higher. Raids are completely optional and tend to be the “high-end” content for casual players.
It is not uncommon for newer players to assume that Raids are considered the “end-game” content in FFXIV, but this is not true. While, yes, when it comes to casual content these are pretty “end-game” the reality is that there are two tiers higher and more difficult than Raids and I would honestly recommend that all players take part in Raids because they’re a lot easier than you would imagine.
Raids are the first time you will see players get a bit more serious about wipes and poor DPS. Still, being that all players recognize that this is still in the casual zone, players will not be too upset when things go awry.
Raids become as easy as Trials a few months after they are released as higher Gear score tends to allow for much more survivability and damage and it is not uncommon for a Raid that once took 15 minutes to only take 2-5 minutes instead.
Similar to Alliance Raids, players typically will not unlock older Raids unless they want more content to complete or if they want specific glamours from them.
MID-TIER CONTENT
While a good portion of players avoid mid-tier content and will stick to strictly casual content, mid-tier content tends to be the sweet spot for players who want a challenge but don’t want to commit to regular play sessions and extended hours trying to learn a fight.
In this tier, there is quite a bit of death, but for the most part, once a player has completed a fight they will be able to join random parties and typically succeed.
Again, this content is purely optional and I go in and out of completing it based on if I have the mind for it or if I have nothing else to do.
I have to admit, it took me a while to get used to mid-tier content since I spent a good chunk of my time simply grinding side content and doing the bare minimum to keep my account at the highest level I could. While there are benefits to doing mid-tier content for things like Weapons and collectables, the catch-up mechanic for players who don’t want to time invest happens fairly shortly after, essentially making it so this step is not required.
In this tier are Extreme Trials, Unreal Trials and Criterion Dungeons.
EXTREME TRIALS
Extreme Trials are essentially harder versions of Trials. They typically have the same mechanics as regular Trials, however, mechanics become more rapid and punishing.
Players will typically want to prepare by watching a guide on how to clear an Extreme Trial before entering the instance as without they can be quite frustrating and even with a guide they can be quite challenging.
Truthfully the majority of Extreme Trial pulls end in wipes and disbands, however, this typically gets better as players become more comfortable with the fight allowing players to complete them each time the boss is pulled. This will highly depend on the team, but realistically players do not simply queue for these and instead use the Party Finder to make a group.
The Party Finder is essentially a call-out for players to tell you what content they want to run. Players can set certain restrictions such as Gear Score or whether they will allow players to join who have not yet completed the Duty.
While this may feel somewhat “Elitest” more often than not there are several Duty Finders open that state that they are a practice or learning group, allowing for players who are less comfortable with content or simply have not had the chance to clear a tier practice.
Practice or learning groups will often have players who have already cleared the content as many players do not mind hanging out and helping players learn. Similar to Raids, players aren’t shy about giving advice in these instances as they recognize that without it Extreme Trials will be even more difficult.
Party Finders will typically state what strategy they are using especially if multiple content creators have released guides. While there are multiple ways a player can complete Extreme Trials efficiently, oftentimes using multiple strategies can lead to a wipe. This generally depends on what the raid-wide damage is in the battle as many require specific placements to keep the group safe.
UNREAL TRIALS
Unreal Trials are a new addition to FFXIV and are exactly the same fights as Extreme Trials, the only difference between Extreme Trials and unreals is that bosses are synced to the maximum level of the expansion and players will be able to do the battles at the highest level. Well, what do I mean by that? Unfortunately in FFXIV players are synced down to the level of content they are completing, so if you get a level 57 Dungeon, you get synced down to this level.
While this is something you get very used to, it can sometimes be frustrating as it means you’re going to lose access to a good amount of your skills and abilities for the time being.
I personally hate low-level content on certain Jobs and refuse to queue for levelling roulettes on those Jobs because some levels feel extremely clunky and not fun while others are bearable.
Unreal Trials essentially make it so you don’t have to worry about losing your rotation and are always completing these Extreme Trials with your full toolkit, the only catch is… there is only one out at a time.
Unreal Trials are essentially a “mid-casual” player’s way of doing challenging content weekly since there is loot that can only be farmed this way and after players have received their Weapons from Extreme Trials they typically never queue for them again, causing them to become dead content.
Now, some Unreal Trials are harder than their Extreme variant and this simply has to do with the scaling that takes place. Some things just hit harder and sometimes having your full toolkit isn’t enough to make them the fight you already cleared.
A lot of this also has to do with how complex certain rotations become in the end-game as it is generally easy to maximize your damage output early on, but once you get to the end-game rotations need to be extremely tightknit as breaking your rotation becomes quite punishing depending on the Job you are playing. I will talk more about this shortly.
CRITERION DUNGEONS
Since it’s obvious Dungeons generally become stomp fests where players can pull mobs from wall-too-wall and out-heal the majority of damage criterion Dungeons were added into the mix. Now, these are unique Dungeons and not simply upscaled versions of already-released Dungeons, but trust me when I say these are tremendously difficult.
You wouldn’t expect to hear that players wiped several times before they reached the first boss in a Dungeon, but that’s exactly what you can expect in a Criterion Dungeon.
Every single mob you meet, whether it is a trash mob or a boss is brutal and has the potential to swiftly take you down in one or two hits. Players will have to be smart about how many mobs they pull and will have to take their time navigating their way through this content.
I was debating even putting this into the “High-End” category, but the reality is that there is an even more difficult version of this content.
I can’t say that most players even attempt to clear Criterion Dungeonsas it’s a very niche type of duty. They are immensely rewarding, not only for your ego, but because so few players can clear this content the loot that drops often costs millions of Gil, the in-game currency.
Similar to regular Dungeons, this content is limited to four players, making it much more accessible to players who have few friends or don’t want to play in large groups.
HIGH-END CONTENT
There are three forms of High-End content and each range with the number of players who attempt to complete it. Realistically the FFXIV community isn’t the most try-hardy and players will not complete the most difficult content unless they enjoy difficult content and challenges and to be quite frank, it’s not a flex that you run the most difficult content and more of a “that’s cool! I hope runs are going well!”
High-end content comes with a series of extremely unique loot and typically provides the best Gear of an expansion. Players can typically unsync some high-end content a few expansions later in order to get any loot they missed, however, a few tiers of this content are not able to be synced, thus being the rarest loot in the game.
High-end content is not something to rush into and will typically be run in pre-made groups made outside of the game. On average, players will run content for 3-hour periods about 3 times a week, however, this depends on the group you create and how serious everyone wants to be. You may see the word “static” thrown around, essentially this is the term used for the group of players that band together to run high-end content.
SAVAGE RAIDS
Savage Raids are essentially regular Raids but they are bounds harder. While Raids and Trials are pretty comparable in difficulty, the difference between an Extreme Trial and a Savage Raid is pretty drastic.
Savage Raids are extremely punishing and can take weeks if not months to clear a single instance, though this depends on the skill of teammates and how in sync players end up becoming.
While players do queue publically for Savage Raids, typically players will only do this after they complete a tier unless they do not have the time or means to play regularly.
As mentioned, the average Static will spend about 9 hours a week progging content and will split this time over 3 days. Players will typically find group members using Reddit and will stay together for at least a tier (4 Raids). If the chemistry of a Static is good then players will typically remain together for the next set of Raids, though it is not uncommon for players to have to find new Statics every few tiers because players take breaks or dynamics aren’t working as well as a player hoped.
Savage Raids tend to be taken very seriously and while it depends on what the goals of your static are, they are much higher stress than the majority of other content.
My husband is a mid-level Savage Raider, while I am a casual Savage Raider. So, he puts in at least 9 hours a week into Savage content, while I put in a maximum of 3 hours a week. Our Statics went in with very different goals. While his static wanted to clear the Savage Raids as soon as they were released in hopes of having the best Gear available in the game at the time, my Static began the content well into the tier simply to farm the Mounts and expose new players to Savage Raids.
Realistically because my husband spends more time completing Savage Content he cleared most tiers within 1-2 weeks while I can’t see my static clearing the tier for a few months. For me this isn’t an issue as I’m simply completing Savage content to play with community members I enjoy spending time with and to be quite honest, while I enjoy a challenge there are so many other things I want to do in FFXIV that I don’t want to commit too many hours to Savage content.
Quite honestly, I cannot imagine being in a static like my husband’s as even externally it feels like a job, but I understand why he enjoys it and always has a static. Whenever he doesn’t have a Static, my husband will still participate in Savage Content, however, he will join Party Finders which similar to Extreme Trials will state what the hope of the duty is and what strategy they are using.
As for the actual content of Savage, the reason it is much more difficult than an Extreme Trial is because it’s the first instance where damage is no longer telegraphed. While bosses still have animations to let you know they are going to attack, there is no pre-emptive warning showing “do not stand here” when the damage goes off. As you see the AoE circles on the ground, the damage is happening making it tremendously important to pay attention and know what’s happening since healers will not be able to keep up if too many players get hit by damage.
Not only will damage no longer be telegraphed, but every fight comes with altered attacks, often combining multiple mechanics with each other. It is not uncommon for new attacks to also be added in Savage content so a player cannot get too comfortable simply because they cleared a normal Raid and find it easy. These are very different fights and often have added phases, essentially meaning that you are learning a whole new fight.
Savage Raids are also the first time we see a lock on what Jobs a player can use as only one of each Job can be used in a Savage Raid when it is released. This restriction lifts later on, but this can provide a challenge for casual players who want to join a static and only play one of the more popular jobs.
Typically a Savage Raider will have multiple Jobs under their belt and while they will not regularly switch between them, they will keep them in their back pocket in case the team needs something in particular, whether it be more damage, more team buffs/shields or the ability to resurrect players more consistently.
When taking extraordinarily seriously you will see Statics meet up at least 5 times a week. These groups are rare as they typically end up being groups of players who work from home or whose job is to play FFXIV, but they do exist if a player wants to take part.
There is no real rush to get into Savage content and even though it drops better Gear than regular content, there is a “catch-up” mechanic that provides almost identical Gear in casual content. Also, as mentioned, if a player wants the Mounts or loot from Savage content later on, they can unsync it with groups of friends later and form smaller parties to get these rewards.
Of all the content on this part of the list, Savage is the most common to find groups in and tends to be what players strive toward.
CRITERION DUNGEONS (SAVAGE)
As mentioned earlier, Criterion Dungeons have a harder version available to them with the difficulty of Savage but are for the most part identical to the Criterion Dungeon
Savage Criterion Dungeons will also be primarily untelegraphed, but the difference between a Criterion Dungeon and its Savage counterpart is more similar than a Raid to its counterpart. This is simply because a base Criterion Dungeon is tremendously difficult in comparison to a Raid which is generally easy once a player gets the hang of it.
I can’t say many players run Savage Criterion Dungeons, but this is because there is no benefit to running them other than unique collectables and cosmetics. Typically high-end players are focussed on good Gear, but this depends on the player and their goals in the game.
ULTIMATE RAIDS
By far the hardest content is Ultimate Raids. These are unique fights that cannot be unsynced and are even harder than Savage Raids. These are the least completed content and will typically be done only when a Static has cleared a tier of Savage Raids and wants to continue playing with each other.
Damage is brutal, clears are rare and not many players have the rewards from these instances simply because of how difficult it is to clear the content. Again, there is no Gear benefit to completing Ultimate Raids, which is why they take such a back seat in content for many players, but if you’re looking for the biggest challenge in the game, you’re looking for this.
THERE ARE LOTS OF JOBS AND EACH IS VERY UNIQUE
By far the biggest draw to continue playing FFXIV is the fact that there are so many different Jobs you can play especially since you have the freedom to switch to any Job at any point. Unlike some MMOs, players don’t simply pick one Job and stick to it for the remainder of their time playing the game and instead, players will play multiple, though many will stick to a single role.
If you are unsure what a Role is, this is the classification of the Job you are playing. Roles include Tanks, Healers, Physical Ranged DPS, Magical Ranged DPS or Melee DPS.
For years I stuck to two roles, being Physical Ranged DPS and Magical Ranged DPS. As I got more comfortable with the game I expanded my horizons, first swapping to Tank, then Healing and finally I now play all the Jobs.
It is not uncommon for players to have all of their jobs at max level, whether or not they plan to regularly play them. A lot of this has to do with the fact that it is extremely easy to level Jobs and the other is because each Job plays so differently and it’s just nice to be able to pick which one you want to play for the day based on your energy level.
Jobs range in how much skill is required to play them optimally. While many require a good amount of focus to successfully maneuver their rotation and line skills up, there are a number that hardly require attention and any mistakes will not lead to much DPS loss.
Tanking and Healing are generally straightforward and simply require a player to understand their skills and the only complaint I have about combat is that it can be somewhat difficult to select the mob you ideally want to target. This is much easier on a controller, however, combat itself tends to be more difficult on a controller in my opinion.
Each expansion releases at least 2 new Jobs, though some expansions also feature a single limited Job which has its own content but can also be used in the overworld as it was like any other job. Limited Jobs remain around 10 levels below all other Jobs and are unable to queue for Roulettes or Duties, however, they can enter Duties with premade parties, though their main draw is always their unique content.
FIGHTS ARE GENERALLY VERY INTERESTING
Though the first 50 levels of content are extremely dull in my opinion, beyond this all content becomes genuinely interesting and much less dull. Of course, this is going to depend on what a player is interested in completing as casual content doesn’t necessarily stimulate a player’s brain but there are several duties along the way that have really interesting mechanics or at the very least are very scenic.
Though FFXIV relies on similar forms of mechanics, the variety comes from the combination of mechanics and how the mechanics are executed.
Some bosses have cool mechanics and even though they aren’t difficult to complete, it feels really good when you know a mechanic before it happens and avoid it.
Since you will be completing the majority of content by using Roullettes, this keeps the game pretty fresh as you simply never know what content you are going to complete that day. There are hundreds of duties and it’s not very common to get the same one two queues in a row unless you are playing a job that is simply too low levelled to access many Duties.
While yes, there have been times I have deeply sighed because I don’t want to do the duller instances, generally, this doesn’t happen especially when you begin to factor in the time-to-experience ratio as the duller content is typically much faster to complete.
Even when players are completing content in the overworld there are some really cool mechanics making sure that the players don’t get too bored.
YOU CAN TAKE BREAKS FROM FFXIV AND NOT BE PUNISHED FOR IT
I think the biggest draw to FFXIV for the majority of players it the fact that you can take breaks and are encouraged to do so by the developers.
Unlike many MMOs, there are built-in catch-up mechanics that allow players to get back to the end-game within a few weeks. While yes, this depends on how much time you took off the game and the biggest chunk of your time is going to be running through the main story, many players will only play the game during the biggest patches and not renew their sub during the downtime.
My siblings have taken four years off of the game since life got extraordinarily busy for them and it only took them three weeks to get to the end game. Being that they are busy people who only have a few hours at most to play, this is quite impressive for an MMO and truthfully it’s one of the reasons I tell people to start playing the game.
Three major reasons are catching up can be done generally easily and this is because players collect an in-game currency that buys the best Gear at the time by doing tasks that they would normally do, players can buy Gear that is similar in stats from the Marketboard for reasonable prices and all the currencies in the game are generally easy to farm. Even with the lowest effort players will be making tens of thousands of this currency a day making it easy to make purchases that you want. The only thing that will take players a while to collect are the expensive Collectables, which are purely cosmetic and not required to play the game.
Although I personally prefer to not take time off FFXIV, since it’s the game I enjoy the most, it’s honestly really good to know and genuinely feel that I am not pressured to log in every day. When I took time off the game the most I felt was sadness that I wasn’t able to enjoy the game I spent so many hours in, but never did I have anxiety that I was falling behind or that there would be too much content that I wouldn’t be able to catch up to. This is honestly refreshing since I found myself trapped in the never-ending grind-gotcha content for years and while I enjoyed those games at the core level, I always knew if I took time off I was actually going to be set back and could never catch up.
Unfortunately, as someone who struggles with addiction, though luckily not substance abuse, it is very hard for me to take time off video games especially when I have the fear of falling behind. I’m tremendously grateful this isn’t the case for FFXIV as I’ve had to ultimately leave games like this behind. As I’m sure other people in the same boat understand, a main issue with addictive games is that you allow them to take over completely, ultimately avoiding doing the tasks that make you a human and avoiding things like showers and feeding yourself.
Though over the years there have been bouts of this with FFXIV, simply because of the personality type I have, it’s generally easy to take a step back mentally and say “hey, you don’t have to do this right now, there’s no rush.”
My apologies if that all sounds dark, but I recognize that many people experience the same struggle that I do especially when it comes to MMOs. It is truly difficult to find MMOs that aren’t addictive and I validate the struggle and frustration of this reality as it is tremendously overwhelming and difficult to navigate at points.
COMBAT ISN’T THE ONLY INTERESTING ELEMENT OF THE GAME
I must say in my time playing MMOs I’ve had mixed feelings when it comes to tasks like gathering and crafting. Ultimately I always find myself doing small amounts of both as they are typically the best source of revenue in MMOs, I have to say FFXIV has made tasks like this pretty interesting.
While Gathering is lacklustre, being a simple “tap the resource you want” mechanic, crafting is a mini-game that requires you to balance the quality and progress of the resource you are trying to craft.
Players do not need to complete this mini-game if they don’t want to as there is a built-in auto-craft function, though when players utilize this feature they are not guaranteed high-quality items which typically sell for more and are more in demand.
At first, I wasn’t very invested in Crafting and Gathering, only doing it when it was required of me, but since my most recent return to the game it has been the majority of things that I do and quite frankly I love it.
While Crafting becomes simple when you know what you are doing, it can take a while for players to become comfortable with the task and often skilled crafters will learn to build unique macros that allow them to press a single button to craft the resources they want while still guaranteeing that they are high-quality.
This is not always possible, especially when players are doing the more difficult forms of Crafting, making Crafting generally unique and interesting when players choose to take part in this content.
Though I understand the draw for wanting simple crafting that can be completed by hitting a single button, the fact that there is a built-in game is a major draw for me as not only is it a form of entertainment, but it means not everyone can or will want to do it, making Crafting more worth it as it makes sure the Marketboard prices are more worth the effort and ensures that bots are unable to complete the more intricate crafts.
Although FFXIV, similar to all MMOs, has issues with bots, they are not as pervasive especially in the Crafting market. They tend to be Gatherers or low-tier Crafters and luckily they get nuked fairly regularly.
THERE’S A GOOD AMOUNT OF INTERESTING SIDE CONTENT
Just like the header says, FFXIV has a good amount of interesting side content. Much of this content is story-based, but not all of it is combat-oriented.
Players can look forward to side instances that have endless battles, Dungeons with alternate paths and bosses, quests where you make alliances and help out different tribes, story quest missions that will help you unlock shiny weapons and many more.
Truthfully it’s the side content that really helps ensure you never get bored in FFXIV as there’s just so much to do, the only downfall is when it comes to team-based side content as sometimes these instances die out since players are either unaware that they exist or players have completed what they need to do in these instances thus putting it down.
While the developers have attempted to put in reasons for players to endlessly farm team-based side content, it is not always successful. All these instances do get altered though, allowing for the need for fewer players to participate to complete them, and members of my community will often band together to catch players up if they want specific loot. Typically what took 24+ players to complete will be downscaled to 4 players, but in these instances, if more players are around the content will return to being more difficult.
For the most part, there is always a player who is interested in doing each form of side content, the only issue is you’ll have to go looking for them. There are in-game ways a player will do this, but it is not uncommon for players to have to join a discord that is specific to farming side content to locate them more easily.
THERE ARE A LOT OF THINGS TO COLLECT LIKE MOUNTS AND MINIONS
If you’re someone who loves collecting and can’t help yourself when it comes to completing achievements or can’t help but get all the Minions or Mounts in a game, well FFXIV has a lot of that.
Realistically some achievements take years to complete and at the time of writing this the only player who has been successful at completing all the achievements in the game stated it will take a minimum of 7 years due to the time gating of some of these achievements.
Now, though this is true for Achievements, other Collectables are quite different. I am a player who is somewhat obsessive about collecting and has hundreds of Mounts and Minions in the game. While the majority of these I obtained by farming and grinding, realistically many of them could be purchased from the Marketboard for ranging prices.
While some Mounts and Minions can cost millions of Gil, others can cost only thousands or sometimes only as little as a couple hundred. This makes collection a lot more accessible as everyone farms Gil passively making saving up for a Collectable you want possible even when you’re not actively thinking about it. Of course, at the end of the day, players will have to actively farm for Gil if they want the most expensive items and if you’re coming from an MMO like WOW where 1 Gold is difficult to farm if players are doing the absolute bare minimum in FFXIV they will probably bring in around 40,000 Gil a day and I mean the absooooolute bare minimum. Gil is essentially an expendable resource and players will happily and willingly spend it on a whim.
Mounts and Minions that are untradable and thus cannot be purchased from the Market Board are made relatively easy to obtain, especially when that content is no longer as popular. Players can complete most content unsynced for these rewards and the drop rates are increased after a certain amount of time. You don’t need to rush to get these and there are even events where the more popular Mounts and Minions can be bought with event-specific currency. Recently one of these events happened and I got about 10 Mounts that I didn’t have the patience to farm on my own, even unsynced. While not ongoing events, they are frequent enough that newer players can “catch-up” or simply ignore content they don’t want to do.
Finally, in regards to collectables, FFXIV is extremely popular due to the amount of glamour there is in the game. Though the game does have an online store, there are hundreds of free cosmetics players can get from Duties that look phenomenal. Many players will state unironically that the true end game is the glam game and while this may sound like a joke it is truly what ends up happening with the majority of players whether they are into RP or not.
Even I, who typically has no care in the world about how characters look in video games have hundreds of glams I alternate between and have a custom outfit for all of my Jobs. Similar to Mounts and Minions, for the most part players can find their Glamours on the Market Board however some are unique to Duties, PVP or Quests, providing more reasons to revisit or complete content.
GRINDING IS OPTIONAL AND IS NOT A REQUIREMENT
A massive perk to playing FFXIV is that you do not need to actually grind to do most content. Realistically all that matters is that players have the iLvl to enter a piece of content and that’s it. You don’t need the best gear, you don’t need Gil, you just have to play when you want to and if you want to.
While yes the grindy content tends to be extremely grindy, the fact that it is optional makes picking and choosing what you want to farm easier. Other than events, there are no time restrictions for content that requires grinding and thus you can take it at your own pace. Also as mentioned earlier, if you want to get the best Gear in the game, you don’t have to farm the in-game currencies that provide “free” Gear and you can simply buy Gear that is equivalent from the Market Board.
Realistically, many very casual players will not ever get the best Gear in the game as it is not necessary for the content that they do, it is generally more common for players who are more invested in the game to do this and for multiple Jobs.
Speaking about multiple Gear sets, most Gear is shared among 2-4 Jobs, meaning that if a player sticks to a specific Role the only extra “grinding” they need to do is to get the Weapons they want that cannot be shared. Some odd Jobs don’t share Gear with others and unfortunately, we don’t foresee this changing too much until more Jobs are released.
THE GAME IS REGULARLY EXPANDED AND UPDATED
Though this expansion was arguably a bit lacklustre compared to many of the previous ones, each expansion has multiple patches that add major content updates. These vary from new Duties, side quests, new massive side areas/instances and much more.
While most content is released at the launch of an expansion, players can expect significant increases in content every 3-4 months. This gives players a chance to catch up on old content or take their time with the newer content. As mentioned earlier, if a player chooses to only play when a new expansion releases, this is completely fine and acceptable. You will often see players return to the game a few months before a new expansion is meant to launch in order to finish all the story patches that happened since they took time off and thus be ready to complete all the new content at once.
During the downtime, you do see significantly fewer players online, but this doesn’t typically impede queue times or are on a particularly weird server where players aren’t focused on any combat. As mentioned much earlier since players can both World Hop and Data Center Hop now, this is becoming less of an issue as players can simply travel to worlds with more active player bases.
THERE’S A FREE TRIAL THAT ISN’T TIME LIMITED
Even if you are not planning on paying for a subscription for FFXIV you can still play a good portion of the game. At the moment the free trial goes up to level 70 and there are always plans to raise the cap for free players as expansions come out.
There are limitations to what a player can do on a Free Trial, making a subscription generally worth investing in especially if you enjoy the game, but there are a significant amount of players who have never purchased a subscription and have endless amounts of hours in the game.
I personally used the Free Trial for months before I chose to sign up to keep expenses generally low. I completed as much content as I could and levelled up as many Jobs as I thought I wanted and then started paying for my subscription.
It is really important to note that while there is no limit on how long you can play on a Free Trial account, as soon as you make your first payment, such as purchasing an expansion this will end your Free Trial.
I’ve had a couple of community members do this by mistake, thinking they could differ the subscription start date, but this will essentially screw you over if you were hoping to get a few more hours in before you start your sub.
THE GAME IS NOT A CASH-GRAB OR GOTCHYA GAME
FFXIV has no mechanics that require real-life currency, other than the subscription. There is no way for a player to pay to win as everyone’s Gear has the same stats and players can obtain every single piece of Gear.
The only thing a player can do that involves real-life money is pay for level skips or story skips. These are only time savers and are typically purchased by players who have already completed the content on another character and don’t want to take the time to re-level or redo the story.
Otherwise, the only other purchases for the game are cosmetics such as Emotes, Minions, Mounts, and other vanity items. As the game has a plethora of these types of items in-game that can be obtained for free, you simply cannot argue that any of the purchases on the Mog Station are pay-to-win.
There is no gambling in FFXIV, other than loot crates that are bought with in-game currency that provide you with loot that you obtain from less popular content and all loot crate content can be obtained by running these instances or purchased from the Marketboard. These loot crates are essentially “currency spenders” when a player doesn’t know what to do with their built-up currency and doesn’t want to or know what to spend their currency on.
There are no loot crates that drop “OP” items or mechanics that are meant to promote gambling and there are no real money transactions for loot crates.
SO, OVERALL IS FFXIV WORTH THE SUBSCRIPTION?
In my opinion, absolutely. Although I understand that paying for a subscription is a steep request for many gamers, especially in a day and age where there is so much freemium content, the subscription is genuinely worth it given how many hours you can spend in the game.
I would understand if the game was notoriously difficult to keep up with or catch up with, if there were gotchya mechanics in it, or if servers were dudes, but none of these are true for 14.
Realistically if a player is uncertain if they want to play the game they can get hundreds of hours from simply signing up for the free trial and there is never any pressure or concern with not renewing your sub for extended periods.
I also have to admit that there are times when I have paid for my subscription and never logged on and though I try to avoid this because I don’t want to pay for subscriptions I’m not using, I generally don’t regret it because I know the developers actually care about their player base.
Though I understand that the developers and Square Enix are simply trying to make money off of the game, the reality is that they do a good amount of listening to the community and providing the things that they want. Of course, they are not perfect, but after playing and covering as many games as I have over the years I can comfortably say that this is the game whose team is the most passionate about making their player base happy.
There are regular updates improving quality of life and there is simply so much content that the average player will be unable to farm everything they want. I’ve never not known what to do in FFXIV and truthfully my main problem is that I start working on things and never finish them because there are other things I can do.
As for being “late to the party” and joining a game that is bound to die, at the time of writing this you don’t have to worry about that. FFXIV is still growing and with the massive exodus from WOW, many have joined FFXIV. Though we do get comparably large lulls in players between patches, they always come back. It has also been confirmed that there are at least 3 massive expansions set to launch for FFXIV, meaning the game is meant to be kept updated and running for at least 12 more years. The developers cannot confirm any further than this as it will depend on how well the game continues to do, but players should remain hopeful as FFXIV is one of Square Enix’s biggest games and one of the most critically acclaimed.
So, I’m curious, did this post encourage you to pick up the game? I’m sorry if it was long-winded, but I wanted to make sure you had all of the information you may want to know before you join. Let me know if you have any questions about the game, especially if you have any concerns, I’d be happy to answer! Hopefully, I’ll see you soon in Eorzea!
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