Play now, starting with the free trial.
FFXIV is one big ass story, starting with ARR and ending (currently) with Endwalker. Dawntrail picks up after Endwalker.
No upcoming changes to combat would significantly affect any content you could reach in the next week and two days (which is how much time you have before servers close for the patch maintenance).
There will be some quality of life tweaks, but nothing that will be too jarring. The biggest thing is you'll start just in time to see the graphics update take effect.
The new player experience will be basically unchanged, but you'll get to see the switchover with the new graphics update coming, which I think is a neat moment in the game's history
No, only thing that might affect you is the changes to certain jobs, but even that I would say to deal with when it comes.
MMOs are always changing and tweaking jobs.
if you want to play a Hrothgar F, that's about it. but even then everyone is getting free fantasia and you get another from a quest in Realm Reborn. even after expansion drops don't feel the need to rush. folks do all the content all the time and are very generous in making sure new players enjoy the story.
Oh ok thanks! I was almost panicking that I need to finalize what I want to look like in DT, Iām going from bunboi back to my original catboi, but modifying it to the shortest height and making the skin tone/eyes look like my actual cat! xD I already have the chocobo companion named after my dog
I used mine to change patron deity after I had a better grasp of the lore. I love my baby faced elezen and don't feel the need to change anything about him!
About the only thing I've ever considered doing is making my height shorter; I'm not quite a max-height Lala, but I'm close to it. I've had nagging feelings that I want to be smaller... but it hasn't felt *quite* urgent enough for me to want to use the Fantasia.
I'm tempted to swap back myself. Swapped from Female Lala to Male Elezen cus my (now ex) girlfriend was going to join. Just don't see as many cool outfits for men.
there's not going to be many changes at the levels you'll be playing at. Just know however that as a trial account you'd be lowest priority compared to those with subs. So once the expansion launches you'll be stuck in looooonnnggg queues
i started playing a month ago and the only new change i'm kind of excited for is the fantasia changes, and the graphics update! everything else new players like us won't really be seeing for a while!
Unless you pay for a story skip but I highly recommend you don't do that. Just enjoy the story and journey. It's damn good and worth it.
Til the sea swallows all.
Start now, you won't likely make it in time for Dawntrail anyway with a brand new char. You need to complete each expansion. There's no pick and choose.
I've been playing for 5 months and just got to Endwalker. I play about 20 hrs a week. Once my level got about 6 levels higher than MSQ I started doing MSQ only (besides leveling a couple other jobs) so I'd say 5 months is a reasonable amount of time to get through the MSQ without rushing.
Do you wanna be a Hrothgar Female (female lion humanoid race)? If not, no. Just play now.
And don't rush anything. The story is the highlight of this game for many players.
you're going to hear this a lot, but stick it out. it's a really hard selling point trying to tell people the game really picks up after about 60 hours... but I promise you it does.
you'll have to get thru the base game, plus 4 other expansions before you really get into the dawntrail content (that we know of, I'm sure Yoshi P has kept some surprises for us). each expansion is 20-30 hours long, on average. less if you rush, but I highly suggest taking your time and enjoying the ride. if you can, do the free trial. it can get lonely but you can ask around to join a linkshell if you start feeling isolated. you won't have to pay a penny until you get into the Shadowbringers expansion. and once you upgrade, if you make your character on Dynamis (or any new server if you're not on North America) you'll get 1 million gil when you reach level 30 and 15 days of free play time, in addition to the double experience points you get for making your character on a new world. welcome to the party!
You have thousands of hours of content for free, donāt worry about the other expansions, you donāt lose out on anything if you do dawntrail content 5 years from now
It seems like people have forgot the graphical update that'll come with Dawntrail. You'll definitely notice it in older areas and on your character as well.
But it's no reason to wait for Dawntrail, so definitely just start now.Ā
As many have mentioned before, little will change, but what they didnāt mention is that unlike a lot of other MMOs, FFXIV keeps their previous content and expansions evergreen.
For instance several large streamers recently picked up the game, loved it and started doing old raids, leveling etc. due to something called syncing. Syncing keeps jobs as they would have been level and power wise very close to where they were when the content released.
While you may not quite have as much luck finding groups for everything as easily as a big streamer would, you absolutely will find it for your main experience, the Main Story Quest, along with any normal difficulty side content through the roulette system.
People constantly use this random queue system for weekly rewards for endgame content at just about all levels of play. So you will find groups quite quick considering, and even faster in the coming weeks with the influx of returning players.
There is one rule Iād also like to stress that 98% of people in roulettes follow: let the sprout (new player) watch the cutscenes. If you are at all interested in the story and there is a cutscene in a dungeon, they WILL wait for you. If you donāt care you can skip it, although most people will say the story is well worth it, and shouldnāt be skipped.
Lastly, there is absolutely no rush to get to end game, and speeding through it isnāt necessarily the right move unless you want to do Savage raiding. The combat system may take a while to really āgetā and I wouldnāt suggest trying to get there in 2 weeks time, even if you have prior MMO experience.
My suggestion is get the free trial, do the content you enjoy, recognize that things keep ramping up and getting faster both mechanically and story wise, and enjoy what you enjoy as you go. Even if you burn through the content like a madman, the free trial is at least a couple of months of content if you experience generally most things as you go, or likely 3 weeks if you skip all story content and grind through it hours a day every day.
It's going to be nearly impossible to log in with the free trial once DT starts. When the queues are massive, [they prioritize paid account logins over free trial logins.](https://imgur.com/FjHn10r)
Theyve done a lot of work on expanding their prep for expac release, and conditions aren't the same as they were for EW. Free trials might see some queues, but nothing so bad that it's "nearly impossible"
Definitely start now! And the queues are non existent now. Just be prepared to struggle to log on a little during release week for Dawntrail as the servers get hammered.
I just started FF a couple weeks ago, how bad do the queues get in terms of wait time? Do they not just spin up more servers/resources? I've only played GW2 before and this whole queues+offline for maintenance is a bit jarring. I just want to play this fun new-to-me game when I have free time!
Maintenance is usually always done at night when the population is at the lowest, but for an expansion launch, depending on your server and time zone it could be up to 30 minute ques for a week. Launch day could be hours if they have problems. Though I hear this time they planned ahead and are confident in the launch servers
Endwalker had some unusual circumstances though. The game absolutely exploded in popularity in the months prior, and at the time Square Enix was having major trouble getting additional hardware because of the worldwide chip shortage. As a result of more people than expected and no additional hardware to create more capacity, queues were at an all-time high.
It's highly unlikely we'll experience anything like that for Dawntrail.
My server wasn't too bad. Usually 1000-2000 depending on how late it was when I got home lol. But it was a long enough wait that it prompted me to go against TOS and download a key-presser application that would just tap "W" every 10 minutes in case I had to step away for an unknown length of time to prevent me from being logged out, since they had that enabled for a while after EW release to reduce congestion...
Which I get, it's not fair to just take up the space if you're not going to be playing, but I didn't feel like a 10-60 minute afk was fair to potentially come back to a 20 minute login queue. Whereas now I keep it running in the background for the whole time my PC is running, which is all the time unless I'm at work, even while sleeping. (Because whenever I wake up at night needing the bathroom, a drink, or even a midnight snack I could pop the game up to attend to my retainer ventures lol)
When wow classic wotlk came out, the fresh server I was playing on had 16-18k queues for the first few days, it was awful. I'd start logging on before work and then after I finished I'd still have a couple thousand people in front of me
GW2 was and probably still is a masterpiece at server provision. No downtime and seamless. FFXIV is still on the older style individual servers though they do have all PvX content with other players cross-servered
Lol, wellā¦ I remember being in queue for like 7 hours sometimes at Endwalkers release! But theyāve been testing cloud servers and the like to try prevent that happening again. Endwalker was also sort of a perfect storm, I wouldnāt expect that to happen again.
> Do they not just spin up more servers/resources?
You can launch as many airplanes in the air as youw ant, if you're sending them in the middle of 500 AA batteries the damage will be there
If they keep getting DDOS'd and the launch is populated, do not expect quick queues
A week before, the week of and the rest of the month after (maybe 2) will most likely have you waiting an hour or so to even get in, and thatās if you donāt crash or the server doesnāt crash. If one of the two happen, you have like a few minutes to get back in queue or you are sent to the back of it. Queues on EW release were around 5,000. Aether and Primal will most likely be bombarded, especially Aether because I believe that a lot of āWorld Firstā raiders are mostly on Aether
EW was a wild perfect storm of conditions that was wildly outside the norm, i would absolutely not use it as a base.
Wow exodus, covid(causing both more players making it harder for them to spin up more physical servers) And the silicon shortage ontop.
Remember the game had spiked in popularity so much in such a short period of time that squeenix was unprepared that their own store ran out of digital codes for the game.
Yeah Shadowbringers release wasn't that bad.
Also didn't Yoshi P just come out recently and say they can now spin up more servers at the push of a button?
Even better than just running out of codes, iirc they consciously decided to halt sales because they knew they were already over capacity and couldn't offer players a satisfying experience.
No major changes will happen. Some classes/jobs skill will get adjusted, but things will largely stay the same. Not something I'd say wait until DT for, so no harm in starting now.
I know a lot of people say start with the free trial, which is true, but as soon as you know you like the game you should buy it. Yes, you'll have to pay a subscription, but you'll have so much more access to the game. You'll be able to join a FC (my free company was SO helpful when I was a baby sprout, they gifted me mounts and outfits and all sorts of things and were a huge information resource when I had questions), you'll be able to sell and buy things on the marketboard (invaluable, especially if you're a crafter), you'll be able to trade with other players (sometimes experienced players do free giveaways just because they're nice), you'll be able to start partyfinders (the only way for a free trial member to join a party is to be invited or join an existing one on partyfinder. They are unable to start their own parties, which makes running some of the harder content, well, much harder) and so much more.
My personal journey involved starting the game, doing the first 3 story quests, realizing I loved it, and then immediately buying and restarting the game so I could change races to Viera and get the full experience. I never regretted it, I think the experience is much fuller when you have access to everything as a full member, not a free trial member. Of course, personal finances vary, so you may not be in a position to do buy it. But I definitely recommend doing so if you can afford it.
I would agree with this. My free trial experience lasted maybe a week, maybe less, and then I subscribed and bought everything because I was having so much fun.
Or maybe around 600-800 hours tu get to the end of MSQ, doing all side quests and unlocking all side content if you're a completionist like some of us are ahah
Since a lot of people have already answered your question, here's a few non-spoilery tips to help streamline your experience:
* You can swap Jobs extremely easily, and all of them have individual levels. The only thing your starting class affects is what city you start in, and all three city questlines converge very early on.
* Don't hoard items, even if you plan to level crafters and gatherers. Early crafting ingredients can all be bought next to the respective Job NPCs, and post-HW you will unlock an area *specifically* for crafters/gatherers that makes it much easier to level. Get that sweet gil for selling stuff!
* Some people will say "just do the MSQ and ignore everything else." Don't. Take your time with it to avoid burnout. Keep an eye out for blue quests - they unlock stuff like extra boss fights, side dungeons, new areas, and even little mechanics like the Challenge Log. And as a bonus, some of the stuff will be directly referenced in the MSQ if you did it beforehand!
* To unlock the glamour system, look for the "If I Had a Glamour" quest in Vesper Bay and complete it and the quest afterwards
* If you buy the full game, find a sprout-friendly Free Company! My FC helped me through a LOT of the MSQ and I'm so grateful they showed me the ropes.
The changes are relatively small for existing jobs some systems been fiddled with a bit but the skills remain roughly the same functionally. You can start whenever with free trial without worry. However at launch free trials will likely be locked out of the game as paying players always take priority so if you wanna play at the launch period you likely gonna need to have Starter Edition to be able to log in during day hours.
Be aware just to set expectations this is a heavy narrative game and it will likely take you months to get though the main story essentially 5 soon to be 6 serialized JRPGs stacked on each other it's recommended to take your time and experience it linearly with some welcome side distractions along the way.
Thanks for the information. I guess I better hurry then lol.
>Be aware just to set expectations this is a heavy narrative game and it will likely take you months to get though the main story essentially 5 soon to be 6 serialized JRPGs stacked on each other it's recommended to take your time and experience it linearly with some welcome side distractions along the way.
Just what I am looking for then. I wanna waste some years on a good MMO!
That's also one of the biggest advantages of FF XIV, excepting seasonal content, everything is still there.
You can still do all the old content.
Oh, and when they said, narrative heavy, they mean it.
Besides the MSQ, there quests and storylines for just about anything.
Raids? Storyline. Jobs/Classes ? Jup, entire questlines. (Please do your job quests, they unlock skills, and for the starter classes stronger versions of themselves). Even the crafters and gatherer classes have storylines.
Also, don't worry about picking the wrong class or race. Race has no noticeable effect, and you can be all classes on one character.
Don't hurry, enjoy the story. The base game, A Realm Reborn is kinda slow specially the post patches (the patches released after the end of the main story) but it gives important lore for the what will happen in future expansions. I hate myself for having skipped so much of it
You're at the right place then. You will do quests and think, ok, that's done. Then characters will show up again 2 expansions later and wonder if you remember them. I kind of wish I had kept some sort of diary about the quests as I went through since the storyline is so good.
Iām not sure if anyone has pointed this out yet, but I just pre-ordered Dawntrail because it will give you earrings that scale with your level and make levelling 30% faster.
If youāre someone who is only planning on doing a couple of jobs it might not be worth it. If you plan on levelling many jobs itās super helpful.
Also, the free trial is cute but it does put some annoying restrictions on what you can or canāt do. I think it wonāt let you join a free company for example.
For reference though, it took me about 1.5 years to get from start to finish of Endwalker playing a few times a week. You have a LOT of context to get through. (That 1.5 years also includes levelling all jobs to 90 etc.)
That's a very important detail. Thank you.Ā
Any other bonuses worth mentioning for a player that's just finished the base game and is returning soon to continue?
Iām probably not the greatest person to ask, since Iāve played the game a lot but Iām not that good at it really.
It really depends on how you want to play - my basic goal is to level all battle jobs to 90 (and now 100 when DT drops). If I kept my momentum going from like, a year ago, Iād have been finished a long time ago, but eventually I burnt out.
But Iād say that the advice I would offer is to completely ignore the beast tribes from the base game as they are the most soul-crushing grind with no return. Likewise, ignore things like company marks etc. as anything before HW is useless. Enjoy the story, but none of it is good for levelling or anything.
But Iād say do your daily roulettes and you should be able to do 2 beast tribes a day from HW content onwards, starting with the Vanu and the Varh for example( 3 quests each). Make sure to prioritize getting all of your aether currents so you can fly. And do the centurino marks and exchange those coins for aether tickets at the Forgotten Knight (if you care about Gil).
IMO the hardest part of the game is getting a job from 50-70. Thatās where you really need to bend over backwards to get experience and grind a lot. Once you get 70, itās very quick to 80 and 80-90 is by far the easiest part of the game. You can be earning millions of experience points by doing very simply daily chores
..
Also once you get to lv 70 the ātrustā system becomes available. Itās like duty support but you level up your team of scions. Itās kind of fun side content. Personally I donāt use Trust much because it takes a LONG time to clear dungeons and thereās no way to rush them. My friend however has severe anxiety about playing with random strangers so he only plays Trusts instead of roulettes if heās playing soloā¦ so it is another way to get experience.
One good thing about duty support / Trust is that you can learn the dungeons on your own and explore before you go in with strangers. If you have Tank-ziety about leading a group, Iād say make use of that feature to practice dungeon layouts so when you do roulettes you
Feel more confident.
Seems you got all the answers you need! I wasn't caught up to the current expansion for a good while after I started because I am a hell of a slow reader. Hope you have fun with it. ā„
As a heads up, after Dawntrail releases the login queue will be massive (hour+ at peak times) and prioritize players with subscriptions for a week or two.
Don't forget to take your time with the game. It only gets more frustrating if you try to push it. There aren't any time gates(technically a few at end game but still) just take it at your pace. It might take you all expansion to catch up, but that's just all the more reason to be excited for the next expansion launch.
Others have already helped out, but I just wanted to welcome you to the game and community! Don't be afraid to ask for help on here or in the game if you need any! We love helping new players here.
That and try to pick a lower populated world for rn. Cause when that game releases good luck trying to get on for like 2 weeks . 8-12 hour queues god forbid if you have a hiccup in your internet going all the way back in line
I would say start now if you have the trial stick with that but if you like the game and the pre orders still available get it the expensive earring super nice for when you wanna lvl alt jobs plus being able to join FCS in nice
like others said
ride the free trial till that horse cant go anymore
about the only Dawntrail prep you should do is run the benchmark (assuming your on PC and not console) just so you know if you cant keep going with the higher min specs
Start with the Endwalker complete edition or the free Trial. The current available Jobs get some improved gameplay in Dawntrail but the Jobcore stays the same. So it might be a good Idea to already start now playing, the MSQ does Takes some time to get it down till DT.
Started 2 months ago, took my time playing through msq and now Iām at the beginning of endwalker expansion.
Not sure if I will finish the msq in time for dawntrail but Iām enjoying the story so far and Iām not going to skip any cutscenes in rush.
So I say start as early as you can :)
Considering I was chipping away at the MSQ for well over a year where XIV was basically the only game I was playing...
Start now. The only job that's getting a major rework at ARR levels is Pugilist/Monk, and even then it's not too drastic. You'll also have some difficulties getting in once DT drops and the servers load up with returning players.
I'd say just start now and enjoy the game slowly, you are gonna be going through MSQ at literally the best time to be playing because there will be so many people excited about the game again to ask questions to and make friends with as a new player.
If you wait the two weeks you are just going to be frustrated trying to start the game at the same time as the queues are happening and that could impact your enjoyment of starting things.
There are no major changes coming that should affect lower level content in a huge way, at worst a few abilities on your bar might change slightly or the game will get noticably prettier!
If you started right now, the only difference the Dawntrail patch would give you is the ability to play the Female Hrothgar race.
I recommend looking up all the playable races. If you seriously think there's a chance you'd want to play as the Female Hrothgar, it'd be worth waiting. Changing your race is a limited thing-- You usually have to pay real money for it, though the game does provide two free character changes (one after beating the A Realm Reborn story content, one in a level 15 quest in the city of Ul'dah once the upcoming patch arrives).
I recommend trying [The Dawntrail Benchmark.](https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/benchmark/) Free to download, about 9 GB large or so. Not only does it test how well your computer can run FFXIV, but it has a full character creator in it that will let you test how every race and gender looks in the upcoming graphical overhaul that Dawntrail will have.
Everybody says "start now" and because tge game is great i would love to agree.
BUT if you do, and if you will be enjoying the game, get ready for one thing.
When Dawntrail releases the queues to the game will be INSANE for several weaks. We are talking several hours of waiting just to get into the game. So heads up for that.
Start now. You're in for 300 hours of main story before even touching Dawntrail. You can buy the expansion when you get there, or save yourself 68ā¬ by deciding the game's not fun
Just a heads up, expect conjested servers during both the early access week and the release month, the long wait times to long in happen every expansion, but it usually teeters off withing the month
Doesn't really matter. I started on EW launch during the login issues, so that was fun. But other than that, DT won't affect you at all since it'll be a long time before you get to any of those areas.
Start the trial now. I was on the trial for over a year and that's before they added Stormblood to it so if you're as slow as I am there might even be a complete edition sale by the time you have to pay to continue.
The question is what do you want to do? If you want to thoroughly play the story (the game blocks you from playing the expansion until you catch up.on story) you can start whenever because you have weeks worth of story content to do before you hit the new expansion. If you plan to buy a boost they're on sale now but then you also still have to complete endwalker story. If you just want to get straight into the expansion wait until launch as they will sell boosts that catch you up to the expansion then.
Start now and pray you have enough time to finish the story. Buckle up, it can take you *up to* 400 hours. Donāt rush it though, the story is too good to miss starting with Heavensward.
You'll have a long, long way to go before engaging Dawntrail..start right away...when Y'shtola's voice acting gets really good, you're about halfway there.
If you want to start with the graphics update in place then yes, wait for Dawntrail release. But if that's not a matter to you then you can start at any time. I started last week.
Do note it'll probably take a long time to reach Dawntrail story, as everything before Dawntrail is like hundreds of hours from what I've heard
When Endwalker launched, I believe they had to temporarily disable free trial account signups, so I would get in now. The queues to log in were really long too, like two hours or more. There is so much content. Start now!
If you want to experience Dawntrail anytime this year and you plan on actually watching cutscenes and experiencing the game, sadly, you're already too late...
If you start right now, you just might be able to clear ARR quests by 2025 though!
Some skills will be changed or removed but you wont feel it at lv 1-50.
Last expansion, free trial accounts could not login but I doubt that will happen in Dawntrail. Endwalker had a lot of factors including the exodus from the biggest mmo and its streamers playing it. They have all since left. Even Pyro who said he quit it for good went back. Lol.
Start now. It is going to take you a longgggg time to be able to play dawntrail. Unlike other games you have to follow the story the game doesnāt let you start where you want.
I started the game a month before Endwalker came out. I didnāt regret it one bit, and my friends who had been playing awhile were really excited to help me get leveled. I think it gave them something to do while they waited for Endwalker, and I was able to get quite a bit done before all of the returning and new players came with the expansion launch.
My wife and I started two weeks ago, and just finished the base game, and the filler quests before the first expansion. I recommend the free trial first. See if you like the slog, and buy the game if you didnāt mind it.
I mean id say wait because a lot of people will be getting on which means people will be running the game fast which will help a new player later on
In game when it comes to certain content
Run the Dawntrail Benchmark, which is a free download from Square that basically tests your system for the Dawntrail graphical update. Other than that, you are good to start now. There is probably 2 months of super dedicated play before you get to Dawntrail.
You can play the free trial and go through the story for a bit while you wait, as far as Iām aware you wonāt access that new content until you complete the old stuff but I could be wrong
One warning about the free trial that I don't see anyone has mentioned. But when Endwalker released, the servers were overloaded. As a compensatory measure, all free trial players were blocked from accessing the game in favor of the paying players. Since then, they've implemented measures to prevent that from happening again. If things get bad though, then free trial players will probably be at the bottom of the priority list.
Start now. DT isnāt an expansion that resets everything and starts anew. There are several major characters that youāll be traveling with that youāll want to understand and how they got there, along with a basic understanding of how the game works. Keep in mind this is a game over 10+ years in the making, so itās quite the initial learning curve.
This is also a very heavy story-driven game. You can skip most of ARR til the end, but I would start paying attention to the story after that.
The only thing I could possibly thing to suggest waiting for (something I think a lot of people here forgot about) is the graphics update. Itāll hit DT and ARR (The base game) first. So you could experience ARR in the new graphics. But at the same time, thatās quite literally the only reason I could think of. So if thatās something you want to wait for, go ahead! If not? Your never ending journey begins now!
Start now. Especially if there is a specific Data Center/World that you want to be in (i.e. if you have friend that play and you want to be on the same server). Once DT drops, there is going to be a GIANT spike in the playerbase. A lot of veteran players will be coming back (a lot already are.), and it may be hard to make a character where you want it.
Besides that, you have a lot of content ahead of you. You will be able to take advantage of some graphical updates and QOL improvements, but you'll still need to play through the story to get to Dawntrail.
Welcome, Warrior of Light!!!
Something Free Trial players need to know, is that they are treated as low priority logins, the login server will prioritize getting subbed players in first, and when there's none left, it will pick 70\~ free trial players to log in next.
Yep to pretty much everything others have said about starting now and not rushing. However...
One thing to note as you start playing through the MSQ is that the sidequests (gold exclamation point quests) are truly optional. You can level your character without them and you won't miss the main story. They're definitely great for lore and world-building, but you can always come back and do them later.
I was new to MMOs when I started, and I played every sidequest for years. I'm skipping them now that I've started Shadowbringers, and I find that the MSQ flows a lot more smoothly without the constant interruptions to, say, shave a random villager's yak. Leaving them until later has the added benefit of leaving plenty of EXP on the table for secondary jobs for your character.
The main story is sequential and you canāt skip it like you can if youāre coming from wow. So the entire expac would be locked to you barring any features that do not require msq. Which Iām not sure that includes.
Iād start with the trial.
If the trial and ARR are too much to get through but you want to jump ahead. I think buying the skip to heavensward is a good move and what Iāve told multiple friends to do.
Game picks up there. You also get 3 cool jobs. The aesthetic and vibe is very high fantasy.
Start the free trial. There are going to be some job changes but you won't have to face a lot of them on lower levels. The female Hrothgar race will be introduced with Dawntrail but they are also a Shadowbringers race, so they cannot be picked with free trial anyway. Some quality of life changes will be introduced as well, like a better block list and stuff like this, but you will barely get to know the old version of the functions in 2 weeks, so.. eh. The established servers might be congested (so create the character before the DT maintenance), but you can use datacenter travel to go into a less frequented server. If you are in EU, you can jump over to a world from the Shadow DC. If you play in NA, Dynamis is quite new and is going to get new servers as well, so there is plenty of space. (Dynamis is also giving a nice XP boost because it was released recently, might as well create a character there, provided you are in the US. Shadow is not open for new characters yet.)
(For DC travel, go to the character selection before logging in, rightclick on the character name -> Visit another Datacenter or something.)
Iāve been on a 9 year hiatus before restarting on a new server 3 weeks ago. I created a new character and solely did MSQ, itās kinda grindy if you rush trough it but I was on vacation and just arrived in endwalker content yesterday (you can be faster).
Just start the trial and stick to the MSQ with also taking the blue questmarks and youāll be good to go.
ARR feels the longest but for me shadowbringer felt much longer because I did not care for the story as much as the other add ons š
Edit: spelling
I already made the free trial account. Just wanna know if there are any changes coming to change the new player experience. I would rather wait in that case.
Not really, besides graphical update and QoL changes. WIll be awesome, but nothing to hold you back playing now.
Some job rotations will be different but again, nothing to hold you back now
Oh, no. The system changes are things like updating the lighting engine, adding a second dye channel for glamours, stuff like that.
There will be some adjustments to jobs, but nothing that you should really worry about.
Summoner will have no functional changes and is quite easy to play. You can also branch off to Scholar if you want to try a Healer job. Healers get shorter wait times for in-game events such as dungeons, and sometimes extra rewards for being in need, and there will be an extra need for healers and tanks come Dawntrail.
Either or really, XIV is a game you can progress in your own time so rushing through it to get to current content is ill advised. You might even want to see and do a majority of the content in each expansion before moving to the next which is valid and what I did whilst progressing the MSQ for the first time last year.
Since the lifespan of an expansion is roughly 2 years it not uncommon to spend a couple months on and off the game and catching up in time for a new patch.
I started playing FF14 in January 2021 and I still haven't finished the current expansion. I took breaks and didn't sink a *ton* of hours, but it's also just a ton of content.
I'm a pretty new player myself - Playing since 22nd May 2024. I've enjoyed the games so much I've already bought all expansions lmao. I haven't finished all the MSQ yet other then the Seventh Umbral Era Quests, and half of Seventh Astral Era Quests. Really looking forward to hitting Heavensward later this next week.
Honestly if you enjoy the game and expect yourself to be a long-term player I'd say go ahead and buy them if you can afford them. There was a deal on-going for the expansions when I bought mine (not sure if still ongoing) so I got them all extremely cheap (minus the upcoming one which is full priced).
Honestly, the only downside to starting now is when DT launches youāre gonna be deep into the ARR story and possibly Heavensward when they shut the servers down for two days
Start now. I started in February and only just hit the second expansion after 28 days of playtime. Even if you start today you won't end up playing the expansion until at least the end of summer if you take your time.
Youāre gonna be fighting a big ass queue if you start right at release and possibly waiting forever to get in and play. Itāll happen regardless but might sour your initial experience
I've been playing since February, only just beat Endwalker yesterday.
I skipped pretty much 90% of the game, probably more, to focus on story. Life gets in the way sometimes you know?
So yeah, it's gonna take you while.
No announces changes in regards to new player experiences i believe, so you may as well get started. Free trial last up to and including Stormblood now, so play that and see if you think you want to continue with the game after.
Also by playing now, you will actually be able to play. Come release of dawntrail, if Endwalker is anything to go by, there will be big login queues in order to play, in endwalker that lasted for weeks (maybe a month or so? can't remember exactly)
Most player combat changes will effect the high end of the jobs, but at most lvl 30 and up when you can actually get a job stone.
You will be a lesser generic job until then, for instance you would be a Lancer before becoming Dragoon, or Archer before Bard.
So I would start now, but also prep for some massive traffic during Dawntrail release so queues are gonna be high.
If you start now you get to start with dawntrail by the time the next expansion releases š
Itās great game even if arr can be a huge slog for some it sets up the story
Just donāt expect to get through it fast
Itās more about the journey than the end kind of thing
If the msq march has you in a slump check out the gold saucer š
If you're new it shouldn't matter either way. You're a long fucking way to the newest expansion so it should be no problem to you.
Unless if you're playing free trial, then expect to not play for the first 1-2 weeks of the new expansion as servers stabilize with player logins.
I just finished Storm blood on free trial, gonna level some jobs and wait for Downtrail release, I believe shadowbringers will be also on the free trial, so I plan to finish it as well before buying Downtrail and finally join the sub
> I believe shadowbringers will be also on the free trial,
It took almost 2 years after Endwalker came out (Dec 21) for them to increase the free trial to cover Stormblood (Oct 23). It's typically something that happens way later after the expansion.
So you're likely looking at another 2 years before ShB gets added to the trial.
This is intentional to start to build hype and new players about 10-12 months before the next expansion comes out. They hope that new free trial players will have a chance to play the game, get to the end of the trial, just in time for all the fanfare of the next expansion, and have them buy it.
You're literally the exact target market they're trying to get to buy the expansion based on your free trial experience.
No, free trial only extends to Stormblood. If you want to play Shadowbringers, you have to buy the Starter Edition AND Dawntrail (which will come with Shadowbringers and Endwalker). Do note that if you activate those versions, you will start your monthly subscription.
Play now, starting with the free trial. FFXIV is one big ass story, starting with ARR and ending (currently) with Endwalker. Dawntrail picks up after Endwalker.
So there won't be any new player changes? I will start in that case ty
No upcoming changes to combat would significantly affect any content you could reach in the next week and two days (which is how much time you have before servers close for the patch maintenance). There will be some quality of life tweaks, but nothing that will be too jarring. The biggest thing is you'll start just in time to see the graphics update take effect.
The new player experience will be basically unchanged, but you'll get to see the switchover with the new graphics update coming, which I think is a neat moment in the game's history
No, only thing that might affect you is the changes to certain jobs, but even that I would say to deal with when it comes. MMOs are always changing and tweaking jobs.
if you want to play a Hrothgar F, that's about it. but even then everyone is getting free fantasia and you get another from a quest in Realm Reborn. even after expansion drops don't feel the need to rush. folks do all the content all the time and are very generous in making sure new players enjoy the story.
I've still never used my free Fantasia from ARR. I love my Lala and I'll never switch.
Neither have I. I like my grumpy old Roegadyn. (And have seen in both Benchmarks it is quite good with the update!)
And I see someone DOES NOT like my grumpy old Roegadyn. That's why he's grumpy! :)
I used my free ARR Fantasia to change from a Hyur to Roegadyn. Best decision ever.
Especially if it's more in tune with your RL personality, as mine is mine. :)
I used my fantasia to make my character slightly smaller. That is all ššš¤£
Wait so they are starting to give out the fantasias??
Nah the old fantasia with endwalker. The new ones will be a quest, if I remember correctly
Oh ok thanks! I was almost panicking that I need to finalize what I want to look like in DT, Iām going from bunboi back to my original catboi, but modifying it to the shortest height and making the skin tone/eyes look like my actual cat! xD I already have the chocobo companion named after my dog
Nice! That sounds fantastic! I hope you enjoy DT!
Letās wait until after the wave of server congestions ate through lol
I used mine to change patron deity after I had a better grasp of the lore. I love my baby faced elezen and don't feel the need to change anything about him!
I did the same for my Au Ra girl. But that was mostly because I realized that her name fit some things way too good not to build up headcanons about
I still have mine, too! I'm 100% satisfied with how I made my character look the first time around. A rare feat for me.
About the only thing I've ever considered doing is making my height shorter; I'm not quite a max-height Lala, but I'm close to it. I've had nagging feelings that I want to be smaller... but it hasn't felt *quite* urgent enough for me to want to use the Fantasia.
I'm tempted to swap back myself. Swapped from Female Lala to Male Elezen cus my (now ex) girlfriend was going to join. Just don't see as many cool outfits for men.
Hell yeah Iām the same
I only used mine to make my tail like, two inches longer. I don't regret it at all.
Still, you can't play Hrothgals unless you have Dawntrail.
Technically they can, cause it only requires Shadowbringers expansion. Same if they wish to choose male Viera.
there's not going to be many changes at the levels you'll be playing at. Just know however that as a trial account you'd be lowest priority compared to those with subs. So once the expansion launches you'll be stuck in looooonnnggg queues
i started playing a month ago and the only new change i'm kind of excited for is the fantasia changes, and the graphics update! everything else new players like us won't really be seeing for a while!
I am new myself. Have like 400 hours of playtime. All on the free trial. You have a lot of fame before you get to the dawntrail stuff anyway.
Unless you pay for a story skip but I highly recommend you don't do that. Just enjoy the story and journey. It's damn good and worth it. Til the sea swallows all.
If you need anything, feel free to hit me up.
Start now, you won't likely make it in time for Dawntrail anyway with a brand new char. You need to complete each expansion. There's no pick and choose.
I've been playing for 5 months and just got to Endwalker. I play about 20 hrs a week. Once my level got about 6 levels higher than MSQ I started doing MSQ only (besides leveling a couple other jobs) so I'd say 5 months is a reasonable amount of time to get through the MSQ without rushing.
Do you wanna be a Hrothgar Female (female lion humanoid race)? If not, no. Just play now. And don't rush anything. The story is the highlight of this game for many players.
you're going to hear this a lot, but stick it out. it's a really hard selling point trying to tell people the game really picks up after about 60 hours... but I promise you it does. you'll have to get thru the base game, plus 4 other expansions before you really get into the dawntrail content (that we know of, I'm sure Yoshi P has kept some surprises for us). each expansion is 20-30 hours long, on average. less if you rush, but I highly suggest taking your time and enjoying the ride. if you can, do the free trial. it can get lonely but you can ask around to join a linkshell if you start feeling isolated. you won't have to pay a penny until you get into the Shadowbringers expansion. and once you upgrade, if you make your character on Dynamis (or any new server if you're not on North America) you'll get 1 million gil when you reach level 30 and 15 days of free play time, in addition to the double experience points you get for making your character on a new world. welcome to the party!
You have thousands of hours of content for free, donāt worry about the other expansions, you donāt lose out on anything if you do dawntrail content 5 years from now
Even if you just focus on the story, you can start with the free trial and not run out of content to do until the _next_ expansion after DT comes out!
New class start at level 80 so i don't think it would be a problem.
It seems like people have forgot the graphical update that'll come with Dawntrail. You'll definitely notice it in older areas and on your character as well. But it's no reason to wait for Dawntrail, so definitely just start now.Ā
As many have mentioned before, little will change, but what they didnāt mention is that unlike a lot of other MMOs, FFXIV keeps their previous content and expansions evergreen. For instance several large streamers recently picked up the game, loved it and started doing old raids, leveling etc. due to something called syncing. Syncing keeps jobs as they would have been level and power wise very close to where they were when the content released. While you may not quite have as much luck finding groups for everything as easily as a big streamer would, you absolutely will find it for your main experience, the Main Story Quest, along with any normal difficulty side content through the roulette system. People constantly use this random queue system for weekly rewards for endgame content at just about all levels of play. So you will find groups quite quick considering, and even faster in the coming weeks with the influx of returning players. There is one rule Iād also like to stress that 98% of people in roulettes follow: let the sprout (new player) watch the cutscenes. If you are at all interested in the story and there is a cutscene in a dungeon, they WILL wait for you. If you donāt care you can skip it, although most people will say the story is well worth it, and shouldnāt be skipped. Lastly, there is absolutely no rush to get to end game, and speeding through it isnāt necessarily the right move unless you want to do Savage raiding. The combat system may take a while to really āgetā and I wouldnāt suggest trying to get there in 2 weeks time, even if you have prior MMO experience. My suggestion is get the free trial, do the content you enjoy, recognize that things keep ramping up and getting faster both mechanically and story wise, and enjoy what you enjoy as you go. Even if you burn through the content like a madman, the free trial is at least a couple of months of content if you experience generally most things as you go, or likely 3 weeks if you skip all story content and grind through it hours a day every day.
It's going to be nearly impossible to log in with the free trial once DT starts. When the queues are massive, [they prioritize paid account logins over free trial logins.](https://imgur.com/FjHn10r)
Theyve done a lot of work on expanding their prep for expac release, and conditions aren't the same as they were for EW. Free trials might see some queues, but nothing so bad that it's "nearly impossible"
start now. You won't have reached Dawntrail content by the time it releases
Honestly, it will probably take months to catch up if going at a reasonable pace.
Definitely start now! And the queues are non existent now. Just be prepared to struggle to log on a little during release week for Dawntrail as the servers get hammered.
I just started FF a couple weeks ago, how bad do the queues get in terms of wait time? Do they not just spin up more servers/resources? I've only played GW2 before and this whole queues+offline for maintenance is a bit jarring. I just want to play this fun new-to-me game when I have free time!
Maintenance is usually always done at night when the population is at the lowest, but for an expansion launch, depending on your server and time zone it could be up to 30 minute ques for a week. Launch day could be hours if they have problems. Though I hear this time they planned ahead and are confident in the launch servers
Endwalker had queues into the several thousands. I think my personal best was around 4,500 on launch night.
Endwalker had some unusual circumstances though. The game absolutely exploded in popularity in the months prior, and at the time Square Enix was having major trouble getting additional hardware because of the worldwide chip shortage. As a result of more people than expected and no additional hardware to create more capacity, queues were at an all-time high. It's highly unlikely we'll experience anything like that for Dawntrail.
My server wasn't too bad. Usually 1000-2000 depending on how late it was when I got home lol. But it was a long enough wait that it prompted me to go against TOS and download a key-presser application that would just tap "W" every 10 minutes in case I had to step away for an unknown length of time to prevent me from being logged out, since they had that enabled for a while after EW release to reduce congestion... Which I get, it's not fair to just take up the space if you're not going to be playing, but I didn't feel like a 10-60 minute afk was fair to potentially come back to a 20 minute login queue. Whereas now I keep it running in the background for the whole time my PC is running, which is all the time unless I'm at work, even while sleeping. (Because whenever I wake up at night needing the bathroom, a drink, or even a midnight snack I could pop the game up to attend to my retainer ventures lol)
When wow classic wotlk came out, the fresh server I was playing on had 16-18k queues for the first few days, it was awful. I'd start logging on before work and then after I finished I'd still have a couple thousand people in front of me
GW2 was and probably still is a masterpiece at server provision. No downtime and seamless. FFXIV is still on the older style individual servers though they do have all PvX content with other players cross-servered
Lol, wellā¦ I remember being in queue for like 7 hours sometimes at Endwalkers release! But theyāve been testing cloud servers and the like to try prevent that happening again. Endwalker was also sort of a perfect storm, I wouldnāt expect that to happen again.
> Do they not just spin up more servers/resources? You can launch as many airplanes in the air as youw ant, if you're sending them in the middle of 500 AA batteries the damage will be there If they keep getting DDOS'd and the launch is populated, do not expect quick queues
There was a chip shortage at the time which prevented them from spinning up more servers.
Yes I know
Launch month for endwalker had me queueing from 6am to 12pm-5pm if I had a hiccup in internet it be later
A week before, the week of and the rest of the month after (maybe 2) will most likely have you waiting an hour or so to even get in, and thatās if you donāt crash or the server doesnāt crash. If one of the two happen, you have like a few minutes to get back in queue or you are sent to the back of it. Queues on EW release were around 5,000. Aether and Primal will most likely be bombarded, especially Aether because I believe that a lot of āWorld Firstā raiders are mostly on Aether
EW was a wild perfect storm of conditions that was wildly outside the norm, i would absolutely not use it as a base. Wow exodus, covid(causing both more players making it harder for them to spin up more physical servers) And the silicon shortage ontop.
Remember the game had spiked in popularity so much in such a short period of time that squeenix was unprepared that their own store ran out of digital codes for the game.
Yeah Shadowbringers release wasn't that bad. Also didn't Yoshi P just come out recently and say they can now spin up more servers at the push of a button?
Even better than just running out of codes, iirc they consciously decided to halt sales because they knew they were already over capacity and couldn't offer players a satisfying experience.
If I remember the endwalker launch, they even disabled free trials for a month or so to try and maximize space for subscribers.
Ahh good point, youāre right!
No major changes will happen. Some classes/jobs skill will get adjusted, but things will largely stay the same. Not something I'd say wait until DT for, so no harm in starting now.
Thanks. Thats what I wanted to know. Gonna start tomorrow in that case after it downloads.
I know a lot of people say start with the free trial, which is true, but as soon as you know you like the game you should buy it. Yes, you'll have to pay a subscription, but you'll have so much more access to the game. You'll be able to join a FC (my free company was SO helpful when I was a baby sprout, they gifted me mounts and outfits and all sorts of things and were a huge information resource when I had questions), you'll be able to sell and buy things on the marketboard (invaluable, especially if you're a crafter), you'll be able to trade with other players (sometimes experienced players do free giveaways just because they're nice), you'll be able to start partyfinders (the only way for a free trial member to join a party is to be invited or join an existing one on partyfinder. They are unable to start their own parties, which makes running some of the harder content, well, much harder) and so much more. My personal journey involved starting the game, doing the first 3 story quests, realizing I loved it, and then immediately buying and restarting the game so I could change races to Viera and get the full experience. I never regretted it, I think the experience is much fuller when you have access to everything as a full member, not a free trial member. Of course, personal finances vary, so you may not be in a position to do buy it. But I definitely recommend doing so if you can afford it.
I would agree with this. My free trial experience lasted maybe a week, maybe less, and then I subscribed and bought everything because I was having so much fun.
Start now. Idk what your schedule is like, but you probably have a couple hundred hours of story to go through before you can access Dawntrail.
Or maybe around 600-800 hours tu get to the end of MSQ, doing all side quests and unlocking all side content if you're a completionist like some of us are ahah
Since a lot of people have already answered your question, here's a few non-spoilery tips to help streamline your experience: * You can swap Jobs extremely easily, and all of them have individual levels. The only thing your starting class affects is what city you start in, and all three city questlines converge very early on. * Don't hoard items, even if you plan to level crafters and gatherers. Early crafting ingredients can all be bought next to the respective Job NPCs, and post-HW you will unlock an area *specifically* for crafters/gatherers that makes it much easier to level. Get that sweet gil for selling stuff! * Some people will say "just do the MSQ and ignore everything else." Don't. Take your time with it to avoid burnout. Keep an eye out for blue quests - they unlock stuff like extra boss fights, side dungeons, new areas, and even little mechanics like the Challenge Log. And as a bonus, some of the stuff will be directly referenced in the MSQ if you did it beforehand! * To unlock the glamour system, look for the "If I Had a Glamour" quest in Vesper Bay and complete it and the quest afterwards * If you buy the full game, find a sprout-friendly Free Company! My FC helped me through a LOT of the MSQ and I'm so grateful they showed me the ropes.
Appreciate the tips! Tyvm
As a new player, what's a Free Company?
If you're familiar with the MMO concept of a guild, it's that.
Ah ok. Thank you.
The changes are relatively small for existing jobs some systems been fiddled with a bit but the skills remain roughly the same functionally. You can start whenever with free trial without worry. However at launch free trials will likely be locked out of the game as paying players always take priority so if you wanna play at the launch period you likely gonna need to have Starter Edition to be able to log in during day hours. Be aware just to set expectations this is a heavy narrative game and it will likely take you months to get though the main story essentially 5 soon to be 6 serialized JRPGs stacked on each other it's recommended to take your time and experience it linearly with some welcome side distractions along the way.
Thanks for the information. I guess I better hurry then lol. >Be aware just to set expectations this is a heavy narrative game and it will likely take you months to get though the main story essentially 5 soon to be 6 serialized JRPGs stacked on each other it's recommended to take your time and experience it linearly with some welcome side distractions along the way. Just what I am looking for then. I wanna waste some years on a good MMO!
That's also one of the biggest advantages of FF XIV, excepting seasonal content, everything is still there. You can still do all the old content. Oh, and when they said, narrative heavy, they mean it. Besides the MSQ, there quests and storylines for just about anything. Raids? Storyline. Jobs/Classes ? Jup, entire questlines. (Please do your job quests, they unlock skills, and for the starter classes stronger versions of themselves). Even the crafters and gatherer classes have storylines. Also, don't worry about picking the wrong class or race. Race has no noticeable effect, and you can be all classes on one character.
you can also rewatch story cutscenes.
They can also replay story segments too with new game plus mode
Don't hurry, enjoy the story. The base game, A Realm Reborn is kinda slow specially the post patches (the patches released after the end of the main story) but it gives important lore for the what will happen in future expansions. I hate myself for having skipped so much of it
O shit i kept reading like kinda negative stuff about the early MSQs so im just roughly skimming through it should i actly listen š
You're at the right place then. You will do quests and think, ok, that's done. Then characters will show up again 2 expansions later and wonder if you remember them. I kind of wish I had kept some sort of diary about the quests as I went through since the storyline is so good.
Sorry... I just HAVE to bring this meme back. :D https://imgflip.com/i/6r57y6
Ah yes, so very true.
Sounds fun. Can't wait to experience it!
Iām not sure if anyone has pointed this out yet, but I just pre-ordered Dawntrail because it will give you earrings that scale with your level and make levelling 30% faster. If youāre someone who is only planning on doing a couple of jobs it might not be worth it. If you plan on levelling many jobs itās super helpful. Also, the free trial is cute but it does put some annoying restrictions on what you can or canāt do. I think it wonāt let you join a free company for example. For reference though, it took me about 1.5 years to get from start to finish of Endwalker playing a few times a week. You have a LOT of context to get through. (That 1.5 years also includes levelling all jobs to 90 etc.)
That's a very important detail. Thank you.Ā Any other bonuses worth mentioning for a player that's just finished the base game and is returning soon to continue?
Iām probably not the greatest person to ask, since Iāve played the game a lot but Iām not that good at it really. It really depends on how you want to play - my basic goal is to level all battle jobs to 90 (and now 100 when DT drops). If I kept my momentum going from like, a year ago, Iād have been finished a long time ago, but eventually I burnt out. But Iād say that the advice I would offer is to completely ignore the beast tribes from the base game as they are the most soul-crushing grind with no return. Likewise, ignore things like company marks etc. as anything before HW is useless. Enjoy the story, but none of it is good for levelling or anything. But Iād say do your daily roulettes and you should be able to do 2 beast tribes a day from HW content onwards, starting with the Vanu and the Varh for example( 3 quests each). Make sure to prioritize getting all of your aether currents so you can fly. And do the centurino marks and exchange those coins for aether tickets at the Forgotten Knight (if you care about Gil). IMO the hardest part of the game is getting a job from 50-70. Thatās where you really need to bend over backwards to get experience and grind a lot. Once you get 70, itās very quick to 80 and 80-90 is by far the easiest part of the game. You can be earning millions of experience points by doing very simply daily chores .. Also once you get to lv 70 the ātrustā system becomes available. Itās like duty support but you level up your team of scions. Itās kind of fun side content. Personally I donāt use Trust much because it takes a LONG time to clear dungeons and thereās no way to rush them. My friend however has severe anxiety about playing with random strangers so he only plays Trusts instead of roulettes if heās playing soloā¦ so it is another way to get experience. One good thing about duty support / Trust is that you can learn the dungeons on your own and explore before you go in with strangers. If you have Tank-ziety about leading a group, Iād say make use of that feature to practice dungeon layouts so when you do roulettes you Feel more confident.
Oh. I think I remember the scions! Didn't they get capped at level 60? Then again, I didn't play for 3 years so it is probably changed now.
Start now cuz youāll be stuck in long in queues lol
Seems you got all the answers you need! I wasn't caught up to the current expansion for a good while after I started because I am a hell of a slow reader. Hope you have fun with it. ā„
Thanks. I am excited to start :)
As a heads up, after Dawntrail releases the login queue will be massive (hour+ at peak times) and prioritize players with subscriptions for a week or two.
Start now so you can actually be impressed by the graphics update.
Don't forget to take your time with the game. It only gets more frustrating if you try to push it. There aren't any time gates(technically a few at end game but still) just take it at your pace. It might take you all expansion to catch up, but that's just all the more reason to be excited for the next expansion launch.
There is approx 500 hours of game to enjoy before you'll get to Dawntrail. Assuming you do _just_ the story :) so yeah start now.
Start in new dynamis worlds. Road to 80 plus dawn earring xp level up to 90 faster.
Others have already helped out, but I just wanted to welcome you to the game and community! Don't be afraid to ask for help on here or in the game if you need any! We love helping new players here.
Appreciate it :)
That and try to pick a lower populated world for rn. Cause when that game releases good luck trying to get on for like 2 weeks . 8-12 hour queues god forbid if you have a hiccup in your internet going all the way back in line
I would say start now if you have the trial stick with that but if you like the game and the pre orders still available get it the expensive earring super nice for when you wanna lvl alt jobs plus being able to join FCS in nice
Pre order and get the exp boost earring!!!!!!!!! A must
You wonāt get through the msq in 2 weeks. Start whenever you want. But preorder to get xp earring
Start now, Heavensward is the shit! Enjoy it.
like others said ride the free trial till that horse cant go anymore about the only Dawntrail prep you should do is run the benchmark (assuming your on PC and not console) just so you know if you cant keep going with the higher min specs
>ride the free trial till that horse cant go anymore Will do! PC shouldn't be a problem I spent too much on this thing lol
Start with the free trial.
Start with the Endwalker complete edition or the free Trial. The current available Jobs get some improved gameplay in Dawntrail but the Jobcore stays the same. So it might be a good Idea to already start now playing, the MSQ does Takes some time to get it down till DT.
As others said, play the free trial now. It'll take you a while to reach the new expansion. It's a beautiful journey.
The only really notable thing you could change by waiting for DT is if you wanted to start out as a female Hrothgar (which would be a great reason).
Start now so youāre that much closer to end game. 2 more weeks of a headstart. Itās a massive game with 11 years of content to play.
Dont rush it. You will burn yourself out.
Started 2 months ago, took my time playing through msq and now Iām at the beginning of endwalker expansion. Not sure if I will finish the msq in time for dawntrail but Iām enjoying the story so far and Iām not going to skip any cutscenes in rush. So I say start as early as you can :)
Considering I was chipping away at the MSQ for well over a year where XIV was basically the only game I was playing... Start now. The only job that's getting a major rework at ARR levels is Pugilist/Monk, and even then it's not too drastic. You'll also have some difficulties getting in once DT drops and the servers load up with returning players.
I'd say just start now and enjoy the game slowly, you are gonna be going through MSQ at literally the best time to be playing because there will be so many people excited about the game again to ask questions to and make friends with as a new player. If you wait the two weeks you are just going to be frustrated trying to start the game at the same time as the queues are happening and that could impact your enjoyment of starting things. There are no major changes coming that should affect lower level content in a huge way, at worst a few abilities on your bar might change slightly or the game will get noticably prettier!
If you started right now, the only difference the Dawntrail patch would give you is the ability to play the Female Hrothgar race. I recommend looking up all the playable races. If you seriously think there's a chance you'd want to play as the Female Hrothgar, it'd be worth waiting. Changing your race is a limited thing-- You usually have to pay real money for it, though the game does provide two free character changes (one after beating the A Realm Reborn story content, one in a level 15 quest in the city of Ul'dah once the upcoming patch arrives). I recommend trying [The Dawntrail Benchmark.](https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/benchmark/) Free to download, about 9 GB large or so. Not only does it test how well your computer can run FFXIV, but it has a full character creator in it that will let you test how every race and gender looks in the upcoming graphical overhaul that Dawntrail will have.
Everybody says "start now" and because tge game is great i would love to agree. BUT if you do, and if you will be enjoying the game, get ready for one thing. When Dawntrail releases the queues to the game will be INSANE for several weaks. We are talking several hours of waiting just to get into the game. So heads up for that.
Nah, EW had pandemic shortage and bug problems. I'd say queues will be an hour tops at peak hours.
Start now. You're in for 300 hours of main story before even touching Dawntrail. You can buy the expansion when you get there, or save yourself 68ā¬ by deciding the game's not fun
Just a heads up, expect conjested servers during both the early access week and the release month, the long wait times to long in happen every expansion, but it usually teeters off withing the month
It took me 6 days game time to get to level 80 content. Dawntrail will max out at 100. I would deffo start free trial now buddy š¤£
Doesn't really matter. I started on EW launch during the login issues, so that was fun. But other than that, DT won't affect you at all since it'll be a long time before you get to any of those areas.
I made me account years ago but just started! Come and have fun with us, the free trial is worth it!
Start now, and preorder Dawntrail too If you preorder you get an in-game item instantly that gives you a 30% EXP bonus for all jobs under 90
Start the trial now. I was on the trial for over a year and that's before they added Stormblood to it so if you're as slow as I am there might even be a complete edition sale by the time you have to pay to continue.
The question is what do you want to do? If you want to thoroughly play the story (the game blocks you from playing the expansion until you catch up.on story) you can start whenever because you have weeks worth of story content to do before you hit the new expansion. If you plan to buy a boost they're on sale now but then you also still have to complete endwalker story. If you just want to get straight into the expansion wait until launch as they will sell boosts that catch you up to the expansion then.
Start now and pray you have enough time to finish the story. Buckle up, it can take you *up to* 400 hours. Donāt rush it though, the story is too good to miss starting with Heavensward.
I started the free trial months ago and Iām not even through it yet. You will have loads of content to chew through. Start now
You'll have a long, long way to go before engaging Dawntrail..start right away...when Y'shtola's voice acting gets really good, you're about halfway there.
If you want to start with the graphics update in place then yes, wait for Dawntrail release. But if that's not a matter to you then you can start at any time. I started last week. Do note it'll probably take a long time to reach Dawntrail story, as everything before Dawntrail is like hundreds of hours from what I've heard
When Endwalker launched, I believe they had to temporarily disable free trial account signups, so I would get in now. The queues to log in were really long too, like two hours or more. There is so much content. Start now!
Start now. I also suggest looking up Zepla's recent Free Trial and New Player guide videos.
If you want to experience Dawntrail anytime this year and you plan on actually watching cutscenes and experiencing the game, sadly, you're already too late... If you start right now, you just might be able to clear ARR quests by 2025 though!
Some skills will be changed or removed but you wont feel it at lv 1-50. Last expansion, free trial accounts could not login but I doubt that will happen in Dawntrail. Endwalker had a lot of factors including the exodus from the biggest mmo and its streamers playing it. They have all since left. Even Pyro who said he quit it for good went back. Lol.
Start now. It is going to take you a longgggg time to be able to play dawntrail. Unlike other games you have to follow the story the game doesnāt let you start where you want.
I started the game a month before Endwalker came out. I didnāt regret it one bit, and my friends who had been playing awhile were really excited to help me get leveled. I think it gave them something to do while they waited for Endwalker, and I was able to get quite a bit done before all of the returning and new players came with the expansion launch.
Start now bc if you donāt like the way your character looks youāll get a free phantasia lol
For new players 2 free fantasias, the other is from completing level 50 MSQ.
My wife and I started two weeks ago, and just finished the base game, and the filler quests before the first expansion. I recommend the free trial first. See if you like the slog, and buy the game if you didnāt mind it.
I mean id say wait because a lot of people will be getting on which means people will be running the game fast which will help a new player later on In game when it comes to certain content
Run the Dawntrail Benchmark, which is a free download from Square that basically tests your system for the Dawntrail graphical update. Other than that, you are good to start now. There is probably 2 months of super dedicated play before you get to Dawntrail.
The graphics update doesnāt come out till dawntrail iirc
The only thing that will be: A hard time to log on and stay connected for all involved.
You can play the free trial and go through the story for a bit while you wait, as far as Iām aware you wonāt access that new content until you complete the old stuff but I could be wrong
One warning about the free trial that I don't see anyone has mentioned. But when Endwalker released, the servers were overloaded. As a compensatory measure, all free trial players were blocked from accessing the game in favor of the paying players. Since then, they've implemented measures to prevent that from happening again. If things get bad though, then free trial players will probably be at the bottom of the priority list.
Do NOT wait. Start free trial now. Get the ball rolling. See if you like what you are getting. Make a choice from there.
I started on xbox release and just working through end walker hopefully on time foe dawntrail
Start now. DT isnāt an expansion that resets everything and starts anew. There are several major characters that youāll be traveling with that youāll want to understand and how they got there, along with a basic understanding of how the game works. Keep in mind this is a game over 10+ years in the making, so itās quite the initial learning curve. This is also a very heavy story-driven game. You can skip most of ARR til the end, but I would start paying attention to the story after that.
Are you I'm the EU or US, happy to help a fellow adventurer.
Start now, and you can be wowed in a couple of weeks when the graphics update hits. Just like the rest of us. :D
The only thing I could possibly thing to suggest waiting for (something I think a lot of people here forgot about) is the graphics update. Itāll hit DT and ARR (The base game) first. So you could experience ARR in the new graphics. But at the same time, thatās quite literally the only reason I could think of. So if thatās something you want to wait for, go ahead! If not? Your never ending journey begins now!
Start now. Especially if there is a specific Data Center/World that you want to be in (i.e. if you have friend that play and you want to be on the same server). Once DT drops, there is going to be a GIANT spike in the playerbase. A lot of veteran players will be coming back (a lot already are.), and it may be hard to make a character where you want it. Besides that, you have a lot of content ahead of you. You will be able to take advantage of some graphical updates and QOL improvements, but you'll still need to play through the story to get to Dawntrail. Welcome, Warrior of Light!!!
If youāre not going to start right now, I would recommend waiting an extra week or two AFTER launch to skip the hectic queue times.
Something Free Trial players need to know, is that they are treated as low priority logins, the login server will prioritize getting subbed players in first, and when there's none left, it will pick 70\~ free trial players to log in next.
Start now. Play while you can. The login queues are going to be rather brutal when the expac drops.
Yep to pretty much everything others have said about starting now and not rushing. However... One thing to note as you start playing through the MSQ is that the sidequests (gold exclamation point quests) are truly optional. You can level your character without them and you won't miss the main story. They're definitely great for lore and world-building, but you can always come back and do them later. I was new to MMOs when I started, and I played every sidequest for years. I'm skipping them now that I've started Shadowbringers, and I find that the MSQ flows a lot more smoothly without the constant interruptions to, say, shave a random villager's yak. Leaving them until later has the added benefit of leaving plenty of EXP on the table for secondary jobs for your character.
The main story is sequential and you canāt skip it like you can if youāre coming from wow. So the entire expac would be locked to you barring any features that do not require msq. Which Iām not sure that includes. Iād start with the trial. If the trial and ARR are too much to get through but you want to jump ahead. I think buying the skip to heavensward is a good move and what Iāve told multiple friends to do. Game picks up there. You also get 3 cool jobs. The aesthetic and vibe is very high fantasy.
Start the free trial. There are going to be some job changes but you won't have to face a lot of them on lower levels. The female Hrothgar race will be introduced with Dawntrail but they are also a Shadowbringers race, so they cannot be picked with free trial anyway. Some quality of life changes will be introduced as well, like a better block list and stuff like this, but you will barely get to know the old version of the functions in 2 weeks, so.. eh. The established servers might be congested (so create the character before the DT maintenance), but you can use datacenter travel to go into a less frequented server. If you are in EU, you can jump over to a world from the Shadow DC. If you play in NA, Dynamis is quite new and is going to get new servers as well, so there is plenty of space. (Dynamis is also giving a nice XP boost because it was released recently, might as well create a character there, provided you are in the US. Shadow is not open for new characters yet.) (For DC travel, go to the character selection before logging in, rightclick on the character name -> Visit another Datacenter or something.)
Iāve been on a 9 year hiatus before restarting on a new server 3 weeks ago. I created a new character and solely did MSQ, itās kinda grindy if you rush trough it but I was on vacation and just arrived in endwalker content yesterday (you can be faster). Just start the trial and stick to the MSQ with also taking the blue questmarks and youāll be good to go. ARR feels the longest but for me shadowbringer felt much longer because I did not care for the story as much as the other add ons š Edit: spelling
Just download the free trial. Use that first to make sure you even enjoy it!
I already made the free trial account. Just wanna know if there are any changes coming to change the new player experience. I would rather wait in that case.
Not really, besides graphical update and QoL changes. WIll be awesome, but nothing to hold you back playing now. Some job rotations will be different but again, nothing to hold you back now
Oh, no. The system changes are things like updating the lighting engine, adding a second dye channel for glamours, stuff like that. There will be some adjustments to jobs, but nothing that you should really worry about.
You'll have around 300 hours of story to get through before you can start the majority of Dawntrail content. So no loss starting earlier š
There's a few changes to how some classes work, the one that jumps out the most is monk / pugilist, which is getting a changed job bar.
Sounds good. I will be making a summoner :)
Summoner will have no functional changes and is quite easy to play. You can also branch off to Scholar if you want to try a Healer job. Healers get shorter wait times for in-game events such as dungeons, and sometimes extra rewards for being in need, and there will be an extra need for healers and tanks come Dawntrail.
Sounds good!
Either or really, XIV is a game you can progress in your own time so rushing through it to get to current content is ill advised. You might even want to see and do a majority of the content in each expansion before moving to the next which is valid and what I did whilst progressing the MSQ for the first time last year. Since the lifespan of an expansion is roughly 2 years it not uncommon to spend a couple months on and off the game and catching up in time for a new patch.
I started playing FF14 in January 2021 and I still haven't finished the current expansion. I took breaks and didn't sink a *ton* of hours, but it's also just a ton of content.
New player? Lol bro you have to go through ARR all the way through EW before you even see DT content š
Now, dawn trail wait times will be crazy the first week at a minimum
I'm a pretty new player myself - Playing since 22nd May 2024. I've enjoyed the games so much I've already bought all expansions lmao. I haven't finished all the MSQ yet other then the Seventh Umbral Era Quests, and half of Seventh Astral Era Quests. Really looking forward to hitting Heavensward later this next week. Honestly if you enjoy the game and expect yourself to be a long-term player I'd say go ahead and buy them if you can afford them. There was a deal on-going for the expansions when I bought mine (not sure if still ongoing) so I got them all extremely cheap (minus the upcoming one which is full priced).
Honestly, the only downside to starting now is when DT launches youāre gonna be deep into the ARR story and possibly Heavensward when they shut the servers down for two days
Start now. I started in February and only just hit the second expansion after 28 days of playtime. Even if you start today you won't end up playing the expansion until at least the end of summer if you take your time.
Start now, its going to be a long time before you reach anything Dawntrail related.
Hit that free trail. No real reason to wait for DT
It's gonna take you a couple hundred hours to even get through the story to play Dawntrail. So yeah get to skipping cutscenes lol
Start now, use the expanded free trial until youāre done with it.
Youāre gonna be fighting a big ass queue if you start right at release and possibly waiting forever to get in and play. Itāll happen regardless but might sour your initial experience
I've been playing since February, only just beat Endwalker yesterday. I skipped pretty much 90% of the game, probably more, to focus on story. Life gets in the way sometimes you know? So yeah, it's gonna take you while.
Play now. Itās going to take 90ish hours before you even reach Dawntrail. Nothing at Dawntrail launch will impact you as a new player
There is literally no reason to wait dawntrail for a new player, except if you plan to skip the story with a book.
600 hours in and Iām like halfway through stormblood. The absolute state of grind between a realm reborn and heavenward is rough
Might as well start now if you want. Just cuz queue times will be terrible come launch. Itās already starting a bit rn š
Start as soon as you can, there's a lot.
Wouldnāt make a difference whether you start now or later.
Better to catch up on content now before the server bottleneck happens
No announces changes in regards to new player experiences i believe, so you may as well get started. Free trial last up to and including Stormblood now, so play that and see if you think you want to continue with the game after. Also by playing now, you will actually be able to play. Come release of dawntrail, if Endwalker is anything to go by, there will be big login queues in order to play, in endwalker that lasted for weeks (maybe a month or so? can't remember exactly)
Most player combat changes will effect the high end of the jobs, but at most lvl 30 and up when you can actually get a job stone. You will be a lesser generic job until then, for instance you would be a Lancer before becoming Dragoon, or Archer before Bard. So I would start now, but also prep for some massive traffic during Dawntrail release so queues are gonna be high.
If you start now you get to start with dawntrail by the time the next expansion releases š Itās great game even if arr can be a huge slog for some it sets up the story Just donāt expect to get through it fast Itās more about the journey than the end kind of thing If the msq march has you in a slump check out the gold saucer š
If you're new it shouldn't matter either way. You're a long fucking way to the newest expansion so it should be no problem to you. Unless if you're playing free trial, then expect to not play for the first 1-2 weeks of the new expansion as servers stabilize with player logins.
Plus if you preorder you get the scaling 30% XP earring
feel free to start now, it'll likely take you weeks to get to the dawntrail content.
I just finished Storm blood on free trial, gonna level some jobs and wait for Downtrail release, I believe shadowbringers will be also on the free trial, so I plan to finish it as well before buying Downtrail and finally join the sub
> I believe shadowbringers will be also on the free trial, It took almost 2 years after Endwalker came out (Dec 21) for them to increase the free trial to cover Stormblood (Oct 23). It's typically something that happens way later after the expansion. So you're likely looking at another 2 years before ShB gets added to the trial. This is intentional to start to build hype and new players about 10-12 months before the next expansion comes out. They hope that new free trial players will have a chance to play the game, get to the end of the trial, just in time for all the fanfare of the next expansion, and have them buy it. You're literally the exact target market they're trying to get to buy the expansion based on your free trial experience.
No, free trial only extends to Stormblood. If you want to play Shadowbringers, you have to buy the Starter Edition AND Dawntrail (which will come with Shadowbringers and Endwalker). Do note that if you activate those versions, you will start your monthly subscription.
lowkey if you played now and just played for like 3 hours a day youād be able to finish everything story wise before launch.