Final Fantasy XIV (Guide in first post)

There are 3 different NPC systems from different expansions.

Duty Support is new for this expansion and has 1-60 and 70-90 NPC parties for MSQ dungeons which are fixed to the level of the dungeon. 60-70 should be added next patch. It's pretty slow and the 1-70 stuff was not designed with this in mind which is why you usually get generic NPCs.

Trust is for 70-80 and is the prototype of Duty Support from last expansion, the difference is that you need to level up the NPCs yourself but they can be used in optional dungeons and everything was designed with the system in mind.

Grand Company is for 1-60 and is a few expansions old now. Unlock from whatever company you chose. You level them up yourself but can also give them commands so it's much faster once it's set up, but it takes time to get them leveled and set up right.

On your first playthrough you should be playing with real people, there is no advantage to NPCs unless you are DPS with a long queue but even then it's not that bad.

Grand Company can be good to speed level DPS from 1-50 which is what I did.

You should use Duty Support for the lv87/89 dungeons and lv89 trial for story reasons.

Chris said:

There are 3 different NPC systems from different expansions.

Duty Support is new for this expansion and has 1-60 and 70-90 NPC parties for MSQ dungeons which are fixed to the level of the dungeon. 60-70 should be added next patch. It's pretty slow and the 1-70 stuff was not designed with this in mind which is why you usually get generic NPCs.

Trust is for 70-80 and is the prototype of Duty Support from last expansion, the difference is that you need to level up the NPCs yourself but they can be used in optional dungeons and everything was designed with the system in mind.

Grand Company is for 1-60 and is a few expansions old now. Unlock from whatever company you chose. You level them up yourself but can also give them commands so it's much faster once it's set up, but it takes time to get them leveled and set up right.

On your first playthrough you should be playing with real people, there is no advantage to NPCs unless you are DPS with a long queue but even then it's not that bad.

Grand Company can be good to speed level DPS from 1-50 which is what I did.

You should use Duty Support for the lv87/89 dungeons and lv89 trial for story reasons.

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Good info, many thanks!

"On your first playthrough you should be playing with real people"

Why is this? Out of curiosity.

You don't "need" to play with real people if you don't want to for most of it. However, you will be forced to engage in content with other players for MSQ required trials and raids. Once you beat the 2.0 ARR, you'll eventually have to do the Crystal Tower raid (basically think a 24 man LFR-level difficulty raid - it's pretty faceroll at this point) and some 8 man trials. Then in Heavensward and beyond, you'll encounter the same, although none of the 24 man raids beyond CT are MSQ-required. However, there will be MSQ required 8 man trials (in addition to optional).

The one good thing about the older raids/trials is more often than not, you're going to get people in your raid/trial group that are max level and have been "downleveled" for the content (there are daily roulettes for trials and raids and dungeons that give max level characters good rewards. With the stage 2 relic weapons out now, you're seeing a lot of players use roulettes to gain materials they need to upgrade relic weapons, so you're seeing everyone from casuals to bleeding edge uber guild players doing these roulettes at the moment). However, when the game downlevels you, it still takes into account your gear level. So if you're a level 90 running level 50 content, then your level 50 self basically has the best level 50 gear possible in terms of relative power.

Well, 6.3 has a shitload of new stuff to do.

Frenzic said:

Good info, many thanks!

"On your first playthrough you should be playing with real people"

Why is this? Out of curiosity.

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Well it's an MMO so it's more enjoyable playing with others?

But max level players do these low level dungeons once a day for alt exp or endgame currency, so they will usually know all the tactics and run it fast.

One example is pulling multiple groups and AoEing them down, the high level tanks and healers know how to keep the tank alive through that and have no fear of it.

I think you said you were a tank? You have a short cooldown mitigation ability and several long cooldown ones, so sprint to get 2 groups of mobs, then you pop the short one and long one once you've got them all, repeat once the long one wears off. Check the true level of the healer first, don't do it if they are your level so probably also a newbie.

Finished the newest MSQ and ran the second alliance raid for the first time. Farmed some tomes and got the second stage of the BLM Manderville weapon.

Took less time than I thought so might resume my single player games.

On the crafting/gathering relics, is there going to be a lot more steps planned? 2nd level upgrade pretty much puts it on par with crafted HQ stats, minus materia stats. Plus you get that interesting 1.75 times quality increase on Good conditions. I feel like the Ishgard relics had MANY more steps to get anywhere close to pentamelded main hand stats.

I presume they will have additional steps for the crafting relics. Don't forget there will be another tier of crafting gear coming in the coming patches that will raise the ilevel

Cybsled said:

I presume they will have additional steps for the crafting relics. Don't forget there will be another tier of crafting gear coming in the coming patches that will raise the ilevel

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Are you sure? X.3 is usually the final crafted set for crafting/gathering. They'll add in purple scrip set for people to get to decent ilevel/stats for it, but pretty sure this current crafted set is the top end we will get this expansion.

Im too fucking obtuse to understand the rotation for a Summoner if someone wants to help me out with that, please. Im just going off the highest leveled shit I have from when ARR released (when this character was made, leveled, and promptly quit on.) So that leaves me with the Paladin as the highest to do the MSQ with, the Summoner at 45 to do the rest. Black mage and archer are in their 30's and for some reason, neither of those dont feel like a retard designed their fucking rotation.

Speaking of the new deep dungeon, the framers kit you get for 10 shards is cool. Can make it look like your character is trapped inside an Allagan biological containment chamber

The new Deep Dungeon is interesting .. the enemies don't hit "hard" but they all have "ha ha ha You Died" mechs (except for 1 that I've seen so far..)

And ya Indagator should be the end of the crafted sets for Land/Hand class but there should be a "catch-up" purple script set from Rowena eventually.

Folanlron said:

The new Deep Dungeon is interesting .. the enemies don't hit "hard" but they all have "ha ha ha You Died" mechs (except for 1 that I've seen so far..)

And ya Indagator should be the end of the crafted sets for Land/Hand class but there should be a "catch-up" purple script set from Rowena eventually.

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There are two patches left, so if I max out crafting gear now I'll have the highest and be able to craft the next two sets of battle gear?

Presumably. It’s also possible there will be additional crafting relic steps. I’ve never known them to release a relic that was 100% done in a single patch

Chris said:

There are two patches left, so if I max out crafting gear now I'll have the highest and be able to craft the next two sets of battle gear?

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There will only be one more set of crafted battle gear. But yes, maxing this current set of crafting gear will have you all set pretty much until level 99/100 white set at 8.0 level cap.

Agree with Cyb there will likely be more relic steps. Even if we feel further along on this one in just one patch than we did last go round. The final form main hand should be superior stats wise to even pentamelded crafted.

Daidraco said:

Im too fucking obtuse to understand the rotation for a Summoner if someone wants to help me out with that, please. Im just going off the highest leveled shit I have from when ARR released (when this character was made, leveled, and promptly quit on.) So that leaves me with the Paladin as the highest to do the MSQ with, the Summoner at 45 to do the rest. Black mage and archer are in their 30's and for some reason, neither of those dont feel like a retard designed their fucking rotation.

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I'll have to refresh myself to give a serious answer and this meme is for higher character level play, but basically you use all the charges and powers on a summon then Move to the next. At level.... shit. 60 and 70? Or 70 and 80? You ope. These high power summons that have their own abilities. But its just one flow. Use them all. Summon fat boy. Use all his shit. Repeat. Summon other fat boy. The variance is simply which Summon you use first for tactical preference.

Cybsled said:

Presumably. It’s also possible there will be additional crafting relic steps. I’ve never known them to release a relic that was 100% done in a single patch

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That is a gimme

And if its anything like what they did last time, there will be another "Expert Crafting/Based on Item Collection" Relic available shortly before the expansion drops. See Resplendent Tools..

Chris said:

It's a good idea to unlock everything so you can join more parties doing random roulette dungeon for bonus rewards.

ARR has some cool optional dungeons and the Binding Coil of Bahamut raid (queue may be long for this, I haven't done it and I have 100s of hours in the game). These will be the least run optional things since in ARR they released more content than was actually needed.

You can visit other data centers and play with us.

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The thing that sucks the most about Binding coil is no one queues for, but it has some of the best story material for the Twins' backstory and wrapping up the story the 7th Umbral Calamity.

There are little references to the things you find throughout the game, and the game assumes you have done it (which I think is true of all 8 man dungeons, cause the later ones only get minor or passing references after their expansions), but the story itself is really cool.

I recommend just soloing it at around level 80, all 12 turns are soloable, save like 2? I think. And you can find a party finder for those pretty quickly during prime times that I've found. You only need one other person for them.

I've never done them in an actual 8 man, but I've watched some streamers go back and do them iLevel synced and the fights actually seem really cool when done properly as well, especially for the first 8 man raid content in the new game.

On a side note, the Allagan stuff you get that makes furniture from the Coils raid goes for a fuckton. It only drops in sync runs. On my server, just the parts are going for like 6-9 million for some