Possibly returning - Questions

[Corrderio]

So I have been thinking of returning to XIV recently and my friends have been telling me it's worth coming back since the game has changed a lot since I've been gone. While I have been willing to come back, I have a few questions I was hoping someone could answer.

1) Can I get a quick summary of what is still relevant since I left?
-I left back when the first update happened when CT was introduced and a few other things. So I'm wondering if any dungeons/etc. have been depreciated then and worth skipping altogether or not.

2) Reuse my character or start over?
-One of the biggest things I've been debating with myself over is if I should just start over or continue on with my character on Hyperion. While there are some benefits to both solutions I guess it's a question of how easy it would be to pick up and relearn my classes after a nearly year long hiatus without being a determent. This leads me to my next question.

3) What are some good sites for resources?
-I know BG has a lot of good information and jobs haven't changed dramatically since I left, but I'm talking more about up to date sites that are dedicated to dungeon/class/etc. guides/information instead of having to wade through threads/posts to find what I need.

4) What is the state of the economy?
-Might have been a misunderstanding, but I heard someone say SE really botched the economy in an update and crafting became insanely expensive to level. Any truth in this?

5) Any benefits to joining a guild?
-Back when I played I noticed guilds were pretty much trivial due to a mix of how little content there was and how the coils mechanics forced inner groups within guilds, which made me wonder if there was any point of joining a guild or just having a static since it seems like 8 was the magic number to go by in FFXIV for endgame. Has that changed any since then?

6) How bad is the community?
-I know every MMO community has its fair share of assholes, but I'm wondering if it's as bad as the OF makes it sound with some of the stuff I read about people booting others for watching cutscenes their first time in a dungeon and whatnot.

[Kaisha]

1. Current relevant shit is whatever lets you get i110 gear currently before Coil3 is on farm status. This includes Soldiery gear (i100, upgradable to i110 via oils/sands), Coil2 gear (i110), Syrcus Tower (drops i100 filler, and oils/sands to upgrade soldiery with), and Hunts (drops allied seals which can be exchange for bloodied logs, which are exchangable for oil/sands). The 2.4 update just reset the vertical progression so now is probably the perfect time to catch up actually.

2. MSQ grind is killer, so I'd say stick with existing? There's quite a few of us on the Hyperion BG Linkshell if you ever need to ask some Qs. Job rotations are simple in this game, only a couple min of practice on a dummy to get back to speed.

3. xivdb.com (great site for crafting/item look-ups) and Google is all I use.

4. Crafting seems the same as it's always been? Outside of trying to get 3* & 4* ready it's managable. 3/4* is where SE said "fuck you, start specializing or enjoy enormous time-sink/gil-grind".

5. FC buffs, a house if you don't buy your own which may or may not have crafting tables in it. Chocobo stable for people to feed it at.

6. Same as it's always been for me. People are quiet in dungeons, and shout stupid shit like it's a party in RT.

[Damane]

I just started myself again, but i never was much into the game, so i can only give limited advice on what i experienced

So I have been thinking of returning to XIV recently and my friends have been telling me it's worth coming back since the game has changed a lot since I've been gone. While I have been willing to come back, I have a few questions I was hoping someone could answer.

1) Can I get a quick summary of what is still relevant since I left?
-I left back when the first update happened when CT was introduced and a few other things. So I'm wondering if any dungeons/etc. have been depreciated then and worth skipping altogether or not.
I would unlock all dungeons just because of duty roulettes that give a good bonus/gil.
You can just unlock them, but you cant skip most stuff. if you want to go for coil of bahamut you still need to beat the turns.

2) Reuse my character or start over?
-One of the biggest things I've been debating with myself over is if I should just start over or continue on with my character on Hyperion. While there are some benefits to both solutions I guess it's a question of how easy it would be to pick up and relearn my classes after a nearly year long hiatus without being a determent. This leads me to my next question.

reuse your char, why start over.

3) What are some good sites for resources?
-I know BG has a lot of good information and jobs haven't changed dramatically since I left, but I'm talking more about up to date sites that are dedicated to dungeon/class/etc. guides/information instead of having to wade through threads/posts to find what I need.

I usually just aks people for this, or for vid guides i just search on youtube. gearwise/stepwise i dont see why you should not ask on BG or your FC

4) What is the state of the economy?
-Might have been a misunderstanding, but I heard someone say SE really botched the economy in an update and crafting became insanely expensive to level. Any truth in this?

dont know, cant answer this since I am not too much into crafting

5) Any benefits to joining a guild?
-Back when I played I noticed guilds were pretty much trivial due to a mix of how little content there was and how the coils mechanics forced inner groups within guilds, which made me wonder if there was any point of joining a guild or just having a static since it seems like 8 was the magic number to go by in FFXIV for endgame. Has that changed any since then?

the magic number of 8 still stands with lockouts of the final coil fo bahamut and this lockouts.

6) How bad is the community?
-I know every MMO community has its fair share of assholes, but I'm wondering if it's as bad as the OF makes it sound with some of the stuff I read about people booting others for watching cutscenes their first time in a dungeon and whatnot.

i think this has lessened alot, i hated it 1 year ago too, but i dont feel that way anymore, of course you still run occasionally into assholes, but not to that amount like at the beginning. I huge factor is your FC, i do alot of duty trial/random stuff with FC members, which is awesome.

[Kirbyprime]

1) Can I get a quick summary of what is still relevant since I left?

Everything that you know of? Probably nothing... maybe Coil. T1-5 got a slight invigoration due to new mats dropping there plus light farming for nexus, T5 still isn't really winnable in DF though.

2) Reuse my character or start over?

Ehhh, if you don't mind pugging all the earlier stuff again and reliving the days when no one knows anything ( except you do ) then sure. You'll have a fair bit more "content" to tide you over I suppose, though current "endgame" starts at i100 since ST is spammable. Relic is nothing more than a nice sidegrade bonus right now since you can easily grind out a i110 weapon as a fresh lv 50 doing dungeons and ST.

3) What are some good sites for resources?

Someone else should answer this. No idea, BG for life ( in-game BG LS too )

4) What is the state of the economy?

By SE botching stuff I assume you mean the new 4 star stuff since that's the only thing that would make leveling crafting "expensive". Nothing about base leveling changed. You can still leve grind out a lv 50 crafting job easily. The new BIS for crafters are currently behind a time sink wall called Ehcatl Sealant. I think someone on reddit mentioned that it took around 3 months of farming to gather all you need to craft BIS. Or, you can choose to buy the sealants from others which is what I assume is what they meant by expensive.

5) Any benefits to joining a guild?

I've talked to my FC a total of 0 times in the last 3 months and only leech off of their free company boons. Does that answer your question?

6) How bad is the community?

Eh, I'd say it's pretty bad tbh. You still have people being horribad and the people being too good to give a damn ( by which I mean assholes ). It's less of an issue or even irritating unless you're doing pug coil or ex I guess though.

[Shenrien]

- Can I get a quick summary of what is still relevant since I left?

Not much really, you could still do CT if you wanted to get leverage gear to make ST a bit easier. Coil 1 isn't really widely farmed, especially with coil 2 now open to everyone. You'll still end up running the old dungeons you had unlocked for high level roulette if you want an extra boost in tomes for the day.

- Reuse or start over?

No reason to start over especially if you've already made it to 50 and have relic ect, it will be easier to progress with that than starting fresh, not to mention +50% exp bonus for leveling new classes, and any crafts you have leveled already will just add to the benefits. If you don't like your server you could always hop to someplace you find a bit more populated, I can't remember the website that lists the population of all servers but I know Hyperion is pretty low on the list last it was brought to my attention.

-What are some good sites for resources?
xivdb.com, ffxiv.ariyala.com, guildwork plugin will feed you a lot of information for hunts, shouts, fate's ect.

-What is the state of the economy?

Gil still has minimal influence on how you progress through the game as a DoW/M but has pretty big influence on the DoH/L because melds are really important for them. Other than that gil is mostly for cosmetics and housing really, if you join a FC with a house you can buy a personal room with 50 slots for things to throw around for 300k, and if you've got a bit extra to throw around and you can (somehow) buy a plot of land you could own your own house.

-Any benefits to joining a guild?
company buffs, company chest(if they allow access), house, community to chat with/do things with together if they're not a giant clique.

-How bad is the community?
Not terrible, but not good. Plenty of people who have the all for one and none for all mentality where if it doesn't directly benefit them in some way, shape or form they wont budge to help you, but you can find a fairly decent group of people here or there that are more focused on helping others rather grinding end game for 2-3 days and then never to be seen again for the week.

edit:

server populations can be seen on this site: http://xivsoul.com/

[Raldo]

Most shit's been covered so I'll keep it short.

Since you were around long enough to see CT1, the simplest answer is that little has changed. The latest coil is still the top-tier 8-man circle-jerk that it's always been; same stupid loot and entry lockouts as before; coils 1 and 2 are unlocked for infinite-running if you like though. The only things that are relevant content are things that were added in the last major patch or two, though I'd clear everything at least once just because something down the line will likely require it (Ex: I saw lots of people running Ultima Hard for the first time last night because something apparently required its completion).

I'd re-use your character. Lots of 1.0 people hit the ground running just fine entering 2.0 with all-50s. I'm sure you can handle it. Make sure you unlock the challenge log (Lv15-ish quest a few steps from the leve counter in Limsa), if it isn't already.

[Cutriss]

I can't remember the website that lists the population of all servers but I know Hyperion is pretty low on the list last it was brought to my attention.

Uh, no. Hyperion is routinely locked for new characters. That population site seems to be fairly suspect. I don't have the time to fuck with it, but I know I've looked at it before and some of the calculations just did not make sense.

Even if the population on Hyperion is "low", it's still busy. The Legacy servers will likely always be that way.

If you want to be on Hyperion, reactivate your existing char. If you don't, then it's less important, but I still wouldn't nuke your existing character. It's not hard to re-learn your job.

[fantasticdan]

Gonna hijack this for one newb question that doesn't merit it's own thread; how easy is it to respec attributes in this game? I'm leveling arc to get to sch, and wondering if it would make more sense to level int than respec later, or just put them in mnd and forget about it. I don't plan to play smn.

[Cutriss]

It won't make much difference, but the respec item just takes a small grind. You'll probably end up with enough seals to do it by default. If you don't plan to play SMN, just put them in Mind.

It sounds like you're thinking you should put Intelligence in for Arcanist until you unlock Scholar. Don't bother. 10 INT won't make a whit of difference at Lv 30, you're not doing anything important yet.

Also, you mean ACN, not ARC. Mind/Intelligence won't help your Archer.

[Yukari]

Given that they changed the cost of the item down to 250 gc seals, it really won't take any effort to grind out the seals for it.

[Shenrien]

Trade in any allagan, or mythology pieces of gear for like 1k+ seals and you'll be set.

[fantasticdan]

Also, you mean ACN, not ARC. Mind/Intelligence won't help your Archer.

Oh yeah I meant arcanist, I didn't think about the overlap with ARCher lol. Thanks for the answers, I guess it doesn't matter much now since the respec cost looks tiny.

[Corrderio]

Follow up questions:

1) How easy is MNK compared to DRG? I used to love DRG back in V1 but wasn't too fond of it in 2.0, but actually found MNK fun in V2.
2) Thoughts on Rouge/Ninja?

Anyway it seems likes general answers were...

1) Most of everything is relevant
2) Generally a good idea to stick with my main and not start over
3) Pretty much find different sites and see what sticks for me
4) Economy hasn't changed
5) Fuck guilds
6) Same old same old

[miokomioko]

1) MNK was designed to have a steeper learning curve with a slightly better payout for being on top of it. DRG was designed to be easier to play but gets slightly edged out in DPS by MNK when both are played "perfectly." However, MNK's Greased Lightning III buff is absolutely crucial to being superior and requires a target be available to run your skill rotation on to keep active without letting it drop... which means MNK can get screwed over by battles where there's a lack of targets to attack or when dodging dangerous AoEs leaves them out of range for too long. This is aside from the fact that DRG can increase DPS on targets for other DRGs as well as BRDs while MNK can only enhance DPS for other MNKs (so party build can matter). In the end, it's all good as long as you don't completely suck or aren't pushing for world's first Turn-13 win.

2) Rogue/Ninja is appearing to be pretty solid. It's right up there with the other DPS jobs and is still somewhat being figured out, despite being fundamentally similar to the other two melees (run buff/debuff combos, apply DoTs, use dmg combos for filler, repeat). The only downside I'm hearing is that it might have an odd BiS situation when it comes to Coil because of the difficulty in hitting the accuracy cap with the higher ilvl weapons. I haven't looked into it myself yet. Either way, it's fun and the skills look neat...

[Corrderio]

Ah right I forgot the greased lightning thing. DRG was annoying to get into trying to manage combos/strafing/running since I did all of that on a keyboard and it was pretty messy

[Yukari]

This is aside from the fact that DRG can increase DPS on targets for other DRGs

Admittedly, this isn't actually relevant for DRGs together since chaos thrust requires comboed disembowel so every DRG doing the optimal rotation must keep using disembowel on the mob. For MNKs, if you have a stack of monks, you can at least designate one person to be the DK bitch and have the others only use bootshine.

[Lonewolf]

Well this also answer's most of my own returning questions thanks OP for asking for me haha

[Lonewolf]

I forgot to ask, which would be a good server to transfer to? I'm on goblin atm

[Elesirdur]

Re video guides

I really like Mizzteq's video guides. YouTube channel

They're filmed from the tank's POV (helpful for me as a PLD), brief and to the point. I find a lot of dungeon videos take way too long. Plus she has a very pleasant voice.

[fantasticdan]

Is there an equivalent to <st>, <stpc>, etc macros in this game? I'm finding healing super awkward on a controller without them.