Yeah, that’s weird… but when you’re in game there’s not a peep but the tunes. I had to /bgm thanks to @Mike_Cathcart for pointing that out for me.
I think I"ve heard player music. It works sort of like it does in LOTRO, I imagine? You use the keyboard to play sounds?
My level 18ish Archer got to the first bunch of big cut-scenes, which led her to Limsa Lominsa. The cut-scenes were marvelous. (Their quality has been a but uneven up til now.) I’m being vague her to avoid spoilers. I think they were level 14 or 15 quests.
Also, much as I liked Gridania, so far I like Limsa Lominsa even better. It’s beautiful and really lively. The fisher guild is the first really funny thing I’ve found in the game. (Up til now it’s struck me as rather more serious than WoW.) Nice comic relief. And a fishing cruise for parties? How cool is that?
The game help says I can get a mentor to intro me to the mentor chat channel, but I can’t use tell, so how do I find a mentor to do that? Maybe I don’t need it?
I’m really glad I tried this game. I’m starting to see why it claims to be the world’s most-played MMO. I don’t know if that’s true, but it sure seems to be thriving, and that makes it more fun.
@DaveLong , you mentioned dye. I bought some red dye just to try it, but I can’t figure out how to apply it. Its right click menu doesn’t include an option for ‘dye x item.’
@LockerK Like you, I enjoy crafting. Any tips on managing inventory? I’ve already filled 3 of the starting 4 bags. It’s a bit odd there’s no bank. I know I’ll get a saddlebag soon. I know I can store a few seasonal or specialty items at the inn. I know we free-trial types can’t hire the NPC who sells and holds stuff for you. I know I should sell more stuff. (I did just sell all my useless fish. I still like fishing, though lol.) Are there any other options?
You right click on the item you want to dye.
Saddlebag and retainers are pretty much it, from what I recall. I remember inventory space being a little tight for the crafting obsessed like me. :)
Yep. OK, I’ll make do. Sooner or later one just has to sell stuff.
Now why didn’t I think of that?
Edit: Actually, I had tried that and it didn’t work. It turns out I need to complete a quest to unlock dyeing.
Ugh, forgot about that. I don’t get why the glam and dye system is locked behind a quest.
Retainers are the bank system, which as you noted you don’t have access to on the free trial. Aside from that, if an item can be purchased from a vendor there’s a line item that tells you how much it costs. Depending on your gil, you can toss the cheap items there and buy them up as you need them.
Fish by and large don’t have any value so you can dump them. You can also try and focus on a specific project at a time and only keep mats around for that - so dump the spare lumbers, ores, and hides that you think you might need at some point in the future and just grab them when you need them.
Almost every mechanic and function in the game is unlocked by questing, MSQ or side quest. It is what it is.
Thanks for the helpful replies. I don’t really mind questing to unlock stuff. Gives me things to look forward to.
I started as an archer, but once I got to Minsa Lominsa I started enjoying the Arcanist. I know it’s more efficient just to focus on one class/job but I can’t help myself. I have more trouble as an arcanist, as she’s less mobile, but her spells are so pretty. :-)
Arcanist is a great choice because once you get to level 30 you actually get two jobs for the cost of one - summoner (DPS) and scholar (healer).
I do enjoy the arcanist, so that’s good to hear! So I suppose its like other jobs – I can acquire both and switch between them freely.
Much as I like the arcanist, I’ve had more close shaves – and my first KO – with the arcanist than the archer. Partly it’s that I haven’t leveled as fast playing her, and I’ve been fighting mobs above my level. Partly it’s that her mechanics are a tad more complex. She’s also a bit more squishy and less mobile than the archer, and she doesn’t have an auto-attack or DoT. Also, the arcanist UI is unnecessarily large, and it obstructs my view. I’ve tried fussing with the UI-size settings, but they don’t seem to change anything.
I’m going to try the Thaumaturg class today. I guess the more advanced ranged DPS jobs will have to wait until I gain some levels and expansions, but that’s okay. After years playing melee classes in other MMOs, I’m ready for some range. :)
Not in this case. For all the other jobs, they have their own individual level. For instance, you can have a level 50 bard and a level 66 dancer and they don’t share XP or anything.
However, the jobs that build on arcanist - namely, summoner and scholar - share levels and XP. So if you play as scholar and level up to, say, level 50, if you switch to summoner it will be level 50 as well. It’s the only case in the game where that happens, and for that reason it’s really good for beginners, since you have two jobs leveling up as just one.
So, let’s say you want to level your summoner, but queue times are making you impatient. You can just switch to scholar, play as healer (with much shorter queues) and level a bit, and then go back to summoner at that highest level. It can be really helpful in certain parts of the leveling curve.
The only bad part in that is that those two jobs don’t share equipment, so you’ll have to buy or otherwise acquire gear for one of them instead of depending on quest rewards. But it’s nothing some dungeon runs can’t fix. ;)
Don’t stress about playing all the things. You can do it all on a single character, so nothing is ever really wasted. This is the best feature in any MMO ever. And at least up to 60, grinding up a new job isn’t really bad (and many start higher than 1, so even quicker). It’ll depend on your tolerance for doing your daily roulettes and such, but as long as you aren’t in a huge hurry the levels add up.
Thanks for the replies, guys. @rhamorim , wow, that two-for-one post-Arcanist deal does sound nice! @Daagar, yes, it’s amazing we can do everything on one character. Already mine has 13 or 14 jobs.
Do any of you use a job-switching macro? I guess the basic command is /gs change #, where the number is the gearset number. I’m not sure I want to clutter my hotkey bar with macros, though.
I tried the Thaumaturge and liked it, but I need to gain a few levels to get a better feel for it. I see a nice fireball animation, but the blizzard animation doesn’t show me snow or frostballs or anything, which is a bit of a disappointment. I don’t really understand the fire/ice switching mechanic yet, but I’ll keep playing with it.
I’ve continued to be a Black Mage on the strength of the spell effects alone. I’m a simple man – I see big spells go off, I smile.
You can drag the gear set to your hot bar. I have a smaller bar I use for teleports, job changes, etc.
Well, the Black Mage rotation changes significantly every 10 levels or so. And the explosions get bigger and bigger. :)
lol, I’m the same way. My first spellcast as an Arcanist blew me away. All those pretty light effects!
Excellent. Your comment made me realize I might be able to scale the size of toolbars, and sure enough, Google tells me ctl-home might do that in the UI Config window. I’ll try it.
That’s what I’m talking about!
I’m still really enjoying this game. A few random thougts:
Yesterday I was questing in a rainstorm, and I noticed that my thaumaturge’s robe blew in the direction of the wind. I think her hair did, too. It’s just a little thing, but I loved it. Also, the rain was well done.
I visited the Gold Saucer. I had the mistaken impression that this was part of the MSQ, and I kept wondering why my epic quest took me to a casino, lol. But then I realized it’s just a quest from Ul’dah. I’m glad I did it, in any case. The triad game is quite fun. I want to collect cards and get better at it.
I never in my life had played mah jong until FF14. I’m amazed that the entire game is modeled inside this MMO. It’s like having a working version of bridge or pinochle or texas hold 'em in WoW. Mah jong itself is interesting. It’s like poker with 13 cards (tiles), except there are elaborate rules on how and when to make straights and sets, and how to score them. I won, after a half hour of play, mostly by following the help advice. I wonder if we have a mah jong thread here?