#FFXIV beginner guide

[fleurarmor]

Raise and Other Job Action Macros for FFXIV

If you play FFXIV long enough you'll end up seeing a message in chat while running a duty letting folks know someone is getting raised. These are usually done via macro.

Why Do People Use Raise and Other Job Action Macros?

Raise messages basically boil down to "Other healers and raise capable members of the party, I am raising this person so don't waste your Swiftcast."

They can also communicate if this is a hard rez (no Swiftcast) and will therefore take time.

They tell you who scraped you off the floor so you have a suggestion of who to give your commendation. (This is why I appreciate others using them, personally).

They communicate part of a mechanic that another player might not know. The classic example was Paladin's Divine Veil, where they needed to be healed for the action to be completed. Although Divine Veil no longer requires it.

Creating and Editing Macros

Click the System button.

Click User Macros.

Select an empty macro or one you would like to overwrite.

In the opened macro, click the macro icon.

Select an icon to represent this macro. Or, use /micon in the macro itself to use the icon for the action.

Enter a descriptive name in the Name field, like Sage Hard Rez.

In the main body of the macro, you will enter the code of the macro, making sure each line is its own line.

Macro Components

/ac tells the system you are starting a command about an action.

"Action Name" says which action you want to use. This is job specific so you will need to make a rez macro for each job as it is Egeiro vs Raise vs Resurrection vs Ascend etc.

<wait.#> is telling the system to wait before executing the next line. The number tells the system how many seconds to wait. How long you need depends on your computer, internet connection and how congested the immediate area in game is. 2 seconds works for my current machine very well, 3 seconds worked better for my old laptop and if I'm at a world boss Fate or hunt train I don't even try to use the macro due to the long wait time needed.

/party tells the system to send the text that follows to the party chat.

<t> tells the system to substitute the name of who you are currently targeting in whatever message you are sending in chat.

<#> The number will tell the system who to target based on the position in the party list. So a 3 will target the 3rd person on the party list.

/micon "Action Name" will tell the system to give the macro the same icon as the named action.

Optimizing Rez Macro Placement on Your Hotbar

To get the most bang for your buck on your rez macro, I recommend the following order on your hotbar:

[Swiftcast] [Quick Raise Macro] [Raise] [Full Heal Action]

This set up will let you see if Swiftcast is still on cooldown. If it is you can skip your Quick Raise macro and either just click Raise directly or a Long Raise macro (which in that image is the X icon below my Quick Raise macro's icon).

Example Macros

These can all be directly copy and pasted into the body section of the macro editor.

Basic Rez Macro (RDM)

/ac "Swiftcast" <wait.2> /ac "Verraise" <wait.2> /party Raising <t>! Get back in the fight!

Hard (Long) Rez Macro (SGE)

/party Swiftcast is down! Hard rez-ing <t>! <wait.3> /ac "Egeiro"

Rez Macro with Swiftcast and Thin Air (WHM)

This is specific to WHM level 58+ and will allow you to instantly cast Raise with no MP cost to help make the most of your resources.

/ac "Swiftcast" <wait.2> /ac "Thin Air" <wait.2> /ac "Raise" <wait.2> /party Raising <t>! Get back in the fight!

Improvisation Macro (DNC)

Unless your team has played a lot of Dancer themselves they likely won't understand how Improv works. Macro messages are great for telling other people in your party what they need to do to benefit from things like DNC's Improvisation or PLD's Passage of Arms.

/micon "Improvisation" /ac "Improvisation" /party Stand near me until you hear the bongos for healing!

Aetherial Manipulation (for the BLM Who Can't Target Party Members to Literally Save Their Own Lives)

Its me, I'm that black mage. This automatically targets the third person in the party's list which will be the healer in a Light Party or the second tank in a Full Party. You will aether skate over to whoever that is.

/ac "Aetherial Manipulation" <3>

Living Dead Macro (DRK)

This is no longer required as Living Dead has been updated. But it is a good example of making a macro message fun while giving a needed instruction.

/micon "Living Dead" /ac "Living Dead" <wait.2> /party Whether by accident or purpose, I have used Living Dead. Please heal me to full or else I will soon be Dead Dead. :')

[onepunchcatboi]

A Newbie Guide to Healing

HALO~

I make this guide in the hopes that it will make new players less scared of healing, or at the very least, more mentally prepared for it. Also because the in game tutorial makes me do this (ಠ ∩ಠ)

SO! Suggestions encouraged, just remember this is meant to be a general beginners guide, so I won't be including anything specific to a single dungeon/raid/trial.

Everything under the cut!

Healing is understandably the job the player base finds the most intimidating. The Tank is sturdy, and the DPS nimble, but they depend on you to keep them alive, as none of them can compete with the sheer healing and resurrection powers you have! And that can be a lot of pressure, but we can break this down so its slightly less pressure!

Healing in its most basic form is all about multitasking and prioritizing your moves. Think of it like playing Invaders, you have to make sure you are taking out the closest threats before you can worry about the next - get rid of the first row, then the next row, and so on. In this case the threat is your party members health bars depleting XD

How to Heal

Know Your Skills

Let's start with getting familiar with your skills! The Healer classes all have pretty unique styles to each other, so I advise you READ YOUR TOOL TIPS. For the most part you will have two types of healing spells:

Regular Heal-this heals the player/party for a certain amount of points. Some will heal a little bit, some heal a good amount, and a couple will heal for a lot/all the targets HP. These come in both single target and Area of Effect [AOE] form.

Regenerating Heal-also known as regen. These are spells that initially heal a small amount of points, and then heal a small amount over time, for a few seconds or so. These also come in single target and AOE forms.

The Healer classes also all have unique class specific Heal spells that will have certain effects, or play with class specific mechanics. That is for you to learn as you get more familiar with the classes, as most of them are beyond Lv50 and at that point we're no longer in newbie territory. SO, from this point on I will refer to a "regular heal" as simply a Heal, and a "regenerating heal" as a Regen.

All Healers also have a Role skill called Esuna, a status or debuff clearing heal. These are also called DOTs or Damage Over Time. Keep in mind this will not heal any status, only the ones with a progress bar over them will be cured. You also will not be able to choose which status is healed if your target has multiple. Esuna is a single target skill.

Two of the Healer jobs [SCH & SGE] also have shielding or barrier granting skills. These skills do not heal the party, but instead negate damage for a certain amount of points. This will appear as a yellow section of a player's HP bar capping before their health points. If they have full health it will roll over to an extra line. Any damage taken will first have to go through the barrier before it can get through to the health points. These also can be single target or AoE.

Finally, every Healer has the ability to revive a fallen player, usually referred to as a "res". This will be elaborated on later, but know that you all get this skill very early, and that this has a pretty long cast time normally.

Learning to Cast

Yes I said cast time! All Healing jobs are also casting types! Meaning that for a majority of your skills are spells, and most of them require you to stand still until the cast finishes for it to work! This requires you to position yourself out of danger, but still close enough to heal.

Most of the time a good place to be is a short distance off to the side of the Tank. That way you have a good view of everyone, while being out of harm's way. This applies to both groups of enemies and Bosses.

Single target spells will have a longer range than the AoE ones, and most AoE heals/regens/barriers treat you as the center of the circle. So if you're planning to do a party-wide skill, you need to position yourself so others are in your range!

There is also a helpful tactic called slide-casting, that can assist you if you find yourself in harm's way. There is perhaps a half-second before your spell is done casting, that you can move, but the spell will still finish! It will take some practice to get a feel for it.

You and Your Tank

As the Healer you are responsible for your parties health, but most of all you are also the Tanks partner. They are going to depend on you to keep them alive as they do their best to soak up all the damage to keep the party out of harm's way.

This means you must keep up with the Tank for every pull. If they are running, you are running. If they pull the group around a corner, you have to run around that corner to target them for healing. If they fall, you bring them back up!

But also, if they are taking on too much for you to handle or going too fast, tell them! Very few Tanks will warn or ask if big pulls are ok, because it tends to be assumed. If you're nervous, let them know you are new/new to healing a particular encounter. Most Tanks will ease up and at that point you can tell them if you're comfortable taking on more. They might lead the charge, but you're the one keeping them standing!

The Tank in turn is supposed to be keeping everyone safe, especially you. They do this by generating the most enmity. Enmity is the in game stat that tells the enemies who to attack first, also known as Aggro in most other games. All enemies are drawn to who is creating the most enmity and who is doing the most damage. All Tanks have a Stance that will help them generate enmity, if they have it on, it will look like a little buff by their name called either Iron Will, Defiance, Royal Guard, or Grit. If your Tank is pulling and you don't see this by their name, tell them!

This is important because you as the Healer are also capable of generating enmity, because big heals also tend to grab the enemies attention. Especially regen.

The Pull

OK, let's try to put all that together!

1. The Buddy System

If you are a SGE, immediately put Kardia on your Tank. If you are a SCH, summon your Carbuncle/Fairy if they're not out!

The Tank is the front liner so they will run in first so that they can grab the enemies attention. Always stay behind the Tank, not just because you need to be there to heal them, but because you don't want the enemies to spot you first! You are mighty of mending but squishy of body!

Generally you have two options on your approach: if you are some distance away from an enemy group you can safely throw a regen/barrier on to the Tank without drawing enemy attention. OR you can wait until the Tank have picked up the Boss/all the enemies before starting up any skills.

2. Stay Alive

This is going to sound counterintuitive to your Role, but remember: you are the only Healer! The party might be able to take a few mobs and be okay until you return, but if you die in the boss fight, the rest of the party is often soon to follow.

Make sure you are out of harm's way and your own health is fine, before you start throwing out heals to the others! You can't heal anyone if you are face-planting the earth.

3. Keep the Others Alive

Once you're in a good spot and your own HP bar is okay, it's time to watch everyone else's! When you're the Healer you're going to spend most of the time watching these bars, so it might be helpful to change the size in the HUD to make them bigger. This will make it easier to select the player you want for individual heals.

SCH, your Fairy will also move independently of your commands to heal and shield other players. This is normal, and your game is not tweaking out. It also will not interfere with any of your spells, so don't worry about it!

Generally the Tank will be your priority and the one taking all damage if things are going well. Depending on the amount they are taking, you can heal them every so often, give them a big heal, or if it looks like they are doing fine, a regen may suffice!

Something to watch here also: make sure your Tank is using their mitigations! These are skills the Tanks have to lessen the amount of damage they take, and the skills will have many different names, but all of them will appear as a buff by their name and say they reduce damage. This is important because you are not expected to, and in some cases straight up cannot, heal through all the damage the Tank will take. This is a balancing act between you and the Tank and you both have to contribute for it to work! If you notice the Tank is not using mitigations, politely ask if they are/know about them.

4. Attack Whenever Possible

Remember, you also have attacks! FF14 wants all the players to be actively damaging foes. In fact they generally want the healer to be 30% of the DPS! If your party looks good and the Tank is not in immediate danger, be attacking as much as you can!

SGE this is why you pick the Tank to put Kardion on, for every attack you make it gives the Tank a bit of healing!

Again you are a caster class so most of your attacks will also require you to stand still! When you are fighting groups of enemies, stick to AoE attacks, when you are fighting single targets, use single target spells.

When you are using AoE attacks, some of them will also treat you as the center of the circle, forcing you to get close to your enemies. DO NOT stand next to the Tank. The Tank is only directing damage, they cannot actually shield you with their body. Attacks will go through them and hit you. This is called Cleave. A fair strategy is to follow the lead of the DPS who is experienced, as they also prefer not to die lol

Your DOTs or Damage over Time skills are instant cast! Which can come in handy, as sometimes you won't have time for much else. These are best saved for Bosses, but if you have time to throw them on a random enemy, don't hesitate! For bosses you want to try and reapply DOTs as often as possible.

AST, your Tarot Cards and Divination are specifically for buffing the attack power of yourself and other players, so keep whipping those out!

And remember, the slide-casting trick works on attack spells too!

5. Pick Up the Fallen

Despite your best efforts, someone has died. Don't panic! Even if it's the Tank, don't panic. Now is the time we learn how to play god!

All Healers have the ability to res: Raise for WHM, Resurrection for SCH, Ascend for AST, and Egeiro for SGE. Despite the different names these spell all function exactly the same and they have the same casting time. Which is long.

So when you need to raise someone in a pinch, you want to use the Role skill Swiftcast first! This skill makes it so the next spell you cast is instantaneous. Your priority if everyone else is dead will always be Tank first. If there is a need to raise more, you can use the res move again, but you will have to do it for the full cast time, until you are able to use Swiftcast again. So it's best to wait for a moment where everything is back under control, and you are out of harm's way so you won't be interrupted.

Keep in mind also, when you res someone, they will revive in the last place you were standing when you cast that spell, not where their body is. Also, players first have to accept the res in order to be revived, meaning there may be a delay between when you cast it, and when they actually get up.

6. Tank Busters

Every so often a Boss will think "well shit, if I just take care of this one mother fucker, the rest will fall like leaves!" and try to take out your Tank in one attack. This is the Tank Buster and you need to keep your eye on the Tank when this is happening!

You can tell when this is happening when the Tank suddenly has both a circular marker around their body, and an arrow over their head pointed directly down at them. This is usually coupled with a progress bar indicating a strong move is charging up.

Generally these moves cannot be stopped, your Tank will take damage. So do your best to make sure your Tank's health is at max before the attack hits, and once the damage is done, assess the amount needed to be healed after. Sometimes it's going to be a lot, sometimes they might just need a regen.

Making Good Choices!

As the Healer, you will in the end have to prioritize some Roles over others depending on your situation. There isn't any favoritism involved in these lists, it's purely from a "how do I get us back on track the fastest" standpoint. If it helps, think of it like you're a battlefield medic, they have to make choices based on the conditions!

For Light Parties

This will be most Dungeons and the early Trials. For the majority of in game content this will be the set up you will work with: 1 Tank, 1 Healer, and 2 DPS.

Heal Priority- 1. Yourself 2. The Tank 3. DPS

Res Priority- 1. The Tank 2. The DPS

For Full Parties

These will be Normal Raids and most trials after ARR. 2 Tanks, 2 Healers, and 4 DPS.

Heal Priority- 1. Yourself 2. The Main Tank 3. Off Tank/DPS

Res Priority- 1. One of the Tanks 2. Other Healer 3. DPS- Summoner [can help res at Lv12] or Red Mage [can help res at Lv64] 4. Other Tank/All other DPS

For Alliance Raids

These are Alliance Raid only. You will be part of an 8 player team, and there will be two other 8 player teams on the field. When you pick Healer in Alliance Raid, keep in mind that your skills will typically only affect those in your immediate party. For instance if you use an AoE skill. You can help players from the other parties, but only if you specifically select them, and only with single target skills. Your Party-1 Tank, 2 Healers, and 5 DPS. The Alliance- 3 Tanks, 6 Healers, and 15 DPS.

Heal Priority- 1. Yourself 2. The Main Tank [may not be your Tank!] 3. Your Tank [if not the main tank] and DPS

Resurrection Priority- 1. One Tank 2. Your other Healer 3. Healers from other parties 4. Any Summoner [can help res at Lv12] or Red Mage [can help res at Lv64] 5. Other Tanks/Your other DPS 6. DPS from other parties

General Tips and Etiquette

You will never need Repose. At this time, this skill is useful maybe in a few story instances, and if you're out in the field alone. But in any general dungeon/trial/raid run it has no use.

You can use the Role skill Surecast to ensure your next spell will not be interrupted by attacks, and it will also prevent most knock-back effects!

If you are having trouble managing MP consumption, you can use the Role skill Lucid Dreaming to steadily regain MP for a short amount of time. Likewise you can also use it after just having been revived to get your MP back quickly so you can use your stronger spells faster! Because your MP will be extremely low when you regain control.

Speaking of that, WHM and AST, once you guys get level up high enough to learn Cure II and Benefic II, stop using the first versions of these skills. Yes, there is a neat little bonus action combo that they do, but I'm telling you that is inconsequential. It is simply more time and cost effective to use the stronger Heal move, then to keep pumping out a tiny heal for a chance at something bigger. If you're having trouble just use Lucid Dreaming, or Presence of Mind/Lightspeed to help you out, it will be quicker I promise!

Don't forget about Esuna! Yes you could just heal through the DOT on your Tank, but that takes more time and MP than just cleansing them! Especially if the DOT is going to last more than 5 seconds. However, if the target has more than 2 status effects on them and they have short timers, it may be more cost effective to cleanse one and then heal. If ALL the DOTs have long timers, heal between cleanses.

On that note, let's talk about Doom [the in game debuff]. Cleansing Doom is not optional, as it can kill a player that has full HP instantly. Doom is not so much a DOT as a countdown to player death. On top of that, the way you must cure Doom is not always the same. Most of the time you can cleanse Doom by healing a player up to full HP before the timer runs out. Sometimes it has a bar over it, which means you can use Esuna to clear it. And then there's the ones that are completely out of your control, because it's a boss specific mechanic that required the afflicted player to do something [there's only one of these in main game content]. So yes when it comes to Doom, pay attention and do your best :')

For the Healers the use of the Limit Break is not common, but when it's time, it is crucial. For main game content with a 4 player party you will never need it, but in the Trials and Raiding content this is a potential tool to save your team if you need it. Because for the Healers the Level 3 Limit Break [LB3] results in a full party 100% heal and res. Meaning if you are the last man standing in the raid you have the power to turn the whole thing around! Keep in mind: You will still have a cast time for this move, and this move has a limited range. Make sure you are safe when casting, and be close to the party members you intend to res.

If a player has died and you didn't have time to res them before all the enemies/boss are dead, whatever the reason may be, it is better for them to teleport and run back. This might seem rude, but it's because when you res someone, they don't come back at full strength! They have a minute long debuff called Weakness that lowers their attack by 25%. If you've already ressed them in that time frame, doing it a second time will make it Brink of Death and then their attack is lowered by 50%. Some players don't know this and will just lay there. Politely explain it to them. If they stay there, then they can stay there :)

Rescue is a Role skill that you need to be the most careful with in its use. Yes, a timely rescue from the jaws of death is great and you love to see it! But this is also a move that can easily be used to cause grief in the wrong hands. Unless the player in question is actively in danger and they are aware of it, they are more often than not going to be a little bit terse with being literally pulled away from whatever they were trying to accomplish. Especially if they were in the right place and they just got pulled into death. You must be 100% sure when you use this move, that you are moving someone out of danger when you do it.

DO NOT pull for the Tank. Remember you and the Tank are a team! That means you both have to be comfortable with a big pull. Because you might be an awesome healer, but if they're still not familiar with all their mitigations, or even not familiar with the encounter, then they might die anyways. If you're feeling good about it, you can simply tell the Tank that they can grab more enemies. If they're not, then please continue to move at the pace they set. If the Tank wants to make a big pull they will either ask, or most just do it and see if you're able to keep up with their stride.

On that note, DO NOT use Rescue to make the Tank move forward faster. Do not use it to pull the Tank into mobs. The only thing this will accomplish is make the Tank mad at you. Again, this is a partnership, be considerate of the Tank!

NOW GO! PROTEC YOUR FRANDS FROM DANGAR ;3

[momsden]

FFXIV Dawntrail Benchmark and Sweepstakes - Quick & Easy Guide!

FFXIV has been too quiet for too long, but we’re finally getting some super exciting updates, the most important one this week being the Benchmark server. Along with that, the FFXIV Twitter is hosting the Benchmark Sweepstakes, and in this guide, I’ll walk you through what you need to do in order to participate! This giveaway is live until April 22nd, so you may want to check it out now to not…

[ffxiv-resources]

Flash Tip!!

two things for accessibility:

while autoplaying cutscenes you can change the text advance speed! On the keyboard this is managed with either Tab to speed up or Shift + Tab to slow down and on the game pad you would use the D pad with the right (>) being for faster and left (<) being for slower

You can also change the size of just about any element in the game. for the sake of this flash tip I'm just gonna cover the very basics: quest and dialogue boxes

[Image ID: two pictures of a quest box in FFXIV. the user has right clicked at the very top and gotten a drop down. On the left the options read "Return to Default Position", "Scale Window >", and "Close". on the right the user has clicked scale window and gotten a descending list of percentages starting at 200% and ranging down to 60%. /end ID]

You have you right click at the very top, like, top half an inch. Where the cursor turns into a little hand so you can drag the box around? right in there. I don't have pictures of it on hand but it's exactly the same with dialogue boxes however you have to turn off the autoplay (keyboard: spacebar gamepad: triangle) and read the boxes first because I don't remember if the text advances when you do it.

This is also mouse only so console players, if your usb keyboard didn't come with a mouse, I'm sorry to report you need your controller's touchpad. if you right click on the speaker's name you'll almost certainly be in the right range. And you can also drag the text bubble to wherever on the screen in best for you by clicking and dragging the same area of the box.

[demilypyro]

hello wow nerd reporting in. very excited that you're starting in WoD, it's my favorite old expansion. hunters are probably the most beginner-friendly class out there so good job there too. to make your life easier i would suggest getting CurseForge to download some addons. Adibags makes your inventory way more manageable, and Leatrix Plus offers a lot of quality of life things like auto-selling junk and some UI support. TomTom is useful for following guides since it's the coordinate system everyone expects you to use. Can I Mog It is nice for keeping track of armor appearances. those should get you started i would suggest a new toon for every xpac you want to level through, yeah. while you're diversifying, i would suggest getting one of each of the four armor classes so you have someone to collect appearances. your hunter already wears mail and your cool dranei pally wears plate, so that leaves a mage/priest/warlock to wear cloth and a druid/rogue/demon hunter to wear leather. wow is a dressup game <3 if you haven't figured out professions already and want to do so, an important thing to note is that you can Only have two professions per toon, where i think in FFXIV one character can do all of them. there are professions that are meant to pair well together. if you want to make your own armor for your hunter, i'd suggest Skinning/Leatherworking. skinning's also a high-value profession if you care any about gold but you don't have to worry about it. the professions that pair well together are Tailoring/Enchanting, Herbalism/Alchemy-Inscription, Mining/Blacksmithing-Jewelcrafting-Engineering. engineering gets you access to a bunch of cool toys. enchanting is nice because your materials come from melting down armor which means you get things from just regular questing. i actually prefer to double up on the gathering professions (skinning herbalism mining) but to each their own. i hope this helps and i'm sorry for busting down the wall to your inbox like koolaid man. i hope you have tons of fun!! last thing if you make a druid (which i highly recommend, they're blizzard's favorite child and get tons of cool features) i recommend making a worgen druid if only because worgen have by far the coolest starting zone. hope this helps bye

:(

[achromant]

hello, I just followed for your orctober stuff and scrolled through some of your blog and wanted to ask, what is guild wars 2?

OOOH BOY HERE I GO! ahem.

Guild Wars 2 is a high fantasy MMO, similar to maybe Final Fantasy Online. Guid Wars as a series is about as old as World of Warcraft, but has a much smaller fanbase; mostly because the company behind it, ArenaNet, seems to be allergic to advertisements (it's gotten better since the last two expansions).

These days, the core game is free, with only the expansions costing money. Well, some expansions, as they just throw in older expacs for free now. Even if you start with a free account, you can technically buy an upgrade by just... using ingame currency, which is a WILD concept to me.

Most notable features of the game are probably the character customization, free dyeing of armor, and a few thousand unique armor and weapon skins. Players often joke that the true endgame of GW2 is fashion (and they are RIGHT goddamnit). All five playable races are so ridiculously detailed in lore and design, it's incredible. Sylvari for example are not plain elves, they are full on plant constructs that grow from fruits on the mother tree. Asura are not just gnomes/goblins, they are a highly educated society of geniuses that would openly strive for world domination if it werent for their inherent bureaucratic tendencies.

The mounts in GW2 are among the best you will find anywhere, so much that World of Warcraft just copied some for their Dragonflight expansion.

Guild Wars 2 has a medium sized active player base, smaller than WoW or FFXIV, but they are an amazing community. We have veteran players, including me, who routinely patrol the starter maps to offer advice and maybe some healing to newbies (supported by the ingame mentor system). You might receive random mail from players gifting some cake. There's festivals, community parties, role playing, fashion contests, races and minigames.

If you are a seasoned MMO player, GW2 offers raids and the smaller strike system, which is being constantly expanded. Extreme MMO experts might find the game a bit flat, but that's only superficial. For beginners, I'd say the story is beatifully written. You can explore the open world, meeting players along the way (every map holds around 50-80 player at a time). You can choose any class and complete any content, including endgame. Any class, any race, (almost) any playstyle is viable, and nothing about your build is permanent, you can adjust your whole build on the fly.

Aside from the obvious MMO parts, GW2 also has structured PvP (5 vs 5 players) and the so called World vs World, which is a large scale week-long epic battle of three teams of around 50 players on each side (which btw is not as draining on the CPU as you'd think)

If you plan on giving it a try, I'd be more than happy to give you a more detailed overview of the game. This little chaotic hellhole of an MMO is very dear to my heart <3

This is by the way for ANYONE reading this: If any of you want to try the game, hit me up. DM me here on tumblr, or on discord (@ achromant). Even if you already play the game and are still new or just lost - ask me anything you want. I have close to 18k ingame hours.

[asleepinawell]

You can add another +1 for roping a ffxiv player into fallen london, I haven't played too much of it since I get lost on what to do pretty easily, but I do often reblog quotes/art now because of you

fallen london has A Lot going on at first. i actually stopped playing it shortly after i first started because i managed to get into an area i couldn't figure out how to get out of (polythreme). by this point i know how most stuff works (except the bone market) and this is largely due to my bestest friend in the world, the fallen london wiki, which has some great guides on it.

so if you want to get less lost I'd recommend checking out:

beginners guide - basic info on mechanics

making your name guide - the myk stories are what take you through the early parts of the game, help you level, and unlock other areas. just doing the stories labeled making your name is all that's needed but if you get lost and can't remember where you're at the guide can help you figure it out

masterlist of guides - the wiki is extremely excellent and there is a guide for just about everything (also you can look up any storylet on it)

the other thing that can really help is using plans, which is the little icon that looks like a bookmark that you'll see on story options. so if you don't or can't do something right away because you're missing resources or underleveled you can just bookmark it and it goes to your plans tab so you can remember it and easily check what it cost (i forget everything instantly so i rely heavily on this)

[lookbluesoup]

Beginners Guide to Red Mage

I've had a frankly alarming number of people comment to me on various platforms that Red Mage is too difficult and confusing. Which - I know different classes vibe with different people. Sometimes a class just doesn't click with you, and that's ok! But I actually find RDM to be one of the easiest classes in ffxiv to get the basics down on, so I thought I'd type up a little crash course!

This is a guide to a basic rotation, without any eye-glazing acronyms, and a few tips on how RDM evolves at higher levels, hopefully in easy to understand terms for someone just starting out. It is not a min/max guide. It's not designed to get you Super Rainbow Diamond Parse. It will show you how to play red mage competently in Duty Roulette and MSQ and get through whatever regular content you want. (As long as you don't forget to keep your gear levelled with you!)

If you want to go MAX ULTRA DAMAGE UNREAL TRIALS mode there's plenty of other guides out there for that, a google search away, who can help you with more complicated, number-crunchy type rotations! My hope is that if you are new to RDM and want to get into that content someday, this will at least give you a foundational understanding to build up to that from.

And if you're a casual player, this guide will see you through just fine. You're who this is made for!

Full guide below the cut!

Red Mage is about balance, which means it's basically a repeating pattern.

There is a magic rotation to build up black and white mana in equal amounts, and then a melee rotation to spend that collected mana on high-damage sword attacks. Later, you'll get a second magic combo to use after your sword combo.

Here's my hotbar setup synced down to level 50:

And here it is at level 90 with some upgraded skill icons:

Because I'm very visual, it's set up to keep related abilities close together so that I can quickly input combos.

If you take a look at your spells, you'll notice Veraero and Verthunder (the green and blue buttons) do high damage but take almost 5 seconds to cast. A really long time. They also only increase either white or black mana, though by a significant amount:

Jolt, the red one in the middle, only takes a remarkably short 2 seconds to cast and gives both black and white mana, but does much less damage and doesn't increase either color very much:

This might initially seem clunky and frustrating.

But here's why.

Every second spell a Red Mage casts is instant.

Jolt is your ticket to flinging spells around like a dog with a roman candle.

The goal is to start with a short-cast spell, and then follow up with a long-cast one, which will hit immediately instead of taking those agonizing 5 seconds.

So, if you are fighting a single target, that's Jolt, followed by Veraero or Verthunder. (Or, if like me your eyes want to glaze over with the fancy names for everything. Red, followed by Green or Blue.)

And how do you keep your black and white mana balanced? Easy. Each time you do your combo, switch up veraero and verthunder.

You basic magic combo is literally just Red, Green, Red, Blue, Red, Green, Red, Blue. If you set up your hotbar with these in convenient places, you can just get your fingers into a rhythm and eventually won't even have to think about it at all.

If you end up off balance with too much of one color, just repeat the other color a few times in between Jolts until its back close together.

The AoE Rotation, Though?

Since you know why the cast times vary so much between spells, you can probably already guess how this works! They're inverted! That's all! If you're fighting 3+ enemies at once, you should switch to your AoE set which damages all enemies around your target. Your basic magic combo is still just Red, Green, Red, Blue, Red, Green, Red, Blue. But you start with Green or Blue first!

--

When its time to stab things

While you can use your melee skills at any point, in any order - there's a pattern here, too. And its easy!

This is your mana bar when you enter a fight:

And this is your mana bar as you build up black and white mana through casting spells:

The white side, predictably, is white mana. The blue side is black mana. The gem on the top will light up in red when you have enough of both collected to perform a melee combo (which is 50 white and 50 black). It maxes out at 100 of each.

While your sword skills on your hotbar will color change from purple to red earlier than this, do not succumb to the allure. Wait until you get your magic red button. Every "Enchanted" sword strike you hit with will deplete your mana, so you need to make sure you have enough to do a full combo of all three attacks.

An Enchanted combo does MUCH more damage and it is absolutely worth waiting until you can combo them. Start with Riposte, the one that costs 20, and the others will light up in order afterwards to show you the correct steps.

Once you're too low on mana to run a full sword combo, go back to casting spells until your red gem lights up again!

AoE Rotation

It's not even a rotation, it's one attack - Moulinet. However, it should be noted that at later levels, when Mana Stacks are added, you'll need 60 black and white mana to get a full three mana stacks by using your AoE sword skill, instead of the 50 needed for single target sword skills.

--

Imbalanced Meters

If you cast too much of one color without the other, your gem will change to reflect the imbalance. You get a penalty to gaining mana if the bars are off balance, so make sure to give the other color some attention until your gem turns red or clear again.

--

Free Damage Buttons

Fleche, and its AoE version Contre Six, are free damage. They don't share any cooldowns with your regular spells/sword skills, and cast instantly. It's free damage.

Corps-a-corps is a gap closer, another attack that shares no cooldowns with any other skills. It's a great way to start out your sword-combo when you have enough mana collected, because it will put you in range of your target and deal damage in the process. A lot better than losing seconds to running up to them manually, during which time you can't attack.

It has two charges which refill over time, so in a short period you can use it twice if you need to. Like if you target the wrong enemy the first time. Whoops.

Engagement is another free stab button, but it shares charges with Displacement, which is your run away button, so make sure to save a charge if you're going to need that!

Displacement is a good way to end your sword combo (or, later, end your bonus spells combo.) It is also a good way to escape an enemy's attack if you stood in one place just a LITTLE too long and don't have time to run out of range. You will leap backwards immediately and quite far.

Once in the Crystal Tower raids I used this to evade an AoE and landed in one of those paralyzing electric traps on the corner of the arena, where I remained trapped, in shame, for the rest of the fight. Check behind you before you jump.

--

(Slightly) More Advanced Rotation

If everything above feels like a lot to absorb already, you can ignore this section for now. Get a handle on the basic basics, and then start weaving the rest of these in later once you're more used to your patterns.

Occasionally when casting a spell you will get "Verstone Ready" or "Verfire Ready" These can be woven in at your discretion, they have short cast times. But generally they should replace your short cast spell for one cycle. For example, use one of these instead of Jolt, and follow up with a Green or Blue spell after. They both give you a specific color of mana, but not quite as much as a regular long-cast spell, their benefit lies in how fast you can cast them and their high damage.

Acceleration can be used to quickly rebalance your mana if something goes awry, or to deal heavy damage quickly. It's another tool that allows you to cast any of your main long-cast damage spells instantly. As an added treat, it makes your next Red AoE do significantly more damage, or ensures that your next single-target Green and Blue spells will give you a Verstone/Verfire right after.

Manafication will instantly grant you 50 black and white mana both. It's best to use it between Enchanted sword combos! Once you hit 50 on your own, perform a sword rotation, hit Manafication, and do another sword rotation. Or, when Mana Stacks come in, use Manafication after completing your bonus spells to get another Sword-Spell rotation combo in right after.

Embolden is a damage buff for you and close-by party members. There's a lot of ways to use damage buffs, but if you time it right, you can get two buffed Enchanted sword combos in by pairing this with Manafication. Later, with Mana Stacks, you can get a sword and bonus-spell combo in, with a little extra room.

Mana Stacks

At higher levels, you'll get Mana Stacks. These basically add a third pattern after you use your spells to build mana, and your sword to spend it.

By completing an Enchanted Sword combo (the red ones, that cost 50 mana to complete) or casting 3 of the Enchanted AoE Moulinet in succession (which costs 60 mana), all your Blue and Green spells will transform into Verflare and Verholy:

You get to cast ONE of them. If you perform just about any other action, including manafication, you will lose these. Make sure to cast them when they appear. They do not, however, run on a short timer, so if the dungeon boss is at 0.1% hp you can hold your actions and just use these on your next ad pack.

If your black and white mana are not perfectly balanced when you get these spells, that's a good thing. Pick the spell that matches your lower color. If you have less black mana, cast Verflare. If you have less white mana, cast Verholy. This will guarantee that Verfire or Verstone, mentioned above, become available to you:

If you pick the "wrong" one, don't worry! You still have a chance at getting your stone/fire spell. And if not, you can use Acceleration to quickly cast for whichever color you need to rebalance your mana.

A little down the line, you'll get a third bonus spell. Scorch replaces your Red spells and appears after casting Verflare or Verholy. That's a lotta damage!

And again, further down, you'll get another red spell to follow on the heels of Scorch, Resolution. To really help you finish off nuking everything in front of you.

--

So in short - magic combo till you have 50 of both mana colors, sword combo, bonus spell combo, rinse and repeat.

And there you go! You can Red Mage!

--

But wait! There's more!

Saving the Party from a Wipe

At level 64 you get Verraise. And since you know all about dualcast now, you know that 10 second cast timer doesn't mean anything to you, a Red Mage.

While you should generally let your healer(s) handle raising so that they don't waste their swiftcast trying to get someone that you might reach first, if you notice multiple people go down close together, or the healer is low on spells/having to work really hard to keep the party alive, or the healer is dead... you can resurrect someone every 2 seconds. Do not be afraid to help save the party from a wipe. It feels very powerful.

Your healing spell, Vercure, also has a 2 second cast time, so you can give party members a little hp boost in between shoveling them off the floor.

[cinnabun-faerie]

*virtual hugs* I finally have internet so I can play ffxiv the free trial at least 😅 it's currently downloading on my playstation 4.. any advice for a new player/sprout?

Hi there! Hope you are doing well! ^-^

A/N: This might be a bit lengthy so I do apologize! I also don't want to frighten you, but I do want to say what I remember. And honestly I wish I had some of this advice when I was a sprout 5 or 6 years ago. I probably forgot a bunch of things, so if you want additional tips, you can always look it up online.

First and foremost, welcome to rhe world of FFXIV!

Go into the game with an open mind

Don't rush through the game, take your time and experience the story, characters and the world. There is much for you to explore!

Go at your own pace. This is your journey in Eorzea

If you want to get into the story and understand what's going on, I reccomend not skipping cutscenes

If you don't wish to be spoiled, avoid any sort of spoilers like the plague

It's okay to not know mechanics in the game, you are still learning and you will learn them eventually

Attune to the athrytes (Big crystal thingies in different areas as well as tiny crystals in the main cities)

If it's your first time, do your main story quests (It's a ! icon with fire around it) it will level you to make through the story!

Your class/job quests should take priority before MSQ (Main Story Quests) whenever they are available to you. They give you skills and armor

Speaking of job/class, if you don't think one works for you, switch until you find the one that you like the most

Hunting logs are great to do for experience, even if it may seem a bit tedius. If you can't find what you're looking for, there are help guides online for them

When you get to it, do the Hall of Novice beginner stuff - It will help you learn the start of your class and it will give you an armor set for your first dungeon!

Glamour is a big thing with ffxiv, but if you're just starting out, don't stress about it. You have lots of time later to pretty-ify your character later. Save up your gil (in game money)

But if you do want to wear pretty things right away, there's a quest you can get in Vesper Bay that you can do at level 15 "If I Had a Glamour" and "Color Your World" that will unlock glamours for you. Once you have an outfit you want to make a glamour, you can go to an inn and go to your glamour chest and make it so!

But most importantly, have fun! And it's okay to step away from the game from time to time. Eorzea will always be waiting for you when you return.

[lizzy-calaxio]

An Introduction Post!

Me, the mun, am Valerie, or Elizabeth! I have a lot of hours logged into FFXIV (over 10k hours) and I have written a lot of fics! I’m in the process of fully fleshing out my timeline, so bear with me as canon shifts. My house is on Ultros (Primal data center), plot 12 ward 28 of the lavender beds, come visit me!

I follow from @lizzy-frizzle

Beginner’s Guide that I made (currently working on updating for Endwalker): https://docs.google.com/document/d/19Oa07hkaQFIGJDxW8MyumcDHuhi5ZNAwbul9Lk6PuxA/edit

OC Information below the read more

Lizzy Frizzle: My main OC!

Age: she starts ARR at 17, and she’s currently 24 Gender: Trans Woman (She/Her) Orientation: Lesbian General Info: Lizzy is an Au Ra Raen that was orphaned early in her childhood, she grew up with her adoptive parents in the black shroud and following their deaths from the 7th umbral calamity, she spends a couple months on her own, then she gets taken in by the Sylphs and they teach her many things, for better or worse. She also excels in academics, and managed to create her own faerie to heal with, though she is uneducated and has no formal training. When she goes to sharlayan, she begins studying properly under Archon Conroy Rayne. Lizzy is polyamorous and as of current patch she is married to Brilliant Caladium, Sadu Dotharl, and Suzaku, while she is dating Shio Shinju.

Her Ancient is Iremia, a renowned Psychologist sporting powerful Emotion magic. Iremia desires to become Azem, but Emet-Selch shoots down the idea under the reasoning of "I don't want to lose the convocations best therapist" but Iremia knows the real reason is cause Emet views her as a little sister, and doesn't want her gallivanting off into dangerous places. At the end of shadowbringers, Lizzy discovers Iremia's apartment, and through mystical and magical means, gets to have a conversation with Iremia, this leads Iremia to bestowing Lizzy with her knowledge about Psychology, as well as her emotion magicks, though not as potent.

Lizzy’s children with parents:

Frizzle Rose – Lizzy/Bril - born right before stormblood Tranquil Grove – Lizzy/Bril - born right before stormblood Alice Frizzle – Lizzy/Sadu - born after shadowbringers

Ship tags: Lizzy/Bril – Brilizzy Lizzy/Sadu – Explosive Duo Lizzy/Shio – The idiots Lizzy/Fordola – Brooding Mess (bad ending AU)

Mono Rose: My secondary OC!

Age: she starts at 16 during the post-ARR stuff, she’s currently 22 Gender: Non-binary (She/They but don’t call her a girl) Orientation: Pansexual General Info: Mono Rose is a lalafell that lives with her family in the shroud. The oldest of 8 children, she strives to break out on her own and go on plenty of adventures. One day in the shroud she tries taking on a boar, only to stumble and get saved by Lizzy. Lizzy then teaches her how to properly use the bow and arrows, and Mono starts training to become a Bard. Mono thus looks up to Lizzy as a role model and hero, however, Mono refuses to join Lizzy and the Scions because she just wants low stakes adventures, so she frequently adventures with Bril. She also spends a lot of time babysitting Lizzy’s children.

Lizzy’s Children:

- Frizzled Rose (she/her) -appearance wise she takes after Lizzy a lot, but she's very much an angry ball of violence, her main job is Warrior and she is shorter than min height for roe (she's the same height as lizzy when fully grown, and she's pissed about it.) Frizzled wants to become a famous adventurer and save the world like Lizzy and Shio, but Lizzy is strongly against it and tries to keep her out of harms way. Frizzled often hangs out with Alice, only causing more problems around Ul Dah.

- Tranquil Grove (He/him) - appearance wise takes more after bril but still has lizzy elements, he also takes after lizzy's personality moreso, in that he's very peaceful and calm (we are ignoring black mage lizzy, shhhhh), he mains scholar and uses Lizzy's old codex that has her notes in it. He very much doesn't like violence, and tries to keep the peace often (struggling with Alice and Cota, or if Alice, Gwen, and Frizzled are in the same room). He gets along with Khaidai, they bond over their desire for non-violent solutions

- Alice Frizzle (She/they) – Alice was born half-blind due to the excess light aether in Lizzy on conception, due to this she is slightly more clumsy then the rest of the children. After she gets older, she can see fuzzy colors of people’s aether, though it doesn’t help much in a combative environment. Due to her half-blindness and brash personality, she receives numerous scars during her fights. She becomes a notorious (monk) bodyguard in Ul Dah, where her reputation is only held up by the fact that none of her clients ever get injured, despite her reckless behaviour.

[aetherblooms]

hii!!!! YVETTE IS SO PRETTY

for the ask game: 🍑💧🔮 🌸 (any voice headcanon :eyes: )

(@commander-winterberry)

🍑 Where is your OC’s favourite place to relax or calm down? Recount a story of their time spent in this place! What makes it so special to them?

I answered this question here!

💧What is the earliest memory your OC can recall? Do they know what their first words were or remember where they took their first steps? Do they have any mementos of their childhood they’ve kept such as a stuffed toy or tiny baby clothes?

The earliest memory they can recall is from their time in the Dream! Yvette and their brother, Lukas, fought the Shadow of the Dragon before their awakening. Even long after its defeat in the real world, they still have nightmares of it.

As for any mementos, they have quite a few tucked away.

A full, three-volume set of Elementary Elementalist: A Beginner's Guide to Spellcasting, a gift from Trahearne when he mentored them as a sapling. The books are well-loved: dog-eared, doodled on, underlined, and practically falling apart at the seams-- they don't have the heart to throw them away and, despite being a veritable master of elemental magic, Yvette still reads them from time to time.

They also have a very worn down ram plushie that they still sleep with: a first bloomsday present from their twin brother,

as well as the first gemstone they ever mined (a cat's eye),

and the first flower they ever picked (a snippet of bluebell, magically preserved).

🔮 Star gazing or cloud watching? Hand-holding or snuggles? Early mornings or late nights?

Yvette loves stargazing the most, although they are fond of cloud watching as well.

They much prefer snuggling over hand-holding! If they like you enough to snuggle with you, chances are they will stick to you like a burr.

And, surprisingly, they enjoy early mornings more than they do late nights, although it wins out only by a little bit. They enjoy the morning sun, and the quiet time they get to themselves; however, they'll only enjoy an early morning if it's on their terms. If someone wakes them up, that someone is likely to get hexed.

🌸What does your OC’s voice sound like? Their laugh? Are they good at singing? Do they have an accent?

My voiceclaim for Yvette is Robyn Addison (specifically I'm imagining her performance as Y'shtola from FFXIV.) This is my favorite example to bring up because its very yvettecore haha.

Yvette is calm and refined, perhaps a bit deadpan at times, and they're rather formal in their vocabulary. They like to project an air of elegance and dignity when they speak, but can often come off as haughty.

[fleurarmor]

Menu Buttons for a Clean FFXIV HUD Using Macros

I like to have a fairly empty display most of the time so I use macros to make custom "collapsing menu" hotbars. This lets me pull up what I need, like to change classes or teleport or have a short list of emotes without needing to look at them all the time. I'll go through them from simplest to most complex.

Initial Setup

You'll need to set up your always visible hotbars first.

Click the System button.

Click HUD Layout.

Set up the hotbars you are going to always have visible. I use Hotbar 1 and Hotbar 2 for my primary job actions and Hotbar 3 for menu buttons, nonbattle actions, and some niche use actions.

Hide/Show Duty List

Click the System button.

Click User Macros.

Select an empty macro or one you would like to overwrite.

In the opened macro, click the macro icon.

Select an icon to represent this macro. I use card suits for my menu button macros to easily group them together.

Enter a descriptive name in the Name field, like Hide Duty List.

In the main body of the macro, enter the following, making sure each line is its own line:

/hud "Duty List" /hud "Scenario Guide"

8. Finally, place the macro on one of your visible hotbars. When you click the macro button it will either hide or show both the Duty List and the Scenario Guide. This is nice for when you want to appreciate the scenery.

Situational Action Menu

I tried for many years to keep all my actions on two and a half bars to minimize how many bars I have but then I realized I can toggle those on and off! I personally like keeping my main two battle bars always up in case of accidental aggro, but you could have this toggle off all your job related bars, if you wanted. I toggle this on as soon as I enter a dungeon or raid but otherwise keep it hidden.

I keep my tank specific actions like those related to enmity as well as emergency actions like healing and partywide buffs on this bar.

For healers I keep my raise kit, Esuna, and shield type actions on there as I need to be able to find those quickly but they aren't part of a rotation.

Make the Macro

Click the System button.

Click User Macros.

Select an empty macro or one you would like to overwrite.

In the opened macro, click the macro icon.

Select an icon to represent this macro. I use card suits for my menu button macros to easily group them together.

Enter a descriptive name in the Name field, like Situational Actions.

In the main body of the macro, enter the following:

/hotbar display 6

Adjust the HUD

Place the macro on one of your visible hotbars.

Open the HUD Layout interface (System >> HUD Layout) and place Hotbar 6 where you want it. Also adjust the layout and size. I use the 4x3 option for my Situational Actions menu.

Click Save.

Drag actions from the Actions & Traits interface (Character >> Actions & Traits) or other hotbars onto your newly created menu hotbar.

You can also add macros, like a raise macro, from the User Macros interface (System >> User Macros).

You will need to add actions and macros to this menu for each job individually.

Emotes Menu

This makes an easy to access shortlist of emotes that is often faster than typing the emote in chat or using the Social >> Emotes menu path.

Make the Macro

Click the System button.

Click User Macros.

Select an empty macro or one you would like to overwrite.

In the opened macro, click the macro icon.

Select an icon to represent this macro. I use card suits for my menu button macros to easily group them together.

Enter a descriptive name in the Name field, like Emotes.

In the main body of the macro, enter the following, making sure each line is its own line:

/hotbar display 4 /hotbar display 5

Adjust the HUD

Place the macro on one of your visible hotbars.

Open the HUD Layout interface (System >> HUD Layout) and place the hotbars where you want them. Also adjust their layout and size. I use the 2x6 option for both hotbars of my Emotes menu.

Make sure that both hotbars, in this case Hotbar 4 and Hotbar 5, are either both visible or both not visible. If one is visible and one is not the macro button will only switch which is visible, it won't turn them both either on or off.

Click Save.

Drag emotes from the Emotes interface (Social >> Emotes) onto the menu hotbars.

If you use hotbars 4 and 5 you shouldn't need to do this for every job, just the once.

Change Job Menu

This is the same as the Emotes menu but is instead a menu for macros to change jobs. I also keep my return and teleport buttons here as well. Haven't made job change macros yet? Click this text to view my guide for making job change macros.

Make the Macro

Click the System button.

Click User Macros.

Select an empty macro or one you would like to overwrite.

In the opened macro, click the macro icon.

Select an icon to represent this macro. I use card suits for my menu button macros to easily group them together.

Enter a descriptive name in the Name field, like Job Change.

In the main body of the macro, enter the following, making sure each line is its own line:

/hotbar display 7 /hotbar display 8 /hotbar display 9

Adjust the HUD

Place the macro on one of your visible hotbars.

Open the HUD Layout interface (System >> HUD Layout) and place the hotbars where you want them. Also adjust their layout and size. I use the 1x12 option for the 3 hotbars of my Job Change menu.

Make sure that all hotbars, in this case Hotbar 7, Hotbar 8, and Hotbar 9 are either all visible or all not visible. If one is visible and one is not the macro button will only switch which is visible, it won't turn them all either on or off.

Drag your job change macros from the User Macros interface (System >> User Macros) onto the menu hotbars. You can group them together by job type (healer, gatherer, tank, etc.) or keep your main jobs all together.

If you use hotbars 7, 8, and 9 you shouldn't need to do this for every job, just the once.

[onepunchcatboi]

A Newbie Guide to Tanking

HALO~

I make this guide in the hopes that it helps out new players to Final Fantasy XIV, as the in game tutorial is um, bad. (-｡-;

I also included a general etiquette guide, because when it comes to working with other players, a lot of these things you don't pick up unless someone tells it to you.

Suggestions welcome! However, remember that this is meant to be a general beginners guide, so I'm not likely going to add in anything that's specific to a single /dungeon/raid/boss and such.

Everything under the cut!

Basic Tanking and How it Works

Part 1: How to Pull

As the Tank it's your job to make everything in the room hate you the most! That way they punch your extremely durable face instead of everyone else's more squishy ones!

You do this by creating what the game calls "Enmity", aka the stat of creating enemy aggression, or "Aggro". There are three steps in which the Tank must do this.

PUT YOUR STANCE ON Your stance is the thing that makes the bad guys turn their heads and go "Oh! You're a mother fucker!". You will generate enmity just by having it on. This is called a different thing depending on your job: Defiance [WAR], Iron Will [PLD], Royal Guard [GNB], and Grit [DRK]. You click it once to put the stance on, click it again to turn the stance off [there are a few instances you may need it to be off, they will be explained later]. It's important to put this on because if it's not, no matter how much you attack, other players WILL take aggro and get hurt.

USE AN ENMITY GENERATING SKILL Unlike some other MMOs your mere presence does not make the enemies incensed enough to fully ignore your party members, you must encourage them to hate you and only you! You can do this in a couple ways. There is the Provoke skill, which has the longest range. All Tanks also have a ranged skill which works similarly to Provoke but slightly closer distance and slightly less enmity, Tomahawk [WAR], Shield Lob [PLD], Lightning Shot [GNB], and Unmend [DRK]. [While they are fun and look cool, none of the skills that rush the enemies actually generate enmity] Using one of these once is enough to piss off a group or a boss.

ALWAYS BE ATTACKING Enemies in this game are drawn to the player doing that are doing two things at once: generating the most enmity & doing the most damage. This is important to remember! Because even if you have your stance on and you use an enmity skill, if you are not also attacking with all your might, the enemies will think you are all talk and start attacking your DPS/Healers instead! If you are fighting a group of enemies [and that is more often the case] make sure you are using attacks that are going to hit multiple enemies at once. These are called Area of Effect or AOE skills.

NOW THAT YOU HAVE DONE ALL THAT-look at the names of the enemies. There should be a little red square next to them, indicating that they are focused on and attacking you. If they are not, don't panic! A few things could have happened:

You might have just missed one

Your Healer used a Regen skill as you were engaging, and enemies just hate that.

Your DPS is doing some bonkers damage to start pulling enmity, good for them!

Regardless of the why, you can either use an enmity generating skill, or just hit them really hard a few times, and they'll be pissed off enough to turn around and hit you instead!

[and for reference, green circle means they are not focused on you at all, and yellow triangle means that your face is beginning to look punch-able!]

Part 2: Managing your Damage

OK, now everyone in the room wants you dead more than they want your DPS/Healers dead. Excellent! Now you move to Step two: STAY ON YOUR FEET. You are made to take all the blows from the enemy and laugh at them! It's time for MITIGATIONS.

All Tanks have several mitigation skills [or "mits"] that they can use to either reduce the damage they take from enemies, reduce the amount of damage their enemies are doing, or temporarily negate damage altogether [only one of these per Tank Job].

Ideally you want to be spacing these skills out, rather than using them all at once. These skills have a longer recharge time [or Cool Down] than your attacking skills, so if you use a bunch, you will more than likely end up halfway through the fight with nothing to shield you but the Healers skills and the speed of your DPS. ALSO, mitigations have a soft cap, that is to say, the game will only allow you to negate so much damage at one time. So at most you can use 2 of these skills at once while still effectively negating damage, anything past that goes to waste.

Now there are too many mitigation skills to go through all of them individually [most are unique to their Tank Job], I encourage you to read all your skill descriptions and get familiar with them. But I will touch on a couple Role ones and the full damage negation ones.

Reprisal: Great for groups and bosses, it will reduce the damage enemies do to your party

Arm's Length: This is not advertised as a mitigation from it's description, but it is in fact quite helpful for large pulls. Because every enemy that hits you [physically] will have their actions slowed by 20%, which means less time hitting you, and more time for the Healer to do their work.

The full damage negation mitigations are great! But a couple of them can be risky to use, and require your healer to be paying attention. They also have very long Cool Downs, so they're meant to be used sparingly.

[PLD] Hallowed Ground: You're impervious for 10 seconds, have fun.

[WAR] Holmgang: You will still take damage, but cannot be taken down past 1 HP for 10 seconds, and also root the targeted enemy in place.

[GNB] Superbolide: This will negate all damage for 10 seconds, BUT it will also take you down to 1 HP.

[DRK] Living Dead: You will still take damage, but your enemies cannot take you down past 1 HP for 10 seconds. HOWEVER, if while using this mit you would have been killed by your enemies, your Healer now has to heal an amount of points equal to your HP points in a limited amount of time, or you die. So say your HP is 5000, and you use Living Dead, and you would have "died" while using it, the Healer now has you heal you for at least 5000 points [within 10 seconds], or you die .

Some tanks like to use simple macros that announce when they are using the Superbolide and Living Dead mits in particular, to give their Healers a heads up. This is up to player preference.

Every so often a boss will decide they've had enough of you kicking them in the shins and will try to get you in one blow. This is called a Tank Buster and will be indicated by a red targeting marker on you [red circles around your character and a red arrow pointing down on them] coupled with a progress bar. Stay calm! So long as you have a mitigation to use when you see it coming, everything will be fine. The Healer will know to be watching your health. Some will of course hit harder than others though, so if you're worried or low on health use 2 mits to be safe!

Part 3: Stunning Enemies & Interrupting Attacks

Now you've got the enemy right where you want them and you're weathering their blows- but oh no! They're preparing to attack the party anyways! It's a huge AOE too. What do you do? You give them the finger and then kick them in the balls! [partly true, most of the time.]

Most enemies in the game have both an auto-attack, and attacks that can be stopped in some fashion by specific skills. There are two different ways to stop an attack, you can use a skill that will Stun the enemy [Tanks and Melee DPS], OR you can Interrupt it [Tanks and Ranged DPS]. Stun and Interrupt are not interchangeable in their use.

So! How can you tell which attacks can be stopped by players? They are the attacks that have a progress bar, showing the enemy has to charge them up before they are actually used. The normal progress bar indicates an attack that can be stopped by Stunning the enemy. For Tanks this is the Low Blow skill [also the Shield Bash skill for PLD]. The flashing progress bar indicates that the attack can be Interrupted. For Tanks this is the Interject skill.

Keep in mind that both these types of skills will also have longer cool downs, so you cannot spam them. This means sometimes you might have to be strategic about when you use them, as some attacks will be more dangerous or troublesome than others. HOWEVER, not all enemies can be stunned, and enemies that can be stunned will become impervious to it after a few uses. You cannot stun bosses period.

You And Your Healer

You may be the biggest baddest person in the room now, but you are not a one man show, and you certainly cannot stay alive without your Healer! Your mitigations can only do just that-mitigate, in the end you have to rely on the Healer to help keep you standing.

You and the Healer are partners in this system. You have to make sure that if you are going, they are following close behind. If you decide to pull a ton of enemies around the corner, your Healer now has to run around that corner first before their spells can effect you.

Most Healers are going to assume you will run and grab all the enemies you can, but if you're finding that you and your Healer are struggling to keep the party alive, you need to tone down your pulls! If the Healer tells you that they are new, or straight up asks you not to full-pull, be considerate of that! Remember, while they have their eyes on you often, they are charged with keeping the whole party alive too! Literally in their case lol

General Tank Etiquette

Dungeons & General Tips

As the Tank it is your job to protect the party and make sure you are the only one taking damage. This also means you set the pace, and lead the group into every battle. This is because it is much easier to pull enemies to you if you are the first thing they see, and are the first to attack. Most players will follow your lead and wait to attack after you have done so. Mostly. So! It's good to remember that your comfort level is important. Go at the pace you feel works for you, let people know you are new if you are worried. Most other players are understanding of this! Many are willing to explain mechanics even!

Additionally since you are the leader, most players will expect you to run in first and generally to keep running until you've decided you've gathered all the enemies you feel like pulling. But! Don't leave your party in the dust. You need you DPS to kill all the things you pulled and your Healer to keep your ass alive X'D

Remember to check that your stance is on before you run in! Most times when you enter a dungeon or a raid its turned off at the start, even if you had it on when you were in the field.

Also, while not a hard rule it's generally advised not to do big pulls in early dungeons anyways [like, Lv 40 or under]. This is mostly to do with the amount of enemies in some areas versus your mitigation options and your Healers healing options. Often at this stage there is simply not enough of these to go around between you and your Healer, and a big pull can sometimes result in a party wipe.

Whether engaging a group of enemies or a boss, common courtesy is to run through the enemy and tank them from the other side [or if you're out in the field, attack from the opposite side of the other players]. This rotates the enemy so that they face you and not the rest of the party, making it so no one else is caught in the majority of enemy attacks. [You do not prevent damage from happening to others by standing in front of them, so attacks can go through you and hit other players, this is called Cleave]

Generally speaking it is also best to keep enemies in one place and facing the same direction as best you can. This makes it easier for the DPS to do their job [especially if they are using casting skills] and easier for the Healer to keep track of you.

Many of the melee DPS have a thing usually referred to as Positionals, meaning they do more damage if they strike enemies from the flank or from the rear. When possible it is good to position bosses so that they can do this, and reposition bosses out of harmful terrain for the melee DPS to strike without harm to themselves.

Speaking of that, do not stand in bad things or perfectly dodge-able attacks! You might be the Tank, but you don't need to tax your Healer while you're at it. They have to worry about other people too! One last note on movement and control of enemies: generally speaking it is also best to grab all the enemies you feel comfortable with and then stay put until all of them are dead, rather than pull a group and kill some and moving to the next one. It might seem like you are saving time by advancing slowly, but in actuality you are making everything harder for everyone else. This is because this forces all the other players to stop and start their actions constantly, which is bad. Why? Because now your melee DPS are having to chase after enemies they are trying to kill [meaning they are only hitting them half the time], and your DPS casters/Healers basically cannot do anything until the party stops again [because they have to stand still for 95% of their actions]. In the end it it more effective to stay until all the enemies are dead!

When it comes to the Limit Break [or LB], you as the Tank will almost never need to touch this button. The Limit Break is usually something the DPS will use to make a big attack on the boss, or in the case of a boss/raid not going well, the Healers can use a Limit Break Three/LB3 [when you have three full Limit Break bars] to revive the entire party. Thus far in the core game encounters, there are only a couple specific cases that utilize the Tank LB 3, and that will not occur until the ShadowBringers Expansion.

Provoke is not part of your attack rotation! If you have used an Enmity skill once in the fight, especially if you opened with it, you will not have to use it again to keep the enemy on you. While using Provoke consistently is not a big deal if you are the sole Tank, it is a bad habit to get into, as it will become a problem in situations where there are multiple Tanks.

Raids

In a Raid, be it a 8-player one [Normal Raid] or a 24-player one [Alliance Raid], you are not the only Tank on the field, making things slightly confusing and sometimes chaotic lol

When you are all facing mobs of enemies, all Tanks should have their stance on to ensure none of the Healers or DPS get hurt. Sometimes the mobs are spaced far apart when you find them, and its easier when Tanks work together to bring them in. Sometimes you may notice your Enmity being pulled, it is [hopefully] the other Tanks.

When you are facing bosses, generally the first Tank to put on their stance and engage the boss is now the Main Tank:

If that is you, cool! Have fun tanking boss!

If that is not you, DO NOT turn your stance on and try to provoke the boss away from the other Tank. That is rude. Keep your Stance off so you don't draw Enmity, you are now the Off-Tank and play the part of a beefy DPS.

If you are an Off-Tank, DO NOT stand next to the Main Tank to attack the boss. This makes you vulnerable to being Cleaved from boss attacks and unnecessarily overtaxes your Healers. Off-Tanks need to be attacking from the flank or the rear with the other DPS.

Main Tank is the Main Tank until they die.

Off-Tanks, if inclined, can help bring any extra enemies that appear on the field to the Main Tank so they do not have to move the boss around. This is helpful to the group because they can now attack all enemies together at the same time, rather than in small pockets. In this case it's okay to Stance On to get the enemies and then Stance Off so the Main Tank can take them.

IF the Main Tank dies for whatever reason, [one of] the Off-Tank[s] must put their Stance on and take control of the boss, they are now the Main Tank.

Some raids will also require Tanks to switch control of the boss off to each other, require Off-Tanks to manage their own mechanics or assist the Main Tank in some way, or even make all Tanks have to position themselves away from the group to take three-pronged Tank Busters that can cleave others! Raids are very diverse so it's a matter of learning the fights. There are many online guides for dungeons and raids you can use for this!

NOW GO! PROTECCA YOUR FRIENDS AND ATTACKA YOUR FOES!! >:3

[momsden]

FFXIV Heavensturn 2024: Quick & Easy Guide

It’s time to get festive and start off the new year with a limited-time loot from FFXIV, and there’s currently no better way to do that than to participate in the Heavensturn 2024. The event is now live, and it’ll be up until Monday, January 15, 2024 at 6:59AM PST. In this guide, you’ll learn how to start the event, as well as what you need to do to get all the rewards! How to start the…

[ffxiv-resources]

Glams and Dyes

If you love Cute Clothes as much as me, these are very much for you. But if you don't really care what your character wears (or the color it is), these are completely optional.

Unlocking

You may as well do them both at once as they unlock at the same time and are both given by the same person and neither takes you out of Vesper Bay

[Image ID: screencap of Swyrgeim in Vesper Bay, to the left of her is a selection box that lists the options of two quests; Color Your World and If I Had a Glamour, Small Talk, or Nothing /end ID]

These unlock in Vesper Bay out in Western Thanalan aaallllll the way to the west, past Horizon but before the sharp turn north. you'll be out here a lot for MSQ later so remember it's location. If you get here at or around level 15 she should be the only quest marker, if I recall correctly.

[Image ID: two more screenshots of Swyrgiem, these two with quest synopses next to her. On the left is Color Your World; "Swyrgiem wants to show you a whole new world of colors." and on the right is If I Only Had a Glamour; "Swyrgiem wishes to impart to you her knowledge of glamours." /end ID]

Like the queen she is she sends you to get her drinks. If I Only Had A Glamour marks on the map who to talk to, but for Color your world you need to go to the Merchant & Mender that you can see in my caps just above the quests and the orange juice will be under Purchase Items. don't worry! it's only 7 gil.

[the rest under cut because this is Long]

Use

my first note is that many dyes can be bought in the markets of every city. Some can be bought in the cash shop, some can only be crafted, and some are beast tribe locked (and some are locked in other ways). However, all dye can be found on the market board, just be willing to pay a small fortune for some colors if gotten that way. I would always either check the market or look the color up on gamerescape to see how to obtain it before going to the market board.

In the inn room look for these mfers:

[Image ID: The Glamour Dresser and Armoire in the Limsa Lominsa inn. /end ID]

Anything that can go in the armoire, I'd put in there because if you get really into glams the dresser can uuhh fill up quick, and you can access the armoire while making glams without any extra hassle. Plus in order to put things in the dresser you need glam prisms whereas you don't for the armoire. Prisms can be bought on the market board, from your Grand Company upon reaching Sergeant Third Class, or crafted. The unlock quest, should have given you 12 and that's plenty enough at this low a level.

At this point, unless veteran friends have given you clothes or gil and/or you've spent money in the cash shop, you shouldn't really have any of the gear meant for glam, except the little hat the quest gave you. You can put armor and starter clothes in but I would hold off on either (unless you really wanna glam to starter gear) because you might need them if you pick up an off class and it's a hassle to pick up a class and then remember you have to yank gear out of the glam dresser or buy a new set.

But, let's say you had gear and everything you wanna put in your dresser is there and you're ready to make your first glam.

[Image ID: The ffxiv glamour interface showing Aki, a Xalea girl, in her starter outfit and the dresser open to her shoes. /end ID]

The 20 tabs you see above the character display are the 20 glamour plates you get. You can have 20 unique and custom outfits pre-designed and waiting in here. Much like when equipping armor, as you select the spot for a piece of gear on the left the right will open to all the gear you have stored for that place. Select feet you get shoes, head you get hats, etc. **Note: wrists/gloves/shirt sleeves can and will cover bracelets. Accessories are the lowest level; any cloth that covers the same spot will be on top.**

but say maybe for parts of your glam you want something from the armoire. Then hit that long horizontal button under the display of gear in your dresser that says Open Armoire. You don't need to save the glam before hand or anything, it only refreshes that side of things.

If you do seasonal events you'll slowly start collecting up things to fill your armoire with (they do not always give gear but when they do it goes in the armoire.) Otherwise, it's a good place to dump artifact armor (from reaching level caps) if you don't want to get rid of it or want to use it for a glam.

Now! you've selected your outfit. Looks kinda cute, but the colors don't match your character? Well, that's what the dyes are for! Right click/press square on whichever piece of gear you wanna start with and you'll get this

[Image ID: the ffxiv dye selector. In the character box Aki stands wearing the gear she is outside of the dresser with the Ishgardian thighboots selected to dye. /end ID]

This is, as you can see, pretty cut and dry. It's separated by colors so if you click the red circle you see all the red dyes, blue you see the blues, etc. The notes I will give you are that 1) there are pinks under both red and purple, 2) Terebinth turns something back into it's default color, and 3) you can select colors you don't have at this step but you cannot save the plate with dyes you do not have on it.

What I generally do is go through and pick all the colors I want and then pick secondary colors in case the first is too expensive/not for sale/I'm to lazy to make/get, I note how many of which colors I need and then I remove all the dye and save the plate. Then I exit the dresser and go get what dyes I don't already have before returning. this way I'm not guessing that colors will look good together and potentially wasting gil. I also buy dyes in small bulks when I can afford it so I have some for next glam.

However you personally do it, once you apply your dyes and save the plate (again) you're done! All you need to do is hit Apply.

[Image ID: same as the first only now Aki is wearing a peach flower corsage, the hempen camise, summer sunset wrist torque, faire kohakama, and Ishgardian thighboots all dyed either regal or gloom purple. /end ID]

Congratulations! You have now made your first glam plate!

[Image ID: Aki, now out of the dresser, wearing her new glam and cheering. The camera is angled to fit her whole glam but also get a close up of her face. /end ID]

Note: you can apply/change what you're wearing in any sanctuary (denoted by a little crescent moon by the exp bar) but you can only change the plates themselves in the glam dresser in inn rooms. you can also mix and match so if one glam is missing pants and you want pants from another, apply the pants one first, and then the one you want the rest of, and the pantlessness won't overwrite while everything else will.

Also: because of that last point, if there is something that you want to never show up with this glam, you want to get the Emperor's New [gear type] for it and you only need one ring for both slots. (I have bought a second unnecessarily so many times.) I generally get all of the accessories on most of my alts because I just don't really like how most in game jewelry looks. There are plenty of people who use this to run around shirtless. Get creative. They're craftable and available on the market board. sometimes they're relatively cheap, sometimes they're not.

[memendoemori]

Someone made a very charming FFXIV RP Beginner's Guide and I've gotta ask, Crystal, why are we the Imperial to everyone else's Metric? Why? Why did we do this. I'm laughing. What do Aether and Primal folks think when they come to play

The guide can be found here: https://www.thekweh.com/rp-guide