is this game currently solo/beginner friendly?

[Hold this L]

i actually had game since 1.0, then quilted, then back again at 1.2, but my progress stopped at very early, once i finished titan i kinda stopped, cos i felt it's just another infinite gear farming/raiding mmo.

but seems lot of ppl are talking about this game, like how story got so much better and social aspect of it, so i kindly wanna give it another go. but my main concern is, is it possible for me to catch the progress to current content? am i able to solo content if i cant find group? can i even find ppl at early content areas?and end of the day, is it gonna be heavily gear grinding fest?

i am a family man now, so i cant really play more than 2hr per day i think. so is it still worth to dive in at this point?

pls help. thx.

[Oku]

FF14 is easily one of if not the most single player friendly traditional MMO around. The largest core of the game is the main story content, and any multiplayer segments of it such as dungeons, trials, or even raids are all matchmade and pull from a pool of players doing their daily "duty roulette" rewards so there's always players around for that content, you don't have to contact other people, and the way the game builds on itself in terms of complexity, as long as you pay attention and bother to learn the basics of your class and role as you play, you'll be able to just drop in to a run, not speak with anybody if you dont want to, and clear it with no fuss, and in later expansions there's even a "trust" system which lets you do dungeons with NPC allies.

The devs are also of the mindset that you buy the game, pay for a month, get what you want out of it, and then turn off your sub if you are bored. This isn't like WoW where the game is designed to get you addicted and keep you coming back to grind each and every day just to stay relevant.

Take it at your own pace, however much you want to or can at a time, and have fun!

[Prophet360]

No, not entirely. You have to group up for a lot of the main quest and most of the side stuff. If you do not join a player company you miss some content and a ton of bonuses. I have always wanted them to allow solo content, but no. total grind fest too, or just buy ur level up...

[DirtyMick]

I mean in the end it's just another farming/raiding mmo, but there's hundreds of hours of story you have to go through first. Throughout the story you run into dungeons and trials that force you to queue with other people to play through them. Its not THAT often, I'd say 90% of the story is solo. But there's a decent amount of times where you have to play a dungeon or trial with other people. I was just talking to someone on Novice network last night who had subbed for a year and JUST beat the ARR story lol. So you won't have to worry about end game if you can't play that often. I have 19 days played (/playtime) and I'm only at the end of stormblood. Thats over 400 hours played and I'm not even at end game yet! Granted, I'm obsessed with dungeons so I've wasted a whole lot of time doing those when I don't have to. Also been doing mini games at the Golden saucer and trying other jobs. (Whm 75, ninja 76, mch 66, bard 52, warrior 51, blm 58) ...took me a while to find a dps I like, and my favorites are the ninja and machinist. White mage is my favorite class overall though, and I don't like tanking I've learned.

[Overeagerdragon]

Ironically...with the Trust System they introduced in Shadowwalker you can now solo that xpac entirely. They're looking into introducing that system retroactively to previous xpacs....Also; if you have a decent FC you can literally ask a FC-member to boost you through any content unsynched (or do it yourself if you're overleveled).

[Frost]

Honestly, super friendly. Many parts of the story require you to queue for dungeons and the like which you should have no problem with.

Give it a go, it's a good time to get into the game right now.

[Last Place]

Level 1 -50 is very casual and super beginner friendly, so much so that you'll find people complaining on a daily basis on these forums about how simple it is to them.

A lot can be done solo, The main quest does put you through several dungeons and other instances that needs a team of 4, 8 or 24, but FF14 has a very easy to use group-up system.

[Hold this L]

thx for replies, regards to dungeon or raid, is it heavily tank/healer/rest setup? like if i roll dps class, do i have to wait 15-30min to find a dungeon party?

[MOSLEY]

Originally posted by Hold this L:

thx for replies, regards to dungeon or raid, is it heavily tank/healer/rest setup? like if i roll dps class, do i have to wait 15-30min to find a dungeon party?

Yeah, the standard MMO holy trinity applies to FF14. Healers have the best queue times (or complete lack of queue times), tanks have very short waits, and DPS will usually take a few minutes to find a group.

[✠ Red, Ghost of the Creek]

Ok whats the average day in this day? like WoW seemd very directional, one linear path you working toward this and not much personality. Where as Guild Wars was level up, and then do anything you want, build this, raid that, grind this, explore almost so much choice and freedom it was bit overwhelming for people not use to that choice. Where does this game fit?

[tracksone]

I've played over 500 hours and done any and all content i needed and wanted to do without ever speaking to a soul in the game so im going to say yeah

[DirtyMick]

Originally posted by Crusade o'Clock:

Ok whats the average day in this day? like WoW seemd very directional, one linear path you working toward this and not much personality. Where as Guild Wars was level up, and then do anything you want, build this, raid that, grind this, explore almost so much choice and freedom it was bit overwhelming for people not use to that choice. Where does this game fit?

You can do your daily roulettes, which is 1 dungeon at lvl 50, 60, or 70, 1 dungeon of any level, and 1 trial, which is just a boss fight basically. Also a raid, an alliance raid, a MSQ dungeon, which gives a huge reward but there's only two of them and you have to watch the cutscenes, and a pvp instance called Frontline. The first time you do these in a day gives you a bonus reward.

You can go to the Golden saucer for MGP which is a special currency for items sold at the Golden saucer. There's mini games like platforming levels, and dodging things, little games you might see at a carnival, a card game called triple triad, chocobo racing, verminion game which is like a little MOBA game that uses the minions you've collected, and a fashion game where you get judged once a week based on whatever you're wearing. There's a different theme each week.

You go and send your retainers on ventures, send your squadron on missions, turn in daily supply and provisioning items to your grand company (all optional of course). You can even go in a dungeon with your squadron, so you don't have to wait for queue times, you just have AI allies.

You can go work on MSQ, as it is very very long. Do beast tribe quests, side quests, unlock dungeons and raids and trials that aren't unlocked through the MSQ, some of them being much harder than others. Work on leveling alt jobs and crafting/gathering.

You can go do deep dungeons that are 200 floors where you level up separately from the rest of the game. There's Palace of the dead, and Heaven on High for that. And then a thing called Eureka which I haven't really gotten into. Idk what it is exactly, but it can take a while to get through.

Ummm... you can work on relic weapons, which are just end game special weapons for each expansion that look all flashy. I'm sure there's something I'm missing, but I'm not even at end game yet... I'm very close to finishing stormblood, and then I still have to go through shadowbringers. And I have about 400 hours played.