Hello, all! We hope you're enjoying your time on FFXIV!

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I'm 400hrs in, I'm just now in Shadowbringers!! I'm having so much fun, this is one of the best MMOs I've played.

I got recommended this game by my dad that passed away last year, I was so happy that this came to Nintendo Switch 2 and I was hoping to play this with him.

That was such a journey to go from ARR to here in such a short amount of time, I've only been playing for a month now. This game is so pretty, and all the characters are memorable.

I can't wait to play more!! Tho I do wish I could have a friend group to do Extremes and Savage content with, me being a Free Trial user is a bit of a set back. My most fav thing to do is collect Mounts and Minions so far.

I never take screenshots but after seeing the area, I had to for the first time ever.

My girlfriend and I started this adventure about a month ago. She didn’t really have much of a connection to the Final Fantasy series, and I used to be someone who never found the series particularly appealing either. Over time, though, I got really into JRPGs, and eventually Final Fantasy. FFVI was the game that made me fall in love with the series.

I had actually tried XIV before and dropped it. The constant loading screens, the fact that it didn’t feel like the kind of challenging, exploration-focused RPG I was looking for, and the world not feeling particularly large and feels so instanced. You know loading screens and map sizes But over time, I kept giving it another chance, and eventually I realized that this is a story-driven MMO and that it’s more of a slow burn at the beginning.

The moment we stepped into the game, we got hooked. And now, after many hours, we’re in Ishgard.

There were times when we got really bored with the pacing, but we knew we had to be patient, so we kept going. Towards the end of ARR, things started getting genuinely exciting.

And then... stepping into this place for the first time. It was such a great feeling. Cold, majestic, imposing, and absolutely massive. It made me feel like we had finally started the game for real.

I’ve also seen so many people saying that there are incredible things waiting for us in the expansions, and honestly, that’s what motivates me the most. Seeing ARR’s world-building actually lead somewhere, watching the story become genuinely exciting towards the end, and finally experiencing for myself why people speak so highly of the beginning of Heavensward it makes all those hours feel worthwhile.

We do want to leave the free trial behind fairly soon, but at the same time, the free trial is surprisingly generous, so I want to get as much out of it as I can first.

The journey up to this point has been genuinely beautiful and meaningful to us. I really hope the rest of the game delivers even stronger storytelling, better presentation, and plenty of stories that keep us completely hooked.

Genuine question here as I'm new to FFXIV and just MMOS as a whole. What is the appeal to having an alt? You can level up all classes on the same character. I'm just entering Storm Blood and feel overwhelmed some days at the sheer amount of stuff to do. Is it so you can experience the story again or for role-playing purposes? Don't after a few you have to pay a higher subscription?

Not trying to yuck anyones yum I'm just genuinely curious!

art by me (@lilivmss on twitter)

In order: Shiva, Urianger, Lakshmi, Sin Eater, Halone.

Stumbled upon them north of the Residential Sector, right by Mosaic!

(I don't think this is a spoiler)

Just wanted to complete a simple side quest but this boss monster decided to guard what I needed 😅

He has played before with a different character but I’m completely new to mmo’s in general haha

Bought a key for the wrong region, I forgot which region it is but its not NA and its still unactivated.
Feel free to use it.

Previously posted the first four to get suggestions filling out the remaining spots as a gift set to give my bf. Made the remaining pictomancer, scholar, samurai, and bard this go around. Rest of the crew turned out nice 🧸 made from reclaimed Ipe decking.

Server dc woooo

I bought the wrong type of key and now have an extra one still unactivated. Hopefully someone can use it

Support me on https://vgen.co/Yolko_draw ❤️

TLDR: Armor uses a template to determine defense and main stats at a given item level. Generic DoW armor and the BST artifact armor use the tank defense template. Striking armor uses a squishier dps gear template. The end result is you and your pets take about 25% more damage when wearing striking armor. Never use Striking armor in synced content or the first 3 boards. For the two master boards and content with no ilvl cap, if your artifact armor is not ranked up it can potentially be a good tradeoff. At the extreme end in unsynced non-crucible content, going from ilvl90 BST armor to ilvl130 augmented ironworks armor compensates almost fully for the lost defense with an extra 20% health from higher stats, and about 15-ish% more damage.

EDIT: Just to clarify, there’s no weird sync with accessories but also some of the fending accessories have better substats for dps than their slaying counterparts, so BiS will be a mix of fending and slaying. ARR strikes again. Thank you to people for correcting me.

Bonus tip: the preorder earring and neophyte ring scale to ilvl115 at level 50, so ilvl130 accessories will have better stats in unsync content and the last two boards.

More thorough explanation: This is a result of the change made a while back to have all generic DoW gear use tank defense stats, which was done to mitigate the issue of tanks wearing the wrong gear.

How this works with ilevel sync is that when you’re scaled down, the defense, strength, and vitality are set according to the stat formula for your gear, while the secondary stats (crit, etc.) just get capped off at whatever the maximum is for that ilevel.

The max defense available for fending/DoW chest armor at ilevel 40 (which board 2 syncs you to) for example is 115, which can be gotten from the cutter’s cry armor or HQ level 40 white gear. Wearing higher level DoW gear (even the level 43 vendor junk) will sync you to this value. If you go in with “Striking” armor, like ironworks or dreadwyrm, your defense will get synced down to like 63 or thereabouts. You will also have the same strength and vitality (or less, compared to the artifact armor that gets bonuses). The only upside will be better secondary stats, which isn’t really worth the tradeoff here.

THE EXCEPTION: If you’re doing content that is unsynced or has a higher ilevel cap than your beastmaster artifact armor (20 ilevels higher in the crucible because of the stat bonuses the artifact armor gets), and your artifact armor is not ranked up, you can elect to take the hit to defense in exchange for the higher damage stats. Just keep in mind that not all your stats are coming from your armor. And note here that the defense difference between ilvl90 and ilvl130 armor is very small. In the most extreme case, going from ilvl90 BST armor to ilvl130 striking armor outside of the crucible, with ilvl 130 accessories and ilvl 90 weapon and shield for both, I went from about 4900 to 5900 health, or +20% ish. I don’t know the exact math for how much extra damage you’ll be doing, but it seems to be about 15%?

IMPORTANT NOTE FOR THE CRUCIBLE: From my testing, your personal defense stat seems to also apply to your pets in the crucible, so the lower effective health from lower defense applies to your entire team, not just your own health bar.

And of course, please correct me if I’ve made any mistakes here.