In this Beginner’s Guide we will go over tips I consider the most important for new players in Final Fantasy XIV. From ability usage, over role-specific tips, to limit breaks, this one should have something for everyone! We’ll start off with some combat fundamentals that surprisingly many players get wrong even at max level, and later move on to more niche optimizations.
The Balance (Job Guides):
https://www.thebalanceffxiv.com/
00:00 Introduction
00:46 Actions
03:29 Uptime
05:28 Rotations
06:54 Positioning
08:42 AoE & Hitboxes
10:02 Damage-/Healing Over Time
10:54 Positionals
12:40 Resurrections
14:23 Limit Breaks
16:19 Everyone is a DPS
source
Thiiiird :^)
I started playing about 3 weeks ago and have been voraciously devouring ffxiv content. This is the first video where someone laid out the actual and specific definitions of Attacks/Spells vs Abilities, exactly what weaving is and the difference in terminology from the game to the community.
I knew these things, in that I'd kind of worked them out, but I think you did a really good job of explaining them and I now feel confident that I am actually on the right track, which is conformation I was looking for, thanks ^-^
I recently got accepted into a static (yay!) and I've been working my ass off to get better so as not to let them down. I knew most of what you talk about here, but as always there's a couple bits of information I had no idea about (like the back of the ring being open, thank goodness I don't play melee).
Love your videos, thank you for making them!
Healers: If you get called out because you're not healing but DPSing yet no one is dying, you're not in the wrong. Just fyi. It's the other players that don't understand what a Healer is supposed to be doing. DPS all you want as long as everyone is alive (over 1 hp) you're doing your job correctly.
Some more FYI about the Healing/Damag over Time Chapter in the video:
Regen from WHM actually has a base potency of 200 but get's upgraded to 250 once you reach lv 85 and get the "Enhanced Healing Magic" Trait.
Also Skillspeed/Spellspeed increases the potency for Dots or Heals over Time, differentiating if it's applied from a weaponskill or spell.
What I figured out pretty late myself which I did not see mention in the video: The amount of dmg/Heals a dot does is depending on the moment you apply it. So when you have all the partybuffs (or just your personal buff) and apply your dots they deal increased dmg over the whole duration until they fall of or get refreshed even when a buff falls off while it's still ticking. (Yes I main bard and didn't realized that until we fought P3S ._.)
These are great tips. Personally, I would even consider that these are Intermediate level tips that even if you've played the game for a while you may not have thought about.,
That feeling when you're second on the aggro list as dancer over Sage and Samurai.
Just argued with a friend the otherday that dmg as a healer is required lategame for doing your job properly cx, tnx for resting my case haha x'D its hard though just got back into the game a week ago and tried to get into my Main (ast) again but fuck me it buissy to do both specially caus they chainged the class so mutch! Still press stuff beliving it will do something and something else happens xD guess it takes time to redo the memory xp tnx for a good video though was funny to listen to good with some repetition to git gud again 😀
As a veteran player since 1.0 with all raids and shit, this is really good information for new players.
Let's hope many see that xP
Just one thing to add about raises. If your swiftcast is still on cooldown for more than 10 seconds don't hesitate to hardcast the raise if nobody else is in danger of dying. Having anybody dead on the floor for at times 50 seconds because you are waiting for swiftcast is far from good practice if you could've got them up already and in high end content with enrages waiting for swiftcast to become available again instead of hardcasting in most cases looses the group more overall dps which can result in your team wiping just barely.
I just want to thank you for all your videos – they are always helpful
Honestly i'm a bit confused about who this video is really meant to be for. Most new players probably dont actually understand why many of these things would matter or how to improve. A lot of these "beginner tips" are endgame optimal parse strategies and have practically no impact in most beginners' gameplay. You mention things such as "using skills outside of buff windows" but barely any beginner players actually even have buff windows or notice them aside from their own buff skills, and most parties are disorganized enough to have some buffs active most of the time.
Another thing i disagree with is the healing dps thing. Yes in trials and other such content, especially with a dedicated party healers get to do a lot of dps, but a large portion of dutifinder activities have the healer casting heals a large amount of time in order to simply keep the tank alive. telling beginners that "the only hp that matters is the last one" is what leads to the whole party having "brink of death". Also depending on the class of healers, they might not have any heals big enough to actually properly pull people out from the "last hp", as well as not really having OGC healing abilities. White mage for example only has tetragrammatron, assize and benediction, as well as liturgy of the bell at lvl 90, all of which have 45-180 s cooldowns and cannot be used for the majority of healing.
Thank goodness someone is actually talking about what a GCD is in a video aimed at NEW players. Most of the time, people just say that the very concept of a GCD is an "advanced technique" and shouldn't be talked about with new players and that's just bullshit.
But as said here, it is the very core of the entire combat system. It's the next thing you should learn after being told that pressing a button does something.
FFXIV Healing and the community's expectations of FFXIV Healers crack me up.
FFXIV Healing is quite literally the equivalent of calling an Uber/Lift who is a negligent aggressive driver. One who is late to pick you up, then proceeds to drive 100 mph+ with the radio on max volume, who weaves in and out of traffic, cusses out other drivers and flicks them off, runs red lights, drinks while driving, puts on their make-up while driving, eats while driving, gets into a car wreck, gets a driving citation; but still somehow just barely manages to get you to your destination on time and in one piece. All the while saying "Yeah, but did you die?" Lol. Imagine if you were a patient in real life with a medical emergency and your care team spent 95% of their time doing other stuff other than actually treating you and waited until the very last second (1HP/Unconsciousness/Cardiac Arrest) to actually treat you. They'd be fired, sued, and black-listed from ever performing those duties ever again for reckless negligence. However, that's essentially FFXIV Healing in a nutshell. Instead of telling the damage-dealers to get good, learn the fight mechanics, learn their rotations and make optimizations, equip better gear, and make use of buffs and items that would increase their damage output; the community instead blames the healers for not dpsing more than healing. Even though healers deal the lowest total damage out of all Tanks, Melee DPS, Ranged Caster DPS, and Ranged Physical DPS. Don't get me wrong, I am 100% all-in for healers contributing to party/raid damage by making sure there is always a DoT spell up on enemies, casting AoE Damaging attacks for large mobs pulls, and then hard casting/dpsing during downtime, enemy transitional phases, and when healing is not necessary. But if anyone in the party/raid was doing what they were supposed to be doing and they still died, then it's the healer's fault. If there was mitigatable damage that could have been shielded, a telegraphed raid-wide attack, or a DoT that could have been healed through, but you spent that time on dpsing instead; then that's the healer's fault. If you're a healer dpsing instead of healing when your other healer teammates are burning through their MP/Mana trying to keep everyone just barely alive, then that's your fault as a healer. If you're playing a healer archetype/class/job/role, then your primary focus should be on healing/supporting/buffing teammates! Roughly broken down, the time spent should be 65% on Healing Uptime and 35% on Damage-Dealing Uptime. If you want to spend a majority of your time focusing on dealing damage, then play a different class/job. But that's just the tea. * sips my tea * (FYI – I am a Healer Main and also have all lvl 90 Jobs unlocked and have been playing FFXIV for the past 7 years. I have also played RS, EQ1/2, EQOA, WoW, GW1/2, WHO, LOTRO). #mmorpg #mmos #ffxiv #ffxivhealing #ffxivhealers #healers
One minor correction on limit breaks, Light Parties have 1 normally, and 2 during boss fights, while Full Parties have 2 normally, and 3 during boss fights. Otherwise this is an excellent overview on mechanics for players looking to improve. Most new players are probably fine eking out a victory through the MSQ without really digging into the complexities, but framing these as beginner tips is a good way to help spread the info amongst the crowd.
I needed this video like … five years ago. I was playing other MMOs, but the term GCD and off GCD confused me because they are completely misnamed (at least to me, I thought they should be called offensive abilities, defensive abilities, and time-gated abilities). Thanks for making this! This is probably the best video I've ever seen explaining that and the other basic mechanic concepts in FFXIV. This should be the official tutorial!
A lot of these tips are pretty advanced for "Beginner" players, but hopefully the targeted audience will still watch this and pick up some of these best practices early on.
Nice video and good information. I really appreciate the positioning section. It frustrates me to no end as a healer main, when ranged classes are out in Narnia. First thing I usually tell people when I see this is to not play ranged unless a mechanic specifically asks you to. If you're outside the range where my AoE mitigation/heals don't hit you, you're too far out.
As far as the healers need to dps argument. I agree 100%. The only HP that matters in the last one. But, before worrying about that, get comfortable with how much restoration your healing does and find that balance. Get used to your tank hitting 50% health before fully healing. And as you get more used to your kit, let that number drop lower. If a tank is using their cooldowns appropriately, you'll be able to see just how much you can get away with. Understand also to let HoTs do their jobs. The amount of times I see HoT go up, then immediately followed up by a heavy heal makes me sad. Wasted mana and skill usage.
Great video! I tagged it as a favorite so I can show it to my husband who is showing interest in the game but has never played an MMO before. Thank you for this!
I didn't know about the rez buff you get so you don't get killed immediately as long as you don't cast. And I have been playing for 4 years. ROFL.. great guide!
Even though i'm pretty far in the game, these guides are still helpful since you never know that there's a mechanic or certain way of playing you have missed.
Just remember to read and understand your skills tooltips, everyone. ^^
So useful!!
A good tip for healers, because I see it way too often, when in a Full Party, if there's a lot of dead DPS and one of them is a Summoner, they should get first dibs on the Raise, since they can then help you revive the others (assuming they're not assholes).
Red Mage, while better at doing that due to their ability to have an instant cast spell every other time they cast something, has their Raise spell at a much higher level than Summoner, not sure but I think it's at level 62? Correct me if I'm wrong. If they're high enough to have it though they basically can chain revive a lot of players.
Too many times I see healers reviving all other DPS before Summoner and Red Mage, even when people are telling them things like "dude I'm a smn rez me so I can help with the rezes!!!" or "healer stop rezing the drg and rpr theres a smn in here rez it first!"
Avoiding mechanics is literally pixel perfect, there is a strat in the Dying Gasp trial where you can stand on a specific pixel and avoid all the mechanics for a certain part.
Good information here. When I was starting out, the difference between weaponskills/spells and abilities wasn't intuitive at all, and the idea of weaving didn't occur to me.
Stuff like that feels like basic knowledge to a lot of people, but nothing in the game really explains it. There's more resources explaining like, how to get the optimum amount of dot ticks in a fight with a given kill time than there are resources just explaining the basic foundations of the game.
I probably got well into heavensward before I ever thought about such things, so its arguable that its not "necessary", but putting a bit of effort into just keeping your gcd rolling and learning to weave ogcds makes such a difference. Even if you're not using abilities or buffs optimally, just using them regularly whenever to start with will help. Then you'll be able to slowly fine tune how you want to use your abilities
1) That's a great way to put it. even in the savage PF, where the quality can also be as variable as DF, ACT and xivanlaysis clearly shows there are plenty of over-confident players who have an "uptime" less than 70%. And they're never pointed in the right direction for many reasons, but also that it's harder to identify without careful tobservation or helpful calculators.
2 & 3) and that's really all you can tell those willing to listen and to improve: here's a guide for reference, and go practice on it for as long until it "clicks" for you. No other way to put it other than to say "you're not good at this game".
4) it's always a good time when you tell sprouts in trial/raid roulette to GET IN THE CENTER FOR HEALS or K'O on your lonesome.
5 & 6) Yeah, it's always an eye-opener whenever you see a sprout or non-sprout act super scared of every orange poop, all it takes is to give them a boost of confidence and knowledge. Plus when there are sprout healers in ARR resetting Regen for 100% uptime, telling them to have patience lets them realize just how strong healing a single spell of the role has available.
7) Not much to be said here. But every melee dps worth their salt knows the sin of greed 🙂
8) It's a tough decisions to choose whether to revive with weakness or to return to the start for the shortcut in a dungeon duty XD
9) Early in my ARR career, I've had to both remind peeps how math works, and that the LB bar exists and is super fun for anyone to use, the SFX is so satisfying! even more so in actual high-end content.
10 ) GCBTW
Bro great vid👍🏾
I thought most of this was great, but OMG do I hate that "the only point of hp that matters is the last one" that the FFXIV community memes on. I agree 100% that healer dps is important, healers should try to do as much dps as they can, and over-healing is bad. However, there is potential dps loss in making a tank or dps think they're about to drop dead from neglect, too. Balance in all things, people. Outside of high end content like savage prog, min/maxing healer dps to last drop is not the difference between success and failure.
Note that if you are resurrected by healer LB3, you are raised on the spot you fell and do not receive the invulnerable buff. Can't tell you how many times I was raised by healer LB3 just to instantly die again to multiple aoe's that I couldn't run out of.
Thank you for these videos! I'm still a sprout and this is my first time in MMOs, and I think this is the first time I've heard a detailed explanation of what clipping and weaving are, and why practicing can affect things.
I've been maiming caster DPS and I really do appreciate all the work you put into these.
>beginners
>2nd tip uptime
how about no.
at https://youtu.be/Ky7Z-vYHFAc?t=592 9:45 what armor do you use ?
good video. I know my uptime DPS sucks but I'm still learning mechanics. I think doing less dps vs dying is better, right? I do watch a video of the dungeon, duty, raid etc before going in. helps me get a few mechanics right. of course I may also still die
Thanks for the tips, you just helped a lot of players with this!
Another good tip for beginners: If anyone ever mentions 'Parse' or 'Numbers' in an effort to harass you or your gameplay, always report them as third party tool are against TOS. 🙂
Nice video for newer players, Ill recommend it.
I have one addition, though (as a blm this is important):
Your rule of " 2ogcds for every gcd" doesnt apply do non-instant casts. In fact, for casts that take a full gcd to cast or even longer, weaving just 1 ogcd between is already detrimental. This doesnt matter to melee and physical rangeds, as all(-most) all abilities are instant.
But, as a caster who actually casts things, thats very important. You may only weave 2 ogcds between two gcds if you used an instant spell, or if you casted a spell that is faster than the gcd time you can weave 1 ogcd without losing uptime.
For most jobs thats not very important to know, since it doesnt apply or most/many of your gcds are instant anyway (looking at you, smn) so the difference isnt too big, but not knowing this while playing blm will certainly kill a substantial amount of your dps.
Can I add something for you in this video.
If you're tanking a group of trash try to bunch them up as close to each other as possible. It helps black mages who have a small aoe radius just absolutely melt them. I see sloppy tanking where the trash is all over the place. And it drives me insane. 🙂
Hi can you do a video showing your keybinds settings please. your videos have been a massive help in to me starting out! thank you
Practicing dummy tip: when you start practicing, do it VERY SLOWLY. TO make aure you do THE RIGHT combination. Muscle menory is STRONG. Dont practice mistakes. It will be harder to correct them. So doesnt matter if therr is 3 second between your clicks. Do the right one first. The increase the speed once you have them right.
The risking a greedy hit is only for those doing extreme/savage or are experienced players wanting to risk it for the biscuit. Inexperienced player will more than likely get hit and die trying to greed resulting in massive DPS loss from them and the resser. Knowing what your buttons do and when to push them, as well as using OGCDs, abilities and damage boosts on cooldown is by far the most important thing for best DPS output, with staying alive being the next best.