Can a Classic WoW player start playing Final Fantasy XIV now and be “ready” in time for the new Dawntrail expansion?
This is my journey from WoW to FFXIV: A Realm Reborn, leading on through Heavensward, Stormblood, Shadowbringers, Endwalker and finally into the brand new expansion, Dawntrail.
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Titles, because something something SEO.
Can a Classic WoW player join Final Fantasy XIV in time for Dawntrail?
Classic WoW Player begins their Final Fantasy XIV journey
Classic WoW Player Researches Dawntrail & Starts their FFXIV journey (ARR #1)
Dawntrail Research & Creating my first character in FFXIV | 🌱 The ARR Journey Begins (Day 1)
Dawntrail Research & Creating my first character in FFXIV | 🌱 WoW to FFXIV: A Realm Reborn (Day 1)
source
WoW to FFXIV: A Realm Reborn journey playlist – https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKNLot2p83jMse2yFHlynPUs41u9VWXn-
Timestamps:
0:00 – Intro, Dawntrail Research, Chatting Anime / One Piece
1:27:30 – Watching Jocat's A Crap Guide to FFXIV
2:09:54 – The ARR Journey Begins – Intro Cinematic, Character creation & more
Yup that’s a new race and you can summon 2 other creatures for your regular rotation with Pictomancer as well as a Hammer and what is summoned in the cutscene is the LB3.
Honestly you can purchase a skip and watch a summary, also you can always go back and play new game plus. I hate how people act like you can't enjoy the story unless you play it one way
One thing to mention: Don't feel like you have to rush to be caught up for Dawntrail as it releases. The "real" raids don't release for 4 weeks after launch, with the kinda LFR-equivalent being 2 weeks after launch. So you have like 1.5 months, not 2 weeks, if you're looking to be caught up to everyone for content, and not just to be there in the massive crowds at questgivers at the start of the expansion.
While Dawntrail is starting a new arc of sorts, I don't think the 'summer vacay' vibes will hit the same without the context of what we're vacationing from. I don't feel like it's spoilers to say that the last two expansions, in particular, handled some super heavy and emotionally devastating storylines, so if you go through those you'll feel quite differently about 'getting to relax and have some fun adventures' with Dawntrail than if you just hop right in to lighthearted from the start. Hmmm, think of it like Dawntrail is a cold glass of water. It'll be nice enough if you're just chillin around the house. But it'll be outta this world bangin if you drink it right after coming in from working hard out in the hot sun.
From what I've gathered from watching a bunch of streamers making the transition from WoW to FFXIV, you need to shift your mindset. I hear WoW has all the relevant, active Fun at the endgame, but in FFXIV the Fun is the journey through the story, and the payoff at each point comes from having experienced what lead up to it. Dawntrail is Season Five of a show with a continuous plot that builds on itself, so watching two episodes of Season One and then hopping to Season Five, well, you'll really be cheating yourself out of something great.
All that said:
Welcome to the community! I hope your journey is worthwhile. ^_^ b
I saw the channel, I saw you were running through FFXIV so I subbed. Got to be honest I’m a bit worried that you whole world halted when Chat GPT was down for a simple math problem. Especially since you had a calculator on stream.
310 hours for MSQ divided by the number of day remaining 23 (3 weeks + 2 days) = 13.47 hours per day
Excited to follow your adventures. Story is great after the base game content. Also just going through the MSQ provides enough xp to fully level a character. Levelling additional jobs is very fast and you can easily do it a week off stream.
Good luck and safe travels
Ohhh and also don’t rush it. FFXIV MSQ streams are popular with players who have already done it and want a trip down memory lane or see you react to the story they loved. When Dawntrail releases none of the popular FFXIV streamers will cover it right away, usually a month or two later, because no one wants to watch a stream spoiling the story.
So I would power through ARR (base game) and then take your time and really enjoy the expansions. Being cynical milk the FFXIV MSQ following you will get for as long as possible 😉
ARR isn't really TRASH, per se. It's just not very original, from a writing perspective. From a TECHNICAL perspective, they slapped that shit together in two years and made the only game so far that can actually claim to be a "WoW Killer" with a straight face. ARR has some pacing issues and a dearth of voice acting, but it's also got a whole mess of context and background foundation to the world that is critically helpful for the story moving forward.
Glad to hear you're not skipping! Hope to see you someday in Dawntrail!
Oh I spy a sprout popping out the soul. Welcome sprout. I dig your funky beats in the beginning here.
Oooo I'm 7 minutes in so I'm extremely curious to see how your experience plays out based on what you're describing on what you want to do here. Dawntrail is indeed a new arch but many of the characters that will be new for you will be a little over 10 years old for those of us who have been around for a while. Time to see if the unending codex is overwhelming or helpful.
The story is great! But honestly, even if you blast through the MSQ, and enjoy every second of it, you're gonna be so burnt out on story content by Dawntrail that reading another dialog box is gonna make you sick. I'm personally not opposed to story skipping, and doing the story later on New Game+, especially if you want to be current on release. But many people don't feel the same way, especially if you bounce off the game.
Some of the biggest FF14 raiders *cough-xeems-cough* never even did the story till their audience bullied them into NG+-ing it.
Welcome to 14. Where the story makes sense from level 1 and each expansion leads into the next naturally when levelling. No plot armour or magic time travelling gnomes are required!
Hello and welcome to Eorzea! I know people have already expressed to enjoy your journey and take your time with it, so I'm glad it looks like you're deciding to. There's a lot of people who have had made excellent videos about coming from WoW into FFXIV that are also worth watching! Definitely don't go in with a WoW mindset, treat it as its own game and enjoy the ride and I think you'll do just fine. This community cares a lot about new players and will be as supportive as possible so you're in great hands! If you ever need help, ask for it.
If raiding is your kick, I also recommend asking your viewers to help you attempt to do any possible content blind MINE (minimum ilvl synced no echo). Don't watch guides for anything! Experience it blind. MINE lets you go in at the level and gear level it was on release and experience the game as close as possible to what it was like when it was new for us too. Also do side content and take time with it too! The raids in this game also have very intricate stories that tie into the main story. I think it'll help give an appreciation and perspective for the game and how its grown.
Good luck, have fun! Hopefully I can catch a stream one of these days.
I'm actually of the opinion that there is no point in rushing through for some imaginary FOMO. Once you reach end game, you have 4 fight to farm forever and maybe an ultimate. The 4 fights give you gear that only ever serve you in those same 4 fights and ultimate. Once the next tier come out, said gear is invalidated by better much easier to access gear from crafting or catchup content.
It's just a hamster wheel of gear.
If you are here for the hard raids, learning and doing the fight, ff14 sync system (that is much better than wow btw) mean even the old fight in the base game are, while not the same as it was on release, still challenging enough that it can take a large number of attempts to clear some of them.
Once you reach level 50 and each 10 level from there on, you get 12 raid fight + several extreme to prog.
The main issue is to find a group to play with, but it's usually a bit easier for streamers. It will also be a distraction from the MSQ. As some other have said here, even if you are a story nerd, going MSQ 8+ hours a days for week on end can be rough. MSQ have very little combat or difficult content in general.
Doing that take a while tho. For example, some streamers that started around January are still not caught up yet despite playing several days a week.
Just a single ultimate in itself can take several dozens of hours, more if you are playing it without watching guides.
Welcome and have fun!
Don't rush. At the end, it's a glorified waiting room. Enjoy the journey, not the destination.
Welcome to FF14. Enjoy the game at your own pace and don't listen to other advice on how to play the game 🤟
As someone who has put thousands of hours into FF14 over the last several years, the best piece of advice I can give you is to pace yourself and enjoy the story. I still remember my WoW days(2004-2009) and that game was and always will be endgame focused. 14 is more about the journey than the destination, so do try to avoid burnout all because you want to be there at endgame content asap.
You've got a base game and 5 expansions to enjoy. Just take your time and savor it, Sprout.
Jesus Christ Super Star Destroyer with flash grenade special effects
You should read the quest you do even if its job/class quests. I know "WoW brain" has trained one to klick through it but once you forced yourself to read them you see the story build around you. Most npcs live in the world, you will encoutner them again in the future and notice their own stories evolve, if you pay attention. Even the little npcs sitting before a dungeon can have long questlines in the future. Noticing them and seeing them throughout the 500 hours of story is a delight. That is the strong suit of this game. Also you trying to power level is quite amusing. I bet you found out already that everyhting is locked by MSQ and blue quests and your actual job level is rather inconsequential.
Well im 6 days behind dont know how much of this you already know now but I just felt I had to write that.
I don't know exactly where your experience lies with WoW. And I know many comments will already cover the story basics like "take your time." Which is still good advice!
But if you're interested in challenging and fun fight content, FF14 has that too! The best part: you don't have to reach endgame to experience it. From lvl 50 onwards you can check out Extreme Trials (post-A Realm Reborn), and from lvl 60 onwards you can also check out Savage Raids (post-Heavensward).
You have the option to sync your gear down to the item level used back in the day when these fights were current. It's not a peefect recreation the further back you go, since combat basics and classes have changed heavily over time. But it's close enough to still provide a fun challenge.
As a streamer, I'm sure you can find a group of 7 other people willing to give those fights a try with you, if that piques your interest!
Don't worry about rushing to get ready for Dawntrail. One thing FF14 has that most don't is that very little content ever goes 'bad'. There are systems in place that let you experience most content close to as if it were current. Some older content, like adventuring forays can lose some of the feel when most people are done with it, but they're all doable and enjoyable. Especially with a good Free Company/streamer community to help out.
I recommend doing the alliance raid series and 8 man raid series for each expansion as you go along because, though they're optional content, they also contain stories and can lightly tie into the MSQ. Not required, but highly recommended.
As someone who played WoW for 10+ years in the past, you can't really treat FFXIV the same way you do WoW.
I think a good way to put it is that WoW places more emphasis on the MMO in mmorpg, whereas FFXIV is more focused in the RPG.
WoW is always a bumrush to the endgame to get to the "real" content, and the story is mostly just fuel for a cool cutscene here or there.
FFXIV exists for the story, first and foremost. ARR is unfortunately quite slow, but it establishes a lot of critical world building that every expansion builds off of. Every expansion is a continuation from the last, and you couldn't just skip an expansion anymore than you could skip an arc in One Piece. There are story-critical dungeons and raids that push the game's storyline further, that are unskippable, because of their necessity to the plot. And understand when i say "unskippable," I don't mean "it would be a shame of you missed it." I mean that it is literally mandatory part od the MSQ to progress, and the only way you can skip it is if you pay money in the online shop, which the devs have said they do not want you to do lol.
This is obviously a direct contradiction to WoW, which practically overwrites it's own story with every expansion. Every raid tier is functionally wiped out of existence not just from the gearing perspective, but from the narrative perspective as well.
I dont say this to shit on WoW, theres something to be said for the whole community to be fully focused on the same content at the same time. But to try to rush FFXIV's story to get to the "real game" like you would in WoW is just cheating yourself out of some great content, storywise and dungeon/raid-wise.
from what I heard the Viper job is the FF14 devs answer to the fans wanting a Sword Art Online equivalent class.
A small clarification on Louisoux, he is the founder of the Circle of Knowing and joined forces with Minfilia's Path of the Twelve which after the 7th Umbral Calamity came to reform as the Scions of the Seventh Dawn. Though it's not an overstatement to say he was critical in the realms preservation through his efforts (There is a level 50 quest in Ul'dah that goes into more detail once you've finished 2.0, worth doing!)