Final Fantasy XIV is still riding its newfound momentum, which began at the end of 2021 with the release of its latest expansion Endwalker. With a flood of new and returning players alike, it goes without saying that some important things could easily fly under some players’ radars. The information in this guide includes several mistakes in Final Fantasy XIV that you can easily fix to immediately start playing better and smarter.
Take a look at our other Final Fantasy XIV guides:
- Final Fantasy XIV Guide: How to choose your Job in FFXIV
- Final Fantasy XIV: A Beginner’s Guide To Crafting
- Final Fantasy XIV: Island Sanctuary Starter Guide
Not Unlocking the Challenge Log
This is pretty big one to start with—not only for free XP, but also for some Gil. It’s typical for people to start avoiding blue quests, as the sheer amount of them can feel overwhelming. They are everywhere, in every city and every zone. It’s just too much at once. Some actually useful ones are bound to be missed and the Challenge Log is one of them.
The good old challenge log, bursting with easy-to-get weekly rewards
The worst part of it all is that unlocking it takes nothing more than a minute or two. Simply head over to Limsa Lominsa, down to the Drowning Wench and look for an NPC by the name of “I’tolwann” standing beside the bar. She’ll be sporting a nice little blue quest marker above her head and bears the quest Rising to the Challenge. Do this short quest and drown in the sorrow at the idea of how much free XP and Gil you’ve been missing out on all this time. It also provides MGP (Manderville Gold Saucer Points) for all you gambling addicts.
With the fact that it resets every week on Tuesday and the rewards come naturally as you play the game, the Challenge Log is a must-have for every adventurer out there.
Disregarding the Hunting Log
Another log and another important feature forgotten. Final Fantasy XIV has a lot of logs, turns out, but don’t do the mistake of disregarding them. If you’ve ever leveled a side job from level 1, you’ll understand the pain of getting it into dungeon range. It’s slow, agonizing and basically torture. With your two unlocked abilities and a train of fates later, you will eventually get there—but will your sanity? Instead, you should focus on the ever-useful Hunting Log to get you there.
Ranks get added to the Hunting Log as your character levels up and completes the prior ranks
These little challenges give you big chunks of XP when you complete them and can really help you get through the early levels. It’s a bit of a drag needing to run around to complete them, but well worth it. Sprinkle in some fates and you have a recipe for success and quick levels in your hands.
Doing 50/60/70/80 Dungeons While Leveling
No, I’m not talking about the roulette. I’m talking about when you’re spamming dungeons in a mindless effort to level a job. In these cases, avoid the level 50/60/70/80 dungeons at all costs. They give very little XP compared to the dungeons between them (ex. from 51-59).
In red are the ones you would focus on for leveling, avoiding the 60s entirely
This little tip will save you a lot of time and effort, especially in the long run. Leveling is already boring enough as is, no need to make it worse for yourself—you don’t deserve that.
Buying From the Marketboard and Not a Vendor
This is a mistake that I made many times in my early days of playing Final Fantasy XIV. When looking at an item description, on the bottom there will be a line reading “Shop Selling Price”. This is a very important piece of information that will save your wallet from such devastation—this was my intention.
A clear example of where the market price for an item is twice the NPC vendor price
In the cases where it gives a flat amount of Gil as the selling price (as seen in the picture above), this means that you can feely buy it from an NPC. If it shows “(Restricted)” afterwards, you need to unlock it first but it is still purchasable. And finally, you’ll have to get it manually or visit the Marketboard if the item shows as “None”. Don’t give those lazy bums a single Gil for reselling simple NPC items for more than they’re worth.
Rushing to the Endgame
I’m talking to you, WoW ‘refugees’. Hit the brakes a bit—take a look around you and savor the sights. As the old saying goes: it’s about the journey, not the destination. While this saying has been overstated and said a million times, it still rings true. You will be making a massive mistake by rushing through the story of Final Fantasy XIV and miss out on more than you can imagine. Remember that this is an MMORPG. Other similar games may have forgotten this fact, but this is one of the rare occasions where that is not true.
Final Fantasy XIV Shadowbringers cast
There is value to be found in the story and in side content—even if it’s from long ago. We all know fashion is the true endgame anyway and doing the old content can net you some unique equipment that is not common anymore. There is always the New Game + feature, but it won’t ever be like the first time doing it again. Endgame can wait. Cherish the journey, for you can walk it only once.
Misunderstanding the Way Jobs Function
With 90 levels to max out a job, you’ve got quite a few abilities under your belt. Things become cluttered and you don’t really know what to do anymore or what to prioritize. Maybe you have a basic idea of your rotation but things just often feel out of place and even messy. In these situations it becomes easy to make mistake after mistake. Because of how their jobs work, Final Fantasy XIV is often described as a rhythm game. If things in your job aren’t lining up perfectly like a choreographed dance, chances are that you’re doing something wrong.
So many choices… (but Ice Mage still is not one of them, please stop)
We’ve all seen at least one Black Mage running around casting nothing but ice spells all fight. This is a big mistake, as ice spells are the weakest part of a Black Mage’s toolkit and are only used to refresh their MP pool. While this is a drastic example, things like this happen far too often. And while I understand that not everyone wants to optimize how they play, I do believe it is more than worthwhile to learn the inner workings of your favorite jobs—if only to increase your own enjoyment.
That’s not the only reason though, since learning to play your job properly will help everyone by allowing you to clear content at a better pace. Everything will feel smoother and your spells will seem like they come back at just the perfect times when you need them. The development team does this on purpose, but you’ll be missing out if you’re unaware of this fact. As a start, I highly recommend taking a look at The Balance, as they have good and easy to follow guides for every job.
Using Abilities Incorrectly (oGCDs)
This is another mistake directed towards improving your combat and ties in directly with the prior point. There is a reason that Final Fantasy XIV has such a long GCD (Global Cooldown, the time it takes before you can press another action). This is to make room for oGCDs (Off-Global Cooldown), or in other words, weaves. Weaves are abilities that you can use between your normal actions without it affecting your GCD usage. In the description of every spell/skill, there is an indicator of whether it is an ability (weave-able) or not.
Note: To be able to weave in the case of spellcasters, the casting time for the GCD action must be shorter than your recast time. “Recast time” is just a fancy word for Global Cooldown. If the spell is instant, there is no need to worry about this and you can use oGCDs freely.
Here you can see the spell marked clearly as an “Ability”, making it weave-able between other spells.
Never use an oGCD without using a standard GCD action first. Only ever cast them between your normal actions—as weaves—because there is no point in not doing it this way. Think of them as free little spells that you can press between your normal ones without suffering any downtime in your standard rotation. Generally, unless you have good internet, you will only want use one oGCD ability between each GCD action. And even with good internet, never go above two oGCDs per GCD. You can also check the video down below for a concise visual explanation.
(Credit: JackSplains)
I hope that some of these common mistakes will help you out in the future. Please let me know in the comments if I missed something obvious, and goodbye for now. Until next time!
