10 WoW Refugee Mistakes You DON’T Want To Make In FFXIV!

Starting FFXIV as a former WoW player can be quite overwhelming, even with all the excitement of discovering a new MMO world. In this That’s why I’ve decided to share all the tips I wish I had known as someone going from WoW into FFXIV, and hopefully, they’ll help your journey go as smoothly as possible!

My first tip concerns creating a character, and from time to time, there are these so-called Preferred Worlds (servers) or the New Worlds. Both are less occupied with players and there are special rewards and bonuses when you create your character on them, including a huge buff to your gained experience while leveling. If you don’t have a community or a group of friends already on some other World waiting for you, your best bet is to make your character on one of these Worlds!

When it comes to the gameplay, a common mistake WoW players make when coming to FFXIV is, well… pretty much acting the same way they normally would in WoW pugs – entering and leaving without a single word in the chat. In FFXIV, the community is vibrant and extremely friendly, so when you’re jumping into the Duty, it’s considered not just polite but also normal to at least say hello when you start, as well to say GG when you complete the task (regardless of the number of wipes, yes). Often, you get a lot more than just “hello!” back, as people in this game actually talk to each other – and by that, I don’t mean trashing and threatening each other in the most horrendous ways.

Another one is choosing to skip the cutscenes and opting to not read the quest text while going through the main questline. FFXIV is an extremely story-driven game, and it pays off so much when you pay attention to the quests. It takes a lot longer to level this way, yes, but in this game, the journey to the endgame is an important part of the experience. If you choose to skip the quests because that’s how we’ve been doing things in WoW, you’re doing yourself a massive disservice. There’s a chance you’ll absolutely fall in love with the narrative if you give it a shot!

Something that a WoW refugee might also try to do is clearing all the quests in a certain area in order to progress with the campaign. That’s definitely not something that you should do in FFXIV, as the only quests that truly matter are the navy blue quests with a fire comet thingy on it, which is your main storyline, and the blue quests with a plus on them. You could go with just your storyline for the most part, but the blue plus quests unlock features of the game you’ll want to have open at some point, so it’s better to do it while you’re nearby. Just do those two and you’ll be good to go, there’s no need to do the side quests in the area, as they don’t award a lot of XP and are mostly there for fun, lore, and a lot of fluff!

WoW refugees may also try to spam a lot of their spells and buttons, simply because that’s what we carry in our fingers, considering how fast-paced WoW can get. In FFXIV, the global cooldowns will quickly teach you that spamming your spells endlessly will not help them get cast faster, and you can use the time between two GCD’s to cast your bigger cooldowns and have a lot more balanced combat experience that doesn’t destroy your hand bones in the process.

Another thing a WoW refugee may think of doing is creating an alt, and that’s just not very popular in FFXIV, as you can have all the jobs, classes, crafting and professions on a single character, switching between them simply by changing your weapon. If you like collecting mounts, appearances and other goodies, there are even less reasons to do it, as most of that stuff doesn’t get carried over to your alt. Having one character to connect with and enjoy all the adventures is actually quite soothing and fun, as you never have to feel like you’re abandoning one of your in-game alter egos for another one, creating a more wholesome experience for you in the process.

Joining a guild in WoW can feel stressful at times, as the expectations for players entering them seem to be quite high these days – even for the more casual guilds. In FFXIV, joining a Free Company (guild) is much more common, less stressful, and for most people, it comes with less expectations from the player entering an FC. People seem to just want to have fun, and unless they’re hardcore raiders, they don’t have to go through the stress of filling out ridiculous applications and going through trials. Most Free Companies are chill, created to help their members enjoy the game together. If you’re still struggling with the idea of joining an FC, and you happen to be at Lich datacenter on Light, you’re quite welcome to hop into our super friendly Discord and join the Dumplings.

In World of Warcraft, mounts are there to… well, mount them. And that’s it. In FFXIV, they’re also quite helpful – especially the Chocobo mount that you’ll get as your first in-game mount. Apart from riding it, you can summon it to fight alongside you and take up the role of a tank, healer, or a DPS. All you need to do is unlock the blue quest My Feisty Little Chocobo in the South Shroud upon reaching level 30! Upon buying the Gysahl Greens from a vendor, you’ll be able to summon your Chocobo every time you use one, and the more you do it, the faster they level up their talent tree and the more useful they become. If you haven’t unlocked this feature yet and you’re past level 30, it’s time to go back to Gridania and get that sorted!

There’s a common fear within the WoW community when it comes to tanking or healing. One of the biggest mistakes you could make in FFXIV is to never try to tank or heal. The community is super welcoming and helpful, and there are so many new players doing it right now that there’s no way you’ll stand out even if you’re a noob. I’ve never tanked in my life before trying it in FFXIV, and I can confidently say that it’s one of the best decisions I’ve ever made – even though I’m still a noob at tanking, too. It’s a lot of fun and instead of getting yelled at or getting kicked from the group, you’ll most likely just end up learning things from other players… ooor having a good laugh about a dumb wipe, which is kind of the point of the game, isn’t it?

Lastly, if you don’t want to make the most common WoW refugee mistake, just try to relax as soon as possible and play the game exactly the way you want to, because that’s what Final Fantasy XIV is all about. There’s no right or wrong when it comes to the content you’re focusing on, as the game isn’t actually punishing you for doing what you want, and when you want. Strange, right? The point is, just be yourself, pick the content that feels right for you, and turn yourself over to this funny little feeling called having fun!

This is by no means all there is to WoW refugee oopsies in FFXIV, but it’s certainly a big chunk of it, so if you’re a fellow WoW person diving into FFXIV, I hope this post was useful to you in helping you not make these mistakes. I made most of them myself, so I hope you’ll learn from them and spare yourself the trouble! If you’re more of a visual person, and you don’t mind getting easy wins in-game, you can check out all of this in my video – and subscribe for more awesome FFXIV stuff!