{"id":1086,"date":"2013-07-09T04:08:10","date_gmt":"2013-07-09T09:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.xenopulse.com\/blog\/?p=1086"},"modified":"2013-07-09T04:08:10","modified_gmt":"2013-07-09T09:08:10","slug":"ffxiv-arr-beta-3-thoughts-part-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.xenopulse.com\/blog\/?p=1086","title":{"rendered":"FFXIV-ARR Beta 3: Thoughts Part 4"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>Thoughts and Tips<\/h1>\n<h3>Testing Schedule:<\/h3>\n<p>The next, and final beta phase 3 play period:<\/p>\n<p>July 10, 2013 (Wednesday), 2:00 a.m. to July 15 (Monday), 2:00 a.m. (PDT)<br \/>\nJuly 10, 2013 (Wednesday), 9:00 a.m. to July 15 (Monday), 9:00 a.m. (GMT)<\/p>\n<p>Characters will be wiped at the end of this phase.<\/p>\n<p>No word on when Phase 4 (open beta) will start; characters should carry over from this into early access and launch.<\/p>\n<p>Launch is still on track for Aug. 27th, with early access happening sometime before that.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.xenopulse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/ffxiv_beta3_TreeCreature.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-1179\" alt=\"ffxiv_beta3_TreeCreature\" src=\"https:\/\/www.xenopulse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/ffxiv_beta3_TreeCreature-760x475.jpg\" width=\"760\" height=\"475\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.xenopulse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/ffxiv_beta3_TreeCreature-760x475.jpg 760w, https:\/\/www.xenopulse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/ffxiv_beta3_TreeCreature-380x237.jpg 380w, https:\/\/www.xenopulse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/ffxiv_beta3_TreeCreature-1680x1050.jpg 1680w, https:\/\/www.xenopulse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/ffxiv_beta3_TreeCreature.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 760px) 100vw, 760px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h3>Generic Starting Stuff<\/h3>\n<p>While you can use a controller while playing on the PC, I recommend using Mouse \/ Keyboard. This makes chatting and mouse selection much easier.<\/p>\n<p>Don&#8217;t worry about any stat differences between races, pick the race\/subtype\/gender that you like the look of. \u00a0This is not a game about making lots of alts, so you will be looking at this character a lot.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;\">The class you pick during character creation determines your starting city.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;\">Each city has access to different class trainers and merchants.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;\">Completing your level 15 class quest will unlock the ability to pick up new classes and swap between them.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;\">Travel to the other cities will be opened up to you during a set of story missions that happen after level 15.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;\">This means you might unlock the ability to change classes before you have access to the class you want to pick up. \u00a0Just be patient, either don&#8217;t worry about changing classes yet, or try one of the other classes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;\">The pretzel looking icon is XP.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>You autoloot creatures you defeat.<\/p>\n<p>I found some aspects of the map to be a bit confusing at first, because of the cities are split up and how the region level map displays the subregions. \u00a0It is worth spending more than a quick glance at the map ui when you run off to do your first combat quest.<\/p>\n<p>Story; yep the game tries to tell some. The first time through the game, I highly recommend not skipping cut scenes and reading all the text chat.<\/p>\n<p>LinkShells &#8211; These are invite only custom chat channels and from what I could tell are used by players as secondary guilds.<\/p>\n<p>Free Company &#8211; These are FFXIV&#8217;s version of guilds. You can only be in one of them at a time.<\/p>\n<p>FATES (Full Active Timed Events) are FFXIV&#8217;s version of public quests. They are repeatable and I found that participating in every FATE \u00a0(of my level) was worth my time.<\/p>\n<h3><\/h3>\n<h3>Aetheryte Network and Travel<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.xenopulse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/ffxiv_beta3_QuinoraAetheryte01.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-1177\" alt=\"ffxiv_beta3_QuinoraAetheryte01\" src=\"https:\/\/www.xenopulse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/ffxiv_beta3_QuinoraAetheryte01-760x475.jpg\" width=\"760\" height=\"475\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.xenopulse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/ffxiv_beta3_QuinoraAetheryte01-760x475.jpg 760w, https:\/\/www.xenopulse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/ffxiv_beta3_QuinoraAetheryte01-380x237.jpg 380w, https:\/\/www.xenopulse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/ffxiv_beta3_QuinoraAetheryte01-1680x1050.jpg 1680w, https:\/\/www.xenopulse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/ffxiv_beta3_QuinoraAetheryte01.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 760px) 100vw, 760px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;\">Click on every\u00a0Aetheryte crystal and\u00a0Aetheryte node you see to attune to them; these build up your teleport network.\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;\">Attuning to all the nodes in a city will unlock one way nodes that lead to some of the city gates.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;\">Each of the big Aetheryte crystals in are destinations for your teleport spells. \u00a0Teleport has a coin cost, but you can\u00a0mark three locations as favorites which will give you a discount on the cost of teleporting to them.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;\">Also one location can be <\/span><span style=\"font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;\">be marked as a home point. \u00a0Your home point is where you will spawn if you choose to respawn after dying and when you use the return spell.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;\">You can also access that a city&#8217;s Aethernet from their Aetheryte crystal or aetheryte nodes, this will allow you to warp to any previously attuned node in that city.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;\">Not unlike the smaller nodes to bring up the list of nodes on an Aetheryte crystal you have to click on the crystal once, then select\u00a0Aethernet from the the menu.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;\">I saw mounts in three forms:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;\">There are taxies, which go from one unlocked point to another, allowing you to jump off at any time.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;\">Rented Chocobos, these allow you to steer them but go away after a set amount of time or if you jump off.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;\">Personal Mounts. These are the traditional mmo mount. \u00a0They unlock for purchase after a you have joined a Grand Company and proven yourself to them.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><\/h3>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><a href=\"https:\/\/www.xenopulse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/ffxiv_beat3_CopperCoblyn01.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-1178\" alt=\"ffxiv_beat3_CopperCoblyn01\" src=\"https:\/\/www.xenopulse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/ffxiv_beat3_CopperCoblyn01-760x475.jpg\" width=\"760\" height=\"475\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.xenopulse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/ffxiv_beat3_CopperCoblyn01-760x475.jpg 760w, https:\/\/www.xenopulse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/ffxiv_beat3_CopperCoblyn01-380x237.jpg 380w, https:\/\/www.xenopulse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/ffxiv_beat3_CopperCoblyn01-1680x1050.jpg 1680w, https:\/\/www.xenopulse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/ffxiv_beat3_CopperCoblyn01.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 760px) 100vw, 760px\" \/><\/a>Leveling and XP Gain Notes<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;\">Most story and side quests can only be completed <\/span><strong style=\"font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;\">once.<\/strong><span style=\"font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;\">Yep that means that leveling up additional classes will require a bit of grinding \/ farming \/ dungeon running.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;\">I would also recommend not trying to do every class on one character, I suspect for hard core players the sweet spot will be two or three characters if you want to do everything.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;\">Also having multiple characters will allow characters to build up Rest XP and a\u00a0Guildleves pool.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Oh, what are GuildLeve&#8217;s? \u00a0They are a type of quest, that you request from an NPC. The trick is that you build up a pool of them (x number every 12 hours), up to a max of 100. Each time you request a Leve your pool is reduced by one. \u00a0Battle, Gathering, and Crafting leves are available and all draw upon the same pool.<\/p>\n<p>I suggest saving your available leves for gathering and crafting since when you are in a combat class you have many other options for XP.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><\/h3>\n<h3>What&#8217;s in the bag<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;\">There are two main on character storage systems.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;\">Your personal armory, there is storage allotted for each type of weapon, armor, and jewelry gear.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;\">Your personal inventory, this is where crafting items potions, crystals end up. \u00a0There are multiple pages and some dedicated pages for certain types of item.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;\">Your class is determined by which main hand weapon you have equipped. \u00a0Though your locked into your initial class selection until your complete a series of quests for that class&#8217;s guild.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;\">Unlocking class swapping, also unlocks the gear manager. This is the UI which provides you the ability to save gear sets for easy swapping between classes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;\">When you swap to a class for the first time you will start back at level 1, and yes that effects gear requirements. Meaning consider saving some old gear for when you swap classes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>An item&#8217;s spiritbond stat will increase through using it in your daily business by crafting, gathering and battling. Once it has reached 100% it can be converted into a piece of materia, which can then be slotted into another item to grant that item a bonus.<\/p>\n<p>You can hide the display of your head armor, via an option found inside the character customization UI.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>That&#8217;s not all&#8230;<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;\">I&#8217;m sure that I have not come close to hitting everything, and I might come back after next weekend with a new post (hopefully with more pictures). \u00a0 Though in the end there are much better resources for tips and information. \u00a0Places like:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.mmorpg.com\/discussion2.cfm\/thread\/388787\/Beginners-Guide-to-A-Realm-Reborn.html\">MMORPG&#8217;s Beginners Guide<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ffxivinfo.com\/\">FFXIV Info<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/ffxiv\/\">FFXIV Reddit<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/na.beta.finalfantasyxiv.com\/lodestone\/\">Loadstone (official)<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/forum.square-enix.com\/ARR-Test\/forums\/157-English-Forums\">Official English Beta Forums<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thoughts and Tips Testing Schedule: The next, and final beta phase 3 play period: July 10, 2013 (Wednesday), 2:00 a.m. to July 15 (Monday), 2:00 a.m. (PDT) July 10, 2013 (Wednesday), 9:00 a.m. to July 15 (Monday), 9:00 a.m. (GMT) Characters will be wiped at the end of this phase. No word on when Phase [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[100,89,9],"tags":[101,111,113],"class_list":["post-1086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ffxiv-arr","category-final-fantasy","category-games","tag-ffxivarr","tag-games","tag-mmo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xenopulse.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xenopulse.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xenopulse.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xenopulse.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xenopulse.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.xenopulse.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1086\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xenopulse.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xenopulse.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xenopulse.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}