The Mog Log: Answering unasked questions

Sometimes, you wind up with what amounts to a perfect case of convergence. After a busy and stressful week, there's nothing I'd like more than to have an opportunity to relax with an enjoyable game -- and gee, Final Fantasy XIV came out on Wednesday. Seeing the release means a lot to me for a variety of reasons, but the most immediate reason is it means I have something to do from the moment I wake up Saturday to the moment I go to sleep Sunday. I couldn't be happier about that.

Of course, a certain amount of confusion is going to go hand-in-hand with that, so I'm slightly cheating on our regular format, helped by the fact that this month has been a little light on normal questions. The last Saturday of the month always covers questions and answers... but this month, I'm going to be covering the questions that come up most frequently while playing Final Fantasy XIV that don't fall under any of our prior articles on the game. So yes, it's another week without much Final Fantasy XI love. I beg your forgiveness, but I will stay the course.

"Where do I find vendors for other classes?"

If there's a single question asked more than any other, this would be it. Fortunately, you are not devoid of resources. Rawrcat has compiled some exceptionally nice annotated maps among his collection of guides, and if you're looking for more details, there's a reasonable rundown in this thread on the Roleplaying Coalition boards. Yes, I saw this question coming before it happened -- I'm just that good.

"All the starting local crafting leves require a higher craft level than I have -- should I wait to do them?"

No. There are no penalties for failing other than your lack of success. Like any other levequest, you will have a chance to try again. Local quests are a great way to get materials and experience for free, which means you're that much less likely to botch the job when you're doing something that really matters. Take them with impunity! Level that craft on someone else's dime!

"Is it possible to get to the other starting cities?"

Not only is it possible, it's easy and advantageous. The selection of leves of all sorts is broadened by your well-traveled state, and you also have access to the full spectrum of guilds. Most of the monsters along the way are non-aggressive to boot, so you shouldn't be in too much danger. Since your maps are automatic and instant, there's not much guesswork involved in finding your way -- consult the world map if you find yourself a bit unsure of where to go.

"Why can't I repair my equipment?"

All equipment must be unequipped before it can be repaired. This means that you cannot repair your starting undershirt without a replacement, as that's the one piece of gear the game will not let you remove. (Probably for good reason.) Everything else just has to be removed, at which point a quick trip to the repair NPC will bring it back within working parameters.

Also worth noting, of course, is that the NPC will only repair the equipment to a certain point. If you want to bring the durability back to full, you'll need to level the appropriate craft and repair it yourself. That's not arduous at first, but it's certainly yet more incentive to start working on all your varied disciplines from the ground up.

"How long can I play before fatigue hits me?"

Quite a while. There are two pieces of information that were not immediately apparent when the game's fatigue system was put into place. The first is that fatigue thresholds are determined by values rather than time, so if you're gaining experience slowly, you aren't going to hit the values for some time. The second is that fatigue decays while you're logged off. Unless you're logging hyper-efficient sessions of eight hours or more on a daily basis, the odds are you won't even hit experience fatigue.

Also worth noting is that there are times when fatigue can be a blessing in disguise, since everything from crafting to harvesting to completing quests to hearing loud noises grants you experience.

"I keep dying. How can I avoid that?"

Keep your HP from hitting zero.

There are four readily available healing abilities at reasonably low levels: Second Wind (pugilist), Bloodbath (marauder), Cure (conjurer), and Sacrifice (thaumaturge). Of these four, Second Wind and Cure are the most directly potent. So getting a couple levels in conjurer or pugilist is well-advised, with the caveat that Cure is more quickly accessible than Second Wind.

Bloodbath and Sacrifice are both potent abilities, mind you, but Bloodbath is mostly good for slowing death at low levels, and Sacrifice works a bit too slowly to be your sole heal. At higher levels you can reap more benefit from Bloodbath and also pick up Drain from thaumaturge, so those are worth considering.

"Do I really need to make a new macro for every class I want to use?"

Need to? Definitely not. But it's useful for quickly switching in the field. You can probably get away without macros to switch to a crafting class, though, since speed won't be as essential there. I personally opt for a quick macro for each class, but that's just me.

Those are the questions for the week, and while I admit it was a bit of a cheat for a Q&A, I think you'll all agree that there are extenuating circumstances. Before the usual sign-off, however, I'd like to take a moment to thank the players and community for all the feedback, support, and praise that I've received leading up to release. Final Fantasy XIV's launch has been something I've been looking forward to since I started working for Massively a year ago, and I've been doing my best to keep our coverage of the title aggressive and build a community for both it and Final Fantasy XI. In a very real way, the fact that I've had so much to do with the launch is the culmination of a year's work, and you readers are one of the big forces behind that.

It's been a fun ride, folks, but it's not over yet. Join me next week when I return to Final Fantasy XI, which has been sadly neglected this week in favor of the new kid in town. Until then, you can feel free to leave comments, suggestions, or indiscriminate praise in the comments, or you can just mail me at eliot@massively.com.

From Eorzea to Vana'diel, there is a constant: the moogles. And for analysis and opinions about the online portions of the Final Fantasy series, there is also a constant: The Mog Log. Longtime series fan Eliot Lefebvre serves up a new installment of the log every Saturday, covering almost anything related to Square-Enix's vibrant online worlds.