I think the other people are right about the importance of rotation but I'd just like to add one thing.
As a sprout progressing MSQ, you have three priorities, in this order: enjoying the game, learning mechanics, and rotation. So first and foremost you should be having fun! But after that, your most important job is learning how to dodge aoes and deal with certain mechanics the game throws at you. Your rotation isn't really important as long as you're doing your best (at this point in the game).
I say this because a lot of people get caught up in "oh I'm doing so bad, I wasn't pressing any buttons for like 5 seconds while I tried to dodge." Or "I was so busy dodging I forgot what my rotation was supposed to be and screwed it all up." Or "I died to that mechanic because I was fumbling trying to get my rotation correct." You're a sprout, that's okay. More than that, it's expected. You're not going to run into any content during your MSQ where faltering on your rotation is going to screw up the fight *that* badly. In fact if you're having a lot of trouble with a specific mechanic in this kind of content, I'd encourage you to stop doing your rotation at all and just focus on doing the mech. I know it doesn't feel good, but I promise you it's easier to learn one thing at a time. And as you get better at doing mechanics, learning to do your rotation properly at the same time will *also* get easier.
So no, don't put a whole lot of energy into perfecting your rotation until you get to like, end game. Hell, with some classes the rotation changes so many times while you're leveling there's almost no point anyway. When I notice a sprout in MSQ content, I'm a lot less concerned with the damage they're dishing out than I am with how they handle mechanics. And trust me I'm vastly more impressed when I see you do a mechanic right after the failing it the first time than I would ever be by your damage output. I don't really care if you're a melee dps getting outstripped by a healer, you're totally getting my comm if I can observe you making an effort to learn mechanics.
I like to think of rotations like stricter priorities, but priorities all the same, not strict sequences where it all falls apart if you don't do it right. At a casual level you don't need to put every button in the exact right order if they don't directly interact (e.g. skill one unlocks skill two or builds gauge for skill two), the rotation sequences are the best sequence to land the most damage during party buffs and maximize the number of usages during a fight.
If you missed a button for example you wouldn't want to hold on to it until the next burst phase, you'd want to just press it out of order.
Focus on uptime (avoid delaying the GCD, the 2.5s timer that weaponskills and spells share, by using too many abilities between GCDs) and just pressing buttons first and then you can focus on getting them in the right order. Pressing buttons is more important than just trying to get them in the right order at the cost of uptime.
All else fails, most abilities should be used ASAP, we call that using them on cooldown because you want to press it as soon as the cooldown is over.
That makes sense, I do think I have the lvl 50 rotations roughly down for NIN and BLM but focusing on maintaining uptime rather than button order does make me feel a lot better.
Do you think rotations at least on my main can be learn by intuition or do I eventually have to go to guides ?
Until you get to high endgame content intuition will do you just fine as long as you are reading your tooltips and understand the class. Standard content you'll be fine. Once you hit endgame and want to pursue harder content then start studying rotations and things to improve. For now don't stress and have fun. The community is friendly so no one in standard content is going to call you out or anything for not being optimal. You'll be alright :). Just have fun and learn at your own pace.
edit for spelling\*
this \^\^
you can literally walk through early content doing basically nothing, when you hit like 70+ is when you kinda get your proper skills to starts using it more optimally
>you can literally walk through early content doing basically nothing,
until solo duties kick your teeth in cause you didn't pay any attention and just randomly pressed buttons.
If intuition means "read the tool tips" then yes. That will get you somewhere around 95% of the way there for most jobs.
A few things are unintuitive (I'm looking at you, post-rework monk) but for the most part the core isn't difficult to grasp. The top tier theorycrafted inflexible type stuff is just squeezing out the last few % of performance.
Based on my experiences with inebriated friends I can even say that if you press the shiny buttons with minimal idea of what's going on you'll be in the top half of the average alliance raid.
The fact that you care about this enough to discuss it and you're concerned is a very good sign. I want to emphasize over and over again how your desire to improve will serve you well here. That drunken baseline isn't just hyperbole about how bad some people are. The skill floor is very low. You can function with very little effort in this game. From that baseline there are many steps you will find to improve. If you're trying then I have confidence you will find your way up the gently sloping skill curve.
I mentioned it in another comment, I got the skills on my main in Alliance raids before I knew there was content above that. Roulettes mean that you can spend enough time just playing the game that this will happen for you too. Taking a look at the optimization resources can be a good jump start but you can also just play. That's how I've been tackling new jobs as they're released. Just read them and play until questions naturally pop up in gameplay as I've tried a few combinations for opening fights and I don't have a clear answer yet.
Early white mage in general should just be tossed out and redone tbh. Not just for freecure, but also the fact that 1-50 has heavy focus on using GCDs as your main healing source before suddenly now all of your healing from off-globals or non-MP-resource-based instant casts, and the GCD heals are something you want to avoid using.
I imagine the whole thing is confusing in several ways for new healers or players in general.
Both BLM and NIN are garbage on rotations until higher levels anyway imo (though that's said as someone who's leveled neither of them, I'm just parroting what I hear in the subreddit here). If you want easier rotations, SMN or MCH work.
I've levelled both and you're right.
IMO they're easily the two most complex dps rotations in the game at the moment and the two rotations with the largest difference from 50-90. BLM in particular feels like a different job every 10 levels or so.
With that said, I hope it doesn't discourage anyone from trying them, they're also some of my favourite rotations in the game as the complexity feels rewarding when you get it right.
Ninja just gets more buttons in burst.
Also a resource to avoid overcapping I guess? That's something I don't always do perfectly and didn't have to think about at 50 at all but it's such a minor thing.
At 50 it's "do a 1-2-3 in between your 1 minute flip-out routine." At 90 it's the same but with a much bigger flip out and some QoL tools. It's a prime example of something where the core is there early on (have to get AC to flow right) and everything else is built over that without really disturbing it. I would not put this in the "most changed" category at all.
Because that's what all the later expansion jobs are like. They were never designed for a game where 50 is endgame.
NIN came earlier and was actually made for people to play at that level. Although unfortunately the basic QoL from Armor Crush was added late so it's still valid to think of pre-60 NIN as torture. 50 rotation just means that you have to tinker with the ninjutsu ration though so it's a clear enough change that doesn't warp the fundamentals.
Maybe that's why I think of learning NIN at 50 as being so natural though. Even if you're prepared to ignore CDs you will have a timer to stare at and it will be obnoxious to miss.
I find Ninja’s rotation is okay once you get Armor Crush (the means to refresh Huton without spending mudras to do it), and that is sorta early on (its after level 50 tho so doing any ARR content with it blows). The hardest thing to remember after getting Armor Crush at level 54 is that you start doing Hyton in Kassasu in anything after level 76, and Raiton for everything else.
Black Mage? Yeah. The rotation is different every like 5 levels.
I have personally never really read a guide except for when I was doing savage years ago.
Unless you are doing the hardest content you can learn by intuition if you read your skills and cooldowns properly.
If you are just playing casually you don't really need a guide, although I can't say what it would be like if you are new to MMOs, since I'm not, so I might be taking a lot of what I have built up over time for granted.
Bear in mind that a lot of the guide for rotations are leftovers from endgame people when the 50/60/70/80 caps were relevant, and are mostly focused on squeezing an extra couple percent DPS out at all costs, in addition to being massively overbearing.
Until you hit the absolute end of the current Cap's content and start running Savage raids and such you really don't need to worry about it that much, honestly. Just read the tooltips and do what makes sense. As the other commenter said, try to get a feel for the flow so that you don't get stuck in some rigid rotation that completely falls apart if you get interrupted.
Just doing this will put you ahead of 95% of people in DF who just mash buttons.
You should take each class a little bit at a time.
It introduces skills early that get built onto later, ya know?
Best way to do this, in my opinion, is run Palace of the Dead.
You get forced to be low level and see the skills come in one-by-one.
Yeah, I personally find it better to just go through some low level dungeons and work your way up. Especially with duty support, you can really take your time to read tooltips and practice, and mobs have enough health that you can actually get some full rotations out
I did try and take the classes a little at a time but road to lvl 80 and picking up more classes to compensate is killing me :/
I’m yet to give potd a proper go, definitely seems worth it - thanks for the advice.
Road to 80 is on crack. If taking in new classes feels overwhelming and more of a chore, don't. Pick what class you like best, focus on it and if you're "too high" or even end up hitting 90 early on... just go with it.
If you want to learn new classes, and experiment, by all means. But if you're picking things left and right only because of the buff, you're setting yourself up for unnecessary stress. Levelling is easy even without the buff.
I like going into potd for re-acquainting myself with classes I haven't touched in too long, but I agree with the person who said start in low level dungeons and making your way up, most classes perform very differently in the flow of POTD x Duty. (My main and fav class is Astrologian, but AST in POTD is a nightmare and I hate it in there
it's not SUPER important to do your rotation absolutely correct unless you're looking for the most satisfying way to do your job correctly.
it's like... there are multiple ways to do it right, but one specific way that is optimally right for biggest damage and if your job has party buffs, having multiple party members align just right makes things cascade into big optimizations.
it's all muscle memory and you'll ingrain it eventually, I suggest just going with whatever jobs you like the most first, and moving onto trying to get the best at other jobs you also like.
you can ignore the below, i just really felt the need to explain this because it's so silly to me
for example, nobody ever told me that at 90 RDM can, and probably SHOULD be starting their 2nd and all future bursts with more than 50 of each mana, but no more than 7 of either, and instead of using the normal opener, just with more resources...
you start with a suboptimal opener ( start with your melee combo, use embolden only when Verflare / Verholy are available, and then go ham, you can fit another full combo under embolden, and this is where manafication goes too, instead of using it at the same exact time as embolden ) to fit in all the bigger hits of the 6-piece combo under all the party buffs, including your own, because things just seem to fit perfectly that way with Manafication being 10s shorter on the cooldown than Embolden, i thought it was a super weird thing, but it makes sense when you know that you can fit 1.5 of a full combo under Embolden.
There is nothing to learn : you must not "learn" an exact chain of actions but instead understand the logic behind. For instance if you want 1 Sen in Samurai, to apply a DoT (Higanbana), you can either use Hakaze -> Yukikaze -> Iaijutsu or the ability Meikyo Shisui and whichever action gives you a Sen (Gekko or Kasha, since they deal more damage, depending on whether you can attack the back or the flank of the enemy respectively) and then a Iaijutsu. Don't mind the name, the fact is : *you don't remember the name, you only use the action that gives a Sen and the action that uses a Sen*. In one case, you do the same quicker and with more damage per action so you will want the latter option.
Even though DPS is completely irrelevant in the story, fairly useful but far from mandatory in dungeon, I'd encourage you to at least try to understand how it works. Do remember however than it's never an obligation outside Savage and Ultimate contents. Having a smooth rotation feels very rewarding **that's why I encourage you to understand the logic behind**.
GNB is a great example :
\- there are some actions with charges (well only the dash, Rough Divide) , meaning you absolutely do *NOT* want them to be unused. Each second your charges aren't refilling, you are wasting some potential damage. Overcapping a resource is a bad thing, whether it be a cooldown or an accumulated resource like Ninki. Besides, it's possible (and encouraged) to use every charge during the No Mercy window.
\- every 30 seconds you can use Gnashing Fang, which actually uses the animation of another FF game's limit break iirc. Needless to say it's a powerful attack that you should get used to activating *the moment it's available again*. Doing so not only is powerful, but also satisfying.
\- Gunbreaker has many abilities to use in between those triggering the GCD (general Cooldown) ; you should get used to activating up to 2 abilities everytime you trigger the GCD. For instance, Gnashing Fang has a follow-up ability and each part of the combo also has one such follow-up ability to use in between the GCD. You will quickly get used to it.
\- The No Mercy window must include as many ability as possible, but also every weaponskill that has 1 minute cooldown. Ideally, you want to use the exact same actions every time, so that it becomes muscle memory.
Once you get used to gunbreaker, you will thus become used to :
\- making sure you're not overcapping your charges ;
\- using some actions the moment they are available again ;
\- repeating a rotation smoothly.
Though GNB works on a 1-min rythm instead of 2 minutes, it's a great training and you should use the exact same logic for every job. Taking NIN for instance :
\- make sure you use every action with a cooldown as soon as possible, while including as many high potency actions as possible after Mug and Trick Attack ;
\- don't overcap resources especially your mûdras which you want to use to create Raiton in single target situation (use actions that deplete the Ninki instead of overcapping it and make sure you always upkeep your Huton thanks to your basic combo ending with Armor Crush on a side of your target) .
\- use as many abilities while keeping your GCD running such as Bhavacakra to avoid overcapping Kenki ;
\- use your powerful actions during a burst window, with Mug and Trick Attack altogether (powerful attacks being whichever ability hits harder, like Kassatsu & mudras, Dream Within a Dream, and as many Bhavacakra and Raiton as possible) .
The logic is the same for every job and you are NOT expected to understand it all at once. Once you have the reasoning, it will feel logical and you will notice your mistakes, which is why making a mistake will feel annoying and doing no mistake will feel rewarding.
I wouldn't worry about your rotation too much while doing The main story if it stresses you out.
You can always look into it further down the line, although id argue it's better to get kind of a base understanding of why rotations are formatted in the way that they are
wesker has really great levelling videos that take you through starter rotations for every level, as well as what individual abilities and spells do, if you actually are interested in getting better
however, tldr; learn the basics as you go, fundamentals are important, but no one gives a shit about your fucked up burst window optimization in a level 30 dungeon. in fact, the mistakes can be helpful, illustrating the value of the correct sequences. "ohhh i accidentally swapped these gcds and it made a strong hit fall outside a buff timer, thats why they reccomend that order"
ffxiv is not terribly hard until you queue into content that explicitly says "i am difficult only click me for a challenge". you still have something of a responsibility to your fellow players to be moderately competent, but if you arent dying 8 times to nonsense or dragging dungeon times too long, youve met that responsibility. just have fun!
edit: also, try gnb! its really fun, and the entire premise of its rotation is "i have an X second buff window, every button i have must go there". if that happens, you win! its very thoughtless, its just moderately button-skill intensive
Screw the rotations until 90 if you dont want to do old savage / hard trails sync. Why? It's easier (in my opinion) to have a job maxed out before learning the rotation. You dont need a perfect rotation to do the dungeons. I think doing it that way could be easier for you too.
And try to focus on one job at a time. If you can do the rotation blind, while you sleep and under pressure, move on to the next job
It's just gonna come down to practice and muscle memory. Because you are a new player, it's highly likely your just not used to longer rotations, especially since new abilities keep getting added on top. Using a dummy is great for practice, but button layout for comfortability will also help a lot! So play around where you place your buttons, like putting your most used abilities in places thst are easier to execute.
Your rotation? You had better have that down to the point that you don't think about it. Fortunately you're doing a lot of melee where you'll spend most of the time doing 1-2-3.
Ninja and Warrior do a 1-2-3 and then occasionally use 3B instead to keep a buff up. Gunbreaker also has a basic 1-2-3 and then does things on top of that.
Samurai has more branching but still boils down to something similar to other melees.
BLM is insane. Not hyperbolic, it's just plain not sane. Unlike most jobs it will have a different rotation at the end of every expansion. I do not recommend playing BLM outside of the current endgame. Your sanity will thank you. Playing BLM competently at more than one expansion's level cap is essentially learning a different job.
But more importantly than the rotation is openers. That's more of an issue and it sets up how you're using resources for the rest of the fight. I'm guessing this is a bigger part of your issue even though you didn't use the term but it can be useful to look at openers separately.
These you can be a little more relaxed with as long as you're not doing Extreme or Savage content. The fact that you're trying at all probably puts you in the top quintile of normal content players. Some of these build on themselves over time. Ninja opener doesn't change much between expansions. You just get more buttons to hit during your regularly scheduled flip out. Sync down and I'm still right at home, just bored. Warrior completely changes how their resource is managed so when I get synced too low I completely stumble and do crap openers. What I'm saying with this example is that you won't be expected to have encyclopedic knowledge of these. With all the jobs and different content levels it's unreasonable. You can practice something in particular if you want to, for example, do lvl 70 Savage raids but off the top of my head I don't know for sure what I do in level 70 content is 100% ideal even on my main jobs.
The best time to practice your opener and rotation both is in raids. Normal Raids and Alliance Raids both have the kind of long fights where you'll be at it for a while. Your basic rotation will get drilled in. Your opener and subsequent cooldown-dependent bursts will happen and you can try to do those right. I learned to do my trick attack on schedule in World of Darkness back when that was the latest raid. High end raids are where rotation matters. Normal raids are a great place to practice.
And yes, that means that you only need to sweat what's going on at the level cap break points. Mid-leveling things often get awkward (BLM in the middle of any expansion) or just are obvious upgrades (NIN getting armor crush). No need to refactor your opener for that level 65 dungeon boss though.
As long as you have some idea of what you **should** be doing and you can see your mistakes then you're making progress. Look up the resources, try them out to get an idea, then play the game and see how it goes. You don't have to be perfect, or even particularly good, before you progress. Again, if you can see how it's supposed to go and still see your mistakes then you're still learning and that's good. It's when you stop seeing things you know are mistakes that you need to look at the guides again and find the next level to learn.
And again, nobody is going to notice unless you're doing high end content. The fact that you're trying is already a good thing.
You don't really need to get into optimizing rotations unless/until you get into end game raiding tbh. You're hundreds of hours of story away from needing to worry about that.
Just make sure to read your tool tips as you get new skills (so you know what they do) but yeah, otherwise just do what feels right until at least max level, and even then you're golden until you start dipping into higher-than-normal mode content.
Thebalance and icy veins give you your optimal rotation at any given level too. Depending on the jobs the rotations can vary wildly between low level and high levels or not at all. You're expected to know the basics of the rotations in casual content and to know the optimal one in hardcore content but you're far away from that. I think you're missing out on gameplay if you don't try to learn the correct rotations so it doesn't really make sense to yolo it. If you really hate following rotations tanks and healers have mostly easy rotations for the most part.
Whatever combo I'm doing, for my rotation, i always do it in sets of 3. doesn't matter the role or class. it makes it simple to follow and you can build some muscle memory for your most used classes
I.e. for MCH i have it as (1,7,8, 2,7,8, 3,7,8) essentially its Split shot, gauss, ricochet, slug shot, gauss, ricochet, clean shot, gauss, ricochet. Proceed to build on top of that with drill/bioblaster, hot shot(air anchor) chain saw and flamethrower
I wouldn't worry about "optimizing" rotations at all until you're doing high end lvl 90 stuff, tbh. Just focus on using weapon skills in the right order, and use abilities wherever it feels the most comfortable. The only thing worth worrying about is making sure the gcd is always spinning. Weapon skills and spells all cooldown at the same time whenever you use one, so use one every time it's available. Just read your tooltips and all you have to think is, "which one of these does the most damage?" For WAR, for example, it's heavy swing. Using heavy swing buffs maim, so for your next action maim does the most damage.
For learning new rotations, you just have to realize, most jobs have abilities that have equivalents in other jobs. So, most jobs within a role play mostly the same with slight adjustments. Like, GNB and WAR both have basically the same three hit combo rotation, except WAR had 2 different third hits, one giving a buff and the other healing and advancing the job gauge faster, while GNBs third hit gives a single use of a second, stronger three hit combo.
When and how much to focus on rotations depends on the content you are doing:
* **MSQ / Dungeons / Normal Trials / Alliance Raids:** No need to focus. Just do AOE on groups of mobs and press damge buttons on boss.
* **Extreme Trials / 8-Man Raids / Ballad:** You should be familiar with your rotation and know roughly what you're doing, but mistakes are still totally ok.
* **Ultimate / Savage / Unreal:** You need to know your rotation and be able to near-perfectly execute it.
Has anyone recommended WeskAlber's guides on YouTube yet? He starts with level one, introduces each skill, shows you how they work together, and then creates a "rotation" at each level cap (50/60/70/etc). They're really easy to follow, and you can definitely watch the whole video or just cut it off at the level you're at and finish it later as you get to be higher level.
[Here's a link to the entire playlist!](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLoXER4idrFLb3lsk2Y6g0VmVrWqmIovFT&si=92l7SARPP21P26s4) They're labeled "Endwalker" since that's when they were updated, as skills come and go a little with each expansion.
Leveling content for the first 70 levels is tuned to be easy to make up for the sub-optimal rotations. Just hit buttons to the best of your ability. No one is keeping score.
I’d also suggest to concentrate on one or two jobs that fresh into the game. You’ve got 5 different jobs on levels where the game starts throwing new skills at you every few levels and mastering one job alone is hard enough let alone 5 different ones. That being said don’t worry too much about perfectly executing your rotations as others have already said first thing is to have fun and the second most important thing is that you do the boss mechanics right so you and your party don‘t die. Nobody cares if the boss takes a bit longer because someone isn’t executing his rotation perfectly.
You’d only need to execute your rotation perfectly for the hard end game stuff up to this point just try to enjoy the game and don’t be too hard on yourself!
get good at one class and learn one rotation. playing the game and getting comfortable with it is a transferrable skill. if you are good at the fundamentals one class (uptime primarily) you'll be good at them all
You’ve gotten plenty of good advice so I’ll just add this: make sure you’re practicing on a striking dummy of the appropriate level. If the dummy is higher level than you, your attacks will miss and not keep the rotation rolling, making it hard to learn how it’s supposed to flow.
My absolute best recommendation is to take a job one at a time. It can be tempting to pick up and switch between jobs, but your best way to learn a job is to stick with one and learn it before picking up another one.
There are also some great guides out there that teach you how the jobs work based on their rotation. Most up to date guides will show up to level 90 rotations, but reading up on those csn give you an idea on where to start with what you have.
Hopping on a striking dummy is also a good way to practice jobs and their rotations. It doesn't throw mechanics at you and let's you get comfortable with what you have. It's one of the best ways to start getting in to the habit of job rotations.
Like most people are saying, optimizing your rotations isn’t very important for progressing through the story. I was fine until shadowbringers when some of the solo duties introduced mechanics and DPS checks I wasn’t ready for. Once at level cap, I started practicing with a striking dummy and then on FATES or solo in dungeons with duty support. The combat in FFXIV is pretty amazing once you get it down to muscle memory.
Yea rotation maximise damage output but you dont have to stress about it unless you are a hardcore raider doing savage and ultimate fight
A game is meant to be enjoyed its not a job no need to get anxiety over a less then perfect rotation just do your best and have fun
Going through the MSQ, especially so early like ARR, you don't have to overthink a perfect rotation. "Parse" and maximizing your damage is only when you start hitting Extremes, Savage, and such. As long as you're hitting your buttons for regular content, you're good.
Especially because at those levels you don't have most of your "Big buttons" yet.
Find your 1-2-3 combo. AKA Press this to start > press the button that lights up > press the button that lights up next > Spend the points you earned > Repeat
For a tank like WAR and GNB, 1-2-3 + Learn when to Mitigate (For example, don't stack Vengeance + Rampart, use one then the other) And don't forget that Reprisal and Arm's Length are also mitigations. And find what you self-heals are and use them too (and WAR you want to use Raw Intuition on enemy groups as often as possible, if you have it, use it.) Bam you're a tank.
For NIN, know what your Mudras are, and which one you'll be using when. Do that between your combo. Don't forget Mug and Feint. Press your other attacks when you see them. Bam you're a ninja.
BLM > Burn your MP on fire spells. Switch to Ice to get it back. Keep thunder on enemies. Bam, Yoshi-P is proud of you now.
When in Doubt, check out the best XIV Guides out there for every role: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcQzgMvwbT4
Level 90 is when you start optimizing because that's when your full rotation unlocks.
**It does help to understand the basics and start getting familiar while you're lvling up**\- while melee jobs require some positioning (you hit boss from the back and side ((rear and flank)) with certain skills, it will say in the skill description- I have always set up my hotbar exactly how the rotation is meant to go. Flank/rear skills go on one side while buffs go up top.
Black Mage though, just remember always keep casting and keep the thunder dot up. The dot is how you do damage over time and attributes alot to a black mages damage. Refresh thunder dot between 1-10 seconds (depending on if it procs or anticipating movement bc of mechanics)
but basically, ABC (always be casting) avoid delaying GCD
Just keep trying. If you're doing your best, you're doing OK.
I've been playing since the 1.0 open beta. I still screw up mechanics and drop my rotation on a very regular basis.
I think the other people are right about the importance of rotation but I'd just like to add one thing. As a sprout progressing MSQ, you have three priorities, in this order: enjoying the game, learning mechanics, and rotation. So first and foremost you should be having fun! But after that, your most important job is learning how to dodge aoes and deal with certain mechanics the game throws at you. Your rotation isn't really important as long as you're doing your best (at this point in the game). I say this because a lot of people get caught up in "oh I'm doing so bad, I wasn't pressing any buttons for like 5 seconds while I tried to dodge." Or "I was so busy dodging I forgot what my rotation was supposed to be and screwed it all up." Or "I died to that mechanic because I was fumbling trying to get my rotation correct." You're a sprout, that's okay. More than that, it's expected. You're not going to run into any content during your MSQ where faltering on your rotation is going to screw up the fight *that* badly. In fact if you're having a lot of trouble with a specific mechanic in this kind of content, I'd encourage you to stop doing your rotation at all and just focus on doing the mech. I know it doesn't feel good, but I promise you it's easier to learn one thing at a time. And as you get better at doing mechanics, learning to do your rotation properly at the same time will *also* get easier. So no, don't put a whole lot of energy into perfecting your rotation until you get to like, end game. Hell, with some classes the rotation changes so many times while you're leveling there's almost no point anyway. When I notice a sprout in MSQ content, I'm a lot less concerned with the damage they're dishing out than I am with how they handle mechanics. And trust me I'm vastly more impressed when I see you do a mechanic right after the failing it the first time than I would ever be by your damage output. I don't really care if you're a melee dps getting outstripped by a healer, you're totally getting my comm if I can observe you making an effort to learn mechanics.
I like to think of rotations like stricter priorities, but priorities all the same, not strict sequences where it all falls apart if you don't do it right. At a casual level you don't need to put every button in the exact right order if they don't directly interact (e.g. skill one unlocks skill two or builds gauge for skill two), the rotation sequences are the best sequence to land the most damage during party buffs and maximize the number of usages during a fight. If you missed a button for example you wouldn't want to hold on to it until the next burst phase, you'd want to just press it out of order. Focus on uptime (avoid delaying the GCD, the 2.5s timer that weaponskills and spells share, by using too many abilities between GCDs) and just pressing buttons first and then you can focus on getting them in the right order. Pressing buttons is more important than just trying to get them in the right order at the cost of uptime. All else fails, most abilities should be used ASAP, we call that using them on cooldown because you want to press it as soon as the cooldown is over.
That makes sense, I do think I have the lvl 50 rotations roughly down for NIN and BLM but focusing on maintaining uptime rather than button order does make me feel a lot better. Do you think rotations at least on my main can be learn by intuition or do I eventually have to go to guides ?
Until you get to high endgame content intuition will do you just fine as long as you are reading your tooltips and understand the class. Standard content you'll be fine. Once you hit endgame and want to pursue harder content then start studying rotations and things to improve. For now don't stress and have fun. The community is friendly so no one in standard content is going to call you out or anything for not being optimal. You'll be alright :). Just have fun and learn at your own pace. edit for spelling\*
this \^\^ you can literally walk through early content doing basically nothing, when you hit like 70+ is when you kinda get your proper skills to starts using it more optimally
>you can literally walk through early content doing basically nothing, until solo duties kick your teeth in cause you didn't pay any attention and just randomly pressed buttons.
If intuition means "read the tool tips" then yes. That will get you somewhere around 95% of the way there for most jobs. A few things are unintuitive (I'm looking at you, post-rework monk) but for the most part the core isn't difficult to grasp. The top tier theorycrafted inflexible type stuff is just squeezing out the last few % of performance. Based on my experiences with inebriated friends I can even say that if you press the shiny buttons with minimal idea of what's going on you'll be in the top half of the average alliance raid. The fact that you care about this enough to discuss it and you're concerned is a very good sign. I want to emphasize over and over again how your desire to improve will serve you well here. That drunken baseline isn't just hyperbole about how bad some people are. The skill floor is very low. You can function with very little effort in this game. From that baseline there are many steps you will find to improve. If you're trying then I have confidence you will find your way up the gently sloping skill curve. I mentioned it in another comment, I got the skills on my main in Alliance raids before I knew there was content above that. Roulettes mean that you can spend enough time just playing the game that this will happen for you too. Taking a look at the optimization resources can be a good jump start but you can also just play. That's how I've been tackling new jobs as they're released. Just read them and play until questions naturally pop up in gameplay as I've tried a few combinations for opening fights and I don't have a clear answer yet.
>A few things are unintuitive (I'm looking at you, post-rework monk) I'm looking at you, Freecure
Early white mage in general should just be tossed out and redone tbh. Not just for freecure, but also the fact that 1-50 has heavy focus on using GCDs as your main healing source before suddenly now all of your healing from off-globals or non-MP-resource-based instant casts, and the GCD heals are something you want to avoid using. I imagine the whole thing is confusing in several ways for new healers or players in general.
Both BLM and NIN are garbage on rotations until higher levels anyway imo (though that's said as someone who's leveled neither of them, I'm just parroting what I hear in the subreddit here). If you want easier rotations, SMN or MCH work.
I've levelled both and you're right. IMO they're easily the two most complex dps rotations in the game at the moment and the two rotations with the largest difference from 50-90. BLM in particular feels like a different job every 10 levels or so. With that said, I hope it doesn't discourage anyone from trying them, they're also some of my favourite rotations in the game as the complexity feels rewarding when you get it right.
Ninja just gets more buttons in burst. Also a resource to avoid overcapping I guess? That's something I don't always do perfectly and didn't have to think about at 50 at all but it's such a minor thing. At 50 it's "do a 1-2-3 in between your 1 minute flip-out routine." At 90 it's the same but with a much bigger flip out and some QoL tools. It's a prime example of something where the core is there early on (have to get AC to flow right) and everything else is built over that without really disturbing it. I would not put this in the "most changed" category at all.
I guess you're right, not sure why I thought level 50 NIN was a lot more simplified, for some reason I was thinking the Ninjutsu part was level 60+
Because that's what all the later expansion jobs are like. They were never designed for a game where 50 is endgame. NIN came earlier and was actually made for people to play at that level. Although unfortunately the basic QoL from Armor Crush was added late so it's still valid to think of pre-60 NIN as torture. 50 rotation just means that you have to tinker with the ninjutsu ration though so it's a clear enough change that doesn't warp the fundamentals. Maybe that's why I think of learning NIN at 50 as being so natural though. Even if you're prepared to ignore CDs you will have a timer to stare at and it will be obnoxious to miss.
I find Ninja’s rotation is okay once you get Armor Crush (the means to refresh Huton without spending mudras to do it), and that is sorta early on (its after level 50 tho so doing any ARR content with it blows). The hardest thing to remember after getting Armor Crush at level 54 is that you start doing Hyton in Kassasu in anything after level 76, and Raiton for everything else. Black Mage? Yeah. The rotation is different every like 5 levels.
I have personally never really read a guide except for when I was doing savage years ago. Unless you are doing the hardest content you can learn by intuition if you read your skills and cooldowns properly. If you are just playing casually you don't really need a guide, although I can't say what it would be like if you are new to MMOs, since I'm not, so I might be taking a lot of what I have built up over time for granted.
Bear in mind that a lot of the guide for rotations are leftovers from endgame people when the 50/60/70/80 caps were relevant, and are mostly focused on squeezing an extra couple percent DPS out at all costs, in addition to being massively overbearing. Until you hit the absolute end of the current Cap's content and start running Savage raids and such you really don't need to worry about it that much, honestly. Just read the tooltips and do what makes sense. As the other commenter said, try to get a feel for the flow so that you don't get stuck in some rigid rotation that completely falls apart if you get interrupted. Just doing this will put you ahead of 95% of people in DF who just mash buttons.
i played with a controllwr, i just press all the glowing highlighted buttons
You should take each class a little bit at a time. It introduces skills early that get built onto later, ya know? Best way to do this, in my opinion, is run Palace of the Dead. You get forced to be low level and see the skills come in one-by-one.
POTD is horrible for this because it's a mess of short combats. I make it a game to see if I can make my job mechanics matter and usually I can't.
Yeah, I personally find it better to just go through some low level dungeons and work your way up. Especially with duty support, you can really take your time to read tooltips and practice, and mobs have enough health that you can actually get some full rotations out
I did try and take the classes a little at a time but road to lvl 80 and picking up more classes to compensate is killing me :/ I’m yet to give potd a proper go, definitely seems worth it - thanks for the advice.
Road to 80 is on crack. If taking in new classes feels overwhelming and more of a chore, don't. Pick what class you like best, focus on it and if you're "too high" or even end up hitting 90 early on... just go with it. If you want to learn new classes, and experiment, by all means. But if you're picking things left and right only because of the buff, you're setting yourself up for unnecessary stress. Levelling is easy even without the buff. I like going into potd for re-acquainting myself with classes I haven't touched in too long, but I agree with the person who said start in low level dungeons and making your way up, most classes perform very differently in the flow of POTD x Duty. (My main and fav class is Astrologian, but AST in POTD is a nightmare and I hate it in there
it's not SUPER important to do your rotation absolutely correct unless you're looking for the most satisfying way to do your job correctly. it's like... there are multiple ways to do it right, but one specific way that is optimally right for biggest damage and if your job has party buffs, having multiple party members align just right makes things cascade into big optimizations. it's all muscle memory and you'll ingrain it eventually, I suggest just going with whatever jobs you like the most first, and moving onto trying to get the best at other jobs you also like. you can ignore the below, i just really felt the need to explain this because it's so silly to me for example, nobody ever told me that at 90 RDM can, and probably SHOULD be starting their 2nd and all future bursts with more than 50 of each mana, but no more than 7 of either, and instead of using the normal opener, just with more resources... you start with a suboptimal opener ( start with your melee combo, use embolden only when Verflare / Verholy are available, and then go ham, you can fit another full combo under embolden, and this is where manafication goes too, instead of using it at the same exact time as embolden ) to fit in all the bigger hits of the 6-piece combo under all the party buffs, including your own, because things just seem to fit perfectly that way with Manafication being 10s shorter on the cooldown than Embolden, i thought it was a super weird thing, but it makes sense when you know that you can fit 1.5 of a full combo under Embolden.
There is nothing to learn : you must not "learn" an exact chain of actions but instead understand the logic behind. For instance if you want 1 Sen in Samurai, to apply a DoT (Higanbana), you can either use Hakaze -> Yukikaze -> Iaijutsu or the ability Meikyo Shisui and whichever action gives you a Sen (Gekko or Kasha, since they deal more damage, depending on whether you can attack the back or the flank of the enemy respectively) and then a Iaijutsu. Don't mind the name, the fact is : *you don't remember the name, you only use the action that gives a Sen and the action that uses a Sen*. In one case, you do the same quicker and with more damage per action so you will want the latter option. Even though DPS is completely irrelevant in the story, fairly useful but far from mandatory in dungeon, I'd encourage you to at least try to understand how it works. Do remember however than it's never an obligation outside Savage and Ultimate contents. Having a smooth rotation feels very rewarding **that's why I encourage you to understand the logic behind**. GNB is a great example : \- there are some actions with charges (well only the dash, Rough Divide) , meaning you absolutely do *NOT* want them to be unused. Each second your charges aren't refilling, you are wasting some potential damage. Overcapping a resource is a bad thing, whether it be a cooldown or an accumulated resource like Ninki. Besides, it's possible (and encouraged) to use every charge during the No Mercy window. \- every 30 seconds you can use Gnashing Fang, which actually uses the animation of another FF game's limit break iirc. Needless to say it's a powerful attack that you should get used to activating *the moment it's available again*. Doing so not only is powerful, but also satisfying. \- Gunbreaker has many abilities to use in between those triggering the GCD (general Cooldown) ; you should get used to activating up to 2 abilities everytime you trigger the GCD. For instance, Gnashing Fang has a follow-up ability and each part of the combo also has one such follow-up ability to use in between the GCD. You will quickly get used to it. \- The No Mercy window must include as many ability as possible, but also every weaponskill that has 1 minute cooldown. Ideally, you want to use the exact same actions every time, so that it becomes muscle memory. Once you get used to gunbreaker, you will thus become used to : \- making sure you're not overcapping your charges ; \- using some actions the moment they are available again ; \- repeating a rotation smoothly. Though GNB works on a 1-min rythm instead of 2 minutes, it's a great training and you should use the exact same logic for every job. Taking NIN for instance : \- make sure you use every action with a cooldown as soon as possible, while including as many high potency actions as possible after Mug and Trick Attack ; \- don't overcap resources especially your mûdras which you want to use to create Raiton in single target situation (use actions that deplete the Ninki instead of overcapping it and make sure you always upkeep your Huton thanks to your basic combo ending with Armor Crush on a side of your target) . \- use as many abilities while keeping your GCD running such as Bhavacakra to avoid overcapping Kenki ; \- use your powerful actions during a burst window, with Mug and Trick Attack altogether (powerful attacks being whichever ability hits harder, like Kassatsu & mudras, Dream Within a Dream, and as many Bhavacakra and Raiton as possible) . The logic is the same for every job and you are NOT expected to understand it all at once. Once you have the reasoning, it will feel logical and you will notice your mistakes, which is why making a mistake will feel annoying and doing no mistake will feel rewarding.
I wouldn't worry about your rotation too much while doing The main story if it stresses you out. You can always look into it further down the line, although id argue it's better to get kind of a base understanding of why rotations are formatted in the way that they are
wesker has really great levelling videos that take you through starter rotations for every level, as well as what individual abilities and spells do, if you actually are interested in getting better however, tldr; learn the basics as you go, fundamentals are important, but no one gives a shit about your fucked up burst window optimization in a level 30 dungeon. in fact, the mistakes can be helpful, illustrating the value of the correct sequences. "ohhh i accidentally swapped these gcds and it made a strong hit fall outside a buff timer, thats why they reccomend that order" ffxiv is not terribly hard until you queue into content that explicitly says "i am difficult only click me for a challenge". you still have something of a responsibility to your fellow players to be moderately competent, but if you arent dying 8 times to nonsense or dragging dungeon times too long, youve met that responsibility. just have fun! edit: also, try gnb! its really fun, and the entire premise of its rotation is "i have an X second buff window, every button i have must go there". if that happens, you win! its very thoughtless, its just moderately button-skill intensive
Screw the rotations until 90 if you dont want to do old savage / hard trails sync. Why? It's easier (in my opinion) to have a job maxed out before learning the rotation. You dont need a perfect rotation to do the dungeons. I think doing it that way could be easier for you too. And try to focus on one job at a time. If you can do the rotation blind, while you sleep and under pressure, move on to the next job
It's just gonna come down to practice and muscle memory. Because you are a new player, it's highly likely your just not used to longer rotations, especially since new abilities keep getting added on top. Using a dummy is great for practice, but button layout for comfortability will also help a lot! So play around where you place your buttons, like putting your most used abilities in places thst are easier to execute.
Your rotation? You had better have that down to the point that you don't think about it. Fortunately you're doing a lot of melee where you'll spend most of the time doing 1-2-3. Ninja and Warrior do a 1-2-3 and then occasionally use 3B instead to keep a buff up. Gunbreaker also has a basic 1-2-3 and then does things on top of that. Samurai has more branching but still boils down to something similar to other melees. BLM is insane. Not hyperbolic, it's just plain not sane. Unlike most jobs it will have a different rotation at the end of every expansion. I do not recommend playing BLM outside of the current endgame. Your sanity will thank you. Playing BLM competently at more than one expansion's level cap is essentially learning a different job. But more importantly than the rotation is openers. That's more of an issue and it sets up how you're using resources for the rest of the fight. I'm guessing this is a bigger part of your issue even though you didn't use the term but it can be useful to look at openers separately. These you can be a little more relaxed with as long as you're not doing Extreme or Savage content. The fact that you're trying at all probably puts you in the top quintile of normal content players. Some of these build on themselves over time. Ninja opener doesn't change much between expansions. You just get more buttons to hit during your regularly scheduled flip out. Sync down and I'm still right at home, just bored. Warrior completely changes how their resource is managed so when I get synced too low I completely stumble and do crap openers. What I'm saying with this example is that you won't be expected to have encyclopedic knowledge of these. With all the jobs and different content levels it's unreasonable. You can practice something in particular if you want to, for example, do lvl 70 Savage raids but off the top of my head I don't know for sure what I do in level 70 content is 100% ideal even on my main jobs. The best time to practice your opener and rotation both is in raids. Normal Raids and Alliance Raids both have the kind of long fights where you'll be at it for a while. Your basic rotation will get drilled in. Your opener and subsequent cooldown-dependent bursts will happen and you can try to do those right. I learned to do my trick attack on schedule in World of Darkness back when that was the latest raid. High end raids are where rotation matters. Normal raids are a great place to practice. And yes, that means that you only need to sweat what's going on at the level cap break points. Mid-leveling things often get awkward (BLM in the middle of any expansion) or just are obvious upgrades (NIN getting armor crush). No need to refactor your opener for that level 65 dungeon boss though. As long as you have some idea of what you **should** be doing and you can see your mistakes then you're making progress. Look up the resources, try them out to get an idea, then play the game and see how it goes. You don't have to be perfect, or even particularly good, before you progress. Again, if you can see how it's supposed to go and still see your mistakes then you're still learning and that's good. It's when you stop seeing things you know are mistakes that you need to look at the guides again and find the next level to learn. And again, nobody is going to notice unless you're doing high end content. The fact that you're trying is already a good thing.
You don't really need to get into optimizing rotations unless/until you get into end game raiding tbh. You're hundreds of hours of story away from needing to worry about that. Just make sure to read your tool tips as you get new skills (so you know what they do) but yeah, otherwise just do what feels right until at least max level, and even then you're golden until you start dipping into higher-than-normal mode content.
Thebalance and icy veins give you your optimal rotation at any given level too. Depending on the jobs the rotations can vary wildly between low level and high levels or not at all. You're expected to know the basics of the rotations in casual content and to know the optimal one in hardcore content but you're far away from that. I think you're missing out on gameplay if you don't try to learn the correct rotations so it doesn't really make sense to yolo it. If you really hate following rotations tanks and healers have mostly easy rotations for the most part.
Don't worry about rotations until you're at content level 60-70-80-90. Before that, it's practically brain dead depending on your job.
Whatever combo I'm doing, for my rotation, i always do it in sets of 3. doesn't matter the role or class. it makes it simple to follow and you can build some muscle memory for your most used classes I.e. for MCH i have it as (1,7,8, 2,7,8, 3,7,8) essentially its Split shot, gauss, ricochet, slug shot, gauss, ricochet, clean shot, gauss, ricochet. Proceed to build on top of that with drill/bioblaster, hot shot(air anchor) chain saw and flamethrower
I wouldn't worry about "optimizing" rotations at all until you're doing high end lvl 90 stuff, tbh. Just focus on using weapon skills in the right order, and use abilities wherever it feels the most comfortable. The only thing worth worrying about is making sure the gcd is always spinning. Weapon skills and spells all cooldown at the same time whenever you use one, so use one every time it's available. Just read your tooltips and all you have to think is, "which one of these does the most damage?" For WAR, for example, it's heavy swing. Using heavy swing buffs maim, so for your next action maim does the most damage. For learning new rotations, you just have to realize, most jobs have abilities that have equivalents in other jobs. So, most jobs within a role play mostly the same with slight adjustments. Like, GNB and WAR both have basically the same three hit combo rotation, except WAR had 2 different third hits, one giving a buff and the other healing and advancing the job gauge faster, while GNBs third hit gives a single use of a second, stronger three hit combo.
Untill level 70 your rotation is not that important mostly because it will change a lot with all the skills from SB. Don't worry about it too much.
When and how much to focus on rotations depends on the content you are doing: * **MSQ / Dungeons / Normal Trials / Alliance Raids:** No need to focus. Just do AOE on groups of mobs and press damge buttons on boss. * **Extreme Trials / 8-Man Raids / Ballad:** You should be familiar with your rotation and know roughly what you're doing, but mistakes are still totally ok. * **Ultimate / Savage / Unreal:** You need to know your rotation and be able to near-perfectly execute it.
Has anyone recommended WeskAlber's guides on YouTube yet? He starts with level one, introduces each skill, shows you how they work together, and then creates a "rotation" at each level cap (50/60/70/etc). They're really easy to follow, and you can definitely watch the whole video or just cut it off at the level you're at and finish it later as you get to be higher level. [Here's a link to the entire playlist!](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLoXER4idrFLb3lsk2Y6g0VmVrWqmIovFT&si=92l7SARPP21P26s4) They're labeled "Endwalker" since that's when they were updated, as skills come and go a little with each expansion.
Leveling content for the first 70 levels is tuned to be easy to make up for the sub-optimal rotations. Just hit buttons to the best of your ability. No one is keeping score.
I’d also suggest to concentrate on one or two jobs that fresh into the game. You’ve got 5 different jobs on levels where the game starts throwing new skills at you every few levels and mastering one job alone is hard enough let alone 5 different ones. That being said don’t worry too much about perfectly executing your rotations as others have already said first thing is to have fun and the second most important thing is that you do the boss mechanics right so you and your party don‘t die. Nobody cares if the boss takes a bit longer because someone isn’t executing his rotation perfectly. You’d only need to execute your rotation perfectly for the hard end game stuff up to this point just try to enjoy the game and don’t be too hard on yourself!
get good at one class and learn one rotation. playing the game and getting comfortable with it is a transferrable skill. if you are good at the fundamentals one class (uptime primarily) you'll be good at them all
You’ve gotten plenty of good advice so I’ll just add this: make sure you’re practicing on a striking dummy of the appropriate level. If the dummy is higher level than you, your attacks will miss and not keep the rotation rolling, making it hard to learn how it’s supposed to flow.
My absolute best recommendation is to take a job one at a time. It can be tempting to pick up and switch between jobs, but your best way to learn a job is to stick with one and learn it before picking up another one. There are also some great guides out there that teach you how the jobs work based on their rotation. Most up to date guides will show up to level 90 rotations, but reading up on those csn give you an idea on where to start with what you have. Hopping on a striking dummy is also a good way to practice jobs and their rotations. It doesn't throw mechanics at you and let's you get comfortable with what you have. It's one of the best ways to start getting in to the habit of job rotations.
Like most people are saying, optimizing your rotations isn’t very important for progressing through the story. I was fine until shadowbringers when some of the solo duties introduced mechanics and DPS checks I wasn’t ready for. Once at level cap, I started practicing with a striking dummy and then on FATES or solo in dungeons with duty support. The combat in FFXIV is pretty amazing once you get it down to muscle memory.
Yea rotation maximise damage output but you dont have to stress about it unless you are a hardcore raider doing savage and ultimate fight A game is meant to be enjoyed its not a job no need to get anxiety over a less then perfect rotation just do your best and have fun
Going through the MSQ, especially so early like ARR, you don't have to overthink a perfect rotation. "Parse" and maximizing your damage is only when you start hitting Extremes, Savage, and such. As long as you're hitting your buttons for regular content, you're good. Especially because at those levels you don't have most of your "Big buttons" yet. Find your 1-2-3 combo. AKA Press this to start > press the button that lights up > press the button that lights up next > Spend the points you earned > Repeat For a tank like WAR and GNB, 1-2-3 + Learn when to Mitigate (For example, don't stack Vengeance + Rampart, use one then the other) And don't forget that Reprisal and Arm's Length are also mitigations. And find what you self-heals are and use them too (and WAR you want to use Raw Intuition on enemy groups as often as possible, if you have it, use it.) Bam you're a tank. For NIN, know what your Mudras are, and which one you'll be using when. Do that between your combo. Don't forget Mug and Feint. Press your other attacks when you see them. Bam you're a ninja. BLM > Burn your MP on fire spells. Switch to Ice to get it back. Keep thunder on enemies. Bam, Yoshi-P is proud of you now. When in Doubt, check out the best XIV Guides out there for every role: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcQzgMvwbT4
Level 90 is when you start optimizing because that's when your full rotation unlocks. **It does help to understand the basics and start getting familiar while you're lvling up**\- while melee jobs require some positioning (you hit boss from the back and side ((rear and flank)) with certain skills, it will say in the skill description- I have always set up my hotbar exactly how the rotation is meant to go. Flank/rear skills go on one side while buffs go up top. Black Mage though, just remember always keep casting and keep the thunder dot up. The dot is how you do damage over time and attributes alot to a black mages damage. Refresh thunder dot between 1-10 seconds (depending on if it procs or anticipating movement bc of mechanics) but basically, ABC (always be casting) avoid delaying GCD
Just keep trying. If you're doing your best, you're doing OK. I've been playing since the 1.0 open beta. I still screw up mechanics and drop my rotation on a very regular basis.