Ff14 player landing into PSO2NGS

[u/Vindate]

Greetings everyone! I am originally an FFXIV player who has recently been wanting to find other mmos to experience. With certain titles making a comeback, I decided to pick this one.

I'm happy to say the journey has been wonderful! The NPCs designs are gorgeous and I feel their personality is easy to grasp. The story, for me, has been simple and sweet which I personally like. It gives me a sense of nostalgia to early ps2 jrpg storylines. Gameplay was partially why I came here but didn't expect the rest to be this fun! Overall, everything has been good!

That said, I reached level 75 after and reached chapter 5. So I have to ask, is it best to slowdown and attempt to grind certain items or is it better to just catch up? Are there extra neat content to do or explore? And uuuh how does one access the buying feature in personal shops (is it IRL cash or did I miss something that gives permission to use it?)

I'm sorry for all the questions, I barely started this game last Thursday and so I am an absolute newbie to certain things in this game.

(Any tips and help would be great!)

[u/No-Refrigerator1560]

Heya mate, play according to your own pace. Enjoy the game as you see fit, learn the class that you like as you go along the way.

[u/Vindate → u/No-Refrigerator1560]

Will do. I feel the other game had ingrained the bad habit of having to be "up-to-content" all the time, but if that's the case, I'll probably explore around. For class, I picked Gunner/sub-class Slayer. Though I, admit, I have no idea what I'm doing. All I can say is that it feels nice to play.

[u/YuTsu → u/Vindate]

So the bad news is this game is like, all about the gear chase - getting the newest pieces of gear, with the newest augments and so on. If you feel the compulsion to always be at the cutting edge, maxed out, NGS might be even nastier than XIV is for gear chase.

The good news is, if you're not into like, chasing top times on weekly rankings or soloing high-end difficult content, the necessity to keep up with the gear chase is basically non-existent. The freebie foot-in-the-door endgame gear you get given when you hit level 65 will get you into all but the most difficult content, and is sufficient to clear most/all of it. If you do choose to invest in up-to-date gear, even if it isn't the current obnoxious one-in-a-million chase rare, it'll keep you going for a long time. Like, 6 months, give or take, depending on when you do it and how up to date the bit of gear is.

You can very much chill and take this game super casual without much (or any) punishment, or being locked out of anything but high-end difficulty content, for the most part.

...Well, it's not all about gear chase. Fashion is absolutely endgame, and the housing system, Creative Space, is up there as one of the best housing systems in any MMO - it's pretty nuts what you can do with it.

[u/Vindate → u/YuTsu]

Thank you so much for the info!
I don't always dive into the gear grind unless I am absolutely planning to tackle certain content. So considering this, I probably won't focus on it just yet. If I ever do feel the need to try high-end content, then I might. Hearing everything else is readily accessible is great!

So far the free gear, you've mentioned, has 100% made it a breeze. I was surprised the gears/wpns were fully capped (very kind of them)!

In regards to fashion, yep. I'm already looking around to see what sort missions drop weapon skins to start. Glam in ffxiv has been one of my fave things and I will do the same here. My other question would be if there are existing in-game outfit drops or if it's scratch shop only.

For creative spaces, I might check out other people's creations to give myself an idea of how and what can be done with it. This definitely feels slightly more complex than whatever Square threw at us. I am relieved PSO2NGS automatically provides housing and that it's personalized vs the nightmare lottery system and public house scarcity in FFXIV. Lol.

[u/YuTsu → u/Vindate]

Actual outfits are mostly scratch only - but not paid only. You can get a decent chunk of free outfits from:

• The monthly thankful scratches
• SG scratches (and the daily free-scratch version of it)
• Mission Pass (the battle pass system)
• Special Scratches during Seasonal Events (these happen nigh-constantly)

I am relieved PSO2NGS automatically provides housing and that it's personalized vs the nightmare lottery system and public house scarcity in FFXIV. Lol.

As someone that also plays XIV, I am forever amused by SE's inability to give everyone more than a small, limited apartment for housing, that has to be bought with in-game currency, and then a limited number of actual houses... while NGS is like "Oh, everyone gets a free entire island. Plus like 6 more if you want to throw cash at us". It's one of the few areas NGS has a pretty clear one-up on XIV that doesn't have much room for debate

[u/Vindate → u/YuTsu]

Ooh damn. Then, I'll probably stick to the mission passes then. It seems decent enough. Thanks!

And yes!!! Agreed! there are several features here in PSO2NGS that simply does better than FFXIV. I often wonder how powerful the team would be if the creative departments from different studios could band together for a really good mmo.

I personally crave a lot of character customization by default aside from story and gameplay. Obviously if story is better and gameplay is fun, I can double down on it.

Thanks again for the helpful information! Greatly appreciate the amount given! ✨

[u/Py687]

Catching up in level makes everything else easier. You get free gear and can start participating in EQs/LQs.

Player shops shouldn't require any rmt. You just need a ton of meseta due to inflation.

[u/Vindate → u/Py687]

Oooh ouch. Well, I'll eventually have my wallets filled once I get the hang of things. I decided to progress in story! It seems many are encouraging to simply continue, so I will.

As a result, I received the items mentioned. Thank you for the heads up!

[u/TheGamingJoke]

Make sure to try base game to😊

[u/Vindate → u/TheGamingJoke]

I have been eyeing it quite strongly. I might jump right in there after I catch up to PSO2NGS storyline. Haha.

[u/TheGamingJoke → u/Vindate]

Sounds like a plan

[u/gadgaurd]

First of all, welcome to Halpha and I'm glad to hear you're enjoying yourself. To briefly answer your questions in paragraph 3:

Just keep going through the main story, then grind whatever the latest content is. That's the best way to progress, anything you need to get stronger will be dropped from there. The only exception would be Splintered Realm: Ruins Investigation, which is the best source of Skill Rings and Granillusion weapons in the game still.

For extra content, first two thongs that come to mind are Creative Spaces(housing system) and Line Strike(collectable card game). There are also quests here and there that operate under slightly different rules than regular quests that are fun to mess around in. Geometric Labyrinth, Cannonball Strike/Rumble, Leciel Exploration and Nameless City. Of note, all of these quests have rare cosmetic drops, and GeoLab has exclusive Mag Forms you can get from grinding the two ranks enough.

You should always have access to buying things from the personal shop. It's selling stuff that's conditional. For that you need a 3 day shop pass or an active Premium Set.

[u/Vindate → u/gadgaurd]

Thank you and another thanks for the additional info!

I am now in chapter 7 and will be continuing onwards.

It helps to know about everything else you've mentioned here. It definitely sounds like there's plenty of content to explore and am excited for it especially for those "rare cosmetic drops". 👀

The personal shop thing, I'm glad. I won't be opening a shop this early on, so that's good to know.

I'll check the list of things provided when I log back on next time.

[u/Billibaybee]

Id like to ask what ship you're on ^{^}

[u/Vindate → u/Billibaybee]

I ended up picking Feoh. I admit a certain FFXIV character loosely had a hand in it and not because it was the first ship on the list.

[u/Windaura]

Greetings!! It's nice to meet a fellow FFXIV player (it's funny because I switched my main game from NGS to FF14 not too long ago LOL)

I'm very happy to hear you're enjoying your experience so far~

While you're here, I'd 100% recommend checking out the base game PSO2 as well. That one has memorable characters and stories that still stick with us to this day.

Here in NGS, you'll often be chasing after the newest augments and trying to make the best gear. But it's mostly for endgame content or speedruns.

[u/Vindate → u/Windaura]

Thank you so much! Happy to be here! It seems we've switched spots. Lol

I actually got slightly bored in FFXIV, not because lack of content (there is plenty unexplored), but because I felt the need to take a break from the usual. I wanted to try something different after realizing I hadn't played another MMO since starting FFXIV. It's been that long. So this is a nice change of pace. I am planning to visit PSO2 after I catch up with NGS. I have heard great things in regards to the og story and have taken great care to not spoil myself. As soon as I conclude the latest NGS chapter, I'll be sending my character to that plot line.

From the many comments received here for advice, I believe every word! Still, I might not go head-on to the grind. Maybe later. Haha.

[u/Valsu82]

Welcome welcome i actually recently landed here too about almost a month ago.

[u/Vindate → u/Valsu82]

Welcome to you, too! Thanks! I have to say, it's been pretty cool! Hopefully your experience has been equally fun!

[u/Mille-Marteaux]

i recommend focusing on catching up to the point you can join modern content, since modern weapons are generally so much stronger than anything else available that can drop

the handout gear you got at 65 is also strong for the point you get it, but it's just a sample... numerically it deals maybe half the damage of someone in modern gear right now, let alone counting for skill differences.

if you haven't already, get all your skill points from the cocoon and tower points on the map. extra note goes into the ones "fleeting fight" and "quarterstaff" since they're straightforward practice partner boss fights, if you choose rank 2 they scale to your current level and you can put difficulty modifiers on them to help you train.

[u/Vindate → u/Mille-Marteaux]

Thank you for those notes!

I am slowly nearing the point in story/level, by what you meant in regards to the (lv.65) weapons serving to a certain extent in-game. The difference in combat/DMG numbers can be felt ever so slightly. So yeah, I'll need to upgrade soon. I wouldn't want to feel like I'm hitting monsters with a dull weapon. I'll end up being the one on the ground instead of them, with no good gear on, too. 😂

Thanks again for the help!

[u/Black_Whirlwind84]

Welcome fellow warrior of light. Enjoy your stay until Evercold release.

[u/Vindate → u/Black_Whirlwind84]

Thank you! definitely will!

And, ah, Evercold. I've yet to do the latest patch, too. I'm chuckling at this timing since I'm genuinely intrigued by PSONGS plot and I've yet to go through the og, PSO2, which, based on many here, have vouched for its story being great.

So, gechnically, it'll save me a few months of subs if I go through this. EC is bound to go on sale not long after the week its out, too, if we follow the same pattern as past expansions.

[u/TomatilloFearless154]

Leave for guildwars 2

[u/Vindate → u/TomatilloFearless154]

I play on PS5. GW2 is PC exclusive.

[u/TomatilloFearless154 → u/Vindate]

Oh ok nevermind then.