From WoW to FFXIV: The Transition Guide

Introduction

Final Fantasy 14 has recently surged in popularity within the MMO genre, due to various factors over the past few months. I myself had been playing World of Warcraft for 14 years, but I recently took a break to try out Final Fantasy 14 with a friend. If you’re one of these “WoW Refugees” as some people call it, this guide will cover some of the differences in terminology and game mechanics that you may have been used to in the past, and maybe different in FFXIV.

• See Related Article: How To Unlock The Reaper Class in Final Fantasy 14 Endwalker (FF14)
• See Related Article: World of Warcraft on Xbox?

FFXIV Terminology

We’ve all been there, seeing someone say a couple of letters and knowing it must mean something or seeing a word you’re just not familiar with. I will not be covering instances such as dungeons or raids due to how many of those there are, thankfully you likely won’t see people advertising in chat that they’re “LFM DM!” unless they’re looking for players for high-end max level content.

FFXIV Term	What it Means
ARR	A Realm Reborn, the base game of FFXIV (Version 2.0)
HW	Heavensward, the first expansion. Free and included in the free trial. (Version 3.0)
SB	Stormblood, the second expansion. (Version 4.0)
ShB	Shadowbringers, the third and current expansion. (Version 5.0)
EW	Endwalker, the upcoming expansion. Launches on December 7th, 2021. (Early Access on December 3rd with Pre-order) (Version 6.0)
OTP	One-Time Password, this is the “Authenticator” for FFXIV. You can use the OTP to give add additional protection to your account, however you will have to type in the OTP shown on your linked mobile device every time you wish to log onto FFXIV.
MSQ	Main Scenario Quest, or sometimes known as Main Story Quest. These are the main quests you’ll be doing as you level up through FFXIV. They can be recognized by the following icon:
FC	Free Company, these are essentially the “Guilds” of FFXIV.
Fant	Short for “Fantasia“, which is a purchasable item on the store that allows you to re-customize your character, including the race. You get one for free upon completing A Realm Reborn’s MSQ.
DoW	Disciple of War, any class that deals with physical damage.
DoM	Disciple of Magic, any class that deals magical damage, or primarily heals allies.
DoL	Disciple of Land, these are your gatherers that chop down trees, fish, or even smash rocks for hours because you still need more Fire Shards and someone bought out the Market so you’re stuck out here in a desert hitting rocks.
DoH	Disciple of Hand, these are your crafters making various items such as armor, weapons, potions, or even a Magicked Bed mount!
MB	Market Board, this is the name of the “Auction House” system for FFXIV. You can buy items from other players here, however, to sell items you will need to hire a Retainer, which requires the MSQ “The Scions of the Seventh Dawn“.
GP	Gathering Points, this is a resource bar used by DoL classes for their abilities.
CP	Crafting Points, this is a resource bar used by DoH classes for their abilities.
Tell	/tell is the “Whisper” chat that you may be used to from WoW, which may also be accessed by selecting their name in the chat and clicking “Send Tell”.
Shout	/shout is the “General” chat that you may be used to from WoW. It broadcasts to the entire zone you’re in.
Alliance Chat	/alliance is most similar to the “Raid” chat from WoW, but the way people use it is a bit different here. Raids are 24 player instances in FFXIV, made up of 3 Full Parties of 8. Many mechanics require you to coordinate with your party, so generally, people swap between /party chat and /alliance chat depending on what they need to say. If you played WoW Classic you may be used to this already thanks to Shaman totems, and that one guy who never dropped windfury.

Classes and Professions; Jobs

In FFXIV both Classes and Professions are known as “Jobs”. You can get every job in the game on one character, and you can swap freely between them. When you create a new character you’ll see a small selection of jobs, under the categories “Disciples of War” (DoW) and “Disciples of Magic” (DoM). These starting jobs transform at level 30 into a new job. There are also more jobs you can unlock later in the game.

Every name listed below is also a link to the quest that grants you the job.

Icon	Job	Role	Unlock Requirements
	Dark Knight	Tank (DoW)	Level 50, must have completed the main story quest “Before the Dawn“.
	Gunbreaker	Tank (DoW)	Level 60, must own Shadowbringers expansion.
	Astrologian	Healer (DoM)	Level 50, must have completed the main story quest “Before the Dawn“.
	Rogue Ninja at 30	Melee DPS (DoW)	Level 10, must have completed any level 10 Combat Job quest.
	Samurai	Melee DPS (DoW)	Level 50, must own Stormblood expansion.
	Machinist	Ranged DPS (DoW)	Level 50, must have completed the main story quest “Before the Dawn“.
	Dancer	Ranged DPS (DoW)	Level 60, must own Shadowbringers expansion.
	Red Mage	Ranged Magic DPS (DoM)	Level 50, must own Stormblood expansion.
	Blue Mage*	Everything* (DoM)	Level 50, must have completed the main story quest “The Ultimate Weapon“.

The following jobs are considered “Disciple of the Land” (DoL) and “Disciple of the Hand” (DoH), which essentially means Gathering jobs and Crafting jobs. They level up in the same manner as Disciple of War and Disciple of Magic jobs, but instead of fighting creatures, you have to harvest resources or craft items to gain experience.

Icon	Job	Type
	Miner	Gatherer (DoL)
	Botanist	Gatherer (DoL)
	Fisher	Gatherer (DoL)
	Carpenter	Crafter (DoH)
	Blacksmith	Crafter (DoH)
	Armorer	Crafter (DoH)
	Goldsmith	Crafter (DoH)
	Leatherworker	Crafter (DoH)
	Weaver	Crafter (DoH)
	Alchemist	Crafter (DoH)
	Culinarian	Crafter (DoH)

Combat, Slower Than WoW?

Both WoW and FFXIV have a system called “Global Cooldown” (GCD for short), which applies a small cooldown to almost all abilities whenever you use any ability. In FFXIV the GCD is 2.5 seconds for all classes. While in WoW the GCD was 1.5 seconds, or 1 second if you were a class that used Energy as a resource.

This can be difficult to get used to for those of us that have spent years with 1-1.5 second GCDs. This issue is alleviated later in the game as you will get abilities that are “Off-GCD”, meaning they can be used even if your GCD is actively waiting. It can however be difficult to get through the initial gameplay for those that are used to the faster combat. Just remember, WoW starts off slow too, this is just a bit more extreme.

Sadly, there is no way to try out a class at a higher level to see if you might enjoy it.

The Story, Endless Dialogue

I heavily recommend giving the story a serious try, however, mostly because of Heavensward. The free trial extends to level 60, which means you’ll waste no money trying the game out that far. If you don’t enjoy Heavensward then you are likely not going to enjoy the rest of the expansions either, and that’s okay! Not every game is for everybody.

Is There a “Wowhead” For FFXIV?

Rarely did I have the need to search how to complete a quest, but you’re eventually bound to run into something you don’t understand. Or maybe you inspected a player and see an item that you want to know how to obtain. If you simply search the name of an item online, for example, “Dreadwyrm Robe of Casting”, you get multiple different results (results may vary). Personally, I find most of the information I need from the finalfantasyxiv.com/lodestone result, which is normally (but not always) the top result. This “Lodestone” is the official database as well, however, comments are not nearly as common as they were on Wowhead.

What about News?

Glad you asked, that same website has a news section as well, where you can check for upcoming and active events, in addition, it includes a few guides of its own. Logging in on here will also allow you to see information such as what gear you have equipped, your currency, recent Free Company (FFXIV’s version of a Guild) activity, and more! Consider this website to be sort of Wowhead and Worldofwarcraft.com combined, but with the downside that it isn’t a fansite, meaning the news is only official stuff.

In addition, you may have heard or seen something called the “Mog Station”. That is the shop, where you can buy game time, register a One-Time Password (FFXIV’s name for their Authenticator), and view some account information. The Mog Station is also the name of the real money shop, which can be seen here.

Addons

Addons are a big part of World of Warcraft, many players use them for things such as tracking damage, changing their display, or even allowing better controller support. It may come as a shock however that Final Fantasy 14 is very different in this regard. Third-party modifications (Basically, any addon or mod) are against the User Agreement you consent to upon creating an account.

2.1 Cheating and Botting. You may not create or use any unauthorized cheats, bots, automation software, hacks, mods or any other unauthorized software or hardware designed to modify the Game and gameplay. In addition, you may not take advantage of game system bugs and exploits during gameplay.

Final Fantasy 14 User Agreement

That being said, many players do still use third-party modifications to enhance their game in many ways on PC. Square Enix seems to be lenient about banning people from using them, but keep in mind that you shouldn’t discuss your modifications in-game if you do seek them out. In addition; mods, addons, plugins, whatever you call them they can be a contentious topic within the community. These restrictions do exist for a reason, as FFXIV can be played on some consoles such as the PS4 and PS5 which cannot be easily modified by the average player.

So with the base game, you will not be able to track your DPS, customize warnings about boss mechanics, or receive a popup when your cooldowns are available. This is the intention of the game, so I recommend giving it a serious try before searching for a way to modify your game.

Player vs. Player

This might be one of the most jarring differences between World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy 14, but that depends on what types of content you enjoy. There is no “Horde vs Alliance”, and although you do choose one of three factions within the game during your leveling journey it does not affect you in PvP. There is also no open world PvP, you cannot even duel outside of specific locations.

When you do enter a PvP area it scales all players to an equal level and gear level, and all of your abilities change to a PvP version of your current job. Every job plays completely differently in PvP content, so you will have to re-learn your job. There are training dummies located in Wolves’ Den Pier in La Noscea, which is unlocked this area at level 30 from the quest “A Pup No Longer”. You must also have chosen a Grand Company during your Main Story Questline.

Due to the scaling, you can PvP on your other jobs as long as they are level 30 or above. In addition, you can swap jobs during the PvP matches. Experience rewarded from a PvP match is given to the job you first queued with, not the job you are currently playing in the match. This means you could queue as a Red Mage, switch to Scholar in the match, and when it completes you will still receive Red Mage experience.

Frontlines

Frontlines are the main “Battlegrounds” of FFXIV. They are composed of 3 teams of 24 players (with the 24 being split across 3 full parties), however, your team is chosen randomly. The objective is slightly different across the 4 maps, but they’re all similar in that you need to gain points at specific locations to win, either by capturing locations, shattering rocks with your damage, or sometimes battling enemy creatures.

With so many players and 3 teams involved, they can be rather chaotic. Thankfully, the daily Roulette queue for Frontlines only requires you to complete one, not win. You should still try your best of course, but losing is not a waste of time!

Rival Wings

Rival Wings is a MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) style game, similarly structured to Heroes of the Storm or League of Legends. There’s currently only one map, Hidden Gorge (Astragalos is listed as another option in the Duty Finder, but it has been disabled for a long time). It is composed of 2 teams of 24 players (with the 24 being split across 6 parties), and your team is chosen randomly.

The objective is to defeat the enemy’s Core, which is a structure on their side of the map. To do so you must keep your mammets (tiny robot minions) safe from harm. There are many aspects of this map to learn, so it can be a bit overwhelming. In case you want to learn more, refer to this official page for details on every aspect of the map.

The Feast

The Feast is the “Arena” of FFXIV, but it has large differences from the Arena system of WoW. It features 1v1, 2v2, and 4v4. 1v1 and 4v4 feature a Ranking system, therefore at the end of a season you will receive rewards based on what tier your rating places you into.

The objective is to steal your opponent’s medals, which they will drop onto the ground when they die. There will be a score on the top of your screen, and the first team to fill their score bar wins! Alternatively, when the match ends 6 minutes after beginning it will choose the team that got the most score as the winner.

If the match ends with a tie you will enter Sudden Death. This lasts 2 minutes, and the first team to earn a single medal will win the match. However, if the timer ends the match will end in a draw.

When any player lives for a lengthy amount of time, they will gain a stacking status effect that increases their damage taken. In addition, dieing removes all stacks of this effect.

If you want more detailed information about The Feast, check out this official page.

The Feast is being removed with patch 6.1, the first patch of Endwalker.

Crystal Conflict

Crystal Conflict is a new game mode being added with 6.1, the first patch of Endwalker. We don’t have full details yet, but it will feature a 5v5 mode which involves players pushing a crystal objective into the opponent’s base.