I really want to get into FFXIV, but I have a few questions.

[kayos90]

I know there's a lot of disdain for 2.0 and the early 2.X patch story content. I've even heard people say trudge along and stuff. To be quite honest, I think the hate for the early story segment is so overblown and I think the payoff for a lot of the foundational stuff happening will be well worth it imo.

 

[Sai]

I'm sorry, are you suggesting OP skips over the very story that they basically said they were going to play it for? The #1 thing people rave about with XIV is it's MSQ, and OP said they want to play because people rave about it.

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They don't say they're playing it specifically for the story at all. And they asked how long it is, so I told them how long it was in my experience :)

 

[Alpheus]

Thanks for all the pointers and patience, everyone! I think I'm going to read up on the starter stuff tomorrow and then start playing (or resume, I guess?) on Friday. May just make this a thread for my impressions at that point.

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One word of caution should you go healer and I say this as a healer main who cut his teeth in XI where you did nothing but heal, its....a bit dull as a healer especially when going through story as you only have 1 button for damage dealing and a second button to inflict some damage over time on the enemy with some additional damage buttons coming in much later at higher levels but even at lvl 90 healers spend their downtime with just that 1 DPS button.

I don't say this to scare you but if you're not afraid of being a DPS/damage dealer for your first 30 levels (ARR lvl cap is 50 for reference then +10 to lvl cap as you go thru expansions) then I recommend you try out Arcanist as its the only class in the game that can prestige into more than 1 Job, Summoner or Scholar. Summoner being a DPS Job and Scholar being the other healer Job available in ARR. On top of this both Jobs share level growths (but not stats as Summoner and Scholar focus on different base stats, Summoner focuses on Intelligence like Black Mage and Red Mage to power their damage formulas/calculations while Scholar focuses on Mind to power both their damage and healing formulas/calculations.

Any starting class will do the trick for ya though long as it's a class fantasy you're interested in and while ALL start off dull, healers unfortunately, stay duller than the other combat roles until you step into high end content that pushes you to plan out your heals and such. But at the same time it gives ya lots of time to get your bearings since you dont need to track a whole lot early on when healing. You do enjoy faster queue times when getting grouped up by the Duty Finder (rando group finder) if you're a healer or a tank but you do have more responsibility in either dog walking enemy monsters as a tank or keeping everyone alive as a healer.

You can change class once you reach lvl 10 and at lvl 15 the story quests will have you visit the other 2 starting cities you did not pick upon character creation (chosen when picking your starting class) so don't think you're super locked into your choice for a long while. To change classes you need to reach lvl 10 on any class and then simply head to that class' guild and talk to the receptionist who will give ya your starting weapon for that class to get ya started, once done all ya gotta do is change weapons (the game has gear sets you can manually save so you end up simply swap loadouts as opposed to manually changing your gear every time you swap.

 

[Deleted member 34949]

One word of caution should you go healer and I say this as a healer main who cut his teeth in XI where you did nothing but heal, its....a bit dull as a healer especially when going through story as you only have 1 button for damage dealing and a second button to inflict some damage over time on the enemy with some additional damage buttons coming in much later at higher levels but even at lvl 90 healers spend their downtime with just that 1 DPS button.

I don't say this to scare you but if you're not afraid of being a DPS/damage dealer for your first 30 levels (ARR lvl cap is 50 for reference then +10 to lvl cap as you go thru expansions) then I recommend you try out Arcanist as its the only class in the game that can prestige into more than 1 Job, Summoner or Scholar. Summoner being a DPS Job and Scholar being the other healer Job available in ARR. On top of this both Jobs share level growths (but not stats as Summoner and Scholar focus on different base stats, Summoner focuses on Intelligence like Black Mage and Red Mage to power their damage formulas/calculations while Scholar focuses on Mind to power both their damage and healing formulas/calculations.

Any starting class will do the trick for ya though long as it's a class fantasy you're interested in and while ALL start off dull, healers unfortunately, stay duller than the other combat roles until you step into high end content that pushes you to plan out your heals and such. But at the same time it gives ya lots of time to get your bearings since you dont need to track a whole lot early on when healing. You do enjoy faster queue times when getting grouped up by the Duty Finder (rando group finder) if you're a healer or a tank but you do have more responsibility in either dog walking enemy monsters as a tank or keeping everyone alive as a healer.

You can change class once you reach lvl 10 and at lvl 15 the story quests will have you visit the other 2 starting cities you did not pick upon character creation (chosen when picking your starting class) so don't think you're super locked into your choice for a long while. To change classes you need to reach lvl 10 on any class and then simply head to that class' guild and talk to the receptionist who will give ya your starting weapon for that class to get ya started, once done all ya gotta do is change weapons (the game has gear sets you can manually save so you end up simply swap loadouts as opposed to manually changing your gear every time you swap.

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Thanks for this, that's a lot to consider. I'll have to read up on every class.

 

[bunkitz]

An advance welcome to Eorzea! We'll be happy to have you!

Quick tip to get out of the way: Make sure you get the FREE TRIAL. Don't make the mistake of picking the "starter pack" or whatever it's called as that'll lock you out of the free trial. Happened to me on PS, so I had to use my other PSN account to play instead.

- I don't really have anyone I know to play with, so I'd be doing what I can solo. I know being an MMO and all, you're encouraged to play with others and such, but how far could I reasonably get alone?

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This was, well, is still me today. The game can be played solo all the way through. You'll occasionally have to join random players in dungeons and raids, etc. but the matchmaking is good and it'll be like a "get in and get out" thing. You don't even have to talk whatsoever, though saying hello and/or GG is always appreciated, of course.

The best part though, is that the team have been slowly rolling out updates to the old dungeons to make them even more solo friendly, teaming you with A.I. party members instead of matchmaking with random players. It's a system that was introduced in Shadowbringers and has now been added to all of ARR (base game) and I believe most of Heavensward.

- How long am I looking at to finish the first part of the game? I've read that pretty much all the expansions eclipse the first bit of the game in quality, so I'm really looking forward to eventually getting there. I guess I want
to know how much of a time investment I'm looking at in this part?

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Unfortunately... yeah, ARR is gonna take quite a while. Maybe 40 to 50 hours...? It's not that bad though, I enjoyed it myself even though I wanted to reach Heavensward so badly the whole time. It'll pay off well in future expansions too. Worthwhile investment for sure.

Take your time though. No need to rush through it as the free trial is unlimited play time. If you're feeling burnt out or just not motivated, take a break. The game was literally designed to not require players to be constantly playing, the team is well aware we've all got lives, jobs, and other games we want to play.

- I haven't really touched an MMO since my mid teens or so, and even that was really only casually. Is there any sort of do's and don'ts or general etiquette I should keep in mind?

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Be kind and patient to others. Which is applicable everywhere, really. If you're playing a healer though, make sure to DPS too! Feel free to let others know if you're new to a dungeon or a role. Most players are nice and patient, especially to sprouts. "Sprouts" is an affectionate (well, I like to think of it affectionately anyway, haha) nickname new players have cause of the icon you have until you reach the latest expansions and/or reach a certain playtime.

Otherwise, yeah, just say "hi" or "GG" when running dungeons with others. Though it's also perfectly fine not to. If you're not a tank, don't pull mobs for the tank, let them handle it. Use your AoE's when necessary.

 

[Aaronrules380]

Most important piece of advice I can give to any new player is to make sure you do the Hildebrand sidequest chain that unlocks after the main ARR story

 

[Deleted member 34949]

Take your time though. No need to rush through it as the free trial is unlimited play time. If you're feeling burnt out or just not motivated, take a break. The game was literally designed to not require players to be constantly playing, the team is well aware we've all got lives, jobs, and other games we want to play.

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This is a bit of a relief to hear. I was thinking it was something I'd have to keep up constantly or I'd miss out on certain things.

 

[LiquidSolid]

Afaik last patch made everything through the end of Heavenswards (first expansion) MSQ (not the patches of it I think though?) solo doable with NPC companions, everything thats 4-man content that is.

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Yup, though 6.3 is coming on Jan 10th and will add duty support (NPC teams) to the next set of dungeons. I can't remember the schedule they put out but I think the post-HW dungeons will come in 6.3, SB dungeons will come in 6.4 and then the post-SB dungeons in 6.5. I could be wrong though.

Even when you skip all the cutscenes, 1-50 is unbearably long, and the MSQs for some of the expansions are as well. It's worth playing up til you finish Heavensward and then I'd just buy the MSQ skip to start on Endwalker.

It's easy to do the story quests solo, but it's worth using the dungeon queue to play with others for the dungeons/raids/trials, as those have the most fun encounters of the game.

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Wat. Suggesting someone play ARR and HW, skip SB and ShB and then play EW is maybe the worst XIV advice I've ever seen lol. Why not just skip everything at that point?

 

[Laughing Banana]

This is a bit of a relief to hear. I was thinking it was something I'd have to keep up constantly or I'd miss out on certain things.

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Well, as in other on-going games, there are things where you may find it harder to find players to play together with since they're outdated and most people already moved on.

Which is why I would suggest you to enter a Free Company or to ask someone to invite you to Novice Network, where usually you can always find people willing to help if you ask others to help you do content. Most peeps in those do not mind if you're just... there, and not chatting and active or whatnot, if that's your preference, and many would still just help if you need help with anything... it's nice.

Also which server are you planning to play? I... would advise against registering in OCE server, for instance, because yeah, they're kinda dead and you will find it harder to use the game's matchmaking feature to play older content. Try, if you can, to enter a server that is active or in the same world as an active server for more ease of play.

 

[trashbandit]

Assuming you're going though the entire story, you should be prepared to dump at least 200-300 hours into the game.

 

[Cien]

This is a bit of a relief to hear. I was thinking it was something I'd have to keep up constantly or I'd miss out on certain things.

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XIV is extremely good with regards to respecting player time. It IS still an MMO, with the usual grinds and time sinks, but one nice thing they do is make the grind less for certain things as the game goes on. It is VERY easy to gear up and "catch up" to current content even after a break. Previous top tier items/weapons will become cheaper/easier to acquire as new stuff is added, etc. Take your time and enjoy. If you ever want friendly people to kick around with, there are tons of good people around here who love to help. server travel is a thing, so anyone can group up together.

 

[Vareon]

This is a bit of a relief to hear. I was thinking it was something I'd have to keep up constantly or I'd miss out on certain things.

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Nah the game has very little missable content, and most of them are just mounts, minions, or glams that you might not even want. You will have some things that are harder to get because players gravitate towards current content, but there are a lot of groups formed by like-minded people to do old stuff.

Many of my friends are unsubbed now. Some of them plan to resub when 6.3 drops in January, some of them plan to skip 6.3 and resub in 6.4 when there's a new raid tier, some of them are just waiting for Free Days just to catch up with the ongoing story. It's very normal to only sub whenever you want.

 

[Rikalaus]

We have a thread here made by Zen with loads of for helping new/returning players thats been very helpful with stuff added throughout the years by other members too https://www.resetera.com/threads/fo...me-tips-for-maximizing-your-enjoyment.253137/

We also have FF14era discord aswell as in game linkshells too if ever you need a hand or looking for people to play long with https://www.resetera.com/threads/ffxiv-era-discord-and-linkshells-recruitment-thread.266949/

 

[Kyubajin]

I've always wanted to try this game after the glowing reviews but I don't see myself devoting 200+ hours :(

 

[Gradon]

Big tip: Just focus on the MSQ (Main Scenario Quest) and Blue quests. The former advances the story and the latter will be essential in unlocking skills for your job as well as other important game content.

MSQ icon looks like this:

And Blue quest icon looks like this;

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Best advice ever, generally, ignore these:

They're usually fetch quests, time wasters, boring. There's only some instances where they actually matter to unlock other things but by the time you get to that point you'll understand what, why and how to get 'em. (talking Moogle quests in HSW for example)

 

[Atolm]

The problem is not playing solo or with people, as others have pointed out most content can be done with NPCs now, and the content that you can't do on your own is not really neccesary or it's a weak-ass trial that matchmaking will solve for you.

The problem is having the time and the commitment the game requires, easily 500h+ for getting up to date.

 

[Klyka]

Even when you skip all the cutscenes, 1-50 is unbearably long, and the MSQs for some of the expansions are as well. It's worth playing up til you finish Heavensward and then I'd just buy the MSQ skip to start on Endwalker.

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Endwalker without all the connections and memories made from playing through the previous expansions would hit like a wet fart

 

[Vareon]

I've always wanted to try this game after the glowing reviews but I don't see myself devoting 200+ hours :(

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Yeah I sit on this game for the longest time and only during the pandemic I finally plunged in. It is essentially five mainline Final Fantasies in term of content. Or five seasons of a TV show. The good side is you can have a taste of its lore and worldbuilding for free, then if you liked it Heavensward (still free) is still one of the best story in FF. Second good thing is Endwalker really ends the major arc started on 2.0, no baits or "bigger baddies" attached, so you can truly stop there if you don't want the game to consume your life.

 

[AvianAviator]

FFXIV is very Solo-friendly. All of the required dungeons for the original game and first expansion have been adjusted so you can enter with a group of NPCs if you wish.

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I have a question about this. Does that mean you can do the daily roulette in these dungeons with NPCs?

 

[Rosa Lilium]

Probably the most solo friendly MMO around tbh

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Star Wars: The Old Republic is more solo friendly as there's absolutely no main story content you have to do with other players.

 

[DrForester]

I have a question about this. Does that mean you can do the daily roulette in these dungeons with NPCs?

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No. Roulettes will likely always toss you in with other players. One of the points of the roulettes is to funnel experienced players into older content to help people doing it for the first time. I doubt that will ever change.

 

[DekarTheDragoon]

- I don't really have anyone I know to play with, so I'd be doing what I can solo. I know being an MMO and all, you're encouraged to play with others and such, but how far could I reasonably get alone?

- How long am I looking at to finish the first part of the game? I've read that pretty much all the expansions eclipse the first bit of the game in quality, so I'm really looking forward to eventually getting there. I guess I want
to know how much of a time investment I'm looking at in this part?

Click to shrink...

You can absolutely beat the entire game 'alone'. There's queues for random groups for any team content, but the majority of your time will be solo anyways.

The first part of the game is a unique problem, I'd say. I'd argue it's actually pretty good once you're invested in the game, but it's extremely boring if you aren't invested in the game. Obviously, just starting the game you will not yet be invested in the characters or world. The world building is exceptionally slow.

Honestly, I wound up skipping and half-ignoring the majority of A Realm Reborn and Post-ARR when I went through it initially. I made it to level 20 or so and just couldn't do it any longer. It was closer to a speedrun than not. I don't regret it, it's extremely easy to replay later. And if given the choice between burning out in ARR, or getting to Heavensward with only knowing bits and pieces of ARR... You gotta take option 2 in my opinion. I wound up replaying ARR after beating Shadowbringers and I don't feel like I missed a whole lot, and I certainly appreciated ARR's world building a ton more at that point.

I'm not saying that's ideal, but it's a long slog of a game and it's absolutely worth getting to the other side in any way possible if necessary.

 

[PSI Rockin’ Ω]

Help everybody. I love FF and have heard FF fans rave about the later story in XIV. So I girded myself for a rough time and mostly enjoyed playing through ARR. Now I'm on like the last patch before Heavensward and every time I log in, it feels really repetitive and meaningless. The voices got better with actor changes, but the scenes are still way too verbose, taking 3-4 boxes to say things that could be said in one. All the MC ever does is nod or stare into space. Quests are just fast-travel-click-through-dialogue-fast-travel-repeat. Getting a flying mount kind of removed my connection to the world. I think I lost the magic just as this game supposedly gets good. Any words of encouragement?

 

[Htown]

Help everybody. I love FF and have heard FF fans rave about the later story in XIV. So I girded myself for a rough time and mostly enjoyed playing through ARR. Now I'm on like the last patch before Heavensward and every time I log in, it feels really repetitive and meaningless. The voices got better with actor changes, but the scenes are still way too verbose, taking 3-4 boxes to say things that could be said in one. All the MC ever does is nod or stare into space. Quests are just fast-travel-click-through-dialogue-fast-travel-repeat. Getting a flying mount kind of removed my connection to the world. I think I lost the magic just as this game supposedly gets good. Any words of encouragement?

Click to shrink...

yeah the post-ARR patches can be pretty rough, you just have to push through

it is absolutely worth it

the story does eventually pick up the pace before heavensward hits

you can also take a little break from the main quest to go do some optional dungeons or play some minigames at the gold saucer, maybe do whatever seasonal event is happening

 

[Rosa Lilium]

Help everybody. I love FF and have heard FF fans rave about the later story in XIV. So I girded myself for a rough time and mostly enjoyed playing through ARR. Now I'm on like the last patch before Heavensward and every time I log in, it feels really repetitive and meaningless. The voices got better with actor changes, but the scenes are still way too verbose, taking 3-4 boxes to say things that could be said in one. All the MC ever does is nod or stare into space. Quests are just fast-travel-click-through-dialogue-fast-travel-repeat. Getting a flying mount kind of removed my connection to the world. I think I lost the magic just as this game supposedly gets good. Any words of encouragement?

Click to shrink...

The patch content of ARR has a lot of slogs to get through. Just keep chipping away at it at your own pace.

You can break it up a bit by doing the Crystal Tower quests as you have to do them anyways to get to Heavensward.

 

[hobblygobbly]

Help everybody. I love FF and have heard FF fans rave about the later story in XIV. So I girded myself for a rough time and mostly enjoyed playing through ARR. Now I'm on like the last patch before Heavensward and every time I log in, it feels really repetitive and meaningless. The voices got better with actor changes, but the scenes are still way too verbose, taking 3-4 boxes to say things that could be said in one. All the MC ever does is nod or stare into space. Quests are just fast-travel-click-through-dialogue-fast-travel-repeat. Getting a flying mount kind of removed my connection to the world. I think I lost the magic just as this game supposedly gets good. Any words of encouragement?

Click to shrink...

That's pretty much how FF 14 is all the way to Endwalker.

All those issues remain and it's also why it's kind of a trap when people say it's an amazing FF game, while yes the story itself is great and gets better and better and agree that it's the best FF story, the gameplay/mission design is not a Final Fantasy game, the quest design is in my opinion the worst of all main MMOs out there - WoW for example has way more fun and interesting questing gameplay for many expansions now

A lot of people expect that the gameplay itself gets good like with quests when they hear that ARR is the worst, which is again a trap, because the questing gameplay never changes, it's the same formula as you mention, and I think that's what causes a lot of people to drop the game when they realise this.

FF has some cool stuff like cool boss designs/encounters, but for being a "solo MMORPG" it literally has the worst questing gameplay of all of them, which is why I don't get its praise. I do enjoy it, I started playing it 2 years ago, got to end of Shadowbringers and post patches, but I was very disappointed when I began to realise it doesn't change with Heavensward, game could be better as a visual novel to see its story than the very boring way you have to play it to see the dialogue/cutscenes

I've got some other issues with its job design too, for example jobs have so many abilities for no reason, like they are made just so you have more buttons to press, the jobs are verbose and you have multiple abilities that simply do the same thing for no reason

Edit: the posters above are mentioning the same thing FF players always do, that it gets better after ARR. You still have to play through it the same way with awful quest design just to see the story all the time from ARR to Endwalker

FF 14 has a lot of great parts to it but the gameplay involved in actually seeing the story unfold/cutscenes/dialogue (the MSQ quest design formula) is absolutely terrible, and does not improve, it makes no sense to recommend it to someone when this is the issue they have with it, because this does not get better after ARR at all. You are still doing the MSQ the same way in up to Shadowbringers/Endwalker like in ARR

 

[fuzzylogic]

I'm playing the free trial. Is there a way to purchase the complete edition, to take advantage of a discount, but not use it until you're ready to move on from the free trial? If I bought it on PS5, I've gotten the impression it prompts you to link the purchase to your account after the log in screen. Can you just skip that prompt and keep using the free trial?

Or should I just wait to buy until finishing my fill of the free trial?

Do you get a redemption code buying on general PC or Steam? Then could you buy it during a sale but delay redeeming the serial key until you're ready to upgrade?

 

[AgeEighty]

I've got some other issues with its job design too, for example jobs have so many abilities for no reason, like they are made just so you have more buttons to press, the jobs are verbose and you have multiple abilities that simply do the same thing for no reason

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If you're not using at least most of your abilities, you're not playing your best. Every job has a few skills people don't really use, but most of them have some value in the rotation, even if it's just situational. Just saying.

 

[samcastor]

I'm playing the free trial. Is there a way to purchase the complete edition, to take advantage of a discount, but not use it until you're ready to move on from the free trial? If I bought it on PS5, I've gotten the impression it prompts you to link the purchase to your account after the log in screen. Can you just skip that prompt and keep using the free trial?

Or should I just wait to buy until finishing my fill of the free trial?

Do you get a redemption code buying on general PC or Steam? Then could you buy it during a sale but delay redeeming the serial key until you're ready to upgrade?

Click to shrink...

Unsure about PS, but on the SE store version, yes you can just not enter the key till a later date and keep playing the free trial for now.

 

[Sai]

Endwalker without all the connections and memories made from playing through the previous expansions would hit like a wet fart

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I thought all the areas/quest lines and dungeons were super engaging and fun in Endwalker, FWIW! *shrug* I'm sure it hit more if you were invested at all in the story, but I'm not and I still had a good time :) The dungeons and trials were really interesting and well designed.

 

[MrNelson]

I'm playing the free trial. Is there a way to purchase the complete edition, to take advantage of a discount, but not use it until you're ready to move on from the free trial? If I bought it on PS5, I've gotten the impression it prompts you to link the purchase to your account after the log in screen. Can you just skip that prompt and keep using the free trial?

Or should I just wait to buy until finishing my fill of the free trial?

Do you get a redemption code buying on general PC or Steam? Then could you buy it during a sale but delay redeeming the serial key until you're ready to upgrade?

Click to shrink...

On Playstation your trial ends the moment you buy any version of the game. You don't get a key to hold on to like you do on PC.

That said, it goes on sale every few months, so if you want to pass on this sale since you want to get through more of the free trial you won't have to wait too long until the next one.

 

[Rookhelm]

People have already said it, but what sets this MMO apart is being able to change classes at at will. So you absolutely do not need to worry about "what if I don't like the class".

I've been pugilist/monk, samurai, scholar, and sage. I've even dabbled with lancer.

Also, there are incentives for high level players to participate in low level dungeons and raids, so you'll always have folks for the random party finder. Grouping up is super easy in FXIV.

 

[Hzsn724]

I feel like you're never truly alone in FFXIV. There's so many ways to find ppl to play with and 98% of them are super cool and helpful. The newest patch made all of the original content easier to get through. I soloed arr and hw, then found a ton of friends after.

 

[fuzzylogic]

Unsure about PS, but on the SE store version, yes you can just not enter the key till a later date and keep playing the free trial for now.

Click to shrink...

On Playstation your trial ends the moment you buy any version of the game. You don't get a key to hold on to like you do on PC.

That said, it goes on sale every few months, so if you want to pass on this sale since you want to get through more of the free trial you won't have to wait too long until the next one.

Click to shrink...

Thanks for your help!

 

[thetrin]

This is a bit of a relief to hear. I was thinking it was something I'd have to keep up constantly or I'd miss out on certain things.

Click to shrink...

Never. Outside of seasonal events, and the odd catch up event, any actual content they add to the game is permanently available.