FFXIV Best Settings to Play With
| Tags: FFXIV
| Author Timo Reinecke
Here is a quick rundown of the best settings to play FFXIV with. If you're on a console or PC, you don't want to miss out on those.
Final Fantasy XIV is finally out for Xbox Series X|S and is now available on almost all major platforms. And with new adventurers joining in droves, we believe it's time to unravel some well-kept secrets of veteran players.
Today, we'll tell you all about Settings, not the best graphics settings but the best combination of settings to make your experience the smoothest it has ever been. So here are the Best Settings for Final Fantasy XIV.
FFXIV Best Settings for Players Old and New
Movement Settings
There is not much you can do wrong with your movement settings but let's get one thing out of the way. You can pick between Standard Type, which will tie all movement and camera movement to the position of your character, and Legacy Type, which will do the same but tie it to the position of your camera.
Pick Legacy Type, disable camera pivot and you're good to go. Standard Type might look decent enough at first, but many mechanics, especially later on will ask you to take in your surroundings while fighting and the camera resetting while dodging mechanics is the last thing you want. Just pick Legacy Type, please, for your own well-being.
Control Settings
Under General, options and the Character settings, you'll find the Battle Effects Settings. By default, those are set to Show All in all categories. We recommend limiting them all unless they are your own. Later fights in FFXIV can be a visual spectacle but all the skills firing off and flashbanging you behind your screen can be overwhelming, so turn them off.
On the General tab, you'll also find Cutscene Skipping. Enable all of them. Just do it. They'll skip all the dungeon/raid cutscenes you've already seen (unless they are part of the fight). You don't need to see that boss intro or the dungeon drone shot again. Unless it's the one for the final boss of the Wandering Palace. That one rules.
Inventory Settings
If you don't want to sort through tabs of inventory, we have the solution for you. Under Inventory settings you can select Inventory Interface and select “Open All”, for Retainer Inventory Interface you can select “Expanded”. Now you should be able to see all the contents of your bag.
Under “Sort Customization”, you can configure the way your inventory sorts via the sort option. Unless you're crafting up a storm, however, the default configurations should be more than enough.
UI Settings
Under General UI Settings, you'll find the Recommendations and Playguide settings. Untick all of those. Just do it. It'll make those pesky messages that pop up whenever you log in or enter a new area go away. At first, they might seem useful but later on, they are just annoying. Away with thee.
Under Party List, you can configure your Party List. Here you can redefine the order in which party members are displayed, but also the number of buffs and debuffs displayed. Crank the numbers of debuffs up and reconfigure your party list to your liking and you should be good to go.
Hotbar Settings
As for the Hotbar Settings, tick Display Recast Times and make sure to tick Type 2: Centered so you can see the cooldown more clearly. We also recommend unticking Display Hotbar Numbers and Enabling Hotbar Cycling once you've set up your Hotbar.
Hiding unassigned Slots will always be a matter of personal taste, but we find it declutters your HUD quite a bit, especially if you use your Hotbar for shortcuts and macros.
And that should be all when it comes to optimizing your settings in Final Fantasy XIV. There is of course a lot more like how to set up your controller or hotbar if you're using Keyboard and Mouse Control and how to get the best out of your HUD. You can find all of that and more on our dedicated FFXIV section here on ESTNN