Understanding the Duty Finder – FFXIV Dungeon / Duty Finder Guide

In a typical MMO, a dungeon would be known as a dungeon but in FFXIV they are known as a duty. The duty finder is basically the dungeon finder in FFXIV and the lifeblood of the game. Now, like any MMO with a dungeon finder, there isn’t always the best company to play with and you won’t always have a successful run of whatever you’re signing up for, but that’s okay and part of life.

We’re going to go over the duty finder and some tips on how to make your duty runs more successful, because with just four player groups, one person can make a difference.

For those coming over from WoW: Dungeon sizes are different in FFXIV. Dungeons are known as as a “Duty” in the game. Instanced gameplay comes through a lot of flavors. To continue the story, often a duty is required although these requirements change patch to patch.

Understand the Duty Finder

The duty finder is used to match you with other players from dungeons, raids, trials and guildhests. There is a lot of duties in the game and the duty finder will connect you with other players looking to do those duties as well (or just a random duty in of itself).

One of the cool things about FFXIV is that lower level dungeons / duties have higher level / max level players in them. Players can be leveled down to make sure there’s always a population of players around to help do early game duty runs.

You can queue with a group and queue solo. You don’t need the full party size to queue. You can queue without the full party as well, you won’t get EXP or Soul Resonance/Spiritbond points but you won’t be ilvl/level sync’d.

Undersized parties don’t have to conform to any kind of role lock, but when queuing as a group you’ll have to play as your class. Healers are healers, tanks are tanks, etc. etc.

Duty Roulette

The random dungeon finder is called duty roulette in FFXIV. They come in lots of different flavors, specific level range dungeons, Leveling, Expert Dungeons, Trials, Main Scenarios (including the raids), Guildhests and PvP (Frontline)

Rewards are listed and bonuses are given for the ones in most need.

Duty Finder Tips

Watch a lot of streams and videos for your class that’s running the same dungeon, especially if you’re a tank. DPS and healing don’t have to always do anything special, but tanking is an art so if you’re going to queue as a tank it’s probably best to learn a little bit of what’s going on.

Tanks: As mentioned, best to learn the dungeon ahead of time to avoid any sort of embarrassment around knowing where to go or what to do. There’s so much video content out there, really best just to watch it ahead of time.

Healers: Communicate. Let the group know when you need to rest. It’s not a poor reflection of your playstyle if you’re burning your resources to heal.

DPS: Be aware of some fight gimmicks along the way, sometimes DPS has to do random things in a fight to help out.

Be sure to say hello to one another and don’t be afraid to talk. Communication can really help, especially when playing with someone new to the game. Friendliness and positive non-toxic gameplay contributes to a much faster duty run than being snarky. Helping someone know how to do an encounter just helps get you through it faster than arguing about it.

Make sure your Internet is up to speed. Check to make sure you have a reliable connection, disconnecting in the middle of a Duty is never good for a party. If someone does disconnect, you can queue to find a replacement mid-Duty

Oh and remember if you’re playing with someone new they may have want to watch a cutscene, just let them.