FFXIV: 1,000 Commendations – FINALLY!
Posted on February 28, 2026 by Aywren
Last night, I finally scored my 1,000th commendation in FFXIV. But Wren, I hear you say, you’ve been playing this game for almost 13 years – how can you only have 1,000 commendations?
I write this to the tune of healers and tanks laughing with their thousands upon thousands of coms stashed away.
I main DPS, at which I’d consider myself a decent player. I know I’m not parsing purple, but I’m also not making sprout mistakes, and I always do my best to hold my own and read mechanics.
I am also not someone who often runs content unless I specifically have to, so I likely run far less content than the average mid-core player does. But even when I do run stuff, earning a commendation is few and far in-between.
Lately, I’ve been running Expert and Leveling Roulette almost every single day in order to earn paste for my relic weapon. My experience has been thus: I can play a dungeon as perfectly as possible on my Red Mage. I can even save a run by rezzing everyone in the dungeon party.
I still walk away without a com.
It gets discouraging, especially since I one day hope to unlock Mentor status. This requires another 500 coms. I wonder how many more years that will take.
I have a few other elements that contribute to my low number of coms. Namely, I play alts. Many alts. And that means my coms are split across many characters.
On my Amon alt, which is my second-most played character, I’ve earned a total of 788 coms. Which means, had I not split my time between these two characters so much, I’d have my mentorship by now. Bummer.
It also seems that lately, fellow DPS are either just in a rush or so jaded by never getting commendations, they don’t pay it forward to their DPS party members. The idea used to be that tank and healer com each other and DPS com each other – unless there’s specifically an issue with someone in the party that cropped up that made them un-com-worthy. That way, all people in the party get a com for their effort.
Lately, I’ll com the DPS and they don’t com me. This happens more often than not. Since I’m always running with Syn as my healer, she often notes that she gets one com – which is the expected com from the tank. Unless the DPS is always giving it to the tank, it just means the DPS don’t com at all.
This leaves me a little sour as I do go out of my way to com my fellow DPS simply because I know they rarely get coms. In fact, DPS are often the first to leave the dungeon, sometimes not even giving me time to com them – so I know they didn’t take a moment to do likewise. It seems to me that DPS are just perpetuating the situation by not being someone who breaks the cycle and takes a second to click a few UI elements to show appreciation.
You might say: Well maybe you’re just a sub-par DPS, Wren. I don’t know, maybe I am?
But I go out of my way to greet other players, congrats them if they level on low-level instances, thank them at the end, emote with them when appropriate, and sometimes even dance during downtimes. If I do a dumb, I apologize or make light of it. Essentially, I strive to be a pleasant party member.
But none of that seems to matter.
All I do know is that when I heal Alliance raids (which I haven’t been doing lately due to relic), I tend to earn commendations, sometimes multiple. Which is quite an accomplishment because I co-heal with Syn, who is a very skilled healer that has been honing her craft since 2013. And I… am just a practicing healer who still pushes the wrong buttons far too much for my liking.
I guess the point of this post is: DPS – please be thoughtful of other DPS! As long as they’re doing their best and are a pleasant teammate, please drop them a com. You could make someone’s day.
If more DPS started doing this again, we’d all walk away happier for it.
Are you a DPS main in FFXIV who has noticed this trend? Or have you given up on earning all but the rarest of coms in the end?