Certain attacks and abilities in Final Fantasy XIV have positional requirements. This means they might have bonus effects or deal extra damage if the player is at the enemy’s flank or rear. True North is a skill which negates that positional requirement, meaning the skill/ability can be used to its full effect from anywhere.

You’ll unlock True North at level 50.

And unless you’ve been doing some reading about the game, you probably won’t quite get its purpose by default.

The ability’s text just reads “Nullifies all action direction requirements”. So yeah.

It’s available to all DPS jobs, and is considered a role action rather than a job-specific skill.

I flew through A Realm Reborn like the world was burning behind me. I was leveling Dragoon at the time, and although I’d got my basic rotation down, there was still a lot about the class I had to learn.

Positional abilities weren’t really something I’d encountered in an MMO before – how was I supposed to actually do them, and were they really that important?

Let’s cover the basics.

What Are Positionals (And How Do I Hit Them?)

I’ll be using the Dragoon class as an example here, but all of this is general knowledge that applies to all positional skills.

The backflipping, lance-wielding DPS job has positional attacks such as Fang and Claw/Wheeling Thrust – which have more potency from the flank and rear respectively.

The difference in damage adds up.

You should always aim to hit your positional abilities when possible – more damage is usually a good thing.

And with the exception of some life and death circumstances, it’s important to work them into your rotation. No point in keeping your DPS uptime going if you’re going to die because of it.

Here’s how positionals work: if you’re targeting an enemy in XIV, a red ring will appear beneath their feet. And there will generally be an arrow in this ring, pointing in the direction the enemy is facing.

The left and right sides of this ring are usually considered the flanks.

The enemy’s rear – naturally – will be the polar opposite side of the ring’s arrow (ie. the opposite side the enemy is facing).

Be sure not to stand too close to the ring too, as the game won’t always register your position correctly if you’re crowding the enemy.

So When Should I Use True North?

Good tanks will generally do their best to keep enemies in one spot, facing the same direction.

This makes it easier for DPS players to line up their positional attacks.

But of course, things don’t always go to plan. The tank might need to dodge an AOE, or they might go and pull another group of mobs. Some bosses just move around a lot, too.

So juggling your standard rotation and striving to hit those positionals can get a bit much.

True North has two charges, and they last for ten seconds each. Each charge is on a 45 second cooldown, so you can be fairly liberal with its use if you want.

It’s not an outright replacement for getting your positions right all of the time. But it can make your life a hell of a lot easier.

Using True North just means that your positional abilities will strike for their full effect no matter where you’re standing in relation to the enemy, allowing you to keep your rotation going at full potency.

True North cools down quickly, but I’d still recommend saving it in boss fights for moments when you need it.

It’s tempting to hit it out of laziness.

But the boss might decide to sprint to the other side of the arena at any point. Or your current position might be the target of an AOE attack, or the tank could just move unpredictably, skewing your damage output.

In situations like this, you’ll be glad for a spare True North charge.

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