[Megathread] Final Fantasy XIV

[Kazgrel]

yea this is mostly why i switched over completely to ffxiv a year or so ago. i used to just play it during WoW downtime but it's overall a lot more worthwhile to just play ffxiv.

You and I (and I dare say many others) are on the same boat. One positive thing about WoD: It led me to give this game a try. I was very skeptical about it because I remember reading reviews and horror stories of the 1.0 release, and I didn't realize to what extent ARR had went to in order to unfuck as much as it could.

While I did stop playing this game for all of 3.1 (having Neverreap for days on end tends to do that to you), I've been back at it now since 3.2 release and have been having a blast, even if I don't have the absolute best gear at this point (didn't touch lore for 2-3 weeks because I was too busy leveling alt jobs). Now that most jobs are at 50, I've been working gathering/crafting up. So far, so fun.

[Sweetimpact]

Y'know, one thing I have to occasionally remember to give Square, and specifically Yoshida's team, credit for with FFXIV?

They get this content out for us every 3 months or so. We have shorter periods from end of expansion to the next ones than I'm used to.

...and they do it all without open betas or public test realms. And they react fast on the few bugs that slip through. Their QA is top notch.

And I love that the patch goes live with the mystery of it rather than every last bit of info being available online for weeks or months before hand.

It's great going into a encounter with almost no information with the exception of Live letters and trailers, makes the fight that much more fun figuring it out and wiping in the process.

[Lathais]

It's great going into a encounter with almost no information with the exception of Live letters and trailers, makes the fight that much more fun figuring it out and wiping in the process.

Yes yes yes. So much of this. Even in Duty Finder, people are not just there for the loot, especially the casual players. They are there to see the content, to go through the experience of learning a boss fight.

[Graeham]

It's great going into a encounter with almost no information with the exception of Live letters and trailers, makes the fight that much more fun figuring it out and wiping in the process.

Agreed. I have a lot of fun doing new content around the time it comes out because most people are very laid back and excited to see stuff for the first time. Some of the first time reactions to Calcabrina were hilarious.

[Advent]

I wish it was like that all the time. People eventually get so hung up on one shotting that anyone who hasn't done it before or watched a 3rd party video (which ruins the 1st time experience for me) is cut out a lot of the time.

[Granyala]

It's great going into a encounter with almost no information with the exception of Live letters and trailers, makes the fight that much more fun figuring it out and wiping in the process.

Yup that can be fun.

But only if it happens at the beginning of the patch cycle.
People tend to get rather pissed if they have to "relearn" the boss 2 months in.

[Graeham]

I wish it was like that all the time. People eventually get so hung up on one shotting that anyone who hasn't done it before or watched a 3rd party video (which ruins the 1st time experience for me) is cut out a lot of the time.

It's funny when I encounter the - thankfully rare - situations where someone expects a perfect clear on the same day as a new patch comes out.

[Granyala]

It's funny when I encounter the - thankfully rare - situations where someone expects a perfect clear on the same day as a new patch comes out.

Well, yes that is indeed a tad ridiculous.

Though they're probably experienced raiders that see how easy the DF encounters really are.

[Faroth]

My FC and I try to run the new patches' content the day of and day after release as a group. There's a bit of light RP reactions to the new dungeons and their MSQ relatedness that's usually fun.

Anti-tower had some good reactions. "The water...is running up the wall. Or...I mean, down the wall, but up it. We're on the ceiling.... THIS PLACE MAKES NO SENSE!"

[Scufflegrit]

It's funny when I encounter the - thankfully rare - situations where someone expects a perfect clear on the same day as a new patch comes out.

That was what put me off of doing Alexander Gordias until Midas came out. It was the day after release and several of us didn't know exactly what we were doing. The tanks however would pull without ever taking time to ask if everyone knew what to do. Finally one of the healers just starts screaming at everyone about how this can't be that hard. When those of us who were new said it was our first time, the healer replied that he was new as well.
Skip ahead a few more wipes and this healer then starts raging about how he had such horrible luck doing new content, how this was his third group of the day on A1 that was failing to clear the fight. Yeah...
There was a probably bit more to it than that, it's been so long I don't remember exactly. I mean there was blame to go all around: the tanks not waiting for anyone to explain the fight, the people who had been there already not explaining or even offering to explain the fight, the one healer just raging nonstop and sapping the morale we had at the start. It was basically all the worst aspects of WoW LFR all rolled up into one boss fight. But mainly it was that healer. And it made me realize how much I did NOT miss any of it.

But now I've been doing Midas every week since it launched and luckily never run into anyone near as bad as that guy again.

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That was what put me off of doing Alexander Gordias until Midas came out. It was the day after release and several of us didn't know exactly what we were doing. The tanks however would pull without ever taking time to ask if everyone knew what to do. Finally one of the healers just starts screaming at everyone about how this can't be that hard. When those of us who were new said it was our first time, the healer replied that he was new as well.
Skip ahead a few more wipes and this healer then starts raging about how he had such horrible luck doing new content, how this was his third group of the day on A1 that was failing to clear the fight. Yeah...
There was a probably bit more to it than that, it's been so long I don't remember exactly. I mean there was blame to go all around: the tanks not waiting for anyone to explain the fight, the people who had been there already not explaining or even offering to explain the fight, the one healer just raging nonstop and sapping the morale we had at the start. It was basically all the worst aspects of WoW LFR all rolled up into one boss fight. But mainly it was that healer. And it made me realize how much I did NOT miss any of it.

But now I've been doing Midas every week since it launched and luckily never run into anyone near as bad as that guy again.

My FC and I try to run the new patches' content the day of and day after release as a group. There's a bit of light RP reactions to the new dungeons and their MSQ relatedness that's usually fun.

Anti-tower had some good reactions. "The water...is running up the wall. Or...I mean, down the wall, but up it. We're on the ceiling.... THIS PLACE MAKES NO SENSE!"

I imagine seeing Calcabrina for the first time elicited many a Wilhelm scream.

[Kazgrel]

I imagine seeing Calcabrina for the first time elicited many a Wilhelm scream.

I kept looking around the room for a dark crystal, or a note on the wall saying "Golbez was here".

[Faroth]

I kept looking around the room for a dark crystal, or a note on the wall saying "Golbez was here".

Before they named him, I kept hoping the Ascians would be worshipping Zeromus.

[Kazgrel]

Before they named him, I kept hoping the Ascians would be worshipping Zeromus.

Once I got far enough into the game/story to get background on the Ascians, I thought the very same thing. "Zodiark? Don't they mean Zeromus?"

[Florena]

I'm glad though that Zodiark seems to be a new character instead.

[Granyala]

Weee, now I have all ARR beast tribes maxed out. ^^

[SodiumChloride]

I'm glad though that Zodiark seems to be a new character instead.

Zodiark is from FFXII no?

Granted this is a different version of him.

[Florena]

Zodiark is from FFXII no?

Granted this is a different version of him.

Is he? I never got far into XII.

[Kazgrel]

I'm glad though that Zodiark seems to be a new character instead.

Who's to say Zeromus isn't Zodiark's final form?

That said, Zodiark would be known as Zemus (I think that's the original form's name?).

Couldn't say whether or not Zodiark is from XII, seeing that I didn't play any FF game (up until this one) after 6.

[Lathais]

Well, yes that is indeed a tad ridiculous.

Though they're probably experienced raiders that see how easy the DF encounters really are.

While true, to an experienced raider DF encounters are normally ridiculously easy, you have to take what you get in the DF and people should not be expecting that. If you want to one shot it, run it with your other experienced raider friends, that's what I do.

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Couldn't say whether or not Zodiark is from XII, seeing that I didn't play any FF game (up until this one) after 6.

A quick google:
http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Zodiark

Yeah, he's in XII and Tactics.

[Florena]

Huh. That's disappointing for me. Since Zodiark seems to be the bigger bad of the overarching story I'd prefer a new villain rather than an updated recurring character.