Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood

[Eleccybubb]

You can't stoneskin 2 in combat so again, nice to have, not really important. Hopefully they will give healers a shared aoe because only having blizzard 2 sucks

Dude Blizzard 2 is so shit even BLMs don't use it. Not even at low level.

[Turaska]

Hopefully Stormblood is a bit more forgiving to returning players, one thing I noticed about Heavensward is that it rewarded concurrent players over returning players (which is fair I suppose), example being the relic weapons OR if you've been away for 6 months and come back you have to do all this catching up/mega grind just to be able to queue into relevant raids or find a guild that'll take you on with lower gear, in short; a better catchup system without just spoon feeding people 'good' gear.

Case and point I returned for Heavensward, got my relic weapon like everyone else, had to take a 5 month hiatus, came back, guild wouldn't take me unless I grinded for weeks to get the updates required for a relic weapon just to be on equal footing with them, it's a bit of a put off to resub.

Definitely needs to be better gap closers without giving people equal gear to those that have been playing for ages, even if its 5 item levels under what they have, it's still going to give people the options of diving straight into action again.

[zito]

Dude Blizzard 2 is so shit even BLMs don't use it. Not even at low level.

I don't even use it on my healer lol

I just want an aoe that doesn't cost 2k fucking mana but does respectable damage.

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Hopefully Stormblood is a bit more forgiving to returning players, one thing I noticed about Heavensward is that it rewarded concurrent players over returning players (which is fair I suppose), example being the relic weapons OR if you've been away for 6 months and come back you have to do all this catching up/mega grind just to be able to queue into relevant raids or find a guild that'll take you on with lower gear, in short; a better catchup system without just spoon feeding people 'good' gear.

It took me a week to get enough gear to be raid ready. It takes 1 day to get the 255 ilvl weapon from potd - you don't even need the anima weapon.

[Eleccybubb]

Hopefully Stormblood is a bit more forgiving to returning players, one thing I noticed about Heavensward is that it rewarded concurrent players over returning players (which is fair I suppose), example being the relic weapons OR if you've been away for 6 months and come back you have to do all this catching up/mega grind just to be able to queue into relevant raids or find a guild that'll take you on with lower gear, in short; a better catchup system without just spoon feeding people 'good' gear.

Case and point I returned for Heavensward, got my relic weapon like everyone else, had to take a 5 month hiatus, came back, guild wouldn't take me unless I grinded for weeks to get the updates required for a relic weapon just to be on equal footing with them, it's a bit of a put off to resub.

I don't see the issue with the relic system. If you have to play catch up there are suitable weapons to the relic until you get it. Right now it's 270. You can get a 260 with 7 weeks of work which I imagine in 3.55 or 3.5 part 2 will be 4 weeks of work. You can obtain a 255 from Palace of the Dead and a 230 weapon just as easily. There are plenty of alternatives while you grind your relic that are slightly below it. Also they nerf the steps gradually so they are easier. Also if an FC won't take you because you don't have your relic then that doesn't sound like a very good FC. There are viable alternatives.

They have a solution for returning players. The relic steps are nerfed over time to the point they are easily doable.

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I don't even use it on my healer lol

I just want an aoe that doesn't cost 2k fucking mana but does respectable damage.

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It took me a week to get enough gear to be raid ready. It takes 1 day to get the 255 ilvl weapon from potd - you don't even need the anima weapon.

This. 255 is more than enough while you grind your relic. 255 is enough to do Zurvan and grab the 265 from that.

[Kazgrel]

I mean im not denying swiftcast plus rez is great and all but that's pretty much the only time I ever use it so it's not that important

I've found it super useful for Holy, Medica 2, and Stoneskin 2 (the last of which just to speed things along...don't see why that thing has a 2 week cast time when it doesn't even work in combat).

[Eleccybubb]

I've found it super useful for Holy, Medica 2, and Stoneskin 2 (the last of which just to speed things along...don't see why that thing has a 2 week cast time when it doesn't even work in combat).

Swiftcast as a healer is fucking beautiful. On top of being an AST with Lightspeed it's the best damn thing ever. On top of that I must say I actually like healing with a controller. Took a while to get used to but it's pretty good.

[Kazgrel]

Paladins may have a physical defensive niche, it doesn't outweigh everything else that goes in the favor of drk, especially when the meta is dps hard, dps fast, dps is all that matters. I love my paladin, It sucks being told you aren't relevant.

My 3 mains: White mage, Paladin, Bard. Each replaced in the meta by the new classes. FML

The odd thing is that I've seen situations where if the tank was NOT a PLD, we would've had a wipe. That said, it wasn't in savage content, so most folks simply dismiss such fringe cases outright.

I'm not much better off in terms of the meta. My favored classes are DRK, BLM, MNK, and WHM, and I'm pretty much a career DPS person (from here and a decade of WoW). Oh well. I don't care to set a schedule to raid in a game anywho, so the whole "meta speed kill zomg" just gets an eye roll for me. I'd settle for having 3/7/23 other competent players no matter what job they are on.

[Eleccybubb]

The odd thing is that I've seen situations where if the tank was NOT a PLD, we would've had a wipe. That said, it wasn't in savage content, so most folks simply dismiss such fringe cases outright.

I'm not much better off in terms of the meta. My favored classes are DRK, BLM, MNK, and WHM, and I'm pretty much a career DPS person (from here and a decade of WoW). Oh well. I don't care to set a schedule to raid in a game anywho, so the whole "meta speed kill zomg" just gets an eye roll for me. I'd settle for having 3/7/23 other competent players no matter what job they are on.

Pretty much my stance on raiding too. I don't give a fuck what you play as long as you know how to play it. Hell I was in a raid guild on WoW where our healer team consisted of 6 Shamans back in 25 man raiding. And we still cleared stuff fine.

[Kazgrel]

Hopefully Stormblood is a bit more forgiving to returning players, one thing I noticed about Heavensward is that it rewarded concurrent players over returning players (which is fair I suppose), example being the relic weapons OR if you've been away for 6 months and come back you have to do all this catching up/mega grind just to be able to queue into relevant raids or find a guild that'll take you on with lower gear, in short; a better catchup system without just spoon feeding people 'good' gear.

Case and point I returned for Heavensward, got my relic weapon like everyone else, had to take a 5 month hiatus, came back, guild wouldn't take me unless I grinded for weeks to get the updates required for a relic weapon just to be on equal footing with them, it's a bit of a put off to resub.

Definitely needs to be better gap closers without giving people equal gear to those that have been playing for ages, even if its 5 item levels under what they have, it's still going to give people the options of diving straight into action again.

Pretty shit guild/FC then, unless you were trying to jump into Savage Creator or Zurvan EX with like a 210 weapon or such. As others have stated, you definitely do not need the anima weapon to progress at this point. 255 weapons were used to clear Savage Creator, so Sophia or PotD weapons are more than enough to do anything in game currently (including Zurvan Ex, so you could get a 265 weapon there).

The "gap closers" are going to either cost time (in terms of playing) or money. Can either work up through lore gear then start farming Creator normal mode for 250 gear, or the current dungeons for 245 items, which would be enough to get you into Dun Scaith for a shot at a 260 item per week (on top of any scripture item you may get). The money option is to pick up the crafted 250 gear, which can still hold it's own, but that can be an expensive option on your server.

[Turaska]

I don't even use it on my healer lol

I just want an aoe that doesn't cost 2k fucking mana but does respectable damage.

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It took me a week to get enough gear to be raid ready. It takes 1 day to get the 255 ilvl weapon from potd - you don't even need the anima weapon.

To savage alex level?

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Pretty shit guild/FC then, unless you were trying to jump into Savage Creator or Zurvan EX with like a 210 weapon or such. As others have stated, you definitely do not need the anima weapon to progress at this point. 255 weapons were used to clear Savage Creator, so Sophia or PotD weapons are more than enough to do anything in game currently (including Zurvan Ex, so you could get a 265 weapon there).

The "gap closers" are going to either cost time (in terms of playing) or money. Can either work up through lore gear then start farming Creator normal mode for 250 gear, or the current dungeons for 245 items, which would be enough to get you into Dun Scaith for a shot at a 260 item per week (on top of any scripture item you may get). The money option is to pick up the crafted 250 gear, which can still hold it's own, but that can be an expensive option on your server.

It was a guild I've been in for a long time, they're all (including me) fairly casual, we have families/full time jobs thus cannot commit the time required for hardcore progress, we can still manage to do savage alex without issue though generally, they prefer all FC members to be equally geared though, they do not like to carry people, like a lot of guilds don't.

[Eleccybubb]

To savage alex level?

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It was a guild I've been in for a long time, they're all (including me) fairly casual, we have families/full time jobs thus cannot commit the time required for hardcore progress, we can still manage to do savage alex without issue though generally, they prefer all FC members to be equally geared though, they do not like to carry people, like a lot of guilds don't.

And in 255 gear they won't be carrying at all. As said above the current savage raid is doable just fine with that gear. The catchup mechanics in place are fine. The relic is designed to take time and everything upto the Aether Oil stage has been greatly nerfed. And I imagine in the .5 or part 2 patch the Umbrite stage will get a nerf. If you want a decent weapon then once you are 250-255 go do Zurvan Ex 10 times or hope your 265 weapon drops. The relic is designed initially as an alternative weapon for non savage raiders hence the grind. Which I agree with personally.

[Turaska]

And in 255 gear they won't be carrying at all. As said above the current savage raid is doable just fine with that gear. The catchup mechanics in place are fine. The relic is designed to take time and everything upto the Aether Oil stage has been greatly nerfed. And I imagine in the .5 or part 2 patch the Umbrite stage will get a nerf. If you want a decent weapon then once you are 250-255 go do Zurvan Ex 10 times or hope your 265 weapon drops. The relic is designed initially as an alternative weapon for non savage raiders hence the grind. Which I agree with personally.

Fair enough, I'm just out of touch I guess

[Deleted]

Swiftcast Stoneskin 2

definately this.

[Kazgrel]

Pretty much my stance on raiding too. I don't give a fuck what you play as long as you know how to play it. Hell I was in a raid guild on WoW where our healer team consisted of 6 Shamans back in 25 man raiding. And we still cleared stuff fine.

That was called Sunwell.

[Melsiren]

Pretty sure those two things are coming though. They've mentioned going with cross role abilities and some amount of pruning to help make way for new abilities.

Of course the former is coming, they've stated so on several occasions.



The latter on the other hand, Square and Yoshi have been vague at best. From given examples of what they might do, from saying things that imply any pruned abilities will just make way for another ability to be added from 60-70.

On that we pretty much have conjecture.

My 3 mains: White mage, Paladin, Bard. Each replaced in the meta by the new classes. FML

Hence why I oppose adding a new tank or healer any time soon, the meta is already a mess at best.

[Kazgrel]

To savage alex level?

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It was a guild I've been in for a long time, they're all (including me) fairly casual, we have families/full time jobs thus cannot commit the time required for hardcore progress, we can still manage to do savage alex without issue though generally, they prefer all FC members to be equally geared though, they do not like to carry people, like a lot of guilds don't.

If they are able to do that, I would've figured they would know of alternative (and faster) paths to upgrade weapons aside from the anima weapon. The anima weapon is infinitely slower to upgrade vs. going the Sophia/PotD to Zurvan route. I won't argue against the fact the anima can be better than those (since it can now go to 270), but if you are not already past the umbrite step (the 240 quest) for it, you're much better off going the Sophia/PotD/Zurvan route, barring the upcoming patch dropping an uber-mega-nerf on the umbrite step. Even then, 2 weeks is enough time to get one of those 3 other weapons easily.

Didn't mean to throw shade on your friends. But if they bring this weapon stuff up, see if they would be interested in helping you with Sophia EX, assuming you meet the ilvl for it (235, I think?). It's not a terribly difficult fight, and others could round up weapons for alt jobs and possibly shiny bird mounts.

[Wrecktangle]

You've no idea how I've wanted to see some pulls where being able to CC a mob or mobs would be the ideal way to handle them, but I don't expect that to ever happen, because BLM would quickly become FOTM for that very reason (and it would also make WHM the ideal healer for such content). Would also bring PLD into some spotlight due to it's ability to CC.

This is true assuming that things remain as is (which would be bad). If the prune and combat rework had a little effort involved you wouldn't have situations where one job (BLM) could CC everything.

An example that I hope for is the experience I got when my team and I were chasing M+ 10 for the first time, then again for 15 (since we've had it, I haven't felt compelled to go any higher than the few 18's we'd done just for fun).

The affixes were great because they made us change our approach way more than dungeons normally require. In certain dungeons an enraged mob would be a nightmare if not CC'd. However, you still need to CC them as much as you can before, because you want to mitigate as much damage up front as you can (think old speedrun strat in Brayflox, spam Holy because if they're all stunned they can't hurt you). We've had bosses that we never imagined to be difficult be walls (Never thought I'd see the room fill completely up with slime in one boss fight, he normally dies when the debuff goes out once or twice. You can pick which trash to pull and when to better manage cooldowns without risking too much timer loss. You can also skip some bosses and come back to them after a trash pack or two if you wanted to have cds up for it. In FF14 you're limited to narrow hallways with no choice or challenge. Which is a crying shame, especially how beautiful some of them are.

M+ for all its faults, shortcomings, and issues really hit the nail on the head when it came to original difficulty and strategy. In order to be successful we needed on point DPS and awareness. We needed to coordinate CC, and offensive cooldowns (blowing all 3 DPS cooldowns on one pack not always ideal, sometimes holding is better, sometimes managing uptime is better), and defensives. No reason to use my personal defensives if the healer had a party cd up. I could use a personal to give a struggling healer time to catch up. I've even tanked bosses for upwards of 10s while waiting for Battle res's staggering defensive cooldowns.

Healer had to work, quite hard for some affixes bosses (Tyrannical, Wrath of Azshara on M15). I actually sometimes off healed when I could to give our healer time to catch up after a Meteor. We'd even run Meteor's out on myself or the Hunter solo if we could since we could immune 1, but not more. Anything to give an edge.

I'd absolutely adore being able to get that feeling from any content in FF14. Savage while very engaging and difficult is a little too binary for my tastes these days. It's very simple do x when y, or restart the encounter (feels too groupy and not personal enough). WoW encounters feel a little less binary because it's less about restarting the encounter and more about managing control. You can still score sloppy from behind kills, but in FF14 you just restart. I can pick up some slack if someone else is behind. Let's say someone dies. I can use a defensive to eat maybe mine and his mechanic. In FF14, he'd be sidelined for res sickness from handling mechanics until it wore off.

I love the aesthetics and world of FF14, just wish the gameplay was a bit more involved. The DPS rotations are decent, but could use some streamlining in some cases, but the engagement elsewhere feels weak.

[Kazgrel]

This is true assuming that things remain as is (which would be bad). If the prune and combat rework had a little effort involved you wouldn't have situations where one job (BLM) could CC everything.

An example that I hope for is the experience I got when my team and I were chasing M+ 10 for the first time, then again for 15 (since we've had it, I haven't felt compelled to go any higher than the few 18's we'd done just for fun).

The affixes were great because they made us change our approach way more than dungeons normally require. In certain dungeons an enraged mob would be a nightmare if not CC'd. However, you still need to CC them as much as you can before, because you want to mitigate as much damage up front as you can (think old speedrun strat in Brayflox, spam Holy because if they're all stunned they can't hurt you). We've had bosses that we never imagined to be difficult be walls (Never thought I'd see the room fill completely up with slime in one boss fight, he normally dies when the debuff goes out once or twice. You can pick which trash to pull and when to better manage cooldowns without risking too much timer loss. You can also skip some bosses and come back to them after a trash pack or two if you wanted to have cds up for it. In FF14 you're limited to narrow hallways with no choice or challenge. Which is a crying shame, especially how beautiful some of them are.

M+ for all its faults, shortcomings, and issues really hit the nail on the head when it came to original difficulty and strategy. In order to be successful we needed on point DPS and awareness. We needed to coordinate CC, and offensive cooldowns (blowing all 3 DPS cooldowns on one pack not always ideal, sometimes holding is better, sometimes managing uptime is better), and defensives. No reason to use my personal defensives if the healer had a party cd up. I could use a personal to give a struggling healer time to catch up. I've even tanked bosses for upwards of 10s while waiting for Battle res's staggering defensive cooldowns.

Healer had to work, quite hard for some affixes bosses (Tyrannical, Wrath of Azshara on M15). I actually sometimes off healed when I could to give our healer time to catch up after a Meteor. We'd even run Meteor's out on myself or the Hunter solo if we could since we could immune 1, but not more. Anything to give an edge.

I'd absolutely adore being able to get that feeling from any content in FF14. Savage while very engaging and difficult is a little too binary for my tastes these days. It's very simple do x when y, or restart the encounter (feels too groupy and not personal enough). WoW encounters feel a little less binary because it's less about restarting the encounter and more about managing control. You can still score sloppy from behind kills, but in FF14 you just restart. I can pick up some slack if someone else is behind. Let's say someone dies. I can use a defensive to eat maybe mine and his mechanic. In FF14, he'd be sidelined for res sickness from handling mechanics until it wore off.

I love the aesthetics and world of FF14, just wish the gameplay was a bit more involved. The DPS rotations are decent, but could use some streamlining in some cases, but the engagement elsewhere feels weak.

That's one area WoW class design used to excel in, even if it meant there were sometimes situations where certain classes/abilities could be deemed brokenly OP (although fringe cases like that such as Mage Invis would get individually nerfed). I say used to because it seemed they were going the way of removing such abilities over time through pruning, but I pretty much stopped paying attention to WoW class design after WoD, so maybe I'm in the wrong there.

BLM Sleepaga would have to get wrecked by the nerfbat in order to proceed with such a design. But to run further than just CC, another ability I wish we got to see more use out of is MNK's One Ilm Punch...as far as I know, the only offensive dispel in FF14. Second boss of Sohm Al HM is an example of where it would be cool to see it work (dispel the damage up buff it applies to itself).

The newer two dungeons, while not difficult for veterans of the game in higher ilvl gear, are actually a step up in difficulty from previous offerings, but not to the tune of them being "savage" or such. All of the bosses have a "tank buster", which while tickling a ilvl 260+ tank, would actually be pretty rough on a tank whose just over the required ilvl to be in there.

[avoidconfusion]

Hi guys, I have played FFXIV on and off but never seriously. Never did dungeons or Raids, only leveled to like lvl 30 (Archer if I remember correctly)... I quite liked the game but half the time I had no idea wtf I am doing.

Are there any websites or videos you would/could recommend to someone who is willing to come back for this expansion and give it a shot this time?
Also would you even recommend sticking to the Archer class?

[Melsiren]

Hi guys, I have played FFXIV on and off but never seriously. Never did dungeons or Raids, only leveled to like lvl 30 (Archer if I remember correctly)... I quite liked the game but half the time I had no idea wtf I am doing.

Are there any websites or videos you would/could recommend to someone who is willing to come back for this expansion and give it a shot this time?
Also would you even recommend sticking to the Archer class?

Information on FF14 is little hard to come by, I have a couple youtubers I use for information and sources but nothing solid enough that I'm willing to swear by it. A lot of the information I find tends to be on Redit (Blegh) I've yet to find any thing 100% reliable for information yet.


Why did you pick Archer? I can't really give you solid advice on what to play since I do not know your personal tastes as a player.


I mean, I know of people who play Archer because they played Hunter in WoW only to be disappointed. In general it's like that across the board, I played a Paladin tank in WoW for about a decade, and I cannot stand the Paladin class in FF14. I actually play a warrior, a class I cannot stand in WoW.

I think we need more information before we can give you advice.