[Megathread] Final Fantasy XIV

[8bithamster]

I bought tickets for the Final Fantasy Distant Worlds concert today. It's not until November 4th, but I managed to grab a pair. I'm pretty excited since I've wanted to go for ages and it's the first time in a while it's been in London...which isn't exactly close given that I moved to Scotland last year but...well worth planning a mini holiday for, at least.

I wonder if they'll play some FFXIV music...

They will I already got a track list for the dutch concert in may

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If you can't be bothered to use a characters name and just use their class/job, I will not listen to you, I will not give 2 shits what you say. If you lack common decensy, you are not worth my time.

[Wrecktangle]

Some times I wonder if the real issue is being told to do something in party rather than whispers. From my personal experience I always got better responses from players when I tell them in private rather than party. (In other MMO's obviously.)

I mean don't get me wrong I get people getting flaming angry and offended with me when I whisper them about things they can fix, but I tend to get the angry pissy response more when said advice is in the open for others to see.

Being able to whisper in a duty would make a world of difference.

This is excellent feedback. As someone who has used ACT to remove players from parties, I always do it via whisper. I too find that people are MUCH more receiving to feedback in private then in the open. Like Ralqadar said though, every now and then you find someone who can't be saved.

But it wasn't that issue. It was someone flat out going on a bitch fit because they were not using it at all and we politely asked them. I absolutely despise people who refuse to do shit like that in group content. Same with Bards who keep Ballad on and troll.

I'm generally ok with players playing sub-par as long as they are trying (pushing other buttons). If the only thing he was truly guilty of is not using heavy thrust, but his damage was passable I'd let it go personally. Your statement wasn't bad at all, but it wasn't good either.

I bought tickets for the Final Fantasy Distant Worlds concert today. It's not until November 4th, but I managed to grab a pair. I'm pretty excited since I've wanted to go for ages and it's the first time in a while it's been in London...which isn't exactly close given that I moved to Scotland last year but...well worth planning a mini holiday for, at least.

I wonder if they'll play some FFXIV music...

Ugh I just realized I missed this years, was in Jan. I went 2 years ago I think. They played answers and that made me very happy. Have fun its a blast.

[thewallofsleep]

I have next to zero experience with this game. My girlfriend is getting a new laptop soon and wants to play a game with me. I think it would be fun to run around and explore an mmorpg world together. I have way more familiarity with WoW, but the disjointed storyline from the older redone Vanilla zones to Outland to Northrend, back to Cataclysm Azeroth, etc etc has me wanting her to try something else with me. Can FFXIV be enjoyed casually? We likely will not be doing any "serious" endgame content, probably just exploration, questing, dungeons and "easy mode" raids if they exist. Is this a possibility? My girlfriend has never played a video game in her life (other than occasional light Mario playing well into her adult life), let alone an mmorpg.

[Kazgrel]

Cute... 700$.
Try for around 900€, unless you want the crappy blower version.

No matter which currency you're on, it sucks when the price of best card available goes up by 75% over the years. Course, that's not taking into effect that such a card that long ago wouldn't even qualify as minimum specs for damn near anything out now...even the OS, lol.

FF14-related: 3.56 this coming Tuesday.

[Kyriani]

I have next to zero experience with this game. My girlfriend is getting a new laptop soon and wants to play a game with me. I think it would be fun to run around and explore an mmorpg world together. I have way more familiarity with WoW, but the disjointed storyline from the older redone Vanilla zones to Outland to Northrend, back to Cataclysm Azeroth, etc etc has me wanting her to try something else with me. Can FFXIV be enjoyed casually? We likely will not be doing any "serious" endgame content, probably just exploration, questing, dungeons and "easy mode" raids if they exist. Is this a possibility? My girlfriend has never played a video game in her life (other than occasional light Mario playing well into her adult life), let alone an mmorpg.

I play solo for the most part (outside of using the duty finder) and I have yet to hit a lack of things to do. The story is great and continuously ongoing. There will be a few places where you and your girlfriend will need to do things apart (certain quests that place you in a solo duty), but other than that you can do virtually everything together. Endgame raiding is not required. You can have high ilvl gear without ever doing raids as long as you're willing to put in the time for it. And if you decide you want to engage in raid content, its not difficult to get into as long as you know how to play whatever job you're focusing on.

[Eleccybubb]

I have next to zero experience with this game. My girlfriend is getting a new laptop soon and wants to play a game with me. I think it would be fun to run around and explore an mmorpg world together. I have way more familiarity with WoW, but the disjointed storyline from the older redone Vanilla zones to Outland to Northrend, back to Cataclysm Azeroth, etc etc has me wanting her to try something else with me. Can FFXIV be enjoyed casually? We likely will not be doing any "serious" endgame content, probably just exploration, questing, dungeons and "easy mode" raids if they exist. Is this a possibility? My girlfriend has never played a video game in her life (other than occasional light Mario playing well into her adult life), let alone an mmorpg.

Easily. So much solo and so much group content.

24 man queued raids.
8 player raids use the queue system.
Gold Saucer if you feel like relaxing and doing minigames.
Hunts. I'm not really keen on these but a lot of people do them.
Dungeons.
If you like RP then 2 good servers I know of are Phoenix EU and Balmung NA. I think Saragatanas has an RP scene but I'm not sure.
PvP is meh though. They keep saying they want to bring it into Esports but well they have so much work to do before that happens.
And since you would be a new player you would get to experience the Heavensward story for the first time which is damn amazing and hits you right in the feels a few times. Haurchefant

[Wrecktangle]

I have next to zero experience with this game. My girlfriend is getting a new laptop soon and wants to play a game with me. I think it would be fun to run around and explore an mmorpg world together. I have way more familiarity with WoW, but the disjointed storyline from the older redone Vanilla zones to Outland to Northrend, back to Cataclysm Azeroth, etc etc has me wanting her to try something else with me. Can FFXIV be enjoyed casually? We likely will not be doing any "serious" endgame content, probably just exploration, questing, dungeons and "easy mode" raids if they exist. Is this a possibility? My girlfriend has never played a video game in her life (other than occasional light Mario playing well into her adult life), let alone an mmorpg.

As a WoW veteran you'll generally feel at home in FF14. I will say in the past I've tried to get gf's into MMO's and it's never particularly worked well (most of them were non-gamers). She will likely struggle with controlling her character and feel overstimulated with all the popups and menus.

That said, this is an excellent game based on the criteria you're interested in. The two of you could very casually just level and watch the story unfold together. Dungeons are very easy so as long as she's mastered the controls by like level 15 (~first dungeon) you'll be ok.

You could play a tank. I recommend starting as a Marauder which turns to Warrior (most interesting tank IMO) and have her start out as a Arcanist, which turns to either Scholar (healer, my recommendation personally) or Summoner (DPS).

Warrior is a fast paced high DPS tank that is also very durable and much more fun to play than Paladin (I leveled originally as a Paladin and it was SO boring), as long as you don't mind the archetype (burly 2h axe wielder). You can always switch later to other jobs (it's encouraged). For her, the Arcanist is good because you get cute pets and shit. Girls tend to be drawn to that stuff in my experience. It also has the benefit of being able to be a DPS or a healer if she decides she wants to switch paradigms.

Another benefit for this is that having those 2 roles locked down will make grouping incredibly easily for the two of you (important to keep gameplay pace for her to stay interested) it also places a bond that you two share in game, you protect her, she saves you. The other reason for this suggestion is that you both start in the same zone this way (takes a little bit to get put into same zone if you select different classes). I think that'd be important for her to stay interested.

Exploration isn't terribly present (mostly just large instanced zones with nothing meaningful outside EDIT: Faroth actually gave a good example below that I didn't think of), but there's definitely dungeons together each complete with interesting story. The dungeons are also very easy and pose very little danger. Easy mode raids definitely exist and are a joy to behold (GFX/immersion wise) and are very trivial difficulty wise. Definitely join a Free Company, often called an FC (it's identical to a guild in WoW). Getting her into that with other people talking and what not could likely be good for her engagement/enjoyment.

I sincerely hope you have better luck than me, and hop back in and give us updates on how its going. The good and the bad .

[Faroth]

I have next to zero experience with this game. My girlfriend is getting a new laptop soon and wants to play a game with me. I think it would be fun to run around and explore an mmorpg world together. I have way more familiarity with WoW, but the disjointed storyline from the older redone Vanilla zones to Outland to Northrend, back to Cataclysm Azeroth, etc etc has me wanting her to try something else with me. Can FFXIV be enjoyed casually? We likely will not be doing any "serious" endgame content, probably just exploration, questing, dungeons and "easy mode" raids if they exist. Is this a possibility? My girlfriend has never played a video game in her life (other than occasional light Mario playing well into her adult life), let alone an mmorpg.

So my FC has some great experience on this recently.

We have four people in particular in this story here:

One has never played an MMO, this is his first.
Another started playing.
And two others had been playing, but created new characters just to play through with the new folks.

They've worked their way through everything at their own pace and haven't taken that long, only playing together a couple times a week. The new people have enjoyed seeing the story unfold as they work through it.

If you're wanting to focus on casual play, FFXIV is pretty strongly designed around it. Every 3 months a new patch will get you new things to do, whether it's gearing by doing the duty finder dungeon runs (basically LFG tool in WoW, you'll be paired with 2 random folks) or 24 man raids (which are the Looking for Raid equivalent, but with more serious mechanics than WoW's LFR - one group can wipe the whole raid by screwing up).

With it being her first MMO, and new to gaming, FFXIV is a perfect introduction. Coming from WoW, you might feel combat is slower, but it's designed for people like your gf who aren't familiar with it, so they can ease into it at lower levels as more and more things are added.

With A Realm Reborn and Heavensward, you have a lot of story and content you can explore at your own pace before you'll be going into the new expansion, but I think together you'll be able to really enjoy it. If you truly want to explore the world, take your time in towns and stand around NPCs, some of their conversations are amusing.

You can also get an apartment eventually or join an FC and get a room in there, which you can decorate with furnishings. My friend's gf has had a fun time exploring the world and getting to all the vistas to unlock all the paintings available for housing. She also absolutely loves fishing of all things.

I'll have to disagree with Wrecktangle that there's nothing outside of instances. That's ignoring a ton of the world and the visuals out there to see that look pretty cool.

[Aurimas]

Satasha Hard. We literally asked a Dragoon who wasn't using Heavy Thrust "Dragoon use Heavy Thrust mate it's a damage increase" and he got all pissy and said we were flaming him. How the hell do you get flaming from that? We didn't say anything rude to him just politely asked him to use his damage increasing ability.

I'm not going to comment on whether DRG was thin skinned, or if you were rude. Simply because I wasn't there. DRG could have blown it out of proportion... or you could make it sound milder. "Your mama's so fat" always becomes "I was just inquiring about the health of his mother".

I do agree with the person who said that duty whispers would be great. I'm more inclined to help in this game than any other... and I do it less than any other because of what he said. /p seems like calling the person out.

I don't know. Such a thin line between "he'll never learn if no-one tells him" and "how much dps are we wasting with this argument". On any given day I never even know which side of the argument I personally fall on.

I'm not calling you out either. Like I said, I fall on different sides of the argument every day depending on my mood.

[Kazgrel]

I have next to zero experience with this game. My girlfriend is getting a new laptop soon and wants to play a game with me. I think it would be fun to run around and explore an mmorpg world together. I have way more familiarity with WoW, but the disjointed storyline from the older redone Vanilla zones to Outland to Northrend, back to Cataclysm Azeroth, etc etc has me wanting her to try something else with me. Can FFXIV be enjoyed casually? We likely will not be doing any "serious" endgame content, probably just exploration, questing, dungeons and "easy mode" raids if they exist. Is this a possibility? My girlfriend has never played a video game in her life (other than occasional light Mario playing well into her adult life), let alone an mmorpg.

This game is, in my experience, probably the easiest to get into, because they've designed with with people such as your gf in mind (folks who've never played an MMO at all). As a MMO veteran, specifically a WoW vet, you may find the combat to be very slow at the start, and most anyone else who played WoW to some extent would likely agree. It takes a while for the skill sets for each class/job to fully flesh out, but they eventually do, namely with various oGCD abilities coming into the mix over time.

Now the one annoying thing, though, would be that many quests require you to run them solo, with no outside assistance (the class/job-specific quests come to mind). Those aren't every other quest, though.

Others have covered highlights and such fairly well, so I won't drown you by repeating what's been said. I do believe you and the gf should be able to enjoy this game quite well, though.

[thewallofsleep]

This is great information from everyone. I really appreciate it. I already own the game, just haven't jumped in, so may sub for a couple months and get the swing of things until she gets her computer. Then I'll create a new character and level from scratch with her (unless she would rather play WoW).

Are there any classes/jobs that are really "earthy" aesthetically, a la Druid or Shaman in other games?

With regard to the warrior suggestion, doesn't Dark Knight come from Marauder as well? How is that to play as a tank spec? My tanking experience comes from WoW paladin and Druid from various eras of the game.

[Luko]

No whispering in instances is absolutely unreasonable and there is no longer any rational, non-technical reason that it's still a thing. Whether it be whispering a team mate or continuing a conversation you were having before your queue popped.

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This is great information from everyone. I really appreciate it. I already own the game, just haven't jumped in, so may sub for a couple months and get the swing of things until she gets her computer. Then I'll create a new character and level from scratch with her (unless she would rather play WoW).

Are there any classes/jobs that are really "earthy" aesthetically, a la Druid or Shaman in other games?

With regard to the warrior suggestion, doesn't Dark Knight come from Marauder as well? How is that to play as a tank spec? My tanking experience comes from WoW paladin and Druid from various eras of the game.

Conjurer (which eventually becomes white mage) is all about earthy shit. Not as extreme as western fantasy druids, but its story is all about using your elements more. Be warned though that it IS a healing class so she'd have to heal.

Anyway some general advice. The game starts out PISS SLOW from a combat perspective. You'll be jumping in place just for something to do, and sadly for most classes it doesn't really open up and get any busier until the late 40s. Keep that in mind and dont judge too harshly based on it. At an end game level, this game boasts some of the most complex rotations and priority systems I've ever seen, it just eases you into them a little slow paced, imo.

[Faroth]

This is great information from everyone. I really appreciate it. I already own the game, just haven't jumped in, so may sub for a couple months and get the swing of things until she gets her computer. Then I'll create a new character and level from scratch with her (unless she would rather play WoW).

Key thing to note, you can also play every class/job on a single character. At level 15, you'll be able to travel to all the city states, which will let you enroll in every crafting and combat job in the game (except the new ones in Heavensward & Stormblood). Swapping jobs is as simple as swapping your equipment. So you've been playing as a fistfighting monk and decide you want to tank, you equip your tank weapon & armor and you're now a tank. They level separately, though, so you have every job available to level separately. So if you play together and either of you aren't really liking your class, you can swap and try something different.

My friend never liked melee and started as a bard, but found herself enjoying paladin more by end of the 2.x patch cycle. In 3.x she went fully into healing with Astrologian. Another friend is a mage but really got into dark knight and monk as well.

Are there any classes/jobs that are really "earthy" aesthetically, a la Druid or Shaman in other games?

Not yet, but Geomancer is a long time Final Fantasy job that players have speculated on, so maybe in the future.

With regard to the warrior suggestion, doesn't Dark Knight come from Marauder as well? How is that to play as a tank spec? My tanking experience comes from WoW paladin and Druid from various eras of the game.

Dark Knight was introduced in Heavensward and you'll have to reach Heavensward content before you can unlock the job. It does not, however, grow from a class like others. Dark Knight, Machinist, and Astrologian were unlocked in Heavensward and started at level 30 without a base class required.

The two new jobs for Stormblood, Samurai and Red mage, will be accessible at level 50 and won't require you to access Stormblood to unlock. So if you hit 50 on Monk, you could swap to Samurai and continue through the 2.x and 3.x content as Samurai on the way to Stormblood if you wished.


Also, looking back at Wreck's post again, he notes how easy everything is. Don't let that fool you into thinking it's face roll. The group content is more challenging than WoW's LFR, particularly if your gf is still learning MMOs. However, my friend has been learning and adapting with it being his first as well. When the 24 man raids are brand new, there's often at least one boss that causes groups trouble as everyone is still figuring out what exactly to do.

The dungeon content gets easy very quickly with gear and even prior they aren't real punishing, but may be an enjoyable challenge while learning everything.

[Kazgrel]

This is great information from everyone. I really appreciate it. I already own the game, just haven't jumped in, so may sub for a couple months and get the swing of things until she gets her computer. Then I'll create a new character and level from scratch with her (unless she would rather play WoW).

Are there any classes/jobs that are really "earthy" aesthetically, a la Druid or Shaman in other games?

With regard to the warrior suggestion, doesn't Dark Knight come from Marauder as well? How is that to play as a tank spec? My tanking experience comes from WoW paladin and Druid from various eras of the game.

Conjurer is the most akin to druid/shaman aesthetic and/or "earthy" tone, lore-wise. It eventually becomes White Mage, which still retains that earthy tone/aesthetic/lore. It also plays more akin to resto druid and/or holy priest from WoW (in terms of how they heal).

You actually don't have to level either Marauder nor Gladiator to play Dark Knight. However, there's a couple of caveats to that:

1. You can't play Dark Knight, nor the other two new jobs added in Heavensward (Machinist and Astrologian) until you've cleared all of the base game's main story quests. All 3 of these start at level 30 when you do unlock them, though.

2. While you do not technically need to level Gladiator and Marauder for DRK (as it is oft abreviated), due to how cross class skills work, both of those jobs have skills you will want to have. That said, the cross class skill system as a whole is going to be revamped as of the upcoming Stormblood expansion, so it is likely you wouldn't need to level either of those classes for DRK. We don't have much for details on that revamp, though, at this point. Stay tuned!

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No whispering in instances is absolutely unreasonable and there is no longer any rational, non-technical reason that it's still a thing. Whether it be whispering a team mate or continuing a conversation you were having before your queue popped.

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Conjurer (which eventually becomes white mage) is all about earthy shit. Not as extreme as western fantasy druids, but its story is all about using your elements more. Be warned though that it IS a healing class so she'd have to heal.

Anyway some general advice. The game starts out PISS SLOW from a combat perspective. You'll be jumping in place just for something to do, and sadly for most classes it doesn't really open up and get any busier until the late 40s. Keep that in mind and dont judge too harshly based on it. At an end game level, this game boasts some of the most complex rotations and priority systems I've ever seen, it just eases you into them a little slow paced, imo.

Just as annoying as the lack of whispering is being unable to check friend list and/or FC list while in a dungeon. That one's just as mind boggling as the lack of whispering, although we can now whisper to people from other realms ever since the cross server PF became a thing.

[Aruhen]

No whispering in instances is absolutely unreasonable and there is no longer any rational, non-technical reason that it's still a thing. Whether it be whispering a team mate or continuing a conversation you were having before your queue popped.

While not an excuse to not have such a thing you could make a Linkshell (chat channel) and invite your friends to it. That's what I do with my friends so we can all chat together no matter what we're doing.

[Faroth]

Patch is next week, confirmed!


Spoilers for last patch's storyline if you haven't done it yet and don't wanna know anything.

[Granyala]

No matter which currency you're on, it sucks when the price of best card available goes up by 75% over the years.

Honestly? I think current top gen cards have proportionally for more horsepower.

My friend paid around 400ish € for his 9800XT back in the day, we all called him crazy for that.
I got it's little sister card, the 9600XT for much less (probably around half that price?).
9600XT would be comparable to today's 1050: can play all titles, as long as you did not get the idea of cranking the resolution.

The 9800XT was probably on par with today's 1070: plenty of overkill horsepower at "standard" resolutions and can dabble in higher ones, albeit on a limited scale (wouldn't recommend the 1070 for 4k).

The "super Tier", which is basically MASSIVE overkill for 99% of all users (steam puts 4K resolutions at a lolworthy 0.7%), beyond that just didn't exist back then, so I think it's a little unfair to compare them directly.

Yup prices have gone up, but not by 75%. Only thing that sucks this generation is that the ~300€ tier vanished. You could either go cheap with a 1060 /480(?) for around 220€ or had to jump all the way to 450+ to get a 1070.

[dope_danny]

So who wants to bet Tataru is making everyone an outfit and Yda's is a red dress?

[Kazgrel]

Honestly? I think current top gen cards have proportionally for more horsepower.

My friend paid around 400ish € for his 9800XT back in the day, we all called him crazy for that.
I got it's little sister card, the 9600XT for much less (probably around half that price?).
9600XT would be comparable to today's 1050: can play all titles, as long as you did not get the idea of cranking the resolution.

The 9800XT was probably on par with today's 1070: plenty of overkill horsepower at "standard" resolutions and can dabble in higher ones, albeit on a limited scale (wouldn't recommend the 1070 for 4k).

The "super Tier", which is basically MASSIVE overkill for 99% of all users (steam puts 4K resolutions at a lolworthy 0.7%), beyond that just didn't exist back then, so I think it's a little unfair to compare them directly.

Yup prices have gone up, but not by 75%. Only thing that sucks this generation is that the ~300€ tier vanished. You could either go cheap with a 1060 /480(?) for around 220€ or had to jump all the way to 450+ to get a 1070.

Yeah, we're seeing the same absence of a $300-350 range card, from Nvidia at least. It's a big jump (price wise) from 1060 to 1070, then a moderate jump from there to a 1080 (thanks to the 1080 Ti), then another big jump to the 1080 Ti (now followed by a ridiculously pointless "jump" to the current Titan).

Regarding 4k and it's lack of market penetration (giggity), there's a bunch of factors in play as to why that's such an abysmally low number; to sum them up simply, we are just now getting to single card systems that can support 4k, and most all that stuff is still way too expensive for most folk's tastes. That number should bump up significantly in the next 3-4 years, maybe sooner.

[Faroth]

So who wants to bet Tataru is making everyone an outfit and Yda's is a red dress?

I'm just curious what OURS is going to be!