[Megathread] Final Fantasy XIV

[Granyala]

Diadem is like the lottery now, if you're lucky you get OP weapon.

5 item levels is hardly OP and butt ugly to boot.
Certainly not enough to bother with boring content like that.

On a more positive note: Won my second PvP frontline today. 10K of 18K Wolfmarks acquired.

[Anzaman]

On a more positive note: Won my second PvP frontline today. 10K of 18K Wolfmarks acquired.

Got another set purchased today, just 3 left: WAR/DRK/PLD.

Also pushed DRK from 55 to 58.. god some people are horrible in Duty Finder.

[Remilia]

Our 60th win for achievement mount ended with a 3 caster LB combo. Played as SMN and my friend as BLM. Another BLM LBed as I was about to AoE bind and then follow up with my LB and my friend joined, 5 people instantly dead and collect medal for win. Was oddly satisfying.

[Scufflegrit]

That sounds similar to a win I had yesterday. I was healing on WHM and the enemy team pushed us back almost into our starting area, so it was kind of a bottlenecked area. They got overconfident and all charged in with us... Swiftcast came off CD, so sprint into them then Swiftcast+Holy>Aetheric Burst>Assize. One of our casters saw me do it and dropped his LB on them, then the LBs all just started raining down. It wasn't an instant win but like 4-5 of them died, the others ran and we suddenly had a huge lead from all the medals dropped. The enemy team's morale seemed to crumble with that, because the rest of the fight was very easy and fast. Indeed, very satisfying.


And then there are matches where your team has what you'd think are bots, but they don't completely act like it. They are generally tanks who charge straight at the enemy team. Solo. They actually fight, but they also die very quickly. Because they're 1v8... And then the rest of the team just gets picked off one by one until the enemy wins. At least it's over fast. :/

[Aliven]

So i started playing 20 days ago with a pretty clear image what i wanted. Start as a pugilist, after 15 lvls switch to rogue to be a ninja. After reaching expansion switch to machinist and main it. I love firearms in mmo/arpg. Now i have lvl 39 machinist and no desire to play more except one. To sum some things up:

- ability bloat and button bloat is a serious problem. Ninja after 3rd mudra became nearly unplayable to me. I sticked with it mostly because reroling was pointless. I run quickly out of comfortable key shortcuts and mostly felt that im fighting my hotbars and not boss enemies. And that was before all exp new skills.

- seems every class got that. I admire the complexity but there is just to much abilities to press. For the first time i clicked with my mouse on some key rotation skills. At least it dont feel pointless.

The only thing i think about as my reason to stick around is the story. Which is amazing, and last quests before heavensward storyline were truly fantastic. But i propably quit neverthless.

I know it may be ranty but just wanted to share.

[Anzaman]

North American Data Center Relocation


The maintenance schedule for each data center is as following:

• Aether / Primal Data Center Worlds
• From Monday, May 15, 2017 12:00 a.m. to Wednesday, May 17, 2017 12:00 a.m. (PDT) * 48 hours

• Elemental / Gaia / Mana / Chaos Data Center Worlds
• From Tuesday, May 16, 2017 12:00 a.m. to Wednesday, May 17, 2017 12:00 a.m. (PDT) * 24 hours

http://eu.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodest...0716040e34a5b6

[MrTharne]

- ability bloat and button bloat is a serious problem. Ninja after 3rd mudra became nearly unplayable to me. I sticked with it mostly because reroling was pointless. I run quickly out of comfortable key shortcuts and mostly felt that im fighting my hotbars and not boss enemies. And that was before all exp new skills.

- seems every class got that. I admire the complexity but there is just to much abilities to press.

They said that with 3.0 the rotation for DPS got a little too complex and they'll tune it down for Stormblood to reduce the huge performance disparity between the good and the "not so good" players.

We still don't really know how this is going to happen. ( BLM and their Enochian buff is the only thing we know so far if I remember correctly)

Don't know how they will tune down the "complexity" of classes like Dragoon for exemple, when (imo) most of the skills in the rotation are necessary.

[dope_danny]

They said that with 3.0 the rotation for DPS got a little too complex and they'll tune it down for Stormblood to reduce the huge performance disparity between the good and the "not so good" players.

We still don't really know how this is going to happen. ( BLM and their Enochian buff is the only thing we know so far if I remember correctly)

Don't know how they will tune down the "complexity" of classes like Dragoon for exemple, when (imo) most of the skills in the rotation are necessary.

I would bet good gil the core idea will be "the new dots/upkeep buffs we added in HW get added into existing moves". Like NIN's armour crush being added into the core rotation dot moves rather than an optional thing to interrupt your rotation so you dont have to spend a mudra cooldown on your buff again. Then that 'space' replaced with a 60-70 cooldown or new rotation ability. To use NIN again they mentioned in an interview summoning a hawk,toad,dog or bat to attack which could easily just be a 4th mudra seal for a new combo to use when you dont need to refresh your buff with armour crush anymore instead.

I hope it doesnt just go back to 2.0 level BLM stuff. I was so excited to start playing BLM and ended up getting a really dull version of WoW's cata era balance druid in a way and there has to be some notion that you can mess up or miss stuff just to keep it interesting. I mean the gdc doesnt bother me like it does some people but imagine something like WoWs modern "one filler move,2 dots and a proc" extremely trimmed down rotations with a slow cooldown as well? only way you compensate is just give players more things to dodge and that alone gets real tired.

[Dasffion]

I don't have a problem with BLM as it is now. Since I've started a WHM what I have a problem with is stuff like Stone, Stone II and Stone III. Once you get Stone II there's no reason to use Stone, once you get Stone III there's no reason to use Stone II. You have to keep them on your bars though, or redo your bars, if you get a leveling dungeon or do 50s etc. Spells like these need to scale with level

[Aliven]

They said that with 3.0 the rotation for DPS got a little too complex and they'll tune it down for Stormblood to reduce the huge performance disparity between the good and the "not so good" players.

We still don't really know how this is going to happen. ( BLM and their Enochian buff is the only thing we know so far if I remember correctly)

Don't know how they will tune down the "complexity" of classes like Dragoon for exemple, when (imo) most of the skills in the rotation are necessary.

Didnt they say that the goal is to have the same numbers of skill in 4.0 as is in now in 3.x? Which dont solve problem imo. It is to much for currently and it sounds like stormblood will not change that. But will wait and see.

[dope_danny]

I don't have a problem with BLM as it is now. Since I've started a WHM what I have a problem with is stuff like Stone, Stone II and Stone III. Once you get Stone II there's no reason to use Stone, once you get Stone III there's no reason to use Stone II. You have to keep them on your bars though, or redo your bars, if you get a leveling dungeon or do 50s etc. Spells like these need to scale with level

BLM is way better now, i'm talking about when ARR launched. It was really, really boring. Having a free fire 3 proc was the height of excitement as ARR BLM

[Wrecktangle]

- ability bloat and button bloat is a serious problem. Ninja after 3rd mudra became nearly unplayable to me. I sticked with it mostly because reroling was pointless. I run quickly out of comfortable key shortcuts and mostly felt that im fighting my hotbars and not boss enemies. And that was before all exp new skills.

- seems every class got that. I admire the complexity but there is just to much abilities to press..

It's definitely a problem. I don't think it's as big of a problem as you're describing, but the game could definitely use some measure of streamlining and pruning. We've discussed countless times a few solutions (combo's overriding existing keybinds, etc.) so we're all a bit curious to see what SQEX comes up with.

They said that with 3.0 the rotation for DPS got a little too complex and they'll tune it down for Stormblood to reduce the huge performance disparity between the good and the "not so good" players.

We still don't really know how this is going to happen. ( BLM and their Enochian buff is the only thing we know so far if I remember correctly)

Don't know how they will tune down the "complexity" of classes like Dragoon for exemple, when (imo) most of the skills in the rotation are necessary.

Your post actually doesn't cover what the person you were responding to was actually saying. He doesn't have any issues with the complexity. He has issues with button bloat. While it is possible for those to be related, in this instance it's not. Most of the button bloat is due to combo's having 2 buttons that don't do anything other than to serve as buttons to let you push a second/third button. Then add to all to cooldown spells you have to stack, then lastly all your random niche abilities that see use once a month in gametime.

• Make Niche spells useful/necessary (thus combining/pruning bad ones)
• Consolidate cooldowns so that they're impactful and powerful, not a bunch of micro cooldowns that by themselves don't do much and require pushing 4 buttons or 7.5s worth of time to setup.
• Develop a solution for the combo pathing bloat. It works, but it can definitely be improved IMO.

I hope it doesnt just go back to 2.0 level BLM stuff. I was so excited to start playing BLM and ended up getting a really dull version of WoW's cata era balance druid in a way and there has to be some notion that you can mess up or miss stuff just to keep it interesting. I mean the gdc doesnt bother me like it does some people but imagine something like WoWs modern "one filler move,2 dots and a proc" extremely trimmed down rotations with a slow cooldown as well? only way you compensate is just give players more things to dodge and that alone gets real tired.

Alternatively, FF14 could develop fights that have mechanics that occur more organically and frequently rather than how hard-coded aoe damage every 20s, tank buster every 30s, mechanic every 25s and adds spawn before special attack formula they've been using.

Ironically, the spec that I play doesn't have 2 dots, let alone 1, or a proc (unless talented). My spec plays based off a combo point system coupled with a damage buff up window. It's not terribly robust, but it's moderately fun and has some hidden depth to it.

But then again, @dope_danny, anything to get a bash in at WoW right?

[Katchii]

So i started playing 20 days ago with a pretty clear image what i wanted. Start as a pugilist, after 15 lvls switch to rogue to be a ninja. After reaching expansion switch to machinist and main it. I love firearms in mmo/arpg. Now i have lvl 39 machinist and no desire to play more except one. To sum some things up:

- ability bloat and button bloat is a serious problem. Ninja after 3rd mudra became nearly unplayable to me. I sticked with it mostly because reroling was pointless. I run quickly out of comfortable key shortcuts and mostly felt that im fighting my hotbars and not boss enemies. And that was before all exp new skills.

- seems every class got that. I admire the complexity but there is just to much abilities to press. For the first time i clicked with my mouse on some key rotation skills. At least it dont feel pointless.

The only thing i think about as my reason to stick around is the story. Which is amazing, and last quests before heavensward storyline were truly fantastic. But i propably quit neverthless.

I know it may be ranty but just wanted to share.

Not sure which controller set-up you use, but I've heard several people prefer or switch to controller vs mouse and keyboard because of the issues you're experiencing. I personally don't like using a controller for MMO's like this but I also have an MMO mouse and a gaming keypad so I have a much easier time with things like this. If you play MMOs, or any game really, that utilizes a lot of hotkeys or keybinds I highly recommend an MMO mouse at the least because it provides immediate and easy access to the 12 keys, and with modifiers gives easy access to up to 48 keybinds (no mod, +crtl, +shift, +alt). I like the gaming keypad (Razer Tartarus, for reference if you're not sure what a gaming keypad is) because it makes accessing the modifier keys and movement keys much more comfortable, I had thumb and wrist strain on my left wrist with all the movement and weird positioning with these two peripherals I have no more ergonomic issues.

OT: The ability and button bloat is real, and is a problem IMO. I was giving a quick rundown to someone the other day for frequently used and required abilities for Summoner and found that there's 24 abilities you NEED to have bound to perform that job well...which is ridiculous. And Summoner isn't even close to the worst offender for this, so yeah the ability/ button bloat needs to be remedied.

I'm really interested in seeing the ability count and what my associated hotbar set-up will be for Red Mage and Samurai because these are being designed from the ground up to with the ability bloat in mind so they're much more likely to reflect what the designers goal is vs something like Warrior that needs to be revamped to fit within the new design paradigm. Regardless, we'll see soon enough.

[HAcoreRD]

North American Data Center Relocation


The maintenance schedule for each data center is as following:

• Aether / Primal Data Center Worlds
• From Monday, May 15, 2017 12:00 a.m. to Wednesday, May 17, 2017 12:00 a.m. (PDT) * 48 hours

• Elemental / Gaia / Mana / Chaos Data Center Worlds
• From Tuesday, May 16, 2017 12:00 a.m. to Wednesday, May 17, 2017 12:00 a.m. (PDT) * 24 hours

http://eu.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodest...0716040e34a5b6

is it true they're merging worlds? or is it just moving servers?

[Anzaman]

is it true they're merging worlds? or is it just moving servers?

Haven't heard anything about merging, only moving.

[Aliven]

It's definitely a problem. I don't think it's as big of a problem as you're describing, but the game could definitely use some measure of streamlining and pruning. We've discussed countless times a few solutions (combo's overriding existing keybinds, etc.) so we're all a bit curious to see what SQEX comes up with.
@dope_danny, anything to get a bash in at WoW right?

Well it started to be a problem with NIN mostly because of mudras. I get the timing, using 3 abilities off global cd and then quickly followed by 4th. I dont have lags (40ms i guess is not a lag) but even then there is simply no room for error or you rotation and timing suffer. Often i was not able to watch battleground and telegraphed attacks because of my struggle with UI.

NIN also got branching rotation which first attack unlocking 2 more, then two more. So it is 5 button main combo which is priority system (2 dots and debuff). The only possible solution i can think off is to merge it to 3 combo without branching and then MAYBE merge it into one button combo (because there is no reason to use non comboed move).

- - - Updated - - -

Not sure which controller set-up you use, but I've heard several people prefer or switch to controller vs mouse and keyboard because of the issues you're experiencing. I personally don't like using a controller for MMO's like this but I also have an MMO mouse and a gaming keypad so I have a much easier time with things like this. If you play MMOs, or any game really, that utilizes a lot of hotkeys or keybinds I highly recommend an MMO mouse at the least because it provides immediate and easy access to the 12 keys, and with modifiers gives easy access to up to 48 keybinds (no mod, +crtl, +shift, +alt). I like the gaming keypad (Razer Tartarus, for reference if you're not sure what a gaming keypad is) because it makes accessing the modifier keys and movement keys much more comfortable, I had thumb and wrist strain on my left wrist with all the movement and weird positioning with these two peripherals I have no more ergonomic issues.

OT: The ability and button bloat is real, and is a problem IMO. I was giving a quick rundown to someone the other day for frequently used and required abilities for Summoner and found that there's 24 abilities you NEED to have bound to perform that job well...which is ridiculous. And Summoner isn't even close to the worst offender for this, so yeah the ability/ button bloat needs to be remedied.

I'm really interested in seeing the ability count and what my associated hotbar set-up will be for Red Mage and Samurai because these are being designed from the ground up to with the ability bloat in mind so they're much more likely to reflect what the designers goal is vs something like Warrior that needs to be revamped to fit within the new design paradigm. Regardless, we'll see soon enough.

Playing with mouse+keyboard. Maybe ill try xbox gamepad.

And you touched the most lazy design in history. You have problems with abilities? Well buy overpriced gaming hardware ofc. I really hate this kind of game design and this is discourage me to buy it (it is not toward you, i apreciate that you try to suggest solutions ). I simply cant afford buying costly mouse to play game. It is easier to drop a game when there is so much great games in the market.

[Eleccybubb]

Paypal is a lifesaver. Had troubles with my card as you know. Managed to use it to buy Crysta so I could transfer one of my alts to the US servers to play with a friend.

Not to kind of plug here but YAY PAYPAL.

[leviathonlx]

I would bet good gil the core idea will be "the new dots/upkeep buffs we added in HW get added into existing moves". Like NIN's armour crush being added into the core rotation dot moves rather than an optional thing to interrupt your rotation so you dont have to spend a mudra cooldown on your buff again. Then that 'space' replaced with a 60-70 cooldown or new rotation ability. To use NIN again they mentioned in an interview summoning a hawk,toad,dog or bat to attack which could easily just be a 4th mudra seal for a new combo to use when you dont need to refresh your buff with armour crush anymore instead.

I hope it doesnt just go back to 2.0 level BLM stuff. I was so excited to start playing BLM and ended up getting a really dull version of WoW's cata era balance druid in a way and there has to be some notion that you can mess up or miss stuff just to keep it interesting. I mean the gdc doesnt bother me like it does some people but imagine something like WoWs modern "one filler move,2 dots and a proc" extremely trimmed down rotations with a slow cooldown as well? only way you compensate is just give players more things to dodge and that alone gets real tired.

The main issue with FF14 is that it feels like they think jobs need to meet some quota in the number of skills. This becomes most apparent when looking at things like every melee needing to have a bleed and many cooldowns being similar between jobs. It's ok if one job has 15 buttons and another has 18 but they seem to disagree with that. WoW's skills are lessened but rotations are quite varied between specs and many still have plenty of meaningful buttons without much similarity between them. In general the button bloat of FF14 actually makes many jobs play more similar (an issue WoW had before they pruned away things like half the classes having an execute). Most of the 'increase damage by x for y seconds' abilities such as Heavy Thrust could be outright removed with the damage just baked into the jobs or other damaging skills and not a single thing of value would be lost as playing 'watch the timers' isn't very exciting gameplay especially with the non moddable UI the game has. And for gods sake they need to combine some of the cooldowns since there's no reason to have 4 small DPS increase cooldowns instead of just 2 powerful ones besides just having more buttons.

[Melsiren]

Alternatively, FF14 could develop fights that have mechanics that occur more organically and frequently rather than how hard-coded aoe damage every 20s, tank buster every 30s, mechanic every 25s and adds spawn before special attack formula they've been using.

Ironically, the spec that I play doesn't have 2 dots, let alone 1, or a proc (unless talented). My spec plays based off a combo point system coupled with a damage buff up window. It's not terribly robust, but it's moderately fun and has some hidden depth to it.

But then again, @dope_danny, anything to get a bash in at WoW right?

Controversy I agree with you, Ret Paladin has some nice hidden depth to it that I too enjoy. It's the one class I played in WoD going into Legion that I was mostly happy with. (Though I miss Serphim)

Meanwhile other classes had the depth absolutely gutted from them, Sub Rogue (Rip blade twisting), Protection Paladin to name a few.

With that said, it's mostly irrelevant since I'm pretty sure the poster mentioned quit wow long before WoD, though I'm only making assumptions.

The main issue with FF14 is that it feels like they think jobs need to meet some quota in the number of skills. This becomes most apparent when looking at things like every melee needing to have a bleed and many cooldowns being similar between jobs. It's ok if one job has 15 buttons and another has 18 but they seem to disagree with that. WoW's skills are lessened but rotations are quite varied between specs and many still have plenty of meaningful buttons without much similarity between them. In general the button bloat of FF14 actually makes many jobs play more similar (an issue WoW had before they pruned away things like half the classes having an execute). Most of the 'increase damage by x for y seconds' abilities such as Heavy Thrust could be outright removed with the damage just baked into the jobs or other damaging skills and not a single thing of value would be lost as playing 'watch the timers' isn't very exciting gameplay especially with the non moddable UI the game has. And for gods sake they need to combine some of the cooldowns since there's no reason to have 4 small DPS increase cooldowns instead of just 2 powerful ones besides just having more buttons.

From what I've noticed, a lot of the similarities between the Jobs are the base class abilities, while the 30+ Job quest abilities tend to be more unique.

Actually all the melee right now have two dots.

MNKS has Touch of Death and Demolish. (Base class abilities)

NIN has Mutilate, and Shadow Fang. (Base class abilities also.)

DRG has Phlebotomize, and Chaos Thrust. (Yet again, base class abilities)

It's a clear problem, which I think will be fixed, or the very least adressed with the "Combat revamp." One thing to keep in mind though, they aim to have the same amount of abilities at 70 that we currently have at 60.

[Granyala]

It's a clear problem, which I think will be fixed, or the very least adressed with the "Combat revamp." One thing to keep in mind though, they aim to have the same amount of abilities at 70 that we currently have at 60.

Doubt it.
Every class having the same basic tools makes balancing them a lot easier for SE.