[Megathread] Final Fantasy XIV

[Edge-]

All this talk of the UI...

Is there any way to track more than 5 quests? Kind of sucks when I have 9 beast tribe dailies active but can only see 5 of them.

That's the max I remember seeing in the options. I just wish you could choose to track up to 5, but not be forced to see 5 all the time. Dislike how it force tracks quests even if you don't have the toggled.

[Remilia]

Yeah, the track 5 kind of sucks. Maybe like... 10 and you can reduce it or whatever in the settings. Doubt it'd take much space.

[Granyala]

Damn it it is soooo weird to play DPS in this game.

Just did an Ark run on my BLM and forgot to activate ACT.... I have 0 clue whether I did okay, really good or absolute crap.
It felt good, got a lot of Fire IVs off and had nice Enochian uptime. But no hard data.
How can people play like this?

Anyhow. with the changes to Astral Fire, BLM definitely feels a lot more relaxed. Either that or I just got lucky with targeting stuffz.

[Edge-]

Damn it it is soooo weird to play DPS in this game.

Yeah, messed around on my Thaum last night (just hit like, 18, need to get to 26 for instant cast buff for WHM) and it just felt strange waiting like 30 minutes for a dungeon to pop and then being able to completely not pay any attention the whole way through.

[Advent]

How can people play like this?

I spend too much time trying to track cooldowns, buffs and debuffs which are all over the place. Man, I miss weakauras.

[Granyala]

I spend too much time trying to track cooldowns, buffs and debuffs which are all over the place. Man, I miss weakauras.

It's not that it is boring or anything... it's the lack of feedback that it perplexing to me.

As a healer, if s/o dies to non avoidable damage I know I fucked up. As a tank, if I lose aggro, I know I fucked up.

As a DPS .... nothing. I press my buttons, a few tiny numbers show up ... erm... okay.

[Katchii]

It's not that it is boring or anything... it's the lack of feedback that it perplexing to me.

As a healer, if s/o dies to non avoidable damage I know I fucked up. As a tank, if I lose aggro, I know I fucked up.

As a DPS .... nothing. I press my buttons, a few tiny numbers show up ... erm... okay.

I've never played with any kind of meter in FFXIV. The more you play DPS the better understanding of your own damage, and by extension, everyone else's damage too just based on the amount of health being taken off by each attack. You don't need to know what your DPS numbers are exactly to know if you're doing OK. You'll know, based on the group performance, length of encounters, trash pack kill times, etc...

I like it honestly, no "worrying" about numbers and just focusing on my rotation and mechanics. I just got used to noticing how much health my attacks were doing rather than seeing the numbers. That and knowing my rotation inside and out... you know when you did it right and when you did it wrong. Don't need numbers to tell you that you messed up.

[Deleted]

I've never played with any kind of meter in FFXIV. The more you play DPS the better understanding of your own damage, and by extension, everyone else's damage too just based on the amount of health being taken off by each attack. You don't need to know what your DPS numbers are exactly to know if you're doing OK. You'll know, based on the group performance, length of encounters, trash pack kill times, etc...

I like it honestly, no "worrying" about numbers and just focusing on my rotation and mechanics. I just got used to noticing how much health my attacks were doing rather than seeing the numbers. That and knowing my rotation inside and out... you know when you did it right and when you did it wrong. Don't need numbers to tell you that you messed up.

Actually saying you are doing good requires a solid metric, feelings is whats gotten the game into this mess with such a huge gap in skill level and why so many people remain at a low point in damage.

To know you really have your rotation known requires actual data, and comparing it with more data, what you said has nothing to go by at all, evidence is always needed.

[Aruhen]

Having a meter wont for some reason make the average playerbase better. The majority who already does sub par dps wont all of a sudden take the initiative to get better. More like they'll ignore you and go about their merry way because they don't give a rats ass. Just like in WoW.

As far as the rotation stuff, yeah sure maybe to some extent but this game doesn't have a complex min maxing side to it like WoW does. I doubt it would even if they added DPS meters. The classes in this game don't have "complex" mechanics like say the Tigereye Brew of a Monk so you can figure out if you can use it at 5 stacks or always save it for 10. Its pretty clear cut as you keep up your own personal buffs, debuffs and then follow the main rotation. There isn't much variance for the classes outside of this. The game is more about being able to keep this up while following boss mechanics which is were people fail.

[SodiumChloride]

Damn it it is soooo weird to play DPS in this game.

Just did an Ark run on my BLM and forgot to activate ACT.... I have 0 clue whether I did okay, really good or absolute crap.
It felt good, got a lot of Fire IVs off and had nice Enochian uptime. But no hard data.
How can people play like this?

Anyhow. with the changes to Astral Fire, BLM definitely feels a lot more relaxed. Either that or I just got lucky with targeting stuffz.

Rather enjoy the game, doing my best as I'm comfortable with, than constantly fretting about "performance" ...

Constantly checking DPS meters is like constantly checking your watch. While doing so you are missing out on the actual experience of playing.

That's the way it is for me anyway - I avoid running DPS meters in WoW too; don't need no stupidly little bar telling me whether I'm having fun or not.

- - - Updated - - -

Having a meter wont for some reason make the average playerbase better. The majority who already does sub par dps wont all of a sudden take the initiative to get better. More like they'll ignore you and go about their merry way because they don't give a rats ass. Just like in WoW.

As far as the rotation stuff, yeah sure maybe to some extent but this game doesn't have a complex min maxing side to it like WoW does. I doubt it would even if they added DPS meters. The classes in this game don't have "complex" mechanics like say the Tigereye Brew of a Monk so you can figure out if you can use it at 5 stacks or always save it for 10. Its pretty clear cut as you keep up your own personal buffs, debuffs and then follow the main rotation. There isn't much variance for the classes outside of this. The game is more about being able to keep this up while following boss mechanics which is were people fail.

Game content is tuned with the player base in mind. If doesn't matter if players suck, content will be adjusted so they can clear it nonetheless.

Content is made to be cleared.

[Granyala]

I've never played with any kind of meter in FFXIV. The more you play DPS the better understanding of your own damage, and by extension, everyone else's damage too just based on the amount of health being taken off by each attack. You don't need to know what your DPS numbers are exactly to know if you're doing OK. You'll know, based on the group performance, length of encounters, trash pack kill times, etc...

Sorry mate, but that is virtually impossible to gauge if you go out with randoms. In a guild raid it might be.
Also: No. I do not have time to look at the numbers that pop up. Way too busy looking for important stuff.
I also never have recount visible during a fight, as it only serves as a distraction.
AFTER a fight that I start to analyze.

Don't need numbers to tell you that you messed up.

Gross mistakes: true. I notice those immediately during the following cast and always go: "naaah f***".
Still, being paired with a similar geared BLM and starting to compare performances is when stuff as DPS starts to get interesting. Can't do that w/o meters.

Rather enjoy the game, doing my best as I'm comfortable with, than constantly fretting about "performance" ...

to me it feels as if I am flying blind and whether I do okayish or really good doesn't matter at all.

[SodiumChloride]

to me it feels as if I am flying blind and whether I do okayish or really good doesn't matter at all.

My point is, the focus on performance hurts the enjoyment of the game (IMHO).

When I enter a dungeon, I want to be going on an adventure and not constantly worrying whether I'm meeting some arbitrary number.

PS: It's unrealistic to expect players to be that focused on the game. Some play for a few months, go on hiatus because of real life responsibilities, come back ... and wing it because they don't remember much of anything.

[Granyala]

My point is, the focus on performance hurts the enjoyment of the game (IMHO).

If you overvalue it: most definitely yes.
You start to rage at every mistake you make, every ability that targets you lets you roll your eyes, because you know what it does to your DPS as BLM.

Most of the time I "wing it" too because I play BLM very rarely. I prefer healing / tanking. Partially because of the feedback I get from the game.

[Graeham]

There's that Stone, Sea and Sky thing for people to test if their DPS is 'good enough' to tackle various raids, dungeons and trials. I also don't believe that anybody needs to see what anybody else's DPS is - because that just leads to toxic drama. If someone is doing less than great DPS in something like Pharos Sirius then that's a shame but at the same time I'm not going to lose any sleep over it.

The vast majority of my trips into the duty finder are positive. Even the horrid trips don't really bother me because the chances of actually meeting the same player more than once are pretty slim. Balmung seems to have a much more pleasant atmosphere overall compared to the other servers, though.

I mean, if people are confused by their rotation then there's a lot of sites out there for explaining such things. There's also the mentor system for people to ask questions and share knowledge in-game. In short, the tools are already there - people just need to use them.

[Granyala]

I know that my DPS is "good enough" to clear the content. After all I'm just doing a few dungeon / void ark runs.
Hardly content where DPS would truly matter.

I still like to compare myself to other players. See what they do different, why the do it, whether it works better than my approach and learn from that. This is how I learned tanking: I observed many many tanks during my time as a healer.

Sadly DPS is a little harder to observe w/o access to metrics.

I also don't believe that anybody needs to see what anybody else's DPS is - because that just leads to toxic drama.

Oh please... that horse isn't just dead, it has been resurrected multiple times already.

I can count the number of times I have been flamed b/c of DPS in WoW on one hand. God knows I am not elite or anything, but I do adequate DPS, know how to dodge/interrupt/dispel.

Only people afraid of DPS meters are the ones that don't want to play properly.

[SodiumChloride]

Only people afraid of DPS meters are the ones that don't want to play properly.

Urgh ... I hate that phrase.

Since I'm the one paying for my own subscription, how I choose to play should be "playing properly".

The only reason others believe they have a say is because in almost all group content, the entire raid is fucking shackled at the ankles. All it takes is one idiot to fall overboard and everyone drowns with him.

This design originated in EQ I believe ... 17 fucking years ago ... I think it's about time we move on.

The point of multiplayer games is to provide challenge (and rewards) while playing with others. Everyone getting fucked over because of one guy's failure, is not a requirement.

Edit: HotS is the perfect example of that braindead archaic design via it's group XP system. All it takes is one or two players pissing around at some stupid corner of the map and you pretty much lost the match. You can literally quit at that point. HotS is Blizzard's biggest flop to date. Literally no one cares about it.

[Graeham]

Only people afraid of DPS meters are the ones that don't want to play properly.

That's not the case at all though. There's a lot of nasty behaviour that seeps into a game with the inclusion of certain addons. Many people dislike them not because they're incompetent but simply because they don't want their favoured game to be infested by bad attitudes. If I'm going to be doing Alexander multiple times a week, for example, I don't want to see groups breaking apart because two or more players are at each other's throats over how much DPS they're doing.

...and that sort of thing will happen if they're added. There will also be a push for people to install them because they will be 'optional' in such a way as for people to pressure other players into using them if they want to join a group with them or not be shunned. Back in WoW it was expected for many people to have the likes of DBM installed, after all. I don't want to see that sort of attitude become the norm in FFXIV.

[Jtbrig7390]

Only people afraid of DPS meters are the ones that don't want to play properly.

You kinda just proved there point about DPS meters. I am happy that FFXIV doesn't have them because I don't need Mr Trolldickbag bitching that I am doing 39k in gear that can pull 45k. I also don't care to see Mr Trolldickbag bragging about his dps in the group.

Ontopic: How is the state of the game? Considered coming back for abit, I left right before Alex came out. Still need a couple more levels before I hit 60.

Won't be until after Dark Souls III that I come back. So just wondering how everything has progressed with content and all.

[threads]

new anima step is such an easy 230 weapon but I haven't caught my drg up yet

[Lathais]

Rather enjoy the game, doing my best as I'm comfortable with, than constantly fretting about "performance" ...

Constantly checking DPS meters is like constantly checking your watch. While doing so you are missing out on the actual experience of playing.

That's the way it is for me anyway - I avoid running DPS meters in WoW too; don't need no stupidly little bar telling me whether I'm having fun or not.

Just because you run a parser does not mean you have to be constantly checking it. I run it and do not constantly check it. However, after a fight, it's nice to look at and see how I did, especially if there is someone else the same class as me there. I also keep a spreadsheet with my DPS numbers so I can see that them improve over time. Every time I run A1, I log my DPS in the A! column and can see steady improvement, or if I had an off night. If I want to try something a little different, I have results to compare it to. I am not constantly checking it, I am not using it to flex my e-peen, I am not using it to pick on other players. I just like to see that I am constantly improving and have a base from which to compare different things.