[Megathread] Final Fantasy XIV

[Faroth]

Aside from the live letter which i imagine will be a lot of WHM damage control telling people to cool their shit just a lot of advertisement stuff.

But the "special Emil E3 message" makes me hope for a Nier Automata event in XIV. Very unlikely but goddamn its my two favourite ips coming together!

Random slightly off topic question... I have Nier on PS3, but haven't played it. Is there extra joy in playing Nier: Automata after the original? Like are there little things that make you go "aah, I get that reference" or are they wholly and entirely separate?

[Cattleya]

Random slightly off topic question... I have Nier on PS3, but haven't played it. Is there extra joy in playing Nier: Automata after the original? Like are there little things that make you go "aah, I get that reference" or are they wholly and entirely separate?

There are major references to story and characters from the first Nier in it. You don't have to play Nier before Automata but it certainly adds to it.

On topic, I was curious about my own numbers so I tried using ACT for the first time, is it just me or is it a pain to set up? At this point it doesn't even seem worth it anymore.

[Anzaman]

FINAL FANTASY XIV: Stormblood Illustration Countdown

[Arlee]

I'm somewhat leaned on Sony, once again, releasing Launch Trailer too early.

Eh, E3 has been loosing prominence for years so it's not surprising. Also why compete against everyone else for attention when you can release stuff before and get the attention with much less effort?

[dope_danny]

Random slightly off topic question... I have Nier on PS3, but haven't played it. Is there extra joy in playing Nier: Automata after the original? Like are there little things that make you go "aah, I get that reference" or are they wholly and entirely separate?

Yes absolutely. The entire game will not make sense unless you know what project gestalt was.

[Anzaman]

Eh, E3 has been loosing prominence for years so it's not surprising. Also why compete against everyone else for attention when you can release stuff before and get the attention with much less effort?

Can't have that, it'd be unfair.

On other hand, I don't even watch E3.

[dope_danny]

Can't have that, it'd be unfair.

On other hand, I don't even watch E3.

You mean you dont like adverts, bullshot and outright lies the "omg hype!" rubes fall for and then get pissed when they buy the retail build a year later?

[Aruhen]

I wonder if we're seeing some of that high pop closure happening as I'm seeing a lot of new leafs around. Yeah yeah new expansion but at the moment I'm doing my Paladin ARR relic and its taken me back and forth across the world and I've seen every zone packed with new leafs. It's pretty freaking awesome if I have to say.

[Arlee]

I wonder if we're seeing some of that high pop closure happening as I'm seeing a lot of new leafs around. Yeah yeah new expansion but at the moment I'm doing my Paladin ARR relic and its taken me back and forth across the world and I've seen every zone packed with new leafs. It's pretty freaking awesome if I have to say.

Oh yea, been working on my Bard and noticed the same thing But it's pretty normal... will be interesting to see what it's like a month or two after the xpac.

[dope_danny]

I wonder if we're seeing some of that high pop closure happening as I'm seeing a lot of new leafs around. Yeah yeah new expansion but at the moment I'm doing my Paladin ARR relic and its taken me back and forth across the world and I've seen every zone packed with new leafs. It's pretty freaking awesome if I have to say.

I think in the west in particular mmorpgs have their own version of the social butterfly that dont really get into mmorpgs so much as chase the idea that 'this next big release is the thing i want' and so everytime an mmo of note gets an expansion that type of player goes "maybe this is the one?" and plays for their 30 days then drop it till the next one.
Its a bit different to the folks you see say things like 'im bored of legion and this is showing up in my feeds a lot' or the type of player that goes in all and turns a bit unbalanced like swtor or wildstar had even at their worst points but i would not be surprised if they are like the mmo version of people that play games only on their phones like candy crush. They technically count in the 'people who play videogames' subset but what they want is very different than what most are after.

[blackpink]

I expected that trailer to be revealed at E3. I wonder what they'll show off there, then?

live letter. maybe some new job changes. I believe they said theyre going to talk about the new raids briefly (omega/ivalice). I also believe they said theyre going to show preview of the new primals.

[Faroth]

You mean you dont like adverts, bullshot and outright lies the "omg hype!" rubes fall for and then get pissed when they buy the retail build a year later?

Funny enough, I've never once gotten burned by E3. If you watch E3, bask in the hype, then shut out the hype from then to release, you generally come out happy. It's the people who hang on every detail from E3 until release that get let down. Strongest case in point: Watch_Dogs. I thoroughly enjoyed that game while others were flipping out over a lack of soda cans and newspapers on the street. /shrug

[dope_danny]

Funny enough, I've never once gotten burned by E3. If you watch E3, bask in the hype, then shut out the hype from then to release, you generally come out happy. It's the people who hang on every detail from E3 until release that get let down. Strongest case in point: Watch_Dogs. I thoroughly enjoyed that game while others were flipping out over a lack of soda cans and newspapers on the street. /shrug

Problem is a lot of people who play games fall for the brand loyalty meme and only see their hardware of choice as a benevolent friend just like the marketing vector screamer streamers they follow. The amount of people thinking hololens works like it does and is actual holograms was insane. A 2 minute search on google showed its actually just an AR headset that displays a tiny credit card sized window in the middle of your field of vision that does the same AR stuff a 3DS has been doing for years.

Yet you have people screaming "wow, so this is the power of scorpio! amazing!" because people forget E3 is a series of advertisements. And advertisements are lies 99% of the time.

Hopefully No Mans Lie makes some of those people push pause and actually think if what they are seeing will actually be the final product or not but my expectations for people are lower than ever.

[Faroth]

Hopefully No Mans Lie makes some of those people push pause and actually think if what they are seeing will actually be the final product or not but my expectations for people are lower than ever.

I wasn't disappointed in No Man's Sky either and still find the level of vitriol to be ridiculous. Yeah, some things were overblown, exaggerated, or outright misleading, but people were also taking interviews, slicing out four words of a sentence, and declaring it a promise of vast intricate systems. While I only played one planet before I got distracted by other games, I enjoyed what I played. I respect the hell out of them not packing it up and calling it a day, but continuing to patch in what they wanted at release. Haven't found the time to go back and play with the last two massive patches added in, though.

[Kazgrel]

For anyone who may have been irritated with the drip feed of info in the months leading up to now...it makes perfect sense why they did so. With the job action vid from last week, due to the mass amount of changes coming up, I've taken this week and most of next week to putz around on D3 until early access for Stormblood begins. My last major goal in HW was wrapped up early last week (firebird), so factoring that in with all the new stuff/changes coming up, motivation to get more tomes that will be for nothing but glamour gear on jobs I seldom play doesn't make a lot of sense.

Even with all the possible spoilery-ness of the launch trailer from yesterday...I haven't looked forward to a MMO release this much in a long time. GW2's original launch comes to mind (was in the first closed beta for it...that was fun), and prior to that, I'd say Wrath of the Lich King is the only xpac in the same hype category for me.

[Faroth]

The more I see of Samurai actions, the more excited I get. I was VERY "meh" at first.

[Wrecktangle]

Worked from home yesterday, so I know you all missed me haha not. So instead of working I opted to start my way through HW. I quit right at 3.1 launch. I was ilvl204 when I quit and hit my first ilvl gate at 205. Fortunately I had a random healing earring I had greeded from the previous dungeon and equipped it to bypass (I switched back to DPS earring after queuing up ).

Dungeon was beyond painless (anti-tower). I don't think I saw a single mechanic or diverging path. Just a very beautiful straight corridor with a lot of non-interesting enemies unfortunately.

Dear god my keybinds were a mess though. I didn't update ACT yet, so I bet I was doing abysmally LOL, I still have that dumb auto face turned on and allied spell effects.

I pressed on, completed Nidhogg, was disappointed. It was a gorgeous fight, literally beautiful and from videos I had seen I was really excited to do it, but other than 3 room AOE telegraphs and 1 add phase, there wasn't anything in the fight. There may have been a divebomb line AOE phase too, but I don't remember it.

The story this go around is much better than 2.xx, but then again we all knew that. I hit my next wall at 210. I figured I'd queue up for PVP as a way to get through it quickly. Low and behold we won, but I was currency capped. WHY in gods name did I have 20k marks saved up? I didn't remember, but I spent them on left side and picked up almost 20ilvl, so I should be good until the final i230 wall.

I think my next step is Xelphatol to confront the Warriors of Darkness, so we'll see where tonight's adventures take me...

I don't think that's more material on the conflict. I think it should settle it once and for all. Healers are not designed, nor expected by the developers, to be doing DPS. The option is there for them, but it is not designed as an expectation. It's there if "a player wants to try it."

In my mind, it should put the argument to bed. (But it won't)

Now, I'm fully 100% on board with healers doing 0 dps, if they actually have something to heal. The current game does not reinforce that paradigm and until it does a healer who does not DPS is nothing more than a freeloader. As evidenced by the test below. 17% activity is not ok, in any way shape or form.

Pulled from the Official Forums about this very topic, with video evidence using a random group.

Healer had 17% Active Time throughout the entirety of the instance. That is why people gripe. Not because people need the extra damage but because a healer *only* healing barely needs to be present.

This was one of the best reads I'd seen in a while. Glad someone put it out there and tested it themselves rather than just talking about the people I saw do it.

The point is that a healer, in many cases, who doesn't contribute to the DPS in some way is being incredibly lazy and selfish. I've never seen anyone argue you NEED a healer to DPS to clear anything unless it's bleeding edge progression content.

It's about GROUP efficiency and time spent in the dungeon. A healer who refuses to heal in these types of situations is actively forcing the dungeon to last longer, and therefore wasting the groups time. The dungeon in the quote above with the healer contributing zero DPS and only being active 17% of the time lasted 21 minutes. If the healer and contributed DPS to be evenly participating at the 75% mark, the run would have taken less time to complete. I know 3-5 minutes doesn't sound like a lot, which by itself it's really not, but it adds up over the course of your play time.

Again it's not about NEEDING the healer to DPS, it's about the healer being able to make the dungeon run smoother and faster by doing more than just healing and actively choosing NOT to do that.

If you were moving and asked three friends to come help you, would you be OK with just you and two of them moving everything and unpacking it, while the 4th literally stood around doing nothing, except handing you water and ordering pizza/ getting food while maybe even doing silly dances and taking selfies when they're physically capable of helping with the move and simply chose not to?

Gets it.

Then ... how about designing dungeons where I actually have to .. you know heal? And not twiddle my thumbs 80% of the time (hence DPS)?

This "heal-DPS" thing wouldn't be an issue if FF-XIVs non savage/ex content wasn't hilariously undertuned from a healers point of view.

Gets it.

Ultimate Fight Final Fantasy XIV will finally be launched to real.

I'd be beyond hyped for that. I've always wanted them to go through with the joke lol.

Random slightly off topic question... I have Nier on PS3, but haven't played it. Is there extra joy in playing Nier: Automata after the original? Like are there little things that make you go "aah, I get that reference" or are they wholly and entirely separate?

Faroth listen to me for a sec.

I'm a huge JRPG fan. I have an enormous collection and have played hundreds of them from the SNES days onward.

I played Nier Automata merely because of the trailers. It was an amazing game in the beginning. On track to a top 5 spot, which is relatively unheard for a game from the current gaming era.

However, once the combat got stale (once you unlock the ability to customize chips basically), the story/atmosphere was the only thing keeping me hooked. The longer it went on the less I started to understand what was going on. It wasn't because the game did a bad job explaining, it's because the concepts and characters were from Nier, a game I had not played.

I wish I had played Nier before Automata. I could do it now, but I know from other experiences that it's not the same, and will likely tarnish it for me.

Don't make my mistake.

The more I see of Samurai actions, the more excited I get. I was VERY "meh" at first.

I too was meh after the trailer. I will likely dabble in it eventually, but im kinda hoping PLD works out. I just wanna lightning stab all the things.

Quick question, does being hit by enemies prevent me from casting the new Holy attack? Or is it basically reserved for only when OT'ing? That would suck.

[Kazgrel]

The more I see of Samurai actions, the more excited I get. I was VERY "meh" at first.

I haven't watched any of the "hands on" videos people have posted from the media event and all, so going by what I've seen in the official videos, I'm not frothing over the idea of playing either RDM or SAM. That could very well change once I see them in action on live servers. I'm stoked with the changes to BLM as well as several over jobs I frequent, so my eagerness to jump on the RDM/SAM bandwagon early on has been very low. I'll unlock them ASAP, though, for the purpose of being able to assign all that augmented Ironworks gear to them simply to free up retainer space.

[Aruhen]

I pressed on, completed Nidhogg, was disappointed. It was a gorgeous fight, literally beautiful and from videos I had seen I was really excited to do it, but other than 3 room AOE telegraphs and 1 add phase, there wasn't anything in the fight. There may have been a divebomb line AOE phase too, but I don't remember it.

I'd love to hear your opinion (if you have the time) on Nidhogg extreme. That's probably regarded as the last proper extreme primal fight in HW. The normal fight doesn't do it justice with how easy it is and the extreme version definitely feels like you're fighting a freaking dragon filled with rage.

Funny enough, I've never once gotten burned by E3. If you watch E3, bask in the hype, then shut out the hype from then to release, you generally come out happy. It's the people who hang on every detail from E3 until release that get let down. Strongest case in point: Watch_Dogs. I thoroughly enjoyed that game while others were flipping out over a lack of soda cans and newspapers on the street. /shrug

I love the hype surrounding E3 to this day and I really miss Nintendo having a conference like back in the day. Its easily one of my favorite days of the year and considering my birthday is on June 9th (yay tomorrow) it's a nice bonus ;P.

Even with all the possible spoilery-ness of the launch trailer from yesterday...I haven't looked forward to a MMO release this much in a long time. GW2's original launch comes to mind (was in the first closed beta for it...that was fun), and prior to that, I'd say Wrath of the Lich King is the only xpac in the same hype category for me.

Agreed. I was really hyped for the Heavensward launch but I didn't have any real friends playing back then but now that I do... ;>. Haven't been this excited since Wrath like you.

[Faroth]

Faroth listen to me for a sec.

*snip* Nier knowledge *snip*
Don't make my mistake.

Hahah, good to know. I mean, I HAVE the first on PS3 and kinda wanted to play it first anyway, so responses here solidify that plan.

I too was meh after the trailer. I will likely dabble in it eventually, but im kinda hoping PLD works out. I just wanna lightning stab all the things.

Oh no, I was meh when it was first shown and watching Gosetsu when he was with us in the last patch. The last trailer looks awesome and I'm totally hyped for Samurai now. Bear in mind, I'm swapping from Ninja, which hasn't looked all that new and intriguing for me (giant frog doesn't grab my interest). I'll still level NIN eventually, but Samurai is looking fun to me.