[Megathread] Final Fantasy XIV

[Remilia]

I honestly wouldn't bother with BnS nowadays. While you can technically get max gear without paying, you are going to take years if you play casually, or months if you basically play this as a full time job (and then some).
Arena is dead and 6v6 is gear based. Your dps suffers so much from latency that it's not even funny. Certain classes are 'fine', but some can lose up to 70% of dps with bad latency.

[Advent]

I don't really care about max gear. I'm a pve only type of player, and BNS has a decent amount of solo content anyway. I also don't really ever worry about latency in MMOs in regards to max dps. I left min/maxing behind when I stopped raiding in WoW back in 2015. I have a lot of time on my hands, since I'm always at home anyway.

[Dugna]

and with that i'm done with the grind, still got the DoH/DoL to go but thats just a slight bump in the road in terms of exp.

[Baconeggcheese]

I honestly wouldn't bother with BnS nowadays. While you can technically get max gear without paying, you are going to take years if you play casually, or months if you basically play this as a full time job (and then some).
Arena is dead and 6v6 is gear based. Your dps suffers so much from latency that it's not even funny. Certain classes are 'fine', but some can lose up to 70% of dps with bad latency.

I remember playing it and enjoying the story well enough to keep going, then promptly dropped it once I hit the gear grind because it was horrendously bad. Probably do the same this time around unless it at least feels better to progress. I don't care about having the best stuff these days as long as its fun to log in every day.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Live Letter 54

• New dungeon reminds me of the Vault. I'm guessing it's Voeburt? I guess the pixies wants us to clear it out of monster/buildup of monsters/whatever.

• New Frontline looks like Bardaam's Mettle.

• Ishgard restoration involves building a third zone: The Firmament. Kinda disappointed that Ishgard housing will be a one time server event, rather than phased according to your own progress like the Doman Enclave. It really sucks for latecomers to miss out.

• The redesigned FFXIV launcher looks slick!

• ARR not included in New Game +, doesn't include side quests either, just MSQ.

[Remilia]

I remember playing it and enjoying the story well enough to keep going, then promptly dropped it once I hit the gear grind because it was horrendously bad. Probably do the same this time around unless it at least feels better to progress. I don't care about having the best stuff these days as long as its fun to log in every day.

When I played it again about a year ago, the biggest problem was the grind. There are certain solo contents that you can't do unless you have the gear, which in order to get you need to grind a lot or get carried, and the latter is getting harder and harder as the population is shrinking. They nerfed the gold due to botters back in the day and never at any point reverted it while adding more and more ingredients back into the loot boxes and upping the gold costs.

One of the biggest issue grind wise though was HM skills. You either pay (I think about $25 for duelist bundle, can only buy one or two per account) or grind an ass load. PvP to get HM skill isn't really viable just due to the pitiful beans you get and arena being basically dead.

The solo tower, Mushin Tower, liked the idea, hate the fact you can't skill your way through. Not updated in ages too. You will die without decent gear. Gear bar isn't as absurd as floor >90 of Tower of Infinity.

Tower of Infinity was an interesting idea until the AI started to block, resist, parry, etc, in inhuman ways. They'll start attacking you with their back facing you too at a certain point. It's basically an AI PvP match, at least on the surface. However most people go in like PvE and blast them in the face cause let's face it, you're on a timer, and the AI just needs to get CCed once and die in that time span or you're going to take ages. You need it to buy badges by the token(fragments) they give. The least amount of fragments you can get a day is 6, most you can get is 16 (which requires you to have an ass load of gear). Costs 70 tokens (or 700 fragments) in order to get a badge that can significantly buff or even alter play style. Tokens iirc are tradeable though so you can buy them if you have that much gold. You will need multiple badges to fuse them in order to make the legendary ones.

This is ignoring the latency issues which makes it extremely frustrating and dying to things you're supposed to dodge but latency says lawlno.

Yeah... I could only cope to play about 2 or so weeks after I hit max level before the gear wall was too annoying to bother. I can't do certain dungeons cause I don't have the gear for it or I just get kicked. The dungeons I can go into are boring cause you'll typically have people that are way over geared for it and blow up everything before things even happen, DPS difference is 80k vs 1m DPS, and those aren't exaggerated numbers. It supposedly got even worse in that time span...

[Granyala]

• ARR not included in New Game +, doesn't include side quests either, just MSQ.

Then what's the point? Are you saying that NG+ starts at 50?

[Kaelwryn]

Then what's the point? Are you saying that NG+ starts at 50?

ARR isn't included *yet*. They are going to be condensing ARR anyway, so its probably easier to wait until they do that before adding it to NG+. Class/job/sidequest+ are also being added later.

[Graeham]

Well, hopefully there's a surprise or two to be found in the second half of the Live Letter. Quite a lot of people I know in FFXIV have been tempted to indulge in WoW Classic.

The new raid and dungeon look to be up to the usual high standard. The dungeon looks to be located in either Eulmore or Voeburt based on the aesthetics.

ARR not being included in New Game+ is unfortunate, though it makes sense given the planned revamp. I have mixed feelings about not being able to obtain original quest rewards. Hopefully there's something - such as an achievement or mount - as a reward for going back and doing everything all over again.

The new PvP map being located in the Xaela's homeland intrigues me.

Ishgard restoration being a 'one and done' affair is a bit worrying. I'm really not a fan of limited content that is only available for a short period of time. I'll be able to indulge in it, though new players in the future will inevitably miss out.

I'm sure the MSQ's will be 'decent', though I don't expect anything huge until the finale of the next story arc which will likely be 5.3.

[leviathonlx]

Well, hopefully there's a surprise or two to be found in the second half of the Live Letter. Quite a lot of people I know in FFXIV have been tempted to indulge in WoW Classic.

The new raid and dungeon look to be up to the usual high standard. The dungeon looks to be located in either Eulmore or Voeburt based on the aesthetics.

ARR not being included in New Game+ is unfortunate, though it makes sense given the planned revamp. I have mixed feelings about not being able to obtain original quest rewards. Hopefully there's something - such as an achievement or mount - as a reward for going back and doing everything all over again.

The new PvP map being located in the Xaela's homeland intrigues me.

Ishgard restoration being a 'one and done' affair is a bit worrying. I'm really not a fan of limited content that is only available for a short period of time. I'll be able to indulge in it, though new players in the future will inevitably miss out.

I'm sure the MSQ's will be 'decent', though I don't expect anything huge until the finale of the next story arc which will likely be 5.3.

I'm pretty confident in saying many of those people would be back on retail WoW or FF14 in less than a month anyway.

[dope_danny]

new blu mage content has me happy. that was a hoot when 4 BLUs were pulling some silly shit in dungeons.

[Graeham]

I'm pretty confident in saying many of those people would be back on retail WoW or FF14 in less than a month anyway.

It's a possibility. Quite a few of those I know in-game, though, seem intent on sticking with it.

[Baconeggcheese]

@Remilia Yeah I wanna say the last time I played was before soul fighter came out, they had revealed the class but the last one to have come out was warlock. And yeah there were bot trains on basically every outdoor boss at all times and pvp was littered with bots which ruined that aspect of the game.

But yeah, sounds like not much has changed. I imagine there'll be more story from where I left off though so there's that.

[Granyala]

I have mixed feelings about not being able to obtain original quest rewards. Hopefully there's something - such as an achievement or mount - as a reward for going back and doing everything all over again.

Why does there have to be a damn reward for everything?
You get to experience the story again, w/o the hassle of having to level a new character. That should be reward enough.

[Baconeggcheese]

Is XP included in the rewards? Don't really see the point in it not giving the original rewards again, could basically use it as a way to level an alt job and rewards at those points in the game likely aren't lucrative enough to matter.

Definitely don't think that sort of thing needs an incentive type reward though like a unique mount. Would defeat the purpose as people would likely just skip all dialogue and blitz through it to get said mount.

[Graeham]

Why does there have to be a damn reward for everything?
You get to experience the story again, w/o the hassle of having to level a new character. That should be reward enough.

Rewards serve as an excellent incentive. Sure, it'll be neat to be able to go back and play through past story content but a carrot on a stick serves as further cause to go back and do it. I like having something to show for time invested.

[Granyala]

I like having something to show for time invested.

I rather have a fun time playing an entertaining game than do sth for a reward.
Imho incentivizing boring stuff via reward is crappy game design.

[Faroth]

Ishgard restoration being a 'one and done' affair is a bit worrying. I'm really not a fan of limited content that is only available for a short period of time. I'll be able to indulge in it, though new players in the future will inevitably miss out.

I'm okay with that. It's essentially this expansion's Mordona/Idyllshire where it will change over the course of the expansion. New players don't experience those places growing and changing over the course of an expansion either. Only this time, we're driving the changes.

To be honest, so long as new things are added in the future of similar style, I kind of like these sorts of things. It gives stories for veteran players to tell and new players to look forward to their next chance to take part in something similar. I didn't get to take part in a lot of the major story events or GM events in EverQuest, but hearing others tell the tales was an experience itself.

Same goes for 1.0 players who recount the final day of 1.0 leading up to the server shut down and the Cartenaeu Flats half of the ARR video. It simply can't be recreated, but listening to them recount the experience is really cool. To me, that sort of thing is what makes MMOs a living, breathing world rather than a static game that serves up the same content to every player through time.

Honestly, ever since the opening of Anh'Qiraj, WoW shifted away from it and MMOs basically just follow what WoW does so we've lost that element. The fact that SOE was going away from that with EQ Next utilizing StoryBricks tech was one of the most interesting things they were exploring.

I'd love to see a return to an MMO being designed as "come live in another world."

- - - Updated - - -

I rather have a fun time playing an entertaining game than do sth for a reward.
Imho incentivizing boring stuff via reward is crappy game design.

It can also make it feel like something of an obligation.

If there were to be something, I'd go with a Title. Those aren't that huge, but do serve as something of an "I did that" badge.


Also, @Wrecktangle will be amused to hear that with Yorha Dark Apocalypse coming out I finally decided to set aside leveling XIV jobs and I started Drakengard yesterday. I'm on Chapter 4 of 8 (for canon ending) and will keep playing to get to the final Chapter 13 alternate ending for the NieR lead in.

Then going to hit NieR on PS3 and should be able to start Automata, though doubt I finish it prior to raid launch.

[Wrecktangle]

oo I forgot about that, any set date yet? I remember really enjoying KFM but feeling like the loot system once I ran out of story was horrendously bad so I stopped. Lord knows how long ago that was though.

I think they said early next year, but I'm not 100% sure. Could be talking out my ass.

The loot system itself I actually love and hate. It's all currency based which means if something juicy drops you get a cut of the price someone pays to buy it, it also means losing to a whale feels like shit. If you're referring to the grind then yeah, it was an issue for me too.

I didn't have premium, and I refused to support the troves (literal pay to win). I was always a little bit behind my clan in gear, but I was actually good at the game so I could keep up. Well 2 troves later and now they're like 40% stronger than me and it felt bad.

The story though is actually WAY better than people think though.

I liked the combat in BNS but god I'm so bad at it. I hope they address the numerous invisible walls that seem to infest that game though. Nothing bothers me more than not being able to jump over a fence or walk up a cliff/mountainside because of invisible walls.

They've made improvements to the combat engine from an accessibility standpoint with simple mode. There were still invisible walls last I played though.

I honestly wouldn't bother with BnS nowadays. While you can technically get max gear without paying, you are going to take years if you play casually, or months if you basically play this as a full time job (and then some).
Arena is dead and 6v6 is gear based. Your dps suffers so much from latency that it's not even funny. Certain classes are 'fine', but some can lose up to 70% of dps with bad latency.

Oh for sure. I wouldn't touch BNS right now (I did just to dick around the the new skill trees), but I wouldnt invest time in it. I'm hoping when they release the UE4 update it'll breath a lot of fresh air into the game and maybe a soft reset/less p2w, (unlikely I know, but I'm praying).

I had 60ms and never had any issues in game.

When I played it again about a year ago, the biggest problem was the grind. There are certain solo contents that you can't do unless you have the gear, which in order to get you need to grind a lot or get carried, and the latter is getting harder and harder as the population is shrinking. They nerfed the gold due to botters back in the day and never at any point reverted it while adding more and more ingredients back into the loot boxes and upping the gold costs.

The solo content in that game was some of the best I've ever played. Killing Junghado, Mushin, Naksun, and the red haired mane guy with the spear was some of the most fun I've had in gaming. My gear was never top tier. In fact, if you looked at the leaderboards with like Naksun or red mane guy and looked at 20 people above me or below me in the leaderboards they on average had 250 more AP than I did.

One of the biggest issue grind wise though was HM skills. You either pay (I think about $25 for duelist bundle, can only buy one or two per account) or grind an ass load. PvP to get HM skill isn't really viable just due to the pitiful beans you get and arena being basically dead.

HM skills are gone I think now. They have a complete new like talent system. Even then, HM skills were pretty trivial to get as long as it wasn't the "current" one. I actually found that HM skills gave a great goal to work on.

The solo tower, Mushin Tower, liked the idea, hate the fact you can't skill your way through. Not updated in ages too. You will die without decent gear. Gear bar isn't as absurd as floor >90 of Tower of Infinity.

Tower of Infinity was an interesting idea until the AI started to block, resist, parry, etc, in inhuman ways. They'll start attacking you with their back facing you too at a certain point. It's basically an AI PvP match, at least on the surface. However most people go in like PvE and blast them in the face cause let's face it, you're on a timer, and the AI just needs to get CCed once and die in that time span or you're going to take ages. You need it to buy badges by the token(fragments) they give. The least amount of fragments you can get a day is 6, most you can get is 16 (which requires you to have an ass load of gear). Costs 70 tokens (or 700 fragments) in order to get a badge that can significantly buff or even alter play style. Tokens iirc are tradeable though so you can buy them if you have that much gold. You will need multiple badges to fuse them in order to make the legendary ones.

Never had any issues with gear in the Mushin Tower. ToI was tricky though. You definitely needed specific gear to get past "walls", but I found it frustratingly enjoyable, like dark souls.

This is ignoring the latency issues which makes it extremely frustrating and dying to things you're supposed to dodge but latency says lawlno.

What was your ping lol?

[Rogalicus]

Honestly, ever since the opening of Anh'Qiraj, WoW shifted away from it and MMOs basically just follow what WoW does so we've lost that element.

I don't know what's your definition of shifting away, but WoW constantly removes/permanently changes content almost in every expansion. I don't see how it's good for the game though.