Wow refugees, what are you enjoying about the game?

[Soikona]

Lmfao it absolutely is not. Anyone who says that is just trying desperately to not say anything negative about WoW.

Eh? It is slower. The GCD is longer, even for the fastest FF14 class (ninja I think?), even with oGCD abilities. Saying it’s slower is not a “negative” thing. I am enjoying the pace difference.

[Vasilisa]

But that's not even vaguely what happened?
The poster you quoted was responding to someone who was just blatantly stating an objective falsehood because they refuse to admit wow does anything 'better' (if or why more apm is 'better' is a whole other matter) than FFXIV.

Your aggressive preemptive defense of FFXIV is exactly the reason people characterise FFXIV players (which includes myself before you accuse me of being some FFXIV hater) as cultish and obsessed with comparing FFXIV to wow.

I must've misunderstood the previous discussion then, my apologies.

And you should go find enemies elsewhere. I said that I prefer FF14 style to Wow style. Does it make me obsessed and cultish?

[PenguinChan]

I won't say this as a refugee (Because I've been playing since 1.0) but what I will say, as someone who switched over to it being my main MMO many years ago - is pretty simple. FF14 makes you move, WoW doesn't. This is also why I enjoy Demon Hunter the most in WoW as I actually have abilities and things to do that make me zip around in an enjoyable way.

WoW encourages you until you play harder content (Which is all manual) to basically do one mechanic at best in most fights. And it's usually not very punishing, or even ignorable depending. Like - FF14 does this without actually killing players in the entire leveling process. You gain debuffs, and die if you fuck up more than once or twice, which in WoW - it's usually instant fucking death or a mechanic that is so lenient it's not funny.

The consistency there is a bummer, and I really wish they'd make all the casual content you do have movement.

LFR is the only thing that does this at times and that's super enjoyable. But as always, it's not consistent and sometimes you just stand around picking your nose - either because you got assigned the boring stationary group, or the boss doesn't care if you don't know what to do so long as like 2 or 3 are doing the mechanics you are unaware of.

It's possible that LFR has been increased in difficulty overall, which if it is that's great - but I want dungeons you can queue into to ALSO start doing this. It's very annoying having to go out of your way to do manual finding to do content that's actually (and potentially not) engaging when it doesn't need to be that way. FF14 has proven this, Cataclysm in WoW proved this (But was implemented after one of the easiest dungeon grinding progression I've ever seen).

It reminds me of the N'zoth fight in LFR - where it's actually decent fun! There are mechanics you have to do, a group has to jump into the portal engagement, and pop back out to repeat this. Why isn't all content like this? This is what I dislike about WoW - and shadowlands dungeons improved upon this but not to the degree I'd like, and the mechanics outside of it are, as always, anti-fun. Time gating, mandatory grinds you have to go OUT of your way to do, or just wait until a major patch releases to skip most of this process and catch up - just to not deal with this again until next patch.

WoW needs to fix that. I shouldn't feel pressured into logging in every day or multiple times during the week by negative reinforcement / FOMO. WoW has felt like that for such a long time, and I don't enjoy it.

[ek0zu]

My first playthrough of ffxiv was spamming the MSQ until i reached 80, after that i simply quitted because i was burned out even if i liked most of the game, i liked my White Mage, i liked the dungeons and the Trials and i loved the story even if it was my first Final Fantasy game i could enjoy it. I recently started again with no goals, just to enjoy all the various things that people are telling that they are good, i think i will try the PVP as well which isn't its strongest point as ppl say but wth i enjoyed it in most games i have played.

But in order to stay on topic i would say that:

- I like a lot that you don't have to have addons to play efficiently
- When you learn a mechanic, this mechanic could be seen in other bosses and it is the same with the same icon, such as the red eye over the boss which is the aoe fear that you have to turn your char and don't look at it. I love it that they built on the same mechanics and with exactly the same icons.
- I love that there are many moments that the characters are silly and depending on how well you receive those stuff you might laugh.
- I love the class sets that you receive, they are awesome, at least the ones that i had with my white mage ,they were awesome.

However, there are many things that i don't like which have to do with the game engine or its limitations ,but are not related to the game itself, that i would like to see getting improved, such as the world needs some care (invisible walls, etc) & the loading screens.

[bloodykiller86]

Yeah I'm gonna go ahead and say you're being dishonest. Either that or you're one of the people who always initiates kicks. And it's hilarious that you're trying to say FFXIV is slow and boring but you play WoW lol.

i didnt level to the end where it gets better but why should i? the leveling experience was BORING af and i had zero interest in it, and visually it actually made my eyes hurt lol

and no im not being dishonest. only issues ive had is people living. i dont think ive even initiated a kick since cata lol

[ippollite]

Are you lost, dude? This isnt the "what problems do you have with ff14?" thread. Could you perhaps add some things youre enjoying about the game as well?

[justandulas]

Are you lost, dude? This isnt the "what problems do you have with ff14?" thread. Could you perhaps add some things youre enjoying about the game as well?

i love that each mount has it's own theme song. Sure, some are better than others, but it adds so much flavor to an already excellent soundtrack. I adore the music in ff14

[ippollite]

Sorry, didnt mean you dude. but happy to have some ontopic nevertheless

[justandulas]

Sorry, didnt mean you dude. but happy to have some ontopic nevertheless

I know but I thought I’d weigh in with something I truly adore about ff14. It was a feature that caught me off guard the first time I noticed it but absolutely love it. The rest of the music is great too but that’s just such an amazing touch

- - - Updated - - -

Wait, really? I haven't bothered using a mount other than my company chocobo so had no clue this is a thing.

Yeah. Try it out. They usually match the game that the mount is inspired from. It’s really a cool feature

[ippollite]

Back to an earlier post though on those who may feel a bit lost in ARR and what you might want to be focusing on. In the earlier post i touched on some of the basic systems introduced in that early period of the game and why you might want to play with them. Obviously, standard rules apply:

1. Get your flight points (aether shards). 2. Do the story quests since it unlocks a lot of these features.

One thing i didnt mention... at level 17 you unlock retainers. They're pretty useful as a kind of bank alt. Your inventory is a mess in ff14 and you'll honestly have no idea what to keep and what to sell and what to put on the auction house. So if that's you, go get your two retainers IF ONLY to use them as a surrogate pack mule for all those reagents you have no idea what you want to do with. You can also give them a job and send them out into the world gathering stuff for you. Aside that, no real idea. Ive got one at 40ish and the other at level 30. They just come back with free gil and some random reagents im sure i'll need if i ever get round to leveling up a crafting job. No matter what, it doesnt hurt foisting all your garbage on someone else and having empty bags again.
Oh, also at 17 theres palace of the dead. Ive never done it. I dont really see it as main job stuff though. It seems to be more for running side jobs and leveling up in a dungeon environment without those pesky queues. I assume its torghast-like, since i often saw it mentioned in the wow forums.

So lets go 20-40.

Level 20 Job unlocks: Class quest and sightseeing log (basically just another 'explore the zones' feature. I cant remember if its tied into the challenge log or not. Its not something ive bothered with. So skip for now. Someone else can tell you if its worth it or not.
Level 20 MSQ: Heres your biggie: Once youve done the emissary quests, you then get to pick a grand company. The choice isnt that important, its more about flavor and whether you like one of the city states more than the others. I picked the twin adders because im a hippy and like gridania. The mustard yellow outfit reward is hideous mind you. Pick based on whatever criteria you like (aesthetics, vibe, npcs...).

Now this is a really good thing to focus on for the next ten to fifteen levels alongside your story quest. You have to get through like 6-8 ranks (i forget) and each one requires a fair bit of questing to buy the relevant promotion (from 2000-6000(?) seals). So it would definitely help if you google where the grand company levequest distributors are. If you're questing in that area, its definitely something you might want to do when you need to take a break from your msq/job stuff. The reason you want to grind all the way up to second lieutenant is because it then allows you to assemble your own little command. You can recruit some followers and then send them out on missions (kinda like the mission table in wow). BUT, and heres the thing, when they hit level 20, you can then run any dungeon you've already unlocked in the game with them. If you hate people or hate queues, this is definitely something that might be very interesting for you.

A few quick provisos: First, obviously you have to RUN the dungeon once with other people (im pretty sure thats right?) to unlock that dungeon for your minions. So it won't help you the first time escape other people. And second, this feature wont unlock until you're well into your 40s in the story campaign. One of the pre requisites to open up the command for me was Aurum Vale, which is a level 47 dungeon. So it comes pretty late on to really help you on your main. Its more for testing out new jobs in dungeons. At least, thats how i played with it.

It also ties into the Challenge log in a very direct way. The recruits for your company almost always (or always?) come from RNG completion of one of the tasks on the challenge log. Crafting got me my healer, finishing fates got me a tank etc.

I've spent a lot of time on this because it's easy to not know about any of this when you first join. Its only much later that the pieces start coming together. This way you can know if its worth that little bit extra effort while you're in the 20s and 30s to do fates and company leves for those seals or not.
I should also mention that you can sell the greens and blues (to your Grand Company daily mission giver in your city - not to any random NPC vendor) you collect from dungeons for these seals. So it might also be fine just waiting till the mid 40s then selling off a tonne of blue items and making your seals that way.

But moving on... one of the BIGGEST things youre going to get from your grand company is your mount. You have to collect like 300 seals or something, pop out of gridania and do a couple of lowbie fates and youre good to go. Turn in the quest and you have your new chocobo.

From this point you REALLY want to focus HEAVILY on the MSQ. The reason for this is that by this point (and on an xp bonus server), you'll be far higher on your job than you will be on your MSQ. Likely you'll have finished your level 30 job quest and be dying to open up your next step. Unfortunately, until you finish the sylph campaign, you are stuck. I think you can still level, but you cant gain any new skills until you finish Sylph management (the final part of the sylph story). Once you finish this you unlock your PROPER job. For a conjurer, this is a white mage. For a Thaumaturge, this is the black mage, and for the rogue, this is the ninja. You'll then be introduced to a bunch of new characters (boo from my rogue!!! BOOOOO!!!!), get your soul stone and can once again carry on doing your job quests.

Actually, honestly... looking at the 30 to 40 stuff, i only really see two things jumping out: 1. Treasure hunting log (never done it). And 2. Companion (your chocobo can fight alongside you, definitely fun to do).

So basically, aside obviously opening up new zones, dungeons and trials (trial roulette is added once you finish the navel), thats gonna be your gameplay to 40. Run the MSQ, do the challenge log stuff, grind up your grand company, collect seals, explore the world, do some roulettes, and level up your new ACTUAL job.

- - - Updated - - -

Level 40 to 50:

There's not much else to really add to your list of optional stuff except one major feature. Again, standard rules apply: Flight paths, MSQ priority. You'll unlock a bunch of new dungeons, do your third and thus far, most fun trial, but its much of a muchness. Your aim is obviously to hit level 50 on your job and in the MSQ. This is the home-straight. And if you like church organ dirges, do I have a treat for you!

The last big thing you're going to unlock (from 41-50) are the 6 beast tribes. These are part of your challenge log, so its something to help boost that xp/gil and since they all offer a mount as a reward, its definitely nice to do. Each beast tribe doesnt take that long. Its a daily set of quests. At rank 1 its just three quests/day, at rank 2 its 6/day and at rank three its 9/day. It's around 3 days per rank if i remember. At 41 you unlock the Ixal and Kobolds. At 42 the Sylphs. At 43 the Amaal'jaa, at 44 the Sahagin and at 50 the Gnath. Not much really to say about them other than the mounts are cute, plus they sell a bunch of reagents you can exchange for their respective currency. Its totally optional content. You'll have to decide if its worth your time by looking at the rewards for yourself. But, again, it does give you something else for the challenge log bonus XP. So if you just want to hit 50 on your job asap, or level up another job it might be something to add to your daily rotation.

I would say one thing though: Its a WHOLE lot easier once you get your flying mount and are way past the aggro radius of level equivalent mobs. You'll have a LOT of story to get through in the 2.1-2.5 stuff, so it might be an idea to hold off on them until you finish the MSQ for ARR 2.0 and get your flying mount.

Level 50: You hit level 50 in your job. Obviously you've finished your class quests. You have all your skills you're gonna get for the next 50 or so hours play time. Now what?

1. You have just unlocked the red mage, blue mage and samurai classes. It could be a nice time to switch it up a bit with a new job? But if that's not for you:
2. You are grinding Allagan Tomestone of Poetics. This is your next big thing. The main story will eventually kit you out in a half decent set. But honestly, its trash. The sooner you farm those poetics (main story quest roulette), the better. You need them to buy your IRONWORKS set (its like DOUBLE the power of your level 50 class set). This is purchased at Mor'Dahn. Its the vendors to the right of the main square area with all the pretend vendors. This will boost your ilvl massively. A weapon and chest piece is like 650 poetics. Legs et all are 250-450 if memory serves me.

The duty MSQ roulette (opens up once you complete the 2.0 story), gives you 300 (daily bonus)+200 (normal completion)+(100 for each new person finishing it for the first time). You can get Poetics elsewhere (and likely have some already by the time you start doing the roulette), but the sooner you get it done, the easier you'll find the 2.1-2.5 content. So definitely a top priority to get it done asap.

There, that should cover most of the core systems in ARR (excluding some of the transmuting stuff - materia etc) and get you on your way to Heavensward.

Oooh! with one exception. Do the crystal tower quest chain once you hit 50. It sends you running all over the world for a fair bit. You need it to finish the ARR 2.4?? MSQ. So unlocking that helps you not being smacked in the face with a sudden roadblock further down the line.

[Wangming]

Wait, really? I haven't bothered using a mount other than my company chocobo so had no clue this is a thing.

Yep. To be fair there are generic mount song as well so not all of them have literally their own song, but for example all mounts that drop from extreme trials, play the trial theme.

[Kalisandra]

Now this is a really good thing to focus on for the next ten to fifteen levels alongside your story quest. You have to get through like 6-8 ranks (i forget) and each one requires a fair bit of questing to buy the relevant promotion (from 2000-6000(?) seals). So it would definitely help if you google where the grand company levequest distributors are. If you're questing in that area, its definitely something you might want to do when you need to take a break from your msq/job stuff. The reason you want to grind all the way up to second lieutenant is because it then allows you to assemble your own little command. You can recruit some followers and then send them out on missions (kinda like the mission table in wow). BUT, and heres the thing, when they hit level 20, you can then run any dungeon you've already unlocked in the game with them. If you hate people or hate queues, this is definitely something that might be very interesting for you.

A few quick provisos: First, obviously you have to RUN the dungeon once with other people (im pretty sure thats right?) to unlock that dungeon for your minions. So it won't help you the first time escape other people. And second, this feature wont unlock until you're well into your 40s in the story campaign. One of the pre requisites to open up the command for me was Aurum Vale, which is a level 47 dungeon. So it comes pretty late on to really help you on your main. Its more for testing out new jobs in dungeons. At least, thats how i played with it.

It also ties into the Challenge log in a very direct way. The recruits for your company almost always (or always?) come from RNG completion of one of the tasks on the challenge log. Crafting got me my healer, finishing fates got me a tank etc.

I've spent a lot of time on this because it's easy to not know about any of this when you first join. Its only much later that the pieces start coming together. This way you can know if its worth that little bit extra effort while you're in the 20s and 30s to do fates and company leves for those seals or not.
I should also mention that you can sell the greens and blues (to your Grand Company daily mission giver in your city - not to any random NPC vendor) you collect from dungeons for these seals. So it might also be fine just waiting till the mid 40s then selling off a tonne of blue items and making your seals that way.

Is this something relatively recent, or did I get all the way through ARR and Heavensward without finding out about it?

[ippollite]

Is this something relatively recent, or did I get all the way through ARR and Heavensward without finding out about it?

You might have? What's your grand company rank? Ooooh! wait! Which part specifically? Running dungeons with your recruits or selling stuff for seals? Or recruiting through the Challenge log?

[isse94]

The fact that I don't know anything about the game, I get that feeling of wonder and discovery, like when I first started playing WoW.

I don't mind being slow, I take my time to progress, do side quest here and there, up my crafting/gathering jobs with no pressure of rushing to end content.

When playing WOW I always feel compelled to rush, never read quest texts etc. Maybe if quests were presented like in FF14 with dialog boxes, we would feel more inclined to read.

[Lodreh]

I feel like I can progress no matter what I am doing... I feel like my time mattered. Unlike in WoW where I can run dungeons all day every day and feel unrewarded by the time I log off.

[ippollite]

The fact that I don't know anything about the game, I get that feeling of wonder and discovery, like when I first started playing WoW.

I don't mind being slow, I take my time to progress, do side quest here and there, up my crafting/gathering jobs with no pressure of rushing to end content.

When playing WOW I always feel compelled to rush, never read quest texts etc. Maybe if quests were presented like in FF14 with dialog boxes, we would feel more inclined to read.

I feel like I can progress no matter what I am doing... I feel like my time mattered. Unlike in WoW where I can run dungeons all day every day and feel unrewarded by the time I log off.

Me toooo! Im 275 hours, im at the tail end of heavensward (3.5), my current dilemma is whether to start stormblood (super exciting) or just play catch up and finally level up a red mage (also super exciting). I deleted this post earlier (because it got in the way of my above wall of text), but it doesnt feel like im treading water. It feels like im rounding out my experience and deepening my immersion in the universe. Its such a fun and positive choice. I love it!

[Poppincaps]

The fact that I don't know anything about the game, I get that feeling of wonder and discovery, like when I first started playing WoW.

I don't mind being slow, I take my time to progress, do side quest here and there, up my crafting/gathering jobs with no pressure of rushing to end content.

When playing WOW I always feel compelled to rush, never read quest texts etc. Maybe if quests were presented like in FF14 with dialog boxes, we would feel more inclined to read.

I think this is something that FF does really successfully. Because there's no datamining, PTRs, or Betas everyone is always at the same level when new content comes out. In the first weeks of a patch or expansion launch its acceptable to make mistakes because we're all learning. Whereas in WoW, you could ignore all the spoilers, but then when you walk into a new raid and don't know the fights day one or walk into a M+ dungeon and don't know the new affix people will yell at you.

[Katchii]

Wait, really? I haven't bothered using a mount other than my company chocobo so had no clue this is a thing.

It's also something you can turn off if you don't like it. I did that because I wanted the music to stay relatively consistent. Back in 2.0 when I was doing FATE trains for leveling alt jobs the constant mounting up and dismounting and engaging in battle meant the music was all over the place constantly, it got kind of annoying, so I turned off that option.

[draugril]

It's also something you can turn off if you don't like it. I did that because I wanted the music to stay relatively consistent. Back in 2.0 when I was doing FATE trains for leveling alt jobs the constant mounting up and dismounting and engaging in battle meant the music was all over the place constantly, it got kind of annoying, so I turned off that option.

Also, mounting and dismounting in a certain zone... "La-HEE!"

[Kalisandra]

You might have? What's your grand company rank? Ooooh! wait! Which part specifically? Running dungeons with your recruits or selling stuff for seals? Or recruiting through the Challenge log?

Running dungeons with recruits and having recruits at all.