[Megathread] Final Fantasy XIV

[Granyala]

Man, i am on hour 10 of this current house camping session. I can not think of anything less enjoyable. Its been myself and another for almost the entire duration since 5am (US CST) this morning and in the last 20 minutes or so that number has tripled.

I am committed though. I just want a house to call my own and decorate.

God i hate this system.

Oof, I can imagine that pain.
Afaik: all houses always sell out within a few hours of a patch dropping, so I am super lucky that I got the house from a friend that transferred servers a few years ago.

[bloodwulf]

Oof, I can imagine that pain.
Afaik: all houses always sell out within a few hours of a patch dropping, so I am super lucky that I got the house from a friend that transferred servers a few years ago.

Currently camping on in the goblet. Missed three yesterday, the third being due to a relocate which is weird cause the plot was far from a Market Board, in the goblet and far from a crystal.

Is there a way to tell server pops? I am 100% willing to leave my server to get a house. I have a free company I don't speak in, and the handful of friends i have on the server are all on different work schedules so I don't really have a commitment to anything.

[Granyala]

Is there a way to tell server pops?

Not that I am aware of.
You could use the visit function of your data center to take a peek into the housing areas of other servers.

[bloodwulf]

Not that I am aware of.
You could use the visit function of your data center to take a peek into the housing areas of other servers.

Ill look into that. I am tired of bitching about how bad the housing system is. I know they are not going to pull their heads out of their asses now, so I just need suck it up and make my own solution. For everything that i love in this game, I can't defend this.

[infinitemeridian]

I just finished the HW storyline (not patch content) and man that last fight was so cool, the music was awesome too. I have a question though, maybe it's explained in future patches but what was the point of going to Azys Lla? They never explained why the Bishop had to go there. Was it just a place to get away from Ishgard once they'd been exposed?

[Leyre]

I just finished the HW storyline (not patch content) and man that last fight was so cool, the music was awesome too. I have a question though, maybe it's explained in future patches but what was the point of going to Azys Lla? They never explained why the Bishop had to go there. Was it just a place to get away from Ishgard once they'd been exposed?

The WoL staring at Nid its the single greatest thing i've ever seen and yes, Azys is explained and concluded in the post HVW quest, one of Nid eyes is missing, you find it there, the Bishop wanted power to kill all dragons

[dope_danny]

I just finished the HW storyline (not patch content) and man that last fight was so cool, the music was awesome too. I have a question though, maybe it's explained in future patches but what was the point of going to Azys Lla? They never explained why the Bishop had to go there. Was it just a place to get away from Ishgard once they'd been exposed?

One of the two objects he needed were there. But you do go back, as recently as the latest patch and in Stormblood you even find out where Azys La came from.

[Granyala]

For everything that i love in this game, I can't defend this.

Pretty much no one can and I am reasonably sure that the DEVs aren't happy about it either.

[Lane]

Re: Housing. Mist is my favorite and I picked out the ideal spot that I will probably never get, it's a small house plot right on the beachside. I would like a bigger house for interior decorating, but you just can't beat that location as long as it's a neighborhood scenario. Riviera style house, blue and white like one of the coastal areas in Greece, virtually living the dream. If they ever did instanced housing beyond the usual housing locations, another place I liked was Costa del Sol. Really any place with white beaches, blue water, and sunshine where I can plop down the closest thing I can get to a mini Parthenon to call home. Unfortunately, with the way the system is now, I don't anticipate ever getting housing in FFXIV.

I was gonna make a character, but you mentioned this being a continual issue, so i dont know if theres much point (since i dont play on the server or even data center (i play on japanese servers, and thus during japanese hours)). but hey ho, if you just want a one shot and our stars align, id be happy to make a character on your server and join you up. which server? i should be around the forums (or in game) for the next 4 or so hours.

I appreciate that. I never know when my SO is going to want to play though, like yesterday we spent all day doing 9.1 (ugh) when I was hoping we'd play some FFXIV. I guess the easiest thing would be if we could get invited to the Novice Network. I don't understand why all new players aren't automatically put into it (unless I missed something somewhere). My solo char is in it, maybe I can get one of the mentors to invite if it's data center wide.

I understand why the trial account limitations are in place, but they really suck. We can't add each other as friends, can't group, can't whisper (which has been a problem because people will whisper me to help and I can only respond back in say).

[Val the Moofia Boss]

I just finished the HW storyline (not patch content) and man that last fight was so cool, the music was awesome too. I have a question though, maybe it's explained in future patches but what was the point of going to Azys Lla? They never explained why the Bishop had to go there. Was it just a place to get away from Ishgard once they'd been exposed?

There are superpowerful ancient primals imprisoned within Azys Lla. After Thordan transformed into a primal, he intended to go down into the containment cells and harvest the power of those primals, like how the Ultima Weapon harvested the powers of Ifrit, Titan, and Garuda in ARR. This does somewhat violate the lore because the idea of a primal eating another primal was never brought up outside of this context, but FFXIV started playing more and more fast and loose with its metaphysics as the story went on.

[StrawberryZebra]

No you don't. You would make healing feel underpowered and very frustrating. I'd rather have a fast HP ping pong vs one big hit and then struggling with 10 casts to get the HP back up.

The issue I take with the current design is even when a tanks health spikes low it can be reset back to full almost instantly, and a healer can do so indefinately. And you're right, that makes them feel powerful - Because healing is powerful. It's so powerful in fact that you're often required not to do it in favour of DPSing in most content. I do Paglth'an as a Scholar only shielding the tank before the pull and letting my Abilities and the Fairy handle the rest. There's never a point at which I'm not throwing out damage.

The fact that you generally measure how skilled healers are by how much DPS they do is very telling. Anybody and everybody does enough HPS, it's the ones that do as little as possible and maximise their damage that are the good ones.

Right now tanks take damage primarilly from large singular hits which by design requires the tools to top them back up before the next one. That also means you've got time in between tank busters to do other things. For healers to spend a decent amount of time healing you need to move away from that model. Shifting that to a state where tanks take damage at a more consistent rate and means you'd have to decide to use either a healing spell or a damage spell.

To me, that's an interesting choice to offer a player. Maybe you want to let the tank drop a little lower and then top them up with a heal so you DPS instead. Perhaps the tank is taking a beating but there's also a tank buster to contend with and small frequent top ups are needed? It lets more intricate scenarios play out.

I'm not advocating for stripping out healer power per se, but I would like to see a game state where good healers are recognised as such for their good choices when healing. That cannot happen when healers can undo any amount of damage without consequence. Using good judgement and correct ability management is a much more fun challenge than seeing how many Broils I can push out in my opinion.

[Graeham]

I'd be very surprised if they do anything but leave things at the status quo for Endwalker, especially given the recent bump in popularity the game seems to have had.

I'm not expecting much of note, honestly. Both in terms of actual content and the story itself.

I don't think the game itself is terrible or without redeeming qualities. Yet at the same time, I can't help but think that it would not be doing nearly so well as it is if it wasn't for the simple fact that the MMO market as a whole is pretty stagnant at present.

The game desperately needs some serious competition to force it to be bolder with its decisions. The influx of new players willing to check out the game is not infinite and I think there's more that could be done to keep veteran players entertained.

[Granyala]

The issue I take with the current design is even when a tanks health spikes low it can be reset back to full almost instantly, and a healer can do so indefinately. And you're right, that makes them feel powerful - Because healing is powerful. It's so powerful in fact that you're often required not to do it in favour of DPSing in most content. I do Paglth'an as a Scholar only shielding the tank before the pull and letting my Abilities and the Fairy handle the rest. There's never a point at which I'm not throwing out damage.

Do not judge healing power in any other content than savage or ultimate.

I don't know who cut the DEVs balls off but it is ridiculous how easy everything except the afore mentioned has become.

As a healer I cannot indefinitely "instantly" bring my tank back up. You should heal savage for a while, then you know that once you run out of CDs, it becomes a struggle to heal things fast enough. The challenge usually is not to heal the amount, it's to heal it within the given time.

Yes, you are right, that these critical phases are spread out too much. Hence why I called SE timid in regards to damaging the players in any content.

[Wrecktangle]

Do not judge healing power in any other content than savage or ultimate.

I don't know who cut the DEVs balls off but it is ridiculous how easy everything except the afore mentioned has become.

As a healer I cannot indefinitely "instantly" bring my tank back up. You should heal savage for a while, then you know that once you run out of CDs, it becomes a struggle to heal things fast enough. The challenge usually is not to heal the amount, it's to heal it within the given time.

Yes, you are right, that these critical phases are spread out too much. Hence why I called SE timid in regards to damaging the players in any content.

Just pulled up my healers logs granted this is when things go right, but an abundance of cooldowns and the general power of healing allows this when coupled with the aforementioned encounter design (which we all agree needs some revisiting):

They cast exactly 13 GCD heals in their recent savage clear.

• 13 GCD heals across 2 healers.
• 263 GCDs on damage across both healers.
• 7 and a half minute fight.

Just pulled their TEA logs (I did not clear with them, they play too much LOL):

• 114 GCDs on heals across both healers
• 398 GCDs on damage across both healers
• 17 minute fight

[MrTharne]

There are superpowerful ancient primals imprisoned within Azys Lla. After Thordan transformed into a primal, he intended to go down into the containment cells and harvest the power of those primals, like how the Ultima Weapon harvested the powers of Ifrit, Titan, and Garuda in ARR. This does somewhat violate the lore because the idea of a primal eating another primal was never brought up outside of this context, but FFXIV started playing more and more fast and loose with its metaphysics as the story went on.

When Ultima Weapon harvested Ifrit, Titan and Garuda, the reason Ifrit and Titan were here in the first place is because Garuda summoned them to absorb their power too. So there was a precedent. And it's not because the writers decided to expand on what limited knowledge the characters in the game have that it means that they started playing fast and loose with the metaphysics.

[Granyala]

Just pulled up my healers logs granted this is when things go right, but an abundance of cooldowns and the general power of healing allows this when coupled with the aforementioned encounter design (which we all agree needs some revisiting)

Aye, SE is way too lax with unavoidable damage. Once peeps play mechanics, our job as healers is basically done and it's back to 2 button damage rotation.
That being said: it does look a little different when it does NOT go according to plan.

- - - Updated - - -

And to some extent that can be fun.

Weaving DPS and healing is fun and one of the most attractive things about healing in FF-XIV.
Problem is when the pendulum swing so far into the DPS area that you forget that you're actually a healer.

When I am in a dungeon, I can literally forget that I have a tank to keep alive because he just doesn't get enough damage to ever be in danger.
My passive AoE healing is enough in most situations.

That is too far, imho.

[dlld]

Just finished stormblood completely, the whole of 4.0 was pretty boring tbh even the end, barely above ARR infact it pretty much felt just like ARR in terms of it just laying foundations of the new lands/people but not too much else. But the story started to become interesting when you had a chat with fordola in her cell early in 4.1. After that I i have really enjoyed the story so far.

[Merie]

When you said you finished SB completely, you mean you finished 4.5? I had actually been pretty pumped after completing Ghimlyt Dark and the single player duty after it. It's just a pity they went completely left of field from that point because it was as perfect a lead in to a Garlean expansion as anything I could have conceived.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

I quite liked Stormblood. I felt Heavensward was a let down: the trailer hyped up an epic war against dragons... that never really happened. Instead you just walk around with a dry party of characters and talk to a dragon and then fight another generic evil church, and then there is a 5 minute fight at the end and that's your "Dragonsong War". I also wasn't too fond of the grey color palette and the gothic knights and dragon aesthetic or the gregorian chanting. Whereas I went into Stormblood with low expectations that it'd be a fun adventure romp with a likable cast of characters through Turkey and the Pacific. The expansion had vibrant colors and nice Far Eastern aesthetics. I was pleasantly surprised by the couple lite war sequences, like infiltrating occupied territories like they are North Korea or the final assault on Ala Mhigo.

[infinitemeridian]

I just finished HW (on 3.2 currently), and thought it was amazing, especially the last fight. I love the main musical theme of the expansion too, and how it has so many variations, one of the best FF pieces.