Wow refugees, what are you enjoying about the game?

[8bithamster]

Druid is not the same as playing every class on character. Druid locks you to one play style for each spec. Not to mention all the extra stuff you would be mission out on for other classes like xmog and all that.

Potd came out long before torghast and they are really nothing alike.. if anything blizzard stole it from ffxiv. Lol..

don't feed the troll.. trust me, it never ends well

[Tietoso]

I suggest closing the thread or removing all the comments arguing with each other over the why FF14 isn't as good as wow since this is about what you enjoying about the game. Not the reasons why you don't want to enjoy the game and rather stay and sink with the dying ship.

[ippollite]

I suggest closing the thread or removing all the comments arguing with each other over the why FF14 isn't as good as wow since this is about what you enjoying about the game. Not the reasons why you don't want to enjoy the game and rather stay and sink with the dying ship.

The best thing to do is to not get brought into the meta discussions and just post about what you like about the game. And with that...

ARR: I love the universe building; the weird quirky flora and fauna and the way it just feels like an adventure.
Heavensward: Improved on the storytelling, it brought the game back down to earth (in regards politics and intrigue over big bad evil). It made the story feel more human.
Stormblood: Gave us really identifiable characters. I know everyone loves chad estinian, but i like characters like Y'sale more. I like the well intentioned, yet flawed optimists over the 'i will fuck you all up!' characters. It just feels more optimistic. With of course one noteable exception who sadly had the optimism and joy written out of them and replaced it with the burdens of leadership. Still, the characters feel more identifiable and well rounded, generally. I also really thought the trials and dungeons were a HUGE gameplay step forward.
Shadowbringers: Ive just arrived at the fae (i mean, il mheg), i havent even clicked on the crystal yet. But i can already tell one thing: The storytelling is far punchier. Whether its in the quests or the cutscenes, theres much tighter editing going on. There's way less meandering (and far less running back and forwards). Plus the fae are scottish, and since they sound like my people, im excited to explore it.

[Vasilisa]

Still playing wow but my brother started FF14 so I finally made a character.. so far what I like are skirts and cat girls.

I see a man of culture

[Vasilisa]

Can you guys at least play Au Ra or Viera?....Please, no more cat girls!!!!

I actually do

[Swnem]

I actually do

People do exaggerate the "anime" aspects. People that play cat girls do that cause they want to.
That is not how i play and there are options for those that want grittier player characters. I myself am an Ala'Migho human. Same race that Asmogold went for. There are more options such as the lion guys (they are kind of like the Orcs of FF) and just the big burly human looking ones, i think are from Limsa.
That is what the game is good at. It gives you a whole spectrum to work with. People pay too much attention to what others pick.

[Lane]

I was 100% certain going into FFXIV that I was going to main a Miqo'te. Instead, my main (solo) is an Au Ra and my alt (duo w/SO) is probably going to be a Hyur. I still love Miqo'te, but they are everywhere and I can't take them seriously in cutscenes. Even when they're angry or upset they still look cute. :P

Midlander females appear to be very rare. Not as rare as female Elezen or Roegadyn, but I've seen maybe 2 in the two months I've been playing. I've seen a lot more female Highlanders comparatively.

[Tietoso]

People do exaggerate the "anime" aspects. People that play cat girls do that cause they want to.
That is not how i play and there are options for those that want grittier player characters. I myself am an Ala'Migho human. Same race that Asmogold went for. There are more options such as the lion guys (they are kind of like the Orcs of FF) and just the big burly human looking ones, i think are from Limsa.
That is what the game is good at. It gives you a whole spectrum to work with. People pay too much attention to what others pick.

My FF14 character was really cool(a brown human with white hair, anime black guy), because of all the cinematics he felt really close and important for me...

Then I noticed that for some reason in my inventory there were, not one, but 2 potions for race changing. I don't know where I got em.. but they were there......... So I race changed to a bunny girl waifu

[Wrecktangle]

I was 100% certain going into FFXIV that I was going to main a Miqo'te. Instead, my main (solo) is an Au Ra and my alt (duo w/SO) is probably going to be a Hyur. I still love Miqo'te, but they are everywhere and I can't take them seriously in cutscenes. Even when they're angry or upset they still look cute. :P

Midlander females appear to be very rare. Not as rare as female Elezen or Roegadyn, but I've seen maybe 2 in the two months I've been playing. I've seen a lot more female Highlanders comparatively.

I had to switch to a midlander female because the highlander female right shoulder rig point for armor is still busted and looks SUPER awful. One you see it, you CANNOT unsee it. It was that jarring and annoying I literally paid for a fantasia.

[Merie]

[ippollite]

How to talk to pixies in 5.0. (I speak fluent 'nana' pixie).

Haud yur whiest. (Shut up)
Ah'll skelp yer arse! (Stop fucking around)
yur a wee skunner. (Stop fucking around you annoying fuck).
Hoaw! Bampot! (Hello you annoying pixie)
Ah'll clip ye run yer lugs (you want to see these hands? Youll see these hands.)

Enjoy

Im going to be honest... ive never felt happier in the msq than right now. Pixies are assholes. But as a celt, im so happy running about doing needless mischief.

Can we have housing here? I never want to leave. Im so happy!

[Zyrinx]

I'm basically a full time crafter at this point, which is kind of cool that if I can only really play an hour a day, I can hit as many GC turnins as I have or wanna gather mats for, and get some levels across the DoH/DoL jobs.

[FossilFree]

I'm basically a full time crafter at this point, which is kind of cool that if I can only really play an hour a day, I can hit as many GC turnins as I have or wanna gather mats for, and get some levels across the DoH/DoL jobs.

The crafting is so addicting. I only have one combat job leveled partway, but I have all 11 crafting and gathering jobs keeping pace with my warrior job.

[ippollite]

Adventures of ipps in her ongoing blog of the fae wild:

I cant even... I go from pixie mischief to Nu Mou dying from excitement to meet me. Ive seen all the youtube clips in my recommendations (5.3) "patch 5.3 broke me... 5.3: i cant stop crying... SHb storyline has me sobbing..."

So its bathos to pathos... While its bathos though, im going to swim in it for as long as i can. And then, once ive beaten the msq, im coming back here to dry my eyes and finish my second beast tribe because i reckon i can beat them at their own prank game.

[Raisei]

I have gotten over my dislike and given the game a chance. So here is my short review.

1) Looks:
The graphics are great. I love how my character looks and wish WoW was looking this good. Not that I hate WoW's graphics, but they are old and especially on older transmogs you can feel it.

2) Combat:
Speaking from a lvl 35 character atm (more on that in a bit) I picked the Lancer and am now a Dragoon since the last 5 levels. I understand this is not max level, so my judgement is reserved. I like the animations of the attacks, even though a Lancer generally just stabs things they gave it different stabbing animations with some flourishes. It looks good.
Buuut... the combos are getting a bit boring after a while. I got only two atm, one for keeping a dps buff up, the other to stab three times in a row for max damage. There are no procs that would shake things up (for now at least), you go through these 2 sequences again and again and again. Inbetween you push a CD or two. It's very repetetive. The flashyness and good animations help offsetting this but the very very long GCD makes it rather long-winded.
I could easily run through this combo 2 times in the times I can do one, simply because the GCD is holding me back. I am not a fan of that. I hope this changes at higher levels with "active" abilities off the GCD, just CDs are not really doing it, considering they have 45sec - 1,5 min cooldowns. The worst part is when my third stab in the sequence just barely left the enemy alive and I now need to wait either for an auto-attack or the 2,5 seconds until I can finally stab again. It feels like I am artificially slowed down.
WoW has pretty much done away with the set-in-stone rotations in favour of priority lists that react to procs or changing CDs and I think that is giving the combat a more dynamic feeling.
So while the combat looks good in FF, it is just more fun in WoW.

3) Leveling and Story:
Here we hit a snag. The first few levels went fast, just by doing the main story campaign, but it has slowed down now and tbh, it is very boring. The campaign sometimes sends me halve across the world to talk to a person, only for me to immediatedly have to return. It's especially jarring when the locations are not near a teleport area and requires a long walk for nothing but exchanging a few lines. For example, why does this Waking Sands place have to be away from a teleporter when I have to go there every 3 quests? I can't count how many times I had to walk and now finally ride from the nearest teleporter.

The story feels extremely forgettable for now and the characters are not really interesting. It really doesn't help that the english voice-over is horrendous and I don't just mean that it doesn't match the mouth movements, it sounds like the VA are reading lines they neither understand nor care about. Compare that to a Laura Bailey who makes me shiver when she uses her "angry-Jaina" and the difference is brutal. I don't know why this is, did they literally phone in the lines to japan to safe travel expenses? It makes a story that isn't super amazing to begin with even more uninteresting.

I hope dearly this is getting better in the next expansions, but there is the issue: With the leveling as slow as it is, the story as boring as it is, the only reason I level is because I want to get out of this and it takes forever, especially since the long travel times hinder me even more and that makes me loose interest. I haven't played for several days now and not sure I will play again. I know I haven't seen it all, but if the game literally builds a wall of boredom to get over I am not sure it's worth it.

So to summarize: The game looks amazing, but that is pretty much the best about it. The gameplay suffers from a very anti-dynamic system, the story is forgettable and the leveling is artificially slowed down by travel times.

The only reason for me to choose it over WoW would be to have my guild move there and that isn't happening. Despite the graphics, WoW feels much more refined and with more consideration to gameplay. Maybe in a few years FF will be there too.

[ippollite]

Heres a brief overview of my perspective from the beginning to Il Mheg (third proper zone in shadowbringers).

ARR MSQ: 1-20: This is so charming! i love it!
ARR MSQ: 21-40: Primals. Its okay i suppose.
ARR MSQ: 41-50: Im teleporting a whole lot. Cortheas is... not fun.
ARR 2.1/2: Forgettable. Its setting up something. But i just want to play the expansion. Guess im tomestome grinding. Theres some domans, i wonder if they'll be important?
ARR 2.3: Its picking up.
ARR 2.4: Something about uniforms?
ARR 2.5: Im so close... set aside time for this cutscene... okay...

Heavensward MSQ: Aethyryte current shenanigans and a LOT of dragons. (i dont give a crap about dragons, if youre asmongold, this is more like it, if youre me, this is just arr with dragons. Characters seem nice: Love dripula and ysale. Estinian is an edge lord).
Heavensward 3.1-3.2: DONT CARE!!!
Heavensward 3.3: OMG, this is incredible.
Heavensward 3.4: No one cares!
Heavensward 3.5: Nooooooo!!!

Stormbringers 4.0: Wait, the main city is a refugee camp? Oh wait! No it isnt! OMG Kugane is beautiful! Lets swim with our mounts in the red sea. Im sick of hunting aethyrte currents in the red sea. TMNT suck. Their kami is cute though. But damn, i hate this. Am i going to keep playing it? Im genuinely torn!
Stormbringers 4.0: Azzim Steppes: This is hands down my favorite zone in game. I love every one of these characters. Hang on, let me make a cliche meme about the Mol.
Stormbringers 4.0: Finale: It all came together. This game is amazing.
Stormbringers 4.1: I dont remember. Im sure its a big happy celebration.
Stormbringers 4.2: Who is this asshole?
Stormbringers 4.3: No. No~! I wont. But theyre so cute so i have to! NOOOOO!!! Thanks for the one genuinely accurate line my character wanted to say throughout the entire game. They did deserve better.
Stormbringers 4.4: Something apparently happened. I did some stuff. Saved some things. A day in the life of the wol.
Stormbringers 4.5: While you play this, its much of a muchness. But once you finish it... it... its just a lot.

So ups and downs. Where you are right now is crap (unless youre super invested in the immersion and world building of the game - thats basically the 1-50 game). Once you hit post arr (and if youre not on board and just want to FIGHT monsters, prepare to have your expectations pulled back - youre teleporting... but at least you can fly on the rare occasions you're actually playing the game! (between cut scenes - it gets worse)).

But then it gets so much better. From the moment you submit your weapon and watch a 30 minute cut scene in 2.5 to the pixies in Il Mheg, it just keeps topping itself. This isnt a 'play for 100 hours', its just what it is. ARR is... a 3/10, then a 5/10 when you hit the cutscene. Heavensward is a 6/10 then an 8/10 when you hit the final steps of faith and it all clicks into place (3.3). Stormblood is a 6/10 then goes 8/10 (my rating, i love the character building) once you pass the red sea, and shadowbringers is 8/10 so far (40% through the msq). It just keeps building. I dont hate ARR because i understand the point is to introduce, build and expand the lore. You need to set shut up before you can create and then subvert expectations. Youre in the low point of the game. I dont want to say it gets better, but damn... it really does though... im in such a bind. If you dont believe me, refer to my literal previous post where i dissect a cut scene i brushed over in 3.5 to explain my experience in 5.0. Theres something going on. I dont have all the pieces yet to make sense of it. But... im so stupidly invested in making sense of this universe. In ARR i was invested in... i guess?... the tiny scope of eorzea. It gets bigger though... so much bigger.

[Merie]

shadowbringers is 8/10 so far (40% through the msq).

You'll be changing that to 10/10 once you're 100% through 5.0 msq.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Stormbringers 4.0: Wait, the main city is a refugee camp?

Yeah it's really disappointing that we never really got to go to Ala Mhigo proper. Finishing 4.0 should have unlocked it as a huge city. Who is to say there can't be two cities in an expansion?

[Cthulhu 2020]

Can you guys at least play Au Ra or Viera?....Please, no more cat girls!!!!

Au ra are played almost as much as cat girls. And if I'm going to play a fantasy game, I'm going to play a fantasy race. Human is just... boring.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

if I'm going to play a fantasy game, I'm going to play a fantasy race. Human is just... boring.

Some fantasy games have made humans interesting, usually by making them oppressed and/or survivors.

• In WoW, almost every human kingdom has been destroyed out by a genocidal Horde. You are either playing as a survivor or a refugee of a kingdom that was ruined by said Horde (Stormwind or Gilneas, or every other kingdom except Kul'Tiras), or you are playing as the one human kingdom that wasn't wrecked (Kul'Tiras).

• Similarly, in GW2, almost every single human kingdom has been wiped out, with Kryta being a shadow of its former self and Ascalon being reduced to a small group of guerillas. The writers' handling of the Ascalonian remnants is rather infuriating, though. It's sorta them situation as the Maquis from Star Trek where there is victim blaming and the bloodthirsty genocidal conquerors are treated as the ones in the right).

• In Mass Effect, humanity are the new kids on the block but are weaker then everyone else, and got conquered by the Citadel and aren't really given proper representation or respect in the Citadel (despite the Citadel ostensibly being an egalitarian, democratic federation, but is actually more of a USA style empire).

In FFXIV, Highlanders seem to all be Ala Mhigan, or descended from Ala Mhigans, and Ala Mhigo was conquered by the Empire. Unfortunately, you're not given this information during character creation, and only slowly learn this during the 300 hour long story. Also, it seems that there is some sort of hatedom for Ala Mhigans. I never found them annoying.