[Megathread] Final Fantasy XIV

[Drindorai]

Yeah... i think Val is underselling them.

No way, Val misrepresenting something about FF14?

Cannot be.

[Swnem]

I think I'm in the minority who actually preferred Stormblood to Heavensward. I like them both quite a bit and actually I'm currently doing all the side quests in the game and I think the side quests do a good job of addressing the tensions between the people of Ishgard that the MSQ wasn't able to do. However, Stormblood feels like a much more personal story that delves deeper into it's characters, whereas Heavensward feels like an epic classic fantasy adventure.

I don't really like Xenos at all and I'm concerned that he'll bring Endwalker down for me, but I really liked Yotsuyu and Fordola as antagonists.

Shadowbringers is really on a whole different level though. I really think it's one of the best stories in fiction. Everything from the 70-80 MSQ up to 5.3 is incredible.

It's not just you. People like to hype HW's but it didn't click with me cause i don't care about dragons.
Stormblood though was a more personal, human story. You can relate to the characters feelings and motivations. I especially liked how they portraid 2 of the villains, which were victims of their circunstances. Fordola and Yotsuyu.

Stormblood was when i started to fall in love with the game. Up until then i was on the verge of quitting. The good old steppes saved me and it only got better from there.
The start is quite slow though. Now, i understand why though. FF always takes it's time to set up events that have a pay-off later on. It does look like filler before you reach it though.

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I think FFXIV has been more enjoyable going 'backwards', so to speak. First of all, I've seen so many people overthink ShB and, being an overthinker myself, if I'd gotten there through progression from ARR I may have done the same instead of going in without any expectations and enjoying it as a stand alone story. There have also been several story elements that without knowledge of future developments would've fallen flat or been confusing to me, instead I was able to appreciate them for what they become later.

My only issue is the filler and unfortunately that's 1) part of being an MMO and 2) not skippable since it's tied to the MSQ. It reminds me of 'slice of life' episodes, which I have always hated in series. You're on the edge of your seat wanting to find out what happens next in the main narrative only to have a week where the focus is on a day in the life of a side character who's not even part of it. Except while I can choose to not tune in for a week in regards to FFXIV I will have to play through that episode whether I like it or not, taking a break won't change that.

Yes, there is some sense to it cause people who arrive now, play it all back to back. But, these story updates are months apart when they first come out. And a 2 hour story experience every couple of months that may delve on a bit of slice of life is not perceived as bad. Only when one is playing it all back to back and probably in a rush to finish it. Which i totally advise against, but it is difficult to get peeps off the "rush to max level mindset" we have been conditioned with.

[|Dexter|]

Ahh, yes, I forgot about every other video game out there that doesn't have the exact same problem (including WoW) when you're playing through it. No matter what you do, everything winds up being the same!

It's a good thing that problem is unique to XIV, and you can avoid playing it to not run into that!

I never say it's unique to XIV. The story was good apart of the massive filter bits but I had major issues with server latency making group content one nightmare... my latency from Texas was as high as 1000ms at one point, were in WoW it's never top 100ms

[Mordin Solus]

No one goes in there and "wipes for days". The heck are you guys even talking about?

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I don't see how. I've seen FAR more wipes on some LFR bosses (Granted, a fairly exclusive few. KJ for instance.) than I have on any Alliance Raid bosses.

With 24 people, it's very easy to exploit the infinite rezzes and extremely loose tuning to pull most any group back from the brink in Alliance Raids.

you do understand i wasnt being literal right? what i mean is wipe alot which they do. now if you have the luck to never get a shitty party thats on you but ive seen parties get decimated in the ivalice raids

[Mordin Solus]

considering you were the only one that didnt get it i think its more on you m8

[Mordin Solus]

so if i say im so angry that i am about to blow up, do you realy think i am going to explode? dude dont try to pass yourself as being in the right XD every1 that reads what i wrote understands that what i mean is people die a shitton and wipe stop trying to make yourself look superior

[Tojara]

I've never wiped in an Alliance raid yet and I've done them all. People die like crazy on some mechanics (and the last boss in the ShB one killed like 2/3 of the group with one mechanic), but you still don't wipe because people just rez people until the boss eventually falls over. Unless there's some sort of enrage mechanic in these raids that I'm not aware of, but I haven't hit one yet. They just feel like slogs, and while some of the bosses or soundtracks might be cool in the instance itself, it still feels like a massive waste of time to me personally.

Keep in mind LFR use to have one shot mechanics scattered across some bosses in days of old, which is something they removed overtime because the LFR audience just doesn't want that at all. These are littered with one shot mechanics, but because of how FF works you basically just slog your way through it. I counted half a dozen people just chain dying to mechanics seemingly on purpose in these dungeons, and/or just sitting in corners of the room not moving.

The Crystal Tower series is "okay" in that it explains a few things about ShB, but that's about it. The ShB Alliance raid is just awful and the story has exactly zero to do with FF. Maybe that Nier game is good, but I don't want to have to play another game that has nothing to do with FF to understand the "cool" cross over event that apparently took place with this Alliance raid. I'm sure if you like that series you maybe liked it more than I did, but I felt completely shafted trying to understand the story in the game when it had nothing really to do with the game at all. I would have been better off just skipping through every cut scene and dialogue option. Also wanted to tear my eyes out having to run back and forth 100 times between the dwarf village, and then run 3/4 into the actual empty raid instance to pick up stuff. It brings back PTSD when I played ARR over 5 years ago and the dreaded line "pray, return to the waking sands" was brought up.

Again, I'm mostly just talking about the ShB one more than any other one. It just felt like a massive waste of time to unlock all of that content, especially when it had nothing really to do with FF at all. They should have put a sign up telling you that this has nothing to do with the story and feel free to skip everything if you don't care about it.

[Mordin Solus]

I've never wiped in an Alliance raid yet and I've done them all. People die like crazy on some mechanics (and the last boss in the ShB one killed like 2/3 of the group with one mechanic), but you still don't wipe because people just rez people until the boss eventually falls over. Unless there's some sort of enrage mechanic in these raids that I'm not aware of, but I haven't hit one yet. They just feel like slogs, and while some of the bosses or soundtracks might be cool in the instance itself, it still feels like a massive waste of time to me personally.

Keep in mind LFR use to have one shot mechanics scattered across some bosses in days of old, which is something they removed overtime because the LFR audience just doesn't want that at all. These are littered with one shot mechanics, but because of how FF works you basically just slog your way through it. I counted half a dozen people just chain dying to mechanics seemingly on purpose in these dungeons, and/or just sitting in corners of the room not moving.

The Crystal Tower series is "okay" in that it explains a few things about ShB, but that's about it. The ShB Alliance raid is just awful and the story has exactly zero to do with FF. Maybe that Nier game is good, but I don't want to have to play another game that has nothing to do with FF to understand the "cool" cross over event that apparently took place with this Alliance raid. I'm sure if you like that series you maybe liked it more than I did, but I felt completely shafted trying to understand the story in the game when it had nothing really to do with the game at all. I would have been better off just skipping through every cut scene and dialogue option. Also wanted to tear my eyes out having to run back and forth 100 times between the dwarf village, and then run 3/4 into the actual empty raid instance to pick up stuff. It brings back PTSD when I played ARR over 5 years ago and the dreaded line "pray, return to the waking sands" was brought up.

Again, I'm mostly just talking about the ShB one more than any other one. It just felt like a massive waste of time to unlock all of that content, especially when it had nothing really to do with FF at all. They should have put a sign up telling you that this has nothing to do with the story and feel free to skip everything if you don't care about it.

honestly ARR HW and SHB are mostly easy but while doing the bozja relics the amount of stupidity, deaths and wipes on even rabanastre was astounding. i dont even go orbone because thunder god and ultima decimate randos

[tikcol]

Yes, it's definitely the readers fault for reading "people go in there and wipe for days" and thinking, "well that's just not true".

Here, let me help you

https://parade.com/1175397/marynlile...bole-examples/

Hyperbole
noun
exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally.

[Mordin Solus]

and you know exacly if i didnt meant it as one cause you so smart and i didnt put a smiley face so your brain could process it yet every1 else managed it

[tikcol]

Except for the fact that stating, "People wipe for days in a raid" isn't hyperbole. Especially when it's presented straight up like it was, without any context or sarcasm. Indeed, any casual reader familiar with MMOs might hear, "People wipe for days in this raid" and find that to be a perfectly normal state of affairs.

So yes, given the straight way it was presented and the fact that grossly embellishing aspects of XIV is fairly common around here, it seems safe to assume that it wasn't intended as hyperbole at all.

Just think twice before posting then. It was pretty obvious..

[Dakhath]

Val is pretty spot on with LFR = Alliance Raids. I've never wiped more than a couple times on any boss throughout any of them. It's a story telling advice for a wide audience and like LFR, it has to be made for the lowest common denominator.

[Katchii]

No one goes in there and "wipes for days". The heck are you guys even talking about?

Not literally, but there are some of the Alliance raids where there's at least a few wipes. Until the knuckleheads actually stop and listen to the instructions.

I don't see how. I've seen FAR more wipes on some LFR bosses (Granted, a fairly exclusive few. KJ for instance.) than I have on any Alliance Raid bosses.

It's the same for the Alliance Raids, it's not all of the bosses, only a few of them in a a few instances. And KJ is a perfect example of WHY, as it's similar mechanics that cause the wipes in the FFXIV Raids: Instant kill mechanics if you do it wrong. If a large enough portion of the raid dies to those there's almost no recovering as there won't be enough damage going out or healing happening to maintain the fight if that many rezzes need to happen to keep it going. While it might be possible, it's usually just easier to wipe and try again.

With 24 people, it's very easy to exploit the infinite rezzes and extremely loose tuning to pull most any group back from the brink in Alliance Raids.

Loose tuning yes, but that's still based on having the majority of the raid alive with enough people that know what they're doing and able to avoid mechanics and the avoidable damage in general to maintain the damage and healing required to keep the whole raid going. Many of the bosses have raid wide AoE damage or instant kill mechanics for the entire raid if enough people aren't alive to do them.

I'm not trying to say that they're way different from LFR, but in my experience the FFXIV Alliance Raids have more bosses with these kinds of punishing mechanics than WoW LFR does. They're not difficult mechanics, usually, just very punishing if you don't do them right.

[Poppincaps]

Val is pretty spot on with LFR = Alliance Raids. I've never wiped more than a couple times on any boss throughout any of them. It's a story telling advice for a wide audience and like LFR, it has to be made for the lowest common denominator.

I think it's a difference of "perceived" difficulty versus actual difficulty. In terms of actual difficulty, both LFR and Alliance Raids are very easy and it's unlikely you'll ever wipe. But in Alliance Raids, it's more likely that you'll die if you don't know what's going on. The difference is that FF14 has unlimited resses so you'll just get ressed and move on. Whereas in WoW LFR it's more unlikely that you'll die, but if people start dropping, then it will likely result in a wipe because there are only a few bresses.

[Frostfred]

I think it's a difference of "perceived" difficulty versus actual difficulty. In terms of actual difficulty, both LFR and Alliance Raids are very easy and it's unlikely you'll ever wipe. But in Alliance Raids, it's more likely that you'll die if you don't know what's going on. The difference is that FF14 has unlimited resses so you'll just get ressed and move on. Whereas in WoW LFR it's more unlikely that you'll die, but if people start dropping, then it will likely result in a wipe because there are only a few bresses.

I haven't seen many alliance raids, yet (only the ones needed for MSQ in ARR), but this seems to be spot on for them. While in the alliance raids you'll die far more often if you don't know the mechanics than in LFR, it doesn't really result in more wipes due to the available recovery tools.

[e] On a completely different note: I wish they'd increase the incentives for the trial roulette a little bit. Waiting times for almost all dungeons are close to 0 as healer, and also still ok as dps. But going into SB and having to do trials for the MSQ can be quite annoying. Even as healer sometimes they just don't open for a while, as there don't seem to be many people doing the roulette. It kinda takes out the flow from leveling / the story when you're more or less forced to stop. At lower levels, there seemed to still be that huge influx of new players, which also signed up and the waiting times were good.

[Lane]

People like to hype HW's but it didn't click with me cause i don't care about dragons.

I don't care about dragons either. I loved HW because of the other characters. Coming from ARR where NPCs weren't concerned about the WoL as anything more than a weapon to essentially being adopted by Ishgard was great.

Which i totally advise against, but it is difficult to get peeps off the "rush to max level mindset" we have been conditioned with.

I'm in no rush to get to the end of the game, I'm no raider. I suspect I'll be somewhere in ShB when EW launches since I haven't even started SB yet.

[e] On a completely different note: I wish they'd increase the incentives for the trial roulette a little bit.

Yes! Getting a trial for leveling roulette sucks, especially when you've been waiting in a 15 minute queue as DPS. I've since learned that queuing for dungeons individually after getting the daily bonus is better. I'm not sure why, but my queue times went down to around 5 minutes.

[StrawberryZebra]

Coming from ARR where NPCs weren't concerned about the WoL as anything more than a weapon to essentially being adopted by Ishgard was great.

I actually miss NPC's treating my mute murder-hobo of a character as anything more than a completely interchangable arsehole. I want to kill the things for the rewards and little else. I don't care about anything else.

[Tojara]

Yeah HW is dope. Has a big cast of characters I like (including the dragons) and by the end of it you really feel like Ishgard is basically your city. Not to mention the city itself is probably the best city in the game (IMO).

As far as the roulette goes you're probably in a weird area where nobody is really doing that type of roulette anymore. The huge surge of players might have died off some because honestly it's a lot of time to invest into the game, especially when you start to realize there's about a third of another expansions worth of MSQ after you hit each expansions conclusion before moving onto the next. You also have a lot of different players who will stop and unlock everything at 50/60/70, and then players who beeline to 80 and work backwards from there. I was sort of a mix and just unlocked somethings along the way, but had no interest in trying to do extremes or savage difficulty along the way. Not that I could find a group for many of them, because I tried and pugs take forever to form for them.

Personally I find trials pretty fun (especially the ones you unlock that aren't part of the MSQ), but from a roulette perspective they really don't offer much. Leveling dungeons offer a decent amount from an XP perspective, but man they really aren't fun to do. I think FF14 does it's version of de-leveling and changing your stats far better than what WoW does, but that doesn't mean I enjoy it that much. A lot of classes in this game feel super bare bones below 50, and some of them feel really bad at 60 and below too. What's even more frustrating is playing classes that basically remove some obsolete abilities, and having to use them again if you decide to do old content. It's not a huge deal though because it's not like you have to be efficient doing old stuff (as it's generally really easy).

Still, I stay away from things like trial roulette because the XP just doesn't seem worth it for leveling alternate jobs, and the low level roulette because it's just not fun. Most of the roulettes I do are the raid (not the Alliance one, fuck that), the expert one, and the level 80 one. Mostly because those are the most fun, and I generally get to play the class as it is. Main scenario isn't bad if you're trying to farm poetics, but it's a coin flip on whether or not you get to spend 25 minutes or nearly 50 minutes in one.

[HoodKazekage]

Hey guys, I’ve recently started playing the game to check it out and I got a few questions.

I’m playing the free trial right now, if I buy the real game is there another starting point?

Do cutscenes and NPC’s have any voice acting? So far I’ve been experienced dead silence except for the “main” cutscenes

What would be a fun job/class for starting players ?

[Advent]

No apartments available in Kugane. Sad.