Is it possible to enjoy FFXIV if I only like endgame content?

[NineSpine]

Nobody is debating fun.
Op asked about end game raids and it was compared to wow bosses. The alliance raid bosses wouldn't be classified as end game raid bosses in the same sense as a wow raid boss.
That's all

The alliance raids are for max level characters and they drop progression gear. They are endgame.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

WoW does release larger raids, and they struggle to even get one out the door every 6 months. FF14 releases a new raid every 3-4 months.

A new raid tier releases once every 9 months and comes with a dozen bosses. FFXIV raid tiers comes out once every 6 months and only contain 4 bosses. If you include trials then that is about 1-2 additional bosses. So with WoW you have a dozen bosses that are current for 9 months, vs FFXIV's 4-6 bosses that are current for 6 months.

[NineSpine]

There are major differences in how FFXIV designs its raid encounters.

• FFXIV raids are exclusively boss fights. You will never get imaginative encounters like the gunship battle, Spine of Deathwing, Dark Animus, Hans'gar and Franzok, Operator Thogar, etc.

I find FF14s encounters far more imaginative and immersive than WoW, which often ends up as a battle of picking the right weakauras and paying almost no attention to the actual battlefield.

• FFXIV fights have hard enrages on a timer, and if any player botches a mechanic once, they get one shotted and/or their damage is severely debuffed, meaning that the group decides to wipe right then and there and start over. Rather than an exciting WoW fight where the team uses their tools to manage a steadily declining situation and win the war of attrition, FFXIV progression is about doing a dance over and over again until all 8 players nail every single mechanic for 8-10 minutes.

Yeah I super love when someone else makes a mistake so I die and spend 8 minutes staring at the ground waiting for this epic "war of attrition" to end in the same failure it does 99.9% of the time. What an epic experience.

[NineSpine]

A new raid tier releases once every 9 months and comes with a dozen bosses. FFXIV raid tiers comes out once every 6 months and only contain 4 bosses. If you include trials then that is about 1-2 additional bosses. So with WoW you have a dozen bosses that are current for 9 months, vs FFXIV's 4-6 bosses that are current for 6 months.

In a nine month period, FF14 can get 8 normal/savage bosses, 3 extreme trials, and a 4 boss alliance raid. That's 15 bosses.

[MsSideEye]

Basically the title. I don't care about the story, and the more casual content like housing, RP, and glamour really doesn't interest me. I literally only want to Raid. Is this really possible or am I going to have a bad time?

I'll be entirely honest, if you're only enjoyment is going in and throwing yourself a boss again and again until dead... I'd suggest probably playing Elden Ring or one of the Dark Souls games. that sounds more like you're thing then what 14 has to offer. While you COULD enjoy it for just the raiding, it honestly sounds like you're saying 'but I only like the sausage on my meat lovers pizza, so I'll only eat that'. You're kinda throwing away the rest of the experience.

I'd personally suggest giving the story and the rest at least a chance, in which case you might be surprised. Otherwise, there are is a fair bit of hard raid content that you'd likely enjoy, but as I said, it would likely be better to go with a different game.

Are you talking about the normal/savage raid or the alliance raid? Because both are current and amount to more than 4 bosses. WoW typically delivers raids less than half as often as FF14 does, so of course they are smaller but that's also why it is dishonest to compare them 1:1.

To be fair, it's Val. He is kinda well known as someone who kinda is always talking bad about 14, despite it seemingly be where he talks the most and being well versed in it. It's kinda better just to treat him as shouting into space and move on.

[NineSpine]

I don't think you are fully understanding what the op is trying to find out here, so I'll leave you to it.

The OP asked what raiding was like. Alliance raids are raids. Whether you like them or not is worse than irrelevant.

[NineSpine]

Never said that I didn't like them. Now you're just making assumptions

Then why did you use "What's it like to raid?" as an excuse to talk about how some raids don't count?

[Maljinwo]

Yes you can enjoy it

If you are looking for a gear threadmill, however, it might not be your thing as gear is not as important in this game

[Val the Moofia Boss]

1. Doing dailies for tomestones

No, I don't consider being habituated into performing tedious daily chores to be a fun video game experience.

2. The latest alliance raid

You do it once for the spectacle and then never again. Unless you want to farm it every week for a glamour that you have a low chance of rolling for. Aka, wasting your time on arbitrary game design.

3. The latest normal/savage raid

If you enjoy raiding then yes you can do that, but you have fewer current bosses to fight than in WoW and YMMV on the fight design.

Ultimate raids

If you like FFXIV fight design, then yes this can keep you occupied for a few months until you have the glamours you want. FFXIV does not release ultimates on a regular basis so once you've exhausted them, that's that for a few years.

Deep dungeons

Can be fun gimmick content for a short while.

Eureka/Bozja

Hey, if you're into grinding mobs for hundreds of hours on end for transmog, you do you.

Extreme trials

Again, in the context of FFXIV this is entry tier raid content. New raiders do them to get their foot in the door and then leave them behind once they are in the actual raids.

Crafting

There are multiple things to break down here.

The crafting minigame itself is a little more engaging than most crafting systems in gaming. However, you still have to deal with the tediousness of acquiring materials, which are often locked behind an arbitrary timer meant to habituate you into wasting your time each day every day on a video game. Wasting time on a videogame ≠ having fun, especially when you could be spending that time on a different game that gives you far more fun in a shorter amount of time. You can game the auction house trying to make enough money to buy and decorate a house (actually obtaining one is unlikely, though, given how awful the housing system is), but I can't be bothered to waste the limited hours of my life doing so and certainly wouldn't recommend that other people do the same.

9. Collecting

How is this fun?

10. Gold saucer

Some of the minigames are pretty fun to do in small bursts but is not an enduring endgame.

11. Crystalline conflict

Gets stale very quickly. Does not have the breadth of depth of WoW or GW2 PvP.

12. Other PvP

Frontline is a chaotic, 24 vs 24 vs 24 zerg fest where melee die within seconds in a mosh pit and ranged spam attacks into whatever blob is in front of you. There is no coordination here like in WoW BGs or in GW2's WvW wars.

13. Tribe reps

Being habituated into wasting your life doing tedious chores every day is not healthy. The actual storylines themselves are meh.

14. FATEs

Again, grinding mobs for dozens to hundreds of hours for arbitrary rewards.

Yeah, nothing whatsoever to do.

It isn't that there is nothing to do. It is that there is very little meaningful things to do that are worth spending your limited free time doing, when you could be playing a different game, reading a book, building model ships, selfpublishing books, learning how to play music, spending time with your family, or literally anything else, and get more fun out of it.

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There is also a current Alliance raid

No WoW raider is going to consider LFR a form of content they're interested in.

And two are coming out in Endwalker.

Given FFXIV's track record on keeping to its promises lately, we shall see if that actually happens.

The alliance raids are for max level characters and they drop progression gear. They are endgame.

I would not recommend being habituated into wasting your time doing tedious chores chasing imaginary number upgrades.

I find FF14s encounters far more imaginative and immersive than WoW, which often ends up as a battle of picking the right weakauras and paying almost no attention to the actual battlefield.

Really? That was the opposite of my experience.

[NineSpine]

No, I don't consider being habituated into performing tedious daily chores to be a fun video game experience.

"I don't like it so its not content"

You do it once for the spectacle and then never again. Unless you want to farm it every week for a glamour that you have a low chance of rolling for. Aka, wasting your time on arbitrary game design.

"I don't like it so its not content"

If you enjoy raiding then yes you can do that, but you have fewer current bosses to fight than in WoW and YMMV on the fight design.

Some of us like having smaller, more frequent raids to do.

If you like FFXIV fight design, then yes this can keep you occupied for a few months until you have the glamours you want. FFXIV does not release ultimates on a regular basis so once you've exhausted them, that's that for a few years.

A lot of people get a lot of mileage out of doing them on multiple jobs,a nd progressing them is hundreds of hours for most people.

Can be fun gimmick content for a short while.

"I don't like it so its not content"

Hey, if you're into grinding mobs for hundreds of hours on end for transmog, you do you.

"I don't like it so its not content"

Again, in the context of FFXIV this is entry tier raid content. New raiders do them to get their foot in the door and then leave them behind once they are in the actual raids.

It's still content.

There are multiple things to break down here.

The crafting minigame itself is a little more engaging than most crafting systems in gaming. However, you still have to deal with the tediousness of acquiring materials, which are often locked behind an arbitrary timer meant to habituate you into wasting your time each day every day on a video game. Wasting time on a videogame ≠ having fun, especially when you could be spending that time on a different game that gives you far more fun in a shorter amount of time. You can game the auction house trying to make enough money to buy and decorate a house (actually obtaining one is unlikely, though, given how awful the housing system is), but I can't be bothered to waste the limited hours of my life doing so and certainly wouldn't recommend that other people do the same.

"I don't like it so its not content"

How is this fun?

"I don't like it so its not content"

Some of the minigames are pretty fun to do in small bursts but is not an enduring endgame.[/QUOTE}

"I don't like it so its not content"

Gets stale very quickly. Does not have the breadth of depth of WoW or GW2 PvP.

"I don't like it so its not content"

Frontline is a chaotic, 24 vs 24 vs 24 zerg fest where melee die within seconds in a mosh pit and ranged spam attacks into whatever blob is in front of you. There is no coordination here like in WoW BGs or in GW2's WvW wars.

"I don't like it so its not content"

QUOTE]Being habituated into wasting your life doing tedious chores every day is not healthy. The actual storylines themselves are meh.

"I don't like it so its not content"

Again, grinding mobs for dozens to hundreds of hours for arbitrary rewards.

"I don't like it so its not content"

It isn't that there is nothing to do. It is that there is very little meaningful things to do that are worth spending your limited free time doing, when you could be playing a different game, reading a book, building model ships, selfpublishing books, learning how to play music, spending time with your family, or literally anything else, and get more fun out of it.

"I don't like it so its not content"

Notice a running theme here? You know, there are a lot of things I don't like either. For example, I don't like football, but wouldn't it be super weird for me to hang around football forums telling everyone why football sucks and baseball is better?

[Ghost of Cow]

I find FF14s encounters far more imaginative and immersive than WoW, which often ends up as a battle of picking the right weakauras and paying almost no attention to the actual battlefield.

This is how you know that this poster is being dishonest and just defending one game over the other. This whole, "addons just beat the boss for you!" nonsense of a meme.

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"I don't like it so its not content"



"I don't like it so its not content"



Some of us like having smaller, more frequent raids to do.



A lot of people get a lot of mileage out of doing them on multiple jobs,a nd progressing them is hundreds of hours for most people.



"I don't like it so its not content"



"I don't like it so its not content"



It's still content.



"I don't like it so its not content"



"I don't like it so its not content"



"I don't like it so its not content"



"I don't like it so its not content"



"I don't like it so its not content"

Notice a running theme here? You know, there are a lot of things I don't like either. For example, I don't like football, but wouldn't it be super weird for me to hang around football forums telling everyone why football sucks and baseball is better?

This is all off-topic, though. So stop dragging it into a thread where the OP wants to know opinions on whether or not they'll enjoy it as a endgame raiding game.

[deenman]

I don't find WoW raids very fun. Figuring out the best addons to trivialize the encounters isnt my idea of good gameplay.

WoW does release larger raids, and they struggle to even get one out the door every 6 months. FF14 releases a new raid every 3-4 months.

oh yeah,these wow addons trivialize those encounters so much,its why everyone clears mythic week 1 so easy and fast /facepalm

this addons meme is so funny,yeah some of them are strong,but the worst addons were broken years ago,time to get up to date

also no addon is gonna beat the boss for you,the days of lines showing you where to stand like in wod are gone,and ironicaly EVEN THEN PEOPLE FAILED

[NineSpine]

No WoW raider is going to consider LFR a form of content they're interested in.

Almost everyone I play FF14 with is a former WoW raider. All of them love alliance raids, in particular the newest one. Given the way you post this may be shocking, but you don't speak for everyone else.

Given FFXIV's track record on keeping to its promises lately, we shall see if that actually happens.

You mean its awesome record on player engagement?

Really? That was the opposite of my experience.

Yes, really, and that opinion is shared by all the former wow raiders I play FF14 with. All of us were very exhausted with playing the UI rather than playing the fight. We were all exhausted with weakauaras being more important than playing the game well. We were all exhausted with needless gear walls that prevent us from completing content. We were all exhausted with a raid model that expected us to run the same raid 50 times on multiple difficulties.

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oh yeah,these wow addons trivialize those encounters so much,its why everyone clears mythic week 1 so easy and fast /facepalm

The people that do clear mythic first have full time add-on programmers on their teams in order to get them ahead. It's pathetic.

this addons meme is so funny,yeah some of them are strong,but the worst addons were broken years ago,time to get up to date

Oh, so that's why the world firsts are working with full time add-on developers.

also no addon is gonna beat the boss for you,the days of lines showing you where to stand like in wod are gone,and ironicaly EVEN THEN PEOPLE FAILED

Cool.

[Ghost of Cow]

Basically the title. I don't care about the story, and the more casual content like housing, RP, and glamour really doesn't interest me. I literally only want to Raid. Is this really possible or am I going to have a bad time?

Ignore all the off-topic nonsense from the people more interested in "my game is better than your game" squabbles.

You absolutely can enjoy XIV as purely a raiding game, but it'll be a...lets say shorter game than WoW in that regard. You'll get your gear faster, and the main endgame raiding content will have fewer bosses.

Are those bosses fun? Yep, they can be. Challenging? Yes, for sure. So if you think you'd enjoy a game that spares you all the nonsense like Covenants and various forms of borrower power grinds, then XIV may be a great choice to try out.

[NineSpine]

This is how you know that this poster is being dishonest and just defending one game over the other. This whole, "addons just beat the boss for you!" nonsense of a meme.

It's a good thing I never said that then.

This is all off-topic, though. So stop dragging it into a thread where the OP wants to know opinions on whether or not they'll enjoy it as a endgame raiding game.

If someone asks the difference between wow and ff14 raiding, the function of addons is incredibly important to the difference.

[cparle87]

Snip for length, sorry.

Yeah. Nine's entire shtick is proselytizing for FF14 while writing off WoW's equivalent or closest fascimile as bad. Good on you for calling him out on praising the LFR equivalent.

[NineSpine]

Yeah. Nine's entire shtick is proselytizing for FF14 while writing off WoW's equivalent or closest fascimile as bad. Good on you for calling him out on praising the LFR equivalent.

Or it's as simple as LFR is poorly designed and not fun, while Alliance raids are well designed and fun.

Do you also have a difficult time telling Smash Mouth from the Beatles because they are both bands?

[Daedius]

You have to unlock everything through the Main Story questline, so you'll be slogging through that though I believe you can pay to skip all that.

[inafume]

Almost everyone I play FF14 with is a former WoW raider. All of them love alliance raids, in particular the newest one. Given the way you post this may be shocking, but you don't speak for everyone else.

I go in with a group of 20-ish players per week (PF the last spots if necessary) and it's just constant goofing off (rescuing tanks getting tankbustered into a group, etc) because it's not at all challenging. They are fun but when I hear someone asking about "endgame" it's typically regarding difficult content. Which basically is Extremes/Savage/Ultimate. Not the 24 mans. However they do give that nice upgrade coin that's can get your gear up to savage-level.

The nice thing about ffxiv compared to wow is you can run pretty much every previous "endgame" content at the original level even with item level restrictions in place. So while the current content is 4 savage fights + 3 extremes (strong case for endsinger being the only relevant one) you effectively have all the savages and extremes from 5 expansions' worth of content available.

[NineSpine]

I go in with a group of 20-ish players per week (PF the last spots if necessary) and it's just constant goofing off (rescuing tanks getting tankbustered into a group, etc) because it's not at all challenging. They are fun but when I hear someone asking about "endgame" it's typically regarding difficult content. Which basically is Extremes/Savage/Ultimate. Not the 24 mans. However they do give that nice upgrade coin that's can get your gear up to savage-level.

The nice thing about ffxiv compared to wow is you can run pretty much every previous "endgame" content at the original level even with item level restrictions in place. So while the current content is 4 savage fights + 3 extremes (strong case for endsinger being the only relevant one) you effectively have all the savages and extremes from 5 expansions' worth of content available.

A lot of the subtext you can see in the arguments made by other people here is that FF14 is inferior because it doesn't force you to relentlessly grind out multiple difficulties of the same 12 bosses for 8 months straight. It's pretty demented.