[Megathread] Final Fantasy XIV

[Sorrior]

I'll just do beast tribes casually and dump all unneeded law/poetics I get into it.
Don't care whether I finish it in 3.2 or 4.2 to be honest. There wasn't a single stage in the Zodiac line that I did when it was current. I always waited for nerfs.

I play the content as much as I have fun and don't let some artificial carrot "force" me to run at nauseum until I completely hate the game.
Perk of being a nonraiding casual scrub I guess. No Leader that stands behind me with a stick. ^^

Same I am farming crystals for my alt and maybe main but the 210 step I will go easy on

[Faroth]

I'm still willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. I think they'll - hopefully - pull out all the stops for 3.2 and maybe even go back to a 'three dungeon per patch' model as that seemed to work rather well. Or maybe they'll just make content like Diadem more engaging. If, however, they don't learn from their mistakes then that's when I'll likely take my leave.

If I recall, early 2.0 cycle patches were smaller than later ones as well.

Regarding the crafting grind on relic:
Did people really think there wasn't going to be a heavy investment of time and gil at first (Granyala has a good point about nerfs)? That's what the crafting portion is. I mean, 2.0 relic was MILLIONS UPON MILLIONS of gil in materia or hours upon hours of spirit binding for a chance at the materia for the scrolls. Then there was getting crafted items from master books that required desynth only items to make.

And crafters have been saying for six months they have nothing to offer players and nothing to work the markets or make money with.

I dunno. It just feels fairly on course for what I expected the relic to be. Don't like it? Wait til next patch and get the gob upgrade item to upgrade Eso weapons to 210 instead of working the grind. A little patience but likely less effort overall.

Relic is generally, at best, 5-10 ilvls higher for a limited time and then something matches it (and a raid weapon trumps/matches it).

While I was pursuing 2.0 relic, my friend was getting items for an alternative method of weapon upgrade with those unidentified tomestones.

I'm not sure I'd even expect another relic step in 3.2's release either. The relic intent is really for a good weapon to work towards over time. Don't treat it like players did WoW dailies thinking it's required to complete on the day it's mathematically possible to do so. You'll drive yourself nuts if you do.

[Kaelwryn]

The original step for the relic was not this expensive.

[Granyala]

I mean, 2.0 relic was MILLIONS UPON MILLIONS of gil in materia

As far as I recall it, only det IV was actually expensive. And that was only needed if you were OCD about minmaxing your relic.
The rest of the materia was rather cheap.

The Brave crafting mat stage was expensive, yes. Even at the Beginning of Heavensward I dumped 3Mil into mine.

I doubt 3.2 will bring the next step. Way too soon. Probably 3.25 or 3.3.

[threads]

I dislike crafting items being put in so soon. I also think the number of items you have to farm should be cut in half. It seems like it was something they designed but held off on until now then decided to inflate so that it would last until 3.2

[Xilurm]

So I made a trial the other day and I'm lvl 15 atm. Taking my time, but from what I've seen in the game and from what I've read on the internet I really like how much focus they are giving on the story. And the gameplay isn't that bad so it doesn't seem like they would have to sacrifice the story *cough* *cough* in order to make it better.

I also like all the small things in the game that make the world better. Like for example, your character won't interact with something unless they sheat their weapon first, not being able to move when you help an NPC until that NPC leaves the screen (yeah I know this is a weird one and I suspect most people might actually be annoyed by it) and other small stuff like that. Heck even the different poses you can choose for your character while they stand/sit or are in battle stance are pretty neat.

Right, sorry for the off-topic post. Carry on.

[Cthulhu 2020]

So people were freaking out that the crafted stuff was 18m on the first day. Already it's down to 200-250k. Wonder how much further it will fall. In 2 weeks getting a 210 will probably only cost 1m total plus some grinding.

BTW, I got my crystal "atma" step done in 6 hours. Lol@Zeta players thinking they skipped a huge week long grind.

The forums were a shitfest yesterday of whining about the cost and the grind. Already their whines about months of grinding has been shattered.

[Eleccybubb]

So people were freaking out that the crafted stuff was 18m on the first day. Already it's down to 200-250k. Wonder how much further it will fall. In 2 weeks getting a 210 will probably only cost 1m total plus some grinding.

BTW, I got my crystal "atma" step done in 6 hours. Lol@Zeta players thinking they skipped a huge week long grind.

The forums were a shitfest yesterday of whining about the cost and the grind. Already their whines about months of grinding has been shattered.

It's more to do with the stage 3 part involving those 20 of each mats. Which I can understand it's grindy but at the end of the day you are not forced in any way to do it.

[Granyala]

BTW, I got my crystal "atma" step done in 6 hours. Lol@Zeta players thinking they skipped a huge week long grind.

It's not weeks long, no. But RNG can fuck you pretty hard.
Since I despise FATEs (I play a healer) I'm still happy that I don't have to deal with content I dislike AND being subjected to lulRNG on top of it.

[Cthulhu 2020]

It's more to do with the stage 3 part involving those 20 of each mats. Which I can understand it's grindy but at the end of the day you are not forced in any way to do it.

Yeah, people were also freaking out over having to grind alexander over and over, when there's actually multiple ways to get those items. Some people are already pretty close, may even have them. They've been grinding esos, poetics, treasure chests, etc. for the last 36 hours.

[Eleccybubb]

Yeah, people were also freaking out over having to grind alexander over and over, when there's actually multiple ways to get those items. Some people are already pretty close, may even have them. They've been grinding esos, poetics, treasure chests, etc. for the last 36 hours.

I know it's silly but tbh I would happily grind everything except A2 Alexander. It's got good music for the bosses and are pretty interesting fights. Personally I'm not rushing the relic because I don't have to and if I end up with the relic come end of Heavensward then yay and if not well it's not the end of the world and hopefully I'll have a decent endgame blue.

[Granyala]

Yeah, people were also freaking out over having to grind alexander over and over

Yeah that's actually pretty idiotic. I agree.
But I don't see how people got 80x unidientified items within 36 hours.

Unless they truly did hardcore china-man farm the crap out of Alexander. (I've read somewhere that a run takes a good group around 5 minutes?)

Just did FATEs in western Coerthas to test the drop rate of the crystals:
3x Ice Crystal in 45minutes + half a level for my lil' 53 Scholar. Not too shabby. Definitely helps if you have alts to level and don't do FATEs in vain if no crystal drops.

As for the prices of the crafting crap:
Started out at 2Mil per Item on my server and are down to 800K now.

[Graeham]

The Christmas event is now live!

[Deleted]

Yeah that's actually pretty idiotic. I agree.
But I don't see how people got 80x unidientified items within 36 hours.

Unless they truly did hardcore china-man farm the crap out of Alexander. (I've read somewhere that a run takes a good group around 5 minutes?)

Just did FATEs in western Coerthas to test the drop rate of the crystals:
3x Ice Crystal in 45minutes + half a level for my lil' 53 Scholar. Not too shabby. Definitely helps if you have alts to level and don't do FATEs in vain if no crystal drops.

As for the prices of the crafting crap:
Started out at 2Mil per Item on my server and are down to 800K now.

5 min x 600 (if you take the law gain into account) is still 3000 = 50 hours *playtime* and not having a single drop of fun doing it. (And this is really not a matter of "just because *YOU* don't enjoy it - blabla")
And that's without taking a piss, break or queue times if you arn't playing as a full group of players... and in my opinion A2 + A3 take longer than 5 min. So, nothing casual about this - most hardcore grind ever.

@ the crafting part: in my case 800k or even 200k is still too much but I understand that not everyone is poor or transfered servers recently. I don't even understand how people are able to make Gil in this game. Unless they are doing their daily hunts and weekly stuff - which is (and this might be a "just because *you* don't enjoy it" - issue) totally not fun at all and doesn't get you anywhere...

BTW, I got my crystal "atma" step done in 6 hours. Lol@Zeta players thinking they skipped a huge week long grind.

GZ about your RNG luck... and you had so much doing it am I right? Because grinding Fates is what every game should be about. Most exciting gameplay ever.

[Madruga]

Just did FATEs in western Coerthas to test the drop rate of the crystals:
3x Ice Crystal in 45minutes + half a level for my lil' 53 Scholar. Not too shabby. Definitely helps if you have alts to level and don't do FATEs in vain if no crystal drops.

The FATE part of the relic is really not bad at all. Even if RNG screws you over, you do complete the thing fairly quickly. Also, you do have the option of using level any other 50+ classes, so it is not time wasted at all... You level the class along with the grinding. Not bad at all!

Of course, you do need to already have a class at level 50 lol... Not my case, my DRG is level 20... I almost considered leveling him to 50 first, but that would mean even more FATE farming, so no hehe

[Deleted]

5 min x 600 (if you take the law gain into account) is still 3000 = 50 hours *playtime* and not having a single drop of fun doing it. (And this is really not a matter of "just because *YOU* don't enjoy it - blabla")
And that's without taking a piss, break or queue times if you arn't playing as a full group of players... and in my opinion A2 + A3 take longer than 5 min. So, nothing casual about this - most hardcore grind ever.

@ the crafting part: in my case 800k or even 200k is still too much but I understand that not everyone is poor or transfered servers recently. I don't even understand how people are able to make Gil in this game. Unless they are doing their daily hunts and weekly stuff - which is (and this might be a "just because *you* don't enjoy it" - issue) totally not fun at all and doesn't get you anywhere...




GZ about your RNG luck... and you had so much doing it am I right? Because grinding Fates is what every game should be about. Most exciting gameplay ever.

Soooo I really don't like being that guy but I lol go ahead and be the asshole again here. Why do you people play MMOs? Like seriously why? You don't like grinding, you don't like farming, you don't like long term character progression you don't find anything interesting after the 10th time you be done it and you want the potentially best weapon in the game to be a login reward because you pay your 15 bucks a month....
Let's face it, it is virtually impossible for the devs to be farting out content every week because you don't find Alex interesting after the first time you cleared it or because you don't like doing fates... There is no way of making these more interesting other than making them relevant again.
There is literally no pleasing you guys... Content becomes irrelevant? Boohoo waaaah waaaaah no point in doing it anymore such few content left which I haven't even touched half of because it might require thought and moderate skill so no content
Old content becomes relevant again for great long term OPTIONAL rewards? Waaaaah waaaaah boohoo I be done this a 100 times so uninteresting!
Like seriously wtf do you expect?
Also secret about money? Spend an hour fishing for pterodactyls on the diadem and make 1mil or more per run!
Oh but wait that's also not interesting because you have to level fisher and try! We should be solving rubic cubes and shooting asteroids from the sky to make money so it would be more interesting

[Deleted]

Soooo I really don't like being that guy but I lol go ahead and be the asshole again here. Why do you people play MMOs? Like seriously why? You don't like grinding, you don't like farming, you don't like long term character progression you don't find anything interesting after the 10th time you be done it and you want the potentially best weapon in the game to be a login reward because you pay your 15 bucks a month....
Let's face it, it is virtually impossible for the devs to be farting out content every week because you don't find Alex interesting after the first time you cleared it or because you don't like doing fates... There is no way of making these more interesting other than making them relevant again.
There is literally no pleasing you guys... Content becomes irrelevant? Boohoo waaaah waaaaah no point in doing it anymore such few content left which I haven't even touched half of because it might require thought and moderate skill so no content
Old content becomes relevant again for great long term OPTIONAL rewards? Waaaaah waaaaah boohoo I be done this a 100 times so uninteresting!
Like seriously wtf do you expect?
Also secret about money? Spend an hour fishing for pterodactyls on the diadem and make 1mil or more per run!
Oh but wait that's also not interesting because you have to level fisher and try! We should be solving rubic cubes and shooting asteroids from the sky to make money so it would be more interesting

you are implying that mmo's HAVE to follow the philosophy of grinds after grinds after grinds and I think that's just flat out wrong.

MMO's can have very interesting and fun 'challenging' or lasting content if the devs actually put effort into it.

A very recent example is how Guild Wars 2 reinvented their legendary weapons system. Beforehand only the people with the most money or simply the most luck were able to craft a legendary weapon because the precursors ('raw' versions of the legendary) were only obtainable through sheer luck, but nowadays they've pretty much scrapped the luck and a lot of the cost and instead made the progress of getting a legendary into a 'scavenger hunt' type of thing. You get several tiers of lists of objectives you have to complete in order unlock several stages of the precursor for the legendary. This can range from revisiting certain areas in the open world to doing a specific dungeon/fractal run or collecting specific items that follow a theme depending on the legendary that you wan to create.
There are still a lot of pretty expensive materials needed when you actually go and craft the legendary but at least they've taken a pretty big step forward.

[Deleted]

you are implying that mmo's HAVE to follow the philosophy of grinds after grinds after grinds and I think that's just flat out wrong.

MMO's can have very interesting and fun 'challenging' or lasting content if the devs actually put effort into it.

A very recent example is how Guild Wars 2 reinvented their legendary weapons system. Beforehand only the people with the most money or simply the most luck were able to craft a legendary weapon because the precursors ('raw' versions of the legendary) were only obtainable through sheer luck, but nowadays they've pretty much scrapped the luck and a lot of the cost and instead made the progress of getting a legendary into a 'scavenger hunt' type of thing. You get several tiers of lists of objectives you have to complete in order unlock several stages of the precursor for the legendary. This can range from revisiting certain areas in the open world to doing a specific dungeon/fractal run or collecting specific items that follow a theme depending on the legendary that you wan to create.
There are still a lot of pretty expensive materials needed when you actually go and craft the legendary but at least they've taken a pretty big step forward.

If I recall correctly the previous legendary weapons in GW2 were a massive grind much worse than the zodiac and the anima weapons as I did that myself and offered nothing more than a cosmetic reward which you can pretty much handle the relic in FFXIV as well.
They might have removed the luck factor in the new ones but they are still a grind. And the only luck factor in the anima so far are the FATEs and they aren't even that bad.
How do they differ from doing dynamic events in GW2? They are the exact same thing.
The grinds exist so the game can last. There is no other virtual way of doing that other than pumping out content faster and I can assure you 3 month content gaps are the closest you ll ever get as getting content fast. Its just impossible to push it out faster.
It needs to last to keep you occupied with something.
The main reason I quit GW2 is because there was literally nothing worth doing at the end game. No real progression and no relevant updates in years. Just more story and that's it.
I enjoyed the pvp and I think that is the main reason why the game is still alive and I found heart of thorns insanely luckluster as it added little to make the game more interested. If it were a patch that d be different but the features were way too few for an expansion not to mention the grind walls that were the masteries which unlike the relic were kinda necessary yet added nothing to your character that mattered.

[Deleted]

If I recall correctly the previous legendary weapons in GW2 were a massive grind much worse than the zodiac and the anima weapons as I did that myself and offered nothing more than a cosmetic reward which you can pretty much handle the relic in FFXIV as well.
They might have removed the luck factor in the new ones but they are still a grind. And the only luck factor in the anima so far are the FATEs and they aren't even that bad.
How do they differ from doing dynamic events in GW2? They are the exact same thing.
The grinds exist so the game can last. There is no other virtual way of doing that other than pumping out content faster and I can assure you 3 month content gaps are the closest you ll ever get as getting content fast. Its just impossible to push it out faster.
It needs to last to keep you occupied with something.
The main reason I quit GW2 is because there was literally nothing worth doing at the end game. No real progression and no relevant updates in years. Just more story and that's it.
I enjoyed the pvp and I think that is the main reason why the game is still alive and I found heart of thorns insanely luckluster as it added little to make the game more interested. If it were a patch that d be different but the features were way too few for an expansion not to mention the grind walls that were the masteries which unlike the relic were kinda necessary yet added nothing to your character that mattered.

They might have removed the luck factor in the new ones but they are still a grind.

Ofcourse there is, but it's a lot less than before and not nearly as bad as the continuous grinds after grinds you will have to do to fully upgrade this new relic weapon.

How do they differ from doing dynamic events in GW2? They are the exact same thing.

I don't fully agree with this. On paper they are the same but when playing them they are quite different, at least from my perspective. In GW2 they put in more story into the dynamic events and they've done this especially well in the new Heart of Thorns maps. When I come across an event in GW2 I might stick around to do it. When I come across a FATE in FFXIV I run straight past it because it feels like it would add nothing if I did do it.

The grinds exist so the game can last. There is no other virtual way of doing that other than pumping out content faster and I can assure you 3 month content gaps are the closest you ll ever get as getting content fast. Its just impossible to push it out faster.
It needs to last to keep you occupied with something.

Grind is a subjective term. Things that you classify as grind can differ from what I think a grind is. Every mmo and every other game for that matter has a form of grind. The thing is how to 'mask' this grind so it feels much less soul crushing when you do it. Doing the exact same thing over and over will certainly make players feel like they're doing a second job rather than playing a game. Mixing up the objectives can help a lot. The 'unidentified objects' part of the last step is doing this fairly well with all the different ways you can obtain them. Even though it's still pretty extreme.

My main complain is the crafted items. There's absolutely no way I can buy those or level every single crafting profession to 60 in 2/3 months time with how casually I play this game.

[Deleted]

Ofcourse there is, but it's a lot less than before and not nearly as bad as the continuous grinds after grinds you will have to do to fully upgrade this new relic weapon.
I don't fully agree with this. On paper they are the same but when playing them they are quite different, at least from my perspective. In GW2 they put in more story into the dynamic events and they've done this especially well in the new Heart of Thorns maps. When I come across an event in GW2 I might stick around to do it. When I come across a FATE in FFXIV I run straight past it because it feels like it would add nothing if I did do it.
Grind is a subjective term. Things that you classify as grind can differ from what I think a grind is. Every mmo and every other game for that matter has a form of grind. The thing is how to 'mask' this grind so it feels much less soul crushing when you do it. Doing the exact same thing over and over will certainly make players feel like they're doing a second job rather than playing a game. Mixing up the objectives can help a lot. The 'unidentified objects' part of the last step is doing this fairly well with all the different ways you can obtain them. Even though it's still pretty extreme.

My main complain is the crafted items. There's absolutely no way I can buy those or level every single crafting profession to 60 in 2/3 months time with how casually I play this game.

But you dont do the same thing over and over.....
They have literaly made it so that almost every single thing you currently do in the game rewards you toward the relic.
How fast you do it is up to you. Would you rather it be gated like WoW?
Like seriously, hunts give you currency, dungeons give you currency, raids give you currency, fates give you currency, maps give you currency, reps give you currency and crafts help you.
What more is there that you d want?