[Megathread] Final Fantasy XIV

[Dugna]

I have no problem with the leveling or unlocking requirements. It's just that I don't have a clear idea what each job's playstyle is like. Can these jobs be compared easily to any WoW's classes. Or are the mechanics unique and just have to be experienced to get a handle on whether they are "fun and engaging" or not.

Some are mixes of styles you would see in WoW but some aren't so its better to just try them out and read some tooltips and such.

[Granyala]

I'm saying the boss mechanics were aggravating to figure out.

I found them to be rather obvious in nature.

- - - Updated - - -

LOL. Had me chuckle. But it was a real in the flesh ice mage. I always thought they weren't real, that people made it up, but boy was I wrong.

They are fairly rare but they do exist. I think I encountered 4-5 in the years I play now (since mid ARR).

[Aruhen]

The amount of people who refuse to communicate in EX parties is staggering recently with the huge influx of players. Don't join parties if you don't want to work together as a party.

I had one party with a DNC and we were assigning tether order and no one wanted to step up so I took the 4th. I suggested the DNC should take the next one and we got no response. Then we do a ready check and the same person doesn't accept it all the while jumping around like a deranged donkey. Then they pull the boss and go "oops". Then they pull sub 6K DPS.

These people are lucky I'm not the leader because I'd kick anyone right away if they refuse to communicate even in the most basic way.

I don't even need Titania anymore, just trying to help a friend clear it.

[Lex Icon]

having just started the latest expansion i like how they all tie together.
at first i was kind of "meh" when going through heavensward.. it seemed to me like it was all about a bunch of pompous airheads and some dragons but i'm glad i stuck through it. the pace felt a lot better in stormblood and now with shadowbringers i feel really invested in the story.

[Samuraijake]

He has like these two orby thingies in his mouth like hes charging a beam attack.

https://youtu.be/qTP7o9DhAw0?t=70 I time stamped it.

you are a god king

[dope_danny]

Hit 80 on Miner, finished the Crystaline Mean questline and 2 million gil later i'm in pre white scrip BiS gear getting easy 510+ quality collectibles, feels good man.

Overall it was easy and i did maybe 9 leves the entire time and i got my folklore and im 37 books towards my Botany or fish one to boot, only trouble is a huge amount of yellow scrip, cordials and xp -the last quest giving nearly the full 79-80 38 million xp bar for 18HQ items mined in 10 minutes or less- but then you swap to Botanist or Fisher and woops, thats the gatherer questline done. No turn ins now, leves or the grind again.
Its no huge deal since i've done those current 140 levels for BTN/FSH already that way but i'm going to assume once i do the same for BSM then ARM or LTW are going to experience the same problem. Its less of an issue with Role Quests since daily roullettes make a class a week a very lazy, easy breeze but i really hope rebuilding ishgard and a beast tribe can cover this otherwise i think people are going to get real sick of leve grinds.

Thank god for audionovels and podcasts, i got through a LOT of Last Podcast on the Left this way in Stormblood

-Another thing i noticed when comparing the numbers? The pickaxe is the only current white scrip gear worth buying. All the 'mineking' stuff with no materia slots seems way lower in stats than last expansion and even with crappier materia thrown into slows it was still at best 3-5 gathering or perception behind and in more significant cases over 30 stat points weaker. I guess this is a way they are trying to balance out the crafter changes so they can still make money? because right now the HQ dwarven stuff seems like the best you can get.

[Kaelwryn]

I wanna say that it's been this way for some time. The scrip stuff is better "out of the box" but the top level HQ crafted stuff pulls ahead with melds. At least it was for part of Stormblood when I was crafting/gathering a lot more

Ayep, overmelded gear is pretty much always better than scrip gear. Scrip is essentially "poor mans" gear for crafting/gathering. If you want to be doing the latest starred recipes (which we don't have atm), scrip generally won't be able to do it or atleast not without tea/food.

[Granyala]

Crafted and melded gear has another advantage: it is shared between all crafters / gatherers.

[Kaelwryn]

Crafted and melded gear has another advantage: it is shared between all crafters / gatherers.

Well, only over the initial scrip gear since that's AF sets. They do introduce a second, universal set of scrip gear.

[Granyala]

Hmm I must have missed that in Stormblood.

[Gutler]

Hit 80 on Miner, finished the Crystaline Mean questline and 2 million gil later i'm in pre white scrip BiS gear getting easy 510+ quality collectibles, feels good man.

Overall it was easy and i did maybe 9 leves the entire time and i got my folklore and im 37 books towards my Botany or fish one to boot, only trouble is a huge amount of yellow scrip, cordials and xp -the last quest giving nearly the full 79-80 38 million xp bar for 18HQ items mined in 10 minutes or less- but then you swap to Botanist or Fisher and woops, thats the gatherer questline done. No turn ins now, leves or the grind again.
Its no huge deal since i've done those current 140 levels for BTN/FSH already that way but i'm going to assume once i do the same for BSM then ARM or LTW are going to experience the same problem. Its less of an issue with Role Quests since daily roullettes make a class a week a very lazy, easy breeze but i really hope rebuilding ishgard and a beast tribe can cover this otherwise i think people are going to get real sick of leve grinds.

Thank god for audionovels and podcasts, i got through a LOT of Last Podcast on the Left this way in Stormblood

-Another thing i noticed when comparing the numbers? The pickaxe is the only current white scrip gear worth buying. All the 'mineking' stuff with no materia slots seems way lower in stats than last expansion and even with crappier materia thrown into slows it was still at best 3-5 gathering or perception behind and in more significant cases over 30 stat points weaker. I guess this is a way they are trying to balance out the crafter changes so they can still make money? because right now the HQ dwarven stuff seems like the best you can get.

Got fisher to 80 myself and it has a separate questline from min/bot so just botanist will be slow for you I guess.

[Super Kami Dende]

GNB at 80. Feels good overall. My only dislike is losing Brutal Shell's Defensive capabilities during AoE pulls.

My only major Changes I would do would be:
Add the Brutal Shell Heal/Shield at a lower % rate to either Fated Circle or Demon Slaughter, to keep some of your mitigation during AoE.
Add Sonic Break to the oGCD spell Group.

I think those 2 changes alone would make GNB great.

- - - Updated - - -

Hmm I must have missed that in Stormblood.

Handking and Landking.

[Katchii]

I have no problem with the leveling or unlocking requirements. It's just that I don't have a clear idea what each job's playstyle is like. Can these jobs be compared easily to any WoW's classes. Or are the mechanics unique and just have to be experienced to get a handle on whether they are "fun and engaging" or not.

Melee DPS classes are all very similar in general playstyle with the main differences being aesthetics and class specific mechanic. They all have some moves with a positional requirement (hit from behind, hit from the side) with Monk having the most, they all have a buff to maintain to maximize their damage, they all rely heavily on combos (using abilities in a specific order to get maximum damage output from them) and their class mechanics all revolve around making sure that you have it active and are using the right abilities to maximize damage.

The three casters are pretty different. Summoner is your DoT class, but differs quite a bit from your WoW Warlock as the summoning itself is a core part of the class and core mechanics revolve around summoning different things. Black Mage is your stereotypical turret caster with longer cast times and big numbers. Red Mage is not like any other caster, weaving cast time spells with instant cast spells and rushing in to melee every so often. Will need to see or play one to really understand it.

Blue Mage is not considered here because it's meant as a side job fun thing to do, not anything serious. It's fun though. Read up on it if you want more information.

Healers are all really similar as well, with the same basic kit: Single target efficient heal, single target expensive but big heal, AoE heal, instant heal, big oh shit heal, etc... the differences are in the aesthetic and class mechanic. White Mage is your vanilla healer, nothing super fancy, direct heals and regen. Scholar uses a fairy to help heal so has mechanics focused on the fairy and has direct heals but specializes in shields. Astrologian can chose which stance to be in; regen or shield, and has spells that will add a regen or shield based on the stance, healing wise plays almost exactly like a White Mage IMO. the mechanic though are cards, which you draw and add a damage buff to someone with, but there are 6 cards, 2 of each type (melee, ranged, caster) and if you play the right card on the right person/class they get a bigger damage buff.

Tanks are all very similar as well as far as general gameplay, all have a tank stance that increases enmity generation, all have a ranged attack, all have some AoE, and your general tank tools (provoke, damage reduction cooldowns, etc...) they differ heavily in aesthetic and mechanics though. Paladin is the stereotypical Holy Knight, Dark Knight is your edgy, huge sword wielding, dark magic user, Warrior is your Berserker with a huge axe and Gunbreaker is your magitech using swaggering protector. Kind of have to play them to get a feel for them, but IMO it all boils down to mostly aesthetic.

Unfortunately, most of the classes do not have a direct WoW counterpart as they're all a mixture of things and differ pretty heavily in actual gameplay.

[Redwyrm]

Melee DPS classes are all very similar in general playstyle with the main differences being aesthetics and class specific mechanic. They all have some moves with a positional requirement (hit from behind, hit from the side) with Monk having the most, they all have a buff to maintain to maximize their damage, they all rely heavily on combos (using abilities in a specific order to get maximum damage output from them) and their class mechanics all revolve around making sure that you have it active and are using the right abilities to maximize damage.

The three casters are pretty different. Summoner is your DoT class, but differs quite a bit from your WoW Warlock as the summoning itself is a core part of the class and core mechanics revolve around summoning different things. Black Mage is your stereotypical turret caster with longer cast times and big numbers. Red Mage is not like any other caster, weaving cast time spells with instant cast spells and rushing in to melee every so often. Will need to see or play one to really understand it.

Blue Mage is not considered here because it's meant as a side job fun thing to do, not anything serious. It's fun though. Read up on it if you want more information.

Healers are all really similar as well, with the same basic kit: Single target efficient heal, single target expensive but big heal, AoE heal, instant heal, big oh shit heal, etc... the differences are in the aesthetic and class mechanic. White Mage is your vanilla healer, nothing super fancy, direct heals and regen. Scholar uses a fairy to help heal so has mechanics focused on the fairy and has direct heals but specializes in shields. Astrologian can chose which stance to be in; regen or shield, and has spells that will add a regen or shield based on the stance, healing wise plays almost exactly like a White Mage IMO. the mechanic though are cards, which you draw and add a damage buff to someone with, but there are 6 cards, 2 of each type (melee, ranged, caster) and if you play the right card on the right person/class they get a bigger damage buff.

Tanks are all very similar as well as far as general gameplay, all have a tank stance that increases enmity generation, all have a ranged attack, all have some AoE, and your general tank tools (provoke, damage reduction cooldowns, etc...) they differ heavily in aesthetic and mechanics though. Paladin is the stereotypical Holy Knight, Dark Knight is your edgy, huge sword wielding, dark magic user, Warrior is your Berserker with a huge axe and Gunbreaker is your magitech using swaggering protector. Kind of have to play them to get a feel for them, but IMO it all boils down to mostly aesthetic.

Unfortunately, most of the classes do not have a direct WoW counterpart as they're all a mixture of things and differ pretty heavily in actual gameplay.

Thanks for the helpful and in depth synopsis. That helps me picture the playstyles in a broad sense. I think I see why I gravitated towards the black mage. I love being a glass canon and most of my characters in WoW have been mages. So I am comfortable with limited movement ranged caster. The one group I didn't see in your explanation is ranged dps (non-caster like archers etc.)

[RohanV]

Thanks for the helpful and in depth synopsis. That helps me picture the playstyles in a broad sense. I think I see why I gravitated towards the black mage. I love being a glass canon and most of my characters in WoW have been mages. So I am comfortable with limited movement ranged caster. The one group I didn't see in your explanation is ranged dps (non-caster like archers etc.)

The non-caster ranged dps are support-ish. They do a little bit less dps, but have some party boosts. They're also much more mobile, with most of their abilities being instants, rather than casts.

[Onikaroshi]

The non-caster ranged dps are support-ish. They do a little bit less dps, but have some party boosts. They're also much more mobile, with most of their abilities being instants, rather than casts.

Tell that to mch, they're supposed to be the "blm version of ranged physical" lol. And their dps shows it, they're right around SAM dps.

[Aruhen]

Well finally decided to clear Innocence EX. I wanted to wait for a friend to do it for the first time and we cleared it in three pulls. Pretty easy but I'd say funner than Titania EX. I think the lack of an add phase really helps.

My only regret is the WHM in the group got completely carried... good luck to the farm parties they get in.

[Yoshingo]

Titania just seems so much longer because of essentially two add phases back to back. I dont really find it super fun after having done it the first time in the MSQ.

Innocence and Hades, however, are fucking phenomenal boss fights, rivaling the best boss fights in the MMORPG genre. I really love the Argus fight from Legion in terms of its scale and epicness, and Hades was right up there for me.

[Aruhen]

I don't really mind Titania because as a BLM its such an easier fight to handle. That and I really enjoy the music. Innocence is just so fun because the fight is a literal dance and it looks amazing at the same time.

[Super Kami Dende]

The non-caster ranged dps are support-ish. They do a little bit less dps, but have some party boosts. They're also much more mobile, with most of their abilities being instants, rather than casts.

Dancer maybe, but Bard and Machinist pretty much hold their own DPS wise nowadays.