[Megathread] Final Fantasy XIV

[Wrecktangle]

Low intensity content that isn't very hard, is easy to pick up and drop without significantly inconveniencing others. Content where it's fine if you go and check the stove every ten minutes or something. For example, in FFXIV, I'd say Beast Tribe dailies, gathering, FATEs, maybe hunts (depending on how exactly the hunt trains work these days).

Like in WoW, world quests, rep grinds, zones like Timeless Isle and Mechagon, and solo farming old raids. Generally, grinding has always been low intensity content, and it's good to have some amount of that. For the times when you log in late at night, or you just want to make a little progress on something without involving other people.

One of the problems I have with FFXIV is that if I log in and don't want to queue for something, there's very little to do.

Ok fair enough - we're actually in agreement in definition and even in concept I think (let me explain). I actually think FF14 is overflowing with low-intensity content, but how much of it is interesting, repeatable/scalable, or actually fun? Once you remove that (for any given player) you may very well end up left with very little content to enjoy, ESPECIALLY if you don't want to impact other players via queues, etc.

To offer parity - I only enjoy high intensity stuff. There's not a lot of it in the game, what's worse is it's all relegated to the combat engine, which I've written essays about how much room it has for improvement. So while I love high intensity gaming I don't love it all. Take Ultimates for instance. I love the concept and enjoy the race, but I don't enjoy learning ultra long fights in this combat engine. It's exhausting and removes the fun from the encounter. It sucks because I'm more than capable of clearing them and I even have the time to invest to do it, but it's just not fun. Even some Savage encounters take wayy too freaking long (i.e. E2S...). That's why when I game I chase high-intensity stuff to entertain me. I can veg out via other hobbies/mediums.

I still cite some of the end gatekeep bosses (Exdeath/Kefka) as some of the most fun fights to learn because they're very short duration, high intensity encounters.

[RohanV]

Ok fair enough - we're actually in agreement in definition and even in concept I think (let me explain). I actually think FF14 is overflowing with low-intensity content, but how much of it is interesting, repeatable/scalable, or actually fun? Once you remove that (for any given player) you may very well end up left with very little content to enjoy, ESPECIALLY if you don't want to impact other players via queues, etc.

To offer parity - I only enjoy high intensity stuff. There's not a lot of it in the game, what's worse is it's all relegated to the combat engine, which I've written essays about how much room it has for improvement. So while I love high intensity gaming I don't love it all. Take Ultimates for instance. I love the concept and enjoy the race, but I don't enjoy learning ultra long fights in this combat engine. It's exhausting and removes the fun from the encounter. It sucks because I'm more than capable of clearing them and I even have the time to invest to do it, but it's just not fun. Even some Savage encounters take wayy too freaking long (i.e. E2S...). That's why when I game I chase high-intensity stuff to entertain me. I can veg out via other hobbies/mediums.

I still cite some of the end gatekeep bosses (Exdeath/Kefka) as some of the most fun fights to learn because they're very short duration, high intensity encounters.

I think it's important for an MMO to have a range of intensity. I enjoy very high-intensity stuff too, but ideally only a couple times of week. Then lower-intensity stuff at different times. Sometimes you just want to fish for a bit and chat with your guild, for example. An ideal MMO makes you feel good about the low-intensity stuff. For example, fishing giving you mats to make feasts for raids. That's a good interaction between high and low intensity activities.

[Katchii]

Hey everyone,

I just found an old time card of mine and so I am returning. I haven't played since the new expansion launched. And was wondering a few things:

1.) I lost my authenticator. How hellish is it to remove from my account, and how long will that take?
2.) Did they make levelling your first class a bit faster towards the latest expansion? I remember doing the battle on the bridge with the dragon and taking 10-12 attempts because people can't think.
3.) Is fishing still as awesome as it was?

(last time I played was a few patches before the end of Stormblood)

CALL them, don't do it through automated electronic means.

I had to replace my phone and didn't have a chance to remove the old authenticator first so I had to remove it from my account before I could put it on my new phone.

The wait can be a while (30-45 minutes) but once you're on the phone with a person they can take care of it in minutes, after you verify that it's your account anyway.

[threads]

Yeah Anemos was like that.
Once Pagos was released, you had to chainkill mobs because Fates were pretty much nonexistent (and thus no Fate train either).

Anemos was indeed relaxed and fun. Pagos was Hell and I never got past it because my whole group just went "screw this shit".

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Yeah I guess that's an advantage if you play with a controller.

yea that's fair. pagos was actual shit when it was first released. it wasn't too bad after they nerfed it though. pyros and hydatos were basically improved versions of anemos and that's mostly what I'm hoping for if they do the eureka style areas again.

[Faroth]

Hey everyone,

I just found an old time card of mine and so I am returning. I haven't played since the new expansion launched. And was wondering a few things:

1.) I lost my authenticator. How hellish is it to remove from my account, and how long will that take?

CALL them, don't do it through automated electronic means.

I had to replace my phone and didn't have a chance to remove the old authenticator first so I had to remove it from my account before I could put it on my new phone.

The wait can be a while (30-45 minutes) but once you're on the phone with a person they can take care of it in minutes, after you verify that it's your account anyway.

Re 1. Mine took less than a week to remove. I just contacted customer service and provided the info they requested using the online submission route.

So Katchii's correct - same day via the phone, but not excruciating otherwise either from my experience (everyone's mileage may vary).

[Katchii]

Re 1. Mine took less than a week to remove. I just contacted customer service and provided the info they requested using the online submission route.

So Katchii's correct - same day via the phone, but not excruciating otherwise either from my experience (everyone's mileage may vary).

Yeah, wasn't trying to insinuate that using the automated electronic system is a bad idea, just that calling them is MUCH faster. Automated service does it with a minimum of hassle, but takes days whereas a phone call can get it done in less than an hour, usually. It all just depends on how long you're willing to wait/ how impatient you are. Personally, I hate having to think about it for longer than I have to so having to check my e-mails multiple times a day for however many days it takes for them to respond/ fix it is just wasted energy and time I could have spent actually playing the game.

Being on hold on the phone isn't nearly as bad as it used to be with the fact that you can use a cell phone and headphones or whatever to carry on with whatever you were going to do anyway while you wait. The last time I had to call I was driving home from a visit to the zoo and had it all taken care of before I even pulled into my driveway.

[Different Strokes]

My authenticator took a few minutes to remove when my phone broke and I didn't have a backup code for it. Contacted customer service over the internet and got in a live chat, and it was removed in minutes. But as people said mileage may vary.

I'm greatly enjoying the Mateus server at the moment, and seeing the live letter state that FFXIV now had over 18m registered accounts was awesome to hear, the game continues to grow. I just moved servers a year ago and already have 3 large houses on one of the more congested servers, 1 personal and 2 FCs. Though I'm having some trouble decorating them. There's so much room and not enough item budget.

[leviathonlx]

Re 1. Mine took less than a week to remove. I just contacted customer service and provided the info they requested using the online submission route.

So Katchii's correct - same day via the phone, but not excruciating otherwise either from my experience (everyone's mileage may vary).

Meh it took a week for me to remove it and I never put an authenticator back on. My work hours meant I never could get a chance to call them and the webform took quite a while to work things out.

Honestly I found it astounding that a company like Square can't have 24/7 support like Blizzard.

[MrPaladinGuy]

Just got the Shadowbringers Collectors Edition for $30 ! I still need to finish the Stormblood MSQ though.

[Skylarking]

Lancer seems like a lot of fun to play can't wait for more skills to use. Feels like I'm playing a bit of hack n slash dynasty warriors

[lollerlaban]

Meh it took a week for me to remove it and I never put an authenticator back on. My work hours meant I never could get a chance to call them and the webform took quite a while to work things out.

Honestly I found it astounding that a company like Square can't have 24/7 support like Blizzard.

Blizzard does not have 24/7 support for a majority of issues

[Tenjen]

Blizzard does not have 24/7 support for a majority of issues

Blizz's quality of service for support has also drastically fallen since last year.

[Merie]

Lancer seems like a lot of fun to play can't wait for more skills to use. Feels like I'm playing a bit of hack n slash dynasty warriors

No AoE until 40 is THE PITS.

[Muajin76]

Blizz's quality of service for support has also drastically fallen since last year.

haha it's not just the support that has fallen. I'd say the company as a whole pretty much has..

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hmm..do you guys think Blue mage will ever get a 80lvl cap like other jobs or no? It's pretty dumb to raise the job cap slightly and not the same as every other job.

[Rogalicus]

haha it's not just the support that has fallen. I'd say the company as a whole pretty much has..

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hmm..do you guys think Blue mage will ever get a 80lvl cap like other jobs or no? It's pretty dumb to raise the job cap slightly and not the same as every other job.

My bet is they won't ever rethink that limited job idiocy and BLU will remain a fucking waste of time.

[Dugna]

My bet is they won't ever rethink that limited job idiocy and BLU will remain a fucking waste of time.

they're kinda halfway atm with the new BLU healer/tank/DPS buffs now, giving them a dungeon finder kinda made em fit the trinity some more. Only problem now would be making it fit fully into it and deciding whether its a tank/healer/DPS

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Finished my speedrun of FFXIV 2.0. Killed Ultima Weapon in 19 hours 23 minutes.

Strangely, this is the only time we interact with the other Four High Houses in the MSQ.

I didn't remember the Ultima Weapon having been dug up in Ala Mhigo. Would've been cool to have found the excavation site in Stormblood, but alas.

The NPCs in the background were more memorable than the Scions. It's interesting to see how many NPCs and subplots came back, as well as how many were dropped. It's a shame that Charmine and Laurence didn't return in Heavensward. Meffrid comes back for Stormblood, but Gundobad doesn't? What!?!?

On the other hand, a ton of NPCs carried over. Alliane and Isildaure. Riol. Wilred, Laurentius, Yuyuhase, and Shamani, are the ones I can remember off of the top of my head. Haucherfant being the most famous, ofcourse. A few other NPCs make cameos, like Ursandel (I wish he became a Crystal Brave).

I really hope we get a resolution to Drest's story, but Stormblood is over, and it is uncertain if we will get a Garlemald expansion.

ShB 5.0 ending spoilers

Spoiler: 

Lahabrea implies that the disaster which warped the Amaurotine's magic and created the Terminus is coming back. The Amaurotine's heard a "sound" coming from within the planet, and that the planet itself was "sick". Then, they wove a new life into the core of the planet: Zodiark and Hydaelyn. Now Hydaelyn is the only remaining "being" inside the planet. Guess who is losing strength as the MSQ progresses, to the point where she hardly even interacts with her chosen champion anymore?

I think that when Hydaelyn was "created", the Amaurotines personified the will of the planet, which was already sick or vulnerable to whatever the "sickness" is. "Hydaelyn" is just what Lahabrea refers to as the core of the planet. The sickness or the cause of the sickness predates Hydaelyn's "creation" and hasn't been fixed.

Lahabrea talks about "removing" Hydaelyn, (ie, removing the heart/core of the planet), but can life on the planet survive without the core of the planet? Unless he intends to simply replace the planet's persona of Hydaelyn with that of Zodiark, but that doesn't change the fact that the planet is still sick.

perhaps it is the overuse of aether? I'm guessing that the next expansion will tie heavily into the conservation themes of FFVII. Also, I fully expect the laws of physics to start breaking down and for some wacky high concept zones to show up.

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Also, what's keeping the Scion's enemies from simply waltzing into Mor Dhona at night and massacring them all in their sleep? The Garleans have airships which can fly over Eorzean territory, and the Eorzean Alliance's airforce is nonexistent. The Ascians can straight up teleport!

[Katchii]

Also, what's keeping the Scion's enemies from simply waltzing into Mor Dhona at night and massacring them all in their sleep? The Garleans have airships which can fly over Eorzean territory, and the Eorzean Alliance's airforce is nonexistent. The Ascians can straight up teleport!

It's alluded to a few times throughout the story that the Scions have a relatively large number of very capable people among their ranks now, since the end of ARR. Also, a large majority of the people in and around Mor Dhona are staunch allies of the Scions, predominantly the Domans who made their homes there after the exile.

Even without the heavy hitters, the bodies of the Scions on the First are well protected in Mor Dhona.

[Redwyrm]

I didn't want to make a whole new thread for this...

I have always played a Black Mage in FFXIV. I played all the way through ARR and started into HW on this Black Mage. Unfortunately the mechanics of the BM just seem so mind numbingly repetitive. My mains in WoW are usually Frost Mages. So, there is always something proccing or something I can instant cast (Frozen Orb, Ice Storm, etc.). But in FFXIV the BM system is Fire until out of mana, then Frost until mana is back up, switch to Fire and then repeat.

I know that that is an over simplification, but that is what it felt like for the dozens of hours I played. Does it change at all as you get to max level? Or should I look into another range caster class?

[Katchii]

ShB 5.0 ending spoilers

Spoiler: 

Lahabrea implies that the disaster which warped the Amaurotine's magic and created the Terminus is coming back. The Amaurotine's heard a "sound" coming from within the planet, and that the planet itself was "sick". Then, they wove a new life into the core of the planet: Zodiark and Hydaelyn. Now Hydaelyn is the only remaining "being" inside the planet. Guess who is losing strength as the MSQ progresses, to the point where she hardly even interacts with her chosen champion anymore?

I think that when Hydaelyn was "created", the Amaurotines personified the will of the planet, which was already sick or vulnerable to whatever the "sickness" is. "Hydaelyn" is just what Lahabrea refers to as the core of the planet. The sickness or the cause of the sickness predates Hydaelyn's "creation" and hasn't been fixed.

Lahabrea talks about "removing" Hydaelyn, (ie, removing the heart/core of the planet), but can life on the planet survive without the core of the planet? Unless he intends to simply replace the planet's persona of Hydaelyn with that of Zodiark, but that doesn't change the fact that the planet is still sick.

perhaps it is the overuse of aether? I'm guessing that the next expansion will tie heavily into the conservation themes of FFVII. Also, I fully expect the laws of physics to start breaking down and for some wacky high concept zones to show up.

I think you have a couple things mixed up here.

Zodiark was created as the will of the planet by the people of Amaurot to combat the "sound" by essentially giving the planet sentience and therefore able to defend itself and required a HUGE sacrifice in order to be made manifest (approximately 50% of the population needed to sacrifice their aether in order to make it happen), and also incurred a large upkeep cost of aether to maintain, which would require additional sacrifices over time. Hydaelyn was the entity created afterward by a rebellious subsection of the population in order to prevent Zodiark from exacting the heavy toll. It was Hydaelyn that sundered Zodiark and therefore caused the sundering of the Source into 14 separate shards. She's not the core of the planet.

The Ascians are insinuated to be the tempered followers of Zodiark and want Hydaelyn gone in order to bring Zodiark back by rejoining all of the shards. It's not yet clear what we (the player characters and other Echo touched characters) are exactly, whether we're Hydaelyns tempered or if we're simply protected by her. All we know for sure is that we're obviously in direct conflict with the followers of Zodiark out of principal, as we're opposed to the destruction of entire planets and their associated populations in order to bring about the vision the Ascians have.

Based on what we learned in Shadowbringers, the Ascians plan revolves around causing specific aetheric imbalances to coincide with the predominant aetheric property of the shard they are working on rejoining (ie causing an imbalance favoring water aether when trying to rejoin with the water shard). This means that the balance of aether on the Source has to be kept in check so that they can manipulate it more easily so they can continue with their plan. How the balance actually affects the planet and what the consequences are hasn't been well explained, though hopefully that will be explored in the later Shadowbringers patches as they hopefully explain wtf the "sound" that caused the whole mess in Amaurot actually was.

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I didn't want to make a whole new thread for this...

I have always played a Black Mage in FFXIV. I played all the way through ARR and started into HW on this Black Mage. Unfortunately the mechanics of the BM just seem so mind numbingly repetitive. My mains in WoW are usually Frost Mages. So, there is always something proccing or something I can instant cast (Frozen Orb, Ice Storm, etc.). But in FFXIV the BM system is Fire until out of mana, then Frost until mana is back up, switch to Fire and then repeat.

I know that that is an over simplification, but that is what it felt like for the dozens of hours I played. Does it change at all as you get to max level? Or should I look into another range caster class?

In principal, no, using fire magic as often as possible to maximize DPS while switching to ice magic while you regain mana is the core mechanic. However you get quite a few new mechanics on the road to max level that change it up to make it more involved.

The main one is Enochian, which requires you to have Fire or Ice charges in order to be active and allows the use of Fire 4 and Blizzard 4. Fire/Blizzard 4 don't maintain your Fire/Ice aether so you have to weave a regular fire in at least once towards the end of the rotation in order to refresh the counter, or a Fire 3 proc if one comes up. Otherwise, once you're OOM you switch to ice magic to regain MP, cast Blizzard 4 to refresh your counter of Ice Hearts (which reduce the mana cost of your fire spells) and repeat. Additionally, later on you get an additional mechanic that rewards you for maintaining Enochian for 30 seconds by allowing the casting of a new spell called "Foul" which is a very hard hitting AoE spell (think Flare on steroids).

It's hard to explain fuly unless you've played it so I recommend trying it out in Heaven on High or Palace of the Dead to see what i'm referring to, but rest assured the game play DOES get more varied and interesting as you gain additional levels.