1. #47981
    Dawon should be a mount.

    - - - Updated - - -

    I did it

    I won

    with 10 seconds to spare

    I went top and died a lot. We didn't kill Helsos in time so we decided to wipe. We didn't have time to change parties so we used return and immediately started the fight again. Went top and I had a heartattack as I thought we didn't kill Helsos in time, but we did it! So then it became a DPS race and "omgosh don't die DON'T DIE!".




    And we did it



    - - - Updated - - -

    Bozja rank 10 quest

    Spoiler: 
    Since we didn't find Mikoto among the hostages, I was dreading that we were going to find her dead, having died to Aulus' echo experimentation device. Then the hostage scene happened and you could cut the tension with a butter knife.

    RIP all of those soldiers. Glad none of the named NPCs I had fought in the FATEs along with died.

    Hm... so the Garlean commander doesn't seem to be on the same page as Noah, but it doesn't seem like he's plotting against Noah either. Now I'm starting to get interested in him. The insinuation that it was his plan all along to get the Bozjan Resistance to start researching memory infusions so he could summon a primal is a little convoluted. Couldn't the IVth Legion have researched that? They are notably heavy on non-Garlean members (in fact, I don't think I've seen a IVth Legion character of Garlean blood yet).

    I'm baffled by the insinuation that Noah has a trick up his sleeve, that he is intentionally losing Bozja. Noah's plan seems rather straightforward: secure Dalmasca, dig in, and then sign peace treaties with everyone. That way, the IVth Legion will survive and can live to build up and conquer another day. Ofcourse Noah isn't going to waste his resources on Bozja (desolate wasteland with little strategic value or resources).

    Also, I wish we got more scenes like the last one with Helsos poking at the commander. Helps make the villains feel more like people, like they aren't 100% plotting villains the whole time and actually have friends and banter. Would be cool if Helsos was defeated in the next installment but wasn't killed, maybe even joining the Resistance or pledging to serve Princess Ashe or something. I can't imagine fighting him again (unless it's with a new beast)... which means he might end up dying in a cutscene to betrayal or something. Hope not.

    In the 5.1 MSQ, Alisae suggested that tempering could be cured, so I'm guessing if she manages to find a cure in 5.4 or 5.5, that cure could be applied to the tempered Bozjans. If the third Eden tier requires the completion of the 5.3 MSQ, the patch in which you cure the tempered Bozjans might also require MSQ completion. But I think it's more likely that we will have to tragically cut down the tempered.

  2. #47982
    Quote Originally Posted by Val the Moofia Boss View Post
    How are you making gil? Crafting/auction house stuff? Or just farming content and vendoring loot?
    Honestly, i just do my roulettes, send retainers on ventures and sell the gold pieces on Doma for the double gil bonus, do some gold saucer mini games for some challenge log gil, roll greed on all dungeon loot and do 6 beast tribe quests a day. I sell whatever i come across that is valuable on the trade post. I also save on expensive teleports by using aetherite vouchers with hunt points i stockpiled.

    I have been looking for a better way, but this one is not too bad. I make around 100k gil a day.
    I imagine if i was out mining or harvesting rare nodes or crystals i might make more, but it sounds boring.
    With my method i'm making gil and progressing on systems.

    Though, if you have suggestions, i'm all ears.
    Last edited by Swnem; 2020-10-18 at 01:02 PM.

  3. #47983
    Nothing like horrible content to bring out the toxicity in a community. Two failed Castrum runs, lots and lots of cussing and raging from other players, and nothing to show for it but -20k mettle and a loss of hope for humanity.

    Screw Bozjan Southern Front. It's garbage content. I don't know what the hell they were thinking.

    - Relic memory items don't drop ever, forcing you to do Heavensward content... Heavensward. Content.
    - Critical engagements have one shot mechanics that are not well telegraphed and every death causes you to lose mettle. Then even more mettle is lost if you don't get a res.
    - Forget trying to solo as a class with no self-healing. If you want to succeed you have to party up, even if you're just doing FATEs, unless you are a masochist.
    - Castrum is on a long timer and is too difficult for your average pick-up group. It also makes no sense for it to be on such a tight timer. My last group wiped twice on the last boss, and then when everyone finally learned the fight we failed in the end anyways because we ran out of time at 5% hp.
    - The vanity rewards and gear take an insane amount of grinding.

    I've never had less fun in an MMO and I'm not just saying that because emotions. I've had plenty of time to cool down, digest, and gather my thoughts. It's just awful content and I am not going to continue doing it.

  4. #47984
    Quote Originally Posted by xmirrors View Post
    Nothing like horrible content to bring out the toxicity in a community. Two failed Castrum runs, lots and lots of cussing and raging from other players, and nothing to show for it but -20k mettle and a loss of hope for humanity.
    Oof

    I haven't personally seen any major toxicity in Bozja. I've met a couple smart aliecs during the Castrum runs who dismissed questions about the mechanics from newbs with a "don't die scrub", but they were quickly called out and the newbies got the info explained to them.

    Quote Originally Posted by xmirrors View Post
    - Relic memory items don't drop ever, forcing you to do Heavensward content... Heavensward. Content.
    Yeah, it sucks that you can't really do the relics in Bozja. The HW fates aren't too bad though; you can get all of the memories required for a relic from HW fates in under an hour, and then you can get the 6 green memories from 6 Anti-tower runs in about an hour, at ten minutes per run.

    I think they placed the memories in HW fates because they're trying to get veteran players to interact with newbies/free trial players who are going through HW for the first time. ARR zones always have some activity, but the expansion zones don't (unless it's a Shadowbringers Fate train or Ixion).

    Quote Originally Posted by xmirrors View Post
    Critical engagements have one shot mechanics that are not well telegraphed and every death causes you to lose mettle. Then even more mettle is lost if you don't get a res.
    Admiteddly, the critical engagement mechanics can feel bullcrap at first, but after a few runs you get to see what's going on and it becomes really easy to dodge everything. Even the Red Chocobo fight is easy once you know what to look for. I have do agree that they don't explain the mechanics of the math robot boss very well, though.

    If you are still learning the fights, there are items/essences you can consume which increase your defense and your HP. You can also cast Lost Protect on yourself for another 10% DEF up, and you can equip Lost Cure. That will give you a lot of leeway to make mistakes without dying.

    Quote Originally Posted by xmirrors View Post
    Castrum is on a long timer and is too difficult for your average pick-up group.
    It hasn't even been a week since release. From what I've seen, most people haven't even begun doing Castrum until today, because it is the weekend and because of the time investment in reaching rank 10. In a few weeks time, people will know the mechanics better and the overall success rate should be higher. Plus, in a few weeks, most of the people who did Castrum just for the story won't be doing it anymore, leaving the people farming Castrum for the gear to really know the fights.

    I do agree that it sucks that (AFAIK) it is very difficult do Castrum with a premade group of 48/48 in voice chat. You can queue for Bozja with a full party of 8, but who knows how many people in the instance will actually queue for Castrum, and good luck messaging them all in game to get them into a Discord.

    In order to get a 48/48 premade in voice chat, you need to join a FFXIV discord (check the one for your data center). The 6 party leaders get into a chat channel and they all queue up for Bozja at the same time, and then the parties that got in the wrong instance just leave and requeue over and over again until all 48 are in the same instance. And then you have to wait up to an hour and a half for Castrum to pop. And then you have to hope that when you queue for Castrum, none of the 48 lose their spot to other people not part of the premade queuing for it. It is a terrible system if you want to do pseudo raid content... as an actual raid.

    Quote Originally Posted by xmirrors View Post
    It also makes no sense for it to be on such a tight timer. My last group wiped twice on the last boss, and then when everyone finally learned the fight we failed in the end anyways because we ran out of time at 5% hp.
    Yeah, that really really sucks. Maybe they should add overtime so if you're in a boss fight and the timer runs out, you still keep going until you either wipe or defeat the boss.

    Quote Originally Posted by xmirrors View Post
    The vanity rewards and gear take an insane amount of grinding.
    Are you farming grade 3 IVth mechanical mobs? You only get memories from those, not from FATE spawns or any other kind of mob. It took me about an hour of grinding to get the hairstyle (150 clusters). I opened up party finder and began recruiting for a cluster farm. Within 10-15 minutes I had a full party. I queued us up for Bozja. We went to the middle of the bottom area of the map (this area), to the valley with the 3 roadsters and the 3 iron claws, and we just ran a circuit farming them over and over again. I was the tank so I just pulled them all while everyone else AoEd them down (I had two healers backing me up, eventually one of them dropped but I was still fine with the other healer). One circuit takes about a minute and since the droprate is around 50%, you earn about 2-3 clusters per minute. After an hour and a half of grinding I was near cap. Bought myself the new hairstyle.

  5. #47985
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    Quote Originally Posted by Val the Moofia Boss View Post
    In order to get a 48/48 premade in voice chat, you need to join a FFXIV discord (check the one for your data center). The 6 party leaders get into a chat channel and they all queue up for Bozja at the same time, and then the parties that got in the wrong instance just leave and requeue over and over again until all 48 are in the same instance. And then you have to wait up to an hour and a half for Castrum to pop. And then you have to hope that when you queue for Castrum, none of the 48 lose their spot to other people not part of the premade queuing for it. It is a terrible system if you want to do pseudo raid content... as an actual raid.
    Yeah getting into a discord for your data center for Bozja runs makes it so much easier. Also when it comes to Castrum if you manage to get a fresh instance doing this it will spawn in 1 hour otherwise its the 60-90 minutes.

  6. #47986
    The Unstoppable Force Granyala's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by xmirrors View Post
    - Critical engagements have one shot mechanics that are not well telegraphed and every death causes you to lose mettle. Then even more mettle is lost if you don't get a res.
    - Forget trying to solo as a class with no self-healing. If you want to succeed you have to party up, even if you're just doing FATEs, unless you are a masochist.
    That's a "learn to play" issue really. The Chocobo is definitely the most annoying one, if you have any lag but as Val already stated: the mechanics are easy. The math bosses mechanics are known from the Rabanastre Raid, so no need to explain again. Yes you will die a bit in the beginning we all did. The lost xp is annoying (I really don't get why SE insists on this BS) but FATEs and Engagements throw it at you like it was candy.

    That's what the lost actions are there for, use some defensives. Personally I usually run around with the veteran potion too, way more relaxing that way.

  7. #47987
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    Quote Originally Posted by Val the Moofia Boss View Post
    Bozja rank 10 quest
    Super grats! Since you've finished it you could answer me, is this required to get more story? I'm not really enjoying this content but trying to get through it for lore and would like to know how far am I going to need to go.
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  8. #47988
    Stood in the Fire listo95's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Hyral View Post
    Super grats! Since you've finished it you could answer me, is this required to get more story? I'm not really enjoying this content but trying to get through it for lore and would like to know how far am I going to need to go.
    Its the current end of the Bozja story. Almost certainly going to be more at some point.

  9. #47989
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    Quote Originally Posted by Hyral View Post
    Super grats! Since you've finished it you could answer me, is this required to get more story? I'm not really enjoying this content but trying to get through it for lore and would like to know how far am I going to need to go.
    Yes, you’ll have to clear the Castrum “dungeon” at rank 10 for story. Which is honestly kind of ridiculous because the final boss mechanics are on par with Extreme primals.

  10. #47990
    I mean, the fact that you guys are suggesting that people find a Discord to set up a structured group for this stuff kind of tells the story. I'm a casual player who has only a handful of hours to put into the game on the weekends. I'm not going to go through all of that...this isn't an Extreme trial or raid. None of this content in Bozja is easy to just hop into, nor is it fun. That is the problem. What does this patch offer for a player like me?

    First impressions are everything and, well, I hate it. No one else in the groups I was in seemed to like it either. Like I said, I encountered so much toxicity that it has sworn me off of it entirely. If you enjoy it, I am glad for you, and glad that you have the time to invest. As for me, I'm going to have to pass. Very, very disappointed.

    Re: the grind I was mostly referring to the gear you buy with the coins. I was looking forward to getting a set of gear but the amount of Castrum runs it would take is just....yeah, no. I'll just keep slowly capping allegory each week.
    Last edited by xmirrors; 2020-10-18 at 06:57 AM.

  11. #47991
    Quote Originally Posted by Ladey Gags View Post
    Yes, you’ll have to clear the Castrum “dungeon” at rank 10 for story. Which is honestly kind of ridiculous because the final boss mechanics are on par with Extreme primals.
    Quote Originally Posted by xmirrors View Post
    I mean, the fact that you guys are suggesting that people find a Discord to set up a structured group for this stuff kind of tells the story.
    The difficulty of Castrum seems to vary based on the size of your group. The bigger the group you luck into, the easier it is to pass. With enough bodies (and enough rezzers putting bodies back on the board), most of your group can die over and over and you'll still make it.

    Most of the mechanics that cause a wipe do so because there are not enough people to deal with them.

    • First boss: There are 7 lines that each need at least 1 person to soak each. If not enough people soak the adds, then the battering ram will die and it will be a wipe. If you have a 20-man group, and have 8 people up top, and 12 people bottom, if 6 people die bottom you don't have enough people to soak all of the adds, so more than likely the battering ram will die. With a 30+ man group you don't really have to worry about this.
    • 2nd boss: if any meteors hits the ground, it's generally a wipe. If you have a party of 20 people, and half of them die to tornadoes or the electricity AoE, then it will be hard for the remaining 10 to DPS the meteors down in time. Again, with a 30+ man group you don't really have to worry about this.
    • Final boss: if the top team doesn't get Lyon Helsos down to 50% within 90 seconds or less, it's a wipe. You need at least 5-8 people alive fighting him to make it in time, and if 2-3 of them die you might not make it. With a 30+ man group you can send two parties. If 8 of them die, no problem.

    With a smaller group, like 20 people, Castrum suddenly becomes very difficult, where every death counts because that means it is that much harder to overcome the mechanics like soaking the adds, or DPSing down the meteors or Lyon Helsos in time. If you have less than 20, then Castrum might be technically unbeatable because you just won't have enough people to pass certain mechanics.

    The mechanic that can't really be brute forced by having enough people is the timed simultaneous death of the top and bottom bosses in the first encounter.

    A random party size of 20-30 people might become the standard difficulty of Castrum. Sure, the max is 48 people, but you will probably only ever see premades that large. (This is rather paradoxical, as usually you seek out a premade because you want to tackle content that is harder than content you do with randoms). The largest random Castrum group I've seen was 30 people, and I don't imagine that the average size of a random Castrum group size will increase after Bozja isn't so hot anymore. Who knows; maybe rank 10+ players will stop queuing up for critical engagements when the Castrum CE is coming up and will instead just AFK until it comes.

    - - - Updated - - -

    If you just want to see the Bozja story, then enter Bozja and type "LFG rank 8 drg" in /shout to get an invite to a party. You'll get healed and resurrections, and if you have an essence that raises your defense and HP, then you will generally not die. You'll be able to farm mettle pretty casually. To get the largest Castrum group, you'll either have to wait for prime time on the weekends, or you'll just want to join a premade. That way you don't have to bang your head over and over when you get a 20 man (or less. If you get a Castrum with fewer than 20, you should probably leave). You'll see the whole story in a few hours.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Like, imagine an extreme trial. It's very hard for 8 people, yes? Now Imagine you could bring 16 people, but the mechanics remained exactly the same. You'll probably still die a lot, but the chances of the group passing becomes a lot more likely, simply because you have more bodies and you can brute force your way through it. Lots of people can die over and over, but so long as you have enough people to pass the hard mechanic tests, the group will win.

    That's Castrum. Except the default difficulty is 20-30 people and the easy mode ("we'll die a lot but it is very hard for us to lose") is 40.
    Last edited by Val the Moofia Boss; 2020-10-18 at 07:28 AM.

  12. #47992
    It also helps to bring certain lost actions to the castrum which will help the fights. Mainly steelsting and it's magic equivalent, phoenix downs, and a cure if you can equip one.

  13. #47993
    i wish they stuck with the eureka formula. just some casual content to hang around and kill NMs.loved it in stormblood.

    bozja is meh for how long it took. the map is ugly and having half the number of people in the instance made it feel kinda empty and boring. not really a fan of the critical engagement either. just felt like a way to make NMs lag less by having a limit of people. idk what's up with the fates too but it's like they end in 5 sec most of the time or there's just nobody there to help.

  14. #47994
    The Unstoppable Force Granyala's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by xmirrors View Post
    Re: the grind I was mostly referring to the gear you buy with the coins. I was looking forward to getting a set of gear but the amount of Castrum runs it would take is just....yeah, no. I'll just keep slowly capping allegory each week.
    I completely agree that it is definitely not worth the time and effort.
    I don't consider the content "fun" either. The only reason why I do it is because I have friends with me and we are in TS while doing it. At that point, what you're actually doing in game is pretty much irrelevant, it's the company that makes it fun.

    Also: stay clear of Castrum until a lot more people are eligible to go in there. Of course it will be brutal if you are only 30/48 players.
    @threadz: guess you never did Baldesion's Arsenal in Eureka Hydatos when it was current (neither did I btw, my hands died in the Pagos carpal tunnel syndrome simulator). I heard that it was quite the challenge to complete. Like Baldesion's, Castrum is optional content, you don't need it for the relic.

  15. #47995
    Quote Originally Posted by xmirrors View Post
    Nothing like horrible content to bring out the toxicity in a community. Two failed Castrum runs, lots and lots of cussing and raging from other players, and nothing to show for it but -20k mettle and a loss of hope for humanity.

    Screw Bozjan Southern Front. It's garbage content. I don't know what the hell they were thinking.

    - Relic memory items don't drop ever, forcing you to do Heavensward content... Heavensward. Content.
    - Critical engagements have one shot mechanics that are not well telegraphed and every death causes you to lose mettle. Then even more mettle is lost if you don't get a res.
    - Forget trying to solo as a class with no self-healing. If you want to succeed you have to party up, even if you're just doing FATEs, unless you are a masochist.
    - Castrum is on a long timer and is too difficult for your average pick-up group. It also makes no sense for it to be on such a tight timer. My last group wiped twice on the last boss, and then when everyone finally learned the fight we failed in the end anyways because we ran out of time at 5% hp.
    - The vanity rewards and gear take an insane amount of grinding.

    I've never had less fun in an MMO and I'm not just saying that because emotions. I've had plenty of time to cool down, digest, and gather my thoughts. It's just awful content and I am not going to continue doing it.
    Despite what others say online, i always found the FF community to be quite toxic. I was thinking that maybe it's the datacenter i'm on (Chaos), but it is guaranteed on every trial or raid that there will be some jackasses that will cuss but do nothing to help.
    Last edited by Swnem; 2020-10-18 at 02:50 PM.

  16. #47996
    The Unstoppable Force Granyala's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Swnem View Post
    Despite what others say online, i always found the FF community to be quite toxic. I was thinking that maybe it's the battleground i'm on (Chaos), but it is guaranteed on every trail or raid that there will be some jackasses that will cuss but do nothing to help.
    Good thing I stay away from the PF then. Though in my experience, if you are a decently competent player, both FF and WoW aren't really toxic at all. Sure you'll get the odd moron now and then but these are a feature of every community, both off- and online.

  17. #47997
    Quote Originally Posted by Val the Moofia Boss View Post
    Like, imagine an extreme trial. It's very hard for 8 people, yes? Now Imagine you could bring 16 people, but the mechanics remained exactly the same. You'll probably still die a lot, but the chances of the group passing becomes a lot more likely, simply because you have more bodies and you can brute force your way through it. Lots of people can die over and over, but so long as you have enough people to pass the hard mechanic tests, the group will win.

    That's Castrum. Except the default difficulty is 20-30 people and the easy mode ("we'll die a lot but it is very hard for us to lose") is 40.
    Well here is my problem with this.

    - We are again comparing the difficulty (even if it's just the "potential" difficulty) to an Extreme trial. Is that what they intended for what is pick-up group content?
    - Unlike a trial, you have limited attempts at Castrum. If you fail you are out of luck and have to try again. Which you can't easily do, as it is on a timer inside of a random instance on its own timer.
    - Every time you die you lose mettle. Eventually mettle will be pointless, but it sure wasn't pointless when I went into Castrum and lost 20k mettle learning the mechanics.
    - It's not fun to brute force something, expecting the raid to constantly be dying. As a RDM I spent less time actually doing damage and more time dual casting Verraise.

    A lot of this also applies to the critical engagements. In fact, it's arguably worse. You have literally ONE shot to succeed. If you fail, it's over. No retries. It doesn't matter how seasoned I personally become, people are going to die. Depending on the engagement, this could be anywhere from a handful to half of the raid. I. Do. Not. Like. Being. Nothing. But. A. Verraise. Bot.

    For a player like me, that is not active in a linkshell, does not have a ton of friends who play, and has limited time on the weekends, this content is nearly unplayable and not enjoyable in the least.

  18. #47998
    Quote Originally Posted by Granyala View Post
    Good thing I stay away from the PF then. Though in my experience, if you are a decently competent player, both FF and WoW aren't really toxic at all. Sure you'll get the odd moron now and then but these are a feature of every community, both off- and online.
    That is a fair acessment. They are about the same.

  19. #47999
    So thinking about picking up the free trial of this since I don't really have an MMO at the moment and I'm a huge Final Fantasy fan.

    Anyone got any recommendations and will it sate my appetite as an FF and MMO fan?

  20. #48000
    Quote Originally Posted by pepine View Post
    So thinking about picking up the free trial of this since I don't really have an MMO at the moment and I'm a huge Final Fantasy fan.

    Anyone got any recommendations and will it sate my appetite as an FF and MMO fan?
    • FFXIV is first and foremost an epic JRPG. It is an MMO second. If you don't like sitting through 100+ hours of cutscenes then you might want to look elsewhere.
    • The first story arc, A Realm Reborn (ARR) starts out really boring. First 20-30 hours of the game can feel like a bunch of sidequests. Doesn't help the English dub of ARR is rather meh. The story begins to pick up around patch 2.3 (about 40 hours into the game if you JUST do the main story). Once you reach the first expansion, Heavensward, it's all good from there. FFXIV starting from Heavensward is on par with the Trails series as the best JRPG I've ever played. They changed voice recording studios for Heavensward so starting with HW you get a good English dub.
    • Your starting job doesn't matter. At level 10 (about 2 hours of play) you can try out other jobs. If you want to get a taste of what a job plays like at latter levels, you'll want to go to Palace of the Dead (which allows you to try out jobs at higher levels).
    • The vanilla jobs don't tend to get their core mechanics until the level 60s and 70s. If you switch to a post-launch job like Ninja, Dark Knight, Astrologian, Machinist, Samurai, Red Mage, Gunbreaker, or Dancer, you get to the fun job mechanics a lot more quickly. You can switch to Ninja at level 10, and if you own the Stormblood expansion, you can switch to Samurai or Red Mage as soon as you beat the 2.0 ARR storyline (which takes about 20 hours if you only do the main story).

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