[Megathread] Final Fantasy XIV

[Diatribe]

I know I'm only lvl 32, but am curious as to when some of my Paladin specific abilities start to come into play that helps differentiate myself from my Gladiator days?

[Pannonian]

posted in wrong thread by accident....moved now.

Of course they put boosts on sale after i get my scholar (which i love btw, really excited for Sage now).

Looking at boosting one of the following:
Warrior
Machinist
Ninja

I have a job in each of those roles, but those are the last batch that look exciting for me. I got my scholar/summoner to 76 and should hit 80 this weekend just doing roulettes. I have Samurai already for melee and enjoy it, and I have Bard for phys range, and don't enjoy the song juggling. I have a Gunbreaker and while i enjoy it, i think i want a different style tank.

As someone who boosted a few jobs:

I would only boost lvl 1 jobs - MCH isn't that bad as it already starts at 30 iirc - and compared to the ARR jobs it actually has a decent kit from the start (much like dancer) - so its one of the jobs that can be leveled more relaxed.

[bloodwulf]

As someone who boosted a few jobs:

I would only boost lvl 1 jobs - MCH isn't that bad as it already starts at 30 iirc - and compared to the ARR jobs it actually has a decent kit from the start (much like dancer) - so its one of the jobs that can be leveled more relaxed.

So Warrior\Ninja in your opinion?

The sad thing about the boosts is that they don't even get you past the longest part (70-80) so they seem like a bit of a waste.

With Armory bonus (and the ring/earring if you have those) low levels are super fast anyway. It's just that last part that starts to feel like a bit of a slog.

70-80 takes me a week a most? I never felt that was a slog as I enjoy Bozja. I hate running POTD\HOH over and over.

[bloodwulf]

A week is a pretty long time, if we're being honest. Especially if you're buying a boost to get to endgame, and then leveling for a week on top of that.

Although enjoying Bozja seems like insanity. Insanity, I say!

So im 100% a gacha\blind box whore. I wont hide it. And i like the lockboxes from Bozja. I have maded a few million in my 3-4 weeks of bozja. As for a week, eh thats not that bad. It would take me far longer to do the 1-80 or 30-80 etc. I do not like basically anything from ARR.

[bloodwulf]

That's fair. To each their own.

My issue is that a lot of the leveling offerings will actually start to put me to sleep. Grinding PotD/HoH, or Bozja. Dungeons are significantly more enjoyable for me, but DPS queues are just through the roof some days. I could do trusts 71-80, I guess. But it's more fun "competing" with others.

Bozja leveling for me turns into, set a goal of 1-2 levels a night, and get a show on another monitor. For me its been Fire Force right now, it was previously me catching up on Doctor Who cause i missed all of Jodie's seasons.

[infinitemeridian]

As a sprout, what exactly is Bozja / Eureka? Are they like Argus / Korthia / Nazjatar / Mechagon?

[Maljinwo]

As a sprout, what exactly is Bozja / Eureka? Are they like Argus / Korthia / Nazjatar / Mechagon?

Bozja is a max level zone (Which you can also access after unlocking it with a 71 job to level up) where you rise as a resistance member. Doing FATEs there lets you get 'mettle' which you can use to level up your resistance rank.

It also has its own side story regarding the Eastern Alliance (Dalmasca, Bozja, Doma) which includes 3 Raid lites.

It also lets you get the armor from FFXII and Resistance Weapons which have the highest ilvl in the game

https://ffxiv.consolegameswiki.com/w...stance_Weapons

[infinitemeridian]

Bozja is a max level zone (Which you can also access after unlocking it with a 71 job to level up) where you rise as a resistance member. Doing FATEs there lets you get 'mettle' which you can use to level up your resistance rank.

It also has its own side story regarding the Eastern Alliance (Dalmasca, Bozja, Doma) which includes 3 Raid lites.

It also lets you get the armor from FFXII and Resistance Weapons which have the highest ilvl in the game

https://ffxiv.consolegameswiki.com/w...stance_Weapons

Ok so there's a fate system, but every zone has that. Are there any unique gameplay mechanics? Or is it just fate grinding?

[Leyre]

The shift in narrative direction, storylines and ideas being dropped, retcons, and changes in characterizations are quite apparent on a second playthrough.

Spoiler: 

• The Ul'dah storyline that was set up in the ARR patches anti-climatically fizzles out in HW 3.0, with all of the consequences retconned away (everybody comes back from the dead). The writers either didn't know how to end it, or what plans they had were tossed out the window when they had to write HW 3.0.

• The Stormblood short story about Zenos' childhood shows us that Zenos was a bored young man with too much time on his hands, who started becoming bloodthirsty after an encounter with an assassin. The Shadowbringers patches retcons Zenos' motivations: every single time he goes to sleep, he dreams of Amaurot. Fandaniel insinuates that Emet-Selch may have altered or warped Zenos into the way he is. These dreams directly contradict the Stormblood short story, as it ends with Zenos sleeping soundly, which makes sense as the Amaurot backstory for the Ascians had not been created yet.

• Midgardsomr is pretty wonkily written. At the end of 2.5, he begins following the WoL around, and pops up throughout the 3.0 storyline. At the end of 3.0, he flies off and is never seen again... until the Omega storyline during Stormblood, at which point he pops up again and reveals that he has been following the WoL around the entire time since 3.0. Um... what? If he was still following the WoL around, then why didn't he ever pop up again? There were a dozen different times when he would have been interested in what was going on and would have wanted to get a word in, such as when the WoL met Hydaelyn at the Anti-Tower. Or the confrontations with the WoDs. Or when they met Hydaelyn again. Or Shinryu using Nidhogg's eyes. Etc.

• Stormblood completely retcons Gaius, first with him being retconned from an tyrannical dictator so hated that the Ala Mhigan resistance pursued him all the way to Eorzea just to kill him, to being "the good governor who was actually beloved!". And his characterization in the Stormblood patches is at complete odds with how he actually acted in the ARR storyline (as well as being impossible given how Garlemald is depicted by the time of Stormblood. With how evil Garlemald is retconned into being by the time of late SB, there is no way Gaius could have climbed up so far into the ranks and not be willingly complicit in evil. It's like trying to say that General Revil from Gundam was "the one good general in the Federation!".

• The ARR story and early HW had an emphasis on political storylines and had some semblance of consequences, but by the time of late Stormblood and Shadowbringers the writers don't give a damn about the political storylines, instead glossing over them to focus on the occult plot, and even minor side characters have impenetrable plot armor.

• Heavensward 3.0 sets up Varis as the big bad of FFXIV, as a man who truly believes that taking over the world will be for the greater good. He's everything Gaius believes him to be. Then the final patch of Stormblood retcons him into being crazy evil "kill everyone for the sake of it", the kind of man Gaius would hate because Garlemald is supposed to be taking over the world and ruling over everyone, not killing everyone! And then he gets written out of the story at the end of Shadowbringers 5.0 because evidently it was decided that 6.0 would be the last expansion before the soft reboot and the Garlemald war wasn't interesting enough (and a whole bunch of other storylines were cancelled/rushed/wrapped up as well).

• Shadowbringers throws away a lot of plotlines, such as Garlemald, Limsa's pirate politics, the asspull cure for Tempering, decades of beast-tribe and city state hostility being forgotten overnight, Etc.

Retcons

• In 1.0 and ARR 2.0, the WoL isn't the only Warrior of Light; there are many Warriors of Light chosen by Hydaelyn and running around Eorzea. As the game goes on, this is quietly forgotten, and by the time of Stormblood and Shadowbringers the player WoL is treated as if they are the only one chosen by Hydaelyn on the Source.

• In ARR 2.0, it is stated that the hard mode Primals you fight in the postgame are the same Primals you fought earlier, and that primal spirits hang around in the Lifestream until resummoned into physical reality. This is retconned later on, as each primal summoned is a different one (Primal Summoning is just fancy creation magic, pretty much the act of creating a familiar). The Shiva in Shadowbringers is not that same as Yslaye, and so on.

• In ARR 2.1, the Scions give us exposition on how the Ascians survive being killed: they have the echo and a crystal of darkness. When they die, their soul leaves their body and begins heading towards the Lifestream, but if there was a crystal of darkness on the body at the time of death, and the crystal is used up and the soul can avoid going back to the Lifestream, and possess another body. In Stormblood, Zenos dies and was surprised to have come back from the dead. It is never mentioned that he had a crystal of darkness on his person. In the Stormblood short story about Zenos, Zenos does use crystals to cast abilities (because he is Garlean and has no aether), but it feels bizzare that this was never brought up in the game.

• In ARR 2.0, Ifrit tries to temper the WoL, but fails, and states that his tempering didn't work because the WoL has already been claimed by another, implying that Hydaelyn has tempered the WoL. This is retconned in Stormblood, when it is stated that the echo is what made the WoL immune to tempering.

• In the Warring Triad questline, Regula is said to be one of Emperor Varis' closest lifelong friends. And yet, after Regula dies, Varis never talks about Regula, not even once. At least Vayne and Venat lamented Dr. Cid when they learned of his demise in FFXII.

• Yda is retconned into actually being Yda's sister, Lyse. There was nothing foreshadowing this prior to the reveal being dropped. It's quite obvious that they only came up with this after Heavensward 3.0 released and Stormblood was being written.

• During the Omega raid storyline, Cid makes a big deal about the Ironworks not existing to make weapons, but existing to make people free. But then in the Sorrow of Werylt questline, he is making a huge weapon: the G-Warrior.

• The new races and jobs were retconned into the story. Au Ra, Viera, and Hrothgar are apparently supposed to be just as populous as any other race (and they make up the majority races in certain powerful nations, such as Bozja and the Azim Steppe), yet they were literally never mentioned until the expansion in which they dropped. Gunblades were heavily implied to be unique Garlean weapons, but then ShB retcons them into being Hrothgar inventions, etc.

• In 5.3, G'raha Tia uses the Crystal Tower to obliterate Elidibus, comparing the Crystal Tower to White Auracite. It makes sense that Elidibus would have overlooked or not have known about this, as he was not involved in the creation of tower. Emet was... which creates a plothole for 5.0. Why did Emet walk around the Crystarium and inside the Crystal Tower if he knew that at any time, he could have been one shotted by the Exarch? Emet only expresses fear of being killed by the WoL, hence why when he introduces himself to the Scions, Emet sends an illusion (which Urianger dispells). So why doesn't he stay away from the tower and send illusions inside instead?

• In the 2.0 ARR story, Gaius tells his lieutenant, Livia, "my quarters. 10 minutes", implying that he's having sex with her. The 5.4. Sorrow of Werylt story retcons this, saying that Gaius never had a sexual relationship with her, and that he never made an advance on her, and that it was all Livia just crushing on him.

• In the 2.0 ARR story, Gaius tells his lieutenant, Livia, "my quarters. 10 minutes", implying that he's having sex with her. The 5.4. Sorrow of Werylt story retcons this, saying that Gaius never had a sexual relationship with her, and that he never made an advance on her, and that it was all Livia just crushing on him.

Dropped storylines and ideas:

• In the 2.0 MSQ, during the Company of Heroes arc, you meet a conscripted Garlean soldier named Drex, hiding out in a shack in La Noscea. He's the first Garlemald affiliated character we meet in the story, and it's quite effective at humanizing Garemald, as he's portrayed as a shivering, pathetic man who just wants to go home and see his family again. It is brought up that he does not have enough money to afford passage back home, so he is trying to take up work to scrounge together the money. This plotline is never brought up again and we don't see the character in Ala Mhigo or Doma. Maybe we will get to see him in Bozja or Garlemald, but it's looking like he's been forgotten.

• In the 2.0 MSQ, during the Lahabrea Investigation arc, you go to Little Ala Mhigo and meet the head of the refugees, an old warrior named Gundobald. At the end of the arc, he promises the youths that when the time to overthrow Garlemald in Ala Mhigo comes, he will lead their group in battle. Gundobald never shows up in Stormblood, nor is he mention. Strangely, another 2.0 Ala Mhigan NPC, Meffrid, shows up in Stormblood, and is a major character during the first 1/3rd of the story.

• In the 2.1 MSQ, Elidibus is introduced. He walks into Waking Sands and only Minfillia and the WoL can see him. Tataru walks right by him and doesn't see him, implying that the Ascians are like the FFXII Occuria in that they can selectively choose who they reveal themselves to, but those with the Echo can always see them. This ability never pops up again. Afterwards, every Ascian can be seen by anyone at all times.

But we also have dozens of interviews from Yoshida and the writing team on how they were making up the story as they went along.

Spoiler: 

The whole story was not planned from the beginning.



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The Crystal Tower series was not planned to set up Shadowbringers.



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On what was planned for the First:



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The writing team began writing the outline for Shadowbringers one month after Stormblood 4.0's release.



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On writing the outlines for an expansion's base story:



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We know from other interviews that after the outline is written, the storyline remains in flux right up until the last minute. G'raha Tia's fate was undecided until right up to 5.3's release.



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Emet-Selch did not exist in the first draft. The antagonists were the Sin-Eaters. Evidently Emet-Selch did not exist prior to Shadowbringers 5.0's story being created, in Summer 2017 after Stormblood 4.0 launched.



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On the Ascians and what was planned for them:



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They didn't come up with the Emet = Solus and the Ascian-Garlemald connection until they began writing Shadowbringers. Emet-Selch did not exist until they began writing Shadowbringers.



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The Elidibus arc and Endwalker 6.0 was written after Shadowbringers 5.0 launched, in late October.



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Regarding the direction of FFXIV after 6.0:



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Those are the interviews from 2019 onward. Yoshida does dozens and dozens of interviews every year and I probably missed some, and that's not even getting into the interviews he did in the years before, but I can't be bothered to go digging through them right now.

Regarding the echo and ifrit, isnt you know who a you know what and ifrit mind control didnt work because "first come, first serve"?

[Maljinwo]

Ok so there's a fate system, but every zone has that. Are there any unique gameplay mechanics? Or is it just fate grinding?

Fate grinding, honestly. After several fates, there are also 'Critical Engagements' which are basically mini bosses that spawn in the area.
Afterwards you unlock Zadnor, which is basically the same with new fates and events but they feature 'Duels' which is a 1v1 mini boss fight

You can also farm Bozjan Clusters there which can be exchanged for several items like emotes, a mount and other things

[Val the Moofia Boss]

posted in wrong thread by accident....moved now.

Of course they put boosts on sale after i get my scholar (which i love btw, really excited for Sage now).

Looking at boosting one of the following:
Warrior
Machinist
Ninja

I have a job in each of those roles, but those are the last batch that look exciting for me. I got my scholar/summoner to 76 and should hit 80 this weekend just doing roulettes. I have Samurai already for melee and enjoy it, and I have Bard for phys range, and don't enjoy the song juggling. I have a Gunbreaker and while i enjoy it, i think i want a different style tank.

Warrior is fun to play in Bozja because you can pull a ton of mobs and live for a long, long time. But before then it's not fun. Also, it's not really fun outside of Bozja because there isn't really any content in which you can pull a lot of hard hitting mobs (dungeons after ARR are designed so that you can only pull 2 or 3 trash packs at a time).

Ninja's Mudra system is fun, but you can enjoy Ninja very early on as it gets Mudras around levels 30-45.

I know I'm only lvl 32, but am curious as to when some of my Paladin specific abilities start to come into play that helps differentiate myself from my Gladiator days?

Paladin is the most mechanically bland tank class. It doesn't even get a charge or a ranged ability until the level 70s.

As someone who boosted a few jobs:

I would only boost lvl 1 jobs - MCH isn't that bad as it already starts at 30 iirc - and compared to the ARR jobs it actually has a decent kit from the start (much like dancer) - so its one of the jobs that can be leveled more relaxed.

ARR 1-50 is the fastest part of the levelling process. You can get to level 50 in a few hours just spamming squadron dungeons over and over again with only an hour or two of actual time spent playing (as you spend of the time alt tabbed out while your AI party members do the work for you).

50 to 70 takes more effort because you have to actually play the game while you do your daily MSQ, dungeon, alliance raid, and frontline, and then you'll be 70 in a few days. Mathematically a Tales of Adventure is more efficient. If you spend 6-10 hours

As for whether or not to boost, it depends on how much you value your time and money. If a boost right now costs $17.50, and if you earn $10 an hour, then you can just work for an hour and 45 minutes and you will have a level 70 character. Or you can spend at least a dozen hours doing the 50-70 daily roulettes to get the character up to 70. But at that point you have to ask yourself why you're boosting: is it so you can see the job storyline? Then you're basically paying $17.50 for a (relatively speaking) lackluster 1-2 hour long experience that you could have spent on another game. Are you paying so you can have fun playing in Bozja? (Do you enjoy playing Bozja alone? It's a grindfest that will be a lot more fun if you have fun to talk to over voice chat). Then I suppose that might make sense.

Ok so there's a fate system, but every zone has that. Are there any unique gameplay mechanics? Or is it just fate grinding?

The FATE enemies have actual mechanics are actually somewhat challenging. The Critical Engagement FATEs are straight up boss fights like you'd see in a dungeon or a raid. But yes it's pretty much grinding, either FATEs (for EXP and memories so you can upgrade your relic weapon) or rank 3+ magitek mobs so you farm clusters.

[Pannonian]

I wouldn't go so far as to say that FATEs are challenging at all, but the critical engagements do require a bit of knowledge to survive.

Well, that or sufficient buffs, which I guess you won't have starting out.

There are easier and harder ones. While Hunt for Red Choctober has been nerfed (sadly) you can still see people wipe to it sometimes. Same goes for the fire thingy in Zadnor. Great to get ress achievements though.

[dope_danny]

Ok so there's a fate system, but every zone has that. Are there any unique gameplay mechanics? Or is it just fate grinding?

A fair few. Like mobs having a chance to drop items you turn into "lost actions" which could be spells removed from the game in the past, super powerful spells that are a limited number of charges and rare items. Along with a crystal you can collect to get mounts, entries for a notebook on characters with titles and mounts, achievements with their own unlocks, new versions of stuff as you increase your mettle rank from 1-25 along with lots of things like rare monsters that can one shot people but using the right combo of lost actions can one shot them.

Basically its like hunt trains, fate parties, raid puggers and Relic grinders all have a new playground to play in rather than keep repeating stuff in the shb zones.

[Icelin]

I got my chonky boi chocobo. He is awesome and I love the way they went about advertising this mount. Literally getting customers to go support content creators, instead of buying it out of a cash shop. They really pushing community there lately and it is very apparent.

[Leyre]

Would some old school player tell me why the hell the entire ninja skill set has sinergy between them but then there's dream within a dream and assassinate, who, if removed wouldnt change anything? like, what was the point of those skills?

[Swnem]

It's annoying.

I really hope the game gets the investment it deserves since it seems to be the main thing keeping the company afloat these days. I really want to see the spaghetti code eliminated and enhanced character customisation...as well as more actual content.

Don't buy too much into the doomsaying. I am certain that there will be more budget alloted to development if the fame keeps the growth going through endwalker.

Also, the company is in no fear of not staying afloat. FFXIV is a good and stable money maker on the rise. But, they also have DQX and their huge AAA hits like FF7R, Kingdom hearts 3 and FFXVI.
They also got duds like Avengers and moderate hits like Tomb raider and guarduans of the galaxy.

Their smaller games are a disappointment imo though. Don't like the mana and Saga games. They gave always been mediocre and it's beyond me why they remake them rather than a Chrono Trigger/Cross, Final Fantasy tactics or Parasite Eve.

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After doing the Crystal Tower quests, raiding in this game really isn't for me.

What kind of raiding were you thinking?

Crystal tower is the most basic of raids. Feels like a WoW LFR, but as you move through expansions they become harder and feel nothing like it. Lots more mechanics one shot.

Dunno if this is good or bad news for you though.

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I know I'm only lvl 32, but am curious as to when some of my Paladin specific abilities start to come into play that helps differentiate myself from my Gladiator days?

Paladin only comes together at max level. You will get plenty of cool stuff at the end. You will be able to instant cast some spells and get a huge holy sword coming from the ground "finisher".
Unfortunely all this is aquired in the 70-80 range.

Sorry, i know it's not the answer you wanted, but most classes are like that. They are designed for max level play and the design of the current content is more prevalent, and thus it's 10 levels.

[Lane]

Game's on sale again, just FYI.

https://store.na.square-enix-games.c...sy-xiv-online/

[Leyre]

Parasite Eve.

A man of culture i see, im still kinda bummed we havent got a crossover with PE, would love a raid with Eve has the final boss

[Woobels]

How big/important is the organized raiding scene in XIV? I mostly read people rave about it's story (which is cool, I'm mostly interested because of that) but heard very little about it's endgame dungeon content/raiding/whatever it's called. Is it similar to WoW? More or less commonly pugged? Is it as focal to the game as it is in WoW?

[Val the Moofia Boss]

How big/important is the organized raiding scene in XIV? I mostly read people rave about it's story (which is cool, I'm mostly interested because of that) but heard very little about it's endgame dungeon content/raiding/whatever it's called. Is it similar to WoW? More or less commonly pugged? Is it as focal to the game as it is in WoW?

FFXIV is structured very differently than WoW.

In WoW, none of the prior expansions matter. Leveling is just a roadblock from doing the real endgame: raiding. You zoom through whichever expansion you pick (and maybe complete it before hitting level 50 and going to the Shadowlands), and then once you do all of the Shadowlands zone and hit 60, then the gameplay becomes about farming chores so you can do the raids, where the stories conclude. Also, nobody does old expansion content as it's irrelevant; everyone is doing the latest raid, so you're incentivized to rush through the leveling stuff to reach level cap so you can do chores to raids with your mates.

FFXIV isn't structured that way. FFXIV is a singleplayer JRPG first, and an MMO second. Your first 200-300 hours of the game is spent going through the entire story of FFXIV thus far. Most of your time will be spent talking to NPCs, reading dialogue boxes, watching cutscenes, travelling to the next NPC, and occasionally doing a solo instanced mission, and occasionally you will queue through LFR to do a quick mandatory 15 minute dungeon or a mandatory 5-10 minute boss fight with other players. Story progression is mandatory to unlock content and features. As you go through the story, you unlock a few raids that people are still doing and you can queue for them, but raiding in FFXIV isn't hard like in WoW. It is a very casualized experience. Unlike WoW, there isn't a rush to level cap. In WoW, the real game is the raiding. In FFXIV, the real game is... the game you've been playing since the start: doing the story. Once you're completely caught up on the story, there isn't that much else to do. There are raids at level cap but they are optional and they have nothing to do with the main story; they are self contained storylines.

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Now, if you want a WoW style hardcore raiding experience in FFXIV, it does kinda exist in the form of Ultimate raids, which you unlock near the end of the story experience. However, most people don't do ultimates, and FFXIV budgets around that. In WoW, most of the budget is devoted towards the raids, but most people don't do the raids on a higher difficulty than LFR or normal, and yet WoW gets a huge fancy raid almost every single patch. In FFXIV, only a small fraction of the playerbase does hardcore raids, so the devs only churn out an ultimate weapon maybe once every 2 years. Most of the budget goes towards casual content most of the playerbase actually does, like the story.

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Another thing to reemphasize, is that WoW is built around milking time played. You do the same dailies and raid over and over again for months on end for that dopamine rush of an item level increase. In FFXIV, you're not really chasing ilevels: you complete content and you're done with it, and maybe if you really want a transmog item, you do it again until it drops. But most FFXIV players do not play the game continuously like WoW players; they get caught up on the story, get their glamours, maybe fiddle around with their house, and then they are done until the next patch and play a different game in the mean time. That isn't to say that FFXIV doesn't have grinds (it does) but the whole game is not built around it.