[Megathread] Final Fantasy XIV

[Leyre]

Wait, is this true? The one you buy on the shop?

It has the 1st speed bonus unlocked inmediately

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Why regret the motorcycle it automatically has max riding speed unlocked no matter what zone its in.

Dont hink i can make enough glamours to match on all my chars

[Lex Icon]

decided to go through the level 50 blues now that i hit 50 on my machinist. does the coil of bahamut thingy get so little traffic that every wing will be an hour + wait?

[Lex Icon]

Pretty much. That or they'll just never pop at all.

That's one rather false impression that people might get from some of the new streamers. They've got people willing to throw themselves at them to form groups for any content. Most people will find that doing some of those older raids synced is nigh impossible just because you won't find the bodies for it, or if you do they won't want you without experience, or you'll find a group that tries to progress on it but quits right away.

aww that's a shame. guess i'll have to do something else instead. not going to wait this long 5 times in a row ;(

[Thestrawman]

aww that's a shame. guess i'll have to do something else instead. not going to wait this long 5 times in a row ;(

If you're more interested in running the content, you may find more success in the party finder. Since it's an easy way for people to grind up poetics. You may have a little harder of a time if you want to do the fights synced but it'll be much faster then doing it through the duty finder.

[Lex Icon]

If you're more interested in running the content, you may find more success in the party finder. Since it's an easy way for people to grind up poetics. You may have a little harder of a time if you want to do the fights synced but it'll be much faster then doing it through the duty finder.

didn't know about that party finder so thanks. i'm mostly interested in seeing it as a completionist. i'm not really looking for a challenge or anything. so that might be useful. though seeing how easy alliance raids are they should probably do something to steer people into unlocking more of them.

[Advent]

While this is true, the difference between FFXIV and most other MMO's I've played is that I feel like FFXIV puts the more grindy, time wasty aspects of the game behind the more optional stuff and not the core of the game.

In FFXIV I can play through the MSQ pretty much at MY pace as opposed to some arbitrarily time gated pace like WoW did recently with the Covenant and Korthia stories where you could only progress as far as your Renown level allowed and Renown had a level cap that increased each each that time gated your progress through the story. (This isn't meant to be a FFXIV vs WoW, just using a well known game as a comparison to highlight the point).

Yes I can waste just as much time in FFXIV as I do in other games, but in FFXIV the time I spend doesn't feel wasted as I'm always accomplishing what I wanted to; level up this job alt job while in queue for X dungeon, advancing the MSQ, etc... whereas in others I feel like I have to spend X time doing Y activity to earn Z reward because I can't actually progress the story or participate in the activity I want to until I do. At least it feels that way.

Fair enough. That's probably the most egregious example of wow time-gating, and as a veteran of the game myself I see why they did it. I don't agree with why, but a lot of players almost indirectly asked for the game to get rid of long grinds, which some people (Even those here referring to FFXIV's story) consider the story to be such. It's a terrible idea all around imo; if people want to spend all their time racing through the content, let them. Trying to police the few with little to no self-control by hindering the many is ridiculous.

[Leyre]

didn't know about that party finder so thanks. i'm mostly interested in seeing it as a completionist. i'm not really looking for a challenge or anything. so that might be useful. though seeing how easy alliance raids are they should probably do something to steer people into unlocking more of them.

if you are lvl 80 you can solo some of the turns i think

[Granyala]

WoW generally feels the same to a veteran player and a new player. Both hop into the latest patch, do stuff together, and repeat. XIV feels EXTREMELY different to a veteran player and a new player. In fact, I think a lot of vets kind of forget what it's like to play catch-up through the content, it can become exhausting after a while.

Aye. It's the main reason why my friend, who plays extremely casually and unpredictably, dropped the game.
He was frustrated by having to do story stuff when he just wanted to hop online and play with me.

[bloodwulf]

Aye. It's the main reason why my friend, who plays extremely casually and unpredictably, dropped the game.
He was frustrated by having to do story stuff when he just wanted to hop online and play with me.

This is why i can not get any of my other wow refugees to pick up the game. They have watched me stream some of the raids and other content but they can not swallow the HUGE amount of catch up there is. Hell MSQ alone turns off some of them.

[Poppincaps]

This is why i can not get any of my other wow refugees to pick up the game. They have watched me stream some of the raids and other content but they can not swallow the HUGE amount of catch up there is. Hell MSQ alone turns off some of them.

They're still in a WoW mentality of endgame being the only important thing. Playing FFXIV is supposed to be a journey and you're supposed to take your time with it. Old raids and dungeons are still relevant on at least Normal mode so you can relive the entire lifespan of the game.

I get that that isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I think it's FFXIV's greatest strength. In WoW, only the current patch is relevant. Everything else is dead. Makes their massive world seem pretty small in reality.

[bloodwulf]

They're still in a WoW mentality of endgame being the only important thing. Playing FFXIV is supposed to be a journey and you're supposed to take your time with it. Old raids and dungeons are still relevant on at least Normal mode so you can relive the entire lifespan of the game.

I get that that isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I think it's FFXIV's greatest strength. In WoW, only the current patch is relevant. Everything else is dead. Makes their massive world seem pretty small in reality.

I dont disagree with that. The thing is, some people don't want to play a single player game, and that is why i dont recommend this game to those people. As fun as it would be to do trials/raids with the people i have played with for 15+ years, i also dont want to have to hear them bitch about 3-5 buttons and voiceless cutscenes for a month as they slog through ARR and Heavensward. That is a hill that took me starting and stopping the game on 3 occasions to get past. My account was originally created in 2013, yet i didn't hit level cap for the first time until 2 months ago. I would quit playing for years at a time.

[Leyre]

Having finally gotten my "to be continued" on the MSQ i can say:

1) Heavensward its the greatest of the 3 expansions, including the patch quest
2) Shadowbringers comes closely behind
3) I HOPE AND PRAY i never EVER have to set foot on Ala'Mhigo ever again, worst expansion of the 3

[Graeham]

Ala Mhigo is, perhaps, the game's weakest storytelling to date. We didn't need three zones devoted to the region as far as I'm concerned.

[Xilurm]

Ala Mhigo needed more. The worst part of SB is how they split the story into two sections.

[Granyala]

They're still in a WoW mentality of endgame being the only important thing.

Except that MSQ is basically 99% solo activity and most people play MMOs to play with buddies, not to solo cutscenes.
In WoW, you can level together. In XIV, not so much.

[The Casualty]

if you are lvl 80 you can solo some of the turns i think

You should be able to solo most of them and duo or trio others. The issues where you will run into are ones like T9 where the golems tether and become unkillable. You just need an extra body there to keep aggro so they are distant - I'm not sure if you can let two of them merge and kill that one or if you need 3 people though - I haven't tried that one in quite a while.

You can also solo a few of the Alexander savage raids too, although being a tank/healer might be necessary for the Creator tier. I haven't tried Midas, but I imagine that those might not be possible due to the mechanics to complete them alone.

[Leyre]

Ala Mhigo is, perhaps, the game's weakest storytelling to date. We didn't need three zones devoted to the region as far as I'm concerned.

I decided that my "main" would buy a skip and do everything the normal way, half way through stormblood i just couldnt do it anymore and boosted to shadowbringers, i really, really could get interested on a single character and now i have a profound hate for lyse

[infinitemeridian]

Ala Mhigo was not as good as Doma (Which was better than HW imo), but it was still good enough. I'm still in the SB > HW camp. Currently going through ShB and it's...ok? I just got to the rakita greatwood and things are getting better, but I haven't been super impressed so far.

[Poppincaps]

Except that MSQ is basically 99% solo activity and most people play MMOs to play with buddies, not to solo cutscenes.
In WoW, you can level together. In XIV, not so much.

You can level together. Sure you have to disband for solo instances, but they aren't super common. I've gone through ARR twice with two different people. It's not the best experience and honestly neither is WoW's. SWTOR has the best MMO group leveling experience IMO.

Regardless, the MSQ is one of the main strengths of FFXIV and what sets it apart. Some people won't like it, but in that case, there are plenty of other MMOs that will appease you since FFXIV is abnormal in this regard.

[Graeham]

I decided that my "main" would buy a skip and do everything the normal way, half way through stormblood i just couldnt do it anymore and boosted to shadowbringers, i really, really could get interested on a single character and now i have a profound hate for lyse

Yeah, Lyse is very wooden and bland.

Stormblood was also the perfect time to build on the nicer side of Garlemald that had been established with Gaius and Regula, yet instead decided to double down on the worst aspects so we could miss out on nuance and have the Ala Mhigans portrayed as poor victims...even though literally every time an Ala Mhigan showed up in the plot prior to Stormblood they were trying to backstab each other or someone else.

I loved the Far Eastern stuff. Kugane was great, by virtue of being a neutral nation with interesting aesthetics.