WoW or FFXIV

[Twy]

That's a tough question. I play both and enjoy both so I would say both if you can afford that.

Imho, WoW is still one of the very best MMO on the market right now, but it can be very difficult to get into, especially right now. While people are complaining about the lack of content, there is a lot to do even right now, but it's totally up to the player and what he wants to achieve.

In the meantime, FFXIV is rather fresh. It's a very polished game with a solid game system. The approach they have with the raiding content is totally different. I wouldn't say better than WoW, just different. And it's often the case with several aspects of FFXIV.

The real strength of FFXIV for me is that it is a real Final Fantasy game, with everything you can expect from a game of the license (great story, music, aesthetic) and that epic feeling that WoW may have lost along the way.

But to be honest, I fear that in the long run, FFXIV is going to be spoiled by his community. While the community has to be praised right now for being for the most part helpful and nice, as soon as the people will get more knowledgeable about the game and the way it works, the game will suffer from it.

I just hope Square Enix will keep the level of secrecy they have right now.

[Veluren]

Yeah, while I personally love the game, asking this question on the dedicated forum does kind of turn it into an echo (heh) chamber, you just need to give the free version a try and see how you like it, just don't judge it on the first 20 levels, combat starts slow and you get abilities at a really slow pace, but by the time you're capped you have more than enough to keep you busy

[elmoe420]

The raiding in FFXIV is built around not needing addons (which quite honestly is a refreshing change, letting addons play the game for you has always been a terrible game design) the reason for this is because you're also playing with Playstation 3 and Playstation 4 users on the same servers.

Keep in mind that needing or not needing addons is purely subjective based on how happy the individual is with the default UI. While I'm sure that some players are happy with the default UI, my girlfriend and I found it clunky and frustrating to use after healing with VuhDo for so many years.

I feel you, but at the end of the day, the content was enough to keep me going on, i just adapted to the new UI system.

I think someone mentioned before, the lack of theorycrafting etc. helps keep the elitism down. None of that "omg you're not doing the rotation right noob l2dps", besides, the skills are pretty straightforward, press this then this, then this, then this when it pops.

It is unfortunate that tools like combat log analysis are used to humiliate rather than educate players in some groups. Trying to prevent players from doing this analysis altogether though is not the right approach in my opinion. All this has led to is players being forced to see dubious external applications that violate the terms of use of the game to achieve the same affect. I believe FFXIV actually even banned some people recently for using a third party application to scrape combat logs recently which is really unfortunate.

[Hellravager]

Only one issue with FFXIV you need to do all content up to current before expansion to even step foot into the new zones/get new jobs

[Segus1992]

Bottom line of this thread: FFXIV has objectively worse combat. If that doesn't bother you, try it out.

[Sorrior]

Keep in mind that needing or not needing addons is purely subjective based on how happy the individual is with the default UI. While I'm sure that some players are happy with the default UI, my girlfriend and I found it clunky and frustrating to use after healing with VuhDo for so many years.



It is unfortunate that tools like combat log analysis are used to humiliate rather than educate players in some groups. Trying to prevent players from doing this analysis altogether though is not the right approach in my opinion. All this has led to is players being forced to see dubious external applications that violate the terms of use of the game to achieve the same affect. I believe FFXIV actually even banned some people recently for using a third party application to scrape combat logs recently which is really unfortunate.

Then they must have been chattinh on game they are in a don't ask don't tell kinda situation with them.

[Kazgrel]

Yeah, while I personally love the game, asking this question on the dedicated forum does kind of turn it into an echo (heh) chamber, you just need to give the free version a try and see how you like it, just don't judge it on the first 20 levels, combat starts slow and you get abilities at a really slow pace, but by the time you're capped you have more than enough to keep you busy

This is indeed another downside to the level cap for the 14 day trial being 20. I've only leveled up BLM (black mage) to 50 thus far, and the rotation/priorities completely transform as you reach higher levels.

[Gandrake]

FFXIV is sooo slow paced. Almost like turn based. Global cooldowns are just way too high for my liking. And it's just so made for consoles. Can't even double click to equip or sell things and my extra mouse buttons aren't recognized either. And the main questline forces you to pug dungeons.

oh, the horror! you have to work with other people in an mmo to play it xD

as for your mouse issue my 6 button anker works just fine. i am sure that even if it didn't, an easy work around would be using a program like KeyTweak.

[Lathais]

FFXIV is sooo slow paced. Almost like turn based. Global cooldowns are just way too high for my liking. And it's just so made for consoles. Can't even double click to equip or sell things and my extra mouse buttons aren't recognized either. And the main questline forces you to pug dungeons.

What level did you get to? The pace speeds up as you get higher level. The game recognizes all my extra buttons just fine, not that you really need them for anything as there is not ability bloat. Everything I need fits nicely within reach of WASD on my keyboard. I have never PUGed any dungeons for main questline either, that's what friends and FC are for. I certainly PUG them while leveling other classes, but went with Friends and FC first time through to learn them.

[Grym]

Take the WoW launcher, make it about 100x slower. Make it only runnable in full screen (not windowed fullscreen. full. screen.) then make it take about 5-7 clicks to actually get the game to launch.

PlayOnline is the fucking devil.

Open PlayOnline.

PlayOnline need updating, update, need to restart, restart PlayOnline.

Open PlayOnline, FFXI needs updating, Download Update (crash multiple times).

Install Updates.

Reopen PlayOnline, log in, now in PlayOnline homescreen, choose what you want to do (play FFXI, play Tetra Master, PlayOnline chatroom).

Choose "play FFXI", now go to a new log in screen (but still in PlayOnline), click "log in"

Now a warning box pop up saying how awesome it is in the world of Vana'Diel but please don't forget your friends, family and real life, click OK.

NOW you are in the FFXI log in screen.

The horror....

[Aberrict]

Yes, because my computer has anything to do with that.

If anything it may have been that I chose a server that was out of range, though that'd be odd as I chose on that said it was for EU.

Ah. That explains the problem. The EU servers are hosted in Canada with the NA servers. They'll be moving them to EU later this year.

[Grym]

Ah. That explains the problem. The EU servers are hosted in Canada with the NA servers. They'll be moving them to EU later this year.

While I don't have any problems clearing contents, I must admit, while VERY slight, but it is still a noticable difference in responsiveness between WoW and FFXIV, I just had to get used to it.

EU data centre definitely was my happiest news in the fan festival.

[Chirri]

I played the trial a month or two ago and enjoyed myself. The only negative I can name is the constant gold-seller spam. I'm surprised they haven't cracked down on that. It highlighted how much time Blizzard has spent minimizing that sort of crap.

It was very nice to look at, it played smoothly on my system, there were stories to follow, interaction with other actual players (what little I had) was positive and friendly. There was a lot of very neat looking armor.

[MrPaladinGuy]

I have 10 years in WoW and 2 months in FF14.

WoW speaks for itself and you've played it for a few years.

As for FF15, it's graphically beautiful (a high framerate and my 1440p IPS display played a part in that), the art, design, and music are top-knotch and what you'd expect from Square. It handles incredibly well and never feels like most other mmo's where you're fighting the camera or just general rubber band/clunkiness.

Having said that, I think raiding in FF14 is god-awful and the ranged classes are incredibly boring. You should also put serious thought into the race you choose as there's literally no reason to have more than 1 character in the game as a single character can become all classes.

I played a tank and It was worth the entrance price + a one month sub even just to level.

I played for 2 months at the end of MoP while I waited for WoD. I also plan on returning for the Heavensward expansion.

[Kazgrel]

I played the trial a month or two ago and enjoyed myself. The only negative I can name is the constant gold-seller spam. I'm surprised they haven't cracked down on that. It highlighted how much time Blizzard has spent minimizing that sort of crap.

It was very nice to look at, it played smoothly on my system, there were stories to follow, interaction with other actual players (what little I had) was positive and friendly. There was a lot of very neat looking armor.

It is pretty darn awful if you aren't on a high pop/locked server. Simplest workaround I know of: set yourself to /busy status. Downsides to that include not being able to accept friend or party request from legit players, and it flags you as not ready during ready checks. Oh, and you can't trade with others while busy.

It is mildly annoying to have to do that, but it beats the brakes off having to deal with constant gil seller spam.

[Redwyrm]

My thoughts on the pros and cons of both.

FFXIV Pros:
Great atmosphere, esp for those who grew up with the FF series. Lots of nostalgia in the music/sounds/etc
Beautiful day/night cycle that feels genuine and not just "someone turned down the lights"
Imaginatively designed mobs of all sizes roaming around.
Can do any class/profession on one character, which leads to...
Crafting/Gathering professions are engaging in their various mechanics
4-man Dungeons are fun with their mechanics and not just tank and spanks

FFXIV Cons:
Towns and zones are divided and not a contiguous world
First few levels are slow
Unable to report or block chat spam easily

WoW Pros:
Very large community but FFXIV is slowly gaining
Zones and towns seamlessly join together
Raid content
Collectors dream (mounts, pets, achievements, etc.)

WoW Cons:
Content is poorly spaced out, and what's there is not as fun the second or third time through while you wait for more.
If you don't raid the amount of content just got cut by 75%
Classes have been homegenized and don't give that sense of uniqueness like they use to.

[nVIDIA]

the only thinks i hate about ff xiv is voice acting, there is zero voice acting almost
and tab targeting sucks so much, ff xiv doesn't support anti aliasing also

[D3athsting]

FFXIV Cons:
Towns and zones are divided and not a contiguous world

I think this is because of ps3 version, ps3 memory isn't enough for a seamless world

[arisoh]

I recently picked up FFXIV to play during the wait for 6.2 and haven't regretted it at all. I was actually surprised at how much fun I was having! I've tried out most other MMORPG's that came out to try and change things up like Rift, Wildstar, Star Wars, but none of them could really keep me interested. In FFXIV I sometimes find myself sitting around levelling my professions for a few hours, just because it's fun.

This x 100000. After 8 years of loyalty, the direction WoW is headed doesn't agree with me anymore.

I picked up the FFXIV trial after reading through one of the posts on the WoW forums, and by the 3rd day of the 14 day trial, I bought the game already. I'm trying to get all my friends who've left WOW in disgust to come with me.

There's so much to do and learn. The freedom you have on one toon blew my mind.

[Lathais]

I think this is because of ps3 version, ps3 memory isn't enough for a seamless world

and they are dropping PS3 support sometime during Heavesward and going to seamless world. It's not gonna be 3.0, but down the road a bit. At least that's what I think I heard.