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  1. #1

    Wow refugees, what are you enjoying about the game?

    *wow refugees and general noobies to the game.

    Things aint moving so quick in here, so want a happy thread i can post in my random positive nooby observations.

    First one, i'll start. I really like that i have to do these mandatory dungeons and trials. What makes it cool is that i know that (almost) every single player (i forgot story skip), further along the expansion had to travel the exact same path. They all had to jump the same hurdles. I just think thats awesome for some reason. Just finished akh afah, it was a pretty tough splash fight for a whm, so its nice to know that every other healer stepped in here for the first time and likely went through the same thing.
    Last edited by ippollite; 2021-04-22 at 10:11 AM. Reason: I waan change the title (:

  2. #2
    I don't feel compelled to log in and do chores every day.

    In WoW, you had to log in every day and do your chores, or you were falling behind. You had to do your world quests, and kill the world boss, and then your mythic + run for your chest, and then do the LFRs, and then do your visions. And then, once you had done all that, hopefully you were high enough ilevel to get accepted into a PUG for the latest raid so you can get your weekly lockouts. If you don't keep up with doing your chores, you eventually won't be able to get into a PuG, and that's GG because everything in WoW boils down to "doing the latest raid on the highest difficulty possible".

    In FFXIV, not everything boils down to raiding. Raiding is just another activity you can do if you want to do. Yes, there are chores (your roulettes), but they aren't mandatory: they're for leveling up the other jobs if you want to. Yes, there is stuff at endgame that have ilevel requirements, but it is pretty easy to meet them (buy exarchic gear, or turn in your tomestones at Eulmore, or do a few dungeon/Nier runs, or any combination of those three). I can not log in for weeks or even a few months and come back and I can still pretty much jump into almost anything just like that, whereas WoW felt like a secondary job.

    The only real problem is that PuGing trial/raid content suffers from the same problem that PuGing WoW content does: if you're not in a learning party during the first day or two, you've missed the train and pretty much every PuG after is going to expect that you perfectly know the mechanics, and sometimes expects that you have a ilevel higher than what the instance actually drops. That's not so much a problem with the game itself, but with the absurd expectations MMO players have formed.

    - - - Updated - - -

    I guess the other thing I like about FFXIV is the story and the music. I have my gripes with the story but it's pretty consistently good. The music is also pretty great.

    - - - Updated - - -

    I do really wish that the dialogue/text boxes during battle were voiced. I am in the middle of a fight - in addition to having to watch my cooldowns and rotation - I also have to be looking at the AoE markers on the ground, what my target is casting, the status of my party members, etc, and I just can't really read a dialogue or text-box that only lasts 4 seconds.

    - - - Updated - - -

    I also like how FFXIV doesn't remove content from the game. Well... yes, they do remove stuff: the Garo glamours, the Yokai Watch and Dragon Quest minions and the FFXV car mount disappear for years at a time, and then there is the seasonal event stuff that gets put into the store... but they don't do the stupid WoW thing where they literally yank out entire storylines from the game. In WoW, the second half of the MoP and WoD stories were told in the Legendary Questline... which were removed for arbitrary reasons (imagine if the Heavensward post patch MSQ was removed). And the excellent Mage Tower content in Legion was removed... for arbitrary reasons. Really great, amazing stuff that my friends won't ever get to see because they weren't playing when that stuff was still in the game.

  3. #3
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    I like the reactions of my WoL to everything in the storylines

    The glamour system looks great, but I think's it's kinda unnecesary having to buy Prisms and store the appareances in the dresser yourself

    So far I haven't felt any "go go go" mentality in any dungeon. Though some tanks do pull an extra pack... Or two sometimes and I have to pray my cooldowns are enough if im healing. On that note, dungeons have been a pleasant experience so far

    The fights are 90% clear on what's going on even without a guide (Though I read them before any trial or dungeon) since they use universal markers for stuff.
    Circle? Bad, run
    Are you marked with a red circle? Stay away from your teammates
    Do you have arrows pointing towards you? Stack


    I find that so pleasing
    This world don't give us nothing. It be our lot to suffer... and our duty to fight back.

  4. #4
    Not a refugee of WoW (I love WoW's raids, Art, Music, and Lore a fuck ton, but the game design sucks), but I will say that FFXIV has similar things I like about WoW. Class Design is cool, far more Anime like (Same with the Cutscenes) tho I still put WoW > FFXIV in terms of power. Raid design is pretty fucking cool, the music is stellar (Almost on par with WoW imo), the Art is pretty cool too albeit slightly generic (But that's expected), and the content feels less...mandatory? WoW SL laid back on the mandatory content a ton, but holy shit...FFXIV is still far more casual friendly and open for new players. Not to mention that FFXIV's fanbase is a lot of the time nice (Then we have people that compare FFXIV to WoW and act like one's better than the other, but they're rare exceptions), while WoW's fanbase is while nice a lot of the time...also extremely toxic. Especially the hardcore PVPers, and the Classic WoW community. They're horrible.

  5. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by Val the Moofia Boss View Post
    I don't feel compelled to log in and do chores every day.

    In WoW, you had to log in every day and do your chores, or you were falling behind. You had to do your world quests, and kill the world boss, and then your mythic + run for your chest, and then do the LFRs, and then do your visions. And then, once you had done all that, hopefully you were high enough ilevel to get accepted into a PUG for the latest raid so you can get your weekly lockouts. If you don't keep up with doing your chores, you eventually won't be able to get into a PuG, and that's GG because everything in WoW boils down to "doing the latest raid on the highest difficulty possible".
    I never understood this argument because I never experienced it. I haven't done WQ's since dungeons opened up on launch. I have like a 400 Raider IO (trash), and yet I still put up 85-99% logs in Heroic (filthy casual, but ex top 20 raider) and if you go by ilvl I'm consistently 95-99%. Other than Torghast weekly (which I actually enjoy) my total time commitment is next to nothing. I do one M+ a week (30-45 mins, let's estimate 1 hour because finding a group as a DPS sucks), one raid clear and one Torghast clear (1hr). That puts my total WEEKLY time commitment to the game at roughly 5 hours on the high end because realistically it doesn't take 3 hours to clear the raid, but sometimes shit happens.

    In FF14 which is very casual (=/= skill metric, it's a time metric) friendly thankfully my only real responsibility I have is to cap tomes (Savage Raider) and raid. On average this includes 3 quick roulettes. As a PLD main, this on average takes me 40 minutes maybe. So like what 4 days of roulettes to cap + raid actually ends up at roughly the same 5 hours weekly.

    In FFXIV, not everything boils down to raiding. Raiding is just another activity you can do if you want to do. Yes, there are chores (your roulettes), but they aren't mandatory: they're for leveling up the other jobs if you want to. Yes, there is stuff at endgame that have ilevel requirements, but it is pretty easy to meet them (buy exarchic gear, or turn in your tomestones at Eulmore, or do a few dungeon/Nier runs, or any combination of those three). I can not log in for weeks or even a few months and come back and I can still pretty much jump into almost anything just like that, whereas WoW felt like a secondary job.
    I don't think it's fair to say raiding isn't important in FF14, but it is in WoW. If you're a raider in both it's important to both, if you're not it's irrelevant in both.

    I also like how FFXIV doesn't remove content from the game. Well... yes, they do remove stuff: the Garo glamours, the Yokai Watch and Dragon Quest minions and the FFXV car mount disappear for years at a time, and then there is the seasonal event stuff that gets put into the store... but they don't do the stupid WoW thing where they literally yank out entire storylines from the game. In WoW, the second half of the MoP and WoD stories were told in the Legendary Questline... which were removed for arbitrary reasons (imagine if the Heavensward post patch MSQ was removed). And the excellent Mage Tower content in Legion was removed... for arbitrary reasons. Really great, amazing stuff that my friends won't ever get to see because they weren't playing when that stuff was still in the game.
    I also don't think this argument is fair either. SE is notorious for abandoning content or developing it with absolutely no scalability.

  6. #6
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    The world.
    Some of my favorite parts is when the world is not in immediate danger and we get to chill and deal with the locals, or when you run into old NPCs while walking around town. Finding Isildaure did finally make that trip to Doma to visit Homei like he talked about. Running into Ostyrgrein, the samurai roegadyn, training with the kids in Kugane. I like feeling there is a living world beyond what my character can immediately see.

    Quote Originally Posted by ippollite View Post
    First one, i'll start. I really like that i have to do these mandatory dungeons and trials. What makes it cool is that i know that (almost) every single player (i forgot story skip), further along the expansion had to travel the exact same path. They all had to jump the same hurdles. I just think thats awesome for some reason. Just finished akh afah, it was a pretty tough splash fight for a whm, so its nice to know that every other healer stepped in here for the first time and likely went through the same thing.
    I kept groaning and being a WoW shithead thinking if "it's not current then it's not relevant" but eventually what you are saying hit me. I learned to appreciate going through The Unending Journey that I know everyone else around me is, has, or will be. And as I got to higher levels I noticed things kept getting much smoother, too. Everyone had to learn what the stacking markers are, what the line stacking markers are, what the arrows mean when a void zone is gonna drop and chase you, etc. Everyone went through the same steps and (most) learned from them. I don't think FFXIV's content is too easy like a lot of people groan about here, rather I think the players get better conditioned to it. It's why in Final Steps of Faith you always have that one guy who messes up Akh Morn (it might be you when you finally get to do it ) but in Paglth'an I've yet to see someone who doesn't get it. Because by then we've all been through it.
    "I have the most loyal fanboys. Did you ever see that? Where I could stand by Thoradin's Wall and massacre my own people and I wouldn't lose any fanboys. It's like incredible." - Sylvanas Windrunner

    "If you kill your enemies, they win." - Anduin Wrynn

  7. #7
    Quite literally everything, FF14 is what WOTLK was but keeps being of that vibe, having content for everyone without really alienating anyone.

    The fundamental design choice is brilliant, theres always content that is relevent in previous expansions that can still be played as if its current content. The fact you can literally go through multiple expansions actually doing old raids like they were new is amazing.

    Other stuff:

    The story is argueably the most cohesive and well written plot ive ever seen in ANY mmo to date, with story hooks and plotlines written in ARR that actually become relevent and important in later expansions, its constantly setting up payoff in advance and each time, you always feel rewarded by paying attention to old plot points that come to present light.

    The raiding is pretty well rounded, you have casual 8 man and 24 man and savage 8 man and ultimate which is literally for the hardcore crowd only.

    You have a... admittingly lackluster pvp that is the only weakness of the game since it needs some work but they're planning to do something for it in 6.0 so thats not a big issue for me.

    You have alot of filler content that lets you just enjoy little things and complete side storylines/content over time and feel rewarded for paying attention to the games world.

    Despite limited races compared to WoW, they're still pretty decent customisation wise and offer some features even wow cant offer you.

    The Glamour system needs work, ill admit WoW's one stronger point is its transmog system, but frankly? I dont think its a big deal, the Glamour Dresser is still decent.

    The housing system has some issues of accessability and oh man you are gonna fight people for houses, but once you have them? They're amazing to own.

    The games community? Is surpisingly decent, id even go as far as to say close to pretty solid at this time with people joining the game more than leaving the game is only growing bigger with every expansion.

    It is not just a case that it can and will compete with WoW, it already has and is its actual biggest rival at this point, even more so than ESO/GW2/SWTOR.

    Also, the developers not just try to make the best game they can, they literally lost sleep trying to fix 1.0 while making 2.0 the best MMO they could, and over 10 years, they succeeded, work and love has gone into this game you wouldnt typically get in other MMO's and you 'feel' it.

  8. #8
    Had you asked me a mere three hours ago i would have happily said that the crystal tower needs to be scythed from the msq. Yet, here i am completely in love with it.

    I love the story. I love the characters, i love the 3 random people ive never met before and assume has to be some kind of chronal shift. I had so much fun doing it. Its basically lfr with a ten stack determinancy buff right now (being that you're likely gonna be carried through it by people who've done it a bazillion times by this point), but it was super enjoyable. Honestly, its one of those raids i can happily see myself randomly queueing for even without the necessity of the story quest. Its been so much fun.

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by CaptainV View Post
    work and love has gone into this game you wouldnt typically get in other MMO's and you 'feel' it.
    I disagree with a lot that's been said on this post but I guess it's supposed to be a feel good thread, so instead this part of the post reminded me of another thing I really like. The Live Letters and FanFests, the way Yoshida and Soken interact with the community, they remind me of the old crew at Blizzard and the years of Metzen and Morhaime. When the faces of the company were people who did feel like they cared and had a genuine interest in not just the game but the experience and world they were creating and sharing with the players. None of Ion's quantification of fun metrics.
    "I have the most loyal fanboys. Did you ever see that? Where I could stand by Thoradin's Wall and massacre my own people and I wouldn't lose any fanboys. It's like incredible." - Sylvanas Windrunner

    "If you kill your enemies, they win." - Anduin Wrynn

  10. #10
    I've only just started FFXIV again after trying it for a bit, a few years ago. It's been interesting to play a different MMO after being so familiar to WoW's way of doing things.

    I'm barely deep into the game itself because I had to make a new character. Not everything has been smooth and so far, I can't say which one is clearly better for me.

    When it comes to making human-like pretty races, I gotta give it to FF for having so many options. Still, I miss having a option to make a silly beast-like character, like Pandarens. There's some unusual Classes too, but I have no idea how each of them will play out. Seeing things like Samurai, Bards, and Dancers seem very unusual and different.

    The common thing I've heard about FFXIV's forte, was its story. I haven't gotten far enough to see how that will turn out, but I can see the advantages the game has for that, compared to WoW. It sorta made me think about my own lukewarm interest in WoW's story. IMO, WoW has a dated UI and format for telling its story in-game. FFXIV has regular mini-cutscenes with the in-game models that can emote, change expressions, and use body language. Along with the dialogue boxes+occasional voice acting, it makes things feel more immersive and personal. The playable MC gets some focus too, getting to interact with the NPCs.

    I think WoW has tried to implement some of those things since Legion, like a rare cutscenes showing your playable character and campaign quests. You kinda need the Immersion addon can sorta help as a band-aid but it's not a seamless transition. I suppose the biggest gap is in how the FF in-game character models are presented and the emoting they can do.

    Then again, I need to get further in to see how the story escalates. Being a beginning adventurer is always a rose tinted experience. WoW's vanilla leveling area might the lack features in FF but they still stick out to me as memorable experiences. FF has an edge in its presentation, but in its own way, I still think fondly of WoW's OG starting zones and the strong aesthetic they have. Only problem is WoW never really topped the feeling of those particular zones with any of its expac, for me at least. I'm not won over yet by FF's take on a fantasy world, but it's been fun trying something different.

  11. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by Hyral View Post
    I disagree with a lot that's been said on this post but I guess it's supposed to be a feel good thread, so instead this part of the post reminded me of another thing I really like. The Live Letters and FanFests, the way Yoshida and Soken interact with the community, they remind me of the old crew at Blizzard and the years of Metzen and Morhaime. When the faces of the company were people who did feel like they cared and had a genuine interest in not just the game but the experience and world they were creating and sharing with the players. None of Ion's quantification of fun metrics.
    Considering the level of mad lad you have to be to not only patch a dying game (1.0) because the previous devs messed it up that much... but also make a second game to the point you nearly bankrupt square enix itself to fix their mmo... and you not only make a commercial return, but turn it into a massive success?

    Yeah Ion *wishes* he was Yoshida.

  12. #12
    I've always felt the combat was slower giving you more time to react vs wow's.. also there seems to be less throw everything and the kitchen sink at the group to make a boss hard in the dungeons I've done. (not max level so maybe that changes)
    Member: Dragon Flight Alpha Club, Member since 7/20/22

  13. #13
    Beside the obvious story/characters/music, two big things stick out to me gameplay-wise:

    Enemy abilities and associated markers are much, much clearer than WoW's, at the cost of feeling more formulaic.

    And more importantly... the golden age of Badge/Valor gear I can get by spamming LFD and LFR never stopped. It's no coincidence FFXIV was being remade when MoP was current, huh? Bless it.

  14. #14
    I'm loving it!!!!

    Reached 80 a few days ago on my Dark Knight.
    Did the Nier raid chain quests and won the 2B glamour and 2 minions!

    Got to 503 gear lvl and I'm now working on my relic.

    I'm really really having a wonderful time!

  15. #15
    The Insane Thage's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by CaptainV View Post
    Considering the level of mad lad you have to be to not only patch a dying game (1.0) because the previous devs messed it up that much... but also make a second game to the point you nearly bankrupt square enix itself to fix their mmo... and you not only make a commercial return, but turn it into a massive success?

    Yeah Ion *wishes* he was Yoshida.
    Fun note, when ARR relaunched, Square-Enix explicitly credited ARR and Bravely Default for making the company profitable on their own.

    On-topic: The best thing about FFXIV is that the devs care. They're not cynically designing the game around the lead dev's worsening, untreated complexity addiction or finding ways to force you to keep playing for 'the metrics.' In fact, Yoshi went on the record in an interview that he's perfectly fine with players raid logging, weekend warriors, and people just coming in to check out the new patch and then unsubbing. He'd rather you pop in and out and enjoy the game, than feel manipulated into playing daily and coming to hate the game.

    He's also infinitely humble--he respects the fans and doesn't treat them with anywhere near the sheer disdain Ion's team treats WoW players, and his team doesn't display nearly the level of hubris Ion's do. Even the writers actually love the setting they're working with, rather than just seeking to push their favorite characters and leave their mark as 'the next Metzen' like Danuser and Golden have.

    You simply cannot compensate for a development team that has become cynical, hubristic, and is more focused on metrics and marketing than putting passion into their game. World of Systemscraft will be forever crippled as a game so long as Ion and his team are in charge, while FFXIV continues to grow and flourish despite its technical problems because the development team is passionate about the game and develops it as a game first, allowing the profits to come from people wanting to play rather than squeezing them until they burn out and quit.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by cuafpr View Post
    I've always felt the combat was slower giving you more time to react vs wow's.. also there seems to be less throw everything and the kitchen sink at the group to make a boss hard in the dungeons I've done. (not max level so maybe that changes)
    Even at max level, dungeons and raid bosses have a few mechanics that hit hard if you mess them up rather than 50 mechanics and an interlude phase where you must /dance to Boney M's rasputin while reciting the Lorem Ipsum backwards from memory.
    Be seeing you guys on Bloodsail Buccaneers NA!



  16. #16
    While I used to be quite hardcore in WoW (until almost 15 years of accumulated burnout caught up to me),I really enjoy how FFXIV is a game where it feels good to be casual,as the leveling process is fun,interesting and very involved.

    You can just log in at your own pace and while you won't catch up to the endgame,that doesn't matter because you have many,many hours of story,exploration and side content ahead of you to enjoy.

    Another big one is the fact that the community is a lot better than whatever the hell WoW's community is. Because classic is another MMO I could have genuinely enjoyed,but it has been utterly ruined by the kind of players on there. This issue doesn't exist in FFXIV,and the few "special" people you'll encounter are nowhere as bad as the people you'll find in WoW


    EDIT : Forgot to mention the story. I'm not usually the biggest fan of Japanese storytelling,but FFXIV's is honestly pretty good. This one really matters to me because I used to genuinely enjoy Blizzard's storytelling. Imo some of the earliest storytelling in WoW,like the entire story linking the eastern kingdoms in classic, was genuinely excellent.

    But nowadays,WoW's story is uhhh.... They've been trying to turn WoW into a superhero universe with the story hinging over a few characters,where the biggest strength of Blizzard's storytelling was to tell the story of an entire living,breathing world,instead of a few characters.
    And on top of that,the current WoW's writing team is just straight up bad,they think they can write the new ASOIAF and are convinced they have the talent to do so,but they just do not have it,and their writing just keeps falling flat. Danuser's oversized ego threw any interest I had in WoW's story into a woodchipper,and I don't know if I can ever forgive that
    Last edited by ONCHEhap; 2021-04-26 at 07:26 PM.

  17. #17
    Being able to play any job I want on one character, in addition not needing alts for having every hand/land job. Only really played Black Mage, Summoner, Machinist, Dancer, Red Mage, and now Dragoon. Its felt fairly fun in learning the various classes and what they do differently.

    Alts themselves just being there if I wanted to roll up a character for fun rather than as a must for progression.

    Races being more relaxed in that there isn't really a wrong option. More just a 'what do you want your character to look like?' sort of thing. A single race change being only $10 also goes a long way.

    Generally people just seem to be more chill when doing progression of whatever the latest content is at least in duty finder. Can't say for statics as I never been part of one.

    Music is very good and well composed.

    The story reminds me a lot of the earlier days of WoW like MoP or Wrath or Cata but more fleshed out. Also helps for getting a vibe for where we are going to the next expansion. Also helps the storyline doesn't suffer from weirdness like WoW did with the MoP storyline did. Had it on my noggin for awhile but the Leveilleur twins are basically Wrathion and Anduin were twins and we got more stories with them. (Alphinaud is more endearing I will say than Anduin)

    To anyone who is considering it, just take your time with the main story quests, there is a lot of them to reach current content. I'm not saying you can't skip the cut scenes, I am saying don't burn yourself out to quickly.

  18. #18
    Everytime i play FF14 (like right now) i enjoy the fact that i just can play... no thinking about optimization for a while. No thinking about mechanics.

    Also really long story quests... until i meat a lalafell and i try not to cringe.

    After a while it gets boring again and i go back to wow though^^

    What i do not like in FF14 is the general hat towards wow and the fact that you get nearly insulted and shunned if you even mention it. It is weird tbh. I like MMOs in general.

  19. #19
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    Quote Originally Posted by Wrecktangle View Post



    I also don't think this argument is fair either. SE is notorious for abandoning content or developing it with absolutely no scalability.
    Abandon and remove isn't the same. You can still do Guildhests or Battlecraft leaves to level jobs that are still in the Pre-Stormblood leveling range for example. But can you level your artifact weapon? Nope. Can you get your legendary cloak? Also nope. Sure, content that isn't popular won't receive updates, but it won't be removed.

  20. #20
    I just started playing a month or so ago. I’m enjoying the vast amount of content and options compared to WoWs raid, RBG, M+ or die structure.

    I’ve only played 5-6 classes so far. I was WMage until 60, but found it a bit bland and no new interesting abilities until SB content, so switched to dancer and really like it so far. I also really liked samurai, but by the time I unlocked it I was 58 and just wanted to progress on story. I’m currently 62 and finishing up HW.

    I’m really liking the job system, though I sort of wish I could lean into certain specialties. Seems to just be 1 way to play each job.

    Story is much better in HW than ARR, but still just okay and dialogue can drag on. I’ve heard SB is amazing though so looking forward to that.

    I like how all content stays relevant with scaling. It’s easy and there’s incentive to do old content, even if it’s just to level. One thing I can’t stand about WoW is how only the current patch and less so, the current expansion, are really relevant at all.

    The community is night and day more chill and happier. People seem happy to be on and helpful if a mistake happens or they see your new. Strikingly different than the toxic shithole community of WoW in general.

    Character models look higher fidelity and the 3D armor is great. Though the graphics engine seems dated and is especially noticeable in the outdoor world. There is a stiffness in the layouts and the textures seem often bad. It has that plasticy fake fruit look. Maybe it gets better in SB?

    The one thing I feel like might wear on me and get me to eventually quit is the engine. It just feels so dated and less polished than WoWs.

    Overall I’m enjoying it. It feels like it was made by people that actually care about the health of the community. It’s a nice change of pace.
    Last edited by Mojo03; 2021-04-27 at 10:32 AM.

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