Is it possible to enjoy FFXIV if I only like endgame content?

[Merpish]

Basically the title. I don't care about the story, and the more casual content like housing, RP, and glamour really doesn't interest me. I literally only want to Raid. Is this really possible or am I going to have a bad time?

[Yarathir]

It doesn't remotely mold a majority of the game around the endgame raids and trials like Blizzard does to WoW if that's what you're wondering. I would advise against playing just for the endgame.

[Jtbrig7390]

Basically the title. I don't care about the story, and the more casual content like housing, RP, and glamour really doesn't interest me. I literally only want to Raid. Is this really possible or am I going to have a bad time?

You can enjoy the game this way just fine, I did for years.

There is some who don't care for the raids/dungeons but enjoys the story. That's one major thing about FF14 that's great, enjoy the content you want to do.

Now you will have to pay for a boost or blast thought the story content but u can enjoy just endgame stuff.

[Myradin]

If you just want to raidlog it probably isn't too bad. But the boss count is kind of low.

[NineSpine]

Basically the title. I don't care about the story, and the more casual content like housing, RP, and glamour really doesn't interest me. I literally only want to Raid. Is this really possible or am I going to have a bad time?

1. FF14 raids feel very different, as does the combat. There is no way to know if you'll like this without playing. I prefer it, and many do, but it is subjective.

2. You won't spend as much time raiding, and that's either a good thing or a bad thing depending on your perspective. Personally, I dislike that wow raids take weeks and weeks of progression to get over an artificial gear wall.

3. FF14 has ultimate raids, a concept WoW lacks entirely. These are mythic end-boss tier fights that are evergreen with a set gear level. For someone really into raiding, these can take many hundreds of hours to beat and never go away.

4. You really shouldn't go into FF14 assuming you only want one thing out of it. You should go into it open minded and not assume something like "I dont care about the story in wow, so I won't care in FF14".

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If you just want to raidlog it probably isn't too bad. But the boss count is kind of low.

The boss count is comparable to WoW. What is not comparable is the mythic-level boss count. This is an important distinction.

[Myradin]

The boss count is comparable to WoW. What is not comparable is the mythic-level boss count. This is an important distinction.

How so? The raid has like 4 bosses.

[NineSpine]

How so? The raid has like 4 bosses.

An expansion will have the following:

12 normal/savage raid bosses.
12-15 Alliance raid bosses.
7-9 Trial bosses.
1-2 Ultimate raids.

That's about 35 bosses per expansion, completely comparable with WoW.

[Bramickias]

So you want to raidlog FF14? That's completely doable, but I've got no clue if 4 new bosses every 4-5 months and an ultimate boss a year, will be enough for you.
At least you have a ton of old raids to clear, if you can find a group that wants to do that.

[AcidicSyn]

If you only care about raiding and are hard set against any other kind of content, FF14 might be a harder sell than say WoW, but from what I hear its definitely doable, especially if you're willing to buy the story skips. It sounds like the skip might even be mandatory for someone like you, the leveling experience and even some game features are locked behind story progression, so if you absolutely hate that kind of stuff you'll either need to just autopilot/blast your way through it or buy a skip.

Good news is you only gotta do the MSQ on one toon though, on account of the whole one toon all jobs thing (You'll still need to do job specific quests though)

[RobertMugabe]

2. You won't spend as much time raiding, and that's either a good thing or a bad thing depending on your perspective. Personally, I dislike that wow raids take weeks and weeks of progression to get over an artificial gear wall.

3. FF14 has ultimate raids, a concept WoW lacks entirely. These are mythic end-boss tier fights that are evergreen with a set gear level. For someone really into raiding, these can take many hundreds of hours to beat and never go away.

What is it, do FF14 raids take a long ass time to progress or not?

[NineSpine]

What is it, do FF14 raids take a long ass time to progress or not?

Ultimate raids take a long time to progress because they are difficult. There is no gear wall. They are one boss who doesn't drop upgrades. We get 1-2 per expansion.

Normal/Savage raids are very quick to progress, and again there is no gear wall to get over. There are only four bosses per wing. We get three per expansion.

[RobertMugabe]

Ultimate raids take a long time to progress because they are difficult. There is no gear wall. They are one boss who doesn't drop upgrades. We get 1-2 per expansion.

Normal/Savage raids are very quick to progress, and again there is no gear wall to get over. There are only four bosses per wing. We get three per expansion.

So just like WoW except that WoW has bigger and better raids?

[NineSpine]

So just like WoW except that WoW has bigger and better raids?

I don't find WoW raids very fun. Figuring out the best addons to trivialize the encounters isnt my idea of good gameplay.

WoW does release larger raids, and they struggle to even get one out the door every 6 months. FF14 releases a new raid every 3-4 months.

[Dakhath]

I don't find WoW raids very fun. Figuring out the best addons to trivialize the encounters isnt my idea of good gameplay.

While I enjoy both games raiding systems, lets not pretend this only happens in WoW.

[NineSpine]

While I enjoy both games raiding systems, lets not pretend this only happens in WoW.

For all intents and purposes, it does. There are issues with illegal addons on the fringes of FF14. It is not the norm or the expected way to play for the vast, vast, vast majority of players.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

FFXIV has scant little in the way of "endgame" content. The latest raid tier only consists of four bosses. WoW at least gives you a dozen bosses per raid tier. Besides raiding, there is doing the grind zones of Eureka and Bozja for hundreds of hours on end for transmog/glamour. Then there is doing the same 5v5 PvP maps for dozens of hours on end. And... that's it.

[NineSpine]

FFXIV has scant little in the way of "endgame" content. The latest raid tier only consists of four bosses. WoW at least gives you a dozen bosses per raid tier. Besides raiding, there is doing the grind zones of Eureka and Bozja for hundreds of hours on end for transmog/glamour. Then there is doing the same 5v5 PvP maps for dozens of hours on end. And... that's it.

Are you talking about the normal/savage raid or the alliance raid? Because both are current and amount to more than 4 bosses. WoW typically delivers raids less than half as often as FF14 does, so of course they are smaller but that's also why it is dishonest to compare them 1:1.

1. Doing dailies for tomestones
2. The latest alliance raid
3. The latest normal/savage raid
4. Ultimate raids
5. Deep dungeons
6. Eureka/Bozja
7. Extreme trials
8. Crafting
9. Collecting
10. Gold saucer
11. Crystalline conflict
12. Other PvP
13. Tribe reps
14. FATEs

Yeah, nothing whatsoever to do.

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The alliance raid bosses are basically like lfr so I wouldn't count them as end game challenge

I don't care how hard they are. I care that they are fun.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

An expansion will have the following:

12 normal/savage raid bosses.

And like WoW, only the latest raid tier is relevant, and since a raid tier in FFXIV consists of bosses, that means that there are practically only 4 current raid bosses at any given time.

12-15 Alliance raid bosses.

Alliance raids are LFR easy mode only, and like raids only the latest tier is relevant.

7-9 Trial bosses.

Like raids, only the current patch trial is relevant. In 5.3, if you wanted a raid, you did Seat of Sacrifice extreme to get your ears wet before diving into the second tier of Eden.

1-2 Ultimate raids.

Only one ultimate came out in ShB. Also, ultimates can become undertuned with time.

That's about 35 bosses per expansion, completely comparable with WoW.

That's 5-6 raid bosses that are current at any given time (4 raid, 1 trial and maybe 1 optional trial like Varis or a Weapon fight).

[NineSpine]

And like WoW, only the latest raid tier is relevant, and since a raid tier in FFXIV consists of bosses, that means that there are practically only 4 current raid bosses at any given time.

There are only 4 current normal/savage bosses at a time. There is also a current Alliance raid and 1-2 current extreme trials.

Alliance raids are LFR easy mode only, and like raids only the latest tier is relevant.

I don't care how hard it is. I care if its fun.

Like raids, only the current patch trial is relevant. In 5.3, if you wanted a raid, you did Seat of Sacrifice extreme to get your ears wet before diving into the second tier of Eden.

Only one ultimate came out in ShB. Also, ultimates can become undertuned with time.

And two are coming out in Endwalker.

That's 5-6 raid bosses that are current at any given time (4 raid, 1 trial and maybe 1 optional trial like Varis or a Weapon fight).

If your argument is that FF14 should release contents every 8 months like wow does, and just load those rare patches up with more content, that's great and all but it doesn't magically make the volume of raid bosses per expansion different.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

So just like WoW except that WoW has bigger and better raids?

There are major differences in how FFXIV designs its raid encounters.

• FFXIV raids are exclusively boss fights. You will never get imaginative encounters like the gunship battle, Spine of Deathwing, Dark Animus, Hans'gar and Franzok, Operator Thogar, etc.

• FFXIV fights have hard enrages on a timer, and if any player botches a mechanic once, they get one shotted and/or their damage is severely debuffed, meaning that the group decides to wipe right then and there and start over. Rather than an exciting WoW fight where the team uses their tools to manage a steadily declining situation and win the war of attrition, FFXIV progression is about doing a dance over and over again until all 8 players nail every single mechanic for 8-10 minutes.