Final Fantasy XIV (Guide in first post)

Vittra · May 17, 2015

Cinge_sl said:
Fantasia, and iirc lets you change appearence once(race, looks etc). Name change is a different service iirc. Probably got it from being subbed for 30 days.

Don't think they have ever done any kind of Bonus exp weekend nor would I except to see one for expansion.

Just matter of which is better for you, $20 to change appearance/name or time spent leveling to 45(and anything else you have leveled on that character).

I think you can also buy a potion of Fantasia from mog station as a cosmetic item, I can't remember but I thought it was somewhere between 1-5$, I could be remembering wrong though.

The character creation for server lockouts is annoying, but once you're in you'll never have to deal with it again. Queue times to log in aren't really any different than Warcraft.

I think the raiding is good from a casuals stand point, there's a lot of trials that are difficult and one off fights that I don't really see in other games. FFXI was all about that with the primal fights, BCNM, KSNM, Salvage, Einherjer, Garrison, campaign, Abyssea, etc, Wow is pretty much LFR and heroic dungeons right? I hope 14 continues going with it and doesn't just add another raid wing every few months, I like the everything content and weird systems XI had.

Like pyros said the pvp is crap though.

Arcaus_sl · May 18, 2015

TecKnoe_sl said:
what does this game lack that WoW has really going for it right now that this game severely needs besides a better system to get on servers

honest question no troll.

More raid content? and is that because they arent putting it out or because WoW has been around longer so has a better refined raid content team?

does this lack arena or some type of ranked pvp, and is the system terrible?

because im not sure what wow is doing right other than being the vessel most of us jumped to when EQ got old for us, and has since then been consistent, so what is this game really lacking in?

There is about the same amount of relevant raid content as WoW at any time and you will spend about the same amount of time per week doing it. The bonus in FF is that you only need to find 7 other people who aren't retarded instead of X (where X is the size of the raid you are doing....). I have also found the raids in FF much more compelling then WoW. The combat system and mechanics feel more fluid and challenging to me.

The PVP is about as Meh as WoW is. It is quite obvious, like WoW, that development centers around the PVE stuff and PVP is an afterthought that is okay but not amazing.

I honestly believe this game isn't lacking in anything. There really isn't anything original here. The game is a mash up of other theme park MMO's. They just took those ideas and did them correctly.

Miele · May 18, 2015

Pyros_sl said:
I'd say the game isn't lacking in much, but it's not very different from wow and wow already has a huge playerbase, so most new players would gravitate towards wow due to having heard of the game from someone first and stuff like that. I don't think it needs to change much, it has its own particularities that make people like it over wow, and overall it's doing ok on subs, not like super great 10million subs, but it's a solid 500-700k from what I heard, which is more than what is I'd consider the minimum to keep the game alive(around 100k?).

Raid content I don't think it's lacking, it's not that much, but it's about as much as wow or more. They also don't have 10months blackholes of no raiding content like wow does. I mean technically final coil to expansion is like 8months or some shit, but they did release WoD inbetween. It could use harder raids for the really hardcore people and they're kinda doing that for the expansion with the 2 modes(they tested that with savage mode for coil2).

It has PvP, but it's garbage, the game engine and stuff isn't designed for it and it's really fucking bad. Arena is dead as a result, it has Battlegrounds type maps though that people kinda play in, but it's all very much an afterthought, not different from wow was, but wow pushed the pvp aspect a lot more and had a much larger population(which is always better for a viable pvp scene). And just overall, pvping in wow feels a lot better.

For what I read the registered users mark is around 4 million players, which doesn't mean they all have a sub running, but the current count is supposedly quite high, probably well above 1 million (some say 3, I think it may be overshooting).

The game for me lack only in a few aspects, one is the casters mobility: if you play a caster, you are a turret with non spammable exceptions. According to Blizzard philosophy it's a good thing, since they removed the almost-full mobility to all casters in WoD, but in FFXI, with long GCD and long casting times, at times it feels like I'm stuck to the ground. This coupled to the horrible server/client latency for AoE I must avoid (meaning either I move immediately or I take the damage, even if apparently I'm out of the area before the attack lands), makes the gameplay slightly more static/annoying than I was used to.

I'm not sure if I'll stick around for years, I have little time so far and I'm still in my 30s (with the 3 caster classes *cough*) and will decide when I'll get to the endgame and eventually the expansion pack, but I believe I'll be around for quite a while, at least a few more months if I can find a decent FC.

Pyros · May 18, 2015

Na the subs were around 600k iirc based on their revenues and shit, people throwing several million numbers are being retarded because of the 4million accounts announcement, a lot of which are probably bots they banned anyway.

Arcaus_sl · May 18, 2015

Miele_sl said:
For what I read the registered users mark is around 4 million players, which doesn't mean they all have a sub running, but the current count is supposedly quite high, probably well above 1 million (some say 3, I think it may be overshooting).

The game for me lack only in a few aspects, one is the casters mobility: if you play a caster, you are a turret with non spammable exceptions. According to Blizzard philosophy it's a good thing, since they removed the almost-full mobility to all casters in WoD, but in FFXI, with long GCD and long casting times, at times it feels like I'm stuck to the ground. This coupled to the horrible server/client latency for AoE I must avoid (meaning either I move immediately or I take the damage, even if apparently I'm out of the area before the attack lands), makes the gameplay slightly more static/annoying than I was used to.

I'm not sure if I'll stick around for years, I have little time so far and I'm still in my 30s (with the 3 caster classes *cough*) and will decide when I'll get to the endgame and eventually the expansion pack, but I believe I'll be around for quite a while, at least a few more months if I can find a decent FC.

The casters don't need to be mobile to put out the same dps numbers. Part of the end game for casters is knowing the fights well enough to know when you can cast long cast time spells and when you should just move.

Vulg · May 18, 2015

Arcaus_sl said:
I have also found the raids in FF much more compelling then WoW. The combat system and mechanics feel more fluid and challenging to me.

...

I honestly believe this game isn't lacking in anything. There really isn't anything original here. The game is a mash up of other theme park MMO's. They just took those ideas and did them correctly.

The combat system and mechanics in FF are horrid. They suffer from the same animation locking and sluggishness that SWTOR did, emphasizing style over game play. Wildstar, GW2 and even Rift played much smoother than FF. The GCD is just part of the issue; now in raid gear and with a bunch of Skill Speed, it still feels like you're stuck in mud.

The raids are presented nicely and made to feel epic, but they are also betrayed by the game engine. Telegraphs are well designed and delineated on-screen, but also very imprecise, even considering the little 'tricks' you pick up to dodging shit (eg. dodge the telegraph at initiation). And while the game has a flexible UI, there are strict limitations on useful information like buffs and debuffs - a simple counter for CDs would be a fucking welcome. The tab targeting in this game is hilarious.

In terms of content, I probably prefer FF's approach of smaller chunks of it more frequently, but you end up at roughly the same place. I can't imagine the giant shit people would take if Blizzard released a 4-man raid like World of Darkness or how many times we'd see "rehashed" on forums if they iterated on something like Coil several times.

Crone · May 18, 2015

Probably could have it's own thread on the topic, but what is so special about WoW's engine that their combat animations, and combat in general can be so fluid? Wtf did they have over a decade ago, that we don't have now? Even new games are not as smooth as WoW.

Harkon · May 18, 2015

I now understand why people hate the Titan EX fight so much.

I've generally had the benefit of a stable internet connection and never had any real issues with Titan EX. This all changed last night when I tried to show a friend what the Garuda EX and Titan EX fights were like on their wireless connection. We had no major issues with Garuda other than some extra damage taken occasionally but when Titan rolled around we were getting knocked off more than a blind man walking down the streets in Detroit.

So now I can sympathize with some of the people still having legitimate difficulties with the fight as it really is terrible to deal with on a higher latency connection.

Draynar_sl · May 18, 2015

Crone_sl said:
Probably could have it's own thread on the topic, but what is so special about WoW's engine that their combat animations, and combat in general can be so fluid? Wtf did they have over a decade ago, that we don't have now? Even new games are not as smooth as WoW.

I think most of it is because wow trust the client a bunch. FF14 and other games not so much.

Malakriss · May 18, 2015

I would never play any MMO on a wireless connection, but wireless FFXIV is like a submarine with a screen door.

TecKnoe · May 18, 2015

Malakriss_sl said:
I would never play any MMO on a wireless connection, but wireless FFXIV is like a submarine with a screen door.

wireless connections / adapters are really that bad? im using a wireless adapter on one of my PCs in the basement and my router/modem are upstairs my main Pc is hard wired, but i have never noticed a significant difference between the two even on FPS games where ping is visible, never really saw a difference never noticed it much in MMO's either, except BnS that was the only game my wireless really had an issue with at all, but i believe its because it was in china.

Ao- · May 18, 2015

Is there a guide for people coming back?

Also, any free companies/guilds on Gilgamesh still? I'm in ISIS with the old rerolled crew.

Noodleface · May 18, 2015

Wireless is fine for me, must have shitty internet.

TecKnoe · May 18, 2015

Ao-_sl said:
Is there a guide for people coming back?

Also, any free companies/guilds on Gilgamesh still? I'm in ISIS with the old rerolled crew.

thats the guild still im pretty sure, rezz just said nobody is active, he recommended some guild named valkD.

TecKnoe · May 18, 2015

Arcaus_sl said:
There is about the same amount of relevant raid content as WoW at any time and you will spend about the same amount of time per week doing it. The bonus in FF is that you only need to find 7 other people who aren't retarded instead of X (where X is the size of the raid you are doing....).

well in WoW you could do heroic/normal with any number under 25, mythic was gated behind requiring 20 so you're saying there is no tier of content in FF14 that is gated by needing X amount of members?

Rescorla_sl · May 18, 2015

Harkon_sl said:
I now understand why people hate the Titan EX fight so much.

I've generally had the benefit of a stable internet connection and never had any real issues with Titan EX. This all changed last night when I tried to show a friend what the Garuda EX and Titan EX fights were like on their wireless connection. We had no major issues with Garuda other than some extra damage taken occasionally but when Titan rolled around we were getting knocked off more than a blind man walking down the streets in Detroit.

So now I can sympathize with some of the people still having legitimate difficulties with the fight as it really is terrible to deal with on a higher latency connection.

Titan was the first encounter in FF14 where I died. The boss mechanics were simple enough to figure out and avoid and everything was progressing smoothly until BOOM out of the blue I got thrown off the edge and died even though from my perspective I had clearly moved out of the telegraph in time. My guildmates said to not worry about it because it happens all the time.

Man0warr · May 18, 2015

Ao-_sl said:
Is there a guide for people coming back?

Also, any free companies/guilds on Gilgamesh still? I'm in ISIS with the old rerolled crew.

There's a good guide for returning players on the FFXIV subreddit:

So You Just Hit Level 50 in Patch 2.55 - Google ??

Crone · May 18, 2015

The whole move out of telegraphs immediately, otherwise you'll be hit is bull shit. If you move out of the telegraph, before it disappears, but still get hit, that's pretty stupid, and a big reason a friend of mine wouldn't play this game.

I tend to just deal with it, but that is pretty damn annoying, especially as it seems to continue to higher level content/raids.

AladainAF · May 18, 2015

It's no where near as bad as it used to be. But I'm not sure why they can't give you an extra ~quarter of a second or something from the time it disappears to the time its actually fired off.

Nehrak_sl · May 18, 2015

AladainAF_sl said:
It's no where near as bad as it used to be. But I'm not sure why they can't give you an extra ~quarter of a second or something from the time it disappears to the time its actually fired off.

Honestly, I wonder if this subject will be touched on during the 3.0 Battle System part of the Live Letter this Thursday.

Final Fantasy XIV (Guide in first post)

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