Final Fantasy XIV (Guide in first post)

My pugilist is level 25 and so far I am enjoying the game, primarily because of the main story and class quest lines. I had been doing all the sidequests but was quickly several levels above the content so I have been skipping all sidequests that are lower level and will use them to level up other classes. My guildmates are raving about the main story quest so I am looking forward to seeing how that plays out.

With that said, I've read a lot of posts on the official forums from people who claim the main story line sucks and they just click thru most of it and only do it to unlock stuff. So my question is what is the main appeal for this game for people who don't give a crap for the story/lore?

Reason I ask is because so far levelling to 25 and running the first three dungeons have been faceroll easy. I have only died once and the only reason that occurred is because I purposely pulled 6-7 mobs to see if I could solo it. If you don't play the game because of the story/lore, does it get significantly more challenging doing end game content?

Also, I'm beginning to get the perception the PVE difficulty in this game is balanced fully around using the PS4 controller and that anyone playing on a PC with keyboard find it much simpler to play. Is that a common sentiment?

Going to be lazy and quote myself from a previous page in response to you:

ixian_sl said:

Dungeons don't really pick up until Brayflox's Longstop (level 32). There's some interesting mechanics here and there before then, but again they tend to be baby's first MMO until then.

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Even with that in mind, most of the leveling dungeons aren't super difficult, particularly if you're with people who know what they're doing. Naturally, end-game content is more difficult, at least the 8-man stuff (Coil, EX Primals). The 24-man Crystal Tower series is designed to be PUG friendly.

As for the PS4 controller question, while I'm sure they take into account PS4 controllers (they don't want to be exclusionary after all), I don't think they balance around it. By level 50 many of the jobs have a lot of abilities which can be... interesting to make work on a controller, and it will only get worse as the level cap goes up.

Kriptini_sl said:

Holy shit guys. The 2.55 finale. Holy shit holy shit holy shit holy shit holy shit.

Stop reading this and go do it RIGHT NOW.

...and get some popcorn. You're gonna need it.

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Just finished it.

That was the best conclusion toanyMMO story, expansion, patch I've ever witnessed. Absolutely unbelievablyamazing. Just stunned.

I can't wait for this expansion.

Since comming back I have been avoiding the main scenario until cleaning up my journal (haven't started 2.2 story yet). With all this praise I may have to just finish it first. Only have like 3 hours a night to play, hoping I can run through it all tonight.

The only sad thing is how many ups and downs the story has.

Level 1-20: Not bad
20-Pre Titan: Kill me
Titan: Awesome
Coerthas: Boring
Garuda-50: Very good
Moogle Mog Story: Okay
Leviathan story: Starts slow but gets pretty good
Ramuh story: Meh
Shiva story: Ugh
2.5 story: Good
2.55 story: The best storytelling of any MMO that has ever been made

A lot of the good post-50 main story quest bits are also hampered by the shitty questing, too.

Also, I strongly dislike people who can't follow directions and won't speak up when given directions. Wanted to knock out Steps of Faith before my vacation but people are giving me a headache.

Im on the Uninvited Ascian quest, need to finish main scenario this weekend.

Kriptini_sl said:

The only sad thing is how many ups and downs the story has.

Level 1-20: Not bad
20-Pre Titan: Kill me
Titan: Awesome
Coerthas: Boring
Garuda-50: Very good
Moogle Mog Story: Okay
Leviathan story: Starts slow but gets pretty good
Ramuh story: Meh
Shiva story: Ugh
2.5 story: Good
2.55 story: The best storytelling of any MMO that has ever been made

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/agree


Alot of the quests along the way were meh with the main story but the payoff was worth the wait.

I just wish they would voice your character or at least give you more to say via text.

Harkon_sl said:

/agree


Alot of the quests along the way were meh with the main story but the payoff was worth the wait.

I just wish they would voice your character or at least give you more to say via text.

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THEY FINALLY GAVE TATARU A VA

LIKE, ABOUT TIME

Love the part where you help her out in Limsa

Just out of curiosity since I was one of the original FF14 poopsockers.

Did they ever fix all the net lag with the telegraphs. Where you would see one thing on your screen, and something far different was happening in game?

Also did they ever improve the UI with more features, and is the white mage healing still a death sentence haha

A while back they tightened up the some of the player positional checking for instances but it still feels a bit loose especially when compared to WoW.

Some of the newer content / boss fights have axed telegraphing all together and those fights feel the best IMO, a trend I hope they continue with.

On my phone browser, at the bottom of this page is a web ad for a FF14 automated bot. Anyone else seeing that ad? First time I recall the Rerolled website have any kind of advertising promoting bots.

How does the final battle of the story compare toDawn ~Promathia Fight~ - YouTube
(Chains of Promathia is really the end of the FF11 "main story")

It's a moving battle against a dragon who is attempting to knock through several barriers(wards) to reach a city.

I found it to be alot of fun, but it also requires people to perform several fight specific mechanics which can be frustrating in the duty finder.

Harkon_sl said:

It's a moving battle against a dragon who is attempting to knock through several barriers(wards) to reach a city.

I found it to be alot of fun, but it also requires people to perform several fight specific mechanics which can be frustrating in the duty finder.

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Ahh, yeah lowest common denominator finder.

I just kinda wished that I'd heard the fight was eye-bleeding hard like COP 6-4. Part of what I liked about FF11 is you actually needed to understand some level of game mechanics to progress the story. This means that idiots were locked out of the high end areas of the game (example: Tu'lia)

Did they ever fix the issue with appearing outside of AOEs yet still being hit by them? I quit after getting pissed off at Titan EX. Failing after appearing to move half a screen off an AoE pissed me off to no end. Especially when my ping was sub 100. Friend mentioned they stopped making fights like this but he is kinda DERP and couldn't even complete the first coil without waiting for the patch that nerfed it.

Vinen_sl said:

Ahh, yeah lowest common denominator finder.

I just kinda wished that I'd heard the fight was eye-bleeding hard like COP 6-4. Part of what I liked about FF11 is you actually needed to understand some level of game mechanics to progress the story. This means that idiots were locked out of the high end areas of the game (example: Tu'lia)

Did they ever fix the issue with appearing outside of AOEs yet still being hit by them? I quit after getting pissed off at Titan EX. Failing after appearing to move half a screen off an AoE pissed me off to no end. Especially when my ping was sub 100. Friend mentioned they stopped making fights like this but he is kinda DERP and couldn't even complete the first coil without waiting for the patch that nerfed it.

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The two worst things about the game (all in all a great game) was the "loose" proximity check/lag on ground ae's and the general ability DC's (preference but mad the game so painful for me outside of on BLM). The production quality of the game seemed so vastly superior on the story side then any other MMO I played in my life and the great music etc. I retired from MMO's but I'd be lying if I said I want to fire this bad boy up.

Did they ever make PVP remotely enjoyable? It was just flat pathetic when I quit.

Alkorin_sl said:

The net lag: Yes. The telegraphs: If you don't suck, yes.

"Improve the UI"? How so? Probably not, but that's very subjective. What improvements were you looking for?

Not sure what you mean by the white mage being a death sentence, but both WHM and SCH have been buffed since launch.

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Ah, you must have not been playing when it first came out if you don't know what I'm talking about

The party frames were really primitive at launch. You couldn't even track buffs, and more importantly debuffs correctly because the UI would only allow a certain amount to be registered in the frame.

White mages heals drew insane agro. The cries of a many dead white mage on Turn 4 still haunt me. hah

Anyone still playing since launch?

Did they ever fix the issue with appearing outside of AOEs yet still being hit by them?

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That was going on since Alpha. That's one of the questions I wanted an answer too. We played around it by going inside the telegraph while it was activated, but even with that the server reports your position different then what you see on your client so you could still die.

This is how dumb the game was when we were playing. You could sit in a telegraph while its animation was going off, and immediately get out. This would count as no damage on your character

If a telegraph came up that wasn't activated yet , and you were sitting in it then immediately got out you had a chance to take full damage no matter how far out you ran.
And then the massive DC's when people would use their abilities, as well as all the random stuff that would just happen because the server thought your were in a certain position.

It was lovely days back then