Final Fantasy XIV (Guide in first post)

Crone_sl said:

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.

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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.

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It's not "when the telegraph disappears," it's when the cast bar finishes. Most telegraphs have accompanying cast bars. (Weight of the Land and Landslide in Titan Ex both have castbars, for example. The telegraphs don't disappear until after the casts finish.)

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.

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WoW system was built in house over years on a relatively simple graphic, so animations had to be perfect and it shows that many many hours went into making it smooth, having "weight" put into melee attacks and so on, but there is another factor that is often overlooked and it's the sound effect associated to the hit/miss and damn, Blizzard got those just damn right.
I think in terms of smooth combat and animations GW2 is extremely well done, it's really well done, precise, fast and responsive.

FFXIV is lacking, it's slow, it's misleading (telegraphs and casting times are telling two different stories), but for casters, namely WHM and BLM, I like the style and the impact effect of their attacks.
I admit I don't play FF for its combat, but I enjoy its class system and the graphics/sounds are very well done and are really blending in a very gorgeous world.

I don't think it's the perfect game, but it's worth my money, something I can't say very often. Also Lalafells.

Crone_sl said:

Also Lalafells.

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Man0warr_sl said:

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

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

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At a first glance it looks like a fuckton of stuff to do, I'm not even 50 yet, how long is that going to take me? Is it even worth doing everything before the xpack? I know I have to complete the story, so gearing up is necessary, but the relic weapon? Anything else I can eventually skip?
Holy shit, I hope I can put in a couple good sessions to hit 50 asap, because I may be locked out of Heavensward at my current pace

Skip the relic. You don't need exceptionally high ilvls, and simply doing dailies will get you up to 90 (the highest needed for story) in a couple of weeks or so. You'll be stupid undergeared for a lot of stuff, but most dungeons you run will be 2-3 of 4 in ilvl 100+ at a minimum, so make sure you pace it appropriately (if you are dps it probably doesn't matter, but if you heal you need to tell the tanks not to pull half the zone at a time). Continually queue for the highest dungeons you can, and do the 24 man stuff (Labyrinth, ST, WOD) the moment you are able to. Beating all 3 (and you will, regardless of class) lets you do the weekly, which is important. Do the weekly each week, and with your first one grab the encrypted tomestome deal, and SAVE your poetics. Purchase gear with soldiery to fill in gaps while you get dungeon/24man raid drops. WHen you have 1300 poetics (or you can do it in lower chunks, 130 a pop) which should take you about a week in a half if you basically just do the dailies each day and the weeklies, obviously less if you do other stuff, buy 10 of the Rowena Poetics tokens, then pick up your level 120 Ironworks weapon with the tomestone from the weekly. Since you should be on week two at this point, do the weekly again and get the Carbontwine this time. Use it to upgrade the Ironworks Magiteck weapon to Ilvel 130. At this point, you are more than set for the expac, and spend way the hell less time than you would trying to get the relic. Literally, two weeks of semi-consistent playing and you'll be geared plenty for the story missions and the expac release.

To further speed this up, join a couple of hunting LS and do that, as you'll get soldiery and hunt tokens, which both can be used on ilvl 100 gear. But you honestly shouldn't need to, just do the dailies as you can, and you'll get a bunch of "first time adventurer" soldiery bonuses anyway, which as long as you are consistently working towards unlocking dungeons and roulettes (low and high level give 100 soldiery each, expert gives more poetics) you'll get them constantly. Just keep spending the solidery as you get them to get boosts in ilvl so you meet the progressive requirements for the dungeons and storyline missions.

Great, very useful, I can't +1 you, but I would.
I take I still have to raise the grand company rank inbetween all this. Well, I'll just go with the flow and keep hunting for a good FC on my server.

Miele_sl said:

At a first glance it looks like a fuckton of stuff to do, I'm not even 50 yet, how long is that going to take me? Is it even worth doing everything before the xpack? I know I have to complete the story, so gearing up is necessary, but the relic weapon? Anything else I can eventually skip?
Holy shit, I hope I can put in a couple good sessions to hit 50 asap, because I may be locked out of Heavensward at my current pace

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Do the story, Crystal tower until you get geared for Syrcus tower and then do that for like 1 or 2 pieces of gear and then do World of Darkness for the rest. You should get enough tokens to get a decent weapon and upgrade it. That and the story and you should be ready for the patch.

KRIPTINI'S GUIDE TO BEING HEAVENSWARD-READY AS FAST AS POSSIBLE:

1. Reach level 50 and complete your level 50 job quest and the quest, "The Ultimate Weapon," which is the final quest in the first MSQ quest chain.

2. Complete the quest, "The Weaponsmith of Legend." (This unlocks your relic quest.)

3. Complete the quest, "A Relic Reborn." (This gives you a cheap i80 weapon and earns you quite a bit of Tomestones of Soldiery.)

4. Purchase three Thavnarian Mist in Revenant's Toll for 150 Tomestones of Soldier each, then use them at the Furnace near Gerolt in the North Shroud to upgrade your relic to Zenith. (It will make your weapon i90, which is the minimum required iLevel for accessing Heavensward. If you don't have enough Soldiery at this point, skip this step and come back to it later.)

5. Comeplete the quests, "Legacy of Allag," "Sanding it Down," "A Performance for the Ages," and "Labyrinth of the Ancients." (This unlocks the Labyrinth of the Ancients raid.)

6. Farm the Labyrinth of the Ancients raid. Dropped loot will be i80 left side pieces. Exchange any Tomestones of Soldiery you get for i100 right side (jewelry) gear in Mor Dhona. Keep doing this until you have an average item level of i70. (You need an average item level of i50 in order to enter LotA. If you have your Zenith and quested gear, you should be okay.)

7. Once you have an average item level of i70, complete the quests "For Prosperity" and "Syrcus Tower."

8. Farm the Syrcus Tower raid. Dropped loot will be i100 left side pieces, as well as "Oils of Time" which you can use to upgrade your i100 jewelry to i110 by talking to Gerolt's apprentice, Drake. As before, exchange any Soldiery you get for i100 right side jewelry in Mor Dhona if you haven't finished gearing that side by now. Repeat this until your average item level is i90.

9. Complete the second MSQ quest chain, starting with "The Price of Principles." (This will take a very long time, and the last few quests can't be done unless you are at least i90. It's not a bad idea to work on these while you wait for raid DF queues.)

Once you finish step 9, you're ready for Heavensward!

Ao-_sl said:

Holy shit this system destroys my gfx card. Even with lowest settings it's in the upper 90s for temp. I realize the card is rather fucked, but it's able to stay in the 70s with GW2 and 80s with WoW.

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FFXIV barely makes my GFX fan rev up (and it's an old 580ti or something), although I'm not using ultra settings or anything. FFXIV engine is pretty good, probably because it was optimized for consoles.

I use an old ass radeon HD5800 on mild to good settings and my card gets hot but nothing crazh

Kriptini_sl said:

KRIP LOLI'S GUIDE TO BEING HEAVENSWARD-READY AS FAST AS POSSIBLE:

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Alternative directions for getting gear:

- Find a crafting slut on this board that can make i90+ gear. (I'm almost there, but I haven't worked on getting my crafting up to 3-star levels yet. Been too busy with being braindead irl.)

Nehrak_sl said:

Alternative directions for getting gear:

- Find a crafting slut on this board that can make i90+ gear. (I'm almost there, but I haven't worked on getting my crafting up to 3-star levels yet. Been too busy with being braindead irl.)

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Yeah but that stuff can be really expensive to craft. Especially the weapon. The only i90 crafted weapons are the primal glamor weapons, so you have to go with i110 crafted.

Crafted gear sucks.
Why the hell would you buy crappy ilvl110 gear for millions of gils when you can just farm WoD for armor, buy an ilvl100 weapon with soldiery and upgrade it to 110 easily?

Depending on class, some of the fully melded ilvl110 gear is BiS!

Kriptini_sl said:

KRIPTINI'S GUIDE TO BEING HEAVENSWARD-READY AS FAST AS POSSIBLE:

1. Reach level 50 and complete your level 50 job quest and the quest, "The Ultimate Weapon," which is the final quest in the first MSQ quest chain.

2. Complete the quest, "The Weaponsmith of Legend." (This unlocks your relic quest.)

3. Complete the quest, "A Relic Reborn." (This gives you a cheap i80 weapon and earns you quite a bit of Tomestones of Soldiery.)

4. Purchase three Thavnarian Mist in Revenant's Toll for 150 Tomestones of Soldier each, then use them at the Furnace near Gerolt in the North Shroud to upgrade your relic to Zenith. (It will make your weapon i90, which is the minimum required iLevel for accessing Heavensward. If you don't have enough Soldiery at this point, skip this step and come back to it later.)

5. Comeplete the quests, "Legacy of Allag," "Sanding it Down," "A Performance for the Ages," and "Labyrinth of the Ancients." (This unlocks the Labyrinth of the Ancients raid.)

6. Farm the Labyrinth of the Ancients raid. Dropped loot will be i80 left side pieces. Exchange any Tomestones of Soldiery you get for i100 right side (jewelry) gear in Mor Dhona. Keep doing this until you have an average item level of i70. (You need an average item level of i50 in order to enter LotA. If you have your Zenith and quested gear, you should be okay.)

7. Once you have an average item level of i70, complete the quests "For Prosperity" and "Syrcus Tower."

8. Farm the Syrcus Tower raid. Dropped loot will be i100 left side pieces, as well as "Oils of Time" which you can use to upgrade your i100 jewelry to i110 by talking to Gerolt's apprentice, Drake. As before, exchange any Soldiery you get for i100 right side jewelry in Mor Dhona if you haven't finished gearing that side by now. Repeat this until your average item level is i90.

9. Complete the second MSQ quest chain, starting with "The Price of Principles." (This will take a very long time, and the last few quests can't be done unless you are at least i90. It's not a bad idea to work on these while you wait for raid DF queues.)

Once you finish step 9, you're ready for Heavensward!

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For those wondering, if you skip all the cut scenes, this is probably 20+ hours. Great guide though. I would suggest saving tomes for the weapon you can purchase with them instead of getting the relic. It will cut a couple of hours off your time and you literally can get carried through Labrynth and Syrcus. No one will even notice you aren't actually attacking.