I think the one difference here is that we have a good core of people who hang out in IRC already (irc.uberguilds.org #swampdonkey), and we were there before FFXIV reboot was even a thing anyone gave a shit about. There is a better sense of familiarity via IRC than through the boards, so I share Chysamere's confidence that we'll have a smallish but strong core group of people that will be around. Yeah, it's still pretty much a lolboardguild, but it might turn out ok.
Final Fantasy XIV (Guide in first post)
- Thread starter Guzrog
- Start date
Everything after you break out of the shitty start is fun. Combat really takes off and you break away from the errand boy bullshit of the first few levels.
Byr
Ahn'Qiraj Raider
- 3,663
- 4,943
heres a poll for where the ffxiv community are planning on playing. Not exactly scientific but theres nothing else to go on right now.
http://poll.pollcode.com/ae3fq
http://poll.pollcode.com/ae3fq
tower
Golden Knight of the Realm
- 375
- 155
Just as a reference - on Cactuar there were probably 15-20 lv32+s online for the last 10 hours or so of beta. However, there were two guild groups of 4 to 5 each so the pick up community is pretty small. I would say I've played with (at a FATE or in a Dungeon) probably every player that is 33+ so I think overall the max level community just not that large right now.
If you want to compare serious player server size I'd suggest going to Lodestone and sorting player search by the 3 grand companies. Cactuar has 578 and Malboro has...wow, 332. That is a lot smaller.
tower
Golden Knight of the Realm
- 375
- 155
It would really help if they just dropped the GCD another .5 sec. And don't give me any bullshit about the +speed items. Convert that shit into TP/MP generation once they fix the GCD.
I'm not really sure making people push buttons faster is a good thing. It makes the casual player suck even worse, and ends up being an annoyance to people who know what they're doing. Most of the defining "skill" in MMO's comes from basic get out of the fire/reacting to boss behavior anyways.
Roxby
Lord Nagafen Raider
- 84
- 1
I'm starting to think the GCD is a good idea. Have you tried a WoW DPS lately? That shits like playing Dance Dance Revolution. Spam the pretty colored buttons over and over. FFXIV has some combos in there, like you hit one move that chains into another.
The flipside to this is the inevitable slacking you get on every trash clear you do on every non-boss. Most guilds in WoW, even top guilds, had massive slacking from DPS on trash clear. It's pretty clear that even among the hardcore, people don't seem to be capable of putting out 100% for extended periods of time.
tower
Golden Knight of the Realm
- 375
- 155
I haven't played WoW for a couple expansions but the last time I did the rotation garbage was in full effect. I'd prefer Vanilla-style combat mixed with some FFXI uniqueness (skillchains and such). I can accept that won't happen but at least lower the GCD if there won't be much team synergy.
BTW, for those curious about server pop earlier someone compiled this on the main forums:http://forum.square-enix.com/ARR-Tes...-Week-1-Week-2
Brahma
Obi-Bro Kenobi-X
- 11,997
- 42,554
Ok, because I was just getting classes to lvl 10, and try another, to get a feel. Guess I will stick with the lancer.
Here's a site that functions like a character armory for our beta characters:
http://na.beta.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodestone/character
http://na.beta.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodestone/character
Vorph
Bronze Baronet of the Realm
- 11,004
- 4,745
Yeah, +speed items don't do shit. I have spell speed in nearly every slot at 35 and it takes Cure from 1.99s to 1.95s. People were testing skill speed in the last couple hours of the weekend and it didn't seem to change the cooldown at all, so what's the point when nearly all melee skills are instant?
Gear in general is pretty underwhelming right now though, and it's something they really need to address. I'm pretty sure that I could swap out all my armor for the far better looking statless stuff that new characters start with, not equip a single looted item except for my wand, and I wouldn't notice any difference at all in my performance.
Speaking of that, what's the item color hierarchy in this? I assume there's more colors than just pink and green, but I have trouble even telling if pink is actually better. Everytime I've gotten a green item in a dungeon it's been better than the pinks from the same place.
I have to disagree there. My last stint in WoW was playing a Frost DK, and once I got a taste of the 1 sec gcd I found it impossible to go back to any of my other characters. FF XIV melee is excruciatingly slow, which is why I ended up as a healer in the first place. 10 levels of lancer the first beta weekend = NOPE.
I feel the same way, I have tried to play every beta weekend so far and after a 1-2 hours I just give up. Not having fun for some reason......to much errand boy quests and being forced to do the crafting quests in order to level up. Fuck that, I want to step outside, pick a direction, start running and explore and SEE what happens to my character and the world......none of this carrot on stick, go to the little dot on the map to turn in quest BS.
Malkav
French Madman
- 2,686
- 1,583
Same here. Been playing a Pugilist in the last week-end and the GCD is fucking retarded. You get the feeling that the Pugilist is all about flowing strikes, hitting the ennemy with a flurry of blows, but instead you're stuck sitting on your thumbs between every fucking skill in the chain.
I prolly won't play the game if they lower all the gcds and speed up combat to wows pace. I really enjoy the slightly slower pace of gameplay. I don't understand the people who have fun playing a game where you hit a button every second for hours on end.
And lets be honest, the current pace is pretty close to what WoW classic was, its still much faster than EQ.
And lets be honest, the current pace is pretty close to what WoW classic was, its still much faster than EQ.
Vorph
Bronze Baronet of the Realm
- 11,004
- 4,745
WoW always had a 1.5s gcd, and XIV's is 2.5s. That's still a massive difference even if you ignore the much more recent WoW changes that gave 1.0s GCD to certain classes. They should be no more than 2.0s imo.Istill wouldn't play a melee, but I suppose I would call it in the realm of sanity.
Melee isn't the only problem though; I'd really love it if spells were adjusted as well. Stone is far too prone to interrupts when soloing at 2.5s cast. Even Cure 1 (2.0s cast, but still bound by the 2.5s gcd) can be hard to get off without using Sprint to run far away. Esuna is rather irritating when you consider that unless the debuff/poison stacks, odds are by the time you cast the damn spell it's going to wear off in a couple more seconds at most anyway. And the worst offender of all is Stoneskin--a 3.0s cast time makes it practically worthless except for pre-buffing the tank before a pull.
Melee isn't the only problem though; I'd really love it if spells were adjusted as well. Stone is far too prone to interrupts when soloing at 2.5s cast. Even Cure 1 (2.0s cast, but still bound by the 2.5s gcd) can be hard to get off without using Sprint to run far away. Esuna is rather irritating when you consider that unless the debuff/poison stacks, odds are by the time you cast the damn spell it's going to wear off in a couple more seconds at most anyway. And the worst offender of all is Stoneskin--a 3.0s cast time makes it practically worthless except for pre-buffing the tank before a pull.
Thinking about it some more, I don't see why they can't try to appease both camps. Have some classes that have very quick GCDs, and others that are slower paced. Classes like Pugilist could fall under the banner of fast melee, whereas classes like Lancer could be slow melee. Archer could be fast ranged, whereas Thaumaturge could be slow ranged, etc.