Final Fantasy XIV (Guide in first post)

Pharone

Pharone

Trakanon Raider
1,137
1,007
I ran in to my first asshole in FFXIV yesterday while tanking a dungeon on my 31 Paladin.

First and foremost, I would like to point out that the community in FFXIV has been insanely better then all other MMORPGs I have ever played. The vast majority of people I run in to are not assholes. I knew I would run in to one eventually.

So, here I was tanking low level dungeons trying my best to not be a noob tank. I certainly wasn't the best tank ever, but I was far from sucking. I managed to keep the mobs on me 99% of the time which I feel like was my job.

Then I get in to a dungeon with a little prick named Mc Cane. He was a healer of course because you know 90% of assholes in MMORPGs play healers, so they can wave their dicks around daring people to say anything to them since they are needed for anything.

I'm pulling everything like a champ, clearing every room, and keeping everything on me. We get to the last area right before the boss mob, and Mc Cane decides I am not going fast enough for him, so he races over to the barrier to the next fight, opens it, and races in. At this point, he has six or more mobs on him beating the shit out of him. He runs back to me as I am frantically trying to pull agro off of him. I manage to pull everything on to me with him at just a sliver of life left. We burn them all down, kill the last mini-boss, and prepare to go fight the main dungeon boss.

And, then Mc Cane says to the party, "Our tank sucks".

I was thinking "fuck you", but I didn't say anything at all. I just acted like I didn't see it. I go in, tank the boss, and finish the dungeon run. I told him that next time he is rude, try to remember to put /fc before it instead of saying it in party. I put him on my blacklist (hopefully to not get paired with him ever again in a dungeon), and left the dungeon.

Now here's the thing. Like I said before, 99.9999% of everybody I have ran in to in FFXIV has been nice. So, the first thought that came to me is, "I wonder if this is a new person from some other MMORPG". I went out and checked on lodestone for his character, and low and behold I was right. He is a level 27 Conjurer and that's it. Nothing else. No harvesting, crafting, or other classes at all. He's some fucktard from another game like WoW that has obviously jumped on the FFXIV bandwagon because it's the new hot thing right now, and he has brought his toxic nature with him.

I hope that FFXIV's popularity as of late don't pull a shit ton of these toxic players to the game.
 
Valderen

Valderen

Space Pirate
<Bronze Donator>
4,451
2,623
Pharone said:
That was with me doing all the gathering for the materials to use for the crafting. I chose to do that for two reasons; money and enjoyment. As a new player to the game, I just didn't have the gil to spend on buying the materials typically. As for enjoyment, I absolutely love harvesting. I find it highly relaxing to go spend an hour or so harvesting.
Click to expand...

I have all crafters and gatherers at 80 except Culinarin(hopefully this weekend) and I still go out and gather everything I need all the time for the same reason you...I enjoy it, and it's relaxing and a nice change of pace sometimes.

I generally try to vary my activities in the game as much as possible, doing a little bit of everything in short burst so that I don't get too bored of doing one thing over and over again.

When my Botanist Retainer hit 80, I used Garland, added all the items I need to craft for her on the crafting list, and went out to gather everything I didn't have in stock. Just about the right amount, not more to stock up, even though I would need everything again in a day or 2 for the miner, and in a few days again for the fisher.

I mean variety is the spice of life as they say. :)
 
Pyros

Pyros

<Silver Donator>
11,058
2,262
Blacklisting ppl doesn't prevent you from being grouped with them via DF. It'd fuck the matchmaking if it did. It does prevent you from entering their PF or them entering yours though. It's fairly rare you'll see the same people again however.

Some people are just fucking retarded, and they can't even tell a bad tank from a good one anyway cause they're so bad themselves. Everytime the healer and the tank get into a pissing contest in my dungeon runs, they're both fucking shit and I wish I could replace both of them, but I never say anything because fuck the queues.

Can always try kicking the healer before the last boss if they said that though. It helps if you have a FC with ppl willing to come in and quickly do a boss for you.
 
Pharone

Pharone

Trakanon Raider
1,137
1,007
Valderen said:
I have all crafters and gatherers at 80 except Culinarin(hopefully this weekend) and I still go out and gather everything I need all the time for the same reason you...I enjoy it, and it's relaxing and a nice change of pace sometimes.

I generally try to vary my activities in the game as much as possible, doing a little bit of everything in short burst so that I don't get too bored of doing one thing over and over again.

When my Botanist Retainer hit 80, I used Garland, added all the items I need to craft for her on the crafting list, and went out to gather everything I didn't have in stock. Just about the right amount, not more to stock up, even though I would need everything again in a day or 2 for the miner, and in a few days again for the fisher.

I mean variety is the spice of life as they say. :)
Click to expand...
What is an ideal combo for your retainers to be? Right now mine are Botanist and Adventurer.

Also, for the sake of keeping my retainer inventories packed full, is it ok to get rid of the lower level materials instead of holding on to them, or do you need the lower level materials to make lower level items to be used to make higher level items? For instance, when all of my crafting classes hit at least level 30, do I still need to hold on to any of the sub level 20 crafting materials, or can I get rid of it all?
 
Pharone

Pharone

Trakanon Raider
1,137
1,007
Pyros said:
Blacklisting ppl doesn't prevent you from being grouped with them via DF. It'd fuck the matchmaking if it did. It does prevent you from entering their PF or them entering yours though. It's fairly rare you'll see the same people again however.

Some people are just fucking retarded, and they can't even tell a bad tank from a good one anyway cause they're so bad themselves. Everytime the healer and the tank get into a pissing contest in my dungeon runs, they're both fucking shit and I wish I could replace both of them, but I never say anything because fuck the queues.

Can always try kicking the healer before the last boss if they said that though. It helps if you have a FC with ppl willing to come in and quickly do a boss for you.
Click to expand...
Dang. I was hoping blacklist would just ban his ass from my groups lol.

It didn't bother me that much though. I have thick skin.

I just don't fathom having the roflcopter lollerskate suxor l2play crowd coming to FFXIV just because all the other games suck dick right now in comparison, but I'm sure they will get bored soon and leave anyway since the game doesn't start at end-game. I mean really that crowd is only after one thing; getting to end game and earning massive sparkly shoulderpads and running around a hub city saying, "LOOK AT THE SIZE OF MY DICK!!! DAMN BOI!" They won't last long in a game where the story is the reward rather than the sparklies.
 
Valderen

Valderen

Space Pirate
<Bronze Donator>
4,451
2,623
Pharone said:
What is an ideal combo for your retainers to be? Right now mine are Botanist and Adventurer.

Also, for the sake of keeping my retainer inventories packed full, is it ok to get rid of the lower level materials instead of holding on to them, or do you need the lower level materials to make lower level items to be used to make higher level items? For instance, when all of my crafting classes hit at least level 30, do I still need to hold on to any of the sub level 20 crafting materials, or can I get rid of it all?
Click to expand...

I have 9 retainers, so I don't have an issue with what combo to use. :)

That said, I personally prefer adventuring ones to gatherers as I find it's easier to go gather something I need than it is to go out and kill a specific mob for a drop like skins for leather. That just a personal preference though.

For the most part you can get rid of lower materials. Although some are required for some higher level recipes, but generally easy to farm those back. I still used Effervescent Water while leveling from 70-80 for some stuff, and that's like a level 20 material or so.
 
Noodleface

Noodleface

A Mod Real Quick
37,961
14,508
People expect tanks to pull entire hallways, but at a low level it's hard. Usually you can gauge what you can do by seeing how much your health is bouncing around. If it's very small hits you could.pull more. But... At a low level I usually don't do that
 
gshurik

gshurik

Tranny Chaser
<Gold Donor>
2,517
-56
Dungeon length should be the thing to take into account over fight frequency.

Sometimes it's faster to pull smaller because you're not dying, and it's all about gauging the competency of your healer before a pull.

In low level dungeons it can barely be worth it too because nobody has AOE sometimes.
 
  • 1GreNeg
Reactions: 1 user
Malakriss

Malakriss

Golden Baronet of the Realm
12,343
11,732
My combat retainers will be farming cubus flesh til the end of this expansion, even if the price drops it will still be a volume sale as everyone stocks up craft materia until 5.3 tier, and then for future use too.

Botanists... Gerbera to use with the cubus flesh
Miners... Salt? They really screwed over botanist/miner retainers by not using 72-78 mats for the new tier
Fishing is god this expansion. Shrimp and Oysters for the CP food, Oysters are used for a lesser food as well. Both hit 12k+ on gilg yesterday and it was glorious.
 
  • 1Like
Reactions: 1 user
M

Magimaster

Trakanon Raider
536
1,331
gshurik said:
Dungeon length should be the thing to take into account over fight frequency.

Sometimes it's faster to pull smaller because you're not dying, and it's all about gauging the competency of your healer before a pull.

In low level dungeons it can barely be worth it too because nobody has AOE sometimes.
Click to expand...

Yeah, a lot of folks just assume you can mass pull every dungeon in the game.

I tend to pull 2 packs at most, depending on dungeon and the DPS and healers I have. If Ihave lower dps like ninja-bard and such, I'll just chain pull instead.

Got tired of being on my SAM and having some derp grab half the dungeon then wondering why they ran out of cooldowns, because thy forgot that the rest of the group had to dodge all the telegraphs too and couldnt maintain uptime on the huge mob he pulled.
 
Janx

Janx

<Silver Donator>
6,301
16,939
Are you in Noodles cwls Pharone? Can hit me up anytime I'm on and I'll come heal/tank for you. Almost always trying to level something up.
 
Pyros

Pyros

<Silver Donator>
11,058
2,262
Magimaster said:
Yeah, a lot of folks just assume you can mass pull every dungeon in the game.

I tend to pull 2 packs at most, depending on dungeon and the DPS and healers I have. If Ihave lower dps like ninja-bard and such, I'll just chain pull instead.

Got tired of being on my SAM and having some derp grab half the dungeon then wondering why they ran out of cooldowns, because thy forgot that the rest of the group had to dodge all the telegraphs too and couldnt maintain uptime on the huge mob he pulled.
Click to expand...
SAM can maintain uptime just fine while dodging though, you might not hit EVERY mob, but as long as you hit some you generate kenki and sens, and can easily cull it down. Their aoe burst is really good at high levels too Also a thing I rarely see other melees do, eat the aoes if they don't have paralysis etc added to them, and just bloodbath back up. With bloodbath on if you're aoeing like 10mobs, you're healing at a stupid rate, like full health every 3GCDs or whatever, and for the most part a lot of the trash aoes aren't actually that strong especially in early levels.

Especially in ARR, you can virtually pull the entire dungeon and still aoe it down fine. There's a few rough mobs you'd want to split and usually the pulls aren't done like that due to sprint running out and shit, but you should definitely be pulling more than 2 packs in most of ARR(leveling can be iffy depending on gear and the dungeons being gigantic though, as well as a bunch of classes not getting their aoes before 40ish). In HW and higher there's generally walls anyway so you can pull wall to wall and not have to worry about wether you're going too far. One big exception is Bardam, these pulls are nasty shit, the mobs hit hard AND the run between pulls are long. I do these in smaller bits than wall to wall because running all the way to laser tablets with 2bears and a wolverine on your ass is a sure way to die on the way(even with sprint) and even when you get there the tablet are the most annoying fucking mobs, spamming aoes towards the healer and shit(and they're relatively shortcasts too unlike many trash aoe, so you have to dodge right away or get hit).

Have to get a feel for the other people, but with tank aoe not being hard capped by TP anymore, I find even if your DPS are kinda retarded, you can still aoe stuff down pretty efficiently by yourself. The main concern is wether the healer is bad or not. I've had some idiot complain I was pulling too much in Wandering Palace the other day, because he let me die twice in a row WITHOUT CASTING A SINGLE HEAL. He went like "yeah keep pulling the whole dungeon idiot" then left. Got a replacement quickly luckily, and literally did the same pull and surprise, if you do cast heals, I survive just fine. Guy was just an absolute shitter but thought I was pulling too much, he was so bad he couldn't even tell he was the problem. Can't fix that though, so have to downgrade to smaller pulls at times.
 
Nola

Nola

Trakanon Raider
2,961
1,391
Looks like that recent monk buff put them in the #1 spot for dps barely beating black mages though.
 
Daidraco

Daidraco

Golden Baronet of the Realm
9,211
9,315
I dont know. Something happened.. it seemed like in my early 60's(?) as a tank. My health just stopped fluctuating like a heart beat. Ive always had up-to-date gear as I've leveled. But now, whether it's a low level ARR dungeon, or higher - I just dont see my health sky dive that much anymore. Point being, I stopped doing single packs at a time and now drag an entire pack into another pack, rinse and repeat. .. Personally, I like the slower pace and the harder hits. So I look forward to the aforementioned dungeon. Gear is scaled, and abilities are pruned when scaling - I just dont understand what created the difference in beefiness. But Pharone Pharone , I'm sure you'll encounter that change soon enough.
 
Pyros

Pyros

<Silver Donator>
11,058
2,262
dvoraen said:
I was wondering how much the gap closed there (SEE WHAT I DID THERE, SHOULDER TACKLE?).
Click to expand...
Seems a bit weird since there wasn't really any actual buff to damage though. RoF iirc was pretty much even as a change(some people on balance were even saying it might be a slight loss due to double weaving issues) and everything else's just the same.

It's quite possible BLMs are parsing lower than expected cause it's only the first few days, and they need to optimize movement with the mechanics, while MNK is just, punch the things, same old same old. I could see BLMs parsing a bit higher next week for example.

The Riddle of Earth buff is pretty big though, you can basically ignore positionals for over a minute if you do True North > Riddle of Earth proc > True North > True North. Which means you can never get fucked by stacking mechanics and what not, as long as you can proc riddle at some point before it off raid wide aoes(which honestly isn't super hard). Granted they also reduced the impact of missed positionals in 4.5 or whatever, but it's mostly a big deal for Bootshine, which is super bad if you miss the positional for due to being an auto crit with like the highest non cooldown potency by a large margin.

I played mine in an expert run to check the changes and honestly it's night and day how much smoother the experience in dungeons is. The tank was a retard doing single pulls and going for chests and not sprinting, and yet I never dropped GL4 the entire run with form shift change, and not having to spam meditation constantly between pulls is pretty nice too.

If they could find a niche for Tornado Kick that's better than the current one(only use if you can anatman for 9+ seconds after) I think it'd be perfect.

Poor SAMs are in the shitter though, even with the buffs. Even going by personnal DPS they're not doing well, possibly because a lot of the better players are playing something else but still.
 
Koushirou

Koushirou

Log Wizard
<Gold Donor>
4,871
12,388
Decided to fiddle with the old ARR Exes for a bit and went ahead and got all the mounts and got my Kirin. The soloing wasn't too bad except for Ifrit, who was a bit touchy. Think I got all the orchestrion roll mats in the process (except maybe Garuda's, I'll have to check). Wasn't too long of a farm, either, which was surprising.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.