Final Fantasy XIV (Guide in first post)

sleevedraw

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Thinking about resubbing. I have an 80 warriors and 71 BLM (I think). Kind of don't want to tank anymore though. What DPS are most sought after? I was kind of liking the idea of BRD, is it still > MCH or has that changed?

As far as meta is concerned, casters are currently out of favor. Current speedrun comp is generally considered to be DRK/WAR/AST/SCH/DRG/NIN/MCH/BRD once a group has content on lock, but as always, meta only really applies to Savage, and all classes are still viable.

Very generally,
MCH = highest personal DPS among physical ranged / low utility. Most people I've talked to say it's a lot more fun to play than it was before, but there are still some finicky issues with alignment and timers.
BRD = mid DPS / mid utility. Get your dots up, keep them up, and cycle through your three song stances. The general flow is somewhat similar to Stormblood, but a lot of people (including myself) who liked the way it played in 4.0 say the button consolidation and removal of a lot of the utility has made it feel kind of sterile. Some utility has been given back.
DNC = low DPS / high utility. Heavily RNG/proc/priority based. Huge burst every 2 minutes with Devilment and Tech Step. Fun, even if it's not the "preferred" choice.

As for BLM, it hasn't changed much. If you liked it in Stormblood, you'll like it in Shadowbringers. Most of the changes are user-friendly QoL.
  • Despair is a single-target Flare
  • Xenoglossy is a single-target Foul
  • Umbral Soul is an insta-cast self-target spell that lets you reset your Umbral Ice timer so that you can run between enemy groups without having to worry about dropping Enochian
 
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Pyros

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Every single savage boss speedrun comp currently either uses 2melee or 2 casters, never 2 ranged in the top 5(there's a couple of 3 ranged setups on Idol of Darkness but they're not top either and looking at the logs it seems it's a misreport cause they're using the standard SAM/SMN/BLM/DNC). SMN is so far ahead of BRD that there's basically no reason to ever run a BRD, it's not like you can stack synergy anymore either, and a SMN brings a combat rez for non speedrun setups that's going to be more useful than the few utility BRD still has.

As usual for more casual runs people will take whatever but the speedrun meta comp is definitely not MCH/BRD, that'd be shooting yourself in the foot unless the 2nd 10% party reduction would somehow increase your uptime enough to make up for a 10% damage loss.

Based on FFlogs top results, meta speedrun for DPS is currently SAM/SMN/DNC and then BLM(top one on most fights) or NIN.
 
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Noodleface

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Thanks guys. I was also kind of interested in DNC. I dont know if I'd try savage raids again though, I have PTSD
 

Malakriss

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I refuse to do pugs / PF for raiding in 14. If you want to do it get a static otherwise you're pulling toenails and learning just how stupid the average American gamer is.

Unless you're on a JP datacenter cause they aren't terribad. Europe probably a mixed bag.
 
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Noodleface

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I refuse to do pugs / PF for raiding in 14. If you want to do it get a static otherwise you're pulling toenails and learning just how stupid the average American gamer is.

Unless you're on a JP datacenter cause they aren't terribad. Europe probably a mixed bag.
I'm not sure what I'll do

As much as I love raiding, I love not being committed to a time every week even more

I kind of want an MMO just to have fun levelling and playing the game a bit. But we all know how that goes. 3 days in I'll be looking for BIS and static groups and the old gang is back together

One last dumb question - POTD until 60 then what?
 
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Pyros

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I'm not sure what I'll do

As much as I love raiding, I love not being committed to a time every week even more

I kind of want an MMO just to have fun levelling and playing the game a bit. But we all know how that goes. 3 days in I'll be looking for BIS and static groups and the old gang is back together

One last dumb question - POTD until 60 then what?
HoH 61- 70 then nothing(yet). Keep your roulettes for the 60-61 gap, potd is shit xp at this range and you can't do HoH until 61.

Obviously that assumes as usual you have already done the MSQ, otherwise just do that, can't unlock HoH without doing SB's MSQ anyway.

You can also run dungeons whenever you're bored, they're fairly similar xp/hour wise, depends on groups and obviously queues are longer for DPS but you can do your HW/SB centurio/beast tribe daillies, these are pretty good xp while waiting on queues.
 

Noodleface

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HoH 61- 70 then nothing(yet). Keep your roulettes for the 60-61 gap, potd is shit xp at this range and you can't do HoH until 61.

Obviously that assumes as usual you have already done the MSQ, otherwise just do that, can't unlock HoH without doing SB's MSQ anyway.

You can also run dungeons whenever you're bored, they're fairly similar xp/hour wise, depends on groups and obviously queues are longer for DPS but you can do your HW/SB centurio/beast tribe daillies, these are pretty good xp while waiting on queues.
Oh yeah now I remember, thanks. I'm done with the MSQ, at least up until e1-4s came out
 

Malakriss

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61-70 you can also do combat beast tribe dailies. Heavensward ones were long and tedious but Stormblood actually has a decent return.

MSQ Roulette is another daily option, cutscenes are forced unskippable but they jack up the rewards because of it. Praetorium is longer thus it gives more, simply tab out to watch something else during scenes.
 

Malkav

French Madman
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I don't mink getting like 90% a level at 70+ for doing Praetorium while watching TV or just making fun of the cutscenes in there.

Special mention to when my FC ambushed me at 2 am when I logged in drunk from a night out and decided to take my ass on a MSQ roulette (which ended up being Praet of course). Much laughs were to be had on Discord.
 
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Kantern

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If you change your language to French you can get through the cutscenes a little faster and get bosses started / etc. :) Nice if you queue with at least one other.
 

sleevedraw

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I'm not sure what I'll do

As much as I love raiding, I love not being committed to a time every week even more

I kind of want an MMO just to have fun levelling and playing the game a bit. But we all know how that goes. 3 days in I'll be looking for BIS and static groups and the old gang is back together

One last dumb question - POTD until 60 then what?

Once you've leveled them, Grand Company Command Missions with your squad are arguably better than PotD if you have an Archer squaddie with Offensive 4 or 5. They can take you up through 61.
 

Malakriss

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Yoshi has been live chatting on streams that are airing rebroadcasts of old live letters. News related info: "Next Live Letter in July, updates on 5.3 development coming in the next few days"

All signs point to 5.3 in mid to late July.
 
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Daidraco

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Lord - I had forgotten about how long it took to get through those forced cinematic dungeons. I went through them on my character a dozen times as I was leveling for the daily. Then my g/f got to that part of the game and I had to do them again half a dozen more times. I finally just started alt tabbing out to do other stuff and I kept my mouse hovered over the game so I could see when it was done. (Or just waited for her to say something, but she started doing the same thing I was doing. :rolleyes:) Lord, if there was any way to pawn off all the cinematic videos to the end of that dungeon - it would be a God Send for players still running that stuff.
 

Pyros

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Lord - I had forgotten about how long it took to get through those forced cinematic dungeons. I went through them on my character a dozen times as I was leveling for the daily. Then my g/f got to that part of the game and I had to do them again half a dozen more times. I finally just started alt tabbing out to do other stuff and I kept my mouse hovered over the game so I could see when it was done. (Or just waited for her to say something, but she started doing the same thing I was doing. :rolleyes:) Lord, if there was any way to pawn off all the cinematic videos to the end of that dungeon - it would be a God Send for players still running that stuff.
Hopefully it's one of the things they'll fix with the reworks. The other cutscenes aren't THAT bad(although totorak is super long too and I think it's Garuda or Shiva that also starts with a fairly long cutscene so people have to wait in the circle for a while) but the 2 last dungeons are fucking stupid and it's a shame they haven't fixed them yet. Luckily this shit doesn't really happen after that, there's sometimes slightly longer cutscenes and stuff(like in Aetherial whatever in HW for the last dungeon of 3.0) but it's a ton better.
 

nu_11

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Hopefully it's one of the things they'll fix with the reworks. The other cutscenes aren't THAT bad(although totorak is super long too and I think it's Garuda or Shiva that also starts with a fairly long cutscene so people have to wait in the circle for a while) but the 2 last dungeons are fucking stupid and it's a shame they haven't fixed them yet. Luckily this shit doesn't really happen after that, there's sometimes slightly longer cutscenes and stuff(like in Aetherial whatever in HW for the last dungeon of 3.0) but it's a ton better.
Nah.

The amount of XP and rewards you get from running through those cutscene dungeons is scaled up because of the amount of cutscenes. You can earn rewards while being afk half of the time while watching YouTube.

If they take away the cutscenes there will be less rewards and no YouTube/Netflix/PornHub/whatever.
 

Cybsled

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Ya, I’m fine with the long ass cutscenes, because you get like half a level on alts running Praetorium after they buffer it to entice people to run it. I just tab out while Nero/Lahabrea/etc blab on.