FFXIV: catch all

The good thing is bard is really good now. I switched to it since they made summoner boring with StormBlood.

Ultimate Coil World First Video

Can't vouch for the Audio, but they make it look far easier than it is. It took almost 2 weeks for the best players in the game to clear.

I heard they're the same group that got the first clear on Bahamut, 3 years and 1 day before this one. Pretty awesome.

Personally... I tried Shinryu a few weeks ago and found my ilevel just isn't up to snuff, so I've jumped into raiding. That's been pretty fun so far. Got through the Royal City without really any trouble, and I'm keeping my eyes open for Deltascape runs. Good times.

Any words of encouragement? I'm approaching level 50 and I'm already getting a bit burned out. WHM healing while levelling is so easy, and the DPS is just throwing rocks at mobs over and over. I'm dreadfully bored doing MSQ and daily roulettes, I just want to be max level already.

Shinryu Ex is really best done at i330 though I've cleared it with lower geared people. At i330 you can afford to have a screw up and still beat it. At 320 most mechanics are a one-shot with weakness.

As far as encouragement for WHM, it gets more interesting above 50 with holy and benediction, but really comes into fun above 60 with tetra, assize, aero 3, cure 3, thin air. Your damage rotation will still be mostly two Dots then chuck rocks for bosses, but AoE pulls are :

Regen/Divine Benison
Presence of Mind (cast speed up)
Thin Air (zero cost spells because holy super expensive)
Holy (stun mobs and dps)
Aero 3 (Aoe dot for stunned mobs)
Holy (re-stun mobs and dps)
Tetra (instant tank heal for the time it took to cast first holy)
Holy (final stun and aoe damage before immunity)

Then the mobs are stun immune and you spam cure 2 or a benediction on the tank and Aero 2 on the mobs. WHM doesn't have a very complicated rotation. But that allows it to do the highest direct damage. Astro has to spend time fiddling with cards and buffs while Sch has to manage a pet and their skills. WHM just hits stuff with rocks. More rocks is more direct damage potential.

If you want more complexity to the role, an Astrologan has a bunch more buttons to push for healers and starts at level 30. You pick cards, shuffle them, store them, assign them, try to dps, and heal. They have less direct DPS, but buff the actual DPS roles to do higher DPS. So it works out about the same.

You'll notice most the hard-core groups take a WHM and a Scholar. That's because WHM has the best AoE heal (cure 3), most powerful single-target heal (benediction), a powerful tank-buster shield (divine benison), then they do the highest direct damage. Scholar has the advantage though that half their heals are free. The pet has unlimited mana and the pet can spam AoE protection that is otherwise very high cost (saves mp on the WHM). The pet can also heal one player while the Sch heals a second player.

I found Astro and Sch to be too much management for my tastes. I wanted to be DPS focused and melded full crit and spell speed. But they are less boring if you micro the pet and deal the cards while dps'ing. Some Sch don't micro the pet and they just dps themselves and hope the pet does its job. But the pet AI is weak. So it really needs to be micromanaged for the difficult stuff.

Redmage is a good DPS that has resurrection and heals to support healers and starts at level 50. If you own stormblood and have a level 50 you can swap to redmage or samurai at level 50.

That is encouraging, thankyou! Astrologan sounds really fun, I love the idea of tinkering with a deck of cards...But I love how traditional WHM is. I daresay I'll have both levelled to max in time.

I'm not sure what else I can say, but I really do appreciate the in-depth reply!

I think it's worth mentioning that the boss fight complexity increases with level and difficulty (Normal->Hard->Extreme). So not only are you keeping your team alive, but you're potentially doing so in the face of mechanics that could cause a wipe if you aren't paying attention or if you've spent your long-cooldown actions on the wrong thing, and you're also moving around the arena dodging AoEs and such at the same time. This is where I derive a lot of my fun from this game--not just performing the song and dance, but doing so optimally in the face of complex mechanics.

And to reiterate what GoldenDog said, it seems like a lot of the jobs don't really come into their own until 60. Until then, things just don't necessarily fall together in a way that allows you to build and maintain momentum with your actions. I didn't really notice this when leveling, but now when I go back and run low-level content it does feel a bit like pressing the same one button 5000 times, and something inside me dies a little bit every time my stuff expires because I don't have access to the action progression required to maintain it.

Finally... I know this is controversial, but if all that isn't enough then you can also run a combat tracker and challenge yourself in terms of damage/healing output. You've mastered keeping people alive? Fine. Now minimize over-heals. Or be the best healer around and also mid-tier for DPS. Just don't say anything in chat about it if you're using something like this. They basically monitor the "battle" chat channel to figure out what's going on so they aren't doing anything that's officially considered hacking, but it's a weird gray area. Plus, it's rude to call people out on metrics that they probably aren't aware of anyway.

Well, just another week or two to go until I hit 60. It's a little bit frustrating going from end-game healing in WoW to tapping the same button over-and-over here, knowing that it gets better but having to ride out the monotony. It's made a little worse by the level-sync (which is a great idea, don't get me wrong), whereby you get 50% of your skills greyed out so you can play older dungeons. Still, eyes on the prize I guess!

I did have a lot of fun today though! We were doing Stone Vigil, and I don't know why, but the tank was just taking so much damage. I've run this dungeon 4 times now, and this is the first time I've struggled to keep up the heals. But it was SO MUCH FUN. Actually having to pay attention to my cooldowns so I could cast Largesse when needed, and remembering to Cure 2 before Regen (which is a bad habit of mine). I wish more dungeons were difficult! Even beginner areas would be a lot more enjoyable if they weren't an absolute faceroll.

And regarding trackers, what program would you suggest? I really enjoy the extra information in WoW, but I know they are considered a "hack" in FFXIV. I don't want to risk getting a ban, but I know I'd enjoy the game a lot more if I could optimise my runs. They made a huge differences to my enjoyment in WoW so I'm all for it, if it's not too risky.

I feel like the content starting around 60 really starts to find a combat "language" in terms of mechanics and the markers used to communicate them. There's a definite sense that running dungeons is kind of like training for trials, and trials are like training for raids, because the behavior of things is consistent, it's just largely a matter of how much is going on at once and how much damage is incurred if you screw up.

One thing with dungeons in general is that a lot of people running them are there for daily roulette rewards, and so it's not unusual to be carried by people who are at the cap of what the dungeon allows. This is all great since it means there's never a problem finding people to run a dungeon with, but as you've said it can make for a not terribly exciting experience if you're looking for a challenge. I agree that it's a lot more interesting when you're with a less experienced group and have to work harder for that win.

Obviously, getting to max level and running dungeons as they're released is the best way to change this. Though at least for me, once I'd mastered some of the Extreme trials, even the bleeding edge dungeon content stopped seeming nail-biting. If it were too hard then casual players would get stuck, and that would be no fun. So beyond a certain point, technical challenge will always only be in optional content.

As far as I know, the only game in town for combat trackers is ACT (guide 1, guide 2), and in terms of overlays, this is the most fully functional one I've found. I haven't played much with other plugins, but I know there are some targeted specifically at healers and such. I mostly wanted a way to watch my DPS so I could tell whether changes in strategy were helping or hurting without spending a ton of time in front of a training dummy.

Oh, as a random aside, I started running the old raids unsynced for wondrous tails, and wow. Even if you have no interest in raiding in general, make time to blast through the Bahamut content, then go watch the cutscenes in your hotel room. The story in there is really really good, to the point where I'm considering trying to run them synced, maybe even at min ilevel, just for a more authentic experience.

Thankyou for those links, I'll have a look into it and see if I can get them running!

Tonight a few friends ran me through the final 2 dungeons so I could take my time and appreciate the scenery. Wow! They were so rich in story, I'm really impressed! I also wasn't expecting actual end-credits after finishing them. After a lot of talking, I'm very excited to see what the expansion content is like, they mentioned how much extra there is to do, and it's safe to say I'm hooked! All the activities sound so fun!

And here's some bonus screenshots, we all got a good laugh out of them so I figured I'd share here as well

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/Bgh9af3.jpg)

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/H0AZRTe.jpg)

Congrats on the progress you've been making! While the main scenario quest line is quite long, I've found almost all of the content within it to be great. I agree with complexmath about dungeons really getting their stride around level 60. While I think all the dungeons in FFXIV are among the best group content in the industry, I feel most of the level 60+ dungeons are absolutely excellent.

There is a bit of a slog in the quests between ARR and the leadup to Heavensward. At the same time tho, they start embracing some of the more whimsical and fantasical elements of prior Final Fantasy games, so I found a lot to enjoy as well.

After starting Stormblood, I've found myself needing a break from the game. I was playing it non-stop for weeks. I really love the game, but It's been nice to branch out to other games and catch up on the backlog a bit. I'll be back questing full time soon enough, I'm sure.

A_Unicycle wrote:

And here's some bonus screenshots, we all got a good laugh out of them so I figured I'd share here as well

What's up with that annoying sig? You're the second person i've seen using it...

I’m messing around with the free trial, been curious how the game shaped up since the OG launch. It’s so different! I’m “Tattersail Certis” on the wolfgrarblbarghl Server.

Certis wrote:

I’m messing around with the free trial, been curious how the game shaped up since the OG launch. It’s so different! I’m “Tattersail Certis” on the wolfgrarblbarghl Server.

Yea this is definitely another game that's transformed to a beautiful swan. I'd gladly recommend it now. Now if i had a couple extra hours a day...

Wolfgrarblbarghl is my new favorite server name.

Astrologian end game is a lot of fun. I boosted an alt one on a friend’s server because I wanted to play with them but didn’t want to level up to 60 and do all of the story quests again.

Log_In_Lain wrote:

Wolfgrarblbarghl is my new favorite server name.

Astrologian end game is a lot of fun. I boosted an alt one on a friend’s server because I wanted to play with them but didn’t want to level up to 60 and do all of the story quests again.

I can't wait to try Astro! I play a lot of TCGs (Magic the Gathering, Netrunner etc), so idk, the idea of shuffling a deck of cards just really appeals to me. Being a healer is just the icing on the cake! Just gotta finish levelling this White Mage before I do.

And I don't blame you for boosting, getting to max level takes slightly longer than I'm comfortable with. I'm almost 100-hours deep, and only at 52.

ranalin wrote:
A_Unicycle wrote:

And here's some bonus screenshots, we all got a good laugh out of them so I figured I'd share here as well

What's up with that annoying sig? You're the second person i've seen using it...

It's a man on a unicycle...

Unicycle totally okay. You should learn the bagpipes if you are going to ride a unicycle, though.

Things have changed drastically with storm blood, but some things are still true. White Mage is your best large healer. Scholar is good support, status effect, continuous heals. Astrologian is good support and best regen healer. Astrologian is nicely complicated (for someone like me that hates when MMOs become Diablo) but they can be a bit much for people looking for a simple rotation.

Log_In_Lain wrote:

Astrologian end game is a lot of fun. I boosted an alt one on a friend’s server because I wanted to play with them but didn’t want to level up to 60 and do all of the story quests again.

AST is a weird, unique class design. I really need to spend some time wrapping my head around it. What really threw me for a loop was when I played with an AST the other day and they were pulling over 5K DPS on groups of enemies. Granted, they weren't healing a ton, but even so.

I also like that they start at 30. That feels like the sweet spot for starting a new job to me. Enough actions to be interesting, but not enough yet that it's overwhelming. I got impatient leveling a WAR and bumped him to 60. But now I feel like I need to spend time doing level 30 squadron missions just to figure out how to play him.

complexmath wrote:

I got impatient leveling a WAR and bumped him to 60. But now I feel like I need to spend time doing level 30 squadron missions just to figure out how to play him.

Deltascape 1.0 and 2.0 normal are good places to learn rotations. There's no tank swap, you have all your skills, there's no enrage, DPS ins't a factor, and the boss doesn't move around much. So you'll get a good idea on a tank rotation and dps rotation.

Then you can move into DPS Tank rotations (Tanking the Boss while DPS stance). The last one is a lot easier if the other tank can shirk you.

At the basic level: Warrior does Storms Eye combo to Multiple Storms Path combos to build beast-gauge the fastest. Then use your skills that cost gauge (inner-beast for defense/fell-cleave dps), or build a full gauge in defiance, and swap to deliverance + inner release + beserk. Drop two fell cleaves, pop infuriate, drop 4 more fell cleaves. In between Inner release sets you have room for another beserk and infuriate before saving them for another 6 fell-cleave combo.

Stay in DPS stance and continue Storms Path if you have the heals and good lead on the aggro tables. Otherwise change back to Defiance or roll the Butcher Block combo.

Aoe pulls steel cyclone is great to tag mobs, but once I have them I use overpower and inner beast for the extra shielding with equilibrium while building gauge on a single target. The added defense is greater than the life-steal. Vengence is your tank-buster cooldown (or add it to inner beast) while awareness + raw intuition cycled with rampart are good general use cooldowns.

Extremes require different ordering, but that's like all casual content.

Put your enemy list somewhere easy to see and make sure it's all red. Provoke + Axe throw is a great way to round up strays without chasing down your kiting DPS and healers.

Alrighty, please tell me I haven't wasted a buttload of time.

I'm level 52, my /playtime is hovering around 4 days, 10 hours. I've been doing 2 roulettes a day, and pumping out 3-5 story quests at a time. This seemed like a reasonable way to power through to the endgame.

I was just talking to a friend who has a 65 Samurai, and 3 30-something classes. He only started 2 weeks ago, and says he's been grinding away in POTD.

But...He'll have to do all the story stuff like me, right? My understanding is that content is locked behind the MSQ, not level. Otherwise, I'd be happy to read up on it all later and powerlevel in this cool looking dungeon thing myself.

A_Unicycle wrote:

My understanding is that content is locked behind the MSQ, not level.

That's correct. Your friend will be over-leveled and easily handle any quests that aren't level-sync'd. They'll still need to go through the MSQ story line, though. There are some level checkpoints in MSQ, e.g. a dungeon requiring a particular level, but if you're doing a couple dungeons + MSQ, you should stay ahead of the curve.

Correct, everything's gated behind the MSQ. The exception is paying real money to unlock all the story content.

Phew. Glad to hear that!

One of the strongest selling points of FFXIV to me is the story anyway. I wouldn't consider any time spent there to be wasted. This is among a handful of video games that have moved me to tears. Though YMMV I guess.

I have found that PotD is probably the fastest way to grind XP. Definitely faster and more fun than FATEs. However, I don't think grinding in necessary your first time through in general. There are enough sidequests to keep your level on track with story progression, and the writing for them is often quite good. I'll admit to having clicked through a few only to discover that they were the start of a long multi-quest chain with a detailed story, and I felt bad for having ignored the preamble. In general, I think I'd save the grinding for leveling other jobs once you've hit 70 with your main.

One of my favorite artists, Koyoriin
IMAGE(http://78.media.tumblr.com/2bf604570f032d05310e12ca7397a0b4/tumblr_ozgc6vZd321rs0zxko1_1280.jpg)

That is a good drawing.

It definitely is a YMMV thing. I have some friends that just click through text and that is fine — everyone plays their own way. I would have quite the game forever ago if I was just grinding. That seems boring to me, and many of the quests have also moved me to tears, especially some of the beast tribe quests.

It was a nice surprise seeing Argent's name pop up in my retainer's sales history. Buying up all that excess materia that the Stormblood MSQ's have been handing me.

I bought a 350k item from a chap's retainer while we were both standing next to each other and he was bragging about how big the fool must have been before he realized I was the fool that bought it.

I then began to scold him for the shoddy craftsmanship of the item.

New PvP map and Bard music out:
https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...

The PvP map is basically a 24v24 MOBA. I'm sure some people will love it. I don't really do MOBAs and was kind of out of my depth. Really really excited about the Bard music stuff. I can't wait until people sort out mapping from a MIDI keyboard.