FFXIV: catch all

A_Unicycle wrote:

If I had one criticism, it's that it takes such a long time to play. I'm 200+ hours into this thing, and I'm only just approaching the second expansion, and nowhere near level cap. To its credit, the dungeons and trials are still a lot of fun (whereas I find WoW is only enjoyable at cap), but I can't say I'm not feeling daunted about the time commitment needed for me to reach Shadowbringers.

So true. Their humongous and mostly boring pre-HW MSQ is IMO the biggest factor limiting the game's growth right now. Yes, it brings them some money because people do buy story skips but I feel that they lose more people to it than it's worth. They should branch out like 80% of those quests into an optional MSQ.

I am thoroughly enjoying the HW and post-HW content though. I heard Stormblood was a bit weaker but then it picks up again in SB. That's a lot of playing.

Hedinn wrote:

Their humongous and mostly boring pre-HW MSQ is IMO the biggest factor limiting the game's growth right now...They should branch out like 80% of those quests into an optional MSQ.

The content was developed and released in short spurts and spanned years between expansions. It was initially received in small doses. The story team couldn't really condense it because that would be like pulling bottom blocks from a Jenga tower. They do use their foundation.

I liked Stormblood the most so far.

GoldenDog wrote:
Hedinn wrote:

Their humongous and mostly boring pre-HW MSQ is IMO the biggest factor limiting the game's growth right now...They should branch out like 80% of those quests into an optional MSQ.

The content was developed and released in short spurts and spanned years between expansions. It was initially received in small doses. The story team couldn't really condense it because that would be like pulling bottom blocks from a Jenga tower. They do use their foundation.

Yes, I know and it made sense and was most likely welcomed by players back then. Years later, however, 2 of my friends started playing FFXIV and had fun, except for the "singleplayer" MSQ part but oh well. And then they've learned there are 100 lvl 50 quests before they can continue developing their characters. They said "f*ck that!" and the only reason they are still playing (they bought the "skip to HW" potion) is because we are having lots of fun in dungeons and have nothing better to do on Fridays anyway.

I've played through all of that and I see no problem why it couldn't be condensed. There are lots of filler quests like "Sorry, I know you are the hope of this world and are busy killing primals but could you please move these boxes from this room to the next one because no one else really wants to do that?"

In fact, when they asked me what had happened in those 100 quests, I couldn't really tell them anything, except for a few major milestones.

I liked Stormblood the most so far.

That's great to hear!

Yeah, if anything could be condensed it’s the 100+ quests between ARR and HW. It tells you something that they didn’t design the posts HW and SB quests the same way. I wouldn’t advise skipping most of the story but I can understand skipping that part.

There’s a lot of stuff about 2.0/ARR that I just kind of accept as a result of the conditions of creating it out of 1.0 in the time that they did.

2.1-2.55 not part of that, but they were still learning I think. Same thing with the two level 50 main scenario dungeons. There’s a reason they haven’t repeated that design.

All that said, the ending of those 100 quests is a pretty good payoff.

I've been having a lot of fun this month with the game. When I last left, I had just started the Stormblood expansion. I switched to Dancer, finished the expansion (which was great) and I am almost up to Shadowbringers. I'm looking forward to it!

I've played so much that I have been booted from the Novice Network, and I'm missing the chat. Is there a linkshell that people are part of on Midgardsormr, or a cross world linkshell?

Just bought the expansions and start d playing this again. Made a new character to learn the ropes again and ended up liking it is there anyway of getting an invite to the FC if there is room? I'm on Midgardsormr that's the correct server right?

Thinking about dipping back into this soon: just check and I have a level 30-ish Bard that I'm sure I don't know how to play anymore (and is from the ARR days). Does Shadowbringers include all the previous expansions? Am I best just starting over and trying to get through the ARR main quests as quickly as I can?

JustJosh wrote:

Thinking about dipping back into this soon: just check and I have a level 30-ish Bard that I'm sure I don't know how to play anymore (and is from the ARR days). Does Stormblood include all the previous expansions? Am I best just starting over and trying to get through the ARR main quests as quickly as I can?

Shadowbringers includes all the previous expansions (heavenward, stormblood) atleast on PS4 there is no way to buy just the previous expansions now from what I saw.

I had the base game and purchased Shadowbringers and recieved all the other expansions though. It seems like a great time to come back. I do have a lvl 39 paladin but it just seems so over whelming to come back I haven't played since before heavensward was a few months from release.

Rave wrote:

Just bought the expansions and start d playing this again. Made a new character to learn the ropes again and ended up liking it is there anyway of getting an invite to the FC if there is room? I'm on Midgardsormr that's the correct server right?

Yep, correct server! This is the FC: https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...

Should be able to either find a member online and apply to join that way - or go to the FC house in The Goblet (plot 44, ward 1) and apply from the sign post.

cthos wrote:
Rave wrote:

Just bought the expansions and start d playing this again. Made a new character to learn the ropes again and ended up liking it is there anyway of getting an invite to the FC if there is room? I'm on Midgardsormr that's the correct server right?

Yep, correct server! This is the FC: https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...

Should be able to either find a member online and apply to join that way - or go to the FC house in The Goblet (plot 44, ward 1) and apply from the sign post.

Thanks! I'll see if I can find someone to get me in

JustJosh wrote:

Thinking about dipping back into this soon: just check and I have a level 30-ish Bard that I'm sure I don't know how to play anymore (and is from the ARR days). Does Shadowbringers include all the previous expansions? Am I best just starting over and trying to get through the ARR main quests as quickly as I can?

There are 2 versions of the game you can buy right now - one contains just all expansions for $40, another one contains all expansions plus the base game for $60. Actually, you can also buy just the base game for $20. Since you already have an account and the base game, just buy the $40 package.

Remember, if your base game is on Steam, your expansions also need to be bought there. And vice versa, if your base game is a non-Steam version, you will need to buy the expansions on Square Enix store. Not sure how the PS4 version works with all that.

It's up to you whether you want to restart. Lvl 30 is so low, you can get there pretty fast. Or you can continue with your bard, you only have a handful abilities at that point, you will re-learn them in no time. Or you can change your bard to anything else and start from lvl 1. Really, the main question there, I guess, is whether you like the existing character model or want to create a new one (new races are available).

There's no way to scale my level down during general partying right? I know you can do it during fates and dungeons. But I just want to run around as a level 9 with my wife without leveling something new.

b12n11w00t wrote:

There's no way to scale my level down during general partying right? I know you can do it during fates and dungeons. But I just want to run around as a level 9 with my wife without leveling something new.

No way to scale down like that but you can always turn into another class and level it up quickly to lvl 9.

They're definitely a bright light in the gloomy MMO market, but too much is being made about the numbers between them and WoW. The 16 million number are total accounts for the game, but the 3 million number is current active players. They're not comparing apples to apples.

At least Gematsu got it right that it's total accounts. I've seen some websites say that's 16 million active players right now which is ridiculous. I roll my eyes at Square Enix touting that number, since it's not like that that's a statistic that'll ever go down.

Now that I've rolled credits on the expansion, I suppose I need to figure out how I want to spend my time in-game. I have one more dungeon to do, then I'll probably dip my toe into the Eden raid. The raids are always where I see an increased salt level among players, but hopefully this early in the expansion it won't be too bad?

I finished the story with Red Mage. I tried to go back to Bard, and while I got it up to 71, I have no muscle memory or flow for the Job at this point. Debating whether to try to level it to 80, or try something else completely new.

Hedinn wrote:
b12n11w00t wrote:

There's no way to scale my level down during general partying right? I know you can do it during fates and dungeons. But I just want to run around as a level 9 with my wife without leveling something new.

No way to scale down like that but you can always turn into another class and level it up quickly to lvl 9.

Yeah the only low level I have left is pugilist/monk and I don't find it too compelling. Oh well, I'll just stick with it until she gets to 30 and I can switch to White Mage.

I found the FC house and applied was kind of fun figuring out how to even find it. Thanks for the link how active is it? Are there enough players to actually do things together?

Also spent a little to much time in the gold saucer today, they were just getting ready to add that when I quit last time and it's amazing! I had a blast just walking around entering events and checking things out I honestly haven't had this much fun in an MMO since I first started playing Ultima Online.

So how is dancer treating those that are playing it? I've just made the swap from WHM when I hit level 60. I dearly love healing, but I was afraid of burning out after 200+ hours.

I'm finding it really active! I'm pressing a lot of buttons and zipping all over the place, that's fun! I also like that I'm psuedo-support still! I can pop aoe heals when needed and help mitigate incoming damage. The extra damage percents on the rest of the party is also nice

But I'm finding it overall very...simple? You have 2 attack strings, single target and aoe. And after you initiate either, you just watch the buttons and press the corresponding key when it lights up? The off GCD abilities are nice, but they are the same, you just press them when they proc.

I'm having a lot of fun, but I'm wondering if I want to take this all the way to 80. I really like thinking on my feet and picking the best ability for each scenario, something I often did with WHM. Does the dancer resource management or rotation get a little bit more in-depth with more ability unlocks?

I'm hoping to stick with it because I find the idea of a dancing human blender very appealing. Would love to hear some opinions

I'm at level 73 with my dancer, and the biggest change so far is Flourish (level 72), which activates all the random procs that allow you to use the more powerful abilities. It has a one minute cool down, which means you can use it for most combats. Later on, there is an Esprit gauge that allows for a more powerful attack. That may bring in some more complexity. Since I'm am still figuring out the game again, hitting the flashing buttons is quite my speed.

Rave wrote:

I found the FC house and applied was kind of fun figuring out how to even find it. Thanks for the link how active is it? Are there enough players to actually do things together?

Not super active. The most people I've seen online at a time is 5, and we haven't really coordinated group activities.

We do offer a 10% combat xp buff though.

More people have been on since ShB came out, so might be enough to do some 4-folk content?

Yeah speaking to everyone in the FC gave me the impression it's largely dead which is ashame. That said no other free companies are banging on my door or offer a guaranteed mature group to play with so it's still cool to have some people to chat to while playing.

Seems like the game can be played solo mostly anyway occasionally grouping up with randoms in the duty finder for dungeons or primals.

Is there any content I'm really missing out on not having a dedicated group to play with or is everything offered in duty finder for better or worse?

All that aside I'm loving being back in the game and exploring the world. I don't know if I just have a better understanding of how MMOs work now or square has made the game more casual friendly but systems that were once lost on me years ago are clicking and making total sense now. It's fun to just slowly explore and enjoy the story and world without feeling the normal WoW pressure of having to rush to the expansion and content. I think it's because I know there is so much to get to before I'm near Shadowbringers that I'm just enjoying the game at its pace.

It's been a great time to jump in even as a dps main my queues for duties have been less then 5 min. Anyone debating playing or coming back I'd recommend it.

All normal group content like Dungeons, Trials, normal Raids, and Alliance Raids can be done in the Duty Finder. They're designed to be completed by randoms, so while you will certainly see the occasional wipe, they're not insurmountable in the least.

Current endgame Extreme Trials and (starting next week) Savage Raids will require practicing with folks via Party Finder. You could also try to find a static group to play with if you want a consistent group of people to tackle those challenges with.

Older Extreme Trials and Savage Raids can also be done via Party Finder, but are typically done unsync'd so people can play them at max level and farm for drops. Few if any people will want to play them level sync'd because they're too difficult.

The other oddity is the Savage Coil of Bahamut raids. Those only had one difficulty level. People do them for story and glamour now. Again, you can find people to do them in a Party Finder.

Also, any time you see a dungeon or trial with Hard in the name, it just means they released a newer version with some changes and associated story, but otherwise it's not actually a harder difficulty compared to a standard dungeon.

Is there some point where I'm really going to want to level crafting and harvesting jobs?

I'd recommend waiting until you're caught up on the main story to check out crafting and gathering, or at the very least wait until you're caught up on the 2.X story. You'll want to have beast tribes unlocked for their daily quests, which doesn't start happening until level 41 or so, if I recall correctly.

You can make a ton of money crafting and gathering, but it's also a very large time sink. You generally want to level all the crafting jobs together so they get cross-class skills, and so you can craft ingredients for one job for use in another. You will very quickly realize just how small and limited inventory management in the game is.

Gathering is a long but pretty straightforward grind. You don't see many guides out there because it just boils down to gathering at nodes, filling out a gathering log (bonus XP the first time you gather an item), and doing levelquests for extra XP.

This is the guide I see most frequently recommended for leveling crafters. It hasn't been updated for Shadowbringers yet, but it looks like that's on the way soon.

Thanks for the link to the guide. I'm thinking of getting into crafting after I finish the MSQ.

Yeah, appreciated beanman. My goal being DRK, I've been careening through MSQ, and just finished the 1.0 story last night. Good to know I can keep ploughing on for a bit. Being an XI DRK veteran, the idea that DRK is a tank and therefore always in high demand instead of just for 3-4 fights is insane to me.

Which is sort of another, related question: there was a pretty infamous bottleneck in XI around lvl 53 or so where you were expected/socially required to have one specific piece of armor which naturally had a super inflated price--1 million+, depending. Seems like there's nothing really like that in XIV. Is there?

No. The MSQ will get you appropriate gear, and if you miss out on a piece you can buy it from a vendor. I'm sure high end raid groups will have gear requirement, but you shouldn't be stuck as you level.

Wonderful. Thanks!