FFXIV: catch all

I’ve decided to play again, casually. Life has settled down enough to allow it. It’s funny, I don’t remember my favorite jobs.

How are the two new ones?

They are fine. Dancer is fluid and pleasant to play but feels like you just hit buttons when they light up. Gunbreaker is pretty fast-paced and active, it's a tank that feels like a DPS. Seemingly best as an off-tank, but I have little experience with that.

People seem pretty happy with both.

And have they fixed up Machinist at all? Was such a mess when I stopped playing. I love the look and feel but was working too hard for below par results

Also, any recommendations for how to get my feet wet again? Re-learn the mechanics and jobs? Plenty of removed abilities in my hotbars.

I just recently got Machinist to 80 and I really love it. I can't compare to how it used to be, but it's really straightforward and fun, with a relatively high APM during bursts without being proc-crazy and hectic like Bard. AOE is surprisingly goofy and fun with the Flamethrower and Bioblaster abilities, and summoning a goddamn robot to punch bosses never gets old. Red Mage was my main, but I've been splitting my time equally between the two lately.

As far as jumping back in, get your hotbars sorted out first, being sure to read the tooltips to know what they do (along with this site in a slightly easier to read format: https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/jobgu...). You can find a practice dummy to try and figure out new rotations. Then hop into a low level dungeon or trial to get your feet wet again. Let people know you're rusty and I don't think people will give you grief.

My Outside-the-Box suggestion: If you have a job high enough, you can relearn in the MSQ Roulette. It's a place where you have to play, but it's also really low stakes and low impact now. Most people have good enough gear, there isn't much risk involved, and the mechanics are basically trivial, and there are also enough other players that you won't necessarily have to worry about dragging things while you relearn. You can watch the many youtube resources out there during the cutscenes.

I like DNC and GNB both quite a bit.

Played for a few hours today.

WHM is still essentially the same and came back to me quickly. DNC seems fun, I’ll see if it can replace MCH as my ranged. I don’t like the visual style of GNB and still like WAR and PLD so that’s a non-starter.

I actually thought to do the MSQ roulette and eh... going through them now is a slog because you can’t skip the cutscenes.

I’ll probably see about starting the new content tomorrow. Here’s hoping it grabs me.

The MSQ roulette is a great way to get tomestones, though, so there's that.

I thought I was done leveling jobs, but I'm starting to get tempted to level DNC. That new relic weapon for it looks really neat...

I just started back up yesterday as well. I enjoy Machinist and I'm 72.

Hoo, yeah, MCH is very cool. Giving it most of Edgar’s arsenal was a stroke of genius. Simplifying Wildfire makes it a lot more accessible and less unpredictable.

My usual routine is to play one of each style to the level cap: one tank, one melee, one ranged, one caster, one healer.

Anyone have opinions on Warrior and Paladin in their current states?

I’m beginning to feel like RDM is a bit simple so I might shift to BLM, which is only 3 levels behind.

WHM is a lock.

DRG vs SAM?

I know most of this is just personal feeling but I’m hoping to save the time of leveling something then finding out it no longer suits.

Thanks in advance!

Only one I can comment on is RDM, which indeed is pretty simple compared to a lot of other jobs. It's mobility options are pretty nice when you need to jump away from or zip over to a boss. I find it kind of relaxing, while I play MCH if I want something that feels a little more hectic.

I’m a few quests into Shadowbringers, and I’m a little disappointed so far. I preferred the more grounded and practical narrative in Stormblood. This wacky stuff kinda makes me roll my eyes a bit.

Hopefully I’ll adjust to it.

Shadowbringers gets into the deep lore of the game, so it’s much more cosmic and fantastical in nature compared to Stormblood. It’s still grounded in the characters you meet along the way, which helps it strike a balance I think. But I’ll be curious what you think of the rest.

I have a license (or whatever) for the macOS version, so I decided to install FF XIV on my 16″ MacBook Pro last night just to see how it’d work. After getting past a crash during install and getting it running, I was quite pleasantly surprised at how well it ran.

The 32-bit port was objectively terrible. I’d tried the 64-bit one at release last year, but it performed worse under macOS than it did under Windows on my wife’s iMac, so I never really bothered playing. I don’t have Windows installed on my MBP (but I assume it probably runs better than), but this is good enough I can plug in a controller and play when I can’t reasonably play on the PS4 Pro downstairs.

Blind_Evil wrote:

Anyone have opinions on Warrior and Paladin in their current states?

I can’t really comment on raid performance, but I like DRK more than WAR now. That’s not to say WAR is bad (certainly not like DRK was in Stormblood). It’s more that DRK feels like it did in Heavensward even though it’s still comparatively simplified, and I like that.

I’ve never liked DRK, mine is something like level 32 or 33. The flow never clicked and I don’t jive with the aesthetics (animations). Too much of a departure from XI DRK, which I liked. I’ve gone back and forth between WAR and PLD since I started. Both are 70.

I have all the classes leveled and geared.

If you are doing casual content, doesn't matter what you play. If you are doing Extreme Content, most groups a PLD is more useful than a Warrior in the current patch. Hollowed Ground has specific uses. Titania Extreme preferred a Warrior because Holmgang is on a shorter cooldown and tanks didn't have to stack the busters, but the last couple EX PLD prevailed due to pacing and could range DPS in spread mechanics. Having 2 group shields is a bonus.

DRG vs Sam? Most extremes prefer a DRG. He has party buffs. The SAM is easier to play though for someone not that good with rotations but wants to do decent DPS.

I unlocked Dancer this weekend, and I really enjoyed it, despite the fact it's nearly all procs. I especially liked how fun AOE attacks are with it in dungeons. It feels a little chaotic, having to be in the thick of things for those AOE abilities to hit. I'm used to ranged jobs for the most part, and while Dancer is grouped under ranged, and certainly is for single target attacks, when attacking groups it looks like you need to just run into the middle of everyone. It also seemed like you didn't need to target an enemy for those AOE abilities, which makes it easier to pull them off.

Dancer is strong at low levels, especially in AoE because it's not balanced and supposed to be fun. You want to dance everytime it is up, not just when the buff wears out. The completion of the dance itself is a powerful AoE attack (and powerful for single target).

It's a medium range class. Familiarize the range with a striking dummy for the Dance and AoE.

At max level, dancer is not that good unfortunately. If you have more than one it's pretty bad. It lacks DPS because it has a dance partner and buffs another DPS. They had to take into account you buffing another DPS constantly, so they lowered Dancer's individual damage for balance. I've had groups of dancers out right fail to meet basic casual DPS checks.

In the right group composition with a lot of mechanics to dodge where you float just in and out of melee range, dancer is ok with no cast times and constant hits. Most times though it's just pretty and fun.

GoldenDog wrote:

At max level, dancer is not that good unfortunately. If you have more than one it's pretty bad. It lacks DPS because it has a dance partner and buffs another DPS. They had to take into account you buffing another DPS constantly, so they lowered Dancer's individual damage for balance. I've had groups of dancers out right fail to meet basic casual DPS checks.

Did they just not partner up with each other? As long as they don’t share partners, yours and their Standard Finishes should stack, right? Or is it still just not enough to make up the DPS difference?

I enjoy DNC and RDM, but I don’t play at the high end anymore. The last time I did any Extreme content when it was actually somewhat current was back in ARR. It was fun, but I just can’t see myself doing that anymore, and I doubt I could find a group that’s both serious about it and not also playing on some ridiculous schedule.

I'm faaaaaar from any sort of EX/Savage veteran, but my FC did E1S with 2 DNCs and managed it.

I’m not thrilled right now. The game isn’t the issue. I think it’s a little OCD - I want to play, but only maybe an hour per day. However I can’t shake the pull to complete all my roulettes which takes probably three hours. It’s keeping me from playing the non-MMO that I want to play now. I’m toying with the idea of cancelling my sub, if I can’t find the self control to play casually.

Good luck. I recently got myself out of the habit of trying to cap weekly tomestones because it was burning me out on the game. Trying to experience everything else the game has to offer has reinvigorated it for me the last couple months

I’ve hit 76 on Machinist and 72 on White Mage... 72 WHM brought a disconcerting realization with it.

Dia just replaced Aero and Glare replaced Stone. It’s looking like at 74, Afflatus Misery is just going to replace Holy.

Did people accept these as meaningful when Shadowbringers released? It’s just bigger numbers, same function, different name!

Most of what I’ve seen of the Shadowbringers combat changes just seem so inconsequential. Bleh.

At 80, White Mage gets the Blood Lily, which adds a new wrinkle to your DPS options. But that's pretty much what they did with all the jobs, yeah. Red Mage gets another melee combo action. Machinist's turret turns into a robot, though it overall was reworked quite a bit from before. The differences depended on the job. I don't think they were necessarily looking to revamp every job for the expansion, and I don't think most players were looking for that either. Just target the ones that needed work, rebalance what needed to be with the TP and MP changes, add the couple new jobs, and make sure it feels good on controller and at 80.

I believe healers got simplified when it comes to DPSing in particular, and I know not everyone's thrilled with that.

I see. Stormblood had so many big changes for so many jobs, but I guess they shouldn’t be looking to fix what isn’t broken.

Edit: I queued for alliance raids tonight because DPS was needed, got Syrcus Tower for like the 5th time in 6. My shoulders sagged, I left the raid, cancelled my sub.

This was an awesome game for me from April to December 2017 but it’s still the same game and it turns out I’m still tired of it. Kinda sad to know I’m done with it. I hope it’s special for more people for years to come.

Sorry to hear Blind_Evil, but sounds like you gave it a good try.

I laughed several times during this interview with Yoko Taro. It's been a while since I've run through the Nier raid, so maybe I should drop in again and try to get those minions I'm still missing.

I threatened to do it, and now that I have a better grasp on how /gpose works and I'm bored, I'm taking the plunge and subjecting everyone else to it, too:
IMAGE(https://i.ibb.co/FK3XjDP/VTBLMCrop.jpg)

Second up after my Rebel Coat look, my primary BLM outfit. I'm quite proud of it, ran Swallows Compass more than once, I've received non-creepy acclaim for it in game--a simple and single /t from a rando saying it looks awesome, or a directed emote and nothing more, that sort of thing. The Diabolic hat is clearly the best BLM hat.

That looks great!

Thanks! I like it quite a bit.

Nothing special in the creation of this one, it's just a set. However, it is significant as this was, for a while, my white whale:
IMAGE(https://i.ibb.co/rxzTCMD/VTAgrais-Crop.jpg)

One of my earliest goals, once I found out it existed, was the complete Agrias. Who doesn't love Agrais? No one. It would, however, require me to tank the intimidating Orbonne Monastery raid, so I studied, psyched myself up, built confidence, and in 3-4 runs I was almost done, I just needed the gloves. Somewhere between 8 to 12 goddamn runs later, I finally got them. I can practically autopilot the raid now, and regularly mark myself for first-timers to follow during TG Cid.