Final fantasy XIV any good?

[Kaldurenik]

The base game story is bad but i don't think i would skip it because it helps build up characters/lore for the expansions. The expansions are where the good part of the story start.
PvE and combat system is a copy of WoW but abit slower. Most of the raid content and dungeons you do at the start of the game will be easy, the content do improve at the later expansions and play better... However its still all scripted boss encounters.
Dungeons are mainly running from "wall to wall" (if you have a good tank / healer) pulling everything and then killing it with aoe. Healers are meant to help dps the boss/mobs in order for content to be cleared as fast as possible.
Also when you play the core game and level... you will hit a part of the story where everything will slow down to a crawl as you have to go through like 50-60 quests before you get to the expansion stuff. Stormblood probably being the worst of the expansions but still much better then the core game. HW and Shadow are the good expansions in my opinion.
The Quests are you running around doing minor things... You can skip a lot of the side quest stuff at the very least so there is that.
The job system is great because it allow you to play 1 character with all the classes on it if you want as the game allow you to change between them without having to make a new character. However you will ofc have to level each class.
The PvP... well we don't talk about that shit.
Crafting is a mini game where you use abilities. Not to long ago they. dumb it down so its a lot easier to craft now and most people just use a macro for it now.
Buffs / Debuffs have been dumbed down also.

I enjoy playing it here and there when i have time... but i also have friends who actively play it so even when i take a break and return later they tend to still be around.

 

[HoboForEternity]

i tried the demo during quarantine and it was ok. my friend convinced me heavensward is worth it while i don't mind the generic quests and shit the purchase + sub really turns me off especially i play at most 3-4 hours on weekdays.

 

[Blaine]

overture2112 seems to be a person who has played the game and who has enough perspective to understand that FFXIV boils down to DPS rotations, with "buffs," "debuffs," etc. being nothing more than minor parts of those rotations. Crowd control exists not at all, and tanking and healing, while they do exist, are vestigial afterthoughts.

Many FFXIV players are far too new to online computar gaems to realize 1.) what is missing or 2.) why it matters.

Note that actually executing these DPS rotations efficiently can be challenging, since they are changeable and modal. Abilities X and Y might be on cooldown for differing periods of time, for example, continually altering their absolute and relative places in the rotation (and thus when best to execute them); ability A might be used three seconds before B, unless C is available in which case you use it instead of both; you get the idea.

However, pressing buttons in a certain order, however changeable, is purely mnemonic and mechanical. Furthermore, the rotation (and best-in-slot gear, too) is always the same for a given job and build in FFXIV. Although I don't remember perfectly, I believe that there are only a very few viable different builds per job, and sometimes only one.

 

[Kaldurenik]

Correct, however each class only have 1 build and you have a optimal rotation... One for single target and one for aoe.

 

[Blaine]

Well, from what I recall, the Sage technically has two builds, with a pet for each: healing focus, and damage focus.

However, you will be shunned from endgame content unless you run the damage build, so in effect every job has one build, one rotation, and one set of best-in-slot gear.

 

[Cromwell]

The Gameplay itself is boring as fuck. Since the Combat relies on Combos there is nnothing really reactive about it, its more of a qte fest. On top of that you have a gazillion CDs that are of global cooldown and therefore dont belong in your normal rotation. So the trick for longer fights is to type your keybinds in the right rotation and try to fit in the oGC skills when appropriate. I only ever played Tanks, started with a warrior, played Dark Knight for a bit and played gunbreaker in the end when I had access to it.

The sad thing is I did this purely out of aesthetic reasons, there is no real difference in playing any of these classes, They have different skills and rotation but in the end you just stand there and click what you have to click, everything feels exactkly the same just the animations are different. I cant speak for absolutely high end raids but I dont think thats really relevant to overall enjoyment of a big MMO. Normal instances and normal raids follow the old "rotation+CDove out of shit" formula.

I dont want to sound like the game is shit, its a themepark MMO and its pretty good at what it does. I enjoyed the story but burned out just before reachign the first expansion (there was also the fact that at the time I had to do 20 Levels again because the Dark Knight I wanted to play was only accessible int he expansion and I had to get there storywise and also be level 50 but they set me back to 30 again as a dark knight which meant to grind back up to continue the story. They changed this particular fucking shit with the last expansion. But you still cant start with some classes from the get go) Second time I played way into shadowbringers but again burned out before reaching the end.

They also changed dungeons at least every dungeon I played to be just a spamfest. you as a tank run into the group and hammer your AE rotation, then you run to the next group, they managed to make everything even more boring. So bottomline is the game is big it has a lot to do, the storyline is good to very good (measured by jrpg standards) and it can be a ton of fun if you can stand the mind numbingly boring combat system. If you have friends to play with a lot and talk to while doing stuff the game might be great. If you play solo a lot I am sure there are way better games mechanics wise with a reasonably good story, if thats your thing, to play. You also dont have to pay monthly for them.

 

[HoboForEternity]

i just started again and found joy in petting other people's pets and petting the little people

 

[throwaway69420]

I started again too about two weeks ago after stepping away a few weeks after Shadowbringers released. So nearly a year break.

The god gamer strat to end game XIV is sub when a patch drops, experience and clear all content, and then UNSUB and do other things. Don’t farm when it’s just a never ending treadmill unless you get pleasure from it.

You probably won’t get to endgame though as there is a mandatory several hundred hour campaign you need to clear to access current content. Most unfortunately, the worst parts of it are all frontloaded, and it is BAD. You WILL NOT have fun in XIV as a newbie until you AT LEAST finish the base games campaign. Oh, but there is an infamous stretch of 100 quests after the base game, called 2.x quests, that is some of the worst excuse for padding I’ve seen in a game. It’s so bad they are specifically culling 2.x quests next large patch (delayed due to china flu).

However if you get past all of A Realm Reborn’s bullshit, the campaign gets amazing FOR AN MMO in the first expac Heavensward. (Music is amazing too, I listen to the soundtrack to this day.) Then it unfortunately takes a moderate downturn in the second expac Stormblood. (You are forced into saving a bunch of ungrateful dark skins who tried to take over your continent several years ago before getting btfo, and also your white-as-snow NPC companion becomes their savior/leader/democracy-introducer. Yeah, it’s cringe.) Finally, you get to Shadowbringers which has ARGUABLY a better campaign than HW. (It’s less nuanced, but potentially more impactful depending on your tastes.) Really solid expansion minus dumbing down of some of the game’s systems.

Okay, now that you’re done with mandatory slog, what now? Well, PvP IS HORRIBLE AND YOU SHOULD NEVER TAKE IT SERIOUSLY, ONLY TO FARM MOUNTS DURING EVENTS. So if you play MMOs for PvP, find another one. However, playing MMOs, a class based, gear based, probability based genre for skill based PvP is fucking retarded. Play a shooter or fighter or RTS for that.

Your options at endgame are numerous, but almost all of them involve a hard or soft grind in one form or another. (Grinding physical things like gear or money and grinding improvements in your player skill, respectively.) You can make your character look pretty to show off, craft or obtain rare and powerful items or cosmetics, clear challenging end game PvE group content, or level another class of ANY kind using several leveling ‘dailies’ to increase progress/time dramatically. Or ERP.

The presentation of the game is great. Dungeons and bosses especially feel great to fight, with the best music in any MMO by far, and decent graphics coupled with flashy and extravagant set pieces, effects and animations.

I don’t know if I can recommend it, but it is the single best MMO out and active right now I’d say. There’s so much content but the barrier to entry is so steep that you need to commit to the game before you even know if you’ll enjoy it.

I’m having fun with it right now, slowly getting all crafting classes to max level so I can be self-sufficient and maybe make money even though the auction house has crashed.

 

[Cromwell]

There’s so much content but the barrier to entry is so steep that you need to commit to the game before you even know if you’ll enjoy it.

you can skip parts of it but that would mean pay to cut the story. They also already streamlined it a bit since when I started you had to play for example marauder to 30 or something to get the Warrior job and then you had to play another fucking class untill level 20 if I remember correctly, to get all the secondary class skills which now you get with the profession.

 

[Blaine]

Really solid expansion minus dumbing down of some of the game’s systems.

That's truly an incredible accomplishment in this case, since it was already severely dumbed-down.

I’m having fun with it right now, slowly getting all crafting classes to max level so I can be self-sufficient and maybe make money even though the auction house has crashed.

Yeah, there are three chief ways to make money in this game: Auction off all the gear you get from quest rewards during the campaign (surprisingly good method, but temporary); embark on treasure map hunts with a strong group and hope to obtain rare crafting materials used in popular vanity items (this is how I made my millions); or grind your crafting so hard and so long that you can eventually craft the latest vanity gear released with the latest expansion. As per usual for MMORPGs, anything that isn't a top-demand rare vanity item will cost you to craft rather than making you a profit.

Sadly I don't think crafting can produce BIS end-game gear, though it can come close. Crafting desirable gear at certain tier levels can probably make you money, but it won't make you rich anytime soon.

Oh yeah, almost forgot: In this game the crafting grind is grind squared. Not only do you have to grind up the numerical level and max it out, you also have to do many daily crafting quests in order to earn "mastery seals" or stars or something, and these are what unlock all of the actual profitable recipes.

 

[Kaldurenik]

I think they have mentioned that they are going to remove and make some of the core game (ARR) quests easier, however I dont know the details on how that is going.

 

[Blaine]

I think they have mentioned that they are going to remove and make some of the core game (ARR) quests easier, however I dont know the details on how that is going.

They're not hard, though. They just take fucking forever, because there are hundreds of them and you have to run back and forth between quest-givers and quest markers while constantly backtracking for weeks of playtime.

The "hardest" part of the story quests are the intermittent public queue dungeons/instances/boss fights, especially the ones featuring espers (although those aren't even ARR, are they?), but those are simply a matter of complete newbies not understanding the gimmicks right away.

Modern theme park MMORPGs make old-school theme park MMORPG progression look good. At least progression used to be social and skill-based, since you needed a good leveling group and a proper build and gear. Sure, all you did was pull and kill mobs all day, but it fostered social interactions between players because they needed each other and had to make connections and work together.

 

[Cromwell]

although those aren't even ARR, are they

There are a few you have to beat, ifrit for example is the first if I remember correctly. The only one I had problems with with random groups was King Moggle Mog

 

[d1r]

Definitely the MMORPG with the best music out there:



Regarding the PVP aspect, it certainly would have motivated me to keep playing the game, respectively doing raids for high end gear. Back when I played Lineage 2, we had a lot of fun with open world pvp, interupting raids, hunting player killers, getting hunted while trying to get rid our red pk stench by killing mobs and watching out for any guilds seeking revenage, trolling, and so on. But I guess that Square wants to play it safe here, and don't want to hurt anyone's fee-fee's.

Oh how time's have changed.

 

[Blaine]

As far as I'm aware, there is only one (graphical) MMORPG still running strong that features no-holds-barred PvP where people can lose hundreds or thousands of man-hours' worth of "progress," and that's EVE Online.

Some solo PvE players spend months increasing their pilot skills and sinking all of their earned ISK (money) into ever-more-expensive ships, outfits, and pilot implants, only to lose it all when they get scanned down and ganked by a gang out hunting for just such juicy targets. (Said targets are colloquially referred to as "loot piñatas.")

I've been one of those hunters. We didn't do it for the ISK (though that was nice), nor for the excitement (PvE players are sitting ducks to experienced PvPers). We did it for the hatemail, and in essence to punish people for thinking that solo PvE was an acceptable way to play EVE.

The first law of EVE Online is, "Only fly what you can afford to lose."

 

[ADL]

Base game and first expansion are becoming 100% accessible via free trial with 5.3 patch which overhauls the ARR experience

go fuck yourself if you picked up Stormblood for free last year though even if you're under level 60

 

[Rahdulan]

Probably a good call on their end, but due to how trial is structured you basically need an account that never had anything other than said free license associated with it to partake. Now that first expansion is being included under free package you'd assume people who have only the base game registered can play that content as if they were under trial. Alas, the moment any key is registered you're getting the subscriber treatment and need to be subscribed to even download the game, I think.

 

[Myobi]

Been playin it with some friends again, Waifu Fantasy 14 is a trully glorious MMO.

 

[deama]

I tried playing it and oh god, it's such a tedious experience. I picked an arcanist, not sure if that's a good choice? Anyway, the combat is just plain slow as hell.
I just can't do it guys, world of warcraft was way better at low levels for some reason for me (I picked monk in WoW); I'm gonna stop for now.

 

[ADL]

Same I dropped it at level 20 because I couldn't take any more of it even though a friend of mine gave me Shadowbringers for free.
Even if your friends play it, it's one of those "play through 300+ hours of story content, complete all the dungeons and a couple raids to gear yourself up and you can play with me and my group" kind of games. Fuck that shit. Leave that trash back in the early 2000s where it fucking belongs.

 

[Rahdulan]

I tried playing it and oh god, it's such a tedious experience. I picked an arcanist, not sure if that's a good choice? Anyway, the combat is just plain slow as hell.
I just can't do it guys, world of warcraft was way better at low levels for some reason for me (I picked monk in WoW); I'm gonna stop for now.

Your problem is you chose the atypical WoW class to compare it to, though. From what I remember Monks were Blizzard's take on offering "action combat" of sorts that would be more fast paced to play. FF14 does overall have slower combat, mainly due to GCD and need to compensate for gamepads, but you should have gone with the Pugilist if you were aiming to compare the two. Some would say you arguably chose the worst class with the Arcanist because it has to juggle the pet bar and is quite boring in moment-to-moment gameplay. Not that beginner classes are all that engaging, though.

 

[deama]

I tried playing it and oh god, it's such a tedious experience. I picked an arcanist, not sure if that's a good choice? Anyway, the combat is just plain slow as hell.
I just can't do it guys, world of warcraft was way better at low levels for some reason for me (I picked monk in WoW); I'm gonna stop for now.

Your problem is you chose the atypical WoW class to compare it to, though. From what I remember Monks were Blizzard's take on offering "action combat" of sorts that would be more fast paced to play. FF14 does overall have slower combat, mainly due to GCD and need to compensate for gamepads, but you should have gone with the Pugilist if you were aiming to compare the two. Some would say you arguably chose the worst class with the Arcanist because it has to juggle the pet bar and is quite boring in moment-to-moment gameplay. Not that beginner classes are all that engaging, though.

I actually wanted to play the astrologian class but it's locked till lvl 50 and you have to go through the MSQ.
I actually played different versions of WoW over the years, I remember warrior or shaman were still better back in wrath of the lich king.

 

[Darkforge]

It's a solid replacement for Everquest/World of Warcraft and the overwhelming majority of MMOs (generic questing+dungeons+raiding PvE games) but I hate those.
So if you're into that sort of thing, go play it.

WTF you talking about this game has literally nothing in common with the original Everquest. (one of the only mmo's that was actually good.)

I forced myself through the Brutal Original content to get to Heavensward, and then dropped it at the end of that story arc, there goes 200 + hours.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

I've spent the past 2 days playing this on the free trial. My character is now at level 27. I got a big boost from doing dungeons, which are mandatory when you get to around level 15 through level 20, but I've only just finished the level 20 quests, joined a company and got a chocobo. I'm overlevelled now compared to the quest content but I don't mind, helps me get through it that much quicker. And I have the benefit of the recent patch which gives you the critical path to go through and cut out the filler.

It's not that bad. I think what I like most about it is that the quests are short and don't overstay their welcome, giving you a "just one more quest" vibe and encouraging you to keep playing. In contrast to something like Star Wars: The Old Republic, where the quests have some good moments (story-related), but have so much trash filler they become an absolute chore. Combat upon combat upon combat.

Dungeons are fun too, first time I've actually bothered to play a tank in dungeons in an MMO.

 

[SerratedBiz]

Furthermore, the quality and challenge of dungeons improves sharply starting around lv30, with Haukke Manor being the first of the more mechanically involved ones. Game definitely ramps up for the better as you get out of the initial half.