Board 8 > Started FFXIV a couple months ago. Who else plays?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Moreover, who else is on the Primal server?

I am midway through Stormblood right now, playing my MNK main and AST secondary. Heavensward was phenomenal and would be up there with some of the best FF games I have played overall. RIP best bro

I am loving it. Never going back to WoW, especially with this China mess. I hear Shadowbringers is even better than HW, which is kind of tough to believe.
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I played for a bit and me and the gal are going to start playing together!
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I've been playing for a while. Stormblood takes a dip in quality after Heavensward but I would agree Shadowbringers is the best the game has been so far.

I played PLD up to Stormblood, SAM through Stormblood, and Shadowbringers/current raiding as BLM
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i got up to about level 48 and just wasn't feeling it enough to splash out on the expansions
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yo

Primal data center, Lamia server.
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trdl23 posted...

Moreover, who else is on the Primal server?

I am midway through Stormblood right now, playing my MNK main and AST secondary. Heavensward was phenomenal and would be up there with some of the best FF games I have played overall. RIP best bro

I am loving it. Never going back to WoW, especially with this China mess. I hear Shadowbringers is even better than HW, which is kind of tough to believe.

How does it actually compare to WoW?

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Technically I'm Primal Lamia but I haven't played regularly in over a year and haven't played at all for around half of one.

But if I ever get back in!
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I'm on Cactuar/Aether, but on a break until 5.1 comes out.

Also just a heads up, if you didnt do the Crystal Tower raids yet, you should do them before starting Shadowbringers. Enjoy! If you loved Heavensward you will definitely love Shadowbringers too.

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User SaveEstelle recently started playing and he is on Leviathan for those interested.
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Primal - Ultros

I'm a small chunk into Stormblood, probably not terribly far in. Kept thinking I was done Heavensward after 17 credit rolls but it kept going!

Leveled Red Mage up to 80 and now I'm playing Gunbreaker

HeroDelTiempo17 posted...

Also just a heads up, if you didnt do the Crystal Tower raids yet, you should do them before starting Shadowbringers.

why
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I have two characters

Aether - Faerie (main)
Primal - Behemoth (alt)

I don't regularly play, but I always do seasonal events on both characters.
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KommunistKoala posted...

why

They reference the story from it a good amount, it'll enhance ShB for sure
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Oh I'm lamia (primal) btw

All I ever do anymore is spawn s ranks though (and even that I haven't done in awhile!)
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dante is lying he also loves to grind praetorium endlessly
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Hey I'm almost out of DPS to level up
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A good number of us are on Lamia, although as long as you're on one of the Primal worlds you can still party-up for dungeons/raids etc.

In terms of regular play there's a bit of a lull at the moment as most of us are up to date asides from general leveling of alt jobs, but that'll change at the end of the month when 5.1 releases.
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redrocket posted...

How does it actually compare to WoW?

Pros:
-The combat starts off a little more clunky, but it later becomes much more complex in its rotations and situational skills.
-Being able to play/level any or all classes on the same character is a breath of fresh air.
-Level sync means running old dungeons isnt a complete snore, and it lets newbies pair with more experienced players regularly.
-The storyline is quite good. Some parts are hit or miss, but its definitely there and not something to ignore like much of WoWs story. In the expansions the story goes from good to amazing then back down to a-bit-above-good.
-Jesus Christ the soundtrack is amazing. And varied to boot.
-Raid bosses or trash encounters are separated into their own unique instances. If you wipe on a boss, you get to jump back in for another try immediately, and you dont have to worry about trash respawning.
-Epic encounters feel suitably epic. A lot of it comes from story buildup plus the soundtrack as mentioned above. The Final Steps of Faith is one of the most amazing boss fights I have done in my life.
-So many references from the FF past to tickle those nostalgia bones.
-As expected from Squeenix, the character models and animations look great, albeit with some clipping issues occasionally. So many of the bosses (read: Ravana) look badass and/or metal as fuck.

Neutral
-PvE combat and especially Trials / raids are way heavier on telegraphed AoE than WoW. They even have a bunch more standard symbols to react to besides just dont stand here.
-All of the classes feel quite distinct. That isnt really different from WoW but its cool being able to change them on the fly.
-The game does not rely on popping cooldowns appropriately like high-end WoW content. Theres no real equivalent to Bloodlust, little DPS cooldowns to pop at just the right phase (BLM excepted), and unless youre a tank, survival cooldowns dont really exist, at least nothing equivalent to a mage Ice Block or rogue Cloak of Shadows.
-Talent trees dont exist, but those suck in modern WoW anyway. If anything this could be a boon because you get ALL your moves whenever you need them.
-There are no subclasses like most WoW classes have. If youre a Paladin in FFXIV, youre a tank. Period. However, you can just swap to a different class if you want to do something else, so its a wash for me.

Cons:
-The UI is garbage. Sweet god, let me check my mailbox while on my Chocobo. This isnt that hard. I understand it was built for PS4 as well, but that still shouldnt preclude me from checking my mail on my chocobo.
-Similarly, theres no support for mods, even the ones that are strict Quality of Life upgrades. No DBM, no Auctioneer, none of that. Using even a DPS tracker is against Terms of Use and can get you banned.
-Theres no in-game guide to prep you on mechanics. Either somebody in your party/friends fills you in, you look it up in browser, or you fly by the seat of your pants. What the fuck did I die to gets really frustrating after the 7th wipe. Wishing there were a guide in-game is met with the equivalent of git gud scrub.
-Boss mechanics arent as varied as in WoW. So far, theres nothing like having to pick which part of a boss to kill first, no vehicle combat, no swimming through the air like in Alysrazor, no splitting the raid to handle separate mechanics. Maybe thats in Shadowbringers?
-Aside from graphics, you can tell theres not a lot of money invested compared to WoW. Most bosses completely lack voice acting, which means no audio cues for some mechanics that could reeeeally use them. At least the fight music kicks ass.
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trdl23 posted...

-Boss mechanics arent as varied as in WoW. So far, theres nothing like having to pick which part of a boss to kill first, no vehicle combat, no swimming through the air like in Alysrazor, no splitting the raid to handle separate mechanics. Maybe thats in Shadowbringers?

This kind of stuff you get in Alliance raids like Crystal Tower, which I'm assuming you haven't done.
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The Mana Sword posted...

trdl23 posted...

-Boss mechanics arent as varied as in WoW. So far, theres nothing like having to pick which part of a boss to kill first, no vehicle combat, no swimming through the air like in Alysrazor, no splitting the raid to handle separate mechanics. Maybe thats in Shadowbringers?

This kind of stuff you get in Alliance raids like Crystal Tower, which I'm assuming you haven't done.

I have indeed done Crystal Tower, but it doesnt remotely hold up to some of the crazier shit I got to do in WoW.
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2 quick clarifications

trdl23 posted...

-Similarly, theres no support for mods, even the ones that are strict Quality of Life upgrades. No DBM, no Auctioneer, none of that. Using even a DPS tracker is against Terms of Use and can get you banned.

This is true but the only time I've heard of bans for DPS tracking is when people use it to bully and call out other players. But this is pretty frustrating, especially because PS4 players have no way to track DPS and end up having to ask in chat anyways.

trdl23 posted...

-Boss mechanics arent as varied as in WoW. So far, theres nothing like having to pick which part of a boss to kill first, no vehicle combat, no swimming through the air like in Alysrazor, no splitting the raid to handle separate mechanics. Maybe thats in Shadowbringers?

For the most part, difficult and more varied mechanics like this are relegated to the optional Extreme and Savage raid content and doesn't appear in normal dungeons and story bosses. And of lot of that content is not current anymore. But even then it doesn't get as gimmicky as you're describing here. The bulk of the game is pretty streamlined which is kind of a downside but is also part of why the game is so successful so...kind of a wash.

And yeah as you said in your first point the leveling experience isn't great and unfortunately does get a bit clunkier every time they add a new expansion and shuffle all the skills around based on the endgame. It was less noticeable to me as it was my first MMO but now that I've reached endgame it's obvious and will probably be obvious to anyone more experienced.

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Though speaking of raid storylines, I highly reccomend doing the Heavensward raid story at some point. It's based around Alexander and is pretty cool. There's a Normal mode that still shows up in queues so it is still doable. Stormblood's is whatever but has a ton of FF fanservice.

Binding Coil of Bahamut also has good lore but unfortunately this was before they split raiding into Normal and Savage so the only way to experience it now is to get a group together to steamroll it at max level.

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I have been meaning to run Alexander. It looks super cool.

Some buds of mine have done the first two coils turns out level 80s still wipe on Nael because instant-death mechanics everywhere are quality game design but we havent done the last one yet. The story is pretty neat.
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I should point out that while I have around the same number of pros vs cons listed there, the weight is still heavily in favor of the pros.
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Aether - Cactuar
DRG

Im wrapping up 2.5 getting ready to start Heavensward. Trying to decide if I want to do the 2.x raids before moving on.
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How are DPS queues these days?

trdl23 posted...

-Similarly, theres no support for mods, even the ones that are strict Quality of Life upgrades. No DBM, no Auctioneer, none of that. Using even a DPS tracker is against Terms of Use and can get you banned.

If it helps, literally no one gets banned for using a DPS tracker unless you go up to Square Enix HQ and throw printed sheets of your parses at the CEO.

-Boss mechanics arent as varied as in WoW. So far, theres nothing like having to pick which part of a boss to kill first, no vehicle combat, no swimming through the air like in Alysrazor, no splitting the raid to handle separate mechanics. Maybe thats in Shadowbringers?

There's a lot of this in the raids, but people don't run old raids most of the time. Look up (for example) Alexander Savage if you're interested in how they worked.
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HeroDelTiempo17 posted...

trdl23 posted...
-Boss mechanics arent as varied as in WoW. So far, theres nothing like having to pick which part of a boss to kill first, no vehicle combat, no swimming through the air like in Alysrazor, no splitting the raid to handle separate mechanics. Maybe thats in Shadowbringers?

For the most part, difficult and more varied mechanics like this are relegated to the optional Extreme and Savage raid content and doesn't appear in normal dungeons and story bosses. And of lot of that content is not current anymore. But even then it doesn't get as gimmicky as you're describing here. The bulk of the game is pretty streamlined which is kind of a downside but is also part of why the game is so successful so...kind of a wash.

Yeah I agree with this, FFXIV raids even at the high end are more about memorizing how to dodge each fight's specific combination of AOE attacks than unique gimmicks, and they start to feel a bit samey compared to the more interesting WoW fights. On the other hand, though, each fight in this game tends to have some baseline level of fun and difficulty for every player, as opposed to WoW where inevitably you will get a handful of fights each tier that are a joke, have all the complex mechanics relegated to like 3 people while everyone else does nothing, or have a bad gimmick that makes the fight completely unenjoyable (looking at you, G'huun)
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https://imgur.com/a/ugQBslc
https://imgur.com/a/h4fa15n

help

all the way on crystal though
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HeroDelTiempo17 posted...

Though speaking of raid storylines, I highly reccomend doing the Heavensward raid story at some point. It's based around Alexander and is pretty cool. There's a Normal mode that still shows up in queues so it is still doable. Stormblood's is whatever but has a ton of FF fanservice.

Binding Coil of Bahamut also has good lore but unfortunately this was before they split raiding into Normal and Savage so the only way to experience it now is to get a group together to steamroll it at max level.

Alexander boss themes are so fucking great especially for Prime and Cruise Chaser
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I play on Siren. 80 GNB, 72 SMN. I prefer this game to WoW as well, although they are both good.

PlasmaKappa posted...

https://imgur.com/a/ugQBslc
https://imgur.com/a/h4fa15n

help

all the way on crystal though

holy hell.

Also XIV Is casual game for me.

I play White Mage. Only White Mage.
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Red is white mage fun for a beginning healer or should she go something else
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From what others have told me, Red Mage is one of the simplest classes in the game and fits great in most team comps.

And seriously, can anyone playing tell me how DPS queues are right now? That's currently my biggest barrier to going back in.
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DoomTheGyarados posted...

Red is white mage fun for a beginning healer or should she go something else

My partner enjoys white mage, but if she wants the option to not be a healer you can go arcanist, which can branch into either Summoner (DPS) or Scholar (Healer)

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i think white mage is the current favorite healer of most healer mains, i say as someone who doesn't play ANY of the healers

also re: dps queues, they're not great. I don't queue for specific dungeons ever, but leveling roulette is normally ~10 min, alliance raid the same, and msq roulette guaranteed 30+ min

trials are quick though
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I'm on Cactuar, it is a great "play for an hour or 2 after the baby/wife go to bed" game to decompress. In the middle of levelling everything to 80 (currently have 8)
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X_Dante_X posted...

also re: dps queues, they're not great. I don't queue for specific dungeons ever, but leveling roulette is normally ~10 min, alliance raid the same, and msq roulette guaranteed 30+ min

RIP. I want to get back in but that doesn't sound super fun.
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DoomTheGyarados posted...

Red is white mage fun for a beginning healer or should she go something else

White Mage can be a little bit stressful because we dont have the damage prevention/proactive abilities of the other classes.

I don't know the other classes in depth but I just know I try to never team up with another WHM because the raid tends to end up with multiple situations of having to sit at scary levels of low health before we heal them up.

SCH is probably the friendliest in providing a stress free environment.

AST is just needlessly complicated.
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KamikazePotato posted...

RIP. I want to get back in but that doesn't sound super fun.

Well MSQ is a stupid and boring roulette you should never do unless you are ridiculously and unhealthily thirsty for exp or poetics

All the roulettes anyone actually does have been 10m or less usually. Might be a little longer trying to get into specific older dungeons but idk. If that's still too bad it's understandable. Starting in Shadowbringers you can actually avoid queues for dungeons by going in with NPCs, though.

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the trust system is so good.

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Nrrr posted...

the trust system is so good.

I quite like it in XI. How is it in this?
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JonThePenguin posted...

Nrrr posted...

the trust system is so good.

I quite like it in XI. How does it compare to that version?

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I haven't played XI, but in XIV the trust system only works on dungeons in Shadowbringers, but essentially makes them a single player experience. The Scions from the main storyline replace the other players, and you go through the Dungeon as you normally would, only with commentary from some of the storyline characters.

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I haven't used the trust system myself, but I've heard the NPCs are pretty bad. My friend has seen phases of fights you'd never normally see because the NPCs' dps is just that low.
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NPCs DPS is pretty low, but the tanks and healers were pretty good. If youre DPS yourself its not too bad. Obviously gonna take longer than playing with PCs though.
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As someone grinding trust system runs for the achievement (get all 6 to 80), I can confirm the NPC DPS is painfully slow. A 15 minute dungeon run easily turns into a 25-30 minute run
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It does take a little longer, but for me as a Gunbreaker, the anxiety reduction of being able to run through the dungeons for the first time with NPCs (and some of their dialogue is great) is worth it.

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Wait how new is this being able to run dungeons with NPCs? Is it expansion-specific? I hadn't completed ARR before taking a break from the game. One of biggest hindrances in advancing through FFXIV was a fear of running storyline dungeons because I'm not sure what I'm doing fully. Granted the community has given me no reason to be fearful so far in all the dungeons I've played, but it's still a personal problem of mine.
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It is only in the newest expansion, Shadowbringers.

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ZaziGuado posted...

Wait how new is this being able to run dungeons with NPCs? Is it expansion-specific? I hadn't completed ARR before taking a break from the game. One of biggest hindrances in advancing through FFXIV was a fear of running storyline dungeons because I'm not sure what I'm doing fully. Granted the community has given me no reason to be fearful so far in all the dungeons I've played, but it's still a personal problem of mine.

You really dont need to worry about it. My story run of one of the ARR dungeons, I stopped to watch the pre-boss cutscene, and by the time it was over the remaining three had killed the boss and left the dungeon. I ran the final dungeon of the main story three times before figuring out one part of it and nobody said a word. Youll be fine.
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