Board 8 > FFXIV Topic Part 2 - Yes, People Are Playing

(+) Yeah! (+)

I used to do Leveling, Alliance Raid, Normal Raid, Main Scenario Duty Roulette, and beast tribes every day to level all my off classes. Now I'm struggling to just do one DR a day to slowly work towards relics.

i've grown weak
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Tbf, one DR still probably requires more concentration and attention than the rest of those combined, on average.

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expert roulette only crew

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The Mana Sword posted...

expert roulette only crew

no way, hunt trains only for me

(i do two hunt trains for 240, savage for 120, and then one expert roulette a week to round out the final 90)

Eh its usually faster for me to just pop on for 15 minutes a day and do a single expert than do a hunt train

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Eh. A hunt train also takes 15 minutes (or less at peak times!), gets more tomes in that time (plus materia) and carries infinitely lower risk of getting stuck with an awful teammate who slows that time down to 20+ minutes. You do need to be willing to log on when you get the ping that it's happening though.

hunt trains are definitely the way to do it, i just don't feel like it anymore. i still have like 1000 of the items for materia 7 and 8 in my inventory

i actually walk around with the thrillseeker title i got forever ago even though i'm like 1700 a ranks away from the tiger. but everyone thinks i have the tiger since a ranks are easier to get.
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I've yet to use any Materia. It sound like I have to level a DoH class to slot them?

LtMplusCATS posted...

I've yet to use any Materia. It sound like I have to level a DoH class to slot them?

No, there are NPC melders you can use to slot materia into gear that isn't crafted (so most gear). Still, it isn't a huge deal until level 70/80 where you have access to Grade 6/8 Materia which can give tons of bonus stats. IIRC the Stormblood MSQ throws a bunch at you so you can mess with it then if you want.

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no point touching them until a) you're level 80 and b) you have current-patch gear (item level 500+)

I was gonna say Grade 6s are free and there is no reason NOT to slot them into filler gear once you can but then I remembered it actually does cost gil to do that if you don't have crafters leveled. Whoops!

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You can buy materia for cheap on the market.

Don't buy the basic stat ones like I did, they don't work anymore.
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HeroDelTiempo17 posted...

I was gonna say Grade 6s are free and there is no reason NOT to slot them into filler gear once you can but then I remembered it actually does cost gil to do that if you don't have crafters leveled. Whoops!

i'd be less worried about the gil cost and more the time cost of constantly slotting them in and out of gear that you change in 2 levels anyway. for almost no benefit.

This is the nice thing about the Relic Weapon quest actually, as it forces you to use materia so you get into the habit of it.

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Dels posted...

i'd be less worried about the gil cost and more the time cost of constantly slotting them in and out of gear that you change in 2 levels anyway. for almost no benefit.

I mean with crafters this takes 10 seconds, nor do I change gear all that often unless it's being handed to me or I'm really spamming dungeons.

I dont even do this all the time nor did I say it's necessary for leveling. But I definitely think people should be slamming grade 6s into more shit and I disagree about ignoring materia until you're in current patch gear. That's why I recommended messing around with it at 70 if you're curious about learning the system.

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I think the advice for trying out materia at earlier levels is pretty good. Hero's right in that its either use it or throw away these materia 6's, its not like you're going to grind for them.

will it -really- matter if you don't use them on 70 gear? not at all, but it'll teach you how the system works. Probably not how overmelding works, since you likely won't be using any gear that allows it (does dungeon gear?), but the actual process anyway.

Dels posted...

i'd be less worried about the gil cost and more the time cost of constantly slotting them in and out of gear that you change in 2 levels anyway. for almost no benefit.

I also agree with wasting time removing materia, I don't even do that on current equipment. So if you slot materia in, just pretend that materia is gone forever from your inventory!
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"The eyes! Cast them into the Abyss!"

...Bitch that's just off the side of the bridge, someone can just go get that shit.

"several cutscenes will play in sequence"

Uh oh.

Okay now that you've fought Nidhogg, I have to say that the moment in that fight where he repeatedly fires Ahk Morn blasts at you as the music swells to a climax is incredibly hype and one of the best single gameplay moments in FF14.

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Oh everything about that was rad as fuck.

I am noticing a pattern that a lot of the cooler fights are real easy, though, not that I'm complaining.

Man, they really want you to fly 100 miles into their air from the teleport to this Aerochemical facility for a heck of a lot of side content.

That fight was not easy on release, trust me. Was a big stopgap for casual players. Sometimes still is! Whenever I get that in Trial roulette and we have 1-2 newbie healers, I already mentally prepare myself for the potential wipe.

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LtMplusCATS posted...

Oh everything about that was rad as fuck.

I am noticing a pattern that a lot of the cooler fights are real easy, though, not that I'm complaining.

That'll happen for most story trials, since you'll get players that are geared out and will wreck bosses, even with the level sync.

All trials do have an Extreme version that ups the difficulty.

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Stormblood SMN quests: the constant flapping sound effect for Prin drove me crazy; don't know how they decided that was a good idea

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It is very odd to me that this is still just 3.3.

Patches X.4 and X.5 set up the next expansion. 3.3 is the end of the Ishgard arc.

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3.3 might be the best patch MSQ!

(5.3 also a contender. 3-1 to 3.4 tell some great stories in general, though the woman in 3.1 was annoying)
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Yeah there's definitely no way the tall elf due who won't speak and just happens to have his MOUTH covered and EYES exposed is Urianger. Just no way.

Real Clark Kent energy here.

That fight was actually pretty hard on release. Pretty often you'd get trial roulette groups wiping to it.

Sadly it being easy is just a casualty of how gear scaling works, especially the endgame stuff of each expansion.

KamikazePotato posted...

Okay now that you've fought Nidhogg, I have to say that the moment in that fight where he repeatedly fires Ahk Morn blasts at you as the music swells to a climax is incredibly hype and one of the best single gameplay moments in FF14.

Man I got so many chills. Best dragon fight I have ever played.

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I think that moment would have been more hype if I didn't play it at release and like 3/4 times it was just certain death that sent you back to the start of the fight, lol. I've never really thought about it like that as a consequence

Ahk Morn definitely slaps though

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trdl23 posted...

Man I got so many chills. Best dragon fight I have ever played

10 seconds to teraflare
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X_Dante_X posted...

10 seconds to teraflare

*arena explodes into an orange light*

Suffer! (Feel) Promise! (Think) Witness! (Teach) Reason! (Hear)

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3.3 is incredible. Also 3.4 and 3.5 are interesting as though they do clearly set up Stormblood, they tell a self-contained story thats not like 2.4 and 2.5 which is basically just starting the Heavensward story early. I would say 3.4 and 3.5 are nearly as good.

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X_Dante_X posted...

10 seconds to teraflare

Aww yeah.

And I wish I could replay that first Bozja mission that had Answers.

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BK_Sheikah00 posted...

Aww yeah.

And I wish I could replay that first Bozja mission that had Answers.

that might be the only solo quest i'd replay. idk how exactly it'd work (since screw redoing the grind just to see the story again), but I'd like to see bozja on the NG+ feature
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Me to my roomate an hour ago: there are too many Lalafells in this group shot, one of these shorties is def gonna bite it.

I imagine this sudden transition to slapstick samurai worked better when there was time between these patches <_<

Don't remember the slapstick samurai part, what bit is that?

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Immediately after the dramatic death and destruction, a 7 foot tall huge samurai shows up in Vesper Bay on a tiny boat and screams at the top of his lungs about how samurai don't need to eat before collapsing in hunger.

Nero is a drama queen, and he only gets better as time goes on.

As for the giant samurai guy, he's one of my favorite secondary characters in all of 14.

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Oh yeah, that intro is a bit of whiplash. Agree with trdl on both points though.

'Fun' fact about the dramatic death and destruction you just mentioned: there used to be a title gained from completing that called 'Papalymo's Last Spell' or something similar. People put it on their characters and ran around spoiling it for everyone now caught up on the MSQ. Got patched out fairly quickly but I have no idea how Square thought that was a good idea in the first place.

What was your overall opinion on Heavensward?

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I think I'm two MSQs from finishing, so I will let you know soon.

Just got a sick new outfit that matches perfectly to the point where I have to wonder if it's colored based on your look, or if I just lucked into it.

Need to stop dyeing all my stuff dalamund. As much as I love Red Mages as a class and concept, I dislike red gear just as much TBQH, lol.

Go hot pink instead imo

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This Yda revelation is wierd. I never even knew this other character, why is it acting like I should I care? Why is my characters default to ask why she never told me, why would THEY care? Is this something for 1.0 people?

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OK so thoughts so far.

ARR is def solid but its real dry looking back on it. I remember he ending of 2.0 kind of rushing up at me, and most of the patch content is whatever. Up until the very end where it goes absolutely mental and sucked me in, I hadnt even memorized some of the main characters names yet. At that point I would say it felt solid for what it was, not so much a standout. Doesnt help that the first half nothing really happens at all as it gets you grounded.

There are some good moments here and there, but MAN does that hour long cutscenes do some Work. Also, my opinion of ARR was artificially inflated a bit because the last thing I did in it was all the Hildibrand content, which is unironically the best thing in 2.x.

Heavensward, though, fucking baller. I was invested all the way though, the story was constantly evolving, and if it werent for repeating locations the patches would feel like a solid expansion in their own right. Arguably, I was invested in a lot of it more then Heavensward proper.

Somehow, even after that, the biggest difference is definitely the gameplay itself. Those 2.0 dungeons are BLEH. So many dead ends and empty hallways, every one of them is a maze in some way, with tons of samey cooridors. I could go with never playing a 2.0 dungeon again. I was tolerating it at the time, but theyre SOOOOO much better in 3.x.

I guess a good way to put it is that a lot of my drive for a chunk of ARR was to GET to Heavensward because I had heard such great things, even though there were some sections where I was just treating it like busy work. So many fetch quests.

Now, as I head into 4.0...I mean, I have Persona 5 Strikers installed, a game I have been waiting for for over a year, and I have no interest in touching it until I at least catch up on MSQ. That should say it all.

Any thoughts on the characters and why Estinien is way better than everyone else?
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LtMplusCATS posted...

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This Yda revelation is wierd. I never even knew this other character, why is it acting like I should I care? Why is my characters default to ask why she never told me, why would THEY care? Is this something for 1.0 people?

Nope! the Yda in 1.0 was always Lyse as well. Yda herself literally never showed up ever in the entire story.

Mac Arrowny posted...

Amy thoughts on the characters and why Estinien is way better than everyone else?

Esitinen is rad as hell. I'm hoping we haven't seen the last of him.

Alphinaud serves his purpose well, he's perfectly serviceable as the character who is around all the time and doesn't stand out to much.

Alisae I hope will grown on me, she's...fine?

Yshtola is best of the best.

Thancred...I'm sure will have tons coming up. Even as the character I have seen the most of since I started in Uldah, and with his plot relevance in ARR, I just don't feel a lot of attachment to this guy yet.

Krile is A+++. Tataru as well. And Nanamo. Lalafel girls reign Supreme.

I have no real opinion on "Yda" or Poppy.

Aymeric is my #1 dude and I was straight up going to pay the real money for his outfit if it wasn't locked to males.

Rhauban is just pure unrivaled badass and I don't care if that sounds like something a 16 year old would say.

I LIKE Cid, I don't think I love him as much as a lot of people seem to but he's certainly cool enough.

Haurchefant loves on as a tiny man who follows me around.

Hilda I feel like was supposed to be a big deal but she barely seemed to matter.

Nero is king bitch in a good way.

Minfilia I almost forgot to mention which says a lot, I know she's like a driving force in the entire game but I don't...care about her a ton. Partially because for the entire time she was actually actively around her VA sucked.

I'm sure I'm forgetting people but I don't want to cheat and look them up.