Board 8 > Teach me how to play Final Fantasy XIV

(+) Yeah! (+)

Yeah it's gonna be like that for a hot minute, lol.

The intro cinematic is showing the original FFXIV being destroyed, which is the event they're referring to.

There's a summary video for the 1.0 story if you're ever interested, but it's not necessary. I didn't watch it until well after being up to date on the game.

https://youtu.be/DjZgp8mUrog


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colliding posted...

Just had my first boss battle with Metroid's very own Ridley. It was extremely easy.

If there is a story at this point it's gone completely over my head. Basically I can tell you there was a disaster a few years ago that everyone mysteriously forgot about. There's been two mysterious swordsmen NPC's: one in the bar and one helping me fight a space pirate alien. There are some throwaway lines about world building / politics but I didn't follow any of it. Other than that it feels like I'm just doing odd jobs.

Anyway that's it for today.

You are doing odd jobs; youre the new adventurer in town and have to prove yourself before getting invited to the big leagues.

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Oh my god they just changed the Crystal servers from Preferred to Standard.

The entire reason I'm playing this game is because of a buddy of mine who is very sweaty and says hes not going to wait up if I fall behind (he's a top100 WoW raider). but he was gonna get the game on thursday

get fucked nerd. ill be waiting at the top.

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CoolCly posted...

Oh my god they just changed the Crystal servers from Preferred to Standard.

The entire reason I'm playing this game is because of a buddy of mine who is very sweaty and says hes not going to wait up if I fall behind (he's a top100 WoW raider). but he was gonna get the game on thursday

get fucked nerd. ill be waiting at the top.

There's no reason to care about 'getting behind' in FF14 anyway because the whole game has a level sync system meaning someone ahead can always play with someone lower level, and also everything but the dungeons and trials (instanced single boss fights) in the MSQ is solo content anyway.

tcaz2 posted...

There's no reason to care about 'getting behind' in FF14 anyway because the whole game has a level sync system meaning someone ahead can always play with someone lower level, and also everything but the dungeons and trials (instanced single boss fights) in the MSQ is solo content anyway.

sweat nerds dont care about this.

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Summoner being reworked might actually get me to play again.

If I had time that is

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So... I kind of did start playing hollow knight again :( Blame Halloween and me wanting to play something spooky

I still plan on coming back to this though. The idea of me just doing fetch quests/super easy hunts for the forseeable future isn't particularly exciting is the problem

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colliding posted...

Blame Halloween and me wanting to play something spooky

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i thought the hollow knight joke earlier was just memes

is it that a replayable game or is that just a personal favourite for yours?

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also I feel like such a boomer playing in parties. theres so much flashy shit going on, and encounters are typically over so fast i have no idea what im supposed to do until the action is at least half over.

and as an Arcanist, I feel like I don't contribute anything. Putting dots on some mobs in a group is pointless when they die within 10 seconds after I apply them, and casting Ruin doesnt even do that much damage. I have no idea how the party is killing groups of mobs so quickly but I'm pretty sure i have nothing to with it

i just avoid the big telegraphed attacks and cast ruin at things...

Now that I'm 30 I can do the quest to get Bane though, which spreads my dots to everything, so that's something. Do I just keep doing my class quests to become a Summoner?

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You have to reach 30, have completed all the Arcanist job quests, and have completed the Main Scenario Quest "Sylph Management".

It's possible you may not have reached that MSQ before hitting 30 if you're on a preferred server, but if not you'd still be close.

Every XIV class feels pretty butt before unlocking your job, but Arcanist gets the worst of it I think, what with it unlocking 2 different jobs once you hit 30. It just feels so empty at first.

It's going to be especially wierd for new Endwalker players when Summoner has literally nothing in common with Arcanist anymore.

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CoolCly posted...

i thought the hollow knight joke earlier was just memes

is it that a replayable game or is that just a personal favourite for yours?

this is my second playthrough; it's been a few years. thought maybe a replay might conjure silksong into existence.

it's not really a favorite but I definitely am enjoying it

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As a tip to anyone that might not know or is new:

Potency makes 'is damage worth it' very easy to calculate. Basically to use CoolCly's bio as an example, at that level you'll have Bio 2 which is 30 potency per tick (every 3s). Ruin does 180 potency. So after 6 ticks (18 seconds, or more than half duration), Bio 2 will have dealt more damage than a single cast of Ruin. Bane does make bio a lot better as well, because it means you're comparing one cast of Ruin to essentially multiple casts of Bio (ie if you apply Bio and then Bane it to 2 other targets, you've essentially cast Bio 3 times in the span it would take to cast 1 Ruin so it pays off in 6 seconds instead of 18)

Same thing applies to AoE calculations only you use targets instead of ticks. (though the general rule is AoE is better to use on 3 or more targets, single on 1-2- there are a few exceptions but it really don't matter most of the time unless you're trying to optimize endgame stuff)

So basically yeah especially early on in dungeons it doesn't actually make sense to bio non-bosses if they are dying really fast, which mobs don't really start living that long until around level 35-40 unless maybe you're grouped with a bunch of newbies. One of the reasons ARR is kind of annoying to get through isn't just the story pacing but for experienced gamers, it's very easy for quite a long time.

You're getting to the point where it does start to pick up both in terms of plot and gameplay fairly soon though, CoolCly. Bosses start having appreciable 'pay attention or die' mechanics around that level 35-40 range (they're still pretty easy at this point, mind, but they'll continue to ramp up from here) and rotations start getting more stuff to them.

(Edited to fix me being dumb at math)

CoolCly posted...

also I feel like such a boomer playing in parties. theres so much flashy shit going on, and encounters are typically over so fast i have no idea what im supposed to do until the action is at least half over.

and as an Arcanist, I feel like I don't contribute anything. Putting dots on some mobs in a group is pointless when they die within 10 seconds after I apply them, and casting Ruin doesnt even do that much damage. I have no idea how the party is killing groups of mobs so quickly but I'm pretty sure i have nothing to with it

i just avoid the big telegraphed attacks and cast ruin at things...

Now that I'm 30 I can do the quest to get Bane though, which spreads my dots to everything, so that's something. Do I just keep doing my class quests to become a Summoner?

so, one area FFXIV is a bit weak in is classes get their first AoE skill at different levels, and until you have it, you're much less useful in dungeons

yes, bane will help you a lot

but at level 40, you'll get Outrage, which is basically Ruin but for multiple targets. That will make you feel a lot more useful.

Some classes get their AoE skill at level 15 and others don't get until 40, so, yeah.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

It's going to be especially wierd for new Endwalker players when Summoner has literally nothing in common with Arcanist anymore.

the rework actually affects low levels too. the carbuncles are going to function similarly to the lv90 summons, putting you in the three different phases. they've reworked the entire skill progression.

Oh, that's actually rad.

That may ironically make ACN the MOST engaging starter class.

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Dels posted...

Some classes get their AoE skill at level 15 and others don't get until 40, so, yeah.

Lancer hell.

They get the last laugh by 80, though.

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UshiromiyaEva posted...

Oh, that's actually rad.

That may ironically make ACN the MOST engaging starter class.

Might be. Monk too is getting this treatment, they get chakra at level 15 now.

I'm hoping they plan to do it for every class (yes, particularly lancer) and just started with those two since they're already getting a rework.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

Lancer hell.

They get the last laugh by 80, though.

Ill always hate line aoe

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It's actually kind of funny because Arcanist used to be one of the classes I recommended to people that wanted the game to be a bit more fun more early on, but over the years and expansions the trend of making classes get their AoEs earlier and earlier actually made them one of the worst to play early.

Now with the rework they might be one of the more interesting ones early again, which would be kinda funny.

I play summoner and the job kind of sucks until you get bane, and even then it doesn't open up until Deathflare. The bahamut and pheonix rotations though are huge damage boosts. Like nevermind the job is completely changing though.

My biggest complain is 100% sometimes there are too many effects and I can't actually tell what's happening on the screen. Or the habit of making the aoe markers the same color of the floor.

Major sale for our trial players.

https://twitter.com/Wario64/status/1454120745152311297

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whoa that $23 bundle includes Shadowbringers? I just went ahead and bought it and Endwalker for like $50 CAD each on steam so I could get the earring and I'm pretty certain I'm going to play this for awhile

damn!!!

at least i have my sweet sweet preferred exp buff to keep me warm at night =)

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tcaz2 posted...

As a tip to anyone that might not know or is new:

Potency makes 'is damage worth it' very easy to calculate. Basically to use CoolCly's bio as an example, at that level you'll have Bio 2 which is 30 potency per tick (every 3s). Ruin does 180 potency. So after 6 ticks (18 seconds, or more than half duration), Bio 2 will have dealt more damage than a single cast of Ruin. Bane does make bio a lot better as well, because it means you're comparing one cast of Ruin to essentially multiple casts of Bio (ie if you apply Bio and then Bane it to 2 other targets, you've essentially cast Bio 3 times in the span it would take to cast 1 Ruin so it pays off in 6 seconds instead of 18)

Same thing applies to AoE calculations only you use targets instead of ticks. (though the general rule is AoE is better to use on 3 or more targets, single on 1-2- there are a few exceptions but it really don't matter most of the time unless you're trying to optimize endgame stuff)

So basically yeah especially early on in dungeons it doesn't actually make sense to bio non-bosses if they are dying really fast, which mobs don't really start living that long until around level 35-40 unless maybe you're grouped with a bunch of newbies. One of the reasons ARR is kind of annoying to get through isn't just the story pacing but for experienced gamers, it's very easy for quite a long time.

You're getting to the point where it does start to pick up both in terms of plot and gameplay fairly soon though, CoolCly. Bosses start having appreciable 'pay attention or die' mechanics around that level 35-40 range (they're still pretty easy at this point, mind, but they'll continue to ramp up from here) and rotations start getting more stuff to them.

(Edited to fix me being dumb at math)

Thanks for this! Potency is something i figured i'd have to look into because it seems like its meant to be a yardstick on how to compare abilities without getting too bogged down in actual current damage numbers, but it wasnt intuitive how to compare them, especially with how low the potency was on Dots. It seems its related to time somehow. for Dots its the potency per tick every 3s.

Is there a translation for cast time spells and instants or are those supposed to be directly comparable?


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It does.

Bad timing lol.

Though if you spent $50 Canadian on the full complete collection AND Endwalker it sounds like you came out of that deal on top anyways.

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Dels posted...

so, one area FFXIV is a bit weak in is classes get their first AoE skill at different levels, and until you have it, you're much less useful in dungeons

yes, bane will help you a lot

but at level 40, you'll get Outrage, which is basically Ruin but for multiple targets. That will make you feel a lot more useful.

Some classes get their AoE skill at level 15 and others don't get until 40, so, yeah.

ohh im level 38 Summoner now so that will be close. although the funny thing is that my MSQ is lagged way behind my level so I'm doing party stuff without access to Bane still ;_;

The party system seems strange - do I really just get to keep Scholar at my max level for free?

Also am I a crazy person for joining every single guild or is that normal

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UshiromiyaEva posted...

It does.

Bad timing lol.

Though if you spent $50 Canadian on the full complete collection AND Endwalker it sounds like you came out of that deal on top anyways.

I think I paid $25 for A Realm Reborn, $50 for Shadowbringers, and $50 for Endwalker. lol.

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The only time potency isn't a raw number math comparison is comparing healing potency to damage potency.

In fact, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think there's even a difference between DPS/Tank self healing ability potency versus actual Healer healing potency.

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CoolCly posted...

The party system seems strange - do I really just get to keep Scholar at my max level for free?

Yeah Summoner and Scholar level up side by side. The only downside is you have to go back and do the others job's quests in chunks at some point, or constantly switch.

Good deal for boosters, though!

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Most people unlock multiple jobs, and one of the game's great pleasures is levelling classes to 80 (or 90 next month)

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CoolCly posted...

Is there a translation for cast time spells and instants or are those supposed to be directly comparable?

As long as the cast time is at or under your GCD they're functionally exactly the same (generally the GCD is about 2.5 seconds but it gets a little bit lower with skill/spell speed- it depends on the Job).

Most cast time vs instant is just a matter of 'am I able to move during this to dodge AoEs or not?'. As such spells with cast times tend to have higher potency to make up for that draw back, unless the instants are on a long cooldown.

Also, learn to slide cast! You can usually move right before a cast goes off and it won't cancel. I recommend spending a minute or two on a training dummy practicing the timing, good for clutch AoE dodging. The timing is universal for all hardcasts, too.

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Heh, yeah that's a hard casting classic.

Does being in a party affect experience?

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Naw, party size doesn't effect EXP.

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yeah i'll buy this for $25. still not sure when I'll get back to actually playing it, as this weekend I'm taking a break from video games for some real-world human interaction

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Even if you do plan on buying it, may want to wait for the last day just to maximize your free trial time (you'll have another free month after buying). There is no tangible benefit to buying the full version until hitting level 50 (unlocking Samurai/Red Mage).

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So I class changed to Summoner on like thursdayish after finally getting to the MSQ that lets you do it - and my class is level 40 now, while the MSQ is only 20. I may have done way too many side quests at low level...

But now I'm levelling my professions. My Botanist/Miner are 41 and my crafters are all 25-33.

...I kinda just want to keep levelling my professions. I might just go literally as far as I can with the zones I have available to me. Am I crazy?

Any tips on things while levelling that might actually be worth selling? I just dump some things for 100-1000 gil cuz I don't think anybody wants the junk I've been making, it mostly just seems equivalent to vendor gear. Though I did sell a couple high quality pieces for 6K though.


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At the very least you should wait to do any major investment in cross leveling until you beat 2.0 and unlock flying.

Really not going to be anything worth selling that you'll have the materials to make at this point in the game.

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There are people out there for whom endgame is crafting/gathering. It's a fairly involved system (at least until you get to the point where you've finished all your prepwork and everything can be done at the touch of a single macro).

And yeah, at this point any profit you make is going to be through selling lots of low-value stuff rather than anything particularly valuable. If you really want to target something, take note of what your class quests ask for and make and sell those on the MB; lots of lazy people will buy finished products to turn in rather than go to the trouble of gathering raw materials, refining into intermediate steps, and crafting the item themselves.

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Not_an_Owl posted...

It's a fairly involved system (at least until you get to the point where you've finished all your prepwork and everything can be done at the touch of a single macro)

Some of the really high end stuff at max level can't be macro'd because of RNG elements and super rare materials, it should be noted. It's not often, but it does happen.

Not_an_Owl posted...

And yeah, at this point any profit you make is going to be through selling lots of low-value stuff rather than anything particularly valuable. If you really want to target something, take note of what your class quests ask for and make and sell those on the MB; lots of lazy people will buy finished products to turn in rather than go to the trouble of gathering raw materials, refining into intermediate steps, and crafting the item themselves.

In addition to this, check what the crafting levequests want and make tons of those. Not only are the crafting leves great to level with for yourself, but aforementioned lazy people will power level crafting by just buying a ton of the turn ins off the market board and turning them in for EXP from the levequest completion.

Also if you are leveling crafting and not doing your daily Grand Company turn ins you're missing out. Try to turn in high quality versions of the items it asks for and you will straight up get like an entire level per day on every crafter just turning those in.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

At the very least you should wait to do any major investment in cross leveling until you beat 2.0 and unlock flying.

ooh that's a big win for efficiency but imo a loss for immersion. i'm not surprised there are flying mounts but i hoped there wasnt. I think it was bad for WoW in the long run. Though I'm guessing you can't fly over zones like in WoW and still have have to go through the entrances between areas

i'll probably keep doing it as I have

where are the grand company turn ins? i didn't see anybody looking like they are handing out levemetes or whatever at my HQ but maybe i'll just try talking to everyone and see.

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CoolCly posted...

ooh that's a big win for efficiency but imo a loss for immersion. i'm not surprised there are flying mounts but i hoped there wasnt. I think it was bad for WoW in the long run. Though I'm guessing you can't fly over zones like in WoW and still have have to go through the entrances between areas

You can't fly in an area post ARR until you find and activate all of the 'aether currents' in the area (which some are locked behind MSQ progression) so you have to go through everything on foot before. It just simplifies getting around post main story. Doesn't hurt immersion as much as you would think.

CoolCly posted...

where are the grand company turn ins? i didn't see anybody looking like they are handing out levemetes or whatever at my HQ but maybe i'll just try talking to everyone and see.

It might not be unlocked immediately and need a higher rank, actually. It's not terribly far in the ranks though, if it is. It's at whatever your GC is "Personnel Officer" at the main desk. It's called "Supply and Provisioning Missions"

CoolCly posted...

ooh that's a big win for efficiency but imo a loss for immersion. i'm not surprised there are flying mounts but i hoped there wasnt. I think it was bad for WoW in the long run. Though I'm guessing you can't fly over zones like in WoW and still have have to go through the entrances between areas

ARR was designed before flying mounts were a thing; it was a recent update that added flying to ARR areas, and only after you've finished the MSQ and gone through all of them on foot anyway.

For expansion areas, you do not have access to flight immediately and must initially progress through them on the ground. To unlock flight in an area you must obtain all the aether currents. Some are found as quest rewards (at least one is always locked behind the last MSQ you do before leaving the area) but the majority are found in the zone itself, located via an item you get in the MSQ called the aether compass. I got in the habit of putting the compass on a hotbar and just clicking it as I ran around an area doing quests, picking up any currents that happened to be on my way to whatever it was I was doing.

Having access to flight is ultimately a good thing I feel, especially if you go hard on crafting/gathering and end up having to revisit areas to hit gathering nodes a fair amount. The way they've done it never really breaks immersion or ruins the feel of questing.

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well, the thing is, because of the addition of flying, (or maybe the other way around?) expansion areas are muuuuuch larger than ARR areas.

as a result, there's a lot more big empty space, and less distinct architecture and landmarks compared to ARR.

if you don't like WoW-style exploration, be forewarned it may not be your style.

though i still think many expansion areas are nice.

With hundreds of hours to look back on them, I'm not too keen on most of the Heavensward or Stormblood areas, but the Shadowbringers ones are all excellent.

Aesthetic helps a lot!

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Dels posted...

well, the thing is, because of the addition of flying, (or maybe the other way around?) expansion areas are muuuuuch larger than ARR areas.

as a result, there's a lot more big empty space, and less distinct architecture and landmarks compared to ARR.

if you don't like WoW-style exploration, be forewarned it may not be your style.

though i still think many expansion areas are nice.

It is a bit jarring when scaling a very large cliff was a big plot point in Shadowbringers and use of the lift continued to be brought up when you'd already been flying back and forth for months.

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Well, thats pretty much what wow does too - make you experience the expansions first and then get flying later to make getting around easier. But then once you get flying - you never actually see people running around on the ground or do that yourself anymore. You land, kill a mob, flying mount up and fly 10 feet and kill mob, etc It's the epitome of a feature that improves player convenience at the cost of social and atmospheric immersion.

Part of what makes MMO's magical is that we are all sharing this world and interesting and funny things can happen from that. If you strip out opportunities for player interaction too much, then you never see them to the point that you are just playing a single player game. Why is this even an MMO at that point?

This game kinda gets towards that already - I definitely feel like I'm playing a single player campaign with the MSQ. The few things I do with other players, they may as well be bots... but that can be ok if there's other interesting things.

Still really enjoying the experience so far. Hopefully social aspects improve later on when I play with my friends a bit more. Opportunity to even do that is extremely limited, questing with my friend right now is actually very awkward to the point that it's not worth doing, which kinda sucks.


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red13n posted...

It is a bit jarring when scaling a very large cliff was a big plot point in Shadowbringers and use of the lift continued to be brought up when you'd already been flying back and forth for months.

You (the Warrior of Light) are an exception to a great many of the rules "normal" people are subject to in-setting. The fact that you can hop aboard your custom-colored horsebird and fly anywhere your heart takes you does not mean every NPC you meet can do the same thing.

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CoolCly posted...

Still really enjoying the experience so far. Hopefully social aspects improve later on when I play with my friends a bit more. Opportunity to even do that is extremely limited, questing with my friend right now is actually very awkward to the point that it's not worth doing, which kinda sucks.

I think the "single player RPG" aspect of FFXIV allows more socially awkward people to get involved and make progress, so I think it's an overall benefit. Social activities definitely pick up quite a lot once you get to more current content. Remember that doing some things like daily Roulettes has worthwhile rewards for everyone involved, so you can always invite friends to do those things. You can also look up rewards for stuff like PVP glamours or mount/glamour Hunt rewards and see if your friends want to do any of those. I have some "glamour is the true end game" type friends who will run PVP frontline with me daily just to get the PVP only currency. If you've played around yet with Mining or Botany, you can get timeworn Maps that are meant to be run with small parties. Those usually have a chance to drop rare materials that are worth a decent little chunk of gil, so it can be fun to have your group of friends all try and get a map or two and run maps together at the end of a week. Ooh, also Golden Saucer can be fun as well to just hang around and do Gates every once in a while!

Sorry if that was too much, but yeah, there's definitely a lot of social stuff you can get involved in, and that's not even getting into the bigger content modes like raids or expeditions.

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Is there glamour storage? It seems that you can only glamour something you are holding on to, which means if you want to use something in the long term you'd have to hold onto it forever and take up your precious bag space?

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