Final Fantasy XIV - Kiwi Free Company

[Fcret]

I wasn't expecting the ToS change until after Endwalker, but it's a nice surprise nonetheless. I like how they're trying a conservative approach with this and letting people still offer bounties for help in clearing content.

 

[⋖ cørdion ⋗]

Why is it just so widely accepted that new expansions aren't full of content, new models, and job reworks? I remember the first many expansions of WoW having almost entire new class fantasies added on, such as mage actually having a fully-arcane rotation, whereas jobs in XIV are treated as if stuck in time and any and all minor changes are welcome.

I started XIV when summoner was a glorified dot warlock, now they're basically machinist but with spells. Nuke phases and immediate damage, no planning ahead. Okay, so I ditch that job like an ugly baby, but what else is there? Dragoon has too many jumps and only gets more complicated, while shit like machinist has 6 buttons and 3 OGCDs.

Brand new expansion; "Oh look, it's that old enemy but in a new color, haha!". I really can't make myself get hype for expansions which is fine, but the fact the community is so indifferent is absurd. They're more groomed than Blizzard's remaining cult hivemind.

 

[Zeke Von Genbu]

Spoiler: Lore Spergin'

Hraesvelgr is 100% both an accomplice (he says so himself) and a complacent turd who's done nothing but sit around. Really in a way his father not flying over and demanding the war end strikes me as something that isn't entirely sensible but dragons in every piece of fantasy media are imperious, self-obsessed pricks. It usually takes an ass-beating and an act of a god to get them to get off the proverbial couch. Thankfully both Hraesvelgr and Midgardsormr admit to this in the story, they're aware they're being shitty.

I'm still convinced the Knights of the Round and Battle Pope were going to have more to them and there was a lot of lore in the books and even in game that was clearly left on the cutting room floor. Really I'd rather the Pope have played his hand later on and THEN try to become Mega Primal Popius so we'd get more to it.

The Extreme version of the Knights of the Round battle is super rad though so that's always nice. I almost wish they made the normal battle a bit harder purely to make it feel more fitting instead of the unmitigated ass-stomping it was then and now.

In the end I still enjoy HW a lot but I'll never see Aymeric as great as others do. Mostly because I don't find his build as attractive, I think that plays pretty heavily in it. There's a whole lot of people who furiously simp for Aymeric because of his looks and that's about it. He got stabbed through armor by a kitchen knife!

Spoiler: Dragon stuff in HW.

Midgardsormr in 2.5 is I believe implied to be at best truly neutral or he at least accepts his offspring's actions as justified because Ishgard's leadership is still sinful by lying about their involvement while knowing the truth so trying to usher in peace is a fool's errand.

Through 3.0-3.3 due to his trial with the WoL to reunlock the blessing, the WoL actually attempting to stop the war, and seeing Ishgard's other leaders steadily take responsibility for their actions he begins to believe that man has learned and peace can be a real possibility. Even fucking Estinien of all people who despised everything about dragon kind is ultimately acknowledging his side's faults in this conflict, and takes his anger out on at least the only true instigator of this conflict instead of just killing literally every dragon alive like Nidhogg wanted to do.

I personally think Thordan is fine, he's a simple antagonist for the most part, but he fits the themes and the tone while having a decently convincing dilemma considering trying to lead a militarist nation to peace with their eternal enemy is an extremely hard thing to realistically do. So fuck it, just be a god king and smite your enemies to death, get eternal historical glory, and the lie dies with you should you ever die. Seems like a good idea to me if you want to be a dickhead who tries to play 4d chess with immortal dark wizards. I'm actually shocked his 4D chess actually worked really.

 

[John Titor]

Why is it just so widely accepted that new expansions aren't full of content, new models, and job reworks? I remember the first many expansions of WoW having almost entire new class fantasies added on, such as mage actually having a fully-arcane rotation, whereas jobs in XIV are treated as if stuck in time and any and all minor changes are welcome.

I started XIV when summoner was a glorified dot warlock, now they're basically machinist but with spells. Nuke phases and immediate damage, no planning ahead. Okay, so I ditch that job like an ugly baby, but what else is there? Dragoon has too many jumps and only gets more complicated, while shit like machinist has 6 buttons and 3 OGCDs.

Brand new expansion; "Oh look, it's that old enemy but in a new color, haha!". I really can't make myself get hype for expansions which is fine, but the fact the community is so indifferent is absurd. They're more groomed than Blizzard's remaining cult hivemind.

I can only comment on the mobs right now but how much is a sufficient change? Because I know there are plenty of new models like the "iguanas", the hobgoblins (who don't even look like the goblins on the source, weirdly shaped cactuars and these weird tomato monsters that look dormant until you go near them.

 

[Vapewizard]

In the end I still enjoy HW a lot but I'll never see Aymeric as great as others do. Mostly because I don't find his build as attractive, I think that plays pretty heavily in it. There's a whole lot of people who furiously simp for Aymeric because of his looks and that's about it. He got stabbed through armor by a kitchen knife!

As an Aymeric simp I can't say you're entirely wrong, but in an objective sense I find it interesting how he's a selfless patriot without it feeling over the top or grating. That being said I do find it kinda strange that no one ingame blamed him for indirectly getting Haurchefant killed by rushing into danger like an idiot.

Come to think of it, it's kind of funny how one of the end results of shadowbringers 5.3 is that we got to free a guy who governs a city so he can adventure with the warrior of light, meanwhile Aymeric is still chained to Ishgard even though during the dinner date it was clear he'd be overjoyed to travel with you.

 

[FencePost]

Why is it just so widely accepted that new expansions aren't full of content, new models, and job reworks? I remember the first many expansions of WoW having almost entire new class fantasies added on, such as mage actually having a fully-arcane rotation, whereas jobs in XIV are treated as if stuck in time and any and all minor changes are welcome.

I started XIV when summoner was a glorified dot warlock, now they're basically machinist but with spells. Nuke phases and immediate damage, no planning ahead. Okay, so I ditch that job like an ugly baby, but what else is there? Dragoon has too many jumps and only gets more complicated, while shit like machinist has 6 buttons and 3 OGCDs.

Are you saying you want the devs to consistently waste their previous efforts and resources via throwing out job changes? That you purposely want jobs to get the WoW Warlock, Priest, and WoD Mistweaver treatment, where core subclass mechanics are/were thrown out with every expansion?
The point of the job system is that each job has an identity. The changes are (mostly) small this xpac because YoshiP and the devs feel their identities are established and just wanted to hone everything in and the player base agrees. I get what you're saying about the pruning of DoTs from SMN but that doesn't mean the job doesn't involve skill or utility anymore.

Brand new expansion; "Oh look, it's that old enemy but in a new color, haha!". I really can't make myself get hype for expansions which is fine, but the fact the community is so indifferent is absurd. They're more groomed than Blizzard's remaining cult hivemind.

You do realize what franchise this game is part of and it's role in the convention of reusing sprites, right?

 

[Rich Evans Ayypologist]

such as mage actually having a fully-arcane rotation

You mean Arcane Blast x 3 -> Scorch -> Arcane Missiles to clip the AB buff, repeat? Levying up with mage's 200APM rotations of frostbolt, repeat and scorchx5 -> fireball ->(refresh scorch?), repeat in the other specs

It's because they're for the most part more complex here, and "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" is a good motto that they have (mostly) stuck to. Reaper alone will have a more complex rotation than anything in the first two WoW expansions, though Sage will probably be about on par with endless frostbolts. The tradeoff is that there's no specializations or custom builds or anything of that nature.

 

[Sunflower Samurai]

Slightly out of topic here but since we're talking about a bit of job sperging, if you guys want a laugh, various threads on the official forums have been a riot of copium and autism from edgelords

Tank Roles

forum.square-enix.com

I link the tank thread in particular because thats the one ive been eying, since the recent changes have brought out the autism (DRK threads are especially delicious)

 

[Übertroon]

Slightly out of topic here but since we're talking about a bit of job sperging, if you guys want a laugh, various threads on the official forums have been a riot of copium and autism from edgelords

Tank Roles

forum.square-enix.com

I link the tank thread in particular because thats the one ive been eying, since the recent changes have brought out the autism (DRK threads are especially delicious)

It seems stupid to have this much bitching when every expansion you will see the hardest content being beaten handily by groups with any type of tank. This isn't WoW where half the tank classes are basically useless for the latest raids

 

[FencePost]

Slightly out of topic here but since we're talking about a bit of job sperging, if you guys want a laugh, various threads on the official forums have been a riot of copium and autism from edgelords

Tank Roles

forum.square-enix.com

I link the tank thread in particular because thats the one ive been eying, since the recent changes have brought out the autism (DRK threads are especially delicious)

I looked at the OP of one thread and was hit with deja vu of being on WoW forums when I read "the devs don't want to listen to a player like me." The player persecution complex is universal it seems.

 

[EnemyStand]

I looked at the OP of one thread and was hit with deja vu of being on WoW forums when I read "the devs don't want to listen to a player like me." The player persecution complex is universal it seems.

People who post on forums are retards. The real niggas just play the fucking game.

 

[I'm Retarded?]

Why is it just so widely accepted that new expansions aren't full of content, new models, and job reworks? I remember the first many expansions of WoW having almost entire new class fantasies added on, such as mage actually having a fully-arcane rotation, whereas jobs in XIV are treated as if stuck in time and any and all minor changes are welcome.

I started XIV when summoner was a glorified dot warlock, now they're basically machinist but with spells. Nuke phases and immediate damage, no planning ahead. Okay, so I ditch that job like an ugly baby, but what else is there? Dragoon has too many jumps and only gets more complicated, while shit like machinist has 6 buttons and 3 OGCDs.

Brand new expansion; "Oh look, it's that old enemy but in a new color, haha!". I really can't make myself get hype for expansions which is fine, but the fact the community is so indifferent is absurd. They're more groomed than Blizzard's remaining cult hivemind.

At the risk of being obvious, expansion does include, in addition to the two new classes, a total reconstruction of summoner, as well as a massive expansion of paladin, a revamp of some of monk's core mechanics, and nontrivial changes to warrior and astrologian, as well as a significant adjustment to cooldown management for most if not all classes IIRC with the conversion of core abilities to charged abilities (for example, SAM in particular has had its entire Balance sperg rotation knocked over now that Meikyo Shisui and Tsubame-gaeshi have two charges). Then you have the addition of, what, seven dungeons at launch? As well as a couple normal/extreme trials, not to mention all the zones, two new capital cities, the new hunts, new FATEs (yeah I know FATEs suck durr), a new character race, a beefy new MSQ (Yoshida said approx 30% beefier than Shadowbringers), and a billion little side quests, and you're saying the new expansion is light on content because the devs reskin old models? And you're referencing BC/LK as a blueprint for how to do it right. I think you're forgetting just how much content Blizzard has copy/pasted over the years starting with BC.

IMO it's far from a foregone conclusion that the new summoner is a brainless button masher. And dragoon is not an exceptionally complicated job, pretty much all you do is maintain one infinite weaponskill combo and play whack-a-mole with your off-GCD damage abilities (jumps included). But if timer hell is what you crave, try black mage, where just about every mechanic requires you to rethink your next several spell casts depending on your remaining MP/aspect timer/polyglot charges/cooldowns/positioning.

No, that's for 8.0 when Nomura finally takes the wheel and has the entire MSQ take place in a Data World accessed via Nier macguffns. The entire plotline will be about you helping a new Warrior of Light and Darkness named Sora.

Don't waste time trying to understand. We're here to eliminate the enemy. That's all.

 

[Fcret]

I'm pretty excited to see what changes they're going to roll out for DoH/DoL. Ishgard resto was pretty fun and gave me a lot of time to just sit around and chill with the discord bois in my programming socks while we ground out turn-ins.

In all seriousness though, I wonder if expert crafts are going to be their model for endgame crafting in EW. In which case we'll be back to HW territory where a lot of stuff can't be macro crafted.

 

[Sunflower Samurai]

All i want is an event to promote Stranger of Paradise so the true Final Fantasy hero, Jack "Fuck Chaos" Mc'Garland can step up and prove all previous WoLs and WoDs are fucking soy pussies

I cant stop looking at these videos please help lmao

 

[Disc]

Why is it just so widely accepted that new expansions aren't full of content, new models, and job reworks? I remember the first many expansions of WoW having almost entire new class fantasies added on, such as mage actually having a fully-arcane rotation, whereas jobs in XIV are treated as if stuck in time and any and all minor changes are welcome.

I started XIV when summoner was a glorified dot warlock, now they're basically machinist but with spells. Nuke phases and immediate damage, no planning ahead. Okay, so I ditch that job like an ugly baby, but what else is there? Dragoon has too many jumps and only gets more complicated, while shit like machinist has 6 buttons and 3 OGCDs.

Brand new expansion; "Oh look, it's that old enemy but in a new color, haha!". I really can't make myself get hype for expansions which is fine, but the fact the community is so indifferent is absurd. They're more groomed than Blizzard's remaining cult hivemind.

All MMOs reuse models to populate the world, and all good mmos introduce new models every expansion. Hell, in shadowbringers, plant monsters alone got a solid 3 or 4 new models (Gigantuar, Tomatls, the pitcher plant Snapweeds, and depending on your definition, the plant basket monsters. maybe the fungus with grasshopper legs too, but I can't find a concrete answer on that). There's also Evil Weapons, Talos, Porxies, every fae race, every dungeon has at least one new boss model - there's a lot to just be dismissing it as "no content".

The reason why FFXIV players are chill is because we have a solid idea exactly how much content there will be. We know for a fact that there'll be six new zones, two new cities, at least eight dungeons with three bosses each (81, 83, 85, 87, 89, 90 MSQ, and two 90 non-MSQ) and at least three trials, all at launch.

As for job reworks, while it's true that the number of classes/specs is small in FFXIV compared to games like GW2, WoW, and others, I think that leads to really tight design and is generally beneficial to the game. As for not including major job reworks... if there was one thing that I'd say to sway a wow fan on the fence, it'd be 'FFXIV doesn't fuck with something that isn't broken'.

 

[Jinmen]

\ if there was one thing that I'd say to sway a wow fan on the fence, it'd be 'FFXIV doesn't fuck with something that isn't broken'.

This killed WoW for me. Even that Kermit the frog sounding Ion admitted they do this on purpose to get players engaged. No, fuck off. I mained warlock since tbc until I quit in BFA. Weeee sure is fun to have my class completely changed every expansion!

 

[CharcoalChkn]

This killed WoW for me. Even that Kermit the frog sounding Ion admitted they do this on purpose to get players engaged. No, fuck off. I mained warlock since tbc until I quit in BFA. Weeee sure is fun to have my class completely changed every expansion!

More like every raid tier, man some of the set bonuses really fucked with play styles.

I'd go from having the time of my life with Boomkin one patch to absolutely despising it a few months later.

I am really happy that the job playstyles stay relatively the same with 1 - 2 fun new toys to mess around with each expansion in FF.

 

[Tachibana]

I wasn't expecting the ToS change until after Endwalker, but it's a nice surprise nonetheless. I like how they're trying a conservative approach with this and letting people still offer bounties for help in clearing content.

Ver archivo adjunto 2663255

The people doing sales will sell in PF using accounts like gil sellers do. These days most content sales are handled by middle men. Unless Square wants to nip it in the bud hard, it will keep happening.

I'm pretty excited to see what changes they're going to roll out for DoH/DoL. Ishgard resto was pretty fun and gave me a lot of time to just sit around and chill with the discord bois in my programming socks while we ground out turn-ins.

In all seriousness though, I wonder if expert crafts are going to be their model for endgame crafting in EW. In which case we'll be back to HW territory where a lot of stuff can't be macro crafted.

Here hoping they do away with leaderboards. They were rife with botting for expert crafts with bots like miqobot offering an expert craft solver.

Forcing actual non-Ishgard recipes to not be macroable (gear, food, infusions) will just make bots far more efficient.

All MMOs reuse models to populate the world, and all good mmos introduce new models every expansion. Hell, in shadowbringers, plant monsters alone got a solid 3 or 4 new models (Gigantuar, Tomatls, the pitcher plant Snapweeds, and depending on your definition, the plant basket monsters. maybe the fungus with grasshopper legs too, but I can't find a concrete answer on that). There's also Evil Weapons, Talos, Porxies, every fae race, every dungeon has at least one new boss model - there's a lot to just be dismissing it as "no content".

The reason why FFXIV players are chill is because we have a solid idea exactly how much content there will be. We know for a fact that there'll be six new zones, two new cities, at least eight dungeons with three bosses each (81, 83, 85, 87, 89, 90 MSQ, and two 90 non-MSQ) and at least three trials, all at launch.

As for job reworks, while it's true that the number of classes/specs is small in FFXIV compared to games like GW2, WoW, and others, I think that leads to really tight design and is generally beneficial to the game. As for not including major job reworks... if there was one thing that I'd say to sway a wow fan on the fence, it'd be 'FFXIV doesn't fuck with something that isn't broken'.

A lot of this stuff becomes non-content when you get to max level. For modern mmos, max level is where the content is supposed to be.

It's difficult to reccomend Final Fantasy XIV unless you're interested in the entire package. If you don't care multiple of the game's side activities (relic fate farming, crafting, raiding, housing, leveling extra jobs, minigames like mahjong), it has poor staying power as a mmorpg. MSQ might as well be a singleplayer RPG where you occasionally play with other players.

I've pulled together a raid group for multiple tiers. People raid logging because the game discentivizes them from playing with other people due to the chest ststem, and having no interest in the other content is a common complaint.

 

[Rootbeer]

So I finally finished the MSQ (pre-patches) for Stormblood...what the actual hell happened to the writing?

Coming from someone who loved Heavensward, I just felt the need to put my grievances in writing:

Spoiler: Stormblood spoilers/sperging

- Everytime Lyse was on screen, I wanted her to be off the screen. I'm not sure how they made her go from inoffensive ditz as Yda to actual annoyance as Lyse so quickly but good on them. I miss Papalymo. When she was walking as the liberation leader at the end to greet the people as if she actually contributed fucking anything I laughed. Worst character in the entire game.

- The Ala Mhigo storyline and the Dragon Indians were so boring I started skipping dialogue. Way to ruin the nicest looking zone (Azim Steppe) with absolute tedious gameplay.

- Speaking of tedium, what was up with the amount of ARR fetch/busy work quests; I swear it's like 1/3 of the quests. (This expansion seems to have a fetish for putting what you're looking for at the very edge of the red circle too, where you're least likely to search).

- In addition, I think this has the most "need to ingratiate yourself to the locals through busywork" quests out of the entire story thus far. Rhalgr's Reach, Lyse's hometown, Dragon Indians, and Doman village by my count.

- Some of Doma was actually pretty alright. I like Gosetsu (why is he alive?) and the Kojin were cool too. Kugane is a nice city, but you barely spend any time there, I thought the Empire's consulate and the police samurai were for sure gonna have a bigger role. Also, the distance between Eorzea and Doma is just thrown out the window for story convenience, lol.

- Zenos was pretty based, although I wish he would've killed more Ala Mhigans, maybe incinerate Lyse with dragon breath.

- Why was Empire mook #23 such a recurring bad guy? We fought this fucker 4 times already, put a fucking arrow in his head already I'm sick of him.

- I've heard from people that Yotsuyu gets a redemption arc? Not really sure how that's gonna work as she's pretty irredeemably evil from what we've seen/heard, but okay.

- I think my favorite thing this expansion was Alisaie. I like both of the twins a lot and hope they don't get sidelined again in favor of unlikeable characters.

All in all, I knew going in that there would be a drop in quality from HW, but I honestly think people undersold how bad it gets. There was just no grey in this story, very on the nose bad/good. Maybe it's because I'm biased against goodie-two-shoes #Resistance stories, but this was bad. Afterwards I went to the Restoration and it felt like home, I love (and miss) Ishgard <3

 

[Rich Evans Ayypologist]

I've heard from people that Yotsuyu gets a redemption arc? Not really sure how that's gonna work as she's pretty irredeemably evil from what we've seen/heard, but okay.

the redemption comes in them trying to make you slightly sympathetic to the character, as whoever picked up the writing in the patches realized that she was just comically evil for no reason. what they should have instead realized is that it is better to just let her be a campy villain than to waste your time with the utter schlock that is her 'arc,' in which they trot out a long series of extreme tropes and contrivances and in which she acts on her own volition maybe once. Nothing says redemption quite like having no agency whatsoever. Early on the personified slice of white bread ponders "why don't we just kill her?" and there really is no good reason not to, except that the trial that comes out of the arc is at least fun.

troons and genderspecials adore this character because the suggestion is "as long as you've had a rough upbringing, you have an excuse to do whatever you want." the writers awkwardly try to acknowledge that part where they show her leading an execution squad in Isari and go "no no, it's okay, she had it rough as a kid and she's got amnesia, so she's totally a different person now." awful familiar to "I know you ran over some people with your car because you decided to drink and drive, but that was the old you, now you're the new you, and a totally different true and honest person". it's sortof like poetry, in that it rhymes

I don't even care about spoiling this shit because it's retarded and a waste of time. they should have focused on one of the only interesting things to come out of SB, Fordola, but she instead gets largely relegated to a bunch of side-quests and extremely brief appearances despite, you know, the whole 'artificial echo' thing being a big part of SB's endgame story.