Final Fantasy XIV - Kiwi Free Company

[Zeke Von Genbu]

It's weird to see NIN so low. Job's busy enough that I feel like they deserve to be rewarded with something other than Trick Attack every 2m.

Ninja has been the lowest before, iirc it was the lowest of the 4 by the end of ShB from what I remember reading of the rankings. Again these numbers are really close to each other so it mostly doesn't matter, and Ninja from an uptime perspective is fairly friendly as far as I can tell, if a little jank because Raiju stuff forces you into melee range due to being gap closers.

I personally find Rpr being the highest shocking. Arcane Crest is a very good defensive utility that it should be nowhere near the top of rdps contribution too yet it is fighting toe to toe with Monk for highest rdps in the game.

 

[Polyboros2]

I hear a lot of people talk about Final Fantasy 14 being the best MMO in a long time, I haven't played an MMO in years, and the last two I did were barely MMOs(Star Trek Online and Marvel Heroes).

But I've always liked Final Fantasy and I'm getting curious. Is FF14 a good game to get into at this point in it's life? Or would you not recommend it for someone that isn't already familiar with the game at this point?

 

[Fcret]

It's weird to see NIN so low. Job's busy enough that I feel like they deserve to be rewarded with something other than Trick Attack every 2m.

To be fair, NIN is currently fucked due to Hollow Nozuchi. It should be higher up by the time we get the first savage raid tier.

But I've always liked Final Fantasy and I'm getting curious. Is FF14 a good game to get into at this point in it's life? Or would you not recommend it for someone that isn't already familiar with the game at this point?

FFXIV balances its content in such a way that 1) level syncing is robust and so content never stops being viable and 2) the content is meant to be more or less consumed in a linear manner. Basically, all the content since the 2013 reboot (with a few rare exceptions like old Diadem) is in the game and you're expected to progress through it as you level (and if you overlevel, you're synced to the level of the content when it was current).

Whether or not it's too late then is more a matter of what you want to do. If you're an endgame andy, then it might be too late unless you buy a story skip because the MSQ (which is required to progress to endgame) is almost 300 hours at this point. If you just want a fun game with a good story to progress through, then you have 300 hours of story content (with dungeons, bosses, and solo fights) to get through at your leisure.

Don't feel pressured to "catch up" though. If you have friends who play this game, they can run content with you while you progress and are even rewarded for it.

 

[Kane Lives]

I hear a lot of people talk about Final Fantasy 14 being the best MMO in a long time, I haven't played an MMO in years, and the last two I did were barely MMOs(Star Trek Online and Marvel Heroes).

But I've always liked Final Fantasy and I'm getting curious. Is FF14 a good game to get into at this point in it's life? Or would you not recommend it for someone that isn't already familiar with the game at this point?

For better or worse, XIV has morphed into a celebration of the franchise, wrapped around the core of a JRPG masquerading as a MMO.

I'd recommend it if
- You like Final Fantasy and JRPGs
- You don't mind a slow start
- You can learn to ignore the absolutely exceptional community

I wouldn't recommend it if
- You want a WoW experience. No, this isn't WoW, stop making it about WoW.
- Dislike JRPGs and their tropes
- Absolutely allergic to any sort of subscription

Now's a good time as any if you wanna jump in. Unlike WoW, the old content are still kept intact and you will almost always find groups to run them. Free trial means you're basically only paying with your time to see if you like it or not. If you can make it to the end of ARR (level 50) without much complaint, you'll probably enjoy the rest of the game.

 

[Zeke Von Genbu]

I hear a lot of people talk about Final Fantasy 14 being the best MMO in a long time, I haven't played an MMO in years, and the last two I did were barely MMOs(Star Trek Online and Marvel Heroes).

But I've always liked Final Fantasy and I'm getting curious. Is FF14 a good game to get into at this point in it's life? Or would you not recommend it for someone that isn't already familiar with the game at this point?

FFXIV for better and for worse provides a very similar experience to someone who played it 8 years ago or today, due to the story being 100% forced everyone goes through a similar progression track and the game has systems to ensure veterans and new players are forced to party together.

So your experience and my experience will share a good amount of similarities by the time you reach level cap. Which means a newer player will see everything they need to see, unlike a lot of older MMOs were the early game is obnoxiously dead and you can't get anything done unless you grind solo endlessly, meanwhile someone who played 10 years ago had actual chances to party up and do things.

If FFXIV has any grind while leveling, it is reading all the dialogue and watching cutscenes assuming you care about plot in a video game. If you don't, the real grind is mashing through all the text boxes and mash skipping cutscenes.

 

[Fcret]

Which means a newer player will see everything they need to see, unlike a lot of older MMOs were the early game is obnoxiously dead and you can't get anything done unless you grind solo endlessly, meanwhile someone who played 10 years ago had actual chances to party up and do things.

'Need' being the operative word here. Not only are you fed story content through the MSQ but mechanics that show up in story fights are reused and altered later on, because the devs assume you have some prior knowledge of boss mechanics from the MSQ.

It's not really an MMO where you 'play an expac' or 'play a patch.' You are expected to know how boss mechanics from old content work and how they're telegraphed before attempting to get into raiding through PUGs. This is why the community generally is strongly against buying story skips and level boosts, because you're not really ready for endgame unless you've seen (at minimum) all of the MSQ group content.

 

[Drifting Panzer]

Since early access I have spent more time in the queue than in the game and now after waiting for 3.5 hours got the queue to 1200, got a 2002 error, logged in again as fast as I could and bam, the queue is at 5000.

My subscription runs out tomorrow, but I will not renew it until either the queue is a bit more managable or the 2002 shit is sorted so I dont have to babysit the computer to log back in directly in hopes that I keep my place, which does not work every time anyway.

Its a shame as I loved what little I played.

 

[Sunflower Samurai]

I finally got to playin some DRK after speeding through (not really) the Endwalker MSQ as PLD for the flair and lore-faggotry, and im geniuenly happy with the changes to an extent, they may or may not be truly good, but the adjustments made the lvl 80 rotation flow much more better since you dont have to have tight delirium windows, it also lines up with BW better due to the reduced CD and salted earth doesnt require some big brain moves to place properly with bosses that arent in the ground, the wierd merge of abyssal and carve was also pretty good, less stuff to weave to be "optimal" and shit

I wish they got BW the same charge treatment though, you still have to finagle it to be "optimal" and get 5 hits in, and increased LS' spawn speed

that being said i still wish they really adjusted the 2nd aoe to line up with the other tanks instead of keeping it at 72, and my crackpot wish for Delirium to gain its PVP lifesteal is still unfullfilled , the magic damage mitigations should also be changed to just damage reductions tho tbh

as much as enhanced unmend is a meme, i honestly dont think it got as shafted as many talking heads have said, and it will probably remain more than playable like everything in XIV even in comparsion to the buffs for the other tank's Tankbuster CDs and utility

 

[Fcret]

Since early access I have spent more time in the queue than in the game and now after waiting for 3.5 hours got the queue to 1200, got a 2002 error, logged in again as fast as I could and bam, the queue is at 5000.

My subscription runs out tomorrow, but I will not renew it until either the queue is a bit more managable or the 2002 shit is sorted so I dont have to babysit the computer to log back in directly in hopes that I keep my place, which does not work every time anyway.

Its a shame as I loved what little I played.

You know you're getting free game time right? So you have another week or so to see if it improves.

 

[Polyboros2]

Everything that's being said is only selling me on the game more, so it looks like I'll be giving it a go.

Should I get Endwalker from the start, or should I start with the base and get Endwalker if I get into it?

 

[Zeke Von Genbu]

Everything that's being said is only selling me on the game more, so it looks like I'll be giving it a go.

Should I get Endwalker from the start, or should I start with the base and get Endwalker if I get into it?

Play the free trial first, login queues are fucked but it is better to just hold off any money when getting into anything new (imo anyway) if you can and the FFXIV free trial allows you to play through the slowest part for nothing before buying anything, which makes that slow start not as frustrating because at least you aren't paying sub money for it.

The free trial is basically the "base" game (which is akshully the remade A Realm Reborn and the first expansion bundled into one level 1 through 60 experience that can take you roughly 100 or so hours to complete the campaign) just with some social and auction house restrictions. The game otherwise plays the same.

After that (or when you feel very confident dropping money on this) you should just buy Endwalker + the "starter" edition (aka the "base game" pretty much) bundle which is referred to as the "Complete edition". I suggest this because this also unlocks potentially usable content like newer classes/jobs like Samurai and Red Mage at level 50, Dancer and Gunbreaker at level 60, and Reaper and Sage at 70. The plus here is that these jobs start at the levels required to unlock them so you don't need to "relevel" them.

 

[Fcret]

Everything that's being said is only selling me on the game more, so it looks like I'll be giving it a go.

Should I get Endwalker from the start, or should I start with the base and get Endwalker if I get into it?

Start with the Free Trial (unless you have friends already playing). Free Trial is all story and side content up to level 60 with no time limit on playing. The main restrictions are:

1) You can't form parties by yourself or use Party Finder. Other people can form parties and invite you though.
2) Most social functions are turned off. You can't send tells, use linkshells, or join free companies. Zone chat and Novice Network (a special chat for new players with experienced 'mentors' on hand to answer questions) are available.
3) No marketboard or retainer access and you have a pretty small gil cap. Retainers are special NPC assistants you create that can run missions for you and also act as your bank space and auctioneer to sell things on the marketboard.
4) If there's a queue, you get lowest priority to the point where if the server is congested, you won't be allowed to login at all. Currently, this means you'll probably only be able to play on free trial during the absolute dead of night when no one is awake (and maybe not even then).

If you're not particularly tight on cash, the 'Starter Edition' gives you ARR plus Heavensward (1-60) along with a free month of game time for like 20 bucks so you can get around restriction 4 and enjoy all the stuff the free trial limits. Once you own the starter edition, you only need to buy the latest expansion pack to get everything else (so buying Endwalker now also gives you Stormblood and Shadowbringers).

1-60 is probably 100-150 hours of story content so even for 20 bucks it's a pretty good deal.

Also, if you're a consolefag, you can also play on PS4/PS5 (full crossplay, PC and console play on same servers). I only mention this because I started this game as a consolefag and it's incredibly comfy to play on the couch for long sessions.

 

[CharcoalChkn]

I guess I'll just ask in this thread if there is any good source to learn wtf I should be doing in this game that will not make my brain explode.

I'm just trying to not be a deadweight in my parties, not orange parse. LOL

High preference for not having to join an autistic discord. But it doesn't seem like any of the high SEO ranking guide sites have been updated with the new abilities and such, and I have a feeling that DRG burst window has had quite a few changes since there are 2 extra ogcds to include now.

 

[Zeke Von Genbu]

I guess I'll just ask in this thread if there is any good source to learn wtf I should be doing in this game that will not make my brain explode.

I'm just trying to not be a deadweight in my parties, not orange parse. LOL

High preference for not having to join an autistic discord. But it doesn't seem like any of the high SEO ranking guide sites have been updated with the new abilities and such, and I have a feeling that DRG burst window has had quite a few changes since there are 2 extra ogcds to include now.

As of right now autistic discords will be the main space for the next little while until the proper things come in to a more "normal" space. You could try to read fflog DRG openers at the top end to try and decipher what they're doing yourself, but I assume that is too much tism

FFXIV's openers are in the end based around obtaining as much potency per gcd as possible, which means your buffs must get as much potency in them as possible via proper off gcd and gcd alignment. So if you can be fucked you can try mathing it yourself and once you've learned the opener everything just falls in the place, especially post EW where SE has tried their absolute best to ensure 1-2 minute loops are the new normal due to nearly everything being 30, 60, or 120 second CD.

The very fundamental basic idea is "Press buttons, keep your gcd rolling". Not pressing a CD and your burst phase isn't right about to come up? Press that button. Not keeping your gcd rolling? Why the fuck not??? Ask yourself these questions and always keep them in your mind, and you will improve I can promise you that. Most nonimprovement isn't the game's fault, people are just fucking lazy.

Many melee dps in particular are colossal pussies and run away too early when they can force another gcd, they also tend lack foresight and can't follow a boss unless it moves at 2 miles per hour and if the boss moves even 30 feet to the right their just lost. Don't be that, actually look at what's going on, build up a instinctive recollection of what the boss does as you fight it, and push yourself to keep your gcd rolling at all times. If you get hit, just play like a bitch until the vuln stack goes away so you don't die to an actual error and then keep pushing once its gone, soon you get no vuln stacks, maintain uptime, and you won't lose to the tank like many melee dps seem to do with me.

Melee dps is unironically the hardest role on a general level if you want to actually play well beyond "don't die" as a standard, many bosses are not very melee friendly (even dungeon bosses) and you are playing Russian roulette with the tank sometimes, and they tend to be the most generally involved. People who say tank or healer (especially in dungeons) are the hardest roles don't know what it means to be a good dps, and should quit being pussies about tanking/healing in this game, especially a non-physical ranged dps.

 

[SnowBall]

Why does every person online talking about DoH/DoL specify "I only spent like 40 leves and did most of it with collectables turn-ins"

they nerfed coffee biscuits nigga, there ain't nothing for you to spend leves on once you've leveled your tradeskills unless you're still trying to get Honest Gillionaire


Forced grouping is cancer the way XI did it back in the day. You needed groups to do literally anything, including unlocking jobs that would make it more likely that you could even get into groups. Doing group content in XI is also what convinced me that the average Japanese MMO player is possibly even more cancerous and smoothbrained than their western counterparts.

Stopped playing sometime in Treasures I think (whenever Burning Crusade came out), Apparently the story is pretty good in later expacs but I find unironic MMO boomers tiresome to be around so the community that still exists puts me off from coming back.

As I said everybody hated that shit back in the day, yet the boomers on the ffxi and mmorpg Reddits seriously act like all the cancerous gameplay elements back then were actually good all along and will defend them with stories of the good old days. If you bring how having to wait until Japanese midnight to progress to the next step of a mission is bad gameplay design (seriously that's a thing in many quests.) they'll say it's how it's supposed to work and to go back to XIV and WoW if you want instant gratification.

Also for how they go on about the forced grouping and difficulty of the "old days" forging relationships and community the reality is nobody liked each other and the community in general was very unfriendly. Not to mention there were no separate servers for Japanese players so they were forced to play with Western players. Most Japanese players hated the Westerners and would refuse to group with anyone who wasn't Japanese. There were Westerners who idolized Japanese players and tried to get on their good side. Just like XIV Western players were shitters compared to Japanese players so I can see why but it was still fun seeing ass kissers and weebs trying.

Anyways enough XI sperging from me.

 

[CharcoalChkn]

As of right now autistic discords will be the main space for the next little while until the proper things come in to a more "normal" space. You could try to read fflog DRG openers at the top end to try and decipher what they're doing yourself, but I assume that is too much tism

FFXIV's openers are in the end based around obtaining as much potency per gcd as possible, which means your buffs must get as much potency in them as possible via proper off gcd and gcd alignment. So if you can be fucked you can try mathing it yourself and once you've learned the opener everything just falls in the place, especially post EW where SE has tried their absolute best to ensure 1-2 minute loops are the new normal due to nearly everything being 30, 60, or 120 second CD.

The very fundamental basic idea is "Press buttons, keep your gcd rolling". Not pressing a CD and your burst phase isn't right about to come up? Press that button. Not keeping your gcd rolling? Why the fuck not??? Ask yourself these questions and always keep them in your mind, and you will improve I can promise you that. Most nonimprovement isn't the game's fault, people are just fucking lazy.

Many melee dps in particular are colossal pussies and run away too early when they can force another gcd, they also tend lack foresight and can't follow a boss unless it moves at 2 miles per hour and if the boss moves even 30 feet to the right their just lost. Don't be that, actually look at what's going on, build up a instinctive recollection of what the boss does as you fight it, and push yourself to keep your gcd rolling at all times. If you get hit, just play like a bitch until the vuln stack goes away so you don't die to an actual error and then keep pushing once its gone, soon you get no vuln stacks, maintain uptime, and you won't lose to the tank like many melee dps seem to do with me.

Melee dps is unironically the hardest role on a general level if you want to actually play well beyond "don't die" as a standard, many bosses are not very melee friendly (even dungeon bosses) and you are playing Russian roulette with the tank sometimes, and they tend to be the most generally involved. People who say tank or healer (especially in dungeons) are the hardest roles don't know what it means to be a good dps, and should quit being pussies about tanking/healing in this game, especially a non-physical ranged dps.

Thank you this is very helpful for a sped like me.

Bias aside I wholeheartedly agree melee dps is the most difficult role in this games. I ran EX Zodiark yesterday about 15 times on my own to try and train myself to not rely on my tank friend calling the way marks out for me and it made my small little brain do flips with the amount of boss abilities, positioning changes while also not dropping my rotation and fighting the good fight against my crappy Australia to JP DC ping.

I think checking the opener on fflogs is what I will do, I think I should also be delaying my Blood of DRG phase so I can do the back to back burst window constantly. Just a force of habit that I always forget about it.

 

[Kane Lives]

Melee dps is unironically the hardest role on a general level if you want to actually play well beyond "don't die" as a standard, many bosses are not very melee friendly (even dungeon bosses) and you are playing Russian roulette with the tank sometimes, and they tend to be the most generally involved. People who say tank or healer (especially in dungeons) are the hardest roles don't know what it means to be a good dps, and should quit being pussies about tanking/healing in this game, especially a non-physical ranged dps.

lol tank is probably the most braindead role in dungeons atm, if you know what you're doing. Wall-to-wall pull, pop mitigation, and whatever your AOE rotation. Rinse and repeat until you reach the designated miniboss/boss.

 

[Gravemind]

People who say tank or healer (especially in dungeons) are the hardest roles don't know what it means to be a good dps, and should quit being pussies about tanking/healing in this game, especially a non-physical ranged dps.

For the last few years now, I've laughed whenever I've seen some little DPS main babby cry on social media that Tanking seems "scary", especially when they're being too anxious to try it in post-SB XIV. It's like they think holding aggro is actually hard in this game or something.

I bet they suck at being a DPS anyway and probably get carried most of the time. If they're actually a high parser, then they have no excuse for being that much of a pussy.

 

[Zeke Von Genbu]

Thank you this is very helpful for a sped like me.

Bias aside I wholeheartedly agree melee dps is the most difficult role in this games. I ran EX Zodiark yesterday about 15 times on my own to try and train myself to not rely on my tank friend calling the way marks out for me and it made my small little brain do flips with the amount of boss abilities, positioning changes while also not dropping my rotation and fighting the good fight against my crappy Australia to JP DC ping.

I think checking the opener on fflogs is what I will do, I think I should also be delaying my Blood of DRG phase so I can do the back to back burst window constantly. Just a force of habit that I always forget about it.

If you're an aussie, ping might legitimately hold you back. Struggling to properly weave can be a notable damage loss and it limits your ability to get particularly risky with mechanics, such as moving back into boss aoes because you know when everything snapshots. I'd imagine it is a lot harder to do these things with sketchy ping. Snapshotting is such a huge micro change that can add up to a good handful of gcds which makes your reopener naturally flow properly.

As an example with certain dungeon mechanics like when a boss puts a tether on you, you can abuse snapshotting a good movement to maintain uptime. As an example you can go GCD > move away > Gap closer as mechanic snapshots > GCD and the boss doesn't move or do anything yet you still take reasonable damage. The level 75 last dungeon boss is a good example of this technique. Gap closers in general are wonky, but you can abuse that to do things like cancel knockbacks by using a gap closer just as you get pushed back without using Arms Length.

Good movement and abuse of snapshotting is a huge part of all dps uptime on any job, but melee and casters especially need to know this alongside good mechanical foresight and understanding.

lol tank is probably the most braindead role in dungeons atm, if you know what you're doing. Wall-to-wall pull, pop mitigation, and whatever your AOE rotation. Rinse and repeat until you reach the designated miniboss/boss.

For the last few years now, I've laughed whenever I've seen some little DPS main babby cry on social media that Tanking seems "scary", especially when they're being too anxious to try it in post-SB XIV. It's like they think holding aggro is actually hard in this game or something.

I bet they suck at being a DPS anyway and probably get carried most of the time. If they're actually a high parser, then they have no excuse for being that much of a pussy.

"but muh tanxiety" They cry because apparently dps don't have responsibility for anything, and so having to care about basic shit like running through trash mobs and pressing tank CDs is somehow a big problem and gives people panic attacks.

I hate this dumb narrative, because it completely shits on actual responsible dps have and skilled dps who make any fight even feasible especially in higher end content, are treated like their somehow this second class citizen ("Only the tank/healer gets to decide if big pulls can happen" drives me insane and makes me just want to play tank forever). People need to drop this dumb mentality that dps have no responsibility and are just brainless cavemen. I've seen more brainless cavemen be tank players then dps players.

 

[CharcoalChkn]

If you're an aussie, ping might legitimately hold you back. Struggling to properly weave can be a notable damage loss and it limits your ability to get particularly risky with mechanics, such as moving back into boss aoes because you know when everything snapshots. I'd imagine it is a lot harder to do these things with sketchy ping. Snapshotting is such a huge micro change that can add up to a good handful of gcds which makes your reopener naturally flow properly.

As an example with certain dungeon mechanics like when a boss puts a tether on you, you can abuse snapshotting a good movement to maintain uptime. As an example you can go GCD > move away > Gap closer as mechanic snapshots > GCD and the boss doesn't move or do anything yet you still take reasonable damage. The level 75 last dungeon boss is a good example of this technique. Gap closers in general are wonky, but you can abuse that to do things like cancel knockbacks by using a gap closer just as you get pushed back without using Arms Length.

Good movement and abuse of snapshotting is a huge part of all dps uptime on any job, but melee and casters especially need to know this alongside good mechanical foresight and understanding.


"but muh tanxiety" They cry because apparently dps don't have responsibility for anything, and so having to care about basic shit like running through trash mobs and pressing tank CDs is somehow a big problem and gives people panic attacks.

I hate this dumb narrative, because it completely shits on actual responsible dps have and skilled dps who make any fight even feasible especially in higher end content, are treated like their somehow this second class citizen ("Only the tank/healer gets to decide if big pulls can happen" drives me insane and makes me just want to play tank forever). People need to drop this dumb mentality that dps have no responsibility and are just brainless cavemen. I've seen more brainless cavemen be tank players then dps players.

I will say that those green beams on Zodiark are particularly brutal on Australian ping, especially if I am feeling ballsy and try to squeeze a GCD in before moving. Many a time have I been very clearly in the safe zone with everyone and Zeus seemingly smites me down from the heavens.

About tanking, especially as a PLD, I do not know how anyone can be scared, you're not going to die anytime soon. You could very easily just run through the dungeon and AOE spam and be perfectly fine. I'd take a bad tank over a bad dps any day.