How does FF14 compare to WoW? (And other MMOs)

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Originally Posted by KenjoKuro

Unless I am mistaken, one very big difference between WoW and FFXIV is that WoW is much more solo friendly.

In WoW a player can solo from level 1- 60 (current level cap) and never join a group if that is their wish. Upon reaching level cap, the solo player still has a lot of activities available to them.

In FFXIV, I will apparently be forced to group for a level 15 story quest(dungeon) and then periodically after that just to reach level cap.

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You could solo it all.

You would need to find a way to get to level 80 (or level higher than the content, safest on a paladin which can heal itself as much as it needs) while in a low level area (such as by doing POTD). Then you would accumulate the gil to get level 80 gear from the market board.

Then you can select the "Undersized Party" setting to solo all of the dungeons and trials up to level 70. At level 71 you unlock a trust system that let's you do the dungeons with NPCs (and someday these may be extended to older dungeons).

Nobody bothers with this other course. They either queue for it in Duty Finder or get a friend to "solo" it for them.

It's not a problem to use Duty Finder though because you get a sprout icon, which explains to any other players that you are new so they get it.

Xeltoris

Server lag has been a major issue since 2018, Blizzard's response has been to..wait for it...blame the players.

When 5000 players tell you of problems with server lag from a dozen nations, with all kinds of systems, from high end with mega connections to lower spec systems, all of whom have the same errors, the same lag, and the same issues...they arent the ones with the problem.

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The crafting/gathering system has more monetary value due to limitation of professions.

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FF 14s crafting system is way better..I dont have to burn 300 of a material to make ONE piece of gear with the right stats. RNG when it comes to WOW crafting is a major problem..make the same item over and over and over and over...no thanks.

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Originally Posted by Krotoan

So yeah, you have to "group", but at this point everyone is so much on autopilot for anything under 80 content, they might as well be AI.

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That does sound pretty good. I joined WoW at its launch, moving there from FFXI. It was FFXI that taught me to dislike forced grouping. Since then I have treated every MMO I've played as a Single Player game with optional Co-op.

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Originally Posted by Ralph2449

I personally define "forced grouping" when you are actually forced to actively deal with people(talk, explain why you play X) you dont like because it is the only way to get decent rewards...

I wouldnt really say that for WoW, your main activities would be seeing the story which is timegated at the start, then mindlessly farming world quest to get rep for factions which may or may not have anything interesting and old content.

Gear progression is gone for solo players the moment you reach 200ilvl...

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I think the closest to a 'World Quest' in FFXIV would be the 'Fates'. I think that's what they're called. I do admit I prefer them to the WoW Shadowlands World Quests.

As for gear, my Vulpera(I like small races) Shaman is ilvl 189 and I have no trouble taking down solo content. The elitists in WoW, don't exist for me as I never have to interact with them.

I will admit that one area where Blizzard really messed up is this 'Level Squish', they just did. It made a lot of older content no longer soloable and that is a big part of my decision to try out FFXIV.

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Originally Posted by Jeeqbit

You could solo it all.

You would need to find a way to get to level 80 (or level higher than the content, safest on a paladin which can heal itself as much as it needs) while in a low level area (such as by doing POTD). Then you would accumulate the gil to get level 80 gear from the market board.

Then you can select the "Undersized Party" setting to solo all of the dungeons and trials up to level 70. At level 71 you unlock a trust system that let's you do the dungeons with NPCs (and someday these may be extended to older dungeons).

Nobody bothers with this other course. They either queue for it in Duty Finder or get a friend to "solo" it for them.

It's not a problem to use Duty Finder though because you get a sprout icon, which explains to any other players that you are new so they get it.

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This is intriguing, and I would consider it an interesting challenge. Whether it is possible or not is another question.

Ah the 'Sprout Icon', I can only imagine the terror that strikes in the heart of an experienced player who joins a group only to be surrounded by 'Sprouts':D.

If you really want to solo FFXIV, then you can wait 2 expansions, use a job boost, and solo almost every content that are at least two expansions old and even some contents that are one expansion old that way, then stop and wait for another expansion, use another job boost, and repeat.

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Originally Posted by VelKallor

The fact that Blizzard doesnt refund people the millions of dollars they get from unused gametime? They pay for seven days and get six. UI also note that FRF 14 doesnt shut their servers down every week. Odd, innit?



Oh you mean the toy with a 24 hour cooldown, doesnt persist through death? Or the potion that cant be bought for gold but requires grinding timewalk dungeons?

Sorry but when an MMO cant or wont manage a basic QoL like a unified time of day system, its broken. Blizzard also has a game calendar that is ALSO tied to US time....like making a calendar that shows events in local time is hard?

I hate to say this, but Blizzards favourite mantra seems to be "this cant be done". It can be done, they just WONT and they dont care.

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blizzards weekly maintenance are usually no more than an hour with maybe 5 hour maintenance for major patches and 8ish hours for expansion launches. XIVs maintenance are rarely less than four hours even for minor hotfixes, 6-8 for patches, and 24+ for expansion launches. if you're going to complain about losing an hour every week and not getting refunded less than a dime every month, I wonder what you're like on 14 maintenance days, or heaven forbid an expansion launch.


its fun to criticize other companies for what they cant vs won't do when SE has been giving those same excuses about Viera/ Hrothgar hair and helms, healing, fight design, etc.

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Originally Posted by Mavrias

blizzards weekly maintenance are usually no more than an hour with maybe 5 hour maintenance for major patches and 8ish hours for expansion launches. XIVs maintenance are rarely less than four hours even for minor hotfixes, 6-8 for patches, and 24+ for expansion launches. if you're going to complain about losing an hour every week and not getting refunded less than a dime every month, I wonder what you're like on 14 maintenance days, or heaven forbid an expansion launch.

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That just comes with the genre. Every mmo has regular maintenance. I get that it can be annoying but it is necessary. It only bothered me long ago when I played in web cafés so sometimes a surprise maintenance literally ruined my night. It sucked to pay for game time at the café and find an emergency maintenance that finished long after the game time would be over (and no they wouldn't let me check if there was one unless I paid :( ). Since I got my own gaming rig it doesn't bother me much.

As for refunds, eh would be nice but at the same time I don't get my knickers in a twist over a missing a few hours at most. I just do something else.

Unless there is any applicable law, refunds can only be expected if there is any guarantee of server uptime and there is a failure in meeting that guarantee. At most, they could credit you extra playtime, but even that's up to them.

The only thing that subscription gets you is server access for a specific window of time as long as the server is up during that specified time. Of course, there is a limit to how much downtime there is before any legitimate business would compensate their customer in some way regardless of if they're required to.

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Originally Posted by KenjoKuro

Ah the 'Sprout Icon', I can only imagine the terror that strikes in the heart of an experienced player who joins a group only to be surrounded by 'Sprouts':D.

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The reason it doesn't strike terror in the heart of an experienced player is that queueing for a roulette matches the experienced player with someone who queues directly (which is almost always sprouts), so it's almost guaranteed there will be sprouts. They are used to sprouts and it's one of the design choices that makes FFXIV a nice community.

It's often said how easy this content is and that people frequently underperform in it, but this is so normalized that the experienced players expect everyone will underpeform so they don't bother being rude about it usually.

What makes it better is that one experienced player can probably do all of the work and get everyone through the dungeon successfully, so they aren't worrying that much.

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Originally Posted by Jeeqbit

It's often said how easy this content is and that people frequently underperform in it, but this is so normalized that the experienced players expect everyone will underpeform so they don't bother being rude about it usually.

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Personally I find most players are fairly okay at the game. Not bad but not extraordinary either. Just serviceable, which is fine for normal mode.

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Originally Posted by KenjoKuro

Ah the 'Sprout Icon', I can only imagine the terror that strikes in the heart of an experienced player who joins a group only to be surrounded by 'Sprouts':D.

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It only does if it's in pretty high lvl content which would mean the sprouts bought a boost from the cash shop, which can mean the player hasn't a clue how to play their class in content that demands some measure of competence. Otherwise people rarely care. It's normal to see them in low lvl content, so we just shrug it off.