Losing Interest - What am I missing?

I want to begin this thread by saying, flat out, this is not a troll thread. I am honestly floored by how great this community is. I come from other games where you want to interact with as few people as possible.

First, I never played this game before it was A Realm Reborn, but when I heard the revolutionary steps this game took to reinvest itself and redeem itself, I just had to try it and support that kind of ethics in the genre. Whereas most companies are happy to cut their losses and churn out the next money grab, Square Enix really went above and beyond - forsaking short term profits to regain its brand name. Kudos.

That all said, on three occasions, I've tried to play this game. The first time, I got it from a Steam Sale and I quit before level 20 or so. I had rolled a Gladiator and, fresh from WoW, I honestly can say that I quit because A.) The gameplay was so slow - hated the long GCDs and B.) The story, IMHO, was awful - just a series of fetch quests without any sense of immediacy. I went back to WoW after about a week.

Yet, I still kept hearing great things... so I resubbed and tried it again a few months later. This time, I rolled a Conjurer. I enjoyed the Gridania intro story much better than the Ul'dah one and was able to get to level 30/15 and become a White Mage. I will say the slowness problem I had with Gladiator gameplay was lessened by the fact I had spells - it didn't feel needlessly slow. As a Gladiator, I pushed a button, did something instantly, and felt like I was waiting a stupid length of time to do anything else. Casting a 2-2.5 second spell, then immediately casting another just feels better.

That said, after two or so weeks of continuing to do fetch quests and grinding out FATEs solo (it seems after level 30 or so, people become fairly sparse on my server), I was put off from the game once more and quit.

Now that World of Warcraft is in the doldrums and Heavensward was getting positive reception, I came back a third time to give it yet another go. I soldiered through the boring-as-sin story until, finally, things started getting interesting around mid-30s. After the tavern is attacked by the Empire, and Cid gets introduced, for the first time, I sort of *felt* like I was doing more than a series of unengaging snorefest quests.

I've since hit 49, however, I stopped having the urge to play. While the story indeed picked up (still not exactly blowing my socks off, but I admit, I'm interested), I've found that the gameplay of a White Mage is a bit simplistic. While in early-to-mid level, I enjoyed the fact that the group was basically invincible and I could DPS 95% of the time, only dropping out of Cleric stance once in awhile to drop a single cure spell on the tank - at higher level, with higher damage, my gameplay is essentially keep Regen on tank, spam Cure... and the only interesting thing to keep track of is when I get a free Cure 2. After running about 10 dungeons from 45-49 to fill in the EXP gaps to continue the story, I'm kinda ambivalent about healing in this game.

Despite thinking the game's all right, I'm not sure I wanna pick up Heavensward - FFXIV, after 3 attempts, is all right, but it hasn't blown me away. If I'm not sure I wanna pick up Heavensward, no real point in renewing/continuing to play as I'm nearing the end of the main game and my sub runs out tomorrow. $15 for 1-2 more days of gameplay doesn't strike me as logical.

Anyway, long story short - I really want to like this game, but I'm at a loss. My sub runs out today and just don't really see a point in renewing. The story is decent (at least for the last 30% of it), but far from anything special. Of all the Final Fantasy's, this is probably one of the weaker ones. The gameplay is simple, but okay. The community is outstanding, though a bit sparse on my server. In theory, this game should be a hit for me. While I'm mildly invested, I gotta decide if the game's worth another $55 to continue playing (One month Sub + Expansion)... and right now, my feeling is no.

Anyway - what am I missing here? What is it about this game that YOU love?

Short answer: Everything after Level 50. Hate to tell ya, but this is where about 95% of the games resides.

I will be the first to admit that the main scenario quest is pretty tame and drags on for a long while. You're near the conclusion of the intial 2.0 story which is pretty decent, mind you. It really picks up later on as well, before Heavensward. At least, IMO.

However, an unengaging story aside, it sounds like you simply don't have people you're conversing with. Sparse players after level 30 isn't too uncommon only because lots of people are now in the 51+ areas thanks to the expansion. But you may want to consider joining a Free Company or a social linkshell, and maybe meet some people so you have someone to chat with and maybe ask for help doing whatever battle and dungeon you're on next.
If you were on my server I'd be happy to welcome you to my FC. But that's nothing worth server transferring for. I'm sure there are plenty of comapnies willing to house you up on Mateus.

Lastly, if you're not digging WHM, you can switch to something else. The nice thing about FFXIV is that you can be any class you want! If the long GCD turns you off from melee classes, Monk and Ninja both have gimmicks that rely on increasing skill speed to lessen this. But that's just a suggestion, it may be better worth your time trying out all the classes yourself for a few levels (though most don't really flesh out until later levels) just to see if one better suits your style.

I personally enjoy the story, even the silly ones (though the lower levels did seem pretty slow). There's some good stuff in the side quests as well.

But I also like a lot of different classes. I main bard and recently whm, which is a lot of fun after 50 (I think, anyway), and I've been learning to tank. I like the dungeons and raids and their stories, I like the scenery, I like flying, and sometimes I like pvp.

Having a big, relatively active fc has helped a lot too. Lots of people do do content with.

It is true, though, that a huge chunk of the game starts at 50. All of the ARR endgame content + Heavensward starts there.

Pre-50 content isn't much of a challenge these days. Trust me, you won't get away with DPSing 95% (or anywhere near that) of the time on White Mage for a lot of endgame stuff. I won't say it's the most sophisticated of tasks once you get into the swing of things, but I'm not sure making it overly complicated to keep people alive would be a good thing. I find it to be a comfortable middle ground: Enough stuff to toy with, but not so much that you can't keep it easily managed. That goes for most of the jobs. If you want a ton of complexity, it may not be the game for you.

I came to this game from playing Final Fantasy XI. I enjoyed it a lot, but it didn't always have a ton of things you could do in your downtime. XIV fills those gaps; there's plenty of stuff I can do on my own or with non-party members.

What is it that I love? One of the big things you touched on actually, I love the healing. Healers in FFXIV are so powerful that they are rife with opportunities to contribute DPS, which creates a very satisfying dynamic, especially at higher levels when DPS'ing becomes a careful measurement of timing and risk taking. I love the world's aesthetic, expressive characters, witty dialogue, and my friends.

You've yet to experience all of ARR, so you may consider holding off on Heavensward. There is a lot of story at level 50, and several dungeons, and you've only experienced one class at a higher level, where classes tend to flesh out their full kits and handle better in the 2.5 second GCD. Heavensward will still be there if you decide to invest in it, but there are certainly more options for you in this game if you want to try them.

The footwork and fetch quests leading up to Titan? OMG I'd never have the patience to run through that again... THAT was the epitome of needless fetch quests to me....

yeah until u hit HW u will be a bit "bored" while playing healer , u will get overgeared ppl 90% of the time in all the content...but once u hit HW u will not be able to stay on Cleric stance oustide initial pull (a bit more if tank is geared ) , u will find HW content way more challenging.

2.0 picks ups in the end , and its awesome , HW is cool too u will be :O :O :O all the way to 60

I really like the crafting system and housing. The world and the story are great, and I spend a lot of time with the trials and glamour system.

As for what keeps me coming back, I really enjoy helping out new players, especially those new to MMOs.

I will admit the ARR storyline isn't so much fun until later on. It caused me to cringe some of the time, but the Heavensward story is definitely something you would probably like as a fellow fan of the Stormlight Chronicles.

If you can, I'd go one more month just so you get a look at Extremes and HM dungeons before jumping ship. Otherwise, take a break. You sound a little burnt out so just take a break and come back when you can. I promise it'll be much better than you remember (especially since you're close to the good stuff).

My GF just joined me (ok I pay for her account ;) ) Still, within hmm.. 2 months? She just entered Heavensward yesterday.

All she did was her MSQ, she dabbed a bit with Arcanist and she's a lvl 30 BLM, which she likes too! She leveled up GLA as well to become a PLD just like me, so we will switch mains in Dungeons together (ok she heals better than me I admit ^^ )

I prefer Scholar for mitigation, she chose WHM, so we can even complete each other! ^^ (I will lvl up AST, not sure if I'll like it.)

I play by myself first because I like the game (animation, cool rendering, the scenes and views are beautiful to my tastes. The main story is ok, cutscenes inside instances, they should make 2 different instances so that everyone can enjoy ^^

now that my GF is with me, it's.. more fun to play together!

See for me so far, in games I'm a BLM, glass cannon and Demonologist (my name should tell ;) ). In FFXIV, I hate that the BLM is pretty much fire fire fire ice ice ice (ok all other jobs are like that, but I had high expectations of this job ain't SE didn't hit me with the Ooomph I was looking for.)

Seeing how lame it is to wait 30+ min to do a single thing in there when you select a DPS to play (Dungeons, Trials, not crafting ;) ) I had no choice but to Tank.

I'm with you, GLA before PLD is 1-2-3 mashing. If you stick up to 50, where Yoshida said this is where the game begins, you gain a bit more of understanding about your role, the roles of the other ones that makes your party, everyone has their bit to do to complete a duty.. chatting with random people from all over the World.. not rushing, having a nice pace, not slow either, gives good times and vibes.

Heavensward: You might fall in Love with MCH, with their turrets to help the party while handling guns?

I'm a sucker for animation sooo.. I fell in love with the DRK. (all of his internal struggles, the darkness within, awesome animations, still Tank so 90% instant queue, I find it much better now than my PLD, which he's my 2nd Fav.) And now I want his Dark Panther Mount! ^^

Before I decided which jobs I like, I.. played them all to 50.

I can say I'm not a huge fan of melee (but now I tank o.O ) so.. here's my list of jobs and my comments.

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Tank
PLD (my Main, so far ok)
WAR (will level it up to 60, new nice animations, but.. I'll leave it to others for now)
DRK (fell in love with it, no need to comment again ;) )

Melee
MNK, I hate it. some will like, but for me, it's a big no-no. I'm sad that I'll have to get him to 60 (I'm an achiever and I want that gown or crown lol)
DRG, it's ok for me.
NIN, I like it!

Range
BRD (up to 50 - lazy job but still have to evade and check the party composition and MP and TP to see which buff to give or to read the chat to see if someone request one song ^^ Haven't played up to 60, but reading the forums with WM, i'll wait a bit ^^)
MCH (this is one I will like to level up, I'll judge once at 50, and then at 60.)

Magic
BLM (Disappointing for me, others swears by it, so look for other comments ;) )
SMN (Main job for me when I started playing. Like it very much, not the EGIs. Now lvl 60 he's a badass, can't wait to try him out! (I'm 53)

Healer
SCH (Mitigation, Domes as Shield, a little cute fairy.. my main arcanist so.. perhaps that's why I like SCH and SMN ^^)
WHM (never liked it, don't know why..)
AST (randomness, for those that likes to shake things up I guess. The animations are cool, so for sure I'll get him to 60! ;) )

So busy leveling up Battle classes, haven't touched crafting yet. (I'll start with Gathering again then ^^)

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I just love it when SE put new JOBs in here, keep them flowing! ^^

I would say you have to try them all, you have to get into a nice FC that you will start to chat and feel at home, even doing the boring FATES and annoying side quests..

But you will then figure out which job you like, playing with FC members changes a lot from PUGs, trust me on this!

Hope you'll stick to it: not because I want SE to have your money, but for us to have someone that questions the game like you do.

We need more people like you, that SE will isten and perhaps makes changes.

If you can tell them which changes you'd like to see, yes that global cooldown sucks real bad, no question about it; not creating a WOW-Clone, but to better our game, I'm counting you as one of us! ;)

Take care in whatever you choose to do.

For starters, I think you were coming in with too many WoW preconceptions and a bit of a lack of viewing FF14 tabula rasa, as a blank slate and just taking it for what it was and how it plays and instead came in from end-game WoW and expected this game to feel and play like that right away.

First off, you said you found GLD boring and slow but got to only maybe level 20.

IMO, all classes in this game and all other MMOs feel slow and/or boring at low levels simply because they don't have anywhere near their full set of abilities and they are building you slowly up to it. At level 50+ there are way more abilities to manage, the content throws way more at you and overall things are way more engaging and feel more fast paced. It was the same way in WoW, things start slow and easy and build from there.

Also GLD is a tank in this game and roles in this game only really shine or feel in their element when in a group, especially for healers and tanks since their functions are so party-centric. So if you are playing as a low level tank yeah you may feel them to be boring but that is because you aren't even really doing what the role is meant to do. Did you start running dungeons like Sastasha? If not, you havent even touched truly playing GLD. Once you start playing in real group content as a tank, your outlook may change very quickly since now you are presented with a lot more to have to do as a tank, such as proper agro and group agro control, proper mob positioning, utilizing cooldowns correctly, etc. These are all things that you never really have to deal with while going solo or doing basic story quests.

As for CNJ/WHM, pretty much the same as above. Healers do and feel best in group content and they can feel boring and incomplete until 50+. Also, if you are playing with overgeared players, you will rarely be stressed to really have to do much as a healer in low level stuff since things will die super fast and the tanks should be shrugging off hits without too much trouble.

Now the story. Can't help you too much there as some will like or love it and others just won't care for it. I personally like it for the most part, while not to the level of a triple-A single player RPG, it is still quite good for an MMO and imo way better than what I remember of WoW's pretty much non-existant story. Fetch quests are a valid complaint though, but its not really any different in my experience than other MMO's and early leveling through story or quest hubs.
If you are used to more of the quest hub style of things or just don't care about story, then yeah it can feel tedious. It does get much better though at the end of the initial ARR story arc and past that. The story in Heavenward then takes it up another notch imo.

So my basic advice to you, look at and play this game with "fresh eyes" and not through the distorting lenses of "WoW goggles". While both are MMO's with very similar formats, there are a lot of differences in the basic cores of the games and how they play and function that need to be looked at and considered in their own context.

Let me just start by saying that not all games are for everyone. It very well may be that this game just isn't going to do it for you, and that's OK. It's always a bit disappointing to spend money and effort trying to get into the game, but sometimes it just won't happen. I've definitely been there myself. D:

For me personally, I always like the little things in game. I love all the fluff. Glamours, and minions, mounts, etc. I could never get behind the story in this game - I don't know if it's the story itself, or the format in which it's presented. It's just doesn't seem to flow, and so I have skipped almost all of it. I'm also not really a raider. I've leveled almost all jobs to at least 50, but the end-game scene is kinda meh to me.

I think finding the right group of people can also make a tremendous impact on how much you enjoy a game. Do you have a FC that you enjoy at the moment? Fun people to talk to/do things with can make even the dullest of games somewhat exciting ;)



Honestly though, you've really given the game a fair shot. I could be wrong, but if you are struggling to find the desire to play at this point, you may just want to move on and try another game that suits you better. There are a ton of good games out there, just have to find the one that speaks to you :)

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Originally Posted by Mercutial

Short answer: Everything after Level 50. Hate to tell ya, but this is where about 95% of the games resides.

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Pretty much this. The game really picks up after level 50.

Between the initial 2.0 story and the 3.0 (Heavensward) story, there is hours upon hours of engaging story from patches 2.1 to 2.55. My advice would be to resub but don't buy the expansion yet and get to level 50 to enjoy that story. Everything that happened between 2.1 and 2.55 is probably why many people praise this game's story so much :) It's all for lvl 50, so try that.
About classes: WHM is a pretty straight-forward healer. Managing your cooldowns with demanding tanks will sometimes keep you on your toes, but in general, not much is gonna change and you will keep throwing Cures at the tank with the occasional dps in between.
I personally think AST would be a great healer class for you, playing around with the buff cards while keeping everyone alive is a lot more interesting than what WHM does. But to play AST, I think you need to own the expansion and have at least one class at lvl 50..?

Going to toss in that you might enjoy the pet class arcanist, and the DPS and healer that bud off it, SCH and SMN. Pets are managed off global cooldown, so if the 2.5 global cooldown feels too slow to you, you can easily pepper in controlling the pet instead. A friend of mine is a SCH main and he has such a tight leash on Eos that it lets him pretty much DPS full time.

Pre 50 is like the tutorial, you can't quit that early and have a real idea of what the game is like. Raids start at 50. The story gets REALLY good, especially in the expansion, and skill rotations for many jobs get much more active and complex by that time, with things on different recast timers filling those gaps of waiting between global cooldown.

There is still a large amount of filler quests even at 50 before you get to the really good stuff, but if you a prone to making quick judgements and quiting then unfortunately you may never know the high points this game has to offer. It's fair to say the slow build may be a deterrent for advanced mmo players who would rather dive right into more complex and challenging encounters.

If the long GCD is what's bothering you with the game's combat, then I HIGHLY recommend you try out Ninja. All of the melee classes feel slow off the bat, yet become more involved as more off-GCD abilities are earned. NIN (and Monk, too, to an extent) get both this array of off-GCD abilities as well as buffs to lower their GCD. A geared NIN will generally have a GCD of around 2-2.2s, depending on Skill Speed, a ton of off-GCD cooldown abilities (a handful of which deal damage), as well as the overly awesome Mudra system (Ninjutsu!).

As far as engagement through clicking abilities, Ninja is easily the best class for that. And if you want engagement through positionals, instead, then you have Monk.

As someone who plays PLD and NIN, I can also tell you that Gladiator is a terrible example of melee gameplay in FFXIV, so don't base it off of your experience with that class. By the time GLD gets an off-GCD ability that isn't a buff, most other melee classes already have two. By the time GLD manages to complete its first combo rotation, most classes already have 2-3 separate combos they can go through. PLD/GLD was named one of the simplest and most boring classes back before Heavensward (though that changes by level 60).

As for the story being boring, well, that is what it is. I found ARR's story pretty good, but I wasn't exactly thrilled. I kept playing through it because I enjoyed the gameplay, though. As I ran through that slog of level 50 main story quests that one must complete to actually access the expansion content, I found that I actually enjoyed it quite a bit. It became more interesting. However, it had a ton of useless fetch quests, just like the rest of the levels' main story quests.

When I finally hit Heavensward's story, I was thrilled. It's such a huge change of pace, and it actually feels really good to play through. You feel like you're on an actual adventure, exploring new yet ancient places with in-depth history, and meeting interesting characters who you may actually come to care for and who aid you time and time again on your quest. The best part: Heavensward's MSQ has a LOT LESS useless fetch quests.
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All in all, if you don't find the game enticing enough to stay, then you can always decide to quit. No harm or shame in that. However, I would recommend that you make absolutely certain that you've tried the game enough to ensure that it's not for you. What I would do is: Try another class. Bite the bullet of the grind to ~50 (and it is a grind, this isn't the fun part), and then continue the MSQ. You have nearly 100 main story quests left before you can actually hit Heavensward content. If you still don't enjoy the gameplay and story (minus the fetch quests) while doing it, then maybe the game really isn't for you.

Honestly, I find it quite interesting that as a WOW player, you have an issue with fetch quests. I tried to play WOW for a week or so and was so insanely bored with all of the lame fetch quests (the same ones as you are complaining about here) that I quit and never went back.

I didn't care for the story and skipped everything in ARR, except the last set of cutscenes because friends insisted I watch. Heavensward is better because the storytelling is concise, things pick up quickly, and it feels more like classic Final Fantasy (80's and 90's) to me. Still, the fun didn't really start until I started doing raids, EX primals, and events with my FC.

Get thee to some harder content and new friends.

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Originally Posted by McVade

I want to begin this thread by saying, flat out, this is not a troll thread. I am honestly floored by how great this community is. I come from other games where you want to interact with as few people as possible.

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Most of the Internet, really. I'm grade-A creep bait and could be used as a decoy to catch predators, but I can't find a single actual unpleasant person in this game and that's made it a blast for meeting new people. The worst I've seen is a healer calling the tank "about as useful as herpes", which is pretty tame.

Honestly, I'd say find some people to enjoy the game play with. From what I read, it seems like you've been trying to solo through everything and only interact when necessary with others. I talk near daily on skype with my FC mates (granted, we also all know each other), but the difference in how much I like this game after I started playing with others was substantial.

But I think part of the issue may have been that you came in here with so many expectations from your knowledge of WoW. Not to mention, it seems like you went from high and mighty tank in WoW to... well... the starter glad can be a bit squishy. Not to mention, this game does not keep to a conventional tank. It focusing on every class becoming more dps focused to prevent boredom from setting in as much. Good and bad in some instances pending what your preferences are. I for one liked being a brick wall in other MMO's with tanks. I understand that trade offs must be made so nothing is OP, but FFXIV kinda makes everything more even.

As others have said, pre 50 is just the beginning. 2.1-2.55 content also has fetch quests and each patch's story starts off slow but get better. They're trying to spread out story across every level so you've got to expect some kind of padding, WoW has plenty of fetch quests too although that game mixes it up a bit by changing how you do the fetching and killing. The overall story of the game I enjoy, after you've done it and forget about all the dull bits. It really comes together by the end, and heavensward is amazing. Even if you sub again, there's a fair bit of content before you could actually access HW so there's no point in buying it right away.


To be honest, FFXIV isnt the type of game I like, I prefer sandbox games rather than themepark, but I stick around because having friends makes this game faaar better. Im not sure what Mateus is like, but any of the legacy servers are more likely to have bigger communities and make it easier to find people. Finding an FC or social LS will help things and feel far more enjoyable than doing everything in duty finder.

Each time you've come back to the game have you started a new character? There's an armory bonus, which means when you are on a class lower than whatever your main/highest is, you'll be getting bonus exp, so playing new characters each time isn't a good idea. The tank jobs are all fairly straight forward because they have a lot to keep track of in groups, so they can feel pretty dull. Healers are busier, I dont play whm because I found it too simplistic, but scholar and astrologian were great fun. The DPS can go either way. MNK and NIN are faster and trickier, DRG...I dunno, I got bored of that but a lot of people like it, I never took it past 34. BRD is kinda dull up to 50 but really changed in HW, Im told it's much busier now. MCH is also a busy job and fun. BLM I've never played past 50 though I think it didn't change much, it felt sorta boring. SMN is very busy especially past 50 and a lot of fun. I can go 30-50 on a new job in about 2 days, 1-30 probably not much longer so if you are in an FC that uses the exp buffs, have rested bonus, and use food you can try out other jobs easily.

But if the game isn't for you, there's no sense in continuing to spend money on it if you just can't enjoy it.

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Originally Posted by Dijana

BLM I've never played past 50 though I think it didn't change much, it felt sorta boring.

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Lol :D
That's why you shouldn't judge classes you haven't played xD
I think except for BRD, there is no other class that changed THAT extremely how you play it compared between 50 and 60.