4.3 is amazing

I'll probably throw in some more detailed feedback later, but for now I just wanted to put that out there.

I will say, I was a little bit let down by the 24 man content, but I think I'm more disappointed in the loot rule. There are a lot of nice story elements, and if you love XII and Tactics there are a lot of nice nostalgic things there.

ALSO VIERA NAME DROP. THEY ARE TEASING US.

Also disappointed in the lack of hair for PVE this round, which has not happened in any patch that I can remember.

The MSQ shines through though, The trial is GREAT. I love the start of the Namazu quests and I am excited for the new dungeon.

I will be on the edge of my seat to see how the UWU race in a couple of weeks though, and then I can't wait to actually have something I'll actually enjoy doing for more than a day when HOH comes out, and Pagos.

Time to get my crafters and gatherers to 70! ^^ I have all my DoW and DoM done, so I've been looking forward to having Namazu quests to help me catch up.

The 24man raid itself was nice, the questline was obnoxious as hell. Know what I liked about Rabanastre? 2 cutscenes and BAM you're in the raid.

Not having to warp around all of Eastern La Noscea, talking to drunkards and homeless apes.

Everything else is nice. EX was great, way better than Byakko, add phase is a little long though.

The main story is really great this time. The trial and the events around it were very emotional, and the ending/epilogue is intriguing again instead of being another "guess who's still alive this time!"

Ridorana was nicely balanced and all four fights seemed fun to me. The unlock quest was garbage though, what the hell happened there?

Namazu are the worst. The worst.

The story was great! Also playing as a certain elezen was a nice change!

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Originally Posted by New_Game_Plus

SPOILER TEXT

Also playing as a certain elezen was a nice change!

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Remove this spoiler now! Its patch day

Edit: BE WARNED, PEOPLE HAVE POSTED SPOILERS BELOW, PROCEED WITH CAUTION

I've only managed to get just past the story trial before I had to go to work, but I already have it on record in another thread that I absolutely loved that trial and I can't wait to try out the EX version.

The 24 man raid was amazing. See aren't raids fun when the fun hasn't been sucked out of it?

The MSQ "memories" thing, ha, I was expecting Alphy to be but on a bus and have a bus accident, didn't expect getting to play him.

I did quite enjoy it myself. The new trial was great and Ridorana is way better than Rabanstre, both visually and in gameplay. Gonna have to wait a bit until I can get the Namazu mount, the true highlight of the patch.

I'm kinda bummed they didn't use the actual Ivalice moogles. I'm hoping at the end of the raid series we get a wind-up Montblanc or something.

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Originally Posted by KisaiTenshi

The 24 man raid was amazing. See aren't raids fun when the fun hasn't been sucked out of it?

The MSQ [...]

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Thank you for that.

Thank you very much.

Yep. I didn't expect it too. Especially since I'm not even at that part yet.

But I understand, it's not like we have this

to hide spoilers.

And it's already an old patch, so all good.

Even Lambdafish said it just above your comment. :/

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Originally Posted by Lambdafish

Remove this spoiler now! Its patch day

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Originally Posted by Wanzer

Thank you for that.

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And then you had to go quote it before I edited it. If you don't want to be spoiled, don't read the forum on patch day.

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Originally Posted by KisaiTenshi

And then you had to go quote it before I edited it. If you don't want to be spoiled, don't read the forum on patch day.

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That's a nice way to say sorry.

There is no "spoiler alert" in the title. So, I naively thought it was a regular appreciation thread, where people would be nice enough to hide the hot stuffs (some people did it actually). But yeah, all my fault, right? I mean, I could have insult you for this, or begin a witch hunt, but I'm just here, very annoyed by your previous comment. Nothing more.

Oh, and yeah, I quoted you and removed the spoiler from it, so... There is that too. I'm not stupid enough to let it in the quote, but nice try.
Your comment was here during almost 30 minutes also, but yeah, it was my whole plan to quote you before you had the chance to edit it. :p

I understand they wanted to make the storyline for the 24 man as good as the MSQ line.
They failed.
Long storylines are usually awesome, but not when 80% of the NPCs involved are insufferable asshats and/or Moogles.

Raid itself was fun and visually impressive.

MSQ and trial was damn good.

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Originally Posted by Wanzer

That's a nice way to say sorry.

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You came to the forum, knowing full well that people are going to spoil the game. The comment was up 20 minutes before YOU decided to be a jerk about it.

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Originally Posted by KisaiTenshi

You came to the forum, knowing full well that people are going to spoil the game. The comment was up 20 minutes before YOU decided to be a jerk about it.

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I was a jerk about it? I just said "thank you" because I was very annoyed by it (or disappointed, choose the word you prefer), nothing more. And I reminded you the fact that we could hide spoilers. :/
I should be the one very pissed about the situation. I even explained why I didn't expect that kind of naked comment here. But, I guess you read what you want.



Honestly, I don't understand the drama here, Kisa.
Yes, your comment was up during 20 minutes, but I didn't wait those 20 minutes to comment too ; I did comment only when I saw it, and it wasn't edited yet : so there wasn't any dark and sneaky plan behind it. Then you've edited your message when you have seen mine (and it was a good thing from you). I've even seen your first try with the [spoiler]text[/spoiler] that didn't work, so I was glad to see you trying to fix it. But even this, it was several minutes after my comment. So I didn't try to lie or being a jerk, or whatever you think, by quoting without your edited message, since my comment came way before you even think about editing yours. And even with that, I didn't insult you once, or tried to portray you as a bad person : mistakes happen. I was just disappointed and sad because I took that spoiler in the face when I would have loved seeing it by myself, nothing more. And I knew it was also part of my fault, since I should have avoided the forum just in case of.

Then you blamed me for having read your comment not edited, because... Somehow, I was wrong to say anything about it. When a little sorry or nothing, nothing can be good too (especially after that you edited the comment to hide spoilers), would have been way much better than what you did. Sure, it wasn't the best idea to come on the forum the first day, since people can't always think about the others (or are in an euphoric state), but still... It happened.
And I trully thought people were aware of this since Lambdafish already stated something about the spoilers on the very same thread. And then you called me a jerk. And I'm still trying to figure it out why. Even if I should have been the one very angry about it, not you, but... The funny part is : I wasn't.
So yeah, I'm quite baffled by the situation. But, it's ok.

I liked the MSQ, especially the fate of two certain characters. Also the last part was great too even if it took a while to be playable..(chair ex ftw)

I did not like the 24 man raid that much. Two of the bosses were fine, the third one was alright (but that lasers...why?) but the last one was just a nightmare for me. Too much happening at the same time. The story itself was okay but nothing outstanding. I really thought that it would be much better after they said that they want to make it epic, that its long and that a lot of budget went into this..and then they give us THAT quest? My two ingame friends and I raged throught that quest the whole time since it was just so bad..It gave a bit more information but I still felt that a lot of bosses were just random there and only make sense if you know the old FF game..and Alma is the only person of that family that I care for. The other two can just die..

Also didnt they say that the 24 man had also something for crafters and gatheres or I am remembering that wrong? Also where was the content that somehow would really awe us and was a secret? I really hope that they dont mean the part of the MSQ with that because even though it was nice, it really was not that awesome.

Namazou was great and I do like the characteristics of the beast tribe and I am curious what they have in store for us. (And I love their music)

I had hoped that the doman enclave would be a bit more (kinda like the delivery quests but with more items and bigger quantities). Instead you can just throw anything that you can sell in there, even materia. I am not sure how that would help with building the city but yeah. Still was positively surprised that you need quite a bit stuff if you want to reach the weekly budget.

The four lords were funny and the dungeon alright. It has a nice look and music, but I found the bosses to be really easy. Also I got the gear from the winning contest and wore it for a short time but glamoured something else..the body looks fine but the cape..it glitches with my tail and the weapon and it looks soo off when I moved. The only way it looked fine was when standing still. If you are moving it has such a bad animation that I could not look at it for too long..(and I did not like how it would color) I feel a bit sad for the winner because for me they did not do justice with this implementation.

I'd like to thank yoshi for finally creating openworld raid content.
Red Chocobro Savage

https://preview.ibb.co/gqxZQo/ffxiv_05222018_181743.png

https://preview.ibb.co/ctshd8/ffxiv_05222018_181716.png

https://preview.ibb.co/mpR8J8/ffxiv_05222018_181657.png

Yeah, colour me completely unimpressed with 4.3.

Opinions vary, but let's say for the sake of argument the MSQ is AAA. Let's say that Ridorana is a blast, and an upgrade in every way over Rabanastre, as well as the new Trial and Dungeon. So what? The MSQ is a one-off, and the Raid / Trial / Dungeon will be old hat within a couple of weeks, because they're shallow pieces of content that are essentially recycled, repainted versions of previous shallow content.

So too with the Namazu Tribe (again, even if the storyline is great, the turn-in quests are recycled versions of Ixal and Moogles), and the Doman Enclave, which is basically just a new NPC to sell things to that pays you a bit more than other NPCs do (I hate to think of the long-term effects this place will have on inflation...).

Where's the meat? Where's the long-term content that doesn't feel stale within two weeks' time? And how on earth are people happy with yet another patch day that features absolutely nothing really new?

I enjoyed the trial in the Main Quest and the end after, however it felt like up unto to that point that there were wayyyy too many cutscenes and very little time actually doing stuff so didn’t feel tas satisfying as previous patches and a bit unbalanced due to more watching than doing.

Also it took agggges to unlock the raid - the wine stuff just seemed pointless and I ran out of time so didn’t get to do it, alone or with my free company.

I also didn’t manage to unlock or do the new dungeon yet.

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Originally Posted by Luin

Not having to warp around all of Eastern La Noscea, talking to drunkards and homeless apes.

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I agree this quest line and the fish quests too much teleport here, teleport there and to change it up let's make a longer route you have to fly to before teleporting back. I felt like a rubber band. Other than that the MSQ story is good and teh new instanced content is as well.

Red choco savage is best savage. It is one of the funniest things I have ever seen, and the devs need to make some form of actual event in homage to it. This is what you get for being impatient.

MSQ is really emotional, but it's a little bad because all of the emotional impact is in the middle, and you feel drained at end. The last quest is interesting/odd both in the instance, and the implications. Four lords proves now and forever Tataru is a troll.

Haven't done actual raid, but it and the namazu really poke fun at the whole fetch quest thing. Namazu and Aura Waifu quests are actually too easy for what they are, namazu had me mine all of three things, waifu was capped at 400 colectability.

Red chocobo savage at least got me kindnes of stranger 2&3 o/

Ended up LOVING the four man dungeon.

Really well made.

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Originally Posted by Vhailor

Yeah, colour me completely unimpressed with 4.3.

Opinions vary, but let's say for the sake of argument the MSQ is AAA. Let's say that Ridorana is a blast, and an upgrade in every way over Rabanastre, as well as the new Trial and Dungeon. So what? The MSQ is a one-off, and the Raid / Trial / Dungeon will be old hat within a couple of weeks, because they're shallow pieces of content that are essentially recycled, repainted versions of previous shallow content.

So too with the Namazu Tribe (again, even if the storyline is great, the turn-in quests are recycled versions of Ixal and Moogles), and the Doman Enclave, which is basically just a new NPC to sell things to that pays you a bit more than other NPCs do (I hate to think of the long-term effects this place will have on inflation...).

Where's the meat? Where's the long-term content that doesn't feel stale within two weeks' time? And how on earth are people happy with yet another patch day that features absolutely nothing really new?

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I'm guessing you've played for awhile. I'd wager that'd you've played MMO's in general.

What did you expect? It's how MMOs work. Sure, maybe someday some MMO will find some magical formula in which to make content not become stale and grindy within a couple of weeks. It's not going to be this MMO. Yoshi-P's made it clear that the team does not have time/resources/inclination to really rock the boat gameplay wise. Honestly, aside from creating all new content every couple weeks, which is obviously infeasible, there's not much any current MMO system can do to keep content from being stale after awhile.

Not saying your complaints are without merit. It's just that the complaints are levied at the general known weakness of the genre.

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Originally Posted by Vhailor

Where's the meat? Where's the long-term content that doesn't feel stale within two weeks' time? And how on earth are people happy with yet another patch day that features absolutely nothing really new?

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Maybe you should play something else for a while?

Personally, I only had time to do the msq, trial, and beast tribe before work, and I thoroughly enjoyed all of it. I'm looking forward to playing more once I get home.

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Originally Posted by RaideDuku

I'm guessing you've played for awhile. I'd wager that'd you've played MMO's in general.

What did you expect? It's how MMOs work. Sure, maybe someday some MMO will find some magical formula in which to make content not become stale and grindy within a couple of weeks. It's not going to be this MMO. Yoshi-P's made it clear that the team does not have time/resources/inclination to really rock the boat gameplay wise. Honestly, aside from creating all new content every couple weeks, which is obviously infeasible, there's not much any current MMO system can do to keep content from being stale after awhile.

Not saying your complaints are without merit. It's just that the complaints are levied at the general known weakness of the genre.

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I disagree. It certainly wasn't a fault with FFXI, which is the other MMO I've primarily played.

The main issue facing FFXIV (and many other modern MMOs) isn't just a relative lack of new content - it's that the intensely vertical design that renders new content so necessary. As an example, a year and change into the ToAU expansion for FFXI, there was a vast reservoir of content available, because literally all of the stuff introduced in Zilart and CoP was still relevant. So if SE only added one new thing every six months, that was fine: burn-out was much less of an issue.

In FFXIV, virtually no content is relevant for more than six months. Rabanastre just turned six months: now, it's just potential filler if I queue for an Alliance Roulette. We have a much smaller collection of things to work with: usually one Trial, one 24-man Raid, one end-game Raid, one Ultimate fight, and 2-3 dungeons. That's rough, and it's a far cry from where FFXI was at this point in time, where you had Dynamis, {sky}, {sea}, Limbus, ENMs, Salvage, Einherjar, ZNMs... on top of loads of more middle-class content like Besieged, lesser NMs with nonetheless decent rewards, KSNMs, Assault, Nyzul Isle, and a host of money-making activities (since Gil was far more relevant in FFXI).

Amplifying this, on a personal note, is SE's habit of advertising all content for a patch cycle without distinguishing from the get-go when content will launch. I'm still salty over Heaven-on-High being a mid-cycle piece of content, something that wasn't mentioned whatsoever on the 4.3 Special Site, and to my knowledge wasn't officially announced until the preliminary patch notes.

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Originally Posted by Wilford111

Maybe you should play something else for a while?

Personally, I only had time to do the msq, trial, and beast tribe before work, and I thoroughly enjoyed all of it. I'm looking forward to playing more once I get home.

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I would, but as we well know (certainly as SE knows), MMOs appeal to people for reasons far beyond the game itself. Most MMOs, in some sense, are actually kind of terrible games: they don't typically feature the best plots (XIV and XI are exceptions here), they don't have the best graphics, they have server issues, they can be expensive, they typically don't feature the deepest gameplay mechanics. What they offer, however, is a world to run around in with friends, and an amazingly strong sense of allegiance to an alternate identity. I remain very attached to my character from FFXI, even years after I logged out for what's likely the last time. I can remember my Mog House, friends made, places of Vana'diel that were particularly beautiful or nice places to sit. These are not things that SE created, for the most part: they're things that naturally arise when players are put into the proper setting.

These aspects mean that FFXIV will continue to be something I play. I enjoy the time I can spend online with my girlfriend, particularly when I'm traveling, as I am now. I have an attachment to my house, and my character. I'm not someone who is currently ready to quit - though if my house were ever demolished somehow or my girlfriend to lose interest, I'd surely leave and never look back.

So, as long as I'm here, I very much want the content to be appealing. There are a number of ways to accomplish that, but so far, SE hasn't been very successful, which is frustrating. Broken systems languish for too long, like a lack of housing availability for quite some time, or the still-clunky Glamour system. New forms of content are poorly-designed, like Diadem or Eureka, and progression continues to be sharply vertical, reducing the appeal of dungeons, trials, and raids. Each patch I get my hopes up, and each time I am met with disappointment.

I'm not an innately pessimistic person, however, so each update cycle I experience until I do end up leaving, I'll hope the game shifts course. I'll also continue to voice my opinions on the forums, because I think it's valuable feedback for SE, and I know I'm not alone in feeling this way, and I want to encourage a feeling of solidarity among people who similarly want XIV to grow in new directions.

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I am curious, however: do you honestly feel as if the content additions we receive are sufficient? I mean, obviously if one plays only 5-10 hours a week, there's plenty to do - so let's separate out that argument, and examine, say, a piece of instanced content. How long do new 4-person or 24-man instances hold your active interest, or do they always hold it? For me, as an example, Rabanastre felt interesting for about 2-3 runs. After that, I didn't interact with it beyond when the Roulette landed me there, and it didn't feel in any way different than Labyrinth of the Ancients, which released years ago. As such, it didn't offer me much value. Is this not something you experience, or do you experience it only much later?

I do hope we get the gear you know who and his friends are wearing at the end of 4.3 msq

Dungeon was great but if you wipe at last boss its a loooooooooooong walk
Also a bug that he's stuck in the ground till you start the fight

honestlt the 4.3 in terms of lore is amazing, in terms of content, a bit meh...
i means when you did get you raid 24 loot... do your weekly delivery and come do your daily for the namazu, bah you don't have a lot to do... since eureka can allows you to get your cap in 4-5 hours.
and i'm a bit scared, that even with the deep dungeon and pagos we will see some lack of content....

pagos when you will have your elemental level maxed and your relic, you will probably not do it anymore... and deep dungeon, will depend of the content of the chest and the reward (outside the weapon) by the way, i'm the only one thinking that we have far too many different weapon? relic, deep dungeon, tomes, raid, primordial.... and we do get ... 2 set of armor (maybe 3 if your count the 24 raid, that a bit lackluster on this side)

in terms of story however like said before, it's top notch, between the reveal about dalmasca (that i hope we will visit in the 5.0). the MSQ, that was filled with many up and down in terms of emotion.... and the reveal at the end.... zenos body probably under the white ascian control, the elezen at the end probably zeno soul inside it and.... the shadow hunter that is clearly gaius von baelsar! soo good! oohhh and the most important, the fact that other type of ascian exist, we did seen 3 type of mask on the shadow hunter belt.... more ascian incoming?

I dunno. I find 4.3 to be nearly perfect. The music, fights and raid are fun as hell and I'm loving every bit of it. It's nice that the game feels like an actual Final Fantasy again. It's simply awesome. Loved the trial. So awesome.

Eh, i kind of don't like the raid though. I mean, it's way too movement heavy for what it is. I think I know why SE added more movement to blm, and more mobility to AST now, but my first experience wasn't really all that fun even with helpful people telling us everything about the raid. We ended up running out of time. I notice in general they seem to demand a lot more movement and placing in casual content this time, or at least it feels like it.

Gentlemen and gentleladies... Behold... The real highlight of 4.3

https://i.gyazo.com/7e389511be4b978c...6e195fe8f5.mp4

Everything was great except the obnoxious quest line for the 24man like why SE lol but besides that great patch!!

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Originally Posted by Vhailor

Where's the meat? Where's the long-term content that doesn't feel stale within two weeks' time? And how on earth are people happy with yet another patch day that features absolutely nothing really new?

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Oh I dunno, maybe some of us actually enjoy the consistent additions to the progression routes we're interested in. Not all of us are bored within a fortnight. Not all of us are unreasonable enough to think that content is unworthy unless it can hold our daily undivided attention for several months without a hiccup. Some content is designed to be short-lived, some isn't. And sometimes this sort of thing is down to personal preference. Many of the things you might be bored of are the very things others are excited about.

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Originally Posted by RiyahArp

Eh, i kind of don't like the raid though. I mean, it's way too movement heavy for what it is. I think I know why SE added more movement to blm, and more mobility to AST now, but my first experience wasn't really all that fun even with helpful people telling us everything about the raid. We ended up running out of time. I notice in general they seem to demand a lot more movement and placing in casual content this time, or at least it feels like it.

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Yes, but the raid is NEW. And it's tuesday, the same day everyone runs their raid resets. So you will get a mix of people who know their job and just want to be carried. This is how the raid should always be like before the fun gets sucked out of it by guides and tools. So if movement is the solution to keeping it fun, more please.

However movement requirements will screw-ver players on high latency connections. The game may operate on 3 second ticks, but it sure doesn't for movement. Movement is more like half second ticks. So Japan can deal with half second ticks, but all of NA will never be able to as under perfect conditions, you will only hit 200ms from west-to-east coast.

This is why some players tend to get clipped by AOE's more than others. On their screen, they've avoided the AOE, but the server says they haven't. Point of interest. Play Titan Extreme solo, and just try to avoid the AOE's. You'll find that you may clear an AOE, but the game will still throw you off because you hesitated, or you started and canceled a cast while you moved.

Anyway, no nerfs. The only thing I want to see maybe adjusted is

That prime number list from the Crude Scrawling to stick to the screen during that fight if you read it.

Not that it was needed, but you don't have a lot of time to think about it.

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Originally Posted by KisaiTenshi

Yes, but the raid is NEW.

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Its not that it's new, it just feels weird. Like the mechanics are easier in someways, but the fight seems a lot more tedious since its hard to full wipe. In my run we actually had to tell people to wipe because they could survive the mechanics but couldn't budge the hp bar. so you just wasted time not dying and not recovering or denting the boss's HP. The end boss seemed to have absurd level of HP, and the raise sickness just cripples your damage and healing after a while, so resetting becomes an actual, valid strategy.

I don't think it needs to be nerfed, its actually useless. You can get 360 gear for alts much easier through 350 crafted trade ins with no weekly limit, and you can get tokens via hunts same. So it's not required at all.

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Originally Posted by RiyahArp

The end boss seemed to have absurd level of HP, and the raise sickness just cripples your damage and healing after a while, so resetting becomes an actual, valid strategy.

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Final boss has a mechanic that instantly gets rid of about 35-40% of his health.

I like the lore and I like the fact that /thus far/ they've put away the stupid bat they've been hitting every character with since 4.1. I was honestly surprised to see characters acting intelligently again and I hope it remains for the entirety of the expansion going forward. I haven't touched the raid and I won't until later. I'm not really interested in it while the All Greed rule is in effect.

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Originally Posted by Penthea

post

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You do realise that it can be said the other way around, right?
That some of us have seen enough of this same "rinse and repeat" cycle that the dev feed us since years.

And I don't think that's unreasonable to ask for content that would hold for more than a week if it wasn't locked behind a weekly wall.

Maybe it appeals to the casual playerbase (aka. Whose who can't play more than a few hours a week), and that's fine.
But for the others, I still think it's quite normal to ask for new and lasting content.

The 2.x était was great because there was something new and exciting each patch. Where did that creativity have gone?

On a more positive note, the msq was indeed great, and I'm waiting for the 4.4 one.

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Originally Posted by Luin

The 24man raid itself was nice, the questline was obnoxious as hell. Know what I liked about Rabanastre? 2 cutscenes and BAM you're in the raid.

Not having to warp around all of Eastern La Noscea, talking to drunkards and homeless apes.

Everything else is nice. EX was great, way better than Byakko, add phase is a little long though.

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I haven't even done the raid yet because those fetch quests took it out of me (plus I was focusing on gathering).

The fetch quest for Ridorana was a little long and would have been better suited as a stand-alone quest, but it had a great moment from one of my favorite NPCs, so I can forgive it.

Ridorana itself was fun but I do not see the Greed rule thrilling anyone still. It was a bad idea in the previews and it's a bad idea now.

I'm enjoying everything else though. Christ, the MSQ left me thirsty for more. I want more instances like the final quest offers, too.