What do WoW veterans think of XIV and how do you think it could be improved?

[Tashigi]

FFXIV mechanics are essentially copy & paste from WOW. So if you hate WOW for it's game "mechanics" but love FFXIV, then there is something seriously wrong with you.
Mainly directed at the second poster on this thread and anyone who actually clicked "like".

However, WOW is a much smoother game as far as gameplay goes.

1 There is no sliding when you initiate an attack.
2 There is no animation locks.
3 Instant cast abilities are truly instant and not affected by animation nor global cooldowns.
4 Little to no latency issues due to server optimization/locations (Low ping/ms).

Adding to the fourth bullet point: WOW's server architecture is also client based. Not server based.
So in WOW's case, response to your movement when dodging red circles/danger zones is far, far more responsive. (Ever get hit by silly things, like say, Titan's Landslide, even though you obviously dodged on your screen? That doesn't happen in WOW).

Finally, WOW class mechanics are "mostly" unique. Every class can truly talent/spec out into different paths. Making your class a little bit more unique.
This obviously has limitations, but it is far better than what we have in FFXIV. Subjective opinion, of course (My opinion).

Mechanics aside, the two games are radically different.
Story/world/lore are hundreds of miles apart.
Personally, I love both WOW and FFXIV. But, mechanics wise, WOW is the clear winner.

For reference.
I've played FFXIV since the original release.
I've played WOW since BETA stages in 2004, until Cataclysm. I plan to play again upon release of Warlords of Draenor.

[Duelle]

Can't agree with XIV's story being better than WoW's.There is so much lore in that game found through books, quests and items, it's ridiculous.

I was refering more to the fact Blizzard has thrown their characters under the bus to create bosses, made hasty developments to facilitate gameplay and created loreLOL of more ridiculous proportions as the game aged. I could talk about the messed up chain of events in WotLK to facilitate the alliance/horde war, the massive amount of wasted potential in Garrosh, the garbage called The Fall of Theramore, not to mention undoing major elements of races like the Blood Elves (restoring the eternally-corrupted Sunwell to give people a feel-good ending) or the night elves regaining their immortality (pissing away the worth of their sacrifice at the end of Warcraft III).

I can concede that FFXIV is a young game compared to the Warcraft franchise and there's still plenty of chances for SE to screw up the lore, though.

[saber_alter]

-snip-

*looks at age difference.*

what. the. hell. do. you. expect? we are comparing a decade worth of development to about...almost three years now?


on a side note, i like the non-instant cast abilities. It may seem like a nuisance, but i don't like the idea of the damage of my blade hitting before my blade actually makes contact.

[KoujiMoreno]

*looks at age difference.*

what. the. hell. do. you. expect? we are comparing a decade worth of development to about...almost three years now?


on a side note, i like the non-instant cast abilities. It may seem like a nuisance, but i don't like the idea of the damage of my blade hitting before my blade actually makes contact.

Someone complained about that? I thought it was just instant cast abilities that weren't really instant cast.

Also, I'd like to see enemy abilities line up. Like Titan's plumes, the plumes cast bar, and the actual plumes being in sync.

[Tashigi]

Snip.

Actually, animation is equally as good or better than FFXIV for WOW's combat and often feels superior. Particularly in PVP.
This is specially true when latency comes into the equation.

Also, the age has nothing to do with it.
WOW issues were addressed in less than six months after it launched. However, the issues it had, were not related to animations, or anything of the above that I mentioned.
The main issues WOW had, was with server crashes due to unexpected subscriber numbers (Similar to how FFXIV was at launch).

No amount of years can fix what's happening to FFXIV, because the vast majority of issues come from the decision to make the game server based, rather than client based.
The only way most of the issues I noted above will be addressed, is by re-doing the entire server structure. Which could cost millions at this point; or potentially more.
In other words, the damage is done.

[Roris]

FFXIV mechanics are essentially copy & paste from WOW. So if you hate WOW for it's game "mechanics" but love FFXIV, then there is something seriously wrong with you.
Mainly directed at the second poster on this thread and anyone who actually clicked "like".

Pretty much, if they wanted to copy WoW they could at least properly copy the responsiveness too. There's no sign of it ever being addressed, it's always the same responses "it's by design, animations always take priority or else it would look ugly", "good I don't want the combat to be spammy", "it's a new game give them time", "ps3 limitations", "it's clearly just your lag", etc. I do hope they eventually do something about it but I don't think the issue has been properly mentioned or acknowledged by the devs or even considered a real issue at all.

[drivendawn]

Is this week of the trolls or something?

Huh? Don't know what your talking about.

[Mcshiggs]

I don't think it's what can they take from WoW to do better, I think they need to take lessons from WoW and many other games, to make a better game. I played XI a little, maybe a couple years off and on, some both before and after Abyssea, WoW from vanilla up through Wrath, then a little Pandatown, a little EQ2, and EQOA my very first mmo.

Some of the stuff I like from EQ games, and even a little from early WoW, was the consequences. If you helped one tribe, not only would they like you more, but another one might start to hate you, even shift your threat to where you are completely unwelcome and kill on sight. I doubt a heavy faction system like this would work in XIV, but I think they could add in some stuff where what we did mattered, or had some sort of impact.
One of the big things I liked from WoW was that crafting stayed a least a little relevant. I think starting with Wrath, crafted boots were one of the best in slot you could get until you started into heroic raids, and once you got gear from a dungeon, you still weren't done, there was the whole enchanting, gemming, belt buckles, all that kind of stuff that kept crafters busy. Also feasts and cauldrons, those just rocked. Of course set bonuses, weapon procs that sort of stuff was nice, and I would like to see.
Some of the stuff from XI I liked, I haven't seen too many folks say much about. I think some of the more overlooked and dismissed content could have been really good if it had been implemented better. The one that I think has tons of potential was the moblin maze stuff. I think they could add a similar dungeon builder system in XIV, simplify the construction aspect of it a bit, make it menu based, not take up tons of inventory, make it solo, low man, or even able to do with your chocobo, and make the rewards worthwhile, maybe not top tier, but good enough to be worth the time.
Of course from many many games, I think XIV could benefit from some sort of AA or merit type system. One of XIV's main attractions, I also think is one of the things that hurts it's potential, and that is the armory system. While I like being able to do everything on one character, I think that it is much to simple right now to basically max out your potential on every job. Since Yoshi moved towards the battle classes in ARR for being able to advance the story, I think they could make it to where crafts could have a specialty, and limiting it to where one character can't specialize in them all, of course make it reversible, but time consuming so you don't swap every other day. I believe this would not only help the economy, but also the community a bit, if they can make crafting worthwhile.

[bokchoykn]

Wanna stop you there. WoW had the illusion of customization. Nothing more. Maybe back in vanilla where everything was like the wild wild west, maybe. But by Lich King, every spec was the same for every player, and if you deviated from the same 0/31/12 (I don't remember the numbers. Been a while since I played WoW) you were useless to everybody, a troll, and a bad undeserving of life itself. Same can be said about enchants, gems and glyphs.

Now, FFXIV is no better. But at least it doesn't lie to you.

There are cookie cutter builds. I agree. But when I played in BC (Top Tier raiding guild. World first etc etc...) Our group had Shadow Priests and Holy Priests. We had Feral Druids and Resto Druids. Backstab Rogues and Sinister Strike Rogues. Destruction Locks and Affliction Locks.

In WoW, every Warrior is the same as every other Warrior. Every White Mage is the same as every other White Mage. The only difference is gear and skill.

[bokchoykn]

By the way, I think the whole "Yeah but WoW was out for longer than FFXIV" is the dumbest argument ever.

Sure, you're comparing a 9 year old game to 9 month old game... but...

You're also comparing a 2004 game to a 2013 game that got the opportunity to learn from WoW and every other MMO that came out during that nine year span. They got to study every single success and failure from every other MMO, including their own MMO's. It's not like FFXIV:ARR started from scratch. And in case you haven't noticed, this entire game is made from the mould of WoW.