Discussing your 'unpopular' opinions

[Connor]

As the title states, this thread is dedicated to discuss any feedback or opinions you have on the game that are contrary to the general discussion.

It feels like some threads on the forums have a slight tendency to become echo chambers rather than a developed discussion. I personally believe this to mostly be crowd appeasement; it doesn't feel nice to offer your own thoughts only to be criticized, ignored or insulted (e.g if you think X you aren't playing Y right). I think it'd be nice to have a thread dedicated to stating one's opinion without having to worry about whether it fits in with the opinion you're 'expected' to have.

To start, I'll throw out some of my own opinions that I don't believe are shared by others.

There are very few gear designs that are actually to my taste; the 'tribal garb that's missing fabric in some key areas' design gets very dull after both Heavensward and Stormblood used the crap out of the concept. That said, I can't think of any job-specific sets I didn't like (at in terms of the artifact armour sets).

Personally, I still feel Bard is too much Archer and not enough Bard, it just comes across as the reverse because you can occasionally use a 'music-flavoured ability' every now (then continue raining poisoning arrows on the enemy, as poets are wont to do according to FFXIV).

Scholar feels the exact opposite of a strategist in normal combat because you (should) pre-plan the majority of your healing to maximize dps. Whenever you're called upon, instead of having to adapt to the fight and make tactical use of your abilities, you just press Indomitability and everyone's already at max HP.

Lastly, I really enjoy having Cure and Raise on Red Mage and I'd happily take a dps loss if it meant giving Red Mage more healing/support oriented spells and abilities.

[Theodric]

Lyse, Minfilia, Aymeric and Haurchefant are some of the most predictable, overrated and tiresome characters in the game.

As for why? Simply put, as far as the MSQ's are concerned none of them can ever do anything wrong and everything they do ends up working out for the better with no actual threat of failure involved or negative consequences.

The Vault:

Haurchefant's demise also prevented most people from even bothering to see or understand the Archbishop's point of view, leading to him and his allies being seen not as a tragic antagonists but cackling villains with no redeeming qualities.

[AphraelAmarantha]

I hate pvp, and this overabundance of it in mmos (including this one) is tiresome. It's one of the reasons why I quit playing pso2 as well. The one good thing about this game is that it doesn't force you to do it like many others (-cough- Blade and Soul, Black Desert -cough-). Unfortunately, there are outfits I want that I wish they made available outside of pvp but I understand why they don't, so I will never get them.

I also hate parsers (yes I am bringing it up) because of how they change people. I've seen it first hand. Yes you have people who are jerks already but for some reason the people who you thought were nice start turning hostile and very unfun to play with once they become obsessed with a parser (saw this happen a lot in pso2, caused a lot of drama). The other thing with parsers is that they don't motivate people to improve, the people who are motivated to improve were already motivated before they started using parsers. I will use myself as an example with a game that has official parsers (blade and soul). When I see my damage numbers lagging, I just get discouraged and stop playing because I know i will never be good enough to reach these highly strict dps requirements. It's one reason why I dont liek enrage timers and doing Savage either because you either be a dps whore or you quit. I just want to play the game, not go into this super whole micro analyzing thing just to beat a boss. That's ridiculous. If I wanted something that in depth and take up that much of my time, I would play a sim like Cities Skyline or play Civilization (I love Civ V, best Civ imo but I just don't have time for that game anymore D: ). Anyway, my point is I don't want to see an official parser in this game.

The Valentine's quest. This one annoyed me. I was going to do it until I found out you need two people which is fine, I would have done it with my bff but he doesn't have access to the game anymore so cant play. Sorry, doing a quest like this with a complete stranger to me makes me HIGHLY uncomfortable because people are weirdos and I don't want anyone getting the wrong idea. So yeah, I can't do this quest either. Wish they wouldn't put quests like this in the game.

Weekly limits on tome collection. Can't stand this either. Let me grind for the tomes so I can get what i want. All the weekly limit does is make me play a few days a week and then I stop playing for the rest of the week because I already have max tomes. Collecting the best gear I can get outside of Savage is one of things I like doing but i cant do it because of the stupid weekly limit. Grrr.

Oh and I hate crafting too. Why does every modern mmo or rpg in general have to have some form of life skill/ gathering nonsense? Its not fun and its boring. Hence why I don't level those classes, I don't like it. Another reason why I quit pso2 because to get a specific piece of gear that goes in a specific spot and its required to be ain top form, but you have to do cancerous gathering and life skilling to get that equipment, its irritating. At least getting crafted gear here isn't necessary either but life classes are still annoying.

Ok sorry, done ranting.

Lyse, Minfilia, Aymeric and Haurchefant are some of the most predictable, overrated and tiresome characters in the game.

As for why? Simply put, as far as the MSQ's are concerned none of them can ever do anything wrong and everything they do ends up working out for the better with no actual threat of failure involved or negative consequences.

The Vault:

Haurchefant's demise also prevented most people from even bothering to see or understand the Archbishop's point of view, leading to him and his allies being seen not as a tragic antagonists but cackling villains with no redeeming qualities.

Yeah, I can see that with many characters. What annoys me the most about the msq though is that is doesn't permanently kill off any characters (except one) until plot demands it which is rather annoying tbh. Lets just say I wasn't happy with the ending to 4.2 msq.

[Zojha]

Unpopular opinions you say?

The power of healers in this game and the mechanics and gameplay that result from it make "difficult" content in PvE as well as PvP in general sadly unenjoyable.

[Ametrine]

Characters (like Alphinaud) with realistic flaws and have time taken to have slow growth and development being slung hate at every pass. Because learning and becoming a better person isn't a bad storyline.

The bizarre push of every job to do as much damage as possible to complete content as fast a possible makes certains roles less enjoyable.

STR Tank meta, in particular, is a vile bane of the game and I sincerely hope SE continues to force these inconsiderate tanks out by iLVL and gear limits preventing them from getting into content and torturing healers, or by adding STR to tank specific gear next to vitality and defense.

[iridemyunicorneverynight]

I'm really enjoying the new WAR changes.

I'm a bit slower to react due to age than the next person so being able to not be on such a strict rotation has made it easier for me to learn encounters. While I had some issues before, it wasn't enough to stop me from clearing. Now it's become easier. While other people find it brain dead, I don't think that every class needs to have a deep degree of depth or an insanely high skill ceiling to do well.

That instead, encounters should be more thought provoking and mechanically intensive based on design and revolve around utilities players have available in the game, not necessarily a "super high skill ceiling with super DPS race".

[SicariusSeven]

I kind of wished the tank specs had a DPS spec like in other MMOs. Except the jobs specific roles in this game no matter what so the only time I can enjoy DPSing as a tank is in PVP or POTD.

[Enla]

I have no love for the story of this game and how frequently it railroads characters into making stupid choices that will obvious come back and bite them in the ass for the sake of plot continuation. It was at it's worst during ARR where you could see the 'plot twists' coming a mile away and I will still never forgive SE for how they refused to let us take the Crystal Braves to task because they wanted their little, if epic, moment in the council chambers of the Ul'dah palace. Or more recently where Lyse and the Scions stupidly invites TEMPERED individuals to the peace summit and then doesn't outright refuse them entrance at the door, causing many people to die or be tempered in the process. Which, let's face it is as good as being dead because there's no in game knowledge as of yet to suggest it can be reversed. We went over that little tidbit with Ifrit (which Thancred witnesses and laments over the deaths of the soldiers who accompanied you because they couldn't be trusted with their tempering) and Ramuh (which all of them were present for) and yet even after the battle they're /all/ waffling about how one day they'll reach the tempered Ananta like they haven't been told countless times it's impossible. No, you won't. At least not until SE pulls out their super deluxe 'fix it' ex machina that they had all along and make everyone happy. All the while ignoring the fact that they made their characters blindingly stupid at best and accomplices to murder at worst. You know, just another day in FFXIV - especially given that none of this is ever acknowledged. Guess we have to repeat plot threads /again/ in case someone gets confused.

The lack of weight when it comes to character deaths is also annoying given how often they're dishing them out these days and how often we also find out most of those characters 'Got Better'. I'm sorry, Nanamo should have died back in 2.55 instead of them cheapening the best part of ARR by having her in a coma. Likewise I have a nasty feeling we'll be seeing Haurchefaunt again in the future because of how fast and loose this development team plays with the stakes of actually keeping their characters /dead/.

[loreleidiangelo]

Unpopular opinions you say?

The power of healers in this game and the mechanics and gameplay that result from it make "difficult" content in PvE as well as PvP in general sadly unenjoyable.

Not as unpopular as you think; I staunchly agree.

[DevonEllwood]

The second half of Shiva's music theme I find unbearable.

Not all people on Balmung are terrible players.