Can any WoW refugees explain the exodus to XIV to me?

[Stanelis]

Can someone explain WoW lootboxes that I see ppl complaining about?

It s not lootboxes per see but rather extreme RNG on itemization. You cannot control which boss will award a loot and will have no guarantee if that boss drops something for you, the item you want will drop.

Furthermore, that item can drop with increased ilvl value and secondary stats adjustment, making it a giant slot machine. But it s a bit like the atma system.

Back in WoD the algorithm was decent because there was some sort of bad luck protection and I think were weighted against efficiency for your class (meaning after only a few weeks the game would usually give you the missing item you were after), but in BFA it doesn't really work.

Plus the ilvl system with insane titanforging (you can basically get the equivalent of savage raid gear in the equivalent of level 70 dungeons in wow) lead to increasingly silly requirements from pick up groups to join content that was easily accessed before this system (if you drop the farm one week and lag behind you're basically screwed).

[Anatha]

-very limited or no voice acting in boss fights. No audio/vocal cues

This just isn't true. Not even remotely.

[SturmChurro]

This just isn't true. Not even remotely.

Yep. There's tons of talking, AND audio queues. I pretty much know Suzaku's monologue by heart by now.

[Lunalepsy]

It's pretty much the same thing, so I don't see the difference.

[BiffWellington]

keybind bloat is not dynamic play, it's just finger strain masking as complexity.

I think what Liam meant about classes being gutted was this... With the old talent tree system, you could pick and choose skills to build your character around a concept. One day the talent trees were gone, and the game basically said, "Okay, you know those three skills you liked using together so much, that made your character so effective and fun to play? Yeah, choose one of those to keep."

Take Liam's mention of tanks being less tanky. A friend of mine who tanked had three taunts and three defensive cooldowns one day, then one of each of those the next. He could no longer taunt more than one enemy in most fights, or use more than one cooldown. His character had truly been gutted, and was now less effective and less fun to play. I played a DPS, myself, and all my AoE capability just kind of went away in the same update. And my multiple tools for peeling mobs off the healer or our more frail DPSers? Also gone.

That was one of the annoying changes I mentioned before. I had built a strong character that I really enjoyed playing with those customization tools, and then that was taken from me. It really killed a lot of the fun of that game for me.

[Liam_Harper]

That's a feature not a problem.

It's one of the few complaints I have with this game.

Again, your opinion. I respect that. But this thread is about why WoW players moved to FF14 and it's a definite reason I no longer play WoW.

Don't get me wrong, I agree regarding this game. It's a little too bloated. I don't like tons of unnecessary buttons, it's artificial difficulty created by sensory overload.
When I played WoW in MoP and WoD I had 2 hotbars, which I feel is just right. I had a nice wide toolkit for any situation and a rotation that wasn't too complicated but would still reward playing well. It was that "just right" in the middle situation.

In BFA I didn't have any of that. I had a handful of watered down abilities. There was very little to master, very few self-improvement goals to aim for. BM or Frost DK's could almost play on 3-4 buttons. It wasn't fun. That's my opinion.

This just isn't true. Not even remotely.

I have to hand that one to Blizzard to be fair. They have some classics. The Lich King, Trilliax, Professor Putricide, Millhouse. Their instance voice acting is top notch. Sadly their boss and raid music isn't.

[Awful]

I have to hand that one to Blizzard to be fair. They have some classics. The Lich King, Trilliax, Professor Putricide, Millhouse. Their instance voice acting is top notch. Sadly their boss and raid music isn't.

Their old raid tiers were godly but yeah I agree I love the music in FFXIV whether it be a Trial to a 24 man like Ridorana Lighthouse I love the music so much which is a big selling point besides raiding, WoW does have music but it's looped sooooo short that it's an atmospheric game rather than a music kinda game, and I do like the voice acting in XIV it's pretty good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lnwYWppkbo Like this right here back in the day plays for 50 seconds and that's it but it's such a good track from vanilla WoW.

[Drakkaelus]

I think what Liam meant about classes being gutted was this... With the old talent tree system, you could pick and choose skills to build your character around a concept. One day the talent trees were gone, and the game basically said, "Okay, you know those three skills you liked using together so much, that made your character so effective and fun to play? Yeah, choose one of those to keep."

Take Liam's mention of tanks being less tanky. A friend of mine who tanked had three taunts and three defensive cooldowns one day, then one of each of those the next. He could no longer taunt more than one enemy in most fights, or use more than one cooldown. His character had truly been gutted, and was now less effective and less fun to play. I played a DPS, myself, and all my AoE capability just kind of went away in the same update. And my multiple tools for peeling mobs off the healer or our more frail DPSers? Also gone.

That was one of the annoying changes I mentioned before. I had built a strong character that I really enjoyed playing with those customization tools, and then that was taken from me. It really killed a lot of the fun of that game for me.

I remember when I went back to WoW when Legion came out and spent 10 minutes scouring the menus and spellbooks trying to find out where all my abilities went. I jumped on Google and the wiki thinking that maybe something changed and maybe I had to talk to a new trainer or something.

Nope.

Everything was just gone.

[Battle_Maid]

Look. This might seem like a trolly reason, but I am serious.
Hats WITH hair. No really.

the fact that wow is/was/one of/idk the leading MMO's and for whatever reason could not give us hats with hair, any sort of real customization outside of a poorly NO-FUN-ALLOWED transmog system was really upsetting and tiring.
Also, I am unsure of how to explain this, but like- in this game you can have a trench coat or robe and your legs and feet still show. If you wear a robe or anything, your lower body becomes a mermaid-ish tail or one giant leg with two feet that dont even connect to your body.
I can deal with clipping, but the degree of lack of options WoW has was unacceptable imo.

Other reasons for me quitting was that I didnt care for the story, I am an rp-er and as a citizen/bard/not a soldier, it left my character with very little to do. The daily system for world quests was super tedious and took HOURS to do at the beginning of the expansion. Azerite gear was horrendous imo. Also, they kinda shat on Diablo and HotS which soured my mood, alot.

I can go on and on, but FF offers me lore on my dragon people that I enjoy and can build off of easily. Fun holidays. Cute gear, dye-able gear, more hair options, cool class concepts, and most importantly. HATS WITH HAIR.

[BiffWellington]

Also, I am unsure of how to explain this, but like- in this game you can have a trench coat or robe and your legs and feet still show. If you wear a robe or anything, your lower body becomes a mermaid-ish tail or one giant leg with two feet that dont even connect to your body.

Oh, yeah, I forgot about that! I once made my goblin Shaman sit down, and I accidentally saw up her skirt... she had no legs! Her feet were attached to the hem of her skirt!