How does FF14 compare to WoW? (And other MMOs)

[NanaWiloh]

This one of those threads where you need a 10ft pole with fake hand attached to touch it safely.

[Saefinn]

Seeing the raiding argument, I think it's fine to have raiding or a raid scene because this is the kind of MMO it is, I just don't think it should negatively impact other parts of the game or for there to be too much of a raiding focus and I think the devs try to get that balance. There's more to an MMO than raiding and this one offers more than just a raiding scene and it's just one of the flavours. In this respect if you're in it for dedicated raiding, its possible WoW is better for it because they have a greater focus for it, but I enjoy the raids they have here better.

But one of the annoyances coming at it as a healer, healers ended up needing to be balanced against raid content and lower content just really gives them nothing to do. It's an awkward balance because I think easier content should still be engaging, but to balance healer against easier content would then negatively impact it on raid. This is a balance the game hasn't got right. But I point to the devs for that, rather than people raiding or wanting raid or raid balance. But I've gone to extensive length in the healer forums of how I think they could address this.

Whilst I dislike WoW and have tried to see if I like it with each expansion to see if they address my problems, at least healing regular content I am doing something and heck, I have more to do in my downtime on my Holy Paladin than I do on my SCH.

But my main loves of XIV are:
- Consistency
- Whilst I complain as a healer, I feel dungeon design, pace and flow is better.
- Story, I adore the story. It doesn't start strong and has its weak moments, but it really gets there.
- Raid & Trial design, I always enjoy how they're designed in FFXIV
- Music, I love what Soken does
- Lore, I think FFXIV has great lore, as an RPer it's a lot of fun to work with, especially as they are good for leaving space for creativity too
- Decent controller support, how controller interaction is designed is smart and works really well IMO. Admittedly it has a learning curve but how its designed is a really responsive way of doing it.
- The community

There were things I liked about WoW, playing Shaman and Death Knight I find to be fun. But what really made it hard for me to get engaged with was the lack of through-point on story. I am a sucker for story driven content, I get that's not WoW's thing, so not something I'd expect them to change if the player base is happy it nor being that way. But the point I guess I lament is that I think it has potential to grip me, which is why I try each expansion. Levelling is dull as heck. Sure Shadowlands improved it, but it's still dull as heck regardless of which expansion you choose to level in.

Neither I think are "better" it's just they appeal to different types of people based on their strengths and weaknesses and so they should, they're different games. Hence I wouldn't change anything about WoW, I'm a FFXIV player.

[Lubu_Mykono]

Good in FF14
Raiding
Crafting
Fashion/Customisation

Bad in FF14
Combat (if you ain't into Tab Targeting)
Grinding Zones (Eureka, Bozja)
PvP is the worst part of this game
People relying on mental illness as why an excuse not to tank.

[Jeeqbit]

>Hunt marks
Which is pretty much added to the 450 tomestone grind. People don't do trains for fun, they do it for tomes.
Which is technically repeatable, but only for the once a week variety.

>Fates, while not very interesting they are repeatable
And so is running around the overworld and farming the 200,000 enemies down achievements.

Spawning S ranks is fun, so yes people do it for fun or for mounts. You can also do daily hunt bills for leveling.

Fates are involved in relic weapons and in getting bicolor gemstone rewards and it's fun to do each fate at least once just to see what it's like.

[Raikai]

I will compare to WoW because it's the only other big MMO I had years invested, though I left at the beginning of last xpac and the new one didn't look great enough to pull me back in.

Pros of XIV in relation to WoW:
- Character customization is still better, even after WoW improved theirs. It's pretty good that in XIV we get one or two new hairstyles every major patch, but even being ahead, XIV still needs to work on ading more variety to the other customization options like faces, etc.
- Armor design and visual variety.
- Mounts! Although XIV has some recolors/reskins of same models, it's not to the point that WoW has, to become a meme of Alliance only have reskinned horses
- Storyline, characters
- The way old content is not discontinued after the expansion it debuted from - it might not have extreme relevant rewards like the current ones, but still worth in a way or another - Level sync helps a lot with that too.
- Also related to above, the number of side content that you can unlock. Since it's never discontinued, they just stack... I've been playing ever since the end of HW and up to this day there are still some blue icon quests (unlockable) of things I'm yet to do
- I'm not very into crafting or gathering, but from the little I could see or experience I can already tell is vastly superior


Pros of WoW in relation to XIV
- PVP, although it was/is an endless struggle to balance;
- Raid encounters - WoW follows to more ways of approaching the mechanics by it being less formulaic. XIV right now is almost a game of learning telegraphs, and while I don't expect it to go all the other way, at least some would be great.
- Advanced dungeon difficulties/modes. This is something that XIV lacks a lot... Currently the only way to experience challenging content is to look towards an 8man group to do Savage and beyond.
- Class customization and different playstyles even in the same spec. XIV jobs do play great, but in the end, for example, every Red Mage - have - to play exactly the same way, aim for the same stats. Easier to balance? For sure, but at cost of uniqueness.
- Addons. It is a controversial topic and I don't really miss Recount in XIV, but having a - personal only - way of telling how your performance is going in real situations would be so nice. And beyond that, I miss being able to customize the game's interface.

[Dzian]

Bad in FF14
Combat (if you ain't into Tab Targeting)

It's not the tab targetting i dont like. it's the speed of it and lack of weight or substance to it all.

so many skills do nothing they exist for the sole purpose of more buttons to press. combat is so disconnected from actual bosses or whatever it's just mash buttons every second for the sake of mashing buttons.. you could for example totally remove kenki and shintenand kaiten and ogcds in general from samurai and it would look exactly the same to play. most of those ogcd animations get lost by the gcd animations anyway so all they really do is make for busy work..

skills like weight as well. you samurai can build up 3 sen. hit kaiten do your big bad midare and nothing happens... the boss doesnt stagger or flinch or anything and you dont even see a chunk of hp get sliced off.. warriors are the same with there big bad fell cleaves. or bards with there high potency apex arrows or sidewinders. there's no actual weight to anything in the combat system. even the mighty lb3 does nothing.. be in an alliance raid and watch as 3 big bad lb3s go off from all 3 parties and the bosses hp bar doesn't even move.

I'd rather they slow the combat down. less button spam or less apm but the trade off would be the buttons you do push actually feeling like they do something more than just add a few flashes andsparkles to what feels like a glorified auto attack.. actually see a boss flinchor stagger when a warrior unleashes a bad as fell cleave at there leg.

the same is true for all jobs even healers. I like scholar i don't like dps as scholar and thats not becuase they only have 1 nuke button. its because that nuke button doesnt do anything.. it's literally just there to keep you pressing buttons for the sake of pressing buttons when noone needs heals.. there's no weight to it no substance. thats why combat sucks.. your biggest baddest hardest hitting skills barely even tickle the bosses hp guage or do anything.

i dont want more buttons to press i just want the buttons i do press to actually feel like they do something and have some weight... some mmos are really good with this. slower combat less buttons but so much more engaging and rewarding because the they carry more substance and weight to them..

[SavishSalacious]

Why do we have these comparison threads. If you like wow, okay wow, if you like eso, play eso, if you like x, play x. No need for this gibberish.

[Edax]

Now, do you think that many people will still do these because they consider this fun, with no rewards, no incentives, no xp?

New Game + yes.
MSQ content yes.
Deep Dungeons yes.
Crafting and gathering no.
PVP yes.
Hunt marks no.
Fates no.

[Jeeqbit]

They all can be fun to different people. Just about all of them have rewards, incentives or xp behind them.

Let's add the gold saucer and treasure maps to repeatable content that many people do as well.

[znushu]

Let's add the gold saucer and treasure maps to repeatable content that many people do as well.

and Beast Tribes, can't forget about those.