My main gripes with this game

[Jeeqbit]

before the surge in new players to the game, the only players you had in DF was other experienced players to the game. The reason why you are seeing more new players per DF is just because thats how many new players are coming into the game.

That's completely untrue. There have always been sprouts everywhere on most servers and the game has been flooded with new players for many, many years.

[Breakbeat]

1. Agreed.
2. Agreed somewhat. In ARR and HW it's definitely this way. Later content is far more varied.
3. Doesn't bother me. When I zone into something that I've been synced down to, I glance at the buttons still lit up, and do the rotation with those buttons.
4. Disagree, and I don't know how you're experiencing what you are. There's chatting everywhere I go. Plenty in cities, a fair amount in long raids (Praetorium roulette is a chat-fest), simple greetings in virtually all dungeons. I am the type of person to initiate chat a lot of the time, and I always get responses.

[Lexis]

As a fellow 'that game' player who came back here recently...

1. Mob Leashing: That also grinded my gears early on. I can't tell you how many times I used displacement as a RDM, tumbling away, only for the mob to leash back right as I'm about to finish it off. You get used to it after a while though, I don't have that issue anymore and I've learned to use the short leashing to my advantage.

2. Lackluster open world: It's not really this game's strong suit, I'll agree with you there, but while it can be disappointing at first, there's so much to appreciate in FFXIV that I feel the strengths far outweigh the weaknesses. Your first play through, you'll be mainly leveling via the Main Story Quest. It's not the most exciting gameplay-wise (except some of the duty that are different and super fun), but the story itself, along with the high quality cutscenes/voice acting makes it all worth it in my eyes. Plus the dungeons/trials are really awesome.

3. Lost abilities through sync'ing: That one's also unfortunate but understandable. It's the price we pay to keep older content 'relevant'.

4. Quiet zones/dungeons: This is where I have to disagree. I don't miss the random arguments and trolling about political opinions in major cities nor the weirdness/rudeness that tends to be associated with 'General chat' of 'a certain game'. You do see conversations happening in major cities, and they're the kind you can actually follow without searing your eyeballs from the sheer stupidity. As for dungeons, they're just as quiet as Modern WoW, except people actually take a moment to greet each other and say good-bye as opposed to either complete silence or, even worse, people arguing and calling each other bad. Someone made a mistake? Peeps will calmly explain what you're supposed to do and then jump back into it. Sometimes peeps will give a quick rundown of boss mechanics before pulling. Sometimes groups will decide if they want to pull big or go easy before starting the dungeon. It's honestly been great for me so far and I've appreciated the silent groups and chattier parties equally.

[TaleraRistain]

In regards to FATEs, you're trying to pull the mobs out of their designated area. FATEs are outlined by the blue circle on your map and mini-map. They will de-level synch you and reset if pulled out of that. So just stay closer to the middle on those and you'll be fine.

The smaller overworld leashing is so things don't chase you halfway over creation if you're just running through. Wait till you get to an area with frogs and you'll see where this can be a benefit.

In regards to chat, I've heard that the EU and JP servers tend to be quiet. NA servers are not. We're a chatty bunch. So it's not so much the game itself as just regional/cultural norms.

[Fabbro]

I would politely suggest you give Guildwars 2 a try also. I play both, so my meaning isn’t “omg, quit FFXIV plz!”

That is, different games have different good and a bad points.

FFXIV is great for story, overall looks and general polish of most visual aspects. Some of the mechanical bits like menus or how the market works…ehhh.

Guildwars has a more simple story and a focus on tighter gameplay. It doesn’t look as good but under the hood it is very polished. (The system, gameplay etc), and there is simply a lot to just do. Seriously lots. And seriously “wtf”.

I’m working on an achievement called “chairs of the world” which just literally involves sitting in each and every kind of chair once. And there are 100s across the world.


If you want a more dangerous and active world, Guildwars is it. If you want something that feels very cinematic, FFXIV. Both have very generous free trials. Enjoy!

I want FFXIV to have a more dangerous and active world, as it once did (and as did FFXI before it).

: )

[Jojoya]

So, I‘m another new player who came over from THAT game, so far I‘m really enjoying it, but here are some of my main gripes with the game so far:

1.Mob leashing range is atrociously narrow, if I pull from max range with a spell or ranged attack then a simple sidestep to avoid an attack can be enough to make it leash back with immunity, this is especially painful with FATE bosses or huge HP sponges, which directly brings me to the next point:

2.Most of outdoor and solo-duty content feels to dull, and don’t get me wrong here, there’s a difference between easy (which story content has too be for obvious reasons) and outright dull. In General the whole questing framework in this game seems way too repetitive and predictable. Go to purple circle, kill 3 sponges, go to next purple circle, enter/leave hideout 20 times, next quest.

3.Getting skills taken away CONSTANTLY. Now this is what really annoys me to no end. Being level-synced to something every 10 seconds and getting anywhere from one or two to ALL but baseline skills taken away in the case you’re shoved into a 15 dungeon through LFD tool.
Naturally you could say that this will get better when you near endgame, but the sheer amount of time you will spend in leveling, or better said low to mid-tier content in this game, due to more than a dozen available classes, should have brought a better solution than outright de-learning of skills.

4.No one talks ever. Now I get that it’s a Japanese MMO (I know first-hand that no one talks ever in japan-centered MMOs) but still I’m playing on EU servers and it’s basically the same eerie silence everywhere. I don’t expect the 24/7 spam and meme talk of W*W, but this is kind of creeping me out.

Thanks for reading

You don't need to fear saying WoW. Many of us are former WoW players, whether we quit playing in Wrath, Legion or this summer.

1. Open world mobs aren't intended to be pulled for AoE chaining. Just attack them where they are. FATEs do have their range limits - use the mini-map to see if you're close to the edge and move back in if so.

2. So was WoW's outdoor content. It will improve as you get into later expansion content but it will never be great.

3. You're going to get a lot of conflicting opinions on this topic. Some players like it, some dislike it. In the end, it's a design choice by SE so low level players aren't at a disadvantage to high level players in content intended for the former. You can always choose not to queue for content that isn't your job level if it bothers you that much.

4. Thank goodness for no Barrens chat invading every chat channel in the game. There are plenty of chatty FCs and linkshells you can join, just find the social circle that's right for you.

[AstriferCrow]

I've played on EU servers and I have to agree with your last point, they are much much more quiet than the NA ones. Now, NA ones; especially balmung, mateus and zalera ime, are very chatty.

[Shurrikhan]

It does. Paladin's rotation is the same except for a few removed off globals and adjustments like reprisal and recast times for mitigation.

That's just flagrantly incorrect. Yes, there were more oGCDs back then, but that was the smallest of the differences. There literally was no Reprisal available to anyone but DRK (nor Role Actions of any sort), for instance; you had no AoE damage, you used Flash for mitigation and initial AoE enmity, and Fracture was a slight dps gain. You didn't yet have an enmity stance at that level, only Sword Oath (with Shield Oath being given at 40), and your group tended to play around its bonus potency by focus targeting enemies in sequence, often with CC (after DoTs, if any of them had initial damage, as those without direct/initial damage wouldn't break CC) in order to free up healer globals for damage.

Compare that to a Brayflox NM run now. They're quite distinct.

You don't need to fear saying WoW. Many of us are former WoW players, whether we quit playing in Wrath, Legion or this summer.

Depends on the luck of one's draw / the thread, unfortunately. Plenty here are quick to shut down any idea that might have even 10% commonality with "M+" or "borrowed powers", for instance. Granted, the same is true for anything vaguely resembling "Merit Points", "Limit Break Quests", "sub-jobs" or even "Dynamis", in the XI vein. Our community is, sadly, one of the quickest to insist that anyone with ideas that smell even remotely of another MMO should "go back where [they] came from."

[Jeeqbit]

That's just flagrantly incorrect. Yes, there were more oGCDs back then, but that was the smallest of the differences. There literally was no Reprisal available to anyone but DRK (nor Role Actions of any sort), for instance; you had no AoE damage, you used Flash for mitigation and initial AoE enmity, and Fracture was a slight dps gain. You didn't yet have an enmity stance at that level, only Sword Oath (with Shield Oath being given at 40), and your group tended to play around its bonus potency by focus targeting enemies in sequence, often with CC (after DoTs, if any of them had initial damage, as those without direct/initial damage wouldn't break CC) in order to free up healer globals for damage.

Reprisal's effect used to be on Rage of Halone (as a physical down) and of course it wasn't aoe, Flash is effectively just replaced with Total Eclipse now except it actually does damage. I remember how guides said to target enemies in order but in my experience BLM aoe made that not a good strategy for the tank.

[Shurrikhan]

Reprisal's effect used to be on Rage of Halone (as a physical down) and of course it wasn't aoe, Flash is effectively just replaced with Total Eclipse now except it actually does damage.

Except the fact that you had only Sword Oath, your AoE had very little spam value (as it did nothing but inflict enmity and a diminishing Accuracy debuff that only saved perhaps 1.5 healer GCDs over its full duration), healer ST damage had far greater relative significance (especially on WHM), and your optimized damage came at cost to enmity, literally changed what was optimal for your whole team. Once Shield Oath was given earlier and PLD was given AoE worth spamming, that entire dynamic changed. The two at-30 playstyles more different than alike.

I remember how guides said to target enemies in order but in my experience BLM aoe made that not a good strategy for the tank.

The guides were sound. At level 30, BLM-BLM, BLM-BRD, and BRD-BRD were the only comps for which it would not be optimal to (CC-)focus-target when running a PLD, since the PLD itself lacked AoE and had high ST damage for its level via its full combo and the at-the-time rather massive potency bonus of Sword Oath. The damage lost from Flash and additional healing requirements from lack of CC and any one enemy dying slower was greater than the what any single BLM could gain from the ppgcd advantage of AoE over ST. Even among those three comps, it was a toss-up.

Remember, back then periodic damage did not break sleep or bind -- only direct damage did, and many more DoTs (Bio, Bio II, Touch of Death, Shadow Flare, Flaming Arrow, etc., etc.) had no initial damage. You'd use the few that had direct damage, (AoE-)Sleep, and then burn in series, often killing everything such that not a single heal is required for that fight (beyond a pre-Adlo/Regen).

That's completely untrue. There have always been sprouts everywhere on most servers and the game has been flooded with new players for many, many years.

Even now, in probably some 70% of my Leveling Roulette runs, my entire party is level synced down by at least some 10 levels.

Presumably that's just to make me wonder why the point in common between a 58, 64, 73, and 80 is... Dzmael Darkhold?

Balancing. It's something that 'that game' doesn't have.

Mate, XIV is no more balanced across the leveling experience than WoW is. It's probably less so, actually. Not that such particularly matters. The reason for the down-sync is as has already been described, the no-win compromise they'd otherwise have to face between lower-level players, in having a more limited kit, being shafted on maximal performance or higher-level players, in being forced to use their full kit at scaled-down value, being shafted in terms of effort required just to do the same as (or barely more than) lower-level players.