Playing an expansion as current content has been a lacklustre MMO experience

[Raven2014]

Holy cow. I'd say completely the opposite. Consider that with the fact I'm a casual player uninterested in Savage content. In FFXIV, I can take an entire tier off, come back, and just buy crafted gear that makes me able to join in on practically anything I want to do. In WoW? You need to either form or be invited into a group, and as a DPS, if you're even slightly behind on iLvl, forget it. Not to mention PvP. Go into casual PvP in WoW after having taken even a little time off and you're getting one shot into tomorrow. FFXIV has it down to an art with how good they have the catch-up mechanics for anyone outside of the highest-level raiders (which are the slimmest of minorities in the playerbase).

I agree. Unless WoW had changed significantly in the last few years, the gear progression in it are fare more stricter than FF14. Not saying it is a bad thing. There is no shortcut to skip a tier in WoW, you want to get into the current tier you have to scaffolding the proper sequence. And starting late in the PvP season = being a cannon folder until you grind out a decent set. There is no gear progression in FF14, the fights can already be killed week 1 with min ilvl. Any extra gear after that simply to make thing more comfy and increase the margin. In WoW you must clear the current raid to get the gear for the next, because it's a hardwall.


Not saying it's bad or good thing btw. Whenever I came back to WoW, I had guilds that knew me well enough that would have no problem taking me as far as ability is concern. But even then that's only "after" I have catch up. In all of my years playing WoW I never once thought or complain that it should have an easier catch up machanism. When I was there, I like the responsibility you have to take to call yourself a raider. I still don't think it's bad thing even now, it's just not something I want to commit to again.

[Rolder50]

I agree. Unless WoW had changed significantly in the last few years, the gear progression in it are fare more stricter than FF14. Not saying it is a bad thing. There is no shortcut to skip a tier in WoW, you want to get into the current tier you have to scaffolding the proper sequence. And starting late in the PvP season = being a cannon folder until you grind out a decent set. There is no gear progression in FF14, the fights can already be killed week 1 with min ilvl. Any extra gear after that simply to make thing more comfy and increase the margin. In WoW you must clear the current raid to get the gear for the next, because it's a hardwall.

That has most definitely changed. Nowadays, every new tier they put out, they increase the item level of drops from Dungeons, plus increase the item level of rewards from open world stuff like world quests and whatnot. So no matter when you start in the tier, it's pretty easy to get to a baseline that will let you get into at least normal. It's been like that for at least a couple of expansions now.

Edit: Now that I think about it, if you start in a later tier in FF14 and don't have the money to dump on full crafted, how long does it take to get to a raid ready item level?

Edit 2: They also made the PvP gearing more forgiving, in that the base level of PvP gear is super fast and easy to get, with the upgrade only affecting the gear in PvE content. It's all the same in PvP. So you'll still get trounced for your first few battlegrounds, but you'll get up pretty quick.

[Iscah]

Edit: Now that I think about it, if you start in a later tier in FF14 and don't have the money to dump on full crafted, how long does it take to get to a raid ready item level?

It might not be too bad if you start with buying a crafted weapon and scraping yourself into the first tier of eight-man raids, and work your way up with those tokens and tome sets to get into the second raid tier. After that it would get grindier and time-gated, but might not be too bad with a combination of raid and tome gear plus some crafted pieces to fill the gaps. Maybe two weeks of loot if you buy the chest and leg gear? Four pieces of jewellery from raids on the first week; any two of head/hands/feet from the second week; buy the remaining item and ring with tomes. Add an extra week or two if you need to buy the chest/legs with loot.

You can also potentially be earning tomes before you arrive at endgame by running roulettes or hunt marks with a max-level job.

If you're not aiming to go into raiding, it's even less of a big deal to get up to the standard for current dungeon content.

[Atelier-Bagur]

It might not be too bad if you start with buying a crafted weapon and scraping yourself into the first tier of eight-man raids, and work your way up with those tokens and tome sets to get into the second raid tier. After that it would get grindier and time-gated, but might not be too bad with a combination of raid and tome gear plus some crafted pieces to fill the gaps. Maybe two weeks of loot if you buy the chest and leg gear? Four pieces of jewellery from raids on the first week; any two of head/hands/feet from the second week; buy the remaining item and ring with tomes. Add an extra week or two if you need to buy the chest/legs with loot.

You can also potentially be earning tomes before you arrive at endgame by running roulettes or hunt marks with a max-level job.

If you're not aiming to go into raiding, it's even less of a big deal to get up to the standard for current dungeon content.

and with how easy it is to acquire tomes for purchasing one or two pieces in this game. Like I said, its far more manageable to start savage raiding. And about the PF issue, I also do realize myself that those whom have a hard time joining groups I mean....you can also create those groups yourself.

[Rolder50]

and with how easy it is to acquire tomes for purchasing one or two pieces in this game. Like I said, its far more manageable to start savage raiding. And about the PF issue, I also do realize myself that those whom have a hard time joining groups I mean....you can also create those groups yourself.

Meanwhile I'm gearing an alt right now in WoW and to do so I'm doing a combination of questing, with a side of mindless grinding in the primal storms they got going on. Probably a good 4-5 hours to get a reasonable level of gear, and not time gated at all like tomestones over in FF14