What does FFXIV lack?

[Aidorouge]

I don't want to sound rude or dismissive and genuinely want everyone to have fun with the game.

But no one gets walled in the MSQ.
You either have trusts which now even have a "retry" at bosses, get help clearing by others like an MMO is supposed to or you can set the difficulty for solo missions to easy.
Taking a second try or a third with trusts isn't a shame. Even raiders sometimes die to dungeon mechanics but the ability to actually do fail is part of the fun a video game brings.

I did, I absolutely got walled during the MSQ at various points. I couldn't just bring NPCs for Crystal Tower, Susano, Hades, or Warrior of Light, I needed to find other people that:

1. Actually existed and were willing to do it.
2. Weren't going to get mad if I failed something and died.

Suffice to say both of these things were in short supply, with Dynamis being so dead I was FORCED to data center travel for everything only to then mostly run into people who were not nice and patient at all (especially on Aether). It was bad enough getting kicked during Ivalice, as that was side content I guess I didn't "deserve" to be in given my skill level, but getting kicked over Seat of Sacrifice? Which I NEED to do in order to just see the damn story? That was the exact moment I lost what little trust I had in the playerbase and just wanted to use NPCs for everything because it was clear I wasn't playing an MMO anymore, if I ever was.

But like I said, NPCs aren't available for all mandatory MSQ content, and even the changes they made to Trusts with the "Willful" buff was added AFTER I had already finished Shadowbringers, so it wasn't something I could rely on back then. Not that it matters if I once again get stuck on an MSQ trial in EW/DT and have to once again rely on other players who clearly don't want to deal with me and get upset at anyone failing on "easy" content in EW, or will have a good laugh when I get filtered in DT's harder stuff.

I also did indeed struggle with solo duties in Stormblood and Shadowbringers, specifically any time they made me control different NPCs and ESPECIALLY when I had to heal while doing DPS because I'm not adept at being a healer. People can say all they want about how healing is so simple you can't fail but when you've never actually done the role before, you under and overestimate when you're supposed to do one thing or another and then people end up dead and it's undeniably YOUR fault. (Also AOE heals don't seem to work on NPCs in solo duties for whatever reason, and that's a large part of what makes healing players easier to manage in other content.)

And failure's fine in a single player game, but in a multi player one practically nobody has tolerance for that, not even in normal content it seems, and I myself don't like being dead weight that has to be carried across the finish line. It's better to just avoid other players in this game most of the time because I don't want to be a burden and nobody would want to put up with me anyway.
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No one in their right mind bats an eye if you make a mistake in a dungeon or trial (outside the WoL QTE or not using tank LB there).

Yeah, well, guess who failed the QTEs on their first try of Undying Gasp and Seat of Sacrifice and then got accused of being "another R-word or troll from Dynamis"...

They were unanimous votes, and certainly soured whatever "big damn hero" moment the developers were going for in the cutscenes when I finally cleared them later on knowing my Warrior of Light is such a massive screw-up they died on "baby mode" mechanics. (Though even the story its self makes us out to be such a useless weakling without NPCs to bail us out that I question why we're still considered the main hero of the game.)
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That said though, I am of the opinion, like I said before, that we have a bit too much focus on hard content right now while normal content is thrown in like the unwanted child.
I simply don't agree with the notion that the normal content is in any way too hard.
I played too many video games in my life to think that.

Maybe not hard for you, but I've definitely had problems, and at first it was just "ah well, I'll just not worry about this piece of side content" but then the MSQ kept cranking it up too and soon enough I didn't have much of anything to do or became discouraged from trying further.

There's just something so absolutely unforgiving about FF14 compared to literally any other MMO (or real-time RPG) I've ever played, and something about the community that's equally unforgiving when failure inevitably happens (outside of their pro-gamer static I suppose). The game constantly demands perfection of some kind that I'm just not capable of and there's no hands reaching out to pick you up and dust you off, they're reaching out to throttle you for causing a wipe or making something take longer than it should have because you wasted their time that you were never "entitled" to.

[Ultran]

Something that WoW has no issue with doing: Bringing in NPC's and story beats from side content. If the player has not done it, he can ask that NPC to either tell him who he is or what story he was part of. Instead Squenix is treating all their side content as if it never really happened? Why? If people do not know an NPC or their story, they can either do it or have to accept that they will not understand parts of it. Why are they harmstringing themselves so hard with their attempt at keeping everyone on the same stage and page of the story? They have so many interesting story arc with interesting characters that just languish along. The whole story arc with the 13th could have been so much more interesting if they brought in our buddies from the 1st, but nope, can't do that, because gods forbid people would have to read up on stuff they skipped.

[GraceHorizon]

There's just something so absolutely unforgiving about FF14 compared to literally any other MMO (or real-time RPG) I've ever played, and something about the community that's equally unforgiving when failure inevitably happens (outside of their pro-gamer static I suppose). The game constantly demands perfection of some kind that I'm just not capable of and there's no hands reaching out to pick you up and dust you off, they're reaching out to throttle you for causing a wipe or making something take longer than it should have because you wasted their time that you were never "entitled" to.

You have my deepest sympathies for your bad experience. I have had my share of obnoxious partymates, and my time coming up through the MSQ was pretty rough. I would have quit in post-Heavensward if I hadn’t been able to use Warrior’s survivability as a crutch. I’ve gotten better at the game since then but it has been a long process. I do make sure to make allowances for struggling new players, especially when I’m healing and in a position to keep them alive and on their feet as much as possible. If I were still playing actively I would offer to help you through duties, but I’m only logging in for a few minutes a day to manage my retainers as I sell my stuff off and wind down in an orderly fashion before my sub expires.

[Wildmagick]

There's just something so absolutely unforgiving about FF14 compared to literally any other MMO (or real-time RPG) I've ever played, and something about the community that's equally unforgiving when failure inevitably happens (outside of their pro-gamer static I suppose). The game constantly demands perfection of some kind that I'm just not capable of and there's no hands reaching out to pick you up and dust you off, they're reaching out to throttle you for causing a wipe or making something take longer than it should have because you wasted their time that you were never "entitled" to.

Hey, I started playing a bit before Dawntrail came out and the new player learning curve is still fresh in my mind. Luckily I had far better experiences (mostly) with other players, but I believe you when you talk about the bad experiences you've had. I just want you to know that there are still people in the game that are patient and nice. Making mistakes is normal, even for experienced players. I'm sorry that things were soured for you.

I'm on Excalibur too, and if you ever need someone to do things with, I'm happy to help.

[LeCorbeaux]

I couldn't just bring NPCs for Crystal Tower, Susano, Hades, or Warrior of Light, ...

Frankly, the MSQ variants of most of those (maybe not the Crystal Tower) should be solo duties anyway. This works better with how the story is told, too. Before we fight Nidhogg for the second time, we are explicitly told that we're doing it solo, for example, and before Susano Alisaie also tells you you're on your own. The current ones can be kept as side content.

[Voidmage]

snip

As Wildmagick said, there are definitely people in game who don't just throw a tantrum at someone failing and truth be told it's the majority of people I encounter in-game.

I vehemently disagree that FFxiv is in any form more unforgiving than other MMO's.
You have no rezz limits, don't get blocked for the wrong class in normal content, even have NPC's for most of the mandatory duties, get levels and gear for free in the MSQ basically and outside a few instances like WoL nothing falls apart if you die, with the Phoenix Downs nowadays even if you play healer.

If anything this game is one of the most beginner friendly MMO's for new players to that genre.

I am sorry you had those bad experiences but they are definitely not the norm, especially in things like CT or dungeons and normal trials.
WoL is truly the only trial that has one unforgiving mechanic but even that had been done before a number of times so it isn't a new mechanic. It's also at the level 80 cap so people aren't new at that point anymore.
It's fine to fail it once and no one should give trouble over it but at the same time, no one should fail it repeatedly.

As much as I hate to say it, and I really hope it's not taken out of context here because I genuinely like to help new players, but there is a point were the handholding has to stop and people have to realize that they do play a video game at the end of the day.

It's not just my opinion here that the normal MSW is not hard at all. It's called NORMAL mode and not easy mode after all and other games are way more unforgiving on normal difficulty, not just something like a Soul like but genuinely "easy" games like Zelda.

So as much as I sympathise with people who struggle my stance stays the same even if it sounds stern or unfair.
The MSQ does not wall anyone to the point of not clearing it regarding the difficulty.
It simply asks at certain points of you to have understood the most basic of things and outside that doesn't even care if you die repeatedly.


That's all from me regarding this topic.
We won't agree anyway.

[Valence]

I can't get into an ever expanding quote spree

I'm frankly too lazy to write an essay about this, but what you're completely missing is the MP changes literally mean that currently MP song is baked into base MP regen (much like Tank stances are now baked into Tank Mastery). MP used to regen incredibly more slowly. This is also when I say this made resource scarcity actually meaningful back then because raising was not only punished with hefty MP costs like today, but it wasn't magically fixed after a couple of GCD once your MP restabilizes by itself. Today it's just a raise amount cap to prevent people to keep raising forever. Back then, it literally played into MP management, and running low could be ugly because the resource was a lot more valuable. But what you said about GCD heals being used a lot more (less and less as we got new expansions with new free OGCD heals sadly), also played directly into that MP management gameplay.

Also perhaps I should have been more precise on what situation was being talked about: single target boss gameplay was dramatically different from AoE trash gameplay. I do believe the discussion arose from trash that used to be more interesting though, so my argument was fully centered around this. Every AoE move was extremely expensive to use — Holy costed 1600 MP for instance, on a total pool lof 15-16k MP with almost zero regen outside of Shroud of Saints (Lucid) and of course, out of combat, which was still slow. This by definition introduced a lot of considerations and management depending on the team, the skill of every player (tanks tanking well or not, and dps doing good damage or not), their gear, etc. No run was identical to another, especially on healers, because of this very reason. This is why the removal of all of this turned me off healing completely (at least from healing past the levels where healers get their main MP draining AoE damage tools).

Every single job had to deal with this to some extent. Some with more control over it than others, granted. BLM excepted I guess. Back in HW where AoE dungeon balance was completely out of whack (because the devs didn't care at all), you had jobs like DRG that could dish out an incredible burst of AoE damage but completely peter out after 20s. Some others like MCH notably in SB had an incredibly strong sustain in the form of Tactician and Flamethrower (11s of free resource damage). A lot of different profiles in fact.

The only thing I didn't like was how running out of TP or MP was extremely frustrating to play with especially on non healer jobs, and I wish the devs back then had thought a little more about how to address this state of demi failure on the party's behalf.

[Shurrikhan]

I'm frankly too lazy to write an essay about this, but what you're completely missing is the MP changes literally mean that currently MP song is baked into base MP regen (much like Tank stances are now baked into Tank Mastery).

They're not. The passive MP generation is the same, even in its impact from Piety. Our personal sum of MP-gen & MP-savings were also nigh-identical.

Spells retained the same % cost of at-level base (i.e., pre-Piety) MP cost. Piety was changed to % increase to MP gen only because max MP was standardized; when it increased max MP, its effect on MP gen was identical atop increasing you total 'battery capacity', so to speak. Lucid Dreaming's Refresh potency is the same as what it replaced. The difference is solely from the decrease in high-MP-cost GCDs. MP regened at 2% per 3 seconds. It now regens at... 2% per 3 seconds.

MP still isn't "magically fixed after a couple of GCDs" unless under Lucid Dreaming, just as it wasn't before unless having just received a Mana Shift or a whole Ewer, under Sacred Shroud, Luminiferous Aether, or having just hit Aetherflow, after using Energy Drains, etc.

Meanwhile, Shroud of Saints being 60p for 18s (360p total) at a time when Thin Air was considered a unique MP-saving perk (all casts free for 12s). Lucid Dreaming is now a 55p refresh for 21s (385p total) while only supplying 1 free cast per minute, down from potentially 6 per 2 minutes.

Again, the main change there... was truly just that an AoE heal had some 250%+ the cost of a filler attack while even a Cure/Physick still had 100%+ the cost of a filler attack. By reducing healing required relative to healing freely available, MP was made far less relevant.

Meanwhile, half the "benefit" of Tank Mastery just went into making all enemy attacks hit harder (fitting nearer to DPS stance than tank stance in terms of damage intake before the level 82 upgrades), increasing the gap between tank and non-tank damage taken far more so than actually increasing tank passive eHP relative to before Tank Mastery.

Holy costed 1600 MP for instance, on a total pool of 15-16k MP with almost zero regen

Passive Regen was identical to now, 2% per 3s. And Holy cost a ton because it did an absolute ton, allowing for the highest Burst in the game after triple-Flare.

Holy was 10% of your MP, but was also originally an effective 343 potency at a time when Doom Spike, for instance, which used 16% of total resource per cast, was just 130 potency (or 143, later 150, with Heavy Thrust), and even pre-nerf Flare was just 432 and would leave one waiting idle for their next MP tick to the point of being barely net-neutral unless having Transpose and a Firestarter and/or tick-syncing. And it had a 4s AoE stun at a time when tank oGCD stuns were only 3s (WAR) or nonexistent (PLD).

Holy had the highest ~20s Burst in the game, with only triple Flare (which required an MP pot and 3-minute CD) coming close (better at 12). It was not meant to be spammed. By the time it fell to mediocre, its MP cost also fell to 600 (same as Gravity, with which it shared potency in Diurnal) and once its damage was standardized entirely, its MP cost was likewise standardized, with the AoE stun being a free perk.

Altogether, the point better made would just be that healers could originally dump a ton more value into fewer AoE GCDs, more so than they were less efficient. I'd rather have 343 potency for 1000 MP than 182 for 600 a la Stormblood, and honestly even over for 400 as per Shadowbringers. It'd give more room for DoTs (which WHM had at 12, 18, and 24s back in HW, for instance), Regen, etc., which in turn better encouraged not wasting its stun duration.

This by definition introduced a lot of considerations and management depending on the team, the skill of every player (tanks tanking well or not, and dps doing good damage or not), their gear, etc. No run was identical to another, especially on healers, because of this very reason. This is why the removal of all of this turned me off healing completely.

Healer rotations in Alexander Savage were chartable down to the GCD unless there were major f-ups, largely the same as now. The change was just that, given greater dynamism via GCDs over one's total effective outputs, MP was still a bit more of a shared resource instead of just a number of remaining rez charges.

Now, I'll agree fully that the ability of healers to be able to contribute more meaningfully beyond just healing (real AoE damage, often above tanks and nearing that of DPS, for instance), even if in shorter spurts only, was preferable to the dull tread we have now. I even would agree that it was better when Cure/Physick could situationally play a real part (as much from needing to top off a tank already at 80% because stuff could actually hurt as from MP costs, but still). But I think you overestimate certain sources of those differences -- something that tends make people nostalgize over what would result in mostly the same gameplay instead of focusing in one what would actually lead to the results they desire.

BLM excepted I guess.

I mean, tick-sync was absolutely crucial, so if you count that as part of mana-management...

A lot of different profiles in fact.

True, and I do miss that, even if it did mean that dungeon balance went from one-pump-Chucks being useless (apart from SMNs, with both, why care about Burst if the overall is crap after 30s) to being one-and-done-Chads (Burst is everything).

The only thing I didn't like was how running out of TP or MP was extremely frustrating to play with especially on non healer jobs, and I wish the devs back then had thought a little more about how to address this state of demi failure on the party's behalf.

A somewhat frequent suggestion since ARR: Apportion spenders' potency and cost to %resource remaining. No actual starvation/lockouts, just gradual potency lost leading one to take a lower APM for a rotation or two before damage-amp-windows come back. Weakness then takes care of itself, even if more salvageable by ASTs, Rangers, and Mana Shift.

[Aidorouge]

You have my deepest sympathies for your bad experience. I have had my share of obnoxious partymates, and my time coming up through the MSQ was pretty rough. I would have quit in post-Heavensward if I hadn’t been able to use Warrior’s survivability as a crutch. I’ve gotten better at the game since then but it has been a long process. I do make sure to make allowances for struggling new players, especially when I’m healing and in a position to keep them alive and on their feet as much as possible. If I were still playing actively I would offer to help you through duties, but I’m only logging in for a few minutes a day to manage my retainers as I sell my stuff off and wind down in an orderly fashion before my sub expires.

I originally started on Dynamis myself (Maduin), and ended up having to do some much content unsync and solo because there just wasn't enough people available or willing to get through the game. It's only made more awkward by people trying to insist my experience would have been "so much better" if I could have just had a "new player auto MSQ skip" into Endwalker (which is when I started). But... not only would that have not done anything about the lack of people to play with, but I would have had zero things to do anymore because, well, it was already skipped over and I would have had no attachment or understanding of anything in Final Fantasy 14 to keep me here.

I came in wanting a journey with the supposedly "nicest and most welcoming" MMO, not a WoW-esque "only endgame matters" raid simulator as that was part of why stopped playing WoW in the first place; The world and lore didn't matter anymore and other players only saw you as an expendable asset to farm their endgame content.
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Hey, I started playing a bit before Dawntrail came out and the new player learning curve is still fresh in my mind. Luckily I had far better experiences (mostly) with other players, but I believe you when you talk about the bad experiences you've had. I just want you to know that there are still people in the game that are patient and nice. Making mistakes is normal, even for experienced players. I'm sorry that things were soured for you.

I'm on Excalibur too, and if you ever need someone to do things with, I'm happy to help.

Thank you, I appreciate the offer, and there have been other friendly individuals who have reached out before as well, but I still get hung up on the idea of "wasting" somebody else's time in this game that I've never made good on those offers before.

I've even tried being helpful myself back when I was on Dynamis, but starting around Stormblood, I lost a lot of the confidence I had to explain fights or escort people through them when I was still failing a lot of STB/SHB content myself so I wasn't really in any position to be helpful anymore.
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Frankly, the MSQ variants of most of those (maybe not the Crystal Tower) should be solo duties anyway. This works better with how the story is told, too. Before we fight Nidhogg for the second time, we are explicitly told that we're doing it solo, for example, and before Susano Alisaie also tells you you're on your own. The current ones can be kept as side content.

I wish we had solo MSQ versions for a lot of things, but then that causes people to start screaming about "casuals dumbing down the content" even when you specifically try to explain that it would be a separate version that doesn't touch the original.

Unfortunately, Square-Enix does in fact reduce the difficulty of the dungeons they make Duty Support/Trust capable, which only inflames the before-mentioned screamers to go "SEE!? SEE!? WE TOLD YOU CASUALS RUIN EVERYTHING" and then its like I'm expected to feel guilty when Square-Enix made a decision I had zero input about because I would not have wanted the original versions of the dungeons removed.
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If anything this game is one of the most beginner friendly MMO's for new players to that genre.

You're right, we won't agree on this.

[RajNish]

More options to customize Eorzea's Barbie.