Thoughts after hitting 50.

[Khalithar]

So this is a follow up to my first thread: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...yer-experience

Where I posted about my thoughts as a new player to the game and my experience so far, a few folks suggested I post further thoughts after hitting the level cap, I also completed the first part of the story where you get the Magitek armor mount so I'll post my thoughts on that so far as well.


Combat and questing:

Now that I hit 50, I do have a lot more options and a lot more buttons to hit, it's not nearly as boring as it was early though I realize a good portion of that is because I picked Gla/Pld which is a very defensive/reactive class. Not that I mind playing that class, but compared to leveling tanks in other games there were less buttons to hit and as such it felt a little blah. Having those instant cast moves as I do really helps fill the monotony as well.

One suggestion I'd make for glad is putting the shield slam and other attacks that can be used after block/dodging be taken off the GCD, it's a little awkward having them on it. As well as taking the shield slam that stuns off the GCD, one of the things I enjoyed trying out marauder was the stun off the GCD. I definitely plan on leveling Marauder next, both tanks are enjoyable and feel different as well, I enjoy it.

I've also since branched out in to a few dps classes, my favorite being Rogue, that's also on my list of things to level first, it definitely feels faster than my Pld. I also leveled Pug somewhat to get ready to ninja, my only issue with mnk is that the two attacks you get after the first are just two variations on a single punch. I would have personally preferred more combo attacks similar to bootshine to really get that "flurry of attacks" feel.

Another issue I've since had is how inconvenient it is to quest with a friend since you can't redo quests and don't seem to share objectives. I can't figure out if we can do guildleves together and both get the reward or if only one of us can. So far I've only been running instances with my friends, which is fun, but sometimes it can be fun to do things out in the open world.

Story:

Definitely enjoyed it, very good plot. But I do have one major issue with the story quests as a whole that I am going to discuss now, that being: the forced grouping. Let me preface by saying that I understand that this an MMO, group play is important and one of the things I enjoy. I love raiding, love dungeon runs, but I did not enjoy the forced grouping. Mostly because it doesn't really work in the context of the story.

Your character is identified as being this grand chosen hero, the only individual who can beat the primals, etc. It's more like, "congratulations hero, you have successfully reached the stronghold of this powerful creature that only you can defeat, now sit outside and wait in queue for a group to kill it." Every story mission should have given you a solo only option to give you that feeling of being the chosen hero of the land. Solo options will be even more important with the xpac coming as a lot of players will be focused on the new content.

Dungeons:

Still having fun with them and having done the majority of them the first playthrough I was a little disappointed by the inconsistency of the difficulty as a whole, I noticed the difficulty on them tended to spike rather than increase in increments.

Haukke manor was pretty easy, but Brayflox right after was much more difficult, then going to Cutter's Cry was much simpler than both of them, but then the difficulty went back up with Qarn only to drop again with Stone Vigil. You get the idea.

Doing those 8 mans at the end of the first story section wasn't so bad, I happened to have a really solid group of patient players that were very geared and didn't rush me to skip through the cutscenes which I genuinely appreciated. But because of having to group up with those same people, by the time I'd get out of the cutscene the way to the next boss was already cleared or they already started killing it. I'd get out of a cutscene and then immediately go in to 1-2 more just because they were going so fast.

That is why I would have preferred a solo only option, it could have made the end of that storyline feel much more epic, instead I just sort of played catch up the whole time while the 7 other players that had done it several times destroyed everything without me even needing to hit buttons. Again, not to say I didn't appreciate the speed, but it kind of made those last moments not feel as epic. One thing I do want to add though, the music in the Praetorium is amazing. I got to enjoy it while running after my raid group.

RMT issue:

Still a huge annoyance, I've started to use the /busy but I feel as though I shouldn't have to turn off the ability to get party invites, whispers, and friend invites to be able to enjoy myself. Another issue I have is that I can't just instantly right click and report them, I have to actually stop and open a support ticket.

It's also really annoying that when I get an update to the ticket the little support thing flashes at the top of my screen even when I check all the messages. It's not really clear which is the new message that will remove the alert.

Chocobo companion:

Takes way too long to level them. The curve goes from 3k to 80k then to even higher than that. It should have been much smoother than that, also, there should be no time limit on summoning the companion, especially if it's going to despawn in the middle of combat. It's also really irritating not being able to queue up with the chocobo and not being able to summon any other mount while it's around. This definitely needs a lot of fixing.

Last thoughts:

I haven't touch any of the hard mode or extreme mode raids and probably won't, given the xpac hitting soon I probably won't try. I'm just going to focus on the main story for now and get as far as I can while I can. I definitely will keep playing 14 though, I'm enjoying myself so far, the minor annoyances aren't game breaking but I definitely feel there is still room for improvement.

[Remus]

Story section

This I totally agree with. The way how the story is having a group in certain situations makes no sense. An example of this where it didn't make sense again was... (spoilers here)

When you the player character were about to fight Nabriales, Moenbryda clearly says hurry and go after them and stop him portraying that YOU the character goes in alone but then your character is like "Wait, i need to get friends first". The way SE made a story seems like all the story content you do alone but they only put groups in there just to remind you "oh just remember this is a MMO". Sometimes they say grab people but most times they don't.

Overall, reading your post you have made several valid points which i fully agree with it was a good read.

[Belhi]

I would put in a few points.

1) While its stun is on the GCD, it does have several things that aren't on it including a lot of defensive cooldowns that really should be used frequently and a silence/hard hitting attack. PLD does have a simple set of attacks compared to other classes, though they will be getting more in Heavensward, however its thing really is using its cooldowns smartly. The slower GCD also allows for managing more complex mechanics. If you've ever watch a video of Titan Extreme you might see what I'm refering to.

2) I think part of the reason you have a lot of grouped content is because the scale of what you do needs to realistically match what you can do. The WoL on their own attacking into the heart of Garlemald power in Eorzea and killing their generals kind of belittles them as enemies. Leading a team of elite fighters fits the narrative better. Likewise is true for the primals. We are supposed to be great warriors not gods in human form. It also allows for complexity to those story encounters.

3) The issue with dungeon difficulty in my experience depends a lot on the group you get. Sunken Temple of Quan was very easy my first run but Stone Vigil was a nightmare. My group wiped about 5 times on the second boss. Do remember a lot of these dungeons you will be doing with much higher geared players who are downleveled.

4) You comments on the last two 8 man instances are both valid and both come up a lot. The core problem with those two instances is having the Cutscenes in the middle of the experience thus being ruined by speed runners. Fortunately SE has avoided this in other content. Again I point to my first comment in relation to making it soloable. If the Garlemald empire can have a sole individual waltz into its most secure base and wipe out its leadership then it belittles them as a threat and portrays us in a light that make any further enemies we encounter afterward difficult to realistically portray as a threat without this constant villain power creep of silly proportions.

5) RMT is definitely a problem for US servers. Strangely they seem almost non existent on Japanese servers. Its something they do need to work on.

6) They did mention they are making some improvements to the Chocobo companion as far as queuing for things with it out. I doubt you'll see a change in the levelling curve though. I think they want it to be something that takes a long time as a maxed out companion is quite a powerful asset. Also it would kind of negate the whole value of FC chocobo stables and gardening to farm chocobo feed.

I'm glad you are enjoying the game and I agree there is plenty of room for improvement. I would suggest at least watching a few video guides on the Hard Mode and Extreme Mode trials as it might give you some insight into end game combat and the value of that slower GCD. Also try out Crystal tower if you haven't already. Its pretty straight forward and a good way to get gear.

[Khalithar]

Leading a team of elite fighters fits the narrative better. Likewise is true for the primals. We are supposed to be great warriors not gods in human form. It also allows for complexity to those story encounters.

For the empire maybe, but for the primals, throughout the story we're referred to specifically as the one that defeated them with the aid of the scions. If anything, I would have liked to have seen solo versions where we have various NPC's to help us out. Swtor did something like this with the first story arc of their new expansion, you could either fight the final boss in a raid group of 8 or 16 people or you could do a solo version where you fought side by side with a bunch of NPC's.

[Belhi]

For the empire maybe, but for the primals, throughout the story we're referred to specifically as the one that defeated them with the aid of the scions. If anything, I would have liked to have seen solo versions where we have various NPC's to help us out. Swtor did something like this with the first story arc of their new expansion, you could either fight the final boss in a raid group of 8 or 16 people or you could do a solo version where you fought side by side with a bunch of NPC's.

I think the problem there was creating an NPC AI that was up to the challenge. They have talked about something like that though.

[Khalithar]

I think the problem there was creating an NPC AI that was up to the challenge. They have talked about something like that though.

I can definitely understand that, but for the Primals I think a solo version would have been better. I didn't have an issue so much with the 8 mans as the NPC's there did state that my character was to lead a group of adventurers, but that really didn't happen, instead I spent nearly the entire time catching up to them when not watching cutscenes!

[Gamer3427]

Combat and Questing:

Your opinion on enjoying the faster pace method of DPS is shared by many, and is part of the reason there's so few healers and tanks in the DF. I personally prefer and main DPS, but I enjoy Healing with SCH, and what little tanking I've done with GLD as well, though I also extremely dislike healing as a WHM or tanking as a MRD. In the end, it's really about finding which classes you enjoy playing as, and with a new one being added to each category with Heavensward, there's going to be even more variety to what is already there. As for questing, I 100% agree with you that the fact that your quest entries are separate from your party members is a tad annoying if you're trying to play alongside them, but I can also understand it, since in the end this is a very story driven game and players enjoy said story at their own pace even within the same quest. It does work well in that if you are both on the same objective and activate fights at roughly the same time, it counts said fight for both of you so you don't have to each fight it again, (at least with party play on story quests, I haven't tested others), which can help. I do personally wish that the instanced fights that you have to enter from time to time didn't require you to enter solo unless there was a good reason for it. In particular, there is one you have a bit later on that can be very difficult to solo, but it's mandatory that you do so. I know a friend in particular who plays SCH that had to try it about five or six times before she could clear it, while I sat outside the instance zone to give her moral support once she revived outside of it. In the instance of the duty I'm talking about, there's also no reason that you couldn't have party members join story wise, and it's clearly just done as such to remove clutter from the overworld brought on by it....

Story:

I can agree with you on the "forced grouping" aspect of this, though I will say that in most instances, they do tell you to gather some of your closest allies to help you defeat your foe. However, for some others, such as the first time you fight Ifrit, it makes less than no sense, (in case anyone needs a refresher, for that fight you just came from being captured after an instanced sequence where you had to play solo, and story wise are going straight into the fight without leaving the area). Still, solo play should theoretically be possible for all the story dungeons once the expansion comes out, as they're allowing players to directly enter duties without a full party, and doing so removes the level sync. It means you might have to grind levels and gear before you could do so, but at least it should be possible for players that want to.....

Dungeons:

Yes, the dungeons are a bit unevenly paced, but this is largely to do with personal play style and experiences, as well as the group you're with. You list Haukke Manor and Stone Vigil as being easy for you, but the first time I ran Haukke, we very nearly had to abandon because the second DPS and the Tank both were bad and didn't understand the mechanics. And Stone Vigil is practically my arch-nemesis. I know the run backwards and forwards, yet I still have trouble with it every time I go in, no matter if I'm DPSing or Healing. By comparison, I typically die content that many players consider to be far harder, less across multiple runs than I die in a single run of Stone Vigil. I don't know if it's pure bad luck on my part, or what. By comparison though, I've never had any trouble with Brayflox, and the only issues I've had with Quarn is the first boss, and you listed both of those as harder dungeons for you. The way I've seen things is that each dungeon works better for different people, and different groups in general, than it does for others. You should expect the same out of later content as well, as some runs may be painfully difficult, and others that people have told you are bad end up being so easy they're boring.....

As for you commenting back on the cutscene issues you had during the 8 man group on the story missions, yea, that's just how it goes. I only got to even take part in one boss fight during my first run there, and that was only because a healer had somehow fallen out of the map and took a few minutes to get to where they could use return to get back to the start. It's simply a matter of the FFXIV community as a whole being in a giant rush all the time, and having no patience for players who are just trying to enjoy the content. Frankly, it's a horrible way of doing things, but if you ask them to slow down for you, you're more likely to get kicked than you are to get a favorable response.....

RMT Issues:

Yea, this is one of the biggest complaints that many players have. I have the luck of being on a server where it's relatively minor, (maybe 2-3 friend requests a night, and the rare "/say" spammer in a hub area, so long as you've been blacklisting such players), but I've seen the chat logs from players on servers where it's worse. The problem really amounts to the fact that SE can really only react by banning said players, and can do little in terms of prevention without implementing a system that would also drive away actual players, (IE: ban names that use similar combinations of letters, disable tells and friend requests completely from level 1 players, ect). Not to mention that any prevention system would only serve to slightly slow down the spam bots, and they would find a way around it nearly as quickly as the system could be implemented. I don't really have any advice or even opinion here, just stating a few observations on the matter......

Chocobo Companion:

I agree with you on all points here. Particularly with the harsh experience curve. The chocobo is all but completely useless unless you really grind to level it up, (I use it a lot when leveling other classes, and complete the challenge log entries each week for the bonus exp, and mine is still only about level 4 or 5), as it doesn't learn any useful abilities until the last few levels, and that's only if you stick all it's points into one category. In particular, I've been leveling mine up as a healer and it can barely mitigate the damage from a single enemy as is, much less actually "heal" during any time I would need to have even a weak healer around.....


Last Thoughts:

If you're planning on playing the xpac, then you definitely have to push the story, as you have to clear all the current story content to access the new area, (due to story reasons mainly, but also likely to prevent RMT /say and /shout spammers in the new areas). You should definitely try to do a few dungeons every now and then as well, mostly by entering the DF while you're progressing the story missions if you really are pushing story, since the group content you have to participate in requires higher average item levels to even enter it. You're probably better off unlocking the Crystal Tower trilogy of raids though, as you can get decent gear from running them, as well as Tomestones of Soldiery and Poetics to purchase better gear in Mor Dhona. You should also do the Story Roulette and Low Level roulette each day, as you can get about 220 Tomestones of Soldiery per day from just doing two runs that way, with more if a player in them is new. This will allow you to boost your item level considerably, in a relatively short amount of time....

MY Final Thoughts:

I'd like to say that I'm glad you're enjoying the game, and welcome to the massive overload of content that is level 50 and beyond. I personally fell in love with this game from the first day I played it, and I'll not lie that my past few months in it have turned it into a bit of an addiction for me. There's a lot to do, and even more than a lot to enjoy. Like you, I agree that there is a few minor annoyances spread out through the game, but over all the good qualities far outweigh the bad, and while certain aspects can be frustrating at times, you can always find something else to do in game if you need to take a break from them......

EDIT: Huh. I really didn't realize that I had typed out so much, lol....

[Khalithar]

Snip

The Ifrit example is the most egregious example when it comes to the solo issue.

I also agree on it being annoying we can't go in to those class quests and help people out. I'm against "forced" grouping, but all for giving people the option of bringing in help if they want/need it.

I've played a lot of MMO's, but I've never seen the RMT as bad as they are in this game. I really think a minimum level to send friend invites/whispers is a really good idea. Level 10 would be the best, even if it slows them down a little, it couldn't be worse than a whisper every 3-4 minutes when outside a duty or when not /busy. Mateus is pretty bad so far in my experience.

Thanks for the heads up on the ilevel issue. I'll look in to it when I get home. You did type a lot, but I did have a lot to say!

[Stanelis]

Haukke manor was pretty easy, but Brayflox right after was much more difficult, then going to Cutter's Cry was much simpler than both of them, but then the difficulty went back up with Qarn only to drop again with Stone Vigil. You get the idea.

Actually, the first boss of cuter's cry used to be hard but got nerfed.

[Adire]

A lot of people seem to feel that Stone Vigil is actually one of the more difficult dungeons as well. Given how much more often I see wipes in there vs in Qarn, I can believe it. The trash in there hits particularly hard.