Observations from a New Player

[Themis]

If improvements can't be made to things because of over taxing the servers, I think FFXIV should trim some of the fat from the game.
Things I think FFXIV can get rid of:
- Guildheists
- Potions It has been explained to me that potions and food are necessary in end game raiding.
- FoodIt has been explained to me that potions and food are necessary in end game raiding.
- Chocobo fighting
- Hunting/Sightseeing logs
- City to City Airships
- Treasure Chests
- Linkshells
- Irrelevant quest lines (Ultima's Bane, Relic Weapon, etc)

I know you've updated Potions and Food, but here we go:


Guildhests - just think of them as another bit of content that people can do where they get a little explanation with what they are doing. It exposes them to mechanics that are seen elsewhere in the game. They're also quick and offer up a once per class exp and gil bonus - I do them just for that.

Potions - as a MCH with no native or cross class self healing, Potions are my only choice. They do need bumping in effectiveness, and we know that this will be happening from the recent Live Letter. NQs have a 120s cooldown (HQ is 108s). X-Potions are about as good as having Second Wind (same recast, too) for me. Potions that increase stats are actually very good - +105 of your main stat is a huge bonus. Or are you telling me that increasing your stats is completely unnecessary and on one would ever upgrade their gear/weapons or use damage buffs like Blood for Blood? They may have a long cooldown of 5m and only last 15s, but if used like any other cooldown (especially when used as part of a burst) they are incredibly powerful. World Firsts will make use of these at every chance.

Food - is a 30m+ buff to your stats. Accuracy food is especially very useful for times where your gearset is unable to meet the requirements (eg an upgrade would cost you accuracy but also produces better damage/survival/healing etc).

Chocobo Fighting - Very useful when solo, at least for me. Like with potions, I don't have means of healing myself so I rely on my bird to do that for me.

Hunting Log - This is a viable source of exp for those classes. Why would you remove a means of getting exp for a class you wanted to level up?

Sightseeing Logs - With HW, this is also something that gives exp. As I was flying around the map doing my sidequests, I kept an eye out for these. Being award 18k exp for simply using my eyes is great. In the ARR zones, these were added simply as something to do. Some players find figuring those things out to be fun. Why do you want to remove someone's source of fun? That's a pretty crap thing to want to do/say : "I don't find it fun so you are not allowed to either?"

City to City Airships - I'm going to go out on a limb and say that I don't think these task the servers enough to warrant even considering removal. Some people do like to use them rather than continuously spend their gil - teleports do add up in cost. Plus, I'd expect a few dedicated RPer types enjoy using these. Again, why would you request to remove someone's potential source of fun and interaction with the game?

Treasure Chests - Please keep these. My FC runs a weekly treasure hunt event and people find it very fun to do because they get to play together. We also use this as a means of fund-raising for the FC. It funded our large house, and is currently funding our airship projects. Again, just because you don't like or use it does not mean it should be removed. Only if 0 players ever touch the content, should they do that.

Linkshells - Maybe you don't need any of these, but I have 7 that I use very regularly. Not always do I want to talk about things in FC chat - and not everyone wants to read the stuff I could put in FC chat. They also let you stay in touch with players from other FCs.

Irrelevant Quest Lines - And again, just because you don't want to do it doesn't mean no one does. I do this content for the hell of it. I don't need to be rewarded with usable loot to do content.

[Avyiur]

Guildheists: I do not understand the point of the guildheists. They seem to be supposed to teach players how to work in a party, however, they can, as far as I have experienced, be completed with little to no communication, and are not challenging.

Guildheists are meant to be filler exp for when you are very close to leveling and don't want to wait for a dungeon queue (this mainly pertains to DPS roles). They are also talking about having higher level guildheists that way it benefits everyone, regardless of what level you are. Not to mention the amount of exp you get from doing them from the challenge log is quite a decent chunk and they are quite easy to do (essentially free exp, who doesn't like free exp?)

Potions: The benefits of potions have been rendered irrelevant by my skills. I have access to Cure as a cross class ability on most of my jobs, or I have self healing abilities, which are more powerful than a potion. The potions that increase attributes do not last very long and have a very long cool down. I honestly have not been in a situation yet where having a 16% str bonus for a few seconds would make of break a fight.

Most classes have a decently lengthy cooldown for anything that might be considered a self heal (unless of course you are playing a healer). Bloodbath is 90 seconds (Marauder skill), Equilibrium is 60 seconds (Warrior skill), Second Wind is 120 seconds (Pugilist skill, equivalent to a potion recast timer), just to name a few. If you are not using a higher level potion, mainly either Mega Potion or X-Potion then you are missing out on the extra healing you would receive from those (since potions do cap on the amount they can heal). In times of need, especially when I'm tanking a dungeon, it is nice to be able to rely on potions to supplement my HP if I'm about to take a killing blow.

Food: Similar to potions, they are not powerful enough to serve much purpose. I just eat whatever to get me 3% xp bonus, but beyond that, I have not noticed any significant difference between being well fed and not.

Where to start with this, mainly I think the type of food you are eating is why you are not seeing the change in stats. That or you simply don't understand which food you should be eating depending on what class/job you are playing. Certain stats are amazing to get a boost to, and they do make a difference. As a Warrior main, I love to use HQ Bacon Bread to do dungeons with (Parry +33, Vitality+28, CRIT+16) and when I'm leveling I like to use Sauteed Porcini (Determination +18, Vitality +Max 26, Parry +11). These foods make both my life easier and my healer's life easier simply because I either have a larger health pool to take hits with, I'm able to parry more damage in a dungeon, and the extra crit/det lets me hit harder so that way when I do pop a skill like Bloodbath I can regenerate more HP per hit.

Saying food is unnecessary gives me the opinion that this may either be your first mmorpg (especially if you played WoW, gods knows food is very important there), or you don't understand how to utilize it correctly since you are a newer player. Given that you may not know how important a stat increase of determination may be (which is to say, it's amazing).

Chocobo fighting: having a chocobo fight with me seems kind of pointless. If I can not accomplish a quest by myself, then I should need a party. Being able to summon my mount to fight with me is just one more reason to not interact with other players, thus negating the MMO of this RPG.

Chocobos are amazing at higher ranks. Depending on how you skill your chocobo, it can either become a tank, a healer or a fighter for you. While you are right in the aspect they do diminish the need to interact with other players, if you play at off times like myself, or you are on a smaller server, they are able to supplement the need. Not to mention, there are times where even if you look for people to help you, you might not be able to find it. Another reason chocobos are great is for FATE grinding up another class/job. The ability to solo boss fates with just my chocobo out is the greatest, and having one that heals can make for a more streamlined quest experience since you don't have to worry about simply not dying as much.

I urge you to reconsider this one, and perhaps work on your chocobo a bit. If you get it to a higher level, you might start to see them shine! Not to mention you can get an awesome barding for them one they reach rank 10 of their respective trees (which you can get all of now since you can buy a fruit to reset their talents).

Hunting/Sightseeing logs: It's just a bonus for grinding mobs. I don't even know what the point of the Sightseeing log is.

Depending on when you do the different ranks of the hunting log, you can get upwards of 1-2 levels per rank. It's not just merely a bonus for grinding mobs, it's an excellent way to grind out exp (which is unfortunate that there is no hunting log for the three new jobs or for the Heavensward zones).

As for the Sightseeing log, this one actually has two different functionalities. The first being, it simply gets you out to see the beautiful world that Yoshi-P and the developers of FFXIV have made for us. It's also tied to achievements for the 1-50 zones, which award a minion as well.

The Sightseeing log for Heavensward actually awards you experience when you go out and find the spots. A nice little bit of it I might add as well. For your added benefit, I have added a link below to where you can find all the locations, and what type of weather you need to be in to get credit for them (weather does not affect the Heavensward sights).

http://ffxiv.consolegameswiki.com/wiki/Sightseeing_Log

City to City Airships: I teleport everywhere. If I'm in Old Gridania, I will TP to Ul'dah. It's only a couple hundred gil more than running to an aetheryte, teleporting to the plaza, running to the airship, loading Ul'dah, then running to the elevator to run down to the aetheryte to go where I wanted to in the city.

This one only really pertains to low level players who do not have a decent amount of gil to throw away teleporting everywhere. It's an easy mode of travel that gets them to and from the major cities. A couple hundred gil can go along way at lower levels, so for newer players it's best not to spend it to recklessly teleporting everywhere. Not to mention it also ties in with the MSQ at the start. Both the Airships, and chocobo porters for that matter are both equally nice to have, even at the higher levels.

Treasure Chests: The loot is not particularly exciting; potions, food, or gear that's not as good as what I have.

Treasure chests have different colours. The different colours are as follows:
Brzone - Awards the potions, food, white items for crafting, etc with a low chance of dropping aetherial gear
Silver - Awards aetherial gear (pink gear)
Gold - Awards either aetherial gear or plundered gear (pink or green/blue gear)

If you are doing a dungeon, most people know which bronze chests drop the aetherial gear, if you are doing a levequest be on the look out for silver chests!

Linkshells: I do not know what these are for. I have my friends list and my FC. Why do I need a linkshell?

Linkshells, while not as important as they were in the first iteration of the game or FFXI, they are EXTREMELY useful. They work as a different type of FC chat. Not to mention there are different linkshells for different things. The main use for one, is for hunting ranked mobs. Your FC mates might not always be on top of getting relays for hunt marks, so having up to 8 different linkshells filled to the brim with people you may not communicate with on a daily basis because they are in different FC's is great.

Not to mention, you can use them to find end game raiders or simply be able to talk with your friends without having to whisper them (especially since you cannot send or receive whispers while bound by duty (levequest, dungeon, trial, guildheist).

I myself have one linkshell dedicated to my friends/static, 1 linkshell dedicated to doing everything from helping new people to run dungeons to doing endgame content, 2 linkshells dedicated to spawning S rank hunts, and then the other 4 are used to relay hunt marks.

Irrelevant quest lines (Ultima's Bane, Relic Weapon, etc): Queue for Ultima's Ballad some time. See how long it takes. If no one is doing these, then why have them? The Relic Weapon is irrelevant now, unless I am missing something. There are many quests that req. level 50 to do, but offer no XP. I understand why they existed before the level cap increase, but I do not see the point now.

Relic weapon...this quest line is anything but irrelevant. The relic weapon, in its highest form was at the time, the best weapon you could get in the game. Even know, the Zeta relic lasts until you hit I believe level 56 or 58. The relic weapon at the time was a great thing to have, especially once you were able to upgrade it to Novus simply because you could choose the stats you wanted to have on it. This alone, made it the single best weapon to have for its duration. Being able to put the stats that benefited your job the most is a great thing, not to mention the weapon essentially geared up as you geared up.

Ultimata's Bane, and quests like this, give you access to more dungeons/trials, and more ways to gear up back in the day. While it's easy to get a good item level at level 50 now, that was not always the case. You get handed your ilvl 90 AF gear with the job quest, where as anyone who wanted it previously had to run dungeons, and hope they won the token for the pieces (provided they even dropped). Getting to ilvl 90 at the start of the game was a pretty serious deal, and things like Ultima's Bane helped make the grind a little bit easier (because yay accessories!).

Hopefully, if you take the time to read all of this, it will help you understand the importance of all of these things

[Garlyle]

snip

If we're going to make broad comments about the attitudes of this forum, all I have to say is that, within this thread, your argument can be boiled down to "Potions aren't relevant to me personally and their continued existance is evidence the game is failing and it's the death of XIV" which is one of the most forum-esque things I've ever heard

[QiLymePye]

Really Secret? Is that the answer to everything? "Why am I here?" Thats whats wrong with people today. Always giving up or telling someone else to suck it up or leave. I'm here cause I want to be. No one forced me to buy a sub. But just because I'm here doesn't mean i should blindly accept things the way they are. Because i bought my sub and played this game actually entitles me to have an opinion on this game. If everybody just bailed out if they didn't like the game and never complained, you would still be playing 1.0. I'm a consumer like you.

Now I'm not forcing my opinion on anyone, its just an opinion and I'm stating my case as to why i have said opinion. You don't have the right to tell me I should leave cause my opinion doesn't fit yours, just like i wouldn't tell you to leave. Raising questions and concerns is a way to get knowledge about something. I honestly am going to go see what this endgame potion stuff is all about because of this thread. Maybe I learn something, maybe I verify my own thoughts. but telling someone to just go somewhere else is arrogant and counterproductive of the reason for these forums in the first place.

PS- The reason I brought up ESO is because of how they made their game world more interactive between players. Its fun and you don't feel like you are alone playing them game until you queue for a dungeon, like this game. give it a try.

[SecretCrowds]

Really Secret? Is that the answer to everything? "Why am I here?" Thats whats wrong with people today. Always giving up or telling someone else to suck it up or leave. I'm here cause I want to be. No one forced me to buy a sub. But just because I'm here doesn't mean i should blindly accept things the way they are. Because i bought my sub and played this game actually entitles me to have an opinion on this game. If everybody just bailed out if they didn't like the game and never complained, you would still be playing 1.0. I'm a consumer like you.

Now I'm not forcing my opinion on anyone, its just an opinion and I'm stating my case as to why i have said opinion. You don't have the right to tell me I should leave cause my opinion doesn't fit yours, just like i wouldn't tell you to leave. Raising questions and concerns is a way to get knowledge about something. I honestly am going to go see what this endgame potion stuff is all about because of this thread. Maybe I learn something, maybe I verify my own thoughts. but telling someone to just go somewhere else is arrogant and counterproductive of the reason for these forums in the first place.

PS- The reason I brought up ESO is because of how they made their game world more interactive between players. Its fun and you don't feel like you are alone playing them game until you queue for a dungeon, like this game. give it a try.

Yes, And I am stating my opinion that I disagreed with your opinion... I didn't say you were forcing your opinion on others either. I am stating the flaws in your opinions. You are free to state the flaws in mine too.

No, I wasn't telling you to go somewhere else. I am suggesting you make yourself happier by doing something you admitted you liked instead of playing something you obviously don't like anymore. Why? Because I have been in that place many times with many MMOs that I liked in the past. Trust me, it's not worth it.

[QiLymePye]

If we're going to make broad comments about the attitudes of this forum, all I have to say is that, within this thread, your argument can be boiled down to "Potions aren't relevant to me personally and their continued existance is evidence the game is failing and it's the death of XIV" which is one of the most forum-esque things I've ever heard

So you are gonna paraphrase my opinion, then leave out bits of important info. But I see. I have a gripe about potions in this game and you would have thought I was threatening a class action lawsuit or something...you all kill me. wait...no you can't...I have an X-Potion!!!! No really, stop trying to pick fights. it was just my opinion. I even just read that they are working on updating potion potency..so maybe that will make me happier, but damn, its a potion...Now onto something more important....whats up with not being able to use a phoenix down in battle? lol. duh duh duh

[Unglitteringold]

Its worth noting what you find challenging vs dull doesn't match everyone....
Gamers often make the mistake off assuming their viewpoint and opinion matches the majority.... Finding a balance that at least makes the majority reasonably satisfied.
I also suggest getting a firm understanding of the full spectrum of content before assuming certain things are unnecessary.... Even Guildhests. Sure they seem unimportant but they do hold value particularly to people very new to games to dip their toes into content and try out their class in a group without feeling the pressure of a dungeon.

I do not assume that my opinions are the majority. You might notice that in the OP I said that these were my thoughts and observations. Also, I understand that finding balance is difficult, which is why I believe it is important for people to state their ideas and opinions.
I do not assume that certain things are unnecessary. Based on my experience in the game, I have found certain things to be unnecessary. I have learned from this post that other people find some of these things extremely necessary.
For Example, I have done Guildhests as 6 different jobs. Based on my experience, I do not see a point to them. Perhaps I am doing something wrong, or, perhaps, there is a better way to teach players how to work in a group and utilize their skills. If everyone blindly assumes that everything is fine because it was fine two years ago when the game came out, then there can be no improvement. MMO's have the exciting ability to change and adapt to the needs of the players. When I state my thoughts, it is merely an attempt to learn from others and possibly contribute to the community.
For Example, I was not aware how vital food and potions are to end game raiding. Now I know. And if I ever get to the point where I am doing end game raiding, I will now know that I need to bring food and potions. I have learned something, and that is the point of these forums, is it not?

[Waffilicious]

Whats up with not being able to use a phoenix down in battle? lol. duh duh duh

Omg this x1000 this, they could easly made it usable in battle AND making them unique so you can only carry 1 with you and you could use it in case of emergencies they could even make that it takes 5secs to use it (i dunno takes 5 secs to rub it all over the player). aside from that i find no use for it, reviving a dead random? i change to healer and wait for the cast.

[Chihaya]

lol. duh duh duh

You sound extremely defensive/butthurt after many people prove that potions/food are useful for end game. Probably should stop digging that hole.

[Lumivyory]

- Food: Similar to potions, they are not powerful enough to serve much purpose. I just eat whatever to get me 3% xp bonus, but beyond that, I have not noticed any significant difference between being well fed and not.

You can't eat random food and expect it to help you. Different food have different buffs and you need to choose food that will benefit exactly your class.

- Linkshells: I do not know what these are for. I have my friends list and my FC. Why do I need a linkshell?

Linkshells are like little (not always so little) private chats. I don't have all of my friends in my FC and if I want to talk to some of them at the same time what am I suppose to do? Make a party for that? Why bother if I have a linkshell.
Plus there are such things as hunting linkshells, alliance linkshells (2+ FC's) and others.
Linkshells are probably one of the most useful things in the game.