Losing Interest - What am I missing?

[TouchandFeel]

For starters, I think you were coming in with too many WoW preconceptions and a bit of a lack of viewing FF14 tabula rasa, as a blank slate and just taking it for what it was and how it plays and instead came in from end-game WoW and expected this game to feel and play like that right away.

First off, you said you found GLD boring and slow but got to only maybe level 20.

IMO, all classes in this game and all other MMOs feel slow and/or boring at low levels simply because they don't have anywhere near their full set of abilities and they are building you slowly up to it. At level 50+ there are way more abilities to manage, the content throws way more at you and overall things are way more engaging and feel more fast paced. It was the same way in WoW, things start slow and easy and build from there.

Also GLD is a tank in this game and roles in this game only really shine or feel in their element when in a group, especially for healers and tanks since their functions are so party-centric. So if you are playing as a low level tank yeah you may feel them to be boring but that is because you aren't even really doing what the role is meant to do. Did you start running dungeons like Sastasha? If not, you havent even touched truly playing GLD. Once you start playing in real group content as a tank, your outlook may change very quickly since now you are presented with a lot more to have to do as a tank, such as proper agro and group agro control, proper mob positioning, utilizing cooldowns correctly, etc. These are all things that you never really have to deal with while going solo or doing basic story quests.

As for CNJ/WHM, pretty much the same as above. Healers do and feel best in group content and they can feel boring and incomplete until 50+. Also, if you are playing with overgeared players, you will rarely be stressed to really have to do much as a healer in low level stuff since things will die super fast and the tanks should be shrugging off hits without too much trouble.

Now the story. Can't help you too much there as some will like or love it and others just won't care for it. I personally like it for the most part, while not to the level of a triple-A single player RPG, it is still quite good for an MMO and imo way better than what I remember of WoW's pretty much non-existant story. Fetch quests are a valid complaint though, but its not really any different in my experience than other MMO's and early leveling through story or quest hubs.
If you are used to more of the quest hub style of things or just don't care about story, then yeah it can feel tedious. It does get much better though at the end of the initial ARR story arc and past that. The story in Heavenward then takes it up another notch imo.

So my basic advice to you, look at and play this game with "fresh eyes" and not through the distorting lenses of "WoW goggles". While both are MMO's with very similar formats, there are a lot of differences in the basic cores of the games and how they play and function that need to be looked at and considered in their own context.

[Skivvy]

Let me just start by saying that not all games are for everyone. It very well may be that this game just isn't going to do it for you, and that's OK. It's always a bit disappointing to spend money and effort trying to get into the game, but sometimes it just won't happen. I've definitely been there myself. D:

For me personally, I always like the little things in game. I love all the fluff. Glamours, and minions, mounts, etc. I could never get behind the story in this game - I don't know if it's the story itself, or the format in which it's presented. It's just doesn't seem to flow, and so I have skipped almost all of it. I'm also not really a raider. I've leveled almost all jobs to at least 50, but the end-game scene is kinda meh to me.

I think finding the right group of people can also make a tremendous impact on how much you enjoy a game. Do you have a FC that you enjoy at the moment? Fun people to talk to/do things with can make even the dullest of games somewhat exciting



Honestly though, you've really given the game a fair shot. I could be wrong, but if you are struggling to find the desire to play at this point, you may just want to move on and try another game that suits you better. There are a ton of good games out there, just have to find the one that speaks to you

[WinterLuna]

Short answer: Everything after Level 50. Hate to tell ya, but this is where about 95% of the games resides.

Pretty much this. The game really picks up after level 50.

[Atoli]

Between the initial 2.0 story and the 3.0 (Heavensward) story, there is hours upon hours of engaging story from patches 2.1 to 2.55. My advice would be to resub but don't buy the expansion yet and get to level 50 to enjoy that story. Everything that happened between 2.1 and 2.55 is probably why many people praise this game's story so much It's all for lvl 50, so try that.
About classes: WHM is a pretty straight-forward healer. Managing your cooldowns with demanding tanks will sometimes keep you on your toes, but in general, not much is gonna change and you will keep throwing Cures at the tank with the occasional dps in between.
I personally think AST would be a great healer class for you, playing around with the buff cards while keeping everyone alive is a lot more interesting than what WHM does. But to play AST, I think you need to own the expansion and have at least one class at lvl 50..?

[Catwho]

Going to toss in that you might enjoy the pet class arcanist, and the DPS and healer that bud off it, SCH and SMN. Pets are managed off global cooldown, so if the 2.5 global cooldown feels too slow to you, you can easily pepper in controlling the pet instead. A friend of mine is a SCH main and he has such a tight leash on Eos that it lets him pretty much DPS full time.

[Rufalus]

Pre 50 is like the tutorial, you can't quit that early and have a real idea of what the game is like. Raids start at 50. The story gets REALLY good, especially in the expansion, and skill rotations for many jobs get much more active and complex by that time, with things on different recast timers filling those gaps of waiting between global cooldown.

There is still a large amount of filler quests even at 50 before you get to the really good stuff, but if you a prone to making quick judgements and quiting then unfortunately you may never know the high points this game has to offer. It's fair to say the slow build may be a deterrent for advanced mmo players who would rather dive right into more complex and challenging encounters.

[Vandril]

If the long GCD is what's bothering you with the game's combat, then I HIGHLY recommend you try out Ninja. All of the melee classes feel slow off the bat, yet become more involved as more off-GCD abilities are earned. NIN (and Monk, too, to an extent) get both this array of off-GCD abilities as well as buffs to lower their GCD. A geared NIN will generally have a GCD of around 2-2.2s, depending on Skill Speed, a ton of off-GCD cooldown abilities (a handful of which deal damage), as well as the overly awesome Mudra system (Ninjutsu!).

As far as engagement through clicking abilities, Ninja is easily the best class for that. And if you want engagement through positionals, instead, then you have Monk.

As someone who plays PLD and NIN, I can also tell you that Gladiator is a terrible example of melee gameplay in FFXIV, so don't base it off of your experience with that class. By the time GLD gets an off-GCD ability that isn't a buff, most other melee classes already have two. By the time GLD manages to complete its first combo rotation, most classes already have 2-3 separate combos they can go through. PLD/GLD was named one of the simplest and most boring classes back before Heavensward (though that changes by level 60).

As for the story being boring, well, that is what it is. I found ARR's story pretty good, but I wasn't exactly thrilled. I kept playing through it because I enjoyed the gameplay, though. As I ran through that slog of level 50 main story quests that one must complete to actually access the expansion content, I found that I actually enjoyed it quite a bit. It became more interesting. However, it had a ton of useless fetch quests, just like the rest of the levels' main story quests.

When I finally hit Heavensward's story, I was thrilled. It's such a huge change of pace, and it actually feels really good to play through. You feel like you're on an actual adventure, exploring new yet ancient places with in-depth history, and meeting interesting characters who you may actually come to care for and who aid you time and time again on your quest. The best part: Heavensward's MSQ has a LOT LESS useless fetch quests.
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All in all, if you don't find the game enticing enough to stay, then you can always decide to quit. No harm or shame in that. However, I would recommend that you make absolutely certain that you've tried the game enough to ensure that it's not for you. What I would do is: Try another class. Bite the bullet of the grind to ~50 (and it is a grind, this isn't the fun part), and then continue the MSQ. You have nearly 100 main story quests left before you can actually hit Heavensward content. If you still don't enjoy the gameplay and story (minus the fetch quests) while doing it, then maybe the game really isn't for you.

[NorthernLadMSP]

Honestly, I find it quite interesting that as a WOW player, you have an issue with fetch quests. I tried to play WOW for a week or so and was so insanely bored with all of the lame fetch quests (the same ones as you are complaining about here) that I quit and never went back.

[FunkYeahDragons]

I didn't care for the story and skipped everything in ARR, except the last set of cutscenes because friends insisted I watch. Heavensward is better because the storytelling is concise, things pick up quickly, and it feels more like classic Final Fantasy (80's and 90's) to me. Still, the fun didn't really start until I started doing raids, EX primals, and events with my FC.

Get thee to some harder content and new friends.

I want to begin this thread by saying, flat out, this is not a troll thread. I am honestly floored by how great this community is. I come from other games where you want to interact with as few people as possible.

Most of the Internet, really. I'm grade-A creep bait and could be used as a decoy to catch predators, but I can't find a single actual unpleasant person in this game and that's made it a blast for meeting new people. The worst I've seen is a healer calling the tank "about as useful as herpes", which is pretty tame.

[Malicewolf]

Honestly, I'd say find some people to enjoy the game play with. From what I read, it seems like you've been trying to solo through everything and only interact when necessary with others. I talk near daily on skype with my FC mates (granted, we also all know each other), but the difference in how much I like this game after I started playing with others was substantial.

But I think part of the issue may have been that you came in here with so many expectations from your knowledge of WoW. Not to mention, it seems like you went from high and mighty tank in WoW to... well... the starter glad can be a bit squishy. Not to mention, this game does not keep to a conventional tank. It focusing on every class becoming more dps focused to prevent boredom from setting in as much. Good and bad in some instances pending what your preferences are. I for one liked being a brick wall in other MMO's with tanks. I understand that trade offs must be made so nothing is OP, but FFXIV kinda makes everything more even.