We Really Need To Talk About The State And Path Of FFXIV

[ko_]

Rath EX is a good start, but has its own bucket of issues. I won't go into them here, they're fairly well documented elsewhere.

However, in terms of quality MHW wins hands down.

To put it into context, when I saw the FF14 crossover in MHW I literally put the game in my cart. Seeing Rathlos in FF14? Just another trial.

The idea of being able to play a DRG in MHW world? That's awesome.

Look at Noctis in T7. It's another example of another company using SE assets and doing it better than SE can. They need that to be a wakeup for them that they're squandering some of the best assets in the business with awful implementation.

I shudder at whatever Rathalos was going to be before they saw how embarrassingly good Capcom did with Behemoth and DRG.

Hey, they have to start somewhere. And I can tell you what Rath was goign to be before they saw Capcom's side. An 8 man trial with the normal mechs we all seen and -love-. Seriously it may be small and have issues but it's a change to the system so many people complain about. No it's not perfect but it's the first time in a long time they went out that box so I'm not about to tell them they failed only for them to run back in. The fact it's so different is GREAT. BUCK MHW's side being better, what we have may not be the -BEST THING EVER- but I'd take baby steps over never taking a chance. And with the backlash of Euerka - which is something else they took a chance with only it failed.- I don't want them to stop you know. Tho I'm curious... other then Rath being puinshing what issues does it have? All it tells me is the playerbase is HORRIBLE.

I love you btw.. don't hate me. I'm not attacking you. I just love rath being so different... hell I'm farming it. And I DON'T farm primals. Rath got me to farm. Thats a win for me.

[HyoMinPark]

I'm still playing Heavenward, please understand.

EDIT: Curiosity bit me so I decided to take a look at the stat weights. It said Determination was 0.156 and Skill Speed was 0.155. I guess being stuck in HW world isn't that bad after all! Unless that source was wrong..

What source are you looking at? Because the Massive 4.x BRD guide doesn’t use stat weights, and that’s the go-to source for most BRDs that want to optimize (along with Miyuri’s FAQs, and, last I checked, she didn’t list any stat weights in there either). I mean, the 2.40 GCD build may meld Skill Speed, but from the talk I’ve heard from other BRDs, no one ever uses it because the gains are higher when you go full DEX or full Crit; which one BRDs choose between those are strictly down to preference. I’ve been told by a couple theorycrafters that stat weights aren’t officially used anymore due to how easily they can be skewed.

If you look at any Stormblood BRD guide, they advocate for melding as much Critical Hit as you can, followed by Direct Hit. Skill Speed is not a good stat on BRD given all the double weaving you do at optimal levels; the gains it gives your DoTs are minuscule compared to the gains you get from increased Crit (more crit = more procs = more damage). Combined with high ping, you will clip when you double-weave (which there is a lot of in both your opener and your general rotation)—and 4-stack Army’s Paeon gives you +16% haste, so then you’re really clipping everywhere (it’s advised to single-weave only in AP for that reason). The highest Skill Speed rating BRDs have with current BiS is 983 (High Crit build or 2x Tomestone Ring build), and they don’t exactly love it. They only take it because they gain almost 200 extra crit by taking 2 Tomestone rings (1 i370, and 1 i360).

Coming from a BiS BRD, you don’t meld Skill Speed on a BRD. You meld Critical Hit, and then where you can’t meld Crit, Direct Hit. If you can’t meld Direct Hit on to something, then Determination. But never Skill Speed.

EDIT: If you’re referring to this post, 99.9% certain that was a joke post, so you probably shouldn’t go by it. Considering the “stat weights” were from auto-attack dummy parses.

[Ranhansha]

----Disclaimer: This is my opinion and personal experience.----
I feel they are wasting resources on stuff that is not really necessary and that they take ideas from people, try to be original and create something new and end up with something weird that no one asked for.

One of the clearest examples is the Gold Saucer, which offers different minigames where people can do something else besides farming and raiding. The problem is most of these games are not fun and none of them have real impact on the "main" content and progression of your character. You can either get a couple of mounts, glamour and some cards for a really restrictive version of Triple Triad. Also, why is TT so restrictive? Let me play whatever I want after I overcome certain challenges and thresholds. Give us lots of cards even if many of them are clones with different images. That way I would be able to play the one I like the most. Let us create our own tournaments or choose the rules. Give us cards through different methods and not simply having to challenge the same character over 200 times.

I think minions are one of the most neglected features while also being related to what I have already mentioned. I mean, people wanted "Pokemon" and they gave us LoV, which took huge amounts of resources and is there to rot in a forgotten corner of the Gold Saucer because no one plays it. It is boring, slow and you don't really get to enjoy your pets. The way WoW did it allows people to go hunt creatures and explore the maps while battling them, plus you have short, dynamic, engaging minigames which can also be challenging. You can also create tournaments (pvp or pve) and you can fill the maps with npcs and minions. LoV is content no one seems to like or remember that doesn't even offer enough incentives to be played.

On the other hand, I feel things like the upcoming mannequin seem more focused on pleasing some Japanese players and the clothes sure look fancy on them, but how does that solve any of the issues the game has? How many people are going to enjoy that feature? How many of those are going to really enjoy it and not just have the mannequins because "meh, I have to do something"?
Perform is nice too, but what's the amount of players using it? Did we need so many instruments? I feel having a person playing the PotC theme in Limsa is not worth the investment.

Some of these features seem to be kind of related to role playing, but then again, how many people do really RP? How does it help to create a better game overall and help XIV compete with other games? Why don't they focus their role-playing efforts on filling the maps with npcs, stories, interesting side-quests, areas in dungeons with information, books, npcs, special creatures or whatever. I mean, it is a fantasy MMO and I think someone who joins this game to RP would be interested in adventuring and fantasy stuff. After all, you can tend to Habbo or Second Life to just sit there and talk to people about whatever you want.

I won't say much about the Diadem or Eureka because it has been discussed at length everywhere, but I think it's terribly boring and a failure as one of the main highlights of the current expansion. I read once again it wasn't what people asked for so I guess it received well-deserved backslash.

Finally, I totally agree with the op on the empty maps idea. I already mentioned minions (and NPCs related to those) but you can also add different NPCs to expand the lore or for RP purposes, fixed weekly auctions like the ones in Treno (FF IX), Triple Triad challenges, new and unique squadron members, caves with minigames or different encounters or small groups of monsters with special mechanics and fun content like they did with Uznair, treasure hunting similar to the on in WoW where you can get interesting gear , glamour, minions, materials, or cards. Right now you simply explore the map during the MSQ, to get the aether currents and sometimes for the sightseeing logs, which give you 10k exp and in the best cases a nice spot to take a screenshot. Make your world alive! If I level my chocobo (and my racing chocobo, which I had to breed) make them useful somewhere else. Make my effort meaningful. I just thought you could use it to find the treasures I have just mentioned. This is also stuff you can do with new players.

"A friend has just started playing? Go do this content and learn about the world together. Help them get some treasures with useful gear (Xp boosts, sets, glamour, whatever), minons to fight you, or cards for your TT duels. Try to solve cooperative puzzles or race against them in the Azim Steppe. Have snowball fight in Coerthas to unlock something, even if it's just a beautiful little cave with some lore where people can take hundreds of screenshots. FF has always been about the world, its story and its characters!
I would take any of these options instead of a mannequin I can dress or being able to glamour Kurenai.

All in all, I think many aspects of the game seem underdeveloped or "undercooked" and that devs just stopped halfway through the process because they didnt want to risk it, weren't sure about their job or want to give players a bit of everything while not refining anything.

Probably lots of typos and a bit confusing (sorry), but I'm really sleepy now and simply wanted to express some of my ideas.

[Magic-Mal]

What source are you looking at? Because the Massive 4.x BRD guide doesn’t use stat weights, and that’s the go-to source for most BRDs that want to optimize (along with Miyuri’s FAQs, and, last I checked, she didn’t list any stat weights in there either). I mean, the 2.40 GCD build may meld Skill Speed, but from the talk I’ve heard from other BRDs, no one ever uses it because the gains are higher when you go full DEX or full Crit; which one BRDs choose between those are strictly down to preference. I’ve been told by a couple theorycrafters that stat weights aren’t officially used anymore due to how easily they can be skewed.

If you look at any Stormblood BRD guide, they advocate for melding as much Critical Hit as you can, followed by Direct Hit. Skill Speed is not a good stat on BRD given all the double weaving you do at optimal levels; the gains it gives your DoTs are minuscule compared to the gains you get from increased Crit (more crit = more procs = more damage). Combined with high ping, you will clip when you double-weave (which there is a lot of in both your opener and your general rotation)—and 4-stack Army’s Paeon gives you +16% haste, so then you’re really clipping everywhere (it’s advised to single-weave only in AP for that reason). The highest Skill Speed rating BRDs have with current BiS is 983 (High Crit build or 2x Tomestone Ring build), and they don’t exactly love it. They only take it because they gain almost 200 extra crit by taking 2 Tomestone rings (1 i370, and 1 i360).

Coming from a BiS BRD, you don’t meld Skill Speed on a BRD. You meld Critical Hit, and then where you can’t meld Crit, Direct Hit. If you can’t meld Direct Hit on to something, then Determination. But never Skill Speed.

It was this:
https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme..._of_patch_425/

Don't worry I know Crit comes first. I have Crit > Skill Speed > Direct Hit but only because I still haven't done Ridorana yet for the tome weapon upgrade. Once I get it it would be back to Crit > Direct Hit > Skill Speed. When I took a break I still had the Susano Bow equipped, so that's what I'm still currently holding.

I only have 2,178 Crit though because I'm still gearing.

[HyoMinPark]

It was this:
https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme..._of_patch_425/

Don't worry I know Crit comes first. I have Crit > Skill Speed > Direct Hit but only because I still haven't done Ridorana yet for the tome weapon upgrade. Once I get it it would be back to Crit > Direct Hit > Skill Speed. When I took a break I still had the Susano Bow equipped, so that's what I'm still currently holding.

I edited my post—that post is a joke post. The “weights” were based off of auto-attack dummy parses.

BRD stat priority is Crit > D.Hit > Det. You don’t ever meld Skill Speed on BRD. I’m not really referring to the gear already having the substats on them—though you try to avoid Skill Speed as much as possible; the Tomestone body is absolute garbage and you’ll be better off with an i360 Augmented Crafted body—I’m referring to actually melding Skill Speed. You don’t do that.

[Ruf]

----Disclaimer: This is my opinion and personal experience.----
I feel they arewasting resources on stuff that is not really necessary and that they take ideas from people, try to be original and create something new and end up with something weird that no one asked for.

One of the clearest examples is the Gold Saucer, which offers different minigames where people can do something else besides farming and raiding. The problem is most of these games are not fun and none of them have real impact on the "main" content and progression of your character. You can either get a couple of mounts, glamour and some cards for a really restrictive version of Triple Triad. Also, why is TT so restrictive? Let me play whatever I want after I overcome certain challenges and thresholds. Give us lots of cards even if many of them are clones with different images. That way I would be able to play the one I like the most. Let us create our own tournaments or choose the rules. Give us cards through different methods and not simply having to challenge the same character over 200 times.

I think minions are one of the most neglected features while also being related to what I have already mentioned. I mean, people wanted "Pokemon" and they gave us LoV, which took huge amounts of resources and is there to rot in a forgotten corner of the Gold Saucer because no one plays it. It is boring, slow and you don't really get to enjoy your pets. The way WoW did it allows people to go hunt creatures and explore the maps while battling them, plus you have short, dynamic, engaging minigames which can also be challenging. You can also create tournaments (pvp or pve) and you can fill the maps with npcs and minions. LoV is content no one seems to like or remember that doesn't even offer enough incentives to be played.

On the other hand, I feel things like the upcoming mannequin seem more focused on pleasing some Japanese players and the clothes sure look fancy on them, but how does that solve any of the issues the game has? How many people are going to enjoy that feature? How many of those are going to really enjoy it and not just have the mannequins because "meh, I have to do something"?
Perform is nice too, but what's the amount of players using it? Did we need so many instruments? I feel having a person playing the PotC theme in Limsa is not worth the investment.

Some of these features seem to be kind of related to role playing, but then again, how many people do really RP? How does it help to create a better game overall and help XIV compete with other games? Why don't they focus their role-playing efforts on filling the maps with npcs, stories, interesting side-quests, areas in dungeons with information, books, npcs, special creatures or whatever. I mean, it is a fantasy MMO and I think someone who joins this game to RP would be interested in adventuring and fantasy stuff. After all, you can tend to Habbo or Second Life to just sit there and talk to people about whatever you want.

I won't say much about the Diadem or Eureka because it has been discussed at length everywhere, but I think it's terribly boring and a failure as one of the main highlights of the current expansion. I read once again it wasn't what people asked for so I guess it received well-deserved backslash.

Finally, I totally agree with the op on the empty maps idea. I already mentioned minions (and NPCs related to those) but you can also add different NPCs to expand the lore or for RP purposes, fixed weekly auctions like the ones in Treno (FF IX), Triple Triad challenges, new and unique squadron members, caves with minigames or different encounters or small groups of monsters with special mechanics and fun content like they did with Uznair, treasure hunting similar to the on in WoW where you can get interesting gear , glamour, minions, materials, or cards. Right now you simply explore the map during the MSQ, to get the aether currents and sometimes for the sightseeing logs, which give you 10k exp and in the best cases a nice spot to take a screenshot. Make your world alive! If I level my chocobo (and my racing chocobo, which I had to breed) make them useful somewhere else. Make my effort meaningful. I just thought you could use it to find the treasures I have just mentioned. This is also stuff you can do with new players.

"A friend has just started playing? Go do this content and learn about the world together. Help them get some treasures with useful gear (Xp boosts, sets, glamour, whatever), minons to fight you, or cards for your TT duels. Try to solve cooperative puzzles or race against them in the Azim Steppe. Have snowball fight in Coerthas to unlock something, even if it's just a beautiful little cave with some lore where people can take hundreds of screenshots. FF has always been about the world, its story and its characters!
I would take any of these options instead of a mannequin I can dress or being able to glamour Kurenai.

All in all, I think many aspects of the game seem underdeveloped or "undercooked" and that devs just stopped halfway through the process because they didnt want to risk it, weren't sure about their job or want to give players a bit of everything while not refining anything.

Probably lots of typos and a bit confusing (sorry), but I'm really sleepy now and simply wanted to express some of my ideas.

I also think that, in ff7 the basketball machine was super awesome i do not quite think its nearly as enjoyable on xiv, I had hopes that triple triad would allow us to exchange cards in between players (win or lose in between two agreeing persons) & that we wouldnt get soo many deck limitations.

Lord of vermillion? I would be one of the first players to play if it was somewhat fixed but the only time i ever tryed it with a gamepad \controller i got stuck on tutorial for the whole duration untill it timed me out (30minutes) because buttons wouldnt work & I did not understand how to play it.

Chocobo races could also be different to make it more exciting & as far as ff9 goes for treasure maps i feel that while xiv system already did something nice with treasure maps, chocobo digging could of been part of it just as I wish we could fight while on chocobo saddles with mount actions on a real scale instead of some rare occasions (Althought chocobo jousting would be great if an event was created for it).

[Yzuna]

I want more engaging open world content. Party quest, expanded treasure map system, FC quests...anything (that is not a FATE zerg feast) to make the world feel alive.

I a new dungeon system. They spend a lot of ressources ta create new dongeons that are boringly easy and that no-one want to run past the first couple of times. Hard dungeons, Mythic+ system, bigger dungeon with multiple paths, boss etc..I don't know, just not this.

I'd like a combat gameplay revolving more around synergy between party member, and adapt to the ennemies, than just rotation.

I'd like for Savage and Extreme, that bosses relies less on predictive pattern, and more on adaptative one. (ie : not "yeah it'll be doing that so I'll have to do this", but "oh, it's doing this, I have to do that")

Less verticality with the ilvl system, and more interesting stats.


Those change will make me a happy player.

[MoroMurasaki]

I'm still playing Heavenward, please understand.

EDIT: Curiosity bit me so I decided to take a look at the stat weights. It said Determination was 0.156 and Skill Speed was 0.155. I guess being stuck in HW world isn't that bad after all! Unless that source was wrong..

I kind of debated not responding to this because I'm happy some of the other parts of your original post got some time in the spotlight. Feel free to go back to talking about them, I need to get this off my chest.

The idea that you were melding the worst substats (and using a weapon outclassed by i330 Creation, i335 Shinryu EX, i340 upgraded creation, i345 Omega raid/Ultimate, i350 crafted, i355 Byakko, i360 mendacity, i365 Tsukuyomi and HoH, i370 upgraded mendacity and i375 Sigma raid/Ultimate) while complaining that you could never achieve BiS because optimal gear is raid locked really annoys me.

I don't understand how you can sit there and honestly put so little effort into researching something as fundamental to a class as substat optimization (on almost assuredly the class which relies on substats the most) and then complain about there being not enough alternatives to raid gear when the only difference from raid and tome gear is substats apart from the weapon . None of it (apart from crit on BRD perhaps) matters as much as one point of Weapon Damage and you've completely invalidated even perfect BiS by using a bow from 50+ ilvl ago.

You're basically shooting yourself in the foot while complaining that other people get bigger guns than you. Maybe before pointing the finger at others you need to look at the hole in your foot and where it came from. Raiders didn't do that.

I'm sorry if this comes off as harsh. I'm really frustrated because we spent pages arguing about this idea that somehow raiders and raiding were responsible for stifling your gear progression and then I find out you haven't even completed the 24man catch up raid when it's been out for months. It feels almost like betrayal because through all of that I functioned on the assumption that you were at least doing your best to gear yourself within your means and just running into a wall where you couldn't improve because of substats on raid gear.

I don't know whether to offer help or just throw my hands up in the air at this point. At least I think we can safely put to rest the idea that raiders are somehow responsible for your gear stagnation. Please only blame us when things are our fault.

[Alleo]

----Disclaimer: This is my opinion and personal experience.----
I feel they are wasting resources on stuff that is not really necessary and that they take ideas from people, try to be original and create something new and end up with something weird that no one asked for.

On the other hand, I feel things like the upcoming mannequin seem more focused on pleasing some Japanese players and the clothes sure look fancy on them, but how does that solve any of the issues the game has? How many people are going to enjoy that feature? How many of those are going to really enjoy it and not just have the mannequins because "meh, I have to do something"?
Perform is nice too, but what's the amount of players using it? Did we need so many instruments? I feel having a person playing the PotC theme in Limsa is not worth the investment.

I agree with you, it just often feels like they need to reinvent the wheel again which often makes things complicated. LoV, chocobo dyeing and TT are quite good examples. (TT more about how tedious it can be to get all the cards, especially since many are behind content that has nothing to do with playing the game and restricting our decks while the NPCs have none such restrictions)

People did want mannequins for the houses but I am not sure if they have wanted such a deep system with the ability to buy them. IMO it was more about having something in the house that you can use to show some gear. I mean its cool but how much work was put into the extra part of being able to buy it there? Especially since you can only do that if you own a house.

Perform is another feature where even Yoshida said that a bit too much work was put into. Like Soken wanted it to be perfect. Its nice to have such a feature in it for all those that like doing music but I am still a bit surprised how they released it and then one patch later already patched it up because it was not good enough and continue to work on this. Cant we just have a complete polished mini feature that is good enough when it releases and after that does not need even more time on it? Because who knows what got moved to be able to take all the time for that.

Again I am not saying that we should not have such features but they should not be the main point of a patch or take too much work, especially if big points like Longliving fun content, glamour catalogue, better housing and other parts are still not solved.

[Magic-Mal]

Snip

If wanted to know why my gear is so horrendous right now you could've just asked me why lol. I would've happily answered. It's like you forgot most of what I said throughout this thread including my OP.

I am a returning player. I just came back to this game less than a month ago from a 7 to 8 month break. I never got my tome weapon because O2S didn't want me to have one. Since then I've been trying to catch up on everything that has happened since 4.15 to 4.37(?) and anytime there is new content, I play that with my partner. We play together but he is caught up with other things, as such, I haven't done content like Ridorana. Within the time I've been playing I have been able hoard enough Mendacity to get my i360 tome weapon but because I like -[SUPER BIG DPS JUMPS™]- I haven't equipped it and am waiting for my upgrade(Which I'll get tonight actually!)

So that's the reason why I haven't bought any new weapons for BRD. As for Creation, I'm using those tomes to gear my other jobs MCH, SMN, AST, and DRK. I even have the crafted weapon on SMN and a few crafted pieces on MCH already. However all Mendacity goes to my BRD. I just don't have enough yet.

This thread and my complaints have absolutely nothing to do with my current gear set up right now because obviously I'm not trying to reach super BiS right now with a new raid cycle like, next week. Remember I said the OP was made up of gripes I've held for a long time. Meaning that I was complaining about how the game has not changed since Creator, since Deltascape, since Sigmascape, or even earlier in Midas(upgradable crafted pieces, I'll give them that), not my gear, right now. I hope that clears it up.

And lastly, I have skill speed because I like mashing buttons fast. I already broke a D-pad.