Question time! (NOT SPOILER FREE)

[Shougun]

1. How long have you been playing?:

Fairly consistently, but not always 'on' (have had a few breaks for whatever life reasons), since open beta of 1.0.

2. What server(s) do you live on?:

Fabul - > Balmung

3. Your character's race?:

Highlander until Hrothgar was released.

4. Any favorable glamour 'sets' you wear a lot?:

I like collecting some of the glamours, and wish for a bigger log- just for that sort of thing, but I tend not to spend much time on glamours unless I've been sitting in an armor set for a very long time.

4a. Expanding on 4, what kind of glamours make you go "what the heck"?:

Naked and mascot outfits during my first time in story content. Really takes away from the experience and makes the entire event seem like a joke. Which is fine after the first time.

5. What's your main job and why?:

Paladin for tank (and in general), Summoner for damage, white mage for healer. Paladin because I like the kit and vibes of the job, cover and clemency in clutch moments is loads of fun (and I pretty much exclusively run casual DF content, where being a try hard can mean success - unlike if your team lets you down in savage/ex/ultimate content and try hard means nothing lol). I don't feel I'm a terrible healer, deal damage when not healing, use ogcd heals mostly, but I like not having to worry much and as White Mage that seems easy (since I don't normally main that role). Summoner because I like the big demi stuff, and the job is versatile (though I also enjoy playing red mage due to the versatility).

5a: Do you play more than one job?:

I've played all of them, and I like all but Blue Mage to differing levels (I dislike blue mage, the one and only job I feel that way towards).

5b. That ONE job you want to pick up and "git gud" at?:

I feel I play all of the jobs 'acceptably' or better, but Scholar makes me feel shy. Failing to be proactive (for shields) and being reactive or stuff like Excogitation makes me like "GET READY FOR THE YOYO BOISSSSSS" and I internally shriek as their hp goes to 50% lol. The other healers I've never had such a concern about, Scholar just makes me feel uneasy lol.

5c. Which job do you dislike and why?:

Blue Mage. At nearly every single angle there is something I think was done just 'off' at best. For every reason they gave that it was this was I feel they only half achieved what they set out to do, for everything it could have been but isn't. Some of many, many, examples would be how they argued it had to be original blue mage with true original spells and so they can't balance it, yet then they go about and make more monsters immune to instant death for balance reasons, that they want original blue but then fail to give original fire angon for balance reasons, that they give blue mage the worst angel whisper in the history of FF games for balance reasons, that they say it was designed with a concept of solo play but make the most mechanically interesting parts of the job require either charity or PF parties and dedicate a mount to try and make the job more popular (if you don't have these spells your blue will be a joke of mechanics, being mechanically more basic than even lower level jobs), but I could dedicate a small book worth of reasons on why I think the job is neither as good as it should be, the reasons why some people like it are not exclusive or even well serviced but what they did, nor as good as it should be even with their own directive (which whether they state it or not is clearly making a cost effective PF focused job).

Frustrations of many different types, that is what Blue Mage is to me. Not a single variable dislike. For example I've any bias against PF exclusive concepts since my day is inconsistent and I don't want to beholden to a lobby (I dislike leaving once things start being pieced together, so rather than have to be like 'this taking too long I need to go' I'd rather not join- different than DF as I can leave in the queue at any time, and the queue tends to be instant anyways as tank lol, so I can save the duty finder timer worth of time as worst case and rely on that) or have to 'advertise' (I'm so done with the shouting for groups in any circumstance I can help it lol- I hate doing that, it's the old school type of mmo content I never want to have to deal with again), for hunts I'll use such a system but in general it's DF or I don't care to bother with it (hunts work because it's so grab and go).

5d. If FF14 could have job from another game in the franchise, which would you want?:

Terra Bradford / Vincent transformation focused job, you might say morpher but as soon as I say that the limited job bells start ringing and I don't want to see that happen to the concept of transformations. Or at least exclusively (could be either two jobs one limited one not, or one job that can do both concepts) but with the fate of blue mage I don't want to see another "like" blue mage (so in so much I say not limited as I don't want to see transformation concept begin and die in the limited world). If they can re-envision the concept and 'do better' then maybe (with massive emphasis of not needing PF to actually enjoy the job), but being able to main it would be most desirable. Like with Blue Mage I had thought if it was truly solo focused (it is not, and I will die on that hill if someone wants to argue lol), I might have liked that sort of blue- one focused on solo play and sort of mechanical interplay like legendary affix and abilities in Diablo 3 (but it's not that level of entertaining interplay, on top that it's hardly solo focused, which makes losing it to limited even more of an 'oof').

I think, for jobs that can take full advantage, a system of both can be neat (both limited and normal).

6. What kind of player do you call yourself (ex: Rper, casual, raider, social, crafter, all-rounder, etc)?:

All-rounder, casual. Long ago, and more so even when I played old WoW, I was more raider / hardcore but these days I just want to get in have some fun and get out. Pick up and go. No time or desire anymore to rub my face against the floor of ultimate challange (not that I think it's bad that content exists, but I've zero desire to play it unless I was being paid to do it for some reason lol).

7. What's the "typical day" for you when you log on (don't have to go into detail)?:

Daily beast, feed chocobos, water plants, do any event going on, maybe hit the Golden Saucer, maybe play a few moments of easy market board gil, maybe do a quest, maybe do a dungeon, log off.

7a. Anything that you "must do", because it's "required" that makes you annoyed?:

FATEs can feel like that sometimes.

8. Favorable parts of the game that make you happy?:

Environments, jobs system, jobs that are my favorite to play (like Paladin), story, music, etc.

8a. Least desirable parts that the game could be improved on?:

B..l..u..e.. mage..? lol. Housing for sure, I believe, ESPECIALLY, with the lore from ShB that FFXIV should and would have the best housing system if it had taken a rift/wildstar sort of direction. Using airships as a sort of "okay you don't want to control the minute details but you still want a place to call home". The lack of creativity easily allowed (people having to use glitches for example) I think is a sad thing for this game. Houses should be like 'make your own FF content, make our fantasy yours'.

Airship, moogle, and chocobo content I feel should be touched upon. For moogles and chocobo they have some already but I feel it should be regularly revisited (at least every other expansion), and airships imo are most neglected with their UI interface content. For a FF game I feel they could have made them a wonderful sort of garrison system (better than WoWs), or of course as a house.

Airship I feel could be this but I also believe FFXIV could use with a secondary casual friendly longterm upgrade project, akin to leveling your characters. You might see a cosmetic and role play merit system (sphere grid?) be allied to this too (not combat oriented things, so people are not ruined if they don't have "x"), but that would have trouble offering depth (certainly breadth and duration of content is possible from it). Relics kind of do this, Doma reconstruction was sort of this direction as well. Beast tribes are smaller scale (not that long term) but count, so I'm not arguing there isn't things that head this direction but it's something I enjoy and like.

Might not even want to add this to least desirable section lol, along with moogle, and chocobo, I'm not sure I'd say least desirable. Blue mage and housing for sure, they fit in this section. Airships.. maybe? . . They've a few fights on them and cutscenes, so it's not nothing, but I feel that the wonder of a sRPG airship moment could be made -incredible- via the length and scale that an MMORPG takes over (making it such a cool and integral feature, and as it tends to be later game for FF games anyways).

9. When you use the DF, how many times have you had a "bad experience", and what happened? (can be vague or skip this):

Not often, people tend to be quiet or polite and good enough to finish the content lol (so bad experiences would be the opposite of that :P).

9a. Any pleasant experiences when using the DF?:

Getting to clutch save stuff is fun, which happens more easily and often when you're in DF and you can try hard and it'll likely make a big difference (can self heal through bosses as a tank sometimes, etc). Watching other people clutch save is fun too. Chatting while doing MSQ roulette.

9b. Any improvements you think the DF, in general, needs?:

Curious if Trusts could be used to reduce extreme queue times, or quickly replace a member rather than mess the whole dungeon up if the queue looks to be a long time. Making sure people have suitable gear and job stones and such lol. Just things that make it a bit smoother.

10. If you could have ONE QUESTION answered by SE's Developers, what would you ask them?:

Would depend on if one would get an answer that is for the public / PR approved or an actual answer that would be the kind that they would give to each other when working on the game.

11. Your favorite primal?:

They're all pretty cool but always thought King Thoridan was fun.

11a. Favorite NPC?:

There are a few I like but I think Emet has a special place.

11b. Your favorite mount?:

Ixon, Odin, or Legacy Choco?

11c. Any certain fight(s) you like doing over and over?:

I think most fights are fine to do over and over, but the whole insane duration on your buffs aspect of the Ascian fight (when you get sucked into the void) is always fun. Sometimes I think of the buffs I wish I could have made last longer lol (if it was level synced to 80 or whatever).

11d. How about a song you'd enjoy putting on repeat?:

Any primal / big fight song is pretty cool, I also quite like twilight over thanalan. Last zone's special area music is also quite nice on repeat.

12. If you could have a house in any zone, where would you build it?:

In either one of the wild looking boss zones (the space/sky like ones), Azim Steppe, or that shrine for all of the Stormblood primal minion guys. Although I keep seeing (mental picture) a really neat water feature desert area and kind of hope that becomes a reality in FFXIV. Like Altissa meets the desert, Clerya from FFIX meets water features, etc.

12a. What region do you find yourself AFKing the most?:

I tend to avoid afking, login, logout. If I afk it's because I quickly walked away. Though I enjoy the afk auto camera feature in the game when I do walk away and come back I'll see it show a few scenes for giggles.

13. Anything else you wish to share?:

Beep...?