Pre patch suggestion

[TaleraRistain]

Does this boil down to the mentallity that an MMO is a race to the end and if you're jsut a day or two behind you're shit out of luck and all the fun of the experience is wasted?

I wouldn't be surprised if this is part of the reason the devs don't do it here, since they try very much not to treat this game like a rush to the end.

It would be nice to get our hands on jobs ahead of time in some capacity, to help the devs troubleshoot oversights or plain bad design.

It definitely would have been nice to give them some feedback ahead of time on lilies, though.

[CKNovel]

The point is to launch new jobs and new races 1-2 weeks prior the actual expansion release.
As i mentioned earlier, this will allow for players to go into endwalker with their sage / reaper lvl 80 from the get go without wasting 2-3 days while everyone else is having fun in new dungeons / zones.
Also, let's be honest, everyone will start with early access. EA is here to justify the server instability at launch and potential major bugs that will be fixed right before the "actual" relase

I did this with SAM at SB release, it took a morning to level from 50 to 60.
I didn't missed anything due to Raubhan EX, but even if there was nothing like this, missing a day or two... Nah, no thanks.

I'd welcome a PTR that would allow players to try the jobs before release but they wouldn't be able to make changes before the actual release. At most for 6.1.
And we're not sure to what feedback they listen, so it's swinging a sword in the water half of the time.

[Gobio]

This literally piss me off, those that even give out even a hint that FF14 should remotely follow WOW 'launch practices on new races'

What a shame.

I saw Kul-tiran, one of the first announce allied race for the infamous BFA expansion. All the druid forms are shown on mmo champion and wowhead. I pre-order that game, thinking I would have time to level that a new fat human druid in time for new raid.

LOL what a dumb fool I was to trust that company. Kul-Tiran were NOT release at launch, Kul-Tiran were not released even before the first raid. That dark iron dawrf which was announce after Kul-tiran some how got to release before Kul-Tiran. I unsub when the 6 months ran out and never look back.

Don't even remotely hint at copying WOW on how to release an expansion, EVER.

[Nezerius]

Don't even remotely hint at copying WOW on how to release an expansion, EVER.

I hope you realise that you're ranting about two allied races that were never actually released during a pre-expansion patch?
Heck, even the four initial allied races (Lightforged Draenei, Void Elves, Nightborne, and Highmountain Tauren) weren't even added in a pre-expansion patch. They were added about half a year before the pre-expansion patch.

I'll agree that it was shitty how Blizzard handled Kul Tiran & Zandalari unlocks, but it had nothing to do with their "launch practices on new races".

[IDontPetLalas]

The point is to launch new jobs and new races 1-2 weeks prior the actual expansion release.
As i mentioned earlier, this will allow for players to go into endwalker with their sage / reaper lvl 80 from the get go without wasting 2-3 days while everyone else is having fun in new dungeons / zones.
Also, let's be honest, everyone will start with early access. EA is here to justify the server instability at launch and potential major bugs that will be fixed right before the "actual" relase

First of all, what's a couple of days delay, really. During that time, I would hope that people are learning those jobs, rather than rushing to endgame , without even reading their tooltips or knowing basic mechanics - and before anyone jumps in I realize that there are 10 year veterans to whom this likely doesn't apply , or people who very quickly can pick up on a new MMO or job.

Secondly, at least one of those jobs (reaper) is integral to the EW story so for myself it makes sense that it forms part of the release. That's probably the major reason for SE (Yoshi)

Third- as pointed out in a prior post - adding jobs isn't trivial for the dev team, so that is likely why they form part of major release, due to all of the resources that are required to deliver them, and then adjustments are delivered in minor patches or hot fixes.

[Sotaris]

First of all, what's a couple of days delay, really. During that time, I would hope that people are learning those jobs, rather than rushing to endgame , without even reading their tooltips or knowing basic mechanics - and before anyone jumps in I realize that there are 10 year veterans to whom this likely doesn't apply , or people who very quickly can pick up on a new MMO or job.

Secondly, at least one of those jobs (reaper) is integral to the EW story so for myself it makes sense that it forms part of the release. That's probably the major reason for SE (Yoshi)

Third- as pointed out in a prior post - adding jobs isn't trivial for the dev team, so that is likely why they form part of major release, due to all of the resources that are required to deliver them, and then adjustments are delivered in minor patches or hot fixes.

Not to mention there isn't much of any endgame the first 2 weeks of the expansion.

[Nezerius]

Sounds more like a entitlement. No one force you to look at social media and forums if you worried about being spoiled.

Because social media and the forums are the only places where game spoilers exist? It's possible to come across spoilers in any of the ingame chat channels (/say, /yell, /shout). An FC or Linkshell member could accidentally drop a spoiler in FC/LS chat. Even a title used by someone could act as a spoiler (example: the title reward for finishing the 3.5 MSQ, prior to its change to "The Finest Pupil's Ally").

First of all, what's a couple of days delay, really. During that time, I would hope that people are learning those jobs, rather than rushing to endgame , without even reading their tooltips or knowing basic mechanics - and before anyone jumps in I realize that there are 10 year veterans to whom this likely doesn't apply , or people who very quickly can pick up on a new MMO or job.

I'd imagine players are actually less likely to be learning the new jobs during the initial rush of getting them up to the level required to enter Endwalker. On the other hand, a 1-3 week pre-patch that includes the new jobs would let players get used to the basics of said new jobs.

Secondly, at least one of those jobs (reaper) is integral to the EW story so for myself it makes sense that it forms part of the release. That's probably the major reason for SE (Yoshi)

If Reaper is integral to the Endwalker story, why can it be unlocked in Ul'dah? Players can unlock Reaper, and play through the job quests without even touching the Endwalker MSQ content.

Third- as pointed out in a prior post - adding jobs isn't trivial for the dev team, so that is likely why they form part of major release, due to all of the resources that are required to deliver them, and then adjustments are delivered in minor patches or hot fixes.

I'd be worried about an expansion's release if they're still making fundamental changes to a new job, 1-3 weeks prior to release.

The only reasonable arguement against a pre-patch is how SE's current way of handling expansions causes the playerbase to split up on release. Two groups of players going to two separate cities to unlock the new jobs (and leveling them in old content), while one group of players dives right into Endwalker content.
But this wouldn't be too big of an issue if they stopped having instanced battles early one, like Raubahn EX.

[Sotaris]

Because social media and the forums are the only places where game spoilers exist? It's possible to come across spoilers in any of the ingame chat channels (/say, /yell, /shout). An FC or Linkshell member could accidentally drop a spoiler in FC/LS chat. Even a title used by someone could act as a spoiler (example: the title reward for finishing the 3.5 MSQ, prior to its change to "The Finest Pupil's Ally").

Running into spoilers is much higher here, reddit or facebook.
In-game I'm generally never see any spoilers in shout or any other common channel. In my FC I have a rule for no spoiler in chat first month and never had anyone break that rule the 2-3 years i been FC leader.

Not saying you can't get spoilers in-game but it pretty uncommon from my personal experience.

[Tint]

These battle changes and the new jobs are likely not even finished yet. They release stuff when it is finished, there is no real time for a "pre-patch".

You can tinker around with the new skills and jobs in the 4 weeks before the savage raid gets released. If you don't raid savage even better for you, you have all the time in the world to level up the new job and go with it into the Endwalker story at your own pace.

Plus it divides the playerbase when some of them are stuck leveling the new jobs in the old zones, wich helps to prevent congestion in the new zones.

[Sotaris]

I have for years wished for a PTR or pre-patches but thing is, FF has a extreamly good track record compared to WoW and other games that rely on players to do all testing in PTRs I lean to think there is not much use for other than you want to try out stuff before they launch.