FFXIV vs GW2

[Cach]

GW2 sounds incredible on paper, but I can't stick to it for very long. I guess the whole horizontal thing is not for me. Also, I ended up only doing WvW and crafting.

+Map design and the open world are great, full of things to do and very alive (some maps have gimmicks I hate, tho).
+Different races actually feel different, not just slightly modified humans.
+The action style fighting is mostly great.
+They have a very original approach to mounts and their functionality.
+Glamour system is pretty good.
-Everything is aggressively monetized.
-Very arbitrary time locks on crafting.
-LFG could use an update.
-Story, while not horrible can give you whiplash. You can tell every time when a writer got fired.

[einschwartz]

I've just started playing a few days ago on trial. It's a very good game for people like me who loves open world exploring. I'm still getting used to the jumps in gw2 due to the movement involves actual physics, but doing jump puzzles is definitely less jank conpared to xiv.

Underwater combat is refreshing.

All characters are voiced. Including your own character. Though I heard it's based on the class you pick?
I wish there's a voice sample in character creation. I remade my character three times until I find the voice that I like.

[SturmChurro]

I've just started playing a few days ago on trial. It's a very good game for people like me who loves open world exploring. I'm still getting used to the jumps in gw2 due to the movement involves actual physics, but doing jump puzzles is definitely less jank conpared to xiv.

Underwater combat is refreshing.

All characters are voiced. Including your own character. Though I heard it's based on the class you pick?
I wish there's a voice sample in character creation. I remade my character three times until I find the voice that I like.

I'm not sure if it's class specifically, but rather race and sex. For example, I play female sylvari, and they are voiced by the same voice actress who voices femshep (Jennifer Hale). This can all be hit or miss though, depending on one's disposition. I personally like voice acting to this extent, and you can your character will even actively talk while using abilities, for example. There's definitely unique lines based on your class, from what I can tell.

[Deo14]

GW2 has incredible amount of QoL features and in general game systems that actually make sense. They're not afraid to go against the flow to make new things or to rethink old ideas. Some of the more notable things are:
+ Game uses actual horizontal progression. My main's armor that I made in like 2013/2014 is still BiS today.
+ You can change your entire build while you're inside instance (as long as you're not in combat)
+ Mounts are actually fun, not just x% passive movement speed increase
+ There is no combat ress, but you get downed before fully dying
+ No ability downsyncing bullshit
+ WvWvW and PvP in general
+ Condition-based builds (builds focused on DoT, except that debuff have more complexity than just "deal X damage every Y seconds")
+ Actual choice in how you play. Sure, some specs will inevitably be weaker, but in FF we have 19 homogenized and streamlined jobs (compared to 9*(3+1)=36 specs, which can be further customized with different talents and weapon types) and yet we still have balancing issues.
+ Actual 99.99% server uptime. You can even play game for 3 hours on old patch when new one drops
+ You can salvage(desynthesize, except you can do all at the same time) all your looted gear, which will give you materials, which can be simply send with single button from your inventory to your collectable bank storage. This means no inventory problems.
+ Money - I play GW2 on and off since beta and I started FFXIV year ago and I've spent more money just on sub alone. GW2 has cash shop, but you can convert gold to "premium" currency. I even upgraded my DLCs to deluxe edition for ingame gold.
+ Legendary gear is something else. Imagine time investment of getting all ARR relics. That's maybe half legendary weapon in GW2. But you can obviously choose different ways to get all materials and so on, so it won't get boring.
+ FFXIV's FATE is nowhere near GW2's events and meta-events.
- Main problem is however performance. GW2 sometimes runs like shit, but it's becoming more tolerable, with things like dx12 proxy and just generally PCs getting more powerful (and AMD CPUs finally getting decent single-core performance)
- Also gatekeeping on raids is very aids. Do you want to start raiding? Finish 250 raids, then you might be accepted into some PF group.

In general, I enjoy encounter design much more in FF, but it took me long time to deal with the fact that there is barely any engaging open world content and the endgame content is just treadmill.

Most importantly, unlike FFXIV which claims to "respect your time", GW2 actually does. I'm enjoying FFXIV at the moment, but I know that I can go back to GW2 anytime I want and I won't miss anything and all my gear will be up to date. I can't say the same about FFXIV.

[RyuDragnier]

- Also gatekeeping on raids is very raids. Do you want to start raiding? Finish 250 raids, then you might be accepted into some PF group.

Depends when you try to do them. I've found Saturdays tend to be the day where you find the people most willing to train new raiders, and if you're completely new they often suggest Wing 4 or Wing 1. I personally prefer when the group trains people on Wing 4, the first 2 bosses are essentially training dummies with very few mechanics. The 3rd fight is more akin to a normal raid fight, and the 4th...well, I hope you've got a handkite, tank, and oil kite ready and are ready to learn how hectic it can get fast.

[Zebraoracle]

People have noted a lot of other points already so I'll avoid them, but for me, the combat in GW2 is a big minus.

I know it's gotten *better* than release, but outside of raids (I can't give an honest opinion on them as I never got into them because the grind in GW2 is horrendous and the two or three times I tried coming back I just couldn't stay interested long enough to keep playing) the combat is very... spammy, for lack of a better word. I don't know how disingenuous this statement is considering FF14's combat can be mildly spammy as well (a lot of jobs use their damage CDs upon availability when they don't need to be saved for the 2 minute burst window) but GW2 was a lot worse, so I'm totally open to being corrected here. However from what I remember, the game's combat is very hit or miss.

I mentioned the grind a moment ago but I'll mention it again - from what I remember the grind for getting into raids, getting a legendary weapon, and doing high end fractals is absolutely ridiculous. I freaking hope it's gotten better.

The community can be really... uh, unpleasant sometimes. Definitely not the game's strong point.

My last negative is GW2 is less of a Guild Wars 2 and more of an MMO with the Guild Wars name lol. Gosh I miss GW1...

Frick, now I want to give GW2 a try again. Augh. Does anyone know if the steam version requires a whole new account or is it tied to your normal account?

[Atelier-Bagur]

Why ask about a competitor game on ffxiv official forms?

Because we want to have a good discussion about what works and doesn't work?

Because we ultimately want to provide ideas and feedback to better FFXIV?

[MonsutaMan]

FFXIV
-Pro: Very solo friendly
-Pro: Combat system is not too deep, hence very pick up and play friendly. Perhaps the best pick up and play MMO.
-If you are a FF fan, it seems to tie in numerous allusions.
-Bonus: XIV is low-key a F2P mmo given the amount of content on the trial. If Stormblood gets added......

-Con: As previously mentioned, the combat system is not that deep compared to its' predecessor.
-Con: Combat in XIV is not the most thrilling experience, but it aint no EQ.
-Con: Cash shop.....on top of Buy to play.....with P2P, with P2W elements such as being able to skip various portions of the game with a click of your wallet (I know from experience so don't @me white knights.....Why else would I be a lvl70 sprout on multiple jobs? LOL)

GW2
-Pro: Pretty much Free.......
-Pro: Deeper combat system than XIV; you can even fight underwater.
-Pro: Every class feels different in its' own way, akin to XIV's predecessor XI.

-Con: Some of these drops rates are the dumbest thing I have seen in any MMO......
-No Native Controller support like XIV. Yeah, yeah...I am an 80s baby and like controllers. Which leads me to.....
-Targeting seems awkward...hence combat can be at times.....(Probably a me issue, being a controller guy).

GW2 is worth a try; it is part of my MMO rotation.
XI
BDO
PSO2
ESO
GW2
Lost Ark

To name a few

"Man, that is a lot of mmo.....how do you get anything done?"

I don't really lol...........I mean, I do, but it takes time........Free time. I just play whatever I am feeling. I have been feeling to give XIV another go these past 2 months, so here I am........

Just my 2 cents.

[MoofiaBossVal]

What are the pros and cons to each MMO? Been thinking of trying GW2

I've been playing GW2 for 7 years. The main strength of GW2 is in its combat and it's sense of adventure. You can go into the options and turn on an "action camera" mode, and combined with the high amount of movement during combat and dodge rolling, GW2 has the most entertaining combat of any MMO I've played.

As for the sense of adventure: once you reach a new map, you're allowed to stop following the plot and go do whatever you want in that zone. There is a lot of rewards that are reached via platforming or puzzle solving. Also, starting with the Heart of Thorns expansion and season 3, every chapter of the story (about 2 hours long) takes you to a brand new high fantasy zone. You have imaginative zones such as:

• an airship fleet that crashed into the canopy of a huge, living jungle.

• A zone set atop islands floating over a magic nuke crater.

• A map set inside a volcano with three different layers inside

• A map set in a desert with tears in the fabric of reality, were slices of other parts of the world (and other planets) have become displaced and mashed up there.

• A map set on the back of a humongous, fallen dragon.

• A map set inside a petrified forest that vampires have carved castles out of.

• A map set on a sea that was turned into jade and is being quarried.

And more.


You also unlock abilities to traverse these zones. For example, you can unlock the ability to jump on bouncing mushrooms that propel you up through a jungle, or the ability to spiderman swing inside a volcano. Or a beetle mount that can use its strength to smash boulders, allowing you access inside caves. Or the ability to breathe poison gas, allowing you to explore caves filled with them. Etc. It's a bit like a metroidvania where you're going back to places you previously couldn't reach before because.

Story wise, GW2 is a mixed bag. The vanilla story has good writing, but a lot of people didn't like the visual novel cutscenes. After vanilla, you have to slog through seasons 1 and 2, which are very boring until the last few episodes of season 2. Once you reach the first expansion, the story becomes more action packed and exciting. The story peaks during season 4 and the first half of Icebrood Saga. Unlike FF14, GW2 doesn't waste your time with a lot of dialogue, especially after season 2. It's mostly action packed and some of the setpieces are pretty cool. The lackluster writing is carried by the voice acting. Also GW2 hardly resurrects characters like FF14 does all of the time (there are only like 2 resurrections in the whole story, compared to FF14 where I've lost count how many times a character was "killed" only to be revealed that they had survived or some crap).

Another great thing about GW2 is that there is no gear treadmill. Once you reach level 80 and buy exotic berserker gear off of the auction house for a few gold, you're all set for life. You will never have to worry about having to grind in order to meet a minimum ilevel to do more content. In WoW and FF14, you have to resub weeks before the patch you want to play actually releases to do tedious chores in order to raise your ilevel in time.

Another thing in GW2's favor is the Charr, the beastman race. They run on all fours and have snarl SFX in their voice (the player character is voiced in GW2). You really do feel like an inhuman beastman. The only other fantasy game that sorta did that was WoW with the Worgen and the Tauren, but the Worgen didn't automatically run on all fours and the animation transitions weren't anywhere near as seemless.

The most important thing you need to know about GW2 is that it actually costs $100 to get all of the content. The website advertises a $50 "complete collection" but that only includes the three expansions, not the patch content. Unlike FF14, GW2's patches add new zones to visit in the patches. The patch cycles actually add more maps than the expansions. If you skip out on the patches then you're missing about 60% of the maps. $100 is a tall upfront asking price, so I'd advise just downloading the game for free and seeing if you even like the basic idea of GW2. If yes then consider buying in. $100 sounds like a lot, but when compared to spending $150 on a subscription MMO like WoW or FFXIV per year which can quickly accumulate into thousands of dollars over the years ($15 per month and $60 expansions every other year), GW2 is really cheap in the long run.



As for the pros and cons of FF14, FF14 is really a singleplayer JRPG masquerading as an MMO. As an MMO it is very lacking compared to WoW and GW2. You are forced to slog through a 400+ hour long story, half of which are cutscenes and another 25% is doing solo duties. So you hardly ever get to play with your friends. And once you do reach level cap, there is very little to do. As a JRPG, FF14 is really hamstrung by it's MMORPG elements (you can't just do the next chapter of the story, you instead have to stop and grind up your ilevel to meet an arbitrary requirement, etc). The writing starts off promising but becomes lackluster as the story goes on, which is all FF14 really has going for it so that's pretty bad. If you want an entertaining JRPG then you're advised to play through the classics first. If you've played through those and are scraping the bottom of the barrel of games to play then yeah give FF14 a try.

[VentVanitas]

Unordered thoughts about what I like about GW2 over XIV:

- GW2 is far more alt friendly, a lot more things can be accessed between characters through banks and shared inventory slots which makes levelling a new character smoother than in XIV where you basically have to start fresh on everything.
- GW2 has better overworld content, it has world quests similar to FATEs and 100% completing everything on a map gives you rewards so you're encouraged to go out and explore.
- XIV's Hrothgar wishes it had the love and attention put into it like GW2's Charr has. One of the best MMO beast races in my opinion, I love their culture, lore, animations and voices.
- The class design is more varied and unique than XIV as it takes more risks. Necromancer has its own version of RPR's Enshroud, but uses what can be summed up as a second HP bar as a resource for it rather than a generic job gauge. Necromancer itself is one of the most well rounded jobs with some of the best variety in its builds. It allows you a lot more personal expression if you play casually, though there are unfortunately some specs in GW2 that are just objectively worse than others like Deadeye. I see that as more of an unavoidable downside of having specs/trees/builds like GW2/WoW rather than a problem with the game itself, though this is alleviated by being able to re-spec your build freely at any time you want.
- You're more likely to see people engage with and help each other in GW2. In XIV, you're really only seeing players socialize in cities.

I'll probably add more to this later, my only major gripes with GW2 is that getting into other forms of PvE content can be quite a daunting task, as you can't just "jump" into them like XIV. But the tl;dr of it is that whatever XIV is weak in, GW2 does pretty well, and vice versa. They're both good games to have if you ever feel burnt out on any which one.