So, what's wrong with FFXIV: ARR right now?

[Yshnal]

I'll tell you: the community. Almost every one of the big problems that are discussed right now on these forums and other places are, in the end, directly related with how the community behaves in the game. Let's check it:

1) Speedruns. Yes, trash mobs don't give anything, and yes, the repair bill can be costly (I know it, I'm a tank). But really, and be honest here, do you really think that if this was any different we wouldn't have speedruns or that they would even be reduced in number? Some people always want to do things the faster and optimal way to get everything now. This is not the first MMO where speedruns exist (i.e. to use an example tossed by some people, speedruns in GW2, using every existing cheat to get everything faster, even when some trash mobs had the chance of dropping BiS gear or high level rare mats). Note that in the end the problem are not really the speedruns per se, but that people use the duty finder for them.

2) Fate farming. Let's be clear, at the end of the day everyone can do whatever they want in-game, but there are some things that are just weird and annoying for others. Just try doing a fate "as intended" without being part of one of those big zergs. Sometimes you can't even touch mobs to get credit. And no, joining a fate farming group shouldn't be required, at least not when you aren't interested in farming them or if you were in your way of doing something else, to start with. Fates weren't designed to be farmed, but to be something that you could find in the world while you were questing, traveling, etc. and that would make you feel that the world was a bit more alive. A lot of the time when I visit an outpust and I see all these people just waiting there on their chocobos/coeurls/unicorns/magitek armor, I can't help but die a little bit on the inside after imagining them (or finding them) rushing to the fates.

I could go on and on writing more failings (like the AFK one, that is also responsability of the community in the end), but these two are some of the most prominent ones (if not the most) that we have right now, I think.

Of course, SE is responsible of the game's design and can and should try to do something to fix any flaws. But, at the end of the day, it's the community the one who is being generally destructive with the tools that have been given to us to play, and most of the time it's on our hands to be responsible of letting everyone around us enjoy the game, improve this and not make it a miserable experience for everyone around us. It's not as if you had to sacrifice your first-born in order to make this possible (well, for some people it is), one just need to act with a bit of responsability and empaty over the rest of the playerbase. Yeah, I can keep dreaming, as that won't happen anytime soon, but that doesn't make it any less true.

Anyway, let's just hope that things get better after the free month ends...

[Arkine]

IGN gave ARR a 8.6/10 with the only con being how grindy FATEs are.

What I believe is an issue is that I see no reason to use materia at all before lv50, and even then, you get better loot at a rate that makes materia unnecessary at all.

edit: I guess crafters and gatherers use it but not before 50.

[Sunrider]

IGN gave ARR a 8.6/10 with the only con being how grindy FATEs are.

What I believe is an issue is that I see no reason to use materia at all before lv50, and even then, you get better loot at a rate that makes materia unnecessary at all.

This. It would be quite beneficial if there was a way to combine low level materia, increasing their rank.

[Stormsoul]

i still don't understand the viewpoint of blaming the fate grinders instead of SE. once you level up your main class through the story, the only ways to consistently gain EXP are from dungeon grinding or FATE grinding. they're both equally as trivial, except one method (dungeons) is extremely impractical to a large portion of the playerbase (DPS players). battle leves give 'meh' experience and can only be done a few times each day.

FATE grinding is necessary unless you play a tank or healer and want to grind dungeons, which is still worse EXP in the end. SE has not provided enough alternatives to gain EXP on your other classes. it's not the player's fault for realizing this and taking part. you call players out on being destructive and whatnot, but what do you want them to do? sit around with their thumbs up their butt waiting in dungeon Q because you feel that their FATE grinding should be stopped?

[Shiyo]

IGN gave ARR a 8.6/10 with the only con being how grindy FATEs are.

What I believe is an issue is that I see no reason to use materia at all before lv50, and even then, you get better loot at a rate that makes materia unnecessary at all.

edit: I guess crafters and gatherers use it but not before 50.

Crafted HQ+ melded helm/boots/gloves is best in slot for scholar. I'm sure a lot of classes have BIS crafted gear too.

Problems with the game:

Dungeons need to give more exp, much more, about 50-100% more.

Durability system needs fixed, you should not be losing more durability by fighting enemies than dying. The majority of your repair fee's will be from FIGHTING and not DEATHS. That is ass backwards and makes no sense, this game essentially has no death penalty and instead a "playing penalty"

Cooking, and alchemy potions to a lesser extent, needs changed. Recipes need to make 3-12 pieces of food and the 1 and 2 star food needs to last 2-3 hours and not fade on death. Clusters(timed per game day) and 1 time per game day materials for a single piece of food that lasts 30 minutes and fades on death? No.

Fates need to scale and actually effect the world, look at GW2 if you want to see well designed fates.

[Sparthos]

The lacking social interaction aspect is a problem that will only snowball with time left untreated.

I get they wanted the story to 50 to be like an offline FF.

[Edenholt]

Agreed with you. The problem isn't the game, or any game, it's the users. People join games already thinking about rushing and finding every single,exploitable way to reach the "top", they don't enjoy the game. Then when the Dev make the proper changes to make players play the way the way it was planned, people overflow the forums with rage. Maybe the devs didn't plan to have people finishing their #end-game" gear in two weeks after launch. Devs will spend years developing the game the way they want it to be and still we will have people complaining on the forums. Just check GW2's forums.

[Talma]

I constantly see characters 10/15/20 levels higher than me wearing crappy lvl 15-25 gear because it is all they could afford just grinding FATEs. All I can think of is how they are going to be hurting come time for endgame, meanwhile some of us have actually been gathering/crafting along with a slower main class progression and generally just experiencing the many facets the game has to offer... the fact that we're rolling in gil right now after getting headstart on crafting/gathering doesn't hurt either ;x It could be argued that FATE grinders wanted to wait until they hit 50 before they started any gathering/crafting, but at this point the AH's are so flooded with low-level materials and armor/weapons and the prices of said things are driven down so far now that latecomers aren't going to have an easy time of it right from the gate.

FATE grinders who then complain about "Wull immat lvl fiddy lol wut do i do now there's liek nuthing 2 do XD" are just...wow.

[Rydin]

I constantly see characters 10/15/20 levels higher than me wearing crappy lvl 15-25 gear because it is all they could afford just grinding FATEs. All I can think of is how they are going to be hurting come time for endgame

Or they're going to go into AK with AF. It's FFXIV. No one gets punished for anything

[Ahlen]

There's no problem with fate grinding, it's almost literally the only way to level a second class/job to max. Hunts won't do it, you could run dungeons for their ABYSMAL exp, or you could grind monsters over and over.

Anyway, what's the difference between a FATE party and an FFXI grinding party? At least FATE party requires movement and a lot more effort.

Anyway, FFXIV has a lot of issues, but none of them are really gamebreaking at the moment. Just lots of quality of life buffs (crafting from retainer, talking to NPC while mounted, better inventory sorting to name a couple)