Support NeoGAF

[Rafterman]

All previous MMOs have trained me to just ignore the story but everyone loves this one

Just go back and watch the cutscenes in your inn. Most of the "story" quests are garbage busywork anyway. Anything worth watching is in those cutscenes.

And I don't know how everyone can love the 1-50 story, it's bad and the voice work is awful. All reports are that the expansion is much better in both categories so that's something.

 

[IvorB]

What are the requirements to get into the GAF FC ? Thinking of joining one but I'm only lvl 28 right now.
Anyway, I'm still enjoying the game a lot I was kinda disappointed with the first dungeon (it felt looooong) but the ones I've done since then were a lot better so I hope it continues like that. The community has been really great so far too.

edit : Also if anybody wants me to enter a referral code I'd be happy too, though I don't think I'll subscribe until my free month is over.

Do you still need a code? I'd be happy to help you out with that...

 

[Semper88]

You could put it in the living room connecting it to your TV and playing with a gamepad! But I'm mostly joking, I see yeah a laptop would work better in this case even if they are mad expensive

Thats the problem right there, my gf took control over de PS4 on the 55" screen XD

but yea i can play on the kitchen table with a laptop. I'll just have to bare with the price these days

 

[Skyfireblaze]

Thats the problem right there, my gf took control over de PS4 on the 55" screen XD

but yea i can play on the kitchen table with a laptop. I'll just have to bare with the price these days

Well well sounds like she has a blast of experience there But yeah that sounds like a plan

 

[Tiops]

So, fellow Dark Knights, do you keep Darkside up all the time? Is it needed/recommended? I ran some low level stuff with it activated, but I don't know how viable it will be on higher level duties. And I also don't know if it will turn into a DPS loss with the need to execute the MP recovery combo frequently. Holding aggro wasn't an issue, at least

 

[Xion_Stellar]

Does that New Recruit a Friend Campaign work in Retrospect? Because I had already invited 3 friends of mine before those new items were added to the campaign.

 

[Dreamwriter]

This is probably the key- the story, though a step above 2.0, is still kinda trash most of the time but in a relatively entertaining way. It's gone from like, the anime equivalent of Terry Brooks to the equivalent of Brandon Sanderson. Don't look too deeply into it and enjoy the weeaboo fightin' magic.

So it's gone from great to freakin' amazing?

 

[Tevren]

Wasn't feeling the expac at first. Since then, the story has kicked into high gear and dug it's claws in. Shame on me for doubting.

 

[Tash]

Does that New Recruit a Friend Campaign work in Retrospect? Because I had already invited 3 friends of mine before those new items were added to the campaign.

Pretty sure it's only for newly created accounts now.

 

[Rose of Eternity]

Does that New Recruit a Friend Campaign work in Retrospect? Because I had already invited 3 friends of mine before those new items were added to the campaign.

It does. I've never recruited anyone but if anyone ever wants a code, by all means pm me. I kind of want that two-rider choco more than anything.

 

[Pyramidbread]

Does that New Recruit a Friend Campaign work in Retrospect? Because I had already invited 3 friends of mine before those new items were added to the campaign.

From the lodestone
"Reward items will be delivered via the moogle delivery service. Newly added reward items will be delivered starting in July 2015."

 

[jamsethoth]

WAR got an overhaul since 2.0, it's a solid job to play as now.

Raaaaaaaad. I'm excited to get to that point so I can start tanking again.

 

[Arkeband]

I'm really not a fan of how these new abilities have been implemented for some classes.

I main DRG, so trying to make any use of Blood of the Dragon in solo content isn't happening since mobs are always facing you - I can't reliably get to their flank unless I run through them and the game happens to register the turn in a weird way, and I think hitting from the rear is right out unless I stun the enemy - which is typically never an option since stuns are part of the normal rotation.

My chocobo's specced for DPS, maybe if he was a tank (and didn't steal like 1/3rd of my EXP while he's out) he'd be semi useful so I could make use of positionals.

I did get to use Dragonsong Dive in Bismarck, and that was a hundred times cooler than the vanilla LB3.

As for the story:

They seem to have really nailed the 'feel' of having a group of adventurers that is core to Final Fantasy games. In 2.0 you were basically the errand boy for the Scions, and most of the Scions were not only designed really boring (as if they hit "randomize" on the character creator), but they had little personality. There was no reason your character should really care about them and vice versa outside of convenience.

In 3.0 you're stuck with a close-knit group of NPC's that occasionally fight alongside you and they've worked your character much more organically into cutscenes. You finally feel as if you're driving the story instead of being taken along for the ride. We're still not to the point where the story is as good as any given single-player FF narrative, but as far as MMO's go, this is 100% the most immersed I've ever felt.

I'm sure I'll become disenchanted and super critical of the game again once I run out of things to do (the extremely shallow itemization is already bothering me) but the MSQ content has all been good shit.

 

[Xion_Stellar]

Well than I look forward to receiving those gold feathers in July. Thanks for the clarification everyone.

 

[Blitzhex]

What do you do when you run out of quests at 58? Any specific busy fate location etc?

 

[Alrus]

So I'm only lvl 57 so not done with the story but so far the Uldah part of it has been massively underwhelming for me. With all the foreshadowing in 2.55 and the HW trailer, I expected something much bigger to happen.

Also I like the Scholar's new stuff. Selene has been buffed which is nice, not sure if Eos is not better still but I really like the party Esuna. Indomitation is a nice instant AoE heal, quite useful after unavoidable party wide AoEs. Broil is great for dps, it costs a ton of MP but running out of MP is almost never an issue.

I'm still not sure how to use deployment tactics effectively...

 

[Pancho]

So I'm only lvl 57 so not done with the story but so far the Uldah part of it has been massively underwhelming for me. With all the foreshadowing in 2.55 and the HW trailer, I expected something much bigger to happen.

Also I like the Scholar's new stuff. Selene has been buffed which is nice, not sure if Eos is not better still but I really like the party Esuna. Indomitation is a nice instant AoE heal, quite useful after unavoidable party wide AoEs. Broil is great for dps, it costs a ton of MP but running out of MP is almost never an issue.

I'm still not sure how to use deployment tactics effectively...

I suppose Deployment tactics can be useful for large pulls so everyone gets Eye for an Eye, other than that, I don't see much use for it. I feel us SCH got the short end of the stick with the expansion

 

[Glendemonium]

I'm really not a fan of how these new abilities have been implemented for some classes.

I main DRG, so trying to make any use of Blood of the Dragon in solo content isn't happening since mobs are always facing you - I can't reliably get to their flank unless I run through them and the game happens to register the turn in a weird way, and I think hitting from the rear is right out unless I stun the enemy - which is typically never an option since stuns are part of the normal rotation.

My chocobo's specced for DPS, maybe if he was a tank (and didn't steal like 1/3rd of my EXP while he's out) he'd be semi useful so I could make use of positionals.

I did get to use Dragonsong Dive in Bismarck, and that was a hundred times cooler than the vanilla LB3.

As for the story:


They seem to have really nailed the 'feel' of having a group of adventurers that is core to Final Fantasy games. In 2.0 you were basically the errand boy for the Scions, and most of the Scions were not only designed really boring (as if they hit "randomize" on the character creator), but they had little personality. There was no reason your character should really care about them and vice versa outside of convenience.

In 3.0 you're stuck with a close-knit group of NPC's that occasionally fight alongside you and they've worked your character much more organically into cutscenes. You finally feel as if you're driving the story instead of being taken along for the ride. We're still not to the point where the story is as good as any given single-player FF narrative, but as far as MMO's go, this is 100% the most immersed I've ever felt.

I'm sure I'll become disenchanted and super critical of the game again once I run out of things to do (the extremely shallow itemization is already bothering me) but the MSQ content has all been good shit.

I'm not far into the story, but I've noticed that of all the characters I like Alphinaud and Tataru since you learn a bit about them more than the Scions. Didn't like feeling like an errand boy to prove myself and then now that I'm useful I'm doing more errands while the other Scions stay behind the scenes. Hell, Yugiri does more than most Scions do...

Spoiler

Illberd's somewhat cryptic message at the end of the mission kind of pokes fun at that.

Also, I'm going to savor the story if I can help it. So I've decided to go back to my true calling... Monk. I chose Bard when I returned in April due to the ease of grinding in speed run dungeons (I heard MNK is unpopular in speed runs) and didn't want ARR ruined by tryhards again. Hope to get MNK to 52 before long where the new dungeons will be speed run only. I've heard HW really opens up and I want to be on a fun job to experience it.

 

[AgeEighty]

They seem to have really nailed the 'feel' of having a group of adventurers that is core to Final Fantasy games. In 2.0 you were basically the errand boy for the Scions, and most of the Scions were not only designed really boring (as if they hit "randomize" on the character creator), but they had little personality. There was no reason your character should really care about them and vice versa outside of convenience.

In 3.0 you're stuck with a close-knit group of NPC's that occasionally fight alongside you and they've worked your character much more organically into cutscenes. You finally feel as if you're driving the story instead of being taken along for the ride. We're still not to the point where the story is as good as any given single-player FF narrative, but as far as MMO's go, this is 100% the most immersed I've ever felt.

I was running story content with a couple of my FC friends. When we

Spoiler

completed Sohm Al and got access to the Churning Mists as a direct result—a brand new area just by completing a dungeon—

one of them said, "Now this actually feels like Final Fantasy".

 

[azyless]

Do you still need a code? I'd be happy to help you out with that...

Yep, still need a code. Though like I said I don't know when I'll be subscribing since I still have about 3 weeks left on my free month.

 

[Zomba13]

Oh yeah, another thing I liked about the story. The character redesigns were very nice and I also liked how you had a party of sorts with you for most of the story like proper FF game. In 2.0 you were mostly solo or did things with other random adventurers (the other players who aren't Warriors of Light in your story) but in 3.0 they were with you in the dungeons, even if they didn't show up when you were fighting the story said they were with you and you could substitute the other players for them.


More spoiler things I liked!

Spoiler

Y'shtola's redesign is great and I loved how they brought her back and no one else (yet). Makes sense that there is magic to teleport and not just things like aetheryte crystals. I liked how she didn't just come back all ok but is now blinded and is getting her life drained by "seeing" with aether. I did think when we got her back that she'd end up being fused with Thancred, like she got them both out of there, both ended up in the lifestream and and ended up fused when we pulled them out. Only thing I didn't like about Y'shtola's redesign is she is wearing like, hotpants or something so she has these nice thigh high boots and then there's that bit of leg showing. Would look better if she just has black leggings on or something.

Spoiler

Loved the whole Matoya's cave stuff. Matoya, the backwards talking brooms, the quests they gave and the story of the frog and Matoya's special broom and that music! Matoya's Cave is one of my favourite FF pieces and I loved this version. Hope we see more of her in the patches. OH And that Library!? Such a great dungeon. Great enemies, great music, great bosses AND a huge throwback to the Library of the Ancients! I squeed when Byblos rose from the book.

Spoiler

Can't wait to see the other Scions redesigns. They have to be alive and will most likely start showing up next patch now we've saved the world again and brought Ishgard into the Eorzea Alliance. They will have to know we're ok and Ul'Dah is back to normal and come out of hiding. Really hope Thancred and Yda's designs are good.

Spoiler

With the whole Warrior of Darkness thing post credits I thought before release it might come up during the story (because of the trailer) and it might be Minfillia. Then I though it was actually US when Thordan looked at us and we looked evil. But then it was trailer guy! I'm excited to see how he gets woven into the narrative. I've just had a though though, SE used him as the player character, as the warrior of light, as us. What he does in trailers and the like is what we do, what we've done. What if, using him at the end like that, doesn't mean that he is a character and real but WE get to make the Warrior of Darkness. Like in Champions Online you could make your arch nemesis. They let us make the character, record male and female voices (just the one of each) and then we get to fight a character we designed! Either that or Trailer Boy is a character and they'll have to stop using him in trailers?

 

[Xion_Stellar]

I suppose Deployment tactics can be useful for large pulls so everyone gets Eye for an Eye, other than that, I don't see much use for it. I feel us SCH got the short end of the stick with the expansion

Than it's clear you don't know about the BS they pulled with Bards or how underpowered Machinist are right now.


I mean FFS doesn't ANY MMO know how to do range DPS correctly balanced? They are either always OP or are bordering just barely good enough or bad/useless.

 

[IMBored]

I suppose Deployment tactics can be useful for large pulls so everyone gets Eye for an Eye, other than that, I don't see much use for it. I feel us SCH got the short end of the stick with the expansion

No, you really didn't.

 

[Arkeband]

Than it's clear you don't know about the BS they pulled with Bards or how underpowered Machinist are right now.


I mean FFS doesn't ANY MMO know how to do range DPS correctly balanced? They are either always OP or are bordering just barely good enough or bad/useless.

I'm sure they'll be buffed soon, so they can pull competitive DPS with melee while still having the luxury of being able to stand wherever they want.

 

[Razzorn34]

So, fellow Dark Knights, do you keep Darkside up all the time? Is it needed/recommended? I ran some low level stuff with it activated, but I don't know how viable it will be on higher level duties. And I also don't know if it will turn into a DPS loss with the need to execute the MP recovery combo frequently. Holding aggro wasn't an issue, at least

Darkside might as well be a permanent buff. You should ALWAYS have it up in combat. Several of your better abilities, Dark Arts especially, rely on it being activated to even use them. For Dark Knight, MP drain is life buddy. Get used to managing MP more effectively.

I really hope they redo the aura effect though. I wish it looked more like the aura when you channel into Fray.

 

[Stuart444]

I'm really not a fan of how these new abilities have been implemented for some classes.

I main DRG, so trying to make any use of Blood of the Dragon in solo content isn't happening since mobs are always facing you - I can't reliably get to their flank unless I run through them and the game happens to register the turn in a weird way, and I think hitting from the rear is right out unless I stun the enemy - which is typically never an option since stuns are part of the normal rotation. .

You can make good use of Blood of the Dragon with Jump/Spineshatter Dive. I regularly use that just now (I don't even have the 56+ skills yet). HT/B4B/Power Surge/Blood of the Dragon/Jump does great dmg.

 

[Xion_Stellar]

I'm sure they'll be buffed soon, so they can pull competitive DPS with melee while still having the luxury of being able to stand wherever they want.

I don't see how they can fix the Bards unless they give up trying to force us to play like a Black Mage every time Wanderer's Minuet is activated.

As for Machinist they can at least buff them to be as good as Bards at the very least and maybe make it so they don't rely on the graces of the RNG to do things.

Edit:And also outside having a 4 second advantage against close quarters AoE Attacks. Range doesn't mean anything in this game as enemies move as fast as you do (unless your running away) and is not like I can kite and kill everything in the game while they are out of reach to hit me.

 

[SUPARSTARX]

Got 35 more quests to do in pre 3.0 to catch up.

Dumb ass move. I want to get into the new content instead I'm stuck with my limited time during early access doing old quests. Fuck.

 

[Aeana]

Got 35 more quests to do in pre 3.0 to catch up.

Dumb ass move. I want to get into the new content instead I'm stuck with my limited time during early access doing old quests. Fuck.

To be fair, they said from the day early access was revealed, that you would need to finish the 2.55 story. That’s why a lot of us came back a week or two early.

 

[Arkeband]

You can make good use of Blood of the Dragon with Jump/Spineshatter Dive. I regularly use that just now (I don't even have the 56+ skills yet). HT/B4B/Power Surge/Blood of the Dragon/Jump does great dmg.

It does 30% more damage on two moves on cooldowns - I won't say this isn't noticeable, but I was referring to Fang and Claw / Wheeling Thrust / Geirskogul, which are all BOTD related. BOTD's 30% buff to Jump/Spineshatter is just a nice bonus, the real functionality of it is to enable the use of our fourth-tier moves - I'm suggesting that these are fairly difficult to pull off at their 290 potency in solo content.

I don't see how they can fix the Bards unless they give up trying to force us to play like a Black Mage every time Wanderer's Minuet is activated.

And also outside having a 4 second advantage against close quarters AoE Attacks. Range doesn't mean anything in this game as enemies move as fast as you do (unless your running away) and is not like I can kite and kill everything in the game while they are out of reach to hit me.

They can just make Bards stance do more potency to offset the loss of autoattacks - it just sounds like it's undertuned right now.

For your second point, I was referring to boss fights - if a boss moves your attacks aren't interrupted, they often will be for melee. And you don't have to worry about positionals.

 

[Haeralis The BRave]

I bought the normal FFXIV for PS4 a week ago, and have not played it yet. Should I buy Heavensward, or should I beat the normal story before hand?

 

[Ayumi]

And I never want to boot up in Windows. Well, that's that. No going back to FF14 for me!

I feel you. The option is there, but I honestly find it dreadful and a waste of money since it requires a Windows license of FFXIV. At least the Mac version is here, and we can only hope they will actually fix the performance. It's like ARK: Survival Evolved all over again.

What I find extremely unforgivable, is that with the SE license rules (1 license per OS/platform), it means we will waste $60 on a version that isn't even ported properly. We pay $60 for something that was WRAPPED. Might as well run the shit through Wine and get a better result.

Mac haters can laugh what they want, but the fact that the game runs fine through Boot Camp proves that it has nothing to do with the eligible hardware only because the OS X client fails, as a result of lack of testing or whatever SE has been doing (Heavensward, I'm guessing).

I have 16 GB of RAM, a dedicated GPU and an i7 processor that turboboosts up to 3.7GHz. This was more than enough when I played FFXIV through Boot Camp.

If only I didn't have to buy the game twice, I would have just stuck with Boot Camp (it was a trial so I didn't buy it yet). I waited 2 months for this release, avoiding to purchase the Windows version just because of this release. But nope. I honestly feel they scammed people with a $60 wrapped "port".

 

[-NeoTB1-]

I bought the normal FFXIV for PS4 a week ago, and have not played it yet. Should I buy Heavensward, or should I beat the normal story before hand?

There's really no reason to get Heavensward yet unless you want to make an Au Ra character.

 

[Zomba13]

I bought the normal FFXIV for PS4 a week ago, and have not played it yet. Should I buy Heavensward, or should I beat the normal story before hand?

Play through A Realm Reborn first to see if you like the mechanics and world and all that and if you enjoy it get Heavensward once you've done all the story stuff you can. If you like the game but think some of the story stuff is bad or boring then HW improves on it so much it's not even funny.

You need to finish up to patch 2.55 with the story to be able to do the expansion content (it's a story based game). You don't have to read or watch all the cutscenes though as you can rewatch them at any time from the inn rooms.

I'd highly recommend starting on Ultros where the GAF guild is and if you need a Recruit A Friend code (to get you an item that increases exp and some feathers used to buy decent gear for lvl50 plus some other things that help when levelling) then I'd be able to provide one. I think you enter it when you subscribe (so after the free month). GAF is super helpful so it's best to play on Ultros if possible.

 

[Tendo]

So I just hit 50 and am wrapping up the story missions to get into HS content. What is the fastest way to get ilevel 90 gear? Is the market an efficient way of doing this?

 

[Arkeband]

So I just hit 50 and am wrapping up the story missions to get into HS content. What is the fastest way to get ilevel 90 gear? Is the market an efficient way of doing this?

I'm pretty sure the 2.4 quests and onward of Level 50 quests give you a full set of gear way better than i90... and they also give you i90 from your 45 & 50 class quests now.

 

[Rose of Eternity]

So I just hit 50 and am wrapping up the story missions to get into HS content. What is the fastest way to get ilevel 90 gear? Is the market an efficient way of doing this?

You could buy crafted stuff, sure. Just realized you need the ilvl to get into some of the later story instances. Poetic farming might be the best way.. then..? Other than quest stuff.

 

[Kenai]

Than it's clear you don't know about the BS they pulled with Bards or how underpowered Machinist are right now.


I mean FFS doesn't ANY MMO know how to do range DPS correctly balanced? They are either always OP or are bordering just barely good enough or bad/useless.

The concept of WM is fine, they want it to be a notable DPS loss to actively move (like every other ranged class), and that's not actually a "bad" thing, just different from before. TBH I thought it was more of a problem that Bards were realistically the *only* DPS that HAD to be there in the 2.0 line because of how Op their utility is, and also how crap it was that they were also supposed to have lower DPS as a result. Now, they have to play with mechanics more, they have the option of doing competitive DPS (at least in theory) and (again, in theory) can be replaced by MCH if need be. I can understand not liking the change, but there are some objective problems with the class now, like how WM can cause incorrect functionality with things like abilities still having a cast time when they shouldn't. That is the crap that should be focused on for now imo. Same with with MCH and their DPS if it is notably lower than everyone else while leveling, especially if that carries into endgame (but that is an easier fix, just potency tweaks).


Just finished

Spoiler

The Aery

and that was a GREAT cutscene. he gear also seems much easier to come by in dungeons which is very nice. Still quite enjoying leveling AST too, Malefic 2 gave me a nice DPS boost right when i needed it and Gravity helps a ton for AoE. Still gonna make it my alt I think, but it will be nice to have the AST option open for me if they need a healer but already have a SCH.

 

[Razzorn34]

So I just hit 50 and am wrapping up the story missions to get into HS content. What is the fastest way to get ilevel 90 gear? Is the market an efficient way of doing this?

The stuff on the vendor in the expansion starts at ilvl115. A buddy could probably just pick it up for you. That stuff is scalped to hell on the market board. Stay away.

 

[Klyka]

So I just hit 50 and am wrapping up the story missions to get into HS content. What is the fastest way to get ilevel 90 gear? Is the market an efficient way of doing this?

Your class quests will give you item lvl 90 armor now.
Also the later patch rewards give you higher ilevel stuff.
You can do all the story content now without grinding for new gear.

 

[Roxas]

Any tips for grinding level 58 to 59? I've gotten to a certain new area and the story and side quests have just dried up leaving me about 2 million xp short of 59

 

[AgeEighty]

Any tips for grinding level 58 to 59? I've gotten to a certain new area and the story and side quests have just dried up leaving me about 2 million xp short of 59

I had the exact same problem. They lull you into a false sense of security by giving you a very long series of MSQ at level 57, only to hit you with a very short series at 58. 59 is a bit better; I'm only 1.3 mil short to make 60.

Dungeon runs and hunt bills are the best xp right now, I think. Make sure you unlock the rank 3 hunts via quests. I mostly grinded

Spoiler

The Vault

and the only reason it took me a long time was because I kept getting booted from the game in the middle of runs.

 

[Pachimari]

Woah I thought I had to pre-order in order to get the bonus in-game items but it turns out I just have to pay for the Collector's Edition.

 

[IMBored]

The concept of WM is fine, they want it to be a notable DPS loss to actively move (like every other ranged class)

You mean like every other caster class. And even with WM the dps gap didn't get get smaller. Instead it got even wider because the nerfs made to brd are barely compensated by the new skills, while every other dps class got actual buffs.

 

[Pyros_Eien]

Any tips for grinding level 58 to 59? I've gotten to a certain new area and the story and side quests have just dried up leaving me about 2 million xp short of 59

There's a bunch of sidequests that popped in other zones at that point, so you kinda need to revisit. There's also a bunch of sidequests in the zone you're in. After that, you're supposed to run dungeons a bit, make sure to do your daily bill marks and so on, nothing really special. I think I ran the Vault like 4-5times(though it was mostly at 57, when I was getting chain bonus) and I had some spare sidequests left over when I hit 59, though not many and they were getting annoying in terms of how much running I had to do. Then at 59 I just grinded the new dungeon and did the MSQ, leaving the sidequests for an alt. Library(the 59 dungeon) gives quite a lot of xp per run though, goes pretty fast, and the loot is actually useful since you need a decent ilvl to do the 60 dungeons so highly recommend farming that.


As for the bards discussion, and machinist for the same reasons, I'd be surprised if they didn't massively buff the boost from WM/Gauss. The problem is I don't really see this happening before 3.1, so for now, the class is mostly mp/tp regen with really bad damage in comparison. It doesn't make very much sense to remove autoattack and only buff by roughly the same % of damage the autoattack did before(after det nerfs taken into account that is).

Considering songs/overcharge come with their own downside(direct loss of damage), I feel BRD/MCH dmg should be closer to BLM/SMN in the first place, especially if they have to do a static cast based gameplay, but it doesn't seem like they do a whole lot more damage regardless of using it or not. SMN damage isn't penalized in general for having in combat rez for example, the penalty is simply the large loss of mana which might hinder DPS, so not sure why bards/machinists have to be penalized heavily just for having songs/turrets in their toolset, and then penalized AGAIN for using them. Or make them pure supports.

 

[Nose Master]

I can't fight the new beastman race without thinking of this

 

[AlphaDragoon]

Got to 60 on my Ninja yesterday and finished the story. The new NIN opener is a LOT of buttons to press, goddamn. Dream Within a Dream (their 60 ability) is sick, looks awesome and hits three times.

The story was really well done, it felt like an offline FF game.

**MAJOR SPOILERS**

Spoiler

The Thordan fight with Knights of the Round was amazing. Also WTF at generic Hyur Warrior/Dragoon man in all the trailers actually being the Warrior of Darkness.

 

[Xion_Stellar]

The concept of WM is fine, they want it to be a notable DPS loss to actively move (like every other ranged class), and that's not actually a "bad" thing, just different from before. TBH I thought it was more of a problem that Bards were realistically the *only* DPS that HAD to be there in the 2.0 line because of how Op their utility is, and also how crap it was that they were also supposed to have lower DPS as a result. Now, they have to play with mechanics more, they have the option of doing competitive DPS (at least in theory) and (again, in theory) can be replaced by MCH if need be. I can understand not liking the change, but there are some objective problems with the class now, like how WM can cause incorrect functionality with things like abilities still having a cast time when they shouldn't. That is the crap that should be focused on for now imo. Same with with MCH and their DPS if it is notably lower than everyone else while leveling, especially if that carries into endgame (but that is an easier fix, just potency tweaks).


Just finished

Spoiler

The Aery

and that was a GREAT cutscene. he gear also seems much easier to come by in dungeons which is very nice. Still quite enjoying leveling AST too, Malefic 2 gave me a nice DPS boost right when i needed it and Gravity helps a ton for AoE. Still gonna make it my alt I think, but it will be nice to have the AST option open for me if they need a healer but already have a SCH.

There are 2 main issues I have with Wanderer's Minuet:

1-The forced style change to play like a Black Mage is the worst thing. Yeah Bards were the only one who can move while attacking at the same time but that wasn't a bad things as that was 1 thing that set them apart from the rest of the Classes. If I wanted to play like I Black Mage I would play a Black Mage and unfortunately Machinist also suffers this with Gauss Barrel.

2.You said it yourself the Bard class simply wasn't made to play like a Black Mage and adding cast time to it's actions throws off the flow of a Bard and how their skills activate (First one that comes to mind is Heavy Shot taking longer to shoot means your less likely to activate a Critical Hit with Straight Shot).

And honestly I don't think I want Square-Enix to try and "fix" the Bard anymore because so far Square-Enix's definition of "fixing" the Bard is simply giving it more Nerfs:

-Bard stats got slashed across the whole board once already
-Blood for Blood got nerfed from a 25% Damage increase to 10%
-Barrage got nerfed/changed in order to force the same effect Barrage had unto Wanderer's Minuet

And already the Theorycrafters are saying that Wanderer's Minuet offers little to no DPS increase because adding a cast time to a Bard doesn't work correctly on how Bard Skills activate to begin with. So honestly the only way Square-Enix can "fix" the Bard is either by:

A-They drop the cast time shenanigans with Wanderer's Minuet

B- Completely rework the Bard Skills so they can work more effectively with the Cast Time added by Wanderer's Minuet.

C- They simply nerf the Bard class again and buff Wanderer's Minuet in order to make the gains of Wanderer's Minuet seem substantial while also forcing on us this style change on how the Bard plays if we want to be "optimal" again.

And my fear is that they will go with the Nerfs again.

As for anyone who don't get what I mean by style change than let's have Square-Enix add a Cast Time to every action on every DPS class and lets see how well that would flies with anyone considering that's not how the Class has been played for 2 years now.

 

[VanillaCakeIsBurning]

Are you marking? I mark every pull with at least a 1 when tanking and I dont run into this at all.

I don't bother to marks anymore but there were still times where people would do this even with marks.

The only time I use marks now are when the group wipes on a fight because people are tunneling on the boss instead of killing something else that needs to be killed ASAP. I will then mark it the next time when it spawns (along with chat macro).

 

[Dreamwriter]

I think the main reason for Wanderer's Minuet was because bards were the only class to not have to really worry about many boss mechanics, because they could dodge stuff with no downside whatsoever, no DPS loss or anything. Heck, the bard in my static has killed bosses while kiting them around as the only party member still alive. They were overpowered in a way that Square hadn't thought of. Is WM the best solution, probably not, but it's definitely a tricky problem to solve in a way that doesn't piss people off or leave the class as overpowered.