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Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward |OT| The Midas Touch

Frumix

Suffering From Success
I feel like 3.1 is full of music that Yoshida should have said "pls recompose". Which is unusual to me since the quality is usually pretty amazing. That Void Ark final boss music especially is crappy.

I liked Void Ark music personally but the patch is definitely a step down overall.
 

Ken

Member
Patch has been keeping me away from Fallout 4 so there's that.

But boiling it down, there's not a whole lot in this patch I'll keep up with outside of Void Ark for the free twines and occasional Diadem. But hey, that's still new additions to my regular rotation of EXDR and A4S grind.
 

Tiops

Member
We're already calling dead game here? lmao

Anyway, they really fixed the mudras. Smooth every time, no more lagomorphs. It seems they're client side now, you can input the combination in the correct combination and it never misses (at least I didn't miss once yesterday).

Tried to work on my NIN relic yesterday (because of reasons) and got from Novus to Nexus in 2 hours of unsynched Sastasha NM grind. I had aroudn 100 light when I started.
 
Already experienced most of the new stuff for the patch, some of the quality of life improvements will give it a little staying power like the level 50 dungeons finally giving exp and them boosting the exp greatly of the 51+ dungeons. Otherwise, it'll be just trying to get Thordan EX down and then just trying to scrounge together a static while mainly playing until I'm capped and calling it good until next week.

MSQ was just too short for my tastes, hopefully 3.2 brings more
 

Munba

Member
FF11 event was so nostalgic T_T Recollection theme is still a gem.

But 2 songs (from datamining) are missing mmmh...
 

IvorB

Member
impromptu screencap of the GAF void ark run earlier today



it was fun!

This was fun but I was screwing up so much :-O. I've forgotten how to black mage. Embarrassing.

So I tried Void Ark first. I thought it was really cool. I'm liking the dark theme of the place and the design of the bosses and encounters. I found it to be easier than WoD but it's okay for what it is. Then I randomly jumped into a Thordan Ex PF. I realised how refreshing it is to just join in for something challenging and have a go without having to read up a guide and do a bunch of research. That seemed like a fun fight.

I started doing beastman dailies but just the first one I was on was already starting to make me angry and frustrated looking for the stupid crap in the tree, so I'm not sure I'm gonna keep doing that. I do kind of want that mount though...

Then there's the Diadem. On this I am conflicted. I just did the normal version. On the one hand I find it a bit boring and shallow. It's just going round killing the same beaties over and over. And to make matters worse the enemies are all reskins of enemies we have fought before so there is nothing new to see from that perspective. Honestly I feel like even doing FATEs is more exciting and dynamic at times. On the other hand, it's kind of dumb fun so I'm definitely going to go back in though but I wonder how long the attraction will last. I'm really hoping hard mode version will offer a more compelling experience. Next, I'm gonna try the new dungeons.
 

Demoskinos

Member
So quick poll.

Finally got my Dragoon leveled blah blah...and now I'm gearing it. Currently wearing almost a full set of LAW gear except for my weapon which is still an i145 weapon I got from the Vault.

When I do my lvl 60 roulette today I'll have 990 esos enough to get a weapon. Should I get the weapon or should I get the chest instead and then get the LAW weapon and upgrade itbto tide me over until 3.15 relic?
 

IvorB

Member
So quick poll.

Finally got my Dragoon leveled blah blah...and now I'm gearing it. Currently wearing almost a full set of LAW gear except for my weapon which is still an i145 weapon I got from the Vault.

When I do my lvl 60 roulette today I'll have 990 esos enough to get a weapon. Should I get the weapon or should I get the chest instead and then get the LAW weapon and upgrade itbto tide me over until 3.15 relic?

Well conventional wisdom seems to be that DPS should prioritise weapons first but it's up to you. It might be a while until you get your hands on the relic though.
 
You know what's funny? Being a healer and finding out how much damage the knights do to you with their double limit break because everyone in your party got killed in the same spot during the divebombs except you.
 

aceface

Member
I was skeptical at first but one thing I really enjoyed was the cut scenes after Void Ark. That story and characters are shaping up to be better than Alexander IMO. Too bad I have to wait 6-8 months to see the next part.
 

Valor

Member
i mean we all knew this patch was gonna be a bit light, but I'm coming around to the diadem (as long as it's on Dino Island), I haven't tried Void Ark yet, and the Thordan fight is pretty cool so far. The content is decent, but isn't going to last forever, but I don't think it was meant to. Relic is coming in 3.15 with a few other things, so we won't be totally dry until 3.2, but... yeah. 3.1 isn't gonna save ded gaem, but it's not that terrible.
 

studyguy

Member
Did diadem or whatever.
We found an amazing 210 armor for our Monk.
Was also PK'd by other people constantly dragging mobs to players.

Feels like I'm back in XI.

Void Ark's story feels like it should have been the Savage story. It's way more interesting even if the instance itself was whatever.
 

IvorB

Member
I was skeptical at first but one thing I really enjoyed was the cut scenes after Void Ark. That story and characters are shaping up to be better than Alexander IMO. Too bad I have to wait 6-8 months to see the next part.

Yeah I was enjoying that. I'm looking forward to seeing further exploits of blondie pirate wench and the
random kitty
appearance at the end was such a 'wft?' moment. It really cracked me up. It seems like they have really found their groove when it comes to the story stuff.
 

iammeiam

Member
3.1 isn't gonna save ded gaem, but it's not that terrible.

3.1 is probably okay if they're going back to the three month patch cycle. Holidays are usually a deader MMO time anyway, the relic grind shot in the arm will boost it back up midway through, so I can see this being okay through maybe February. But if it's another extended gap (and it shouldn't be, there's no good reason for it, but I also don't understand why it's taking them six months to introduce the HW-era relic), we're doomed. 3.2 has to save the game, 3.1 just needs to be life support and I don't see the Diadem loot piñata or Verminion sustaining people through April.

That said, I feel really, really bad for anybody hitting 60 in 3.1 because getting from i145 to i170 is pretty miserable now, and most everyone has moved on to i170+ stuff (SE logic: We'll have the new EXDR dungeons set to an iLevel 10 above the drops from the previous dungeon set so new players have no choice but to tome grind outdated content.) Here's hoping Sky Pirate gear prices tank.
 

Qvoth

Member
just had my 1st diadem normal mode
was pretty fun-ish, might not feel the same after many grinds though
saw 4-5 210 drops, the drop rate is pretty good
enemies are surprisingly tough, makes me wonder how much hp hard mode will have lol
 

scy

Member
Not feeling the grind like you don't feel it's a grind or not feeling a grind because there is no grind?

Diadem seems really meh and I really want to know how this patch took as long as it did, vacation aside, when that was such a low effort thing to create. Thordan EX, Void Ark, Dungeons, etc. all seem to be the normal development cycle thing but like ... eh?

Hopefully relic, alt stuff, etc. fills a lot of gaps but anything later than like February will feel like a huge struggle.
 

Jayhawk

Member
Healers and ranged DPS taking advantage of the landscape to deal with NM AOEs. Non-tanks pulling mobs to the tanks, so that the tanks don't have to move and the group can keep hitting things non-stop. Everybody having to roll on loot in case the pool has overflow. It's FFXI!

When you're able to keep farming at the same dino spot for an hour, then the chest rate is pretty good. Note that you can get a rare gold treasure chest from rank IVs, and you can get a rare i210 piece from bronze treasure chests.
 

Frumix

Suffering From Success
Diadem seems really meh and I really want to know how this patch took as long as it did, vacation aside, when that was such a low effort thing to create. Thordan EX, Void Ark, Dungeons, etc. all seem to be the normal development cycle thing but like ... eh?

Hopefully relic, alt stuff, etc. fills a lot of gaps but anything later than like February will feel like a huge struggle.

I don't believe they have a solid development plan at all anymore. Or they just lost the grasp on reality which is also possible.
 

aceface

Member
Diadem seems really meh and I really want to know how this patch took as long as it did, vacation aside, when that was such a low effort thing to create. Thordan EX, Void Ark, Dungeons, etc. all seem to be the normal development cycle thing but like ... eh?

Hopefully relic, alt stuff, etc. fills a lot of gaps but anything later than like February will feel like a huge struggle.

They better keep a tight update schedule or they are going to be bleeding subs (well, even moreso). You would think that they like money but it's not like SE hasn't made boneheaded moves in the past.

That being said, maybe more people are like me and only have around 2 and a half hours to play on average 5-6 times a week? Last night I had time to do one Void ark and beast tribe quests (btw- music in new beast tribe areas- really good!) and that's it. Gonna try Diadem tonight. Thursday is raid, weekend I may or may not be on, Sunday is raid again and then next week I'll get to new dungeons and MSQ stuff and Thordan and Verminion. On my schedule content longevity is fine and I'll stay subbed because I love it but I don't know how many people are like that. This forum is more representative of people who blitz through the content in a day or two, thus ded gaem it feels like.
 

studyguy

Member
PKs are real as fuck in Diadem though.
Fuck. You can easily case a mob train and murder an entire group fighting enemies with the amount of damage these guys do.
 

WolvenOne

Member
Finished the MSQ this morning, RIP bodyclock.

I thought it was a pretty decent opening to the 3.X story, certainly better than 2.1's story. I can see why some people would be underwhelmed after 3.0 hit it on all fronts, but 3.1's story was never going to be as far reaching, it's real job was to set up future story patches a bit.

As for 3.1, I do kinda feel like this patch needed another HM level trial or something, just to pad things out a bit. The core amount of content is fine, but after that long some people aren't going to be satisfied with a normal size patch.

As for why it took so long. One, Diadem may not seem all that complex, but anything new is going to require an inordinate amount of trial and error. I might add that the same goes for Lord of Verminion. Likely another factor, given the circumstances it's likely that portions of the team are also doing preliminary work on patches 3.2 and beyond. Granted, they ought to be able to do both, but I think it's fairly well established that the development team is a bit too small at the moment.

This is probably especially true now that the game is so much bigger, as there is so much back content that has to be adjusted at any given time. Not that the 2.0 dungeon adjustments took a lot of resources, but again, small team.

Hint hint: Hire a few more people SE!

That said, again this patch in isolation is fine, and I'm enjoying it a lot. Diadem isn't going to be for everyone, but it's fun for what it is. :)
 

iammeiam

Member
That being said, maybe more people are like me and only have around 2 and a half hours to play on average 5-6 times a week? Last night I had time to do one Void ark and beast tribe quests (btw- music in new beast tribe areas- really good!) and that's it. Gonna try Diadem tonight. Thursday is raid, weekend I may or may not be on, Sunday is raid again and then next week I'll get to new dungeons and MSQ stuff and Thordan and Verminion. On my schedule content longevity is fine and I'll stay subbed because I love it but I don't know how many people are like that. This forum is more representative of people who blitz through the content in a day or two, thus ded gaem it feels like.

I'm not going to argue that time to play doesn't factor in to it somewhat, but I feel like it's a lot like the "rushing to 60 just means you're going to run out of things to do faster!" argument. All this stuff is only new once--whether it's new for me for three days or you for two weeks, that leaves us both with threeish months of nothing new that repeating the content has to carry the game through. I've been pretty much just logging in to my main to raid for quite a while now, and Thordan is the only thing I can see wanting to maybe log in to do long-term.

So it's not just that the patch was kind of content light, but that what's there doesn't feel terribly long term.
 

aceface

Member
I'm not going to argue that time to play doesn't factor in to it somewhat, but I feel like it's a lot like the "rushing to 60 just means you're going to run out of things to do faster!" argument. All this stuff is only new once--whether it's new for me for three days or you for two weeks, that leaves us both with threeish months of nothing new that repeating the content has to carry the game through. I've been pretty much just logging in to my main to raid for quite a while now, and Thordan is the only thing I can see wanting to maybe log in to do long-term.

So it's not just that the patch was kind of content light, but that what's there doesn't feel terribly long term.

It's not that I disagree, but looking forward I can't see myself running out of things to do for awhile. After doing all the stuff in this patch I'm going to start leveling alts to 60, something that didn't feel worthwhile until they buffed the exp for dungeons and added beast tribe quests this patch. Then I'm going to complete my 2.x relic which I never bothered to get past the light stage. Along with continuing my gathering money-making activities and with raiding taking up 2 of the 6 days I have, I can't see running out of stuff at least until 3.15 and new relic quest drops.

But, I can also see it from the other perspective- they also need enough interesting stuff for people who can rush through content. Like, I don't see why Sorian's idea of refreshing existing content by adding roulettes or buffing difficulty hasn't been done yet. And this patch really, really needed another ex primal. If they don't make it interesting enough they are going to lose subs to the wealth of other good games coming out which means less revenue which means less content in a never-ending downward spiral. What I was speculating on above was if there is enough people like me (ie filthy casuals) who will stay subbed longer to keep the game viable. Maybe producing enough content to keep this crowd happy is enough to keep the game afloat at the expense of the hardcore players?

And honestly, if there is a lack of content, the lack of manpower is not an excuse. It's their responsibility to produce enough content to justify the price of a sub, to keep people subbed. Any excuses given as to why this didn't happen doesn't matter to players and thus ultimately means nothing to the bottom line. They have to figure out a way to produce enough content with the resources they have.
 

aceface

Member
Such passion in this thread

I forgot that I swore off writing long posts. This is me procrastinating from grading research papers on my day off.

To Sorian
Going by the music tracklist, they might be saving him for an upcoming seasonal event, like the xmas one?
 

WolvenOne

Member
Well, I've been saying this for awhile, but one extreme primal really doesn't cut it. On average it takes players anywhere from a few days to a few months to down an extreme primal, depending on their skill level and the robustness of their support network. For players that get a primal down in a few days, or even a few weeks, one primal will just leave them feeling content starved again after awhile. Oh, sure, players will go back occasionally for additional gear or to help friends through, but still.

Diadem: It's fine, it's a fun little grind you can do a few times a week for materia and better gear.

Void Ark: It's fine, it's a more casual raid that you can mess around with, maybe use it to practice other classes, etc.

But the game could use some extra trials at sixty. I mean dungeons too, but that strikes me as slightly less pressing.

PS: I think the developers also need to realize that they don't need to put on a huge elaborate show each time they introduce a new trial of signifance. Take Chimera and Hydra for instance, we certainly didn't need a huge story to explain away those trials.
 
I like Thordan Ex's music, the first phase music, but I can't help but feel like it should belong to a fight that it more...meaningful?

TO ME MY KNIGHTS
 

Cmagus

Member
I actually like the Diadem a lot it has a lot of things that I wanted in the game. I really like the idea of having the open area with random large enemies spawning it's a nice variety. That being said there is a lot imo that they need to fix. I also wish that they made the different difficulties tiered starting with the easy voyage being level 50 entry requirements.

I would love to be able to take my level 50 classes in there and level up instead of the tedious dungeon grinds, it would have brought a nice change of pace for leveling.

Gathering is cool but unless you go in a pre made it's kind of annoying because going with a random party leads to issues like them getting pissed cause you aren't fighting and on the forums there are people complaining about gatherers rolling for loot when they didn't help fight anything for it.

Which beings me to the starting aetherial currents, imo they should remove that and let you fly or at least for each island have you get them and not need them anymore. It would be nice to go on a voyage solo if you just want to gather or fish but since you can't fly right away it's impossible.
 

iammeiam

Member
^- Diadem absolutely should have had an i160 version with rare i180 drops that rewarded law instead of Eso. Bridge the gear gap and spare my poor alt infinite Fractals of everyone running into mines because life is terrible.

Well, I've been saying this for awhile, but one extreme primal really doesn't cut it. On average it takes players anywhere from a few days to a few months to down an extreme primal, depending on their skill level and the robustness of their support network. For players that get a primal down in a few days, or even a few weeks, one primal will just leave them feeling content starved again after awhile. Oh, sure, players will go back occasionally for additional gear or to help friends through, but still.

This is honestly why Thordan is my big hope for 3.1. It looks actually fun to do, with Shiva-style forgiveness built in such that you can scatter deaths through the fight and still ultimately clear. Maybe I'll hate it when I finally get in, but from what I've seen it looks like something I'll just enjoy doing. Yeah, the weapons are great, but Ravana I got my weapon from and was kind of done. It's been a surprisingly long time since they introduced an even remotely challenging fight not on lockout that I actually really enjoyed (Maybe since Shiva?)

I'd spam A1S and A3S if I could because I still enjoy doing them, but lockouts make that impractical. Hoping Thordan is as much fun and can be done whenever with whoever.
 

WolvenOne

Member
If you're not in a pre-made that went in with Gathering in mind, I think your best bet is to wait until say, the last 10-15 minutes. Around that point, even if a Star Rank spawns there's a high likelyhood you won't be able to kill it in time anyway. So getting a hand-ful of gathering done then makes sense.

But, yea doing premades for Gathering probably makes sense, if your goal is to do a lot of it that is.
 

Frumix

Suffering From Success
^- Diadem absolutely should have had an i160 version with rare i180 drops that rewarded law instead of Eso. Bridge the gear gap and spare my poor alt infinite Fractals of everyone running into mines because life is terrible.



This is honestly why Thordan is my big hope for 3.1. It looks actually fun to do, with Shiva-style forgiveness built in such that you can scatter deaths through the fight and still ultimately clear. Maybe I'll hate it when I finally get in, but from what I've seen it looks like something I'll just enjoy doing. Yeah, the weapons are great, but Ravana I got my weapon from and was kind of done. It's been a surprisingly long time since they introduced an even remotely challenging fight not on lockout that I actually really enjoyed (Maybe since Shiva?)

I'd spam A1S and A3S if I could because I still enjoy doing them, but lockouts make that impractical. Hoping Thordan is as much fun and can be done whenever with whoever.

Did we get the same Thordan fight patched in, what? Or did GAF get outrageously good lately?
 

Sorian

Banned
Did we get the same Thordan fight patched in, what? Or did GAF get outrageously good lately?

Is she wrong? I haven't looked into the fight past what I've seen first hand. All she is saying is that the overall enrage is forgiving so that deaths spread apart through the fight aren't a game ender like A3S would be.
 

iammeiam

Member
Did we get the same Thordan fight patched in, what? Or did GAF get outrageously good lately?

The clear video I watched had.. I dunno, at least three deaths? I think maybe five? Scholar bit it to divebombs, they lost two DPS during the meteor DPS check, I think one of those guys redied later. I know there's the T10 mechanic where one death wipes the raid, but beyond that it looks a shitload more recoverable than say A3S.
 

Frumix

Suffering From Success
Is she wrong? I haven't looked into the fight past what I've seen first hand. All she is saying is that the overall enrage is forgiving so that deaths spread apart through the fight aren't a game ender like A3S would be.

Depends on who dies, and when. If tanks die before two paladins come out, it's a wipe. If healers die before the meteor phase, the cumulative damage will likely do you in. I suppose the latter half is more forgiving, but the enrage seems to be decently strict at the suggested gear level. It's incomparable to Shiva through which you can largely sleep through and nothing bad will happen barring an unfortunate Glass Dance.

The clear video I watched had.. I dunno, at least three deaths? I think maybe five? Scholar bit it to divebombs, they lost two DPS during the meteor DPS check, I think one of those guys redied later. I know there's the T10 mechanic where one death wipes the raid, but beyond that it looks a shitload more recoverable than say A3S.

So you haven't done it?
Yeah, it's not A3S, but it's not Shiva either. This is one time Yoshida was actually truthful about how hard it is - it's A1S level of gear requirement with T9 density of mechanics.
How tight the enrage in the last phase is also depends on the DPS in the first phase.
 

scy

Member
But, I can also see it from the other perspective- they also need enough interesting stuff for people who can rush through content.

Not even really about because of rushing through content though. Personally, even if doing everything in the patch took awhile, it wouldn't change what 3.1 was content wise.

Did we get the same Thordan fight patched in, what? Or did GAF get outrageously good lately?

That's literally the selling point of the fight going into it. It goes on far longer than it "needs to" for a kill to happen. You have a lot of padding to get there to allow for screwing up and slowly coming back and still getting it. Nothing to do with ease of the fight or how it is to execution.
 

Sorian

Banned
Depends on who dies, and when. If tanks die before two paladins come out, it's a wipe. If healers die before the meteor phase, the cumulative damage will likely do you in. I suppose the latter half is more forgiving, but the enrage seems to be decently strict at the suggested gear level. It's incomparable to Shiva through which you can largely sleep through and nothing bad will happen barring an unfortunate Glass Dance.

So, it's 100% recoverable just like Shiva was at most times. As long as there is enough time to rez your tank before the two paladins come out then it's no big deal. We had a weakened tank taking one of those buffed blade dance moves and it was no big deal.

What even is the suggested gear level for this? I assume anyone doing this even remotely serious at the moment is rocking ilvl 200 at least if not more.
 

Frumix

Suffering From Success
Not even really about because of rushing through content though. Personally, even if doing everything in the patch took awhile, it wouldn't change what 3.1 was content wise.



That's literally the selling point of the fight going into it. It goes on far longer than it "needs to" for a kill to happen. You have a lot of padding to get there to allow for screwing up and slowly coming back and still getting it. Nothing to do with ease of the fight or how it is to execution.

So, it's 100% recoverable just like Shiva was at most times. As long as there is enough time to rez your tank before the two paladins come out then it's no big deal. We had a weakened tank taking one of those buffed blade dance moves and it was no big deal.

What even is the suggested gear level for this? I assume anyone doing this even remotely serious at the moment is rocking ilvl 200 at least if not more.

Am I just jaded by bottom of the barrel pugs? I guess I am.
Looking at the parse from our raid 1, they killed it 40 seconds away from enrage with 3 deaths.
The comparison to Shiva is still weird though. Half the party can sleep through that fight and you'll clear.
 
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