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Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood |OT| Y'all Need to Calm Down
- Thread starter Ken
- Start date
They're definitely some of the better dungeons in the game, though (69)
Castrum
Shisui
Shisui
I think the dungeons have been great, but what really surprised me was the huge set up for the Solo Duties. There's been a slow evolution of how they tackle Solo Duty design from ARR through HW, and especially in the post-HW patches, but in Stormblood you really see a consistent effort to make each one more unique, more elaborate, and more different. Many of them in Stormblood feel like either large single player set pieces, or even solo dungeons in a way. Really cool.
Why would it be too late? If anything, now is a great time to jump in as people are coming back for the new expansion.
It's never too late, like really! In fact, as the latest expansion was just released there are a lot of new people coming in too ^^
Razgriz-Specter
Member
Quick question about HW,
I just completed The Aery and all the following fetch quests, now it seems to be ramping up again.
I still have a long way to SB correct?
I just completed The Aery and all the following fetch quests, now it seems to be ramping up again.
I still have a long way to SB correct?
I held off for years because a) it's a MMO and I don't play MMOs, b) was holding out for a "see I was right!!!" F2P announcement moment (lmao), c) was worried that if I started and everyone I knew who was playing is lvl564645 I would be left out.
Finally jumped in earlier this year when some other friends recently started it at the time as well. 4 months later I'm having the time of my life at the end of the latest expansion. Best FF experience since FFXII. Outstanding world building. Well realized storylines. Fun gameplay. Friendly to newcomers. The GAF FC rocks. In a year where gaming in general has been really good on all fronts, FFXIV is my highlight so far.
You're in the final stretch of HW (3.0). Another two dungeons to go along with some exploration and a bunch of cutscenes. Then after that you have the post-HW content. I'll say maybe 25-30 hours at most. But that's also going to be the best content you've seen up to now.
Then Stormblood starts. ^_^
Razgriz-Specter
Member
Thank you.You're in the final stretch of HW (3.0). Another two dungeons to go along with some exploration and a bunch of cutscenes. Then after that you have the post-HW content. I'll say maybe 25-30 hours at most. But that's also going to be the best content you've seen up to now.
Then Stormblood starts. ^_^
Some of the bosses in them had way inflated health pools. It's not really fun to be scratching off one percent at a time - just give the boss two forms or something, I need some smaller victories while bringing this genki fucker down to 0.
(responding to this too) The devs definitely fucked up here because they kept giving system messages that said class quests give you items and skills, yet you have to clear like five in a row that clearly do no such thing. They should have a big tutorial window that pops up at 70 that tells people to do their class quest, or they need to find a way to incentivize people to do the otherwise exp-only class quests.
Wife and I got into it (i've been off and on so many times, I've done starting Ul'dah over 20 times) and it couldn't be any easier to do. It's incredibly fun, and the myriad classes and quests, Manderville Gold Saucer (unlocked at 15, basically a casino), crafting is deep but shallow enough to get a handle, combat is streamlined with 4.0... basically this is the best time to jump in.
PS4 Dragoon Players, how do you guys manage Dragon Sight? I find using it is throwing off my rhythm because i have to awkwardly target a party member to use it... not used to using the direction pad to quickly search for the right party member to use the skill on.
Are there better ways than what I'm doing?
Are there better ways than what I'm doing?
Up and down on the D-pad cycles only party members. I manage to heal just fine with that.
Yes and no and kinda.
SB does this weird thing where it has put a lot of support stuff into role actions. Bard can still TP and MP song like always, but now casters can donate MP via a role action and all melee can get Goad, so while Bard can still do the thing, other jobs can too. Apoc and a virus-like thing and sub appear in role actions, giving everyone some kind of access to some support utility.
They have a couple of raid damage buffs--one that's a passive side effect of how bard works now, two that they can activate on-demand. They've got access to fairly solid CC now since MCH's stun and slow were moved to role actions.
They've got an ability that will temporarily raise the rest of the party's def, MDEF, or HP depending on how they use it, but it will be interesting to see strategies as the bard themselves won't gain the defensive buff everyone else gets.
They've also now got Minne, a spell with a 45 second CD that is basically castable Convalescence. 20% boost to healing of whoever gets targeted.
So they've got new stuff, but it's all very focused. The core of gameplay is still a damage rotation and weaving in the support parts as the situation demands, but their set of tools for party support is bigger than it ever has been.
LowParry
Member
I feel very compelled to boost one to 60. I think I may just do that so that I can focus mostly on just the two jobs. SCH/BRD.
I never felt this, maybe because I'm playing as a dragoon? I imagine some DPS classes will have a much better time with the solo fights than tank and healers. It never felt like I was chipping away at a boss, but rather I would often get tunnel vision while spamming a series of combos and fail to avoid two major attacks in a row and die. Lol. Once I get the pattern down, the solo bosses were like dancing fights. I found them really fun.
It's not a terrible idea; the 60-70 leveling experience for Bard is fairly solid. The new support-y stuff is something you'll gain as you level, for the most part, while the base 60 kit has a lot of the actual rotation stuff in it. You get skills post-60 that make it a better overall experience (a thing to basically guarantee a couple of procs per song, an extension to how long DoTs stay up), but it feels pretty functional right at 60.
Anything before 52 would be weird, because the new gameplay style is to Always Be Singing, and before you unlock Minuet you wouldn't have enough songs to do that.
I felt like there were stronger highs in the HW set between Sohm, DV, Vault, and Gubal. Stormblood has a few that fall really flat (
Bardam's Mettle, Castrum, Ala Mhigo
Kugane Castle
Shmuppers
Member
So much content, meta shifts, memes! How could I possibly catch myself up lol.
That makes me feel a little better then, knowing I won't be the only noob out there haha.
This excites me a lot, as a big fan of FF. I think I'm gonna dive in!I held off for years because a) it's a MMO and I don't play MMOs, b) was holding out for a "see I was right!!!" F2P announcement moment (lmao), c) was worried that if I started and everyone I knew who was playing is lvl564645 I would be left out.
Finally jumped in earlier this year when some other friends recently started it at the time as well. 4 months later I'm having the time of my life at the end of the latest expansion. Best FF experience since FFXII. Outstanding world building. Well realized storylines. Fun gameplay. Friendly to newcomers. The GAF FC rocks. In a year where gaming in general has been really good on all fronts, FFXIV is my highlight so far.
You're in the final stretch of HW (3.0). Another two dungeons to go along with some exploration and a bunch of cutscenes. Then after that you have the post-HW content. I'll say maybe 25-30 hours at most. But that's also going to be the best content you've seen up to now.
Then Stormblood starts. ^_^
I think I'll play a tank class, since there seems to be a surplus of healers and DPS's. Which is the most straightforward to play? I'll do some of my own research, just want to get the perspective of more experienced players.
Welcome! There are so many FF nods and references that take things throughout the entire series while also making their mark on the franchise.
As for tanks, Paladin would be the most straightforward. It's also the most tank of the tanks now, as it received a lot of buffs with Stormblood.
I definitely understand the feeling of being hesitant about starting to play this. Felt the same way. But I jumped in yesterday and have been having a pretty decent time. Not a big MMO guy so I'm still trying to figure a lot of stuff out, but I'm enjoying myself.
Oh man, I love playing Dark Knight in PvP now.
Before, you just usually spammed unleash to bind people. Now that unmend pulls people towards you, I just use that and stun them so they get dragged in to my team's pack and slaughtered. Sometimes I get the kill myself, just got a battle fever my last match.
Before, you just usually spammed unleash to bind people. Now that unmend pulls people towards you, I just use that and stun them so they get dragged in to my team's pack and slaughtered. Sometimes I get the kill myself, just got a battle fever my last match.
Razgriz-Specter
Member
If you don't like that you can also create a macro that cycles through party members and put it in the crossbar near the move that requires it.
I had only finished the base game and left before the expansion and much hardcore stuff.
Came back for this expansion and had little trouble with the original lategame and HW expansion content.
in both capability and ability to get a party and such.
When you get to where it wa originally a challenge everyone is so OP they will carry you till you are pretty solid yourself.
Is there a way to create a Macro that targets the DPS player closest to me and just casts Dragon Sight? We need FFXII Gambits.... >_<
Razgriz-Specter
Member
Haha.
im pretty new to them and was actually looking all over for a way to auto target a healer in case I need to throw a Paladin Cover on them.
I've been using Bloodbath, Second Wind, Goad, Feint, and Leg Sweep.
The first two for healing, the third for utility, Feint for the debuff, and LS to help land positionals (or another disrupt) while soloing.
Maybe you already know this, but you can play FFXIV for free until level 35
No need to invest money until you're sure you're digging the game~That place intimidated me like hell the first time I saw it.
Started the quest and immediately noped right out.
Razgriz-Specter
Member
Honestly the base game alone might be my 2nd or 3rd favorite FF.
Paladin is probably the best and most straight forward.
Razgriz-Specter
Member
Well, finally the MSQ caught up to me and blocked just like old times...
56 now and guess im grinding for half a level.
56 now and guess im grinding for half a level.
Enjoy a billion hours requiring to patch it from scratch.
I remember switching from PS4 to PS4 Pro. Since I have a fast connection, I decided to redownload everything - it was a 3 hour long process, where FFXIV patching took more time than multiple 30+GB games combined took to download.
RIP good thing you still have your save file
The GATEs are awesome as hell
Lunafreya Nox Fleuret
Member
FIrst pull of Lakshmi ex 19%... I knew nothing and i300. Then I cleared it. Learning party btw. I'm actually so disappointed how easy that was. I was ready for at least 3 hours at it.
Razgriz-Specter
Member
All you need is a bad group to increase the difficulty!
VanillaCakeIsBurning
Member
This will never go away because of the way they've designed the tanks and encounters in this game.
Even if they nerfed tank damage more than they have already tanks will still be leaving tank stance to do more damage because that's all there is to do on them once you have aggro and you're not dying.
This is my impression so far of dungeons, but I have yet to hit the 70 stuff to really judge fully. Just a mix of good to great, that hasn't felt any less consistent than both ARR and HW in my view.
They are tight affairs though and very polished, but the challenge level makes them feel like a slog after the initial run. :/
One of my weird frustration points with the game is knowing I'm in it for unpopular reasons, and knowing the stuff I care about will never be addressed in-depth (I am the world's saltiest person at the raid design panel they did that one time ending when it did, glossing over a lot of their post-gordias decisions when I'm dying to know how Creator floors evolved during the panicked tuning phase), but one thing I'm super curious about is the team they actually having do the job/role balancing design. To reference the Game That Must Not Be Named, WoW recently did an AMA with a bunch of developers specifically tasked with the class/artifact/pvp/item design.
Most of the FFXIV stuff we get is filtered through Yoshida, with the occasional reference to Mr. D or whoever; Yoshida's got a bunch of high-level shit to do; I believe he sets the overall direction, but the fiddly numbers stuff has to fall to his team, right? So in the lead-up too and aftermath of something as heavily focused on the combat system as SB was supposed to be, I'm dying to know who does the fiddly tuning and how they came out the way they did.
Tanks always feel like an internal struggle between the macro direction (People who tank should only be required to threat and occasionally CD; DPS should be a bonus) and the micro reality of how the game's combat works. Beyond "don't die", the only thing tanks can do is, as you noted, DPS. But if the DPS potential is too great, designing encounters around 1-2-3 turtle tanks would mean groups with active tanks would blow everything up! So you go at them through their AP, over and over, trying to figure out how to nerf them so even tryhards can't do balance-wrecking. So I'd like to know the though process behind the original move to STR/VIT hybrid, and then the move back to pure STR (probably the weakness thing, but it seems like that could have been solved within the debuff itself and not the base design of the job.)
I'd also like to hear from like, the monk guy, and figure out how he sees Monk fitting into groups. Or the person behind MCH because it's basically the platypus of jobs in terms of wut and why and I am actually super curious about how it happened, similar to I want to know when the constant requests for Minion Pokemon turned into them making Minion RTS. Or the thought behind the healer changes overall--why make DPS more boring alongside making it so much easier to access?
etc. I'm super curious about how the big-picture direction met with the small-scale design, and what their vision for each job was when they were making it. And based on data they can get now from instances, do they think the gap has sufficiently narrowed? But all we get is, you know, "Calm down" or "you're playing it wrong" or whatever; high level answers. I just wanna nerd out over some of the nerdy non-lore aspects of the game.
Good training for the awesome jumping puzzles in Stormblood!!!!! Amirite?
are there?
Indeed, Raubahn's and Pipin's duties were very unique
djplaeskool
Member
The Azim Steppe is one of the best arcs in FFXIV so far.
Interesting character and Au Ra tribal dynamics, Cool dungeon, awesome solo instance, great music, neat locale.
Interesting character and Au Ra tribal dynamics, Cool dungeon, awesome solo instance, great music, neat locale.
E_Darkness
Member
Trying to get to the top of Kugane Tower has made me almost want to quit the game. That last jump is real evil.
Should have trained more in the Gold Saucer GATEs.