FFXIV: Heavensward

[TheFeniX]

Last thread was a bust as there may not be a whole lot of people bothering with the game, but I've got to say I'm both excited and a little overwhelmed at the content being offered in the expansion.

In preparation, I went batshit crazy and leveled every class to 50, including all the crafting (all 3-star, ARM 4-star), got all my relic weapons (the ilvl 90 version, none of the insane Zeta grinding shit), and completed pretty much every quest in the game possible. Got my transmogs worked out, farmed the gear I wanted, finally cleared Turn 9 after just.... holy fuck I hate people. The positive side is that I know literally every class in and out and can instantly tell when someone is fucking up. Currently trying to clear as much of Final Coil as I can before release and farming Grand Company Seals and Chocobo XP by spamming Holy in Northern Thanalan Fates. Also farming EX primals and easier Turns to get my Paladin mount. I've sold off millions of gil worth the crafted stuff while keeping some materials to craft after expansion (like the Diamond Barding, as I am not a 4-star Leatherworker).

Still, leveling Monk and Ninja were brutal. MNK is just boring and the only class I regret leveling, even though I can cross-class into Mantra. Ninja has some great ideas that fall flat due to gameplay contrivances and the netcode. Since the buffs to Dragoon, it is still my favorite DPS class by far. Female ninja Job gear is sexy though.

Anyways, Heavensward is releasing with a whole shitton of content.
- 3 new classes: Ranged Physical DPS Machinist, Dark Knight Tank, and Astrologian Healer. All start at level 30, but you have to have leveled on of that spec to 50 (from what I know) to unlock them.
- New race: ugly half-dragon women, boss looking males though.
- Flying: as part of this, Squeenix is implementing some form of exploration type rewards. No idea if there will be flying in classic zones. Don't really care.
- New Relic weapons
- Obvious story progression that hopefully isn't as dumb as the ending 45 minutes of cutscenes for 2.0.
- Level cap raised to 60 for all classes. No idea how this will effect old crafting. Hopefully it will be much easier to get my 4-star books with the entry 60 crafting gear.
- Option to not level sync old max-level content. Might be able to get a Bahamut kill.
- New NPC relationships: build (non-romantic) relationships with known NPCs and do shit from them for extra dialog and some rewards. Unfortunately, the one I care about only seems to go for Male Midlanders (blerg, Highlander all the way baby). So.... start buying fantasias.
- New "tourist" mode for raids. No real details that I've found. I assume it will be in the vein of WoW's LFR.
- At least 2 new Primal fights. As primals make up some of the most interesting fights in instanced content, more the merrier.
- PS3 is getting the axe at some point. Hopefully, we should get some graphical improvements like I've seen from 1.0. I want the backstory back as well.

The game seems to continue to go wide, not long, and I'm having problems deciding what I'm going to level first. Really thinking DRG while my buddies level DRK and Astrologian. I can level a tank any time and I am way too in love with Scholar to bother with any other healer. PLD will always be my main tank spec. But I also have to work out the new crafting system because I like money.

Pre-order is finally up on Steam. Benchmark program to see if you can run it. Really, the game is just fun. It should be used as a primer on how to make leveling and max-level content hold your attention.

[AMT]

I'm enjoying it so far... though it did take me most of the weekend to grind through the content to get to Heavensward though. On the plus side, they provided better gear and made it easier to get there, and I got to enjoy most of the story even as I powered through the actual fighting and quests.

Leveling up machinist on Courel right now, and plan to do the HW content once I hit 50.

[Jub]

I've been playing off and on for a while now and still don't have a combat class to 50 to try the new classes. I keep getting stuck enjoying the crafting and gathering too much to care about questing and killing monsters. I guess I should get my archer to 50 though so I can see what the expansion has to offer.

[AMT]

It'll likely be more like 51 or 52 before you hit the expansion to be honest... there's a LOT of previously "end-game" content you'll clear before hitting heavensward.

[Jub]

If I got to 50 I could still try the new classes, but I get your meaning.

[AMT]

No you can't. You have to get into Ishgard to get the new classes, and you can't get into Ishgard until you clear the other content. It makes sense, storywise, but can leave you frustrated if you want to play as the new classes immediately.

[TheFeniX]

Maps are huge. Not WoW huge, but huge. They also seemed to be designed to say "wish you could fly yet?" as flying is unlocked by zone through discovering collectable currents and quest rewards.

DX11 support added. Cratered my 970 at 4K. Overclocked so much, I crashed out my driver and took me some time to get the card out of the 405Mhz safety clock. Fun stuff.

Crafting is crafting. Got miner up to start farming mats and it sucks I can't HQ with NQ mats 100% of the time but that's how it goes. Plan to make some money crafting the entry level mats.

DRK is underwhelming. Visually fun class that falls flat, then again I've barely leveled mine so it's not a fair assessment. They take shitons of damage at lower level but I could just be so used to running with overgeared tanks. New tanking mechanic for PLD feel tacked on, even if visually impressive. Love SCH too much to bother with AST.

All the people trying to get through the MS are killing me. Crysallis makes me want to break shit as people just try to YOLO that shit and ignore mechanics. Even level 60 tanks try to make DPS soak meteors: assholes.
Spoiler

I'm tired of having a 4 man NPC team and still be doing everything solo. I get this is an MMO, not a traditional FF game, but I feel like the loan badass when I've got the son of the guy who killed Bahamut, the billy-badass of badass Dragoons, and fucking Shiva with me and I'm doing all the work.

Loved wrecking Heavens Ward face in the trial by combat. Be more smug. But I have to ask: Why do people continually provoke the Warrior of Light? Even if you don't buy the hype, there's ample evidence my character is basically a demi-god who kills other demi-gods.

All in all, I'm quite impressed. Also hilarious that people are already fighting EX primals at level 60. Probably the same kind of people who bitch about no content.

[TheFeniX]

Endgame is in a stupid spot right now. Less than 2 weeks after release, PFs were wanting ilvl 170 for Bismark EX. Seriously, is this WoW? Let me fill you in on how absurd that iLvL is.

The endgame dungeons (all fucking 2 of them right now) drop ilvl 160 gear and no weapon. You can purchase 170 gear (and weapon) for Law Tomes. Now, you get a fair amount of these, 80 a dungeon plus bonuses, for each run and there is no cap. So grind you worthless maggot! You can also upgrade your 170 gear to 180 with Centurio seals, which are hunt marks. Most of the Hunt Bills are for solo common mobs, but A and S Rank (world bosses) marks (because people are assholes) are obliterated nearly immediately by dedicated hunt groups. So, grind little bitch, grind.

Normally, I'd just chalk this up to people being dumb, but Alexander (the new raid) dropped Tuesday. The iLvL requirement is.... 170. Which means you need either a full set of 170 (impossible since rings are unique) or upgraded gear mix-matched with 160 gear. I haven't run Alexander yet, but my buddy blind queued in DF as tank and cleared at least one boss before I went to bed. They just zerged it due to the high iLvL requirement and the rants about how it's moderately more difficult than CT, ST, WoD (FFXIVs version of LFR) seem to be true.

The endgame isn't terrible like SWTOR or STO was, but it's going long and that's not what made FFXIV fun for me. They need to pull something out of their asses and at least Squeenix has pretty fast patch schedules.

Anyways, DRG is 170 but we're leveling a buddy. Got my ARC to 59 last night. SCH is still best healer because it's fun. SMN has gone from a snooze-fest to EXPLOSIONS EVERYWHERE is is hella-fun.

Oh yea Spoiler

Where are my Scion buddies! Nearly all of them have been pushed to the curb this expansion and it's really starting to grate on me. I get the Warrior of Light has because super-fucking awesome and literally needs little to no help, but they've straight up stopped mentioning that 80% of the Scions are MIA except in passing so I can gallivant around with Cid and Y'Sholta. Yea, I get they're going to release more shit, but my crew is in trouble so everyone else can fuck off until I've found them.

[TheFeniX]

Where's my content? We're over two months in and the only addition to release has been the Alexander raid (which is easy once the mechanics aren't ignored) and... WAIT FOR IT... Alexander Savage. Oh YAY, we're stuck running the same raid except with brutal DPS checks over and over and over again. I haven't beaten Ravana and I don't care because it's basically, "follow this instruction set? Did you fuck up? GOTO 10." There's nothing mechanically interesting because it's literally a repeating dance someone fucks up and gets everyone killed. Almost all the content is dancing and DPS/gear checks. What the fuck, is this WoW now? Man, at least WoW had interesting fights when you were forced to raid.

Grats on all your gears guys who keep asking me to run the same 4 boss fights over and over. I'd rather run Pro Job Deathwish missions on Payday because at least those have SOME element of randomness.

Sure, they've added a new tier of raid gear. Whoop-di-do. No new primals, no new Main Scenario quests (where my Scion buddies at? Why does no one give fucks?). Nothing. The only saving grace is my leveling Dork Knight and the questline to 50 was actually mildly interesting. For "Fantasy cliches the Game" it was Oscar worthy. DRK Spoilers ahead.
Spoiler

Turns out, your mentor "Fray" was actually dead and when you picked up the soul-stone you infused his dead body with your negative essence. All the shit you think as a player and want to scream at the NPCs who talk shit, but your character is too busy being all helpful, is him. He knows you can kick their ass. He wants to kick their ass. He threatens them with death. He mocks them. It's basically been telling you "You're this great hero, but every random asshole leans on you for help. You help them and they try to kill you (or worse) for your efforts. This world is fucked, you cannot help them. Fuck them, live your own life. There's places out there where <your name> is not know. Let's leave."

"He" then drops dead and "you" (your character model in DRK class gear) comes out of the void and it's go time. You end up having to fight your own negative essence and kick it's ass to show you can even beat yourself in a stand-up fight. Best part, he (she) even mocks the stupidity of the ending to the original storyline (pre-Heavensward). Probably the best quest line of the game.

Unfortunately from 50-60, some other Dork Knight shows up and is all "LET'S DO DORK KNIGHT STUFF!" Translation: Let's be edgy as Hell, but with a heart of gold so players don't hate us.