Conversations from the gaming frontlines.

[Lord Revan]

I'll be honest, since I'm playing DPS mostly, I don't use LimitBreaks in the battles. I leave those for Healers.

As of last night, I still didn't have access to Stormblood, so I started a new toon in Limsa. Right now it's Arcanist, but I'm really wanting to play Rogue.


And at this point I've ran the Praetorium so many times I can damn near quote Baesar's whole speech. Gotta get the Tomestones, ya know! That's why I forgot Cape Westwind, it was so far back from where I am now and he was such an easy kill with the party I was in.
As I said, I just saw OMEGA Weapon. Praetorium was Ultima Weapon. OMEGA happens before the final credits of Heavensward, when Yda takes her mask off.

Actually unless doing so will save the party from TPK, DPS are one who use LBs (melee DPS to be exact, though if melee isn't present it should be first the caster then the ranged) the level 1 and 2 healer LBs aren't really worth the cost.

[TheFeniX]

I'll be honest, since I'm playing DPS mostly, I don't use LimitBreaks in the battles. I leave those for Healers.

I do 90% of my Mentor Roulette as DPS (SAM). So we got into a Stormblood raid (a certain Dragon some people may remember, what with spin-spin = out, spin flip = in, flip flip = corners. Anyways, everyone is shitting the bed. Tanks are having a provoke fight, healers are exploding, the BLM decides to just stay put in his circle and eat everything, and two RDMs are kid of carrying things since they earned the ResMage title.

So, at this point probably 10 deaths have occurred and we get LB3 at 38% HP, and the BLM decides to drop a meteor on the boss, dies for his trouble because he's casting during ExaFlare. Long story, other tank has zero aggro because even though he started a provoke fight, he didn't have stance on, MT goes down, my SAM tanking isn't up to par so I go down, wipe it up.

A good rule of thumb is: if the boss doesn't have an enrage, Melee LB at 5%, Caster LB at 3%. Second run, I fired a melee LB3 at 5% HP and it knocked the boss down to 0.4%. If you're in a Light Party (4 people): no LB is worth a shit except DPS.

ALTERNATIVELY, my general rule is "Healer asked for LB, I LB." If it's an LB2: just use it when it's full and you're in a position you won't die. Use order was posted by Revan: Melee > Caster > Ranged Physical.

My ONE exception in causal content is as follows:
We have LB3?
I am Red Mage?
I can click faster than the melee?
VEREYEDAMAGE GO

Some SAM complained once in Puppet's about that and I said "If I have LB3 as RDM, I will LB3 if I'm faster than you, because it's pretty."
I got 6 comms.

[Mr Bean]

And at this point I've ran the Praetorium so many times I can damn near quote Baesar's whole speech. Gotta get the Tomestones, ya know! That's why I forgot Cape Westwind, it was so far back from where I am now and he was such an easy kill with the party I was in.

All fair, when it comes up again during Duty Roulette: Trials you'll have a good laugh because it's over so quickly

It's like when you get Chrysalis in Roulette, and you yell "SAVE LB FOR THE TEAR, DO NOT LB THE BOSS" and someone does that, and tanks aren't soaking meteors, so DPS can't make the check and it's BOOM. And it's all because DPS see the boss at about 10% and think "I can push it!" No you can't.

Yeah it's the one thing in the Roulette (Except for Copperbell mines) I hate seeing show up because aside from The Dancing Plague it's one most often you have to run a few times if people don't have things on lock. With Chrysalis it's the tear OR the giant balls of doom which your supposed to alternate but some people treat it like pac-man and die for it. Worse sometimes your group spreads out around half the boss leaving 40% of the damage balls to get by you unopposed.

[Jub]

I'm probably the oddest of ducks on this one but I love FFXIV's crafting and gathering systems but am not a huge fan of the combat. I'm stuck at Idyllshire because I just don't want to quest up to the next expansion's content and wish I could just progress via non-combat means.

[TheFeniX]

I'm probably the oddest of ducks on this one but I love FFXIV's crafting and gathering systems but am not a huge fan of the combat. I'm stuck at Idyllshire because I just don't want to quest up to the next expansion's content and wish I could just progress via non-combat means.

FFXIVs problems are IMO two-fold, and no you aren't going to read me crying about the 2.5s GCD nor how "Haste" is a stat so garbage, it's not even worth it as a dump stat.

1. Every class (or namely, Role) plays pretty much the same no matter what. While rotations vary, everything is based on a rotation, even BLMs see-saw bullshit. The only real exception is BRD which is the only class lacking a clear rotation and which is both CD limited and proc based. You could make arguments Summoner is the same way, but it's really mashy either way. And WRT BRD: all that would be fine if DNC didn't do everything they do better after Squeenix gutted BRD in the process to, I assume as always, make the new hotness feel like new hotness (eg: When Rogue got gutted mobility wise to make room for Illidan Demon Hunter shitters (NOTE: I really liked Demon Hunter)).

2. Classes are flat and uninteresting until max level. PLD finally becomes "not shit" at like 78 when you get the requiescat magical damage rotation and the class gets not only some balls, but also the only Tank capable of keeping damage up at range during certain mechanics, if you know when you use it. SAM also gets more than a few "pro gamer" move DPS increases based around Third Eye and using the positionals, to let you fire off OGCDs. DRG is in the same boat, the problem is it gets mashy for like 5 seconds every 60 so bad, you'll clip the GCD non-stop. Not that any of this matters because as much as the Savage shitters talk about it, we're talking at MAX 5% DPS loss (where clipping a Killing Machine Proc on a Frost DK into a Frost Strike, rather than Oblitterate) meant a 20%+ DPS loss. DRK doesn't get The Blackest Night (an added ability later on that became very iconic) until 70 and WAR doesn't get Infuriate till 70 as well).

Yeah it's the one thing in the Roulette (Except for Copperbell mines) I hate seeing show up because aside from The Dancing Plague it's one most often you have to run a few times if people don't have things on lock. With Chrysalis it's the tear OR the giant balls of doom which your supposed to alternate but some people treat it like pac-man and die for it. Worse sometimes your group spreads out around half the boss leaving 40% of the damage balls to get by you unopposed.

Well, I mean players are pretty bad. Mentors get a TON of shit (deserved) for being a bunch of malcontents and assholes, but on some levels it's hard not to blame them. I mean, it's one thing to have to explain how a tank swap works in a fight, it's another thing to have to explain the CONCEPT of what a tank swap is, or what Provoke is and what it does. Or the idea that a tank needs to control ads (additional mobs, a concept I had to explain).

For every shitfight I get into with another Mentor, there's more than a few Sprouts who queue for EX content and basically tell me to shut up, let's pull. I mean, if we could at least GET to the part that gives echo? Sure, whatever. But guys are literally giving me shit for pointing out that "You need to be on the opposite side of that water plume, or you will fall off the edge." I mean, the saddest part about this is when you're explaining this type of shit to another Mentor, but they get even more salty because they SHOULD know this.

But occasionally, you stack enough echo and power through some bullshit.

[Jub]

I'm probably the oddest of ducks on this one but I love FFXIV's crafting and gathering systems but am not a huge fan of the combat. I'm stuck at Idyllshire because I just don't want to quest up to the next expansion's content and wish I could just progress via non-combat means.

FFXIVs problems are IMO two-fold, and no you aren't going to read me crying about the 2.5s GCD nor how "Haste" is a stat so garbage, it's not even worth it as a dump stat.

1. Every class (or namely, Role) plays pretty much the same no matter what. While rotations vary, everything is based on a rotation, even BLMs see-saw bullshit. The only real exception is BRD which is the only class lacking a clear rotation and which is both CD limited and proc based. You could make arguments Summoner is the same way, but it's really mashy either way. And WRT BRD: all that would be fine if DNC didn't do everything they do better after Squeenix gutted BRD in the process to, I assume as always, make the new hotness feel like new hotness (eg: When Rogue got gutted mobility wise to make room for Illidan Demon Hunter shitters (NOTE: I really liked Demon Hunter)).

My only 'maxed' - it was maxed for the expansion at the time - role is Bard so that also probably makes getting back into the combat side of the game harder. I enjoyed combat when I played in Heavensward, but took a break due to not having as much time to play, and getting back in feels rough. I don't know if that's the changes or my just not enjoying the combat system after time away but it does making the idea of grinding the main questline just to get back to crafting and gathering feel like it's too much work to bother with.

I'm probably going to resub this coming cheque and try to power through, but I'm not looking forward to it.

[LadyTevar]

Oddly enough, I don't LIKE crafting! I took leatherworker, but I very rarely do anything with it. I think I'm maybe lvl 15, while my Summoner just hit 41 and my Dragoon is stuck at 60 til Stormblood gets going. BTW: I just started playing in April this year.

I probably should raise my Leatherworker. I get tired of doing dungeons and Fates to get Company Scrip. Then again, Provisioning missions probably don't give as much.

[Mr Bean]

April? Dang you missed out on the Firmament ranking missions then. While you can still head to the Diadem gathering resources for easy leveling on that the ultra cheap resources on the boards don't exist anymore. You can still do all of the Firmament missions but there is not 20,000 players harvesting and driving down crafting part prices into the ground plus another 40,000 auction bots underbidding them.

Back when those were running I got all of my crafters to 60 purely by spending an hour a day or so listening to people going mad screaming EGG into the void in the Diadem then taking said resources out for script and crafting turn ins. It was easily 2-3 million GP per week while it was running and crazy good leveling XP, every time they ran one of the crafting area missions in the Firmament each one for about 3 minutes of effort was worth a level of whatever crafter or gather class you were on. Wild while it lasted but taking crafting and gathering leves are still worth excellent XP. With script you can even buy 50% xp per crafting scrolls that last 2-18 hours. Even casually if you go at it you can get it up to 70s/80s. And while it is in your future hitting Shadowbringers they turned the XP up even more there where you can take a crafting or combat class and do beast tribe stuff for 15 minutes of effort and get 1/5th to 1/2 a level per day.

[LadyTevar]

AH yes... I was wondering if the Beast Tribe stuff was worth doing. I've done a few for the Sylphs. Met the 'Spawn, the Birdies, and those poor helpless Goblins but haven't advanced them any.

Got my Summoner/Scholar to 41 last night. Hope I get them to max before the rumors come true and they separate the classes.

[Lord Revan]

AH yes... I was wondering if the Beast Tribe stuff was worth doing. I've done a few for the Sylphs. Met the 'Spawn, the Birdies, and those poor helpless Goblins but haven't advanced them any.

Got my Summoner/Scholar to 41 last night. Hope I get them to max before the rumors come true and they separate the classes.

Well with beast tribes it depends it's mostly glamour pieces and crafting stuff you get from it.

As for Summoner/Scholar being split I dunno how they could do that without redoing the leveling system as current you're not getting summoner or scholar levels at all but arcanist levels that then get converted to summoner or scholar based on what soul crystal you have.

This is actually true of all jobs that have base class attached to them. Red Mage, Samurai, Gunbreaker, Dark Knight, Dancer, Machinist, Blue Mage or Astrologian don't have this as they don't have base class attached to them and thus gain levels directly to the job.

[Mr Bean]

AH yes... I was wondering if the Beast Tribe stuff was worth doing. I've done a few for the Sylphs. Met the 'Spawn, the Birdies, and those poor helpless Goblins but haven't advanced them any.

To give you context about beast tribe xp

AAR Beast-Tribes at best give 10k per mission at level 48 to level 49 requires 498,000 xp per the wiki. So if you run 50 beast tribe missions (You get 12 allowances per day) you can get a single level and the xp quickly becomes terrible as it won't scale past 48.

Heavensward I don't have exact numbers but it's roughly side quest amount but a little better so 38-40 missions to gain a level from 50-60

Stormblood it caps at 356k at level 70, a little less at 69 so going 69-70 just on beast tribe quests it equals out to 30 beast tribe quests for 1 level.

Finally at Shadowbringer the math gets crazy and someone happily did the math on the subreddit

Level 70-71 12,449,000 to level 13,570,000 after 10 beast tribe missions

From level 71-80 it's 10+.5 so by the time you hit 79 you need to do 16 beast tribes to gain that last level.

Putting that neater...
Running just beast tribes to level...

AAR Beast tribes give enough xp you need to run just over 50 to go from level 48 to 49

Heavensward drops it to 38 missions from 59-60

Stormblood drops it again to 30 from 69-70

Shadowbring drops it down to 10-16 per level.

You are only limited as there is only one combat beast tribe in Shadowbringer so you only get 3 per day but XP is tuned up to compensate.

[TheFeniX]

The only ARR Beast Tribe quests I felt worth doing was the Amal'jaa. It was... depressing, yet rewarding. The rest are trash and some (Sylphs) have atrociously annoying quests. NOTE: I'm stupid, I've done every quest in FFXIV, with the except of some insane shit like the level 50 Fishing Insanity of "catch these super-duper rare fish" and some others that are hard to find/grind or require preqs like downing Savage content.

Anyways: Leveling crafting/gathering:
1. Do Grand Company turn-ins. CTRL+U, find out what they want, buy it as cheap as you can on the MB, prefer HQ, but NQ will get you there. If something is too expensive: skip it that day. You do not need to switch to the class to do the turn-in, the game will reward XP to the "Correct" class.
2. Do weekly challenge log like "Craft X HQ BS" and "meld 5 materia." The game doesn't care WHAT level the HQ craft is, nor the class doing the melding. Just BE the class you want to level when doing it. Buy up cheap mats and just (for instance on BSM/ARM) craft out HQ Bronze Ingots.
3. Crafting/Gathering Beast Tribes:
ARR: Ehctal... or however it's spelled. Annoying as Hell since it's tiered and spread out. I personally don't know if it's worth the time anymore what with how fast you level to 50.
HW: Moogle (Slap a fuckin' moogle when offered the opportunity).
SB: Namazu. A REALLY annoying intro quest chain, but Namazu are funny in that they tend to inflict violence on themselves.
ShB: DORFS MAN, DORFS. Also, you get a tank at the end.

For fishing, there's a boat thingy in Limsa I haven't done. I should go and fish up the mount, but I'm lazy and fishing is dumb.

[Mr Bean]

Yeah those stories/beast tribes
ARR:
Amalj'aa: Story wise interesting, easy to speed run most daily quests a nice overall experience
Sylph: I hate it every part of the Sylph quests it is my second least favorite beast tribe also the story is bad and the missions are worse
Kobold: These missions are FAST to run and the zone is tiny but the story is so-so and it's just one joke over and over again.
Sahagin: Also interesting story wise, with flying very easy to do except there's two or three missions that take five times longer to run
Ixali: Meh start to finish, gives interesting Ixali background and if your willing you can do the entire thing start to finish over like two months just via board turn ins rather than quests but meh is right.

Moogle: If you don't already dislike Moogles you will hate them after these missions and you have to do so... many... of them.
Gnath: Top tier story, teaching Bug people to stand up for themselves, missions are mostly fast and the vath story missions are fun.
Vanu Vanu: Story wise okay, mission wise bad because their zone is massive and daily quests are all over the place but you do get the best dances from them.

Namazu: Fast quests the BEST story hands down of all the beast tribes and you can run their missions as crafting or gathering
Ananta : Snek people missions a solid, story is a good B on the scale and there's some good stuff along the way
Kojin: Quests are very uneven some fast and fun others very far away but the believe in yourself story is a lot of fun.

Dwarf: Amazing XP, fast to do the story is your helping them build a tank with objectives like "we are to sober lets stop building a tank to build a distellery... also we can fuel the tanks engine via excess booze"
Qitari : Chose your own history is interesting but unless you've not touched gathering the great xp is wasted, also missions take twice as long to run
Pixie : Kill a creature, throw poxies at beavers, play hide and go seek, shove things into bags lots of fun and amazing XP.

All told beast tribes
Best 3: Namazu, Gnath, Kojin
Worst 3: Moogles, Sylph, Moogles.

[LadyTevar]

Thanks for the advice everyone!

I'm still in the "Send Screenshots to Steam to prove it's a Steam Account on Mogstation" and "Yes I bought the damn DLC" stage. Maybe I'll hear something by next week. Otherwise, I've started a new Char in Limsa because I want to see that Storyline (I started my main in Gridania).

I don't think I've found the Amal'jaa. Have to go find them to do the missions. Gives me something to do I guess.

[Lord Revan]

Thanks for the advice everyone!

I'm still in the "Send Screenshots to Steam to prove it's a Steam Account on Mogstation" and "Yes I bought the damn DLC" stage. Maybe I'll hear something by next week. Otherwise, I've started a new Char in Limsa because I want to see that Storyline (I started my main in Gridania).

I don't think I've found the Amal'jaa. Have to go find them to do the missions. Gives me something to do I guess.

The Amal'jaa are in southern Thanalaan (the people who summon Ifrit) so around Ul'dah I'd give you more details but I've forgotten the exact location of the friendly ones they're the ones dressed in blue, the ones dressed in red are hostile. Actually with each "beast tribe" you got hostile and friendly versions (typically having different colors to tell them apart).

[Mr Bean]

Finally got to the end, five years after I started paying for it (I spent the first four years paying and not playing because being an idiot) but after 44 days, 12 hours of playtime I finally saw this for the first time.



I still have 60 more hours in 7days to die than I do ff14.

[Lord Revan]

Finally got to the end, five years after I started paying for it (I spent the first four years paying and not playing because being an idiot) but after 44 days, 12 hours of playtime I finally saw this for the first time.



I still have 60 more hours in 7days to die than I do ff14.

Now you got Bozja, the weapon storyline and various raids to keep you busy in FF14 until November.

[Mr Bean]

I've done the weapons storylines, done all the raids. I still need to do meme/comedy quest line as I did the gentlemen questline saw that and said I'm to sober to play this and set it down for uhhh five months now?

Bozja yeah THAT I do need to get into.

[LadyTevar]

I've done the weapons storylines, done all the raids. I still need to do meme/comedy quest line as I did the gentlemen questline saw that and said I'm to sober to play this and set it down for uhhh five months now?

Bozja yeah THAT I do need to get into.

You mean Hildebert's storyline? The Gentleman Inspector?
I've only done a few of his quests, but OMG they're fuckin' HILARIOUS! The staff really went all out on the facial expressions for those cutscenes. I've finished the "Arranged Marriage" storyline. I wonder if I can find the trigger for the next one.

I've not been playing much, too tired from work when I get home, and too busy with making Mom's garb for the other. Steam told me "it's there, go ask SquareEnix", so I'm waiting for SquareEnix to verify my CDkey/Registration Codes that I just sent them Saturday. Maybe by Monday I'll be able to play again.

Oh, have you preOrdered Endgame?

[TheFeniX]

Man, my guildmate got all her Dragons and I just want the clears. Knocked out Emerald Weapon Ex last night. The Hildy quests are hit or miss. I think it's HW where it drags on so bad, but the Stormblood version is great and culminates in a really fun fight with someone who thinks it's time for men to fight like girls. Sadly, they've nerfed the fight considerably.

I am currently looking to get banned out of Novice Network as some WoW streamer joined our server and people won't shut up about more WoW trash flooding this game. I'd post some excerpts but I'd likely break some ToS I'm not willing to. I will say I haven't been dragged to GM jail yet. But me and some other mentors have had fun mocking the Streamer Defense Force. NOTE: at the end of the day, people flooding NN with trite garbage about WoW streamers floods out all the people asking for legitimate help to the point I'm forced the WHISPER people information. So me and a few others feel fully justified in telling them to drop it. NN is/was bad enough before this.

[Mr Bean]

I've done the weapons storylines, done all the raids. I still need to do meme/comedy quest line as I did the gentlemen questline saw that and said I'm to sober to play this and set it down for uhhh five months now?

Bozja yeah THAT I do need to get into.

You mean Hildebert's storyline? The Gentleman Inspector?
I've only done a few of his quests, but OMG they're fuckin' HILARIOUS! The staff really went all out on the facial expressions for those cutscenes. I've finished the "Arranged Marriage" storyline. I wonder if I can find the trigger for the next one.

I've not been playing much, too tired from work when I get home, and too busy with making Mom's garb for the other. Steam told me "it's there, go ask SquareEnix", so I'm waiting for SquareEnix to verify my CDkey/Registration Codes that I just sent them Saturday. Maybe by Monday I'll be able to play again.

Oh, have you preOrdered Endgame?

Yes Hildebert the Inspector, that was a quest line hyped up by friends but I was left wondering exactly what madness I had walked in on. And yes I've pre-ordered Endgame, wanted the fancy earing so leveling up other jobs would go faster (also one less item of gear to swap as you level).

[LadyTevar]

So... found out the Registration Codes were never entered.
So, entered the codes, and now it's Downloading the missing DLC. SLooooowly.

But now the Pre-Reg Codes for Endwalker are claiming to be "InValid". *FACEPALM* I copied them straight from Steam! I'm never gonna get that Earring.

Yes Hildebert the Inspector, that was a quest line hyped up by friends but I was left wondering exactly what madness I had walked in on.

OMG YES! I was watching the first one thinking "What the unholy fuck....", but it was so twisted, so .... so.... PINK PANTHER! Serious Inspector Clouseau flashback, mixed with the best of Monty Python.

[Mr Bean]

Have fun in Stormblood, it's when FFXIV starts going hard story wise. I know Heavensward is so much better than AAR but Stormblood.. so many call backs and so much more.




Stormblood was a trip from start to end and it's still the expansion I wish I could delete from my memory and re-do fresh.

[LadyTevar]

Have fun in Stormblood, it's when FFXIV starts going hard story wise. I know Heavensward is so much better than AAR but Stormblood.. so many call backs and so much more.
Stormblood was a trip from start to end and it's still the expansion I wish I could delete from my memory and re-do fresh.

"Starts Going Hard"?
Dude, we had a literal religious split in Ishgard complete with ReignChange, as well as the end of the DragonSong War. We're not even going to start mentioning the Sultana's little problem that SENT me to Ishgard!

[Lord Revan]

Have you done the Baelsar's(sic) Wall yet Tev?