Final Fantasy XIV

[Steve]

So, I've not seen a thread for this, I know Fenix and Tevar are also playing it. I'm halfway through the current expansion, and my spoiler-free remark is... DAMN, JUST DAMN.

This isn't a perfect game by any means, but It's hooked me with the story, that's for sure. And the expansion is meant to be the epic conclusion to everything built up since the 2.0 relaunch in 2013, story-wise, so I really want to get to the ending.

A good thing I'm up at nights, though, given the queues...

[TheFeniX]

As I was crying about in Discord, this expac launch was incredibly weak. The first.... JFC, up until the first dungeon is a painful trawl through massive exposition dumps on shit you should already know, but likely exist as recaps for people not paying the fuck attention.

The first dungeon is amazing and the rest of the instanced content I've unlocked continue to be more of the same. Had the expac dove into that first dungeon within a few hours? My perception of the expac would be wildly different. While some lulls exist after that, the expac starts gaining tons of steam. All the FFIV references, and me being the only one in my group that gets them, and I am forced to explain: Gettin' old, Hombre.' But they are a welcome addition. As was the major FFX mic drop..... which was totally out of left field. The music continues to be (near) completely on point. In fact, I actually prefer the Mid-Boss dungeon theme over the End-Boss.

The zones go from needlessly obnoxious mazes of geometry that are annoying to navigate to flat open areas of flat that are... still somehow annoying to navigate. Aesthetically, the zones are varied but IMO incredibly boring to look at. Coming from the design concept of zones in ShB. This is..... hella grating. While the Sea of Cloud IMO was Squeenix looking to flex their draw distance with the HW update AND the zone was confusing as Hell to navigate on foot, doing so never felt TOO annoying because the zone was incredible in it's design.

Quality of life changes are there. PLD honestly didn't need many, but the nerf to the timings on your magic damage rotation as well as the mana management involved is more than welcome. You get 5 stacks on use and they last 30s, which means no more losing your Confitier finisher because you had to sit on a global. PLD also continues to garner MORE heavily OP HoTs. Such as the Holy Sheltron with ticks for ~3500, when you have 55k HP. I always say, in a competent group where everyone knows the fight: the Tank class doesn't matter, play what you want. But when shit hits the fan, and it always does, a PLD is the difference between a wipe at 50% because the healer and a DPS ate it, and you and the RPR clearing the dungeon.

To sum up, some people are really enjoying the EW early expac. I don't know why. It's basically ARR early game, but even that had more combat. Literally no expac has had this poor of a start. I had major issues not losing interest. If you are like me, and you can beat the slog, the expac picks up considerable speed. And before anyone calls me on it: yes, combat (or interactive content) in a video game, used to break up the monotony of exposition dumps is...... why these are video games, not movies.

Some General tips:
1. as always, DO GRAND COMPANY TURN INs to passively level your gatherers and crafters. Go to a marketboard, hit CTRL+U, and just copy item names. Find what doesn't break your bank, get XP.
2. Don't do non-blue sidequests to start. If you feel you have to, try to do them on an alt class. They have massively buffed the amount of XP the MSQ gives. My PLD is 89 and I'm only to 85 content. And the side-quests give dick all XP.
3. Get to a new area: DO SIX (6) FATEs. Run immediately to the Gemstone vendor, buy the riding map for the area. JFC otherwise you're moving like molasses.
4. Pixies are still good XP below 80. Once again, they nerfed XP gains for any beast tribe when you're above that expac level (gives 1000xp........)
5. Your Aether Compass has been move to Duty > Collections.

Sidenote: IF you're max GC rank, you can now spend 20k GC seals on one of two boxes that contain a minion or pet from different expacs. So, roll on dungeon gear, turn in for seals.

[Mr Bean]

Pixie tribes still 300k+ per level that's the same 1.5 mil before the great dividing. 3 pixie quests per day are worth about 12-14 side quests in the new zones.

Also MSQ giving lots of XP has been standard since Heavensward. I'm leveling 2 classes at the same time along with MSQ just alternating which class does the turn in. At level 84 quests with two 85 classes.

[TheFeniX]

Also of note: doing 3 Pixie quests take like.... 5 minutes at most. Save side-quests for when you have flying.

It's been a million years, but I distinctly recall having to supplement my HW leveling through FATEs and queues. Not NEARLY like I had to do with ARR, but def not just a mad sprint through the MSQ. But I'm pretty sure you could bully the MSQ as a single class and never do a non-MSQ quest to stay on par. I will sat a large part of this is that HW MSQ quests were far more spread out with many more checkpoints. IIRC in the Moghome area, that would hour plus stint you're RPGing with Ein, YSale, and Alphy was like ONE quests.

[Lord Revan]

I also play FF14 though you can be forgiven for forgetting it as I'm not ranting about it every other second.

That said the queues have been nasty, I don't know how much I can play during before the Christmas holidays as my playing time is limited and I'm not gonna start from scratch on NA server just to play without queues.

[Mr Bean]

The NA servers are not better, the NA servers are no goes from 4pm till Midnight or later as even Siren one of the least loaded servers ends up with 1k-6k deep ques.

[Lord Revan]

The NA servers are not better, the NA servers are no goes from 4pm till Midnight or later as even Siren one of the least loaded servers ends up with 1k-6k deep ques.

True but when I normally play it's not peak hours in NA, that's really the issue for me atm, I can't play outside of peak hours due to IRL duties and commitments.

[LadyTevar]

As per my brother (the only one reliably getting online due to the wait-times), DO THE SIDEQUESTS, EVEN THE NON-BLUE ONES. THEY HAVE SIDE-STORYLINES THAT EXPLAIN A LOT.

I, however, am still in the bridge between Shadowbringers and Endwalker and have yet to reach the new content. My brother, however, has been to the Moon and back.

[Steve]

As I was crying about in Discord, this expac launch was incredibly weak. The first.... JFC, up until the first dungeon is a painful trawl through massive exposition dumps on shit you should already know, but likely exist as recaps for people not paying the fuck attention.

The first dungeon is amazing and the rest of the instanced content I've unlocked continue to be more of the same. Had the expac dove into that first dungeon within a few hours? My perception of the expac would be wildly different. While some lulls exist after that, the expac starts gaining tons of steam. All the FFIV references, and me being the only one in my group that gets them, and I am forced to explain: Gettin' old, Hombre.' But they are a welcome addition. As was the major FFX mic drop..... which was totally out of left field. The music continues to be (near) completely on point. In fact, I actually prefer the Mid-Boss dungeon theme over the End-Boss.

While I acknowledge the story really kicks up steam at level 85, I enjoyed the first half, including the opening zone. I didn't see it as a slog, as it was establishing the new locales that we've not seen directly before and setting up the early challenges in the story as well as the mystery carried over from the end of the post-Shadowbringer content.

[Mr Bean]

Update, so deliveries are based on npc. So for example doing a delivery for Zhole or Count Durendaire is worth less experience than Kai-Shirr. There's Endwalker specific deliveries but I can't get to the nodes I need yet.

Also the XPack for me start to finish has been amazing I just hit the 85 quests and there's been a dozen high points for me so far.

[LadyTevar]

They're going to be doing ALL WORLD MAINTENENCE Wednesday-Thursday, time TBA, to try to fix some of the lobby errors.

[Steve]

Finished the MSQ. All I can say is... damn. The fights are epic and tricky, the cutscenes well-crafted, the music superb. This was a fitting end to the story thus far, and it's become one of my favorite stories in this franchise.

[LadyTevar]

Finished the MSQ. All I can say is... damn. The fights are epic and tricky, the cutscenes well-crafted, the music superb. This was a fitting end to the story thus far, and it's become one of my favorite stories in this franchise.

How the FUCK did you finish that fast?

[Mr Bean]

Finished the MSQ. All I can say is... damn. The fights are epic and tricky, the cutscenes well-crafted, the music superb. This was a fitting end to the story thus far, and it's become one of my favorite stories in this franchise.

How the FUCK did you finish that fast?

Same I have a great deal of free time yet I'm just finishing off the level 85 quests now.
Also per logins this evening crashes are down quite a bit but the length of waiting is just as long.

[LadyTevar]

My brother, a retired vet with nothing to do BUT play games, just finished EndWalker today.

He is refusing to give spoilers, but he did say he traveled somewhere that was NOT in the trailer, there was a WHOLE LOT of story that is merely hinted at, and the End Credits are very long, but shows Your Character as the Warrior of Light. (Other Credits show the NPCs, never *you*).

Now he's gonna go work on Sage, Reaper, and do all the stuff he didn't do while attacking the MSQ.

[Mr Bean]

I'm in the 88 quests now per the wiki I have roughly 22 quests left until Endwalker except one quest might be a 45 minute duty with multiple combats and another quest is walk 100 feet and talk to Krile again so who knows how long I have left.Lots of feels, likes of surprising moments and a lot of welcome comedy to break up the serious moments.

The 5th zone has been my favorite so far as it's clear the designers sat down and thought very hard about how from appearance to quest design how things should flow. It's the first zone I wanted to go back and do all the side quests for because I want to know more.

[TheFeniX]

Walking ends, son.

Preface: the early part of EW (before the first dungeon) is a shitshow of redundant (if you GAF, you would remember them, if you didn't? doesn't matter) exposition dumps and mindless boring and frustration quests. You don't agree, good for you. But I've seen this shit before. Past that, outside a few annoyances, this expac hits hard. It hits most of the same beats (yet opposite) of ShB and slams together a bunch of tried and tested themes in an engaging way (along with ANIME THEMES! of a hilarious nature), especially if you have interacted with the story from day one. Having playing since ARR, just after Syrcus Tower release and coming back to the game in sprints, I've had the time to allow the impacts to hit me. ShB was stellar, however mostly saved by Emet Selch and his great English VA. Endwalker ties together a bunch of shit, and somehow hilariously "ends" the series the same way it started in FF1 (on the NES, I will not go into details since spoilers).

The music is stellar, as always, and once again: YoshiP (or whothefuckever) chooses the wrong zone, both in design and music, to be the "endzone." That Eulmore, Idlyshire, and Rhalger's ended up being the "end" hangout? Bollocks. All 3 zones BTFO by Crystarium, Foundation, and Kugane. Don't agree? Fite me.

9/10 expac, possibly 10/10 if not for the opening and the idea that <x> zone (no spoilers) ends up being the endgame hangout. Grats, the music is annoying as fuck.

Spoilers ahead: Spoiler

WE STABLE TIMELOOPS NAO. Garland=Chaos.
ROFL at FF once again weaponizing Entropy using an AI given a flawed question. No complaints, just saying.
"Hey, friends are GREAT. Now GTFO, I got hero things to do: We anime now."

Need to level DRG to 90 to unlock mentor and roulette again. Please, hit me in the balls for leveling fuckin' DRG. I work my ass off clipping the GCD, all to get out DPSed by some reaper smashing his face on the keyboard. I also can't raise bad tanks/healer...... should have leveled Ressmage first. Or fuckin' SAM. JFC, DRG will never be good again......

At least I look fuckin' fabulous.

Sidenote: PLD at 90 is amazeballs. Fuck other tanks.

[Steve]

PLD at 90 is fucking fun, the Confiteor combo facewrecks mob enemies in the dungeons and the fact that Holy Spirit and Holy Circle heal you now, as well as Schiltron upgrading and getting a heal and brief buff against damage, has me spamming it often. I remember years ago PLD were considered the worst of the three tanks, and I stuck through anyway because dammit PLD is my thing, my self-image in the game.

Now to level other classes. Got SAM to 82 so it'll be my Melee DPS class for the role quest, gonna do WHM for healingi role and I guess Machinist for Ranged Damage. Still debating if I'll do RDM or BLM for magic DPS.

How the FUCK did you finish that fast?

I stuck to the MSQ almost exclusively from Friday through Tuesday, logging in during the morning most times that let me get into the game quickly with only two digit queues.

[LadyTevar]

I picked up Reaper. OMG THAT"S SO MUCH FUN! Don't know if it's putting out more damage than my Dragoon, but I really don't care as I'm going to finish the MSQ as Dragoon either way.

The redone SMN flows better, imho. So much easier to flow from one attack to the other. I've heard some say that one reason you're stuck with one Egi following you now is it's easier on servers instead of having 20 SMN in an area and a mix of Ifrits, Titans, Garudas, and base pets in various colors.

Not tried Sage yet, but my brother took it through Prae, and is LOVING how he can drop a spell on the Tank and then every time my brother does damage the Tank gets healed that much. One Tank tel'd him afterward asking how it worked because he couldn't figure out how he was getting healed that fast. As my brother far prefers DPS or Tank to Healing (although he has them because completionist), he calls Sage HIS KIND OF HEALER. One where even his DPS is a Heal Spell.

[Mr Bean]

I have Endwalked, I have seen the credits and what lies beyond. My Dancer is 90, my Summoner/Scholar is at 90 as well. The last five or so missions ran me this entire evening plus the traditional last dungeon/last trial combination. I intend to take a break for a few days to digest everything then go back and work on those side quests.

It was a ride, start to finish and there were dozens of stand out moments, times I want to see again... So much to say but it's 1am tomorrow is soon enough.

[Lord Revan]

I picked up Reaper. OMG THAT"S SO MUCH FUN! Don't know if it's putting out more damage than my Dragoon, but I really don't care as I'm going to finish the MSQ as Dragoon either way.

The redone SMN flows better, imho. So much easier to flow from one attack to the other. I've heard some say that one reason you're stuck with one Egi following you now is it's easier on servers instead of having 20 SMN in an area and a mix of Ifrits, Titans, Garudas, and base pets in various colors.

Not tried Sage yet, but my brother took it through Prae, and is LOVING how he can drop a spell on the Tank and then every time my brother does damage the Tank gets healed that much. One Tank tel'd him afterward asking how it worked because he couldn't figure out how he was getting healed that fast. As my brother far prefers DPS or Tank to Healing (although he has them because completionist), he calls Sage HIS KIND OF HEALER. One where even his DPS is a Heal Spell.

I'd call Sage disc priest(or mistweaver monk) from WoW done correctly, there's no annoying buff you need to keep up to be able to heal with your DPS, Just put Kardia on your heal target and DPS away as long as the heal target isn't taking excessive damage you really only need to use your "actual" heal spells to reapply your shields on target.

What I like about Reaper (granted I just got to level 80 last night) is the flow of the class, I dunno about my damage either but the class feels good to play, even maintaining the "Death's design" debuff doesn't feel so bad as dropping it doesn't cripple your rotation you do less damage sure but that debuff isn't needed for special attacks or something similar.

[Mr Bean]

Okay morning thoughts have to double check all my spoiler tags as this is spoilers from 80-90 everything I noted at the time. I've broken them down by level however for those who are not fully done.

80 Spoiler

Watching Estinien caught flat footed by simply being asked what his job is was great. If you talk to NPC's here and later and check the side stories you find that Estinien has been in order an orphan of Ishgard then trained to fight then he became the Azure Dragoon. When he became the Azure Dragoon he was in the employ of Ishgard again. When the Dragon song war ended he left Ishgard and wandered the land. In fact in the Stormblood Dragoon quests you find out he's never really held a job of any kind. He's never even been a mercenary... not really as that activity was mostly unpaid or simply for food and lodging. Everything Estinien ever had was provided by Ishgard hence why later he's bad with money... he's in the reached his 30s without ever getting a paycheck

[Mr Bean]

81 Spoiler

In Labyrinthos meeting the gleaners and our first bunny boy Erenville was a great introduction to how something like Sharlayan works and how they do their science. The underground bubble city in an ancient lava chamber was great world building and Erenville despite his initial grump was a nice support character.

The Forum are bastards but they are trying and it's interesting to see that their 99 vote system is a simple majority rules system and it's also interesting to note that of votes we see they are very believable split and split often. From talking to NPC's it seems that while the Forum is 99 members there's a much smaller number of more active members who do the talking and a lot of specialists who only speak up on their subject matter and nothing else

The twins mother Ameliance is fun shame we got so little of her but the intro to the Leveilleur estate was nice... wish we had a chance to walk around

Getting what looks like Sharlayan 5 Guys with everyone was a lot of fun. The little animations when they are eating and Krile with her hood down was great. Such a nice quiet scene and worth every moment.

On the Thavnair Matsya is great this humble elephant fisher of all things (Found out in Sanskrit his name means fish) who just wants help being a better salesperson. I'm happy to report I went 3/3 I was a born fishmonger it seems

Also on Thavnair watching people teleport after me also suffering from aether sickness was fun. Launch day I joined the cheering section my server had for those who came after. We've been told about aether sickness so often getting to experience it was memorable. And the picture of the Scions curled up on the bench was perfect

Speaking of elephants Nidhana the alchemist was a lot of fun. I question why they were sleeping in a field (And poor Estinien getting kidnapped) but her enthusiasm was infectious and her VA was great

The Tower of Zot was great, two bosses with mechanics that were so different only for them to combine in unique ways for boss 3. Best still they told you the elder sister was a healer by having her use white mage moves instantly telling us to ignore the other sisters and deal with her first or she might heal them

[Mr Bean]

82-83
Spoiler

Best of the Best is the quest name as you see everyone from Lyse to half a dozen quest trainers there. I know people not looking closely will miss the dozen people there with barely any lines but seeing Stephanivien there was a pleasant surprise as well as several of the Thaumaturgic brothers

The sneaking mission as Thancred was a highlight that's dead easy to solve if you pay attention to the rules they give you. Unlike metal gear knocked out guards are not spotted. I failed it the first time because duh the aoe dog stun also stuns and argos everyone else in range but did it perfectly round 2. Seeing all of your allies work together in defending the transports was good.

Garlemald... a broken people and now a broken land

The story of Licinia and her sister

Sadu.... that is all

I would be very interested to hear about who invented Garlemalds radios considering the part they play. Unless it's in a side quest it's a dangling plot thread to my mind.

Jullus plot arc in the zone from loyal soldier to the twins putting him off his stride to the quiet moments in the destroyed playground to him stopping by his childhood home where he admits the killing of his tempered family and last him stand before the Garlemald flag with Quintus blood fresh on it.

I had serious issues with Ivy attack at the end right up until I talked with the NPC's afterwords when they confirm the soldiers of the Ist Legion who attacked Broken glass fell apart the instant the fight paused. Dozens have frostbite, many were suffering from various degrees of starvation. I have read old civil war accounts of units fighting like hell but collapsing the instant the fighting stopped. These men and women had fought so long and so hard and this was their last chance, the instant that little windstorm physically pushes them back (and probably chills them to the bone to boot) the fight leaves them.

Zenos dinner scene was all sorts of fucked up, from the body theft and invasion of self to his simple game to butler Fandaniel. Fighting as that magicless borrowed body when it was everything you could do to beat two enemies and three meant certain death never mind the heavier units. Failing to get back in time except... you did but you almost did not.

Sadu continuing to be Sadu

I was honestly terrified when the tempering wave blasted out and thought about the prisoners

The Tower of Babel was a very interesting dungeon as the fight is happening to soon... it's level 83 why are we on our way to fight the two big bads this soon?

Watching Fandaniel plan in action and 100% believing he had won and we are going to be moving into the restoration timeline holy crap only for it to fail

So lets chase Zenos to the MOON, the quiet of the moon and the drifting ghosts. Wait Hythlodaeus ? My boy what are you... oh... oh hey nice talking with you my new old friend.

The flip... you and Zenos are squaring up facing each other down and Fandaniel jumps in with that line... spoken so well "Do you remember when I told everyone I wanted to die and take everyone with me?" then a little pause and finishes "I meant it" I was thinking holy fuck and saw Zenos was thinking wait what?

That trial, very interesting style and the assist once again from Hythlodaeus who remains our boy

The final days vision and the first reminder that oh right Zodiak while bad was serving a very specific purpose... a purpose he can't do anymore now that Fandaniel aka Amon has killed it/himself.

Surprise Zenos when his whole plan falls apart dusts himself off shrugs and says he's going to make a go of it and... just walks off. He's fight sexual to a fault. If Zodiak could not be what he wanted he simply needs to look elsewhere.

[Mr Bean]

Still getting my thoughts together for the rest of the expansion but first a youtube comment (Spoilers all)

Spoiler

Artuno

There was only one way this story could have ended, and you bet your sweet ass it was going to be shooting through space on the back of a dragon who is also your nemesis, chasing after an eldritch cosmic horror child powered by emotions who throws planets at you. Anything less, and it wouldn't be Final Fantasy.