Final Fantasy XIV Online | jiggles, Seven and rinks have all returned to Eorzea

[Knoyleo]

Post ARR patch spoilers: WTF Midgardsormer? Give me back my crystals

[Knoyleo]

So I finally made it through all of the Crystal Tower raid series, which is mandatory to reach HW, apparently because its important for the lore in an even later expansion. This game just loves sowing seeds for plot payoff hundreds of hours later.

I think this is the first time I've ever tried any raid content ever, which is probably weird given that I've almost always had one MMO or another on the back burner since about 2006. It's just one of those things I've never tried as someone who usually plays solo, but I'm glad this game actually makes you access that content for story progression. I never would have tried it otherwise, and it was good fun. It's confusing though. There's so much going on, it's hard to keep track, and from what I gather these were originally built for ilevel 90 gear, and I'm running around at ilevel 130,while those running this to farm items of do their duty roulette must be running in way higher gear still. I ended up looking up mechanics guides on YouTube ahead of attempting these too. There's basically no way of learning what to do by trial and error, at least not without majorly pissing off the rest of the party of strangers who are helping you through. It feels a bit wrong to me to be looking up guides before even attempting it, but that seems to be more of the done thing for this kind of content, and I get why.

Anyway, I'm nearly up to the end of the post ARR patch content. I got to the stage where the game tells you to set aside a good chunk of time to watch a load of cuts wnes, and decided I'd be better off coming back to it later.

Looking forward to getting stuck into the award winning expansion Heavensward™ and heading off to Ishgard soon!

[Hexx]

So I finally made it through all of the Crystal Tower raid series, which is mandatory to reach HW, apparently because its important for the lore in an even later expansion. This game just loves sowing seeds for plot payoff hundreds of hours later.

I think this is the first time I've ever tried any raid content ever, which is probably weird given that I've almost always had one MMO or another on the back burner since about 2006. It's just one of those things I've never tried as someone who usually plays solo, but I'm glad this game actually makes you access that content for story progression. I never would have tried it otherwise, and it was good fun. It's confusing though. There's so much going on, it's hard to keep track, and from what I gather these were originally built for ilevel 90 gear, and I'm running around at ilevel 130,while those running this to farm items of do their duty roulette must be running in way higher gear still. I ended up looking up mechanics guides on YouTube ahead of attempting these too. There's basically no way of learning what to do by trial and error, at least not without majorly pissing off the rest of the party of strangers who are helping you through. It feels a bit wrong to me to be looking up guides before even attempting it, but that seems to be more of the done thing for this kind of content, and I get why.

Anyway, I'm nearly up to the end of the post ARR patch content. I got to the stage where the game tells you to set aside a good chunk of time to watch a load of cuts wnes, and decided I'd be better off coming back to it later.

Looking forward to getting stuck into the award winning expansion Heavensward™ and heading off to Ishgard soon!

The Crystal Tower was optional at the time - and for a long time after. It's only (comparatively...I'm being vague on purpose) relatively recently it's become mandatory due to becoming plot relevant.

[Knoyleo]

Yeah, I read that it was made mandatory after a particular expansion, and caught a hint about some of the thematic reasons why, but largely avoided spoilers. I was mainly looking to find out exactly how much of it I needed to complete, because the game tells you that you need to complete "certain quests" in the Crystal Tower series. Turns out certain quests is actually all of them. I suppose technically it's not quite all of them, because there's that final repeatable quest for turning in farmed pearls, but still.

Got through the final cutscenes ahead of Heavesward, and wow. That 45 minutes or so sure went some places. Considering how much of the preceeding 2.x patch content felt like a total drag, you'd think they could have spread some of the story beats out a little rather than dump them all on you right at the end in one go, but I guess it all needed to happen at once. Felt like some of that would have been fun to play through, though, especially escaping from Ul'dah. It also felt totally daft with my warrior of light sitting there as a white mage, watching the Sultana die, and just stare on gormless. I think I actually said "just use raise!" out loud.

Also, I always thought Urianger was sus.

I think I'm still disappointed that two interesting characters that were introduced in the 2.x patches are already out of the story. Moenbryda's dead already, and Graha's now locked himself up in the Crystal Tower. I guess that means he may well be back later, but both felt like they were being set up as companions for HW, and I'm sad that I won't be seeing either of them there.

I guess the 2.x patch content has had a lot of plot points to set up, especially compared to how relatively clean everything felt at the end of the 2.0 credits roll, and that's why it felt so slow initially. I know the story is supposed to really get going from here on, so if 2.55 is any indication of what's to come, then I'll be more than happy

Looking forward to getting stuck into Heavesnsward. I made it as far as Ishgard before I stopped playing. Nice that Alphinaud's voice has broken.

[Met]

It's a bit jarring going into HW because the entire voice cast changes, yeah. But this is the studio going forward, so plenty of time to get used to them.

Also, in regards to your point about so many plot points being set up, some of those plates only just stopped spinning. Going through it in real time was wild because they'd just hit you with "Yeah, remember that thing someone mentioned in a cutscene about something else from six years ago? It's actually important now and has been in the works since then."

Hell, the latest patch references something that happened in 1.0 that was just the Devs strawberry floating with the game irl before they were going to nuke the servers. You were either there for it, or not. The character gives a quick summary, and it's not important to know the ins and outs, but this game loves making you wait for payoffs.

[Knoyleo]

Think I'll finally be jumping on the paid version of this while Endwalker is in the Steam sale. Buying that and the base game currently works out cheaper than the complete edition. I'm nearly level 60, and I hit the Gil cap ages ago. I decided then to spend the Gil on some materials to level some crafting professions, but turns crafting just annihilates inventory space, especially without access to retainers or the market board. My total playtime on the free trial so far is 145 hours, which is pretty great for £0 spent so far.

[Met]

The free trial is REALLY generous, yeah. When they announced it was going to be expanded I expected it to go from level 30 to level 50, and stop just before going into Ishgard. But it's double that.

[Knoyleo]

The free trial is REALLY generous, yeah. When they announced it was going to be expanded I expected it to go from level 30 to level 50, and stop just before going into Ishgard. But it's double that.

I'm only on the level 53 quests in HW at the moment, just about to enter the Sohm Al dungeon, but I'm also just about to ping 60, and I'd like to not have all the additional XP going to waste. I know I don't need to upgrade yet, but I'd also really like to be able to access retainers, the market, etc, and also the option of the additional races for when I pop my free Fantasia, which I fancy doing soon, because WHM gear on a male character just looks so underwhelming.

[andretmzt]

Thought I'd do a quick roulette last night and got Aurum Vale. Not what I wanted for a quick run, a dungeon I'd never done before, non-level synced, and I have only just started playing again after several months.

Actually went very smoothly. Everyone else clearly knew what they were doing as we skipped past most of the first room down the left which set the tone. Ended up being relatively straightforward.

I need to get through the MSQ though. I've reached 50 as a Miner and White Mage so I'm stuck until I run through a load more of the MSQ. So painful.

[Knoyleo]

If you've got the patience to wait for 6.2, I think the patch content between ARR and HW is finally getting duty support, so that will at least cut down on the need to queue. Not that I ever really had many long waits for any dungeon as WHM.

[jawa_]

I've returned to the game on my PS4... starting out fresh as a Thaumaturge .

Gotta get back into how things work! I've dug out my controls notes to get my head around it.

[jawa_]

...it's just great to hear the music and get back into the general vibe of the game. I'm gonna take my time and try to get a better handle on the battling mechanics this time; how to use my magic (fire/ice) and when to move.

[jawa_]

I just reached level 12 and I have got a courtesy room at the inn . Really enjoying this although - as I recall from last time - there is so much to take in. The atmosphere and exploration is so good!

I'm not thinking about the point where I'll have to join a dungeon battle with a group of others, though .

[Knoyleo]

I just reached level 12 and I have got a courtesy room at the inn . Really enjoying this although - as I recall from last time - there is so much to take in. The atmosphere and exploration is so good!

I'm not thinking about the point where I'll have to join a dungeon battle with a group of others, though .

Duty Support should mean you can now run all of the dungeons up to the end of ARR with NPC party members.

Not that you should worry, I ran almost all through the duty finder with PUGs, and had a great time.

[jawa_]

Duty Support should mean you can now run all of the dungeons up to the end of ARR with NPC party members.

Not that you should worry, I ran almost all through the duty finder with PUGs, and had a great time.

Ah! I'd read about the ability of using computer ream mates and that, in the future, the developers are looking at enabling more single-player access to battles, too.

I'm not really against the idea of playing with others but I'm conscious that, in my past play, I was pretty useless and wasn't sure what I was doing. This time around I hope to learn the ropes a bit more and understand my fighting actions.

Edit: I learnt about auto attack, too, which I'd never used in my previous play. It doesn't seem to be too useful, though? It was using a strange basic hit attack - I think - rather than my fire/ice attacks.

[Knoyleo]

Duty Support should mean you can now run all of the dungeons up to the end of ARR with NPC party members.

Not that you should worry, I ran almost all through the duty finder with PUGs, and had a great time.

Ah! I'd read about the ability of using computer ream mates and that, in the future, the developers are looking at enabling more single-player access to battles, too.

I'm not really against the idea of playing with others but I'm conscious that, in my past play, I was pretty useless and wasn't sure what I was doing. This time around I hope to learn the ropes a bit more and understand my fighting actions.

Edit: I learnt about auto attack, too, which I'd never used in my previous play. It doesn't seem to be too useful, though? It was using a strange basic hit attack - I think - rather than my fire/ice attacks.

Auto attack is garbage for casters, and not worth much for most other classes either.

I've read that Black Mage is supposed to be one of the most demanding classes to play, so I guess you've got your work cut out if you don't feel too sure of what you're doing, although to be fair the most complex stuff is once you reach level cap.

Let me know if you fancy running some dungeon content and I'd be happy to pair up with you for some of it if I can find some reliable free time slots.

[jawa_]

Thanks for the heads-up, Knoyleo! I'm a very slow player... previously I played for - IIRC - around 150 hours and got up to level 36 .

My immediate goal is to get up to level 25 so that I can use transport/rides. That took me quite a while last time but I felt a real sense of achievement when I got there .

[jawa_]

Hey, all FFXIV players!

I am going to update the player log in the OP. Please let me know if you are currently playing the game and your details... it's time for us to travel back to Eorzea!

[Knoyleo]

Character is Knoy Leo, EU, Omega, PC, currently active

[Met]

For auto attacks they only matter for classes that get them easily anyway. To give an example, our reaper gets about 10% of their damage from auto attacks, but that's because they're always right up on the boss and don't have all that many (or any at all, can't remember) casts, so they can get them off.

On the other hand, our black mage does literally 0% from autos because there's very little time between casts to swing, they're often pretty far away from the boss, and when it does hit he swings for like 15 damage compared to Fire IV doing thousands.

You don't need to worry about autos. If you're meant to get them you will.

As for job difficulty and dungeon parties and the like: the difficulty of Black Mage is mostly in relation to higher end things like Savage where fights have a time limit and mechanics are coming hard and fast. Don't worry too much about not being optimal in basic runs and fights. People expect dungeons to be filled with other players learning how to play their job. Especially the early ones like Sastasha and Tam-Tara.

But as said, much of XIV can be treated as a single player game now if that suits better.

Anywho:

Met Rhukon, Light Data Center, Shiva home world. Active enough.