The Final Fantasy XIV Thread [Dawntrail - 7.00]

[Cthulhu]

I don't think it'd be that big of a problem, I mean all of the dungeons and whatnot up until lvl 60 nowadays are generally either made easier, or become easier due to people having higher item levels on average. I never felt like I needed to "git gud" at anything, and IMO most of the game's content is pretty easy; only the primals and raids like Alexander (and especially the Savage versions) require you to do more than just facerolling.

Second, I'm pretty sure most people that buy these items either already have a character up to spec, or have friends that convinced them to just skip the lot.

Finally, even if they're not, there's still the regular game from lvl 60-70 they have to pass, which if the previous expansion and main game is anything to go by, slowly build up the difficulty and mechanics again.

 

[Jason Tandro]

^ This last point is certainly true. I've done two dungeons and a primal so far and while they still have decent mechanics and require you to pay attention they are considerably easier than even the mechanics in Heavensward's batch. Compared to Dusk Vigil and Sohm Al, the first two dungeons of Stormblood are much easier. And the first primal has some pretty interesting mechanics and, don't get me wrong, if you aren't focusing you can still wipe but for a first time player I found him much easier than Ravana.

 

[Obsidian Fire]

Well... in the Lvl 65 dungeon there's a boss where they

Spoiler

disable all your skills and you can only beat him by dodging/handling raid mechanics correctly, sometimes 2 at once

... One of the most awesome bosses IMHO and it should have been introduced way earlier in the game.

I don't know... I feel like I've seen more raid-tier mechanics in the normal bosses this time around (as opposed to just dodging AOEs). Only instead of having to handle, like, 2 or 3 at once, you only have to handle one on most bosses and on the last ones maybe 2. Which I feel is a way better ramp-up to savage content.

 

[Jason Tandro]

^ And that's a brilliant thing to be doing. Case in point:

Spoiler: First Primal

Susano has three mechanics that hit you at once but are telegraphed and generously timed to dodge: first the marker icon for the split, then the split itself where you have the Stack Up icon and then the ground AoEs. It also has a """"fun"""" twist on Titan's Gaols.

It's also nice because you've seen the marker icon and the stack up mechanic during the first dungeon (The Governor uses the marker but not for a split, and that first boss uses the Stack Up).

So yeah I'd say this is great preparation... as somebody who has I think only ever done A1S. I'm going to try and do the Savage content here though. I think my loins are properly girded.

 

[Joker]

Spoiler: Samurai Stuff

I spent some time fooling around with Samurai. I really love the rotation . I realize I'm probably missing a few (or perhaps many) key points, but my rotation goes like this and even at level 51 it dishes out some punishment.

Hakaze - Jinpu - Gekko (First Weapon Ability)
Hakaze - Shifu - Kasha (Second Weapon Ability)
Hakaze - Yukikaze (Third Weapon Ability)
Unleash Midgare Setsugekka - Repeat.

I toss in the Fuga- Oka or Fuga - Mangetsu for groups and Agetha when it procs between the weapon ability combos. I also pop Third Eye once in a while if I pull aggro. It's fast, it's efficient, it's an elegant death machine of a class.

Spoiler

From what I can tell, it's PROBABLY (and this is just a fucking guess because rotations haven't been cracked yet) optimal to do Gekko and then Yukikaze, simply because the slashing debuff will increase the damage output of all three parts of Kasha by 10%, which results in higher DPS than doing Kasha and then Yukikaze. I ALSO haven't figured out the optimal time to get Higanbana out, but it should probably be after all three of those have been applied (since the damage, debuff, and speed buff all increase its dot damage).

But I'm only level 51 so lol

very fun class, though I can't WAIT to get the hissatsu abilities because they're AWESOME

 

[JechtShotMK9]

I'm gonna keep maining Ninja and Paladin, and probably power level Samurai after I finish the MSQ either today or tomorrow. As for Bard, I've got one at 60, and I went ahead and geared it with the 60 gear that drops from the early SB quests, so I'll check it out.

 

[ForceStealer]

So, still early on, but

Spoiler: spoilers for In Crimson It Began instance or something to that effect

what a crazy effective sequence. First, showing the decided levels in skill/power between Meffrid, Lyse, and the Skull chick. And then of course Zenos who easily overpowers Y'shtola (who has thus far seemingly been presented as the most powerful Scion apart from the Warrior of Light). Then you get to be a badass and charge in, wrecking all the Imperial forces in almost no time. And then to have you be utterly outclassed by Zenos was really done well. Let's you fight for awhile, and see that you're not doing much, before finally going to a cutscene where you're roundly defeated. I don't think the Warrior of Light has lost yet in the story, so that was kind of an amazing moment.
There was a bit of shock on the face and reactions of the player character which is cool, but I do kind of wish you could play more into maybe being a bit disillusioned since, as I say, canon-wise, you've NEVER lost before.

Regardless, very well presented and a promising start.

 

[Joe]

I still intend to main SCH for Stormblood and its endgame content. RDM as a secondary so I will have healer/dps for most all content. Levelling RDM first was a strictly tactical choice - it'll be easier to use dungeons to level up later if I'm queueing as a healer.

Depending on how bad the content drought is between now and 4.1 I can see myself getting DRK up in the next month too. Ultimately my intention is to do what I did with HW and have a geared Tank, Healer and DPS, with healer as my main focus.

 

[Cthulhu]

I'm doing SCH, join the clubb

Should probably continue with the PLD at some point.

 

[Joe]

I've been a SCH main since ARR. You're the one joining my club newbie.

 

[Obsidian Fire]

Staying Summoner... no reason not too. I'll probably be leveling Dark Knight before Astologian as DRK has way less UI problems then AST does and I want to see if anything changes with that in the next patch... and Tank Qeues, 'nough said...

I want to take both Samurai and Red Mage though PotD to see what their skill order is as that's really helpful in figuring out hotkey placement and how their mechanics work. After that I'll probably pick a meele to level as I havn't picked a favorite yet. Currently leaning towards Dragoon or Ninja, though if I like Samurai I might do that.

Summoner's changes are interesting. The thing I find the most funny is all the complaints that Summoners are nothing but Ruin spam now as that's what you were doing for most of HW anyway. Which on the one hand might be boring, but that's what I liked about it. I didn't have to keep track of detail oriented combos while I dealt with enemy mechanics. Instead it was combos that were oriented around 60+ sec oGCDs and timing them all correctly. And now Summoner just has more of that going on.

Finished Azim Steppe! Wow! What a zone!

On to the rest of the Doma map!

Other random (non-spoiler) stuff:

Orthodox/Dravanian gear has dyable versions now (Lvl 64 gear)! It's one of my favorite gear sets to use as "filler" glamour, especially for Tanks.

Azys Lla and Sea of Clouds really set the bar high for fun maps to fly though. So far I havn't had anything close to that experience yet, but I still have to get to The Loachs...

 

[AvecAloes]

@Lex: HA! I GET IT CAUSE HIS ORIGINAL NAME WAS BUTZ!

Edit: My Main was going to be Monk but I didn't get it to 60 in time and it got pretty badly nerfed with the patch so I've been sticking with my DRG and levelling Samurai.

I'm also going to start levelling a White Mage so I can act as a healer for some of the newer crew trying to get into these obscene wait times. I might also level a Tank but I truly hate tanking, lol.


Edit 2: Details about the Stormblood "Level Boost" Potions.

First off the main site is: http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/tales_of_adventure

1. There are two types of items. Quest completion items and level items. Here's a rundown on the Quest Completion Items.

Tales of Adventure: A Realm Reborn ($18)
- Completes all Main Scenario Quests up to "Coming To Ishgard"

Tales of Adventure: Heavensward ($25)
- Completes all Main Scenario Quests up to "Beyond The Great Wall"

Both of these also give you 10 Silver Chocobo Feathers to accomodate gear purchases from the Calamity Salvager and 30 Allagan Platinum Pieces (300,000 gil).

Frankly, as the best thing about FF14 is its engrossing story, I find these items to be kind of obnoxious but I can see why they made them. There was a lot of pushback about people buying Heavensward and finding out they had to go through 120 hours of story before they could get there. Still I find it irksome but it's there for those who may need it.

Also it says it completes all appropriate quests for your starting class so I assume that means it will level boost, but I'm not certain - it doesn't expressly say that. The only reason I think it might not is because of...


2. Here's the Job Leveling Items

Tales of Adventure (Job Name I) ($25)
- Instantly Level a Job to 60, get a full set of ilvl 260 Armor (Shire Gear), 10 Silver Chocobo Feathers and 30 Allagan Platinum Pieces

This I can see some people wanting but again I see it being fraught with peril. Instantly jumping to a high level - and being expected to operate at that high level - seems like a huge pile of nope. The only place where I can see it being not disastrous is a place where it wouldn't be worth the $25 price point - where you got a job to 50 before Heavensward but didn't get it to 60 and want so skip the levelling involved. Taking a character from 1 (or even 30) to 60 seems pretty disastous.

The pacing of the job growth is pretty damned good and you learn how your job operates by the slow and steady acclimation to it. I mean yes if you do this for a DPS class you can just learn the meta rotation or priorty system and function but it will still be sloppy.

That said if I was going to do this (I'm not), it'd be with a tank or healer. If I'm dropping $25 it's going to be for reduced queue times. That said, imagine the swath of inexperienced Tanks and Healers handling high level raids. Problematic.

Honestly, all of this is the only way I'd be able to consider playing Evelyn with you guys at the moment - as I've said before, the idea of having to get through all of Heavensward MSQs is incredibly off-putting, because, well, I've done it already. Don't feel the need to go through all of that again. So this is actually something that I would consider taking advantage of.

 

[Cthulhu]

One thing I do like about Stormblood though;

Spoiler: just quest mechanics spoilers, nothing serious

The main quest feels more like an exploration of the areas / country,
more like a Bigge Epicke Journey, etc - atmosphere's good. Another thing I like is that you get to a new area, do a few main quests, and once you're done with those, sidequests pop up - and they're usually just one-off, instead of 5-level quest chains like in the vanilla game. Those got kinda grindy. Okay admittedly the quests are still only a variation of maybe three mechanics, but still.

 

[Joe]

 

[Joker]

post about job gauges

Tested this earlier today. You can always tell which stance a tank is in, as it not only shows up as a buff if you target them, it also shows up on their party list entry. I continued to test this with every other class I have, and can confirm that the OTHER job abilities (i.e. Blood of the Dragon, songs, Aetherflow, etc) do NOT show up, as you mentioned. Ditto cards for AST.

re: job potions - I've decided that I'm going to be getting on Cerb (or Omega, lol), and will either A ) do the job/story potions to get through ARR/HW and get going, or B ) transfer my FOR REALZ character over and make a new one on my current server, doing the job/story potions to jump them ahead. Ain't got time for all that bs again!

re: mains - still leveling through Stormblood as DRK, though I always level tank/dps/healer/repeat, in that order. But I only keep 2-3 DPS classes well-geared, so in all likelihood I'll be sitting on, like, some combination of DRG/SMN/SAM/RDM, and then obv SCH/AST.

 

[Joker]

Spoiler: story spoiler

so I just fought zenos again and then we cut to OH SHIT IT'S ESTINIEN HO LEE SHIT SON we now return you to your regularly scheduled rebellion

 

[Cthulhu]

Spoiler: Very short / early Red Mage impressions

It looks complicated and confusing . Mind you, this is coming from someone that started out as a PDL, whose main rotation was 1, 2 and 3. Maybe faceroll a cooldown from time to time.

This one though, hoo boy.
* Have to cast a ranged white or black spell, trying to keep the two balanced. Said spell has a 4-5 second cast time, which is tl;dr
* Said white or black spell procs about 50% of the time (iirc), opening up a 2nd ranged white or black spell
* Anything can proc a status that makes the next spell instant
* When one has enough white & black magic, a second set of abilities becomes enhanced. This is where you cast a skill that makes the character jump up close and personal, allowing you to do a quick (point blank) physical combo (see PLD) which will drain your white / black magic gauges. Hit the other ability to jump back to range and repeat.

I'm really not sure about this one yet. You have to monitor the white / black magic gauges and keep them balanced, the randomly proccing instacast makes it a very arrhythmical character (can't get into a set ability rhythm), the proccing second black/white magic cast makes it mandatory (pretty much) to keep an eye on the ability bar at all time, etc. And fuck knows what other extra abilities will be added when one levels up.

 

[Joe]

Casting a spell as a RDM makes the next one cast instantly. Thus you open with Jolt (< 2 second cast time) and follow up with Veraero or Verthunder, which typically have a 4-5 second cast. You never hard cast these abilities. When you have procs you swap out Jolt for whichever proc you have.

 

[AvecAloes]

^^This exactly. Casting ANY RDM spell will result in the "Dualcast" buff, which makes the next cast instant. So yeah, open with Jolt, and any time you don't have get one of the procs from Veraero or Verthunder, use Jolt again (or Scatter, or Drain, etc, depending on your current situation). I thought that RDM was going to be wildly complicated when I first equipped it and saw all of the skills and descriptions, but once I actually played with it a bit I found that it's pretty easy. I've got mine to level 53 now.

 

[Joe]

I took Drain from the get go, but past 54(?) it becomes useless. It ends up being a terribly low potency ability with a heal that doesn't heal for as much as Vercure. Better to cast Vercure then use the dualcast to continue your mana building, by using Veraero or Verthunder to follow up.

Guess it has some use before then though.

 

[Obsidian Fire]

Last night, me, JechtShot and Unit-01 had a grand time running unsynced Antitower with no healer. I really could get used to using Abyssal Drain as main aggro tool; the ranged AOE is awesome and MP management is a lot more predictable now.

Is it just me or are the new tank mounts a lot easier to get? The old ones require you to do 200 8-man instances (that aren't leveling instances) while the new ones require you to do 300 Lvl. 61+ dungeons/raids, or the Lvl 50/60 dungeon roulettes or the Leveling roulettes. I guess what off-sets how easy those are to get into is that the roulettes only count if you get the daily award bonus, but still, unless you're specifically farming tank mounts, it seems like you'd make a lot of progress towards the new mounts just by leveling up.

 

[Unit-01]

Last night, me, JechtShot and Unit-01 had a grand time running unsynced Antitower with no healer. I really could get used to using Abyssal Drain as main aggro tool; the ranged AOE is awesome and MP management is a lot more predictable now.

And again, I thank both of you for this.

So currently, I've beaten 3.0 and now I'm in 3.3, should be 3.XX tonight depending on how the queue times are for the last 3 dungeons. Be able to play a bit of Stormblood.

__________________

I'm finding, I progress really quickly through the story, then when it requires a dungeon to be done or trial, i just hit a wall for an hour.

___________________

Besides that, I really do love how they simplified the Dragoon rotation, and I always feel like I'm doing a ton of damage.

Also gotta thank Lex for giving me 255 gear right as I got level 60, it's been a huge help.

 

[Flare]

^That's another good thing about me being a Tank, I hardly ever have to wait for something to pop, except during a few times. I end up taking longer to do the other, sometimes menial, quests, because I end up going to do other things, or explore, or have fun elsewhere.

I got complimented as a Tank last night by the other 3 (they were in a party together), it was a nice feeling. <3 It might be kinda tough sometimes, and I'm fairly critical of myself being a Tank (I'm probably harder on myself than anyone else is), but it is fun and I think it's rewarding when you've done it properly. It's been interesting starting as a Tank.
I feel like for someone like me, starting out as a Tank and sticking to it is a really good thing and almost surprising. Simply because you're the de facto leader of the party, you've got a huge role to play, etc. I've never done that irl.

 

[Knuxson]

Been super busy this week and haven't had much time to play. I am ALMOST to level 62 lol.

 

[Lex]

I have the highest possible gear at the minute, i320 weapon, i320 earrings, neckband, wrists and one ring, i310 other ring, and i310 left side gear. There's no way to get anything higher currently.

Now to level something else, but idk what to level ;-;