FFXIV Gameplay and End Game contentFollow

If you're looking for FFXI-2, you're going to be disappointed. This game is quite different from that one.

The leveling experience is a mostly solo affair. You do group up with other people for instanced dungeons and some of the story fights, but this is generally handled via an automated matchmaking system that pairs you with other people on its own (though you can usually make your own parties too if you want to). There is no skilling up.

PvP in FFXIV is also a voluntary event. The first time it's available is level 30 (arena-style pvp). At level 50 there are a couple large battleground events to do. There's no world pvp at all, so nothing is forced there. You only have to interact with the system if and when you choose to.

I'm told the game plays very well on the PS4, though I have no experience with this myself (I play on a PC). While the controller support is excellent, I would suggest a wireless keyboard at least. I can only imagine that trying to type with a controller... sucks.

I'd recommend approaching the game with an open mind. Don't look for it to be something it isn't. See if you enjoy the game for what it is. If you like what you see, great.. I think it's a lot of fun.

Yeah, I'm not expecting it to be FFXI-2. Even FFXI has moved on from the old days. I'm just really hoping to do stuff with people on a regular basis. It's fun doing events, whether serious or goofing off and sometimes both. It sounds like a lot of solo content...that's impressive. I spent a ridiculous amount of time on FFXI and I'm looking to spend a good amount of time on FFXIV. If the solo content is that strong, then it might make up for the less group related events such as Sky, Sea, Dynamis, HNMs, etc.

I guess I'll need to see what the keyboard/mouse options are. Not a whole lot of stuff online showing a selection. I hope PS4 works out.

Thanks for the info guys. I will stay open minded. Like I said, I do have some idea of what this game is like, but it was a while ago. Hopefully I'll be back online with this within a week or two.

Completely agree - this is not XI-2, few people on here have complained that its not but it is not and it's never going to be XI-2. Ever.

Given that, SE has put things in place to keep you entertained. One big thing that did occur in XI was the "Wait", for events, for end game, exp parties, abyssea runs, HNM camping.

In all my time it's been rare for me to wait 30+ minutes for anything (except PVP Stuff on non busy periods). SE also made - cross world - parties, this helps keeps dungeons/exp going smoothly. It will be rare you have to wait a long time to get anything done.

As for LS/End Game events, get in the right linkshell. We do WoDnesday, yes today we will be doing WoD - which just reminded me to sign up. The LS also takes recommendations, e.g. pony runs (Primal Exs) or Coil learning. They are very patient for those of us who don't live on Coil.

SE fixed a lot of the problems XI had, the result is that less community feel because you don't constantly shout looking for members or ask the LS, there is not the 3 hour wait with 4 party members hoping a tank/healer pops any moment. You also don't need to skill up, static BLM party or anything like that because people want to max out EXP per HOUR.

Have to say though SE has made a brilliant game, I questioned at the start was it worth me paying a monthly subscription for with so many MMOs out there. Free to play ones too.

SE has just released Golden Saucer which I have to say is brilliant, I thought it would have 2-3 things to do and that was it but they have made a real effort. Random events, silly little games, triple triad, chocobo racing.... plenty of rewards for glamour etc too.

The solo content is indeed strong as the game even penalizes you for wanting to things with people, for example a lot of main story progression can only be done solo and the game will try to force you to disband if you want to try to do some with friends. There is a way to emulate XI's K/M setup and like XI, XIV plays fairly well with a gamepad as well if you're playing on PC.

If you ever have a problem with this game, the community is LIKELY the one thing you'll have a problem with before the actual game itself, it's known to get fairly toxic at times, even more so than WoW's community, especially if you happen to end up disliking any aspect of this game, so do your sanity a favor and never touch the official forums unless you absolutely only love this game lol, you can't even so much as bring up the fact there's holes in the ground that you can fall out of the map without someone trying to run you off the forums for being a "hater". So keep in mind the fact this game was mostly solo oriented with sprinkles of group content outside of instances has made a lot of people more "me me me!" oriented, so don't be surprised if you see some groups not mesh together well at all.

So if you've played WoW and most MMOs after WoW, you'll most likely like this one as the guy in charge of it specifically stated he wanted to emulate it for the Japanese audiences as they've never gotten an official WoW launch. So it's designed in a similar fashion but not as smooth (there's a lot more restrictions on getting the better gear in order to keep us busy until next update) and with the expansion rolling around soon joining now is actually at a pretty hectic period of progression but you could catch up easily.



Pretty much no one has complained about this - Just people getting accused of wanting it because they make comparisons to it, being as it's SE's other Final Fantasy MMO...and the fact they already borrow a ton of assets from it but repurposed them sometimes in a way that was in a lesser format than the significantly older MMO. He even admitted he wasn't expecting nor wanting an XI-2.



Keep in this Lonix is likely a tank or healer. If you're wanting to play a DPS role there's a good chance for some content you can and WILL be waiting far longer than 30 minutes, sometimes even 2-3 hours because the way this game works is they obsolete older content on new update, unlike XI when you played it. (Newer XI follows the obsoletion route in a way.) So for example when you're going through the main storyline and you're say, Dragoon, you can and will have massive queues for certain dungeons and fights like Cape Westwind depending on your server cluster. If you're attached to a Legacy server cluster the queues are better compared to nothing but brand new servers.



Instead, there's a concept in this game called Speed Runs which is when people want to maximize the size of pulls and get through the dungeonor encounter as fast as possible. Many people will assume everyone is up for a speed run and the tank will immediately rush off an try pulling the whole dungeon section when possible, which means if you're a new healer it's going to be pretty hard on you. While XI had exp outside of instances, XIV's is instance based mostly and that's where the toxicity of the community this game is known for comes in. In terms of content speed runs, people will expect you to already be at the top of your game or have the best gear possible so they can push phases since in comparison to XI, XIVs encounters are heavily scripted. While XI had similar "Boss does x at x%" it wasn't for every mechnic and skipping phases due to high damage output didn't raise the risk of automatically wiping you like it does in quite a few encounters in XIV.

So it is definitely a different game from XI and more on the "we wanted to emulate WoW" side, it still has its share of problems even then because joining now you may have a lot of content to do..but it's not like XI's "a lot of content to do" where it's actually relevant to you like at 75 cap Sky/Sea/Arenas/Dynamis etc has a bit of gear here and there that benefits you..in XIV only the current progression dungeons has gear relevant to you unless you want it for glamor/vanity purposes. Otherwise you're expected to go straight to say World of Darkness for your level 50 outfit (or Final Coil, as that is the actual end-game of this patch.)

Since you get a free trial it doesn't hurt to try and see if you like it, while the pace is much faster, it doesn't have as much variety, like BLM XI vs BLM XIV, you had more choices and utility in XI (as you can also debuff and Crowd Control and even decently heal if needed in a clutch), but in XIV you're stuck to only Fire rotation for Damage, Ice rotation for restoring mana and thunder for a DoT. You can cross class physick, but every second you're away from Fire you're hindering the party performance when it comes to "serious content" in this game.

Billing is still hit/miss depending but it is far easier with their Mog Station specifically for XIV - Crysta still uses the SE account system, so yeah no more POL, it has its own launcher. Given your break I'd assume, you can now use paypal directly if you prefer, so it's definitely more straight forward than ever.

There are still some "please skip cutscene" situations but for the most part people don't mind..they'll just rush ahead to the boss, so you may miss some fights sometimes but you can rewatch cutscenes too if need be, but it's only really the last set of initial story missions that you really start grouping. The EXP dungeons are part of the storyline but they're more to make sure you actually unlock it than anything. All storylines after 2.1 is largely solo with a few grouped content here and there as they end in a primal fight or a specific battle like 2.5's Chrysalis.



Yeah it's more expansive due to not needing to take consideration into PS2's limit on that.

Edited, Feb 25th 2015 8:29am by Theonehio

Auto-translate is a bit less critical now since the servers are in regional data centers. For the most part, people in your time zone will speak your language (an exception is the Quebecois French on the NA servers in EST.)

Still, it's sometimes the best way to communicate things. {I don't know how to answer that question.}

Our FC on Lamia has a Teamspeak server, but we haven't had a need to use it. We probably will once we start bashing our heads against Turn 5 again.

I have had 0 problems with billing in the Mog Station. *knock on wood* I prepay 90 days at a time, and get a little discount for doing so.

I can't speak to how well those work, but I use a wireless USB keyboard with my PS4 and it works fine (I think it's Logitech, don't quite remember the brand).

Depending on how long you are planning on playing at any one go, you might want to have a second controller or play close enough so you can charge the controller while playing, especially if the mini-keyboard uses the controller's battery. The PS4 controller battery life is not great. I have a second one, so I swap when it gets low.

Correction - My main is a BRD, again I will say I rarely wait more than 30 minutes. I also said "Rare for me" I am UK time, I get out of work and home by 6pm which is EU peak time. Also I have done ALL my jobs except my last gathering job and again - I have never rated more than 1 hour ever to do dungeons. And that's with me levelling most of my jobs through them except doing logs to gain additional EXP.

As for your "No one complained this wasn't XI", I have just replied in another thread to some one who did complain this game wasn't XI about "The Journey", I also will add the constant comparison to XI - I will use examples of what was said in another thread. "No longer gather together for camp and chat together" - "No longer join a party and choco ride together" "No more spending hours fighting endless of mobs" "No more huge zones that XI had comparing to XIV".

Get what I was doing there? I even got a PM from some one that complained about the state of this game.
here is the thread in question - read this for your self and tell me there is no mention about XI.

http://ffxiv.zam.com/forum.html?forum=152&mid=1421592850267455854
Looked through - post 1 mentions XI and how XIV isn't the same.
@Thayos Also mentions "Havent we seen this thread before?" He also compared the zones being wayyyyyy better than the zones of XI - another person who must of "ASSUMED".

post number 6 - agrees with poster number 1

post number 9 - Dare we speak their name 3 times?

So I think you need to wake up my friend, just because I wrongly accused one person doesn't mean I'm wrong. I will leave the OP to read through this thread - suggest you the OP reads through this you will find what XI vs XIV is and is not.

I'm working on getting my billing stuff done. I've never seen the option for 3 months at a time. Things have changed a little bit since I last worked with setting stuff up. The only thing I can see is adding Crysta. If that's the only way, then so be it. I don't want to do PayPal or stuff like that. Just doing direct CC. Is Crysta increments the only option? I guess that would be just a monthly deduction from whatever balance you have, right?

I noticed a new screen, the "Moogle Station" or something like that. It looks different. I'm currently downloading on PS4 (@ 50% so far..) but I see something about registration number. In my confirmation from PSN, there's nothing about a registration number. o.O So...what to do?

Edited, Feb 26th 2015 1:00pm by Ereseya

Yeah, I think I remember the Crysta being a separate option.

That sounds good, thanks svlyons.

update: Found the options and stuff once my game was linked to PSN. Now just finishing up updates. Also found several types of Logitech keyboards that are compatible. I'll get one of those soon. I guess I could use my PC keyboard in the meantime if need be. Thanks everyone for the help. ^^

Edited, Feb 26th 2015 3:44pm by Ereseya

Likewise, my preferred way to do payments. It's simple and easy.

Haha okay! I'm Katarh Mest in game - but we have about half a dozen officers for our FC on ZAM, so if I don't grab you someone else here can. I'll probably be back on tonight sometime after 7PM EST.

We are a very chatty bunch and happy to answer questions so you should be fine.

Edited, Mar 2nd 2015 9:06am by Catwho