Again, works get ahead of me (but this time I actually enjoyed it, maybe I'm getting older, well... whatever)
So yes, I finally got myself a copy of Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, the chocobos finally did it, or to be specific: my guildmates needs a tank :D.
Here's the thing, Square finally sorted all of their crazy-numbered error message and opened servers as well as resuming their digital sales, so I boot it up and created a gladiator with paladin in mind. Of course first I have a list of what I should do to be on level with my 15-days-earlier friends, so my twelve hours a day powerleveling begins.
So yes, I finally got myself a copy of Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, the chocobos finally did it, or to be specific: my guildmates needs a tank :D.
Here's the thing, Square finally sorted all of their crazy-numbered error message and opened servers as well as resuming their digital sales, so I boot it up and created a gladiator with paladin in mind. Of course first I have a list of what I should do to be on level with my 15-days-earlier friends, so my twelve hours a day powerleveling begins.
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| this is my place to unwind after being used by my friends |
The Quests
As I said before Final Fantasy has a solid story quest and numerous sidequests to choose about at the start, every five level you're also treated to your class ability/skill quest which also can be considered a side story, although ability quest takes place in a solo instance where's your allies are NPC (which sometimes rushes themselves to death) they can be quite hard to ge into if you're on a minimum level required, Square refunded your lost time with a buff that stacked every time you failed these mission which gives you expanded stats until you're finally on a level where mow down your enemies like hot knife through a butter, quite convenient
Apparently the sidequests stopped flowing on the last 10 levels, and the story quest required you on a specific level, this is where the grind begins, you can do FATEs, levequests, dungeons, or hunting logs. Stocked some rested xp under your belt also helps, food buffs aren't significant so you can do without it, there several FATE spots where people are LFG-ing, notably in Mor Dhona and Coerthas
The Grouping Content
Yes, apparently it's true: Sometimes your progress on the main quest storyline are halted on a content where you must find groups to tackle a dungeon, this is where the duty finder (LFG tool) comes in handy, although it's still a curiousity that I have to queue 20 mins on the late mandatory dungeons, side dungeons has more horrible queue time, more like hours, and I'm a tank, my DPS and healer buddies said "you don't want to know my average queue times"
This probably can be traced to the fact that dungeon on Final Fantasy XIV are... difficult, I'm not talking about mindbreaking diffcult, it's just that there are numerous way to screw up on some bosses and even some trash, the difficulties can be compared to early Cataclysm expansion dungeons on WoW (before they nerfed it to the ground) where I sat down to watch more drama than defeating Jin'do =))
Dungeons in FFXIV contains numerous mechanic, and nothing can be facerolled, as a tank you're completely dependent on your healer, the healer also dependent on your DPS ability to take down trash mobs before his/her mana ran out to heal you, AOE skills are almost non-existant on the first few level and since your level scaled down to a dungeon your late level active and passive skills are also locked out. Also: Dungeons have timers, sometimes it's like 60 mins or something and when it ran out you're kicked out of it, so when you wipe you risk your whole dungeon experience although you d get to keep your loot from defeated foes or bosses
Ability lag or sometimes called : "I'M OUT OF THE RED CIRCLE GODDAMIT, WHY AM I STILL GETTING HIT???!!!" is my bane of existence in FFXIV. Yes, the dreaded beta bugged red circles still has it's place on the live version. It's where the animation and the hit or miss situation isn't synhronized perfecctly, the result is you're still getting hit even when you're 100 yards out of the red circle, or cone, or line, whatever. Let's take a peek of Garuda, the primal of air, she has cone-wide slipstream that must be avoided or your healer will have double trouble healing you, when I strafed so I face her side, or her behind I'm still getting hit, it can be frustrated sometimes since the red circle isn't helping at all and all the late dungeon bosses will one shot you.
As I said before Final Fantasy has a solid story quest and numerous sidequests to choose about at the start, every five level you're also treated to your class ability/skill quest which also can be considered a side story, although ability quest takes place in a solo instance where's your allies are NPC (which sometimes rushes themselves to death) they can be quite hard to ge into if you're on a minimum level required, Square refunded your lost time with a buff that stacked every time you failed these mission which gives you expanded stats until you're finally on a level where mow down your enemies like hot knife through a butter, quite convenient
Apparently the sidequests stopped flowing on the last 10 levels, and the story quest required you on a specific level, this is where the grind begins, you can do FATEs, levequests, dungeons, or hunting logs. Stocked some rested xp under your belt also helps, food buffs aren't significant so you can do without it, there several FATE spots where people are LFG-ing, notably in Mor Dhona and Coerthas
The Grouping Content
Yes, apparently it's true: Sometimes your progress on the main quest storyline are halted on a content where you must find groups to tackle a dungeon, this is where the duty finder (LFG tool) comes in handy, although it's still a curiousity that I have to queue 20 mins on the late mandatory dungeons, side dungeons has more horrible queue time, more like hours, and I'm a tank, my DPS and healer buddies said "you don't want to know my average queue times"
This probably can be traced to the fact that dungeon on Final Fantasy XIV are... difficult, I'm not talking about mindbreaking diffcult, it's just that there are numerous way to screw up on some bosses and even some trash, the difficulties can be compared to early Cataclysm expansion dungeons on WoW (before they nerfed it to the ground) where I sat down to watch more drama than defeating Jin'do =))
Dungeons in FFXIV contains numerous mechanic, and nothing can be facerolled, as a tank you're completely dependent on your healer, the healer also dependent on your DPS ability to take down trash mobs before his/her mana ran out to heal you, AOE skills are almost non-existant on the first few level and since your level scaled down to a dungeon your late level active and passive skills are also locked out. Also: Dungeons have timers, sometimes it's like 60 mins or something and when it ran out you're kicked out of it, so when you wipe you risk your whole dungeon experience although you d get to keep your loot from defeated foes or bosses
Ability lag or sometimes called : "I'M OUT OF THE RED CIRCLE GODDAMIT, WHY AM I STILL GETTING HIT???!!!" is my bane of existence in FFXIV. Yes, the dreaded beta bugged red circles still has it's place on the live version. It's where the animation and the hit or miss situation isn't synhronized perfecctly, the result is you're still getting hit even when you're 100 yards out of the red circle, or cone, or line, whatever. Let's take a peek of Garuda, the primal of air, she has cone-wide slipstream that must be avoided or your healer will have double trouble healing you, when I strafed so I face her side, or her behind I'm still getting hit, it can be frustrated sometimes since the red circle isn't helping at all and all the late dungeon bosses will one shot you.
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| Taste my rage of Halone!! where you can one shot me while I strafe-gliding with this skill |
Trials are where your party faces one of the primals of elements, there are three so far: Ifrit (fire), Titan (earth), and Garuda (air), they made a really awesome group and story content since it requires you to stay at your toes no matter what odds they throw at you (also the soundtracks are great), on the story content they're manageable with PUGs. On the hardmode endgame content however, they will wipe the floor with your face seconds after you engaged them if your full party (2 tanks, 4 DPS, and 2 healer) doesn't know what to do with them, it takes skilled and seasoned well-coordinated players to go toe and toe with them, and also: good gears. I used to against locked content but this thing? This is a wild ride that will keep you glued on your keyboard or flip it with frustration =))
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| I'm actually Diablo, this is my final form after Blizz took the auction houses down |
Almost 50
I've only 6 level more from cap but I also found some flaw of Final Fantasy XIV, since there's only one story content and you exhaust it on leveling your first class leveling another class can be a completely tedious job, since there's no more story to follow, the side quest on another town however abundant they're only consist of your average kill ten rats quest, so you're limited to FATE and leve grinding (also hunting log if you prefer it). Leveling a diciple of land/hand is probably more manageable since they have their own leves and ability quests, also high-end crafting will requires you to take up some interesting sidequests
Overall it was a trip, I'm glad I finally bought it, the great soundtracks and story is probably the highlight of this game, I'm still curious of what SE will brought up with this game, the Crystal Tower raid and housing features seems promising for early updates, they still have a long way to go if they want to be on par with WoW and Guild Wars 2 as an AAA High Fantasy MMO
I will write a next post observing the aesthetics of FFXIV, another highlight (If i have time) :D
I've only 6 level more from cap but I also found some flaw of Final Fantasy XIV, since there's only one story content and you exhaust it on leveling your first class leveling another class can be a completely tedious job, since there's no more story to follow, the side quest on another town however abundant they're only consist of your average kill ten rats quest, so you're limited to FATE and leve grinding (also hunting log if you prefer it). Leveling a diciple of land/hand is probably more manageable since they have their own leves and ability quests, also high-end crafting will requires you to take up some interesting sidequests
Overall it was a trip, I'm glad I finally bought it, the great soundtracks and story is probably the highlight of this game, I'm still curious of what SE will brought up with this game, the Crystal Tower raid and housing features seems promising for early updates, they still have a long way to go if they want to be on par with WoW and Guild Wars 2 as an AAA High Fantasy MMO
I will write a next post observing the aesthetics of FFXIV, another highlight (If i have time) :D
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| For now I'm just gonna stare at the fire and hope it yielded exp |
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