Final Fantasy XIV (Guide in first post)

I used to love the community in ffxiv, but after two days of struggling through Susex "farm" parties I hope they all rot in the deepest fucking abyss of hell.

Valderen said:

It's kinda strange hearing you guys talk about toxic community in this game because it's has NEVER been an issue for me, like in all the time I've played I have NEVER EVER encountered someone toxic in FF14. I've been in dungeons where someone would not understand a mechanic and cause the group to wipe repeatedly on a boss, and everyone was polite and explained how it worked until we did it. I have never seen someone being kicked except for inactivity.

Mind you, I've heard in chat mentioned that's it's specific to my server "Coeurl", and that some people have started seeing some of it since they encourage people to switch server because we were low population and one of those favoured destination, but I've never experienced it.

By far, FF14 for me has been the nicest community ever.

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I think for low to medium levels that is true. I haven't even finished the MSQ even though I've been subbed for a long time. And so far everyone is very nice, helpful and forgiving.

BUT, I'm on Gilgamesh in a FC that is full of elitists (60 plus - in almost every role) that complain nonstop about the people they are grouping with, the latest patch, etc. It's kind of funny listening to them but also rewarding, they do know how to play this game in ways I probably will never get to. The point is that MMO toxicity is relative to level / gear in my experience. Even back in ole EQ.

Wow @ the last quest of the ARR line.

Life comes at you fast

Palum said:

Wow @ the last quest of the ARR line.

Life comes at you fast

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All the MSQs from this point on are going to be pretty good. They trim all of the awful filler crap out of the MSQs from Heavensward onwards.

StoiCynic said:

I used to love the community in ffxiv, but after two days of struggling through Susex "farm" parties I hope they all rot in the deepest fucking abyss of hell.

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People join farm parties after one clear, thinking they can fly under the radar. Usually it takes me a few clears before I am comfortable enough with a fight to consider it on farm.

I haven't done either extreme yet, since I was a bit behind the first rush of 70's. Usually I try to get a couple people I know and then create my own PF group.

I'm already excited for the next tier which is presumably going to be FFIV based. Four Fiends, Golbez, and Zeromus? Sign me up.

Got the new jobs.. Samurai seems pretty straight forward.. Red Mage seems complex for complexity sake in some ways.. Both look cool as hell in combat.

Hah, the Toxic comes out hardcore if you did Steps of Faith (either version) leading up to the next expansion release. Holy shit talk about rage and salt. I think I had to do the first one 4x because each time I got into a group the tanks would get into a dick measuring contest regarding who knew the fight better, while literally 4/6 DPS were new each time and never asked questions. Engage one wipe and suddenly it's "why wasn't anyone doing dragonkillers? Do you guys know how to play the game?" etc, when there was only 3-4 people in the group at most who had even seen the fight before. And this type of commentary would continue until one or both of the tanks would just flip and bounce because it was messing up their 10 minute Trial runs. Then the group would disband and I was back to a 10m healer queue. Repeat 4x in a row hah.

Second Steps wasn't as bad, but a lot more instant-wipe mechanics if people weren't on the ball, which there's always one, and then the tanks/other dps would flip their shit regarding the dps that didn't know there was all sorts of random shit going on and they were too far from the safe zone. Then one tank would champion the DPS, while the other would shit themselves in a rage trying to understand how someone who has never done the fight didn't watch 10 youtube videos regarding it before queueing for it.

There is quite a great deal of salt in FFXIV, it just doesn't show up in the majority of fights. It has its place, though!

Elidroth said:

Got the new jobs.. Samurai seems pretty straight forward.. Red Mage seems complex for complexity sake in some ways.. Both look cool as hell in combat.

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RDM is one of the easiest jobs once you get it (or just read a guide).

Rezz said:

Hah, the Toxic comes out hardcore if you did Steps of Faith (either version) leading up to the next expansion release. Holy shit talk about rage and salt. I think I had to do the first one 4x because each time I got into a group the tanks would get into a dick measuring contest regarding who knew the fight better, while literally 4/6 DPS were new each time and never asked questions. Engage one wipe and suddenly it's "why wasn't anyone doing dragonkillers? Do you guys know how to play the game?" etc, when there was only 3-4 people in the group at most who had even seen the fight before. And this type of commentary would continue until one or both of the tanks would just flip and bounce because it was messing up their 10 minute Trial runs. Then the group would disband and I was back to a 10m healer queue. Repeat 4x in a row hah.

Second Steps wasn't as bad, but a lot more instant-wipe mechanics if people weren't on the ball, which there's always one, and then the tanks/other dps would flip their shit regarding the dps that didn't know there was all sorts of random shit going on and they were too far from the safe zone. Then one tank would champion the DPS, while the other would shit themselves in a rage trying to understand how someone who has never done the fight didn't watch 10 youtube videos regarding it before queueing for it.

There is quite a great deal of salt in FFXIV, it just doesn't show up in the majority of fights. It has its place, though!

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That's the last MSQ trial situation right now at lvl70.

Yeah, I experienced that with my first group. Literally 6 fresh 70s (both myself and the other healer as well) and both Tanks were just doing Trial runs. Immediate salt and rage when everyone didn't know every phase by heart, and they literally both said they were going afk for 5m (substantially shorter than the queues at the time; I guess there were a lot of healers on that day or something) to give everyone time to watch a video detailing a fight that nobody except the tanks had seen. Apparently, getting those bonus tomes are definitely worth being a huge dick about the whole thing. Couple of wipes in due to bad transitions and people not getting into perfect position constantly and both tanks booked it. Second group was a lot more chill regarding it, and we one shotted thanks to myself and the other healer having seen the fight before so we knew when the DPS were most likely to get killed.

Putting the storyline stuff in the Trials randoms is great and all and it helps the DPS that weren't in the first wave to catch up, but man does it promote some absolute primadonna behavior and a ton of raaaaage when people who have beaten those things get them again.

To be fair all the mechanics are pretty simple, so seeing dumbasses die to Tidal Wave more than one time can be kinda infuriating.

And the bonus on this kind of trial is way to low. 20 tome to spend 30+ min and multiple wipes to carry some people is not worth it when you expected your trial to be 5 minutes.

Still, it can be easy not to get this trial in roulette if you don't want it : either unequip some stuff to be below required ilvl, or just queue with a lower level friend.

I think the community is about the same as any MMO really. I don't do the extreme stuff(regularly) or participate in bleeding edge whatever but I do from time to time and get a pretty well-rounded experience of the game. Doing the Daily Roulette's regularly I almost never see jerks. It was the same as doing random dungeons in WoW. Most of the stuff is easy so people plow right through it. On the few occasions someone sucks or is poorly geared the entire thing moves a little slower but no big deal unless you are a min/max time cruncher. More often than not people are polite, either say nothing or offer some suggestions but rarely are people huge jerks. Maybe the "Mentor" program has something to do with this? If you are a mentor you get a bonus daily roulette....perhaps a factor?

I think this to be true for almost all progression content and normal duties/raids. Now the extreme's are a different story, though I still don't think different from other MMOs. Extreme's are the actual challenging raids/events. It's like if you joined a PuG WoW raid. You get X% of people geared and knowing the fight who just want to run it for whatever loot/achievement but have no guild, Y% of people who don't know the fight but good players and learn after a wipe or two, and Z% of people who just flat out suck.

The problem with the extreme's above is no different than WoW or any other MMO. You get the 1-2 guys who saw a video or read a post about how the best gear is this item with these exact materia, anything outside of that is utter garbage and shows you are a pathetic player. Then they go on and on about how you should watch a video before the fight and there is only one exact method to win. Basically just assholes. These dudes have been around since EQ. Part of me feels their pain, especially in a pug trying to herd cats, but people like that shouldn't PuG. Join a static(guild) or start your own guild/static. I feel like if you join a PuG you need to have some patience in all but severe situations.

As far as kicking, I've only seen it happen a handful of times. It's not some huge problem plaguing the game unless there is some data center/server behavior ruleset I don't know about.

Lastly on the healer/tank stancing and aggro/heal issues. They did lower the average bar big time. I am not a huge fan personally as it gave me a ton to do as a healer(SCH) and I had higher DPS than I do now, and less mana problems BUT I still have to admit for the longevity of the game and in the interest of bringing in new players, the changes are for the better. Good players will still be good, bad ones still bad, but at least the gap is not huge now. I think the difference still matters in extreme's where it should, but matters less for the basic daily dungeon crap, which it shouldn't matter so much.

Side note: I leveled WHM and SCH, though I SCH main, and holy crap is the white mage just so much better all around for anything that matters lol. Better AoEdmg, better DPS. more huge saving heals, better AoE healing and way less mana issues. SCH is a bit better for "farm" stuff, because I can almost go full DPS and let pet heal, but WHM is just better in every other regard. Shame because I've always preferred pet-style utility classes in my MMOs. Basically support or heals. Mostly because no one likes to play them and played well they can really do some cool shit.

Janx said:

So is there xrealm grouping for PF? Got my bard/RM up to 70 but the random FC i'm in doesnt have many 70s yet and DPS queues suck balls.

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Party Finder specifically allows you to select if you want to group with server only or entire data center. Problem is that there tend to be only certain dungeons in the PF. Right now it's heavily loaded with new content/progress/extreme's. Once the dust settles you'll see lots of pony farms and shit for WT.

ZProtoss said:

I'm already excited for the next tier which is presumably going to be FFIV based. Four Fiends, Golbez, and Zeromus? Sign me up.

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Yeah, I'm really hoping the next tier is Scarm, Cagna, Barbar, and Rubic.

Kriptini said:

Yeah, I'm really hoping the next tier is Scarm, Cagna, Barbar, and Rubic.

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FF6 redux, you heard it here first (Kefka would EASILY be a V8.0 boss). I'd make the Four Fiends a la A6, personally (Savage having all four come at you as "secret Savage phase")

Is this gay fanfic shit because I'm pretty sure all the FF games aren't in the same world

dvoraen said:

FF6 redux, you heard it here first (Kefka would EASILY be a V8.0 boss). I'd make the Four Fiends a la A6, personally (Savage having all four come at you as "secret Savage phase")

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Yeah Kefka is another good contender. We shall see!