**OFFICIAL** FFXIV:ARR Thread

[PowerYoga]

Any fights that need coordination from the DPS is going to be a tough matchup in the duty finder. Garuda has very specific mechanics that a lot of casuals just can't handle like "hide behind a pillar" and "kill feathers" or the toughest one, "kill the green tethered, or non-red tethered one first". Ifrit is fine because all you do is punch ifrit while the BLM/SMN limit breaks the nails, so there's not much to look out for other than the bright balls of flames under your feet. Garuda not so much.

 

[darkewaffle]

I hate them for using red/green in the Garuda fight lol. I have so much trouble telling the difference between the two on the fly, I literally need to be able to look at them side by side to tell.

One of my FC's healers has a lot of trouble seeing the red AoEs on the first ADS in Turn1 because of the color of the ground as well.

We're color retarded

 

[PowerYoga]

It's also not color-blind friendly. Although with all the blue and blue-tinted stuff around I think that's the last of color-blind player's issues.

 

[darkewaffle]

Yeah, me and the healer both have some mild color blindness. It's a running joke but every now and then it's a problem. I have a horrible time in BF3 telling the difference between the "squad" green (I think?) and the enemy red on the minimap and he had a lot of trouble on one of the bosses in Karagga's Palace in SWTOR where they put red AoE markers on some 'clay' colored ground lol.

Tome mats still dropping/adjusting it seems, currently at 20-25k for the most part and there's a lot more posted on the MB than there have been in previous weeks. 2* items still selling for me, but it's a bit more competitive - more items being posted from more different retainers.

I think eventually we'll see the materials for about 10k each with 2* items settling at 150-200k / 300k / 400k depending on how many tome mats are required.

An interesting quote I saw on reddit regarding some items having such higher tome material costs

During Phase 3 and 4 beta, the recipes required 1-2 of each item. So, a Rosegold Ingot required 2x Rosegold Nuggets and 1x Peacock Ore.

Here was the catch: 1.0 players were able to bring Peacock Ore, Coke etc with them in limited quantities. So, from SE's perspective, this would have allowed them to cheaply make tons of crafted gear that was DL equivalent straight away, virtually eliminating the need to farm ToP's at all.

So, without any real regard, they simply increased the material requirement 9 fold and called it a day. While not quite as bad on legacy servers where a supply existed right away, it was pretty devastating to non-legacy servers where the choice to go with DL just made more sense.

Of course, we also need to remember that there is a TON of IV materia on legacy servers, thanks to the cracked materia they brought over, which makes these items even more powerful. On non-legacy servers, IV materia is very rare and pretty expensive.

I don't mind the increase, I think even on non-legacy those material costs would have been far too low. But the disparity between certain class items and certain item slots is pretty silly, I wish they'd standardized that.

 

[PowerYoga]

any words on modding textures? I would think a color-blind friendly mod (like in world of tanks) for dungeons would be very helpful.

 

[darkewaffle]

Got my Garuda Axe upon the 4th time seeing it finally lol. Maybe I can get in Titan in a DPS slot now

 

[KaOTiK]

any words on modding textures? I would think a color-blind friendly mod (like in world of tanks) for dungeons would be very helpful.

I don't know if someone has or not yet, but maybe make a post on the offical forums asking for a color blind/friendly option?

Most devs I've seen are very accommodating when it comes to that and will add some type of option usually. Just most don't even think of adding it to start with if they don't have someone on the team that is effected by it and brings it up.

 

[PowerYoga]

As opposed to devs doing it, i would love for some texture replacements for high quality stuff. Would be awesome to have custom skins for armor so it's not that ugly ass darklight...

 

[darkewaffle]

http://www.siliconera.com/2013/10/2...m_campaign=Feed:+siliconera/MkOc+(Siliconera)

Siliconera quoting Famitsu that FFXIV has 1.5m registered accounts. Though I'm sure a ton of those will quit after their free month/getting burnt out, that's still a really good start. Even if they only keep 30% of those long term that'd be quite a substantial userbase.

 

[PowerYoga]

What did FF11 have at their peak? like 300k?

Also how many are bots or gilspammers...

 

[KIAman]

What did FF11 have at their peak? like 300k?

Also how many are bots or gilspammers...

At least 800+ from a single company alone...

http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...ldceo&order=&race_tribe=&worldname=&classjob=

 

[darkewaffle]

I want to say XI peaked around nearly half a million? It was released a few years prior to WoW really bringing MMOs to the mainstream audience so I don't think it ever really had a chance at the numbers we see today.

And even if there are a lot of spammers, a lot of them work out of hijacked accounts as well.

 

[PowerYoga]

before I transferred servers, most of the accounts that were spamming never got (DELETED) from my black list. I'd say that most of them were bought using stolen CC and were unique accounts, and while it doesn't inflate numbers much I wouldn't be surprised if there were at least 10k or so accounts that are just spammers given how many they go through in a week.

 

[pontifex]

I think I'm starting to lose interest in the game. I'm level 40 BLM and 42 Weaver. I thought joining a more active guild might help but it hasn't. No one plays together in this game unless it's raiding dungeons at 50.

I know you don't really need people playing together for regular quests but it gets boring by yourself.

Right now I have 1 quest and I can't complete it, i think i need to be higher level. It's an instanced quest. Trying to level up is hard especially when you have no other quests to do. Been doing levequests but they barely move the xp bar. and even if you +2 levels, you get very little extra. it's not like a weaver trade leve where you can turn in HQ items and get 3x the xp.

I don't see how grinding fates works as there seem to be a lot of downtime between fates, and they don't really give you much xp either.

 

[KaOTiK]

I think I'm starting to lose interest in the game. I'm level 40 BLM and 42 Weaver. I thought joining a more active guild might help but it hasn't. No one plays together in this game unless it's raiding dungeons at 50.

I know you don't really need people playing together for regular quests but it gets boring by yourself.

Right now I have 1 quest and I can't complete it, i think i need to be higher level. It's an instanced quest. Trying to level up is hard especially when you have no other quests to do. Been doing levequests but they barely move the xp bar. and even if you +2 levels, you get very little extra. it's not like a weaver trade leve where you can turn in HQ items and get 3x the xp.

I don't see how grinding fates works as there seem to be a lot of downtime between fates, and they don't really give you much xp either.

Sounds more like an FC issue. My FC does a lot together and helps one another out, more so when you become friends with each other. Though we do a lot more together with lvl 50 content then lower level outside of fate grinding together. As for Fate grinding, you have to be in the right zone and be in a party to really see how it levels you so quickly. At 40 you want to be in Coerthas till you hit 43 for Fates, than from 43-50 Northern Thanalan.

Doing fate grinding you can start a fresh class and hit 50 in 23 hours or less of playtime.

 

[pontifex]

Sounds more like an FC issue. My FC does a lot together and helps one another out, more so when you become friends with each other. Though we do a lot more together with lvl 50 content then lower level outside of fate grinding together. As for Fate grinding, you have to be in the right zone and be in a party to really see how it levels you so quickly. At 40 you want to be in Coerthas till you hit 43 for Fates, than from 43-50 Northern Thanalan.

Doing fate grinding you can start a fresh class and hit 50 in 23 hours or less of playtime.

it's not just that, although this is my 2nd FC. I left the first one because there was hardly anyone on and if there way, it was all lvl 50s grinding dungeons. When asking if there is an FC that meets my criteria, I basically get laughed at. it seems like like everyone just wants to rush to 50 and grind dungeons...

I've played less than 2 hours in the last 3 or 4 days.

 

[tedrodai]

it's not just that, although this is my 2nd FC. I left the first one because there was hardly anyone on and if there way, it was all lvl 50s grinding dungeons. When asking if there is an FC that meets my criteria, I basically get laughed at. it seems like like everyone just wants to rush to 50 and grind dungeons...

I've played less than 2 hours in the last 3 or 4 days.

Yeah, they didn't exactly design the game towards pre-end-game grouping. You can do it, obviously, but the duty finder and casual nature of the game lends most people to solo it and get on to the end-game climb. In that respect, the duty finder is a double-edged sword. I wish there was a mechanism that allowed you to hold cross-server duty finder groups together for multiple runs.

Anyways, almost every LS or FC I've joined has been pretty dead also. Though the game sucked for much of the time, if there was 1 thing that 1.0 excelled in, it was the community. The community of AAR so far is very spread thin. Part of that is because the game's so new and end-game is very easy to get to...so everyone wants to go power up. But if you put some effort into meeting people, you'll eventually find some good folks to do stuff with.

 

[darkewaffle]

Grouping largely depends on the initiative you take. Pre-50 dungeons can actually be quite good XP, but not if you're just a DPS sitting in queue waiting for it to happen or your groups stumble through them. The reason FATEs are so popular is not necessarily because they're the best, they're just the easiest and most mindless.

And yeah, just be in the right zone and "/sh lf fate group" and then follow them around. It's not the only way to level by any means, but it's the best uncoordinated way to do it. How social it is is entirely up to you.

Also it appears that Twintania has been downed legitimately. Meanwhile I didn't even get into coil lol, think I'll probably have to just try to jump into one over shout this week.

 

[PowerYoga]

I like to queue for dungeons. They're fun and varied in comparison to fate grinding, which I can only handle for a level or 2 before conking out. But downside is there's very few people doing them... or the queues are really long. It's not worth it to grind dungeons for the various low level gears while lvling as an alternative to fates.

Got pulled into coil for the first time yesterday... and it was turn 4. was a fun fight for me, but it was a big learning curve jumping from shut-off-brain WP and AK runs to "holy crap I have to do what??"

Was a fun learning experience though.

 

[tedrodai]

Had a chance yesterday evening to jump into a Garuda weapon farm, and the experience was most gratifying (not least because I got my SCH weapon ). Only 1 DD had a relic, and about 1/2 the group didn't have many DL pieces, but the team was killing Garuda right as (or directly after) the vortex went down. Mostly, people just knew what to do and how to play their class.

I also forayed into 2* crafting this weekend, primarily because I was impatient trying to farm for the last few pieces of DL gear. I made some HQ Spruce Pattens and Vanya Hat of Healing...like darkewaffle said, it's not much different than 1*. Out of 5 total 2* recipes to make the final products, I HQed all 5. I didn't reach 100% on the Vanya Silk or the equivalent piece for Spruce Pattens (I forget)...got one to 80-something and the other to 90-something %. But even without those 2 pieces HQed, it would have been easy to HQ the final product. To be safe, I also HQed all the easy mats as well, but I ended up with plenty of CP/durability left over on the final products. I didn't use any food.

 

[PowerYoga]

I feel like I need more CP before I can comfortably foray into 2 star crafts. Hovering at around 320 only and I have trouble HQing 1 star stuff occasionally if I hit a bad streak. I know I shouldn't worry much with byregot's but I hate popping it and ending with only a 90% chance to HQ. Had a 98% chance to HQ on one of my hats this weekend and it ended up being a NQ.

Also square need to fix the issue with expert delivery not showing all your stuff. I have different gear for all my crafters sets and they all show up before stuff I want to get rid of (AK pieces).

 

[KIAman]

it's not just that, although this is my 2nd FC. I left the first one because there was hardly anyone on and if there way, it was all lvl 50s grinding dungeons. When asking if there is an FC that meets my criteria, I basically get laughed at. it seems like like everyone just wants to rush to 50 and grind dungeons...

I've played less than 2 hours in the last 3 or 4 days.

Yeah, for some reason, the leaders of the FC decided to go hardcore coil only and imploded the FC. Now the new FC only does coil raiding while the old FC is left to fend for themselves.

Sorry about bringing you in. I really had high hopes for this one.

 

[pandemonium]

Grouping largely depends on the initiative you take. Pre-50 dungeons can actually be quite good XP, but not if you're just a DPS sitting in queue waiting for it to happen or your groups stumble through them. The reason FATEs are so popular is not necessarily because they're the best, they're just the easiest and most mindless.

And yeah, just be in the right zone and "/sh lf fate group" and then follow them around. It's not the only way to level by any means, but it's the best uncoordinated way to do it. How social it is is entirely up to you.

^ This. Take the initiative and start asking. If no one is answering after a few tries, find another FC. The FC I'm in constantly has level 50 spam, but when I feel like it, I'll pop in there and ask anyone for DF queue'ing/FATE grinding @ a certain level and people end up joining. I've seen plenty of people asking, too, and I'll join lower level dungeons because it definitely beats solo'ing all of the time in a MassivelyMultiplayerOnline game.

Yes, the game is naturally casual gamer oriented, but it doesn't have to be.

 

[darkewaffle]

I think I want to level Arcanist next, I'd like to have a healer and Scholar seems much more interesting to me than WHM.

Also I hope they expand the armory chest eventually, and give it an autosort of some kind. When carrying full crafting gear for all my professions as well as an assortment of main/off gear for just bard/warrior I often have 22-25 slots filled for my chest/pants/gloves/etc. Makes it a little difficult to have any kind of levelling gear at times - I'm reluctant to store my relic armor in the armoire because it's spiritbonded already and knowing FFXI I could see them requiring 100% bond relic armor for some sort of upgrade quest or something like that.

Or just give me some kind of 'super' Dodore Doublet set that I can equip with all my crafters. Actually that'd be kind of sweet, maybe make it so that there are class agnostic pieces available that have the same stats as the crafting class gear, but maybe make them BoP and/or 2* 9mat items with each one made by a specific profession.

 

[PowerYoga]

For convenience I wouldn't mind some "darklight" crafting gears, but I like the uniqueness of each individual AF for the crafter and how you can dye them. I'd hate for all lvl 50 crafters to look the same as every other crafter. That or make the armory bigger, or allow mods to let us create our own mods to sort it. I keep my stuff all sorted manually anyway though, and would hate for them to mess it up.