**OFFICIAL** FFXIV:ARR Thread

[Reckoner]

Is there still no queue to log into this fucking game ? Just spam retries constantly ?

Correct

 

[robvp]

they said they will be making some upgrades starting on wednesday's maintenance, hopefully it will ease login problems, we are getting 7 days of free time because of the troubles

 

[darkewaffle]

Was tough to get in this weekend lol, Sunday I had a hard time and yesterday was even worse; lost a few hours to the menus. Really looking forward to seeing how everything runs tomorrow, I'd love to get to create an alt for some more retainer slots eventually.

For what it's worth, if you're just constantly getting 'world is full' but are getting to the character screen consistently you can make a AutoHotKey script to automate login attempts pretty easily by just having it send timed NumPad0 strokes.

Levelling and difficulty are well paced imo. The first 15 levels are a breeze and even if you do nothing but FATEs and your hunting log they should go by pretty quickly. First three dungeons very simple but they become a bit more complex as you hit 30, the boss at the end of Brayflox's Longstop is probably the first one I felt was slightly more demanding, though our awful awful awful awful pug tank might be the cause of that lol. Sunken Temple of Qarn is supposedly the first one to give some groups real problems.

At 37 I feel like levelling is still pretty quick, and while the sidequests are nothing to write home about, they do the job and are sometimes amusing. My friends at 46-48 evidently had to do some FATE grinding between story quests/quest nodes, but they also tend to rush a bit, I'm curious to get there.

 

[Mushkins]

Was tough to get in this weekend lol, Sunday I had a hard time and yesterday was even worse; lost a few hours to the menus. Really looking forward to seeing how everything runs tomorrow, I'd love to get to create an alt for some more retainer slots eventually.

For what it's worth, if you're just constantly getting 'world is full' but are getting to the character screen consistently you can make a AutoHotKey script to automate login attempts pretty easily by just having it send timed NumPad0 strokes.

Levelling and difficulty are well paced imo. The first 15 levels are a breeze and even if you do nothing but FATEs and your hunting log they should go by pretty quickly. First three dungeons very simple but they become a bit more complex as you hit 30, the boss at the end of Brayflox's Longstop is probably the first one I felt was slightly more demanding, though our awful awful awful awful pug tank might be the cause of that lol. Sunken Temple of Qarn is supposedly the first one to give some groups real problems.

At 37 I feel like levelling is still pretty quick, and while the sidequests are nothing to write home about, they do the job and are sometimes amusing. My friends at 46-48 evidently had to do some FATE grinding between story quests/quest nodes, but they also tend to rush a bit, I'm curious to get there.

At 44 (where I left off in 1.0) i'm already having a few issues with the quest pacing. For how few quests there are in each level range and how they are one-time only, they do not give nearly the exp I would expect. At 10-13k exp each, I completed two quest hubs and maybe got 1/3 of a level. It's gonna be FATE grinding all the way for any other jobs I level that high simply because there are no quests left to do. It's actually faster and easier to run around the starter zones doing FATEs for 3-4k a pop while level synced than it is to solo quest in a level appropriate zone. Definitely still needs some adjustment.

 

[darkewaffle]

Also as much as I like crafting and appreciate the guildleves... I can't help but feel they're way too good. Between the obscene amounts of EXP you can earn from HQ turnins and the number of leves anyone who played during open beta would have stockpiled I feel like they kind of cheapen the experience/process. I kind of wish they'd made it so that leves didn't accumulate until launch or something.

 

[gothamhunter]

I haven't been able to login and play since last...Thursday was it? My service accounts are separated

 

[redrider4life4]

After not being able to log in all of Sunday and only Monday, I was only able to go from 34 to 36 (almost), but one thing I did notice is that the dungeons become way too difficult for the experience reward.

Obviously FATE grinding is a legit way to level, but I think it would be a nice option for dungeons to reward more experience for the amount of time it takes to complete them. For one gear doesn't play a huge role in this game like other MMOs so even a group of geared alts really wouldn't steamroll any dungeons particularly fast to where they are better exp than FATEs. Quests will def die down as you level more classes so I just hope they tweak dungeons so FATE grinding isn't the only option.

 

[PowerYoga]

Also as much as I like crafting and appreciate the guildleves... I can't help but feel they're way too good. Between the obscene amounts of EXP you can earn from HQ turnins and the number of leves anyone who played during open beta would have stockpiled I feel like they kind of cheapen the experience/process. I kind of wish they'd made it so that leves didn't accumulate until launch or something.

Eh, the guildleves are once a day (24 hours) for 1x each specific craft so it's not worth that much. Maybe this changes when you hit higher ranks, I don't know yet.

The leves for crafting are really necessary for certain classes to get over humps where there's nothing good/profitable to craft. I've noticed this in quite a few classes, where there's gaps inbetween tiers where you can't craft anything good/useful, you can't HQ anything and you just need 2-3 levels to get pass the hurdle so you can start making other stuff. These get burned up real quick when you're trying to plow through a craft, I think about 20~ leves will probably get you only 2-3 levels even at lower tiers unless you're HQing everything, which you won't be if you're doing leves on your level.

I haven't been able to log in this weekend because I was out, but when I came back yesterday... NA/EU world list down. Looks like the issue's getting worse and worse, if the maintenance doesn't resolve congestion today then SE is going to lose a LOT of customers. Nothing's worse than a high profile MMORPG launch that doesn't even have a queue for you to salivate at.

 

[tedrodai]

Also as much as I like crafting and appreciate the guildleves... I can't help but feel they're way too good. Between the obscene amounts of EXP you can earn from HQ turnins and the number of leves anyone who played during open beta would have stockpiled I feel like they kind of cheapen the experience/process. I kind of wish they'd made it so that leves didn't accumulate until launch or something.

Less than 1 week of accumulation means nothing in the grand scheme.

 

[KaOTiK]

Hit 50 last night and finished up the storyline quest and got my Magitek Armor as well as my WHM level 50 skill.

Now to work on my relic weapon which will require me leveling up Carpentry I believe (need to double check that).

Then I need to level up THM to at least 26 I think so I can get surecast and swiftcast (though I want to level up a BLM anyways so this works out ) for cross skill.

 

[gothamhunter]

Hit 50 last night and finished up the storyline quest and got my Magitek Armor as well as my WHM level 50 skill.

Now to work on my relic weapon which will require me leveling up Carpentry I believe (need to double check that).

Then I need to level up THM to at least 26 I think so I can get surecast and swiftcast (though I want to level up a BLM anyways so this works out ) for cross skill.

Can't wait until I'm level 20 ;-;

 

[darkewaffle]

Eh, the guildleves are once a day (24 hours) for 1x each specific craft so it's not worth that much. Maybe this changes when you hit higher ranks, I don't know yet.

The leves for crafting are really necessary for certain classes to get over humps where there's nothing good/profitable to craft. I've noticed this in quite a few classes, where there's gaps inbetween tiers where you can't craft anything good/useful, you can't HQ anything and you just need 2-3 levels to get pass the hurdle so you can start making other stuff. These get burned up real quick when you're trying to plow through a craft, I think about 20~ leves will probably get you only 2-3 levels even at lower tiers unless you're HQing everything, which you won't be if you're doing leves on your level.

I meant crafting leves, pretty sure in XIV originally all leves were referred to as guildleves. My mistake. The GC turnins are definitely nice boosts however especially since I end up getting my 'one time craft' bonus for many of the items.

But 20 leves is way way way more than 2-3 levels if you're doing the right ones and turn in HQs. You can easily get a level every 2-3 leves (and even closer to 1-2 at times). All three of the crafters I have "high" so far have been able to take advantage of "3x3" crafting leves at multiple tiers (and I know my friends with cooking and goldsmithing have had similar experiences. It sounds like it's especially bad (good?) with cooking). These typically ask you to turn in three items, reward full XP and then give you the option to do that up to two more times on a single leve allowance. Further, the items they usually ask for are not particularly difficult recipes and tend to be a few levels below you. I think they're basically designed for craft grinding.

Also I have to wonder why a HQ turnin essentially provides "triple" XP. I feel like it should be double, though I guess it depends how you interpret the percentage increase.

Less than 1 week of accumulation means nothing in the grand scheme.

I'd say that's true if the number of leves given to you weren't more than enough to max a craft. It's enough for 2-3 honestly imo. I mean ultimately it doesn't really matter who gets there first or anything (though being the sole source of something valuable at this point in the game is pretty lucrative, but I think inflation will negate that with time), but like I said I feel like it somewhat trivializes/cheapens the experience.

Though maybe that's what it's supposed to do and the "real" crafting begins at 50 and maybe there's some sort of analogue to 'guild points' and the turnins you had to do in FFXI or advanced recipes you have to find, I dunno. I can't honestly say because I'm not quite there.

 

[pontifex]

when can i buy this game? lol

 

[PowerYoga]

when can i buy this game? lol

you don't right now. You have to wait until SE fixes this damn mess of massively underprovisioned servers designed for about 1/20th of the amount of people that it currently has to serve.

Unless SE's "hardware addition" means they're adding about 5-6 new servers to each cluster I don't foresee this resolving anything. Chances are they'll add 1-2 sets of servers to each region and we'll be getting 1017s until the end of the first month when people don't renew their subs because they can't log on to play.

 

[Elcs]

when can i buy this game? lol

From the site? No idea.

From a store? If they have stock (none in the UK seem to have any for the PC)

From an online store? Bah... annoying.

 

[TheUnk]

As a tank I found I only ever had to fate grind 1 level.

Do dungeons that are your level as soon as they open. The exp from chains is amazing. Once you get rolling at higher levels it's up to 2k a kill. Problem is as soon as you get 1 level above them it turns to crap exp, seems to cut it in half or worse. Plus you get loot and tomestones later on.

So unlock all dungeons on your journey and do them ASAP. Don't unlock a level 44 dungeon, fate train to 45, then go do the dungeon.. That is just foolish.

I find fate trains to be completely stupid and amazingly boring...

Also once you get 49 the quest line will bring you to something like 70% to 50. Again, don't be a fool and continue fate training to 50 and then doing the quest line...

 

[Elcs]

As a tank I found I only ever had to fate grind 1 level.

Do dungeons that are your level as soon as they open. The exp from chains is amazing. Once you get rolling at higher levels it's up to 2k a kill. Problem is as soon as you get 1 level above them it turns to crap exp, seems to cut it in half or worse. Plus you get loot and tomestones later on.

So unlock all dungeons on your journey and do them ASAP. Don't unlock a level 44 dungeon, fate train to 45, then go do the dungeon.. That is just foolish.

I find fate trains to be completely stupid and amazingly boring...

Also once you get 49 the quest line will bring you to something like 70% to 50. Again, don't be a fool and continue fate training to 50 and then doing the quest line...

Thanks for the tip.

I first wanted to go Lancer -> Dragoon but I'm worried that they're far too common, so I picked Pugilist -> Monk. Now I'm concerned that they're too common so I was thinking about Acrc -> Summoner because I love Summoner classes but according to one of the polls I've read, almost as many people are going Summoner as they were Dragoon

So I think I might just settle for Lancer -> Gladiator -> Paladin, then see what I feel like doing when I hit max.

 

[pontifex]

you don't right now. You have to wait until SE fixes this damn mess of massively underprovisioned servers designed for about 1/20th of the amount of people that it currently has to serve.

Unless SE's "hardware addition" means they're adding about 5-6 new servers to each cluster I don't foresee this resolving anything. Chances are they'll add 1-2 sets of servers to each region and we'll be getting 1017s until the end of the first month when people don't renew their subs because they can't log on to play.

I know why you can't buy it now, i want to know when you will be able to.

 

[PowerYoga]

I know why you can't buy it now, i want to know when you will be able to.

They don't have a date yet. My guess is they're waiting to see whether this server expansion fixes the caps like the rest of us.

 

[PowerYoga]

Thanks for the tip.

I first wanted to go Lancer -> Dragoon but I'm worried that they're far too common, so I picked Pugilist -> Monk. Now I'm concerned that they're too common so I was thinking about Acrc -> Summoner because I love Summoner classes but according to one of the polls I've read, almost as many people are going Summoner as they were Dragoon

So I think I might just settle for Lancer -> Gladiator -> Paladin, then see what I feel like doing when I hit max.

You can try and play them all up to about lvl 15 very easily and try satasha (the first dungeon). I will say I see a ton of lancers and puglists around though, and not as many glds and mrds. Conjurers are by far the rarest class out there, but it's a good idea to level a lot of the lower classes to get some x-class abilities.

I wouldn't worry about the game until later this week. They are doing a server expansion today and for sure I'll be trying the login process tomorrow to see if it has resolved anything.

 

[Mushkins]

You can try and play them all up to about lvl 15 very easily and try satasha (the first dungeon). I will say I see a ton of lancers and puglists around though, and not as many glds and mrds. Conjurers are by far the rarest class out there, but it's a good idea to level a lot of the lower classes to get some x-class abilities.

I wouldn't worry about the game until later this week. They are doing a server expansion today and for sure I'll be trying the login process tomorrow to see if it has resolved anything.

You don't see as many GLD or MRD because they're tank classes and everyone likes to do big numbers and kill things. Likewise SMN is so popular because it's new and shiny and all the people who leveled everything to 50 in 1.0 *only* have SMN left to level. It'll die down over time.

IMO just play what you like. There's a *lot* less class stacking in this game as compared to XI, and all of the classes are viable for their roles. They nixed skillchains/battle regimens and replaced them with the limit break system so it honestly makes little difference for dungeon runs or light parties if you have class diversity or not.

 

[tedrodai]

Chances are they'll add 1-2 sets of servers to each region and we'll be getting 1017s until the end of the first month when people don't renew their subs because they can't log on to play.

That's how SE operates. I think the chances of that sort of scenario are higher than anyone wants to believe. There is SOME chance that they fix it with the next update, though.

...but like I said I feel like it somewhat trivializes/cheapens the experience.

Though maybe that's what it's supposed to do and the "real" crafting begins at 50 and maybe there's some sort of analogue to 'guild points' and the turnins you had to do in FFXI or advanced recipes you have to find, I dunno. I can't honestly say because I'm not quite there.

Maybe it does. I can't speak much towards the leveling aspect, cause I'm coming from the perspective of a legacy char with all crafts leveled already, and I only played a limited amount in the beta. They are indeed A LOT easier to level than they were before AAR. However, the crafts are modeled in the same fashion as the DoW/DoM in that it behooves you to level them all to get certain 'cross-class' abilities. Each DoH's Lv50 ability can be used on any other DoH, and several of the Lv50 abilities are VERY helpful when trying to maximize your chances to HQ. There's at least 1-2 abilities I put on the bar from every DoH except armorer, which sadly doesn't contribute much--maybe the elemental based ability in certain situations. Many useful skills are learned at early levels (Lv15), but some are learned in the 30's and some at 50.

I admit, the leveling speed you're telling us about here seems pretty dang fast (too fast?). Perhaps they went too far in trying to make DoH cross-class abilities accessible. Or maybe they didn't...hard to say. I reckon there will be a LOT of competition with crafts in this game.

 

[Aikouka]

Hmm I'm tempted to tank since it sounds like there's the usual overabundance of DPS physical DPS classes. I know that you eventually end up a Paladin, but is there a good path (class leveling order) overall? It looked like Marauder had quite a few good tanking-related abilities.

 

[darkewaffle]

Unlocking paladin will require you to have Level 30 gladiator and level 15 conjurer. But yeah, every class will see substantial benefits from even just levelling other classes to 10ish for additional abilities. For a gladiator, marauder +enmity/+def abilities definitely as well as the Pugilist abilities that give you an evasion bonus and the "counter attack" that slows enemies when you dodge/parry I'd think, and all of those are available very early.

 

[KaOTiK]

when can i buy this game? lol

Till they allow digital sales again, your best bet is seeing if a local store has a physical copy still. Otherwise we have no idea. *IF* the maintenance that starts tonight goes well and does fix the problems I imagine it would be a day or two before digital sales will be allowed again, assuming all goes well...

Hmm I'm tempted to tank since it sounds like there's the usual overabundance of DPS physical DPS classes. I know that you eventually end up a Paladin, but is there a good path (class leveling order) overall? It looked like Marauder had quite a few good tanking-related abilities.

No real path is better than another really. I would say leveling a tank or healer first is probably best though because you will get the storyline exp that makes leveling easier instead of having to start grinding stuff which is easier to do on a DPS class.