FFXIV: A Realm Reborn

[Razgriez]

Noted, thanks for the info Sajiri.

Such is the price of having a dual role support class that branches out to have either Enhanced Attack ability (Summoner), or enhanced Healing (Scholar). I'll edit that post.

[Kaun]

Been playing the game for a couple weeks now with some friends on Leviathan.

The only part of the game im not enjoying is the fact that they have locked the server for character creation for the last 10 days or so. I have about 4 or 5 friends all "patiently" waiting for them to re enable character creation on Leviathan so they can start playing with us.

We considered moving servers but the fact that the seem to sporadically lock and unlock character creation on various servers without much notification to their player base has me worried that we would end up with the same situation on what ever server we ended up on.

[Sajiri]

Im pretty sure they're just keeping character creation locked on specific servers until japanese wednesday when they've finished upgrading the servers.

[The Succubus]

I'd just like to be able to log in. Not asking too much, is it? =/

[Rising Phoenix]

Im pretty sure they're just keeping character creation locked on specific servers until japanese wednesday when they've finished upgrading the servers.

So I won't be able to buy the game till then. :(...

Oh well that does have the merit of allowing me to do other stuff...


Edit: can someone explain to me how the combat flows? Is it turn based?

[Neftren]

I'd just like to be able to log in. Not asking too much, is it? =/

My friends rigged up an AutoHotkey script that mashes 0 if they get into a queue. At least, that's as much as I understand from their conversation anyways, heh.

[Razgriez]

Edit: can someone explain to me how the combat flows? Is it turn based?

Nope, It's more like most MMOs in ARR. Combat skills include the following

Auto-Attack: The rate of Auto Attack is based on your equipped weapon's "Delay" stat, which is in seconds between each attack (Typically 2 to 3.5 seconds for most). Auto-attacks will continue striking even if your in the middle of another action's animation, so long as you are in range to hit. Currently,only Archers/Bards have Ranged Auto attacks (Mages smack foes with their staves, wands, and heavy grimoire spines), though a number of classes have a ranged spell or special attack.

Weapon Skills (WS): The main source of damage dealing for Disciples of War. In ARR, these skills often require the use of Tactical Points (Think of this as a Stamina gauge). Weapon skills can also be chained together into specific Combo's that raise the Potency and/or effects of the next weaponskill in that chain. As long as you have enough TP and aren't effected by a status effect that might prevent it's use (Stun, Pacify for example), you can use a WS. Weapon skills are on a 2.5 second base (Can be reduced with Skill Speed + enhancements, though it takes quite a bit to even reduce it to just 2.4 seconds) Global Cooldown timer. so if you use one, all WS's go on the short cool down.

Spells: As you can guess by now, these work like usual, use MP, and an enemy is debuffed/exploding, or an ally is getting healed/buffing. However, in ARR, Spells also share some similarity with WS:
-Most are on short recast timers
-Many have a chance to activate a special effect. Thunder spells for example, have a 5% chance on every shock damage tic to allow your next Thunder spell to deal Double damage, by dealing all of it's DoT up front at once, and then apply the normal DoT, and insta-cast it. Fire I and Cure I allow for higher tier versions to be free/insta-casted occasionally.
-Casting and Recast times can be reduced by boosting your Spell Speed stat

Abilities: Abilities is a general term for a number of various things your class can do, and are on their own individual cool down timers. They have no TP or MP cost typically, and have moderate to long cool downs (Between 15 seconds and 5 minutes). Types and examples include:
-Stances: Modes you can enter freely, providing a constant buff. Includes the PGL/Monk's Fists of Earth/Wind/Fire, the Paladin's Sword and Shield Oaths, and the Warrior's Defiance abilities.
-Attacks: High powered attacks you can use that may be like WS or spells, but don't typically make combo chains, set on long cooldowns. Example: the Dragoon's Jump, Spineshatter Dive, and Dragonfire Dive abilities
-Buffs: A wide variety of various short/medium duration enhancements, lasting between the next spell/WS/Attack ability, to about 20 to 30 seconds. Includes abilities that grant you things like HP Drain, Critical Hit Chance/Attack power +. Instant Cast, and Uninterrupted Casting, etc

Defensive Notes:
So so we've learn the ways on how to blast/slash/stab/become a walking 2nd Calamity in ARR. So how do you stay alive in battle? Well beyond the buffing abilities I mentioned above (and some other spells like Protect), here's the basics.

Parry and Block: These are handled by your standard "Dice roll" chance. Both use STR to determine how much damage is reduced by when you Parry/Block. DEX increases the chances for either to occur, while Parry boosts effect the chance only to parry. So what's the difference? Parry is available to everyone wielding any weapon, while Block is only used while wielding a Shield in the off hand slot (And no, it's probably not worth boosting your ability to block if your using a shield on THM/CNJ , in those cases you're only using the shield for the stats. On a GLA/PLD though, you want to boost this).

All Shields come with built in improvements to Block Strength (Damage Reduction) and Block Rate (Chance to block). The general rule with Shields is this: The Smaller/lighter shields (Bucklers, Punch shields) have higher Block rates, while the Larger, heavier shields (Tower, Kite) have greater Damage reduction on blocks.

AoE markings: AKA: "DODGE!!!": So one of the things to help players out, is that before an enemy strikes with a powerful AoE, is that their area will be shown on the ground. You typically have 2 to 3 seconds at most to get out of the area of effect.

Now you may think this makes the game too easy. That is of course, until you realize that when 3 to 4 enemies are all firing off AoEs one after another, that running for safety becomes a really great idea to staying alive, and that versus Primals, getting hit by 1 or two of them can take 25% or more of your HP off.

In short, If you see a red field on the ground (or some other nasty looking graphic appear) beneath your feet, you should run out of it

EDIT: Gah! Forgot to mention Limit Breaks, Party Bonuses, and types of battles!

Party attribute Bonuses: as you form your party, you'll notice that the Stat abbreviations appears above the party members list. This means that you are being given a a stat boost because of the make up in your party. The more variety you have, the more bonuses you get.

Limit Breaks: Because it wouldn't be Final Fantasy without'em:

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A feature introduced in ARR, along with an updated Party system, is the Limit Break system for parties of 4 or more. If you're familiar with past FF games that had a Limit Break/Overdrive gauge, the idea should be very familiar, if not, here's how it works

As your party successful does various actions in battle, your party's Limit Gauge fills up. When a Gauge is filled, (and provided you remember to place the action on your hotbars), someone in the party may press the Big Shiny Red Button of Awesomeness, wonderfully titled: "Limit Break". Depending on who activates the Limit Break, and the party size and fight they are engaged in, 1 of 4 types of limit breaks, each with 1 to 3 lvs of power activates depending on how many gauges you have filled. The number of gauges (and thus, the highest level of Limit break you can possibly perform) is based on whether you are in a Light party (4 to 7 Members), or a Full party (8 members), and if you are engaged with a boss or not.

Level 1 Gauge: Light party
Up to Level 2: Light party engaged in a boss battle, or a Full party
Up to level 3: Full party in a boss battle only

And here are the Limit Breaks by level and party role (Your role is marked in the duty finder feature)

Tanks (I.E. GLA/PLD, MRD/WAR): Party Damage Received reduced for a short duration
LV1: Shield Wall
LV2: Mighty Guard
LV3: Last Bastion

Melee DPS (PGL/MNK, LNC/DRG): Single Target High damage attack
LV1: Braver
LV2:Bladedance
LV3: Final Heaven

Magic DPS (I.E. THM/BLM): AoE High Damage Non-Elemental Magic attack (Weaker than Melee Limit breaks, but useful for fights with lots of adds)
LV1: Skyshard
LV2: Starstorm
LV3: Meteor

Healer/Support and Ranged physical DPS (ARC/BRD): AoE Party healing magic. The Lv3 version also revives any KO'd party member
LV1: Healing Wind
LV2: Breath of the Earth
LV3: Pulse of Life

Types of Battles:
-Normal: Look at creature, Target Creature. Charge at Creature. Attack creature until creature stop moving. Get XP/Gil/Items. Level Up. Do Victory celebration pose/old school FFI Jumping Jacks

-Full Active Time Events (F.A.T.E.s): These occur randomly through the world, and are free to enter by anyone. Walk in, and do the assigned task. You gain bonus XP and gil based on your level and performance.

-Guildleves (These can also be done by Disc. of Land and Hand) basically quests you can take on at your own time, that can also be made harder if you are of a higher level than the suggested level. These can also be redone when available and require using Leve Allowances (3 Allowances every 12 hours, max of 100 Allowances to be stored)

-Instanced Battle: Typically part of a quest line, an Instance battle often has a level restriction (if you are higher leveled than the limit, you and your equipment will be level synced for the duration of the battle)

-Dungeon Raids (Instanced Raids):

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Kill the Monsters. Steal the Loot. and Protect your buddies (What, did you think I was going to advise you to be a Munchkin?). Basically perform the dungeons tasks, as quickly as possible, and pick up loot along the way. Equipment found in loot containers are handed out via a "Need,Greed, or Pass" dice roll system, and you can only "Need" if you are on a class that can equip the item.. Dungeon Raids end with a boss battle often with a trick you need to figure out to win.

Raids begin at level 15, and are unlocked as part of the Main story quests line

-Primal Battles:

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The Beastmen Tribes have called forth their mighty Primal gods, and it is up to you to slay them to protect the balance of Eorzea by stopping them. These are some of the toughest fights in the game, but offer excellent rewards such as Primal weapons, currently the 2nd strongest weapons in the game (only behind Relic weapons, which Primal fights are also part of). Primal Battles, like Raids, are unlocked via Main Story quests

After completing the Main story, the Hard Mode primal fights are unlocked, and are required to defeat to earn your Relic weapons

Current Primal battles include:
Ifrit- The Lord of the Inferno (Amall'ja beast tribe)
Garuda- Lady of the Vortex (Ixal)
Titan, Lord of the Crag (Kobolds)
Odin, the Dark Primal (Twelve Woods zones FATE)

Future Primal battles either Hinted at, or confirmed

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Ramuh, Lord of Thunder (Sylphs): Hinted at in story
Leviathan, Lord of Tides (Sahagins): Hinted in story

-SPECIAL: In the future, SE will be adding new, even tougher endgame Raids for those who seek the challenge of them. Confirmed future Special raids include the following:

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-Binding Coils of Bahumet: After escaping his lunar prison of Dalamund, bringing about the Calamity and jump starting the 7th Umbral Era, the Elder Primal Bahumet vanished soon after Lousouix sent the Warriors of Light to safety. Now, under Castrum Ocidens, a massive labyrinth has formed from the effects of the Calamity, and no one is sure where Bahumet and Lousouix vanished to/ Players in full parties will have to take on this massive labyrinth in segmants known as turns (Out now)

-The Crystal Tower: Do you like JRPGs obsessions with towers? How about 100 Floor towers? Do you like Sword Art Online's Aincrad and being trapped in a game world by a power hungry GM so that if you die in game, you die in real life Final Fantasy III one made of Crystal? Will Cloud of Darkness be involved (Probably)? OF COURSE YOU LOVE ALL THESE THINGS! So form your party/Alliance and Start climbing brave adventurers! The World (and more importantly, loot!) needs to be saved from whatever menace awaits at the top.

[Krade]

Hadn't really given this much thought, really. But I was curious so I read the whole thread. I think I might actually check this out once I hear the server overload is taken care of.

[Rising Phoenix]

Nope, It's more like most MMOs in ARR. Combat skills include the following

-SNIP-

Cheers for that. It isn't as action packed as I'd like, but seems decent. A shame that only archers have ranged attacks by default.

[Razgriez]

Oh trust me, combat is action packed. There is rarely any time you aren't pressing a button in battle. If you aren't activating any abilities, spells, or weapon skills, it's probably because you have to reposition your self to avoid an AoE.

On a different note: Anyone else notice the Class guild flag with the Crossed Pistols at the Coral Tower, right next to the same Class guild style flag marking it as the Marauder guild of the Cross Axes symbol? And since we know Garlean Generals have an obsession with Gunblades of all sort (two versions of your standard gunblades, another who used a Gunhalberd that doubled as a Wave Motion Gun, a female garlean general who wields Gunarmblades, and I think at least one other kind), what are the chances we'll be seeing some Gun wielding class (Or even better: Gunblades for everyone!)? I know in 1.0 it was rumored there would be a Musketeer class given the lore we knew about Limsa Lominsa and that some variant gun designs were seen through out Limsa.

[Rising Phoenix]

Right folks I bought a physical copy of the game.

I have yet to install it, but should we consider starting a GiTP guild/group/whatever it's called?

[The-Mage-King]

Well,the two options are a Linkshell, or a Free Company.


The former is free, and you can be in up to 8 of. It's more of a big social network than an actual guild


The latter is also free, IIRC, but you can only have one. You gain actual benefits from being in it, too, like XP bonuses.


I'd be fine with joining a GitP Linkshell on Ultros, should one be made.

[Kaun]

wtb command /hide earrings.

/rant

That being said these massive purple drops my laffelol is wearing go fabulously with the tiara i picked up in a dungeon the other night.

Least manly WHM ever , seriously considering switching to a more armored class.

[Sajiri]

Oh trust me, combat is action packed. There is rarely any time you aren't pressing a button in battle. If you aren't activating any abilities, spells, or weapon skills, it's probably because you have to reposition your self to avoid an AoE.

On a different note: Anyone else notice the Class guild flag with the Crossed Pistols at the Coral Tower, right next to the same Class guild style flag marking it as the Marauder guild of the Cross Axes symbol? And since we know Garlean Generals have an obsession with Gunblades of all sort (two versions of your standard gunblades, another who used a Gunhalberd that doubled as a Wave Motion Gun, a female garlean general who wields Gunarmblades, and I think at least one other kind), what are the chances we'll be seeing some Gun wielding class (Or even better: Gunblades for everyone!)? I know in 1.0 it was rumored there would be a Musketeer class given the lore we knew about Limsa Lominsa and that some variant gun designs were seen through out Limsa.

Well, if I remember correctly, what is now the marauder guild used to be the musketeer guild, despite it wasn't released. I think Tanaka confirmed it was to be a class they just didnt have time to do before release of 1.0, and Yoshi-p was obviously working on the rerelease before that class, only did arcanist because it won the poll for what class did players want most.

Considering they didn't outright remove it, rather just merged the two guilds together, I think it's a pretty safe bet musketeer is still in the works to be released at some point.

[Gryffon]

Myself and DiveDe are playing on this on Leviathan server. We've been having a pretty good time. We've been playing since Beta 4.

[Rising Phoenix]

I played for 8 hours today with no server problems, so hopefully they've amended those issues.

The game is very, very pretty, but I feel that as a level 8 conjurer I have just started to explore the combat (which reminds me of DA II).

I am on Malboro server.

[Sajiri]

Game has been much smoother since yesterday's maintenance, haven't once had a queue or world is full error. Although now some people are complaining how long it takes to get into a group in duty finder (doing a non plot dungeon as a DD) so people have gone back to shouting and making parties manually.

Funny, they complained about the duty finder 'ruining the sense of community' then complain when they have to shout for a group..either way, the fact people can log on now is good.

I feel weird now going back to a low lvl class. I got to arcanist 41, would have been higher if I hadn't spent the last few days laying on the couch sick, now Im waiting for the husband to wake up so we can do Stone Vigil together, so I'm going back and lvling thaumaturge and conjurer a bit higher to have swiftcast and stoneskin available for scholar

[Kaun]

My mates that couldn't create characters on the server have been able to (the ones that have tried anyway) which is a big positive.

I did Titan last night. That is a pain in the ass when your playing from Australia. With my latency when he drops his beam aoe you have less then a 10th of a second to clear out or get insta donked.

Got it done after a handful of attempts which is good.

[Sajiri]

My mates that couldn't create characters on the server have been able to (the ones that have tried anyway) which is a big positive.

I did Titan last night. That is a pain in the ass when your playing from Australia. With my latency when he drops his beam aoe you have less then a 10th of a second to clear out or get insta donked.

Got it done after a handful of attempts which is good.

I feel you on that Kaun, I had troubles as well. I ended up just constantly staying on the move and only stopping to heal when I really had to. Luckily the fairy couldnt get knocked back so she handled most of that for me

[Kaun]

i'm almost regretting going WHM over SCL, that fairy is pretty sweet.

[Sajiri]

i'm almost regretting going WHM over SCL, that fairy is pretty sweet.

They both have their time. Scholar did well in titan fight for example, but it's not so great in brayflox where you're constantly getting out of range of the tank and no way to remove poison.

[Talderas]

Game has been much smoother since yesterday's maintenance, haven't once had a queue or world is full error. Although now some people are complaining how long it takes to get into a group in duty finder (doing a non plot dungeon as a DD) so people have gone back to shouting and making parties manually.

I suspect the problem with the Duty finder is that it's likely trying to nab a tank and healer to offer the best odds of success. While these duties may be doable without a tank or healer I wouldn't expect the duty finder to actually support that playstyle. I like features like Duty Finder because it gives you opportunity to capitalize on the feature depending on how it works.

[Neftren]

So all my friends are on Cactuar.

My problem is now there's no place selling the game...

[Gryffon]

You can get it digital.

[Neftren]

You can get it digital.

Sold out everywhere I've looked.

[Wookieetank]

Sold out everywhere I've looked.

How do you sell out of a digital version?

[Nadevoc]

How do you sell out of a digital version?

By saying "we're having pretty major server problems due to number of players; let's not exacerbate it with even more players until we're pretty sure the issue is resolved".

[Gryffon]

Ahhh, they had re-enabled them. I guess the disabled them again. Keep an eye on the Lodestone is all I can say.

[Wookieetank]

By saying "we're having pretty major server problems due to number of players; let's not exacerbate it with even more players until we're pretty sure the issue is resolved".

I knew about that bit, thought it was in reference to something else (not sure why now that I think about it ><).

I feel your pain though Neftren, no where near me has it either right now. With all the server issues (which seem to be getting fixed from the sounds of it) I just figure I should wait until squenix is back to selling the game on their site for download to avoid the agony of not finding a copy, or getting one and not being able to play it.

[Rising Phoenix]

I knew about that bit, thought it was in reference to something else (not sure why now that I think about it ><).

I feel your pain though Neftren, no where near me has it either right now. With all the server issues (which seem to be getting fixed from the sounds of it) I just figure I should wait until squenix is back to selling the game on their site for download to avoid the agony of not finding a copy, or getting one and not being able to play it.

I was lucky to buy the last copy of the game from EB games and I live in a regional town. Apparently for a MMO this game has been unusually popular. It is extremely pretty, the combat is ok and the story is ok, however I am level 16 and following the main story line and still haven't unlocked dungeons which is annoying me. >_<