FFXIV: A Realm Reborn

[lesser_minion]

Drama sucks :(

I've actually been off for several months now.

Thought about possibly coming back, but I logged in, stalked some friends on the Lodestone and it turns out that, of the people on my friends list, only about four people seem to actually still be playing. One of those shows up as (deleted) in-game because they transferred servers, I don't really know two of the others at all, and the last is only on for like half an hour at a time.

Most of the people I played with regularly are now split across four different FCs. I'm guessing there was some actual drama and RL stuff while I was gone, but either way, that kind of sucks.

That said, I ran ST, found that I was incredibly rusty, so I ran it a few times more before trying to tackle World of Darkness. Didn't really know what I wanted, ended up taking a caster chest that dropped at the end. Two wipes, and managed to get hit by Mortal Gaze and had to cleanse it, but mostly had no trouble with the mechanics.

[Sajiri]

In happier news to my last post- yay event tonight. I really want that peach blossom choker to go with the earrings from last year. The two outdoor furnishings look nice too, I wanted to get a pond for my garden but they're so expensive- the mat and cherry tree will be a nice substitute.

Even though I have an FC and personal house...really wish they'd do some more indoor furnishings from events. Outdoor furnishings are pretty limited to who can use them, but at least anyone in an fc can put indoor ones in their personal room.

I've been slowly working my way to that new gold saucer hairstyle, since I've been using Lightning style forever aside from the brief period when midlander got those new pigtails at the start of 2.5, but I didn't like how most headgears would then hide them. Someone in my ls won 1st prize in the first jumbo cactpot, I only got a consolation prize. I'm sure it would go faster for me if I idled waiting for GATEs like other people but I want to do racing. I know they happen on a timer but I always forget to watch the time.

Edit: Did today's mini cactpot and won 10k. There's my new hairstyle and the fancy oasis tunic I've been wanting since launch!

[Vhaidara]

Hello everyone. A friend of mine just bought me the game, and I'm having a blast so far. I'm on Behemoth, and he got me into his Free Company, Pick Up Guild (PUG).

Currently, I'm working on Lancer into Dragoon, since my friend has offered to teach me how to play the class. My goal, once Heavensward comes out, is to alternate between Dragoon and Dark Knight, depending on if my services are needed as a Tank or a DPS.

Also, I leave you with my background music

[Wookieetank]

Hello everyone. A friend of mine just bought me the game, and I'm having a blast so far. I'm on Behemoth, and he got me into his Free Company, Pick Up Guild (PUG).

Currently, I'm working on Lancer into Dragoon, since my friend has offered to teach me how to play the class. My goal, once Heavensward comes out, is to alternate between Dragoon and Dark Knight, depending on if my services are needed as a Tank or a DPS.

Also, I leave you with my background music

Having a tank or healer class is great for having short queues for daily bonuses. As of a month ago I now sport a White Mage along with my Warrior and Dragoon. Makes it easy to help out FC mates as well when I can go as whatever Very much looking forward to Dark Knight though, if it can hold hate better than Gladiator, I'll be more than happy with it.

[Vhaidara]

Yeah, I played Resto druid in WoW until Warlords, when I switched to Guardian. But PUG is a huge company full of awesome people. I've had like a dozen people say they'll run dungeons with me once I unlock them.

[Wookieetank]

Yeah, I played Resto druid in WoW until Warlords, when I switched to Guardian. But PUG is a huge company full of awesome people. I've had like a dozen people say they'll run dungeons with me once I unlock them.

Glad you found an awesome FC, it definitely makes the game much more fun. Once you get yourself to Limsa make sure to unlock the challenge log. It grants xp bonuses (and some gil) for doing things you're gonna be doing anyways (5 dungeons, 10 guildhests, 10 fates, etc) and greatly helps later on (40+) when good XP flow isn't as easy to find.

[Sajiri]

In case anybody missed the info, Heavensward comes out June 24th (well, 23rd for you NA folks) with early access through pre-ordering (if it works like ARR launch, you'd get some kind of code to download the game and log in. In my case we got a fancy card, people in UK I think just got a code on their receipt)

Before the Fall part 2 should be out...late this month? Afaik, its mainly story quests, with maybe the next relic stage, possibly the new tomestone will come from WoD as well. A little disappointing that for 6 months the only new (repeatable) content would have been Gold Saucer but eh, I guess it's expected before an expansion. At least it's not like WoW waiting over a year with no content.

I'm pretty happy with ninja as my main these days, but putting on hold gearing up paladin anymore while I wait to see what dark knight is like. Never been so fond of the dark knight theme but the class itself sounds interesting as a tank. As much as I like paladin, I find it a little dull.

[Terraoblivion]

I doubt there'll be a new relic stage. The zeta is already ilvl 135, which is the same as dreadwyrm weapons and follows the pattern of the best weapons being five ilvls above the best armor and accessories. It's pretty likely that WoD will go Syrcus and drop tomestones, carbontwine and carboncoating.

Beyond that, I imagine that it'll mostly be big, dramatic plot developments with lots of cutscenes since it'll be the end of 2.x version of the game and the lead-up to 3.x.

[Wookieetank]

I doubt there'll be a new relic stage.

I really hope there isn't another stage. I'm still working on atma books, and was going to use the next few months attempting to get caught up.

[Sajiri]

I really hope there isn't another stage. I'm still working on atma books, and was going to use the next few months attempting to get caught up.

Took me months to get through atma :/ I started it when it was the newest stage, but didn't manage to finish until they upped the drop rate in 2.4, even though I was doing fates each day. Since then I've been dragging my heels on books and wondering if it's even worth finishing it, not to mention I spent more of my time helping my partner finish his pld relic instead of mine. Thought I might as well finish it for the looks...then realised the nin weapons are freaking huge and look like swords instead of daggers...looks a little silly to me

[Razgriez]

Still working on first atma here, also kinda been frustrated lately playing in game. Seem to have a lot of I.O.U.s from people I know, but when i go to cash them in, I'm getting no replies or "sorry, too busy atm".

Regarding Gold Saucer, consider me somewhat underwhelmed. Cuff-a-Curr (I.E. a "strength test" style game where one punches a punching bag styled after Gilgamesh), Monster Toss (basketball game), and Crystal Tower Ringer (ring the bell hammer game) are just all the same games ("push button when in properly designated zone), offer no profit, and get old fast. Chocobo racing is another grind, but at least a somewhat fun one, but I'm kinda disappointed that most races are against the A.I., and not other players (which is odd, because I'm certain not on a low population server or server group) And triple triad, well, that was my favorite of the Final Fantasy Card mini games, but it's frustrating to get cards, and build a respectable deck to face A.I. opponents. Though I do appreciate the fact that earning cards unlocks lore about the creatures and characters of FFXIV

Getting Manderville Goldsaucer Points (MGP) is long and tedious, with the only real options being Choco-races repeatedly, or praying you get lucky on the scratch off or number lotto drawings. Which is annoying because I'd really love to get alot of the items. (which of course the clothing is going to have me wondering how to make room to store them when I don't intend to wear them for awhile)

[Sajiri]

Those first 2 days or so all my races were against other players. I think as it's gone on and people have raised and bred more chocobos, people have spread out more across the different categories so you're against NPCs more often.

I won the mini cactpot once, and that was enough to get me the...two..things I wanted from there (with the exception of fenrir which I don't have the patience to grind for...come on jumbo cactpot!)

At least it sounds as though new stuff will be added as prizes, and a new event in there. Also some of the GATEs give pretty good MGP apparently. I havent even done them all but that one..the way the wind blows? Apparently that gives a high reward.

[Rising Phoenix]

Well I got my Last Resort Zeta...currently working on my Warrior Relic (working on the nexus and zodiac steps at the same time is still extreemely boring). I don't understand how some people in my fc have five zetas already....ewwwwww. Speaking of grind I now have 3/8 lucis and 90 million gil (was at 110 mil but had to spend some). I will gradually work on my other luci tool as I amass seals.


In other news I am still on T13 but we're nearing a clear either later this week or next week. This is great...but it seems that there will be no new content for a while which is a shame.

As for the gold saucer I don't really care for it. Tripple triad is...very...predictable (you know if you can win effectively from the start) and I can't be arsed running the same mario kart wanabee courses over and over again. I think I will just getthe black kitty minion and call it a day.

[Wookieetank]

...running the same mario kart wanabee courses over and over again...

*gets out the grampy voice* Back in my day we only had 1 racetrack without any mario kart elements and liked it *puts away the grampy voice*

It does get annoying only having 3 racetracks, but when my daughter adorably squeals like mad when she watches the races, makes it a lot easier to keep doing them.

[Sajiri]

There was the special letter from the producer live last night with some interesting info on classes. I can't find a recap of it but the 3 new jobs definitely sound more advanced than what currently exists. I cant recall the machinist info, astrologian sounds like a healer corsair and very busy, dark knight sounds like it has to cast and keep up some special darkness aura, all sound quite interesting.

Some neat stuff in the (expensive) physical collectors edition including a dragon figurine and another artbook aka visual spoilers for 3.0 :P

2.55 to release on march 31st. I think it was in 2.55 they'll be increasing the MGP you earn from events in Gold Saucer. Apparently to enter Ishgard we have to complete 2.55's story, which is obvious Im sure but I haven't really done any of the main story beyond the original 2.0 stuff on my alt character. Guess that gives me something to do over the next 3 months

[Rising Phoenix]

...And T13 has been downed! Yay.

If only the drops were good...Bard Chest and Summoner Book (none of us play summoner).

Now to twiddle my thumbs till the expansion.

[Razgriez]

There is something that's been bothering me lately regarding gear, and how it's stat.

On my character, for DRG. I've got amazing STR (Primarily because I've got Iron Works armor, decent accessories of lv 100 or better), I've got 6000 health in parties. and about 460 Skill Speed, And Critical Hit, and just over 500 ACC, and I believe, mid 300s in Det.

It's the ACC, critical hit, and Determination that bother me.

Meanwhile, on my Monk, which is a few ILV avg lower, it's got Accuracy to the point of overkill (550+!!!!) 550+ Critical hit rate, but high 200s Determination, and 350 Skill speed

I think something is bit backwards here o_0;;

It's kinda like the same with Weapons, Yes, the other options, like Soldiery, magitek, crafted, or Binding Coil weapons, are decent. But you really really want Relic/Zodiac, especially post Animus, specifically to meld onto them the stats your job needs, because it seems like most others have the mediocre options on them. Seriously, every time a new item gets added in, I look at it and go "Ok, cool... but... why do you insist on giving me Skill speed on DRG. Why do you insist on giving me insane amount of Accuracy on Monk?

[Tengu_temp]

Getting Manderville Goldsaucer Points (MGP) is long and tedious, with the only real options being Choco-races repeatedly, or praying you get lucky on the scratch off or number lotto drawings. Which is annoying because I'd really love to get alot of the items. (which of course the clothing is going to have me wondering how to make room to store them when I don't intend to wear them for awhile)

Actually, you can easily grind MGP through Triple Triad if you're so inclined:
1. You can beat the King with your starter cards. Grab a few specific high-level cards, and your changes get even better. There are guides online, look them up.
2. Get 5 various Beastman cards, challenge the Indolent Imperial in Mor Dhona. You'll easily win 90% of the time.

Chocobo races are much slower than these two. I do them mostly because I really like them.

[Terraoblivion]

Oh, god, Steps of Faith is brutal. Not only do you need to actually wrangle at least six people into being able to effectively do their planned roles, you also need three of them to perform the arcane ritual to divine where Vishap's hitbox actually is when using cannons and dragonkillers. You also need several of them to determine where everything is while Vishap's body is blocking sight, adds running out of range to be targetable while you're attacking them and divining the correct place to keep them to allow the ones on cannons to hit both the adds and Vishap. And you have to do all that while running and avoiding getting stepped on which is an ohko or close to depending on RNG luck for non-dragoon melee dps as high as ilvl 110 and apparently casters all the way into the ilvl 120s.

Really, all the people online talking about how you just need everybody to know what they're supposed to do are completely missing the effects of Vishap's sheer bigness on targeting and vision. Even if you have a good party and everybody is doing the right thing, you can still fail purely based on those two things. It's hard for the people on the cannons to even tell if the adds are under or behind Vishap, for example.

[lesser_minion]

Sounds fun.

Resubbed for now, even though most of my friends in-game have taken a break until the expansion. Chewed through all of the remaining Postmoogle quests, finally took the time to beat Ramuh HM (which, after basically putting it off for six months, ended up taking 90 seconds to research in full, about the same amount of time for the queue to pop, and was little more than a faceroll in actual play) and chew through the main storyline far enough to unlock Snowcloak.

Like before, used Syrcus Tower to clear out any cobwebs. Found that I'm still really crap at DPS, but I'm sure that will improve with practice.

Also had a very memorable ST run where despite queueing as healer, I didn't need to cast even one heal and our DPS as a raid was collectively high enough that the first three bosses all died before getting the chance to use their signature moves.

[Terraoblivion]

I imagine it is when you're not stuck trying to hammer a bunch of random people into a coherent group working together without voice chat. As it is, just one person dropping the ball can ruin it and it's on the trial roulette and is part of the main story that you need to clear to see the, very tense and exciting, climax of 2.x and do any of the Heavensward content, so you'll spend a lot of time in it with random people. Still, the fifth group me and my wife got managed to clear it on the third attempt and it was quite a rush when we finally did. Still probably too hard to be part of the main story and a roulette, though.

Also, never seen a Syrcus run manage to skip curtail call. Daybreak and that thing Glasya Labolas does, definitely, but never Curtain Call.

[lesser_minion]

Also, never seen a Syrcus run manage to skip curtail call. Daybreak and that thing Glasya Labolas does, definitely, but never Curtain Call.

I'm fairly sure Amon died mid-cast, but I could have misremembered it. Either way, it was extremely impressive for Duty Finder. I got 3 commendations even though my actual role was basically redundant, so I think I probably got matched with a premade.

On a different run, I got to learn that, as a DPS, trying to save a player who got marked for Imperium but didn't know what to do about it (by stacking with them) is a great way to get yourself promoted to the floortank role. If only I hadn't been the only bard present in the group where our healers both had Cure III fetishes. Or the only bard in the entire raid who bothered to sing anything at all.

EDIT 5: OK, first things first, I am going to be so satisfied when we finally get to kill Laurentius. I was angry with him when we fought him, but after this? Wow. The ending was nicely foreshadowed, I even felt that slinging another long cutscene at us in place of gameplay was OK this time around (I can accept that my character would do what she does at the start of the cutscene, after the discussion, and that that would leave her pretty much incapacitated for the remainder of the action, although perhaps we could have had a solo instance playing as someone who does things, a la GW2 or Mass Effect), even though there are probably people already railing at how clichéd that particular action was. The dialogues with the vice-marshal and grand company commanders after the fact seemed a little weird, but going by what Jenlyns (the paladin mentor) has to say about it, I think I can accept that as well.

Other than that, I got past the Steps of Faith after about seven attempts in total (we queued up twice), with a semi-premade group. No voice chat or anything, though.

I honestly can't say I saw anything illegitimate about that fight. I still have yet to be hit by his feet. On the first run, I took over baiting adds for the tanks to peel. This worked well enough, but holyspam was a bad idea, since it led to hard stomps. I agree that it's difficult to hit Vishap with the cannons, but I almost never hit him, I'm not sure the other gunner did, and we still put together the collective DPS necessary to down him. Taking down the adds is the real priority for gunners, extra damage to Vishap is just gravy, from what I can tell.

And like any good piece of MMO content, whatever the struggle to down it might have been like, actually pulling things off felt glorious, so I'm not going to fault the fight for being hard.

[Razgriez]

-Still looking for party and groups to complete Coils 2 and 3.
-Still have to finish 2.5 story.

I've been noticing that lately, much like lesser_minion, that Bards lately have seemingly forgotten how, or when, to activate their songs. Similarly, Crystal tower dungeons have become hard, as people have seemingly forgotten basic mechanics, thinking they can just gear their way through.

Steps of Faith was an interesting change of pace regarding trial fights.

And finally, currently on 3rd book for Animus (yes, I know, I've far behind).

[JadedDM]

Well, two months later and we finally finished Stone's Vigil tonight. We died a lot, especially on the last boss. In fact, I think there was less than 10 minutes left on the cloak when we finally did win. I got a couple of drops--some pants and a sash. So that was nice. We hit level 43 while we were there.

So now we begin working on preparing for Garuda. I'm wondering if we will hit level 50 by the one year anniversary that we started playing, June 5th.

Anyway, I'm glad to be away from the Ishgardians, at least for now (the trailers for Heavensward suggests we'll be returning there sooner or later). Hopefully the guy whose help we need to get the corrupted crystal won't be a jerk who makes us cook him dinner or whatever before aiding us.

Oh, I finally visited the Gold Saucer today. I didn't get to explore the whole thing yet, though. All the women working there dress like playboy bunnies and overtly flirt with me. *shakes head* Stay classy, Square.

[riccaru]

I've just started the Demo this week. I know that the game allows you to play every class, but does that include jobs as well or just the base classes? Could one character be a black mage and a white mage, for instance?

[Vhaidara]

I've just started the Demo this week. I know that the game allows you to play every class, but does that include jobs as well or just the base classes? Could one character be a black mage and a white mage, for instance?

Jobs are basically upgrades to base classes. You need the matching class at 30, and the secondary class at 15.

So, for example, I started as a Lancer. I got Lancer to 30, and then I needed to get Marauder (the secondary class for Dragoon) to 15 before I could start the Dragoon quest line. Now, I have a Soul Crystal that I can equip when I have a Spear as my weapon (so my class is Lancer) that changes my Lancer into a Dragoon.

[Tengu_temp]

Yes, you can have every job - otherwise your secondary classes would be too weak, because a job gives a noticable boost to your power. The free trial only goes up to level 20 so you won't be able to reach them, though.

[Sajiri]

I've just started the Demo this week. I know that the game allows you to play every class, but does that include jobs as well or just the base classes? Could one character be a black mage and a white mage, for instance?

You can be each job, the only weird one is Scholar/Summoner from arcanist. You can be both of them, you just dont have to level them both seperately since they both share your arcanist level. If you level yourself as summoner to 42 for example, then do the scholar quest to get it's soul stone and equip it, you'll automatically be scholar 42 (just still have to do the rest of it's quests to get it's abilities)

[lesser_minion]

I've just started the Demo this week. I know that the game allows you to play every class, but does that include jobs as well or just the base classes? Could one character be a black mage and a white mage, for instance?

You can level every class and acquire every job. There are a handful of caveats -- you cannot be 100% effective at both scholar and summoner, because their primary stats are different but your allocation of stat points is shared between them, for example.

The only major reason to specialise is that gearing up for multiple roles with a single character can be a pain at max level.

Each job shares its level, basic skill list, and trait list with the class from which it evolves -- this means, for example, that every scholar and summoner will eventually learn spells to place dots; spread dots from one enemy to another; create shadow flares; steal health from enemies, and so on, even though their typical party roles are different.

As for black mages and white mages, to a point, the lore actually suggests that you can't be one without also being the other -- in gameplay, you'll find NPC black mages who use heals and white mage exclusive spells, and you'll also find that to be credible at endgame as any kind of caster or healer, you have to virtually unlock black mage.

[Razgriez]

You can level every class and acquire every job. There are a handful of caveats -- you cannot be 100% effective at both scholar and summoner, because their primary stats are different but your allocation of stat points is shared between them, for example.

The only major reason to specialise is that gearing up for multiple roles with a single character can be a pain at max level.
...

That said, there is some relief as well. Aside from Artifact/Relic armors, Tanks (Gladiator/Paladin, Marauder/Warrior), Caster DPS (Thaumaturge/Black mage, Arcanist/Summoner), Healers (Conjurors/White Mage, Arcanist/Scholar), and to a much more limited extent: Pugilist/Monks, and Rogue/Ninjas, tend to share gear, minus weapons.

The same policy also applies for Disciples of the Land (Gathering), and Disciples of the Hand (Crafting) classes. You can level as many as you'd like to max level, all on the same character.