Final Fantasy XIV

[michealsmells]

Prefacing this thread by saying ALL SPOILERS must be clearly marked including the expansion they are from!! We take ffxiv spoilers seriously here.

Figured this game needed its own thread, couldn't find one of its own.

I've always loved MMOs but never played very many of them, mainly cause they require SUCH a time sink, but I'm so glad I finally picked up FFXIV.

It's free to play for 3 whole expansions (including the critically acclaimed Heavensward Expansion), with any limits that are placed on you being negligible compared to the sheer amount of content.

I'm currently in the thick of the Shadowbringers expansion and it's definitely my favorite so far. The music (LA HEE), the story, the characters, the setting, its all perfect and I'm so so excited to see how it plays out.

Anyone else play on here? Favorite expansions? Main class? If ya don't play I really, really recommend it!

I'll come back to this thread every so often to talk about things related to the game, but I'll limit significant spoilers myself!

 

[michealsmells]

Oh! I didn't mention my favorite class the other day. That'd be the Summoner, who's my main.
I also really like Astrologian and Paladin. I'm trying to learn some other classes cause my Summoner is significantly overleveled and is going to reach max level before I end up doing the Dawntrail expansion, so I really need to level folks up. It's either gonna be Reaper or Machinist I think, cause they both look super cool.

 

[SleepyAmaurotine]

I love FFXIV! I haven't been playing as much because I don't have as much free time as I used to (I need my summer vacations back, I somehow woke up at 6am without an alarm the day Shadowbringers was released, that was fun) and the sub sometimes makes me feel like I should only be playing this, so now I only play when there's new MSQ or event rewards I want, but still one of my favourite games

It'll be my 10 year anniversary later this month (wow, it's already been that long... )

My favourite expansion is probably Shadowbringers or Endwalker! I'm a red mage main, but I started the game as a paladin which went.... very poorly lol I was really bad at tanking back then (I became more comfortable tanking as a dark knight) so I switched to summoner, and then red mage

 

[michealsmells]

My favourite expansion is probably Shadowbringers or Endwalker!

This is the consensus I'm coming across. I still haven't finished Shadowbringers yet but it is definitely my favorite, and knowing it connects closely to Endwalker I'm super excited to see how that ends up working out!

I'm a red mage main, but I started the game as a paladin which went.... very poorly lol I was really bad at tanking back then

Red mage is super fun!!! Tanking is something no one can do early on. I only picked up Paladin after watching my friend who typically tanks for a while, and even then I'm still nowhere near as good as her. I'm excited to try other tanks one day though! There's so many classes it's almost a bit overwhelming so I'm taking it in baby steps.

 

[michealsmells]

Hello I played more Shadowbringers



It made me sad so I am going to bed lmao. This game I swear!!!! Making me cry because my fictional friends care about me.

 

[SleepyAmaurotine]

This is the consensus I'm coming across. I still haven't finished Shadowbringers yet but it is definitely my favorite, and knowing it connects closely to Endwalker I'm super excited to see how that ends up working out!


Red mage is super fun!!! Tanking is something no one can do early on. I only picked up Paladin after watching my friend who typically tanks for a while, and even then I'm still nowhere near as good as her. I'm excited to try other tanks one day though! There's so many classes it's almost a bit overwhelming so I'm taking it in baby steps.

I hope you enjoy the rest of the story!

Tanking seemed easy in the first few dungeons, but when I reached Brayflox’s Longstop I was the nightmare tank who somehow neglected to get her job stone so I was still a gladiator I don’t know how I forgot to do that lol But I guess dark knight looked cooler so I felt much more inclined to make sure I’m reading everything and learn what I’m doing (though with higher level content I tend to only tank/heal with npcs)

There are so many jobs, but it’s nice that you’re able to do them all on one character and switch whenever you like

 

[mocha.]

I’m doing the post shadowbringers quests at the moment !! I haven’t played the game since maybe last August ? So I’ve missed a lot of content

i reached level 90 & changed my character to a lalafell. I’m really enjoying the story!

 

[michealsmells]

Tanking seemed easy in the first few dungeons, but when I reached Brayflox’s Longstop I was the nightmare tank who somehow neglected to get her job stone so I was still a gladiator

BRAYFLOX
To be fair, Brayflox is the first challenge for healers and tanks imo. There are some gnarly pulls in that one that can beat the crap out of you regardless of class.

As for myself, I just finished Shadowbringers the other night and am taking a small break from progression to get some dungeons, do raid quests, and play some other games. The story was very good. Incredibly good. My friend yelled at me to take it seriously (I was making jokes throughout every cutscene) but I was actually just coping real hard because it did make me cry lmao...

i reached level 90 & changed my character to a lalafell. I’m really enjoying the story!

Based lalafell moment.... we are the best. Perfect height for taking out knees.

 

[Solus]

I hope you enjoy the rest of the story!

Tanking seemed easy in the first few dungeons, but when I reached Brayflox’s Longstop I was the nightmare tank who somehow neglected to get her job stone so I was still a gladiator I don’t know how I forgot to do that lol But I guess dark knight looked cooler so I felt much more inclined to make sure I’m reading everything and learn what I’m doing (though with higher level content I tend to only tank/heal with npcs)

There are so many jobs, but it’s nice that you’re able to do them all on one character and switch whenever you like

I know that feeling about 10 years. I started since launch of 2.0! Remember when Mor Dhona was just an empty land with no buildings?

I recently retired this year but I used to do lot of Savage, MINE, and other raiding content. I mostly played Scholar, Warrior, Paladin, Summoner and Red Mage.

My favorite expansion was Stormblood. Not because of the story, but because of the era of the players in that time. It was for sure the most active and best time to play. Shadowbringers was also great too! The story and the era of that expansion.

 

[Chris]

I was actively playing through the Heavensward / Stormblood / Shadowbringers eras.

I bought Endwalker but never actually completed the quests leading to it. I keep meaning to go back to it, but the thought is kind of intimating.

 

[Solus]

I was actively playing through the Heavensward / Stormblood / Shadowbringers eras.

I bought Endwalker but never actually completed the quests leading to it. I keep meaning to go back to it, but the thought is kind of intimating.

There a free login at the moment! You get 4 free days! You should check it out!

 

[michealsmells]

I was actively playing through the Heavensward / Stormblood / Shadowbringers eras.

I bought Endwalker but never actually completed the quests leading to it. I keep meaning to go back to it, but the thought is kind of intimating.

Join us Chris... return to the ffxiv. It is good game you can even get ahead of me cause I'm taking a break to play other games.

My favorite expansion was Stormblood. Not because of the story, but because of the era of the players in that time.

This is the first time I've seen someone say this! Of course I'm playing retroactively so if anything I'm getting Dawntrail players while playing all these older expansions. Stormblood is one of the least popular in terms of story, but I can imagine the sheer amount of people that would've been playing when it came out and that's really sweet! More people to share Rhalgr's Reach theme with.... it won't get out of my head and I've done a whole other expansion at this point help....

 

[michealsmells]

The game has been down since 8pm..it's almost 2am which is when maintenance is supposed to end. And like, I *should* go to bed, especially cause no one will be on.

But what if, and hear me out... I played FFXIV at 2am

For reference my sleep schedule got TORN UP due to me being sick so I've been rotating between it, Genshin, Star Rail, and ZZZ in the dead of the night and then sleeping until like late afternoon. I may have a problem.

 

[LoyalDragonfly]

FF14 is one of two MMOs that my husband and I regularly play, the other being Guild Wars 2. There's a lot of good things to say about it. Character art and animations are excellent and polished, with very minimal clipping. I love the variety of emotes, and there's a lot of appreciable little details like being able to change your default idle pose both with your weapon drawn and stowed. Combined with the richness of the world itself, it's easy to feel in character even while just wandering around town.

The low part of the game for me is the story. I don't take any joy in saying this as I realize it's an unpopular opinion and it makes me feel kinda crummy and alienated from all the other people who seem to love it to pieces. But I can't lie, I just don't enjoy playing through the story... which is a shame because there is SO MUCH of it. I find it long-winded and sloggy, with a cast of main characters I personally don't find appealing. I oft get the sense that the writers are very proud of themselves for what they've written, but there are too many contrivances and plot inconsistencies for me to feel the same way. I'm just grateful that my husband feels the same way about it. Playing together at least makes the experience more fun, but we usually have to take a break after getting to the end of each expansion due to fatigue. Unfortunately this means we find ourselves even further behind as more story gets tacked on with each new update.

I'm not so much of a joyless hater to say that I dislike all of it; I tend to enjoy side characters and side stories, such as the Allied Beast Tribe quests from Heavensward and the Four Lords story from Stormblood, for example. But at the end of the day I just find the MSQ in particular to be not that great (I still think that the GW2 story is worse, for whatever that's worth).

With that being said, I find the most satisfaction in side content. Palace of the Dead is my favorite mode; it's challenging and fun and impossible to brute force with ilvl cheese. Our goal is to make it to the top of the leaderboard on our data center. We're not quite there yet, but we are the highest scoring Gunbreaker and Scholar on the Crystal group leaderboard at the moment. We've also been going through old Extreme fights MiNE (Minimum ilvl, No Echo). So far we've completed all of the ARR Extremes this way. I would like to get to experience a Savage Raid at some point, or a proper endgame Extreme, but actually getting to endgame seems like the most impossible trial of all!

My favorite class is Gunbreaker. FF8 is my favorite Final Fantasy game and though I'm oft displeased with many things, I think that the developers treated this class with a lot of respect. I'm so glad that Squall's limit breaks get to be their own moves, and the PVP Draw and Junction skill is quite clever. The No Mercy combo string is fun to perform as well. I still think it's kinda weird that it's a Tank class, but it works out because Tank is by far my favorite role.

My favorite expansion is Heavensward.

Spoiler: Heavensward Spoilers

In particular, the part of the MSQ where you're journeying to find Hraesvelgr made me feel the most like I was playing an actual Final Fantasy game. The party composition of the WoL, Alphinaud, Estinien and Ysayle has a variety and appeal that's, IMO, lost in the group dynamic of the Scions, most of whom are similarly natured, stuffy academics. Dragons are one of my favorite fantasy creatures as well, so the general story revolving around ending the Dragonsong war is one that I feel personally invested in. Previous games I've played that involve dragon/human conflict never go so far as to actually attempt to do something to resolve it, so it made me really happy that the post-expansion story goes into forging peaceful relations with the dragons.

As mentioned before, I also really like the Allied Beast tribe quest in this expansion; I love all three of the tribes themselves, and of course I love the baby dragon Ohl Dee!

We're currently on a hiatus after having finished the main Shadowbringers story, but I know it will be only a matter of time before we're back again!

 

[michealsmells]

I had taken a big break from this game due to a friend annoying me about it, but I've found myself sucked back into it again. I think there will likely be a big gap between when I finally finish Endwalker to when I even purchase Dawntrail, but I'm still Post-Shadowbringers so there's not much for me to worry about there yet. As long as no one rushes me or backseats me again I will be there in due time.

I find it long-winded and sloggy, with a cast of main characters I personally don't find appealing. I oft get the sense that the writers are very proud of themselves for what they've written, but there are too many contrivances and plot inconsistencies for me to feel the same way.

Also I'm replying SO LATE to this but I honestly understand this a lot. As someone who loves the story, there's a lot of things that happen in it where I'm like... golly.... that sure was convenient. ARR is WAY too long because all it needs to do is setup more interesting things in the future, Heavensward is great, Stormblood is once again just a LOT of setup and boring imo, and then Shadowbringers has been my favorite expansion so far. Despite, again, loving the story, there's a whole lot of that there that I just like... didn't really care about and only played through to get to the parts I'm more interested in. I'm also just... easily entertained? Even parts of a game I dislike I can almost always find merit in. This is both a blessing and a curse cause I will play some hot garbage when I could be playing ANYTHING else.

I definitely think that raiding is my favorite part of the game at the moment, even if I'm not very far along into it at this point, still just doing the normal stuff.
Oh that and Gold Saucer. Gambling :]

 

[michealsmells]

As of a few days ago I finally finished Post-Shadowbringers, which means I'm between patches right now. I loved all of Shadowbringers, including the post content, but I was surprised at how chill the ending was. Like it wasn't chill by any means in grand scale but in the moment it was such a break from everything else that I was like.... huh. Makes sense though if it's a prelude to Endwalker!!

Since I'm post patch I'm gonna do some work for when I actually do start Endwalker. Since I don't own Dawntrail my level cap is at 90, and my Summoner, Astro, and Paladin are 86, 85, and 80 respectively. MSQ + Dailies rack up EXP HELLA quick so I wanna get Sage at least close to level 80 before I start Endwalker. I'd rather not max out my levels man, I've been so overleveled the whole game cause I like the classes I play and so I play them- but I like Sage so Sage gets leveled.

I also need to figure out my next outfit for Endwalker. Each patch I've had an outfit with a theme.
Gnome - ARR
Clown - Heavensward
Fall Guy - Stormblood
Goblin - Shadowbringers
I need a similarly silly Lalafell costume for Endwalker. I need to End the Walker while being a little creatur...

Okay Micheal has made his update post for the 2 people who care abt his progress in the game. I forgot to go gambling the other day so catch me in the Gold Saucer getting oodles of choccys.