Anyone still playing Final Fantasy 14? I have to admit, this re-release initially snuck under my radar, though probably for the best - by the time I bought it they had sorted out their server congestion. From what I understand its a whole new game from the original FFXIV that was released in 2010 and addressed all its predecessors failures. For me this was a surprise find and joy. The game isn't exactly revolutionising the MMO genre, but it is solid and a lot of fun and almost has an old school feel despite clearly being a modern style MMO. The latest patch seemed to make dungeons a whole lot more viable for xp, which is great for lvling alt classes as you don't need to farm FATES. In addition the dungeon daily roulette seems to have helped with queues, even as a DPS I only wait a few mins. I only just reached 50 on my combat class, but have all my crafters at 50. Despite not being a craft type person I found crafting strangely addictive. I play on the Cerberus server, and so far the server still seems busy, will see how things stand after 6 months, but usually the first few see a painful drop in numbers.
hell yes i am. Also on the cerebus server,look me up "Blackstarr Strife". Ive also just hit 50 on DRG and im enjoying it still. there is still a ton for me to do. I can understand hardcores players saying there is no content but those are people who burn through it in a week. For a casual player or someone who commits a bit more time it has a great pace and with the expected new content every couple of month or so that type of player will always be completing new content.
Yeah, lets face it, there is never enough content for hardcore players. I will look you up next time I am on (Asteldian Caliskan is the name). I would say I am a hardcore casual player - I play a lot, just not to race to the top. I got my Dragoon to 38 yesterday, figured I should get a DPS class up for more flexibility of what my friends need in a group - that and sometimes tanking all the time can get tiring! (50 lvls of War and 47 of Pally). I look forward to doing all the end game type stuff, especially with 2.1 bringing more variety with it! My FC reached lvl 6 the other day, yay us....well, FC is a generous name for it, it consists of a couple rl friends, the wife and one stranger we met and now harrass via skype in dungeons
I'm playing a fair bit less at the moment, due to being busy with contracts, but still enjoy the game a ton and play when I can. I agree that it's nothing revolutionary in the MMO world, but it's definitely a very refreshing game and I'd say it more-or-less has the right balance of content for players to get settled in at the moment with a good amount of headroom for enhancements. I mostly play on my Surren Starr character on the Shiva server, but have a couple scattered across a number of servers and wouldn't mind making a new one if anyone is looking for fellow forum members to team up with. Out of all of the classes, I'd say Monk is my favourite at present. Paladin is a close second. I mostly like the Monk for the ability to switch between highly potent attack combinations over a long battle, or enough defensive and healing capabilities to on occasion do a 2-3 second take over of tanking duties so the healer and tank can recalibrate tactics. There is the slight issue of off my threat getting a little out of hand when a fight lasts longer than 4 minutes... it's not an issue if the tank is efficient at maintaining threat, and usually only occurs if the other DPS can't manage their MP/Stamina properly, but if the tank drops the ball for even a second while I'm in a rush combo with Blood for Blood then it'll be a complete zerg rush with the boss flattening me.
Interesting, obviously I am not end game, but so far I have always liked monks in the group because I find their aggro easier to handle....course, no fights pre end game are 4mins+. They seem like slow aggro builders which is great for me as tank, but sounds like I best not get slack with them end game. The opposite is true with bloody Bards, who seem to spoodge everything within the first few seconds of the fight, leaping near the top of the aggro list by the time I actually am at melee range and using my poopy Fast Blade, it's a pain working their aggro down initially, but as time goes on they are easier to deal with. So for big fights they are easy, but for your dungeon multi mob fights they are a nightmare because it makes it trickier to combo through the targets for aggro because the Bard is right up your ass. Course, this was all pre 2.1 change, with the upgrade to aggro on Shield Oath it may be easier. I haven't played muc hof the monk, my friend plays bard and seing the tragic leathery outfits he has to put on, I am reluctant to play any leather armour wearer
Yeah, I'd say almost every dungeon boss that isn't end-game content can be floored fairly quickly so I think a lot of people get used to simply blowing all of their mana or stamina on the biggest moves early on... so when they get to end-game content they sometimes continue with that tactic resulting in them having to recharge for a moment. Monks seem to have an easier time maintaining a steady level of stamina due to the way their combo chains are designed to more often mix in moves that use very low stamina a couple of times between each high stamina move. Using the energy efficient chains does mean their attacks tend to deal out slightly less than the average Dragoon damage, but it allows for almost no chance of burning out. The Monk is a slightly odd class as you build 3-4 different core combinations (usually about 5-6 moves each) which rotate to maintain a silly amount of stacked buffs, and then after a couple of rotations you throw on a chain of additional buffs for 15-20 seconds of potentially obscene burst damage if you stack the right buffs for the critical rating. It's a chore to constantly switch rotations but the outcome from the later burst in an end-game fight can be absolutely brutal, especially if you end it all with completely stacked damage buffs > Internal Release > Stage 3 Limit Break. -------- Bards are very fun to play as they're somewhat easy to manage, but I have to agree the leather armour leaves a lot to be desired. Saying that, the Monk's banana suit isn't very pleasing to look at either (it would be so much better if you could change the colour of it). I'd say Dragoons and Black Mages have the best looking outfits.
with DRG i usually just try to gauge my damage output with how good the tank is. crap tanks usually mean i have to pause between my combos to allow the hate to settle back to yelllow. Good tanks though i can usually go full pelt on the mob that the tank is focussed on. since i only have 2 AOE moves im usually good at keeping clear of hate. the only problem i sometimes have is if the tank is a "mover" i struggle to to land my impluse drive-->disembowel-->chaos thurst combo. If impluse drive isnt from behind the whole combo doesnt work ive managed to complete Arum vale dungeon or whatever its called and got promoted to serpent second lieutenant and claimed my GC weapon. just started to work on my DL gear and bought my wrist piece a couple of days ag, should manage to get maybe a ring or earing tonight.
Nothing is more annoying than a tank who constantly turns the boss around in circles. It would be so wonderful if the tanks could just sit still and only step to a different position if the boss/adds do a powerful zone attack in their direction. I've got similar, though not as serious problems with some combos. My combos will still do their moves, but unless you attack from the required position it'll only do around 2/3 the potential damage. If a tank changes the direction of the boss too much without a good reason, I sometimes get annoyed enough to piss the tank off, continuously using my Arm of the Destroyer and Howling Fist so they can't see the floor and miss if an AOE is planted by the boss.
Yeah, I wonder about tanks when I am on my Dragoon, they seem to be hyper! When I tank the only real movement should be initial set up, after that, aside from moving for AOE (which usually allows enough time to return to original position without mob moving) and occasionally having to move around a bit coz a couple mobs are casters and like to stand inconveniently apart, there is no need for movement. I actually had fun on my Lancer at early levels, the first 3 dungeons I actually tanked more often than I DPSed - I didn't know there were so many bad people out there! I actually had to go into dungeons with Flash and Provoke as cross class skills to ensure if the tank was literally worthless I could protect the healer (In one dungeon I am sure the tank was a bot, can be no other explanation)
