Final Fantasy XIV (Part 1)

King of Posters King of Posters 2000
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22

so, like.

Free login period starts in a few days, if you had an account before and want to try it again.

This last patch added the roguelike dungeon thing, which I actually do wanna try out. You apparently only need to be level 17 to unlock the quest and the class can actually be ANY level after that. It’s not hard to grind up to 17 in a hurry if you have not much else to do.

what time and what server we doin’ guys

23

Yeah, I’m up for spending a Free Weekend trying the goofy roguelite dungeon.

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come to think of it, that could be a pretty rad thing for those of us on different servers to do together while this is going on. make alts on one server and all go in, since it starts from level 1 every time, anyway…? then again, you probably have to be level 60 to even access it. not sure about that.

also kinda wondering whether this includes any heavensward content if you haven’t already made the upgrade, but i would assume it’s just subscription time whether you have the expansion or not.

25

Previous free periods did not give you free HW stuff. Sorry! Gotta spend the $20 for it.

Also, if you do not have Heavensward, it apparently only goes up to floor 40 on the roguelite dungeon, and floor 50 if you have it. (I don’t have it, because catching up to the end of the ARR story killed my will to live)

It’s broken into 10 level chunks, and you can ‘save’ your progress after you clear a ten floor chunk into one of two save slots. This progression is class specific, it sounds?

And if it’s been awhile since you’ve played do the Hall of the Novice. It takes like 15-20 minutes and you get a sweet ring that’s +30% exp any time you’re underneath level 30, including when synced.

26

good tips.

am i the only one is who kind of into the story and characters in this game? maybe i had more of it done before heavensward was out, but i didn’t find playing through those quests to be a slog at all. i was super into the 2.0 ending in particular. i dunno, it’s not that the writing is particularly great, it’s just that it’s good enough and it’s set in this world which feels so large and so whole, where you’re maybe more a part of it than you are in a traditional jrpg. maybe not, though. just a feeling i get from this game and one that i still really enjoy. probably just describing the singular appeal of a good mmo, though ffxiv is fairly unique with its presentation and the way it involves you. honestly, i’m pretty sure i’ve shed a tear or two during significant story events.

2 Likes
27

I thought the story was okay. A little slow paced personally; lots of random filler where you’re sent everywhere and then you groan because the Waking Sands is a place you have to go to yet again.

For me though, I just wanted to play with friends, so its length and gatekeeping just ended up getting in the way…

1 Like
28

I’m still mad about Moenbryda

3 Likes
29

it’d be nifty if they’d do more of these crossover things. i can’t even remember the most recent one, and the dragon quest event was, what, over two years ago now…? this one appears to be significantly bigger than they usually are, though, so. neat.

30

I guess I’ll hit the button for the freebie on this coming Friday.

Server?

I have chars on Hyperion and Leviathan, but.

31

I’m gonna be logging in to finish up the original 2.0 storyline where I stopped (somewhere after shiva) and to find out if my free company still exists.

Actually, just tried logging into mogstation and realized I have a one-time password set, with no idea where I put the removal code. So I think I’m screwed, which might be for the best.

32

I might start my freebie run on Thursday since Friday nights are often busy for me, giving Saturday/Sunday for actually playing. Kinda want to see some of the Hildebrand stuff on my main character on Ultros, since I didn’t do much of that quest line last time I played and it sounds like Good Stuff.

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hildibrand is the one true ff14 storyline

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a few of us are on lamia, but it sounds like sb is predominantly ultros, so i’ll try to get an alt to level 17 soon here and get in on this. i’ve been into the palace of the dead once so far and it’s not super exciting, but it sounds like it becomes more involving as it goes on.

35

So we played. Today’s the last day for my freebie bit, and as I didn’t have HW I didn’t get to go past floor 40. (I spoiled myself on the floor 50 reveal and it was pretty great though)

I still think this game is very much not for me, but acceptable in limited quantities a couple time a year. So the freebie periods are perfect for this. (I actually leveled up a couple chars in the timeframe, since I wanted to play with some of the Scholar toys since people kept telling me it’s a more interesting class. (it’s not, I just have to work harder to do the same things! Which is a good distraction))

Palace of the Dead is an interesting attempt at having more dynamic content, but I think it just doesn’t go far enough. Here’s an explanation of how it works:

  • When the party leader starts, one of two save slots is chosen. You do not have more than two slots, and you have to delete one if you want to start over.
  • You may choose to go in with either a fixed party or matchmake with randoms. Either way, the party composition and players are locked to the save file, and cannot be changed without starting over.
  • No particular party composition is enforced, even in matchmaking. Play whatever you want.
  • The dungeons are equally-sized rooms that are randomly connected. It starts off with only 4 rooms, but escalates up to 8 in the lower floors I believe.
  • Each run is a ten floor section. If you manage to clear that ten floor section, it autosaves your game and you MUST do the next ten floor the next time you load your save.
  • The tenth floor of each section is a fairly trivial boss. There’s an expectation that you are not bringing a healer and won’t need one, so the majority of damage is avoidable, with periodic “everyone takes damage now” waves.
  • Progression is completely separate; you start from a set level and you level up really fast. This is actually a good way to learn the ropes of classes you’re not sure you want to grind for real.
  • Experience is given to your character after each run. It actually feels like most of a level, so this can be practical if you’re trying to grind up an alt that you don’t really want to play. (Black mage…)
  • Your normal equipment is not relevant; you have an aether arm and an aether armor thing, and they have a chance of upgrading whenever someone opens a silver treasure chest. Once at +30, you can apparently cash it out for a reasonably competitive weapon outside of the palace.
  • Equipment is global to your character, not each individual save. So you can grind for stats, but there is a stat cap for each individual floor so you can’t go too OP.
  • Chests usually drop Pomanders, which are one-time bonuses that anyone in the party can use. Some are really good.
  • There are traps on the ground that do everything from dropping everyone’s HP to turning you into frogs to a permanent poison status. They’re the real threat.
  • Also some enemies just randomly wipe the party with no warning because FF14.
  • Some of the new music is pretty great. Needs more mystery dungeon music.

So what does this mean for you?

  • It’s a snooze most of the time, followed by sudden everything going wrong. The failure state is a pretty rapid wipe, since the usual one is ‘too many adds’ and you can’t get rid of them easily.
  • Pretty fun with friends, but you do fall into a rhythm quickly. Explore this way, grab items, burn pomanders on these enemies, etc.
  • Since there is no expectation that you have a healer, encounters are kept reasonably limited. No real long term wear and tear, aside from traps possibly Poxing you. So some of the most important elements of Real Roguelikes just can’t exist here.
  • Surprisingly decent way of grinding up alts you might not want to play otherwise, and a good way of learning the ropes of classes you’re not sure if you actually want to play all the way up. (I really didn’t want to play THM but Swiftcast isn’t really optional for casters…)
  • The Aether equipment grinding is not really necessary, but it’s more likely to upgrade your equipment in later levels, especially if it’s already high. But, since it autosaves on clear, you’d have to restart if you wanted to grind the 41-50 range… so yes, people would bail if they don’t get what they want that run.

This is honestly the alternative grind method DPSes needed, I think. Leveling a DPS alt right now blows because you either do FATEs all day or you wait half an hour on duty finder to pop.

2 Likes
36

the only game where i will be a rich artisan archmage who spaces out on mountains with moogles and blasts away the undead in dungeons w/ friends on the weekends

4 Likes
37

I’m in this again. Been playing like a mad man the last few days. It’s my second attempt. The first time I quit after the first main story dungeon. Now I completed all three of those, got my chocobo and that’s basically where I’m at right now, lvl 20 main story quests with a level 25 marauder. I tried The Palace of the Dead solo and it’s kicking my ass. I couldn’t get to the first boss in 3 tries. I want to get back to it so badly. I find that this is the first challenging thing the game threw at me in all this time. I died twice to random mobs because of lag and that’s it, prior to this. I think it’s really cool that you can play with a party and level up your weapon and armor and that that then carries over to your solo play. (Even though of course the weapon and armor are synced but it’s better than getting a bad roll with silver chests if you just go at it solo from scratch.) I’ll definitely try the dungeon with a party. Maybe even a fixed instead of a matched one because I’m now in a free company! It’s pretty exciting.

I like fishing, even though it’s the most dull, mind numbing thing to do! I got so much stuff from it that I could put it all on the market for 120k gil and that’s a lot for me because the money I got from story stuff up to that point added up to around 30-40k gil. I’m definitely looking forward to being a rich fish merchant and miner!

I’m on the European data center (Moogle) so I’ll probably never play with any of you

1 Like
38

Y’all tell me sweet strats and things you wished you knew when you were where I’m at right now. What should I do, what shouldn’t I do? When do I have to care about materia? I’ve unlocked it but I don’t know if I should convert any of the spiritbound gear I have to materia. When does this pay off?

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Literally the only time I’ve ever used materia for anything was when I was required to get some in the process of crafting my Relic Weapon at level 50, which is a quest line you probably won’t ever bother with now.

If you’re playing MRD, at some point you’ll need to level up Gladiator to 22 to get Provoke. Most of the Warrior cross-class skills are Nice To Haves rather than essentials, but Provoke is pretty much a must-have later on.

40

Shit, 22 huh… Was already sort of bored getting to 15. Because I played gladiator before to level 21 and it’s just not fresh anymore.

Yeah after the first dungeon I had to go and get Flash because people in my party were friendly reminding me that it’s a must…

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Flash is nice, but Overpower is just as good and has a much more satisfying animation. Provoke, on the other hand, is an essential “oh shit I need that guy off the healer NOW” button.