Little late with this due to a busy weekend, but better late than never! I’m gonna talk thoughts on the graphics update, but mostly about the skills we saw!
But also because I know how people can be: STAY CIVIL.
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#FFXIV #dawntrail #benchmark
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Picto is right next to your player character. In front of PLD and behind SGE
cool observations! Really looking forward to learning more asap….dunno if i can stand the wait!
Shadows on character are so soft now. Lighting makes all the difference in whether your character looks like a guy or a wax doll. And yeah, some features (especially the nose, in my case) are very noticeably different. Like how you put it, technologically it's an improvement but aesthetically it's kinda more of a sidegrade. I've been seeing just as many people in love with their character's glow up as I have the opposite.
Personally I think my character came out just fine, thankfully. Probably won't even use the Fanta.
WESK: everyone is calling PLD’s new move AOE atonement.
ME: wait what? That’s the first I’ve heard of that. Everyone I’ve heard talked about it has called it AOE Requiescat.
The SMN one looks more like Painflare 2 / Fester 2 to me, since those two OGCDs also have electrical visuals and a relatively similar animation, just more tame. It would also make sense, since we've had those 2 skills with no improvement for many years at this point.
About RDM, knowing the thorns and roses effects are currently tied to Resolution (melee finisher), it must be tied to the melee part of RDM rather than the magic one, so I have two theories:
1 – They removed/changed Manafication and turned it into that skill, so you'd do Embolden > New Skill that does damange and gives you mana for the melee combo > melee combo.
2 – It's Contre Sixte 2.
With the orange effect of bloodwhetting active when vengeance 2 goes off, i'm wondering if they're going to give all the 30% mit abilites for tanks activate their short cooldown as a bonus.
Appreciate the breakdown. Doing it at gamespeed I couldn't keep track of all the chaos, so having it slowed down and repeated at me is nice.
The word dragon comes from the Latin Draco which also meant Snake.
Dragons in greek mythology are also very snakelike
Best breakdown of the skills I've seen so far. I was a little bummed to see my character in the new graphics and thought I might change some things, but once I ran the benchmark, they looked like themselves much more, so I think I'm good.
who the F plays an MMO for the graphics… im really starting to hate modern gaming
maybe it's because i'm a lalafell and can't picture my character possibly looking "worse" in some people's opinions since people have always seemed to hate how they look except the people who actually play them, i understand people who play the "prettier" races care a lot about these changes but i have a feeling that anyone who hated lalafells before aren't going to suddenly change their opinion of them either.
always great to hear your thoughts!! as someone who does not have the brainpower to see what all the jobs are doing and figure out whats going on, i very much enjoyed having someone else walk me through it and explain their thoughts lol
personally, i was super tired when the benchmark first released, so i just went into it without bothering to look at my current wol. my only thoughts were "wow!!! thats just my wol but in better graphics!!! shes so pretty :)". i was completely happy with it and really couldnt notice any changes to her other than,,, just being in higher quality. it was only when i woke up the next day and bothered to take some comparison screenshots and look side by side did i notice any major difference – the biggest one for me being that her lips no longer have such a defined shape (seems to be a problem in general).
the more i looked at the two comparisons, the more i could feel some measure of disappointment set in for me – but again, i didnt feel that way at all the first time, so i think (for me personally) its just a sorta…. whiplash that i need some time to get over. aspects of my wol's face that i never consciously considered are suddenly prominent to me bc theyre different in this new version. also, the character creator definitely looks worse in comparison to the benchmark itself.
i think the chainsaw ability from MCH is a Drill upgrade, the way the skill goes is very similar to drill with the slowdown at the end of the animation.
Please, that ninja skill is not Hellfrog Medium.
It's Hellfrog Large.
Think they will release a new Benchmark with the Pictomancer as the main with any improvement tweaks done?
Wished there was a XeSS option for those using an Intel Arc GPU instead having to use AMD FSR.
So glad they're bringing in Moogle Element as a damage type. Long overdue.
Who the fuck looked at Paladin and said "that's totally atonement!"
hellfrog medium 2 no hellfrog large
no need obs.
run in window mode.
single target with aoe falloff pls.
Alright, now what do you think about the Hrothgal?
If you want, you can make a video about it, would love to see it.
Ok I'm about to type too many words about why I think that might not be Toxikon III, let's go! Or at least why it might not be a direct upgrade to Toxikon II. The first reason is that we don't see any of the basic healer DPS buttons get upgrades; we see Phlegma III, Dosis III, Fall Malefic, Glare III, and I think Broil IV. This wouldn't be a problem in itself since Toxikon isn't a basic DPS button and could get an upgrade regardless, but SGE is currently balanced so that Toxikon II isn't a gain over Dosis III in single target. They could be changing the way it works so that it's a gain after a potency buff with Toxikon III, but this element is worth considering. I don't personally see them wanting to encourage more Addersting farming for the deeps. It's also possible that they simply didn't have the upgraded healer DPS effects ready for the benchmark and we'll see them in the job actions trailer.
Another reason why it might not be an upgrade is just an aesthetic observation; Addersting stacks are cute pinkish diamonds which corresponds to the purple-pinkish hues going on in the Toxikon II vfx, while this new animation is all blue all day. They could be ditching the visual consistency, or they could be updating the job gauge after the upgrade (which I personally don't see happening), but yeah there's that.
And the final reason is that the actual sage's animation isn't the same as that of Toxikon I or II. Sure, it could just be a new animation like the upgrade from Phlegma II to III, but it's worth considering. It honestly reminds me of the speedy startup animation to Krasis, which is an oGCD. My baseless speculation right now is that it could be a separate DPS button, maybe unrelated to Addersting, that you can weave. Or it could maybe be a separate Toxikon III button that uses Addersting stacks but more optimized for AOE damage?
But of course the most likely thing, and the safe bet, is that we'll see upgraded healer buttons in the job action trailer, and this upgrade to Toxikon II will be equivalent single target potency to Dosis IV. But who knows!
This is why ignored every benchmark speculation vid. I knew you'd come through clutch. Can't wait till it comes out, already got it preordered. Currently taking a break from Eorzea to dive into hell but your content keeps excited about ffxiv. Oh and i fixed the blm issue i had thanks to your advice lol.
Dead eyes, and removed; miqote fangs, moles, certain make up, au ra eye glow and scales neck texture gap etc. everything else, textures of clothes, armor, backgrounds, foliage as such looks excellent.
They really really ruined fem Aura mouths
Thanks for the balanced coverage, Wesk!
Curious if they bring back the skin-chain and Magic Burst system from Closed Beta and from FF11
I'm one of the people who think that the Summoner attack could be an upgraded Tri-Disaster without an elemental attunement.
Personally I can't stand to look at my older character anymore. The difference in fidelity is so obvious, I can't unsee her current blocky lips, the jaggies on the jawline, the hair that falls over her face as one pixelly chunk…could go on, but yeah. It hasn't bothered me until the benchmark has given me a clear point of comparison lol. Almost makes me want to just stop playing until DT.
Some good stuff here. But I'd like to attach some additional information that might change your theory
You can tell the difference between GCD and oGCD by some slight fx around the character. If you see a yellow/golden fx puff, it's a GCD, and if you see blue, it's an oGCD. This is extremely noticeable on the lalafell GNB at the start of the sequence.
3:35 Dragoon – I believe this skill is an oGCD. It's really hard to see because the blue fx is mostly blocked by the GNB explosions, but there are freeze frames at 3:45 where you can see the dissipation of the oGCD fx. I also don't think it's our "enter burst" moment, since the character does not receive any aura type fx to suggest buffed/enhanced state. My initial thought, because DRG is receiving a rework, is that this could be a reworked Wrymwind Thrust. However, because of the use of the Stardiver effects, I think it's just a reworked Stardiver.
4:09 I think you can see the GCD fx on Monk, for the Dragon effect skill, so I believe the dragon and tiger attacks are both GCDs. However, your comparison of the animations with the chakra skill do make me question this.
5:25 RDM is using an oGCD (also note, that MCH in the background just used DRILL. So theories suggesting the later Chainsaw attack as a Drill upgrade seem incorrect. It was my thought too, since the effects surrounding it appear similar)
5:28 SAM is using an oGCD. So cannot be Ogi. Perhaps it's an oGCD between Ogi's or an oGCD used after Midare.
6:20 the sound effects for AST going off here sounds very similar to Divination?
7:03 To me, WHM appears to instant cast that skill – like it's a lilly skill. We could be missing the start of the animation though
7:20 regarding DRK. This is for sure, the most intriguing to me as well. Every skill we see is a GCD, after Bloodspiller. Maybe DRK gets a combo like GNB now? Absolutely badass looking though.
8:15 This doesn't look like the character is casting, so I don't believe it's a Communio II. Unless they remove the casting option from it in Dawntrail. The animation is similar to the animation your character makes when casting Gluttony to me. So I wonder if we're getting an Enshroud Gluttony type skill, maybe an extension to the combo we can do in enshroud? Either way, it looks good.
For dragoon, it’d be cool if on the final hit of the 5 part combo, instead of doing an empowered wheeling thrust or fang and claw, it did either the Nidhogg Uppercut like in the video or a Hresvelgar attack on the other combo
Honestly, as a Hrothgar player? I am SUPER happy with the upgrades we're getting to our appearance. We actually have visible fur on our body now instead of it just looking like we've been shaving most of our body XD
I'm very curious to see what Summoner is getting for new spells and abilities. Hopefully I'll be caught up for Dawntrail's release-currently in post-Stormblood at the moment. I remember seeing people mention we were meant to get Carbuncle glams of Shiva, Ramuh and I think Leviathan ages ago but that never happened so it would be interesting if we get another summon. I wonder how that would affect our rotations…
Personally, I was quite disappointed with the new character creator as it completely changed the appearance of a character that I have grown attached to, which is the whole point of having your own customizeable character. And I frankly don't like the new aesthetic, it gives me disney vibes. I believe it's possible to keep the original facial features while upgrading the graphics to the same level of quality of the benchmark. Taking the female aura face 3 lips and nose for example (not my WoL for clarification), there was absolutely no reason to make the lips flatter, rounded out cupids bow, and underline the lipstick, or change the nose from a "triangular" shape to a generic button nose. Also the pupils are a lot bigger and irises are smaller, robbing the female aura of their recognizable intense eyes. This is just one example, but I feel like the whole vibe just changed too much in general with most races, when we have had years to grow attached to the appearance of our characters. It's not something to get used to imo. But I still have hope that they'll take the feedback on forums into account for further development.
Seeing your character without sunglasses feels so wrong
As an AuRa player, I’m SO excited for the graphical update 🥳
I already miss my WoL's cheekbones. It's not just that I'm used to it – I customized it that way deliberately. There is a forum thread about why faces are looking overexposed and too soft. It is now on the 2nd page and is titled "Skin Translucency is overtuned". It appears this might be something they could adjust if people ask? Anyway, if this bothers you go check it out there. I'd gladly trade ear translucency on my Elezen to get his original face back in Endwalker.