Should you play FFXIV in 2025? What is Eorzea actually like at endgame? Want a discussion that doesn’t just gush over XIV’s narrative? You’ve come to the right place.
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that was a delightful vid
It’s cool to see the transition from enjoying the MSQ at the level you guys did…to now making content and interviewing people where the focus is the gameplay. You guys have been great for the community, thank you!
You can talk about dps meters, the important part is to not harass ppl for being low on it (unless they're good friends, good friends can get harassed like no other 😂).
So, when will you guys try the chaotic raid?😂
While I do think WoW's gearing system has improved in Dragonflight and The War Within, I very much miss the old Justice/Valor system of the pre-Warlords era. I feel like ever since Ion took over as game director, he has been more concerned with player retention over player satisfaction, hence the emphasis on gear RNG over the past ten years.
Love to see advertising the game as an actual MMO and not an RPG. The story is good, but the gameplay is what makes me log in daily. It's just a very good game to exist in!
The crafted gear isn't a direct upgrade is the thing. Turning pants into rings is an intentional feature, because crafted gear is a low-ceiling catchup option that might get replaced by raid and tome stuff rather than stick around permanently.
As someone who hasn't yet caught up to 7.1 MSQ, just wanna say that I appreciate y'all blurring the bosses 💙
I've always described the game in two ways.
1. Would I play this game if it was ONLY a story-driven game like the majority of the final fantasy single-player titles? Yes, and I believe it's story is greater than all the other numbered final fantasies.
2. Would I play this game if it was ONLY for the end-game gameplay/raid content? Yes, the way the jobs and mechanics feel as a piece of end-game multiplayer content is enough to satisfy me in long term.
The fact that the game has both of these is why it is my favorite game of all time.
Once you get into raiding, normal content becomes super easy. Even the latest dungeon, you just swoosh trough like tsunami with experienced players. Its 15 minutes job.
The reason why nobody talked about parsing in any of the content you'd done until now is because it doesn't matter so nobody is parsing it. Streamers do old fights for the sake of content, but the player base really just doesn't care what happens in old extremes or dungeons or whatever. Llamatodd talked a bit about this in your interview with him, where he mentions that some weird people sometimes do parse alliance raids or dungeons or whatever, but nobody in the community takes those people seriously because it isn't current raid content or an ultimate so caring about your number there is cringe.
You're feeling pressured into caring more about your logs now because the people who watch MSQ react content (generally) aren't the same people as those who watch savage raiding. Back when everybody was actively discouraging you from using ACT while leveling, it was because *those people are not using ACT*. Remember, somewhere in the ballpark of 1/3 of the NA player base is on console where parsing is pretty difficult, and even among PC players, the vast majority don't ever do content where they're expected to learn their rotation. MSQ emotional vampires are hugely represented in this category of player.
The whole "helmets become hats. pants become pants. etc" reminds me of the days when it was like, coils, bolts, lenses, and boy howdy i do NOT miss the Alexander system. Had to pull up a diagram every week at reset to remember what item translated into gloves or w/e lol. Nonsensical. So happy they changed it.
Another awesome video! Hope you guys are doing great this week
Re: 2 minute window before Endwalker
From Stormblood on, which is when I started playing, there always was a kind of 2-minute meta, but it wasn't a case of every job having their thing on a 2 minute timer. Instead, some jobs might have smaller things on 45 seconds or 90 seconds, or even on 40 seconds. However, there was one job and one ability that dictated the rythm of every fight around the 2 minute timer: Ninja's Trick Attack was 10% extra damage debuff on the boss, lasting 10 or 15 seconds depending on the patch. With other classes' buffs existing around the 2% to 5% range, optimizing the Trick Attack windows was everything. Its cooldown was actually 60 seconds, so the two minute meta would involve trying to fit as many high potency actions into even Trick Attacks, while fully overlapping it with one's own buffs.
That meant optimization involved knowing which actions and buffs should be used immediately, which ones should be held until Trick Attack even if they came off CD early, and which ones should only be held for the even Trick Attacks, which would be more powerful due to catching all the 90 second and 120 second buffs.
If I remember right, Trick Attack still worked like that through the end of Shadowbringers, with Endwalker changing it to only affect damage from the Ninja and giving a similar but lesser effect to Mug.
A thing
Do videos more often if u guys can! U guys videos are ur best piece of content. great stuff!
Speaking towards Garret's enjoyment of feeling like he's "done" with a game, this is why I typically enjoy "Seasons" for whatever game I'm playing and the reward tracks that come with them. Obviously some are better than others in terms of how much work is required to complete them vs pushing you to pay money, but I love that having an end-goal, hitting it, and going "ok, I'm good with this game at least for a couple months.
And yeah the stuff he mentions about WoW's current system is why I completely bounce off WoW's endgame. I always level up, have a blast, tell myself I'm gonna be a good raider this time… and then 2 weeks in the RNG just completely sucks the desire to keep going out of me. I do miss some of the fun random effects on some gear and trinkets, and I find FFXIV's gear pretty boring in that regard… but I much prefer a simpler step-by-step progression over hoping for "god rolls" on gear.
The gearing process always reminded me of the gearing in SWTOR(at least how it use to be, haven't played it since Eternal Throne). Where you get commendations from Flashpoint(dungeon) grinding and trade it in for pieces of gear. Though you could still do harder content for good gear drops. Your progress was fairly predictable and chartable.
Welcome to the early patch cycle, where we only get the first round of 8-man raids as our main post-story content until patch point two, where all the actual patch content starts to become available.
Tbh its fine if you cant keep up your ABC game, focus mech first when progging. But you have to fix it later when you prog harder content that need some fine wooden logs xd. As tank you have ranged atk to keep it rolling, its more problem with caster/healer with casting time. Do you want to play safe, cancel your cast and move from harm or greed it and die lol.
There is a logic behind the madness in augmenting crafted gear. You can, for example, turn in crafted tank gear and get augmented healer gear. Or caster gear, or whatever else.
I always keep my crafted gear around so that I can turn it into augmented gear for a different job I want to play. But if you're only really gearing up one job, it does feel needlessly convoluted.
For content feeling incomplete, I definitely agree. It was glaring in EW without a field operation. There is a lot of stuff for the endgame crowd with extremes, savages, ultimates and now chaotic to prog and grind, but nothing for casual/solo players outside of shared fates, which are mind-numbingly boring. Especially if you miss the early window and no one else is doing them.