The Problem with Crystalline Conflict PvP in FFXIV…



In this video, we will discuss the state of Crystalline Conflict and PvP in FFXIV as a whole, why the queues are underpopulated, the mode itself is not sustainable long term, and why the PvP rework is a failed experiment.

00:00 Introduction
01:57 Crystalline Conflict fundamentals
02:44 Grouping with friends
05:22 Flawed ranking system
08:16 Inability to demote
10:17 Mods, cheating, lack of anti-cheat
13:03 Wintrading
13:53 Neglect of Frontline balance
14:52 Summary

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45 thoughts on “The Problem with Crystalline Conflict PvP in FFXIV…”

  1. dead? idk about your data center but the queue is still fine for me. of course i dont enjoy pvp that much but the thing is ffxiv will always be a pve focused game. even if pvp was better i still dont see people enjoying it as much as pve though one thing ill say i like about pvp is the class uniqueness.

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  2. I agree with many points tho I wouldn't be as drastic as saying that FF XIV is bad at PvP. Crystalline Conflict has flaws but flaws can be ironed out. Matchmaking and ranks systems can be reworked.

    As a heavy PvP player myself, the biggest reason why I don't play it, despite enjoying my time with the mode, is the lack of group play. I am a social gamer first and I enjoy playing with my friends. I will take having to run into teams of 5 if it means I can play casual with them but as you point out right now I can't, so I don't play it at all. I find no enjoyment in just smashing my face against a ranking system.

    So for me if they open up casual play for groups I would definitelly play the mode more and maybe move a bit into ranked myself once I am used to it fully but until then I see no reason to play.

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  3. PvP should never be a part of this game. It only breeds.toxicity and would lower the quality of the community at large. If you want to see how PvP in an MMO creates a degenerate, toxic community, play WoW. You can't even tank a dungeon for the first time there without being flamed for taking a somewhat suboptimal route through an open area that pulls a single additional trash mob. We don't want those people coming to FFXIV.

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  4. This is why I just stick with Frontline, nothing is more satisfying than getting BH5 on machinist and having the ability to instantly delete priority targets

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  5. Most casuals, including myself, are taking a break — a LONG break — from the game. It's not unexpected that queues for things like this are empty. Couple that with this being PvP, it's natural that only the hardcore players are in it anymore.

    TBH, I sort of stopped playing during Endwalker (which I found exceedingly dull, tedious, boring and uninspired) and definitely walked away with the EMO Dead Girl storyline follow-up. The grand story arc should have ended with the death of Emet-Selch and moved onto to something entirely different after that. PERIOD. I keep my sub to keep my house hoping that 7.0 is better, but these days I'm mainlining GW2 and hit ESO a lot these days. And as far as PvP in FFXIV… meh. Don't care and never will.

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  6. This game is not made for pvp. You are very correct it was an after thought, I remember when it was implemented it was just because of the huge request for it. The fact they have since then at least made pvp skills as opposed to just your regular skills does at least show they try to balance it, but I absolutely agree that all the pvp matches should be in roulette. Maybe just 1 pvp roulette for all of them, would probably help fill the parties faster, but as a whole most people do not care about pvp. The only reason to even bother is the gear and maybe dailies if you are trying to level cus honestly it is worth a good chunk of exp for that daily, I absolutely hate pvp in most games but ill do it for the daily if I don't have to wait hours for the queue.
    Personally I think they should take a peak at SWTOR pvp, yes they also just have death match and capture the flag or the one where you invade while the other team defends and the winner is whoever defends longest or holds the most land before the timer runs out. Those are pretty standard pvp styles, but they also have hutt ball which is sort of like soccer with death traps, it is all 1 queue, you don't know which you will get, but it was actually fun. For FF, they could easily do blitzball as one, you could even do a FFT turn based strategy style thing if you wanted, just something creative.

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  7. For me the biggest issue are the cheaters, that literally killed my drive to play CC.

    People seeing the whole map, speed hacks, triggers. People will cheat because SE does nothing and if you don't cheat you will end losing to cheaters, feels terrible

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  8. I tried PvP in FFXIV for the first time today and, yeah, I'll just stick to MSQ, daily roulette, and raids. PvP is just not for me, I won't try that again. Don't care about the PvP mode, I won't be found in any of them.

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  9. calling it the worst is a bit far fetched CC is by far the best pvp square has added and like most mmo's its has peak times to que in wow i spend over a hour queing in solo shuffle so waiting 5 mins in peak times for a que is absolutely nothing…. i do think casual should have party ques but also ranked should be a solo as it adds a skill to it. Playing at diamond you dont really need to talk in party as many of them understand how the mode works.

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  10. 2 issue the issue with emote being there to replace real chat to prevent toxicity is good not a bad thing i think adding more emotes would help and second no fuck premades they ruin pvp saying it casual pvp so it ok to ruin the other team that is not in vc team is total bs most ppl play casual mode pvp and that would ruin the fun for most ppl thereis next to a zero chance that a random team can beat a full premade team . As for the ranked mode i cant speak since in ever did it .

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  11. Ranked queue is probably also longer because we are near the end of the season. The "series malmstones" rewards are also an issue. Most players try to grind those out quickly if there is an item they want. No new malmstone rewards for another season means more people wont bother.

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  12. The problem is bigger than one game mode. The game engine completely sucks for PvP. The community engagement is tiny except from when a new shiny cosmetic comes from it. They will never get decent PvP mode without a complete rework of the game engine. It's clunky, unresponsive and operates on "server ticks", nothing there should be in a PvP game.

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  13. Imagine trying to play this mode. And somebody can just go monk and spawn camp you if you're a caster and you're team will have to run past them because if they sit there and try to 2v1 with you chasing this monk. Then the rest of your team will be behind 2 players. So they have to hope you'll win your 1v1 against the monk, challenge almost near impossible.

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  14. The biggest problem with C.C tanked are the cheaters snd even though S.E has monitored and banned some of them, it is virtuslly impossible to keep track on who is doing the cheats on a daily basis. I find that going frontline is a better PVP experience. It's chaotic and feels rewarding when you are ahead individually or as a group.

    My only concern is that some classes needs tuning. Healer still feels incredible strong and then you have SAM one shotting you with lb

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  15. CC has always been deader than dead on Materia. Makes all the rewards they advertise completely pointless since it's impossible to find a ranked match. They should do away with ranked and put CC in the duty roulette tab. Make the rewards a grind like any other.

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  16. I don't think that's true about the ranking system, that you can't fall down to lower tiers. In the previous season I swear I went from silver back down to bronze after losing a couple of matches when I first got to silver, so when I went back up to silver again I stopped playing it in ranked mode so I wouldn't fall back down to bronze haha.

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  17. There is one reason as to why no matter what changes they do to the game mode whether it be external or internal the game mode will always feel bad and that is the games tick rate. You can't be reactive, as a mostly PvP player in both WoW and GW2, the ability to instantly react to CC or burst makes the game feel way more reactive and in your control. In FFXIV, the tick rate means everything i do feels insanely sluggish and laggy, cc removal is delayed, damage is tick orientated (i've have dies so many times bubbling at 40% hp just to die anyway because ive been hit with machinist ult 1 second before i even casted bubble) which removes any sort of reactive play. IDK, the actual design of the jobs in PvP is SUBSTANTIALLY better than in PVE but because of the innate server structure it's always going to feel just bad in general. If anyone hasn't experiences any sort oh highish level pvp in other mmo's, trust, it's extremely noticeable. Hell, my channel even has WoW pvp stuff from this expansion if you want receipts.

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  18. as a Samurai Player PvP is the Last Bastion of enjoying the Job, No Shinten Spam and a Kill Blow Combo, it's awesome! PvE of FFXIV sucks hard and CC.. well my Only Incentive of engaging with FFXIV PvP is the Battle Pass Rank up to 25 (to combat FOMO since there are no alternatives to get those Item Rewards of the Battle Pass, just like any other predatory Battle Pass). And PvE basicly to do the weeklies, Wonderous Tales, 24men Gear (which is still weekly locked btw) and the weekly cap.. not perticular engaging if you ask me. I mean I do Loporrits daily but that ain't Gameplay, so you're right with this Video

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  19. The videos dislike ratio shows why the game will never be fixed. You just can't critiscize the FF14 game without people who've never even touched a part of the game you're critiscizing disagreeing with you, because obviously, FF14 is a perfect game and every single mechanic is game breaking and amazing.

    Shame.

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  20. Square doesn't really care about cheating, since they pay their sub and really that's all they care about.

    You can't queue with your friends because premades own PvP, it makes joining solo pointless.

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  21. hmmm a lot of your points are valid, but they're points shared by the vast majority of PvP games just like LoL, Valorant, CoD, etc. There's just no simple fix that will make everyone happy. CC has a lot of issues, but it being dead? Far from it, on NA Ranked & Casual matches seem to be popping off at all hours of the day & night. You can also demote ranks between Platinum-Crystal, it's just Bronze-Gold are a safety net for as you stated: Burn out. My own personal list of what I'd like to see going forward are: Better Rewards, CC(Casual) & Rival Wings get Dailies, More Maps, being able to queue up with friends in Casual CC, and more game modes using this 5v5 formula because tabtargetting is not meant for big team battles at all……or like I BEEN SAYING is delete Frontlines, take those maps and make a BR mode outta 'em since BRs are still kinda hot.

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  22. My opinion is that is a fun casual PvP experience that is ruined by the community. Wintrading, cheating and a mayor part of the userbase that does not care at all about how to play or to win. I mean in Frontlines chat is not blocked and 90% time ppl don't listen about strategies or team work. Pre-made messages should be enough to communicate in a simple game like CC, but people can't even attack the target marked as <1>.

    Of course SE is partially at fault, it should provide more tools to alliviate the issue but the problem is the players. I agree that at least a duo queue should help a lot.

    Also the rankinng system is totally busted. Letting bronze players (or lower) play with gold players makes for an absolutely awful experience. That's why ranked from gold to below is dead.

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  23. I think the Pvp is fine. I'm in EU, the queues were always quick. In contrast to other pvp games that I play, for example gw2, the visual clarity is great. It's very easy to tell what's going on at all times and respond quickly. The heal spam isn't even a problem if you know what you're doing. Use your abilities appropriately and you'll do great. That being said, as soon as I got my glam reward I stopped playing. There are some things that FF could learn from other mmos in terms of rewards.

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  24. I think just adding the ability for queue with friends would massively improve the game mode. I'm also dumbfounded why this feature is still missing, it should have been the number one priority to get out either when the mode released or shortly after. I think the gameplay in the games is mostly fine, adjust the diminishing effects of Crowd Control(stuns, silences, etc.) some and the healing ability.

    Frontlines on another hand I think is a dead and utterly broken game mode. Every game is almost complete RNG and the modes are just pure shit. It really should see an overhaul so it's not only a chore you do for some exp and actually a somewhat enjoyable game mode.

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  25. They should have deleted pvp in endwalker instead of wasting resources on updating pvp and adding crystallize crystal mode. Imagine playing pvp with server delay ticks and no anti cheat

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  26. PvP in FFXIV is a joke. You cannot take it seriously since it’s both unbalanced as all hell and had some of the worst NetCode in any game I’ve played recently. So yeah, if you’re looking for hardcore PvP, FFXIV is not the right place to find it.

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  27. I've never been a big fan of PVP so this gamemode not being good wasn't too big of a deal for me. I usually just put on loud music and play bard as I try my best to win. But I know people want a better pvp mode and I hope you get it.
    I soon got 5k hours in this game and I've got that in less than 2 years. I love this game more than any game I've ever played. I really wanna hear more stuff like this with more criticism and ideas. It was really interesting to listen to and I hope the devs listen to these grievances people have to make the game even better.

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