Part 4
Leveling is one of the most important aspects of any MMORPGs and in this series I am comparing the Leveling experience between GW2 and FFXIV
0:00 The Beginnings
0:46 FFXIV Leveling
5:44 GW2 Leveling
10:28 Which Is Better?
12:57 Comparing MMOs
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Yeeehaw, been loving the comparisons of these
I’m not a fan of GW2 quest system. I’ve struggled to get past like level 20 lol.
A special mention for FFXIV is that there are more ways to level up as you progress the game. Now that you've beaten Heavensward, you can pick up a Wonderous Tails journal from Khloe Aliapoh. Each journal gives 16 semi-random objectives (for instance, 4 are tied to dungeons of certain levels, and one is always "participate" in a specific PvP event). Each objective completed places a sticker on a random spot on the 4×4 grid on the right, sort of like a bingo card. You can complete 9 objectives, and if you make lines via the stickers (random chance), you get bonus stuff. No matter what though, if you get all 9 stickers and turn in the journal, you WILL get 50% of your current EXP bar for the job you currently are (except Blue Mage which can't do this, more on that in a sec)
Another way to get levels fast is to use the Levelling Roulette regularly. It gives a TON of EXP when you use it for the first time any day, and it is used to fill in any spot where someone needs a party to advance the story in a dungeon or trial. There's also the Challenge Log, which gives you EXP for doing things like completing 5/10 fates for that week, gathering so many raw materials (exp for Disciples of Land), crafting stuff both normal and High Quality), and simply commending people after a dungeon/trial.
Now about Blue Mage; since it cannot use the Duty Roulette and any Duty you do with it must be done in a pre-made party, there's a GIANT buff to Blue Mage's experience gain; a whopping 400% from random mobs. You can even get someone in your party to aggro a bunch of mobs 9 levels higher than you (or less), have you hit those mobs once, then have the party member kill the mobs, and you gain an absolute shit ton of experience points. They made sure to make Blue Mage fast track the levelling curve because otherwise it'd be boring as Hell.
One last thing: I'm not sure if this has been made retroactively true, but starting from Endwalker onward, following ONLY the MSQ will give you enough experience to continue the story without gating you behind level requirements; no grinding at all needed to progress the story (as the game is story-centric).
Birthday certificates sure help a heck of a lot in GW2.
As I recall, I did not like FF14. I don't recall why.
I really liked GW2’s leveling experience. While I haven’t played since the base game was released, the zone design and visuals were great. Seeing other players participate in the heart events and world bosses also made the world feel more active and fleshed out. XIV is also fun, but it’s a game that is mainly played through menus queues after you’re done with the MSQ… unless you’re a Disciple of the Land/fishing/Blue Mage fanatic.
Interesting. FFXIV does have some of that world content, mainly in the shape of S-Rank Hunts and some World Boss FATEs. But the difference is that in XIV they are strictly end-game content (and if you show up too early you in fact get fewer rewards to discourage you from engaging until you're at the determined level cap), whereas it seems for GW2 taking them on is encouraged experience-wise.
I'm a little disappointed that MUSIC isn't a category.
You barely scratched the surface of options for EXP gain in FFXIV.
Surprising to see that none of this "better MMO series" directly touches on the multiplayer experience of Massively Multiplayer Online Games. Nothing about guilds, guild interactions, massively multiplayer open world events, or even dungeon and raids. Social aspects of the game are also not in consideration, despite GW2's big push for personal housing in the next expansion.
Is it possible to compare the PVP of both games? Would be pretty interesting to hear that hyped game mode in 14.
GW2 is my personal favorite leveling experience in ANY MMO. FF14 might be the opposite. Having choice and freedom of exploration is just miles better.
GW2 has its problems the moment you want to step out of casual content, especially if you're midcore, but leveling is definitely an extremely high point.
I absolutely loved the experience leveling in FFIV and I loved playing it again with different jobs. I also loved GW2 and doing the same with different races and trying different outcomes etc. I love the buildability in GW2 vs rotation restrictions in FFIV basically there is like one way to play in FFIV per job (maybe i'm mistaken but thats what i took from it) which is nice cause you can focus and learn how to play a certain thing well but I just love the creative freedom with gw2 class/builds
Leveling Up wih the MSQ vs GW2 open world, I think the main difference (beyond the preference) is which one is more ALT friendly, and GW2 wins by far, in FFXIV you can do sidequest ,hunts, fates, farming and crafting, Dungeons, Roullettes, even PVP to level up, but like you said the biggest chunk of exp. comes from the MSQ, so only your main job will be at level , granted GW2 is "freely" and personally I mix the leveling, story + events + openworld and it is so fast that there is no competition, and because we don't play only one class or one job. GW2 indeed wins.
Loving this series!
Crafting in FFXIV just levels the crafting class in question, but Culinarian lets you craft foods that boost your combat XP gain by 3% while you have the buff.
Hey, in your comparison videos don't forget exploration. I think we know which game takes the Cake there
I played GW2 on release and do return once every couple of years. GW2 and ESO do "leveling" better if leveling is the only objective. Like you say, FFXIV is more story-driven. Some will claim that GW2 does have a story, but it's not that great and has never been a reason for me to return. I often return because I enjoy their events in-game. The problem with GW2 is obviously the character limitation and the inability to just make more characters on another server without a whole separate account. I've found myself deleting some characters if I just want to try a different class. That makes me kind of sad.
I'm currently re-playing GW2 on an alt with a friend who's playing it for the first time. Trying to get out of my comfort zone and playing a Heal Warrior while leveling is rough 😅 We were barely able to beat the lvl 60 dungeon even with other players joining. But it's been fun re-experiencing the game with a fresh account that doesn't have the account wide buffs that I've earned on my main account.
Hands down gw2
It's not even a question as FF14 takes the crown for any MMO. Their lfg system is so robust that finding a group for even old content is trivial. Dungeons into raids everyone gets a reward. Fates, hunt log, challenge log, sightseeing nodes, story, questing
FF14=zzzzzz
FFXIV bozja is designed so close to what GW2 leveling experience is and a lot of FFXIV loves that kind of leveling experience. That's all you really have to know. I never like the leveling experience in FFXIV since it's very limiting. For instance, they added a feature called beast tribe quests that gives tons of exp for your alt job — but you can only do 3 quests a day — wtf? This limit doesn't do anything other than to keep players on their subscription model. Also your character movement speed prior to owning a mount (and even after owning a mount) is designed to slowdown players in order to keep them subscribed for a long time. If you remove all these limitations that are tied to their business model, the player's leveling experience will greatly improve. FFXIV has so much potential locked behind corporate greed.
If you hate story leveling in FF14 is a slog.
Hey there, CaffDad.
If you don't mind, I'll make one correction about the thing you said about the Elder Scrolls Online's level-scaling at around 7:12. However, I'll admit that this is basically just nitpicking and you may very well have known it on your own and just used it as a shorthand example for Guild Wars 2.
It's not so much that you're scaled down to the zone's level, but more like the mobs sync up to yours. It kind of makes it just a tiny bit confusing, because Guild Wars 2 has the simplicity of simply bringing down the character to the zone's effective level, so every character in that zone is effectively at a similar range of power.
But for ESO's technical systems, it scales to the level of the players individually. If you're a level 50 character, the mob's level will be 50. If you're a level 15 character, the mob's level will be 15. And somehow this is still in effect even if you (level 50) and your friend (level 15) are hitting the same mob. It's complex, even if it pretty much just accomplishes the same thing. But, interesting how they managed to pull that off all the same.
In any case, the only difference you and your friend would have in that scenario is you having better gear, more skills to choose from and the like.
Speaking as someone who's played all three (GW2, FFXIV and ESO—even WoW) concerning the contents of the video, I have to agree with your assessment that Guild Wars 2 wins out, particularly with regard to boosting your character. What you may not have mentioned is the fact that the tomes and scrolls of leveling that you get can be earned directly in-game, rather than bought at a cash shop like you have to with FFXIV.
This also ties into another win that Guild Wars 2 has over FFXIV, which is the fact that most everything is account-bound—which GW2 lends itself well with being alt-friendly. Everything you've earned on your main, you have it forever. There's no regrinding, farming, and there's no having to go through everything again.
While FFXIV respects your time as opposed to a particular MMORPG of its type (ahem WoW ahem), Guild Wars 2 (and ESO) have it beat in that regard.
Honestly my ideal MMO would be one with the build flexibility of ESO and the story focus of FFXIV. But since story is ultimately what keeps me playing a game, FFXIV continues to rule my heart.
10:20 I will say, I wish FF14 had more events and stuff that put more emphasis on the openworld. There are some activities like the FATEs and tribal quests, but they don't really offer much incentive to come back and do them once you've outpaced the stuff in that zone.
If we're talking leveling outside of MSQ, then probably GW2 wins pretty easy. While there are a plethora of options in FF14 for leveling, it's very hit or miss in my opinion. If FATEs just gave a bit more exp, then I'd say it's okay.
I've played several mmos and I have to say I enjoy gw2 the most for that freedom. On another note, always so interesting to see the FF crowd react when there's any bit of criticism lodged towards their game.
but wym gw2 leveling is more fun after multiple times, there is maybe 1% of players who do that, you have just tomes of knowledge so all you have to do is just level one character to 80 actually 😀 not even that with free booster u will get 100% bcs of expansion buy, but that is double edged sword aswell, ffxiv leveling is after your first time kinda hussle and boring, but your first time with MSQ is uncomparable much better than GW2 leveling
Great video, good to see you at least partially back with GW2 you were my favorite as my go to for the game information, I am still in the guild you started. Oddly about the same time you got burned out on the game I did as well and took off until recently returning to it. I've adjusted my play to to remain "fun" time and have felt better about being back, not allowing it to become more than a fun casual game to play no longer worrying about keeping up with all the latest and greatest, except the expansions, I already pre-ordered the next one coming in 2 weeks.🤔🙄🤪
Couldnt get trough ARR, FFXIV has a big problem and they sell the solution on their own store, to skip the story.
What im curious of based on the previous videos and this, on why if GW2 is better in more areas is not as successful?
Can I add sth: When comparing FF14 and Gw2 I find a thing that is very important is the fact what you get per money spend. I am not playing FF14 (I tried the free stuff though) because I feel it is to expensive while Gw2 is much more fairly monetized. So it should be factored in that Anet does not have the same means when it comes to money for development as FF14. And one should keep that in mind all the time imho.