FFXIV dungeons themselves might not be better, BUT overall dungeon-running experience FEELS much BETTER in FFXIV, compared to WoW… Or at least I’ve enjoyed my dungeon runs quite a lot, even at my beginner level and in the early ARR part of the game.
Today I’d like to share my honest impressions and a rough comparison of the dungeon experience in World of Warcraft vs. Final Fantasy 14, that a lot of WoW refugees and migrants to FFXIV would hopefully appreciate and use to set their expectations straight.
Being prepared for certain features, content quality and the other gameplay elements that are still foreign to FFXIV beginners should certainly reduce any potential frustration and help avoid any disappointment when moving from WoW to Final Fantasy 14.
The best part of FFXIV for me remains its awesome community, which shines not just on social media or in YouTube comments that I’ve seen so far, but in the game and dungeons specifically, which is awesome to see for any burnt out WoW player who wants to try and make Final Fantasy 14 their new home.
📑 Table of Contents
00:00 – Intro and Disclaimers
02:40 – Duty Finder
04:40 – Level of Detail
07:20 – Dungeon UI
08:20 – Trash
09:40 – Early Loot
13:08 – Bosses
13:55 – Player Animations
16:16 – Final thoughts
17:20 – Where FFXIV is BETTER
🔥 Let’s get connected! 🔥
https://twitter.com/gyrotexgaming
❤ HUGE THANK YOU for the Free Music by these amazing people:
NoCopyrightSounds: https://www.youtube.com/user/NoCopyrightSounds
TheFatRat: https://www.youtube.com/user/ThisIsTheFatRat
#FFXIV #WoW #Refugees
source
My dear FFXIV people – what's the point of me including intros and disclaimers in videos if almost everyone seems to ignore them, judging by your comments?? 🤷♀️😉
🔥 I WELCOME COMMENTS, BUT please read this before posting! TY! 🔥
1️⃣ I've used WoW end-game dungeon footage because it was the only one I had saved on my HDD and my WoW sub is no longer active to get new one.
2️⃣ I said multiple times that I suspect these are bare-bones basic dungeons and things should improve – thanks for confirming (if you did that).
3️⃣ I comment on my FFXIV experience *as I discover things, as I go*, not waiting till I'm in the end-game, for several reasons – mainly because the other WoW migrants will judge the game similarly, "as they go", and my content is designed to help them manage their expectations.
I hope you understand that it's not about FFXIV bashing. Never was, never will be. It's about honest impressions sharing. If this is your cup of tea – GREAT. If not – no harm done.
Correction about the roulettes: it is true that you get a random dungeon/boss fight from a set pool, but you determine the class you want to queue as. There is always a given 'in need' role (tanks or healers usually) who get even further bonuses to encourage people to queue with those roles. Since dungeons are mandatory for msq progression this way you can't really get stuck on any dungeon for too long, even if you play dps.
High-end duty is always the current savage raids, the ultimate raids and current extreme and unreal boss fights. These are the fights generally aimed at the hardcore raider crowd and require an organized party.
People have already pointed out the loot popup. Generally speaking you won't need to rely on dungeon gear for your first class because msq gives you plenty of gear, but in later dungeons you start to get unique, good looking loot.
Unrelated to dungeons, I see that you have macros on your basic skills (mousover ones I assume?). Depending on how reliant you are on them you should know that they can range from slightly to very detrimental, depending. MrHappy has a "FFXIV: DO's and DON'Ts of Macros" video that goes into detail about the idiosyncrasies of the game's macros that I can only recommend.
A little tip here: for healers, set keybind to quick target the 2nd and 3rd member of your party. The 2nd member is always the tank and the 3rd too if your party have two tanks. That way, you don't have to click them in order to heal. You can also utilize "Set focus target" and "Select current focus target" options. Set your main tank as the focus target. The advantage of this is that you can also see the duration of buffs and debuffs on your focus target without targeting them so you can determine when to re-apply regen to your tank again.
Honestly, they're completely different. FF dungeons have more in common with Mists of Pandaria's scenarios instances than retail WoW's dungeons. In WoW most dungeons are wide open areas with many possible paths, skippable trash and dangerous patrols. In FF14 the dungeons are mostly on-rail: linear paths with unavoidable trash packs, 2 mini-bosses and one final boss. This is because in retail WoW the dungeons are designed for Mythic+, whereas in FF14 the dungeons are storytelling devices for the most part. They serve different purposes. The only dungeon in FF that is designed like one from WoW is Aurum Vale and lots hate it, seriously you'd do yourself a service by never unlocking it.
I'm glad you're putting this video series together!! It's cool to report on it as you go through, it's an exciting trip especially once you beat the ARR stuff. I can't wait till you get to do the Post ARR Trials!
Excellent video. XIV is far from a perfect game, and people need to remember that. I think you shouldn't even have to defend your right to an opinion. It's just part of human nature to compare something new to something you're familiar with. Regardless of what people say, your experience is yours alone and it's up to you to decide how you feel about it. Have a wonderful day.
Honestly most FFXIV players don't have an issue with anyone criticizing FFXIV provided it's done at least moderately fairly and in good faith. I'm a huge fan of FFXIV and even though I don't agree with some of your points, I can calmly and casually move on without making a fuss of it. Ultimately we each have our own experiences, preferences, biases, etc. Some things will appeal to you, that don't appeal to me and vice-versa and some things will bother you that don't affect me. All I'll say is "fair enough, i see your point" tip my hat and move on.
With that said, it's worth remembering that in every community, there's 2 major toxic elements that always clash and bubble to the surface and they tend to be the most vocal ones. (probably more than 2 but not the point of this post)
On the one hand you have the people who bash anyone touching their holy grail (the extreme fanboys)
And on the other you have the people on the other extreme who think any kind of criticism raised against their wants/expectations/criticism is somehow an attack at their identity or some-such.
The first is a "gatekeeper" the second is just someone who doesn't want to get rid of gatekeeping but rather take their place and dictate things going forward.
As long as you don't pay attention to those groups, you'll find most people are more than happy to give feedback and help, and can take criticism just fine at the same time.
yeah, early dungeons are a bit lifeless and assume you are a total newbie of the mmo genre, very easy to none mechanics
cmon man, comparing dungeons when you only try 3?… is this bait?
I agree wholeheartedly with this video, the early dungeons are nothing incredible but the community and general game design make me have a lot of fun with them.
You know what is crazy? So many new FF14 players have praised the early game content and experience.. and it's actually the WORSE or lowest point this game has to offer. ARR base game is not as good as latter expansion. Dungeons, mobs, boss designs, it keeps getting better. Story? Massive leap in HW and never looks back, it just gets more and more epic.
Not to mention combat, more and cooler skills at level 50+, except for healers who only get 2-3 attack spells. hehe
Edit: Hopefully you make a Dungeon comparison again later when you get into Heavensward, then Stormblood, and Shadowbringers. I guarantee your mind will be blown many times during these xpac story & dungeons.
All the criticisms people may be giving aside, all of the early designs for dungeons are VERY bare bones, it looks like you are running around in Dark cloud, a PS2 game.
BUT
that all picks up quite well by the time you get to Thousand maw, and Sunken temple of Qarn
Now the mobs actually look cool, the environments are getting better and the bosses have mechanics that you will wipe if you dont do
1) Regarding the Duty Finder. The High End Dutys is what "current" the current Extreme Trials and the current Raidtier. People will usually gather in Party Finder and then enter the High End Dutys over this.
2) The reason the Dungeons in especially ARR look pretty bland, is mainly because they were made during the PS3 era. It gets better over time, once you hit a certain point in ARR (I think the old 2.3 content) and later HW there is a big spike in quality.
3) Yeah the Trash goes into the same category as the quality. It gets better the further you progress.
4)Whenever someone opens a Chest with loot, you get the message with "Cast your Loot" in the bottom right "normaly" there is a button pop up with loot. There you can roll for it then.
The loot also gets better over time, there are entire Armor Chests and Weapons that will only drop in certain Dungeons.
You usually gather this stuff for leveling purposes or for Transmog, I still run Dungeons for Transmog quiet a bit. Even with everything at max level and Endgame Gear, there is certain things I go back and still farm….. or try to. Last time I was farming with my FC, the Piece I wanted droped 3x and I didn't get it once. I rolled 3x below 10 and they all wanted to piece.
5)Not so sure about the animations. Animations in WoW were always pretty….. bland to me. I mean Caster rarely use their staffes to cast. But I understand where the movement part comes from, there was actually acceleration on movement back in 1.0, but they took that out for gameplay reasons. The animation is still there, so it looks like your character needs to accelerate first, when in reality they are at speed 100 the moment you hit the button.
Otherwise if you mean general battle animations….. yeah wait till you get past level 50, there is a lot of great looking stuff. Like the 3 DPS in a Trenchcoat Class, that is oddly a Tank.
Good video, but I feel like you made it too early. Go and see more dungeons first (or only compare them with the first WoW dungeons). Definitely do a follow up video after you reached level 80
One thing you can try as a healer is to place your dots on mobs and cast damage spells in between healing. The cool thing about healing in FFXIV dungeons is that healers do significant damage and becomes important later on. The early dungeons help to ease you into this too because the damage from mobs is slightly lower than dungeons post 50. Cheers and give it a shot!
A few things i want to point out.
You can remove the aggro lines in the UI settings.
You can minimize or enlarge your HUD. I see you have the default HUD and hot bards.
You will be expected to DPS as a healer in this game. I recommend to dps whenever you feel comfortable. Healer dps is about 10% of a boss's HP in end game content
Dungeons will get better and more alive as you go through the expansions.
Really happy you're on board and thank you for your honest thoughts. Welcome to the community! 🙂
Thanks for this video… don't let upset commenters keep you from putting your thoughts out there, we love to hear them, criticisms and all. =)
There’s nothing wrong with the the movement animation for the most part to me. I pay attention to a lot the of things like that. Note I don’t even playing ffxiv on some high powered pc, but only on a ps4 slim. Casting then try to reposition (this go for all jobs), playing a male aura, or being a lv20+ nin using run (nin gets a movement boost that doesn’t match up with the speed you go while run is active) that about it that i have ever seen while play and paying attention my friends and my character movement animation
The loot system is slightly more complex than just Need/Greed/Pass, for example you can't Need a gear item that is not for the class you are playing in that dungeon. Some bosses can also drop stuff like Minions and Triple Triad cards. Some other loot that you can get from the trash is Materia, which can make you quite okay money if you're doing current content dungeons.
So, the loot, it's not dropped when the boss dies. It's dropped when the chest is opened. Literally on the right side of your screen there is a button saying "loot"
Please go and fix your HuD. A lot of your complaints are about the hud and you ha e complete control over it. There is a option called "Hud Layout." That you can modify EVERYTHING.
it seems like content creators that are moving over to Final Fantasy just cant wait to get their comparisons up online while the views are hot, but i really believe you need to play final fantasy dungeons up to at least level 60 before starting to compare. the first 5 or 6 dungeons in FF are basic "learn how to play" instances. WOW doesn't have a learning tool built into their leveling, where as this is an important part of the FF experience.
ARR dungeons are tutorials in which you understand you role and, importantly, foster a camaraderie with fellow players. Paramount to FFXIV – head and shoulders above EVERY other MMO – is mutual respect and support from other players.
Comparing ARR dungeons to current wow dungeons is like comparing Vanilla dungeons (pre-cata) to current dungeons. FF14 dungeons look much better once you get into expansions.
There is a popup in the bottom right of your screen for loot. You can move where the popup will appear if you want. You can wait until the end of the dungeon to roll on loot. Just make sure to do it before you leave the instance.
Normal green dungeon loot is nothing special. Better than vendor gear but really just there to help people falling behind on gear. (also used for GC turning later on but ignore that for now)
That said blue dungeon gear is decent gear.
All that said, just need what you will use and if it is an upgrade great!
again still very early into the game. dungeon gear is actually better than some of the gear you get from NPC vendors and some of the missions. also as well later on you will be running a lot of dungeons for glam and or better gear. still too early but understandable.
I can say this stumbling through as well as a walk in from wow.. The whole msq binds you to nearly everything gets old for me. I can play for days as a casual and never interact with anyone. I find the dungeons less of everything as well. It feels for me more like a single player game with occasional interactive material.
Just an fyi at the beginning of your video duty roulette- it does que as a random dungeon but as the job you are when you que not a random one