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The combat is boring
Grable
Member UncommonPosts: 66
During my trial, there's a lot of things I liked about this game. I liked the leves and FATEs and the dungeon I tried was also okay. Quests aren't anything special, but at least you complete them fast. The world, characters and music is nice. The community seems better than most MMOs, which is great. I really liked the out of combat regen so there was basically no downtime to questing.
But the combat was devastatingly boring. Playing a cleric, 95% of my time was spent using the same skill (Stone). In dungeon, 95% was using the single target heal spell. It's a shame they didn't put in a few more skills to spice it up and I don't feel like purchasing the game if combat is like that.
I take it DPS classes are a bit more interesting to level, but I really want to play a support role. Are tanks any faster/more interesting to level? It seems that they have more skills to damage at least.
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Well... You're talking about like first 15 levels here. What do you expect? All games like this. FFXIV is not an exception. In WoW let's say you're playing monk. You have only two hot skills till you reach 32, which you will only use one of them mostly in dungeons. Even you reach 32, you will continue to use that only skill. The first time you'll see a difference is when you reach 46. Like I said, all games like this. The real fun starts when you reach certain levels with your characters.
In FFXIV, the real thing starts with a job select. When you reach level 30 with your main class and level 15 with your secondary class you'll choose a job. If I have to give an example; When I did reach like 35 with my scholar(which is a healer job), I had 5 heal skills, 5 buff skills, a lot of dots and attack skills which I don't normally use and some very important core skills.
You can see which skills you'll get over time here..;
http://ffxiv.consolegameswiki.com/wiki/Conjurer
http://ffxiv.consolegameswiki.com/wiki/White_Mage
Even for a level 10 conjurer you got 2 heal skills. I think it is the ideal number of skills for the first levels.
Hm, well you did have a bit more damage/debuff skills in WoW. Not that it matters.
How does leveling work after level 30, when you pick your job?
I was originally thinking to go White Mage, but I could go for Scholar instead, which means I can just switch my level 19 conjurer to arcanist, which would make the leveling a bit more bearable. I know you have to level them separately, but after 30, how does it work? Do both your classes (arcanist/conjurer) level up?
Well.. When you reach level 30 with your main and 15 with your secondary class, you get a quest. When you finish that quest, you will earn a soul stone for the specific job. You will wear that stone. When you wear it, you will automaticly change the job you get. When you level up with your job, your main class will level up too. When you reach 35 with your white mage, your conjurer will reach 35 too. But your second or third class won't level up unless you play with them. Every job has a second and third classes. And both these classes give you some specific skills. You can see which skill you can get from them on wiki. Lets say you want a skill from arcanist level 26. You have to play with that class till you reach 26.
Yea, Conjurer/White mage is fairly boring to level, in fact, its probably the dullest combat wise of all the classes, but its my favorite healer of the 2. Arcanist/Scholar is a bit more involved, especially if you start micromanaging the fairy's heals.
Pugalist/Monk has a real nice flow to its combat, you have to constanly reposition yourself to make sure you hit the enemy on the correct side (flank or back) while going through your combo rotations.
Is solo leveling with an arcanist/scholar any more interesting compared to conjurer/WHM?
well Arcanist is a DPS class, but at level 30 and with 15 levels in Conjurer you unlock the scholar job, which is healer. With 15 points in Thamaturge you unlock the summoner, which is an upgraded arcanist with different pets and a few new abilities. All jobs use the base class level to determine their own level, so leveling up an arcanist nets you a level 50 range dps and healer.
You wont be able to queue for healer until you have the Scholar job unlocked through.
At their basic fighting they use Dots for damage and arcanists/summoners also have their pets attack. Scholar's pets heal and provide buffs. As healing goes, Scholar is more on the mitigation side of things rather than white mage's pure healing output.
As far as interesting goes, your milage may vary, but imo Conjurer is the dullest of the lot.
This is the issue with tab target combat. It is slow, boring and mind-numbingly easy.
Action combat is by far the best combat for MMO's, its visceral and fluid which makes only pressing 1 or 2 buttons more fun. I think we all know someone who plays tab target combat MMO's while also watching TV or doing something else. Impossible in an action combat MMO. Which is why I will always say that if you need some sort of outside stimuli to keep you engrossed then the combat or MMO it is featured in needs to be put down.
Sandbox means open world, non-linear gaming PERIOD!
Subscription Gaming, especially MMO gaming is a Cash grab bigger then the most P2W cash shop!
Bring Back Exploration and lengthy progression times. RPG's have always been about the Journey not the destination!!!
I think the type of spells you have also impacts the experience, in terms of how satisfying they are (not only visually) and how long they take to cast.
As an example, my monk doesn't look as "magical" as my scholar (obviously :P), but the skills feel more impactful. Also, looooong spellcasts + a long global cooldown is rather dull compared to other popular games right now (not only MMOs, but RPGs as well).
The solution is to pick other classes of course, there is quite a bit of variety to be honest.
........ the only annoying thing I'd flag is that a few jobs are waaaaaay too popular and some are waaaaaay too under-popular, usually due to being less useful in end-game.
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I did play TERA, but didn't like it (for other reasons than combat, really). I'm interested in FFXIV because the endgame dungeons/raids look like a lot of fun and there's other stuff I like about it (as I stated in OP). I want to play a support class for a change, since I will not be playing PvP in this game (I usually PvP in MMOs) - so I wanted to pick a healer.
I might try out the arcanist as well, see how it goes with that, if it's any more interesting. I just know that spamming Stone with conjurer all the time was really boring
I look at Final Fantasy XIV this way, the combat is indeed fluid and fun at level 50. The leveling progress is much more of a time sink, a mechanism which holds back all of the good abilities from new players and keeps them under lock and key for a good duration of early game play. This creates time-sinks and long term goals. But if you ask me once you actually do hit 50 your impression of combat will radically change. At that point you'll have all of your abilities unlocked and the true potential of the game's combat system begins to open up to you.
Furthermore End-Game content, such as Primal EXs and High-Tier Raids are very-very mechanic heavy. They require you to move in strict coordination with your team. You often will not have time to complete full combat rotation as it is as you're too busy moving all over the arena just avoiding huge arena-filling attacks that come each and every second you play.
The game is a new creature 50+. Fighting trash mods before 50 IS very boring yes, but if you can believe it they are designed to be dull.
Haters gonna hate aside, Scholar is ultimately the more fun healing job for me at least. There's a lot to do since you can basically be a pseudo-DPS while your pet heals. It's much harder to do that as a WHM as you're bound to each spell you cast.
The other option is to wait until Spring and see how the third healing job will shape up (speculated to be a gun user).
Tanking is harder at the beginning, easier at the top. Healing is kind of the opposite. In my experience.
If you've played MMO's then you shouldn't have to suffer from playing a tank. Instant queues and all the tanking bonuses are a great perk.
Marauder -> Warrior - Active tank built around anticipating incoming damage. Has ability to DPS but is still lower then a DPS main.
Gladiator -> Paladin - Passive Tank built around blocking.
Conjurer -> White Mage - Reactive healer, big heals longer cast times.
Arcanist -> Scholar - Proactive Healer, better if you know damage is coming. Lots of Sheild
Thaumaturge -> Black Mage - BIG crit damage, cycles between mana spending and mana regen.
Arcanist -> Summoner - DoT damage mage with pet.
Archer -> Bard - Most mobile Damage, but lowest overall damage. Group buffs for mana regen, tp regen, etc
Puglist -> Monk - Positional based damage. High ST potential
Lancer -> Dragoon - The longest rotation ever.... Good ST potential.
Rogue -> Ninja - The Shiny new toy.
The combat does improve later in the game.
It really is a quality game with a lot of content at end game.
The level up process is quick the first time... but subsequent leveling on the same character can get tedious. The great part is switching classes is fun at high levels... keeps it from being bland.
Marauder starts off like every other melee-DPS class, getting the basic Tier 1 Combo Moves and Damage over Time before level 10. The actions will feel very repetitive for a while. As you level up you'll unlock Overpower which is perhaps one of the most entertaining abilities to use on a Warrior. Then as you hit 30 you'll be steadily spoon fed more complex mechanics all based around the new stacks you'll build called "Wrath",
From there on you'll flesh out what you can do with Wrath as you progress to 50. Wrath can be consumed for greater DPS or to instantly heal yourself. You can always shut off the mechanic to just be more DPS-ish with Strength gear and Enrage / Beserk to back you up when you're in Off-Tank mode.
Doing Early-Level dungeons as a main tank will only benefit you as it will give you time to understand some of the important roles of the Tank. Furthermore, optional stuff like Guildheists will give you some basic Tank Training too, not to mention you'll be getting into Dungeons and Guildheists VERY quickly as a tank. If you did pure DPS you'll never get in as there is a huge population of DPS and of course the new Ninja job was just released. Best to be a Tank if you ask me, they are always in demand.
This has been a problem with XIV for since 2.0 came about, the games battle system is horrible at lower levels.
What you see at lvl 1-30 does not represent the game at all at mid/endgame. Problem is people get to 15 and are like this game is a snore and quit before they even get to the interesting parts.
All openworld mobs are trash mobs. You can stand there and spam 1 button and kill any of them lvl 1-50. Stupid decision on the devs part but they were afraid hard openworld mobs would fustrate players trying to do quest.
Most of the dungeons, especially low level ones are also a bore. No difficulty at all. Some of the higher level ones are a bit more challanging especially if you do not have up to date endgame gear. The devs did this so the people new to the mmo genre could gradually get use to the mechanics. Problem is if you played any mmo before it is an ungodly boring climb to the top.
Once you are at endgame you are constantly moving, dodging, repositioning and such. ON you tube do a search for Turn 9 Clear or Shiva Extreme Clear. It is alot of micro managing through all endgame. A game of group dance almost, 1 person gets out of step it kills everyone. As a whm you would still spam heal alot, but there is alittle more involved then pressing a button as fast as possible. Anyone at this point in the game I doubt would be complaining the fights are boring.
Believe me when I say the game goes from ultra easy to challanging in a flash at endgame. The top tier content will take the average group several hundred hours of failing before they beat it.
The games.
-Open world: Extreme boring, mobs are designed to drop dead when you hit them
-Leves/Quest/Fates: See Above
-Hunt Mobs: See Fates (Endgame)
-Most dungeons: Easy, designed for fun time with little to no stress
-Primals (Non-ex): Designed for entree lvl endgame, start to add semi difficult mechanics. Can be cleared in about an hours time if you have a group of newer players. A joke for veteran players. (Endgame)
-Towers (CT/ST): Designed for casual large group play, easy to accomplish even if several people die. Has insta death mechanics but they are easy to avoid.(Endgame)
-Extreme Primals: Has more complex mechanics, group must know they strategy and able to execute damage checks and dodge checks.(Endgame)
-Coils of Bahamut 1 and 2 : Require extremly fine tuned group game play. Constant moving and managing numerous mechanics stacking on top of each other.(Endgame)
-Current Coil of Bahamut: Requires a near mastery of your job, group coop, and high dmg. 1 mistake from any of the 8 players will result in a party wide wipe. (Endgame)
SCH is more involved then WHM though as others said. I would suggest trying to level arcanist. Once you hit 30 try that. If you have conj leveled you also have clerics stance. So on sch you can heal and switch to a semi nuke when heals are not needed. Even at endgame sch can push out 200-250dps while healing if they are geared enough and know what they are doing.
As for action vs tab. I say Hockey is better then Football, is that true. It will depend on who you ask. They 2 completly different things all together. With the action world only having 5-6 actions is horrible to me and ungodly limiting. Other find tab targeting to be boring. They both have thier place but for me and many other tab targeting > current version of action combat.
I'm not sure that's quite as entertaining as melting both your enemies and your party's eyes with WHM holy spam.
Most memorable games: AoC(Tryanny PvP), RIFT, GW, GW2, Ragnarok Online, Aion, FFXI, FFXIV, Secret World, League of Legends (Silver II rank)
Surely, WHM spells have more weight to them which may make it more exciting to DPS. If you go Cleric Stance you take more risk than if the SCH goes Cleric Stance. It takes skill to pull off just different kind of skill I guess
Can you give any examples of great action combat in MMOs? Cause I've played a few which claimed to have an awesome action combat system but nope, it was still boring ass MMO combat. E.g., in GW2 I was bored of the combat by lvl 20. Not sure if that was action combat but felt ridiculously bland and your standard 1-5 mindless button mashing you do in other MMOs.
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Thanks for this, very good post!
The combat system is starting to grow on me. It's kind of a cross between turn-based and regular combat.
FF games are traditionally turn-based so it feels right.