Reactional combat

Lord.Bachus

How reactional is the gameplay at mid to high levels?

Games that require you to endlessly rotate the same rotations (even if its SOLO Pve) are a gamekiller for me..

Since i never played this game much beyound level 20, i can not judge this part of the game at all, so here is my question, How reactional is combat when solo PVEing?  and doing Group/raid PvE?   And are there classes that are more reactional?

Albatroes

Lord.Bachus said:

How reactional is the gameplay at mid to high levels?

Games that require you to endlessly rotate the same rotations (even if its SOLO Pve) are a gamekiller for me..

Since i never played this game much beyound level 20, i can not judge this part of the game at all, so here is my question, How reactional is combat when solo PVEing?  and doing Group/raid PvE?   And are there classes that are more reactional?

You will be doing the same rotations regardless of the situation. Melee dps usually revolves around keeping your resistance reductiong debuff on the mob and then do your dot combo followed by your damage combo till the mob is dead.

Rommie10-284

In group, and especially raid situations, you have the same tools, but usually have to react to whatever the bosses are doing.  Sometimes even the normal ones, if they have a trick.  You almost never can just stand and deliver AFK-style.  The high-end raids are almost a dance as much as a fight.  In the end, however, you have Chain A, Chain B, or Attack A,B,C and a few extras to slip in when you can.  Some classes are more RNG-tied than others, and therefore less macro and more react to what you get offered.

It depends on what you consider a reactionary game as well.  FF14 is not shy about how much it borrowed from WoW, so if you can't stand that style, you'll have a teeth-grinder in this one.

*Some* kind of combat adjustment is coming in the new expansion next year (June-ish if they stay on schedule) but I wouldn't bet on any kind of free-targeting getting in.

Xatsh

Endgame of FFXIV is based around maximizing your rotation to do maximum damage. This is as a DPS, Healer, and Tank. Maintaining your rotation and doing maximum dps is the most important thing in the game as every single hard boss fight has enrage mechanics and dps checks. The rotation is exactly the same for all fights. The only difference is if you have to stop attacking for a certain mechanic, or if you have to save your buffs to push a phase. But then it is right back to the start of the rotation again.

The fights themselves are exactly the same every time you go into them. The upper tier fights are hard to learn but once you do they are easy from there on out basically because you can just repeat the same thing every time. They are basically everyone must do X to avoid Wipe mechanic A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H,I,J throughout the fight. Honestly that is about it, in my opinion the fights are garbage design because it is the same time and time again. The fights are 1 raid wipe mechanic after another, if you perform perfectly in savage you live, else you kill everyone. In non-savage content a mistake usally will just kill or take you and those around you to low health, it is sometimes recoverable.

The only reactionary mechanics are a few attacks that are randomly targeting people, and healers have to react to cover player error. Aka if someone gets hit by something they need a big heal.

FFXIV's combat is a take it or leave it thing. If you loved World of Warcrafts raids, you will probably love FFXIVs. If you want something more then a button rotation, memorizing boss attacks, and maximizing dps.... well this is not the right game for you. Many people love it, but equally as many despise it.