Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers Kicks Off Early Access

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Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers Kicks Off Early Access

The time Final Fantasy XIV players have been waiting for has finally arrived. The early access period for the Shadowbringers expansion has started with eager players flocking to FFXIV servers. In addition, Square Enix has re-released the opening trailer complete with the official lyrics to the theme song.

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Akulas

Other than the first initial half hour it's been pretty smooth going so far.

Aenghas

Might be an unpopular opinion but I'd rather not have 10 more levels for the gathering and crafting jobs thanks. So boring to grind out gear you don't need that is made redundant by completing any quest with a HQ reward or dungeon, on top of which every DoH job has the same game play loop every two levels. I gave up omnicrafting in Stormblood because of the overwhelming feeling that I was literally wasting hours of my life.

JeffSpicoli

Aenghas said:

Might be an unpopular opinion but I'd rather not have 10 more levels for the gathering and crafting jobs thanks. So boring to grind out gear you don't need that is made redundant by completing any quest with a HQ reward or dungeon, on top of which every DoH job has the same game play loop every two levels. I gave up omnicrafting in Stormblood because of the overwhelming feeling that I was literally wasting hours of my life.

My one big knock on FFXIV was the exhausting crafting grind. For the amount of effort and time it just didn't feel rewarding enough

Lililune

Cannot wait to be at home to play...

Roin

Aenghas said:

Might be an unpopular opinion but I'd rather not have 10 more levels for the gathering and crafting jobs thanks. So boring to grind out gear you don't need that is made redundant by completing any quest with a HQ reward or dungeon, on top of which every DoH job has the same game play loop every two levels. I gave up omnicrafting in Stormblood because of the overwhelming feeling that I was literally wasting hours of my life.

Let me start off by saying I hate iLVL syncing and  Level Syncing. But honestly I wish Shadowbringers didn't add more levels to grind on anything. Just ilevel sync'd most things related to combat to keep it challenging. Or even some other way then adding more levels.

Viper482

Puzzled by the couple of posts complaining about the crafting. Such a small part of this game. Don't craft?

Aenghas

Viper482 said:

Puzzled by the couple of posts complaining about the crafting. Such a small part of this game. Don't craft?

Don't read them?

Kajidourden

TomKazansky said:

Aenghas said:

Might be an unpopular opinion but I'd rather not have 10 more levels for the gathering and crafting jobs thanks. So boring to grind out gear you don't need that is made redundant by completing any quest with a HQ reward or dungeon, on top of which every DoH job has the same game play loop every two levels. I gave up omnicrafting in Stormblood because of the overwhelming feeling that I was literally wasting hours of my life.

My one big knock on FFXIV was the exhausting crafting grind. For the amount of effort and time it just didn't feel rewarding enough

It's really pretty stupid when you think about it.  

They built this awesome engaging and fun system/mini-game for crafting, and then they basically make it worthless by making crafted gear garbage compared to stuff you can get just for running dailies.

Kitsunami

They destroyed the classes. It's a mess. Not enough healers either as both astrologian and scholar were nerfed into the ground.

Mowzer

I stopped playing about 3 months after SB dropped, and while I didnt mind it, something was getting me down, not sure exactly what. I subbed again about a month ago to see how I felt about it and whether I wanted to buy this expac and nope, its not there, I couldnt find what I enjoyed back then through ARR and HW and this expac will not add it.

Kajidourden

Mowzer said:

I stopped playing about 3 months after SB dropped, and while I didnt mind it, something was getting me down, not sure exactly what. I subbed again about a month ago to see how I felt about it and whether I wanted to buy this expac and nope, its not there, I couldnt find what I enjoyed back then through ARR and HW and this expac will not add it.

I would venture to guess it's similar to what drove me away: The utter lack of evolution.  Each content cycle is exactly the same as the last, just with a new skin and new ilvls.  They don't actually build on their game in any meaningful way, and when they try to it's with half-baked ideas like Eureka.

lahnmir

Kajidourden said:

Mowzer said:

I stopped playing about 3 months after SB dropped, and while I didnt mind it, something was getting me down, not sure exactly what. I subbed again about a month ago to see how I felt about it and whether I wanted to buy this expac and nope, its not there, I couldnt find what I enjoyed back then through ARR and HW and this expac will not add it.

I would venture to guess it's similar to what drove me away: The utter lack of evolution.  Each content cycle is exactly the same as the last, just with a new skin and new ilvls.  They don't actually build on their game in any meaningful way, and when they try to it's with half-baked ideas like Eureka.

Palace of the Dead, Golden Saucer, Eureka, I definitely think they have been adding new things. Are they fun, exciting and worthwhile? Well, thats certainly up for debate. But I wouldn't say they aren’t adding anything new.

Something new and exciting to shake things up completely could be great, it could also ruin the game. Its a thin line between keeping your audience captivated and alienating them (waves at WoW).

/Cheers,
Lahnmir

Dragnelus

So ast cards are a drag now, sch cant decide when/how pets uses skills, cause I will try wmh or go dnc.

lahnmir

Dragnelus said:

So ast cards are a drag now, sch cant decide when/how pets uses skills, cause I will try wmh or go dnc.

Glad I decided to go SAM for now. I play AST and SCH normally...

/Cheers,
Lahnmir

Xasapis

lahnmir said:

Dragnelus said:

So ast cards are a drag now, sch cant decide when/how pets uses skills, cause I will try wmh or go dnc.

Glad I decided to go SAM for now. I play AST and SCH normally...

/Cheers,
Lahnmir

I don't think the SCH healing game changed overmuch, beyond the need to activate the faerie skills now. Which is something the experienced SCH were doing anyway.

AST on the other hand lost his ability to group buff, but instead is constantly throwing cards towards the raid and has a guaranteed group buff after every 3rd card drawn. Overall the changes made the class more consistent, though the  need for decision making lowered considerably.

lahnmir

Xasapis said:

lahnmir said:

Dragnelus said:

So ast cards are a drag now, sch cant decide when/how pets uses skills, cause I will try wmh or go dnc.

Glad I decided to go SAM for now. I play AST and SCH normally...

/Cheers,
Lahnmir

I don't think the SCH healing game changed overmuch, beyond the need to activate the faerie skills now. Which is something the experienced SCH were doing anyway.

AST on the other hand lost his ability to group buff, but instead is constantly throwing cards towards the raid and has a guaranteed group buff after every 3rd card drawn. Overall the changes made the class more consistent, though the  need for decision making lowered considerably.

Agree on the SCH, glad to read.

AST on the other hand, just no. I understand the need for the changes but it was what made playing AST so much fun to play to begin with.

/Cheers,
Lahnmir

Dragnelus

Ast is just use press 6 times to get the card is around 6-8 secs to get a card you want. And press play to use it which is so bugged  atm

Xasapis

From my limited understanding AST goes like this:

Buff melee if card is (former damage cards):

• Balance
• Arrow
• Spear

Buff ranged if card is (former utility cards):

• Bole
• Ewer
• Spire

If you have pulled three cards (in combat only), then Divination (raid wide damage buff) can be activated.
If you want to use Divination, you buff the damage of the whole raid and then start building the three card stack again.
If you don't want to use Divination just yet, or you pulled the three cards and Divination is still on cooldown, then you convert any cards you pulled to either:

• Lord of crowns (melee buff)
• Lady of crowns (ranged buff)

The buffs of Lord and Lady are stronger than the card buffs, but don't build stacks.

Dragnelus

Xasapis said:

From my limited understanding AST goes like this:

Buff melee if card is (former damage cards):

• Balance
• Arrow
• Spear

Buff ranged if card is (former utility cards):

• Bole
• Ewer
• Spire

If you have pulled three cards (in combat only), then Divination (raid wide damage buff) can be activated.
If you want to use Divination, you buff the damage of the whole raid and then start building the three card stack again.
If you don't want to use Divination just yet, or you pulled the three cards and Divination is still on cooldown, then you convert any cards you pulled to either:

• Lord of crowns (melee buff)
• Lady of crowns (ranged buff)

The buffs of Lord and Lady are stronger than the card buffs, but don't build stacks.

Depends if you get the 3 diff seals from the cards or else you can end up with a only 2% wide area buff. Ast is really cluncky atm, the new card system doesn't always work properly in that when I select a target to throw a card on, it lags badly.

And the heals are nerfed, when tanks takes more dmg etc 

Dragnelus

Used a job potion on whm, I think I will stick with whm feels good and decent dmg.

Xasapis

The queue times for tanks is massive

Dragnelus

Xasapis said:

The queue times for tanks is massive

Healer instant.

Phry

Dragnelus said:

Xasapis said:

The queue times for tanks is massive

Healer instant.

There are queues to get in, so while there are a decent number of healers, there are a 'lot' more tanks, but if you think it takes ages for tanks, its even worse for DPS. I don't know why healers are less represented of all the types, always found them fun myself. Queues are one of the reasons why my main is a Paladin/Black Mage/Scholar.

Xasapis

In established servers the amount of people wanting to level the new tank is massive and since the tanking spots are fewer than the dps spots, the queue times are also much longer.

Yesterday I tried queuing a raid roulette (random raid from the ones unlocked) with a tank. After two hours waiting, I gave up and withdrew. Switched to healer, queued and raid popped instantly.

Warlyx

new tank and new dps job , is expected that healers have instant queue , enjoy it while it last

the new city is amazing , the zones are cool and the msq like always is insteresting :