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[wamberz1]

2.0 Is easily by FAR the worst part of the game. Huge grind and piss easy fights. The only highlight are the job quests and the world building/establishing.
After that it gets better in every way. The music, the trials, the writing... everything in the 2.x patches is a huge step up. And then heavensward and it's patches takes it even further.

It sucks because a lot of people hear "this is a great final fantasy game" and it absolutely IS, but the hurdle to get to the good bits is gigantic. So they end up getting bumbed out and quitting around level 30-40. This is what I did a year ago, and it took me spoiling myself on some events in heavensward to get me back in.

 

[AgeEighty]

Give it more time. The story gets better, and there are definitely more Final Fantasy moments in Heavensward.

 

[the_sun_king]

Gonna echo others here: If you're only at Titan, then you haven't progressed far. The Titan trial and the events immediately afterwards is what hooked me on FFXIV back in 2013. The build up to the end of base 2.0 is good stuff. Patches 2.1 to 2.55 has a lull in the beginning, but once you get to 2.4 it ramps up again as that's when the heavy groundwork for Heavensward begins.

 

[Scrooge McDuck]

I always wanted to dig into the story and lore but the people I used to play with would never let me watch the cutscenes since I was playing catch up. One of these days I'll have time to go and dig through all the lore I missed.

When I was accompanying my friend catching up, I put messages like "please help us catch up with the story. No cutscene skipping" on the Party Finder and then there're usually kind people helping up.

 

[Tomat]

XIV story is pretty much the definition of a "lol it gets better after 30 hours" type of game.

Playing through the ARR story again right now and I'm almost done with it, and yeah, it's really not that good. What does stand out to me though is some of the dialogue pieces from NPCs that you only talk to once or twice. There's some good humor in it throughout.

 

[E_Darkness]

2.0 is a bit of a slog in the story department and only really starts to pick up in 2.x. I'm midway through Heavensward and that's been a huge improvement over 2.0.
I'm glad I liked playing the game enough to get past it.

And a minor shout out to the Dark Knight 30-50 quest line. Probably my favourite quest line in XIV.

 

[LordKasual]

I can't really speak for the state of 2.0 right now. But I will say that the content creep that happened on the eve of Heavensward has done terrible, terrible things to everything before 3.0.

I made a new character and played through ARR's campaign with 2 friends up until the 50s content. And I was legitimately depressed by how irrelevant the lv50 content is now.

The relic quest, Hard Mode / EX primal battles, Binding Coil of Bahamut turns 1-13...all of it is irrelevant now. And it was amazing to experience first hand.


It's the worst part of XIV's gameplay model. I understand why they do it, but so much wonderful content was thrown away for the sake of catching up newer players.

 

[AwShucks]

I actually love the stories in 2.0 even. I started in Uldah and fell in love with Thancred immediately. It can be sparse early on, but to me it's an overall great story and the characters are fantastic. There are certainly down parts, but that happens in single player RPGs as well.

 

[AXE]

Unfortunately story and especially how they deliver it is the ansolute worst part of FFXIV. I've almost resubbed a few times and then I remember the story running.

I prolly will resub. Its the best MMO out there. WoW is showing its age as everything lacks a coat of complexity.

 

[wamberz1]

I can't really speak for the state of 2.0 right now. But I will say that the content creep that happened on the eve of Heavensward has done terrible, terrible things to everything before 3.0.

I made a new character and played through ARR's campaign with 2 friends up until the 50s content. And I was legitimately depressed by how irrelevant the lv50 content is now.

The relic quest, Hard Mode / EX primal battles, Binding Coil of Bahamut turns 1-13...all of it is irrelevant now. And it was amazing to experience first hand.


It's the worst part of XIV's gameplay model. I understand why they do it, but so much wonderful content was thrown away for the sake of catching up newer players.

Yeah it really, really sucks and I hope they do something to incentive playing the old content more. Like, I'm honestly shocked there still isn't an alexander roulette so that people can get their gordias and midas queues under 30 god damn minutes

 

[AgeEighty]

I can't really speak for the state of 2.0 right now. But I will say that the content creep that happened on the eve of Heavensward has done terrible, terrible things to everything before 3.0.

I made a new character and played through ARR's campaign with 2 friends up until the 50s content. And I was legitimately depressed by how irrelevant the lv50 content is now.

The relic quest, Hard Mode / EX primal battles, Binding Coil of Bahamut turns 1-13...all of it is irrelevant now. And it was amazing to experience first hand.


It's the worst part of XIV's gameplay model. I understand why they do it, but so much wonderful content was thrown away for the sake of catching up newer players.

I wouldn't say the primal battles or Binding Coil are "irrelevant". They're still fun if you do them synced, and Binding Coil's story is still excellent. They're worth it.

As for the Zodiac weapon quests, eh. I'm kind of glad they're no longer necessary for people to catch up; it would suck to be trapped behind those as a progression wall.

 

[mattiewheels]

Makes me sad that Heavensward is supposed to be drastically better, but I'll probably never see it since I've hit such a wall with my tank character that I just can't get the job done in the Stone Vigil. My brain just can't keep up with that much stuff using a controller and I wipe out every time. And if that's how it's gonna be and even worse going forward, I just ain't got what it takes

 

[Hero_of_the_Day]

Makes me sad that Heavensward is supposed to be drastically better, but I'll probably never see it since I've hit such a wall with my tank character that I just can't get the job done in the Stone Vigil. My brain just can't keep up with that much stuff using a controller and I wipe out every time. And if that's how it's gonna be and even worse going forward, I just ain't got what it takes

Yeah, I don't know how people play with a controller. I have like 5 hotbars going.

 

[jb1234]

Yeah, I don't know how people play with a controller. I have like 5 hotbars going.

I am but it's getting increasingly bulky as the game progresses. I'm on PC so I should change but I don't really have a good keyboard and mouse setup when using my television.

 

[Alex]

Heavensward is such a big leap above Realm Reborn, IMO.

Yeah, I don't know how people play with a controller. I have like 5 hotbars going.

It's doable, as is, with the L+R holding feature but if they add any more it wont be. They're going way, way too far down the MMO bloat rabbit hole. Game outright doesn't need about 1/3rd or more of it's own abilities.

 

[Firebrand]

Makes me sad that Heavensward is supposed to be drastically better, but I'll probably never see it since I've hit such a wall with my tank character that I just can't get the job done in the Stone Vigil. My brain just can't keep up with that much stuff using a controller and I wipe out every time. And if that's how it's gonna be and even worse going forward, I just ain't got what it takes

What job are you? I remember Stone Vigil being tough the first few times, in particular there's a nasty pack of dragons towards the end that hit like trucks. Here the tank and healer really got to work together. There's also a few trap spots you've probably discovered, with ice sprites spawning out of nowhere and you want to pull them back by going out of line-of-sight by the corner.

Marking 1-2 targets can help a lot, either put them on your crossbar/hotbar or use a macro that automatically marks your current target as 1 and then a couple of more. If people start hitting everything and you have to play whack-a-mole for aggro, that's definitely going to make things difficult.

edit: Forgot to add, maybe you've already discovered it (took me a long while!) but LB+dpad up/down will let you cycle through the enmity list. It's my preferred way of spreading my rotation onto secondary targets.

Yeah, I don't know how people play with a controller. I have like 5 hotbars going.

I typically use only two crossbars in my cycle to quickly toggle between them (combat set being different from out-of-combat), coupled with the L/R combo ones in some cases. Less time-critical things like SMN and SCH pet summons/behavior (pet bar is disabled) I've put on crossbars outside of the cycle that are accessed by the trickier RB+face button combo.

I also use vertical hotbars but only for stuff like crafting etc.

I'm looking forward to seeing some details on the combat overhaul though, things have definitely gotten a bit bloated and I'm not sure if I could deal with even more abilities.

 

[Bebpo]

Glad to hear the 2.1-5/Heavensward content also improves on the music. Hmm, I was under the impression after Titan I was pretty far through the main 2.0 story since it ends at 50 and Titan is 34/35. Howlongtobeat.com has the average time for the 2.0 story as 120 hours with speedrun being 83 hours, so I thought being 75%+ through the story at 75 hours-ish puts me about on par with the average playtime. I'm definitely not speedrunning it though as I do the daily roulettes each day, have done a ton of optional quests, did the early levels of all the crafting/gathering jobs, and spent many, many hours playing Triple Triad around the world and doing casino stuff. I haven't been power leveling or anything, because until I finish the main story I don't really see the point yet.

For what it's worth I'm planning on stopping at the end of 2.0 for now. My goal was to play through the "main story of FFXIV ARR at launch" which at 120 hours is just a longass single player rpg. I'm hoping there's an ending with a credit roll at the end of 2.0. I'll probably come back and do the rest another time, but I'm just planning on playing through the main ARR 2.0 MSQ and then unsubscribing since this is already eating up too much of my free time.

A lot of the posts here have been helpful in pointing why 2.0 is the way it is and how it continually improves, which is great and definitely the hook I need to come back after I finish 2.0. Otoh though, the Kirby's Air Ride "It gets good after 20 hours" is a bit rough when it's an MMO and it's like "it gets good after 120 hours, just keep playing" Not that it isn't good now. It's pretty good, just lacking in story so far and challenging fights.

2.0 Is easily by FAR the worst part of the game. Huge grind and piss easy fights. The only highlight are the job quests and the world building/establishing.
After that it gets better in every way. The music, the trials, the writing... everything in the 2.x patches is a huge step up. And then heavensward and it's patches takes it even further.

It sucks because a lot of people hear "this is a great final fantasy game" and it absolutely IS, but the hurdle to get to the good bits is gigantic. So they end up getting bumbed out and quitting around level 30-40. This is what I did a year ago, and it took me spoiling myself on some events in heavensward to get me back in.

Yeah, this is another thing about it. Like I did the Titan fight today after making this thread and for all the build up, the fight (especially because playing it now years late to the party you're gonna be matched with lvl.60 players sync-ing down 4 levels ahead) was just a standard big mob guy that everyone wails on and you go hit the smaller pieces when they appear and that's that. I'm still waiting for some fights that will be interesting and exciting. I know that's mostly a problem with coming lttp in an mmo, which is part of the reason I want to catch up. One of the best experiences I've actually had during my time playing was being matched with 3 other people in a dungeon where it was all our first time and no one knew where to go and we just explored and got lost and stuff. Most of the time when I do a dungeon/trial for the first time everyone just speedruns at 200% because it's their 50th+ time going through and they just want to get it over with. Doesn't really give much time to enjoy the dungeons/trials but again that's what happens when you're late to an MMO and another reason I'd like to catch up before the next expansion if possible to go in fresh along with others.

I think the biggest takeaway from FF14 as my first MMO is that you really should play MMOs when they launch to get the most out of them; playing years later is a much less fun experience.

Yeah, I don't know how people play with a controller. I have like 5 hotbars going.

I'm using a controller and Kb+Mouse. Controller for everything typing which I do on the KB. I don't mind cycling hotbars but my biggest issue with using a controller is sometimes I have trouble targetting what I want to target like when I'm supposed to hit an enemy and there's a bunch of NPCs and auto-lock always grabs an NPC so I gotta manually cycle through and lock. As things get more complex I'll probably switch to kb+m exclusively.

 

[fatty]

As someone who has just started this game (I just now hit level 2 with all these fetch quests in the opening area), can someone please explain how far along I have to play to get to 2.0, 2.X and Heavensword? Reading this thread I am now wondering how much of an investment into the game I will have to make until I get to these parts.

 

[MechaX]

Yeah, this is another thing about it. Like I did the Titan fight today after making this thread and for all the build up, the fight (especially because playing it now years late to the party you're gonna be matched with lvl.60 players sync-ing down 4 levels ahead) was just a standard big mob guy that everyone wails on and you go hit the smaller pieces when they appear and that's that. I'm still waiting for some fights that will be interesting and exciting.

Titan is a little bit of an interesting case because for the most part, people have been doing Titan for years (On Hard and Extreme) and higher difficulties add additional twists on the same Titan dance.

The next primal you fight actually may catch your party off guard, however. Even with full level sync, it can definitely pose some problems if everyone isn't on their A game.

Now the last two main scenario dungeons... yeah, finding people who are either 1) new, or; 2) not going to skip cutscenes might take some work, otherwise people are going to be overgeared as fuck for those dungeons, so be on the look out for that when you get closer to the end of 2.0.

 

[FlyingWasabi]

The Heavensward storyline has some of the best music and the best writing of any FF game since FFVII, and in some ways there are flashes of brilliance that are as good as FFVI. Honestly, the range of emotions that you'll likely experience by the end of the 3.0 story is vast.

The villains are good, the heroes are good, and everybody in between is also good. It was a hell of a ride that I'm hoping can be replicated in Stormblood. I can't think of any other MMO main scenario storyline that was as solid and fully fleshed out.

 

[Bebpo]

As someone who has just started this game (I just now hit level 2 with all these fetch quests in the opening area), can someone please explain how far along I have to play to get to 2.0, 2.X and Heavensword? Reading this thread I am now wondering how much of an investment into the game I will have to make until I get to these parts.

My understanding is:

2.0 = Main storyline at launch, ~100 hours long give or take 20 hours depending on what side content you do.

2.1-2.5 = five 6-10 hour free DLC expansion packs. In total this is about another 50 hour investment.

3.0 = Heavensward Main storyline at launch, ~50-60 hours

3.1-3.5 = five 6-10 hour free DLC expansion packs to Heavensward. In total about a 50 hour investment.

(to this point the running total then is about 250 hours of story content + however much time you spend on optional content [howlongtobeat has optional content 100% clear at like 350 hours for 2.0 for example])

4.0 = Stormblood, probably same deal. Then 4.5, then 5.0 etc... for many more years until it's all over.


The biggest investment time-wise then is just the initial 100 hour+ 2.0 MSQ. After that each "segment" seems more like 50ish hours and also all those segments are apparently far better than 2.0's MSQ, so it's just the initial hurdle apparently.

Titan is a little bit of an interesting case because for the most part, people have been doing Titan for years (On Hard and Extreme) and higher difficulties add additional twists on the same Titan dance.

The next primal you fight actually may catch your party off guard, however. Even with full level sync, it can definitely pose some problems if everyone isn't on their A game.

Now the last two main scenario dungeons... yeah, finding people who are either 1) new, or; 2) not going to skip cutscenes might take some work, otherwise people are going to be overgeared as fuck for those dungeons, so be on the look out for that when you get closer to the end of 2.0.

Yeah, I better start skipping cutscenes and watching them in the Inn soon or my partners are gonna be pissed since the cutscenes in dungeons are getting longer and longer.

I just did the optional lvl.35 dungeon (Quarn?) and that was pretty fun because of how puzzle-ish it is. I definitely like fights/dungeons that are more interesting than just whacking on a big mob and any smaller mobs that come in. We wiped on the first boss and its doom which was fun.

 

[AgeEighty]

Everyone's telling you that 2.0 isn't the good part of the game and you're insisting on playing no further than that and then judging it based on that. Don't know what to tell you. You've got to do what's best for your life, but your opinion of the game is incomplete at this point.

Also I think XIV's soundtrack is phenomenal, including the 2.0 stuff.

 

[hosannainexcelsis]

Glad to hear the 2.1-5/Heavensward content also improves on the music.

It definitely does. If you're not adverse to listening ahead, it's worth hearing what Soken has been doing with the music in Heavensward and after, such as the themes for Great Gubal Library and Sohr Khai.

Yeah, I better start skipping cutscenes and watching them in the Inn soon or my partners are gonna be pissed since the cutscenes in dungeons are getting longer and longer.

Mid-dungeon cutscenes go away after the final dungeons of 2.0, another thing which the developers improved on after base ARR.

I just did the optional lvl.35 dungeon (Quarn?) and that was pretty fun because of how puzzle-ish it is. I definitely like fights/dungeons that are more interesting than just whacking on a big mob and any smaller mobs that come in. We wiped on the first boss and its doom which was fun.

If you like puzzle-ish bosses, I think the design for those really picks up once you get into level 50 dungeons and later in Heavensward. There's a lot of really neat mechanics that go on. It helps when you have a full complement of abilities to use in fights as well.

It's doable, as is, with the L+R holding feature but if they add any more it wont be. They're going way, way too far down the MMO bloat rabbit hole. Game outright doesn't need about 1/3rd or more of it's own abilities.

Yoshida has said that the battle system will be overhauled in Stormblood and redundant abilities may be eliminated. He wants the difficulty of executing jobs at level 70 to be about the same as it is at level 60, not get even more complex. So at least he's aware of the danger of bloat.

 

[FlyingWasabi]

It definitely does. If you're not adverse to listening ahead, it's worth hearing what Soken has been doing with the music in Heavensward and after, such as the themes for Great Gubal Library and Sohr Khai.



Mid-dungeon cutscenes go away after the final dungeons of 2.0, another thing which the developers improved on after base ARR.



If you like puzzle-ish bosses, I think the design for those really picks up once you get into level 50 dungeons and later in Heavensward. There's a lot of really neat mechanics that go on. It helps when you have a full complement of abilities to use in fights as well.



Yoshida has said that the battle system will be overhauled in Stormblood and redundant abilities may be eliminated. He wants the difficulty of executing jobs at level 70 to be about the same as it is at level 60, not get even more complex. So at least he's aware of the danger of bloat.

Don't forget to mention that HW has one of the best boss songs in the entire Final Fantasy series. Soken is on fire lately.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oP9qVA7CfU

 

[Firebrand]

^ Pretty big HW spoiler imo for those that care, though one that is difficult to dodge in an MMO, hah.

And yeah, music's so good.

 

[Kouriozan]

Heavensward OST is just sublime, that is all.
Apparently the devs are talking about a jump potion or something to skip the 2.0 (or 3.0) content for Stormblood.

 

[FlyingWasabi]

^ Pretty big HW spoiler imo for those that care, though one that is difficult to dodge in an MMO, hah.

And yeah, music's so good.

I actually had to search deep to find a version of that song on YouTube that WASN'T a big spoiler fest. I figure the background and the title won't give much away out of context to somebody who isn't there yet. The rest of the videos are really bad with that.

 

[Forkball]

I put a few hours into A Realm Reborn and it just didn't click. People were proclaiming the the story was worth playing through even if you didn't like MMOs, but the ways MMOs are structured makes telling a straightforward story more difficult. I don't remember a single thing about what FFXIV was about and I beat numerous story missions.

 

[Squishy3]

Your character also starts getting some more characterization in Heavensward onwards, in the form of more dialogue choices, the way they behave during specific cutscenes, etc.

XIV story is pretty much the definition of a "lol it gets better after 30 hours" type of game.

Playing through the ARR story again right now and I'm almost done with it, and yeah, it's really not that good. What does stand out to me though is some of the dialogue pieces from NPCs that you only talk to once or twice. There's some good humor in it throughout.

Biggest problem is the pacing is extremely uneven, which is something they remedied with Heavensward entirely. Pacing is much more thorough throughout and you don't really feel like the MSQ is stringing you along fetchquests like in 2.0-2.55.

 

[Ran rp]

The story so far through level 26 hasn't been great. But I'll be honest, this feels like exactly what I was looking for in a Final Fantasy. The scale. The world-building. It's all there and I love it.

This is why I want to stick with it. I'm loving the atmosphere, the world-building, the way I can just walk into a Fate with a bunch of other players. If Late ARR and Heavensward improve upon this substantially XIV has a good chance of becoming one of my favorite FFs.

 

[Gamer @ Heart]

I put a few hours into A Realm Reborn and it just didn't click. People were proclaiming the the story was worth playing through even if you didn't like MMOs, but the ways MMOs are structured makes telling a straightforward story more difficult. I don't remember a single thing about what FFXIV was about and I beat numerous story missions.

The 'story' doesn't even start until level 15. That's where the opening area stories converge into the actual main plot and you meet the good guys so its unlikely you even saw it. I just blasted through all the opening missions on a new alt, and I don't blame people for not remembering or finding it memorable.

That said, it's a beginner friendly mmo. I'm sure people were already feeling overwhelmed and the game is very gentle with not throwing too much at you, and that includes it's early narrative unfortunately.

 

[Vitanimus]

I had very similar feelings OP, and I've just managed to get to Heavensward after some more or less dedicated playtime since September, and it really is true that the game's story vastly improves once you get around 2.4 or so. It's a bit hard to pinpoint, but there suddenly comes a point where you care about these flat characters and become invested in where the narrative is going. Stick through it!

 

[Shahed]

The road to Titan is the worst part of tbe game. FFXIV is my first MMO and it was hit or miss for me up to that point. I nearly gave up on it right there but my brother practically begged/forced me to carry on. I'm glad he did because the story and pacing really picks up after that. 2.0 isn't all that, it's later in 2,4 and especially Heavensward where the main story becomes fantastic. I sub every now and then just for the questlines really. FFXIV has become my favourite FF since like FFIX.

For controller users. It's perfectly viable. I have a keyboard for chat, but otherwise it's all controller. I main a tank, but also play DPS and heal even the harder Ex Primals and endgame Raids. There's a lot of little things in settings that can help you.

The main way to target different enemies is if when holding either L2 or R2, you then press L1 or R1 to tab to another enemy. You can also use L1 and then up and down on the Dpad to cycle through the enemy list. Now some people may have an issue where it can target NPC's or other non enemies, but you can set it so when your weapon is drawn, the targeting won't choose an NPC or another player. Makes it a lot easier since it'll always tab to another enemy. And when you do want to target something other than an enemy, press up and down on dpad to cycle through party members, and for objects just press circle to deselect and use left/right on dpad. One thing I find also helps a lot for me is I use R3 to sheathe/draw my weapon. I also have it when I draw my weapon, the Hotbar auto switches to Hotbar 1 where my battle skills are, and then when I sheath it auto's to Hotbar 8 where the general stuff are. This can all be easily done in settings to make life so much easier.

Now for Hotbar space. You get the 8 skills of R, and then 8 more on L. In settings there's a thing called expanded Hotbar which you choose a number to assign (I use Hotbar 7). What this does is say when you are holding R and then also press L, it will switch to Hotbar 7 for another 8 skills on R + L, and the reverse is also true for L then R, that gives you a total of 32 easily accessible skills for every class using R, L, R+L and L+R. In general that is more than enough since you don't actually need a lot of the moves on every class. For example I never use Feint on Dragoon, Repose on White Mage and rarely Limit Break on Tanks. So I set those types of moves you will pretty much never or rarely use to Hotbar 2. That way they clear space for other stuff and in the off chance I want them, I can just switch to Hotbar 2 (R1 + Circle), use what I want, and then tap R1 again to return to normal Hotbar.

The only issue for using expanded Hotbar is you don't see the remaining cooldown time on certain skills since they are on a different Hotbar and not always visible. This is where the vertical hotbars come in you can arrange these so they are on either side of your general Hotbar. What you do is put hidden moves on your expanded Hotbar such as Sentinel, Divine Seal, Dragonfire Dive and so on also on the vertical Hotbar. That way you can still see the skill when playing on your standard Hotbar and whether it's available for use or how long you need to wait. Then you can hold L/R or R/L to use it when needed without having to constantly check if the move is available or have uncertainty. You can also use macros if necessary. For example of Warrioe I macro Inner Beast and Fell Cleave to one button, and the same for Decimate and Steel Cyclone since they are effectively the same move in different stances

If you want I can show you my Hotbar setup to give an idea. It won't be perfect and I'm sure many people do better and more efficient things. But it can help when new to the UI qnd using a controller, and you can then adjust it to suit your own needs.

 

[BudokaiMR2]

Yeah, as others have said it only really hits its stride around 2.3 or so. Before that it was pretty mediocre story telling with shitty fetch quests.

Heavensward in particular was amazing and cut out all the bullshit.

And yes, the rogue/ninja class story was great in my opinion. I liked the Dragoon one as well.

 

[cackhyena]

I plan on giving thisbgam a chance if I can ever figure out this one time password bs. The app won't register my login info.

 

[fatty]

My understanding is:

2.0 = Main storyline at launch, ~100 hours long give or take 20 hours depending on what side content you do.

2.1-2.5 = five 6-10 hour free DLC expansion packs. In total this is about another 50 hour investment.

3.0 = Heavensward Main storyline at launch, ~50-60 hours

3.1-3.5 = five 6-10 hour free DLC expansion packs to Heavensward. In total about a 50 hour investment.

(to this point the running total then is about 250 hours of story content + however much time you spend on optional content [howlongtobeat has optional content 100% clear at like 350 hours for 2.0 for example])

4.0 = Stormblood, probably same deal. Then 4.5, then 5.0 etc... for many more years until it's all over.


The biggest investment time-wise then is just the initial 100 hour+ 2.0 MSQ. After that each "segment" seems more like 50ish hours and also all those segments are apparently far better than 2.0's MSQ, so it's just the initial hurdle apparently.

Thank you for the breakdown. Whoa, 100+ hours is a long time to invest before getting to the game's better sections. I bought it and HS both for $10 during Amazon's sale, my gaming time is a lot more limited lately but I will see how it goes for a little while at least.

 

[Dandy Crocodile]

If you want I can show you my Hotbar setup to give an idea. It won't be perfect and I'm sure many people do better and more efficient things. But it can help when new to the UI qnd using a controller, and you can then adjust it to suit your own needs.

Thank you for this. As a PS4 player who is just nearing 20 as an Arcanist, seeing my first hotter fill up has made me worry about how to set up hotbars and stuff, but this gave me at least somewhere to start.

 

[Kyoufu]

Yeah, as others have said it only really hits its stride around 2.3 or so. Before that it was pretty mediocre story telling with shitty fetch quests.

Heavensward in particular was amazing and cut out all the bullshit.

And yes, the rogue/ninja class story was great in my opinion. I liked the Dragoon one as well.

The Ninja class story was pretty bad. Anyone could have written that after watching Naruto.

 

[Shahed]

Thank you for this. As a PS4 player who is just nearing 20 as an Arcanist, seeing my first hotter fill up has made me worry about how to set up hotbars and stuff, but this gave me at least somewhere to start.

So here's some screengrabs. Having to use Share and then copy to USB...

This one is the standard Hotbar with my weapon sheathed

This is when I use R3 to draw my weapon. The Hotbar switches to my battleskills (Hotbar 1) automatically

This is my expanded Hotbar (Hotbar 7)

When holding R2 and then L2 to bring up one side of expanded

And when holding L2 and then R2 to bring up the other side

The Ninja class story was pretty bad. Anyone could have written that after watching Naruto.

Watching Naruto is the ony reason I know what the Ninjutsu does. Otherwise all this Katon and raiton stuff would have confused me lol

 

[Kamitechi]

My understanding is:

2.0 = Main storyline at launch, ~100 hours long give or take 20 hours depending on what side content you do.

2.1-2.5 = five 6-10 hour free DLC expansion packs. In total this is about another 50 hour investment.

3.0 = Heavensward Main storyline at launch, ~50-60 hours

3.1-3.5 = five 6-10 hour free DLC expansion packs to Heavensward. In total about a 50 hour investment.

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That's not true at all. 2.0 (including levels 1-50)-2.55 story content, takes about 30-50 hours, depends if you read everything or not. and depends if you take breaks or not, on launch, I was level 50 within 3 days of playing and no i was hardly non stopping it.
3.0-3.5 around 30-40 hours as well, also not non stop.

It all depends on how you optimize your quests

optional content will ofc boost your playtime, but it shouldn't take that long

 

[royox]

The story of ARR is very good, the problem is that the pacing was HORRIBLE and then there's the 2.1-2.55 MSQ limbo with 90 filler quests that are mandatory to reach Heavensward.

As you said, Heavensward is God tier FF storytelling. Very good pacing (very straightforward to the plot...no more "go here, do nothing, return" chains with no reward), good and memorable characters (and foes), GOD TIER OST. It really feels like a FF adventure with your party, your friends, your problems and your final boss.

This picture is maybe the Most FF-like screenshot you can get playing this game and, believe me, it was AMAZING and totally worth it to "suffer" all the 2.1-2.55 limbo just to get and feel that scene.

Also this when you end the journey...totally broke my

Spoiler

little lala

heart

 

[Ichabod]

I love FFXIV, but my eyes start to glaze over 90% of the time when a MSQ cutscene starts. To be fair though, in almost all mmo's I play, I couldn't care less about the story; they're usually throwaway tropes fests. For me, it's all about game play and stat progression.

 

[TalonJH]

You are literally at the most boring part of the story(lead up to Titan). There is so much story that you won't be able to compare your game time with a single player FF. You've played 70 hrs but you are roughly through only maybe 25% of the content. Keep playing a while and update us. Things start to happen that bring all the characters back in.

So here's some screengrabs. Having to use Share and then copy to USB...

This one is the standard Hotbar with my weapon sheathed


This is when I use R3 to draw my weapon. The Hotbar switches to my battleskills (Hotbar 1) automatically


This is my expanded Hotbar (Hotbar 7)



When holding R2 and then L2 to bring up one side of expanded



And when holding L2 and then R2 to bring up the other side






Watching Naruto is the ony reason I know what the Ninjutsu does. Otherwise all this Katon and raiton stuff would have confused me lol

Great post. I play on both PC and PS4 and the crossbar is pretty great where it's so easy to play on controller.

 

[TalonJH]

.

Double post

 

[Shahed]

You are literally at the most boring part of the story(lead up to Titan). There is so much story that you won't be able to compare your game time with a single player FF. You've played 70 hrs but you are roughly through only maybe 25% of the content. Keep playing a while and update us. Things start to happen that bring all the characters back in.




Great post. I play on both PC and PS4 and the crossbar is pretty great where it's so easy to play on controller.

I hated the path to Titan. The gap between Ifrit and Titan was huge and then you had to prepare for some feast and wine and all this other nonsense. It's the worst part of the game. I used to feel like Titan should have happened like 7 levels earlier since it could have still been in La Nosxea based on levels ane Shiva should have been another Primal around level 39 since that matches with Coerthas. But then the story continued and...yeah.

Playing on PS3 at first was the hardest thing since they don't have vertical hotbars. Having them around on PS4 works wonders to remind me how long I have left on certain cooldowns. Especially as a Warrior main when I'm planning cooldowns ahead of time. The only thing I feel I miss out on by not playing on PC is ACT anr maybe the Guildworks plugin. Controller is completely viable and I feel it never holds me back. The only awkward thing is occasionally trying to target the middle mob in a pack for my AoE's likw Rockbreaker and Abyysal Drain.

 

[~Cross~]

Things definitely pick up after titan because now you start getting into the empires business. It slows down again with 2.1 ~ 2.2 but then starts to pick up again in 2.3 leading up to heavensward and it doesn't let up.

I think the story is always at the slowest when you are dealing with primal insurrections that aren't involved with any other plot thread. Its hilarious that Heavensward subverts one of the typical lead ups by introducing a new set of villains in between.

 

[royox]

Thank you for this. As a PS4 player who is just nearing 20 as an Arcanist, seeing my first hotter fill up has made me worry about how to set up hotbars and stuff, but this gave me at least somewhere to start.

Oh, if you are leveling ARC to be a SMN I can lend you a hand. I play on PC with PS4 pad and this configuration is confy as hell and also very fast for all the micro-management you have to do.
Pro tip: DON'T.USE.PET.BARS. Bind your pet skills into your bars.


Main Bar (main DOT skills, ruin and Important stuff like Swifcast or Aetherflow)

L2+R2 (pet micromanagement and 2 pet buffs)

R2+L2 (Important stuff that you use in puntual moments like pet skills, ruin3, bahamut trance and Enkindle)

L2 (secondary bar or "I dunno where to put this". Skills rarelly used as Raise, Absorb, Limit Break and the summons)

Fast R2 doubletap

Fast L2 doubletap (very usefull for the Emergency Sprint)

If you play with pad you will notice that some skills are harder to use because it requires you to target a friendly target while you are DPSing an enemy, the Macro System is your friend. For example you can use Eye for an Eye (a buff for the tank) while you are attacking the boss with this macro:

/macroicon "Eye for an Eye"
/ac "Eye for an eye" <t> ---> 1 t ---> Do it to my target.
/ac "Eye for an eye" <tt> ---> 2t ----> Do it to the target of my target.
/wait 1
/p Eye for an Eye on <tt> -------> This part will make the macro to write that on the party chat so the healers know you just used it so they will wait for use their own buff.

Somebody died and you want to insta-resurrect him but pressing 2 skills is so hard? Swifcast+Resurrection macro

/macroicon "Resurrection"
/ac "Swiftcast"
/ac "Resurrection"
/wait 1
/p Resurrecting <t> <se.2> ------> se.2 ---> the macro will make a sound all the party will hear so everybody knows this person is coming back to life and other healers won't waste time on trying to resurrect him.


Also for Pet users (and playing with pad) this macro is A MUST. It swaps your pet skills automatically on your hotbars when you summon it.

For example when I summon Garuda:

/macroicon "Wind Blade" pet
/ac "Summon"
/chotbar pet "Contagion" 3 LAU
/chotbar pet "Shockwave" 3 LAR
/chotbar pet "Aerial Slash" 3 LAD
/hotbar pet "Contagion" 4 1
/hotbar pet "Shockwave" 4 2
/hotbar pet "Aerial Slash" 4 3

When I summon Ifrit

/macroicon "Summon III"
/ac "Summon III"
/chotbar pet "Radiant Shield" 3 LAU
/chotbar pet "Crimson Cyclone" 3 LAR
/chotbar pet "Flaming Crush" 3 LAD
/hotbar pet "Radiant Shield" 4 1
/hotbar pet "Crimson Cyclone" 4 2
/hotbar pet "Flaming Crush" 4 3

And Titan

/macroicon "Earthen Ward" pet
/ac "Summon II"
/chotbar pet "Earthen Ward" 3 LAU
/chotbar pet "Landslide" 3 LAR
/chotbar pet "Mountain buster" 3 LAD
/hotbar pet "Earthen Ward" 4 1
/hotbar pet "Landslide" 4 2
/hotbar pet "Mountain buster" 4 3

I copyed it from reddit (a long lost thread) and LAU, LAR and LAD meant Left for L; U,R and D were "Up, down, Right" on the D-pad and don't remember what the A was. The num code was for the same but to add those skills on the little bars at the Right (I use them to keep control of the CD's time and not having to be pressing L2+R2 every 5 seconds to check out when are they ready).

Hope I helped you a bit with your Arcanist

 

[Ran rp]

I hope it doesn't become necessary to fill the screen with hotbars :x

This my current setup. I pop out the map and cross bar when I need 'em. All player names are hidden until battle.

 

[KeyBladerXIII]

Yeah, as others have said it only really hits its stride around 2.3 or so. Before that it was pretty mediocre story telling with shitty fetch quests.

Heavensward in particular was amazing and cut out all the bullshit.

And yes, the rogue/ninja class story was great in my opinion. I liked the Dragoon one as well.

The Dragoon one is such a great quest line to go through before reaching Heavensward, as a character introduced there becomes one of the most important characters in the main story.

I haven't played through the Monk questline yet, but they may do the same thing with Stormblood.

 

[aggienader]

I've been considering getting into this, but what's throwing me off is that I want the full experience. When I look at physical buying options the only thing I see is Heavensward but it doesn't say if that gives me a Realm Reborn or not. Plus I want the first month free.

It looks like my only option is to buy RR thru the PSN. Is that the only thing I can do or does the physical version of Heavensward come with RR?

If I can't get a deal for the first 30 days free then I may not do it.

I would love some advice on this.