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Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn - Beta Phase 3 Impression: Phase 4 August

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Boss Man

Member
I'd say Leaping Lizzy was probably one of the lowest points in my life. Two weeks of "I'm gonna be self sufficient and well geared!" watching out for that thing.

It took like two or three years after I quit that game before my heart wouldn't drop at seeing the text anywhere. People always ask me "Why are you so calm and patient all the time? Are you on Ritalin or something?" And I'm, like, "No, I played and sucked at FFXI."

Definitely a fan of ARR's elements of "doing stuff" and "good design" and "fun" over FFXI's.
The thing is, you can have both. FFXI's more demanding approach is actually "fun" in the same way that Demon's Souls is fun - rewarding. I love that I can log into FFXIV for a couple of hours and get things done by myself because that is what my schedule allows at this time in my life. I couldn't really play old school FFXI anymore. But I can still play FFXIV exactly the same way if they added NMs like Leaping Lizzy across the zones to drop special gear. I don't need to get Leaping Boots.

Without some kind of capability for 'elite' status anywhere in the game the longevity will be in question. I also camped Leaping Lizzy a ton, in fact before they made the boots unsellable I farmed it to fund my "Sniper Rings" for DRK back when those rings were considered extremely expensive. I put in a lot of work to give my character a boost, and it felt good. You have to have that in MMOs.

We're in beta, and I've only gotten to level 16, so I might not know the full story yet. But I am not aware of a single thing in the game that not everyone is expected to get at some point. There should be tiers of power at every level, and you should be able to make your character better than others' by level 20 and especially at cap.

It's funny you mention how seeing the text Leaping Lizzy made your heart drop for so long lol. It did the same thing to me for years and years after spending so much timing camping him with Widescan. ...but I like that. I want to be able to have that feeling of excitement in this game too.


edit: Materia is the only thing I can think of right now that sets anything apart.
 

Khrno

Member
In ARR, it's actually Thaumaturge and (presumably) Arcanist.

Really, so they changed it to something that make somewhat sense, but that means no more extra defensive abilities as WHM, unless ACN has some.

So you can't take random abilities from any class? You're fixed into certain ones?

As a Job, you have access to 2 other classes' skills besides the base class.

As a Class you have access to all other classes' skills.
 
Wait, you can use Thaumaturge spells on WHM now? Interesting. I thought it was a bit odd that WHM could only use Gladiator and Pugilist skills.
 
Got up to lvl 16 with my Gladiator, hopefully I can make it to Paladin over the last Phase 3 weeks, I like the armor I saw on some high level guys.
 

omlet

Member
I would say there's no benefit at all to play Conjurer instead of WHM.

However for what I got to see on my legacy character, the only class still worth playing at lv50 (just as in v1) is Thaumaturge, since being a Black Mage doesn't allow you to have Conjurer skills, but as THM you can equip Cure, Protect, Stoneskin and Raise.

A Conjurer can set more DPS-enhancing cross-class skills. In some situations, especially before you're level 40+, playing as a class instead of a job gives you a better ability spread both for functionality (raise, stoneskin, second wind, provoke, etc.) and efficiency (additional damage or defense/evasion buffs) that you'd be locked out of by going with a job.

A level 30 GLD is gonna be able to do just about everything better than a level 30 PLD (if they have cross-class skills--otherwise the PLD will do better). A level 30 CON is gonna be able to heal well enough to keep up with a level 30 WHM but will also get some nice utility or damage cross-class stuff. Jobs are quicker to "master" (since you only need to level 1 class plus partially level the 2 other base classes) but classes are a lot more versatile once you have lots of classes leveled for a good variety of cross-class skills.

That said, at 50 in party play, THM was one of the more commonly used classes in 1.x. It can still DPS well without being BLM and it gains access to some nice cross-class skills. In ARR, Arcanist looks to be one of BLM's two base classes so we're actually limited on that until launch--Arcanist might get some kind of heal spell that BLM can set.
 

Khrno

Member
Jobs will have access to all their base class skills, plus some cross-class skills from two other classes.

Paladin (Gladiator): Marauder - Conjurer
Warrior (Marauder): Gladiator - Pugilist
Dragoon (Lancer): Archer - Marauder
Monk (Pugilist): Gladiator - Lancer
Bard (Archer): Lancer - Conjurer
White Mage (Conjurer): Thaumaturge -
Black Mage (Thaumaturge): Archer -

WHM and BLM only have access to 1 extra class skills, so that pretty much tells us that they will also have access to Arcanist skills.
 

Tiduz

Eurogaime
i picked ragnarok since that is the recommended EU server, guess i wont get to play on official gaf server when full ver is out -_-
 

Khrno

Member
i picked ragnarok since that is the recommended EU server, guess i wont get to play on official gaf server when full ver is out -_-

As in for the character transfer request? Can't you contact them directly by phone maybe and ask to change it?

Anyway it's not like there's no people from GAF playing in Raganarok, I've seen a couple saying that they play there, I'm also there, so you can say Ragnarok is the un-official GAF server. Regardless of GAF members on the server, it does have the biggest EU community for legacy servers, so I rather play when there's people around my timezone and not at midnight.
 

Alexanderon

Neo Member
Bard: Lancer - Conjurer

Why Lancer? I mained a Bard in XI ... Not sure I'm going to be a fan of how they perform here.

Those two abilities will definitely be useful in a pinch. Like you said, Thunder... not so much, lol.

Thunder actually works surprisingly well with Cleric Stance. Aero is an instant cast, so you find yourself twiddling your thumbs for 2 seconds before you can get out of the stance. Thunder + Aero, though, has perfect timing. The only issue I have is that it costs quite a bit more MP.
 

Khrno

Member
Why Lancer? I mained a Bard in XI ... Not sure I'm going to be a fan of how they perform here.

These are the skills the BRD can get from LNC:

Feint: Delivers an attack with a potency of 120.
Additional Effect: Slow +20%.
Duration 10s

Keen Flurry: Increases parry rate by 20%.
Duration: 20s

Invigorate: Instantly restores 300 TP.

Blood for Blood: Increases damage dealt by 20% and damage suffered by 25%.
Duration: 20s

So skills that will increase the BRD's dps, not bad, since 1.23 BRD was lacking in the dmg department.
 

eCNO

Neo Member
Seems like the only THM skills a WHM can use are Thunder, Thunder II, Surecast and Swiftcast, those two are actually usefull, Thunders not so much.

I hope they find a way to convey this clearly in the final build. It was easy to understand the basic "adaptation of skills" by simply saying "THM adopts CNJ skills". Sprinkling in a couple of basic skills here and there from other classes without any sort of UI direction is a bit confusing.

In fact, this entire topic is news to me, playing in all the phases (the longest being Phase 4) I didn't even realize I was facing sub-class action restrictions.

(I do have faith that they are working their hardest to make things incredibly clear, as the game has been doing a fine job of it thus far and I've already noticed some improved visual guidance elements from previous phases.)
 

Khrno

Member
I hope they find a way to convey this clearly in the final build. It was easy to understand the basic "adaptation of skills" by simply saying "THM adopts CNJ skills". Sprinkling in a couple of basic skills here and there from other classes without any sort of UI direction is a bit confusing.

In fact, this entire topic is news to me, playing in all the phases (the longest being Phase 4) I didn't even realize I was facing sub-class action restrictions.

(I do have faith that they are working their hardest to make things incredibly clear, as the game has been doing a fine job of it thus far and I've already noticed some improved visual guidance elements from previous phases.)

I agree that the game needs to explain a bit better the benefit of using cross-class skills, and I don't think the current help tool when you unlock the Armoury System is clear enough.

Also, although we haven't had access to that yet, when you unlock your first Job, there should be a clear explanation on the help tool mentioning that you don't get access to all the cross-class skills anymore by equipping a Job, but only to two classes.
 
1. That would mean DRG can use 4 stuns within a 1 minute period.
2. Stances are uninteresting. Knowing when is the right time to use cooldowns is what seperates good and bad players ultimately.
3. Removing hate completely would be somewhat strong. It's up to DPS to manage their hate and not take aggro from tanks. If they could freely drop aggro every 3 minutes at the cost of almost no DPS loss there wouldn't be a need to worry about threat.

Chaos Thrust does seem like it needs something more. It's just a stronger version of Phlebotomize that requires setup. Just seems like an overall boring skill.

1. Since stuns seem to work on a serious diminishing returns, and only really work as an interrupt, yes, that is what I was going for.

2. Do you realize how many different skills and cooldowns a DRG already will have in their rotation? Three attacks in the normal combo, three attacks in the back combo, a slow, a side attack, a stun on a cooldown, a dot, a situation aoe attack that links from the side attack, a situational direct line attack, three damaging jumps on cooldowns, a guaranteed crit on a cooldown, and a timed damage buff on a cooldown. Oh yeah then cross class. Another damage buff on cooldown, an increased accuracy on cooldown, a reduction of hate on cooldown (if you want to take archer to 46), another dot, a drain life on attack on cooldown, and an attack that is usable when a mob us under 20% also on cooldown. This isn't mentioning stuff like the two tiny survivability buffs on cooldowns. So being that power surge is currently just a god damn skill on a cooldown that buffs another skill on a cooldown I thought it would be great for a risk/reward stance,

3. Point taken. Was just trying to think of a way to justify a 3 minute cooldown. Hate wipes and escapes are the kind of thing that give pure dps a bit more survivability in open combat.

I really don't think the way to make DRG fun is to just give them more damage/effect on Chaos even though I don't like that the final LNC skill is just another dot.

1. Kinda useless since most bosses enemies becomes inmune to stun after a couple of uses (and lot's of jobs already has a stun skill).

2. Stances allow for more varied gameplay inside the same job. It may not work on all the cases but DRG needs something more, the job right now is too straighforward even for a DD job.

3. I agree, that jump is mainly to avoid attacks and lower your hate in the process. Having access to Quelling Strikes and DRG should have enough to manage hate.

And yeah, Chaos Trust is a laughable skill right now.

Thanks for being able to see where I was coming from. For 3 though, quelling strikes is a near cap level skill for the DRG's non primary class. Meaning that a person will likely have to go balls deap into another job/class and it's linking classes to level effectively to get it. So yes, it is a great bit of extra utility for the people that get it, but shouldn't feel absolutely needed to play DRG. The problem I am having currently is justifying the longer cooldown on it.
 

Khrno

Member
Hell, considering the range Bards sit at, won't Blood for Blood's side effect be a lesser detriment than it is for actual DRG?

Sure, but ARC weaponskills aren't that powerful to begin with, and you would still have to be careful with hate management anyway.

Also as a melee (or ranged) you can see where the attacks are going to take place, so you should be able to evade most types of aoe regardless of where you are.
 
Why Lancer? I mained a Bard in XI ... Not sure I'm going to be a fan of how they perform here.

Yeah, Bard was one of my mains in FFXI as well, and I really liked how it played more of a support role in that game than worrying about doing damage. So I'm not really a fan of the direction they took Bard in XIV. I guess they wanted Bard to still be able to solo, so they linked it to Archer, but... I dunno. I think it might have been more interesting to me if they had linked it to Conjurer (like Conjurer could become White Mage or Bard) and let Archer become Ranger or a Hunter type class (maybe even have a pet of some sort). *shrug*
 

Khrno

Member
Yeah, Bard was one of my mains in FFXI as well, and I really liked how it played more of a support role in that game than worrying about doing damage. So I'm not really a fan of the direction they took Bard in XIV. I guess they wanted Bard to still be able to solo, so they linked it to Archer, but... I dunno. I think it might have been more interesting to me if they had linked it to Conjurer (like Conjurer could become White Mage or Bard) and let Archer become Ranger or a Hunter type class (maybe even have a pet of some sort). *shrug*

As the level cap increases, BRD will receive more songs and maybe another WS in-between, however they will never specialize on damage that way. With the branching of two Jobs per class, then Ranger, Hunter, or something like that can branch off ARC and become pure ranged dps.

I hated v1.0 BRD because it made ARC to become a worse dps, however if you think about it, at least BRD will be able to do something else besides using songs now, in XI you couldn't really melee the mobs while trying to run around casting songs or pulling, but in ARR you'll be able to the same things as before, plus some damage.
 

EndcatOmega

Unconfirmed Member
Also as a melee (or ranged) you can see where the attacks are going to take place, so you should be able to evade most types of aoe regardless of where you are.

Ah. Barely could remember 1.0 and haven't seen much of party stuff in ARR yet, so I wasn't sure if there wasn't a lot of 'unavoidable' light aoe damage going on for melee DD. My bad.
 

Khrno

Member
Ah. Barely could remember 1.0 and haven't seen much of party stuff in ARR yet, so I wasn't sure if there wasn't a lot of 'unavoidable' light aoe damage going on for melee DD. My bad.

In 1.0 you couldn't there was too much server lag to be able to evade everything, but now in ARR you can see the aoe range with a huge red marker on the ground, if you don't move from there, then you're gonna eat it.

As for frontal or conal attacks, well you pretty much don't want to stand in front of a mob unless you are tanking it, and even if you are, you can see the enemy's casting ability and have enough time to either stun, or simply move to the sides.
 
As the level cap increases, BRD will receive more songs and maybe another WS in-between, however they will never specialize on damage that way. With the branching of two Jobs per class, then Ranger, Hunter, or something like that can branch off ARC and become pure ranged dps.

I hated v1.0 BRD because it made ARC to become a worse dps, however if you think about it, at least BRD will be able to do something else besides using songs now, in XI you couldn't really melee the mobs while trying to run around casting songs or pulling, but in ARR you'll be able to the same things as before, plus some damage.

Yeah, I guess that's true. I haven't really paid a lot of attention to XIV Bard songs - do they get songs that debuff the enemies like Elegy or Threnody or even Lullaby? I was usually pretty busy in FFXI casting buffing songs, and keeping up debuffs on the bosses to really worry about damage, anyways.
 
Yeah, I guess that's true. I haven't really paid a lot of attention to XIV Bard songs - do they get songs that debuff the enemies like Elegy or Threnody or even Lullaby? I was usually pretty busy in FFXI casting buffing songs, and keeping up debuffs on the bosses to really worry about damage, anyways.

Just Requiem.
 

EndcatOmega

Unconfirmed Member
In 1.0 you couldn't there was too much server lag to be able to evade everything, but now in ARR you can see the aoe range with a huge red marker on the ground, if you don't move from there, then you're gonna eat it.

As for frontal or conal attacks, well you pretty much don't want to stand in front of a mob unless you are tanking it, and even if you are, you can see the enemy's casting ability and have enough time to either stun, or simply move to the sides.

I was more thinking of stuff like constant auras of damage taken by just being near the boss and things like that rather than positional 'get out of the bad stuff', but I guess that's not really a thing with FFXIV bosses; I'd also forgotten True Thrust got its front-of-the-enemy tag removed, so I guess there's no reason to ever be there for DD.
 

Khrno

Member
Yeah, I guess that's true. I haven't really paid a lot of attention to XIV Bard songs - do they get songs that debuff the enemies like Elegy or Threnody or even Lullaby? I was usually pretty busy in FFXI casting buffing songs, and keeping up debuffs on the bosses to really worry about damage, anyways.

These are the BRD's skills:

Mage's Ballad: Refreshes MP of all nearby party members while lowering own damage dealt by 20%. MP is drained while singing. Refresh effect is lost if party members move out of hearing distance, and ends upon reuse. Cannot be used with other songs.

Foe Requiem: Reduces all enemy elemental resistance by 10%. MP is drained while singing. Effect is lost if targets move out of hearing distance, and ends upon reuse. Cannot be used with other songs.

Army's Paeon: Refreshes TP of all nearby party members while lowering own damage dealt by 20%. MP is drained while singing. Refresh effect is lost if party members move out of hearing distance, and ends upon reuse. Cannot be used with other songs.

Rain Of Death: Delivers an attack with a potency of 100 to target and enemies near it.
Additional Effect: Lowers target's damage dealt by 10% while increasing damage taken by 10%. Duration: 20s
Additional Effect: 15% chance next Quick Nock will cost no TP. Duration: 10s

Battle Voice: Doubles the effectiveness of all songs. Does not work with Swiftsong. Duration: 30s

So basically you have to look for a place to stand to keep people inside your song's range, and while you do that you attack the mob, some of the WS have added effects like RoD, Shadowbind, Blunt Arrow which silences for 1s (so it's basically a stun for magic attacks) and there's also LNC's Feint for slow.
 

Khrno

Member
Ah.. well maybe they will add the others later. Elegy was always my favorite song to cast because of how powerful it was. :p

I take it Requiem is the same type of song it was in XI? DoT?

Some of the ARC's ws do have DoT effects, like Venomous Bite and Bloodletter, so that's that.
 
These are the BRD's skills:

Mage's Ballad: Refreshes MP of all nearby party members while lowering own damage dealt by 20%. MP is drained while singing. Refresh effect is lost if party members move out of hearing distance, and ends upon reuse. Cannot be used with other songs.

Foe Requiem: Reduces all enemy elemental resistance by 10%. MP is drained while singing. Effect is lost if targets move out of hearing distance, and ends upon reuse. Cannot be used with other songs.

Army's Paeon: Refreshes TP of all nearby party members while lowering own damage dealt by 20%. MP is drained while singing. Refresh effect is lost if party members move out of hearing distance, and ends upon reuse. Cannot be used with other songs.

Rain Of Death: Delivers an attack with a potency of 100 to target and enemies near it.
Additional Effect: Lowers target's damage dealt by 10% while increasing damage taken by 10%. Duration: 20s
Additional Effect: 15% chance next Quick Nock will cost no TP. Duration: 10s

Battle Voice: Doubles the effectiveness of all songs. Does not work with Swiftsong. Duration: 30s

So basically you have to look for a place to stand to keep people inside your song's range, and while you do that you attack the mob, some of the WS have added effects like RoD, Shadowbind, Blunt Arrow which silences for 1s (so it's basically a stun for magic attacks) and there's also LNC's Feint for slow.

Thanks for this! Very interesting. They are changing how it works from FFXI *completely* then with that whole MP draining mechanic. And the Bard doesn't get the benefit of the Mage's Ballad. Weird. Might have been overpowered if the Bard got MP back, too I guess. How much mana does it help regen, anyways?

how come with a Lv 50 arc my bard only have 1 useless ballad song?
jobs don't need level up no?

You have to do job quests to get your other abilities or that's how it was in 1.x.
 

I'm an expert

Formerly worldrevolution. The only reason I am nice to anyone else is to avoid being banned.
Fuck me..why is this game coming out at the end of summer again.. how early is early access for those who preorder? The early access applies to PS3 as well?
 

Shouta

Member
how come with a Lv 50 arc my bard only have 1 useless ballad song?
jobs don't need level up no?

You already have a level 50 Archer or are you using a a legacy char?

Anyway, quested skills are still in, right? That's probably why your bard only has 1 song, you need to get them.
 

Khrno

Member
I was more thinking of stuff like constant auras of damage taken by just being near the boss and things like that rather than positional 'get out of the bad stuff', but I guess that's not really a thing with FFXIV bosses; I'd also forgotten True Thrust got its front-of-the-enemy tag removed, so I guess there's no reason to ever be there for DD.

Well it could be something like Ifrit's Sear (if it's still in the game) that although avoidable for a DRG standing a maximum range, a MNK would usually get hit by it all the time since they needed to be closer to Ifrit to be able to hit, so there could still be those types of attacks that are constant and at very close range.
 

Khrno

Member
So just wondering, with a Bard when you are singing are you stuck singing or can you do other things like move and attack?

The songs' area of effect is centred around the BRD, so if you move away from your place you might leave some people out of the song, of course you can just move in and out to do different songs for short intervals.

Edit: oops sorry for double post. I thought it was editing the previous post.
 

omlet

Member
You already have a level 50 Archer or are you using a a legacy char?

Anyway, quested skills are still in, right? That's probably why your bard only has 1 song, you need to get them.

Your 5 job skills are quested, yes. Those quests aren't in beta so if you never did those in 1.x your legacy character won't have them (and can't get them...for now). However, if you had those quests done already in 1.x, you will have those skills in beta (I did all job quests in 1.x and have all job skills in beta).
 

TheMink

Member
Your 5 job skills are quested, yes. Those quests aren't in beta so if you never did those in 1.x your legacy character won't have them (and can't get them...for now). However, if you had those quests done already in 1.x, you will have those skills in beta (I did all job quests in 1.x and have all job skills in beta).

Its a shame as i only did one of the quests.
 
Which MMO, if you don't mind me asking?

Mabinogi a while back (it sucks now, don't even bother). I'd go into it but this is a FFXIV thread :p

I remember trying FFXI for a bit just to see what it was like after I read an awesome story someone wrote about it, and it felt very different from any other MMO I tried, had a much calmer feel to it for some reason, not sure why. I felt a glimmer of that when I tried the beta for FFXIV 1.0 but there was so much that was so wrong that I couldn't justify buying it. I haven't had a chance to play ARR yet, but hopefully I'll get a chance to check it out with the open beta.

I feel like one of the things that kills with me MMOs is that almost all of them have a level cap, so it feels like you have to get to the cap ASAP before you can actually try everything. Hopefully I can get past that with ARR because as far as I know there aren't any other good MMOs coming out anytime soon >.<;

Actually, I have a question about leveling: When you level up with a class do you gain stats (I'm assuming yes since you gain stats in every MMO ever made), and if you switch to another class do you keep the stats you gained while leveling your previous class(es)?
 

Khrno

Member
Actually, I have a question about leveling: When you level up with a class do you gain stats (I'm assuming yes since you gain stats in every MMO ever made), and if you switch to another class do you keep the stats you gained while leveling your previous class(es)?

Stats are independent from other class, the stats that you have as a lv50 Black Mage do not affect the stats that you have as a level 10 Archer.

The only benefit from levelling more classes is being able to use cross-class skills, but nothing to do with individual stats.
 

LaneDS

Member
Going by the updated list of skills/spells on FFXIV Info, these are the current skill classes available to Jobs:

Paladin: Marauder - Conjurer
Warrior: Gladiator - Pugilist
Dragoon: Archer - Marauder
Monk: Gladiator - Lancer
Bard: Lancer - Conjurer
White Mage: Thaumaturge -
Black Mage: Archer -

WHM and BLM only have access to 1 class skills, so that pretty much tells us that they will also have access to Arcanist skills.

That is... really weird. All the obvious classes aren't options for jobs, so I'm going to guess those classes have worthwhile synergies going on
 

Shouta

Member
That is... really weird. All the obvious classes aren't options for jobs, so I'm going to guess those classes have worthwhile synergies going on

Uh, not really? All of the combinations make pretty solid sense.

Warrior has access to the two brawling classes it doesn't already get. Paladin has the additional warrior and white mage skills, etc.

The odd one is mostly Black Mage getting Archer in there but I guess they didn't want to give them CONJ skills.
 

Khrno

Member
The odd one is mostly Black Mage getting Archer in there but I guess they didn't want to give them CONJ skills.

As in "why is a BLM using Archer skills" kind of way, yes it's weird, but Quelling Strikes, which reduces the Enmity of attacks during 15s is quite useful as BLM.

That is... really weird. All the obvious classes aren't options for jobs, so I'm going to guess those classes have worthwhile synergies going on

Also, why do you mean by obvious ones? As in why not Conjurer skills for White Mage? Was my post misleading for not adding the base class next to the Job as well?
 
That is... really weird. All the obvious classes aren't options for jobs, so I'm going to guess those classes have worthwhile synergies going on

Got to look at the....smaller picture I guess and just look at the shared abilities those classes have, not if it makes sense from a lore perspective. Like what use would a Black Mage have with bows and stuff sense wise? But then you realize that every dps job is going to share archer since they have a damage buff and a hate reducer as their only useful shared skills.

This goggle doc that was posted weeks ago gives a better overall picture of what skills are sharable and shared.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AsPI9Wq6z6GwdHJEYmR0Qjk4QzV2SmYzVzhYTVdCSkE#gid=0
 
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