Final Fantasy XIV - Kiwi Free Company

[Rungle]

I love questing and lifeskills in the games, but I absolutely hate instanced PvE. Is there 'endgame' stuff to do in FFXIV once you hit max level that isn't just farming dungeons/raids? I'm making my way through the trial currently.

The real end game is chocobo racing.
Jokes aside, endgame content consists of raiding, farming, and leveling other classes.
however my goal is to accumulate as much wealth as possible.
But if your still in trial, trust me, there is like a shit ton of side content you can do before you reach true endgame.

Godspeed my blacked friend, I hope you enjoy the game

 

[CharcoalChkn]

I love questing and lifeskills in the games, but I absolutely hate instanced PvE. Is there 'endgame' stuff to do in FFXIV once you hit max level that isn't just farming dungeons/raids? I'm making my way through the trial currently.

Maybe the new Island Sanctuary will be more your speed, of course all the Gold Saucer stuff mentioned (Chocobo Racing, Minion Battles, Mahjong), player housing, crafting, etc. One thing FF does quite well is have a lot of content for casual players that isn't just dungeons.

 

[Local Degenerate]

I love questing and lifeskills in the games, but I absolutely hate instanced PvE. Is there 'endgame' stuff to do in FFXIV once you hit max level that isn't just farming dungeons/raids? I'm making my way through the trial currently.

It's kind of a running gag that XIV has more endgame variety than most games have hours, but there is some truth to that, depending on how you want to define endgame.

'Hardcore' would be going through relic grinds like Eureka or Bozja, which, for clarities sake, is essentially old school MMO 'kill shit to level up, don't die' style...It *is* instanced, but not like a dungeon. More like a mini-world map. There's also treasure maps, which are mini-dungeons that only proceed based on luck, but give big rewards (due to the music, sometimes called 'funky casinos'), plenty of post game questlines, like Hildibrand (Comedy questline that varies between cringe your soul out to genuinely well told and touching. Depends on your tolerance for hijinks.) beast tribes (give tiny quests, 3 a day, for more insight on the other inferior races), custom deliveries (crafting challenges), Blue Mage (somewhat boring 'limited class' that can become laughably OP, but is not allowed in any real instanced duties), hunts, fates, and a shit ton more I can't think of.

'Casual' would be shit like gold saucer, which includes triple triad (the card game) chocobo breeding and racing, minigames about dodging mechanics, Prince of Vermillion (a jank ass psudo RTS where you use your minions instead of troops), and the weekly fashion report, where you try to impress an NPC with your fashion by trying to decipher his awful hints, before going to the reddit and just buying whatever they find. There's also now the Island Sanctuary, which is an instanced, super chill 'fuck around and vibe' area, and of course, ocean fishing, which actually makes fishing somewhat enjoyable to level. There's also jumping puzzles scattered around, and vistas to fill out.

Then you've got the super casual, not really gameplay endgame of chilling with people, getting your style down, filling out the map (not just vistas), getting cool screenshots, all that kinda shit.


but the real endgame is the erp tho.

 

[Fcret]

I love questing and lifeskills in the games, but I absolutely hate instanced PvE. Is there 'endgame' stuff to do in FFXIV once you hit max level that isn't just farming dungeons/raids? I'm making my way through the trial currently.

There's an entire crafting and gathering endgame complete with separate classes for each of the professions, gear progression, and a market to exploit if you're good. Unlike most MMOs where crafting tends to die out as expansions come out and power creep sets in, FF14 has sort of established crafted battle gear as the 'baseline' to do endgame content each raid tier so crafting has remained pretty relevant even to the hardcore PVE raiding scene. These past two expansions have also had a slew of craftable items that can't be automated with macros (expert crafts) which seem like they're going to be key to making some extremely high-value cosmetic items this expansion.

Also gambling, housing, relic questlines, hunts (world bosses that 30-70 players will gang up on and kill), etc.

The hardcore PVE raids and stuff are actually a relatively small part of the endgame.

 

[Tachibana]

It's kind of a running gag that XIV has more endgame variety than most games have hours, but there is some truth to that, depending on how you want to define endgame.

'Hardcore' would be going through relic grinds like Eureka or Bozja, which, for clarities sake, is essentially old school MMO 'kill shit to level up, don't die' style...It *is* instanced, but not like a dungeon. More like a mini-world map. There's also treasure maps, which are mini-dungeons that only proceed based on luck, but give big rewards (due to the music, sometimes called 'funky casinos'), plenty of post game questlines, like Hildibrand (Comedy questline that varies between cringe your soul out to genuinely well told and touching. Depends on your tolerance for hijinks.) beast tribes (give tiny quests, 3 a day, for more insight on the other inferior races), custom deliveries (crafting challenges), Blue Mage (somewhat boring 'limited class' that can become laughably OP, but is not allowed in any real instanced duties), hunts, fates, and a shit ton more I can't think of.

'Casual' would be shit like gold saucer, which includes triple triad (the card game) chocobo breeding and racing, minigames about dodging mechanics, Prince of Vermillion (a jank ass psudo RTS where you use your minions instead of troops), and the weekly fashion report, where you try to impress an NPC with your fashion by trying to decipher his awful hints, before going to the reddit and just buying whatever they find. There's also now the Island Sanctuary, which is an instanced, super chill 'fuck around and vibe' area, and of course, ocean fishing, which actually makes fishing somewhat enjoyable to level. There's also jumping puzzles scattered around, and vistas to fill out.

Depends what you like. I can tell you I don't like most of those things, feels surface level or/and OSRS does it better. I like the challenging PvE content but not the community element of it.

 

[Well Intentioned]

I love questing and lifeskills in the games, but I absolutely hate instanced PvE. Is there 'endgame' stuff to do in FFXIV once you hit max level that isn't just farming dungeons/raids? I'm making my way through the trial currently.

There's a lot of variety and things you can focus on. PVP is in an okay spot at the moment, if you dig that. Depending on what you dislike about instanced PVE, there's some solo content with the Deep Dungeons (roguelike content), lots of crafting and gathering shit you can focus on (Firmament, Ocean Fishing & related achievements, etc.) and, of course, the true end game of XIV:

Mah Jong.

 

[Zeke Von Genbu]

I love questing and lifeskills in the games, but I absolutely hate instanced PvE. Is there 'endgame' stuff to do in FFXIV once you hit max level that isn't just farming dungeons/raids? I'm making my way through the trial currently.

On top of what others have said, I'll add this because I think it is important.

The notable majority of endgame content is instanced PvE in some form, the story's biggest set pieces are instanced PvE if you care about that, and you must do the story to unlock all the zones for life skills. It is a pretty long journey for not a ton of content for what you seem to want imo, unless you really enjoy what you're getting outside of the instanced PvE segments I'd just get what you can out of the game and if you don't think it is good enough at some point then I'd stop.

I wouldn't buy into the "it gets better" line of logic at all for you (unless you care about the story a lot), because you don't appear to care much about what FFXIV actually does notably improve on as you go through the expansions. If FFXIV's endgame path wasn't dozens of hours of story I'd say you can probably find stuff to do and it is worth it as crafting and such is a fun side game for people who are into that, but it is dozens (or even a hundred+) and a notable portion of that story is instanced PvE dungeons and singular boss fights.

There is a very simple reasoning for the oversimplification of classes and homogeny and it all boils down to the fact that most of the game's playerbase is too retarded to even do the bare minimum of their role.

That's it. That's the long and short of it. You can discuss the intricacies and theorycraft ways to make things more interesting until the cows come home, but, outside of content where the healers HAVE to do more than be 1 button DPS that sometimes makes sure the party doesn't involuntarily die to raidwide, you most likely will not see them change these classes in any fundamental ways to add (or return) layers of complication to their basic gameplay. Because most of the mouthbreathers playing this MMO can't even be assed to press one single button when they should. Or move into positions when they should.

I personally believe the homogeny specifically is because of balance issues, because tanks that have specific and useful skills tended to be meta if their damage wasn't dogshit (SB Pld being the best example with Cover). SE for better and for worse cares about endgame balance and trying to avoid having all these various different skills makes it easier to balance because everyone has a template. Even DPS now have a template as pretty much all DPS are 2 minute bursters now, but they feel just different enough that people don't talk about it compared to tanks and healers.

Astrologian was also an absolute mess to balance because their unique buffer gimmick was just difficult to balance when the other two healers are just healers with different styles alongside Astro's RNG. Now it is much simpler and more consistent so Ast can't luckshit into 5 balances in a row and dominate over Whm because Whm doesn't do anything once prog is over.

 

[Zirnwyb]

Often times my brain damage makes me think that I can run shit with Crystal PF. Today I thought I could run Sephirot Unreal with these retards. As it turns out I was wrong, so very fucking wrong. I saw "I did ex so let's try unreal" in PF and I should have realized the dude meant he did it unsynced because holy fucking shit... They made it to adds just once. It was endless wipes to the Ain and Ratzon puddle mechanic because they never paid attention to what side Seph was facing. If it wasn't them getting clipped by Seph it was them clipping each other (or me, their fucking HEALER) with their puddles. The only time we made it to adds several of the DPS died somehow. Possibly because my co-healer didn't bother healing through the Binah explosions while I was struggling to keep the MT alive since the asshole had vuln ups and was getting smacked to shit by the Cochma. I ended up leaving like two pulls after that because they were giving me a headache.

It fucking sucks because Sephirot Ex was my favourite HW extreme back in the day. Probably just gonna have to wait until the weekend when some people in the raid CWLS I'm in decide to do it because I am not attempting that again with PF retards.

 

[Gravemind]

Often times my brain damage makes me think that I can run shit with Crystal PF. Today I thought I could run Sephirot Unreal with these retards. As it turns out I was wrong, so very fucking wrong. I saw "I did ex so let's try unreal" in PF and I should have realized the dude meant he did it unsynced because holy fucking shit... They made it to adds just once. It was endless wipes to the Ain and Ratzon puddle mechanic because they never paid attention to what side Seph was facing. If it wasn't them getting clipped by Seph it was them clipping each other (or me, their fucking HEALER) with their puddles. The only time we made it to adds several of the DPS died somehow. Possibly because my co-healer didn't bother healing through the Binah explosions while I was struggling to keep the MT alive since the asshole had vuln ups and was getting smacked to shit by the Cochma. I ended up leaving like two pulls after that because they were giving me a headache.

It fucking sucks because Sephirot Ex was my favourite HW extreme back in the day. Probably just gonna have to wait until the weekend when some people in the raid CWLS I'm in decide to do it because I am not attempting that again with PF retards.

My favorite part about this story is that even if they somehow learned how to stop eating shit before the phase change, they're still going to eat shit to literally every other mechanic during the main part of the fight.

I remember this pain very well. Earthshakers, the Force of Might/Magic mechanics, the snapshots, the knockbacks, the add phase. Any one and all of these are hard walls for most people.

 

[Zirnwyb]

My favorite part about this story is that even if they somehow learned how to stop eating shit before the phase change, they're still going to eat shit to literally every other mechanic during the main part of the fight.

I remember this pain very well. Earthshakers, the Force of Might/Magic mechanics, the snapshots, the knockbacks, the add phase. Any one and all of these are hard walls for most people.

Yep I was dreading them reaching Yesad if we even made it that far or the tethers purely because when I did it back in 2016 people fucked it up then. I didn't even think about Earthshakers though ugh. Or the goddamn towers!

 

[Welsh Catgirl Enjoyer]

It sounds to me like PF has come full circle because this was exactly the case for stuff like Ravana and Thordan back in the day. Both fights are almost entirely timelined out with next to no unexpected mechanics and almost perfect consistency, especially in Ravana's case, and yet randos still managed to eat shit left and right.

Literally just came off a run in a farm party where someone kept on running to someone already stacking during PS2 and killed me every time. All while I was dealing with random deaths and DPS deciding to revive into a raidwide (fun fact: if you're about to revive into a raidwide, don't do anything since it cancels your 5s invincibility).

Still not as retarded as that time I rescued a Ninja out of an incoming AOE in Aglaia and he started bitching in the chat saying "why are you trolling me" and reported me for griefing.

 

[Rich Evans Ayypologist]

I think it's safe to say that the stellar first and third acts of Shadowbringers were a complete fluke at this point.

Spoiler: sperg

Confused pacing, rushed buildup, unclear priorities, characters' entire behaviors abruptly changing and defying previous characterization in order to more conveniently fit what the plot needs at any given point, and generic anime "villain of the week" evil cabals complete with "nothin personnel... kid" antiheroes seem more the proper speed.

Why make a big deal out of pulling the lens back from grand, overarching, reality-ending plot arcs and suggest you're going to take things at a slower, more character-vignette driven pace, then do the exact opposite and rush to shove an entire shounen's worth of tropes into a crammed little space?

Zero, clearly intended as a somewhat posthumous examination and foil of Zenos, has nothing to work with because Zenos's characterization was shelved so we could shoehorn in Meteion and rush a hackneyed 'conclusion' about nihilism. So now Zero is unremarkable from any other anime standoffish anti-hero, contrived to just-so-happen to be in the right place at the right time, while your macguffin crystal just-so-happens to return them to their just-so-special status as the daughter of jaina and arthas who just so happened to be zenos's buddy except she wasn't really that into it you see who just so happens to have the super special awesome power that just so happens to deal with a bit of dramatic tension that we introduced to explain why the guy who has killed legions of gods might have difficulty with a few goofy demon things. But that's alright, because we're not really doing much with characters here.

Estinien, who spent most of the story as a lone wolf who did his own thing in the background and had to have his arm wrung to help save the world, now can't get enough of commitment and is totally down, without reservation, to try to save a dead world by poking it with a lance or something. Y'shtola doesn't make a mention of the fact that saving a dead world might take a lot of time away from trying to get back to the first, where her barb lies. Vrtra doesn't really seem bothered by the duties he reluctantly accepted as being the more forward-facing sovereign of Thavnair.

Which isn't necessarily to say that they shouldn't take an angle as to why we're trying to save the shadow realm... but if that's the direction, you should probably spend a little more time on why the characters are so eager to once again get wrapped up in a huge, reality-saving grand narrative. Have Estinien argue that they should focus primarily on Vrtra's sister, since we know he cares about dragons, and be reluctant to get on board with the idea of somehow 'saving' the thirteenth, especially since he wasn't present on the first. Have Y'shtola suggest that figuring out how the void-portals operate might have some use in finding a way back to the barb, and the thirteenth being stable enough to study them is necessary. Have Vrtra reluctant to countenance trying to bring an entire world back from the brink, because his duty is to his own people and his own family first and foremost.

Maybe have some reference, other than "hey you liked fighting that zenos guy right are you bffs?" to the fact that three people in the company faced down the nihilism-god at the end of reality and decided to hope beyond hope and the power of friendship or whatever it was they said that was completely generic and forgettable - maybe use that as a justification to agree to an apparently insurmountable task, and joke about the fact that you thought you'd be exploring beaches and treasure-hunting in your retirement from being "that guy that saves the world over and over again."

I kept finding myself rolling my eyes and going "this is really, really bad" while slogging through it; I can't even enjoy it as kitsch because the characters act like mannequins. If I felt like that was actually the Estinien that was in the rest of the game, and that was actually Y'shtola (who, despite her constant presence, the player actually has fairly few one-on-one situations and bonding moments with), then I could enjoy getting stuck up in some weird, goofy scenario in which we've got to fight King Anime and his Nefarious Harem. Instead, it comes off like weird fanservice with flanderized characters - pull the string to have the cat say a sarcastic quip. Pull the elf's so he says something generic about corruption.

Please, take up the plot threads from Bozja and let's have a down-to-earth story about a neo-empire insisting that it be given authority in the ruined Garlemald, and let's explore tensions over the occupying forces, empire loyalists, reformers, and political schemes threatening the nation-states now that there's no big bad for them to focus their attention on. please im begging

 

[Mister Uno]

I like the idea of juggling between healing and dealing damage, but not like FF14's approach. I'll take the Warhammer MMO's attempts with some of its healer concept designs any day.

In a way, their falling back to making healers primarily just heal strikes me as giving up on trying to thread the needle into something unique, and settling for the tried, true route. I just wish there were alternatives on the market that were willing to experiment more, since just about everything has set its sights on simplifying and homogenizing everything.

Holy shit someone that actually played the Warhammer MMO. Honestly out of all the MMOs it was my favorite. But it's been so long since I played I don't exactly remember it's faults. I just remember having a blast with Shaman, Sorceress, and Marauder. PvP seemed stupidly unbalanced but still fun.

On another note, had a friend who had a guy walk up to them and stare at them for a solid 15 minutes before they even noticed. What the hell are wrong with people in this game?


He just moves away after my friend acknowledged him (his character is a female Miqo'te), then apologizes and says "Sorry it will never happen again! ^_^". I don't know how he does it, but my friend's character always attracts the weirdest people, doesn't even wear real slut glam. Has this been an issue for you guys? Or know anyone who gets a weird amount of attention?

 

[Dave.]

Holy shit someone that actually played the Warhammer MMO. Honestly out of all the MMOs it was my favorite. But it's been so long since I played I don't exactly remember it's faults. I just remember having a blast with Shaman, Sorceress, and Marauder. PvP seemed stupidly unbalanced but still fun.

On another note, had a friend who had a guy walk up to them and stare at them for a solid 15 minutes before they even noticed. What the hell are wrong with people in this game?

View attachment 3670949
He just moves away after my friend acknowledged him (his character is a female Miqo'te), then apologizes and says "Sorry it will never happen again! ^_^". I don't know how he does it, but my friend's character always attracts the weirdest people, doesn't even wear real slut glam. Has this been an issue for you guys? Or know anyone who gets a weird amount of attention?

I play male viera (showing his appearance would be a breech of anonymity) and I get a lot of girls (I think?) whispering me “handsome bunboi ^_^” or “ooh he beautiful!” a lot. One girl didn’t believe I was a guy irl playing as one and she asked me to prove it on discord. I did and thought that was it. But then she asked for erp and told me my voice was sexy. I declined and we never spoke again. It’s a funny little reversal of your situation lol.

 

[Tanner Glass]

But then she asked for erp and told me my voice was sexy. I declined and we never spoke again.

A coward's answer.

 

[Well Intentioned]

My favorite part about this story is that even if they somehow learned how to stop eating shit before the phase change, they're still going to eat shit to literally every other mechanic during the main part of the fight.

I remember this pain very well. Earthshakers, the Force of Might/Magic mechanics, the snapshots, the knockbacks, the add phase. Any one and all of these are hard walls for most people.

It's a little insane going in to this with zero prep or knowledge. I watched like 4 different videos, read about the mechanics, etc. and am having to explain shit to idiots with Mentor crowns because they can't be fucked to know or understand anything. I was literally in a PF group where we told folks 'dps on left, OT/healers on the right' and one of the healers was having an incredibly hard time understanding what we meant by that.

This game would be great if it weren't for all the people.

 

[Vapewizard]

I play male viera (showing his appearance would be a breech of anonymity) and I get a lot of girls (I think?) whispering me “handsome bunboi ^_^” or “ooh he beautiful!” a lot.

Yeah, my character is the same and I get that too once in a while. Alternatively people will just walk up to me and hug or pet me. I don't really mind cause I knew what I signed up for and it could be considered a compliment of sorts, but at the same time I'm sure the interactions could've been a lot creepier and I might've avoided that by not being on crystal.

 

[Dave.]

Yeah, my character is the same and I get that too once in a while. Alternatively people will just walk up to me and hug or pet me. I don't really mind cause I knew what I signed up for and it could be considered a compliment of sorts, but at the same time I'm sure the interactions could've been a lot creepier and I might've avoided that by not being on crystal.

Same, and I can kind of tell when someone’s a girl behind a screen because they act more peppy and they use more subtle language or more “nicer” terms sprinkled with emoticons. Trannies on the other hand talk like a seven year old mimicking their sister while also stuck in a 20 something’s body. Men use more blunt language “hey sexy <3” or “fuck you’re pretty!”

 

[John Titor]

Holy shit someone that actually played the Warhammer MMO. Honestly out of all the MMOs it was my favorite. But it's been so long since I played I don't exactly remember it's faults. I just remember having a blast with Shaman, Sorceress, and Marauder. PvP seemed stupidly unbalanced but still fun.

On another note, had a friend who had a guy walk up to them and stare at them for a solid 15 minutes before they even noticed. What the hell are wrong with people in this game?

View attachment 3670949
He just moves away after my friend acknowledged him (his character is a female Miqo'te), then apologizes and says "Sorry it will never happen again! ^_^". I don't know how he does it, but my friend's character always attracts the weirdest people, doesn't even wear real slut glam. Has this been an issue for you guys? Or know anyone who gets a weird amount of attention?

For some reason, people like to run in circles around my character.

 

[Mister Uno]

Same, and I can kind of tell when someone’s a girl behind a screen because they act more peppy and they use more subtle language or more “nicer” terms sprinkled with emoticons. Trannies on the other hand talk like a seven year old mimicking their sister while also stuck in a 20 something’s body. Men use more blunt language “hey sexy <3” or “fuck you’re pretty!”

What do you make of this? South American or dude being a funny guy?

Weeks ago I had someone comment how rare a good looking Elezen is and mine was very pretty. I'll say it again, it's scary how many people fuck it up. But to be fair Elezen don't have the best customization options, less so for Duskwights. The long necks don't help.