Final Fantasy XIV

[Blake]

you guys should check out Guild wars 2 again. the first xpac is coming out soon. i have been playing for 2 weeks now and loving it. they have added a lot since release and now everything except WvW is on a big mega-server.

world bosses are awesome. instances are fun. the world PvP is fucking amazing. they have dynamic zones that are basically one big event.

Xpac is in beta right now with the first stress today. I haven't read much of the small amount of info that is out about it. some stuff i heard is that unlike WoW xpac which adds new level cap and makes all the old content/gear obsolete. the expantion will be "horizontal" progression.

if you just start playing. most of us were on the server "crystal desert"

check out some of these bosses. they look so fucking awesome. http://imgur.com/a/RqJ4a

[McGrupp]

How is loot divided up on a world boss? Is there 'tagging' like in WoW or what? I've always had interest in GW2 but could never get started

[Blake]

no tagging for anything. even just normal mobs in game. if you do dmg you will get credit for the kill for quest/loot.

events (including bosses) have a gold/silver/bronze tier system for rewarding exp/karma/gold/loot. which comes down to the amount of damage or time spent doing the event. gold tier is really easy to get. as long as you are trying to complete the boss/event you will get max reward. hitting the boss once then afk'ing wont get you credit.

there is no raid system for grouping, party is 5man in size. but i have gone to a boss solo with 100+ other people on a lower level char and still got full credit.

also when you go into a lower zone the game will auto adjust your level to the zones. some bosses are in lvl 15 zones so all the 80's get set to lvl 16 which reduces hp/def/dmg/ect. however a lvl 80 will still do more damage than a lvl 15 just not crazy amount like wow.

in PvP it will auto up level you to max 80 with your stats. WvW sets you to 80 but does not unlock your skills/traits. sPvP will put you at lvl 80 unlock all skills/traits, normalize gear, and give you access to all runes/sigel/weps.

[Gogan]

That does look pretty cool. Just never really got into GW. I might give it another shot some time -- I have been hearing good things about it lately.

Right now I'm really enjoying ESO. It easily has the best low-level (I'm only level 8) questing experience of any mmo I've played. None of this "kill X enemeies; collect Y things; rinse; repeat" bullshit. It's all very story driven with full voiceover. Very engaging, very immersive. I haven't felt the slightest need to grind anything or race leveling up. Just enjoying the stories. Apparently the game is worlds better than it was at launch, although I never played it back then so I couldn't say. I have no idea what end-game is like, but right now I don't care. Hard to say whether it's worth the $60 price tag (no sub fee), but so far so good.

[McGrupp]

I'm installing GW 2 today. I have to finish one last rogue-like run on TOME and I'll be ready to shift gears. I'll look you up when I do

[Gogan]

Are you not playing Pillars of Eternity when it releases tomorrow?

[Blake]

I am on crystal desert. i think thats where most GOL went when the game came out but no one else besides me plays anymore. currently im in a pretty cool guild that is ran by the top GW2 streamer. lot of fun, very big (have 80 ppl online atm), and helpful to new players.

a lot of people are coming back to GW2. tons of new players also. it is a great time to start before the Xpac.

IGN: zol:6907

I have a small raidcall to chat on and the guild has a big teamspeak. i will help you out with whatever you need bud.

also remember server is just for WvW. outside of WvW all the servers play together.

[McGrupp]

Definitely will be Asano. I'll play both casually!!

[Gogan]

I've secretly been playing FFXIV -- a lot -- for the last 2 months. There's something about it that has me hooked.

It's true that the questing is not great. It's not even good. What it does do well, however, is weave the main story through all of its content. Several dungeons, "trials", and raids are a part of the main story questline and done so quite well. It really makes the fights feel more epic and impactful -- and all the cutscenes throughout the raid make you the hero, so it has a pretty personal feel even if you're one of 4, 8, or 24 people.

The story isn't spectacular as far as FF games go, but it definitely has its moments -- and those moments are glorious when they happen. It's not until 2.0 that it really picks up though.

But I think it's a lot of little things that FFXIV does so well that are just absent in other MMOs.

Crafting and gathering are shockingly fun compared to every other MMO out right now. You level them from 1-50 just like every other class/job, complete with their own gear, quests, actions, skill rotations, and even end-game content. There's lots of synergy with the other crafting/gathering classes. It's all very deep and very rewarding. You could play the game solely as a crafter if you wanted. And with the xpac coming in less than a month, I'm debating whether I want to level my mage, healer, or crafter first. It's that good.

The game does a really good job of not just tolerating new players, but incentivizing you to help new people through content. When you run a dungeon with someone who is doing it for their first time, everyone gets bonus xp/tokens. When world "bosses" spawn, you'll only get max credit if you're in a full group, so its in your best interest to invite people to your group. All dungeons and fates (randomly spawned world events) are level-sync'd so you can always run with your friends regardless of your level difference without worrying about completely overpowering the content. Rewards are scaled accordingly, so you'll actually get comparable xp even if you're running a low-level dungeon as a high-level player. As a result, I find the community in general to be surprisingly nice and helpful. The toxic and hostile cretins you find in WoW are a really rare exception in FFXIV.

And of course there's the job system. Being able to level all classes/jobs on the same character is amazing. No more worrying about inviting alts to guilds and re-logging to switch between dps/heals/tanking. There are so many reasons why doing everything on one character is amazing -- and this is coming from someone who loved to make alts in other games. This is just a better system.

Hunts. Hunts are just great. They're basically world bosses. Some are tougher than others. None of them are "hard" because so many people swarm them that they're basically all zerged down. Since they spawn relatively frequently and there are many different bosses, it keeps people going to all the different zones and interacting with each other. It's not uncommon to see 100 people all traveling to fight the latest S-Rank mob that spawned. The fights never last long -- just a few minutes -- so it's always a rush to get to the location and group up for the kill.

I could go on... customizable player/guild housing, better hard/expert mode dungeons/trials, long-running "relic" quests for end-game weapons, triple triad card game from FF9(!), a casino full of mini-games, etc. It's just a good MMO. It's hard to justify a subscription these days when you're competing against other solid F2P MMOs like Tera, SWTOR, and GW2. But between WoW and FFXIV, I actually think FFXIV might be the better game.

The current story ended on an epic cliffhanger and will be continued in the new xpac coming on June 19, Heavensward, along with 3 new classes. FFXIV's launch may have been a colossal failure, but they've really turned it around and built an MMO that I think could have real staying power.

[Nucholza]

If anyone was so inspired by Asano's review that they want to pick it up and play then let me know! I still haven't ever used the copy I bought at pre-release lol.....