FF14 first impression/initial experience as a GW2 veteran.

[DaniTheHero]

This isn't supposed to be an actual rant, nor am i intending to offend anyone who plays either game.
I felt like i should share my experience as a new player in this now increasingly popular MMORPG.


Note this is going to be VERY long.



First i'll tell about why i chose to be playing GW2 up until now to reflect on my latest experience with FF14.
I am not trying to sell the game to you, nor to "take away players" from here, as i barely play GW2 myself now.

I have been playing GW2 for a very long time, and although i have been taking breaks from time to time (as GW2 is known to having content droughts between Living world/Expansion periods) i always come back to it eventually.

GW2 has many things going for it.:

It has a completely free Base game with no time limit, so you can get any friend to try it out and not be restricted to pretty much any content from the Original/Vanilla game pre expansions other than some Spam avoidance and trading/mail system restrictions to avoid botting.

If you decide to pay, you get the entire game, including previous expansions at the price of one, with no monthly subscription, i repeat no monthly subbing.
You pay once, and hop on whenever you want, FOREVER.
No need to cancel every time you take a break and pay again when you return and if you play long term, no large stacked up sum. Just play when you want.

GW2 has no gear chase/treadmill. From the release of the game, the highest tier of gear has been something called "Ascended" and it always remains relevant as the best Tier of gear even a decade later. Meaning even if you take long breaks, you don't need to chase a new ceiling just to enjoy new content properly, and you can hop rightinto it as the same End game character you were before.
The only time that you'll need to get new gear, is if you want a different sort of build for your character, so you'll need a different set of ascended gear for those stats (This can be negated by Legendary armor, that has the same stats as ascended but you can change it's stats whenever you want. This however requires a huge grind to get).

The game has no Mana/Stamina system, nor do you use potions to even heal yourself.
Your attacking is only depended on your cooldown managements and your healing depends on your global class heal (That is by default your 6 key) that varies between classes. No annoying potion usage and purchase management. There is food, but it's used for self buffing.
This system complimented the game well, as the game, at least initially didn't have the concept of holy Trinity. Everyone mostly did everything, or more specifically, everyone was DPS who was capable, and accepted to heal themselves.
Later on as end game raids were introduced more properly, some sub-classes have emerged to sort of fill that old gap, Druid being an old school healer sort, and Chronomancer being a more traditional tank among others, but the mentality of everyone technically being DPS still exists. Some just serve side roles, such as DPS's that can also do useful Squad/party buffs.

The game has a dodge/roll system sort of like in Dark souls, that is limited by a cooldown. This makes the gameplay more mobile and dynamic, and instead of just standing still most of the combat,you dodge and rotate a lot to avoid damage that isn't just enemy AOE.

The combat is very fluid and action-y. Fast. You are constantly on the move, and at times even 'Spamming' moves as cooldowns are short and most classes don't really have more than 5ish damage dealing attacks, unless you weapon swap mid fight. There isn't really a time when you aren't attacking.

Mounts are fairly a new concept in GW2, but instead of having many of them, there's only one of each "type" of mount that serves a purpose(One for dashing, one for jumping, one for flying and so on), and you can change it's appearance with paid skins if you wish to do so.

Questing, although sort of only existing in the base game, is managed through heart areas, meaning you reach an area where the certain quest exists, and you are meant to to tasks around this same area to complete it. There's no fetch quests, no backtracking, no unneeded walls of text just for killing 3 rats.

in GW2 there is no "EXP" grind from killing mobs. You level up near exclusively from doing world events, quests on the map and map exploration. As you you reach the level cap in the base game, the EXP you gain in the expansion zones is used for gaining different sort of mini abilities, passive buffs or unlocking sort of mechanics or merchants that exist in these new zones. No boring hours of fighting the same batch of mobs to level, at ANY point of the game.

Structured PVP works well in theory, the action combat, the fairly decent balancing and the fact that most classes can technically do anything works well. SPVP is also separate from the "main"/PVE game. You can hop into SPVP from level 2, and inside there, gear doesn't matter, you are max level and all your abilities are unlocked. The only thing that counts is your skill as a player, your teammates performance and of course what you pick for your SPVP 'build' (The builds are instantly changable in SPVP). Sadly SPVP and WvW(World vs World) is mostly abandoned by the devs for quite a long time, so you won't really be experiencing anything new there after a while.

Voice acting. Almost everything is voiced. Story missions, the NPC talking around you, world events and so on.

Most of the content encourages, almost demands cooperative play. Soloing is almost never recommended, sometimes may not even be possible. For people that play MMORPGs, for the actual MMO aspect rather than playing it as a singleplayer RPG that sometimes have real people walking around you, this is very nice.

Of course i can go on praising the game for a long time, but the elephant in the room is:

The biggest issue with the game is that due to lack of funding from NCSoft, and generally the huge loss of capital for being one of the only MMORPGs without monthly subbing, content gets added less often. And periods of content droughts are common. if you are a veteran player that plays a lot you run out things to do, unless you grind for fashion or Legendary equipment.
However as a new player, you still have A LOT of content to go through for months or even years before you reach that drought yourself.

A lot of the content, or pretty much all of it that isn't Raids or fractals(End game dungeons), can be summed up to "zerging". A huge amount of players stacking together spamming something until it dies. Can be fun when it's new content, but gets old REAL quick if repeated. Raids and Fractals do require a more old school approach though.




Now let's actually dive into my FF14 experience.


I've obviously known about this game for a long time, as FF14 pretty much is ( or was?) a direct competitor to GW2, but i never researched or bothered with it as i was content with GW2 and the idea of paying sub didn't appeal to me.
However after many many years in GW2, the recent Exodus of WoW players to FF14 and me dying inside from the anticipation for Ashes of creation, i have decided to finally try FF14.
The game stated to give a 30 day trial that is mostly not limited, which didn't sound bad at all.
I haven't done much research still, and decided to just sign up, install and hop on.

I was first greeted by a.. confusing server selection. As i'm European, Light or Chaos seemed to be the relevant options and Light, was highlighted for some reason, so i assumed it meant i'd have better ping there so i chose it. Inside the server i also needed to pick a World and most were already full apparently. I picked one of the open ones, Lich.

I was then greeted by a fairly robust character creator which was nice, however apparently most of the choices do have some sort of influence on different ingame stats, though upon googling the differences, they are pretty much negligible (I wonder if some people pick things they don't like, but have favorable stats for the job they want in order to minmax here. A bit of a shame if this is a thing).

I was then presented with 8 classes that seemed fairly traditional in nature.
I usually play Strong DPS melee dudes, but i wasn't exactly sure what each job does from the ingame descriptions so I have decided to research a tiny bit and learned that 2 of the melee ones are more focused on tanking, the other two are more DPS oriented.
I have decided to go for the Lancer, as not having an actual weapon and using my fists didn't appeal to me.
Upon further research i have learned there are a lot of more classes to unlock in the game, either by "upgrading" the current classes, or complete new ones you can switch into at around level 50.

The opening of the game was a terrible slog. A lot of conversations and wall of texts of things i don't care about (yet?), no voice acting, seemingly outdated animations and no combat involved.
You're then treated to a lot and i mean A LOT of text walls, dull fetch quests, backtracking, and once again none not even the main quest ones are voiced.

The game, also assumes you have never played an MMORPG, or any video game before.
I appreciate the effort to make this accessible for pretty much everyone, but as someone who isn't playing a video game for literally the first time, this was excruciating.

I was itching for some combat to actually experience the gameplay, and i assume that at some point i could have ignored most of these and go outside to fight, but i didn't want to miss vital information that i may need by not doing these starter quests.

Eventually i was finally sent out to kill some mobs ( Kill some squirls! yey ! ).
And the moment i hit my first enemy, it struck me.
GCD 2.5sec. The combat is very, very very slow.
Even with more moves unlocked later on, every move you make, gives you a near 3 second delay before you can do another move. This was devastating. I could feel literally my brain counting down the miliseconds of the delay between me chaining even something as basic as ability 1 and ability 2.
There's also no real way to avoid damage, enemies completely lock on you so unless you are ranged, you might as well seem to be standing still.
I assume later in the game, enemies will have AOE's that you will need to move away from, but still, this seems awfully static.

It seems that a lot of aspects of the game are slow upon further research. Traveling, moving around the map and although they are mounts, they seem to be restricted in a lot of ways.

I also have learned that as a free player, i can't even party anyone ( unless a paid player invites me himself) or add anyone to my friendlist. Why? What if i wanted to team up with other free players that are trying the game with me?

I continued trying to grind ( As this seems to be the most efficient way to gain exp, and because i was tired of meaningless tasks and endless text from the side quests) to see if something speeds up, but no.
Upon even further research, late in the game there are some abilities that aren't restricted by the GCD that you can weave in, but the combat itself doesn't REALLY speed up.

I also noticed, although the character models, when zoomed looked quite nice and rather fan service-y. The graphics and the engine itself seemed awfully outdated.
Sure GW2 isn't the biggest looker anymore, and the engine is quite dated as well as the game IS from 2012, but FF14 being a newer game, a bigger IP in general, and having far more income brought in and funding put into the game, it's a bit disheartining that the game.. doesn't look good.

At this point i've done further research. How late game works, how gear works, how many things that MMO's do, work here. and the more i read, the more disappointed i started feeling.

Now after having all these first impression thoughts and after learning a bit about the future, i had one final thought lingering on my mind.
Even if this DOES get better later on, do i really want to be buying the game all it's expansions AND be paying 13$ a month for this?


When this realization caught on to me, i swiftly exited, uninstalled and after some thought, came here for this post.

[Sgt. Magnusson]

GW2 bores me. No matchmaking for dungeons or any other group content because the developers think it's still the year 2004, so you gotta try LFG which at most of the time it's barren for a lot of that content. The story is hot garbage and so are the cutscenes. Weak transmog game, significantly lower number of skins despite GW2 being older than ARR, not to mention that you need transmogrify charges to apply the regular skins, so you gotta farm those or buy them for real money. The majority of the costumes have to be bought from the cash shop which cannot be mixed and matched with other pieces. You also gotta pay real money to change anything about your character or turn a lot of gold into gems just to do something as simple as changing your hair.

If FFXIV was more like GW2, I would have quit a long time ago. I'll gladly continue paying a sub for FFXIV if we can continue getting regular updates with quality content.

[LeftPaw]

Been with GW2 for years in fact still log on to do my daily's.
FFXIV is my main game now. Quick expo goes thus.
GW2 combat is boring. I avoid fights not because they are hard but because they are boring and frustrating.
GW2 has become a trippers dream. Flashing coloured vulgar lights everywhere you look. All helped by revolting gem store skins.
GW2 the story from hell. Honestly , if there was a prise for the worst story ever written GW2 would own it, not to mention 99.9% of the story is fighting mobs, the same mobs you fight every day. yawn.
GW2 loot, drops and market, all bent and twisted to the the end of a visits to the gem store. A-net are experts at sneaking into your pocket without you even realising it.
GW2 over all not a bad game. Definitely worth a try but it doesn't hold a candle to FFXIV.

[DaniTheHero]

I actually really appreciate the people who responded calmly and instead of making this an argument, provided some insight.

As i said before I wasn’t trying to pitch for you to switch games.

I was pointing out the things that made GW2 click for me, and pointed out things that near instantly put me off ff14.

The combat is slow. GCD isn’t for everybody. I have tried many MMORPGs in my life, and i have never played one where the combat felt so slow, unresponsive and lacked this much feedback.

I have also watched late game “rotations” and as some people described it, it is a bit faster and is sort of a mechanical dance but still far slower than even other tab target mmorpgs.

Presentation is important for a game that had itself biggest selling point being story, maybe later in the game this improves, but this sort of tutorial/prologue like beginning (That i understreches till at least level 50) is a complete bore and a slog.

The outdated animations and lack of voice acting at least for me, is noticeable.
GW2 has many flaws, i was obviously pointed out what worked for me and why i chose to play.

The micro transactions/loot box like lion chest doesn’t seem relevant for me. I have never, in the years i played the game bought any of it.
I have bought one purely cosmetic skin and one QOL feature, which you could get by exchanging ingame money anyways.

[DaniTheHero]

引用自 WetNose：

Been with GW2 for years in fact still log on to do my daily's.
FFXIV is my main game now. Quick expo goes thus.
GW2 combat is boring. I avoid fights not because they are hard but because they are boring and frustrating.
GW2 has become a trippers dream. Flashing coloured vulgar lights everywhere you look. All helped by revolting gem store skins.
GW2 the story from hell. Honestly , if there was a prise for the worst story ever written GW2 would own it, not to mention 99.9% of the story is fighting mobs, the same mobs you fight every day. yawn.
GW2 loot and drops, all bent and twisted to the the end of a visits to the gem store. A-net are experts at sneaking into your pocket without you even realising it.
GW2 over all not a bad game. Definitely worth a try but it doesn't hold a candle to FFXIV.

I agree about the story, or at least the more recent ones.

It seems that Arenanet is plagued by the ever growing SJW/woke attitude and diversity hires.

[Oku]

引用自 DaniTheHero：

I actually really appreciate the people who responded calmly and instead of making this an argument, provided some insight.

As i said before I wasn’t trying to pitch for you to switch games.

I was pointing out the things that made GW2 click for me, and pointed out things that near instantly put me off ff14.

The combat is slow. GCD isn’t for everybody. I have tried many MMORPGs in my life, and i have never played one where the combat felt so slow, unresponsive and lacked this much feedback.

I have also watched late game “rotations” and as some people described it, it is a bit faster and is sort of a mechanical dance but still far slower than even other tab target mmorpgs.

Presentation is important for a game that had itself biggest selling point being story, maybe later in the game this improves, but this sort of tutorial/prologue like beginning (That i understreches till at least level 50) is a complete bore and a slog.

The outdated animations and lack of voice acting at least for me, is noticeable.
GW2 has many flaws, i was obviously pointed out what worked for me and why i chose to play.

The micro transactions/loot box like lion chest doesn’t seem relevant for me. I have never, in the years i played the game bought any of it.
I have bought one purely cosmetic skin and one QOL feature, which you could get by exchanging ingame money anyways.

"I don't see any issues why a casino needs regulation, I have never been to one"

[TradingDough]

I only read the FF part since I played both and it was a very long read for a rant.

Yes the game caters to the old model of MMo players (Wow players and FF hard fans). Thats the only way you are going to enjoy (or be able to justify) paying a monthly fee for a game at this time.

Some are going to say that is better that it works better than f2p games or that works better than f2p filled with kids and p2w stores. But the time proved that it wasnt the case hence why the sub model almost disappear.

Now GW2 (2012) vs FF (2010)> One is a classic JRPG like all their previous games, while the other is a much modern gameplay trying to cater to the haters of the MMo,break the holy trinity and more while providing a more relaxed and less grindy experience.


In short> If you dont wanna grind, or read wall of text and a convoluted fantasy story. yes the game is gonna be super slow and boring.

There is a reason why new players find this game to be overwhelming and leave the game long before reaching the cap.

Pro tip if you didnt enjoy it at the beginning late game doesnt get better even if gets a bit "faster" for the dual rotation . you're gonna end up running 8 man group dungeon with 2 different tanks, 2 healers and 4 dps. But you have to level and play all jobs in your character.

So I think you already have "researched "the answer to your own post.

[DaniTheHero]

引用自 Kethriss：

引用自 DaniTheHero：

I actually really appreciate the people who responded calmly and instead of making this an argument, provided some insight.

As i said before I wasn’t trying to pitch for you to switch games.

I was pointing out the things that made GW2 click for me, and pointed out things that near instantly put me off ff14.

The combat is slow. GCD isn’t for everybody. I have tried many MMORPGs in my life, and i have never played one where the combat felt so slow, unresponsive and lacked this much feedback.

I have also watched late game “rotations” and as some people described it, it is a bit faster and is sort of a mechanical dance but still far slower than even other tab target mmorpgs.

Presentation is important for a game that had itself biggest selling point being story, maybe later in the game this improves, but this sort of tutorial/prologue like beginning (That i understreches till at least level 50) is a complete bore and a slog.

The outdated animations and lack of voice acting at least for me, is noticeable.
GW2 has many flaws, i was obviously pointed out what worked for me and why i chose to play.

The micro transactions/loot box like lion chest doesn’t seem relevant for me. I have never, in the years i played the game bought any of it.
I have bought one purely cosmetic skin and one QOL feature, which you could get by exchanging ingame money anyways.

"I don't see any issues why a casino needs regulation, I have never been to one"

That’s not the point i was making. I was saying that system doesn’t really add anything to the game. Since there is no real endgame gear/weapons/items and anything fashion related or ascended/legendary stuff is tied near exclusively to grinding.

[Oku]

引用自 DaniTheHero：

引用自 Kethriss：

"I don't see any issues why a casino needs regulation, I have never been to one"

That’s not the point i was making. I was saying that system doesn’t really add anything to the game. Since there is no real endgame gear/weapons/items and anything fashion related or ascended/legendary stuff is tied near exclusively to grinding.

It's not the point you were trying to make but it's the point you made anyway by trying to argue it's not relevant when it abso-♥♥♥♥♥♥♥-lutely is.

[DaniTheHero]

引用自 Kethriss：

引用自 DaniTheHero：

That’s not the point i was making. I was saying that system doesn’t really add anything to the game. Since there is no real endgame gear/weapons/items and anything fashion related or ascended/legendary stuff is tied near exclusively to grinding.

It's not the point you were trying to make but it's the point you made anyway by trying to argue it's not relevant when it abso-♥♥♥♥♥♥♥-lutely is.

So relevant that in 6+ years i never bought a single key nor know anyone that has?

Look, i’m not defending the existence of such a system as I’m obviously against it in principle, but comparing it to Ultimate team FIFa esc loot is dis genuine.

[DaniTheHero]

引用自 TradingDough：

I only read the FF part since I played both and it was a very long read for a rant.

Yes the game caters to the old model of MMo players (Wow players and FF hard fans). Thats the only way you are going to enjoy (or be able to justify) paying a monthly fee for a game at this time.

Some are going to say that is better that it works better than f2p games or that works better than f2p filled with kids and p2w stores. But the time proved that it wasnt the case hence why the sub model almost disappear.

Now GW2 (2012) vs FF (2010)> One is a classic JRPG like all their previous games, while the other is a much modern gameplay trying to cater to the haters of the MMo,break the holy trinity and more while providing a more relaxed and less grindy experience.


In short> If you dont wanna grind, or read wall of text and a convoluted fantasy story. yes the game is gonna be super slow and boring.

There is a reason why new players find this game to be overwhelming and leave the game long before reaching the cap.

Pro tip if you didnt enjoy it at the beginning late game doesnt get better even if gets a bit "faster" for the dual rotation . you're gonna end up running 8 man group dungeon with 2 different tanks, 2 healers and 4 dps. But you have to level and play all jobs in your character.

So I think you already have "researched "the answer to your own post.

Thank you for the truly honest response.

[Oku]

引用自 DaniTheHero：

引用自 Kethriss：

It's not the point you were trying to make but it's the point you made anyway by trying to argue it's not relevant when it abso-♥♥♥♥♥♥♥-lutely is.

So relevant that in 6+ years i never bought a single key nor know anyone that has?

Look, i’m not defending the existence of such a system as I’m obviously against it in principle, but comparing it to Ultimate team FIFa esc loot is dis genuine.

"I've never experienced addictive personality disorder and been predated on by corporations who view me as a whale to be milked for my entire life savings with unregulated gambling mechanics so that means it's not a problem"

It's a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ unregulated gambling mechanic built directly in to the loot system of a video game. It's EXACTLY the same as FIFA.

Jesus christ, dude.

[DaniTheHero]

引用自 Kethriss：

引用自 DaniTheHero：

So relevant that in 6+ years i never bought a single key nor know anyone that has?

Look, i’m not defending the existence of such a system as I’m obviously against it in principle, but comparing it to Ultimate team FIFa esc loot is dis genuine.

"I've never experienced addictive personality disorder and been predated on by corporations who view me as a whale to be milked for my entire life savings with unregulated gambling mechanics so that means it's not a problem"

It's a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ unregulated gambling mechanic built directly in to the loot system of a video game. It's EXACTLY the same as FIFA.

Jesus christ, dude.

引用自 Kethriss：

引用自 DaniTheHero：

So relevant that in 6+ years i never bought a single key nor know anyone that has?

Look, i’m not defending the existence of such a system as I’m obviously against it in principle, but comparing it to Ultimate team FIFa esc loot is dis genuine.

"I've never experienced addictive personality disorder and been predated on by corporations who view me as a whale to be milked for my entire life savings with unregulated gambling mechanics so that means it's not a problem"

It's a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ unregulated gambling mechanic built directly in to the loot system of a video game. It's EXACTLY the same as FIFA.

Jesus christ, dude.

I don’t know if you’re intentionally missing the point or I’m just bad at explaining mine due to my own language barrier.

1. Yes friend, every loot box system in any game as a whole is bad and shouldn’t exist.
2. This system, although once again being inherently problematic, has no real GAMEPLAY impact.

They drop items that are already gem items, cosmetic/qol stuff ,most you can buy directly anyways, and account bound weapon skins (ones you can’t sell).

Saying that somehow these chests break the game is absurd. Pretty much everything in them is cosmetic or minor qol stuff.
There is really no reason to buy keys.

[Oku]

引用自 DaniTheHero：

引用自 Kethriss：

"I've never experienced addictive personality disorder and been predated on by corporations who view me as a whale to be milked for my entire life savings with unregulated gambling mechanics so that means it's not a problem"

It's a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ unregulated gambling mechanic built directly in to the loot system of a video game. It's EXACTLY the same as FIFA.

Jesus christ, dude.

引用自 Kethriss：

"I've never experienced addictive personality disorder and been predated on by corporations who view me as a whale to be milked for my entire life savings with unregulated gambling mechanics so that means it's not a problem"

It's a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ unregulated gambling mechanic built directly in to the loot system of a video game. It's EXACTLY the same as FIFA.

Jesus christ, dude.

I don’t know if you’re intentionally missing the point or I’m just bad at explaining mine due to my own language barrier.

1. Yes friend, every loot box system in any game as a whole is bad and shouldn’t exist.
2. This system, although once again being inherently problematic, has no real GAMEPLAY impact.

They drop items that are already gem items, cosmetic/qol stuff ,most you can buy directly anyways, and account bound weapon skins (ones you can’t sell).

Saying that somehow these chests break the game is absurd. Pretty much everything in them is cosmetic or minor qol stuff

If it's part of the loot pool, it's influencing gameplay.
If it's advertised in the base HUD for the game at all times, it's influencing gameplay.
If it comes at the expense of items contained within not being in the loot pool, it's influencing gameplay.

Just because YOU, PERSONALLY, are not affected by it, does not mean it does not affect others. Any argument you try to present to the contrary is objectively wrong.

[LeftPaw]

引用自 J：

too much walking. slow grind burns you out. gcd. Gw2 was a bit the same. After forcing to level up a character to a high level it kind of burns you out. This is what all mmos are like. This includes ESO. although out of all of em eso has more fun pvp and dungeons and the equipment feels/looks better imo. Ive stopped playing both eso and gw2 and after this sub for ff14 ill prob stop for it too.

You don't see it coming but when you get to higher levels in GW2 the real grind starts in earnest. F*** I was playing all day and at the end of that day had not done a f***** thing but grind for mats or some other trash A-Net had invented (money magic). As I said, you don't see it coming. There comes a point were your not playing a game anymore , your getting up and going to work. There is no excitement, joy, fun nor enjoyment, just greed, drive and want for that next bit of s*** gear that does **** all useful.

[Jin-]

引用自 smug anime girl：

It is nice how gw2 doesn't charge a monthly fee. I wish this was the norm.

Then the norm would be aswell to lack of content and shady item store charging you for every little thing and game made intentionally frustrating with limitations.

I'd rather pay to get regular content and mostly bug free experience. 12€ is nothing for that.