FINAL FANTASY ONLINE 2-2 Not shit edition

[Friday]

Started the Dark Knight questline, still plugging away at Warrior but I'm doing leveling daily on DRK now.

So far they're about tied in terms of what I prefer mechanically, the Warrior is more about managing your rage to optimize Berserk cooldowns and the Dark Knight is more about just passively juggling slightly more. Both are a blast to play, so I don't know which I'll end up maining.

Ishgard rules the music there is rad Fray seems appropriately dickish for a dark knight trainer, 10/10.

Meanwhile the fights and dungeons have been increasingly engaging, challenging and fun, so that's good. My favorite so far has been Midgardsormr "No really, don't stand in the fucking fire" Dickhead Dragon Dungeon, with Einhander reference and a really fun training session for "Don't stand in the fire what the fuck are you doing monk no get out of the -- god damn it" Magitek Gunship second boss.

[Blossom]

Started the Dark Knight questline, still plugging away at Warrior but I'm doing leveling daily on DRK now.

So far they're about tied in terms of what I prefer mechanically, the Warrior is more about managing your rage to optimize Berserk cooldowns and the Dark Knight is more about just passively juggling slightly more. Both are a blast to play, so I don't know which I'll end up maining.

Ishgard rules the music there is rad Fray seems appropriately dickish for a dark knight trainer, 10/10.

Meanwhile the fights and dungeons have been increasingly engaging, challenging and fun, so that's good. My favorite so far has been Midgardsormr "No really, don't stand in the fucking fire" Dickhead Dragon Dungeon, with Einhander reference and a really fun training session for "Don't stand in the fire what the fuck are you doing monk no get out of the -- god damn it" Magitek Gunship second boss.

Eventually, Dark Knight gets a bar similar to the Beast Gauge - Souleater adds 20, spells and weaponskills in Blood Weapon add 10, spend 50 for a 600 potency weaponskill. Warrior, meanwhile, gets a lot simpler - Berserk gets "Nothing costs Beast Gauge" as an added effect, so the rotation just becomes 5 Fell Cleaves with an Onslaught and an Upheaval inside it.

[Wheels]

Fray seems appropriately dickish for a dark knight trainer, 10/10.

Oh yeah, Dark Knight trainer is a HUGE dick. Actually the worst person of all time.

[Mongrel]

So when are y'all gonna post pictures of your pretty princesses.

[Niku]

i haven't left the gold saucer in weeks (mostly because i have not been seriously playing since i went on vacation (also i still haven't bought the pants to go with the jacket))

[François]

I started the free trial because this thread piqued my curiosity, and it turns out this is the only MMO I've ever tried that didn't make me immediately want to quit, so...




Not quite a princess yet, but working on it!

Oh, wait, come to think of it, Granado Espada took like thirty hours to make me want to quit. Huh. Man, I don't know if that makes it better or worse than the ones I bounced off of after only thirty minutes.

[Blossom]

I do love her.

[pacobird]

Considering reactivating. Was anything especially good added in Shadowbringers or is it more of the (still rather good - don't get me wrong) same?

[Z%rø]

These days I mostly do interior decorating. Adventuring is for chumps.

So when are y'all gonna post pictures of your pretty princesses.

Considering reactivating. Was anything especially good added in Shadowbringers or is it more of the (rather good - don't get me wrong) same?

Story is the best yet. Dungeons in Shadowbringers can be run with NPCs that are competent.

As far as "new features" nothing really jumped out of me - but then again I mostly completed the story/dungeons and peaced out. I think it's worth it.

[Blossom]

Crafting is overhauled to be significantly more accessible, while still complex enough to be involved. The UI for it is much improved.

The ability to use Quick Gathering and auto-gather at nodes makes gathering a lot easier. You can set timers for unspoiled nodes.

Combat is streamlined a lot, many jobs had cruft removed for the sake of flow. Knowing the specific jobs you're used to and the specific point of comparison would allow for easier detailing. TP isn't a thing anymore, and every job is fixed at 10k MP with fixed MP costs for abilities at every level.

Fates in new zones reward currency that you can use to buy crafting components dropped by enemies in the zone, so you aren't gated behind retainers and farming kills to get them.

There's a New Game + mode to replay MSQ, I've been going through Stormblood alongside a friend who's seeing it for the first time.

Two new races, two new jobs.

Lots and lots of little QoL stuff. 5 more glamour plates, doubled glamour dresser size. Challenge log is better. Hard to list all the little stuff.

MSQ dungeons can be run with NPC Trusts, instead of through the Duty Finder, and it's recommended that your first time through be done that way because the characters have things to say in there.

Plus, of course, the new story.

[Friday]

Hey guys whats up it's your girl Friday here

ever since I took up Dark Knight as my secondary class weird things have been happening to me and my clothes



here I am reading a typical Mongrel post



I showed you my inner darkness please respond

[McDohl]

Yeah, we have the uplifts on lock, we just got really sloppy last night, didnt even get to Orogenesis, the start of the final phase.

But last night was our reclear night, because we couldn't go on Tuesday, so here's hoping to some good Prog on Monday, maybe even a clear.

[McDohl]

I do stream our raid nights on Twitch, if you wanna see a controlled shitshow with butt and dick jokes, at

twitch.tv/tyrmcdohl

Once we finally get the end of E4S on lock, we're gonna try our hand at Ult Alexander

[Blossom]

Honestly, it's phase 1 messing up that hitches most of our reclear attempts. That, or a healing failure in phase three. Phase 2 is ... easy, relatively.

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/504201528 My raid lead streams our attempts, though I don't think she's been archiving lately. But this is the video of our first clear. Wasn't super-clean! But if a BLM perspective offers anything useful, the only real issues were a healer getting yote off to a landslide in phase 1 and a failure to Benedicition a Living Dead in phase 3, and both were quickly recovered before it mattered.

[Blossom]

And, relatedly. Got a new gun this week.

[Mongrel]

"Naow mate, THIS is a gun!"

[Friday]

I started the free trial because this thread piqued my curiosity, and it turns out this is the only MMO I've ever tried that didn't make me immediately want to quit, so...

There are a couple of standout things about ff14 I've noticed so far, coming from a WoW vet and a Guild Wars vet (and a dabbling a few other MMOs besides)

1. The Effort that this game goes to tell a story is... a lot. I don't really -enjoy- the MSQ mechanically because it's just a lot of pointless busywork, but the effort to actually have characters having character and doing stuff and building a world and politics and etc etc is impressive and I respect the effort as a worldbuilder myself *pushes up glasses*

2. the community is like, super nice? I don't understand, does Blizzard just have a giant douchebag magnet that sucks all the toxic shitheads from all over the internet unto itself? I have met exactly one guy who acted like a douche and it was fairly minor. Nobody is calling me a useless sack of shit, fucking bad, a racial slur, and that I should uninstall on the daily? What is even happening? People respond politely when asked questions? People sometimes even volunteer boss battle mechanics and things to look out for without being asked if they notice a first timer is with them and will always explain if asked? What fucking insane bizzaro world where human beings act like human beings and not violent murderous psychopaths have I stumbled into? the fuck is going on?

3. the combat and the bosses are really engaging and fun. They put a lot of effort into designing bosses that aren't total shit, unlike pretty much every other MMO I have ever played.

I haven't done the PVP at all yet, so I feel if that is also engaging and interesting this game will have it pretty much in the bag for me.

[Blossom]

I'm not sure quite where you're at in the MSQ, but ... well, questing is and always will be questing, but things do tighten a lot starting in Heavensward. I think that ARR up to 50 is a lot more of a gradual burn, establishing and raising stakes, and the post-Praetorium stuff really does do a great job immersing you in what you're doing, but with Heavensward it's a lot more direct. Brushing the horsebirds worked, damnit.

There's an element of self-preservation involved in help, I feel. I ran the newest dungeon with a healer who'd never seen it today, so I took a moment before each boss to briefly explain major mechanics. Didn't take long, and they didn't mess up and wipe us, so we saved more time than we might have lost. They aren't that hard to figure out just from situational awareness, but it's nice to have the primer. As I've been walking a friend of mine through the MSQ recently, I do briefings on the trials and raids, and we tend to clear quickly. It helps to have a little idea of what's coming, and it hurts nobody to be nice about it, y'know?

I won't say there aren't assholes out there, but ... this game has a nicer community than most.

[Büge]

I have met exactly one guy who acted like a douche and it was fairly minor.

Me too.

Hey, maybe it was the same guy!

[Niku]

i'm right here y'all