Originally posted by skeeby
Hey all, Ive been wanting to try this game out for a while and finally did some upgrading on my PC so i can finally handle it. Im looking for someone that ACTUALLY PLAYS this game to lend me a buddy key (yes lend, if i like the game ill buy a copy and give u ur key back if u want).
Murugan, I know u said you wanted an essay but Im a bit of an introvert and not really that great at expressing what im looking for in a game, but I can tell u the one of the biggest things i look for in an online game. I believe the social aspect is crucial. I remember forming parties in final fantasy xi, meeting great people from all over the globe, and just setting up shop and goin on a killing spree. Nothing beats dicking around with a bunch of new friends online =).
So yeah, if you still enjoy your time in game and have a buddy pass available, please send me one! Id love to join you!
A healthy respect for the social aspect in MMO's is crucial to appreciating FFXIV, that being said the party search function is still not up to par with FFXI's unfortunately. When searching for people seeking a party (this was just introduced in the last patch) you are restricted to searching for people LFG only by one class at a time, can't give a level range, and still cannot use the auto-translate in the comment field.
We'll see once Darkhold/To-to-rak fever dies down a bit how xp parties fare in this post patch environment. On the one hand there should be plenty of incentive to form them, but they weren't really the focus of this patch. Unfortunately we are not getting mob distribution looked at and XP chains both slated to really give those a boost until 1.2, but 1.19's beastman strongholds may be helpful too. Keep in mind as I described in my party above it is absolutely possible to XP in parties like that, but it is not quite up to par with FFXI in this sense yet.
Originally posted by rfs671
Hey, Murugan,
Thanks for the lengthy and awesome response. I apologize, I thought patch 1.18 was already live. You do make the game seem quite exciting as is though haha, but i do realize the whole youre mileage will vary warning.
Sorry to make your hard work feel useless, but I will probably wait to hear what the changes will be like once 1.18 is live. They seem pretty ambitious with these patches, and if they handle 1.18 well then I have faith that they will handle the other patches well At least well enough to warrant a purchase.
Once again, thank you, your post was extremely informative!
1.18 was released on the 21st however I have not gotten a chance to play through all of its changes yet since i don't play as much on weekends. I did do Darkhold though (the r50 instance) and it was great, I loved the boss fights, and the zone itself.
I also got some time in with the new battle system, along with auto-attack, the removal of the stamina bar, and the new emnity system/gauge: there were also some adjustments made to class abillities. It will take some time for a lot of people to adjust to all these massive changes. I do like the feel of combat better now than I did before, all abilities now feel like they are more impactful, self buffs now feel a lot more useful and I've begun to go more in depth with macro's where before due to the stamina bar I tried to stay from them to be as efficient as possible.
Playing both my Pugilist in Darkhold, and taking my conjurer from 11-14 for raise (now pretty much a staple for everyone since it has been lowered to rank 14) I have to say I enjoy the changes I no longer feel like I am spamming and it feels like I have the freedom to do more with my battle strategy per encounter.
I plan to get an XP party on my archer to try and hit 50 tonight/tomorrow, so I'll let you know how that experience went post-1.18.