Looking for input if this game is for me

Rattenmann

Just a few simply questions about stuff that keeps me around in MMOs. Pretty much ordered by how important it is for me.

 

1. Trinity: Can we play a Tank / Healer / CC / DD group? Is there CC in the game at all?
2. Group friendly: Can i pick this game up with my GF and a few buddys and level / play together? Together like "not slowing things down due to not soloing".
3. Can we just go out and grind dungeons and skip questing alltogether?
4. Are there worthwhile quests that offer rewards that we absolutly want to do?
5. Instancing: How bad is it? Is there a world to explore, or do we cue up in a town and port to whereever? Is it as bad as in ESO. We could stand on top of each other and not see eachother due to having one quest done different....

 

Thats all the infos i (we) want. Please don't take this as a flame bait or anything. We definitly don't want that. Just plain out honest answers are enough. Reading the reviews it is hard to see what the game is about between all the blind praise or blind hate.

Hyanmen

1. Trinity is alive and well. CC/utility actions are divided between all the classes.

2. There's soloing parts in the game and grouping parts; dungeons and smaller guildhests for 4 people. I think most of the exp comes from finishing quests, so you might be able to finish quite a few open world quests together while progressing nicely. Some quest battles must be cleared solo so some inconvenience is to be expected in that regard.

3. You need to play through the main questline once to unlock all the features as the game is very story-centric. For the second class and beyond, you may do whatever you prefer. Dungeon grinding is feasible and quite efficient.

4. The main questline is the most important one but you cannot miss it. Some sidequests for optional dungeons and features are scattered across the levels.

5. There is no phasing in the sense that you can't see other players in the open world. Instancing is restricted to dungeons and guildhests.

 

 

dancingstar

1. Group content is based around tank / heal / DPS trinity -- each of the ten combat jobs is assigned to one role & there are no pure support classes; CC abilities (sleep / stun / silence / root / slow) & group / ally buffs are split between classes in all 3 groups.

2. For much of the game, both levelling & at max level there are strong advantages to playing as a group. However, players are initially (up to level 15) split up between 3 regions / starting cities according to their initial combat class & the main story and class / job quests include a number of solo sections.

3. No. Most dungeons below max level are unlocked through the main story quest. Max level dungeons require completion of the main story quest before they can be unlocked. Grinding dungeons is one of the better way of levelling alt jobs especially if you're doing so as a group & so don't have to wait for a tank in the Duty Finder (auto-group tool).

4. Not sure I understand the question. Or rather, I don't know what you personally consider "worthwhile" & what quest rewards you want.

5. Wolrd zones do not uses instances / channels / phases; everyone in a given zone on a given server is in the same copy of the zone & can theoretically see & chat with each other. This can lead to some performance degradation when 200+ people zone in to fight a world boss.

Some main story and class / job quests use instanced copies of small areas of the world zones. Quest based phasing is limited to individual friendly NPCs & interactable objects, so you might see one NPC in a particular place if you're on a certain point in the story quest, while other players not on that quest might not see them.

There are 17 adventure zones with varying level ranges; compared to many other MMOs zones are somewhat small and cramped (not on the FF XIII level of corridor-like, not that that's much of a compliment). More are to be added in the upcoming expansion.

The zones used for Free Company (guild) & player housing use persistent instanced copies of the 3 maps (1 attached to each starter city).

EDITED TO ADD: As I understand it, what PvP there is in this game is confined to instanced arenas / battlegrounds.

Rattenmann

So groups are limited to 4 people? Did i get that right?

Most of the points seem to actually sound ok. So we would have to do some solo unlocks to get past certain points, but could progress as a team most of the time?

 

So kind of like "we group up untill we hit this roadblock for the evening, everyone does that task alone and we group up again next day"?

dancingstar

Originally posted by Rattenmann

So groups are limited to 4 people? Did i get that right?

Not quite. Some instanced content -- dungeons, most guildhests (instanced fights that are basically practice for dungeon type mechanics) and the first three "trials" (instanced single boss fights) are limited to 4 players. For all open world content and other instanced content (raids and all other "trials") max party size is 8.

EDIT: to clear up any confusions that may have been caused between this & the post below: 3 8-player full parties can form an "alliance" & one raid series -- the easier one -- requires such a 24-player alliance.

Unknown

Originally posted by Rattenmann

So groups are limited to 4 people? Did i get that right?

Most of the points seem to actually sound ok. So we would have to do some solo unlocks to get past certain points, but could progress as a team most of the time?

 

So kind of like "we group up untill we hit this roadblock for the evening, everyone does that task alone and we group up again next day"?

There are 4-man dungeons and 8-man dungeons. And raids are 3 8-man groups, so a total of 24 people.

Making an open world party can go up to 8-man.

Warlyx

Originally posted by Rattenmann

So groups are limited to 4 people? Did i get that right?

Most of the points seem to actually sound ok. So we would have to do some solo unlocks to get past certain points, but could progress as a team most of the time?

 

So kind of like "we group up untill we hit this roadblock for the evening, everyone does that task alone and we group up again next day"?

there are groups of 4 for dungeons and guildhests , until lvl 48ish u wont do anything that req more than 4 , after that is dungeons 4 man and trials/raids 8 or 24 man

the main issue is that if you want to play lets say gladiator and your gf conjurer , u will start in ulda and she will start in grindania (cities).

is a bit hard to understand , since there are skills that u can SHARE among other classes , but first u need to adquire it

Lets all start in the same city , since 1-15 is the tutorial and after that u get Airship pass and can travel to other cities

the best starting city for newbies is Uldah for 2 reasons

Tanks : ppl that want to tank are going to need to level gladiator no matter what for provoke (Taunt)

Melees: will need to level Monk no matter what for the buffs

Healers/casters : no healers in uldah! ooohhh!! , but u gonna need to level Thaumaturge anyway for crossskills (swiftcast)

so the plan is level doing quest toguether until u open airship, with gladiator , monk and thaumaturge

after that u all are able to travel to other cities , go open that class (lancer , archer , rogue or whatever) and start with those job again , since is the 2nd job will get a 50% exp boost , so go lvl your desired  class now! 

tanks will get Marauder from limsa u gonna need to level it anyway :P

Healers : go conjurer since is the only healer up until 30 and if u want to be scholar , u will need to lvl conjurer anyway

DPS : if u wanted to lvl monk , lvl lancer a bit now , for blm , lvl arcanist now , other jobs:  lancer is the most important job to keep leveled

 

things forced to do SOLO

Class quest : is a test of skill so makes sense

Some main story quest , that are phased so u can enjoy the story on your own. but that takes 2-min to do

there is fast teleportation system (think gw2 ) so if some one need to go across the world for some class quest , can go do it and come back in no time :P

Rattenmann

Thanks for your replys.

Will try and see if i can get a few of my friends to start and see how it goes :-)