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GW2 and FF14 Questions
flguy147
Member UncommonPosts: 507
Hey everybody, i am looking for my next MMORPG. Down to GW2 and FF14. Read that GW2 is more pvp and FF14 is more pve. I love both just want the best game is all. But a couple quick questions.
1. How toxic is the endgame communities. As in if you are learning endgame mechanics, how much kicking from a group, raid or do group/raid leaders just start yelling at people for wiping. Do they take the time to teach new player the mechanics. I just feel like nowadays people seem less likely to help in MMOs then they would 10-15 years ago.
2. How much theorycrafting is at endgame. The one thing love about ESO is the amount of PVP theorycrafting.
3. As somebody who has a hectic schedule with kids and life, its extremely hard for me to sign up or set aside times for raids or endgame content. Like signing up at 8 pm on Saturday night for a raid. Things can change an hour before the raid due to kids. How easy is it to spontaneously jump in raids, endgame pvp, etc?
Thanks in advance and any other things you want to share about these games would be greatly appreciated.
1. How toxic is the endgame communities. As in if you are learning endgame mechanics, how much kicking from a group, raid or do group/raid leaders just start yelling at people for wiping. Do they take the time to teach new player the mechanics. I just feel like nowadays people seem less likely to help in MMOs then they would 10-15 years ago.
2. How much theorycrafting is at endgame. The one thing love about ESO is the amount of PVP theorycrafting.
3. As somebody who has a hectic schedule with kids and life, its extremely hard for me to sign up or set aside times for raids or endgame content. Like signing up at 8 pm on Saturday night for a raid. Things can change an hour before the raid due to kids. How easy is it to spontaneously jump in raids, endgame pvp, etc?
Thanks in advance and any other things you want to share about these games would be greatly appreciated.
Comments
The good side, if you can call it that, is that AFIK, GW2 is kinda bleeding players, so guilds are always looking for members to join them, but you will need to do your diligence to make sure they can be a means to get you into raiding, they might claim to be a raiding guild, but in reality of their 300 members, 10 raid, and they only raid with each other.
2) Theorycrafting in GW2, not so much, it pretty much boils down to Meta builds and following a rotation for optimal performance. But the good side is, if you are just looking to screw around, almost anything can work. When you get to the end game, it changes quite a bit.
3) Pug raids do not happen in GW2, no matter what anyone tells you, you are not going to log in and join a pug raid in GW2. The only "Pug" raids out there are the ones being sold.
Endgame PvP however, like WvW, is super easy to jump into, unless you are on off time, and then you discover that the only active map is EBG, the commander expects you to join discord so they can scream at the whole squad in german or something.
I have no idea about ESO, I only played a little bit.
Guild Wars 2's PvE, arena PvP, and realm vs. realm PvP are segregated. The emphasis is far more on PvE than PvP, though there are dedicated communities for all 3 modes.
1. The overall PvE scene is one of the friendliest you'll find, as there is no competition for loot, mobs, or resource nodes. The endgame PvE scene is not especially toxic. In regards to PvE, toxicity is rare and is mainly focused around conflicts regarding farming exploits. Raids and fractals are a toxic or as non-toxic as you make them (hint, find a guild). The PvP scene and especially the WvW scene is every bit as toxic as any other game I've played. Especially WvW where there's a conflict of interest between dedicated WvW players and PvE players who just want rewards.
2. The theorycrafting at endgame is far less pronounced than in its predecessor, but it's roughly equivalent to that of ESO. I'd actually consider both build systems to be pretty similar.
Also, both GW2 and ESO share the problem of the best players doing multiple times the damage of average ones. In ESO, this primarily comes down to animation canceling exploits. In GW2, proper rotations and maintaining buffs are far more important than your build or gear.
3. Endgame raids are really something you should schedule ahead. They are far more mechanics-driven than anything else, so it takes practice to actually beat bosses, and random groups usually lack the cohesion necessary. That said, endgame fractals are actually more rewarding than raids and divided into bite-sized chunks that fit better into a busy schedule. Not all fractals are equal, of course. Some fractals can be done in minutes, while others might run you over a half hour with an average or below average PUG.
They aren't substantially more profitable than other content streams. Now, once your guild gets experienced enough to farm a half dozen or so bosses (for us, Wing 1 and Wing 4 were by far the easiest to farm), you can make a fair chunk of change and potentially a couple ascended gear drops in a night. But this is very much comparable to daily fractal rewards. And during progression nights (learning to fight a new boss), you're actually going to be LOSING gold due to food buffs. And well, some of the bosses really are too difficult to consistently farm.
If all you care about is gold and obtaining your top tier stat gear (ascended), you can skip them and just focus on Fractals or the current living world map farms. You can even obtain equivalent legendary gear (without the unique skins) in PvP and WvW. (The difference between ascended and legendary is solely that stats can be swapped at will.)
I'm going to agree with Ungood, partially, in that PUG raid groups really aren't a thing. They exist, but they do gate players behind kill proofs (insights). You could call that toxic, but it really comes down to a need to be familiar with mechanics. You can't clear content if you have to train new raiders for hours on end.
A content update consists of a new open PvE zone, multi-instance story chapter, and possibly a new Raid and/or Fractal.
There have also been two expansions, with a third on the way. These happen at about a 2-3 year interval at my estimation, and pack the equivalent of about 4-5 content updates at once, plus new advanced class options and other features.
GW2 is B2P, no sub required, that makes a difference for some people. FFXIV still will require a sub (at least past the original release content).
Both have fantastic communities.
Neither really cater to PvP.... even GW2 - the PvP there is not what most PVPers would call good. It exists, that's about the best thing anyone will say about PvP in either title. If you are a true PvPer, look elsewhere.
Both have great storylines. FFXIV recently did a storyline overhaul to make it more streamlined (it was sorely needed).
Expansions, both games on about the same cadence: FFXIV gets a major expansion about every two years, and they have been AMAZING. GW2 gets a major expansion in about the same time frame, they have been... not quite the same level, but not bad.
Both games get minor content bumps about every 2-3 months.
FFXIV is extremely active. GW2 is fairly active. Neither are anywhere near dead.
FFXIV has an end game gear grind, GW2 is end game cosmetic grind. FFXIV has end game "group content" in the form of higher difficulty 8-man encounters (Extreme mode encounters), GW2 is ... not really sure what end game is there to be honest with you.
The biggest difference (apart from end game gear/cosmetics) is the fact that GW2 encourages alts, whereas FFXIV, one character can play all classes and change almost at will.
I couldn't honestly point you in any one direction, both are great games, in different ways. I would recommend at least getting through the main story line in both and keeping current.
End game in EVERY game is garbage,a lazy effort from developers,a poor reason to stick around.End game is also typically fought in an instance setting,i say setting because yes you can be instanced even in the open world.
I gave up on mmorpg's entirely,they have not advanced nor have they tried to advance,by that i mean adding more to the games to make them more of a RPG than a level grinder>end game.
I don't see me ever returning to mmorpg's unless soem magical developer pops out of thin air that also happens to have a lot of money,a large team of skilled pros and doesn't like Wow and has a vision of what a rpg world and characters should really be like.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
So going back to your question of being able to get into the GW2 end game raid with a hectic schedule, well since you already said you like both games, so I am going to wager that you have been playing both game, but have not gotten close to the end game in either, so I will lay that out for you,
Take a good look at the picture in this post, Li and Kp stand for Legendary Insights and Kill Proofs. This means, the ONLY way you will get into a Pug raid, is if you are an already very experienced raider.
To be blunt, unlike some other content in GW2, like Fractals and Dungeons, where you can just join a PuG and do the content, the only way you will get into doing raids will really happen is if you get into a guild that is not only actively raiding, but also very understanding of your situation and schedule.
Raids provide the only PvE legendary Armor in the game, with their own cosmetic. Unlike Ascended as you know, Legendary Armor and Weapons, can be outfitted simultaneously across ALL your characters once they make 80th, and can change stats at will, making them the End Game Gear of GW2.
Raids also provide some other very unique cosmetics and items as well, and as far as PvE goes, they are THE end game content.
There are strike missions, which were marketed as something like pre-raid content, or raid-light content, but I know nothing about them, I simply had no motive or interest in learning about them when they came out, but you as a new players, they might end up being something that appeals to you, but, I can't offer you any insight into that.
As for GW2 Updates, they often always have things going on, it feels like the game is active on the updates.
Each game is different with pluses and minuses. There is no ONE MMO that rules them all as they all have flaws. What the OP needs to decide, is what is more important, as far as game design to play.
GW2 has a decent story, at least the lore is deep and even players add to the lore. The combat is action based and dodges are key as well as knowing how skill synergy affects your damage. There really is no Trinity in GW2, people say there is but that is undermined because you don't need it, in game, to actually succeed in Strike, RAIDs, or Fractal missions. I have done them w/o and we had no issues.
I tried the free trial. I wanted to be a dragoon. But starting off as a lancer, my GCD was measured in seconds and that is just so far from anything that could be considered fun.
Makes it really nice if you have a friend or guildy who is lower level and needs help. You don't just go in a face roll the zone and deprive them of getting to experience the content.