Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Which class did you enjoy most?
Rohh
Member Posts: 87
Haven't seen a poll so...
I only got GLA to 20, but it seemed pretty strait forward. I tanked most of my MMO career, the dungeon mechanics seemed typical MMO fair but extremely polished. This is not necessarily a bad thing unless you're looking for non-traditional, gimmicky combat systems. Not a lot of variation at low levels but it started expanding near 20. Dungeons were well done, not too long not too short. Nice mechanics, as long as they can provide enough content I see this game doing fairly well.
It seems people have realized that there is not a messiah MMO coming to save us from the original formula that has done so well. (at least for a while) It will hold my attention for the time being and that's all that matters.
Which class did you enjoy most from open beta weekend?
Comments
Honestly, i started out as gladiator to tank with a group of friends, finished the main story with him to get out of ul'dah, after trying the other classes to level 10, i really fell for conjurer, i love healing, and it suited me well, so i got to 20 with him. I was quite suprised with archer and pugilist, i really see myself being a pugilist or archer dps..
my main 3 classes
Conjurer
Archer
Pugilist.
Archer -> Bard, all the way. Though healing on the Conjurer was interesting, having cast times kind of made me pay a little attention, something I haven't had to do in an MMO for a long time (everything is instant these days).
Whilst I played a Guardian for awhile, I didn't do any group content with it, might end up unlocking Paladin at some point, as I usually play a tank, but for now, I want my Bard first.
Pugilist.
It's such a fun, active class, I get bored playing any other class lol.
Still spread kind of even. This might end up like WoW or CoH for me (altoholic). Then again it's not really an alt if you max them.
.
In a world of sharp knives, you would be a spoon.
I'm still on the fence between lancer and pugilist. The pugilist just feels like a lot more active class, more challenging to do well because of the time limits between combos and the positional requirements to do optimal DPS.
The lancer on the other hand, feels like a solid workhorse. I have combos that can be used when going toe to toe, and another combo that opens up later that can be used from behind. The leg sweep gives me additional utility in group content, gives me something to do about an enemy's telegraphed attack rather than just making sure to stay out of the cone.
EDIT : I'd have to disagree with an earlier poster saying that pugilist DPS isn't up to par with lancer. From memory, I think I've pulled aggro from the tank more often in pugilist than in lancer... but that was in phase 3 where the lvl limit was 30. The extra stack of greased lightning plus the damage buff combo you get at higher levels makes a big difference.
If I were to make another comparison between pugilist and lancer, I'd say that pugilist feels like the more offensive minded of the two, with the lancer having more defensive options.
In P3 i played a marauder, didn't seem that fun.
In P4 i got a conjurer to 20 and i liked it and played a bit with an archer and it was good too. I guess i will be going towards a bard as my first job on release and maybe whitemage.
The long GCD makes playing any DPS excruciatingly boring. Pugilist is probably the most fun because atleast you have to move. Thaumaturge isn't too bad either since its naturally nuke based.
The utter lack of mobility makes playing a tank pretty boring too., to go along with the long GCD.
The only role that remained interesting was healing, so in party based scenarios my vote would have to go to Conjurer, although playing a conjuror in solo combat will make you want to kill yourself.
TLDR: Archer & pugilist for slightly different play style, lancer just because they hit hard. Everything else was very generic and repetitive amongst themselves.
The classes in FFXIV are so streamlined and ultimately similar in design. It's somewhat of a bummer. Having tried all classes at least a little I found they all had very similar core setups, at least at first. I'd imagine by endgame they all have one thing they do somewhat well and different from others even if the mechanics for doing that one thing are generic. Very low number of skills/attacks, not a whole lot of thinking involved, no clue why they went with a 2.5s GCD when the system is already ultra simplistic. The jobs don't really look like that add too much to the mix. Fortunately the cross class skill thing will let you have some customization and augment the otherwise very streamlined and vanilla base classes.
I hate to mention WoW because it incites people to violence even though most MMORPGs are derivative of WoW these days and saying WoW sucks is like saying all MMORPGs suck...but... One thing that WoW does really well is classes. Each class feels very distinct and has mechanics that differentiate it when it's somewhat similar to other classes.
For ex, paladins, warriors, rogues, DKs - all melee, but all have a different mechanic - mana, rage, combo points - something that helps make them distinct and play a little different. All of these classes usually have a variety of attacks too. Hit em hard, or make em bleed, or mix it up - your choice. You have nothing like that in FFXIV. There are a bunch of melee classes and they feel kind of similar. Archer feels like a melee at range, it lacks that extra oomph to differentiate it (other than the potential to be at range sometimes) - it even has the same sound effects! WoW's mage is a pure DD caster and AE'r. Warlock is DoT focused with pets. There is no real DoT caster in FFXIV. There are DoTs, but no DoT specialst. ARC and CNJ are very similar for DPS styles and not too different from THM.
WoW has multiple tank classes with different mechanics, multiple healers with different styles and mechanics. WoW has talents and even different builds in the same class (say disc healer priest vs holy healer priest) play very differently. FFXIV doesn't have talents or anything like it - you can blend in cross class skills but it'll be a stretch to call those minor variations "builds." There are very simplistic passives you get automatically as you level that mostly exist to prevent cross class skills from being overpowered for too dissimilar of class mixes (for ex, using a healer cure spell on a melee that has no mind attribute would be a waste of time, even moreso because a healer class will get +mind and/or +heal passives no melee would ever have).
Anyways.
The class that stood out me, surprisingly, was archer, since it was nice to do ranged dps and be able to move while doing ranged. The mobs in FFXIV are even dumber than most of the gameplay - you can circle strafe or just keep backing up and avoid some damage without trying too hard...as long as you don't leash the mobs since mobs in FFXIV have about as much of an attention span as the average player and stop chasing after about 40 yards of dragging (ie, the leash range is very short and it's easy to ditch/run away from fights), you have to keep them in a fairly tight area.
I was most interested in THM for dps but the juggling of fire and ice is really annoying when healer casters can nuke eternally for similar damage and seemingly use no mana. It's a game mechanic but it feels hokey. The THM juggling is just a goofy mechanic to differentiate the class. How about instead the glass cannon with no self heal do more damage instead? For once? No? The heavy armor wearing lancer is the game's heavy hitter instead. Arg.... I'd imagine at higher levels the fire/ice swap has a bit more oomph to it whereas at lower levels it's just a hassle. At least I hope at some point THM/BLM feel like real damage casters and not just generic nukers that lack healing.
Pugilist was also a bit more interesting since it had a little more going on...but that's not saying much since other melees are incredibly simplistic. It's still do this skill, wait...wait...is the GCD over...wtf was I doing...oh yeah...do this next skill that's lit up like vegas...wait...wait some more...do the next skill that has a flashing obvious border...don't STRESS...STRESS IS BAD M'KAY...middle path...ooohhhmmmmm....rinse and repeat..OMG playing video games is SO difficult..I may need to take a break to get my diaper changed or watch reality shows on TV. Whew, wouldn't wanna actually think or anything. Thanks Yoshi for making STRESS FREE GAMING...infants worldwide rejoice...FINALLY a video game for people who have never heard of technology before!
SQEN thinks even less of the average MMORPG player than I do, and that's saying something.
Might highest was GLD and you can't expect much from a tank for solo ez mode content. The key is not to fall asleep on the keyboard...the drool is kind of sticky if it dries. But hey, at least you're more durable and won't die even if you do fall asleep while playing. There isn't much else to do for the actual tanking due to the "stress free" game design - a few more skills to use and knowledge of basic tanking principles which are the same in all games that have tanks. Hold threat, reduce damage taken, protect DPS from killing themselves with stupidity. My GLD was pretty durable before I leveled any other class. So many other classes get tanky type buffs that blending them in will make for a LOT of defensive CDs. Smexy.
MRD felt just like GLD early on, almost the same attacks. Yawn. ARC has similar spells to CON + the pet. Yawn (pet is cool though, who doesn't want to be a DD caster with an eternally full mana bar PLUS self healing AND a pet...pretty potent combo for solo ez-mode domination...because this game is so hard you really need to be able to dominate).
Lancer, yep, feels just like every other melee except it hits harder and has some weird visual effects that constantly make me feel like someone ranged is piling on "my" mobs when there's actually nobody there. Hey look, we have 3 total abilities that do damage, and 2 of them combo off the first one we got - one does pure damage - one does less damage and a debuff. I WONDER HOW I SHOUDL PLAY THIS??!?? It's a good thing the UI lights up like xmas otherwise I'm SURE I would have no idea how to use these skills. HMM...what order should I do them in? THREE whole skills is just TOO stressfull. Save me Yoshi, it's overwhelming! I liked lancer too just because it hit noticeably harder and had more noticeable visual effects.
My biggest fear is...if you look at the skill trees, there ain't a whole lot there. Combat isn't going to get any more complex than it is at level 10 or 12 except for ... in groups (IMO, MMORPG combat is fundamentally simple and can't be anything but, the real complexity comes from grouping, cooperating, blending roles and classes at a team, trusting, etc - stuff you can only get in structured grouping). Hopefully there's a LOT of group-based content.
Premium MMORPGs do not feature built-in cheating via cash for gold pay 2 win. PLAY to win or don't play.
I started out as an Arcanist but I got a little bored of it , such a limited amount of spells to use (at least to level 15).
I tried some other classes, Pugilist, Lancer, and Archer.
I ended up liking Archer the best of them all, followed by the lancer.
I really wanted to play a good dps based warrior type of character but aside from lancer there doesn't seem to be one.