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Comparing FFXIV to WoW
FishForce
Member UncommonPosts: 60
Played WoW on and off since Vanilla, playing almost every expansion. Recently deciding to dive deep into FFXIV.
WoW i think did a lot of things very well, they would of been the juggernaut they are and lasted as long as they did if they didnt. But it has gotten very stale to me. I have leveled countless characters there. Its always the same to me though, new Xpac is released, level my first character, do some endgame stuff, level another one, get bored, quit and look for a new game, rinse and repeat.
FFXIV is new and fresh to me, it has enough of the MMO stuff i know and love, but different enough to feel new and fresh. I see enough stuff in front of me i can work towards and get excited about.. I can see leveling other classes becoming a chore after the 3rd or 4th, but there seems to enough other stuff at the moment i want to get into to keep that low on the priority list.
I seem to get the most out of these types of games when i decide to really put alot of effort into it, I feel like WoW and FFXIV have enough content to allow you to do that.
WoW:
- Lots of content
- Lots of dungeons
- Lots of gear
- More variety
- After having been around for 13+ years, and still going pretty strong, it's just a solid game.
- Very good PVP and PVE
- Descend community
FFXIV:
- Lots of polish and great graphics (More then WoW in my opinion, but its what you prefer)
- A bit slower during leveling (you gain abilities about every 4/5 levels)
- Can play all classes/jobs on one character
- Interesting story. At least, it's important to the game, as you have to follow the main story to unlock many features.
- A new content update about once every 3 months
- Interesting crafting system
- Plays almost perfectly similar to WoW, except a bit slower (2.5 sec GCD). If you go between the two games, you can certainly feel it, but if you only play this one, it's honestly not a problem. Just people complaining about "It's not fast enough for me!"
- Good community, overall (sure, there are some assholes around, but I would argue it's still a friendly community)
- Has some PVP and even some battleground but a lot less then WoW (let's say it will get better in the future)
Personally, I choose FFXIV over WoW. I got back into WoW for about a month, and leveled a char. It was fun for a bit, but after a while, it got stale and i can't really stand the 13 year old cartoon graphics, the game just looks a bid dated now days.
Comments
It is not. Classes have instant skills, Ranger/Bard for instance is an extremely mobile class which would never work without a range of instants.
Now, no matter the class, this doesn't mean that you can go round like some infinite ammo shooter game. It does mean you work in the instants and cool down skills - as you do in other mmo's.
And of course your gear reduces skill/spell times as one of the many attributes, which are further customizable with melds.
I won't hide the fact that when I first played FFXIV I did notice the difference in combat compared to the likes of ESO etc, but after playing for a bit these differences disappeared as the game became more and more involved.
playing: Dragon Age
Waiting: for FF14, Mass Effect
Want to try: Fallen Earth
I suppose even though I grew up on tab target/isometric MMOs I've just moved with the genre and prefer more engaging combat now.
Ff14 Was amazing for me at launch i played the shit out of it like i was back in vanilla wow.Heavensward also kept me playing for close to a year of its launch, But something about Stormblood turned me off. I was only able to grind maybe 4 levels before leaving. Stormblood feels so empty and void of life. Although the graphics are beautiful the world lacks life. Again maybe its just me, Like wow maybe iv over stayed my welcome in FF14.
FF14 will always be my go to suggestion for anyone who loves wow but is bored between expansions. Something about ff14 scratches that itch you get when WOW gets stale.
Aloha Mr Hand !
I think FF14 would benefit with an option to try out a class at max level at character creation. WoW offers this, if FF14 already does than disregard.
I enjoy XIV. There is too much to do on one character, I've tried alts and it's just not worth doing.
The gameplay is too slow pace, because it was designed for console parity. Spell casting times are insane. GCD is insane. You really feel like a turret if you play caster classes in this game.
The engine isn't all that hot. Too much superfluous graphical content. My machine isn't that high end, but I still can't high 60FPS with GeFore Experience Optimized Settings. I can play WoW almost on Ultra and it stays 60FPS, even when I'm raiding. ESO, GW2 are pretty much locked at 60FPS even with practically maxed settings. Same for Path of Exile, Diablo III, Overwatch, League of Legends, etc. Even Age of Conan, which isn't exactly "light," per se.
First game I've played that routinely dropped to 30-40 FPS while... looking around the starting area - never mind in a dungeon in combat... So I didn't feel it was worth playing as I'm not buying another $1,500 machine that runs everything else flawlessly just for this game (and I don't game on a desktop, because I travel a fair bit and like to take my gaming with me).
Account system and website is absolutely a confusing mess when you compare it to Battle.net, Bethesda, Origin, etc. I'm not even sure why they haven't completely revamped this yet.
While the graphics are higher resolution than WoW, I find it considerably more childish than WoW - which is typical Japanese. I'm not that into it. I did like the character customization options, though. My toon looked like John Snow!
The default movement key binds killed it for me, though.
Going to just wait until WoW's next expansion to get back into hardcore MMORPG gameplay - since I have a newer PC to play on and never have to worry about settings or performance with it (though my iMac played WoW just fine) :-P
FFXIV is also ridiculously expensive if you play on 2+ platforms, as they charge you for hte client on either one. Mac and PC client + expansions all cost. You don't buy and just play on whichever platform you choose like WoW, GW2, ESO and other games. It's a complete scam, IMO. You basically have to factor that in if you want to change computing platforms.
I'm glad I didn't buy it for Mac, because I'd have had to buy it for PC AGAIN when I got my gaming laptop. Or for PS4 if I choose to move to that platform.
If I want access to the game on all 3 platforms, it's almost a $200 purchase. Completely unreasonable.
The thing that peaked my interest in FFXIV was the ability to play different classes on one character - similar to Lineage II sub/dual-classing. That way you don't have to reroll if you end up not liking your class - you simply finish it off and sub a class you do/may like better. But I don't like the performance and gameplay pace, or the default controls.
The trial is only to level 35, and if one doesn't like the combat pacing by then, then why should they pay that much money to buy and subscribe to the game just because some forum posters says it's a non-factor "at some future point in your progression."
It's up to Square Enix to make the game enjoyable to play. Many people do not like this molasses gameplay. Also, the GCD and ridiculous cast times are problematic to me even when I watch people stream the game. I'm well aware about OGCD skills and the fact that there are ways to somewhat shorten the GCD.
Not everyone is ignorant of these things, but few of us are willing to shell out the amount of cash they're asking for to have faith and trudge through another quest grind to find out if it's true (to me, it's untrue... at least from watching the gameplay of many end-game streamers).
"The Society that separates its scholars from its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting by fools."
Currently: Games Audio Engineer, you didn't hear what I heard, you heard what I wanted you to hear.
The GCD is extremely long. I trialed the game. The gameplay feels throttled due to the GCD, the Long Cast Times, and the Instant Casts in the rotation. I can't speak for melee classes - that may be better - as I only play casters. But when playing the Arcanist I created, it was absolutely awful.
WoW has a stat called Haste which reduces the GCD. This is easier to stack than anything that reduces it in FFXIV, and reduces it to a much greater extent than in FFXIV. Additionally, the WoW developers were much better IRT the cast times they applied to skills and how those cast times are organized across spells in a caster's kit. Talents and Procs are also used to balance this.
This means that it isn't just the GCD that feels awful, it's also many of the cast times. The cast time of a spell like Ruin I or Miasma I is already longer than the cast time of spells like Incinerate or Immolate in WoW.
Also, the WoW developers aren't retarded - so they made low level versions of many of the spells in that game take LESS TIME to cast. The longer cast times kick in as the damage goes up at later levels. They ACTUALLY THOUGHT ABOUT THIS.
I notice for pet classes that there isn't an "Assist" option in pet stances.
So, this is felt even if you compare low level WoW to low level FFXIV. Movement in WoW seems a lot better. Cast times are shorter. The GCD is shorter and you get Haste on gear which scales well at low levels to reduce it. Damage is also better balanced at low levels. Trash MOBs feel like Dungeon MOBs in FFXIV.
I think you people are being unreasonable:
1. $59 to buy the game to play it beyond level 35
2. $14.99 Subscription
Why should any of these people pay approx. $60-75 (depending on leveling speed - and the game goes out of its way to waste your time while doing that) just to see if it gets better at a later level - particularly when they already own WoW and all expansions?
And I don't think FFXIV's graphics are less cartoony than WoW's. One can argue that they are even more so, and that music is laughably juvenile as well.
The game has dialog cuts for quest text, but no voice acting (after playing ESO, that feels extremely bad). There is forced throttling in the quest dialogs as well (where the NPC becomes unresponsive for 2-3 seconds as you try to click through it). The game had me doing quests in 3-4 zones at once as a newbie, and running around took FOREVER - the run speed is molasses, even with sprint.
SO MANY INVISIBLE WAYS. Try to jump down some stairs... Sorry, invisible wall there. Try to outrun a mob and jump down into a mote... Sorry, invisible wall there. They're all over. Annoying AF.
The game looks decent enough watching people who stream on Twitch, but the low level experience makes it a complete non-factor to me. Might be the best game on the planet, but that doesn't mean I should feel obligated to suffer through the suckage.
WoW never felt like this when I was a new player - or even close to it.
I didn't find any of the quests to be interesting at all - except those from the Arcanist guild. WoW did a much better job at creating and furthering stories with their low level quests. Play both and see.
I was clicking through most quests without reading them by the time I got to level 3.
FFXIV you only need one toon, since you can level all classes on that one toon. Only crafting ambitions would require alts. That's one of the good things about it.
None of the main story stuff was voice acted. It was all models walking around pantomiming quest bubbles when I played, which was days ago. I am not sure where you're getting that from - that is not what any new player will experience.
You haven't addressed the throttling that I mentioned, either. When trying to click through the quests quickly - cause the content simply wasn't that interesting - the game would literally stall for seconds before popping up the next quest bubble. It did this repeatedly.
Whether you think WoW feels spammy is personal. I think FFXIV feels incredibly throttled and turreted when it comes to combat. Playing any caster is torture in that game. It was designed for slower controller input on consoles, so that everyone could play together. That is a con for PC players - where we have accessories to accommodate increased reaction time (in an ergonomic way) but the increased player base by putting them all together may work out to a net positive.
Also, I had to wonder if anyone has ever played WoW if they think the combat is spammy. It's basically FFXIV Content, without the forced throttling due to incredible cast times and long GCDs Spammy HOW? Because it's a faster pace, and retards may not tbe able to keep up and perform well in it? I think most people who are objective agree that WoW has better combat than FFXIV. Combat Pace and Balance are one of the first things players notice about this game when they play it - and not in a "good" way, unless they're your grandmother.
Not only is the GCD shorter in WoW, you still have OGCD Skills and Clickies, and casting speeds are generally less "turrety" than in FFXIV.
Playing a Ninja or Monk is completely off the table for someone like me. I have never played a melee class in an MMORPG, and I've been playing them fairly hardcore since EQ in 2000. I don't like melee combat, and FFXIV's melee combat is not really any different than WoW's, which wasn't much different than EQ's, to be frank.
Playing a different class just to avoid [what one may perceive as] a mediocre combat system is not a trade-off. It's delusion. You're forcing yourself to have less fun and suffer through something you don't really want simply because you're desperate to make it seem "fine" to yourself.
My character in FFXIV is level 61. I'm past both ARR and Heavensword, and it's basically at the beginning of the Stormblood story. I've played enough of the game, and gone through enough of the story to know.
Here is what I notice in the questing system:
1. Every time you talk to a quest NPC, it dismounts you from your mount.
2. Your character becomes uncontrollable when you're talking to the quest NPC (can't just run away to end the dialog, and there's no way to end it other than skipping through it as quickly as possible.)
3. Forced pauses during the quest dialog for 1-3 seconds where things just sort of "freeze" before resuming (NPC may simply do some stupid emote or something, who knows)
4. Picking up Quest Objectives on the ground can take 6-7 seconds, often, for each item...
5. Cut Scenes that require you to click through them - the vast majority of which have no voice acting... and probably are there only "cause why not" as they aren't important enough events to merit it.
6. Forced Loading Screen after every cut scene - not a big deal if you're on an SSD, but if you're on i.e. a gaming laptop with a smaller NVMe SSE for OS and SSHD for your games... You're going to feel it, a LOT.
7. The quests make you run miles and miles for things that take only 20-30 seconds to get. You actually spend more time in this game doing nothing (except running) than "actually playing the game" while leveling up.
Also, the GCD is still awful at 61. Not much better than level 20, IMO. There are OGCD skills, but they are only marginally better.
The GCD in FFXIV only really matters if you're one of those players who play only (or predominantly) caster classes. This never has really seemed like an issue to me (in any game) for melee.
The game is filled with bad players who have no idea ho two play their jobs.
The game feels throttled to play. It feels like time sinks are inserted everywhere for arbitrary reason. Story driven games are great, but the way they have implemented this "feels" awful to play through.
I simply moved on. You should too.
You're still cherry picking. Over half the quests in the game have cut scenes, which force loading screens. The only quests that are voice acted are the main story quest. There are still 200+ other quests that trigger cut scenes, and even more that don't have cut scenes and aren't voice acted.
I'm literally struggling to see what your point is. Also, how long it is depends on how fast the person who is playing the games reads or clicks through the cut scenes, since they don't play [edit: play through] automatically. They stop at every dialog bubble (they aren't fully "cinematic" like the story cinematics in WoW, for example).
Personally, I've just been skipping everything and trying to brute force my way through the rest of it so I don't have to deal with it. I'm only doing it because I have to, otherwise I'd just grind dungeons, fates, and roulettes. They gate a lot of stuff behind the story and class quests.
I didn't say they were defects. Not sure what your point is.
GCD isn't a problem if you're playing a melee class. It feels like 1999 gameplay if you're playing a caster, though. This has always been the case in games with a GCD. Casters are penalized harsher for it, because they do all of their damage with skills.
I'm willing to give the game praise where it deserves it. There are good areas where they have evolved concepts from other MMOs, or innovated themselves.
As I've stated, the story itself is interesting, but the way it is integrated into the gameplay is so awful of an experience that I've just been skipping past all of it to avoid wasting several hours of my time. If it takes you 100 hours to level in this game, probably 70+ hours of that was wasted in cut scenes, loading screens, and just running around from place to place. It's a very "unproductive" leveling experience - especially if you only have limited time to play.
Time is money. I pay attention to how I spend my time. Not all games give you the same entertainment value for hours spent in them.
I'm not the only person who has done this, or stated this. It's an oft-complained about aspects of the game. However, people are coming to the forum and making it seem like people only think this because they are "used to WoW," "haven't gotten past level 35," or just "don't like the game." This is untrue, and incredibly disingenuous.
Many people playing the game right now, in my FC, at max level have done exactly the same thing I'm doing. Citing how popular it is isn't really an indicator of the degree to which the player base embraces the way they have integrated storytelling into the gameplay - which is naturally disruptive in implementation; nor does it speak for the other quest mechanics that I've mentioned.
Also, defending this to the death implies that other games do a poor job at it, which I wholeheartedly disagree.
Also, the fact that some fan of the game may disagree does not mean that I cannot say what I think. People deserve to hear everything about the game, cause the trial is literally useless for really evaluating it, unless you're a super casual who has no "goals" and just wants a sandbox to waste time in (while paying for it?).