FFXIV 4.0 STORMBLOOD

[Ecks]

I still play FFXIV and I have to stay, I've greatly enjoyed the story and in general how this game made a complete turn around from being an unfinished barely playable piece of trash (at least from my experience), to now being one of the top MMORPGs out there.

Well the second expansion: Stormblood is due out June 20th. Will introduce the jobs Red Mage and Samuria, both being DPS roles. I'm excited to try out both of these new jobs personally, though I do not believe either will make me wish to play them as mains. Right now my main dps role is Summoner, which I've been playing since the game launched. My preferred healing job is White Mage, and Dark Knight has become my absolute favorite Tank.

Back in 2.0 I leveled every job to 50, for 3.0 I have not leveled everything to 60 just yet but I think I might try to. I only have about 4 jobs left to level to 60. I'm still not sure if I will level all of them or not, but I am currently working on Ninja.

Stormblood also raises the level cap to 70. Adds new skills to every job, but will also remove lesser utilized abilities, or repeat abilities. It's been stated that at level 70 we will still have the same number of skills we have at level 60. Personally I'm not sure how I feel about this. As a Summoner I use all but perhaps 3-4 skills available to me when I play. Some are specific to solo play, while the rest I use during normal playing. It's hard for me to imagine losing 10 of my current skills unless the new skills added act in the same manner as older skills but with added effects and/or increased damage.

Another big point of Stormblood will be the revamp of the inventory system, which is a welcomed addition for me personally as I find my own inventory increasingly dwindling in available space, as well as my dwindling retainer(bank) space.

Also there will be a new housing area added. It seems that this is a big issue to some people, though at least on my server the housing issue is not that big a problem. They added "apartment" housing some time ago and on my server at least there are still a great deal of open apartment spaces months after the update that added them, which leads me to think that it's not as big an issue as people made it sound like.

Stormblood will also bring us the ability to swim in large bodies of water and dive down and explore the ocean world. How much this will actually be a part of the gameplay in Stormblood remains unknown though. For all we know it could merely be a gimmicky addition, since they have already told us there won't be any underwater fighting. Then again, there isn't any airborne combat either however flight is only usable on flying mounts. Swimming on the other hand does not require mounts, but there will be underwater mounts for faster traveling.

I am interested in seeing where this story goes, as for me, the story in FFXIV has been one of the best things to enjoy about the game. It starts out kind of weak in A Realm Reborn, but got increasingly better with each and every update that added to the Main Scenario Quests.

Personally I feel like this bridge from 3.0 to 4.0 was not nearly as powerful and lacked the impact that the story bridge that led from 2.0 into 3.0 had, but it's still been interesting.

All in all, I am really looking forward to see what Stormblood brings in person when it launches!

 

[Euphacent]

I played beta of original FF14 but didn't like that. Just bought ARR last week and am having fun. Went ahead and preordered the new expansion, too.

 

[Sanoske]

I pop into the forums about...once every 6 months... and consider trying out XIV. Then I remember how much time I sunk into XI and how difficult it is starting from scratch. It's basically like not eating carbs, so you shove your nose into some bread every so often.

That being said, the new expansion looks pretty sweet.

 

[Thelona]

wow, just hopped on here cause i was talking to an old XI friend and QCDN came up. Surprised and delighted to see this site still going.

Stormblood has been GREAT so far IMO, During early access the new zones and quests were bugging out from being overloaded so i decided to back-burner my drg and unlock SAM and RDM rather then combat the Dc's and 90k errors, and i completely fell in love with RDM. The flow of their rotation is super pleasing, the dps is amazing and the utility of being able to insta rez and even heal decently in a pinch is great.

This expansion blows heavenward out of the water for sure.

 

[Ecks]

Welp. Due to unforeseen RL events I was unable to play Stormblood when it launched. Only semi recently (about a month ago) was able to log back in and play. Still playing the whole catch-up game, but I did beat SB and just yesterday also finished the most resent msq (from 4.2). Have not yet really leveled anything other than my main (Smn). Speaking of, initially I was really unhappy with Smn changes, I still sorta am, because Smn lost it's edge. Being able to do massive aoe dot damage was what previously made Smn so amazing. Well, now that's gone, and while we can do some aoe dot dmg, it's a fraction of what we could previously do. Smn doesn't even get good again until you actually hit lvl 70 and get the ability to summon your mini Bahamut. Honestly, I don't know what to do with myself. I feel like I spam RuinII/IV primarily between everything else's cool downs. It feels completely weird to only have 2 dots (I used to keep up with 4), but damage wise the dps is still nice. I just don't feel like I'm doing all the things I used to be doing. The rotation, if you can call it that, just doesn't feel right, like the one I used to use did. I am still trying to get used to using Smn in trials and boss fights now that the mechanics have drastically changed how the core of the job works. It's no longer about keeping all your dots up (which is easier to do now that there is just 2), it's more burst-y than before and I am still struggling to get used to the feel.

I want to level my other jobs as well, but I also want to get my Eureka stuff done. I am just now doing Eureka and am only lvl 3. My experience doing a fate train tonight was frustrating and highly unrewarding. After over an hour I barely even got 1/3 of an exp bar. Fates were finished before I could even run to them. The whole thing rather pissed me off. Has me not wanting to do this, so I logged off and here I am. My first night in Eureka I got 3 levels by doing exp chains on mobs with a few other party members. That worked nice and felt like I was accomplishing something, but after reading, it seemed like fate trains were the current best way to level. Well that crap didn't work for me.

As for the story, I really enjoyed it, however It currently does not hold a candle to the Heavensward story so far, but I will say it is better than A Realm Reborn.

 

[Romper]

Welp. Due to unforeseen RL events I was unable to play Stormblood when it launched. Only semi recently (about a month ago) was able to log back in and play. Still playing the whole catch-up game, but I did beat SB and just yesterday also finished the most resent msq (from 4.2). Have not yet really leveled anything other than my main (Smn). Speaking of, initially I was really unhappy with Smn changes, I still sorta am, because Smn lost it's edge. Being able to do massive aoe dot damage was what previously made Smn so amazing. Well, now that's gone, and while we can do some aoe dot dmg, it's a fraction of what we could previously do. Smn doesn't even get good again until you actually hit lvl 70 and get the ability to summon your mini Bahamut. Honestly, I don't know what to do with myself. I feel like I spam RuinII/IV primarily between everything else's cool downs. It feels completely weird to only have 2 dots (I used to keep up with 4), but damage wise the dps is still nice. I just don't feel like I'm doing all the things I used to be doing. The rotation, if you can call it that, just doesn't feel right, like the one I used to use did. I am still trying to get used to using Smn in trials and boss fights now that the mechanics have drastically changed how the core of the job works. It's no longer about keeping all your dots up (which is easier to do now that there is just 2), it's more burst-y than before and I am still struggling to get used to the feel.

I want to level my other jobs as well, but I also want to get my Eureka stuff done. I am just now doing Eureka and am only lvl 3. My experience doing a fate train tonight was frustrating and highly unrewarding. After over an hour I barely even got 1/3 of an exp bar. Fates were finished before I could even run to them. The whole thing rather pissed me off. Has me not wanting to do this, so I logged off and here I am. My first night in Eureka I got 3 levels by doing exp chains on mobs with a few other party members. That worked nice and felt like I was accomplishing something, but after reading, it seemed like fate trains were the current best way to level. Well that crap didn't work for me.

As for the story, I really enjoyed it, however It currently does not hold a candle to the Heavensward story so far, but I will say it is better than A Realm Reborn.

So the thing with Eureka is that the fate trains aren't good until you're about level 9. Otherwise those trains are a pain in the ass to get done. I'm surprised no one was willing to taxi you around though. Most people are nice enough to help a new/returning player get to places.

But with that said, the first installment of Eureka isn't fun. I stopped at level 10 to play other games because I just can't do the bull shit FATE train stuff again.

 

[Ecks]

So the thing with Eureka is that the fate trains aren't good until you're about level 9. Otherwise those trains are a pain in the ass to get done. I'm surprised no one was willing to taxi you around though. Most people are nice enough to help a new/returning player get to places.

But with that said, the first installment of Eureka isn't fun. I stopped at level 10 to play other games because I just can't do the bull shit FATE train stuff again.

Ah well, I pressed on. And once I was getting stuff from the fates it became a lot better and more enjoyable. Level 20 now and have been for a while. Already decked my Smn and Drk out in full Anemos gear. I should have enough now for my Whm to be decked out, but I need to finish leveling it to 70 so that I can actually deck in out in full Anemos.