What makes you keep playing?

[Destinye]

the only primal w/ 3 difficulties was Ifrit

Garuda's was more of an implied one from what I remember.

[BaneTheBrawler]

1.x still played like ass even after all the QoL improvements... but the basic concepts were pretty badass. The real armory system, with cross-class skills and shit. I think that if they'd had decent gameplay (in regards to the way you perform actions and rotations and shit) at launch, the armory system would have been fantastic. I've always felt like the system was originally conceived such that our class and jobs would be somewhat independent. So, if you were a Disciple of Magic, you could use any disciple of magic Job on that class. So you could be, say, a Thaumaturge/White Mage, or a Gladiator/Warrior, with each combination unlocking slightly different traits, like dual swords or offhand bucklers or whatever.

[Destinye]

Yeah - Shame that would confuse the new player and be too complicated for people new to MMORPGs etc.

[Corrderio]

all of you who shunned 1.0 are the cause of this, tanaka never forgets and neither do I

1.x was even worse with the way content was designed. Don't have the flavor of the month leveled? Have fun having jack shit to do.

[Fondue]

Oh god you're right.... it was so hard getting pl'd to 50 in wolf camp

Heaven forbid people were versatile, rip job swapping in cc/av runs

[Elcura]

This whole topic is about having your cake and eating it.

Garuda's was more of an implied one from what I remember.

No.

[Niiro]

Gather 'round children and let me tell you a tale.

A tale of when I had the most fun I've had with FFXIV that I can remember.

It was way, way back in the old days of 1.0, back when everything could cross-class everything else, it was a magical time full of insanity and ridiculousness but also one of great mystery, wonder, and adventure.

I was out hunting for a pair of boots, Engineer's Leggings they were, and they dropped from a crafty little Spriggan named Spitfire that could be found wandering around the windmills of old Coerthas.

I had decided to hunt the little rascal as GLA, my only lvl 50 at the time, armed to the teeth with a number of skills picked up from CNJ, THM, PGL, MRD, etc. A good well-rounded loadout of skills including heals, buffs, drains, even enfeebling magic! Imagine that, enfeebling magic in FFXIV, oh what folly it all must seem like now.

Anyway, I engaged the foe thusly and he put up quite a fight, I had to carefully manage my MP use between heals, enfeebs, and buffs with my various defensive and recovery cooldowns to ensure that regular use of Siphon and Stygian Spikes would keep my MP afloat long enough to win the day. After a number of unsuccessful attempts where the crafty little devil had outlasted me with his ice magic and sheer tenacity I knew I had to change my strategy.

Even with all the tools at my disposal it seemed I couldn't maintain my MP, and thus my heals, long enough with the damage I was taking for Siphon/Stygian to to keep up. That's when I realized there was one tool I had neglected to use, a tool of legend from the time before time (XI) that never saw much use: Defender.

By lowering my attack power but also lowering my damage taken I could stretch the MP I had much further and my MP drain skills would be sufficient to keep me afloat long enough to win the day. And after a long, hard-fought battle I struck down the beady-eyed devil and smote his ruin upon the...uh...countryside, and I was handsomely rewarded with my long sought after boots (after 3 or 4 kills).

I can't think of any other activity in all of my time in XIV that posed as much of a challenge while also allowing so much freedom in how I could overcome that challenge. This was a mob that I fought solo for 15 mins while all the while carefully using every tool I had at my disposal to effectively win, and there were plenty more skills I could have swapped in and out and done the fight differently/better/faster (I just didn't have them yet).

[Ratatapa]

I remember in 1.X (forgot the exact number for the X) where you leveled up with skill ups. And Conjurer were fucked because mobs were too strong for them to solo at certain level, and when you Pted in Cassiopae Hallow, everyone you get 2-3 levels before you got 1, because Cures didn't help much for skill ups

[Niiro]

They got rid of that really early on, I barely even remember it.

[Grey Jorildyn]

Skillups were capped at 500 points per battle too and gladiator had to split those between sword and sentinel (shield) skills. It was an awful time to be a tank.

[BaneTheBrawler]

That was when Fatigue existed too so if you leveled up too much in a day you got an exp penalty.

XIV was an awful game as a whole, but it's core concepts (the armoury system, cross-class, etc.) were amazing and it was much more beautiful than the Bahamut-ravaged Eorzea we live in now.

[Niiro]

That was when Fatigue existed too so if you leveled up too much in a day you got an exp penalty.

Yea, a limitation on how quickly you could progress.

A....cap, if you will, or a lockout even, on the game itself, crazy stuff.

Spoiler: show

[Spider-Dan]

Yeah, except that lockout reset completely if you switched to a different class. Wait, what's all that stuff about it being a waste of time to level more than one job in this game?

This isn't "having your cake and eating it too." This is more like, "You wanted a bed, you insisted on a bed, you demanded a bed, now lie in it."

People wanted role identity and they wanted modern MMO and they said it's fine to eliminate customization because barance. Well, here you go!

[Deuce]

I just want cool stats and traits like, "occasionally attacks twice".

Instead we get "increases DEF and VIT". Yawn....

[Kipling]

Shit like that could break balance and makes certain jobs clauds and others absolute gods, if done wrong or too heavy handedly. I think Yoshi wants to implement it but they need to be careful.

Right now we have flavor of the month stuff because of how the content is structured (e.g. high burst dps fights making things like DRK/WAR and NIN+DRG shine), but no class is ultimately banished or shunned from content. PLD and AST are in a bad place compared to the other tanks and healers, but they're not outcasts like certain jobs in FFXI were at various times, they're just "not as good".

[BaneTheBrawler]

Not-Bane wanted role identity and they wanted modern MMO and they said it's fine to eliminate customization because barance. Well, here you go!

I just wanted gameplay worth playing. I fucking loved the armory system.

[Shenrien]

I mostly am just using xiv as a way to kill time while I wait for others to get off work to play something more engaging and enjoyable. I usually get an hour or two in to do some basic shit and then it's off to something that has some sort of depth and challenge.

[Elcura]

This topic just gets funnier and funnier. I know that people tend to forget anything bad with a game or system and only focus/idealise the things they liked without regard to how practical it would be long term but...

People seriously talking about 1.0 (not even 1.18 or 1.23 LOL) like it was the shit and actually better than what we have now. Holy christ this is too funny. There is a limit on how rose-tinted those glasses can be guys.

[Destinye]

The fact ARR continues to use concepts devised and tested during 1.x's time only to make a worse version of them aside...

I mostly am just using xiv as a way to kill time while I wait for others to get off work to play something more engaging and enjoyable. I usually get an hour or two in to do some basic shit and then it's off to something that has
some sort of depth and challenge.

Yeah, it's weird that XIV is more of a time killer..not generally in the good way. Like "since my friends are on it, guess I'll play it with them then when they leave I'll go back to DQX or Super Mario Maker."

[Elcura]

Fact? Like what? The only thing ARR made obviously worse is the cross class system. Everything else is either subjective or just not true (or I honestly can't remember).