FFXIV Random Speculation/Question thread II: Let's Speculate the Speculations

[Shuichi]

Attack speed! Interesting. My little lalafell pugilist will be tearing up some ankles.

[Ghostsix.Midgard]

is there a height option in character creation?

3 sizes in alpha, but character creation "still in development"

Attack speed! Interesting. My little lalafell pugilist will be tearing up some ankles.

Just wanna say I disliked Lalafell designs the moment I saw them but they've totally grown on me now.

[Viertel]

How has mouse control shaped up? I know when the first alpha tests were implemented that it was absolutely horrendous according to a few people. Has it gotten any better, or still pretty fugly?

[Loaar]

It still needs work, but most of the controls do as they are only in a very basic form right now.

[Purrrfect]

It still needs work, but most of the controls do as they are only in a very basic form right now.

Assuming right click is camera pan still, does it move the way XI did or does it move the way every other game handles right click-hold?

[Spira]

late reply..
with regard to needing healers in battle, it may still be necessary given your setup of players with different abilities learnt.
but that said, anyone playing a melee job who bothered to level CON to 4 for Cure and Marauder to whatever level it is for Bloodbath will require far less support because they can simply cure themselves.

As is, theres really little reason to not equip the abilities if you have them because most jobs on their own cannot fill 20 slots worth of abilities.
Eventually when levels increase and players get more abilities, you'd probably see most players swapping out survivability moves for more damage and letting someone like a Conjurer focus on healing.. but that may not necessarily be in an EXP setting anymore.

---

Battle Regimen...
tried it many times. to varying degress of success. How you stack the abilities really makes a difference in whether itll succeed or not. Some moves cannot be stacked at all, whilst others may be compatible in 1 order but not if you reverse it...

Battle regimen works with basic attack commands and spells too.. so theres probably a good number of combinations out there. Execution is automatic after someone selects 'Begin battle regimen' but i suspect the person who chooses begin is also important, because I've tried repeating specific orders and have them somehow fail until later on when they manage to fire off..

effects of battle regimen firstly seem to be increased damage. I think damage on trunksplitter was double that of a normal attack. And sometimes you can add statuses..
I'm not 100% positive, but I think hack + fire (if stacked properly and executed) adds a burn effect. Wasn't able to successfully replicate it.. and ran out of time.

[Khamsin]

anyone playing a melee job who bothered to level CON to 4 for Cure and Marauder to whatever level it is for Bloodbath will require far less support because they can simply cure themselves.

Time spent curing is less time spent poking the monster. Also, anything you do to optimize your MP pool or curing ability is at the sacrifice of attack power. And I doubt the curing power would be as good as a fully levelled CON in your party who is optimized to be curing... just as you should be optimized to be killing. It just won't be worth it, and any pure melee will parse ahead of you if you try to be a melee/healer hybrid, even if only just to heal yourself.

[Loaar]

Time spent curing is less time spent poking the monster. Also, anything you do to optimize your MP pool or curing ability is at the sacrifice of attack power. And I doubt the curing power would be as good as a fully levelled CON in your party who is optimized to be curing... just as you should be optimized to be killing. It just won't be worth it, and any pure melee will parse ahead of you if you try to be a melee/healer hybrid, even if only just to heal yourself.

Keeping the party alive > some morons parse.

We are talking at this stage about low level parties. CON gets 1 heal at these levels and its not possible to spam it. A single CON literally cannot keep a tank alive against the tougher monsters in a group setting at this point in the game.

When we know what abilities there are later on in the game and which class is more suited to healing etc then its worth discussing damage dealing vs hybrid efficiency etc.

Right now, especially at low levels, if your planning to party up having some method to keep yourself alive is very much advised.

[Viertel]

It still needs work, but most of the controls do as they are only in a very basic form right now.

Ah, I see. Thank you very much.

I take it there also is no form of a "target of target" currently? If not, I wonder if that'll be an addition (even of purely optional) in the UI adjustments mentioned for the beta phase.

[Loaar]

Ah, I see. Thank you very much.

I take it there also is no form of a "target of target" currently? If not, I wonder if that'll be an addition (even of purely optional) in the UI adjustments mentioned for the beta phase.

Haven't seen that one mentioned, I'll make sure I feedback it.

[Jinko]

Parsing in an XP party is kind of pointless to be honest anyway.

I would imagine if Conjurer's don't get as much skill points for healing then it will put a lot of players of choosing that class.

Someone needs to test this, it doesn't make sense for a support role not to get xp, I noticed in one of ghosts videos that the lancer got more SP than the archer several times, I'm wondering if its based on damage, activity or skill level maybe.

[Vitglance]

Maybe it's just the monotony of it?

I noticed most melee folks in videos seem to naturally use a variety of skills (because they're waiting on something else to get off cooldown). So far, Cure is one of the few (only?) support oriented spells available for Conjurer. So, if your trying to support a party in Alpha your naturally spamming that one spell.

There's already an aire of discouraging mindless repetition in the fact mobs supposedly adjust to the skills you use on it as you fight (from ye olde interview). It would be consistent of them to attempt to discourage that behavior in support classes as well.



Speaking of healing (and healing-like things)

Does Passive mode always recover at 12 HP per tick?

[Spira]

Time spent curing is less time spent poking the monster. Also, anything you do to optimize your MP pool or curing ability is at the sacrifice of attack power. And I doubt the curing power would be as good as a fully levelled CON in your party who is optimized to be curing... just as you should be optimized to be killing. It just won't be worth it, and any pure melee will parse ahead of you if you try to be a melee/healer hybrid, even if only just to heal yourself.

In EXP theres no system of chaining or need for speed in place. Given that EXP gained from mobs are static values, mass grinding squishy too weak mobs solo might get you more exp than in a party fighting something harder. If you want to optimize, its really just EXP/hr and how long you may happen to take to kill a mob.

Parsing really is irrelevant to the game as is. Nothing forces you to EXP vs mobs of a certain difficulty. Optimal EXP rates may not provide for good skill up rates too, which presents another conundrum.

With regard to curing. It IS nerfed when subbed, in that it goes from being AoE to single target, and its casting range (when targeting others) is severely reduced. No noticeable diff with potency, but then again HP is still low throughout. Bloodbath is an ability that drains damage dealt into HP, which means you arent even taking time off from dealing damage.

Maybe it's just the monotony of it?

I noticed most melee folks in videos seem to naturally use a variety of skills (because they're waiting on something else to get off cooldown). So far, Cure is one of the few (only?) support oriented spells available for Conjurer. So, if your trying to support a party in Alpha your naturally spamming that one spell.

Cure comes at rank4. They get Stoneskin (6) and Shock Spikes (8) pretty early... Later on I think they get Protect and Shell too.

[ScGr]

and any pure melee will parse ahead of you if you try to be a melee/healer hybrid, even if only just to heal yourself.

There are melee healers in Warhammer Online, and this has is proven untrue in that game. If the melee healers are healing only them selves, they can parse as much damage as pure melees, and still heal an average to above average amount. I think XIV and WAR can relate since they both have a global cool down, and Tanaka and Komoto said they drew influence from WAR among other MMOs.

In WAR you can call balance into question, but melee healers have less defense than pure melee. And in XIV almost every job(weapon/magic discipline) can heal them selves in some way. So who knows yet?

[MaachaQ]

I've kinda skimmed this thread but didn't see an answer:

Does anyone know if SE is IP blocking East Asian countries for FFXIV as they do for FFXI? I currently have to play XI via a VPN because South Korea is blocked, if XIV is blocked as well I doubt I can play it at all, and should not waste my money on it.

[Spira]

East Asian countries are blocked?
whats Japan then?

I don't think theres any IP blocking to begin with?
I stay in Singapore (south-east asia) and I'm not affected in the least either.

[mr.bryce]

There's a small exploit for a few Guildleves near Aetherite, you can drag the mobs to the crystal for unlimited HP~ Won't be seeing that in Retail.

nice..

lol@ the gladiator

gay stances, awesome shielding. wonder how the results vary from different mobs

ugly spawn on roseling vid 2:00 shouldnt dodos spawn out of eggs XD

[loyaltrekie]

There are melee healers in Warhammer Online, and this has is proven untrue in that game. If the melee healers are healing only them selves, they can parse as much damage as pure melees, and still heal an average to above average amount. I think XIV and WAR can relate since they both have a global cool down, and Tanaka and Komoto said they drew influence from WAR among other MMOs.

In WAR you can call balance into question, but melee healers have less defense than pure melee. And in XIV almost every job(weapon/magic discipline) can heal them selves in some way. So who knows yet?

Protip: WAR isn't FFXIV - and isn't even made by the same studio - or owned by even the same parent company. So saying something is true in another game doesn't apply if it's made by someone else. In LOTRO Thieves are crowd control - and not any form of DD so obviously XI THF is not working correctly!

Just because they said they 'drew influence' from other MMO's on the market hardly means they are going to pull very specific ideas from a game and completely negate their history with game development. What Final Fantasy title had a hybrid that could 'out perform' a specialization in it's given field? SE will stick to it's trends and history in game development(especially with 'jobs'/'classes') before they go off the wall with something of that sort.

In EXP theres no system of chaining or need for speed in place.

Just because their isn't a chain system in the alpha doesn't mean it won't be in there at retail - but that isn't my point anyways. Just because there isn't a chain system anywhoo - you're trying to imply that no one would be trying to 'level quickly' anyways. Grinding on guildleves and mobs might be fun the first time your doing an instance, or new mobs, etc - but once you've done it for a while(or doing it on another character and/or different class) you are going to want to get it done as fast as you can to get it over with. Not everyone enjoys the grindfest of leveling in MMO's and want to get it done rapidly.

Keeping the party alive > some morons parse.

We are talking at this stage about low level parties. CON gets 1 heal at these levels and its not possible to spam it. A single CON literally cannot keep a tank alive against the tougher monsters in a group setting at this point in the game.

When we know what abilities there are later on in the game and which class is more suited to healing etc then its worth discussing damage dealing vs hybrid efficiency etc.

Right now, especially at low levels, if your planning to party up having some method to keep yourself alive is very much advised.

Enjoy fighting mobs forever when everyone in your party sets healing skills. There is a point where survivability isn't worth the lack of killability - aside from that with the lack of MP regeneration and the gimpness of subbed abilities, it's really not very effective to waste the 'ability slot' on something that won't really assist you the majority of your party.

[Vitglance]

Ah. Thank you. :3

Are Shock spikes and Stoneskin the sort of thing you can use in the manner of Damage Mitigation (meaning you'd be casting it fairly often), or are they more suited to self defense purposes?

[Hyan]

Ah. Thank you. :3

Are Shock spikes and Stoneskin the sort of thing you can use in the manner of Damage Mitigation (meaning you'd be casting it fairly often), or are they more suited to self defense purposes?

Reminds me, is Shock Spikes AoE like Stoneskin? Can't remember if it's been said already.

EDIT: Oh, it is indeed. Sounds like fun.