FFXIV-2: A Most Gentlemanly Thread

[Sajiri]

In honor of the return of the Mandervilles, the winning thread title. It took over two years, but we finally made it to a new thread.

Current patch 3.2: The Gears of Change (http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/pr/special/3_2_The_Gears_Of_Change/)

Im very ashamed of myself, I have still yet to get on and do the new content. Of course starting a new job will do that to you I guess.

[Starwulf]

Just marking the thread by posting in it for when I start playing ^^

[BlueHerring]

/MDANCE

Anyways, I'm planning to resub in a couple of weeks to check out the game. Before I left, I was decked out in mostly unupgraded Esoterics gear, with some Gordian pieces to fill in the gap. How much work do I have to do to upgrade to the next set of gear?

[Rising Phoenix]

mmm fresh thread smell...,


Just getting the tick here in case I decide to return to the game. Though I admit end game raiding looks like more of the same unfortunately.

[Fri]

/MDANCE

Anyways, I'm planning to resub in a couple of weeks to check out the game. Before I left, I was decked out in mostly unupgraded Esoterics gear, with some Gordian pieces to fill in the gap. How much work do I have to do to upgrade to the next set of gear?

Lore gear is basically new esoterics, so you'll have as much effort collecting lore gear as with you collecting eso gear back then, except for the weapon set which need weekly token from midas and you need 7 of them.

But there's also new crafted gear that you can buy I guess.

But on the other hand, void ark' loot limit are unlocked, so you can run as much as you want to get as many mhachi farthing as you want to upgrade your esoteric gear.

I've did most of the new thing except midas. Vath beast tribe quest is amazing, love those silly buggers. Stone, Sea, Sky, is harder than I thought, at first I thought I could just breeze through them, but it turned out no, I need to concentrate and have good equipment. Isn't enough to be mentor, but according to my fcmates the novice/mentor channel is pretty good in my server, but I know that in other servers it can be useless and is a sore point in the forum. Novice hall is something I guess. Antitower is great, Orchaestrion finally makes my room perfect, Sephirot is pretty great and hard and have literally the edgiest theme song in the game.

[Razgriez]

/hildibrand

Right then, until I get around to updating and reposting it here (and after I stop procrastinating on it), here is the basic info (slightly outdated, and missing Heavensward content info) and basic stat/job guide.

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=15923987&postcount=27

Quick update notes: Remember, Tanks now should exclusively put all 35 Bonus Attribute points they gain from leveling, into Vitality due to 3.2's stat changes.

[Hunter Noventa]

I've done most of the new content, save for Midas. Antitower is one of my favorite new dungeons, relatively quick with fun bosses. I mean the frogs sing Rainbow Connection, come on! Lost City hard is okay, but not as fun as Antitower.

Sephirot was a blast, took a few wipes the first time, but we managed that too. I need to up my iLevel to do Ex.

But the return of Hildy was just perfect. From the initial quest text telling you 'you're going to have a bad time' to Nashu being fearful of gazebos to another amazing Godbert Suplex, I can't wait for more.

Vath are really fun too, slightly more annoying than the Vanu Vanu quests since they range across multiple zones, but still fun.

Stone, sea, and Sky is useful, though it was slightly annoying when I tried the test for Midas 1 and couldn't make the grade. Somewhat close, but I guess I need to upgrade a few things.

In other news, hit 60 with Machinist recently, I find I'm liking it more than Bard overall, if only because it has more mobility even with Gauss Rifle on, since when your other shots proc they become instant again. Bard really needs Empyreal Shot to be instant like Gauss Shot, I don't know why it isn't.

[Tolvan]

Undertale, Gazebo, Vivi (sorry,Gigi), more top tier Godbert... I LOVE the Manderville line.

I guess the other stuff is cool too. Finally got a high enough ilvl to run Void Ark, and the return of Diabolos is hype.

[lesser_minion]

I've managed to complete the 3.2 storyline and get /vpose and /bstance, and I've also gotten my first two weeks' worth of Midas drops (boots, legs, ring, belt). Now I'm working on getting the hailstorm robe, but I also need to level some other jobs (currently I'm in an FC made up entirely of healer mains, which makes playing together more than a little awkward, and of course, this is also the point where we get punished for neglecting crafting too much).

Weeks 3-4 lore will probably go towards the gloves and hat, so I'm not totally sure what to take from Midas for those weeks outside of bolts.

Haven't tried Sephirot yet.

[Hunter Noventa]

I've managed to complete the 3.2 storyline and get /vpose and /bstance, and I've also gotten my first two weeks' worth of Midas drops (boots, legs, ring, belt). Now I'm working on getting the hailstorm robe, but I also need to level some other jobs (currently I'm in an FC made up entirely of healer mains, which makes playing together more than a little awkward, and of course, this is also the point where we get punished for neglecting crafting too much).

Weeks 3-4 lore will probably go towards the gloves and hat, so I'm not totally sure what to take from Midas for those weeks outside of bolts.

Haven't tried Sephirot yet.

If you can handle Midas, Sephirot will be easy. It's a fun fight with good music. I haven't gotten the ILeve fort he Ex version yet myself.

I'm also getting close to having everything to finally upgrade my relic weapon. I have the gil for the HQ items from the market thanks to materia from the dailies. I just have way too many sylph and kobold dailies left to do to get those items.

[lesser_minion]

If you can handle Midas, Sephirot will be easy. It's a fun fight with good music. I haven't gotten the ILeve fort he Ex version yet myself.

Just normal mode Midas so far, which isn't especially hard (although, mercifully, it is hard enough that the Reddit hivemind has yet to pronounce it "braindead casual faceroll ezmode.").


I'm also getting close to having everything to finally upgrade my relic weapon. I have the gil for the HQ items from the market thanks to materia from the dailies. I just have way too many sylph and kobold dailies left to do to get those items.

I think I might have a reputation of 0/150 with the sylphs and none of the others even unlocked. Daily quests just aren't my thing.

In other news, I've started throwing spare ewers at summoners. With the buff to Ewer, a single ewer card with no card buffs applied to it should give a summoner between three and five extra Ruin-IIIs, and with the buff to Ruin-III, that now means up to 550 extra potency against a single target. In order to beat this with an arrow or balance, you'd need the recipient to deliver 5500 potency in 30 seconds -- or roughly 420 potency in the space of each GCD. Most DPS would struggle to manage this against only one or two targets.

That said, I don't think any of the pug summoners I've thrown these cards at have actually figured out why they're getting ewers.

[Fri]

A few days ago there's a couple of people cosplaying ff7 crew (or at least cloud, yuffie, and aerith) moving from town to town shouting "we're going to fight sephirot"

It amuses me more than it should. I can't help but imagine them arriving at containing bay and say "wait, sephirot looks different"

[Hunter Noventa]

Just normal mode Midas so far, which isn't especially hard (although, mercifully, it is hard enough that the Reddit hivemind has yet to pronounce it "braindead casual faceroll ezmode.").

Trust me, Sephirot is not much harder than say, Titan or Garuda HM. I haven't even been to Midas and I've done Sephirot HM.

I need to try and get in on some Midas after our Pathfinder session tomorrow I think. And maybe get my Bard to 60 too.

[lesser_minion]

So, I've been wearing the hailstorm coat for a few hours, and I'm still not sure I like it. From the front, it looks great, but it has literally one (1) compatible hairstyle, and it looks a lot worse from behind -- above the waist, it's just meh, and below, there are way, way too many random slits. I also can't help but cynically wonder about the economies behind making it look similar to the auroral and gloam sets.

Other than that, I've been levelling gladiator again. It's been going much, much harder than I remember, although to be fair, HW level sync mechanics + pre-rage dungeons = :smallfrown:

EDIT: Wow, the quality of Midas groups really does fall off a cliff on Wednesday...

[Fri]

Is it just me or all the primal clothings looks much better on girls.

[Hunter Noventa]

I just want to say the Brute Justice is currently my absolute favorite fight in the whole game. Amazing music, just chaotic enough to be fun without being overwhelming.

[Mr.Moron]

I just picked up this game in late January (26th, or so says my bank statement) and I've been enjoying the heck out of it. It's captured a lot of the MMO magic I thought was lost to me years ago. It's also just the best Final Fantasy game at being a Final Fantasy game since 9.

I've currently got PLD@60 and SCH@56, which is likely going to be my main though I have to try the other healers first.



I've done most of the new content, save for Midas. Antitower is one of my favorite new dungeons, relatively quick with fun bosses. I mean the frogs sing Rainbow Connection, come on! Lost City hard is okay, but not as fun as Antitower.

I'm in the same boat. While I'm not a huge fan of the whole dungeon the Calcabrina fight has been my favourite of the 4-mans so far. It's got good pacing and mix of mechanics, I'd love to see more like it. Just a shame the 2nd phase doesn't have the FF4 boss music.

[Fri]

I just want to say the Brute Justice is currently my absolute favorite fight in the whole game. Amazing music, just chaotic enough to be fun without being overwhelming.

It is amazing. And you know what Blow. My. Mind?

Seriously, I'd never know about it if my friend never pointed this to me.

I just thought it's a random generic shootout to super sentai or whatever.

But...

http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Bruticus_(G1)

Check their names and color scheme


It's also just the best Final Fantasy game at being a Final Fantasy game since 9.

This is true. For me, the most surprising thing about the game is, if you play a lot of Final Fantasy, how Final Fantasy-ish the whole game is.

Seriously. Ancient civilizations, crystals, hostile gods, warrior of lights...

[Hunter Noventa]

It is amazing. And you know what Blow. My. Mind?

Seriously, I'd never know about it if my friend never pointed this to me.

I just thought it's a random generic shootout to super sentai or whatever.

But...

http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Bruticus_(G1)

Check their names and color scheme



This is true. For me, the most surprising thing about the game is, if you play a lot of Final Fantasy, how Final Fantasy-ish the whole game is.

Seriously. Ancient civilizations, crystals, hostile gods, warrior of lights...

Friend of mine who's way into transformers told me the same thing. Despite my love of mecha I never got into transformers, I must have been just a tiny bit off in terms of what was on tv when I was a kid or something.

[Mr.Moron]

This is true. For me, the most surprising thing about the game is, if you play a lot of Final Fantasy, how Final Fantasy-ish the whole game is.

Seriously. Ancient civilizations, crystals, hostile gods, warrior of lights...

It's also just the general tone, style and look of the thing. It strikes a balance between levity and melodrama that was really at the heart of the earlier games. It has jargon but doesn't feel the need to create new special terms for absolutely everything. It keeps a healthy mix of baddies with actual motives with those that just want to twirl their moustache really hard. It also (some bonus items aside), has a pretty cohesive style with a lot of callbacks and for the most part people wear just 1 belt.

In other news got to 60 on and geared up enough (i205) to do all the basic content comfortable that my casual scrub self will see. Moving on to Ninja next. Never been a huge DPS guy but we'll see how it goes.

[Hunter Noventa]

In other news got to 60 on and geared up enough (i205) to do all the basic content comfortable that my casual scrub self will see. Moving on to Ninja next. Never been a huge DPS guy but we'll see how it goes.

Ninja is pretty fun, though I like Monk and Dragoon better myself.

New patch dropped this week, new step for anima weapons that's not nearly as terrible as the last one, and a whole bunch 'Pleas elike our minigames' changes.

[Mr.Moron]

Ninja is pretty fun, though I like Monk and Dragoon better myself.

New patch dropped this week, new step for anima weapons that's not nearly as terrible as the last one, and a whole bunch 'Pleas elike our minigames' changes.

Ninja has since been 60'd. I've played a little of Pugilist and have liked it so far. Monk is on the docket next after I finish up with AST - which is currently 42. I really like the look of a lot the Dragoon Armor/Weapons, but I've been trying to level up Lancer for the CC skills and it's been just the worst thing ever.

I can't see going near the Anima weapons with a 20ft pole. When I can get an i210 weapon for ~500 Esos & a VA run (which earns Esos) why would I want one that costs 27,000 esos and 27,000 poetics, and several million gil in crafted items and days of FATE grinding, and a dozen pointless dungeon runs. That once you have it it's a marginally quicker upgrade path to 230? No thank you.

It's like going to the store and seeing
Coke-Cola: $1.98 for a 2 Liter
Pepsi: $277.92 for a 2 liter.

[Hunter Noventa]

Ninja has since been 60'd. I've played a little of Pugilist and have liked it so far. Monk is on the docket next after I finish up with AST - which is currently 42. I really like the look of a lot the Dragoon Armor/Weapons, but I've been trying to level up Lancer for the CC skills and it's been just the worst thing ever.

I can't see going near the Anima weapons with a 20ft pole. When I can get an i210 weapon for ~500 Esos & a VA run (which earns Esos) why would I want one that costs 27,000 esos and 27,000 poetics, and several million gil in crafted items and days of FATE grinding, and a dozen pointless dungeon runs. That once you have it it's a marginally quicker upgrade path to 230? No thank you.

It's like going to the store and seeing
Coke-Cola: $1.98 for a 2 Liter
Pepsi: $277.92 for a 2 liter.

I already had a Zeta, which let me skip the first bout of FATE grinding, and you can do it on other classes as long as you have the quest active, so it can be worth exp.

The number of tokens/crafted items you need does need to be toned way down, I completely agree with that.

BUt they aren't for everyone. Personally I was already doing the daily quests for the exp on classes I was leveling, doing them for tokens doesn't change that, and I had little else to do.

[lesser_minion]

Well, you can get the full set of luminous crystals in about six hours, and the job you're on during that part doesn't matter. The second stage takes 5-6 hours, although you may be able to do some stages via unsynced speedruns. Actually getting an anima weapon proper... yeah.

In my case, it's not really a choice because I've actually buying the lore tokens as I go rather than saving lore tomes to buy all the tokens in one go. And while in theory it lets you spend 1000 lore on something else, I'm i220 already, that's already great for nearly all of the content I actually do, and once I've got the weapon I'm actually tempted to stop capping.

[Hunter Noventa]

Well, you can get the full set of luminous crystals in about six hours, and the job you're on during that part doesn't matter. The second stage takes 5-6 hours, although you may be able to do some stages via unsynced speedruns. Actually getting an anima weapon proper... yeah.

In my case, it's not really a choice because I've actually buying the lore tokens as I go rather than saving lore tomes to buy all the tokens in one go. And while in theory it lets you spend 1000 lore on something else, I'm i220 already, that's already great for nearly all of the content I actually do, and once I've got the weapon I'm actually tempted to stop capping.

Yeah I traded my Zeta fists to skip the fates the first time and I need to start getting some CT runs in for mine. I actually have enough crystals to get another weapon too, just haven't decided which one.

And yeah, an unsynced anima relic train won't take too long at all.

I don't care about Savage content, so I don't need to get the latest and greatest stuff RIGHT NOW, which is nice.

I just really hope they reduce the numbers needed by the token stage at some point, that's the biggest hurdle right now.

[Fri]

I want the old relic for one thing...

the kettle fist. But it's not worth it to get the old zodiac weapon for that, sigh.

Anyway, from the beginning I've noted that I won't do the new relic, ever. I still got somecrystals accidentlaly from doing fates though, and might get the first step anyway for glamour.

[Hunter Noventa]

I want the old relic for one thing...

the kettle fist. But it's not worth it to get the old zodiac weapon for that, sigh.

Anyway, from the beginning I've noted that I won't do the new relic, ever. I still got somecrystals accidentlaly from doing fates though, and might get the first step anyway for glamour.

The worst parts of the Old Relic are the damned books and the crafted items. I should know, I did pretty much the whole thing in the patches leading up to Anima weapons. The light farming is nothing when unsynced Sastasha take about 5 minutes.

But I don't blame you for not wanting to do the whole thing.

[Sajiri]

I wish the relic questlines could be like it was at ARR launch. Clear multiple steps once but at the time they were decently difficult, rather than just grind over and over.

I got back online today for the first time to actually play rather than just activate fc buffs and realised I can't remember how to play. My DRK was my best geared, and it's probably fallen behind a bit now. Since I havent done anything in game since probably early 3.1, I dont really want to go in and do dungeons for the first time as a tank with randoms who want to just speedrun. Then I realise my AST and NIN are both only around i190, and SMN...I really don't remember how to play that now. Half wondering if I should finish getting BRD to 60 to remind myself of what to do before I try getting back into content

[lesser_minion]

Well, 190 will get you into both expert dungeons, and eso gear is now half what it used to cost.

I kind of have a weird relationship with DRK. It's completely overwhelmed nearly every one of my attempts to keybind its skills sensibly -- controllers just don't have enough space for non-casters, and keyboard and mouse is even worse.

But it's usually quite fun to play, and I've liked the storyline so far, even if it hasn't quite lived up to the hype yet.

[Sajiri]

Well, 190 will get you into both expert dungeons, and eso gear is now half what it used to cost.

I kind of have a weird relationship with DRK. It's completely overwhelmed nearly every one of my attempts to keybind its skills sensibly -- controllers just don't have enough space for non-casters, and keyboard and mouse is even worse.

But it's usually quite fun to play, and I've liked the storyline so far, even if it hasn't quite lived up to the hype yet.

Really? I find it a lot better on gamepad Since it gets 16 slots per bar instead of 10. I guess you have to get used to switching between bars though, I think I have everything fit on two bars for DRK, it's the casters I feel like I need more space (or sch anyway, anytime I have to make custom/situational macros)

[Mr.Moron]

Really? I find it a lot better on gamepad Since it gets 16 slots per bar instead of 10. I guess you have to get used to switching between bars though, I think I have everything fit on two bars for DRK, it's the casters I feel like I need more space (or sch anyway, anytime I have to make custom/situational macros)

I think for most keyboard & mouse players the number slots on bars are kind of irrelevant. Nobody clicks on the buttons, you bind them to hotkeys. The bars could have like 4 slots each and you'd just 10 bars bound to the same number of keys. Depending on size of your hands there about 15-19 keys you can easily reach with your left hand on the home row, plus their respective SHIFT modified versions. You can toss in a few of the higher numbers for long cool-downs or OOC utility (6+) and pretty comfortably have about 40 without moving your hand.

Honestly I have no idea how you controller folks do it. Seems like it requires real hand gymnastics.

[Sajiri]

I think for most keyboard & mouse players the number slots on bars are kind of irrelevant. Nobody clicks on the buttons, you bind them to hotkeys. The bars could have like 4 slots each and you'd just 10 bars bound to the same number of keys. Depending on size of your hands there about 15-19 keys you can easily reach with your left hand on the home row, plus their respective SHIFT modified versions. You can toss in a few of the higher numbers for long cool-downs or OOC utility (6+) and pretty comfortably have about 40 without moving your hand.

Honestly I have no idea how you controller folks do it. Seems like it requires real hand gymnastics.

I physically cant use a keyboard for games unless it's one that's set up in a way to use minimal buttons (like wildstar). XIV's gamepad setup is probably one of the better ones I've seen, a lot of other's are just really awkward. Possibly because XIV uses a seperate UI for gamepad

[Fri]

This is true. My friend plays in PC but uses gamepad and she says it's actually much better experience, and she also says FF14 gamepad support is one of the better one. You better think of it as something like a fighting game control, where some button combination do some stuff.

And yes what Mr Moron said. The problem for pc player is not the number of hotbar but number of things to push. Like for example, here's how my keybind is set up so I can reasonably (and reflexively) reach everything with my left hand while my right hand uses the mouse:

12345
ctrl 12345
ctrl qwert
ctrl asdf
ctrl zxcv
shift qwert

And For my level 60s classes, it has binded for all important skills, so I always says that if there's new skills, I don't know where to put them in.

[lesser_minion]

Really? I find it a lot better on gamepad Since it gets 16 slots per bar instead of 10. I guess you have to get used to switching between bars though, I think I have everything fit on two bars for DRK, it's the casters I feel like I need more space (or sch anyway, anytime I have to make custom/situational macros)

The main difference is that casters have a lot of skills that don't benefit from face buttons, which means you only have to worry about arranging them in a logical way -- there's no need to worry about also allocating the right skill to the right type of button. They also don't need lock-on, which is good, because that allows you to bind R3 to assist target instead.

With mouse and keyboard, you have 1-10 and Shift+1-10 within easy reach right away, regardless of whether you're using skills on the move or standing still. You can then complement those by binding Q..T..Z..V and Shift+Q..T..Z..V, which gives you another 22 or so keys within easy reach for you to play with. If you need to, you can also bind F1-F5 to skills, which allows you to have something like 40 buttons, almost all of which work fine for skills that need to be used on the move.

Controllers do have many more spots within easy reach as long as you aren't moving, but since you're partially reliant on having multiple hotbars, you also have to repeat a lot of skills, and anything bound to the D-pad will be difficult to use while moving. Additionally, you suffer from having to lock-on frequently in order to land autoattacks.

All of this said, they really need to consolidate a lot of these skills in time for the next expansion. And maybe work on changing the way autoattacks work so that lock-on isn't so important to melee/tanks.

EDIT: What is it with Dark Knights and food? Their skills after level 50 consist of:

Level 52: "Pass the salt."
Level 54: "At least I have chicken."
Level 56: "Anyone else for the seafood special?"
Level 58: "Mmmm... this trash mob is delicious."
Level 60: "Omnomnom"

OK, to be fair, this is probably coincidental. Still, I'm not sure being the foodie class really fits their theme.

[Talderas]

I kind of have a weird relationship with DRK. It's completely overwhelmed nearly every one of my attempts to keybind its skills sensibly -- controllers just don't have enough space for non-casters, and keyboard and mouse is even worse.

I use a razer naga so take my bindings with a grain of salt but all my cooldowns are click activated not keybound.

1 - Heavy Slash, Ctrl - Syphon Strike
2 - Spinning Slash, Ctrl - Souleater
3 - Power Slash, Ctrl - Delirium
4 - Unmend, Ctrl - Scourge
5 - Unleash
6 - Abyssal Drain, Ctrl - Dark Passenger
7 - Low Blow
8 - Reprisal
9 - Dark Arts
10 - Salted Earth
11 - Plunge
12 - Carve & Spit, Ctrl - Sprint

These keybindings tend to also bleed over to PLD and WAR. Shield bash and brutal swing are also on 7. Overpower and flash are on 5. Tomahawk and shield lob on 4. Circle of scorn and fracture are on Ctrl+4. So on and so forth.

Inner beast/fell cleave are on 9 while steel cyclone and whatever the deliverance version is are on 10 then I have a macro for defiance and deliverance that switches in the proper ability to those slots when they're activated.

[Fri]

Also, I recorded a video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZdgZw8Yl8U

Been wanting to record this for a while. I wish I have the matching head. Too bad that the chocobo mask is 1.0 only, and fat chocobo mask is 2 years reward, which I wont' get for a while.

Spoiler for end of 3.0

[Hunter Noventa]

Also, I recorded a video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZdgZw8Yl8U

Been wanting to record this for a while. I wish I have the matching head. Too bad that the chocobo mask is 1.0 only, and fat chocobo mask is 2 years reward, which I wont' get for a while.

Spoiler for end of 3.0

Heh. Though, I think I saw the Chocobo Mask somewhere in the achievement rewards, couldn't tell you where though.

[Wookieetank]

Heh. Though, I think I saw the Chocobo Mask somewhere in the achievement rewards, couldn't tell you where though.

That would be the Pedigree Champ achievement (http://ffxiv.gamerescape.com/wiki/Pedigree_Champ), with gives you the "Racing" Chocobo Mask (http://ffxiv.gamerescape.com/wiki/Racing_Chocobo_Mask)(which seems to look the same as the regular one...)

[Yuki Akuma]

I think for most keyboard & mouse players the number slots on bars are kind of irrelevant. Nobody clicks on the buttons, you bind them to hotkeys. The bars could have like 4 slots each and you'd just 10 bars bound to the same number of keys. Depending on size of your hands there about 15-19 keys you can easily reach with your left hand on the home row, plus their respective SHIFT modified versions. You can toss in a few of the higher numbers for long cool-downs or OOC utility (6+) and pretty comfortably have about 40 without moving your hand.

Honestly I have no idea how you controller folks do it. Seems like it requires real hand gymnastics.

I actually click the icons for everything but my main attack spells. But then I play a Summoner...

[BlueHerring]

As far as the whole K+M vs. gamepad thing goes, I've always just used keyboard and mouse. Never really had much of an issue with it, but I do use 1-6+R+T, with Shift and Alt thrown in the mix.

The general logic behind it was to follow the order of my main skills, with my two combo proc skills located after Full Thrust/above Chaos Thrust to be relatively close by. I have trouble going past R, so I dumped the second part of that combo up on the next line, and threw in activated attacks above that. Active buffs went on the numpad, whereas defensive cooldowns went on 6 and R. T was reserved for stuff that I'd occasionally use (And easy to remember in the case of Invigorate, because I'd need my TP). Mercy Stroke was mapped to one of my mouse's buttons because I had no idea where to dump it, and the other things are just random junk.

For reference, here's what my hotbar section looked like:
https://i.gyazo.com/e89769eefa2b5709a316f63fb05feb99.png

[Fri]

For me, I try to keep general layout of all of my classes to be the same, though obviously it can't always be done.

It's something like.

1-3 and ctrl 1-3 AS basic class combo/attacks (examples: dragoon's full thrust combo and chaos thrust combo)
ctrl q-t are status effects. For example heavy thrust, and disembowel
ctrl asdf are cooldowns, usually ctrl s is stunner, and ctrl d and f are "special attacks" like dragoon's jump and spineshatter drive
shift 1 and 2 are usuall "stances," I use them for drk's grit and mch's turrets for example
ctrl z,q,c are buffs, especially openers

The rest of my shortcuts are more variable, but even if they're different from role to role I try to keep them similar within role (example, shift q is provoke in all of my tanks, and ctrl 1 is small heal, ctrl 2 is big heal, ctrl 3 is area heal, and ctrl 5 is esuna equivalent, in all of my healers)

It's not always successful, but keeping general layout same for all my classes really help me, though obviously if I still haven't played a class for a while I'll still stumble around because I forgot what button do what.

[lesser_minion]

The layout I'm using for now consists of roughly:


1-7: Hard Slash, Spinning Slash, Power Slash, Syphon Strike, Soul Eater, Delirium, Scourge
0: Blood Price

Q: Low Blow
E: Unleash
R: Unmend
T: Dark Passenger
G: Provoke
V: Dark Arts
C: Reprisal
X: Salted Earth

Shift+1-2: Shadow Wall, Shadowskin
Shift+3-8: Convalescence, Bloodbath, Awareness, Foresight, Dark Dance, Dark Mind
Shift+0: Blood Weapon

Shift+Q: Grit
Shift+E: Abyssal Drain
Shift+R: Plunge
Shift+C: Darkside
Shift+X: Living Dead
Shift+V: Dark Arts (again)


This is all with a Naga. I've been trying to avoid too much dependence on modifier keys, since I prefer to have at least one or two fingers somewhere on WASD at all times. As with a controller, there's actually a fair bit of unused space for keybinds, but it's a bit harder to make sure everything is comfortable to use and available reliably as often as needed.

For the time being, I've been trying to turn F into a generic use/interact button (because I'm way too used to having one), but so far this hasn't gone especially well.

When playing on controller, my main melee attacks are all on D-pad buttons, since they're naturally less easy to use when moving, and I use the face buttons currently for unmend, unleash, low blow, reprisal, blood weapon, blood price, dark arts, . L2-> R2 hotbar has the two major cooldowns on face, plus convalescence and bloodbath, and minor cooldowns on D-pad. R2->L2 has Grit, Darkside, Living Dead, and Limit Break for now. I have a bit of reshuffling planned due to Abyssal Drain and Salted Earth.

[Luceid]

After not having played since early Heavensward, I'm curious how White Mages are performing now. Did Scholars make good on their threat to obsolete them through damage shields, did Astrologians manage to bridge the gap, or is WM still a solid pick? I always did enjoy the simple logic behind having a list of huge AoE heals, but the Scholars in our Linkshell were adamant that they'd pull ahead after the ilvls started to skyrocket for some reason or another.

[lesser_minion]

Every raid group uses at least one scholar, but they're certainly not rendering everyone else irrelevant (and there are certainly not any sane groups that run double scholar). I've certainly never heard anything about scholars rendering white mages obsolete, but I'd be surprised if SE doesn't hit them with the nerf bat again in 3.3 or 3.4.

Astrologians were crazily good before 3.2, and got additional buffs and QOL in 3.2. Some people were unimpressed, but the world third A8S clear was by a Japanese group using AST/SCH. Nocturnal Sect is still pretty much irrelevant.

[Fri]

Weird, I always thought that scholar is generally considered OP and the best healing class

[BlueHerring]

Weird, I always thought that scholar is generally considered OP and the best healing class

They're strong, but their strength lies in how absurdly good their damage mitigation game is. It isn't enough to completely remove the need for large heals from a WHM/AST, so that's why you really won't see double SCH most of the time.

[Wookieetank]

They're strong, but their strength lies in how absurdly good their damage mitigation game is. It isn't enough to completely remove the need for large heals from a WHM/AST, so that's why you really won't see double SCH most of the time.

'Sides, where's the fun in healing if you can't make people sweat a little :smallwink::smalltongue:

[Yuki Akuma]

Weird, I always thought that scholar is generally considered OP and the best healing class

Scholars are great but they don't synergise with other Scholars very well at all - you can't be Galvanised twice and that's where most Scholar mitigation comes from.

That said, I've totally done bleeding-edge content with two SCH. It's just really hard, not impossible. :smallwink:

[Mr.Moron]

Scholars are great but they don't synergise with other Scholars very well at all - you can't be Galvanised twice and that's where most Scholar mitigation comes from.

That said, I've totally done bleeding-edge content with two SCH. It's just really hard, not impossible. :smallwink:

True. Their multi-target sustain, particularly in high pressure situations is also very poor. They're great at dealing with burst damage of all kinds, and comparable to superior at single-target sustain depending on conditions.

However given their heals are relatively poor for lots of targets are taking meaningful damage for significant portions of time, I think they'd still fail to be optimal even if you could have multiple galvanize effects.

[lesser_minion]

They're strong, but their strength lies in how absurdly good their damage mitigation game is. It isn't enough to completely remove the need for large heals from a WHM/AST, so that's why you really won't see double SCH most of the time.

Additionally, quite a bit of the 'OP' stuff depends on organised groups and a lot of practice at the content you're doing. Most of the time, they aren't better at all, just different. The most dramatic examples of overpowered stuff they can manage otherwise depends on you getting adlo to proc -- which has at least an 80% chance of not happening. You could try to fish for it by spamming the spell, but even if you could spare that many GCDs, you'd wipe out your entire mana pool in the process -- and that ignores the fact that you're never going to get six or seven spare GCDs to spend like this in any content where the proc is even helpful, let alone overpowered.

[Fri]

This thread had fall down the front pages, but man, I'm really excited for the next patch 3.3. This is actually the first time I got honestly excited for a patch.

The patch will come in June 6, and to be fair, the thing I'm most excited is not coming until the next patch, 3.35. The Palace of the Deep.

It's basically Lufia 2's Ancient Cave Styled randomly generated dungeon, where your level and ilvl out of it doesn't matter, the dungeon has it's own progression system. And you can do it in party or solo. That sounds really cool.

Other things are pretty good too I guess. Besides the usual 2 new dungeons and MSQ progression, there's another new type of dungeon, the Aquapolis, that has a 50% chance to spawn when you use level 60 treasure map. That's pretty interesting. And of course if you care about the plot, finally it's going to be the end of Dragonsong War, and after this we're going to move on new plot I guess. I assume Ala Mhigo liberation.

[Hunter Noventa]

This thread had fall down the front pages, but man, I'm really excited for the next patch 3.3. This is actually the first time I got honestly excited for a patch.

The patch will come in June 6, and to be fair, the thing I'm most excited is not coming until the next patch, 3.35. The Palace of the Deep.

It's basically Lufia 2's Ancient Cave Styled randomly generated dungeon, where your level and ilvl out of it doesn't matter, the dungeon has it's own progression system. And you can do it in party or solo. That sounds really cool.

Other things are pretty good too I guess. Besides the usual 2 new dungeons and MSQ progression, there's another new type of dungeon, the Aquapolis, that has a 50% chance to spawn when you use level 60 treasure map. That's pretty interesting. And of course if you care about the plot, finally it's going to be the end of Dragonsong War, and after this we're going to move on new plot I guess. I assume Ala Mhigo liberation.

Yeah I'm looking forward tot he Palace of the Deep too, as well as the new Void Ark raid.

Not sure how I feel about Aquapolis, tying it to treasure maps seems...awkward. I mean, you basically won't want to use one unless you're actually ready for a dungeon, not that I really make much use of the things in the first place. But I feel like I should go try to gather some to sell if nothing else.

As for plot, it'll be nice to end the War and move on. I'm guessing that the next couple patches will be the lead-in to the liberation of Ala Mhigo, which means more open war with the Garlean empire for the next expansion, just like the last couple patches of ARR led into Ishgard and Heavensward.

[Hunter Noventa]

Well the new patch is out and I've done most of the content.

Hullbreaker Isle (Hard Mode)- Easy, quick and a lot of fun mechanics. The Whelk of FF6 makes an appearance, and is the most complex fight in the dungeon, but not difficult by any means.

Sohr Kahl(sp)- The plot dungeon, so I won't say too much. But it does feel SO GOOD to beat up on the Moghome moogles after their endless fetch quests.

Hildibrand- Hildy is Hildy. It' s just as wacky as ever, albeit short.

Warring Triad- No new Primal, but a nice solo duty that makes you feel like a badass.

Weeping City of Mhach- The new raid is a bit more fun than Void Ark. The first two bosses are HP Sponges with a couple mechanics that can be tricky. Ozma has ALL the mechanics and is tricky, but if you execute properly and keep your tanks up, it's not that bad. Last boss isn't too bad, just as long as the tanks keep her close to the middle of the arena. All in all, a pretty good time.

Main Story- Wow. Just wow. Not gonna spoil it, but goddamn do you ever feel like a badass. Also you might cry. I still find it fascinating how even though you do everything with a party, they've given up on acting like said party is there and imply that you do everything solo, as it should be.

I still haven't gotten around to Aquapolis, but reports from my FC say it's good stuff. I was also able to buy a house in one of the new wards, so I have something else to play around with while waiting for 3.35 to bring the Deep Dungeon, which there was an interview translated about, and it sounds like a lot of fun.

[Fri]

I took a leave to do first patch blind with my FC :smallbiggrin:

Main Story is great, Nidhogg is a great climatic fight, and it's really nice to see me referred as the Azure Dragoon as well as the Warrior of Light since I'm a level 60 DRG.

My first actual blind run patch day. It was fun, and it was really the first time I did a dungeon completely blind. We didnt' manage to beat Nidhogg though, since we only prepare for 4-man party.

Joined Final Faith PF with my friend later, but the party starter was a really whiny and annoying guy, so it soured everyone's mood, and we're all glad when he left. We didn't manage to clear it with that party though and later my friend cleared it with his fc.

After that I joined random DF party for Final Faith, and it went much better. Everyone are new, but they learn and and more importantly, very much non whiny and not complaining, so we beat it after about 3 or 4 wipes with great mood. It was really awesome, and I got a commendation to boot!

But really, it's a proper end-scenario fight.

Still haven't done Weeping City, but I keep hearing it's great.

Did Aquapolis a couple times, eventhough it's just basically gauntlet fight, it's also fun and you get really rich doing it.

Also on Hildy, Cyr is a better straight man than Briarden :smallbiggrin:.

I'll say more later, all for all there's so much of cool stuff this patch, but for now I'm also still waiting for Palace of the Dead.

[Hunter Noventa]

I totally did the entire MSQ for this patch as a Dragoon, felt right. Also added to my badassery when I hit Final Steps for those cutscenes...because my glamour has the Gae Bolg, same weapon as Estinien.

Got some runs of Aquapolis in with my FC, that was a load of fun. We got a Triple Rainbow on the doors and it was amazing, made it tot he bottom twice and I won the Twilight over Thanalan Orchestrion roll.

So now I've done all the content and capped on Lore tomes for the week. maybe I'll go do some PvP.

[Fri]

I totally did the entire MSQ for this patch as a Dragoon, felt right. Also added to my badassery when I hit Final Steps for those cutscenes...because my glamour has the Gae Bolg, same weapon as Estinien.

I knoow, right?

I'm actually thinking of redoing it with full Wyrm Armor+Gae Bolg glamour :smallbiggrin:

[Sajiri]

I still never did the 3.1 content. Got on today for the first time in ever to do more than just check cactpot, slowly lvling my bard to get back into the swing of things. At least Im past sohm al level now...I swear 53-55 is the lvl range that just puts me off a job/the game for weeks. I think my LS has enjoyed me being the one out of the loop now

[Farix]

Haven't done Final Steps yet but man is the cutscene leading up to it one of the best things I've seen. Right up there with the climatic sequence of 2.55. The view when you get dumped out into the lobby room at the end with Dragonsong (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtuwltmTp9I) playing is fantastic, made better by the two goblin hat wearing lalafels who were sitting at the cliffs edge together when I passed through.

Hullbreaker is fun if straightforward and Sohr Khai is gorgeous. I'm guessing 4.x is gonna bring around the Girdanian dungeon-turned-gauntlet version of something. Thousand Maws maybe. Just need to get around to starting up Hildibrands Heavensward content.

[Fri]

Yes, the built up to the final steps is fantastic, with how you regain control of your character in the steps facing nidhogg with other player charactgers. Almost make me didn't want to teleport back to town to repair before the fight :smallbiggrin:.

I assume next storyline would be liberation of Ala Mhigo, but more importantly, when will we fight Kan-E-Senna!? We've fought Raubahn and Mistbeard, it's Gridania's time next! Though to be proper we should be fighting her bodyguard, but her bodyguard is nameless, what a shame.

[Talderas]

I assume next storyline would be liberation of Ala Mhigo, but more importantly, when will we fight Kan-E-Senna!? We've fought Raubahn and Mistbeard, it's Gridania's time next! Though to be proper we should be fighting her bodyguard, but her bodyguard is nameless, what a shame.

Merlwyb is the Maelstrom equivalent to Raubahn. Hullbreaker HM (Maelstrom) is thematically similar to Halitali HM (Immortal Flames). The Twin Adder equivalent should thus be a dungeon that is in Black Shroud or tied to the Black Shroud that the Twin Adders could "repurpose". That's the rub. There aren't many Black Shroud dungeons left that haven't been hard moded. Thousand Maws of Toto-Rak or Aurum Vale

--

Weeping City is.... well mechanically easy. The most PITA mechanic is Hell's Wind on the 2nd boss. A DRK MT's life is in the hands of the healers while PLD and WAR have some ability to respond to it to avoid dying.

[Hunter Noventa]

Merlwyb is the Maelstrom equivalent to Raubahn. Hullbreaker HM (Maelstrom) is thematically similar to Halitali HM (Immortal Flames). The Twin Adder equivalent should thus be a dungeon that is in Black Shroud or tied to the Black Shroud that the Twin Adders could "repurpose". That's the rub. There aren't many Black Shroud dungeons left that haven't been hard moded. Thousand Maws of Toto-Rak or Aurum Vale

--

Weeping City is.... well mechanically easy. The most PITA mechanic is Hell's Wind on the 2nd boss. A DRK MT's life is in the hands of the healers while PLD and WAR have some ability to respond to it to avoid dying.

Aurum Vale is technically in Coerthas isn't it? Toto-Rak seems to have the best format for that kind of re-purposing. Though to this day I hate getting it in the leveling roulette, it's one of the most tedious of the early dungeons.

Weeping City is pretty fun, the HP levels of the first two bosses feel a little high, and the last boss really needs to be kept in the middle of the arena. My group only had two wipes, one tot he second boss for some reason, and one to Ozma due to poorly placed meteors.

[Talderas]

Aurum Vale is technically in Coerthas isn't it? Toto-Rak seems to have the best format for that kind of re-purposing. Though to this day I hate getting it in the leveling roulette, it's one of the most tedious of the early dungeons.

It is, I must have been reading something that had some wrong information on it.

I doubt it matters though as I don't see SE implementing hard mode version of the four 1.0 dungeons that persisted (Toto-rak, Cutter's Cry, Dzemael Darkhold, and Aurum Vale) considering the 2.0 version were the second release.

[Hunter Noventa]

It is, I must have been reading something that had some wrong information on it.

I doubt it matters though as I don't see SE implementing hard mode version of the four 1.0 dungeons that persisted (Toto-rak, Cutter's Cry, Dzemael Darkhold, and Aurum Vale) considering the 2.0 version were the second release.

Which is a shame, because they're some of the worst dungeons in the game to this day.

On another note, I watched the E3 LivelEtter and the Palace of the Dead is amazing, and is basically going to be a lot of fun and a good way to level up any classes you haven't yet. of course, I only have Astrologian and White Mage to get to 60 at this point, but still, it looks like a lot of fun and should be coming out sometime next month.

I also wish I could afford to go to the FanFest, but I might actually pay for the livestream because I want to be first to know when the inevitably announce the next expansion, and you get a Rikku minion and a special glamour outfit, though they haven't revealed that because it isn't done yet. Japan gets a Lulu minion, and the EU gets Yuna. But I like Rikku most soooo...