The "when will beta end damnit" picture post!

I think this is the 4th weekend of the "beta phase 3" of Final Fantasy XIV 2.0. After a teasing forum post that listed no end date for this beta, they announced on Saturday that this was just another weekend beta.

Damnit.

So, from their own notes, they are supposed to have at least a week of sustained 24x7 server uptime during beta phase 3 for reliability testing before they can move on to the next phase of beta. Phase 4 is supposed to lead directly to release with no further character wipes (if they can avoid it) so essentially, phase 4 is near-open-release, especially with the estimated 400k beta players already in the game! Given the game's release date, I'm guessing we have at least another 2-3 weeks before we go into phase 4... sadness.

In any case, I pretty much finished all the beta 3 content as of last week with MRD35, done all 4 additional dungeons between levels 20-34, even tanked Cancer with the help of Caoimhe, Zurar and Vanh. This weekend they added in the "Duty Finder", a cross-server party finder to make it easy to create groups to take on instances. The good news is that this also doubles as an instant transport into dungeons for parties that are already fully formed.

New chocobo armor! Not the highest you can get, but decently high

I did some minor experimentation with grand company stuff. The promotion requirements for the grand company start to get high after you reach the Sergeant level, requiring not only a ton of seals (9,000, then 15,000 when a good FATE or quest only gives about 300), but also requiring you to go hunting for mobs, including NMs that will only randomly pop during guildleves. It all adds up to a small amount of grind thrown in. I spent a decent portion of the afternoon doing this, but still managed to get the promotion, get a skirt for my Marauder and some chocobo armor for my companion!

I also did some experimentation with gathering and crafting, reaching level 10 in both Mining and Armoring. I can see how both of these activities can get addictive, and used quite a few leve allowances playing around with them!

Anyway, here's what you probably came for... the photos from this weekend!

I need to do what to get promoted?!

A few small issues with duty finder. No problems for the bilingual!

Yay battle effects everywhere! 

Showing off a little leg!

Chilling around waiting for more FATEs

An actual White Mage that was playing in duty finder

Sometimes, the NPCs worry me...

I've done this dungeon a dozen times, but never during sunset! It's amazing how much weather and time changes how an area will look 

Like... cloudy skies making the ocean look dull

Many people out there are making bold moves with character designs. I think it's good that they are planning on releasing a character design program before phase 4 starts!

Fire effects make our armor all look like we're glowing :o

These 3 Lalafell look like they are up to no good... what's with the big pile of presents?!

This is funny... remember this same pose where I'm holding a giant axe? Well, here's my dagger!

Tall Mi'qote :o Rarely see tall ones out there. They are usually bred to be cute.

Another pretty hairstyle

Pretty much the final armor I'll get on MRD for beta... The final dungeon body piece just does not want to drop for me xD At least this shows off my new grand company skirt!

Hidden Falls at night... and a female Lalafell in a bikini!

Wicked, Vanh, Val and me looking over the floating city of Nym

Amazingly, accessories are shown. See the two rings and neck piece? 

More of the floating city

Confirmed! Male Lalafell have NO NIPPLES!

Floating city in the day!

I think Cao is casting her level 2 limit break in the left side. Also: I'm not supposed to be tanking this one >.>

And turning in for the night/week!

 Coming up in the nearish future will be another post by guest Ark on crafting, and a post about other MMOs from me!

The 1st Forge: Before the Journey

"This is the first of (hopefully) a series of guest posts! Introducing Ark with a topic that I have no clue about... crafting! -Ascy" 

 

Preface: I did not craft very much in FFXI, nor have I played FFXIV 1.0. Please don't ask me how this compares to other MMO crafting, as I really don't know. This is also just my thoughts and inferred information on crafting in 2.0 and as such, shouldn't be taken as 100% accurate. All images shown are copyright of Square Enix Co, Ltd even if they aren't watermarked as such, as I have edited some images for simplicity. 

Wheee! Let's Get Started!

The Bismarck! Limsa Lominsa's finest restaurant and home of the Culinarian Guild!

What is Crafting?

The desire to immerse ourselves in the world of Hydaelyn can be engaged in a number of ways: we alter the appearance of our character into something meaningful that we connect with, we learn of the world's lore and take part in their unfolding stories, and we fight with foes in grandiose battles. Another way we interact with Hydaelyn is crafting: Not only could I wear a brilliant set of armor, but I could have made it too!

The lovely Ascy showing us some fancy needlework.

In terms of gameplay, it attempts to give us options other than fighting, and provides a relaxing alternative where we can gather resources and convert them into items we can use. Whether we use those items for ourselves, give to our friends or sell to other players in our community, the items we make will always bear our name!

The next prodigy of apparel perhaps? Victoriascy's Secrets?

Which Discipline of Hand is Right For Me?

The current list of crafters is as follows:

Carpenter – Bows, Staffs
     +The Black Shroud, New Gridania, Corgg

Blacksmith – Weapons, Crafting Tools
     -Tools La Noscea, Limsa Lominsa Upper Decks, Randwulf

Armorer – Heavy Armor
     +La Noscea, Limsa Lominsa Upper Decks, G'wahnako

Goldsmith – Accessories
     -Thanalan, Ul'dah – Steps of Thal, Jemime

Leatherworker – Light Armor
     +The Black Shroud, Old Gridania. Randall

Weaver – Caster Clothing
     -Thanalan, Ul'dah – Steps of Thal, Maronne

Alchemist – Potions
     +Thanalan, Ul'dah – Steps of Thal, Deitrich

Culinarian – Food...
     -La Noscea, Limsa Lominsa Upper Decks, Charlys

It's really jumping here in Ul'dah! Always welcome at the Weaver Guild!

Which Discipline of Land is Right For Me?

The current list of gatherers is as follows:

Miner – Ore
     +Thanalan, Ul'dah – Steps of Thal, Linette

Botanist – Wood, Cotton, Spices
     -The Black Shroud, Old Gridania, Leonceault 

Fisher – Fish?
     +La Noscea, Limsa Lominsa Lower Decks, unnamed

Pick up armor and blacksmithing at the same time here in Limsa's Upper Decks!

These are just the primary functions I have noticed from the disciplines and they probably not some other things they can craft that I'm unaware of at the moment. Disciplines are really easy to find as none are hidden; just pull up the map and you'll see where all the guilds are in town, but I decided to include links to them just in case.

When Can I start?!

Can't wait to start mining! There's gold in dem der hills!

 Although you can access crafting once you reach level 10 with your starting class and complete its respective quest, currently the ferry has been unavailable as of Phase 3 in the beta. Whether you will be able to freely move to the other starter cities at a very low level is yet to be seen. There is a land path between Gridania and Ul'dah, but Limsa Lominsa requires the ferry or an airship pass to access; the latter of which becomes available after completing the level ~15 main storyline quest. Remember that you can pick up all the disciplines and aren't limited to picking one!

Understanding the UI

Here we see the crystal tab of the inventory box.

What a High Quality craft looks like when in your items.

 As with the other battle classes, crafting is also locked to something you wield, so remember to keep a spot in your gear list if you plan to switch to your craft often! Your important (default) keys are as follows:

"C" – Character sheet and Gear Set List

"N" – Brings up your profession log

"I" – Brings up inventory and displays your crystal count

What Does Clothing Even Do?

Initially clothing isn't necessary... and nobody mourned over that.

 Though crafting and gathering clothes can be shared, most of them are more suited to one or the other, so it is a good idea to have separate sets for each role. The bonuses provided by gear is:

Control – Lowers the chance of failing an action

Craftsmanship – Raises the value of successful actions

Typically, your main hand item seems to give larger bonuses to your profession.

Gathering – Lows the chance of failing a gather

Perception – Raises the chance of procuring high quality materials

Sporting some Miner apparel. Your character sheet also displays total bonuses.

Showing some of the early hybrid bonus gear. Fair enough for early levels.

These are the initial bonuses given by equipment, but perhaps later down the road there will be even more specialized bonuses given to respective disciplines? I'm fairly certain these are what the values do, but I'm sure with time we'll fully explore their properties!

Creating Our First Item!

The game does a fair enough job of easing the player into crafting and the first quest is usually a matter of equipping your newly given tool, buying the materials from a vendor inside the guild, and making an item. While it tells you to access the crafting menu through the personal logs section, I found it easier to learn the hotkey for it and use it often because if you intend to craft, you're going to be seeing that menu -- all the time.

One of the very first Carpenter quests. Measure twice, cut once!

There's Only One Button?

If there was a word to describe crafting in this game it would be 'accessible'. All the disciplines start off with an extraordinarily simple quest and explicit dialogue on how to finish it, and you only start with a single action: make. Still, let's tackle this as though everything was skipped and we've become lost.

Learn to love it. Going to see this menu in your dreams (Hotkey: N)

Bring up our profession log (Hotkey: N) will show our current class' list of items that can be made; clicking on each item reveals the difficulty, durability, crystals required and components required. What is important to note on the first craft is the components required: these will be purchased at the respective guild's supplier NPC – who tends to stand inside the guild, often next to the receptionist.

The very first action that all crafts share.

Once the materials are acquired, it is time to make the item! Bring up the log, select the item, and choose 'synthesis' in the bottom corner. This brings up the actual creation process: in this case it will be an item with 40 durability, which means that there will be four chances to complete the item – each action will take 10 durability off the item and when it reaches zero durability the item fails. For the first craft, our basic synthesis has an incredibly high success rate, so failure is unlikely.

Here we see 10 points on a 9 point item; instant success on our first item!

Now that the item is complete we can turn it in to our guildmaster and finish the quest!

While finishing a crafting log isn't necessary, it does give that warm, fuzzy feeling inside.

Attacking Nature!!

If crafting is accessible, then gathering is even more so! I found that it took longer to level but it was likely designed to be more recreational – even though we know we're just going to blitz the profession and try leveling it as quickly as possible. I found that gathering became interesting only in the later levels when there were more aggressive monsters in the field that would prevent you from trying to harvest, but that is for a different post. For now, let's start from the very beginning in a distant land called Eorzea.

While Ascy loves nature, today nature fears Ascy! Make like a tree and scram!

Our first quest is to deliver a small quantity of items and like the crafting professions, the dialogue will explain where they can be gathered from – as a side note, I believe the gathering log in the menus will also tell you where you have previously gathered, or where you can find, an item once harvested. So let's head on out to our first area!

The gold icons show gathering points on the mini-map, but not on the regular map.

You will notice that, once again, there is only one action we can perform: an ability that shows us harvest locations. The mini-map shows these gathering locations and usually if you harvest a group of 2~3, you'll find that they will have refreshed around the time you get the last one; so if you so desired, you could perform this loop to level – however boring that might be. If you are in the right area, you should find the item you need once you have interacted with the harvest point and all you have to do is click the item you want harvested.

Chaining might not seem like very much EXP, but it adds up over time.

Later on we acquire abilities that raise our gathering rate, making it easier to chain our gather and get more EXP, which is useful if you plan on grinding. They work exceptionally well on unknown gather points -- these appear starting at level 10 harvests, but once you successfully harvest them, they become like any other item in your list and have a higher chance of being gathered.

Quite frustrating the first time when you miss an unknown gather 8 times in a row.

Our buff is applied and one gather has become 100% !

Closing Thoughts

 

What I really wanted to see was how fishing would work! Such a disappointing thing to start in Limsa with no Arcanist or Fishing ready! I really wanted to know how it was going to fit in on crafting; whether it would provide fish for culinarian, crystals for any craft in general, maybe find some rusted boots to synthesize into new items – who knows?!

Won't you tell me your name at least, Miss Mi'qote?

I will say that the initial start of crafting is fairly boring because of how simplistic it is – which, don't get me wrong, is probably a good thing for many people who are afraid to jump into crafting, and it is probably the desire of the Square team to make it so friendly in the beginning. Later on, however, I noticed that there were a lot more options and it became more fun and interesting; especially gathering since level 15 and below rarely ran into aggressive monsters.

It should be a lot of fun picking which professions to use my leves on, what crafts to start first, and which I should finish later, but for now I'm pleasantly surprised with XIV's crafting – since XI seemed like a nightmare in my memories.

Let's get fired up for crafting!! YARgghghghGHGHGH!

I hope you all check out the crafting! Thanks for reading!

Another series of FFXIV beta pics!

More pics of fun stuff from this latest weekend's beta.

First though... something from FFXIV 1.0!

From the 1.0 Collectors Edition :o

Says here I'm from Ul'dah and has my nameday too xD Can't believe I still had this lying around. Mmm... wonder if I should start again from Ul'dah so that my character still matches the certificate? I was originally planning on starting CNJ1 in Gridania as that job wasn't even unlocked on my 1.0 char, but maybe I should start as THM1, or GLD4 in Ul'dah? I wanted to play GLD first and even if i start on THM1, I can switch to GLD easily and exp both since they start in the same city... First job gets a little boost from the story quest chain anyway.

Anyway, here are some fun pics!

Some very interesting landscapes out there

The REAL fight of that evil dragon from the 32-35 dungeon Brayflox's Longstop

Very pretty "dungeon", though not as fun or interesting as the Manor

Nighttime overlooking an outpost. Nice how it's quiet around here (level 30+ area)

Whee... people from Impact doing a dungeon together :D Always fun

Playing around with the benches

Look at that pink hair! And that mix of colors!

And we found a Lalafell boy to do our bidding!

One of the many cute-creepy creatures!

The holy trinity of chocobos! (One from each grand company)

SE *DID* promise to tone down the special effects, right? The good news that even though there were a good 30 PCs and 20 mobs doing all sorts of flashy skills in the area, there was no slowdown at all, unlike certain other MMOs

Overlooking Costa Del Sol at night...

And sunrise at the beach!

This is what happens if you don't feed your chocobo enough!

Elezen are tall >.<

Fighting Jaded Jody. This is a level 31 15-minute FATE NM, while I was level 35 at the time. It's possible to tackle these solo and still get full credit for the FATE, but it takes a long time

On the other hand, 30-minute big, *BIG* FATE NMs of the same level can't be soloed xD This is Cancer, just south of Costa Del Sol. I think he's at least 15x my height, probably 40x a Lalafell!

But a small group of us managed to take him down... twice!

After which, found some bouncies for Zurar!

This it for this beta weekend! I've actually hit cap for beta at 35 on MRD, but still running around poking things for fun. There's still a lot to potentially do, including working for a promotion in my grand company to get fancy looking gear. This red armor I'm wearing here is from the Limsa grand company!

I'm half wondering if I should join the Limsa GC again at release... their armor color is red and black, which I like. The Gridania colors are green and yellow, while the Ul'dah color appears to be blue... 

Let me know what you think! And what your favorite pics are... anything else you'd like to see... questions, etc. There'll be a post about other MMOs, and a special guest post on crafting coming up in the near future!

Dungeons as a Marauder at level 30

In the last beta, I had the opportunity to do many dungeons on the Marauder job. For the most part, I was doing the dungeon as a tank, but there were two dungeons where I was a DD. I figure I'd do a post on how combat in a dungeon felt like as a Marauder.

Basic Combat
While Zurar complains that combat in FFXI is simpler due to removing the idea of elemental weaknesses, I think compared to FFXI, combat is a little more complex due to the introduction of combos. This is where you string specific attacks together for increased effects.

At level 30, Marauder has two basic combos:
1. Heavy Swing -> Maim -- This gives you a buff so that you deal 10% more damage
2. Heavy Swing -> Skull Sunder -> Butchers Block -- This combo not only does more damage compared to doing the skills individually, but also has an increased enmity effect

The yellow dashes surrounding the box show which actions will have an added combo effect if I were to use them next

Essentially, most of the time you end up smashing these four buttons, #1 to get the damage buff, and #2 to do a bunch of damage and get a bunch of hate. On random same-level open world mobs, I rarely go through this cycle more than twice.

My only complaint about this system is that to use the different combos, you really have to be conscious of which buttons you're pressing. For example, for me, I have to make sure I hit B->X->A in order to pull off the enmity combo. Tera, on the other hand, has all the combo buttons on one button, so to do a combo, all I have to do is start the combo by hitting one button, then all subsequent skills are automatically mapped to the X button so I only have to hit that with the correct timing.

Other combat skills
At level 30, there are a few other combat skills that are situationally useful.

Tomahawk - A basic ranged attack. It comes with increased enmity, so it's also useful for pulling mobs off the mages if you're not in direct melee range
Fracture - Applies a damage-over-time effect. Not very useful unless it's for boss fights simply because most mobs do not last very long
Mercy Stroke - A hard hitting attack that can only be done in the last 20% of a mob's life. If you kill the mob with Mercy Stroke, you get up to 20% of your own HP back.
Overpower - A conal AoE which has increased enmity
Brutal Swing - A stun move that is *not* subject to the global cooldown

Overpower is probably the most useful skill here since you can get the attention of a bunch of mobs and keep hate on them at the same time. Of course, since you're doing damage here, you really have to coordinate with the other party members and make sure there is no THM sleeping the mobs. I found myself spamming this a lot, especially when we're cleaning up small mobs between bosses in a dungeon when TP was not an issue.

Tomahawk is also very useful, especially as a tank in order to pull the groups of mobs in the dungeon.

Brutal Swing can interrupt many moves, though I'm not sure how many boss moves it actually interrupts.

Spamming Overpower on little mobs

Buffs, cross-class skills
Foresight - Increased defense for a short period of time
Bloodbath - Converts damage dealt to HP for a period of time
Berserk - Increases attack power for a period of time, but after it wears, you can't use weaponskills for 5 seconds.

Fairly descriptive moves. Bloodbath is pretty useful as it's one of the few ways that a Marauder can get HP back.

As you may know, FFXIV lets you "steal" abilities from other classes as long as you've unlocked them by leveling them up. In beta phase 3, you can unlock all jobs to level 15 by talking to specific NPCs after you reach level 20 in at least one job. The instructions are in the beta patch notes :)

Some of the cross-class abilities I've found very useful are:
Flash(Gladiator) - AoE enmity without doing damage! Even though as a Marauder, you have a low MP pool, this skill is still extremely useful in locking down hate.
Keen Fury (Lancer) - Increases parry rate. A 2nd defensive move for tanking
Raging Strikes (Archer) - Increases damage done by 20%
Second Wind (Pugilist) - Instantly restores % of max HP

Putting it all together
The nice thing about the buffs that most of them appear to be near-instant cast and are not subject to the global cooldown. This lets you do some fun things on Marauder.

For example, if you pop all your offensive abilities and Bloodbath, you end up doing a ton of damage while absorbing a lot of HP. Combine this with the Overthrow AoE attack and you end up not only doing a ton of damage, but you'll get a lot of healing and lock down hate on a bunch of mobs. For boss battles, doing Bloodbath + heavy hitting attacks lets you get some of your health back and gives the healer a breather.

As a tank, FFXIV is fairly simple. Boss fights become a matter of going through your combos, choosing if you want to try to stun certain moves, or move out of the attack radius, and keeping an eye on the healer to make sure they aren't being attacked by other mobs. The hate meters in the party list make it very easy to see where the other members of the party are, and if you need to use some hate spiking tools.

The only real challenge so far in dungeon fights is accounting for special fight mechanics. It appears that after the first dungeon, each boss fight has their own special mechanic that needs to be tackled. Sometimes, the tank has to hold a boss for something special while other party members interact with the environment. Others, it's where to position the mob and what to attack at the appropriate time.

I'm a little torn on these boss mechanics. On one hand, they are interesting to discover and figure out on our own, on the other, well... people don't like to lose, so learning all you can before starting the fight might be for the best. One example was one of the fights in the Copperbell Mines dungeon. The first time I did it, it was with a group and we had no idea what would happen. We ended up nearly wiping, but managed to pull out a win at the last moment once we figured out what to do. It felt like an accomplishment as we recovered from the near-disaster. The second time I did it, I briefed the team on what was going to happen and what to do, and we smashed the mob easily... maybe a little too easily.

What do you prefer? Experimenting, or knowing what will happen? Comment below!

(Latest screenshot from the latest beta. This just like the promo pictures from when 2.0 was first announced. I didn't think it was real when they first showed the action!)

Hi Dragon!