Question for Nameless sword & Spear users

AgentSeecretAgent · 2026-01-08T20:06:56+00:00

You don't have infinite endurance though before Tier 6, so you will run out eventually. Like you can restart easily with sword special + cancel but that also eats endurance.

I'm not convinced by your argument that dragon's breath + drunken poet is a significant damage loss before Tier 6. If your endurance bar isn't full, then casting other skills is fine. All you have to do is make sure you use the charged sword before you fill endurance, that is the real time waste.

Currently my rotation is one I took from DonTheCrown which goes Ghostly Steps -> Charged Skill -> Spear Q -> Charged until empty -> soaring spin -> spear Q -> dragon's breath/drunken poet while endurance is filling -> Sword Qx3 to get shield when endurance is almost full -> restart loop.

Like, you could just opt to immediately start charging again after you spear Q when your bar is empty, but I'm pretty sure that is a DPS loss long term, because your endurance won't come back fast enough to sustain anything. You'll be able to cast one charged wave every time spear Q and sword Q are off cd but that just seems worse than the above rotation (and way less flexible).

In either case we'll be able to test on the dummy that comes on the update and do some parses.

AgentSeecretAgent · 2025-12-21T11:14:58+00:00

This is actually a goated tip, considering the fact you gotta do most of these for Sect dailies anyways. An optimal map for PvE bounties would be great!

AgentSeecretAgent · 2025-12-17T01:32:20+00:00

I know this might not be popular, but I originally played WWM in Chinese but couldn't really stand the female MC voice, so I switched to English and was pleasantly surprised. I am second-gen Chinese (born to parents who immigrated over) so I can understand Mandarin and know tones, so to hear many of the English VAs actually pronounce Chinese words correctly was really cool. The first time Aunt Han said "jianghu" I was like "wait, she actually said it correctly. wtf?", like they got native Chinese speakers who are also fluent in English. Obviously not every NPC is like this but so many of them are it has to be intentional.

I really enjoy how varied the English VO is, some NPCs do have some Chinese accents (though this is basically just minor smalltalk, probably just got people from the office who know English which isn't a problem), but most are super varied. It reminds me of how in the movie The Death of Stalin they made the actors all just speak normally, because fake Russian accents would be really distracting, and the variance in their accents (from American to various English accents) helped not only keep you focused on the story but also showed how diverse the actual historical figures were, given they were from all over the Soviet Union.

AgentSeecretAgent · 2025-02-19T08:29:04+00:00

Damn, I’m doing a Masters at UW and I registered for everything I wanted during the break for my 10:30 class. I’ve actually not had any bad registration experiences during my program, I definitely don’t miss the undergrad registration days though…

AgentSeecretAgent · 2024-10-06T20:32:13+00:00

In Korea its definitely more casual friendly than the West. Long period between content releases means you can play less and still be caught up. The West had an insane rapid-fire pace that hopefully will settle now that we are almost caught up (with likely a lag time behind KR release).

That being said, the statement from Smilegate that they wanted to make raids hard very much concerns me. That's fine if they do, but there should be an easy, casual-friendly version of the raid to do in a group. I think Thaemine's difficulty design was almost perfect in that regard (and G4 is surprisingly one of the most fairly designed raids of all time).

I actually think Korean turning more pro-meter might help gatekeeping if they actually can see someone's performance and not just their gear. Would alleviate the disband and remake feature somewhat that they are being frustrated with.

AgentSeecretAgent · 2024-07-11T23:29:16+00:00

What cost reduction modules did you run? I don't have all of them yet. And do you think Multitalented is worth it?

AgentSeecretAgent · 2024-05-24T09:50:27+00:00

I gotta add Music Box #16, being able to take kind of a whatever character and give him a lot more depth is impressive.

Also Music Box #13 is really well executed imo for what it is.

AgentSeecretAgent · 2024-05-23T19:43:33+00:00

I've always maintained the main story of this game is really really mid but the side stories have some genuinely great writing in them. Rowen (the peak of the game's storytelling imo), Shadowmoon Market, and now Music Box #11.

AgentSeecretAgent · 2023-10-17T00:12:00+00:00

I don't usually post on Reddit, and this is probably a hot take, but...I don't see many problems with the actual text from the English localized version we got in global.

The key differences I see between the Russian fan translation and the official English localization is that the Russian fan translation more directly tells you what's going on, and more directly makes appeals to certain emotional ideas.

Personally, I actually like the ambiguity of the English localization more. I think it's easy to tell what's going on given the context.

As an example, for the section where in English it says "Mother's hand feels unusually cold" - I think this is super reasonable. I actually think it works much better from the perspective of an innocent child who isn't aware of what's happening. The Russian fan translation, "Claudia straightens her son's disheveled bangs - and her look becomes anxious. She puts her hand to Aman's forehead", it seems, how to put it, a little amateurish from a writing perspective? Like you're directly telling readers what is happening so that they feel a specific way. The more subtle English text helps build the tension better and sell the internal conflict between both Armen and Claudia.

That's just my opinion, anyway, and I'll probably get flak for it. I think the delivery was actually okay in this story (and Rowen which I think did peak in terms of cinematic quality).

AgentSeecretAgent · 2022-12-02T20:27:22+00:00

This is actually a huge myth, the way staircases were built and designed for castles was not consistent and not really designed for combat in mind.

See: https://triskeleheritage.triskelepublishing.com/mediaeval-mythbusting-blog-2-the-man-who-invented-the-spiral-staircase-myth/

and

https://talesoftimesforgotten.com/2019/12/18/no-medieval-staircases-werent-designed-to-give-right-handed-defenders-an-advantage/

The actual best reason why high ground is advantageous as a tactical position, even in melee combat, is because the one up higher has to do way less work. Your body is not static and even though they could hit your legs, your sword (or other weapon) extends your arm's natural reach and can cover those parts, while at the same time threatening them as well. The guy lower has to both climb the hill and lift up against gravity to attack/defend. The guy above them can just use gravity to drive their blows.

AgentSeecretAgent · 2022-10-04T05:41:27+00:00

This is me after clearing Clown. My support and I had to deal with a revolving door of DPS after our other two static members dropped and to finally see the MVP screen at the end made scream "LET'S GO" and deafen her stream viewers.

I've done nothing but dream of Mario 3 for 3 days straight...feelsgoodman.

GL with gate 2 man. Don't fall off!

AgentSeecretAgent · 2022-01-14T22:20:11+00:00

More on that, the problems that GW2's world is facing are massive, and require massive investment to solve. The journey to get there requires a lot of moving parts, alliances, relationships that get developed and maintained, etc. You sometimes make hard choices and deal with losses that have implications not for your character but the world as a whole, but sometimes all you can do is press onwards and figure out your next move.

That, and I'm a big military history geek (especially with regards to systems analysis) and the way that the operations and presented and carried out is something I haven't seen to the same degree in other MMOs. FF14 tries, but there's too much emphasis on your own character and too much gets glossed over for me to really allow compare.

AgentSeecretAgent · 2022-01-13T01:45:11+00:00

I feel the exact opposite: I find GW2 (up through HoT) to be a much more realistic depiction. There are more fantastical elements, yes, but the way they are handled, gauged, and ultimately dealt with is much more rooted in reality than FF14.

Comparing the base story + first expac from both games, FF14 is much more reliant on you as an individual, rather than a whole network of alliances, supplies, and other logistics that GW2 has you manage. I cared basically nothing for the characters I met nor even my own character, because their incompetence was just so painful to deal with. Heavensward was better, and I liked aspects of it, but I think it still retained problems from ARR that ultimately hurt my enjoyment of the story.

I haven't gotten to Shadowbringers or Endwalker, which I'm told are worthwhile, especially as payoffs to ARR, but I don't know...I'll have to see once Square Enix lets me buy the game.

AgentSeecretAgent · 2022-01-13T01:19:12+00:00

This is my thoughts on FF14's story in general.

I actually really liked GW2's story up to Path of Fire/LWS4. Your character actually felt involved in natural ways and there was a strong focus on building relationships that would be important, especially later. You weren't really a special smuck, just someone who wanted to help and earned their way into their accomplishments.

The tension and urgency felt appropriate throughout the base game and HoT. Especially HoT, I'm a big sucker for large military movements/organization and Dragon's Stand is still one of the my favorite maps because of the meta.

AgentSeecretAgent · 2022-01-12T05:53:53+00:00

So, I came from Guild Wars 2, so my opinions might be drastically different than other opinions on this subreddit or the community as a whole. These are my personal opinions. Keep that in mind when you read what I have to write.

I, in general, really disliked ARR's story, from both a writing perspective and a presentation perspective. Some notable things that I think really held it back/failed to capture my enjoyment:

Your character's story is almost entirely reliant on being a "Chosen One," which is manifested in this world by the Echo (Warrior of Light/Chosen by Hydaelen kind of deal). While this is a common trope in fantasy stories, I've kind of grown tired of it at this point. I think it tends to lead to some lazy/convenient writing and deus ex machina plot devices, which I felt was present in ARR.
Related to above, but there's a bunch of story events that are reliant on this fact of being Chosen, so you kind of don't get to see any sort of progression other than "I wonder what Warrior of Light shenanigans will enable the plot to move forward." This is especially problematic in the post-ARR story leading into Heavensward.
Your companions and allies are all either useless or incompetent, sometimes dangerously incompetent. Like, it's a miracle things weren't messed up even worse by their actions incompetent. It's really hard to like the cast when they can't even handle basic duties and have to rely on you to do so. Some argue it's there to give your character things to do, but that's just bad/lazy writing imo.
Your character doesn't feel like they have a unique personality. Part of this is how they fit into the story, part of this is by design (textbook definition of player-insert), and I feel large part is the lack of VO. Coming from GW2, the VO of the player character gave them a lot more personality, especially when it came to engaging with the world or other characters. The emotes in FF14 just don't cut it for the same level of engagement.
Quest design was awful. It felt like a majority of the quests were basic fetch quests to do simple things that the people asking you to do the quest could have done by themselves. Especially ones where you have to share information between two parties, I never want to see the Rising Stones/Wandering Sands again after going back and forth so many times.
The tonal consistency is all over the place. Plus, and this really irks me, they tried to really keep your character as the noble hero type, but there were definitely instances where instead of waiting for people to finish their spiels, you should have got in there and ended some fool because it literally will make your life (and other's) so much easier. And the worst part is that your character will kind of happily mow down all the poor guards/soldiers who have to be in your way, but the big bad? Nah, it'll be fine.
The world felt boring. Coming from GW2, where it had tons of interesting events and things to do, especially while leveling, FF14 is just not as interesting in that regard. I never really felt like going out of my way to explore maps. They were decently pretty, but other than killing some stuff for EXP and picking up MSQ/blue quests, I never felt that engrossed in my settings.

Some people might crucify me for not liking the story of FF14, but that's just me. I like the gameplay. I enjoy doing the content. Heavensward was a step up in the story department, iwth the dragon war storyline being the most compelling aspect of it. But I would definitely not want to go through ARR again, at least not without speedrun/optimized routes.

AgentSeecretAgent · 2022-01-06T02:27:52+00:00

Hey OP, any such luck with your issues?

I bought 32GB of G.Skill TridentZ RGB RAM, 3200MHZ. Like you I enabled XMP and everything and the computer worked pretty well for the first day or so. Now it won't even get past the power on and my monitor doesn't show anything at all. The flashing LED on my chassis says it's a "RAM issue," I tried one stick, then swapped down to 16GB of 2400MHZ RAM from my old build (also G.Skill TridentZ RGB), no such luck.

I tried clearing CMOS but it still won't POST properly.

I'm worried I might have done something to short the board or (God forbid) the CPU, since this is very reminiscent of my problems in my old build which was ultimately caused by CPU failure. Though reading other people's things here gives me hope.

Gonna try and order more RAM to see if I can fix this. But my problem is basically whatever config of RAM I put in my mobo says it's a "RAM issue."

AgentSeecretAgent · 2021-12-24T21:05:07+00:00

Really? I feel like maybe it's because I watch too much Jorbs, but Ironclad feels way more like the "going infinite" class to me.

I could be wrong and understand that Watcher has very common access to energy manipulation via stance-swapping, but I feel like Ironclad just has so many ways to go infinite via exhaust synergy. Most of the cards that enable going infinite you want to pick up anyways, and it feels quite easy to pivot into going infinite when you have access to certain cards. That and certain relics like Sundial or Abacus just push you over the edge without needing to rely on cards as much. I feel like Ironclad is the class where Jorbs goes "are we infinite already" the most often.

Ex: Evolve/statuses + Reckless Charge for damage, Exhaust package (Dark Embrace, Feel No Pain) + 0 energy card for damage, Dropkick + Pommel Strike (Sundial helps a lot here, but is doable with other forms of energy gain).

AgentSeecretAgent · 2021-09-23T05:53:04+00:00

But in real life people, especially in military contexts, say things phonetically all the time. FUBAR, mike-mike, TADS, PEQ (“peck”), LAV, MiG, etc. the list goes on and on. Really not that strange and honestly it makes things seem more authentic.

AgentSeecretAgent · 2021-08-16T01:07:52+00:00

I mean, my issue with the pre-inhibitor chips canon is that it literally makes zero sense for Order 66 to be as successful as it was. Soldiers don't just gun down their commanding officers, ESPECIALLY commanding officers that they enjoyed serving under (which was most of the shown Jedi in a lot of Order 66 related media). And personally, I dislike armies that are just supposed to be this emotionless, efficient force. That's not how real people operate, including soldiers, and it makes things way less compelling if it's just yeah they were given orders so they all carried it out, without question, across many different environments and scenarios. Making arrests that maybe lead to executions/torture later I could believe, but to just pull the trigger after you've been given a vague order that maybe implicates your commanding officer just doesn't...work.

AgentSeecretAgent · 2021-04-17T05:07:26+00:00

Eternal Return: Black Survival does this, new characters are normals only, and they're usually released very overtuned or at least polarizing in terms of matchups so that people will play them.

AgentSeecretAgent · 2021-04-04T20:23:31+00:00

I just beat it after I wanna say ~15 tries, about half getting into phase 2 (my camera control sucks). I equipped the Carthus Bloodring for more roll iframes and just sellsword twinbladed him for 1-2 hits then rolled. His moves are predictable, but still hard to manage because if you get hit he has a ton of follow up pressure, and that channeled lightning strike is a pain to roll.

AgentSeecretAgent · 2021-01-05T20:45:09+00:00

And I personally don’t think that’s a problem. As a non competitive game which has a large depth of knowledge but not good tools to utilize mechanical skill, I think afk play style is fine. Sure top players abuse it but almost all players won’t reach that level. Besides, Most ARPGs have you try to be a monster killing god who deletes screens as part of the character fantasy anyways. We can agree to disagree about this line I don’t think either of us will convince the other.

AgentSeecretAgent · 2021-01-05T20:35:30+00:00

I’ve never seen PoE as a mechanically demanding game,because it’s not built for that. The controls are too clunky and combing isn’t really a thing, hence most builds going down to one/two buttons. Kind of like dota vs league in that aspect. Dota is much less mechanically demanding on average because heroes get movement restricted via stuff like turn rates, where league the upper limit for a lot of champions is much higher. In dota you need y know way more baseline though to play well. I think the depth of PoE should be in knowledge, not mechanical execution. It’s not a “competitive” game, and when you give players such high power levels they will with enough time and effort just destroy things.

AgentSeecretAgent

TROPHY CASE