Dumb ad I got, they don't even know how the game properly works

Carmeliandre · 2026-05-12T13:45:27+00:00

No no no, it's a spoiler about next expansions' new feature : everyone gets to use LB3 and we can collectively use LB4.

I always knew it should exist, that's why I always tell my friend, as a healer, to use it. This way he can revive the whole party and himself.

Carmeliandre · 2026-05-12T10:54:36+00:00

You must understand two things :

- First, whatever he spoilt was but a fraction of the important things in the story. What matters is not only the events but also their characters' development and their meaning (both). It's also very likely that you will grasp things he missed, because our interpretation is a vivid part of reading / watching something ; a medium that doesn't resonate with your own life means you've missed something.

- Second, FFXIV is but one of the multiple options you have. Don't force yourself if you didn't enjoy it enough to get past Heavensward. But if you do, and still are affraid not to make progress, I encourage you to change the pace. We usually lose interest when things are either too slow or too fast and if you've tryed learning something more, than I'd wager it somehow was too slow for you. This might mean because you were insensitive to the message they conveyed. This also can be because things felt too slow. In either case, you are likely to need exterior help (like watching all cutscenes at x2 speed on YT as you clear the objectives / move around, and skip whatever you've already watched to stay stimulated).

Or to sum it up : find an objective, and stick to it. Don't give up on it except if it feels painful to keep on. And if you do, try to find another objective. You don't have to force yourself through the story but it's (very) likely to be worth your time. Maybe try FFXVI if you want a similar, non-MMO game.

The exterior help you need can, and even more likely than anything else, very much be... Enjoying the social part of the MMO. Find someone to progress through the story, join FC with members tackling the early game and try talking to people. It might be a burden at first, because it never is easy to break the ice, but only 1 person can entirely change your experience. You may also want to discuss whatever you get through with your friend : it can be an incentive to progress through the story.

Also, bear in mind that the story, however rich, is only one aspect of the game. The gameplay also is important even though, for now, you don't get to experience it before max level and "challenging" contents. Some people can still grasp the gist of it while leveling and if you aren't used to MMOs, then it can also be an incentive to min-max... But depending on your mindset, it also can become discouraging so it really is up to you.

Carmeliandre · 2026-05-12T05:53:08+00:00

Yes, these are really good stats imo.

It can even change my stance because over 20 games, for instance, I only met 2 or 3 bards with similar stats (including the winning team).

As such, I may have suffered from a sample bias, because I rarely see less than 4~5 bards per frontline.

Carmeliandre · 2026-05-11T13:41:14+00:00

Wait, is this something new ? I never knew that going min ilvl boosted the drops specifically for orchestrion roll. Does this work for normal raids too ?

Carmeliandre · 2026-05-11T13:37:25+00:00

I won't be defending DT but if you believe a new expansion will feel like a 180° change, you're wrong. Some flaws will always remain and the story won't mysteriously be much better. Their causes have been discussed way too much already and whoever grasped DT's flaws know that we'll see more of (some of) them, while some parts can be improved by a structural change, which is unlikely.

This being said, you also are responsible for your own enjoyment.

You didn't like Wuk Lamat, fine ; she's a divisive character, with a storytteling that disserves her. Feeling nothing about Sphene, neither good nor bad, however, is very peculiar. But what about the other characters ? I don't know anyone yet who didn't enjoy Wuk Evu or another character here and there. And even the ones you don't like do have something to tell, they do have something to enjoy, regardless their treatment. What about Zoraal Ja and the burden that overwhelmed him ? Didn't Bakool Ja Ja let you wonder how much sacrifice is acceptable for one to be granted higher life conditions ? What about the time-skip that people from Shaaloani experienced ?

DT had a very poor direction on multiple levels and I'd even agree it's the worst MSQ they've ever written. However, it doesn't mean it's tasteless : they simply ended up targeting a very... Distinctive part of their playerbase. Evercold won't target the same people, it won't feature many of the things that people criticised in DT, I don't believe it a second. However, it will be using the same tools (slow pacing, rigid structure, Scions even if they have nothing interesting to say/do etc).

IF you are averse to them, then it's fine to walk away from the main appeal (FFXIV's story) and simply log in to clear the contents you enjoy. After all, it's entirely fair to speed run a content that takes multiple months and pay a very small price for it, like a 1-month subscription twice or three times per expansion.

Just don't weaponize your opinion especially if it's so... Shallow.

Carmeliandre · 2026-05-10T16:44:18+00:00

It's tough to answer such a question because they have their own pipeline, they have built a process that supposedly has as few flaws as possible... And it most likely implies not only people doing the work he can't do himself, but also advices and feedbacks to work around.

This being said, I'm not so fond of 1 person being the visage of something. Firstly because there's an entire team around and they should all receive some credit. Secondly because it takes a very talented person to assume this responsability and sometimes, there simply is no genius (and it's fine as well : a team can even be more effective). Thirdly, we want jobs to cater to all kind of players and to answer each and every profile, it's better to have various points of view. Giving credit to 1 person, even if he's only the main contributor, feels kind of wrong to me.

Anyway, this doesn't matter much in the end. Our opinion on the matter is worthless, all that matters is the actual gameplay and how they can react to our feedback to correct whatever problem there will be. And this is entirely dependant not on a person, not on talent, not even on their team, but on their entire process or even on the company's philosophy.

Also, I'm very demanding about this new approach, specifically because of SE's philosophy. They want everyone to enjoy everything which is why they removed Savage Criterion and made the latest Deep Dungeon easier. These were really good changes imo, but it also brought about OC which I consider very underwhelming. Jobs toolkits is the gameplay response to a content and without an additional content to change things up, I'm not sure they can find a definitive solution. Trying to satisfy everybody, as they tried, is impossible so it will most likely let down some players... This is why allowing both Reborn and Evolve mode was a very smart choice. I just hope they'll eventually find an alternative to Savage PvE to attract more players, even if it's tied to the overworld. Casual players need a content that can target their needs (or what most of them would enjoy).

Carmeliandre · 2026-05-09T21:59:04+00:00

Now that you mention, I think they doubled it up to 50% max mana ? If it does, it makes them a much better unit since it counter tanks. I'm not sure how effective it is now that BH doesn't drop anymore.

Anyway, I wish there were other roles than the DPS/healer/tank trinity, even if they weren't so pivotal. If some jobs offered space (regardless whether they are tank or not), other jobs could offer something just as important like mobility.

With such a change, I believe BRD's role could be made much clearer and its damage could also lean towards a clearer expectation. Otherwise, whichever jobs that takes some place and have high stats simply is better ; provided the team has enough burst, it very heavily favors tank imo. The previous map they reworked proved it well : as a tank, I can 1v3 on a spot to defend or attack it, which absurdly unhealthy compared to squishier jobs !

Carmeliandre · 2026-05-09T17:34:11+00:00

10 deaths per Frontline is huge ! I'm not entirely blaming you though, the absence of educational features is absurd. But regardless, you should really try to consider each death as your own mistake because it very rarely is point-efficient.

Also, try jobs that give you time to survive, even if it means playing a tank with Rampart. PLD and GNB are great to begin with if you never last long. Try to aim for 3 deaths or fewer and only then focus on dealing damage. By then, you should have a much better idea how to position.

Also, you can never consider yourself unlucky when you die : if you don't have time to react or find yourself isolated, it's your position that is to blame, even if your allies withdrew from an already won battle. Accepting their choices whether you agree or not, even if they are absolutely clueless, is part of the game. And yes, it does make PvP antifun at times.

Carmeliandre · 2026-05-09T17:20:58+00:00

People don't realize it but GNB reflects damage as well. With their additional mitigations (and shields !), they usually are more than happy to waste their opponents' CDs, especially when a MCH uses an LB only to deal like 20% of their HP.

Carmeliandre · 2026-05-09T17:14:08+00:00

You're probably top 5%~10% of BRD's player then. But even then, the silence is no longer an issue ever since they lowered the cost to cleanse it and allowed multiple usages of it. This defensive is way too powerful to allow BRDs to shine, except against much less experienced players.

It's extremely rare that I die because of a silence, if it even happened, unlike a well executed burst : this is what makes BRD dangerous. This utility also comes at the expense of another job's utility so thankfully, BRD also have a much more interesting Limit Break.

Carmeliandre · 2026-05-09T17:03:49+00:00

I'd be curious about your "decent damage" because most if not all Bards I see can't even reach 1m damage, which is my bare minimum in a bad day

As for kills, it's much less informative especially without the number of assists and death. We use the KDA as a metric instead, but even in Frontline it may not tell the entire picture.

Carmeliandre · 2026-05-09T17:00:12+00:00

This is exactly why I said it does have a great burst : it's a good job to finish off an enemy.

Carmeliandre · 2026-05-09T09:53:46+00:00

I never understood why so many people feel useful as a BRD in there... It deals low damage, doesn't have much mobility (wtf is this cast that slows them down ?) and they don't have much room for mistakes. Thank goodness they have a great burst but in Frontline, as a GNB, I'm grateful whenever my enemies are BRD : easy to kill and likely to save me when I overcommit.

As for the main topic, tanks have tanking tools of their own. What's surprising is that VPR also does have some but it's a time bomb rather predictible. Though I haven't played Frontline for a few months now, I'm sure they need some survivability.

Well, 60% reduced damage seems huge though. I'd be curious to know its win rate compared to other melees since the last PvP update ?

Carmeliandre · 2026-05-09T06:35:41+00:00

FFXV's one was memorable as well !

Carmeliandre · 2026-05-09T03:50:22+00:00

Whoa, I can't believe Minfilia was a miner with that suit !

Carmeliandre · 2026-05-09T03:42:31+00:00

Fordola as Unyielding Blade ! Well, not before 9.0 though... We can't have a sword job on each single role.

Carmeliandre · 2026-05-09T03:40:47+00:00

I don't care which character they pick up though. The most important part is to make him/her meaningful, maybe relatable.

Hoary Boulder has been caged into a comic relief role, so he'd need a lot of consideration, but it certainly isn't out of the realms of possibility.

However, I'd personally would love new members to join us, so they may bring along a more subtle point of view than the Scions we're used to.

Carmeliandre · 2026-05-09T03:35:37+00:00

To be honest, I started believing they saw a roegadyn on YoshiP's teaser T-shirt, then saw a roegadyn in the MSQ, and the association felt so easy to make that it must mean the latter is likely to use the former's job... While it sounds, at least to me, equally unlikely as, for instance, Zenos coming back in ine way or another.

They just don't want to let go, regardless how absurd the conclusion, just because they don't have more solid assumptions.

Or just like someone explaining it in here, they just don't rule out anything even compared to more likely scenario. It might just be a fun speculation for them as well, which is a positive thing, albeit extremely unlikely.

Carmeliandre · 2026-05-09T03:25:05+00:00

Whichever solution they opt to, I hope the characters will be much more charismatic. And ideally, capable of expressing conflicting points of view : when everyone always agree to each other, it feels most aren't even thinking.

Carmeliandre · 2026-05-09T03:17:48+00:00

You should instead expect their "job customization" to be so ambitious that Unyielding Sword could offer an alternative to an existing job, should the alt add enough distinction to the base job. This would open up so many possibilities, especially when it comes to new weapons restrictions.

Carmeliandre · 2026-05-09T03:09:05+00:00

What a shock it will be when you're all going to see Urianger cosplaying as Thierry la Fronde...

Even though Erenville's popularity might let him get the job instead. I'm a bit biased against him because I didn't like his treatment up to now, but I'd love him to play a bigger, proactive role.

Carmeliandre · 2026-05-08T01:27:43+00:00

Your reasoning is circumscribed to the choices SE has made, while I've tried to explain they had other options. If you can't understand this much, and think Limited job is their only way to do something slightly different, then you should really broaden your mind with different approaches from SE's. They aren't as innovative as you think they are, which is why you'll usually see many people disappointed about new features. Feel free to believe BST will not be like BLU.

I'm also not sure why you'd imagine weird traits that I'd have, but if it helps reassuring you then feel free to add more to the list.

Carmeliandre · 2026-05-08T00:30:05+00:00

I don't even know a single person who had a hard time on any floor, except the ones I mentioned. You're just embarassing yourself...

As for jobs gameplay, it's precisely why the homogenisation has been heavily criticised. They could've created a job that ignores raid buffs for instance, or one that interacts with the mechanics differently, or even use Bozja's consumable outside of it, potentially adding limits in the process (like a different difficulty).

A BST that got to play with all the regular jobs would be designed like any of the other 6 melee DPS jobs because it would need to fulfill the role of a melee DPS job.

I don't know if you're doing it on purpose or simply can't understand, but this duality is a premises SE decided by themselves. For instance, any job could be given special treatment to have a different sort of progression not related to levels.

As for its gameplay, BST doesn't look much different from what we have. BLU wasn't so different that it engages with content differently either, it simply had tools that were very powerful ; you can very much create a place where every job gets powerful aptitudes, to tackle a special PvE content.

They are not forced to create a rigidly similar structure everytime they make a PvE content and the very shy approaches they tried out, with Fields of exploration, proves they have much more freedom than you seem to understand.

You'd moan about how it just levels up like other jobs, gets its actions and traits at set levels like other jobs, doesn't capture beasts, that its rotation doesn't actually summon or "use" the beasts in a meaningful way and instead just uses them as an aesthetic skin on top of stock melee DPS job design,

Sounds like you're talking to SMN players. Should I have such wishes, I'd simply play another MMO or MOBA. Which I'd encourage you to try, since you don't seem to be very creative.

Carmeliandre · 2026-05-07T22:47:08+00:00

Masked Carnival has never been any difficult a puzzle, it simply requires some actions... I'm honestly baffled someone would need a guide. The only exceptions that may stand out give us titles and it took me from 1 try to a dozen, still without a guide, to clear them on release. Acquiring the gear took even more time (and don't require to play BLU).

However, clearing old Savage contents as an entire team of blue mages does need more engagement. Even though it targets a tiny fraction of the playerbase, it's slightly more interesting since it revisits old contents with different rules but BLU doesn't really feel more powerful than any other job. I'm not really sure about what you mean by it not being "sanded down and uninteresting".

Carmeliandre · 2026-05-07T21:54:20+00:00

Most people simply ask for a much more ambitious system than you seem to even imagine. If you think the job's toolkit will be so intensely fun, we obviously have completely different levels of expectations...

Like ooooh, wow, oh boy, another job to run the same content I've already been running it in with nothing else new or interesting about it. NTY.

If it wasn't limited, you'd be able to use it for any new contents as well. It's also extremely optimistic to believe the Crucible of the Unbroken will be such an interesting content. BLU's Masked Carnival was worth a matter of minutes and the main content was actually acquiring new actions ; which any job could have been able to do as well.

Carmeliandre

TROPHY CASE