Stormblood thoughts, reactions, and general commentary

[Freya]

http://img.finalfantasyxiv.com/t/7933cb4e7b3a01b4e86dc352c2ac06cca462cfc4.png?1496826015

If you preordered the game (technically you still can as of the time this was posted!) then you can get early access. The early access will be available Friday, June 16, 2017 at around 2:00 a.m. (PDT). This time is subject to change depending on how maintenance goes. So don't fret if it's not up RIGHT AWAY. Growing pains and all that.

So if you are in the early access or just the official release date of June 20th, you're experiencing a heck of a lot of new things! What are those new things you ask? Let's just go to their website (http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/stormblood/) to see the list:


New adventures in Ala Mhigo and Doma
Play as two new jobs─red mage and samurai
New exploration with swimming and diving
Level cap increase from 60 to 70
Changes to the battle system
Journey to the Far Eastern city of Kugane
Explore Gyr Abania, the Ruby Sea, Yanxia, and the Azim Steppe
New primals and beastmen: Lakshmi and the Ananta, Susano and the Kojin
New dungeons
A new 8-man raid: Interdimensional Rift─Omega
A new alliance raid: Return to Ivalice
The Forbidden Land of Eureka
New gear and crafting recipes
A new residential district: Shirogane
Expanded item inventory



SO NERDS, what are your first impressions, thoughts, experiences, all that fun commentary that comes with a new expansion!

I may or may not use your comments here for an article. I AM FOREWARNING YOU ABOUT THIS.

[Shauna]

tbh you missed the most important part

http://img.finalfantasyxiv.com/t/de4bffc4fb40b355db2cb463273acab6f10e26ac_116.png

[Jinx]

tbh you missed the most important part

http://img.finalfantasyxiv.com/t/de4bffc4fb40b355db2cb463273acab6f10e26ac_116.png

I am dying over the tanuki minion. The biggest question will be, if I win it, do I sell it and make 15mil gil in one go, or keep it and use it and hope to win it later?

[Jinx]

Pre-early access impressions:

I was really undecided about the changes to my main class, BLM, but I decided I'm going to go ahead and stick with it over RDM. I will definitely be picking up RDM at some point, and will probably decide later on if I want to switch permanently. (Thankfully most of the glamour items I have will carry over as RDM and BLM wear the same gear!) But the artifact gear for BLM is so pretty, especially that rod.

ALSO I LOVE KUGANE'S MUSIC
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The patch notes dropped today and the stills of the new dungeons look glorious. I'm especially excited about what looks like a Japanese bathhouse. For days I was waffling about leveling RDM first and then doing story with it or diving into story, but I'm definitely jumping into the story. Especially given that PotD--the dungeon used for leveling DPS classes mostly these days--will be havoc. And the area you have to be in to access it will be like 10fps, no lie.

I AM TOO GODDAMN EXCITED. I've actually been obsessively cleaning my house this week so that I can go the enxt week without doing so and without the house being gross or me feeling guilty.

Anyways, Freya, I will share my first thoughts here probably about this time tomorrow, and again in the evening so you have some info for your article. :)

[Shauna]

Yeah, I'll report back in at some point with my actual thoughts, but I am looking forward to seeing how Paladin is ruined forever or whatever (it actually looks like PLD will be better than it was so I'm legit looking forward to seeing how it changes).

[Dat Matt]

8 hours since servers went down. Hand trembling from withdrawal.

[Jinx]

8 hours since servers went down. Hand trembling from withdrawal.

I know something you could do with that hand!

[Freya]

Someone sent me a video of an otter pet or something. Is this new for stormblood or something I can get normally?

[Jinx]

New for Stormblood. As of right now, we don't know how to get it (I don't think, it wasn't in the patch notes).

[Jinx]

Well, I should say that the "pet" itself is new, but you could always have "pets". In FFXIV they're called minions, and they just follow you around and look cute. Strictly an aesthetic e-peen thing, unless you play the Gold Saucer game, Lord of Verminion (no one plays LoV, except maybe like Daniel Towns).

So the concept is normal, the minion itself is new.

[Freya]

Oh yeah I knew there were pets before but I well...

you guys know my otter obsessions hehe it's making me want to start playing again

[Jinx]

GET IN HERE GIRL

I know you kind of played for a second. What class? Bard?

[Freya]

I DON'T REMEMBER. I wanted to be a dragoon for obvious reasons.

[Jinx]

oh yeah freya lol

GET BACK IN HERE

Granted you'd probably have a lot to do, because I think even with jump potions you still have to do the story. I could be wrong.

[Shauna]

There are jump potions that allow you to skip story as well.

[Freya]

But then... i wont know what happened

[Shauna]

Join the club!

[Shauna]

But for reals, I probably wouldn't recommend level skipping or anything, gotta enjoy the story for what it is!

[Jinx]

Honestly, if you or Nutty, or anyone else who reads this is thinking about starting the game, or picking up after a long absence, my advice is to take it slow and enjoy it. Especially if you're playing it as a Final Fantasy game in addition to it being an MMO. There's always the desire to rush so you can do cool stuff with friends. Also to be able to experience new content as it drops, and experiencing a whole new expansion especially. But it's actually a really great story, the game is a bunch of fun. There's a lot to do and piddle around with and discover on your own if you don't put time constraints on yourself.

[Jinx]

To add onto that thought: a couple months of dedicated few hours a night will get you caught up on the story quickly. Before long you'll be like the rest of us--waiting until patch for new content. Might as well enjoy all the fresh possibilities why it's still new to you!

[Jinx]

The music so far is absolutely incredible.

[Vermachtnis]

I played RDM for like an hour, the casting seemed a little slow. But I don't play a caster so I don't know if it's where I just used to the ninjas speed. The actual fencing part was cool.

[Freya]

Any screenshots or anything is welcomed as well :D

[Galuf]

A system error occurred during event movement

[Scotty_ffgamer]

I've really been wanting to pick this game up again, but I don't really have the time to put towards it. Money is also starting to get a bit tight so I'm not sure it would be worth the subscription if I'm not going to play much. I'm thinking about jumping back in here in a few months after my wedding though.

I'll have to see if I can get my fiancée to join in. She doesn't really like playing rpgs, but she likes watching me play them most of the time.

Out of curiosity, with this new expansion, what would be the easiest class for someone to jump into that has never played any kind of MMO before?

[Jinx]

72594

ah-ah-aaaaah!

[Jinx]

I've really been wanting to pick this game up again, but I don't really have the time to put towards it. Money is also starting to get a bit tight so I'm not sure it would be worth the subscription if I'm not going to play much. I'm thinking about jumping back in here in a few months after my wedding though.

I'll have to see if I can get my fiancée to join in. She doesn't really like playing rpgs, but she likes watching me play them most of the time.

Out of curiosity, with this new expansion, what would be the easiest class for someone to jump into that has never played any kind of MMO before?

Hard to say as it just came out today, and classes will be tweaked over the next couple of months. BLM is pretty easy to understand, though.

[Galuf]

Id say paladin is the easiest job to play. Even better now as it got changes which make it pretty damn awesome.

[Scotty_ffgamer]

I guess that would have been a question better left asked when people had time to toy with changes after the expansion. I've just been thinking about the game a lot today and trying to think how I could potentially get my fiancé to play.

[Galuf]

Tbf the expansions goal of class changes was to bring the skill floor up so id assume they all got easier. I know dragoon lost a few buttons making it easier to manage. But I havent been past level 60 cos we are all kinda stuck waiting to complete "Tales of Adventure: Raubahn (Savage)"

actually so surprised at 10 am in the uk and thers still too many people trying to get in here

[WarZidane]

Very minor spoilers, but I thought this was an amusing moment.
72636

[Galuf]

Now raubahn savage is over I can say this exapnsion has awesome zones. Minus some people in shout chat moaning bout how rubbish diving is. I dunno what they expected with diving lol.
The music is good too. Only level 65 though so cant say anything on story and well obviously cos of spoilers too. Dps ques arent atrocious but I do have to wait aboyt 30 kinutes for a dungeon lol. But apart from raubahm savage. This game is awesome so far.

[Galuf]

Excuse the doubke posrt please I wont do it again but.



now I have actually beaten the game and done one EX so far. I can say that this expansion has been the best ive seen of the stuff in this game. The story is awesome. Music is great. The dungeons for the most part are fun. And that final boss is one of the best ive seen in any ff. Ofcourse I shall not spoil anything. The extreme fight of susano is pretty damn fun aswell. And I like his wee lines and how he says "maaaake waaay". But yah. Also the zones are great too and I really like grynewhat and gosetsu as characters. Despite only being introduced very recently. Theres some parts I think are a bit eh though. In the story anyway but. All of everything it is awesome and also dragoon is fun though they fucked it up at 60. 70 dragoon is pretty good and I get to give my eyes to people.



Yeah.

[SkyRender]

I haven't posted here in ages....... :o

Overall, I'm pretty happy with the new Stormblood content. I think it's off to a better start then Heavensward. I think the dungeons were creative enough, the story was pretty good and the cut-scenes were well done. I don't want to put any specifics in to avoid spoilers. For all the good the expansion brought though, I still feel like the endgame needs to change. I don't like having to cap tomes each week and grinding the next raid tier for gear that won't be the best for long. That feeling has kept me away from raiding on my new char (Decided to just start over to ignore endgame) and just been having fun re-leveling jobs up and relaxing and talking to peep while crafting/gathering.

[Jinx]

Yeah, this game is definitely designed TO burn you out, and Yoshi-P says if you get bored go play something else. I'm currently in a more waning phase.

Part of it is that I hate all 3 expert dungeons. They're all shit.

[Galuf]

Maybe atleast one of the dungeons should have made the boss NOT jump away and become untargettabke :/

[Hoju]

I actually unsubbed before i got to the Stormblood storyline. I'm near the end of Heavensward but just didn't have the time to play enough of this game to make it worth it. I was neglecting all my other games to get as far as I did now my other games are calling me.

I personally think FFXIV is a fantastic MMO but not for someone with limited free time such as myself.

[Markus. D]

My one and ONLY problem with Stormblood is that they'll never top Great Gubal Library.