While it may come across differently if you read Life in Eorzea that I do enjoy Final Fantasy XIV and so far I feel Shadowbringers is an amazing expansion and while healers do have a problem I do feel 5.0 will be the last patch I will be subscribed for and here is why.
I have levelled four different jobs to level 80 (before people comment about I should spread out the levelling – no. Levelling is not endgame content and is a means to DO the endgame stuff and more so on a game that STRESSES to do everything on one character) and once again like the other expansions, I find there is nothing to do at all.
Sure, we do have dungeons that will provide us with gear that we can gear up with but do what? The extreme trials can be done in starter gear and so can the normal Eden raid which provides gear … which you can get in about a month. Savage will come out next week as of posting this but it’s still the same thing – a weekly lockout on a hardish fight.
Final Fantasy XIV, and sadly Shadowbringer, seems to rely on the fact that people will keep doing the same content over and over again to gear up different jobs and then do … well no content really. The same logic then applies that people will do the 24 man raid in order to upgrade from their normal raid gear.
There is no real endgame beyond the same three dungeons, a raid in name only which is just four bosses and the only thing that doesn’t really die down – crafting which if you do not enjoy is pointless anyhow. I am not even going to comment on how pointless Gil is either outside of selected vanity stuff.
There are things that could be done such as another raid tier, harder 24 man raids, harder dungeons, different gearsets, earlier relic & AF gear progression and much more but it does not look like this will be happening.
Final Fantasy XIV is the only MMO I played where you just sit in your housing ward and just wait for a duty to pop. You never really have a reason to go to the open world beyond the odd hunt or node appearing. I feel once the main story impact is over that Final Fantasy XIV will become the hollow shell that it could be once again.
A shame really. By just updating the endgame content and Square Enix understanding they need to invest back into their money maker – they could make Final Fantasy XIV amazing all year round and not just every six months.
I am aware of beast tribes (which is lore, mount and maybe a minion at best) and the new crafting endgame coming but a lot of this still applies to people that only enjoy combat stuff. I must also add I have no problem with the story in the game … it is a Final Fantasy game and an MMORPG after all but there must still be things to do after the story is over.
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