Just be aware that FFXIV is a VERY slow game in terms of combat during leveling. It gets better as you get higher due to more oGCD abilities and such, but combat is such a turn off at first. It will never be as fast as WoW, even at cap, but it does get better than it starts out as.
There’s also a LOT of mandatory story quests that are just plain dialogue in text boxes and literally nothing else. I like the game for its larger focus on a cohesive story, but it’s something that bothers some people.
The crafting in FFXIV is MUCH more involved than WoW. The crafting and gathering classes are exactly that, they are classes just like the combat classes, with just as many abilities, and with specific gear as well. I’ve always thought of the crafting and gathering as “combat” in a way, considering that there are buffs, abilities, combos and finishers, just like in the combat classes.
And you absolutely can craft raid gear, full sets even, in FFXIV, without actually raiding to get the mats. I don’t think you can craft the highest iLvl gear each patch, but the gear you can craft is plenty good enough to get you into raids and other high level content. Actually, when new raids release, there are teams of gatherers and crafters for static raid teams that spend the entire first day or two of the patch gathering and crafting the best new gear available to give the teams a leg up against the content as soon as possible. It’s a huge deal to some folks.
The gathering and crafting “end game” is just as involved as the combat end game, with specific gear, stats and augments required to craft the best items. Glamour, however, is the true end game in FFXIV.
thats been a huge turn off with crafting gear for me. Its an absurd way of dragging players who dont WANT to raid into raiding if they want to make decent gear.
Not interested, personally. I just wont make that gear.
I’d like to see a middle ground. FF14 crafting is much more involved, but can also feel a little too tedious at times.
I do like the fact that you have to actually craft some of the mats for other items, but that can quickly lead to be overflowing with a ton of random items, mats, etc… Any time I work on professions I end up carving out time to do JUST that by dumping my bags at the retainer and holding only profession items for the one profession I’m working on.
I’ve only gotten most of mine to low levels (low 40s) so I can’t even really make anything useful now other than maybe some food, but you can make enough food to level you from 1-70 with pocket change if you’re only worried about the exp buff.
If I had to choose I’d take FF14, but it would definitely be a lot more of a time investment. I also like that you can do ALL professions.
I know a lot of folks say this, and it may be sorta true for some classes in FFXIV (maybe; I haven’t played all of them to end game yet), but honestly, when the opener for dragoon is 20+ different abilities in about 30 seconds, I’m just not seeing it. Sure, that’s the opener, and once you’ve popped all the OGCDs the rotation settles down a bit, but still, there are more abilities than most WoW classes have now, and it’s definitely more engaging.
It seems like people just can’t get past how it feels in the early game when you have four abilities that are each on a 2.5 second CD. Yes, it’s dog slow and a bit boring then, but at end game when you’re double weaving OGCDs in that 2.5 seconds, it’s not.
Until those oGCDs are on cooldown. It alternates between being slow and being fast when you have them up. Or for at least 1 class a CD makes it really fast during that CD then back to normal.
I won’t deny that FFXIV classes are generally a bit more complex than WoW though (although I think the amount thats true by is exaggerated by the way people make guides for that game. They list out every little thing rather than just listing out the priority).
This. Crafting in 14 is more interactive and feels more like a tradeskill than just picking stuff and simply clicking a button. It’s just too bad that crafted gear is rarely BIS.
Ff14 has a LOT of crafting and you can take all of them on the same character and they all have skills that can be used in other professions. But the heavy rng just to craft them is meh…
Crafting in WoW really hasn’t been relevant for a while. I genuinely think they don’t know what to do with trade skills at the moment. At least in FF14 there is a purpose for most of the professions.
Touch increase the quality of the item, the higher the quality the more xp it gains, and the higher it is the more HQ can trigger which can sell for much more and can be used to increase the starting quality bar of another crafting item that requires it.
Synthesis is just the action of crafting the item itself.
Items have a durability. Most synthesis and touches use 1 durability. If your durability falls to 0, you fail the craft and randomly get reimbursed some mats.
Touches and synthesis have a % of success. Even if it fails, it still uses a durability. That’s where the heavy rng comes in.
Gathering uses another rng system. A rock has 4 durability in it. Depending on your equipment and gathering level, you can get better items from that ore and they can be gathered already HQ. Each item in that rock has a % too. If you don’t get the item, the rock still loses a durability. Every gathering areas have many spawns possible and there’s always 2 rocks spawned. Once 1 is depleted, another nearby will spawn.
Whether it’s crafting or gathering, every professions has a log and it gives you more exp for the first time you crafted/gathered an item. Though you can gain less xp for an item that requires a lower level than you already have. If you’ve gained levels crafting the same thing, it’s better to then just go to the item at your level.
FFXIV’s crafting system is miles better than WoW’s. It’s immersive, and as others have stated, professions are like their own classes instead of just “get mats, press button get loot” wow has.
It terms of how crafting is done, it basically like a battle, except the mats are the mob and the gear you make is what drops from the mob. You press abilities in a rotation to fight (craft). So it’s like you are actually making something.
The only down side is that since it’s like a class, it takes a long time to level up the profession.
