I’ve been dabbling in ffxiv recently and noticed just how different it is compared to wow. Those who have played other mmos especially ffxiv, how would you compare it to wow? Some points to discuss:
Story quests
Classes
Endgame content
Raiding
Collection of mounts, transmog, etc…
What are some things that WoW does better than other mmos and vice-versa?
Personally, I think the story of ffxiv is a lot more fleshed out and engaging than WoW. I think the game does better at introducing the world and the characters you will interact with for the rest of the game and future content.
For classes, I think WoW is interesting in that you have multiple specs for each class, but sometimes the specs don’t all play well or feel a bit behind the curve or dont have enough to keep me interested for very long. I’d say wow makes classes feel more bursty or spammy. In ffxiv, there are no specs but each class has mechanics and they really try to nail one play style and it’s like comparing it to a dance or choreography. I’d like to hear those who play or played multiple mmos give their comparisons as well.
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FFXIV is more about learning a rotation for your class and for each boss because fights are a lot less flexible in terms of how you can do them than in wow, Denathrius fight is pretty ffxiv-like actually in terms of how the fight progresses. There is also no focus on trash like in wow, in raids you almost never have trash with a few exceptions.
Endgame is either farming tokens from trials (non-raid bosses) for weapons tokens from raids for gear and weapons, and/or tomestones a currency for another set of gear. There are also 24-man raids which have separate gear to the other ones and are kind of like lfr raids in wow except they don’t have a hardmode.
Story is a lot more cohesive and personal in ffxiv. You take an active part in it rather than be a nameless ghost adventurer/commander/hero as in wow. There are no gaps in the story that you need external sources like books to fill you in on. If you’ve ever played a ff game it’s a comparable storytelling experience.
One thing about the game tho is the content roadmap is pretty static as in they don’t reinvent systems like wow where cata and legion endgame has so little in common, in ffxiv you know which patch will contain a new 8-man raid, or a 24-man raid or a trial, always happens in the same order at least up until now so 3 expansions. They do add something new everytime but it’s relatively minor compared to a complete overhaul like in wow.
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For those players that have played FFIX at max level, the only complaint I generally hear is End Game.
The raids and dungeons don’t have the multiple levels like in WoW, and are relatively easier, so after about a month or 2, people focused on endgame tend to complain.
Others, at that point, switch to alts, and collecting transmog and mounts.
Everything else you listed (story Quests, classes, Collections) are all better in FFXIV. I also personally enjoy more the raids and end-game bosses in FFXIV because it’s more about execution. You can’t simply outgear them like in WoW and doing something wrong means you will probably die or even cause the whole team to die. That might make it sound more difficult than in WoW, but it’s more about making sure you move out of AOE things that are clearly marked. DPS can’t just sit in them and expect to be healed or live like in WoW.
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FF14 is fun for a few months, but it doesn’t really have anything to keep me playing for a straight year.
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vs Black Desert Online
Graphics : bdo win by far
Story : wow WON by far before. At least until around 8.2 or sth. Now I don’t see any difference wows and bdos
Pve : wow win by far
Pvp : bdo win
Music : my favorite is wow’s but bdo has good musics too
Combat style : very different so can’t compare
Professions : can’t compare either
Thats a really good comparison 
Well we haven’t hit WoW 14 yet, but we probably should at this point. PLEASE SEND HELP
If things could be ever be gritty/ugly in XiV I’d appreciate the world more.
I don’t know, something about constant cute and/or beautiful only wears me down and makes the world feel more artificial than WoW or ESO.
I also dislike how much they lowered the celling for healing in XiV, that along with other mechanical changes just makes it feel like no ones allowed to lose? Like all the corners are bubble wrapped and you are in this constant safe space even in endgame content.
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I feel the story telling in FFXIV is leagues above anything in WoW. The xpacs I have been through with FF feel complete when they are released where WoW mostly feels unfinished. I also like FFXIV having a viable crafting system where you can craft gear that is relevant and usable in the game. Housing, though there is not enough, is another thing I like about FFXIV. Ignoring the two games looks and concentrating on game play I think FFXIV is the game WoW could have been with better leadership.
I also like ESO and have gone back to it after the disappointment of Shadowlands. I think ESO’s story telling is very good and does a good job of providing closure at the end of the main quest line. Overall I find the combat faster and in the current xpac they have gotten more original in the type of mechanics you need to perform in dungeons and raids. An example is having to grapple to areas to interrupt or avoid one shot mechanics. Now that I think of it though they are heavily scripted I liked FFXIV’s many unique mechanics as well. Again ESO has a decent housing system so I have places I can display trophies, do crafting or unwind while waiting for the group finder to trigger. Lastly while not as strong as FFXIV ESO has a number of crafted sets that are usable and even BiS for some types of activities.
In general I think WoW has stagnated while other games have passed them by. I came back in part to see how the game was after 7 years of playing other MMO’s and to join some family members who were playing again. I’ve been disappointed in what I’ve found.
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Which combat is smoother?
I played Swotr and their combat felt so stiff. While WoW’s always felt smooth and fluid for the most part.
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WoW and FFXIV are the only 2 mmos with vertical endgame progression. Everything else is horizontal. I played SWTOR for a few months and really enjoyed the gameplay, felt like a decent “wow clone” albeit quite buggy comparatively, however once I started gearing up for endgame I quickly realized that the toughest raids dropped the same gear ilvl/gearscore as the dungeons you do as soon as you hit max level. After running a couple, there was really no point besides collecting set bonuses that only slightly helped your performance in certain situations.
If more mmos did vertical progression I’d probably branch out more.
Compared to World of Warcraft, FFXIV is much less about pushing people towards raiding, mythic+, PvP and other competitive content. Instead, a lot of the emphasis is on the journey to end-game with its massive JRPG story and big trial fights, it’s large backcatalog of dungeons that people still run (thanks to their “roulette” system) and the plethora of small, social, casual and experimental content you can do at end-game if raiding and PvP is not your thing. (You especially don’t want to play that game for PvP.)
They do have raids, but they are very short (only 4 bosses per tier), they only have “raid finder” and “heroic” difficulties, and they are only discrete boss arenas you queue for instead of a full raid instance. On a more positive note though, their raids are generally very impressive and have ridiculously good music for something people are going to put discord voice chat over…
Once in a blue moon they will release an “ultimate” difficulty boss that cannot be out-geared and, at least looking at the time to first-kill, seems to be a mythic final boss in terms of difficulty. So that’s cool, but if you don’t care about anything else and are going to “raid-log” FFXIV, I don’t think it’s worth paying a sub for so little when you can play a game like WoW that gives much more love to challenging content.
Because of those differences the game attracts a much more peaceful and welcoming community than WoW’s more competitive one, but if you’re looking for like-minded people to push real hard PvE content, it might not be the best game to spend your time into, due to the smaller amount of available hard content and the kind of people that makes the bulk of their community.
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The only real complaint that I’ve got about FFXIV is that it has significantly less challenging end game content than WoW. End game in FF is largely about farming tokens to buy gear, and most of the encounters are a lot more basic/rigid.
Other than that, FFXIV is far superior to WoW in just about every way.
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The story is much better, as is the delivery. Leveling through the story (the only way, as content is locked behind story progress) involves a lot more RP and little combat, which works since the writing is pretty good. Leveling alts is a PITA but…
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The classes I’ve tried (White/Black mages, Dancer, Dark Knight, Samurai) feel very good to play, and each have a strong character. One of the most interesting things is that your character can learn every class and swap between them, with level being tied to the class itself, so you don’t actually need any alts to be able to play every class.
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Tradeskill Classes are a thing. They’ve got their own set of skills and equipment unique from combat classes, and are much more involved than simply collecting mats and clicking one button. There is also a fair bit of content that has been developed specifically for tradeskill classes, including “PvP” rankings complete with rewards for the top crafters.
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As I mentioned earlier, end game/raiding content is geared largely towards the casual crowd with only a very small number of hardcore encounters. As with the rest of the game, they’re generally quite aesthetically appealing, but don’t expect to play the game explicitly for the end game.
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Comparing collection in WoW to FFXIV is like comparing an airsoft team to the United States Armed Forces. FFXIV has an enormous wealth of absolutely gorgeous collectable gear, pets, mounts and housing items. Yes, FFXIV has a fully fleshed out housing system that you can get lost in for hours designing your dream home. I would recommend browsing some FFXIV housing online, as some people blow my mind with how creative their designs are (thankfully, Square has left several significant housing glitches in game because players enjoy using them to expand the limits of what’s possible).
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One addition I’ll make is that there are quite a few fun “mini-games” in FFXIV, with both solo and group content.
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Ive sunk about 300 hours in ESO and only about 30 in final fantasy.
For ESO, it feels like explorer heaven. Someone mentioned horizontal progression. I think thats fair. Theres no real pull to do anything group orientated. If that’s your drive then wow beats it hands down. If combat is your thing, again wow has it completely beaten (it feels slow and clunky). But where it shines is immersion. You really get to explore, find stuff, play these grand storylines that have nothing at all to do with the main quest. The world just feels alive, immersive and engaging.
Final fantasy is interesting in a different way. The first thing you’ll probably notice is clothing. Its so interesting. Avatars are beautiful to look at. You might then stumble on the player housing areas and pop in to see what folks houses look like. Again, its fascinating. Aesthetically its wonderful. From the point of self-expression and marking your place in the universe with your little collection of accomplishments, its magnificent.
Then we come to another weird thing about it. I started off leveling a thaumaturge. I took her to about level 20, stumbled on the rogue guild and just did it again. Then decided to be an archer, then a conjurer. It was so fun to experiment with them. Despite the questing being pretty threadbare (do you like being a postman! you’ll love the early zones of this game!), it was just so much fun to mess about with the various playstyles. And apparently, it gets even better the further into it you go. But im not a progression minded player, i just like exploring things, so why deprive myself of the joy of bumbling about just to reach that as quick as possible? Seriously, it’ll get another look in at some point. Right now, its wow’s moment in the sun for a while. But i can see myself happily bouncing between the three of them pretty soon (alongside destiny 2… and baldurs gate 3… and cyberpunk). Honestly, after a bit of a lull, this year looks so fun for gaming.
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not that WoW is “hard”, but I couldn’t believe how easy FFXIV was.
there’s a lot of things in FFXIV I couldn’t believe weren’t a thing, and I’m sure players who come to WoW think the same thing. I liked the idea that your one toon can play multiple specs, but at the same time I wasn’t into a lot of the class fantasy even being a life long final fantasy fan.
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That is actually one of the main differences also in design philosophy. When asked directly what a player should do once they’ve already experienced all the content they care to from a patch, the game director himself said “take a break, come back when there’s something else you want to do or new content. The game will be here” (paraphrasing). Whereas WoW is designed almost from the ground up these days to keep you logging in, playing regularly, and to extend your time played because it’s a metric they are always trying to boost.
As a big player in both games, I will tell you that it is incredibly refreshing in FFXIV that the developers and director seem to put real effort into every system and feature and bit of content that is in the game. Sure, they make a mistake here and there, but nothing in the game ever feels half-assed. It’s a dramatic contrast to Blizzard.
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WoW: most “complete” game, with raids, dungeons, and PvP all being updated. However WoW has a giant anchor of time-gating and intentional time wasters.
GW2: a lot of fun. Very very good PvP if that’s your thing. Gear doesn’t matter in rated PvP. Raids are okay. Dungeons are abandoned though.
BDO: current favorite. It’s a sandbox to an extent. Really good PvP. Really good solo content. Earn gear however you like. (Grinding, crafting, fishing, playing the market.) however it takes a long time to gear up. But they do a good job of not pressuring you to gear fast. They also through a TON of free stuff at you constantly.
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Imo the only things WoW has going for it these days is our sunken cost and our friends/guildies. There are a bunch of other games out there that look 10x better and play 10x better but they don’t have our ongoing social ties and collections/achievements.
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Eh, there’s also a big design philosophy missed that this highlights. Blizzard is constantly trying to innovate, which is why sometimes things seem half-assed. FF14 always plays it safe.
Well, wow will have enough servers to play on at launch.