What WoW Could Learn From FFXIV

Community General Discussion
1

There are a few ideas from playing FFXIV that WoW could really benefit from incorporating to some degree for a huge QoL improvement.
Tables of Contents-

  • Armory Bonus
  • Subscriber Rewards
  • Flying Unlock

Armory Bonus -
Probably one of my favorite things from FFXIV is the armory bonus system. In WoW terms basically if you have a character at 120 your alts get 100% increased exp until 110 and then 50% increased exp from 110 to 120. Making leveling so much easier to do.

If WoW were to implement this it would improve the leveling process greatly (Though we all know the reason why the dev’s dont increase leveling speeds is to sell you those $60 110 boosts which are now $40 for a limited time!)

Subscriber Rewards-
Many MMO’s have it SWTOR gives you currency to use on the cash shop ever month your subscribers (and a bit more with security key) but FFXIV’s is probably the best model.

You get transmogrify items for every month your subscribed basically.

Imagine if WoW offered different transmog items for every month of the game you were subscribed.

Lets say 1 month you get a Jaina Proudmore transmog appearance outfit or Kul’Tiran sailor attire. 2 months being subscribed you get a Replica Helm of Domination (Lich Kings Helmet). And being subscriber for 3 months you get a head transmog for Malfurion’s antlers and glove transmogs for his wings!

The rewards should be static so the 1 month reward will never be different and they accumulate for how many months you subscribe onwards with maybe every 12 months you get a free mount and pet from the cash shop.

There is so much you can possibly do with subscriber rewards that can be purely cosmetic and fun. Toys, Battle Pets, Mounts, Transmog sets and items of main lore characters.

Flying Unlock-
FFXIV has a far superior system for unlocking flying compared to our current pathfinder. You unlock flying by completing the zones story.

Imagine if our pathfinder unlock simply became complete all of the expansions current story/war campaign. No rep requirements. No timegating. Then have a part 2 system for when new zones are introduced.

I would hold off on it till the 8.1 patch so there is a time waiting period however with something easily unlocked (so long as they don’t get story progression behind reputation… I’m looking at you Suramar) because I’m fine with it not being available to fly right at the start of the expansion, just so long as its available during the 8.1 or 8.1.5 patch because waiting till 8.2 AND having a huge timegate behind reputation just feels horrible.

53 Likes
2

Regarding your point on sub rewards, have you seen how people are reacting to just a 6 month sub mount?? People would lose their stuff if this was added to wow.

23 Likes
3

Uh oh, you can’t say the “F” word in these parts, pard’ner.

I’d watch your footing.

5 Likes
4

10/10

The community will implode.

5 Likes
5

Which is why I play FF14 now instead of wow.

31 Likes
6

Get loot automatically when you kill mobs. No more picking up from bodies.

They handle flying well, I agree, including incorporating it into the design(like unlocking flying unlocks more quests).

“Duty Roulette” is a wonderful concept for keeping old dungeons/raids relevant, but I don’t think WoW can do it without more scaling systems that are already in place in FF14.

7 Likes
7

Flying yes, everything else, no.

3 Likes
8

Armory bonus - WoW already has heirlooms. I guess you can argue about which system is better, but it’s not as if WoW doesn’t already have an intricate system, which they have iterated on repeatedly, for making alt leveling easier.

Subscriber rewards - Here I agree. I don’t understand why Blizzard doesn’t treat their long-term best customers better (with cosmetic rewards).

Flying unlock - As with the alt-leveling system, this sounds like just a different system, not obviously a better one and not something Blizzard hasn’t thought about. Blizzard, for gameplay reasons, thinks making flying-unlock harder is a good idea. You can agree or disagree with this but it’s not like FF14 has some genius new idea.

1 Like
9

Why even kill mobs, just send us loot in the mail while we run around in circles

2 Likes
10

We already use special gravity powers to suck all the loot at once when we mindlessly AOE down a pack. Why not cut out the middle man?

11

There is a difference between giving a store mount for your purchase of 6 months subscription vs a cumulative reward you get for every month you are subscribed to.

The 6 month mount is basically a bribe.

15 Likes
12

sounds like heirlooms already fill this niche tbh, maybe not in such an extreme way, but it’s still the same general idea. You have a max level toon, they buy items that greatly speed up leveling.

isn’t your reward for subscribing the ability to play the game? I’m not saying this is a bad idea exactly, just it kinda seems pointless.

3 Likes
13

I suggested the flying unlock change MULTIPLE times and even justified it with the storyline. If you did the story of Tirigard you could fly in there but when going to Stormgarde the mages would shoot you out of the sky if you did not complete the story there.

ALSO DO NOT TELL me they cannot do zone specific flying because they sure as hell did it for Wintergrasp. You got dismounted the minute you flew over that zone.

It makes no sense how timegated flying is in WoW right except for poor imagination from the devs.

10 Likes
14

No thanks. Not a fan of most things of FFXIV. FFXIV actually could learn a lot from WoW.

5 Likes
15

Gunblades.

1 Like
16

Looting automatically would kill my bag space. I would hope there would be a way to turn it off.

17

They’re actually going through an ability prune for Shadowbringers.

1 Like
18

I’d be down for it to be an option like auto loot is now.

19

Its the role actions that are getting pruned (The ones no one really ever used). Then you have abilities being baked in like verholy after your combo to reduce hotbar bloat.

20

I agree with the armory bonus, and I’d go further to say that most achievements and reps should be account based. I think Squeenix has dialed back on the sub rewards, but that’s something WoW is considering with the 6 mo. recurring mounts. I agree with regards to the flying unlock.