Fingers crossed I find the expansion writing a bit more engaging, can't say I really cared about any of the characters aside from Maggie and Gaius. Though, making you do what felt like a hundred "talk to person X, then talk to person Y" steps when building up to the end did not help.
Actual ARR story done, like are you for sure into Heavensward? Cause I thought I finished the ARR story (saw the credits) then did 80 more quests.. (and now saw more credits!) But I enjoyed that additional story, and the build up / segway into HW feels pretty good. I just got there last night actually, ended my session on the first quest of HW.
I've no idea, what is the You Are Now In Expansion Content! indicator?
If you just finished "The Ultimate Weapon" you're not done yet, but you unlocked a ton of level 50 content. If you finished "Before the Dawn", watched like an hour of cutscenes, shed a tear, and saw giant text saying something like "NOW WE MOVE HEAVENSWARD" then you're done ARR
If you miss all that, the change in voice actors and the baroque as hell pipe organ "quest accepted" stinger should do it.
Shit, which voice actors changed? I didn't have the sound up loud last night when I was finishing up so I didn't notice. I did notice the pipe organ though and loved it.
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admanbunionize your workplaceSeattle, WARegistered Userregular
I started playing this a few weeks back and just got into Heavensward! The story is surprisingly good once you get into the second part of ARR, and the stuff leading up to Heavensward was excellent. And I didn't notice any difference in Alphinauds voice. I am terrible at recognizing voices however.
The title card actually comes after some intro dialogue for the first mission and so I was not prepared for the shocking change in Alphinaud’s voice
No more Sam Riegal? Nuuuu...
Also, good riddance to the VOs for Minifilia and Kan-E-Senna, if they were any flatter they'd be a plank.
I've been watching a streamer I mod for play Persona 4 for the first time while also sending an alt through ARR for the fourth time, and every time I'd hear Alphinaud in game it'd just make me think of Teddie and how perverted he is.
- The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (2017, colorized)
To be fair it's a wall of a fight for a first encounter to a tier, but these fights are more about time investment than anything so just gotta keep at it.
Yeah part of my issue with this tier has been that not only are some of the fights crazy long, but there's a good number of insta-wipe mechanics that make learning/practicing a real pain.
Taking this new alt through ARR, I've discovered a problem.
To be able to accept the next to last quest to finish ARR, right before Heavensward, you not only have to do all the Hard mode ARR primals if you haven't happened to do them for funsies for your relic, but you also have to do Crystal Tower. All of Crystal Tower.
That is a hell of a block for a new player, especially if they're on Crystal. It took almost 90 minutes of queue just to do Labyrinth of the Ancients alone.
- The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (2017, colorized)
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admanbunionize your workplaceSeattle, WARegistered Userregular
90 minutes? That's wild. I did LotA and Syrcus with a friend who hasn't done them a couple nights ago and each one was <5 minutes queue.
The MSQ quest that required you to complete Ifrit, Titan, and Garuda (Hard) modes, at least as of the time I went through it, was the first quest of patch 2.5, "Good Intentions". Did they remove those requirements from that and then reimplement them in a further-down-the-road quest?
Nope, you still have to do those Hard mode primals. I happened to do them this time around while doing the starting ARR relic stuff, since it's relatively painless to do, so I didn't have to do them in 2.5.
- The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (2017, colorized)
Oh, okay. I knew about the addition of the Crystal Tower requirements to the end of the ARR MSQ (or start of 5.3 MSQ if you'd already gotten past that), but the way it was worded made it seem like the same quest at the very end was asking for both Crystal Tower and Hard Primals, when Hard Primals should have already been a requirement at least a dozen quests before that.
Wait, they took out the story quests about doing the level 50 refights of the first 3 ARR primals in the patches? There used to be MSQ quests to do those duties, right, I'm not imagining that?
Don't know what you're queuing as but if you want a faster queue, 24-mans are generally one of the few instances where it's often worse to queue as a tank rather than a dps or healer, since you can have five dps and two healers per group but only one tank.
Wait, they took out the story quests about doing the level 50 refights of the first 3 ARR primals in the patches? There used to be MSQ quests to do those duties, right, I'm not imagining that?
They were sidequests that were there since 2.0 that you could do right after you finished the Praetorium, but to start the first quest of patch 2.5 MSQ, it told you that you had to go back and clear those first if you hadn't already. They weren't technically MSQ, but they were still required.
I cleared all of ARR before patch 5.3 launched, so that's how the gating was when I did it, but I don't have firsthand experience on what they are now.
It took my healer a 25 minute queue to finally get to fight Odin. Normally I get almost instant queues, but with him people seemed to pop in, then drop out after a couple of minutes, repeat until 7 other people decided to Just Wait It Out.
Also, the first fight in the game where our entire team wiped, and repeatedly. Admittedly, my fault, I hadn't realised the differences between my AoE heals and was using the super short range one; whoops. Had someone politely tell me off for it (well, they told me which heal to use, but they prefaced it with "Mister White Mage" .
That's because Odin is not part of the regular Trials Roulette rotation. It was deemed harder than the rest of them and was left out, so almost nobody does it. The only way that anyone gets queued for it is A) they're choosing to queue it specifically for some reason, or they were doing Mentor Roulette and got roped into doing a fight that almost nobody does these days with level sync active. Apparently most mentors, instead of taking the long slog to redo a fight that they would normally solo at 80, just prefer to drop out and take the penalty instead of wasting time trying to relearn/reteach a difficult encounter.
Same if you try to Duty Finder for any of the Extremes. You'll only either get mentors who know what they're doing (albeit haven't done it in a while), or mentors that don't know what they're doing because it's old content that they never needed to learn to clear, when overleveling it and brute-forcing through is much simpler.
I wish I could do just the final Gaius Ultima Weapon fight and somehow have it tuned to be the expected difficulty, because that felt like a really cool fight, trivialised by people burning him down in 60 seconds flat. Like, he managed to actually drop some of our peeps in those 60 seconds, but there was neat stuff happening that I really didn't have a chance to process properly before the fight was over.
And it's at the end of 45 minutes of unskippable cutscenes (and 15 minutes of combat), so it's a long trek to get there.
...but there was neat stuff happening that I really didn't have a chance to process properly before the fight was over.
That's absolutely been my experience as a green bean who just finished Ultima Weapon and is working towards Heavensward. Almost every major battle I've been part of has been Tanks sprinting so damn far ahead aggroing everything on their way, which is fine, but when your WHM hasn't done any of this before don't be surprised when your health drops to dangerous levels. (I have caught myself multiple times yelling "STOP OUTRUNNING YOUR HEALS GODDAMNIT" and having WoW flashbacks.)
And then when we get to the actual fights I pretty much stand around and collect commendations without doing anything of value because the DPS just burns them into soot before anyone actually gets hurt.
...but there was neat stuff happening that I really didn't have a chance to process properly before the fight was over.
That's absolutely been my experience as a green bean who just finished Ultima Weapon and is working towards Heavensward. Almost every major battle I've been part of has been Tanks sprinting so damn far ahead aggroing everything on their way, which is fine, but when your WHM hasn't done any of this before don't be surprised when your health drops to dangerous levels. (I have caught myself multiple times yelling "STOP OUTRUNNING YOUR HEALS GODDAMNIT" and having WoW flashbacks.)
And then when we get to the actual fights I pretty much stand around and collect commendations without doing anything of value because the DPS just burns them into soot before anyone actually gets hurt.
I felt the same way. You can tell that the fights were probably pretty good back when the content was the actual endgame stuff. Now the experience is underwhelming considering all the MSQ build-up and cutscenes.
However, it's something I had to come to terms with in general. There have been several nerfs to dungeons that were hard, tanking being easier in general, etc. that have taken some challenge down. The level 50+ dungeons have proved more challenging at times, especially with fresher groups. So you could try to group up with others around your ilvl perhaps to get that challenge, at least for your first time through. Also, I haven't done it yet, but I'm pretty sure there's a much harder version of the Ultimate fight that you can do as a duty later. I have it unlocked, but haven't queued yet.
Since you'll most likely be grinding that MSQ duty for your tomes, you'll soon see why the rush is happening. As everyone is just trying to keep Praetorium around its minimum of 30-40 mins. It just sucks for that one new guy going through. But there's tons of content ahead of us (I just started HW), maybe the experience will be better?
...but there was neat stuff happening that I really didn't have a chance to process properly before the fight was over.
That's absolutely been my experience as a green bean who just finished Ultima Weapon and is working towards Heavensward. Almost every major battle I've been part of has been Tanks sprinting so damn far ahead aggroing everything on their way, which is fine, but when your WHM hasn't done any of this before don't be surprised when your health drops to dangerous levels. (I have caught myself multiple times yelling "STOP OUTRUNNING YOUR HEALS GODDAMNIT" and having WoW flashbacks.)
And then when we get to the actual fights I pretty much stand around and collect commendations without doing anything of value because the DPS just burns them into soot before anyone actually gets hurt.
Big pulls like that are the defacto standard for most dungeons. If you're not comfortable with that pace, tell the group when the duty starts. Most tanks will slow down.
PSN/XBL/Nintendo/Origin/Steam: Nightslyr 3DS: 1607-1682-2948 Switch: SW-3515-0057-3813 FF XIV: Q'vehn Tia
Also, all the NA servers have this thing with Praetorium where they try to rush and skip killing as many mobs as possible in the first half in a dash to the teleporters, with players occasionally getting stuck upstairs due to being beat on and unable to interact with it and then dying and then having to catch up later. When we run it on JP servers, we always take the time to clear everything before moving on.
Also, all the NA servers have this thing with Praetorium where they try to rush and skip killing as many mobs as possible in the first half in a dash to the teleporters, with players occasionally getting stuck upstairs due to being beat on and unable to interact with it and then dying and then having to catch up later. When we run it on JP servers, we always take the time to clear everything before moving on.
But that would make it take another 2 whole minutes to clear! :rotate:
Yes I've stressed to any of my friends that are playing it that they should try to run Praet and CM with a full premade if possible so they can get the full thing.
I honestly can't remember the last time i ran MSQ roulette tho.
Posts
Fingers crossed I find the expansion writing a bit more engaging, can't say I really cared about any of the characters aside from Maggie and Gaius. Though, making you do what felt like a hundred "talk to person X, then talk to person Y" steps when building up to the end did not help.
A title card.
And Sadness.
Don't forget the sadness!
If you just finished "The Ultimate Weapon" you're not done yet, but you unlocked a ton of level 50 content. If you finished "Before the Dawn", watched like an hour of cutscenes, shed a tear, and saw giant text saying something like "NOW WE MOVE HEAVENSWARD" then you're done ARR
Shit, which voice actors changed? I didn't have the sound up loud last night when I was finishing up so I didn't notice. I did notice the pipe organ though and loved it.
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
Also, good riddance to the VOs for Minifilia and Kan-E-Senna, if they were any flatter they'd be a plank.
I've been watching a streamer I mod for play Persona 4 for the first time while also sending an alt through ARR for the fourth time, and every time I'd hear Alphinaud in game it'd just make me think of Teddie and how perverted he is.
- The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (2017, colorized)
To be able to accept the next to last quest to finish ARR, right before Heavensward, you not only have to do all the Hard mode ARR primals if you haven't happened to do them for funsies for your relic, but you also have to do Crystal Tower. All of Crystal Tower.
That is a hell of a block for a new player, especially if they're on Crystal. It took almost 90 minutes of queue just to do Labyrinth of the Ancients alone.
- The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (2017, colorized)
- The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (2017, colorized)
I cleared all of ARR before patch 5.3 launched, so that's how the gating was when I did it, but I don't have firsthand experience on what they are now.
Also, the first fight in the game where our entire team wiped, and repeatedly. Admittedly, my fault, I hadn't realised the differences between my AoE heals and was using the super short range one; whoops. Had someone politely tell me off for it (well, they told me which heal to use, but they prefaced it with "Mister White Mage"
Same if you try to Duty Finder for any of the Extremes. You'll only either get mentors who know what they're doing (albeit haven't done it in a while), or mentors that don't know what they're doing because it's old content that they never needed to learn to clear, when overleveling it and brute-forcing through is much simpler.
And it's at the end of 45 minutes of unskippable cutscenes (and 15 minutes of combat), so it's a long trek to get there.
That's absolutely been my experience as a green bean who just finished Ultima Weapon and is working towards Heavensward. Almost every major battle I've been part of has been Tanks sprinting so damn far ahead aggroing everything on their way, which is fine, but when your WHM hasn't done any of this before don't be surprised when your health drops to dangerous levels. (I have caught myself multiple times yelling "STOP OUTRUNNING YOUR HEALS GODDAMNIT" and having WoW flashbacks.)
And then when we get to the actual fights I pretty much stand around and collect commendations without doing anything of value because the DPS just burns them into soot before anyone actually gets hurt.
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I felt the same way. You can tell that the fights were probably pretty good back when the content was the actual endgame stuff. Now the experience is underwhelming considering all the MSQ build-up and cutscenes.
However, it's something I had to come to terms with in general. There have been several nerfs to dungeons that were hard, tanking being easier in general, etc. that have taken some challenge down. The level 50+ dungeons have proved more challenging at times, especially with fresher groups. So you could try to group up with others around your ilvl perhaps to get that challenge, at least for your first time through. Also, I haven't done it yet, but I'm pretty sure there's a much harder version of the Ultimate fight that you can do as a duty later. I have it unlocked, but haven't queued yet.
Since you'll most likely be grinding that MSQ duty for your tomes, you'll soon see why the rush is happening. As everyone is just trying to keep Praetorium around its minimum of 30-40 mins. It just sucks for that one new guy going through. But there's tons of content ahead of us (I just started HW), maybe the experience will be better?
Big pulls like that are the defacto standard for most dungeons. If you're not comfortable with that pace, tell the group when the duty starts. Most tanks will slow down.
Switch: SW-3515-0057-3813 FF XIV: Q'vehn Tia
But that would make it take another 2 whole minutes to clear! :rotate:
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
I honestly can't remember the last time i ran MSQ roulette tho.