Hey there o/
I've been fiddling with FF on and off for a good 5 years and decided to bite the bullet and get to endgame before the next expac.
Overall i think the game is amazing. Mechanics are interesting, classes look flashy, story's pretty decent, if a bit standard. Love the music and mounts etc.
What I've had trouble coming to grips with is gameplay. More specifically, solo play and defensive aspects. Let me explain:
Having played a bajillion mmo's I've become accustomed to the fact that, if I'm taking damage at all or significantly, I'm doing something wrong.
"Skilled gameplay", in this sense, usually has mechanics in place where one can dominate and control mobs and elites to the point of barely getting scratched.
In my recent experience -
In BDO: The attacks and animation cancels allow for constant spam of large AoE crowd control and predictive dodges, and the overall damage and lifesteal potions make it so hp is completely topped off assuming you know what you're doing.
In WoW:
As a Warlock: One is able to fully DoT multiple mobs while keeping them off with fear/terror, pet aggro and tanking CD's. Lifedrain makes it so facetanking barely budges the hp bar while doing quests etc. Also for overworld mobs a geared lock can pretty much double-DoT and walk away knowing it is, in fact, dead.
As a Rogue: Double stun into blind into execute skills allow mobs to be bursted down before they can even land a hit if one plays correctly. Multiple mobs can be kited, DoT'ed and kept under control. Damage is such that usually a fight will last 5 to 10s, tops. Even in AoE, dodge CD's and AoE nuke/DoTs make it so groups are mowed down relatively easily.
As a mage/destro: deep freeze into burst combos means mobs die before they even get in melee range, if you're geared enough.
TL;DR: In most mmo's, if you play right you take barely any damage.
In FF, however, having grinded out Allagans to make sure I'm slightly overgeared (above the current quest rewards ilvl) doesn't seem to do much.
As a SMN I just have to run circles doing less dps (no hard casts) or simply facetank mobs. Pets dont taunt, I have zero CC, no way to peel for myself and one pet skill with a shield. If I want to round up FATE mobs to AoE alone, i get really low even when doing the entire double trance rotation.
If I go GNB I take way less and the heal keeps me topped, but things take ages to die.
My question is: am i playing this wrong, or is this by design? I feel like apart from high dps my personal skill doesn't account for much when soloing, or I feel a bit lacking despite the relative gear advantage. Not one spell hits hard, like 50%+ on mob hp. Death Flare is a joke XD
I know the tempo is slower outside of OGCD weaving, but I can't shake the feeling I'm missing something.
Anyways, any insight is welcome. This wont stop me enjoying the game, I just want to make sure.
Continue reading...
I've been fiddling with FF on and off for a good 5 years and decided to bite the bullet and get to endgame before the next expac.
Overall i think the game is amazing. Mechanics are interesting, classes look flashy, story's pretty decent, if a bit standard. Love the music and mounts etc.
What I've had trouble coming to grips with is gameplay. More specifically, solo play and defensive aspects. Let me explain:
Having played a bajillion mmo's I've become accustomed to the fact that, if I'm taking damage at all or significantly, I'm doing something wrong.
"Skilled gameplay", in this sense, usually has mechanics in place where one can dominate and control mobs and elites to the point of barely getting scratched.
In my recent experience -
In BDO: The attacks and animation cancels allow for constant spam of large AoE crowd control and predictive dodges, and the overall damage and lifesteal potions make it so hp is completely topped off assuming you know what you're doing.
In WoW:
As a Warlock: One is able to fully DoT multiple mobs while keeping them off with fear/terror, pet aggro and tanking CD's. Lifedrain makes it so facetanking barely budges the hp bar while doing quests etc. Also for overworld mobs a geared lock can pretty much double-DoT and walk away knowing it is, in fact, dead.
As a Rogue: Double stun into blind into execute skills allow mobs to be bursted down before they can even land a hit if one plays correctly. Multiple mobs can be kited, DoT'ed and kept under control. Damage is such that usually a fight will last 5 to 10s, tops. Even in AoE, dodge CD's and AoE nuke/DoTs make it so groups are mowed down relatively easily.
As a mage/destro: deep freeze into burst combos means mobs die before they even get in melee range, if you're geared enough.
TL;DR: In most mmo's, if you play right you take barely any damage.
In FF, however, having grinded out Allagans to make sure I'm slightly overgeared (above the current quest rewards ilvl) doesn't seem to do much.
As a SMN I just have to run circles doing less dps (no hard casts) or simply facetank mobs. Pets dont taunt, I have zero CC, no way to peel for myself and one pet skill with a shield. If I want to round up FATE mobs to AoE alone, i get really low even when doing the entire double trance rotation.
If I go GNB I take way less and the heal keeps me topped, but things take ages to die.
My question is: am i playing this wrong, or is this by design? I feel like apart from high dps my personal skill doesn't account for much when soloing, or I feel a bit lacking despite the relative gear advantage. Not one spell hits hard, like 50%+ on mob hp. Death Flare is a joke XD
I know the tempo is slower outside of OGCD weaving, but I can't shake the feeling I'm missing something.
Anyways, any insight is welcome. This wont stop me enjoying the game, I just want to make sure.
Continue reading...