Any thoughts on 2.1 ?

PsYcHoGBR

Looking for some feedback on the latest patch. Good, bad or does the game need more time and patches ?

MagikrorriM

Great patch, it was a huge download. Plenty of new content. 

Chrisbox

Overall I think its good but I would've liked some content that isn't irrelevant for progression raiders, all I will be doing for this patch is gearing alt jobs if I stay subbed.  

Sanasu

I can't speak for endgame as I have been bouncing between jobs since launch, but I will say that the new patch revitalized the number of people queuing for dungeons rather significantly. This is a great change because the dungeons, in my opinion, are some of the best fantasy dungeons I have seen come out in an MMO in recent years (I emphasize the fantasy setting here).

Most times I am not waiting an inordinately long period of time to get a group due to the rewards being given to class roles in need. Further, it is super common to get high levels in the dungeons with you because they are being rewarded for helping low level players.

Even better is the new "player commendation system" that rewards players for being overall nice and helpful by letting other party members give "commendations" at the end of the run to the player they feel deserves it. These commendations can then be turned in to get goodies.

Murugan

Gil/Free Companies

They made gil suddenly relevant with the housing prices (which I was upset about at first, but am okay with now), this revitalized a lot of people giving them a reason to play and save with their FC's.

 

A Plethora of New Progression Options (Leveling, Gear and Gil)

The game is much less of a "grind" at endgame now.  Before you would hit 50 and run AK/WP nonstop until you were geared in darklight/crafted, then more for +1 relic and some AF2 while doing coil once.  This meant you would do really one thing that was fun, and spend the rest of the week grinding dungeons you hated, were easy, and just wanted to be over.

 

Now once you hit 50, and even before then you do the new beastmen quests daily (they don't take long) while you are queued for your duty roulettes once a day (random dungeon one for high level (1/9, 4 of which are new in 2.1 best for mythology tombstones), (low level 1/14 best for gil/some mythology tombstones at high level), or story (1/3 which is best method to gain philosophy tombstones) and get all the tombstones you might need.  Though it is not necessary to do them everyday in order to hit cap of 450 mythology.  These also give enough amount of gil that non-crafter/gatherers can support themselves indefinitely and save up some gil.

 

I will go on record as hating dailies in MMORPG's, but as dailies go they are not bad.  For one they do not take up the majority of your playtime, and they are varied enough (at least the roulette) to keep it from being the exact same thing night after night.

 

Aside from these Crystal Tower is fun enough for what it is, which is not a progression raid (however these have been hinted at for the future once they add the ability to enter with 24 people of your own choosing rather than 1 group max through Duty Finder), and is worth doing for the rewards.

 

Extreme Primals are fun new fights, for most people they will be a challenge and groups should enjoy progressing through them even if they are on Coil already.

 

PvP

PvP was surprisingly fun for me.  I wasn't expecting much, and I know I will get sick of the arena long before frontlines arrives but they managed to make every job relevant, not screw up PvE, and not have matches devolve into CC-fests or be entirely one sided every time.  In my opinion that is a successful PvP system for an MMORPG, it might not fit the criteria of some Darkfall/Shadowbane PvP elitist but for an MMORPG with more to offer than JUST PvP it is good enough for me to look forward to further expansions of the system if they continue with it after Frontlines.

 

"Fluff"

Minions (pets) galore, new main story quests, Hildibrand (humor based quests), collectable armor sets, and chocobo barding for people who are not solely focused on progression.

 

Additional Comments

They need to take their new loot system for Crystal Tower where once you get a piece of loot you are locked out of LOOT, but can still run the raid for mythology points and to help others and apply it to Coil of Bahamut ASAP.  "Endgame" (I don't consider single group content real endgame) should not be limited to weekly lockouts, I understand why limiting drops can be a positive to avoid super low rates like in XI but an MMORPG should never limit what you can play, how often, and who with.

 

Overall a good patch, that while it doesn't specifically cater to me as a person primarily interested in raiding still gives me plenty of reasons to continue to log in.  I think if they can keep up such large and varied updates it will be great for the game's future.

EvilGeek

I was initially disappointed that there wasn't enough content to help with leveling alt classes, I completely understand the later game focus, that's where most players ended up. I'm taking my sweet time and have yet to get any class to 50, closest I have is crafting and gathering classes, I fully expect it to be another month before I get a battle class to end game. It does seem though that the added xp and daily random dungeon finder go along way to helping leveling alts, rather than say do the fate grind, which I've never tried. SE have done well with their dungeons IMHO and there certainly isn't a shortage of them so I'm pleased there's an added incentive for people to go do them, the commendation system doesn't do any harm either.

I've hardly done anything in the new patch, my Gladiator (better fun than being a Paladin, more options) is 42 so not far off being able to try the beast dailies. The treasure hunting is a nice little side event, solo maps have proved a little difficult for my tank alone, his dps just isn't enough so dragging a linkshell friend along definitely helps, I'm glad the content isn't a walk in the park.

I'm hoping that future additions will help with the leveling of alt battle classes from level one. The boost to xp from leves for gathering and battle classes is great and the nerf to xp for multiple HQ hand ins for tradecraft leves was completely reasonable (always felt that plus 200% was over the top).

PsYcHoGBR

I was hoping they had put more in for leveling alts too. Grinding fates and leve's got boring real quick. Thanks all for the replies made an interesting read. Hopefully personal player housing will be in the next patch.

Murugan

Originally posted by psychobgr
I was hoping they had put more in for leveling alts too. Grinding fates and leve's got boring real quick. Thanks all for the replies made an interesting read. Hopefully personal player housing will be in the next patch.

They did put stuff in for leveling alts. 

 

Dungeons for one are much easier to get now due to roulette (whereas before there was little reason for higher levels to run them again)

 

More sidequests were added at different levels,

 

The repeatable quests at 43 were added which is the stretch that takes the longest to level and was the biggest complaint for alts (leading to people just doing FATE in coerthas).

 

Treasure maps awards EXP to the group.

 

PvP also awards experience so if that's your thing you could level some that way.

 

Not sure what you were expecting to help level alt jobs other than that, what do you suggest?  It's really not that hard and anyways unless you previously played some indie niche MMORPG without levels I kinda wonder how you survived, because whether you are complaining specifically about the length of the leveling process, or how limited/repetitive it is there is the same to be said for every other MMORPG.