If WoW and FF14 had a baby

I can’t stay away from WoW for long, it’s been my home for so long, so I logged in last night to chat with friends. I tagged along on a transmog run through Throne of Thunder with a friend and even though I had fun,  I started missing a few things from FF14. If I could take a bit from each game and combine it into one, I think I’d be in heaven.

Transmog

FF14  has some of the most amazing outfits I have ever seen in a game and while it has  transmog system but I feel it would be made truly amazing by the addition of the armor journal WoW has brought in. In FF14 you use a crystal, bought from vendors, crafted or collected as loot in dgns to make an item take on the appearance of another. If you don’t want to have to carry the actual clothing you want to transmog into, you can store clothes in a transmog chest to make a small amount of pre-defined sets so you can quickly change into them without needing the actual clothing item. Just imagine if I could keep a copy of every piece of clothing I’ve come across.

One Toon Only

This is the best feature in FF14 and one I wish WoW could implement. Being able to play all the classes on the one toon, quickly swappable by changing your weapon is simply amazing. It means that any item you collect can be used once you change you into the right job. No more farming for an item for months only to see it  drop on a class that can’t use it. No searching for items in your alts bags, it’s all your bag!

Inventory

OMG FF14, I found your downfall. One the face of it there should be a lot of inventory space in FF14, you get a 3 tab backpack style inventory, you get 2 free retainers (npcs you own)  with the same space as your inventory, you chocobo mount has an inventory and you have specific chests in your inn to store transmog and seasonal items if you have them. But it’s not enough, not by a long shot. I want to level all the gathering professions so I’ve been picking herbs, and cutting trees and mining as well as all the random crafting material drops you automatically loot in dgns and my bags are bulging. It might help when I level the other classes as I can get rid of low-level clothes as I’m trying to save as much items as I can so I have them when I need them. WoW with your ultimate void storage, large mailbox for mailing to alts and a huge bank as well as personal inventory. I miss the space.

Graphics

Ok, so I know WoW has a specific style of graphic and there are some gorgeous zones in Azeroth, but the graphics of FF14 are just stunning. It reminds me a lot of Skyrim, or maybe Guild Wars 2. Going back to the cartooony style of WoW made me wish I could see Azeroth in a whole new way.

Oceanic Servers

I die a lot in boss fights in FF14 and 90% of the fights are from telegraphed abilities hitting me after I’ve moved and I’m nowhere near the strike zone. I miss having a server in the same country with low ping to play on. I’m slowly  learning just how early I need to move to avoid the ability when I do a fight enough times to know start memorizing the fight, but it’s really disconcerting not being exactly sure when the ability is about to hit. Especially moreso when I have to move into an area that has a ground effect still showing and I need to trust that it’s actually gone  so I can avoid another ability that’s about to hit right where I am. I die way too much at the moment to reliably feel I could go into raiding.

Raids

I haven’t seen enough of raiding in FF14 to know how I feel about it. There’s 2 lfr style ones at max level, with 24 people in them, but it’s split into 3 parties of 8. The raids are really pretty and varied.

There’s also harder versions of 8 single boss , no trash fights. Compared to WoW’s variety in raiding, it seems a little light at end level but I haven’t really done anywhere near enough at end level to know if that’s all there is

I was so excited today, because I’ve trying to get into a grop for a high-end Trial (one boss, no trash) and it is a complicated fight. Most groups want 350ilvl to queue into it through the party finder, and I’ve been sitting at 348ilvl for a week now, not having much luck with upgrades. The groups that will take lower ilvls are generally learning parties so there have been lots of wipes, and near kills, but no joy.

I ended up listing my own group in the party finder today and formed a group and Yay! One Jade Stoa Tiger/Human boss dead. The boss drops a 355ilvl weapon randomly drawn from any classes loot table, but if you kill him 10 times you get the chance to buy a 355 weapon of your spec. 1 kill down, 9 to go!

I like both the games a lot, and I wish I could squish them together and get the MMO I want to play; trying to stay current in 2 MMOs is near on impossible if I want to sleep and work alongside playing. Especially with WoW’s design which really does require you to be online and grinding whatever currency of the expansion is needed pretty much non stop if you want to be competitive. FF14 has a lot that’s grabbing me and some of the quality of life pet peeves I have in WoW have been dealt with really well but I think for sheer familiarity of the game I’ll be playing WoW more often.