Final Fantasy XIV - Kiwi Free Company

[Overcooked Raccoon]

yeah but doing the relic quest via quests and dungeons, is infinitely faster then Bozja.

also i got to do one of those 1v1 duels, fuck whoever made this design decision, they are borderline impossible.

Im talking purposely bullshit difficult for the sake of being difficult.

My raid leader ended up clearing all three, the Gabriel is probably the easiest followed by that fire dude in the top area. Lyon is a shithead but if you can manage the top part of castrum with him it's pretty similar.

I haven't posted in here in a hot minute but I've mostly just been doing Ranked Feast(Fucking kill me) and progging through TEA (FUCKING KILL ME). I'm at Second Nisi with my group and it's been a ton of fun, just waiting to get to Wormhole so we can stay in endless prog for an entire month lmao.

Bozja as content is pretty fun, but they need to make more incentive to do the skirmishes and engagements when you're max mettlle. There is legit no reason past maybe getting field notes or crystals. It's stupid.

Castrum is really fun content and it's a slice of what the BA equivalent will be. I just cannot believe that all the Augmented Bozja gear gives is Haste when Eureka had haste and actual stats that made you feel like a god inside there when you progged through BA. I'm happy we basically get a mini alliance raid for this patch cycle, but I'm still shocked at how often people eat shit on Lyon.

 

[Frosted Snowflakes]

I found this on /v/ today. Someone from FFXIV who experience Giant Bomb's FC <VinCo> says that Giant Bomb is literally a bunch of unfunny thin-skinned faggots that are literally a shit group full of shit people. On their Community Finder page someone said the comments were deleted because of criticism. Screenshot below.

 

[Dopey Cunt]

I can believe it. If you get a clique together, that's usually the case. If you're not part of the close knit group, you might as well not exist.

My alt was part of an FC that claimed a whole bunch of shit on Fairie. They treated me and all the newfags like shit, they ignored us when we asked for help and all the upper members were a bunch of cliquey fags that hung out on discord on vc the entire fucking time. That's why I don't bother joining any FC. They are all terrible. Period.

 

[Naamaleipuri]

Okay. My Elezen made the greatest face on this cutscene

 

[Tachibana]

I can believe it. If you get a clique together, that's usually the case. If you're not part of the close knit group, you might as well not exist.

My alt was part of an FC that claimed a whole bunch of shit on Fairie. They treated me and all the newfags like shit, they ignored us when we asked for help and all the upper members were a bunch of cliquey fags that hung out on discord on vc the entire fucking time. That's why I don't bother joining any FC. They are all terrible. Period.

I concur. Most FCs in this game are awful and are cliques. If you ain't in the clique, leave.

The only thing FCs will give you are buffs, which you can eventually earn through squadrons. The buffs themselves aren't that useful if you aren't leveling.

 

[Gravemind]

I can believe it. If you get a clique together, that's usually the case. If you're not part of the close knit group, you might as well not exist.

My alt was part of an FC that claimed a whole bunch of shit on Fairie. They treated me and all the newfags like shit, they ignored us when we asked for help and all the upper members were a bunch of cliquey fags that hung out on discord on vc the entire fucking time. That's why I don't bother joining any FC. They are all terrible. Period.

I can easily see that being the case with FCs nowadays and for the last few years, but I can also offer a counterpoint to this just from anecdote:

Spoiler

Back when I was with my very first FC on Coerul years ago (probably the BIGGEST FC on the server at the time) and the old leader stepped down, which inadvertently saw me and my group of friends suddenly escalated to officer positions in the FC, we'd kinda do the same thing in hanging out in Discord/Skype VC predominantly, but, at the same time, we would also regularly try to communicate with everybody in FC chat in-game, try to organize raids, get people together to do things, and just generally try to keep everyone active and social. Sure, we had our internal communication, but we also tried to be quite open with the rest of the FC aside from that and constantly went out of our way to help people. The problem that quickly ended up rearing its ugly head was that a majority of the FC ended up being a bunch of spoiled children who constantly cried about wanting new stuff from whatever new raids came out, but never actually wanted to put the work in to get what they wanted unless someone else was willing to carry them 100% through content. Got to a point where FC chat was regularly just the other members whining about wanting this or that, ignoring all calls to do things, or just generally trying to suck up and curry favor with the people around them so they could end up being the next big shot server celebrity. Internal problems also ensued between me and my former friends and eventually I just walked straight out the door when I saw there was no hope that the FC could ever return to even a fraction of the solidarity and organization it once had.

Moral of the story being: Yeah, the leadership can be absolute cliquey dogshit (because Lord knows I've been in a different FC at some point that was exactly like that), but the average members of the FC can end up being the cause of a lot of problems as well. Way I've seen it for the last few years now, too many people on XIV see any social gathering as an opportunity to make a name for themselves and harvest clout, so they can be as big and well known and, daresay, envied as other popular figures as well. Nothing but a huge ass rat race for grifters that can't seem to live without some kind of public validation.

Apologies for yet another instance of me doomerposting when it comes to XIV. I fully acknowledge that I am completely pessimistic about the game's community. Seen and experienced too much shit in my playtime of the game, man.

 

[Dopey Cunt]

I can easily see that being the case with FCs nowadays and for the last few years, but I can also offer a counterpoint to this just from anecdote:

Spoiler

Back when I was with my very first FC on Coerul years ago (probably the BIGGEST FC on the server at the time) and the old leader stepped down, which inadvertently saw me and my group of friends suddenly escalated to officer positions in the FC, we'd kinda do the same thing in hanging out in Discord/Skype VC predominantly, but, at the same time, we would also regularly try to communicate with everybody in FC chat in-game, try to organize raids, get people together to do things, and just generally try to keep everyone active and social. Sure, we had our internal communication, but we also tried to be quite open with the rest of the FC aside from that and constantly went out of our way to help people. The problem that quickly ended up rearing its ugly head was that a majority of the FC ended up being a bunch of spoiled children who constantly cried about wanting new stuff from whatever new raids came out, but never actually wanted to put the work in to get what they wanted unless someone else was willing to carry them 100% through content. Got to a point where FC chat was regularly just the other members whining about wanting this or that, ignoring all calls to do things, or just generally trying to suck up and curry favor with the people around them so they could end up being the next big shot server celebrity. Internal problems also ensued between me and my former friends and eventually I just walked straight out the door when I saw there was no hope that the FC could ever return to even a fraction of the solidarity and organization it once had.

Moral of the story being: Yeah, the leadership can be absolute cliquey dogshit (because Lord knows I've been in a different FC at some point that was exactly like that), but the average members of the FC can end up being the cause of a lot of problems as well. Way I've seen it for the last few years now, too many people on XIV see any social gathering as an opportunity to make a name for themselves and harvest clout, so they can be as big and well known and, daresay, envied as other popular figures as well. Nothing but a huge ass rat race for grifters that can't seem to live without some kind of public validation.

Apologies for yet another instance of me doomerposting when it comes to XIV. I fully acknowledge that I am completely pessimistic about the game's community. Seen and experienced too much shit in my playtime of the game, man.

I don't blame you. I do enjoy the game for what it is but I don't take it as seriously. I just come on to have fun.

Some others tout the game for having a great community, but it's all entirely surface level. Most of it, like all communities are pretty toxic and diseased beneath the surface and only those of us who've played long enough know what really goes on behind the curtain. I chuckle everytime someone says something about FFXIV having a great community because the truth is, it really doesn't. It's basically the Twitter of the mmorpg scene and that's not something to be proud of. Play the game to have fun for the sake of playing a game, but for fuck's sake, don't pick it up for the community because the community is shite.

 

[Etrian Autistry]

I picked up most of my FC members as newbies and really did my best to answer questions they had and run dungeons with them, and eventually that sowed a community of people who help other newbies and eachother grind out content of their own accord. The best thing you can really do for your FC is to discentivize cliques and encourage older plauers accepting in fresher ones, and properly welcome fresh players into the group so they can immerse themselves in the group and build up rapport and camrederie. Them not wanting to be too social is fine too though, my group doesn't fault players who want a social experience, but they'll always help if asked.

 

[Tachibana]

I can easily see that being the case with FCs nowadays and for the last few years, but I can also offer a counterpoint to this just from anecdote:

Spoiler

Back when I was with my very first FC on Coerul years ago (probably the BIGGEST FC on the server at the time) and the old leader stepped down, which inadvertently saw me and my group of friends suddenly escalated to officer positions in the FC, we'd kinda do the same thing in hanging out in Discord/Skype VC predominantly, but, at the same time, we would also regularly try to communicate with everybody in FC chat in-game, try to organize raids, get people together to do things, and just generally try to keep everyone active and social. Sure, we had our internal communication, but we also tried to be quite open with the rest of the FC aside from that and constantly went out of our way to help people. The problem that quickly ended up rearing its ugly head was that a majority of the FC ended up being a bunch of spoiled children who constantly cried about wanting new stuff from whatever new raids came out, but never actually wanted to put the work in to get what they wanted unless someone else was willing to carry them 100% through content. Got to a point where FC chat was regularly just the other members whining about wanting this or that, ignoring all calls to do things, or just generally trying to suck up and curry favor with the people around them so they could end up being the next big shot server celebrity. Internal problems also ensued between me and my former friends and eventually I just walked straight out the door when I saw there was no hope that the FC could ever return to even a fraction of the solidarity and organization it once had.

Moral of the story being: Yeah, the leadership can be absolute cliquey dogshit (because Lord knows I've been in a different FC at some point that was exactly like that), but the average members of the FC can end up being the cause of a lot of problems as well. Way I've seen it for the last few years now, too many people on XIV see any social gathering as an opportunity to make a name for themselves and harvest clout, so they can be as big and well known and, daresay, envied as other popular figures as well. Nothing but a huge ass rat race for grifters that can't seem to live without some kind of public validation.

Apologies for yet another instance of me doomerposting when it comes to XIV. I fully acknowledge that I am completely pessimistic about the game's community. Seen and experienced too much shit in my playtime of the game, man.

While doomerposting is fun, I just have my own friends in my own small groups. I don't bother with big FC affiliations, and usually people I keep around are people I meet through raid groups that I do the recruiting for. I always end up making some crazy person get offended in bigger groups.

I don't blame you. I do enjoy the game for what it is but I don't take it as seriously. I just come on to have fun.

Some others tout the game for having a great community, but it's all entirely surface level. Most of it, like all communities are pretty toxic and diseased beneath the surface and only those of us who've played long enough know what really goes on behind the curtain. I chuckle everytime someone says something about FFXIV having a great community because the truth is, it really doesn't. It's basically the Twitter of the mmorpg scene and that's not something to be proud of. Play the game to have fun for the sake of playing a game, but for fuck's sake, don't pick it up for the community because the community is shite.

Yea, I'm here to play a video game. XIV Twitter is pretty much what you see in the game's community. Except in the game people think I'm a stupid fuck. They act nice in public, but then in private say the nastiest shit. Problem is, I'm sent these DMs and private discord chatrooms or whatever by someone else.

I picked up most of my FC members as newbies and really did my best to answer questions they had and run dungeons with them, and eventually that sowed a community of people who help other newbies and eachother grind out content of their own accord. The best thing you can really do for your FC is to discentivize cliques and encourage older plauers accepting in fresher ones, and properly welcome fresh players into the group so they can immerse themselves in the group and build up rapport and camrederie. Them not wanting to be too social is fine too though, my group doesn't fault players who want a social experience, but they'll always help if asked.

While I appreciate the idea, the problem is that eventually you end up picking up an overly political retard and they try to get you cancelled in the community. I'm tired of dealing with that shit.

 

[Gravemind]

I picked up most of my FC members as newbies and really did my best to answer questions they had and run dungeons with them, and eventually that sowed a community of people who help other newbies and eachother grind out content of their own accord. The best thing you can really for your FC is to discentivize cliques and properly welcome players into the group so they can either immerse themselves or decide they don't want to be all that social, which in of itself is fine, as long as they're active.

Oh boy do I have another fun story in regards to that one.

Spoiler

I also tried to make my own FC with a couple of friends who were similarly put off by the way our former FC ended up. One of them brought on some newbies as well that we were intending to help as much as we could, but hardware problems on my end kept me off the game for a handful of months until I could get those resolved. I still tried to provide whatever help I could to them via our FC Discord in the form of advice, information, etc. and one of the newbies straight up argued my what I said all the time and outright dismissed me "because I don't even play the game" even though I was the founder of the fucking FC. Said newbie was one of those types trying to make a clique for herself and expected everyone, even my friends who were managing things in-game in my stead, to bow down to her and hail her as the FC "queen".

I eventually got my hardware problems sorted out, managed to come back to the game, and actively tried to do stuff in-game to help them while showing them that I knew what the fuck I'd been talking about this whole time, and this "queen" and her following promptly shut the fuck up and started distancing themselves. Thing was, they were dragging their heels with their own personal progression through 2.0 story for all of those months, leading to my friends starting to suffer a bit of burnout since they always had to play babysitter while they derped their way around the game and in dungeons, so, when my mostly caught-up ass finally came back to the game, naturally my friends were more than eager to have me do current stuff with them. All the while, I waited to see if the queen and her minions would ask any of us for help with stuff and still they remained silent. Until one day, queenie decided to call me out and have a knock-down, drag-out slapfight with me in the FC Discord about how we "never wanted to play the game with them anymore" and this was somehow all my fault by implicit virtue of the fact that I came back to the game at all. My friends stuck up for themselves and for me, thank goodness, but this bitch just would not stop blaming me for causing all of her arbitrary social problems (because I refused to treat her like the queen bee she wanted to be) and, in the end, she ended up splitting and taking just about everyone in the FC with her when she left.

This kind of ended up demoralizing all of us into taking respective breaks from the game for a while, and, purely due to our own fuckups in not organizing better who should log in and when so one of us could at least keep leader role, it ended up getting passed down to someone who had been with the FC for a while, and the shitheel promptly put up our FC and all of our assets up for sale on reddit, got paid both RMT and gil for it, and fucking hopped servers by the time one of us logged back in to check on the FC. That was a fun mess to sort out. Luckily the people who bought our FC and housing worked with us, tried to contact the guy, who was avoiding all correspondence for the most part, saw that he was full of shit too, and pretty much gave us back most of what they could of our housing assets and bank from our FC vault as compensation for getting swindled.

I am incredibly wary to FC bullshittery of all kinds at this point, I'll say. So much so that I'm mostly opposed to the idea of joining or making another FC. Which is really annoying because you get these fags who mass recruit on servers by constantly spamming FC invites if you're not in one, and when you tell them to fuck off, they give you a passive aggressive response like "Okay but you need to be in an FC sooner or later or you're never gonna make it in this game ". Blow it out your ass and go fuck yourself, shill, I've played this fucking game long enough to know how to game it if I really wanted to put in the effort and I still have a couple of friends. But that ain't exactly fun, and neither is dealing with stupid ass social drama from cliquey FCs and the clout chasers therein.

EDIT: Just so I don't end up doubleposting here, I want to weigh in on this point as well:

Yea, I'm here to play a video game. XIV Twitter is pretty much what you see in the game's community. Except in the game people think I'm a stupid fuck. They act nice in public, but then in private say the nastiest shit. Problem is, I'm sent these DMs and private discord chatrooms or whatever by someone else.

Spoiler

I'm pretty sure I mentioned this at some point over the course of this thread, but I feel it bears repeating for this context: I literally became one of the most hated players on Coeurl before I left it a few years ago all because I somehow pissed off this one crazy ass troon who was a server celebrity by just acting like a clown and making really dumb jokes in-game. Also probably because I was invited to its Linkshell at some point and promptly left it without saying a word after seeing the troon itself constantly espouse how oppressed and marginalized they are and that they should run for president to change all the transphobia and sexism in our country. Also probably because they'd throw unnecessary shitfits in parties if a run wasn't going perfectly and it hated the fact that I constantly told it to "calm down and take it easy, it's just a game."

A former friend who was (and still is to this day) playing the social manipulation angle was a part of its Linkshell as well and promptly informed me at one point that most of the more social side of Coeurl had demonized me at the behest of the troon and that, nine times out of ten, they were all sperging and a-logging about me for my clownery and PREDOMINANTLY inoffensive shitposting in public in their LS chat.

Motherfuckers is two-faced as hell in the XIV community and it's really damn easy to make a pariah out of yourself just by BEING yourself and not paying your social tithe to the wannabe top dogs.

 

[AmarettoPie]

Okay. My Elezen made the greatest face on this cutsceneView attachment 1712557

As someone with zero context and looking at this on a cellphone, it looks like they're at a theme park and one of the mascots just flipped them the bird.

 

[Lion]

there’s always funny drama going on in the ffxiv twitter community. like someone is outed as a sex pest on an almost weekly base.

on shitty fc’s, when i first joined xiv with my best friend we were both randomly invited to an fc where we became fast friends with the leader.

Spoiler

when xiv announced the binding shit the leader wanted to do it with my best friend, so they do the event and everything. sometime later he gets oddly possessive of her? like they weren’t dating or anything, the in game marriage was just for fun and so the fc could get the minion and other wedding items.

it got to the point where he was constantly demanding her attention and like wanting to know what she was doing 24/7. eventually we speak up about it and he apologizes and ends up leaving the fc, leaving it to some other person (who ended up being a jackass) and left the game.

it was some wild shit.

 

[Overcooked Raccoon]

I can believe it. If you get a clique together, that's usually the case. If you're not part of the close knit group, you might as well not exist.

My alt was part of an FC that claimed a whole bunch of shit on Fairie. They treated me and all the newfags like shit, they ignored us when we asked for help and all the upper members were a bunch of cliquey fags that hung out on discord on vc the entire fucking time. That's why I don't bother joining any FC. They are all terrible. Period.

I've been FCless I want to say for about 6 months now, I only joined one back then since a person who cleared UWU said I was a good player and we met through a dungeon together. He was a really great guy, helped me get my E3S, and E4S clear since my static was lagging behind at the time of those fights and I was grateful as fuck. We talked and we actually did ranked feast one season together was a total blast. We ended up drifting due to the FC being a former shell of itself but I still have him on my friends list. He was probably the only enjoyable person I knew from the FC at the time out of like all 130+ people in it.

Fact is those big ones that get people all over are always the fucking worst. It's cliques among cliques and you feel like you're on a social pyramid even if you're a better person than them. I was considering making an FC of my own, and just using it for buffs, but finding people to sign it is just my introvertness getting in the way of it all.

Linkshells are without a doubt the best you can have, but finding a good static beats any kind of FC I can think of. I had my friends level through Eureka while I was getting them to BA prog and so many nights were spent laughing, drinking, and shooting shit while I watched them die to mobs. It was great.

 

[Gravemind]

Linkshells are without a doubt the best you can have, but finding a good static beats any kind of FC I can think of. I had my friends level through Eureka while I was getting them to BA prog and so many nights were spent laughing, drinking, and shooting shit while I watched them die to mobs. It was great.

I lost my faith in statics after the one I was in for Creator Savage progression clear just straight up fell apart on the very last stretch of Alexander Prime. And after seeing so many people on old Aether (before the Crystal merge/split) be of the whole "META IS EVERYTHING, KNOW THE FIGHT, SCREW UP ONCE AND YOU'RE BOOTED" mindset. It is a little heartening to hear for sure that not everyone has the same awful experience though.

 

[Shqueefa]

FFXIV is one of the worst communities I have experienced with a ToS that can get you in trouble for saying a swear word in a rated teen game. It's gotten to the point where I don't even type in-game at all because I'll get mass reported in something like Bojza for saying the word stupid in shout. The amount of people who talk about how they enjoy raiding with their friends but shit talk them across discord servers and DMs. The North American community team where their senior has been caught harassing and stalks FFXIV players in and outside the game. The other community rep who used to sell pictures of herself on patreon wearing diapers and is married to the reddit fashion star attention whore who has comissioned pedophilia with children NPCs like Khole and all the other unhinged folks at that company who think of you voted Orange Man or not aligned on their beliefs, your life should be ruined.

The list could go on forever with all the fuck ups who play this game. You'll see people jump down people's throats if they dare criticize the game on FFXIV official twitter or mention how the story isn't that amazing and average at best. (Extra rage from fanboys if you talk about 5.3 story not being that amazing.) I'm sure they get death threats in their DMs afterwards. Big discord server like The Balance are full of troons who are racist and hateful as fuck, but everyone there is top busy huffing their own farts and think talking in memes only is normal conversation.

 

[John Titor]

> Troons
There is a pattern here and I don't think I like it.

 

[Shqueefa]

> Troons
There is a pattern here and I don't think I like it.

Forgot to the mention the senior community rep that harasses people is a troon so yes, there is a pattern with FFXIV. It's ran by estrogen dealers.

 

[Dopey Cunt]

there’s always funny drama going on in the ffxiv twitter community. like someone is outed as a sex pest on an almost weekly base.

on shitty fc’s, when i first joined xiv with my best friend we were both randomly invited to an fc where we became fast friends with the leader.

Spoiler

when xiv announced the binding shit the leader wanted to do it with my best friend, so they do the event and everything. sometime later he gets oddly possessive of her? like they weren’t dating or anything, the in game marriage was just for fun and so the fc could get the minion and other wedding items.

it got to the point where he was constantly demanding her attention and like wanting to know what she was doing 24/7. eventually we speak up about it and he apologizes and ends up leaving the fc, leaving it to some other person (who ended up being a jackass) and left the game.

it was some wild shit.

Ugh don't get me started on that.

Back when my FC was more active, I had a male member (who was actually straight, ikr?) decide to marry one of his friends who was a girl irl. It wasn't anything serious, he was just doing it to do it and that's when the whole marriage thing just came out. When they announced they were hitched, a couple of people were...angry? Like in their minds they had laid claim to either one or the other and they got super autistic about it. At the time, I didn't care because I was doing my own thing, I didn't even attend the wedding because I thought it was all dumb, but apparently, according to the groom, there was a lot of shit talking going on. It really rubbed me the wrong way how people become possessive of other people almost like if they feel entitled to own someone's attention. Is saw how toxic it all was and just distanced myself from it because I really didn't want to deal with the drama. It was also weird that the bride got attached to the groom, even though he didn't really think anything of it or feel any type of way. She'd get super jealous if he hung around other girls and was always constantly hanging around him and dragging him everywhere she went to the point where he felt really smothered by her. Even more odd is that the groom, at that point in time was married irl but the bride insisted on spending every moment that she could with him. I think finally he told her that he needed space and she got so upset that she eventually left the game after having a few spells where she'd come back. Moral of the story is: just because you marry someone in game, it doesn't make them your possession. It's great if real relationships are formed from it or if a couple irl decide to marry in game, but they need to stop taking a fictitious marriage in a game so literally.

I noticed that players have an unhealthy obsession with becoming too attached to strangers on the internet. But honestly, that's something that happens everywhere. Even here. Still, it was pretty fucking gay.

 

[Overcooked Raccoon]

I lost my faith in statics after the one I was in for Creator Savage progression clear just straight up fell apart on the very last stretch of Alexander Prime. And after seeing so many people on old Aether (before the Crystal merge/split) be of the whole "META IS EVERYTHING, KNOW THE FIGHT, SCREW UP ONCE AND YOU'RE BOOTED" mindset. It is a little heartening to hear for sure that not everyone has the same awful experience though.

I can see that being an issue especially during HW where the Meta was pretty uptight. Especially with people coming off of Midas.

I think with how dumbed down the jobs have become now the most meta related argument you'll see is just no dupes and generally aiming for the 1% party buff. With the resistance down changes too it's made it so BRD/NIN/DRG/BLM-SMN aren't the meta anymore. A lot of stuff is super viable and it's cool seeing jobs like SAM actually do well when back in SB they were considered compared to the other melee. Me personally for a dps I could never play NIN to a high level during SB, but after the changes in SHB with mudras it makes it way more fun imo. Just lots of QoL that come with making the game appeal to the newer crowd and hopefully the foundation builds on it from there.

If you find the right people even a group of casuals that want to just go through content at their own pace I think it'll help you find the fun you may have lost prior.

 

[Gravemind]

FFXIV is one of the worst communities I have experienced with a ToS that can get you in trouble for saying a swear word in a rated teen game. It's gotten to the point where I don't even type in-game at all because I'll get mass reported in something like Bojza for saying the word stupid in shout.

For real? I've historically cussed like a sailor and even had a shitposting macro I could spam for when a run was constantly going to shit (and I'd just had enough of my party's bullshit), and I've never gotten a GM on my ass for it.

But I'm also not nearly as talkative with randoms as I used to be. Nothing but short, neutral responses from me or a dumb joke if I see an opportunity.

EDIT: Once again, avoiding doubleposting.

I can see that being an issue especially during HW where the Meta was pretty uptight. Especially with people coming off of Midas.

I think with how dumbed down the jobs have become now the most meta related argument you'll see is just no dupes and generally aiming for the 1% party buff. With the resistance down changes too it's made it so BRD/NIN/DRG/BLM-SMN aren't the meta anymore. A lot of stuff is super viable and it's cool seeing jobs like SAM actually do well when back in SB they were considered compared to the other melee. Me personally for a dps I could never play NIN to a high level during SB, but after the changes in SHB with mudras it makes it way more fun imo. Just lots of QoL that come with making the game appeal to the newer crowd and hopefully the foundation builds on it from there.

If you find the right people even a group of casuals that want to just go through content at their own pace I think it'll help you find the fun you may have lost prior.

See, before I broke off from my old friend group, one of our game autists constantly claimed that, even now, in Shadowbringers, some Jobs just aren't even welcome to PFs and that the meta was still being as strictly enforced as ever like back during the Heavensward days (strict conduct is understandable for something like Midas Savage, which I understood was overtuned or something, but does anyone remember fucking Zurvan EX "SKIP SOAR OR KICK" bullshit? Which is not to mention the plenty of dumbasses I dealt with who kept fucking up the mechanics for Midgardsormr EX or Alex Prime Savage, and then they'd pass the buck and get the whole party to blame and kick you instead).

But I've heard you guys make the case ITT multiple times that every class is more or less viable at this point, so I don't know. Old mindsets hammered into you die hard and I've been really defeatist about doing the stuff I used to love doing in XIV ever since before Stormblood launched. Nothing but my problems, I know, but still.