WotG vs WoW BC Thoughts!

So pretty sure people read reviews around the internet about WotG, not that great~ some websites gave like 5.5/10 too but… IMO they really didn’t “play” the game long enough to make any judgment (bias… is what I’m trying to say). So… I gave myself a good 6 weeks of playtime before I really… give my opinions about this xpac~

Just a little background on my MMO experience if… you just started picking this up. I play since NA release of FFXI, kill everything before, done HNM and all Dynamis, exp-ed and solo my way to 75 before… gave a fair try to all contents, have 100 crafts and… I still plays FFXI. I also play WoW (since May 2006), do regular Arenas, Raids and Heroics, Daily quests and BG’s and fully epic-ed out on PvP and T4-grade PvE gear. So… I’m pretty knowledgeable in both MMO’s.

I didn’t quit FFXI, I simply play WoW to open my eyes to another MMO experience (yea.. thanks to Taru Scragg lol…).

Lets start talking!

ToAU IMO, was a nice expansion overall. There was an equal amount of both casual and end-game content. Chocobo racing + Pit + Assault + Besiege (although unplayable) + Nyzul Isle vs Salvage + Einherjar + a few HNM. The only part I’d probably say it wasn’t nice was.. the grinding experience. I’m sure people enjoyed the bonus exp and… the nice sanctions (I did too), but turning “old school” party style, making Weapon Skills and Magic Burst to… TP burn was not really a nice move IMO…, it takes away the team play concept out… from the grinding. Lets put it this way, you don’t even need to talk or say a word to get good merits. All you need is people that know how to do “their” job right, be near the mob and keep spamming your WS button… its that simple.

I miss old school Aura Statue exping ._. I just think its more skill involved, team oriented and… it really takes organizational skills to get good exp. I prefer that over the brainless WS spam ._.”

Another thing worth mentioning… the storyline was not bad! I’m pretty sure the screenshot on the right will mean something to you too, not just to me. The game left a pretty nice… image to our adventuring, well at least to me.

Anyway back to WotG, we got to understand this expansion isn’t complete as usual, that features and gameplay will slowly roll out with each patches, so this is merely… like 10% of the expansion. Since I also know some WoW people read this now, so I’ll try to maybe… open those WoW player’s eyes to… FFXI ;) lol…

Wings of the Goddess – the Idea

At first, it sounded to me some lame shit~ A way to avoid work by recycling textures… the past? The idea sounded very confusing at first but IMO, Square-Enix did a great job in… making the clear cut between the current world and the past. I mean … was anyone really confused of how to travel back to the past? Even Tazo know how to go back in time… so implementing the past to FFXI was nicely done~

Getting maws is another story =P but then… it can’t be too easy =P, but wasn’t too hard like… they could have made everything True Sight :) (Imagine everything was like… Uleguerand Range, IT Molech ._.) It was the right difficulty IMO. Reminds me of getting the other Caedarva Mire staging point via Arrapago Reef.

Anyway… the cut scene blows, and WoW have… literally none of that in-game cut scenes. Trailers yea… not cut scenes! Lets put it this way… WoW isn’t about adventuring or storyline, its purely the gameplay so.. Cut Scenes is like WTF and.. a complete waste of time if there’s one, they would just spam the enter key. I can see so many people complaining on WoW forums and request “Skip cut scene button” to be added lol!

WotG – the Gameplay

In comparison to say… WotG, I think this expansion isn’t really diverse enough. The content is there, but its so focused to 1 group of players… the casual players. In-comparison to ToAU, there is literally no HNM. Campaign Battles is like a more frequent Besiege to me, Ops is like.. Assaults to me… so where’s the “new exp grinding area”? The “Rush for 5% Turban?”, what about “New NM’s”?

ToAU had much more stuff to choose from, to do or play, for different group of players. Some can start on Assault to get a head start, some like me, go grind exp for money! You get paid to exp…. a ton too! Others might go try out Besiege, or the new jobs, some like Istari, took this chance to make mad money.

WotG was too focused to Campaign Battles… and that’s all that’s got to offer. I have to say its nicely implemented and such but… then its only “one” activity. I’ll talk about the gameplay of these things later but… in general… there wasn’t enough diversity. I’d rather they add more “Campaign Battle Zones” on next patch, then unloading it all now, and got nothing else… Also… Campaign Battles is not everyone’s cup of tea… for me.. I’m even capped on Merit Buffer… I got nothing to get from it except… Allied Notes…

You could say level another job… or a new job .. but then that’s basically means you’re forcing yourself to find stuff to do, rather than the game developer offering you a variety of stuff to do.

WoW – Burning Crusade on the other hand, was a complete expansion when it came out. There was so much content, that there was no way you could have achieved / done it all before next patch. Lets put it this way, when ToAU came out, there was 3 ranks and 5 areas, so technically even if you win all missions, you need 15 days, well WoW patches in 14 days so… the content was much faster than FFXI. We.. on the other hand, had to sit for a few months for more rank missions to be added, done all quests etc lol… WoW was all about the gameplay / # of contents. With the release and raising level cap, everyone needs to exp too, so it kept a lot of people busy! Everyone… was busy.

Campaign Battles

Campaign Battles in WoW language, its a quest where you’ll have to defend off waves of enemies. When completed, you get Exp and Honors. With honors, you can buy whatever equipment you want! That’s it lol. Think of it like the quest you get when you enter Wailing Cavern, protect NPC while he summons stuff, and waves of enemies just try to take you down.

So yea.. Campaign Battles in FFXI, is like the “ground breaking” concept. O.o more casual Exping. To me it wasn’t something new since… we do that all day in WoW. But its worth looking at. Consider Besiege was so successful and… always so full but unplayable, they made a mini version of Besiege call… Campaign Battles, where you have 24/7 besiege happening somewhere! Its not a bad idea since… now there’s actually … finally … something in FFXI that you can “always” do 24/7 when you’re bored by yourself. Before this, there was literally nothing to do say… you have 30 minutes of free time. You can go solo a few ToAU spider for webs but… what’s the point, so not rewarding. In WoW, we can just go join a battleground ;)

Anyway.. Campaign Battles was one step in the right direction to keep people 24/7 busy or simply… something to do while LFP. Although heading to a Campaign Battle does take a little walking (Port back to ur Hometown, take the Maw, then walk to down and get ported to Campaign)… the process still takes 10min~ but nevertheless… its acceptable IMO, the Maws could have been placed at better spots…

To own the Campaign Battles this, all you have to do is look at the map, look for places which got campaign battles going on… and port to the respective places for Exp. If you do it right, you can get a nice 6-8k/hr depending on how you play it. I’d like to play Campaign Battles the way it is… curing others while tank do their job. You could do it a bit selfish and pull a mob to the side and solo it, you’ll get max exp pretty much everytime but… meh someone gotta do the dirty healing job, else everyone would just die and nothing will get done.

Um…so people just sign up (like battleground masters). When ready, you get your Allied Signet… with that status on, you can die and not lose exp… and makes you eligible to kill Campaign Mobs (eligible to enter battleground) and gain Allied Notes (Honors). Monster just comes to you… you help fight them off and SE rewards you for your effort. Not as rewarding as grinding but.. its something doable when… you’re alone and got a few minutes~

To make it more playable… they include NPC to aid you during a battle, which have a super Club that hits 300dmg/hit to mobs… and have monstrous HP.. if you ask me.. yea that’s how they made it playable… super NPC assist you in killing them so you don’t have to solo the mob but… they are kinda too powerful and takes the fun away most of the time. Meh… still one step in the right direction I suppose…

All this in WoW language, its a battleground where you can particpiate casually by talking to the respective battlemaster, but instead of PvP, its P v Mobs lol. You get honors in the end and yea… you get ranked up (kinda like Reps)… and higher Reps gives you more access to better items.

Other stuff in WotG?
Assault missions… which is kinda pain in the ass (well some of it, especially Harvesting type). Like Dailys in WoW, there’s a limit of one per day, but you can accumulate up to 5 quests. Its all soloable but… its not really my cup of tea~ I played it… got bored of it :/

Exploring is probably the biggest part of WotG. Its cool to see areas in their old form. Its kinda like seeing baby pictures of your friend lol! Something you know… you have attachment to… in their young / past form :)

The cities are rather amazing, although not completely opened (only 1 area is opened per city). There’s been quite a lot of changes and thank god I’m not Bastokan… they sleep in bunk beds =_= reminds me of China lol… Windy 20 years ago is rather torned up.. Bastok is like.. a developing country and… Sandy is like… Sandy!

Other then that… yea that’s about it. There are few other interesting things… like Pixie etc but meh… looking from the bigger picture here :3 I think that’s all that WotG has to offer… and new jobs of course ;) Pretty decent actually… more decent than Pup and Cor IMO :) I’m just still tired from grinding Parrying… :x

Conclusion

Although this expansion isn’t really my cup of tea… but it doesn’t mean its a bad expansion. In fact, I thought it was pretty nicely made, just lacking in diversity of contents. There is … nothing to do! ToAU was brew better IMO :3 … everyone was busy! So Square need to like… hurry up with new contents.

The expansion was straight forward… and you wouldn’t need a guide or website really to do any of this. You might still need a map to travel through the new zones but… not really that important. The music was rather great for some zones~ already start humming with the music while I play Campaign Battles or walking through new zones.

Anyhow… its definitely not WoW-grade expansion. WoW was a full blown product, complete with new jobs, Areans (which was kinda broken), new RACE, new crafts and full of instances. Raids wasn’t completely added but… like I said, you wouldn’t have been able to touch raids anyway not only because you won’t have the equipment, but everyone needs to level and get keyed for SSC and TK Raids. But as a standalone FFXI expansion, WotG is not a bad piece and I’d give it… 7/10 due to lack of content, lack of diversity of activity and… only focused to casual players. Its not a bad thing but… IMO ToAU was better!

I still play WoW and… I don’t think WotG its a bad expansion. Its got some potential and… definitely worth a try… and this is coming from a WoW player too :) Square just gotta stop slacking off and really push things a little bit faster ‘~” Anyway, I hope this was a good read ;)