FFXIV: PvP and You! Part 1: The Wolves' Den .

So Final Fantasy XIV is known far and wide for its resurrection and its wonderful variances in raiding and field content. However, all MMOs have to face off against the inevitable tide of requests for that all-so-needed feature: player versus player content.

Now, I used to PvP quite heavily in MMOs. I put in an extensive amount of time on both World of Warcraft and Star Wars: The Old Republic in PvP and I found myself quite successful in both at the roles I chose to play. As a general rule, I was playing the tank debuffer and general annoyance that stuck to objective markers and made it nearly impossible to cap something without dealing with me. This was a good role for me because it allowed me to do two things I love to do: take a ton of hits and laugh it off while protecting my objectives, and  apply tactical knowledge to the field to be a battlefield commander. However, the fact of the matter is that I eventually grew somewhat tired of PvP. Oh, I’ll still do it, but for the most part I tend to focus on fighting games for my competitive edge now. That being said, I can still roll into TOR right now, hit the PvP queue and get welcomed back on The Ebon Hawk with arms wide open.

I say this because I must be absolutely honest about the Wolves’ Den in Final Fantasy XIV. I absolutely despise the Wolves’ Den PvP system of Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. It is perhaps my least-favorite PvP in a video game to date. Now, that’s an extreme statement to make, I know. However, I’m going to try to explain myself as best as I can on why I really dislike FFXIV’s PvP.

Now, let’s start with the good. The Wolves’ Den was introduced in Patch 2.1. As a PvP system this falls into the Arena style play of other games, where premade teams of four or eight fight against each other for victory, with the winner being whichever team kills the entire other team. The Wolves’ Den is a pretty and effective battle arena, generally being circular with a few walls and a large open combat space. With a few adjustments, I could see this actually being a fairly good place to have fights. However, one of those adjustments would be a core mechanic of the game.

Definitely seen worse-looking arenas. Anyone remember the sewers in WoW?

FFXIV is one of the very few games that employs a stamina meter for its physical fighters. This stamina gauge, also known as TP, is generally expended slowly over the course of a battle while a melee fighter (or Bard) uses his skills. As a general rule, no one really has to wait too terribly long to get their TP back and most raid bosses outside of the major bosses in the Binding Coils won’t assault you so constantly that you won’t get opportunities for recovery, so it doesn’t tend to unbalance itself too horrifically.

The secondary use of TP is through the Sprint skill. Using Sprint, a player can increase their movement speed significantly and use it to quickly get to or away from situations. The problem lies in the fact that Sprint is all or nothing. Using it drains your entire TP bar, and in battle one only regains 60 points every three seconds, as opposed to the usual 100 every three seconds.

What does this result in within the Wolves’ Den? Well, quite simply put, this means that if you’re playing a TP-reliant class in the Wolves’ Den, you may just be absolutely wasting your time.

Unfortunately, while playing I felt that there were just complete losses of time for certain classes in the Wolves’ Den. A major one that has nearly zero use is paladin. A paladin in the Wolves’ Den is fundamentally down to playing shield slam spam, where they run up to a player, smack them with long duration stuns, and then hope their teammates come over and help the player kill them. Their damage output is too low to make a difference, and the other classes all have some feature or another that makes them superior.

Even snazzy blue armor won’t make you relevant here.

Warriors don’t fare much better. While they have the ability to mitigate a few seconds of Sprint by using Holmgang and chaining down the enemy, anyone who sees a warrior is probably just going to go ahead and start running and hope he doesn’t catch up. Do you wish to catch up as a TP user? You can sprint too, but that’s all of your combat capacity used up. You may catch him, but what’re you going to do with him when you get him?

I admit to never getting a chance to play as either a Dragoon or a Monk in PvP, so perhaps they fare just a bit better. However, from simply watching battles from a stunned position, I do know that they cannot come close to the real power in the Wolves’ Den.

Kid, I’m sorry, but this is gonna end badly for you.

Of course, you’ll probably never get the chance, as the dominant force that is Black Mage is quite likely to cast Deep Sleep as soon as your group is in range and allow his group to slowly but surely pick you all apart like fodder. The sheer firepower of Black Mage combined with its ability to swiftly and effectively mitigate entire teams with one spell and run away from any threats with another means that it’s the elephant in the room in the Wolves’ Den. Facing off against a BLM without the entire team zerging him (and hoping he doesn’t just sleep you all) is an exercise in disaster.

Does this come across as whining? Maybe so. PvP is always a sensitive topic, and complaining about balance and difficulty can easily become a situation where others will just tell you to get good and move on with their lives. However, I honestly feel that the Wolves’ Den is, in its current state, completely unfixable. With the casters having the ability to run away because they don’t need TP, and then sleep entire teams and transform them into ash with a few spells, it might just be beyond help.

However, not all is lost for FFXIV PvP. Next week, we’re taking a look at Patch 2.3’s Frontlines system, and the more massive world PvP that comes from that, as well as a general summation of the PvP systems in this game.

See you all soon, and in the meantime, watch out for the Black Mages. They’re hell on you.