World of Warcraft is certainly one of the original behemoths of the MMORPG space and has enjoyed 15+ years of dedicated player bases, but Final Fantasy XIV is a strong contender to take that crown. With the addition of the Shadowbringers expansion pack and the upcoming Endwalker expansion for FFXIV, there's been a mass exodus of WoW players migrating to FFXIV.

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Many recent complaints seem focused on Blizzard's poor public relations with fans, as SquareEnix's development team for FFXIV is much more responsive and inclusive in comparison. Regardless of whether you're a diehard WoW fan, there are still many basic factors of FFXIV that are superior to WoW's. But on that note, there are still many areas that FFXIV could stand to improve.

10 Better Than WoW: FFXIV Uses Its Soundtrack More Effectively

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It's not that World of Warcraft's music is bad, it's just that it's not used in a way that anchors players to the game. WoW frequently features atmospheric music that matches the scenery and usually plays on a two-minute loop. Music will change in some zones depending on where the player is, but it doesn't match the epic auditory dynamism of FFXIV's soundtrack. Each FFXIV mount, for example, plays a specific theme when players are using it. There's some overlap, of course, but some mounts that are linked to past Final Fantasy titles feature a newly composed track from that particular game. FFXIV offers a lot of Final Fantasy nostalgia in general, and strategic use of music plays a big part.

9 Falls Short: FFXIV's PvP Is Lacking In Comparison To WoW

World of Warcraft Sholomance Screenshot

Nearly every WoW player will agree on this aspect: WoW's PVP blows FFXIV's out of the water. FFXIV's PvP is definitely one of its weakest points. It's slow and clunky, suffering from issues such as animation locks and a long global cooldown. The cooldown in WoW is arguably faster than FFXIV's 2.5 seconds, so WoW's PvP allows for more reactive play than FFXIV. Another issue is how FFXIV completely separates PvP from anything else in the game. Not only are skills completely reworked for PvP, but you also need to go to the Wolves' Den before you can challenge someone to a fight. It's also not possible to join certain PvP instances with anyone who's not in your same Grand Company, so playing co-op with friends can be challenging.

8 Better Than WoW: Character-Focused Storytelling Keeps Players Invested

Final Fantasy XIV Shadowbringers Warrior Of Light character looking brooding on a firey background

A common complaint among WoW players is feeling as if their characters don't matter in the grand scale of things or the WoW world in general. In WoW, the world and lore take center stage. Anything relating to your character seems inconsequential and gets done just because your character is there to help NPCs.

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In FFXIV, the entire story revolves around the Warrior of Light, aka, you. Without the player's character's actions, nothing in FFXIV would move forward or change. Players build long-lasting, meaningful relationships with NPCs that motivate players to care about what happens in the story and keep playing.

7 Falls Short: A Realm Reborn Is A Real Slog To Complete

World of Warcraft Kaelthas Vashj Outlands

This is a common complaint by FFXIV fans: A Realm Reborn (ARR), the first major portion of the game, takes forever to get through. It's riddled with fetch quests and a lack of combat growth. A lot of fans have claimed ARR is more like a long tutorial, as it takes up the time from level 1 to level 50, and it's not until level 50 that FFXIV's job system starts showing any kind of complexity or individuality. Many people give up FFXIV before getting through ARR, but the game becomes more rewarding the longer players keep at it.

6 Better Than WoW: FFXIV's Job System Lets Players Experience Every Job With One Character

Final Fantasy XIV Endwalker

Not only does WoW limit players to choosing either Alliance or Horde, but they also limit players to the class they choose for their character. There's nothing wrong with this and it's certainly the norm in MMORPGs. Dating back to early MMOs like Ragnarok Online, players were expected to stick to one class. But SquareEnix figured they'd take a different approach and allowed a job system that can be fully accessed by one character. This started in FFXI, the first Final Fantasy MMO, and continued in FFXIV. This system allows players to become attached to their characters and experience all types of combat the game offers.

5 Falls Short: FFXIV Needs Better Variation Between Job Roles

World of Warcraft Sylvanas Helm of Domination

In WoW, each class gets a handful of specs that allow them to change the sub-type of their class. For example, there are Healers that can be more focused on DPS or healing, and Tanks that can focus on being DPS, healers, OR tanks. FFXIV has no such variation. Each job is locked to its particular skill set, they can't use different types of gear or weapons, and there's no stat-point system that would allow for players to stack up on one stat more than another. It did use a point system once upon a time, but SquareEnix removed it from the game's mechanics many years ago.

4 Better Than WoW: FFXIV's Graphics Are Sharper & More Aesthetically Pleasing

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This point is somewhat subjective, as there are plenty of folks out there that love WoW's more cartoonish approach to its graphics. But when compared to FFXIV's graphics, WoW leaves a lot to be desired. FFXIV displays painstaking detail to its clothing, making sure that small details such as the character's rings and earrings are displayed.

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It also has a robust glamour system that lets players change the appearance of their character's gear. WoW does have the Transmog system for changing gear appearances, but it's far less sophisticated than FFXIV's glamour. If players can get past the JRPG-style graphics of FFXIV, there's a lot of beauty to behold in both its scenery and clothing.

3 Falls Short: Gender & Race-Locked Clothing Keeps Players From Fully Enjoying FFXIV's Glamour System

World of Warcraft Gorehowl

Some gear in FFXIV can only be worn by males or females, and some gear isn't even visible on other races. The Hrothgar and Viera races in FFXIV, for example, aren't able to display several of the game's headgear. But perhaps what's most frustrating is SquareEnix's lag on unlocking gender-locked clothing. They've made strides in recent years to unlock some clothing sets, such as unlocking the wedding gear, so men can wear wedding dresses while women can wear tuxedos. It's a good start, but SquareEnix should really consider unlocking all gender-locked clothing.

2 Better Than WoW: FFXIV's Crafting System Is Like A Whole New Game Of Its Own

culinarians holding frying pans in FFXIV

In WoW, players can only learn two professions. If they want to learn another to specialize in something else, they have to unlearn one (or both) of their current professions and start from level 1. There's no such setback in FFXIV. While there was a specialization system that made some crafters more adept than others at first, that system has mostly lost its teeth, and any player can pick up all crafting jobs with little difficulty. The difficulty comes in mastering crafting. The skill system for crafting is complex and multi-layered, with some of the more difficult recipes in the game taking dozens of steps to complete.

1 Falls Short: The Housing Crisis Takes The Fun Out Of FFXIV's Housing System

World of Warcraft

Conceptually, FFXIV's residential neighborhoods sound great: instead of isolated instances, there's an entire zone with a certain amount of space to place houses next to other players, giving a community-focused appeal to the housing system. On top of that, players have a lot of control over how they decorate their space, both inside and outside. But there's a dark underbelly to be found in the scarcity of housing plots.

There are many more players than housing spaces available to grab and camping for plots is a common scene on some of FFXIV's more populated servers. (Good luck finding a plot on Gilgamesh or Balmung!) SquareEnix has attempted to combat some of these issues by periodically increasing the space in housing areas and adding apartments to housing areas, but the spaces are quickly snatched up, and having an apartment is not the same as visually displaying your Eorzean home.

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