Check out the hottest discussions from the previous week in the FFXIV General Forum.

Patch 1.19 is a week old, and now we’ve got even more tweaks and improvements in Patch 1.19a, including the end of losing ability sets when you switch between jobs. Given the significant jump in content between patches 1.18 and 1.19, the buildup to Patch 1.20 is going to be unbearable – at least for me, anyway. That said, the recent patch was not without its shortcomings, most notably the SE-created exploit that allowed countless people to crack out on experience points. Thus, this week’s featured Hot Read Thursday threads.

On with the links:

Title: Is Using a Rapid Fire Controller for Crafting OK?

It’s been awhile since we’ve had a good discussion about botting, and this thread fits the bill. Seriously, the OP raises a good question. Rapid fire controllers are staple of console gaming, and the fact is that Final Fantasy XIV is a game originally built with the console gamer in mind. So regardless of how you feel about botting, why wouldn’t a rapid-fire controller be allowed by Square Enix? That said, I’m pretty certain to just ENTERENTERENTERENTERENTER your way through crafting would be considered as botting, which means I strongly recommend against doing this. Still, it’s an interesting question.

Title: PLing Will Be Fixed 1.19a

Prior to the launch of Patch 1.19, Yoshi-P posted a long thread on the Lodestone forums about how changes to the battle system would open the door for power leveling. To my surprise, Patch 1.19 didn’t really allow for power leveling – what we got instead was power leaching. The difference is that in power leveling, the low-level players must actively power the engine of leveling while only being cured by their high-level helpers. With power leaching, the low-level players can go AFK while the high-level players do all the work. Not everyone jumped on the power-leaching bandwagon, but enough people did to prompt the development team to patch the loophole in 1.19a.

Title: Patch 1.19a Patch Notes

The follow-up to Patch 1.19 tied up a few loose ends and brought even more improvements to the game, such as saving abilities on the hotbar and introducing leve history evaluations. Now that the final touches of Patch 1.19 have been implemented, the waiting game for Patch 1.20 officially begins. And then 1.21. And then 1.22. Who knows? A few more patches, and we may be discussing the PS3 launch.