Update 4/9/17

• So I had been PUG’ing away at dungeons trying to get my iLvl to 230 to finish the 3.5 MSQ, and hit what I thought was a glitch.
  • Before Friday, I had equipment with this setup (left to right, weapon to ring 2):
    • W:210, H:230, B:230, Hn:225, Wa:230, L:225, F:230, N:230, E:230, Br:210, R1:230, R2:225 = i225 (225.41)
    • I was able to get the shire bracelet and some new hands, but my iLvl was saying i228 and not i230, which is what I figured it should be with the new i230 hands and i260 bracelet.
    • Finally on Sunday I had enough tomes to replace my legs, with i230, and it finally updated my avg iLvl to 230.
• So with my gear squared away finally, I was able to do the Baelsar’s Wall dungeon, with the help of DW member Ezra Scarlet.  I then was able to finish up the rest of the 3.5 MSQ and watch the credits roll.  I will say that while it was exciting to see the end, especially with the different things that happen during the final quests, I was not left in the same emotional state that the ending of ARR left me in.  Was it because I took a really long break and despite watching cutscenes over again, didn’t have the same connection to this storyline?  I’m not sure.  I remember doing all of the 2.3 to 2.5 MSQ’s in a big chunk just like the 3.4 & 3.5 MSQ’s.  For whatever reason, the finale just didn’t have the same impact.  It may have something to do with the how 3.4 kind of condensed what could have been a longer plotline with the Warriors of Darkness, but again, just not sure.  That being said, there was a significant change to a character that I am looking to see how it plays out in next expansion.
• I will continue to do dungeon runs in order to try and get my iLvl increased, whether that is to i245 or i260.  I’ve already had some lucj with this, as I purchased the shire ring, and got an i245 neck drop in Sohm Al (Hard).
• I have been doing alot of beastmen quests on Monk in order to level it, and finish them off.  I was able to finally finish Moogle, Sahagin and Kobold.  So all that is left for now, is the Vath and Vanu.
• I have been doing alot of crafting scrip stuff as part of the queue wait times.  What this has allowed me to do, is finally start upgrading my crafting gear.  The first two items I got were the Hidekeeps Knife and the Hidekeeps Awl.  I then worked on turning in items so that I could get the shared Handmaster’s accessories.  While I still need to finish getting the last couple of Rank IV recipe books (alchemist, culinarian, and armorer), i decided it was okay to use the scrips to get the upgrades, because it would help in making the collectable items I needed to turn in.
• I also started working on doing the collectables for gathering, again to start working on getting my gear upgraded, with the first emphasis here on the accessories.  Unfortunately, even using the rotation chart I had bookmarked, I was struggling with understanding exactly what steps to use and when.  While I could see a number going up in my log, I couldn’t figure out exactly when the skill was proc’ing.  It didn’t appear to be like a battle skill, and get the checked outline to show it was available.  So still lots of learning to do here.  Plus, unless I’m supposed to be using lots of cordials, the refresh time on GP is way to slow for this.
• I’m still not comfortable enough yet to take on a dungeon with my AST yet.  I have been doing some practices on a test dummy, to try and remember when each cure type is to be used, as well as remembering what each card type does.

Its Time to Return Once Again — 03/26/17

Its been 9 months since the last post, but only a little over 8 months since I last played.  I had barely cleared the cob webs in here when I got pulled away to play SWTOR with some friends again.  But now I’m back again, and looking forward to the future of FFXIV.

• I’ve preordered the Stormblood expansion, and got everything registered to participate in prerelease week.
• After getting everything updated, I was met with the realization that I needed to fix all of my hotbars for every single class.  What this meant for me was no just jumping back into the action, no quick crafting or gathering sessions, everything had to be readjusted and I’m still not 100% comfortable with where they are right now.
• So the first thing I wanted to get done was getting the Main Scenario Quests done up through patch 3.5.  So I started the 3.4 MSQ stuff, and realized that a bunch has changed on Masamune, which was a bit of a shock.  So I got to the Xephatol dungeon part, and queued up.  Two hours later after doing other things, including all of the new Hildibrand quests, the queue had still not popped.  Now I’m not sure if thats an accurate state of the game right now, or just the server, but I have realized that queues don’t pop as quickly as they used to.  A couple of days later I was able to get into the dungeon and then move on.  Unfortunately, the same thing happened again with the Titan HM fight.  However, this time I was able to get the help of some FC people, Katella and Ezra Scarlet, to help with the fight.
• Which brings me to the current thing I’m stuck on, and thats upgrading my ilvl210 gear to iLvl230 so that I can continue with the 3.5 MSQ quests and scale Baelsars Wall.  Besides the obvious slow dungeon queue pops, the biggest obstacle that I’ve had here is getting The Great Gubal Library (Hard) done so I can unlock the level 60 dungeon roulette again.  I’m hoping now, that while it will probably take some time to do what I need to get my gear upgraded, it hopefully won’t take until the release of the Stormblood expansion.
• Because I didn’t update on progress before my recent hiatus, I had actually capped Weaver, Armorer, and Carpenter at 60.  Over the last three weeks, I was able to get Blacksmith and Alchemist capped at 60, using a combination of the GC turn-ins and Moogle quests.  Currently, Culinarian sits at 58, and I will be using the same rotation to get it capped soon.
• I unlocked the Zhloe Aliapoh turn-in which is helping to supplement the blue crafting scrips I need to finish getting the recipe books I still need.  At some point, I still need to figure out how to get better gear than the Serpentskin stuff I have now.
• Speaking of that, I have been working to get a proper set of HQ Serpentskin crafting gear with properly attached materia.  The issue that I’ve run into, is again surrounding the ability to gather everything I need without having to spend to much to get it.
• I am also working on upgrading my gathering gear which was spotted with Trailblazer stuff I purchased with the Moogle tokens.  I need to go back and figure out the collectable side of this as well, since I recall having issues with rotations and such.
• I finally unlocked the Vath beastmen quests, and have been running through them on my monk.  Again, I need monk to level up so I can get my monk retainer to level up for explorations.
• I also unlocked the GC Squadron stuff so i can work on getting promoted.  I kind of messed up the though, as I was given a CNJ, MRD, and ARC, and the first recruit I had was also MRD.  So me thinking I needed a balanced party, I let him go, which increased the amount of time I had to wait to start doing the deployment missions.  I finally got them to level 20 though, and just need to figure out when they can actually do the first major mission.  It keeps saying they will definitely fail it, and right now, the party is level 23.

Updated Gathering Collectible Rotations for 3.3 — Eldelphia’s Blog

I completely missed these on Reddit but Lord Rotz pointed them out to me. I could get up to 6 collectibles from Chysahl/Adamantite before these and a decent return on Legendary nodes so haven’t really felt the need but I want to try these out. Callbackspammer in this Reddit thread posted about these. MA 112: (565-569 perception for […]

via Updated Gathering Collectible Rotations for 3.3 — Eldelphia’s Blog

The Palindrome Update 06-16-16

NUMBERS!

So its been a crazy week for me, with a bunch to talk about.

• Got my first piece of Lore gear, Bard body, which looks like someone took the skin off a huge fish and said, “this should look good!”  I was working so hard to get to iLvl205 so I wouldn’t be locked out of stuff in 3.3, that I forgot about the Lore tomestones.  In addition to getting gear, I’ve been unlocking other things, including Weeping City of Mhach and Hullbreaker Island (Hard).  I finally got into a run of the Final Steps of Faith, where people didn’t quit after the first wipe, and we wiped twice due to poor placement of ourselves and Nidhogg.  So I was able to complete the 3.3 story while it was still fresh content, instead of months or years old.  The remembrance quest line after, while long, was a cool way to recap the 3.x story up to the present.
• I have been playing Machinist more, and the other night was able to ding level 50!  Its a fun class, but using the leveling roulette has not always provided me the best opportunities to truly play around with the job.  For example, I get the Rook auto-turret, jump in a queue, and get Sastasha for the billionth time…  Now I can’t play with any of my new abilities.  So thats been frustrating, but I have been able to get in some dungeons like Cutters Cry and Dzameal Darkhold that lets me play around with the style of Machinist.  Originally I was using some old Ballad gear I still had, but when I switched out to the new 3.x crafted gear, some of which I still had from Bard leveling, and some I had to make.
• I’ve done a little work with my Monk was well, namely to help my Monk retainer be able to go on the level 50+ hunts for items I am always needing.  I am going to try and run more level 50 dungeons and raids to get his equipment upgraded from the Darklight and Artifact he is currently wearing.  I was originally planning to do something similar to Machinist, and craft his leveling gear, but I needed the stuff I was crafting on the retainer, so they could meet the iLvl for doing the level 50+ item hunts.
• I haven’t played with my Astrologian over the past several days.  I definitely intend to throw it in the mix, now that Machinist is level 50.  Plus I want to stay in good practice for healing.  I need to get in on a raid or large trial like Bismarck, where theres a second healer, or two tanks that I have to be worried about.  I still need to experience healing under that type of pressure.
• I spent a little time on Sunday finishing off getting Arcanist to 30, so I could unlock Summoner and Scholar.  I recall really wanting to play around with Summoner especially, going back to some fun times going after the mini-Primals in FFXI.
• I’m not sure when yet, but there is a plan to get Thaumaturge to 30, so I can unlock Black Mage.  Black Mage is another job I really want to get to max level, so it gives me more options to play with.
• I am still slowly working on getting my crafting classes to level 60.  I was able to get Weaver done the other day, and goldsmithing is currently at level 59, so its close as well.  I am still looking at getting geared up with good HQ versions of the gear with proper melding.  Having finished the Ixali quests and reputation, the new Moogle quests from 3.3 are proving a decent replacement for the crafting xp.  My only issue so far, is that you can only do three per day, unless you get a rank up, and then its six.
• I got to experience Diadem on Sunday with other members of Distant Worlds.  Some members of one of our alliance FC’s were needing some gathering items, so we got a run going.  Initially, it seemed kind of haphazard, especially getting myself and one others aether currents for flying.  But after that, it was mostly smooth sailing.
• Sunday night was also spent doing some treasure map runs with other members of Distant Worlds.  However, several of the maps didn’t give us an Aquapolis chance.  And those that did, we had some really bad luck and were ousted usually before the 3rd room.  Only once that night did we get to room 7, and I got a Twilight Over Thanalan orchestrion roll, which got changed to Whisper of the Land during today’s patch.

Update 6/2/16

While I didn’t get everything accomplished that I wanted to over the 3-day weekend, I did get closer to reaching several objectives.

• I got in several dungeon runs on my bard, and I was able to get either armor pieces or esoterics needed, so I could do the Anti-Tower dungeon and finish the 3.2 story.  Being able to add Pharos Sirius (Hard) and The Arboretum to the mix in the level 60 dungeon roulette has been a great change of scenery.
• I didn’t have time to take pictures, but the Void Ark is really cool, and the ship has a really awesome design.  I had my first run through after a 30-minute queue, and was certainly impressed.  I was also able to get the i200 bard pants from there, so esoterics can be used to bring up the rest of my gear to i200.
• I was able to finish off the 3.2 storyline on Tuesday evening.  Obviously the post-Anti-tower cutscene was emotional, and I’m interested to see if anything else comes from this.  The remaining quests and cutscenes were great.  The mini-story that come from these scenes was very interesting.  The grand melee battle was very interesting, and I had to do it twice.  The Raubahn fight was also pretty  intense, because I kept getting abilities interrupted, so it prolonged it.

• Since coming back, and playing around with Astrologian, I have found its healing style very active and better in my opinion than the white mage.  I have worked hard to get my Astrologian leveled when I had opportunities.  Last night I dinged level 50, and was able to wear some new healing gear I had purchased with my poetics tomestones.  Because these items are level 50 as well, I have switched out the items on my white mage for these, so only one set of equipment is needed for now.  I forgot to switch to combat stance to show the Sirius weapon that a retainer had brought me when i returned.  I think this was the catalyst for me to push and get Astrologian leveled.  I plan to continue leveling the class, as it will give me a second option for dungeon runs, especially with the FC.
• I am inching along in regards to leveling my crafting classes.  I would like to take a night to just try and power through some of these leves, but the Grand Company turn-in still seems the best return on investment.  Unfortunately, several of the 54-58 items for leatherworking, carpentry, and weaving, require holy-water infused items.  And right now, I can’t seem to get into a good groove to harvest the items needed.  I’m either in a dungeon, or for some other reason miss the 1 hour in game window.  So I continue to work on things I can, and continue to farm deepeye tears for the dissolvents.

 

 

Update 5-26-16

I wanted to get something up before the long weekend.  I have several things I want to accomplish this weekend, and hoping I have enough time to get most of them done.

• I have been trying to do at least two dungeon runs a night for esoterics or bard equipment drops.  I’m still looking to get hands, feet, and neck for iLvl160 drops.  I did get enough esoterics from leveling in HW dungeons, and the duty finder grind to get the iLvl200 Antiquated Berimbau bow and Antiquated Aoidos’ Cloak.  If I remember correctly (Lodestone doesn’t show average iLvl), I’m currently sitting at iLvl158, so I’m getting close to being able to do the Arboretum and Pharos Sirius (Hard) dungeons I believe.  Getting some new things to do would be good to break up the monotony of doing Neverreap, Aetherochemical Research Facility, and Fractal Continuum over and over.
• I have been playing with Astrologian more, and have been having some fun healing in the leveling dungeons.  For the most part its been a better experience than trying to do stuff with my white mage.  While I did have a bad Titan run a few days ago, it wasn’t due to me not curing enough or helping to break the gaol rocks or anything.  Its definitely been an eye opener regarding the extra things a good healer can do, in addition to keeping people alive.  I dinged 38 and 39 last night, got an ability called Disable which I’m looking forward to using to see where it can really be used.  I’ve been trying to notice which mobs, especially bosses, can be hit with debuff abilities like the Heavy one or Combust.
• I have been mainly using Grand Company supply and provisioning quests to level my crafting and gathering classes.  For the gathering ones especially, its a good way to earn some extra experience as well, because the process usually means going to gather the items, if I don’t have some excess on a retainer.  I was able to ding 60 the other night on Miner.  My Botanist isn’t too far behind, currently sitting at level 58, so hopefully soon it will be complete.  I have been trying to do the gathering collectable stuff some more, but I’ve realized until I create a good set of equipment, complete with overmeld’s especially for Perception, I’m not going to waste too much time with this.
• As for the crafting classes, I am still primarily focused on leatherworker and weaver leveling, currently 57 and 56 respectively.  I have thrown goldsmith and carpenter into the supply and provisioning mix as well, and have been using goldsmith to do the Ixali beast tribe quests.  In addition, I have been trying to keep my retainer inventories “clean”, so I have been trying to make sure ores, logs, skins, and thread materials are crafted into their appropriate items when possible.  So I have been getting at least some additional experience for this, especially on carpenter, goldsmith, and blacksmith.  I was able to unlock the specialist system, although I’m not sure yet how much I will be using the system.  I know the level 60 ability “Heart of the [crafter]” requires scrips to use, and sense I have very little experience in the crafting of collectables, I would probably not be able to use the ability anyway.
• While my primary focus is getting my astrologian leveled up, I am also looking to get some leveling done on machinist.  I did two sets of leves with machinist the other night, and I’m still liking how it plays as a ranged DPS class.  There’s definitely a difference between Bard and Machinist play-styles.
• I may throw ninja and machinist into the nightly Roulette: Leveling mix, although DPS queues are usually longer than healer queues, as I have seen on bard.

 

 

New Feature/Content for Dungeons

With my recent pursuit of iLvl170 and iLvl180 equipment, I’ve been hitting the Duty Finder hard, trying to get as many dungeons done for esoterics before I burn out.  The obvious reason its easy to burn out doing this, is people are super-focused on getting through the dungeon as quickly as possible, so they can rinse and repeat.  However the first time people are rushed through these dungeons, you are not allowed to just stand there and take in the dungeon aesthetically.  In addition, there’s usually some lore for the dungeon that is quickly given to the player, but given the rushed nature of players, this lore is not something that usually sticks with the player.

There was a post on Reddit that was looking for brief summaries of the side-quests for the dungeon.  For the most part, you can look at the completed quests to read these, or go an watch the cutscenes in the Inn, if the dungeon had a cutscene.  But there is still more to explore for these dungeons, beyond running them for story or hard modes.  And this got me thinking about a new feature or content for dungeons, that would give players the opportunity to really experience a dungeon without having to be rushed through it.

So what I would be a cool idea to reuse content, is a series of quests to discover secrets in some of the dungeons.  The player is requested to look into some issues where archaeologists excavating these dungeon ruins have encountered problems, whether its with mobs that have returned since the players last foray, or something else like puzzles are not working correctly.  the good thing about this idea, is that it can be continued in all future content, as long as dungeons are being released that could provide the player with some new lore details for the location.

So the idea behind this new content, would be the player completing quests, in order to learn the full history of a particular dungeon.  In order to do this, they are exploring the dungeon, fighting mobs, and solving puzzles.  I do see this using only the dungeons where gathering lore would make sense.  You wouldn’t be exploring Castrum Meridianium, Praetorium, or maybe the Aery, because I can’t see much lore being gathered from these dungeons.  Likewise, none of the Trials areas would make sense either.  I do see some non-instanced locations being used as part of the the quest series for the dungeons.  For example, the location that is currently not used under the Highbridge in eastern Thanalan, Thals Respite, or the Invisible City, could be used for Halatali or even the Sunken Temple of Qarn.

I would see this as solo content because its there to enrich the players enjoyment and understanding of the FFXIV world, not as a means to gear the player for some future challenge or content.  Rewards for completing the quests would be gil, glamour equipment, food, materia, and materials.  I could see glamour items with maybe an Indiana Jones or Lara Croft theme.  There could even be a minion available for completing each expansion set of dungeons.  So completing the quests for the ARR dungeons could give you a moogle wearing adventurers clothes, and completing the HW dungeons, would give you a chocobo chick with some saddlepacks or something.

For example, take a location like Tam-tara Deepcroft.  We know the Gelmorrans used it not only as a place to live, but a place to bury their dead.  We know that members of the noble houses of Ak-Inik, Ak-Mena, and King Galvanth the Dominator were entombed there.  We know that residents of Gridania were using it to entomb their dead as well.  We know from ARR that the Lambs of Dalamud were using it as a hideout for their nefarious rituals.  So using all of this, a series of quests that really details the lore of the area, where you learn of King Galvanth the Dominator, or the noble houses of Gelmorra.  Bring in some of the details regarding the padjal, or the Black Shroud elementals forbidding magic which was a huge part of the 1.x Gridania story.

Another example would be the Aetherochemical Research Facility.  All we really know from rushing through the area is that the Allagan’s were doing some experiments really.  This could be a great opportunity to explore in detail what it was the Allagan’s were trying to accomplish in their experiments.  Along with the Fractal Continuum and a few other places, it could be an interesting way to showcase Allagan architecture.  Why are the pillars hexagonal?  The designs on the wall mean anything, or just decorative?

Finally, the Lost City of Amdapor and Amdapor Keep would make great dungeons to explore and understand their lore better.  Obviously this is one of the primary locations of interest during the War of the Magi, but there’s more to the story here.  There has to be more to do here after defeating Diabolos.  Even with the ominous fog and pink/purple/gray hue to everything, its a beautiful area that I really want to explore more.

Obviously not everything has been fleshed out here, but you get a good overview of what the content would entail, and some examples of rewards and dungeon use.  Again, the whole point of this type of content is to provide players some further insight into the lore of the dungeons, and ways to try to take in an appreciate these environments, which currently are only used to rush through to get gear or equipment tokens.

 

Update 5-16-16

• I worked on completing the 3.0 main scenario quests, because I really wanted to see the ending, and start working toward catching up for patch 3.3.
  • I loved the cutscene that played before entering Azys Lla.  I had a feeling something big was going to happen, someone would have to die, sacrificing themselves to complete the mission.  It was a beautifully done cutscene and definitely had a hard emotional impact to it.
  • I enjoyed the final two dungeons of 3.0, although I had to skip a cutscene before the final battle as the duty finder group I was in was wanting me to hurry up.
  • Because it had been several months since completing 2.x and starting 3.0, I had to do some wiki checking to see why someone showed up, who I thought shouldn’t be there.
• I have been having fun for the most part working through the 3.0 dungeons and trials.  The boss mechanics have been easy to understand, its just my execution that still needs work.  I always find myself positioned in the wrong area, where it makes it unavoidable to get hit with some affect or attack, like painting yourself into a corner.  I am still messing with keybindings and battle setups for my Nostromo, so its just a matter of time before things feel right.
• I worked on unlocking some dungeons.  I could have sworn I had done some of these, but there was quests to unlock them so I did them.  I enjoyed the mechanics and different things happening within the environment for these “new” dungeons.  I just wish I had some more time to stop, look around, and take some screenshots.
  • Pharos Sirius
  • Hullbreaker Island
  • Lost City of Amdapor
• Between unlocking dungeons and such, I was leveling Rogue, and was able to get the levels necessary to unlock Ninja.  Rogue was a pretty fun class to play with, and it looks like Ninja will have its own challenges.  For me, its been interesting to get back to playing a melee DPS class like my old Monk, especially now with all of the changes to dungeon/boss mechanics.  It can be harder to read telegraphs when you are so close to the boss, and I have found myself moving around alot in anticipation of the boss attack.  My only problem with the class right now, is I have no AOE attack, which can be a problem when the magic users in your group are bursting down several mobs while you have to focus on one.
• I was able to heal the starter dungeons on my astrologian, so I felt some accomplishment there.  I really have been having some fun healing with this class, and look forward to doing some harder dungeons and trials with it.
• I was able to do some gathering on miner and botanist.  While farming items for crafting is the primary focus for leveling, its secondary purpose is for retainers.
• Speaking of retainers, I moved 3 of them from field exploration routines, to specific hunting routines — wyvern skin, rainbow cotton bolls, and mythrite ore.
• For the next week or so, I am focusing on getting my iLvl increased, first to 175 to get the next part of 3.2 story done ~The AntiTower~, and then to 185 to participate in some of the higher level dungeons/raids.  I have unlocked the dungeons to get the gear I need, I just need to wait in duty finder now.
• At some point I need to do some leveling on Monk, so that I can use my Monk retainer for higher level hunting.

 

Update – 5/12/16

Wow it has been a long time since the last post here…

I’m back after a long break where I was primarily playing SWTOR and Minecraft.  I was keeping up with changes in FFXIV, so there’s a lot to look forward to doing in game.

I’m moving away from the journalized setup for the blog.  While I will continue to keep the physical version of the journal, posts on here will focus on accomplishments, more screenshots, thoughts, and anything else that might come up in game.

With that said, here is a list of things I have been doing so far:

• I have been working through the main story quests in Heavensward.  While I have had better luck with the dungeons this time around, the quests themselves have been a little frustrating to try and get complete.  For example, when I finally managed to make it to Idyllshire and the Dravanian Hinterlands, I was floored by the beauty of the area.  And then I started to do the back and forth quests in the area, and it got boring running all over this beautiful area.
• I am currently a level 58 Bard, with a little over halfway to go until level 59.  My plan is to do a couple of dungeon runs to get about halfway into 59, and then work on doing the final quests until level 60.
• I have been trying to work on botanist and miner at the same time.  I have been using Grand Company turn in’s, leves, and straight item gathering to level, and with some luck, look to hit level 60 for both before summer.
• I have tried to maintain my focus on getting leatherworker to 60, and then shifting focus to weaver, carpenter, goldsmith and such.  Of course the biggest hurdle here has been gathering the actual materials needed.  Several of the Grand Company turn ins lately have required items needing Holy Water, which is not cheap on the server.  I have been trying to farm dhalmels and wyverns for their skins though, its just the non-leather stuff I have a harder time procuring.
• I have been working on rogue and machinist on the side, because I like their styles.  I am hoping to have both leveled to 50 before the end of the year, using a combination of dungeons, trials, and the Deep Dungeon coming in Patch 3.3.
• I went through the Novice Hall missions on Rogue, Marauder, and Astrologian.  I actually enjoyed playing astrologian again, so I am looking forward to getting a healer job I enjoy to play, and can execute properly in dungeons.

FFXIV Update – 06-29-15

While this is not a long update regarding what I was doing each day, it is to show what progress I’ve been making.

Last Tuesday I was able to update FFXIV:ARR to the new Heavenward expansion, but was not able to play.

Thursday night, I was able to login, and was able to get the Chrysalis fight done.  The group wiped once, but we got back up, retried, and won.  After going through 5 other attempts with no success, people blaming others for not playing class correctly, or not being in the right place or not knowing the fight, this was definitely the motivation I needed going forward.

Friday night, I was able to do the Steps of Faith encounter — again, the group died once, but was able to complete on the second time through.  To me this justifies the idea, no matter how many guides you read or watch, they’re always done from some characters perspective, so you are seeing it from the job’s view.  So myself as a Bard, I may have to adjust what I am doing to perform better, because the one size fits all never works.

I was able to experience the long series of cutscenes for the 2.5 finale, and it was sad to see what happens.  I am looking forward to see what happens though, if these changes are permanent or not.

One brief rant here though, I was shocked to see the abysmally low XP rewards for these quests.  I had been 50 Bard since before the Castrum Meridian battles, that I had failed to notice what the rewards were.  For someone new, running a character from level 1 to 60, will they see this same 4800 XP reward and be discouraged.  I’ve seen the benefit in a game like SWTOR, hit 60 on my main, no XP, its cool, I can finish the new storyline.  A brand new character, running through, doesn’t have to be bogged down with running side stories, they can continue their playing to 60, no XP diminishing at 50 for the vanilla story, or 55 for the Rise of the Hutt Cartel, still getting the correct rewards, and able to move along the path at the same speed.  Seriously, if the the 4800 XP is all that is being given out for post level 50 A Realm Reborn quests, its a sad progression scheme.  Of course when I got into Heavensward quests, rewards jumped back up to realistic expectations.  I guess the grind is the grind, and content in FFXIV will be gated one way or another.

So yeah, I was able to start going through the story quests, but hit a snag on one quest where you have to chase a mob.  Guess I’ve been doing it wrong, because I get jumped by all these mobs, as a bard, with no ultimate doom skill, and keep dying.  So I went and unlocked the new gathering and crafting storylines which all look to be very interesting.  Looking forward to leveling and see what these new storylines yield.  I also unlocked Machinist and Astrologian which both had very fun little intro quests.  I’ve done some leves on Machinist and dinged 31 yesterday, so yay!

I did several of the St. Coinach gathering leves last night, and was able to ding 51 on miner and botanist.  Still need to do some research on the new stuff thats been added, as some of the rewards for the leve’s I was doing appear to be turn-in items for better gear!

Finally I was able to contribute some items to the Distant World airship project.  The setup for Free Company workshops and large-scale crafting is a very interesting thing.  I have looked at some of the other schematics available, and while not alot right now, looking forward to see what other items they add!

So thats about it.  I am looking forward to participating in tonights Mender’s Monday gathering.  I think its still a thing at least…  Hopefully so!  I picked up some St Coinach crafting leves and will be doing them for turn in’s.  I’m still not sure if I want to focus on just leatherworking until 60 and then doing the other crafts the same, or doing bits and pieces with leves during Menders Mondays.