Final Fantasy XIV

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

As much as I love this game, I've gotten to the point where I've become a super casual after 4 years of being a hard core player. I've won fashion wars, I'm in the top 2% of wealthiest accounts on gw2efficiency, the only time I really play is when there is a significant content drop. I've tried other MMO's, none of them really impressed me for too long. SWTOR was amazing for the story, but I never really cared to get into the end game. City of Heroes doesn't count because it was before I ever played GW2, and it was amazing for its time. Black Desert has tempted me many times, but the fact that you're forced into open world PvP upon reaching the level cap just is a no go for me. I don't like to be harassed while I'm minding my own business. I tried Blade & Soul, Revelation Online, and Vindictus. All had interesting concepts, but overall lacked certain things that kept my interest. B&S's low level areas died within a month as its more of a PvP focused game. Revelation Online's combat was.. eh, and Vindictus' optimization is reaaaly bad. World of Warcraft just never appealed to me... so I gave FF14 a shot with its free trial. Even though I don't love it as much as GW2 gameplay wise. I do like it a lot and I see the immense value in paying SE's sub. I can't fairly compare it to GW2 since I don't have a max character but here are some of my observations.

The Free Trial
GW2 is a F2P game, Buy to unlock everything. FF14 is F2P until level 35 with very little limitations from what I can tell outside of housing and some delivery service NPC. FF14 wins hands down here. This may be tilted because I have extensive knowledge of GW2, and how it works, but the limitations put on your account suck the life out of the enjoyment, most notably the inventory limits. With how FF14 does it, you're experiencing the full game pretty much unrestricted for a ton of hours of game play. If I'm missing out on something, I don't know what it is besides maybe mounts... but I figured you just get at a later level. 

Graphics and Performance
GW2 is an older game, but both are on par with each other graphically. GW2 wins hands down in character, attack, and enemy animations and its not even close. That's due to the different combat systems. Where FF14 outshines GW2 is the finer details. The lighting is better, the character emote library dwarfs GW2, and along with it, the facial expressions are just amazing. There is also way less clipping of outfits and weapons. Characters don't go bald when they wear a head piece. Also FF14 runs off DX11, while GW2's severely aging engine still runs off DX9. DX9 bottlenecks mutlicore processors causing GW2 to be CPU intensive. Lag spikes, framerate drops, and skill lag are all a thing when population gets too high. Granted FF14 is more instanced, it has none of these issues. Even in a FATE full of enemies, other players, and NPCs I get zero lag, no FPS loss, and no half loaded textures for the first 10 seconds of loading into an area. FF14 is amazingly optimized, and is one of the smoothing running games I've ever played on a PC. 

Gameplay
This one is subjective on tastes, but this is where GW2 just wins for me. I hate global cooldowns. FF14 is a more traditional MMO where you pick and attack/skill and all of your skills go on cooldown and then you pick another. There are exceptions to this but not many. GW2 has little to no global cooldowns, combat is free flowing, and often relies on fast paced, non-ending rotations where you're constantly attacking and dealing damage non stop. For the most part this means you're doing less damage per hit than you would in a game like FF14, but for someone like me, GW2's style feels better and more satisfying, especially when you can freeflow between targets even if you class or build can't cleave. Both games have a fast travel system, but GW2's is superior and using the map is way more user friendly to hit any wp anywhere in the world. FF14's map gets less detailed at times when you click a far off objective and it shows this fancy world map with no crystals to teleport to. Instead you have to use a list, and remember where they are off of that.

Activities
Both games seems to be the only ones with a lively open world. During the level up process in FF14, you do basic redundant quests and FATES, which are kinda like GW2's dynamic events, but way less varied, and they don't have an off shoot minor story behind them most of the time outside of some text base stuff... its mostly kill a bunch of this creature, or kill this giant creature. GW2's dynamic event's offer more variety in theory, but they take longer than fates, and once you do them once, you really don't want to repeat 99% of them. GW2's renown heart system replaces the redundant quests... with the same thing essentially. with 303 hearts, there are only so many tasks you can come up with. Both games have dungeons, altho GW2 long abandoned that content.

Storytelling
Both games have great story telling. GW2's stories aren't perfect, but the way they execute them has always been extremely well done. The main campaign is meh for GW2, but you're first time through was still pretty good. It has a lot of great voice acting and high stakes. FF14's voice acting is phenomenal as well. A lot of its lesser quests are all text base, which I've noticed a lot of people knock against it. I personally think the text dialogue is well done, and better than GW2's text dialogues which aren't that intricate by comparison... its almost an afterthought at times. For FF14 a ton of work has been put into the text dialogue.... so much that I've started skipping most of it for side quests. People will tell you their life's story just for you to go kill 6 squirrels.   which going back to activities, I appreciate how the cliche trash quests only require you to kill 3-8 things rather than 10-20 like other MMOs traditionally have done.

Rewards
This is where that sub shines obviously. Go out in GW2 and kill a bunch of trash mobs, and your inventory will fill with complete garbage. FF14 respects your inventory. It's rarely dumping junk you don't need in your bag. Even better, when you complete low level quests, you can pick a bag some type of bullion that you can just sell to a vendor when the reward is under powered gear. Further more, unlike GW2, you can get new emotes and the equivalent of minis for doing small side quests. Basically cosmetics you'd have to buy from the gem store in GW2, are just being given out for small time side quests in FF14. I had a lot more to say about this category, but I'm half asleep about to pass out.

Basically if you had FF's rich content, engine, with GW2's combat, it would be the ultimate MMO. Right now I'm leaning towards buying it and paying for a few months. Even paying for SWTOR for 3 months, I feel like I didn't get any value outside of being able to sprint and get the land speeder way earlier.... basically pay to get common conveniences. In what I've seen playing FF14, there is value in paying. Their trial is probably the best out there. You don't feel pressured or feel like you're missing out on anything because you're playing for free. I like that, and feel like they've earned my money with that trust in their product. That presenting it to me, would sell it. Its not really something you see much of anymore, as "try for free" these days normally come with some kind of scheme to hold candy out in front of your face in hopes you'll take the bait.
 

[Strider Hiryu 2,704]

You let me know if you wanna pay for the sub, I have a referral link that will get you some nice in-game goodies (like a helm that gives 25% more experience gained and 99 aetheryte tickets for free teleports) and get me closer to my Twintania mount.

Now that the selfish plug is out of the way I'm glad to hear you're enjoying FFXIV. You can actually use the map to teleport to any aetheryte you are attuned to but if you're not attuned it will not allow you to do so (so you don't have to use the list unless you want to, I do but I'm so used to to it from 6 years of playing). Then again at your level your list is nowhere near as full as mine (I kid you not my list is a nightmare). See global cool downs are the norm for me since I come from playing WoW and other more traditional MMO's so when I did play GW2 that was something I could never get used to (not a knock on GW2, BDO has a similar free flowing combat system and I love it) and it just never felt right to me. Not saying I didn't enjoy my time with the game but to me FFXIV is far superior in the things that matter to me (mainly the story, amazing soundtrack, and developers who go beyond what is necessary to provide for their player base).

You will actually get your mount from the story quests around level 20 if you're not on a preferred world (it's around the time when you need to join a Grand Company (which should always be the Order of the Twin Adder. I'll have no complaints as it's obvious the best one (I kid but I am a Serpent Captain))). You'll have to do a short little quest but it's not difficult at all and you can also use your chocobo in combat once you do another quest located in the Central Shroud. Outside of that you aren't missing out on anything with the free trial. SE made it so you could experience the game at its fullest up until level 35 with very little restrictions. Sadly you're restricted to the chocobo until you either buy another mount later on (there are special currencies with certain NPC's that allow this), get a lucky drop in end-game content, or buy one off the Mogstation (which I own every single one, yea I know but I like collecting mounts).

If I were you focus on Main Story quests and leave side-quests for other classes/jobs if you decide to level them. FATE grinding is a chore to level with just to warn you (which is sadly something I have to do now for my other jobs in Shadowbringers, thankfully they added a new reward system to them to make them worthwhile), it's not bad but once you've grinded the same fate 50 times you get a little sick of it.

I digress though. If you ever have any questions if you decide to continue on with a sub let me know. I'm more then willing to help (you'll also need to tell me what server you're on (since I'm sure you're not on mine as we're kinda locked for character creation at the moment due to the influx of new people)). If we're on the same Data Center I can come visit you and help out if we're on at the same time (the new server visit system is quite awesome for this) since I've pretty much done everything outside of the Savage Raids and certain extreme mode primal. It's quite obvious I love this game and SE has done nothing but cement my trust in them as a company (as seen by the obscene amounts of money I throw at the Mogstation and on other merchandise (like the Lore Encylopedia's and art books)). Out of every MMO I've played SE has done just about everything right and 10x better then most other companies that require a monthly payment (I say just about but my only grievances are with how they handle certain in-game things at endgame but they're minor inconveniences).

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

After reaching 20, i went ahead and signed up, bought the complete edition and 180 days. before you made this post. I guess I'm not using the world map right and I have to click on stuff or something. I know about the aetheryte.. except for the smaller ones. I've attuned to those and when I try to click on them it doesn't do anything. But the bigger ones Ive used. Its just if I'm in a different area, when I click on a mission to bring it on the map and say its in New Grinania and I'm in Limsa Lominsa, it shows a more traditional world map rather than the area map and there are no crystals to click, even when I zoom in. I didn't try to click on the name of the location though now that I think of it. in GW2 you just hit M and move the screen around to the wp you want to go to with no extra clicks or anything.

I'm on Hyperion, although I intend to move to Leviathan one day as thats where a few of my friends play. The last friend that signed up I guess he lucked out and only had to wait a week to transfer in. 

[Strider Hiryu 2,704]

Alas you're on Primal and I'm on Crystal, it wasn't meant to be (I'm on Coeurl server, been my happy little home for 6 years). Yea, it might be a while before you can transfer since Shadowbringers upped the populations of servers pretty massively and it probably won't die down for another couple of weeks. You might get lucky though, I have heard of some people getting lucky and making characters on Coeurl even though we're shut down for character creation.

Yea, the little ones are for town travel and the only way to use them is to right click on them and pick a destination in town to go too. They're not usable on the map so you'll have to use you're list or click on a big aetheryte closest to where you need to go if you're attuned. I kinda wish they'd allow you to use the map to use in-town aetherytes but sadly it's not a thing (maybe someone will get lucky and talk Yoshi-P into doing it).

Eh, don't worry about it. As much as I want the mount (I'll sucker someone else into it or get my other friend to re-establish their subscription just so I can get it (nah, I wouldn't do that. He didn't enjoy it enough to continue playing)) I was more going for getting you some goodies. I'm just happy to hear you're enjoying it enough to buy it.

[Sledgstone 8,672]

FF14 looks great and I'd love to try out the trial myself, but I'm so super casual now I doubt I'll ever play another MMO again. GW2 has been great for me because of solo content and no sub fee. The sub for FF14 does seem to provide for a better gameplay experience and with the company making consistent revenue they have a constant cash flow to keep bringing in more content. I love GW2, but with no expansions on the horizon I don't know where the game is going from here. Living world is good, but if they just keep making more endless maps it'll break the community up more by spreading the population around so much multiple maps will start emptying up. If GW2 had a sub, I'd have stopped paying for it a long time ago. Not because I don't love the game, but unless I can dedicate at least 5 hours a week to a game I'm paying a monthly fee for I can't justify paying for it. At that point I'd be one of those people with a gym membership that never goes there.

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

I will say I'm enjoying the light party dungeons so far. So much better than GW2 where you're expected to skip everything and know wtf is going on at all times as a noob. I also like how it clearly states if one or more persons is new to the dungeon. It just kinda sucks waiting for a healer but I do like the role lock for these. I haven't even attempted a daily roulette yet as the wait in line seems absurd (DPS life). The dugeons are straight forward, but I found it funny the yesterday our tank was way too ambitious and kept running off into the fray before our healer could get there. He got totally wrecked trying to take on too many enemies. I didn't have any AoE attacks to help him out at the time, so I could only attack one of the 5 he aggroed.

And wtf this game has a freakin full service Casino? I did the tour and promptly left before I bought points to play anything. I'll try it out later.

[Strider Hiryu 2,704]

Welcome to end game pulling where tanks pull everything to get the dungeon done faster. I still can't figure out why people think they can pull huge in the early game when you're missing most of your mitigation abilities and have 1/4th the health (and the fact your healer is stuck with little in the way of healing spells or wtf healing spells). Meh, dps queues aren't overly bad. On average I wait 5-10 minutes as long as it's a roulette, queuing for specific dungeons is where you fun into ungodly queue times for dps since tanks/healers rarely single dungeon queue.

Oh you've been to the Gold Saucer have you? Yea welcome to probably this biggest waste of dev time the game has ever had. I go for two reasons and that's the mini-cactpot and the weekly jumbo cactpot. Chocobo racing was fun while it was big now it's just boring. Everything else is meh unless you want to spend the time grinding stuff. There are some cool glamour pieces and some pretty awesome mounts if you have the time to grind the MGP (Fenrir, probably the best mount there, is 1,000,000 MGP. Took me roughly two years to grind the MPG for it. Now I'm grinding for the Cactaur mount that looks like the Gold Saucer but it's 2,000,000 MPG (and I'm at a measly 284,000. I was at 500,000 but I bought the Regalia when the FFXV cross-over event was going on)) but otherwise is just a waste of time.

Heh, I pay the monthly fee for TOR and barely play 5 hours a month I should probably cancel it.

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

Finally got mounts. The QoL is amazing now. My sprint button will now get a much needed rest with the small 30 seconds of speed it provided of CD. Some of these mounts are ridiculous though.. some dude was riding a freaking massive whale wtf

[Strider Hiryu 2,704]

I have that mount (It's a mogstation one). Hey don't look at me like that, it's cool and it's a two seater. Have you seen the Regalia yet? That bitch can sit four people and is way out of place in this game.

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

No judgement here, I bought the flame chariot.

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

At least in the early stages of dungeons people aren't savage douches when it comes to loot. I can tell when I'm running with some exp people just grinding a new job. Out of my own sense of honor I always pass on gear I can't use. I got a new bow today at the end because everyone else passed on it and I was clearly the only bow user in the party. We cast lots over everything else because they were master of war or all classes stuff that was pretty good. This isn't the first time its happened. I like the system for what it is, even tho I prefer GW2/D3 style you get your own drops. But it beats B&S where the richest player always wins so long as you have the coin to outbid everyone on that item that's absolutely necessary to upgrade your weapon.... if it drops at all. 🙄 

[Strider Hiryu 2,704]

Heh, I always pass on gear unless I need it in dungeons but sadly I don't need low level stuff anymore (my lowest level job is 30 and I have all the gear needed to level it to 80 when I need it). Honestly nobody will roll against you if you need it that's the great thing about FFXIV. There are still dicks out there that will but once you get to post-ARR content everything is Job bound so only those of that job can roll on it so as long as there isn't a Dancer, Machinist, or another Bard with you you're guaranteed the drop (armor and accessories are always limited based on role (which for you is Physical Ranged so you're grouped with the other two in that category) and weapons are always Job/Class restricted) as long as you roll need. The only time the loot system sucks is when you're trying to gear up an alt job on you're main and you can't roll need and you have someone of that role rolling need even though they obviously don't need it (24 mans are nightmarish for this. I hate trying to roll on Bard gear on my Sam only to lose out to the bard/machinist/dance who obviously doesn't need the gear and is rolling on it to turn it in for tickets or desynthing it).

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

I finished A Realm Reborn. I enjoyed the story overall, even if it was campy and silly at times. I enjoyed all the pop culture references and had a good chuckle with how heavily a major chunk of the final fight was inspired by MGS1 from the elevator to Ultima. The Dungeons were pretty fun, in one part I'm glad you cant skip the cutscenes on the major story ones. Certain GW2 players would have an aneurysm over that, but at the same time I can see how its frustrating when repeating it, especially when you get nonsensical cut scenes every 10 steps on the second to last dungeon.  I also didn't see the point of waiting 15 mins for a 3 minute boss fight that had no dungeon when you start the last questline. That should have just been instanced instead of a full 8 man party. 8 man dungeons are more fun than the light party though, the effects and buffs going around gets wild. My only bad experience so far was one of the optional dungeons I ran to get a level up. The healer was awful so our Tank died a few times causing a wipe. I heard Bard use to have more support, but at level 50, all I can really do is block or remove 1 ailment, increase direct hit, and grant swiftness... could be one more I'm forgetting right now... but its not going to keep anyone alive. The Bard quest line was interesting. I see now a lot of people in GW2s community wanted something more interesting when getting elite specs. I guess I gotta finish up some loose ends before I get to Heavensward and start on Dark Knight. I heard that story is pretty neat too.

[Strider Hiryu 2,704]

Bah, fuck those cutscenes. I've seen them so many times I can quote them word for word. I miss the old days when we could skip them (it's the main reason I don't run MSQ Roulette anymore even though it gives 300 Poetics. Fuck 45 minutes on a dungeon that takes less than 10 minutes if you skip cutscenes). Now-a-days, if I run them, I just afk and do something else until I'm needed.

Bard's support abilities are pretty much the same as they were in the past it's just that song's did different things and were actually continuous while consuming MP (like Mage's Ballad gave casters MP regen up the wazoo while Army's Paeon gave TP regeneration to everyone else (which TP no longer exists)). I do miss Foe's Requiem but it's a minor loss (though that increased magic damage was nice for the casters). I believe you get Nature's Minne at 60 (it could be 70, don't remember) that increases healing recieved for the target you place it on but as of right now you have all the support abilities you get at 50. At 80 Army's Paeon gets a buff that does one of two things depending on how you use it (not entirely sure, haven't played much of Bard at 80 yet). Honestly though Bard is a hell of a lot more fun to play now (even more so then its original re-work in Stormblood) and I'm even thinking of shelving Samurai to main it going forward (I just hit 80 on Sunday and I'm having so much fun playing Bard).

Heavensward was probably the best the story ever was until Shadowbringers came out and has one of the saddest moments in the game for me. Dark Knight's story is probably the best out of all the jobs I've done so far and I hear the level 80 job quests story is fucking stellar (the main reason I'm now leveling Dark Knight to 80 instead of Monk).

You got more then a few loose ends to clear up before Heavensward like killing 3 more primals and going through the actual finale of ARR (which is pretty fucking dark). I highly suggest you do the Crystal Tower series of quests if you haven't done so yet. Great story and raids and the story ties in with Shadowbringers and will answer a lot of questions you might have when you get that far.

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

I finished out the first part of A Relic Reborn. A friend told me it was tedious and I might would want to wait til I get to other expacs since there is a weapon every expac. Eh I need better IL stuff. I spent a lot of GIL on some 110-125 armor, but I'm not about to drop a half a mil on a weapon so I'll do that the ole fashioned way. The quest itself wasn't that bad... a lot of duty finder waiting for hard dungeons. Other than that it was mildly tame compared to GW2's absurd collections. At least so far, I see I can keep going with it somehow. The weapon itself is pretty ugly to me compared to some of the amazing bows I see people running around with.  

True traditional Bard stuff with the whole harp thing. EDIT: Yeah I'm pretty much always going to take screen shots in this damn inn. Everytime I want to screen shot it's night which lasts forever when I want to do something in the day.

[Strider Hiryu 2,704]

I mean you could get an IL 130 Bow for Poetics if you grind them (I think all together it costs 600 for the tokens, tomestone, and carbontwine to upgrade it) plus you can also get a whole set of IL 130 armor doing the same thing (plus IL 130 will last you to lvl 55 and you can start getting new gear from dungeons then or use the MS quest reward armor around then). Not entirely sure what roulette's will give you Poetics though since it's been a long time since I've run shit that low (but I believe 50/60/70 roulette (if you have access to it), MSQ roulette (easy 300 poetics if you can put up with the cutscenes), and Alliance roulette should if their available to you (though you will have to unlock all the level 50 dungeons and actually have access to all the Crystal Tower raids (Labyrinth, Syrcus, and World of Darkness))).

Yea the Relic weapon for ARR is a grind and a half. I'm still not done with it on my Ninja (I have two steps left but I have no want to grind the low level dungeons for the mats and spend the gil for everything else (but I still want it since it's one of the better looking Ninja weapons (if only Ninja wasn't trash in Shadowbringers >.<)). I've also done all the relic weapons up to their Zenith step (next step for you, only one I'm missing is Black Mage because that's still level 30 since I hate dps caster's in this game (though I have to level it to 80 if I want my Amaro mount)). The Heavensward weapons isn't too bad to get but it's another grind (I know because I've done it twice, once before it was nerfed (cost over 5 million gil to do just one step) and once after it was done (the Bard one is by far one of the best looking weapons in Heavensward (with Dragoon's and Paladin's)). For reference I have the NInja one (which there are screenshots up here for) and the Bard one (which I completed a few months before Shadowbringers launched)). I wouldn't bother doing the Stormblood weapon when you get that far unless you want to spend countless hours farming an unforgiving set of content that has yet to be nerfed yet (I gave up after one three hour session in Eureka, wasn't worth it imo)).

Heh, I either take screenshots in one of the inns (last three were in the Crystarium's Inn) or outside my apartment in Shirogane. That's mostly due to the congestion is most of the places I log out at (my server is still full and I'm getting sick of the queue times) and I don't like having others in my screenshots.

Edited August 10, 2019 by Strider Hiryu

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

*splits topic out of GW2 thread*

I still haven't made it to heavensward yet, and my next job quests are in the city I can't access until I get to it. I've run several dungeons on hard for various quests. The Odin fight was my favorite of all of those. Diabolos was the most frustrating. My first run, my power flickered when Diabs only had 10% HP left, so running it again I had some guy just opening random doors causing us to wipe 4-5 times. The mechanics are cool until someone does that. I unlocked the Crystal Tower, and now I'm just running food around for refugees. I'm just trying to get through this main sequence hoping it leads to where I need to go. I'll save the raid for later. 

[Strider Hiryu 2,704]

The last quest you need to do is "Before the Dawn" and after that it's Heavensward content (if you've done Keeper of the Lake (dungeon) you're on the home stretch, you'll have one more Trial to do and quite a few MSQ's to do but it's all pretty quick (unless you're into the story and reading everything). Then you get to enjoy the high point in the story for many before Shadowbringers).

God it's been so long I don't even know what Dungeon you're talking about (I'm assuming it's Lost City of Amdapor (Normal since you shouldn't have access to Hard yet)). Fuck I got Snowcloak the other day in 50/60/70 Roulette and I was completely lost on what to do for the second boss (it's been like 3 years since I last ran it). I never did Odin when he was relevant (I've done the fate countless times, that's a blast) but I recently solo'd him and damn near failed it with my fully gear Paladin (1 second more and I'd of wiped).

Just wait until later dungeons, the mechanics get pretty crazy (I wanna meet the guy who designed the Shadowbringers dungeons and kick him in the nuts, that motherfucker has a serious hard on for melee range aoe's and it fucking sucks when you play a Samurai. Over half of the fights I'm standing in a corner because I can't do shit) The highlight for me, mechanics wise, is Extreme mode Titania. That's a blast, frustrating but so much fun.

Crystal Tower is a quick knock out honestly. Most runs I get through them are no more than 20 minutes (people are so overpowered everything just melts) it's just the quests to unlock each section that take the longest now (and you didn't even have to do the original attunement). With you being this close to clearing ARR completely though I don't blame you for waiting.

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

Yes it was Lost City of Amdapor because I accidentally did it when I was suppose to do Amdapor Keep. the mechanics were cool until it wasn't. We kept trying to explain to the guy not to open doors at random. Ugh. I just beat "Leviabeetus" last I played. i read the main quest texts but i stopped reading most of the side quests text not too long ago because I just want to get it over with at this point. Moving back and forth between the same two locations on a map just to give me something to do on some of these quests is sorta asinine. I feel like the ARR story has ran its course and I'm just doing busy work with this Doma refugee thing.

[Strider Hiryu 2,704]

Yea but the Doman Refugee's actually play a pretty big role in the story later down the road so helping them now is a good thing (the story for them comes full circle in Stormblood and gets you brownie points with the second coolest Samurai (after Gosetsu, one of my favorite characters in the entirety of FFXIV (he only takes second to best girl Y'shtola and the man, the myth, the legend known as Haurchefant (hey the man grows on you, I initially found him annoying but his character really grows in Heavensward)).

Ah so you're closing in on Shiva then so you got a little ways to go yet but things move pretty quickly from here on out. I can't wait until New Game+ is added in 5.1, really wanna go back and relive some of those earlier main story quests.

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

I defeated the Slyph primal, helped create the Crystal Braves and now I'm looking for the spy within the Flames, after half ass hunting the heretic in Snowblinds.

On a side note the jumping puzzle thing in the current festival was hilariously easy. Coming from GW2 and its savagely brutal JPs, even its easiest one is much harder, and its festival ones are the most insane. But I'm not complaining I hate JPs with a passion and was pleased not having to go through that frustration.

Fuck this halloween JP

 

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

I marathoned most the day through the grueling redundant quests. Holy cow I was starting to get disheartened with the roller coaster of awesome and then redundant. Fight a big ass dragon on a bridge... cool this has to be the end right? Nah escort this scholar and help Tataru find some pearls... lets go in and out and in and out and in and out of Rising Stones. I saw where they plan on condensing the story some.. they really need to just get rid of all the unnecessary foot travel after you initially defeat the Ultima Weapon and Lahabawhatever. all these 4800xp quests are meh at best. Keeper of the Lake was amazing. Favorite dungeon so far.

I'm finally at the Before the Dawn. I had to stop before that because god damn pal, The good 40 minutes of cut scenes was a lot to take in... and now there is another warning for a long cutscene set. Though I just bitched about all those shitty quests, the pay off was crazy. I was just thinking about how GoT-sey this game was. Ishgard/Coerthas  is so Winterfell, Ul'dah is Casterly Rock, and Lima is Kings Landing kinda with the doucheyness residing in Ul'dah. I guess Gridania can be High Garden. As I was thinking that they had to go full Red Wedding on me at the banquet. I honestly hated Coerthas and everyone in it my initial run becasue everyone was rude as fuck with the whole fake bishop thing. But yeah I'm warming up to Haurchefant. Before all that madness though Press F to pay respects to Moenbryda's equivalent exchange moment, I'm still catching all these references. Midgardsormr better start backing me up since he took me damn blessing too.  I look forward to a long session when I wake back up.

[Strider Hiryu 2,704]

Oh you and old papa Midgardsormr become fast friends throughout Heavensward (fuck you get him as a mount and no it's not big badass mode, I'm sure you've seen someone riding him around) and Stormblood.

Meh, I still think all you nubs need to suffer through ARR but considering I am leveling an alt character I'm happy to hear they're condensing the story because the whole 2.1 - 2.55 slog sucks ass (I'm guessing they're going to get rid of the majority of the useless inbetween quests and just condense the story elements from those into others because honestly there is quite a few things they can't cut out). Then again though I actually play this for the story so the running errands and what not didn't bug me that much since it adds to the story as a whole. It's Lahabrea by the way, the worst of the three major Ascians (and I'm so glad we're done with him but I won't reveal what happens, you'll have to learn that on your own).

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

 

[Strider Hiryu 2,704]

Oh my body is ready (and I'm way over ilvl for the 24 man but it looks like it's going to be fun) and I've slowly started progressing through Automata today and will hopefully have it beaten by the end of the week (on vacation so I should have plenty of time). I just fucking hope we're getting armor sets based off 2B (could care less about the male equivalents since I play a female), Yoshi-P heavily hinted at we'd be getting everything we wanted armor set wise during the live letter Friday morning (hell they wouldn't even show us what it looked like). Also hope they throw us poor Samurai's a bone and give us the Virtuous Contract for glamour purposes (hey, we're the only physical dps in a very bad spot atm and the changes coming with 5.1 don't look like they're going to make us any better. Hell I'd even take a Virtuous Treaty for my Dark Knight).