Good Morning Folks! I am not sure why I used an exclamation point other than habit, but it isn’t that I have terribly exciting news to talk about. I spent a good chunk of the weekend playing some Final Fantasy XIV and along with a lot of roulettes and trials with my friend Ace, I also spent a bit of time unlocking the Endwalker Alliance Raid. I have these memories of playing Final Fantasy XIV super seriously… but they all stem back from ARR and Heavensward. I am realizing from Stormblood onwards I have very much been in a holding pattern of doing the expansion content and then disappearing until the next expansion release. I would love to figure out a way to more “sustainably” play Final Fantasy XIV in the future where I level up and do content as it is released rather than in one big burst at the end.
I gotta say though, what I have seen of it so far… I am really digging the Alliance Raid. Heavensward, Stormblood, and honestly Shadowbringers all had annoying Alliance Raids. This one however seems super chill and along the lines of the original Crystal Tower series before it was watered down massively. Alliance Raids SHOULD be chill experiences… it is the World of Warcraft LFR equivalent. Mathbot can die in a fire because no matter how many times I run it, I cannot seem to grok what the fuck I am supposed to be doing during that encounter. Dun Scaith… is a nightmare and starts with the hardest boss up front and center and then gets gradually easier after that. I’ve only done the first part of the Endwalker 24-player raid, but so far I am digging it a lot.
I’ve leveled the Gunbreaker to 87 at this point and there should be no possible way that I do not hit 90 before the expansion drops. This means I should be able to continue cleanout out tank gear that I do not want for cosmetic purposes. All in all, Gunbreaker is still “fine” and feels more dpsy than the other tanks. When it comes to a tank I really care about two things… how easy it is to generate threat quickly and how many survival tools I have on my toolbelt. Nothing really beats the Warrior, especially in that second column so as such that is the tank I tend to gravitate towards constantly. It was fun taking an expansion and playing a lot of Paladin, but I will be happy to get back to smashing things with an axe when Dawntrail drops.
For those curious… I did actually finish doing my class quests on the Gunbreaker. It took Solaria logging in Sunday morning and throwing shade at me to actually get off my butt and do it. The weird thing is I already had continuation on my hot bars. However at this point I am a “real” Gunbreaker and the combo options it opens up are nice, but also… don’t explicitly fit into either of the columns that I really care about for tanking. If it had given me another off-global cooldown heal… I would have picked it up sooner. I figure though if “Guild Mom” is willing to give me shit about it, then I probably should take care of business. Truth be told… once I ding 90 I likely will never play Gunbreaker again until I am trying to level it to 100.
In the larger column of “oh god why did you do that Bel”, I bid on another house. Truth be told there just isn’t much to spend gil on in this game and I am still bummed about losing my previous house. I found a plot that I like in Limsa again and will know in a few days whether or not I win it. I won’t be devastated if I don’t get it, and honestly, I don’t have a clue what I will actually do with it if I do win it. However, there is always that whisper in the back of my skull telling me that I need a house. I think maybe what tarnished the experience last time is that I found what I considered to be my perfect plot… aka the first Free Company house plot we ever had. The problem is… it wasn’t that house, and was mostly an empty shell that did not bring back all those memories… nor were any of the neighbors the same. I was trying to recapture a moment in time, more than build my own new moment. With that in mind, I think a house will feel more mine if it isn’t in that historic plot.
In the column of “things I remember that exist” is the Blue Mage. At some point, I really want to finish leveling this up and do more content with it. I still really dig the glam that I came up with for it. I also want to pick back up where I left off in the various Relic weapon quests and do some more of those. I think they might be my long-tailed grind in this game like trying to get Legendaries are in Guild Wars 2. It has been weird coming back this time, because on previous return trips I was still very much in that mental block mode against group content. I plan on raiding in Dawntrail and am actually looking forward to doing at least the normal mode every week. This has all reawoken something in me, and it is odd to say the least. I will probably still play ARPG seasons as they release but I think I have made my peace with MMORPGs again.
To be truthful I think Ace is feeling the same thing. There is this part of ourselves that was super vital to who we are as gamers that we both had sort of put up on a shelf. Now that I have taken it down and dusted it off… I am finding that it still mostly fits.