A Little Poker

First off we are going to start with a bit of a retraction. I am not sure if it was me, or a situation of circumstances or the difference between two dungeons. Yesterday I said that Main Scenario Roulette was a great way to jump across the gaps in Final Fantasy XIV. Yesterday we also had a patch, 5.01 with some tweaks applied. Yesterday I said that Main Scenario Roulette should be worth a full level, and that had been my own experience when I took my Bard from barely into 70 all the way to 71 in a single run. However last night… it was not my experience.

There are some variables at work that might account for it. Firstly I have been getting Praetorium a lot more than Castrum Meridianum of late which is a longer and more major boss laden dungeon. All of my “oops a full level” experiences that I recall were with Praetorium and last night I drew Castrum from the hat. The end result is that my fresh level 60 Dragoon only managed to get just shy of a half level. Still worth the time, especially considering that Castrum is a way faster run than Praetorium… however I was really hoping for that full level so I could start Heaven on High. I will of course be running it again tonight and will report back the results if I manage to pull Praetorium.

The big thing that went in with the patch was Eden in a new location called The Empty, which I went through the motions of unlocking last night. This is supposedly the Alexander/Omega style raid made of up four parts. I had a fairly shitty day yesterday and didn’t really feel like I had raiding in me, and as such I lost out on running with the rest of the Free Company. I will likely pug this either tonight or later this weekend to gather up at least one piece of gear for the week.

I have no earthly idea where the above image came from, so apologies for the lack of attribution. However it seems as though Eden has a fixed drop pattern which is a huge improvement over a specific boss being able to drop a handful of things but a random assortment each time. Next it seems like Eden is way more generous with 8 fixed drops each time you run a given floor. For reference you need the following pieces to turn in for a finished piece of gear.

• Helm – 2 Items
• Chest – 4 Items
• Gloves – 2 items
• Belt – 1 item
• Legs – 4 items
• Boots – 2 items
• Accessories – 1 Item each

What is interesting about this system is that never before could you get your chest piece or your legs in a single week. However with this… that is absolutely doable pending you keep holding your roll for a specific floor and only spending it on a specific slot. This could get super grindy, but would allow you to have more specific control over which items you are getting rather than hoping on random chance to complete something.

I mostly spent the night screwing around on the Bard again, and even if Main Scenario potentially got nerfed… it is still an excellent source of poetics. You get 600 of them in a single go from completing the duty, which I have been using to kit out the Bard in gear… which in its upgraded form lasts quite a ways into the Shadowbringers content. I am one run away from getting my Trust their first level up, which still seems like a nonsense amount of time needed to level them. I feel like it is worth my time considering the vast stable of alts that I would like to push up so I can piddle with them as well.

On the Blaugust front we are up to 20 sign ups and I know of a handful more people who intend to but have not actually filled out the form. One thing I thought I would address is that the form collects your email address, not because I intend to use it for nefarious purposes but I have had situations in the past where I needed to reach out to a participant about something but had no stable means of doing so. We’ve had scenarios where companies have ponied up prizes to be distributed, which is not necessarily something I have actively courted… but just in case it happens again I feel like I need a reliable method of communication.

The list of participants is currently looking like this:

• Aywren – Aywren Sojourner – Mentor
• Belghast – Tales of the Aggronaut – Mentor
• Bhagpuss – Inventory Full – Mentor
• Izlain – Me vs. Myself and I – Mentor
• Paeroka – Nerdy Bookahs – Mentor
• Roger Edwards – Contains Moderate Peril – Mentor
• Stargrace – NomadicGamersEh – Mentor
• Syp – Bio Break – Mentor
• Wilhelm Arcturus – The Ancient Gaming Noob – Mentor
• Kaylriene – Kaylriene – Newbie
• Quin – Where The Monsters Are – Newbie
• AvvaN – TechJoy2Day – Participant
• Dan/Magimos/Magi – My Indiecator – Participant
• Jen – Book of Jen – Participant
• Kim and Phil – Later Levels – Participant
• Mailvaltar – Mailvaltar – MMOs and other stuff – Participant
• Naithin – Time to Loot – Participant
• Shadowz – Shadowz Abstract Gaming – Participant
• Shintar – Going Commando – A SWTOR Fan Blog – Participant
• UltrViolet – Endgame Viable – Participant

You can view the full post if you want details but for those not wanting to bounce back and forth a bunch here comes a quick summary.

• Blaugust 2019 Sign-Up Form
• Blaugust 2019 Schedule
• Blaugust Discord
• Blaugust Media Kit