MMORPG

I appear to be officially back in the swing of things with Final Fantasy XIV. I spent my weekend doing all sorts of activities and essentially finding joy in all of them. The challenge that I have always struggled with is finding something that I wanted to be doing that was not the main story quest. Once the MSQ finished I would languish a bit and struggle to find purpose, and ultimately log out frustrated. However I am not sure what changed but I am finding a lot of things absolutely charming once again, much like I did when playing A Realm Reborn. While this started with a grind to get the bookrocks for various mounts, it has ultimately unlocked my desire to just hang out and play various classes.

I finished the grind I believe on Saturday and completed getting what was ultimately the 210 Irregular Tomestones of Law needed for the 5 mounts I was lacking. The weird thing is… I have continued to periodically play Hidden Gorge since then. It turns out I actually sorta enjoy PVP in Final Fantasy XIV, which is a shocking revelation coming from someone who is generally speaking completely anti-PVP in all games. Even when things go horribly wrong, like the above screenshot where I happened to go down a lane where 2 Brute Justice, 2 Oppressors and 2 Cruisers were all pushing at the same time… I find the entire experience to be enjoyable. I know no matter what I only have twenty minutes of time investment and I will wind up with something at the end that makes that investment worthwhile.

I think of the mounts available my favorite is probably the Demonic Lanner which originally drops from Zurvan, or you could turn in 99 of the weapon tokens to get it the long way. Will this get me to stop riding the motor bike? Not likely. However I do really enjoy having it without having to grind my face off to get it. I am wishing I had participated in this event during other expansions, because I am sure I probably would have ultimately enjoyed myself. Mounts are a strong draw for me even though I ultimately keep using the same handful, which is absolutely true for other games like World of Warcraft as well. I seem to standardize on a couple of specific mounts that I like the best and then only summon the other ones on occasion for fun.

The other thing that I started working on this weekend is mining, and I have to say it finally feels enjoyable again. I am not exactly sure when various tweaks went into the game, but previously I had dropped off during the transition to Heavensward. Whatever the case it feels like I will be able to level my way in the various gathering professions in no time. I should probably go ahead and pick up fishing and push that up while I am doing Mining and Botany since I think for a lot of the time they ultimately wear all of the same gear. Bank space is absolutely a problem, so I need to get that under control before I tackle a crafting push.

I’m getting to the point where I am actually juggling several games. I will probably talk more about that on another day but right now I am spending a little time in World of Warcraft, and even poked my head into Guild Wars 2 on Saturday. Then when I finally settle in for the night it seems to be Final Fantasy XIV that I am tucking in with. I know tomorrow I will be spending an excessive amount of time getting caught up with Phantasy Star Online 2 which adds a fourth game to this list. I am having fun and I am also somewhat pulling out of Turtle Mode for once, and hanging out on voice chat. I maybe want to start trying some group content again. It was an enjoyable extended weekend… until about 9 pm last night, but that is a tale for another time.

I appear to have fallen into a new normal with Final Fantasy XIV. Last night I logged in, ran a Praetorium with Grace and then spent the rest of the night running Hidden Gorge. I finally feel like I understand the general mechanics of that battleground. I realize that probably isn’t what they are actually called in Final Fantasy XIV, but battleground is a portable mechanic and something that most folks understand. Essentially as far as I can tell there are a bunch of mechanics you need to pay attention to, which is ultimately the sign of a good game mode. There is no one single objective but several other things that you really should be paying attention to rather than just pushing forward with all of your might.

At a high level it is in fact about destroying the opposing teams towers which drops the shield around their main tower and then taking it out. However there is a side mechanic surrounding collecting ceruleum in the center of the map, which is used to allow each side to spawn war machines that can be used to push the north or south lane more effectively. Every so often a train will spawn and rush to the depot in the center of the map. Whoever hold this platform captures the supplies which will either give your team a buff, or cause one of a handful of things to happen which are generally positive for your team. There are also Goblin Mercenaries that you can recruit to fight for your team, meaning there are a bunch of different ways you can help your team be more efficient, but at the end of the day it is still about knocking down three towers and winning the match.

All in all it is a fairly relaxing way to farm a bunch of the Irregular Tomestones of Law needed to get goodies from the event. There is also a really nifty sky mech mount available for 20,000 Wolf Marks so it has the side effect of me also slowly working on that number since I have picked up the armor set that I really wanted some time ago. The matches last a maximum of 20 minutes, and can go considerably faster if one side steamrolls the other side. What I like about it however is that it is predictable and like clockwork I am gaining another 50 poetics, 500 or 1000 wolf marks depending on win condition, and 5 Irregular Tomestones. There are however a handful of players that apparently really care about this mode, and I feel bad for us damned dirty casuals ruining their fun. However for the most part it is super chill, just make sure you go to the Wolves Den to set your PVP Bars before going in the first time.

As far as the spoils of the event go, I have already picked up two mounts. The first of which was the horse that drops from Shiva. I could of course farm this, but it is way easier to just spent 30 tokens and pick it up. From this same mount series the Ifrit mount is also available, and I hope to grab it as well.

Of the expensive mounts I went for the “Dark Amaterasu” mount, which should make Ash happy. Essentially I have now farmed up 80 tokens and decided to split it for a cheap 30 token mount and an expensive 50 token mount. There are several more that I want to get, but I mostly focused the two I wanted the most. I admit the Shiva mount is entirely for the music that plays in the background while you ride it.

Last night I spent the majority of my evening hanging out with Grace and Mor in Final Fantasy XIV. First I have to give a massive shout out to Thalen who crafted a full set of Samurai gear and had it waiting on me in the mailbox by the time I logged in for the evening. Other than the fact that he is just an amazing human being, I think he was wanting to quell any possible excuse I had for not playing. In the past I have talked about hitting walls where I just don’t have the gear level to be able to complete the next story dungeon. In one quick motion, Thalen wiped all of these excuses off the table.

In part I came back specifically last night because there is an event happening that I have missed out on the last two times it has been in place. Essentially Yoshi-P and crew are exceptionally good at bribing people to do content that might be less than popular. Essentially you are rewarded for running less popular Dungeons, Raids and PVP Activities with special tomestones that you can then turn in for a number of cosmetic or non-game-play impacting items. These include some pretty rare chase mounts and as a result it seems way easier to grind out some bookrocks rather than hoping and praying for a drop to happen. I started the evening with Grace and I running Praetorium for xp and the 10 Irregular Tomestones of Law that you get for completing it.

From there at the suggestion of Mor I wound up trying out some PVP in the form of the Hidden Gorge map. This is effectively Summoners Rift or whatever it is called in your MOBA of choice, as you protect minions as they attack towers. If you take out two towers you can effectively assault the “Nexus” and win the match. The match itself is constrained to twenty minutes and you will be rewarded 5 special bookrocks and 50 poetics per completion as well as 500 wolf marks for a lose and 1000 for a win. So it seems like a pretty chill way to sit back and get your event currency while also racking up marks that you can spend on some of the sweet PVP cosmetic sets.

I can’t say that I actually did a great job, but I did manage to effectively hold my own. This is probably where I am going to be living for the next bit because it also seems to be a reasonable way of leveling alternate jobs. I spent the majority of the evening working on my Bard and managed to get it to 73 before the evening was over. Between running a Praetorium and a bunch of Hidden Gorge matches, I should be able to rack up some of those mounts in relative short order. Does this mean I finally have traction in Final Fantasy XIV again? Quite possibly… but I still have yet to finish up the main story quest which I will likely be doing in between PVP matches.