My First MMO: Tet's Eorzean Adventures [FFXIV]

[Tetsujin]

Unlocked three more dungeons, two optional ones (Somethingoranother of Qarn(?), Cutter's Cry) and another story thingy, Stone Vigil.

But I feel like I cba to do any of them right now

So have a few screencaps of Coerthas instead:

Spoiler

Btw that music that plays in the Ishgardian outposts and settlements and whatnot is absolutely dreadful
It's like someone just fell asleep on an organ and the loop is so short and repetitive...

 

[ForceStealer]

Yeah, if it's a fate with a lot of enemies, being a in a party is good because you'll get XP from every kill someone in the party gets, and, yes, it's nice for healers.

However, you're not going to have any problems with XP, so that's not really a concern.

And yeah I've never liked that Coerthas settlement music either...

 

[Theozilla]

Huh, I love organ music, so Coerthas music was always up my alley.

 

[Tetsujin]

Geez, I already have a playtime of 80+ hours. I should probably make an effort to finish this before next weekend. I don't know how much I have left but as I'm over lvl 40 now it shouldn't be much more. Admittedly though, I'm not that motivated. My emotional investment in the story is at very mild levels.

 

[Tetsujin]

Cutter's Cry is done. Seems like everyone except the healer was a newbie. The tank seemed a bit hesitant in leading the way but they did alright in the end. Everyone always leaves the dungeon so quickly after beating the boss before I can give anyone a commendation though. LET ME THANK YOU PLS

 

[Cthulhu]

I hate myself for saying this, but honestly the 2.0 story / game is... a bit meh. Dungeons get better late in that segment of the game, but even betterer in the expansions, because they could actually spend more time polishing it and focusing on just one segment instead of the whole h*cking thing.

 

[ForceStealer]

The final mission of 2.0 is very much an "oh, shit" moment after which the story gets its momentum that pretty much carries through to the current stuff

 

[Wol]

I was so invested in the world and lore sprinkled in every small location + actually learning to play a MMO, that honestly the mostly uneventful 2.0 story didn't bother me much.

I mean, the process of getting your first relic is epic, back then Titan Hard was iconic, so many wipes and failed parties, this constant wave of challenges was part of the narrative for me.

The final quests made me a believer on the story's potential going forward, and 3.0 and 4.0 delivered. A shame 5.0 is out of my reach for now, many say its the best expansion yet.

 

[Obsidian Fire]

2.0 very much feels like a set-up for the rest of the FFXIV story. So it has to do... a lot of worldbuilding to introduce concept, places, NPCs, etc. that the other expansions just don't have to do. However, the other expansions wouldn't work as well as they do if 2.0 hadn't spent so much time doing good solid world-building.

I was actually thinking of how FFXIV 2.0 is a lot like the FF7 Remake in it's relationship to the rest of the story... with the Praetorium being like Ch. 18 of Remake. They both have to set the steaks and basic world-building before they can go all crazy in the world they've made in the next expansion/game. It's just that Remake assumes the player is more familiar with the setting to a greater extant than 2.0 does, so the Remake spends less time esstablishing how the world works.

The Remake also has a lot less world to build than 2.0 does though. The Remake has to establish that Shin-Ra has control of everywhere and why that's bad for everyone and that Sephiroth is a villain who's messing around with the heros. 2.0 has to establish... three different main city states (who mostly get along), a fourth one (that's really isolationist), the Garleans who are trying to take over everything and a bunch of esoteric stuff like Primals, Asicans and Hydalyn. It's trying to cram in more world in the game than Remake was.

 

[Tetsujin]

This game has like, a third of the amount of story and worldbuilding of Remake while being two times longer to be honest

 

[Lex]

This game has like, a third of the amount of story and worldbuilding of Remake while being two times longer to be honest

You have to remember you're not doing any of the side quests

When the game launched you pretty much had to do every bit of side content available to be levelled enough to continue with the main story (dungeons gave really shitty experience believe it or not, it wasn't worth doing them). A lot of the world building is baked into those.

 

[Obsidian Fire]

There's also three starting zones and you can only pick one of them to do. Each starting city also has like... three jobs that start in it and all of those jobs have their own story-lines... And all the areas have a crazy amount of side-quests to do

And because it's an MMO, a lot of content is "late-game" content for after the MSQ was done...

 

[Tetsujin]

You have to remember you're not doing any of the side quests

When the game launched you pretty much had to do every bit of side content available to be levelled enough to continue with the main story (dungeons gave really shitty experience believe it or not, it wasn't worth doing them). A lot of the world building is baked into those.

I actually only recently stopped doing sidequests because I got burnt out. And now I can't proceed with the main story because my level is not high enough

 

[Lex]

Just do a dungeon, the exp you get is ridiculous

 

[Kratos]

It took me a while to get properly invested in ARR when I started - a lot of it came in fits and starts. Initially, I was far more entranced by the wider world and setting; the first quests I remember grabbing my intrigue are the Coerthas ones you're at now (small wonder - they're written by Natsuko Ishikawa, the best writer on the team); then my interest pretty solidly returned to meh until about halfway through the smorgasbord of lv50 quests bridging ARR and Heavensward, when I suddenly realized I cared about the characters and story. I've had a number of friends who have gone through it since, and mileage has varied, but I don't think it's rare for new players to be mostly underwhelmed by the ARR narrative (the English voice direction doesn't help).

One thing you should consider doing when you get there: at lv49 and 50, there are a series of one boss fight Trial (Cape Westwind) and two Dungeons (Castrum Meridianum and The Praetorium). At standard level sync, the Trial is a hilariously anticlimactic zerg rush and the dungeons are notoriously cutscene-heavy faceroll nonsense.

To spice them up, I highly recommend gathering together as many like-minded friends as possible (you need 8 people for all three) and running them at the minimum item level setting. They still won't be crushingly difficult, but they'll all feel much more like proper story-climax experiences than they would if you just queued for it normally. I've done this two or three times with friends, and it's always been much improved over the default.

(if you can't get 8 people, you would have to use the Party Finder feature, but in my experience doing these dungeons at min ilvl for a newbie is enough of a novelty that grabbing a few randos actually goes pretty quickly)

 

[ForceStealer]

I was pretty well invested but I was playing from launch, so I was getting all the 2.0 stuff piecemeal. I totally understand how it's now an avalanche of stuff to push through, as opposed to when it was little breadcrumbs that you just did with each new content update

 

[Tetsujin]

But I'm not even doing any of the update stuff, this is still just the base story

 

[Tetsujin]

Alright, more summarizing what I have done so far:

Ninja quest and shit:

Ah yes, at first I only had the passion of a mokujin.

But now, I fight...

...with the passion of...

Spoiler

...a Tetsujin

I learn another mudra and with that come four new ninjutsu. I had to make myself a cheat sheet to memorize all the combinations so far.
That quest also gave me four pieces of actual Ninja-looking equipment. Except the armor which means the ninja aesthetic is still kinda half-baked and the mask doesn't really go with standard armor so it'll be equipped but it'll be set to invisible.
Also, the stats are...kind of insane?

Most of the time you'll get new equipment and it's +1 or 2. You get one that's like +7 and you'll feel like "ooh, that's a lot"
These ones all have defense and magic defense in the +25 range. Dang. My ninja master spoils me.

The main story stuff in Coerthas...was actually not too bad? I kinda like the lore here. They're all living in these dank Castlevania-ass looking castles in the snow and are at war with dragons all the time. This place is metal as fuck.

Stone Vigil dungeon went without a hitch, many dragons were slain that day and we retrieved Cid's airship.

No, there's definitely still dragons left somewhere I'm sure.

So off we go to face Garuda inside this place of swirliness.

Me when Garuda's theme starts:

So I'm assuming the story decided it's about past time to stop being kind of dull because now Ifrit and Titan enter the fray and are about to face off or something which is kind of rad

Except no, this motherfucker shows up and wipes the floor with all of them

Mother.

Fucking.

ULTIMA WEAPON

Then there's this whole bit after where we steal a Magitek armor and infiltrate one of the empire's bases to rescue our Scion friends which was neat.

Also, wtf Thancred is the Ascian Lahabrea? SON OF A BITCH. Thancred is CANCELED.

Except apparently Ascians don't have physical form and just possess people. Maybe should've led with that. Alright, Thancred uncanceled again.

So next up is a trial apparently. Except I need to level up some more. Just did a leveling roulette in the duty finder. Me: "Hope it's something I'm familiar with"
-> gets put in Aurum Vale which I literally only just unlocked fml
There were some mechanics at work in that dungeon that I picked up on wayyyy too late, like eating those Morbol fruits to get rid of those debuffs. The healer was working overtime to keep me alive. I thanked them at the end and gave them a commendation, I'm sure I made their life harder than it needed to be that day
I also got nervous during boss battles and forgot my ninjutsu combinations so I ended up doing shit I didn't wanna do...or summon a bunny on my head to complete the humiliation.
The dungeon boss also one shot killed me at the very end, again because there's debuffs I didn't get rid of or something
whoops
First time I actually KO'd in a dungeon. At least it was literally only a second before the boss died. o.o

Awkward tho

 

[Kratos]

This is it! This is the Trial that you should totally get some friends together and do at minimum item level!

Or just totally smash his face into the ground, you do you.

 

[Tetsujin]

Friends, what is that?

 

[Theozilla]

This is it! This is the Trial that you should totally get some friends together and do at minimum item level!

Or just totally smash his face into the ground, you do you.

This trial created a number of funny memes with the current state of the playerbase.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1177052772140642305

 

[Lex]

Don't feel bad about Aurum Vale, it's often a shitshow. I got landed in there for my levelling roulette yesterday with a sprout healer who had a level 30 weapon (and lower gear) and they literally just could not keep anybody alive.

It's also a meme dungeon, in that most players absolutely hate it.

 

[Tetsujin]

I also accidentally used the limit break a boss too early.
For some reason I thought this was the dungeon's final boss...even though it didn't do the typical cinematic. But then the limit break was full again during the final boss anyway so I guess I didn't waste it.
Someone else used it during that fight, I think it might've been the tank? I think it was a defensive thingy. Which is btw the first time I've seen somebody else use a limit break. So far it's generally been me whenever the boss is almost dead anyway and not using it would be a waste.

I also noticed a second limit break bar seems to appear during a dungeon final boss but so far it's never been *quite* filled before the boss is about to die anyway. I wanna see a lvl2 limit break! (if that's what this is)

EDIT:

One thing you should consider doing when you get there: at lv49 and 50, there are a series of one boss fight Trial (Cape Westwind) and two Dungeons (Castrum Meridianum and The Praetorium). At standard level sync, the Trial is a hilariously anticlimactic zerg rush and the dungeons are notoriously cutscene-heavy faceroll nonsense.

So I just did Cape Westwind and holy shit I am howling

LOOK at this shit:

FIFTY SECONDS. I am giggling like a madman looking at this still

Yeah that was incredibly anticlimactic. But at the same time it gave me a good laugh in how ridiculous that pileup is.

So anyway, that's this done and all the Grand Companies are starting their big offensive so I can go sneak in and take care of Ultima Weapon. Except hold up son, you're not level 50 yet!

So off I go to grind EXP again. This is only the second time that has happened at least. I did a decent job staying ahead with my levels for the majority of the story doing sidequests, leves, guildhests etc. Apparently the 5.3 patch is eliminating that too though and you're supposed to get to lvl 50 by just doing the MSQ?
...should've waited

Anyway, so I grind out that last level I need with a few more leves, FATEs and also beast tribe quests since I had already done the daily roulette for dungeon and guildhest earlier. So the beast tribe quest is a thing I wasn't really aware of existed until now, but I have unlocked the Sylph ones.
I finally reach level 50. Yay.

Which means it's time to end the Ninja quest line.

So I do that, and well. The story wasn't super interesting. I think I kind of still prefer my Rogues.
But! I do get my ninja chainmail finally to complete the look.

Finally...I am Shinobi.

The final quest also gives me a whopping 48,000 EXP. Which all vanish into the aether as I obviously only own the base game and the lvl cap is 50.

So uh. I guess that almost concludes the A Realm Reborn 2.0 story.
As bland as the plot has been, it has managed to generate some hype in those final hours. I am excited to kick some Ultima butt.

Castrum Meridianum is now unlocked. If any TLSers want to accompany me through the final two dungeons you're very welcome to do so.
I'll probably try and finish this later this evening.

(as anticlimactic as it might gonna be, but gathering a full party of 8 people with minimum item level and all that seems like it'd take too much time and effort to be honest )

 

[ForceStealer]

That last grind from like 47 to 50 used to suuuuuuuuuck. There's so many more options now, haha. Originally you pretty much just had like 2 sets of FATEs to do over and over and over again. Well, that or Aurum Vale, but no one wanted to do that

 

[Roger]

I also accidentally used the limit break a boss too early.
For some reason I thought this was the dungeon's final boss...even though it didn't do the typical cinematic. But then the limit break was full again during the final boss anyway so I guess I didn't waste it.
Someone else used it during that fight, I think it might've been the tank? I think it was a defensive thingy. Which is btw the first time I've seen somebody else use a limit break. So far it's generally been me whenever the boss is almost dead anyway and not using it would be a waste.

I also noticed a second limit break bar seems to appear during a dungeon final boss but so far it's never been *quite* filled before the boss is about to die anyway. I wanna see a lvl2 limit break! (if that's what this is)

EDIT:



So I just did Cape Westwind and holy shit I am howling

LOOK at this shit:

FIFTY SECONDS. I am giggling like a madman looking at this still

Yeah that was incredibly anticlimactic. But at the same time it gave me a good laugh in how ridiculous that pileup is.

So anyway, that's this done and all the Grand Companies are starting their big offensive so I can go sneak in and take care of Ultima Weapon. Except hold up son, you're not level 50 yet!

So off I go to grind EXP again. This is only the second time that has happened at least. I did a decent job staying ahead with my levels for the majority of the story doing sidequests, leves, guildhests etc. Apparently the 5.3 patch is eliminating that too though and you're supposed to get to lvl 50 by just doing the MSQ?
...should've waited

Anyway, so I grind out that last level I need with a few more leves, FATEs and also beast tribe quests since I had already done the daily roulette for dungeon and guildhest earlier. So the beast tribe quest is a thing I wasn't really aware of existed until now, but I have unlocked the Sylph ones.
I finally reach level 50. Yay.

Which means it's time to end the Ninja quest line.

So I do that, and well. The story wasn't super interesting. I think I kind of still prefer my Rogues.
But! I do get my ninja chainmail finally to complete the look.

Finally...I am Shinobi.

The final quest also gives me a whopping 48,000 EXP. Which all vanish into the aether as I obviously only own the base game and the lvl cap is 50.

So uh. I guess that almost concludes the A Realm Reborn 2.0 story.
As bland as the plot has been, it has managed to generate some hype in those final hours. I am excited to kick some Ultima butt.

Castrum Meridianum is now unlocked. If any TLSers want to accompany me through the final two dungeons you're very welcome to do so.
I'll probably try and finish this later this evening.

(as anticlimactic as it might gonna be, but gathering a full party of 8 people with minimum item level and all that seems like it'd take too much time and effort to be honest )

Sure thing, hit me up on Discord, I need to do quick grocery run after work today but I'm definitely available in the evening. Lex, Darth and Airling will probably be online too.