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

[Lex]

Also, for anyone saying the Ironworks gear would last me a while...I could buy waayyyyy higher level gear the minute I stepped into Ishgard

That's because you're overlevelled and you can equip level 53/ 56 gear

Have a look at the stats - level 53 Heavensward gear isn't as good as the ilevel 130 Ironworks gear (though the level 56 gear might be just slightly better).

 

[Kratos]

While Coil is certainly the most somber and lore important (since none of the others attempt to answer such immediate, pressing questions about such an enormous event as the Calamity), I really like most of the others. The Heavensward 8-man does some genuinely creative stuff with its big bad, and while I'm not as hot on Stormblood's, Shadowbringer's is shaping up nicely. The HW 24-man is a bit less lore-dense than the Crystal Tower but fleshes out a major period in Eorzean history that only ever really got sparse hints beforehand (the War of the Magi that caused the Calamity ending the 5th Astral Era); the SB one goes hard integrating Ivalice-of-all-forms into the world of the game; and ShB's is kind of a glorified crossover event with really fun fights.

I guess Nero got some character development and he'll probably stick around?

Nero is best girl. This is a fact.

The zones of HW and onward are... honestly some of the most photogenic views I've seen in gaming. The zone designers really tend to go for the "wow factor" instead of "high fidelity realism" when it comes to designing landscapes and it pays off. I really look forward to seeing your reactions to some of the places we go in Heavensward.

Heavensward has some INCREDIBLE vistas (the Sea of Clouds is one of my favourite zones in the game), but...

Spoiler: Grumblings on Future Visual Design

...I personally find the stuff afterwards a lot less photogenic than ARR and would absolutely take smaller zones with more stuff than some of the more barren approaches of Stormblood (it usually works to the advantage of Shadowbringers). Or at least more proper settlements like the stuff you can find around La Noscea versus the bare-bones JRPG towns you see later.

 

[ForceStealer]

Spoiler: Grumblings on Future Visual Design

...I personally find the stuff afterwards a lot less photogenic than ARR and would absolutely take smaller zones with more stuff than some of the more barren approaches of Stormblood (it usually works to the advantage of Shadowbringers). Or at least more proper settlements like the stuff you can find around La Noscea versus the bare-bones JRPG towns you see later.

Spoiler

I rather like all the areas in the Far East in Stormblood. Ala Mhigo sucks though.

 

[Kratos]

Spoiler

I rather like all the areas in the Far East in Stormblood. Ala Mhigo sucks though.

Spoiler

Just further reinforces how much more energy that expansion put into the Othard half - a decision that I still think was the wrong one!

Overall, though, I think they about equal out to me, at least in terms of realizing what they're going for - Ala Mhigo is supposed to be a pretty harsh landscape, after all, and in fairness, I do like the Lochs a lot, the zones at least differentiate themselves, and the music is absolutely incredible. Its concept does make for less visual dynamism than Othard though (I'm very partial to Yanxia), so I'm not surprised that most people prefer the latter overall.

 

[Wol]

I guess Othard offered the better opportunity to go creative since we previously knew very little about the continent and because its far from Eorzea.

About raids, HWs has the best songs in my opinion, the entire raid is "fun made it epic".

 

[Obsidian Fire]

Gyr Abania is paying for 1.0 lore decisions. Which was that Gyr Abania was a desert wasteland without a lot of natural resources to support itself, so it depended on mercenary work. And that was before the Garleans took it over and made the situation even worse! So it's a few varriatons of... rocky desert land that isn't good for agriculture.

Othard was never really thought about in 1.0, so they could be a lot more creative when coming up with how it looked and what it's backstory was. Which leads to a lot more interesting zones overall.

 

[Lex]

Gyr Abania is paying for 1.0 lore decisions. Which was that Gyr Abania was a desert wasteland without a lot of natural resources to support itself, so it depended on mercenary work. And that was before the Garleans took it over and made the situation even worse! So it's a few varriatons of... rocky desert land that isn't good for agriculture.

I don't want to continue to derail Tets's personal XIV journey thread, but I will say that while this may be true, there was no reason for them to triple down on it. One desert wasteland is enough (we already had five Thanalans after all). At least they tried to make the topography interesting.

 

[Tetsujin]

I actually took a break from this for about 4 or 5 days last week so not much progress.

I recently rescued Raubahn whose 2.0 voice actor I recently learned is actually the dude who sings Rules of Nature from Metal Gear Rising and apparently also the Shadowbringers theme though I have not heard that one yet obviously
Anyway, I liked how the rescue mission was essentially a mini single-player instanced dungeon complete with Alphinaud and Yugiri as AI party. And speaking of solo dungeons, I unlocked command missions for my Maelstrom squad so I can play old dungeons with AI party members now as well. I didn't know that was a thing either (though I have heard of Trusts in ShB).

Meanwhile I've been leveling Dragoon a bit more for that Estinien backstory.

Just did a dungeon and there was some decent loot for me at the end so I rolled Need but there was another Dragoon and they just...stood there? And didn't roll? And didn't leave? So I didn't leave the dungeon either because I assume that means abandoning the loot? So we just stood there for five minutes in silence awkwardly. In the end they did roll and got the item and they called me a troll.

Wait. I was the troll? I thought they were the troll? Were we both trolls? Did we fall down the rabbit troll?

 

[Lex]

So we just stood there for five minutes in silence awkwardly. In the end they did roll and got the item and they called me a troll.

Unless they were talking to you and you were ignoring them, they clearly wanted the loot so they were waiting for you to leave so they could be guaranteed to get it. That or you forgot to roll on one of the other items?

A lot of new players forget to look at party chat and it's easy to take things the wrong way in that aspect. Sometimes when people load into dungeons they'll ask for specific loot (i.e. if they're doing a dungeon just for glamour drops), you might see them say something like "hi all, can I have the dragoon body piece if it drops at the end?" - so I could see someone thinking you're trolling if say the other two had agreed to that and then you just stood there, not rolling on it or something. IDK. Was he asking you to roll at the end? Did you roll on everything right away? Bear in mind even if they asked for a specific piece they're not entitled to it, and you are free to say "I want it too" without repercussions. The community as a whole in this game is nice/ understanding in that aspect, for the most part.

The other option is that they're just an asshole

But it is easy to overlook stuff being said in party chat and best policy is to roll on items (whatever option you want) fairly soon. Then you know it's someone else holding it up. I've forgotten to do it myself before though.

 

[Tetsujin]

Nah, nothing was said in party chat at all outside of "hi"
I have sound notifications on for that specifically so I don't miss when someone says something. I also roll on everything immediately and double-checked I did it here too because I thought it was odd nothing was happening
They however, did not roll until the end. Idk, it was awkward.

 

[ForceStealer]

Sounds like they were the troll

I've been advancing my Cerberus character through the HW story so I that I'll have stuff unlocked to run with you it's also been nostalgic for me

 

[Wol]

Nah, nothing was said in party chat at all outside of "hi"
I have sound notifications on for that specifically so I don't miss when someone says something. I also roll on everything immediately and double-checked I did it here too because I thought it was odd nothing was happening
They however, did not roll until the end. Idk, it was awkward.

This happens a lot on 24-man raids, its so annoying I did it all the time.

Dem cards and minions bro, so cool

 

[ForceStealer]

When someone does that it makes me want to hang around to the end even if I don't want the loot, just on principle

 

[Tetsujin]

There's a new Azure Dragoon in town, biatch



The ending of that lvl 50 job quest was a bit odd though. Estinien gets enthralled by the dragons or something and I beat the crap out of him and then he just vanishes.
So then...he just reappears in the MSQ like nothing much happened and we're all cool again? I rewatched his introductory MSQ cutscene at the inn and only a few lines changed where he just says "yeah don't worry, no fighting this time lol" and that's it, heh.

Speaking of MSQ, there has been zero progress, I'm still at lvl 51 quests. Also, aether currents. Apparently I need to do an optional dungeon to get one of them. This is more involved than I thought it would be.

 

[ForceStealer]

Apparently I need to do an optional dungeon to get one of them. This is more involved than I thought it would be.

That's not usual, at least. Though there are always 4 currents from optional quests in each area.

I spent much of the weekend speeding through HW and unlocking aether currents everywhere so far. I was more efficient at that than I feared. But it's been very enjoyable revisiting the details of this plot

 

[Tetsujin]

I'm a little annoyed that the female dragoon armor has to include a "sexy" belly window.
The female ninja set had a similar issue. Idk, "sexy armor" looks almost always universally stupid to me. Either go sexy or go armor. Don't do both.

Also, has anyone done that Yo-kai quest yet? I got the watch and everything but still haven't bothered with collecting anything from the Fates (or however it works).

Anyway now that my Dragoon is up to lvl 52 I decided to continue the story a bit. I think I still prefer NIN but DRG seems more appropriate for the story right now.
Also, I got all the aether currents for that Coerthas area, yay. I find it a bit annoying to navigate on foot.

So I get to the Chocobo forest and think to myself "YAY, CUTE CHOCOBORBS".
Then I see the Chocobos are enemies. What, are you gonna make me fight adorable moogles next OH WAIT you already did that. Fuck you, game

Then, while doing a random GATE at 5am at the Gold Saucer, someone else who participated sent me a Tell. Turns out it's Flare. It's a small world!

Also, I recently witnessed a bit of a fight during a dungeon. There was a sprout tank who apparently got a bit miffed that the other dps pulled aggro before them or something. Told the healer not to heal them anymore (healer just reacted confused, lol). Idk, they were kind of passive aggressive about it before they finally said what bothered them. Why not just politely let the dps know what the problem is straight up instead of that slowly escalating mickey mouse bullshit, come on now

All in all pretty mild but you XIV veterans have probably seen your fair share of fighting or other shenanigans during dungeons. LET ME KNOW IN THE COMMENTS, LIKE SHARE AND SUBSNIRB but seriously, tell me your stories

 

[ForceStealer]

I'm a little annoyed that the female dragoon armor has to include a "sexy" belly window.

It's the worst. XIV is, by and large, really good about the armor being equal-opportunity cool and/or sexy. And the L50 dragoon armor is this glaring exception for some reason. It's weird because it's not like they're trying to go extreme sexy with tits and legs and stuff, but also...why is there a gap in the armor over all your most important bits? lol. The L60 DRG armor is a big improvement Which I just got Amalek to the other day. So I guess now if we run anything we'll be double-dragooning it.

I haven't had any fights so extreme that I remember specifics, but yeah in dungeons it usually involves a snippy tank upset that they died or a healer berating a tank for being in the wrong stance instead of just politely letting them know.
The amusing ones are in the 24-man raids when for some reason there just starts being this huge inter-alliance fight because someone is a dick and then it turns into this dogpile which drags in other people to tell everyone to calm down and it goes from there while I just quietly tap out my rotation. Then we wipe on a fight and people start being like IF PEOPLE WOULD STOP FIGHTING AND START PAYING ATTENTION and so on and so on

 

[Wol]

The drama in 24-raids is just tasty, I miss it...

 

[Tetsujin]

So next up I'll enter the Aery.

Having done some research I know this is where you can get the lesser red panda minion.

I need it. (I know I could buy it from the market board, but I'm not made of gil dammit!)

I don't know which chest to find it in or whether it's hidden or whatever...but I need that red panda. >:3
Also, I make it a point to pet every red panda I come across in this game. xD

 

[Wol]

So next up I'll enter the Aery.

Having done some research I know this is where you can get the lesser red panda minion.

I need it. (I know I could buy it from the market board, but I'm not made of gil dammit!)

I don't know which chest to find it in or whether it's hidden or whatever...but I need that red panda. >:3
Also, I make it a point to pet every red panda I come across in this game. xD

random drop at the end, probably.

 

[Tetsujin]

Apparently, as it was nowhere to be seen.

My avatar now represents my current mood

 

[Lex]

The dungeon minions from earlier content tend to be fairly cheap Tets, have you checked the market board?

Alternatively just wait til you get to 80 then you can solo the dungeon a few times unsynced until it drops and you'll be guaranteed the loot

 

[Tetsujin]

I have checked the market board but didn't wanna spend the money because I might need it for...something
This is just me being stingy with money anywhere resulting from poverty irl

Also: I only now seem to realize that attacks that are not on that 2.5 second timer seem to not interrupt your combo bonus? Like, I kinda thought that was the case for the buffs but somehow I thought any attack would interrupt a combo but apparently that is not the case? So, say, I could slot a Dragoon's Jump inbetween any of my standard combo attack thingies?

 

[ForceStealer]

Correct

 

[Tetsujin]

Well goddamn I've been playing the game wrong then