Bard Relic, FFXIV Pokemon!

As Vanh pointed out in the comments of my previous post, I finally got to beat Titan on Monday and got my Artemis bow for Bard!

Whee, new bow-harp! Or is it harbow?

Big thanks for all the people from SWW who came to help not just on Monday, but Tuesday as well. Also, a big congrats to everyone else who got their relics (or in some cases, additional relics) this week, including Vanh, Val, Kurai, Zurar, Lillian, A'sanya, A'eril, Blu, Kowru and more.

I'm a little sad that my Garuda's Spine bow only got about a day's worth of full use before it was replaced, but it served its purpose well in getting through the fights. Also, since this was the beginning of week 3 of me being level 50, it only took a bunch of AK runs (well, half AK runs, half mass Garuda farming. Garuda farming works out better on Mondays due to AK queues, though you end up with the side effect of collecting a full set of weapons ~.~ ) to get to 900 mythology tomes and unlocking the relic +1.

Silly glowy weapons! Only proven to cause cancer in lab qiqirn and Lalafells!

So, what's next after finishing the "relic reborn" quest? Well, defeating Titan HM unlocks what is currently the final FFXIV dungeon as of version 2.0, the Binding Coil of Bahamut. This is really a 5-part dungeon where your progress is saved between each "turn". You can only do each part of the dungeon once a week, and every Monday at 8am US Pacific time, your progress is reset and you have to start from the beginning again.

This is essentially a highly annoying lockout mechanic. You basically only get one chance to get loot from each turn once a week. You also can't re-do the dungeon once you have completed it for that week, even if you don't want loot from the dungeon. This essentially locks people into doing the dungeon in static groups. If I complete one part of the dungeon with one group, I can't go back and help a different group through the same dungeon. I suppose that it might be possible to do some tricks like leaving the duty just before defeating the bosses, but that seems like a way to get SE-banned, not to mention that the fights are fairly hard so it's unlikely that you'd even want to do this and risk wiping the group.

In any case, here are some pics from turn 1 of the Binding Coil of Bahamut that I did this week with SWW! (Warning: Minor spoilers... though I left out any screenshot that had quest dialog)

Feels very... sci-tech-fantasy!

While the quest is called "The Binding Coil of Bahamut - Turn 1", this is the intro text... This is also the only quest to show up under the "Instanced Raid" category. 237 Yalms is how far we are under the surface I believe xD 

Very straightforward area. Walk in, get a few CSs, and almost immediately you meet...

It's a giant Pokeball! Of death! (First miniboss)

It's REALLY bright in here... bring your sunglasses!

But there are some friendly people to guide you along...

... and a creepy elezen stalker ;;

There is a little exploration you can do... but really, not much at all. It's just a couple of trash mobs between boss fights.

The final boss of turn 1 is a silly looking giant snake xD

Interestingly, when you complete it, you get a simple solo "Duty Complete" animation where you simply nod as though this was just a walk in the park. I guess this is the animation for 8-person dungeons.

Like most of the earlier dungeons and fights, it felt like the Coil was mostly a mechanics game, learning the mechanics and executing on perfectly, or at least well, is what is necessary to pass the dungeon. Having good gear is necessary to survive long enough to be able to execute, and having good weapons and players is what is needed to actually win the fights in the time that you are given... and yes, there are timers on each fight.

One thing to note is that the Coil of Bahamut rewards ilevel 90 gear, while darklight gear is only ilevel 70. There appears to be a gap in gear progression where ilevel 80 is completely missing. I think this is supposed to be addressed in the 2.1 patch with the release of the Crystal Tower (8-man? 24-man? Who knows?), but right now, doing the Coil in only darklight gear is kinda like taking on Garuda HM with only AF. Doable, but rough.

Learning the mechanics and figuring out how to counter them with the group you have is half the fun of the coil in my opinion. Some of the mechanics you've seen earlier in the game, others you might recognize from FFXI, but there are a few new tricks as well. Turn 1 of the coil is fairly straightforward and we cleared it after getting a little experience (and essentially one-shot the final boss after a false start!)

After you complete turn 1, you are placed into a lobby area...

We're in the middle of nowhere!

It's a nice area for a break. There is no timer here, and you simply have an exit, or an entrance to the next part. Good place to get a drink, hit up the restroom or move your car :P

Turn 2 is where things get more interesting!

Deeper underground!

Weird environment, weirder floating balls

Turn 2 is where you start to think more strategically. Before you even start the dungeon, you need to make a few decisions on what path to take to the boss, and how your party composition can pull off a win. There are pros & cons for what you do, and the decisions you make here determine what you have to do to take on the final boss... oh, and the whole thing is timed as soon as you engage the first mini-boss!

More Pokeballs of death! This is the boss of turn 2

Turn 2 is where we stopped after exploring and trying out a few different tactics. You have a 90 minute timer  for each turn, but the fights are pretty intense so I'd recommend that groups doing this take periodic breaks instead of hammering through everything back to back! You can always resume progress later in the week!

Ok, so what else is there left to do in FFXIV 2.0 other than the coil & AK? Obviously you need to go on the Pokemon side of FFXIV and collect all the pets! Right now I have 21 minions and I still haven't picked up some of the low-hanging fruit like the pets for sale for gil, or buyable with GC seals. I guess at some point I should switch companies and build up ranking on the other GCs to get those pet maybe? Or I wonder if they are buyable...

The "Wide-eyed fawn" is much too cute!

Also, <3 Ark & Teven for giving me a couple of pets that I have no way of getting on my own!