Ascule's Adventures: Warrior

Monday, April 21, 2014

Glamours, clearing content and the next grind!

One of the new major changes that the FFXIV 2.2 patch brought was the addition of "glamours", aka the "vanity system" that is common in many different MMOs. This brings out lots of imaginative outfits and gives a good reason for going back to farm lower level dungeons.

Still... if you haven't quite figured out how your outfit should go together, you could end up in funny situations like tanking Twintania in this!

Ever have that dream where you go fight an angry dragon without pants?

Ok, so I was actually going for a Strike Witches cosplay look, but I don't think many people got it... still, it has the funny side effect of going through cutscenes looking like this

Have you seen my skirt?

Maybe it's over there :o

Oh, so... yeah, since the 2.2 echo buff kicked in, turn 5 of the Binding Coil of Bahamut has essentially become a farmable joke. You still need to know what you're doing and how to handle the mechanics, but it's become fairly easy even with just the initial echo buff. It should become even easier starting this week with the 2nd echo buff. Turns 1-4 are already a joke to tackle and I'm pretty sure that everyone will be farming everything they ever wanted from the first coil shortly.

LOLDRGs putting fire circles everywhere!

And one of... I stopped counting at 12 from the first night... wins for T5.

What else... so the easter event is around, which mainly consists of forming small parties and running around the major cities. There are a few silly cutscenes, but nothing to write home about. You get a barding and have to buy a few silly looking hats for this event.

Just a bunch of eggheads!

Other content is also progressing to be farmed now... Leviathan Extreme was the first to be cracked and is a relatively easy fight. More forgiving than Titan Extreme, and most newcomers can learn the basic pattern for their first win usually within 45 minutes.

Yet another mechanics fight

We just finished learning Thornmarch Extreme this past weekend. This fight with the Moogles has a lot more randomness to it with all the little mogs running around and potentially screwing things up, so winning here is not a sure thing. This is a healer & DPS heavy fight in terms of responsibility. I forgot to take screenshots of this one so you'll have to settle for this simulation instead!

Being surrounded by moogles! Basically the same as Thornmarch EX!

The only "real" content left that we haven't tackled is the Second Coil of Bahamut, aka "T6-9". I get the general feeling that everyone has been more than happy to just poke and farm the older stuff for the time being, to get geared up and prepare for the eventual wall that is T6-9.

I also feel that the 2.2 buffs/nerfs have taken some of the drive out of people. My feeling is that pounding our head too hard against the cutting edge content isn't really necessary as SE will probably be nerfing T6-9 in the 2.4 patch.

Consider what happened in 2.2. The first coil was made farmable at first, allowing people to do this as many times as necessary to get what they want. The first night we beat T5, we did it at least 12 times, probably more. We've gone back and farmed it many more times, much more than we could have done it before the lockouts were removed.

The echo buff also made it so that party finder groups can relatively easily win T1-4. It might even be that by the time the last echo buff is put into the game, T5 can be done with party finder. About the only thing that the echo buff did not help with is Titan and Ifrit EX due to actually needing to perform the mechanics to properly win.

So... for the 2.2 content, specifically T6-9 and the Atma/Animus quests... it feels like... well, even if we don't rush to take part in this content, when 2.4 comes out (probably around December), we'll just breeze through it easily?

Anyway... enough of that! The main reason for playing MMOs is to play dress-up anyway, right?!

Finally found my skirt!

And found a mini-tank dressed similarly to me! (Also, love that caster outfit in the background!)

I like the little emote additions that SE adds to the game, like the new /changepose

That's it for now! Short post!

Friday, September 13, 2013

BRD4LIFE!

It's been a week since I finished FFXIV on Paladin. Since then I've mainly been toying around with Archer/Bard while waiting for other people to catch up to 50 so that we can start farming the endgame activities. (For those who aren't playing FFXIV, you start the game as a "class" but at level 30, you get the ability to unlock specific "jobs". For example, the Gladiator class unlocks to become a Paladin, the Arcanist class can unlock two jobs, Summoner and Scholar. The Archer class unlocks the Bard job)

As expected, since I did all the quests the first time around. for Archer/Bard, the main way I got exp was through FATEs. With FATEs, you average about 1 level every 45 minutes or so, so if you play intensely, you can probably get from 1-50 in about a week's play.

Together with Kuraikaze, Zurar and A'sanya, we decided to also throw in some dungeon farming for some loot. Specifically, the Brayflox dungeon (level 32-35) as the gear at this dungeon pretty much lasts until you start to get your AF pieces at level 45.

Plus, the design on these armors are unique! This is the "Infantry" set which is used by all physical DDs

Specific dungeons have sets with unique looks. Like the Foestriker set from level 15-18 dungeons or this Infantry set from level 32-35

The FFXIV community is still extremely toxic, people throwing names at each other, shouting insults, dropping from duty finder, etc. Turning off shouts and ignoring the rest of the community is quite advised, at least until the toxic people leave. I'm guessing that this will start to happen at around the end of the year as they finish up the content, get bored, and other MMOs start to be released.

Meanwhile Archer, or Bard has been a lot of fun and a different change from tanking. It's a ranged DD (and technically support) so it has mobility, isn't in a lot of danger, and can put out a sustained amount of damage. Being able to shoot while moving is a huge advantage as well, so unlike all the other DD jobs, I'm not as hindered by needing to avoid boss moves. I never thought I'd say this, but I'm probably going to stick with Bard for the long-term.

In any case, while playing around with other jobs, I also played a lot of Marauder and Lancer. This was mainly to get them up to use their abilities as subs for other jobs. Of course, along the way I also used them for dungeons, and also did some of their class quests!

AXE SMASH EVERYTHING! CART! LITTLE BOY! GIANT RAM!

A dyed scale armor set ~level 30

Oh, SE also released the "Moonfire Faire" event, which mainly consists of a simple FATE and buying swimsuits! The towns were filled with people running around in "fire resistant gear" on Tuesday, feeling much like a festival!

Fireworks too! Lots of fireworks!

By Thursday, the towns were completely deserted again... making the decorations look very sad.
Anyway, here are a few other random pics!

I want this Miqo'te's outfit... looks like a real Archer!

It's pink! (Also, my current UI layout. I'm finding that I've been using the "Recommended" section a lot to see what quests or hunt mobs I have available when I enter a zone)

Ascie Lotte on Excalibur! It's a mini-me! (though I haven't tried contacting anyone on Excal yet)

Old guy teaching me how to use a... bow-harp? What do you call those things that Bards use to shoot and play songs! It's like a gunblade but is a bow that turns into a harp o.o

More recently in the week, I've been farming the Dzemael Darkhold (level 44+) dungeon with Zurar, Kurai, Vanh, Fuji, even Val and Rooks at various points. The first boss of this dungeon drops a few... unique model armors for mages and DDs.