FFXIV: Catch Up Chronicles

Lo, the one-time content for the whole game is almost done – at least on one toon. I’ve seen all dungeons and raids – almost. I haven’t finished Gaius raids story from Shadowbringers, and Coils of Bahamut streak from vanilla, but everything else, Sastasha -> Asphodelos is done.

As for side quests, Garlemald, Elpis and Ultima Thule left to go. Nothing too important, so I’m doing them as a part of my leveling activity. All expansions before Endwalker are clear.

Lolo the lalafell has finished Endwalker storyline. This time, the most interesting part was strangely Elpis. Actually, this can be explained very well: this is where the big bad is introduced, and it was super cool to pay the most scrupulous attention to every dialogue line and trace the character changes which led to the epic fall.

But all in all, I skipped most quest dialogues and “rewatched” only my favorite bits: Sharlayan/Labyrinthos/Thavnair first parts in full, Garlemald’s intro and ending, the moon before Zodiark, just Matsya’s final run in Thavnair part 2, Elpis in full, only Thaumazein/Hydaelyn bit of Labyrinthos part 2, and Estinien/twins bits in Ultima Thule – and obviously the whole finale (yes, I cried again multiple times).

Oh, and everything I could run with Trust – I did with Trust party. A little bit more of a slog during trash, yes, but boss fights were almost all flawless, no wipes. Even if I forgot like a lot of stuff since December, nevertheless reading tactics, having been there before – and following Y’shtola – did the trick. Such a great system, and yet not a total replacement for group runs, no, as much as I’m tending for solo play.

Alt Jobs

Yeah, this:

Obviously, I reached level cap on one job for both toons through MSQ. Today my focus is primarily cleaning bags, so Lolo is leveling Bard (done) and Ninja to get rid of leveling dexterity gear, and Sanya’s goal is capping Samurai/Monk to do the same with Strength. After that, it’s just whatever job I please.

I’m extremely comfortable with and extremely enjoying all the listed jobs, with the exception of Endwalker newbies – Sage and Reaper. These are quite playable, but at the same time quite boring. Not exactly a fan, it’s just a lesiure scenario, and normally I’m reluctant to jump on them.

Strange thing though: I want to play the whole range of my abilities, and yet leveling roulette is always throwing you into earlier expansions, especially with Alliance raids and no-option Main Scenario. So you’re always without your whole range of spells, and when you reach level cap… it’s basically game over? No need to run dungeons, no need to do any quests cause there aren’t any… And MSQ in patches is done on one class.

Oh, current raid, yes. I’ve completed Asphodelos, but I’m not sure I need or want to farm it. There are certain very cool gear rewards I could aim for – the aphorism ones, but token gear in Aporia is kinda meh. And as you know, capping power was never my intention.

Still, the irony is: leveling IS the game, the path matters (I’m cool with that!), and yet when you reach your full potential and level cap on alt jobs, there’s nowhere to apply it. Maybe the point is just having all favorite jobs capped, so that when I would farm anything, I would have a choice of jobs to do it. Anyways… what people do at level cap with all their alt jobs?

Well, anyways, I’m having fun, the game content consumption is approaching its final stages, and yet there’s so much more to do and have fun. I’m enjoying every minute – and especially with the horrible WoW’s 9.2. to compare. No pressure, no grind, sheer fun!