[Megathread] Final Fantasy XIV

[Faroth]

At least the umbrite is the hump, in my opinion. After that, the crystals/clusters are easier to get and the light farming wasn't bad. My friend focused on grinding A1S and took maybe 2-3 days at it.

I got the majority of my light farming running 24 mans to accumulate the coins for upgrading gear pieces and getting it out of the way, then finished up with A1S farming.

I never thought the umbrite step was that bad when it was released because I was doing things that yielded tomestones left and right anyway. The sand I primarily farmed via the grand levequest farming.

[dope_danny]

Saw this image on Reddit sometime ago, which shows two modern aesthetics.

http://i.imgur.com/IzNhifJ.png

dat rainmaker (´◉◞౪◟◉)✧

[Kazgrel]

For me personally the thought of grinding in a manner to blow through this Anima step...or any Anima step is so soul crushing that I don't even log on and I'll play something else. I have to come at this from a more relaxed/ slow pace or I won't do it at all because that level of grinding is not even remotely fun. More power to you if you can power through it.

If the step has already been nerfed, I don't expect it to get nerfed again...I hadn't realized it had since I didn't start this step until after the nerf.

I guess I just have to get serious about this otherwise it will likely never happen. Well...thanks for the pep talk I guess, lol.

The first one always, ALWAYS, felt like a grind. Mainly because it's for the main job we tend to play, so the desire to have it ASAP is far more ramped up.

One exception was the light farm step (270); my first two weapons were easiest by far (because they were for DPS jobs). Tank/healer weapons are the absolute worst at that part. Easy otherwise.

The anima weapons have, for the most part, come as a result of simply playing the game. I never spam farmed ARF when it was cool (kidding, I never thought it was cool, only boring as hell). I've yet to really go out of my way to get one of these done, save for the light farm...but with the amount of time left in the expansion, one wouldn't have to spam run A1S to finish it. "isn't A1S farm boring?" Yeah...after a while you can almost run that thing in your sleep. But with the pages + accessory drops, it can be rather lucrative...or was, at least; I made a pretty hefty chunk of gil by flipping the accessories into GC seals, then selling the mats for 4 star crafts. Probably could've made more money had I put the time in to craft stuff (be it the ingots/leather/cloth, or completed items), but I have enough gil to live comfortably and I would rather spend the time beating up more internet dragons/robots/etc.

[Katchii]

The first one always, ALWAYS, felt like a grind. Mainly because it's for the main job we tend to play, so the desire to have it ASAP is far more ramped up.

One exception was the light farm step (270); my first two weapons were easiest by far (because they were for DPS jobs). Tank/healer weapons are the absolute worst at that part. Easy otherwise.

The anima weapons have, for the most part, come as a result of simply playing the game. I never spam farmed ARF when it was cool (kidding, I never thought it was cool, only boring as hell). I've yet to really go out of my way to get one of these done, save for the light farm...but with the amount of time left in the expansion, one wouldn't have to spam run A1S to finish it. "isn't A1S farm boring?" Yeah...after a while you can almost run that thing in your sleep. But with the pages + accessory drops, it can be rather lucrative...or was, at least; I made a pretty hefty chunk of gil by flipping the accessories into GC seals, then selling the mats for 4 star crafts. Probably could've made more money had I put the time in to craft stuff (be it the ingots/leather/cloth, or completed items), but I have enough gil to live comfortably and I would rather spend the time beating up more internet dragons/robots/etc.

That's my problem, I feel that this weapon is practically the only reason I'm signing in, other than my Moogle dailies which take all of 10-15 minutes at most. So it's not just a result of me playing the game....this weapon is the reason I'm playing right now. Tomorrow's patch will change that for a bit, so we'll see how far I get riding that enthusiasm.

[Kazgrel]

That's my problem, I feel that this weapon is practically the only reason I'm signing in, other than my Moogle dailies which take all of 10-15 minutes at most. So it's not just a result of me playing the game....this weapon is the reason I'm playing right now. Tomorrow's patch will change that for a bit, so we'll see how far I get riding that enthusiasm.

Not exactly the same case, but somewhat relatable:

I burned out bigger than shit on HW when it was new. Problem then was that I had only leveled up as BLM and had nor really cared to do any other jobs or anything else outside of running expert so I could (slowly) cap esoterics (back when they were the weekly limited currency) so I could upgrade my BLM gear to the AF2 stuff in order to...well, nothing. Stopped playing the game right before 3.1 and didn't log back on/resub until 3.2 had come out.

Moral of the story: Expand out. Your moogle quests are one good example. Maybe dabble in PotD (dunno if you've run it to death or not); it'll end up chipping in additional lore/poetics towards the weapon. Can also get you towards a Kinna weapon if you don't already have one; not the best thing at this point, but it is good enough to get you through any content in the game currently. Diadem also rewards scripture, and if you have level 60 gatherers with even mediocre gear, you can gather collectibles there for blue scrip turn in towards the crystal sands.

No matter how it's cut, though...it is going to be a bit of grind. Just nowhere near as awful as it was previously (Umbrite cost cut by 50% + Diadem 2.0 for gathering scrips has made the umbrite/sand step significantly easier).

[Faroth]

Don't forget you can get blue/red scrips by the boat load from Zhloe in Idyllshire too. At least, crafters can. I assumed gatherer turn ins were similar boat loads.

[dope_danny]

Man i can't believe Heavensward is officially ending tomorrow. It feels like so long since we first got to Ishgard. Not in a bad way mind but i can't believe its 11 or 12 weeks to be heading off to Othard, unlocking RDM and SAM and starting the leveling process again.

[Faroth]

And yet.... it's still so far away. T-T

[dope_danny]

All the better to make gil during.

[Kazgrel]

Don't forget you can get blue/red scrips by the boat load from Zhloe in Idyllshire too. At least, crafters can. I assumed gatherer turn ins were similar boat loads.

The blue scrips from Zhloe are nice, but being able to cap red scrips in a manner that doesn't require having to camp timed nodes is an absolute godsend. I really really hope to see a similar NPC at level cap in Stormblood. I can only speak for myself, but having to wait on timed nodes and have a second monitor/screen of some kind up with node timers and such is not what I call good gameplay design.

- - - Updated - - -

Man i can't believe Heavensward is officially ending tomorrow. It feels like so long since we first got to Ishgard. Not in a bad way mind but i can't believe its 11 or 12 weeks to be heading off to Othard, unlocking RDM and SAM and starting the leveling process again.

I'm with Faroth; it still seems like a ways off, but that's ok. As you noted, more time to accumulate gil, and it's more time to acquire gear to make the first bit of the leveling process a bit easier. Also a good time to stow away any Ironworks striking/casting gear and the tomestone + tokens needed for said weapons, although you could technically just ignore doing any of that and simply run PotD until 60 and throw level 60 gear on and go from there.

[dope_danny]

and the tomestone + tokens needed for said weapons,

Well theres something to think on, back in 3.0 you kept going back to ishgard for globes, guns and greatswords over a 30 level process. for the 50-60 catchup on RDM and SAM do you just get a cheese weapon to carry you through or is there going to be a new vendor in 2.0 areas? doesnt seem like there will be a lot of opportunities and reasons to farm dungeons for that sort of thing.
I imagine they probably already have a law, padjal and maybe zurvan weapon but aside from that i dont see an ironworks when they will start with a lvl.50 weapon as default.

[Kazgrel]

Well theres something to think on, back in 3.0 you kept going back to ishgard for globes, guns and greatswords over a 30 level process. for the 50-60 catchup on RDM and SAM do you just get a cheese weapon to carry you through or is there going to be a new vendor in 2.0 areas? doesnt seem like there will be a lot of opportunities and reasons to farm dungeons for that sort of thing.
I imagine they probably already have a law, padjal and maybe zurvan weapon but aside from that i dont see an ironworks when they will start with a lvl.50 weapon as default.

If they dole out anything, it'll likely be the ilvl 100-110 stuff that was handed out during the questing process of 2.1-2.55 quests post-HW. So it's entirely plausible that augmented ironworks stuff would still be a decent bump up over that. It's absolutely not a necessity, but as someone who was looking for things to piss away poetics on for a while, I cobbled together full sets for each job just in case we end up with some piecemeal amount of gear like DRK/AST/MCH got to start off with.

- - - Updated - - -

3.56 patch notes

Double scripture cap + Creator Savage unlock = ilvl 270 easy mode now (as if it weren't already).

Increased drop rate for Zurvan bird + totem turn in for it also.

No sort of trial seems to be hinted to...maybe omitted due to spoilers? Suppose we'll know in a few hours.

Also of note: The free trial appears to be permanent now...interesting.

[Aruhen]

https://i.redd.it/6g0yqgx7j3oy.png

New MogStation items.

As far as trial goes for story I don't think we're getting one. Steps of fate was part of the patch notes was it not? Hm.

[Graeham]

As far as trial goes for story I don't think we're getting one. Steps of fate was part of the patch notes was it not? Hm.

It was, but was Nabriales' trial? I can't recall. I don't mind either way so long as there's a very strong ending to the patch. I do wonder if they intend to give us more story quests before 4.0, though. There's still three months to go after all. Which isn't a huge wait but for the last expansion things seemed spread out closer to the expansion.

[Anzaman]

Well, that's disappointing - only one new hairstyle, and that's from MogStation.

[MrTharne]

Aymeric's Attire
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* This item is designed for male characters.

Rage threads on SE forum incoming.

Also : "The fabled weapon of Ser Zephirin, a brave knight of the Heavens' Ward." Go to hell.

[Faroth]

The blue scrips from Zhloe are nice, but being able to cap red scrips in a manner that doesn't require having to camp timed nodes is an absolute godsend. I really really hope to see a similar NPC at level cap in Stormblood. I can only speak for myself, but having to wait on timed nodes and have a second monitor/screen of some kind up with node timers and such is not what I call good gameplay design.

My guess is the Zhloe content is going to be the 24 man raid equivalent for crafters while the timed node chase is going to be more the 8 man savage. It's going to be a crafter catch up sorta thing.

[dope_danny]

Watching the credits roll and its nice to have something different to 'everythings getting fucked!' like ARR's ending. All in all a better Final Fantasy than FFXV and Gosetsu was a better character than the generic stoic older master i imagined. Can't wait for Stormblood, but hey are least its under 3 months and not over a year like some other games final update to expansion gaps i suppose

[Faroth]

Watching the credits roll and its nice to have something different to 'everythings getting fucked!' like ARR's ending. All in all a better Final Fantasy than FFXV and Gosetsu was a better character than the generic stoic older master i imagined. Can't wait for Stormblood, but hey are least its under 3 months and not over a year like some other games final update to expansion gaps i suppose

Ballpark how long to complete the MSQ this patch?

[dope_danny]

Ballpark how long to complete the MSQ this patch?

An hour? there is no "set 90 minutes aside" cutscene. You go to gridania, talk to some folks, do some stuff with Omega, find out who was in the stormblood trailer and it ends.

Obviously things happen but i aint spoiling that shit. Its one fight and the rest is cutscenes.