FFXIV: Alexander Midas, FC Growth and FFXIV Fan Fest 2016
Alexander & Final Steps Clear
Last weekend, our FC cleared some folks through A1-A4. This weekend, we cleared all of Alex Midas Normal.
Overall, it wasn’t too terrible. A5 was fairly easy, but we had people who knew what they were doing. As a melee, I know a whole bunch of mechanics were going on behind my back, but I don’t rightly know much (aside from purple puddle).
A6 was annoying. I don’t like the the whole high and low arithmetic mechanics in particular. It’s difficult for me to watch my debuff, try to decipher what it is, keep my rotation up, and figure out which platforms are higher or lower. I tend to play with a screen zoomed out quite a bit, so seeing upraised platforms was not intuitive to me – they needed to make more floor indicators IMHO.
I actually liked A7 the best of all the floors. The mechanics made sense to me. I thought there were some original things I hadn’t seen in other instances before.
I disliked parts of A8 for the same reason I disliked A6. And while I understood the mechanics for Brute Justice, I still ended up doing my Dragoonly duty through most of the fight. : /
I think that the overall Alexander storyline is improving, and I feel like I might have some interest in moving on to the next set of raids when they come out.
Whether I’ll run any more of these? I don’t know. They certainly weren’t as intense as Final Steps.
Speaking of which, it took a number of wipes, but we got Zuri and a handful of other FC folks through Final Steps this weekend, too. Just glad that is over with.
Misc Things
On the other hand, I also did a number of less intensive things this weekend. For one, I finally upgraded my Alchemist’s tools and gave another try at earning the Alchemist Book II. I really wanted these recipes because I was locked out of crafting a number of Orchestrion scrolls due to missing this book. There was still a good bit of challenge to it, but I did finally get it!
Our FC also finally made it to the 7th chamber of the Aquapolis this weekend! Treasure hunting fun!
FC Growth and Fan Fest 2016
Something crazy has been happening lately in our FC. We’ve had a pretty large influx of new players, and I’m not sure why! Being that it’s summer time, I expected things to wind down and recruitment to be difficult. Instead, we’ve picked up about 5 people over this weekend, most whom found us through my online recruitment efforts. The funny thing is, I didn’t even put out new posts this weekend and haven’t tried to find new people.
Our FC is as large as I can remember it being at this point. It’s a little scary because while we welcome new people, I also worry about getting too large. We try to keep things pretty balanced, and the more stretched a group gets, the harder it gets to communicate and make sure no one is getting left out.
Another crazy thing that happened in our FC this weekend: people are seriously discussing a FC meetup at the FFXIV Fan Fest this October. Now, I’m a hermit, and I don’t travel all that much, so this is a pretty overwhelming concept for me. I’ve never been to a fan fest for any game, and had not even considered this one. But here I am, with a presale code, thinking about buying tickets for myself and Syn when they go on sale tomorrow.
The thought of being in the same building as other FC members (and Yoshi-P) is pretty mind-blowing. And I have a hunch that we may see the first visions of the next expansion announced there (maybe)?
I’ll keep you updated!