FFXIV: Amazing 3rd Anniversary Weekend
This post is a part of Blaugust 2016!
This weekend, FFXIV celebrated its 3rd year anniversary with a 14 hour live letter (don’t know how they manage that) and the newest anniversary event, The Rising. I also got so many things accomplished that I can’t possibly list them all without boring you. But let me try to make it entertaining!
Heavensward Ho!
We helped Vix and Xaa through their final trials of 2.0, including The Chrysalis and Steps of Faith. They pushed on into Ishgard and are now working on Heavensward content. Yay for them! All grown up. *sniff*
Ding 60 Machinist!
After quite a while of leveling, I finally hit 60 on Zuri’s Machinist. One of my goals for this month was to level the job some, but I didn’t anticipate finishing the task! It’s fabulous because now my Machinist and Bard can both wear the same gear, thus freeing up a lot of space in my inventory. It’s also a huge ilvl leap for my little Machinist. Now I just need to get her a better weapon.
Bard Fully Geared
Speaking of gear, another one of my goals for this month was to finish gearing up Bard with Lore/Weeping City stuff. I completed that this weekend by picking up the last accessory I needed (and capped Lore again for the second time ever…).
Not best in slot or anything, but this is more than good enough for me. My next goal is to gear up Dragoon… but I think with the new Tomes coming out in about a month, I’ll just horde my Lore from now on out. If it’s anything like the previous patches, the cost of the Tome gear will get cut in half. So if I save now, I should have more than enough Lore to completely gear up Zuri’s Dragoon once patch 3.4 rolls out. And maybe snag an ilvl240 weapon somewhere in there, too.
Alex 1-8 Cleared
I completed the Alexander raids on Tai a while back, but never cleared past A1 on Zuri. One of my goals for this month was to complete up to A8… but I wasn’t sure if that was going to happen. Syn mentioned that (before the Relic changes) getting parties for A1-A4 was a little harder in the duty finder. But none of that ended up even being a concern.
We put out the call on our FC Discord and had more than a full party for the entire Alex run yesterday afternoon. Also, there were three other FC folks who either just unlocked Alex or were in various stages of Gordias completion, so our run was a benefit for several others! Even having three new folks, we didn’t have a single wipe (though we did enrage the final boss of A8 and cut it really close)! Good job KoM! 🙂
The Rising
The anniversary event, The Rising, has returned, and I participated with great gusto. This wasn’t quite the 18th floor, but it was still a fun set of quests with a lot of laughs and feels. I may be a bit sentimental, but it’s always special when the Wandering Minstrel (Yoshi-P’s avatar) takes some time to speak to Zuri. I walk away from these events feeling like I’m a part of Eorzea in an important way… which is the point of the event, I think. It works for me!
Dragoon Relic Stage 1
So, I’m back to hunting crystals again for my Dragoon Relic. I’m also gathering umbrite, sands and unidentifiable items (I’m at 10/10/10/2) for when I get it there. I spent quite a few hours running FATEs for crystals, and was happy to clear the harder zones (Azys Lla, The Dravanian Hinterlands, and The Churning Mists) pretty quickly on Saturday. But that’s where the crystal struggle began.
I thought it would be easy to clear the lower level zones, but Sea of Clouds refused to give up its crystals. In fact, I spent so long without a drop that I wondered if the quest was borked. Eventually, I decided to change scenery and headed out to Coerthas Western Highlands. Sure enough, in the first 4 FATES, I got my 3 crystals. I did eventually get them all from Sea of Clouds as well, so all I have left to farm is The Dravanian Forelands this week.
Then the long part (for me) comes… the dungeon grind. By the time I get that done, though, I should easily have all my unidentifiable items waiting. I already have the aether oils as well.
Though, I’m still struggling to decide on which job I want to take the Relic to 240… I know we’ll probably see a Relic nerf at patch 3.45, and I kinda doubt I’ll make it by then (I’ve never been relevant on Relic before). I can either work on Relic for Zuri’s Bard, which is fully geared, or wait and work on it for Dragoon. Again… I’m having so much trouble deciding on which job to make my main! Especially since I’m just starting to feel like I’m understanding Bard and beginning to unlock the job’s potential for me.
Accomplished
On top of that, Zeb and Xaa helped me clear an unsynced Pharos Sirius (so easy) so that I can unlock the hard mode. This is the only dungeon I haven’t finished on Zuri to unlock level 60 roulette (another goal for this month). I only have a few more days to complete that before the month is done, so we’ll see if that happens.
Overall, I just feel accomplished from this weekend. It was a LOT of running, and I’m tired out, but also encouraged. We had a lot of neat announcements during the Live Letter about patch 3.4, and I’ve finally got one of Zuri’s classes up to par (IMHO). I’m feeling a lot better now that I don’t feel like I’m lagging so far behind everyone.
Now if only I could decide on which job to make my main!