FFXIV: PotD Love, Realizations, Finding End Game Alternatives
Those who have read this blog for a while know that I’m constantly grappling with my love of FFXIV vs the stress of being at end game. In fact, I was a little grouchy about the newest patch because it means that I must (yet again) go and re-outfit my main job with new gear by grinding out new Tomes. After I just finally caught up!
I grit my teeth and unlocked Expert Roulette on Zuri, readying myself for the deluge of daily roulettes once again. But then, I started to look around and do math (*gasp* Yes, I know, math!). And I came to the conclusion that I really don’t need to run this daily roulette at all to make progress!
Deep Dungeon Love
Our Posse has been super interested in running PotD lately, mostly due to the new patch adding the tantalizing Accursed Hoard drops. Now, I find myself running the deep dungeon less for raising my gear score (though that is happening too) and more for finding these elusive new drops. It’s put a much different spin on the PotD, and I’m having a lot of fun with it.
We’ve found a number of cosmetics, minions, materia and other fun things on our runs. I’m still hoping for that new hairstyle to drop for me. I’ve even come across some Tier 5 materia that’s sold quite well on the marketboard. So, not only is this fun for me, but it makes money (which is more than I can say for the nothing-but-gear and prism drops of Expert Roulette).
The big kicker is, in doing the math, I realized that if I complete the Vanu and Vath beast tribes on a level 60 character, and I run just the first two floors of PotD, I’m making more tomes than I would from an Expert Roulette with far less stress on me. And if I really want to push it to the third floor, I can make very close to an equivalent of another Expert Roulette in one day!
Nevermind… my math was wrong. I wasn’t counting the Roulette bonus. But PotD is still a good way to get Tomes!
Sure, this might take a little longer to do, but I can accept the fact that as a super-casual approach, it takes a little longer and it’s less economic than just straight up running the big-boy dungeons. The fact that I realize I have an alternative really diffuses a lot of the frustration I’ve been carrying around.
I’m not sure why I didn’t do the math earlier! Maybe it’s because I was more worried about leveling my PotD gear for that weapon than I was thinking about how the Tome rewards stack up otherwise. Either way, this makes me a lot happier.
FC Realizations
We’ve had some interesting times in my FC as of late, including the new website I built for it! There were some folks shuffling about, for the better, and it’s left us with a bit less of an end-game focus, which I think is a good thing. We’re certainly still doing end game stuff, and will hopefully pull together some folks to do an Alex learning run this weekend. But I realized that I’ve been so stressed by the concentration of end game content that I’ve forgotten the whole “casual FC” bit along the way.
For the first time in many months, I put out some recruitment posts for our FC, and we’ve been slowly welcoming new members in. For a while, activity in our FC was high (though end-game heavy), and we were looking for things to settle down before we chose to recruit new folks into the mix again. I can’t say if that was right or wrong, but I just realized in meeting some of these new folks, that I’ve fallen far from my purpose in the game.
I wanted to be a Mentor not for a crown or the mentor roulette (which I can’t run anyhow), but because I wanted to help guide new people and empower them to reach their goals in game. But lately, I’ve been so focused on running and running to keep up with end game, and so exhausted from the stress it causes me, that I forgot what it’s like to welcome new folks, teach them and help them enjoy the game.
Seeing new faces in the FC reminded me of what I’ve forgotten. Maybe I’ll join the Novice Network on my server again and see if it’s a place to teach and learn.
I think I’m finally working this end game stuff out… just not in the way I expected.