FFXIV: Crafting and Alt Progress
I don’t have a picture of me crafting because crafting is not all that visually stimulating. However, I did want to take a moment to express my approval of some changes to crafting I’ve found in Stormblood.
I don’t know if it’s because I’m more patient or the leves are faster or easier, but I’ve found myself leveling Weaver, the first crafter I’m attempting, very fast. I went from 60 to 65 in the space of a few days.
This may not be fast for some folks, but for me, who gathers all my materials, this is blazing fast. I remember struggling through leve turn-ins in Heavensward so much that I could only stomach doing two levels of any crafter a week… and Weaver used to be a tough one.
Fantastic Crafting Job Quest Changes
I’m really stoked about the changes to the crafter job quests in Stormblood. I used to ignore them because they were frustrating to attempt and didn’t give anything I felt was worthwhile. Not so in Stormblood.
How have crafting job quests changed:
- They give a LOT of experience. I mean A LOT.
- They give new skills and gear/tools you really NEED.
- They are now like Moogle or Ixal quests – the quest giver gives you the materials you need to craft the item!!!
This last one is the most important one (though all points are very good). Previously, the quest giver told you to craft a (usually) High Quality item that required lots of gathering, sometimes of rare nodes, and often lots of pre-combines. Then, if you were really, really lucky, and had the proper gear and stats, you might have a chance at making the HQ item you needed for turn-in.
Honestly? I haven’t finished a crafting job quest without buying the item from the marketboard since I was in my 30s. It was too time consuming, expensive and frustrating. And don’t get me started on the level 60 Heavensward crafting job, which forced you to get your Master III book to complete (at least it did for my weaver). Let’s just say, that’s the only crafting job that I’m up to date on my quests for.
So it was incredible to see a change that actually just lets you hone your crafting rotation and work with your skills without fear of destroying all the time, gil and effort that went into gathering materials for the quest item. Good, good change! I’m telling all my casual crafting friends to hang in there — it gets better.
Progress on Tai
So, as I noted last week, I realized that I needed to level Tai’s Dragoon in order to level his Dragoon retainer in order to bring back the hides I need to level my Leatherworker. Whew.
So, I’ve been working on that. I’ve found an approach that seems to work pretty well. As I noted in another post, I’m somewhat reluctant to go through all of the Stormblood MSQ a second time so soon. I feel like I want to let the story settle in my mind for right now.
So, I’ve been fast-forwarding through all the MSQ cutscenes on Tai… but stopping to do all the side quests that I didn’t finish on my main character. I heard that these quests don’t give a whole lot of experience overall, but they have been a fun follow-up to explore, giving me something different to do on my second time through.
There’s a lot that I’ve missed, actually, by not doing side quests. I’ve cleared all of the early Fringes and Kugane. I even discovered the one jumping puzzle that takes you on top of the bathhouse in the city. I haven’t attempted the larger one that I know is out there on the main tower (I think).
Overall, at level 62, Dragoon feels alright (and even fun) to play. I am rusty, but I still found a bit of that melee excitement rush back as I was fighting bosses in the Sirensong dungeon.
The weekend’s Live Letter hinted at class changes, so I’m hoping that Dragoon will get some love in tonight’s patch. Since I’m leveling the job out of necessity, I may as well hope the best for it.
Zuri Progress
It’s weird to wrap my head around thinking of Zuri as an AuRa. But I’m still happy that I made the choice I did in moving and combining this character. Since she’s the leader of <Alts>, I have been logging into her here and there just to mess around and ensure she maintains ownership of the FC (no risk in losing that, actually).
It’s kinda nice to go back and work on leveling lower jobs again. She’s in a situation where I originally was leveling her to be a Bard, but stopped at level 24. I think this was because I was frustrated about the changes to Bard in Heavensward back in the day.
I picked up Dragoon at that point, and took it to level 33. But now I don’t want to level Dragoon anymore! XD My MSQ is at level 33… so now I have to level my Archer to 33 to pick up where I left off.
I’ve been doing this VERY casually. I leveled her to 25, then went back and worked through all the Novice quests to get her the Brand New Ring. That got her about half a level. I did open PotD, but haven’t had time to start on it.
Though I like her rustic appearance, I’m also kicking around changing her hair style and color. I picked up the Samsonian Locks and the ponytail from the Gold Saucer and messed around with her looks a bit. I didn’t pull the trigger yet, though.
Aside from that, the Posse has been playing the new Alpha 16 stable release of 7D2D. So my time is a bit split between games, in a good way.