FFXIV 4.3 Preliminary Patch Notes Highlights

The preliminary patch notes for 4.3 are out, and I’m really looking to them to pull me back into the game and excite me again. I’ve been kinda taking a break from FFXIV, playing other games, and only logging in here and there to take care of FC stuff… sometimes run an alliance.

I’d love for something in 4.3 to catch my attention. I know that this is supposed to be the final story update for the Doman arc, and maybe that’s a good thing. While I do like some of the characters of Stormblood, I have to admit that overall, I haven’t been as invested in the story as I was during Heavensward. I’ve been hearing a number of other folks echoing this sentiment, so I don’t think it’s just me.

There’s just been too many “Oh, btw, this character isn’t dead” situations happening. It’s been overused at this point. But anyhow, that’s a thought for another blog post. Let’s hopefully get hyped over stuff in the patch notes, shall we?

YEAH!

I’ll take anything that can help me level my poorly lagging crafting jobs. It’s just a plus that they’re beast tribe quests, that I like the Namazu, and think their squeaky-walk is cute. This will get me back to working on my crafting again.

Even more lovely is that it’s located at the Azim Steppe… which is one of my favorite zones for the music alone. I’m glad they chose to do more with it!

Aurum Vale for Squads! YAAAAAAAAAAAAY!

Right?

Yeah… no.

But what IS exciting is seeing Sohm Al on this list. It’s the first above level 50 dungeon we’ll be able to take Squads into. Also, I’m happy that Brayfox Hard made it to the Squad list. It’s one of the few level 50 dungeons I actually know well and like.

So, once this goes in, it’ll be viable to use Squads to supplement Beast Tribes while leveling from 50-60. This means it’ll be quite possible to reach 60 on an alt job completely solo… in a timely manner. Maybe even sorta quickly. I’m all for more solo options.

Aw… yeah! Fish tanks everywhere! This is such a great change. While I doubt I’ll need 6 tanks in my house (you can never tell) I love the option to have more of them. I invested in the biggest tank I could because that’s the only one I could have. Now, I can place some of the smaller tanks and go catch more fish to sell display.

I’ve heard this change is to remove the need to dye glamour specific colors to earn top points… which I’m all for. I was never going to use a rare dye to boost my score a few points for Fashion Report. It was silly that they asked us to. Granted, I did make a little Gil off of selling dye, but I’d rather the game be less complicated in the long run.

I enjoy Fashion Report, and was happy to score a 100% one week, but I haven’t really participated much since I got my Fenrir. Making it less complicated (sometimes just getting the gear is hard enough) will certainly encourage me to play it again.

This is the first step in making Eureka a bit easier for those of us who have lagged behind in levels. And for solo folks. I really would like to eventually do stuff in Eureka, so getting a boost from the challenge log is a nice bonus.

Also a bonus for playing Lord of Verminion. I guess it’s a good time to try to learn that game finally. But “Come Play Lord.” Really? 😀

This is a very good change. Now people don’t have an excuse for leeching off boss fights, and won’t get completely locked out just because they stopped to watch a cut scene in a 24 man raid.

I’m always up for new deliveries! But with a limitation of 12 a week, I guess the last real reason to go to Idylshire is gone. Aside from buying soils with Poetics.

This is a HUGE WIN! Thank you!

FANTASTIC improvement! Thank you!

This doesn’t affect me at all, but I think this is a FANTASTIC addition to helping color-blind folks out. I’m impressed!

YAY!

Absolutely interested in this. We’ll see how it works. I love the idea of helping build up a town in game. I wonder if it’s a server-wide effort, or if it changes based on an individual’s instance (like beast tribes). I always enjoy when instancing is used well.

I’m happy that Squad glamour is getting some more love. Not only that, but it’s great to have another location to access the Armorie and Glamour Commode. Now I don’t have to run all the way to the Inn to work on my glamour. A nice time saver. 🙂

This is a nice change. I really need to race my chocobos again.

I still haven’t tried Lord of Verminion, and I keep telling myself I really should. This sounds like a nice change for someone like me… who just wants to play and not deal with competitive play.

There’s a lot of nice changes here, though I still haven’t unlocked this yet. I really don’t want to play music on my keyboard, even if they’re improving it. I’d much rather use an .abc file or something.

The one note I did see is that you can now play in the Grand Company Barracks, which is a perfect place to practice without bothering anyone. I like that.

This is a nice, unexpected change. I don’t really have a need for Aetherpool weapons (beyond glamour), but allowing you to build it up in increments of +10/10 is a lot less painful than what was needed before.

I wonder if they’ll do that for the new Deep Dungeon.

Thank you, finally. I have gear I couldn’t send to the Grand Company, but I couldn’t bear to toss out because it felt a waste. I’m happy to get those inventory slots back.

This is good. I was kinda running out of reasons to do weekly deliveries. I just don’t have the inventory space to work on a separate set of gear for every crafter. I already grit my teeth to do it for gatherers.

This is nice. There are soooo many achievements, and it’s not always easy to keep up with them.

I don’t personally have a use for this — I tend to stay out of link shells unless I really need them. But it’s nice for people who can use it, and a good motion forward for cross-server communication, so Yay?

Very useful, thank you!

Good change!

Hmmm?

This is interesting, as long as people don’t abuse it. It reminds me a bit of the voting system we had for housing in EQ2. Anything that encourages decorating and housing involvement gets a thumbs up from me.

Interesting. I didn’t dislike the housing district music, but it does get a little redundant. I might have to test this.

…It’s… a step in the right direction, I suppose. Double the Mendacity and I might sit through the 30 mins of unskippable cutscenes. Maybe. No promises.

HAH! Ok. Yeah, I heard this was coming. Enjoy?

This is a nice change, especially since a lot of glamour-related activity is in the Inn room. It was a huge pain not to be able to dye or cast glamour inside. Didn’t make much sense.

Meh.

It’s good for people who need to catch up for these raids. But for me? 15 Mendacity is not going to encourage me to run raids I wouldn’t normally do anyhow.

I guess the idea is nice, and it’s needed to open up the old raid content, but it’s an overall “meh” for me. I’ll never use it.

Oh man. I forgot that they’d probably require a coin from Raba on top of the new currency for Mendacity upgrades. I don’t know how many coins I still have, but I really don’t want to have to run Raba more than needed. I guess I better check.

Yuck! I really don’t like this! I understand it will help funnel players into certain types of Frontlines, but man, this takes away choice in a bad way. I’ve only ever played Shatter and am only sorta-comfortable playing Shatter when it comes to PVP.

So if you take away my option to play Shatter on the day I work up the courage to PVP, I’m not going to play the other type, trust me. I just won’t play.

I guess I need to finish earning that set of glamour gear I liked before my options get nerfed.

BOOOO!

This is the first time I’ve outright HATED a patch note change. This is a terrible, terrible choice, and I hope that it gets removed. No one asked for this, and no one I’ve talked to wants this.

I have little reason to want to play the newest 24-man raid as it is, aside from a few upgrades to my existing tome gear. If I have to fight for gear drops on all of my jobs now, that’s one more frustration that pushes me away from these raids.

I understand they think this will make earning gear for alt job easier, but really, if you want that gear on your alt job, play that job and get it through Need. It’s not that hard to figure out.

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