FFXIV: Patch 4.5 Impressions (No Spoilers)
I’ve only had a precious few hours with this update so far, and it’s been torn between crafting all the new things, immersing myself in story and fighting to get my ilvl up to the point I can run the 24-man raid. I was successful on most of these points on my main… my RP alt has a ways to go, though.
As you can see above, the highlight of the patch is that the little unicorn mount you get as a level 30 Conjurer can now fly… and they’ve added sparkles to it! Well… okay… it’s not really the highlight. But a lot of folks were excited about the primal ponies finally being able to fly. Seeing that I don’t own any, but I do own the unicorn, I dusted it off, and it’s now become one of my favorite flying mounts. Thankfully, you can now tell the mount roulette to only pull from your favorite list. So all is well.
4.5 Story (No Spoilers)
This is one of those patches where it’s part 1 of 2 of a larger story arc. It feels like the type of plot that is building a foundation for a larger conflict… because it is. Everything happening now in the story is leading us into the next expansion.
It’s been a pretty smooth ride. We had a number of theories confirmed, the biggest being the long hinted-at identity of the Shadowhunter. We’re also getting back in the thick of things when it comes to learning about Asicans and the Empire’s agenda. Or… at least… the emperor’s agenda.
And this guy.
I know I’m probably not supposed to like him, but I do. With that kind of grim fascination you get from watching a slow-motion disaster unfold. The team did an excellent job of designing this fellow, right down to the haughty walk.
Aside from that, the 4.5 story was a balance of long sessions of plot and discussion (though it’s interesting to see an alternate viewpoint and chew on the moral grey) and a bit of war action.
It’s no secret that the Empire is posed to push back into Ala Mhigo as of last patch. It’s interesting to play this scene out through the story dungeon, Ghimlyt Dark.
Syn and I went in completely blind last night, and were paired with a SAM and tank who were also both completely new. Despite the fact that I just barely squeaked by in terms of ilvl to play the dungeon, we did well.
The boss mechanics for the first two bosses were pretty intuitive – we always approach these new dungeons as a learning experience, talking out what we see and figuring out mechanics like a puzzle.
The final boss fight was a bit more tricky, and we wiped at the tail end when we didn’t get it down in time to stop the forced enrage. However, the second time through, we had a clearer vision of how to handle things and it went off without a hitch.
I got the orchestrion roll drop and one accessory upgrade that helped nudge me closer to ilvl 365, which was my goal. Eventually, I had to suck it up and run a Lighthouse for the coin drop. I had a stack of Raba coins, but I’d stopped running Lighthouse pretty early on. With one upgrade, I was able to hit my goal, which will allow me into the new 24-man raid.
Not that I’m dying to get in there. Rather, I’ll probably be dying all the way through it. I’ve heard it’s rough… but all the new 24-man content has been pretty rough the first week of release. I guess I’ll find out when I get there.
In the meantime, I’m exploring all the new furnishings and started to set up the new loft in our FC house. It’s a lot wider than the old stage loft, but I made it work. I also figured out how to turn the direction of the new stairs (which should have been a thing without glitches from the start) and get those to stack. I might write up a tutorial about it later.