So the last time I played Bozja content, Syn and I managed to complete Castrum Lacus Litore (finally). I’m not sure why we took a pause after that, but we did. A several month pause.

Little did we know that one more solo instance and series of cutscenes would have opened Delubrum Reginae. This was another 24-man raid, similar to an alliance raid, but with less strict party makeup. In fact, you could end up running the instance without healers or tanks if that’s how the duty finder picked them. You’re expected to make up for the lack of other classes by using the Bozja Lost Action skills – which is a system I basically understand, but don’t fully have my head wrapped around yet.

I was happy to know that this was a duty finder instance, rather than waiting around a zone to hope for something like the Castrum to pop. My happiness in that is short-lived, however, as I’ve heard there’s another raid that’s exactly like Castrum later in the quest line.

I did watch a video on DR before I went in – and I was happy that I did because some of those mechanics would have been difficult to understand by just eyeballing for the first time. I did manage to make it through the instance without too much death – it was really the last boss that got me (but I knew she would).

Finishing the instance opened a new zone for me – Zadnor – which I joke looks a lot like a beta version moonscape. At least, the first part of it does.

Ranking up is fast here, especially if you have a few friends helping out. I started this whole unexpected adventure at rank 11 and now I’m rank 18 without too much time or fuss. I need a couple more ranks before I can open the next area of the zone.

While I do enjoy Bozja content because I like doing open-field stuff more than dungeon stuff, I don’t really have a goal of relic weapons or anything here. I’m doing it mostly because to put it off any longer will likely mean it’ll be much harder to finish after the new expansion, and I’d like to see the story through. However, I’ve heard that the story itself ends rather abruptly, which is sad.

Since I have all jobs leveled to 80 on Ben, I don’t need Bozja for leveling or anything like that. This is, however, the first new content with cutscenes and character interactions that I’ve played since I’ve transformed my main into Ben. Though I’ve had a Ben character before this, most of what I’ve done with him was roulettes and story speed-through.

I need to play a character in story elements and cutscenes to really get a feel for them. I know that sounds odd, but something about watching my character (even if it’s just nodding) and seeing their facial expressions helps me feel more connected to them. I haven’t had the chance to do that with Ben until now.

I did put together a brand new glamour for Ben a few weeks back, and I’ve decided that the more I look at it, the happier I am with it. I also like the feel of playing Red Mage on Ben despite the fact that his gear is pretty rubbish for being my main character. I’m not too worried about this since this is the end of the expansion, but I would like to be more mindful of that next time around.

Some Thoughts Before Endwalker

I feel like going into Endwalker, I’m going to do my best to focus more on Ben as my main this time around. I really enjoy my alts, especially Amon, but I also feel like I’ve been stretching myself a bit too thin trying to do too much on too many characters.

This is specifically the case with my crafting jobs, where I have all level 80s on Ben and Amon (and another random 80 on Tad somewhere). I just don’t have the time and energy to try to gear up multiple crafters, earn the materia I need for (failed) melding, and try to do relic tools for all of their jobs.

I’ll likely still level Amon’s crafters because the leveling part is usually easy once a beast tribe drops. But the gearing up process will be left to scrips for him.

I know for sure that I’ll level at least three characters worth of gatherers, though. Maybe more, if I have my choice. Gathering daily maps has been my slow-but-steady source of income. Having more characters do this doesn’t take much time each day, and the gil returned for the time spent is more than worth it.

Anyhow, all this to say that I’m starting to get a feel for Ben and enjoy playing him as my main. I want to continue this into the next expansion where I expect to really get used to my choice of character transformation.