FFXIV: Completing Dawntrail – My Fourth Time Through!
Posted on February 9, 2026 by Aywren
Over this past weekend, I finished Final Fantasy XIV Dawntrail patch 7.4 on my fourth character – Tad, who mains Machinist. I’ve been buckling down and pushing all of my on-level alts through Dawntrail at this point since I’m able to craft them decent end-game gear that will carry them all the way to the next expansion.
This was the first time I’ve focused on Machinist at end game, and I found that I really do enjoy the job’s feel and aesthetics at level 100! Some of the changes to the job have brought neat skill animations, which leaves me feeling quite satisfied.
Especially when Tad pulls out the big guns!
While I’m not super practiced at Machinist, I also didn’t have too much trouble figuring out how to play the job at level cap to a decent enough degree. Of course, this built off the playstyle the job has had for the past few years, so that’s a big help. I’m glad they got rid of the original concept of overheating that Machinist debuted with because that was more annoying than anything else.
I also am slowly building a more comfortable familiarity with the Dawntrail content, including what I still feel was a decent jump in skill demand that dungeons ask from casual players. I repeat that the new pity system they’ve implemented for dungeon bosses has been a heaven-send. While I haven’t needed it all that much, when I do, and it’s there for me, I’m very grateful.
I still don’t agree that story dungeons should be more difficult – people who like difficult content aren’t usually the ones even running the dungeons after finishing MSQ – I do admit that practicing the content as I’ve moved through the expansion several times has helped me to boost my own player skill, if only a little. I’m now having some of the Dawntrail dungeons popping up in Leveling Roulette as I’m gathering paste for my relic weapon, so I’m thankful that I’ve had a little practice with Trusts.
All that being said, I still have two more alts that I want to complete Dawntrail. They’re sitting at level 90, ready to travel to Tural. It’s all just a matter of me working up the desire to repeat the content two more times.
I asked Syn which character I should focus on first – Ben or Tai – and she chose Ben. So, it’ll be back to Red Mage MSQ once more. Not that I’m sad about that at all. Tai mains Reaper, and I have very little practice in playing melee DPS in the Dawntrail era. Eventually, though, I know I’ll face the music as my goal is to push as many alts through Dawntrail as I can before Fan Fest!