Final Fantasy

Tiamat. I mean, Tioman. We expected to have to spend more time questing in the Dravanian Forelands before being allowed to ascend the mountain of Sohm Al and fulfill the promise we made to deal with the desperate dragon Nidhogg the only way we could – by killing his girlfriend, Tiamat. TioMAN. I don’t know WHY I keep making that mistake. We felt there’d be more makework quests between the killing of Ravana and the next step, but nope, up we went and took on the thoroughly enjoyable dungeon of Sohm Al. ...

Not harvesting. I figured out that I should do harvesting and/or crafting for awhile in FFXI, gain some levels. My armor craft is 52 or so, and my mining 51, but none of my other Disciple of Land/Hand jobs is anywhere near high enough to do me any good in Heavensward. Gathering is the exact sort of brainless, mechanical sort of thing I could do while watching Hulu. Having been informed that hard mode dungeons now gave experience, I almost took the plunge… but… there’s a new event going on! The Maiden’s Rhapsody. A mysterious traveler from a distant world has come to Eorzea to rediscover her mission, and her memories. ...

Chair goes boom. Kasul and I haven’t managed to be conscious and online at the same time FFXIV wants to be working for awhile. I’ve been spending time doing solo accomplishments. I’ve gotten paladin, warrior, dragoon, ninja, monk and dark knight to 50. That got me the “Warmonger” title. (Dark Knight wasn’t required for that, but I liked it so much). I don’t think I’ve done a dungeon since. Back in some festival or other, I saw a lot of people floating around in bomb chairs. I didn’t think much of it, but I started thinking I would really like to have one of those. The wiki said you could buy it when you had max rep with the kobolds, garnered by doing the daily kobold beast tribe quests. Those took me a few weeks, but I maxed rep and got the bomb chair, just tonight. ...

Kasul and I are going through our list of hard mode dungeons and clearing them out before continuing with the Heavensward storyline. There hasn’t really been a reason to do these dungeons before now. Since the launch of the expansion, superior gear is easy to come by, so the dungeon won’t offer any upgrades. And, I found out, once you’re post level 50, you don’t even get any experience. So, no experience and no upgrades means very little incentive to queue up for a dungeon. ...

Steps of Faith took a couple of tries I’ve been somewhat snarky in this blog and especially in the game about some of the folks we’ve encountered. The reluctance of the Crystal Braves to do pretty much anything. The motives of most of the NPCs. I’d been saying for weeks that the Crystal Brave Lalafell Yuyuhase was suspicious. He so very much was. I’d been saying for WEEKS that Wonder Twin Alphinaud was being handed titles and commendations for no reason. Alphinaud was being fed pablum to keep him docile and away from the truth. The very first time I saw the Sultana’s handmaiden, I said she was a spy. She was – a spy, and an assassin. ...

Light take all Ascians! Last week left us with two plotlines vying for our time; the aftermath of Iceheart’s transformation into the primal Saint Shiva, and the continued incursions of the mysterious Ascians into mortal affairs. Iceheart’s transformation was sparked by the war cry of an elder dragon. She hoped to deflect the coming war by renewing the original Saint Shiva’s pact with dragonkind – a pact that the Ishagardians, prompted by the Ascians, has been shredding. We defeated Iceheart/Shiva and ruined her plans… but at a high cost. The cries of the Dravanian Horde had awoken a powerful entity thought dead since the Calamity had rained down upon the land. And no Saint Shiva could lull it back to slumber. ...

Shiva Awakens We knew we were going to meet Saint Shiva tonight, but we weren’t sure how. And it turned out to be a little different from what we expected. But naturally, we couldn’t get right there. First, we had to deal with that most enticing of all MMO situations – politics. The leaders of the three allied Eorzean nations met in Ul’dah to discuss the uncomfortable revelations about the traitors in their midst. The Garlean Empire had been content to just fortify their existing strongholds in Eorzea until recently. Even after the destruction of their Ultima weapon, they seem eager to take on the combined Eorzean forces, and even the new Crystal Braves grand company is not slowing them down. ...

Fenris Last time we met up, Kasul and I failed spectacularly on Odin. That wasn’t our fault – probably. I was second tank, and Kasul was the off healer. Our problem was the DPS in the group. Not a lot we could do about that. But I have to admit that the whole Odin encounter is a rush. Camera pulled back as far as possible so I could see the entire arena, just like for Leviathan Extreme. The patterns are clear from that angle. As a tank, I get priority heals, and as a paladin, I have Hallowed Ground and three other defensive cooldowns to keep me up. Sure, we failed, but I had fun. I think Kasul did as well. ...

Moo? What I don’t get is why the sylph primal, Ramuh, is some old human. All the others we’ve seen so far, save King Mog, are the embodiment of primal forces. This guy looks like the Winter Wizard. Anyway. The first chapter of this new patch jumps right in with the aftermath of the Scions giving refuge to the Domans in Mos Eisley. Seems the Ala Mhigan refugees camped outside Ul’dah feel they should get a homeland as well. The plan, it turns out, is to ship them all to the Carteneau Flats, home to the Frontline PvP arena. Carteneau Flats was ground zero for the Calamity, where the Red Moon touched down on Eorzea and exploded, freeing Bahamut. I enjoy the occasional PvP match in Carteneau, but Kasul vehemently detests PvP. We both wondered (and still do) if we’re going to have to do PvP to finish this module – it IS the one where the Frontline PvP was first introduced. ...

Looking for a snack... What with vacations and connection issues and what-not, Kasul and I haven’t been able to get together for a decent story night for quite awhile. But we moved Heaven and Earth and got Skype going and hey, there we were, ready to save the world… again… But only after having to do a bunch of trivial tasks… again. Us world-savers were asked to play hide-and-seek with some children, move a crate which had had its contents settling after packing, and gag some old dude with a perfume-soaked rag so he could be bundled off to Mos Eisley. Leastways, that’s how I remember it. ...