The pool guys did in fact come out and power wash the pool yesterday and now we are playing babysit the water hose. It takes an excessively long time to fill up a pool with a single water hose. In truth I am questioning if it will be done by this evening… and then we have that awkward problem of do we leave it running tonight with the fear that it might overflow? As far as gaming time went I very obviously spent some more time in Stormblood. First I have to tell you that I unequivocally love this expansion. I can’t really get into all the reasons why without a whole bucket load of spoilers but suffice to say I am super impressed with what they have done and where they are going. Heavensward was this deep dive into the culture of the Ishgardians… and for the most part except for a few notable exceptions they were assholes. This expansion before launch seemed like it would be a similar exploration of Doma and Ala Mhigo… but was I was not expecting was this wonderful journey through the culture of the Raen and Xaela Au’Ra. This is really making me hope that in future expansions they might explore the culture of the Roegadyn or the Lalafel… because really I want to know why the Lala are like the most prolific race in Eorzea. If there is someone pulling the strings… 99.9% of the time it is going to be a Lalafel.
As far as my further journeys in Stormblood, I have now made it through the third dungeon which we ran as soon as we could get enough people around to do it last night. I also ran the second dungeon again for Neph and the first trial, which the more I am exposed to it the more I like it. There are so many cool elements and mechanics going on there that I am really looking forward to learning the fight on Extreme mode. I have no clue how far away the fourth dungeon is, but I have more or less finished up in the Steppes and am returning to Yanxia for what I am assuming is going to uncover the back half of that zone. Every single bit of the story has been good, and it is making me bummed that I am currently story locked until I figure out a way to ding 67. I am roughly a quarter of a level from dinging so I have a handful of options… but the one I am probably going to take is to run back and start doing side quests in the Steppes until I can push on through. Whatever lead on the content I did have has now evaporated once I went back to following the MSQ only. In theory tonight I will spend some time collecting Aether Currents so I can fly in a third zone, and doing side quests for probably the Mol.
The Steppes of Azim might be my favorite zone in all of Final Fantasy XIV. I always seem to go for the Nagrand like zones in games, the big flowing grasslands perforated by rocky outcroppings. I thought the Heavensward zones were physically imposing, but the Stormblood zones overall feel much larger in size and scope. I am still behind as the highest progressed finished dungeon four last night, and I am just barely on the other side of the third dungeon. I have however passed a lot of other players like Neph and Ash, but still feel like I am lagging from where I would like to be. I figure this is going to be a week and a half in total to get to 70 and start gearing up for the end game proper, or in my case… start leveling the Samurai. I have what I think are several Warrior quests to do so I might simply focus on doing those at the beginning of the night and see where that gets me level wise.
