I appear to have fallen into a new normal with Final Fantasy XIV. Last night I logged in, ran a Praetorium with Grace and then spent the rest of the night running Hidden Gorge. I finally feel like I understand the general mechanics of that battleground. I realize that probably isn’t what they are actually called in Final Fantasy XIV, but battleground is a portable mechanic and something that most folks understand. Essentially as far as I can tell there are a bunch of mechanics you need to pay attention to, which is ultimately the sign of a good game mode. There is no one single objective but several other things that you really should be paying attention to rather than just pushing forward with all of your might.
At a high level it is in fact about destroying the opposing teams towers which drops the shield around their main tower and then taking it out. However there is a side mechanic surrounding collecting ceruleum in the center of the map, which is used to allow each side to spawn war machines that can be used to push the north or south lane more effectively. Every so often a train will spawn and rush to the depot in the center of the map. Whoever hold this platform captures the supplies which will either give your team a buff, or cause one of a handful of things to happen which are generally positive for your team. There are also Goblin Mercenaries that you can recruit to fight for your team, meaning there are a bunch of different ways you can help your team be more efficient, but at the end of the day it is still about knocking down three towers and winning the match.
All in all it is a fairly relaxing way to farm a bunch of the Irregular Tomestones of Law needed to get goodies from the event. There is also a really nifty sky mech mount available for 20,000 Wolf Marks so it has the side effect of me also slowly working on that number since I have picked up the armor set that I really wanted some time ago. The matches last a maximum of 20 minutes, and can go considerably faster if one side steamrolls the other side. What I like about it however is that it is predictable and like clockwork I am gaining another 50 poetics, 500 or 1000 wolf marks depending on win condition, and 5 Irregular Tomestones. There are however a handful of players that apparently really care about this mode, and I feel bad for us damned dirty casuals ruining their fun. However for the most part it is super chill, just make sure you go to the Wolves Den to set your PVP Bars before going in the first time.
As far as the spoils of the event go, I have already picked up two mounts. The first of which was the horse that drops from Shiva. I could of course farm this, but it is way easier to just spent 30 tokens and pick it up. From this same mount series the Ifrit mount is also available, and I hope to grab it as well.
Of the expensive mounts I went for the “Dark Amaterasu” mount, which should make Ash happy. Essentially I have now farmed up 80 tokens and decided to split it for a cheap 30 token mount and an expensive 50 token mount. There are several more that I want to get, but I mostly focused the two I wanted the most. I admit the Shiva mount is entirely for the music that plays in the background while you ride it.
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Final Fantasy XIV – PC – Cactuar Server
Last night I spent the majority of my evening hanging out with Grace and Mor in Final Fantasy XIV. First I have to give a massive shout out to Thalen who crafted a full set of Samurai gear and had it waiting on me in the mailbox by the time I logged in for the evening. Other than the fact that he is just an amazing human being, I think he was wanting to quell any possible excuse I had for not playing. In the past I have talked about hitting walls where I just don’t have the gear level to be able to complete the next story dungeon. In one quick motion, Thalen wiped all of these excuses off the table.
Final Fantasy XIV – PC – Cactuar Server – The Praetorium
In part I came back specifically last night because there is an event happening that I have missed out on the last two times it has been in place. Essentially Yoshi-P and crew are exceptionally good at bribing people to do content that might be less than popular. Essentially you are rewarded for running less popular Dungeons, Raids and PVP Activities with special tomestones that you can then turn in for a number of cosmetic or non-game-play impacting items. These include some pretty rare chase mounts and as a result it seems way easier to grind out some bookrocks rather than hoping and praying for a drop to happen. I started the evening with Grace and I running Praetorium for xp and the 10 Irregular Tomestones of Law that you get for completing it.
Final Fantasy XIV – PC – Cactuar Server – Hidden Gorge
From there at the suggestion of Mor I wound up trying out some PVP in the form of the Hidden Gorge map. This is effectively Summoners Rift or whatever it is called in your MOBA of choice, as you protect minions as they attack towers. If you take out two towers you can effectively assault the “Nexus” and win the match. The match itself is constrained to twenty minutes and you will be rewarded 5 special bookrocks and 50 poetics per completion as well as 500 wolf marks for a lose and 1000 for a win. So it seems like a pretty chill way to sit back and get your event currency while also racking up marks that you can spend on some of the sweet PVP cosmetic sets.
Final Fantasy XIV – PC – Cactuar Server – Hidden Gorge
I can’t say that I actually did a great job, but I did manage to effectively hold my own. This is probably where I am going to be living for the next bit because it also seems to be a reasonable way of leveling alternate jobs. I spent the majority of the evening working on my Bard and managed to get it to 73 before the evening was over. Between running a Praetorium and a bunch of Hidden Gorge matches, I should be able to rack up some of those mounts in relative short order. Does this mean I finally have traction in Final Fantasy XIV again? Quite possibly… but I still have yet to finish up the main story quest which I will likely be doing in between PVP matches.
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Phantasy Star Online 2 – Original Xbox One
This weekend was one where I was all over the place on my gaming. There is a huge part of me that wants to be playing Phantasy Star Online 2 since several of the AggroChat crew are currently enthralled by it. The biggest problem I have is that I know how good this game looks on a PC and as a result I am constantly confronted by how awful it looks on my base Xbox One. I know at some point on the near horizon it will be releasing for PC and that the characters will be cross compatible. In theory I should be able to catch up without much issue, and all of this means that my desire to actually play is severely diminished. I did get to level 10 however before ultimately “noping out” of its chunky graphics.
Trials of Mana – Nintendo Switch
I also played a bit of Trials of Mana and progressed the story to the point of being able to my make very first class change choice. On Duran I went light side and became a Knight, on Riesz I went Dark to eventually become a crazy dragoon, and on Angela I went light to go Sorceress because the Dark “blood magic” route seemed like a trap. Still greatly enjoying this game but I am only really playing it before bed, and even then only until sleep claims me. The prolific appearance of golden angel statues seems to help me out in this mission as it never feels like I have to make it much further to get to a save point.
Final Fantasy XIV – PC – Cactuar Server
I’ve also been trying to ease my way back into Final Fantasy XIV, with minimal success. This is in part because my friends Bells and Zuu are now playing, and I want to be able to hang with them and run content as they get to various dungeons. The other side of this point is that an event is about to start today where you can farm moogle widgets and earn older mounts. I like mounts so it might be fun to poke around and farm up a bunch while the event is going on. Thalen in theory says he can craft a lot of the gear pieces that would potentially make my viable again, so here is hoping I can actually get back in the swing of things. I have no clue what the struggle is with this game, but it is real.
World of Warcraft – PC – The Scryers Server
On the World of Warcraft front, I managed to finish the Death Knight and am in the process of gearing him out. This makes my seventh character to level 120 since the Winds of Wisdom buff went active, and I went from having only a couple of characters horde side to play around to a pretty sizable stable of options. I am still not quite certain what I plan on “maining” come Shadowlands, but ultimately I have narrowed it down to a handful of options.
Warrior – This is my OG love as far as classes go, but ultimately it all depends upon how good tanking feels on it. Last expansion at the start tanking felt like I was being completely ineffective. The positive here is that I really do love Fury as well and gives me an enjoyable DPS alt for running content and raiding.
Demon Hunter – Once the Warrior failed out after getting it to 120, I rapidly leveled a Demon Hunter because tanking felt extremely strong. Over the course of the Battle For Azeroth expansion, I have come to really enjoy it.. but I do not really love DPSing on it.
Paladin – After leveling a Paladin on both Alliance and Horde sides, I have really come to love the class. Tanking feels great and I have always loved Ret as a dps spec. This even would give me the option of healing… which admittedly will probably never happen but of the WoW options this was the only healer I could actually stand playing.
Death Knight – When I finally hung up my Warrior shield at the tail end of Wrath of the Lich king it was for playing the Death Knight and I “mained” this all through Cataclysm. Playing the Death Knight has made me remember what I loved about it, so it now is in the running as well.
World of Warcraft – PC – The Scryers Server
I legitimately have no clue what I am going to choose for a class, but at least for now I am somewhat leaning in the Paladin direction. As far as World of Warcraft projects going forward I will be working on finishing off the Monk since he is in his 80s. That would give me a 120 for every class but Priest, Shaman and Rogue which are not exactly favorites of mine. However I like playing all of them more than a Mage, so that is ultimately why I chose to boost that . Monk is fun, but not nearly as fun as leveling some of the other classes I have had in my stable so far. I should give Brewmaster another shot, but so far leveling as Windwalker has had a pretty high time to kill.
I am all over the place right now when it comes to my gaming habits and I guess for now that is perfectly fine. What have you all been up to over the last few weeks? What games do you find yourself drawn to? Leave me a note in the comments below.
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Featuring:Â Ammo, Ashgar, Belghast, Grace, Kodra, Tamrielo and Thalen
Tonight we start off with what has become a regular side topic of us talking about our lives dealing with the pandemic. From there we dive into Cloudpunk a game about a digital dog and delivering packages in a blade runner landscape. Bel dives into a discussion about how Modern Consoles are effectively turning into Gaming PCs and the weirdness of cross generational purchases for Microsoft games. Bel also waxes nostalgic about Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater and how he is greatly looking forward to the upcoming remaster of 1+2 coming this September. We end up getting off on a side jaunt into Elder Scrolls games, and then transition into a talk about Sodoku. Finally we talk some about the announcement of a brand new Paper Mario game and the new footage available for Ghosts of Tsushima.
