Good Morning Friends! I am not doing super well because my lungs have conspired against me. however, I am still going to post today especially given that the lack of internet kept me from doing one on Tuesday. This friend is Quarrymill in the South Shroud and it is more specifically known for being the location that you queue up for Palace of the Dead one of two Deep Dungeon systems in Final Fantasy XIV. At the time of taking this picture, it is roughly 6 in the morning CDT and there is already a fairly decent crowd of people gathered here. I’ve spent a lot of time hanging out here and putting levels on alts, more specifically the 1-61 level range. Generally speaking, running 51-60 over and over has been a pretty relaxing way of putting on those early levels for alternate jobs.
However more recently I have encountered a different style of player, some working on their very first job grinding away fervently at Palace of the Dead. The Palace uses an alternate leveling system that increases by getting Aetherpool upgrades via the blue and silver chests in the dungeon. This caps out at +99 to armor and +99 to the weapon, and it is something that I have been capped at for several years now. I gradually got it there while leveling all of my jobs to 50, and the gains are extremely slow given that it was designed to gain levels as you descended through the depths of the dungeon. Folks specifically run 51-60 for experience gain efficiency, and if you are looking for fast Aetherpool gains you need to keep descending towards 100 which is considerably harder to find a group for.
That said I have encountered a number of players recently that are absolutely obsessed with getting to 99/99 as fast as they can. There have been several cases where their lust for those blue and silver chests has damned near wiped the party. Most specifically I have been seeing a lot of characters that have boosted and are now playing a Samurai or a Red Mage and attempting to grind them up through Palace of the Dead, with that character being the only one they have of any sufficient level. I’ve talked about this a few times and could not figure out what was going on, and why my super chill dungeon run game was filled with these annoying “tryhards” all of the sudden. So last night while idling in South Shroud I encountered someone pestering the fuck out of chat trying to get tips on how to level faster, so I decided to have a conversation. After that I talked to a few others and now have a pretty good idea of what is going on.
You need to understand that both Palace of the Dead and Heaven on High have a leaderboard associated with them ranking players based on solo and group play. As you progress in your save game you are given a score based on your performance and then this score is charted against other folks in your data center. Soloing Palace of the Dead specifically is considered to be one of the most challenging feats in the game and by clearing all of your way to level 200 on any job you gain a specific title… The Necromancer. More specifically you have to clear floors 1 to 200 solo without wiping and if you take a death past floor 100, that save is locked and you can progress no further forcing you to reset and start over again. Similarly, if you clear 100 floors of Heaven on High you are given the title of “Lone Hero”, and that dungeon’s point of no return is floor 30.
Now we move to the specific information that I found out, more specifically let’s talk about the above thumbnail. Roughly a week ago Zelpa one of the most popular creators in the FFXIV sphere released a video called “10 Most Prestigious Things to FLEX With in FFXIV”. More specifically the second item discussed in the video is getting the Necromancer title from Deep Dungeon. The first person I talked to was new to the game, a WoW Transplant, and was chasing the Necromancer title as a way of flexing and showing how cool he was. When he heard it was super rare and something that you could get without even having a character to max level, he set forth to make it happen. Given how many of these folks I am encountering, I am guessing this video or similar discussions lit a fire under a new crop of players to make life miserable for those of us who were just wanting a chill leveling experience.
However, it goes deeper than just chasing something rare. Another player that I talked with was going after the Necromancer title because they were always frustrated that they never managed to get “The Undying” title in World of Warcraft. This specifically was a title that existed during Wrath of the Lich King and involved completing the entirety of the Naxxramas 10 player raid without a single player taking a death at any point. World of Warcraft has had this history of taking things away from the players, and when the 4.0.3 patch landed with the release of the Cataclysm expansion the title was no longer available to players. The player I was talking with was afraid that they might miss their chance to get this title in Final Fantasy XIV if they didn’t hurry up and get it… not understanding that the game has a completely different design ethic associated with such things.
I am hoping given time that these folks chill out, but one of the things that need to be understood is that Final Fantasy XIV is not World of Warcraft. There is a completely different design to the two games, and nothing in FFXIV ever truly becomes irrelevant. Getting to level 200 in Palace of the Dead is still a massive challenge and it went into the game during the midpoint of Heavensward back in July of 2016. At this point, it is over five years old content and it is still as relevant today as it was the day it went into the game. It is highly unlikely that the Necromancer title will ever be removed from the game, largely because that just isn’t the style of the development team.
The other day I was guilty of making a tweet thread that gained more traction than I expected. However, I stand by those statements. I wish I could shake some sense into these players that are grinding FFXIV as they ground WoW… this will only end in you eventually burning yourself out. I know I’ve also tried to play Final Fantasy like I played Warcraft, and eventually, I would end up getting stuck in a grind and losing interest. This game will answer your desire for grinds and present before you and an endless buffet of tedium if you let it, but also at the same time reward you greatly for instead playing a little bit at a time. This mindset of doing a little bit of a lot of different things has been a revelation for me, and once I realized the game was actively trying to resist my grinder ways… I adapted and have been significantly happier as a result.
Getting some achievement just to prove to someone that you can… isn’t really going to impress anyone in the manner that you are hoping. Having fun and focusing on whatever brings you joy, and generally being a positive member of the community however will get you a long ways in this game.
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