Final Fantasy 14

[hasty kayak]

a few sources include leveling your jobs, doing msq, beast tribe dailies, so on

there are lists on wiki n such but its rife with spoilers, so id avoid that

[rough crescent]

You’ll drown in titles in time don’t worry

[abstract ibex]

I would use my keyboard on console but its hooked up to my pc upstairs so itd be a hassle constantly moving it

[hasty kayak]

yeah, its a bit slow going at first but the more you do the more stuff you'll have

[abstract ibex]

Oh i do have a title

[hasty kayak]

one of my personal favorites purely-by-name-coolness is coeurlfist, which is from ARR monk relic weapon. n the one im most proud of is eurekan explorer, which is completing story portion of a side mode called eureka

there really is a whoole lot of random titles with equally random conditions, so just have fun with the game n ull get funky titles for sure

[abstract ibex]

Holy crap its the transgender potion

I need this irl

[hasty kayak]

careful with those, more cost real money (though we'll b gettin a free one when the graphical update hits)

[abstract ibex]

Im not using it

[hasty kayak]

yeah its been sittin in my chocobo saddlebag also

[rough crescent]

my sibling is nb and appreciates fantasia a lot, it’s great to have as an option

[hasty kayak]

nb option for wol.... truly a dream

[rough crescent]

sadly the game cannot address you using singular they

[hasty kayak]

alas, only in my brain

[rough crescent]

so my sibling now uses a plugin that randomises the pronoun characters use for them

[plucky cairn]

This is the time that bringi installs a mod

[hasty kayak]

eeeeeh actually, i feel more comfortable with havin the she rather than he. neither are as good as they, but she is better given the limited options

though thats a person to person thing, either way its nice to hear theres a mod like that

[slim cairn]

Mod would be cool, but i probably would somehow install a virus while trying to mod

[plucky cairn]

There is a whole custom client for plugins

It's the easiest way to manage them by far

[abstract ibex]

Oh theres gonna be a graphics update?

[elfin wave]

[plucky cairn]

IIRC it ships with the expansion, but don't expact massive changes

It'll be better textures for equipment rolled out slowly, better shaders, better shadows and better faces

Mostly a small facelift

They give a fantasia because some faces wil have a different feel, and if you don't like what you ended up with, you can fantasia it

[minor sorrel]

Better grapes!

[hasty kayak]

oh nooo not the end of squaaaaaapes

[abstract ibex]

I wont be able to see the fabled low poly grapes

[plucky cairn]

This is the level of difference you can expect

So not massive

But better hair, better definition on the face

Better and more natural shadowmaps across the face

[abstract ibex]

That looks much better imo

[plucky cairn]

The dragon people are the ones that are getting the best treatment

[elfin wave]

AYO?

[plucky cairn]

Look at the difference in texture on the scales

And the horns

[slim cairn]

Nice

[hasty kayak]

im, kinda gonna miss the eyes i must say. we'll see when it comes

if push comes to shove ill have two free fantasia

maybe ill even entertain that full out furry idea

[hasty kayak]

it will make my au ra retainer look nice tho

(oh ye i didnt even tell you that, i paid for an extra retainer so i have monk lala botanist lion n miner lizard)

[elfin wave]

i have enough trouble keeping up with two retainers

I have WAR Lala (who hangs out outside my house) and Viera uhhhh
miner i think

[minor sorrel]

I think i used one fantasia i got at the start... to make my tail more fluffy

[hasty kayak]

(nod nod) always pick fluffiest options

[abstract ibex]

Oh no Leviathan is loose

[elfin wave]

"Fuck, another Primal?"

BTW the Trial will have (Hard) after it, ignore that.
The only times the (Hard) matters is for the Titan/Garuda/Ifrit refights, every other (Hard) trial is just faking it

(They did level 50 versions of those 3 fights, as well as (Extremes), which are what Trials generally go to for a Trial rematch now. ARR and HW are weird about Trials.)

lmao i found my EW-era WoL
LOOK AT THIS D00D

LOOK AT THAT HEAD-ASS HAIRCUT 💀

[hasty kayak]

it feels wrong to not see the pizza cutter and rathalos crown lol

[hasty kayak]

squint hc did you. did you have the whiskers face paint lmaoooooo

that's beautiful

[elfin wave]

Yup

i went to the aesthetician a lot before the second Fantasia

at least i knew that dark blue hair was right

[hasty kayak]

tis a cute WOL full of murder regardless pat pat

ive been thinkin and, as much as i want to just fuck off to therapy island for the entire day, i do have a deadline of sorts to consider. so the plan for today is gonna be to unlock the remainin tribes, given the daily 12 limit. hence we'll b runnin that optional dungeon

[elfin wave]

i thought you meant irl then i realised you meant DT, lmao

oh yeah i wrote up all my favourite songs/dungeons in FFXIV last night for some fucking reason and almost all of them are ShB/EW

i may be biased

[hasty kayak]

only slightly

its okay my favorite dungeon is the completely monk centric one from sb

the boss uses same weapons as me, how can i not??

[elfin wave]

[plucky cairn]

I have been mulling what my favourite dungeon might be since you brought it up and I am not sure

I mean excluding variant dungeons of course

IDK with the fact that they keep the cooler mechanics for trials and raids, most dungeons don't stand out that much.
They are all pretty alright but usually aren't super hype for me.
Maybe ||Kitesis Hyperborea|| since it's such an interesting whole with the zone it's in

Ruby Palace is an excellent setting but I don't like the bosses much

Actually, ||Matoya's Relict|| I think does it, I like all the bosses there a lot and it's pretty great

[elfin wave]

Interesting takes

[hasty kayak]

hot take, they should make more job centric dungeons, i think it could make for really fun ideas. you could argue cases like "wanderers palace is scholar bc scholar deals with tonberries a lot", but idk if i fully buy it

[plucky cairn]

There is a rpr centric dungeon at some point

In fact, I suggest you pick it up since there is some very minor unique dialogue if you did the rpr quest in the MSQ related to that dungeon

And you love collecting those

Also the RPR quest is kind of a banger

It does start at lvl 70 so it shouldn't be much of a grind at least

[elfin wave]

also RPR goes hard in general

it's my preferred "kill shit fast" job for a reason

[plucky cairn]

It is very fun to use

[hasty kayak]

just a quick question then, is the rpr dungeon the same dungeon that unlocks gatherer tribe quests or no

[elfin wave]

nop, it's part of MSQ if I recall

[hasty kayak]

okay, guess ill try to powerlevel it then

at some point

[elfin wave]

no rush

[plucky cairn]

As HC said

I want to guess 6.3 but I am not sure

I think that you just need lvl 80 and the quest completed for the dialogue

So 10 quick levels should do it

Maybe just unlocking it would be good enough but might as well do the quest IMO, to make sure

[hasty kayak]

... HUH. wow. ||radz-at-han|| is apparently really groovy when it's not bein ||actively threatened by an apocalypse ||

who wouldva thunk

anyway i immediately broke my plans lmao

[plucky cairn]

Lol what did you do?

[hasty kayak]

i saw ||the all-role-quests-done quest available||

[slim cairn]

Smh

[plucky cairn]

Lol

That's a good one too

[hasty kayak]

we could do SO MUCH cool stuff with the place, n you wanna turn it into a warehouse???

[elfin wave]

There is a reason why this video exists , lmao ||https://youtu.be/OEBvBOn9KZ8||

i'm an Old Sharlyan lad myself but I can't deny Radz goes hard

(even if it's just ||Flow|| but funky)

[hasty kayak]

thats absolutely amazing

[elfin wave]

yw

[plucky cairn]

Did you notice that theme also contains flow?

18 seconds forward

[hasty kayak]

i mean i didnt particularly think it that interestin since its a leitmotif n those are everywhere, but yeah

[plucky cairn]

I really like how all the music is often taken and reused in interesting ways instead of making completely separate pieces of music

[hasty kayak]

very toby fox, ye

its always fun when game osts do that

it really is just so funny that amids all the fantasy, ||garlemald decided "fuck that. fallout"||

... ||even magitek is this universe's power armor now that i think about it||

[hasty kayak]

it was fun ||seein nero again in his dumbass armor||

story wise, at least. i of course ||see him like every other day, thanks prae||

yay, one part outta like million to-do done :>

[slim cairn]

I can’t tell gen and bringy apart

[plucky cairn]

I was peer pressured into this

[hasty kayak]

the cult! the cult! the cult!

[plucky cairn]

Oh BTW, when do you plan to try for ||Hydaelyn||(EX)?

[hasty kayak]

probably sometime after im done with at least msq patches

[minor sorrel]

So, next year?

[plucky cairn]

lol

[hasty kayak]

hey

[plucky cairn]

Tch you are up to join as well for that?

[minor sorrel]

[hasty kayak]

i mean i know, but hey

[minor sorrel]

Ehh

[plucky cairn]

I was thinking that by forcing you and HC, Tawmy and their friend, we are 2 off from a full party so that'd be nice

[rough crescent]

Halvar and i are always up for high difficulty content

[plucky cairn]

We are at least 5 assuming HC can be forced into it (he can)

I plan to try to join a farm group sometimes this week to refresh my memory, watched a video but like, not the same thing

[elfin wave]

[hasty kayak]

wow ew tribes rlly decided to just go HAM at the music, huh

thats 2/3 bangers

[slim cairn]

Damn brings still never asks me to join things

[hasty kayak]

im not doin hard stuff with 300

[plucky cairn]

We could definitely try

[slim cairn]

Im teaching anyways lol

Gym class

Omg brings, you and I should do a sport together

Whats the worse that can happen

[plucky cairn]

Ok so, quick primer for what higher difficulty changes compared to normal modes.
A lot more attacks aren't telegraphed compared to normal mode, as in, you don't see the zone they will hit.
They are usually telegraphed in other ways (a castbar with the name of the attack, and/or an animation of the boss) but you have to learn what they are since the game wont directly tell you to stack to share the damage, for example.
Usually the attack timings are a lot faster, you have less time to think and adjust, especially in savage, Extreme is pretty lenient.

Bringing food is usually a good idea, the buff to your vitality and stats is pretty impactful, it lasts 30 minutes and persists through death, so it's a worthwhile investment.

As for tinctures, I mean if you want to really learn how to do stuff well, it's good to have potions to use during bursts but they costs a lot and aren't really worth it unless your group knows the fight well enough that DPS is a concern. (no sense wasting money if you get exploded at 95% hp of the boss still)
Some people bring weaker potions to pratice weaving them in their rotation, and swap to stronger ones when it looks like a kill is possible as the group mastered the fight.

Materia: I like to show up to harder content with all the slots at least melded with something, anything really.

[rough crescent]

The most important thing is to blame healers if things go wrong

[hasty kayak]

arent you a-

[rough crescent]

[hasty kayak]

||shrodingers starship...||

||"lets give it war ptsd!"||

[elfin wave]

||war
war never changes||

[hasty kayak]

<@&1128722919405650000> pspspspspsps

[plucky cairn]

Ye I'm already on the right DC; just let me get a relic RQ

[elfin wave]

Light or CHAOS?

[hasty kayak]

[elfin wave]

ah i have to log out from my Home World first

[slim cairn]

Bringy

You are so addicted to that game

[hasty kayak]

outdps'ed by summoner gen at every encounter... help, the shame

[plucky cairn]

It's a class I can play without thinking about it, which is a big advantage

I was basically just bopping at rhytm with the music the whole time

[hasty kayak]

because summoner requires no brain to have, hence why gummy is able to play ff14

[rough crescent]

smn really is almost offensively simple hahaha

[plucky cairn]

With WHM I have to pay attention, despite the fact it's 2 maybe 3 buttons I have to press to DPS

[hasty kayak]

earth, holy n whatever that lily dmg skill is called?

n apply dot, of course

[plucky cairn]

Yeah ,earth changes into a light attack or something

[hasty kayak]

(i dont have that lily skill yet idk if you save those for heals or what)

[plucky cairn]

But it's the same thing

No it's the opposite, if you use the heal skills 3 times you can then do the damage one

With a separate resource

[hasty kayak]

ooooooh

[elfin wave]

sage gaming

[hasty kayak]

ye im a bit baby whm for that yet

[plucky cairn]

Basically it gives you back the DPS you lost for using the 3 heal skills

Since they use a global cooldown

Which you would usually use to just damage

[hasty kayak]

ye okay ill give you that, the premise seems pretty neat

not as neat as ||bunni rave|| but ill certainly give it a shot (they say, as if that wasnt a given already)

[plucky cairn]

Also the concept of a ||bar at the end of the universe|| is cool as fuck by deafult

[hasty kayak]

at least there will b a ||bunbun||

[plucky cairn]

I think the quest ended there for months before the the actual tribe came out, and I was losing my mind because the idea sounded incredible

[slim cairn]

[plucky cairn]

I will be changing my main but I am 100% looking forward to see what they add to SMN with DT, it does need more shit

[hasty kayak]

its really nice that ew tribes have a joint overarching theme of ||trying to find a new purpose||

"eminently killable" i see someone is askin for a pick in its circuits

i love that they made ||dynamis into perfect plotdevice bullshit magic|| im not even mad

[plucky cairn]

If they can pull off bullshit magic, it's in that zone

[hasty kayak]

"enjoy buildin a ||cafe in space!" if you fail you'll warp the new star into evil and doom us all, again.||

[rough crescent]

halvar will gladly join for the ex trial too

he does say we should play it synced to min ilvl since the regular item level sync is too weak

[plucky cairn]

Hmm, we could definitely at least try it that way

If the others feel like it

I'm dubious since it's the first synched hard content for HC I belive as well as bringi

I'm not against at least trying it that way

[plucky cairn]

Even if by the end we end up unsynching it, it'd be useful to give them a measure of the usual difficulty of an EX trial

[hasty kayak]

[plucky cairn]

The writing team had fun with that one

[slim cairn]

Heh

[elfin wave]

https://varethane.tumblr.com/post/727026039175495680/picking-up-an-alt-class-that-starts-at-level-1

goddamn shoelace website

[hasty kayak]

.... the therapy island was a trap. now that i have animals to feed they ensured ill have to like, login daily forever

because what am i, a monster able to let them starve??

[plucky cairn]

I don't think they starve, that said, at some point you do unlock the ability to have mammet do that shit for you

[hasty kayak]

they starve in my heart

for my affection

bc pets

and also food

[plucky cairn]

lol

[elfin wave]

i don't think i could go back to my island after playing Umineko

in the back of my mind I'll be like "there better not be any fuckin witches around here"

[steady saffron]

Hey guys, I saw you were planning on doing Extremes and I was wondering if I could join whenever I get a sub, which would be around DT's release. Is there a chance you guys would be up to play EW Extremes at around that time and would have a free slot?

[plucky cairn]

For now the plan is just ||Hydealyn EX|| and we don't have an exact date yet.
So far we have 5 confirmed people (assuming HC is game) so we do have slots

From there we could do more, I'd be happy to, maybe farm some cats.

[steady saffron]

Nice, thanks

[rough crescent]

i won't be available for endwalker ex trials after dawntrail releases

[hasty kayak]

help the therapy is guilttripping me

damn that highlight did not resolve at all as intended

[plucky cairn]

Yeah after for at least a few weeks it'll be MSQ time 100%, and probably there will be DT EX to do, the idea was to try them before

You said "around" so I assumed sometimes before the release

[steady saffron]

Well, I was planning like maybe a week after DT (after many people will prolly have finished it) but I can try to get a sub a week before DT, though low chances

[rough crescent]

nah no way, i won't be available for ex trials a week after release

[plucky cairn]

Yeah it'd be hard to swing after the release

[hasty kayak]

... ppl can finish an expansion in a week?

[steady saffron]

It took me 3 days for EW

[hasty kayak]

how slow is my pace?

[plucky cairn]

Yeah I don't plan to take more than a week to actually finish the story, but IIRC the first two EX trials are out right away

[steady saffron]

I understand, I'll try getting it before but if I can't it is what it is

[plucky cairn]

Like, in a patch 2 weeks after the release

And the two weeks are used to get some gear to do the EX

[hasty kayak]

i see my idea of "playin together" was wastly inaccurate lmaooo

i dont think i can force myself to play msq that fast

[plucky cairn]

To be fair, EW is the only exp I played on release and that one was kind of a mad rush to get to the end because of how insane that was

Maybe DT it'll be more chill

I can actually check how long it took tho, I need to find the old thread in obsolete gaming

[steady saffron]

I only played ShB on release and that actually took longer than a week because leveling took too long

Since the quests didn't give near enough and Fates gave me jack

In EW, which I played about a month after release I didn't have the same issue

[plucky cairn]

Ok so, released December 3rd, I was done on Dec 9th

I did do the last zone in one gulp as well because that part is hard to put down

As bringi can attest

[elfin wave]

[slim cairn]

Bringy

I need arson help

[plucky cairn]

This time I'll also start a few days late

Since I have to level VPR before I start

[hasty kayak]

i mean less so "hard to put down" more so "my plan for saturday was to just play msq" but yaknow

if it was regular workweek when i usually play itd b in chunks like everythin

[rough crescent]

wowzers this reminds me of my sge grind on day 1 of endwalker

bozja helped a lot

[hasty kayak]

well, my plan is to play on my normal pace so ill reach yall in a few months

[plucky cairn]

My bet is 2 weeks

But we will see

There is a different energy on release, with everyone talking about the story, that does make you want to play the game and partecipate.
Or at least that was for me.
My guess is that it will infect you as well to a certain extent, but I might be wrong

I was also lucky that I had a lot of free time on the release week, so chances are I will be slower even sacrificing some sleep (which I will do, I know myself)

[minor sorrel]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4770JLJq1Zk

[elfin wave]

i think bringi should listen to Answers again now they've finished EW

[plucky cairn]

So, i've been doing Aloalo island and that ||faerie has a fucking gun||

||Why the fuck does the faerie has a gun?|| Who gave it to them?!?

[plucky cairn]

This is really interesting to read after the fact btw

||"figure out towers -> i imagine we fight zenos somewhere around here, he doesnt strike me as final boss kinda deal unfortunately"||
Pretty right on the mark here

||"uh oh the source ain't doin too hot n all the aether's bein spent -> ??? maybe its bein channeled into the moon? the towers do have that ominous red pillar of light -> uh oh the moon is evil -> lets change our genre into sci-fi n let cid realize his ultimate dreams -> small step for scion but big step for the star, kinda, ignore that allagans did this already -> we fight theater kid here perhaps n possibly learn more horrid allagan secrets"||
Honestly basically how it went down, except it was all at ||lvl 83||

||“somehow the bitter exes primals are part of this, the current workin theory bein hydaelyn is.... hydaelyn the source the star n zodiark is moon -> insert gaius quote "for world of men to mean anything men must own the world" attack n dethrone god"||
Wrong in what happened but not in the underlying themes, the rest is off but mostly because everything that happens is goddamn insane.

I should write my theories on DT before we go in as well, so I can have fun seeing how wrong I was in a few months time

[elfin wave]

||statice best girl||

there is a reason I HAD to do Aloalo as a MCH

[plucky cairn]

I'm going in as DNC

Did all of the variant dungeons with lore appropriate classes

I'm PLD in the first, SAM in the 2nd and DNC in the 3rd

Playing SAM made me sad because it made me realise how much I forgot how to play it properly

Used to be 2nd nature

[elfin wave]

Isn't this a little bit tempting though?

[plucky cairn]

Nah, DNC is more appropriate given the zone, feels more at home to me

Also insane AOE damage comes handy with all the goddamn packs you have to kill every run

[elfin wave]

Well, ranged DPS for that fight would work either way, I feel like it requires a lot of movement

[steady saffron]

You can't say that when you kept dying last we did it together 🤣

As a Ranged DPS

[plucky cairn]

SMN was also kind of tempting, given how your ||adversaries are some form of weird arcanists|| but I stuck to DNC

As I play SMN all the time, but don't always get the chance to play DNC

[elfin wave]

pizza
pasta
put it in a box

[hasty kayak]

its cute that you think i dont listen to emotional damage answers like once a week

today is a tuesday and you know what that means

CUSTOM DELIVERIES WEEKLY REROLL LETS GOOOOOOOOOOO

beelinin to sharly as soon as i get home n finish cookin (i plan to make spaghetti today)

[elfin wave]

lesgooo

[hasty kayak]

me about ff14

(remember how i said custom deliveries will b first thing i do, whoops again, tribes snuck up on me)

[plucky cairn]

@abstract ibex sorry for ping, I forgot, which Data Center are you on again?

[hasty kayak]

oh hey this is gonna be like the ||pixie quests||

[plucky cairn]

||Albino bun is cute tho||

[hasty kayak]

oh certainly

||for now i dub thee... depressionway||

[elfin wave]

||Nihilismway
METEIONWAY||

[hasty kayak]

oh good lord they multimommed this

||the runnin rowena gag is so funny||

lmao ||ameliance is so slick||

welp there goes my soul bein sold off

its okay i happen to like customs lol

[elfin wave]

til Mt. Gulg is an area in FF1

after the deluge of FFIV in EW it's refereshing to have a reference that isn't FFIII or FFIV in ShB

[hasty kayak]

it is so funny that ||mowen and grenoldt are like that when rowena and gerolt are like that||

[slim cairn]

Brings

Someone lost their discord account and $1000 in a discord scam, see im not that dumb

And I said it in this thread cause you pay most attention here

[hasty kayak]

i dont doubt that there are ppl more easily targeted than you, its just sad that it happened to you too

[slim cairn]

Idk if that is a roast or not

[slim cairn]

Theories on DT

We move away so Lyse can’t find us

[hasty kayak]

:c

theories on dt, ||lyse rejoins|| and i will be happy again at last

[slim cairn]

Disgusting

Bringy, I will cause ||the final days|| again

[hasty kayak]

you aint even a ||blm to have meteors at your disposal||

[slim cairn]

I will start that job then

[hasty kayak]

you? willingly takin up an uldah job?

[slim cairn]

….

Nvm

[hasty kayak]

i went ahead n looked up the other custom delivery available to me, n this is shapin up to be fun already

[slim cairn]

Your hat looks ridiculous

[hasty kayak]

excuse you, i am properly desert-y

[slim cairn]

Ehhhh

[abstract ibex]

Im in primal. My world is behemoth

[plucky cairn]

Still on the trial for now?

[abstract ibex]

Yup

[plucky cairn]

Ok so, for bringi as they finished each expansion I put together a list of some stuff you can access at the end of that expansion, I don't have an ARR one but I can whip it up together real quick if you are interested.
It might help you figure out what people do in the game and give you ideas for activities outside of MSQ, since that can get boring if mainlined forever.
For the next 3 months we can play together too since they have opened the australia data center for travel from anywhere, so if you see an activity you'd rather do with people from here, that can be arranged.

They will shut down that DC travel test once the 3 months are up, but hopefully it'll come back in a more permanent way after the DT launch frenzy quites down

[abstract ibex]

Yeah id like the list of things to do! I think itd be nice to have

[plucky cairn]

On it

[minor sorrel]

On my RPR!

[abstract ibex]

Thats more commendations than i have

[plucky cairn]

Things to do in ARR

New classes
Since now Stormblood is included in the free trial you can unlock the Samurai and the Redmage should you wish to do so, and both start at level 50 so you don't need to level them from scratch.
To have access to the Heavenswards classes(Astrologian, Dark Knight, and Machinist), sadly, you do have to unlock the city of the expansion first, so that's not gonna happen until you complete all of the patch story content
You unlock RDM in Ul'dah from the quest "Taking the Red"
You unlock SAM in Ul'dah from the quest "The Way of the Samurai

Treasure Maps
This is a thing that can be done with a group, or solo.
Basically you decipher a map, find it in the world and go dig it up, kill a few monsters and get some treasure out of it.
The ARR version is kind of lame truth be told, but from Heavenswards onward the map has a chance to spawn a mini dungeon you can go in to get a lot more out of it, and it's a very fun group activity.
You don't need a full group, 3-4 people are usually more than enough for this.
To unlock the ability to decipher maps and dig for treasure complete the quest "Treasure and Tribulations" in Eastern La Noscea

Deep Dungeon: Palace of the Dead
This is a special type of dungeon, that you can undertake solo or with a group.
It's very different in the sense that it's meant to be a kind of rogue-like experience.
Regardless of your level outside you start at lvl 1, and level very fast as you progress through the floors, your progress is saved every 10 floors, it also havs various degrees of random generation, including the presence of traps and the abilit to use special items to get advantages.
We did play this quite a few times and it can be a pretty fun group activity, it's also pretty good to level secondary jobs since it gives decent experience.
You can unlock this from the quest "The House that Death Built" in New Gridania

Binding Coils of Bahamuth
Ok this is a 8 man raid and it's...kind of badly implemented in the game for a series of reasons.
At the same time, it's kind of important for the story as it concludes ARR main narrative with the opening cutscene and Bahamuth and all that stuff.
As such, your options to experience it are really just ot have someone chaperone you though it by doing it unsynched and killing everything in one shot, or wait until you are level 70 so you can do that instead.
I volunteer if you want to go in and knock it out just to experience the story, as I'm sure other people here would also be happy to help
To unlock this you need to start the quest "A Recurring Problem" in the Waking Sands which will unlock hard mode fights of the primals you already fought, until eventually, will lead to the quest "Primal Awakening"

Crystal Tower raids
This is the 24 men raid, usually referred to as "Alliance Raid" and is luckly a lot easier to access.
Of note, this will be mandatory at some point, before you can go into heavenswards, so I do advise you knock it out early.
it's pretty good and there is a lot of specacle and a hot catboi in it.
It starts from the quest "Legacy of Allag" in Mor Dhona

Hard mode dungeons and optional dungeons.
Did you know that most dungeons in ARR are optional.
I'll paste a list of which dungeons you might have skipped so if you see the quests for them, you can pick them up and do them, if you want.
Don't be scared by "hard mode"
It's not any more difficult than other dungeons, it's just a way to tell you it's a revisited version that's higher level.

This should be all

Well not actually all, there are hunts, the golden saucer and other stuff, it's most of it.

[abstract ibex]

Oh is there new areas in Heavensward

[plucky cairn]

Yes

I should add for the optional dungeons, they are often required for some activity or another down the line, so it's good to eventually get around to do them.

But there is generally no rush

[abstract ibex]

For MSQ rn i have to fight Leviathan

[plucky cairn]

That's 2.2 I believe

If you want company for some of these fights I am happy to join, we do have to go to the Oceania data center tho

So ping might be not optimal, but should be fine for this kind of content

[abstract ibex]

We beat Leviathan

[plucky cairn]

Congrats

[abstract ibex]

Oh no

Oh he's actually fine nvm

[plucky cairn]

yeah that fakeout

[hasty kayak]

ahem, doesnt gold saucer unlock triple triad. you gotta recommend triple triad, cmon gen

[elfin wave]

it's pretty good and there is a lot of specacle and a hot catboi in it.
no bias here

[plucky cairn]

I ran out of characters for the message, but yeah, you should check out the Gold Saucer as well, mind you tho, it's a rabbit hole

[minor sorrel]

[rough crescent]

https://www.youtube.com/live/6KsScSZlAkM

[hasty kayak]

okay, im back from therapy island to do more stuff, i think today ill make gen happy and unlock variant dungeons so i can finally see what that's about

its been hyped up to me for like three expansions now

❗

||N A N A M O R O A D T R I P 2 . 0 ? ? ? ?||

"i need zero additional information the answer is YES A THOUSAND TIMES YES"

ah yes, the place where ||my innocence died. and also minfilia.||

||NANAMO ROADTRIP 2.0!!!!!!!!!!!||

||i love you i love you i love you i love you is that my old rdm glam it looks amazing on you aaaaaaaaAAAAAAAA||

[elfin wave]

i think bringi likes this

[hasty kayak]

oooooooh a ||family mystery||

[slim cairn]

I think bringy hates this

[hasty kayak]

banned

[slim cairn]

You can’t do that

You don’t have a reason

[hasty kayak]

you are excited, ive been wanting this since stormblood patches

aaaaaaaaaa

[plucky cairn]

Oh bring is finally doing this

I was waiting for this for so long

[hasty kayak]

i am going to vibe through the stratosphere

[plucky cairn]

This released in september of 2023, it was so hard to not spoil it

[hasty kayak]

wow, they pumped out ||three variant dungeons|| in span of eight months? pretty fast

[plucky cairn]

Yeah, it's just a new thing they put out now, it's pretty neat

[hasty kayak]

holy shit they made ||a visual novel but a dungeon||

[elfin wave]

[hasty kayak]

i think id like ||if you two joined me for the latter dungeons, but i want my little personal adventure with nanamo (PERSONAL ADVENTURE WITH NANAMO HOLY SHIT) so i think ill try this one on my own, at least at first||

[slim cairn]

How dare you ban me!

Gen why didn’t you save me?

I will push ||Nanamo|| off a cliff

[plucky cairn]

You have to do it like, 12 times, to see all the varioants, so if you want to go once alone and then do a few group runs I'm also game for that

[hasty kayak]

oh my gosh you are so prettyyyyyyyyyy

[elfin wave]

lucky for you two i still need to run that and the next Variant Dungeon

(and Aloalo is fun enough on its own)

hell it's just fun to say

[plucky cairn]

There is also the hardmode we could do if felt adventurous, if we find a 4th

[elfin wave]

ALOALOOOOO!

alo alo alo, wots all dis then

[hasty kayak]

hmmm, should i use ||rampart and cure, or rampart and raise when im monking it?||

[plucky cairn]

Who are you gonna raise?

[hasty kayak]

m. me?

[plucky cairn]

I don't think you can cast skills on yourself when you are dead

[hasty kayak]

sadge

[plucky cairn]

I did that one as PLD tho

Because ||official Sultana bodyguard class||

[hasty kayak]

oh this is absolutely a bringi main adventure, i cant bring myself to do it any other way

[elfin wave]

for the non-Criterion runs would it be faster if we all went DPS?
and we have one tank set, one healer set and uhh... idk another guy with rez just in case the healer dies?
or is sticking to The Triangle perferable?
(i mean, if I go WAR there'll be no need for a healer, lmao)

hell, i've solo'd with RPR, it's not too hard

[plucky cairn]

Ok a couple of things

I don't think it's that much faster with all DPS because of the variant skill tank and healers get that is just a huge dot that kind of evens the scale

Healing as a DPS relying on variant cure is also annoying as fuck

A single target heal is not a good tool for that

True the DPS can cure themeselves and not bother

but also eh

I don't think it'd change much time wise, even if the dps was higher with 4 dps

it's probably more efficent having one healer use a global cooldown to heal the whole group rather than all the DPS having to use the cure to recover from an AOE

enemies and bosses hp do scale with the number of players also

[hasty kayak]

oh nooooooooo TWILIGHT OVER THANALAN PUNCH

[elfin wave]

[plucky cairn]

Oh also in case you never tried, you can change the class while in the dungeon

Which can be nice

[elfin wave]

yeah, i suppose it'd be handy for a quick rez or something

[hasty kayak]

okay, i did one more path, definitely back tomorrow

[elfin wave]

kek

which one did you take

[hasty kayak]

uuh, ||i dont think i got any secret ones yet. one left that lead us to a secret garden altar, and one middle that had a ransacked palace from a thief, which also gave me a clue for the left path||

i also got ||teeny clean mouse minion||

[elfin wave]

damn, lucky.

[plucky cairn]

The lore entries often contains hints to do the more hidden paths

It's really a great system they put together

[hasty kayak]

there are ||some stuff i wanna try randomly of course, like assemblin the scales as current uldah coat of arms instead of the historic one||

[plucky cairn]

I actually remember very little of that dungeon, in detail, so even if I wanted to, I couldn't give you hints.

Not that I want to, it's pretty fun to try this stuff

In the meantime, I only need 2 more Aloalo entries and I am pretty sure I know how to get both

[plucky cairn]

Done, loved this one as well

[rough crescent]

Sounds like I gotta give these dungeons another go

Halvar and I ran them once and were done with them, like a regular dungeon

[plucky cairn]

Are you interested in the criterion variant?

If you didn't do that already

[elfin wave]

... Man, Matoya is short, lmao

i know people get shorter when they age but sheeesh

[elfin wave]

"Just kill the child.
It's what Fray would do!"

"Piss off, Kupo."

[elfin wave]

Gladly!

huh never considered that, thanks youtube

[rough crescent]

Definitely! We tried once and quickly decided this was only viable with a party of four instead of with two strangers

[plucky cairn]

Awesome, there might be the problem that we are 5 and not 4 but we can rotate as well

It is hard content and people do get frustrated at it

[elfin wave]

hi-devil has a sub again so the extremes are an option without too much more work

[plucky cairn]

Oh, nice to know, we just need one extra assuming we can bully Tch into it

Or 2 if we can't

[rough crescent]

Halvar and I much prefer to run these things blind rather than with a guide btw

Takes longer but is ten times the fun

[elfin wave]

[plucky cairn]

I don't think I ever looked up a criterion guide, for the extremes I already know a couple so I don't know if you are getting a blind experience there

We might vote on it before going in, if we want to do it blind or guided, given that we aren't exactly super hardcore people, or at least I am not

[hasty kayak]

(just to be clear, criterion is hard version of variant?)

[plucky cairn]

Yes, it's linear but tuned a lot harder

There is both criterion, and criterion savage

To my understanding criterion is already around extreme difficulty

But I never did it so I am not sure

[rough crescent]

From what I remember, it is

We dropped it during the first boss, I believe

[elfin wave]

first of what, three?

new wall

(I've probably seen this player before)

[hasty kayak]

banned

[elfin wave]

also i spent 150k on Dragoon Blue dye

the things we do for endgame glam

[hasty kayak]

glam! glam! glam!

[elfin wave]

it do be ballin tho

one day i will get the fucking umbrella

[hasty kayak]

funky!

so long as your blue mage is blue i will approve

genryu on the other hand could use some pointers for how to dye red mage red

[elfin wave]

the only problem is that GOLDOR is a TWAT and I HATE HIM and his DUMB FACE

[hasty kayak]

the question is, is he worse than erik from mnk or not

[elfin wave]

well it's more of a skill issue than a personality issue

[plucky cairn]

So, when do you want to try the criterion and who is interested in that?

[median ridge]

I'm trying to clean up a lot of stuff before Dawntrail, I missed most of the level 80 job quests.

[hasty kayak]

i got the first "ride our mount" mission for the ||loporrits and i ADORE this one. great silly skill, turns into a hoverbike airborne, 12/10 i needed it yesterday n cant wait til i can buy it||

really precarious for actual riding but thankfully we dont care about real world viability of transportation

[hasty kayak]

i would join

[rough crescent]

+1, anytime except today

[hasty kayak]

(1st variant dungeon) ||nanamo go wheeeeeee (i didnt catch a good screenshot but we got sent flyin||

[elfin wave]

||https://twitter.com/FF_XIV_EN/status/1778377540886991304|| (Dawntrail area concept art)

oh my god the first tweet under that is the fucking screaiming cowboy meme

[hasty kayak]

halway thru the first variant dungeooooon

[hasty kayak]

i love slave labor

(ill be gone for the weekend so im tryin to plan out workshop for the entirety of it n im short some material)

[slim cairn]

tempted to take that out of context

[abstract ibex]

I really like this outfit

(I don't have it i was just doing dreamfitting)

[abstract ibex]

Im about to fight Ramuh

[plucky cairn]

Say hi to santa for me

[abstract ibex]

He does kinda look like a wizard santa in this

Ramuh is defeated

[compact ibex]

Raw moo

[compact ibex]

new paladin fashion dropped

[rough crescent]

Graphics update will include DLSS/FSR 1, and some form of TAA

Finally, it’s been too long with fxaa

[plucky cairn]

The AA is so hilariously ass in FF

We needed this for so long

[rough crescent]

We did

I’ve been playing without AA since the aliasing is barely better, except it makes everything blurry

[plucky cairn]

I use a sharpen filter on top of it so it doesn't look like shit

[plucky cairn]

Live letter summary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiC-RmtnRK0
They do show some DT stuff later on, so if you are worried about any kind of spoilers, like zone spoilers be wary, but it's marked on the video timeline when the new stuff starts

The beginning is some HWs, EWs and SHB zone showcasing with the graphical update.

[elfin wave]

https://youtu.be/V-8MR7KWX0E lore accurate summary i promise /s

(sorry for ping)

[elfin wave]

Interesting detail: (Pretty late EW)

||So I'm doing the Elpis dungeon (fuck spelling it lmao) in Trust and I notice that Venat casts True Stoneskin on the other Trust members

Like, that's just funny to me because Stoneskin was a skill in earlier FFXIV content but was removed, lmao.
makes sense because we're in the past and all as well||

average Trust NPC, lmao (EW, again)

[elfin wave]

yeah it's reruns but oooooh shiny new thing for hc~

[elfin wave]

EW story in a nutshell:
||blue bird destroys the universe, this is a metaphor for twitter, delete twitter NOW||

[rough crescent]

so i compared my character, left is current (different hairstyle), right is graphics update from the benchmark

that's quite the difference

[hasty kayak]

damn, good thing we'll have that fantasia

[plucky cairn]

The benchmark released as well.

https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/benchmark/download/

Usually I don't bother much with it, but with the graphical updates it might be a good idea to run to se if your computer has problem with the new requirments

[rough crescent]

the screenshot i posted is from this benchmark

[plucky cairn]

Also you get to create your character for the benchmark and it has femhrot on it

So you can play around with how they'll look

[latent vapor]

Despite being far below minimum specs, my PC is somehow able to pull off 41 FPS on average, which I can live with.

[plucky cairn]

It being a MMO it wont be an especially heavy software, you really don't want screen longtime players out of the game if they are invested, but it's good to know

[plucky cairn]

Man, after playing around with the character creation, I have the strong feeling this will convince bringi to switch to hrothgar

Actually maybe, the no hat is a big downsides, and also there will always be less hairstyle.
Some big drawbacks

[hasty kayak]

from what ive checked on internet, circlets and alike should be fine, and honestly as long as i can wear my monk feather i dont care about anythin else. im not big on full face helmets anyway, i think only my sam has one n i wont mind changin that if it means i get to be more furry

ill get back home late tonight so ill probably check that benchmark thingy tomorrow, we'll see

worst case scenario i still have my arr fantasia so i can always change and lets be honest ff14 has me in such a grasp i wouldnt even mind paying

hroth would probably b taller too n i like smol

[plucky cairn]

Yeah they are very very big

Even with the shorter option

They look so good tho

You have a fangs length option

[hasty kayak]

saber bringi

[elfin wave]

[plucky cairn]

Once and future King is the equivalent of necromancer for Eureka Orthos

[elfin wave]

bruh i had a BLM run into the fucking dual tankbuster in P10

😭

mfer hates living that much, must be a BLM thing

[plucky cairn]

I am just surprised a BLM ran anywhere

Most of them are rooted in place

[elfin wave]

Well I did just rez and the other tank was a first timer
maybe they knew they were going to die and protected the newbie

[plucky cairn]

Maybe he manawarded, addled and thought he could take it

Manaward is a pretty big shield

[elfin wave]

shoulda commended them, lol

[minor sorrel]

And here I see a female au'ra in what looks like skimpy underwear, doing the cancan dance and then pushup while a male lala has his eyes pointed straight at her butt

And now she looks like inquisitor whitemane from WoW

[minor sorrel]

90 rpr!

[hasty kayak]

congrats

[elfin wave]

hah i got rpr to 90 before you

nerd

[plucky cairn]

Grats

[minor sorrel]

I don't keep longer active subs to this tho 😛

[elfin wave]

[median ridge]

Most important part of Benchmark.

[plucky cairn]

I can't import the character since I don't have it saved in the presets anymore which means I have to recreate it which is a pain and I might do it later

[elfin wave]

[rough crescent]

you can right click your character in the login screen and save appearance data

[plucky cairn]

Oh, I didn't know, will do that later then

Ty

[rough crescent]

yus, you're welcome

if you have a non-standard hairstyle it'll choose a different one, fyi

[elfin wave]

i hit 70 on DRK

time to unlock the Only Fucking Skill That Matters™️

just like warrior

oh my god i just thought of a meme to make GIVE ME FIVE MINUTES

forgive me for shitposting just this once, mods
pls i put effort into this

[hasty kayak]

hc pls

as if we ever deleted a meme here

[elfin wave]

Y'know, fair

anyway this drip is nice but it's not for me

also AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
THE LAST DRK QUEST HOLY SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

||why did i have to kill ardbert again whyyyyyyyy||

[plucky cairn]

DRK quests are so good

It's a character arc for your character

[abstract ibex]

I kinda want to do MCH when i get to Heavensward

[elfin wave]

ZE FLAMMEN WERFER

IT WERFS FLAMMEN!

imagine having friends?

[abstract ibex]

😔

[plucky cairn]

MCH is super fun

[elfin wave]

big phat DEEPS

[plucky cairn]

Drill might be one of the most satisfying skills to use in the game

[elfin wave]

personally i prefer like feeling useful to the team for more than just burning down the enemy as fast as possible

so
DNC

even if it's a RNG nightmare that gives me AST flashbacks

[abstract ibex]

I wont be able to try DNC for a while

Cuz its shadowbringers and im not even fully done arr

Is DNC fun to play?

[plucky cairn]

DNC is fun, of the physical ranged DPS is my favourite largely because IMO it's the simplest to play and I don't plan to spend a lot of time learning a class in a role I don't plan to play a lot

It's all procs that can proc other things which can proc other things

[rough crescent]

dnc isn't for me, personally. i find it almost offensively simple

there is no nuance

you just press glowing button

[elfin wave]

you know my thoughts on simple jobs, lmao

[stark dragon]

Ladies and gentlemen, upscaled Sunset.

[elfin wave]

me when

[elfin wave]

[stark dragon]

Benchmark is out, you guys. Check it out.

[rough crescent]

i've ran the benchmark at least 20 times with different settings combinations already

[elfin wave]

eh, too lazy

plus i don't want to get clinically depressed when i find out my rathalos armor looks ugly in 4k

i don't know what a monster hunter was until like last month

but it's my brand
you can't have Harqujin without augmented rathalos armor

[minor sorrel]

I am so looking forward to MH: Wilds

[stark dragon]

You can't choose whatever armor you have on now. You get the choice of your character in racial gear, viper gear, Ironworks gear, Alexandrian gear, Genji gear, Omega gear, a couple of the PVP sets, a few mogstation gears, and a couple event gearsets.

[abstract ibex]

i just did the character creation in the benchmark and have decided that once i get to dawntrail i will be changing my character to the female Hrothgar

i absolutely love it

im abandoning catgirl for full on furry once i get there

[hasty kayak]

the correct idea

im thinkin of doin the same thing but i have to actually get home to my laptop first to look what the creator offers

[minor sorrel]

Bringi no! Stay my fellow miquo'te!

[hasty kayak]

but full furry...

n it looks like theyll make my cat less gender ambiguous which will be a TRAGEDY

idk, i still have to go and see, ive been gone doin stuff in germany all weekend

[plucky cairn]

Yo you won't need to wait until you get there, once you buy the full game with the last expansion you will be able to swap race, assuming DT is already out.
That said you will have to pay a subscription from that point onwards so you might want to postpone until you are done with Stormblood

But you might still be in Stormblood and you will be able to make the race swap for example

And play shadowbringers and EW as tall cat lady

[hasty kayak]

or be like me n buy full game before you even start hw bc u hit level cap then again that was when sb wasnt included yet so 60 was the limit

[rancid laurel]

downloading the benchmark now

lets see if my rickity old ass computer can handle it

[rancid laurel]

o

I was a little worried there haha

[plucky cairn]

Yeah they aren't really making the game super heavy

It's just a small face-lift to bring it a bit forward in time with technology

[abstract ibex]

Yeah ill be doing the free trial till i need to buy the game to continue

[plucky cairn]

The eyes are a bit different, it'll be hard to adjust even tho I bet anyone who didn't spend 1000 hours staring at that face wouldn't be able to tell

Also they didn't have my hair but that one is pretty close

[abstract ibex]

you stole my hairstyle

[plucky cairn]

Damn tho, that level of detail difference on the gear is so nice

I think I can get used to the eyes

Could have been worse

[hasty kayak]

oh good lord, seein that on a character im actually familiar with? all the roundness just gone destroyed perished i am tryin to curbstomp the "aaaa change" reaction but damn

[plucky cairn]

I think I like most of the things more than before. some of the difference is how the shadows are cast on the face

[hasty kayak]

it rlly was a good thinkin on my end to take day off work bc i knew id b tired regardless but id b especially tired when im still up at 2:40am ill go actually head to bed n ill check all this out when i wake up

[plucky cairn]

Daamn, look at those soft shadows instea of jagged fickering fucking edges

And the reflections on the belt buckle and the shoudler guard

This is gonna look so nice

[rough crescent]

I think shadows are still pretty bad, they only got a minor improvement

I hope they’ll let us scale them higher in the future, at least their settings are completely unchanged

[plucky cairn]

I think we did get a massive improvement on shadows, it's just that before they were unacceptably horrible and now they are not great but "okay"

But the relative improvement is pretty big

[hasty kayak]

yay, playable

.... oh! wol looks really good actually i dont know why i was worried but this is pretty okay, lets try n see what furry+ would be like

[minor sorrel]

Sunset Kitty. A bit lower score than running it at 1440p but I turned up every single detail to max (1440p had mostly max stuff but not all). Runs fine

[hasty kayak]

oh my goooooood they have snow leopard fur toggle h e l p

oh im such a goner for fem hroth

hooo boy

[plucky cairn]

Yeah the moment I started playing around with it, it was clear it was all stuff up your alley

[hasty kayak]

oh nooooo this will be so hard

[plucky cairn]

Make sure you save the old aspect, maybe create an alt with that look since the presets are saved locally

[hasty kayak]

well ye its both saved of course

[plucky cairn]

So you can easly go back to it even if you happen to swap pc

We will see if the new look will win, or the familiarity will

I know it would be impossible for me to swap

It would be like watching your favourite show, and suddenly the protagonist is played by a different actor.
I can't

[hasty kayak]

so furry, though

so fangy and ear tuffy and long fluffy taily and pretty patterny

[plucky cairn]

Lol

[hasty kayak]

oh noooooo

[plucky cairn]

We will see so many of these on release

[elfin wave]

i will hold out as an au ra

[rough crescent]

Using your character’s look before you used a fantasia on a retainer works too

You can then use a retainer fantasia to save its appearance as a template

[hasty kayak]

yeah, n it helps u check what your gear would look like on them

"bringi spends sixteen years in character creator: the saga"

augh the hubris i like all three

[minor sorrel]

Mi! Qo! Te!

[hasty kayak]

INSIDE YOU THERE ARE THREE WOLVES. CAT FURRY. LARGE CAT FURRY. AND SMOL.

[hasty kayak]

HELP IN THE CUTSCENE THEY GIVE LALAS A STONE SLAB TO STAND ON AT ONE POINT THATS FUCKING DELIGHTFUL

[plucky cairn]

Yeah, it's pretty good

I am so curious to learn what you will pick coming DT, it will be an entertaining conflict

Ok point in favour for furry.
You can imagine that you could bring Nanamo around like a parrot like Rhauban does, if you are that size

Joking aside, they should make a backpack that allows a normal sized person to bring a Lalafell around on their back

Treat it like a 2 person mount

I really really want that to happen

[hasty kayak]

"oops, they all look good. perish in thy hubris i guess lmao"

[elfin wave]

bringi needs to get the damn ||starbird minion||

[hasty kayak]

(i tried to run three different graphics settings to check n it turns out it deadass doesnt matter much so ill just use max settings for prettiest backgrounds)

like the laptop settings load a second faster but whats a second to me, eh

[elfin wave]

i really should benchmark already but oaiekfoaqfje

i have no excuse not to, I'm just lazy and playing Kirby instead

[hasty kayak]

i spent much longer on benchmark than i wanted to lmao, time to play

[elfin wave]

enjoi da video game

[hasty kayak]

island rank siiiiiiix

[hasty kayak]

i have three paths left in first variant dungeon. i have, one more idea, but im not sure how to do the last two ||they gotta be on the right path bc ive all but exhausted left and middle (well, at least i think so), and right path still has some parts of map obscured. i havent explored right much yet, so im hopin itll click somewhere. all i know is i should probably keep in mind the entry about amaljaa tradition of strong foes first, since wink wink nudge nudge the entry even uses the word "clue", and the right path has the undead amaljaa boss, but i dont remember encounterin an enemy group that would vary wildly by size? maybe theyre on the elevator path i didnt take yet||

[plucky cairn]

Might be

I had to look up a few paths in that one

Some are pretty hard to spot

[hasty kayak]

||it was the drakes!!!||

hmmmmm. i have one more fork left, and ||the entry i just unlocked does seem pretty heavy on instructions, especially this part: ||

question is, ||is the third one celebrate, or victory?||

oh wait, ||for some reason i thought celebrate is an emote, but the name is actually "congratulate". in that case lets try victory||

[hasty kayak]

i do not like the look of that area tho lmao that is a whole lot thingies on side

that was not a clean fight in the slightest lmao, but you know a clear is a clear regardless of four vuln stacks

[elfin wave]

me trying to tank Seiryu EX's line AoEs with 8 vulns:

"first time?"

[hasty kayak]

gasp ||squeaky clean mouse is a mount too???||

[elfin wave]

how did i survive?
I didn't!

[hasty kayak]

pat pat

[elfin wave]

first holmgang i had to pop in a LONG while

and that's when you know shit's fucked when the WAR has to bring that out

[hasty kayak]

WHEEEEEEEEZE

help thats so dumb i fucking love it

[elfin wave]

then you have SUZAKU EX where that shit is MANDATORY

[elfin wave]

pretty rad but it gets funkier

[slim cairn]

I knew it was a bringy does nothing but ffxiv day

[elfin wave]

shut up garfield

[slim cairn]

Oh I forgot I had this pfp

[hasty kayak]

"refresh your wardrobe if you desire before you meet with the sultana" ahem, excuse you game, this is my best outfit

[elfin wave]

covered in blood and viscera
Hiiiiiii Namamo!~

[hasty kayak]

[plucky cairn]

Congratassss

[elfin wave]

have i ever told the headcanon of my WAR armor?
the fact that it's not paint, but dried blood that she got sick of cleaning?

[hasty kayak]

[elfin wave]

"fuck it, it looks nice anyway"

[hasty kayak]

estinien-ass behavior

smh my head

[plucky cairn]

The mount is a 10/10 when on the ground and a staring-at-a-mouse-ass-the-whole-trip/10 when you are flying

[elfin wave]

flashbacks

yes i did buy formal attire just for this
||little did i know it went horribly, HORRIBLY WRONG||

[hasty kayak]

gods this really is ||a perfect questline though. nanamo roadtrip. heaps of uldah lore. personal entries written from nanamo´s pov you get to read n get reminded that she is a perfect character actually. specifically choosin to add amaljaa, the best arr tribe dont at me, into this. the political angle of it all. the bosses are really fun (the sildhin soldier had most fun mechanics, the selkie i love just for the sheer lmao and the undead amaljaa i do like lore-wise but fuck his mechanics are hard, definitely died to him the most first time. the secret boss i really wanna try n refight in four people sometimes, or maybe itll be in the criterion version?||

gen rlly wasnt kiddin this hits every single mark on bringis enjoy list™️

when i say i fuckin froze for a sec there

[elfin wave]

FLASHBACKS

"Okay ||if you die, I am NOT exiling my ass to Ishgard again.||"

[hasty kayak]

G A S P

[elfin wave]

welp we found bringi's forever title, lmao

[hasty kayak]

oh i am never changin my title again

[minor sorrel]

[plucky cairn]

Can't wait until NSFb ||bringi learn the second dungeon is fucking Hancock||

[elfin wave]

oh yeah i did Seiryu EX with hi-devil yesterday
it is very two-personable

possibly solo-able, but the adds might push it over the edge, dunno about phase 2 outside of trying to tank the line AoE

[elfin wave]

[hasty kayak]

decided to change coat on my joker cosplay so i no longer have to bear the shame of havin same glam piece as gummy

it lacks the high collar which sucks but the undercoat part is closer to the intended look so i guess it balances out?

[elfin wave]

LOOKING COOL JOKER

[hasty kayak]

this place looks like ||a kingdom hearts level lmao||

[plucky cairn]

Ohh

You are starting this today?

[hasty kayak]

if everyone is free, yep

[plucky cairn]

Asking because I have to negotiate with my new dog, since it seems like I operate on her schedule and not vice versa

[hasty kayak]

<@&1128722919405650000> pspspspps

[plucky cairn]

Now she is sleeping so might be a good moment

[hasty kayak]

just let her chew the couch if needed

[rough crescent]

uh oh

if you've got a few minutes that'd be lovely, i'm in the middle of the dawntrail character creator right now

i won't be long

[hasty kayak]

all good, have fun with beeg furry, gotta wait n see if hc is available

[plucky cairn]

Logging in, will make sure doggo is chill while the character travel does its thing

[rough crescent]

i've gotten so used to seeing my character in the benchmark and new character creator, going in-game now feels like i'm playing my character from wish

[plucky cairn]

The new skin textures and face shadows are so nice

[plucky cairn]

They make the features pop a lot more

[elfin wave]

phantom as usual?

[hasty kayak]

aye aye

[elfin wave]

I did P1-2 recently, P3-4 I'm more rusty on

presuming we knocking all 4 out today, no rush

[hasty kayak]

given time, prooobably not all four

[plucky cairn]

@rough crescent

It's kind of wild

[rough crescent]

amazing

[elfin wave]

look at this fookin D00D

[hasty kayak]

@rough crescent unlocked!

[rough crescent]

coming!

[elfin wave]

oh yeah, never showed my funky sword

[hasty kayak]

byleth fire emblem.....

thatsa gud sord

@plucky cairn doggo woke up?

[plucky cairn]

Correct

[hasty kayak]

no worries

[plucky cairn]

Liar

[elfin wave]

I'm doing my best 😭

metaphorically
i could be doing worse!

[plucky cairn]

That run was pretty smooth

Don't worry about it

[elfin wave]

enough cr00ding it's time to br00d

i didn't spend like, an hour fighting Seiryu EX just for a Less Shiny Than The Marketboard Sword But I Like The Lack of Particle Effects

[plucky cairn]

Hc you were interested for the criterion or you are going to pass on that?
I was thinking maybe friday?

[elfin wave]

... I mean, I did, but it isn't just for show

[elfin wave]

Friday sounds good, barring a meteor strike

[hasty kayak]

oh if its gonna be friday i do have to mention id b available from 8pm at soonest

[elfin wave]

i'll see if hi-devil is interested too that way we can lock in our 4 right away

[plucky cairn]

We might end up being 5, in which case I don't mind sitting out and filling in, if someone has to go.

If we get to 8

[elfin wave]

he has been a pain about doing Criteon at some point
and the Variants in general... I get distracted easily

[plucky cairn]

We might just fucking go for ||mothercrystal EX|| instead

[elfin wave]

[rough crescent]

if you're planning to do criterion, i'll drop out in your place, gen

halvar would wanna join too, i wouldn't want to exclude him

[plucky cairn]

I am pretty sure criterion is harder than an EX

[elfin wave]

SOLD SOLD SOLD SOLD SOLD

[plucky cairn]

Ok so, let's do a quick count
Hi-devil, Hc, Halvar, Tawmy, me and bringi it's an easy 6, can we get two more or it's unlikely?

[elfin wave]

imagine how good that would look with the Forgiven set

"Paladin is the holy tank tho"
FUCK PALADIN

[plucky cairn]

Tch seemed reluctant last time we spoke of it

[elfin wave]

My title is Warrior of LIGHT, Dammit!

[plucky cairn]

Which is why I didn't include them

[elfin wave]

buuuuut y;know
that's assuming we do that
and we beat it

and the weapon coffer drops
ANDi get the weapon coffer

[plucky cairn]

One weapon coffer always drops

and a weapon

The hard part is dropping the mount

[elfin wave]

you think i'd get that by now with how many EXs I rerun for Storm Seals

[hasty kayak]

is australia in cards? if that were a case we could ping here n get manechat party expanded

[plucky cairn]

We could try but ex with 300 pings might be challenging

[elfin wave]

but like usually i don't redeem the coffer so it just sits there and i get that annyoing "you already have this thing"

like thanks game i can hardly use it NOW can i >:L

[hasty kayak]

in theory we could still ping here and ask specifically any europe players we happened to forget about

[elfin wave]

some days i feel like i overly obsess on things that don't matter

[plucky cairn]

Chip I think it's EU, don't know if they are playing these days

@sterile condor quick question, are you playing FFXIV these days?

[sterile condor]

yeag

[plucky cairn]

You EU?

[sterile condor]

yeah

[elfin wave]

yeag

[plucky cairn]

You are at endgame?

[sterile condor]

idk if i'm geared for current ex trials, but i'vre completed all story so far

[plucky cairn]

Or kinda endgame, i guess this would be 1 years ago endgame

[sterile condor]

and can just buy shit if needs must

[plucky cairn]

You up for a ||mothercrystal EX|| this friday?

[sterile condor]

is that one of the first 2 ex's this expac?

[plucky cairn]

Yes

[rough crescent]

you're def fine gear wise

[sterile condor]

sure

i've done both those before 🤘

[plucky cairn]

We planning to start running those and see how many we can do before DT hits

As a mostly green group with not that much raid experience

Maybe get some cat along the way

[sterile condor]

i should be down, i'm busy some fridays, and play games with flitter/wcct/yay on others

[plucky cairn]

So we are at 7, it's the case of peer pressuring TCH or finding an 8th

I'll come up with a time, and ping everyone so you can tell me if you are free this friday, we can move it to saturday or some other shit if some aren't

With pring everyone, I mean ping everyone involved

[elfin wave]

pringle

[hasty kayak]

we can either add them to the "do ff14 bullshit with bringi" role or make a new mane raidin role for ease of pingin

[sterile condor]

i'm free this friday, i might be a tad late next friday if at 7pm

[plucky cairn]

Let's do a first round and see how many people come back for more

[hasty kayak]

<t:1713549600:f> is when ill b avaiable on friday

[plucky cairn]

That sounds like a good time for me, for one

[minor sorrel]

My sub re-expires in 3 days sooo nah

Or was it two

[plucky cairn]

fuck

So yeah we can't bully you, we need to actually find someone else

[minor sorrel]

[hasty kayak]

ill try reachin out to one of gums' friends, she's from iceland but im not sure if she keeps up with eu character since she usually plays on NA

[plucky cairn]

For australia, one thing I'd like to try, is to get a couple of clear on EU, so we know the fight, and then go to australia and try it there to see how much the latency impacts it

[hasty kayak]

a good idea

[plucky cairn]

If it's not a problem we can start mixing people in

[rough crescent]

playing on australia was rough

[plucky cairn]

Yeah we'll test it, if it's really bad we probably keep the hard content to EU for now

I don't want to start with it because we might not be able to distinguish being the fight being hard, and the latency, but once we know the fight it'll be pretty easy to tell how much of a problem that is

[rough crescent]

it wasn't even the delay on actions. healers always have one weave slot after their attack. sometimes it wasn't possible to weave an action in this slot, that was fine.

it was the one weave slot action going through, but this one weave slot action cancelling the GCD after it

like, the ocgd weave went through, then the next gcd started casting until maybe a second into the cast, and got interrupted

it was infuriating

[sterile condor]

yaeh, weaving is the real problem on high latency

[elfin wave]

as long as i don't forget to remind him, Hi-Devil is in baybeeeee

[rough crescent]

i literally just reconnected with someone from an old fc i haven't talked to in almost four years. they're always up for helping parties out and i could prob ask them to join as well

they're an ultimate raider but also the most patient person i've met in the game

they introduced halvar and me to higher difficulty content back in 2020 and it was amazing

[plucky cairn]

Tomorrow I'll ping you and ask a few things about your preferences
Like, guide vs going in blind, and minilvl, echo, all that stuff.

We can fill in the last slot with the PF if we can't find anyone else, so it wouldn't be a big problem, hopefully

Oh nice

[elfin wave]

how do i do reminders

asking for a friend

that friend is me, i'm very stupid

[plucky cairn]

IDK I just use my phone for that

[hasty kayak]

.remindme in (time) (the thing)

[hidden mirage]

Failed to comprehend time: Failed to extract a date/time from the start of "in (time) (the thing)":
Not a valid interval because: "(time)" is not a positive integer
Valid example: "in 1 hour"

[elfin wave]

ah it was the dot

Such devastation.

[sterile condor]

honestly, the first two ex's are relatively easy? you can prob do them blind in a couple of sessions

[hasty kayak]

.remindme in 3 days remind hc about hi-devil

[hidden mirage]

Okay! I'll DM you a reminder <t:1713472044:R>.

[sterile condor]

actually scratch that, thats "i've done ex's for like 4 expacs" idk how easy for beginners

[plucky cairn]

My plan would be, 2 hours sessions.
Blind the first day, and we can consider using a guide if we are stuck

I mean I already know them but I'd shut the fuck up in this case

[hasty kayak]

i sent the ask to gums' friend so ill get back to ya with her answer when i can

[rough crescent]

that does sound good, we probably won't even need the guide since we do have players who know the mechanics

[plucky cairn]

Yeah in this case I could just explain them but if we want to go in blind I can act dumb

I'm very good at that

[rough crescent]

hehe yes

[plucky cairn]

But I only know the first 2 EX anyway

Also I think it doesn't make much sense to go in blind if more than half the group already knows the fight

[rough crescent]

the fourth ex is goated

but they're all fun

[hasty kayak]

i do only have the first three ex unlocked but ive been semi-plannin to get started on msq this week anyway so hopefully i wont hold these raid sessions back

[plucky cairn]

Yeah there is no rush, especially if we are going in blind we aren't going to just do it on 2 hours my guess is

[rough crescent]

by the time we get to the fourth one you'll have it reached in the msq

[plucky cairn]

And even if we did, we probably want to farm it a few times

[hasty kayak]

i mean you know me and my pace

but ill try

[elfin wave]

||your answer|| is going to get burned into my skull

[hasty kayak]

i only spent 45 minutes on the therapy island today!

[elfin wave]

i don't know if that's better or worse than Platinum Disco being stuck in my head

[rough crescent]

https://tenor.com/view/araragi-tsukihi-monogatari-series-platinum-gif-23345824

platinum disco >

[elfin wave]

everyone else: screaming, death and chaos
me: KAWATTEKUMONO, KAWARANAIMONO!

i regret letting hi-devil talk about monotogari

[plucky cairn]

I did follow your advice and made <@&1229530094742016000> which sounds extremely serious and boring because I have no creativity.
Feel free to spice it up.

[elfin wave]

"bodies for the pile"

tho maybe keeping it clear would be easier

[hasty kayak]

thankfully we still have the 4 player silly <<@&1128722919405650000>>

dang i thought that would silent ping

[elfin wave]

well it works

[plucky cairn]

lol

[elfin wave]

"this is a test, if this pings you, oops"

[plucky cairn]

classic

Hello <@&1229530094742016000>

So, we will try ||Hydealyn EX|| and if we like it go forward to more content, I'm here to ask a couple of questions about how we want to go about things.
Fist of all, the time and place is <t:1713549600:f> on the Light DC (most of us are there, makes sense to do it there).
We'll meet at that time, start 15 minutes later at the latest (to give time to create the group and for people that are a bit late to get there) and go for 2 hours.
Please let me know if you can't make it and we'll discuss if we can move it at a different date/time

Now express your prefernces for how we'll go about it.
Preferences 1:

1. Blind
2. Guided
3. Start blind, go guided if we get stuck and get frustrated

Preferences 2

1. No limitations (this content does item synch you)
2. Min ilvl
3. Min Ilvl + no echo
4. Start hard, and relax limitations if we see it's too hard

Keep in mind we aren't hardened pro players, this is the first dip in hard content for a lot of people in the group, so while you might enjoy a more hardcore experience, we might need to tailor it for those that yet don't have the taste or mechanical skills for this kind of challenge.

Last thing, group:
What role/class can you play, and what would you like to play?
I'll edit down here with the roster.
HC
Chip
Hi-Devil
Tawmy
bringi
Kay

Genryu

The objective would be 2 melee dps at the most, a ranged phys dps and at least one magical dps but we can be lax.

[sterile condor]

min ilvl is unrealistic for a lot of beginner raiders

[plucky cairn]

With echo it's more realistic

Also keep in mind that right now, the equip we have are kind of hardcore

Gear wise

[sterile condor]

i can play w/e, i got at least one of every type maxed

[plucky cairn]

We are like 150 ilvl over what we were on release

[steady saffron]

I wanna go with 3) on first and 1) on second personally

I prefer playing as WHM but I can go tank or DPS if need be

[sterile condor]

there's still an ilvl sync, we'll only be like 20-40 ilvl over what was at the time

[plucky cairn]

I'll note that down, thanks

I'm pretty sure there isn't

The ex doesn't have the thingy (EW trials spoilers)

My guess is that the echo would count for 20-30 ilvl roughly

since that wasn't there on release

[rough crescent]

there is no ilvl sync in extremes

i'd suggest min ilvl + echo to get into it

[elfin wave]

Preference 1: Whatever, I'll probably look at a guide anyway unless y'all want blind
Preference 2: no limits pls, i want this to be gentle, lmao
Role: You know it, you love it. Tank and WAR. If the other tank wants to Main Tank I'll Off-Tank, i dunno how good WAR is as an OT but I'm comfortable with WAR so that's what I'll use

don't expect me to nail any two minute bursts tho, I will probably be screaming too much

[plucky cairn]

Extremes aren't that tight

That you need to be clockwork and be perfect with your rotation

[steady saffron]

Dw Hc, I'll make sure to heal you the bare minimum requirement, lmao

[elfin wave]

i should probably look into raid food juuuust in case

[rough crescent]

i'd like the second healer slot, please

[steady saffron]

I feel like you kinda do with the normal version of that boss

[elfin wave]

and fix my materia

[rough crescent]

i'd love to go in blind with everyone since discovering mechanics yourself is a lot more fun than just following a guide

[elfin wave]

it is NOT. OPTIMAL.

[steady saffron]

People use Materia?

[rough crescent]

materia makes a big difference yeah

[elfin wave]

idfk i just slammed as much crit as i needed to

BIG DAMAGE NUMBERS

[steady saffron]

Huh, I legit never used Materia, outside crafter jobs that is

[elfin wave]

BIG HEALING!

[rough crescent]

it's a nice bonus in ex, but other people will be unhappy if you join a savage party without materia equipped

[elfin wave]

(it is the best option i did look it up before I spent my precious token things)

[plucky cairn]

Also put down bringi as MNK because it's pretty obvious

I think that show up with anything slotted in and it'll be fine

[steady saffron]

What Materia would be good for WHM?

[rough crescent]

Halvar won't be able to join, sadly

[plucky cairn]

I'll let the other healer speak on this

[rough crescent]

crit

always crit

if you can't meld crit, go direct hit or determination

i've only ever geared scholar but it's gotta be the same for white mage

[steady saffron]

Alri, fair, thanks

[rough crescent]

if you struggle with mp, you can meld piety for more passive mp regeneration

so ye to summarise i'd personally suggest 3 for the 1st question. blind prog is super fun and we can always fall back to a guide if we can't manage. min ilvl with echo should be good since echo is a 20% boost to various stats, which is quite significant. it'll make the fight more forgiving while not being as broken as being 100 ilvl too high would be

[elfin wave]

[plucky cairn]

For Halvar it's the day the problem? Would he be able on saturday same time?

[rough crescent]

he can't do friday nor saturday

his weekends are quite packed at the moment, sunday might be fine

[plucky cairn]

Sunday I probably have a D&D session and I'm not that good at multitasking

Ok so, the plan is we go in 6 and try to pick up 2 people in the party finder, if we can't find them before then, and if that fails we'll just try a criterion with 4 people of the 6 that feel like it

So either way we are gonna have some fun

[elfin wave]