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Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward |OT2| RIP Bowmage 2015-2017.

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iammeiam

Member
Fingers crossed it's more Chrysalis and less Steps of Faith.


I still think Minstrel's Ballad: The Chrysalis would have been awesome.
 

Haly

One day I realized that sadness is just another word for not enough coffee.
This level 50 botany quest is the stupidest shit I've ever seen.
xYlXe8q.png
 

Seraphis Cain

bad gameplay lol
Fingers crossed it's more Chrysalis and less Steps of Faith.


I still think Minstrel's Ballad: The Chrysalis would have been awesome.

I fucking hate when Steps of Faith shows up in Trial Roulette. I swear it's impossible for me to get put in a group for that one that doesn't wipe at least once.

Same for Thok Hard, now that I think about it.
 

Wazzy

Banned
I'm so excited for the final MSQ! I'm going to stay up to complete it on the 28th.

Also finally focusing on levelling my DK and it's like commendation's everywhere. My poor dragoon. :(
 

Edzi

Member
Goddamnit, I didn't realize the legendary weapon quest was so long and drawn out. I spent WAY too much money buying a materia infused weapon from the market board for it, and now I'm reading that there are apparently a couple trials and more fetch quests on top of that. :(

Btw, my retainer is getting kinda full of random crafting material that I've been hoarding. I have no plans of taking on a crafting job, so is there any use to that stuff besides selling it for a tiny amount of gil?
 

Stuart444

Member
I fucking hate when Steps of Faith shows up in Trial Roulette. I swear it's impossible for me to get put in a group for that one that doesn't wipe at least once.

Same for Thok Hard, now that I think about it.

My groups usually succeed because I take the initiative no matter what role I'm in, I explain the fight briefly and then I usually end up on dragon killer duty while someone else (usually a healer) does the snares. Usually works out.
 

DrForester

Kills Photobucket
I hope we can totem buy Zurvan bird with this patch. I want super bird, and to never do that stupid fight again.


Should we expect EX of new primal, or do MSQ primals usually come later?
 

scy

Member
Do we start a betting pool for how much of this series of story patches will be handwaved away a few hours into Stormsblood?

Should we expect EX of new primal, or do MSQ primals usually come later?

Honestly, shrug? There's enough inconsistencies in release staggering that I'm not entirely sure what to say to expect for it. If there is a harder version, it'd be likely via the Minstrel and not an EX, however, though at this point that's basically just a difference of terminology.
 

aceface

Member
Does it say somewhere there's a new primal? I'm honestly not expecting it.

Last patch spoliers:
It would be pretty shitty if whatever it is broke out immediately after lala scion died to seal it away. I always assumed it would be Omega and we'll be dealing with it in the Stormblood raid.
 

iammeiam

Member
Does it say somewhere there's a new primal? I'm honestly not expecting it.

The actual plot blurb talks about a new primal. We're assuming there'll be combat content around it (HW is ridiculously short in trials next to ARR) but maybe it's just going to be Omega as a hook for expansion.
 
Does it say somewhere there's a new primal? I'm honestly not expecting it.

Last patch spoliers:
It would be pretty shitty if whatever it is broke out immediately after lala scion died to seal it away. I always assumed it would be Omega and we'll be dealing with it in the Stormblood raid.

This is what's always been hinted at. Omega is going to be used as a last resort/we-have-no-other-option to contain/remove it.
 

scy

Member
We should probably get at least one new dungeon with this patch too, right? Maybe?

It's not a full fledged patch so most likely not? Like, talk of primal aside, it's basically just a few story quests to tie up the storyline going into the expansion. Anything beyond that is unexpected as hell.
 

Seraphis Cain

bad gameplay lol
It's not a full fledged patch so most likely not? Like, talk of primal aside, it's basically just a few story quests to tie up the storyline going into the expansion. Anything beyond that is unexpected as hell.

Hm. I wonder how many MSQ will be added, then. I was expecting 40 or so, to get the total count closer to what post-ARR was, but now I'm thinking maybe only 20-ish.
 
Goddamnit, I didn't realize the legendary weapon quest was so long and drawn out. I spent WAY too much money buying a materia infused weapon from the market board for it, and now I'm reading that there are apparently a couple trials and more fetch quests on top of that. :(

Btw, my retainer is getting kinda full of random crafting material that I've been hoarding. I have no plans of taking on a crafting job, so is there any use to that stuff besides selling it for a tiny amount of gil?

That relic weapon quest is outdated.

No point in doing it now unless you're the type of person to put yourself through extraordinary amounts of pain to get a glamour that you'll discard in a few days.

It's not a full fledged patch so most likely not? Like, talk of primal aside, it's basically just a few story quests to tie up the storyline going into the expansion. Anything beyond that is unexpected as hell.

Didn't the last story patch for ARR have more stuff in the notes than this one? It even had the ??? for mystery trial but this one just has a text blurb about what's coming.

I'm personally expecting a three tier raid that you must clear solo in order to gain access to Stormblood.
 

scy

Member
Hm. I wonder how many MSQ will be added, then. I was expecting 40 or so, to get the total count closer to what post-ARR was, but now I'm thinking maybe only 20-ish.

2.55 was like ... 16? quests, though a few were fodder things if I recall. If we get too far over 10 I'd be pretty surprised.
 

Lonestar

I joined for Erin Brockovich discussion
My guess would be

Fight Primal and keep it from destroying the country, but it still basically blows open the wall, leading to free and open travel to areas east.

New Primal will be: 80 foot tall Lalafallelel, the Scourge of all Existence.
 

Zomba13

Member
If the Primal isn't
Rhalgr
then I'll fantasia into a lala*.

Nothing else makes a lick of sense.


*
This is not a legally binding bet.
 

ebil

Member
I'm keeping my expectations in check regarding the content we'll be getting. 5-10 MSQ, a solo instance, hopefully one trial, no dungeon.

I expect the cutscenes to be pretty hype though.
 
Oh yeah? Hmm, wish I knew that sooner.

You don't need the relics to do anything in this game.

They are side things if you want to spend the time building up the weapon with a lot of grinding.

But they are in no way mandatory. You get good weapons from vendors/tomes/EX trial drops/Palace of the Dead/raids/etc.
 

iammeiam

Member
The first couple steps of the ARR relic are still kind of worth doing; Hydra/Chimera and the HM primals. After that it's a bunch of work for glamour, but getting the base relic isn't bad. HW relic is basically straight grind throughout.
 

dramatis

Member
My guess would be

Fight Primal and keep it from destroying the country, but it still basically blows open the wall, leading to free and open travel to areas east.

New Primal will be: 80 foot tall Lalafallelel, the Scourge of all Existence.
We've fought that already
 

Arkeband

Banned
If the Primal isn't
Rhalgr
then I'll fantasia into a lala*.

Nothing else makes a lick of sense.


*
This is not a legally binding bet.

Rhalgr isn't a primal, though, it's something beyond that, isn't it? They're twelve gods.

We haven't even touched the FF12 espers that the Ascians are linked to - the fight against Nabriales had a chained up thing that could have been Cúchulainn but we never fought it, the only one that's been mentioned is Zodiark - there's still Belias, Chaos, Zalera, Zeromus, Hashmal, Exodus, Shemhazai, Adrammelech, Famfrit, and Mateus.
 

Seraphis Cain

bad gameplay lol
Rhalgr isn't a primal, though, it's something beyond that, isn't it? They're twelve gods.

We haven't even touched the FF12 espers that the Ascians are linked to - the fight against Nabriales had a chained up thing that could have been Cúchulainn but we never fought it, the only one that's been mentioned is Zodiark - there's still Belias, Chaos, Zalera, Zeromus, Hashmal, Exodus, Shemhazai, Adrammelech, Famfrit, and Mateus.

Isn't Cúchulainn a Void Ark boss, though?
 
New primal? Meh, if there is one don't expect an extreme version since this is the end of a story and giving a more "steps of faith or The Chrysalis" is probably expected at this point.
 
This level 50 botany quest is the stupidest shit I've ever seen.
xYlXe8q.png
The mining ones the same. You'll want to look up a timers site to tell you the locations on spawn, what it has and when it's going to spawn.

Managed to do my quest in about half hour with the help.
No i find my myself switching to miner everytime i port lol
 
The gathering classes are just about the only place where in-world time actually comes into play in this game.

Do we start a betting pool for how much of this series of story patches will be handwaved away a few hours into Stormsblood?

The 2.55 storyline was an excuse to push you into Ishgard but was in itself completely disconnected from what was actually happening in Ishgard that formed the core of the Heavensward story. The equivalent to the Crystal Braves plot in the 3.x storyline is the Warrior of Darkness plot, and that's already been wrapped up. So I wouldn't expect anything in the upcoming patch to be causally thrown aside in Stormblood since it appears to be more directly setting up plot threads that will lie at the core of the expansion.
 
https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comments/611aah/diadem_20_analysis_and_final_opinions/

An analysis on Diadem and the i265/i280 stuff.

Since there was a bit of talk concerning the Diadem when it was released I figured some people here might find it interesting.

Basic conclusion that the gear drops in Diadem were not a good idea. I was initially indifferent to the gear drops in Diadem but after reading through it all I agree with the conclusion that was reached.
 

iammeiam

Member
https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comments/611aah/diadem_20_analysis_and_final_opinions/

An analysis on Diadem and the i265/i280 stuff.

Since there was a bit of talk concerning the Diadem when it was released I figured some people here might find it interesting.

Basic conclusion that the gear drops in Diadem were not a good idea. I was initially indifferent to the gear drops in Diadem but after reading through it all I agree with the conclusion that was reached.

This was interesting, but I feel like talking about 265 and 280 as a set sort of confuses the issue. 265 was doomed by how late it hit, and the 5 iLevel decrease from capped gear. They probably should have just let it be 270, to increase the chances of something good resulting.

280 remains dumb; its existence impacted some things most people don't care about, but to the surprise of nobody it failed to provide long-term motivation to Diadem. Everyone I know who initially was determined to try to grind out a 280 has lost motivation, Fate Grind Simulator 2K17 is waning in popularity... It remains one of their weirdest design decisions.

I may be secretly rooting for 3.56 to drop a story primal that drops 280 weapons because at this point whynot.
 

Arkeband

Banned
https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comments/611aah/diadem_20_analysis_and_final_opinions/

An analysis on Diadem and the i265/i280 stuff.

Since there was a bit of talk concerning the Diadem when it was released I figured some people here might find it interesting.

Basic conclusion that the gear drops in Diadem were not a good idea. I was initially indifferent to the gear drops in Diadem but after reading through it all I agree with the conclusion that was reached.

There's always a proclivity from some folks to be defensive about the development team and the choices they make, but really, Diadem 2.0's failure could have been seen from so far off - they never gave any indication that they actually understood why 1.0 failed in the first place. And when the development team makes boneheaded design decisions, it does undermine the confidence of the playerbase in them, so I completely understand how that post ended.

They've done some really dumb things in Heavensward and hopefully these aren't repeated in Stormblood. The game seems to be getting incrementally better, but it does take a vocal community to steer them in the right direction.
 

Zomba13

Member
Rhalgr isn't a primal, though, it's something beyond that, isn't it? They're twelve gods.

We haven't even touched the FF12 espers that the Ascians are linked to - the fight against Nabriales had a chained up thing that could have been Cúchulainn but we never fought it, the only one that's been mentioned is Zodiark - there's still Belias, Chaos, Zalera, Zeromus, Hashmal, Exodus, Shemhazai, Adrammelech, Famfrit, and Mateus.

Anything can be a primal.
Enkidu
is one. So is Moggle Mog, who is a fairy tale. All it needs is aether and belief and there was plenty of that there plus those guys worship him.
 

suzu

Member
Belias is in the game already, but as an egi instead of its primal form. You see it during the lv50 summoner quest. Maybe they will use them in the Ivalice raid?
 
This was interesting, but I feel like talking about 265 and 280 as a set sort of confuses the issue. 265 was doomed by how late it hit, and the 5 iLevel decrease from capped gear. They probably should have just let it be 270, to increase the chances of something good resulting.

280 remains dumb; its existence impacted some things most people don't care about, but to the surprise of nobody it failed to provide long-term motivation to Diadem. Everyone I know who initially was determined to try to grind out a 280 has lost motivation, Fate Grind Simulator 2K17 is waning in popularity... It remains one of their weirdest design decisions.

I may be secretly rooting for 3.56 to drop a story primal that drops 280 weapons because at this point whynot.

There's always a proclivity from some folks to be defensive about the development team and the choices they make, but really, Diadem 2.0's failure could have been seen from so far off - they never gave any indication that they actually understood why 1.0 failed in the first place. And when the development team makes boneheaded design decisions, it does undermine the confidence of the playerbase in them, so I completely understand how that post ended.

They've done some really dumb things in Heavensward and hopefully these aren't repeated in Stormblood. The game seems to be getting incrementally better, but it does take a vocal community to steer them in the right direction.

I should note that I think Diadem as a concept has potential, but it really needs some heavy changes. By that I mean a concept of having this large area for multiple parties to zone into to do objectives. Thing is they need to fill it with more interesting stuff because the way it is currently you kill some random fates then you are left with nothing good to go for after the objectives are completed to the point that people afk until a boss fate comes up or EM (if it even pops up). Also Sea of Clouds isn't the most interesting place to travel through imo.

My previous idea was to introduce FATE chains that can be started and that lead to good rewards and/or bosses that can be triggered manually instead of random chance. Same thing with the EM, have multiple EMs that all have their own triggers (one active at a time). Like an Ala Mhigan battlefield where there are multiple defensive structures and areas you can attempt to take in exchange for good stuff. This way there is stronger incentive to stick around after the main objective is done.

That new guy a half Roe/highlander or something? He's fucking enormous

He doesn't have a Roe nose though. It's possible he might just be a really big dude.

Also Scion Adventurer Outfit hype.
 

Sorian

Banned
Rhalgr isn't a primal, though, it's something beyond that, isn't it? They're twelve gods.

We haven't even touched the FF12 espers that the Ascians are linked to - the fight against Nabriales had a chained up thing that could have been Cúchulainn but we never fought it, the only one that's been mentioned is Zodiark - there's still Belias, Chaos, Zalera, Zeromus, Hashmal, Exodus, Shemhazai, Adrammelech, Famfrit, and Mateus.

Primals aren't the actual true thing, they are just beings summoned by lunatics (usually). There can be a primal Rhalgr in addition to the real one, where ever they may be. Zomba is likely right, nothing else makes sense.
 
I spend some time jaw-jacking with Yoshi-P about the transition to Stormblood.

http://www.usgamer.net/articles/fin...bs-end-game-gear-and-the-stormblood-expansion

USgamer: Finally, let me end on selfish question. As a Paladin player, Flash is a good ability, but it doesn't have any impact. Can we give it some impact?

Yoshida: It's true. It is kind of hard to tell if the enemies have reacted to it or not. As you mentioned, it's literally a 'Ping!' and then some light. We're still in a state where we can go back and review some of the existing actions, so I'll look into it.
 

scy

Member
The 2.55 storyline was an excuse to push you into Ishgard but was in itself completely disconnected from what was actually happening in Ishgard that formed the core of the Heavensward story. The equivalent to the Crystal Braves plot in the 3.x storyline is the Warrior of Darkness plot, and that's already been wrapped up. So I wouldn't expect anything in the upcoming patch to be causally thrown aside in Stormblood since it appears to be more directly setting up plot threads that will lie at the core of the expansion.

It's half in jest but I'm not entirely sold yet on them doing a better job at weaving the move into Stormsblood as well as it can be. It's a lot of generally unfounded concerns, granted, but the Doman side of things makes me wonder how the whole story pans out. They may not do another "btw, I know we got dragons and all but check Ul'dah for like an hour and come back?" bit but I'm still a little nervous at how the transition works out. It'll be an interesting thing to revisit post-3.56 and post-SB anyway.

Granted, I'm also one of the few who don't love the storytelling in the game. The worldbuilding is pretty good and the overall story isn't bad itself but I'm not a fan of how a lot gets presented.

Anything can be a primal.
Enkidu
is one. So is Moggle Mog, who is a fairy tale. All it needs is aether and belief and there was plenty of that there plus those guys worship him.

can I worship and pray to summon a Balance Card Primal.

I should note that I think Diadem as a concept has potential, but it really needs some heavy changes. By that I mean a concept of having this large area for multiple parties to zone into to do objectives. Thing is they need to fill it with more interesting stuff because the way it is currently you kill some random fates then you are left with nothing good to go for after the objectives are completed to the point that people afk until a boss fate comes up or EM (if it even pops up). Also Sea of Clouds isn't the most interesting place to travel through imo.

A lot of this, basically? Sea of Clouds feels too big for the map given how much usable terrain there actually is. The amount of stuff to do between Emergency Missions feels a little limited. The reward structure is a thing but mostly in that there's not a way to mitigate the RNG; the ability to turn excess spoils into specific slots (but still RNG stats) or a ton of them into a random weapon gives players a goal. It's heavy handed on making it a grind thing but, at the same time, it already kind of is one so go ahead and embrace it.

Mostly I'm just interested in ways to keep up with player engagement with the whole process. It just feels like to me they remembered the carrot in the design but forgot to attach it to the string. End of a tier / end of the expansion is one thing but thinking of it around earlier in the lifespan of Stormsblood makes me hope it gets to fit the RNG-heaven for drops for people who want that alternative to relying on locked currency (or, more likely, overmelding crafted stuff competition?). No reason for people who legitimately like Diadem-styled stuff to not get it as a reasonable alternative.
 

Squishy3

Member
Rhalgr isn't a primal, though, it's something beyond that, isn't it? They're twelve gods.

We haven't even touched the FF12 espers that the Ascians are linked to - the fight against Nabriales had a chained up thing that could have been Cúchulainn but we never fought it, the only one that's been mentioned is Zodiark - there's still Belias, Chaos, Zalera, Zeromus, Hashmal, Exodus, Shemhazai, Adrammelech, Famfrit, and Mateus.
The thing in the Chrysalis is a statue of Zodiark.
 
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