Kinda funny that FFXIV is relatively drama-free and that I encountered small drama on a Minecraft server!
Adult cat and kitten in a Minecraft house
I hadn’t touched Minecraft until this Summer when I was ill for a while.
Whilst I was off, Jero introduced me to Minecraft. For some reason, it stuck and I’ve played a lot since. I think it will eventually lose its grip on me but I’m loving it right now. It’s a good thing to do whilst waiting on the new patch for XIV.
I keep finding Pyramids…
I don’t have Hera’s patience for leveling in FFXIV, having barely managed to get my WAR to 80 so I retain my non-crown-wearing mentor status. BRD is on its way up there but so far SCH/SMN, DNC, RDM and WAR are done, along with all DoL/H.
I do eventually want to get everything to 80 to get my Amaro mount but that means leveling MNK or DRG… Most other things I can stomach the idea of but I’m not a huge fan of melee dps classes so these present a particular challenge for me.
So whilst we’re all waiting, I’ll be back on Minecraft. Damnit Jero!
I don’t know if this will help anyone else but I was having frequent crashes in Final Fantasy XIV and Warframe in Windows 10. I followed some guidance from Warframe and realised I hadn’t installed proper Razer drivers since I built my new PC.
I installed the appropriate software for my Razer Naga and it seems to have solved the issue entirely. I know when I googled for help, lots of folks seem to be having the same issue and of course your driver clash may not be the same as mine but it might be worth a shot.
It isn’t as easy to find where the range-appropriate vendors are in Shadowbringers because of the level-synced quests. So I went on a journey and collected them altogether. The levels are for Disciples of War/Magic, except for Crystarium. If you’re looking for the Disciples of Hand/Land, they’re usually within a level of the DoW/M levels so this will give you an idea.
The Crystarium
Name
Type
Level
Position
Vernath
Tool Vendor
71-80 for DoH
( 9.3 , 14.4 )
Ania
Jeweler
70 for DoW/M
( 8.8 , 13.8 )
Doddard
Armorer
70 DoW/M and 71-80 DoH/L
( 8.6 , 13.4 )
Shai-Tistt
Arms Merchant
70 DoW/M
( 8.7 , 13.1 )
Norvandt
Level
Zone
Teleport
Name
Position
70
Lakeland
Ostall Imperative
Arms Supplier
5.7, 16.9
70
Amh Araeng
Mord Souq
Shan San
27.1, 5.8
70
Kholusia
Stilltide
Local Merchant
34.5, 27.4
70
Kholusia
Wright
Local Merchant
15.2, 28.8
72
Il Mheg
Lydhra Lran
Pixie Hoarder
14.9, 32.2
72
Il Mheg
Pla Enni
Ys Gyuf
19.7, 4.1
74
Rak’tika Greatwood
Fanow
Local Merchant
27.7, 18.0
76
Am Araeng
Twine
Merchant and Mender
10.8, 16.7
76
Am Araeng
Twine
Mord Junkmonger
12.7, 9.8
78
Kholusia
Tomra
Tholl Junkmonger
11.9, 8.8
80
The Tempest
The Ondo Cups
Grenoldt *
34.2, 25.7
*Grenoldt doesn’t sell armour, he only gives it to you once you’ve completed the level 80 role quest appropriate to your job.
Spoilers ahead for the Shadowbringers expansion. I may not go into detail but I do want to mention certain characters and situations. I will also post some screenshots.
I have to say I’m so happy to see the relationships between all of the Scions come out so strongly. Loved Urianger being given a bit more of the limelight and all the interplay between the group.
It’s been a very long time since I have enjoyed the story in a game as much as I enjoyed the story between 70 and 80 in Shadowbringers. Here are a few of the things I have enjoyed so much.
Love these two!
I love the introduction of a fat miqote woman. Not only that but that she’s in a committed relationship with a chap who adores her and she him. Also that she is lovely and is not (as is often the case with fat folks) portrayed as lazy, nasty and self indulgent. She’s not perfect, none of the Eulmore folks are but she and her husband redeem themselves admirably.
Made me cry!
I adore the fact that you get to meet some version of G’raha Tia again and how lovely his character is. I also like seeing Urianger more clearly, laughing at Alisaie’s gungho attitude and watching Thancred change.
The change in the weather for each zone once you clear the challenge is amazing, although I had to giggle that it’s always nighttime when we succeed.
The music is lovely, particularly in the Greatwood and Tempest.
I love the reuse of Bismark. Best whale was sadly corrupted and underused in the source and I was beyond delighted when the island I had spotted and hoped to be something interesting – was.
I loved the juxtaposition between Vauthry and Innocence.
I love the whole South American (Inca?) feel to the Greatwood, some of my favourite scenes there.
I love the absolute shock value of seeing Amaurot for the first time and the slow understanding and empathy which builds throughout the story for the plight of those who came from the original.
So unbelievably lovely. So much love for Seto and his memories…
I am absolutely smitten with the talking Amaro. I’ve already told my FC I would happily have Mexi retire there. I don’t know why but they just pulled at my heart.
And throughout the whole thing, your relationship with Ardbert.
Was chatting to folks in game in FFXIV last night when out of the blue comes a friend request. I look at the name and then am stunned! An old friend from FFXI popped up in FFXIV, on our server and had tracked me down via this blog.
So hi Lerko! Lovely to see you again!
I don’t write much here anymore, but it’s great that folks can still get in touch. Twitter is probably the best way to stay in touch (@DrunkenSiren) but you can find the Free Company and me on Siren as Drunken Siren’s Call (DRUNK) and Mexi Lostbane.
I’m really happy about Blue Mage. Yes, you heard it here folks, someone who doesn’t agree with the grumbling I’ve read a lot of on Twitter and Reddit over the past couple of days.
Why am I happy? Well Blue Mage is not going to be hampered by FFXIV’s current job system. I’m sure there will be some restriction but the last thing I wanted was for them to ram a job which historically has been incredibly flexible into a rather rigid set of roles. I wasn’t interested in BLU if it was just another Caster. I’m incredibly interested in this version!
I would much rather be able to access a wide range of skills and choose how to play this class than be forced into some form of caster or ranged dps hybrid.
Yes, BLU will be capped at 50 to start. But the nice thing is all that low level gear gets an airing again (love my teen-dungeon sets). I will have 49 skills to pick up so every level there will be a focus. I’ll be levelling in open-world areas and with friends.
As someone who is bored with the repetition of duty roulettes, I actively avoid a lot of them these days. In fact I’d do most anything else except them. I dip into Expert a couple of times a week and that’s about it.
I’m looking forward to teaming up with friends and I’m not afraid to start BLU partyfinder groups to complete content. I’m sure the cap will go up and SE will adjust the content that BLU can engage with as they see how it’s used. I’m not expecting BLU to be in everything – but it’s far easier to ease up on access to gameplay than to restrict it. So it’s possible things will change over time.
The other thing which really excited me about the BLU announcements was the fact that it paves the way for other solo classes like Beastmaster/tamer and Puppetmaster!
I get some of the frustration. People want to come up with absolutely overpowered ways to speed through high level content. SE are saying – you can have BLU but due to its nature, we’re not going to let you do that constantly.
Looking forward to BLU way more than I expected. Now I just wish SE would change up some other content…
I apologise if links through to images no longer work. Photobucket changed things up in late 2017 and now links don’t work. I do have the images and I’m slowly downloading them but I’m not sure I have the patience to try and match up the old images with the links.
I may try and make some of the key FFXI images available elsewhere/
In other news, I’m still playing FFXIV and also Warframe!
Real life has been a bit crazy in the past 2-3 months and work is pretty stressful so I haven’t written much about the new patches. I tweet a fair bit and if you’re interested in keeping up with the Free Company, my antics and game news, that’s the best place to follow me.
What have I been up to?
Finishing the Yokai event for my glow in the dark mount. I have one weapon to get before the 1st November.
Leveling my DoH/DoL classes. My gatherers went up pretty fast after the launch of Stormblood, but I do need to gear them better. Have 5/6 of the Master books ( just one fishing one to get). I’m currently trying to gear my crafters. My specialists are all 70 (WVR, LTR & GSM) and I have the books for them. I’m on my way to my 4th book and it will be Alchemy. If I can gear eveyrthing appropriately I may switch specialisms briefly, just to create the new flying chair mount.
I ranked up in the new beast men quests a couple of time but with work being busy out of hours and having to farm for Yokai, I gave up progressing this until I’m done with Yokai. So I have the first turtle minion and that’s it.
I’m slowly farming MGP to work towards my new Korporkur (sp?) mount. I need 750k and I’m at 618k. I did manage to get my Gloria mount done and complete the GARO event a while ago. It’s nice sailing around on the smallest airship ever.
I have managed to beat all the extreme primals up to Shinryu and now have the first phase and some of the second down for Shin. I’d like to beat this one, it’s fun and the weapons would be handy. I have zero doggos but I have one bird. Every time I start a farming party for Bismark Ex, everyone else gets a bird and I roll pathetically. I may end up getting it the hard way. I have a few Zurvan and Thordan totems but almost none for Sephi and Sophia.
I’ve completed all of the dungeons with my squadron, once. So I need to work on this but again, it’ll wait a few weeks. Work should ease up in December so until then, it’ll be an occasional things.
Also tried lowmanning (4 of us) Syrcus tower and Void Ark. Took a while but was good fun. Syrcus was no problem, VA would have been faster with 2 more.
We’re a small, friendly, social FC, established since early access (2013) on the Siren server.
Siren is on the Aether data center which has the two biggest NA servers in it, so our datacenter party finder is pretty busy.
The FC has a small number of friendly players and we’d like more! We have EU and NA players in the group so NA players who have some playtime in the day might like the company of our EU players. If you’re a shift worker or an EU player on Siren, this might suit you!
If you’re a late night PST player, this group probably won’t suit you but we do have the odd late night player.
We have a medium house in Ward 1 of the Mist with a workshop, 4 airships, summoning bell, crystal bell, armoire, triple triad table, chocobo stable etc which you are more than welcome to use.
We have players at varying levels of experience and don’t mind if you’ve played since alpha or joined yesterday!
You can find us on Twitter @DrunkenSiren (https://twitter.com/DrunkenSiren), Facebook and we have a a Discord server. None of these are mandatory but if you like to keep in touch you’re welcome to use any of them!
Apply in-game or leave a message here!
Mexi Lostbane – Drunken Siren’s Call aka <DRUNK>
P.S. The group doesn’t give a crap if you’re gay, straight, trans-gendered, black, white, pale blue or an alien. We’re a bunch of people who like playing video games together and that’s all that matters. Discrimination in the form of sexism, ageism, racism, homophobia and on the basis of any other inconsequential difference is not welcome and will not be tolerated.
Just stop! Yes, I mean you. I get it, you’re excited about the expansion – so am I! I wasn’t but I’m now fairly positive about it and looking forward to new content.
The job changes should make life more pleasant, especially for newer players and hopefully gently encourage all of us to do a better job by guiding us with the new job gauge system.
So – things I feel are utterly stupid right now:
Making definitive guides for any job, including the new ones. Seriously, we’ve already seen that there have been changes to the numbers on the tool tips and that there are things which we don’t understand yet.
Asking questions about how things will work when the freaking expansion hasn’t been released yet and NO ONE KNOWS! Why do you think other people magically have the answers that you don’t?
Deciding what the ‘meta’ will be. Who the fuck actually cares?! Oh ok that’s a bit harsh and I do get that raiders do really care but honestly until people really understand how their jobs work and all the small changes (proc rates, traits etc) factor in, it’ll be really hard to know…
I know no one will give a damn what I say but this is me venting and being relieved that Early Access is 10 days away!
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