The cousins got all dressed up and had their Little Ladies’ & Hatching-Tide outing the other evening, even with Laureine insisting that Lizicus wear a pair of bunny ears for the occasion. Even with the two of them radically approaching the festivities in their own way, they kept the spirit of both seasonal events to heart.
The event itself is incredibly short, only with a couple of things to do around Gridania before it migrates over to Ul’Dah to conclude. It’s still a bit of fun though with a nice mount acquired at the end, along with all of the wonderful festive decorations that can be seen across the realm as both of these are celebrated together.
Couple more images showing all of the scenery an their outfits close-up.
May y’all have a very wonderful Little Ladies’ Day & Hatching-Tide event 2024! Head on out there in your favorite outfit, hug a bunny or two, enjoy some deliciously confection delights, and have lots of fun with it all!
With all the battles fought, going to the far reaches of existence and back again, along with delving into adventures on the Thirteenth, the two weary cousins finally take time to enjoy some quiet island relaxation.
There is quite the surmount of tasks to do on their islands still, but the far laid back take to these said tasks will be a good change of pace, especially for the ever punctual Laureine, as we get ever closer to heading westward to Tural…
Over the past weekend, we completed not only the remaining two role quests series left to do, but also the finale series after one has completed all of those as well! Bearing in mind that the last ‘bonus’ questline doesn’t appear until after completing the Endwalker MSQ, but just up to 6.0.
Note: Minor spoiler talk about the bonus finale role quest series, along with the achievement image.
The Caster Role Quest series was pretty good, nothing really to write home about but did a nice job adding in an additional story relating to Heavensward. The instance fight at the end was super fun and even Black Mage friendly! The Healer Role Quest, however, was by far the absolute best one in terms of story. The ‘fight’ was fun and required using an ability that most of the player base keeps forgetting about (this would be Esuna). To me, it felt more manageable of an instance fight than the Shadowbringers’ one was, but that might have also something to do with how they fixed how heals work with NPC’s in these sort of scenarios.
Originally, to the best of my recollection, AoE heals wouldn’t work correctly and everything had to be hard-targeted to NPC’s for them to work in instance fights. I can’t say for Trusts as I’ve never healed for them before. I could be very inaccurate in this thinking, so definitely take my thoughts about this with a cup of salt.
Anyway, in terms of Role Quests stories, I’d place them in this order from my favorite to ‘least’: Healer -> Tank -> Caster -> Ranged -> Melee. Melee and Ranged aren’t ‘bad,’ but they just didn’t hit any interesting notes with me. I think I said in the prior post about these, that one’s mileage will vary with how one feels about them as well.
The cousins just after finishing the bonus Role Quest series.
Speaking specifically of the healer one without getting into spoilers, it just had me moved to tears on a number of occasions. If one appreciates the later Stormblood MSQ sections, I’m certain one will very much appreciate the entirety of the Healer’s Role Quests series as well.
Moving on, once we were able to access the final bonus questline, it had us heading to Garlemald to deal with one more Blasphemy with all of our friends from all of the role quest series. The entirety of this whole adventure was an absolute blast! Everything upon entering Garlemald to the instance fight (dungeon?) it had was so darn fun. One recommendation I will say as of right now the instance fight is not iLevel Sync’d, so go in with whatever one is more comfortable with and/or highest iLevel for a fun tail kickery.
Once it’s all done, everyone goes home, and hints at something to come that I believe was mentioned for Dawntrail, but we’ll see. We’re asked to return to Radz-at-Han and let them know that the end of the Blasphemies are upon us and all is well once again.
Yisss~!!
Overall, I cannot recommend these enough to anyone wanting to see the entirety of it. It’s just so fun, but please don’t go out of one’s way to level 5 different job types just to see this specifically. If one is already going to level said job types, then that is where I recommend looking at these.
Comparing it to Shadowbringers’, I think it suffers a little bit in terms of anchoring the stories as well as those did. However, they’re nice little additions and follow-ups (or perhaps conclusions) to specific areas of previously told parts of the story/MSQ. One nit-pick is I hope in Dawntrail and beyond is they start them again at base expansion level (i.e. 90 for Dawntrail) instead of halfway through.
With those behind us, on wards to the next adventure~!!
After a long day of adventure, the two cousins reconvene at the end of it at EOCA HQ’s warm fire pit. Shortly thereafter arriving and telling both tales of adventures they did separately, as well as talking about the ones they did together, poor Lizicus begins to nod off right then and there.
As much as Laureine wanted to chastise her cousin for doing so, she simply just smiles and lets her drift for a moment before nudging her to let her know it’s time to retire for the evening.
“Cuz, you looked so peaceful nodding off there at the fire pit, even if it was for just a spell. I know you really appreciate sleep and rest, so I just let you do so without giving you a hard time. Sorry I had to, but I really didn’t want you to go fully asleep in that position, especially with exposed legs and that corset out in the cold weather for a prolonged period of time. Even so, thank you for the brief talks about how everything went today; these little moments together mean so much to me.”
Over this past weekend, the long journey of us going from just a whee Lancer all the way to jumping and diving our way across the battlefield has come to an end. I’m so glad this was the melee class that I was recommended to start out with coming from being a caster main, but by no means would I ever main play this class.
Melee range to me is such a foreign thing along with making sure I’m in roughly the right area of the enemy to make sure the damage is correct for that part of the combo. The final combo, albeit long with a number of abilities/proc’s, felt good and thanks to the cooldowns each one has, it gave me a moment to think about where I am in the chain of abilities and what to do next.
The four of us early on as Lancers.
Paralleling acquiring new abilities for the combos was also learning and acquiring all of the jumps and how they worked was so fun to do along the way. To this day, since Peloton is located in the same spot on Bard, I still Evasive Jump instinctively thinking it’s Peloton only to either be slightly embarrassed in a Duty or some awkward part of a town that we were simply just trying to get to our destination a bit quicker.
A ton of the early leveling was using Frontlines, so learning PvP and understanding how that worked along the way was a nice added bonus aside from the obscene amount of experience it gives in lower levels. Laureine was planning on wearing the Late Allagan set, so this really helped her acquire that well before any of us were even able to plan outfits!
All of us after attaining 50 Dragoon
Side thought, running Frontlines from 30-50+ every day kind of burned me out from wanting to do them, so we all ended up taking a break from it starting in the mid-50’s and just focused more on Poetic acquisition to keep gear up to date easier. Aside from that, Frontlines is still a lot of fun in moderation and I do recommend it to anyone unsure if they would like PvP or not – just be sure to visit Wolf’s Den to set up the PvP crossbar for it!
Story-wise, the Lancer story was fun and pretty good. The climatic ending to it I liked a lot as was the fight. Becoming Dragoon at 30 and heading up to 50 had a good tale to tell as well, which also ended on a really fun battle. It was nice to see Estinien so early on too and get more of his back story. Never really knew much about him before we ever got to Heavensward proper. Speaking of that, the Heavensward section was the absolute highlight of the whole story; it was just so good!
The Level 60 Milestone
The Stormblood section was alright, but nothing real memorable until the final battle. Each section really did have a fun and memorable battle of some kind for certain! Leveling-wise, Aikirees and I, along with the Cousins, wanted to keep our levels fairly synced up as we took the journey together. Early on, this was fairly simple to do, but once we all reached 60 and the range of raid choices opened up, that was where it became a bit more of a challenge.
In some cases, it was fairly easy depending on say Aikirees got World of Darkness and I got Syrcus Tower. It would only be a matter of a Tribal Quest or two to address the difference. However, if one of us got something like Dun Scaith and the other Labyrinth of the Ancients, then the catch-up was a lot more comical to figure out! Aside from one misstep, it went pretty smooth.
Celebrating the 70 Milestone
I mentioned earlier that going from Caster Main to melee is a rather jarring adjustment, especially in Raids. Trials and Normal Raids, it wasn’t too bad as we all could see the battlefield fairly easily even with all of the effects. Sages and Summoner’s did make some of the Normal Raids even at 60 a bit challenging to see if we were poking and prodding the right spots though. I believe by the time we all were reaching the NieR raids, this was a lot easier to understand and moving around to avoid certain mechanics had become significantly easier.
On the annoying-side were melee mechanics where we would have to wait it out until it was over not being able to do a whole lot aside from possibly using our buff, or just hurling spears comically (seriously, where do we put all of those?!) Trial Bosses that were facing-only still kind of puzzle me if we’re doing the right thing with positionals, but it seems to always go alright. These are mostly just nit-picks though from someone who is usually just sitting in a corner lobbing Fire IV’s everywhere.
Level 80~!
We did have to do a rework of some abilities on the crossbar once we approached the 80 tier as some of the abilities’ combos started to get a bit longer than I was expecting, but really helped the flow going further. Approaching up to and obtaining level 90 is just a blast with nearly having all abilities at one’s disposal and just continuously jumping and diving all over the place! Raiden Thrust is so darn pretty and reminds me of a certain saga of a Two-Headed Dragon from another Star and I will always see it as that.
This is certainly a class we’ll happily continue to run around and adventure with for the foreseeable future taking on odds and ends or for a different change of pace/view. As for the Role Quests, since we did the Shadowbringers one as a Bard since it was before physical damage was split into melee and range, we’re looking forward to seeing the melee role quests as a Dragoon. As for post Endwalker, well now that all those levels are behind us, getting it up to 100 will be just like the rest of ours and we are very much looking forward to more fun as Dragoon in Dawntrail!
The End – Level 90
Thank everyone over the past few years that has recommended Dragoon to us. I adore this class, and very much pass that recommendation along to anyone wanting to start out as a melee job in their adventures through Eitherys!
“Oh, heya there, Cuz.” Lizicus says to Laureine on a rainy night in Gridania. They both have been fighting hard in their Dragoon training to nearly reach the top now.
Laureine smiles back at her “So what are you doing here, aside from getting wet?” A quick pause happens between the two before Lizicus comes to the realization of the surmount of rain and puts up an umbrella for the two of them to temporarily reside under. “Ah well, you know me, absent minded at the likes of even the weather.”
The both get a good quick chuckle out of the retort before Laureine looks at her cousin with a heartfelt expression. “You did good tonight assisting the Missus Sirena; proud of you.” Lizicus, taken aback from the compliment for a moment before reacting. “Y-yeah w-well, i-it’s nothing really. Just felt like you needed a hand is all!”
Laureine smiles a faint blushing smile. “While that may be true, you really did a good thing, so thank you for that.” Lizicus faintly smiles in response before glancing away.
“S-so anyway…” Lizicus continues, changing the subject and reverting her gaze back at Laureine, “Here we are near the end of our training.” Laureine smiles, “I suppose so, Cuz; it’s been quite the journey!” Lizicus grins in return and nods. “Yeah, and it’s been so rad taking it on alongside you!” Laureine’s expression unchanged, aside from showing some exhaustion. “So, Cuz, where to from here before the big trek Westward?”
Lizicus looks at Laureine expressing contemplation. “Oh, I don’t know, maybe reside on a tropical island on the outskirts of La Noscea for a while? Just want some additional time to relax and sleep before our big trek there would be so rad.”
Laureine laughs out loud. “That sounds like you!” Lizicus scoffs. “Oh yeah? What about you then!?” Laureine thinks for a moment. “Well, probably delve into more Allagan research, or help the Missus with anything they need.“
Lizicus pauses and thinks for a moment. “…Yeah, you know that does sound good too. If you need my help, you can always just ask after this training is over.”
Laureine smiles warmly at Lizicus. “Thank you, Cuz; I will try to not pester you on your vacation as much before we head Westward too after this!” She lets out a happy chuckle towards Lizicus.
All Lizicus can do is smile warmly back at Laureine while holding the umbrella until the rain stops. Once the rain ends they part ways for a spell.
Laureine returns to EOCA HQ before Lizicus and gets all settled into her bunk to sleep. Meanwhile, Lizicus, while getting settled into bed at HQ mutters something before falling asleep herself.
“Hey, Cuz, I know you’re probably asleep, but… thanks for everything and putting up with my antics. I do appreciate what you do for everyone and The Missuses. I’ll try to look after you as best I can, even if I have to use my brashness to get us out of a jam. Love you lots, Cuz, sleep well~”
One evening, while Laureine was assisting me with acquiring some crafting materials, she stumbled upon seeing the great Void Ark flying through the clouds below. She stood there for a moment with her beloved and trusty red panda to ponder the behemoth ship.
Why was it still out there, what does it continue to hide, who still resides within, will it ever return to the Thirteenth or is it just stranded on the Source only to aimlessly fly through the skies until the Twelve know when. Only time will tell if we ever do return to the Ark or if it is truly doomed to float in the skies above northern Eorzea for all of time if only to remind us all of the adventure we once had entering its eerie corridors all those moons ago…
This is a smidgen late, since as of this post we’re fast approaching 85, but we hit the Level 80 milestone on Dragoon! It has certainly been a wild journey looking back on starting out as a little Level 1 Lancer all the while ago. This job has been really really fun and every ability that has been added later on just makes the flow all the more enjoyable!
Don’t get me wrong, even at lower levels with the lack of the combo-chains and procs that can be done, it’s still a really enjoyable job with a pretty good balance between speed and damage. I’m still really glad we all picked it as our first foray into melee, but not something we’d be maining anytime soon though.
Level 80!!
Getting so close to the finish line now, and looking forward to it! Soon thereafter, we’re all off to finally start and complete all of the Endwalker Role Quests!
The Cousins would like to wish everyone a very happy Valentione’s Day today! Y’all are loved and appreciated no matter what. Love who you are, and spread that to everyone around you! ❤
After a long day of adventuring through all of Etheirys, and the First, the two cousins return to Headquarters on this cold wintry night. Laureine placing her technological Allagan Lance and bodysuit into her private chambers, meanwhile Lizicus placing her trusty bow that was a gift from Laureine and armor away in her (rather sparse) private chambers’ armories.
After a quick clean-up and having some hot tea with a little to eat, they both just relax in front of the lower level’s large stone fireplace. They’re normally seen either together or keep in touch as to where they are while running around the vast world, and even on occasion are seen sitting and chatting somewhere, but not like this. On this cold night, while the snow comes down in Ishgard, they are fully relaxed with not a single care in the world even if just for a moment.
Everything from their future endeavors in Tural, Laureine’s next big Allagan idea, Lizicus’ favorite type of drinks, and what the latest ‘rad’ thing she saw in Old Sharlayan the other day just to name a few. All sorts of other things along with that that just came to mind while resting there listening to the light jazzical music from the Orchestration and the crackling of the fire. Lizicus ultimately laying down on a floor pillow slowly dozing out as Laureine just looked at the fire smiling and enjoying the company of her sometimes stubborn cousin, their pets, and just letting time freeze in this tranquil moment.
While it may have been a cold winter’s night outside, it was an incredibly warm and cozy night inside. Stay warm everyone, and enjoy a wonderful fireplace with a hot drink on these cold wintry nights.
The other evening, while Laureine was out adventuring on her own taking care of her own personal tasks and objectives that are usually unable to be done during the normal weekly tasks, she comes upon Sirena on the First assisting Granson to find a specific Cardinal Virtue. It was a very lovely intermission of rest from both of their adventuring, where then a couple of U.F.Os come along and attempt to tractor beam them away.
Seemingly miscalculating their size versus said alien vehicles, it ended up being more of a float hammock of sorts. Meanwhile the two kept chatting until their attempted abductors gently put them back on the ground and flew off in a hurry. Quite possibly to find a target far smaller that could be picked up properly.
Anden may want to look over the flock a bit more thoroughly this evening…
My assistant spending a cold winter evening relaxing in front of EOCA HQ’s lounge fireplace keeping warm. I know a lot of places are on the colder side, so please do take care and stay warm while the weather outside is cold out!
We all have finally attained level 70 Dragoon!! The 60-70 adventure was mostly pleasant overall, and understanding the several rotations that the class has up to 70 hasn’t been all that rough either. The story was enjoyable too, but I personally liked the 50-60 one a lot more.
The full screenshots of us celebrating Level 70 Dragoon
Once the Dragon Gauge was unlocked at 70, the rotations and combo’s become absolutely bonkers! It all makes sense, but upon first seeing it was a bit overwhelming especially when we main Black Mage. All in all though, we’ve been really enjoying Dragoon so very much. It’s fun and balanced between speed and what should be executed next while moving around the battlefields.
This was also really gratifying to see happen upon hitting level 70 as well. It might look really awful jumping from 60 to 70 gear, but we really only stuck with roulettes that kept us around 60 or below all of the time. I can’t believe were only 20 levels left. Here’s to those and more adventures ahead!!
Nothing fancy, just my assistant out and about having a quick daydreaming moment while searching for a treasure map. Some of the things the AFK camera picks up are rather neat, and this one was certainly one of those!
We had such a wonderful time with this year’s Heavensturn. The story was so gosh darn cute & emotional with it telling tales of the “Ryu” or Dragon for us Eorzean’s that eventually leads into a Far Eastern tale that intertwines with the Four Lords story from Stormblood. I love absolutely every moment of it.
The aftermath with a certain NPC relating to the Four Lords.
What was also neat is the aftermath and the return of getting one’s fortune taken again! This was from the 2023 Heavensturn event with its own story and was so delightfully fun!
Some of us ended up fairing better than others.
While I and my poor assistant didn’t fair so well, Aikirees flourished and Lizicus did. One can always request a re-draw, but we tend to stick with what we get for the year. Regardless, it’s a nice fun little thing that I am glad they brought back. It sets one back 100 Gil per draw, so very low-cost to keep drawing if one wants to.
The Cousins in their Heavensturn attire.
May everyone out there have an absolutely wonderful Heavensturn and 2024 ahead! Let’s make it a stellar and ‘zee awesome’sies’ of a year!!
It took some time, and some setbacks, but we all finally managed to reach Level 60 on Dragoon over the weekend! This has been a fun melee class to tackle being the first one we’ve done ever. Only 30 levels to go now!!
At the end of the night, the two cousins take a break around the HQ’s fire pit and swap stories of their adventures for the evening. Quite the wonderful way to end a night ♥
