Caught up with Aikirees after finalizing our last two Workshops to get them upgraded to level 3. It ended up being a rainy night on the island; so we just took a seat, had some tea & biscuits, and listened to the gentle raindrops hitting the roof of the cabin. It was a very wonderful way to end the night on.
Just have the one last landmark remaining to build (we’re being stubborn and are waiting on one material), which will fill all of the plots with something and that should unlock the first major quest on the island!
This past weekend, we achieved reaching Rank 10 on our Island Sanctuary! Overall it has been a really relaxing past time, especially since over the last two years all we’ve really been doing mainly is all the combat & story content. Don’t get me wrong, that’s the content I enjoy the most (this does not count extremes/savages/ultimates as I do not do those), but this been a very nice change of pace.
Home Sweet Hideaway & Cozy Cabin when starting out.
When we first got to the island, I wasn’t exactly sure what to do. The game does nudge one into a direction though to understand the basics of how to progress things on the island like the pasture, garden, making tools, building facilities to make/gather things, etc. So we really kind of just were led by the metaphorical string (carrot for me?) to get all the basics down. Upon doing all of that, one reaches about rank 4 and from there it becomes a free for all on what to work on and how to proceed.
We really mostly focused on the workshops, and making sure it had a full week of things to make and sell based on materials we either gathered personally, or had a granary assist with said gathering. Granary was unlocked a rank or so after 4, so at first it was just making sure the one Workshop was always busy.
The early ranks were a blur since they go kind of quick keeping the workshop(s) busy and building out landmarks as they become unlocked. As the ranks go by, one can make tools for the mammets to assist in making the Hideaway bigger with more plots to add additional workshops (up to 4 for these), landmarks, and granaries (up to 2 for these). Landmarks are just nice features to add to one’s island, but they also help speed workshop production up.
After a certain point, one can move around all of these things if one so wishes to. We took the ‘build it, and forget it’ approach, but might nudge around things eventually. It does cost a little bit and some time, but that’s really about it. The island itself has two currencies in seafarer or islander cowries. The seafarer cowries expand the hideway and are accrued from the workshops, meanwhile the islander cowries I believe are from exporting additional gathered goods and can be used to buy fun cosmetics. Seafarer ones can be used for buying goodies too, but we haven’t yet.
The Second Level Home Sweet Hideaway & Cozy Cabin.
One thing is it doesn’t necessarily mention when workshops/granaries/hideaway can be upgraded unless one looks at the plot that it was placed at. It could probably be examined in the hideaway management menu, but never tried that. This is something I wished was mentioned or had a better way to let us know, but I guess it’s not really a big issue. The neat thing with the hideaway upgrades specifically, is that the entire hideaway’s looks changes as well! From the base level to level 2, torches, and dirt pathways appear with wooden staircases where dirt ramps once were.
It’s a super nice touch that I began to enjoy seeing when I leveled up the hideaway itself. Each upgrade, no matter what it is minus landmarks, just required certain gathered materials and time for the granaries & workshops only. The hideaway is immediate. Just have to make sure it doesn’t affect the workshop’s materials otherwise it warns of it causing a deficit in the current crafting schedule. Messing up and adding a deficit once really bit me, so I had to make sure to not let that happen again.
Workshops are ran on an agenda schedule. One selects from a list of items that take 4, 6, or 8 hours to make, and it will automate the rest assuming the materials are gathered. It does a great job saying what materials are needed and when, so this makes gathering the materials a lot more streamlined.
Gathering is kind of similar to how it works normally, except each node is 1-2 materials per node. The good is there’s a bajillion nodes out in the island wilderness to be gathered. As the Ranks go up, more tools can be crafted to get more than one material off the node at a time and the secondary material is something different. So, say one hits a copper ore with the hammer – they’ll get one copper and one island rock. Both can be used to make things or used in the workshop.
The Third Level Home Sweet Hideaway & Cozy Cabin.
Also, leveling up the hideaway itself adds larger gardening and pasture land for more animals to be placed once captured. Kind of like a basic Pokemon game really. We only still have the tutorial’s sheep capture but eventually we’ll expand that out as well.
The pure gathering aspect is pretty relaxing and therapeutic as it is. After a couple of weeks of doing this, we reached Rank 10 which allows for flying across the island. Ground mounts run at flying speed, but flying does help getting around the terrain all the easier and makes inaccessible places available – like the top of the mountain for a bonkers set of nodes that make gathering those specific ones crazy fast. All gathering nodes give 10 experience per node in island experience, so it does help but would take an eternity to just rely on those for ranking up.
Building anything gives far more experience, and gathering from the garden gives 120 per item planted. Gathering things like wool off a sheep give experience as well, so far 50 per gathering attempt.
Granaries allow access to ‘rare’ materials that one cannot gather, and those are needed for upgrading workshops/granaries at certain levels. Even later landmarks need these items as well. Granaries cost seafarer cowries, but it’s really not that all expensive to max out a week per granary.
It may sound really overwhelming, but it’s really not and is meant to be taken at a more relaxed pace; just a nice little place to come relax between things, put on a favorite song in the hideaway’s orchestration, play with some minions, or just enjoy the simple island life when not trying to kick the tails out of yet another evil force threatening Etheirys.
I’m already excited to see what happens next and what the island will continue to evolve and look like over the next 10 ranks. Will be curious to experience certain quests that pop up once we’ve gotten certain criteria met in the near future as well!
Some screenshots were taken from the Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail official benchmark program!
Aikirees, tired after another day of adventuring and working on her island, retires to her top bunk bed within the lower floor of EOCA HQ. Tuckered out as she is, she almost immediately heads off into dreamland. For a time now, Aikirees has been planning a journey of self-reflecting, a journey to become stronger and to try and communicate more like her elder sisters. She wishes to be more helpful to her dear older sister who has protected her for so long now, and she wants to protect her back so badly…
Her dream starts off like any other, but with the thoughts of her impending journey on her mind, her dream skews towards those thoughts. Since she’s partially quantum and has lost two lives already, she can sense things in the Aetherical flow that extend beyond the boundaries of Etheirys, even without the assist of her beloved Carbuncles. The dream starts off like any other though, her disembarking from Ishgard to begin her journey.
However… soon thereafter, she see’s flashes of a red-haired figure. “T-Terrestia zee Sissy?!” She thinks to herself in the dream. But it doesn’t add up as this figure doesn’t seem to have long Vieran ears, or she can’t make them out. All she can vaguely see are flashes of fiery green eyes from within the figure. A gush of wind, and a flash of red & white, the land goes black for a moment, but the faintness of the Aetherical Sea can be seen around her.
She looks down at her hand, and her eyes widen. Something is off, but she can’t understand why this is…
Aikirees appears to not quite be herself. “Dish has to be’sies zee dream’sies trying’sies tew trick’sies mi’s.” She ponders and comes to that conclusion. Aikirees begins to walk through this Aetherial Sea; the red figure flickers in front of her once again.
“Zee Tess Sissy’sies…?” She shouts out, her voice is not the same as it echoes through the sea. The figure doesn’t say anything, but it begins to mover closer towards Aikirees aggressively.
Aikirees readies her newly discovered claws to defend herself only for the red figure to rush clean through her body revealing vivid visions.
One vision shows her off in a faraway land, on chocobo’s back instead of her beloved shadow wolf. Hearing things growl and howl off into the distance. Her ears far keener on hearing such sounds much farther away almost as well as her sisters can with their Vieran ears! Another vision flashes before her fighting with comrades against incredibly ferocious foes! She sees faraway lands not familiar to her, but some familiar faces alongside for the journey. Her dear elder Sister with her as well, fighting side by side nearly equal in strength and power!
In the final visions, she is back in familiar lands: The Black Shroud, very close to Gridania to be exact. All tired out, even in a dream, she slowly makes her way back to the City-State in preparations to return to Ishgard…
Aikirees stirs from her slumber for a spell. Looks at herself, grasps her tail, ears, and feels her face. “Dat wash’sies some zee dream’sies…” She says in a whisper outloud, and wonders who or what the red figure was with the fiery green eyes. Could it have been Terrestia, or someone far worse..?
What will her journey of reflection behold? Is her Seventh Life in danger? Is Terrestia really and truly the one out to get her now that the protection barrier has been broken? Only time will tell what’s in store for the Little One, and that time draws all the ever closer…
We’ve been incredibly busy these past couple of weeks getting our ranks up for Island Sanctuary and recently hit Rank 10! I absolutely love these super comfy hanging basket seats that the Level 3 Hideway has with them! Spent a little time with Aikirees sharing one while just watching the starry night sky pass on by.
April 7th 2019 is Churning Mists Day, the day Aikirees first made it to this gorgeous area. It’s an important day for her and it happened well before my arrival in Eorzea…
Up on the floating peak of Sohm Al on a clear crisp day, Aikirees while wearing similar attire as she did the first time she arrived here, looks off into the vast sea of clouds that make up the Churning Mists. Far off into the distance she looks upon Zenith’s magnificently colossal structure jetting far up into the heavens. She simply stands there gazing with a smile, while enjoying the cool winds on her ears, and gently moving the grass and puff bolls around her. Aikirees closes her eyes and lets in a deep breath, and just like that time seems to stand still in this tranquil moment.
“Oh, you’re already here!”
Aikirees’ ear flips towards the direction of the voice, and she turns to see that I’ve finally arrived at the summit to meet her. She smiles and goes back to gazing off into the distance, while I approach to join her.
“Ish zee fifth’sies zee year’sies nao, zee Sissy… Five’sies zee year’sies since I furrrrrsteded visited here…”
Aikirees says, not looking away from Zenith. I smile while doing the same, and joining her in just gazing outwards. After what felt like an eternity, I spoke up.
“It has been quite the adventure; I still remember when you left Kugane that faithful day. All full of excitement ready to seek out new horizons. There’s that part within you that just yearned for travel, and I still haven’t quite figured that part out.”
I glance at her and see the smile on her face still there strong as ever.
“…And you certainly found it. Saved Eorzea, ended the Dragonsong War, and even helped take back Ala Mhigo. All before I finally was able to catch up with you. You’ve grown so strong, Little One.”
Aikirees breaks away from gazing off into the distance and looks up at me with grin, and I return the gesture in kind.
“Sew zee has yew, zee Big Sissy! Yew were alway’sies zee stronk’sies one’sies doe!”
I chuckled lightheartedly back at her.
“I appreciate the notion!”
She simply smiled as not a care in the world, even after everything we had seen and done whether together or apart, she always has and continues to see the best and brightest in everyone around her.
“Thank you for always letting me come with you on this day to reflect; I know it’s important to you, as you reminisce about the past.”
Aikirees nods an acknowledging nod back.
“Ish zee nice’sies to has zee company’sies. I’sies know yew zee worrrries’sies about zee mi’s lot’sies, but yew’sies dun has tew. Even’sies with zee upcoming’sies jourrrrney’sies, I’ll be zee fine’sies! We’sies gone’sies tew zee edge’sies of dish existens’sies togethurrrr’sies after zee all’sies!”
I pause not really sure what to say, she is right, and it just shows how much she really has grown. Instead of saying anything to contest, I simply smile warmly at her my dear little sister.
“You’re right, Little One. Just, promise me you won’t lose anymore lives.”
I chuckle back, mostly in warmth but with a hint of precaution hoping she doesn’t sense it. The rest of this special day, that Aikirees has simply named ‘Churning Mists Day’ we go and visit places she remembers very fondly during her first time here all those years ago now, making sure to visit with both the dragons and moogles, see some of the beautiful views, and ultimately with it ending in a peculiar spot where she shared a warm fire with some dear friends – one of which whom sacrificed herself to help end the Dragonsong War.
The sky crackled with lightning, and the fierce battle between Nidhogg and us two was beginning to show just how treacherous this was about to become. He narrowed his eyes, gazed upon our souls about to let loose a fiery attack, while sending out his horde to protect him in the process.
Once the horde was dealt with, he let our an ear piercing roar of sheer rage before lifting off the ground with his majestically massive wings. The sky crackled once again before turning a hue of red. Looking around to see where he might strike next with all of the rage he had been building up, I paced back a few steps signaling to Sirena to get close.
The ground shook with red symbols forming, and once I noticed what was about to beholden the two of us, I thrust my blood sword into the ground for anchoring and channeled what aether I could muster into my trusty Allagan Shield that has served me well for more summers than I can recall.
As the sky grew blood red and the symbols on the ground around us began to glow even brighter, I knew the time was nigh. Using the aether channeled into my shield, I released it into protective wings to keep the both of us from feeling the full wrath of Nidhogg’s mighty blow.
“You will not hurt, Sirena; you will not hurt Aikirees, Juli, my daughter, nor the cousins. You will NEVER hurt anyone I care about ever again. As long as I have this shield, I will continue to protect those I hold dear. You, Nidhogg, you time is nigh… you will never hurt anyone again!”
With that, the mighty wyrm descended with such force the ground beneath us quaked and shivered for a moment. The sky continued to stay red and when the dust settled, Nidhogg had returned to the air just floating there, possessing Estinien’s body, and looking down at us beckoning to finish this battle once and for all…
We’re still only Rank 4 as of this post, but just from getting through all of the basics to being let loose on our islands, it has been such a relaxing and zen experience. We did ultimately get a couple of workshops built with full schedules for the week for the both of them figured out and all gathered for too.
I was surprised how much time can pass just going from gathering node to node and just enjoying the super relaxed pace of it all with nice lush scenery for as far as one can see. I can tell even with the absurd amount of gathering we’re going to be doing getting up the ranks as relatively quick as we can, this is going to be a pretty chill time.
After everything we’ve accomplished up to now in Endwalker, I think that this the kind of change of pace, even if it’s only for a little while, that will be very nice to mosey through.
One objective for Aikirees after completing the role quests was to finally get around to adjusting her Dragoon attire, which had been the off-shoot of the first Artifact Set acquired after completing the level 50 Dragoon Quest. She’s had a few lances since then before dawning the current one that has a nice blue/red glow when wielded; that one she acquired with Crystal Trophies.
It took a bit of fidgeting to keep some of the dragon-like aesthetics and combine it with something else more in line of what she’s usually wearing. One idea was to role in some Stormblood attire since she initially started out her adventure in the late Stormblood era (hence also why her Black Mage outfit has a strong homage to Shisui of the Violet Tides), and once she discovered the Tigerskin of Maiming top that kind of pointed her in the direction she was wanting.
Her top being the Aforementioned Tigerskin of Maiming, her gauntlets just being simple Fingerless Goatskin Gloves of Gathering dyed blue, legs are the Virtu Dragonlancer’s Cuissots (PvP Crystal Trophies) dyed Gunmetal, and the boots being the 90 Dragoon Artifact Greaves – Tiamat Greaves.
Overall I think this was the ‘glow-up’ she was looking for. There were some other iterations considered, but adjusting the colors was becoming very messy. Some items like the Tigerskin top washed out a lot of the details once dying was attempted. It might be rectified in DawnTrail with the dual dye system, but for now she’s got her Dragoon look for the foreseeable future!
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~!!
Just a small quiet moment while enjoying the rain out in Thavnair. My dear little dragonet perched on my should, while I have a moment or so thinking about things as the sound of the rain just feels like it’s pausing time for a spell if only to collect my thoughts before heading on wards to another adventure.
Lately, while working on the usual weekly things, we’ve been taking on each type of Role Quest series that Endwalker has. Unlike Shadowbringers, Endwalker has five role quest series that consist of one for each of the different classes that are playable: Melee Physical Damage, Ranged Physical Damage, Tank, Healer, and Magical Ranged Damage. Prior to this in Shadowbringers, Melee and Ranged Physical were one quest series as opposed to two separate ones.
Just as a general note, I’m not going to be talking about any story specifics for the Endwalker nor Shadowbringer Role Quests, aside from very generalized feelings towards them.
If one completes all five sets, a bonus quest series appears to ‘conclude’ them. Shadowbringers’ ones were incredibly good and the bonus quest series upon completing all four of those was just as incredible if not better for bringing them all together especially.
The five all picked up at Radz-at-Han
Since we just completed getting Dragoon to 90, it was now the perfect time to take them all on at once without interruptions! Each quests does give a pretty nice chunk of experience as well, but we just wanted to experience the entirety of them without having to pause and catch up in levels. Each series has 6 quests, so to complete all 5 is 30 quests overall. Each one also has an instance battle at 90 which, to me, feel very varied on enjoyment thus so far.
One’s mileage will vary for each of the stories as well, the Tank one personally was my overall favorite thus so far from the ones we’ve completed. Physical Range started off kind of rough, but ended on a very nice high note whereas Physical Melee was kind of just there with a really fun finale fight. Don’t get me wrong, regardless they do add some more fleshed out parts of the story and add in past story elements too, so they’re still fun and worth it to take on. If one is wanting to dye the Endwalker artifact armor sets, they must be taken on regardless per the role for the armor wanting to be dyed.
Progress as of now!
We’ve taken on three of the five series thus so far, only leaving Healer and Magical Damage remaining. The really nice thing about these this time is each series stays in one region and will keep staying there until after the 90 quest is completed. Only then, will it request to return to Radz-at-Han to conclude the series, get a New Game+ unlock, Achievement, and the ability to dye all of that Role’s artifact armor!
I’m curious as to what the last two have in store and if they can change my mind about how I feel about the current ones we’ve already done.
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!
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!
After finishing up all of the tasks for the week, I caught up with Aikirees in Labyrinthos near Margaret’s place on a rainy evening. We coincidentally finished our running around for the week in the same location and gave her some much needed cover from the rain.
While not much for small chatter, as we tend to a lot while adventuring as well as just being plain exhausted, I simply looked down at my dear little sister smiling. She looked back up and flashed a tired smile herself. I was only able to muster one thing before both of us returned to HQ for the evening.
~”I know the winds are changing, and we’re heading Westward soon to a new land. You’re growing up so fast and becoming so strong now. No matter what happens in the future, you’ll always be my Little One, dear sister. I shall always be there to protect and look after you.”~
The other day, while Aikirees was hunting down the weekly elite mark, she stumbled upon a gorgeous sunset over Western La Noscea with Pharos Sirius nearly on the horizon. It’s been a very long while since either of us had a moment to just enjoy a sunset while adventuring, so this was a very lovely treat to behold.
After completing the Hildibrand Manderville 6.55 story, Aikirees and I set out to finish up our relics… only to realize we were a smidgen behind on tomes to acquire enough of the material needed to complete them. After a number of roulettes on my part, and only a couple on her’s, we were finally able to complete our relic weapons for Endwalker!! Quite the exciting moment and they look pretty neat as well.
I very much doubt we’ll ever complete another relic in the game unless they return to being more quest-driven like this series was in the future as opposed to large zone-related tasks like Eureka and Bozja were, but it was a very fun thing to have said that I did at least once.
There’s usually two camps when it comes to Hildibrand Manderville and his adventures/investigations: one either loves them or completely dislikes them. Then there’s another camp within the one for loving them: either loving all of it unconditionally, or liking specific sections. I personally fall into the camp of loving all of it unconditionally.
The Hildibrand Manderville stories are a set of side-stories that are typically accessed after completing a major part of the Main Scenario Quest (MSQ) and are usually just absolutely hilariously bonkers. I very much understand not liking nor enjoying these style of stories, but it makes for a very nice complement to the (usually) far darker/sadder/heavier stories and adventures that the MSQ itself tends to throw at us. Anyone who has completed up to and including The Vault, everything that involves Patch 5.3, and even completing of Endwalker in Patch 6.0 will very much understand what I mean by these being a nice complement.
So here we are at the end of Endwalker with Patch 6.55 and the finale portion of Hildibrand Manderville’s Endwalker escapades, and it was hysterical! Kind of like how the MSQ for 6.55 was a smidgen on the shorter side, this was as well but with the bonus addition of a Trial fight.
Disclaimer, I kind of sort of recall what was going on last as the prior quest was 8 months ago now, and minor spoilers as this will be talking about Patch 6.55 Hildibrand’s questline including images.
I see what you did there!
It starts right where we left off still looking for our alien friend’s, Master PuPu, missing friend and spaceship. We discover a lead in the case and quickly head out to meet up with everyone and begin investigating. From a local fisherman, we find out who is truly behind it all, one of his old friends risen to becoming a wealthy merchant, Vanhudi. What comes about after this is hilariously absurdly bonkers! Doctor Lugae appears on a large battle body, some comical dialogue happens about blatantly saying he’s there to cause trouble at Yedlihmad. Before being able to act upon said trouble-causing, Godbert Manderville comes out of nowhere to instantly stop him.
ALL OF A SUDDEN, GODBERT!
It took me a moment to register what just happened and about that moment it did, several Doctor Lugae clones appear only to be comically thwarted by Julyan Manderville with a colossal frying pan. Meanwhile the original Doctor Lugae back onto his feat only to throw a spiky bomb towards Yedlihmad. Julyan tosses her frying pan over to me and hit the thing like a baseball!
The crowd goes wild!
Doctor Lugae throws yet another one, which I end up missing; only to have Hildibrand leap and catch it in time…
Nashu just causally walking away from the detonating bomb.
…only for it to explode in his face. Nashu casually walking away while everyone else ran was pretty hilarious. The Doctor decides to throw one more as a fast ball with me getting ready for the big throw. He throws the pitch and I send it careering back at him. It was great, even including a dramatic freeze-pose and all when I made contact with the mine itself.
Taking on Doctor Lugae’s Fastball & aftermath.
The crew cheer and we head off with all of the information we’ve gathered prior to this comical incident to confront the person behind it all, Vanhudi. We’re given a personal flight to his rather massive and fancy villa to be greeted by the man himself. After telling him we know all about his dasterly deeds, he asks me to join him to be cloned by PuPu’s Friend’s spaceship and take over the world. I decline such an insane offer (there is another dialog option agreeing to it, but I didn’t choose that one), and he goes about summoning a Primal to deal with me, Asura.
I got this!
Everyone retreats from the battlefield and the Trial is unlocked! The fight with Asura is really fun; not overly complicated (except one mechanic that kind of can be), but very enjoyable none the less. After Asura is taken out, PuPu’s friend recovers their ship, joins the fray to thwart Vanhudi from escaping. The two aliens are reunited and everyone retreats back to Radz-at-Han to finish up and conclude the story. One thing of note is during the climatic final bout betwee PuPu’s friend and Vanhudi, PuPu’s friend’s ship becomes unstable and before exploding Brandihild (Hildibrand’s ‘flawed’ clone) comes to the rescue and gets the ship far away. Presumed gone after the explosion, but once the credits role on concluding the story, come to find out that Brandihild survived the explosion! I let out one hoobers of a cheer upon seeing him alright.
This was so gosh darn fun and such a hoot as always. The whole baseball reenactment scene was the main highlight for me in this part of the story. Loved the Trial lots too and look forward to it coming up in Trial Roulettes down the road once a certain Dragoon level reaches said point.
Hildibrand flies away on PuPu’s UFO into the unknown at the end, so we’ll see you next time in Tural, inspector~!
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!!
Aikirees and I caught up the other evening after finishing up all of our objectives for the day under the Ruby Sea. This moment was so serene and just relaxing after a haptic day/evening.
Also recently acquired the Major-General minion that had this absolutely amazing item description.
The little feller is an achievement-based minion from ocean fishing. Anyway, we’re quickly approaching Dragoon Level 70 now as well!!
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!!
