It’s been 23 months since I had last posted about Final Fantasy XIV, but for now I am back.
There’s a nice “come back for 14 days” free login campaign since July 9 and today I actually used it. Apparently I had stopped playing while in The Peaks, at Level 68.5, and not in The Azim Steppe, as I had thought. The wiki (as usual) told me that I was 18 MSQ steps away from finishing Stormblood. Not a lot if there are really 122 steps as the wiki says. The first 8 went kinda fine, then I was blocked by my level, so I mopped up most quests in The Peaks and got to 69, then it was off to a Duty Finder, 7 quests more, then I already dinged 70. 2 Quests to go, but also 2 instances, one normal one and one Trial. The normal one went fine, but then I messed up my Duty Finder and didn’t unselect the one I had just done, so of course it popped first and I had to run it again. Ah well. In the trial we actually wiped twice and then needed a mass rez in phase 3, but then we did it. Not sure how many other hadn’t done the fight.
Anyway, so I came back and finished Stormblood on day 1, which is pretty nice. That was enough for one day though and I stopped doing MSQ stuff, but went to Limsa and did the Dancer quest, which was pretty fun. But oh boy is that first dungeon painful if you forget to set up your bars correctly because you don’t actually think they’d let you do normal things with 20 buttons when you just learned the class… but they do.
Before I stopped playing 2 years ago I had already bought Shadowbringers, so we’ll see if I get there. I was planning to play FFXIV for the new expansion anyway, but first I’d have to make it to Shadowbringers and then through that. Not sure yet if I will instantly dig out my Warrior and White Mage or if I will try to push the Bard a little further, and concentrate on one class.
Overall it’s been pretty fun and enjoyable. I rejoined the Novice Network and also had Discord to ask people. My only initial roadblock was not being high enough iLvl for the last 2 duties, but buying a single ring on the market board already fixed that. (And I learnt that you can’t buy Level 70 Poetics gear before you have finished the last Stormblood MSQ. And then the NPC in Rhalgr’s Reach actually appears.)
A really unfun thing is that my Armoury Chest and bags are completely full. And my 2 retainers as well. I don’t have access to the 3rd (that’s the one I paid for), but probably full as well. As much as I love the Armoury system, it’s simply too small for that amount of classes, especially if you are still leveling. That’s one of the reasons I had originally also leveld Paladin and Dark Knight to 50, to get rid of old gear. And Machinist to 33, same reason. So maybe learning to be a Dancer now was a bad idea as well, now I also have that gear… oh well.