Omni-80 Crafters and Gatherers in FFXIV

I managed to accomplish one of my near term objectives last week, hitting level 80 on all of my DOH/DOL jobs in FFXIV.  The Crystarium Mean quests ended up helping quite a bit for that final push to level 80, but beyond that, I still mostly just used Beast Tribe quests and Grand Company turn-ins for the entire process.  I now have all of the excess materials that I gathered in the process that need to be sold off, which is going to take a considerable amount of time across my three retainers.

Now I'm going to finish trying to get my SMN to ilvl 510 so they'll be in decent shape for the next content patch next month, assuming there will be another new dungeon with an even higher ilvl requirements.  And then I'll work through the other jobs that I started, which at the moment consists of Machinist, White Mage, Dragoon, Samurai and Paladin.  

ESO

I've neglected Elder Scrolls Online a bit for the last few weeks while I finished the push on FFXIV crafting and gathering along with the new content patch there.  However, I'm diving back into that this week.  My Templar is currently sitting at level 47 and working his way through the Northern Elsweyr story line, which has been pretty decent so far.  Plus, any time dragons are involved, it adds a level of excitement.  And these are big, scary dragons.  

That's about it for now. 

Cheers,

Joar

Initial Thoughts on Final Fantasy XIV Patch 5.5

 I managed to finish the MSQ for the FFXIV Patch 5.5 that released yesterday.  As usual, the story for this game continues to be very compelling.  The patch also added a ton of content that I haven't even been able to touch yet.  

Since I've mostly been working on my DOH/DOL jobs, I was a little unprepared for this patch, having not done anything on my level 80 SMN/SCH since the last patch.  As a result, I had to purchase some gear to qualify for the ilvl minimums on the new dungeon in order to complete the latest storyline.

That's probably one of my primary issues with FFXIV to date.  As the main story quests roll out, particularly in endgame patches, there is content that is gated behind an ilvl requirement.  In this case, you would have either needed enough tomestones saved up from older content to exchange for upgraded gear.  Or you would have need to be relatively current on going through the most recent raid instances.  

In the case of this patch, the minimum ilvl for the new dungeon was 490.  If you had been spam running the dungeon from the 5.4 patch, you still wouldn't be there, since that dungeon dropped 485 gear.  The most recent raid from the patch 5.4 dropped tokens each week for 510 gear, but you would have needed to be running it basically every week to get the drops you need.  

The raid version before that, which did not have a weekly limit on drops, only dropped 480 gear, so that wouldn't do the trick.  The alliance raid that was available before Tuesday also had a weekly limit for 490 gear.  So you would have needed to be grinding each week just to have the gear for a main story quest dungeon.  Maybe that's the intention, and there are likely other sources of gear that I'm missing, but if the idea is for you to see the story, it seems like it would be helpful to have a story mode version of the dungeon without an ilvl requirement.  

I could also just suck it up and do the raids.  

On my DOH/DOL jobs, I'm making pretty good progress.  Basically everything is at level 76, other than mining, which is 77, and fishing, which is 75.  I'm still mostly using GC turn-ins and Beast Tribe quests to level, but thinking about switching to Crystarium levequests and Crystarium Mean quests for the homestretch.  The odd thing is that there doesn't seem to be any general consensus on the fastest most efficient way to level crafting.  I hear levequests a lot, GC turn-ins and Ishguard Restoration.  So your mileage likely will vary.  I'd recommend just doing whatever approach you enjoy the most.

ESO

I'm also really enjoying playing my way through ESO.  I'm basically almost done with the whole Daedric War / Morrowind arc, being about one quest away from finishing Summerset.  What a beautiful place!

Also, this picture is from Clockwork City, but still pretty cool.

My Templar is now sitting at level 42, and I'll be heading off to work on the Elsweyr stuff next.  Once I get relatively current on content, I'll go back and finish Coldharbour on this toon and do the other two covenants.  Assuming I have time before the next xpac drops, which is doubtful.

Cheers,

Joar

On To Morrowind!

I was off for spring break last week.  Didn't really do much in the way of gaming, so there really isn't a whole lot of progress overall since my last update.  But here goes:

Elder Scrolls Online

I finished the Daggerfall Covenant content on my Magicka Templar early this week.  It really was a very interesting story line and I'm looking forward to doing the other two alliances as part of the Caldwell Silver / Caldwell Gold thing later on.  I think I've definitely found my class in the Magicka Templar as well.  With the xp boost from the Jester Festival, I've managed to get him up to level 37.  I've now started the next major content block of Elder Scrolls Online with the Morrowind / Clockwork City / Summerset storyline.  I'm about half way through the Vvardenfell story line and have been enjoying that so far.  The area itself is quite odd looking, but the story has been pretty compelling so far.

I'm also still diligently doing research and deconstructing stuff for crafting, which seems to be leveling up my crafting skills.  I'm still not sure I fully understand what the point of the whole exercise is, but I'll keep at it for now.  At least at the moment, I don't seem to have the ability to craft anything particularly interesting, but I'm guessing that may change later on as I get more of the researches done.

FFXIV

I've continued to make really good progress on my crafting and gathering jobs.  All of them are now sitting at level 74 except for mining which has surged ahead to level 75.

We also have a new content patch coming in FFXIV next week, which I'm really looking forward to.  This will be the start of the wrap up of the current expansion, bringing the max level storyline to a close.  I guess we'll see if that involves bringing some closure to the story of Gaius van Baelsar.  The biggest decision for next week is going to be whether I want to run the content as a Summoner or as a Scholar.  The queues obviously promise to be shorter on the Scholar / healer class, but that can also be a lot more pressure, especially on brand new dungeons and trials.  So we'll see.  

That's about it for now.  

Cheers,

Joar