Still splitting time between ESO, GW2 and FFXIV

I've been splitting time pretty evenly this past week between ESO, Guild Wars 2, and FFXIV.  So we'll go in reverse order from last week's update.

FFXIV

My in-game activity has consisted of running the new raid for those last few leg tokens.  I just need one more to drop for me next week.  I've also continued to work on leveling the paladin and the monk.  The paladin is at level 78, and the monk is at level 62.  

ESO

I finished the Necrom chapter last week and then looked at what is still to be done on my character.  Going back through story collections, I realized I never did the Murkmire chapter, so I've started on that.  After that, I may do either Thieves Guild or Dark Brotherhood for something different.  I'm not sure about a glowy Magicka Templar as an assassin, though, so that might be odd.

I've also been working on leveling my sorcerer through the Dungeon Finder, which is working fine.

GW2

The big news for the week is that a new expansion is coming for Guild Wars 2.  Secrets of the Obscure will drop on August 22nd, representing the first post-dragon content.  Based on what I have seen so far, I'm excited about it and looking forward to playing through it on a few different characters.  The combat and weapon specialization changes look fun too, and I'm interested in running some kind of  Greatsword / Pistol combo on my Reaper.

I decided to use all the boosts, tomes, and xp writs that I've accumulated to see how far I can get with having other classes at max level.  By purchasing the expansion, it gave me one free level 80 boost as well.

The argument that I always see is that you shouldn't do that and should learn to play the class by leveling it up the old-fashioned way.  However, I feel like Guild Wars 2 is a little different because you can still go out there and do plenty of open-world stuff at level 80 to help you learn the class.  Plus, if you're planning to play as an elite spec anyway, which generally makes the most sense regardless given the incremental power of those specs, the ability set that you'd use while leveling is likely not the one that you'll end up using once you're done getting to 80.  

I'm not a long-term Guild Wars 2 player, but I still amassed a decent-sized collection of tomes, boosts, and other xp writs.  Using those, I got my Engineer and Thief to 80 and used the boost with the new expansion to get a new Elementalist to 80 (because who really wants to level one of those anyway).  That leaves me with my Guardian and my Mesmer right around 40.  In retrospect, it was probably a bit nuts to leave the Mesmer at 40 rather than the Thief or Engineer.  I may try crafting to level the Mesmer some chunk of the remainder.  

Once done, I plan to unlock a good Open World elite spec on all of those, gather hero points in POF and EOD zones, and then be ready to run them all through the new expansion when it drops.

That's it for now.  Cheers!

Joar

Diving Back Into ESO for Necrom

ESO

Since my last blog post, and in the previous week or two, I decided to dive back into Elder Scrolls Online to take a spin through the new chapter - Necrom.  So no spoilers at all on the story, but I found it engaging.  The new zones are well put together, and there's a lot of good content there.  The story itself was pretty typical ESO fare but still very engaging.  For reasons I don't entirely understand, I'm not an altoholic when it comes to ESO, so everything gets played through on my normal Magicka Templar, which handled all of the content without much trouble.  

There is also a new class to try - the Arcanist - which is closely linked to the new content.  I've also gone back and cleaned up my quest log in ESO, finishing up many quests that I started but never finished, so I now have my main in a pretty clean place and ready for the next batch of content when it releases.  It makes me wonder if I shouldn't try some of the other classes.

FFXIV

In FFXIV, I continue to run through the new raid on my Summoner and am down to only needing 3 more leg tokens to complete the gear set from the new raid.  And, of course, the 7 weapon tokens, which aren't possible at this point.

I'm also continuing to work on leveling my last few jobs.  My paladin sits at level 72, and my Monk is at level 59.  I'm enjoying them both.  Dark Knight and Dragoon are the last two before I am an Omni-90, so those are obviously up next.  Ideally, this would all stretch out until not long before the next expansion releases, but we'll see.

Guild Wars 2

I managed to get the Warrior to max level and have now started working on leveling a Mesmer, who is already at level 35.  With the Warrior done, that gives me 4 characters at max - Necro, Revenant, Ranger, and Warrior.  I haven't unlocked any elite specs on the Warrior or Revenant, so that's also on the to-do list if I hit a dry spell in other games.  After the Mesmer is done, I think either Thief or Engineer is next, but we'll have to see on that one.  

That is the update for the last few weeks.  It's a bit light because we went on a family vacation to Virginia Beach the week of June 12th.  It's the first vacation we've been on with both Joarlings that are still at home since before the pandemic, so it was nice to get away with everyone.  My wife and I got engaged in Virginia Beach, but I don't think we've been there since, so it was nice to return.

Guild Wars 2 Map Completion....Complete

Since my last blog update, I managed to get 100% map completion in Guild Wars 2 on my Necromancer.  I also knocked out the first two zones of Heart of Thorns along with Dry Top and Silverwastes and at that point decided to go back to leveling alts.  I found using BlishHUD and it's pathing module to be pretty critical to completing this efficiently.  

On alts, my Warrior is now level 62, so in the home stretch for him.  Not sure which one I'll do next - possibly Mesmer.  Although I had quite a few that I had started that I enjoyed.

Through doing all this World Completion stuff, I also managed to get enough hero points to fully unlock the new Harbinger elite spec, but I have yet to try playing it.  I considered setting it up and maybe knocking out some zone events.  I still need to farm up some trade contracts for the jackal mount, so that might be a good thing to try out while doing that. 

In FFXIV, I've done a couple of runs through the new raid to gather tokens for all the latest gear.  So far, I've enjoyed all the fights quite a bit.  I struggled with the 12th circle a bit the first week, then didn't have any issues at all on week 2.  I managed to grab enough tokens for a chest piece pretty quickly, so I've started to piece together the gear look, at least.

Beyond that, I'm continuing to work on the Paladin and Monk, sitting at levels 64 and 54, respectively.