FFXIV 6.0: Endwalker (December 7, 2021)

[Takiwaki]

Misspelled slutty. Takiwaki is a slutty monk.

Defintely slutty.

[Ragns]

People will never experience these

[Corrderio]

Oh man the EXP buffs are wonderful. Went from 81 to 85 RDM last night dungeon grinding and doing roulettes

[Anoat]

You can still experience Red Comet if you want, he’s still out there wrecking fools

[Kaslo]

Ya'll weren't wrong, why is the Melee Role Quest so freaking good.

[Athas]

Finally finished the other night.

Spoiler: show

Not sure why so many people had problem with the accompanying type quests, seemed a fair way to get some extra dialog with NPCs - I never had a problem with the NPC pathfinding myself. The solo duties were all engaging as well I thought - the nameless Garlean one was pretty tense and I think showed the WoL's heroic willpower as their strength pretty well - though that's a trope I'm just partial to, personally. Even Thancred's I though worked pretty well for stealth mechanics in a MMO type engine with different abilities to counter different detection types and enemies - but I would agree that the generic stealth/tailing quests weren't exactly a high note. Just doesn't work well in an engine where enemies have vision cones like they have a surfboard strapped to each ear - all being exactly the same of a character stopping, announcing they're about to turn around before continuing on didn't help much either.

A bunch of petty niggles about the game's core come to think of it - Elpis and Ultima Thule were both some really interesting zones with some good story beats but while they would probably be beyond a point of no return in a single player RPG, the certain knowledge in the back of my mind that I'll be casually traipsing to the past and the literal furthest corner of the universe to mine, harvest, farm fates and do hunt trains would wear at my suspension of disbelief a bit. The game's habit of having explaining absolutely everything could do the same as well at times - I'm willing to just overlook that the Ragnarok was modeled in two different stages, you don't need an NPC to tell me it exists in two places. Having quest givers always explicitly mention a reward actually makes the WoL seem less heroic - in Garlemald especially you're supposed to be building trust by aiding some really desperate people not taking whatever pennies they have. The constant fawning over the WoL is becoming tiring as well - I guess it's a bit difficult to avoid given all the events they've been involved in by this point but it still just seems excessive. Still wish the roles quests tied into the MSQ better, hunting blasphemies seems like to ought to impact the Final Days.

The Infinity War/Endgame comparison does seem apt, certainly an enjoyable story in it's own right but well - Shadowbringers had an antagonist with genocidal ambitions yet with understandable, even relatable motivations. He obviously had to be stopped but you understood that he couldn't be talked down or reasoned with, even when he shows up again now he still says he'd continue to try an restore his people as long as he had the power to do so. But now having the final boss throw a bunch of straw nihilist tripe at you about how existence is pain and life is meaningless, the hero just retorts 'No it isn't, you idiot' and that's apparently enough to resolve everything - it just feels like a step backwards. There was still some really interesting stuff in the story in the final zone, I really liked how they played with actually working knowledge of the universe and the notion of great filters - knowing the universe itself has an inviolable end date isn't much concern for people would won't even see their second century let alone the rock they live on get consumed by an expanding sun but probably hits different for a civilization that unlocked immortality.

Was fortunate enough not to have much trouble with the queues, working remote could usually get in before the peak and only dced once - though I did run into several hard crashes, on Anima's Imperatum, Hydaelyn's post fight cutscene and Endsinger's Oblivion just straight up killed power to my PC. First one I could avoid by turning down all the visual options I could but not the other two. Heavy particle effects just seem to screw something up.

Was nice to get a dialog options where you point out that the Allagans are apparently the cause of all the worlds problems.

[Prothescar]

man. after leveling all of the tanks, DRK just feels so sad to play in dungeons.

[Anoat]

Yeah they made all the tanks (sans DRK) much harder to kill with their level 82 abilities, poor DRK gets left out though. To be fair though they’ve been rocking TBN since Stormblood and it’s always been pretty OP.

[IceSylph]

PLD still feels so squishy to me, for dungeons anyway. GNB feels solid. Wish they'd make it so clemency only unlocks when a healer is dead or solo, though. Every time I see a PLD spam that shit I want to kill myself.

[Dotsudoku]

man. after leveling all of the tanks, DRK just feels so sad to play in dungeons.

haven't played it, but have healed it plenty. And man their defensive buttons(while unnecessarily locked behind mana) are just as solid as ever, but how they justified leaving their self sustain where it was while turning every other tank up to 100 is beyond me. Like the amount of attention I have to give them during ex2 compared to other tanks is insane

[Abandon]

i fucking hate healing drks, and let me tell yall how much i love (not) healing wars. yummy.

[Anoat]

i fucking hate healing drks, and let me tell yall how much i love (not) healing wars. yummy.

After getting Sage to 90, same. Oh DRK used Living Dead? Sorry can’t get you to full HP lol godspeed

[Prothescar]

I've been saying it here, there, and everywhere but to start they need to add HP recovery to blood spenders and blood weapon, or maybe a weaker abyssal drain effect to Stalwart Soul.

Also bake Convalescence into Dark Mind. Would make that a decent cooldown in general and would also help fix Living Dead a little.

[Lucavi]

Living dead needs to work like Abaddon's ult in DOTA 2. You pop that shit, and for 10 seconds, all damage done to you becomes healing instead. Drk needs some fucking love, man. My Warrior is like the fat rich kid getting cake for christmas while drk gets his brother's shoes from last year.

[Abandon]

Spoiler: show

just did hydaelyn ex with warrior/pld tanks. good lord, that was some lazy fun. Except when they killed each other at 6% with ice, and the entire group got the booty cheeks clenched for a few secs lol

Now, I CAN get a drk capped from 1 hp as sage, but he better hope i havent had to cure bomb anyone else lately, or RIP

[Corrderio]

After getting Sage to 90, same. Oh DRK used Living Dead? Sorry can’t get you to full HP lol godspeed

I really wish they'd rework Living Dead to make it useful.

[Anoat]

By contrast, GNB’s Superbollide got a massive upgrade with Heart of Corundum. If it crits? Fuggetaboutit

[Prothescar]

Even ignoring that, Superbolide and Holmgang got straight up buffed to 10 second durations with no other nerfs or changes to their functionality, taking away living dead's only extremely minor and usually completely useless advantage.

[Anoat]

After finishing all the role quests I think the tank quest line is my least favorite BUT I think it has the most fun boss fight at the end. As far as quests go I think it’s physical DPS -> ranged DPS -> healer -> magic DPS -> tank.

[Prothescar]

Honestly the tank one would've been a lot better if it didn't center around the highest profile literal who in gaming history