My New Mount And Final Fantasy XIV Quality Of Life Changes In Patch 5.5

Over the last week I spent my time in Final Fantasy XIV leveling my Scholar job from level 46 to level 55. Back when I laid out my plans for leveling the job, I only planned on running squadron command missions until I reached level 53. I altered my plans when I looked at the rewards offered in the latest Moogle Treasure Trove event.

Flying across the night sky

The Blissful Kamuy mount is a rare drop from the 8-man trial Emanation (Extreme) from Stormblood. A glowing wolf mount is a must have, even if I needed to gather 50 Irregular Tomestones of Esoterics. The Aurum Vale, the dungeon I needed to run in order to level up my Scholar job, gives out 4 of the tomestones upon completion, even if run as a squadron command mission. I could have gotten the mount faster by using the duty finder, but I also needed to level up the NPCs in my squadron. Now, I not only have the mount, but 6 of the 8 NPCs are level 50 and above as well.

In a sign I've played too much EVE Online, I'm more excited about the quality of life improvements coming to FFXIV in patch 5.5 than I am about the content itself. Yes, I think the changes are that good.

The new interface

The first change is to the achievement menu. Before patch 5.5, players have to visit Jonathas to collect their achievement awards. Visiting Jonathas is a bit of a pain, and I live in New Gridania. The change will keep a lot of players from having to travel back and forth to get their rewards.

The next change is one I've waited awhile for. The deck building rules for Triple Triad are changing to allow two cards with a rarity of 4 stars or more instead of just one.

The new rules as of patch 5.5

With the new rules I get to use my 4-star cards now. Before, those cards were essentially useless as I would always use a 5-star card. Of course, the NPCs might also have better decks, but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

Less button clicks please

The third change is to fishing. Currently there is a command to release types of fish automatically. I've never used the command for fear I'll start throwing back fish I really want. With the new interface, that worry goes away. Square Enix, my inventory thanks you!

The last change comes to the emotes interface. Square Enix loves emotes. So much so the devs have included over 100 in FFXIV at last count. But finding new emotes like the new pizza eating emote coming in patch 5.5 is a real pain. That is, until Tuesday.

Green dots > red dots

First, the UI shows newly acquired emotes the same way the minion & mount interfaces do. The tab with the new emote will display a green dot. Each new item in the tab also displays a green dot next to the name.

The second change to the Emotes UI is wonderful. The developers are adding a search function. The function will work with both the name of the emote as well as the text of the emote command. Between the two changes, finding the emote I want will become much easier.