Another week of playing Final Fantasy XIV's latest expansion Dawntrail is in the books. When writing about my experiences I really want to go on and on but FFXIV is one of those story driven games. I want to give people a chance to experience the game with as few spoilers as possible. For today's post and next week's I'm going to use my free company's rules as a guide: no story elements, no zone or dungeon names, and no MSQ elements not already published by the developers. The thinking is thirty days after the early access launch is enough time. Hopefully four weeks of spoiler-free posts for those who bought the game at launch is enough time.
I will touch on some things in Dawntrail in the most general ways. Hopefully I've erred on the side of caution and won't spoil the story for anyone.
Real life - Last week's post was delayed by 3 days because I forgot to set the timer correctly. As such, today's post actually covers ten days. And what a ten days!
During the period, someone tried to assassinate former president Donald Trump, the internet melted down over the failed Crowdstrike update, the WNBA held its all-star game, and President Joe Biden declared he was withdrawing from the presidential race. Oh, and I almost forgot. Tornados swept through the area and I briefly lost power and my internet connection one night. All of those events either drew my attention or affected my playtime by delaying when I could begin playing video games.
Hitting the level cap - I reached level 100 on my white mage job after a campfire scene. I didn't really adventure a lot over the past week because during Dawntrail I've discovered I cannot have YouTube or a podcast on in the background when running through MSQ content. With all the events of the last week calling for attention, my MSQ progress has slowed.
Just because I hit the level cap doesn't mean I plan on switching to another job. One, I only have three other jobs at level 90. Two, I want to run through the MSQ completely on my main job, white mage. Is that wasteful of experience points? Perhaps. But I have enough games in which I try to min/max my statistics 100% of the time. Final Fantasy XIV is a more relaxing game for me.
Zone 5 - By not running through the MSQ, I am only halfway through the fifth zone of Dawntrail. And I say halfway through based on two things. The first is that I've competed two of the aerial current quests and found five aerial currents. The second is that I did my first level 98 quest last night.
Zone 5 is definitely an impressive place graphically. Think a less impressive Ultima Thule. In fairness to zone 5, Ultima Thule was the final zone of Endwalker so the art team didn't hold back. Still, I took plenty of screenshots.
Is the game still popular? When running around zone 5 last night I had a choice of three instances with a total of 120+ people. At least I know I'm not the only one who still hadn't reached the final zone yet.
As for the MSQ in the zone so far. I found the content interesting and engaging. So engaging I just turn all other audio off in order to concentrate on the story. Hopefully my vague views on the story aren't a spoiler.
Solution Nine - I entered the second major city introduced in Dawntrail, Solution Nine last week. Exploring around I got flashbacks to Star Wars: The Old Republic, except with much, much better graphics. I don't want to go into greater detail due to not wanting to issue spoilers.
Crafting and gathering - Activities in which I can listen to YouTube and podcasts in the background involve crafting and gathering. I reached level 100 in all three gathering classes (botanist, miner, and fisher) as well as in cooking. My next goal is leveling goldsmith. My neighbor told me he's currently farming the last dungeon before the final raid for accessory slot gear. I figure it that's the case I should try to craft the same type of gear.
I do have a strategy involving leve quests for leveling my crafting classes slowly over time while still making progress in the MSQ. Each crafting class has two possible leve quests, so I just make enough items to fulfill each of those quests three times. Last night I received two levels for goldsmith using the strategy. If I do that every night, I can make some progress while not burning through my leve allowance. I currently have 95 out of a possible 100 available.
The Retainer Army - My little army of retainers is progressing along nicely. My white mages are level 99, fishers level 98, and all but one of my botanists and miners are at level 97. I do have a botanist I started right before the launch of Dawntrail who is now in the mid-50s.
One interesting item I noticed is that my retainers still only bring back 9 silver pieces worth 4500 gill per day when doing expeditions. Which means after I finish the levelling process I can go back and pick expeditions from Endwalker if I need specific lower level crafting ingredients.
Don't forget to go home - Finally, a reminder for everyone who owns an in-game house. Don't forget to visit. Failure to visit, not just log in, for 45 days will result in losing your plot of land. I am making a visit once a week whether I really need to or not. I still have 190 aetheryte tickets from my efforts prior to Dawntrail's launch. But for those who don't, spending a couple thousand gil to visit your minimum 3 million gil home is a good investment.
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