Dawntrail Diary: Fireworks Season

We have just about reached the halfway mark of Final Fantasy XIV's Dawntrail expansion. Or at least, what is known as patch 7.0. I still haven't completed the final trial in the MSQ but I'm getting to the point I'll actually want to finish the questline. 

Technically this counts - Last Monday was the last day of the Moonfire Faire. I did the event a couple of days prior but I did enjoy the event. Final Fantasy XIV's seasonal events are usually just a little bit of fun that gives out a cute reward. This year's reward was an emote fanning evil spirits out of people. The characters in the events tend to bring back memories after a few years.

He had to destroy the game to save it - The current event, The Rising, is a celebration of the 11th anniversary of the launch of A Realm Reborn. Or perhaps more accurately a remembrance of the ill-fated original FFXIV. One of the big takeaways by Yoshi-P from the entire experience is the importance of players, especially the ones who were patient enough for Yoshi-P to put his plan into effect.

Looking at the moon with Yoshi-P

The highlight of the event is Final Fantasy XIV's Producer and Director Naoki Yoshida stepping through the fourth wall and talking to the player. The message is always interesting. At least interesting enough to look forward to next year's.

Glamour Farming - I've written before how I plan to level three of my Trust characters, Thancred, Esinien, and Y'shtola, to level 100 to practice fighting and healing before attempting to run The Interphos. I decided to add in another grind to get the most out of my efforts: collecting glamour pieces. What I am doing is taking all the healing gear, putting the pieces in my glamour dresser, and then turning in the remaining gear for seals. I need the seals to turn into ventures to power up my retainer army.

I started too late for the first duty, Ihuykatumu, although I did manage to get the healing chest piece before the team reached level 93. I never did get a clean run because I would lose concentration on the final boss. I'd always die once, then complete the duty. 

A small item gave me hope I was getting better. For the last run, I managed to complete the duty in 29 minutes and 30 seconds. During Endwalker I never completed a duty using Trust NPCs in under 35 minutes.

I did make one run through the level 93 duty Worqor Zormor. Amazingly, I did not die. Okay, Thancred and Y'shtola died to mechanics, and Y'shtola was laying on the ground when the final boss died. But I didn't!

The reason Thancred and Y'shtola died is for one of two reasons. The first is fumbling around activating my abilities. I'm still trying to get used to the left-side thumb button. The other is that I was out of range of the pair when I cast my healing spells. Either way, I need practice using my abilities.

A retainer army update - My next step is to gear all my retainers to receive maximum returns. Basically, that means making the iLvl 690 set plus putting on as much perception materia as will physically fit. I might not go to extremes because I can pentameld the gathering tools and I'm not sure if we get new tools in patch 7.1. If so, I might just overmeld one piece of materia on.

Going into this week, I've gathered all the materials and just need to finish crafting the six sets of gear. Then I need to acquire the materia and see how much yields increase. Then rinse and repeat with the tools. I think I'll like the results.