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Monday, September 9, 2024

Dawntrail Diary - First Take On Wuk Lamat

With no seasonal events to distract me, I was free to once again to ignore the climatic event in Final Fantasy XIV's Dawntrail expansion. What, you thought I would use the time to run the final trial? I'm still trying to get used to my new mouse. So until then my pedestrian activity will have to suffice.

About Wuk Lamat - Though I haven't completed the MSQ, I'm close enough to the end to have an opinion about Wuk Lamat. I don't like her. She reminds me a lot of Alphinaud entering the Heavensward expansion. At the time I dreaded having to enter each expansion with two know-it-all characters who just irritated me to no end. In the case of Alphinaud, the character was a true know-it-all whose life experience didn't give him the judgement to know when he was making a huge mistake. As for Wuk, the know-it-all persona was a front for someone trying to maintain airs because she was supposed to be perfect but wasn't. Let's say I did not look forward to entering Heavensward with Alphinaud or Dawntrail with Wuk.

The difference between the two was the pace of character development. Alphinaud had four expansions to develop from a know-it-all rich kid into a character willing to sacrifice everything for the Warrior of Light to save the world at the end of Endwalker. I didn't really warm up to Alphinaud until Shadowbringers

Wuk's character development was a bit rushed. Instead of 5 expansions of character development like Alphinaud, Wuk only had five levels to reach the same point (patches 6.55 and halfway through 7.0). If Wuk had taken a back seat for the second half of the Dawntrail MSQ I probably wouldn't have minded so much. But the character development was rushed in order for Wuk to confront her step-brother and save the world. 

The confronting of Zoraal Ja wasn't the worst idea in the world and seems quite natural. But I would rather the second half concentrate on Krile's relationship with the invading dimension, Erenville's reaction to the effects on his home, and letting the rest of the Scions, particularly the twins, act as more than fan service props. Plus, while my feelings about Wuk have improved, I still didn't want to adventure with her anymore.

Practice, practice, practice - I only ran Worqor Zormor three times last week, with no clean runs. On Saturday I died twice on Kahderyor and once to Gurfurlur. Part of the problem was I messed up the keybinds for my thumb mouse buttons and wound up fumbling around clicking my spells and abilities. I also took almost 40 minutes to complete the run.

On Sunday I got the buttons mapped properly again and ran the duty two more times. I didn't have an issue with the last two bosses, but now I was dying to Ryoqor Terteh. I think my problem was a lack of concentration. I have one more chance to get a second clean run through Worqor Zormor before my group levels and I move on to The Skydeep Cenote.

On the plus side I acquired all the jewelry from the Zormor set. On the bad side I'm still missing Zormor Sarouel of Healing.

Oops, I forgot - While working on acquiring some advanced crafting ingredients I realized I forgot to pick up the Tomes of Regional Folklore for Dawnwalker. The books will cost 1600 purple gathering scrips each, or 14,400 scrips in total. Sounds like a good excuse to go fishing. Once I gather up the books I can finish up discovering the resources and leave the task of gathering time-gated materials to my retainers if I only need small amounts.

A Retainer Army update - I'm almost finished gearing up my retainers, possibly for the remainder of the expansion. I have successfully updated and melded the gear for 2 botanists, 2 miners, and 2 fishers. For the botanists and miners their perception is 4974, meaning I've passed the threshold to receive 30 items if I send the retainers out for Dawntrail items. My third botanist is at level 83 and I have the gear to level her to level 100 before needing to worry about an update. I do need to upgrade the gear on my two white mage retainers, but I just need to craft two sets of iLvL 710 gear. No need for melds.


Honest, one of these days I will finish the Dawntrail MSQ.



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