Dispatches from Mare Lamentorum
So let’s look past the fact that it’s obviously been a long time since I’ve posted to the blog, and skip the part where I promise to post more often. Time will tell if that actually happens… 😉
So rather than dwelling on it or waiting longer to post something more proper, I think today’s post will therefore be somewhat rapid-fire, geared on catching up over the past nearly two years… and hopefully I will return to some of these points in greater detail in follow-up pieces.
Final Fantasy XIV Stuff
A few updates regarding FFXIV, the critically acclaimed small indie MMO which you should forget hearing about if you’ve ever heard of it, which (I think) still has paused offering its free trial for up to the first expansion and level 60. In my last post, my raid group had just cleared Shiva in 5.2.
We didn’t take a hiatus or anything… despite me failing to post for a year we cleared the 5.4 raid tier with plenty of time before the Echo was initiated.
I don’t remember if I posted anything about it here at the time, but I was also promoted to one of the chiefs of The Tabard Cloud FC, so that has taken slightly more time than just being an officer.
With the launch of Endwalker, I rushed through the end of the MSQ despite the lengthy login queues for the first few weeks of the expansion. I will have no spoilers here (but potentially may in a future post, with proper warnings), but I had mixed feelings about the ending. Obviously a “grand finale” to this part of the storyline will be somewhat bittersweet.
Pandæmonium Begins
For our 6.0 Asphodelos Raid Tier, I have finally changed my job for the firstt time since joining Boku no Alex: to ranged physical DPS.
I tried making Machinist work first, including playing through the entire main scenario on a combination of MCH and SMN (because the MSQ gives you way more than enough experience to level one job from 80 to 90). Machinist, which hasn’t changed much since Shadowbringers, was still new to me, as I leveled it in a rush at the end of SHB and barely hit 80 in time for the pre-expansion maintenance.
But given how under-tuned Machinist was at Endwalker release, and even to today despite some job balance maintenance, I ended up raiding on Bard. I’ve usually had Bard at max level for each expansion, but rarely played except on special occasions since my casters and healers were always better geared. Learning this current incarnation of Bard has been an interesting experience. My brain still remembers the cadence and timing of old Poison!Summoner’s DoTs far better than I know Bard’s yet. The amount of RNG and inconsistency of procs is frustrating. I feel like I’m pressing a million buttons a minute to be 4th place in DPS. But I suppose I’m starting to improve / get more comfortable with it. I’m not quite glowing about my parses so far, but with a bit more practice, maybe I’ll get there.
Other Updates
Well, this post has already ended up quite long, so I suppose I’ll just briefly touch on some other things:
I somehow became the leader of a somewhat competitive (Master III) Guild in the gatcha game War of the Visions: Final Fantasy Brave Exvius. If you’d like to join us, we’re Dunkin’ on the Global Server!
I bought a new computer, with a RTX 3070. It was a prebuilt which needed some modification to achieve decent performance because it was basically suffocating under its heat as built.
I’ve also somehow added a bunch of gaming subscriptions to my huge backlog. Namely, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate (which is amazing), Google Stadia, and Apple Arcade. Not all will remain 12 months from now.
2021 was a very challenging year for me personally due to two deaths in the family and the complications that COVID causes for me at work. But now that we’re through with 2021, I’ll try to remember to post here more often. (whoops, I went and said it anyway lol).
