#also RDM is fun

[fatewalker]

LORELEI SYREN — A bard from the city state of Gridania, raised as an orphan by two adoptive mothers. The young miqo'te grew up on the heroic songs and ballads of traveling minstrels, dreaming of the day when she would be able to set off on her own adventure. Fate would eventually have her meet two scions: Yda and Papalymo. The brief encounter was enough to inspire her to leave the Shroud and join The Scions of the Seventh Dawn, and thus her story as A Warrior of Light began.

[ inspo from the wonderful mo!! ♡ ]

#—screens #—lorelei #miqomarch #userimogen #ty for the inspo mo!! :3 #she's also a rdm ic but like #i only had enough spoons for this hehe #this took a while but it was a lot of fun!!

[tovaicas]

god I wish I liked RPR more than I do

#saint.txt #I finally got it to 90 and while from an objective standpoint the mix of spellcaster and snappy melee dps is really cool #as is the entire class fantasy which is entirely up my alley #I find it. so annoyingly clunky. I'm biased bc I hate casters a lot and castbars give me allergic reactions and I specifically play melee #for the snappiness of the playstyles I find like half of RPRs mechs annoying as all hell #having to stop your whole ass rotation flat to reapply death's design. you can't use harpe on the move unless you teleport first. #FUCKING soulsow which I never remember to setup lmfao. Communio is really fun but it also breaks the breakneck speed #attacks come out otherwise in enshroud and it feels kinda....tacked on? like. #I'm also just like really really bad at RPR which is a part of it but it feels soooooo clunky at higher levels to me which is weird #bc with most jobs that's usually a low level problem. Like I prefer low level RPR to max level #anyways guess SMN/RDM or another phys ranged is next. probably the former tho bc I need a caster leveled

[helladventurers]

Damn I tried 5v5 pvp, I surprisingly liked it a lot for how much I tend to despise pvp in MMOs :O a shame only ranked matches seem to give crystal trophies, I wanna get the rdm glamour

#gui plays ffxiv #i feel like i'll have to play 72 man with a ranged class lol #because i sucked both as tank and as rdm on it #vs. me actually doing surprisingly well on crystaline as rdm #also i do not like it that despite the name red mage mostly focuses on their melee combo #on 5v5 it's fun but on 72 it's a nightmare to try to survive when you're being ganked by 30 diff people

[totallynotwaffle]

finally a new icon. no longer my stinky "in the middle of heavensward" summoner glam

#post-it note #also got the resistance relic for rdm :3 #that was a fun time

[hellbatschilt]

New PvP series means time to make Hellbat look miserable while killing the enemy team

Bonus: Orb

#hellbat grimsbane tag #would the orb be counted as a spoiler? it's literally just a recolour of the regular pvp mounts :'^I #ANYWAYS #currently series level 15 still since i had to take a break for s rank day lol but maintenance is again tonight so that means - #- i can spend the next two days on pvp grinding again #will i get to series level 25 before the next s rank day? who knows! #anyways oh my god i loooove playing mch in pvp #i used to play monk because punching people was fun but the distance with mch is so much better #plus i'm just better at staying alive as one :'^) #me: hellbat's main classes are black mage drk and rpr! #also me: *mainly plays mch rdm and warrior* #i do miss playing black mage tbh... and unfortunately i get more enmity as warrior during hunts so :^( #anyways i still can't believe i got to a 10 kill streak #my highest before was 8 on both hellbat and x so i was like OUGH??? #okay last thing but i hope this uploads okay since the instant portrait is so long o(-<

[corset]

For all of my ffxiv mutuals/followers who are curious, I main: Healer (SCH > WHM > SGE=AST depending on my mood), Melee minus DRG which I don't really play (NIN=MNK, RPR=SAM depending on my mood), BLM, DRK, and GNB.

#I can play every job really but I'm most comfortable and competent with healers nin/mnk/rpr and blm #I'm fine with WAR and PLD they're just not as fun to me because DRK and GNB play more like melees/play faster #I also don't really play much phys ranged because I don't like how freely I can keep uptime #I find smn boring and I only play rdm when the mood Really hits me? Otherwise I don't find it that interesting to play #With phys ranged I usually play dancer just because I like hitting the dance buttons lol #I like that mch has a giant robot and a gun and I definitely don't DISLIKE brd I just don't find its job mechanics personally compelling #I don't want to say I'm /particularly good at/ any job because I don't think I have the understanding or knowledge of any of them that #someone who plays them with extreme regularity in high end or even ultimate content does and my standards for myself are very high? #I just don't like feeling like I'm posturing

[gridanian-red-mage]

All Saints' Wake--Part 2/9

I'm not sure why I find this funny, but I do. (On another note, behold my current Red Mage glam! Finally, something for my blog's namesake.)

#All Saints' Wake #All Saints' Wake 2023 #FFXIV #Final Fantasy XIV #FFXIV Wol #Papa Gruff #Arielle Solinar #I love playing RDM. #Of course I do need a minute to remember my movesets every time I come back to it but it's still fun! #My favorite part is the flipping and jumping.✨✨ #So guess who also loves playing DRG?😁 #I'm dying to post some gposes I made with both of those jobs but I also wanna post more MSQ. #Hmm what to choose.🤔

[plounce]

made this chart because i think the role/class assignments are such fun pieces of characterization for story NPCs! information pulled from here.

footnotes under the cut:

many NPCs have fancy titles instead of job names - for example, ysayle is referred to as "oracle of ice", and pre-edw alphinaud is an "academician". the jobs i marked them as are pulled from the icons of their classes + the movesets they use.

i didn't include the nameless fill-in NPCs like "temple chirurgeon" or "scion lancer". i am aware that the ARR duty support npcs have dialogue and mini-arcs, but that isn't relevant to my interest in making this chart. and sorry to j'moldva and any fans she has, but she also does not meet the threshold of character significance to be included in the chart.

thancred, urianger, and alphinaud can only dps in specific duty support instances: thancred in the antitower (if he tanks, this is the only time he can GLD - without a shield equipped! uh oh), alphinaud during hvw & stb, and urianger in the mothercrystal (if the player heals, alphinaud is your other healer). y'shtola will only heal in the burn and edw patch dungeons (funny, since her introductory epithet is "cultured conjurer"). all of these can only be used in duty support and not in trust, so they are on the cusps of their overlaps, not properly in them, as i feel this more accurately reflects their actual roles.

alphinaud functions as a scholar with his special massive carby. urianger also pulls out an even bigger carby to somehow be a summoner ("lithomancer") who can use bahamut and phoenix, but not the other three egis! due to his involvement in the bahamut coils raids?

there are no pure healers, outside of the fill-in NPCs!

DPS is a girl job, tanking is a boy job, and healer is equality. ysayle and venat are the only women who can tank, and both use a sword & shield, which makes me want to eat drywall, also i'm also kissing them both on the mouth.

apparently samurais can tank (🔄Third Eye🔄) and apparently gladiators are DPS.

g'raha is notable outside of being an all-rounder in that all of his jobs are, well, jobs. the majority of characters use class icons, while he gets to be full-fledged versions of all of these things. something something soul crystals / the crystal tower / the exarch / etc etc. frankly i'm a little fuzzy on soul crystal lore. i just think this is an interesting distinction.

if you're interested in this kind of stuff, @trustinsighters is a great resource for character dialogue, actions, and many more interesting details in the characters' programming in duty support and trust dungeons! they have great infographics and videos, including localization differences. one of my favorite accounts. their twitter has charts for every trust dungeon from shb onwards, and high-res versions are available on their kofi!

now look at my wol's adorable starlight RDM fit. isn't she so cute. she's my angel. i think about her lore and i weep. her heart is so Good. tomte peregrin on maduin ♥

that is all.

#ffxiv #final fantasy xiv #chirps

[moxpunk-art]

Illusionist Job Stone (Fan Job)

So, after the new Dawntrail details came out, my brain has been buzzing with the idea of my writer-lalafell Bamimi Bami transitioning from Summoner to Pictomancer, but it didn't really feel right. She's a writer, after all! She should be able to bring fiction to life with illusions!

Fun fact, this was my first-ever attempt at digital painting!

Thoughts on my creative process below the break!

So, the big thing I wanted to do was to have meaning behind the decisions that are similar to the job stones in XIV.

First, the symbol. It's obviously a pen nib (the class's arm being pens as a counterpoint to Pictomancer's brush), but it also has the center-circle motif found in WHM and RDM, with the top-curve found in SCH. I figure it'd fit in very well with the rest of the casters to keep a bit of similar design-language.

The stone shape! I wanted to go with a triangle that was mostly even, but offset. It's an art about illusions, after all - they aren't perfect. It's why it doesn't have smooth facets like MCH and BLU.

Finally, I picked violet because I played Guild Wars 2 like over a decade ago and Mesmers have solidified it into my brain that illusions should be violet. That's the long and short of it. My girlfriend says it looks mixed-berry flavor, and I agree. Plus, it's similar in color to Bamimi's eyes, and it's a soulstone crafted by her using her bullshit Alexander Time Magic.

In all, I'm insanely proud of it! I've never tried doing digital painting before, and my whole process was opening a blown-up picture of the DRG job stone on my other monitor and sorta messing around to peel apart the techniques used in the official art. I think I did a pretty good job for a first-time try!

#mox art #final fantasy xiv #ffxiv #job stone #illusionist #bamimi bami #pictomancer #dawntrail spoilers

[ofdarklands]

level 90 at last!

so! about black mage

i've been thinking how to describe playing black mage, and i think the simile i used this morning in chat works well enough:

black mage feels like trying to run with a pot full of boiling water in my hands. with other jobs i feel light and agile, but black mage plays like how seeing emet selch as solus run would feel. look at that guy go. i didn't know spines could do that! you can hear his knees crunch, also

mechanically, it's really not nearly as bad as i feared it to be, even though i don't think i'd managed to figure out a decent rotation myself on the first or even third try so, thank you internet people for the guides!

anyway, the boiling pot wheezing trot sensation is not unique to it, though it is the most noticeable of all the casting classes i've played. i'd say rdm>summoner>whm>>blm in increasing awkwardness

so, while i acknowledge that blm is an optimizer's paradise to get the Biggest Booms, probably, playing it feels like it's almost fighting against the game instead of flowing with it and due to that it's just not very enjoyable, for me. it's got the same inflexible rotation that makes dragoon my least played class despite it being very canon for mitr'a

and from a physical perspective my fingers are not very precise on the keyboard, so i tend to fuck up the routine by accident quite often and then i have to correct it or start over and eeeehhhhhh. and my can't-remember-to-click-despair situation. dunno what the problem is with that one, to be quite honest. brain said no i guess :( that one's on me

woops this got longer than i thought so have a readmore

the good:

aforementioned big damages, when i manage to keep the rotation on track. sadly not as much of a plus for me, personally, but it's relevant still

against one enemy, getting immersed in the rotation can be pretty fun, until the 5 aoes come, the boss leaves the arena, and i sigh deeply while creakily running around, not casting

lasso spell goes brrr. it's got a very funny sound effect, in my heart

the 'return to leylines' spell is also great. i've used it mostly to instantly dodge when there's more than 2 sequential aoes. you can play around with these two spells

shoutout to the simplified job gauge for letting you actually understand anything about it. sure it's 3.5 things to keep track of, but for 2 of them you get informed about their readiness with convenient sounds and flashing borders so whatever

big staff to hit people with

cone hat funny

big lb meteorites. very good very cackling

the bad:

moving feels heavy, even when using the instant cast abilities. i keep lagging behind the group even in normal content, and sometimes clicking the right person to yeet to can be a bit hard in alliances or wall to walls. this class needs to do some cardio

clicking fire IV 3 times, then 1 fire I then fire IV 3 more times is. very boring. sorry. rotation 40 years long and rigid like the brutalism. the funnest parts are the thunder procs and the ice phase before going back to fire and the occasional instant cast. oh you sneezed and misclicked and dropped your fire badge thingies on the floor? sorry idiot you get to start over from the top, but sadder this time

this one i only noticed here at the end, but i feel it's very important, maybe more than the rotation: the best and biggest animations it has are the ones for the ice spells, which you use the least. xenoglossy, foul and flare are also good. amplifier, manafont and triple cast feel nice and dramatic to use. paradox i just got but it's also nice with the color mix. the rest i don't even remember, had to go cast them on a dummy. it's fireballs and fire columns it's all fireballs! the blm animations have a lot of boom but they need more heft, if that makes sense? more flying shit going from you to the target, shit shrapneling from the target, rings of fire, fiery eldritch runes, anything. if rdm can shoot 50 explosive roses at a guy for some reason and drk can summon shields of runes, blm can do something fancy also. casting a finisher skill called 'despair' should look like i'm sucking their souls out through a straw

also more casting positions. summoner has a lot and they're pretty different! they got floating symbols and shit. blm has 'slightly crouched' and 'staff held high' in variation 1 and 2, and that's about it from what i can tell besides the selfbuff ones. add some evil runes at least. the paradox wide armed one (i think you float a little?) is a good addition though

anyway, final verdict: it's a good class, but it's very rigid and inflexible to get Big Damages, which is not an exciting exchange, for me. i prefer to be nimble and do less damage but have a more varied and forgiving rng based rotation. also more utility skills! i miss peloton or having a group shield or heal, or even rdm's rez; makes me feel actually useful instead of being just a giant cone hat that produces flamethrower on command. i don't think i'll play it too often, i'm afraid, even though it's a perfectly alright class, and i'm sure i'll get better with time

HOWEVER. if dawntrail allows blm to throw meteorites outside of lbs i might reconsider. they can be small! even magical molotov cocktails if we must. but i want physical flamming objects to hit my enemies and i want to see the animations do that with some flair. just ole fire and spite booms and a couple icicles is not enough. i want to flatten them

#if you think this was me being overly harsh i assure you i liked blm a lot more than i thought i would! #i'll play it exclusively a couple more days still #get a proper feel of the 90 rotation and all #still. this stands i think #a good class that's just not quite for *me* #play: mitr’a #now what i really have to do is think how mitr'a will include blm stuff into HIS multiclass rotation #he doesn't usually stand still much so it'll be a challenge. maybe add it to drk? that could work. tanks move less #drk has the cool evil rune animations blm lacks as well #also i need to read a bit about steppe shamanism to take my clues from that #i must say despair as a skill is particularly interesting after ew. flexing our dynamis muscles. that one might go to bard some way #not like bard is using that mp for anything #xenoglossy with it's echo implications would go to rdm? i guess? it does require charge...

[thegreatyin]

ffxiv dawntrail job preview thoughts:

-reaper is a job that exists in final fantasy 14: dawntrail

-red mage got a fourth finisher. 10/10 no notes, lol, lmao even. i do hope they'll do something else with the job eventually though, it's kinda been the same its entire lifespan (which is good! rdm has a great rotation! but also i hunger.)

-machinist has MORE guns. i am happy with this. i can live with this.

-the dancer spell effects continue to feel a little too weightless for my liking but the actual gameplay has been fun so far and i have faith that it'll hopefully remain that way. otherwise looks good looks like dancer no strong complaints here. sidenote i do wish they'd make it clearer which stuff is new and which stuff is old. like that looked like a new dance maybe possibly??? but i'm not entirely sure

-MOVING LEYLINES!!!!!!! THE LEYLINES MOVED!!!!!!!! i mean uhhhhhh. yeah the rest of the black mage stuff looks cool too. kinda disappointed they didn't add onto the abomination that is the already-existing clock gauge but yknow i kinda get it. it's already just barely standing behind the line of being overly clustered

-dark knight is a job that exists in final fantasy 14: dawntrail. also is that a new gap closer..?

-the viper gauge looks weird as hell and im kinda here for it. their flashy blue finisher move(????) is baller im very excited to play it

-first of all are those pictomancer job stone colors set in stone because eughhhhhhhh i am not feeling that yellow with that pink. second of all god the vfx on this job are gorgeous. im LOVING the hammer. day one ragdoll is learning to paint mark my words

#these are just the jobs i have leveled so they're the ones i jumped to watch lol #plus viper and pictomancer bc they're new #yin-thoughts #ffxiv #apparently white mage has a new gap closer? epic. happy for yall

[bogaffxiv]

Hi! I'm Boga!

This is my FFXIV blog, where I'll most often post GPoses and character inspo. Eventually it may house RP and character writing, but presently, I'm still getting my footing in the FFXIV setting as a whole. My main blog is @clockchimesthirteen and my likes/follows/reblogs will come from there. Feel free to say hi - I don't bite, but I do talk far too much. :)

Disclaimer: My gposes make use of third-party tools that go beyond the limits of what is possible in the base game of FFXIV. AKA: I am a criminal and use far too many... uh, natural game enhancements. I even make them sometimes!

I won't be posting anything explicit or pornographic, however, some of my posts may contain artistic nudity, bloody imagery, and slight body horror. I will tag accordingly, but if that makes you uncomfortable in any capacity, I'd suggest you check out one of the many, many other wonderful blogs on this website. No minors please. 18+ only.

A little about me: I'm 25, theoretically a ladyperson (she/her), and I've been RPing online since I could type - about 15 years now (though I'd like to think I've improved since ye olde days of the Neopets forums). My interests are random and often come in short, hyperfixated bursts, but FFXIV seems to be stuck to me. I'm also learning to 3D model one snail's-pace step at a time, and Graphic Design is my Passion™.

As for FFXIV, I'm currently playing through Heavensward and loving every second of this wonderful story. DRG is my favorite class so far, PLD is fun, and I cannot, for the life of me, understand RDM or DNC. I am doing my best.

If any of that strikes your fancy, feel free to stick around. I'd be happy to have you here. :)

#about me #ffxiv #ffxiv blog #ffxiv sprout

[evilpenguinrika]

I enjoyed this event very very very much

Instance was fun (and not as stressful as FFXV Garuda fight) and I only wiped once but mainly bc I went in as a RDM by accident and also I'm still not great at RDM Job.

And I really love Lana's new glam :)

#ffxiv #ffxiv gpose #ffxiv screenshots #ff14 #final fantasy 14 #final fantasy xiv #hosie fankids #hosie ffxiv au #rika plays ffxiv #eprika rambles

[thefinalwitness]

i love "baby's first non-starter job" stories. i was level ~45 summoner when i saw someone in my party casting spells AND using a sword and, being a big baby sprout, i excitedly asked "are you a mage with a sword??!" and they said "yeah i'm a red mage! :D" and i gushed at them about how cool and fun it looked and i was so excited to try it at 50.

this lv 50 shift from smn to rdm is also canon for l'aiha now; she's an arcanist up until she loses the ability to manipulate external aether when midgardsormr nullifies hydaelyn's blessing and it fucks up l'aiha's aether and body more than it's supposed to (due to the fact she's ALIVE because hydaelyn resurrected her—oops!). fortunately, she and alisaie are in the middle of the coils raids, so alisaie introduces l'aiha to her teacher x'rhun tia, because red magic is all about balancing internal aether. :3c

to this day, l'aiha mostly can't summon familiars, an important component of being an arcanist. she Sort Of regains the ability with azem's crystal, but by then she's lost her ability to do magic ENTIRELY as a long-term effect of the light corruption. in fact, i think the very earliest she could've effectively resumed being an arcanist would've been at the end of the aitiascope dungeon in 6.0, but i like to think her (in character) level disparity between arcanist (50) and red mage (89-90) sorta means it'd be ridiculous trying to close that gap, especially because it took her 4 years to go from 50 to 90 as rdm. :'D

i like turning my out of character job transitions into in character transitions for l'aiha. fun fact! when i very first rolled the version of her that stuck (i had a very low level arcanist vers of her, but wanted to remake her to level with a friend), i made her a lancer so she could start in gridania with my friend's conjurer! so l'aiha canonically has about 15 levels in lancer (the minimum level you can be before the msq lets you get to limsa, where i swapped her to arcanist), which is explained as:

upon waking with no memories, she's taken in by an L tribe clan who secretly intends to sell her off to the empire as a conscript. they pretend she's always lived with them and encourage her to uncover her own memories; they can see from her physique she's a combatant, but they don't actually know anything about her, so they pretend they won't just 'tell her' who she is or what her skills were because it could 'affect her ability to naturally remember'. so when it comes to how she used to fight, she's left to figure that out for herself.

she ends up choosing a lance from the rack of weapons they show her, because it DOES ring a vague bell; what she doesn't know is the echo memory she has (her echo manifests like aether vision, meaning she can't fully see these visions) was of herself learning how to wield a rapier from her mother, not a lance. so she's a lancer for a while, until she gets to limsa and picks up arcanist instead. :'3c

#oh hello adderall making me focus on this post of all things LMAO #yoshi talks #l'aiha #about #wol

[starrysnowdrop]

Top 5 Jobs (ICly and/or what you prefer to play) (Hiiii Hali! How are things going? ^.^)

Hey sweetie!! 👋 I’m doing really good, and I hope you are too my friend!! 🥰💖

Soooooooo Top 5 Jobs! Let’s goooooo!!

1) Astrologian

Need I say more??? AST is the best job! Hands down!! I’ve loved AST since it came out as I have always loved the aesthetic and it’s a healer job, so as a healer main I was naturally drawn to it. It’s Hali’s main job for a reason, and even if I add more jobs to her canon, AST will always be #1.

2) White Mage - I’ve played XIV since ARR went live, and WHM was my first job I ever played. It’s also one of my favorite FF jobs from other FF games, so it has a special place in my heart.

3) Dancer - DNC has my second favorite aesthetic out of all the jobs. It’s GORGEOUS and it’s FUN! Can’t beat that.

4) Red Mage - RDM is actually the job I go to the most when doing roulettes, as I love being able to heal and rez if necessary, and it does decent damage as well. I haven’t added it as a canon job for any of my OCs though because I’m not super fond of the fact that I feel like you MUST wear red for the aesthetic (Red isn’t my favorite color, sorry).

5) Samurai - My favorite melee job and it was Yume’s main canon job, so it holds a special place in my heart for that reason alone. It also has my favorite job quest storyline.

Thank you so much for the ask @eorzeanflowers!! 💖

#asks and replies

[mmorpg-escapism]

I have just enough energy in me tonight for my favorite solo duty. This one's a doozy, and the final thing that stands between us and Endwalker! ...which I'll start tomorrow. There are also some Thoughts on the expansion as a whole at the end under the cut.

For those of you who have been keeping an eye on this journey, thank you ❤ It's not over yet and is most definitely going to loop back to stuff I did before starting here: there will eventually be another run through ARR to current sometime after the graphics update hits every expansion, so likely late next year. I've got a hrothgal waiting in the wings for that one... and do plan to do this to Dawntrail on my main with appropriate spoilers tagged as well as the usual one. We shall see how that goes.

Now, into the duty!

Alphinaud's character growth is so very visible to us after Arenvald's pep talk. The kid is a natural-born leader, and despite his mistakes he has enough confidence to really use his gifts... after a little push from his friends and family.

And now, we fight! The Scions take the field in full force - first as a group, and then splitting up across the field to take charge of several enemies. Our first stop is us clearing the field of a LOT of tempered Imperials... then splitting up to find and deal with Lunar Primals wherever we can while G'raha holds the fort.

And now, the real fun: We get to cosplay as a few of the Scions! Starting with Alisaie! RDM is my favorite caster, and this simplified take on it is very much faithful to my experience with it itself. Lots of little enemies, one big one, and a very fun slice-n-dice playground.

Development: "Random" magical glyphs that are pointed at the heart of a massive "aetheric confluence" - which is just a fancy way of describing a spot where several aetheric currents meet - and Y'shtola's guess is that they're there to enable some seriously nasty disasters should one of the Grape-flavored Primals reach and destroy one. Cool, the stakes have risen.

Split #2 has us afield as Urianger's Astro, facing Lunar Odin - which I did NOT do in my original playthrough nor this one, so I had no idea what to expect. I'm not an Astro player, but after some experience with one of my static members being... particularly annoyed with it, this wasn't quite so bad. Odin down!

Split #3 is back to G'raha and Alisaie, but now we're playing as G'raha who is some combo of BLM and WHM, facing off with Lunar Ravana. Big stabby sword bug. Woo. He's just as cool as the original fight, if a little toned down for story and "2-man" reasons. Big stabby stuff, and even an excuse to use G'raha's Break spell! Bugman down!

Now, back to the WoL with Estinien and Alphinaud facing down the monster that crippled Arenvald: Grape Ifrit. This one's personal. And boy howdy wthat one was the most intense of the three. Fire everywhere, a big LB3-like thing out of Estinien, the works. But it's the last of the primals, and we're all still alive.

I love this duty so very much. Not only because we get to spend some time as our Scion friends. Not only because we get to fight primals in a more one-on-one style that helps me imagine how to write it when I get there. It's also because there are stakes going in - stop the crazy person with lots of power who's trying to end the world - that become more specific during the fight, and then when the evil plan is thwarted, they don't just gloss over the aftermath.

We get to see our friends being VERY human. Alisaie is exhausted and berating herself for not doing enough. Alphinaud cannot stand losing anyone, and we have to watch him fight that when his healing isn't enough to save the man in front of him. We see the Grand Company of Eorzea at work - city-state leaders and beastmen tribes alike working together to cure the tempered. We cannot save everyone, an Amalj'aa warrior reminds the Scions, but those we have saved would not have been if not for you.

"So please, hold your heads high." The entire bustling field stopped and listened. Every single country we have visited, from the Alliance to Doma, is represented here. Standing behind the Scions, who gave everything they had to win the day, despite the cost. The moon breaks through the clouds above, and one last time we hear the Shadowbringers main theme break through as everyone gathered stares up at it, and the credits roll.

================================================

As I sit and process this entire expansion one more time, it's clear... Shadowbringers fundamentally alters your brain chemistry. That's from one of the posts going around the week I wrapped this up, and it is extremely accurate. We started all the way back in ARR as an adventurer with a gift, but little else, and got used. We slowly turned into something else on our way into Heavensward ("What are you?" - Thordan VII after we beat him) and used the power we had to liberate two entire countries from the Garlean empire alongside our friends, then watched them get snatched away from us for some unknown reason.

And then we went to where they were and found ourselves embroiled in a world that flipped the script on everything we knew. Light was bad, Dark was good, and everything we thought we knew was wrong. Discoveries with ripple effects that will be felt through Endwalker and beyond were made, and two entire worlds were changed as a result.

I'm not that good at analyzing story, or at least I didn't think I was when I started. All I knew is that this expansion was The Best that FFXIV had to offer, and I wanted to find ways to articulate why I thought that. I think I've succeeded, at least a little. I'm very excited for Endwalker and Dawntrail and beyond. Maybe I'll even get some creative spark going and write more of ARW for your enjoyment and my own - I want to do more than think about my blorbo :)

One more Arenvald Appreciation post tomorrow, most likely, and then into Endwalker!

#ffxiv escapism: endwalker #ffxiv escapism: shadowbringers #so long Shadowbringers!