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Chapter LXXIV: Power Struggles
Music: A New Hope
This is going to be a pretty short and unexciting update, but it's content that needs done. Today, we're visiting the Sultansworn to continue the Paladin questline. After completing a leveling roulette, Aggro hit level 41. We're ahead of the MSQ's leveling curve again, but we have a new ability to unlock.
I'm a dufus and habitually teleport to the Coliseum.
I should really be going to Hustings' Strip.
There's also a short aethernet teleport through to The Chamber of Rule that stops us of neatly by our job quest handler. As usual (or, well, the new usual), I'll comment on the new job action in the bonus.
Jenlyns has heard about some of our deeds, but given that we're currently stuck in the frozen and rather isolated highlands of Coerthas, I'd assume he's referring to our battle with the Lord of Crags.
You have kept the faith, and in return, I must have faith in you. It is time that you knew the truth—though it is hard to share, for it is a shame I would rather keep hidden from outsiders.
It's time for a bit of story development!! in our Paladin job quests. We've proven ourselves worthy of "the truth". Sadly, this is going to amount to nothing more than a plot exposition dump. Bear with us.
Perhaps you remember when I told you of the traitor and the sword Oathkeeper that he stole. His name is Solkzagyl, and he was my predecessor as captain of the Sultansworn elite.
Some years ago now, there was a struggle for influence between the sultanate military and a faction within the Syndicate known as the Monetarists. The latter emerged triumphant, and the army's authority was diminished dramatically.
Now it falls to me, as captain, to restore the honor and name of the Sultansworn. If that means cutting down my former mentor and master, I would do it gladly, for his misdeed cannot be forgiven.
He served for over thirty years as captain of the Sultansworn elite, and he is a formidable foe—few can match his skill with the sword. Even together, you and I will find it difficult to take him alive without mortal harm to one side or the other. So you must continue to hone your skills and prepare for the day when we will face him.
After our exposition dump about who the antagonist truly is and what Jenlyn's motivations are, we finally get to the purpose of this quest.
To complete the next stage of your training, you must do this: go to the Yugr'am River in eastern Thanalan and find the brazier we have placed there. By lighting it, you will draw the ire of the lepidotes dwelling within the waters. Face the creatures in battle and master your new skills.
Music: To The Sun
Our task is incredibly simple this time, and I'm thinking that quests like these are particularly why players often think the Paladin story is very boring.
We've joined Jenlyns as an independant Paladin, a free agent from the Sultansworn. His goal with this nontraditional branch of the Sultansworn is to populate their forces and find loyal subjects free of loyalty to the previous captain. I think. It's been a while.
Whatever the case, the Paladin quests like to do a whole lot of tell and not show. We're hearing about the history of the struggles between the Monetarists and the Sultan's forces, which include the Sultansworn. We're dealing with the aftermath of the Sultansworn losing that struggle, but it's not really shown in any meaningful way.
Sure, we're not going to be doing anything as grand as battling the Monetarists to reclaim the Sultansworn's influence and reputation yet. Perhaps that's saved for a later expansion? But in this story, we have this elite captain who threw away his position to flee with the one symbol of the power he once had. That would ordinarily let us explore the impacts of that aftermath.
Instead, we're just... told about it? Repeatedly, at that. The big unsurprising reveal today is that the disgraced captain is also the very same one that Jenlyns once admired. There's a conflict in there that isn't really present. Jenlyns is betrayed and wants to take Solkzagyl to trial. But he's also this incredibly bland wall that issues out training regimes.
Jenlyns is just boring as a protagonist for the Paladin's tale. We're only ever told about what's happening, and this quest is slap in the middle before everything should be going down. To set up the pieces for the coming climax, we're... just told about the dramatic moments we could have seen. I feel like this story should have started a little bit earlier than it did, or perhaps just made Jenlyns a more active part in it.
There's not very much for us to connect with on an emotional level here. The narrative is very detached from what we're really doing.
Ul'dah ends up very pivotal to the main scenario. More so than the other two starting locations. There's a whole lot of material within its internal politics that the game is interested in, and we have a pretty good side quest that can flesh that internal strife further. Instead, it seems almost afraid to truly touch on it. The entire quest line is just... safe.
I know we're still two quests from the end, and we've still to end the quest we're on too so this probably feels premature, but our task highlights how weak the Paladin story is. Jenlyns has heard stories of us, and at level 40, that's chronologically after the Titan battle. We're beyond these training sessions.
We're beyond "slaying 5 [monsters] to complete your training" quests, and yet here we are. Detached from the story, only hearing our ally tell us about what's happening instead with no emotional stakes.
And so that leaves us to return to Jenlyns and inform him that the arbitrary battle we've been sent on has been resolved. Nothing has truly moved forward. We've still got no reason to invest ourselves in Jenlyns' own personal conflict, and it feels like nothing is happening. This quest is just so incredibly hollow.
Music: A New Hope
Jenlyns, we're god-killers.
Honestly, if the story was more about the investigation to find Solkzagyl, or working with Jenlyns to set up traps while he reveals at least some degree of doubt or regret about what he's going to do then this would be better.
But alas, it is not to be. See you all for the next job quest, where we hunt down Giant Rats while Jenlyns lays traps off-screen.
A Realm Reborn's Paladin is such a different, more aggressive beast post-Shadowbringers Expansion. The third expansion gave us our damage-inflicting AoE much earlier, but it also gave us an AoE combo. With 220 potency per hit, the Prominence combo (Total Eclipse: 120 potency -> Prominence: 220 potency) totals at 170 potency per Global CoolDown per target hit. Put that against the Rage of Halone combo (Fast Blade: 200 potency -> Riot Blade: 300 potency -> Rage of Halone: 350 potency) and its ~283 potency per GCD and it's pretty much better to AoE on two targets or more.
Expect to see a lot of Paladins twirling around and slashing everything up.
Back in FFXIV's second expansion, the level 40 Paladin quest used to unlock Cover. Cover is now available at level 45, so we'll cover that then.
Before Stormblood, Paladins had... a difficult time around this level. Our tank stance was Shield Oath, and it was only now that we unlocked it. Given that enmity was also harder to gain back then, you'd often find a number of Paladins struggle between 30 and 40. Things sure have changed.
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