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We're back here in Coerthas to talk to Carrilaut, who you might remember first directed us to speak with Francel about his impending inquisition visit.
Remember how I mentioned there were four 1.0 holdover dungeons? Yeah, well meet #3. (Toto-Rak, Cutter's Cry, Dzemael Darkhold, and Aurum Piss Aurum Vale.) The 1.0 holdovers all have something in common: nobody likes them.
I'm going to show every time this happens. The game was not running badly before this point. I wasn't lagging. The server just randomly booted my ass off because "LMAO SUCKS TO SUCK."
And the game just tosses me in at the start 30 seconds in. The group has already taken off at a dead sprint and left Ginger behind. Greeeeeeat.
See this purple area near crystals? The tank pulled all the enemies there because it's the only safe spot in the corridor. The first boss, an Ahriman, patrols back and forth and occasionally pauses to do Eyes On Me, a move that hits for 1000 damage. That's half of Ginger's HP pool!
The crystal area reduces the damage by 90%.
Dzemael Darkhold is a pain, though, because it's spiteful. This by the way is the second crystal area.
Do you see this soul thing here? It's a ranged enemy and there's at least one in every pull in the dungeon. Ranged enemies, as you might imagine, don't run into melee range and will instead stand well outside of the AOE pile. They're not being hit by the tank's AOE attacks, so no aggro is being generated on them.
The smart thing to do would be to tank the pack on top of the ranged mob, but the ranged mob will stop moving juuuust outside of the crystal's protective aura. So there's no good answer here. You either tank everything on top of the ranged mob and eat half your HP in damage from unavoidable attacks or you let the ranged enemy do whatever it wants to the healer while the rest of the party slowly burns down the rest of the group.
Repeat for every pull in the dungeon. Dzemael Darkhold makes me dearly wish that a WoW mechanic was in XIV. When tanks use their ranged attack in WoW, it applies a silence effect to whatever is hit. It only lasts for a few seconds, but it's just long enough to force them into melee range.
This third section is the worst of it. There's only one crystal with a protection aura, and there's a lot of enemy packs in the room. Even worse, there's multiple soul enemies.
This room also introduces another mechanic: these magitek terminals. These things have to be stood in for a while. One person will take an extremely long time to make it count down, while four makes it take... still a long time, but markedly less than one or two. There's two in the room.
The first boss room is finally past that terrible room.
He's completely unremarkable too. You need to stand near a crystal to avoid having Eyes On Me nuking off most of your HP, but there's like four in the room. As the boss uses his attack, the crystal will lose effectiveness and eventually shut off.
He's also got the usual smattering of AOEs to not stand in, but if you're in Dzemael Darkhold and don't yet know not to stand in clearly marked Pools Of Bad, then there's no helping you.
The boss also summons a bunch of adds, but they don't have a lot of health and die to a stiff breeze. The fight doesn't take all that long. Most of the time he'll die before the second crystal runs out of juice. Unless you, the person reading in particular, are tanking. In that case, the fight will always push to the limit of the third crystal because your healer doesn't cast offensive spells and your DPS aren't aware of what the highlighted buttons do. It's one of those laws of FFXIV. Go look it up in the TOS. It's there, I promise.
Schwartzcough posted:
So you didn't mention the real gimmick of the first boss of the Darkhold. Those purple light zones not only reduce the damage of the boss- he's invincible when he's not inside the light. I've had quite a few runs where people just did not understand that "invincible" ding when all their attacks bounce harmlessly off him. And the entire team is standing around in the purple light except one dude who just keeps wailing on the invincible boss in the middle of the room while we all stare at them.
...oh god. Ginger, thankfully, didn't win this item. This is what I like to call the Bra Of Shame. It's the strongest dungeon drop that healers and DPS casters alike can get before they hit their level 45 job quests. So expect to see it a lot. There's also a tanking version and it's something we've already seen in the previous update!
Seriously. Loonh Gah is wearing the tank version of the Bra Of Shame. I don't think having a platemail bra and panties is a particularly smart thing... But points regardless to FFXIV because both pieces look pretty much identical on male and female characters alike. So men get to wear the metal tanking speedo.
The second section is pretty nasty. There's a whole group of enemies to round up, but it's a trap because gathering all of them up puts the group in range of two other rather large packs of enemies nearby. I have never come in here for a roulette and have this go smoothly. Someone always pulls more.
In this case, three enemies became 7...
...and then a slow wipe occurred.
By the way, the second part of the dungeon is full of charged crystals.
They explode. Multiple pulls have enemies hanging out near them. These pulls of course have ranged enemies too just for that little extra "go fuck yourself" from the dungeon team.
Second verse, same as the first!
The way forward is past the exploding crystal and around the corner.
There's a few pulls featuring crystals like these. They're otherwise unremarkable.
Past them is the second boss.
This guy is almost entirely unremarkable except for one gimmick. He's got a bunch of buddies standing up on the ledges nearby and they're throwing boulders at the party for unavoidable damage.
Some create AOE circles on the ground, others just hit you because random raidwide damage.
It's just a "is your healer awake" check more than anything.
This section is just mean. It combines the gimmicks from parts 1 and 2. So you have enemies to kill near exploding crystals, but you also have the magitek terminals.
It takes 10 seconds for all four people to disable the terminal. These crystals explode every 5-6 seconds.
You have to stand in the explosion and eat the shitload of damage. If everyone leaves, the countdown resets and you have to start again.
There's two such terminals in the room.
This is not a good dungeon. It's long, the envrionments are boring and samey, the mechanics and lines of sight are both gigantic "fuck yous," and a major step up in difficulty from anything else in A Realm Reborn. It's exceedingly obvious that this is a 1.0 holdover.
It's still pretty easy because it's A Realm Reborn. But it actually has mechanics and stuff.
This boss is just a big wall of meat. He hits hard and that's pretty much it.
Occasionally he goes invulnerable and tethers himself to a nearby cluster of crystals. We just have to destroy them.
At the same time he'll also choose a random person, usually a DPS, and target them for huge column AOEs. That person merely has to dodge the attack. It's bad form, though, to stand near the crystal if you're targeted because it makes it harder for the other DPS to hit it.
He'll do the crystal thing three times during the fight.
Finally he'll just randomly drop pools of void at his feet. It's as easy as not standing in the scary purple and black circles.
Fuck this dungeon.
At least it was over with quickly. Now let's move on to the other content...
We're back for the level 45 quests for MNK. These are important because every job in the base A Realm Reborn game has special rewards for making it to level 45!
But first we need to get the third piece of our AOE combo.
You two played me for a fool. The data the simpleton monk brought me was absolutely astounding. Groundbreaking. Revolutionary. Yet I remained objective in my analysis, as a scholar must. Poring over the data, I finally arrived at a disheartening conclusion: the two of you took measurements of the same area! The values were near identical-equivalences mocking me as I struggled to reconcile them. I could neither sleep nor eat lest I waste time not drawing nearer the truth. And for what? Tell me. What is it you two were doing in the field?
Well...
Bah, not this bloody chakra nonsense again! How many times must I tell you? It is naught but imperceptible aether. Call it what it is! And to think I had a mind to put your names under mine when my hypothesis was published! This life force, this spiritual energy, this godsforsaken eternal soul essence-I care not what primitive nomenclature those backward monks wish to assign it. It is aether, plain and simple!
I'm pretty sure most of Eorzea has been the site of bloody battles of the past. While I don't doubt that Erik is ultimately correct, that aether doesn't just well up in anyone. Monks in particular are specially attuned to tap into it. That has to count for something.
They claim they are able to manipulate and amplify it through discipline and the opening of the so-called chakra. False! This is nothing more than the aetherial regulation of organisms-a basic and natural concept. In an attempt to explain that which science does not yet fully understand, the monks have erected an institution of control. Their preachings are unassailable by design-for none can disprove the existence of the unknowable. They promise power in return for abjection and servitude. Control and power, indeed! Only that of man! It is the very essence of a religion, and should be treated with contempt, as all religion should.
Aether resides in all living things, as do natural mechanisms with the capacity to regulate it. This is simply life-not some mystical, supernatural endowment. I concede, of course, that the heightened mental faculties of man allow for the potential to gain conscious control over those mechanisms. Indeed, it would appear that you and the simpleton monk have already achieved that end.
<sigh> The indiscretion and impertinence of youth... I suppose it can be forgiven-once. In my own youth, I was not the model of perfection you see before you. I too have made what some might call mistakes. Not myself, but some. In our talks together, the simpleton monk often spoke of the seventh chakra. Its awakening is thought to be the highest achievement among the monkhood. Aye, I make it a habit to know the tenets of my intellectual enemies.
Just breaking up the walls of text.
It was the flow of the aether within the two of you which betrayed your falsehood. The whispering of your chakra, as I'm sure the monks would rush to call it. But serendipity most often visits the industrious! Just so, it is precisely these aetherial whispers that proved to be most intriguing. The waves of these sounds resonated perfectly with the aether of the battleground!
I can see by your vapid expression that you are missing my point. Allow me to spell it out-it follows that if one were to visit a battlefield with a certain aetherial wave amplitude and frequency, it would resonate with one's own aether! This is the phenomenon responsible for the initial opening of your own chakra. <sigh> I cannot believe I am being reduced to speaking in these terms. It stands to reason that for any aetherial wave, there may be a location that will resonate with it. Think of the implications, Ginger!
If the seventh chakra the monks speak of truly exists, then so, too, must an ultimate battleground to bond with it. The concentration of aether in such a place would be unlike anything ever recorded! I forgive your past treachery, guide me as it did to this great discovery. That, and I need you to do more work for me. Here, take this new aetherometer.
Make for Larkscall in the East Shroud. My research indicates it is a very promising tract indeed. Set up the aetherometer as you have others in the past, and then kill whatever you must to obtain a strong reading. Slaying beasts there will release the aether of the land they are steeped in, and it may then resonate with your own. I suppose in the primitive terms of the monkhood, that would translate to the expansion of your chakra.
Oh, and you'll not be crossing paths with the simpleton monk this time. I will be sending him to take readings at East End. I've no intentions of allowing you two to conspire to impede my research again. If you care to know more about the events that have transpired at Larkscall, I suggest you pay a visit to your local library. East End, on the other hand, is a fascinating subject of which I never tire speaking. Ask me about it any time if your curiosity ever gets the better of you.
Is it weird that Erik is going to turn out to be the reasonable one in this series of quests? Widargelt is taking a strong dose of the villain pill.
I'm not sure I ever showed a map of the East Shroud. The aetheryte in the middle bottom is Hawthorne Hut. If you squint you can make out the quest marker in the middle of the screen. Everything north and east of it is a level 44+ area that is mostly used for the Sylph Beast Tribe quests. Seriously.
I haven't even started on that Tribe yet, and nor do I expect to for a while. The Sylph quests are the most tedious of the lot because one distressingly common daily quest asks you to carry an object from one end of the zone to the other while you're dodging aggro radii of various high level enemies.
The reason I bring that up is because this quest is more of the same. Three more sets of enemies. We've seen it all before.
Back to Ul'dah!
Here's your aetherometer!
Amazing... Simply amazing! And your soul crystal... It's glowing more vibrantly than ever before, is it not? I will begin my analysis of the data with all haste! You've come to be quite the model pupil, Ginger. Would that I could say the same of the monk simpleton. <sigh>
I can see the feeble gears turning in your mind. Come, there is no need to feel shame at your ignorance. If you wish to know what has transpired, you need only ask. I promise to use small words.
This is just part 1 of the Level 45 quests.
Four-point Fury is the middle action in the Monk AOE combo. Up until Ginger got this, when she was attacking packs of enemies in the dungeon, she had to awkwardly weave in a single target skill in the middle of attacking a bunch of enemies. It's not a huge concern, though, and this just makes the combo flow a little better.
Monk is arguably the melee DPS in the strongest overall position when it comes to getting key skills while leveling. It feels great to play at almost any level you can get synced to! I've shared many concerns about DRG and NIN both, and while I adore SAM(urai) to pieces, that job feels completely awful to play before level 62, and starts falling apart below level 50 as core pieces of its rotation just disappear.
Bear in mind that the level 45 skill for Ninja means they can finally use their level 18 ability in combat. Dragoon gets a strong OGCD that also functions as a "move forward and stun the enemy" move on a 60 second CD. Monk? It just gets a new piece of a combo to make it feel more smooth because it already have 90% of its basic kit at this point.
I have been informed that Spineshatter Dive no longer stuns enemies.
Dragoon can't make that claim until level 60 at the earliest. Anyway, have some Beach Boys to listen to for no particular reason.
The simpleton monk asked that I send you his way should I see you. He waits for you at Little Ala Mhigo in southern Thanalan. Surely you see Widargelt for the danger he is. His is the most dangerous type of mind-one blinded by revolution and revenge. I do wish you'd tell him yourself that people should live for the future rather than the past.
You thought I did not know he was of the Ala Mhigan Resistance? How saddening it is that on the rare occasions you do trouble yourself to think, you are wrong. Of course I know. What manner of imbecile do you take me for? No doubt Widargelt thinks me the idiot. False! These two eyes see far more than you know. I, too, am an Ala Mhigan, and love my homeland every bit as much as he.
Go now, hurry to Little Ala Mhigo. I will keep you no longer. No doubt Widargelt is already awaiting your arrival.
Showing these map transitions is actually kinda handy for lategame travel.
Widargelt is still hanging out with Gundobald.
You spoke to Erik. Do not lie to me, sister. You told him who I am-what I seek to do. I am not angered. He tried to sway me from my path. He believes resistance will only leave more dead. I expected as much from him. I feigned understanding. He asked much of me. Of the monkhood and the Fist. He asked of the seventh chakra.
My answers excited him. He said they would advance his studies. I too learned from him. I am nearer the seventh chakra now. Soon the Resistance will rise. You too will see. Very soon. Others do not understand. Ala Mhigo tried to protect them. We were the shield of the realm. We bled to fend off Garlemald. None here know our suffering! None here can imagine it. The lives we led after the fall. After the shield was sundered.
I have traveled far and wide. I have met many souls. But none are as you. You have a gift. Yours is a great strength. Unite it to ours, sister. Help us reclaim our home. Your efforts will be rewarded. Look upon my garments. This is the war garb of the monkhood. It attunes to the wearer's chakra. Enables it to realize its fullest expression. The cloth is imbued with the power of Rhalgr. Only monks of His Fist may don it. Only those who overcome many trials.
I will tell you how it can be yours. Fear not. I require you to speak no vows. I ask only that you fight with us. Give yourself to our cause. You long for adventure. I understand. But such longings can wait. This cannot. See Ala Mhigo freed. Then enjoy your own freedoms. What say you, sister?
Uh... I guess?
You have the heart of a true monk. You are different from the others in this realm. Hear this. A set of our war garb was stolen. The Fist has tracked the bandits. We know now where three of the relics are. Here in southern Thanalan, the Sepulchre and the Circle of the Tempered. And in northern Thanalan, the abandoned Amajina mythril mine.
Your soul crystal will react to the relics. Draw near them, and they will glow. By this power, you can find them. The Fist's honor has been trampled upon. Make the heretics you find pay for their sins. Erik has sold his soul to this land. But he is a knowledgeable man. He knows more than I of the monkhood. And of the Fist. Speak with him if you would know more of our way. The man revels in hearing himself speak. I await the day we fight side by side, sister. Go now, and go well.
I wonder if Widargelt would be as keen to train Ginger if he knew that she stopped the youth here from summoning Rhalgr the Destroyer to, well, destroy the empire. Also this is a good time to bring up that there are two types of Ala Mhigans in Eorzea, those like Erik who have adapted to life here, and those like Widargelt whose blood burns with a longing for vengeance.
There are no exceptions to this rule.
Down south of the Brotherhood of Ash, down in the daily quest area, we can find the first piece of Ginger's garb.
This box is surrounded by level 47 enemies. For once Ginger is not overleveled for something!
I've been pretty good about keeping Ginger's gear up to date with dungeon drops, so these items aren't as huge an upgrade as they might normally be. For someone that isn't as mindful, though? These things are a huge jump in personal power.
The next piece is up in the northern part of the zone, amid a bunch of enemies that Ginger can run right through without aggroing.
Widargelt mentioned a piece in Northern Thanalan. We actually haven't been there before. So we first need to drop by Black Brush Station, which was one of the first places Ginger ever went in this LP.
Due north from it, way up at the northern terminus of the zone, even farther up than Cutter's Cry, is some scaffolding that leads to...
Northern Thanalan. This is Camp Bluefog. Ginger will be coming here in a mere handful of updates for the end of the A Realm Reborn MSQ.
Midway up the zone is the Ceruleum Processing Plant with its aetheryte.
And then over here in a level 50 area...
Is the third piece of her outfit. Ginger is still level 45, mind. So this is actually an even challenge for the most part.
We take our gains and report to Widdy...
You have returned. The first three relics are yours. And now, the Fist has located the fourth. There is a Qiqirn merchant who deals in contraband. The fourth relic is among his wares. Hurry to lower La Noscea. Find this Qiqirn. Take back that which is now yours by right.
This is actually near a place Ginger has been a bunch of times for various Limsa class quests. Most recently she was here to be "ambushed" by the entire Marauders' guild as part of her training to take on Kujata. You can see the crystallized wave off to the side.
Stinky Lalafell! Come to stop Kikiroon's business. Come to take shinies! Kill her! Kill the stinky!
There's a small rush of enemies, but they pose no threat to us.
This is actually our first introduction to the Mamool Ja. They're... another beast tribe in Eorzea. I'm not sure one actually appears in a cutscene outside of the BLU quests, so I doubt I'll ever add them to the Dramatis Personae list.
Ginger now looks dumb. She has 80% of a set of gear, but will not get the final piece until level 50. Here's the rub, at level 50 thanks to Eevee, she has a waiting set of gear that will - I shit you not - damn near triple her average item level. She will achieve an unprecedented jump in power. So when she finally does the level 50 job quest, the last piece in the set will be old news... in more ways than one.
Back to Widdy.
The fourth relic is now yours. You have done well, sister. But know this. There is another relic. A fifth and final piece. It will be yours. A gift, from brother to sister. Given on the day Ala Mhigo stands free once more. That day is near. Erik sent word not long ago. He claims his revolution has begun, as well. He has made a grand discovery. And is now setting it to paper.
I look forward to his work. With it, we will know all we must. The day he finishes will be the day Ala Mhigo is reborn. Return to him now, sister. Ask for yourself when that day will be. May Rhalgr watch over you.
And then to Erik for the close of the quest.
I'm afraid I haven't time for you now, Ginger. I am penning my thesis based on the aetherial data you and the simpleton collected. There have been significant developments since last we spoke. Or, rather, since last I spoke and you stood before me with that ever vapid expression. Soon, I will complete my work and present it at a conference of my peers. Surely you can pass the time until then punching and kicking and pursuing other monkly interests, yes?
Well I did leave Alphinaud stranded on an airship dock a few days ago
Go do that, then.
And that's more than enough of that.
NEXT TIME: The upcoming arc is really short. It wastes your time, but I actually think it's kinda justified in doing so!