You can generally muddle through with a bad damage dealer, but if the tank or healer sucks, it’s game over. Most of my MMO-playing life has been dedicated to being a damage dealer because I didn’t think I was capable of handling the responsibility that comes with being a tank or a healer. For a moment, there was a bond forged - and just as quick as it came, it was over. Our purposes were temporarily aligned (they were probably in need of a quick grinding session like I was), and we had this very human connection and cooperation while never actually speaking to each other, communicating only in emotes. I went to the next fate, and there they were again, and again for the fate after that. I didn’t catch their name, but when we finished the fate, they performed the kiss emote in thanks. I was alone, finishing a fate, when a player joined me. I decided to hop across the map completing fates, which are timed quests with large XP rewards anyone can participate in. My gunbreaker, cute as a button she is.Īt around midnight, I had about 700,000 XP to go to even out my class levels and unlock the next main story quest. I enjoy both classes too much to leave one behind because of my stubborn refusal to grind, and that rule stuck even when time was of the essence. There’s a reason I’ve only created one character in a decade of playing World of Warcraft. If my class levels fall too far out of sync, there’s a greater chance that one class would be left behind to toil in meaningless side-quests to catch up. I, like Thanos, am a creature of balance. Now you’d think in the mad dash to finish Stormblood before server maintenance locks me out of the game that I’d give up this quirky leveling dance in favor of picking one class and powering through. Sometimes I’d get too far ahead in the main story quest on one class such that when I switched to the other class, I didn’t meet the level requirement to continue, forcing me to stop progression and grind a little bit to make up for lost XP. I’d gain two levels on my gunbreaker, then switch to my astrologian and catch up, rinse and repeat. I’ve even developed a method by which I kept those two classes close in level. I can bounce between my gunbreaker tank and astrologian healer while progressing through the main story quest with relative ease. Final Fantasy’s job system lets you level as many classes as you want on the same character seamlessly. If you want to play multiple classes in other MMOs - like World of Warcraft - you have to level different characters for each class, often forcing you to repeat content. One thing I appreciate about Final Fantasy XIV is that it respects your time. Without knowing where I was in the Stormblood main story questline and dedicated to the foolish idea of keeping my tank and healer jobs evenly leveled, I said yes.Ĭould I finish Stormblood before the servers go down at 4AM? If I could finish Stormblood before the servers go down, I’d be in a good spot to get close to the end of Shadowbringers in time to start Endwalker, if not by launch day, then that same week.
So I proposed an experiment: Final Fantasy XIV will go down for maintenance at 4AM EST in preparation for a new patch and to open up Endwalker early access for the lucky chosen. I harbored no illusions about my ability to power through one-and-a-half expansions’ worth of content before December 8th, but I could try, and trying meant getting through Stormblood first. Then news of a new expansion hit, rekindling my desire to restart my journey, hopefully finishing in time for Endwalker’s launch. I came to Final Fantasy XIV only this year, ravenously tearing through A Realm Reborn and Heavensward before abandoning the game somewhere in the middle of Stormblood, which is generally considered to be inferior to the other FFXIV expansions. Endwalker is coming, and I’m not ready for it.