The image is called "stormblood." /cdn.vox-cdn.com
I am not ready for Endwalker. I came to Final Fantasy XIV only this year, tearing through A Realm Reborn and Heavensward before abandoning the game somewhere in the middle of Stormblood, which is considered to be inferior to the other FFXIV expansions.
The news of a new expansion hit, rekindling my desire to restart my journey, hopefully finishing in time for Endwalker's launch. I didn't think I could power through all of the expansions before December 8th, but I could try and get through Stormblood first. Final Fantasy XIV will go down for maintenance at 4AMEST in order to make room for a new patch and to open up Endwalker early for the lucky chosen. If I could finish Stormblood before the server goes down, I would be in a good position to start Endwalker that same week. Is it possible that I could do it?
Without knowing where I was in the Stormblood main story questline, I said yes.
Is it possible to finish Stormblood before the server goes down at 4AM?
Final Fantasy XIV respects your time. If you want to play multiple classes in World of Warcraft, you have to level different characters for each class. Final Fantasy has a job system that lets you level as many classes as you want. While progressing through the main story quest, I can bounce between my gunbreaker tank and Astrologian healer. I developed a method that kept those two classes close to level. I would gain two levels on my gunbreaker, then switch to my Astrologian and catch up. It is not a perfect system. Sometimes I would get too far ahead in the main story quest on one class and have to stop progression and grind to make up for lost experience.
You would think that I would give up the leveling dance in favor of picking one class in order to finish Stormblood before server maintenance locks me out of the game. You would be wrong.
I'm a creature of balance. There is a chance that one class would be left behind if my class levels fall too far out of sync. I don't like grinding with passion. There is a reason I have only created one character in a decade of playing the game. I enjoy both classes so much that I don't want to leave one behind, and that rule stuck even when time was of the essence.
Noupscale is a file onchorusasset.com.
My gunbreaker is cute.
I had about 700,000 XP to go to the next main story quest at around midnight. I decided to go across the map and complete fates, which are timed quests with large rewards for completing them. I was alone when a player joined me. They performed the kiss emote when we finished the fate, but I didn't catch their name. I went to the next fate, and there they were again, and again for the fate after that. I liked it. Our purposes were temporarily aligned, and we had a very human connection and cooperation while never actually speaking to each other. Just as quickly as it came, there was a bond forged.
I didn't think I was capable of handling the responsibility that comes with being a tank or a healer, so I devoted most of my life to being a damage dealer. If the tank or healer sucks, it is game over. I decided to step out of my comfort zone by playing those classes in FFXIV, and while my confidence in these roles has improved, I still get anxious when it's time to do a story dungeon. Even though my tank was already at 70, I was terrified of tanking the final dungeon because I didn't know if I would get to finish Stormblood in time. I thought I would have to kill the party to get through the dungeon's single boss fight. I spent a lot of time trying to get my healer to 70 so that I could do the much easier job of healing.
Just as quickly as it came, there was a bond forged.
By 3AM, I had reached 70 on my healer. The server goes down in an hour, I am bleary-eyed and hunched over my keyboard, but I made it. I am done once I finish this dungeon. Damage dealers have to wait a long time to get into a dungeon, but healers don't, as they are in higher demand with a lower supply. I waited in the queue.
And waited.
Oh shit.
My sleep deprived ass didn't realize that most people still playing Final Fantasy XIV an hour before server maintenance probably have better things to do than queue for a dungeon from an expansion.
I thought I could slide in at the buzzer.
Man plans.
rhalgr laughs.
>
Bear Parrish said that Ash Piss-mad Bear would be back in December.
I waited 20 minutes thinking that my quest to finish Stormblood would end in failure. I could come back after maintenance and try again, but I was disappointed that I had come so close to achieving my goal. I looked away from the computer screen and moved my hand toward the escape button so I could log out. I almost missed the box that said the party was full and the dungeon was on the way. I was surprised when I almost clicked withdraw.
Noupscale is a file on thechorusasset.com.
There was a queue at 3:17 AM.
My fears about this dungeon were correct. The boss, Shinryu, was barely touched by my group. Even though the dungeon guide video made me believe that the boss would wipe the party clean, we just blew through it. Thank you to the seven people who waited for a Stormblood dungeon in the final minutes before the server shut down.
I arrived at Stormblood's end with less than 30 minutes to spare after Shinryu lay dead and several dramatic cutscenes.
I will not miss Stormblood. It was a typical revolution story that didn't match the grandioseness of the stories that preceded it. This experience definitely improved my impression of Stormblood, even though it didn't move me the way Heavensward and A Realm Reborn did. The end of the journey was the best part of Stormblood for me, because it was an expansion about the journey, not the destination. Even though I will never remember the names of the traveling companions who accompanied me through the final minutes of Stormblood, I will look back on them fondly. Shadowbringers stands between me and my trip to the moon in Endwalker, and from what I hear, it is the best of the best.
Will I make it through Shadowbringers in time for Endwalker? Probably not. I can do it again by the twelve, after making ill-advised sprints through Final Fantasy content before.
