If you're going to pick a combat job for them, make it the same as what you normally play so you can funnel old gear to them. Combat retainer gear doesn't need to be cutting edge for them to bring back bonus/better loot, whereas gatherers need to hit thresholds on their gathering stat to bring stuff back.
I now have three level 80’s and there are no hairstyles that match all three of my new outfits. Literally nothing worse has happened to anyone ever. I’ll prob uninstall now
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admanbunionize your workplaceSeattle, WARegistered Userregular
The main thing is that retainers max out at your level of their job, so don't assign them a job you don't have leveled.
Oh, oh I just realized how Ardbert could be around and it's so simple. Ascians can take the form of others. Though
Bah. Forum goes down and then my realization is snatched by everyone else before being completely confirmed. Hmm. Not much actually happened in this patch besides learning that Venat served or serves as the heart of Hydaelyn while the original Emet-Selch is the heart of Zodiark. Also that Hydaelyn is constantly broadcasting her call so that whenever anyone awakens the "Echo" she is the first to reach and, by all accounts, temper them. Plus the bit about star showers being used specifically to awaken the Echo in those watching when she needs new minions.
I've already twigged on to Elidibus's game. The Warriors of Light tipped the elemental balance to Light simply because they did so much good and ultimately fought a being called the Shadowkeeper. This resulted in the Flood which required outside intervention from Minfilia and the Warriors of Light to stop at Norvrandt. Such intervention is already exhausted though, and if a second Flood should occur because Warriors of Light are once again tipping the balance just by being heroes then it won't be stopped and the First will be consumed, rejoined, and 8th Umbral Calamity occurs on the Source once a suitable event does occur what with the time relativity.
There's got to be more to it than that though. There always is.
Onward to 5.3 and I think I might actually reach the end before EW releases!
Oh, oh I just realized how Ardbert could be around and it's so simple. Ascians can take the form of others. Though
Bah. Forum goes down and then my realization is snatched by everyone else before being completely confirmed. Hmm. Not much actually happened in this patch besides learning that Venat served or serves as the heart of Hydaelyn while the original Emet-Selch is the heart of Zodiark. Also that Hydaelyn is constantly broadcasting her call so that whenever anyone awakens the "Echo" she is the first to reach and, by all accounts, temper them. Plus the bit about star showers being used specifically to awaken the Echo in those watching when she needs new minions.
I've already twigged on to Elidibus's game. The Warriors of Light tipped the elemental balance to Light simply because they did so much good and ultimately fought a being called the Shadowkeeper. This resulted in the Flood which required outside intervention from Minfilia and the Warriors of Light to stop at Norvrandt. Such intervention is already exhausted though, and if a second Flood should occur because Warriors of Light are once again tipping the balance just by being heroes then it won't be stopped and the First will be consumed, rejoined, and 8th Umbral Calamity occurs on the Source once a suitable event does occur what with the time relativity.
There's got to be more to it than that though. There always is.
Onward to 5.3 and I think I might actually reach the end before EW releases!
Oh, oh I just realized how Ardbert could be around and it's so simple. Ascians can take the form of others. Though
Bah. Forum goes down and then my realization is snatched by everyone else before being completely confirmed. Hmm. Not much actually happened in this patch besides learning that Venat served or serves as the heart of Hydaelyn while the original Emet-Selch is the heart of Zodiark. Also that Hydaelyn is constantly broadcasting her call so that whenever anyone awakens the "Echo" she is the first to reach and, by all accounts, temper them. Plus the bit about star showers being used specifically to awaken the Echo in those watching when she needs new minions.
I've already twigged on to Elidibus's game. The Warriors of Light tipped the elemental balance to Light simply because they did so much good and ultimately fought a being called the Shadowkeeper. This resulted in the Flood which required outside intervention from Minfilia and the Warriors of Light to stop at Norvrandt. Such intervention is already exhausted though, and if a second Flood should occur because Warriors of Light are once again tipping the balance just by being heroes then it won't be stopped and the First will be consumed, rejoined, and 8th Umbral Calamity occurs on the Source once a suitable event does occur what with the time relativity.
There's got to be more to it than that though. There always is.
Onward to 5.3 and I think I might actually reach the end before EW releases!
Oh, oh I just realized how Ardbert could be around and it's so simple. Ascians can take the form of others. Though
Bah. Forum goes down and then my realization is snatched by everyone else before being completely confirmed. Hmm. Not much actually happened in this patch besides learning that Venat served or serves as the heart of Hydaelyn while the original Emet-Selch is the heart of Zodiark. Also that Hydaelyn is constantly broadcasting her call so that whenever anyone awakens the "Echo" she is the first to reach and, by all accounts, temper them. Plus the bit about star showers being used specifically to awaken the Echo in those watching when she needs new minions.
I've already twigged on to Elidibus's game. The Warriors of Light tipped the elemental balance to Light simply because they did so much good and ultimately fought a being called the Shadowkeeper. This resulted in the Flood which required outside intervention from Minfilia and the Warriors of Light to stop at Norvrandt. Such intervention is already exhausted though, and if a second Flood should occur because Warriors of Light are once again tipping the balance just by being heroes then it won't be stopped and the First will be consumed, rejoined, and 8th Umbral Calamity occurs on the Source once a suitable event does occur what with the time relativity.
There's got to be more to it than that though. There always is.
Onward to 5.3 and I think I might actually reach the end before EW releases!
I figure you're probably skipping the ShB 8-mans to race to Endwalker, but with as general a mention as possible there's a fair bit of additional context hiding there, so you may want to circle back and handle those at some point when you get a chance.
Has the game been a lot less stable recently but especially today? I have crashed a lot. I’m not even on the edge lord streamer’s server
I haven't been having any issues myself, but Cohh's stream today was talking about having a lot of server burps
Maybe just cuz there's a lot of folks playing right now getting ready for endwalker?
A trap is for fish: when you've got the fish, you can forget the trap. A snare is for rabbits: when you've got the rabbit, you can forget the snare. Words are for meaning: when you've got the meaning, you can forget the words.
A trap is for fish: when you've got the fish, you can forget the trap. A snare is for rabbits: when you've got the rabbit, you can forget the snare. Words are for meaning: when you've got the meaning, you can forget the words.
I guess I've just been lucky. I've been playing a whole lot more than normal the past week or so getting the last few jobs to 80 and I haven't seen any issues.
I def expect some hiccups for the launch though. There's gonna be login queues and I wouldn't be surprised at a DDoS or 2. I seem to remember ShB having at least one of those during its launch week.
Scenarios like Heroes Gauntlet where all the folks you've met along the way spontaneously jump in to help you out.
A trap is for fish: when you've got the fish, you can forget the trap. A snare is for rabbits: when you've got the rabbit, you can forget the snare. Words are for meaning: when you've got the meaning, you can forget the words.
Well hot damn I got to fight the actual Warrior of Light. I also died a LOT because some of the mechanics continued to elude me and I'd get oneshot. Hell of a phase shift there though, what with Emet-Selch's phantom summoning us all back. At least I assume that was Emet-Selch because it did that little hand gesture he always did when leaving. And now Elidibus is sealed inside the Crystal Tower, leaving the Ascians without any of the Paragons and thus supposedly they've ultimately lost. But with a whole expansion left to go clearly that is not the case. And however many patches I have left to go, because I would have sworn this was the end just going by the finale of 5.3 but the MSQ icon quests keep showing up so away I go some more. Hopefully the Crystal Exarch gets to make a reappearance in Endwalker if the body and soul combination of his younger self in the Crystal Tower of the Source goes well.
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admanbunionize your workplaceSeattle, WARegistered Userregular
Well hot damn I got to fight the actual Warrior of Light. I also died a LOT because some of the mechanics continued to elude me and I'd get oneshot. Hell of a phase shift there though, what with Emet-Selch's phantom summoning us all back. At least I assume that was Emet-Selch because it did that little hand gesture he always did when leaving. And now Elidibus is sealed inside the Crystal Tower, leaving the Ascians without any of the Paragons and thus supposedly they've ultimately lost. But with a whole expansion left to go clearly that is not the case. And however many patches I have left to go, because I would have sworn this was the end just going by the finale of 5.3 but the MSQ icon quests keep showing up so away I go some more. Hopefully the Crystal Exarch gets to make a reappearance in Endwalker if the body and soul combination of his younger self in the Crystal Tower of the Source goes well.
x.3 patches are the end of the current xpack's story, then x.4-x.55 patches set up the next xpack's story.
Well hot damn I got to fight the actual Warrior of Light. I also died a LOT because some of the mechanics continued to elude me and I'd get oneshot. Hell of a phase shift there though, what with Emet-Selch's phantom summoning us all back. At least I assume that was Emet-Selch because it did that little hand gesture he always did when leaving. And now Elidibus is sealed inside the Crystal Tower, leaving the Ascians without any of the Paragons and thus supposedly they've ultimately lost. But with a whole expansion left to go clearly that is not the case. And however many patches I have left to go, because I would have sworn this was the end just going by the finale of 5.3 but the MSQ icon quests keep showing up so away I go some more. Hopefully the Crystal Exarch gets to make a reappearance in Endwalker if the body and soul combination of his younger self in the Crystal Tower of the Source goes well.
I actually also read that scene as him getting sucked into the crystal tower like a big white auracite, but to my surprise according to the authorial word of god that was supposed to be read as his soul dissipating, just dead-dead and not kept in the tower for future plot hooks
5.3 is a regular bonanza of Chekhov's guns going off. It's a whole friggin' gun safe!
A trap is for fish: when you've got the fish, you can forget the trap. A snare is for rabbits: when you've got the rabbit, you can forget the snare. Words are for meaning: when you've got the meaning, you can forget the words.
I kinda felt iffy about the thing where the Crystal Exarch’s soul and memories are combined with G’raha Tia of our timeline.
Like, they were the same person, once upon a time. But the Exarch lived for a hundred years on The First. He made memories longer than his whole life on the Source had been. For better or worse, that changes a person. So to just… put his mind into the guy we know on the Source feels off putting to me. Like the story is treating the guy in the tower as a convenient mechanism to bring back the Exarch (or the Exarch as a power-up. Either way). We don’t know what the conversation between our character and the sleeping G’raha was like, but I sure hope it involved a full explanation, and making him aware of the gravity of what was being asked of him.
I kinda felt iffy about the thing where the Crystal Exarch’s soul and memories are combined with G’raha Tia of our timeline.
Like, they were the same person, once upon a time. But the Exarch lived for a hundred years on The First. He made memories longer than his whole life on the Source had been. For better or worse, that changes a person. So to just… put his mind into the guy we know on the Source feels off putting to me. Like the story is treating the guy in the tower as a convenient mechanism to bring back the Exarch (or the Exarch as a power-up. Either way). We don’t know what the conversation between our character and the sleeping G’raha was like, but I sure hope it involved a full explanation, and making him aware of the gravity of what was being asked of him.
I like to imagine their situation is similar to you and Ardbert's, and G'raha has a ghost Grandpa G'raha hanging out with him now.
It's definitely not just Exarch G'raha in that body now, the way he acts becomes much more like his younger self back on the Source.
I can't decide if I think that's from the mix of his younger self's personality with the Exarch's or just because he no longer has to put up the responsible wizard front he did in the Crystarium and he was always like that under the surface.
I kinda felt iffy about the thing where the Crystal Exarch’s soul and memories are combined with G’raha Tia of our timeline.
Like, they were the same person, once upon a time. But the Exarch lived for a hundred years on The First. He made memories longer than his whole life on the Source had been. For better or worse, that changes a person. So to just… put his mind into the guy we know on the Source feels off putting to me. Like the story is treating the guy in the tower as a convenient mechanism to bring back the Exarch (or the Exarch as a power-up. Either way). We don’t know what the conversation between our character and the sleeping G’raha was like, but I sure hope it involved a full explanation, and making him aware of the gravity of what was being asked of him.
So, I felt the same for a while but...
I eventually realised that we didn't replace one with another, but rather merged them. There's lots of interactions with Graha in 5.4 onwards that made it really clear to me that his new self is a fusion of his future (exarch) self and his previous (sleeping) self. So there would've been some sort of agreement, consent, involved in the transfer. If not, we would've tried to put his spirit into the body and had the spirit return into the auracite.
The mild 5.4 spoilery stuff:
Current Graha feels like old Graha's youth and joviality combined with the Exarch's knowledge and gravitas.
I kinda felt iffy about the thing where the Crystal Exarch’s soul and memories are combined with G’raha Tia of our timeline.
Like, they were the same person, once upon a time. But the Exarch lived for a hundred years on The First. He made memories longer than his whole life on the Source had been. For better or worse, that changes a person. So to just… put his mind into the guy we know on the Source feels off putting to me. Like the story is treating the guy in the tower as a convenient mechanism to bring back the Exarch (or the Exarch as a power-up. Either way). We don’t know what the conversation between our character and the sleeping G’raha was like, but I sure hope it involved a full explanation, and making him aware of the gravity of what was being asked of him.
So, I felt the same for a while but...
I eventually realised that we didn't replace one with another, but rather merged them. There's lots of interactions with Graha in 5.4 onwards that made it really clear to me that his new self is a fusion of his future (exarch) self and his previous (sleeping) self. So there would've been some sort of agreement, consent, involved in the transfer. If not, we would've tried to put his spirit into the body and had the spirit return into the auracite.
The mild 5.4 spoilery stuff:
Current Graha feels like old Graha's youth and joviality combined with the Exarch's knowledge and gravitas.
I kind of miss Exarch G'raha's personality a bit, lol
I kinda felt iffy about the thing where the Crystal Exarch’s soul and memories are combined with G’raha Tia of our timeline.
Like, they were the same person, once upon a time. But the Exarch lived for a hundred years on The First. He made memories longer than his whole life on the Source had been. For better or worse, that changes a person. So to just… put his mind into the guy we know on the Source feels off putting to me. Like the story is treating the guy in the tower as a convenient mechanism to bring back the Exarch (or the Exarch as a power-up. Either way). We don’t know what the conversation between our character and the sleeping G’raha was like, but I sure hope it involved a full explanation, and making him aware of the gravity of what was being asked of him.
So, I felt the same for a while but...
I eventually realised that we didn't replace one with another, but rather merged them. There's lots of interactions with Graha in 5.4 onwards that made it really clear to me that his new self is a fusion of his future (exarch) self and his previous (sleeping) self. So there would've been some sort of agreement, consent, involved in the transfer. If not, we would've tried to put his spirit into the body and had the spirit return into the auracite.
The mild 5.4 spoilery stuff:
Current Graha feels like old Graha's youth and joviality combined with the Exarch's knowledge and gravitas.
I kind of miss Exarch G'raha's personality a bit, lol
I do too, I am hoping we'll see more of him in EW since stuff is getting even more serious business and he's doing a lot of scholarly things it seems.
I’m still hoping for some last-minute, unadvertised changes to the loot system of Endwalker.
I’ve got a savage group for 6.0 and an Ultimate group for 6.1 lined up, but they’re for different jobs and roles, so double-gearing is going to suck bad
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turtleantGunpla Dadis the best.Registered Userregular
I kinda felt iffy about the thing where the Crystal Exarch’s soul and memories are combined with G’raha Tia of our timeline.
Like, they were the same person, once upon a time. But the Exarch lived for a hundred years on The First. He made memories longer than his whole life on the Source had been. For better or worse, that changes a person. So to just… put his mind into the guy we know on the Source feels off putting to me. Like the story is treating the guy in the tower as a convenient mechanism to bring back the Exarch (or the Exarch as a power-up. Either way). We don’t know what the conversation between our character and the sleeping G’raha was like, but I sure hope it involved a full explanation, and making him aware of the gravity of what was being asked of him.
So, I felt the same for a while but...
I eventually realised that we didn't replace one with another, but rather merged them. There's lots of interactions with Graha in 5.4 onwards that made it really clear to me that his new self is a fusion of his future (exarch) self and his previous (sleeping) self. So there would've been some sort of agreement, consent, involved in the transfer. If not, we would've tried to put his spirit into the body and had the spirit return into the auracite.
The mild 5.4 spoilery stuff:
Current Graha feels like old Graha's youth and joviality combined with the Exarch's knowledge and gravitas.
I kind of miss Exarch G'raha's personality a bit, lol
I do too, I am hoping we'll see more of him in EW since stuff is getting even more serious business and he's doing a lot of scholarly things it seems.
yeah I definitely think Graha was kinda just, decompressing in 5.4 and 5.5, even with everything going on. Exarch Graha was stuck being in serious business mode for literally hundreds of years and source Graha went to sleep assuming he'd wake up to everyone he knew being long dead. Getting to just go on adventures with his friends probably feels like a vacation.
I kinda felt iffy about the thing where the Crystal Exarch’s soul and memories are combined with G’raha Tia of our timeline.
Like, they were the same person, once upon a time. But the Exarch lived for a hundred years on The First. He made memories longer than his whole life on the Source had been. For better or worse, that changes a person. So to just… put his mind into the guy we know on the Source feels off putting to me. Like the story is treating the guy in the tower as a convenient mechanism to bring back the Exarch (or the Exarch as a power-up. Either way). We don’t know what the conversation between our character and the sleeping G’raha was like, but I sure hope it involved a full explanation, and making him aware of the gravity of what was being asked of him.
So, I felt the same for a while but...
I eventually realised that we didn't replace one with another, but rather merged them. There's lots of interactions with Graha in 5.4 onwards that made it really clear to me that his new self is a fusion of his future (exarch) self and his previous (sleeping) self. So there would've been some sort of agreement, consent, involved in the transfer. If not, we would've tried to put his spirit into the body and had the spirit return into the auracite.
The mild 5.4 spoilery stuff:
Current Graha feels like old Graha's youth and joviality combined with the Exarch's knowledge and gravitas.
I kind of miss Exarch G'raha's personality a bit, lol
I do too, I am hoping we'll see more of him in EW since stuff is getting even more serious business and he's doing a lot of scholarly things it seems.
yeah I definitely think Graha was kinda just, decompressing in 5.4 and 5.5, even with everything going on. Exarch Graha was stuck being in serious business mode for literally hundreds of years and source Graha went to sleep assuming he'd wake up to everyone he knew being long dead. Getting to just go on adventures with his friends probably feels like a vacation.
5.4 and 5.5 were, for better or worse, all about tying up loose ends before Endwalker. Ends that Graha wasn’t really around for and wasn’t invested in, but the other Scions were, so they got the screen-time. Given new material I fully expect him to be more involved, and I’m actually betting that he’ll continue to be a major player after 6.0, where others may be taking more of a curtain call
Well hot damn I got to fight the actual Warrior of Light. I also died a LOT because some of the mechanics continued to elude me and I'd get oneshot. Hell of a phase shift there though, what with Emet-Selch's phantom summoning us all back. At least I assume that was Emet-Selch because it did that little hand gesture he always did when leaving. And now Elidibus is sealed inside the Crystal Tower, leaving the Ascians without any of the Paragons and thus supposedly they've ultimately lost. But with a whole expansion left to go clearly that is not the case. And however many patches I have left to go, because I would have sworn this was the end just going by the finale of 5.3 but the MSQ icon quests keep showing up so away I go some more. Hopefully the Crystal Exarch gets to make a reappearance in Endwalker if the body and soul combination of his younger self in the Crystal Tower of the Source goes well.
I actually also read that scene as him getting sucked into the crystal tower like a big white auracite, but to my surprise according to the authorial word of god that was supposed to be read as his soul dissipating, just dead-dead and not kept in the tower for future plot hooks
Well hot damn I got to fight the actual Warrior of Light. I also died a LOT because some of the mechanics continued to elude me and I'd get oneshot. Hell of a phase shift there though, what with Emet-Selch's phantom summoning us all back. At least I assume that was Emet-Selch because it did that little hand gesture he always did when leaving. And now Elidibus is sealed inside the Crystal Tower, leaving the Ascians without any of the Paragons and thus supposedly they've ultimately lost. But with a whole expansion left to go clearly that is not the case. And however many patches I have left to go, because I would have sworn this was the end just going by the finale of 5.3 but the MSQ icon quests keep showing up so away I go some more. Hopefully the Crystal Exarch gets to make a reappearance in Endwalker if the body and soul combination of his younger self in the Crystal Tower of the Source goes well.
I actually also read that scene as him getting sucked into the crystal tower like a big white auracite, but to my surprise according to the authorial word of god that was supposed to be read as his soul dissipating, just dead-dead and not kept in the tower for future plot hooks
Oh. Well that's kinda disappointing.
tbh I like that word-of-god ending
If the Ascians need anything, it's to die and finally just get to rest or have their souls/life essence properly be reborn.
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Kevin CristI make the devil hit his kneesand say the 'our father'Registered Userregular
Trawled through my inventory/retainers/chocobo bag/armory chest for belts and turned them into seals/gil. Kept the ones in my current gear sets. freed up some space.
Well hot damn I got to fight the actual Warrior of Light. I also died a LOT because some of the mechanics continued to elude me and I'd get oneshot. Hell of a phase shift there though, what with Emet-Selch's phantom summoning us all back. At least I assume that was Emet-Selch because it did that little hand gesture he always did when leaving. And now Elidibus is sealed inside the Crystal Tower, leaving the Ascians without any of the Paragons and thus supposedly they've ultimately lost. But with a whole expansion left to go clearly that is not the case. And however many patches I have left to go, because I would have sworn this was the end just going by the finale of 5.3 but the MSQ icon quests keep showing up so away I go some more. Hopefully the Crystal Exarch gets to make a reappearance in Endwalker if the body and soul combination of his younger self in the Crystal Tower of the Source goes well.
I actually also read that scene as him getting sucked into the crystal tower like a big white auracite, but to my surprise according to the authorial word of god that was supposed to be read as his soul dissipating, just dead-dead and not kept in the tower for future plot hooks
Oh. Well that's kinda disappointing.
tbh I like that word-of-god ending
If the Ascians need anything, it's to die and finally just get to rest or have their souls/life essence properly be reborn.
from now until the endwalker early access, you can PM me a list of characters that you think will Die in Endwalker. that'll be your sealed envelope. there will be no rewards beyond your demonstration of your mastery of fictional conceits. one point for every death you guess correctly, minus one point for every wrong answer.
i'll reveal the highest scores, i'unno, some point in january? want to give people enough time to work their way through stuff over the holidays, especially some of our thread members who aren't even caught up yet.
also named characters that we know already only, no cheeky fuckers going "well i bet that guy who's about to get eaten by monster dogs in the trailer is gonna beef it"
double points if you guess the manner of death. "double is only two..." yeah it's a low-scoring game
Finished 5.3, really great. The writing's gotten so much better over the course of these expansions. Just some kinda disorganized random thoughts
One of the big problems with the writing in earlier expansions is that you could usually twig pretty quickly if this particular storyline was there to set up personal stakes / develop characters, or to move plot pieces around the board. And so a lot of times the personal climaxes and the plot climaxes didn't really feel connected. And like there wasn't much reason to care about a lot of the worldbuilding unless you're just super into worldbuilding - that was a big problem for ARR in particular - you get 50 levels of worldbuilding and maybe 2 levels worth of reasons given to actually care about any of that worldbuilding, cuz the scions are just a bunch of boring MMO quest givers and what fool actually reads quest flavor text in an MMO anyway???
But throughout SB, and especially towards the back half and then into the post-release patches, the game is actually sneaky great at hitting you with major worldbuilding revelations that link directly to your character or characters you care about. Tons of revelations about Hydaelyn make you question your own protagonists motivations and your previously taken-for-granted Chosen One status, questioning whose side we're even actually on. And it mostly avoids explaining any of this in major lore dumps, instead it's parceled out bit by bit, letting you start to suspect revelations before they happen, wonder about the implications of bits of lore, encourages you to make guesses. So then you get to like the big showdown with Eridibus and oh man there's like 4 different oh what the shit moments within like 20 minutes, and NONE of them actually feel like an asspull once they happen because the rules have already been explained to us, but because we get all these big emotional moments and personal revelations we don't stop to think that like, oh right, Eridibus just willingly climbed into a giant crystal built to suck up soul energy, because he was thinking about all that other stuff too.
It's all just such a major upgrade in writing, I played all day today with a big smile on my face. Oh and also I love that the exarch got to join up as a scion. Here's hoping Endwalker will have a grizzled older gunblade-wielding Ryne jump out of the teleporter from the first ready to kick Zenos's ass.
Also 5.3 wraps up with Alisae actually acting like a dopey teenager, which I love when the younger cast get a chance to just act like kids, and Urianger popping out some fuckin' jojo style poses?!
My big hope with Endwalker is that, well, really I hope it doesn't get TOO apocalyptic - this world is fun to spend time in, watching big nasties blow it up just cuz doesn't actually sound very enjoyable. And also I'm really looking forward to spending time in Sharlayan. Like we've gotten lore bits, and we know a bunch of the scions are from there, but if you asked me to explain the difference between archons and scions or stuff like that I'd be pretty stuck. Sending characters back to their old home to find out the ways in which they no longer fit there is always a great character writing bit.
A trap is for fish: when you've got the fish, you can forget the trap. A snare is for rabbits: when you've got the rabbit, you can forget the snare. Words are for meaning: when you've got the meaning, you can forget the words.
Posts
don't worry... I'll never die
Bah. Forum goes down and then my realization is snatched by everyone else before being completely confirmed. Hmm. Not much actually happened in this patch besides learning that Venat served or serves as the heart of Hydaelyn while the original Emet-Selch is the heart of Zodiark. Also that Hydaelyn is constantly broadcasting her call so that whenever anyone awakens the "Echo" she is the first to reach and, by all accounts, temper them. Plus the bit about star showers being used specifically to awaken the Echo in those watching when she needs new minions.
I've already twigged on to Elidibus's game. The Warriors of Light tipped the elemental balance to Light simply because they did so much good and ultimately fought a being called the Shadowkeeper. This resulted in the Flood which required outside intervention from Minfilia and the Warriors of Light to stop at Norvrandt. Such intervention is already exhausted though, and if a second Flood should occur because Warriors of Light are once again tipping the balance just by being heroes then it won't be stopped and the First will be consumed, rejoined, and 8th Umbral Calamity occurs on the Source once a suitable event does occur what with the time relativity.
There's got to be more to it than that though. There always is.
Onward to 5.3 and I think I might actually reach the end before EW releases!
I haven't been having any issues myself, but Cohh's stream today was talking about having a lot of server burps
Maybe just cuz there's a lot of folks playing right now getting ready for endwalker?
Which doesn't bode too well for the actual release
I def expect some hiccups for the launch though. There's gonna be login queues and I wouldn't be surprised at a DDoS or 2. I seem to remember ShB having at least one of those during its launch week.
x.3 patches are the end of the current xpack's story, then x.4-x.55 patches set up the next xpack's story.
Like, they were the same person, once upon a time. But the Exarch lived for a hundred years on The First. He made memories longer than his whole life on the Source had been. For better or worse, that changes a person. So to just… put his mind into the guy we know on the Source feels off putting to me. Like the story is treating the guy in the tower as a convenient mechanism to bring back the Exarch (or the Exarch as a power-up. Either way). We don’t know what the conversation between our character and the sleeping G’raha was like, but I sure hope it involved a full explanation, and making him aware of the gravity of what was being asked of him.
It's definitely not just Exarch G'raha in that body now, the way he acts becomes much more like his younger self back on the Source.
I can't decide if I think that's from the mix of his younger self's personality with the Exarch's or just because he no longer has to put up the responsible wizard front he did in the Crystarium and he was always like that under the surface.
So, I felt the same for a while but...
The mild 5.4 spoilery stuff:
WoW
Dear Satan.....
victim of covid delay crunch, most likely
I’ve got a savage group for 6.0 and an Ultimate group for 6.1 lined up, but they’re for different jobs and roles, so double-gearing is going to suck bad
Oh. Well that's kinda disappointing.
tbh I like that word-of-god ending
Steam: YOU FACE JARAXXUS| Twitch.tv: CainLoveless
from now until the endwalker early access, you can PM me a list of characters that you think will Die in Endwalker. that'll be your sealed envelope. there will be no rewards beyond your demonstration of your mastery of fictional conceits. one point for every death you guess correctly, minus one point for every wrong answer.
i'll reveal the highest scores, i'unno, some point in january? want to give people enough time to work their way through stuff over the holidays, especially some of our thread members who aren't even caught up yet.
also named characters that we know already only, no cheeky fuckers going "well i bet that guy who's about to get eaten by monster dogs in the trailer is gonna beef it"
double points if you guess the manner of death. "double is only two..." yeah it's a low-scoring game
But throughout SB, and especially towards the back half and then into the post-release patches, the game is actually sneaky great at hitting you with major worldbuilding revelations that link directly to your character or characters you care about. Tons of revelations about Hydaelyn make you question your own protagonists motivations and your previously taken-for-granted Chosen One status, questioning whose side we're even actually on. And it mostly avoids explaining any of this in major lore dumps, instead it's parceled out bit by bit, letting you start to suspect revelations before they happen, wonder about the implications of bits of lore, encourages you to make guesses. So then you get to like the big showdown with Eridibus and oh man there's like 4 different oh what the shit moments within like 20 minutes, and NONE of them actually feel like an asspull once they happen because the rules have already been explained to us, but because we get all these big emotional moments and personal revelations we don't stop to think that like, oh right, Eridibus just willingly climbed into a giant crystal built to suck up soul energy, because he was thinking about all that other stuff too.
It's all just such a major upgrade in writing, I played all day today with a big smile on my face. Oh and also I love that the exarch got to join up as a scion. Here's hoping Endwalker will have a grizzled older gunblade-wielding Ryne jump out of the teleporter from the first ready to kick Zenos's ass.
Also 5.3 wraps up with Alisae actually acting like a dopey teenager, which I love when the younger cast get a chance to just act like kids, and Urianger popping out some fuckin' jojo style poses?!
My big hope with Endwalker is that, well, really I hope it doesn't get TOO apocalyptic - this world is fun to spend time in, watching big nasties blow it up just cuz doesn't actually sound very enjoyable. And also I'm really looking forward to spending time in Sharlayan. Like we've gotten lore bits, and we know a bunch of the scions are from there, but if you asked me to explain the difference between archons and scions or stuff like that I'd be pretty stuck. Sending characters back to their old home to find out the ways in which they no longer fit there is always a great character writing bit.
Some BLU Roe love today