Conversations from the gaming frontlines.

[Mr Bean]

Endwalker is a thing now
FFXIV latest expansion Endwalker is out for a few days now in early access for those that pre-ordered. Full release in a week now.

I've just hit the level 83 quests in the third zone. I want to talk about things but can't since you know... huge spoilers and the like but based on the meme output I'm still running a day ahead of the pack if the current Fishmonger jokes are anything to judge by. That and grapes oh man the grapes.

Comparing 2.0 AAR vs 2.3 content is night and day. Yet compare it to Heavenward (Which deserves all of the awards it won) and you still see the massive increase in quality. Stormblood is not as good as Heavensward but still a mostly fun trip and Shadowbringers hit's it out of the park. And now here's Endwalker and while I'm not a fan of the hide and seek follow missions in some aetherquests the main MSQ is hitting the same highes as Shadowbringers did and Heavensward did from minute 1. The pacing has almost been 100% fantastic.

Word of advice when the MSQ split happens and you can do either the Sharlayan or thavnair quests first? Do Sharlayan questline first. It's much more low-key and it's a tonal whiplash from how thavnair ends.

[LadyTevar]

My brother has been to the Moon already.

He also states DO ALL THE SIDEQUESTS, THEY ALL HAVE STORYLINE THAT HELPS.

[TheFeniX]

This is more an internal monologue:
Queue for Normal Raid Roulette in FFXIV as RDM and get Eden Littany. Everything is going fine, Except my DPS. I've forgotten how to RDM. I'm dead last behind 2 RPR and a DRG. During sword mode, an AOE takes out both healers and one RPR. Hell yea, no longer dead last in DPS. But the healers are dead..... things no longer going well. I've just cast a Jolt, so Dual Cast > Verraise > Swiftcast > Verraise to get both healers back up. RPR isn't worth my mana.
2 seconds later: "RDM, get one of the healers up." Pfft
Healers get the RPR back up, we keep pew pewing, but due to dead people and the stat crunch, boss is still at like 70%. This fight is lasting forever. By the time it's over, literally everyone has died (at least) once except me and the GNB Main Tank. I've spammed out at least 7 raises cuz I guess Sage has major recovery issues (I GlareMage, so wouldn't know), so I just keep powering out resses.
Finish 2nd in Emnity, raises everywhere. Stay to roll on loot because I'm back to desynthing.

Win nothing, 0 comms.
RDM Problems.

[GuppyShark]

Discussing the Book of Boba Fett and seguing into a new D&D campaign:

Tilaurin (they/them) — Today at 6:35 PM
Now waiting to see GuppyShark make a Mandalorian for lightwood ...

GuppyShark (He/Him) — Today at 6:49 PM
lol, you want a Percy? That's how you get a Percy

Leigh (any/all) — Today at 6:51 PM
Damn... Now I'm thinking my wood elf should be named "Amanda Lorien". Star Wars and Lord of the Rings in one!

[Darken]

Playing around 9 pm one night and there is a super spastic and annoying kid maybe around 12 years old playing in our match - just going crazy the whole game into his microphone like those kids on those YouTube videos with millions of views. Anyways he is kind of annoying us the whole game but it is a little entertaining.

So in the post game lobby we are there and he starts screaming into his mic "NO MOM! NO!" And you can hear his moms in the background "It's NINE O'CLOCK and it's TIME FOR BED it's a school night!" Then the kid just starts screaming and crying at his mom to "Stop! NOT THE ROUTER -" aaand he's disconnected from the lobby. Cue chuckles from the peanut gallery.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

Welp, adventures in Total Battle hasn't turned out to be the fresh start we were promised. The clan I'm in decided to change kingdoms because we had been slowly losing members for one reason or another and were unhappy with how the largest clan in the kingdom (Birds of Prey) and their affiliates decide who does and does not get to gather gold which as the name suggests is the rarest and most valuable resource in the kingdom.

Things started to unravel from the very beginning- in the old kingdom we had a good central location where the resources such as silver were plentiful and within easy because other clans were sufficiently distant that we didn't have to trek too far to do gathering. New kingdom, we're practically wedged into a corner with no fewer than four clans within touching distance and they're all vying for the same resources that we are in the adjoining land. Because we're in the corner it instantly halves the number of places with resources within easy reach, and because there are a lot more clans in the surrounding area it means potentially travelling a lot further afield for the exact same rewards.

Because it's a new kingdom (they are created and opened as new players join) there are a lot of small players and clans, certainly more than the old kingdom, meaning more competition and because the new players gather slowly and can't clear the resources in one go that leaves even less for the larger players who need more RSS to develop.

That was bad enough, but other clans had the same idea and one of them is a Russian one and it's huge, with almost a hundred players all hundreds of millions of might meaning they have ten times the might of the next clan down. And they show up halfway through one of the kingdom events that rewards the top 100 players (who receive the 'Senator' title) who get the most conquest points with 25% bonuses to their valour and experience for the next 12 days. Suddenly, instead of handily placing well in the top 100 like I used to just by defending against attacking players from outside the kingdom, especially with my recently improved units thanks to moving up a tier, I don't even get a look in. Said new clan immediately occupies the top 100 spots with points totals that I cannot hope to match.

This is basically how things were in the original kingdom to begin with, but by working hard and building up my forces for months and months and months I was eventually able to both help my clan gain points and make Senator on a regular basis because my units were strong enough to let me compete with others in the kingdom. Now in the new clan these new guys show up and suddenly the difficulty of even getting into the top 100 goes up by an order of magnitude, if not two and undoes all the work I've done getting my units into the shape they're in in this game of tactical rock-paper-scissors. And they do it without firing a shot because they attack off kingdom, so suddenly a 22-time senator has become hopelessly, hilariously outgunned and I'm in every respect worse off than I was before. It's like Brexit- work really hard and you'll only be slightly worse off than before. And because you can only change kingdoms every 37 days (don't know why they chose that number) I couldn't relocate even if I tried.

The only good thing that the clan has so far regained its previous size in the other kingdom with higher-level members. In every other way we've jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

Relocating from K92 to K103 turned out to be a blessing- took about a week to get everyone moved across and we slowly increased from 72 members to 100 (the maximum) with some higher level players joining the party, we're definitely in a much stronger position now and become second mightiest in the new kingdom. We've managed to stay out of the infighting between some of the other clans, they're still content to fight among themselves even as the real threat comes from outside the kingdom.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

My, how things can change. First off, our clan BAD B has inherited the position of mightiest clan in our respective kingdom that we got when the clan that was above us moved to a different kingdom. And because it was led by some asshole who had a stranglehold on the kingdom they won't be missed.

Anyway we reached a gentleman's agreement with the other strong clans in the kingdom where the title of king would rotate among said clans. It's an Elective monarchy with a term that lasts for 12 days, and a new king is elected during the last day of each term. Anyway, this time our clan's turn came, and our leader was on holiday during the event so I was the one to run for and actually become King, for 12 days

Because of conflict of interest I cannot act as the diplomat of my clan as well as King so for the duration of my term someone else in the clan will need to assume this role on a temporary basis. Since the clan leader will be back from holiday soon, before the next event he should be able to handle this aspect since it is his clan after all.

[LadyTevar]

In FFXIV, I asked the higher level FC buddies to help me Unsynch The Royal Menagerie (Final Boss fight for Shadowbringer).

The party has me tanking my Lvl 75 Warrior, my brother as the lvl 90 Sage, and another buddy with his lvl 90 Dragoon. This is supposed to be an 8-man lvl-70 Trial.

We get past the first section easily, no one gets hit hard, everything is going well, and we get to the second part of the fight, where the Boss starts hitting with things that push you off the edge of the map ... which is of course very high up in the air. I can't run from the edge fast enough, so I'm swept over, and as I type "Whoops, Sorry," I see the SAGE IS ALSO DOWN. He also got swept off the edge.

So, the Boss is at 1/4 health, and I'm thinking "Fuck, we're gonna have to redo" ... and then the battle ends.

I type "Uhh.. did you LimitBreak?" cause I had no idea how he got the boss down so fast, and the Dragoon's answer was "Nah, I just got serious."

Uh.. he was only playing around til then? He could have ended the battle much faster? I mean, I know Dragoon can deal the damage, but enough to kill a 1/4 HP boss in the time it took me to type?