The Last Minute Heavensward Preperation

The last 11 days before Heavensward. If you aren’t sure what to do in these remaining days, here are some ideas.

ffxiv Paladin.

Finish Main Story Quests This is required to do Heavensward content and should be your highest priority. Finish these quests before early access starts. You can’t even level the new classes without having this finished.

Max Rested XP – 10 days – Start by 2am PST Tuesday June 9th. This will give a free 1.5 levels towards your first levelled class once Heavensward hits. To accumulate, be sure not to play any class that is not level 50 after the above date and time.

Max Leves – 16.5 days – Start already (if you’re completely out) Max leve is 99, and accumulation rate is 3 per 12 hours. These will be important for levelling as well, although I do not encourage you to leve your way to 60 on your primary combat class – do the quests! Leves are better suited for secondary combat class or DoH/DoL levelling.

Gear Up Main Class(es) Make sure you have a reasonable set of gear on your main classes. The ilvl is expected to increase quite quickly after release, so the current absolute top end gear isn’t necessary. Aim for at least ilvl 100.

Cleared Out Inventory Clear out your inventory. Clear out your retainers’ inventories. Remove things that you will likely never use even if you have some attachment to them. You want to deal with inventory as little as possible going into new content, and you certainly don’t want to get confused on what is new and what isn’t. I’m going to fully empty one of my retainers and use that one solely for heavensward stuff.

Cleared Quest Log Yeah, those old level 46 quests you’ve had in your log for the past 3 months? Now’s the time to drop them. You’re never going to do them. You may even want to drop unfinished content quests (Ramuh Ex quest, etc) just to have a fully clear log. Up to you.

Food Items Make sure you have a reasonable supply of food for the first 2-3 classes you expect to level. Don’t go too crazy – there will of course be new food to buy after the first few weeks.

Gil While never an absolute necessity in FFXIV, gil tends to help speed things up significantly. You can buy pieces of gear that you need to round out your set, and you can avoid farming for things that might be sellable on the MB. The more the merrier, but if you want enough to handle everything from housing to endgame.

Max GC Seals Should be easy to do running 50 dungeons and greeding gear. There will be new GC ranks.It’s not confirmed, but most people seem to expect them to keep the same GC currency for the new ranks.

Ventures Retainers will be able to level towards 60 with you, so be sure to stock up on some ventures so you don’t have to farm them.

Cross Classes Levelled If you’re going to roll one of the new classes, make sure you have the appropriate cross classes levelled up (usually to 34).DRK = Gladiator/Maurader AST = Conjurer/Thaumaturge MCH = Archer/Lancer

Glamour Your Winter Gear You can’t be wearing your summer hats to Coerthas, can you? Find some nice thick wool or furred gear and get yourself glamoured. Keep it sexy.

Gear for New Class Levelling up one of the new classes? Have a full set of gear (or two) ready for them. They will start at level 30, so some folks are going as hardcore as having a full set of level 30, 35, 40, 45, and 50 gear ready for them. Probably don’t need to be that prepared.

Max Allied Seals No one knows if these are going to continue. There may be a new hunt currency entirely. Even so, couldn’t hurt to have some reasonable amount of these farmed and ready.

UI Issues If you’ve been putting off minor fixes to your UI, now’s the time to do it. DPS and don’t quickly notice when you proc something? Move that closer to center screen. Need to setup a hotbar common to all classes but haven’t gotten around to it? Do it now.if you need to re-organize your hotbars to have free slots for the new abilities, do it now! You will have to learn a new rotation, so it’s a good time to optimize your button presses.

Max Finished Leves Some people are finishing the max leves before the expansion hits and keeping those leves in their journal rather than turning them in. This will allow them to immediately turn in all 16 leves when the level cap is raised to gain some quick xp. I don’t think this will boost you much, and there will be a lot of new quests which will be more efficient. Probably not that important. EDIT: Remember you can only turn leves in for the class you did them on, so this won’t work for the new classes. You can also prep any remaining non-leve quests for turn-in rather than abandoning them to free up log space!

Finish Hunting Log Make sure all your primary classes have a hunting log completed to level 50. This will likely be required to unlock the 50-60 log entries.

Poetics Weapon For New Class Tip— If you have time, get your poetics tokens and other mats for an ilvl 130 ironworks weapon for whatever new class you intend to play. There is evidence the new classes will be getting ironworks weapons.

Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward flying fat chocobos Preview

A long running gag in the Final Fantasy franchise is that fat chocobos have never been spotted flying. In fact, I don’t even think they’ve ever been seen running either. They just sit there, randomly falling from the sky on enemies or hoarding your candy until you come back for it at a later date! Get off your butt, and help save the Earth!

Well, Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward is finally going to kick these lazy jerks into gear, get the rust off their wings, and put them on a treadmill in the sky. Director Naoki Yoshida skipped his birthday and instead worked on making sure everything would run smoothly when his first major expansion launches on June 23. In response to all the happy wishes, he created a little birthday magic and gave back to the people with this screenshot.

ffxiv chocobo

Yes, that fat chocobo is flying! Decades of jokes have just gone down the drain, proving once and for all that these slobs can be of bigger assistance to the Heroes of Light.

Yoshida, along with Final Fantasy XV Director Hajime Tabata, is just one of the many new faces at Square Enix hired to “keep it real” with the fanbase. The new Square Enix listens to feedback and keeps an air of transparency with fans, and it just so happens that this new style helped Yoshida turn a failure of an MMORPG in the absolute best Final Fantasy game in over a decade.

It’s only going to get bigger, too. Bigger than the backside of a fat chocobo.Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward will launch on June 23 for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4 and PC.

Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward PS4 bundle announced for Japan

Heavensward JP

Sony Computer Entertainment and Square Enix will release a Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward special edition PlayStation 4 bundle in Japan, Square Enix announced at Niocnioco Chokaigi in Chiba today.

The bundle includes:

A PlayStation 4 (either Jet Black or Glacier White)
Heavensward laser engraved PlayStation 4 HDD bay cover
A Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward PlayStation 4 custom theme product code
A copy of either Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward, Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward collector’s edition, or Final Fantasy XIV Online (chosen by consumer)
A price was not announced

Pre-orders begin on Tuesday, April 28 at 11:00 a.m. JST.

Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward is due out for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, and PC on June 23. Watch a new benchmark trailer below.

FFXIV Visual Feast [China]

Does anyone play on the Chinese servers?

I’m currently playing on the chinese servers, and i’m looking to see if any other foreigners (westerners) play on here as well.

EDIT: Guess I should have made this clearer. I am a foreigner who currently lives in China and am playing on their servers. I was looking for other westerners who also live in China and are playing the game as well (on their servers)

MMO Deals: 22% Off FFXIV: Heavensward & Tamriel Unlimited

Last month, The Elder Scrolls Online went the way of Guild Wars 2 and dropped its monthly subscription in a “Tamriel Unlimited” Edition upgrade. This 2.0 reboot of the game is free for existing customers, but if you’re looking to get in on the action now that the monthly fee has been dropped, you should know the base game is not full price everywhere. This week GMG added the title to its list of digital games on sale, with a 22% off coupon code cutting Tamriel Unlimited to $46.20.

Earlier this week, Square Enix announced it was taking pre-orders for the FFIX: AAR expansion Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward. The expansion is priced at $39.99 for all available platforms, but PC gamers can use the same 22% off discount which slashes the price on both the standard and digital collector’s edition of Heavensward. Pre-ordering will get you early access, in-game trinket, plus a chocobo pet following you around.

Beyond MMOs, there are plenty of other discounts worth checking out this week. Steam is running a 2K Games sale with a few notable titles on sale, including a 10th Anniversary 2K pack with $374.82 worth of games for only $49.99 (87% off). GMG is also still running the “VIP Gaming” sale with a discount on the recently released Cities Skylines, slapping the price down by 27% to $21.89. Despite the release of Battlefield Hardline this week, Cities: Skylines continues to be GMG’s best selling game this week.

MMO Deals

MMO Deals

PC Game Deals

PC Game Deals

Console Gaming Deals

Console Gaming Deals

FFXIV: Patch 2.55 Launches

Patch 2.55 Notes

Patch 2.55 has arrived for Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn! The new main scenario, “Before the Dawn”, will be required to gain access to Heavensward content.

A great wyrm’s roar echoes through the skies of Coerthas, calling all dragonkind to war. The Gates of Judgement, Ishgard’s outermost defenses, now come under attack. With the city’s very survival in the balance, can the Scions of the Seventh Dawn rally the Eorzean Alliance─or is the Holy See doomed to fall?

Get the full patch notes on the official site.

The update includes:

Final Coil of Bahamut added to the Duty Finder
World of Darkness weekly gear limit removed
Amount of MGP received in the Gold Saucer adjusted
Adjustments to the Triple Triad tournaments

FFXIV: Market Predictions for 3.0

I’d like to share / brainstorm on predictions for the expansion. That way we can prepare for future demand and make some money while doing so.
In general I think there’s going to be an explosion of crafting so I imagine shards, crystals, and clusters will be strong for a while. Also in addition lowbie gear and glamours are likely to experience a spike as well. As for high level gathered items and equipment might experience a drop in price/demand.
Any other thoughts?
Personally I’m going to stock up on shards, crystals, and clusters before the patch.
Here are ideas of 5 players.

Aenemius:
Aside from stocking up on some choice mid-level materials, I’m not touching market speculation with a ten foot pole, honestly.
My reasoning is a lot along yours – crystals/shards/clusters will be useful and valuable for some time, however for the most part the actual materials are harder to guess about. Will philo/myth/soldiery mats be more widely accessible? Will they even be needed for level 51-60 crafting? How easy will the recipes be and will they require any progression beyond the core leveling? I’m simply too cowed by past failure on speculations to make guesses based on what’s available now.
That being said…
We can reasonably assume that a lot of the most-generic things (catalysts, materia, maybe demimateria at a stretch, etc) will be widely required and worth stocking even if it’s just for our own convenience. It’s also worth making the assumption that farming any and all new materials immediately on release will be fairly valuable, even if we don’t make anything ourselves. Recall the Philo mat rush post-launch, and how every single material market has paled in comparison to those, since then, while crafting itself has gotten more profitable as people began to specialize and self-select.
So rather than over-farming and over-stocking on low value items, I’m going to hold off and be ready at the starting line come EA in June, and will probably even put off gearing at 60 – to an extent – in favour of making the most of the initial market rush for any and all valuable materials that appear then.

Fwa
My guess for this thinking would be, there’s very likely to be a fifth tier of materia with 3.0, or sometime thereafter. We already have grade 5 carbonized matter, so it’s honestly only a matter of time.
This being said, people are likely to spiritbond newer items that give grade IV, with a chance at V. Market would be flooded with excess IV materia, with far less people spiritbonding for the lower grades. This is most of the reason why in general grade II materia is currently more expensive than grade III. And why lower grade materia may rise further in price, probably less people spiritbonding getting those materia specifically.
Grade IV will still be sought after for creating current relics (assuming that’ll still be an option) but with a 3.0 relic its likely that the lessening desire for these contrasted against the prospective increased supply will lead to a slow decline in price for grade IV materia.
This is, of course, mostly speculation, but founded in decent logic, I think. And it’s hard to say, with an influx of newer people or any other changes that they have in mind, whether this will pan out or not.

deepdrill
I wouldn’t count on materia playing as big of a role in 3.0.
Yoshi & Co. were really unhappy with crafted gear and materia being too powerful.
I’m expecting materia to be revamped to be similar to jewelry in wow. Possibly also (hopefully) removing the RNG aspect of it.
Moving forward, we will have specializations in gathering and crafting which will make everything more scarce and having a “good” specialization more profitable.

ceeteesalv
The price of level 20ish crafting material is gonna skyrocket.
All the current endgame stuff will drop like a rock as people get past it and find better stuff as quest reward/dungeon drops. However, new people are gonna try to get into crafting, and that would normally mean the price of level 1 crafting shit would rise, but SE was smart and had the first dozen or so levels use censored ingredients. Past that point though, there will be a huge demand from returning players wanting a change off pace, and so the price will reflect that.

Apeman
This would be a good point, but it’s actually the Case that there is price protection all the way into the mid 30s/early 40s due to the beast men tribes for many crafts. All ingots up to Mythril, all cloth up to linen, wood up to oak and some alchemy and Culanarian drops. Additionally, we are getting more beast men in the expansion, which could cover leather.

Can you give me your advice?

My FFXIV Ascians Theory

One plot device from the very first Final Fantasy that I loved was the Time Loop. For those who haven’t played it (major spoilers ahead) the Warriors of Light were stuck in a loop of infinitely fighting the villain who channeled the power of the Four Fiends to be sent back in time 2000 years every time he was about to be defeated. This kept him in power for eternity, until the Warriors of Light discover the Time Loop and learn how to circumvent it.

A major component of the XIV plot is the idea of Astral and Umbral eras. Each era pair is a cycle of rebirth and then calamity.

At the moment we know that in the background of all this is Hydaelyn who guides our hand as the Warrior of Light, and then there is her arch nemesis Zodiark who guides the hands of the Ascians.

My theory is that the Ascians are the “Scions of Seventh Dawn” from the previous era. Elidibus in his grand white robes is the previous Warrior of Light. This group attempted to do what you, Minfillia, and the rest are on your way to do: be guided by Hydaelyn’s Echo for some vague “save the realm” goal.

Knowing that this cycle “from Astral to Umbral” and back again has gone on for a number of eras, I wonder if this is like the Time Loop from the very first Final Fantasy. Hydaelyn recruits individuals who she feels can defeat Zodiark, and gives the power of the Echo to the Warrior of Light of that generation. They go off to defeat Zodiark, who somehow influences the Calamity of that era and causes the Warrior of Light and his team to lose their existence such that they become Ascians. Each calamity is a way of making sure that Zodiark does not get defeated. Something in summoning the Primals may help keep Zodiark in a state outside of our existence (and gives some context to the Sahagin leader scenes with Leviathan where he is possessed by Ascian energies)

We have already seen this begin to occur when Thancred was possessed by Lahabrea.

This would explain why no one remembered the Warrior of Light from before Dalamud crashed. There is a grand amnesia that occurs when the human essence of the Warrior and his team turn into the otherworldly Ascians. Indeed, the plot to the original Final Fantasy states that the Warriors of Light were forgotten once the time loop was broken at last.

The twist here is that Midgardsormr stripped the Warrior of Light of his Echo! This is the loophole, just as the original Warriors of Light in the first Final Fantasy discovered how to break out of their time loop. Without the Echo, we are free from Hydaelyn’s and Zodiark’s pull and cannot become Ascians ourselves.

My thought is that they are two gods using us as playing pieces in a war. Hydaelyn tries to use us to defeat Zodiark, and Zodiark in response causes a calamity and then turns us into Ascians. Then the cycle begins anew.

Not being a loremaster myself, I am wondering if there is evidence to this theory? Just something fun to conjecture about!