Tags
boosts, ffxiv, final fantasy xiv, final fantasy xiv stormblood, jump potion, jump potions, max level potion, MMO, mmorpg, stormblood, stormblood squee week
In my last post, I mentioned that I was in love with the new Paladin moves. One in particular, Passage of Arms, has me excited simply because it’s something I see my character doing. She’s the kind of person who would leap in front of people if it means they wouldn’t come to harm.
And I know I keep repeating myself, but come on. Pretty wings. Come ON.
Getting to that point, though, requires that I muddle through another six levels of mindless grinding. I don’t want to do that. Thankfully, I won’t have to with the addition of Jump Potions, and I couldn’t be happier. Allow me to explain why.
As a recap, the Jump Potions in question are coming at us in two different styles. There’s the Scenario Shortcut, which will grant you the opportunity to bypass the main quests for either A Realm Reborn or Heavensward at $18 and $25 a pop respectively, and the Job Level Boost that will let you progress one Job to level 60 instantly (except for the upcoming Red Mage and Samurai) for $25.
Am I that kind of nutty to wanna spend $25 in order to simply push past six levels instead of putting my head down and grinding it out? You bet your ass I am. And I bet I’m not alone. Which leads me to my first point: these boosts aren’t just for new arrivals. In fact, I’d argue they’re meant more for existing players than fresh ones.
Honestly, anything that’ll get us past the subligar stage.
Not all of us have the time, patience or even savvy to want to claw through the leveling curve of a new class, especially if we’re trying to experience new content with a fresh take. And this is coming from someone who “worked” to bring my Machinist up from nothing to my best-kitted character when all I played were tanks prior to then.
Which neatly moves to the next point: a max level boost doesn’t mean you can’t learn. I leveled up my Machinist exclusively through FATE grinding. Nothing about a FATE party will tell you how to play your class beyond “spam AoEs as often as possible”. But guess what? I learned.
I learned how to play a Machinist just like anyone else would. By doing dungeons and trying things out and observing how others do it, either from in-game or through guides or videos. And while I’m not exactly top shelf DPS, I have been able to pull away damage from more suitable classes like Monks. I also haven’t been specifically called out in group actions for lack of performance.
To assume that people are incapable of learning a new class is arrogant at best.
If you’ve ever PUG’d a raid in this game, trust me, you know you will get called out.
Next, and this one is pretty much an opinion, but XIV is NOT alt-friendly. It just ain’t. Your options if you want to try something new are to either grind your face into the belt sander of FATEs, grind your face into the belt sander of Palace of the Dead, or start over from scratch.
And I don’t know about you, but none of those ideas appeal to me.
I’ve seen the storylines already, so I really don’t wanna sit through any of that stuff, and I have tried mightily to power my Paladin through to level 60 but I just can’t do it. Call me a bad player or impatient or a fool parting with his money if you must, but I contend that alt-leveling in XIV is about as mindless as it gets.
And believe me, I’ve played MMOs where the endgame was “roll another character”, but that’s because those games were designed that way. XIV doesn’t feel like it was designed that way. The abolition of cross-class skills in 4.0 should be more than evidence enough of that.
“From boredom’s heart I stab at thee!”
Lastly – and again, just an opinion here – jumping to the top ain’t cheap. If you’re a truly new arrival that has friends at the high end of the game and want to join up with them, you’re essentially being asked to buy a new game, set up a subscription payment, and then pay nearly $70 in order to start playing with said friends.
If people are worried that these boosts will flood the game with “bads”, I’m pretty sure the cost of getting in is a pretty good deterrent And besides, if the first thought you have when an MMO wants to bring in new blood is “Why are they being allowed to play”? Then you’re doing it very, very wrong.
So, yes. I’m going to burn $25 to eat up six levels. I’m already considering how my character will take up the sword and shield again. That’s how exciting and useful these boosts are to me. And I would bet money I don’t have I ain’t alone.
Through Wolfy's Eyes 