That Old Expansion Hype Again

Tags

expansion, expansion pack, fomo, guild wars, guild wars 2, gw2, hype, MMO, mmo dlc, mmorpg, mmorpg dlc, mmorpg expansion, mmorpgs, mmos, new game, new games, new things

Something about Guild Wars 2 continues to not sink in even though I feel like it should. It’s got a nice little open world vibe. It’s combat is… well, it’s something I’ve gotten used to even if it’s not something I’m in love with. It has a big fluffy cat race. It has raids that I’d like to try and see someday. And it has a more relaxed, open, and cooperative sort of leveling playstyle. Yet I still can’t get into it.

Even knowing this, I still find myself becoming enthralled by the siren song of the End of Dragons expansion and I’m reminded that this is a trap I just can’t stop falling in to.

Stormblood Squee Week: My Personal Combat Refresh

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abilities, classes, combat, expansion, ffxiv, final fantasy, final fantasy xiv, jobs, MMO, mmo combat, mmorpg, skills, stormblood, stormblood squee week

With the arrival of Stormblood to Final Fantasy XIV, we’re also going to be seeing a “combat refresh” – a rebalancing of skills for every class in the game, with apparent special attention being paid to the existing tank and healer classes.

According to the information I’ve seen, the team is shooting for classes to have a similar number of skills available to them even though we’re seeing a level cap raise from 60 to 70. This is meant to ease the complexity of certain jobs while also removing useless skills. And boy howdy, are there some useless skills.

I’m lookin’ at you, Chevy Noir.

So for this entry, I’d like to talk about what I’d like to see from this new combat refresh and what skills I’d like to see edited or culled entirely.

Stormblood Squee Week: A Recap of Bold, Stupid Predictions for Final Fantasy XIV

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expansion, ffxiv, final fantasy, final fantasy xiv, final fantasy xiv stormblood, MMO, mmorpg, stormblood, stormblood squee week, xiv

SPOILER ALERT: The following post is going to touch on topics associated with the MSQ of patch 3.5, which is recent as of this post’s creation, Feb 19th. If you’ve not finished that content, you might not want to read on.

So back in June of last year, I made a blog post offering up my thoughts on what would be coming for the next expansion of Final Fantasy XIV. We now stand near the end of the final Fanfest, and I thought it’d be fun to run back to that post and see where I went horribly wrong while salvaging the thoughts that were nearly close to the mark.

Like a Lalafell Archer, my aim is a bit short.

Bold, Stupid Predictions for Final Fantasy XIV

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content, content update, expansion, final fantasy xiv, future, i can see the future woooo, MMO, patch, predictions

I’ve been spurred on by a thread on a XIV roleplay forum I frequent to post this blog entry. It started with a megathread talking about the coming Final Fantasy Fan Festival (appropriately acronymed “FFFF!”) and the fun speculation that sprang up from it. I replied to the thread itself, but I also wanted to go ahead and run with the thoughts that came forth.

As we near the point of FFFF! and its expected announcements for the next expansion to Final Fantasy XIV, it’s become common among players like me to try to divine the game’s future. So, let’s take a moment to throw the runes and read the tea leaves as I make completely baseless and wild assumptions that I’ll try to spin in to a facsimile of convincing clairvoyance.

Basically, I’m about to Miss Cleo this shit.

Geekmas Day 5: Five Lightsabers

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expansion, fandom, free to play, geekmas, MMO, sci-fi, star wars, swtor, the old republic, tor

This post is part of the 12 Days of Geekmas.  Check out the concept here, and let NerdyAlerty’s blog feed your eyeballs as well!

Talk about a softball topic.  For this day of Geekmas I have to somehow find nice things to say about Star Wars.  This definitely is not going to be hard for me, despite how perceptibly angry fans of the IP can get.

I may have just roused a few of them with this picture alone..

So…lots of wonderful things to say about Star Wars.  I should just maybe bang home a few paragraphs and call it a day.  This being a (mostly) MMO blog, however, I’m going to limit myself specifically to Star Wars: The Old Republic…because there are some sticking points for me with that game, but like with almost every MMO I encounter, I can still find wonderful things to say about it.

The Requisite Guild Wars 2 Post

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announcement, challenge, content, expansion, guild wars 2, heart of thorns, meta, opinion, pax prime, raids

The title of this post is really just a riff on how mandatory this all feels.  Quite literally every blog I read has had something to say about Guild Wars 2’s PAX reveal this past weekend.  And not many of them have had cuddly things to say.

So, in the interest of following the compulsion of the Blogging Borg (Blorg?) and to hopefully counter some of this negativity around the announce, I’m going to write why I think Raids in Guild Wars 2 could be a nice thing.

Blaugust Day 24 – Hopes for Heavensward 3.1

Tags

3.1, content patch, dreams, dungeons, expansion, final fantasy xiv, heavensward, hopes, main quest, new shiny, raid, sidequest, wishes

So the Letter from the Producer for XIV happened.  In it, there was a great deal of outline for the coming large content patch, 3.1.  In typical fashion for this game, a great deal of things are being applied that are definitely exciting.  New dungeons, a new Primal, lots of adjustments to the current jobs and a complete surprise in the form of the Minion RTS game Lords of Verminion.

The whole thing is pretty damned interesting…but at the same time, there are still some questions.  There’s still hopes.  There’s still a list of things that I want this patch to be.  And because I’m VERY eager to write anything that springs to mind as a result of Blaugust, let’s line those out, shall we?

Even if someone will likely write a better lineup than me.

SPOILER ALERT:  This article is going to once more discuss spoilers for the Main Scenario Quest of the game.  If you haven’t played through, please stop here!

Blaugust Day 1 – Heavensward Through Wolfy’s Eyes

Tags

a realm reborn, blaugust, expansion, final fantasy xiv, heavensward, MMO

WARNING: The following blog post will feature copious amounts of spoilers for the game.  If you haven’t completed this game, stop reading now!

Final Fantasy XIV, as I had stated in a blog posting a while back, has always been an odd bird for me.  It’s a game that pretty much has followed that old themepark formula yet still manages to captivate at the same time.  It’s hardly the perfect game, but it has more than enough things going for it to make it a net positive experience for me.  And so, naturally, I was incredibly eager to play the coming expansion, which not only opened up all of the usual stuff an MMO expansion should, but included my all-time favorite class from Final Fantasy XI, the Dark Knight.