So here I am barely on my way to level cap in A Realm Reborn and much like Belghast, I am super excited for its first so promisingly named expansion – Heavensward! As a newbie player trying to catch up and enjoy the original content, it can seem daunting to hear about expansions; what will happen to public events in the old zones for example or how do you find a party for the dungeons everybody’s gotten tired of? Luckily, in FFXIV there is no such thing as players “finishing” the world; new classes mean plenty of lowlevel characters everywhere and features such as the (scaling) daily dungeon roulette, make sure players of any level have folk to group up with. Social engineering is alive and well in Eorzea. My little black mage just hit lvl 38 today (with lvl 34 Arcanist and lvl 15 Archer to cross-class) and I fully intend to make the most of the storyline up to lvl 50. I also can’t wait to get my soon to be considered old class set!
All that said, zomg Heavensward! You could tell Yoshida was very pleased with himself at this Pax East 2015 and why shouldn’t he? FFXIV’s first expansion packs a punch and leaves its playerbase wanting for nothing. The new zones look absolutely amazing – my heart jumped at the sight of The Pillars in city state Ishgard, reminding me of Divinity’s Reach with its tudor style medieval buildings. I sincerely hope there will be new music for these locations as well!
Then, there’s of course a level cap raise to 60 and three brand new jobs: Dark Knight, Astrologian and Machinist, bumping the number of total roles within FFXIV’s holy trinity by one each. The Au Ra are added to the roster of playable races. Also announced were new shiny class sets, flying mounts and those long awaited free company airships. Most importantly, there will be myriads of new quests, hunts and public events along with the continuation of the main storyline, which is something I am currently enjoying a great deal on my black mage. When I came back to this adventure a couple of weeks ago, I could already tell that FFXIV was gonna keep me busy until the end of the year. Now it feels like I’ll have enough to look forward to way into 2016!
Which hey, is an incredibly comfortable thought to me right now. I feel like I’ve finally found a world worth building a home in, one that I also want to introduce my friends to. Unlike so many virtual homes doomed to dwindle, Eorzea at least has a bright future. June 19th, you are officially marked on my calendar!
I saw the video of the zones and agree- they look amazing…and quite big, to be honest. I was under the impression they can’t do really big zones (presumably because of PS3 restrictions, don’t know if it’s true).
As far as content quantity goes, i start to feel like i do in Everquest 2: there’s so much, it’s overwhelming! Since the announcement of the date, i try to build a strategy to reach Heavensward with release- it would be nice to be “in the flow” of things once.
But i don’t know- “race” to 50 and ignore crafting just to be “there” when Heavensward releases?
Right now, i’m of the opinion that i’ll just continue my plan- one gathering job, one crafting job, the Conjurer for the main story and the Arcanist/Scholar for plain levelling. Might be i won’t be ready for launch, but it would still feel wrong to, say, only play Scholar to 50.
Pretty excited, as well! And mostly, that’s because i feel like you do- it seems this is a game to stay in for quite some time, and it seems to be quite successful (and growing).
Travel safe!
I am really excited to level a new class with my friend once the expansion does drop.
I’ve just been back in the game during the free week and I completely ignored the casino event since the main game is so fun to play! I got stuck back into levelling arcanist and had a blast.
You highlight a very important point, that SE have managed to design an MMO that gives multiple reasons for high level players to come back to the levelling content. This is so important for keeping the zones populated and enjoyable to play through, especially for latecomers or those wanting a slower journey. It’s something that most MMOs fail badly at.
I’m not sure where I stand on levelling to cap in time for the expansion. My highest is White Mage (Conjurer) at 30 but I’m wanting to unlock a few other jobs for variety of playstyle so I’m busy working towards Scholar and then Summoner. I don’t want to commit to just one job and grind to 50, much more fun (for me personally) to be trying different playstyles as I go!
I’m excited for what I’ve seen so far, but I’m like you–there’s no way I’m going to see or do all the content I want to by the time the xpac hits. And that’s cool! Because I’m loving the game, and it feels like a home. 🙂 I can settle down in it.
I have been waiting to buy this game, might as well wait a bit longer. I am sure they will bundle the expac for new people who haven’t got the original. My main question right now is whether to PS4 or PC it.
Yay so very excited even tho I am pottering about at 28th level as my highest – such a great game. Must play it more or event more time in the day or something! 😀