The third and currently most recent expansion to the FFXIV MMO is the first to actually deliver on fans’ repeated assertations that “the game gets better in the expansions“.
It does this in two main ways. The first being that sidequests, including repeatable Beast Tribe quests, are now level-synced. So they now serve as a pretty decent alternate source of leveling XP for your non-main class. The second being the Trust system.
That feature lets you challenge most multiplayer dungeons added by the expansion with a group of NPCs instead of other players (meaning there’s no longer any waiting to find a party). Even better, the NPCs have infinite MP and don’t get caught off-guard by boss mechanics; so long as you follow their lead in avoiding attacks it’s pretty hard to get killed. The drawbacks are that they’ll only be the minimum level required to challenge the dungeon, and if you do die it’s considered a full party wipe. So while a good option for DPS classes, tanks or healers may want to stick to partying with PCs.
As far as plot development goes… while I’d have to say that it’s certainly better than Stormblood‘s overall, the writers seem to be having a contest as to who can write the most idiotic character behavior. And while I wasn’t really thrilled by the FFT-themed raids there, the Nier Automatica ones here are far more ill-fitting.
Some other minor annoyances would be how you now have to purchase the basic fast travel upgrades (with a new currency gained by clearing FATEs) rather than get them for free, and how the crafter quests have backslid somewhat. Here they behave like the Custom Delivery system, except you have to use standard (possibly quite expensive depending on marketplace availability) ingredients to craft the items instead of exclusive merchant-sold ones. The only saving grace for omnicrafters is that rather than one questline per class it’s one questline per class type: One for smiths, one for Weavers/Leatherworkers, and one for Alchemists/Culinarians. Miners/Botanists also get a shared questline (which behaves in the same way), while Fishers end up with an exclusive one.
Class quests meanwhile have also been condensed. There are four questlines based on role (tank, healer, magical DPS, physical DPS), each corresponding to one of the ‘Warriors of Darkness’ you may remember from earlier in the game. These are handled surprisingly well, and clearing them will get you access to sets of class-specific equipment (that unfortunately can’t be dyed at the moment) near the end of the main quest.
Speaking of endings, I just so happened to reach the end of the existing ShB content the day the newest patch dropped, which was incredibly fortunate timing since that patch both removed some weekly equipment reward restrictions (a bullshit system if ever there was one) and made it possible to easily upgrade Exarchic gear to be on par with the 2nd best gearset.
So I’m basically almost done with this character. Just have to finish upgrading my Resistance Weapon (the special instance here is, albeit similar, notably better than Eureka as far as progression goes), and then ~maybe~ complete the Blue Mage quests/spellbook.
The next character will tackle the Ninja, Monk, ranged physical DPS classes, and PvP. I’ll also probably check out the Deep Dungeon feature as well… something I completely forgot about after unlocking.