The Good, The Bad, and The Meh of the Live Letter

The following is a general list of my takes on the stuff revealed in the Live Letter. If I left anything out, it's because I either forgot it existed or it's just too small of a thing to bother listing.

The Good:

- Gearing: The changes to gearing are a big step in the right direction. Gearing in this game is a very annoying process, and hopefully this will make it less so. The third fight of the tier is usually near useless once the Alliance Raid is released as unless you need a leg coffer, you can get twines from the Alliance Raid coins, so adding chest coffers to it is a good way to keep it alive as typically everyone needs chest pieces. The only thing I'm a little unhappy with is the decision to keep weapon coffers at 8 books. They really should have brought it down to 6 along with chests and legs.

- Raid Bosses: The two(?) shown look amazing.

- Tomestone Gear: Some of the Tomestone weapons/armor sets look really good.

- Frontline Roulette gives Series EXP This hopefully will make the series grind less annoying.

- Market Tax Change: Item prices can now be set to 'Total' on the market, which makes it easier to buy things without having to worry about the market tax. This is very helpful.

- Chat Job Icons: It's a very small change, and it's useless if you have more than one of the same job, but it's a nice little addition.

- Island Sanctuary Furniture: I'm hoping that this feature will finally make islands less generic and samey. There hasn't really ever been a legitimate reason to visit a friend's island, so hopefully that will change with this update.

The Bad:

- Golbez: Golbez uses Thordan's skeleton and it looks a little... goofy. His sword is way too big and just looks off. Thordan holding his sword the way he does makes sense for Thordan as he probably doesn't know how to hold a sword correctly, but why is Golbez holding it like that? Also, his shadow dragon's horns look a little weird. I wish it looked more like it does in the patch art.

- Job Changes: Apart from the increased range of party buffs, the job adjustments they've shown don't really look that good. Obviously they haven't shown everything, but having played a lot of Paladin recently, making Atonement not break combo wasn't really something that was needed, and really only serves to make the job needlessly easier.

- Shatter Map: The new Shatter map for Frontline looks smaller and less fun.

- Crafted Gear: The crafted gear reminds me of the modern glamour sets we've been getting for a while. When these were exclusively crafted from materials in side content like treasure maps, I felt it was alright, but it's a real shame to lose an entire tier of crafted sets for these. They might end up being alright, but it's really not what I'd want from crafted gear. The weapons are at least alright, although they are recolors of the Ktisis weapons.

- The Gilded Araya: I understand that they want to hype people up for fanfest, but I don't really like that this is how they're doing it. I don't feel that this sort of content should be open for early access at fanfests, especially if it's going to be so hard to get into one. I still have no interest in fanfest, but this just feels wrong to me.

The Meh:

- New MSQ/Dungeon/Trial/Raids: This is scheduled stuff. I'm hyped for the raids, but it's business as usual in this area.

- Duty Support for Stormblood: I guess this is good for those that like Duty Support.

- Unreal: It's an old fight from years ago. It'll be nice to do once or twice I guess.

- Tataru Quests: I doubt it is even possible to get me to care about this questline.

- Faerie Glamours: Although technically they're only adding carbuncles for SCH, it's alright for those who really like Carbuncle. I'll probably be keeping mine as a Faerie.

- Variant Dungeon: It looks the same as the other one gameplay-wise, just with a Kugane coat of paint. The glamour gear from it just looks like the same 'Far Eastern' gear we've gotten for years. Meh.

It's sad that I have to say this but this list is indeed a list of my opinions, and not objective facts.

Golbez is going to swing the sword goofy like Thordan did after how shocked he was when WoL survived Ultimate End, isn't he?

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Originally Posted by AwesomeJr44

- Frontline Roulette gives Series EXP This hopefully will make the series grind less annoying.
- Shatter Map: The new Shatter map for Frontline looks smaller and less fun.

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- Wait, I thought Frontlines already gave Series Exp. I did 5 matches of Shatter Back to Back to get my last level for the Mount the other Day.
- I think a Smaller Map is better. And if they shrink the Score. Makes the matches Faster. Fun?...I mean we'll see. PvP has always been kinda bad, even though CC is a HUGE improvement..but still not perfect.

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Originally Posted by Bunnycake

Golbez is going to swing the sword goofy like Thordan did after how shocked he was when WoL survived Ultimate End, isn't he?

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I think that would be adorable.
Lord Golbez: "Whu,WHAT, A Thousand Years of Prayer wasnt enough!?"

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Originally Posted by Zanarkand-Ronso

- Wait, I thought Frontlines already gave Series Exp. I did 5 matches of Shatter Back to Back to get my last level for the Mount the other Day.

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The Frontline match itself already does, but now the 'daily challenge' (the roulette) itself will as well for the daily reward part. That should mean your first match of the day gives more exp than usual, assuming they don't rebalance the existing rewards.

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Originally Posted by Zanarkand-Ronso

- I think a Smaller Map is better. And if they shrink the Score. Makes the matches Faster. Fun?...I mean we'll see.

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That's just down to personal preference, I felt the current size of the map was fine. We'll have to see how it plays out once the patch is live.

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Originally Posted by Zanarkand-Ronso

PvP has always been kinda bad, even though CC is a HUGE improvement..but still not perfect.

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Big true.

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Originally Posted by AwesomeJr44

- Job Changes: Apart from the increased range of party buffs, the job adjustments they've shown don't really look that good. Obviously they haven't shown everything, but having played a lot of Paladin recently, making Atonement not break combo wasn't really something that was needed, and really only serves to make the job needlessly easier.

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It doesn't really change anything but holding Atonement for under FoF rather than burning them ASAP. instead of breaking combos, it's going to be easier to overwrite Atonement stacks just a little forgiving if you drifted a gcd or 2 but overwriting your Atonement stacks would be a big dps hit.

Can mostly agree...

As a little adage, would be nice if CV&C were to expand their actions to something that is essentially a full suite like Logos/Lost actions rather than something so... Constrained.

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Originally Posted by AwesomeJr44

- The Frontline match itself already does, but now the 'daily challenge' (the roulette) itself will as well for the daily reward part. That should mean your first match of the day gives more exp than usual, assuming they don't rebalance the existing rewards.
- That's just down to personal preference, I felt the current size of the map was fine. We'll have to see how it plays out once the patch is live.
- Big true.

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- AH, if that Info was in the LL, I missed it, Haven't watched it / and Overview yet.
- Naturally, if PvP was more fun Id probably be ok with Longer Matches. But obviously: personally, PvP is so not fun, I just want my rewards to Go
- Common Ground Baby~

Looking very much forward to the tataru quest. I really like getting to check in on the nerds from completed bigger story lines.

Pretty much, I’d add the variant dungeon to the bad for me, I loved the first one because the location felt new, but after endless hours of stormblood I just can’t with bamboo trees anymore

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Originally Posted by SassyAssassin

Pretty much, I’d add the variant dungeon to the bad for me, I loved the first one because the location felt new, but after endless hours of stormblood I just can’t with bamboo trees anymore

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Rabbits don't eat bamboo?

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Originally Posted by Renalt

Rabbits don't eat bamboo?

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I tend to try and chew any vegetable or tree in my way but it wasn’t my favourite, I much rather eat some fruits and basil with the occasional furniture that apparently Im “not supposed to” eat.
https://media.tenor.com/ghIxnCPCpbUA...bbit-bunny.gif

Serious question but where do people view this or how do they view these? I know the FF14 reddit discord makes translations, but there's no actual official videos in English for it is there?

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Originally Posted by NekoMataMata

Serious question but where do people view this or how do they view these? I know the FF14 reddit discord makes translations, but there's no actual official videos in English for it is there?

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They translate cards.
https://i.imgur.com/aab6d4R.png

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Originally Posted by NekoMataMata

Serious question but where do people view this or how do they view these? I know the FF14 reddit discord makes translations, but there's no actual official videos in English for it is there?

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YouTube replay
Twitch replay

No official videos that are in English, no, but they have English translations on their slides. The next LL will be broadcast with an English translation as they'll be at the Las Vegas Fan Fest, which is an English-speaking event. They tend to take much longer when they're in dual languages - the 10 years one after the release of Endwalker was something like 6+ hours, so I can understand not wanting to do that for every one lol.

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Originally Posted by Bunnycake

They translate cards.
https://i.imgur.com/aab6d4R.png

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Yeah, I'm aware of that bit, but it's so uninteresting to watch waiting for them to get to each point.

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Originally Posted by NekoMataMata

Yeah, I'm aware of that bit, but it's so uninteresting to watch waiting for them to get to each point.

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I watch the reddit discord translation. It's pretty good and fills in a lot of the Japanese dialog. If you haven't tried it give it a try.

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Originally Posted by LaylaTsarra

I watch the reddit discord translation. It's pretty good and fills in a lot of the Japanese dialog. If you haven't tried it give it a try.

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I mean I read the #translations-and-liveletters channel if that's what you're talking about. I don't know how you would watch it. It doesn't have the same impact though. I'd really, really like to be able to watch something official that's in English.

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Originally Posted by NekoMataMata

I mean I read the #translations-and-liveletters channel if that's what you're talking about. I don't know how you would watch it. It doesn't have the same impact though. I'd really, really like to be able to watch something official that's in English.

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I feel that. Was watching the whole thing today and they were chatting up and laughing and I couldn’t laugh with them, rude.

I'm very much in favor of the smaller Frontline maps. Half the time people would be running nowhere getting nothing done anyway.

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Originally Posted by SassyAssassin

I tend to try and chew any vegetable or tree in my way but it wasn’t my favourite, I much rather eat some fruits and basil with the occasional furniture that apparently Im “not supposed to” eat.
https://media.tenor.com/ghIxnCPCpbUA...bbit-bunny.gif

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You and Mao would make an unstoppable duo.

For me, me personally, I greatly prefer the mb sets for once over the raid and tome gears.
As a healer main, seeing anither floor length gown that covers everything but your face as me like "Woah HOLD UP guys dont bust an artery being creative woah nelly we AINT NEVER seen this!...every single patch" but the crafted sets all have comfort and style with bits if metalwork that stands out to me.
I'm def getting the tank healer and rangedphys sets for glam but it was hard to discern the maiming set, that pic was very unflattering.
My only other pickynit with this patch is..I really wanted Golbez to come out using Dissidia skills for a moveset and hes using Thordan swordswings and the same skeleton and ough if my hype didnt flicker out asap.

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Originally Posted by XianRo

For me, me personally, I greatly prefer the mb sets for once over the raid and tome gears.
As a healer main, seeing anither floor length gown that covers everything but your face as me like "Woah HOLD UP guys dont bust an artery being creative woah nelly we AINT NEVER seen this!...every single patch" but the crafted sets all have comfort and style with bits if metalwork that stands out to me.
I'm def getting the tank healer and rangedphys sets for glam but it was hard to discern the maiming set, that pic was very unflattering.
My only other pickynit with this patch is..I really wanted Golbez to come out using Dissidia skills for a moveset and hes using Thordan swordswings and the same skeleton and ough if my hype didnt flicker out asap.

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God, the raid set just looks like a nightgown for caster/healer, I was really disappointed with that. The rest of the sets look nice, and then you have... a nightgown. I liked the ARaid sets because even though they were just Another Flavor Of Robe(TM), they were at least open enough so you could see pants or the armoured legs, and they weren't just boring design. This feels boring and incredibly uninspired compared to some other sets recently. Even if it's BiS for me, I'll get it but immediately glamour over it.

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Originally Posted by AwesomeJr44

The following is a general list of my takes on the stuff revealed in the Live Letter. If I left anything out, it's because I either forgot it existed or it's just too small of a thing to bother listing.

The Good:

- Gearing: The changes to gearing are a big step in the right direction. Gearing in this game is a very annoying process, and hopefully this will make it less so. The third fight of the tier is usually near useless once the Alliance Raid is released as unless you need a leg coffer, you can get twines from the Alliance Raid coins, so adding chest coffers to it is a good way to keep it alive as typically everyone needs chest pieces. The only thing I'm a little unhappy with is the decision to keep weapon coffers at 8 books. They really should have brought it down to 6 along with chests and legs.

- Raid Bosses: The two(?) shown look amazing.

- Tomestone Gear: Some of the Tomestone weapons/armor sets look really good.

- Frontline Roulette gives Series EXP This hopefully will make the series grind less annoying.

- Market Tax Change: Item prices can now be set to 'Total' on the market, which makes it easier to buy things without having to worry about the market tax. This is very helpful.

- Chat Job Icons: It's a very small change, and it's useless if you have more than one of the same job, but it's a nice little addition.

- Island Sanctuary Furniture: I'm hoping that this feature will finally make islands less generic and samey. There hasn't really ever been a legitimate reason to visit a friend's island, so hopefully that will change with this update.

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I don't do savage raids, but the changes to me sounded like one of this patches biggest improvements based on what I do know about the gear progression. My only criticism here was that I feel like the accessories should be reduced further to 2 instead of 3.

I'm really excited for the healer set of tome gear, and the MNK, SAM, and NIN weapons. Very cool designs.

Island Sanctuary was another big improvement, and was impressed by what they've done with the glamour prisms for this area. I basically have been avoiding IS until they updated it, and it looks like I will now finally be getting into it now that I can personalize it more.

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Originally Posted by AwesomeJr44

The Bad:

- Golbez: Golbez uses Thordan's skeleton and it looks a little... goofy. His sword is way too big and just looks off. Thordan holding his sword the way he does makes sense for Thordan as he probably doesn't know how to hold a sword correctly, but why is Golbez holding it like that? Also, his shadow dragon's horns look a little weird. I wish it looked more like it does in the patch art.

- Job Changes: Apart from the increased range of party buffs, the job adjustments they've shown don't really look that good. Obviously they haven't shown everything, but having played a lot of Paladin recently, making Atonement not break combo wasn't really something that was needed, and really only serves to make the job needlessly easier.

- Shatter Map: The new Shatter map for Frontline looks smaller and less fun.

- Crafted Gear: The crafted gear reminds me of the modern glamour sets we've been getting for a while. When these were exclusively crafted from materials in side content like treasure maps, I felt it was alright, but it's a real shame to lose an entire tier of crafted sets for these. They might end up being alright, but it's really not what I'd want from crafted gear. The weapons are at least alright, although they are recolors of the Ktisis weapons.

- The Gilded Araya: I understand that they want to hype people up for fanfest, but I don't really like that this is how they're doing it. I don't feel that this sort of content should be open for early access at fanfests, especially if it's going to be so hard to get into one. I still have no interest in fanfest, but this just feels wrong to me.

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They've stayed true to Golbez's design from IV, and I've been looking forward to this fight for some time now. I always get excited for new mechanics, and want to see what they've come up with for him. I've always considered Golbez to be more magically based, so I am impartial to his sword and can take it or leave it.

Job changes are just QoL and not very impactful. I would expect nothing more or less mid expansion.

Crafted gear fits in the 'meh' column for me. I'm sure I'll fit some of it into my glamour selections, just not whole sets.

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Originally Posted by AwesomeJr44

The Meh:

- New MSQ/Dungeon/Trial/Raids: This is scheduled stuff. I'm hyped for the raids, but it's business as usual in this area.

- Duty Support for Stormblood: I guess this is good for those that like Duty Support.

- Unreal: It's an old fight from years ago. It'll be nice to do once or twice I guess.

- Tataru Quests: I doubt it is even possible to get me to care about this questline.

- Faerie Glamours: Although technically they're only adding carbuncles for SCH, it's alright for those who really like Carbuncle. I'll probably be keeping mine as a Faerie.

- Variant Dungeon: It looks the same as the other one gameplay-wise, just with a Kugane coat of paint. The glamour gear from it just looks like the same 'Far Eastern' gear we've gotten for years. Meh.

It's sad that I have to say this but this list is indeed a list of my opinions, and not objective facts.

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I'm actually looking forward to tanking Zurvan, and all the "Skip soar or disband" comments as early as day 1.

Faerie glamours can go into my 'bad' column. Just giving SCHs Carbuncle is quite lame and not at all what they were asking for.

I'm really looking forward the Tataru's GA this round since I get more Gaius, and an update on his remaining child. I'll put this in the 'good' column.

I don't care at all about Duty Support or Variant dungeons. But I suppose these are good things for the people that do enjoy them.

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Originally Posted by Bunnycake

Golbez is going to swing the sword goofy like Thordan did after how shocked he was when WoL survived Ultimate End, isn't he?

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No.

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Originally Posted by Renalt

You and Mao would make an unstoppable duo.

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Im afraid she would eat me :(

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Originally Posted by SassyAssassin

Im afraid she would eat me :(

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Can...can I watch?

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Originally Posted by Renalt

Can...can I watch?

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https://media.tenor.com/giUeDzyB41MA...-newspaper.gif

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Originally Posted by SassyAssassin

Im afraid she would eat me :(

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Renalt

Can...can I watch?

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Take it outside children.

https://media.tenor.com/JW78xvso9jkA...gladiators.gif

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Originally Posted by Zanarkand-Ronso

https://media.tenor.com/giUeDzyB41MA...-newspaper.gif

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I'm still gonna!

https://i.ibb.co/GTgkLsb/tmp.gif

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Originally Posted by Renalt

I'm still gonna!

https://i.ibb.co/GTgkLsb/tmp.gif

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https://media.tenor.com/4aT43EhVuOYA...mily-spray.gif

I better bust out the Big Guns

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Originally Posted by Zanarkand-Ronso

https://media.tenor.com/4aT43EhVuOYA...mily-spray.gif

I better bust out the Big Guns

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Ah! Baths! My only weakness! Don't you know all I need is Axe Body spray? You're diluting my sexiness!

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Originally Posted by AwesomeJr44

Take it outside children.

https://media.tenor.com/JW78xvso9jkA...gladiators.gif

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Sorry mom D; at least this mom doesn’t yell so it’s a plus for me :3

Please don’t clean the windows THAT well next time…it’s very confusing.

Look forward to the patch ALMOST everything gets released in 6.4,5 so you'll be playing something else again real fast

Nice balanced view and nice presentation of the points. I probably mostly agree with this view aside from moving the new msq to “good” as I’m enjoying it.

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Originally Posted by AwesomeJr44

- Crafted Gear: The crafted gear reminds me of the modern glamour sets we've been getting for a while. When these were exclusively crafted from materials in side content like treasure maps, I felt it was alright, but it's a real shame to lose an entire tier of crafted sets for these. They might end up being alright, but it's really not what I'd want from crafted gear. The weapons are at least alright, although they are recolors of the Ktisis weapons.

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I felt the same, the sets looked like they came out of Final Fantasy X-2.

Usually the modern look is restricted to lvl 1 crafted glamour or mogstation outfits and even those I think are overdone at this point. I'd much rather have more gear like the 6.1 MSQ outfit, something more medieval, even more steampunk outfits like the Neo Ishgardian set would be neat.

I actually like the upcoming tomestone gear. I just really really wish they would give us the option to remove the capes, the cloth physics in this game aren't great at the best of times and any tail just straight up clips through it.
The tank chest looks really good, but as long as it has a cape attached to it I'll be sticking to the Alexandrian Coat of Fending...for the 7th year.

I can't wait for the next expansion.
I am not saying that 6.4 is bad or EW is a disappointment...its just...island sanctuary holidays feel too literal.
Sometimes i miss how i used to feel when i played through ARR-Heavensward-Stormblood. Discovering new places using in-game mechanics (lv 13 MSQ), dealing with local myths (tribes), flying (heavensward), diving (stormblood).
Those updates are nice but we don't have new stuff that affect everyone or at least how we interact with our game...always niches.

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Originally Posted by Bunnycake

Golbez is going to swing the sword goofy like Thordan did after how shocked he was when WoL survived Ultimate End, isn't he?

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Oh god please no. First Thordan, then Endsinger, and now Golbez? I've had enough of flailing second phases in penultimate boss fights. Please never do this again, Square. It's insulting.

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Originally Posted by TowaIsBestGirl

Oh god please no. First Thordan, then Endsinger, and now Golbez? I've had enough of flailing second phases in penultimate boss fights. Please never do this again, Square. It's insulting.

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Yeah, seriously. I was disappointed seeing Endsinger throwing a fit near the end. :/

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Originally Posted by AwesomeJr44

- Shatter Map: The new Shatter map for Frontline looks smaller and less fun.

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Agreed

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Originally Posted by AwesomeJr44

- Faerie Glamours: Although technically they're only adding carbuncles for SCH, it's alright for those who really like Carbuncle. I'll probably be keeping mine as a Faerie.

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Might be cool if we got a white or green (actual green) carbuncle. Moogle or Sylph would be fun, maybe only if you completed the beast tribes.

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Originally Posted by Bunnycake

Yeah, seriously. I was disappointed seeing Endsinger throwing a fit near the end. :/

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I mean...what else can you do when your big world ending invincible attack designed to end all life gets hit with a Blue Earth Counter?
Its like Wasting all of your Mana for 1 final Big Bang attack...just for Goku to eat it like it was just a Bag of Popcorn...or for Saitama to just stand there with that dumb look on his face and not even suffer a scratch....

You'd flail helplessly to and throw a fit if all of that effort was for nothing.
Im surprised Ichigo didnt against Aizen.