3.4 speculation

[AutumnHarvestwind]

Now that we are going back into the Ascian arc and eventually to Ala Mihgo, how do you think it will be done?
Do you think we will return to the Word of the Mother,

or Minfilia

with some quest?
How do you think we will clash with the Warriors of Darkness, or

Edgelords?

How do you think Alisaie will be introduced into the arc, and what role she will play in contrast to Alphinaud?
Do you think little-ascian child will play a much bigger role?

Did you notice any red-herrings, or foreshadowing ques in the earlier patches that may lead us into the next over arching story arc?
Crack pot theories?
What kind of developments do you hope to see now that we're entering 3.4-4.0?

[Yuella]

I have a feeling that WoD's team will end up helping us once they realize that the Ascians are up to no good. But not before we have an epic fight with them. They could be this games' Ark Angels so we may have to fight them one by one and the Minstrel's Ballad version is the Divine Might version where we have to fight all of them at once.

[Morningstar1337]

I have a feeling that WoD's team will end up helping us once they realize that the Ascians are up to no good. But not before we have an epic fight with them. They could be this games' Ark Angels so we may have to fight them one by one and the Minstrel's Ballad version is the Divine Might version where we have to fight all of them at once.

Took a few second to look at those "Ark Angels" and I feel like that might be the case. Unfortunately I can only fin that they are a thing, that they consist of one member of each of that games races, and that they seem to be associated with negative emotions, so their lore in XI is lost on me.

[Starkbeaumont]

thancred will bring alisaie to us, she'll get a super fancy new outfit, lot's of talking with alphinaud. we visit an unexpected dungeon cause matoya said so to Y'shtola and that's mostly it. Grand finale in 3.5
for the triad we hopefully fight the next one
2nd dungeon is snowcloak hard, which we will visit again, cause now that the war is over, we gotta clean the place to build a monument or something like that
Alex is more gobs and mechs and maybe, just maybe the "spirit" of alexander itself

[Enkidoh]

Took a few second to look at those "Ark Angels" and I feel like that might be the case. Unfortunately I can only fin that they are a thing, that they consist of one member of each of that games races, and that they seem to be associated with negative emotions, so their lore in XI is lost on me.

The lore behind the Ark Angels was rather contradictory and anachronistic in FFXI's storyline - on face value they represented each of the five race's fundamental flaws (in FFXI, each race had a 'vice' or negative aspect that cursed them effectively - humes (aka hyur) were apathetic, tarutaru (lalafell) were cowardly, elvaan (elezen) were arrogant, mithra (miqote) were envious and galka (roegadyn) it was rage.), but were also stated as having been created before the five races as guardians of the Mothercrystals, but they were inadvertently warped and twisted into vengeful beings by the Meltdown that destroyed the precursor Zilart race and turned their protohuman offshoot Kuluu brothers into tonberries.

They formed part of the main antagonists of the Rise of the Zilart expansion where Archduke Kamla'naut and El'dnarche sent them to destroy the meddling adventurers who were proving to be thorns in their side, but they were defeated and destroyed - they were virtually little more than automatons made of crystal (they literally shatter upon defeat - the taru Ark Angel's death animation was especially hilarious).

Although having a similar sort of battle here in FFXIV would be fun, sadly the six Spoken races of Hydaelyn do not have a similar origin story to the races of Altana in FFXI which could fit into FFXIV's story easily. But I'm sure Mr Maehiro along with Mr Oda and Mr Koji Fox would work out some way of having a similar concept here in FFXIV.

[Khalithar]

Snip

I don't think she was talking about their lore. She was referring to a specific set of bosses from FFXI, they were extremely powerful enemies that were one of each of the playable races in addition to being a combination of two of the job classes with their associated ultimate abilities and powerful spells. There was a story quest where you had to defeat them and from there you were presented with two options, you could fight each one alone in a single party fight or do an extremely difficult (at the time) version of the fight that required the maximum number of people in an alliance where you took on all five of them at once.

The fight was extremely difficult initially, it required very high dps, very high healing, and you had to pull them just right. Even pulling them wrong was an instant game over in some cases, the Hume and the Elvaan were especially deadly. The Hume could one shot your entire group instantly whenever his AI decided to activate one of his ultimates and the Elvaan had an attack that did damage based on her HP that ignored all defenses (instant one shot to absolutely anyone she used it on with no way around it) in addition to being able to heal herself and the rest of the ark angels back to full HP once during the fight depending on when she decided to use the heal along with making herself immune to physical damage once per fight. Yuella was saying there might be a similar option available in this game where we take on the Warriors of Darkness one at a time and that there will be an Extreme mode trial where we take on all five at once.

I don't agree with that, I believe we will have a full party trial where we take on all of them at once, one tank for the pld, one tank for the warrior with a possible tank swap, then dps have to burn the whm while the healers heal through the damage the blm and brd deal. My prediction for the fight is that it will be what's called a "council fight," you have to down them one a a time and each time you kill one the others heal back to full and may or may not get stronger (it's a pretty common raid mechanic in a lot of games). My speculation is the kill order will be whm -> blm -> brd -> warrior -> pld. Alisaie will come to us telling the WoD's are working with the Ascians and have to be stopped from doing what they're doing and then we'll either skirmish against the WoD's and drive them back where they'll swear to not go so easy on us next time or we'll have the fight I predicted above.

We'll definitely get the next chapter in the warring triad, probably the demon next.

Also, with their plans on adding more GC stuff in the next patch, I have a feeling some of the MSQ might be GC related. Ishgard is more or less fine as is which leaves the only remaining enemies as the WoD's and the Ascians. We're already contending with the Empire in the warring triad storyline, I highly doubt we'll face them in the MSQ while that's going on, otherwise it would just be rather redundant.

[Morningstar1337]

...Although having a similar sort of battle here in FFXIV would be fun, sadly the six Spoken races of Hydaelyn do not have a similar origin story to the races of Altana in FFXI which could fit into FFXIV's story easily. But I'm sure Mr Maehiro along with Mr Oda and Mr Koji Fox would work out some way of having a similar concept here in FFXIV.

I see. That is interesting. And I agree that the concept "as seen in XI", like other ideas from XI, would not be feasible as is, and that it would be fit in another way.

I don't think she was talking about their lore...

I'm aware of that, and while I am curious at the time of the post, as I mentioned before, I don't they will be a copy paste from XI, but I do think they would be similar to that group one way or another.

I don't agree with that, I believe we will have a full party trial where we take on all of them at once, one tank for the pld, one tank for the warrior with a possible tank swap, then dps have to burn the whm while the healers heal through the damage the blm and brd deal. My prediction for the fight is that it will be what's called a "council fight," you have to down them one a a time and each time you kill one the others heal back to full and may or may not get stronger (it's a pretty common raid mechanic in a lot of games). My speculation is the kill order will be whm -> blm -> brd -> warrior -> pld. Alisaie will come to us telling the WoD's are working with the Ascians and have to be stopped from doing what they're doing and then we'll either skirmish against the WoD's and drive them back where they'll swear to not go so easy on us next time or we'll have the fight I predicted above.

"Council fight" you mean like the Ward Up hest then? or the pacos battle in XIII-2?

Also, with their plans on adding more GC stuff in the next patch, I have a feeling some of the MSQ might be GC related. Ishgard is more or less fine as is which leaves the only remaining enemies as the WoD's and the Ascians. We're already contending with the Empire in the warring triad storyline, I highly doubt we'll face them in the MSQ while that's going on, otherwise it would just be rather redundant.

Actually I can see 3.4 or so to be the perfect time for Ishgard to start setting up a GC of their own (so long as Ameryc dosn't put Alphinaud in charge :P)

[Khalithar]

"Council fight" you mean like the Ward Up hest then? or the pacos battle in XIII-2?

No.

Dread Guard Commanders in SWTOR: http://dulfy.net/2012/09/26/ciphas-h...n-boss-guides/ Read the Boss Buffs and Kill Order section.

or

The Assembly of Iron in WoW: http://wow.gamepedia.com/Assembly_of_Iron Read the first paragraph at the top of the page.

[Laili]

Good King Moggle Mog is the fight that comes to mind in XIV when I hear "council fight".

Anyway, as for what I'm expecting:

I'm expecting at some point for Urianger to reveal his hand in why he's been meeting with Elidybus. I think there's some pretty deep implications there; considering his burning rage towards the Ascians for Moenbryda's demise there has to be a damn good reason for him apparently cooperating with one of them. Alisae returning to the fold is going to be what forces his hand considering she saw their meeting at the end of 3.1

[Khalithar]

Good King Moggle Mog is the fight that comes to mind in XIV when I hear "council fight".

Basically what's considered a traditional "council fight" in MMO's is generally a fight where you have a set of bosses to kill and as you down each one the others heal to full and gain new abilities.