So, Zenos is more powerful than Ascians and Nidhogg?

[ko_]

I know quest text it says we have " adventurers" with us but isn't it in the lore that all our fights we fought on our on? Like the only reason that text is there about the other players is cause this is an MMO? Correct me if I'm wrong but from what I've been told and could find, all those gods and primals and whatnot.. we fought "alone".

[Sylvina]

The player being the main part of the show is the whole reason I like the story better than WoW's story. I want to be the hero. I don't want to be the hero's lackey. as far as I'm concerned the WOL did beat all those primals alone becuase the cutscenes prove it. Canonically that's what happened. Zenos is just able to do something we can't overcome at that point. Think of him as our temporary kryptonite, his power is strong against ours.

[ErryK]

He's Lv70, your character is Lv60-63, or somewhere thereabouts. (Canonically, anyways)

[Noshpan]

To be fair, when you first encounter Zenos in Rhalgr's Reach, he is about ten levels higher than the Warrior of Light.

[alimdia]

He's Lv70, your character is Lv60-63, or somewhere thereabouts. (Canonically, anyways)

Levels aren't canon though, they are a gameplay element. If levels were canon you'd run into a lore power-creep, where someone like Susano ends up being stronger than Bahamut not because of raw strength, but just because one was released later, and it would keep creeping up.

[Rufalus]

I believe Zenos is billed as our most powerful/dangerous adversary to date, yeah. Yoshida said it's a miracle that the Warrior of Light beat him. Although the Ascian's grand plot of dimensional collapse is more catastrophic than anything one lunatic might achieve but it's been taking them thousands of years to cause enough calamities for that. *checks watch*

[Lukha]

It's that glorious hair of his. It's a primal.

[Remus]

Don't forget that the Warrior of Light didn't fight the ascians and primals alone. All the time quests have us form a group, in the story, to fight the primals, run dungeons, etc.

Against Zenos you're all alone. You're basically trying to solo a dungeon boss that would take the Warrior of Light, and 3 other allies to beat. (Saying this as an example, not a spoiler.)

I'm sure if Zenos went against, say, King Thordan by himself, Thordan would win. Yet we best Thordan with the help of allies.

See the whole bring group thing is so weird that I don't believe it. There are many situations where bringing a group doesn't make a lot of sense and I just see it as a game mechanic. For example Nabriales (cant remember how to say his name) it's presumed you fought him alone.The story presumes once the portal opened and Minfillia got taken you went straight in after talking to Moenbryda. Also when you fight Lahabrea and Igeyorhm, they don't mention any group and when you beat them they mention they lose due to how strong YOU are in the Blessing of Light now. Also when you fight Nidhogg you had the power of the eye + the Blessing of Light, that's what gave you the strength to beat him anyone else would just be cannon fodder and basically won't hurt him really because he is at full power now.

Please don't presume we always have a group just because we queue for it because that is plainly false. I won't deny maybe some of them we had groups but for a good majority we don't. We didn't bring anyone with us to Kugane (except the main story characters) so how can we bring people to fight Susano? The journal says nearby people fishing but I don't believe that for a second and seems to be only there to say something snarky for people that think we bring people to primal fights all the time. To put it simply there are just too many situations where bringing a group just would not make sense or be feasible.

Just so you know the Blessing of Light and the Echo are 2 different things. People presume they are the same but they are not.

The Echo: The Echo is a psychic power that many people in Eorzea posess. Members of the 1.0 organization "The Path of the Twelve" had this ability, and they made up the bulk of the Scions in 2.0. This power does a few things. Firstly, it allows for the "transcendence of the soul" - the ability to enter the minds and past of individuals and see into their memories or see visions of the past. Secondly, it allows panlingualism - the ability to understand the raw concepts and meaning behind languages. Thirdly, it provides the soul armour against external interference, meaning that one cannot be tempered when one has the Echo - this is precisely WHY Minfilia sends you and other path walkers to investigate the primal summonings. People like Thancred, Y'shtola, Alphinaud, Alisaie and such (not including Krile and a few others we know that have the echo) do not posses the Echo, and are thus vulnerable to the effects of tempering. We have learned that we can use the Echo to protect others from tempering around us. This still doesn't change the fact that they are still vulnerable to it.

Hydaelyn's Blessing: The first time she pulls you into her crystal realm Hydaelyn gives you a task: "The power to banish the darkness dwelleth in the crystals of Light, go forth Adventurer and claim them" (probably paraphrased). Throughout the 2.0 main story, the adventurer accumulates several crystals from various places. Fire, Earth, and Wind are gained by beating Ifrit, Titan, and Garuda respectively. Water is gained first, very early in the story after beating an ascian's summoned creature. Lightning is gained from the Sylph elder after you rescue them from Toto-rak. Ice is gained from beating Isgebind in Stone Vigil. Once all six are collected, the adventurer can be said to have Hydaelyn's blessing - also called the Blessing of Light.

The Blessing is far less understood than the Echo because the Adventurer (the WoL, us) is the only person with access to it (Ysayle was on the road to getting it but you know what happened). This blessing fulfills an important role in the 2.0 story's climax - it allows us to strip Lahabrea out of Thancred and also it protects us from Ultima's blast with help from Hydaelyn. In addition I seem to remember it "pulls" the Primals out of Ultima in order for us to strip Ultima of its powers. This power has seen limited use since 2.0's conclusion because our connection to the Mothercrystal has been tenuous at best (not anymore). The adventurer "activates it" as a shield against Middy at the top of Keeper, to which he responds that we're important somehow. He then seems to ask Hydaelyn if it's okay to borrow her blessing to gain a new body for the time being as Mini Middy. In doing this however, he strips us of a defense against Ascians that we thought was vital. However, it is likely that we no longer need it to confront them as we managed to kill Nabriales without it.

That's the in story reason behind the revoking of the blessing. Narratively speaking, I think that us losing the blessing and gaining Middy is more of a thematic representation of us gaining a new spiritual guide - Midgardsormr, since Hydaelyn was very weak and she does not have the strength to guide us any more, which has changed now due to getting Light back + with the First Shard basically giving a ocean full of it.

[Rhus]

This stressed me out this fight lol
I had to ask my FC (very quickly) if I was supposed to die as it had been about 10minutes maybe more, and he was on 98%hp lol
I did t want to die tho and have to redo it so kept trying to survive but felt the game was forcing me to "die" to advance to a cutscene. A mechanic i not long ago encpuntered in Type-0.

[PerrinTaveren]

Well we have seen an ascian at the end of sb story with the emperor. We don't quite know what they are plotting now, but Zenos isn't powerful without whatever they did to him. So i think ascians are using him as a tool or something along with the empire. I think he is revived by some power ascians have, or he may have never died but came close to dying. We will see i guess as story progress but in the end it is not Zenos' power that kept him alive imo, it is Ascians.