Stormblood ending was thoroughly disappointing

[Alleo]

Hmm did not see us surviving that Thordan attack as the blessing but it could be. Still it seems to only act as a shield and we were still able to defeat primals without it (it was completely sealed in HW) so I am not sure if we can say that it would boost us (as in raising our attack power). Seeing how Hydaelyn was weakened from just Ultima and how she needed Minfilia to even talk to us, I have a problem to see how we were constantly helped by the blessing. So maybe we got some shields but those only help us survive some big attacks. We would still need to be quite powerful to defeat the primal itsef. I also cant see how we would get help with Ravana. We did travel there with only our NPC friends and I am quite sure that the enemies would not just let us leave (and us leaving Ysayle behind too). So we had to fight him alone.

We might get stronger but the problem is that there is not much of a huge time skip between the battles. If we only fought against him once before the final fight I could have believed it a bit more. (Like someone said: Let the second fight be our first and us being able to at least touch him) But we did fought him with like 2 or 3 level difference in Doma and still did not really stand a chance. We also did mostly fight against fodder and humans after that fight so I cant see how we suddenly got a better skill. (Thordan and Nidhogg did not raise our levels for example, the same with the fight against the WoD)

[Sinh119]

Hmm did not see us surviving that Thordan attack as the blessing but it could be. Still it seems to only act as a shield and we were still able to defeat primals without it (it was completely sealed in HW) so I am not sure if we can say that it would boost us (as in raising our attack power). Seeing how Hydaelyn was weakened from just Ultima and how she needed Minfilia to even talk to us, I have a problem to see how we were constantly helped by the blessing.

Well, the blessing isn't something that Hydaelyn must directly interact with in order to shield us. In ARR, Niabrales mentions that the blessing acted as a kind of ward that prevented Ascians from entering The Waking Sands. This points to the blessing being a passive shield rather than an active one that Hydaelyn must interact with. The reason why Hydaelyn had to directly intervene in the Praetorium was because of how ludicrously powerful Ultima actually was. Without her intervention, it would have overpowered our blessing and toasted us.

I have a problem to see how we were constantly helped by the blessing. So maybe we got some shields but those only help us survive some big attacks. We would still need to be quite powerful to defeat the primal itself. I also cant see how we would get help with Ravana.

The blessing of light is something that was granted to us at the start of ARR. You could compare it to the Protect role action, except granted by Hydaelyn herself. However, unlike Protect, the blessing can be empowered using Crystals of Light. We gathered Crystals of Light throughout ARR (Also keep in mind we gathered far more Crystals than most people, such as Tenzen and the Warriors of Darkness) and those Crystals empowered the blessing and made it incredibly powerful. Think of it kind of like us boosting Protect's mitigation to 60%. Midgardsormr saw it as a weakness and stripped away the Crystals, but we never truly lost the blessing. He just put our Protect back to its base mitigation. Ravana isn't exactly that strong a Primal. He's more on the level of Ifrit or Titan; powerful, but not even close to the likes of the Warring Triad or Thordan. He can be beat, especially by someone as skilled as the Warrior of Light. At the end of Heavensward, our "Protect", reached something ludicrous like 90% damage reduction, which is why we facerolled the Ascians and Thordan.

However, as far as I am aware, the blessing of light only protects against beings primarily composed of Aether rather than normal people (Beings like Ascians, Primals, or Eikons). As a result, the blessing does not protect us against the likes of Zenos.

But we did fought him with like 2 or 3 level difference in Doma and still did not really stand a chance. We also did mostly fight against fodder and humans after that fight so I cant see how we suddenly got a better skill. (Thordan and Nidhogg did not raise our levels for example, the same with the fight against the WoD)

2 or 3 levels is a big deal. To put it in perspective, 3 levels is the difference between a Summoner learning both Dreadwyrm Trance and Deathflare. But from a lore perspective, we were holding our own fairly well against him for a little bit while he was testing us. However, he crushed due to one of the Kojin's sacred treasures, Ame-no-Habakiri. Judging from how it was used, it seems to be a sword that contains a lot of gathered Aether, and as a result it greatly empowers his combat capabilities. Essentially during that encounter he was testing two things: Our progress and his new blade. However, judging from how we did before he drew Ame-no-Habakiri, it's safe to assume that we made substantial progress in the time between Rhalgr's Reach and Doma.

As for what we fought to gain more power, that would be the dungeons, Zenos himself, and the Garleans in general. Lorewise, Bardem's Mettle was probably the thing that really accelerated our growth. Bardem's Mettle is a place that rigorously tests those who enter it. Going through the trials, besting them, and taming our Yol probably strengthened us by quite a bit. This is also discounting Shisui of the Violet Tides and Sirensong Sea, all of which had incredibly formidable opponents, and by the end of the MSQ we get Castrum Abania and Doma Castle, as well as the job ability from our job quests.

Also, the use of level to represent us and Zenos was just to give us an in-game indication of our power differential. In canon, levels don't exist. It's just something that makes it easier to visualize our progress at various points in the MSQ (After all, a level 80 miner would still get wrecked hard by Zenos).

[Frizze]

But we did fought him with like 2 or 3 level difference in Doma and still did not really stand a chance.

I might be remembering this wrong, so disregard all of this if i am. The first fight with Zenos is at the beginning part of the level 61 section of the MSQ. We hold our own for a bit while he plays with us, then he uses more of his power and overwhelms us. At the end of this fight, we have broken his sword which he discards. Breaking the sword shows we have promise. The second fight is the end of the level 64 section of the MSQ. In second fight we plays with us to see how we've grown, then he unsheaths a powerful new sword he's gotten and overwhelms us. We manage to break part of his armor. He sees this as a sign that he was right about us - and he doesnt want to end this fight until we're at our full potential. Afterwards we pass the trials at Bardam, win the Naadam(isnt this supposed to represent being chosen by the au ra gods?), and perform several other feats(doma, abania) that help us to grow stronger. We confront him at the end of Ala Mhigo, and he mostly plays with us. But he is satisfied that we've grown enough, and invites us outside for the true fight. We havent seriously injured him at any point, but we've given him a good workout. Then he melds with Shinryu, and our blessing of light(which wouldnt have mattered against a mortal, but does against a primal) helps us best him. We showed incrimental growth along the way, and had plenty of chances to get stronger and prove our skill. And the biggest gap being between the fight where we knicked him and the final confrontation makes it a bit more believable that we've grown enough.