Can't Blog... Too Busy Playing...

So at some point in the week following the game's official release, I was able to reliably login and play.

And play I did.

I plowed through the main scenario. My opinion of it as a whole is that the story was solid enough but the fetch quests littered throughout were pretty bogus time wasters.

I finished my Paladin class and job quests first. I really enjoyed the storyline and battles for it. I found them fairly easy to complete. The AF looks great and is a decent enough starting point prior to grinding for proper endgame equipment.

Following the completion of the main scenario, I began working on my first relic, Curtana and Holy Shield. As of this writing, I need to defeat Garuda Hard Mode. I decided that prior to attempting this, I would upgrade my gear for Paladin. I'm to the point where I need to grind Tomes of Philosophy for just my Darklight body and legs pieces now.

So my tank job is coming together. I felt I should work on a DPS class next. I examined what was available and decided on Dragoon as my next class. I finished the quests for it but haven't properly started working on it's gear just yet. At least now I can use it to help friends with Duties.

I thought the final battle for the Dragoon job class was pretty tough, actually! It might have been because I've played mostly Paladin so far and I wasn't really used to playing Lancer/Dragoon in 2.0 that much yet. However, a friend told me it also took him multiple attempts.

I began leveling Arcanist as well, to gradually work on developing Scholar for a healer. It appears there's more than enough White Mages around, so I'll put my level 35 Conjurer on the back burner for now. So far, it seems pretty decent. I still don't know why ACN/SMNs in duties have such issues controlling their pets. I guess we'll see once I start taking it to Duties!

In my battle class downtime, I worked on properly gearing my Blacksmith 50. I've got my AF, some good HQ accessories, and my new level 50 class weapon. Crafting in 2.0 is crazy simple once you get used to it. I love it.

In the past two nights, I started messing around with gathering. I've worked my Botanist up from 18 to 21. Again, this feels like another game system that's improved greatly from 1.Tanaka. I still have yet to try out Mining (which I have at 22) and Fishing (which I'm at 50).

So, so far, the game's been wonderful. I've really enjoyed it, aside from some miserable experiences in duty finder ques waiting on an instance to open up, and players who need to learn how to play the game still. We'll see how both of these issues develop as the game grows older!

I will write again soon.