Weeks 3-7 Goals: Check.

Wow where has the time gone....where did my weekly updates go? I think I am like many others who are struggling to find their way in this game which is by everyone's standards very incomplete. So between reading negativity on the forums and struggling to find my own motivations to "stick it out" I think I let my self-reflections slide for a bit. Perhaps I would have been too jaded to have enjoyed writing my blog like I usually do. Or maybe it is the cognitive dissonance I was struggling with while complaining about the game on one hand but continuing to play it on the other. At this point I am not forcing myself to log in if I don't feel like it and I am taking it on a week by week basis.

So where to begin! I actually have managed to meet several goals and milestone's since my last update. My Botanist is in the lead rank wise for my classes currently and I think I am still enjoying it most. There is something free about roaming the land, enjoying the view, and making a lot of money on the fruits of your labors.

Sometimes I have an audience.

I was also able to experience my first class quest when my Botanist hit 20. I traveled to Gridania for a brief task assignment and cutscene ans was able to see what my future choices would be for guild marks. So far I have been just accumulating them for 20 guildleves but the time is coming soon to start making a decision about what I want to buy. I was also pleased to see my old friend pudgy moogle make a guest appearance in my Botany cutscene!

Can I keep him please?

At the time I am updating my blog my Botanist hit 25 yesterday so I am very excited to travel to Gridania to test out my new 30 Guildleves, however, I am not looking forward to having to spend more anima for the travel time....wtb a chocobo! Also my goal for next week is to hit 26 so I may experience the next story questline and of course post a visual guide to follow.

A brief pause to appreciate the simple beauty

 The second highest class is Weaver at 21 currently. I do admit the grind to 20 was somewhat painful and I used mainly guildleves to fill in the skill points when I found grinding to be intolerable. The lightening crystals by far have been my biggest challenge and despite various attempts at farming and hours spend perusing the market wards, I am still coming up short. I seem to constantly have 3-4 stacks of cotton bolls using up my inventory from harvesting that I just can't keep up with.

Enjoying the scenic port city of Limsa Lominsa.

Despite all my woes of grinding a DoH class, I did reach 20 and see my second class quest. Again, it was a brief trip with a small task to complete. However, the reward of 2,000 guildmarks for this class quest was extremely important considering the difficulty of gaining guildmarks from DoH classes currently. Guildmarks are randomly achieved from completeing rank 20+ guildleves, of which you have no way of knowing if you will receieve guildmarks. So far only 1 rank 20 guildleve has rewarded me with guildmarks since completing this class quest.

These old ladies actually scare me a little.

Grinding a DoH class is very tedious at times and I find the people who tolerate it the best are either multitasking by watching tv or chatting with friends in a group. I tolerate it best with a couple glasses of wine...thus for my own health I am stepping back on this and just allowing myself to do some rank 20 guildleves here and there for marks. I find the people who are really pushing the ranks and plowing through the grind are also coming up short of training because there rapid leveling exceeds the amount of guildmarks they are able to attain. Thus, I am hoping my casual pace will net me more guildmarks and actually allow leveling and synthesis success to get easier in the long term.

Actually this evil stepmother from the weavers class quest scares me more!

Last but not least my Conjurer has made a comeback! A once forgotten class with low priority on my list was given a second chance when they released the patch notes regarding the party bonus. I also was getting dangerously low on my crystals and shards for crafting so that was motivation as well.

These crabs are a little bigger looking then in ffxi.

At first it started with myself and my boyfriends character duoing again as he was leveling up his marauder. However a few linkshell mates expressed interest and my first experience party was born. What did we kill? Crabs of course! Can't seem to escape the infamous crab in any Final Fantasy games... I also made a few more macros for switching aoe on and off that made it a little easier to buff and cure. The skill point gain is varied, I can get anywhere from 68-500 skilll points on any given crab but usually it averaged around 250-300.

Cassopeia Hollow with my first JP party.

Another key thing I discovered useful was the party search system, which I had previously abandoned due to an unappealing UI and unfamiliarity. I watched some tutorials I had found on using it and was surprised at some useful functions it had. Interestingly, although FFXIV does not have the ability to invite people to parties through linkshell lists or friends lists, you CAN invite them anywhere in the world through the use of the party recruit function. I also noticed people have started to get creative with this and use it for linkshell events and linkshell recruitment. The JP players use this function more, but I am hoping more NA catch on to this soon.

These have a very nasty AOE move!

I finally hit Conjurer rank 20 yesterday and learned Cure2! I put it to quick work challenging myself with a difficult red skeleton, but I prevailed in the end. Plus if I lost the fight I wouldn't have to walk my way out of this cave so it was win win all around. My goals for this week include getting Botanist to rank 26 and completing the next main storyline quest as well as completing my Conjurer class quest.

Thank you for reading my adventures!!!