More on Skylanders Swap Force

Keen and I have been continually playing Swap Force and building up our collection. We figure we'd share some of our thoughts on the other aspects of the game not…

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FFXIV End-game Update

Keen in Darklight ArmorI’ve been doing the “end-game”, or what is currently available in the end-game of FFXIV, for a couple of weeks now.

The common sentiment is that Square may have rushed things a bit.  To get ready for doing true end-game activities one must run the same two dungeons over and over.  One of those dungeons is a story dungeon, which causes a rift between those who want to speed run and those who want to watch cutscenes.

Grinding CM and AK  (the two dungeons) yields tokens which can be redeemed for gear.  The gear is really only needed to complete part of the Relic Weapon quest, then advance into the only “raid” currently available: Coil of Bahamut.

Right now I’m still in the “taking it slow” phase. I run 2-3 AK’s a day (30 min each) and collect tokens to redeem for gear I’ll need to comfortably slay Titan and Garuda Hardmode.

Can it improve? Yes.  I wrote only a few days ago that a variety of dungeons wouldn’t hurt.  Adding two or three more would be a great start.  Speeding up the Duty Finder would also go a long way.

What I’m not suggesting is enhancing the gear grind.  Some people are recommending a faster vertical climb.  Me?  I think a nice horizontal progression would be much better.  More dungeon options, lots of gear in the same tier, and a long, long time before I have to worry about replacing the gear I just worked hard to earn.

Long story short, it’s not bad.  Having played on a few hours a night, I’m only a couple of weeks away from being able to do the hardest content.  That’s very reasonable.

Update: Patch 2.05 is bringing a great deal of change.  A lot of what has been bugging me and others about the end-game is being addressed.  All the details. (more…)

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FFXIV Primal Boss Fights

We’re approaching level 50 in FFXIV, and before we talk about end-game bosses and hard modes I thought I would briefly talk about some of the boss fights we’ve done so far.  These won’t be comprehensive guides, but you’ll get an idea of each fight’s mechanics.

ffxiv ifritIfrit

Ifrit is the Primal of Fire and Fury.  As you’d expect, there’s going to be some fire you want to try and avoid.  Throughout the fight he’ll use something called Eruption.  As far as I can tell, this is just something you have to heal through as it will likely take an average player to half health.  A decent healer can pop off a heal and be fine.  Ifrit will occasionally breath fire on the tank, so you’ll want to make sure only the tank is standing in front.

Around half health, Ifrit there will be a spear looking thing in the center of the room called “infernal nail”.  You will want to focus all DPS on this immediately and burn it down as fast as possible.  If it’s not killed quick enough, Ifrit will 1 shot the entire group.

After the infernal nail is down, the fight is pretty simple.  You’ll only have to avoid one more mechanic, and that’s the radiant plumes.  They will be smouldering looking circles on the floor.  Move out of them the second they appear and you’ll be just fine.

Overall, this fight is very simple, and it teaches players the basic mechanics while only requiring a tiny bit of a DPS check. (more…)

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FFXIV iLvL

When Square announced they would be adding a dungeon finder to FFXIV it was only a matter of time before they added the item level mechanic.  Sure enough, it was…

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