#ffxiv 1.0 pugilist

[before-calamity]

Hook (PGL Weapon)

This was a MNK weapon in 1.0 that didn't make an appearance in modern FFXIV (as far as I know). It's a captain's hook! You can engage in your Captain Hook fantasy, although you'll be missing an additional hand. But hey, nothing better than having two hooks for hands, right? No kettles here, but hooks? Hooks are in.

[nubblenubs-blog]

Adventure Into – Eorzea - Final Fantasy XIV

Although I’m not a full, hardcore Final Fantasy lover and lore nerd I fully appreciate each of the games in the series (Especially Final Fantasy X, who doesn’t love the almighty Tidus laugh and Blitzball?!). The one game I have completely fallen head of heals for however, is Final Fantasy XIV. I’ve tried so many MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online) games before but this one, somehow, just keeps pulling me back being somewhat of a staple in my steam library. History Today we’re going to be talking about Final Fantasy XIV A Realm Reborn and the brief history of the series. The Final Fantasy series has been around since 1987 in Japan, where it stated as a turn-based RPG (Role Playing Game) it grew in popularity and a few years later, in 1990, the English version was released to the public where still it grew! The turn-based formula has been a solid staple for a lot of the series, the first deviation from the formula, (as well as genre of game) Square’s first of two Final Fantasy MMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) created in 2002, Final Fantasy XI. Final Fantasy XI dropped the turn-based system for a more active system and allowed players from all over the world to connect and explore the world in parties and enjoy the story that the Final Fantasy series was known for. But this wasn’t going to be their first rodeo with an MMORPG, as in 2010 Final Fantasy XIV was released and was a vast graphical and performance improvement on its predecessor with all new systems and jobs, people loved it. This however was short lived and didn’t do too well, and the game took a drastic turn in terms of story line by literally plummeting a moon down on the world that, in story terms, destroyed a lot of the land whilst concluding the story of Final Fantasy XIV (Known as version 1.0) in November 2012. But this wasn’t the end of FFXIV at all! With so many stories to be told, a world to still be used and a dedicated team leader Naoki Yoshida we get fast forwarded 5 years in game time and the game was revived into Final Fantasy XIV A Realm Reborn (Or version 2.0) in August of 2013, once again with more graphical and performance improvements and a huge story overhaul that was truly needed. The Game When you launch you’re greeted with a simple main menu and very Final Fantasy-esk music chiming in the background, (and will actually change depending on the expansions you have!) you will then be thrusted into the character creation, one of my favourite parts even if it isn’t as detailed as other MMOs. Once your character is suitably looking, you will have the choice of the standard base game classes 2 Tanks, 1 Healer and 6 DPS’ each based in their respective starting zones.

·         Limsa Lominsa, the city of pirates, beaches – Marauder, Arcanist

·         Ul’dah the rich and merchants, desert – Gladiator, Pugilist, Thaumaturge

·         Gridania very …down to earth people, forests – Conjurer, Archer, Lancer

Once you’re situated into a world one of the MANY cutscenes this game has to offer will start giving you the general gist of the current situation and once completed, you’ll arrive in your starting town ready to get going! Now that we’re finally into the game itself we get the choice to play with either a controller or keyboard and mouse, this is because the game is also on PS4 and has extremely good controller support for an MMO, however, for this I will be using the standard KB+M. Since this is the tutorial I will rush through and allow you yourself, to learn and I will jump past this section. Once tutorial is over you’ll then be put into the world with other people and can properly start your adventure, getting quests, items, fightin’ critters and following the story of The Warrior of Light. The main part of the gameplay is simple and easy to pick up especially as you level up, getting more intricate as you reach the higher levels of 60-70. However, Final Fantasy XIV is still slower than other MMOs with a global cooldown of 2.5 seconds on standard skills and longer for other skills, which can feel particularly sluggish if you’ve come from WoW with a lot of procs (programmed random occurrence) and movement. Aside from the global cooldown though, the skills are all pretty unique with some beautiful animations that fit your level. I also absolutely love running boss fights, from the hard modes to the extreme and savage, it’s a great challenge with friends and randos! But it’s not only that, there are so many other activities you can do in this game that aren’t all about fighting and defeating creatures; you can actually take up a more tame job such as a crafter or gatherer, race Chocobos, play cards, buy and decorate a house, transmogrify your outfit into something adorable or even take a break during your big adventure to play an RTS (Real Time Strategy) instead! There is so much more this game offers you than just questing and fighting and it’s all so well incorporated into the world and lore that you can get absolutely lost in it and experience/enjoy it all! The Ups and Downs The biggest downside of the game is the monthly subscription system. Although personally I feel like I get my money’s worth every month with the amount of playtime I put in and will continue to put in, I know that’s not the case for everyone and can be a huge put off. Other than the price when it originally re-launched on the PS3 there were many limitations though recently they’ve started streamlining it a lot more (Since they had also stopped support of the PS3 in 2017) whilst keeping phenomenal console support which is very impressive. To give the subscription credit, it is cheaper than a fair few subscription games and comes with a couple of options, one being cheaper than the other, 1 character per world or 8 characters per world. The newest expansions are also bundled in the previous ones, so you don’t need to pay for them individually which is pretty awesome. But before even getting the game and the expansion you can play a free trial that allows you to level up all the way to 35 with every vanilla class giving you a small insight into it each one as well as saving you money since it’s an unlimited time trial, however some features are taken out so bots cannot make use of it such as creating parties, trading and mailing. But the biggest thing for me personally is that it’s not pay to win at all, there is pay for convenience but it’s purely optional other, than that it’s just lots of very cute and aesthetic looking things! The Mog Station (as the shop is called) has lots of cosmetic only items such as clothes, mounts, housing so if you want that cute mount ‘just cuz’? You get it! You want that boost because you don’t like that class at early levels? You get it! All in all Final Fantasy XIV has been an amazing experience and probably my favourite MMO out there. It’s is a staple in my library, and I will hopefully be playing it long into the future with the way it’s ever evolving! Thanks to the amazing team behind Final Fantasy XIV and of course, the players that make the experience as special as it is!

[unkiindness]

ffxiv!Mira

FFXIV AU (WoL) Don’t know what to call it yet, but I’d like to give some kind of background for my oc’s?  I did my best to explain why my adventurer isn’t one of the ones from 1.0.

Miranda Ravenheart (in-game Miranda Raven): 

“My life is not my own.”

A thaumaturgist’s daughter from the Ossuary in Ul’Dah who was visiting Orthard to learn of the countries’ takes on voidsent and black magic.  Upon visiting the Garlean-occupied Doma, Mira was separated from her father and taken.

Mira was experimented on, and from the stress of it awakened to her Echo.  She tried to hide this from the researchers, but they found out and started constructing prototypes for artificially implanting Echo.  Her father was among those who died, while Mira was placed in the pod that copied her Echo.

The research stopped for a time as researchers were needed for other experiments.  Having survived, Mira was conscripted into the military and later fled with a small group.  To finance her travels, she turned to piracy.  Mira’s thirst for knowledge and adventure was sated from raids of various ruins and infiltration of libraries.  However, she knew she needed to head back to Eorzea to inform the Thaumaturgists the fate of her father.

Unfortunately, she was listed in the most wanted.  Still, it was safer than Orthard and Garlemald.  Around the time of her return, her ship crashed from Dalamud’s debris.  Mira and her crew found themselves in the middle of the chaos.  She fought through the crowds of Nael’s and the alliance’s forces towards safety, when Louisoix used his teleportation magic.

A fragment of Azem’s soul was dying while they drifted through the rift.  This was the Source’s Ardbert.  The other fragment was Mira.  The two reached out just as the Source’s Ardbert took his last breath.  This fragment rejoined with Mira’s portion, and Hydaelyn’s voice became clearer.  The visions from the Echo became clearer too.

Five years from the Battle of Charteneau, Mira woke up and would begin her journey as a Warrior of Light.

It was tough to wake up to a new world.  One of which no one really knew the events of the Battle from years ago.  Mira boarded a merchant’s caravan in Vylbrand headed for Ul’Dah.  She was barraged with questions from a traveling merchant, and tried to keep her criminal past from him.  From this conversation, she was pointed towards her first destination within the desert city-state and former homeland.

Mira was not interested in opening up to anyone.  One, she didn’t recognize many faces from the Thaumaturgists’ Guild.  She wondered if her father’s contacts were killed in the calamity.  She wondered if her crew survived too.  Luckily, her crewmate was there relearning the basics in Pugilists’ Guild.  Mira heard that most of her crewmen survived save for one.  As for securing safe travels between the city-states, her crewmate urged her to play along as an adventurer.

[before-calamity]

PUG/MNK Skills Overview Part 2

MNK skills time!

Basically Greased Lightning for 1.0. NPCs will use this, but not player characters.

In ARR, you automatically kick in your auto attacks, but they don't actually do more damage, they are just for show.

Oh, Shoulder Tackle, you will be missed. Removed in EW and replaced with Thunderclap, which is a gap closer but does no damage. This is also a FFXI weaponskill.

Fists of Wind! Our final fist stance. Removed in EW, replaced with Riddle of Wind, which increases your auto attack speed.

Still in Modern XIV, although a lot less exciting.

And here are the traits:

Lvl 8 Enhanced Physical Attack: Increases attack power by 8 Lvl 12 Enhanced Evasion: Increases physical evasion by 8. Lvl 16Enhanced Physical Accuracy: Increases physical accuracy by 8. Lvl 20 Enhanced Second Wind: Increases HP restoration of Second Wind by 25%. Lvl 24 Enhanced Blindside: Adds a physical attack bonus to Blindside based on INT The fact this is based on INT is an interesting choice.

Lvl 28 Enhanced Featherfoot: Increases MP restored by Featherfoot by 25%. Lvl 32 Enhanced Physical Crit Damage: Increases physical critical attack power by 10 Lvl 36 Enhanced Fists of Earth: Increases physical defense bonus of Fists of Earth by 5%. Lvl 40 Enhanced Physical Attack II: Increases attack power by 10 Lvl 44 Enhanced Fists of Fire: Increased attack power bonus of Fists of Fire by 5%. Lvl 48 Swift Taunt: Reduces Taunt recast time by 15 seconds.

Taunt itself is an interesting choice.

Next time on Before Calamity Skill Overview, we'll be looking at ARC/BRD!

[before-calamity]

PUG/MNK Skills Overview: Part 1

No bootshine here, you just get pummel. PUG in 1.0 works differently, and I dunno. I like the ARR version better. Pummel doesn't sound as fun as "Bootshine". It's also kind of an awkward punch animation.

Featherfoot was an ARR skill that was cut in Stormblood, and it does the same thing, albeit without the MP recovery. PUG/MNK actually has stances that use up their MP, so this is important skill. Later in ARR's life, it became a logos action.

*pounces and nuzzles you uwu*

Classic skill, does the same thing.

Why use Twin Snakes or...the other second attack you get in ARR when you can just punch someone really hard and possibly make them blind.

Found this really old forum post about Blindside on SE's official forum. There is an ability called this in FFXI, but it's a SMN pact with Diabolos. Something completely different.

PUG's whole thing, especially in the early days in ARR was evasion. This attack definitely helps with that, especially with it's low TP cost and Recast.

Ahhh, the fists of earth! A mainstay in PUG's ARR repertoire. Removed in EW and replaced with Riddle of Earth.

More MP restoration, handy for your Fist stances.

Demolish is one of the few 1.0 PUG weaponskills to still make its way in ARR, and this one is just a simple attack, other than if you combo it with Pounce, you dispel an effect which...isn't that great? Especially with that TP cost.

Replaced in EW as Riddle of Fire, which is not a stance but increase

Possibly somewhat related to Sabin's class Aura Cannon move. Slowing enemies would be useful, so this is a good skill. Plus it's an AoE.

Yeah. But why? I guess MNK can temporarily be an evade tank like FFXI's NIN infamously was.

Another ARR skill! One that survived all this time! Kind of. Howling Fist has had a bit of a sordid history, being cute from Shadowbringers during the first of many MNK reworks during a short time, and in EW they added it back as a Chakra skill, which is probably the best thing about EW's remake of MNK, being able to use your Chakras at lvl 15 as opposed to level 60 or whatever it was before.

Yes. PUG returns to MoNKe with this nine fold melee attack. Unlike some of the other multiple attacks we've seen, this one doesn't seem to have an accuracy limit, so...go monkey wild.

The thing that I've noticed about these skills is that a lot of them were cut, and a lot of them were also original for XIV, not having any XI equivalent. Honestly, Modern XIV has more XI callbacks then 1.0 did, and 1.0 was set up to be a sequel of FFXI. Interesting.

Next time, we'll take a look at MNK actions and traits.

[before-calamity]

Throwing Weapons

Years before Dancers were introduced in Shadowbringers, Chakrams were in 1.0. As mentioned in the Gear post, 1.0 had the concept of throwing weapons, usually for classes that didn't have a ranged attack. They were a special spot in your inventory. And yes, what this meant was that Crafters and Gatherers had an offensive attack that was more than a futile attack with their tool. There were three classes of throwing weapons: Stones, Chakrams & Throwing Knives. Stones can be used by all weapons. Like with all other kind of weapons, you have to be a certain level in the required class. There were multiple kind of stones: Smoothed Stones, Levinstones, Firepots, Bomb Arm, Grenade Arms and "Exorcism Bean"s. They can be used by all classes. These aren't used in modern FFXIV (although Grenade Arms and Bomb Arms tend to be series stables.) Chakrams can be used by Pugilists or Monks. They come in Bronze, Iron, Steel and Silver varieties. In Modern ARR, Chakrams are the main weapon of Dancers. Throwing Knives can be used by Gladiators or Paladins. They also come in Bronze, Iron, Steel and Silver varieties. They eventually became the "Throwing Dagger" skill for Rogues in modern ARR.

To use these weapons, there were two skills. "Throw" and "Stone Throw". All classes had access to "Throw", while "Stone Throw" could be used by crafters and gatherers. But we'll look at those later, because these....are peculiar in a way.

[before-calamity]

Lancer/Dragoon Skill Overview Part 1

As always, part 1 we look at class skills and part 2 and we'll show job skills and traits.

Another skill that's been around since 1.0. Surprisingly not a skill in FFXI, unlike a lot of these base XIV skills. It's also a front positional in this iteration.

Vorpal Thrust was made a combo in ARR, but it wasn't in 1.0.

This is kind of interesting. Feint used to be a melee attack in 1.0, although it was always a LNC/DRG skill in ARR. Feint is one of those skills that SE doesn't know what it wants it to do, and a lot of casual players think its useless (although it's not). Originally in ARR it decreased the target's strength and dexterity, and now, as of EW, it basically lowers their physical and magical damage.

In 1.0 it was a melee attack that was only used after an attack was missed.

Blood for Blood was in ARR until the DRG rework in EW. Then it was reworked as Lance Chage. In ARR, Blood for Blood still did something a bit different - it raised your damage dealt in exchange for also raising your damage received.

Was originally in ARR, but was removed at Shadowbringers. Oddly enough, I don't remember this skill at all. It was not combo'd off of DRG's normal combo. You'd use it and you'd get a damage increase buff.

This was also in ARR until TP went away in ShB. It also became a role skill in Stormblood.

Removed in modern FFXIV, where it originally started DRG's secondary combo. Now, both combos start with True Thrust. It's also an XI skill, where it was a two-fold weaponskill for polearms.

Another mainstay in EW's DRG rotation, albeit this Life Surge worked more like a skill like Bloodbath. Modern Life Surge basically ensured a critical hit and you heal a portion of that damage done.

Keen Flurry was removed in ARR pretty early on and did something completely different - it increased your parry rate 40%, which isn't really a thing in XIV anymore (or at least an important thing). In 1.0, you used some of your HP to reduce the recast time of your next weaponskill. It's weird to think that your weaponskills had recast times, but that's the kind of game 1.0 was.

Leg Sweep was a combo ability in 1.0, and an AoE at that. Now, Leg Sweep is a melee DPS role ability that is a guarantee stun. I don't know why this was a Lancer skill. It makes more sense to me as a Pugilist skill, but what do I know, I just explore these things.

Another removed LNC ability in ARR, and slightly different from 1.0's version when it was an ability. 1.0's power surge worked like how ARR's Blood for Blood worked - increase attack power, reduce defense. In ARR, Power Surge basically just increased the damage dealt of Jump and Spineshatter Dive.

Dread Spike in ARR was a column AoE attack. In 1.0 it acted like ARR's Life Surge.

Chaos Thrust combos off of Impulse Drive...which it did in ARR, although Disembowel came earlier in the combo. And don't worry...we'll see Disembowel in a bit. Also Chaos Thrust in ARR gave a damage over time, while in 1.0 all you got was a bonus to critical damage. EDIT: Reader @draconiccatgirl has found this youtube video on DRG in 1.0, give it a watch! https://youtu.be/575nZk2jmno