FFXIV – Void Ark and Weeping City

First there was Void Ark. I watched a guide on YouTube but I didn’t understand much of it, so I just jumped in. (It’s easier to learn mechanics first-hand.) It turned out to be fairly straightforward to get carried through there. Just like the Labyrinth of the Ancients raid at 50, everyone is so over-leveled that you hardly even see the mechanics, and mostly all you have to do is follow along, avoid AOEs, and pick up the loot. I got most of the Bard 200 gear (except the belt) and moved on to the next tier.

(I also got a ton of gear for alt classes, too, but I’m running out of places to put gear. Seriously, Square Enix, can you look into this? You’re usually very good about quality-of-life improvements, but storage of alternate gear is still a blind spot.)

Incidentally, the Void Ark Bard gear looks silly. My character looked like a 1950s bell hop.

When I passed item level 205, I entered the Weeping City. It’s a totally different story. MTQ’s guide is split into two parts, which should give you some idea of the complexity of the mechanics. I watched both parts … and retained maybe 1/10th of what I saw. Once again I just jumped in. I knew I was never going to learn it without first-hand experience. These are public raids-they’re usually designed so that only half the participants really need to be well-versed on the mechanics to get through it. (As opposed to the “real” raids, where every single person needs to be on the ball.)

I actually got through the first two bosses without dying, but not so much on the last two. I went and ran right off the edge of the Ozmos platform with the marker, knowing full well that it would happen, while still somehow thinking that an invisible wall would stop me because there are always invisible walls in FFXIV right?

Anyway after I got out of there the guides made a lot more sense. Still, there are some pretty intense mechanics in there. (The Triangle shape on Ozmos is the one I have the most trouble with. It’s so hard to see when you get hit with that Acceleration Bomb thing.)

One thing I’ve learned after going through Weeping City around 10 times now: The community doesn’t seem to know this raid very well, even after all the time it’s been out (6 months?). There’s almost always one alliance that wipes at some point, and there’s almost always a complete raid wipe one or more times. (Frequently on Ozmos.)

Another thing I learned is that the Bard boots never drop in Weeping City.

Okay, they finally dropped last night. The Weeping City gear still doesn’t look as good as the Centurio gear.

My next milestone is item level 235 so I can get into Dun Scaith. But first I apparently need to find a High-capacity Tombstone so I can upgrade my weapon.

And no, I still haven’t done the Antitower to continue the Main Scenario yet. PUGing 4-man dungeons is way more intimidating than 24-man raids, or even 8-man raids. In a 4-man dungeon it’s impossible to hide from all your newbie mistakes.