yui

“...Be on your guard. ...There’s no telling just what kind of surprises await us here.”

As the group entered through the door, the first surprise showed itself. The door had shut itself behind the party! Although they were left in total darkness, it didn't last long, before currents of electricity began running across the walls. It had a very sci-fi vibe to it in Abby's opinion, stone walls aside. Further down, the minerals this place was carved out of had changed, from simple stone to agate of various colors. Abby wouldn't have minded taking some for herself, but this place seemed pretty important, and it would probably be a whole process getting some of this stuff out of the walls & floor. Carved into the walls were depictions of humans - regular humans, without the animal features those of this world had - and various animals on the opposite wall. Further down, there was a fork in the hall, another wolf door being down one path. Before the party had much time to think about which way to go, they were greeted by a familiar face from just yesterday.

"Welcome, Exalted, to the Shrine of Storm."

Once again met with River, a conversation about Pokémon of all things ensued. What are they, and did River count as one? Sabrina seemed to be having trouble with the conversation - rightly so, since it was really cute and came out of nowhere - so Abby reasoned it probably would be best to change the subject before River said something that would kill Sabrina outright. Being down a member this early in the adventure sounded like something to avoid.

"Not quite a Pokémon, no," Abby agreed with a shake of her head. "Although, this Shrine of Storm also seems like something you might see in one of our world's games. Or at least, you definitely wouldn't find anything like it in our world itself. What sort of place is this anyway?"

River, who had been looking at Sabrina curiously, shifted focus over to Abby. “Oh this is, as the name suggests, a place to worship and venerate the god of thunder and lightning, the Aeon Storm. It is, as well, meant to serve as a trial for the Exalted to overcome in order to gain power in their quest.” Pausing and then back tracking the dragon girl said, “oh but technically this is a shrine to worship both Ocean and Storm and as such it’s full title would be the Shrine of Storm and Ocean. However my lady has told me that extraneous details are often excluded in common conversation, and as every shrine is meant to worship Ocean that part of the name was deemed extraneous. If you would prefer I refer to them by their full titles though I could correct myself for future encounters.”

"Uh, no, you don't need to include the extra details like that, but thanks." A trial to gain power, huh? Sabrina - slightly misguided though she may have been at times - seemed to have a pretty good handle on this world's workings so far, so this was probably her forte. "Anything we should know about the trial going in?"

“The trial will be divided into two parts. Firstly you must unlock this door,” she pointed to the door behind her before gesturing to the hallway to the side, “and to do so you must first find the two levers that do so. A word of note is that they must both be pulled simultaneously for it to work. The second part of the trail will involve combat against my Lady’s servant to see if you are able to wield the power bestowed here.” In the same somewhat chipper expository tone she added, “oh but they will try to mercilessly kill you so do be cognizant of that.”

On 3/4/2023 at 12:55 PM, Tormented said:

Go on then chief

Machinist (MCH)

Role: Ranged DPS

Weapon: Gun

Machinist is without any room for argument, the youngest job in Final Fantasy XIV's timeline, originating in either the Seventh Umbral Era, or the final years of the Sixth Astral Era. The job, in fact, is so new, that the soul stones used by Machinists have no experience or memories from prior users ingrained into them. This makes Machinist the only job in the game in which the Warrior of Light is the first person to use their soul stone for that job. Machinist as an organized discipline is the passion project of one Stephanivien de Haillenarte, son of one of Ishgard's four noble houses, who dreamed of creating a discipline that anyone could master, be they a well-trained nobleman or a peasant plucked straight out of the Brume. This was meant to serve two goals; bolster Ishgard's ranks in the Dragonsong War with powerful new weaponry, but also ensure the lowborn of Ishgard were able to fend for themselves. With this second ideal in mind, Stephanivien's passions were met with a lot of criticism, particularly from House Dzemael, but the results are hard to deny. Lord Stephanivien has taken cannons and other weapons used since the start of the Dragonsong War, and honed them into handheld firearms that anyone can use and master, further bolstering a Machininst's power with all manner of other trinkets and gadgets.

In-game, Machinist is a high-action DPS job that builds up two job gauges - the Heat Gauge and Battery Gauge - aiming to blow their entire load in one massive burst window. The job's loadout is equipped with various tools to help fill these gauges up, as well as three separate buttons that have 600 potency, some of the highest you'll find in a button that requires no building like Reaper's Communio or Paladin's Blade of Valor. Machinist boasts some of the highest personal DPS in the game, but pays this price in the form of raid DPS, having no abilities to buff party damage but compensating with two abilities to reduce the damage taken by the party (Bard and Dancer only have one). While Machinist's relevance in high-end content is... questionable, not all hope is lost for the gun enthusiasts of FFXIV. This particular balance of traits and qualities, plus the relative safety of being a ranged job, does help cement Machinist as one of the most powerful solo jobs in the game, particularly for soloing deep dungeons like Palace of the Dead or the new Eureka Orthos.

On 3/5/2023 at 10:01 AM, Cibryll said:

Takemikazuchi!

Ninja (NIN)

Role: Melee DPS

Weapon: Daggers

Unlike most jobs in FFXIV, Ninjas have no real documented history. And unlike Machinist, who shares this unique situation by virtue of being an extremely new job, it can be argued that in the case of Ninja, this is by design. All that's known for sure about the history of these shadowy mercenaries is that the job first came to be in the Hingan islands of the Far East, forged in the fires of bloodshed and eventually finding its way to the neighboring nation of Doma. This was due to a ninja named Sasuke arriving in Doma for a job, and being disgusted at the current state of affairs brought about by the current king. After playing a pivotal role in dethroning the tyrant king, Sasuke elected to stay in Doma, creating a new clan - the very first outside of Hingashi - dedicated to protecting the nation and its people. This was generally regarded as treason by the other clans, but it's unclear if anything else ever came of it. The clan was fractured during the Garlean invasion of Doma due to differing political opinions, with some shinobi thinking Garlean rule would be best for Doma's interests, and others very strongly disagreeing.

In-game, Ninja is a DPS job with unmatched versatility, owing to the mudra system. Ninja has three unique abilities called Ten, Chi, and Jin, which don't do anything on their own, but can change the effect of a fourth ability - Ninjitsu - based on how many of these mudras you used, and which one was last in the chain. Ninjitsu alone gives Ninja access to powerful single-target and AoE abilities, buffs for haste and damage, and even some limited crowd control! Also baked into Ninja's kit, you can find a party damage buff, some abilities that interact with Ninjitsu, and a shield applied to yourself for 20% of your max health (the largest %health shield in the game!). Executing Ninja's opener and burst window correctly is more demanding than on any other DPS job, and the downtime between these burst phases is incredibly unnoteworthy, but it's definitely a fun job.

On 3/6/2023 at 9:58 PM, Thar said:

have i changed?

Sage (SGE)

Role: Healer

Weapon: Nouliths

In the absence of a Synodic Scribe video about Sage, and my own inability to find lore information about the job, this all is going to be purely from memory of doing the Sage questline.

Somanoutics is a Sharlayan discipline that combines medicine, aetherology, and sorcery. By using nouliths - a set of four devices - the user gains access to incredible healing and protective abilities. This, as with the other Sharlayan job in the previous post, is a highly-respected art within the nation, born from combining disciplines that don't really have much to do with each other into a cohesive unit. While the nouliths can be used to cause harm, their true specialty is defense. In addition to healing, a Sage is able to create barriers to protect their allies. This job would go on to be adopted by Alphinaud Leveilleur in Endwalker, leaving Y'shtola Rhul as the only Scion of the Seventh Dawn to not have a clear-cut and playable job as of the time of writing this summary.

In-game, Sage is one of two "shield healers" alongside Scholar. The bulk of Sage's healing comes from an ability called Kardia, which heals a chosen ally every time you cast a damaging spell. There are a couple of off-global healing abilities as a convenient "oh shit" button, but a lot of Sage's kit doesn't contain flat-out healing, instead emphasizing health regen and damage reduction. These are mostly cast using a unique job resource called Addersgall, of which you gain one every 45 seconds. Additionally, Sage has another resource called Addersting, which can only be gained by having the barriers created with Eukrasian Diagnosis or Eukrasian Prognosis (modified versions of the only global-cooldown heals Sage has) broken by enemies. At present, the only way to spend Adderstings is on a spell called Toxikon, which does the same amount of damage as your standard damage spell Dosis, but has no cast time, making it a useful mobility option.

Tuesday

After a very successful bout of dueling from Team Genesis, time passed as it is wont to do, and Tuesday came in short order. Eve greeted the new day with enthusiasm, and unlike a previous instance that she wasn't particularly proud of, she made absolutely certain to show up on time today. At three o'clock, the team meeting started, with Vega giving everyone the down-low on what to do with the team's direction moving forward.

“Alright everyone, we are heading into our fourth match! 2 wins and a draw under our belts is pretty solid, should definitely get you guys on more sponsors rad-”

“Oh good, I got the right address!”

Evelyn watched and listened with mild amusement as an older woman entered the room, instilling a very clear shock in Vega who didn't seem to be expecting such a guest. TUrned out, this lady wasn't just any guest, but Vega's own mother! What a pleasant surprise!

"Oh, by the by, you all can call me Maddy. Nice to meetcha!”

"Yeah, that definitely makes sense. So you get your signature grin from your mom's side of the family, coach. It's nice to meet ya, Maddy ma'am."

"Yes, it's really nice to meet you," Eve reiterated, giving a small bow out of old social habit. "Your daughter's been an outstanding coach so far, though I haven't been with the team as long as the others."

Ahead of the group lay a door. An old door, probably a shining example of masterful craftsmanship back in its prime. It was still a lot nicer than most things Abby had seen back in her world, as far as artistry in architecture went, but she wasn't an architect, and this was ultimately still just a door. Carved into its center was the face of a wolf, providing further proof for her original suspicions that this world was largely pagan if she'd still believed such a thing. Which she didn't.

"Do we....knock?"

"...p-p-probably wouldn't hurt..."

Well, if nobody else was going to...

"Don't mind if I do," Abby said, taking the initiative ahead of the rest of the group. The womanlet stepped up to the door, and gave it two simple knocks. Being a mere door of stone and not a living being, however, the door did not respond. Nor did a voice come from within, which was what Abby was expecting in the first place. With nothing in the way of an answer, and no doorknobs, indicating that this door was to be pushed open, Abby gave a shrug.

"Guess we're going right in."

And so, Abby set her hands on the doors, and pushed them open. Greeting her on the other side was a staircase leading down. The interior - much like the doors - was made from stone, and it looked like a decent bit of a walk down. "Alright, I'm a tough girl, so try to stay behind me," Abby said, calling forth her trusty hammer in one hand then starting down the stairs. "Who wants to bet we'll find some sort of cool treasure down here?"

3 hours ago, Blake said:

hello

Dark Knight (DRK)

Role: Tank

Weapon: Greatsword

This job dates back a few hundred years, starting in the isolated city-state of Ishgard. The first Dark Knight was, relatively speaking, just a dude, a Temple Knight who managed to gain significant acclaim despite his lowborn status. After straight-up killing an Ishgardian priest in his own home after witnessing "unspeakable acts", he was stripped of his status and banned from the city. But this example would go on to prompt others to follow the path, leading up to the events of FFXIV and the Warrior of Light taking the job. Dark Knights choose greatswords for the pragmatic reason of there not being any real sort of structure or organization among their ranks; it's not uncommon for one Dark Knight to have to face several opponents alone, and the greatsword gives them a reach advantage to help tip the scales back in their favor. In more recent generations, Dark Knights have even begun wielding magic, simply dubbed the dark arts. These arts can do a few neat things like call upon a simulacrum of one's "inner darkness" (i'm not making this shit up), suck the aether out of others, and even cheat death itself in some exceptional cases.

In-game, the Dark Knight is a tank job that trades a tank's usual defensive prowess for raw damage. Of note, Dark Knight's opener in high-end content is so incredibly powerful that if you have an ability that only buffs one ally's damage, like Dancer's Standard Finish or Dragoon's Dragon Sight, it's actually better to give those buffs to the Dark Knight than to any other party member (yes, even Black Mage). After this absurdly powerful burst at the start of a fight, Dark Knight boasts sufficient defensive cooldowns to not die in standard dungeons while still doing sufficient damage to not be Paladin. Being squishier than the other tanks in addition to having two targetable mitigations in the form of Oblation and The Blackest Night - the latter of which was the best mitigation in the game before Endwalker's release - makes Dark Knight the perfect off-tank, though in my personal opinion, Dark Knight needs more damage outside of its burst to make up for being weaker than the other tanks on the defensive side of things.

3 hours ago, LordCowCow said:

okay jobber

Summoner (SMN)

Role: Magic DPS

Weapon: Grimoire

Summoners as we know them in FFXIV date back to the Allagan Empire, making this the oldest job on the game's timeline by leaps and bounds. While Allag was chiefly known for its absurd magitek, which even the nigh-unstoppable Garlean Empire pales in comparison to, the second-most Allagan thing one might think of is binding primals to one's will. Allag chiefly used these entities as power sources, with the elder primal Bahamut being sealed in the artificial moon Dalamud to serve as fuel for Emperor Xande's pact with the Void, for one notorious example. On a smaller scale exists the Summoner, who binds the power and essence of primals to serve their own needs and desires, a technique initially developed as a means to expedite Allag's wars of conquest by turning the primals of other civilizations against them. However, power corrupts, and Summoners who sought to use the power of primals for their own selfish desires began to taint the reputation of the discipline as a whole, eventually ending with the imperial order to exterminate anyone who practiced the art.

In-game, Summoners are an unusual caster job, built upon several reworks and 12-year-old spaghetti code. With the 6.0 patch and the release of Endwalker, Summoner received a full overhaul, transforming from a damage-over-time type caster who used two damage effects in conjunction with one of three egis (mini-primals) for various situations, to a more straightforward caster with a newfound focus on instant-cast spells, with the almost-complete freedom of movement granting them mobility Black Mage and Red Mage wish they had. In short, your rotation consists of a 60-second loop of entering a burst phase comprised entirely of instant-cast spells, followed by three "mini phases"; one each for Ifrit, Titan, and Garuda. Titan Phase is entirely instant-cast, Garuda is mostly instant-cast, and Ifrit is two spells that you'll need to hard-cast plus (a couple instant spells at level 90). The order you use them in doesn't matter, so pick the one that's best at that time; try not to use Ifrit if you're gonna have to do some running around, for example.

3 hours ago, (o ×) said:

terrybogardokay.wav

Black Mage (BLM)

Role: Magic DPS

Weapon: Rod

Black magic is the most powerful known school of magic on Hydaelyn, dating back to the Fifth Astral Era, making it also one of the oldest schools of magic. It was chiefly used by the people of Mhach, where its practitioners were given the title "Black Mage" out of both respect and fear of the power they commanded. In addition to devastating spells of fire and ice, the first Black Mages were also able to summon and command the twisted denizens of the Void. This power ultimately led to Mhach's ruin, however, as for unknown reasons, they sparked the War of the Magi with neighboring nations Nym and fellow superpower nation Amdapor. While Nym was easily wiped out by a plague Mhachi mages had unleashed by sneaking in a voidsent, the Black Mages of Mhach and their opposing number, Amdapor's White Mages, overused the aether of the land around them in the war, causing the Sixth Umbral Calamity and wiping out all three cities in a great flood. Following this, both black and white magic were deemed forbidden arts. This all was about 1500 years prior to the start of FFXIV.

In-game, Black Mage boasts the highest personal DPS of any job in the game, with the tradeoff intended to be paying the price in movement. Casters need to cast, and unlike Summoner who mostly deals in instant-cast spells or Red Mage who goes halfsies by making every other spell instant, Black Mage is meant to hardcast everything, and stay still while doing so lest their cast be interrupted. I say meant to because despite this, there are valid rotations for the job that allow the player to constantly be on the move, which is a good way to sum up the sheer complexity Black Mage can potentially bring to a dedicated player. On a surface level the job's quite straightforward, but the room for optimization is absurd, and the rewards in damage equally so. Reaching the level cap is just the start for those who choose to take the black pill.

1 hour ago, radio414 said:

is it pronounced job or job

Astrologian (AST)

Role: Healer

Weapon: Planisphere

There are two major schools of astrology on Hydaelyn, one each coming from Sharlayan and Ishgard. While Sharlayan astrology is committed to reading the stars as a whole to predict and thus change the future itself, Ishgardian astrology - a shootoff of Sharlayan's own - is minmaxed very specifically on the Dragonstar, a singular star in the sky through which stargazers can roughly predict when, where, and how intensely the Dravanian hordes will strike next in Ishgard's 1000-year-long war with dragonkind. The Warrior of Light practices the former of the two, which originated in the Sixth Astral Era, perhaps owing in part to the fact that Ishgardian astrology doesn't implement astromancy, the Astrologian's signature art of drawing aether from the heavens themselves as opposed to their own bodies like Monks, or from the world around them like Black Mages. With the powers of the stars, planets, and fate itself at their fingertips, what was once considered to by a hoax of a profession is now a highly-respected school of magic in Sharlayan. So much so that many Sharlayans believe other nations shouldn't be allowed to obtain the art of astromancy at all!

In-game, Astrologian is a healer that excels in enabling the damage of everyone around them. Like Scholar, Astrologian has a damage buff for the entire party they can use every two minutes (White Mage and Sage don't have this), but unlike Scholar, Astrologian can also give smaller damage buffs to individual players through the use of one of six tarot cards. The Balance, Spear, and Arrow buff melee jobs, while the Ewer, Spire, and Bole buff ranged players and casters. Astrologian also boasts a wealth of off-global heals, with its only competition in the field being Sage, making it easier to continually cast damage spells outside of very dire circumstances or to refresh your regen spell on the tank. That said, due to the cards mechanic, their seals, and some weird abilities like Synastry and Macrocosmos, Astrologian is also the most complex healer job. It's been stated the development team intends to rework Astrologian (along with Dragoon) in a future patch, but we've yet to hear any further word on this.

it's been some time, and in that time, endwalker has brought sage and reaper to FF14 and i've done every job's questline so i better understand what it actually means to take on a given job.

so let's do this thing again.

https://cajunavenger.github.io/

favorite of each type by gen, and some other stuff as well

here's mine

The remaining Drengr were being cleared out quite nicely. As she'd expected, the bear made short work of finishing off the one that she'd thrown her hammer at. Sabrina - for whom Dracona was also an acceptable name, apparently - had very nearly killed the one she'd been combating, but chose to let it go at the last second. Abby for one approved of the decision. After Sabrina/Dracona had apparently parleyed with the bear, and received a nod from Abby confirming that she could indeed make the hurt go away if it let her, Gene had voiced his own opinion on the Drengr-sparing.

"O-Out of curiosity, why did you let that one go? You realize, they'll warn their kind right? We could end up being in serious trouble if anything happens... N-N-Not that I'm saying you or the others can't handle it...n-n-not saying that at all...j-just more like...um...i-it's a bold move, y-yeah that's it."

"I think it's a good thing," Abby offered as a response. "Real heroic-like. Plus, just because we have magical powers and all doesn't mean we're allowed to become a bunch of sociopaths with no regard for life. Case in point." Getting back up to her feet, Abby brought her hand up to rub some of the sting out of the spot where her arm had been sliced. She could already feel her clothes regenerating. If only the textiles of her own world could be so convenient! It would save a lot of unfortunate cases of having to throw out a shirt you really liked but was old and full of holes. It would also save a lot of... other situations. The poorly-timed end of one ill-fated skirt she particularly liked from middle school came to mind.

"This might take a bit, but I'm not gonna hurt you," Abby said, pointing her magic hand at the bear again. "Just relax and think about... whatever it is bears like? Fishing or something?"

Although the bear had initially taken a cautious step back at first - not that Abby blamed it or anything - the bear didn't put up much resistance once the actual healing part started. "This is pretty awesome, right?" she smiled, looking back at the rest of the team. "Bears are great. Not that I've ever seen one up close like this before."

"Well, looks like we've ended up with a little group of weirdos."

To that, Wendy could agree. Thankfully, she was a much-needed dose of normalcy in this collection of strange and unusual characters.

"Myself included, of course! Helena's the name, and this cutie is Jackie. I don't see much of a problem with Mahli wandering off and doing his own thing, it'd just bring everyone down to force someone to go somewhere they didn't wanna go... But we may as well tag along to Levincia for the first stretch, ye?"

"Wendy," the white-haired girl reiterated, for those that hadn't been there when she first introduced herself. "I agree; if only as far as Levincia, we should at least stick together at the start of our adventure." And so the plan was made; meet back up outside the gates of Mesagoza, and from there, once the gang was all there, get this show on the road!

Outside Mesagoza, South Province Area Three - 4:30 PM

Wendy had initially resolved to be outside the gates at four o'clock, on the nose. However, met with some free time before the hour of choice, she'd gone to Naranja's library, to do a bit of research. Or try to, anyway. What was supposed to be "research" ended up turning into "struggling to find any material that could be found anywhere else". She'd been looking for any sort of documentation on Paldea's climate, as per the job that had sent her here in the first place, but the only mentions of weather that seemed unique to the region were listings of pokemon unique to Paldea who interacted with weather - a phenomenon far from unique to this region - and one not-very-academic-looking footnote that mentioned Paldea's rains were generally so short that there was no point bothering with umbrellas or anything of the sort in the first place, which did absolutely nothing to help Wendy in her search.

The only thing that was even remotely connected to her search was the knowledge that Pelipper was a pokemon that existed in this region, which was not only a fact that nobody had ever called into question, but also one that still provided no assistance. Pelipper was far from exclusive to Paldea, yet this was the only region that was... like this. So unless there was some sort of hyper-frequent mass migration of the creatures or some equally unlikely situation, "pokemon abilities" could be ruled out as to why the weather in Paldea could swerve so suddenly.

And then Wendy realized she was late, and that hitting the books was clearly getting nowhere anyway. She wasted no time putting everything back where she found it, ensuring she had her two poke balls with her, then hurrying to the gates of Mesagoza. Generally one to travel very light, Wendy had simply gotten a regular backpack, filling it up with supplies she'd imagined others might want. Not to mention there was that one boy, whose bag surely compensated for the rest of the team if they were light travelers like herself or if they simply neglected to prepare for a journey all around the Paldea Region.

Wendy approached the gates just in time to hear that Aruto boy call out to the rest of his team. It seemed he was just now catching up as well, but rather than from within the city, it seemed he'd already gotten a bit of a head start exploring beyond its safety.

"HEY! Sorry, was exploring a bit...got me a new Pokémon too!"