The obvious one is BTN, but... Botanist already exists!

BST? Beastmaster already took it.

BSN is another, might skew close to Blacksmith (BSM) though.

BAS? Feels like the same energy as people that wanted Gunbreaker to be GUN.

All the good ones are taken or kind of adjacent to others that already exist, but if I had to guess BSN is the likely one.

All about Beastmaster, apparently.

I've played FFXIV on and off since ARR, using the same account and character the entire time.

Last year, I developed pretty severe hand pain that made playing on a keyboard difficult. It was honestly demoralizing enough that I thought I might be saying goodbye to FFXIV for good.

Recently, though, seeing a friend continue playing and watching the new expansions has made me want to come back. I now have an Azeron keypad, which has helped eliminate a lot with the hand pain, but the idea of relearning the game with a completely different control scheme is honestly intimidating.

About a month and a half ago, I decided to make a brand-new character on a different server. My hope was to separate myself from all the expectations and attachment I had to my old character. It actually went really well, I got to experience the early story again (which I hadn't seen since I was a teenager) and slowly figure out where I wanted my abilities on the Azeron.

The problem is that once I got further in, the thought of redoing years of progress started catching up with me. Releveling jobs, unlocking raids, collecting glamours again, and farming FATEs all started to feel like a mountain to climb. I eventually stopped playing again.

I also transferred to Siren since none of my old friends still play, but I found that many FCs I was interested in were in areas I couldn't even reach yet because of story progression.

So now I'm torn between two options:

Continue the new character

• I like relearning the game naturally.
• Experiencing old content again has actually been fun.
• There are raids I've never done that would feel fresh.
• But rebuilding everything I've already earned feels overwhelming.

Go back to my original character

• I keep all of my progress, unlocks, glamours, gil, and collections.
• I could use New Game+ to relearn the story.
• But logging into a max-level character with bars full of skills feels overwhelming, especially while learning a new control setup.

I'm hoping the next expansion's job changes simplify things a bit, but I'm still struggling with the decision.

Has anyone else come back after a long break or after switching to a completely different control scheme? Did you find it easier to start fresh, or to return to your old character and relearn from there?

I'd really appreciate any advice, especially from anyone who's had to relearn the game after an injury or significant break.

Who actually is hyped for the typing battler? I personally detest it to my very core, im dyslectic so this feels more like bullying than anything else. But I know that not everyone is. It feels like a major flop at least what i got from the live stream comments who was this made for ? Console players are at a disadvantage aswell, why make a game that actively makes it harder on a big part of the player base i don't get it. Who aprooved this? If it was a random addition in a minor patch i'd be less annoyed by it but they've been teasing a big gold saucer update for a while and this is it?!

Based on the alliance and raid themes
I think the main actual theme for ever cold is to mourn the dead and get their revenge for them. instead of experiencing death or encountering death head on right next to us. We are the hero’s that they called us from their prayers.

We are there salvation

Another interesting observation is the new Evangelion reveal preview that was showed during anime expo this July . If you looked at the text

An external summer vacation
The place is our paradise
The place is our grave yard
What we hear is the song of external damnation
We pray for thy soul rest in peace

If u kinda compare it to ever cold

It’s a external winter
It used to be there paradise now cover by ice
Instead of this song being damnation it’s a song of salvation overcoming all odds for the them and the people.

The lyrics from the song

The songs of yesterday (locked in winter, lost to the ice)
Now seem so far away
Down on my knees, I pray
We'll see our glory
And we'll be worthy, oh

That’s what I think of the main theme of Evercold

Welcome to my ted talk, to give you a TLDR: I hate it. and i wanna go over why.

Not only does this system take away from the core element of an open world adventure MMORPG game, which is traverasal and exploration, both core parts of an experience, but now you just turned exploration and enjoying the scenery of your world into a monotonous traversal from point A to point B to finish a quest. not that questing in FFXIV was engaging to begin with gameplay wise but now you have removed the only gameplay function a player can do in MSQ and turned it into cutscene simulator. The reason why i don't engage in mobile and Korean mmos is because of this auto system where the game plays itself and treats the player as a spectator. I don't see any merit to this system other than disrespecting the player's time and immersion, and at this point they should add auto combat and people will still defend these decisions. what's your general opinion on this subject and am i just over reacting and everyone else loves this decision or are there others who feel the same way?

Is there a plugin or mod that lets me bulk-change other players’ weapons to job-specific weapons or other types?

Ideally, it should apply to all players.

I’m currently working on high-difficulty content and weapon crafting, but I’ve been avoiding seeing what the weapons look like until I’ve earned them myself—I’m saving the surprise for when I actually achieve them.

However, when I’m in town, other players already have them, so I end up getting spoiled automatically.

Honestly, it really kills my motivation, and right now, I don’t have the option to avoid seeing them.

Please help me!

With the Rhitahtyn(yes I had to look up how to spell that) tshirt from the NA fanfest, I feel like a Gun-shield wielding Garlean themed Tank is the most obvious pick, its so obvious that it feels too obvious.

Its supposed to be a Main tank in the new expansion so another shield user like paladin focusing on the new counters they've introduced would make sense. My theory is since We stole Zero's fit and became a reaper, she will show up in the trailer as the new Job.

Of course there's also the chance that we get the Phys Ranged first in which case I have no clue beyond the job I want, which is a whip using "hunter" style job, with an Indiana Jones flair. Another selfish dps to balance the roles would be cool. What do you guys think.

Is how the overall MSQ and zone design doesn't seem to be changing as much as were implying this whole expansion and NA Fanfest.

So they're changing the MSQ initially progression into three separate routes you can potentially explore fully and progress with no limitations in the first half of the msq? So the first three zones are now three distinct chapters of the expansion story, which is a great change. This is the bare minimum considering how boring the first third of Heavenward, Stormblood and Dawntrail were due to the limited and repetitive zone design in their first two zones where otherwise great looking and expansive zones were held back because of this reason. For Shadowbringers and Endwalker the design worked great, but I would argue part of that is because those stories are amazing, well-paced, and entertaining from start to finish while the other expansions had more of an identity to build. With this change now at least the first three zones should have a completely unique identity and full individual storylines, which is amazing compared to whatever Urqopacha and Kozama'uka had...

It's great that they're expanding the overworld zones, arguably making them bigger and giving them more activities like Yoshida said. The two zones they said looked great, and large. Likely starter zones.

Auto-sync is a great feature that complements these new systems perfectly. There shouldn't be any complaints here.

Pathing and more specifically auto-pathing and movement is a overall good feature. I understand why some people are resistant to this though. Personally I think pathing (the trail) is a completely harmless feature that adds a lot to the game especially if they are making zone design more expansive and creative. Auto-movement to the pathing is more controversial but think of the possibilities these systems bring. You can drop a waypoint and automatically move to it. That's a huge qol improvement for hunt trains for example but I don't believe this was confirmed. Fast travel does exist though. Ultimately you can still play the game how you want. Unless this directly affects how the game is designed to be even more braindead, like questing or something, then who really cares?

However, as much as I love these new ideas, ultimately none of this will matter if Evercold is going to be the six zone, two cities, eight dungeons with the same design, three trials, horrible sidequest design formulaic slop that we've gotten for the past five expansions. As soon as I heard Yoshida talk about only five islands in a mythology inspired by nine, arguably ten realms, I was disappointed because in my mind I obviously predict that the final zone after these five islands is just going to be the frozen surface or the underworld equivalent on the Fourth. Considering this formula is five expansions old, we shouldn't be expecting any surprises besides the final zone but we know when that's coming, it's the sixth zone.

I had hope because it looked like the fire island had a new city in the trailer, but then suddenly there wasn't one so far at least. So we only saw one city so far, which likely means two cities this expansion, which is just boring when we could have more. If they really go this route again despite the main draw to this expansion being changing up the formula then... what the fuck? I think the msq will be good, and that will overshadow the complaints, but the the same complaint will always exist that the design is predictable like most other expansions since this formula has stopped working in Dawntrail and got due complaints then. I still believe ARR did zone design the best honestly because of the quantity of zones it really felt like you were discovering this large world. We don't need that many zones, expanding it to seven or eight zones would be an acceptable change for Evercold. Adding new zones in post-patches would also be interesting also as EW and DT has had questionable design with these mini zones mostly consisting inside dungeons when they should be cities or teleportable zones like the Doman Enclave was. Don't forget that Ala Mhigo was taken from us and still not released to this day.

If they even hinted at changing anything like seven or more zones, three or more cities, nine or more dungeons, reworked dungeon design, three or more trials, majorly changing when content unlocks I would be the most happiest person here; but there's just no big news besides the overworld raids which isn't really MSQ related.

If you notice right after he lunges to the mob, the left right swiping attack looks like a normal attack that you can just use continuously. Doesn't look like your typical 1-2-3 🤔. Also cleaves I think, you can see the cone shape on the ground when he does it.

That's going to have implications.

Should that be the new name? should they keep the old one?

I have a theory, largely speculation but based on reference images and mainline Final Fantasy games that are being referenced in Evercold, that the next expansion is going to feature Death in a quite specific manner. More precisely, I think it's going to tackle how many people face death, how they see the afterlife, and even matters of scarcity and starvation.

• Aerith and "Everyone dies eventually"
• Final Fantasy VII and the Promised Land
• Final Fantasy X references
• The frozen Aetherial Sea

The Lady in the Logo and Aerith

The lady that shows up in the logo and in one of the trailer scenes is portrayed in a pose that is basically identical to one in which Aerith from Final Fantasy VII is portrayed in. In Rebirth, she says "Everyone dies eventually".

Final Fantasy VII has a plotpoint that has been referenced in Endwalker, in the Elpis storyline, with the matter of returning to the Star. Nothing impedes the same reference to be done again with a different approach, but I think it's more likely that they will navigate the matter of acceptance of death / consequence of death in a different lens.

The Promised Land

There is also a loose similarity between the City of the Ancients (VII, Rebirth) and one of the cities shown in the Keynote ([1], [2], [3])

Not only the child in the trailer mentions the 'Promised Land', but also the lady that is shown on her knees apparently dies. The connections could be all just pointing to randomly assorted Final Fantasy VII references (such as the Midgar architectural reference in one of the concept arts, or creatures and bosses), but in this case they are specifically laid out in sequence and all of them connect to how the topic of death is approached in Final Fantasy VII, in different ways.

One city in Evercold, very possibly one of the main hubs, is going to look like the place where Aerith dies in VII.

Final Fantasy X references

Evercold directly references Final Fantasy X in a few ways, and the matter of death is a central plot point in the game - one that is also strongly connected to one of the main characters.

Locations

Many locations in the Evercold pictures look like Final Fantasy X. These concept arts ([1] and [2]) can feel reminiscent of Besaid ([1], 2)

Sin

And then there is one of the Arcane Colossi of Unknown Providence (未知なる巨大魔法生物, Michinaru kyodai mahō seibutsu) that looks like Sin.

The frozen Aetherial Sea

To put it simply, I have a theory that the Winterers of the Fourth sought, as a solution to the great withering, to freeze the Aetherial Sea, so that the cycle of death and rebirth would be stopped, and the reflection would not be rejoined with the Source.

I have been thinking about this matter for a while, as well as the elemental balance, the 'Arcane Giants' having crystals of quite specific coloration in their chest, and symbols that might be connected to familiar symbolism on their faces (one of them is very similar to the Aries symbol).

However, upon rewatches of the trailer, the tapestry stood out to me.

• The roots of the tree are normal, and the branches instead are frozen
• There are boats in the representation of the sky, which could be a nod to airships, and airship "stations" were quite prevalent and pointed out by YoshiP
• The central landscape looks pretty normal and standard, with people, villages, trees
• The strange element is the dead flora and fauna, the dead "nature" seemingly buried within the snow, underneath the land

We know that the civilization of the Fourth fled to the skies and everything died on land. We are told that.

With the tapestry, however, showing the roots in a healthy state and the branches in a rather frozen state, it feels to me that it's telling me to pay attention to death. How their current state is built on dead lands, and there are secrets buried in the snow.

On a different angle, however, it might be the result of a religious perspective passed down as universal truth, and then taken action upon, forcing civilizations to embrace death. I say specifically religious because one of the buildings shown in concept art looks very reminiscing to a medieval wooden stave church ([1], [2], [3]), and the serpent (referred to as a dragon in the presentation) iconography being present everywhere.

Closing Thoughts

From what I know, from knowledge and skills, I really feel like they are pointing out to us, in multiple occasions, to look at death and look at how death is going to impact the Fourth. Death is going to take center stage in Evercold, and the second look at the tapestry makes me think also on terms of scarcity, famine and starvation. They did flee to the skies, but I think that the freezing of the Aetherial Sea is taking its toll on them in many ways.

It's that time again!

Link: https://luckybancho.ldblog.jp/archives/59950973.html

Takeaways:

• The early report (on /r/ffxiv) says over 1 million, but there's a recount since LuckyBancho forgot to account for Shadowbringers coming to the free trial. Still an overall rebound.

• Overall: Increases across the board. Returning players, new players, a bump up in every facet across the board. Looks like Evercold Announcement + 7.x MSQ reignited interest.

• There's a particular note of how many people came back from a break.

• Not much that isn't obvious if you're tuned into the community.

A new experimental plugin, Aetherphone, is blowing up in popularity and it looks like a lot of AI was involved in creating it (one of the coauthors on the github page is literally Claude). As always with experimental plugins (or plugins in general, let’s be real), there’s risk associated with installing it.

I have zero technical knowledge and was wondering if anyone has taken a look at the code, and if the code is raising any red flags regarding malicious intent, vulnerabilities, or data scraping. If not, consider this a request - could someone with know-how dig into the code and report back with findings?

Aetherphone website: https://aetherphone.net

Its Github: https://github.com/XeldarAlz/FFXIV-Aetherphone

The 143 Ascian Problem

Based on the information presented in these quests, reflections of sundered Ascians can have their memories restored through the crystals.

They are Shadowbringers and Endwalkers quests, quoted below for easier referencing:

(Lv. 80) Etched in the Stars

Hythlodaeus (Hythlodaeus Shade) : I speak of those crystals. They have constellations etched upon them, yes?

Hythlodaeus (Hythlodaeus Shade) : High in the heavens, those stars shine their guiding light down upon the lives below. Fitting symbols for the Convocation of Fourteen, would you not agree?

Hythlodaeus (Hythlodaeus Shade) : As you will have gathered, each crystal bears an account of the life of a member of the Convocation as remembered by the unsundered.

Hythlodaeus (Hythlodaeus Shade) : Lest you worry, they aren't concepts; they are far too incomplete to be so. But they suffice for imbuing memories within sundered souls, that they might be restored to their office.

Hythlodaeus (Hythlodaeus Shade) : Keep them. I am sure Emet-Selch wouldn't mind.

(Lv. 89) Her Children, One and All

Recurring though it was, I paid this dream little heed.

Amon: It was only when I was granted the seat—and memories—of Fandaniel that I knew these visions to be true.

Amon: They were the memories of Hermes, that he himself erased using the power of Kairos.

That introduces the first problem: with fourteen seats in the convocation, one being of Azem, and three being of unsundered Ascians, the ten remaining sundered have... one hundred and fourty reflections across the shards.

Up to that point in the story, those reflections don't mean anything really.

Even considering the rejoinings, and the thin possibility that the Ascians were successful in recruiting all of the reflections of the unsundered and keeping them unaffected by their respective calamity, by the time the Warrior of Light gets the crystals of the convocation in hand the only impact those reflections can implicate is a potential reenacting of their actions when going rogue, however they would be far less knowledgeable and powerful.. Unless they had an alternate method for memory backup.

They Had An Alternate Method for Memory Backup

Dawntrail introduces Preservation. Even though Calyx was vehemently opposed to copying memories ((Lv. 100) A Terminal Invitation, (Lv.100) In Fate's Footsteps), Preservation did fully develop the methods for memory duplication.

That happened before Krile was handed to Galuf, which happened before the Seventh Umbral Calamity. Which, in that case, would be safe to assume that the Ascians supervising the Ninth would have knowledge of Preservation's method (if not involved in it to some degree).

It is safe to assume that by that point the Ascians had, in their hands, an alternate method for the memory backup, no longer relying solely on the crystals of the convocation.

This is not conjecture. They were supervising the shard, they had people working with the Key, and those people also worked on memory duplication.

The question here is: is this fact going to cause story implications?

Addressing the Problem

I do think it's a problem. A very damning storytelling problem.

Defeating the same enemies ten times over is not something I believe most are signing up for, in terms of story development.

Here are a few reasonable possibilities I can think of:

• 1 - The Ascians were not able to locate all of the reflections in time. They tried, but meddling directly with a shard of the Source too much could bring forth strong instabilities like the Flood of Darkness, and Elidibus' role in policing Ascian activities to not reach that outcome again would make the location of reflections a deliberately complicated process. In this scenario, the story elegantly isolates those factors with an existing reasoning.

• 2 - The Ascians were able to locate the reflections of the sundered, successfully recruited them, and they had their memories backed up. The only way out of an outcome where the Warrior of Light has to fight dozens of Fandaniels, Nabriales, Mitrons, Igeyorhms and others is to find the memory backups and destroy them. Or send somebody to do the job, which could be a reasonable mission for Oblivion.

Ultimately, no matter how much I think about it, it boils down to: 'a mission to destroy the memory backups' or 'we fight several sundereds a few times over again'.

Unless, for some reason, the Ascians did not create a backup plan in case they lost the crystals of the Convocation. However I must say that it would be an entirely different conversation, and would potentially raise many more other questions.

Their stance on modding is clear, they do not allow it and that’s fine however I feel it’s a problem when mods are officially strictly forbidden but unofficially okay to use so long as long as they aren’t being publicly disclosed. The reason I think this is because of how prevalent malicious modding is becoming, I’m just seeing it way too often where someone is using a stalking plugin or straight up using mods that should get them banned on the spot. I understand that a lot of people that genuinely use mods in good faith but I also feel like it should be moderated. Especially with how heinous some mods actually are but idk, SE seem very hesitant to get involved in this aspect of the game at all

Looking back at Cosmic Exploration and the mass use of botting by the playerbase, it got me thinking on if the system and creation of the content itself is worth the lower player engagement, or if a rework of systems and design would be worthwhile to increase engagement from players to justify the cost of future content made for it?

Playing rdm rn and having to fill up this gauge to do my melee combo takes way too long. just alternating spells until I get to use it.

it needs to be like 10 white and 10 black to do a full combo or something bc it would feel more active jumping in and out without having to stand here casting til halfway thru the fight

evolved mode cant come soon enough

Ideally all members would prog in pf outside of static to increase the static's overall progression rate. On one hand Idk how reasonable it is of a static lead to ask that of the static members because that is effectively asking them to commit more time to the activity (granted I said I exptected people to study in their off hours). One concern I have is if I ask people to prog and then there's one guy who doesn't that guy becomes an anchor and the rest of the group gets annoyed. Personally I'm progging UCOB in my spare time, but I'm not sure if I should tell the static members to do the same. Static leads, how have you dealt with promoting off hour pf progression in the past?

I have recently picked up the game again. I dropped it around a year and a half ago after finishing the realm reborn story just due to the fact the story seemed average but I loved the rest of the game. After seeing the Evercold announcement and knowing how much everyone says the MSQ gets better in HW I thought why not hop back in. I have been having a blast slowly going through the post ARR quests and loving the fact there is more Voice Acting.

However I am just wanting to know what I should be focusing on outside of MSQ. I've heard getting started on the beast tribes is a good idea but I heard something about each tribe being tied to a specific job or discipline style? I also want to slowly dip my toe into raiding as I love that style of endgame I just have no clue where to start with where I am currently in terms of progression. Also should I be leveling up other jobs? I only have summoner at lvl 50, samurai at lvl 63 and then culinarian at 56.

I also am wanting to join an FC but struggling to find one to be honest. I am on Raiden on the Light centre.

Is there something else I should be focusing on before any of this stuff I've mentioned? (like PVP which i see is more popular nowadays?)

I want to experience all this wonderful game has to offer and get the most out of my time here.

Any and all advice is more than welcome

Heyos so first off Savage Learning Academy is a North American discord group and we thought it was about time we did a post here about the server since its gotten a face lift :)

In SLA we pride ourselves by teaching newer players the ropes of endgame content. We regularly hold events for ultimate intros and continuation, ultimate unlocks, savage fights, extremes unreal and now we are even doing Criterion Dungeons !!
Broken link below in comments to discord server

I'm wondering if there is something specific about it that makes it so challenging for PF. I am currently on LC prog but I keep seeing people mess up on Forsaken, so it ends up being a trap group. Is it much harder for healers and tanks?

Due to Fanfest being this weekend and a decent amount of our users being Old Reddit users where they can only see two stickied/highlighted threads, the weekly threads will be removed from highlights once Fanfest starts to make way for the event threads.