my internet has been very spotty the past few days so i haven't been able to play much. i downloaded Stranger of Paradise to play while offline but i could not get it working on Linux, so now i'm irritable in a state of being unable to kill Chaos...plus i'm trying to kick a caffeine dependency i took up after quitting ADHD meds, so things are just overall cloudy right now

laid off Palace of the Dead for now because the initial grind to be able to beat early bosses got boring. plus it's technically Heavensward content so there's of course the danger of misplacing "me dying on the same floors over and over" in the timeline. i got to the floor 30 boss which i died to a couple times, and later found out it was because of a cryptic mechanic i would never have been able to figure out without a guide. something about losing almost an hour of progress as a consequence makes going in blind a little less viable or worthwhile

i got Dragoon to 50. i'm very interested to see if any dialogue changes happen as a result of getting intimate with Estinien beforehand (if new game+ allows it). i'm just itching to move on in general. still have Monk, Black Mage and Paladin to go through, then i also want to replay the Bard and White Mage stories since it's been a long time

whenever i hit level 50 i go to the training dummies and switch between every job to pretend i'm capable of keeping rotations fresh in my mind (it's a role-playing game we do make-believe here), even though they will all change drastically on the way to 90. i imagine the tons of changes made to jobs over the years has turned level 50 rotations from feeling fairly final to being still in babytown with only half the abilities unlocked

a quick run down the street chasing the delivery van that drove away with my new router and i am back online babey. today i am a Monk; becoming enlightened as hell, gaping my chakras open, etc. the Pugilist class story was fun even if i had to get half of it from reading journal entries i got years ago. the job story pairs me with probably the most hateable character so far and i want to finish the questline just to see if he gets any comeuppance. i would say "if he dies" but i talked to him after a quest and he started talking about Shadowbringers events, so i'll take what i can get i guess

for the first time i'm really working on leveling my retainers, who often bring me random little items, and one thing i have learned! is i need to learn the value of their loot. checking how much things are worth on the market is clunky and tedious, but i did it for the hell of it one time because they brought me back level 1 shoes which made me think, i usually get better loot than this so i guess it's a glamour item? it was 60K!! and i had the brilliant idea to check its worth after converting it into materials

i'm starting to be a little more money-conscious because when i came back to this game a month ago i had 4M, and now i'm approaching 2M, and i won 2M from an in-game contest someone held a long time ago. most of that has been going to tribal mounts (which i absolutely don't have to buy as soon as i unlock them, but alas) and buying materials i'm too lazy to gather myself. i worry that making a steady income won't be very easy until endgame, which if i keep up my weirdo Chronology Quest will not be for a very long time. but then again every time i look into how to make gil i see a lot of the complicated crafting terminology that enters my brain as fog, then i look at the 2M+ i currently have and say whatever i'm fine for now

i got Monk to 50, and not only did this guy not get a beating (in fact he gave one), he ended up being the good-guy-voice-of-reason, while continuing to be insufferable whenever he talks. i'm a level 50 scholar i'll have you know sir, do you know how many three boars i've killed. i quite like how Monk plays (so far; i'm still in retroactively baby territory) but i don't think it fits my guy to be all wise and monkful. not to sound like my man Erik here, whose every other line of dialogue was a snide remark about the term "chakra", but i don't want people getting the wrong idea. i just liked punching things

next is Black Mage and. i don't know about this actually

but before continuing with any chicken nugget people quests, i finally completed the chicken people questline! the ending was nice enough to be almost worth the most boring grind of the game so far. i took videos of a lot of cool moments today but it turned out it wasn't recording, so just imagine how this airship was like Woooshh and then the other one went Crashh and everyone went Yeeahh!! But the wind ohh! it ooh it wooshhed in a bad way and Whoaaa! but they made it out and!! and the guy's dad turned out to be good! ohh what a good time

yeah sorry it's been a few years

so that was all the ARR tribal stories complete which unlocked the Super tribal story, which involved this man

it was super neat!! i loved seeing all the characters again, meeting each other over their shared interest in me keeping the beast tribes safe. it was a lot meatier than i was expecting, but i did all those dailies so i'd better be getting some meat out of it, and not just a few mounts or minions i'll never use. there was a lot of death and despair involved but the ending was fun and wacky so it's all good

now it was reeeal close to being worth the grind. i don't remember how much if anything is changed in how the quests work in 3.0, but i'm gonna hold off on continuing with them until i'm spending a lot of time in Heavensward areas. give me some time to forget how much the clock hitting 4pm and my dailies resetting brings out a groan in me

think i'm also gonna take it easy on this game in general for a bit? as much as i love getting mileage out of my various mental health and substance withdrawal excuses, i'm feeling a bit more capable now. it's probably time i started working on updates to this website that aren't "today i did this in video games". i don't know i guess i'm re-realizing how much i love this game, and how nice it is to have a home game, and how unnice it would be to burn out on it. i got a good year or so to catch up before Dawntrail anyway