Embracing motherhood led me to let go of the pressure to be perfect in gaming, but Dawntrail renewed my curiosity and drive to improve. With Dawntrail, I have finally taken the time to level my gather and crafter roles more, filling knowledge gaps and finding new ways to earn gil and have fun.
I left my hardcore endgame days behind me when I jumped ship from Final Fantasy 11 to Final Fantasy 14. This coincided with the start of my motherhood, so my priorities changed and I had a lot less time to spend in a digital world racking up made-up attendance points or camping bosses at odd hours of the night.
I’ve long since accepted that I’m never going to be the most skilled Warrior of Light and there will always be things I’m unfamiliar with, especially as Square Enix keeps adding more and more types of content, but that doesn’t mean I can’t try to learn a little more than I do already. The most dabbling I ever did was in ARR.
We had less to do back then, but also, everything was new. There was less pressure to be perfect at it.
I even levelled Warrior and White Mage, and I can’t tank or heal to save my life. Or those of my party members, apparently.
Sorry. This was also when I experimented the most in crafting and gathering, initially focusing on Armorer, Blacksmith, and Miner.
But then the expansions started coming, and though I stayed up to date with each, my only real mainstay was keeping Bard and Miner levelled. Even then, the latter was half-hearted and done way after getting Bard up to speed.
It was also only ever used for basic mining to sell ore to make gil. Not even the most efficient use of making gil with Miner.
I tried other classes. I poked at Goldsmith, then I tried Dragoon when that launched, it’s now only Level 61.
I tried Red Mage when that launched too, that’s only 80 now. That’s all changed with Dawntrail though.
For the first time, I levelled my Miner alongside Bard and both dinged Level 100 within a day of one another. I’ve also been pumping more time into the crafts I had neglected, leveling Blacksmith, Armorer, and Goldsmith, all of which were in their 50s not long ago but are 80+ now.
I’m getting there, but it’s not just about hitting that higher level. I’m taking the time to learn about everything I’ve missed out on.
Hitting a certain point in levelling my crafter jobs resulted in the job quests forcing me to learn about Master Recipes (I know, I’m that out of touch), so I had to buy and learn about those. Then eventually, the job quests themselves just stopped.
I had no idea these ceased after a certain point and I needed a new EXP boost to help me level. I tried a few Leves, something I haven’t done since ARR, and while I still don’t enjoy them, they do the trick.
I started doing Custom Deliveries religiously, that’s a good EXP source, but my new favourite pastime for EXP is waiting for the daily reset of the Grand Company Deliveries each day. It’s doubly effective as I can make two of each requested item and sell the spare, so now each day I get a nice EXP and gil boost from the same thing.
Winning. Dawntrail also had me eagerly recording every Unspoiled Mining Node I came across so that I could mine Collectables and earn myself some Purple and Orange Scrips to spend on new gear.
While rooting around to see what else the vendor had, I discovered Folklore Tomes, which granted access to Legendary Nodes. Imagine my confusion when I went to my first Legendary Node only to find I didn’t have enough Perception to gather from it.
I’ve only dabbled in Materia in the past (terrible, I know), but this was my first real crash course in ensuring my gear was as good as possible to gather the items I wanted. I had no idea what an Ephemeral Node was until it appeared on my screen when mining, and so I went with my trusty pickaxe to grab some Collectables only to be frustrated when I seemingly couldn’t hand them in for Scrips like other collectables.
That’s how I learned about Aetherial Reduction, bizarrely something I had completed the quest for and had access to, yet never realised existed, never mind actually understanding what it was. I’m sure there are things I still have yet to learn when it comes to crafting and gathering, but I’m eager to fill those knowledge gaps.
I’m enjoying my renewed interest in a game I’ve loved for so long, and it’s making me excited to discover what else I could start doing. Dawntrail has inspired me to dig into the game a little deeper than I used to, and I don’t just mean with my pickaxe.
I encourage others to do the same if they aren’t already.
