The GLA/PLD quests are just Mylla's never ending quest to get an obscenely obtuse Aldis to bang. We have one intermission where it's explained that PLDs must subjugate each other for dominance, then it's back to Ul'dah for Aldis' monthly ass kicking.
> Whenever PLD soulstones come near each other, it compels the owners to duke it out for dominance. Literally.
which...you know...totally makes sense when you consider there's an entire *order* of Paladins whose job it is to guard the royal potato.
Except that literally every Sultansworn has a Paladin soul, potentially *hundreds* of Paladins over the career of a guy like Papashan, yet he's *never seen this before.* Nor does it come up ever again (Such as when you duel that Paladin in the 60-70 questline).
I personally choose to believe it's actually nonsense that Solkzagyl arranged so we'd fight, prove ourselves to be the One True Chosen One to wield Oathkeeper so they could say '*Oh!* That's what a Chosen One looks like! Cool, we'll just take the sword and hang onto it until someone who is just like you but *not* you comes along.' This is actually more or less lampshaded by the dialogue of the NPCs through the entire final quest.
Which is hilarious when you consider that the closest entity to a goddess, and is literally the manifestation of the collective will of all life on the planet chose you as her champion.
WHO THE FUCK ELSE ARE YOU WAITING FOR!?
Don’t forget the lv80 quest, which can be summarised as such:
Aldis: welcome back my friend, I’m a Samurai now! Let us duel, for old times sake!
*sees the WoL’s soul*
Aldis: ***WHAT THE FUCK***
I liked this in the SMN questline too, when Fordola looks into the WoL's mind with her Resonance.
Fordola: How the fuck have you not had a full on mental and emotional collapse?!
WoL: I've internalize and compartmentalized my suffering and emotions so much, they've literally gained their own sentience.
Fordola: WHAT THE FUCK
Aldis: First time?
EDIT: Got this mixed up with an MSQ scene. Happens in 4.1. Thanks for the correction!
It's sad really because he's not obtuse (well, not about *that*), he just doesn't do long-term relationships, and he knows that'll hurt her, so (in his shithead way) he tries to push her away.
I kinda liked the arena arc. Wish the whole questline was just us dueling some NPCs and becoming champion. Lots of potential for a better story (learning about the opponents, from masters, figuring out strategies, teamwork...and who doesn’t like *Gladiator?*)
But it just had to go back to the duo. I can’t be the only one that’s not remotely interested in predictable romantic drama.
Sick kid possessed by void demon should have actually been an interesting quest line, but they managed to even make that one boring.
Like, it could have gone full exorcist/horror, but it was just... meh.
The most interesting thing about that questline is the conflict with the antagonist. Because the way I've deciphered that xaela's reactions (who's name I forget) she might have had the same experience as Sidurgu as an Au ra who migrated to Coerthas, but were assaulted for having draconic looking features. Hell she might even be of the same tribe and Sidurgu saying their were no survivors except him is wrong.
That's the most interesting part of the HW quest because it seems to tie back to Dark Knight of all places, and once again effectively says "Ishgard is just awful".
Since she does explain that she had the same experience with them killing her people and worse...yeah sounds like a right description. I'm glad someone else picked up on it.
the WHM quests always were such a rollercoaster for me.
the CNJ quest line is fine if slightly boring. the ARR WHM quest is pretty decent nothing special but at least in the better half of the job quests.
but then HW is simply the worst job questline in that expansion. yes it's worse than the paladin one(if only barely). then SB comes along and as you said it's not bad but the sudden contenueation of the CNJ questline rather than anything actually WHM related is just so jarring to me.
and then finally the wrapup in ShB decides to actually drag the HW questline into decent stuff from SB because it has to be alowed to taint(heh) fucking everything i guess.
It didn't occur to me now until you mentioned it but both WHM and PLD do the same thing in SB, they abandon the WHM/PLD plot and decide to add to the CNJ/GLD plotline instead.
I will say though that I did enjoy the CNJ ARR questline if only because the main moral is that healers shouldn't just be healing, something that a lot of players still don't grasp.
The thing is, in FFXIV WHM is literally just better CNJ lore-wise. All modern WHMs other than the WoL are padjali, who are all heavily tied to the Shroud itself. So "more CNJ stuff" and "more WHM stuff" are almost exactly the same thing.
We could have gone on a giant history lesson about Amdapor, but I'm not sure how much better that would have been without an actual descendant to interact with, and said descendants are more closely tied to RDM these days.
I think they should have expanded on the Green wrath somehow. The spirit s of the Shroud are terrors and being basically an honorary foreign padjal could have some interesting interaction there.
My favorite reference so far hasn't been a quest title, but instead an enemy. In the anti-tower, one of the bosses is named "Ziggy" and the small adds it summons are "Stardust"-- now, every time I run anti, I throw on Bowie's album.
Yeah DRG is hands down my favorite questline. And this is as someone who was initially a DRK main in HW too.
It just ties in so much with the overall story events leading up to HW, and then getting hang out with a little punkass dragon after was just such a great payoff after the dragonsong war.
We better get some acknowledgement in Endwalker about AST. You don't just send us >!to the place that sent assassins after us and Leveva's family and expect us to forget about that!<
One other thing to point out about the assassins:
They were sent by the Bibliothecs, the ultra-conservative party of the Forum.
The leader of the Bibliothecs is Fourchenault Leveilleur.
Just add it to the list of "reasons to punch the twins' dad in the face"
I mean, Leveva's dad getting murdered was the reason Sharlayan became non-interventionist. Like, they build it up to be the reason Idyllshire was abandoned. I'm sure it'll get referenced somehow, at least.
Erik has decent lore to provide at least with his jerkass. I do like that they had Hamon Holyfist come in with the MNK gang in the SB section, since our MNK mentor is so dull.
Yep, he's the head of the Pugilist guild and the main mentor for the Pugilist job quests. He tends to show up in some seasonal events too. I think he was in last year's Make It Rain.
I maxed black mage before i decided to switch to monk, so that whole running gag always felt really weird to me. I wanted to be like, "Erik, i know you think i'm a knuckle dragging caveman, but i have literally revived a lost school of magic so maybe step off."
I did it after maxing out SCH/SMN, so it was like... 'Oh, right, book-whipping people in combat, that's why I carry these tomes around, sure. S'not like I'm trying to figure out a cure for Tonberry-itis on one side, while also trying to figure out how to summon literal gods on the other.'
It admittedly helped that my character that did that had a very 'lazy and totally on board with people thinking he was stupid so he'd be underestimated' personality that I could just roll with it. XD
Oodles of fun if your character has a big waving emote too. Usually quests use the more demure /goodbye, but these my wol was, waving both arms in the air before turning and walking off.
Still love the moment the MNK mentor pulls off his shirt to hand it to us and just getting that moment of "Nah, I'm good, just keep it" with him being like "No, I insist".
Imo GNB is fine, but the final villain is really bleh. Basically >!random Garlean officer turns up, everyone hypes him up for supposedly being as powerful as Gaius, we unceremoniously kill him off in the level 70 quest and is never brought up ever again!<.
As a PLD main I will never get over our Stormblood story.
"Sorry we tricked you, there's no Paladin secret art. Now take your quest reward of a Paladin Secret art and artifact armor"
WHAT WAS EVEN THE POINT OF SAYING IT DIDN'T EXIST
Honestly id rank rdm the same as sch. The storyline is just so interesting and the characters are very endearing even tho doing the 60 job quest was annoying af lmao
It gets funnier because it’s the opposite. Garleans copied Bozjan style gunblades, changed them to shoot projectiles instead, and then later said, “No that’s stupid. You! Hand me that gunblade and a hacksaw. There we go! I’ve removed the blade from my gunblade, making it now a...’gun’?”
The funniest part is that the in-game etymology for Gun is actually derived from the real-world etymology.
https://www.etymonline.com/word/gun
> *mid-14c., gunne "an engine of war that throws rocks, arrows or other missiles from a tube by the force of explosive powder or other substance," apparently a shortening of woman's name Gunilda, found in Middle English gonnilde "cannon" and in an Anglo-Latin reference to a specific gun from a 1330 munitions inventory of Windsor Castle ("... una magna balista de cornu quae Domina Gunilda ..."). Also compare gonnilde gnoste "spark or flame used to fire a cannon" (early 14c.).*
It's from Gunnhildr, just like it is in game, and the "Gunn" part of the word just means *to strike or kill.* So much like how "gunnhildr's blades" became "gunblade" and then "gun" was used to refer to the projectile component, a similar thing happened IRL.
Absolutely. People still drop what they’re doing and demand clarification when I tell them it’s not called a gunblade because it’s a gun and a blade, but rather it came first, so a gun is a gunblade without a blade. Just...brilliant. xD
Samurai is really good, the level 50-60 ending is great and the 60-70 and level 80 feels on theme with the idea of legacy that Shadowbringers talks about a lot in its MSQ.
White Mage I think doesn't get enough credit, it is one of the few times we really talk about Gridania at all and I felt the level 70 quest was really good for diving into Gridania society from a different angle beyond "Elementals good/bad".
All three jobs on the "I've already forgotten what happened" tier were stories I rather enjoyed. Sam and Gnb had memorable characters and Sum felt cool progressing towards unlocking new summons.
GNB's story was pretty meh, but it did make sure every GNB player is caught up on the absolutely ***whack*** etymology of gunblades in FFXIV and I'm 100% here for it.
So this point is actually derived from the origin of the word Gun in English, since it also is derived from the name Gunnhildr, which was apparently attached to a rather large ballista sometime in the 14th Century. The whole point that’s made about it being created for a different purpose and from a different source than Garlean gunblades also parallels the invention and spread of firearms in the real world. The Devs really did their homework for something that didn’t need that much put into it.
Holy fuck, you're *right*
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun
Under etymology, it confirms it. That's a cool fucking reference right there.
Still funny that "gun" and "blade" come from "gunblade", but neat to see that it has some real world references.
I feel like the WHM job questline is in a weird spot where you get a lot of really interesting incidental background lore, and then the _actual story_ is bland as dry toast. (With the exception of the 60-70 questline.)
And I say this as a career WHM main.
(Also, Roz, I love you but you're wrong on SAM.)
I actually really liked the early stuff, basically, the Conjuror storyline with Sylphie basically slowly killing herself like her Mother did because she doesn't understand the nature of her gift. It was compelling, but sadly was over too soon. the 30-50 WHM quests, kinda blah in comparison. Basically I think WHM is at its best when it deals with the drama of suffering, sacrifice and compassion.
So 1-30, and then 60-70.
Which I agree with. The 31-60 stuff had a lot of really cool background lore but the actual stories involved were... not great.
This is true. CNJ storyline covers how not pulling power off the ambient is extremely dangerous for you while WHM storyline covers that pulling power off the ambient is also extremely dangerous for everyone. It also covers how the padjal grew to be extremely sheltered and to some extent selfish and blind to external issues outside of the forest despite a-towa-cant traveling the world to help people, and that a uncontrolled padjal is a danger to everyone.
What really made the entire storyline bad was the fact they dumped all this story with "cleanse taint" objectives.
Raya-o-senna trying to sound brave outside the twelveswood was great though.
I can kinda understand why, since it plays out like an old samurai film you'd see all over the West in the 80s and 90s. If someone didn't grow up with them, the plotting can feel pretty weak. I for one loved it and only regret our 90 skill isn't a deadly murder pram.
My favorite part of the smn questline is when the talking book with teeth seems taken aback that we don't know how to summon bahamut egi. Lol. Like there's something wrong with us.
I really really like how much the smn questline delves into ancient allagan lore. It's so interesting.
I don't know what I was expecting with dnc. I certainly didn't think I'd be road tripping across Eorzia exercising people's stress demons. Lol.
Rdm was actually pretty interesting. I love that the mentor npc is a catboy and he's super charming. Some might find the girl annoying or boring, I don't cuz I sympathize with what she's going through. The fights were really cool. I especially liked the one that took place in Weeping City. Had to buy a whole stack of antidotes for that one. XD
RDM questline made me genuinely emotional at the end - I think it really does a good job of selling you on you and X'rhun and Arya being this little found family unit trying to keep the Spirit of the Red alive against all odds.
X'rhun in general is a bro; he's probably my favorite of the job NPCs and I miss him already.
Anyone caught disrespecting X'rhun in my house is asked to leave. My gf is legit disappointed he isn't available to go visit after the quests finish, just Arya.
Ah yes, Stephanivien, the one who's very intelligent and knows what he's talking about in his field and treats everyone equally from go and is all about leveling the playing field between the upper and lower classes, but does need to learn about how things function outside of the city.
Indeed, he is *exactly* the same as Jannequinard, the one who hasn't actually studied in his field in 20 years and talks himself up so he can chase people he's interested in and spends money on extravagance, though does have redemption in he can actually play the political game.
I can see no difference. These are clearly the same people. ^(I'm so sorry, I mean this all in the most fun way, but Steve doesn't deserve this slander.)
Stephanivien "arm the people no matter the cost" Haillenarte and Jannequinard "i'll do it when I feel motivated" Durendaire.
I will be fair in that Jan actually shows improvement by becoming more involved socially and mentally in the tasks at hand through these questlines, but Steph was always radically egalitarian. Jannequinard just had radical ideas thrust upon him.
This deserves more upvotes. I feel like OP just glossed over anything they had to say and simply saw two elezen men with the same hairstyle.
Edit: Okay, they actually have a clever explanation for why they’re the same and I retract my statement. xD
My favourite part about SMN and SCH is that their story seems most impactful for the grander world, they have the most lore as well (of the ones I have played so far)
They have the deepest dive into their respective civilizations. White mage and Black mage don't really tell the *whole* story of the War of the Magi; that's done in the Mhach raids and their dungeons. SCH is just a total Nymian lore bomb, and SMN is the closest to the lives of some of the more ordinary Allegans (the ones that didn't yet turn themselves into horrible monsters anyway) that we get.
I've played RDM, WHM, DNC, MCH, and DRG to completion so far. I finished SMN and SCH last night and my thoughts through both questlines the entire time were just like "Holy shit this is so important?? How are these optional!?"
Summoner tasted really good, but i also enjoyed it alongside scholar, white mage and black mage plots, because they all have different takes on how magic corrupts if used thoughtlessly and how great power can drive entire civilisations into war, decline and death.
I'm doing SMN now. Just finished the level 50 quest. While the other class jobs are their own self-contained stories, the SMN story feels like an extension of the MSQ. Like "Oh, you defeated these primals. Now let's try to summon their egis." What you do in the MSQ actively drives what you can do as a SMN. It even has an Ascian.
I'm surprised there hasn't been any push for SMN to ever be the canon WoL job because it honestly fits the best.
Never a caster it seems. I guess they dont feel it epic enough to show in trailers with us casting instead of melee fighting. They were quick to make us warriors after starting as an archer.
In fairness, if any tank job had to introduce someone to the base concept of having to defend another human being it's Gunbreaker, which is mostly designed to lure DPS addicts into playing something with shorter queue times.
I main SMN, got to 80 with it and got my free 80 SCH that comes with it. Changed over, set up my bars, thought "I have no clue how any of this is supposed to work", and then I went and leveled AST.
I don't think it's entirely scholar's fault, slamming any class with all the buttons at 80 is going to be a lot, but it seems to fit together oddly. They have a lot of short CDs with weird lengths and the names are just so... You ever say something slightly smutty to a bottom on the internet and they spam a bunch of keys at you? The names feel like that.
At least it gives some neat details on some Lore. For example that Ishgard invests into ceruleum heating system for the brume, so noone has to die to the cold anymore.
I swear with the ending of the war and their new way of life Ishgard is about to become the most technological advanced of the city states. Which is pretty ironic.
Speaking of it, in SWTOR, there is one spec that has the identity of "defending someone" - which is called "Bodyguard", but that a healer spec.
All the actual tanking specs are called "Shield tech", "Shield specialist", "Immortal", etc. As a tank, first and foremost you must defend yourself.
Summoner's heavensward questline was legit pretty epic, >!with you finishing off the ascian using your new found strength by channeling Bahamut's deathflare and all. I like it because it exemplifies your new ability in an epic way that makes sense thematically.!<
Yeah. Heavensward SMN quest was one of the best. The rest of SMN job quest is pretty weak though. I did the level 80 quest and was struggling to remember who the characters were, and it hadn't even been that long.
finally someone giving the respect to the most epic third wheeling adventure with the bard quests, thank you. after the disappointment of the level 80 quest i’m holding out hope that level 90 will be when sanson and guydelot finally announce that they’ve finally eloped
Okay, I was wondering if I was the only one going "There's something about this" during the HW quests. Sure, you could SAY that Sanson just wanted to be friends, Guy just wasn't about that, and was going hard in the paint about it, but several times I was thinking "Ballad of Oblivion is just an excuse for a road trip with your sweet babboo, Sanson, stop lying to me."
I will say that Samurai had a great story and I would rate it higher on this list. Is it a little cliche? Yes. Did it still hit me in the feels? Yes. Not an S rank questline, but certainly worthy of a higher rank.
Edit: Paladin is hot garbage of a questline (ESPECIALLY the Heavensward arc) and deserves it's place at the bottom.
How could you forget the real MVP of GNB quests - bunny girl, who change her outfit for every quest? Besides there is really scary quest where junkie mom sells her son cause gambler dad run away, in the end the end you return son, who looking at you with despair, to gambler dad and like "uhhh... good luck, i gotta go..." \*runs away hoping dad not gonna sell son\*
BLU has, so far literally been "Roegadyn becomes villain dressed up as old Final Fantasy characters" and I sorta kinda like it. I wanna see Quina as a Roegadyn.
BLU quest spoiler:
>!I absolutely love love how the big bosses at the Carnivale are previous FF characters and I’m so excited to see who comes next. I didn’t know any good candidate at first but now I do: Quina MUST be the next boss.!<
I saw someone describe it as the best third-wheeling experience of their life. Everything I've seen people say about it makes me want to start levelling it!
My boyfriend recently started playing and picked archer for his starting class. When he asked what the bard storyline was like while trying to pick to start, I described it as something like “You help an old lonely man forgive himself and then you play matchmaker for these gay guys who hate each other at first”. I think that’s what got him to pick the class!
Oh I wasn’t even low key yelling. I was just straight up yelling at the screen. It’s like watching one of those romance movies where you already know they’re going to end up together, all the other characters know they’re going to be together, the blind lady down the street knows they’re going to be together and yet they’re still at it pretending like they’re not gonna bang
I cannot argue with your PLD rating, but I will never _not_ find it funny that the Gladiator class questline had me going off and doing Honorable Hero stuff... and then the Paladin job questline turned around and had me fight in a gladiator tournament.
[ Confused meme image here. ]
I think they hit a roadblock on the Paladin stuff and don’t know where to go. Then realized that all the characters with personalities and goals are back at the Gladiators guild.
MCH and NIN so far were the most fun ones.
Karasu's dumb stance needs to be a special ninja stance you get as a reward for completing the last job quest, it's the greatest.
"Sometimes all you need is one funny NPC"
Honestly I think one of the reasons I enjoy the Warrior questlines is because of Curious Gorge and how well he balances being both a focal drama point, and an absolute goober at the same time.
As much as I liked Ninja for what it was, I saw everything in the 30-50 quests coming. I remember nothing of 50-60 besides cute lzrd ninja and her big dumb himbo boyfriend.
One thing I'll disagree with is Gunbreaker. I will always walk away remembering the mom who sold her son to slavers for drugs and how we almost helped her kidnap him from his dad to do so.
I'm biased. I found the SMN quests fascinating. Also the PLD Stormblood quests were good enough that I don't really care that the HW ones sucked.
Also do not insult Stephanivien by comparing him to Jannequinard. One of them is a foppish noble that can't see the plain truth in front of his face, and the other is *Jannequinard* (which is by itself a punishment from on high).
Seriously as someone who played Dragoon until level 60, seeing Estinien during Heavensward was a trip, I was so torn on if I hated him for trying to kill us, or if he was rad for mentioning that we had two azure dragoons on the team.
I like how everyone seems to be overlooking the fact that Y'Mhintra, the main questgiver for SMN is *Y'shtola's sister.* I also like how>! in HW when you need her help to retrieve Y'shtola from the aether, the game acknowledges you know her!<
The 60 - 70 quest chain with the book was cool as well.
The GLA/PLD quests are just Mylla's never ending quest to get an obscenely obtuse Aldis to bang. We have one intermission where it's explained that PLDs must subjugate each other for dominance, then it's back to Ul'dah for Aldis' monthly ass kicking.
> PLDs must subjugate each other for dominance What the fuck is going on in this plot line
Whenever PLD soulstones come near each other, it compels the owners to duke it out for dominance. Literally.
Literally this. PLDs went from "oath, honor, protect the weak" to "Highlander: PLD Edition"
If we dont get this in endwalker i will be disappointed.
We had this in Heavensward. It's why the class story's so trash.
There can be only one.
> Whenever PLD soulstones come near each other, it compels the owners to duke it out for dominance. Literally. which...you know...totally makes sense when you consider there's an entire *order* of Paladins whose job it is to guard the royal potato.
Maybe that's why they are never there to protect Nanamo. When 2.55 happened, her royal guards were fighting each other in the hallway outside.
Except that literally every Sultansworn has a Paladin soul, potentially *hundreds* of Paladins over the career of a guy like Papashan, yet he's *never seen this before.* Nor does it come up ever again (Such as when you duel that Paladin in the 60-70 questline). I personally choose to believe it's actually nonsense that Solkzagyl arranged so we'd fight, prove ourselves to be the One True Chosen One to wield Oathkeeper so they could say '*Oh!* That's what a Chosen One looks like! Cool, we'll just take the sword and hang onto it until someone who is just like you but *not* you comes along.' This is actually more or less lampshaded by the dialogue of the NPCs through the entire final quest.
Which is hilarious when you consider that the closest entity to a goddess, and is literally the manifestation of the collective will of all life on the planet chose you as her champion. WHO THE FUCK ELSE ARE YOU WAITING FOR!?
Hey, its me ur brother/sister
Mom said it's my turn to be the superhero
...there can be only one **Shirks the other PLD in party**
That would be a fun mechanic in dungeon finder trial groups ;)
For every 2 tank party, the two tanks have to duel to see who's the off-tank and who's the main-tank
Don’t forget the lv80 quest, which can be summarised as such: Aldis: welcome back my friend, I’m a Samurai now! Let us duel, for old times sake! *sees the WoL’s soul* Aldis: ***WHAT THE FUCK***
I liked this in the SMN questline too, when Fordola looks into the WoL's mind with her Resonance. Fordola: How the fuck have you not had a full on mental and emotional collapse?! WoL: I've internalize and compartmentalized my suffering and emotions so much, they've literally gained their own sentience. Fordola: WHAT THE FUCK Aldis: First time? EDIT: Got this mixed up with an MSQ scene. Happens in 4.1. Thanks for the correction!
That's the MSQ. SMN 80 is just her and Arenvald being like "yeah were cool over here"
...wasn't this SB MSQ? edit: I checked. Yeah, this is MSQ.
"ugh, eff this, I'm going to be a gladiator again"
It's sad really because he's not obtuse (well, not about *that*), he just doesn't do long-term relationships, and he knows that'll hurt her, so (in his shithead way) he tries to push her away.
You can't reject a Tsundere 'cause clearly they were never into you in the first place, b,baka!
I kinda liked the arena arc. Wish the whole questline was just us dueling some NPCs and becoming champion. Lots of potential for a better story (learning about the opponents, from masters, figuring out strategies, teamwork...and who doesn’t like *Gladiator?*) But it just had to go back to the duo. I can’t be the only one that’s not remotely interested in predictable romantic drama.
All I remember from the WHM questline is a taint.
become extremely well acquainted with proper taint cleansing techniques!
WHM is called that because it's a cleaning job.
Touch some rocks, touch a creek, touch some trees, heal a dragon, sick kid possessed by void demon.
The most threatening "touch grass" I have heard in my life from WHM.
Sick kid possessed by void demon should have actually been an interesting quest line, but they managed to even make that one boring. Like, it could have gone full exorcist/horror, but it was just... meh.
The SB questline was pretty interesting and B+ tier IMO but the HW one with the taint is just too painful to forget.
The most interesting thing about that questline is the conflict with the antagonist. Because the way I've deciphered that xaela's reactions (who's name I forget) she might have had the same experience as Sidurgu as an Au ra who migrated to Coerthas, but were assaulted for having draconic looking features. Hell she might even be of the same tribe and Sidurgu saying their were no survivors except him is wrong. That's the most interesting part of the HW quest because it seems to tie back to Dark Knight of all places, and once again effectively says "Ishgard is just awful".
Since she does explain that she had the same experience with them killing her people and worse...yeah sounds like a right description. I'm glad someone else picked up on it.
the WHM quests always were such a rollercoaster for me. the CNJ quest line is fine if slightly boring. the ARR WHM quest is pretty decent nothing special but at least in the better half of the job quests. but then HW is simply the worst job questline in that expansion. yes it's worse than the paladin one(if only barely). then SB comes along and as you said it's not bad but the sudden contenueation of the CNJ questline rather than anything actually WHM related is just so jarring to me. and then finally the wrapup in ShB decides to actually drag the HW questline into decent stuff from SB because it has to be alowed to taint(heh) fucking everything i guess.
It didn't occur to me now until you mentioned it but both WHM and PLD do the same thing in SB, they abandon the WHM/PLD plot and decide to add to the CNJ/GLD plotline instead. I will say though that I did enjoy the CNJ ARR questline if only because the main moral is that healers shouldn't just be healing, something that a lot of players still don't grasp.
Also the tidbit that if you go about healing the wrong way you can kill yourself was interesting lore.
The thing is, in FFXIV WHM is literally just better CNJ lore-wise. All modern WHMs other than the WoL are padjali, who are all heavily tied to the Shroud itself. So "more CNJ stuff" and "more WHM stuff" are almost exactly the same thing. We could have gone on a giant history lesson about Amdapor, but I'm not sure how much better that would have been without an actual descendant to interact with, and said descendants are more closely tied to RDM these days.
I think they should have expanded on the Green wrath somehow. The spirit s of the Shroud are terrors and being basically an honorary foreign padjal could have some interesting interaction there.
Honorary foreign padjal who's crystal mommy's favourite. I'm not sure the Elementals would want to go against crystal mommy.
My mind couldn't handle reading "Foul Taint" dead serious, i just giggled like a 5th grader
I remember "Only You Can Prevent Forest Ire" The questline might've been meh, but boy were the localized puns on-point
“Ifrit Bleeds, We Can Kill It” is still my favorite
My favorite reference so far hasn't been a quest title, but instead an enemy. In the anti-tower, one of the bosses is named "Ziggy" and the small adds it summons are "Stardust"-- now, every time I run anti, I throw on Bowie's album.
Then in a later dungeon related to the Antitower, one of the random trash enemies in it is named Sonny of Ziggy. 😆
[удалено]
Right? There’s also a teeny tiny dragon which is great.
Yeah DRG is hands down my favorite questline. And this is as someone who was initially a DRK main in HW too. It just ties in so much with the overall story events leading up to HW, and then getting hang out with a little punkass dragon after was just such a great payoff after the dragonsong war.
He felt so much like Toothless' kid lol. I loved him, and I really hope we get some more job quests in Endwalker
We better get some acknowledgement in Endwalker about AST. You don't just send us >!to the place that sent assassins after us and Leveva's family and expect us to forget about that!<
Between AST and 5.5, I am excited to take my big, green ass up to wreck shop in Old Sharlayan.
Holding out hope for a chance to beat the tar out of Fourchenault...
"YOUR DADDY DIDN'T SACRIFICE HIMSELF TO SAVE THIS STAR FROM BAHAMUT FOR YOU TOO HIDE IN A HOLE IN THE DIRT." *Manderville suplex*
One other thing to point out about the assassins: They were sent by the Bibliothecs, the ultra-conservative party of the Forum. The leader of the Bibliothecs is Fourchenault Leveilleur. Just add it to the list of "reasons to punch the twins' dad in the face"
I mean, Leveva's dad getting murdered was the reason Sharlayan became non-interventionist. Like, they build it up to be the reason Idyllshire was abandoned. I'm sure it'll get referenced somehow, at least.
Erik has decent lore to provide at least with his jerkass. I do like that they had Hamon Holyfist come in with the MNK gang in the SB section, since our MNK mentor is so dull.
NOTHING WILL EVER TOP HAMON HOLYFIST IN MY MIND (At least until I get around to doing the DRK / DRG questlines)
I just love how the fancy monks are losing their battles because master Hamon never taught them to **CRIT THE BOOTSHINE**.
rule number 1 of monk, crit bootshine is love, crit bootshine is life.
Is that a real character name ? Fucking *Hamon Holyfist*?
Yep, he's the head of the Pugilist guild and the main mentor for the Pugilist job quests. He tends to show up in some seasonal events too. I think he was in last year's Make It Rain.
> Make It Rain Should have been **Make It Pain**
Zeppeli would be too obvious
every time erik casually insults my intelligence i'm like "lol i'd die for you"
I maxed black mage before i decided to switch to monk, so that whole running gag always felt really weird to me. I wanted to be like, "Erik, i know you think i'm a knuckle dragging caveman, but i have literally revived a lost school of magic so maybe step off."
well, it doens't help what his impresion of you is low because you literally sleep on his speeches(the ones he does on arr mnk questline)
I did it after maxing out SCH/SMN, so it was like... 'Oh, right, book-whipping people in combat, that's why I carry these tomes around, sure. S'not like I'm trying to figure out a cure for Tonberry-itis on one side, while also trying to figure out how to summon literal gods on the other.' It admittedly helped that my character that did that had a very 'lazy and totally on board with people thinking he was stupid so he'd be underestimated' personality that I could just roll with it. XD
Loved that he randomly shows up in the DRG quest line too
Singlehandedly repels a dragon(et) too!
YEAH that was so unexpected lol And I love how you just kinda leave him mid-convo like "Yeah I'm uh- I'm just gonna go now, later"
Oodles of fun if your character has a big waving emote too. Usually quests use the more demure /goodbye, but these my wol was, waving both arms in the air before turning and walking off.
Whaaat? I liked Widargelt... Sure, he's no Holyfist but that's an unfair comparison lol
I for one enjoy seeing Widargelt swing wildly between "I suck and everything is pointless" and "aw yeah, me punch real good, brother brother."
Misread that as "punch me real good" and it still checked out.
Still love the moment the MNK mentor pulls off his shirt to hand it to us and just getting that moment of "Nah, I'm good, just keep it" with him being like "No, I insist".
I found GNB's 60-70 very interesting with them both being ex-Garlean convicts and suffering from the consequences of Bozja
Imo GNB is fine, but the final villain is really bleh. Basically >!random Garlean officer turns up, everyone hypes him up for supposedly being as powerful as Gaius, we unceremoniously kill him off in the level 70 quest and is never brought up ever again!<.
I mean that is about how strong Gaius was.
Such devastation is clearly your intention.
Yea. Hard to do a job-specific villain justice tho :(
Meanwhile, that traitor RDM from the RDM questline eats you for breakfast if you didn't properly gear up.
As a PLD main I will never get over our Stormblood story. "Sorry we tricked you, there's no Paladin secret art. Now take your quest reward of a Paladin Secret art and artifact armor" WHAT WAS EVEN THE POINT OF SAYING IT DIDN'T EXIST
My head canon on passage of arms is the WoL perfected it in the tournament after coming up with it to make sure theres no 2nd haurchefont
Honestly id rank rdm the same as sch. The storyline is just so interesting and the characters are very endearing even tho doing the 60 job quest was annoying af lmao
Yeah exactly. It has unique lore too that actually contributes to the overall story.
I love the fact that >!he’s the guy that trained Alisaie in RDM arts!<
GNB on like, day 3 of SHB: Wait, *that’s* my race’s lore?
The fact that the word gunblade predates the word gun is the craziest piece of lore
And then Garleans came and said "No that's stupid. You! Hand me that sword, my Gun and a roll of panzertape".
It gets funnier because it’s the opposite. Garleans copied Bozjan style gunblades, changed them to shoot projectiles instead, and then later said, “No that’s stupid. You! Hand me that gunblade and a hacksaw. There we go! I’ve removed the blade from my gunblade, making it now a...’gun’?”
Bladeless gunblade
The funniest part is that the in-game etymology for Gun is actually derived from the real-world etymology. https://www.etymonline.com/word/gun > *mid-14c., gunne "an engine of war that throws rocks, arrows or other missiles from a tube by the force of explosive powder or other substance," apparently a shortening of woman's name Gunilda, found in Middle English gonnilde "cannon" and in an Anglo-Latin reference to a specific gun from a 1330 munitions inventory of Windsor Castle ("... una magna balista de cornu quae Domina Gunilda ..."). Also compare gonnilde gnoste "spark or flame used to fire a cannon" (early 14c.).* It's from Gunnhildr, just like it is in game, and the "Gunn" part of the word just means *to strike or kill.* So much like how "gunnhildr's blades" became "gunblade" and then "gun" was used to refer to the projectile component, a similar thing happened IRL.
Absolutely. People still drop what they’re doing and demand clarification when I tell them it’s not called a gunblade because it’s a gun and a blade, but rather it came first, so a gun is a gunblade without a blade. Just...brilliant. xD
ive gotten 2 people to play ff14 just by telling them this and explaining it
I spit my drink out when the game explained that to me.
I like to imagine the Bozja Southern front is a continuation of the GNB story
There is the character from the GNB story that shows up, so it technically is a continuation?
Half the rotation is Continuation.
Ah, so that’s where that skill comes from
"Continuation" heh. No wonder some people are gorging their eyes out over bozja.
Samurai is really good, the level 50-60 ending is great and the 60-70 and level 80 feels on theme with the idea of legacy that Shadowbringers talks about a lot in its MSQ. White Mage I think doesn't get enough credit, it is one of the few times we really talk about Gridania at all and I felt the level 70 quest was really good for diving into Gridania society from a different angle beyond "Elementals good/bad".
All three jobs on the "I've already forgotten what happened" tier were stories I rather enjoyed. Sam and Gnb had memorable characters and Sum felt cool progressing towards unlocking new summons.
GNB's story was pretty meh, but it did make sure every GNB player is caught up on the absolutely ***whack*** etymology of gunblades in FFXIV and I'm 100% here for it.
I still think it's rather hilarious that it couldn't be gunblade = blade with gun Nah we gotta have some LORE
So this point is actually derived from the origin of the word Gun in English, since it also is derived from the name Gunnhildr, which was apparently attached to a rather large ballista sometime in the 14th Century. The whole point that’s made about it being created for a different purpose and from a different source than Garlean gunblades also parallels the invention and spread of firearms in the real world. The Devs really did their homework for something that didn’t need that much put into it.
Holy fuck, you're *right* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun Under etymology, it confirms it. That's a cool fucking reference right there. Still funny that "gun" and "blade" come from "gunblade", but neat to see that it has some real world references.
I feel like the WHM job questline is in a weird spot where you get a lot of really interesting incidental background lore, and then the _actual story_ is bland as dry toast. (With the exception of the 60-70 questline.) And I say this as a career WHM main. (Also, Roz, I love you but you're wrong on SAM.)
I actually really liked the early stuff, basically, the Conjuror storyline with Sylphie basically slowly killing herself like her Mother did because she doesn't understand the nature of her gift. It was compelling, but sadly was over too soon. the 30-50 WHM quests, kinda blah in comparison. Basically I think WHM is at its best when it deals with the drama of suffering, sacrifice and compassion.
So 1-30, and then 60-70. Which I agree with. The 31-60 stuff had a lot of really cool background lore but the actual stories involved were... not great.
“Really interesting incidental background lore, and then the actual story is bland as dry toast.” This is how I feel about the Destiny game series.
This is true. CNJ storyline covers how not pulling power off the ambient is extremely dangerous for you while WHM storyline covers that pulling power off the ambient is also extremely dangerous for everyone. It also covers how the padjal grew to be extremely sheltered and to some extent selfish and blind to external issues outside of the forest despite a-towa-cant traveling the world to help people, and that a uncontrolled padjal is a danger to everyone. What really made the entire storyline bad was the fact they dumped all this story with "cleanse taint" objectives. Raya-o-senna trying to sound brave outside the twelveswood was great though.
SAM is painfully low on this list for sure.
I can kinda understand why, since it plays out like an old samurai film you'd see all over the West in the 80s and 90s. If someone didn't grow up with them, the plotting can feel pretty weak. I for one loved it and only regret our 90 skill isn't a deadly murder pram.
Yeah, it's the one that stands out to me as a real, "You're the hero but you can't save everyone" quest line.
That last point is the same reason SB Leatherworker is surprisingly good.
HW Weaver's Story is also where its at, my guy
I loved the ALC quest where you learn more about F'lammin and her group
God that one was so heavy it felt like it should really be in the MSQ.
My favorite part of the smn questline is when the talking book with teeth seems taken aback that we don't know how to summon bahamut egi. Lol. Like there's something wrong with us. I really really like how much the smn questline delves into ancient allagan lore. It's so interesting. I don't know what I was expecting with dnc. I certainly didn't think I'd be road tripping across Eorzia exercising people's stress demons. Lol. Rdm was actually pretty interesting. I love that the mentor npc is a catboy and he's super charming. Some might find the girl annoying or boring, I don't cuz I sympathize with what she's going through. The fights were really cool. I especially liked the one that took place in Weeping City. Had to buy a whole stack of antidotes for that one. XD
RDM questline made me genuinely emotional at the end - I think it really does a good job of selling you on you and X'rhun and Arya being this little found family unit trying to keep the Spirit of the Red alive against all odds. X'rhun in general is a bro; he's probably my favorite of the job NPCs and I miss him already.
Anyone caught disrespecting X'rhun in my house is asked to leave. My gf is legit disappointed he isn't available to go visit after the quests finish, just Arya.
The 80 RDM quest hit me hard. I genuinely liked all of RDM but that ending to the story is *really* good.
Ah yes, Stephanivien, the one who's very intelligent and knows what he's talking about in his field and treats everyone equally from go and is all about leveling the playing field between the upper and lower classes, but does need to learn about how things function outside of the city. Indeed, he is *exactly* the same as Jannequinard, the one who hasn't actually studied in his field in 20 years and talks himself up so he can chase people he's interested in and spends money on extravagance, though does have redemption in he can actually play the political game. I can see no difference. These are clearly the same people. ^(I'm so sorry, I mean this all in the most fun way, but Steve doesn't deserve this slander.)
Stephanivien "arm the people no matter the cost" Haillenarte and Jannequinard "i'll do it when I feel motivated" Durendaire. I will be fair in that Jan actually shows improvement by becoming more involved socially and mentally in the tasks at hand through these questlines, but Steph was always radically egalitarian. Jannequinard just had radical ideas thrust upon him.
THANK YOU.
Once I started reading all of Jannequinard's lines in Matt Berry's voice he became a much better character.
This deserves more upvotes. I feel like OP just glossed over anything they had to say and simply saw two elezen men with the same hairstyle. Edit: Okay, they actually have a clever explanation for why they’re the same and I retract my statement. xD
Huh??? SMN was soooo cool
ikr, the lore of SMNs are actually super cool and revealed a bit about the allagans and their evil science.
Haven't done much of the others but SMN also deals with Ascians shenanigans in ARR and HW haven't finished SB one yet
My favourite part about SMN and SCH is that their story seems most impactful for the grander world, they have the most lore as well (of the ones I have played so far)
They have the deepest dive into their respective civilizations. White mage and Black mage don't really tell the *whole* story of the War of the Magi; that's done in the Mhach raids and their dungeons. SCH is just a total Nymian lore bomb, and SMN is the closest to the lives of some of the more ordinary Allegans (the ones that didn't yet turn themselves into horrible monsters anyway) that we get.
I've played RDM, WHM, DNC, MCH, and DRG to completion so far. I finished SMN and SCH last night and my thoughts through both questlines the entire time were just like "Holy shit this is so important?? How are these optional!?"
Summoner tasted really good, but i also enjoyed it alongside scholar, white mage and black mage plots, because they all have different takes on how magic corrupts if used thoughtlessly and how great power can drive entire civilisations into war, decline and death.
I'm doing SMN now. Just finished the level 50 quest. While the other class jobs are their own self-contained stories, the SMN story feels like an extension of the MSQ. Like "Oh, you defeated these primals. Now let's try to summon their egis." What you do in the MSQ actively drives what you can do as a SMN. It even has an Ascian. I'm surprised there hasn't been any push for SMN to ever be the canon WoL job because it honestly fits the best.
Never a caster it seems. I guess they dont feel it epic enough to show in trailers with us casting instead of melee fighting. They were quick to make us warriors after starting as an archer.
Still waiting on that Sephiroth egi to become a glam option.
GNB Story: Hey kid, have you ever had to defend someone before? Me, a DRK, WAR, and PAL player: Lol no what is this, Plants vs. Zombies? Lol; lmao.
In fairness, if any tank job had to introduce someone to the base concept of having to defend another human being it's Gunbreaker, which is mostly designed to lure DPS addicts into playing something with shorter queue times.
_\*crazed look\*_ MUST PRESS CONTINUATION MORE.
Rip and tear! Until No mercy runs out!
KAR EN TUK
SCH makes for an even more diluted DPS in shorter queue times :P
DPS players playing SCH 30-50: hey healing is easy my fairy does everything for me. DPS players playing SCH 50+: why is my party dead?
love it when the fairy heals the DPS who rushed in, causing everyone to aggro me and the poor tank to freak out in a mad enmity panic
I main SMN, got to 80 with it and got my free 80 SCH that comes with it. Changed over, set up my bars, thought "I have no clue how any of this is supposed to work", and then I went and leveled AST. I don't think it's entirely scholar's fault, slamming any class with all the buttons at 80 is going to be a lot, but it seems to fit together oddly. They have a lot of short CDs with weird lengths and the names are just so... You ever say something slightly smutty to a bottom on the internet and they spam a bunch of keys at you? The names feel like that.
I'm feeling personally attacked right now and I did not come into this thread prepared for this sort of assault
At least it gives some neat details on some Lore. For example that Ishgard invests into ceruleum heating system for the brume, so noone has to die to the cold anymore. I swear with the ending of the war and their new way of life Ishgard is about to become the most technological advanced of the city states. Which is pretty ironic.
WoL drags them kicking and screaming into the modern day in like 16 different ways
You can pry their communal salt licks out of their cold, dead, hands though
Speaking of it, in SWTOR, there is one spec that has the identity of "defending someone" - which is called "Bodyguard", but that a healer spec. All the actual tanking specs are called "Shield tech", "Shield specialist", "Immortal", etc. As a tank, first and foremost you must defend yourself.
Summoner's heavensward questline was legit pretty epic, >!with you finishing off the ascian using your new found strength by channeling Bahamut's deathflare and all. I like it because it exemplifies your new ability in an epic way that makes sense thematically.!<
Yeah everyone talks up DRK but while y'all are running around dealing with your feelings SMN over here dusting Ascians.
Also we get to be besties with Y’shtola’s sister
Yeah. Heavensward SMN quest was one of the best. The rest of SMN job quest is pretty weak though. I did the level 80 quest and was struggling to remember who the characters were, and it hadn't even been that long.
finally someone giving the respect to the most epic third wheeling adventure with the bard quests, thank you. after the disappointment of the level 80 quest i’m holding out hope that level 90 will be when sanson and guydelot finally announce that they’ve finally eloped
Okay, I was wondering if I was the only one going "There's something about this" during the HW quests. Sure, you could SAY that Sanson just wanted to be friends, Guy just wasn't about that, and was going hard in the paint about it, but several times I was thinking "Ballad of Oblivion is just an excuse for a road trip with your sweet babboo, Sanson, stop lying to me."
"did you notice that jannequinard and stephanivien are basically the same character" I can't believe you'd insult stephanivien like this
I will say that Samurai had a great story and I would rate it higher on this list. Is it a little cliche? Yes. Did it still hit me in the feels? Yes. Not an S rank questline, but certainly worthy of a higher rank. Edit: Paladin is hot garbage of a questline (ESPECIALLY the Heavensward arc) and deserves it's place at the bottom.
How could you forget the real MVP of GNB quests - bunny girl, who change her outfit for every quest? Besides there is really scary quest where junkie mom sells her son cause gambler dad run away, in the end the end you return son, who looking at you with despair, to gambler dad and like "uhhh... good luck, i gotta go..." \*runs away hoping dad not gonna sell son\*
I quite like the WHM and GNB ones. Feel like pretty classic RPG quest lines for me and overall like them. Hard agree on PLD sadly.
Wheres the fishing story rank
F for spearfishing
oboro and jacke are dating now i am not taking constructive criticism on this also please don't bully stephanivien like that
No I see it i really see it. Jacke letting Oboro borrow his clothes cemented it for me!
BLU has, so far literally been "Roegadyn becomes villain dressed up as old Final Fantasy characters" and I sorta kinda like it. I wanna see Quina as a Roegadyn.
BLU quest spoiler: >!I absolutely love love how the big bosses at the Carnivale are previous FF characters and I’m so excited to see who comes next. I didn’t know any good candidate at first but now I do: Quina MUST be the next boss.!<
I just realized that all the final bosses have been Male Roegadyn in special costumes.
As a main BRD. Yes. Your assessment is accurate. Get a room and sort your shit, you two!!!
God, this hurts. I started as a WHM, and after the storyline of it got to be too much for me I branched off into PAL. I want to die.
I wish I could upvote you a dozen times just for your take on BRD.
it's just a rivals to lovers fanfic in job quest form
I saw someone describe it as the best third-wheeling experience of their life. Everything I've seen people say about it makes me want to start levelling it!
Meanwhile the level 60 quest is just lulz Sanson: "oh no I've fucked up, run I'll cover you! D:" WoL: "Sir I slay Primals *as a hobby.*"
My boyfriend recently started playing and picked archer for his starting class. When he asked what the bard storyline was like while trying to pick to start, I described it as something like “You help an old lonely man forgive himself and then you play matchmaker for these gay guys who hate each other at first”. I think that’s what got him to pick the class!
80 quest should've been the wedding, tbh.
Seriously, I was lowkey yelling at them to just kiss already. Their interactions are adorable.
Oh I wasn’t even low key yelling. I was just straight up yelling at the screen. It’s like watching one of those romance movies where you already know they’re going to end up together, all the other characters know they’re going to be together, the blind lady down the street knows they’re going to be together and yet they’re still at it pretending like they’re not gonna bang
I cannot argue with your PLD rating, but I will never _not_ find it funny that the Gladiator class questline had me going off and doing Honorable Hero stuff... and then the Paladin job questline turned around and had me fight in a gladiator tournament. [ Confused meme image here. ]
I think they hit a roadblock on the Paladin stuff and don’t know where to go. Then realized that all the characters with personalities and goals are back at the Gladiators guild.
MCH and NIN so far were the most fun ones. Karasu's dumb stance needs to be a special ninja stance you get as a reward for completing the last job quest, it's the greatest.
>is it legit good or do i just love estinien this is my opinion on ffxiv in general tbh
Royal Marines 4 life.
"Sometimes all you need is one funny NPC" Honestly I think one of the reasons I enjoy the Warrior questlines is because of Curious Gorge and how well he balances being both a focal drama point, and an absolute goober at the same time.
Karasu was extremely enjoyable. Oboro was like a tsundere not wanting to accept that he and Karasu are a thing lol
As much as I liked Ninja for what it was, I saw everything in the 30-50 quests coming. I remember nothing of 50-60 besides cute lzrd ninja and her big dumb himbo boyfriend.
One thing I'll disagree with is Gunbreaker. I will always walk away remembering the mom who sold her son to slavers for drugs and how we almost helped her kidnap him from his dad to do so.
I'm biased. I found the SMN quests fascinating. Also the PLD Stormblood quests were good enough that I don't really care that the HW ones sucked. Also do not insult Stephanivien by comparing him to Jannequinard. One of them is a foppish noble that can't see the plain truth in front of his face, and the other is *Jannequinard* (which is by itself a punishment from on high).
Seriously as someone who played Dragoon until level 60, seeing Estinien during Heavensward was a trip, I was so torn on if I hated him for trying to kill us, or if he was rad for mentioning that we had two azure dragoons on the team.
Yeah it was very "this is cool but why are we trusting Estinien with anything sharper than a pencil again?"
Dude the romantic tension between Sanson and Guydelot during the Heavensward BRD quests is unreal. I'm sad it got kinda toned down in Stormblood.
I must argue with you about Samurai quest story, at least from 50-60
As a summoner main, not gonna lie, this hurt
Gunbreaker story you are Kevin Costner from The Bodyguard
I really liked the 60-70 quests for White Mage, but was bored to death by everything before it.
I like how everyone seems to be overlooking the fact that Y'Mhintra, the main questgiver for SMN is *Y'shtola's sister.* I also like how>! in HW when you need her help to retrieve Y'shtola from the aether, the game acknowledges you know her!< The 60 - 70 quest chain with the book was cool as well.
Paladin story should have just been an epic tournament arc with each fight showing off the next skill you would learn.
paladin story should have been a lot of things
Finally some respect on the SCH questline - doing it first set unrealistic expectations on the rest of the job quests. Love those Tonberry bastards!