the big post (extended for a few in particular)
After a few hectic days the wait was finally over. Rhain couldn't make the party (stupid Canada!) but was surprised to see chibi back around and we had a replacement blm taru fill in. A long crazy night and even though I got absolutely nothing completed (but lots started) it was the most fun I've had in this game in a long time.
The cut will kill slow computers...
The boat ride was so packed and so lagged out that it actually seemed kinda empty. I completely forgot about fraps in my excitement so I missed a bunch of snap shots of the crazy fish people were catching (Vimes caught tuna, cause he's boring) or the whales ~ yes, whales ~ that swim beside the trip for a while. Some nice scenery, but not as pretty as the barge from Bibiki Bay. But this expansion was never about ferry rides anyway...
The music in the capital rocks and the zones are huge. WiW split up to go explore and examine and people got soooo much done. I think just about everyone on the server /telled Xano at one point in the night and Big figured out a few missions and quests on his own and even got his mog locker. Spent a good ninty minutes running around in here over the course of the night and didn't nearly see everything I wanted to or talk to 1/3 of the people.
A new race who's bad guy brothers actually have terrorize (which was fun to find out), they talk like jar-jar, but are kinda cute. This guy is involved with the chocobo raceway, which was closed or unavailable when we ran into him.
Puppetmasters are making brd's run for thier money as far as entertainment value. Just about anything PUP needs for thier dolls comes from Alchemy, so I'll definately need to look into the monetary possibilities of it, and most certainly maybe xping it. Best case scenario: Where all the other crafts make thier bank from making awesome gear for players, Alchemist might make big bank making awesome gear fot dolls. At the very least, it was a fun show to watch.
One of the first places I went to was the Temple. Nothing very interesting here except for the center piece, which while ultimately pointless so far, looks really cool.
Salaheen is going to challenge Prishe for the coolest NPC title I feel. From what we've gathered missions are unlocked through gaining mercenary points. We already know that Assault ties heavily to this, and I'm guessing a few quests will as well. Talking to some of the people around town one guy told me I needed to be rank 50 to participate in something - so this expansion is going to make us work I think.
The invitation card quest was finished here, where Salaheen gave me a nice coin that can be used for my mog locker - and I'm sure, other things as well - I'm feeling they're going to be like ancient beastcoins in that regard and that we'll be able to get them through numerous ways. So much to absorb and I haven't even seen close to all of it.
While WiW was rushing around trying to find everything in the city, Vor and I stepped out to see the new zones first. The forests outside are the prettiest ones SE ever made and huge to boot.
Killed this guy first. Mobs there ranged from EP-EM. In addition to these tucans there are pink ochus, weird looking spiders and, my favorite, bee hives that spew out tons of bees. At night in the northern forest Fomors actually pop up as well as haunts - so I wonder what, if any, tie in with promathia this expansion will have.
The most fun mob, however, were Puks.
These guys weren't tough, but are true sight. They have this amazing tp move that knocks party members back VERY far - like, almost cant see your party anymore far.
There's so much stuff out there it's just crazy.
Some of the new underground zones were pretty and had some unusual stuff, like the plants above, and some neon blue lakes (think crawlers nest on acid). None were cooler then Halvung tho.
Halvung clearly is a new Ifrit's Cauldron zone, only it's a hang out for the trolls and pudding. And, oddly enough, crawlers.
These crawlers actually sleep on thier own at night time. Was fortunate enough to zone in just before 6:00 and sure enough, they sprang to life and almost ate me.
We ran into Vimes by chance not long after that and got a little bold. We did discover tho that Puddings LOVE to spam -ga spells.
Can't be sure yet if it linked the troll we were fighting or if it aggro'd our magic - i would bank on the later - but Vimes held out a long time on his own against 3. Was much fun. We escaped out hoping it'd take us out to the forst again... nope.
This is the zone where Cerebrus is, but we couldn't find him or a zone like back to the forest. We did find some cool enemies, the best of which were the green penguins.
They WADDLE! I could have watched em walk all night - they were so cute.
The coast had all dune's like mobs - flys, pugs, crabs - but they're all volacanic colored. Pugs looked really cool too. Forgot to /check em, but I'm guessing the area we were at might be a decent xp spot. We ran around for a bit trying to find a way out, got aggro and a link and decieded to teleport out and take a break during the ferry back over.
We gave the first mission a shot once we got back, heading into Mamook to deliver a package. We got lost tho and I got tired.
The zone was very pretty tho. All sorts of mobs here, from the beastmen to more puks, shagins and pugs, spiders too. Was around 4am when we ran into Vimes again and I called it a night, but was happy to hear they got the mission done.
Not even this could save me.
For a first night, I was really proud of WiW for what they got done. Big and Xano especially for figuring out so much. Hopefully a lot more things will become clearer once were through the weekend. I figure our first real active group night will be spent catching everyone up to the same point and trying out some assaults or missions if we've got time.
It's a brave new world again, and WiW was pretty fearless.