Damien Ward

FFXIV blog for Damien Ward (Balmung): Mercenary | Bodyguard | Nightkin | follows and asks come from @dardillien-ward

[damienward-ffxiv]

New Carrd

I finally got around to making Damien a new carrd since his first one was pretty basic and crappy.

https://damien-ward.carrd.co/

[stellaretic]

thanks to all the dawntrail criticism, i’m rapidly learning that what other people think of as “pacing issues,” i think of as necessary time spent getting acquainted with a new environment, its history and the folks that live there. what they felt was a slog, i felt was the equivalent of going on vacation and submersing yourself in rich, previously unknown cultures.

so basically what i mean to say is i have a true adventurer’s spirit and everyone who gripes about this expansion’s pacing is a loser. (SORT OF a joke. but also not really. but also really. but also n)

[damienward-ffxiv]

The pacing with Dawntrail becomes ass in the second half.

The first half had great pacing, it was just kind of boring. But once you get to the second half the story picks up and things get exciting all for it to come to a screeching halt every time because dumbass Wuk Lamat is like, "LetS tAlk tO tHe LocAls" and wants to get to know people...

And it's just dumb because there is a freaking invasion that is about to happen AGAIN to her people because Zoraal Ja said if she doesn't come find him and fight him he's gonna invade.

There was ZERO urgency in the second half when there should have been, because again a freaking invasion was gonna happen AND THEN Sphene was gonna kill the world to take their souls as fuel for her deas people, and it's entirely because of annoying ass Wuk Lamat. (Mind you, I liked her in the first half of Dawntrail)

So I don't know call me crazy but saying Dawntrail doesn't have pacing issues feels like a hot take.

[crescent-ffxiv]

Classic Club Crescent: Halloween

Who: Boys and girls of every age, who would like to see something strange. Other gender identifications wishing to see something strange also welcome. When: October 12th, 2024 at 7pm eastern. Where: Crystal, Balmung, Goblet, W18, P5. Wear: A halloween costume! Why: Sometimes you just want to relive the old days. What: A bit of nostalgia, a bit of throwback, and a hell of a good time! Crescent Entertainment is partnering up with the Red Lantern Society to create a time machine night back to 2018; but with updated graphics, because let's be real. There'll be all of the classics! The check in line. Maude. The dice roulette. Legally dubious acts for amusement. So, swing on by and relive some of the old days for the fun of it!

🎃 MASTERLINK 🍬 (coming soon)

((Crescent club nights are meant to be a joyous occasion, and we understand if everything gets to be a bit much. Slipping out to somewhere quiet and returning is absolutely fine! Given the current atmosphere surrounding ‘clubs’, we’d also like to specify that while we do have a DJ providing optional music, our events are RP events, not twitch-streamed influencer parties.))

★ We’d adore your help in spreading the word, thank you! ★

[tsukikotanshi]

[[ We would very, very, very much like to see those folks who used to attend Club Crescent in attendance - I personally asked to head this event and bring it back to the calendar out of the fondest of memories, and though I know many of the old crew have moved on or are leading things of their own, this callback to one of the first large events I ever attended holds so much in my heart.

I'm really looking forward to seeing folks there, but please don't feel like you have to force yourselves! We'll be here, dressin' up Maude for the big day - the poor girl has gotten a little dusty!

Also, there will be a costume contest. It's Halloween, how could there not be one!? ]]

[phoebe-of-ivalice]

𝐿𝒶𝓈𝓉 𝒟𝒶𝓃𝒸𝑒

Recently had to swap to Dancer for my raid group and wanted a pretty glam for it.

[phoebe-of-ivalice]

ℕ𝕖𝕩𝕥 𝕆𝕡𝕡𝕠𝕟𝕖𝕟𝕥

She’s ready for a show down at the Arcadion!!!

[scrollsfromarebornrealm]

SER OTIS VELONA THE GOAT

[rharyx]

FF14 players have been told to hear, feel, and think since day 1, yet somehow hate Dawntrail because it expects you to do exactly that

[damienward-ffxiv]

The problem, in my opinion, is that in the second half of the story there is a certain feel of urgency... but then Wuk Lamat is like, "let's get to know these people!"

As if her own people aren't about to get invaded again. It completely took me out of the story because it was utter nonsense that she had no sense of urgency when Zoraal Ja basically said, "come fight me or I'm gonna invade again."

And she did this like 3 times in the second half of the story! Every time the story started getting good and you thought oh man shit it about to go down, here comes Wuk Lamat wanting to talk and get to know people. It was very annoying. I get it in the first half of the story because she was getting to know and understand her people (let's not talk about how nonsensical it was that we had to support someone who knew nothing about her people and yet wanted the throne). It was cool seeing her grow and become a ruler for the people, but in the second half having that attitude while there was an invasion going on was just a hindrance to the story.

[sunnythanalan]

Jeweled Crozier

[damienward-ffxiv]

SMASH or PASS: Aidan Hartwood

Quick Facts:

Height: 6’1”

Age: 50 (give or take, he doesn't really keep track being a Viera)

Gender: Male

Pronouns: He/him

Sexuality: Straight

SMASH or PASS?

SMASH: Have some fun with the bun!

PASS: Gonna be a no from me!

OTHER: If you pick this comment why!

Voting ended onAug 4, 2024

Pros:

Stamina: He has a lot of stamina! He's good for a few rounds.

Gambler: You want to have a fun time drinking and gambling?? Aidan is your man!

Occult Knowledge: Enjoy talking about the occult and such? Aidan loves chatting about the occult!

Adventurous: Aidan travels a lot in search of occult artifacts for the voidsent, Vilthea, he is in a pact with. Due to this he goes a lot of places so it can be fun to explore with others.

Cons:

Gambler: While fun, Aidan doesn't have the best luck when it comes to gambling...

Non-committal: Given the nature of his work and constantly traveling around he isn't really one to commit to anything serious.

Voidsent Pact: Aidan is in a pact with a voidsent, not that this is common knowledge but most people would probably see this as a bad thing!

Additional Information:

Sexually: Aidan is definitely more of a sub, though he enjoys moments where he gets to be the more dominant one. He tends to just do whatever his partner seems to prefer, it's just in his experience his partners have been more dominant.

Romantically: Romance is not something that comes easy to Aidan. He briefly dated a fellow arcanist when he joined the Arcanist Guild in Limsa. However, since making his pact with Vilthea she has been his main partner, and she isn't one for romance particularly so her ways have rubbed off on Aidan.

Stolen from @luck-and-larceny I just had to do this!

Tagging: I am late to this so not taking anyone!

[damienward-ffxiv]

SMASH or PASS: Aidan Hartwood

Quick Facts:

Height: 6’1”

Age: 50 (give or take, he doesn't really keep track being a Viera)

Gender: Male

Pronouns: He/him

Sexuality: Straight

SMASH or PASS?

SMASH: Have some fun with the bun!

PASS: Gonna be a no from me!

OTHER: If you pick this comment why!

Voting ended onAug 4, 2024

Pros:

Stamina: He has a lot of stamina! He's good for a few rounds.

Gambler: You want to have a fun time drinking and gambling?? Aidan is your man!

Occult Knowledge: Enjoy talking about the occult and such? Aidan loves chatting about the occult!

Adventurous: Aidan travels a lot in search of occult artifacts for the voidsent, Vilthea, he is in a pact with. Due to this he goes a lot of places so it can be fun to explore with others.

Cons:

Gambler: While fun, Aidan doesn't have the best luck when it comes to gambling...

Non-committal: Given the nature of his work and constantly traveling around he isn't really one to commit to anything serious.

Voidsent Pact: Aidan is in a pact with a voidsent, not that this is common knowledge but most people would probably see this as a bad thing!

Additional Information:

Sexually: Aidan is definitely more of a sub, though he enjoys moments where he gets to be the more dominant one. He tends to just do whatever his partner seems to prefer, it's just in his experience his partners have been more dominant.

Romantically: Romance is not something that comes easy to Aidan. He briefly dated a fellow arcanist when he joined the Arcanist Guild in Limsa. However, since making his pact with Vilthea she has been his main partner, and she isn't one for romance particularly so her ways have rubbed off on Aidan.

Stolen from @luck-and-larceny I just had to do this!

Tagging: I am late to this so not taking anyone!

[rihlltalk]

ffxiv is a great game and all but why does no one tell you that the process of making an alt is literally just

[damienward-ffxiv]

Literally me in the last few months. I just bought a story skip for Dawntrail and now am leveling him.

Here he is, my bunboy Aidan.

[picaroroboto]

WRT the Garlemald portion of EW: I'm sure that for a lot of FFXIV's history players have been wondering what it would be like to reach Garlemald proper in-game, and daydreaming of epic battles, maybe a sense of "conquering the conquerers"

And it is so, so genius of EW to not give you that.

You don't get any glory or revenge in defeating the evil empire, they already self-destructed on their own. You can't really revel in it. If you're feeling particularly vindictive you might look at the rubble and silently think "Serves you right!" or "Good riddance to bad rubbish." but no matter how much you may have hated the Empire in the past it's hard not to pity what's left.

See, the thing about Garlemald is that in their prejudice and conquest they treated everyone who isn't them as subhuman. But in the end you are all human beings, and so are they. The Empire isn't a nameless, faceless evil, it's a war machine created by the beliefs of humans who saw other humans as inhuman. By helping the survivors you are not only doing the right thing, the human thing to do, you are also disproving their prejudice in the process by reminding them that you're all human. (I'm using the word "human" in abstract sense here, not to refer just to the Hyuran race of FFXIV, but all the races of sentient beings, all deserving of rights, respect, etc.)

I'm trying to shine a light on the significance of this part of the story because it seems like some people have conflicted feelings about helping citizens of a facist former empire, but it would be sheer Reading Comprehension Stat: None to assume that that means FFXIV is condoning their ideology. In fact, it would be antithetical to FFXIV's optimistic, pro-humanity, love-and-peace, a-better-world-is-possible -type philosophy if we instead left the survivors to starve.

[damienward-ffxiv]

I had no pity at all. Fuck Garlemald. The only pity I have for them was how they were pushed out of the lands originally because they couldn't use magic and forced up north to basically die in the cold. That was fucked and they did not deserve that. But everything after that? All that shit they did was just as fucked up. So nope no pity.

[llmsalominsa-archive-deactivate]

FFXIV Locations 4/?? – Coerthas Western Highlands ➝ Dusk Vigil

[therealdesastrffxivpast]

A FFXIV Alt Rant

I know, I feel like I'm negative with my posts here if they're text-based on tumblr, but it's nice to be able to just get my thoughts out there.

I find the alt-unfriendliness super frustrating in FFXIV. Before someone comes at me with "BUT YOU CAN LEARN ALL JOBS ON ONE CHARACTER!" I don't care. I don't play the game for multiple jobs/classes. FFXIV combat system is kinda flavorless for me.

I play FFXIV for RP & housing. I used to collect (in World of Warcraft) but I don't bother to do that in FFXIV anymore because nothing is shared with alts, and a lot of it isn't market-sellable, so I can't trade it to a friend then pass it to alts either.

It just is a huge, frustrating thing as someone who really likes having multiple characters with multiple stories.

I have to go through MSQ on every single alt, or buy the skip, which is ridiculous in pricing. I don't know why skips can't apply to multiple alts, and I don't care that my spent money is 'helping the game'. It's a bit ridiculous that I'd need to be looked to to 'fund the game' with microtransactions or waste time on each and every alt to story skip.

Not getting a level skip for alts is fine, but the fact that FFXIV REQUIRES you to go through the MSQ to advance through the game is ridiculous if you have a character on that account that has already before.

I get that I'm a rare type of player, and that the XIV RP community comes across as far more casual/less story based (it's my impression from the wider community. Sorry.) than I am used to, coming from a different game. I like multiple conflicts/plotlines and complexities, and am not into the venue/bar scene.

I love this game, given I've been playing it for years now and have put a lot into it, but I have plenty of complaints like I would any other game, and it feels like bringing up ANY complaint at all, be it things like this or story-based complaints (like the utter RELIANCE on nostalgia/'need to play many previous games to get the references or enjoy this part of it') will toss fanatics who defend the game at every twist and turn and flaw no matter what at me.

I don't know.

It's just a rant, I know nothing's going to change, and I know it will likely be alt-unfriendly forever because "you can have all jobs on one character" which again - does not appeal to me in the slightest.

Sigh...

[damienward-ffxiv]

This is a whole ass mood. FFXIV might be the most un-alt friendly game I have ever played and it is very annoying.

More annoying is when people are like, "well just do everything on one character then." How about no!

[therealdesastrffxivpast]

Agreed so much, ugh. I hate the 'well do it on one character' response, it's useless for folks like me who like having tons of characters and really do not care about 'all jobs on one'. Most jobs don't interest me unless they relate to that specific character - I don't have that 'WoL can do everything' mentality for my characters especially when it comes to RP.

[damienward-ffxiv]

Thank you!!! I only play jobs if they fit the character, that comes from my time as a WoW player I guess. And none of my characters are the uber special that WoL who trains in everything.

[therealdesastrffxivpast]

A FFXIV Alt Rant

I know, I feel like I'm negative with my posts here if they're text-based on tumblr, but it's nice to be able to just get my thoughts out there.

I find the alt-unfriendliness super frustrating in FFXIV. Before someone comes at me with "BUT YOU CAN LEARN ALL JOBS ON ONE CHARACTER!" I don't care. I don't play the game for multiple jobs/classes. FFXIV combat system is kinda flavorless for me.

I play FFXIV for RP & housing. I used to collect (in World of Warcraft) but I don't bother to do that in FFXIV anymore because nothing is shared with alts, and a lot of it isn't market-sellable, so I can't trade it to a friend then pass it to alts either.

It just is a huge, frustrating thing as someone who really likes having multiple characters with multiple stories.

I have to go through MSQ on every single alt, or buy the skip, which is ridiculous in pricing. I don't know why skips can't apply to multiple alts, and I don't care that my spent money is 'helping the game'. It's a bit ridiculous that I'd need to be looked to to 'fund the game' with microtransactions or waste time on each and every alt to story skip.

Not getting a level skip for alts is fine, but the fact that FFXIV REQUIRES you to go through the MSQ to advance through the game is ridiculous if you have a character on that account that has already before.

I get that I'm a rare type of player, and that the XIV RP community comes across as far more casual/less story based (it's my impression from the wider community. Sorry.) than I am used to, coming from a different game. I like multiple conflicts/plotlines and complexities, and am not into the venue/bar scene.

I love this game, given I've been playing it for years now and have put a lot into it, but I have plenty of complaints like I would any other game, and it feels like bringing up ANY complaint at all, be it things like this or story-based complaints (like the utter RELIANCE on nostalgia/'need to play many previous games to get the references or enjoy this part of it') will toss fanatics who defend the game at every twist and turn and flaw no matter what at me.

I don't know.

It's just a rant, I know nothing's going to change, and I know it will likely be alt-unfriendly forever because "you can have all jobs on one character" which again - does not appeal to me in the slightest.

Sigh...

[damienward-ffxiv]

This is a whole ass mood. FFXIV might be the most un-alt friendly game I have ever played and it is very annoying.

More annoying is when people are like, "well just do everything on one character then." How about no!

[therealdesastrffxivpast]

Okay. Here's an actual hot take, FFXIV community.

It is so incredibly hard to take some in the FFXIV community seriously, constantly defending ARR tooth and claw and slamming new players for not trying it. The problem isn't whether or not you think it's good. It's that new players find it boring and head out.

And, again, an MMORPG without new players isn't great. We can't sustain it forever, new players and new perspectives are good. You can yell "WELL THEY SHOULD JUST SUCK IT UP AND GIVE IT A CHANCE" all you want, but you're not -going to-.

The people with interest in the game aren't as obsessed as the clear fanatics defending it tooth and nail, you can't manifest a bored player into just staying. Some will. Most won't.

There's gotta be a solution other than 'well they should suck it up'. Cause they're not.

I skipped ARR to get into the game from the previous one I played, for example, and ended up just fine. I went back and did ARR on an alt. It was okay. Didn't feel super interesting or needed at all, but I did it for story importance.

The end point of ARR with the Garleans, dipping into Ishgard lore, and all of that are the actual interesting pieces that felt important. Everything else, not really.

And so, here's the thing.

We can scream in denial all we want that people aren't giving the game a chance, they should just try to get through ARR, yell at the people who are trying it and say they don't like ARR and feel aghast at the fact that people have the GALL to question WHY the game 'gets good' from Heavensward on...

But that won't get new players to play, and it won't convince people at all that the game is worth continuing.

It's honestly simple logic. And yes, this is a hot take, because I constantly am bombarded with XIV fanatics in flat out denial that ARR is a problem.

You can think it's good all you want, but your dismissal of many new players who want to get into the game and can't because of ARR isn't logical or helpful. At all.

[damienward-ffxiv]

I agree and disagree with this. Going through ARR the first time wasn't as bad as people make it out to be. The problem, in my opinion, is that it's TOO LONG.

Just about everything after you beat Ultima, is worthless. Like all you need to know is bitch ass Alphinaud tried to form the Crystal Braves and it blew up and lead to the events of the banquet. That's all you need to know which could be shown in 1 cutscene. Personally, I think SE should just cut everything post-Ultima weapon and make it a cutscene that leads you into Heavensward.

Side note, it's funny when people say, "the game gets good once you get to Heavensward" and like yeah it does. Heavensward is an amazing expansion... but then you have to go through dogshit Stormblood. That is a fucking slog before you finally get to Shadowbringers which again is good.

I think that's a problem with ffxiv, you have to go through slog of ARR, not horrible but long. Then Heavensward is good. Then it's back to a slog, bad expansion in Stormblood. It doesn't surprise me people don't make it to end game.

[saeta]

Saeta and some of her ship partners for Valentione’s!

I’m pretty pleased with how these came out. ❤️

(Base: Tender Kiss)