Final Fantasy 14 Patch 4.5 is here!
This means new minions, mounts, hairstyles, emotes and all that other good collectible shit that gets my heart pumping for the grind. It also means a big new pile of juicy content for the fans. Including, but not limited to:
- New hero class Blue mage – be the beast
- The third Return to Ivalice raid – Orbonne Monastery
- Main storyline quests – Stormblood draws to its conclusion
- New Trial – Face Seiryu the Azure Dragon, Final of the Four Lords
- New Dungeon – The Ghimlyt Dark
Let’s dive in.
Final Fantasy 14 Patch 4.5
Starting from January 15, 2019, players with a level 50 character in any of the combat classes (DoM/DoW) will gain access to the Blue Mage job. You don’t need the Stormblood expansion, you simply need a level 50 character who has completed the main storyline from A Realm Reborn.
But what is a blue mage the uninitiated ask?
Blue mages are iconic masters of beast-inspired battle. By engaging in battle with monsters a Blue Mage can learn the techniques and attacks that monsters use on the mages and call these abilities forth in later battles.
It’s a very gnarly way to learn magic and the fanbase has been clamouring for the chance to cook up a little blue magic for some time now. However, the wild and worrisome nature of blue magic isn’t so suitable for the traditional structure of dungeon and raid parties so this new class is to be the first of a new grouping of classes called “limited jobs.”
Blue Mage – Limited Jobs
Blue Mages will only be able to use the duty finder for Blue Mage specific instances. If they desire to venture into the big boy dungeons with the rest of Eorzea’s defenders, they’ll need to join premade groups to access the content. Other niche jobs such as Beastmaster and Puppet Master have been rumoured to be later releases for the limited job category.
With Shadowbringers looming ever closer, Stormblood has entered its death throes. The new main scenario quests made available in Final Fantasy 14 patch 4.5 are the first half of the Stormblood finale. The second half of this quest chain can be expected sometime before Winter in 2019 when Shadowbringers is expected to drop.
I’m yet to complete the Stormblood content but will be hurriedly grinding to prepare for the new expansions release with the rest of the heroes of light.
The latest trial allows players to tackle the final of The Four Lords, Seiryu the Azure Dragon. With Genbu the Black Tortoise, Byakko the White Tiger and Suzaku the Vermillion Bird defeated its now time to conquer the zenith of the zodiac. The blue drake is available for confrontation on both normal and extreme difficulty.
Ready for Shadowbringers
An additional dungeon, The Ghimlyt Dark has also been added to the game. Forced to travel through Ghimlet, The Warrior of Light will face a land of perpetual darkness fraught with terror and foes alike. Three new bosses are present in the dungeon and a minimum level of 360 is required.
I’ve seen a first run of The Ghimlyt and the Dark part is no joke. Lots of black, lots of shadow and lots of magitek constructs. Looks like a good romp through gothic steampunk mountain.
Yasumi Matsuno, the creator of Ivalice, is back to storycraft the latest raid. Orbonne Monastery is from the original Final Fantasy Tactics directed by Matsuno but has been ramped up a bit since its release in 1998. The raid features content and monsters designed by Keita Amemiya who is famous for creating Japanese television show GARO.
I haven’t seen it but a quick Google shows some real rowdy suits of armour and big stylised sword fighting so after this review I might give that a once-over because I really like rowdy dudes with big swords if you know what I mean.
I’ve only recently revisited FF14, mainly due to time commitments and goddamn flaky friends playing WoW but this new patch is really getting me hyped for the expansion.
You can certainly expect me to be generating some FF14 content over the coming months in the build-up to the Final Fantasy Fan Festivals. These celebrations of Final Fantasy will take place in Japan and Europe over February 2-3 and March 23-24 respectively.
Get hyped for big drops at these badboys cause I’m sure Square Enix is bringing the goody bags.
