E8:1

It wasn't until about the level 35ish ranged did I realize how necessary doing FATES were. Leves just weren't cutting it and it was the only thing really available when you are 1 level under continuing your story plot and halfway to that level. Something I ran into quite often actually.. Plus to add to that, at the time, I was still on the fence on whether or not I still wanted to be WAR. Initially, I had troubles adjusting to tanking and actually leading a team through a dungeon. Versus just focusing on keeping myself alive. It was an old habit that FFXIV eventually broke me from. Tanking in other games compared to this one felt different... it was different. Positioning...managing hate or enmity....crowd control. All of these are old news to a new age seasoned Tank. But to me, it was sort of new. The good part is it doesn't take very long for me to catch on to things.


E8:2

UI Customizations.. At some point everyone has to deal with it. Unfortunately, I never changed mine until way later down the road. This was mostly because of the fact that I was running out of hotbar space and the urge to wanting to keep it somewhat organized became too strong to ignore. This was a nod towards me sort of mentally preparing myself for end game and the harder dungeons. Climatically this comes close to 10 levels away from me being at max level on my first class.


E8:3


Lightning Strikes Twice, was an event created by our head and chief Yoshi-P. If you played Final Fantasy 13 then you know who Lightning is. In participation of another game expanding that series, we get event that allows us to fight along side her in a few FATES to unlock some vanity weapons. This was pretty cool but maybe I'm one of few that kinda favors 9 and 7 a bit more. However, I couldn't pass up the chance to have screenshot of her and all her glory. Whether you like her or not you have to admit she's kind of a bad ass. 



E8:4

Garuda one of my favorite Primals next to Odin. And it has nothing to do with the fact that she's a half naked, sadistic, harpy with a pair of jugs that are pretty nice to look at once you get pass the hair and claws. (I lied) This ushered me into mechanics that were more dominate in this encounter than previous dungeons that I've done so far. Taking cover, avoiding attacks with no casting circles, you name it. Grauda was by far my favorite Primal encounter next to Ifirt. You really had to be on your toes and after this made me realize how important knowing what your doing as a Tank is pivotal. 



E8:5

Random acts of kindness, even in mmos, apparently hasn't officially died. I remember loading into Revenant's Toll in order to catch some FATES for extra xp and I get tell from a random player named Endermerrin Rosethorne. I'd be the first to admit that when I get random tells I'm sort of caught off guard, not exactly sure what to say. And the funny thing is he didn't know much what to say either but told me trade him anyway. He ended up giving me a HQ chest piece with all 4 Material slots that hard Parry in them. I was really grateful because it was something I could wear until I got the rest of my gear from Curious Gorge. But this solidified that Random acts of Kindness of in MMO's isn't completely dead after all. 


E8:6

This picture I stood here for a good hour partially AFK looking up walkthroughs and guides for dungeons. I realized that it was a good a idea to have a grasp on newer dungeons that I have yet to do. It also began to occur to me that it's not always an uncommon thing to hop in Duty Finder and be with people who've never ran that specific dungeon before, and probably don't have a clue what to do just like you. I had to eventually hop that hurdle, I'd be the first to admit that I've done a run before and didn't know what to really do which is understandable in some cases, but I got chewed out for it, Even though it was my first time actually doing that run, I mean you gotta start somewhere, right? This gave me quite the bitter taste in my mouth for not only Duty Finder but being a tank started to seem like a lot of pressure I wasn't used to yet. However, this picture signifies that I've got a new outlook on the subject and  began to better preparing myself to deal with the waves as they come. First run or not I no longer feel under pressure being a tank. In conjunction this causes performance to turn out way better than it normally does. 



E8:7

After finding my new resolve I decided to give The Aurum Vale a shot. And it was a good turn out. The players involved were also good company. For two people it was their first run. The other two have ran it before and was actually in voice explaining it to the other person... and it wasn't me. Now we did wipe twice on the Second Boss and twice on the last. But I was okay with it not being on me those few times. And that's not a jab at them at all. But I feel bad if I miss up being tank because usually that means if I mess up and die the whole group wipes. And that's where that pressure came in. I was coping with it and I decided to not let it ruin me enjoying actually playing a Warrior. 


E8:8


I didn't really learn the importance of FATE groups until later levels. I had already knew doing fates where slightly beneficial but I didn't exactly know how FATE Groups operated, until I joined one. Bodies dropping, exp spamming your chat box, and you were guaranteed to get a gold rating long as you got there. Needless to say, after seeing how these worked it made my last two levels pretty easy to obtain. And I was happy to see the end of the road and finally be able to start doing end game stuff. Just in time for 2.1 to come out.