Topic: FFXIV Heavensward 3.0 opening and Live Letter updates

[affinity]

This has some MAJOR spoilers, so be sure to be up to date with the ARR story before watching.
The spoilers have some world changing events, it doesn't show them in full detail but you totally spoil
some surprises not seeing them first as you progress (but if you aren't interested in playing this,
then watching is ok, lol.    ) 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFUx6xH1VlA

They showed this tour before but it's the current best representation of new stuff being added

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okypXypR80U

Live Letter shows a lot of stuff (some complain about Q&A but community can be so fussy at times.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rzx3RiTiAus

Of course like 2.0, 3.0 will get big updates every few months.

Here's a basic example of some things the big 2.0 patches added

2.1+subpatches: Duty Roulette, Party Finder, Vote Kick, Abandon, iLvl display, FC Housing, Pharos Sirius, Haukke Manor (Hard), Copperbell Mines (Hard), Thornmarch, Labyrinth of the Ancients, The Minstrel’s Ballad:Ultima’s Bane, Ifrit, Garuda, and Titan Extreme, Sylphs and the Amalj'aa beast tribe quests, PvP: The Wolves' Den, Treasure Hunt

2.2+subpatches: The Second Coil of Bahamut, The Lost City of Amdapor, Halatali (Hard), Brayflox's Longstop (Hard), Whorleater Ex, Moogle Ex, Kobold and Sahagin beast tribe quests, Atma/Animus/Novus, Echo, Gardening, The Challenge Log, The Sightseeing Log, Soldiery, Master crafting, Big Fishing, Glamours, Retainer ventures, Materia Transmutation, gear preview, Titles, Cutscene Skipping

2.3+subpatches: Syrcus Tower, Savage, Hullbreaker Isle, The Tam-Tara Deepcroft (Hard), The Stone Vigil (Hard), Ramuh Ex, PvP: Frontline, Personal Housing, Private Chambers, Chocobo raising/coloring, Ixal beast tribe quests, The Hunt, Desynthesis, Skywatcher, Nexus

2.4+subpatches: The Final Coil of Bahamut, Snowcloak, Sastasha (Hard), Qarn (Hard), Shiva Ex, The Dragon's Neck, Ninja, Poetics, Eternal Bonding, Zodiac, Stoneskin II

2.5+subpatches: The World of Darkness, Gold Saucer, The Keeper of the Lake, The Wanderer’s Palace (Hard), Amdapor Keep (Hard), Urth’s Fount, Battle in the Big Keep, Crystalis, The Steps of Faith, PvP: Slaughter, Triple Triad, Choco racing/breeding, Zeta

Some speculate 3.0 could get similiar sized updates.  The core expansion will already have at least 50+ hours story,
not counting other things.  And to access the new city Ishgard and new classes, you have to have 2.0 to 2.55 story completed.   

Story is very important in FFXIV and ties everything together how you earn access to more things in the world (such as the trust of influential people to receive more priviledges), so it is nice they keep the 2.0 story relevant to your progression, relationships and fame leading towards Heavensward.   

[TheCruelAngel]

Getting hyped for this! I really need to catch up on the story, and I'm on the fence about changing my race or not...but I'm 90% sure I'll be changing my WAR for  DRK! I needs muh 2-hander tank goodness!

[affinity]

Yea the story gets better!!   and it sets the dark tone for the expansion.

DRK does look awesome, and finally gameinformer has a useful page in its useless magazine this month with
images of expansion, though of course its nothing you won't find online, but still that image of the Dark Knight doing
some double slash thing is really cool.

DRK is gonna be a tank with skills that look as flashy as a DPS does.   

Well yes WAR is flashy too, compared to PLD, I think PLD would be very boring if it wasn't for circle of scorn
(beamy lasers!) and the twirling sword impaling move.   though yea PLD is more rigid than WAR style,
though PLD does have nice defense skills, so it does tank well.

already got phial of fantasia ready for Au Ra        Though first I will create a fresh one on another world and
see how the appearance looks in all lighting conditions (So I will travel to different areas like Thanalan, La Noscea,
Black Shroud, Coerthas, as well as indoors see how the lighting effects things. )   then when I find that the
appearance is customized right, I'll load those saved settings when I use the phial to apply that formula to appearance.
that method is really helpful to make sure the appearance is customized totally how I want it.


I did previously have some embarrassing situations where I customize, launch, then hours later I'm like "nah, this could
look better",   delete,  customize, relaunch from scratch.  And doing those steps again if something is still not right.   
but I learned better preparation so my primary looks right.   

the customization background zones really don't give the full spectrum how the appearance looks in all lighting conditions, plus the customization screen camera is stiff and not as flexible compared to in the actual world.