The pre-expansion season is always a weird time to play an MMO. If you’re anything like me, then you’re probably stuck between having things you still want to do on FFXIV and thinking that nothing you do now will matter once Stormblood comes out anyway.
But that’s not completely true. There are things you can do now that’ll make a big difference down the line — in fact, they might even give an the advantage once the expansion drops. If you’re stuck for something to do but you want to use your subbed time wisely, here are some ideas that you might not have considered.
Everything current will be old soon — so clear your bucket list
)
I can’t imagine there are that many people out there reading this that haven’t cleared the Shadows of Mhach series (Void Ark, etc), but if you haven’t, then for god’s sake, do it now. It takes ages to find groups for the Crystal Tower raids at this point, a fate that will likely befall Weeping City and its brethren, because the queues for old 24-man raids are so damn long and there’s no real reason to do them right now anyway.
That’s what tends to happen to old content in MMOs. True, few games are as proud of old content as FFXIV, which seems to try and get people to do stuff from prior patches as much as possible — you only have to look at the Anima Weapon steps for evidence of that — but there’s no telling when or if things will return to the fore again.
Unless you have a supportive FC or you join events like Crystal Tower Sundays, you should get everything you want to do from Heavensward done now or you’ll find it extremely difficult to get stuff done later. The only exception to the rule are the current extreme trials, where it’s likely people will revisit them unsynced for bird farms. Indeed, as far as some are concerned, it might be better to wait.
Stockpile the good stuff — and clear out everything else.
Before I get started, here’s a disclaimer: I don’t know what the market is like on your server, and while the market board can net you tons of money, you can also make big losses if you guess wrong. Saying that, thinking ahead to Stormblood, it seems there are some good opportunities to make money (or at least save it) once the expansion comes out.
Given how some content (Palace of the Dead, I’m looking at you) flooded the market with cheap glamour items and minions, there’s a lot of stuff you can assume won’t be worth hanging on to. But some things will always be in high demand because of the function they serve. Materia is pretty cheap right now, and demand is likely to increase once people have fresh gear to slot it into. Keep an eye on the patch notes and dev blogs going forward, and if it looks like Materia V won’t be too easy to obtain at level 70, you might be able to cash in when the time comes.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, just as demand for some items is likely to skyrocket once the expansion comes out, the value of other items — such as Grade IV elemental materia for the relic weapon quests — is almost certain to plummet.
Even if you have to sell it for a lower price, if you have anything in this category you’ve been hanging on to and you don’t think you’ll be using it, then you’d do well to sell it off now. There will be people trying to finish their Anima Weapon before the expansion hits, but that market looks set to disappear entirely once all gear pre-Stormblood is made obsolete, so consider what you can get rid of and try and shift it while you still can.
Prepare for a move
)
If you’re looking to relocate to a Doman property, there’s a way to get rid of your old house and make some money if you think far enough ahead. Stop visiting your house now and you should be able to collect a few million gil once your house is bulldozed.
The process takes 45 days, and Stormblood comes out in about 30. You’ll be able to visit the new housing wards but not make any purchases for a short period after the expansion launches; assuming it’s around two weeks after launch like the raids and other content will be, the timing should be just about right if you prepare now.
While a proper moving feature will be introduced with the expansion, it’s not confirmed if it’ll be just for free companies or individuals, and there’s no word on whether or not you’ll get your gil back from your old property. It’s possible you will, but most of the people I’ve spoken to suspect you won’t, in which case auto-demolition remains the only way to recover the money you spent on a property.
Be warned: If you think this is a good idea, then you should be absolutely dedicated to this plan and be ready to buy a new property the moment new plots open. There’s some risk involved, and if you’re unlucky or just slow, you may find that you don’t have your old house or a new one. If you don’t need the gil, or you want to bet on SE giving you back some money with the moving feature, it’s probably best to squat in your current property for the time being.
And don’t forget…
)
The Garo event will end at some point after Stormblood goes live, date TBC. Given that you probably don’t want to spend your time in Feast queues when you’ve got shedloads of other content to see, finishing your gear sets and collecting the mounts before June is a good idea. It’s unlikely the rewards will return once the event ends (as was the case with the Yo-Kai Watch crossover), even as cash shop items, so get those achievements done ASAP.
Additionally, for people who have even a fleeting interest in the Gold Saucer but haven’t unlocked Triple Triad for whatever reason, do that now. I didn’t do it until after I’d hit 60, which meant I missed out on countless cards that dropped in Heavensward’s dungeons, such as the Griffin from Dusk Vigil. Strut down to the card hall now and complete the quests, and when new cards are inevitably added to the new dungeons, you can collect them on your journey to level 70 — rather than backtracking like I did.
As a final note: If you’re still hoping to snag a Fenrir or that floating chair mount, there’s a Make It Rain event coming at the end of the month (The 30th). Get hype!
