After putting it off for about two months, I finally got my first job to Level 100 (the current level cap) in Final Fantasy 14. I also got three more to level 100 in rapid succession (one each day since then) [for a total of seven by the time I’m editing this the day before it gets posted], as I’ve shifted gears back to focusing on progressing the Main Scenario Quests of Dawntrail and needed to get one of each of the job types to level 100 for the Role Quests. With all that done, I can now focus entirely on the MSQ and getting as far as I can in whatever play time I’ve got most days. Everything else, for at least the next four evenings after I write this, will sit on hold [it did not, in fact, sit on hold, and I wound up doing a lot of side work] as I try my hand at getting through the main portion of Dawntrail in time for the new Deep Dungeon coming out the day before this gets posted (the day after this gets posted is the day there’s a group of people in my Free Company getting together to do said dungeon [but I will not be joining them because I’m taking a break]). I’m not going to skimp on sleep or avoid doing my weekly chores and whatnot around my apartment (nor am I going to cancel my D&D session for this reason, but it IS looking like I’ll be cancelling it for other reasons), but I did clear as much of my weekend as I could because I’m getting the good ol’ double-vax Flu-And-COVID combo on Friday. I am giving myself the space to crash super hard if I need it, but I have typically dealt with the double-shot combo without too much trouble in the past, so I’m hoping to see how much Dawntrail I can get through.

Part of the reason I put off getting to level 100 for as long as I did (which meant not playing as my favorite jobs) is because I’d been told by a lot of people that certain things, like my daily roulettes and weekly challenges, would change to reflect being max level. I was worried about startting to collect rewards and currencies for things I wouldn’t be able to buy yet (since I would need to finish the base expansion to unlock those markets), but that doesn’t seem to be an issue. Running my roulettes as one of my level 100 jobs would absolutely earn me those currencies and whatnot, but nothing about my daily and weekly activities has changed other than the new currencies for those jobs being listed amongst the rewards. I still have all the same options and I suspect that I might have misunderstood or been accidentally misled. I think that those changes that people mentioend, the things I was trying to avoid until I was closer to the end of Dawntrail, actually only come up once you finish Dawntrail. I bet they’re all locked behind the final quest in the expansion, just like all the markets and higher-powered gear rotations. I looked up when some of my weekly stuff would change and that’s what the wiki said, so I think either things changed prior to this expansion (or maybe as part of it) or that it’s been so long since most of the people in my FC had an a character that hadn’t reached the level cap on any expansion that they forgot that finishing the latest expansion was an integral part of unlocking all those other activities.

The why of it all doesn’t really matter, though, as much a I might idly wonder where the confusion came up, since I’ve gotten my jobs to level 100, nothing really changed, and now I live in a sort of wistful world where some of the things I’ve doing for nine months have gone as far as I can take them. I started this game exactly nine months ago (as of writing this) as a Conjurer (eventual White Mage) and finally got my White Mage job to level 100. It feels weird, to know I can’t level it up anymore, that I won’t be earning any experience points when I play as my favorite healing job, but it also feels like it was time to get to this point. As I’ve mentioned previously, I’m thinking about taking a break from the game–in a “don’t play it every single day but keep the weekly routines I’ve committed to” kind of way–and hitting this point has really solidified that idea in my head. I’m ready to do other things. I’m going to dig deep, wrap up the base expansion, and then take a break to play other games, read some books, and spend less time tucked away in my office. I will return eventually, of course. There’s so much more game to play, gear to earn, jobs to level, sidequests to do, and crafts to make that I don’t think I’ll be able to stay away for long, but a break will be nice.

It felt like such a momentous occasion, hitting level 100 for the first time. The second and third times also felt weighty, like I’d achieved something I’d been working towards for a long time. The fourth one didn’t feel like much other than relief since I finished that ahead of schedule. I’d been grinding away at this task, getting four jobs from somewhere in the low 90s to level 100, for a couple weeks and the novelty had worn off. It was still very satisfying, don’t get me wrong, but it was mostly the satisfaction of checking a box on a to-do list. The role quests I was leveling those jobs for didn’t have the same heart that the role quests from the last two expansions did so I didn’t really feel much from finishing them beyond the “task complete” sensation of turning in the quests. I didn’t even get any really cool gear! Just materia to put into my eventual max-item-level gear. I’m hoping whatever quest I wind up doing to wrap up the collection of role quests in the post-expansion game is more satisfying, since none of the ones I’ve done so far were. Honestly, I got more satisfaction from hitting level 100 as my White Mage and then going to wrap up the White Mage quest line with the level 80 quest I’d forgotten to do (which was a nice little restrospective quest looking back on everything I’d done in the White Mage quest line from level 30 where it began to level 70 where it ended). All that’s left at this point is the job I’d set aside to level with the MSQ and the last two role quests that remain for it (at levels 98 and 100) as I work my way toward the end of the expansion. I hope that the expansion, Dawntrail as a whole, will land well enough that I’ll still feel wistful and melancholy (good) about reaching the end, since it would be kind of disappointing to have it turn out any other way after the power of the last few expansions. I’m not holding my breath, though, since so many people seemed underwhelmed by it that even disagreeing with most of them about one of the main NPCs in the expansion isn’t enough to make me believe I’ll feel any different (and maybe I’ll have something to put here the day I’m editing this before it goes up to confirm or deny that) [I disagree with them still, but can’t help but feel a bit underwhelmed purely because of how powerful the last two expansions were, but more on that next week].