Wake me up (from this nightmare) before you O'Ghomoro.

Sometimes you get that feeling that you need to do it. You need to take on that one monster that is in no way nipping at your heels. You can avoid him all you want. Abandon the quest and never look at it again, because it is completely optional.

You tell yourself the first time that you’re doing it for fun, to humour a friend. But then the beast beats you down, over and over again. The morale is down, you have 9 minutes to go, but you still find yourself getting up.

You have to do it, you have to beat it.

Out of all the primal fights in FFXIV, I could never enjoy titan. My reflexes aren’t as good as they should be sometimes, which is crucial to the fight. One wrong move and you’re flying over the edge into the lava pit below.

It’s been a hate filled relationship in which each battle I’ve ever had (even when winning) met my end about halfway through. It’s enough to make a person feel useless, though I only play the monk class so I’m sure I’d have been a bigger burden to the team, if I wasn’t there to heal or tank.

Why the hell am I trying to beat Titan extreme?

I ask myself that all the time. It’s two parts, bene jokingly inviting me to do it and there is a quest giver handing me this quest so it’s obvious that I have to. I suppose If I’m also getting an achievement out of it, is another reason to act so begrudgingly.

So we’ve done it two nights in a row with very little (albeit no) success, and it’s grown on me. I’ve developed a need where I have to see it through, because we’ve found inches of success with every attempt made.

I’ve come to understand why people do these kinds of things in MMOs. When you get a good team together that is incredibly well coordinated, then it actually becomes fun. Shouting at Titan, and mocking him as I punch his heart for the 7th time. dodging plumes, landslides and bombs every which way, was more fun that I ever felt willing to admit.

But here we are.

One day Titan, I will have my vengeance.

For the most part, my days have been about nothing but chopping trees and carpentry. Two job classes that happen to compliment each other, so that’s all I happen to be doing with the majority of my time. I suppose it’s good to get gil out of it, but the process takes much longer (especially when it comes to crafting.) as I don’t want to go the quick and easy route of buying stacks from the market place. I would much rather waste a couple of minutes here and there warping to all the places that have the necessary materials and then wasting even more minutes gathering them.

The bulk of my game playing experience revolves around tedium, which is how I enjoy most games anyway. Though I’ve found a good balance of tedium and dungeon runs/raids with friends. So yeah, FFXIV is still pretty alright.

Another thing that I’ve gotten a kick out of, is just being in the environment. They have all these seats and tables around, yet I rarely see people sitting in them and hanging out. Well I guess adventurers have more important things to do, but what about that downtime.

I guess I’m a bit of a dork to think “Let’s hang out at the adventurer’s guild in Ul’dah instead of standing around with hundreds of others. So Bene, Dolphin and I sat around a table and just hung out, toying with the emotes and watching the characters talk as we typed something.

Then a miniature crowd came our way.

We regaled takes of bagged milk from the lands of Canada, and the ridiculous debate of “Peach vs Daisy”. Y’know, the normal stupid shit that people just type into their Free Company chat boxes. There was just something about giving it a physical scene, that was really fun to do.

Maybe deep down I’m a RPer. Given the kind of things I like to write about, I suppose it’s no surprise. (that, and early days of the internet... that's a story for another time) But that whole experience has given me the idea to do something with that amphitheatre in Old Gridania. I just wonder how well a stage-play in a video game is going to fare, yet I feel like the sheer novelty of it is what'll make it exciting.

Here's to more weeks of FFXIV, I ought to play as much of it as I can, until school calls my name and I forced to take up all that free time with learning.

Don't feel too ashamed. Titan is one tough bastard on EX. the thing that is tough about primal extreme fights is that everyone has to be synchronized and know what they are doing. Getting 8 people on the same page especially if its a DF or PF group is a task. The good news is that once you find your rhythm with your party its a pretty choreographed fight that you can eventually overcome with enough practice.

We will get it eventuallyyyyy!

Hey I'm in that video!

@demoskinos: That's what it was starting to feel like last night. It was a good combination of being familiar with most of it, and a strong bunch of teammates. That last part though, Oi. ridiculous!

@alanm26v5: yay! I thank the resolution of the PS4 video capture for you to actually see that! XD

Good sir, when we beat Titan, I'll invite you to the Ul'dah adventurer's guild for a drink on me. There, we will share the glory of a battle well won.

I told you I'd help if I had it unlocked bro!

Yeah Titan Ex is always good for some frustration. My white whale of the Extreme Primals was Garuda Ex. It was at time when most of the guild was barely ilvl 90 and we had yet to find a strategy for melee. That quest log was haunting me for weeks. We just could not do it. I kept suggesting maybe we should try the new fangled triangle method fresh from Japan. Eventually we did and we won. It was glorious which is why I will always suggest triangle in Garuda even though it is no longer needed.

Pro Monk Titan EX Tip: Mash the Charge key if you are hit by landslide. You can charge back on to the platform that way. I do it all the time. It is super fun. I may or may not have purposefully eaten some landslides.

Man i remember when i beat titan ex, screw that guy!

Though if you need to try it again in can come along.

Yea this quest has been on my duty list for months. I've watched a video of it once or twice and ehh no thanks.

I'd be all for going in with a group of new people from my FC, but that doesn't seem to be a thing. There are the people who do the harder end-game content (and thus have done everything already), and those who don't i.e. Me.

I hate going into something I've never done, whether that be a certain dungeon/fight or having to tank a dungeon I haven't done in a long time etc, when the rest of the party is experienced and confident with it. I absolutely prefer to go as my Monk which is what I play most of the time.

Only reason I did Ifrit and Garuda EX was because I was doing stuff with FC people and they were all like "I need X from these fights" and then sort of sat around seemingly figuring out if I could do the fights or not. Maybe that was all in my head but I know there seemed to be a bunch of sitting around before hand going "do we do it? do we not it? can you do it?" I did okay as far as I can remember. The FC people are very nice and close nit friends for long time, which at the time I had only been with them for a couple months since the ARR launch.

And the one and only time I did Coil was that same group of FC members which had a static and one of the Monks wasn't able to show up I think. So they asked me and I, very reluctantly, went along. Coil is important to people I guess and a static is supposed to be a well oiled machine and here I am having no idea wtf to do. I think we made it through Turn 1 okay, Turn 2 I think I made a small mistake during the snake fight? But nothing disastrous. Turn 3 I think is the jump pads? Which was super confusing and scary because I felt like I was going to get lost or left behind. And then I think Turn 4 was the elevator thing? They explained which things to attack (in a rush if I remember correctly because someone had to go soon) in what order and then I made a mistake there and we failed the turn and I'm not sure if it was because of my mistake or not. I think shortly after they said they might want me to come with them again because the person might not show up and I reluctantly accepted after they pushed and pushed me to do it. I spent the entire next day dreading going to this Coil run. Turned out the person did show up and I was so relieved.

Super tense fights and I felt awkward the whole time. The last sort of feelings I want from an MMO experience which is why I never really do the super hard end-game stuff. I also don't like using VO stuff with friends let alone random people I've never met in the real world.

TL;DR - My inhibitions keep me from doing harder content, but in the end I seem to handle the gameplay fine. I just don't like the stress.

Sorry. Just had to take a big word dump here.

Best blog name of the year, well played my good man, well played!

@ryuku_ryosake: That sounds like a great idea. Not that I'm going to purposefully get hit by a landslide just to take that out now >.>

@shirogane: I imagine there's a lot of people out there that never want to fight him again after beating him.

@seikenfreak: that's something I totally understand. I have a tendency to want to play MMOs by myself so I seldom do the group things. I've never been a fan of raids as well. I think it's because of the responsibility involved.. which is why I also play monk, I don't think I'd ever be ready to tank or heal (that's too much responsibility as far as I'm concerned) . I think what pushed me to do a lot of that end game content the most is the amount of people I know that also play it. So if I screw up in anyway, at least that screw up was a group effort.

But I think I've gotten better at playing overall.

@karkarov: thank you, it was the most appropriate title for titan! haha

I love the idea of just sitting round a table, chatting that way. The little details of the poses and the characters talking when you type are so important. Just taking some time in the game world to stand still and look at things, not rushing about madly from fate to fate and hunt to hunt.

There's also something very relaxing about working at a tree while the madness of battle goes on around you. I remember using the Botanist's stealth ability to collect FATE items from the ground in Middle La Noscea, then switching classes to turn them all in. Everybody firing off spells and running around with their giant axes and there's invisible little me, picking up what nobody else bothers with.

Also I'm sort of terrified of the big 8 man Ex battles, since I haven't got an FC that I know well yet, and the idea of doing it in the DF seems so absurd.

@gerrid: Pretty much everything except Moogle might be doable in Duty Finder as far as Extreme Primals go. Its gonna be rough to find a decent group especially for Titan but its totally possible.

Titan EX is no joke.

I think it took my group maybe 6 hours or so before our first clear. We can do it fairly successfully now, but it usually takes a few tries before we shake the rust off.

Is there any phase in particular you are having trouble with?

Titan EX nearly broke my FC, when we finally defeated him we could barely believe it, then we met Leviathan EX and the cycle of pain began anew....i dont even want to think what Ramuh EX is like >_<

@gerrid: going stealth is such a good idea for those fates. It's cool moments of thinking outside the box that I get such a kick out of in this game. I've often joked to friends that I want to dungeon run as a botanist or carpenter to see how far I could get (knowing that I'll be practically useless).

@hollitz: At this point, we have everything down until the final phase. It took us a while, but now we have no problem getting to the last part, it's just that the relentless onslaught seems to get us every time.

@kagato: I'm actually happy to hear that Leviathan EX is hard, because I was actually disappointed by how easy hard mode was.

@bonbolapti:

Haha, yeah dude. It can be so much toward the end. Especially those weight of the lands when you're working on the super bomb, and the double weight of the lands. Just rough stuff.

When he does the row bombs, are you guys baiting the landslides to the middle row? That's the part that usually catches some of our group off guard.

I completely agree. That blog name deserves an award of some sort.

@bonbolapti: sadly you can only queue for dungeons as a DoW/M, and not as a crafter or gatherer. You can actually hit enemies with your gatherer's tools though, and it does some damage, so you wouldn't be totally useless...maybe one for Sastasha ha.

You can't compete in FATEs where you have to kill things as a non-combat class (it won't give you any credit or let you join, which is why you have to switch classes to turn in the items), but you can attack a hunt mark and I think you get credit for it (although you get the absolute minimum of course), if you bash them a few times with your scythe or pick.

The name of the quest for the Titan EX fight is Quake Me Up Before You O'Ghomoro.

I know :P I don't have the Kim Jong Il of Chocobo's as my avatar for nothing.

I was that dead WHM in that video! It really was my first time there. I have Garuda EX in my Journal. I'm afraid for Titan EX.

@bonbolapti: Leviathan EX isn't very hard, especially compared to Titan. Though it is absolutely harder than the joke of a fight that HM Leviathan is.