A pirate's life for me in Final Fantasy XIV - A Realm Reborn, as we take on Leviathan and move on to the next primal fight after that for our grand finale!

Is what I would say if I did any of that. Fact of the matter is, the main story quests just started to grate on my nerves. I was tired of the mandatory primal fights and dungeons, as exemplified by last week's Good King Moggle Mog XII adventure. Because I had hit the base game level cap, there wasn't a meaningful sense of progression any more. Sure, I was unlocking newer and newer gear, but it was primarily just accessories, and not even cool new armor. I had been dressed as a generic ninja long enough. So I decided it was time for a change.

Heading over to the desert city of Ul'dah, I decided to pay the thaumaturges a visit. Why thaumaturges? I figured the opposite of the physical melee DPS class I had been playing was a ranged magical DPS class. One of the smarter decisions in Final Fantasy XIV's class system is the fact that I didn't even have to make a new character to try this out. It saves the trouble of having to replay the long story, and allows you to just switch up your equipment and try something new.

Anyway, after leaping into the abyss and receiving my first magical rod and shield, it was time to jump into combat. The first quest, seemingly for every class, involves popping out of town for a brief moment to murder small indigenous wildlife. It's a smart way to ease you into the combat style that you'll be dealing with as a new class. Thaumaturges rely on switching between low cost ice spells with high cost fire spells, as well as managing an elemental meter. The meter flips between ice and fire depending on which spell you lead with, and empowers, but raises the MP cost of the spell you lead with, while lowering the MP cost of the opposite spell. It seems a little complicated early on, and there seems to be a large meter, but it only caps out at around 14 at early levels, so I'm sure it'll get more complicated as I get more levels as a thaumaturge.

This early combat experience proved another major difference between the ninja I had been playing and the thaumaturge I was currently playing. With the ninja, most abilities would occur in time with when you activated them. I hit one of my combo slashes, and my character would do it, even while moving. This resulted in a very fluid, mobile combat system. The thaumaturges don't have that. As soon as you start casting a spell, if you move before the spell timer finishes, the spell gets cancelled. Additionally, figuring out your range also seems of the utmost importance as a thaumaturge, as enemies slipping out of the range of the spell seem to cancel the spell as well.

Ironically, this lack of mobility makes one aspect of combat more... annoying isn't the right word, but let's say complicated? Certain enemies have attacks that can disrupt spellcasting, which are primarily area-of-effect attacks. This means they get the glowing yellow indicator on the ground. As a ninja, I never had to worry about it, not just for not having to worry about my spells getting interrupted, but because I could very easily just move out of the way, maintaining all my attacks. As a thaumaturge, this becomes more of a lose/lose-slightly-less situation. Either I end up taking the hit, disrupting the spell, or I move to avoid the damage, also disrupting the spell. It makes certain enemies, again, not more annoying to fight, but definitely ones I'd choose not to fight if given the option.

The thaumaturge's story thus far seems like a fairly simple, predictable one, though I'm only about three quests deep. After completing some early magical training, the youngest brother of the siblings that run the thaumaturge's guild runs in and complains that the player has taken their spot as the next thaumaturge to be trained. This is because, explained by the guild leader, the youngest one lacks the midichlorians necessary to be an effective thaumaturge. They shoveled him off into the nearby alchemist's guild, where he spends his time developing synthetic midichlorians and other magical steroids to try and become a thaumaturge like his siblings. I can't imagine where this could possibly go over the course of the next fifteen or so levels.

My time with Final Fantasy XIV is nearing its end. Next week is when my free trial runs out, and I have no intention of adding more game time afterwards. These last few weeks have been an exercise in trying to expand out a few hours of play into a full length blog post, because of the gradual loss of interest once I maxed out my ninja. However, this last week I feel more excited to jump back in. Not excited enough to spend money, mind you, but excited enough that I'll probably resume playing later tonight or tomorrow, as opposed to writing these blog posts and then not playing again until the following Monday. I suppose there's a lesson to be learned here, for both life and MMO's: sometimes you have to change things up to bring back your enjoyment of something.