Sun and video games don't mix

      It has been a week since the last blog, as I got entranced with getting my dragoon to level 60 in Final Fantasy 14. That and spending time with the girlfriend and kids over the Labor Day weekend. So without further ado, let's jump in. We took the kids to the zoo and nearby water park, where I relearned that my Irish heritage hates the sun. I came home to a bad sunburn Saturday night. Aloe Vera and cold showers have been my friend since then. I must remember to limit my sun exposure to a minimal or invest in some high quality sun block. In the meantime, as far as gaming goes, things are better than my sun burnt back.

The Road less grindy...NOT!

      So leveling has been OK so far. I managed to get Scholar & Summoner to lvl 52, and Dragoon to lvl 53. I have been taking some breaks in between to finish completing all lvl 50 dungeons (Yay! High level Roulette Queue unlocked) and completing my artifact weapon, Gae Bolg. Also been doing tanking some level 60 dungeons to keep the Tome of Law and Esoterics flowing.  I also stopped to work on the Armorsmith crafting class. I have to say, Square Enix knows how to make a crafting class that is unique and rage inducing at the same time.

      For those that don't play, you can control the quality of the gear during the crafting so as to make High Quality items. You do this by using abilities during the crafting process. As the Quality bar increases, so does the percentage of the "Chance" you create a quality item. Needless to say, I have seen several high percentage (65% and higher) quality item not become HQ.

 

     So needless to say, crafting is on a slow and limited grind to reduce grey hair production. This week I am planning to focus more on finishing Dragoon to start digging into endgame.

That Halo Legendary run

      Last week, Microsoft released the opening cinematic for Halo 5: Guardians. Just thinking about it is making my palms sweating of knowing the hours I will put into the game and of course, Legendary campaign mode. So far to date, I have completed every Halo game on legendary except for the Master Chief Collection (which is every Halo game minus Halo: Reach and Halo Wars.). With Halo 5 a little under two months away, I am getting a bit anxious. With Halo 4, it was the first time I ever completed Legendary Campaign solo. This time around the girlfriend will be joining me on this quest. I know she is skilled in FPS games with a controller so something tells me this will be a quick run.
          In the meantime, I have introduced our kids to Halo for the first time by having them play the Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary. Needless to say, Harley and I got some enjoyment watching them play the game as they worked together to complete campaign. We quickly noticed that one of the boys is rather skilled when he no scoped a few elites. I was rather impressed until he turned around and had that shit eating grin on his face like he was a total badass. I'll let him "practice" some more before I kick the ego in.

 That Destiny...2.0

           So I've been keeping an eye on Destiny from time to time as the game is fun, but way too grindy. So today they released their newest patch, 2.0, which begins the change of the original game before their newest expansion, The Taken King. Looking over the patch notes, I'm excited for some of the changes and am a bit anxious to pick the game up again, but one of my biggest problems is lack of friends on Xbox One to play Destiny. Plus with the fact that voice chat is hardly used, it make the game less social and more singular. More or less, it is just filling the void of Halo for the time being. However, when I see some of my friends, who play Destiny on PS4, have so much fun with the game it makes it that much harder to enjoy the game. Most of them tell me just get a PS4 to play with them. One major problem, cash flow is extremely tight while saving for already planned expenditures. So if I pick up The Taken King when it comes out will be a wait and see. In the mean time, it is all Halo and Final Fantasy 14 for now.