Blue, Hard, & Great - Ranking Every Stormblood Dungeon Pt. 2 | FFXIV Wall of Dungeons

[@Harleychamp8]

“Stormblood deserves more praise” SAY IT LOUDER!!

[@Adu767]

An opinion held mostly by people that haven't finished Shadowbringers and Endwalker Not that I think SB is bad, it's good, it's just easily overshadowed by later content.

[@jeremylaforge6194]

When you guys finish Endwalker, I'd love to see a wall of dungeons round-up putting all the dungeons on a singular massive wall. Might be funny to see how tiers change then.

[@lookingforcraft6319]

"The Great Dungeon Wall of FFXIV"

[@Lordoftheapes79]

Agreed, but it does need to include the first two optional dungeons of Endwalker.

[@loupinconnu]

By the time they finish, the wall will probably include all of Endwalker lol. Which honestly, great for them. They are having a blast and deserve to take their time.

[@reeplays7616]

WoD tournament! WoD tournament!!!

[@sdjkelsier]

Or even better, a Wall of "Wall of Dungeons"!

[@Sailing10cjm]

I'm so glad you guys enjoyed Stormblood. The other day I got Thordan in trial roulette and someone said to the new sprout "I hope you like Heavensward and Shadowbringers!". To that I said "I hope you like Stormblood too" and several people said "No.", "Stormblood sucked", "I hope you don't" etc. Very happy to see people enjoy this bizarrely under-appreciated era of content in the game.

[@Kekira]

Stormblood gets a lot of undeserved hate

[@Raven-um2wf]

Overall I liked it even if the pacing was off or some bits were annoying at times. They really upped their dungeon game during and some of them remain my favorites even now.

[@tibowmew]

I found the MSQ very hard to get through until the Azim Steppe, but pretty much everything outside of the MSQ was done SUPER well. I loved a lot of the side stories, the tribal quests, the dungeons, etc. They were the first zones that I happily went back and did all of the yellow side quests!

[@DracoSuave]

@@Raven-um2wf I never understood this idea of stormblood's pacing being off. It never, at any point, stopped what it was doing to go off and do something irrelevant in ARR zones, just to take the teeth out of the end of ARR's story with Deus Ex Dewlala.

[@arcadeashdown3579]

People who hate Stormblood are stupid and can't think for themselves.

[@Mokai]

In defense of the Arboretum's Hard Mode music, I love how it really drives home the vibe of a large human-made complex just left to decay. It is exactly the type of music I'd expect to hear inside of an abandoned, slowly deteriorating mall that's well past it's prime.

[@DeepbloodFang]

Yeah, that's the feeling I get, also the chill vibe, makes you feel like nature is taking it's course and reclaiming the land, it's peaceful.

[@TheIvoryDingo]

A note about the last boss of Temple of the Fist: He is actually using weapons that are usable by players, specifically one of the stages of the ARR Monk Relic Weapon!

[@Dewkeeper]

Aren't ones he's wielding the originals? (Well in ghost form)

[@heavylancer2556]

@@Dewkeeper Yes

[@lizmichaels8994]

Also the two first bosses, the coeurls, are what turn into his weapons.

[@Churee]

The optional Stormblood dungeons are some of the most underappreciated contents in the game. Temple of the Fist is in my top10 fav dungeons and I think I've only gotten it in the roulette 2-3 times over the last 2 years.

[@sennaka]

Seriously. It took me a few moments to remember some of these, it's been so long since I've done them.

[@kuronaialtani]

Arbuda is still one of my favorite dungeon bosses in this game, with the second boss of the 6.3 dungeon joining it because they’re both really well-designed “job trainer” bosses imo Arbuda teaching positionals and fight timing to prospective monks

[@Meowlo]

I was just talking about how I haven't gotten that dungeon in a roulette since early Shadowbringers. I completely forgot it existed until I was in Rhalgr's talking to NPCs yesterday.

[@sennaka]

@@kuronaialtani py

[@ponderingForever]

Stormblood's gameplay quality JUMPED for sure.

[@Rc3651]

On the one hand I'm greedy for more MSQ, but on the other hand this slow burn analysis of every element from a new player perspective can only happen once! Also you guys are basically the only ones going into detail about a lot of this stuff. You really deserve more views

[@clangauss4155]

"I might end my MSQ journey as an antithetical jerk saying 'Stormblood needs more praise!'" It's me. He's describing me right now. I like Stormblood because I have taste, which is the same reason I watch this show. Also because it affirms my hot takes maybe but the TASTE IS VERY IMPORTANT OK

[@Yvanne]

Post StB is some of the best content in the game

[@UltaFlame]

I liked Stormblood a lot, but I will always be mad by how overshadowed Ala Mhigo is in the expansion. Samurai stole monk's role as the selfish 'black mage' melee dps, both the 4.0 and 4.3 bosses have more to do with Doma than Ala Mhigo - I still say we should've gotten a primal in Rhalgr's shape instead of Shinryu, even if I do appreciate the reference of having Omega fight Shinryu given series history.

[@clangauss4155]

Agreed on the count of Ala Mhigo for sure.

[@Zakjuh]

I don't think it's that contrarian a take. Most people agree at the very least that post-4.0 content is amazing. It's just that people tend to rag on pre-Azim Steppe Stormblood MSQ.

[@25xxfrostxx]

I love Swallows Compass. The music is incredible and the setting changes are excellent. You go from dry and musty wood of an ancient temple to the underwater tubes and end up fighting on mountain passes until the mountain top Monkey King fight. I also loved the pandaren looking geomancers that actually casted their spells with the geomantic bell complete with unique spell effects (I hope they eventually add that job).

[@DayleDiamond]

Me too! Imagine doing different ability effects depending on the weather.

[@heavylancer2556]

33:00 Last boss of Swallow's Compass is named Qitian Dasheng, which is the Chinese version of the title he gave himself (roughly means "Great Sage Equalling Heaven", because he sees himself as an equal to all of Chinese Heaven's forces). So yes it is the Chinese Monkey King. The Japanese translation of that title is Seiten Taisei

[@lethargicwizard]

There are other thematic elements throughout the dungeon that are a bit of an amalgam of Indian, Chinese, and Japanese Buddhist symbology; as well as Chinese Geomancy and references to Journey to the West.

[@heavylancer2556]

@@lethargicwizard All of the above yes

[@martinaraya2705]

Really good list! I also hate bardem's mettle. One thing I would like you guys commenting on, was that the ixal that brought us to the fractal continuum mentions in the museum section of the dungeon is that there are beings that resemble the ixal. It showed that the ixal race are beings made from allagan invention, destroying the poor birdman's world view in the process. I really love those kinds of lore bits in dungeons and that is why fractal continuum hard is my favorite in the Stormblood hard modes :D

[@Salt_Mage]

The Ixal tribe quests also mentions their desire to return to Ayatlan, which turns out to be Azys La

[@Kekira]

@Salt_Mage I really want a continuation of that at some point. Though when I had the dialogue option I didn't say anything to one Ixali

[@proy3]

20:11 Arbhuda actually grades your performance. If you look at the dialogue from the monk-obsessed elezen whose name I don't remember, she'll tell you how well you did in the fight. The faster you finish, the better the grade.

[@BananaMellor]

I think it's an amusing thing to include in a dungeon, especially because the boss is specifically intended to be a training dummy to assist monks in performing better lorewise. There is a new variation on this in Endwalker and I'm not sad to see it.

[@craigfunk3453]

​@@BananaMelloroutside duty support of that EW dungeon I've only seen 2 rankings and never the best ranking which calls out the RPR trainer (who has nothing to say about the locale!)

[@WayTooLateTV]

RE: Kugane castle, Kyle, you'd love the new Clockwork Kingdom Crystalline Conflict map. It's based on Kugane Castle, it's got the flippy tiles, it's got the clockwork ninjas and samurai that toss out coin piles that build your LB gauge, or do massive AOEs that you have to run out of, and there are 1-way doors that shoot you across the map.

[@Snowmanse]

Best thing about Yojimbo is you never really get to see how strong he is. You don't beat him, Kageyama just runs out of money.

[@shadow98004]

You actually DO get to see how strong he is... In a trial connected to the Hildebrand Quest line.

[@joshuarendleman7297]

Stormblood does deserve more praise. I'm glad to hear it from someone other than me

[@hubry_]

One thing that I am surprised you didn't mention about Shisui: the wall to wall pull before the second boss is fantastic. I am excited to see it happen whenever I roll this dungeon in roulettes! (also, the gear drops are very pretty.)

[@re-neru3082]

yes, among all of these dungeons I run sishui the most because of the gear

[@Dr._Jazz]

That is definitely the most fun pull in the entire game if you're a tank.

[@furanpyon]

@@re-neru3082 I think I run shisui hundreds of times because a friend of mine wanted all the pieces, and I never got tired of it, so the 'grindable' rating is quite appropriate for my experience

[@SUPERSIDESWIPER]

Nice video! Also, warning. They decided to focus on quality following stormblood, so there’s only two optional dungeons in Shadowbringers and Endwalker (so far) so you won’t be needing separate lists.

[@herebejamz]

Yeah, they went from 15 dungeons in SB to 13 in ShB. We're on track for 13 in EW, so I think that's probably going to be a bit more like what we'll see for 7.0

[@KatyWhitekavkj]

Ghimlyt Dark should so be in Epic! That feeling of progressing through an active battlefield, and some new mechanics on the bosses showing up - that said, I do agree that there are a ton of excellent dungeons in Stormblood ^_^

[@yuntotoro]

The Wall of Dungeons is back. LET'S GOOOOOOOOO

[@GimmeTOKYO]

The chinese violin playing in the Shisui of the Violet Tide (ONE OF MY FAVE DUNGEONS AND THE GLAMS GO HARD), is actually a 2 stringed instrument, aptly called an erhu! (pronounced "arr-hoo", it means 2 string!) Also, the Ultima Beast is quite a nice little callback to the OG Ultima/Atma Weapon that was first introduced in Final Fantasy VI. I remember squealing with joy when I saw him.

[@fivesilvercoins]

About Temple of the Fist, the end boss actually uses the ARR monk relic weapon. You get the title 'Coeurlfist' when you get it. When Stormblood came out, it felt like all the monk mains got to go on a personal pilgrimage of sorts with that dungeon, which was really cool to me. Especially appropriate since monk was a poster job for that expansion.

[@siyrean]

Saint Mocianne's Arboretum (Hard) - *Cries in Housing Decorator*

[@darkedge221]

The instrument you might be thinking of is Erhu. The Gucheng is a pluck-y type of instrument. I love Erhu music so Open Box is in my relaxing music playlist. You are right about the exterior looking a bit Chinese but the interiors have a mix of Japanese as well. Sliding paper doors are not a thing in Chinese palace interiors. This is more of a Japanese castle interiors. Also fun fact if no one has pointed it out yet but Shisui of the Violet Tides is a reference to the fairy tale of Urashima Taro, a young fisherman who rescued a turtle, got brought to an undersea palace to be thanked (the turtle turned out to be a princess) and remained for 3 days. When he wanted to go back to his mother, he was given a box (with explicit instruction not to open) and sent back. When he got back, he learned 300 years has passed. He opened the box and turned into an old man. That's why there's a lot of open-the-box-and-you-turn-old mechanics in that dungeon.

[@beatrixkaelin5120]

About the Boss of Swallows Compass, Qitian Dasheng is the Title given to Sun Wukong (Son Goku). It means "Equal to Heaven, The Great Sage" Which is why his clone attacks are called "Shadows of the Sage"

[@adrianlapaz5505]

how is this channel have only 26.9k subs as of the writing of my comment , I mean you guys deserves more. Entertaining dual stream, Narrating your expedition, giving your honest opinion about this and that, grading dungeons base on what your experience,

[@imtired927]

Xiv is still extremely niche view wise despite being one of the biggest mmos in the world

[@adrianlapaz5505]

@@imtired927 Well i guess you are right. I have played this game since ARR launched ofc i took some time off but when I want to go back reminiscing the story this is one of my go to page because of their playful mind of what if of the MSQ. I do this too when I was doing MSQ. +Probably they need to have a Japanese caption to cater Japanese people who would search something about ffXIV. Just my thought though

[@senspideyfan]

I've finished Endwalker and I still think fondly back to Stormblood. 100% my favorite expansion. Edit: your treatment of Ghimlyt Dark has the desired effect on me I am shitting and crying how dare you... But at the same time The Temple of The Fist is getting the respect it deserves. As a monk main, I'm big confuse.

[@Amovetv]

*Emperor voice Goooooooooooood

[@AoiKaze2000]

I have heard the horror stories of the Golden Saucer... brave adventures wander in, only to be never heard from again. They say you can still hear their laughter years later...

[@vgpowerlord]

If you want to see more of Yojimbo, you can do a certain gentleman inspector's sidequests; Yojimbo shows up in the Stormblood part of Hildibrand.

[@heylookitsnana]

I had the privilege of visiting Kyoto before SB came out. I think if you visit the castle in Kyoto you will marvel at the attention to detail that Kugane Castle had, and that experience might upgrade the set dressing for you . Also, in one of the pulls the masks hung on the wall jump down and become ads. It's a great interaction between trash mobs and the set.

[@tangentkatz]

When I played SB I was blown away by the jump in quality for battle content. Two expansions later, it's still my favorite for battle/combat design. It's part of why I feel so conflicted over the current game. I love the story improvements in Shb and EW...but I miss SB gameplay. SB optional dungeons are a great illustration for how glamour affects replayability. I see Violet Tides pretty often in roulettes but never see the others.

[@zoso279]

Feel the same way. Dark Knight and Scholar were my favorite jobs in Stormblood. Loved the stance dancing with Dark Knight and being able to heal myself in dungeons. With Scholar I loved spreading dots around and the risk/reward of deciding to use an aether flow stack on more healing or to pump out more damage. Dark Knight now I'm not a fan of the Warrior copy paste combo without any of the insane self sustain Warrior has and Scholar I usually end up having extra aether flow stacks during dungeons and get bored of pressing 1 or 2 over and over.

[@brynphillips9957]

Really? I felt ShB was very strong in the gameplay department. I can't think of a dungeon I didn't love, except maybe the lvl 83 one, the raids were mechanically really good and Bojza was a clear step up from Eureka. That said, SB was very strong and I am in no way talking it down. I just think ShB and currently EW hold their own pretty well.

[@N..O]

35:51 it’s a Tengu

[@XOYamiOX]

Thank you for giving stormblood some love, I got the luxury to play all of these at launch but there is a lot of beauty hidden in SB a lot of people didnt do.

[@renycilfay9773]

Glad to see you guys are on the same page as me generally with these dungeons. Stormblood did such a fantastic job of making fun and aesthetically pleasing dungeons. I wish you guys could experience some of the class design from Stormblood because that's when classes worked, in my opinion, in their most fun ways for most of them. Stormblood was just... sooo good. So good. I wish people would praise it more often.

[@florianbontemps9472]

I'm probably the only one here who absolutely loves Bardam's Mettle. It's just so pretty, and i love an outside dungeon in a sunny plain?

[@tibowmew]

I love this one aesthetically, but as a healer, that first pull can be painful depending on your party 😭

[@johndoh9395]

Usually first pull here can be very painful especially if your party is full of jobs being leveled as most people are wearing 60 gear for the most part. Also, as a tank main, this is a good place to test your wall-to-wall pull and judgement skills. (Sorry to the many, many healers caught up in my tests)

[@captainkronos]

Swallows Compass was one of those that came around out of nowhere, cause the music was great, the dungeon was generally fun, and then the equipment sets were something many players wanted several pieces of for glamour. Fun fact for that, the designs for those equipment sets are from a community art design contest winner. They designed a full range of gear from the winning entry! The caster chest piece has a very unique cape on it, which was coveted by many.

[@sweetpanic705]

💙💙DO YOUR BLUE QUESTS💙💙 I had forgotten about some of these beauties…it’s been so long 😢

[@Vfanatic1]

So Kyle, the boss at the start of Swallow's Compass is a Japanese spirit known as a Tengu, which is generally seen as a crow man like being. That being said here begins my hype for ShB Wall of Dungeons

[@cparle87]

Oh lordie yes, do your blue quests. I have only gotten places like Hell's Lid, the Swallow's Compass, or the Burn literally once maybe twice since playing through the MSQ. Do your blue quests people so I can enjoy these beautiful places in my roulette. I have Temple of the Fist unlocked. I was gobsmacked when it appeared as my levelling roulette last week. I was the only one who knew mechanics and playing on a healer class I only half remembered was... interesting. They've redone Ragefire Chasm a bunch of times. Cata, WoD, and Legion I think. 25:50 Oh god that banger.

[@Sephalia]

I'm not someone with particularly strong opinions on dungeon content but I love watching you two break it down and discuss and rank them. I also enjoyed the quick "magma" edit in there, made me laugh.

[@serisothikos]

The Swallow's Compass remains one of my favorite dungeons in the entire game. The music is god-tier, the visuals are gorgeous, and who can argue with fighting Sun Wukong? Also the string instrument you're describing is an erhu, I think.

[@JoshuaStingl]

Great video guys always love hearing your thoughts on the dungeons

[@seekittycat]

No matter what I think about the story Stormblood dungeons are just so good ❤️❤️

[@AVarghul]

That lion's mane is GLORIOUS.

[@KLGChaos]

I agree Stormblood deserves more praise. It just has the issue of being an awesome expansion surrounded by more awesome expansions. Seeing you guys rave about Fractal's music has me exited for some future content. Soken does not shy away from going hard. And the tabletop instrument with strings that you pluck is called a Koto in Japan.

[@ChipotleKanetsu]

Guys, you would only know this by doing the crafter ARR bird tribe quests, but they most likely actually originate from the fractal continuum research facility, that’s why the bird men were like really confused in the background. That’s banger lore in a banger dungeon with banger music. BTW all these dungeons are more badass when you’re trying to solo them with Blue Mage. Monkey King was a tough one.

[@reshypoo9447]

Yep, Blue is a great forced-learning job. You have to deal with every aspect of the group - healing, damage and tanking, while juggling boss mechanics.

[@ChandraMagic]

Saint Mocianne's Arboretum (Hard)'s music is the music of the normal version, but 'played underwater'.

[@MagdaRantanplan]

OMG a Gold Saucer day? I so hope you guys decide to stream that, it is the most fun. Love your dungeon walls. Love to hear your thoughts and feelings on them.

[@sandrabornstein5095]

Been waiting for this one! Glad to see it guys

[@Junebug89]

The Ultima Beast from The Fractal Continuum (Hard) is based on the ultima weapon boss from FFVI - which fits pretty well cause Azys Lla is a reference to the floating continent from FFVI where you fight it, and of course the Warring Triad are also based on their FFVI counterparts from the floating continent. Ultima weapon is a recurring boss in final fantasy games - FFVI was the first appearance of it.

[@Xilibrius]

There's additional side quests that ties you to the ruby princess as well as she becomes a custom deliveries contact that's why she feels more significant than the last boss

[@mbuhtz]

I don't play FF, but I love your dungeon ranking videos. Keep up the great work!

[@solieu]

Some of these dungeons felt more memorable when running it again on Blue Mage. The Burn, Arboretum Hard, and Swallows Compass feel like they hit even harder in a Blue Mage group than a leveling dungeon queue.

[@craigfunk3453]

I forever have PTSD of The Burn doing it day one of the 70 BLU update and watching the BLU tank get 1 shot by the buster through full HP + devour + a fresh goblin from a healer. Unless going for the log I always tell groups (especially those with uncertain BLU tanks) to just take an actual tank and run it twice if needed for everyone to get the spell

[@maceofbass9295]

"How many years have come and gone since that day? How many years have I wanted for this moment?"

[@clumsyturtle8544]

Everyone on Fridays stream lol

[@Dreded100]

As someone who is all caught up through 6.3 and has done all the dungeons in the game, "Stormblood deserves more praise!"

[@Sililos]

I just found you guys so haven't seen the streams, If you haven't found and done it, do Kugane Ohashi. Theres a lot of content to get there but in my opinion, some of the best in the game. Do quests around the hotsprings at Bronze lake until you get the Meteor Survivor ring then seek out Nashu's quest line in Thanalan to enter the rabbit hole. It eventually gets to Kugane Osashi which i bet you will love.

[@Amovetv]

That's in the SB section of Hildibrand yea? We've only done the ARR Hildi stuff so far (we plan to get back to it). But welcome to the channel!

[@niteritr]

In St. Mocianne's (hard), the music is actually a remix of the Dravanian Hinterlands daytime theme (called Missing Pages), NOT a remix of the original St. Mocianne's theme (called Poison Ivy)

[@tinybee7780]

Seeing both Yojimbo and Daigoro is always a fun time - in the Golden Saucer the Slice is Right is one of Preach's favorites there. Speaking of which, I love how Preach managed to beat a few of the optional superbosses in FFX by paying Yojimbo 77777 gil. Also yeah, Auron was has always been a cool and badass cahracter in FFX.

[@valkyriebait136]

Stormblood was the first expansion where I was there from Day 1 Till the end, and you're not wrong. I think they really hit their stride in dungeon design during that era, and it makes me sad how few of them show up in the Level 50/60/70/80 roulette!

[@craigfunk3453]

If only they would break up that roulette in smaller bits even if at lower tome payouts (poetics are used for alt class gearing and older relic weapons only at this point) shouldn't be too much trouble to pay out more tomes each day for the relic collectors starting late

[@TheBenolan]

I always loved Stormblood, and there's a lot of story ppl who will defend it. Great settings, characters and music.

[@s0niKu]

You monsters. Ghimlyt Dark is still the best dungeon in this game to this day! I'm a sucker for a full-on war sequence rather than yet another dungeon.

[@Demonmack0]

I agree with alot of this. Ruby sea dungeon I've run so often and I still like it. And the Fist is still super cool.

[@gysahlfields7506]

The Burn, Ghimlyt Dark, and Ala Mhigo are easily Epic.

[@kaganp99]

The intro deserves a spot on epic below the burn

[@FF-tp7qs]

Saiten Taisei is Japanese for Great Sage Heaven's Equal, which was Son Goku/ Sun Wukong's self awarded title In Chinese it's Qitian Dasheng. Alot of Chinese mythology was straight up imported to Japan The bird person is a tengu, they can be depicted with birdlike faces or as a man with a pointy nose and red face The last part of Swallow's compass, is the peaks of the mountains you see in the background of Yanxia

[@RockR277]

I can always appreciate when models/skeletons are tastefully modified. I know that they've got a ton of work on their plates, got no problem with shortcuts. Not everything needs to be wholly new.

[@xenomemphate]

32:00 I am absolutely livid! Jokes aside, Ghimlyt is still my favourite overall dungeon, even after Endwalker but as you said, this is your list, so you are allowed to be wrong now and again.

[@ancientspark375]

The Chinese and Japanese versions of the Monkey King are effectively the same thing because they both originate from Journey to the West, which was very pro-Buddhist and which thus spread to Buddhist sects in Japan, even though it originated in China. (On that note, if you want to know more about it, I recommend OverlySarcasticProduction's Journey to the West video series, because Journey to the West is one of the few classical texts that actually has a good sense of humor that translates well and they do a good job of highlighting some of it. No seriously, Journey to the West is batshit insane and very funny, despite being very long. I highly recommend it, or at least some summaries of it.)

[@Dublin.655]

I missed seeing the Wall of Dungeon. Big agree with Garrett... Stormblood needs more credit.

[@ponderingForever]

Loving the banner art!

[@dafire9634]

Most anticipated video, very cool Yojimbo in FF14 gets more interesting once you do the Stormblood Hildibrand quests 👀

[@DracoSuave]

Stormblood DOES deserve more praise!

[@sonicroze]

You're killing me a little bit here man, I adore going through the Swallows Compass. I would MUCH rather get that over Hells' Lid or Temple of the Fist.

[@DXDragon38]

I'd love to see a Golden Saucer Day, especially with the new Leap of Faith :)

[@pixielst]

I've never thought to call Genbu a turtle yoda but it fits so perfectly LUL

[@Kritigri]

You will be glad to know that yesterday I unlocked the level 63 dungeon and enjoyed it muchly

[@reshypoo9447]

Not a word for the lovely Shisui outfits? I carry around all of them to wear in lowbie dungeons. So pretty.

[@zavos5659]

After you finish Shadowbringers, there will be two more dungeon blue quests, one starting in the Crystarium, one starting in Eulmore. I highly recommend doing them sooner rather than later, imo one is a classic banger, and the other is possibly epic.

[@kaganp99]

I just noticed I care mostly about vibes and music. The burn is just magical.

[@FinalDragoon]

Swallow's Compass is probably my favorite optional Stormblood dungeon for the simple fact that you fight legally distinct Sun Wukong. Best music in an optional Stormblood dungeon has to go to Fractal Continuum(Hard).

[@Null_Experis]

If you like that tatami-mat flip, you can actually learn it as a Blue Mage, it's a line AOE that stuns. Not too shabby.

[@ChrisMorray]

Stormblood has some absolute bangers. Swallow's Compass is just such a beautiful amalgamation of everything I love in dungeons, tremendous lore relevance for both Hien's family and Doma as a whole but also for Geomancers which are a class that has been around in lore but not yet released, great glams, great value for blue mages (you get the waves that push you back. You can use it to push party members. Until they add Blitzball, we can use this to play Lalaball for the time being..). That said, I can't wait for you guys to try out Blue Mage at some point. I don't want to oversell it because you still have so much content to do, but many of these listings have some really fun spells that honestly make Blue Mage so much more fun. It may not make the dungeons more fun to run, but it does elevate Blue Mage and honestly, I think it's the most fun class in the game with the most varied and unique challenges. It's best left until after most major content that it covers (currently up to Stormblood, may hit Shadowbringers before you guys catch up on Endwalker) because honestly, running the Morbol challenge with friends has been some of the best endgame raiding experiences I've had in this game. And I run Savages and Ultimates.

[@Sllandre]

Music at the start is on-point considering what came out yesterday

[@scotty110]

sounds like Bardem's Mettle is Stormblood's Xelphatol, the one dungeon that makes Garrett demand that people unlock more optional dungeons :D

[@mr.mystere4999]

Both Shisui of the Violet Tides and Hells' Lid have the exact same leitmotif as the zone they are in. How did they not notice this? And Kugane Castle literally takes after the Kugane theme way more than Triumph since Triumph combines both Gyr Abania and the Far East.

[@FF-tp7qs]

Hingashi is basically Japan if the Tokugawa Shogunate era, Kugane is basically Nagasaki. The Sekiseigumi are the Shinsengumi. Yanxia is based on China, But with a bit of Japan mixed in, it's full of Chinese architecture, but has Samurai and onmyouji. Shisui of the violet tides is heavily inspired of the story of Urashima Tarou, and Otohime the turtle that turns into a princess after being saved. The treasure box given to Urashima at the end of the story turns him into an old man when he opens it

[@Raika63]

I kind of hope Garrett soundboards Kyle's singing at the end there for use on stream.

[@JenDeyan]

"I always wanted to fight a stick of RAM!" My IT addled brain can't stop laughing at that.

[@EternaltheGrey]

The more you know about the Chinese and Japanese history of... let's say the Hong Kong founding era, the mid 1800s, the better you'll appreciate Stormblood. I walked through some of it with a Boshin War era historian and boy howdy did she have a lot to say.

[@tibowmew]

Oooh, I would have loved that kind of background info while playing!

[@Mad-Slick]

The absolute disrespect to Ghimlyt Dark. Y'all need to run it again and realize it is Epic.

[@AxelFireDancer]

With the fractured continum and that ‘repeated wall’ when you do the ixal beast tribes, revisit that 👏

[@IKMcGwee]

Whenever I beat a chapter, i back track and do the blue marker round up. I want every dungeon! Right after the first credits of SB, i spent about a week doing all the unlocks and the Ivalice raids. Then mid MSQ i saw Sorban with a blue marker, and it was total 4 lords time. Nothing distracts me faster then the blue marker in this game haha. I started the game as a monk, and boy was the Reach joy. The monk class IS the monks of old Ala Mhigo and the job quests explore that. The final boss of the dungeon comes up in the ARR relic quest for monk fists, and i was super hyped to punch him at the end of this. If i could, id get 4 monks to run this. I mean i could but we'd either have to desync or single pull haha.

[@tsbulmer]

The Wall of Dungeons videos are so much fun, but I feel like the dungeon rankings leave out an aspect I find very important - how running the dungeon with other people typically goes. For example, with Saint M (Hard) being both optional and on the 5/6/7/80 roulette, it *rarely* comes up, which gives it a certain novelty when it does, but on the other hand, groups are *way* more likely to wipe and I'll wind up spending time and effort typing fight explanations that only get read by one of the other players, so I kind of dread it, too. Similarly, as much as I *love* Bardam's Mettle (esp. the second boss, both on its own merits and how it affects the dungeon's pacing), the first pulls are over-tuned enough that they'll truck a tank that got through Shisui just fine - that dungeon, like Holminster Switch, is a major wake-up call, and if either the tank or the healer are either unprepared or unwilling to adjust, the dungeon becomes a major drag. Take Aurum Vale - it's fine and fast, and even fun, despite its ugliness; the worst thing about AV is people complaining about AV. Or Haukke Manor - how it feels as a new player with your shiny new Ninja job, tossing out Fuma Shuriken, feels so different than getting it for the eighth dozenth time when you'd *much* rather be riding Raiton and Katon to victory and the tank neither knows nor cares about keys, doors, or directions. And then there's the Praetorium, where you either knock out DuoLingo lessons during the monologues, or you hang out in party chat, joking around or cheering on the first-timer in your group and hyping up their future adventures. Such joy doesn't get captured in discussions of the dungeon's design. Anyway, it may be fun to do a rapid-fire Wall o' Duties that looks at different roulettes - one for Leveling Roulette, one for 5/6/7/80, etc - that isn't about your appraisal of the dungeon in a vacuum, but how you feel when it's your roulette result and you're about to run it with randoms.

[@Foxhound794]

My favorite music featured in this video is the Kyle rendition of Triumph. The dungeons i sadly don't see enough to have a favorite 😔. Also sad this is the last we'll see of this wall so we won't see Mettle's continued migration to the left.

[@sennaka]

Shisui- agree on the grindable. In fact, I did grind this just for the bikini armor because the Healing set would just. not. DROP! But boys, we need to talk about Ghimlyt Dark. Never mind the baseball bat I'm holding, we just need to *talk* about why it's not in Epic.

[@SpellboundTutor]

Fun fact: Coeurlfist's Coeurl Fists are the original form of the Monk relic weapon from A Realm Reborn, called Sphairai!

[@1musamune]

Swallow's Compass first boss is a Japanese Crow Yokai(Monster) called a Tengu

[@FourtuneCookies]

If you want some Kugane Castle vibe visuals that has some really nice visual progression you guys should do a full 1-100 duo run of Heaven on High!

[@herebejamz]

Speaking of Fractal Continuum (HARD), thats where you learn that the Ixal where probably created by the Allagans, and its why you never see Ixali like people in the First, but the Kobold and Amalj'aa are just like, normal people hanging out in the desert and Crystarium respectively.

[@siyrean]

snake ladies too

[@TurinTurambar200]

The monkey king boss, Qi Tian Da Sheng, is literally Chinese for Great Sage, Heaven's Equal. He is technically not Sun Wu Kong from Journey to the West, but rather comes from a short story written in the 1700s about a man that does that believe in Sun Wu Kong.

[@DoktorWieg]

My two favorite optional dungeons from StB were the Temple of the Fist and Shallows Compass. At the time, I was mostly playing Monk and as such, the Temple of the Fist was pretty much a story-telling dungeon for the job itself. Later on when we'd reach the last boss, I'd jokingly call him "Angry Kung-Fu Santa Claus" Shallows Compass is a nice nudge to the Geomancer job as everything in the dungeon is related to geomancy in a way : earth, water and wind are often the related elements for Geomancers as well as the use of bells as weapons. Though since the White Mage is technically a druid and their spells already use earth, water and wind, it seems it might be one reason why the GEO job never made it in. Which is a bit of a shame since the concept of a Geomancer is a caster that uses no MP but their spells depend on the environment you are in when you use geomancy. If you're in a volcano, then you'd have earth and fire themed spells; if you were on a snowy cliff in a storm, then ice and wind spells. Heck, there were even geomancy spells for urban environments and the likes. I feel that if GEO made it into FFXIV, it would probably work by having transformative spells or abilities that are tied to setting down a wide area 'elemental' field which would have a passive effect on party members, a debuff on enemies and transform your abilities into those of that element. Set down an earth field, enemies are slowed, party members get a small damage reduction buff and all your spells are earth-themed. Kind of a fusion between the current Summoner and Bard in a way, I suppose.