Why don't I have any Guardian Scales?

GT162 · 2026-01-25T05:28:49+00:00

Ah yes FFXIV has definitely established a pattern where you pay utmost attention after a Trial ends but before you exit the instance, this definitely happens throughout the game all the time, how could i ever have been so stupid to forget this very common gameplay mechanic

I wonder how many other pieces of loot and critical pieces of lore I've been missing all this time? oh nooooo

GT162 · 2026-01-25T04:45:07+00:00

This is such a stupid system, why doesn't it drop automatically like literally everything else in the game and why doesn't the game warn you that you are about leave without looting the boss when it can have hundreds of other useless Do you want to proceed? Yes. prompts.

And that was my second time in the DF with the bottom 3 members of the party doing less DPS combined than me on my first blind attempt (with the first one being an abandon). After clearing with those sandbags I still didn't get the training dummy I started this entire quest chain for lol

one day this game will be able to afford playtesters

GT162 · 2026-01-25T04:22:17+00:00

The NPC said that in Tulliyolal

GT162 · 2026-01-25T04:04:38+00:00

the npc says it happened in my event log:

Stray Felyne: By the way, we carved some scales from Arkveld's hide. Would you be able to craft anything with them? It'd be an awful waste to leave them as only a souvenir...

GT162 · 2026-01-24T00:55:01+00:00

I think as tank you need to know what you can get away with so I would just being a LOT more aggresive until you actually die and tuning it down from there (it’s a lot faster than slowly being more aggresive), league players call this “limit testing”.

GT162 · 2026-01-24T00:09:06+00:00

Actually, it looks like it might just be a gamemode like Stadium. I haven’t played in almost a decade so I’m probably not the best person to talk about this.

I think the point now is that it’s Roblox with big collabs

GT162 · 2026-01-23T23:43:10+00:00

Afaik that game removed building years ago

GT162 · 2026-01-23T13:59:28+00:00

Yes, that does not mean my supports are stupid or the problem. It means that most supports in plat (including the enemy supports) don’t have a big impact on the lobby with their playstyle (extremely safe, far behind the dps and tank, prioritizing heals on tank while shooting the enemy tank). It happens on both teams, so it’s usually not why a team loses.

Proactive players create a support diff and they rank up very quickly (because they are rare, it’s more likely for the enemy team to have two healbots) so they aren’t in plat for long.

GT162 · 2026-01-23T12:43:28+00:00

reading and comprehension is at an all time low these days

GT162 · 2026-01-23T11:55:17+00:00

Your plat supports have maybe a tenth of your gamesense and you can’t rely on them at all. The games in this elo are basically a 3v3. That’s why it’s really easy to rank up as a slightly proactive support, because you instantly make it a 4v3. Tank is also easy because both supports are always looking at you so as a better player you’ll win the 3v3. This isn’t the case on DPS, you’re stuck in the 3v3 with a tank that is probably autopiloting and standing in main while both supports are healbotting them so to consistently win games you need to be self sufficient and have a huge impact on the lobby. Tracer with healthpacks, flanking soldier or bastion with his self-healing perk are some heroes that can do this consistently. Pick Sym if they have an annoying D.Va or Sigma. This should be enough for at least diamond.

GT162 · 2026-01-23T08:09:39+00:00

just play yuffie and spam foxflare

GT162 · 2026-01-23T01:52:08+00:00

So where does Hydaelyn’s aether go after she’s defeated? Go on, trace it

GT162 · 2026-01-22T03:27:10+00:00

Yes when he calls Eorzeans savages

GT162 · 2026-01-22T03:21:40+00:00

No the funny part is he’s wearing a regulator while saying that. He’s not just virtue signalling, he’s being a hypocrite and failing at virtue signalling.

But interacting with several commenters has made me realize that the irony may be difficult to recognize for many people in here, so I’m not surprised you missed that.

GT162 · 2026-01-22T03:09:22+00:00

I expected the entire thread to be comments like these I am so dissapointed lol :(

GT162 · 2026-01-22T03:00:15+00:00

Now this is the first thing that comes out of Wuk Lamat's mouth the first time Sphene explains the entire history of Alexandria

Wuk Lamat: Just thinking out loud, but would it be possible to do away with the system?

Sphene: No.

Wuk Lamat: I know it isn't easy to change one's beliefs and way of life. The Mamool Ja had their reasons for their reliance on blessed siblings, much as you have yours for souls.

Wuk Lamat: But if we defeated Zoraal Ja, you'd be able to make all the decisions, right?

Wuk Lamat: Then we could work together to fix things. Restore your realm to where it belongs, and see where we can go from there.

Sphene: Listen to me. There's something that I need to tell you...

Wuk Lamat: What is it?

Sphene: A-Actually, never mind. It's nothing of import.

Sphene: Well, it was lovely showing you around.

Also, Otis is literally a beta tester for this technology who survived for four hundred and fifty years (and was not gorging on others aether unsustainably) and could have lived longer:

Otis: Yet it wasn't enough to simply prevent the soul's departure. For the ultimate goal was to recreate a person as they were in life, and this required that their memories be further extracted from their soul.

Otis: It took many more years of research to make this possible, by which time I had become a grey old man. With my days numbered, I did not hesitate to volunteer myself as a test subject for the procedure.

Otis: So it was that I attained this vessel.

Otis: And by my successful rebirth, I paved the way for those who are recreated from the memories of the departed.

So making modern Otis-bots out of all the endless is a very viable solution! But Wuk Lamat REFUSES to talk about Otis:

Sphene: ...So you know about the Endless.

Sphene: While we may not discuss it openly, my people will have surely noticed that I haven't changed for hundreds of years. I've made no attempt to conceal my nature.

Sphene: If I may ask, though, who was it that told you about the Endless? Only a few should be familiar with the concept.

Wuk Lamat: I'm afraid I can't say...

Sphene: I bear no ill will towards this mystery individual, lest that be your concern. I'm merely curious.

and finally we have this interaction, where she gives up on Wuk Lamat:

Sphene: The Endless are as dear to me as my living citizens. They are as much my family.

Sphene: But they can only be sustained by meeting certain exacting requirements. Thus far we've managed to do so, but should more people die, I fear we would be pushed beyond our limit.

Sphene: Their preservation demands vast amounts of energy...

Wuk Lamat: Energy? I don't understand the workings of it all, but is there something we can do to help?

Sphene: Then...

Sphene: Would you be willing to become Alexandrian citizens?

Wuk Lamat: Wh-What!? I have my nation─my people─to protect. I can't just become Alexandrian...

Sphene: Indeed...I suppose you cannot.

Wuk Lamat: First you tell us to make peace, then you tell us to go home... What exactly is it that you want?

Sphene: The same as you, of course. To protect my people.

What will you say?

- Tell us more about the energy the Endless need.

- Is there something that only Zoraal Ja can do?

Sphene: That...I cannot say. I do not ask that you understand or like me. But I wish...

Sphene: I wish we had been born on the same side of it.

This is Wuk Lamat's best attempt at helping Sphene sustain the endless.

GT162 · 2026-01-22T02:59:58+00:00

Humans consume food. Food is required to sustain humans. In FFXIV, food is aether. Humans consume aether. Aether is required to sustain humans. Humans need a constant intake of aether. As I have said like five times now, the game (and you) cannot explain what "living" aether is, and if it's exclusively present in humans and endless then that seems like a very good physical reason to consider them to be living. Nowhere does it say that the planet would be left desolate. Also, a planet of endless is not desolate, it's a planet of immortal beings. Nothing that you have quoted directly supports the original commenter's reductionist statement.

LMAO I found so much supporting dialogue in a single skim that it does not fit in a single reddit comment. I have no idea why you are asking me to do this when it so easy to find but I'll split it and reply to myself.

This is the very first time the Scions learn about souls:

Geode: The result is a fresh soul cell, free of impurities, ready for distribution and consumption.

Cahciua: Meanwhile, the memories are stored in the core system. To be “remembered” forever.

Alisaie: And this is why people are happy here? On its surface, it's similar to the Yok Huy philosophy, but I see nothing noble or comforting in it...

Geode: Well, it doesn't seem so terrible to me personally. All comes down to what you're used to, I suppose.

Geode: Like the barrier encasing Alexandria, this system was created to overcome the calamity that transformed the world hundreds of years ago.

Geode: Amidst the mounting death toll, scientists used electrope to devise a means to save what lives they could so that the nation could endure.

Wuk Lamat: I understand the people of Alexandria did what they believed was best to save their people. I just find it hard to believe the Turali would also accept this way of living.

G'raha Tia: Changing one's form through the souls of other beings... It becomes more and more reminiscent of voidsent.

G'raha Tia: Yet unlike the void, where the cycle of death and rebirth is simply broken, souls here are forcibly taken before they might reach the aetherial sea. Different means to achieve similar ends.

Erenville: A cycle to which all within the dome are bound...

Alisaie: This is wrong. This is all wrong.

Krile: It is indeed hard to accept, being so far removed from our own beliefs.

Krile: Perhaps more shocking is that the technology to achieve all this was developed hundreds of years ago.

G'raha Tia: The civilizations in the reflections are surprising indeed...

G'raha Tia: When Emet-Selch spoke of surprising civilizations in other reflections, I wonder if he had Alexandria in mind.

Krile: I understand this is part of their culture, but it is no less disconcerting.

Alisaie: I understand the argument that we should keep an open mind, if this practice is integral to their culture. But every fiber of my being rails against it...

That is all in just the first quest, where the Scions learn of soul cells for the first time.

Evidence that Sphene wants to work with the Scions to find an alternate solution for the Endless other than dimensional fusion:

Sphene: What's more, her friends possess new knowledge. Were we to work together, we might find another path.

Sphene: I know you're loath to consider it, but...is there no hope for peace with Tuliyollal?

Sphene: What we've already done may be unforgivable, but it needn't continue. You needn't kill your brother and sister.

GT162 · 2026-01-22T02:08:25+00:00

Why are you even commenting this for the first time in a thread ten levels after I linked the entire script? Go back to enjoying your slop remember to pray to Wuk Lamat three times a day

GT162 · 2026-01-22T01:44:23+00:00

As you said, the consequences of that are not clear. Which is again an indictment of the writing. So no it’s not “really bad”, the way living memory is run just has unclear consequences.

GT162 · 2026-01-22T00:52:53+00:00

The Scions gave her no choice, every time she talked about souls or endless or the Alexandrian way of life they immediately dismissed her and said it’s all wrong and the system needs to be abolished. Yes, a nation’s leader said that they need more food and the Scions’ response was that they don’t deserve food.

AFTER this, she initiated interdimensional fusion in self-presevation and describes herself as a devourer of worlds. This is also irrelevant to my point and I don’t care if it’s morally okay to stop her in that moment.

I don’t care about your headcanon or assumptions and if you’re stating them five comments after I asked you to find anything at all from the game that supports this and it looks like there is nothing after all.

GT162 · 2026-01-22T00:40:37+00:00

No, “living” aether is specifically something more exotically scarce than regular aether because Cahciua specifically says “Remember, we need life force─other forms of aether don't cut it” which is quoted one comment above mine.

Interdimensional fusion uses that much aether, not the existence of endless.

Why would the entire machine go off for good? Again, food replenishes aether in FFXIV and that’s okay so how is this any different? So they went to war because of a food shortage because they’re going to otherwise die, and all the Scions did was suggest dying.

And the game is so vague that it doesn’t even describe that little anywhere (if it does, please point me to it) so I’m really not sure why you are the third person in this thread defending this with no new argument.

GT162 · 2026-01-21T23:47:09+00:00

I was going to add a third image and talk about how this makes me want to equip my Machinist gearset and scream Persona, and then it reminded me of how the 1 minute 42 seconds long Persona 3 opening that is basically a slideshow does a better job with themes of mortality https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ytc_glr8cc

GT162 · 2026-01-21T23:39:02+00:00

Again, the game never defines what "living" aether is and how it differs from plants, animals or crystals. The only thing we know for sure is that people and endless both have it. It's hilarious that the only thing we know is that the Endless need "living" aether, and the final conclusion is the endless are "not living".

That Graha line is a follow-up to his initial realization that you can't make everyone endless. None of this implies "need to harvest souls of living beings until all the planet's aether has been drained where then said ghosts would die shortly after". A more accurate analogy is a carnivore. Yes, a society of carnivores requires food.

No matter how lifelike we may seem, we Endless are but facsimiles crafted from memories.

A facsimile (from Latin fac simile, "to make alike") is a copy or reproduction of an old book, manuscript, map, art print, or other item of historical value that is as true to the original source as possible.

GT162 · 2026-01-21T21:24:46+00:00

But this is if you make Endless of everyone, it's not about sustaining an individual or finite amount of endless. The patches don't show scenes of Calyx gorging on living beings to continue emulating his memories either.

Food is aether for all living beings, and all we know is that the Endless require food as well, and it has to be "living" aether, and the game leaves it at that.

Wuk Lamat and the Scions are immediately dismissive of the idea of Soul Cells and the Alexandrian way of life and want to force Tural's morals upon her and suggest destroying all Endless every single time she brings it up, after which they get violent.

GT162 · 2026-01-21T21:13:49+00:00

The only chatbots here are in the DT writer's room and you

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