Morning in Vana'diel: All That Is Yet To Come.

So, I was perusing the comments from last week and I spied a comment left my Celestria, who as I have professed before is probably the smartest person on the planet. She noted that while she loves Salvage for the challenge and the bonding even those that are fully in love with it like her can still get bored of it after time. That time is usually when you are just grinding to get more gear, rather than challenging yourself as much.

This is what Celestria had to say:

Salvage has been my favorite for a long time, but the hundreds of repeats needed to get everybody the ultimate gear is starting to get on my nerves. Still, it's a great bonding experience and a fun test of skill. Looking back at how Salvage was figured out by a huge community effort on BG, that was an amazing thing to be a part of.

I hope there is a next big event. With the total lack of effort we've seen SE put into WoG and the mini-expansions, I wouldn't say a new endgame event is guaranteed. But if there is one, I hope it's for small groups like Salvage, and has new and exciting puzzles like Salvage, and no cells or artificial restrictions like Salvage. Bonus points if it's released before FF14. :)

When thinking about what is left to come before FFXIV we can look at what is already out there for us to do. First of all we do know there is Castle Zvhal Keep and Baileys, including the Throne Room. Now, my guess is that these will not be so much end-game activity areas as they will be similar areas to what we already have in the Beastmen Strongholds. That doesn't mean that there won't be end-game mobs or treasure and loot to be gotten in those areas, I just don't think it will stand out.

I do think we will get a real end-game area in the form of the Walk of Echoes. It has the feel of an end-game area; it's a completely separate zone, it's broken up into separate areas, and it just looks like an end-game area for FFXI. There are a huge number of different but very large islands in the area. It is really had to tell if it is going to be broken up into something like Einherjar or if it is going to be something that is done collectively like Sky or Sea. I personally am hoping for the latter because we haven't really gotten anything like that in a while.

I doubt we will see the Walk of Echoes in the next update because SE still hasn't opened up Castle Zvahl yet. That means we probably wont see it until the Holidays at best. Hopefully, once these mini-scenarios are out of the way we will be getting something a little more interesting for the rest of us.