I mentioned in yesterday’s post about wanting to talk about specifically why I was inspired to become a Mentor in Final Fantasy XIV. Now, I know you don’t need the crown to help people, and I certainly try to help others as much as I’m able to as it stands currently. I actually don’t know if the guy I’m about to talk about was even a proper Mentor, but that’s neither here nor there, since he was the first really good interaction I had in the game that stood out to me.
Anyway, that’s a lot of preamble, so let’s begin properly.
This was in approximately 2019, as that’s when I started playing the game more seriously, though this particular incident could have also taken place early 2020. Regardless, allow me to paint the picture:
You’re a catboy. You’re a level 70 Astrologian. At this time, you also don’t realize you’re supposed to get multiple different seals when drawing cards for the maximum Divination buff (you’ve been trying very hard to get all three to match, due to misreading the tooltips). You like the game, though, but despite playing for a few months now, you have only made a few friends (though those friends are pretty nice and welcoming).
You’re in Patch 4.5, desperately trying to catch up so you can get to Patch 5.1 to do the Nier raids, since that’s the very reason you started playing again. You’ve just unlocked the level 70 dungeon The Ghimlyt Dark, which is the final dungeon of Stormblood, and you really can’t wait to start Shadowbringers. Like every other dungeon you’ve done up until now, you queue into it without looking up the mechanics; after all, it’s always a more fun experience to go in blind, and things haven’t been too difficult thus far.
You are blissfully unaware of just how much this scenario will change you.
A neat dungeon within the contents of the story, but…
Despite the ongoing aforementioned seals mixup, I had fancied myself a decent Astrologian. I felt like I could keep people alive pretty well, but up until this point, I had been depending on others to lead me where to go during mechanics. Though I could think relatively quickly, I tended to “tunnel vision” during really important mechanics.
Usually it didn’t cause me to die over and over and over!
My tank was a Hrothgar Gunbreaker. Unfortunately, his name is lost to time. I don’t remember what the two DPS were playing as. I do remember the one not talking the entire time–throughout this entire ordeal–until the very end, so I figured they must have been a console player or just not very talkative. Either way, the focus of this story is on the Gunbreaker.
Most of the dungeon went fine. At least, I can only presume it did since nothing stands out in my memory. Then we get to the final boss–or bosses, in this case, as there’s two of them.
Anna and Julia quo Soranus, my mortal enemies.
To this day, I get nervous when doing this dungeon, though it seems much easier for me. I don’t know whether or not this is a result of me getting better, of the devs adjusting the battle for duty support, or a combination of both (is this one even available for DS at the time of writing, I wonder?).
For those of you who don’t remember or don’t know, the sisters tag team the fight, so for the majority, you are only fighting one at a time. When one drops to a certain health percentage, they perform a move called Crosshatch that shoots large line AOEs across the arena with the tell only being a brief, thin line in the direction they’ll appear. After this move, the other sister swaps in. Whittle her health down, then they’ll perform Crosshatch again, after which they begin enrage.
Our party had extreme difficulty with these crosshatches. I don’t remember how many times we failed, but the number isn’t really important. Notably, though, my gear broke halfway through the instance. With no way to repair my gear (my crafters…), I was forced to swap back to some older gear. It was a few runs after this that we finally cleared, and everyone parted ways.
The entire time, however, the Gunbreaker was cheering us on. Me and a DPS were new, and he was most certain we would get it. He was helping us in the fact that he was showing astounding patience and compassion. Yes, it’s just a game, so it’s really not that deep–but I’ve remembered this Hrothgar for almost four whole years now. I’ve remembered what he did for me and the others, and how he uplifted us, and how he just seemed so confident and animated about it. There wasn’t a hint of uncertainty or hostility to him at all.
There are thousands upon thousands of players now, and I’ve since moved servers, from Aether to Crystal. That Ghimlyt Dark run was probably a drop in a large pond for him, but to me, it really meant a lot. If this incident feels vaguely familiar to you, feel free to reach out; even if this is a long shot, I’d love to know how he’s doing!
Ever since then, whenever I’ve played, I try to emulate this mysterious Hrothgar Gunbreaker. He was part of the reason I picked Gunbreaker as my main job, when I picked up tanking seriously this year (I had tried Paladin already by then but wasn’t enjoying the playstyle). It seems kind of silly, and isn’t the only reason, but it is a part!
I’ll forever be thankful for him. And I’ll always do my best to be kind and patient.
With love, Byleth
(I always joke that this was the one positive experience I had on Aether with random people, but perhaps that’s just my own feelings coloring my perception…)
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