After I finished Monk, I really wasn’t sure what I was going to be leveling next. Monk was really the last “essential” job for Alahra, with everything else mostly being a curiosity that I’d level mostly just to have a full array of 70s by Stormblood‘s end. My S.O. wanted to get started on her Dark Knight, though, which was in the mid-60s and not too far from my Black Mage. While I could have also worked on Astrologian with her, we don’t really enjoy relying entirely on random DPS in the Duty Finder since we both main DPS, so I decided to go with Black Mage to make sure our runs proceeded at a certain minimum pace.

It took me several runs to get re-acclimated to the new Stormblood Enochian system, which led to a lot of frustration for me. While I’m still not convinced I like the changes overall in terms of feel, I’ve gotten more comfortable with things and can at least play it without feeling like I want to punch my keyboard. Once I got to that point, I felt like I needed a new glamour to celebrate, since my last one for Black Mage wasn’t really doing it for me. For whatever reason, my thoughts had been drifting toward an older one from early in Stormblood, which I felt needed a little more time in the metaphorical sun.

Glamour Components (Required Level: BLM/RDM/SMN 64)
Weapon: Kaladanda Lux (Replica)
Head: Survival Hat (Pure White)
Body: Gryphonskin Breastguard (Pure White)
Hands: Tigerskin Armguards of Casting (Pure White)
Legs: Star Velvet Bottoms of Casting (Pure White)
Feet: Songbird Boots (Pure White)

Since I put that glamour together last August, I’d discovered that the Songbird Boots work a lot better alongside the Star Velvet Bottoms than the High House Halfboots I used in the past, so I slotted those in right away when I reapplied the rest of the glamour. I had intended just to run things like that for a little while and ruminate on what else I wanted to do to improve the look, but I ended up with some idle time before we got started, and so I started experimenting.

Especially lately, I’ve been having fun branching out from the sort of standard Elegant Rimless Glasses I use in most everything, and I really felt like this look needed something a little more flashy than spectacles, which meant checking out various hat options. Of course, I’ve recently been enjoying the Flat Cap quite a bit, and were it not for the brown leather that sticks around when it’s dyed, I might have used it here. Once I noticed how nicely a hat completed the profile for the look, though, I knew I had to find something. With the sort of rustic look of the Star Velvet Bottoms, the Survival Hat actually works very well (and the band on it complements the chain on skirt, for good measure).

After I figured out the hat, we did a couple runs of Bardam’s Mettle, and I realized the Star Velvet Long Gloves I had been using didn’t really work alongside the Survival Hat—the look really needed a bit more leather to feel cohesive, I thought. At first, I thought the Augmented Hailstorm Gloves might work, but those proved to be a bit too elegant overall, so I had to find something different. There aren’t very many options for longer gloves, of course, but luckily Stormblood gave us a dyeable version of the Orthodox Armguards from the Aery. They fit in quite well here, much better than the Star Velvet gloves did.

I had enough fun dungeon running with this glamour that it actually pushed back the glamour I meant to post next, which was one I put together for Red Mage. I’ll be showing that one off soon, of course (probably next, unless something similar happens again). I also really need to decide whether I want to have a new Monk glamour ready for Eureka or not. While I’m still in love with the Antiquated Pacifist’s Vest, I feel like Alahra is going to need something a bit different for any cutscenes the new content involves. I’m not sure I’ll really be able to part with the Vest, though, so we’ll have to see what happens!