The longer I ran around on my most recent glamour for Ninja, the less I liked it. While the Bonewicca Shadow’s Chestpiece is a really nice piece, the long half-skirt on it started to really bother me because of how ragged it looks, which doesn’t fit Alahra much at all. I’m also gently turning my mind toward 5.0 when it comes to glamours, since I’d like to largely “settle” most of Alahra’s glamours before the expansion, much as I did with the various Shire sets toward the end of Heavensward. Unfortunately, Stormblood hasn’t provided a gear style that I can use across multiple roles, since I’m generally not a fan of most of the expansion’s Tomestone gear (with the best sets probably having been the original Ala Mhigan ones from 4.0, which aren’t great Alahra material). That means I’m probably going to be doing a lot of glamour flailing for the next six months or so as I try to land on the perfect look for each role.
With my dissatisfaction over the Bonewicca Chesetpiece growing and Ninja being my natural starting point for any all-roles glamour overhaul project, I sat down a week or so ago and started experimenting. Though we aren’t entirely clear on what the story of Shadowbringers (and 4.5) will mean for our Warriors of Light, what we’ve seen so far has me more seriously considering black (or at least, dark) glamours for Alahra again, largely just for the thematic nature of things. Of course, she’s always looked better in darker colors than she tends to in the Pure White I always try to force into things, so this may end up working out better in the end.
Glamour Components (Required Level: NIN 68)
Weapon: Rakshasa Daggers (Metallic Silver)
Head: Reading Glasses
Body: Strife Vest (Jet Black)
Hands: Molybdenum Armguards of Scouting (Jet Black)
Legs: Warwolf Kecks of Striking (Jet Black)
Feet: Songbird Boots
For this one, I wanted to return a bit to the style of the Shire gear, which probably has my favorite general aesthetics of all the gear in FFXIV so far. Something about the Shire sets has pretty much always seemed right for Alahra, and so I started out with the Shire Emissary’s Jacket in mind. I also wanted to go back to my beloved Yoshimitsu Nexus, but as you can see here, that’s not quite where I ended up. I’ve already done a look with the Jacket and Yoshimitsu, and ultimately I didn’t think I could really improve on that one. Instead, I decided it would feel better to use some different pieces instead, and one of the closest pieces to the Shire aesthetic that’s not actually Shire gear is the Strife Vest.
With the Vest’s simple black and silver color scheme, I thought it might work well with other pieces from the Shire Emissary’s set, most especially the Shire Emissary’s Thighboots. I should have known better, though, because I’ve tried to make the Vest work with thighboots more times than I can count and rarely been satisfied with the result. I decided to stick with the Vest, though, and try to work around it. The Warwolf Kecks were on my mind following my most recent Fantasia, leading me to try them out in place of the Ramie Trousers I’ve most often used with the Vest in the past. As it happens, I rather like them here, as the body piece obscures the straps on the front of the Kecks, which are absolutely my least favorite part of them.
The shoes were an easy choice with the Kecks, of course, so there’s no real reason to dwell on those or the glasses, which are pretty much just automatic at this point. The gloves (as always, right?) proved the tricky part. Though I still had Shire stuff in mind, I didn’t think the wide Shire Emissary’s Gloves really worked with the Strife Vest. My staple Allagan Gauntlets weren’t quite right either (even if I’ve used them with the Vest in the past), since their black and gold didn’t pair so well with the black and silver I had everywhere else. I thought for awhile about just using the Strife Gloves, since they pair naturally with the Vest, but as ever I couldn’t get past how twiggy that made Alahra’s arms seem. I had almost given up on the Vest entirely before I remembered the Molybdenum Armguards, which have both of the right colors and have some nice symmetry with the gap on the upper arm to mirror the thigh gap on the Kecks.
And then I had a glamour! It is, of course, highly unlikely that this lasts the seven or eight months we’ve got until Shadowbringers, but I have to start the process somewhere! Of course, I’m probably going to take at least one or two glamour detours to use the Eastern Socialite’s Cheongsam, which I’m honestly amazed by (you can check out my review of the Socialite’s set if you haven’t seen it already!). I think it’ll work fairly well for a healer or caster glamour if nothing else, even if I’m not sure it makes it into the final “canon” lineup for Alahra going into the expansion.
Fashion Ninjutsu 