After playing FFXIV for over six years now, with my subscription having never lapsed in that time, it’s a little hard to fathom that I very nearly quit during the early days of Patch 2.0, A Realm Reborn, never to return. One of the things that had kept me from checking out the original FFXIV was its lack of some sort of rogue-archetype class, whether that might have been Thief, Ninja, or something else. That’s the archetype I always gravitate toward in MMOs, and it’s also the one that Alahra falls into for most of her incarnations. A Realm Reborn had the same trouble, but some good friends of mine convinced me to take the plunge anyway.
My first months in FFXIV were full of wonder and frustration in equal measure, as I fell in love with the game world and story but struggled to find a class that truly felt like Alahra should. Eventually, I settled on Scholar, loosely associating it with her canonical talent for alchemy to hand wave away why she was suddenly working as a healer. Because of that association, I’ve always—perhaps subconsciously—liked using crafting and gathering gear in Alahra’s healer glamours, with older pieces like the Archaeoskin Jackcoat being some of my favorites over the years.
These days, of course, I don’t often play Scholar anymore. It’s a lot less necessary now that Ninja exists (and now that I’ve come to prefer tanking when I need fast queue times), and so it’s actually taken me until now to put some serious thought into Alahra’s level 80 healing glamour. I got the itch to finally figure something out after 5.1 launched, but it wasn’t until the addition of Ishgard Restoration that I settled on what to do about it.
Glamour Components (AST/SCH/WHM 60, Female)
Weapon: Anabasis Replica
Head: Reading Glasses
Body: Craftsman’s Coverall Top (Pure White)
Hands: Scion Liberator’s Fingerless Gloves
Legs: Guardian Corps Skirt (Dark Brown)
Feet: Griffin Leather Boots of Healing (Pure White)
Originally, I’d planned to use the new-ish Summer Indigo Shirt, and most of this look came together around that, with the only other difference being that I originally had the Guardian Corps Skirt in Acorn Brown (to better match the brown on the boots). The full combination didn’t light any fires for me, though, and other new things from 5.1 ended up taking priority over figuring out a glamour for a class I almost never play these days. The new glamour gear from Ishgard Restoration gave me some inspiration, though.
I ran into a problem, though (which you can probably already guess if you follow me on Twitter): the Craftsman’s Coverall Top has a poorly placed belt pouch that clips significantly with Alahra’s tail (which is one of my oldest glamour peeves). I didn’t notice this until I’d spent a couple hours gathering Skybuilders’ Scrips to purchase it, and at first I was so disappointed that I gave up on the top entirely, spending the currency on materia instead. It looks excellent otherwise, and is more or less perfect for my vision of Alahra as a Scholar, so I couldn’t get it out of my head in the end.
So, I went after another round of Scrips just to try the top out in motion. I couldn’t get over the clipping then, and so I put that one up on the Market Board, since they were selling for enough to make up for all the time I’d spent. But even that wasn’t enough: I kept thinking about using it for Scholar. Yet again, I got the 2200 Scrips to buy the top again, resolving to put this one on the Market Board until the price dropped below my personal sale threshold—which happened over the course of that day.
I don’t know how long I’ll keep the resulting look, since even now the clipping bothers me whenever I’m running around on Scholar (which thankfully is not often). The glamour’s two saving graces are that I know it would look fantastic without Alahra’s tail or without that ever so irritating belt pouch and that I don’t play Scholar regularly enough to have to look at it from behind. It looks great otherwise, though, and I’m sure folks who aren’t as bothered by the clipping as me will appreciate seeing it in use.
Fashion Ninjutsu 