Balmung completed the New Nest of the Firmament not too long ago, which opened up the next series of quests in the ongoing storyline (in addition to adding some absolutely beautiful new music for the area). Since I’ve been saving crafter leveling for the final line Beast Tribe Quests for this expansion, I’ve still got classes that need experience points, which meant when I went to do the quests, I was doing them on my mid-70s Carpenter. I’ve not updated my glamour for my non-80 crafters in ages, though, and that meant looking rather awkward in a lot of the cutscenes for the new quests.

As I sometimes have to do, I stopped in the middle of doing all the new quests to sort out a new glamour for my Carpenter (even if, ultimately, the quest XP from these level 60 quest is so low I could have easily done them on my snazzy Weaver glamour). Since this was one of those spontaneous glamour moods, I didn’t have much in mind at all, which left me browsing my Glamour Dresser aimlessly, looking for inspiration. At first I stopped on the Replica Sky Pirate’s Jacket of Striking—the wide array of belt pouches seemed a good fit for crafters. But I soon soured on that idea, since the pouches also have a lot of clipping issues that I can’t unsee these days.

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Glamour Components (Requirements: All Classes 1, Female)
Head: Reading Glasses
Body: Replica Sky Pirate’s Vest of Aiming (Jet Black)
Hands: Lucian Prince’s Fingerless Glove
Legs: Werewolf Bottoms (Jet Black)
Feet: Scion Healer’s Highboots

Luckily, the answer was more or less right next to the Sky Pirate’s Jacket in form of the Aiming Vest from the same gear cycle. I’ve actually been trying to use vest for some time now, trying to make it work for Monk or Gunbreaker in particular, with little to no success. It turns out I may have just been barking up the wrong tree all along—in addition to being a wonderful choice for Aiming classes, the Sky Pirate’s Vest makes a serviceable craftsman’s top, to the point where I’m actually surprised it took me so long to use it this way. (Well, not that surprised—I haven’t done regular crafting for a few years now.)

Once I had chosen a central body piece to work with, much of the glamour fell into place pretty readily. While crafters don’t have access to some version of the Makai Quartertights, which I would normally use here, the Werewolf Bottoms work well enough since the belts on the top obscure the faded portion that would otherwise get in the way of a more uniform look. At first I thought to stick with my now staple Ishgardian Thighboots, then considered the No.2 Type B Boots instead, only to realize that I should truthfully be bringing the Scion Healer’s Highboots out of retirement, given all the colors involved.

For the last bit (outside of the glasses, anyway), I needed something that seemed fitting for working gloves. Options like the Replica Sky Rat Fingerless Gloves seemed too adventuring-focused, and I’ve never much been a fan of the style of gloves tailor made for crafters in FFXIV. I settled on the Noctics’s glove for something simple but not too plain, though I’d ultimately prefer if there was a version of the item that displayed the glove on both hands. The glove has the added touch of having just a bit of red lining, which works well with both the vest and the Healer’s Highboots.

In the end I was happily able to finish the quests once this was done, and I’m greatly looking forward to further development of the Firmament. While it once seemed clear that we were building a player housing zone, the story has very much focused on housing for the displaced citizenry of Ishgard, and what our place in the new district (which, I hear, is treated like a housing zone in the files) seems to be anybody’s guess. I’m personally rather fond of the idea I’ve seen proposed that it might involve some form of instanced housing (similar to something like Final Fantasy XI‘s Mog Houses, perhaps), as this would allow everyone who participated in the reconstruction to reap the ultimate reward of an Ishgardian Estate (as opposed to a traditional housing zone, which would invariable leave a lot of people disappointed, since plots are ever a limited resource). Only time will tell, though!