If you’ve been playing Final Fantasy XIV for any amount of time, you’re probably used to the tomestone grind. At a certain point, you probably stopped paying attention to the poetics in your inventory, ignoring the messages saying you’ve capped out. Well, worry not, because you’ll be relieved of your poetics when Evercold launches. The next expansion is shaking things up by completely removing Allagan Tomestones of Poetics. But what does that mean for gearing? Read on to learn more.
How Activity Points Change How You Earn Gear
In XIV, players juggle three different types of tomestones during a patch. One is capped at 450 a week for higher-end gear, one is for lower item level gear added in the current patch cycle, and the poetics are for content in past expansions. Getting the best gear available usually requires grinding out duties, rewarding tomestones which are then exchanged for gear.
Evercold is simplifying things. Instead of the tomestone grind, the game is switching to focus on “activity points.” Each week, players will get a list of missions covering a variety of in-game content, encompassing dungeons, crafting, and more. These missions will raise your activity level, which in turn grants rewards, including upgradable, seasonal gear. This gear will be upgradable over the course of a season (a two-patch cycle), ensuring casual players can still benefit from higher item level gear (though savage raiders will still have access to BiS). Gear is exchanged within your UI, so you will no longer need to run to an NPC to trade for gear (only to find you’re short five tomes).
What About Poetics?
While the fate of poetic tomestones wasn’t addressed in the keynote, Yoshi-P did reveal their ultimate fate in a Q&A. With the focus on activity points for claiming new gear, the need for current weekly tomestones will be going away. That means poetics will be replaced with generic Allagan tomestones, used to claim gear from previous seasons. How this will affect gear from A Realm Reborn and previous expansions isn’t clear yet. It’s possible they will just require gil. But one thing is for certain, players have until the launch of Evercold on February 19, 2027, to use the last of their poetics.
For more Evercold news, keep an eye on our XIV news page!