Hello everyone, Nemekh here with a pretty big content update!

This version has been pushed slightly ahead of schedule to get the majority out there before some important future revisions take place.

If you notice any mistakes, please give me a heads up on Discord or in the AkhMorning Website Feedback channel.

Without further ado, I will address each point for what’s been added and what’s in the works:

Black Mage Site Section

After many requests, the AkhMorning team have worked towards finally adding the third of the casters to our website family.

A highly anticipated addition, the following sections are now available with content:

• FFXIV Black Mage Guide (5.20) (with leveling rotations & opener videos)
• BLM Gear Advice & Stats
• BLM FAQ
• BLM Gallery (with player UI examples)
• BLM Resources

Some additional BLM pages are currently being worked on, such as the Historical BLM Changes page, and will be deployed in due time.

Caster Mitigation Guidelines Section

A compilation of our tried and tested research over what Addle affects in the raiding side of the game, Meru Lucis has brought this section to you as the go to for all current difficult content.

UWU will be finished soon along with other UWU related resources for jobs.

As usual, please discuss specific Addle timings with your group and adjust as necessary.

You can access Meru’s Caster Mitigation section here.

Red Mage Encounter Advice Section

After the positive feedback over the Red Mage pages for Eden’s Verse Savage, our team has decided to expand the list of Encounter Advice resources to include Ultimates.

The first one ready is The Epic of Alexander (TEA) written by Lana White with checks and additional information from the rest of the team involved. Further visual additions are pending, however, the rest is ready.

You can access the RDM TEA section here.

Sections coming very soon(tm):

• UWU
• UCoB

Iluna’s FFXIV JP-EN Dictionary

FFXIV began from humble roots at Square Enix in Shinjuku. Given its popularity as a Japanese MMORPG we wanted to bring to the community a formally hosted version of Iluna Minori’s very thorough guide intended to teach players who wish to learn Japanese to better participate on the Japanese servers.

With the Table of Contents in the sidebar you can navigate through each section and find the topics most useful to you, in addition to breaking down an extensive list of jargon to the Japanese “gojūon”.

You can access the FFXIV JP-EN dictionary here. がんばって！

Summoner Encounter Advice Section

Following suit with Red Mage, we are working on polishing our resources for the remaining Ultimates for Summoner. We know many have benefitted from the TEA guide across all regions and it is great to see your successes and hear your thanks!

UCoB is needing some final tweaks before being ready, UWU will be next.

AkhMorning Website Rebranding & Redesign

June marks an incredibly important month for the team’s timeline with many exciting changes coming towards the presentation and layout of the site in addition to AkhMorning’s overall identity.

Not only are we taking the first steps to expanding to cover the whole caster role, we are also scaling up to better support and deliver content as a News & Guide resources website for you the FFXIV community.

This means that should the demand be there we will strive to deliver the best information for as many jobs as want it, with a longer term goal of localisation to cover the various client regions.

With how mobile people are these days much of the focus is on cleaner and more optimised responsive designs. This is a very time intensive and somewhat expensive process, but I have good hopes for the future!

The general gist of guide content being accompanied with a Table of Contents in the right hand sidebar will remain the same, however, improvements to navigation, styling and the layout will hopefully provide a more seamless and easier reading experience.

Things we can expect to see in the very near future starting from this month:

• A brand new logo and branding for AkhMorning’s videos and social media
• A revamped layout adjusting the header + banner, body and footer for regular and responsive views
• A revamped home page better emphasising FFXIV news and more accessible buttons to the core job guides
• A revamped news page layout so that entries are more lively to browse through
• Disqus comments for news posts
• Fixed and updated breadcrumbs for navigation
• Changes to the Table of Contents in styling and functionality to add more polish
• Optimisations to front matter and automated Open Graph data generation (prettier/fixed embeds in Discord)
• Tweaked implementation to Author displays for articles moving forward
• A streamer page for each job so that you can browse to see various players streaming from various regions and DCs
• and more

In addition to AkhMorning’s team, “Juvenile” tier Patreon pledgers ($5) will be able to see works in progress in order to provide feedback and ultimately help shape what’s to come.

I’m very excited and exhausted from all the preparation for the above. Please look forward to it!

Black Lives Matter to AkhMorning

Last but most certainly not least a topic that is very personal to me and many within the AkhMorning and FFXIV community.

Recent times have been especially turbulent in light of covid-19, quarantine and escalating tensions across the globe between law enforcement and people of colour.

Protests have manifested all over, mostly peaceful, some not so devolving into riots, but all with the general message in unison seeking change and reform.

Why does this matter to a gaming website and author you may think? As a mixed race person of colour who, along with my family, grew up through some tougher times facing discrimination from people in authority, law enforcement and security, it all struck a chord. Many FFXIV players are people of colour who know what that is like and no one should ever have to endure racial prejudice and brutality.

Having been inspired by Square Enix’s Black Lives Matter pledge of $250,000 USD to the organisation and other charities, The Black Lives Matter to AkhMorning fundraiser was established in support of the Black Lives Matter Foundation to bring about positive necessary change on a much larger scale.

Since it was established the AkhMorning and FFXIV Community has raised a fantastic £2113 GBP ($2,650.65 USD)!

I have been sincerely moved by your words, comments and contributions. This isn’t for me, but for all of us to moving together towards a better tomorrow.

The fundraiser will remain open for the forseeable future. If you wish to contribute something to the pot as part of the community, please see the fundraiser page here on justgiving.

Black Lives Matter to AkhMorning

Peace,

~ Nemekh