FFXI has a lot of options one can do on their own when they are sufficiently bored, FOV, Crafting, Campaign, etc. I generally do things until I'm sick of them and my latest foray into completely wasting my time has been to cap my weapon skill levels. This bug seems to hit me about every 3-4 months and I have weapons for everything I can equip.
Katana
I capped and merited this a long, long time ago, it's 285.
Staff
Staff is one of those skills that is so underskilled it's kind of embarrassing. Many moons ago I used my WAR to get staff to 114 so that when I subbed /BLM (yes, I do this and I like it) I would have max skill for the sub (it is not a native skill for NIN). As part of my recent skill-up madness I wanted to get this to the point I could at least hit EP mobs so I could break the Mythic Weaponskill Vidohunir. I teamed up with Feiko and got this to 157, it's still drastically underskilled, but I can work on my latent at least. I'm not sure how I will ever be able to get far with the BLM skills on my own, it's one thing to do this stuff on a tank job like NIN, it's quite another on a squishy job like BLM.
Scythe
Scythe is a lot like Staff, I had help from around 150 on and I'm still not quite there (currently 182), but I love wielding this in Campaign for BLM. The scythe I have is an augmented Ogre Sickle with Magic Critical Hit Rate +8 and Blindness +5. I'd love to have Stun on this, but it hasn't been that big of a deal since I sub a Platinum Grip.
Dagger
I actually capped Dagger a couple weeks ago, what I finished up on Thursday was breaking the latent on the Dagger of Trials. With a bit of help from friends I was able to get Evisceration and actually make this a useful skill to have. There are a number of very good Daggers NIN can equip (Blau Dolch, Adder Jambiya +1), but the cost for those is in the millions so they aren't realistic options for me at this time (especially for something I can only use on occasion), so instead I have a pair of Behemoth Knives. I've been considering upgrading these to +1 now that I feel Dagger is actually useful, but that's not a high priority. As for BLM, it is job can actually wield daggers (skill cap is 210), but there are simply better weapon options out there (the MP drain Weaponskills would be nice though). If I ever get the urge to get daggers for BLM I think Misericorde +1 and Titan's Baselard would be at the top of the list.
Club
This is another of those dual skills I can use on both NIN and BLM. All the skilling of this has been on NIN with a pair of Shellbusters (there aren't a lot of options for NIN here) and I capped it for NIN at 200 over the weekend. Because Shellbusters aren't exactly awesome clubs it took awhile, and killing mobs was very slow. On NIN this is a completely pointless skill to have, I'm honestly not sure why it's an option, but on BLM I can take it to 230 and get access to Black Halo, something that might be very useful in Campaign or soloing. Of course the problem is getting it to 230...
Sword
When I started this Friday my skill was at 90 and it was solely from when I actually played WAR. I bought a pair of Cermet Swords +1 and went to town skilling-up. I really enjoyed this skill-up, the delay was in between Dagger and Katana so I was able to get skill-ups and cap it rather quickly. It's a damn shame NIN can only get 225 skill on this, I wouldn't mind using Swords.
Great Katana
I've grown to fucking hate this, the skill-ups seem to come few and far between and it's a lower delay weapon than I'd prefer to deal with. There are a couple of Assault GKs that would be nice to have, but as it stands I currently use a Gold Musketeer's Uchigatana, which looks a lot like my NPC's GK (if memory serves, she has a Hosodachi). My skill on this is at 185 and the cap is 220, there really is no point to capping this as GK is not a solid alternative weapon for a NIN. I'll cap it eventually, but I'm not sure I have enough steam to finish it off this round.
Hand-To-Hand
This is a slow, grinding skill-up that is almost as pointless as GK and club, almost, but thankfully I'm close to finishing this as I only need 16 more levels with my skill currently at 184. An evening with my NPC should be enough to finish this off. My knuckles of choice have been Cobra Unit Baghnakhs, they have a low delay and do decent damage, but the ultimate goal is to have a pair of Hades Sainti since those would be part of a hate/speed build to use in Salvage or on Gods.
Archery
This is a skill I worked on for RNG initially, I got it to 114 and stopped. I use a Lamian Kaman because of the low delay (and because I can use it for my magic resistance gear set) and Wooden Arrows because at 3 gil a pop they are just dirt cheap. The problem with working on this skill has always been (like any ranged weapon) that I simply can't generate enough damage to actually outlast mobs that are 60+ so I have to engage them. This means the mobs tend to die quickly and the skill-ups tend to go slowly. I've found with the mobs that are 70+ I can't tank and shoot arrows effectively because of the damn delay after shooting can fuck up shadow casting (there's roughly a second after each shot where you can't do anything, you may as well be stunned during this time). If I put shadows first then the skill-ups are even slower, if I put skilling-up first then I run the risk of the mob catching me with my shadows down. It's a vicious circle and as a result I've stalled at 175, which is good enough for Sidewinder (with /RNG), but I want to see that blue 200.
Marksmanship
An obnoxious skill-up that NIN can only obtain through shooting guns, which have an ignorantly long delay (realistically I would think a gun would have the shortest delay, but this ain't reality). Because of the delay I've been reluctant to work on this skill, but between WAR and RNG I managed to get it up to 102. My weapon of choice is a Military Gun because it has the shortest delay for the guns NIN can equip and just plain ole Bullets for ammo. Bullets are what turn a lot of NINs away from skilling this, and understandably so, the cheap ass ones I use cost around 5k a stack depending on whether or not crafters are in a generous mood. Fortunately I don't have to spend over 5k if I don't want to because I can craft the damn things myself. As for the skill-ups on this, it's just like Archery, but with longer delays, there is simply no way I'll be able to get past 175 on my own. As it stands now my skill is at 132, that means I went through 4 stacks of Bullets for 30 levels. I figure it will cost me another 30-35k to get to 175 and Slug Shot, that's not a lot of cash in the grand scheme of things, but it would only cost me 7-8k to do the same thing with a Crossbow. On a side thought, when have you ever heard of Ninjas using guns outside the game?
Throwing
I actually don't put any effort into working on this, I tend throw things on a fairly regular basis during events. I really want an Ungur Boomerang here, but camping him sucks because I can't do it solo. I hope it eventually drops in Nyzul, however, as it stands now I use a Rising Sun. My skill is at 235, and slowly making it's way to cap.
Evasion
Like Katana I capped this and merited it a long time ago, it sits at 277 now.
Parrying
Ugh, the motherfucker of all skill-ups, my skill currently sits at 181. You might ask yourself how I've managed to have a NIN 75 for over a year and this is all the higher my skill is. My response would likely involve giving you the stink eye, because I have no good answer for this, I've just been horribly unlucky. For a long, long time I lingered in the 150 range, but recently I've been averaging a skill-up or two a week. I hate this skill with a passion, but I'll be a pretty awesome NIN once it is capped.
Ninjutsu Magic
I capped this a long time ago in Dynamis, but it's only been recently I dropped any merits into it. I used four merits here to get my skill at 277.
Elemental Magic
One of the easiest skills to get to cap in the game, I haven't put any merits to it yet so it currently stands at 276. Because I used four merits on Ninjutsu I will only have four available for Elemental, but unlike Ninjutsu, it's a whole lot easier to get skill gear and I don't think the I'll miss the merits that much.
Enfeebling Magic
This is a critical skill for BLM and I've had to work my ass off just to make it decent, thankfully I was able to spam Dia in Besieged and cap it. I currently have 4/8 merits applied to it and I'll get 8/8 before I even start on Elemental.
Dark Magic
I remember spending a ton of time in Besieged spamming Bio to cap this, it's just not something you use enough that you'll see quick returns so I took the easy route. It's at 269 and baring any changes in the Merit structure that's likely what it will forever be.
Enhancing Magic
This dumbass skill is so random. I have a skill level of 168 on this, it's kind of like Parrying on NIN, a slow grind where I see a skill-up once a week or so. I've tried spamming bar spells but I've found that far too boring to bother with.
NPC
Okay so she's not technically a skill-up, but without her I wouldn't be able to solo in the Boyahda Tree (capping skills on Goobs), and over the weekend she finally capped her level at 70. I still need to get Yasha Hands and Dandy Spectacles for her and increase her maximum active time. All told that is around 170k Adventuring Fellow Points, so even though she can't go up anymore in level, there is still work to be done.
Stating the Obvious
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Friday, January 22, 2010
Ack!
Avatar
Let me first start out by saying this is an amazing movie that MUST be seen in the theater and it MUST be a 3-D screen. It's fantastic and beautiful with a look and feel of something one might expect to see in a Final Fantasy game. This is a movie that will change the way we watch movies, for me personally I hadn't seen a 3-D movie since I was a kid and even then it was just a gimmick. What Avatar is able to do is amazing, there is depth and presence in every scene, it's not the occasional graphic that seems to float in front of you, it's everything. I won't go so far as to say it makes you feel like you are right there in the action, but one does get a sense they could just reach out and touch anything they see on the screen, whether it's in the foreground OR the background.
Ok, so with that said, why I am I about to start bitching? Well there are two things, the fans and the sequel(s). Let me start with the sequel, James Cameron is on record saying this is in the works. To me, this is a horrible idea, Avatar should be left as the amazing epic it is, expounding upon it where the good guys win (they have to) is playing with fire. It's like The Matrix, I enjoyed the sequels (the highway scene in the second movie was an amazing 20 minutes of pure adrenaline), but after seeing them I really wish they had left well enough alone. The same goes for Avatar, while sequels are likely to be enjoyable, they will not be able to carry over the raw originality of the first one. What's worse is we all know what happens when humans want resources they desperately need, they destroy EVERYTHING in their path. Given that it's 200 years in the future and mankind is capable of interstellar travel, it's not a stretch of the imagination that we could conduct a scorched earth policy from space and never set foot on Pandora. If you display people as we truly are in a sequel then you have to build a story around the fact we will wipe out every living thing in our path to get it. Look at it this way, try as they might, did the Native Americans beat the Europeans? No, the Europeans had such a vast lead in technology that they wiped out or nearly wiped out numerous indigenous peoples when populating North and South America and this was BEFORE nuclear and biological weapons. Who honestly wants to see that, and who would find it believable if mankind didn't do that, further, how do you win against an enemy capable of destroying you from space if all you have are spears and arrows?
The second thing I'm annoyed with are these dorks calling themselves "Avatards", the only positive thing I can say about these people is they have the "tard" part right. They are learning a made up language, naming their children characters from the movie, taking anti-depressants, etc. I mean, what the fuck people?! It was a three hour experience, there's only so much there, it doesn't evolve, it doesn't change, it's the same damn thing no matter how many times you watch it. How can you name your kids after this is beyond me, I play FFXI at least three hours EVERY DAY, I'll be damned if I ever name a future kid of mine Drakus (though I won't rule O'Drakus out just yet). Hell I wouldn't even name my pets after characters in the game, but if people did I would kind of get it. FFXI is something that the average person can spend 300 hours a year playing, and it's a constantly evolving and changing environment. That, folks, is how you get to the point in which the above nonsense is a bit odd, but acceptable. How pathetic do you have to be if you're so depressed as to be suicidal from watching a movie!? Get a life losers! It took five years to make the first one, I'm not sure if these fucktards can wait that long for another one, here's hoping they can't.
Nyzul Isle
Tuesday we finished up Floor 100! I got to say when I first started Nyzul I almost gave up on it, I had lost on the first five floors 7-8 times, but for whatever reason I agreed to go one more time. Since then we probably haven't lost that many times in the entire climb. Congrats to everyone who needed the climb, and thank you everyone for helping me with mine. The gear drops on the boss floors have been non-existent (we've seen one piece in a dozen boss fights I think) BUT we did get an appraisal for Trotter Boots on Tuesday and that was pretty damn awesome. I've also managed to get all three weapons for my jobs, I should have Blade: Kamu unlocked sometime this weekend, Vidohunir is going to have to wait until I get some more Staff skill and Trueflight will obviously have to wait until my RNG is 75.
Dynamis - Tavnazia
Obsidian has added these runs back to our schedule, however, they will no longer be done in conjunction with the other Dreamlands runs. As such I was on the second run Wednesday and ended up being the puller, which was my first time pulling for this zone. I feel like I pulled a little slow and probably could have done more to help with crowd control, but I also spent half the run weakened so more often than not I was hanging back so I could avoid any AOEs. Nevertheless, we got to all the extensions with ease and there was never any doubt we'd miss one. It's just a damn shame the only drops we got were open (SCH body and WAR legs), and the coins were pretty light also, I think we had around 70-75.
Drakus vs. a Logitech Rumblepad 2
Just to provide a bit of background, I've been a console player since I was 7 years old, anything on the PC was stuff like SimCity or Roller Coaster Tycoon, so learning a complex game like FFXI came more naturally through a gamepad. Anyway, mine started acting up on Wednesday, making this the third one I've killed in two and a half years of playing FFXI. The problem is, I bought this one in the summer, it should have lasted longer. Last night I got locked up in the game again and decided maybe I just need to clean the thing up a bit and figured (correctly) that it probably had cat hair inside it (my cats get fur into fucking everything). I took the screws off and fiddled with a bit, when the cover came off the buttons comically scattered in a dozen directions (ironically one of them landed on a cat and was temporarily lost in his fur). However, taking it apart turned out to be a bad idea. When I pulled the gel cushion off for the directional pad I couldn't get it to fit back in place correctly (it has four gel pegs that hold it to the circuit board, these wouldn't go all the way back in) and it managed to jack things up even more. To add to that I'm not certain I put all other gel pads on in their correct positions as I was too busy watching the buttons scatter to make note of where everything went. So now the damn thing is more fucked up than when I started and by trying to delay the inevitable outcome of buying a new one, I have to buy one on the way home tonight if I want to play FFXI again (cause I sure as shit am not gonna try and learn how to use the keyboard to play). So just to recap, the Logitech Rumblepad 2 beat Drakus by TKO in the 8th round, a rematch is pending.
Let me first start out by saying this is an amazing movie that MUST be seen in the theater and it MUST be a 3-D screen. It's fantastic and beautiful with a look and feel of something one might expect to see in a Final Fantasy game. This is a movie that will change the way we watch movies, for me personally I hadn't seen a 3-D movie since I was a kid and even then it was just a gimmick. What Avatar is able to do is amazing, there is depth and presence in every scene, it's not the occasional graphic that seems to float in front of you, it's everything. I won't go so far as to say it makes you feel like you are right there in the action, but one does get a sense they could just reach out and touch anything they see on the screen, whether it's in the foreground OR the background.
Ok, so with that said, why I am I about to start bitching? Well there are two things, the fans and the sequel(s). Let me start with the sequel, James Cameron is on record saying this is in the works. To me, this is a horrible idea, Avatar should be left as the amazing epic it is, expounding upon it where the good guys win (they have to) is playing with fire. It's like The Matrix, I enjoyed the sequels (the highway scene in the second movie was an amazing 20 minutes of pure adrenaline), but after seeing them I really wish they had left well enough alone. The same goes for Avatar, while sequels are likely to be enjoyable, they will not be able to carry over the raw originality of the first one. What's worse is we all know what happens when humans want resources they desperately need, they destroy EVERYTHING in their path. Given that it's 200 years in the future and mankind is capable of interstellar travel, it's not a stretch of the imagination that we could conduct a scorched earth policy from space and never set foot on Pandora. If you display people as we truly are in a sequel then you have to build a story around the fact we will wipe out every living thing in our path to get it. Look at it this way, try as they might, did the Native Americans beat the Europeans? No, the Europeans had such a vast lead in technology that they wiped out or nearly wiped out numerous indigenous peoples when populating North and South America and this was BEFORE nuclear and biological weapons. Who honestly wants to see that, and who would find it believable if mankind didn't do that, further, how do you win against an enemy capable of destroying you from space if all you have are spears and arrows?
The second thing I'm annoyed with are these dorks calling themselves "Avatards", the only positive thing I can say about these people is they have the "tard" part right. They are learning a made up language, naming their children characters from the movie, taking anti-depressants, etc. I mean, what the fuck people?! It was a three hour experience, there's only so much there, it doesn't evolve, it doesn't change, it's the same damn thing no matter how many times you watch it. How can you name your kids after this is beyond me, I play FFXI at least three hours EVERY DAY, I'll be damned if I ever name a future kid of mine Drakus (though I won't rule O'Drakus out just yet). Hell I wouldn't even name my pets after characters in the game, but if people did I would kind of get it. FFXI is something that the average person can spend 300 hours a year playing, and it's a constantly evolving and changing environment. That, folks, is how you get to the point in which the above nonsense is a bit odd, but acceptable. How pathetic do you have to be if you're so depressed as to be suicidal from watching a movie!? Get a life losers! It took five years to make the first one, I'm not sure if these fucktards can wait that long for another one, here's hoping they can't.
Nyzul Isle
Tuesday we finished up Floor 100! I got to say when I first started Nyzul I almost gave up on it, I had lost on the first five floors 7-8 times, but for whatever reason I agreed to go one more time. Since then we probably haven't lost that many times in the entire climb. Congrats to everyone who needed the climb, and thank you everyone for helping me with mine. The gear drops on the boss floors have been non-existent (we've seen one piece in a dozen boss fights I think) BUT we did get an appraisal for Trotter Boots on Tuesday and that was pretty damn awesome. I've also managed to get all three weapons for my jobs, I should have Blade: Kamu unlocked sometime this weekend, Vidohunir is going to have to wait until I get some more Staff skill and Trueflight will obviously have to wait until my RNG is 75.
Dynamis - Tavnazia
Obsidian has added these runs back to our schedule, however, they will no longer be done in conjunction with the other Dreamlands runs. As such I was on the second run Wednesday and ended up being the puller, which was my first time pulling for this zone. I feel like I pulled a little slow and probably could have done more to help with crowd control, but I also spent half the run weakened so more often than not I was hanging back so I could avoid any AOEs. Nevertheless, we got to all the extensions with ease and there was never any doubt we'd miss one. It's just a damn shame the only drops we got were open (SCH body and WAR legs), and the coins were pretty light also, I think we had around 70-75.
Drakus vs. a Logitech Rumblepad 2
Just to provide a bit of background, I've been a console player since I was 7 years old, anything on the PC was stuff like SimCity or Roller Coaster Tycoon, so learning a complex game like FFXI came more naturally through a gamepad. Anyway, mine started acting up on Wednesday, making this the third one I've killed in two and a half years of playing FFXI. The problem is, I bought this one in the summer, it should have lasted longer. Last night I got locked up in the game again and decided maybe I just need to clean the thing up a bit and figured (correctly) that it probably had cat hair inside it (my cats get fur into fucking everything). I took the screws off and fiddled with a bit, when the cover came off the buttons comically scattered in a dozen directions (ironically one of them landed on a cat and was temporarily lost in his fur). However, taking it apart turned out to be a bad idea. When I pulled the gel cushion off for the directional pad I couldn't get it to fit back in place correctly (it has four gel pegs that hold it to the circuit board, these wouldn't go all the way back in) and it managed to jack things up even more. To add to that I'm not certain I put all other gel pads on in their correct positions as I was too busy watching the buttons scatter to make note of where everything went. So now the damn thing is more fucked up than when I started and by trying to delay the inevitable outcome of buying a new one, I have to buy one on the way home tonight if I want to play FFXI again (cause I sure as shit am not gonna try and learn how to use the keyboard to play). So just to recap, the Logitech Rumblepad 2 beat Drakus by TKO in the 8th round, a rematch is pending.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Welcome to the Next Decade
Well now that the holidays are over it seems like is returning to normal, maybe holiday hangover is real. All of my endgame activities have went really well and I don't need to pound the keyboard in anger as I type all of this today :)
Limbus
Last Friday our mage team lost Apollyon because they pulled KB with one of the babies still wandering around, not sure what happened there, seems to have been miscommunication or something. So as a result we have to redo NW on Monday as well as SE to get the two Omega chips we needed. We had 19 people show up, so we threw six BLMs and a BRD at NW, and went DD heavy for SE. Both runs destroyed their respective zones with a ton of time left on the clock (NW even took the time to kill Cynoprosopi). It was nice to see people come back after a botched run and lay waste to it.
Einjerhar
Last night we took out Odin in about 15 minutes and it didn't even feel like we were trying. I know from my own perspective it was a breeze, during my two times kiting I lost exactly one shadow and when I went in for the last 10% I got the killshot from my 2hr. I guess most people felt the drops were crap (though they always seem to be crap unless and E Body drops, which makes no sense because only two people are trying to get it), but the Hadean Abjuration: Legs were among the drops and that was the piece I really wanted so as far as I'm concerned the drops were awesome.
Dynamis
Last two runs have been impressive, especially Valkrum. Valkrum was like being an action hero and kicking the door to the bad guy's hideout down, we were badass. We had 20 minutes left when we got to the boss and despite our best efforts, the damn thing ignored stun and wiped everyone with breath. Like any action movie, the hero has to get his ass kicked a bit before gritting his teeth and laying the samckdown on his foe and that's exactly what happened. We got up, rested back to full (still had a ton of time on the clock) and dropped that fucking malboro in less than a minute. Obsidian then went on to pillage the zone, killing all the hippos, cacti and manticores, we were on the last of the sheep when time ran out.
Glacier was a bittersweet run, we cold-cocked everything in our way and managed to get three (yes, I said three) attestations with plenty of time left to still go for the win. Unfortunately this is where things went south, on the boss pull someone missed their cue and the boss went with the dragons, by the time we could regroup the dragons were on their way back to kill everyone. Folks managed to get the boss down to 41%, but the dragons wiped everyone out before we could finish. Was very disappointing end after such an excellent run.
Oh and tonight will be my 100th Obsidian run (damn shame it has to be in Windy, I don't like that zone), I may stop by the grocery and get cupcakes to celebrate, lol!
Nyzul
Unlike my other endgame activities we didn't have the so-called holiday hangover, we've been steadily climbing and are now on Floor 90. Sadly we have only seen one gear drop and none of our appraisals have been worthwhile. That said, barring any surprises, we'll have three shots at the win next Tuesday. Once Floor 100 is finished I'll get Blade: Kamu, hopefully that happens next Thursday.
Limbus
Last Friday our mage team lost Apollyon because they pulled KB with one of the babies still wandering around, not sure what happened there, seems to have been miscommunication or something. So as a result we have to redo NW on Monday as well as SE to get the two Omega chips we needed. We had 19 people show up, so we threw six BLMs and a BRD at NW, and went DD heavy for SE. Both runs destroyed their respective zones with a ton of time left on the clock (NW even took the time to kill Cynoprosopi). It was nice to see people come back after a botched run and lay waste to it.
Einjerhar
Last night we took out Odin in about 15 minutes and it didn't even feel like we were trying. I know from my own perspective it was a breeze, during my two times kiting I lost exactly one shadow and when I went in for the last 10% I got the killshot from my 2hr. I guess most people felt the drops were crap (though they always seem to be crap unless and E Body drops, which makes no sense because only two people are trying to get it), but the Hadean Abjuration: Legs were among the drops and that was the piece I really wanted so as far as I'm concerned the drops were awesome.
Dynamis
Last two runs have been impressive, especially Valkrum. Valkrum was like being an action hero and kicking the door to the bad guy's hideout down, we were badass. We had 20 minutes left when we got to the boss and despite our best efforts, the damn thing ignored stun and wiped everyone with breath. Like any action movie, the hero has to get his ass kicked a bit before gritting his teeth and laying the samckdown on his foe and that's exactly what happened. We got up, rested back to full (still had a ton of time on the clock) and dropped that fucking malboro in less than a minute. Obsidian then went on to pillage the zone, killing all the hippos, cacti and manticores, we were on the last of the sheep when time ran out.
Glacier was a bittersweet run, we cold-cocked everything in our way and managed to get three (yes, I said three) attestations with plenty of time left to still go for the win. Unfortunately this is where things went south, on the boss pull someone missed their cue and the boss went with the dragons, by the time we could regroup the dragons were on their way back to kill everyone. Folks managed to get the boss down to 41%, but the dragons wiped everyone out before we could finish. Was very disappointing end after such an excellent run.
Oh and tonight will be my 100th Obsidian run (damn shame it has to be in Windy, I don't like that zone), I may stop by the grocery and get cupcakes to celebrate, lol!
Nyzul
Unlike my other endgame activities we didn't have the so-called holiday hangover, we've been steadily climbing and are now on Floor 90. Sadly we have only seen one gear drop and none of our appraisals have been worthwhile. That said, barring any surprises, we'll have three shots at the win next Tuesday. Once Floor 100 is finished I'll get Blade: Kamu, hopefully that happens next Thursday.
Monday, December 28, 2009
How I Spent My Winter Vacation
Non-FFXI Stuff
So I had nine days off and got a bunch of stuff accomplished and left a bunch of things pissing in the wind. The thing I'm most pleased about was finally getting the full version of Shiny Toy Guns' "Burnin' For You" cover (which you might recognize from one of the elctro-savvy car commercials). The car company (I can't remember who, seems like it was Cadillac) initially offered the song as a free download on their website, but the link to that was only for a month or two and it no longer works. I had said to hell with it at the time because I was convinced the song would be on the next STG album. When said album came out a couple of weeks ago this song was not on it (It was a remix album, which may explain why it wasn't included). This kinda pissed me off and I was resolved not to start the new year without the track. Took me about two hours to track down a bootleg, the site it was being hosted on threw up all kinds of security flags on my computer so I had to fool TrendMicro into letting me isolate the file and download it. Wasn't pleased about getting it this way, but I was able to pull the file from the site without actually going to the site. I am a big fan of Shiny Toy Guns and am enjoying the track whenever it pops up in my iPod, was well worth the hassle. Other than that, outside of FFXI, I got my car tags renewed, cleaned up my DVR queue and watched two orders from Netflix (8 movies total, The Wrestler and Crank 2 being the two I enjoyed the most). Oh, and I slept...a lot. Really exciting stuff, eh?
Merits
One of the things I had resolved to do was cap both BLM and NIN, and then finish up 31 merits that I consider to be highly important to the jobs. While I did manage to cap both, I got so burned out on Campaign that I halfassed it the rest of the week and was fed up by Christmas. All told I managed to get 6 merits, which I put towards an Enfeebling Magic upgrade (4/8) and a Ninjutsu Magic upgrade (3/4). The MP, Subtle Blow and Ice/Lightning merits are still on the to do list, would have loved to finish them, but I couldn't take anymore Campaign and just wasn't ever in the mood to Meripo...ah well.
Quests
Quests, imo, tend to be an enormous waste of time, especially when one has all the fame they'll ever need in the game, but I've had a number of open quests that I've been meaning to close up and last week seemed like a good time to do them. To my credit, once I was finished with Campaign I actually managed to clear out all of the Windy quests that had been stagnant and came closer to completing ALL of the Bastok quests. I spent most Sunday making an intricate Quest Checklist spreadsheet that shows me all of the quests broken up by category and region. Aside from the job and WS specific quests, I've done damn near everything possible in Bastok, the only things left open involve getting AH items that aren't on the AH. I've done a lot of Windy Quests too (I want to say I started these to get the Rhinostery Certificate so I could (try to) solo my BLM AF hat), the ones that I had left unfinished have been cleared out, the only stuff left is Fenrir (I have this avatar, not sure why I started another) and Diabolos (still need to beat him, been close a few times, but have never sealed the deal).
Clothcraft
Another thing I wanted to finish up was getting Clothcraft to 60, it's been at 52 for a long time now. I figured I'd have all this wonderful time on my hands that I could go farm Silk Thread, I was wrong, though not necessarily about the time, but the damn threads themselves. Before I get into that, I had five stacks of thread already and plan to use Q's guide and synth Green Ribbons to NPC, but first I need Silk Cloth and since my Clothcraft is at 52 and the Cloth caps at 53 I thought for certain five stacks would be enough to at least get to 53. Sadly I was wrong, I got zero point fucking five skill! It's not like I won't cap this, but ffs, that is just disappointing.
After that nonsense it was off to farm, which means going deep into Crawlers' Nest and farming Knight Crawlers or Rumble Crawlers. I chose to fight Knight Crawlers because the room they are in has scorpions also (claws and shells are 100% drops, their drawback is they take up space) and the Knights drop coffer keys for an added bonus (the Rumbles only drop chest keys). So I set out and killed every crawler in my path (I got 10 threads from doing this), when I got to the Rumble Crawlers the first one I killed dropped a chest key and since I had passed the chest a few rooms back I went and popped it for 9k. Diversion aside, I finished off the Rumbles and picked up another chest key. When I entered the Knight Crawler room I almost ran smack into one of the new NMs SE added, as it turns out there is no way I could solo it (it spams Cold Breathe for around 400 damage, this attack ignores shadows), so I had to keep an eye on it while killing the crawlers and occasional scorpion. During the next hour I ran into the worst cold streak I could imagine. I killed 20 or so crawlers and not a single thread dropped, all I got was a Kindred's Seal and a coffer key. Since I had Limbus soon, I decided to kill one more then go look for the chests, as you can probably figure, the last one I killed dropped a thread, damn bastards. The coffer yielded 11k and the chest gave me a Gigant Axe, which once everything was sold (and counting the silks), I got around 50k worth of stuff in about 90 minutes, not bad, but it was a disappointing 50k. I haven't touched Clothcraft since, just been sending everything to my mule.
Ranger
My RNG was at level 24 and damnit if I didn't want to get it to at least 37 (from what I've played though, I really like the job and feel confident this will be my next 75). The cold reality is, I was lfp for about 40 minutes on Tuesday, got hungry, went to Taco Bell and once I got back I switched to NIN and Campaigned the rest of the day. My poor Ranger, it's the only sub I haven't got to 37, and it's the only sub I've enjoyed playing, how's that for irony? I suspect I will end up soloing a lot of this until I can Campaign, which means it's looking like something I'll spend the winter and spring pecking away at.
Endgame
I have nothing but a long string of cursing to add here, all three endgame events went or ended badly, I'll be glad when the holidays are over and I can quit hearing about how folks are half-assing it because it's the holidays. In my opinion people should show up ready to rock, if you are there to half-ass it then you should go waste someone else's time. Fortunately for my shell members the other sacks are a little more understanding and have kept me from blowing my top. That said, motherfuckers need to get their fucking shit in fucking order before I start cracking their fucking skulls with a fucking spiked baseball bat. That is all.
So I had nine days off and got a bunch of stuff accomplished and left a bunch of things pissing in the wind. The thing I'm most pleased about was finally getting the full version of Shiny Toy Guns' "Burnin' For You" cover (which you might recognize from one of the elctro-savvy car commercials). The car company (I can't remember who, seems like it was Cadillac) initially offered the song as a free download on their website, but the link to that was only for a month or two and it no longer works. I had said to hell with it at the time because I was convinced the song would be on the next STG album. When said album came out a couple of weeks ago this song was not on it (It was a remix album, which may explain why it wasn't included). This kinda pissed me off and I was resolved not to start the new year without the track. Took me about two hours to track down a bootleg, the site it was being hosted on threw up all kinds of security flags on my computer so I had to fool TrendMicro into letting me isolate the file and download it. Wasn't pleased about getting it this way, but I was able to pull the file from the site without actually going to the site. I am a big fan of Shiny Toy Guns and am enjoying the track whenever it pops up in my iPod, was well worth the hassle. Other than that, outside of FFXI, I got my car tags renewed, cleaned up my DVR queue and watched two orders from Netflix (8 movies total, The Wrestler and Crank 2 being the two I enjoyed the most). Oh, and I slept...a lot. Really exciting stuff, eh?
Merits
One of the things I had resolved to do was cap both BLM and NIN, and then finish up 31 merits that I consider to be highly important to the jobs. While I did manage to cap both, I got so burned out on Campaign that I halfassed it the rest of the week and was fed up by Christmas. All told I managed to get 6 merits, which I put towards an Enfeebling Magic upgrade (4/8) and a Ninjutsu Magic upgrade (3/4). The MP, Subtle Blow and Ice/Lightning merits are still on the to do list, would have loved to finish them, but I couldn't take anymore Campaign and just wasn't ever in the mood to Meripo...ah well.
Quests
Quests, imo, tend to be an enormous waste of time, especially when one has all the fame they'll ever need in the game, but I've had a number of open quests that I've been meaning to close up and last week seemed like a good time to do them. To my credit, once I was finished with Campaign I actually managed to clear out all of the Windy quests that had been stagnant and came closer to completing ALL of the Bastok quests. I spent most Sunday making an intricate Quest Checklist spreadsheet that shows me all of the quests broken up by category and region. Aside from the job and WS specific quests, I've done damn near everything possible in Bastok, the only things left open involve getting AH items that aren't on the AH. I've done a lot of Windy Quests too (I want to say I started these to get the Rhinostery Certificate so I could (try to) solo my BLM AF hat), the ones that I had left unfinished have been cleared out, the only stuff left is Fenrir (I have this avatar, not sure why I started another) and Diabolos (still need to beat him, been close a few times, but have never sealed the deal).
Clothcraft
Another thing I wanted to finish up was getting Clothcraft to 60, it's been at 52 for a long time now. I figured I'd have all this wonderful time on my hands that I could go farm Silk Thread, I was wrong, though not necessarily about the time, but the damn threads themselves. Before I get into that, I had five stacks of thread already and plan to use Q's guide and synth Green Ribbons to NPC, but first I need Silk Cloth and since my Clothcraft is at 52 and the Cloth caps at 53 I thought for certain five stacks would be enough to at least get to 53. Sadly I was wrong, I got zero point fucking five skill! It's not like I won't cap this, but ffs, that is just disappointing.
After that nonsense it was off to farm, which means going deep into Crawlers' Nest and farming Knight Crawlers or Rumble Crawlers. I chose to fight Knight Crawlers because the room they are in has scorpions also (claws and shells are 100% drops, their drawback is they take up space) and the Knights drop coffer keys for an added bonus (the Rumbles only drop chest keys). So I set out and killed every crawler in my path (I got 10 threads from doing this), when I got to the Rumble Crawlers the first one I killed dropped a chest key and since I had passed the chest a few rooms back I went and popped it for 9k. Diversion aside, I finished off the Rumbles and picked up another chest key. When I entered the Knight Crawler room I almost ran smack into one of the new NMs SE added, as it turns out there is no way I could solo it (it spams Cold Breathe for around 400 damage, this attack ignores shadows), so I had to keep an eye on it while killing the crawlers and occasional scorpion. During the next hour I ran into the worst cold streak I could imagine. I killed 20 or so crawlers and not a single thread dropped, all I got was a Kindred's Seal and a coffer key. Since I had Limbus soon, I decided to kill one more then go look for the chests, as you can probably figure, the last one I killed dropped a thread, damn bastards. The coffer yielded 11k and the chest gave me a Gigant Axe, which once everything was sold (and counting the silks), I got around 50k worth of stuff in about 90 minutes, not bad, but it was a disappointing 50k. I haven't touched Clothcraft since, just been sending everything to my mule.
Ranger
My RNG was at level 24 and damnit if I didn't want to get it to at least 37 (from what I've played though, I really like the job and feel confident this will be my next 75). The cold reality is, I was lfp for about 40 minutes on Tuesday, got hungry, went to Taco Bell and once I got back I switched to NIN and Campaigned the rest of the day. My poor Ranger, it's the only sub I haven't got to 37, and it's the only sub I've enjoyed playing, how's that for irony? I suspect I will end up soloing a lot of this until I can Campaign, which means it's looking like something I'll spend the winter and spring pecking away at.
Endgame
I have nothing but a long string of cursing to add here, all three endgame events went or ended badly, I'll be glad when the holidays are over and I can quit hearing about how folks are half-assing it because it's the holidays. In my opinion people should show up ready to rock, if you are there to half-ass it then you should go waste someone else's time. Fortunately for my shell members the other sacks are a little more understanding and have kept me from blowing my top. That said, motherfuckers need to get their fucking shit in fucking order before I start cracking their fucking skulls with a fucking spiked baseball bat. That is all.
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
I Hate This Time of the Year
Rant
Driving around where I live is such a fucking bitch! I live near a retail area, which for 11 months of the year is utterly awesome (pet store, grocery, movie theater, dozens of restaurants and fast food, Best Buy/Target/Wal-Mart, etc.), I have access to all this while remaining snugly tucked away living on a golf course. But every year December makes me want to move, there are just way too many people on the road. I had to stop carrying a hammer and baseball bat in my car for fear I might be inclined to use one of them (don't ask why they were there to begin with). However, because of all the traffic about the only time I venture off the golf course this time of year is to go to work and the grocery, which means I have a lot more time to play FFXI. Except this week. It's also fucking Nutcracker season and every damn theatre group in town is putting on some form of this damn show (yeah, Drakus knows this whole fucking play by heart and he's not happy about it). My sister is the principle ballerina in one of these and I volunteered to be the stage hand for this. I also volunteered to help one of the childrens theatre groups with their set designs. They are doing some odd Wizard of Oz/Nutcraker show, I assume the two plays are separated, but the sets kind of lead me two wonder if it isn't a mash-up of some sort (the ballroom scene in the Nutcracker, for example, has a yellow brick road leading to it). At any rate I have to keep blowing things off in FFXI, but come next Monday things should settle back down, not to mention I'll be off for Christmas week.
Project: Shantottosaysgofuckyersefldrakus
Four tries and we still have not beat this, our best effort came on Sunday when we managed to get the BLM down to 3%, fucking bitch raged at 10% that led to a wipe. I think we need another DD, three mages has been nice, but we just can't seem to do enough damage to put us over the top. Honestly, when it comes to the fight I'd be more than willing to keep fighting it until we got it right if it didn't mean running around the Den of Rancor collecting the damn hexes every time we lose. It's frustrating and honestly doesn't seem to be worth the trouble when you look at the reward because the pants are meh.
Dynamis
After our last run was jacked there was some discussion during that run about what we planned to do about it. I forget the details, but somebody had said something that led me to respond with "we'll do something a little more sinister than that". My thought at the time was jacking one of their runs, but as I didn't know who the leader was the only thing I could think to do was keep an eye on the shouts in WG and try to show up before them. As it turns out I wasn't the only one thinking about this and thankfully someone (Q) knew who we were after and where they were going to be. Essentially we came to the same conclusion, but Q being who he is was much quicker to act and proposed we jack their next Xarcabard run. And thus began my Sunday.
The plan was to have people who weren't already signed up to do Valkrum show up early (like 7:30 AM my time, which is earlier than when I get up for work) in Xarcabard. We were going to enter 30-60 minutes before they were scheduled to go in and then try to get all the time extensions. As it turns out another group was already in Xarc and this pushed us back an hour, so Q was standing at the markings when the other group started showing up. What occurred next was as comical as it was classic. The leader of the other shell started sending Qtipus tells which went like this:
There was a bunch of back and forth between them with Q refusing to give any ground. Meanwhile, as this is going on, Qtipus is maneuvering Yot's mule to the trail markings in the Glacier with the intent of jacking that zone too. After some jockeying back and forth Aatst asks Qtipus if he wants to /random Xarcabard, Q tells him no and then /blists him. About five minutes later they start leaving, giving up the fight despite the fact the outnumber us three to one. My guess is they feel like we were just a bunch of asshole Americans and it wasn't worth the fight (for the record about a third of Obsidian is EU). At this point we have roughly 45 minutes before the other group finishes. They head to the Glacier where, lo and behold, Yot's mule is waiting for them! Unfortunately Q had to make a choice at this point because if he jacked the Glacier in front of them there was a chance they'd come back to Xarc and actually put up a fight. The Glacier was small potatoes, taking Xarc from them was the point we were really trying to make, so we ceded the Glacier and let them have it. A minor disappointment but our primary goal was met regardless.
So the run itself consisted of 16-18 people (a couple people had to leave early, a couple folks joined us late) and as we've never low-manned Xarc before there wasn't really much strategy going in, aside from get all the extensions. This led to some really wild sacing (from Kimi) and odd pulls, but we pulled it off. Let me repeat that a little more clearly, we got all the Xarc extensions with 16ish people, meaning, among other things, we cleared the 15 demon NMs. That just blows my mind and really shows just how skilled the shell has become. Which is ironic considering the two nostalgic posts that have been posted from two of the people who were there in the beginning, Qtipus and Kaeko (I recommend reading both their takes on the early history of Obsidian as they were both great reads).
Limbus
Dynamis wasn't the only low man craziness I was involved in this week. Limbus threw us a curveball that forced us to make some adjustments on the fly also. Our plan last night had been to do a split run between Ap SW and Ap NW. Southwest was going to be a standard tank with DDs and support run with 12 people (I think they ended up with 13, not certain) and Northwest was going to be a manaburn with our BLMs. Team SW was able to enter and get to work right away, however, Team NW got ganked and we were left with a decision to make. We had to either call it a night for the six of us or go to another zone with the set-up we had. I was ready to call it because I honestly didn't think that our other option, Southeast, could be manaburned. Hood wanted to give it a go anyway, so I relented, but added that we'd call it if the death toll started getting out of control.
The plan was basically to gravity/sleep/bind, then nuke the shit out of the mobs. I was worried about the rocs and gigas going in, the rocs can lay down some serious damage very quickly, and one of the gigas was immune to magic. As it turns out my worries were justified. The first floor went smoothly as we were dealing around 1k damage each with our nukes. On the second floor the vultures were easy kills, but the first roc got really pissed and I ended up as bird food. That said, it wasn't a total disaster and with a bit of readjusting the second roc got pummeled and up we went. The third floor is pots and dolls and this is where we lucked out a bit as the first doll we killed opened the vortex. We grabbed the time extensions and headed up to the gigas floor. Hood pulls the first gigas (Cronos) which was the one immune to physical damage and we whooped its ass, no vortex. With that, we grabbed the one immune to ranged damage, once again we whooped its ass and...no vortex. That meant we had to kill the gigas that is immune to magic if we wanted to continue. With 4 BLMs, a COR and a SCH. Needless to say, the next 15 minutes consisted of three of us chasing Hyperion around, getting what damage we could with our feeble weapons, while the other three kept applying DoTs. We slowly whittled it down and had seven minutes left on the clock. But wait. We still had two time chests left, so we got to the final floor with 17 minutes remaining and easily dispatched the dahmels for an supremely gratifying win. We won, despite the two things I was worried about happening, with a six-man manaburn group and only two deaths.
I'm very happy that the skill level of our players has developed to the point we can do things like this, because six months ago I'd have said no way in hell it could be done in our shell. So let it be said, not only can you manaburn NW, but you can also manaburn SE, expect us to try this on NE and SW in the future.
Driving around where I live is such a fucking bitch! I live near a retail area, which for 11 months of the year is utterly awesome (pet store, grocery, movie theater, dozens of restaurants and fast food, Best Buy/Target/Wal-Mart, etc.), I have access to all this while remaining snugly tucked away living on a golf course. But every year December makes me want to move, there are just way too many people on the road. I had to stop carrying a hammer and baseball bat in my car for fear I might be inclined to use one of them (don't ask why they were there to begin with). However, because of all the traffic about the only time I venture off the golf course this time of year is to go to work and the grocery, which means I have a lot more time to play FFXI. Except this week. It's also fucking Nutcracker season and every damn theatre group in town is putting on some form of this damn show (yeah, Drakus knows this whole fucking play by heart and he's not happy about it). My sister is the principle ballerina in one of these and I volunteered to be the stage hand for this. I also volunteered to help one of the childrens theatre groups with their set designs. They are doing some odd Wizard of Oz/Nutcraker show, I assume the two plays are separated, but the sets kind of lead me two wonder if it isn't a mash-up of some sort (the ballroom scene in the Nutcracker, for example, has a yellow brick road leading to it). At any rate I have to keep blowing things off in FFXI, but come next Monday things should settle back down, not to mention I'll be off for Christmas week.
Project: Shantottosaysgofuckyersefldrakus
Four tries and we still have not beat this, our best effort came on Sunday when we managed to get the BLM down to 3%, fucking bitch raged at 10% that led to a wipe. I think we need another DD, three mages has been nice, but we just can't seem to do enough damage to put us over the top. Honestly, when it comes to the fight I'd be more than willing to keep fighting it until we got it right if it didn't mean running around the Den of Rancor collecting the damn hexes every time we lose. It's frustrating and honestly doesn't seem to be worth the trouble when you look at the reward because the pants are meh.
Dynamis
After our last run was jacked there was some discussion during that run about what we planned to do about it. I forget the details, but somebody had said something that led me to respond with "we'll do something a little more sinister than that". My thought at the time was jacking one of their runs, but as I didn't know who the leader was the only thing I could think to do was keep an eye on the shouts in WG and try to show up before them. As it turns out I wasn't the only one thinking about this and thankfully someone (Q) knew who we were after and where they were going to be. Essentially we came to the same conclusion, but Q being who he is was much quicker to act and proposed we jack their next Xarcabard run. And thus began my Sunday.
The plan was to have people who weren't already signed up to do Valkrum show up early (like 7:30 AM my time, which is earlier than when I get up for work) in Xarcabard. We were going to enter 30-60 minutes before they were scheduled to go in and then try to get all the time extensions. As it turns out another group was already in Xarc and this pushed us back an hour, so Q was standing at the markings when the other group started showing up. What occurred next was as comical as it was classic. The leader of the other shell started sending Qtipus tells which went like this:
Aatst: {Xarcabard}?
Q: Yes
Aatst: me go @ 1h
Q: No you're not.
There was a bunch of back and forth between them with Q refusing to give any ground. Meanwhile, as this is going on, Qtipus is maneuvering Yot's mule to the trail markings in the Glacier with the intent of jacking that zone too. After some jockeying back and forth Aatst asks Qtipus if he wants to /random Xarcabard, Q tells him no and then /blists him. About five minutes later they start leaving, giving up the fight despite the fact the outnumber us three to one. My guess is they feel like we were just a bunch of asshole Americans and it wasn't worth the fight (for the record about a third of Obsidian is EU). At this point we have roughly 45 minutes before the other group finishes. They head to the Glacier where, lo and behold, Yot's mule is waiting for them! Unfortunately Q had to make a choice at this point because if he jacked the Glacier in front of them there was a chance they'd come back to Xarc and actually put up a fight. The Glacier was small potatoes, taking Xarc from them was the point we were really trying to make, so we ceded the Glacier and let them have it. A minor disappointment but our primary goal was met regardless.
So the run itself consisted of 16-18 people (a couple people had to leave early, a couple folks joined us late) and as we've never low-manned Xarc before there wasn't really much strategy going in, aside from get all the extensions. This led to some really wild sacing (from Kimi) and odd pulls, but we pulled it off. Let me repeat that a little more clearly, we got all the Xarc extensions with 16ish people, meaning, among other things, we cleared the 15 demon NMs. That just blows my mind and really shows just how skilled the shell has become. Which is ironic considering the two nostalgic posts that have been posted from two of the people who were there in the beginning, Qtipus and Kaeko (I recommend reading both their takes on the early history of Obsidian as they were both great reads).
Limbus
Dynamis wasn't the only low man craziness I was involved in this week. Limbus threw us a curveball that forced us to make some adjustments on the fly also. Our plan last night had been to do a split run between Ap SW and Ap NW. Southwest was going to be a standard tank with DDs and support run with 12 people (I think they ended up with 13, not certain) and Northwest was going to be a manaburn with our BLMs. Team SW was able to enter and get to work right away, however, Team NW got ganked and we were left with a decision to make. We had to either call it a night for the six of us or go to another zone with the set-up we had. I was ready to call it because I honestly didn't think that our other option, Southeast, could be manaburned. Hood wanted to give it a go anyway, so I relented, but added that we'd call it if the death toll started getting out of control.
The plan was basically to gravity/sleep/bind, then nuke the shit out of the mobs. I was worried about the rocs and gigas going in, the rocs can lay down some serious damage very quickly, and one of the gigas was immune to magic. As it turns out my worries were justified. The first floor went smoothly as we were dealing around 1k damage each with our nukes. On the second floor the vultures were easy kills, but the first roc got really pissed and I ended up as bird food. That said, it wasn't a total disaster and with a bit of readjusting the second roc got pummeled and up we went. The third floor is pots and dolls and this is where we lucked out a bit as the first doll we killed opened the vortex. We grabbed the time extensions and headed up to the gigas floor. Hood pulls the first gigas (Cronos) which was the one immune to physical damage and we whooped its ass, no vortex. With that, we grabbed the one immune to ranged damage, once again we whooped its ass and...no vortex. That meant we had to kill the gigas that is immune to magic if we wanted to continue. With 4 BLMs, a COR and a SCH. Needless to say, the next 15 minutes consisted of three of us chasing Hyperion around, getting what damage we could with our feeble weapons, while the other three kept applying DoTs. We slowly whittled it down and had seven minutes left on the clock. But wait. We still had two time chests left, so we got to the final floor with 17 minutes remaining and easily dispatched the dahmels for an supremely gratifying win. We won, despite the two things I was worried about happening, with a six-man manaburn group and only two deaths.
I'm very happy that the skill level of our players has developed to the point we can do things like this, because six months ago I'd have said no way in hell it could be done in our shell. So let it be said, not only can you manaburn NW, but you can also manaburn SE, expect us to try this on NE and SW in the future.
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