Imagemania!

Revenge of the Air Conditioning

This summer has been a hot one in Memphis; I don't know whether or not it has been the hottest summer since I've lived here, but between the news and walking back and forth to my car, it wouldn't surprise me. We had triple digit heat for nearly four straight weeks with the heat index reaching as high as 130 degrees, simply put, it's been fucking hot (today it will only be 90 degrees, perhaps I should have broke out my winter coat). So with that going on, the air conditioning breaking anywhere will make for some miserable times (the Memphis area has reported 18 heat-related deaths, almost one a day due to the heat). My problems started on the way back from the BBQ, I was about halfway between Memphis and Nashville when I noticed I wasn't getting A/C, I figured I was just pushing the car too hard and tried to fiddle with the dash to no avail. At any rate, it was nighttime by this point and I was driving 90 down the interstate so I just rolled the windows down and went on my merry way. Once I rolled into Memphis and was going at a slower speed the A/C seemed to kick back in and I didn't think anything more about it.

The next day, which I took off, I had some errands to run. Once again the A/C seemed ok; I was getting cold air at any rate, so I proceeded to run my errands, get groceries, etc. My last stop was Taco Hell; I had just spent time in the grocery and was hungry, so naturally fast food. While I'm sitting there I can hear the car in front of my making a squealing noise...or at least I thought it was the car in front of me, as it turned out, that was my car. At this point I start to panic, my engine has always been a fairly quiet one and I wasn't getting a check engine light, but something was clearly wrong. I noticed the A/C starting going out again, so I played with the dash dial a bit and the noise went away went I turned the heat on (oh the irony). So at this point I'm starting to think there is an issue with the A/C, I can get cool air and the check engine light isn't on, so it must not a critical issue, I'll get it checked out when I get paid again. Fast forward a week and I get to work only to observe smoke coming from my engine, now I really freak the fuck out. So I pop the hood and sure enough, the smoke is coming from the area my A/C is located in. I wasn't entirely certain what the problem was, as it could have been a few things, but one thing was clear, my belt system was connected to the A/C unit and if that was locking up, then my belt might snap while I was driving. I couldn't ignore the issue any longer and at lunch I drove it to my mechanic, during this drive the check engine light finally came on.

I get the car there and tell them what's going on, they suspect the A/C compressor has locked up but they decided to run a diagnostic to be certain (i.e., we're gonna make some kind of money off this guy). Since I didn't care what the issue was, I wasn't getting in the car again until it was fixed I had them take me home. When I got home I pulled up AutoZone's website to get a general idea what a new compressor might cost, for my car, the prices were coming in around $200, I cringed, but things could be worse. I got a call about two hours later and it was indeed a locked A/C compressor, it was at this point things got worse. The mechanic told me the price of a new compressor would be $439 and he was going to have to overnight it (talk about a price mark up, cha-ching!), and because of where the unit was in my car, they were going to have to take half the front end apart to get to it, labor $500, I also had to pay for the diagnostic, new freon and some sort of disposal of old freon, final estimate $1,200. Oh, and they wouldn't be done until the next day. Fuck. Next day rolls around and I get a call, started out great, the mechanic says he quoted me too high on the compressor, it was $419. /facepalm At any rate, I got there, everything was fixed (the check engine light remained on, was 3-4 days later when it went off) and I had A/C again, but my bank account was pissed. Obviously this was going to happen eventually, but fuck, it was about the worst timing possible.


XP Bitches!

Moving on, one of the things that came out of the BBQ was a need for the Obsidian to start taking Abyssea seriously as reports were starting to surface that folks were not only XPing there, but that the XP/HR was blowing everything out of the water. Our first attempt to do an Obsidian XP party was during the BBQ and sadly it didn't go very well, seems there was more to it than showing up and killing mobs for an hour. We tried to kill Crapaudy (or Crapdaddys as I like to refer to them), and it just wasn't working as we didn't know enough about the system to make things happen.

Our second and subsequent attempts have been infinitely better, most of us have capped out 4-5 jobs (just two for me) and we've only done 6 of these XP runs. The key to it all is getting the lights, our strategy is to mix magic and normal attack kills at the start to cap out azure and pearl light. Azure light is easy to get to 30, you just need to have nukers with a sense of timing. Pearl light is a bit trickier as it's not 100%, this one you simply have to have patience with because it may take up to an hour to get the 30 lights needed to cap. Once capped it's an all out offensive where we focus on kill speed and managing diminishing lights.

We have tried our hand at Ruby and Amber lights, but trying to force these lights seems to cut into efficiency. Our last run we just focused on killing quickly and over the course of 3.5 hours I pulled in 15 merits. Saturday's run would ultimately see me finish the day getting 17 merits, but the last two were earned while we hunted for NMs to work on quests.

Gearing Up

I love getting XP this way, I've always hated meriting, but at the end of the day I want the gear in Abyssea more and there is simply an amazing collection of gear to be had. Some of it is easy to get, some of it absurdly hard, but a lot of it is just flat out better than most other gears.

Ninja

Ninja got a ton of customization out of the new gear, more -PDT gear, more MDB gear, more Evasion gear, more Ranged gear and more Enmity gear.

For most of the new weapons, if they weren't involved with the Magian Trials, then there wasn't much to see, however katana was one of the exceptions. The Hochomasamune has a slightly higher DPS than a completed Sekka, but five more points of base damage, so it would be a main hand weapon. That DEX +10 is simply sick and will allow a NIN to change up their WS gear a bit (I'll get into more detail in a moment). Early testing on the Fast Cast has shown it to knock off about 3 seconds from Ni recast which is pretty significant if it's found to be factual.

The Iga Erimaki neckpiece isn't awe-inspiring as some of the other new items, but it is a NIN only piece and it would work great in an evasion tank set-up which often suffers from lack of accuracy.

Juogi and Anguinus Belt in a WS build are just insanely awesome pieces, add in a Hochomasamune and NIN WS will go from "lulz" to "eh, not so bad", which is a huge step up. The drawback here is you lose 10 STR (and 10 DEX if you don't have the katana), and there's no way to really make up for this loss. I suspect there will be a large increase in damage despite that, but until I have all three pieces (or ever have), I can't say for certain.

The Ocelot Gloves replace Dusk Gloves and I can't get these soon enough, I hate having decreased movement speed. The Ocelot Trousers make a fantastic addition to Enmity and Evasion tank build and giving those builds some DD ability with the ACC and Haste.

If nothing else, the Missile Boots have a cool name, but they actually do have more, especially in a slot that NIN doesn't have a ton of Ranged options for.

The Terebellum Mantle is a Gunner's Mantle without the negative stats and makes a fantastic addition to Ranged sets.


Black Mage

Unlike NIN, the new gear for BLM wasn't really about customizing, it was about maximizing.

The Augur's set is like Nashira +1, and any piece would be nice, but the feet really jump out at me, they are just an outstanding piece for BLM.

If your MACC is solid then you would have to be a complete idiot to pass a Yhel Jacket up. I'm salivating just looking at that pic, that's just an insane amount of boost to nukes!

Once the BLM community started seeing this piece, those without it immediately became gimp. Now I won't pretend to be one of those preening, prissy little BLMs and call folks without it gimp, but it is an outstanding piece and not overly difficult to get, so not having one is kind of silly.

The Goetia Chain is the BLM specific piece offered in this expansion and it should be a fantastic piece for when your BLM is having MACC issues.

I may have to prostitute my mom to get a Hirudinea Earring, but it will be worth it. Having an Aspir/Drain piece in an earring slot is awesome as you won't lose anything there on Dark Magic if you macro it in.

Outside of body pieces, there hasn't been much standing gear when it comes to refresh, the Serpentes pieces help resolve this issue some by offering a tic in the hands/feet slots.

Actually Getting Things Done

One of the things I had resolved to do with this update was tackle some things I had been putting off, mainly missions and maps. The maps were all CoP maps and for obvious reasons they had never been worth the trouble (level capped areas that I never go to and would require help to get said maps). With the level restriction taken off the CoP areas, getting these maps suddenly became very easy. I now have all the maps in the game except two of the Sea maps (which I will get in the next update), it's a silly goal, but I've always wanted to have a complete map set for some reason and I'm almost there.

The missions were a different type of beast because I was going to need help. Like the Prommy maps, I was putting off Apocalypse Nigh until I could safely move through those zones. So a couple of weeks ago I talked a bunch of people into helping me get this done (along with Tammyrose who had not beat it either), fight wasn't a smooth as I was hoping it would be, but we prevailed and set the record. So Magnetic Earring mine.

A few days before completing AN, Rues sent me a tell about one of the ToAU fights (that fucking Yag NIN). I was reluctant at first as I had wanted to put an Obsidian group together to finish this, but I never got the impression those who needed it were serious about completing the storyline, so I agreed and joined up with them. We burned through the missions, 5 levels really do make a difference. On the same day I finished AN we also did the Alexander fight and went 1/1 on it with a couple major assists courtesy of Mav and Jess. So Jalzahn's Ring mine.

With ToAU beat I could move onto the Odin Prime and Alexander Prime SMN fights. Last night was my first run on Odin and now Aesir Torque mine.

I still need to finish the Moogle and Shantotto expansions as well as the most recent WotG city quests. Not too particular if I finish the expansion missions before the update, but I really want to get the WotG quests done so we're ready to go when the update arrives.


Magian Trials

As I mentioned in my last blog post I worked on Magian Trials during the BBQ, the one I spent the most time on was for the Eva Sekka. I had finished all but one trial on the -PDT katana before the BBQ, but I needed level 80 to wield a Sekka, so there was no rush to complete this. It would take an XP run in Abyssea before I dinged 80 and once that happened I spent the following weekend in the Necropolis laying waste to Skeletons. While there I also did the first two trials on Uzura.

During the BBQ I mostly worked on one trial and that was the Dragon portion of the Eva Sekka, which I must say was a general bitch to complete since I decided to go off the beaten path and work alone in Riverne. Not the best of ideas as I could have just teamed up and killed Puks in the Woodlands in a fraction of the time, ah well. At any rate, I had planned to do the next two Trials with Q since he would be killing vermin for his last Relic trial. I figured we could kill diremites until I got 200 and then we'd move to a place with more abundant vermin. What I learned about diremite is that they are a bottleneck trial. You see there are only two places in the game where they pop for XP, Pso'Xja, which has no wind weather, and Aydeewa, which does have wind weather. Oh, and their repop times are 16 minutes to boot. Because of this, diremite are overcamped, which is great for a mob of ninjas killing them en masse, but sucks for Q as he needed TP+killshots. So that part of the plan wasn't going to work and we parted ways. Finishing the diremite took three Windsdays and some wind weather; there were always people down there and on the trial so it went quick. My next step was to head out to Attohwa Chasm where Q was pillaging and join him in the slaughter. I headed out there Saturday and was by myself for a bit, Kreoss joined me on Firesday since he also had vermin on his dagger trial and we knocked out a huge chunk of his trial and some of mine (wind weather). We then went to Abyssea and proceeded to get a massive amount of XP. After that it was almost Windsday again and this time I pulled and Q killed, when all was said and done, I needed 18 more kills. The last trial was colibri and this was nothing short of crazy. You see, like the diremite, there aren't a lot of place to kill colibri, but there sure are quite a few trials requiring them, so teaming up was the only practical course of action. Because of this teaming up, it took me two Windsdays to know out this trial, the first one we killed 149 colibri, the second one I only needed 88 colibri and got that with 8 game hours left on the clock still.

So there you have it, two Sekka complete. It's like have an Earth Staff and a Wind Staff rolled into one, while still having an awesome DPS. I think my next Sekka will focus on the INT/MAB katanas because they are going to be stupid easy to complete and I want to give myself a bit of a break before going down the MDB path. That said, no more trials until subjobs are leveled.


Nature is Weird

What you are seeing there is a photo taken of Saturn's North Pole. Yes, folks, that is a natural hexagon swirling around the polar cap of a giant gas planet. The center of that is large enough to fit the Earth comfortably inside the walls of the hexagon. It's as bizarre as it is cool.

Running Down a Dream

So I haven't updated my blog since the BBQ, partly because I've actually been busy at work since the my last update and partly because so much has happened in that time frame I'm not sure where to begin. I'll begin with my quick rundown of the BBQ itself (yes more shit happened that I'm not covering and yes I had a blast).

Obsidian BBQ

What can I say that Qtipus didn't already cover in his blog? Well...for the most pair my hair didn't do anything batshit crazy the whole time, not sure what it is about the way I sleep, but more often than not I wake up looking like I belong in a punk band. Also, the drive there was literally a 42 hour marathon. It started on Tuesday, I woke up around 10:30 AM my time, showered, packed, watered the banana tree (and one of the cats by mistake), checked to make sure I had my token maybe 50 times, etc. and I left a little after noon to meet up with Qtipus. Now I knew we'd be driving most of the night, but I figured we'd be there and sleeping within 24 hours at the very worst, what I didn't count on was just how many stops at Wal-Mart we'd make (and subsequently all the Mudflaps we'd find). For me a road trip is all about how fast I can make it, an eight-hour drive for me consists of one stop: gas, food and a piss break, I go into robot mode, Q looks for robots lol! At any rate, we arrived at our destination around 2PM local time, Q had managed to get some sleep (at a rest stop while the sun was coming up), Kreoss got quite a bit of sleep, and me...well I dozed off a few times, but my body won't let me sleep for very long in a moving vehicle (god forbid I ever decide to go to Japan or something). So when we got there I was dog tired, but, as one might expect, meeting up with everyone got the adrenaline flowing and it was another nine hours before I was too tired to continue functioning.

The next day I was the last to get up (I think), someone made breakfast, pancakes I think, but I'm not a morning person and that includes eating, so I can't say what went on for the first hour or two I was up. When I did get up, I noticed it was Earthsday in the game, thus I found myself killing dragons for my Magian trial, and this would inadvertently be a running joke all weekend. Most of the day was spent playing video games, chit-chatting, etc. One would think a summit of the Obsidian leaders would lead to long, drawn out discussions about Final Fantasy XI and how to best run events and such, but one would be wrong. We did talk about our characters, in-game goals and Obsidian related goals, but for the most part, FFXI was more about something we all had in common not something we obsessed over. That evening we ate at a Japanese Steakhouse, and let me say, the food was fucking awesome, especially the rice, that could have been all I had to eat and I would have been happy. When we got back to Mt. Cranky it was almost Earthsday again, most everyone went outside to look at the stars (for those who don't know me, my original ambition in life was to be an astrophysicist), but the Magian trials were calling and the sky being unlikely to yield anything new, I stayed inside. Thirty minutes into Earthsday and Q decided he'd had enough of me and my damn trials by demanding I join everyone outside. I figured it was best to not be anti-social and dejectedly put the controller down.

Saturday was our one and only LS event, it was an Odin Einherjar run. It's a bit different doing something like that with living, breathing people in the room, which was kind of cool and I wish we had done something larger (like a CoP Dyna run or something). After Einherjar we left for Baltimore to go watch the Orioles lose...ahem, play. For the most part this was a fun time, except the asshole sitting on my right (not Kaelis, he was on my left), fucking jackass kept leaning forward and blocking my view! By the 8th inning I was getting vocal about this, but even though the jerkoff was trying to lean back (I'm assuming to avoid any confrontation), he kept creeping forward until he was blocking my view again. I know the seats were kind of small, but ffs, sit your ass down like a normal human and not the fucking Hunchback of Notre Dame! You jackass!

On Sunday we had the actual BBQ, which once again I found myself doing Magian trials (now before you give me shit, please observe, Kaylea went to Dynamis). Unknowingly, being inside was probably a good thing given that everyone else came in with a sunburn. During this time inside I received a few tells about the BLMs making a mess of things, being the micromanaging asshole that I apparently am, I decided to investigate and find out what the problem was. Turns out some people had suggested they do things differently without me there, this pissed me off. It still pisses me off. Did I mention this shit pissed me off? While it essentially reinforced what I've been saying all along (i.e. BLMs multi-tasking is not the best way to go about things), it also showed that left to their own devices, people won't stick to the plan and that's what upset me the most. Simply put, I don't give a shit how it was done in the past, when it comes to playing BLM in Obsidian these days, it's my way or the motherfucking highway. For those of you who like to bitch about the way I run my ship (and should you be reading this blog), you're not in charge (and thus free of taking the blame for anything that goes wrong) and you're way has been outdated for a long fucking time now, just give it a rest already because shit ain't changing!

Monday was the last day everyone was together, and it wasn't for long as half of us were leaving at noon. Kreoss and Kaylea were flying out, while Kaelis and Erimentha were hitting the road. Because of this, I drew the short straw and had to stay behind and guard the fort (ok, I volunteered to stay), needless to say I did virtually nothing, even in FFXI all I really did was chat. By the time Qtipus and Suraph got back, I was bored out of my skull. We started the evening out watching Monday Night Raw, but that morphed into three hours of South Park Tower Defense, which was a hilariously fun game. When done, we packed our shit and got ready to depart in the morning.

Tuesday promised to be another marathon drive, but it wasn't nearly as long, myself and Qtipus covered the same amount of ground in about half the time (and actually found the Transformers we were looking for). Unfortunately we didn't cover it fast enough and I knowingly put my character in the hands of Qtipus so I wouldn't miss Einherjar. Now, needless to say, I expected things to be fucked with and they were (Q sent my gil to my mules, rearranged my furniture, changed my HP to Raboa, moved gear and items all over the place and he even found time to log into every mule and clear my inboxes forcing me to walk each mule back to the delivery box to return my main character's gil), but the thing that he managed to fuck with me the most about was actually nothing at all. You see Q made a casual reference that some of my gear had been hidden on my mules, this in turn led me to look at each of the mules, which eyeballing them yielded nothing out of place. Me being too obsessive to let this rest (and failing to recognize Q really was fucking with me), I pulled up my Altana Cubby and proceeded to run down my inventory list (which I update weekly with my inventory and what character it's on) and verify everything was where it should be. All told, I spent about three hours looking for shit that was never out of place to begin with. Thanks Q, I could have been doing Magian Trials...

At any rate, more stuff has happened since then, some of it I'm very happy about, some of it is shit only I could care about, but that's for a different day. And yeah, the title has nothing to do with this post, I just like the song.

Trial of the Magians

Those of you who know me, know that I've been actively working on the Trials since they were introduced, I seemed to be one of the early adopters of the system as it was quite clear to me I could get far better katanas than what was currently available in the game.  The BLM Staves (before the update) showed promise, but because they all had the same name I wasn't crazy about going after them.  I had a hard time understanding why folks weren't all over this (I found them exciting and couldn't wait to get things done, tedious though they were), but since the update the Odin server seems to have flocked to the Magians like bugs to lightbulbs.  Who knows why this is, and while I'm happy to see my fellow server mates getting in on the fun, the side-effect is there has been a ton of whining.  I don't plan to get into it so I'll just say this, it called the "Trial" of the Magians, not "Giveittomenowbecauseiwantit!" of the Magians, you gotta fucking work for your supper, so shut up and do it (unless BST are taking over your camp, then you have my permission to piss and moan).


Ninja Trials

While others went directly for the High Damage and Occasionally Attack Twice katanas, I personally took a different route.  You see for me, while those katanas looked like great DD weapons, I saw something altogether more amazing in the Elemental Trials.  The reason here is because NIN can equip two katanas, so anything in the Elemental paths could be doubled.  This meant NIN could get things like STR+8, Attack+24, or AGI+8, Evasion +24, without sacrificing any other gear slots.  Top that off with Kuinas are the highest DoT katanas your average player can get a hold of (they have higher DPS than either Senju or Fudo) and you got something special for Ninja.  With the update SE upped the ante by giving us Sekka, with even better stats!  The update also brought us the Empyrean Kannagi path, this path was part of the High Damage path, which means I will have to camp NMs at some point, whether I like it or not.  We also got what looks like the first stage of Weapon Skill trials, if this is indeed the first stage then there's a lot of reason to be excited here also.

Kannagi

I've come to accept I may never get a Kikoru or Nagi, however a base Kannagi is very obtainable, the only drawback here is the VNM kills, getting the abyssite (and kills) for this will require time help from other people, and I hate asking for help on things that only benefit me.  At any rate, I still plan to do this, but I'm holding off until the September update because I want to see what the Kannagi augments are, and I'm curious about the next stage of requirements.

Uzura

This is the Weapon Skill path, currently there are three initial trials with a fork after the third.  I plan to do this up to the fork (and given the simplistic requirements, these first three should only take a day or two to complete), the reason I am stopping at the fork is I will only be using one of these katanas in my DD build (the other katana will be a Sekka) and I want to see if they are going to add more weapon skills.  Currently the first fork produces a result of DPS 12.22 and Blade: Ku Damage +10%, which is kinda meh as I rarely use anything outside Jin and Kamu.  The second path has a DPS 11.94 and Store TP +8, this is the path I'll take if no other Weapon Skills are added (which is possible, the next tier may simply end with a 15% increase on Ku, which still won't beat Jin).  If we get Jin +10%, then it's entirely possible my head will explode from the excitement.

Sekka

The Elemental trials have a ton of customization to offer.  For me I'm looking at acquiring 8 of these.  Two each of Evasion, Physical Damage Down and Magic Defense Bonus for tanking and then a combo of the Attack and Accuracy for DDing, though these will likely be the last two I go after based on how the Kannagi and Uzura paths unfold.  The tanking ones are obvious winners to me, a set of -PDT will give me VIT+12 and PDT - 16%, a set of MDB will give me MND+12 and MDB+16, the Evasion set would give me AGI+12 and Evasion +32 (which is also very nice for pulling or kiting).  I feel like having those six katana will give me a ton of flexibility when tanking/pulling/kiting/soloing.  As it stands I'm on the last trial for the first -PDT katana and I'm in the middle stages of the first Evasion katana.  For Ninjas who like to tank you NEED to be getting on these trials now, otherwise you're going to have a hard time justifying yourself in endgame events as PLD is the ever increasing preference.  Further, a pair of these are better than any previous combination of katanas in pure damage alone, you have to be fucking daft to hold onto the old stuff (though I did shed a tear when I put Senju away and removed it from my macros).


Black Mage Trials

Before the update I was looking at getting only one Teiwaz (Thunder path) and just getting an HQ Ice Staff.  The reason for this wasn't because the Teiwaz weren't awesome staves, but they all had the same name which makes them impossible to macro in and out.  However, with the update SE had the good sense to give the final upgrades unique names so my interest in getting these has increased dramatically.

Hvergelmir

This is the Empyrean weapon for BLM, and if it does nothing else, it's still a beast for DD BLM (which I love to do), DMG 87 and Delay 390 for a DPS of 13.38 just blows anything previously available for DD out of the water.  Currently I have a Somnus Signa which is DMG 62 Delay 402 for a DPS of 9.25 (which was at the top of the food chain after Relic), it's nice, but I might be willing to prostitute my mom just to get my hands on Hvergelmir.  I highly doubt this is the much touted Rainbow Staff (the eight elemental staves combined into one), but I am very curious as to where SE plans to go with this in future updates.

Elemental Staves

Put simply you are now gimp without these.  Base testing has already shown they blow the current HQ Elemental Staves out of the water.  The only catch here is actually killing the mobs without getting yourself killed in the process.  BLM is not exactly the king of melee, so a certain amount of teamwork goes into finishing these, even worse is it's counterproductive to team up with other BLMs because of the kill objectives.  What I like about them, at least from a BLM perspective is you can start and stop whenever as the trial objectives are not based on the day or weather, but what elemental spell you kill the mob with.  When I initially looked at this path I chose Magic Damage +4 for all eight staves, however, it occurred to me that logic wasn't entirely practical.  I don't use light and dark magic to do damage as much as I use that magic to land DoTs or add buffs; so the sensible solution here is to get Magic Accuracy +4 for those two paths.


For me, I'm in fucking heaven doing these trials, yeah weather it's a bitch to wait on, and it's easy to get distracted, but the Trials fill in big holes with my free time much in the way Campaign does.  In other words, I'm actually accomplishing something every single day and not just staring aimlessly at the screen waiting for something to happen.  Thank you SE, and fuck off to the complainers.

Digesting the Update (BLM)

So my other main job in the game is BLM and at some point I'm bound to get it leveled to 80 (full disclosure, I was level 76 for about 18 hours, then Dynamis happened and I have done nothing but go backwards since).


Subjobs

Unlike NIN the subjobs for BLM haven't really changed, all three remain situational.

• BLM/WHM: I would suspect most people are still subbing this as it still meets the status quo. Virtually nothing has changed; you get the Altep and Yhoat teleports at 76, Stona at 78 and Haste at 80. There's nothing gamebreaking here, especially since the Afflatus Job Abilities remain WHM main only. At 80, a BLM would be using /WHM because they are a support job, if they nuking only, then one of the other two would be better options.

• BLM/RDM: There are two major changes to using RDM sub now, Raise and Convert. Raise isn't that big of a deal (personally I'd much rather have Reraise), but Convert is a big deal to a job like BLM. Before the update the big reason for subbing this was for soloing (though people would still sub it to events for the defensive additions it adds), however, Convert changes that. You essentially trade Blink for Phalanx, but you also gain another MP bar worth of nukes which is especially useful on bosses like Dynamis Lord where you do nothing but straight nuke the shit out of the mob. Coupled with Manafont a BLM can go through their entire AMII tier in one volley.

• BLM/SCH: Gamebreaker with Resist Silence II Job Trait! Kidding, like WHM, nothing has really changed here, if you were using /SCH before the update, there is no reason to change. At level 80 you get access to Accession and Manifestation, and as BLM you're probably going to get a lot more mileage out of the later. Sleep and Sleep II become AoE spells without the hate of their -ga equivalents and you can also AoE Blind, Bind and Dispel. The drawbacks here are recast times getting tripled and you can only use it once a minute, which makes Manifestation something great for those oh shit moments, but not overly helpful on a consistent basis. I know a lot of people seem hyped up about being able to sub /SCH now, but realistically it still doesn't beat out /WHM or /RDM...yet.

With the subjobs there is nothing gamebreaking about them, you have a few more options and reasons to sub all three, but at the end of the day, BLM is still the job it is because of it's native spells, traits and abilities, the other stuff is just fluff.


Abilities, Spells and Job Traits

• Stone V and Water V: The first of the Tier V spells are really only for people who insist on completing things (like me). Because of merit limitations most BLMs have put their focus on the higher elementals of Thunder and Ice, which actually allows some folks to outnuke these two spells. Obviously no one should be surprised here, what we are really waiting on probably won't be in the game until December (Ice V and Thunder V), I just wish they weren't so damned expensive to get from NPCs. People have been finding them in the Walk of Echoes and Abyssea, but that hasn't eased the prices any, though I'm sure the prices are affected equally by the newness of the spells and the (still) relative scarcity of obtaining them. They'll probably be worth 20k at best by the end of the year.

• Mana Wall: This Ability seems to be a fairly polarizing addition, some BLMs think it's the best addition in years, others are furious SE is messing with their MP pool. For me I only had a brief chance to use it in Dynamis and it did save my life once, but it put me on the sideline briefly while I got my MP back. Regardless of how you look at that, it's better than sidelining me for five minutes from Death weakness. I think for events like Dynamis, this is something I will want up all the time, but for other stuff like Einherjar, it won't be that useful (since most mobs there require light sleep, BLMs either stun or nuke).

• Magic Burst Bonus: This would be great about five years ago when the game was centered around Skillchaining and Magic Bursting, but in the post Two-Hand Update world, Zerg is King. There are times when MBing is still used, in Obsidian we try to MB on Sky Gods, though with the additional levels we should be able to spank the shit out of those mobs anyway, so it's not like MBing is going to give us much of an edge. I'm not sure if the early testing has been confirmed but the increase here was only marginal going from a 33% increase to a 50% increase. To make that an example, say you land a nuke that does 1,000 base damage on a mob, before you would get an MB in the neighborhood of 1,333, now that MB is 1,500 damage. It's a nice increase, but nothing that blows one's mind either.

At the end of the day, BLM didn't get anything amazing, there are some nice side additions to what the job could already do, but if they were taken away tomorrow, I doubt many people would care.

I think my next update will focus on the Magian Trials as that's been my primary interest in game since the update.

Digesting the Update (NIN)

So what did the update do for NIN? Well, on the surface not much changed at all, but dig a little deeper and one finds things have changed a lot.


Subjobs

One of the biggest shifts are the tanking subjobs, with many of the common hate generating spells being nerfed this changes how a NIN has to approach tanking. The familiar subjobs are still there and they are still viable, but a new one has been added and it will eventually jump to the front of the pack.

Tanking

• NIN/WAR: This sub will always be the preferred sub for leveling or meriting since it's easy enough to manage and more often than not you're only there for first voke anyway. The other subjob choices require MP and expecting refresh and ballad will do nothing but gimp your entire party (and piss off your refreshers). Additionally /WAR is the best choice for Tank/DD hybrids which are ideal in the above parties.

• NIN/DRK: While not totally nerfed by SE with the adjustments to Bind and Sleep, NINs will have to take more time to lock hate in with /DRK. Stun and Aspir were not affected so they still have their CE enmity, and after the next update Absorb-TP will also be in this group so this still remains a good option for NIN. In addition to the CE spells, NIN will still have the high VE job abilities Last Resort, Weapon Bash and Souleater for those oh shit moments.

• NIN/RDM: Sub RDM was never the popular choice, and it looks like it will be regulated to soloing and small groups even more so now. There are no instant CE spells here anymore, but literally any spell you cast will generate VE so it isn't totally dead, the difference is you have to constantly keep up the casting. I was really hoping this would move ahead of /DRK with the update because it offers a lot more self defense, but this is the hand we've been dealt so people just need to learn to deal with it.

• NIN/BLU: The new kid on the block and the one I think will eventually move to the front of the pack. The reason BLU becomes an option is because in this update is the ability to cast Blank Gaze is gained at Level 76. It has a 10 second recast and pulls 320 CE, which is equivalent to what Dispel used to be able to do. It doesn't stop there, Sheep Song and Soporific are also available right now and they both generate 320 CE. This update isn't moving it to the front of the pack just yet, but by the December update that will all change. In addition to the above spells, MP Drainkiss (Level 82), Stinking Gas (Level 88), Geist Wall (Level 92) and Jettatura (Level 96) will all be available, making this a very powerful subjob for anyone tanking, not just NIN.

DDing

• NIN/WAR: As I stated above, /WAR is a great DD subjob, with the Double Attack job trait, a hasted NIN can almost appear to be constantly hitting the mob and over time that damage will move ahead of any frontline DD except a Black Belt MNK.

• NIN/SAM: The real game changer here is Sekkanoki, before this was a niche subjob that most would use when they needed TP without hitting the mob (this meant using Meditate). The problem with using /SAM is you need to be using a Great Katana to get to Hasso and that just kills a NIN's potential for straight DDing (not to mention, Weaponskills on Great Katana suck ass for NIN).

• NIN/RDM: I'm still using this in Campaign, for mobs that take time you just can't beat having Enspells. As a DD subjob though, /RDM still has a few updates before we see it's full potential, it won't be a top choice obviously, but depending on the situation it has the potential to be a great DD subjob.

• NIN/THF: As of this update /THF doesn't offer anything it didn't at 37 (unless you want to be picky and claim Resist Gravity II). But let's face it, this is a farming subjob, you could possibly tank with it, but it's not advised and DDing with it in a party is just asinine. The good news is the September update will give everyone access to TH2 at Level 90, so there is that.

• NIN/RNG: This isn't something you see often, but there are some benefits, in particular Sidewinder (if you have the Ranged Accuracy that is). Wide Scan IV becomes available at 80 as well as Shadowbind so if you're hunting NMs solo or in a small group, this is a highly useful subjob choice.

• NIN/DNC: It's obvious SE wants every job in the game to start subbing DNC, but you know what? I don't give a fuck how awesome it is, I refuse to dance. I'm not a fucking monkey.

• NIN/BLU: Like tanking with BLU, before the update this wasn't the best of choices, but with the new magical direction SE seems to be pushing on NIN, it's time to take a look at this and possibly get some use out of it. I don't think I need to go into any great detail here, but there are some very nice offensive spells, coupled with the curing and enhancing spells, I think BLU will make a fine choice as a DD (assuming you have Refresh).

Overall the status quo hasn't changed much, but under the surface the currents are moving and the next two updates will going to require us to rethink our approach to playing NIN. This is still my favorite job and I don't see that changing, but NIN may have to fight for its survival as it moves into RDM territory where it's good at a lot of things, but great at nothing.


Abilities, Spells, and Job Traits

Sometimes it's hard to guess just what the hell SE expects NIN to do in the game. Recently they finally admitted to looking at NIN as a viable tank option in the game and we started seeing enmity+ gear, so most NINs were expecting that trend to continue. It didn't…or at least not in a way that's obvious to anyone but the developers.

• Tactical Parry: Of the new things available to NIN, this is the only one where we have to be tanking to get use out of it. My Parry skill is still shit (like 195 or something) so this isn't something that triggers that often for me, but I can see where this is will be something very useful. Basically you get 2% TP for each time Parry triggers, even triggering once this removes an attack round for Weaponskills (at least for me, I see 98% and 99% quite often).

• Magic Burst Bonus: Huh? Granted, we've always been able to MB on mobs, but I'd be surprised is most NINs have any idea when to start casting and to be quite honest, elemental nukes aren't going to return big numbers regardless of whether we MB or not. The only way this works is if…

• Futae: …we use this Job Ability beforehand in conjunction with a San nuke and Innin. This means we could very well approach Tier IV nuke numbers, but only once a minute. There are just too many things have to be lined up just right to see the big numbers though, and neither help any with tanking, it's strictly DD stuff.

• Aisha (Ichi): Instead of getting our Ni tier finished off, SE decided to give us a new spell that is like Bio, but without the DoT (Attack Down). How this helps NIN in anyway is beyond me. As tanks we are supposed to avoid getting hit to begin with as DD this will only benefit whomever is tanking and that will most likely be a PLD who didn't exactly need the help to begin with. Had this been a Defense Down spell then I would have been all over it, the benefit there is obvious, but this one just has me scratching my head. I just don't get it.

NIN didn't really benefit from this update, which I guess is okay with me as other jobs did (though I feel they went overboard with DNC), and NIN did get a boost when they added Yonin/Innin awhile back, so it's not like SE is completely ignoring the job (a la BLM). Maybe in the next update we'll get a clearer vision of what SE has in mind with these additions, but right now I'm just not seeing it.

Next up will be BLM and then hopefully Gear (I'm waiting to go over the gear until people start obtaining it, no point getting excited about stuff that may be near impossible to get).