| DRK | PLD | SAM | WAR | RDM |
| 
| 
| 
| 
|
| 75 | 75 | 75 | 75 | 75 |
| DRG | ||||
 | ||||
| 75 |
This entry warps up the first month of blogging I did. I wanted to condense it into one post so I could use the earlier entries as web pages that I could link to within the blog and write about other stuff.
03 01 08
Dawn Comes Again...
I've always enjoyed reading about people's experiences in Final Fantasy XI and the kinds of fun that are had in this vast online world. I guess now with my FFXI career kickin' again on full steam, it'd be nice to keep an account of the experiences I've had and will look forward to in the world of Vana'diel and having fun with friends in my first and only end-game/social FFXI linkshell Dawn.
It's been a little over a year since I came back and I've already accomplished so many goals I didn't even think I should be setting for myself so soon! It was a lil ironic when I acquired this character that I'm currently in posssesion of. It was like I came back exactly where I had left off.
A good friend of mine and an old player by the name of Ominub had his Dark Knight equipped basically the same way I left mine at, three and a half years ago. The screen to the right was actually taken when I first came back and had Omi's name changed to my original nick. Only big difference was there wasn't a second lv.75 job (I had DRK and WAR both 75 before leaving) and his Galka model... is... just not attractive. That's what .DAT swaps are for though! My old avatar was the brown spikey hair look, but now I'm sportin' a much more sophisticated slick-back 'do.
I guess being amongst the first NA players to accomplish distinguished feats on Phoenix server (Nidhogg slaying, Kirin captivating, etc.) brought on a humdrum sense of the game that I wasn't prepared for. Sure, it was an exciting time and Dawn LS, one of the first organized end-game/HNM NA linkshells on Phoenix, was held in high esteem by the community, but having "conquered" these far-reaching goals so early brought a stale taste to my FFXI experience. Not long after Dawn's dominance in the end-game scene started to peak, I up and left the game, selling my character for an undisclosed sum of money. :( Everyone knows money can't buy happiness though! Few months after having come up on the cash and spending it all, I really regretted letting go of all the work I put in and missed the FFXI gameplay as well.
Being my first true MMO (Phantasy Star Online was just kinda like getting my feet wet.. [edit: Cyba says this is not an MMO, oh well]), I really didn't know what to expect and the continuous rewarding experience of gameplay was not something I was familiar with. This time around I've really been getting the most out of the FFXI experience (enjoying it while I still can!) and, not only having re-united with my old cronies, have developed tight bonds with awesome people I would otherwise never have the oppurtunity to meet! This time around I'll be hangin out in Vana'diel so long as there's fun to be had and friends to enjoy it with! o_o-b
03 05 08
From a Reaper of Death spawns a Holy Knight of Guardian
This past year during my second stint with FFXI I can say I've accomplished quite a lot and am pretty happy with what the game has had to offer me thus far. I was able to catch my Warrior back up to 75 (my original character had achieved WAR75 shortly before I stoppped playing) and with both DRK and WAR under my belt again, I set out to fill up merits on WAR completely, mainly to have a strong job for optimal merit party setups.
I then turned my attention toward a goal I had last left off with three years ago: leveling a mage job! I had left my old character in the early lv.20's of Black Mage, but this time around I had my eye set on being an RDM. I wanted to experience a different aspect of gameplay and diving head-first into the world of RDM certainly broadened my view on the FFXI gameplay and made me appreciate it that much more. After achieving a strong RDM and honing on my always-developing skills on the job, I took a step back to my roots and took on another DD: Samurai.
SAM was always an appealing job to me, I had always loved filling the front-line, heavy-duty damage dealer role in whatever I play, and DRK and SAM are amongst the top tier of 'em. SAM was definitely the funnest I had in FFXI in a long while. And now, having taken my DRK, WAR, RDM, SAM to an incredible level of personal achievement, I move on to a new aspect of FFXI gameplay that recently has caught my attention: Paladin!
The vital role in end-game events of tanking and being a life-line in any given situation was what really attracted me to the job. Initially I had debated on whether I should become a Ninja or a Paladin, but having recently acquired some very useful tanking equipment that was also optimal DRK gear, I leaned toward PLD (I think obtaining a Shadow Mantle was what solidified my decision, thanks DB! Though I don't know how much usage this item will see in the new age of PLD/non-WAR tanking, it is still an invaluable asset to a tank's arsenal!)
The transition from a melee-class pure DD (DRK, WAR, SAM) to a tank was a lot of fun. As a heavilly-equipped DD, I often found myself on the receiving end of some nasty damage intake, and have found ways to mitigate this and keep myself alive. Being an RDM and accumalating enmity from foes through the form of healing and enfeebling has also taught me much about hate-management. Applying all this to the real-deal front-line tank job has proven to be a learning experience. I'm having a grip o'fun lvling PLD, even if it seems I am zipping through the grind. I only have some great friends to thank for this, as the set party that Trixter, Cybaster, Kanaye (West), and late-arrival Teorem, have established washes away all of the nasty n00b PT tastes of the level grind. We are reaching the final stretch and I can't wait to take my PLD out to the fields to sacrifice my own blood, sweat, and tears for the good of the linkshell!
Anyway, enough boring stuff! Onto some things I've been up to! Last week proved to be pretty productive for the linkshell. Though the week started off with a rare Dawn loss vs. Proto-Ultima, this did not slow down our progress at all. We paid a visit to the Garden of Ru'Hmet for some long-awaited sea-farming again. Even with a slow start (due to heavy occupying within the area), we ended the night with a couple of victories versus the DRG Ix'aern and the Jailer of Fortitude. No cape/torque drops though, this is Dawn after all (still in awe at 2 Justice Torques dropping in our last 2 JoJ's).
I was able to get a couple of First Lieutenant Assaults to cache some points in toward Salvage runs. These big reward Assaults help tremendously as it has proven difficult to keep up points for 3x Salvage permits while doing 4 Nyzul Isle Assault runs per week. My AP reserve will soon dry out and I will need to figure a better way to keep myself in the Salvage game while finishing up Nyzul Isle Assault farming.
Saturday was a very good day! After a couple of failed battles versus Long-Armed Chariot in the past few runs, we were able to tweek our kiting-from-room-to-room strategy and people have adapted well when LAC starts Brainjacking. I was ecstatic to receive the second piece of my Usukane Sune-Ate, making me 2/3 and getting the hardest components out of the way already! All that awaits is a simple run to the fourth floor Porrogo Madame within the Zhayolm Remnants to complete my first piece of Salvage armor! I'm pretty grateful to Dawn in helping me accomplish such tremendous goals in such a short period of time.
My first piece toward Usukane!
Later on this Saturday, our two Salvaging teams regrouped with the rest of Dawn at Rivern Site #B01, where the Wyrmking was scheduled to Descend. We came back with a vengeance after suffering some unnecessary bloodshed last month, and were rewarded appropriately enough with two Bahamut's Masks! Congrats bossman Jay and nublet Ice!
Dawn versus the Wyrmking at Dusk
The week was topped off with me winning a nice pair of Valor Gauntlets that went completely free lot in Dynamis - San d'Oria. These gloves offer a little HP and the same enmity as Homam Manopolas. The Askar Manopolas offer even more enmity, a whopping +4, but at the cost of HP. At any rate, I do hope our luck in Nyzul Isle Assault picks up... Our Sunday night Nyzul Assault group finished early because Dynamis was cleared pretty quick. A Cerberus, two Khimairas and a Hydra later, we end another week with zero boss drops from Nyzul Isle. West organized a U/O fight for Ayden and I tagged along before heading off to bed. This fight's always fun and it felt good getting revenge on that bitch Ultima after she screwed us over earlier in the week in Temenos.
I then turned my attention toward a goal I had last left off with three years ago: leveling a mage job! I had left my old character in the early lv.20's of Black Mage, but this time around I had my eye set on being an RDM. I wanted to experience a different aspect of gameplay and diving head-first into the world of RDM certainly broadened my view on the FFXI gameplay and made me appreciate it that much more. After achieving a strong RDM and honing on my always-developing skills on the job, I took a step back to my roots and took on another DD: Samurai.
SAM was always an appealing job to me, I had always loved filling the front-line, heavy-duty damage dealer role in whatever I play, and DRK and SAM are amongst the top tier of 'em. SAM was definitely the funnest I had in FFXI in a long while. And now, having taken my DRK, WAR, RDM, SAM to an incredible level of personal achievement, I move on to a new aspect of FFXI gameplay that recently has caught my attention: Paladin!
The vital role in end-game events of tanking and being a life-line in any given situation was what really attracted me to the job. Initially I had debated on whether I should become a Ninja or a Paladin, but having recently acquired some very useful tanking equipment that was also optimal DRK gear, I leaned toward PLD (I think obtaining a Shadow Mantle was what solidified my decision, thanks DB! Though I don't know how much usage this item will see in the new age of PLD/non-WAR tanking, it is still an invaluable asset to a tank's arsenal!)
The transition from a melee-class pure DD (DRK, WAR, SAM) to a tank was a lot of fun. As a heavilly-equipped DD, I often found myself on the receiving end of some nasty damage intake, and have found ways to mitigate this and keep myself alive. Being an RDM and accumalating enmity from foes through the form of healing and enfeebling has also taught me much about hate-management. Applying all this to the real-deal front-line tank job has proven to be a learning experience. I'm having a grip o'fun lvling PLD, even if it seems I am zipping through the grind. I only have some great friends to thank for this, as the set party that Trixter, Cybaster, Kanaye (West), and late-arrival Teorem, have established washes away all of the nasty n00b PT tastes of the level grind. We are reaching the final stretch and I can't wait to take my PLD out to the fields to sacrifice my own blood, sweat, and tears for the good of the linkshell!Anyway, enough boring stuff! Onto some things I've been up to! Last week proved to be pretty productive for the linkshell. Though the week started off with a rare Dawn loss vs. Proto-Ultima, this did not slow down our progress at all. We paid a visit to the Garden of Ru'Hmet for some long-awaited sea-farming again. Even with a slow start (due to heavy occupying within the area), we ended the night with a couple of victories versus the DRG Ix'aern and the Jailer of Fortitude. No cape/torque drops though, this is Dawn after all (still in awe at 2 Justice Torques dropping in our last 2 JoJ's).
I was able to get a couple of First Lieutenant Assaults to cache some points in toward Salvage runs. These big reward Assaults help tremendously as it has proven difficult to keep up points for 3x Salvage permits while doing 4 Nyzul Isle Assault runs per week. My AP reserve will soon dry out and I will need to figure a better way to keep myself in the Salvage game while finishing up Nyzul Isle Assault farming.
Saturday was a very good day! After a couple of failed battles versus Long-Armed Chariot in the past few runs, we were able to tweek our kiting-from-room-to-room strategy and people have adapted well when LAC starts Brainjacking. I was ecstatic to receive the second piece of my Usukane Sune-Ate, making me 2/3 and getting the hardest components out of the way already! All that awaits is a simple run to the fourth floor Porrogo Madame within the Zhayolm Remnants to complete my first piece of Salvage armor! I'm pretty grateful to Dawn in helping me accomplish such tremendous goals in such a short period of time.
My first piece toward Usukane!
Later on this Saturday, our two Salvaging teams regrouped with the rest of Dawn at Rivern Site #B01, where the Wyrmking was scheduled to Descend. We came back with a vengeance after suffering some unnecessary bloodshed last month, and were rewarded appropriately enough with two Bahamut's Masks! Congrats bossman Jay and nublet Ice!
The week was topped off with me winning a nice pair of Valor Gauntlets that went completely free lot in Dynamis - San d'Oria. These gloves offer a little HP and the same enmity as Homam Manopolas. The Askar Manopolas offer even more enmity, a whopping +4, but at the cost of HP. At any rate, I do hope our luck in Nyzul Isle Assault picks up... Our Sunday night Nyzul Assault group finished early because Dynamis was cleared pretty quick. A Cerberus, two Khimairas and a Hydra later, we end another week with zero boss drops from Nyzul Isle. West organized a U/O fight for Ayden and I tagged along before heading off to bed. This fight's always fun and it felt good getting revenge on that bitch Ultima after she screwed us over earlier in the week in Temenos.03 06 08
ZOMG PLD UPDATES!
No, not job updates SE promised us last November that are supposed to be implemented around this time (I'm hearing March 11 for the long-awaited update), though not a glimmer of light has been shed on these job additions promises. This is just a quick update on my turbo-speed PLD grinding. Granted it isn't leveling as fast as my SAM did back in November, with a super-broken, buff-ass Soboro Sukehiro, a dual boxxed PL at my side and pet camps galore till 70 when I rode along a couple LS 23k/hr meripo's, but I'm happy with the rate we are going.
Got the last little bit to hit lv.67 on Monday and am pretty close to another ding. Started a lil late due to my evening classes on Monday, though Cybaster's all the way in Singapore now which doesn't always work out for all of us. Trix had already gone to bed as well and was grumpy having to wake back up at 3 AM, so we didn't grind as long as we normally have been since it was pretty late. Probably will be taking a lil break come this weekend too since some of the guys will be outta town.
A new week in Dawn events resumed Tuesday, just clearing 1 Temenos zone this Limbus day. Another successful Silver Sea Remnants run. Even though Hammerblow Majanun was greedy with the goods, Long-Armed Chariot yielded us two lv.35 Skadi Cuirie body pieces! The Zhayolm team didn't have as much luck farming Poroggos over there.
ze Long-Armed Chariot dorps!
I had to miss out on Wednesday's Dynamis - Beaucedine cuz of some homework/studying for tomorrow's exam which I had been putting off all week. I didn't even get anything done during the time Dynamis was goin on!! My procrastinating has gotten pretty worse lately. Well i underestimated the work needed to be done and got it outta the way pretty quick. I missed out on 3 potential pieces that dropped tonight; Dueslist's Tabard which is my main prerference lot, an Abyss Cuirass which I could have free-lotted along with a free-lot Saotome Domaruuuuu! The DRK relic was the only piece I need to store the set ;_; Even have a new Flanchard after upgrading Abyss Flanchard +1. What luck..
Got the last little bit to hit lv.67 on Monday and am pretty close to another ding. Started a lil late due to my evening classes on Monday, though Cybaster's all the way in Singapore now which doesn't always work out for all of us. Trix had already gone to bed as well and was grumpy having to wake back up at 3 AM, so we didn't grind as long as we normally have been since it was pretty late. Probably will be taking a lil break come this weekend too since some of the guys will be outta town.
you can see the 3 box'd characters PLing us for 13k exp/hr :D
A new week in Dawn events resumed Tuesday, just clearing 1 Temenos zone this Limbus day. Another successful Silver Sea Remnants run. Even though Hammerblow Majanun was greedy with the goods, Long-Armed Chariot yielded us two lv.35 Skadi Cuirie body pieces! The Zhayolm team didn't have as much luck farming Poroggos over there.
ze Long-Armed Chariot dorps!
I had to miss out on Wednesday's Dynamis - Beaucedine cuz of some homework/studying for tomorrow's exam which I had been putting off all week. I didn't even get anything done during the time Dynamis was goin on!! My procrastinating has gotten pretty worse lately. Well i underestimated the work needed to be done and got it outta the way pretty quick. I missed out on 3 potential pieces that dropped tonight; Dueslist's Tabard which is my main prerference lot, an Abyss Cuirass which I could have free-lotted along with a free-lot Saotome Domaruuuuu! The DRK relic was the only piece I need to store the set ;_; Even have a new Flanchard after upgrading Abyss Flanchard +1. What luck..
03 09 08
There Will be Blood!
Blood Weapon! HA! (Okay that was lame.) One of the last fully-buffed Rune Chopper zergs in history (just before the nerf)! I'll get to that later. Anyway, another entry, another blur of adventures dart by. Wrapped up the week foraging through the Silver Sea Remnants again. It's all I've seen beneath the Alzadaal Undersea Ruins for the past couple of weeks. Not as much success with Long-Armed Chariot these past couple of runs. Friday's expedition left us exhausting too much time clearing up to the Gyroscopic Gears, which not surprisingly doesn't drop Deimos's Cuisses. LAC remained intact with 30% HP left before we exited.
After another LAC disappointment today (this time due to bad kiting+unnecessary deaths), we made our way to Bahamut's lair in the sky for the second week in a row. More incredible luck for us as we score two more Bahamut's Mask (congratulations Trix and Garaku!), and a pair of his Hose. Too bad those pants couldn't be a Zaghnal instead. Rune Chopper DRK zerg really shines in this fight, seeing as how the duration of the battle is less than 30 seconds. Desperate Blows is godly! Needless to say, the king of dragons fell within 25 seconds of facing Dawn!
i normally filter missed hits by party and alliance, though my own accuracy is always left unfiltered
Made a triumphant return to the Campaign battlegrounds. With my Holyknight Emblem dwindling down to the end of the 30-day period, I figured I should put in some over-due work to get up to date for the next ranks that should be implemented Monday.
I had forgotten how fun these battles could get. The new Campaign tweaks sound pretty interesting, and hopefully will provide for more of a challenge for the campaigning nations to hold control over territories. Can't wait for that! Should add a little more depth to Campaign, which I've grown a little bored of after campaigning a whole month straight.
The night started off as I ventured out seeking 1500 xp I lost (I forget doing what) on DRK. After a couple of battles and capping DRK, I took out my SAM/NIN for some much needed xp after my parrying skill-up escapades left me in an xp drought. Deswolf found me fending off the hordes of Beastmen by my lonesome, and decided to join me for a little NIN/DNC fun. Turned out to be an awesome night, him and I going gung ho every battle versus the commanding Beastmen NMs alone! We were able to make for some truly epic fights against these fierce fighters. Normally I would stick to pulling mobs off to the side to solo for some easy xp, but with Deswolf tanking most of the time and his fancy healing, duoing the NMs made for a much funner time in Campaign. After a few battles our objective shifted from xp to finding and destroying the NM commanders of each advancing wave, while other cowardly adventurers were occupied with the footsoldiers.
De'Vyu Headhunter
Bo'Dho Hundredfist
Muu Buxu the Elusive
Kazan the Peerless
The long night of fighting was finally over. The warriors defending the lands against the hordes of invading beastmen have emerged victorious! After being 12,000 xp away from cap on SAM I went home with my full 44,999 xp buffer again. After a few weeks away from Campaign, jumping right back into the action was a blast. When I have places to allocate my merits again once my PLD is 75, I'll be spending a lot more time on the battle fields again.
03 15 08
The Long-awaited...
The Long-awaited...
Brawl!!! Since Super Smash Bros. Brawl came out, haven't found time to update this week. Well, lotta my FFXI time has been impaired too. Usually am quick to make most of big updates, but now I'm finding myself back-logged with quests!! Hehe,.. though this is good as it'll keep the update stretching out for me a bit more. Everyone's been waiting for this update so let's hope it's worth something. My PLD grinding has also come to a sudden halt, though tonight we vowed to xp Friday night and Cybaster will not drag me on to Brawl with him.
So I've gotten a lil better at Brawl too (add me and leave a comment with your FC! ~mine is 3308 4239 7806), even though I've only done the first hour of Subspace (the campaign mode of Brawl) and only gotten to Ness' playground level, I'm spending a lot of time kicking Cyb's ass with Ike online. Tonight's marathon mostly consisted of this:
Anyway, my adventures in Vana'diel have recently found me on the almighty threshhold of Samurai perfection!!!(!!!~Sorry I dun wanna come off as arrogant, I'm just so damn amped bout this!); this week we've finally arranged a Zhayolm Remnants run and I was able to nab the lv.15 Salvage piece "Hoshikazu Kyahan!" Yes, being a n00bie to Salvage with only about 3-4 months under my belt, I lucked out majorly and scored a Hikazu Sune-Ate and shortly thereafter a Tsukikazu Sune-Ate from Long-Armched Chariot, within a few weeks of each other. But with Konigwolf's leadership in Salvage I knew as an LS we'd be successful in a short time. With a completed Usukane Sune-Ate, my SAM's 6-hit / haste build is almost complete!
The only thing that eludes me at the moment is a stinkin' Byakko's Haidate from that cheap ass stingy tiger! The last couple Byakko's have been very stingy with the pantsu drops and before that, the sky run prior, I had come up empty in some strange twist as well. Anyway, this piece isn't that far away; at any rate hopefully I can net me a Barbarossa's Zerehs while we are desperately trying to attain more Gem of the Wests! Today's foray back into sky granted us a just a Gem of the East. Took a while for Steam Cleaner to pop too, which is why I guess people were tired after a failed Despot camp after SC (wish they'd just make Despot a pop-NM as well..) to keep farming in sky. Seems a lot of LS members are wanting new sky gear for new jobs,etc. but only a fraction are willing to dedicate some bonus farming time outside of our normally scheduled sky farming times (which is like once a month). Hopefully Phoenixblade and I can get the ball rolling on this effort starting Saturday morning, though I doubt we'll be able to avoid the sky-farming rush-hour even at this time.
Bohgo also finally purchased and registered his WotG expansion today. Finally, I'll have a way to re-buffer his BRD/WHM/etc. xp after getting him killed on my dual-boxxing adventures!! Took him through the San d'Oria (S) path (coz, you know.. all the cool people are in Sandy (S)!), he seems to dislike the whole campaign thing a lot. :p He'll get around to enjoying it eventually, like most of the other expansion newbies. We spent a good 1.5-2 hours getting from his initial Sauromugue Champaign (S) drop-off, to the Rolanberry Fields maw, then back to Garlaige (S), where we picked him up a Red Letter and a Vunkerl map, all the way to South San d'Oria (S) where he got his first taste of Campaign Battle! Took a lil detour to turn in a Gnole Claw for "Better Part of Valor" Bastok (S) quest and also started Recall-Pash quest in Garlaige (S) as well.
So I mentioned earlier I'm trying to find some Barbarossa's Zerehs. Since a good buddy of mine Andhalas has an Ashu Talif static who spam all 3 fights in the quest-line twice(!) a week, I got myself in since all 6 members have these pants already. Even if my long-awaited Byakko's Haidate is just around the corner for me, these Zerehs will be a nice addition to my arsenel, especially once I have DRG at 75 (which I'm planning to do some time this year)~ at least for a WS piece. I had to go through the second Ashu Talif fight before I could get into the third one, which drops the leggings. "Royal Painter Escort" was such a pushover, as three of us SAMs barged in to find the boss and zerged it within less than a minute (where has all the strategizing gone in this game Q_Q). Not sure exactly what it was but the seemingly simple "Targeting the Captain " tier3 Ashu Talif fight ended with Kiljaeden and me kissing the wooden deck. Nevertheless the final fight in the quest-line was won, unfortunately no Zerehs were to be found. Maybe next week!! Was fun and satisfying to finish this quest-line anyway! Thanks Kent, Kil, Seal, Elva, Kall and Ice!
So I've gotten a lil better at Brawl too (add me and leave a comment with your FC! ~mine is 3308 4239 7806), even though I've only done the first hour of Subspace (the campaign mode of Brawl) and only gotten to Ness' playground level, I'm spending a lot of time kicking Cyb's ass with Ike online. Tonight's marathon mostly consisted of this:
Excuses detected Martin, I owned your ass with Ike tonight! ...Teo's next!
Anyway, my adventures in Vana'diel have recently found me on the almighty threshhold of Samurai perfection!!!(!!!~Sorry I dun wanna come off as arrogant, I'm just so damn amped bout this!); this week we've finally arranged a Zhayolm Remnants run and I was able to nab the lv.15 Salvage piece "Hoshikazu Kyahan!" Yes, being a n00bie to Salvage with only about 3-4 months under my belt, I lucked out majorly and scored a Hikazu Sune-Ate and shortly thereafter a Tsukikazu Sune-Ate from Long-Armched Chariot, within a few weeks of each other. But with Konigwolf's leadership in Salvage I knew as an LS we'd be successful in a short time. With a completed Usukane Sune-Ate, my SAM's 6-hit / haste build is almost complete!
The only thing that eludes me at the moment is a stinkin' Byakko's Haidate from that cheap ass stingy tiger! The last couple Byakko's have been very stingy with the pantsu drops and before that, the sky run prior, I had come up empty in some strange twist as well. Anyway, this piece isn't that far away; at any rate hopefully I can net me a Barbarossa's Zerehs while we are desperately trying to attain more Gem of the Wests! Today's foray back into sky granted us a just a Gem of the East. Took a while for Steam Cleaner to pop too, which is why I guess people were tired after a failed Despot camp after SC (wish they'd just make Despot a pop-NM as well..) to keep farming in sky. Seems a lot of LS members are wanting new sky gear for new jobs,etc. but only a fraction are willing to dedicate some bonus farming time outside of our normally scheduled sky farming times (which is like once a month). Hopefully Phoenixblade and I can get the ball rolling on this effort starting Saturday morning, though I doubt we'll be able to avoid the sky-farming rush-hour even at this time.
Bohgo also finally purchased and registered his WotG expansion today. Finally, I'll have a way to re-buffer his BRD/WHM/etc. xp after getting him killed on my dual-boxxing adventures!! Took him through the San d'Oria (S) path (coz, you know.. all the cool people are in Sandy (S)!), he seems to dislike the whole campaign thing a lot. :p He'll get around to enjoying it eventually, like most of the other expansion newbies. We spent a good 1.5-2 hours getting from his initial Sauromugue Champaign (S) drop-off, to the Rolanberry Fields maw, then back to Garlaige (S), where we picked him up a Red Letter and a Vunkerl map, all the way to South San d'Oria (S) where he got his first taste of Campaign Battle! Took a lil detour to turn in a Gnole Claw for "Better Part of Valor" Bastok (S) quest and also started Recall-Pash quest in Garlaige (S) as well.So I mentioned earlier I'm trying to find some Barbarossa's Zerehs. Since a good buddy of mine Andhalas has an Ashu Talif static who spam all 3 fights in the quest-line twice(!) a week, I got myself in since all 6 members have these pants already. Even if my long-awaited Byakko's Haidate is just around the corner for me, these Zerehs will be a nice addition to my arsenel, especially once I have DRG at 75 (which I'm planning to do some time this year)~ at least for a WS piece. I had to go through the second Ashu Talif fight before I could get into the third one, which drops the leggings. "Royal Painter Escort" was such a pushover, as three of us SAMs barged in to find the boss and zerged it within less than a minute (where has all the strategizing gone in this game Q_Q). Not sure exactly what it was but the seemingly simple "Targeting the Captain " tier3 Ashu Talif fight ended with Kiljaeden and me kissing the wooden deck. Nevertheless the final fight in the quest-line was won, unfortunately no Zerehs were to be found. Maybe next week!! Was fun and satisfying to finish this quest-line anyway! Thanks Kent, Kil, Seal, Elva, Kall and Ice!
03 09 08
The fun don't stop!
The fun don't stop!
Finally getting around to enjoying some of the new content now that I've got the initial Brawl onslaught out of the way. Seems everyone's goin ape-shit over SCH after the update, which is nice. The job sounds like it has a lotta potential, and heck it even sounds good to me. Though I probably would just level it to see my Galka looking highly-edumacated. Really like the AF introduced in this update. Each new job's AF really captures the sense of the expansion it portrays, I only wish there were one or two new jobs added with WotG. The cutscenes in the quests are pretty spectacular too, but now we're left high and dry with the story line cutting short abpruptly as we wait for yet another update. If only SE released WotG with at least a little more significant amount of content in terms of storyline and quests/missions..
This weekend the LS got around to doing some more Ouryu runs, with two outside-LS Monarch Orb purchases and Andhalas's orb. We're improving a bit every time we go in versus the dirty brown dragon. The last run of the night with only 15 members we got a 27 minute clear, which isn't too bad considering our low fire-power.
<~ I absolutely love fighting CoP Wyrms. These grand beasts really bring about a sense of magesty when these marvelous dragons soar in the air like that. I can't wait until my PLD is good enough to pitch against these monsters!
Before Ouryus we had a run-in with Battleclad Chariot in Zhayolm Remnants... and DORPZ!! Congrats to Valintin for finishing his Usukane Somen! And Konig's new Tsukikazu Jinpachi (lv.25 Usukane body)! Now if only we could pull Citadel Chelonian..
And yay for finally xping again! First time camping in Mamook versus spiders and it didn't start off too hot. Link on top of link didn't work out too well. Also, overcamping (or is it under?) these hard-hitting spiders meant ugly Sickle Slashes. Poor Teo can attest to that, I think he died three times before switching to THF sub for his MNK. This worked out quite well especially with the brilliant RNG that loves to open fights with Sidewinders. Used an Empress Band before starting and picked up an Emperor Band, in hopes of catching up to West but with him dying a couple times himself during the party I guess that makes me the highest in our static now. This camp was pretty fun once we found the right spot to stay at and exp was starting to roll in; just a lil over 10k till some Joy-toy goodness now!
Ended Monday night with some stress-relieving exercises for Teo after his unfortunate mishaps being on the receiving end of some fatal Sickle Slashes. Didn't keep score but I think I had the upper hand for the most part with Ike vs. his Samus, though I guess it's when he switched to Ness and I was feeling sleepy that I started to slip and lose more.
03 27 08
Goodbye Opera... Hello Blogger!
My short-lived blog on my.opera.com now finds new life on Blogspot, which I find a lot more attractive and easier to use. Dunno why I didn't just start it here to begin with. Recap since last post:
Story...
Getting around to doing more of the quests to see the story unfold in Wings of the Goddess. So far the cutscenes from the Windurst quest line have been my favorite. Surprisingly, the Windurst sequences have provided the most action of the three quest lines. I guess this is apparant in the war-torn environment in and around Windurst Waters (S). Also, having young Romaa Mihgo prancing around in her prime still doesn't hurt either <3
Windurst under siege!
We are also finally introduced to a Manthra! I thought it was just another Mithra upon first inspection, but he is referred to as just that: "he." I guess it's just the cliche Square feminine-male hero character (though I'm not sure he's such a hero, kinda has some villanous undertones). Seems Windurst is in desperate need of some assistance during these times and (as in the screenshot in my last journal entry depicts) summons the Elvaan nation of San d'Oria to back them up.
Windurst isn't the only nation seeing a dark age fall upon it either. Trouble's-a-brewin over in Bastok as political assassinations are taking place. The Bastokan story-line has less of a militaristic battlefield vibe goin on and more of a mystery-driven story. Struggle for political power in the nation,back-stabbing, secrets, deception: it's all present in this well-written story. It's quite the tale of mystery and intrigue.
Probably the least enjoyable quest line so far is the San d'Orian one. It's more of a light-hearted story-telling mode, I guess due to the Young Griffons involvement in its story so far. Windurst and Bastok have us exploring unknown territories, exploring the abyss even. Each story line ends with an NM fight, Windurst and Bastok's fights take place in a new instanced BC-style zone, versus numerous Quadavs and Yagudos, whereas Sandy's NM is just a simple 1-NM pop from a ??? in Jugner (S), that's pretty much a pushover (only trouble I encountered was the Gnole that aggro'd, in which it was easy to keep slept anyway). Come on San d'Oria! Step it up! Anyway all the stories so far are pretty interesting, let's just hope we don't have to wait another half-a-year for the next WotG update. And let's see some real content added that we can have fun with. PLEASE.
Other activity...
My first wedding! I attended Chrio and Reigami's wedding on Friday. Congratulations to them! Had fun helping to direct our guests and had some laughs when we had an anonymous Galka wedding crasher run rampant down the aisle before he realized it was a wedding taking place. Afterwards he politely sat in the corner and behaved, observing the event. Garaku invited him for some group pictures but it seemed he couldn't stay still enough for that and ran around some more.
The "Good Luck Galka" strikes again! Just a week after we obtain the lv. 25 Usukane body piece, we have our first successful Citadel Chelonian attempt with an amazing lv. 35 drop and Konig's Usukane Haramaki is now complete! Though it'll still be a few weeks before we'll see the finished product, due to the Missnasty's Morrigan's Robe's materials that still needs to be completed and Khroma Ores at sky-high prices.
The day after that, I had my first attempt at targetting for Dynamis. I'm glad it was at Dynamis - Beaucedine because city zones prove to be very laggy on my PC. My main goal for Dynamis - Beaucedine was accomplished finally, Duelist's Tabard get! Although I kinda really wanted DRK relic body to drop so I could free up 4 storage spaces more... I still haven't worked the tabard into my RDM macros yet and really can't think of any better application for it since I already have Goliard. Maybe to cast Stoneskin faster? I need to think of situations where it'd be more useful then having Goliard Saio on, since my equipment is geared heavilly toward Conserve MP and the Haste+4% is almost on par with the Fast Cast enhance on relic.
The week ended nicely as we finally see another Askar drop on 60th floor Nyzul. Only one pair of gloves left and we can move down to legs, then maybe I can finally replace ugly AF+1 legs for SAM TPing!
Spunkymage also came for the second week to nab some free Goliard Cuffs that would be lost anyway, since all of us primary players, and the dual-boxxed whores, and their mothers and mannequins have em already. Luckily and not surprisingly, the Morrigan's -1 aka Goliard Cuffs did drop.
Congrats to Spunky, and to me! Teo kindly passed the Askar Manopolas to me probably knowing I am still Homam-less in the hands region. Speaking of Homam...
Tuesday's Proto-Omega run yielded amazing results as well, with another pair of Homam Cosciales dropping (twice already this year, the first in which I was rewarded with!--this has probably been our rarest drop all of last year!). Passed on the body piece because in all seriousness I will probably get no use out of that at all, aside from the rare ultra-evasive mob that needs to be Kraken-zerged, in which case Feint and multiple BRD songs will probably be available. As for my future plans to lvl DRG, well that's far off and I'm pretty sure we'll have enough Homam bodies floatin around by then.
PLD is lv.72 now and now we're going the leech-merit route. With BRD and COR already at hand, we can net 20k/hour PTs easily and only Teo and I will take turns leeching our lowbie jobs to 75. With some help from willing LS merit-goers we'll be 75 in no time.
Story...
Getting around to doing more of the quests to see the story unfold in Wings of the Goddess. So far the cutscenes from the Windurst quest line have been my favorite. Surprisingly, the Windurst sequences have provided the most action of the three quest lines. I guess this is apparant in the war-torn environment in and around Windurst Waters (S). Also, having young Romaa Mihgo prancing around in her prime still doesn't hurt either <3
We are also finally introduced to a Manthra! I thought it was just another Mithra upon first inspection, but he is referred to as just that: "he." I guess it's just the cliche Square feminine-male hero character (though I'm not sure he's such a hero, kinda has some villanous undertones). Seems Windurst is in desperate need of some assistance during these times and (as in the screenshot in my last journal entry depicts) summons the Elvaan nation of San d'Oria to back them up.
Windurst isn't the only nation seeing a dark age fall upon it either. Trouble's-a-brewin over in Bastok as political assassinations are taking place. The Bastokan story-line has less of a militaristic battlefield vibe goin on and more of a mystery-driven story. Struggle for political power in the nation,back-stabbing, secrets, deception: it's all present in this well-written story. It's quite the tale of mystery and intrigue.
Probably the least enjoyable quest line so far is the San d'Orian one. It's more of a light-hearted story-telling mode, I guess due to the Young Griffons involvement in its story so far. Windurst and Bastok have us exploring unknown territories, exploring the abyss even. Each story line ends with an NM fight, Windurst and Bastok's fights take place in a new instanced BC-style zone, versus numerous Quadavs and Yagudos, whereas Sandy's NM is just a simple 1-NM pop from a ??? in Jugner (S), that's pretty much a pushover (only trouble I encountered was the Gnole that aggro'd, in which it was easy to keep slept anyway). Come on San d'Oria! Step it up! Anyway all the stories so far are pretty interesting, let's just hope we don't have to wait another half-a-year for the next WotG update. And let's see some real content added that we can have fun with. PLEASE.
Other activity...
My first wedding! I attended Chrio and Reigami's wedding on Friday. Congratulations to them! Had fun helping to direct our guests and had some laughs when we had an anonymous Galka wedding crasher run rampant down the aisle before he realized it was a wedding taking place. Afterwards he politely sat in the corner and behaved, observing the event. Garaku invited him for some group pictures but it seemed he couldn't stay still enough for that and ran around some more.
The "Good Luck Galka" strikes again! Just a week after we obtain the lv. 25 Usukane body piece, we have our first successful Citadel Chelonian attempt with an amazing lv. 35 drop and Konig's Usukane Haramaki is now complete! Though it'll still be a few weeks before we'll see the finished product, due to the Missnasty's Morrigan's Robe's materials that still needs to be completed and Khroma Ores at sky-high prices.
The day after that, I had my first attempt at targetting for Dynamis. I'm glad it was at Dynamis - Beaucedine because city zones prove to be very laggy on my PC. My main goal for Dynamis - Beaucedine was accomplished finally, Duelist's Tabard get! Although I kinda really wanted DRK relic body to drop so I could free up 4 storage spaces more... I still haven't worked the tabard into my RDM macros yet and really can't think of any better application for it since I already have Goliard. Maybe to cast Stoneskin faster? I need to think of situations where it'd be more useful then having Goliard Saio on, since my equipment is geared heavilly toward Conserve MP and the Haste+4% is almost on par with the Fast Cast enhance on relic.
parading around in my new pimp attire
The week ended nicely as we finally see another Askar drop on 60th floor Nyzul. Only one pair of gloves left and we can move down to legs, then maybe I can finally replace ugly AF+1 legs for SAM TPing! Spunkymage also came for the second week to nab some free Goliard Cuffs that would be lost anyway, since all of us primary players, and the dual-boxxed whores, and their mothers and mannequins have em already. Luckily and not surprisingly, the Morrigan's -1 aka Goliard Cuffs did drop.
Congrats to Spunky, and to me! Teo kindly passed the Askar Manopolas to me probably knowing I am still Homam-less in the hands region. Speaking of Homam...
Tuesday's Proto-Omega run yielded amazing results as well, with another pair of Homam Cosciales dropping (twice already this year, the first in which I was rewarded with!--this has probably been our rarest drop all of last year!). Passed on the body piece because in all seriousness I will probably get no use out of that at all, aside from the rare ultra-evasive mob that needs to be Kraken-zerged, in which case Feint and multiple BRD songs will probably be available. As for my future plans to lvl DRG, well that's far off and I'm pretty sure we'll have enough Homam bodies floatin around by then.
PLD is lv.72 now and now we're going the leech-merit route. With BRD and COR already at hand, we can net 20k/hour PTs easily and only Teo and I will take turns leeching our lowbie jobs to 75. With some help from willing LS merit-goers we'll be 75 in no time.
04 01 08
Stronghold raids and UFO abductions!
Stronghold raids and UFO abductions!
Last week was pretty fun. Along with finally getting around to using one of the JoL pop sets we've been sitting on for the last few months, the LS gathered in full force to invade Castle Oztroja (S). It was a wild idea to see what we could uncover at the top. Incredibly enough, there was nothing up there! I did manage to snag some Gnat Pellets and will probably attempt the Bloodlapper fight some time soon, though those Vicious Mufflers seem pretty useless for my DRK, unless SE gives us something to benefit with from MAB, other than tier 2 black magic. Even though we got nothing out of it, fighting our way up the fortress through endless amounts of Yagudos was a lot of fun. If only SE would introduce new raiding instances in this manner. Sure we have Dynamis, but we've been doing that in the same old darkened setting versus the same old monsters for the past five years!
Salvage this week saw the completion of Jayiiq's Morrigan's Pigaches and Spunkymage now has both lv .25 and 35 pieces for his Cuffs. We only got around to doing one Jailer of Love pop, unfortunately, Absolute Virtue didn't come out for us to play around with. I was hoping I'd get to go to JoL as SAM to test out my potential in that fight, but for some reason we did not want to use any melee aside from a BLU to set up skillchains and a sacrificial Kraken DRK. :p So instead I came RDM, which wasn't too boring since I was constantly RDMing for our 2 NIN Phuabo-holding party, instead of being a Refresh whore for the BLM PT or something. I was quite surprised that the two summoned Phuabos never built up any resistance to my enfeebling over the course of the entire JoL fight.
So PLD leveling is up to full speed again, and our "merit" PT leech plan is working out pretty efficiently. I think I came in starting at lv. 72 earlier in the week. Got two night's of xping in and got lv. 74. Now I should be seeing 75 in no time, if we continue the 20K+/hr PTs and are lucky in finding good camps. We were pretty lucky Saturday night as I was scouting camps and happened to stumble upon a party that was leaving, after asking how much longer they were going to use the camp.
Switching PLD to full DD mode was a lot of fun. I just felt like i was one of those gimp, pick-up WARs out there. I was performing a lot better than I was really expecting I could. I guess I could attribute that to the BRD and COR at hand, but I'll just say my PLD/NIN is good like that ;) I was holding my own and fell short of Teo's MNK by only a small percentage, though this was before the night he unlocked his Destroyers.
Also got around to doing some more Royale Ramble KS30 runs at Balgas Dias. Teo, in need of his Destroyers to start with, and Cyb wanting a nice shiny Coffinmaker for his aspiring COR, and I decided to invest some of our seals in tryign to attain some new gear. I've been wanting this polearm since I saw a WAR wreak havoc with it in a merit party. I can only imagine how stronger it could perform in the hands of a Samurai. This was a relatively easy fight that I've done before and was confident in the strategy so I dual-box'd Numiumi RDM/NIN to tank one of the Cardians in the fight while the rest of us took care of the other two mobs. Luckilly, Ayden logged on as we were about to finish our round of orbs (surprisingly, all the desired weapons dropped consecutively after 3 orbs, leaving us an extra one because I had acquired one on Numiumi for safe measures). We were pretty lucky to see another pair of Destroyers drop for Ayden, and after finally using up a total of five orbs I am also the new owner of a shiny pair of unlocked Destroyers as well. A few Orichalcum Ingots and miscellaneous stuff to sell that ain't too shabby either.
Even more shinies! Ended the week with a fruitless Dynamis - Tavnazia run (except for another Hydra Beret drop for DB) and no luck in Nyzul Isle Assault, and attempted to dig up some Zerehs in The Ashu Talif. No new haste pants for me, but I got a nice consolation prize nevertheless. I guess the Assault group had some extra ??? boxes from a built up number of "Targeting the Captain" fights they wanted to unload and I snagged a free pair of these gloves, which will probably be nice once I have my SAM/RNG up and ready. That wraps it up for this segment of my boring journal. Let's hope for more excitement this week!
3 Comments:
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April 5, 2008 at 9:16 AM
The width space for your entry is really thin, and that makes your entry looks longer than it should be >_>April 6, 2008 at 3:08 AMblah blah blah. Always something to criticize about, fataru. Why are you linking your 2 year old outdated LJ for lolApril 25, 2008 at 3:17 AMWell I was a lil unhappy with that template too Martin, this new one is a little bit wider and more pleasing to the eye, methinks.
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