| DRK | PLD | SAM | WAR | RDM |
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| 75 | 75 | 75 | 75 | 75 |
| DRG | ||||
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| 75 |
Finally, we've gotten around to using up last year's Fanfest BCNM entry items. Just in time, since Fanfest '08 is rolling around. Too bad none of us this year even got a chance to consider buying tickets because they sold out so fast. At least last year a few of us got to kick it together, and even then, once I had considered to get tickets, those sold out as well. SE needs to learn to cater to their fans more. Anyway, we scored a bunch of BCNM-style orb items for 4 different battles. One was The Gathering Storm, an Assault style fight taking place in Mamool Ja Staging Point where you and fellow marauders plow through endless waves of weak-ass mobs a la the SM Assault Blitzkrieg (in fact, this one is probably easier than the normal Assault). We did this one a while back since it was the quickest battle field to get to. The reward for this one is one of my favorite titles: Bloody Berserker.
The other three fights took place in the Stellar Fulcrum up in Delkfutt's Tower. Since our Sunday nights are no longer occupied with Nyzul farming/climbing, we took a break from our new shift toward Sunday Salvage for a fun night of battles vs. NPCs we've only gotten to know through storyline cutscenes. The titles are pretty much the only rewards for the four Fanfest fights. There was one extra special reward that we were granted after the fight with the four Aht Urgan Serpent Generals Mercenary Camp, which is the screenshot above, along with the title, "The Sixth Serpent;" pretty cool.
This fight was probably my favorite, just because I liked the storyline behind the Serpent Generals a lot (one of my favorite questlines involves a bunch of backstory for all the Generals: "Saga of the Skyserpent"). Each of the Serpent Generals used their unique weapon skills that I rarely see them use in Besieged. General Rughadjeen's Victory Beacon showed one big "V." I wasn't lucky enough to capture any other General's weapon skills myself, but Cybaster took a screen of Mihli's Scouring Bubbles that looks pretty fun:
There were no victory poses after the other fights, but they were still pretty fun. Hero's Combat (title: "Superhero") was a brawl with the lead male figures of the three nations: Trion, Volker, and Ajido-Marujido.
Heroine's Combat looked to be a little tougher than the male equivalent, but I guess just because there are four ladies to fight doesn't mean that they will be stronger than three guys!
Needless to say... we raped em! =X
In recent Einherjar news, we've gone through our second and third Odins now. I'm really hyped about my new body Abjuration. Koenig Cuirass still looks hot after all these years! I guess I'll just have to kiss Dalmatica goodbye though, but oh well. One MP/tick Refresh is really not all that hot. I passed on Valhalla Helm because I'd rather have a Breastplate sometime in the future. Three Odins now, but no weapon drop yet, and only one Valhalla piece. =(
More Samurai raves without the rants. Even with all my new escapades on PLD, my SAM obsession still continues. In my efforts to tweak out maximum performance on this job I've churned out another Relic-demolishing parse! Yay! This was my first time meriting with Spharai MNK. I announced I was parsing so I can only hope these results reflect all participants' top-notch meriting efforts. First name listed is MNK/NIN with Spharai and Shura Togi +1, second is me SAM/DRG, third is SAM/WAR Spear-spam with Engetsuto:
In a small sample size of all my recent SAM/DRG parses on Greater Colibri, I can safely say my WS average has capped out at a crap-tastic 830-840 average with 2x Minuets, spamming Meat Mithkabob. This seems to be as high as I can push it; it's been a small bump up from my old numbers but my new Orc helm and semi-new Usukane Hizayoroi has added some welcoming damage improvement. With a Minuet+Chaos Roll combo, however, I've been consistently pushing 880, granted, all these numbers are taken from numerous Greater Colibri parties and they don't have the highest defense to penetrate. (Current WS build)
I only have one or two large Mamool Ja (Tadjana Islet) parses on SAM/DRG so far, and the numbers are pretty underwhelming--just subtract around 100 dmg from the previous numbers lol ._. Haven't parsed with updated gear on SAM/WAR in a while, so I dunno how that stands currently. I most likely will not bother with /WAR until my Polearm setup gets some much needed improvement. Still, I've found using /DRG with my A+ weapon is so much more fun then Penta Thrust spam on birdies.
Anywho, looking over that parse I'm surprised at the Spharai's low Asuran Fist average. I don't remember if he kept up his food, because I think I've seen Destroyers putting out higher averages, but it might be because of a COR, I really don't recall. I don't merit with MNK companions as much as I used to nowadays so I don't remember a lot of those results. I've also heard that a H2H Relic's improvement over the next strongest weapon in its class is the smallest margin amongst all other weapons' and their correlating Relics. =( This parse isn't a blatant going-all-out MP sponging in order to win, either. I'm still courteous to my other PT members and do still manage to balance my Seigan and Hasso usage 50/50, as well as using a physical damage reduction gear set when needed.
So, the score's in favor of me, as follows: DRK defeats Amano & Apocalypse; SAM defeats Spharai! Yay. I really would like a rematch with that Relic DRK though. A little under 100 mobs might be too small a sample size to properly judge the results, and there was only one BRD in that party, with no COR to boot; weak merit setup to really parse and compare. Too bad I can't make a clone of myself, so I can parse my DRK vs. my SAM. I'm really curious as to which job can out-do the other; especially with some udpated gear additions that put my SAM in a much higher tier than it was before, I really don't know which, between the two, is more powerful in a merit setup. Okay, /endrave and /end e-peen stroke.
currently listening to: Isley Brothers - Footsteps in the Dark
Well all right then! I guess I've been focusing on PLD a lot lately (at least in my blog--HAY it's fun), so let's toss it up a lil'. My Samurai is actually now showcase-worthy, so I'ma dedicate this post to SAM. I got lvl. 75 in late Nov. '07, and I think I've pretty much topped it off this week. Aside from brand new Sarameya dorps (and lolmonopolizedSandworm tathlums) that I'll eventually work toward, my TP set and WS set are now complete! :] 
I think everyone doing end-game waiting for dorpz, by now, knows about SAM's secretive l00tz tactics, i.e. Tachi: Koki Treasure Hunter +50. Well, if you didn't know, now you know. Please believe it:
Yeah, some people just don't believe! But what now? Even after this and so many other successful TH+50 (probably even MOAR TH than that!) attempts, people still have to be skeptical. No Cybaby, your TH+3 ain't cuttin' it buddy.
You need to believe in the power the Koki gods can grant us humble FFXI denizens! If you merely hop on the Koki-fan bandwagon, the Koki gods will shun yo' ass and you won't get shiet for it! If you truly beleive, Koki gods will make your wildest dreams come true.
[ In only two weeks since I've been back from Asia all this dropped ] : Combination of SAM and MNK Galka worshipping
Aaaand finally, the one to rule them all!
The lvl. 25 Salvage legs piece I've been waiting for!
I have a lot more Koki TH screens, but I'll get to 'em maybe some other time. For now I'll end this entry with a new video the homie Almostbilly made for me. It's a solo 6-WS Darkness skillchain after I finished my SAM WS builds. Billy's also planning to make a Phoenix old-school players video compilation and this'll be part of that one as well (click the link and view the high quality version!):currently listening to: RZA - Samurai Showdown (Raise Yo' Swords)
Back to the basics! This has been a great couple of weeks, and I'm very far behind on updates. Anyway, getting to the juice of this entry, I've finally gotten a chance to test my true DRKness against another top-tier DRK. Back to my straight up DD roots... Being the first NA Dark Knight to reach lv. 75 on Phoenix ages ago and still being revered as the OG DRK, I feel I do have a lot to live up to, especially since I took such a long hiatus where a lot has changed within the bulk of FFXI's lifetime that I've been absent from. I've also grown to love meriting and think it's a great outlet for one to test his overall potential and skills in an easilly controlled environment.
Finally, pitted up against an Apocalypse...
So, finally getting an oppurtunity to test my own DRK strengths against a fully-equipped, Ares' Cuirass-wearing, Apocalypse-wielding meripo machine, I am surprisingly pleased by my performance. I call this DRK a meripo machine because an Apoc DRK spamming Catastrophe under true meripo (March/Hastes) circumstances is technically unstoppable. This person also knows how to compete in a parse during merit parties, as he knows better than to ever be disengaged (although a lot of times, he'd move on the the next nearest Collibri well before the current one being fought is even close to dying-a tad annoying). Even though he makes use of his Catastrophe spam by keeping Hasso up for most of the duration of the party, the ability to drain through the relic's additional effect helps a lot in the non-MP-sponge factor.
Between the two of us, probably only about 5 Souleaters went off through both rounds of the entire party, so yeah, we were quite limited as to how far we could push damage. I really don't think winning a parse is about unleashing as much damage as humanly possible and being in critical-low HP the whole time. But with Apocalypse's Drain effect, he's able to get away with a lot. Although I wouldn't consider this an exact comparison benchmark between two different Dark Knight builds (the presence of only 1 BRD really detracts from the normally powerful 2xBRD or BRD+COR meripo experience where the DDs are able to go "all-out," pushing their limits), the results are still something I'm still very proud of.
First half:
Second half (after short break):
The other 2 DDs were a SAM/WAR and a below-average WAR/SAM, who was ironically the PT leader.
I was very surprised at these results, because for one, Eka -the Apoc DRK- really kept up with the meripo pace, never disengaging and always amongst the first to connect a swing on a pull. This is one of the key's to winning a parse in most circumstances, but I would consider myself a dedicated meriter also, and perform in the same fashion. So with parse results like this, you can see why I am a little befuddled. Though, in all honesty, during the majority of the first half, Eka was up by an average 1.5-2% on the parse, which I am assuming is when the PT members were at their peak performance. As time goes on, especially in a pick-up PT, certain mages like to slow down their Haste rotations, and lag on the song-singing, which is how I guess I caught up and even surpassed the Apoc DRK by a small fraction. Catastrophe-spamming really, really depends on maxing out on weapon delay and Hastes and Marches (in this case, only 1 March and 1 Minuet) are vital to pushing out maximum dmg.
Which brings me to another point-- had there been a second BRD and 2x Marches and 2x Minuets received, I'm sure I would be blown out of the water. But given that this was a pick-up PT with only 1 BRD, I'm glad I was able to hold my own. The second half also seemed a little less fast-paced as well, with the BRD having trouble keeping pulls ready and melees having to run and pick out our own targets.
Our equipment set-ups were pretty similar, except for the absence of Ares' Cuirass and Apocalypse on my part. I didn't check the Ares/Relic DRK, but I do remember a while ago in Whitegate, that person would always wear a Blitz Ring, which has me completely astounded at why a person with this type of gear would even consider this an option. Not surprisingly, just today I noticed that a notable DRG I've merited with recently is in the same LS that this DRK is in, and he sports a Blitz Ring as well. The DRG on the other hand only has an Askar Zucchetto on hand, so I don't understand why he doesn't opt for the Walahra Turban and just put on a Sniper's/+1/Toreador's. I could say the same for the DRK, but since there is an Ace's Helm in that build along with the Apoc, I guess I could see why the Blitz is there. /shrug~ Anyway, this is my normal TP and WS builds, not considering Lurker-type evasive mobs:
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unidentifiable gears: Abyssal Earring & Justice Torque
I've come a very long way on my road of Dark Knight, and as of now I feel I'm done (at least until the new Nyzul relics are released, then we'll see how ridiculous those upgrades will be). I remember being so amped about outparsing a friend's new Amanomurakumo last year, without even having my SAM SJ available yet! I don't remember if it was after the re-nerf of the outrageous 2-hand buff or before it (I think it was after the toned-down 2-handed weapons modifications), but it looked a lil' sumpin' like this:
top to bottom: DRK/NIN, SAM/WAR, RDM/WHM, COR/???, BRD/NIN, WAR/NIN
It was this PT, bout half a year ago, that I pulled off my highest Guillotine on a regular defense high-level mob (2800~ on G. Collibri, screenshots are gone because I accidently formatted over my external HD -.- ). Also was a nostalgic night, since Ivede made one of his rare come-back appearances. This guy was amongst the first DRK 75s as well, probably a couple months after me. Too bad he ditched his DRK roots for the over-hyped WAR/NIN Ridill/Joy set-ups.
I think this old parse included his Ridill/Joy swapping to Maneater/Ridill half-way.What's Kraken?
Anyway, in keeping with the DRK theme of this journal entry, today I had some fun at Dynamis Lord. Yes, another parse. For this DL, I kept my graphics minimal, effects unshown, AIM/MSN/BitLord/Winamp shut down, in order to keep an accurate parse of the 20-something melees beating the living day-lights out of this overgrown, sunburnt Galka. Another parse I was surprisingly overwhelmed with.
The three Kraken-DRK users are high-lighted within the red border. We received dual-Marches, Hastes, and I think Rogue Roll and some other useless Roll. Jayiiq (Dawn OG) and I ate Carbonara. After my Drain 2 I was sitting at around 2200 (forgot to record this -.- but have gone upwards 2300 @ DL with minimal Dark Magic/M.Accuracy gear that doesn't compromise max HP gear).
One factor that seems to have skewed the average hit dmg is I engaged and swung 3-4 times before activating Souleater/Bloodweapon, which the other 2 set off before drawing their weapons. I was DRK/DRG (lolDRG lv. 34), Jay--DRK/NIN, Vandyr/Therin--DRK/???. I am ecstatic at how well the Wyvern Earring performed, boosting my normal Kraken dmg vs. DL a great deal. Normally, I am only a few % ahead of Jay's DRK zerg, but this time, getting in an entire twenty more swings than the second highest-parsing Kraken-DRK is just too [Incredibly tough].
With Dark Seal and an Anrir Obi, Dynamis Lord seems so damn non-resistant to a Drain 2 by a well-equipped Dark Magic user, I'm pondering on whether I should relieve a little more of the Kraken-HP gears for some more Dark Magic skill+ gear. As it stands, the gear I macro in for a Kraken zerg only offers me substantial max HP along with only +20 Dark Magic skill in gear and +11 M. Accuracy, and whatever effect Full-weather Benefit is (Anrin Obi). This places me at only 307 total Dark Magic skill. In my regular full Dark Magic build, I sit at 322 skill, along with a +18 M. Accuracy. I guess I wouldn't be comprising too much HP by using Abyss Flanchard +1, since's it's only giving up 8 HP for another 7 Dark Magic skill.
Kraken zerg Drain 2 while maintaining max HP+
Maximum Dark Magic skill, Januwiyah +1 and Bomb Queen ring not shown
And this is the regular Kraken-DRK build I use, complete with the lolShield Torque. [I spent a day time-stamping for the Ajase Beads (+20 HP Necklace) NM, but to no avail. I'll probably head back there again after an update or if I'm overly busy and just want to AFK timestamp the ToD.] Look at that gimp SJ, and an lolSniper's in Ring1 slot. Really could use some Bloodsucker ToDs too! 
Anyway... Jean-Claude Van DAYUM this entry turned out to be fucking long. And here I was wanting to blog about my crazy PLD aventures these past couple of weeks. Guess I'll save that for another day. ~Peace in the Middle East~ 
currently listening to: K-Dee - Ain't Nothin' Poppin'
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