Is it really necessary?

You know what pisses me off more in this game than anything else? Not the long ass spawn times of NMs or the stupidity of some quest lines. Not even Cid's extra big and bright white teeth bother me as much as this one thing that happens constantly in-game.

/check

Yes. The Check feature. I'm sure you all get it, or might be the ones checking. Cut that shit out!! Any half-second glance and you can figure out my approximate level. It's easy enough to see. You can even tell what gear I'm wearing. Sure, you can't see that I'm wearing a Raja's Ring or Brutal Earring, but so what. You know what the items are; does it really matter if I have it or not?

I can just feel the virtual eyes of people scanning me from head to toe, and that bugs the hell out of me. Could you imagine if you got a notification in reality? You're just out on the town, minding your business, and suddenly you get a text message:

**Jason is eye-fucking you.**

If we had a real /bitchslap emote, I'd macro spam that all over Whitegate.

What the hell is a skillchain?

I'm no veteran when it comes to playing FFXI. As a matter of fact, I'm far from it. Sure, I've seen my fair share of things, but not nearly as much as some of the long time players. Several strategies of the old days have been replaced by newer and more effective methods. Fights that used to take careful planning and timing are now "zerged" (think Blitzkrieg) and several of the jobs that were once highly desired have now been relegated to an endgame only status.

One of these strategies is the use of a Skillchain and if you just read that link, you might be a bit confused by it. Yeah, it's complex at first glance. For the most part, this technique is hardly ever used now. Most times, the formation of a skillchain during an event or party is accidental. One of those deals where you see it, say "oooh", and then move on. Unless you are doing a latent break, it's safe to say that no one cares about a skillchain.

I don't get this. A skillchain is free damage. Yes, free damage. All you have to do is plan it out. Yes, it requires thought, planning, focus, and communication. As a matter of fact, it requires near constant communication. Now you might wonder why the hell you'd want to put forth all that effort during a party. Two reasons for this:

1. Exp parties are boring as hell, and it's not uncommon for a member to fall asleep during one.

2. Faster kills = greater exp over time.

Let's pretend that we don't give a damn about our fellow players and care less if they fall asleep because we can just boot them and get a replacement. Of course we'd never do that, but we're in "pretend mode" right now. Look at statement #2. Faster kills; greater exp. Do I really need to break that down for anyone?

Now, I understand when people don't want to put out a lot of effort for a short term event. Sure, if you're zerging an enemy, just go in and do it. No need for an immaculate plan with every action mapped out. Just do it, be done, and go to your home point. Exp parties are different though. They are designed to take time. Parties are usually 90 minutes to several hours, so why not make them as effective as possible?

An example of this happened yesterday. I setup a party and went to the Mire yesterday. The party was going to be synced down to 67. Anyone that's ever been there knows that going in at 67 means great exp, but slow kills (unless you have the perfect setup, perfectly geared players, proper star and moon alignment, etc.). Imps are no joke at that level, and are more than capable of wiping a party with ease. I suck at making parties, but I think we had a fairly decent setup. PLD, RDM, WHM, DRG, SAM, THF. Yes, it's heavy on the healing.

We got started and things were going well. We weren't chain pulling yet, but things were fine as far as I was concerned. Now, despite my reluctance to being a mage, I was and always will be a mage at heart. While Bhin served as my mentor during that time, the concept of skillchains and magic bursts were drilled in my head. It's at the point where I can basically quote off a list of applicable skillchains based on a glance of party members' jobs. It's pretty sad, I know.

Eventually, I asked if we could make some skillchains. Yeah, it suddenly meant that everyone had to pay attention. On the bright side, Imps have a nasty tendency to lock your abilities, so you can't weaponskill as freely as you'd like to. In a way, this forces you to pay attention because you need to get those weaponskills off as quickly as possible. So since we've already got to wait with using them, why not make their impact much more devastating?

We experimented for a bit and eventually got our timing down. Before you know it, our little camp became a disco show of Fragmentation and Light skillchains. Kills started going much faster, and though we were at the lowest recommended level for that area, we were killing like we were several levels higher. Exp was great and everyone leveled at least once. Considering some of us were in the 70's, I think we did damned good for everyone in the party to level for the time that we were there.

Now this doesn't mean that I think every single time I go in a party that we need to formulate a skillchain plan, but it does show that the "old ways" aren't quite as antiquated as some might think.

Not to mention, your mages will feel a bit more helpful instead of bored while they spam cure spells. You'd be amazed to see how happy a WHM can be when they actually have a reason to cast Banish or Holy on something.

Playing with Fire

It's Purple!

Last week I started leveling Dragoon, and I have to say, it's damned fun. Granted, I'm gimp and all, but when am I not? I've also taken to my digital companion, Sasavi, and having a blast with the emotes. Automatons can go drown; Wyverns have all the style.

Leveling is taking awhile, but I spend a good deal of time doing Fields of Valor or other soloing to keep me busy. After what seems to be forever, I'm finally at 64. My thanks to those East Ronfure [S] invites.

The best part about leveling a new job is the AF quests. I mean, what else is more fun than farming coffer keys, then trying to navigate various areas where the enemies would completely wipe the floor with your tail while you try to open a treasure chest containing armor that you're currently too low to use? Of course, you could always wait until you're high enough to go through the areas solo, but by that time you don't need the armor anymore. Unless you're an RDM. Red Mage AF is forever.

Thankfully, Davik came to the rescue. We headed out to the zones and got the keys with ease. Then it was a matter of me trying to find the coffer and not get myself killed. Surprisingly easy this time around, especially in Ifrit's Cauldron, but that's mainly because Davik and Maximas were leading the way. Regardless, I'm an official Dragoon with all of my cool gear. My new nickname is now "Purple Haze."

Last-Minute Hero

As mentioned before, I'm currently attempting to de-gimp my Samurai class. It's a huge pain, to say the least. Researching sets, making inventory room, trying to get pop items, blah blah blah. Since that usually drives me crazy, I decided to take a chance yesterday and form my own Nyzul Isle party.

To be honest, I was scared. I absolutely hate making parties of any kind. Nyzul and Salvage parties scare the crap out of me. Granted, they can both be fun if done properly. Set up the wrong party and you've just bought yourself an aneurysm. So I went online, took out a life insurance policy, and proceeded to shout for members.

The whole thing took about 45 minutes or so to get a full party. Nyzul 100, locked Askar and everything else was up for grabs. Personally, I didn't think people would go for a locked run, but they did. Most wanted Goliard, but there was one...Tiel...who wanted Denali. It's always a shocker when someone wants Denali gear for some reason. The setup was SAMx3 (myself, Limubai, and Tiel), RDMx2 (Krazykarl and Yokorye), and a THF (Regina). Looking back, I think maybe I like SAM too much. The good thing is that we all had Haguns and Polearms, so there was a little versatility in playstyle even though we had the same jobs.

Things seemed ok at the start, but I ended up being the idiot who forgot sneak tools. Then I got nervous when we had a lamp floor and it was order. We all worked together and got things figured out. Once we got to the final floor, we were greeted by the flaming puppy, Cerberus. No deaths on this run, and surprisingly, a pretty cap dropped. Tiel was happy and we exited. I had four tags and asked if anyone would go again. Everyone agreed, so off we went.

Now it wasn't fun anymore. Lamps, Ninjutsu restrictions, Gears...you know, the crappy stuff. I end up catching aggro during a lamp floor by a wyvern and die right at the lamp. So now I'm weakened and we're short on DD. The rest of the group takes care of things until I'm good to go and we arrive at the boss. Guess what?

Yeah, Cerberus again. Only this time, we got the 10 minute warning. I didn't panic, but I was certainly nervous. Myself and Lim used our 2 hour on the earlier run, and Karl used his while trying to reset ours with Wild Card. Still, we got TP and went at it.

First, I forgot to use my body boost before the fight. Fail on my part. Everybody is hacking away at this damn dog and I'm trying to use my medicine. I felt so dumb. Then things start to go downhill. Karl pulls too much hate and gets killed. Yoko soon follows. Then the DD begin to drop.

Regina 2hrs and gets a few good hits in. By this time, Cerberus is nearly dead. I got back up and tried to attack. Of course, I kept getting the message "You must wait longer...blah blah" and couldn't do anything. Meditate was down, 70 TP, and no 2 hour. It looked like everything was over.

...and then it happened.

In the distance, Tiel got up. I put up Seigan and Third Eye as Cerberus turned to me. Not like I could live for more than a few seconds, but desperation was all we had left at this point. I see the 2hr animation back where Tiel is. Hot damn, there's still a chance. Granted, all it would take is one hit and Tiel would drop, but we had a chance. I see her coming towards us and at that moment, our puppy has a treat:

Cerberus readies Gates of Hades.

Son...of...a....BITCH!

This was one of those moments where everything is in slow motion. I'm standing at Cerberus without enough TP to do anything. Regina is alive, but paralyzed. We're a couple of seconds into the GOH animation, and Tiel is charging in with the only possible hope of winning. I closed my eyes, and then...

I couldn't freaking believe it. Not only did we win, but Askar dropped!! While everyone did an amazing job, Tiel is definitely the hero of that battle. So now I'm 2/3 done with the Askar items I want, and only hands / kitty pants to go!!

A New Friend

Last week I got a little bored. I know, it's hard to believe. I can't remember what the hell I was doing, but I decided to level another job. Or at least to play around with it because I didn't feel like meriting or going to campaign.

So after checking the list of options, my immediate choices were Dancer, Dark Knight, Dragoon, or Monk. This was going to take some time.

First, I love Dancer. It's just all around fun. However, I'm not in the mood to solo, and it's my understanding that DNC is basically the melee equivalent of BLM when it comes to party invites. With that being said, DNC has to wait until the mood strikes me. So next up, Dark Knight.

Hahahahahahahaha. Moving on.

Dragoon. Now this seemed interesting. It would be a job that I didn't have to do too much with in the way of skilling up, so I could take whatever party invites came my way and not worry about a skill up party immediately after. Then again, it's loldrg. Personally, I like the job, but perceptions are hard to break. On top of that, you get a cute wyvern! Still... loldrg.

Looks like Monk is going to be the winner. I do have some gear that will carry over from when I was leveling Samurai, plus I have an Osode for when I hit 75 and a cool pair of face bashers. Still no kitty pants, but more on that later. Monk is also a highly desired job during endgame events. Yeah, yeah, so is DRK. I told you all before, I'm emo enough as it is. Adding to the emo won't benefit anyone. I changed jobs and stepped out of my Mog House but, a thought then came to mind:

Black Belt Monk

It's bad enough that I have lost several units of sanity trying to find a damned Autumnstone to get my kitty pants, but now I'd have to find a way to get items from not 1, not 2, but THREE HNMS? Let's see, am I in an HNMLS? Uh, no. Do I have 3 million to chuck at a shell for each of these items? Once again...no.

Dragoon it is.

My new buddy, Sasavi. ^_^ Cute and deadly; that's us!

One of those days

I decided to take a break from the sandbox and try a different locale for awhile. Since my Samurai merits are more or less done and kitty pants are on hold, I figured I'd go for what I thought was a less frustrating piece of gear to obtain. Yes, laugh now. I didn't realize the reality until later on.

I am currently on day #4 of severing Gigas testes with my Tomoe in order to get the damned pop item for this stupid NM. I've got lucky after a few hours and have spawned Alkyoneus twice in 4 days. I can hear Davik laughing at me now for not having THF leveled. Bite me Davik.

Castration, {You can have this}

Of course, during both fights, I happened upon a THF in the area who agreed to help me improve my chances. No help with the bracelet, but I now have enough socks to craft a quilt big enough to cover Qufim Island.

I've also seen a few people wipe to Pallas on the level below me. While I do admit that the thought of dropping down and claiming have crossed my mind, that would be pretty damned rude and I'd wind up being the same type of jackass that I despise. If only I were evil.

It would have been so easy too.

I ran into a buddy of mine and his party while farming out there and we decided to try out Autarch for some fun. He whipped our ass.

We regrouped and gave it another shot. We were NIN, THF, MNK, and SAM the first go round, but then we switched MNK and SAM to WAR and RNG while grabbing an RDM friend to see if he could dispel those shock spikes. No luck on the dispel, but we killed the NM fairly easily on round 2. No drop, but really...is anyone surprised?

So, it's back to the tower for another day of farming a super low drop rate item for a piece of gear that I will only use during weaponskills. Why do I do this to myself?

Tales from the Sand

Let's see. What have I been up to this week? Well, I soloed a VT Manticore as SAM/DNC, finally. Not that I couldn't do it before, but I finally worked up enough nerve to try. Nothing major, but I take my victories where I can.

That's right. Bow down.

Lisa and I hung out for a little while and unlocked her Mandalic Stab. ^_^. Then we got brave (read: bored) and decided to give a go at a duo of Tegmine. Then we got aggro during the fight and I started fighting that while she held the NM. Unfortunately, things didn't go so well since she had just made 75 and wasn't really set up for tanking an NM like that.

Congrats Lisa!!

Fear not, after she was raised and unweakened, we gave it another go. Of course, we got outside aggro again. Thankfully, instead of me dealing with crabs and a raptor, I just had a single crab to deal with. The fight was pretty intense near the end because of that stupid bubble shower that nearly killed Lisa a couple of times, but we hung in there and successfully took out the NM as SAM/DNC and THF/NIN. Even got one of those Aptus things. Will I ever use it? Who knows.

I finally finished up the major merit categories for Samurai. Glad to have that out of the way. Unfortunately, I haven't seen Davik around all week and Yoko hasn't really had the time to be on either. So the sky camping has been put on hold for now because I know I'm certainly not geared or merited enough to solo Ullikummi as an RDM right now. Somebody seriously needs to list an Autmnstone in Rolanmart so I can buy it and get my damn kitty pants already.

I have to say, life in the sand hasn't been all that exciting lately.

Fun Stuff

It's not late enough in the week for a "Week in Review" post, but I don't feel like waiting until tomorrow because I will more than likely forget to post this. So, let's call this the "nearly end of the week in review".

A Moogle Clusterf....

No, I still haven't started this expansion. I get the thought to and then check wiki, only to see how much running around there is and then I go to Cape Terrigan. I really have no interest in this. Maybe if I find some others who haven't done it, I'll go along with them. By myself though...hell with that.

Anyway, Domie (^_^) asked if I was able to lend a hand to help her out. Sure, why not. A quick trip to the Shadow Lord's place is always fun. The rest of the group was actually doing the expansion, so they had some type of minigame quest to do before coming out. I decided to get some juice and take a nap while I waited.

Then it was strategy time. Apparently, this NM doesn't actually melee you. No, it throws bombs that have a lovely knockback effect. Let me rephrase that. It doesn't throw bombs...it freakin' spams them. By the time you recover from the 1st knockback, you're being thrown around again by another bomb. After you get its health down, it runs away and spawns 5 BLM Moogles while it gets cured to full health by some WHMs in the background. Needless to say, this fight can suck if things get out of hand.

The good thing is that it takes massive damage from any attack. This is great for e-peen, but when you stop and think about it, the numbers are for show only. Otherwise, a person could solo this. Anyway, long story short is that we didn't win. Lack of communication and unfortunate delays mid-battle ended up making the fight less than ideal. We tried a few more times, but they eventually decided to leave it alone and come back another day.

You dropped the bomb on me, baby! (Probably too young to know that song.)

Fellow Bonding!!

At long last, Karyn is level 70!! /cheer! That doesn't mean much of anything to anybody but me, but whatever.

While she is normally either less than smart or lackluster in fights, once she hit 70, I guess she had something to prove to me. While out in the lovely Cape, suddenly she started using useful weaponskills. Normally, I get excited when I see Tachi: Yukikaze cause then I make a nice chain, and I really get happy to see Tachi: Gekko from her.

Oh but this time, she was fighting those bunnies with a vengeance. On several occasions, I noticed she would break out Tachi: Kasha. I'm so proud of my little Karyn. She's grown so much. *sniffle* Now if I could just get her to stop wasting tp with Tachi: Kagero.

Speed Belt!

Haha, I wish. I did do the run though. Bhin asked if I was free to lend a hand, and it's been awhile since I had some fun in that fight. So off to Jeuno to grab an orb and off I go. This time, I got to go as a Corsair. Yargh!! It was pretty late at night for me, but I stayed for a few fun runs.

I didn't see any of the really big items from the runs I attended. I gave up my shot of going because on the off chance that I got something awesome, I didn't want to just lot and leave. So I'm sure this orb will sit next to my Moon orb that's been gathering dust for several months. Oh well, they can keep each other company.

Of course, it's not a real run unless someone does something stupid. Right at the start of our third run (I think) we got too close to the circle when our PLD went to aggro. We got hit with the Dragon Halitosis and the funk was too strong for us.

We recovered, but in the end we had to give it up. Really sucks to lose 99 Kindred Seals like that. On a related note, they weren't my seals. Still, it sucks.

All in all, I had fun for the times that we did this fight. Hopefully it won't be several months before I get to do this again. Especially now that I solo in the Cape so much. Getting seals isn't such a difficult thing. Oh, in case you're wondering about the picture shifting, I'm currently bored and feel like trying something else out. I'm sure I'll go back to the way it was before. Deal with it for now. It won't hurt to try something new.

Sky Farming!

Seriously, I don't like Sky right now. As I mentioned before, I'm working towards getting Samurai to a respectable state in terms of gear and merits. I've been looking for an LS to help me get my kitty pants, and after being turned down by a few for not having 5 million gil on hand, I found a shell that was willing to help me out.

I ran to Rolanmart and checked every bazaar I could find, hoping to score a nice deal on the Byakko's pop items. No such luck, which was fairly surprising. Then again, now that I want something, of course the mart won't have it.

So let the farming begin. Despot really isn't much of a challenge to get to and fight, so it makes sense to go after Ullikummi to get that Autumnstone. Either that or pay 600k - 1 million if someone actually had the stone to sell. Davik, Yoko, and myself headed out on a mission.

Four hours and a merit or two later...we finally get encumbered with Mythril ore and Light crystal stacks. Not a single diorite to pop Ulli. Meanwhile, an RDM and THF duo managed to farm the pop item and get the kill. Jaci wasn't happy.

I eventually had to go to work, and when I came home I still couldn't find an Autumnstone. So hopefully I'll have better luck next time and get those pants.

Other than that, I did do an ISNM. I didn't get anything of mention other than the Chocobo Egg, which I still believe is proof that dragons and chocobos are related.

Now I'll leave you with some random shots and then sign on. Time for more Fields of Valor, weeee!

Bhin said it would be fun to come out and campaign. Looks really fun, no?

Domie!! ^_^

Even the pimp hat doesn't change how ugly that coat is.

The Road to Ungimpness

I've been mentioning more and more than I need to merit my jobs. This is becoming more apparent as I begin to understand more and more about my jobs. (read: as I compare myself to others.) Not to mention, I've been out of the endgame scene for a bit since my ls is "on break" and it gives me more time to really look at my jobs and how they are laid out.

In short, I'm gimp as hell.

So rather than bitch and bitch like I normally do, I'm on a mission to change all of that. Unfortunately, I have a short attention span when it comes to self-improvement. Rather than focus on one particular aspect of my jobs, I'm working on everything at once. One job at a time of course.

Job 1: Samurai

You knew I would pick this one first. It's a fun job to play, and I like slicing things.

When I first reached 75, I made it a point to campaign and get enough merits to cap Store TP. Then I stopped. I absolutely hate meriting. I'll have to make another post because my thoughts on it are far too long for this one. Anyway, once I had that category capped, I didn't bother with anything else. I turned my attention to gear, thinking that a Kirin Osode and Hagun were going to put me up there with a half-decent SAM.

I was horribly wrong.

The most important thing I have learned about jobs in FFXI is that a single piece of gear doesn't mean a damn thing. This game is all about sets. Everything depends on something else. In my ignorance, I was happy as hell when I got that Hagun. I just knew I was hot stuff then. I was 75, had the best great katana next to a relic weapon, and had my first merit category capped. It's a little different now.

So here's the plan. Obviously, it's time for a gear upgrade. I've been doing a lot of reading about the standard 6-hit tp setup, and I've already got more than enough Store TP for that. Now to remove the excess Store TP gear and replace that with something a bit more helpful. My current targets are these hands and legs. This will give me a nice bit of Haste and Dexterity over what I currently have. Not to mention, they look better. Once I get the Askar helm, that will replace my Walmart Turban. I'll take a picture of my current gear so everyone can point and laugh.

In addition, I've been working on getting the sea gorgets to help out with my weaponskills. The torque is a wet dream for now, but dreams keep you motivated. I've had a few friends help out with the organ harvesting in Al'Taieu, and we even had a go with a couple of jellyfish (Ul'Yovra).

These fights are pretty fun. I do need to work on Scholar merits to be more effective against them. However, that will have to wait or I'll never truly focus on getting Samurai up to speed.

Of course, when I'm not doing Nyzul Isle or farming in sea, I'm meriting. Well, kind of. Basically, I spend my free time in Cape Terrigan and just spam Fields of Valor until I get bored. Or I might campaign if Yoko or Bhin bug me enough. It pales in comparison to a merit party, but I already know people wouldn't let a gimp SAM in one anyway. On a related note, Sush has been kind enough to invite me another merit party and I had a blast as a Corsair.

So far, I am 6/8 on Great Katana, 5/5 Overwhelm and 5/5 Store TP. I will probably merit Shikikoyo, but I'm honestly leaning towards Blade Bash more. People don't seem to care about skillchains unless it's latent time, and I'm not giving up my tp just so you can choose to not chain with me. >.>

I'm sure there's more to work on, but the goal is to be a "decent" SAM, not a godly one.

From gimp to pimp; the journey begins!

Tele-Nowhere

Who among you likes the RMT? Give a / if you do.

I didn't think so.

However, I think that the RMT tele-bots are a necessary evil. Either that or we just need to stop being so lazy. Here's a comparison: taxi-drivers in New York. Everybody bitches about the "Arabs" taking the jobs and all that. We complain and complain that it's taking away from the people here who want to work but can't because the jobs are gone.

Now apply that to the Tele-bots of Vana'diel. Yeah, it's not exactly the same but I'm sure you get my point. So many people yell and scream about the RMT tele-bot and how we shouldn't use them because we are just supplying them with money to sell on their sites and messing up the game for everyone else. Or that other "honest" people are trying to make money and the tele-bots are getting in the way of that.

Well it seems that the mass of "honest" people got their wish. You'll be hard-pressed to find a tele-bot anywhere on Hades anymore. Used to be that you could shout and you'd have an invite in .2 seconds. The interesting part about this is not only will you have a hard time finding a tele-bot, but you can't find a tele-anything now.

What happened to all the honest, hard-working people who wanted to tele-taxi before? The competition is gone, so where are you now?

You guessed it. They're gone too. Or now that there isn't any competition, there's nothing to motivate people. See, you no longer have to sit in Whitegate or Jeuno with your hand on the keyboard, ready to fill in the rest of the /pcmd add command in order to beat the RMT. Now you can take your time. No more /sea Jac and hope that it pulls up my name first so you can invite me quickly. Now you can be lazy and use /sea and casually scroll down to find me and invite when you get ready.

As a matter of fact, it's at the point now where people are paying ridiculous amounts of money just for a simple teleport because no one actually wants to teleport you anymore. Not long ago, I was in Whitegate waiting to do a Nyzul 60 run to snatch a pair of Askar Manopolas. Of course, we were in the "Shout for Members" process so I still had about 30 minutes of waiting. Meanwhile, someone was shouting for a Tele-Vahzl. I think it was around 2k. I go in my Mog House, change jobs and get all my gear ready. Then I come out and afk for a bit to get some juice and pie. After returning, one of the members leaves (/shocked!) and shortly after the leader decides to disband. Now I'm wondering what the hell to do and I go to the Auction House to check on my sales.

This entire time, that person is still shouting. The price has slowly gone from 2k to 10k now. Yeah, 10k for a teleport to Xarcabard. I was in awe that no one was jumping on this. Finally, I sent a tell saying I'd take them, but not at that price. No sense paying such a price just to get a tele.

Now you might wonder why a person would pay 10k just to go out there. Had to be an NM or something that they didn't want other people to get to first, right? It only makes sense.

Yeah, you see it correctly. She wanted to solo some skeletons for exp.

Next time someone decides to bitch about the RMT, I hope they're ready to put in the same amount of effort that they did while they were here.

One for the fans

One of the awesome things about having a blog is knowing that someone not only reads it, but every now and then you find that they also like it. I've been talking about some of the most random and silly things that come to mind, so it's surprising to get acknowledgement or even compliments from people in game about it.

I was even asked to screenshot one of the people who read my blog. So, as my little way of saying "thanks", here's the picture I took. See, I told you that I'd have it up here.

To Lisamarie of Hades, thanks for reading my little slice of insanity. ^_^

Hot Damn!!

Today has been a good day. Well, it started off really boring. I hate waking up early and trying to play. Every time I wake up early, I find myself standing in Whitegate because all of the Americans are dead asleep and I'm left with primarily Japanese players. Don't get me wrong, I have no issues with the Japanese but I notice that they rarely ever use the auto-translate feature. So rather than stare a bunch of squiggly lines until I fall back to sleep, I decided to run out to good old Cape Terrigan. It's so addicting.

After a few runs of taking Karyn through hordes of bunnies and lizards, she is now getting very close to level 70. ^_^ Finally, the journey is nearing its end. Of course, nothing special is going to happen, it will just be something that I know I've taken from start to finish. I find joy in the simple things.

Then I took a trip to Al'Taieu with Davik so we could could kill some oversized fish and take their organs. I'm working on ungimping my jobs so I'm after the gorgets for the various weaponskills. Tifa and I collected the majority of organs for my Snow Gorget and Domie helped me get the last few. (if you're reading this, thanks Domie. ^^) Now I'm working on Light, and then I'll slowly work my way through the rest of them. It's not too painful, until you need to get the Yovra organs. I hate those things.

Now for the fun stuff. Nyzul Isle. That place has given me so much pain and frustration, yet I keep going back. I tell you, I must really love pain. Not long ago, I did manage to get my hands on the Goliard Saio, so I was pretty happy. Again, it's another piece of ass-ugly armor, but hey...it was free. My main goal has been the Askar Korazin. Yes, I know...the Haubergeon is better overall until you get the relic weapon, but Askar looks better. So shut it.

Let me give you a brief description of how the runs have been so far.

1. Shout for members

2. Wait.

3. Shout for members

4. Members join

5. Shout for that one job you need now that you are 5/6

6. An hour passes

7. Some members leave.

8. Shout for members.

Wait...that's not describing the run, but I thought you should know anyway. Here's the breakdown of the run:

Floor 76: Kill all enemies

Floor 77: Kill specified enemy

1. Player A aggros wrong enemy or standard NM

2. Player B says "WTF"

3. Player A shrugs

4. While remaining players are fighting the true target, Player A brings aggro to the group

5. Player C attempts to sleep aggro, but Player A put a DoT on it.

6. Death ensues

Floor 77: Eliminate Leader, Avoid Discovery by Gears

1. Player A aggros every gear on the floor.

2. Player B sighs

Floor 78: Activate Lamps

1. Player A discovers a single lamp

2. Player C asks what type of lamp

3. Player A: "It's a tall lamp."

4. Player B loses connection

Floor 79: Eliminate Specified Enemies

1. Player A is told to wait at rune

2. Party splits and begins to take out the targets

3. Enemies are killed and floor is cleared.

4. Party waits.

5. Player D wonders why we haven't changed floors.

6. Player E runs to rune.

7. Player E discovers that Player A went afk during that time.

8. Mass /slap emotes and threats are relayed.

Floor 80: Leader

1. Pull Rampart for TP.

2. Player A aggros leader before Rampart is destroyed

3. Shouts of "WTF?!" can be heard from inside Nyzul Isle all the way to Bhaflau Thickets

4. Enemy is killed and an item that Player A has listed drops

5. Party leader exits floor before Player A lots.

6. Player A is then booted from the party.

7. Shout for members.

I say this in jest, but you know you've all had some experience close to what I've described. Granted, they haven't all been this bad. It's mostly just craptastic drops when we kill the boss. However, today was a special day. That's right my loyal minions, I am the proud owner of an Askar Korazin! Whoo Hoo! Now to get the helm, and maybe the pants. One extra sexy Samurai, coming right up!

Oh yeah baby! Askar = mine!!

Shantotto Mayhem

Well, the final of the three add-on scenarios was released, and I have to say that I enjoyed this one. It was still the standard fetch quest, but it seems as if more effort was put into making this something that people would actually like.

I know the reward is some type of pants, but I haven't bothered looking into it. I still have yet to collect my reward from A Crystalline Prophecy simply because the stuff doesn't interest me. Not to mention, all of the gear is ass-ugly. Is it too much to ask that they make a set of matching armor? You have a cowboy trench coat, a Marvin Martian helm, and now some kung fu pants that the actual martial artists of Vana'diel can't wear.

Note to SE: Style IS important and drugs are bad, 'mkay.

Seriously, lay of the heavy stuff before you come out with designs for armor. Learn to match. I don't understand why we would get three rewards that don't go with anything we currently have and sure as hell don't go together on their own. Try this out. When you log in next, look for someone who has done all three expansions and got the rewards for the same job class. Now look at their gear and tell me that you aren't sitting in your chair laughing your ass off at how silly they look.

Anyway, I digress. Back to the expansion.

First, you start off by heading to Windurst and you witness the lovely Dr. Shantotto tinkering around with some new magic. Before you know it, she gets sucked into a little portal and poof...no more Taru. Chaos ensues when she returns and starts making plans to take over the world.

Before order is restored to the land, you embark on a journey that takes you to many places you may have forgotten about. Toraimarai Canal, the Cloisters, Sea Serpent Grotto, and the crowd favorite, Den of Rancor just to name a few.

You even get to craft some of the quest items. Isn't that exciting? Thankfully, I wasn't one of the first few people to try my hand at this crafting, otherwise I would've been paying 500K for something that will drop down to 500 gil in a week or two. Maintaining e-peen is a very expensive thing.

The final fight is either quite easy, or extremely frustrating. This all depends on the method you employ against the last Shantotto sisters. Someone had mentioned that they wondered what the fight would be like if you weren't given the optional boosts that you could collect. In a nutshell, it would be similar to a zerg, only you'd be the recipient because they would mop the floor with your behind in a matter of seconds.

In the end, it's definitely the better of the three add-ons, but that's to be expected. You're not going to make an expansion based off of your most powerful BLM in the entire game and make it absolute crap. Then again, anything is possible.

Here's a few shots that I took while progressing through. Check out the expansion sometime. The final cutscene was pretty funny.

Now this was funny. While we were killing our quest NM and dealing with adds, Shikigami Weapon decided to join in on the fun. Damn shame someone else claimed it.

Ahoy Mateys!

I'm sure you saw a few posts back that I was leveling Corsair and learning the way of a pirate. Outside of just running around and saying "Yargh!" all day, I have learned that Corsair is a damned busy job. Just like Bards never get any rest, neither do their pirate siblings. However, I dare to say that a Corsair has more work cut out for them than a bard because unlike the minstrels of melody, a Corsair actually has the ability to do decent damage. Sure, you can try to argue that Bards also get the use of a Joyeuse in later levels but, come on...how much damage do you really think a Bard can do with Savage Blade? >.>

Stop. You're thinking of how much damage they can do. Just stop thinking and keep reading.

/sigh

Anyway, after I hit 71, I got an unlikely party invite. I say unlikely because it wasn't the standard Caedarva Mire or Bhaflau Thickets tower camp, but a merit party. I've got a nice little post about merit parties coming up but, needless to say, I don't see many pre-74's in merit areas. Before Level Sync, there was always the general rule that you don't party with anyone roughly 2 levels over you so the EXP distribution remained fairly even. So going into a party 4 levels under seemed like a huge ripoff. However, I was both bored and curious. Fields of Valor can only hold you for so long, after all.

I spend way too much time in Cape Terrigan.

Off I go to a merit party! It was boring as all hell. I was COR/WHM and outside of rolls, I barely did anything. This isn't anyone's fault, mind you. After all, Corsair has horrid accuracy and trying to hit IT++ enemies without any food is stupid all by itself. So all I really could do was cast a small cure and keep everyone buffed. The flow of exp was awesome. Weaponskills and such going off all over the place. It was like fireworks, but no exploding body parts. (Yeah, body parts. It was neat to see.)

The only thing is, there was no DD on my part, so I got bored. Eventually, they got several merits and went to get restocked / spend their points. At this time, I was asked to try out COR/RDM and give a little DD just to keep me from getting too bored. Very thoughtful of them. I had a good time, and while I missed damn near every shot, at least I *thought* I was doing something. Just like giving a kid an unplugged controller and watching them laugh with glee. They don't know the controller doesn't work, but they're happy in their ignorance.

By the end of the party though, my skills had started to catch up and I was able to assist with skillchains and become more useful than just a 24/7 card spinner. Also, in that party alone, I went from 71-74. I must say, pre-75 merit parties can actually be very beneficial from an exp standpoint.

Now that I had a taste of the awesome exp, you know I had to find another party. So I did, and by the end of the day... 75 Corsair!! I just need some groovy gear and I'll be sailing the 7 seas with a crew of drunk misfits in no time.

Yay me!!

Thanks to everyone in Cape Terrigan who gave me a hand in unlocking my latest Mythic, Leaden Salute!! :D

The Summoning

For all of my Wings of the Goddess fans, let me tell you that this expansion has yet to disappoint. The storyline is shaping up nicely, and while you have a general idea of the events that will take place, the way they are presented helps keep everything from becoming stale.

On top of that, the story does a lot to tie up loose ends and delve deeper into some of the AF quests that you'll see over the course of playing and leveling various jobs. One that comes to mind is the Ranger story. While watching the cutscenes, they fill in several plot holes that may have had you wondering how certain things came to be. Again, this is only one example. If you've been stalling on checking out these missions, do yourself a favor and go see this. Whichever nation you are aligned with, I'm certain the quality is just as good. (Though I am biased, because Windurst owns everyone.)

Since Windurst is my nation, I can truly only talk about that story. For all of you who've ever considered taking up the Summoner job, these last two missions will truly inspire you to unlock and level the job. Seriously, the scene was just that good. You can understand a bit more about why we are able to summon avatars so easily but Karaha-Baruha met a very unfortunate fate. What we call forth is merely a fraction of the power that was used to save Windurst in its final hour. It was truly an epic moment, and so many things are revealed to you. I would say that in all of the scenes so far, there have been three "emotional" moments. This is certainly one of them.

The calm before the storm...

The Hero of Windurst, Karaha-Baruha.

This has to be the best display of summoning ever.

Zolka and Kayeel, stunned at the sight of Karaha's powerful incantation.

The true size of Fenrir makes Windurst's grand scale seem tiny in comparison.

Patriotism is not the only motivation for a soldier.

While I didn't see anything about Lilisette and her predicament, this portion of the expansion was a worthwhile addition. Just a shame that now I've got to wait for several months since the scene ends on a cliffhanger. Damn you SE.

It never ends

So I said I'd be posting like crazy when I came back, yet I've barely posted anything. Know why? Well, since that wonderful FailBox (can I trademark this?) moment when I had to reinstall my game, I forgot my blasted POL email password. So all of my awesome screenshots are sitting on my system and I don't have any way of getting to them.

Damn it all!

Anyway, I'm going to call PlayOnline today and see if they can help me out. I have to admit that I'm a little worried because I've heard of all the technical support nightmares that have come out of calling these people. At least I won't be getting [GM]Dave. ^_^

Jormy feed, {No Thanks}

Talk to you all soon.

Success!

Ha!

I got things working again. Of course, I had to completely wipe my hard drive, but hey...I've got a pc backup so it's all groovy. After a long install, I'm back and ready to go. Whoo!!

W...T...F

Ok, today's Friday the 13th, and it's usually just a bunch of paranoid people running around with a bunch of unwarranted fears because they watched too many scary movies as kids.

Well, turns out that bad luck is apparently the only thing on today's menu because that's all I've been getting. I come back to FFXI with a new attitude and ready to play, but guess what?

I can't play anymore.

No, I'm not banned. My FailBox had an issue. It failed.

No worries, I got a new one and it seems to be working fine. Unless you take into account that FFXI won't install on it. POL installed on my old hard drive without any problems. Got my account linked again and everything was good. Went to install the main game again and it just sits at a black screen.

I've been trying various solutions for the past 3 hours and nothing has worked thus far. I'd buy it for my PS3 but I hear the game runs like crap on that system and my PC is almost as old as some of the teenagers in my neighborhood.

If you see something on the news about a place in Maryland that mysteriously goes up in flames...well, that's me releasing my rage.

It only takes a month

Ok, so I came back a little while ago and have been a busy little bee. So what could I have possibly done in the time that I've returned? Let's recap...with pictures!!

BCNM 40!

Yoko had asked if I was up for doing some BCNMs with her and another friend. Since I'm always broke, I had to jump on the opportunity to get some monies. I'd have better luck making friends with some RMT than trying this, but I'm a glutton for punishment. Plus I have a lot a seals to waste.

The bright side of this is that I got the Erase spell along with some other junk. If I didn't already have it, I would've been pretty excited.

Treasure Chest: Greetings, I'm your treasure chest, and I'm not giving you a damn thing.

Moblin Maze Mongers!

This was so silly. As I said though, I'm into doing painful things. I was looking for a party now that I'm leveling Corsair (yargh!!) and I got an invite to do MMM from a JP party. I figured, why not? I've only done MMM one other time with Domie and Bigstarr, and I hear there are some nifty items in this place. Also, and I don't know why, but I really like the music for Everbloom Hollow. Not something I'd just listen to on a whim, but it's a catchy tune nonetheless.

After wasting a good 30 minutes or so waiting for everyone to remember where Jeuno was, we get the map created and head inside. I'm very new to this, so I didn't have a clue on what I was supposed to do outside of a few buffs and shoot things. Naturally, I was the puller. I didn't mind since I have my Shark Gun and was anxious to finally use my Steel Bullets. Low and behold, they turn on Level Sync. To 51. I was not very happy.

EP and I share the same sentiment when it comes to Level Sync after level 55. We got Slug Shot and want to blow off some faces with it. You can't do that at 51, so my enjoyment level immediately went in the negatives. I'm sorry, but Hot Shot and Sniper Shot just don't do it for me anymore.

On top of that, we didn't have a healer. We had a DNC and a BST/WHM. Don't get me wrong, I like both jobs, but having a full time healer is kind of nice too. In the end, we were 1/3 out of the attempts and I got a whopping 5 marbles. If any of you want me to do this event again in the future, stab yourself and then get back to me.

If I had Slug Shot, this would have never happened!!

Die and a Miss!

I was just sitting in my Mog House while everyone gathered together and got ready for our first Dynamis run since our leader's return. (I'm not the leader by the way, he had some stuff to take care of for awhile). I asked Miliani if I had to go as BLM, cause you all know how much I love going as a BLM to events. If not, read this and you'll understand. Surprisingly, I was asked to change to Paladin. This made me quite happy and pretty damned nervous because I only tanked Dynamis once before and it wasn't a dreamland area.

Things went fairly smooth, all things considered. We didn't have a lot of people because we're going through a rebuilding phase in the shell. No boss run this time, just unlocked the subjobs and did a bit of farming. Hopefully we'll kill the boss and have more time when we go again. This time around, I didn't die at all! Other people did though. >.>

I wonder if Tulkaz was hurt after laying on a dead cactus like that?

Trick or Treat!

What do you do when you get bored in Whitegate? Change yourself to a skeleton and terrorize the town! That's what a few people were doing when I stepped out of my mog house. I got a random trade request from someone and figured I'd jump in too. We all got into a little bit of role play for awhile and had some fun. There was no exp, no reward, and no benefit to any of this except just being silly and enjoying ourselves. Needless to say, I enjoyed myself a lot.

Well, until someone decided to dress up as a Sweeping Cluster and /em Self-Destruct on us. Damned party pooper. Regardless; Halloween's my birthday, and it was nice to see people "getting into the spirit" of things. See what I did there?

I was going to eat Saithe's brains, but then I remembered Elvaan's don't have high INT.

Random!

You love my random pictures, I know you do.

A Wivre needed some help getting Colibri feathers out of its mouth. I had nothing better to do.

Decided to expand our normal Brothers duo and bring in some SCH power. We got a lance and a bone.

Standing in line waiting to audition for the next Pirates of the Caribbean movie. Yargh!

As usual, when I am BLM in *anything*, I wind up dead.

99 Silly Questions

Being a resident Vana'dielian (sp?), I'm certain that you have had your times where you wonder why things are the way they are in FFXI. Some internal questions that make you question even the normally unquestionable "fantasy logic" that we have come to accept.

When you're constantly playing, these thoughts don't seem to be as important because it's just something you're used to. You pretty much brush them off and think nothing of it. Since I returned, some of these thoughts have flooded my mind and leave me in a constant state of confusion because the more I think about them, the more exclamatory my WTF thoughts become.

So guess what? I'm going to share a few of these with you and see if I can drive you crazy too. Aren't I just the sweetest thing? ^_^

1. Why is it that the final spells for a WHM reside in a hole-in-the-wall shack in the middle of the desert that has absolutely nothing to do with White Mages?

2. Since the Phantom Puk in Jade Sepulcher drops a Chocobo Egg 100% of the time, does this mean dragons and chocobos are related? If so, does wearing Crimson / Blood gear help with Chocobo breeding since they have Dragon Affinity?

3. Considering we basically have to beat the daylights out of avatars to get them to join us, why don't they have a chance to turn on us and attack in the same way that a beastmaster's charmed pet does? After all, neither one *really* wanted to be our b*****, right?

4. Why don't Colibri ever get full, and exactly how do they manage to reach into our digestive system to pull the food out anyway?

5. We are the heroes of Vana'diel, able to defeat the mightiest of enemies with ease. Yet for some reason, we are unable to scale ledges higher than a couple of inches off the ground and have to walk around. Why???

6. If you can hide yourself from an enemy after aggro by using sneak, invis, and deodorize, why didn't they detect your smell the first time?

7. Shouldn't ALL leeches drop beast blood when we kill them? Don't they all have blood in them?

8. What is it about talking to a guy in armor that suddenly makes armor appear in chests across the land? Why wasn't it there before?

9. Why does crafting have to be so god damned confusing? Couldn't we just toss ingredients in a container, shake it up, and move on with our day?

10. Why do I waste so much time thinking about dumb stuff?

The last question is the most profound of all, wouldn't you agree?

/restart

Greetings my minions!!

I had to take a break from the lovely world of Vana'diel for awhile. LS issues, personal matters, and all sorts of other things made me say it's time to leave for now.

So, most of that has been resolved or at least is at a manageable state. Not to mention, A Shantotto Ascension is coming out soon. Granted, the gear is meh and the only thing that looks cool are the dragon pants for...mages (insert big WTF symbol here). Personally, I think those pants would've looked 8000% better on Monks, but what do I know.

Anyway, I've got lots to talk about and I'll be posting like crazy over the next few days. So get ready people, cause I have returned. ^_^

/shutdown

In time, I do hope to see you all again.

Until then my minions...

- Jacinda

@Kiri: no more sadfly, got it?

@EP: get 75 RNG already. >.>

Job Update

I can't even remember if I told you all that I was leveling Scholar recently. Well I have, and just hit 75 earlier today. Yay me!

Now that I have more than the basic set of spells from every other mage class, I have to say that Scholar looks like it could be a very fun job. The time limit of strategems and such means careful management of your abilities, and a bit of thought to play effectively.

It was boring as hell to level up until 60, and even then there wasn't much excitement due to the FFXI's playerbase mindset that if you can cast Cure III in any job, your role is always main healing. Thankfully, all of my magic skills are capped due to my other jobs.

So now I'm running around, playing with the various Helix spells just to see what they actually do and if they can serve a real purpose during a non-exp party fight. I'll see what trouble I can get into.

However, there is one thing about Scholar that any future member should be ready for:

You become jailbait. If you're a Mithra, stay away from this job.

I'm now an official member of the Vana'diel Jailbait Society. Granted, I could have joined when I got my full AF at level 60, but I would have been easy prey to all the pedophiles scouting for an easy target. At least now I can get moral support from other members.

Seriously, that's how I feel when walking around in full AF. Like the eyes of Maat models everywhere are watching; eagerly anticipating the moment when I run into a friend and do a /bow motion so they can get a glimpse of the scholar "pants."

I notice it from other people too. Anytime I fall in battle, people run to my backside before casting raise. Necro-pedos. Could it get any worse?

I have to admit, I was so glad when I hit 72. Not because I was that much closer to 75, but because I could wear my seraweels and cover up.

Other than that, yeah...Scholar looks like it will be a lot of fun.

Scholar - Final Fantasy XI's fap job.

RMT Headquarters

Ever get the itch to do a /sea all [generic RMT name] after you get a /tell? Since we've been getting so many, I decided to start doing that. I found a funny little thing.

Every single one is in Bastok.

Now, I don't think we should go on a crusade to ban every newly created level 1 character aligned with Bastok. Although it would be funny to see a nation on character-creation lockdown. I just find it kind of funny that the nation of Humans, which by all accounts are the most selfish and greedy species that ever existed, is also the nation where the RMT decide to stage their operations.

It just seems fitting, you know?

Old Fashioned Stupidity

I'm going to make a huge assumption here. Yes, I know what assuming does. Still, this assumption is one that I think I can make and get away with.

I assume that everyone who plays FFXI with a PC has been to the internet more than once.

With this assumption, I also assume that everyone who has been to the internet has heard of this little thing called phishing. If they haven't heard of this particular term, I'm fairly certain they've heard of theft, hacking, or other indecent activities that can be done through the net.

So someone please tell me why the hell so many people are getting hacked online in this game? This "new wave" of RMT tells that hounds us all every few minutes to verify our account for suspicious activity makes me laugh. They might as well ask us to go to www.allurgilzrbelong2me.com and enter our information. Yet, people are falling for this head over foot every day.

How?

Do you not pay attention when someone with the name Hadexhhgassfew sends you an in-game tell? Are you not aware that Square-Enix's online game site is www.playonline.com, not www.playonline-ffxi.com? It doesn't strike you as odd when someone with a non-GM name tells you to visit a site and verify your account?

Any red flags going off when this stuff happens to you? If not, the please go to your PlayOnline browser, delete your account, and download the latest version of solitaire online. As a matter of fact, don't do that. You might download a virus, and lord help you if that happens.