Apparently Dynamis translated into English means "Time to be a late, lazy dickhead."

What is the best way to predict what will not drop in Dynamis? Check what I have winning bid on. That will ensure that it will not drop. We did Bastok yesterday, and didn't get one AF drop until almost half way through. That is just ridiculous for Bastok. But not winning the lots may actually be good for me, but I will get to that after a nice little warm and fuzzy rant.

What is even more ridiculous than no drops in Bastok, is how some people in Obsidian think they can get away with always being late for runs, or bidding people up and sniping bids for absolutely no reason, or not paying attention at all during runs. Its upsetting to the point of digital violence. It is the worst when all of these things are rolled into one late, sniping, do-nothing package of stupidity. And we have several of these people now. Learn some respect people! Think of someone else besides yourself! I dont care if you are late or stupidity or a dick on your own time, but when it hurts other people then you are just plain rude.

Obsidian used to be THE NA Dynamis LS. Now its just another (although still very good) LS, because of its open door policy. This used to be good policy when the only people that were high enough to join were also dedicated enough to get to actually attain a level high enough to participate in Dynamis properly. But now, as the game has gotten older and the average level of the player base has rised, the amount of idiots has also rised in level almost by default. In response Obsidian has slowed its entries, but slowing its entries does nothing to sift out the stupid and the lazy. In fact, it just means that the stupid will have a proportionally larger impact on the LS. Many good suggestions have been made to fix this, for example, letting people into the LS automatically if they already have Outlands access, while limiting the number of entries for those that have no Dynamis experience. Another suggestion, of fighting the Dynamis Lord on every Xarcabard run, was well received too. But these things are just lost in the shuffle of a LS that has something like 20 leaders.

For the love of God, please stop the stupid!

Also while in the vein of asking for the love of God, if you are going to come to Dynamis as NIN, then you should, you know, maybe be expected to, oh I dont know, TANK. This is what we have come to in this game, people that play tanking jobs not wanting to tank. I spent more time tanking as DRG/NIN last night than our secondary tank. And yep, you guessed it, it was the same guy that is consistantly late and loves to bid snipe.

Back to the run. It was actually good that I did not win any of my bids, because I believe that it would have put me back into second place on Koga Chainmail, and the second place person is that same, always late, bid sniping, non-tanking NIN. So screw him, even if it means that I can't get other gear, I dont care.

At least someone made out pretty well. Vesp got his Melee Gaiters, even though there was some confusion before the run on the high bid. They were the first piece to drop. Vesp wanted these very badly because he actually has a countertank set up unlike many other MNKs. He was rather happy to get them.

DRK dropped next, which Borin had 4 points on and didn't really want, but he lost the lot against someone else that bid 4 points. But luck was against Borin on this day, and we managed to get another set to drop, which he had to lot on because he bid for them.
After that, THF and RDM dropped. The person that got the THF piece would not shut up about it, constantly talking about it until one or two people started joking them about it and how it is not a very good piece, but this person was too blindly self-centered to even notice they were the butt of the joke. Some of the people in Obsidian anymore... /sigh.

Now, dont get me wrong, Obsidian is still a very, very good Dynamis LS, but the bad apples are making this so annoying for the good players that its almost not worth it anymore. The leaders need to make some changes so that stupid people start listening to them rather than having the run of the LS.

*Deep breaths, deep breaths*

Ahhh, much better.

I actually left Dynamis after the boss (we are allowed to do that, and its generally what happens after most city runs), but I found out that more than the normal amount of people stayed and I wish I had. Oh well, nothing I could do after I had already dropped my glass. So I headed back to Whitegate and started going over the AH looking for things of interest. Still no Hagun on the AH. >.< I then started looking at Cursed Kabuto, but I didn't really want to spend the gil on it yet. So I bid something that I thought would be way too low. Yeah, not low enough. Oops. And it dropped me below a million gil, which I hate to be below. But the Damascus Ingot that dropped from our Morgenstern run had sold and Omoi gave me my cut which got me back over a million gil. I should also have some more money in the Versus bank.

It was already getting pretty late so Omoi and I decided to go get some WS points out of the way on her Morgenstern (instead of farming for Water Clusters, barely got out of that one ^.^) then head to bed. So we went to WS point burn central, Kuftal Tunnel, and fought some crabs with our NPC's. Here is my NPC buddy: Lets just say that I am not the nicest buddy to my NPC, as he has only once been out for the entire time that I have called him. And tonight would not be any different. So we happily went about about fighting crabs for WS points:
A wonderfully happy scene until a mean dragon decided to run around and freaking EAT MY FACE. Bye Zenji! I will see you next time when I get you murdered or something like that.

Now, I wanted to talk about how PLD's can easily operate in end-game burn parties and the barriers to that happening. The first issue is the equipment set up of the PLD's for burn parties. /NIN is mandatory, for dual wield and shadows, and a Suppanomimi is perfect for this. Even if you dont have uber gear, definitely start with a Company Sword and a Joyeuse (or a Justice Sword). If you can't get your hands on one of those nice off-hand weapons then just find an Espadon and use that. Now I have noticed that after 75 levels of getting their heads bashed in, PLD's have lost the ability to understand that 90%+ accuracy is what you are aiming for and that 60% is not good, indeed it is crappy. So lets look at the TP build for a PLD.

Head: Optical Hat or Walhara Turban.
Neck: Chivalrous Chain (Merman's is a fine alternative)
Earring: Brutal Earring/Suppanomimi (Alternatives include Assualt, Fowling, Coral)
Body: Haubergeon
Hands: A ton of options including Dusk, Homam for the high end, but also Tarasque for not that much and the Barbarian Mitts as a free alternative.
Rings: Sniper's, Jaeger, Venerer's. You need more accuracy than you think, especially if you are going to eat meat, which you will do with your A+ Sword Skill.
Back: Amemet (plenty of better, more expensive alternatives).
Waist: Life Belt, Swift Belt, Potent Belt.
Legs: Again, Dusk and Homam are high end, but Royal Knight's Breeches are just fine for this slot.
Feet: A ton of good, but hard to get stuff like Dusk, Homam, and Amir. Alternatives include Rutter Sabatons (free but slow is icky) and even Tiger gear.

WS Gear:
Head: Sipahi Turban, Optical Hat, Hecatomb.
Neck: Chivalrous Chain (Spike Necklace as the alternative)
Earrings: +STR Earrings if you want to pay for them, but its not necessary.
Body: Haubergeon, Hecatomb.
Hands: Sipahi Dastanas, Gigas Bracelets, Hecatomb.
Rings: STR Rings.
Back: Amemet (and higher alternatives).
Waist: Warwolf Belt, Potent Belt.
Legs: AF2 is actually the best here, but Royal Knight's Breeches are just fine.
Feet: Hecatomb and Rutter Sabatons stand out as the best, Heroic Boots are ok too.

Now with that gear you will be on par with other DD's of that level, like Ninja's.

Now PLD's this is what you have to remember. On a TP build you want +attack, +accuracy and +haste, you do not want +STR. That is only for WS's. Its a waste of a slot. And I dont want to hear about how getting DD gear is expensive. You have it really pretty easy all the way through all of your levels, and can even wear your AF all the way to 75. The only thing that is moderately expensive is the Adaman gear and I know that it is not that great, so its not much of an excuse. If you are not willing to spend the money like everyone else then you will be able to burn like everyone else.

Things going for PLD's in a burn party:
1. A good weaponskill. +Crit hit chance on a multihit Weaponskill? That is what all DD's wish for. Vorpal Blade is actually about the same as Blade: Jin and with a higher base DMG weapon, with STR being the only modifier.
2. The ability to take a few hits and actually help out other people in the party. An occassional Flash, Cure and most importantly a Cover can keep the chain going.
3. STR is the second highest natural skill of PLD's. They are going to do good damage.

Things going against PLD's in a burn party:
1. Elitest perspections of the roles of people in the game. These people are stupid and haven't even thought of people outside of WAR, NIN, MNK in a burn party. In my own personal opinion, PLD would be the next in line for this kind of party. They will do as much damage as a NIN if they are properly equiped, and they serve the same exact function as the NIN in the burn party.
2. The stubborn nature of most PLD's. They dont want to spend the money to get the gear to be a good burn party member. They fear running out of MP. They dont like burn parties. Whatever, if you want to stop deleveling, get over it. If you want more MP, get the Sanction Refresh, get a Parade Gorget, or just get over not having MP, you dont need it as much as you think you do.

Yes, that is right, there is nothing going against PLDs being used in burn parties besides people's perspections of the roles of PLDs in xp parties.

PLD's have an A+ in Sword and with a Suppanomimi, they are likely able to use meat full time in burn parties and have very high accuracy if they use a TP build instead of a WS build to gain TP (which I see all the time, orz).