I win Dynamis.

Yesterday, in a stroke of brilliance I won Dynamis-Jueno. Now, you may be asking how one person, standing alone can win, single-handedly, an entire Dynamis. And to you, my bright-eyed reader, I say it can be done and I will show you how! Almost the entire alliance wipes to a nasty Astral Flow (two in the last two runs... not really a good sign) and then I solo the rest of the Necromancer, while it and it's avatar are still trying to beat on me AND I GOT AF TO DROP! I WIN! WOOHOO!

Sorry about that bit of grand standing, but LOL you know I had to say it! I am King of Dynamis!

LOL, Anyway... Dynamis-Jueno was nice, got some decent drops. And I died about a thousand times. Maybe I should hold back a bit, but I don't know I also feel I should be trying my hardest. I am definitely going to start using Seigan before WS's though... especially on RNG mobs. Dynamis as usual was quite a long event, so I didn't have much time after it to doing anything specific, so Omoi and I finished up our ToA missions, and man were they awesome!

The point at which we last left off put us on a mission to the Ashu Talif to find Aphmau, but she wasn't there and we were sent to Periqia to find out more information there. This is a mission assault, which buggles my mind as to why they don't use assaults more often in these missions. Its essentially a BCNM without the limitations of a BCNM, you can set tasks, you can have multiple different enemies, you can use strategies, its just perfect for missions and yet so far they haven't used it for almost anything. Anyway, this mission was ridiculously easy if you can pull without links, and I will explain how you can do that without much effort. Omoikitte and I duoed this assault. Omoi came as WHM/SMN because the mobs are grouped so that they are basically impossible to pull without links, so a Carby pull is necessary, but even with this it is very easy to still get links, because even after Carby dies and initial linking mobs delink others can link off of the initially pulled mob once its hate is on the SMN. We had this happen at least twice, once causing us to have to wipe from three different mobs on us. It may be difficult to make out from that picture but the way we pulled them was relatively simple, and made it so that even if we got a link from pulling, Omoi would just die and reraise, and I would voke the intially pulled mob and bring it away to fight it. The room that you pull to is one of the spiral rooms in Periqia, where there is an entrance at the top, then a left spiral down to the room on the right where the Lamia are located. The simple way to pull is to have the voker stand on the upper ledge and have the puller use Carby to pull one of the mobs, once it is the camp room, just voke the mob up to the upper ledge, this will work whether there are links or not. If there are links, just have the puller die and reraise, then fight the mob. After three mobs are dead, you get one of the best CS's I have ever seen in the game, and yes, I have seen every single CoP CS which are just amazing. Shall we discuss? Lets. Aphmau and the automatons where still on the Ashu Talif with Lazuf and the plot begins to unveil itself. As the Ashu Talif lands in Periqia we are greated by the Grand Vizer and the Empire's alchemists and their pet Lamia! O.O; Well, that was a twist, but not even the largest twist we will see, but I don't want to give away everything. :) Lets just say that Lazuf was not pleased with this turn of events, that is for sure. Events unfold, and we then had to return to Naja to find out what the Grand Vizer is up to, and how he plans on doing it. Although, as usual, the motives are still hidden, but the plan of action is unfolding and that plan is Alexander. The real question is why? Why activate something destroyed the old empire? What happened the last time the last rider came to Al Zahbi? Where is all of this going? Well, that is all well and good, but I wont be able to find out until the next update, but I am very intrigued to see what is going to happen next.

In other news, I finally turned in my items to upgrade my NIN AF feet. Now, you may ask why am I doing this when I was so set and determined that I was going to do SAM hands? Well the easy answer is that I thought I had the Scarlet Odoshi as the second part of the upgrade, but it turns out that I do not... I could have sworn that I had that item, but I searched everywhere and it wasn't in my MH or even my storage. So, I had to go with something else. And I figured that this was the best way, because I hardly ever take my NIN feet with me to events; they are always in storage because I don't have the space to carry them around. At least this way, I will have them and have an excuse to always be using them to get around. I just need to replace them with a SSG coffer now, so I can store the set again.

Finally, I wanted to talk about the direction of the game and the size of new events that SE is releasing. Obviously SE still supports major HNM LS's but at this point there are so many alternatives to HNM's for smaller, self-supporting LS's, one has to wonder if the major HNM LS is on its way out, and smaller more focused LS's are the future of the game. Dynamis would be the only exception to this, obviously, but it is just that, an exception. It requires and has the benefits of having larger number of characters in the zone at one time. But what about Limbus? Salvage? The new event? SE has been gradually limiting the number of players to do the new events, so fewer people are needed than were needed before, even Sky and Sea require fewer people than they have in the past. I remember when we wouldn't do Byakko with less than 25 people, now it is far easier. So, this leaves me wondering, what is the proper size for an end-game LS? I personally don't know, but my guess with the way things are right now that 36 is probably the best maximum LS size at this point. I have seen several larger HNM LS's break down because they get too big and the rewards get too far away for the members to justify staying. The only reason I mention this is because I saw one of the largest HNM's on Odin just recently shouting for new members... this is an LS that has beaten Absolute Virtue. With SE's announcement that abjurations will now be available through alternative methods, will the HNM LS's be willing to camp HNM's for Ridills and Black Belt items only, when there are alternatives to getting the abjurations? Yes, they probably will because it will still be a source of those super-rare abjurations, but will people be willing to stay in line for those abjurations when they could get it in other places? Probably not. So the "do everything" LS is probably a thing of the past. Some of the best gear now comes from an event that is limited to 18 people and is best done with 8-10 people. Maybe we have gotten to the point where it is too difficult to do all of the events in the game at the same time, and now we have to pick and choose. Some events are still staple; Sky, Sea, HNM, but other events are optional. Limbus? Salvage? The new event? Dynamis? I am sure that the larger HNM LS's will stay around, but honestly they are not required as much as they once were, and having 50+ members just isn't needed for events anymore. Mid-sized LS's now seem to be the focus, and even smaller LS's might be the future of the game. I am kind of distracted today, so this topic isn't as focused as I hope it might be, but it is worthy of considering. Are the line of a huge HNM LS worth it anymore? I just don't know if they are.