Back from vacation.

Vacation was nice, had fun, drank a ton. And now on with the show.

There is a lot to go over but I think I can cover it all today. So lets get started.

Leveling has been a bit of a chore on WAR lately, I can't seem to get any parties started in under an hour. >.< Ahh well, that happens sometimes, but I did finally manage to get in a full day of leveling, and eeked out level 67 on WAR (actually getting pretty close to level 68). Somehow I missed the level up shot, even though I didn't change gear or anything to kill the animation. No idea how I did that. It may have been because I wasn't on my desktop BECAUSE IT COMPLETELY MELTED DOWN. ; ; I know next to nothing about computers but I do know that the ethernet ports both died, and they are integrated into the motherboard and so I am getting a new motherboard and hard drive under warranty. But that didn't mean I didn't spend a day wasted with tech support people telling me they knew what was wrong with my computer but having to run a hundred worthless tests just to prove it. Anyway, 67 is basically nothing new for my WAR, but I am considering end-game pieces now because of how fast I can get XP with my parties now able to shift over to the Mire. Imps are so ridiculously easy to kill for mobs that are way higher level than what you would normally kill at the same level, prior to the expansion (e.g. Dhalmels and Gobs). Dusk hands and feet look like gear that I should pick up, but the expense is high, so I would have to give up leveling *gasp* and actually farm for a while for that stuff. I have some ideas on how to get the money in a reasonable amount of time, but my level of concentration may not support it. Although, I probably sound consider that the next job I am leveling probably wont require a large infusion of gil for many levels, so it may be worth it. XP is good on WAR, really good. Chain 7 at level 66 on Magma Eruca good. I was kinda surprised how fast we were tearing through these mobs.

I would like to shortly go over my recent experience with Nyzul Isle and some of the progress we have made. Our first approach to Nyzul Isle was to just rush through as quickly as possible, which is obviously beneficial for time, but considering our set up is not completely balanced, tended to put us in a world of hurt when it came to crunch time. Just to note, our set up is usually NIN, WAR, DRG, BLU or BLM, BLM and WHM, which leaves us without a refresher/enfeebler/dispeller, which is quite a bit more difficult than you might think with some of the stupid mobs that you have to deal with here. But we did finally make it to a save on floor 5 after we changed our approach a bit; we slowed down. Considering the fact that rushing only caused us to die and not advance more quickly, we just took the time to rest to full on big fights. So we figured it was better to rest, take the time and maybe risk not finishing a set of floors and at least get out with some tokens. This worked much better for us, considering our set up. In another related note, we ran into a bunch of NM's this time around and boy they are not fun to deal with, but I have noticed a trend in some of these mobs and I have been adding them to the FFXI wiki to provide the information to others. For example, we ran into Mokke Now this little Imp loves to spam Abrasive Tantra, so much so that it didn't use any other TP move. Now this fits in with our previous experience of the Poroggos that only used one TP move like Water Bomb or Frog Song. I suspect that the third Poroggo NM only uses Magic Hammer but I have no confirmation of that as of yet. I have yet to figure out what moves the Psycheflayers do that are exclusive to each mob, but I will be more observant next time through. I have already changed my filters for when we do Nyzul so that I can gather more information on this. Speaking of Psycheflayer NM's we ran into Vile Yabeewa who turned out to be a lot less annoying than his brother Vile Wahdaha. We also ran into the Shielded Chariot which wasn't much of a pain either. I do have to say that we probably got pretty lucky yesterday on some of the mobs we had to fight, but it was fun and we are working hard at getting to higher levels.

After we were done with Nyzul, those of us that didn't go to bed helped Hellzfury and Pb to beat Promathia. The fight was a lot easier than I remember it being, and Hellz, the DRG, pulled hate and got Cometed in the second phase, and was the only person to die the whole time. I was able to use my new NIN AF+1 boots for the fight which made kiting a whole lot easier. And everyone was doing a ton of damage in general with just melee attacks, because our set up was NIN, WAR, DRK, DRG, RDM, WHM, rather melee-heavy. Jess managed to finish off like the last 10% of Promathia with a 300% Spiral Hell. LOL Well, Hellz and Pb can finally get their CoP rings, and we can start doing Apocalypse Nigh.

That is my short weekend, but I do have a lot to cover that SE has released since I was on vacation. Lets start with the mundane things. CoP missions are being adjusted down. Now, I don't really have a problem with this, because hey I can claim that I did CoP uphill, both ways, with no shoes, etc, but I just don't think they need to be adjusted. I think that the barrier for most people getting CoP done was that they just bandwagoned onto what other people did instead of thinking for themselves. Each time I have done the CoP missions, and have I have done each one multiple times, I have found they just get easier and easier. The gear available gets better and better and people have done them so many times that it is easy to find a truly good strategy, not just AM the mob and pray. I do like the idea of no XP loss and now XP gained from the battlefields just as an incentive to get people to go and help. New assault missions are being added and a new mercenary rank will be available.

A new mercenary officer rank will be awarded to players that complete the new promotion quest to be added in the upcoming version update.

What unusual trials await as you strive to enter the upper hierarchy of Salaheem's Sentinels?

New Assault Missions

We plan to introduce five new missions to challenge players who have entered the mercenary officer ranks.
Here's a sneak preview of what lies in store:

- Wake the Puppet
During a previous mission to eliminate the Undead Swarm presence from Periqia, the Imperial forces were forced to abandon a valuable automaton upon their retreat. You are to infiltrate the area, locate the machine, and return it to Al Zahbi.

- Red Versus Blue
Joint battle exercises are to be carried out between the Immortals (blue) and the Inexorables (red). You have been assigned to assist the blue team. The first side to defeat the leader of the other will be declared victor.

These new Assault missions will provide an interesting and difficult challenge for even the most experienced mercenary!

Report to the Commissions Agency for duty!

More of the same it appears, but some of the missions seem to have more information about the storyline in them, and I think I have some interest in pursuing more goals in the area of Assault, being that there is some pretty good gear for BRD endgame in there and I need to get to a higher rank because they are actually adding some new items to the higher rank Imperial Standing rewards, like Eternalpain definitely needs to get his rank up to get a Perdu Hanger for his BLU. So, I will be focusing a bit here in the future, I think. And finally some definitive information about Einherjar was recently provided:

A new, massively multiplayer battlefield is in the works for the upcoming version update.
The following is a brief outline on the new, multi-faceted feature:

Concept

Einherjar is an ever-changing multiplayer battlefield based in the Hazhalm Training Grounds. Because the monsters appearing in the dungeons will differ with each visit, a balanced party consisting of skilled, high-level players is recommended to clear these challenging missions.

Participation
6 to 36 players, level 60 and above, can enter each chamber of the Hazhalm Testing Grounds. An item similar to the hourglass used for Dynamis will allow parties to reserve one of the multiple areas, and will be required for entry. No previous Aht Urhgan missions need to be completed before participating.

Battles

After a party chooses a room, they will have 30 minutes to wipe out all the enemies before being teleported back out of the area. This time limit cannot be extended. Each area consists of a large room filled with several weak monsters, and one powerful boss monster. Parties must eliminate all the monsters in the area for the mission to be considered complete. Clearing all the chambers will grant players access to the final area where they will finally learn the secrets that lie deep in the bowels of Hazhalm.

Rewards

An Assault-like system is planned, where points earned in the Training Grounds can be used to purchase various items. The monsters lurking within Hazhalm will also drop rare items that cannot be obtained anywhere else in Vana'diel.

This seems to be pretty perfectly sized for Versus to do but honestly, we already have a ton on our plate with Sky, Sea, Limbus and other events. I suppose it will depend on what the rewards are in Einherjar to ultimately determine if it is worth it. We gave up on Salvage for that very reason, we had the people but the reward-to-time-spent payoff was not efficient at all for such a large group. I am hoping this is something different, something more doable, with decent rewards available inside and out of the zone. It appears that you can buy items outside of Einherjar with the points you earn inside, I am thinking that the abjurations that SE was speaking about becoming available elsewhere will be from this method, and then all new items available as drops from within the Einherjar zone. The update is mere days away, and although it would seem reasonable for them to have the update next week, I can see it being the second week of June easily, because there are several POL updates that haven't happened yet, and that they have to post about before they actually announce the date of the update. Here's hoping I am wrong about that. ^.^/