Greedy gods.

So... two more Byakko's and no more Haidate, but at least the entire LS has the kitty's axe now... Everyone wants Haidate of course, and you would think with how many we have spawned as of late we would have gotten more than three, and one of those going to the completely wrong person because of pure random luck. 3/20~ thats just no good. Any other god I am happy to get crafting materials from to line my pockets, but not on Byakko or Kirin... its just kinda blah. We work hard for our items and they will come. Still have another Byakko set waiting, but of the two we did yesterday, we got an E. Feet and an N. Hands, which is good I suppose but not what we need the most. Ah well, we will do more, and next time I am going to call it, just for Izman.

After Sky was Limbus and a nice pretty screenshot of Scarlet Odoshi would be right here if I had downloaded them. >.< But it did drop, actually two dropped, one for me and one for Glacian. Glacian actually passed the first one for me because he is just plain nice, even though he is persuing a full set of SAM AF+1. So new I can finally get my Myochin Kote +1 and sell off my Hachiman hands. +7 STR and +7 DEX, woot! I wonder if I could make a DEX build on SAM for crits? Osode, Haidate, Myochin Kote +1. LOL Almost definitely not worth it because I wouldn't be swinging enough for it to matter. We won another Temenos West run, which started off kind of crappy, first floor was just Bene and Time, then second floor was nothing but a Mandy sleepga fest, so we just skipped it. But on the third floor, it was Items and Time, then after skipping the Slimes on the fourth floor, the fifth floor gave us Items, Time and Bene, which was a nice little treat. Limbus is fun and quick, we have a very good balance for our runs now, but are for some reason always lacking a RDM. LOL Well, after Limbus we helped Bubbly get ZM4 and part of ZM5 done, which was fun. Probably will get him Sky when he gets back from his trip this weekend.

On to other things. Another POL update, pretty obvious something was still coming and since the update has been bumped back to Tuesday we will probably get another one on Monday. But lets take a peek at what is provided.

In the upcoming version update, we plan to introduce a multitude of items and synthesis recipes that will open the door to new weapons and armor with graphics unlike anything you've ever seen before!
We will also be giving players another chance to obtain the rewards from selected quests and missions they have already completed.

New Items

Here is a selection of the new weapons and armor to be found in the next version update. How will these powerful items be obtained, and what wondrous properties will they possess...?

Existing Rewards

In answer to requests from many players, a number of rewards will once again become available. This change will be put into effect for selected quests and missions with multiple reward choices, such as Divine Might, Apocalypse Nigh, and the Chains of Promathia storyline.
We hope that players who have accidentally discarded a valuable item or those who wish to change their choice of reward will take full advantage of this opportunity!

The new gear looks neat but is definitely just remodels of Errant and Adman gear, the weapons are a bit more curious though. The sword in the PLD's hand is a new design, and the polearm is definitely lifted from some kind of design similar to the Dark Rider's spear. Very interesting on that front. I definitely don't use my DRG very often, but it would still be nice to see the stats on it, and see if it can do something for DRGs. Again, more interesting information about the update and another update for which everyone is looking forward. Also the ability to re-quest the CoP and ZM items is nice to have, and you know it would be even better if they let us have two of them rings. LOL I would do CoP all over again to get a Sattva and Tamas Ring, especially the Sattva, but that is all pie in the Sky dreaming. LOL It is nice for those that made bad decisions and want to rectify them.

To wrap up, I wanted to talk about something I read of the translation of the discussion about the new expansion. Something, I found very intriguing.

As for new features and content, Battle Director Matsui only confirmed "new magic will be added." Director Ogawa said they are planning more light and fun activities like Assault and Chocobo Racing. He avoided any discussion of hoping for new jobs, but said we should anticipate content that will have a huge influence on the game.

Now, I want to dissect this for a moment. The only confirmation is that "new magic" will be added. Now, this could mean two things, but first a bit of analysis of the current situation. Essentially, the current spell list for most jobs is choked full. There are still options here and there, but honestly not much is missing from the current spell lists. So that leaves me wondering... why would they make a statement about new magic? Would new spells just randomly shoved into the list be considered ground-breaking enough to justify the statement about a new expansion? I think not. Tier III magic spells? Nah, we already know they can do that, and that is just rehashing something that they already have available. So where does that lead us? I see two options here, and they are two very interesting options. Either there will be a new job that uses magic... or they are going to raise the level cap. OK STOP SCREAMING! LOL A new job would be obvious, they did say "new magic" but it is a translation, and they could have meant new spells, but again that begs the question presented above. So, a new job using new magic, as they specifically did not answer the question about new jobs in the interview. But "new magic" could also be provided through new levels, and also not later in the quote that they say that which is coming in the expansion will be "content that will have a huge influence on the game." Does a new job really have a "huge influence on the game?" Again, I am doubtful. But raising the level cap would hugely influence the game. Many people object to this idea, but honestly, I think they are overlooking a few things. Lets look at the two main objections to raising the level cap. "Subjobs would break the game." O rly? I think not, SE has already dealt with this issue in the past, and that was a long time ago. For example, /SAM was already fixed, Meditate only gives 60 TP when it is a subjob, what if Convert gave only half the MP from the HP that was converted? Strong but definitely not game breaking considering the state a gimped convert would leave a mage job in. And people forget that it would help other subjobs to balance it... for example, do you think everyone would drop everything for a minimal about of MP return if when they sub BLM they could have Stun? Or have flash from subbing WHM. And people also don't consider the problems it may cause for other jobs, like having Ni level debuffs from subbing NIN? I think that Convert would be the least of SE's worries and I think they could deal with many of the problems if they had the time (oh say the year and a half will have put into WoG) to invest in the idea. The second main objection is that it makes merits useless... this objection is pretty silly, it only makes merits stronger. And you will also have to decide if you want to merit at 75 or if you want to wait to 80 (my assumed new level cap). Merits may have been the way to raise the level cap in 2005, but this is 2007 and the expansion will be 2008. In 2005 no PLD subbed NIN and no NIN subbed DRK, in 2007 the exact opposite it true.

Change is fun if you embrace it.

Weird, I editted this at work, but it didn't stick... anyway, Ailee pointed out that Stun and Flash are both 45 and I checked on Ninjutsu and the lowest debuff is 44, and even refresh is 41. So these issues do not seem to be a block to the feasibility of raising the level cap to 80.