Yes, I know about the lottery. Even people without the internet know about he lottery by now. And if you can do math you can figure out that the RMT can't abuse the system with any reliability. It's fun, it's neat, I will do it, but thats about all the attention it should get. It's a lottery, you aren't going to win. That is the nature of lotteries.
Lets just say I will play all 10 times for Ringthree and thats it. Then I will forget about it. I will happily collect any prize that I get and public cheer anyone that wins something nice, while using my mind daggers to chop them up into tiny little pieces. LOL
What I won't do though is let the fact that they are doing a lottery bug me about anything else in the game. I like the idea of the lottery, it's fun, garners interest, but it isn't the reason there are other problems in the game, or that there are RMT or that people bot or that I can't get some piece of gear. I like to put the blame where it most belongs, be it game design flaws, hackers or greedy Chinese assholes.
I have a half done good post that I will have to save for tomorrow, and no pictures for today. So just a little point about something that everyone else is going to talk about today. Instead of just repeating everyone else, I will just leave you with this.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Avoiding the Obvious.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Regrets and failures.
I regret leaving Omoi and Iz last night because I was falling asleep. I regret forgetting to pick up Pot for at least some of the Tier 10 runs last night. I regret not being able to plan Salvage to get Crlm and Ash to be able to go to more runs. I regret making Hiryo do a bunch of Tier 5 runs last night because we were doing Tier 10s. I regret not spending more time farming. I regret my inattention. I regret my frustration. I regret my assumption that everyone has the same mind as me and the fact that I don't explain things before we do them. I regret that when I do explain things it takes way too long and people feel like I am talking down to them.
I have regrets, and I am sorry for them all. I wish I did not. I wish I could balance my needs with the needs of those that depend on me. I do not seek sympathy, I just want to express my regret. I am the kind of person that would very much like to make everyone happy, no matter how much of a doomed failure the pragmatic side of me knows that to be. I also regret the other side of me, that becomes spiteful and cruel when I am frustrated.
I let people down, it is inevitable. I over commit myself far too often, and I try to follow through with everything I promise in a reasonable time, but far too often I forget. My memory is poor, it is a fact of my being. This will always lead me down the path to failure. Failure to fulfill my promises. Should I not promise as much? Or is that just another way that I let people down? Should I fulfill my promises more quickly? Is leaving nothing for myself a failure also?
I can also be a spiteful and mean person. I wish I was not, and I wish I could control my anger. The worst part is that I always regret my anger. I know it is unjustified. Frustration and anger solve nothing and do nothing to relieve my stress.
I have a moral compass. Regrets are good. Recognizing failures teaches you how to prevent them from happening again. I am not a user more than I am a giver. I know that even if I fail, even if I have regrets, I am still trying so very hard. And I know at the end of the day that my intentions are good, my intentions are benevolent and my intentions are what define me morally. I approach everything in the same manner. I will never be one that can look at a game and say that I can absolve myself from immoral acts just because it is a game.
I regret, and that is good. I lick my wounds and move on, trying to make myself a better person today than I was yesterday. This is not some emo rant trolling for pity. I know that regret is good, and those that do not feel regret, and those that do not accept their failures and learn from them, are really the kind of people I do not want to become.
Limbus last night completed an Ultima set. The Temenos second tier zones are annoying right now. It's not worth splitting the run because if you lose then you lose a chip to get to the Tier 2 run, but it is far too easy to do with a full run. Last night we took 18 people to do the Beast pairs and we were done in less than 15 minutes, and most of that was buffing and pulling. Right now we are planning on doing an Ultima on Thursday and then Monday doing a split run for Apollyon and then an Omega on Thursday, then back to Ultima again.
Assaults were very productive though, and included Rank 10 runs for almost all of the zones. I am going make suggestions to help beat these fights because they are quite annoying if you don't have a strategy down or more importantly if you don't have the proper set up. For party set up I would suggest in general a tank and two DDs subbing NIN, for the mages you should have at least WHM and RDM, then we used a BRD, but any other mage class should be able to provide the support needed here. I think durability and keeping TP gained by the mob low are the keys to easy victory. The order of difficulty to me from hardest to easiest is Bellerophon's Bliss (Khimaira 14X) > Better than One (Black Shuck) > The Price is Right (King Goldemar) > The Susanoo Shuffle (Orochi) > Bloody Rondo (Count Dracula). From the runs last night and my experience winning these zones here are my suggested strategies for each one, in no particular order.
The first was King Goldemar. 
The suggested strategy I have for this one is to have one person kite the King and the other people slowly do damage to the King until it does Hellsnap which will call down a weapon. The other two DD should then move quickly to kill the weapon, then switch back to the King. Repeat this until all the weapons are dead. Alternatively, you can have one DD or the tank waiting for the weapons to be summoned. This helps prevent letting the weapons get into range of the mages and lets you control them much sooner. I would suggest kiting around the tall rock because it casts to fast to get out of range and it will limit the change of the mages getting hit with a -ga spell. Once all the weapons are dead it is relatively easy to finish the King with three DD's that have shadows and good mage support. Just make sure to get Magic Defense Down removed as quickly as possible, which I believe takes 3 Erases because of the order in which they are removed. Also, bringing Holy Water is nice because the curse effect that the King uses is very strong.
The next is Count Dracula. 
This one requires no adjustment in the party dynamic, and also requires Holy Water because the Count has a doom move called Eternal Damnation that is similar to the taurus doom gaze TP move. It is strong and may take several Holy Waters to remove. Also, everyone in the party should be ready to kite because the Count can charm and also summon exact copies of the person with the most hate at the time. The charm move turns the player into a bat but it does not seem to increase its resistance to dark based sleep from what I have seen. The charm does not last overly long, and the other two DD should be able to deal with the Count while the other DD is charmed. It is a conical move, so multiple people can be charmed if you are not careful. When the Count creates a doppelganger the two DD's that do not have hate should switch over and kill it quickly. It is not too strong and has very low HP, but it does tend to double attack quite a bit and it can WS. If too many people get charmed or if someone dies and you need a break it is very easy to kite the Count as it is a DRK and it tends to cast some relatively harmless spells.
Orochi next. 
This one is pretty much the easiest of the Rank 10s save for its one potential wipe move. Preparation is about the same as the other two previously mentioned, and also some Antidotes would be nice because Nerve Gas can do a very mean poison. The fight is a relatively simple wyrm-type fight. DD stand on its feet and to the side, and mages stand out of range and don't pull hate. The one thing that makes this more difficult than it appears is that at certain points in the fight the Orochi will turn around and emote that it has begun to thrash its tail about. This will cause its next TP move to be Serpentine Tail which does a lot of damage and knocks back. As long as everyone is paying attention it is easy to turn around and just wait for it to stop thrashing but it also depends on how much TP it has when it turns about, because it usually takes a moment or two for people to turn away from it. Shadows can block Serpentine Tail, but it is definitely a move that is better avoided than dealt with.
I will finish up with Black Shuck and Khimaira 14X tomorrow, and I may just republish this whole section tomorrow so that all the information is in one place. But I did want to mention that I got Captain last night because of the win we had against the King. 
An extra tag, no cost Runic Portals, and a neat new title. :) I also got SCH to 26 before I passed out and died on Omoi and Iz. 
Like I said before, I am sorry about that. :)
Monday, April 28, 2008
On a roll.
I was out of town most of the weekend, but that doesn't mean I don't have anything to show for the time that I did spend playing FFXI. Where do I always start? Salvage, of course. Prior to the run, I suggested to Izman that he change to /NIN for this run and that he use Axe and his Joyeuse most of the time except for NM's. Though /SAM gives Iz a bit of selection between offense and defense, /NIN gives Iz more options in weapon selection and gives Iz a lot more defensive potential. Saving MP for the mages is definitely beneficial at all stages of Salvage. On the first two floors on almost all Salvages using a multiple hit weapon greatly increases damage out put because the mobs are all so weak. I have been trying to ease up on our mages lately, because I know that healing two SAM or /SAM people has been pushing them when in most cases they would be much better off with just a little bit of MP stored from shadows cutting the melee damage. Another thing that it does is prevents our pullers from dying. This is something that happens more often than you would think, and is definitely not our pullers fault or really the melee. Going /NIN allows Iz to voke incoming pulls without having to switch back and forth between Seigan and Hasso constantly. The 1 minute timers on these abilities also limits it's usefulness considering the speed of many of the pulls on the higher levels. So, having Iz come /NIN helps the survivability of our pullers, it helps to initially hold the mobs, and it decreases the damage that Iz takes when pulling the mob off of the puller.
So, we tested it out, and things went swimmingly. So we are going to stick with this for now, and we are going to basically move Izman up to main tank and me back to second DD. I don't know what form this will take right now, but for the test last night Iz got Subjob and JA first, I got them second, but I still got equipment first. I think that we will go with Izman taking the full role of main tank for the next run. This keeps things easier to control for lotting cells and doesn't split the focus of the mages. As for the run, we did an Arrapago and did everything we possibly could. 2F QA, 3F QTH, 4F Big Bhoot and QTH, 5F Archaic Chariot and QA, 6F QTH x2 and Armored Chariot. And we actually got a drop! 
And it was actually a priority for someone one the run! *gasp* Akanea is having a good week from what I can see! Justice Torque and now his 35 for his Usukane legs! It means we get to integrate some Bhaflau into our runs until we get his 25 piece. And that will let us farm some crappy Bees again... orz. :) Anyway, Akanea was quite pleased with the results and had them on as soon as we were out of the run. 
As for the Armored Chariot, we didn't get anything that stood out as something we needed to complete but still 25's are useful and we aren't losing them at all. 
The Ea's Body went to Omoi and I got the gote, which was the last piece that I needed to have a complete set of Usukane 25 pieces. 
Now, I just basically need as couple of 35's and I am done with Usukane. LOL As if it was that easy!
Might be finishing up Rank 10's tonight, I just need to do the King Goldemar one and then I am all done with Assaults. Then and extra tag, free Nyzul Isle ports and constant Red verse Blue spamming. LOL
Friday, April 25, 2008
Jealous of a friend.
Hehehe, congratulations to you Akanea! Can you feel the heat of my burning jealousy? LOL
Perhaps I should preface? Add a little context? Sounds good. Lately drops have been rather meh for Versus. Since Skur got his Macha's Coat there has been little to no dropping, and this weekend just reinforced that when Byakko dropped nothing of worth. Sea had been unfriendly as ever, even included yesterday when a large amount of time was spent on Ix'DRK with no results. But I suppose that an unlucky streak should not deter you from pressing forward with spawning mobs that you need to advance. It was Jailer of Justice today, probably the easiest outside Sea NM besides Love, and probably the worst for drops. Well, you never know what is going to happen really. 
My lot of course was a 53. :) Akanea won the lot and as soon as it had pooled he had it on! 
Congrats to Aka! And he will put it to good use too. :) Its our first Justice Torque and our second torque from an outside Jailer. And here is the greatest part 
Bg called the drop... from the Crawler's Nest! LOL He called it before anyone else in the LS that was in Sea. :) We need more of Bg's calls on things like this. LOL
In other news, I have been working on my SCH again with Omoi and Izman and we had a really good night the other day. We all got to 25 on our respective jobs and our set up actually lets us handle mobs that are well above our level. 
I think we are going to head out to the Jungle next, take on some Mandies until we can do the worms in N. Gustaberg [S]. I would much prefer SCH as a sub-job for WHM than BLM, but I do need to get both of them to 37 eventually. Too much Salvage in my spare time. LOL
Onto my other project, I know that someone is waiting for the Blue Mage gear, but it is going to have to wait until Monday. :)
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Being sick does not effect TH.
This is a sad excuse for having horrible TH on Byakko. No Haidate, no D. Legs, no N. Hands, not even E. Feet. Kallo claimed that his sickness was ruining his TH. 2 Byakkos and nothing of interest is pretty orz. Another SSR run and nothing of interest, orz x2. Pirates and giant turtles haunt my dreams! >.<
I think I am going to put off the gear suggestion for our Blue Mage until later. I wanted to make a nice list of the things that I still need to do, because I hope that it will focus me in the days ahead. So, lets see. I need to work on WHM, but this gets put on the back burner a lot for Salvage and other things. I may also pick up RDM and BRD to be more helpful in general and also because they are very quick moving jobs and get fast invites. I would still like to get WHM to 75 but with little spare time and other needs I am afraid it is going to the back burner. I need to do more Campaign. I have almost definitely lost my second to highest rank as of now, and with the potential quality of the gear that is appearing with the Campaign ranks I need to keep that in mind. I would also like to finish up the Wings quests for the starter cities. I want to be prepared for the next update and not just playing catch-up. Lets see what else. Well, I definitely need to go and finish up my MNK and WHM AF. Yes, I know, MNK.
Now, I just need a little spare time to do all of this and not be drawn in by the "let's go merit" call. I love to merit. :)
Since, this isn't much of an update, here are a few pictures to enjoy. I really like the new Wings zones, they are just very well done, and the terrain in them feel so much more realistic than many other zones. Grauberg and Vunkerl Inlet especially. You actually get the feeling that you are running up and down a mountain in Grauberg. It is a very good innovation on SE's part. I also like the rivers in Vunkerl, they actually give the feeling that they are flowing somewhere instead of just plain calm water without movement. 
To balance out the beauty of it all, here is a Sheep in a Tree. 
There is a Snakes on a Plane joke in there somewhere, but I am not going to expose it to the light of day.
Test Subjects
As I mentioned before, Skurlover has to be the most insanely lucky person that I know. Last week he got our first pair of Macha's slops because no one else on the run even had a job close to being able to use them, and then this weekend, he got this: 
Salvage is all about being in the right place at the right time, and being there a lot. Going a lot is going to net you what you need eventually. At least that is what I keep telling myself. Anyway, we did another SSR run, pretty much went perfectly and we were a perfect 0/5 on NM's! Picture perfect, really. Some day that stupid Hammerblow will drop his mask, but it wasn't going to be yesterday. We actually have a bunch of needed gear from SSR and still some from Arrapago, so it looks like those are going to be our main goals for while. Definitely going to go for some 25's too, but still need a bunch of 35's before shifting over completely to boss focused runs.
Yesterday, we did an other Omega, and like the last two, we got another half of a new Omega set, and thus the justification for farming Omega for Gunpods is realized. I also, kind of on the fly, changed the way that we deal with the Gunpods. Instead of having the off tank worry about them, I usually just switch off of Omega, put up Seigan and Third Eye then voke it and it is dead in two WS's. And, I would like to emphasize that even when I do lot on Omega gear, which I started to do recently to outfit my DRG (and yes, Omoi it is because you kicked my ass on your DRG on the parse, happy? ^.^) I never lot very high. Nothing changed about that last night, or for Omoi either. 
Wow, bad lots LOL. This is actually the first Homam piece that I have obtained from Versus, and I already have the hands from ShutUpandDance so I just need to get the Legs to finish out the Homam I need for my DRG. Omoi got the last piece she really needs because she will just use her Dusk Gloves until she gets Homam hands. I was so busy that I didn't even get a chance to trade it in last night, I will do that some time today. Omoi has actually been doing quite well on her DRG as of late, and she had her shining moment this weekend. 
Of all the things in the game, this was the more important for her, and the fact that she finally got it made me quite proud. Congratulations, Omoi. Well deserved.
Ok, back to picking up where I left off yesterday. Let us begin with Subject No. 1. A Blue Mage that needs several different gear selections: a TP build set, a WS build set, a general spell casting set (STR/DEX) and a Cannonball gear set. For the TP and WS gear sets I will be operating under the idea that they are using NIN sub and for Cannonball using /THF. I am also operating with a specific Blue Mage's gear selection so this is not trying to achieve optimal gear, but more to optimize gear that this Blue Mage already has.
BLU/NIN TP build:
Main: Perdu Hanger
Off: Ifrit's Blade
Ranged: Tiphia Sting
Head: Walahra Turban
Neck: Fortitude Torque
Right Ear: Suppanomimi
Left Ear: Brutal Earring
Body: Homam Corazza
Hands: Dusk Gloves
Right Ring: Ulthalam's Ring
Left Ring: Rajas Ring
Back: Amemet Mantle +1 (This is not in his list of gear but he should get one)
Waist: Swift Belt (I am not sure if he has this but it should be a high priority if he doesn't, as temporary replacement Potent Belt is ok)
Legs: Galliard Trousers (Obviously second tier compared to Homam, but still decent)
Feet: Marine M Boots (Again, obviously second tier to Homam)
Thats it for today, more on this and the justification for this set-up tomorrow.
Monday, April 21, 2008
Gearing up.
Recently I have been talking to a couple of people about working on how to best gear themselves for different jobs and situations. So, I am going to do a series of posts on how I would select gear for different people with different selections and for different purposes. I am pretty much a gear nerd so this is fun for me and I think it will better illustrate how I believe gear is best selected for all jobs. I have some prefaces to place on this discussion and to best fit the theme of this blog, lets do it Fight Club style.
1. You are not your job. When you make decisions on gear, your job actually plays very little role in how you should decide on what gear to use. No matter the job, you will want to default to a weapon with the highest rating, you will want to uses the best gear, you will want to WS as quickly as possible, etc. If you start by thinking that your job some how defines how you should equip yourself, then you are starting off on the wrong footing. 99% of gear selections are universal.
2. You're not how much money you have in the bank. Gil and the ability to purchase gear do not define what you can do as a player. Gear is an additive bonus and sometimes the additions are huge, but they do not fundamental alter the nature of the job or the roles that it will be playing for whatever event that you are doing. We should all pursue better gear (if not, then what are we really playing for) but we should not believe that we are limited because we do not have certain gear yet.
3. You are not your fucking O's Kote. Adapting and learning is the key to achieving the best play possible. There was a time when Haste was not the important statistic that it is today, instead people favored Accuracy and Attack. People today still use Kirin's Osode for Asuran Fists. Let go of the attachments that bind you to gear that is no longer valuable for your purposes. Do you want to be the person that is passed over because you gear selection recalls bygone days? More importantly, if you attach yourself to gear even if it is optimal for one situation, it might not be optimal for all situations, and you should be ready to let go and accept change.
4. You're the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world. There is nothing about you that makes you special in this game. All gear is obtainable (well, except for AV drops, and even those are not game breakers), all selections apply to anyone that plays the game. The moment that you think you have figured out something that no one else can do is the moment you have lost your mind. You are not a beautiful and unique snowflake. You are the same decaying organic matter as everyone else, and we are all part of the same compost pile.
Tomorrow we will begin with a Blue Mage. Your mission tonight is to get aggro, die and home point. Blowing up Neptune's Spire in Jeuno is next week.
Friday, April 18, 2008
Selective Douchebaggery
So, I was talking about the subject of this post on Vent last night when Bg suggested the title and said I should make a post about it. I thought the title was cool enough to justify the post alone. LOL Anyway, so, I was wondering why people join bad LS's. And I don't mean bad as in can't kill things, can't get drops or whatever, but like bad in the sense that they are douchebags. I mean I can understand if someone wants to join an LS that is like epic at being douchebags. Now, I am not saying people should be douchebags of any level but I can understand the completely selfish and assholish motivation to do things like kill steal, MPK, bot, hack, whatever. What I don't understand is why people join LS's that just do low-level douchebaggy things. Things like seeing an LS setting up for a Limbus run, charging in and taking the zone without saying anything at all, like overcamping at Water, like bringing an XP party with a PLD/WAR to Greater Colibri when you have been clearing the area with a two BRD party for hours. I mean come on, even the worst MPKing HNM LS members don't do ticky-tack crap like that. So, man, if your going to be a douchebag and least be an epic douchebag, really get into it, but this minor league douchebaggery just makes you look like, well, a real douchebag.
Anyway, yesterday was busy and shockingly productive. Sea first, no Temperance after a bit of scouting but we did do a Prudence and finally got our second torque for the LS. 
Honestly, this was a lot easier than our last try at Prudence and I think I know why. We are in general better off when have an extra tank or two and an extra healer or two. I don't know why but that extra level of comfort makes it so that those extras just aren't really needed, but without them when things go bad they go bad in a hurry. Anyway, the torque is nice for DRK using Great Sword and went to Noze for his DRK. Still makes me wish that we could actually get more torques that would make me smile like a Justice or Love torque. After Prudence we did a nice split Limbus run, a Tier 1 Temenos and an Apollyon which finished Omoi's Omega set. Even with that Omega set, it is time to focus on Ultima for a while.
Also last night we did an SSR run. It was Bg's first run, and Blaize and Celestria came with us. It was simply the best SSR run we have ever had. Killed Hammerblow, Dekka, Gyroscopic Gear, Gyroscopic Gears and Citadel Chelonian, and got Long-Armed Chariot to 19% before timing out. And I know exactly how we could have cleared it all. When pulling the Archaic Ramparts for the turtle we should have also just pulled the Archaic Chariot too. Instead, we had a semi-messy pull after we had killed the turtle in which two people died to the gear train. So we were down a little bit for the boss to start. Putting together everything on in one pull would have saved a bunch of time and it would have meant that we would only have to sac the room one time, instead of 2 to get the Chariot to open the door. The best part is that the Chariot to open the door is very weak, so killing it takes almost no time. If we change that on the first pull, we easily beat the zone, because we save time and we don't risk anyone dying. If you hadn't guess by now, there were no drops. SSR never drops anything at all. LOL I do have a screen shot from Tuesday's Salvage though... 
This is starting to be a trend. LOL
In other news, I have moved a little bit further along on my WHM. It is now level 56 
and I have moved forward but not quite completed my WHM AF. I have finished the quest to complete my Healer's Duckbills 
and I have finished up the requirements to get my Healer's Briault with the help of Bg and Emin 
so what if the NM is stronger than I expected and killed me pretty quick! Hehehe. Bg was able to finish up the fight and I got my Tavnazian Mask to complete the quest.
Also you may notice that Bg now has a shiny new Joyeuse and that is because after losing it or getting it stolen several time before he left he came back and got it on the third day that he was back. 
Woot! :) Congrats Bg! I also killed Dark Spark so that I could finally finish up my MNK AF hands... yeah, don't ask about that. 
And now I can start my WHM AF hands and get the other good pieces for my WHM.
I also did some more Wings missions/cutscenes, and Cait Sith is a pretty neat looking cat. :) Let me take you back in time! First, you have to drop through a giant asshole in the sky! 
Then a slinky cat will come up and interrogate you. 
It's a very emotional cat, you see, for it will purr for you. 
It will cry for you. 
And it will fall down and beg you to come hither. 
Actually, if you think about it that way, it sounds like some kind of creepy porno.
And finally, in the vein of creepy porno... maybe Achi doesn't have a career in it, but she does seem to have an awful lot of knowledge about the subject. 
See you on Monday.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Let the rambling begin.
Ok, I forgot pictures yesterday and today. That led me to just skip the entry yesterday, and I thought about skipping today because honestly, Wednesday sucked like usual and there isn't much in my mind to go over. I am also a bit grumpy even though I tried to be a little ray of sunshine this morning. I think it is a distinct lack of Salvage in the last couple of days. Well, I did go on Tuesday, but it was a normal SSR run, nothing dropped and the tanks didn't even get magic until the Gyroscopic Gears room which just slowed everything down a bit. Though it took Omoi a little bit of time to get into the swing of going all out on her DRG, she ended up being pretty impressive through out the run. I really would like to do another Salvage run tonight, but I know that Omoi hasn't been feeling so great since she got back, so we may put off until tomorrow.
Don't know what I am going to make with myself tonight after events. I will have to finish up my WHM AF and the Bastok_S quests that I have started. Maybe finally finish up at least one of the new Gobbiebag quests.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
I thought I took more pictures.
First day back is always rough. 
And Bg even said at the time that he knew this picture was going to be on the blog. ^.^ Well, Omoi and Bg are back and we had some fun last night. Did another Omega, which did drop another chip putting Izman half-way to another Omega set, but only dropped head and feet. The head went to Kallo while the feet, which I lotted a whooping 40 on, went to Noze. After that we did some Assaults and Bgalvin came with us and we did some rank 1 ones which went decently well. It is weird, the rank 1 and 2 missions are more difficult than many of the higher mission and unnecessarily so. Well, I think that Bg is pretty close to ranking up so we can move onto rank 2 soon.
A bit of the promised weekend review, and well, I don't have as many pictures as I thought I did from this weekend, but here is the most important of the pictures. 
Skur is on a lucky streak that of which people only dream. These went to him because there was literally no one else on the run that could use them. That is three 35's to Skur in a week, two of which were able to be completed immediately. It's all about being in the right place at the right time. Izman has been going for a long time now and still doesn't have one 25 or 35 piece to show for it, he never bothers anyone about lots or anything, but he is not like Omoi about gear. He wants gear, but when it comes down to it, waiting doesn't bother him. He just likes doing stuff with people, and that is pretty much the reason he is the coolest person I have met in a long time. It makes me want to help him get stuff, and makes me regret bad decisions. Izman is always cool under pressure and stress and crappy lots and anything the game, well, anything but tricky Qiqirns. Fuck those Qiqirns, fuck them right in the ass. :)
Did some more meriting over the weekend. Ailee and I got into a kind of bad merit party at one time with this winner: 
Even better, this was their full time gear. Some of the other people in the party had problems too but nothing like this. What I want to know is why aren't new players today learning to use equipment swap macros? Literally, I have been in pick-up parties where no one besides me used a different set of gear for TP and WS. I know, that is the reason I shouldn't be doing pick up parties but come on, why aren't these people learning? Highly disappointing.
Tonight is more same old, same old, another Sky. I think we have 2 or 3 Byakko sets and we are due for some Kirins soon. I think we have an Ouryu coming up so that should be more interesting. We are running out of reasons to do the outside Gods except to build Kirin sets. Well, we still need lots of Byakko, but thats about it. There might be more later, depends on what I get done.
Monday, April 14, 2008
They always come back.
Two returns today. The first one was expected. Omoi has returned to a complete set of Ares's body upgrade pieces and a few other odds and ends. She is going to look totally bad ass once she is strutting around with huge spikes on her shoulders. The other return was quite unexpected. Bgalvin is returning to the game. Of course people always say things about their friends, they are the best this or the most that, but Bg really was one of the best tanks on the server. He left, but like many people that have left before, the pull to come back was strong and as of last night he was doing the huge initial download. I am not positive if it really means he is coming back, and I am sure it won't be full time, but I think he is ready to have some fun again. :)
I was running late this morning so I didn't even get to upload the huge number of pictures that I have from this weekend. I think I am just going to do a boring DRG gear update for today instead of the weekend recap and then save that for tomorrow when I have the pictures. I am pretty excited about having both Omoi and Bg back on the same day and I am talking to Omoi a lot right now so I am a little distracted. Well, onto DRG to make Omoi even more happy.
DRG TP build:
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Sub: Pole Strap
Ammo: Tiphia Sting
Head: Walahra Turban
Neck: Peacock Charm
Left Ear: Assault Earring
Right Ear: Brutal Earring
Body: Assault Jerkin
Hands: Dusk Gloves
Left Ring: Ulthalam's Ring
Right Ring: Rajas Ring
Back: Amemet Mantle +1
Waist: Swift Belt
Legs: Homam Cosciales
Feet: Homam Gambieras
This is definitely not a 6 hit set up, but for DRG thats not as bad as for other jobs for a couple of reasons. It is pretty hard to get a 6 hit set up with a DRG, and as an exception to my comments last week about Askar body, it is useful for getting to a true 6 hit build. But is a true 6 hit build really that important for a DRG? I don't think it is. You have Jumps and with the very cheap Barone Cosciales you can make up for some of the TP that is lost on the swings without the Store TP. Also, since you are going to be using Penta Thrust 99% of the time, you are going to get up to 4 extra TP from the WS. Stack this with any double attacks that you may get on the WS and Meditate and you are looking at a situation where more often than not you are going to be wasting extra TP if have an Askar Korazin. I did say last week that the Askar Korazin was good, but it is not the best. Obviously, it is far superior to my Assault Jerkin, and I think it is a little better than Homam Corazza, but it is definitely not better than Ares's Cuirass. The set up I have listed above only has a total of 21 Store TP with /SAM, and I have other options to add in if I think I am not hitting 100+ in six hit often enough.
Here are some things that people don't know about DRG. They are the best TP building job in the game, period. Better than SAM. And yes, I will defend that statement completely, especially when one of my best jobs is SAM. SAM has the ability to do more damage, but when it comes to going from WS to WS, DRG will get to their WS more often than anyone else. They also have the best natural accuracy in the game, maybe even better than RNG. They get +22 accuracy naturally, they get 3/4 DEX for accuracy, and they get access to a lot more accuracy gear than in the past. lolDRG is dead, anyone that doesn't get that doesn't understand how much DRG has changed in the last year.
Anyway, onto DRG WS gear which is a little easier than TP.
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Sub: Pole Strap
Ammo: Olibanum Sachet
Head: Wyvern Helm
Neck: Chivalrous Chain
Left Ear: Assault Earring
Right Ear: Brutal Earring
Body: Hecatomb Harness
Hands: Hecatomb Mittens
Left Ring: Flame Ring
Right Ring: Rajas Ring
Back: Amemet Mantle +1
Waist: Warwolf Belt
Legs: Pahluwan Seraweels
Feet: Hecatomb Leggings
That is pretty simple and straight forward. Once I get my Bushinomimi I will probably use that instead of the Assault Earring. The Chivalrous Chain is questionable here, and there are other options like WS gorgets and my Peacock Charm, but I think there is enough accuracy here to support the extra STR.
Well, there is DRG. I will have to macro in gear swaps for Jumps to get the +2 TP but that is definitely worth it especially considering I do not have a true 6 hit build.
Tomorrow will be better, more pictures, Salvage results, a couple of Omegas and the return of Omoi and Bg. :)
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