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. :)