Salvage Hypotheses.

Salvage is weird, like many things in the Aht Urhgan expansion. It appears that there are many hidden factors, the largest of which is weather. Now, I do not know for sure on some of these because I do not know if they are necessarily Salvage specific or if they are mob type specific, and for the non-weather hypothesis if they are genuinely testable. Anyway, that preface was a bit without context so let me get right to the point to see if it makes more sense.

*Salvage Hypothesis 1: Wind weather and Windsday increases the detection range for Archaic Machinery.

Well, I know now that at least the Windsday part of that hypothesis is incorrect because we recently had a Bhaflau run where we pulled the Archaic Gear on the 4th Floor and they did not link from further away than normal. Wind weather does obviously still have the effect on the aggro range of the Archaic Machinery though, at least in Bhaflau. I don't even know if the other zones can get Wind weather, I don't believe that they can. Conclusion: Wind weather does effect Archaic Machinery aggro range, while Windsday does not. This is then not the same effect that happens to Puks and Crawlers in their respective weather conditions and days.

*Salvage Hypothesis 2: Killing the Archaic Chariot on the 4th Floor of Bhaflau weakens Long-Bowed Chariot.

Although the "proof" of this is still in question without definitive parser results apparently, there is enough anecdotal evidence for me to advance the theory. The first is the relatively higher damage per hit I noticed, with the same equipment and attributes unlocked, over when we have not killed the Archaic Chariot. The second is the relatively higher rate that enfeebles are landed noted both by our RDM and BRD. The third is the fact that a DRK using a Kraken Club has tested in both situations and it appears that there is in fact some kind of damage cut if the Archaic Chariot is not killed. We always go to the West side, but the East side Archaic Chariot is supposed to weaken LBC in a similar but opposite way. West side is supposed to decrease its defense, evasion and magical defense (resists at very least and probably magic defense too) while East side decreases its attack, damage and accuracy. Which made me think of something else to try, see below.

*Salvage Hypothesis 3: Ice weather and Iceday makes the Fomor in Silver Seas Remnants stronger and/or give the TP regain.

There is much less proof of this, and I haven't seen anyone else not this, but I have seen Fomors pulled in Powderkeg's room that when pulled immediately used TP moves. This happened more than once, and it only happened on Iceday. I suspect that this may just be the natural state for the Fomor in the Aht Urhgan areas, as it is with Puk and Eruca. I just haven't seen anyone else confirm this, nor do I know if it is a Salvage only thing or if it is for the whole expansion.

*Salvage Hypothesis 4: The triple gears on Bhaflau floor have some effect on Low-Bowed Chariot.

This one I haven't even checked. I don't know of anyone that has checked it, but I am going to check it this weekend and maybe even tonight. I suspect that eliminating all of the triple gears might have the effect of the opposite Archaic Chariot. Well, all we can do with that is see what happens.

Salvage is weird, like many things in the Aht Urhgan expansion. It appears that there are many hidden factors, the largest of which is weather. Now, I do not know for sure on some of these because I do not know if they are necessarily Salvage specific or if they are mob type specific, and for the non-weather hypothesis if they are genuinely testable. Anyway, that preface was a bit without context so let me get right to the point to see if it makes more sense. <br /><br />*Salvage Hypothesis 1: Wind weather and Windsday increases the detection range for Archaic Machinery. <br /><br />Well, I know now that at least the Windsday part of that hypothesis is incorrect because we recently had a Bhaflau run where we pulled the Archaic Gear on the 4th Floor and they did not link from further away than normal. Wind weather does obviously still have the effect on the aggro range of the Archaic Machinery though, at least in Bhaflau. I don't even know if the other zones can get Wind weather, I don't believe that they can. Conclusion: Wind weather does effect Archaic Machinery aggro range, while Windsday does not. This is then not the same effect that happens to Puks and Crawlers in their respective weather conditions and days. <br /><br />*Salvage Hypothesis 2: Killing the Archaic Chariot on the 4th Floor of Bhaflau weakens Long-Bowed Chariot.<br /><br />Although the "proof" of this is still in question without definitive parser results apparently, there is enough anecdotal evidence for me to advance the theory. The first is the relatively higher damage per hit I noticed, with the same equipment and attributes unlocked, over when we have not killed the Archaic Chariot. The second is the relatively higher rate that enfeebles are landed noted both by our RDM and BRD. The third is the fact that a DRK using a Kraken Club has tested in both situations and it appears that there is in fact some kind of damage cut if the Archaic Chariot is not killed. We always go to the West side, but the East side Archaic Chariot is supposed to weaken LBC in a similar but opposite way. West side is supposed to decrease its defense, evasion and magical defense (resists at very least and probably magic defense too) while East side decreases its attack, damage and accuracy. Which made me think of something else to try, see below.<br /><br />*Salvage Hypothesis 3: Ice weather and Iceday makes the Fomor in Silver Seas Remnants stronger and/or give the TP regain. <br /><br />There is much less proof of this, and I haven't seen anyone else not this, but I have seen Fomors pulled in Powderkeg's room that when pulled immediately used TP moves. This happened more than once, and it only happened on Iceday. I suspect that this may just be the natural state for the Fomor in the Aht Urhgan areas, as it is with Puk and Eruca. I just haven't seen anyone else confirm this, nor do I know if it is a Salvage only thing or if it is for the whole expansion.<br /><br />*Salvage Hypothesis 4: The triple gears on Bhaflau floor have some effect on Low-Bowed Chariot. <br /><br />This one I haven't even checked. I don't know of anyone that has checked it, but I am going to check it this weekend and maybe even tonight. I suspect that eliminating all of the triple gears might have the effect of the opposite Archaic Chariot. Well, all we can do with that is see what happens.

I cheat so much I might as well hack.

Now, there are times when pride is at stake. And mine pride is a vengeful pride. So I just wanted to point out that I beat Omoi on both of the parses that I did last night. One of them was even completely legitimate! The other one, well, I will get to that in a minute. The first parse, the one that I WON, was on Trolls. Honestly, it wasn't very long, but Omoi was even beaten by Iz on that one. :) Now, see what happens with you take out the piercing bonus? HMMMMM! We didn't stay very long at this camp, but I needed a neutral camp to prove that she wasn't always the best. LOL Now, the previous parse may have a little bit of an issue.
If you see right there, I WON AGAIN! Now, that may or may not have been because Omoi died and we killed 3-4 more mobs before I stopped the parser, but HEY LOOK OVER THERE IT'S A FLYING PIG... This one was at Mamool Ja Staging Point, which have PUKS, which are weak to PIERCING.

Anyway, as you can see, I clearly have demonstrated my prowess at defeating Omoi in any parse that comes along.

Yeah...

Fucking Birds...

Now, there are times when pride is at stake. And mine pride is a vengeful pride. So I just wanted to point out that I beat Omoi on both of the parses that I did last night. One of them was even completely legitimate! The other one, well, I will get to that in a minute. The first parse, the one that I WON, was on Trolls. Honestly, it wasn't very long, but Omoi was even beaten by Iz on that one. :) <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/OvR2.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/OvR2.jpg" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px;" /></a> Now, see what happens with you take out the piercing bonus? HMMMMM! We didn't stay very long at this camp, but I needed a neutral camp to prove that she wasn't always the best. LOL Now, the previous parse may have a little bit of an issue. <br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/OvR1.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/OvR1.jpg" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px;" /></a> If you see right there, I WON AGAIN! Now, that may or may not have been because Omoi died and we killed 3-4 more mobs before I stopped the parser, but HEY LOOK OVER THERE IT'S A FLYING PIG... This one was at Mamool Ja Staging Point, which have PUKS, which are weak to PIERCING. <br /><br />Anyway, as you can see, I clearly have demonstrated my prowess at defeating Omoi in any parse that comes along. <br /><br />Yeah...<br /><br />Fucking Birds...

Omoi and I.

Omoi is my best friend and most favorite person in the game. She is pretty much amazing and we do so much together that when people ask one of us to do something they know that they are asking both of us, and we generally don't do something else we both can do it. Omoi is awesome in general, and specifically, is a great leader of Versus, has huge amounts of patience to do with the myriad of issues involved with that responsibility and is continually looking to support the LS in any way possible. She is also incredibly giving to the point that we have as of late force her to lot on stuff that she needs for her DRG. Her DRG is now, by the way, the subject of my pride for her and my consternation, as she has consistently been able to outparse my MNK. I think it may be time to break out the big guns the next time that we merit and bring my SAM, but she also likes to cheat, and keep Hasso up fun time. >.< I am going to have to do the same or just come MNK/WAR and tell the healer to just suck it up. LOL Anyway, my jealousy causes digression. Omoi is awesome, and makes me happy to just play this game and be able to talk to her and hang out with her every day. :)

Speaking of the big guns, I finally got around to doing Divine Might again. The fight was a little bit more messy that we have had in the past, took us 20 minutes to beat it instead of the normal ~10 minutes. I had dropped my Suppanomimi a couple of weeks ago so that I could get a new Bushinomimi. Now my SAM has one of the last key items that it needs, leaving only pretty much a Justice Torque. Well, I still need an Ace's Helm or Askar head, but those will come eventually. Also, I am considering if I should go with full Usukane whenever I get it. It is obviously not as good in haste but it is at least worth testing out.

I suppose I should mention the new update notes that came out today.

Several adjustments to the battle system are scheduled for the upcoming version update.

Merit Points Group 2: Maximum Raised for Ability Increases

Adjustments to the Group 2 section of the merit point job categories will be implemented in the upcoming version update.
The current total maximum ability increase of 6 and the individual maximum ability increase of 3 will be raised to match the Group 1 values of 10 and 5, respectively.

New Job Abilities and Spells

In conjunction with the scheduled job adjustments, the monk, paladin, and bard jobs will be receiving new abilities and spells.

For monks, we will be adding a new job ability that allows them to restrict their attacks to kicks only. In exchange for a penalty to attack delay, the monk receives an increase to damage and attack power, as well as a bonus to the amount of TP gained per kick.

Paladins will be receiving a new spell that increases the rate of shield blocks, as well as reflecting blocked damage back to an attacker. As with "Blaze Spikes" and "Dread Spikes," this spell will only affect the caster.

Lastly, bards will gain a job ability that allows them to limit the area effect of a song to a single target.
For example, if a bard casts "Mage's Ballad" after activating this new ability, only the selected target will receive the effect of the song.

MNK: We will see. I am definitely hoping that this is just some kind of situational boost and not something that is going to be used full time as it seems to kind of defeat the entire purpose of the MNK haste gear. If its situationally good that is fine, but if I am going to use it full time, then MEH. It also depends on the recast of the ability and such.

PLD: I think this is actually much better than most people I have seen say, and the reason is that it might actually let PLD sub something besides NIN, like WAR, DRK or RDM. I have no doubts that it will not be useful with shadows up. If it stays up when shadows are up, sure it will make tanking easier with /NIN too, but in many cases /NIN is not the optimal subjob but is still needed to reduce damage. Honestly, for HNM if this spell is strong enough then /RDM may become the best subjob available.

BRD: This will be pretty cool for leveling BRD with a PLD obviously, but also for DRK and BLU also. Of course it will depend on recast and usage, but it definitely seems like something that will help a whole lot.

Merits in general: This is a huge fuck yeah! I will definitely be boosting Overwhelm first, then Penance and Invigorate, then I am going to go back and put the rest of my merits into Blade Bash which should reduce its recast time to 5 minutes.

I wanted to mention one last thing, Rukenshin updated his live journal and if you are a SAM you should check it out. He suggests that SAM/DRG may actually be more beneficial than SAM/WAR. Now while this may be true for him, there are several reasons to believe that it might not be as beneficial to everyone else. The first is that even with SAM/DRG he believes that he is at or near the attack cap which is impressive, but it may not be true for everyone if they do not have equal gear. Also his math assumes exception gear for haste too. Since the benefits of haste increase with more haste the effect for his haste set up will be higher than those that do not have more haste. Also, he does not have a Bushinomimi so his /WAR gear is slightly less than optimal compared to his /DRG gear where he can use Brutal and Wyvern Earring. I am definitely not saying that /DRG would be better or worse just that using Rukenshin's example to base your gear selection may not be best for you.

Thats it for today, see you tomorrow.

<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Omoi_I.png"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Omoi_I.png" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px;" /></a> Omoi is my best friend and most favorite person in the game. She is pretty much amazing and we do so much together that when people ask one of us to do something they know that they are asking both of us, and we generally don't do something else we both can do it. Omoi is awesome in general, and specifically, is a great leader of Versus, has huge amounts of patience to do with the myriad of issues involved with that responsibility and is continually looking to support the LS in any way possible. She is also incredibly giving to the point that we have as of late force her to lot on stuff that she needs for her DRG. Her DRG is now, by the way, the subject of my pride for her and my consternation, as she has consistently been able to outparse my MNK. I think it may be time to break out the big guns the next time that we merit and bring my SAM, but she also likes to cheat, and keep Hasso up fun time. >.< I am going to have to do the same or just come MNK/WAR and tell the healer to just suck it up. LOL Anyway, my jealousy causes digression. Omoi is awesome, and makes me happy to just play this game and be able to talk to her and hang out with her every day. :) <br /><br />Speaking of the big guns, I finally got around to doing Divine Might again. <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/DM_redo.png"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/DM_redo.png" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px;" /></a> The fight was a little bit more messy that we have had in the past, took us 20 minutes to beat it instead of the normal ~10 minutes. I had dropped my Suppanomimi a couple of weeks ago so that I could get a new Bushinomimi. <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Bushi.png"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Bushi.png" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px;" /></a> Now my SAM has one of the last key items that it needs, leaving only pretty much a Justice Torque. Well, I still need an Ace's Helm or Askar head, but those will come eventually. Also, I am considering if I should go with full Usukane whenever I get it. It is obviously not as good in haste but it is at least worth testing out.<br /><br />I suppose I should mention the new update notes that came out today. <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj00X1CX-LV_QRJAj0gfMk2O_7z0_xANPG0KPC5wX3wk1kLD55wM7SJ3DsvcDFU0f5rIkHs7INtAtzM7cNd2wfNDUhbSQwi7_zwKsmHPkZbn6dtAJofGwuEKNC477nRW9ot15JV/s1600-h/POL_5-28.bmp"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5205469808126920146" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj00X1CX-LV_QRJAj0gfMk2O_7z0_xANPG0KPC5wX3wk1kLD55wM7SJ3DsvcDFU0f5rIkHs7INtAtzM7cNd2wfNDUhbSQwi7_zwKsmHPkZbn6dtAJofGwuEKNC477nRW9ot15JV/s400/POL_5-28.bmp" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" /></a><blockquote>Several adjustments to the battle system are scheduled for the upcoming version update.<br /><br />Merit Points Group 2: Maximum Raised for Ability Increases<br /><br />Adjustments to the Group 2 section of the merit point job categories will be implemented in the upcoming version update.<br />The current total maximum ability increase of 6 and the individual maximum ability increase of 3 will be raised to match the Group 1 values of 10 and 5, respectively.<br /><br />New Job Abilities and Spells<br /><br />In conjunction with the scheduled job adjustments, the monk, paladin, and bard jobs will be receiving new abilities and spells.<br /><br />For monks, we will be adding a new job ability that allows them to restrict their attacks to kicks only. In exchange for a penalty to attack delay, the monk receives an increase to damage and attack power, as well as a bonus to the amount of TP gained per kick.<br /><br />Paladins will be receiving a new spell that increases the rate of shield blocks, as well as reflecting blocked damage back to an attacker. As with "Blaze Spikes" and "Dread Spikes," this spell will only affect the caster.<br /><br />Lastly, bards will gain a job ability that allows them to limit the area effect of a song to a single target.<br />For example, if a bard casts "Mage's Ballad" after activating this new ability, only the selected target will receive the effect of the song.</blockquote> MNK: We will see. I am definitely hoping that this is just some kind of situational boost and not something that is going to be used full time as it seems to kind of defeat the entire purpose of the MNK haste gear. If its situationally good that is fine, but if I am going to use it full time, then MEH. It also depends on the recast of the ability and such. <br /><br />PLD: I think this is actually much better than most people I have seen say, and the reason is that it might actually let PLD sub something besides NIN, like WAR, DRK or RDM. I have no doubts that it will not be useful with shadows up. If it stays up when shadows are up, sure it will make tanking easier with /NIN too, but in many cases /NIN is not the optimal subjob but is still needed to reduce damage. Honestly, for HNM if this spell is strong enough then /RDM may become the best subjob available.<br /><br />BRD: This will be pretty cool for leveling BRD with a PLD obviously, but also for DRK and BLU also. Of course it will depend on recast and usage, but it definitely seems like something that will help a whole lot. <br /><br />Merits in general: This is a huge fuck yeah! I will definitely be boosting Overwhelm first, then Penance and Invigorate, then I am going to go back and put the rest of my merits into Blade Bash which should reduce its recast time to 5 minutes. <br /><br />I wanted to mention one last thing, Rukenshin updated his live journal and if you are a SAM you should check it out. He suggests that SAM/DRG may actually be more beneficial than SAM/WAR. Now while this may be true for him, there are several reasons to believe that it might not be as beneficial to everyone else. The first is that even with SAM/DRG he believes that he is at or near the attack cap which is impressive, but it may not be true for everyone if they do not have equal gear. Also his math assumes exception gear for haste too. Since the benefits of haste increase with more haste the effect for his haste set up will be higher than those that do not have more haste. Also, he does not have a Bushinomimi so his /WAR gear is slightly less than optimal compared to his /DRG gear where he can use Brutal and Wyvern Earring. I am definitely not saying that /DRG would be better or worse just that using Rukenshin's example to base your gear selection may not be best for you.<br /><br />Thats it for today, see you tomorrow.

Well, fuck...

Yeah, so what if I have been having crappy blog entries lately. What the fuck am I supposed to be writing about? I suppose I should get around to Ashhhhh's BLU macros for his Xbox 360 where I get to play the "what the fuck are the modifiers on the spells that you are using" plus the SE-induced "lets mock our players by having huge amounts of gear and only six slots to swap them around" game. Not that gear selection and optimization doesn't make me all giddy inside like a huge ice cream sundae or your first blow job (giving or receiving depending on sex, preference or sexual preference, of course). That reminds me of a joke my friend used to use on me whenever I was quite impressed with some high school accomplishment of some sort, in which he would simply state that he had sex in high school, and I will left without retort, well except that I did touch a boob in high school, but I don't know if that left me in a better position or worse. But I digress... Ashhhhh's day will come, and that day will be a glorious day, in which all names will end in a repetition of their last letter! But that day is not today, today is the day I say, GOD FUCKING DAMMIT I FORGOT TO UPLOAD MY SWEET SWEET PICS AGAIN! Well, fuck, indeed. And something good actually happened this weekend, besides the alcohol induced vomit-fest that was Saturday night. Indeed, on Saturday we had a fantastic run in Zhayolm in which the two froggies gave us one item each! The first was Usukane 35 hands, which I won the lot on, yay go me! The second was Morrigan 35 feet which Ashhhhh won the lot on. It was definitely one of the best runs we have ever had and promptly after the run I had to go out to a friends bachelor party in which I could talk about FFXI for fear of social ridicule. I almost exploded, LOL. I am King of the Dorks, but at least I can admit it.

To the point, lets just say that at least I have some fucking perspective on the level of dorkdom I have achieved playing this game. Some people think they are actually cool spending 10-12 hours a day playing a video game. To them, I say, there is always someone cooler than you, you are just a big fish in a tiny little pond. There is someone out there that had sex in high school for you too.

Randomness off for a moment, I do have some game related stuff I want to go over, because it has been a very good week or so. Lets do the non-Salvage stuff because that will be easier (and I actually have some screenshots from those events). Ok, so last Thursday, Versus did it's first TP burn Kirin by ourselves. We have done it before with another LS that isn't around anymore, but we had like 30-40 people there for it so it wasn't much of a challenge really. This time we did it with something like 25+ people, but we were very limited on DD's, with only 12 available, so we didn't really have anyone to sub in when people died. The rest of the people were there to be ready to kite Kirin if something went horribly wrong. LOL But nothing went wrong, and our first Kirin was faster than when we did it with more people. The first Kirin was, if I recall correctly, 2:43 or something like that. We are always looking for more W. legs and it was really nice to see the abjuration drop after such a good Kirin. Our second Kirin was even better, and we killed it in 1:58, which kind of blew my mind. We got another Shining Cloth from it and a N. Body which Raikoh finally got after a really long time of waiting for it.

Next we had an Omega run, and after farming Omega for gunpods we were able to get close to another set for Omega, only missing a Smalt Chip now. As with last time, I had everyone random to see who would open the chest, and because last time Achikasama won the random and Achi is horrible luck, I had the second highest person do it and we got a Homam Body, this time I did the same thing, and I didn't let the highest random open the chest, and again another Homam Body. Now this Homam body was supposed to go to Darkdawn, who is was locked on it, but they dc'ed right before the fight and they weren't able to get back on, so we had to do the fight anyway and adjust the lots. But in the small hope that Darkdawn would get back on in time, I didn't pass and we left a spot open for DD in case he got back in time. Well, he did, and he got into the alliance and was able to lot about 5 seconds before it finally auto-distributed. :) So congratulations to Darkdawn! It was pretty epic at the time and I kind of forgot who got the feet and head but Yay for them!

Finally, there was a lot that happened in Salvage. As I already mentioned we were able to get Usukane 35 hands for me, and Morrigan 35 feet for Ashhhhh (who I hear got an ear-full from Crlmsonking about that, and I even called it the Family Feud when I said they both could lot it), I have picks of those both for tomorrow, or later today. We still aren't able to complete Zhayolm remnants and kill both frogs right now. Yesterday, we were able to kill the 5th floor frog and the boss but we wouldn't have had time for the 6th floor frog too. Well, for yesterdays run we got Morrigan's 25 legs for Skurlover and Marduk 25 feet which went to Omoi. We will still need to get Usukane 25 head for Hiryo so that he can get his Usukane Somen but we also need to complete Akanea's Usukane legs and Iz's Skadi feet, from LBC, which hasn't been entirely friendly on the drops that we need probably because we found out something new. It's a total wimp.

Let me clarify here, because there is still some dispute about this, but the last two times that we killed 10/10 of the Archaic Gear and we killed the Archaic Chariot also, and we were able to kill LBC in under 5 minutes the first time and under 4 minutes the second time. We don't have any relics in our group, and we don't have any King abjurations either, we do have excellent players though and we have pretty decent gear. All that being said to be able to kill LBC in 4 minutes is pretty huge. The amount of time that it takes to kill the Archaic Chariot on the 4th floor is about 3 minutes, but the time trade off for LBC is for us something like 4-5 minutes. If that means even 1-2 more minutes in the 4F rampart then it is definitely worth it. Just to be clear, the Archaic Chariot, in my experience, though I do not have true proof of the effect, massive decreases LBC's evasion, defense and magic defense. It is very easy to hit, hit for more and land debuffs when the Archaic Chariot is killed. The next thing that I want to test is if there is an effect from killing the Archaic Gears in the room with the Archaic Chariot.

Well, tonight I have Salvage with Rakuen, and I can't wait. :)

Yeah, so what if I have been having crappy blog entries lately. What the fuck am I supposed to be writing about? I suppose I should get around to Ashhhhh's BLU macros for his Xbox 360 where I get to play the "what the fuck are the modifiers on the spells that you are using" plus the SE-induced "lets mock our players by having huge amounts of gear and only six slots to swap them around" game. Not that gear selection and optimization doesn't make me all giddy inside like a huge ice cream sundae or your first blow job (giving or receiving depending on sex, preference or sexual preference, of course). That reminds me of a joke my friend used to use on me whenever I was quite impressed with some high school accomplishment of some sort, in which he would simply state that he had sex in high school, and I will left without retort, well except that I did touch a boob in high school, but I don't know if that left me in a better position or worse. <span style="font-style:italic;">But I digress...</span> Ashhhhh's day will come, and that day will be a glorious day, in which all names will end in a repetition of their last letter! But that day is not today, today is the day I say, GOD FUCKING DAMMIT I FORGOT TO UPLOAD MY SWEET SWEET PICS AGAIN! Well, fuck, indeed. And something good actually happened this weekend, besides the alcohol induced vomit-fest that was Saturday night. Indeed, on Saturday we had a fantastic run in Zhayolm in which the two froggies gave us one item each! The first was Usukane 35 hands, which I won the lot on, yay go me! The second was Morrigan 35 feet which Ashhhhh won the lot on. It was definitely one of the best runs we have ever had and promptly after the run I had to go out to a friends bachelor party in which I could talk about FFXI for fear of social ridicule. I almost exploded, LOL. I am King of the Dorks, but at least I can admit it. <br /><br />To the point, lets just say that at least I have some fucking perspective on the level of dorkdom I have achieved playing this game. Some people think they are actually cool spending 10-12 hours a day playing a video game. To them, I say, there is always someone cooler than you, you are just a big fish in a tiny little pond. There is someone out there that had sex in high school for you too. <br /><br />Randomness off for a moment, I do have some game related stuff I want to go over, because it has been a very good week or so. Lets do the non-Salvage stuff because that will be easier (and I actually have some screenshots from those events). Ok, so last Thursday, Versus did it's first TP burn Kirin by ourselves. We have done it before with another LS that isn't around anymore, but we had like 30-40 people there for it so it wasn't much of a challenge really. This time we did it with something like 25+ people, but we were very limited on DD's, with only 12 available, so we didn't really have anyone to sub in when people died. The rest of the people were there to be ready to kite Kirin if something went horribly wrong. LOL But nothing went wrong, and our first Kirin was faster than when we did it with more people. The first Kirin was, if I recall correctly, 2:43 or something like that. <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Kirin_burn1.png"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Kirin_burn1.png" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px;" /></a> We are always looking for more W. legs and it was really nice to see the abjuration drop after such a good Kirin. Our second Kirin was even better, and we killed it in 1:58, which kind of blew my mind. We got another Shining Cloth from it and a N. Body which Raikoh finally got after a really long time of waiting for it. <br /><br />Next we had an Omega run, and after farming Omega for gunpods we were able to get close to another set for Omega, only missing a Smalt Chip now. As with last time, I had everyone random to see who would open the chest, and because last time Achikasama won the random and Achi is horrible luck, I had the second highest person do it and we got a Homam Body, this time I did the same thing, and I didn't let the highest random open the chest, and again another Homam Body. <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Omega_heart2.png"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Omega_heart2.png" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px;" /></a> Now this Homam body was supposed to go to Darkdawn, who is was locked on it, but they dc'ed right before the fight and they weren't able to get back on, so we had to do the fight anyway and adjust the lots. But in the small hope that Darkdawn would get back on in time, I didn't pass and we left a spot open for DD in case he got back in time. Well, he did, and he got into the alliance and was able to lot about 5 seconds before it finally auto-distributed. :) So congratulations to Darkdawn! It was pretty epic at the time and I kind of forgot who got the feet and head but Yay for them!<br /><br />Finally, there was a lot that happened in Salvage. As I already mentioned we were able to get Usukane 35 hands for me, and Morrigan 35 feet for Ashhhhh (who I hear got an ear-full from Crlmsonking about that, and I even called it the Family Feud when I said they both could lot it), I have picks of those both for tomorrow, or later today. We still aren't able to complete Zhayolm remnants and kill both frogs right now. Yesterday, we were able to kill the 5th floor frog and the boss but we wouldn't have had time for the 6th floor frog too. Well, for yesterdays run we got Morrigan's 25 legs for Skurlover and Marduk 25 feet which went to Omoi. We will still need to get Usukane 25 head for Hiryo so that he can get his Usukane Somen but we also need to complete Akanea's Usukane legs and Iz's Skadi feet, from LBC, which hasn't been entirely friendly on the drops that we need probably because we found out something new. It's a total wimp. <br /><br />Let me clarify here, because there is still some dispute about this, but the last two times that we killed 10/10 of the Archaic Gear and we killed the Archaic Chariot also, and we were able to kill LBC in under 5 minutes the first time and under 4 minutes the second time. <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/LBC_5min.png"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/LBC_5min.png" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px;" /></a> We don't have any relics in our group, and we don't have any King abjurations either, we do have excellent players though and we have pretty decent gear. All that being said to be able to kill LBC in 4 minutes is pretty huge. The amount of time that it takes to kill the Archaic Chariot on the 4th floor is about 3 minutes, but the time trade off for LBC is for us something like 4-5 minutes. If that means even 1-2 more minutes in the 4F rampart then it is definitely worth it. Just to be clear, the Archaic Chariot, in my experience, though I do not have true proof of the effect, massive decreases LBC's evasion, defense and magic defense. It is very easy to hit, hit for more and land debuffs when the Archaic Chariot is killed. The next thing that I want to test is if there is an effect from killing the Archaic Gears in the room with the Archaic Chariot. <br /><br />Well, tonight I have Salvage with Rakuen, and I can't wait. :)

Whats up with Campaign?

I like Campaign, let me get that out of the way first, because if you came here looking for complaints then... well, you have probably never read my blog.

I like Campaign for what it should be, but I do still have problems with it, and it appears that SE is going to handle some but not all of the issues. I should start by saying that I think of Campaign mostly as Campaign battles and less of the other parts of Campaign like the Ops and Headhunting, and there is my real problem with Campaign. To illustrate this best I am going to compare it to Assault to get good parallel going. Assault has very well defined and easily compartmentalized missions, and each mission resulted in a set of rewards: chest drops, ??? items, Assault points and advancement for Assault ranks. Campaign on the other hand rewards with XP, Allied notes and a much less clearly defined rank up system. It is much more nebulous, and though more expansive than Assault does not require any alternative to Campaign battle to advance in rank. Campaign needs more structure and it needs it badly. It also needs an incentive to do the other Campaign related activities like Headhunting and Ops. At the current time the all flow into the same pool of XP and AN and have no effect on Campaign rank so there literally is no reason to do them. This is a disappointed state of affairs. It is almost maddening how disorganized the Campaign system feels at the moment.

This was the beginning of my post from yesterday, better post coming after lunch.

I like Campaign, let me get that out of the way first, because if you came here looking for complaints then... well, you have probably never read my blog. <br /><br />I like Campaign for what it should be, but I do still have problems with it, and it appears that SE is going to handle some but not all of the issues. I should start by saying that I think of Campaign mostly as Campaign battles and less of the other parts of Campaign like the Ops and Headhunting, and there is my real problem with Campaign. To illustrate this best I am going to compare it to Assault to get good parallel going. Assault has very well defined and easily compartmentalized missions, and each mission resulted in a set of rewards: chest drops, ??? items, Assault points and advancement for Assault ranks. Campaign on the other hand rewards with XP, Allied notes and a much less clearly defined rank up system. It is much more nebulous, and though more expansive than Assault does not require any alternative to Campaign battle to advance in rank. Campaign needs more structure and it needs it badly. It also needs an incentive to do the other Campaign related activities like Headhunting and Ops. At the current time the all flow into the same pool of XP and AN and have no effect on Campaign rank so there literally is no reason to do them. This is a disappointed state of affairs. It is almost maddening how disorganized the Campaign system feels at the moment. <br /><br />This was the beginning of my post from yesterday, better post coming after lunch.

I had a dream.

I was on a mission with two other people. We had to go to an indoor garden/nursery that was shaped like an enlarged version of my high school friends basement. It was like the indoors portion of a nursery, with shelves of plants. We had to kill three people that were in animal suits (not like mascot outfits, more like anthropomorphic suits) who worked in the garden/nursery and take their place. Then we had to kill three more people in animal suits, but they were obviously more deadly, thus the chicanery with killing the first group. At some point, we had either done a practice run of this or had done it successfully before because I remembered how it all was supposed to go down but this time the second group of animal suits came in as we were hiding the first groups bodies. We managed to at least partially hide the first groups bodies, and they didn't notice at first, but while we were trying to attach silencers to our guns they were alerted to our nefarious intentions. We were supposed to kill them with silencers on the guns but since they showed up early and surprised us we had to kill them without the silencers and I was afraid that would alert people to our presence. They managed to shoot one of the members of my group (not me). The wounded member of my team then shot the last member a whole bunch of times, and I shot them several times in the back of the neck (I specifically remember thinking it should definitely kill him) but the whole while they were just laughing at me as they died. The only person that had any blood from the gunshot wounds was my team member. I woke up as we were trying to figure out how to escape with our wounded member.

And now on with our show.

I have been working on some Windower macros for Izman's BST, and I think they are coming out quite well. I used to be one of those people that swore off any level of windower besides using it for being able to alt+tab, but after a while the fundamental usefulness of some plug-ins (recast, light luggage and yarnball come to mind) and especially being able to use more than 6 lines just seems to be something that should already exist in the game, just makes me think it has a good place in the game. Of course, I would never approve of the use of a windower, at all, ever, but if you are going to use it, which I would never do, then using it for those most fundamental purposes doesn't seem like a bad idea.

If you are going to make windower macros, which I never do, then I have some simple suggestions to fundamentally make their construction and replication much easier. Some quick fundamental rules:
1. If you are making an equipment swap macro you should include all potential equipment slots even weapons. The reason for this is that is makes it easy to just hit a macro and have everything equipped again if you are stripped of gear. With mobs and events now limiting equipment or removing equipment you simply have to hit a macro to have everything you could possibly need on again. This is especially helpful in Salvage.
2. Use an indicator for what the equipment swap is at the end of the swap. This makes it easier to indicate that you are on the correct macro palette if you use multiple ones for one job.
3. Don't be afraid to make entire macro palettes for small variations. I have two different macro sets for day and night on NIN. There are now a huge number of possible macro palettes, don't be afraid to use them!

I will have more pictures and items of interest soon, but I am still getting into the swing of things from vacation, and we have been pretty event packed for the last couple of days, so don't expect much until probably Friday.

I was on a mission with two other people. We had to go to an indoor garden/nursery that was shaped like an enlarged version of my high school friends basement. It was like the indoors portion of a nursery, with shelves of plants. We had to kill three people that were in animal suits (not like mascot outfits, more like anthropomorphic suits) who worked in the garden/nursery and take their place. Then we had to kill three more people in animal suits, but they were obviously more deadly, thus the chicanery with killing the first group. At some point, we had either done a practice run of this or had done it successfully before because I remembered how it all was supposed to go down but this time the second group of animal suits came in as we were hiding the first groups bodies. We managed to at least partially hide the first groups bodies, and they didn't notice at first, but while we were trying to attach silencers to our guns they were alerted to our nefarious intentions. We were supposed to kill them with silencers on the guns but since they showed up early and surprised us we had to kill them without the silencers and I was afraid that would alert people to our presence. They managed to shoot one of the members of my group (not me). The wounded member of my team then shot the last member a whole bunch of times, and I shot them several times in the back of the neck (I specifically remember thinking it should definitely kill him) but the whole while they were just laughing at me as they died. The only person that had any blood from the gunshot wounds was my team member. I woke up as we were trying to figure out how to escape with our wounded member.<br /><br />And now on with our show. <br /><br />I have been working on some Windower macros for Izman's BST, and I think they are coming out quite well. I used to be one of those people that swore off any level of windower besides using it for being able to alt+tab, but after a while the fundamental usefulness of some plug-ins (recast, light luggage and yarnball come to mind) and especially being able to use more than 6 lines just seems to be something that should already exist in the game, just makes me think it has a good place in the game. Of course, I would never approve of the use of a windower, at all, ever, but if you are going to use it, which I would never do, then using it for those most fundamental purposes doesn't seem like a bad idea. <br /><br />If you are going to make windower macros, which I never do, then I have some simple suggestions to fundamentally make their construction and replication much easier. Some quick fundamental rules: <br />1. If you are making an equipment swap macro you should include all potential equipment slots even weapons. The reason for this is that is makes it easy to just hit a macro and have everything equipped again if you are stripped of gear. With mobs and events now limiting equipment or removing equipment you simply have to hit a macro to have everything you could possibly need on again. This is especially helpful in Salvage.<br />2. Use an indicator for what the equipment swap is at the end of the swap. This makes it easier to indicate that you are on the correct macro palette if you use multiple ones for one job. <br />3. Don't be afraid to make entire macro palettes for small variations. I have two different macro sets for day and night on NIN. There are now a huge number of possible macro palettes, don't be afraid to use them! <br /><br />I will have more pictures and items of interest soon, but I am still getting into the swing of things from vacation, and we have been pretty event packed for the last couple of days, so don't expect much until probably Friday.

Why now?

SE has been adding in a bunch of things lately that players have been demanding for a long time. These are mostly convenience issues, and SE is doing a good job at fixing them, but why now? What about the game right now makes it important for SE to implement these changes? There are several lines of thought to follow here. Maybe they think that by fixing the things that people have been complaining about for a long time will prevent people from leaving the game. The problem with that logic is that the people that are still playing the game have already accepted its shortcomings. Fixing old things, and especially announcing them, doesn't really do anything by draw a target on the things and how long they were broken. Maybe they think that by fixing the old things that they will be drawing in new players because they are modernizing the game. The problem with this is that FFXI is an old game now and the whole game interface would have to be revised if they wanted to really draw in new players with an upgrade. In the end, I think they are just announcing these things because they have nothing else to announce. This is more negative than my normal statements about the game, but I don't think it is a systemic problem. I think it is more a development team problem. Apparently the same people that worked on CoP are the ones that are working on Wings. Now for storyline and mission purposes this is a really good things, but for game play it is obviously going to be a borefest.

Another Berticus interview has been posted, and while I do appreciate the work that he does in trying to get answers from the SE development people, I am beginning to think that we are asking the wrong questions. Everyone is always going to ask them how to beat AV, and everyone is going to always complain about Kings, and everyone is going to always complain about the XP grind, and the low drop rates on X, and etc, etc, etc. Why do we keep asking the same questions when we can already predict the answers? Why do we keep blaming SE for not giving us the information we think we need? Here is a shocking revelation for some, and a completely obvious observation for others. AV is completely beatable, as it exists in the game, right now. We just don't know how to beat it yet. SE wants the players to be the ones that figure out how to defeat it, and that is not a bad thing. If I was doing an interview, I would ask different questions, more subtle and less direct. Instead of asking how to beat AV, I would ask what the players are doing wrong. Are we missing something completely, or are we very close and just need to do one or two things differently? We need better follow up, like when we ask about Kings and they say that they are keeping them but they are going to provide alternatives, we need to ask about the alternatives and not about what they are going to be like in the game, but instead what about them is going to be different. We don't need to know specifics about the event and how it works in the storyline, we need to know how it is going to fix staring at Darters for 3 hours, or how it is going to fix horrible drop rates.

I would also like to know more about their decision-making process. Like how they came to the idea to do Kings, or when they decided to fix Sky or any number of development decisions that effect how the game is created. I think knowing this information would put many of the older questions into better perspective.

Anyway, we are getting new things, but I am less interested in what they are fixing and instead of the new things that are coming down the pipe. Maybe tomorrow.

SE has been adding in a bunch of things lately that players have been demanding for a long time. These are mostly convenience issues, and SE is doing a good job at fixing them, but why now? What about the game right now makes it important for SE to implement these changes? There are several lines of thought to follow here. Maybe they think that by fixing the things that people have been complaining about for a long time will prevent people from leaving the game. The problem with that logic is that the people that are still playing the game have already accepted its shortcomings. Fixing old things, and especially announcing them, doesn't really do anything by draw a target on the things and how long they were broken. Maybe they think that by fixing the old things that they will be drawing in new players because they are modernizing the game. The problem with this is that FFXI is an old game now and the whole game interface would have to be revised if they wanted to really draw in new players with an upgrade. In the end, I think they are just announcing these things because they have nothing else to announce. This is more negative than my normal statements about the game, but I don't think it is a systemic problem. I think it is more a development team problem. Apparently the same people that worked on CoP are the ones that are working on Wings. Now for storyline and mission purposes this is a really good things, but for game play it is obviously going to be a borefest. <br /><br />Another Berticus interview has been posted, and while I do appreciate the work that he does in trying to get answers from the SE development people, I am beginning to think that we are asking the wrong questions. Everyone is always going to ask them how to beat AV, and everyone is going to always complain about Kings, and everyone is going to always complain about the XP grind, and the low drop rates on X, and etc, etc, etc. Why do we keep asking the same questions when we can already predict the answers? Why do we keep blaming SE for not giving us the information we <span style="font-style:italic;">think</span> we need? Here is a shocking revelation for some, and a completely obvious observation for others. AV is completely beatable, as it exists in the game, right now. We just don't know <span style="font-style:italic;">how</span> to beat it yet. SE wants the players to be the ones that figure out how to defeat it, and <span style="font-weight:bold;">that is not a bad thing</span>. If I was doing an interview, I would ask different questions, more subtle and less direct. Instead of asking how to beat AV, I would ask what the players are doing wrong. Are we missing something completely, or are we very close and just need to do one or two things differently? We need better follow up, like when we ask about Kings and they say that they are keeping them but they are going to provide alternatives, we need to ask about the alternatives and not about what they are going to be like in the game, but instead what about them is going to be different. We don't need to know specifics about the event and how it works in the storyline, we need to know how it is going to fix staring at Darters for 3 hours, or how it is going to fix horrible drop rates. <br /><br />I would also like to know more about their decision-making process. Like how they came to the idea to do Kings, or when they decided to fix Sky or any number of development decisions that effect how the game is created. I think knowing this information would put many of the older questions into better perspective. <br /><br />Anyway, we are getting new things, but I am less interested in what they are fixing and instead of the new things that are coming down the pipe. Maybe tomorrow.

Wonderful perspective.

A week of vacation and a week without the game makes things a lot more clear when it comes to the relative importance of frustrations caused by the game. We all want to "beat the game" but in the end it is nothing more than a game. People will play it until they no longer enjoy it instead of taking a week break from the game and getting a bit better perspective on just how important in game achievements really are.

It was very nice to be out of touch. :)

Anyway, lets do a quick recap on what happened while I was gone.

Elfie got a Merciful Cape.
Hiryo got Usukane 35 Head (he also got a Faith Torque which I didn't post about yet I think).
Izman got Skadi 35 Feet.

In Salvage we are going to be focusing on some of the bosses, mostly Zhayolm and Bhaflau. Since we haven't really done boss runs on those runs since we have really picked up the pace in Salvage I am going to limit the amount of time spent on NM's until we get the 25 pieces that we really need. I missed a bunch of Salvage so I am really ready to get back into the swing of the event. :)

A few more things before I wrap up today. First, never mess with me. And second, if SE can put this kind of effect on a weapon: Why can't they do it for player weapons? Particle effects or even just blurring like this would add a ton of flare to the new weapons. :)

A week of vacation and a week without the game makes things a lot more clear when it comes to the relative importance of frustrations caused by the game. We all want to "beat the game" but in the end it is nothing more than a game. People will play it until they no longer enjoy it instead of taking a week break from the game and getting a bit better perspective on just how important in game achievements really are. <br /><br />It was very nice to be out of touch. :) <br /><br />Anyway, lets do a quick recap on what happened while I was gone. <br /><br />Elfie got a Merciful Cape.<br />Hiryo got Usukane 35 Head (he also got a Faith Torque which I didn't post about yet I think). <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Hiryo_Faith.png"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Hiryo_Faith.png" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px;" /></a><br />Izman got Skadi 35 Feet.<br /><br />In Salvage we are going to be focusing on some of the bosses, mostly Zhayolm and Bhaflau. Since we haven't really done boss runs on those runs since we have really picked up the pace in Salvage I am going to limit the amount of time spent on NM's until we get the 25 pieces that we really need. I missed a bunch of Salvage so I am really ready to get back into the swing of the event. :) <br /><br />A few more things before I wrap up today. First, never mess with me. <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Jess_TB.png"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Jess_TB.png" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px;" /></a> And second, if SE can put this kind of effect on a weapon: <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Part_effect.png"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Part_effect.png" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px;" /></a> Why can't they do it for player weapons? Particle effects or even just blurring like this would add a ton of flare to the new weapons. :)

What is wrong with you?

So, last night I was in a party for my BLM, my dreaded BLM, oh how I loathe BLM. Anyway, I picked up a regular party which started with BLM, WHM, THF, NIN and with a MNK and SCH on the way. Things seemed just peachy until the NIN asked if more people were coming after about 30 seconds. To which I replied, of course. The SCH showed up just a few minutes later and I after I invited them then NIN demanded to know who the sixth member was going to be. I informed him that it was a MNK and inquired as to why he was so insistent on knowing the party make up. Mind you, his was not a curious question, but a demand to know the 6th member. The NIN told me that if I was going to invite another mage that I could find another tank, to which I responded with a laugh. And we were quickly off to camp, but things continued to spiral out of control when the NIN asked about the mobs that we would be fighting, and I responded as the 31 BLM I was at the time that we would be fighting Beetles and Bats in the Garliage Citadel. Our NIN who obviously was big on earning the respect of his peers stated that he did not want to fight Bats. Did not want to fight Bats in the Garliage Citadel. Did not want to fight Bats. Bats. In the Citadel. I regretfully informed him that there were limited options for him at this point and that in all likelihood he would be just fine. To which he responded that if he died he was going to leave. Now up until this point the party had remained generally passive in regards to our particularly whiny level 32 NIN, but in response to this remark the party, almost universally, went bat-shit crazy on him. There were indications to the NIN that he should not be leveling a tanking job if he did not want to tank, also it was noted that dying was inevitable in the game, and that perhaps another game would be better for him if he did not wish to die. I believe Parchizi was suggested at one point but I may be mistaken. The NIN then proceeded to inform us that he was in fact a high level player, a 68 BLU to be exact and he was just leveling NIN for a sub. Again statements were made to the fact that it didn't excuse the level of complaint that was issuing forth, nor did it justify bad play. Sadly, things spiraled, comments were made to capability of the NIN's tanking prowess, and during a pull our poor NIN friend decided to blow himself up and leave. For better or for worse, it was not really noticed to much effect besides a few trailing jokes at the NIN's expense. The NIN for some reason then sent me a tell attempting to explain the circumstances under which he left...

I informed him that he was a douche.

He said that there really was no one to blame for the situation...

I informed him that there actually was someone to blame, himself.

Why, oh why, do new people feel as if they do not have to learn what so many others have learned about the game? Why do they feel special as if they rules somehow do not apply to them? Why do they feel they are exempt from having to pay their dues like everyone else has? I know another person like this, and it kind of leads to LS hopping then eventually server hopping as they try to find the cheapest route to their "rightful" reward. In the end they end of glomming on to other people for a while until they have annoyed them with their lack of personal action but huge expectation of reward. The leach is a typical part of the game, but even most leaches just leach onto the initiative of others, but this kind of person is even worse than that, they are the kind of person that tries to subvert other people when they are not catered to, then make them feel guilty for not catering to them. The problem is that it only takes one or two times before people figure out that this kind of person is just total slime. Can you tell I don't really like the person in question? LOL Ah well, another day, another diatribe.

As for my BLM, it is now 33, only 4 more levels of hell. :)

Only a few more levels then I will be able to toss it away like I did with THF and DRK. :)

By the way, you might get a token entry tomorrow, but I am taking a half day and heading to the beach for a week, I won't be posting until I get back.

So, last night I was in a party for my BLM, my dreaded BLM, oh how I loathe BLM. Anyway, I picked up a regular party which started with BLM, WHM, THF, NIN and with a MNK and SCH on the way. Things seemed just peachy until the NIN asked if more people were coming after about 30 seconds. To which I replied, of course. The SCH showed up just a few minutes later and I after I invited them then NIN demanded to know who the sixth member was going to be. I informed him that it was a MNK and inquired as to why he was so insistent on knowing the party make up. Mind you, his was not a curious question, but a demand to know the 6th member. The NIN told me that if I was going to invite another mage that I could find another tank, to which I responded with a laugh. And we were quickly off to camp, but things continued to spiral out of control when the NIN asked about the mobs that we would be fighting, and I responded as the 31 BLM I was at the time that we would be fighting Beetles and Bats in the Garliage Citadel. Our NIN who obviously was big on earning the respect of his peers stated that he did not want to fight Bats. Did not want to fight Bats in the Garliage Citadel. Did not want to fight Bats. Bats. In the Citadel. I regretfully informed him that there were limited options for him at this point and that in all likelihood he would be just fine. To which he responded that if he died he was going to leave. Now up until this point the party had remained generally passive in regards to our particularly whiny level 32 NIN, but in response to this remark the party, almost universally, went bat-shit crazy on him. There were indications to the NIN that he should not be leveling a tanking job if he did not want to tank, also it was noted that dying was inevitable in the game, and that perhaps another game would be better for him if he did not wish to die. I believe Parchizi was suggested at one point but I may be mistaken. The NIN then proceeded to inform us that he was in fact a high level player, a 68 BLU to be exact and he was just leveling NIN for a sub. Again statements were made to the fact that it didn't excuse the level of complaint that was issuing forth, nor did it justify bad play. Sadly, things spiraled, comments were made to capability of the NIN's tanking prowess, and during a pull our poor NIN friend decided to blow himself up and leave. For better or for worse, it was not really noticed to much effect besides a few trailing jokes at the NIN's expense. The NIN for some reason then sent me a tell attempting to explain the circumstances under which he left...<br /><br />I informed him that he was a douche.<br /><br />He said that there really was no one to blame for the situation...<br /><br />I informed him that there actually was someone to blame, himself.<br /><br />Why, oh why, do new people feel as if they do not have to learn what so many others have learned about the game? Why do they feel special as if they rules somehow do not apply to them? Why do they feel they are exempt from having to pay their dues like everyone else has? I know another person like this, and it kind of leads to LS hopping then eventually server hopping as they try to find the cheapest route to their "rightful" reward. In the end they end of glomming on to other people for a while until they have annoyed them with their lack of personal action but huge expectation of reward. The leach is a typical part of the game, but even most leaches just leach onto the initiative of others, but this kind of person is even worse than that, they are the kind of person that tries to subvert other people when they are not catered to, then make them feel guilty for not catering to them. The problem is that it only takes one or two times before people figure out that this kind of person is just total slime. Can you tell I don't really like the person in question? LOL Ah well, another day, another diatribe.<br /><br />As for my BLM, it is now 33, only 4 more levels of hell. :)<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/BLM_33.png" target="_blank"><img alt="Photobucket" border="0" src="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/BLM_33-1.png" /></a></div> Only a few more levels then I will be able to toss it away like I did with THF and DRK. :) <br /><br />By the way, you might get a token entry tomorrow, but I am taking a half day and heading to the beach for a week, I won't be posting until I get back.

And I thought I was emo.

Clarification for my more paranoid readership: My reference yesterday about not getting Assaults done was for those that don't do anything regarding Assaults. This does not include Nyzul Isle or Salvage or things like that. It is for the lazy people that didn't keep up with them over time and now don't have anything to show for them and would rather play sour grapes than get them done. :) You can get to FL using just Nyzul. It would take forever but it can be done. My preference is to balance the pursuit of something Assault dependent with getting Captain rank, which I have done, but to each their own, just don't be lazy and then whine about it.

Anyway, I got BLM to 31 last night, leaving me with only 6 more levels of Hell. And Omoi completed Skadi feet...

Yeah...

I didn't type that wrong...

LOL...

Anyway, really she did. She got the 35 feet on a very small Rakuen run over last weekend when they were free lot, then we got double 25 feet from LBC last night, and she just had the 15 feet lying around already. Those Skadi feet will be awesome for her level 40 RNG. LOL Well, actually, she will probably get good use out of them because Omoi has two different kinds of jobs, ones she needs and ones she loves. Omoi needs WHM, Omoi loves DRG. I get the impression that she could definitely enjoy RNG more than need it. I wouldn't be surprised if you saw Omoi running around with a bow and arrow plinking things left and right in the very near future.

I feel an Izman mind-stabbling of Omoi coming on. :)

I am kind of disappointed that there wasn't an update today on POL. :( I guess that is what we get when they announce the update early. I just want moooooooooooore... LOL

Clarification for my more paranoid readership: My reference yesterday about not getting Assaults done was for those that don't do anything regarding Assaults. This does not include Nyzul Isle or Salvage or things like that. It is for the lazy people that didn't keep up with them over time and now don't have anything to show for them and would rather play sour grapes than get them done. :) You can get to FL using just Nyzul. It would take forever but it can be done. My preference is to balance the pursuit of something Assault dependent with getting Captain rank, which I have done, but to each their own, just don't be lazy and then whine about it. <br /><br />Anyway, I got BLM to 31 last night, leaving me with only 6 more levels of Hell. And Omoi completed Skadi feet...<br /><br />Yeah...<br /><br />I didn't type that wrong...<br /><br />LOL...<br /><br />Anyway, really she did. She got the 35 feet on a very small Rakuen run over last weekend when they were free lot, then we got double 25 feet from LBC last night, and she just had the 15 feet lying around already. Those Skadi feet will be awesome for her level 40 RNG. LOL Well, actually, she will probably get good use out of them because Omoi has two different kinds of jobs, ones she needs and ones she loves. Omoi needs WHM, Omoi loves DRG. I get the impression that she could definitely enjoy RNG more than need it. I wouldn't be surprised if you saw Omoi running around with a bow and arrow plinking things left and right in the very near future. <br /><br />I feel an Izman mind-stabbling of Omoi coming on. :) <br /><br />I am kind of disappointed that there wasn't an update today on POL. :( I guess that is what we get when they announce the update early. I just want moooooooooooore... LOL

Why so soon?

I find it interesting that SE already posted about the coming version update when it is over a month away. The optimistic part of me thinks that it could mean that the next version update is going to be huge so they need lots of time to give us information. The pessimistic part of me thinks its just so that they can cover their asses because the last update took so long and they didn't say anything about it for a long time. I am also a bit concerned that they said that this update will mostly be about the missions for Wings because even though it is definitely needed I prefer for the updates to be more balanced. They also might just be telling people that the update will focus on missions because there has been so little in that aspect up to this point. I mean of course the lottery and the new relics are a huge announcement but honestly they are actually a very small part of an update. The lottery is just get your 10 tickets, then forget about it for a couple of months. The new relics are the exact opposite, they in all likelihood take a long time to develop and won't be available immediately. So the content from the relics won't be having a major impact either.

I am really interested in the missions though, but I know people will complain that there is no "content" in this update and it makes me wonder what they mean by content. To me, content is the collective whole of things that are put into the game. In this case, even though the new expansion felt a little hollow at the start the shear amount of programming time and effort that went into creating Campaign had to be huge. But for some people, because there was no one piece of jaw dropping gear, there was no content. This is utterly ridiculous to me. I do agree that there was not a lot of gear made available in expansion, and that is something that SE should know by now that they need to include, but it does not mean they are not diligently working to make the game better. Campaign is unlike anything else in the game, and if you compare it to Beseiged in its complexity, design and quality, it is far superior. I love the fact that you can go and get a little XP or a lot and do it on your own time. Also, I look at the Campaign ranks in much the same way that I look at Assaults, people are not doing them now because they do not see the immediate rewards. That is retarded, because this time SE is starting by showing us some of the rewards already. The Iron Ram gear is amazingly good tanking gear indepedently, the other gear is also very good and strangely decent filler gear for leveling in the late 60's, early 70's. This gear is obviously tiered in a fashion that makes it accessible to those that at least keep up with Campaign ranks. I think we will again find people that will never get the highest gear because they refuse to do something that they should have done long ago but have now fallen far behind on. Well, they can keep paying the 200 ISP for Runic Portals too. LOL

Campaign is a ton of content, and my argument is that it was so much content that it explains why the rest of the expansion was relatively empty. Just the programming time that had to go into creating the Campaign battle because of the AI, the XP system and other factors is huge. This is all before they added Campaign Ops which vary widely but are hardly used, and further the other parts of Campaign that barely anyone uses like Recon, Headhunting, etc. The Campaign battles themselves are an amazing addition to the game creating a huge new ability to solo or do something while waiting for a party, but the other areas of Campaign have at the same time too much and too little explanation. There are NPC's that will rattle on endlessly about the status of the fort in North Gustaberg [S], but there isn't much help at all in figuring out what you have to do to complete Aegis Scream III. There is definitely a lack of balance in that respect.

I hardly ever mention anything about Windower, but I wanted to mention that the next version is coming out soon and people should grab it when it is released because it is a bug fix edition and with how good 3.3 is already, 3.4 should be even better. I very much am of the opinion that SE should official sanction the Windower people. They provide a great service to the community and since I would guess something like 80% of PC users already use it, and SE tacitly accepts the use of it for non-haxing purposes. The only reason in my mind for not doing so is that it is not available for PS2 and Xbox users, which is true but at this point is functioning as nothing more than an albatross for the PC users. I really hope that the next generation of Windower functionality will move beyond the base functions but included a more integrated look into the game. Currently, everything is basically just text on top of the game, but it would look much nicer of they actually created a nice UI that blended with the FFXI interface. I have seen some screenshots of people using so kind of Windower plug-in that looked very nice in that they were not just test but actually appeared window-like and were easy to read and understand quickly.

In actual game news, I got my BLM to level 30! I can not wait until this horrible job is finished but I am going to ride Bg's RDM till 37 if I can, and if I can't then so be it, but Bg and I are going to do RDM and BRD to 75 once he gets to 37 (or higher since I am going on vacation next week) and that should take about a week. LOL Probably more BLM leveling tonight after Salvage. I will keep you informed. :)

I find it interesting that SE already posted about the coming version update when it is over a month away. The optimistic part of me thinks that it could mean that the next version update is going to be huge so they need lots of time to give us information. The pessimistic part of me thinks its just so that they can cover their asses because the last update took so long and they didn't say anything about it for a long time. I am also a bit concerned that they said that this update will mostly be about the missions for Wings because even though it is definitely needed I prefer for the updates to be more balanced. They also might just be telling people that the update will focus on missions because there has been so little in that aspect up to this point. I mean of course the lottery and the new relics are a huge announcement but honestly they are actually a very small part of an update. The lottery is just get your 10 tickets, then forget about it for a couple of months. The new relics are the exact opposite, they in all likelihood take a long time to develop and won't be available immediately. So the content from the relics won't be having a major impact either. <br /><br />I am really interested in the missions though, but I know people will complain that there is no "content" in this update and it makes me wonder what they mean by content. To me, content is the collective whole of things that are put into the game. In this case, even though the new expansion felt a little hollow at the start the shear amount of programming time and effort that went into creating Campaign had to be huge. But for some people, because there was no one piece of jaw dropping gear, there was no content. This is utterly ridiculous to me. I do agree that there was not a lot of gear made available in expansion, and that is something that SE should know by now that they need to include, but it does not mean they are not diligently working to make the game better. Campaign is unlike anything else in the game, and if you compare it to Beseiged in its complexity, design and quality, it is far superior. I love the fact that you can go and get a little XP or a lot and do it on your own time. Also, I look at the Campaign ranks in much the same way that I look at Assaults, people are not doing them now because they do not see the immediate rewards. That is retarded, because this time SE is starting by showing us some of the rewards already. The Iron Ram gear is amazingly good tanking gear indepedently, the other gear is also very good and strangely decent filler gear for leveling in the late 60's, early 70's. This gear is obviously tiered in a fashion that makes it accessible to those that at least keep up with Campaign ranks. I think we will again find people that will never get the highest gear because they refuse to do something that they should have done long ago but have now fallen far behind on. Well, they can keep paying the 200 ISP for Runic Portals too. LOL <br /><br />Campaign is a ton of content, and my argument is that it was so much content that it explains why the rest of the expansion was relatively empty. Just the programming time that had to go into creating the Campaign battle because of the AI, the XP system and other factors is huge. This is all before they added Campaign Ops which vary widely but are hardly used, and further the other parts of Campaign that barely anyone uses like Recon, Headhunting, etc. The Campaign battles themselves are an amazing addition to the game creating a huge new ability to solo or do something while waiting for a party, but the other areas of Campaign have at the same time too much and too little explanation. There are NPC's that will rattle on endlessly about the status of the fort in North Gustaberg [S], but there isn't much help at all in figuring out what you have to do to complete Aegis Scream III. There is definitely a lack of balance in that respect. <br /><br />I hardly ever mention anything about Windower, but I wanted to mention that the next version is coming out soon and people should grab it when it is released because it is a bug fix edition and with how good 3.3 is already, 3.4 should be even better. I very much am of the opinion that SE should official sanction the Windower people. They provide a great service to the community and since I would guess something like 80% of PC users already use it, and SE tacitly accepts the use of it for non-haxing purposes. The only reason in my mind for not doing so is that it is not available for PS2 and Xbox users, which is true but at this point is functioning as nothing more than an albatross for the PC users. I really hope that the next generation of Windower functionality will move beyond the base functions but included a more integrated look into the game. Currently, everything is basically just text on top of the game, but it would look much nicer of they actually created a nice UI that blended with the FFXI interface. I have seen some screenshots of people using so kind of Windower plug-in that looked very nice in that they were not just test but actually appeared window-like and were easy to read and understand quickly. <br /><br />In actual game news, I got my BLM to level 30! I can not wait until this horrible job is finished but I am going to ride Bg's RDM till 37 if I can, and if I can't then so be it, but Bg and I are going to do RDM and BRD to 75 once he gets to 37 (or higher since I am going on vacation next week) and that should take about a week. LOL Probably more BLM leveling tonight after Salvage. I will keep you informed. :)

Earning ire.

Very interesting weekend. Salvage resulted in absolutely nothing of interest. I now have a level 25 Macha's body piece for all the good it will do me right now. I hate Salvage slumps. I also have perfect Salvage hindsight, we should have done Bhaflau last night instead of SSR. We would have been fine, and easily beaten the boss. Akanea still needs the 25 Usukane legs from LBC and Skur could have used the Macha's body too. Instead, I tried to do SSR again because everyone needs something from there, not the least of which is me. It may even have been a bit self-centered to go to SSR last night because I am interested in two items from that zone. It's just that every NM has someone that wants something and it could be used almost instantly. The other thing is that our SSR runs are too much of a crap shoot. We have Arrapago down pat, and depending on drops and set up we can do everything. Bhaflau is a close second and I mostly credit Rakuen for this because we have increased our efficiency there great with just a few tweaks. We don't do a whole lot of Zhayolm right now because we don't have a whole lot of priorities there right now, but it is actually relatively easy to do because of how the drops work. SSR for some reason is much more random for us, I don't know why, because it is rather easy and straight forward. Also it is the only zone that just in general refuses to drop.

Anyway, this is what earned my ire this weekend.
1/1 1/1 Well, I didn't didn't earn Blaize's ire, who has a new X's Knife, but I still feel bad for Skur who has wanted this for a while.

In other news, we did another Love this weekend and we got another Novia Earring which went to Hiryo, and a Love Torque. The Love Torque went to Darkdawn who has been on quite a roll recently too. :) We had a tough time at the beginning, because we had screwed up our tanks positioning, so we couldn't get the DD's on it as soon as they could have been, but once we had them on Love it went down with relatively decent speed.

I also spent a little time leveling my WHM this weekend which is now 57 and again one level from being gimp with a BLM of level 28. :/ But my BLM is only about 100 XP from 29. At some point I am just going to say fuck it and spend a couple of days leveling BLM, I am just so busy in the game in general. Most of my extra time is spent in Salvage, or running around doing other things. Meh. Probably time to concentrate on leveling what I need to get done.

Very interesting weekend. Salvage resulted in absolutely nothing of interest. I now have a level 25 Macha's body piece for all the good it will do me right now. I hate Salvage slumps. I also have perfect Salvage hindsight, we should have done Bhaflau last night instead of SSR. We would have been fine, and easily beaten the boss. Akanea still needs the 25 Usukane legs from LBC and Skur could have used the Macha's body too. Instead, I tried to do SSR again because everyone needs something from there, not the least of which is me. It may even have been a bit self-centered to go to SSR last night because I am interested in two items from that zone. It's just that every NM has someone that wants something and it could be used almost instantly. The other thing is that our SSR runs are too much of a crap shoot. We have Arrapago down pat, and depending on drops and set up we can do everything. Bhaflau is a close second and I mostly credit Rakuen for this because we have increased our efficiency there great with just a few tweaks. We don't do a whole lot of Zhayolm right now because we don't have a whole lot of priorities there right now, but it is actually relatively easy to do because of how the drops work. SSR for some reason is much more random for us, I don't know why, because it is rather easy and straight forward. Also it is the only zone that just in general refuses to drop. <br /><br />Anyway, this is what earned my ire this weekend.<br />1/1 <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Good_drops.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5195758804770593586" src="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Good_drops-1.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a> 1/1 <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Better_drops.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5195758804770593586" src="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Better_drops-1.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a> Well, I didn't didn't earn Blaize's ire, who has a new X's Knife, but I still feel bad for Skur who has wanted this for a while. <br /><br />In other news, we did another Love this weekend and we got another Novia Earring which went to Hiryo, and a Love Torque. <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Love_drops.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5195758804770593586" src="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Love_drops.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a> The Love Torque went to Darkdawn who has been on quite a roll recently too. :) We had a tough time at the beginning, because we had screwed up our tanks positioning, so we couldn't get the DD's on it as soon as they could have been, but once we had them on Love it went down with relatively decent speed. <br /><br />I also spent a little time leveling my WHM this weekend which is now 57 and again one level from being gimp with a BLM of level 28. :/ But my BLM is only about 100 XP from 29. At some point I am just going to say fuck it and spend a couple of days leveling BLM, I am just so busy in the game in general. Most of my extra time is spent in Salvage, or running around doing other things. Meh. Probably time to concentrate on leveling what I need to get done.

Everyone just calm down please, ok?

Ok, calm? Good.

Now you can spaz out.

Aymur:

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Burtgang:

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Carnwenhan:

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Conqueror:

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Death Penalty:

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Gastrapheter:

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Glanzfaust:

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Kenkonken:

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Kogarasumaru:

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Laevateinn:

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Liberator:

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Murgleis:

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Nagi:

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Nirvana:

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Ryunhige:

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Terpischore:

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Tizona:

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Tupsimati:

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Vajra:

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Yagrush:

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Flavor Text:

The Myriad Arms of Balrahn (02/05/2008)

By now the name of Balrahn, great restorer of the Empire of Aht Urhgan, has resounded throughout Vana’diel, reaching the ears of all in the form of both history and legend. Blessed with multifarious talents and gifted in nearly every field of human endeavor, the tales of his exploits and travels have become an undying source of entertainment and delight. The restoration of the reign and dignity of the throne which he ushered in has earned him recognition as the greatest hero that empire has ever known. Though, we would of course be getting ahead of ourselves to posit that his grandeur or regality was on a scale with anything approaching that of our King Ranperre.

During his time on the throne, Balrahn garnered enormous respect amongst the people for his utter lack of interest in the superfluousness of royalty. The magnificent structures, the lush garments, the grand banquets… Rather, Balrahn was obsessed with, and dedicated himself wholeheartedly to, the amassing of rare and powerful weaponry. Indeed, the vast majority of valuable weapons stored in the Imperial armories are from his personal collection. These are weapons heralded to be unparalleled in their artistry in form and efficacy in battle.

However, according to an Imperial spy, the official ledger containing the list of those weapons, though guarded to the utmost and never permitted to pass through the palace gates, was obtained by subversive means and made known to the public. What degree of truth and significance can be ascribed to these entries? Could it possibly be some clever scheme on the part of the Empire to leak false information for its own ends? Or could this truly be an instance of espionage unprecedented in scale throughout history?

But for our purposes here, this is a moot point. The information has been made known, adventurer. Whatever action that knowledge may lead to is entirely in your hands now.

History teaches us that the misuse or misappropriation of weapons of this magnitude can only lead the most disastrous of consequences. We can only pray that a threat so great as to warrant their consideration for use will ever cast its shadow over our Aht Urhgan.

Halver M Borel

Pretty neat, I would say. Spent half the day, getting good versions of these pictures. LOL You better enjoy them.

I can still here that evil turtle laughing at me. It's cackles haunt my dreams...

Ok, calm? Good.<br /><br />Now you can spaz out.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><u>Aymur:</u></span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Nyzul_Aymur_Small.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5195758804770593586" src="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Nyzul_Aymur_Small.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a><br /><u>Description:</u><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Nyzul_Aymur.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5195758804770593586" src="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Nyzul_Aymur-1.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><u>Burtgang:</u></span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Nyzul_Burtgang_Small.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5195758804770593586" src="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Nyzul_Burtgang_Small.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a><br /><u>Description:</u><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Nyzul_Burtgang.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5195758804770593586" src="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Nyzul_Burtgang-1.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><u>Carnwenhan:</u></span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Nyzul_Carnwenhan_Small.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5195758804770593586" src="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Nyzul_Carnwenhan_Small.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a><br /><u>Description:</u><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Nyzul_Carnwenhan.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5195758804770593586" src="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Nyzul_Carnwenhan-1.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><u>Conqueror:</u></span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Nyzul_Conqueror_Small.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5195758804770593586" src="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Nyzul_Conqueror_Small.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a><br /><u>Description:</u><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Nyzul_Conqueror-1.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5195758804770593586" src="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Nyzul_Conqueror-1-1.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><u>Death Penalty:</u></span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Nyzul_DeathPenalty_Small.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5195758804770593586" src="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Nyzul_DeathPenalty_Small.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a><br /><u>Description:</u><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Nyzul_DeathPenalty.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5195758804770593586" src="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Nyzul_DeathPenalty-1.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><u>Gastrapheter:</u></span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Nyzul_Gastrapheter_Small.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5195758804770593586" src="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Nyzul_Gastrapheter_Small.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a><br /><u>Description:</u><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Nyzul_Gastraphetes.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5195758804770593586" src="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Nyzul_Gastraphetes-1.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><u>Glanzfaust:</u></span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Nyzul_Glanzfaust_Small.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5195758804770593586" src="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Nyzul_Glanzfaust_Small.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a><br /><u>Description:</u><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Nyzul_Glanzfaust.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5195758804770593586" src="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Nyzul_Glanzfaust-1.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><u>Kenkonken:</u></span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Nyzul_Kenkonken_Small.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5195758804770593586" src="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Nyzul_Kenkonken_Small.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a><br /><u>Description:</u><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Nyzul_Kenkonken.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5195758804770593586" src="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Nyzul_Kenkonken-1.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><u>Kogarasumaru:</u></span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Nyzul_Kogarasumaru_Small.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5195758804770593586" src="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Nyzul_Kogarasumaru_Small.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a><br /><u>Description:</u><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Nyzul_Kogarasumaru.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5195758804770593586" src="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Nyzul_Kogarasumaru-1.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><u>Laevateinn:</u></span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Nyzul_Laevateinn_Small.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5195758804770593586" src="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Nyzul_Laevateinn_Small.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a><br /><u>Description:</u><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Nyzul_Laevateinn.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5195758804770593586" src="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Nyzul_Laevateinn-1.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><u>Liberator:</u></span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Nyzul_Liberator_Small.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5195758804770593586" src="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Nyzul_Liberator_Small.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a><br /><u>Description:</u><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Nyzul_Liberator.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5195758804770593586" src="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Nyzul_Liberator-1.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><u>Murgleis:</u></span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Nyzul_Murgleis_Small.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5195758804770593586" src="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Nyzul_Murgleis_Small.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a><br /><u>Description:</u><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Nyzul_Murgleis.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5195758804770593586" src="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Nyzul_Murgleis-1.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><u>Nagi:</u></span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Nyzul_Nagi_Small.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5195758804770593586" src="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Nyzul_Nagi_Small.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a><br /><u>Description:</u><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Nyzul_Nagi.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5195758804770593586" src="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Nyzul_Nagi-1.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><u>Nirvana:</u></span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Nyzul_Nirvana_Small.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5195758804770593586" src="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Nyzul_Nirvana_Small.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a><br /><u>Description:</u><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Nyzul_Nirvana.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5195758804770593586" src="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Nyzul_Nirvana-1.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><u>Ryunhige:</u></span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Nyzul_Ryunohige_Small.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5195758804770593586" src="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Nyzul_Ryunohige_Small.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a><br /><u>Description:</u><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Nyzul_Ryunohige.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5195758804770593586" src="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Nyzul_Ryunohige-1.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><u>Terpischore:</u></span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Nyzul_Terpsichore_Small.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5195758804770593586" src="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Nyzul_Terpsichore_Small.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a><br /><u>Description:</u><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Nyzul_Terpsichore.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5195758804770593586" src="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Nyzul_Terpsichore-1.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><u>Tizona:</u></span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Nyzul_Tizona_Small.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5195758804770593586" src="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Nyzul_Tizona_Small.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a><br /><u>Description:</u><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Nyzul_Tizona.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5195758804770593586" src="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Nyzul_Tizona-1.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><u>Tupsimati:</u></span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Nyzul_Tupsimati_Small.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5195758804770593586" src="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Nyzul_Tupsimati_Small.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a><br /><u>Description:</u><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Nyzul_Tupsimati.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5195758804770593586" src="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Nyzul_Tupsimati-1.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><u>Vajra:</u></span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Nyzul_Vajra_Small.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5195758804770593586" src="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Nyzul_Vajra_Small.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a><br /><u>Description:</u><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Nyzul_Vajra.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5195758804770593586" src="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Nyzul_Vajra-1.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><u>Yagrush:</u></span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Nyzul_Yagrush_Small.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5195758804770593586" src="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Nyzul_Yagrush_Small.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a><br /><u>Description:</u><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Nyzul_Yagrush.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5195758804770593586" src="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff151/ringthreetheicp/Nyzul_Yagrush-1.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><u>Flavor Text:</u></span><br /><blockquote><br />The Myriad Arms of Balrahn (02/05/2008)<br /><br />By now the name of Balrahn, great restorer of the Empire of Aht Urhgan, has resounded throughout Vana’diel, reaching the ears of all in the form of both history and legend. Blessed with multifarious talents and gifted in nearly every field of human endeavor, the tales of his exploits and travels have become an undying source of entertainment and delight. The restoration of the reign and dignity of the throne which he ushered in has earned him recognition as the greatest hero that empire has ever known. Though, we would of course be getting ahead of ourselves to posit that his grandeur or regality was on a scale with anything approaching that of our King Ranperre.<br /><br />During his time on the throne, Balrahn garnered enormous respect amongst the people for his utter lack of interest in the superfluousness of royalty. The magnificent structures, the lush garments, the grand banquets… Rather, Balrahn was obsessed with, and dedicated himself wholeheartedly to, the amassing of rare and powerful weaponry. Indeed, the vast majority of valuable weapons stored in the Imperial armories are from his personal collection. These are weapons heralded to be unparalleled in their artistry in form and efficacy in battle.<br /><br />However, according to an Imperial spy, the official ledger containing the list of those weapons, though guarded to the utmost and never permitted to pass through the palace gates, was obtained by subversive means and made known to the public. What degree of truth and significance can be ascribed to these entries? Could it possibly be some clever scheme on the part of the Empire to leak false information for its own ends? Or could this truly be an instance of espionage unprecedented in scale throughout history?<br /><br />But for our purposes here, this is a moot point. The information has been made known, adventurer. Whatever action that knowledge may lead to is entirely in your hands now.<br /><br />History teaches us that the misuse or misappropriation of weapons of this magnitude can only lead the most disastrous of consequences. We can only pray that a threat so great as to warrant their consideration for use will ever cast its shadow over our Aht Urhgan.<br /><br />Halver M Borel</blockquote><br /><br />Pretty neat, I would say. Spent half the day, getting good versions of these pictures. LOL You better enjoy them. <br /><br />I can still here that evil turtle laughing at me. It's cackles haunt my dreams...