A big thanks to Tuufiekins for following my format for the "On the Cheap" series and doing one for BLM. It's going to help me out and hopefully it will increase the hits for my site too. :)
Nothing, still nothing from SE on the "March" update. I am guessing that the duping issue and spending time having to ban people has cost us some time on when we will get our update. :(
I am working on RNG "On the Cheap" but serious... I would rather watch paint dry.
Go read Omoi's blog for today. Apparently it is really long.
I didn't get to see much of anyone yesterday because I was completely exhausted and only was on the game for 3 hours.
Iz went to bed early too. Ice wasn't even on the game. Tuesday is a long event day, but maybe Omoi and Iz will want to stay up late and do something like an ENM or something. We haven't done one of those in a while.
I need to make some money. Iz has been encouraging me to sell my Alexandrite, which I should because I could make a lot of money, but I feel bad selling them for some reason. At some point I should recommit myself to getting a relic.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Cross-promotion.
Salvage schedule updated.
It's there. And for those that doubted me, I did have dates up until the end of the week! So Naaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!
Friday, February 20, 2009
I am not a unique snowflake!!!
Why am I the only person that thinks that Windower 4.0 is the most awesome thing since sliced bread?
Windower 4.0 is going to have a true graphic interface, one with separate windows for TP, MP, HP that you can click and drag. Positioning and targeting icons for players and targets. Why am I the only one jumping up and down and saying "Holy Shit"? Seriously, this is revolutionary compared to the current windower.
I have poured over Azaril's blog and the idea's look just amazing really. Well, I didn't understand 99% of it because it was talking about coding or key binding, neither of which I know anything about. The important things for me were the changes to TParty. Check them out.
* Cast bars for players within alliance/range of the player. This would allow you to see who’s casting what and on who. For example tell if you’ve got an incoming heal when you’re close to death.
* Alliance member location indicators. Show arrows under your players feet to indicate direction to alliancer members/group members/target.
* Alliance member or target overlay information, see hp/mp/tp information next to the player on screen.
* Custom overlay information, attach any image/text to a player in 3d.
* Clickable targeting and casting buttons on screen for alliance members. Be able to see health and debuffs on a player in a simple fashion and be able to click to cure/remove debuffs.
This shit is epic.
1. Cast bars for players. Decrease your overhealing, find out if you are getting that silena or paralyna that you need. Is someone casting Ichi? Toss out a Flash to cover for them in the mean time. There is so much information that we should have but have been unable to see because of chat lag, or filters or any other reason. Now we will be able to cast efficiently and also have visual feed back on interrupted spells for tanks. This is something that almost all other games already have and have had for years.
2. Alliance member indicators. Ever tabbed past the tank that needs a cure just because you hit tab too fast? Want to know who your party members are in Dynamis and Einherjar? Now you can focus on the important people and ignore the rest.
3. Target information overlays. Want to know how much HP, MP and TP everyone else has without having to take your eyes off the action? Want to conveniently know the status of people around you? What if you want to add a little something to remind you of a spell you need to cast or something else about another player? Easy enough.
4. The best part. Click and go! Click on a player and then click a button on screen to cast a spell on them. Even more importantly, get an on screen visual display of buffs and debuffs on players, assign a button to a debuff spell and then click and start casting.
All of this, if it actually works and if Azaril gets the graphical support he needs, could be utter game changing and could make this game make a huge jump forward in design and play.
It's awesome and I should not be alone in feeling this way!
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Where are my updates?
It's been quite some time since the last update and we still don't have update notes for the next one that is supposed to happen in March. The last update we got notes almost two month's in advance. Right now even if the notes started coming tomorrow I don't think we will see the next update until after March. Unless they change the number of update notes or the speed at which they come out I don't see them getting it out any time soon. I just hope some new information comes soon. I am not bored in game or anything. In fact, I don't have enough time for pretty much anything in game right now besides my normal events and leveling BLM. It is just that I want more information and new things. I love reading about new things coming to the game, and I love thinking about how to use the new things that are coming. This reflects partially back on SE's lack of communication it has with it's player base, but I think I have gone over that before. In case I haven't, ultimately, the problem that SE has is that it is doing one thing while only partially listening to the player base. It's like a parent/child relationship. They have an idea of what they think is best for us and we have and idea of what we think is best for us. In the middle there is a good solution, but it seems like we are not willing to meet in the middle.
Well, even with this lack of updates I am definitely looking forward to some of the things that are supposed to be coming down the pipe.
- The new outland areas opening up in the past. Now this just seemed very interesting in the interviews that I have heard so far. They said that they are going to be "high level" areas. Now, who knows what that means really? At least it sounds like it has some kind of end-game activities involved.
- The new areas that are going to be Campaign related. I think people are missing this one a little bit. There are several gates in the older areas where it is obvious that there will be events. Some of them are already in use, but most of them are not used at all yet. The implication is that these areas will be like the big Campaign related fights with the beastman fights where you get the Witch's Sash and things like that, but the fights will be easier and the rewards will be lessened.
- New barspells? This was mentioned off-hand in one of the interviews that I saw and it seems pretty interesting. I still think that WHM needs Regain and it would be sweet for DRK or BLM to get Plague/Virus/Disease. More control over the players and mob TP is something that is more and more necessary in game. I mean Regain would essentially be Refresh for DNC and Plague/Virus/Disease (something that would tick down mob TP) would have the effect of at least partially allowing a extra melee or two onto mobs that you would normally limit TP on.
I love speculation. Bring on the update notes so I can stop recycling my hopes and dreams.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Start jerking off kids, this plane is going down.
Life as we know it is ending. The universe is going to blink out of existence.
First, the revelation that FFXI isn't SE's only SM freak sex toy. JPButton >> Final Fantasy XI: Profitable but Dying? Now it might seem that the sky is indeed falling, and that your character's head is on the chopping board, but take heart fair adventurer because you are not alone!
HOLY SHIT! GAME OVER MAN! GAME OVER!
The newest announcement from Blizzard! The end is nigh for WoW! Jeffrey Kaplan Leaves WoW for New MMO Ok, go ahead and put that gun in your mouth and pull the trigger.
Now, where am I going with all of this? That's easy. I am going for some reality.
FFXI hasn't been the number one thing on SE's plate for over a year. The content from WotG has been slow and the game is pretty old now. This isn't a shock, it's reality. Companies need to make money and although FFXI is a kind of freaking Frankensteinian cash cow and golden goose mutant, that doesn't mean that they don't have new and innovative ways to drain out pockets monthly. It also doesn't mean that FFXI is dying. In fact, I think that their approach in the last couple of updates has actually been to try to revive it in a manner. They are trying to get new players in and trying to get old players to come back. The only problem is that it seems like they stalled out on some of the good stuff that people like me usually look forward to in the update notes.
WoW is WoW, I guess, but where some people take essentially the same news for FFXI, they do not apply it to WoW. Probably because of the number of people playing WoW, but in the end WoW and FFXI are completely different. FFXI attracts different people than those that WoW attracts in general. I like playing it from time to time but it just isn't FFXI. It is what people generally like because people like to do what is popular, thus what makes it popular. But that is tautological. Any how, as it turns out, this was all a tempest in a teapot anyone, because just two days later we see what SE was really trying to say. Check page nine for the same page in English.
It's a moment of well duh. We knew that was coming, they have been working on their next MMO for a long time and they have already said they aren't going to make the EQ to EQ2 mistake, meaning they don't want to spend a whole lot of money on a sequel and end up only either stealing their own customers or wasting a whole lot of money on a game that doesn't draw people from their old game. So, yes, there is a new game coming, and there has been a lot shaking up FFXI for the last month or two, but in the end is this going to amount to anything of significance?
I really don't think so.
Working on RNG on the cheap. Let's be clear about something here, ok? There is nothing fucking cheap about RNG. OK? NOTHING.
Friday, February 13, 2009
Consistency.
After months of inconsistency we finally got a great turn around yesterday. And I got screen shots of none of it.
Iz finally got a Fortitude Torque.
We got head, feet and body from Ultima.
NF got a pair of Macha's cuffs.
And we got an 89 Alex Linen pouch from the boss even though it didn't drop Hiryo's Marduk 25 hands.
No pictures for any of it.
Here are the pictures I do have:
I got a Ritter Gorget from the Einherjar lady. 
Now, I said I was going to get some BLM pieces, but I will get the points for them soon enough and I can use the Ritter Gorget immediately. In fact, I used it yesterday for Ultima.
I really need to redo a bunch of my macros for new gear now and make new macros for BLM.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
ORLY?
Kallo says:
P Whipped am I? Well, I guess I'll have to get my box seats right next to yours.
As for Izman...I'll tell you why he hasn't gotten his feet yet. Because he has bad taste in wrinkly old men who still play MMORPGs.
Zing!
RE: Kallo
Kallo is pussy-whipped now. This is a pathetic state. He will be angry about this fact. He will defend himself. And he is going to stab me.
To buy him off I will make the rest of the post about him so that it inflates his ego.
Apparently LBR had Sonomaa from BG on to talk about the mass bannings. I haven't listened to it yet, but I do have some thoughts about the bannings, their effect on the game and BG. I have been thinking about this for a while and I think that the effect is far more exaggerated because of the locus of the bannings. I think that the bannings have hurt BG so there is a perception that the banning have thus hurt the game.
Odin is completely closed down for new people and it is just as busy as ever. There were relatively few full bans on Odin though, but there is no source of incoming players.
BG has lost a good chunk of posters, but these are spread out over all servers so the effect on the perception on BG may actually be different from the actual effect on the game. BG is also not representative of the game in general, and I think many people miss that point quite often.
You might say that BTL or whatever group has quit because of the bannings, but honestly anyone that was not banned because of this and decided to quit was going to quit anyway. It may have been through attrition instead of all at once, but the situation was inevitable.
In fact, it may even be good. BG will recover, that is obvious. It had already lost a chunk of the people that were good contributors and the bannings may have had the effect of getting rid of some cancerous people and dead weight, even if we did lose some very good people.
There will be positive results of the banning as well as the obvious negative effects. On balance, I have to wonder if the perceptions of some people are off because of what they see here instead of what they see in game.
Ultimately, I think the net loss of players will be less than the total number of banned players. No one is going to quit that wasn't going to quit anyway, and some of the people banned will come back. To me, there are far more people banned that I am happy that have been banned than those that I am unhappy about being banned. I would keep around those that I am happy to see them gone around if it meant I could bring back those that I was unhappy to see go, though.
Those are my thoughts prior to listening to the LBR episode, and I am going to listen to that this afternoon.
In the meantime lets talk about Kallo. Kallo has been spreading the love and not just to his new girlfriend. He provided an Usukane 35 body from the evil turtle while I was gone over the weekend. Blaize was the eventual winner because Hiryo wasn't around to pick it up as he was due for it. Kallo was also very kind to himself, making the Skadi 35 hands drop and he was the only one there that could use them I think. He was a dick to Izman though, not making his Ares 35 legs drop yet again. What did Iz ever do to you Kallo?
What did he do?
Tuesday, February 03, 2009
Questions and Answers.
I am trying to learn more and more about BLM as I am leveling it. I have read several of Kaeko's blog posts about BLM and I understand it conceptually, but often times that does not translate immediately in practical knowledge. I do understand the need for balancing Elemental Skill and INT, but I would like to know how Magic Attack Bonus fits into the equation. Should I get my requisite Elemental Skill and INT for end-game and then pile on as much Magic Attack Bonus as I can in the slots that are left? Is Magic Attack Bonus more important than Elemental Skill and INT and therefore I should be willing to give up some of those stats to accomadate MAB? How much MAB is good enough to justify giving up Elemental Skill and INT?
Another thing I wanted to know about was the importance of certain items like an Elemental Torque or an Elemental Earring. Should I get these items even though they tend to be very expensive? Can I compensate for not having these items with other gear? Is one better than the other and can I just get one and not the other?
Last night I had hoped to be able to get through some of the AF quests for BLM, but sadly because of a lack of weather to spawn the Water Elemental and my general tiredness I was only able to do a small portion of the quests. I just need to stop by Windurst to pick up my Wizard's Sabots. Tonight, I have the Versus event, then Einherjar, then Salvage, but even after that I would like to try to get in the rest of the quests even if I can't get the coffers and Dark Spark out of the way.
Monday, February 02, 2009
Angry little man.
BLM is like a little ball of fire. Find something small enough and it will burn right through it, but if you get something that it can't consume fast enough it will just burn itself right out.
I got to 54 on BLM last night and Iz got to 55. We have some decent camps around this level, mostly in the past but still very nice for leveling up quickly. With an XP ring on I can get through a level in about an hour duoing with Iz. Sadly, now that I am level 54 I just can't justify not doing my AF any longer, and while I am at it I can't really justify not upgrading my gear either.
The things I need include at least HQ Thunder and Dark Staffs. Luckily, I already have an Aquilo's Staff, which is serving me very well. I need a shopping list and so I made one!
Jupiter's Staff - 620k
Pluto's Staff - 580k
Cobra Unit Coat - 9k
Intellect Torque - 20k
Reverend Sash - 150k (though if I get to 60 before I get this I will ditch it for a Penitent's Rope)
Genius Ring x2 - 300k
Black Cape +1 - 12k (I think I have a +1 already but I am not positive)
Ok, so my short term shopping list adds up to be about 1.7 mil, which means that I need to get farming again. But even before that I need to focus on some of the Rare/Ex gear that I need for my BLM which includes almost all of my AF and a Moldavite Earring. Tonight will be my night to work on my AF, and I know that Iz has been waiting on me to get some of it done just for convenience sake. Once I get the BLM AF hands and head and I can equip them, they will essentially become full time pieces. The rest of the pieces are very good situational pieces except for like the feet, so it is definitely worth it to pick them all up. Normally, my philosophy for leveling jobs is "Save money now, spend money later"; meaning I don't see the point in getting gear for mid-level gear when you are going to just sell it back. The problem with BLM is that it if you get too far behind in gear and you start getting resists and that means you start getting dead real quick.
So, a look over the quests I need to do. First of all if you noticed over the weekend I completed my AF weapon quest which required little effort and a trip to a new and interesting area of the game that I had never encountered before. Right now, I have started the Recollections quest but I have yet to get very far in it, that leaves the following:
- Go to Crawler's Nest and get the Bag of Seeds.
- Go back to Heaven's Tower and turn in the Bag of Seeds.
- Go to Castle Zvahl Baileys and get a Whine Cellar Key.
- Go to Castle Zvahl Keep and use the Whine Cellar Key on the Ore Door.
- Go back to Heaven's Tower and get my Wizard's Sabots.
The Root of the Problem:
- Talk to Chumimi in Heaven's Tower.
- Go to Windurst Walls and trade a Silk Cloth to Koru-Moru.
- Go back to Heavan's Tower and get Sluice Surveyor Mark I key item.
- Go to Toraimarai Canal to and get the three ???.
- Kill the Magic Sludge.
- Go back to Heaven's Tower and get my Wizard's Petasos.
Borghertz's Sorcerous Hands:
- Talk to Guslam in Upper Jeuno.
- Get Garliage Coffer Key and get the Old Gauntlets.
- Go to the ??? in Port Jeuno.
- Go to Castle Zvahl Baileys and kill Dark Spark.
- Go to Port Jeuno and get my Wizard's Gloves.
Coffer #1:
- Get Monastic Caverns Coffer Key and get my Wizard's Coat.
Coffer #2:
- Get Eldieme Necropolis Coffer Key and get my Wizard's Tonban.
If I can get the quest part of this done tonight I will be very pleased. Omoi has offered to help me, and she said she is off tomorrow because of snow in London which is rather rare so we can stay up late and do it.
Finally, and most importantly some Salvage results! They say that when it rains, it pours, and last night it did! We did a regular Bhaflau Remnants run. No Mad Bomber up on the first floor, so onto the second in which we quickly got a NM Bee and a set of Usukane 35 feet for Hiryo who has been waiting for them for quite some time! There was much cheering but there were two more bees that dropped two more sets which went to Darkdawn and Illius! 
Luck was with us last night! Hiryo wanted to get a group photo with everyone after the run, and everyone looked quite cool in their new feet. Kallo just got his THF AF2 hands, and apparently was feeling very generous with his TH this evening. I am sorry to say to Ninjafox, that he may be coming as a different job when we go to Salvage if Kallo is going to continue to be this kind. 
And now we have to get two more sets of 15 Usukane feet...
I think I might need a drink. :)
Back on track.
For a while I feel like a good number of my posts have been a little disjointed. Not really in any particular order, but today I am going to try to start rectifying that situation.
So that means I am finally going to focus on WHM!
Ok, lets start with my Healing Gear as it currently exists.
Main: Light Staff
Sub: Staff Strap
Ammo: Morion Tathlum
Head: Walhara Turban
Neck: Beak Necklace
Earring 1: Antivenom Earring
Earring 2: Loquacious Earring
Body: Noble's Tunic
Hands: Blessed Mitts
Ring 1: Serket Ring
Ring 2: Ether Ring
Back: Blue Cape
Waist: Hierarch Belt
Legs: Blessed Trousers
Feet: Rostrum Pumps
Ok, the obvious holes are the neck and the back, which Omoi has informed me is the equivalent of an NQ Amemet Mantle. So I am going to start saving for a Blue Cape +1 so that I am not gimpy. :( The neck piece is coming in the short term, as I will pick up a Morgan's Choker post-haste. I have a decent amount of haste gear in my healing gear, which lets me cast Haste and other spells with longer recasts without having to switch gear. Now the switching of the gear isn't much of a concern but means that I don't have to swap out of MP gear at the beginning of fights when it would actually effect my total MP. I need to fix my ammo slot too, but I will just get a Phanton Tathlum for my BLM and use that.
My resting MP set: 
Main: Dark Staff
Sub: Staff Strap
Ammo: Morion Tathlum
Head: Walhara Turban
Neck: Beak Necklace
Earring 1: Antivenom Earring
Earring 2: Loquacious Earring
Body: Errant Houppelande
Hands: Oracle's Gloves
Ring 1: Serket Ring
Ring 2: Ether Ring
Back: Blue Cape
Waist: Hierarch Belt
Legs: Oracle's Braconi
Feet: Oracle's Pigaches
My resting MP set still needs a few tweaks but I am actually pretty happy with the way it is right now. My philosophy on resting MP is that if it causes you to lose a chunk of MP from your max MP when you stand up then it may not be worth the effort. This isn't entirely true because you often times have to stand before you would would top off your MP, but there is a point after which you will actually be giving up too much. Obvious places that could be improved is the Beak Necklace +1 and other mentioned areas from my healing set.
Finally, my Divine set: 
Now this is just for Repose right now, but there is not very much going on in this department gear-wise but I have it ready for when it is needed. I believe that MND also modifies the effect of Repose but I have not added that to my set-up yet, because well, with how low my Divine skill is I think there are other things I could worry about.
Next, I am going to work on a Barspell/Enhancing magic set up. I really think that the total effect of Barspells and elemental and magic resistance gear is very underestimated for quite a few fights. A few of my future plans will require some focus on this, so that is going to be a priority in the near future.
#1 ~ Monk
#2 ~ Samurai
#3 ~ Ninja
#4 ~ Dragoon
Chaotic Pellucidity
Teabags and KY Jelly
The Bloggaru!
