Thursday, August 23, 2007

Comprehending Competition.

Posted by Ringthree at 7:49 AM

I have now been writing this blog for exactly one year. It's pretty impressive actually, for me, as I generally will let something like this just go after a while. I do have to say part of that continuity stems from the support I get from friends and strangers alike that read the blog and urge me to post more and more often. In the span of a year I have gotten more jobs to level 75 than I had total before that time. My SAM, RNG and WAR all went from some odd level to 75, and I have also been able to gear them well in that time. In that same year RMT have gone from controlling much of the game to being near complete destruction. Sure they are still around, but many fixes have come and gone in the span of a year that have massively reduced their influence on the game, en toto. Versus went through a closed entry phase and has reopened its doors to the public, even expanding its operations to include Sea and Limbus to complement Sky, we also do Assault and Salvage now through Omoi's social LS, with Versus members. In that year, my NIN has come very close to exactly what I want it to be, a few marginal tweaks can still be made, but it is merited and very well equipped for DD, and is only slightly less well set for tanking. My SAM is also pretty dead on to where I want it to be and after I complete my D. Legs I will have it exactly where I want it outside of Salvage gear. I am still deciding on Haub +1 vs. D. Body but that is not a decision that pains me. My RNG is well equipped even if its not uber, and the recent addition of my Kirin's Osode makes it feel like I am moving closer to completion, and although my gear is competent it doesn't feel as close to perfection as some of my other jobs. My WAR was just recently complemented but I have to say that much of the gear is borrowed and further, since I do not do Kings, the opportunity to get the pinnacle of WAR gear may be out of reach.

In a year, much has changed personally as well. People have come and gone from Versus, but we are still here. We are actually one of the oldest continually existing end-game LS's on the server. I have made many new friends in a years time, and I have lost some people that I thought were friends. At times it has been bittersweet, but we have persevered. Versus to this day continues to expand and may be even larger than it was before the RMT even came to Sky. A while back we were even "accused" of camping Despot with 40 people, to which everyone in the LS got a good chuckle out of considering we have never even come close to that number of people in the LS, but it does speak well that we have a good group of people that are consistent and supportive. Versus is not as high profile as other end-game LS's because honestly we don't try to put ourselves out there, we have the experience and tempering of players that can do what they do very well and have done it for some time. In that time, I have lost a lot of the awe I had for some end-game players, and I have gained respect for some others. There is so much offered in the end-game arena right now that it is becoming increasingly difficult to do them all, and to pace them well and consider that people like the ones we have in Versus also like to have their free time outside of end-game events. Versus takes it all in stride, and looks forward to whatever may come.

It is very interesting that this year of writing has been bracketed by two expansions, one came right before I started this blog and one will come in the near future. This year has seen many shifts in game play. The move toward TP burning, and away from the MB in XP parties. The introduction of new game play styles, like the NIN/DRK and PLD/NIN now reigning supreme over almost all other tanks, except another equal, depending on the fight, of RDM/NIN. New equipment has shifted the focus of much of the end-game community, emphasizing haste and swing speed for many jobs over higher accuracy and damage ratings. Sure, arrow burning lead to TP burning which all existed before Treasures but it was perfected during that expansion with its XP bonuses and relatively easier mobs to XP on.

So where will we be next year? I can't even guess, but with the actions of SE over the past year I have reasons to hope. SE has fixed much of the RMT problem, with forced spawns on mobs that were easy for RMT to monopolize and becoming much more vigilant about riding the game of RMT. They appear to have changed the way that they adjust jobs, listening to players and buffing instead of nerfing. SE has also been supplying some pretty decent content, like Assault and Salvage that are fun to do and pretty to very rewarding. Will I be playing a new job when the expansion comes out? Will we be doing some new end-game event? What kind of gear is in store for us? Time will only tell.

SE must have known that it was the year anniversary of my blog because they added another update about job changes so that I can something else to talk about today.

August will see adjustments to two-handed weapon wielding and several jobs.
If you missed our description of grips and two-handed weapons, be sure to check it out in the August 14th edition of Topics. In this edition, we will be covering job enhancements.

Beastmaster

The duration for which a beastmaster can maintain a pet invoked with the "Call Beast" ability will be extended. The new length of time, though varying depending on the type of pet brought forth, may be up to 90 minutes.
Additionally, when not engaged in combat, pet healing will be possible through use of the "Stay" ability. Finally, the experience penalty previously incurred by a beastmaster while using a charmed monster will be done away with.

Corsair

After the version update, corsairs across Vana'diel will be the happy recipients of several job enhancements.
For starters, the effect of Phantom Roll will be augmented so that the effects can be felt even when neither a large nor Lucky Roll is made. To make a comparison, the efficacy of a corsair's roll will generally exceed that of a bard's song. Should a corsair roll an 11, the efficacy will, for the most part, exceed that of two bard's songs.

The length of immobility a corsair suffers during their rolls has also been shortened. In addition, the merit point-accessible ability "Fold" will function to reduce the likelihood of busting, as well as modifying the effect of rolls.

We will also be adding new gear that will further increase the range of Phantom Roll. When using the roll and this gear in tandem, even players engaged in combat at some distance from the corsair will fall within the area of effect. And as if that weren't enough, players can even expect new ammunition with rather enticing damage ratings.

Puppetmaster

The update also brings with it two all-new heads to supplement the puppetmaster's arsenal of automaton accoutrements.
The primary purpose of both heads is to grant magic bonuses: one for healing, and the other, elemental. For example, equipping the "healing" head will cause an automaton to undergo a healing magic power enhancement. As a result, subsequent cure spells will encompass all party members, rather than the puppetmaster alone.

Careful reconsideration has led us to raise the current skill limits for automatons as well. With these increases, puppetmasters can expect to see improved performance from their automata in such areas as attack power and accuracy, magic accuracy, and more!


Look forward to the release of even more details on the day of the update!


Now, I have to start by saying that I don't have any of these jobs leveled very far, and with Beastmaster, I don't even have the job unlocked. But I do have experience with the game and what other people say about their jobs. So starting with BST I think this is definitely a move in the right direction. Some of the jug pets can get to be very expensive and having them only for a short period of time can become quite a drain on the gil of a BST. Lengthening the time that they can be held onto will help BST's out and hopefully will allow them to use more expensive and better jug pets because of the reduction in cost. The "stay" command allowing pets to heal could be a marginal to great improvement depending on how fast they regain their HP. It will at least let BST's hold charmed mobs outside of their spawn range for much longer. Finally, probably the most important change is that you will now be able to hold a pet while killing a mob without having to release and thus lose your pet while you kill your mob. There is some debate about what exactly this will include, but at the very least it will mean that a BST can hold onto a pet without the frustration of it despawning every time you want to kill a mob. Outside of that does it mean that mob level will still be factored in when killing a mob? Like will a Tough pet still be considered with its level when fighting a mob? Or will the pet be treated like other pets in that they will be considered outside of the party and thus not effecting XP at all. Even if it is the former it will still massively improve a BST's ability to solo.

For Corsair the improvements to Phatom Roll appear to be quite impressive, and I believe this much better balances them with BRDs. BRDs have very consistent and strong buffs while CORs have buffs that can get close to BRD's buffs but only at their peak of luck. In general, on most rolls CORs will have weaker buffs than BRDs, so this buff puts them on a more equal playing field. Now some might say that this hurts BRDs but honestly this just makes the equal in the buffing department, BRDs will still have the advantage of being able to give March, Elegy, Carols, Etudes, Lullaby as well as other and this is all besides the fact that they have consistent buffs. Ultimately, it would be best if bad rolls were worse than BRD songs and the good rolls were better. Now, it would look like, instead of the dual BRD party, the BRD and COR party might become dominant. Double March, Fighter's Roll and Rogue's Roll might be stronger than other BRD song pairings. Even better, the strengthen of all of these buffs might make other buffs more usable like Hunter's and Chaos Rolls. The best part is that it wont hurt BRD at all, it will just move COR to be an alternative to them when a BRD isn't available, likely a BRD will still be the best considering the consistency of their buffs. Also mentioned was the strengthening of the Fold merit ability. Now the translation for this line doesn't appear to be dead on, but I think the change being made is that when Fold is used, instead of removing the last roll that was made, it will remove the worst roll that has been made. For example, instead of removing the last roll, you could have two rolls up, one that is good and one that is crappy and you could just use Fold to ditch the bad one then roll again. I don't really see what Fold will do if you take the English statement on face, because I can't see how it can be used to reduce the risk of busting. Anyway, CORs are also supposed to get some new bullets that should help the increase their damage output.

Finally, the job that I honestly know the least about is PUP. It appears that the BLM head will allow the Automaton to cast higher level nukes and the WHM head will allow the Automaton to increase its healing ability and cast upon other members of the party. This appears to be a major buff for them, and may move PUP into another different end-game role, either for damage or support. Also the Automatons will have their skill level caps increased, improving accuracy, damage and magical abilties. I don't know if this is something they necessarily needed, but it will definitely increase PUPs share in the total damage pie.

The update is on Monday, but there is also a POL maintenance that day so the data miners will not have much of an opportunity to get to the information before I have to post the blog. The best I will likely have is information from the update notes. I will have them best parts posted as soon as I can on Monday, but I do have a meeting in the afternoon that day, so hope for the best.

I want to make a comment here about job competition. Everyone in this game yells and screams for buffs and laments and cries about nerfs to their jobs. And ultimately this is justified by the way the game allocates space within the party and alliance structure. SE has created inherent competition between several different groups of jobs like tanks, DD, buffers/debuffers and healers. In many cases these roles can overlap, increasing the competition between jobs. In some cases, the jobs are even interchangeable and sometimes they are each individually required. The point is that SE needs to be careful about creating too level of a playing field, because without individual benefits for a job type they are just grouped in with the others and then ranked on the ability of each job to do the requirement. This is most evident in the field of DD's where there are many jobs that can fill the same exact role. Some excel like WAR and MNK and some fall behind like DRK and DRG. Now in some cases the other DD's are better for SATA WS or Skillchains but that doesn't help them to get their XP parties. For this upcoming update and its adjustment to two-handed weapons this might shift closer together, where there is less difference between the DD jobs, but ultimately there will be winners and losers. One job will still be able to do the most damage over a certain period of time. I am not saying that the two-handed weapon update is bad or even that it is not desperately needed, what I am saying is that it will make it even more difficult to differentiate between the DD's without removing the problem of damage prioritization. Meaning that people will still build their parties to get them most XP in the least amount of time so people will still invite the highest DD's first then move on down the list. I think something that SE should consider implementing would be changing jobs so that they are more differentiated by job abilities and traits instead of by damage. I don't know how they would do that exactly LOL but that is what I would do. Competition is always good, but competition where one job can't pull ahead of another job isn't really competition, instead it is more of a rigged game where those that are behind have no way to catch up. Variation in jobs by changing their abilities to make them more useful in a wider variety of situations and scenarios recreates this competition without having to adjust their damage.

Now, for my day. LOL I had to go out for a while yesterday, so I wasn't able to do very much, but we did manage to do CoP mission 8-1 and 8-2 for Potpressure, Kingscissom and Lucella. The fights outside in Al'Taieu and inside the Grand Palace of Hu'Xzoi all went very smoothly. We just killed everything along the way to the NM fight at the end of mission 8-2, netting us quite a few ghrah M chips so we can spawn Fortitude in the future. We also tried to spawn Temperance on the why with no luck. Later this week we will be finishing up these missions, and then we will have to do it again during Brit friendly times for Crlmsonking and Ashhhhh. :) No matter, the XP is good and it gives us a chance to farm for pop items.

Shortly after doing these missions I got an invite to an XP party, and Omoikitte decided to come along too. It was NIN, WAR, MNK, BRD, BRD, RDM at Mamool Ja staging point, we got some pretty decent chains (40+). Omoi and the MNK did get some nasty Fang Rush's at times, but the party was very good and I got two merits and almost a third in the short time we were there. I am now sitting on three merits, and we are only farming for Diorite today in sky. Hopefully I will be able to get two more merits in Sky today and then I can put it into my final level of Overwhelm for my SAM.

That was it for my day, and that puts the wraps on my first year blogging. I hope that you all have enjoyed reading my blog and that you stick around for another year!

2 comments

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

The communication process.

Posted by Ringthree at 8:19 AM

Sorry, this might be a little late today, blogger was down for a while.

Yesterday there was a line to wait to do Kirin. RMT were fighting and taking forever while Versus, LifeandDeathAngels and LimitBreak were waiting to also do Kirin. Since LimitBreak was last in line they just decided to go, and while we were waiting Eraphie and Omoikitte randomed to see who would go first and we won so Eraphie's LS helped with the mini's to get things moving faster and so that we could pretty much straight tank it through the entire fight. We then returned the favor, and helped them kill their mini's. While all this was going on and we were waiting for the RMT to finish up, Eraphie and Frozenx tossed out the idea of joining up for TP burns. Neither of our LS's have the perfect set up for a TP burn but together we have more than enough resources to do so. Omoi didn't say yes or no to the idea but did sound rather excited about the prospect. I think it would be great fun to do. :) Anyway, our Kirin netted a Pole, Raise 3, and a D. Body. Yes, another D. Body. At least it went to someone that actually wanted it. We haven't wasted a D. Body yet, but at this rate we are really going to LOL.

Its nice to be able to work with other LS's like that, lets both of us get things done with much more efficiency.

Outside of Kirin, we did an ENM and only netted a crafting item which I won the lot on. :) Then we did some more fruitless subligar farming. It's getting a bit frustrating that is for sure. >.< Borin and Pb both need them. I am insisting before we go next time that we clear our Fomor hate, because I have heard that it can improve the droprate. At this point I am willing to try anything to finally get those subligar to drop.

SE has announced that the update will be on Monday all day, and we still haven't heard about the job update. The funniest thing I have seen though is the people that have been complaining about the last update. They were actually complaining that the Chocobo Racing update wasn't better or about something different. That is how addicted they have become, they actually are so obsessed that an update about the update isn't about something that they want to hear about. I do have to say that SE has been rather slow about giving us information about this update and about the expansion. In fact, I am guessing that we should be getting an expansion update pretty soon, maybe even the announcement about the first new job.

I think that SE could do a better job of giving us information, but I know they are generally tight-lipped about new information, and only dole it out as they choose.

Tomorrow is the one year anniversary of this blog, I will have some nice recaps for that. :)

2 comments

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Apkallu Attack.

Posted by Ringthree at 9:00 AM

Well, I guess I will start with the bad news. We lost out first Ultima yesterday because both of our PLD tanks DC'ed during the fight, LOL. Never seen anything like that happen before. Basically, we had only one tank for almost all of the fight, and we still got it to 12%. Also, we learned a ton about the fight and we would have easily won without such mass confusion. We had decided to make 10% the zerg point, but I think next time we will make it after the first Citadel Buster. The thing that really screwed us was not the Citadel Buster, but the Armor Buster that it used right after the first Citadel Buster, which was targeted on a mage and wiped most of the alliance. It would have been stunned normally if we had any tank up at that time. LOL Ah well, considering the insane circumstances we did incredibly well, and I was just really massively impressed with how well everyone dealt with the situation. I also liked the fact that Elfaria was pissed that we didn't win, that is a great attitude to have honestly, because we should be able to win during any fight, no matter the circumstances. BTW BLU for this fight is totally cheating, like 90% of Ashhhhh's stuns landed... LOL We will definitely win next time, and we did all this with one of our best players, Eternalpain, who could have come PLD/NIN or BLM, on vacation. The actual fight was fine, very few people died through out 88% of the fight, although we could have been better at the start with stunning Antimatter. Once we got going though the stunning was mostly great, but I think we will shift to pairs of stuns so that one person isn't locked into doing nothing just waiting for the next move especially considering most of our stuns are RDM's which are busy as hell during this fight. RDM's make a huge difference in this fight because Slow 2 and Paralyze 2 slow Ultima down to nothing, and stacked with Elegy our PLD/NIN's had no problem in general keeping shadows up and having a death grip on hate before they DC'ed LOL. One hilarious moment was during Lucella's DC when she couldn't act and Mirra was trying to fix hate, and finally pulled hate, after it hit Mirra once, it turned back to Lucella because she had so much hate still while DCing LOL. Anyway, the fight went on with only one tank and Jess and I were lucky enough to get some Holy II's and I finally died from a late Equalizer. But we got back up and started fighting again, we also found that before 19% when it starts using Citadel Buster it is very easy to just hold it, not give it much TP and wait if you need to for someone to come back from a DC or unweaken.

Anyway, enough with Ultima, and the silliness around it. I got my MNK to 57 in a decent party yesterday. I can finally wear my Scorpion Harness and I like the boost in accuracy even though I look like an idiot now with the SH and RSE legs. I really feel that I should be moving more quickly through some of these levels, but I haven't been. I think it might be because I haven't been able to find a good time to XP on my MNK, or maybe that I haven't felt compelled to deal with making a party for it. Meh, I still like it a whole lot, and hopefully this weekend I will get some free time to level it for more than an hour or two. Once MNK is done I think I will focus a long while on meriting so that I can start making my end-game jobs more complete. I hate the feeling that I don't have a lot of the things I want merited on my end-game jobs especially because I believe that our mages should have certain things merited for a lot of our fights. It isn't really fair. So I am going to resolve that.

After Ultima, we had our normal Monday Assault runs. Before the runs I finished up my Rank 8 quest and got to see Hellz/Abquhbah playing strangely with Naja's Morning Star and even more strangely Naja getting a little too frisky with her Morning Star...
My group managed to get three more wins for ranking up putting me only two wins from the final rank an my Perdu Blade. Apkallu Seizure was a very close race to get some Apkallu back to the Prof. This one was kind of annoying, because leading the birds aren't that difficult, but getting them to take the fish and start off is a lot more complicated that it sounds on the Wikipedia. Also they tend to move in a strange fashion and sometimes the birds will turn and you will need to quickly run around behind them which is hard to see, especially since they have turned only 45 to 90 degrees and they kind of do it without warning. But we won that one and will only be doing it again to get people to people wins. In a change of pace from that one we did Apkallu Breeding which was much less difficult and much more fun. We basically got 7 pairs out of the 8 before we ended it which was a decent chunk of points. And the silly Apkallu were all cure when they feel in love. Finally, we did Stop the Bloodshed and although there was a little bit of death from aggroing some of the Chiqoe Breeders we managed to win pretty quickly. I really wanted to be able to get rank 9 before this next update and I should be able to get them on Friday then do the rank up quest. I may hold off on getting my Perdu Blade until after the update just to see if the rank 10 items will be worth the 56k in ISP they will likely cost, but I already have over 100k in ISP, so I don't think it will be that much of a concern.

Finally, I want to mention the new update notes, about Chocobo Racing. I don't really care at all, but some of you might so here they are:

For months now, the denizens of Vana'diel have been racing the chocobos they have lovingly reared. Starting this month, the new Chocobo Circuit will allow adventurers to join teams and vie in direct competition for points, bragging rights, and items. Players will also get the chance to put their money where their mouth is with the introduction of chocobets.

What is the Chocobo Circuit?

By popular demand of breeders from all corners of the world wishing to prove the superiority of their birds, the Chocobo Circuit has opened at last. By now, many adventurers have gotten a taste of how fun and challenging chocobo racing can be. This will be the last major update to chocobo racing. Any future changes will only be minor modifications.

After painstakingly raising chocobos from the shell to the stables, breeders can now enter them in races against other adventurers from around Vana'diel. In addition, both breeders and common spectators alike can now enjoy a day at the races, complete with chocobets which allow you to lay down gil on the birds of your choice! These features will make the Circuit an enjoyable pastime not only for those already hooked on chocobo racing, but also for those who have yet to try their hand at it.

Adventurer Races

Adventurer Races will follow the same basic format as current chocobo races.
The main difference is that players may now compete against other players. Players will be able to earn gil, as well as accumulate points that will unlock other races and items.

Below is an explanation of some of the points of difference between current chocobo racing and the new Adventurer Races:

- Race Participation
Unlike current NPC races, Adventurer Races will allow a large number of PC participants to compete against one another, much like Ballista.
After participating in a race, players will be required to undergo a waiting period before being eligible to race again. This is to prevent some players from monopolizing the race system (and to give chocobos their much-needed rest!).

- Victory Points
In addition to being awarded gil and chocobucks, players can also amass Victory Points for their triumphs at the races. The winner of a race will receive a certain number of Solo Victory Points, and the team with which they are affiliated at the time will be granted Team Victory Points as well.

- Solo Victory Points
Accumulating a certain number of Solo Victory Points will give players access to higher-grade races. In such races the stakes are much greater, as participants will be fighting for more prestigious titles, larger purses, and better prizes.

- Team Victory Points
The three officially recognized racing teams of San d'Oria, Bastok, and Windurst will acquire Team Victory Points every time one of their members wins a race. These points will be tallied in the same manner as Conquest Points to determine weekly standings.
The first place team will have unique items available for chocobuck purchase, as well as offer its members other benefits at the track.

Chocobets

A chocobet is a gil wager made on an Adventurer Race. When placed, a player picks the two chocobos that they believe will finish in first and second place.
Winning bets will pay back an amount determined by the size of the bet and the odds for that race.

The details of chocobetting are described below.

- Placing a chocobet
All racetracks have a Chocobet Center where players can purchase Chocobet Tickets. The value of the ticket is determined by the number of quills the player would like to buy (1 quill = 100 gil). A single Chocobet Ticket can contain up to 999 quills.
Because of the nature of the betting system, direct control in races will be prohibited to prevent any misappropriation of gil.

- Odds
Odds determine how much gil a player can win per quill. They may be different for any given race, and for any two-chocobo pairing you select. The final amount of a player's winnings is calculated based on the number of quills on the Chocobet Ticket and the odds.
When a chocobo pairing is not favored to win, and consequently has few bets placed on it, the odds for that pairing will be relatively high. Players stand to win more money, should they bet on such a pairing and win. Conversely, well-known chocobos with a good chance of finishing in the top two will generally be the pick of many Chocobet Tickets. These pairings will therefore have relatively lower odds, resulting in less gil per quill. Of course, should a player lose, they will receive no gil, regardless of any odds.
While we hope that players will enjoy the new racing and betting system, we also ask that they understand the risks involved and act responsibly.


That's it, Kirin today, then some time to XP I think.

2 comments

Monday, August 20, 2007

Recording the unrecordable.

Posted by Ringthree at 10:45 AM

There are two types of speculation. Informed speculation and an rampant guessing. One is nice, and even beneficial, the other is a waste of oxygen. So like when your friend says to you "Wouldn't it be cool if they added Barbarian as one of the new jobs, because ZOMG it was my favorite job from Final Fantasy Tactics XVIII!?" you can happily and justifiably ask them to stop breathing for 5 minutes to repay the air they have wasted for the rest of humanity. But the suggestion that there might be a Time Mage added as one of the new jobs is speculation based upon good information that is already available. The expansion is based on time travel, there are abilities and spells in the game that can be considered time related and there are also abilities and spells from past FF games that could be added to the game to further such a job. Informed speculation is fun to read because after information is released you can compare it to what you thought was coming and see how right or wrong you were. Rampant guessing is what causes hissy fits on FFXI forums. It is also unintelligent and not entertaining. Anyway, nothing new today about the update or the expansion and so you are left with a rather dry weekend in which I had many real life obligations and very little time to play.

In Sky we again got some decent drops and had a funny time with some NM's. First, with Despot, for which a solo RDM actually got claim on Despot, but also got 3 links and had to zone. Second, with Mother Globe, for which another LS claimed but wiped completely, and then we got it and afterward we gave them all Raise III's. Third, with Faust, for which the same other LS claimed but wiped and we got it, then Raise III'ed the all again. They seemed rather appreciative for all the Raises which was nice. I think there main problem was that they were rushing pulls because we were just about prepared each time to pull, and they did not have the people to deal with the mobs. Well, we ended up getting almost a complete set of Sky gems, and I usually end up holding them all. We only need a mass amount of Diorite at this point, we have something like 5 Despot gems now, so its going to be mass farming for a while. We got decent drops from the gods we did which was definitely nice. We also got a set of Indra Katars, which I literally haven't seen in a year I believe. I think we also got the Scarecrow Scythe, but that is much more meh. As we were wrapping up Sky, the sky lit up and I got this great screenshot. Sometimes there are things in this game that still make me think it is beautiful. This is definitely one of those moments.

Anyway, recently, I have been helping Pb to try to get his THF subligar but it hasn't been going very well at all. We haven't gotten much for him and for some reason Pb has been horrible about lots and such, where he hasn't been able to get an item because his inventory was full or because someone lotted instead of passing, or something else stupid. Anyway, the last time we were down there, we tried out Eba. That didn't go to well, LOL. I don't know why really because we should have been able to take Eba, might have been because Pb kept getting hit with Grim Halo. Oh well, I hope Pb gets his subligar some day.

We had another incomplete Salvage run yesterday with little reward again. Guh, if I could just get like all 12 people to show up instead of just the 9 or so we get because someone is sick or out for the weekend or whatever. LOL Well, it should be getting better as time passes. Anyway, this is what I will leave you with today. Poor Borin. Poor, poor Borin.

1 comments

Friday, August 17, 2007

Stumble and fall.

Posted by Ringthree at 9:19 AM

Sky yielded some decent results yesterday. N. Feet for Borin and W. Hands for Illius, which was much better than Tuesday, and they are Abjurations that *gasp* will actually be made. We started our split runs in Limbus too, with my group doing Temenos West We got incredibly lucky on this run. Now, if you don't know for this run you have to fight 7 floors of Beasts, on those seven floors all of the mobs have a chance to drop each of the chests, but you can only get one chest of each type per floor AND they don't have to drop. So, the scenario for getting all of the chest is a bit crazy, especially the treasure chests. But last night we got something like 6 time and 6 treasure chests. LOL We got 4, yes 4 RDM AF upgrades. Poor Elfie had to go to work in the morning and I know that he needs them. >.< We were literally free lotting RDM AF upgrade pieces, and I know some LS's would kill for them. We also got a SAM and a BRD, which were both needed to complete sets for Glacian and Yashua. Looks like we are going to try Ultima on Monday. Ultima is a much more difficult fight and things can go crazy at the end pretty quickly, but I like the idea of giving it a try!

I have started the next Assault Rank mission to get to level 8 and actually I have already done everything I need to do so far, but if I can, before our next Assaults that I will be able to go to I would like to go a little further into the mission because it rewards with Imperial Gold Coins that I can save up for the next rank up mission. Well, on this mission, I got to see Hellzfury falling down and then laughing at him, well... not really but the same model as Hellzfury in the form of Naja's assistant. He trips...
He falls... He cries...
And I laugh. I have to deal with a friends wedding today so not much from me, but this weekend should be good and hopefully we will have another update from SE for monday.

0 comments

Thursday, August 16, 2007

Standing on the crest of a hill, looking into a fog-filled valley.

Posted by Ringthree at 11:30 AM

And that valley is filled with gold and jewels and abjurations.

To what am I referencing? The future of FFXI. We know things are coming. These things are big, these things are bold, these things are gilded. These things are like the bronzed baby shoes of the future. We have entered the golden age of FFXI, and it all started with the Ullikummi update. Where SE stripped control of the game from the RMT and handed it back to the players and themselves. RMT are barely in sky anymore, let alone major NM camps. They farm like leeches and as they suck more blood they slowly kill their own sources of income. Inevitably, if SE remains vigilant the RMT will be gone from the game because even the worst gil-buyers will prefer to farm for the ridiculously low-cost of gear rather than spend waste sums of real money for paltry amounts of gil. Ah, but I spiral off on RMT's again. Back to my focus, which is that SE is hitting on all cylinders right now. They are doing a great job of listening to the players and balancing that with their vision for the game. These are just adjustments that fix older problems with the game. Major issues that perhaps should have been resolved a long time ago, but the improvements for the future show forethought, and an engagement in how the players play the game.

The two-handed weapon adjustment, was not a required change. It was not something that will make the game better or worse, but it is an attempt to balance an imbalance in the game. There were some complaints about how dual-wielders were better for XP parties but in all honestly, it was just XP not over all. Places like God's, HNM's and other more difficult fights two-handers were just as capable, if not more so. This is a good correction, and hopefully it will do a good job of removing the "lol" preface to some jobs. SE says that improvements are coming for PUP and a damage improvement for DRG would do a lot to help them out. This is even before the changes to jobs and WS's have been announced. Even though people did anticipate the new grips, most people thought it was going to be one or the other, not both and I don't think anyone though there was going to be an improvement to weaponskills. All three is just astounding. Combined improvements to damage, grips and changes to WS? Will this shift things back toward two-handed users?

In just this update we have job adjustments, and ones that no one knows about and no one expected. But this is just the glint we can see through the fog, what lies further into the pea-soup? What does the expansion hold? Just new areas, and new jobs and something besieged-like is all we know. I want to see through the fog, but the anticipation is fun also.

In other news, I have been engaging in a discussion about how hate works and what happens to hate later into fights once the hate cap has been reached. Now, not everyone knows this but there is likely some kind of cap on the amount of hate a tank can gain. And once you hit that cap, you can't get more anymore hate, and this causes a nice balance when you have two tanks at the hate cap. The discussion was directed at how hate degrades over time, and just because a translation of a random JP chart said that one type of hate does not degrade, people actually believed that that kind of hate literally never went away, never mind the fact that this interpretation would mean that the healers would eventually be tanking all fights. LOL The other problem I had with some people is their failure to realize that +enmity is great for getting to the hate cap but once you are there you can decrease the amount of +enmity you are using because you will be wasting all of the hate that you are gaining that puts you over the cap. So other factors can be more important like haste and hp, because you can only gain so much hate. It's sad sometimes, because people don't like being proven wrong or their ignorance exposed, so they fall back to claims like they are from an HNM LS so they know how hate works. LOL Ah well, it was enjoyable to read and engage in the discussion.

Yesterday, was again kind of blah, I did a set of BCNM 60's for the Cross Counters and E bow, but we got nothing really for drops, with the best being Marine M Boots, and most being crap. Made 120k on 5 runs, kind of a waste but the big drops are worth it. It was very easy to do with the set up we used NIN, RNG, RNG, BLM, BLM, RDM/BLM. The mobs actually don't hit for very much at all, the only risk really is just getting overwhelmed, but it can probably be done with a wide array of jobs too. Apparently Divine Punishers can be done similarly, but I haven't attempted that one yet. Also, we have gone about a week without doing an ENM and its time to make some easy money on that one, I am thinking maybe if we can get the right people and the right jobs, maybe trying to get a Blau Dolch from Totentanz, but honestly there are better rewards from the Antlion in Sheep's Clothing and you can do that with 6.

Today is more Sky and I believe we have something like 5 Despot gems now, LOL. Have some water finally, just need to pair it up with some Zip and we will have at least several sets for each god. Then afterward is Limbus, which will be something besides Omega today. After two successful Omega wins, we just need to build up some more chipsets and move toward doing Ultima. I am looking forward to Ultima, because its something that I wont be tanking in all likelihood. We will be using PLD/NIN's for that fight, EP and Izman in their new shiny Homam gear for Haste, and a NIN/DRK as back up. EP and Izman have been working to prep their gear for this, with lots of HP and Haste, and I know they will rock it. :) We have a bunch of mages that would really like some Nashira gear, and man I would like to help them because their isn't a whole lot in everything else we do that favors mages. In fact, there isn't a whole lot from end-game that most mages want. Dynamis, sure, but the stuff we do in general doesn't provide a whole lot for them. At this point there is very little that Versus doesn't do, so I hope that we can provide items for everyone in the LS and fill their needs.

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Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Descending.

Posted by Ringthree at 11:25 AM

Don't have any pictures today as just about nothing of importance happened yesterday. I can literally review yesterday in a couple of sentences. Sky, got some NM's. God's dropped literally nothing of use. D. Hands, 2 M. Head and Seiryu's Sword. Tried to XP my MNK, first party just collapsed, no real reason, just didn't work out. Second party took hours to set up, and didn't last very long at all. Almost all of the people in the party didn't even have the Azouph Isle Staging Point, so I had to take them by boat to Nashmau, then after two people left, had to wait another hour or so for them to get there and then ended shortly thereafter because I needed to sleep.

Thats yesterday.

Today? Nothing eventful is going on either. Supposed to do some KSNM's and BCNM's but meh.

So what do I do with all this space? I am at a loss. I need SE to give me something, or something to strike me as interesting to write about today, but yesterday just drained me. LOL

I think I am going to write one of those e-mail blogs one of these days, where I will let people write e-mails or I will answers comments, but I can't do that today.

I could make fun of myself for making fun of Izman about getting Diorite. That is a funny little story worthy of a little bit of blog space. So, when Izman joined Versus it was back in the day when Ullikummi was camped 24/7 by RMT, so we got very few Autumnstones and were hardly ever able to spawn Byakko because of dwindling numbers, this was about the time that we closed Versus to the general public and switched focus, etc. Anyway... Izman didn't see more than one or two Byakko's at that time, but when SE fixed Ullikummi to spawn it with Diorite, we reformed and started with Diorite farming, the really funny thing was that I said we could farm as much Diorite as we want but Despot is going to be real problem and Iz asked why, LOL because we literally never needed a Despot in the entire time that he didn't even kill a Despot before the Ulli fix. So, here is the funny thing, we now get more Despots than we know what to do with... LOL and we don't have the Diorites we need. And so Izman ended up being right, and we only need Diorite because thats the hardest item to get for us.

Ok... that was really funny in my head. Meh. Well, even with our horrible Byakko Haidate string of like 0/10, we are still getting them out pretty damn fast. We have been able to really open up the lotting on the Haidate now, and I would say even with a reasonable 50% drop rate on Haidate we should be able to get Haidate to something like free lot status in less than a month. I mean we are sitting on 4 Despot gems, and I would say it is now a rare day when we don't get a Despot instead of the other way around. God... the definition of Sky success is having to farm Diorite all the time because you have too many Despots. I will be so happy the day we have Haidate go free lot.

I think I going to start going over the LS, and trying to figure out a good set up to start doing some KS99's. We have already beaten the Behemoth one, failed the Adamatoise one and we haven't tried the Wyrm one yet. I think we have a very good set up for the Wyrm one, several good tanks, several good BLM, several good RNG and several good RDM/DRK. I am now sitting on like two or three KS99 stacks, and it would be nice to burn through them. The thought of a Speed Belt is nice, but honestly a good chance at getting Black Belt items is what really appeals to me. The KS30's are essentially not worth it anymore and the rare drops in the KS99 are much more appealing.

This entry sucked, sorry, can't win everyday. Maybe something decent tomorrow. :)

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Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Struggle no more.

Posted by Ringthree at 12:53 AM

I have been working pretty hard to get my Assault Rank up pretty quickly and by virtue of the fact that I opened it up for all the members of CiB (CoveredinBees, my semi-social, semi-offtime-Versus-members-hangout LS) there are now many people that are getting pretty high in rank. Omoikitte is the highest I believe having the highest rank possible at this time, next is Eternalpain, Jess and I on the 7th rank and trying to get the 8th rank (I actually have the quest open and I will work on it tonight) a whole slew of people at rank 6, then a smattering of people at 3-5. I haven't really been balancing the new runs versus points runs versus going back for lower people rank up runs. I think what I am going to do is ask what piece people want most then start pairing down some of the runs and pairing people up to help them get points more quickly, since once people are rank 9, or after the update rank 10, gear is going to be the main focus, and Salvage will become easier because points wont be needed for gear. I have tried to make a system for Assaults so I know what runs people have finished but I am finding it a little harder than I expected. I was peeking through the Assault Point items I had available and I decided to pick up that Vision Earring I was talking about: I know the stats don't look amazing but Ranged Accuracy in the ear slot is hard to come by.

I know I started with Assault, but I probably should have started with the new information that SE posted today.

The August version update will bring revisions to the use of two-handed weapons, as well as a number of modifications to several jobs.
In this edition of Topics, we would like to elaborate on the changes that will be made to the two-handed weapon system. Job changes will be described in length in a future Topics article.

Two-handed weapons

Up until now, there have been instances in which the attack frequency and speed generated by dual wielding would greatly surpass those of two-handed weapons. We have since examined this issue from every conceivable angle, and as a result have decided to reconsider the frequency and delay calculation methods for two-handed weapons.

This month's version update will see the introduction of a new type of gear called "grips," which players can equip in their offhand weapon slot when using a two-handed weapon. We are also planning to apply changes to associated weapon skills as well.

Attacking with two-handed weapons

The new modifications will be set up so that a character's attribute scores will enhance attack benefits to a greater extent when wielding a two-handed weapon than when using a single-handed weapon. Further, when attacking high-level opponents or enemies with high defense, two-handed weapons will deal more damage than they have in the past.

A word on grips

While not designed to bring about radical improvements, grips are a new lineup of items which can be used in tandem with two-handed weapons as a means of wielding them more effectively. They accomplish this by enhancing a weapon's benefits while compensating for shortcomings. Grips will not be limited to offensive weapons, as some will be tailored to mages and their indispensable staves.
Different grips will allow players to adapt to specific situations depending on the type of two-handed weapon they are using, as well as the type of enemy they are fighting. Players should be advised, however, that changing grips mid-combat will result in a loss of TP. Therefore, no grip's benefits will be restricted to the execution of weapon skills.

Rethinking weapon skills

The majority of two-handed weapon skills already stand to see a vast improvement based on the changes described above. However, we will also be retooling the characteristics of several particular weapon skills in order to enhance their usability.


I have three words to describe this. Oh. My. God. This is just awesome. The very first thing that struck me is the -3% Weapon Delay at level 55, think what you will get at 75 since most gear doesn't even start getting good until the late 50's but I have some much more detailed thoughts after those initial impressions.

1. They are changing the basic damage calculations for the two-handed weapons. This will probably be done by making the two-handed weapon calculation more like Ranged Attack calculations moving away from the way melee damage is calculated now. This means not only will two-handers will hit for more, they will also have to consider stacking more STR, even for TP build. In this case, for example, a SAM may now choose a Haubergeon over a Shura Togi if the fSTR is modified like ranged attack (where STR is multiplied in the base damage calculation). This should be emphasized again because, although the grips are more visible, changing the damage calculations of two-handed weapons will have a more fundamental effect on damage and will likely be the determining factor as to whether a two-handed weapon user will be able to keep up with dual wielder. Here is the rub; one has to be the winner. I think even though I have more interest in seeing two-handers come out on top, I think that dual -wielders should be the ultimate winners. I fundamentally believe that a Ridill WAR should be the epitome of a DD. A very hard to get weapon stacked with the number 1 melee DD job and a little bit of a tank thrown in. I just like the concept.

2. Grips. The first thing they says is that they will not be ground-breaking but honestly a level 55 item with essentially 3% haste speaks volumes. We spend millions on 3% haste and make substantial cuts in other areas just to use that 3%, so I think the benefits might be a bit larger than they say. Sure not "causes weapon to occasionally attack 2-3 times" but I think 5% delay reduction by level 75 is something we should expect to see and 5% delay reduction on my SAM that already stands at 20% haste without Hasso is just damn nice. I mean before outside considerations my SAM will be looking 20% haste +10% haste from Hasso +a middle-case scenario of 5% delay reduction, I will be swinging at 2/3 of my base delay for a delay before Haste or March of 312, which is just damn fast. The main question at that point is how does this "delay reduction" effect TP build? Is it going to be like Dual Wield reduction and reduce the TP production or is it going to be like like Hasso which is just basically weapon Haste? I have other questions about this like where does it leave MNK? What about their extra slot? A change in their damage calculation? What about BLU/THF? Since BLU has very limited shield selection, would grips server them better? My guess on all of this is that they will be designed for traditional two-handed weapons and wont be equipable without a Great Katana, Great Axe, Great Sword, Scythe, Polearm or Staff equipped. A system error like trying to equip a single-handed weapon in the off-hand without one in the main-hand might be the solution. The description of the item that has been shown says it only decreases delay for two-handed weapon users, but what about other stats?

3. Weaponskill changes and job adjustments are only hinted at here but may end up being even more important than all of this. New WS calculations might be nice depending on what they change and how the fundamental change in damage calculation for two-handed weapons is handled. Job changes have had little to no direct discussion besides the stated improvements for PUPs, many players complaints about BST and the statement that all jobs will have to be adjusted to accommodate new jobs in the expansion. SE will give us more on this later, and I will be waiting with bated breath.

Finally, for today (which is really late because of meetings and such) a review of our relatively easy and getting easier Omega. Since we now have more than 18 people for Limbus, a change from just two weeks ago when we couldn't get more that 12 for an Omega run, we have been focusing on just that, Omega. The winners this time were Izman and Hellz. Izman getting the hands for his PLD, besides the Haste for his PLD/NIN for future Ultimas, the hands also have enmity and significant HP/MP bonuses and Hellz getting the legs for his DRG, more haste for him to TP build in an a little bit of accuracy thrown in.
Finally, here is Aable's beauty shot in his new Hecatomb Harness. And thats it for today. See you tomorrow.

1 comments

Monday, August 13, 2007

I'm back.

Posted by Ringthree at 1:41 AM

So where was I? Ahh, this is going to be a huge ass post and is going to take all day. And to all those that complained to me about not doing the blog for two weeks, I appreciate it. :) I know that sounds weird but its nice to hear that people actually care about what I write here, especially when you are on bed rest. But enough of that, on with the show.

Ok, so since so much time has passed, I am going to go over things that happened that were important, but not necessarily the order in which they occured. :) Ok, lets see. Lets go over MNK quickly, I am currently 54, about 2k to 55. Some of that time was spent soloing DCs in Crawlers Nest, because again proving that MNK is the best job ever, I can easily solo the Crawlers there, without the assistance of a RDM. I have even gotten to the point were I can clear each of the Labyrinth Lizard rooms before they respawn, usually two Lizards without having to rest. Now, I normally wouldn't do this, but I have been farming the Lizards to pay for D. Legs and eventually D. Body, and I have actually been making pretty decent money. This isn't to say that I have been partying, because most of my XP has been made in some pretty decent parties, I just note the soloing because it proves MNK is the best job ever. It's also nice knowing that I am going to level into 22% haste gear if I want it, and that is before I start hunting for Black Belt items. I have also finished up the quest line for MNK AF, which was surprisingly easy on my NIN. I solo'd the first two missions, one against a ghost in Gusgen Mines, to obtain my Beat Cesti, which were promptly left in the MH, the other against a MNK and PLD Orc in Davoi, they took forever to kill, literally like 15 minutes to solo them on my NIN, this fight netted me my Temple Gaiters. Finally, Omoi and I duo'd Huu Xalmo the Savage, this was another extended fight, as Huu Xalmo must have something like a million HP, but no accuracy. I got his feather returned it to Ayame
for my Temple Hose and finished up my MNK AF quests. Here is the problem though, when I re-quested my NIN feet after doing the AF upgrade I had to go through all the quests, then reopen the Dark Spark quest so the Coffer in SSG would load with my Ninja Kyahan. The problem more specifically is that once I have done this, there is no way to cancel the Dark Spark quest on NIN, I have to complete it, which means that I not only have to get the three coffers for my MNK, I now have to get the one in Ifrit's Cauldron for my NIN hands. To double the problem, the next item I want to upgrade for my NIN is the hands, and that requires the NIN AF upgrade item from Temenos to match the Ebony Lacquer I already have. Shall I continue this bind of binds? We are planning to do about a week or two of Apollyon to burn through some Omega sets. Now why does that matter? Because if I get NIN hands quest done now, I will have to toss the current set that I have to be able to hold them, so I will have to them re-quest them AGAIN. Quite the Gordian Knot, but I may actually have the quite easy stroke to splice the knot. Ailee told me that if you have your AF in storage you can actually get the item because you don't have it on you. If that is the case, then I can actually get my NIN hands, wait for the item from Temenos when it comes, upgrade the hands, and never look back. I still have to get 4 coffer keys for three MNK items, but hey, its a good solution to a future problem. I would like to get my Temple gear soon though because the buffs from it are pretty nice for XP because you just have to pop them on when they are used then you can take them off, and wear your normal gear.

Lunch update, told you this was going to be long, I am still on MNK.
Ok, I am back, lets wrap up MNK, shall we? I think the last thing I need to go over is the fact that I finished up my Hand-to-Hand merits, so I will be leveling into almost everything on my MNK at this point. I have also decided that subbing NIN is just plan sucks, I would rather sub WAR and make the healer spend more MP and kill the mob in half the time, than still pull hate go through 6 shadows and still take damage anyway.

Enough of my MNK, now onto other accomplishments. :) We have done several Kirins and have finally been able to tweak up some of the drops. Three Osode's have dropped, going to Glacian, Rygar and I, two N. Bodies going to Akanea and Aable, and one set of W. Legs which would have gone to Izman had he not been dealing with major virus issues, instead going to Achikasama for use on her RDM. :) Several Poles have dropped and been distributed, and we have actually cut down on the number of D. Bodies, only one in this time going to Sao. Our Kirin's are also getting faster, except for the one that we did on Earthsday and was being a pain in the ass. Apparently, it was still one of our fastest Kirins, but it kept doing very annoying things like Stonega IV the 1500+ Deadly Holds while you are putting shadows back up. It was just being annoying. Although the last one we did pulled a cut move of 2 houring then immediately casting Stonega IV. Killing maybe 8 or so people in the DD party. LOL Our poor DD party gets overwhelmed very quickly because they have no Barstonra and no Curaga to help recover, but on the fly we added a BLM to that party to assist with that and it does make a bit of a difference, but this wasn't until late into the second fight so not well tested until the next run. Kirin is one of the easiest mobs to tank in the game, as a tank can't really do anything about the damage they take from AoE's except try to minimize the damage and max out their HP. I still wear almost no haste gear and just HP and Enmity in general. Normally, for some reason the hate gets lopsided, usually because a tank has come in from a nasty move and is trying to catch up with the other tank most of the time, but Akanea is excellent at gaining hate and it was actually pretty funny watching Kirin bounce back and forth. Outside of Kirin, we have gotten a tiny bit of luck on Byakko, finally getting Akanea's Haidate for him. but still that makes us something like 1/10 on Byakko since Izman got his Haidate. Akanea was quite pleased, and it helps a lot on his SAM and NIN. We have also gained access for Sky for a good number of our Sky members, and they have joined us in Limbus. We have so many members now that we can do split runs, and we have had a very successful Omega, with another head (meh) and legs (yay). The head went to Kingscissom and the legs went to Eternalpain. We only need to get EP two more pieces so that he has a full set of Homam and he already has two of the hardest parts to get, body and legs. So once we get him some hands and feet, I will be plastering the blog with pics of him as the poster boy for Versus. As I was saying about people making Sea, just recently we have managed to get a great group of Versus members to Sea, and when you zone in apparently I give King a great old man mustache. It's great to have another group in Sea and even better that it is this group of people who have been great about dealing with all the struggles and late nights. :) Versus has been doing very well as of late, even claiming (way too early) Cerberus for the first time, unfortunately people from other LS's were massing and I claimed it too early. LOL Oh well, it was nice to have it for the minute or so that we did. :) We will be trying again, soon. In other smaller events, everyone is progressing very well in Assaults, and we even got a decent (read: not crap, R/E) drop from one of the runs. and we have a bunch of people that are very quickly ranking up. In fact I should hit rank 8 tonight, then just one more week and I should be able to get my Perdu Blade! Omoi already has rank 9 but doesn't have the Assault Points, which leads me to believe that I will be XPing a lot this week. LOL Finally onto Salvage, we still haven't been able to get a run were we get everyone to show up and take things down quickly, and none of the NM's have dropped anything yet. >.< But we are still plugging away and eventually we are going to get some good drops. :) We have gotten an Arrapago Card for future runs, but we still need a reason to go to another area and someday we will get a drop from Arrapago. Now that everyone has Sea access we have more free time to add another Salvage run. I am thinking about Noon-1PM on Saturdays, or Sundays. I will see what works with the people that are going.

I do want to note something I have noticed about Arrapago Remnants and the way drops work on the first floor. I have noticed this over several runs, but I think there may be some kind of pattern for which mobs will drop more of a certain kind of cell on the first floor.

Basically there are four wings to Arrapago floor 1. Two wings have bones, and two qutrubs. Two have one set of Lamia based on cell drops, the other two have a different set. I believe that one wing of the bones, and one wing of the qutrubs will have a better drop rate, as will one set of Lamia per cell drop set have a better drop rate.

I have noticed this pattern after many different runs were we will get either a ton of HP from the bones, or a ton of Weapons from the Qutrubs, sometimes both, sometimes neither, but the point was that its either almost all or almost nothing. Normally our pattern goes, clear the initial Qutrub/Lamia wing for weapons and magic, then depending on the group move to the other magic wing or move to the Bones/Lamia wing for HP and JA. We had almost everyone with HP and JA cells last night, and got almost no magic or weapons. This is just one night, but it matches many others. Sometimes lots of magic, or HP, or Weapons or JA, we just need to find the pattern.

As there are patterns to the other first floor drops, I was thinking it would not be outside the realm of possibility for this to happen. I have noticed this with or without TH2+ on different runs, so I am pretty sure it is more than just that. I have posted this on BG forums, but no response yet. Knowing BG, I will probably get a bunch of "There is no pattern, dumbass" comments from idiots that don't even do Salvage. Ah well, here's to hoping.

Now, onto the final subject for today. I have brought my RNG gear back out off of my mule and put it back onto my main. I plan on leveling it a little more often and because we have more and more tanks for events, using my SAM and RNG a little more often to get more use out of them and to let people come as other jobs. I want to try it out tonight in Limbus, if we don't do another Omega. Anyway, here are the builds I have, first my Archery build:

Gear recap:
Main: Fransisca
Off: Hawker's Knife
Ranged: Selene's Bow
Ammo: Demon Arrow
Head: Optical Hat
Neck: Ranger's Necklace
Ear1: Drone Earring
Ear2: Drone Earring
Body: Kirin's Osode
Hands: Seiryu's Kote
Ring1: Coral Ring
Ring2: Behemoth Ring
Back: Amemet Mantle +1
Waist: Precise Belt
Legs: Pahluwan Seraweels
Feet: Scout's Socks

Now, I know I have a bunch of ways that I can improve this gear set. For example, Hawker's Knife, Drone Earrings and the Coral Ring can all be upgraded. But I am still rather pleased with this gear set as it stands. When I do upgrade it, I will likely take out some Ranged Accuracy and AGI for STR and Ranged Attack. As much as I would like two Triumph Earrings or even a Vision Earring I can't spend money on it right now, when I need to save up for my Dryadic gear. I have always been a bit obsessed with accuracy and this is the case again here, though I am thinking about maybe full timing a Flame Ring instead of the Coral Ring too. Also, something else that I think is weird is that I use a Precise Belt and the Pahluwan Seraweels, while most people use Scout's Braccae and Royal Knight's Belt +1 or +2. Now, lets look at the collective benefit of those items:

My gear (relevent stats):
Ranged Accuracy: +9
STR: +3

Their gear (relevent stats):
HP: +18
Ranged Accuracy: +7
STR: +2
AGI: +2
Enmity: -2
Ranged Attack: +5 almost never.

Stat-wise, I beat them. :) STR is much more important for TP build than AGI for a RNG because of how RA are calculated. I win on ranged accuracy too, even adding in the AGI. They win on Enmity reduction, but come on, I care about that as much as I care about Ranged Attack +5 almost never. But, yes, I can definitely improve my set up, but I think I have better gear selection than them, in general.

As for my priorities on my RNG, a Woodville's Axe to start, Crimson Hands, which I have been passing up to people in the LS that need them and I will continue to do so until they are free lot. The improvements over the Ranger's Necklace are either small or very expensive. Finally, I would love, Love, LOVE and E bow. I want, want, want one, and will probably be doing some BCNM's to try to get one, maybe even try to get a V Bow after the next server reset.

Now for my other TP build set up, which can definitely be tweaked a bit more, my Holy Bolt set up.

The major difference here is just the Hunter's Braccae and Suzaku's Sune-ate, and obviously my Othinus' Bow and Holy Bolts (Slug Shot with Dark Steel bolts) but I can do a lot of more to build up MND, this would be a case were I could see using the Royal Knight's Belt +1, because then I am getting +2 MND, +2 STR and +2 AGI, then things get a little bit interesting. I have mentioned this before, but I think that it would be interesting to get Aqua Ring's. Two of them would be +10 MND and +4 STR, but giving but about +20 Accuracy, the problem is with my paranoia about accuracy how could I justify that? Then I figured it out! Bolts are much faster than arrows, so it would be like trying to make a Haste build for my NIN, where you pretty much sacrifice everything for Haste, because hitting faster makes up for just about everything else you lose, except in this case its increased damage on Light Damage procs for the occassional missed shot.

Finally, for my WS build:
Main: Fransisca
Off: Hawker's Knife
Ranged: Depends on the TP set.
Ammo: Depends on the TP set.
Head: Wyvern Helm
Neck: Breeze Gorget
Ear1: Drone Earring
Ear2: Minuet Earring
Body: Kirin's Osode
Hands: Seiryu's Kote
Ring1: Flame Ring
Ring2: Rajas Ring
Back: Amemet Mantle +1
Waist: Precise Belt
Legs: Pahluwan Seraweels
Feet: Rutter Sabatons

Now for this I feel much better about this, obvious improvements are still a Royal Knight's Belt +1, that Woodville's Axe and those Triumph Earrings, outside of that, I am pretty well set up for my WS's, all STR all the time. LOL That's it for RNG, I might do WAR which I am less impressed with next week, or maybe a NIN or DRG recap.

Anyway, I would like to say that it is nice to be back, and I hope you enjoy.

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