Got home late again, so didn't do a whole lot last night. And I am kind of rushed today, so this is probably going to be shorter than normal.
Anyway, I got on last night and preened myself on my Sam. I can't wait to get to 75. I will be able to wear my wyvern helm and, as Fuzzball says, its the most bad assed looking helm in the game! And its much better than looking like, again as Fuzzball says, a chemo patient. I was doing all of this while everyone was finishing up dying to Dynamis Lord. Apparently, two Wyrm Helms dropped in Xarcabard today. TWO. On the day that I could not go. I would have gotten it for 4 points. To say I was a tad bit pissed would be the understatement of the year.
Anyway, Omoi got out of Dynamis and logged over to Kirameki and we quickly got a party together, and headed to Quicksand Caves. The party was doing pretty decently. We were in a small area with a limited number of mobs, sometimes having to pull spiders when beetles weren't up. This was going fine until another party showed up. Now, this area is very hard pressed to support two parties, and we were a little high of the area so mobs were going down pretty quickly. We had been in the area for over an hour already, so we had no intentions of moving.
This is the short and useless conversation that followed their arrival.
Its great to know that chivalry isn't dead!
After they showed up, our xp had slowed a bit, but I couldn't imagine how slow their xp was considering the fact they were too low for spiders and could only pull beetles. After a while there was a time when none of the mobs were up, so we both just had to sit their twiddling our thumbs. It was kind of silly that people couldn't be considerate enough to even move to another area of the caves. Oh well, its the nature of things in the game I suppose. Its funny how hiding behind a game gives people the confidence to be a dick, unlike how they would act in real life. Internet courage seems to be alot like alcohol courage.
Some time during the party I got to level 46:
Lets just say that xp is going alot slower than I expected on War. I think it just has to do with the level we are at right now, we are too low to go to the basement of the Citadel and too high to go QSC. Just a few levels ago we were doing much much better for xp. Oh well.
Kira is about a full level behind me in xp right now (7k). This difference will disappear with time and her using an Empress Band while I dont. And truthfully, I dont think its that important to still so close together, but it would be nice if were actually of the same level for a while.
Sky today, I know we will camp Ulli and claim him today. The RMT have been slacking and as long as they dont hack again we will be able to get him.
I am out of town over the weekend, I will try to get on the game a little bit, but I am going to try to level my clothcrafting. I have SO many crawler coccons on Ringsix that its kind crazy. It shouldn't be hard to get to 51 at all, and I can use the coccons to get to 51. :)
Thursday, September 21, 2006
Elvis is dead! No, wait. It's chivalry that is dead. Elvis has a better chance of being alive than chivalry.
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Your generic Kirin thread.
Versus did Kirin last night, this is the first time that I got to take pictures of it. Now everyone has their neat Kirin pictures, and its not like Kirin is a special event or something, but you will suffer through more pictures. Whether you like it or not!
Me kicking Kirin's ass:
Fire breathing manticore:
Obligatory stare down picture:
Kirin dropped D. Body, Shining Cloth and a Pole. Ok drops, but it would have been nice to see an Osode or a N. Body.
After Kirin, Omoi had to deal with the normal post-Kirin complaints and gripes, and we had a bit of miscommunication, so I had started searching on Sam, instead of getting War ready. When we had figured it out, I had already gotten a party on Sam so I took it... I should have just gone to bed. orz
The party was Mnk, Mnk, Nin, Sam, Blm, Rdm. Yeah... We went to fight Imps, they were great xp, but the Rdm couldn't silence them and we got -ga'ed like crazy (although it took some instruction to get the Rdm to even try to silence, or pretty much do anything besides cast stoneskin). Also, I thought that amensia was causing major problems, because the ninja never seemed to voke, but it appeared that it wasn't that amensia that was causing the lack of vokes but rather that the ninja didn't want to tank at all. Shockingly the ninja "dc'ed" shortly after arriving. I believe that this was the same ninja that "dc'ed" in my party on Sunday. At least the leader at this point decided to pick up a paladin and move to Bibiki bay. We got there and fought gobs and dhalmels for a while until the paladin had to go. Pretty much a big waste of time, less than 10k total for the party.
I did get this quite evil Tachi: Gekko: 
I have been looking over my Sam gear and trying to figure out what to do when I get to level 75. (I just noticed in these pics that I left my Empress Band on ^.^)
TP set-up:
Weapon: Kazaridachi
Ranged: Lightning Bow (Signed by Glacian)
Head: Optical Hat
Neck: Chivalrous Chain
Earring: Spike Earring/Coral Earring
Body: Haubergeon
Hands: Ochiudo's Kote
Rings: Sniper's Ring/Rajas Ring
Back: Amemet Mantle
Waist: Life Belt
Legs: Royal Knight's Breeches
Feet: Windurstian Kyahan
Now, some of this gear is kinda gimp, but I can't find a better replacement, like for the legs or feet. I could upgrade the feet to Hachiman Sune-ate or Tiger Ledelsens (LOL) but what would be the point when I get Saotome Sune-ate in 20k exp. I definitely need to get an Amemet Mantle +1 too.
Here is my WS set-up:
Weapon: Kazaridachi
Ranged: Lightning Bow (Signed by Glacian)
Head: Sipahi Turban
Neck: Chivalrous Chain
Earring: Spike Earring/Coral Earring
Body: Hachiman Domaru
Hands: Hachiman Kote
Rings: Sun Ring/Rajas Ring
Back: Amemet Mantle
Waist: Life Belt
Legs: Myochin Haidate
Feet: Rutter Sabatons
Now I am much more satisfied with my WS gear than I am with my TP gear, and at 71 I will be much happier over all.
Now, for my presumed level 75 gear (gear that I have/easily attainable is listed, other gear is listed in parenthesis)
TP Build:
Weapon: Ushikirimaru
Ranged: Lightning Bow (Signed by Glacian)
Head: Optical Hat (Shura Kabuto)
Neck: Chivalrous Chain
Earring: Spike Earring/Coral Earring
Body: Haubergeon
Hands: Ochiudo's Kote
Rings: Sniper's Ring/Rajas Ring
Back: Amemet Mantle
Waist: Life Belt (thinking about a Sword Belt +1 also)
Legs: Royal Knight's Breeches (Shura Haidate or Byakko Haidate)
Feet: Saotome Sune-ate (eventually Amir Boots)
WS Build:
Weapon: Ushikirimaru
Ranged: Lightning Bow (Signed by Glacian)
Head: Wyvern Helm
Neck: Chivalrous Chain (Sea Gorgets, I REALLY need to get working on these)
Earring: Spike Earring/Coral Earring (Going for Fowling Earring/Brutal Earring)
Body: Hachiman Domaru
Hands: Hachiman Kote (Myochin Kote +1)
Rings: Ruby Ring/Rajas Ring (Biblo is letting me borrow his Flame Ring for a while)
Back: Amemet Mantle
Waist: Warwolf Belt
Legs: Myochin Haidate (Shura Haidate or Myochin Haidate +1)
Feet: Rutter Sabatons
Looking over this, I am actually pretty satisfied with my gear. My earring slots just suck, and I need to get my Brutal Earring. My legs suck, but I dont know of a quick or easy solution to this. Options include Galliard Trouser, Hydra Cuisses and Dusk Trousers and Pahluwan Seraweels, none of which is that easy to come by.
I am going to do this for my Ninja and Dragoon, too. But I am must more on top of what I need for those two jobs.
I know I had more to say today, but I will post later if I remember it.
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
4/4
Yesterday was an interesting day. Mondays are my usual leveling days, nothing to bother me, nothing to worry about, but Omoi had just gotten home and I knew that she wanted to unlock some of the new jobs before we went to try for Rutter Sabatons. But even before that, there was a Beseigned, and I got to go in my all new sexy Hachiman gear. I had a couple of 600+ Gekko's on the trolls. It was fun, but it was only level 1 or 2, so only got 300 xp.
After that I switched over to Ninja, because Omoi wanted to get another Airtank for me, just in case. So we headed out to Bibiki Bay to kill some Blaggers. Apparently the drop is pretty rare, but we got one on our 6th Blagger ^.^; I know that Ailee and Fuzzball went out to farm for them for two hours one night and didn't get any to drop. I had my own Airtank that Ailee had given to me about a year ago. It had been inventory space -1 for that long. Anyway, Fuzz bought one for 70k in a bazaar which is pretty cheap from what I have been seeing.
Fuzz was in Limbus for a while so Rygar, Reikoyi, Omoi and I headed out to open Puppetmaster. That was pretty easy, with only a little bit of running around. Now we just need to open Blue Mage and Corsair. I am kinda intrigued by Corsair but I have my plate full for leveling jobs for a while.
Once Fuzz got back from Limbus he almost immidiately lost power, and was gone for a while. We started to get a couple of people together for the run, because we thought Fuzz would be back soon. After a while it was looking a little bleak, and I was getting frustrated, but I managed to pick up Eji, and Omoi got like 3 or 4 more people and we finally headed out. Had a little confusion when Thazienne (my pretty kitty) wandered off and had to be escaped by Omoi. After they came along we headed to the NPC to pop our little friend Bugbear Matman.
The first fight we had about 6 people on him and he just completely spammed Flying Hip Press, which does something like 600 per use and goes right through shadows. We were giving him way too much TP and after the third FHP he killed like 4 people, but after that it was smooth sailing. Without giving him TP and with 2 Blm's just slaughtering him, the fight was a joke, and with two thfs with us the Matman dropped me these:
Dont I look sexy:
It will be nice to finally have a decent feet slot for WS's on Ninja, and I will definitely be using them on Sam WS's because they are even better than HQ Hachiman Feet. Now I just need to get to 71 so that I can get rid of these stupid Windurstan Kyahan and use my Saotome Sune-ate. It kinda sucks being a 70 Sam and still using level 25 gear.
After the first fight, Omoi offered up the second Airtank she brought to those that could use them, and after a much easier fight Matman dropped them again! That made us 2/2 and Bare had the winning lot. Going 2/2 kinda made me skeptical that we would get another drop down there but Hellzfury had a tank so we gave it a whirl. Low and behold 3/3. That was crazy. I really couldn't believe at this point that the drop rate was 50% like some people say it is. Right after this fight, Fuzz was finally able to get back onto the game, and we told him to come down to give him a shot at it, especially considering this run was set up for him and me. Fuzzball got down there pretty quick, traded, fought, won, 4/4! It was an awesome night, but everyone was really tired at this point because it was really late.
Today is the first day that Omoi is back to run sky, and I am glad she is. Running sky is really rough. Having to direct people, listening to complaints, dealing with trouble makers, deciding which mobs to go after. Its a bit much for me at times, though I think we did really well while she was gone. We have Kirin today, so it shouldn't run late, but we might be heading to Sea again.
I hope that I get to level some tonight, either War or Sam.
Saturday, September 16, 2006
While the cat is away the mice will play.
Had a very busy weekend. If you hadn't noticed the Astral Candescence had been gone for a couple of days up until Friday. And you might have noticed that it was returned pretty late on Friday night (about 2AM EST). And you might have noticed that I was one of the ones that got it back. Oh, you didn't? Well I did.
Standing around waiting for a party on my Sam, I saw a JP shout about the AC and they needed a tank. So I asked, and they accepted. I got on my Nin, and got to test out my new Seiryu's Kote.
The fight is pretty interesting actually, because you have to beat all three mobs in one run, if you dont, any dead ones are respawned and all are reset to 33% HP. For the Mamool Ja, you have to fight a thief, ninja and black mage. We started with two parties, it made getting to the area pretty easy. All of the people were JP except for one other Whm in the other party, who wasn't that great and couldn't really understand the strategy. They went in first and lost, then we went in for our first try. Our party was Nin (me), Sam, Whm, Rdm, Blm, Blm. The Rdm was dualing wielding a Joy Toy and a Kraken Club. He did a ton of damage.^^ Anyway, the Sam and I were to take the Thf first, then the Nin, then finally the Blm. The first time, the Sam and I took down the Thf, and got the Nin pretty far down before it Mijin Gakure'd, but it was too close to our Whm. So we wiped and then got ready to fight again, but the blm got off a Thundaga III and then the Nin just destroyed me. We didn't get a chance to fight them again before time ran out.
The second team went again and failed pretty bad, so we got another go. This time the Sam and I destroyed the thf: 
After that we took down the nin, who did MG but everyone survived. The Ninja did get me with a 1200 Firespit right before the Sam finished it off. The mages then started kiting the Blm Mamool Ja, for a while. I rested during this time, got up, started fighting again and almost immidiately took another 1100 Firespit, through a fresh set of shadows. >.< We wiped after that, got up, then just murdered the Blm.
We then saw this text roll by:
That was one of the most fun things I have ever done in the game. And to do it with all JP's was great because it showed that the barriers between NA/EU/JP players are all self-imposed and only prevent people from achieving mutual goals. Togther we got this sweet title:
Victory shot:
I went to sleep shortly after that. I slept pretty darn well.
The next day I had told Illyana that we were going to get him level 75. So I grabbed him, Dianara and some random other people and we headed out to fight some trolls. We did this for a while until people had to go and we had to get some dinner. After that we headed out to the thickets and beat up some Mamool Ja until we finally saw this:
I was really happy for Illy, but I am glad I made him go, I shudder to think how long it would have taken him to get to 75 if left to his own devices. It was getting late for Illy and Dia so Illy got a nice little buffer, then went to bed. I had gotten 4 more merits that day, for a total of nine. I didn't really have a pressing need to put them into anything, and I needed to spend them or I was going to start losing limit points. So I dumped all nine of them into STR which is now level 2. Its like always having a HQ level 14 STR ring on... which when said that way doesn't really sound very impressive at all. >.<
Anyway, after that I decided that I was going to get at least to level 69 on Sam. I had already had one party on Sam earlier on Friday before going to get the AC back. So I got a party together (shocking of course that I did not wait for an invite), killed some Eruca in Mt. Z. It was Thazienne and Weeman and a few others, it was sweet xp until someone hit 69, where it turned into just pretty good xp.
Sunday, I got a short party before sky. Then headed to sky. It was a pretty normal Sky run. Ulli died before we got a chance to camp him, but we got Faust and Zip. We spawned a Genbu and a Suzaku. The Genbu drops weren't very good, no money drops, no big abjurations. Suzaku on the other hand...
I got these by default because noone could lot them besides me and everyone was yelling at me to take them rather then letting them go to someone that didn't even have a job that could use them: 
But that wasn't the best part, the fact that one of these dropped off of Suzaku just topped it off:
We have made a bunch of money while Omoi was gone... the only thing we haven't done is get Ullikummi. Which makes me incredibly angry. Anyway...
After sky, I got a GREAT all JP xp party together for my Sam. It was Nin, War, War, Brd, Rdm, Sam. We were all set to go to the Mire as there were only 22 people in the area, and there was a great camp open where we could pull only Imps. But as with all things, it was too good to be true. Before we even left the city, the Nin DC'ed. As it turns out, this may have been because the nin doesn't like fighting Imps. Anyway, I asked the wars if they minded dual tanking, and they agreed. We picked up a whm, and started taking down Imps for something like 250 xp BASE. We were getting chain 5 for 400+ without an xp ring. It was amazing. Too amazing, after the third chain, one of the wars DC'ed and didn't come back. So we sat around for a while, but we got absolutely no response from anyone, even people that were LFG. There will be a HUGE rant about going AFK while LFG some day, some day soon.
After that we returned to Whitegate because the Mire was PACKED and we were going to disband. But I was not so easily disuaded from getting 70. So took a minute, found another Nin, then picked up some of the people from the failed Mire party, including the War that didn't DC and the Whm. Got a Blm and a new Rdm and we were off to fight Ziz in Mamook. This was nice until the Rdm and Nin had to go. It was getting late for me, but I was determined as we headed back to Whitegate. I knew it was late for me, but very early for the JP's so I looked for replacements and picked up some of my Hachiman gear. So we got a new Nin (a rather slow yet arrogent one, who the JP's and I had a bit of fun mocking before he arrived) and the Rdm from the original party in the Mire (w), and headed back out to Mamook.
\(^.^)/
Anyway, while we were there I told the people on vent about Zizzy Zillah who was up where we were, which they took down but didn't get any drops besides some crystals.
And that was my weekend. I did get level 70 before Omoi got back, which was really cool. Now I can show off my neat new Hachiman gear.
Trying to get some Rutter Sabaton tonight, that would be so nice because it would lock up my free for Sam and Nin. There is an apropos Fight Club line about a couch that could go here, but I have forgotten it.
Friday, September 15, 2006
Item #3 from Sky.
I finally got my third item from Versus yesterday.
These: 
These are really nice for tanking, but I dont tank very often on my Nin anymore. Its mostly burn, burn and more burn. And I already have what I think to be two of the three best hands for burning on my Nin. I have been looking into getting a pair of these though:
I dont know if the +3% haste is better than +15 att during the day and I definitely do not think that its better than +4% and +12 STR at night. So I will probably steer clear of the Dusk Gloves. I do need to look at Dusk gear for other slots for Drg and Nin, but the Baronne gear is pretty darn good. And I dont know if I really need another set of legs to take of one more slot in my macros for Ninja.
I am finally getting the money together to get my Neptunal Feet made. I think I have the money ready to buy the feet, but I dont want to bankrupt myself to get them. I figure that it has been far too long since I got them to the time that I am getting them made.
I leveled my Sam again last night. Only got about 10k xp, it was a little disappointing. The party could have gone on a little while longer, but we were having major issues with our Blm. The Blm would just sit there only cast stun and the spell for the magic burst. Nothing else really. No elemental debuffs, no support for the other mages, nothing. Most of the time he was resting with only about 100 mp spent after each fight. I will not be inviting him to another party, to say the least.
Speaking of Sam, I am having another gear issue with Sam. My hands slot. I have my fucking O's Kote already. So I am set in that regard, but I am up to the 75% STR modifier WS's, and I need to really look at piling on the STR. Now, let me say that I am not looking to spend too much on my Sam. I have to consider leveling other jobs, like War, which I am ok spending a decent amount of gil on, BUT I have most of the gear I need already (Haub, Baronne, etc.). I think I will probably splurge on a Hagun, and a Maneater and Woodville. So, considering the fact that I dont want to spend alot, that puts the high-end gigas bracers out of reach. These are the hands I am considering:
and, 
with my ultimate goal being these:
That is alot of gear to consider, and the AF+1 require coins and materials, but I do already have one of the items I need for a Sam upgrade. I really need to actively look for a Limbus LS soon. I mean I have been putting it off for far too long. I also need a brutal earring which should probably be my highest priority from Limbus.
I had a pretty bad run in with a member of Versus yesterday. This guy just doesn't know when to shut up and he randomly just lashes out at people in the LS. We will see what happens when Omoi gets back. He is my favorite kind of person, obsessed with gear, and disruptive and abusive to other members of the LS. /sigh.
Well, now that I finally have Seiryu's Kote, I can now try to lot on D. Head. That will be very nice for my Nin, I will put it in my WS macro instead of my Optical Hat. That is if I ever get the money for the D. Head anyway. ^^
Thursday, September 14, 2006
Self-improvement is masturbation...
...self-destruction is obsessing over gear.
Had a couple of RL ups and downs in the last couple of days, wasn't able to post because of those issues.
Two levels on Sam, from 66 to 68. Only got into 5k of 68, so its going to be 25k to get to 69. Level 70 will be very nice, Hachiman, Optical Hat, well thats pretty much it, but those should help out alot. I have been getting decent invites in general for Sam, I was more than a little surprised. In general I wont wait for more than 5 minutes before I start going stir crazy and start making my own party. When I want to level I dont want to wait. I really dont even know how people get to 75 on any job that way. I got Drg to 75 in less time than some people take to get Nin to 75. I dont mess around.
My internet connection is vastly improved. I got a new cable modem out of the deal, and I am not even randomly DCing anymore.
Omoi gets back soon so I can start leveling War again. :) I dont know now though, I am thinking about finishing up Sam now. I had put it on the shelf for a while. It was sitting at 61 since right after the expansion came out. Since the time that Omoi left I have gotten 7 levels, and those are 7 hard levels. I am so close to 70 that I definitely want to get it before Omoi gets back. I can sell a bunch of lower level gear for Sam and at the very least get my Hachiman Domaru. That thing is beast. +8 Str and +8 WS acc is really nice. I am kinda confused on what to do for some different pieces for Sam though. Boots for exammple, I need a set for TP build and a WS set for Sam. Here are my options for TP:
I have these already:
I also think these would be good (probably better than the Saotome):
Now, with TP feet, I am basically looking for attack and accuracy. Both have decent amounts. Saotome favors attack and Amir accuracy. Both are free and I have one of them already, though it will take a while to get the Amir boots. The Saotome have the equivelent of +2.5 acc, and since I have usually considered feet for more a damage slot rather than accuracy, I may favor those. Then again it may just be sour grapes because I dont have the Amir yet. The Amir would be nice for my War too. Thats 20k Assault points from the Mamool Ja Assault, I think I have a decent amout of points in that area already, so I hope it wont take that long.
Here are my options for WS feet:
Here is the better option I believe:
The Rutter Sabatons are definitely the better option here. In fact they are so good that some people are Ok with the 2% slow on them and use them full time. I don't know if I could go that far, though. Slow is the bane of a two-handed weapon user. Slow makes the baby Jesus cry. We are going to try to get Rutter Sabatons on Monday night, so hopefully I can get them then, I would like to use them on my Ninja also.
And thats just an example of the connundrums I will have for equiping my Sam for endgame.
Ok, it is seriously time for me to get FRAPS, and this is the reason. Last night, I hit a Tachi: Gekko for 958, then a Darkness Skillchain for 958. I was in shock, thats almost 2k damage on an IT XP mob at level 68. I wish I had been able to screenshot that.
So after Sky I am definitely going to download it today.
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
Life without internet.
Not much to say, my internet was out and I had to go into work to use the internet there.
Partied with Ailee and got 1 merit. She couldn't stay up late and the party wasn't really that great.
I start debate soon so I will be missing Sunday's again. I probably wont be able to see N. Hands or Byakko's Haidate until next summer so I am trying to put those out of my mind.
My internet better get fixed today since they are making me leave work early for it.
Today, I am my fucking O's Kote. I just need to let go.
Monday, September 11, 2006
Can make a good man turn bad.
Had a rough RL weekend.
Lets see, I got my Sam from 64 to 66 and pretty damn close to 67 and a new GKT. I thought I really liked the Hagun style blade, but after getting used to it I am ready for the straight bladed look for a while. We will see how that grows on me. I wish I had some pictures of the Kazaridachi, it has a nice straight blade with a very ornamental hilt. I will probably use that until 73 when I can use my Ushikirimaru or get a Onimaru. I will probably never get a Hagun.
Sky was fine, no Kirin though, not enough people. I know I should have expected as much but people just dont show up with Omoi is not around. One person in particular decided it was more important to xp than to come to Kirin. Which is just kind of ridiculous. And there is another person that feels that they can do anything they want while Omoi is away and if something happens again with them, the will be getting a stern lecturing.
I have come to two nice and neat little revelations.
- I am going to be conservative on what gear I need for some of my jobs. Some jobs just aren't going to be as important as other jobs. Like I dont think I will ever need a Hagun for Sam, or a Nobles Tunic for Whm, or a Ridill for War. Now that being said there is some gear that I do need because it applies across all jobs. Neptunal gear, earthern gear, Byakko's Haidate. And I will continue to pursue them, but I am not going to dump a large amount of gil into an item that I will only use for one job. I might make an exception for a key item to round out a job (Hagun might be one of those exceptions), but like I can't see getting a Hauberk when my Haubergeon is just as good (even though the Hauberk to me, looks way more sexy). I have a Haub, a SH and an AJ, those are some of the key items I need. I will be keeping my O's Kote though. ;)
- I am about to get emo here... you can skip this if you want. Sometimes I think that my nature prevents me from being happy in the game, I like to help people do things, and that is generally a motivation for me. But I think it kind of makes me isolated from people. It could be that I am always trying to xp too, that people dont really think that I want to do other things. I dont know, I am just being emo. LOL
LB apparently beat AV twice this weekend. Very impressive.
Going to xp Sam again tonight. I would like to be 70 by the time that Omoi gets back.
Friday, September 08, 2006
Will it ever end?
Probably not. We were in perfect position to get Ullikummi yesterday and the RMT pos-hacked right to it and claimed it. Everyone in the room made a GM call and yet later that night the RMT bot Blurant was camping Lord of Onzozo and then King Anthro. Just a wonderful group of people we have running this game! Its just fantastic.
Got Faust and MG, not much else because we were focusing on Ulli. Spawned Suzaku and got some decent drops for people.
The GM's may even care but they are not allowed to do anything real. SE wants to believe that most of the people that are /anon with no LS in Ulli's room 24/7 are real players! They really want to believe that these are completely legitimate players. More like they dont want to do any real about the problem. Its their game, their rules, they can literally do anything they want. And yet they act like it is some kind of democracy with some kind of civil recourse and protect for its members. Its not. It's SE's own fucking kingdom and they can rule it as they wish, and they choose to let the RMT stay. And hack their way to every mob that a legitimate player needs.
At what point are we going to be forced to give up and buy stones from the RMT or just give up on Sky altogether.
Anyway, after sky I went to xp with Thaz. It was fun, because Crotchy came along also :) I got to 64 and a good chunk of 65. I will get 65 tonight and be able to do the coolest looking WS in the whole game!
I think I am pretty much set on gear until level 70 for Sam. At 70, I can sell off a bunch of stuff and get my Hachiman gear. I am less than 20k to 65 and I am so freaking excited.
I was too tired to try to install Fraps last night, so I will probably do it tonight.
Thursday, September 07, 2006
Too much RL, not enough game time.
I wasn't able to get on until late last night, but it was ok because I was supposed to level with Vesp and Tam, but they were still in Dynamis.
RL is really eating up a bunch of my time now. Debate means staying late most days, and work is really busy because school just started. I do much prefer the summer.
Anyway, I ran around muling and such for a while. I grabbed Omoi's Haub +1 ^^ and I am going to use it while she is away.
Off to lunch, finish up when I get back.
Ok, I am back, where was I? Ahh yes, leveling. After Vesp and Tam got out of Dynamis (Sandy). We got together with Kalgar, Iceblaze and Lucella and went to xp on Trolls in the new areas. It was pretty decent xp, something like 10k an hour. Got another 2 merits, for a total of 4 unsued. I can't decide if I want to put them into Katana or Str. Maybe even subtle blow. Ahh, well I will sit on them for a while until I find something I want to put them in.
Have Sky tonight, don't know what I am going to do after, maybe just go to bed early, maybe level my Sam. I would really like to get my Sam to at least 65 this week. 70 by the time that Omoi is back.
Wednesday, September 06, 2006
Perspective that no one sees.
Running an LS is hard. I mean really hard. I pity those that run really big HNMLS's. Running Versus for a day is tough. I just hope that I dont run it into the ground while Omoi is away.
I wont get into the specifics for yesterday, it was actually a pretty good sky day. No Ulli, but Zip, MG, Faust, SC, and BB. We are going to be camping Ulli and Water on Thursday. But at least we will have gods to spawn. We could have spawned gods by the end of the day, but it was getting late and we had just gotten a second set but had less than an alliance, and I thought it better not to spawn gods. With water we will be able to spawn at least three gods on Thursday. I really, really, really want to get Ulli though. We need an Ulli bad, really bad. We will get Ulli.
The funny thing is the amount of tells you get from your members. Just general things, like AFK's and senior members just talking about where to head and what they are doing, which is incredibly helpful. The funny thing is the tells I get from concerned members. Now I am not the one that keeps attendance for the LS or anything, but its pretty obvious that some members have really good attendance and some have spotty attendance. The person that sent me a tell is one of the ones that I believe has really good attendance, and he was worried about his lots because he was 15 minutes late on Sunday. I wish all of our members were like that. XD
After Sky, Borin needed xp on his Rng, and for how much he dies for the LS I couldn't say no, and who could say no to more merits. So we headed to the Mire and did pretty well, I think that the highest chain we got was the mid-20's. About 30k in xp/lp.
I got back and dumped 4 merits into my last crit hit merit, and have two left over, I think I am going to put the next merit into Str. I know that attributes are a long road to go down, but I am going to at least test out 2 merits in Str. It should have a nice effect on my Sam at very least, and it will be nice when leveling a bunch of different jobs. Now maxing Str will cost 36 merits total, which would be at least 10 more merits than I have already earned and spent. We will see how it goes, but I dont really have much interest in any other merits at this point.
Tonight, I have a fantasy football draft, then a debate meeting, so I dont know how much time I will have to play until late, but I am going to merit with Tama and Vesp tonight, which I am really looking forward to :)
Also Vesp is going to help me get Fraps tonight, and with debate season looming, I am actually thinking about getting the most basic kind of windower so I can play and get work done for debate at the same time. I know, I know. But I have to think practically here.
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
How not to make a good party.
So, this was a busy weekend, but I didn't exactly get a whole lot done. Friday, I leveled War with Kira. A lot of that time was spent not doing anything while trying to find some people to party with. I did find a very nice JP War that we ended up dual tanking with. Second JP player on my friendslist. Oudou being the first (a really cool guy, who thinks his English is WAY worse than it really is) who was a leader of the now defunct Cruel Kingdom and is starting a new Sky LS called SkyMAX. He might be coming with Versus to do Sea events, along with Lordoface. Well that got a little side tracked. Ended up getting 45 in that party, Kira got to level 44.
Saturday was a little blah, didn't really get much done at all, had to go out for a while. Saw Beerfest which was freaking quality. I definitely sugget it for anyone that can appreciate the humor. While I was out Omoi help Illyana to get his Joyeuse, which is really cool for him. Now he needs to get to 75 and merit so he can take advantage of it.
Sunday was sky, did a decent collection of Gods, as usual all but Byakko. Those RMT drive me crazy. We have a Seiryu set left for when Omoi is away, but we should be able to get some more gems today. After sky, we played some Brenner which was definitely fun, but War isn't as good as I hoped it would be. Omoi will be gone for two weeks, I hope we do a good job of running the LS while she is away.
Monday was a work holiday so I decide I wanted to level my brains out the whole day. So I got up and got on my Sam. I looked around for what was searching and found a reluctant bard. They were looking for a quick party, so didn't want to join immidiately. But they turned out to be more interested than they appeared because I got a Whm and they were pretty much in. We picked up a Nin and a Blaize, War friend of mine that used to be in Dissonance. I can't remember what the last job was, but this was a really great party. The brd was really good, and kept us at a good pace.
Eventually people had to go so we went back to town, so I picked up a rdm to replace the whm and the brd after a while decided to stick around. I believe this was the party that had Mikesjustice, Azuminegata and Akimarie in it, so we had some big names in the party. LOL We were still making decent/good xp.
This is were my need for xp overwhelmed my senses. After this party disbanded, I was in the mood for some more "burn" xp, or more like lazy xp. Nothing really to set up or anything just spam that WS macro. This isn't such a good idea without a bard. :/ The next party had a whm and like 5 melee's because I was in so much of a rush to get more xp. Our xp dropped in half during this time. It sucked, and after a while the whm just wanted to through in the towel which was fine.
After that, I tried making another party, but I was trying to force it again, because I had at least a 4 level split, and at some points a 5 level split for xp. After a while one of the nin's "d/c'ed" and didn't come back (which I will get to in a minute), and we finished up with 5, actually making better xp because we were fighting lower mobs for higher chains and more thus more xp. It wouldn't have been so bad if the Astral Candesence wasn't gone. Oh well, that is what I get for trying to force myself into xp parties instead of waiting for the proper jobs to show up.
Oh and to top it all off at the end of this party I realized that I didn't have any sneaks left, got aggro and had to home point. It freaking sucked.
As for people that DC just to get our of parties they dont like, thats just so fucking weak I dont know where to start. If you dont want to be in a party, just say you are sleepy, or you dont like the xp, or anything. Dont just freaking DC in the middle of the party, its not like we can't figure out that you are doing it on purpose...
Anyway, after that Az wanted to XP, so I hopped on Ninja, died 2 times getting to camp, once at camp, then once again at the end. I wasn't too pleased at all. Drachenwarrior was in the party, which kinda shocked me. I didn't know he was friends with Az, but I just let it go. I did get a merit so I can get the last level in Crit hit, but I dont know what I am going to merit after that.
In general, I am kinda bummed out, I dont feel like I am getting much of any reward out of anything anymore. I dont know if I want to really do anything besides level and go to sky for a while. My goal is to get Sam to 65 so I can get Tachi: Gekko, because it just freaking looks cool. I did pick up some new Str gear for Sam, which was cool because it was obvious that it massively increased the damage I was doing on WS's. I can't wait to level War again though, because that job is really fun, and with Kira and I on War and Brd we should be able to get parties no problem and I can leave that worrying up to someone else.
Finally, I think I need to get fraps. Vesp and Gorokai said I need to get more pictures here to break up the monotony of text. I think thats a good idea. I will probably look into that tonight.
Friday, September 01, 2006
Down and out in Vana'diel.
So things can go well, and things can go very, very poorly...
Versus did Kirin yesterday. We had a great mini-god order. Byakko, Seiryu, Suzaku, Genbu. I think Borin was the only person that died on the mini's, chainspell Flare with War sub tends to do that while you are trying to shadowbind. Anyway, we are getting better at straight tanking, and we do a ton of damage when we are straight tanking. For some reason we are still having issues with getting skillchains off, but we are working on it.
Then we went to Sea and I screwed things up really bad.
We finally got Ix'Drk to pop, and instead of taking one of the Qn'aern's I took the Aw'aern that was still up. It probably wouldn't have linked anyway. >.<
Thursday, August 31, 2006
Dynamis-Windurst is looooong.
I stopped on my way home from work to get Chipotle, which was really yummy, but also meant that I didn't have a lot of time to get ready for Dynamis-Windurst. I grabbed my Drg gear (I was still on War from the night before because I had been shopping) and headed out to Windurst.
Two randon tangents here:
First, gear. I have a TON of it. I tend to keep alot of things on my main in general, but its getting harder and harder to justify and I have to send more and more gear to mules. I have gear for Drg and Nin, Drg has basically two sets of gear, acc and WS. Nin on the other hand has more, I have evasion gear, acc/TP build and WS. It gets kinda crazy after a while. Now, that is what I have just for my two 75 jobs. I also have gear for my Sam, and now for my War, finally I have gear in my inbox for my Whm and Blm. The higher level that I go, luckily the more the gear will over lap. But, its going to get crazy eventually, especially with Rare/Ex gear. I need more inventory slots. :(
Second, I have the sweet, sweet Sarutabaruta outpost. When you combine this fact with new good warp Taru in Whitegate, you have instant outpost warping from Whitegate. All for one shiny little Imperial Silver Piece. No more waiting for a boat to Windurst. I just need Ronfaure, now. :)
Back to Dynamis. Windurst is SO long, and no matter how well you do at the beginning (and we were doing well) or how many people you have (we had 50+) you are always trying to get that last NM to pop the boss with just a couple of minutes left. We finished the boss with something like 3 minutes left, but we pulled it out and got the win for Biblo and a couple of other people that needed it.
After that we helped out Bare to get Impulse Drive for his Drg. Along the way in SSG, there were the normal RMT's camping the Angel Hair NM's. A couple of new ones I haven't seen yet, but that didn't surprise me much. While we were running around to get the Ornemental Door, I saw one them flee hack and then pos hack right in front of me. I made a GM call and apparently I wasn't the only one to see this happen because the GM said they were already reported. At least that is one more RMT gone from the game.
Finally, Omoi and I went to get my AF weapon for War. The quest was pretty easy and the Razor Axe looks to be a pretty decent weapon for the level. The Dmg isn't that high but the delay is low and the stats are nice so I will definitely be off handing it until I get my Viking Axes at 48.
Versus has Kirin today, I hope that Vesp gets his Osode finally. But I probably just jinxed it. LOL After that I need to help Az and Iceblaze to finally get Diabolos done. Hopefully I can get some War levels in before Omoi goes on vacation for two weeks.
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Why is War so uber if the gear sucks?
Ok, quickly, yesterday's recap. Got home a little late for Sky, had to stop at the store on the way home. Found out we already got Olla and MG, headed to Ulli. Faust popped, we took the second alliance to get it and beat PMSSky to it. We were about to pull quickly because we had Lucella and Omoi ready to go. Went back to Ulli for a while, it got late, sent some people to Sea and some people home, RMT got Ulli. I hate RMT so much. Its so disgusting, the greed of it all. Its illegal and immoral. I wish that SE would just change their rules to be able to ban them for repetitive behavior. I hate the buyers and the sellers and everyone in between.
Didn't get Ix'Drk to pop, we still haven't even seen the condition to get it to pop yet, which sucks.
Anyway, after Sky, we were going to try to get Diabolos done for Iceblazek and Azeryus. Az needed to get a bunch of CS's done before hand and the NM in Attowha Chasm. So we did that, and it got late so we decided to do everything up to the Diabolos fight, then put the fight off until Thursday.
Afterward, I went over to the AH and started looking at gear for my War. At level 41, Wars dont have very much good gear at all. Its sad really. I am looking at mostly Royal Squires gear and uber noob gear (Emp. Hairpin, Leaping Boots). This is what I have decided upon so far:
Main: Combat Casters Axe
Off: Razor Axe
Head: Emp. Hairpin
Neck: Spike Necklace
Earring 1 and 2: Beetle +1
Body: RS Chainmail
Hands: RS Mufflers
Ring 1: Sniper's
Ring 2: Raja's
Waist: Tilt Belt
Back: Nomad's
Legs: RS Breeches
Feet: Leaping Boots
If anyone has any better suggestions post a comment.
Speaking of equipment, I dont get the Luisant gear AT ALL. Its horribly expensive, requiring a ton of really rare and better used materials. And its basically only good for 5-10 relatively quick levels, and then its replaced by RK or the Jaridah gear for a ton cheaper. Yay for RMT kiddies getting "uber" gear at level 45. Speaking of which, the stats on the gear just isn't that good to justify the expense.
Its weird, because War isn't like Drg at all. Its more about att and acc at the same time rather than all acc to make sure than your TP hits land, and then all Str to make sure that your one hit WS does as much damage at possible.
I sure would like to get a Suppanomini soon. I guess I should get on getting an Arc Pentasphere.
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
All that has transpired... (that sounded really noble for what I actually did yesterday)
Started leveling War, which was really nice. I am rocking two mythril axes, which is probably gimp for my level, but there were no Combat Caster's Axes, and I was already late from dinner. So I just had on some pretty crappy gear. Now, yes, I know I am level 41 and should be using Great Axe instead of Axes, but whatever, I was sub-tanking and needed shadows, and I like the Axes, so there you go. And my GA skill was 3 at the beginning of the night. Skill up time is a comin'.
Anyway, leveled with Omoi/Kira and Rygar last night. Went from 39 to 41 in pretty short order, the party was mostly Omoi/Kira, Rygar, me and 3 JP's. We did get a monk at the end that had a macro for eating food, which we all found just a tad bizarre, but harmless.
Now, I want to say something about Puppetmaster (Rygar was leveling his Pup with us last night). I dont know what people are taking about when they say Pup is gimp. Just more stupid elitists that believe the only thing that matters is peak damage on weaponskills. Rygar was using flash all the time, which saved a ton of MP, and doing pretty good damage. Of course the elitists dont know how to add either, just like they dont know how to add when figuring dragoon damage. I want another Kuftal Tunnel burn party please. Subbing nin sucks for dragoon but its definitely better than dying.
But then again, who am I to talk. I am leveling those elitist jobs as we speak. Nin and War, "burnz" party, Yes, Please.
A note to Biblo: Get a move on leveling your Nin! Hehehehe.
Going to spend the better part of the day hiding from work and doing some preshopping for War. I get to get my AF weapon for War which I hear doesn't completely suck. Also going to try to do Diabolos for Az and The Iceblaze today.
Monday, August 28, 2006
Damn, that pot moves fast.
Versus has been rapidly explanding its operations in Sea, as have other LS's recently. Last night we got Jailor of Temperance to spawn for the first time. Now, this is probably pretty newbie for LS's that have been doing Sea for a while, but did pretty well for only 13 people. We had no idea what to expect and I was kind surprised that it actually popped on the second PH, considering Limit Break were in Sea for hours before we showed up. They were farming Ghrah M Chips with almost an alliance, in which there were three DD's with E. Body o.O; They are definitely pretty impressive.
Borin got the Axe and we go our first virtue drop, we have had pretty good luck on drops so far, and we have a Jailor of Hope set after just basically three days in Sea. We also did Ix'Mnk with 1 organ, but it was our first mob that didn't drop anything.
The Jailor of Temperance fight was just damn fun, and we learned a ton. I think we are ready to move onto Faith and Fortitude. Damn, that pot moves fast...
Anyway, I also did some leveling this weekend (shocking really). Got thief to 37, and glad to be done with it. Sent the rest of that equipment back to a mule and I hope to not see it again for a long time. Also, leveled Sam a tiny bit before Dynamis, but had to leave early to get to Xarcabard on time. I really need to focus on Sam just to get it done. I am pretty damn close now. Its a good thing I left early too, because it turned out to be a very good Dynamis run, because I got these for only 17 points:
That was a nice little pick up, Bg said he uses them full time because its hard to remember to swap them in and out when you are in xp "burnz." I will probably do that, too bad I can't sell my O's Kote, because I still need them for Sam.
I have not had a Wyrm piece drop in an Outlands run that I have been on yet. I hope it does soon. >.<
Friday, August 25, 2006
Greed/want.
Where do I stand?
I want many different items in the game, its the general motivation of most players in the game. If they weren't motivated by item accumulation then what is the point, right?
Then why do I feel guilty whenever I get items that my friends or members of the LS also need? Why do I feel guilty when I want to get items that others also need?
You can not play the game without greed for items, and you can not live without guilt the other way around...
There has to be a balance, why can't I find it?
Oh, well, this comes with the territory I suppose. I have dealt with it to this point I will deal with it again.
I think this may be why I enjoy leveling so much. I dont have to worry about gear while I am leveling, I dont have to worry about anything but the next skillchain, the next magic burst, the next pull. There is nothing like seeing xp roll in, its a visceral feeling. The absense of concern outside of the current mob. I love the fight. Its nice to be around people who appreciate you, no matter the job. In Versus we have most of our skillchain openers as Dragoons. I can give the technical reason that we have this (they can sub war and not miss 50% of their opening WS) but its irrelevent, because the idea in Versus is that everyone fights. And if its your first night in Versus, you have to fight.
I had a conversation with a person that shouting about a Limbus LS in Whitegate last night. I said I might be interest and they asked what jobs I had available. I said Dragoon 75 and another 75, but that I would prefer to come as Dragoon. They seemed non-plussed. Now, I do not hold it against them, because I dont know what other jobs had applied to the LS, and I have no pressing need to do Limbus. And I do love to play my Ninja, I like both equally well. But I do find it funny that people are willing to give up on things because of "perceived" usefulness. Getting War to 75 will be pretty easy for me, I will basically only have to buy axes, I have the rest of the gear I need already from Drg, Nin and Sam. And I already have a bunch of end-game weapons from the activities I have already done. The question is, does that make me a good War? I doubt it, I will still have to learn how to play.
I want to level all my jobs to 75, and then tell people that I would prefer to come as Dragoon. People need to be forced to realize that a bad "job uber" is not better than a good "job gimp." Almost all of the people that I hang around know this already, or at least they do a good job of humoring me.
We shall see.
Sky, et al.
Had Sky yesterday. Got some NM's, popped Suzaku and Seiryu. A normal day. Nothing really good dropped except for a Dragon Talon. Now we normally random off things that are under a million, but I can't see the Dragon Talon staying that cheap for that long. It used to be worth millions, but with the new ISNM's the price dropped radically. I wonder if that was SE's intention.
After that I actually did some crafting. It was a low level synth that I got from reading Gorokai's blog, didn't make to many of them, but its a decent profit considering the price of the materials and crystals. Ultimate conclusion? Crafting is still boring. Omoi and I were supposed to level Thief and Bard again but she was doing interviews with perspective Versus people, so I was a crafting.
After that we went and ran around Rolanberry Fields killing things, but it didn't go so well and we died and homepointed twice, down about 1k xp on Thf. :/
Lets see, I dont know if I am going to have a whole lot of in game time this weekend, I am going to be out and about, but I would very much like to get thf to 38, so that Omoi can start leveling Kira and with me on War. War is definitely going to be the next job I get to 75.
Things on the horizon, Versus needs to do a Swift Belt/Soboro run, and a DM run. We still need a couple of pentaspheres for that, but I know we already have 2-3 of them. We also need to do Bahamut for a couple of people, but that shouldn't take too long at all.
Thursday, August 24, 2006
Do you know what a duvet is?
"Vespasian: I say let me never be complete"
Yeah, so we are all in a hunt for gear, and there is no way to be complete. Should we try?
If we dont try, what is the point?
Vesp is a wise man. And wise men often have correllaries.
"Vespasian: What is the point of all this gear if you never use it?
Vespasiani: If you have an item that cost 930043 million, and don't use it every time you play that job, you don't need it."
#1 ~ Monk
#2 ~ Samurai
#3 ~ Ninja
#4 ~ Dragoon
Chaotic Pellucidity
Teabags and KY Jelly
The Bloggaru!
