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. 
Monday, August 20, 2007
Recording the unrecordable.
Friday, August 17, 2007
Stumble and fall.
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.
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Standing on the crest of a hill, looking into a fog-filled valley.
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.
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Descending.
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. :)
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Struggle no more.
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.
Monday, August 13, 2007
I'm back.
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.
Monday, July 30, 2007
Coming up with good titles is hard to do.
A general question about Salvage: Why do the drops suck? I don't mean the cell drops, I mean the level 25 drops. Ah, well. Every time we do Salvage we do better and better and we have gotten way faster at moving through the first two floors, although the drops are ridiculous sometimes. When we need magic we get all weapons and HP and when we need weapons and HP we get magic. LOL Outside of the lack of drops from Salvage it was a great weekend, and after we finish up getting Achikasama and Lilkathy to Sea we are going to start doing Salvage on Saturday and Sunday which should massively improve our drop rate and the quality of the runs we are doing. I have to say that I am rather inconsistent on what I tell people to bring to Salvage so I am going to list them here as a reminder to myself and others on what to bring.
1. Sanction - Regen or Refresh as needed.
2. Reraise item.
3. Food - Now before I didn't think to tell people to bring specific food, but I think I am going to now. For the first 30 minutes of the run for melee, its better to use meat, then after sushi is fine. For mages, I think that max MP up food is better than cookies for the first 30 minutes, or until the get their max MP up cell.
4. Hi-potions and Hi-ethers as always.
Now, on to the other activities for the weekend. Well, we camped Nue again killed it several more times until we finally got this: 
It was finally nice to have that out of the way even if we did make a good bit of money from just killing the Tigers and Goblins around the spawn point. The gil made led me to a conclusion about farming that I will go over later. Well, it was nice to have my Nue Fang in my inventory finally 
and I got it switched over to my Brown Belt pretty promptly. 
Since we already had a couple of people together camping Nue, we decided to head out and do an ENM, Sheep in Antlion's Clothing. It was pretty easy, and we actually got amazing drops. 
The Forager's sold really quick and we made a good chunk of change from it, and the Cloud Evoker went to me for Versus to use at a later date.
Saturday was a long CoP day, but we got everyone through the Three Path's missions, except Potpressure who still needs Tenzen's Path and the Bugbear fight but those are easy peasy. We did two Snoll Czar fights, and man they have really dumbed down that fight. Not only do the Shu'Meyo salts only take 1 second to activate, but it seems to only do Berserk, which over tripled my damage. Making my 600 Sidewinders into 2000 Sidewinders and Barrages of 1800+. Borin and I went as RNG and just destroyed this mission. Kind of pathetic actually considering how hard it used to be. I mean I knew that two RNG's would rip it to shreds but this was just ridiculous. We went /SAM to build TP, but honestly we probably could have just run in and fought it straight up and with Berserk up could have beaten it with no trouble at all. Anyway, after the Snoll Czar we took a peek out the exit of the BCNM because we had run back and honestly I have never been here before because we always just D2'ed out of there. 
Quite a sight to see, I must say. We were going to try to do the Airship fight, but everyone was pretty burnt out from doing the missions all day, so we will probably do them some time this week, or next weekend at the latest. Airship is tough but with the set up we have planned shouldn't really be that difficult. NIN, RNG, BLU, RDM, BLM, WHM. That is a pretty good set up I think, only trouble will be the Mammets, but we will figure something out I am sure. Once past the Mammets, the other two fights will be easy with all the damage we will have, I just hope I can keep hate off of Borin. LOL
The rest of the weekend was Kirin and Salvage, and I already kind of went over Salvage. Kirin was great too, after the initial kiting I got to switch to SAM to have a little fun because we had so many tanks. The drops were very good. Pole, Osode, Shining Cloth and another D. Body. Soon we are going to have to hand out D. Bodies for free. Since we started doing Kirin again we haven't gotten a single Abjuration outside of the D. Body. I know that W. Legs are supposed to be rare but N. Body? It would be nice if something besides D. Body would freaking drop. Well, we are increasing the frequency of our Kirin's just because we have so many extra sets, and I would like to be able to do more than one Kirin in a day, which I think we can do just have to persuade Omoi on that one.
As for my previously mentioned farming, Omoi and I have been ramping it up a little lately. I need more gil for my Cursed Haidate and Cursed Togi, and its just nice to have some gil, so we have been hunting around in Castle Zvahl, and have gotten a couple of NM's but they haven't been dropping much at all. 
I wanted to come here to get some Demon Skulls and Demon Horns but they don't seem to drop very often at all from the Demons there, so we may have to go elsewhere for better drops. Making money in this game is just getting so hard anymore. LOL
Friday, July 27, 2007
Nue sucks.
If you don't like gear comparison posts, then this probably isn't for you. So lets dive right in. Versus has a very eclectic grouping of jobs at times, and is a little melee heavy, but new members and a wide variety of jobs were available yesterday and I got to pick my own job for Sky. :) RNG required muling and Omoi and I share a bunch of DRG gear and she has most of it, so I went with SAM. I like SAM but it doesn't get much play because of other factors, like my ability to go to Dynamis has been cut greatly because of my schedule, which was a key area that I enjoyed using my SAM. I originally leveled SAM because I thought Versus might need more SC closers, but honestly we now have more closers than openers so I don't go to Sky as SAM very often. I do like my SAM though so I would like to show my "reasonable" set up for my SAM. I do not write this blog or give advice for people that don't need it. People that are one jobbers, or people that have access to amazing gear, relics, etc. I do write it for those that are like me, regular players that want to be the best they can, or have too many jobs to be able to concentrate on everything into one job.
So lets see what we have here. I have two different TP build set ups, accuracy and haste. Since I do use this occasionally for Sky I need the accuracy set up, and its nice to have on me in case there is a situation where I can use meat, etc. so I will go over that first. 
I have tended to go over individual pieces, but I think when comparing two TP set ups its better to look at the set differences.
Defense: +116
HP: -2
STR: +16
DEX: +31
AGI: -5
Accuracy: +44
Ranged Accuracy: +15
Evasion: -24
Attack: +62
Ranged Attack: +15
Haste: +5%
Store TP: +7
Subtle Blow: +5
Enmity: +1
Enhances Double Attack effect
Resist vs. Light: -8
Resist vs. Darkness: -12
Resist vs. Lightning: +50
Now for this set up, I think that once I get Amir Boots, I will switch over to those from the Saotome Sune-ate, also once I get Shura Haidate I will also consider using those, but the +5 STR probably will not be as beneficial as +5% haste. I like this set up mostly, it is focused almost exclusively on Accuracy and Attack, with +44 Acc. and +31 DEX making for an effective accuracy boost of +59.5 and with +62 Att. and +16 STR making for an effective attack boost of +70.
Now for my haste set up: 
Defense: +138
HP: +37
MP: +30
STR: +16
DEX: +26
AGI: -2
Accuracy: +37
Ranged Accuracy: +5
Evasion: -29
Attack: +34
Ranged Attack: +15
Haste: +20%
Store TP: +7
Subtle Blow: +5
Resist vs. Light: -8
Resist vs. Darkness: -12
Resist vs. Lightning: +50
Enhances Double Attack effect
Decreases Movement Speed
Now, I really like this set up, I think the most haste you can get and not have to get anything stupid like a Blitz Ring is 23% so 20% isn't bad at all. It has a substantial increase in swing speed and stacked with Hasso it is really impressive, this is my default XP set up because I still need to use Sushi without any Great Katana merits. I could always use my Soboro with this set up but there really isn't a need for more WS's for substantially less damage only slightly more often.
Now for my WS set-up: 
Direct comparisons to the other set-ups are irrelevant because there is no other set to compare it to in this case, and since I generally just use /THF for SATA with this (though in regular XP, I use /WAR and I might use my Hachiman body instead of the Kirin's Osode) the accuracy stats are pretty much irrelevant. With additional 49 STR, I am doing pretty well, but I would definitely prefer either Myochin Haidate +1 or more likely Shura Haidate. Now, I need to hunt around for some Divine Lumber or Logs, and do some farming.
I really like my gear for SAM and I think it is a good model over all.
As for yesterday, a good Sky day and a good Limbus run, after that Omoi and I camped Nue. 
Hey, the fight pic may look familiar, well so was the drop. Black Tiger Fang... :( I hate Nue, I don't know how many kills that is over the course of my time in the game, but it is a lot. Since I didn't feel like going to bed Omoi and I headed down to camp Deadly Dodo, which I have heard has a better drop rate on the Brown Belt item. Didn't take too long for it to spawn 
and the apparently "they" are correct about a better drop rate because I ended up with the Dodo skin! 
Well, its back to camping Nue now, hopefully sometime in the distance future I will have a Nue Fang and I can finish up that damn quest, LOL.
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Things you dont see every day.
Well, pretty much as soon as I got home Ailee sent me a tell looking for a party on her BRD. Found that as a bit of a shock as I thought she would prefer to level her PLD, but she wanted to get some xp on her 73 BRD so that she could move closer to finishing it up. So I grabbed Hellz, and I won the JP random invite lottery. I got a very good and attentive NIN, who was faster at engaging and voking mobs than I am, and I think I am pretty good at that on my NIN; a Black Belt MNK, who just pretty much kicked ass; and a JP WHM that I really did see much of during the whole party. This was that result: 
That is the highest chain I have ever gotten in this game, and the party was just one long chain. From the first mob to the last (well there were two more after we decided to stop but those don't count) we got something like 40k XP. It was super fun and it kept everyone busy the whole time, even Ailee was happy with the party which was even better. ^.^ Anyway, in this party I started at 26K into my 75 buffer with about 2k into my 8th merit. At the end, as you can see I got my 10th merit. I spent them on 3 levels of Hand-to-Hand and one level of Double Attack for my WAR. Now, I think that I would persue my WAR more if I had any chance at E. Body or a Ridill (or if I actually owned a lot of my WAR gear, LOL) but since those just are not an option with my game play and the LS that I am in, I am going to merit it, but I will focus on making my MNK my next "uber" job like my NIN. Honestly, I don't have many ways to improve my NIN; I could get Salvage gear which I am slowly working on; I could get an Unji to pair with the Perdu Blade that I will be getting soon, but I like my Senj and although this could be sour grapes, I think paired with the Perdu Blade and my understanding of how comparative delay reduction works, I think that Senj is at least equal to if not stronger than the Unji. Outside of that I could tweak some improvements like a Forager's Mantle over my Amemet Mantle +1 or maybe even a Charger Mantle. But these are small tweaks, not game breaking tweaks. For my MNK all I would need is a Black Belt and the requisite pieces, although this is hard to do, its not as hard as trying to get a Ridill or E. Body. Well, anyway, that party was ridiculously good and it was just plain neat to see 10/10 Merits. 
After I spent these, I actually XPed some more afterward and got another merit. :)
On a complete side note, this should be filed under "I just don't get it." Yes, that is a Ridill, yes, that is an R. Body, yes, those are Armanda Hands, and yes, that is an NQ Amemet Mantle. I mean if you have all the gil and all the gear, why not just get the NQ? It's cheap, it's easy, and not having one is just plain weird. 
I am generally not a gear snob, but this just doesn't make sense. No LS pearl on, maybe a bought account? Who knows, but with gear that good, I don't think its much to ask.
In reference to yesterday's comment about Byakko's Haidate vs. Shura Haidate, I got some really crappy information from a bunch of people that had no idea why they were correct, and a few decent responses and a direct use of the in-game mathematics to prove one being generally better than the other. As for the people that were right but had no idea why, I have to say this: You are just as bad as being wrong. This goes back to the common act of parroting what you hear other people say, just because you lucked out and happen to be right doesn't mean anything really except that you can repeat what you have heard from other people. You just won the flip of the coin. Making a statement without proof or without knowing why you could be correct just proves that you are ignorant. Opinions are fine, expressing personal preference is always acceptable especially when it is backed up with reasoning, but making "factual" statements without any facts is just vacuous. But the ultimate conclusion from VZX is that Byakko's Haidate is the better choice because in this case the bonus from the secondary modifiers from the 15 DEX is more than the fSTR and secondary modifiers from the 5STR. He provided the exact calculations that I was looking for, and answered very well the question of fSTR vs. secondary modifiers. I also found out something I did not know, which is that, although slightly modified for level, the secondary modifiers actually increase the base damage of the weapon during the WS, which I did not know (I thought that it was just some independent damage input in the calculation). So you ask good questions, you get bad and good answers. Its the ability to glean the wheat from the chaff that provides us with the best information and thus knowledge.
Oh and I made this little pic to respond to a joke in that thread, because apparently You are not just your fucking O's Kote, you are not your fucking O's Kote pants either. 
That was fun, and I just got an IM from Achikasama that said that Borin is back! God I miss Borin, talk about a great guy, and his hatred of Omoi is of epic proportions! I really hope that he is back for a while and not just checking in. Also got an IM from Achi saying that Sholo (Exodus/Wargod) got his Sirocco Kukri, which is awesome after the debacle that happened last night with a bunch of us showing up just a bit too late to try to assist Achi and Sholo in killing Kreutzet.
Ahh, well, Sky tonight and Limbus. Aiming to get Achikasama, King, Lilkathy, Crlmsonking and Ashhhhh to Sea this weekend, so maybe, just maybe on Monday they can come to Limbus.
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Have a nice day.
I was discussing cutscenes in FFXI yesterday with Ailee, and we are completely opposed on our opinion on the matter. She hates them, I love them. I believe they add depth to the game and is one of the key points that differentiates FFXI from other MMOs (along with the massive play style difference), this is a key component of the Final Fantasy line of games. I have played FF I, II(US), III(US) and VII, while this is her first FF game, so I can understand the difference in perspective. There is also a general difference in attitude that can present itself in the appreciation of cutscenes between her and I. I think that cutscenes are a vital and critical part of FFXI and must be a part of the game, while she make an alternative and I believe somewhat valid point, in that people should be able to choose to skip the cutscenes. You can always go back and see them again at Goblin Footprints, and sure you can just Enter right through them all, but I don't know why we can't just be given an option to skip them if you wish. I mean it is SE's game, and we just play in their world, but there are many aspects to this game and we tend to focus on the ones that we enjoy the most, and I think SE knows this, so why not just let us do it?
Anyway, I have pondering a bit about WS gear for my NIN, and this is something I have been considering; Is Byakko's Haidate really better than Shura Haidate for Blade: Jin? I have put a bit of thought into it and I have my own conclusions, but I am going to pose this more as an open question and then I am going to answer my question with my limited understanding of game mechanics after it.
Just for reference Blade:Jin's modifiers: Three hit WS, with an additional hit from the off-hand katana. 1.00 damage modifier for all TP levels but increasing chance of Critical Hit with increased TP, and a 30% secondary modifier of both STR and DEX.
A quick look at each and secondary benefits;
Shura Haidate:
* HP -35
* Strength +5
* Accuracy +7
+ Improvement to fSTR?
Byakko's Haidate:
* Dexterity +15
* Resist vs. Lightning +50
* Haste +5%
+ Accuracy +7.5
+ Improvement to Critical Hit?
So, just a quick look would favor Byakko's Haidate, it has slightly more accuracy and a higher secondary modifier. But what about the improvement to fSTR from Shura? Am I even thinking of that the right way? Wouldn't the additional STR improve both the fSTR and the secondary modifier on Blade: Jin? Does the improvement to Critical Hit from more DEX on Byakko's Haidate matter if you don't reach the next "tier" for Critical Hit rate improvement?
Most discussions on this subject have just gleaned over things and favored Byakko's Haidate because of the really high secondary modifier and the essentially equal accuracy. But that doesn't really delve that far into the issue, and my knowledge of fSTR and how to best improve it for a weapon's base damage is too limited to understand it completely.
My conclusion is that Byakko's Haidate will still probably better for a couple of reasons. First the obvious ones; slightly more accuracy, massive bonus to the secondary modifier, potentially improved Critical Hit rate. Second, the not so obvious ones that I believe are true but I may not understand the mathematics correctly; for lower damage weapons it is easier to hit the fSTR cap, so the additional STR from the Shura Haidate would not be as beneficial if this is the case and I am hitting the cap for fSTR. If this is true then the benefits of the Byakko's Haidate would definitely shine through. This is not something that can be tested on bunnies in Ronfaure I believe because you would only be testing the maximum damage and not the potential damage of mobs that are higher level than I am. Additionally, I almost always use Sole Sushi and I am unsure how the the difference between meat and sushi would effect the calculation but I don't know if it would matter that much over all. So I pose this question to everyone here, and I think I am going to post it on BG forums to see what some other people say.
I think I have mentioned that I have completed my missions up to what is available for Aht Urhgan, and I have also completed the Sergeant rank mission, in which I got to assist a cute little Qiqirn. 
And our cute little Qiqirn goes through a wide variety of emotional states, including sadness: 
and joyful plotting: 
and also, I got a job offer in case that stupid cat doesn't give back my Glory Crown. As I mentioned yesterday, I am really digging Assault right now, and some of the higher level Assaults are getting to be pretty fun, like escorting this little Automaton 
around for him to destroy these blockades in a level 4 Assault. The benefit I have is that I have achieved several ranks by just doing the same low level Assaults repetitively so I have tons of Assaults I can do to level up. The only bad thing is that the whole group doesn't match up, so I am balancing out new high level Assaults with those that I have already done, and actually this is working out better than I had thought as I am building points around at all of the Assault Points. I don't know which pieces I am going to get next but I will likely pick up some combination of Amir and Pahluwan pieces, but its nice to be getting more and more points. Also, tonight we are going to do the Salvage that we missed on Sunday because everyone was tired or not in game. Kitty has managed to build up those points and here is a pic of the Amir Boots that he picked up on Monday. 
Maneater and Amir Boots in one day, I hope that made a happy Kitty. :) Speaking of making happy Kitty WARs, here is my happy WAR the day that I got to 75. 
We were fighting Trolls and doing pretty damn well on them, nice higher base XP than other camps, but its harder to maintain chains because of the distance between mobs and the tendency to use Diamondhide. 
But this one gave enough on a chain 5 to get me to 75. Since then I have had two more really good parties in which I have gained over 26k toward my XP cap, and after capping XP I am going to start meriting my WAR, while xping my MNK. Still only 44 and without a Brown Belt, but I am really looking forward to it still.
Finally, last night we did another Kirin which for some reason always takes us forever to get going, but when we do we really do a great job. The mini-gods are a piece of cake really, and we have taken to a really good strategy that makes Kirin much easier and much faster. And I was thinking of adjusting my gear to make it more effective, but it's hard to find places that I would want to swap to be honest. Since I need /WAR for kiting, I can't make as many concessions in the enmity department I could other wise, and their isn't a whole lot of wind resist gear that makes sense. Honestly, looking at the Sky God gear, it looks like Seiryu's Kote should have 50 wind resist on it, but sadly it doesn't. So right now I am going with a normal /WAR tanking set up with an Aquilo's Staff instead of a Earth Staff, then stack that with Baraera and Wind Carol. I am not looking for so much of a resist set up but they do come more often than not, I am more looking for a way to decrease the max damage from Great Whirlwind. Heat Breath seems to do a a flat 500 damage, and Great Sandstorm just doesn't do enough damage to worry about it. With this set up, I am able to hold Kirin for quite some time, usually 20% of his health before the healers start running low on MP and having to start kiting again. Usually we try to SC it for the BLM's but today we were more "TP burning" it, not like a lot of LS's, we just don't have the people or the damage to do that, but we are able to integrate different tactics to do what is best for us. In the past we have started to kite again when it casts Stonega but this time we didn't kite it and either tried to interrupt it or just sucked it up, and I don't believe that anyone ever died from it, though some got hit for more than others. Straight tanking Kirin is actually relatively easy because he barely ever uses real melee attacks, just mostly spamming Great Whirlwind, Great Sandstorm, Tail Slam, Tail Smash and Deadly Hold, with the occasional spell tossed in. So most of his TP moves just go through shadows so that leaves lots of time for shadows to refresh. I don't even have haste gear on at all I believe for this fight. Now, I am not trying to come up with something fresh or new on how to fight Kirin, but I would like to suggest to other LS's like mine (medium-sized, non-HNM) on how they could make their fights more efficient. Here is what I wear for straight tanking:
Main: Aquilo's Staff
Ranged: Ungur Boomerang
Head: Genbu's Kabuto
Neck: Evasion Torque
Earrings: Eris' Earrings
Body: Arhat's Gi
Hands: Seiryu's Kote
Ring 1: Mermaid's Ring
Ring 2: Bomb Queen Ring
Back: High Breath Mantle
Waist: Warwolf Belt
Legs: Koga Hakama
Feet: Suzaku Sune-ate, Fuma Sune-ate or Ninja Khayan +1
Now, I could improve some slots, like the neck is obvious and a Harmonia Torque is likely in my future, and I would love to get a Ritter Gorget but I am not doing Einherjar so that is right out. Also I could improve my waist with a Trance Belt. But improvements aside, I am trying to focus on HP and Enmity and ways to reduce Wind damage, then on defense. There is no real focus at all on haste which is pretty much not worth my while when most of the time I can just go Ni to Ni with just the Haste spell on me. This set up lets me hold Kirin pretty much indefinitely when using Carbonara to boost max HP, and the healers have MP. Even taking a solo Stonega IV will not kill me, as I have over 1700+ HP and it caps at I believe 1660ish, the only thing that is a real risk is the rare Deadly Hold for like 2k+. Even back to back bad Great Whirlwinds are manageable. Holding Kirin in this manner allows my LS to be able to do much more consistent damage, do it faster, and do it without having to worry about gaining hate. Generally, it is actually easier for me to maintain hate like this even without SATA just because I can more consistently voke, cast spells (which actually land pretty often if not for very long) and generally maintain hate better. I would like to get to the point that once we have killed the mini-gods, that we will only have to kite it after Astral Flow, and hold it for the rest of the time. Honestly, I don't know if there is enough MP to do this realistically but its a worthy goal.
As for last night's Kirin we finally got some decent drops. 
The Pole went to Lilkathy, the D. Body, for which we have been getting just a ton, went to Mirra, and the Osode, well, I got lucky on that one. :) I was lotting against four other people, and lotted about my average something like 540, but everyone else had really low lots and I managed to get it. This now completes my Sky God gear set, and I have to say that I am really proud that I got it with Versus. It makes me really impressed over all, and I want to help get ones for everyone else that needs them. 
#1 ~ Monk
#2 ~ Samurai
#3 ~ Ninja
#4 ~ Dragoon
Chaotic Pellucidity
Teabags and KY Jelly
The Bloggaru!
