Or at least he is dying! ^.^ Apparently he is really sick. I wasn't around this weekend so I can't confirm, but when I left on Thursday he was already getting sick. :( Well, hopefully he will be feeling better today!
Well, as I said, I wasn't around much this weekend because I was out of town for work. I got back home just in time for Salvage. We did Zhayolm which I generally hate just because we are always tight on time. Not so this time, we could have easily killed both frogs instead of just the one we normally do when we are going for the boss. This might be because Qtipus has started doing runs with us, and well, Gungnir is pretty intense easily for clearing lower floors. And it's not like it's just Gungnir either, he is definitely one of the most stacked DRG I have ever seen. And he was a dedicated DRG all through the dark days of DRG and now that the field is reversed and DRG is one of the best DD's in the game Qtipus is one of the best of them. Anyway, the reason we needed to worry about the boss at all, is the same reason we had to worry about the boss for the last 100 times that we have done Zhayolm: poor Hiryo's Usukane 25 head piece. Well, worry no more! 
In other news, I just started some of the new quests for Sandy and Bastok in the past. They are pretty neat CS's, and I don't really know why people are complaining about a lack of missions because these are kind of like the missions for the expansion because you can do them for all of the cities without having to switch and you have to do them to advance the mission story lines. 
Monday, September 22, 2008
Iz is dead.
Monday, September 15, 2008
Upcoming projects.
Ok, not this week, but starting next week I am going to start working on some new projects. This will include quick reference guides to all the ZNM and new NM from the last two updates, as well as quick guides for Salvage too. They will include maps and what I believe to be simple enough directions to help everyone be able to do these events decently from the beginning.
Before then I will tell you that we have already gotten a full set of key items for both La Vaule and Beaudeux already, and we should be trying them out eventually. I don't know what I was doing because I forgot to take screenshots of a lot of the mobs in Beaudeux. This is what I did get. 
I want to mention Salvage really quickly, because we have been having some luck. Darkdawn has started coming to Salvage pretty regularly with us now, and last week they were very lucky to get both Ares Body 35 and Ares Head 35 in the same run. And to match that, we got those same exact drops last night. This time the Ares Head going to Izman, 
So, more projects coming in the short term, but until then here is a picture of Pot. He is bad ass. :)
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
On the cheap #4: Dragoon.
Ahh, Dragoon, my first job. Also, one of the jobs that I have been working on rebuilding for quite some time. Dragoon today is not your father's Dragoon. Today it is one of the best DD's in the game. Period. In any situation. Anyone that tells you different is a merciless twat with their head so far up their asses they can use their own eyeballs as glasses. I won't claim it is the best, because it does have limitations, just like all of the other DD jobs, but it is so much better than people expect. One of it's old limitations was the horrible gear selection it had, but today it has essentially been added to the "plate" class of armor about the time that Salvage came out, and it has access to just about every good set of DD gear outside of the original Haubergeon class of armors. It also has access to the second highest base damage class of weapons, and it's highest weapons even have nice additional bonuses on them. The thing though that really makes the difference is the Jumps. Two extra full TP giving attacks which can crit and DA and everything else a regular attack can do. It may not seem like much but when they are merited down they really can add to the TP build of a Dragoon.
The really hard part about picking gear for a Dragoon is trying to build a 6-hit set-up. This is a personal preface I need to make about 6-hit set-ups: Even if in general the goal is to get to a 6-hit set-up, there are some places where a 6-hit build is more important than others, luckily for Dragoon those places where it is more beneficial (XP, Einherjar, Dynamis, etc.) the WS of choice is likely to be Penta Thrust. For places where were is it less important, because of sub choice or need to make a specific skillchain, the WS of choice is likely to be Wheeling Thrust. The reason this difference matters so much is because of the additional TP you are going to gain from Penta Thrust, which is up to 4 additional TP, while Wheeling Thrust will give you none. Just so you know, pretty much all of the decision making about Dragoon is based on the idea that you are subbing SAM. It really is the best sub for Dragoon in my opinion. Ok, time for a little TP math. Base TP for all the best Polearms except for some HQ's is 13.3. The base Store TP for subbing SAM is 15. The normal universally good Store TP gear is a Rajas Ring and a Brutal Earring for a total of 6 Store TP that you are always going to have. In 6 hits that will get you to 96 TP just 4 TP short of your what you need. As noted before though, Penta-Thrust gives you 4 extra TP to round you out perfectly to 100TP. As you increase the amount of Store TP you require fewer hits to get to 100TP, and at +5 Store TP you get to 100TP with just the first hit of any weaponskill landing.
All that being said I would say that it is not something to worry about that much if you can get to a 100TP set up with some amount of hits on Penta Thrust. Some people worry about this more than others, but in the end it just isn't as important to a DRG as it is with some other jobs. DRG/SAM gets Meditate and two different Jumps that can have added TP with Barone gear. That is not to say that it isn't important, just that there can be ways to "cheat" to get to 100TP through a couple of different routes if you don't have the gear to get more Store TP or have better gear than the Store TP gear needed to get to a true 100TP set up. Try to get a 100TP set up on DRG, definitely, but in my opinion it is slightly less important as SAM, WAR or DRK. If you disgree, that is fine, and you can tell me, but in the end it isn't going to matter very much because you can't really do anything about it without the Askar or Aurum bodies and then you will we in a situation where you will always have a 6-hit set-up in decently optimal gear.
Anyway, lets get to the gear, but first the rules of the On the Cheap series.
1. You can't be dumb. Sorry, if you are dumb, I can't help you. If you are the kind of person that hears something and then sticks to it no matter what, just quit now. If you can't adapt to changes in the game, quit. If you refuse to do something because you don't think that should be the play style of the game, then just fucking die in a fire. Flexibility is key, the more we learn about things in the game, the more we improve the play style and the more things change.
2. You have to really be an end-game player. I am not expecting you to have every title in the game, and have done ever mission everywhere, but I do expect you to have done main story-line content. This should be a goal of an end-game player at the very least. Zilart should be finished up to at very least Sky, CoP should be finished up until the end, and Aht Urhgan up until the end. If you don't have these, or at least most of it and trying to get to the end, then you aren't an end-game player, you are just lazy or your are just making pretend.
3. You have to be able to do some end-game events. I am not demanding that you be in a full-time HNM LS or anything, but you should have access to a LS that does at least some of those end-game areas/events. If you don't then you really aren't an end-game player, you are just a player with a job at 75.
4. You have to be willing to spend at least a little bit of gil. Sure, this series is called "On the Cheap" but it is not called "On the Gimp" so you will need to spend some gil getting some of the gear that you need. I am not going to tell you to get all HQ gear unless it is cheap, and I will also indicate expensive items that you will need anyway, or cheap items that are good replacements. This is like the Frugal Gourmet for FFXI. Yes, I know, none of you got that reference. :(
So here we have TP gear for Dragoon:
Weapon: Some people like to pretend that there is some kind of huge difference between the Thalassocrat and the Mezraq when in reality the difference is so small as to be non-existent for the purposes of testing. In the end the Thalassocrat is the better choice by a very slim margin, but if you already have a Mezraq then there really is no reason to switch unless you can make money on the deal. I have a signed Mezraq that was given to me by friends way back when they were super expensive, and I am not going to get rid of it. Either way you go you will not end up badly at all.
Head. This is pretty easy, get a Walahra Turban to start. This should only be an issue if Dragoon is your first job to 75. The best but reasonably obtainable head piece is the Askar Zucchetto. It will take some time to get the Askar but it is a low impact item on time and effort compared to anything that is better. In the interest of inclusion and completeness, you can also use an Optical Hat but Dragoon isn't lacking for accuracy in general so it is not really that much of a demand as a Walahra Turban.
Neck. Ok, the options here are Chivalrous Chain and Spectacles. Normally, I suggest the Spectacles over the Chivalrous Chain, but the Chain's Store TP actually has an effect on the number of hits from Penta Thrust that have to land to get to 100TP. This is just a case of one stat outweighing the benefit of another stat.
Earring. Ahh, finally an area with a little variety. As always the first earring you should get is the Brutal Earring. It's the best universal earring for almost all melee jobs in the game. After that, there is no definitive earring like there is for many other jobs. The next best earring for Dragoon is the Assault Earring which mixes accuracy and attack into a nice little combo. Alternatively, an Ethereal Earring is also a good option but definitely not up to par with the other two. Finally, you can use the old reliable Coral Earring or the HQ of it, the Merman's Earring. They are both good attack, but lack any other benefit that the other earrings offer. As a side note, you might want to pick up a Dragoon's Earring from Chamrosh, which is a Colibri NM in the new ZNM system. There is no reason not to use it with Angon, and it will save you a little bit of gil. Maybe even have it swapped in after you do a WS, but I doubt its worth the effort.
Body. And here is where things get long and complicated. Ok, to start, lets do the sub-optimal choices, because Dragoon even today has relatively limited choices when it comes to body gear. Before I start I do want to mention that there are even more choices than these because they involve much more work than those that I am going to list here, and are in general beyond what I would think of as "On the Cheap". The best of the rest starts with the Homam Corazza which has a ton of accuracy and the Triple Attack bonus really puts it over the top. Since most Dragoons should be eating meat now, the Homam Corazza has a ton of accuracy to support the meat without having to worry about hit rate. The next step down is the Assault Jerkin which was the old reliable body piece for Dragoon's for a long time. It has a little bit of accuracy, but quite a bit of attack to increase damage. It's a decent piece and can carry you for a long time until you get something better. The next option down is the Barone Corazza though it lacks the accuracy and takes a cut in attack it is still a decent body piece because of the Regen and also the additional TP gain on Jumps, which can partially fill in for the lack of a 6-hit build too. After that, the last of the off options is the Scorpion Harness or the Pahluwan Khazagand with the Pahluwan body taking the slight lead with the boost to Crits and the slightly higher HP, but they both ultimately serve the same purpose by having +10 accuracy. The optimum body piece for DRG that is looking to be frugal is the Askar Korazin. It has the requisite Store TP for a "true" 6-hit build for DRG, it basically has the attack and STR of a Haubergeon and it has Double Attack which is always nice. Now, there are even better pieces than the Askar Korazin, but again they are beyond the scope of this guide, but I might think about adding the ZNM HNM drops after the next update, I need to do the fights first to know how difficult it is to get them.
Hands. The tip top of Dragoon hands are the Homam Manopolas followed closely by Dusk Gloves for the simple reason that Accuracy should generally be favored Attack by about 2 to 1. Dusk Gloves don't have enough attack to justify them over the Accuracy given by the Homam Manopolas. The Askar Manopolas have decent haste and some DEX which can help with accuracy a bit too. Not exactly as good as Homam but still very good. With the cheap cost of the Dusk Gloves now, I don't think there is a reason to be without them so there really isn't a need to go much further, but in this case I will mention the Aurum Gauntlets, because even though they do have negative accuracy, the other bonuses on the gloves are kind of nice. I doubt I would use them, but if you are hard up for money they could work too. There are a bunch of other hands that you could use including the Tarasque Mitts but with the availability of Dusk Gloves and other free alternatives I wouldn't spend more than the cost of the Tarasque Mitts on anything else.
Rings. The Rajas Ring is the "must have" as usual for any two-hander. You can't really beat it's stats, the Store TP is needed for any hope of a 6-hit build, and it is so good that it should be used universally on many different jobs. The next ring you should consider is the Ecphoria Ring because it can help you get to one less hit needed from Penta Thrust for a 6-hit build or will let you get to a 6-hit build using the new WS Drakesbane. The next best reasonable ring is the Ulthalam's Ring having good Accuracy and Attack. After those two rings, it is just more accuracy rings, starting with the cheapest (i.e. free), the Blood Ring then the Sniper's Ring or the Woodsman Ring will also suffice.
Back. If you have read any of the previous "On the Cheap" series, then you already know that the answer to this is the Amemet Mantle +1. Everything else is much more expensive and not worth the price difference.
Waist. The Swift Belt is worth the time and the effort. I wouldn't skimp on that for the waist slot, especially because the other options for this slot aren't anywhere as good. The alternatives are the Warwolf Belt which is decent all around, the Life Belt for more accuracy which you probably don't need, and the Potent Belt for a slightly more balanced piece, but if I didn't have a Swift Belt, I would probably pick up a Swordbelt +1 because I think it would generally boost my per swing damage the most overtime. If you can get your hands on a Wyrm Belt then that is the best waist piece you can use for TP build after the Swift Belt and it is also probably the best possible Jump waist piece.
Legs. Again the best is going to come from Omega, the Homam Cosciales should be the goal of pretty much all Dragoons and is pretty much the end-point for Dragoon legs in end-game. The problem is that after the Homam Cosciales there is no easy or cheap to obtain haste gear for the legs for Dragoon. There are several decent accuracy and DD legs varying from the very accurate Drachen Brais +1 and Askar Dirs to the more damage oriented Galliard Trousers and Pahluwan Seraweels. I should also mention the Barone Cosciales which can be used full-time if something better is not available for TP build, but they should definitely be kept for Jumps because the added TP bonus can be great for when you miss too much on a Penta Thrust and need to make up some TP to make sure you still keep your six hit build for that 100TP phase.
Feet. Finally, the end of the TP build for Dragoon and a slot with some decent options too. The best option, following the trend for Dragoon, are the Homam Gambieras. Great accuracy and the best haste in the slot available for a reasonable cost. Close to the Homam Gambieras but still a smidge behind them are the new Aurum Sabatons which have great stats but just a little less haste. After the Aurum Sabatons, the Dusk Ledelsens are next with equal haste, but lacking the bonus accuracy from the Aurum feet. The last couple of options lack the haste, and therefore are definitely a step down, but are still viable until something better comes along. The Amir Boots have good accuracy and attack, and the Barone Gambieras are decent damage dealing feet.
And there we finally have the potential TP build options for Dragoon. There are many more different options for Dragoon just because it doesn't have the old-school generally available good gear that many other jobs had. I would say that some of the basic good gear is harder to obtain than for Monk or Samurai but to balance that, the cost of much of this gear is minimal to non-existent. Also, you should consider what gear you are going to use for Jumps which should have it's own macro equipment swap, noting that the modifier for Jump is VIT, but High Jump has no adjustment. You don't have to have every piece swapped for you Jumps, but there are some pieces that are so good they should not be ignored. Now, onto WS equipment.
Head. This is a pretty easy for the most part. The Wyvern Helm is a good and cheap option for Dragoon weaponskills. A very good potential alternative would be the Askar Zucchetto with more accuracy traded for losing only 1 STR. In a pinch, the Optical Hat can be used for Penta Thrust if you need the accuracy or lack anything else.
Neck. For starters, the appropriate weaponskill gorget from Sea is probably going to serve you best, so find the one that you need for each weaponskill and get them made. At a minimum, Shadow Gorget for Penta Thrust and Flame Gorget. If you don't have those yet, then a Chivalrous Chain is the best way to fill the gap.
Earrings. Ok, first lets start with the Brutal Earring. It has the DA you are going to want for any of your WS's, and the Store TP you are probably going to need to get a 6-hit build, or at least close to it. After that the most frugal option to me is the Minuet Earring which is a great balance of WS mods and cost. An easily competitive alternative is the Fowling Earring, which has slightly less for WS mods and is more expensive, but the accuracy is permanent. I would avoid the Triumph Earring because I don't think the cost equates to the additional benefit of one more WS mod, but if you already have a Bushinomimi from another job, then that would be the perfect cheap alternative.
Body Well, outside of the Hecatomb Harness and the Drachen Mail +1 this list is going to look very much like the TP-build options, so lets start with those two options. The Hecatomb Harness is probably the best piece that fits the role of the On the Cheap series, it is not cheap, and it is still relatively tough to get, but it is so good that it is worth the effort. The STR and the Accuracy are pretty much unparalleled, and it will serve you well on several different jobs. The Drachen Mail +1 is more of a middle of the pack option but it is a WS only piece. The STR and Attack are nice but it does lack accuracy if you need it. It should also be mentioned that it can also be used for Jump because it has good offensive stats and VIT. Of the repeats from the TP-build section the Askar Korazin is the best, with the STR, Attack and Double Attack for the best damage output, and also the Store TP for critical extra TP on your WS to make sure that you can maintain a 6-hit build even with Wheeling Thrust. After these options, you are only left with Attack or Accuracy options. For the Attack options, the Assault Jerkin, then the Barone Corazza are both ok, but definitely not as good as the previous options. The Accuracy options can be useful for lower accuracy situations but with alternative Accuracy to be found in other slots, they are probably the last place you want to go for WS. That being said, the Homam Corazza is the best option for low-accuracy situations, followed by the Pahluwan Khazagand then finally the Scorpion Harness.
Hands. Hecatomb wins out again here, with the Hecatomb Mittens being the optimal choice. A good second choice are the Drachen Finger Gauntlets +1. Both of these items have the STR and DEX you are going to want for good WS damage. After these two hands, there are many different Attack or Accuracy hand pieces that you can go with, but they are far too numerous and also a far sight worse than both of these options. I do want to mention the Gigas bracelets here though (the Pallas's Bracelets and the Alkyoneus's Bracelets, for example) because I don't think you should use them. The reduction in DEX undercuts the higher STR for several reasons; the both are modifiers on most of the good DRG WS, the loss of DEX works to decrease your accuracy, and the loss of DEX will decrease your potential to crit. Now this wouldn't have mattered much before unless you liked to use Skewer, but with the addition of the Drakesbane WS, the ability to crit on a good WS is now available and this should be considered before pulling DEX out of your WS set.
Rings. The first ring you should have is the Rajas Ring. The STR and DEX can't be beat and you will need the Store TP for a 6-hit build in any case. The other ring should be dedicated to more STR for WS damage. The Flame Ring is the upper end of my frugal range, but I believe a worthy investment after you have other staples down. If you want to put off the Flame Ring then a Ruby Ring will be just fine while you work to finish up more important items.
Back. Amement Mantle +1, done.
Waist. Probably the best option here is the Warwolf Belt with all the WS mods that you want. You can also use a Potent Belt if you need more accuracy for Penta Thrust, but it is only a marginal increase in accuracy with a pretty large cut in WS mods.
Legs. The cheap and easy starting point here are the Barone Cosciales with a little bit of STR and some decent attack. Alternatively, with a little more STR and accuracy instead of attack are the Pahluwan Seraweels. Both are good, and I personally use the Pahluwan Seraweels but either are good for WS purposes. A step up from there in STR but without any addition bonuses are the Fourth Division Schoss. I have not tested these but 4 STR is pretty nice for essentially a free piece of gear. Finally, the best reasonable piece for the legs slot are the Aurum Cuisses. They have good STR and Accuracy and they can be used for Jump with the nice bonus to VIT too.
Feet. Finally, the last slot. Hecatomb Leggings, by far, are the way to go. Nothing is close for Dragoon in this slot. Lots of STR and DEX is exactly what you need. After the Hecatomb Leggings there is a big drop, but still some pretty good options. The next option are the Rutter Sabatons, which have good stats and are easily available from a pop NM in Molvopolis. The AH option are the Barone Gambieras which are just a slight step down from the Rutter Sabatons in STR. The problem with the Barone Gambieras is that the cost is kind of steep for something that has a better alternative, and I don't know if it is worth the cost. Almost equal are the Fourth Division Schuhs and the Askar Gambieras both of which have the 3 STR of the Rutters but no other good WS mods on them, but they are free so they might be a better option than the Barone Gambieras depending on your income. Finally, the cheap AH option are the Heroic Boots. Just to emphasize, these are the cheap AH option and should be treated as such. They only have 2 STR and nothing else of value, so keep that in mind and don't sit on these for very long.
And there you have it! Dragoon On the Cheap is finally done! This was a lot harder and longer than I expected it to be to put together, but I think I have covered pretty much all of the option that should be available to anyone that is trying to be the best they can without breaking the bank or being wasteful. I do want to mention that there needs to be some testing on Drakesbane which became available as I was finishing up this guide. It is a four-hit WS with a Crit hit TP modifier, which should make it the strongest WS that Dragoons have available. There is some new gear that is available in the update that could be good for Dragoon but I can't tell yet how difficult they are get so I didn't add them. I will revise this once the quality of the gear and the difficulty in obtaining it becomes more clear. Well, I hope you like this guide because Dragoon was my first job and still one I look at with great pride, even if I barely use it any more.
Tuesday, September 09, 2008
Were you distracted?
So, last night while everyone was running around looking for mythic weapon skills or fighting AV, our happy little band headed out to La Vaule to do some NM hunting. There are now 8 NM in the area that appear to be on about a 8 hour timer. They are all relatively difficult but we were able to beat them all with 8-9 people. I will give a run down on each, how we fought them and the moves they tended to use.
A quick note about all of the mobs we encountered in La Vaule, none of them appeared to use their two hour. All of them drop a box of some kind that is related to Campaign, and we got 3 other drops from them which I will detail below. We had no THF or /THF for any of the kills.
These are in no particular order.
First is Coinbiter Cjaknokk, it is a DRK but I didn't get any pics of it. It hits pretty hard compared to the rest of the NM's. It's special move (if I remember it right) is Shoulder Slam or Tackle, which is pretty high damage directional AoE. It was turned the wrong direction at one point and killed three mages who all had Stoneskin up. Outside of that, it uses regular DRK spells like Absorb-TP and Dread Spikes but that is about it. We did not get any special drops from this guy. Suggested fighting with tank in a corner to prevent others from getting hit with the Shoulder Slam move, but outside of that it was a pretty normal fight.
Second, Argios a Gigas RNG. 
Third, All-Seeing Onyx Eye which is a Ahriman SCH. 
Fourth, Cogtooth Skagnogg is an Orcish Warmachine, presumably a RNG type. 
Fifth is Draketrader Zlodgodd, a DRG. 
Sixth is Falsespinner Bhudbrodd which was either a MNK or a DNC. 
Seventh was Feeblescheme Bhogbigg which I assume is a SCH or BLM. 
Finally, the Gnole NM, Rugaroo which was a MNK mob. 
Look forward to the new NM's in Castle O and Beadeaux in the next couple of days.
Thursday, September 04, 2008
Emo = comments?
No wonder so many people post comments on Myrrial's blog. I don't often write emo posts, but I guess that if I want people to comment more often I should just threaten to slit my wrists every other day. :) Well, for my gil problem, I am working on it, and I have about enough to get about 2 and half more Orichalcum Ingots. Since I already have 5 O. ingots supplied by Izman, I only need 7 more, and hopefully after this weekend I will only need about 4 more.
Ok, enough of my gil woes, time to focus on something more positive. 
I have some new projects that I am going to work on even though I have kind of stalled on my On the Cheap post for Dragoon. They should be coming down the pipe soon, and they are more segmented which means I should be able to get them out more often than the On the Cheap series.
Tuesday, September 02, 2008
You never realize how poor you really are until you need gil.
Well, I need gil. I whole lot of gil. This is the first time I have really needed gil because there is something I need which doesn't have a cheaper equivalent that was at least close to the more expensive item in quality. But here I am, a guy that just accepted being poor as a matter of existence, staring down a huge bill for the next item that I need. For whatever reason, lack of time, lack of planning, lack of savings, I have a lack of income. The decrease in price for Limbus is going to help me at least a little bit, but 30k a week isn't going to make or break me. My latest farming has been going well, but the market for my consumables just isn't that great and I am still using it to level my leathercrafting. Iz and I are considering doing Avatar fights to make money which you can do once a day, but the time it takes to do the fights is pretty high and with Omoi's new work schedule I don't think we will be able to get them in every day which is the only way to make it seem like a reasonable investment. There are of course ENM's and KS30's that we can do, and I am going to set up a strict schedule for them not just for me but because Iz has been demanding them too, but it just seems so overwhelming. Why do I feel like I have hit a brick wall when it comes to gil? Well, I finally got my Hikazu Hara-ate, 
So thanks to Celestria!
But here is the rub. I have been working to do Salvage because I wanted the Usukane gear, and I wanted my friends to get the gear that they wanted. I knew that the cost was inevitably going to be very high in terms of gil for buying the items to upgrade the gear, but I was going to cross that bridge when I came to it. It was a far off problem, because we still had a lot to learn and a lot to work for to get to that point. I got my Usukane head piece just a few weeks ago, and Iz just straight up gave me 5 O. Ingots to help to complete it, but in that time I have been farming, crafting and trying to buy at least one more O. Ingot and I haven't even been able to get enough gil to buy one more O. Ingot. I was absolutely elated when I got my Usukane body piece, but when I logged on the next day, I just felt completely overwhelmed. Now, I am not going to be Myrrial and complain about not having the gil for days on end, or slit my wrists or contemplate quitting or anything, but it is quite a daunting task that I have been completely ignoring because I thought it would be putting the cart before the horse. I like to approach things by completing what I believe to be the hardest part first because after that everything is easier, but I think I may have misjudged this one.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Totally badass.
And there we have our first completed set of Salvage gear! Congratulations Omoi! Finished up the Ares's Mask today! Have a lot of work today, nothing really interesting has happened, and I spent most of yesterday drunk and embarrassing myself to the LS. So, after work is cleared up I will be working on Dragoon On the Cheap again. But this was too important to not mention today! Congratulations to Omoi!!!!
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
I'm awake, I'm awake!
Actually, I have just been busy at work, and last week I tried to get Dragoon On the Cheap done but that didn't go as planned. With the excuses out of the way, lets see what has been going on for the last couple of days.
The luckiest person I have been around recently has been Ninjafox. Last week he got a Freya's Mask, and this weekend he got Freya's Gloves. Even with these though, he still doesn't have the 25 to make them yet so we are going to try to get them from the bosses in future runs. The Zhayolm Boss can't avoid two different people that need boss drops. :( 
Outside of Salvage and normal events, we did a little bit of skilling up, and for it Pot let me use his Kraken Club, and I was getting insane skill ups with it! 
In game news, the talk of the town is the level sync system, which is on-balance really good for the game. The benefits are obvious because it makes people not have to worry about being unable to build a party. The main detriment is that it may make it harder for people that are seeking on unpopular jobs to get parties because there is a wider range of levels to find better jobs. I think this is countered somewhat by the fact that people are probably going to basically use this with friends, or they are going to use it to get levels closer together not to complete build parties with crazy level ranges. And unpopular jobs are unpopular, so its not like they are going hurt that much more really. There are other complaints but they are generally wrong-headed. The first is that people will be inviting 75 BRDs to level at all levels now. The simple solution is to just say no to those invites. This is one of the those complaints where people lose all perspective and say something is bad because it might slightly annoy them while it is hugely beneficial to everyone else. The second complaint that is at least partially wrong is that it will hurt crafting. Assuming you mostly set the level sync at the lowest level, then there will still be one person in the part that will need the gear that crafters will be using. The only way that it would hurt crafters is if the number of people leveling decreased, and this will likely have the opposite effect. In a party with 5 level 75's and 1 level 35, the 35 will still have to have level appropriate gear, while the 75's won't need the 35 gear anymore, but they wouldn't need it anyway, because they are already past level 35. It might actually have a positive effect on crafters depending on how good level 75 gear is compared to level synced gear, and people that are leveling with lower level friends might choose to buy better lower level gear. The only place that it will hurt crafters is people that buy gear for level capped stuff, but most people either rent this stuff from the AH or they already have it in storage. It's not really an active part of the economy.
Off to work on Dragoon On the Cheap.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Welcome back.
To me! Well, I am still shifting things about but I am back to being able to have pictures to post and stories to tell. Hell I might even spin a yarn or two! Let's see, let's see, shall we talk about how I still don't know if Cursna works outside of party or not even though my WHM is now level 75! :) 
Thats the update in one long and pretty continuitous paragraph. I am going to start working a new series of articles if I ever get a chance to finish out the On the Cheap series. I think people will like it, but one thing at a time. :)
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Sailin' on.
I am moving right now, with limited internet, so not much to update. Good stuff from Salvage, Limbus and leveling when I get my computer at home back on.
Thursday, August 14, 2008
I hate you all.
Ok, so look here, it's Thursday and writing a Thursday entry just sucks. And you guys just aren't helping! No comments! Again! It's been like two weeks without a comment! So, you are going to get one of those crappy rambling posts where I don't really have a start or an end and this is your punishment.
Ok, so now it is Friday, and we can just hate each other ok? I hate you for no comments, well except for Leanaci, and you can hate me for not posting yesterday. But it wasn't my fault really, because the fire alarm at work was being tested yesterday... FOR FOUR FUCKING HOURS. And the people testing it decided that they didn't need to tell the people that were working that the screeching insanely high-pitched alarm.
Well, since Thursday didn't suck as much as Wednesday I guess I can talk about that. We did some Sky, which was rather fruitful and then we did some Limbus which was also rather fruitful, but I mean how many times can you talk about Sky and Limbus with your blog turning into Borefest 3000? So onto Salvage, which is getting close to the repetitive, but I still like it so you will suck it up and keep reading. We did a SSR run, and the results were very nice, Elfie finally got a 35 piece even though it was not his beloved Morrigan's 35 Body piece. We got the drop from Dekka, which is the Marduk's 35 feet. We will need to do more Zhayolm to try to get not just Hiryo's Usukane head, but also Elfie's Marduk feet. Neither of which we have seen in forever, because Crlmsonking is still lacking the feet to complete her Marduk feet.
More Zhayolm tonight, and hopefully we will get something from a froggie on the way up to the boss. >.<
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Need something more.
I kind of need SE to toss me something more than just SCH and DNC merits. I knew these were coming already, and although I am not going to complain about it, more information or something new would be nice as a space filler for today's post where I don't have a lot of things to talk about. So, I think I am going to focus on something I have been thinking about for a while now, and that is what would I ask SE if I was able to have an interview with them. The reason I came up with this list is because I read other peoples questions and they just never get to the heart of the matter really. They ask the same questions over and over after SE has already said they aren't going to deal with it, or they ask questions wrong, meaning they ask questions without considering if they might be misinterpreted.
So I think I can do better? Well, maybe, maybe not, but lets give it a go.
1. The in-game graphics have been improved over time in the game, but the graphical user interface has not been adjusted at all. Are there any plans to update or modernize the GUI in the future?
- Yes, thats a leading question but its one that finally needs to be asked properly. The graphics in the game really have aged very well if not improved, but the GUI just isn't up to snuff any longer. Adjustments, improvements, anything, just make it so we get a little more information and make it so that we can move things around a little bit more.
Going to put some more thought into the questions for tomorrow, but this is all I feel like working on today. I just want to go home. :P
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Passing the torch.
Our normal Sunday Salvage run was epic fail. It was going fine, and all of a sudden everything went wrong and it just started sucking. None of that matters though, because nothing dropped anyway. To make up for the crappy run, I suggested that we do another run last night to make up for it, because we got done with events early and Omega had given us two Homam heads. *stabbles* Anyway, we went in with 9 people which is a little more than we normally do Arrapago with but the party was very well balanced. It did get a little bit hairy during the beginning because we didn't get a second magic cell for quite a while and the mobs seemed to love using Poisonaga. After that though, things really picked up, and we had enough time to clear the entire wing on the third floor and then kill the QQTH without much concern. But then we hit another road block, none, not a single one, of the gears on the fourth floor dropped a sub job cell. So we had to kill the big Bhoot with just two people with a sub job cell, the second of which we got from a steal from the QQA previously. But things went swimmingly, and the Bhoot finally gave us what we wanted. 
Well, on to Sea and Einherjar tonight. :)
Monday, August 11, 2008
To completion.
Omoi is quite proud of herself now, but she is still a huge cheater. When you want to parse you don't leave Hasso on full time and eat Red Curry without telling anyone else before hand! XD The reason she is so into parsing as of late is because she has finally managed to finish her Ares's Cuirass! 
In other news, I was able to get my WHM to 74 this weekend, putting just one more level between me and the end of this long trip to get a mage job to 75. 
Lastly, I finally got my code entered to get my Harpsichord and I have placed it in my Mog House, and every 22:00 I get to have a little bit of a tune from it and it is quite peaceful. 
Actually, that wasn't lastly because I did want to talk a little bit about my crafting which I have hated in the past but as of late I have been very much enjoying and I can't really figure out why. Well, maybe it is because I have a little bit of gil that I have made myself for the first time in a while. Normally, I don't like blowing things up when I am crafting, I find it very frustrating, but I have found a place where I just don't care that much about it because it is cheaper to do than to try to find a replacement. Currently I am level 49 in my leathercrafting, and I generally like to skill on things that are actually reasonably balanced in cost, effort and skill up potential, but there is a big gap that I am looking at from the Ram Mantles that I used to get to 49 and the Tiger Leathers that I want to get to 61 on. So I have just be collecting Tiger Hides and praying to the great leathercrafting gods in the sky. :) And so far it has been going quite well, as I have only used 10 Tiger Hides, but have gotten .8 so far and gotten 3 Tiger Leathers out of it to boot. This might not seem like a good deal, but when you think about it, it is actually quite hard to .8 out of 10 synths, but in reality its not 10 synths. I break a whole lot as evidenced by only having 3 Tiger Leathers, but in fact I break far more than that, but I am only losing crystals, tea leaves and water, all of which are insanely cheap. To do this reasonably, I have had to go to Sandy to get advanced snyth support to make the gap only 8, but in the end that is a much more decent gap, and after .2 more I will be able drop it to a 7 level gap and that should mean I don't break nearly as much but still get those huge .2+ skill ups from having such a large level gap. :)
Maybe some more crafting tonight, I think, but definitely some Limbus and Assaults. :)
Friday, August 08, 2008
Less Izman.
Iz had to skip Salvage last night, so he fails, and doesn't get mentioned at all in the blog today. Wait...
:)
Salvage sucked anyway, we didn't get a single HP cell outside of one in the starter chest. I did a bit of farming and crafting afterward because it totally bummed me out. I don't mind when Salvage pieces don't drop because I know they will drop eventually, but I get really frustrated when we don't get what we need to do what I want to do. I was really grumpy during the run last night. It wasn't a great day all around. I was even late getting home even when I left from work a little early.
Bah.
/emo
Thursday, August 07, 2008
More Izman.
There. Iz said that the blog needs "more Izman" and now it has it. ^_^ He's going to punch me now, probably in the face, with a baby. :) Anyway, yesterday was another pretty boring Wednesday but we did some ENM's and then I did some leveling of my Leathercrafting which ended up at 45. It's still a little profitable, but not as much as when I was NPCing Corsettes, but the Ram Mantles are now 4 levels away and they require less Ram Hides to craft which is beneficial for my skill ups. After Ram's I will have an 11 level gap to get to anything that I want to craft because of price and availability of the materials to bridge the gap. So I will be spending a good amount of time when I am crafting in Sandy. :(
Well, at least today I can go over some of the other things that have been happening recently. As I have already mentioned I got my Hikazo Kabuto which rounds out all of the pieces I need for my Usukane Somen, but I still need the over 2 million gil for Orichalcum Ingots. I could buy... 1 today. LOL But I like having a little bit of money honestly, which I have for the first time in a while. I am also helping to donate some money to help Omoi finish off her Ares body, which she has been working at for quite some time, but has stalled out a little bit because she has been leveling BRD quite a bit to help out with Salvage. I think that she has or is going to have enough gil for two more ingots soon, which will put her at 9 ingots.
Of the things that I have skipped over I think getting my Faith Torque is the most substantial drop that I have gotten that I have not mentioned. 
Tonight is going to be fun that is for sure. Sea, Einherjar, Limbus then Salvage. Fun and really, really busy. Looking forward to it. Off to work on Dragoon on the Cheap.
Wednesday, August 06, 2008
"Treasure."
When you are fighting a mob, and you have no treasure in the pool then the treasure menu option doesn't even appear. But when you kill a mob there is a moment when the battle menu is still up but the mob has died. If that mob drops something, there is a moment that you can see the treasure tab before the battle menu disappears. And since some mobs can either drop something or nothing, if you see the treasure tab pop up you can know that it drops before the text even scrolls by. Last night, I wasn't even really paying attention to the battle menu, but calmly and surely Izman said "Treasure" and about a thousand questions raced through my mind. Were there any cells that people didn't lot? Does this guy drop a 15? Could it just be Alexandrite? I already knew the answers to these questions before I asked them to myself, but I asked them anyway to just confirm that it really did happen. And it did. The mob in question? Hammerblow Majanun. The "Treasure"? 
Tuesday, August 05, 2008
Do what now?
Servers were down much longer than expected yesterday, so I don't have a lot to show from yesterday. That coupled with the fact that I had some rather important issues to deal with at work means that I am not going to have to post today. Tomorrow will be better. :)
Monday, August 04, 2008
Imperfect just like everyone else, I do it perfectly.
A great lyric from a great band that never made it because of the assassination of an entire genre of great music by a 40 year-old rip-off artist. Anyway, perfection is sometimes defined by an ending that perfectly fits a theme for an event. In the case of Salvage, and specifically our Zhayolm Remnants runs, perfection comes in the form of this: 
I have been farming a bit here and there trying to get my leathercraft to a reasonable level and making a bit of gil in the process, and while doing so I have happened upon Stray Mary at least three times now, and I don't know if this makes me particularly lucky but I have gotten a Mary's Horn that I will use for my BRD when I finally level it. 
Over the weekend we did some good ZNM's recently, including some tier two and tier three spawns, which actually resulted in some of the gear that a bunch of us have been looking for recently. First, our main goal has been to try to get Izman some of those sexy Aurum feet for his WAR, which required killing Armed Gears. This time it was much quicker and tanking Armed Gears with NIN/DRK is so much easier than with NIN/WAR. Iz was on PLD/NIN and we very easily duo tanked it. And this time we finally got Iz his new feet. 
The next we did was a couple of Dea's for the Enkidu's legs for Kallo and Myrrial. Myrrial wasn't that lucky though, but I was as I was able to pick up a pair of Oracle's feet for my WHM resting MP set up and I will get to use it for my BRD! :) 
Now, as to why you should reconsider the ZNM drops? I did the same thing that you did when I first saw the gear; I yawned and said, how is this supposed to beat what I already have? It took more than a second or third look before I started to realize how good some of the pieces are and that even if SE didn't put much thought into the design of the ZNM system or especially into the look of the new items instead of just recycling old unused gear. But since gear may be pretty or it may not but the stats are what defines it lets look at that instead. Take for example the Oracle's set all of which except for the body has +2 hMP on it which should make it of interest to mages in general but the thing about the set is that it also has high additional MP too. Why does this matter? Because a lot of time hMP gear doesn't have additional MP so that means you have to have either deal with the fact that resting in the middle of a fight or XP chain you will never be able to get to max MP. With the Oracle's gear you will be able to rest and keep your max MP at a reasonable level. And thats just the basics of the gear, each individual piece has a nice addition, like the feet have BRD skills, and the hands have Enfeebling skill. For the other gear, the Enkidu's have very nice stats but it is the first time outside of Homam gear that Blue Mages can actually call an end-game gear set their own, at least for WS's. Lots of STR to be found here even if there are other sets with more stats there is also quite a bit of accuracy to be found here to which should let BLU's use some different subs on HNM because /THF or at least some other spells besides Cannonball. The biggest surprise though is the Aurum set though. Even though the legs and hands have silly negative stats on them, the individual pieces are still very nice. Well, wait, no, the hands suck, you should be using Dusk Gloves for TP and you should be able to find something better for WS's. After the hands though, the rest is good, well, wait, no, the head is just retarded I think. It would be better with more haste, but it doesn't so it isn't. Soooo... the body is awesome... for who you ask? DRG! Even though SE has finally started giving DRG some good gear, the body is still a hard place to find something reasonable and here it is! Store TP enough to make a reasonable 6-hit set up or close to it which, as I have discussed previously, is ok for DRG, good attack, really good stats and enough DEX to actually have an impact on accuracy. That being said, it is definitely something you don't want to Jump in because of the negative VIT, and if the modifier for the Gungnir WS really is AGI then it would suck for that too. The legs are great for Steel Cyclone too and is also good for Jumps for DRG too.
The point ultimately is that the new ZNM gear is good and subtly so. You should take a fourth look at it and maybe put some time into picking some of it up or hell getting some of it free lot.
Oh crap, forgot one last thing. BLU, COR and PUP relic equipment is being added to Dynamis. Yes, I was absolutely DEAD WRONG about this. I thought for sure it would be added to a new event, and that they wouldn't wrangle with the storyline issues of adding them to Dynamis. Looking back, I think they tried but how do you make a new event that has gear equivalents to things that are already in the game and put them in a new event and have incentives for other jobs to go? I just don't know really, but I figured they had enough time to work on it as they are being paid to come up with something like that and I am paid to process books. The other things is that Dynamis was actually like the one end-game event prior to ToAU that actually made sense in the game story line. Sky, Sea, Limbus, HNM, they were all like outside of the storyline and independent, and I felt some inviability to Dynamis, but in the end if it is going to make the game play easier on the players and the designers I have no issue with it at all really.
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