Well... I didn't think they would do 5 drawings... I guess that kinda snuffs out people's plans for pooling it all. Take it as you want but I'm gonna go through my... marbles now. @_@;
Congrats if you won, too bad if you lost. :3
Edit: OH and before you get too excited or too disappointed... these numbers are read from right end. So if you got a marble that says "27344", you won a rank 4 item.
As for me.. 2 XP scrolls on a mule.... but 40 slots returned~ I'm a winner!
While I'm all excited and happy about getting the next piece of Usukane done... there's just one huge problem...
...
My wallet is pretty light.
:(
Unlike the Usukane Feet and Legs, the "material" item required to create the Usukane Head is exponentially much more expensive. We're talking about 100k to 2m ratio here. So, this will take me some time to get but fortunately, I didn't get the 25 piece yet and we're not going to attempt it until I get my 12 Ingots out of the way... All I have to say is... I dread the day where I end up getting the 35 piece... because that is going to cost me A LOT.
Anyways, today actually ended up being a fairly uneventful day, mostly because in DownRightFierce, Fridays are our freedays. But in any case, nothing was really going on in my end. It wasn't until later on where we did a really fast Limbus run (Temenos 1st Floor) and then the Salvage run where Hammerblowsandsucksatdroppingusukane35head dropped... the Usukane 35 Head. @_@ At this point, I really do feel that I'm getting lucky... but at the same time, I really don't think people are looking too highly at me since I'm running through Usukane at a horribly fast pace. People are gonna lose interest and probably suspect something from me.
In any case!
I'm gonna be reorganizing my labels for better categorization. Going to be merging anything Sky related into Zilart, anything Limbus/Sea/CoP Missions into Promathia and so on and so forth.
Also, I'm going to be putting a label for the more informative posts that are less about what I've accomplished and more about actual helpful posts that can act as a cheatsheet or something... whatever term they use nowadays. Not sure of a name for them... I'll probably figure it out after I'm done with the sorting. Check back later and that category list should be shorter!
So after hitting level 68, Lissy decided to congratulate Moggie by giving him her very own Black Cloak that she has been using since forever! Truly, I am touched and just having this thing on me makes me feel like my power level is over 9000! @_@;
After freaking out and falling in love with Lissy's Black Cloak, I decided to head out to Sea and nuke some fishies.... then realized that I still havent' figured out the trick to it and I'm still getting really low XP per hour. Maybe I need to level /RDM and use that!
Anyways, I know a few posts ago I did a bit of a thing with /BRD and all that stuff. I decided to screw doing that and actually do Campaign battles. As I'm pretty sure the trend is following on other servers where it's mainly beastmen controlled. Now, I heard some weird ass crap from players as to how to "resolve" this issue on the player side. Kinda ranks along the thing I heard about Besieged and donating Imp. Bronze Pieces to the NPC that gives the Turban (yes, this is false, yes, you are retarded for believing in it).
I'd like to start off the theme of today's post as.... Cautionary Tales of Campaign.
@_@;
Honestly, Campaign isn't really a bad thing. Sure, it causes your Xbox/PS2 to crash from time to time but when you... ya know... actually get on a decent PC, it isn't so bad. You see a lot of crazy stuff in Campaign though. I mean, yes you can kinda just glance at it and be like "eh, that's a bug, whatever" at some of the things ya know? But, here's something that just totally shocked the crap outta me. Given the fact that I'm writing this at 3 in the morning, I might be wonky but... don't you guys find this to be sorta strange?
o_o;
There's just something about that turret... Something... wrong...
So anyways, ignoring that there's a huge pecker from that bird turret, went on to tackle down the baddies.
I got into the habit of casting Stoneskin constantly. I think Lissy said something along the lines of "I'm gonna kill you if you don't put Stoneskin up" or something.... I dunno, I don't like dying in either case so... Stoneskin up! I can't believe how many times this thing saved me from damage. At the beginning I had really low Enhancing and MND so really, it was almost pointless to put stoneskin up. Now I have to teach myself to do it constantly.
FOX...... DIE!!!!!!!!!! ..... THINK AGAIN.
That gimped SAM made us lose the battle. :( Not even Ares Galka Dancer PLD Man can save us.
Meet defeat by GOLDEN EAGLE.
This... doesn't look like a Belfry at all.
So, a got myself about.... 6k total exp from doing a ton of Campaign today... Hmm...
Getting BLM to 75 will be one long trip. @_@;
... There was nothing cautionary about this post at all!
Either this is a rant or a plea to figure out what's wrong with my gear. Well, as many of you should know (I hope), SAM weapon skills are mostly one-hitters, especially the YGK group. Unlike many other WS that other classes use a lot, such as Rampage, Guillotine, Dancing Edge and so on, I get struck with the whole "missed" messages when I do my WS. But it doesn't just happen a few times, this happens like.... all the time. I'm sitting thinking "Okay, I have almost the same gear as all of these other SAMs, I have my Sea Gorgets, I have 8/8 GKT merits... what gives?"
Really, I'm pretty sure it is just the fact that with one hit considered, I'll get that bolded message a lot more than say a WAR doing Rampage, mainly because you'll notice your misses in your TP return and no one is gonna point out your WS damage sucked unless you missed a signficant amount of damage. Pretty much, not sure if it is me but missing Tachi: Koki on Proto-Omega 4 times in a row (which btw, we believe that it made Omega's Heart dropped) is a bit of a.. weak chuckle at that point.
4 Kokis... :(
Anyways, it seems that a few people have taken notice of all the singers in Bastok [S]. With this, they decided to make a game of making my life a little bit harder by grabbing campaign mobs and throwing them at us. Not that I can't just relocate myself but it is right next to the Campaign NPC. I guess I have no reason to complain, I am, after all, getting XP by just hitting a few macros over and over again... Kinda like an actual XP party... Ironic!
I haven't fought a single monster as a BLM67 and it will probably remain that way for awhile. Consider it a bit shameful but at this point I just want to get my BLM to 75 to do things with Lissy as soon as I can. It also doesn't help that the beta for Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix just came out (Yes, that's the whole freakin name of the game) and I plan to play it during the off periods of me playing FFXI and blogging. In any case, my goal is to hit 75 before July.... and I have about 5 days left... things don't look swell for the Taru.
Yes, there is a huge lack of screenshots as of late and it mainly has to do with the fact that I'm too busy doing a lot of things at once that I don't have time to think about hitting the screenshot button. It sucks but I realize that maybe talking about what I have accomplished in game isn't really that much of a... thing people might be interested in unless it had a lot of spice. And really, the past few weeks were great, they were nice but they're not anything I could write a story about without repeating a legacy that has already been told. I hope that I have more stories to talk about soon, lately it has been fairly dry... though I sorta guess I have one now?
Nah not really.
On a side note: Chinchilla got Homam Body.
She was having a seizure on vent.
Grats Chin. :3
Well, at the very least, I have a KS99 on Thursday and hopefully something good comes out of it. I kinda need a little bit of extra gil in my pockets considering that I still haven't really caught up on my BLM spells or equipment. See, this whole Campaign thing is making me too lazy! ;_;
Oh btw. Xbox Gamertag: MogKnight Prime. If you want to do some rounds of Street Fighter, hit me up~
I knew that eventually BLM soloing is gonna hit a wall where I'm going to stop getting massive and fast streams of XP and it will continue to be a total grind. Unfortunately, I think I really spoiled the crap out of myself with the whole Gobbie Pet thing. Regardless, I also think the way that I'm forced to solo right now is helping me be able to play BLM the "correct" way. Instead of one-shotting pets, I'm actually having to deal with mobs that I need to kite around and properly spacing myself. It makes BLM more entertaining to level (at least for me) but at the same time, it is really slow. The Enterpriser Camps are usually taken and killing stuff in Sea, while fun, is also a long process with what little MP and options I have. One of the options I'm lacking is /RDM, even though I do have it at the level I have gravity... but I lose Stoneskin/Blink unless I level it up more. I'm probably going to take a break from level BLM until I get RDM to 37. For the mean time though... remember that post I made? It works like a charm but EVERYONE is doing it! @_@;
It's kinda scary how there's a huge wall of BRDs and /BRDs just casting songs again and again...
ZNMs, ZNMs, and hell... more ZNMs! There are just so many of them to kill and so many reattempts required just to get whatever item you need. Granted that there are a few nice items in the earlier tiers but a lot of them are pretty.... "lol." Now, now... "Moggie, the fact that they added this is very nice and it's better than them not introducing it at all." Okay, well that's true, the fact that they added this into the update did make the update a pretty big one and there's always going to be "useless fodder." One thing I did notice with this update is that some of the higher end items (Hachiryu for example) are not EX. This is a good thing I think. RMT would be hard pressed to get these items as well so I don't see it being a bad thing.
Earning Zeni is not as hard or even as stupid as people make it. Just take a camera with you and take pictures of random mobs that you do (Sea/Sky/KSNM/Limbus/etc/etc). Aim to take it at low HP. For example, tossing up a few shots at Omega at low HP can net you around 80 Zeni a shot. If you can take 10 shots (without a problem), that's close to your first tier 1 pop and you can still submit more over 10 shots if you wait an in-game day. Tier 1 mobs are pretty easy to do with just a small gathering of people so it isn't really a hard thing to do, just need some planning around. Also, for whatever reason, FFXIclopedia has people listing "subtle" hints about the mob being a lot harder than it sounds. Some do things that will HURT bad but otherwise, you're fine as long as you play smart.
Oh and for the last time: Barfira (or Fire Resistance period) doesn't do jack crap for Mijin Gakure.
I have a Salvage run at around 2PM EST and now it's... about 7AM EST. I'm pretty sure Lissy is gonna log on FFXI and going "wtf mog, why aren't you in bed?"
Well, anyways, I can't sleep so lets talk about the subject at hand then: Salvage.
Now, believe me when I say this: I am not a Salvage expert and while I got 2/5 Usukane, I still don't know every single thing about Salvage and I've really only know Bhaflau pretty well and probably a good half of SSR. But anyways, lets talk about it for a bit, especially for those who want to do it but haven't done so because they can't find a group or are too afraid for it.
First thing's first: A lot of things in Salvage don't require more than 2 parties... in fact, a lot of things in Salvage don't require more than 9 people. This is one of those things where having more people can kill you rather than help you. Like Limbus, you can bring 18 to a damn SE Apo run if really wanted to and have a way higher chance of winning. Salvage is very precise, you need to take in mind of your resources, you need to look at jobs at a different way and you also need to take in mind how much damage one extra person can bring in. Yes, one extra unneeded person can screw up the run. I mean one extra person can screw up anything if they're careless and stupid but no... In Salvage, one extra person even though they're very nice and helping as much as possible, can end up being so much dead weight. So you don't need big numbers but you do need to take in account what you're taking in.
To expand on this fact alone, this means you're going to have to do Salvage with people that you know. Pick up salvage groups tend to be really hectic and not at all fun unless you go through and jam everyone's head with what you're gonna be doing and how you're gonna do it. Because of this, I highly recommend a static. Even a LS pick up group can be pretty bad because again that's more explanation that you will need to do unless everyone is already familiar with it. Not only that, if you join a pick up group, expect to get only 15s. You might get a 25 if you're lucky... you MIGHT get a 35 if you're extremely lucky... but don't bet on it. Either do Salvage constantly or don't do it at all. If you do a pick up, don't expect anything.
Usually when you do Salvage, you have a goal in mind. Be it killing a specific NM or kill the boss or whatever. This goal is usually focused on benefiting one person or one group of people. What I mean by this is lets say... You have MNKs/NINs/SAMs wanting the Usukane Feet (which is nice for all 3 jobs... I think) and you have to farm the 35 item which drops off of an NM Bee that can spawn off of this Rampart that needs a specific requirement that is out of the way of the boss of the area. By the way, this NM Bee rarely shows up and even if it does, the drop rate sucks. And by "this NM bee rarely shows up," I mean.... it RARELY shows up. There's probably a specific condition to spawning it but who knows? Anyways, there are other things that can drop in this one specific zone... but you're not gonna do them all, there's just not enough time to allow that. Bringing in more people to those said zones isn't gonna do anything to make it go faster.
Again, with that fact, how can you hope to get anything in a pick up group? You want Usukane Feet 35? You're gonna have to tell the group to spend the time to melee kill the Flans required (there's 4) and then you have to let all the bees spawn and the NM might never appear. That's ~40 minutes of the run already when you only have 100 minutes. Now you got 60 minutes to get the rest of the cells you need, either choose to do one of the later ramparts (which take a bit of effort to get to might I add and its not really a good idea to do both of the later ones) or straight up hit the boss while trying to nerf it down (which also takes a bit of effort and time).
So, get yourself a static group for this.
If that wasn't clear enough.
Oh yeah, so to help clarify this more...
You need 3 items from 3 different Salvage zones, each of them has a 15, 25, and 35 version.
15 are common drop. Well, they aren't very common but they're common compared to the 25 and 35s. Some 15s require you to go out of your way to kill a specific NM or a slot NM but some 15s will drop as you kill mobs.
25 drop from bosses... At least, I think all of them drop from bosses, I could be wrong on this. But, 2 are guaranteed off of a boss, usually you go after this after you get a 35.
35 are as rare as AF2 drops in Northlands. Okay, maybe that's a bit of an overstatement but some of them are pretty rare. These are the things that will frustrate the living crap out of you as you will go from 0/infinity on most of those drops. For the most part, if you have the 35... you have the piece already, just need to get the effort to get the other two.
Anyways, a good guide on Salvage can be found on BG-Wiki. Good luck in your Salvage Adventures and stuffs. You're gonna need it.
Oh and Shameless Plugin: I started a new blog for FFXI beginners and casual players in hopes to bring some new light into old things or new things in FFXI. Its called "Final Fantasy XI for the Casual Folk" and it can be found at http://ffxicasual.blogspot.com/. I'm still prepping up content for it but I hope it'll open some eyes for people. I started writing about newbie stuff but I will soon venture into stuff like Chocobo Racing, Chocobo Digging, soloing, crafting, so on and so forth. So check it out if you have nothing else better to read.
Okay, time to shed a little light on this and simplify this a bit for peeps.
The idea here is: Gravy Train
1. Do the minimal amount of effort. 2. Maximizing your XP gain from Campaign. 3. Gives you something to do while you LFG or if desired solo spots are taken.
Now, before you do any of this, it's a lot better (not to mention smarter and funner) to just go out in Campaign and beat the crap out of things while spamming your own things and stuff IF you have the appropriate job/level for that. As for the rest, using this method should help you gain as much XP as anyone else in the field but it will take a bit of shuffling around.
To do this, you need the following:
1. A timer to see how many minutes you have your tags on 2. BRD to a level so that you can cast at least 15 buffing songs within a span of 2-3 minutes (Etudes are handy). Alternatively, you can sub WHM or RDM for Bar spells but it won't net out as much XP as BRD songs.
And what you do is:
1. Figure out what rank you are 2. BRD songs cap at 300 when you cast 15 songs. Figure out how many minutes it would take to reach that cap. 3. Do other actions that will fill in remainder for that minute. 4. Submit your tag once it reaches that minute.
ex.
Lets say you have Steelknight Emblem. That's 80xp per minute.
(XP per Minute) x (minutes) = (your target XP cap that is slightly over the BRD song cap) 80xp x 4 minutes = 320xp
You need to perform some action to make up for that 20 XP. By convenience, one self Enhancing Spell does the trick.
So, for a BLM/BRD at 65 with Steelknight Emblem, you can do the following...
15 Etudes + 1 Blaze Spikes = 320 xp
All within a span of 4 minutes. Submit your tag the moment it hits 4 minutes for 320xp. Considering the chat time and dialog boxes and stuff, you can earn about ~4500xp an hour. Really not bad for the effort placed in it.
Maybe I can simplify this post a bit more... but that's why there's an edit function! :D
Something I still have to learn and remember in FFXI, or even live in general.
Anyways, post update has been pretty tame lately. While there is still a huge surge of players hunting down Ixion, Sandworm, ZNMs and the like, I have been doing my usual thing.
Not to drag my real life into the mix again but lately things have been going pretty rough and I'm overly stressing about things. I'm hoping this week will subside that, especially since I no longer have to worry about classes and so on bugging me for awhile. I actually have about 5 blog posts in draft that I have yet to complete, mainly because I haven't been motivated to finish them. Hopefully I can drive myself to tackle them once I'm out of this "phase" that I'm in.
But for right now, how about a progress post? :3
Black Mage has been going pretty well now. I'm sitting at level 64 and while I would want to keep leveling today... I figure I'll take a break and just sleep at a normal time. I'm pretty sure Liseth is dead worried about me and not maintaining a proper sleep schedule. On that note, Lissy did say she would help me by leeching off of her once I hit level 70... though she did continue to say that I would have to "kiss her ass" if I were to just sit there and do nothing... I guess I'm gonna have to nuke stuffs~ Not that I don't mind, it is in the job description anyways! I will need to level up my RDM soon enough. Would benefit me greatly for soloing situations.
Samurai has still been a pretty long journey. Equipment that is needed for it is still very far from grasp and it all becomes a waiting game. I guess one thing I can work on is a Damage Reduction/ohshi~ set to help me when Seigan/Shadows are down. Thanks to Lissy and the DRF Salvage group, we manage to snag me up the rest of my Usukane Feet parts. It is not without a struggle however, as weird things have happened and weird complications occurred. I'm very happy to have received this, even though I did not appear to be. It was mainly because after so many retarded frustrations that happened that I was just "glad" it was over. What's done is done and time to move on really. I don't see myself getting the rest of the Usukane set for awhile, I don't think I should be aiming that high this soon anyways.
Paladin and Warrior has been in hiatus for awhile. I can't do much with Paladin until I can get more gear for it and Warrior has been waiting on a new build for awhile. It's fine though, I still can pull these two jobs whenever I need them and still do a great job.
Bard on the other hand... That took a major hit as I have resold my equipment to keep my other jobs floating.
I've yet to do the rest of my WotG cutscenes. I'll work on them later.
Lissy has changed to Windurst and is pushing me to finish Windurst up to Rank 10. I'm gonna be working on the last few parts of 8-2 tomorrow before Dynamis I think.
Nothing else other than that I suppose. Hopefully I'll get BLM to 75 before July, would be very nice to go into Independence Day with with some awesome nukes. ;3
Trust me, there are quite a bit of people out there that still give a damn about Xbox Live's Gamerscore thing. While I really don't care too much about it, any extra bit helps and it makes me feel good inside~
Anyways, there were 250 points added with this update. To sum it all up for you, here's all the achievements and how you earn them.
Note: When you complete something from this list, you will need to talk to a BRD Title Changer to unlock these achievements on your gamertag. You don't have to earn the requirements on your Xbox 360 but you must unlock them with the BRD on the Xbox itself as the option will only appear for Xbox users.
(Insert Job) Lv. 75 - 30g each job Have the job at level 75.
(Insert Nation) Rank 10 - 30g each nation Get your nation Rank to 10
Synthesis Skill 100 - 50g Get a tradeskill to 100, this counts fishing as well. You can only get this one for one skill.
Relic Weapon - 40g ... Yeah. You need a Final Stage Relic to get this achievement. However, it is unknown if a Nyzul Relic counts.
(Insert Expansion) complete - 40g each Oddly enough, even though I'm on Dawn for CoP, I still don't have credit for it... odd. Zilart I got credit with Dawn. Aht Urhgan I got credit with Eternal Mercenary.
Breaker of the Chains - 30g Complete Apocalypse Nigh and get the title "Breaker of the Chains"
Apollyon Ravager - 20g Temenos Liberator - 20g Beat Proto-Omega and Proto-Ultima in their respective Limbuses and earn their titles.
Top Assault/Merc Rank - 30g Get Captain Rank for Assaults
Dynamis - Tavanazia/Xarcabard Interloper - 30g each Complete both Dynamis and earn their titles.
Chocobo Whistle - 5g Get a chocobo whistle from raising your own chocobo
VCS Registration Card - 5g Retire a chocobo that is in adult stage
Extra Job - 5g Unlock an extra/advanced job (anything besides WAR/MNK/WHM/BLM/THF/RDM)
Support Job - 5g Get a subjob, you noob
Pure White Feather - 5g Go to the past at least once
Ballista License - 5g Get a Ballista License by talking to your nation's Conflict Director...
Bastok - Invincible Shield - Metalworks - G-8 San d'Oria - Excenmille - Northern San d'Oria - D-9 Windurst - Mhabi Molkot - Heavens Tower, next to the reception desk
... Then go see your two opposing nations leaders...
Bastok - Karst - Metalworks - J-8 San d'Oria - King Destin - Chateau d'Oraguille - I-9 Windurst - Star Sibyl - Heavens Tower, talk to Kupipi at the reception desk
Imperial Army I.D. Tag - 5g Simply get one Tag for Assaults, you don't have to be in possession of the item when you talk to the BRD Title Changer NPC
Boarding Permit - 5g Get the permit to allow yourself access to Aht Urhgan
Airship Pass for Kazham - 5g Get the Airship pass to Kazham
Airship Pass - 5g Buy it or get Rank 5 to get the Airship pass
Chocobo License - 5g Get a chocobo at level 20 by doing the quest in Upper Jeuno
Guild Membership - 5g Level a craft to at least Novice level (28+) and join the guild
Artifact Quests - 5g Unsure if you need to complete just a single AF quest or complete a set to get a Paragon Title. Its one of the two!
Destined Fellow - 5g Get an NPC Fellow by starting the chain quest with Luto in Upper Jeuno
Star Breaker - 5g Cloud Breaker - 5g Sky Breaker - 5g Summit Breaker - 5g Horizon Breaker - 5g Complete the Genkais: Note that the Genkai 5 must have been completed with a job that fights Maat.
Official Soul Reflector - 5g Make a Soul Reflector for Pankration.
Unknown stuff: a 20g, 30g, and 40g One can assume that they are the following: Get highest medal in Campaign. (Unattainable at this time) Complete WotG . (Unattainable at this time) Get a Nyzul Relic Weapon. (Unattainable? at this time)
:3 Good fookin luck in getting all of this done...
While everyone is going nuts about the update and trying to get all the nifty stuff (and trying new toys), I'm basically taking the stance of "Let the other people figure it out, abuse the empty exp spots."
And that's what Moggie did.
The patch today was, like most other patches, a long and painful download session. Granted, it was to be expected but this felt more painful than any previous patch... well, except that one patch that lasted 24+ hours. But anyways, we had some lulz on the Vent server in the mean time and me and Lissy played some Chess on MSN. I had her on the runs but then it ended in a draw. ;_;
Back into the game, the Auto-Sort option would be pretty all right to use (especially if I play on my 360) except for the fact that it does what it does: It auto-sorts. Now, those who use Windower might be using a Plugin called LightLuggage. It has some nice functions such as Auto-Stacking and selective Lotting/Passing. Now, most use it just for the stacking and that's good and all, the nice thing is that it doesn't attempt to sort your items out, it just stacks it. Auto-Sort in FFXI, however, sorts it all out and it can get kinda confusing when you expect some items to appear at the end of your list (Salvage Cells, equipment checking from Mog House, etc). Its a bit of an annoyance and something to get used to but overall, its nice for what it does.
The new NM system (which I believe the term is ZNMs? Zeni NMs or something) is pretty interesting considering the fact that they're pulling out their Pokemon-ish minigame out to fuel this thing. I think its creative though... lets just say, popularity of this will cause this system to be hard to take advantage of until it dies down.
Me, Lissy, Chinchilla and a few other DRF people did Salvage today. After a weird accident which made us lose our NIN tank, I had to take the helm as SAM/NIN Taru Tank (This would not be the first time). We manage to finish Chin's Skadi's Feet and I was amazed we made it up there with so little time remaining. I think we gave the cat a reason to dance around in the Sun today (which btw, it has been growing increasingly warm if you have not noticed).
I got on my BLM for a bit, soloed from 60 to half way through 61. Nothing really exciting but I think I'm finally starting to get the hang of running right before cast goes off.
There will be another maintenance tomorrow, most likely to try to fix Sneak Attack. Though, I decided to have a little bit of fun with it on SAM/THF.
All I have to say is...
I'm gonna miss this bug.
More random Post-Patch stuff and BLM soloing insanity later!
All righty... FFXI Update June 2008... All the update information can be found on the POL website @ http://www.playonline.com/pcd/verup/ff11us/detail/3347/detail.html. I will only be talking about what "sticks out" and things that have yet to be mentioned in a previous news update.
The following changes have been implemented to fellows:
A new limit break quest has been added, making it possible to increase your adventuring fellow's level to 70.
In the quest "Unlisted Qualities," it is now possible to choose your own combination of face type, personality, and height for your fellow. Players who have obtained a signal pearl prior to this version update can access the above new content by returning their signal pearl to the relevant NPC and restarting the quest. Those who had already commenced one of the following quests need to complete all three in order to obtain and return their signal pearl: Unlisted Qualities / Girl in the Looking Glass / Mirror, Mirror
A new point system has been added to fellows. The more time you spend with your fellow, the more your "fellow points" will accumulate. These points can be exchanged for items for yourself and your fellow.
New fellow personalities have been added.
Fulfilling certain requirements will make it possible for you to summon your fellow to certain areas of past Vana'diel. Please note, though, that fellows cannot be summoned while a player is marked with an Allied Tag.
A new key item has been added for the fellows Emptiness quest. Possession of this item will determine your quest offer status.
Well, the fact that you can now have better control of what your Fellow looks and acts like is nice... but do they really have to make it so that you have to reset your entire progress and start all over again...? Its a nice change though, I'll give it that. The point system sounds very interesting too, maybe it'll all more interest in playing around with your fellow moreso. The key item thing also helps in figuring out if I have the damn quest active or not!
The following changes have been made to the chocobo rearing system:
The below price changes have been made to chocobo-related purchases:
Item
Before
After
Chococard Issuance
500
300
Registration to Call Chocobo
500
250
VCS Honeymoon Ticket
5000
3500
Chocobo Whistle
50000
20000
Chocobo Whistle 1-use Recharge
1000
400
:3 Cheaper Choco Whistle Recharge!
Several new Notorious Monsters have been added to areas introduced in both the Treasures of Aht Urhgan and Wings of the Goddess expansions.
Oh look.. IXION IS COME.
The resistance of the following Notorious Monsters to the black magic spells "Sleep," "Gravity," and "Bind" have been adjusted: Behemoth / King Behemoth / Fafnir / Nidhogg / Capricious Cassie
Well... its a change?
The following changes have been made to the Einherjar system:
The entry requirements for Wings I, II, and III have been simplified. Except for the player placing the chamber reservation, all participating players will be able to enter any chamber in Wing I, II, or III simply by trading a "Glowing Lamp" to the entranceway.
The entry requirements for Valgrind (Odin's Chamber) have been simplified. Except for the player placing the chamber reservation, all participating players will be required to be in possession of a minimum of one valkyrie feather from each wing, for a total of at least three feathers. As before, entry into Valgrind will cause any and all related key items in all entering players' inventories to disappear. * The above two changes in no way effect the player placing the chamber reservation.
The conditions for obtaining "Ampoules of Therion Ichor," as well as the maximum number obtainable, have been changed. In contrast to the previous system of receiving a set number of ampoules upon successful completion of a chamber, players will now receive an amount relative to the number of enemies they have defeated, regardless of whether the chamber is completed or not. Defeating any of the "Guardians of Asgarth" will in no way increase the number of ampoules of therion ichor a player obtains.
The rewards furnished upon successful completion of chambers have been supplemented. The "Armoury Crates" which appear after defeating the Guardians of Asgarth can now contain a greater variety of items, a number of which were previously unavailable in Einherjar.
Monsters within Einherjar chambers will now link with one another in the same manner as enemies in other general areas.
Wait... did that screenshot just show.... Imp Wootz Ingots?
The cap for all job-specific Group 2 merit point categories has been increased. All Group 2 limits have been raised from the previous total of 6 points to 10 points, and the limits for individual spells and abilities within Group 2 from 3 points to 5 points. * The damage boost values generated by the first three increases to the Samurai ability "Overwhelm" will be greater than those generated by the final two increases.
Oh boy... I saw this coming for SAM... Well, at least its an upgrade to some extent.
Several new equipment items have been added.
Wise Gear oh no. Nice weapon though...
New equipment items have been added as rewards for completing guild contract quests. While using these items, you will not be able to create an HQ item, but you will receive an overall success rate bonus for synthesis.
Just... one percent?
The storage capacity for the following items has been adjusted:
Item
Before
After
Dresser
2
15
Wicker Box
2
4
Armor Box
3
5
Coffer
3
5
Chest
2
3
Cabinet
4
7
Commode
4
6
Cupboard
2
6
Chiffonier
3
6
Armoire
5
14
Royal Bookshelf
1
10
Bookshelf
4
20
Blue Pitcher
1
4
Water Barrel
2
6
Sky Pot
2
7
Item
Before
After
Red Jar
2
7
White Jar
2
6
Yellow Jar
1
4
Wardrobe
3
10
Reliquary
2
8
Falsiam Vase
2
6
Console
4
6
Caisson
3
5
Cartonnier
6
20
9-Drawer Almirah
7
16
6-Drawer Almirah
6
15
3-Drawer Almirah
5
14
Credenza
6
7
Gallipot
5
8
I just want to point out that Storage is capped at 80 so... don't get too excited. But still, a bunch of these items just went WAAAAAAY up.
A new text command "/battlebgm" has been added. Use this command to toggle the condition for battle music playback between: 1) when you yourself enter battle mode; and 2) whenever any party member enters battle mode.
I know they added this in a prior update note but... here's how you can change it!
Players of the Xbox 360 version of FINAL FANTASY XI can now unlock achievements and increase their gamerscore.
... We can unlock achievements... Now? Something wasn't worded right. :3
Well, that's really it for the update. Again, I didn't point out the new abilities and jobs and the NM system because... well, they were already mentioned and nothing "new" was released about it. Overall, I can't say I'm disappointed or pleased at all really, mainly because a lot of these changes are things that are not mentioned in detail on the site. We'll just have to see what happens once the server goes back up. Until then: Team Fortress 2 time! ;3
Well, as we all know, the June 08 update to FFXI will occur in about... 7 hours as of this writing? I'm personally psyched for it and I can't wait to see what will be revealed in the update notes. With so many new things, I think this patch will be very huge (~110 MB if I recall) and I think we will be seeing some big changes and additions to FFXI, probably bigger than the WotG Patch.
But anyways, before we get into the update (which btw, I will make a blog post outlining the update along with putting my thoughts in it), I would like to take a few steps back into 6 years ago and talk a bit about how the game has progressed. Yeah, there are things in this new update that should have been fixed a long time ago... but I personally think that change is change, it happened and we should be happy it did, no matter how late it was introduced in the game because as far as I know, according to Back to the Future 2, we should be getting Hoverboards and a product called Pepsi Perfect... maybe with all the awesome sweetness and none of the diabetes.
Lets look at the original JP release (btw all this info can be found on FFXI Wiki), which very very few of us have played on. May 16th 2002 I believe. Back then, it was 50 cap, only 6 jobs can be used and all the beastmen were Orcs... I dunno why they would do such a thing, sounds more like a JP beta. But yeah, no crafting or airships or chocobos to get your butt around. The AH wasn't even introduced yet. In fact, in the beginning the AH could sell 8 of your items instead of 7... Probably some sort of server load thing, I can only imagine. As time went on, we started to see the development of the Synth system, a solidified battle system, and of course new monsters and gear.
Zilart came out on April 15th 2003 and the game was still JP exclusive. Did you know that Delkfutt's Tower was added in the Zilart expansion? :3 We got 4 new jobs, 3 required the expansion: SAM/DRG/NIN/SMN. Existing jobs got some new abilities too and RDM was actually buffed up a little when they got Refresh a patch prior to Zilart. Nomad Moogles existed but you had to pay to use them.... how much? I have no clue. Thank god you don't have to pay jack now.
Then came NA PC release. October 21st 2003. I remember when no one showed up to my programming class in college because FFXI was out. There are a lot of people that remember this day and heck, a few of those people are still playing FFXI even to this day. I, myself, did not join until PS2 release. Dynamis was eventually introduced and the cap stuck at 75. Then, around March 23rd 2004, the NA PS2 release came and Mogknight was created shortly after.
Ah... now I have a common ground to talk about...
I remember when I was such a little Taru, a BLM running around, nuking stuff and getting lost. At the time, the Easter Event was out and that's how I made some gil for myself. Eventually April hit and a new patch came out, which would be the first time I would see changes in the world of FFXI. Ballista came out, /recast was introduced, and all I really cared about at the time was /hurray and /toss, the only real things I benefited from the patch really at the time. Oh and the AH change where you can pick one item from an incomplete stack to sell.
Merits, some changes to TP gain and so on... then Sept 14th, 2004, CoP came out and the Europeans finally got a taste of Final Fantasy XI, for the PC only though. I remember I was just a BRD and the whole Etude change was nifty at best. This was also where NIN took a hit and instead of negating all hits with one shadow, it was possible for NIN to be stripped of all of their shadows. By the way... Promies were pretty hard and taxes on the AH weren't so bad... until they made it based on Seller Price.
At this time, I was a Taru with a sword and shield, which was nice because Shield was... gimped a bit. Fishing was also redone from hitting a single button to actually fighting the fish. People still think fishing was slow but back then, even if you botted, it would take SO LONG to skill up compared to now.
I remember the first huge "OMG I LUV SE" change involving NMs. Archer's Ring, Leaping Boots, Emperror Hairpin, and Peacock Charm were moved to BCNMs and Rare/EX versions now drop off of the previously existing mobs. We also got NPCs and that was awesome. We also got the MPK change where mobs would despawn if unaggroed and the amazing DRG 2hr change.
All this was nice... but it would be a year and a half later until we saw a new expansion... and this expansion changed the face of FFXI to whole different level.
April 18th 2006 would mark the first time an FF would see a release on the Xbox 360 console and also would be the first time EU users got to play FFXI on a console as the PS2 HDD never came out in Europe.
I'm going to stop at this point because I feel that this is where most of the players have "started" their own story in the huge book of Vana'diel tales. This is really just a brief talk about how FFXI has kinda grown in the... system side of things.
Looking back at this game back then and now, I feel old... I really do. So do many other people I assume. Thinking back, no one would have ever thought of "Burn" type parties. End game was strictly for the "elitists," whatever that meant back then. The busy cities of Bastok, Windurst, San d'Oria and Jeuno. The ever frustrating Genkai 1 quest and the AFs. The huge line of fisherpeople or fisher bots, most who were actual legit players actually looking for gil. The Rusty Caps that made great money....
*sigh*
Now, for the obligatory picture montage... Lets get some sort of music going, hmm?
Where it all began.
The Original Tarus of Terror
I like first person view
My first Party!
Mogkvlt.
Typo was always the Ladies Man
Synthing was the in thing!
My first NM! And man, the game doesn't look at all different.
I even got the drop yo! And I also collect stacks of popotos... why? Heck if I know.
Moggie was also in...
... and out of relationships.
Life was peaceful...
Life was a struggle...
Life will surprise you... (lol... I knew this guy this long?)
Life will bring you friendship...
Life will bring you through many trials of hardships...
But a few things are certain...
You will meet a lot of people...
What they do will influence you...
You will make great friends and allies... (and no Lissy, we never got married :P)
The past few days, I've been having a rough time. A lot of it involved trying so hard at trying to be great at what I do and constantly comparing myself to others. I realize that...
1. I'll never be like Rukenshin 2. I'm a Taru and as a Taru, I'm bottom tier for melee jobs 3. There will always be someone better than me, one way or another
And that's really the thing, I'll never be able to reach full potential because I, myself, have limitations that will always conflict me from reaching that full potential. Another thing is that I should not be bothered by this, which is what I have been doing lately and I'm pretty sure its annoying a lot of people in my LS. For that, I apologize to DRF and especially to Liseth.
Anyways, this isn't me saying that I suck, I give up and that I'll never amount to anything in any situation. Its more like me saying "I think I'm the fucking best for what its worth and really, why should I give a damn what other people think?" This kind of mentality can appear to be rather stubborn and could be associated with people who wear Domarus and Sun Rings... but, I think if one can't feed their ego, they're most likely going to be self-defeating and will look down upon themselves.
That is the thing about being in such a great LS as DownRightFierce. I sit there thinking "Man, this LS can handle everything... that means I can get everything or anything that I want in due time." This isn't like a lewthoar thing but rather you sit there in that LS going "I can BE the BEST there ever was." Thing is, that drove me to lose a lot of hours of sleep for a damn Ace Helm that never appeared, not enjoying Salvage for the challenge but just the equipment I would be getting and heck... I didn't care about winning Ouryu, I was more concerned about the gil I would get so I can buy a Hauby +1.
I, for the most part, have lost the real point of me playing this game in the first place. I realize this now and while I still want these things, I don't want to make it a priority because then I would have an obsession with trying to get these items that I would go towards any length to get them and that just makes the game appear more like shit to me. Trust me, I know the game has some pretty bad things to it but it comes with a LOT of good things with it too... it can be easy to forget the good stuff.
I owe a lot of thanks to Lissy and DRF for allowing me to enjoy end game. I don't know how long this shell will last. It could break tomorrow... it could break 20 years from now. I should be spending each of those moments doing something with the LS and make those moments good. Not just for me but for everyone else, I want all of us in this LS to enjoy what we do and being able to enjoy doing the things with other LS mates. I certainly want to be with Liseth for all the good times as much as I can, in real life and in game despite the fact that we are miles away from each other. I may be unable to be with her in real life for a duration of time... so I gotta do with what I got and that would be to do things with her in game. I love her with every inch of my Taru and Asian Male Heart and I wish for nothing but good memories.
Not to drag my real life into this but... this is kinda how I feel, even if it is a bit cheesy.
May your adventures in Vana'diel (and in real life) be memorable~
I recently received all 3 pieces of the Usukane Hizayoroi and have submitted them to be created... While I got a fairly decent piece for SAM (though there are many debates about it, most say its a great WS piece), I can't feel excited yet since I realized I'm but just one small step into getting full Usukane and that a huge, long journey awaits in doing constant Salvage after Salvage to get the whole set.
Needless to say... I'm anything but happy about it.
Its a mentality that has shocked me today even. I am usually the happy-go-lucky Taru that just gets stuff and go "awesomes! I got the power ups! I won the FFXI!" It wasn't the case today with this. I guess after seeing so many people not being able to get what they need out of Salvage and having to constantly burn Assault Points and end up with no reward in the end... Its frustration that I have yet felt. I don't believe I have the right to be "happy" with what I got. Its also pretty upsetting watching my own girlfriend not having her Morrigan's Body 25 item to drop as only upsets her more and more as the days go by without one dropping.
... Perhaps I've hit a point in FFXI where its no longer about being that happy-go-lucky Taru... but more of a serious business attitude as a player in this world of Vana'diel. I can feel it too, a level of frustration that exists because I can't obtain what I need for my character because of obligations outside of my control. I'm sure this exists for everyone out there that plays this game.
Of course, this isn't a good thing, it isn't a good mentality to have. I've lost sleep over trying to obtain an Ace's Helm and potentially screwed myself over in trying to interact with other people in my own LS because I'm in bed all the time until afternoon. The game becomes dry at that point, I feel that this game is now dry. I would need to break out of this habit and just remember the reasons why I play this game in the first place. I will still do Salvage regardless with Liseth because that is why I started doing it: To be with Liseth. As for these other "things" that make my online persona stronger... it may be something I should just avoid trying to seek after and just let it drop on my lap when the opportunity comes. If we just manage to nab up a KV and no one wants an Ace's Helm and its given to me, its probably better off that way rather than me trying to lose my sanity over a few booleans, random number generators and so on.
To be the "Best Taru Samurai Ever" has a price, one that I am not willing to pay for at this point. As long as I'm able to be with Liseth and help her out in any way, that's all I can ever ask for with my 13 some dollar subscription.
