Oh, so that level sync thing

Actually, there's a crapton of topics of events that have occurred throughout the recent weeks. I might as well get down and dirty with them.

Absolute Bullshit and Pandemonium Whatthefuck

As we know by now, SE is planning on changing these monsters (and JoL, which many might scoff at but it is probably related to AV) to make them to be easier/shorter fights. Of course, until the update comes out and we see what is changed to make it an easier battle, kinda no point in talking about what they could do to make it so, especially since I, myself, have not fought any of the two.

On a side note: I've done JoL 5 times total in my entire FFXI career (believe it or not) and I haven't seen AV at all during those 5 times (believe that or not).

So, what we know about the AV we have now in the game, SE claims that it would take 16 some hours to beat it, 10 at the mnimum. Now, a lot of people have gone crazy about this and rightfully so. Me, on the other hand, didn't think too much about it. To me, AV was designed to be something that wasn't meant to be killed easily at all. Like, lets look at the items it can drop:

First, you have Ninurta's Sash, which aside from MNK's Black Belt, would be the best belt in the game. Imagine if AV was to be placed at a difficulty level that is significantly easier. No one is going to want to camp KA, no one would want to do Wyrm KS99, and pretty much, there goes two things that went obsolete there. Granted those options are still there for those that are not in any End Game LSes. Ninurta's Sash would become the benchmark item and dare I say it, it might be easier to obtain than a Swift Belt if AV was made too easy.

And then you have the Mar's Ring, which is the best melee ring in the game for the most part. Compare these two items to some of the stuff that is in the other ZNMs and HNMs and so on and you'd pretty much be saying that AV just has some really overpowered items.

Then you got Futsuno Mitama which, if I knew what activated the latent, could be better than Hagun.

And then there's that +8 Magic Accuracy ranged weapon.

For the most part, this NM has some nice things and to let these items loose would be pretty bad I would say. Like, what if some of the things in Salvage and some of the things in Dynamis Northlands just dropped to you just like that and everyone ended up getting those things? It would make quite a bit of items before it useless, you wouldn't even want to consider trying to get any older equipment. Now granted, yes, there are items out there right now that are pretty useless due to us knowing better or just signficantly better equipment out there.

Personally, if they make AV an easier fight, I would hope that it either has a horrible drop rate or something that makes the fight really difficult but wouldn't force the players to spend all day and night to kill. I want some of those items, that's a definite. I just don't want those items just handed to me on a silver platter because the fight was made easier.

And now we have PW. I totally respect everyone in BtL who gave it a shot and pretty much with their own drive and ambition, took the fight for as long as they could. Without their patience, we might just end up still with no changes on AV or PW. The press just jumped on this thing pretty bad. While I don't think the press forced any sort of pressure on SE, I'm sure SE was more concerned of the fact that the players themselves have made a strong reasoning as to why these two NMs needed to be changed.

It was kinda funny because even among my RL friends, we were joking about this whole PW business because heck, it's all over the news. It's also like a game of telephone where some information just doesn't get through. Personally, I welcome the changes that are going to happen, though I doubt that a finalized plan on how to kill these two things won't come about for awhile.

I will say this though: Vrtra has been ninja'd and I think most consider it as unkillable now. Granted he doesn't drop anything awesome but still...

So, how about that Talisman?

I like collecting stuff. I have all of the FF releases starting from PSone up to now (including GBA and DS), I still have that pendant from Lunar 2: Eternal Blue, and I have an 8-bit figurine of Simon Belmont, colored to his Simon's Quest colors (red/black/white).

Now SE has started a new thing where they sell in-game merchandise. The first item they have for sale is a Tidal Talisman. If one purchases one, one can pick up an in-game item which is kinda nifty. This wouldn't be the first time they've done it since they did release an harpsicord with the Piano Collections.

While I welcome this idea, I do have some problems with it.

1. wtf is a Tidal Talisman? It isn't in the game at all (yet). You couldn't even say it's an FFXI item or an item that represents FFXI. Like, if I bought one and wore it, people who lets say... never heard of this item before but plays FFXI... and they look at me, they're not gonna go "Oh, you play FFXI?! :D :D :D" Like, if you're going to make a collectable item, at least the first one, make it some sort of FFXI trademark item, not something you made up on the spot.

2. The in-game item is very nice... but it's on a 40 hour recast timer.

40 hours? ;_;

Sure, it's a bonus item that comes with the necklace and not the other way around but for what it does, why do we have to wait almost 2 days to reuse it? 24 hours would be nice and considering how long it takes to reach these areas (20 minutes at the very most), maybe even less than 24 hours.

3. I don't live in Europe and I don't live in Alaska or Hawaii but from what I understand:

- Europe doesn't get this deal.
- Alaska/Hawaii have to pay 20 dollars for S&H, the other 48 states + Canada pay around 8.

I mean, that's like half of what you're paying already.

But on another note: Full Resin Shadowlord for 230 USD. I doubt I'll get it but it does look very nice.

Oh and apparently, if you have this on, you teleport people and thus making their lives easier... you'll be "the best from now."

Campaign still not gonna be fixed

Yes, the whole /BRD singing stuff will be fixed... but that just means some of the jobs that actually DO have a hard time getting XP by themselves in Campaign will just simply not have Campaign as an option, thus eliminating whatever interest is left for the person that wants to get some of the things in Campaign but are unable to because they have to spend so much more effort to even equal up to what a melee or any other job that has an easy time in campaign.

Though I could have sworn they said something about fixing that aspect but I didn't see it in the notes. This doesn't really affect me all that much because I have SAM/WAR/PLD to do my campaigning work. However, those that are low level or those that just have a hard time getting those points in for campaign... basically screwed until they get to a higher level or level another job. Yeah, you can potentially build around campaign and I'll be looking for information about that for those jobs that have a hard time doing campaign... but I kinda hope for something that can benefit magic users and make their lives easier.

Oh, so that level sync thing

So yeah, I had a dream once. After doing a bunch of Salvage, I was thinking "Hey, if they ever make another expansion with missions like CoP that are level capped, what they should do is enforce a stat cap but let us keep our equipment and stuff on so it's not a pain in the ass."

Lo' and behold, that dream came true for the most part. Yeah, there's some bad things I can see from it (skill levels being hurt a bit, relentless invites for CoP missions) but there's a bunch of good things from it as well so... Hurrah for SE for making this decision.

And no, no Aegis/Excal PLD is going to party with you.

So how about that Mogknight?

Well, I came back after Vegas and started up fishing again. I'm currently fishing up Shall Shells, both for profit and to skill up on. Oddly enough, there are some good things you can fish up and simply NPC... which I'm sure all the RMT are on that. Unfortunately, they're still all over the place so what can one really do about it? I did have this funny idea where your HP decrease as you keep fishing and you would have to stop and heal yourself. This would also make fishing a bad idea at low levels because your HP would drain pretty fast. Like, this wouldn't kill you but if you were reduced down to 1 HP, you would automatically give up your line.

But, silly idea aside, fishing is probably all I'm gonna be doing for awhile before/after events. I do have a lot of merits and even items to get for BLM but I want a flow of gil going so this is gonna be devoted to that time.

Nothing really changed for my SAM or BLM. SAM is something I don't expect to get anything for the job any time soon. With the exception of Ace's Helm, Hachiryu Haidate, and maybe Askar Body, nothing else I want NM or event wise. BLM, on the other hand, I still have quite a bit of things I want but it will take time and really, I have all the time the world.

To be honest, I want a change of pace and fishing is doing that for me. I love my linkshell and all and as an officer, I make sure things are running smoothly. However, there are just times where I kinda want to just spend time with Lissy or whoever else and just kill random stuff, be it some pop NM or small man sea farming or whatever it may be. I still need those Mufflers or even A Hands so... lets not even start with the fact that I'm lacking stuff like RR Pumps, Uggy Pendant and a multitude of AF1+1s. Like, we have Limbus every Tuesday and optionally every Friday (though Tuesdays are optional, we tend to fill up and usually it ends up being a required limbus due to it being Proto or something). I kinda want to take a Limbus day off and solo an area as best as I can, even though I don't have Gaiters.

I wouldn't want to do it all the time... just once in every great while. I'm happy with the way things are so I wouldn't mind if I never get the chance to do this stuff. Plus, it would kinda help me clear my mind of any ill-thoughts I would have about anyone.

On that note: even though you're doing a bunch of end game stuff, remember that there's a lot to this game that can be seen as a escape to an escape. Sure, you play FFXI to escape from real life... but then you gotta escape from the in-game drama as well... what better way to do it with some fishing, crafting, or some chocobo digging? :3

Well, I tried!

Yet another filler post

Various web projects, a huge MMORPG to play and I'm all out of Sunkist! ;_;

Anyways, I'm keeping this short and sweet because I need to get in bed...

BLM I got to 70 with some help from Lissy and Bobbyray. Campaign XP is really the only thing tiding me over. Rarely do I find a camp open on BLM for me to even solo so it really sucks on my end.

Still, the Usukane Head 25 piece is far from my grasp. It will require a bit of effort in my group to get to the boss in time to fight it as fast as possible. I'm so close to Usukane Head, I can taste it! I had to sell my Osode though to buy the Ingots. Truthfully, I think it was worth it because I rarely WS on Osode except when I'm on /THF. Many would say Osode is best for SAM to WS in general, I kinda don't see the difference but then again, I never really parsed it.... and then again, impulse got the best of me.

The motivation to level MNK is still there but I will not start until my BLM is properly merited. Yes, this will take me a LONG time to do but I figure I'm in no rush.

One more Tier 3 win for Einherjar for access to Odin... Can't wait.

Xarcabard sucks, where's my girlfriend's RDM AF2 Hat? :(

Minor Rant: I can't really see why someone would up go to you, being the most rudest person in the world, and inquire about your LS. I don't blist people except for the whole shouting RMT spam way back when... but still! Guy got my nerves... and I'm pretty sure he was just itchin for a quick item and then jet.

I've been playing Traumt Center 2 on the DS. Been playing with double stylus for XS ranks on hard... so far, having a hard time.

I had a few people poke me while I was doing my own thing, saying they're fans of my blog. :3 Thank yous~ I promise I'll write something more detailed later when I'm not swamped up with things!

Other than that.... I had a pretty okay 4th of July weekend in FFXI and in RL.

Oh and I've been watching Awesome Video Games over at YouTube. Check them out, might be worth watching inbetween HNM Windows. @_@;

Black Cloak infused with Love~

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!

My Weapon Skill Accuracy...

... leaves more to be desired. ;_;

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~

Oh Boy... And I'm supposed to be in bed

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.

It's not about "if," it's about "when."

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

I'm gonna miss you...

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!

Vana'diel 2004 to Vana'diel now

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)



And many weird things will go wrong...



But...



The world of Vana'diel grows.




From past...



... to present...



And...




Well... I guess the future?

Warning: Cheesy Post

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~

Usukane 1/5... woot?

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.

Mog to the Future!

After getting BLM to 75 and having that as a great option to do some stuff with (oh and not to mention being a perma BLM in the LS because Lissy is evil), I'm thinking about what other jobs I want to level to 75. Really, at this point I should probably try to go for Maat's Cap but first I want to get the jobs I would enjoy out of the way and just grind the other jobs to 66 later.

Here are some ideas and thoughts for what jobs I would want to level next:

Monk: The Punching (and soon to be Kicking) Fiend!

I figure that I have most of my MNK gear already due to SAM. Another thing is that I have a D. Body Abj sitting in my Mog House and really all I would need is the 900k or so to buy the cursed body. I kinda would place MNK in the same Category as WAR in terms of play style. You pretty much sit there, buff up when your JAs are up, WS when appropriate, use any other abilities whenever. Really, after playing SAM and BLM, I really do feel like playing another sit back job where the majority of the time you'd be sitting there not having to think so much about partitioning your TP so much. It also would be nice for Salvage and maybe even some farming. I'd give this a go... but then I gotta worry about the Belts... Also with the new update to MNK, I would really like to see how this job ends up.

Red Mage: Pimp.

Honestly, I always wanted to level RDM but I just can't be arsed to buy new equipment for it. The problem is that RDM equipment is neither Mage stuff (Seers) or typical melee stuff. I could just go until I hit AF like a gimp... it really doesn't matter though, everyone would want me for my curing, hasting, and refreshing. Debuffing would sorta be a problem for me due to the lack of MND as a Taru but maybe it'll all work out if I equip for it.

I honestly always admired Liseth (Well, I love her too but that's besides the point) and her ability to solo many things in this game. While I don't have access to Gaiters (for now), I do have W. Legs and I would like to do the same things she does and what many other RDMs do. My only real problem is that AF would be a pain in the ass for me and trying to keep up with all the buffing and debuffing that goes on. I can probably do it but I dunno how long I can keep it up...

Dark Knight: "Go Suck on a Moogle"

I took a heavy interest in DRK even prior to SAM. The only real reason why I never continued leveling it is that I went back to playing SAM one day and... Well anyways. I like hitting hard, I like big numbers and I like their abilities of being able to draw HP to deal damage and even having additional buffs to those moments. Plus, I can pick from a huge sword and a scythe and can even make a Zerg build of sorts since I have most of my Homam. I think its an option that I'd like to explore but it isn't really high on my priority list.

Blue Mage: You'll be like Quistis... just not hot.

People have always been telling me that I should level a mage job (at least long before I started BLM). At the time, I drew a lot of interest in this when ToAU came out. However, I chose to not level it due to the fact that the job was still new, it has high potential but I wanted to see everything ironed out before I take it up and become disappointed. Even now, I don't see that many BLU, I still think it is a powerful job but not really a job that I can see myself enjoying all too much at the time. It was still MP reliant and I thought it would be like playing other types of MMOs where it would just be spell/ability spamming. Now, I still feel the same way... but now I feel like playing some Korean MMO. What way to do it other than play BLU? The job also gets stronger as updates occur with new mobs but I have yet to see anything really significant.

Puppetmaster: Oh... I know what you're gonna say...

Despite the ridicule it gets, out of all the pet based jobs in the game (DRG I wouldn't count in this category), PUP seems to be the most fun because it has the ability to be almost as potent as another party member, probably even more so, who knows. It is also very nice because you as the PUP really don't need to concentrate too much on your own gear to function correctly. Can you do the job naked? Probably, I dunno... it really looks like you can or even be close to naked.

That's really it for now. Who knows, I might even pick a job that's not not on this list. I still think FFXI can be enjoyed so much as you unlock more jobs into the higher levels. It gives you another perception of things and opens up more windows of opportunities, even if you play a job that is undesired by End Game LSes. The hard part is leveling up with the idiot people... But that's just something you'll learn to deal with in life.

I h8 Jailer of Temperance

No, it isn't because he doesn't pop for me... its because every time I want to do something else in Sea like farm Ghrah M Chips or help out with a mission, Lissy always says "Hey, lets try to pop Temp" and it ends up popping.

Yeah...

I hate that damn flying sex toy. :(

This week in DRF was pretty productive:

We got a Taru Molestor.



I found a Kirin behind a thingy.



I even fell asleep on an Aern!

For the most part, we're going pretty healthy and I can only see many more awesome adventures going on... as long as I keep remembering to hit the screenshot button.

As for myself, I've been working on BLM AF for the longest time. After constantly seeing people in the Pso'Xja camp (and ruining my AM one shotting fun), I decided to stop leveling for a bit to work on the BLM AF. Now, let me tell you people, before you go out and get your gloves, please realize the following:

1. Once you activate the quest, you can be on another job to open the chest (You know this one).
2. If you are on another job that is currently able to get AF from the coffer you are trying to get gauntlets from, that job's AF will take priority over your gauntlets. (You probably didn't know this one).

The reason why I point this out is because... I spent 2 extra hours refarming a key because I forgot my PLD AF was still active (due to AF1+1 and needing to repeat my gear) and instead of getting the BLM Old Gauntlets... I got my Gallant Coronet back! NIFTY! >:

Keep that in mind :3

At least Dark Spark was easy to solo.

Prior to all this though, I decided to get a party with Lissy since she wanted to level DRK and my BLM was close to her level. Because it was a chance to be with Lissy, I couldn't refuse! ;3 However... the exp was sorta ass for me, even though the party was doing a very good job. It mainly had to do to the fact that I was fairly low leveled (52 and I think highest was 54). Nothing an Anniversary Ring can't fix though! By the way, I used up all my charges, what about you guys? <.<;

Livin' Large.

Oh, we also did Dynamis yesterday. They made me pull...

I hate my job.

Actually, despite the fact that everyone is dead in that picture, we pulled a win with 300 some currency and quite a bit of Wootz! :3 Not a bad run at all I'd say~

And finally... Box for a Mog Head.

Until next time~

Mog's Variety Week

This week has been a pretty busy week for me. I honestly don't think I've put this much effort into the game before, even more so than CerbDRF.

btw: From this point forward...

CerbDRF: The Linkshell I ran back in Cerberus which kinda blew up.
DRF: The Linkshell currently being ran by Liseth and which I am a sack of.

I think I've done a lot of cup emptying and relearning a lot of things. This is good because old habits I've formed before are gone and I can develop better habits.

HOLY SHOCK: Reviving the Luster of PLD

While I really wouldn't consider myself a Main PLD any more (been shifting towards SAM), I still keep up with all the other PLDs in this new LS. I kind of have to, I'd be damn dead jealous if I didn't. I've been exclusively using /NIN, so there's a lot of consider in terms of how I can maintain CE. People have suggested using some NIN Debuffs, others have suggested having an HP swap build. There are also quite a lot of nice PLD Enmity Gear that came about during the past few updates, many of which have flew past under my radar.

Some stuffs that I'd want for my PLD right now:

-Some stuff to get some HP slack in
-Bahamut Mask
-Jelly Ring
-Wivre Shield
-Trance Belt
-Defending... Ring

-Hades Earring +1...

On a side note: I killed the King of Turtles :3

WHAT'S THIS?!: The Return of BRD... Sorta

I have started playing BRD again, mainly because I'm really not in an LS that kinda uses BRD in such a way that makes the job completely boring. Unfortunately, I sold a lot of my original BRD gear and as such, I'm kinda reduced to picking up scraps and trying to get enough to do enough. Recently, I did get AF1+1 BRD Hands and a Kirin's Osode back in UF. Not bad for a return to BRD really... though I could use a Wind Torque and get rid of my damn Bird Whistle.

ANOTHER VERSION: Mogknight as a Mage?!

Yeah... I finally broke into a Mage Job (and BRD doesn't count). Currently at level 44, I've been soloing and partying my way up slowly. I intend to get this to 75 soon. With the Anniversary Ring making its return, it might help a lot! :3

By the way: this job is really lax... which is cool, it lets me play The World Ends With You on my DS while I EXP!

SOUL ON FIRE: Return of DownRightFierce

Life has been pretty great in terms of our new Linkshell. Within a week we managed to tackle our first Tier 2 Sea God and got some nifty items along the way~ So far, every battle we've been in involves some level of epic-ness. Now, one would assume when something epic happens, something wrong must have occurred for it to be epic. Well, here's what was "wrong" with most of these battles: They're all mostly small-maned.

It isn't because our LS is small (it is for now at least with around 16 some members), but the fact that we do a lot of our farming "on the go." We do plan these out but a lot of members opt to head straight to Sea or Sky whenever they feel like and tackle on these NMs. Pretty nice thing really, allows us to challenge ourselves and have the odds against us.

By the way: Trioing Despot PLD/NIN, RDM67, and BLM/RDM can have some hilarious results, especially involving another LS trying to get in your way while kiting. >:3 Too bad that couldn't stop the Mog.

Temperance on the other hand...

Actually...

If there was one thing that didn't go as planned: Failed HNM Limbus Run. :3 Hey, gotta have something imperfect to be perfect.

And finally: A CFH'd Charby

The drama for the Joytoy never ends.

As for random stuff that occurred:

- Epic Temperance Battle
- Almost snagged a Faust vs JP
- Diorite drop rate sucks
- Ix'DRG dropped a Vice... but Ix'DRK hates us.
- btw: Ix'DRK RR 8 times. So far the record is like... 19?
- Had a really smooth Faith run. Lissy was showing off her tanking skills.
- Took us about 12 Sharks to get an HQ right before we were going to do hope. Koki made NQ Organs drop like mad.

As for myself:

- Still wanting Usukane
- Running into a lot of random NMs lately
- Urge to level NIN rising
- Had a BCNM40 group get 2/3 on Peacock Charm
- PLD DD Build in the works. Need Askar Body. >.>;

And finally: Why not to play Galka in FFXI.