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!

Extra Post: Battle Adjustments

Well, this slipped by me as I was posting my last entry.

Merit Points Group 2: Maximum Raised for Ability Increases

Adjustments to the Group 2 section of the merit point job categories will be implemented in the upcoming version update.
The current total maximum ability increase of 6 and the individual maximum ability increase of 3 will be raised to match the Group 1 values of 10 and 5, respectively.

New Job Abilities and Spells

In conjunction with the scheduled job adjustments, the monk, paladin, and bard jobs will be receiving new abilities and spells.

For monks, we will be adding a new job ability that allows them to restrict their attacks to kicks only. In exchange for a penalty to attack delay, the monk receives an increase to damage and attack power, as well as a bonus to the amount of TP gained per kick.

Paladins will be receiving a new spell that increases the rate of shield blocks, as well as reflecting blocked damage back to an attacker. As with "Blaze Spikes" and "Dread Spikes," this spell will only affect the caster.

Lastly, bards will gain a job ability that allows them to limit the area effect of a song to a single target.
For example, if a bard casts "Mage's Ballad" after activating this new ability, only the selected target will receive the effect of the song.

Wow... This means...

- Awesomer G2 Merit Builds
- MNK being a 2h?
- PLD being awesomer tanks
- BRD no longer having to do epic maneuvers to land a spell on someone.

I am pleased. Good night folks~

I'm a Repetitive Taru... really, I am!

Now for an actual, somewhat lengthy post!

Again, I keep forgetting to abuse my screenshot button, I really should map it on my controller or something.

But anyways~

SE and the Random Doings.

There's quite a bit of FFXI related news that has been tossed around, most of which I'm kinda late on the delivery of. The more important ones include the fact that Somepage, a huge database of FFXI related material, has malicious code somehow implanted into their website. I would advise (especially at this point because I don't even think they update their stuff as of late) to not even go to that website any more. This is kinda the second time that it has happened and I can probably say it is the more common websites to get quick item details and has a really powerful search function. However, as I have said, it is the second time that they had malicious code on their website and for the most part, it is probably nailing a lot of people.

I could go on and on about web security and how to protect yourself from such hazards but... let me give you some names of some programs to use to help yourself.

- Firefox
- NoScript Plugin for Firefox
- PeerGuardian 2 (btw: a bit of tweeking is required to get FFXI working on it as it blocks SE's website)
- Sygate Personal Firewall
- AVG
- Firefox

Anyways, Nomad Moogles being added in Mhaura/Selbina, more Fellow stuff, Campaign NPCs that heal you, and Outpost Warps get saved~

Would be nice if we could like... store Pre-25 Equipment Sets... but that's just me.

Paladin vs Paladin: Who Can You Hate More?

One thing I've been really frustrated about is trying to keep up with a PLD in my linkshell. The guy just holds hate so spectacularly that I can't figure out a way to keep up with him. Now, tanking usually involves the tank trying to keep their hate to cap and trying to outhate the rest of the DDs/Support/what have you. I think I'm at a point where I can get there but I'm probably doing something really wrong with my playstyle and having a hard time achieving such an effect. Granted, the PLD I mentioned has a lot better gear than I do but I feel that while enmity can do so much for me, I don't think I'm using it to its fullest potential, and that is what really irks me because then I know I'm not doing my job right. I also don't think it is a matter of "knowing" what to do, its executing it effectively, and that's skill right there. I figure that its something I have to fully devote my time to. As I keep playing, I should get better... but eventually, like in everything that people do, they hit a "wall" that they need to get around. I think that's where I'm at right now, I'm at that "wall," that limitation that blocks you in your mind.

The Wanderer: Taru Samurai Spirits

I got something pretty nifty the other day, despite all my PLD troubles. We did our first Jailer of Justice fight and we managed to get a Torque Drop on the first kill~

I manage to win the lot on the Justice Torque, which helps my SAM quite a bit with my TP Build. We also did a Jailer of Prudence which also dropped a torque and another Justice that didn't drop a torque. Needless to say, we were very lucky and I think most of it was due to the addition to Chinchilla to our LS. Great THF, probably a great RDM too but never got her to bring it. X3

My Samurai has been the focus of my attention for a bit, at least until I'm "ready" to take on PLD again. It is one of those "emptying your cup" situations where I want to take my mind off of it then go back with a new fresh view. But anyways, I decided to try to follow Xanthe's advice (minus the Not Tarutaru part) and try to get my hands on things that I'm able to at the moment. Currently, I'm messing around with KV... that's all I can really say about the subject. Lets just say I'm losing a lot of sleep over this NM. Ace's Helm would be very nice on my SAM as it would be 3 great things combined into one robo-cop helm. I can't refuse such an item! :3

I still need to farm my Flame Gorget items... been pretty lazy with that, especially when I'm trying to redo some of my merits. I finally hit 8/8 GKT and I've been wanting to parse my SAM for awhile without Acc Songs/Rolls.

I also been trying to work on a Damage Reduction Set for SAM again since I'm finding myself doing Salvage a bit more. Maybe in a few more weeks...

My First Mage Job: Black Mage

Managed to hit level 58 a few days ago. However, I am somewhat less motivated to level the job. The main reason is because I think 50 spoiled really bad because I can one shot Goblin Pet mobs assuming I don't resist. It had a huge negative affect to me in the sense that...

1. My enfeeb skill isn't increasing.
2. My dark skill isn't increasing.
3. I'm not learning how to be an "effective" soloer for later mobs.
4. Soloing in general isn't helping me be better at being a party person.

Needless to say, I'm gonna "fun" readjusting myself to be an effective BLM later on. By the way: I hate buying spells.


By the way: you can get some pretty decent XP out of Campaign if you know what you're doing. More on this in a later post.

Mog of Windurst: Warrior Within

I honestly have not touched this job in awhile and maybe its because of the whole DW to 2h shift that I have yet to fully transition myself to. WAR compared to SAM just feels so dry with 2h because I can't really play aggressive as much as I would want to. That's the problem I think, I try to treat GA WAR too much like SAM. I will probably need to read up on more things on WAR and look into other applications for it. As for right now, I'm trying to get the IS to get the Perdu Thingy and going to probably concentrate on getting GAxe merits up while demeriting my Sword/Axe Merits, which are now obsolete to me as I rarely use my DW build now.

On another note though: Rabbit Pies I heard were pretty good for tanking and DDing.

DownRightFierce: Tiamat Burgers for $4.59

We bagged our first Tiamat and... well, it dropped something but it wasn't anything uber. We've been doing really well with Sea/Sky/random HNMs/Dynamis/Einherjar.

Sea I've mentioned already~ Sky was a funny situation though! Someone apparently by accident typed /help instead of /heal (btw: he plays on the 360 so no plugins to prevent it)... which never made sense to me but ok. Anyways, they CFH Seiryu (which is no biggie) and it took us awhile to recover, it was a bit of a mess since it was really unexpected. He didn't drop any of the stuff I wanted... so meh! Screw that dragon! Next time!

Dynamis, luckily for DRF this time, didn't involve me MPKing people as I was not the one pulling. However, we did manage to get a few nice drops from Sandy such as 2 PLDs and a BRD hat. There were some deadly pulls... I wasn't joking when I said the pulls from the Ronfaure gates were a pain in the ass. If someone can help me figure out how to pull them, it would be great. ;_;

The Einherjar alliance with PPN (or is it PNN? Its one of those two) has been going great and we've been getting about 30 some people each run. Maybe we might end up fighting Odin soon...!!! I would really enjoy doing such a thing as many people have not really done it... Yeah. Though, I still would like to see what changes they plan to do for Einherjar in the later updates. 1000/15000 until I get a Ritter's... I got some time.

By the way, we got a mention from Chinchilla about our LS in the Pet Food Alpha podcast. :3 I think I'm starstrucked or something for having her in the LS... or somethin. You can hear a short tidbit about us in Episode 102: Garrison of Pet Food Alpha. Hey, any publicity is good publicity... I think.

And finally, here's a Mog in a Box.

SE Interview - Nothing Really New

Read the Interview here.

Well, I wasn't really expecting much... I doubt anyone else was expecting much and certainly, this isn't really getting us anywhere closer to the questions we have.

I'll let the link speak for itself.

On the side note though: I hate Jailer or Temperance, had a good Omega run with a bunch of Tachi: Kokis being tossed around and I really hate the crap out of Promathia Mission 8-2!

Short post today, long post some other time~ Toodles!

Banhammar, Tighter Policies, and Server Malfunctions!

Lets start with this news post by SE

Regarding the Frequent Difficulties on Multiple Worlds

Since the start of April 2008, we have been experiencing technical difficulties in various worlds and areas of FINAL FANTASY XI. The technical difficulties include not being able to access specific areas or not being able to use the auction house or delivery service. Hardware has been replaced in response to the issues, but the cause still remains unknown.

Our technicians continue to work with the hardware vendor to find preventive measure for the accessibility issues. To implement part of this preventive measure, maintenance will be performed on Apr. 23, 2008 from 10:00 to 12:30 (PDT).

Further preventive measures are being planned in the near future.
We will inform you via an announcement when details of the measure are finalized.
http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.italic.gif
insert italic tags
At this point, we are not able to guarantee that the service will return to full functionality once the measures are implemented. We would like to apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused and ask for your cooperation and understanding at this time.

I don't think I've experienced any problems regarding this... or even anyone in my LSes. Maybe some sort of international problem for the EU and the JP? :X Whatever it is, lets just hope stuff doesn't blow up when they start implementing stuff in this maintenance. "X3

Edit: I am a retard. >: Apparently, this is affecting actual Server Worlds. >.>;

How about this next one...

Regarding Online Attacks against FINAL FANTASY XI

Recently, we became aware of an individual who attempted to compromise the integrity of the FINAL FANTASY XI service. The individual's efforts exploited the low-security passwords chosen by a small percentage of our customers. We would like to assure our users that our PlayOnline team quickly responded with countermeasures against the attacks from this individual. Additionally, our legal team worked together with U.S. government authorities to identify and locate the individual. As a result of our investigation, we have now completed an out of court confidential civil settlement which has serious financial consequences for this person. This is in line with our zero-tolerance policy against any attempts to compromise or hack FINAL FANTASY XI and the PlayOnline system. We will vigorously investigate and prosecute any such attempts.

In addition, we have recently implemented new policies and procedures concerning the restoration of PlayOnline accounts and FINAL FANTASY XI character data for players whose accounts have been compromised by unknown third parties. Please refer to the news announcement regarding the new policy for details. These compromised accounts bear no relation to the attack discussed above.

Again, we would like to thank you for using our PlayOnline services. We will continue to take the appropriate measures against any sort of attacks to insure the quality of our services.

Please refer to the following link for the details on the compromised account restoration policy.

Taj? @_@;

Next order of business...

Accounts Banned (Apr. 23)

We would like to report the termination today of multiple accounts held by players involved in the usage of third-party tools or cheats, or engaged in RMT (Real Money Trading) activities.

Based on the results of our investigation, around 6,860 PlayOnline accounts were terminated while around 990 accounts were temporarily suspended.
Additionally, we have increased the number of mass bannings against certain PlayOnline violations in order to prevent illegal acts.

The termination of these accounts has led to the removal of approximately 4.1 billion gil from circulation.

Nothing really interesting to point out really... uh... Good job SE! :3

I also found this to be pretty funny...

- I've seen characters using their abilities with impossible timing on Notorious Monsters the moment they appear. Isn't this a violation of the user agreement? Or are they violators of the user agreement who have somehow avoided getting banned?

The Special Task Force individually investigates the areas and characters mentioned in each report submitted by FINAL FANTASY XI users, but in most cases, the characters mentioned above are fighting Notorious Monsters through completely normal behavior.
We will continue to investigate each report we receive and ban players who are found in violation of the user agreement. If you discover any players violating the user agreement or using illegal methods to play the game, please be sure to report them to the Special Task Force.

Allow me to reiterate that for you...

- OMGWTF THAT MOB SPAWNED CLAIMED! BAN THAT MOFO, BAN THAT MOFO NAU!!!

Get a better computer. --SE

p.s. No, we're not gonna recode FFXI to make it work better with video cards. Invest in overclocking and liquid hydrogen.

And then finally... Something they probably should have done awhile back >.>;

PlayOnline, at its discretion, may provide two kinds of assistance for customers whose accounts have been accessed by third parties: “account recovery” and “game data recovery.” Both of these may be provided based on the results of our own internal investigation. “Account recovery” removes the disciplinary measures history for the period that the account was being accessed, as well as fixing the password changes and other data that was altered during the period of unauthorized access. “Game data recovery” restores an account's game data to the state it was in before it was altered through unauthorized access. Game data recovery, however, can only be requested once per customer. (Multiple accounts can be dealt with on a single recovery request).

To sum up that image: You can choose to fix your account so that your characters would be the same as they were at a certain point in the past (basically, whenever they backup saved data) but you can only do this once. Otherwise, you can choose to have your account recovered, which all it does is remove any bad records, fixing your password and anything else that might have been altered... but you might end up coming back, looking like garbage. :3

Nifty.

You know, we always try to say to each other "Be careful when surfing the interwebs~" Honestly though, sometimes these things just slip through the cracks of some unlucky individual and poof, there goes all their stuff. Not just in FFXI but also in other stuff like bank accounts and what not. >.>; Identify theft and all. Sure, there are ways to avoid this stuff from happening but sometimes it happens. Just have to cope with it and try to recover as much as you can. Most importantly: don't let that ruin your fun in game or in life.

>.> Oh and always keep an eye on your bank account... Because damn... @_@; Past experiences.

All Worlds Maintenance (Apr. 23)

At the following time, we will be performing FINAL FANTASY XI maintenance on all worlds. During this period, FINAL FANTASY XI will be unavailable.

Maintenance operations will delete any reservations for Pankration matches. Players who are scheduled to participate in Pankration matches, those who will enter Assault, Salvage or Einherjar areas, or those who will participate in Dynamis or Limbus at the time of the maintenance, we ask that you please wait until maintenance is complete before engaging in these activities. Please note that we cannot replace items that are lost during the maintenance process.

Thank you for your understanding and patience.

* The World Transfer Service will be unavailable starting 30 minutes before the maintenance. Please wait until after the maintenance is completed before attempting to use this service.


[Date & Time]
Apr. 23, 2008 from 10:00 to 12:30 (PDT)
* Maintenance completion time may be subject to change.

[Affected Services]
FINAL FANTASY XI

More delicious maintenance! You know what that means folks... *logs out in DA*

POL News: Vana'diel Collection 2008 for Windows in Stores Now! (04/17/2008)

FINAL FANTASY XI Vana'diel Collection 2008 for Windows is now in stores! The collection includes the complete award-winning original game plus all four expansions (Rise of the Zilart, Chains of Promathia, Treasures of Aht Urhgan and Wings of the Goddess) on one easy-to-install DVD. The package features a fold-out map of Vana'diel, command lists and mini starting nation walkthroughs to help new players begin their adventure! Every copy comes with a 30-day free trial and a Vana'diel Buddy Pass to invite a friend to try FINAL FANTASY XI.

Nothing really special but if you want all the expansions and the game in one fancy Install Disc, there ya go. 30 USD, might even go down in price to 20 later on.