The Misadventures of Ranger Mog

One thing I wanted to get done before I move to anything else is getting RNG up to 37 for my SAM. While I'm not geared yet for SAM/RNG, at least I got a Soboro to start it all off. Figured before I start working on getting an Osode and a few other things, I'll need to get my RNG to 37 anyways.

Soloing as a RNG can be a pretty painful job but you can often times pull more EXP than you can with a typical Dunes party. To give me a little leeway for survival, I subbed BLU for Metallic Body, which gives Stoneskin. Then I just grabbed whatever I can to maximize my range accuracy and damage.

I can tell you this: You're still gonna be missing a lot of shots. >.> Sometimes that one shot you need can determine if you live or not too! Soloing is not an easy task at times.

Worms are going to be your primary target when you solo. There are located all over the place in Vana'diel. What you want to aim for specifically are the worms in Konschtat Highlands, Korroloka Tunnel, Qufim, and Maze of Shakarami. Worms can't move, worms can't melee you from afar but they do have spells that hurt like crap!

When dealing with worms, you have to think about these factors:

1. Anything else that may aggro around you.
2. Any other worms that can link.
3. Can you put 30' Distance between you and the worm to avoid spells easily?

Sure, all of this sounds easy but once you get out there and mess up once...!

Only real suggestions I can give you to make it easier:

1. Memorize the layout and the respawns of the mobs.
2. Before you take a shot, PLEASE look around you! @_@
3. Stonega sucks, but there is really no way to avoid it other than running out of range, that means your accuracy and damage will take a hit. Use food to compensate for this.
4. Sharpshot whenever you can and make good use of that time.
5. If you can convince a friend or a significant other to PL you (hint hint Liseth >.>), attempt to do so. It will reduce your downtime and gives you more leeway in taking risks during the fight.

Also note: You will be spending gil on this. <.< Probably not a LOT but it will take a hit on the wallet.

Talk about Random Encounters...

I couldn't sleep tonight, so I decided to hop on FFXI and see if I can do something until I felt like sleeping again.

I realized that I need to get the quest "Inside the Belly" active before I can even think about getting some nifty things from fishing. That, in itself, requires a chain of quests that needed to be done prior. One of those quests require that you encounter pirates on the ferry.

For those who don't know how to tell if a boat ride will encounter pirates, let me inform you. :3

When you zone into the Ferry, take note of the chat log and the fade in transition into the zone. If the zone appears and the "=== Area: Ship bound for X ===" message appears at the same exact time, it will be a normal ride (read: boring unless you're fishing or Sea Horror spawns). If the message appears in your chat log and the zone takes awhile to appear on your screen, you will be invaded by pirates.

So, what happens when you get invaded by pirates? Well, you go outside and wait a bit... you'll see another ship that will ride by (the pirates). Now, pay attention to the Humes that appear on the ship. If you see a Hume in a V. Cloak, he will summon Blackbeard (if going from Mhaura -> Selbina) or Silverhook (if going from Selbina -> Mhaura). The target that I'm looking for are the Crossbones, those mobs drop the Sand Charm item that I need for the chain quest.

I went on the ferry for about two rides and we got invaded by pirates... and unfortunately, a Hume was wearing V. Cloak was on it.

Sure, you figured "Eh, it's a Ferry, the Blackbeard and Silverhook are probably easy to kill!"

Well... yes... if you had the right job and gear for it. I, unfortunately, didn't.

Anyways, I was pulling Crossbones off to the side (thankfully they don't link) and killing them off, hoping for a sand charm. This fisherman (who was a THF) pulled Blackbeard into the cabin. I thought "Oh, he can solo it np!" Then after I killed my Crossbones (which btw, didn't drop the charm), I targeted him and he was at near 10% HP! @_@

Being the noble hero that I am, I quickly cured him and invited him to party. I was unprepared for the situation and my HP dropped down ridiculously fast! I quickly got control of the situation (without 2hr mind you) and we managed to beat the thing with like 10% HP each. The Sea Robber Cudgel dropped (which I can't use since its WHM onry) and the THF didn't want the cudgel so he let me have it. This will look nice on my mannequin.

Well... I'm still not tired, probably gonna take a few more trips back and forth, hopefully a pirate attack will occur again.

... And maybe I'll get to fight Silverhook. <.<

Seriously, why is it hard to break a friggen rod?

Lu Shang Progress: ~2000/10000

Today I decided to try to do things a bit differently and try to work on my Woodworking skills as well. The Hume Fishing Rod can be repaired with a light crystal and caps at level 72 WW. I figured "Why the heck not?" and proceeded to check around to see how I can break the rod intentionally so I can skill up off the repairs.

So, first stop was going to Qufim Island! >.> *yay*

From what I researched, if I took some sliced cod and fished off to the south of Qufim, I'll fish up things that will break my rod...

... After about 2 hours of fishing, I don't think I landed a single thing that broke my rod.

Giving Qufim Island up, I went to Gusgen Mines with a bunch of meatballs a bit later in the day. However, I think my fishing fatigue hit... though I think I was supposed to be getting items to break my rod. Well, I was personally too tired to continue around there so I decided to pack up and leave.

Hopefully a few rids on the Ferry tomorrow will do me good, got to donate a few hours of Sea tomorrow too and I got a paper to write as well! :D Ahh... the college taru life.

Short Review of Nov 07 Update + WotG

Well, its been roughly 2-3 months since the expansion came out and it will be roughly a month before the next update. I'd like to take this time to kinda review what was presented with the Nov. Update along with WotG expansion being included.

Now mind you, I was gone from the game for about a month prior to the release of WotG and also I transfered servers and also note that if you're reading this and you're from another server, it might be different on your end.

Anyways, lets get started.

Execution of the release

When this expansion came out, the shipment for the PC version was delayed in NA. That sucked... bad. We would be without the expansion for roughly 3 or so days due to the fact that it was released on the week of Thanksgiving. The release date of it was also pretty bad in general, as people with family would not be able to experience the expansion on the first day, and usually those days are the most interesting.

Poorly executed release, though for those who managed to get it for the 360, PS2, or used other methods of obtaining access to WotG without the PC discs but bought the codes from the 360, PS2 release, it was a pretty nicely executed experience, and everything was fairly streamed nicely.

Ease of getting to the new content

For the most part, it was a bit rough to get to do exactly what you wanted to do. The new jobs were easily accessible as it required short quests that can be done within less of an hour's time with very little effort. The main problem was trying to figure out how the Maws worked when you first got in them. Many players went into the past and exited out of the Sauromugue Champaign Maw and then they warped or died or whatever without seeing the other Maws. That was a bad thing to do because they would have to go back to that Maw to go back to the past. The said Maw can only be reached by going through Garlaige Citadel in the present, which is a pain the butt.

As for going through the campaign, it took a bit of effort and figuring out. It took me about a good 5 hours before I was able to partake in my first Campaign, and most of it involved running through unknown territory.

The new zones look very nice and seeing the older zones in a state of war was much exciting. However, I was not fond of the fact that the position of certain Maws and Campaign Arbiters are located in areas that involved a bit of off walking. While the Maws can be understandable, the Campaign Arbiter locations would require a player to spend time and effort and maybe even their EXP should as it involves wandering around dangerous areas even to a 75. I believe some locations were fixed after a few updates.

Campaign Ops, for the most part, can be ignored and does not reward too much of anything. While they are "free" to do, we also have Assaults that are also "free" to do and they reward so much more.

The ranking system in Campaign is a bit of a toss up. The rewards for having a high rank is not as apparent as it should be, the EXP limit that you get from campaign isn't balanced enough to warrant a rank up, except for the fact that you have to keep attempting rank ups to even keep your rank. I found this to be a bit bothersome and even useless at times. While it unlocks more Campaign Ops, the Ops themselves still feel rather meaningless, and many aren't even fun to do.

However, the campaign battles themselves are probably the biggest great addition to FFXI. Being able to solo EXP/Merits/buffer in these Campaigns make life easier for jobs that cannot normally land a party. While this may not replace parties, it is a good filler for times where you are looking for group. One thing that I don't like about Campaign is the fact that everyone solos it to the point where those who are getting beat up will most likely die because there is no support going on. With that said, if you are to do campaigns, bring a healing buddy with you or sub WHM for reraise.

Along with the expansion, they got rid of the Rent-A-Room system and just made it so that you can just walk in and you're set. Inventory was increased to 70, which is a godsend. People can be invited to your Mog House, which is a nice feature but one that can easily be forgotten.

The update itself changed many things, but that is because there was an expansion with it. The next update will most likely continue the story and so far we know there will be changes to campaign. What I would like to see is more Campaign Op changes and probably a better implementation of being able to see when Campaign battles will occur.

FFXI isn't just all about grinding EXP and getting phat lewt >;3

Upon hitting 75 with my Samurai, I decided to take a break from leveling more jobs and started to focus on doing the things I've meant to finish up a long time ago. With the new school semester starting up for me soon and the fact that I am actively working on a video game project (which I must keep underwraps for various reasons), I probably won't even have any time at all leveling another job.

The Wonderful World of Fishing @_@
Fishing. It goes great with the word "slow," "boring," and often times "stupid." Yes, fishing is slow, it can get really boring and sometimes the things that you need to get while fishing to further enhance your fishing experience is stupid. Fortunately for me, I am immune to most of these! :D

Here are my current fishing plans and goals:

Get Lu Shang (Currently ~1500/10000)
Get Ebisu Rod (Will be awhile before I even think about getting it)
Get fishing skill to 100 (currently 33.0)
Get revenge on Ryugu Titan
Get fishing skill+ equipment for Guild (can't while under Woodworking contract)

Main Focus right now: Lu Shang Rod

Fishing is one of those things that people either enjoy or not. Those that don't often do not understand just how much researching and patience is required to fully enjoy the finer aspects of fishing. And often times, a lot of people just don't have time for it, when honestly, this is one of the fastest things you can do in the game at one time.

Fishing can get you money, fishing can get you a lot of money. Fishing can also get you a lot of headaches and might even burn a hole in your wallet. Therefore, fishing is a lot like everything else in this game. Only real stipulations is that leveling is much slower and you can only catch ~200 things per day (the reason why I say "things" is that fish and items count towards this.) Crafting can net faster skill ups, allowing the fact that you have the money to do such a thing. Crafting has no limitations on how much you can craft per day. So, why pick fishing as a trade over crafting?

Well, for one, you don't do such a thing. Fishing does not affect your crafting in any real way. You can get fishing to 100, you can get a craft to 100 as well without having either conflict another. You can level a craft and fish at the same time without any problems. However, fishing will not rape your wallet full of gil as fast as crafting, so you can fish more often than crafting in the long run. This is what makes fishing a good thing to do when you're killing time every day or night if you choose to do so.

What if you are one of those people that want to rush through things? Well, fishing might not be for you since it is a slow and limiting process that cannot go any faster due to the limitations placed on it. If you still wish to fish, you can choose to buy a Lu Shang rod and skip the Moat Carps altogether. However, Lu Shang really does not show it's true benefits until level 50 fishing, where you start running into the more troublesome fish. You also might want to consider leveling your woodworking to 80 so you can fix your Lu Shang if it breaks.

@_@

THE LU SHANG ROD BREAKS?!?!?!?!?

Well, yes. <.< The Lu Shang rod can break under certain legendary fish. However, don't be afraid. If you fail the synth, you will not lose the Lu Shang rod but will just lose the crystal. There is also an NPC that will fix your Lu Shang for a few items.

So, what is this Ebisu rod that you may have heard about? Well, that would be the fishing rod that is better than the Lu Shang rod. It is the only rod in the game that is unbreakable and is also the only rod that is rare/ex, so don't expect to buy one of these.

If I ever get to the point where I can attempt for the Ebisu rod, I'll start writing about it. Until then... Moat Carp go!

Chocobo Hot and Cold >.>

Remember that minigame from Final Fantasy 9? No? You know, I am surprised a lot of people here in FFXI has never played another Final Fantasy game before...

Anyways, Chocobo Hot and Cold is a minigame in FFXI that allows you to bring out your Chocobo that you raised and try to dig up the treasure box. To help you do so, the game will prompt you via "Kwehs" to help tell you if you're closer (hotter) or farther (colder). Depending on what stats and abilities your chocobo has will also aid you in your treasure hunt. Once you've located it, enjoy your awesome rewards... such as a crap ton of greens. <.<

The treasure pool doesn't sound so exciting at first, in fact, it generally stinks. But, considering how the game is free to play (though limited once a RL day) and sometimes you get some neat pocket change from these items, not a bad thing to invest your time in.

In the beginning, you're limited to certain areas but once you spend a week or so digging successfully, you can unlock more zones to dig in, usually better items too! ;3

No real goal here for me to tackle but I am raising a new Chocobo... lets see what happens.

The Lament of DRF (3/5): Nuclear Halocausts Never Looked So Colorful

I think out of everything I've experienced in FFXI in terms of communities and linkshells falling apart, this is probably the one that could have been so easily avoided, so easily prevented. Yet the irony of it all befits the end of DownRightFierce.

I think it was towards the time where I was trying to chill at a friend's house (in real life mind you) and I wanted to check up on my linkshell to see how things were going on. Mind you, this was after Liseth left the game (and the linkshell) but before she came back to go to Carbuncle.

You know, now that I think about it, the "sacks" and "shell" and leaders and who is in charge... You can sort of, in a sense, call it a selfish reason to tell people what to do.

Anyways...

I was glad there were some hard liquor that night. Perhaps it is wrong of me to make a big deal about a game and a group of people that play with within that game, but when I treat those people as if they were a part of my own online family, it kinda sucks knowing stuff is falling apart, stuff is flying out the window, people are going bonkers and nuts over things.

Ever had the feeling that your own thoughts were simply implanted in you by your own peers, in order to make things peaceful and uneventful? I think I have this feeling all the time.

I think Nyanoh, being the sweetest mithracat that I know, probably got the very blunt end of all this among the sacks. I mean, you exit the game (which btw, if i recall, Thelan was pissing the crap out of her by requesting haste so damn much) and take a break to get married to the luckiest guy in the world (Pascale) and you come back and POOF, shit happens... that is just wrong to ask of a human to deal with, no matter who the heck you are.

You also have to sit down and consider what everything kind of means at this point. DownRightFierce became home to the lootwhores. At least, this is what I felt when even my own sacks were just throwing emotional fits over items. As stated before, I think a lot of people noticed this and thankfully, they left when they did. It was just going to boil up more inside them and worse crap is gonna happen. A good example was Synthetik, a fairly cool Mithra THF that I know and I respect the guy for what he does.

You know, I wouldn't want to be in DRF if I wasn't the leader of it, at this at this point in time.

Back to Synthetik. I think he left right around the time Thelan was leveling THF and I'm pretty sure, while not immediate, he left due to that fact among other things (I think Thelan was pissing him off quite a bit... see the trend?).

You know, anger is a hell of an emotion.

Thelan stepped over the line many times. Really he has. It has been pretty hard to keep interest in running the shell when I have to constantly keep an eye on the guy just to make sure he doesn't say the wrong shit. Heck, we had our arguments and I'm pretty sure that demoralized some people.

You figured I would have been just fine running the linkshell with Liseth and Nyanoh and just stick to my systematic way of going about things...

What sucks is that a lot of friendships and trust kinda blew apart in this LS. A bit of a sad thing considering where everyone came from.

So how did DownRightFierce end? A few said it ended before it begun, a few said it ended when Liseth left, a few said it ended when I left, many got to experience the actual ending when Thelan called it quits.

Lets refer back to those moments and you can decide.

August 13th 2007: Liseth leaves the game.

During the past few weeks prior to this event, Thelan was out with his family but struggles to stay in the linkshell, trying to do things with his limited computer. This caused a bit of drama among the crew, considering that Thelan, while trying hard to make events, often half-assed things though unintentionally. What really peeved off a lot of people was when we had 2 Kirins and we had 2 people set for W. Legs. One other person (I forgot who, sorry) and Thelan in that order. Thelan was not at all in the first Kirin but was pulled up for the second Kirin since the W. Legs would drop there and then. While I honestly did not care too much, many other people did.

It kept getting worse, they try to make it to meetings but a lot of the meetings end up being emotional garbage, either due to people being crabby or people stepping on the wrong foot. Remember when I said Thelan should shut his mouth sometimes? Oh, I didn't say it like that... maybe I should more actually. But yeah, Thelan should have kept his mouth shut and stop causing problems, as things were already in bad shape.

The tension between the sacks grew a bit out of control here, especially since Liseth and Nyanoh wanted to encourage more Sea based events but Thelan and Lillie, though a bit rough and emotional about it, wanted more Sky based events. I, being the person who wants progress and really wanted to satisfy what most of the people wanted (and that was primarily less Sky), I went towards Liseth and Nyanoh. What made it harder was the fact that I, at the time, was in love with Liseth though in no way was I influenced in my decision to do more Sea because of her. I wanted progress, I wanted the Linkshell to go places, I did not want to sit down and do what we have done for the past year.

(btw: It was all Sky, all the time)

One meeting, Thelan and Lillie decided to desack themselves. In a rage of panic, we all tried to convince them to come back. This, was perhaps, my greatest mistake and I regret this moment to this day. If I knew DRF was going to end up the way it was going to be, I would have easily cut Thelan and Lillie out of the picture.

You may be saying "Well Mog, you're pretty damn harsh about this, aren't you?" Well... I don't think I was harsh at all during my entire run of DRF.

Liseth pretty much didn't want to deal with it all. Understandable, it is just a game and bad politics is just not something anyone wants to deal with. It was a pretty emotional time, it was almost as if she was the forth coming of a new era in DRF but instead was shot down.

This was to be the thing that started my own down fall.

October 30th 2007: My exit and also my Birthday! :D

I always contemplating leaving the linkshell, leaving the game, leaving this stuff behind and moving on. It wouldn't be until 3 some months later that I would do that. Nyanoh left for WhirlingWind eventually, mainly due to how upset she was towards Thelan and Lillie about what had occured. I was down to 3 sacks. Homeslizzle was chilling, he knew it, he knew it pretty well that I was at my worst. Lillie and Thelan just kinda kept going for what it was worth. I was spazzing out all the time, going on emotional fits all the time.

Mogknight was no longer a leader at this point. I didn't want to tell people what to do, I didn't want to be that charismatic leader that people look forward to. I was an empty shell of my former self.

I left shortly before my birthday, when my classes were getting rough and everything just kept piling on me. Everything else beyond this point in time would involve me living in Carbuncle.

December 11th 2007 - The Death of DownRightFierce

I have nothing to really say about this, other than the fact that I know the community of the linkshell disbanded at this date. Who knows what went on other than those who were in DRF.

... I guess that's the bare gist of it all.

Now what the heck am I gonna talk about for the next 2 chapters...?

I really need to redo the layout here <.<;

Such a busy Holiday season! Doing so many things at once, I barely have had any time to write about anything on my blogs. But to catch people up on things...

(insert uber list)

-SAM75
-Been working on crafting lately, WW69
-Been doing ENMs and Assaults with my lovely and sexy girlfriend Liseth :3
-Debating on selling O.Kote for Dusk Gloves
-DNC to 22ish?
-Trying to figure out what job to level next.

I'm debating leveling yet another DD job. The only thing that comes to mind though is DRK, DRG is something I wanna wait until later, while THF and RNG aren't too high on my priority list.

There is always PUP...

I am planning on leveling RDM soon but I'll work on that after another DD job. I just need something to kinda chill with kinda like what I did with SAM, nothing too serious.

Campaign is pretty bad when there are just so many people fighting in one battle. I do hope they balance that out, especially since it just seems so easy yet annoying.

OH yeah! :o Take advantage of the New Years event and get those 3 Snowmen as they give 4 storage each, very nice if you actually use Storage.