So, I heard you liek bonanzas?

It's been a while. I've been super with work and shit over the holidays so I didn't get much time to play/write stuff here.

So anyway, yet another mog bonanza just got announced, which is still some time away and nobody will win it, so it's not worth worrying about (until they announce the numbers, then I can complain about getting yet another statue for my mule).

So yeah, I'm on Cerb now and unsurprisingly there are a fair few more people here:

Not that this has helped me in any way, still not seen any shouts for missions that I'm on and more people only means more competition for FoV mobs (ugh), NMs, etc. I'll try putting together some groups when I have more time after I get my dissertation in.

Mainly I've being doing my most hated activity of camping NMs for the horribly time consuming Trial of the Magians quests, which requires me to kill a fuckton of trash NMs nobody cares about SEVERAL TIMES EACH (fucking hate that part, there's no reason for it other than to waste time), then kill a couple of new NMs that you can't kill solo, and your job is not even ideal for, so nobody wants to help you with it. Hopefully we can get together some sort of loljob alliance of DRG and PUP that need the kill so we can do it, otherwise I'm SOL.



The only thing this has going for it is that you can at least team up with whoever needs the quest and everyone gets credit for the kill, so thankfully the 4k+ people on this server aren't all potential enemies.



I saw some other neat stuff too, like the way frogs pop:


Gets kinda old though when you've been waiting on the NM to pop for three hours after the window opens (single placeholder lottery pops, fuck yes).


So far, I've had to kill:
Spendlix Spindlethumb x3
Herbage Hunter x3
Kirata x3
Intulo x4
Ramponneau x4
Keeper of Halidom x4

And finally, I have the last two to go until I get my DMG:99 polearm (relic-1!):
Shoggoth x6
Farruca Fly x6

Fuck knows how I'm going to finish this pair.

As for events, Lawz left the server so Salvage is in a 'wut' stage at the moment, I've not been on much either due to work but I expect it to go downhill unless we find a good WHM/BRD and or MNK replacement (preferably all three :|). Plus I don't want to lead runs and my memory isn't great at the best of times so keeping track of what cells people have/need is not going to work out, unless everyone actually takes care of things themselves, but I can hardly ask everyone to learn everything about salvage so I don't have to tell them what to do. In any case, going 2 times a week is not enough to get familiar with everything or get practiced enough to not suck, not to mention the issue of drops, I really don't have more time to dedicate to it either so all I can say is MEH D:

I got some cool shit from Limbus at least:


And I probably dropped about 10 places in the waiting list for nashi legs because of it, but this is worth the sexy.



And, I broke my previous Drakesbane-vs-Kirin record!



In between that, I've got the usual no drop (or even pop) from Timeworn Warrior, which I'm somewhere around 0/5 at now (and at least 3 occasions where I gave up camping because he didn't pop for over an hour...).

In addition, more failed MND bow augments:


And Lamian Kamans are 20k normally on Cerb, so that just got twice as expensive as it was.

Finally, it seems like some lovely people have taken over La Vaule [S]:


Sadly I don't really have the friends or contacts to start spamming Splitting Heirs for chuchu mantles, so no gil/gear for me!

Ok, I'm done dumping.

Dear Hades; What the fuck?

Current campaign status is probably the best since it was introduced. It bewilders me to see everyone making an effort with campaign just before we get merged with Cerberus, so we get a day or two to farm Chuchu mantles/witch sashes before the server is shut down. Smart move guys. (Chances are since all areas are doing much better than normal it may actually be related to the new campaign ranks in the update, so people are trying to get their old medals back)

In any case, I've done some stuff

KIRIN ZERGAN

Not sure if this is actually any good for damage (and I know it's not good compared to what WAR can do) but this is my first WS over 1k on Kirin.


SCHOLAR LEVELAN

Finally a good low level party ._.! Powerlevel + BRD + merit-style pulling = happyface. I was only there as a syncee, otherwise they'd be better off with another DD job.

In between not getting party invites and grinding FoV solo (this is painful as SCH), I've been following a BLM solo guide on beastman pets. It's ok exp, but still kinda slow and you have to focus the whole time if you don't want to die. In adition, getting to camps is a pain, plus avoiding aggo/links can be tricky. Since getting 25 and utsusemi/sneak/invis it's gotten much easier. That said, mobs always seem to move into the worst possible places at the worst times in order to stop your chains, or just outright kill you because they felt like you weren't dying enough today.


It's incredibly frustrating and tends to drive me insane talking to the monsters, which is why I don't like soloing pets all that much.

Gurfurlur the Menacing, Ouryu + misc events

I've been fairly busy lately, but too busy to write anything decent here, plus just writing about events is yawn.



So, sea LS did some rampaging in Halvung on our way to Gurfurlur. Attendance wasn't great so it was a late start unfortunately.


I was on adds duty again, and they're complete pushovers to tank (2 RNGs and 2 PLDs). Not that I actually tanked them, but Ranger mobs are the easiest thing in the game to hold, and Paladins aren't exactly very offensive.


Hate on the adds was messy throughout (RNGs were being jerks for some reason) and positioning didn't go as planned, so they ended up running around and linking random trolls which we then had to have the DDs deal with.


But the fight with the big guy went smoothly throughout...until the last 20%


At this point he starts using a fun AoE-"every bad status effect you can think of" move, and we lost both tanks to something, so he moved into AoE range of everyone and proceeded to do what he does best: menace folk.


And boy, were we menaced.

More Recently...
...Limbus didn't drop any AF materials I need, limbus sucks.
...Salvage gave us skadi x2 from LAC, and skadi + marduk junk from BC, which wasn't wasted at least but nothing we have 35's for. No 35's dropped of course (and we took the wrong porter after fully unlocking for 5fN on our last ZR run, orz). Zhayolm needs more practice, and we need to be faster (plus I want to do 6f!) and I need more assault points, argh!

...Campaign lost me a medal, I'll try to make an effort this month not to lose another else I'm going down a rank. Lousy event.

Tarutaru galore though!

...I've started helping DaFunk with Einherjar, partly because I'm nice like that, and partly because I get to leech Therion Ichor for some nice items; mainly Morgana's choker and Aslan cape for converts/MND builds. Downside is I won't get any abjurations or Vork but it's not like I'd be able to seek out a successful einherjar shell that wants me anyway.



Most Recently!
Did some Ouryu killin'. I was in charge of kiting elementals and babysitting melees as they killed worms and just generally take damage.


The elemental gets kind of annoying after 20 minutes, it starts resisting sleep and runs out of MP so you can't aspir it anymore. I ended up just casting slow on it and letting it hit me with ice spikes on (added paralyze effect!) so I could just ignore it after that with stoneskin/phalanx absorbing damage. Suggesting that the melees kill it because there's no reason for it to be alive anymore was met with a 'lolno' until Gohan said they should kill it, then promptly did. No wonder I'm so hostile to people who don't pay attention to how back line jobs work!

And completely unrelated, I'm meeting ALOT of RDMs recently who have a dalmatica but no relic hat. WHAT IS WITH THAT?

Yo FFXI players, I'm really happy for you, and I'mma let you finish but FFXIV is going to be one of the best MMO's of all time

...of all time! (clearly not overdone yet)


After a long period of nothing amazing being announced by SE, which definately has nothing to do with XIV's scheduled release next year, we finally get notice of the next version update;

New Version Update Scheduled for November! (24/09/2009)



We're pleased to announce that the development and quality assurance teams are hard at work on the new version update, currently on track for an early November release.
With thrilling new episodes of the Wings of the Goddess nation quests, job-related adjustments, added features for Moblin Maze Mongers, an extensive and all-new system involving items, and more, there's sure to be something for adventurers of all stripes!

Further details will be posted here as the release draws closer, so keep checking this space!

Nothing really worth commenting on, apart from they're releasing the next add-on expansion in October, so it won't coincide with the update. Neither of these seem particularily interesting, the video for the new expansion is kinda cool but it's hard to get excited at all now that we know it's going to be 3/4 tedious and badly planned fetch quests, one low-level NM fight and two BCNM-type fights, which are easy as long as you have the right setup, but quite unforgiving if you have a couple of bad jobs and/or players in your group.

But on the positive side, that dagger looks kinda cool. (I would comment on [S] nation quests as a plus, but they are mostly designed for 3~6 man parties, and very few people do them so I don't get to enjoy that content).




I've not done much, and nothing notable has happened in salvage, dynamis or limbus (apart from some shield/parrying skillups farming bhaflau ramparts, woo).

There are fewer people online on the server in general these days (1k~1.2k during weekdays when I'm on) and there are generally fewer pickup shouts for stuff, which is why I've not done much outside of events and soloing. Unless the next few updates motivate anyone to keep playing XI, even just for the sake of completing the main story for WotG (which is what I'd personally like to achieve) I don't see the number of players going back up. I could be wrong though, it could just be Hades that everyone's jumping from ;).

Whatever. Stuff I did:


Campaign! Got my RDM buffer back from 35k > cap. Been doing a whole lot of dying before then.


WotG quests/missions! I need to do fights to progress and I've not had the time to try putting a group together for it ;|


Farming tier 2 enspells, beacuse I needed something to do. Grauberg has 2 mobs that drop it, and took over an hour to actually put out. I farmed enough Quadav chest/back plates to just buy the scroll.

SIDEWINDAH

Nothing interesting to put here, but it's been a while since I wrote anything so here is a list of stuff I did recently. What a bore.


SKILLUPS PEW PEW
Archery > 198 (cap: 210)
Throwing > 173 (cap: 189)
Parrying > 175 (cap: 200)
Staff > 220something (retribution soon!)

Still no martial master kupopower :(



Camping Rare/ex stuff for a mule I hardly use! 0/1 then death warped after a rampage around castle oztroja.


Campaign! Wasted time doing battles to find I already had the max medal rank. Maat is a beast though.



Standing in Whitegate! No 3rd mithra with the mage gear from MKD/ACP came along :\


Dynamis! I was almost entertained for the first hour and a half. Melee gear for next city run? (not windy though, fuck yags)

Moogles, Merits and Medals.

MKD spoilers ahead, be warned. Not that it matters anymore because people just read about it on the wiki ahead of doing missions anyway.

Despite it being a week since I've really done anything, I've managed to do alot in the past couple of days, including beating the moogle expansion~


Chamber of Oracles fight was a bit rough, since the boss spams a nasty TP move which you can see killed two of our DDs in the final moments (because I started nuking, haha!) but other than that it's a simple sleepga > kill adds > fight boss > repeat.



This is then followed by some interesting, but still long-winded quests (or mini games) which are interesting if only because it isn't kill X mobs for Y drop. The only downside is after you've spent an hour doing all the challenges and then fail the final BCNM, you need to repeat them all from scatch which makes it just as bad, if not worse than ACP in that regard.

Thankfully, I went 1/1 on the final fight, which is a relief because 4/6 members were Japanese and the leader was English-speaking. They still managed to explain the strategy quite admirably with the auto-translater. Though it probably sounded a horrible mess to the JP members I had a feeling they knew what they were doing anyway.


And they did! Because the boss spams heavy AoE damage and draw-in every time he hits 75%, the melee should do nothing to get hate on him for the majority of the fight to avoid pointless sponging (hence why we stand and watch on the stairs). Our 2 BLMs basically did most of the work, tanking the boss with stoneskin against a wall (because of knockback) and they were even able to rest because his normal attacks were too weak to break stoneskin. BLMs would nuke him down then sleepga the henchmen, which we dealt with. After 2 waves of henchmen, we slept the 3rd wave and finished the boss off with DDs and BLMs going all out.

All in all, it's a decent expansion, even though they've taken the bad points about ACP (re-collecting key items to repeat fights, competing for low-level mobs to farm) and made it even worse. At least the story wasn't as horrible, but the mid-level augmented items from the chest seem to be no good compared to ACP's augments.


Here's my kupo hat in my new DRG WS setup, it should give me plenty of accuracy now so I've ditched my acc rings for STR in my penta thrust set up as well. I'm still not sure about N.body vs ACP hauby (7 STR vs 10 att + 5 DEX) but at least the body/head combo match here.

The day before I did MKD, I was spamming Campaign battles out of boredom, and I wanted to play on DRG, and ended up getting myself a new medal, along with a T. whiteshell (plus other junk) from Union chests.



And I got enough EXP to finish my attributes merits


I could be criticised for not going 5/5 STR but there's bigger wastes.

I've been sitting on 5 assault tags all week, help me!

See title.

ACP, the only expansion that STILL continues to give you shit, even after beating it:


Penitents rope -10 and a near miss on a good accuracy cape (trade eva for acc please?) are the best things I've gotten (apart from some 20k gold ingots). You should really be able to have more choice in what you get. I'm not saying you should churn out your own acc+6, STR/DEX+2 capes at will, but at least choose between randomly augmented cape/sash/whatever or a random gil item. That would at least make it a little less tedious, but still make people have to repeat it 1000 times to keep the devs happy.


Here's a cute screenshot to lighten the mood.


I got revenge on the birds for last time, no links this time around and got myself to 9 merits to dump on +1 STR. Still no party, not that I even want one to merit since I'm pretty much done, I just want to see how well I do. Next 2 attributes will be MND and INT because a) I've got a nice round 70 STR on DRG/sam/nin and it matches my DEX at 68 when /whm, b) It costs a hell of a lot less merits, and c) Who am I kidding? I don't use DRG anyway~


As much as I dislike it, I might end up finishing merits in Campaign, especially with the new bodies coming out, I'll need to get the next rank of medals.

Not pictured:

I leveled BST to 15 for the hell of it. Want to finish a bunch of other jobs to 15>20>37 eventually. I'll pick a favourite to take to 75 after I am happy with my DRG's gear (which may require things that are out of my reach to begin with).

Tea and medals

I'm working my way back up to the max rank in preparation for the new ranks/campaign bodies after the update.

Got back to doing Bastok missions again, and have gone from rank 8 to 9.


Needed help going through the doors in quicksand caves, easy fight though.


Zeid isn't the best artist in the world, but at least he's better than Angelica.

I had to kill a ghost after this, no pictures because lolghosts.


Angry Galka D:<


Slightly miffed, but not quite as angry as before Galka :|
I got 80k for this at some point, but I don't know who gave it to me...guess I pickpocketed the crowd while they were mouthing off about the tunnel being closed.

My next mission will have me collect salt (what?) for the fat senator guy who I had to get eggs for in earlier missions. How he still hasn't been sacked is a mystery.



Juli said it was impossible to duo the NM, so I'll solo it to show him! There's a RDM solo guide on the wiki but it looks like it was written by a five year old, so if they can do it, so can I!