Man am I pissed! Checked out the RDM updates this morning and I was in shock. They gave WHM all that great stuff then game RDM a seemingly worthless update (SMN just got a bug fix). If they had announced the RDM and SMN updates first it probably wouldn't be so bad, I mean pointless updates are Square's forte, but they had me fooled into thinking the bar was raised. The "updates" are as follows:
"In this second half of the announcement on job adjustments and additions planned for the April version update, we present to you a delectable array of changes that are bound to change the way you buff and summon!
Red Mage
The new job ability “Composure” and a new line of En- type magic spells will be added.
- Composure
(Lv.50 Ability Delay: 5 min. Duration: 5 min.)
Increases accuracy and lengthens recast time. Enhancement effects gained through white and black magic you cast on yourself last longer.
- Notes
Activating Composure will impose a recast time penalty upon all magic, songs, and ninjutsu."
*cough* What? It increases accuracy, and makes buffs casted on yourself last longer. That's cool but what is with the increased recast time? It clear that this buff is meant for melee usage. You'll get a higher chance of hitting and your buffs will stay on longer but if you have to wait longer it negates the point. Let's look at this in a party situation.
I pop Composure on myself, cast refresh on myself, then start hasting and refreshing the party. This process alone will take longer due to the recast time delay. Could be as little as 5 seconds or as much as double the time for each spell. Normally in a party, when refresh wears off on me, that's my cue to start the buff process over again. Due to composure however I may not even notice refresh has worn off for a bit if I'm in the middle of casting debuffs. And when I do start casting it again everyone will have to go longer without refresh or haste. Pretty annoying but not too big of a deal by itself. But like I mentioned there is also debuffing to do, curing as well. If I cast paralyze and it's resisted, I can wait a second, then toss it up again. With Composure active, I'm gonna just have to ignore it and try to remember to come back to it later cuz' It may waste too much time. Again by itself not too big of a deal since spells like paralyze, bio, dio, ect have a pretty short recast time. Other spells like gravity and stun are a whole other matter. These abilites take awhile to charge and can make the difference between life or death in a lot of situations, making the the increased delay unexceptable. Let's not forget curing. I toss a cure IV up on the PLD cuz' his HP dropped to red. He tries to cure himself but his casting is interrupted so I cast a cure III on him. All of a sudden the mob uses incenerate and drops his HP back down to the red. I try to hit him with a cure IV or III but I can't due to casting delay. Hooray!
I can't see the benefit from the solo side of things either. Okay, I use composure before I start fighting and cast Protect, shell, haste, refresh, phalanx, stoneskin, enspell, bar element, and utsusmei ni to get myself buffed, then I turn Composure off...that's it. During combat it would only get me killed cuz' RDMs have to cast keep all of those spells going (minus maybe the bar element) to keep themselves alive if fighting a Tough or above opponent. For some of the spells like haste and refresh, composure isn't such a bad deal since you'll have to cast them less. But for spells like stoneskin and utsusemi it's devestiating. The increased delay is pretty much guarunted to get you skilled.
"- En Type Spells
Enfire II (Lv.58) / Enblizzard II (Lv.56) / Enaero II (Lv.54) / Enstone II (Lv.52) / Enthunder II (Lv.50) / Enwater II (Lv.60)
Adds elemental damage to your initial attacks (subsequent blows by characters for whom multiple attacks are possible do not receive this effect). Each successive activation increases elemental damage strength up to a predetermined limit. Reduces the target’s resistance against the associated element.
Example) Enfire II: Adds fire damage to your initial attacks and reduces the target’s resistance against water."
Okay...level 1 enspells deal damage per hit which makes them useful even if only barely so. Level 2 enspells will only activate on the first hit. Meaning unless it does a huge chunk of damage, it will end up being weaker then a level one spell if you are double or triple attacking. The level 2 spells also weaken elemental defense for certain elements, not bad but there are already weapon skill and magic that does the same thing. It'd be great for BLM in your party except you don't want a BLM in your party and you get the spell at 58, a couple more levels and you are fighting colobri who reflect spells that a BLMs cast...
Ugh, I have a bad feeling that this update will be totally useless. I was hoping for a reason to start playing RDM again and this just isn't it. I'm perfectly fine with no buffs that benefited party melee, but with no real enhancements to soloability I'm still better off using my THF or NIN to kill stuff at 75.
Monday, March 30, 2009
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Down not out
Hell, if I can't do a podcast, there is still no reason for not posting my thoughts. I mean, this is a blog, right? So, I was gonna podcast about some of the FFXI news that's happened over the past few weeks but I'll post my thoughts about that stuff here instead.
First up, not really FFXI news but I fixed the links to episode 1 and 2. They were linking to my other podcast Serial Experiments Gaiden feed. So, I fixed those links and they now lead to the proper Looking for Party feed.
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The first bit of game news is server migration. It seems that Square is offering people on the Bahamut server the chance to move to a different server free of charge. I'm currently on the Bahamut server and too be honest, if I were playing I'd be pretty tempted to make the move. It sucks that the only choices are Pandemonium, Garuda, Kujata, Seraph, Lakshmi, Midgardsormr, Fairy, Asura, Remora and Hades. My current character is from Quetzecoatl, so, if that was offered I might have picked it. It is interesting to see Midardsormr on that list though. My first character, Parillius, is from there. It would be neat to go back there again but I'm sure I wouldn't remember anyone (nor would they remember me) and all of my real life friends who started the game with me don't play anymore. Who knows though, since I'm not currently playing and I've only been on Bahamut for a year, I may log in and find myself stuck in new world when I start playing again :/.
GTFO my server, mortal!
Probably the biggest piece of news released lately, at least to me, is the White Mage update. WOOOOOOW, in my last podcast I mentioned being on the fence about taking it to 75 but after reading about all these updates, it seems set in stone that I'm gonna level WHM when I get back. Unless of course some other job gets pimped out before then and I pick that instead. Sadly I don't understand some of the info that Square Enix has released but I'll give my thoughts on them anyway. I'm sure some of the other FFXI podcasts have explained what all this stuff means but I haven't been listening to other FFXI podcast lately because I'm saving them for my return.
Job Abilities
Two complementary new job abilities are scheduled to be added, with ability delay set low for both so that white mages can optimize their usage for the ever-changing tactical needs of the battlefield.
"- Afflatus Solace
(Lv40 Ability Delay: 1 min. Duration: 2 hrs.)
Inspires you to draw strength from the healing spells you cast.
While Afflatus Solace is activated, the amount of HP you restore via Cure spells and the job abilities Benediction and Martyr will be recorded up to a limit determined by your character’s level.
This accumulated amount will determine the bonus value granted to specific spells."
When I first read "Inspires you to draw strength from the healing spells you cast.", I thought it meant combat strength. I was like wtf, melee WHM? Nooooooo! But upon rereading it it does seem to really only effect your healing ability. I can't really say how useful this is but since it doesn't seem to have any real penalties, it should be nice. I'll be curious to see how much of a boost your healing spells get but this seems like a double edged sword. In parties WHMs usually have a backup healer (I try to avoid parties with WHM only myself) so the extra healing power might mostly go to waste. Especially if you have a PLD tanking. Secondly, there are a lot of lazy WHMs who like to toss up Cure V all the time. The extra healing power will make their cures pull even more hate and I can see that causing trouble in a lot of parties. But I still think this ability will be neat even though it'll be one more spell that you need to keep up during parties. It's a little weird that SE would make WHM more like SCH but maybe that's what it needs.
"- Afflatus Misery
(Lv40 Ability Delay: 1 min. Duration: 2 hrs.)
Inspires you to draw strength from the damage you take.
While Afflatus Misery is activated, the most recent damage you sustain will be recorded up to a limit determined by your character’s level. This damage amount will determine the bonus value granted to specific spells. Unlike Afflatus Solace, it is non-accumulative and overwriting"
This ability seems to be almost useless unless you're soloing. I'm assuming it'll effect banish and or enfeebling spells. Sure WHMs will get hit here and there in a party but if you're getting hit enough to keep Afflatus Misery charged, you are playing the job wrong. I do suppose that if my thoughts about Solace being a double edged sword prove true, it may be worthwhile to just leave Misery up encase you do pull hate.
"- Sacrifice (Lv65)
Transfers one enfeebling effect from target to yourself.
Casting Sacrifice while Afflatus Solace is activated grants a bonus to the number and variety of enfeebling effects transferred."
Now this will be extremely useful. Extremely annoying aswell but what can you do. Should be nice for if a tank gets hit by bad breath or some attack that does multiple status ailments. I just hope nobody expects WHMs to use this to take bio/dia or silence off anyone.
Spell changes and additions
"- Cure / Cure II / Cure III / Cure IV / Cure V
Casting the above Cure spells while Afflatus Solace is activated grants the target the effect of Stoneskin for a short duration.
The Stoneskin effect attained via this method is not stackable with and will not overwrite the white magic spell “Stoneskin” or Blood Pact: Ward ability “Earthen Ward.”
Awsome! I'm sure the stoneskin will probably be so weak it'll only weaken the next attack as apposed to nullifying any hits but it's still extremely nice. This should make any job that tanks happy and is bound to save the lives of party members who are one hit away from death. This will put SCHs who like to toss Stoneskin on the party and SMNs who like to use Earthen Ward out of a job but oh well. I'll be curious to see if this works on members outside of your party. Should make power leveling interesting.
"- Elemental Resistance Spells
Casting Bar- type spells while Afflatus Solace is activated grants an additional defense bonus to the associated element."
Does this mean bar spells will actually work now?
"- Holy
Casting Holy while Afflatus Solace is activated grants a potency bonus to the spell based on the amount of HP you restore. The record of accumulated HP is reset upon use."
I don't think I've even bothered to buy Holy. Boy is that spell useless. It might actually do damage with Solace activated but if negates your healing boost it isn't really worth it.
"- Cura (Lv40)
Restores HP for party members within area of effect.
Casting Cura while Afflatus Misery is activated grants a potency bonus to the spell based on the most recent damage you sustain.
The record of damage taken is reset upon use."
I don't see how this is different then Curaga but maybe it costs less mp then Curaga II and heals for way more then Curaga I, which could make it useful in a pinch if the casting time is fast enough. The fact that it becomes stronger if you sustain damage makes me think it's perfect for healing a party after a goblin fight if it uses bomb toss.
"- Esuna (Lv61)
Removes one enfeebling effect from yourself and party members within area of effect.
Casting Esuna while Afflatus Misery is activated grants a bonus to the number and variety of enfeebling effects removed."
Yes please. I've never understood why WHMs didn't have this spell. Divine Veil is great but since you can only use it like once every 10 minutes it's nice to have an alternative. Esuna should make fighting imps way less annoying. That is if it doesn't take up too much MP.
"- Auspice (Lv55)
Reduces TP dealt when striking an enemy for party members within area of effect.
When cast upon a white mage for whom Afflatus Misery is activated, Auspice also adds light damage to initial attacks and bestows an accuracy bonus when target is missed."
If I'm reading this right, it's saying mobs will get less TP when they get hit if the spell is active. That's kinda neat. I've never really cared about mob TP myself. It always seems like they use their abilities whenever they want regardless of how much they've been hit. While abilities like this and subtle blow have a slight effect on most mobs, I don't see myself using this outside of a boss fight. I sure as heck won't waist MP casting this on goblins.
"- Banish / Banish II / Banish III / Banishga / Banishga II
Casting the above Banish spells while Afflatus Misery is activated grants a potency bonus to the spell based on the most recent damage you sustain.
The record of damage taken is reset upon use."
Pointless. Just like Holy.
Other Changes
"In addition to the above mentioned adjustments and additions, the following changes will also take place:
- White magic “Banish II”: Slight increase to magic accuracy. Casting time shortened from 3.75 to 2.5 seconds.
- White magic “Banish III”: Slight increase to magic accuracy. Casting time shortened from 5.5 to 3 seconds.
- White magic “Banishga II”: Slight increase to magic accuracy.
- White magic “Raise II”: MP consumption reduced from 200 to 150. Casting time shortened from 20 to 14 seconds.
- White magic “Raise III”: MP consumption reduced from 250 to 150. Casting time shortened from 20 to 13 seconds.
- White magic “Reraise”: Learning requirement reduced from Lv33 to Lv25 for WHM, and Lv40 to Lv35 for SCH.
- White magic “Reraise II”: Learning requirement reduced from Lv60 to Lv56 for WHM, and Lv75 to Lv70 for SCH. MP consumption reduced from 175 to 150. Casting time shortened from 8 to 7.5 seconds.
- White magic “Reraise III”: Learning requirement reduced from Lv75 to Lv70 for WHM. MP consumption reduced from 200 to 150. Casting time shortened from 8 to 7 seconds.
- Job ability “Martyr”: Ability range increased to be equivalent to Cure spells."
Totally sweet once again. The Banish part is rubbish but the rest of it is super useful. I love that they've reduced the amount of MP needed to cast raise spells. I just wished they'd shortened the cool down timers a bit. We'll still have to wait forever for Raise II and III to recharge whem WHMs have to raise a large group of people. With Reraise II dropping from lvl 60 to 56, I'll have to pick that up before I start leveling WHM again. Too bad I spent all my cash buying a Black Cuisses for my DRK before I logged off last.
Sorry Red Mage, there's a new pimp in town
Boy, that took some typing, lol. Next up is MOG BANAZA! I'll be back in time for this for sure! I didn't win anything last year but I intend to buy all the marbles I can this year and hopefully I'll get a treat. Looking at the list if I win it'll probably go something like this.
Rank 1: Ares's Cuirass. The Futsuno Mitama is pretty tempting but I think I'd be better served to take the Ares body since I can use it on PLD and DRK.
Rank 2: Homam Corazza is the clear winner. THF would come out of farming duties and become my job a choice again if I had a piece like that.
Rank 3: Algol would probably be my pick here. +3 triple attack for my DRK? Yes, Please. Sure I'd get myself killed but it'd still be awesome to have. The Homam Cosciales is pretty tempting too but I don't think I'd get it unless I won the Body piece to go with it. The Hauteclaire is fairly tempting with physical damage taken -7 but since it's Paladin only I don't know if it's worth it when I can get pieces that can be used by other jobs. The Seveneyes club also has some appeal with +7 conserve MP but I still think I'd go with the Algol.
Rank 4: What a difference a few years makes eh? I would have killed for some of this stuff once upon a time but now the Moldavite Earring is the only piece that I think is worth getting. I never really understood why the only alternative, leaping/bounding boots, were such a big deal myself.
Rank 5: Nothing of any value here. I guess I'd take a statue if any of them have special effects.
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I guess the last thing to comment on is the trailer for "A Crystalline Prophecy." My opinion of it is that it's pretty lame. Doesn't really show anything, it's another trailer with text that won't make sense until you play the content, and it stars another little kid. C'mon Square, would it kill you to make a main character who is old enough to drink? In Rise of the Zilart the main bad guy looked like it he was 13, in Chains of Promathia, Prishe looked about 15 at best, Nashmeira might have been an adult but since this game is Japanese I'm gonna guess she was 16, Wings of the Goddess brought a little Elvaan brat, and now A Crystalline Prophecy brings us a new little runt. Square, more characters like Tenzen, can I have it? I only watched the trailer once but I doubt my opinion will change when I see it again. It'd be nice if they introduced something cool.
Okay, that'll do it for this post. Man that was loooong. I probably spent way more time on this then was needed for something nobody will read. On the podcast front I've given up on my old mic. I may break down and pick up the cheapest one I can find at Walmart so that I can put something out but considering I'm a month behind on bills, I don't know how wise that would be :). We'll see what happens I guess. I'll try and have another blog post up if Square releases any more info that is of any interest.
First up, not really FFXI news but I fixed the links to episode 1 and 2. They were linking to my other podcast Serial Experiments Gaiden feed. So, I fixed those links and they now lead to the proper Looking for Party feed.
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The first bit of game news is server migration. It seems that Square is offering people on the Bahamut server the chance to move to a different server free of charge. I'm currently on the Bahamut server and too be honest, if I were playing I'd be pretty tempted to make the move. It sucks that the only choices are Pandemonium, Garuda, Kujata, Seraph, Lakshmi, Midgardsormr, Fairy, Asura, Remora and Hades. My current character is from Quetzecoatl, so, if that was offered I might have picked it. It is interesting to see Midardsormr on that list though. My first character, Parillius, is from there. It would be neat to go back there again but I'm sure I wouldn't remember anyone (nor would they remember me) and all of my real life friends who started the game with me don't play anymore. Who knows though, since I'm not currently playing and I've only been on Bahamut for a year, I may log in and find myself stuck in new world when I start playing again :/.
Probably the biggest piece of news released lately, at least to me, is the White Mage update. WOOOOOOW, in my last podcast I mentioned being on the fence about taking it to 75 but after reading about all these updates, it seems set in stone that I'm gonna level WHM when I get back. Unless of course some other job gets pimped out before then and I pick that instead. Sadly I don't understand some of the info that Square Enix has released but I'll give my thoughts on them anyway. I'm sure some of the other FFXI podcasts have explained what all this stuff means but I haven't been listening to other FFXI podcast lately because I'm saving them for my return.
Job Abilities
Two complementary new job abilities are scheduled to be added, with ability delay set low for both so that white mages can optimize their usage for the ever-changing tactical needs of the battlefield.
"- Afflatus Solace
(Lv40 Ability Delay: 1 min. Duration: 2 hrs.)
Inspires you to draw strength from the healing spells you cast.
While Afflatus Solace is activated, the amount of HP you restore via Cure spells and the job abilities Benediction and Martyr will be recorded up to a limit determined by your character’s level.
This accumulated amount will determine the bonus value granted to specific spells."
When I first read "Inspires you to draw strength from the healing spells you cast.", I thought it meant combat strength. I was like wtf, melee WHM? Nooooooo! But upon rereading it it does seem to really only effect your healing ability. I can't really say how useful this is but since it doesn't seem to have any real penalties, it should be nice. I'll be curious to see how much of a boost your healing spells get but this seems like a double edged sword. In parties WHMs usually have a backup healer (I try to avoid parties with WHM only myself) so the extra healing power might mostly go to waste. Especially if you have a PLD tanking. Secondly, there are a lot of lazy WHMs who like to toss up Cure V all the time. The extra healing power will make their cures pull even more hate and I can see that causing trouble in a lot of parties. But I still think this ability will be neat even though it'll be one more spell that you need to keep up during parties. It's a little weird that SE would make WHM more like SCH but maybe that's what it needs.
"- Afflatus Misery
(Lv40 Ability Delay: 1 min. Duration: 2 hrs.)
Inspires you to draw strength from the damage you take.
While Afflatus Misery is activated, the most recent damage you sustain will be recorded up to a limit determined by your character’s level. This damage amount will determine the bonus value granted to specific spells. Unlike Afflatus Solace, it is non-accumulative and overwriting"
This ability seems to be almost useless unless you're soloing. I'm assuming it'll effect banish and or enfeebling spells. Sure WHMs will get hit here and there in a party but if you're getting hit enough to keep Afflatus Misery charged, you are playing the job wrong. I do suppose that if my thoughts about Solace being a double edged sword prove true, it may be worthwhile to just leave Misery up encase you do pull hate.
"- Sacrifice (Lv65)
Transfers one enfeebling effect from target to yourself.
Casting Sacrifice while Afflatus Solace is activated grants a bonus to the number and variety of enfeebling effects transferred."
Now this will be extremely useful. Extremely annoying aswell but what can you do. Should be nice for if a tank gets hit by bad breath or some attack that does multiple status ailments. I just hope nobody expects WHMs to use this to take bio/dia or silence off anyone.
Spell changes and additions
"- Cure / Cure II / Cure III / Cure IV / Cure V
Casting the above Cure spells while Afflatus Solace is activated grants the target the effect of Stoneskin for a short duration.
The Stoneskin effect attained via this method is not stackable with and will not overwrite the white magic spell “Stoneskin” or Blood Pact: Ward ability “Earthen Ward.”
Awsome! I'm sure the stoneskin will probably be so weak it'll only weaken the next attack as apposed to nullifying any hits but it's still extremely nice. This should make any job that tanks happy and is bound to save the lives of party members who are one hit away from death. This will put SCHs who like to toss Stoneskin on the party and SMNs who like to use Earthen Ward out of a job but oh well. I'll be curious to see if this works on members outside of your party. Should make power leveling interesting.
"- Elemental Resistance Spells
Casting Bar- type spells while Afflatus Solace is activated grants an additional defense bonus to the associated element."
Does this mean bar spells will actually work now?
"- Holy
Casting Holy while Afflatus Solace is activated grants a potency bonus to the spell based on the amount of HP you restore. The record of accumulated HP is reset upon use."
I don't think I've even bothered to buy Holy. Boy is that spell useless. It might actually do damage with Solace activated but if negates your healing boost it isn't really worth it.
"- Cura (Lv40)
Restores HP for party members within area of effect.
Casting Cura while Afflatus Misery is activated grants a potency bonus to the spell based on the most recent damage you sustain.
The record of damage taken is reset upon use."
I don't see how this is different then Curaga but maybe it costs less mp then Curaga II and heals for way more then Curaga I, which could make it useful in a pinch if the casting time is fast enough. The fact that it becomes stronger if you sustain damage makes me think it's perfect for healing a party after a goblin fight if it uses bomb toss.
"- Esuna (Lv61)
Removes one enfeebling effect from yourself and party members within area of effect.
Casting Esuna while Afflatus Misery is activated grants a bonus to the number and variety of enfeebling effects removed."
Yes please. I've never understood why WHMs didn't have this spell. Divine Veil is great but since you can only use it like once every 10 minutes it's nice to have an alternative. Esuna should make fighting imps way less annoying. That is if it doesn't take up too much MP.
"- Auspice (Lv55)
Reduces TP dealt when striking an enemy for party members within area of effect.
When cast upon a white mage for whom Afflatus Misery is activated, Auspice also adds light damage to initial attacks and bestows an accuracy bonus when target is missed."
If I'm reading this right, it's saying mobs will get less TP when they get hit if the spell is active. That's kinda neat. I've never really cared about mob TP myself. It always seems like they use their abilities whenever they want regardless of how much they've been hit. While abilities like this and subtle blow have a slight effect on most mobs, I don't see myself using this outside of a boss fight. I sure as heck won't waist MP casting this on goblins.
"- Banish / Banish II / Banish III / Banishga / Banishga II
Casting the above Banish spells while Afflatus Misery is activated grants a potency bonus to the spell based on the most recent damage you sustain.
The record of damage taken is reset upon use."
Pointless. Just like Holy.
Other Changes
"In addition to the above mentioned adjustments and additions, the following changes will also take place:
- White magic “Banish II”: Slight increase to magic accuracy. Casting time shortened from 3.75 to 2.5 seconds.
- White magic “Banish III”: Slight increase to magic accuracy. Casting time shortened from 5.5 to 3 seconds.
- White magic “Banishga II”: Slight increase to magic accuracy.
- White magic “Raise II”: MP consumption reduced from 200 to 150. Casting time shortened from 20 to 14 seconds.
- White magic “Raise III”: MP consumption reduced from 250 to 150. Casting time shortened from 20 to 13 seconds.
- White magic “Reraise”: Learning requirement reduced from Lv33 to Lv25 for WHM, and Lv40 to Lv35 for SCH.
- White magic “Reraise II”: Learning requirement reduced from Lv60 to Lv56 for WHM, and Lv75 to Lv70 for SCH. MP consumption reduced from 175 to 150. Casting time shortened from 8 to 7.5 seconds.
- White magic “Reraise III”: Learning requirement reduced from Lv75 to Lv70 for WHM. MP consumption reduced from 200 to 150. Casting time shortened from 8 to 7 seconds.
- Job ability “Martyr”: Ability range increased to be equivalent to Cure spells."
Totally sweet once again. The Banish part is rubbish but the rest of it is super useful. I love that they've reduced the amount of MP needed to cast raise spells. I just wished they'd shortened the cool down timers a bit. We'll still have to wait forever for Raise II and III to recharge whem WHMs have to raise a large group of people. With Reraise II dropping from lvl 60 to 56, I'll have to pick that up before I start leveling WHM again. Too bad I spent all my cash buying a Black Cuisses for my DRK before I logged off last.
Boy, that took some typing, lol. Next up is MOG BANAZA! I'll be back in time for this for sure! I didn't win anything last year but I intend to buy all the marbles I can this year and hopefully I'll get a treat. Looking at the list if I win it'll probably go something like this.
Rank 1: Ares's Cuirass. The Futsuno Mitama is pretty tempting but I think I'd be better served to take the Ares body since I can use it on PLD and DRK.
Rank 2: Homam Corazza is the clear winner. THF would come out of farming duties and become my job a choice again if I had a piece like that.
Rank 3: Algol would probably be my pick here. +3 triple attack for my DRK? Yes, Please. Sure I'd get myself killed but it'd still be awesome to have. The Homam Cosciales is pretty tempting too but I don't think I'd get it unless I won the Body piece to go with it. The Hauteclaire is fairly tempting with physical damage taken -7 but since it's Paladin only I don't know if it's worth it when I can get pieces that can be used by other jobs. The Seveneyes club also has some appeal with +7 conserve MP but I still think I'd go with the Algol.
Rank 4: What a difference a few years makes eh? I would have killed for some of this stuff once upon a time but now the Moldavite Earring is the only piece that I think is worth getting. I never really understood why the only alternative, leaping/bounding boots, were such a big deal myself.
Rank 5: Nothing of any value here. I guess I'd take a statue if any of them have special effects.
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I guess the last thing to comment on is the trailer for "A Crystalline Prophecy." My opinion of it is that it's pretty lame. Doesn't really show anything, it's another trailer with text that won't make sense until you play the content, and it stars another little kid. C'mon Square, would it kill you to make a main character who is old enough to drink? In Rise of the Zilart the main bad guy looked like it he was 13, in Chains of Promathia, Prishe looked about 15 at best, Nashmeira might have been an adult but since this game is Japanese I'm gonna guess she was 16, Wings of the Goddess brought a little Elvaan brat, and now A Crystalline Prophecy brings us a new little runt. Square, more characters like Tenzen, can I have it? I only watched the trailer once but I doubt my opinion will change when I see it again. It'd be nice if they introduced something cool.
Okay, that'll do it for this post. Man that was loooong. I probably spent way more time on this then was needed for something nobody will read. On the podcast front I've given up on my old mic. I may break down and pick up the cheapest one I can find at Walmart so that I can put something out but considering I'm a month behind on bills, I don't know how wise that would be :). We'll see what happens I guess. I'll try and have another blog post up if Square releases any more info that is of any interest.
Technical difficulties
Was about to record a show this morning when my microphone was acting weird. It was recording sound but my voice was barely audioable and the feedback was pretty high. I don't really know what's wrong (yes, I checked the mic boost). Trying to fix it but I don't know what's wrong so I may just try recording as is or hold off for now. Just what I need, more problems :/
*edit* Yeah, looks like the microphone has crapped out. Can't get it to work right on my other computer either.
*edit* Yeah, looks like the microphone has crapped out. Can't get it to work right on my other computer either.
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Episode Six: Job Fair
Finally back. Yeah, it's been awhile. I ended up having to take a break from FFXI cuz' I was flat broke and had to save some cash. I finally started working again (a real crappy job that I'll quit as soon as I find something better), so hopefully I'll be able to return pretty soon. Due to the mass amounts of boredom at work I've spent a lot of time day dreaming and one of those dreams was about recording another show. So, here I am, lol.
I don't have any ingame talk during this episode because I haven't been playing the game, duh. I did have some notes from the last time I played but I figured screw it, I'd just do something different. For this episode I just give a quick opinion of the different playable jobs in the game. Bare in mind that I just pulled up the wiki page, shot my mouth for a few minutes, then moved on to the next job. It's NOT an indepth analysis or a serious critic of the jobs so don't send me hate mail if I disrespect your job of choice.
Other than that I checked up on some of the stuff coming to the game soon. I'm hopeful for Augments but I'm sure SE will manage to mess them up. I'm also looking forward to the Crystaline Prophecy expansion, and I hope to get to check that out soon. None of the other stuff I read sounded interesting. Well anyway, till next time. I don't intend to take another month to get the next show out ><.
Click the link to download.
Show number 6!
Email me at: lookingforparty@gmail.com
I don't have any ingame talk during this episode because I haven't been playing the game, duh. I did have some notes from the last time I played but I figured screw it, I'd just do something different. For this episode I just give a quick opinion of the different playable jobs in the game. Bare in mind that I just pulled up the wiki page, shot my mouth for a few minutes, then moved on to the next job. It's NOT an indepth analysis or a serious critic of the jobs so don't send me hate mail if I disrespect your job of choice.
Other than that I checked up on some of the stuff coming to the game soon. I'm hopeful for Augments but I'm sure SE will manage to mess them up. I'm also looking forward to the Crystaline Prophecy expansion, and I hope to get to check that out soon. None of the other stuff I read sounded interesting. Well anyway, till next time. I don't intend to take another month to get the next show out ><.
Click the link to download.
Show number 6!
Email me at: lookingforparty@gmail.com
Monday, February 9, 2009
Episode Five: Shell-less in Selbina
Episode five is upon us. Nothing all that great to talk about this week.
Ended up quitting my endgame ls Crystal Guardians after my last Dynamis run in Jeuno. As I mentioned in the previous post I was thinking about it. I was planning to wait until the next run was about to start then make up my mind but Limbus was bumped up to Thursday instead of Saturday so I was forced to kinda decide on the spot after Zgz sent me a tell, so I just chose to quit. It's a pretty stupid decision really, I'd be better off toughing it out, at least until I got all the gear I wanted but oh well. Not really sure what I'll do endgame wise now. I think if I join another endgame shell, I'll try to find one that uses ventrilo or some kind of speaking program. It's way too difficult to read a command when it's just a line of green text that swiftly scrolls off your screen. I'm also dropped my social shell after a kindred seal notorious monster fight.
For the first time in weeks I managed to get a party for my lvl 68 DRK! A lvl 12 level sync party in the dunes...I don't know why I accepted (okay it was desperation) but it was a mistake too. I could have gotten way better xp in campaign. Xp per mob wasn't bad but people kept going afk all the time so we spent most of the two or so hours standing around. I'm was only like 50 xp from 69 but I couldn't bare to stay there any longer and left. On the plus side I was fishing out of boredom while I was seeking on DRK and that made me want to fish some more. Hopefully I can stick with it.
I successfully got up to Nyzul floor 50. What sucks is I thought Nyzul floors could be added to your count retroactively. Meaning I had already done floors 1-40 & 45-60, so, I figured when I did 40-45 it would plug in the gap and I'd have up to floor 60 completed. That wasn't the case and I now realize I've wasted a lot of ID tags doing floors that don't even count, lol. I don't know why I thought it worked different but I guess it's no big deal. Just gotta wait until someone does a shout for 50-60 and maybe I'll get a mythic weapon.
Click the link to download.
Show number 5!
Email me at: lookingforparty@gmail.com
Ended up quitting my endgame ls Crystal Guardians after my last Dynamis run in Jeuno. As I mentioned in the previous post I was thinking about it. I was planning to wait until the next run was about to start then make up my mind but Limbus was bumped up to Thursday instead of Saturday so I was forced to kinda decide on the spot after Zgz sent me a tell, so I just chose to quit. It's a pretty stupid decision really, I'd be better off toughing it out, at least until I got all the gear I wanted but oh well. Not really sure what I'll do endgame wise now. I think if I join another endgame shell, I'll try to find one that uses ventrilo or some kind of speaking program. It's way too difficult to read a command when it's just a line of green text that swiftly scrolls off your screen. I'm also dropped my social shell after a kindred seal notorious monster fight.
For the first time in weeks I managed to get a party for my lvl 68 DRK! A lvl 12 level sync party in the dunes...I don't know why I accepted (okay it was desperation) but it was a mistake too. I could have gotten way better xp in campaign. Xp per mob wasn't bad but people kept going afk all the time so we spent most of the two or so hours standing around. I'm was only like 50 xp from 69 but I couldn't bare to stay there any longer and left. On the plus side I was fishing out of boredom while I was seeking on DRK and that made me want to fish some more. Hopefully I can stick with it.
I successfully got up to Nyzul floor 50. What sucks is I thought Nyzul floors could be added to your count retroactively. Meaning I had already done floors 1-40 & 45-60, so, I figured when I did 40-45 it would plug in the gap and I'd have up to floor 60 completed. That wasn't the case and I now realize I've wasted a lot of ID tags doing floors that don't even count, lol. I don't know why I thought it worked different but I guess it's no big deal. Just gotta wait until someone does a shout for 50-60 and maybe I'll get a mythic weapon.
Click the link to download.
Show number 5!
Email me at: lookingforparty@gmail.com
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Nyzul Insults
Shadow Lord down! I got mission 5-2 completed for San d'oria finally. I'm rank 10 in Bastok and Windy so I'm almost done with nation missions! I just saw a shout in Whitegate for mission 5-1, we went and won that one pretty easily then everyone agreed to go and fight the Shadow Lord. It took a little while to actually get the Shadow Lord fight started though. I've spent a lot of time in the castle so I was able to get to the throne room pretty fast but I ended up waiting maybe half and hour for everyone else to get there because a player logged and when he came back he had to guide a few members to our destination. No big deal but it was a little annoying. The party consisted on LordMighty (SMN), Lastdragon (MNK), Coventina (SAM), Liselone (BRD), and Kymira (WHM). I switched to NIN for that fight, not to tank mind you, I was just lazy and wanted the movement speed bonus that the AF boots provide :). I was a little annoyed because Coventina started wacking away at Shadow Lord while we were in our cutscenes so during both forms I only got to smack him around a little bit but I guess I'd pimp slapped him enough times that it wasn't a big deal.
After that was done I received confirmation that FFXI hates me. I attempted 3 Nyzul Assault runs in an attempt to get floors 41-45 cleared. I have floors going up to 60 out of the way except for that little gap. I was considering logging off for the night when I saw the shout and was overjoyed to finally be able to get those floors out of the way. We had two members who said they hadn't done assault before so I was a little worried but things seemed to be going fine. We didn't have any lamp floors and we were clearing things pretty well up until floor 44. It was a gear floor and there was a lot of aggro and time wasted but we still managed to get to floor 45 with enough time to clear. Unfortunetly it was a Soulflayer floor and there were gears on that floor too boot. We took out the first flayer pretty easily but while we were looking for the next, Silrye, aggroed a bunch of stuff and was running around the stage. She managed to locate another flayer (possibly the only other one) and we dashed over to take it out. That plan fell short when it opened with Blizzaga III and took the WAR and myself down to almost dead in the first seconds of the fight. To make matters worse, there was a gear right next to the flayer, so the WAR went down fast. I tried to move back a bit and fight the flayer but the gear came around the corner after a few seconds and we ended up wiping.
At this point I was only slightly annoyed. I still had 3 tags left so we all went back in to give it another try. This time we only made it to floor 43 because the WHM was busy polishing her nails instead of curing the WAR and he died needlessly on the NM we had to kill and it was downhill from there. Attempt three was even more of a waste of time. We ended up replacing a couple of members and trying again. This time however we did get a lamp floor and we ended up wasting a huge chunk of time due to someone not finding the 5th lamp in the stage. When we finally got passed that with not nearly enough time to clear, Square Enix decided to slap us again by giving us a NM that is immune to Slashing physical attacks (Energetic Eruca), making the WAR and myself (SAM) useless. The only one doing any damage was the Pup...after awhile the RDM ended up just kiting it around to burn time and we got kicked from the assualt.
This is really pissing me off. It shouldn't be this hard to clear these floors. I always get terrible luck or terrible players. Why does Altana hate me? I also did Limbus for the first time. I've had Sky access for almost a year but for every reason I never tried Sky before. It actually went pretty well, we got the clear and I received one of the items need for AF+1 and a couple of beasts coins. I was a little surprised at how easy Limbus was but we probably just did an easy one.
After limbus was done a few members members wanted to go farming organs for a Shadow Gorget. I had no idea was a shadow gorget was but I figured what the heck. That didn't go so well, the first UFO we tried to grab turned out to be a NM and with only 7 of us it ended in a wipe. After everyone got back up I logged and went to play the Resident Evil 5 demo, lol.
I think I'm done with my Dynamis shell. Didn't take me long, a couple of months maybe but like every endgame shell I've joined before it, I think I'm quitting CrystalGuardians. No real "good" reason but I'm a little tired of being berated after every run and we are always failing which doesn't help matters. Today we did Dynamis Jeuno, which we had done before, and failed. It started off pretty darn sloppy and ended the same way. I came as THF to be a support puller of sorts. Pretty much my job was to pull a mob after the main THF aggroed the big statues. Simple enough except that the tank who was supposed to voke the mob off of me, Swiss, never would. Half the time he didn't ever get a chance to because Derond (a PLD for a different party) would pull his mob anyway. After a little while the ls leaders caught on that there was a problem and then the MNK in my party started tanking instead of Swiss the PLD. This worked out much better because Ukiyasan is a competant player and he would grab the mobs off me when I pulled them back. I still had to worry about Derond grabbing mobs he wasn't supposed to but not much I can do about that.
Things go from bad to worse a short while later as we are getting close to the auction house portion on Dynamis. All of a sudden Raizen announces that each party is going to have a camp/spot to stand on and mobs will be pulled directly to them. That way all the different groups weren't fighting on top on each other. A sound strategy but it seems a little odd to do this now when we had tried a different strategy last week that seemed to work but were ignoring it this week. Unfortunetly Raizen didn't account for the shear stupidity of the shell. People were totally unable to follow even a simple instruction like, "stand here" and every time a mob was pulled the chaos of people running all over the place and ganging up on one mob instead of fighting separate mobs continued. Gameplay wise we didn't have too much drama after that. Surprisingly ls members have actually learned some things and we were on the ball mostly except for some bad pulls. But the thing that really irks me about the shell members is their seeming inability to pass on the items that drop. I boggles my mind that after all the weeks we've been doing this that people still won't pass on the currency when it drops (In Dynamis everyone is supposed to pass on the ancient currency that drops and it goes to the linkshell leaders). Having to hear Shadoe, Raizen, and co, shout every few minutes for people to pass currency is extremely annoying and makes absolutely no sense whatsoever that people can't take 5 seconds inbetween fights to pass on items. What blew my mind the most about this was that a piece for relic gear dropped and everyone passed on the relic who wasn't able to lot it, but some people IGNORED all of the currency sitting in the treasure pool. Okay, so you can pass/lot on relic no problem, but you're unable to pass on the currency that the linkshell leaders have been telling you to do so for weeks? Unbelieveable. So many people in that shell either don't even try or are just incapable of following basic instructions.
That leads into the LS leaders bitching at everyone after each run over and over again. It's just so annoying and honestly I don't think this LS will get any better. It doesn't matter how good the strategies get, the members just don't posses the basic skills or mental comprehension to get the job done. I believe that in time the LS can become good but if it takes 6 Dynamis runs just to train people to not use weapon skills on Ninja mobs, I shudder to think how long it'll take before people learn the advanced stuff. Even then when we go to Northlands, people will have to learn stuff all over again. We have a Dynamis San d'oria run this Friday but I'm on the fence. I know that it'll be another piss poor run in which we may get the clear (which we don't need) but there will be plenty of needless deaths. It's frustrating because Dynamis Windurst is the last city I need to get Northlands access which makes me wanna stick with this shell at least for that but I know in my heart of hearts, that they will just fail the run.
After that was done I received confirmation that FFXI hates me. I attempted 3 Nyzul Assault runs in an attempt to get floors 41-45 cleared. I have floors going up to 60 out of the way except for that little gap. I was considering logging off for the night when I saw the shout and was overjoyed to finally be able to get those floors out of the way. We had two members who said they hadn't done assault before so I was a little worried but things seemed to be going fine. We didn't have any lamp floors and we were clearing things pretty well up until floor 44. It was a gear floor and there was a lot of aggro and time wasted but we still managed to get to floor 45 with enough time to clear. Unfortunetly it was a Soulflayer floor and there were gears on that floor too boot. We took out the first flayer pretty easily but while we were looking for the next, Silrye, aggroed a bunch of stuff and was running around the stage. She managed to locate another flayer (possibly the only other one) and we dashed over to take it out. That plan fell short when it opened with Blizzaga III and took the WAR and myself down to almost dead in the first seconds of the fight. To make matters worse, there was a gear right next to the flayer, so the WAR went down fast. I tried to move back a bit and fight the flayer but the gear came around the corner after a few seconds and we ended up wiping.
At this point I was only slightly annoyed. I still had 3 tags left so we all went back in to give it another try. This time we only made it to floor 43 because the WHM was busy polishing her nails instead of curing the WAR and he died needlessly on the NM we had to kill and it was downhill from there. Attempt three was even more of a waste of time. We ended up replacing a couple of members and trying again. This time however we did get a lamp floor and we ended up wasting a huge chunk of time due to someone not finding the 5th lamp in the stage. When we finally got passed that with not nearly enough time to clear, Square Enix decided to slap us again by giving us a NM that is immune to Slashing physical attacks (Energetic Eruca), making the WAR and myself (SAM) useless. The only one doing any damage was the Pup...after awhile the RDM ended up just kiting it around to burn time and we got kicked from the assualt.
This is really pissing me off. It shouldn't be this hard to clear these floors. I always get terrible luck or terrible players. Why does Altana hate me? I also did Limbus for the first time. I've had Sky access for almost a year but for every reason I never tried Sky before. It actually went pretty well, we got the clear and I received one of the items need for AF+1 and a couple of beasts coins. I was a little surprised at how easy Limbus was but we probably just did an easy one.
After limbus was done a few members members wanted to go farming organs for a Shadow Gorget. I had no idea was a shadow gorget was but I figured what the heck. That didn't go so well, the first UFO we tried to grab turned out to be a NM and with only 7 of us it ended in a wipe. After everyone got back up I logged and went to play the Resident Evil 5 demo, lol.
I think I'm done with my Dynamis shell. Didn't take me long, a couple of months maybe but like every endgame shell I've joined before it, I think I'm quitting CrystalGuardians. No real "good" reason but I'm a little tired of being berated after every run and we are always failing which doesn't help matters. Today we did Dynamis Jeuno, which we had done before, and failed. It started off pretty darn sloppy and ended the same way. I came as THF to be a support puller of sorts. Pretty much my job was to pull a mob after the main THF aggroed the big statues. Simple enough except that the tank who was supposed to voke the mob off of me, Swiss, never would. Half the time he didn't ever get a chance to because Derond (a PLD for a different party) would pull his mob anyway. After a little while the ls leaders caught on that there was a problem and then the MNK in my party started tanking instead of Swiss the PLD. This worked out much better because Ukiyasan is a competant player and he would grab the mobs off me when I pulled them back. I still had to worry about Derond grabbing mobs he wasn't supposed to but not much I can do about that.
Things go from bad to worse a short while later as we are getting close to the auction house portion on Dynamis. All of a sudden Raizen announces that each party is going to have a camp/spot to stand on and mobs will be pulled directly to them. That way all the different groups weren't fighting on top on each other. A sound strategy but it seems a little odd to do this now when we had tried a different strategy last week that seemed to work but were ignoring it this week. Unfortunetly Raizen didn't account for the shear stupidity of the shell. People were totally unable to follow even a simple instruction like, "stand here" and every time a mob was pulled the chaos of people running all over the place and ganging up on one mob instead of fighting separate mobs continued. Gameplay wise we didn't have too much drama after that. Surprisingly ls members have actually learned some things and we were on the ball mostly except for some bad pulls. But the thing that really irks me about the shell members is their seeming inability to pass on the items that drop. I boggles my mind that after all the weeks we've been doing this that people still won't pass on the currency when it drops (In Dynamis everyone is supposed to pass on the ancient currency that drops and it goes to the linkshell leaders). Having to hear Shadoe, Raizen, and co, shout every few minutes for people to pass currency is extremely annoying and makes absolutely no sense whatsoever that people can't take 5 seconds inbetween fights to pass on items. What blew my mind the most about this was that a piece for relic gear dropped and everyone passed on the relic who wasn't able to lot it, but some people IGNORED all of the currency sitting in the treasure pool. Okay, so you can pass/lot on relic no problem, but you're unable to pass on the currency that the linkshell leaders have been telling you to do so for weeks? Unbelieveable. So many people in that shell either don't even try or are just incapable of following basic instructions.
That leads into the LS leaders bitching at everyone after each run over and over again. It's just so annoying and honestly I don't think this LS will get any better. It doesn't matter how good the strategies get, the members just don't posses the basic skills or mental comprehension to get the job done. I believe that in time the LS can become good but if it takes 6 Dynamis runs just to train people to not use weapon skills on Ninja mobs, I shudder to think how long it'll take before people learn the advanced stuff. Even then when we go to Northlands, people will have to learn stuff all over again. We have a Dynamis San d'oria run this Friday but I'm on the fence. I know that it'll be another piss poor run in which we may get the clear (which we don't need) but there will be plenty of needless deaths. It's frustrating because Dynamis Windurst is the last city I need to get Northlands access which makes me wanna stick with this shell at least for that but I know in my heart of hearts, that they will just fail the run.
Friday, January 23, 2009
Episode Four: Chin-cheater
Wow, another episode and it didn't take me weeks to record it! I was inspired to make an episode due to the bannings that happened recently in FFXI. So, the meat of the show is me complaining about that. My stance on that issue is that they got what they deserved. I'm not happy people where banned but it was no accident that they lost their accounts. I start the podcast talking about what I did in game, which isn't much, and a little about my nyzul runs. I've noticed that I've become pretty cranky lately in FFXI. Meaning that I find myself dropping parties all the time. I was gonna talk about in this episode but something more interesting came up so I talked about the bannings instead. Maybe I'll yell at myself for being a punk at a later date :/
Click the link to download.
Show number 4!
Email me at: lookingforparty@gmail.com
Click the link to download.
Show number 4!
Email me at: lookingforparty@gmail.com
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