Wednesday, July 30, 2008

The world abroad.

Some of you know I'm a New Zealander (Kiwi) in real life living in lolcanada. This has afforded me ample opportunity to get around traveling whereas being in NZ kinda hampers that due to the fact that we are so far away clinging onto the bottom of the planet. So from Canada I have been able to get around all over this continent, down into Central America, into Asia and planning a trip or 2 into Europe. I like travel but that said, I'm very much a home body. I like to be at home relaxing, playing FFXI, hanging out with friends and family, riding my bikes etc.

So like my RL move from NZ to Canada, I decided to make the move from Bastok to Windy now that SE made it so we don't lose our OP warps when changing alligence's.


I wonder if they will have to put me to sleep when I get back to Bastok after doing all3 mission sets. Hmmm.

I roped Aless into coming with me on the idea that we would duo most if not all of it and then move on to Sandy to complete the missions and have 3 flags hanging on our walls. I think it's good to get the whole story in any game you play and this is the way to do it. The decision to move was a tough one as I really do like the easy of movement through Bastok and having all the worlds OPs with Bastok. I'm all about getting from point A to point B as fast as possible in this game which requires soooo much time moving about. Our timing for the move has been really good though. Key OPs that we both use have been in Windys control of late and so gaining them has been one of our biggest priorities.

Windurst...what can I say? Its frikkin huge! Wish we had OPs around the city from MH. Those little warp taru's are certainly a big help but damn, its too big! In saying that though, I really like the ambiance of the place. My new MH actually feels nice and light and airy. Gotta keep the Basty colours flying too!


We have made it to rank 5 solely as a duo so far. The only part that gave us a little grief was the fight with the dragon and the ahriman but that was only because we both went in gimp as hell. 2nd time around, Al got a good lance for DRG and we saved ourselves a little more for the dragon. Much easier.
Now we are at the fight with the bones in Fei'yin before the fight with the infamous Shadowlord. We're looking forward to that but a little dodgy over the fight with the bones. I'm thinking we will go BST/WHM + RDM/NIN or /WHM. Al can take the main NM with 2 CCs and snarl while I'll support her I think. I'm thinking that this and the 9-2 fight are going to be the only ones we might have trouble with as a duo.
Anyway, I always like new quest lines. They always cater to my love of new sights in this very intricate game. Check out a couple of the pics from the missions to date.




Stalk much Sibyl? And didn't I do away with these two already when I was living in Bastok?


So I'm hoping we can push through the remaining Windy missions in about a week or so, RL commitments pending. Then we can move on and do the Sandy ones.

Last night also saw us get some of the WotG missions done as well. I postponed Nyzul Isle for a week as a few people including myself were either doubtful or just plain not going to be on this week. So Loren Aless and I got together for a couple of Assault runs to try and rank up. Dyl ended up joining us for one as well. We got 3 new ones out of the way and I finally got my SL rank!



OHAI2U Perdu Voulge! Finally. Funny thing is, is that with my up and coming SAM, I prolly won't use it too much. But I get to toss Byakko's GA and Perdu makes up for my loss of acc from bomblet sale. I'm +25 attack with bomb core/perdu over bomblet/byakkos (if my math is right).

After assaults, we hit Sandy [S] for the missions that Loren was keen on doing and I needed to get done anyway. The fight against the Orc in Jugner [S] was funny and fast. Funny coz in the cs the little arrogant elf kid face kicked the traitor elf. Fast coz Al and Loren both MS's 200-300tp Steel Cyclones and made Orc go pop. It got even funnier with the ragingly gay dancer dude in later cs's. Cait Sith who must be my favorite NPC at the moment made a big appearance which was highly entertaining. Heres a few pics from the mission.





More to follow as it happens.

Campaign has been really fun of late too now that my SAM is high enough to actually do damage. I got 65 and Gekko in my last party and haven't gotten another since and now I'm 66 lol. Thank you Campaign! I really need a party soon a) because I want to /WAR and do Gekko's on Imps and b) i need to cap my GK skill before it gets too far behind. SE should really allow skill ups in Campaign.
Gekko rocks! Its one of the main reasons I wanted to level SAM and it doesn't disappoint. Here's my first one (1000+) at the end of my last party.


Other than than its been Campaign, Campaign and more Campaign. At least my rank is going up right? Aless and I have teamed up once or twice. BRD gets to wear silly things like Mushroom helm :p


I seem to die a lot too. I can't really solo a mob yet (prolly by level 70 with Dran Samba II I'd say) and often I seem to pick the wrong mob to help with and get bum rushed by the swarm.....like this.


Its all good though because of the no exp loss thing. I wouldn't come near it otherwise.

Seen a lot of new things in Campaign too. Check out these pic's from my recent runs. Maximum respect to the uber cool looking Yag SAM. I kinda want hair like that when I get to 75 please.




So thats it for now. More updates in the near future so stay tuned. Don't forget to comment or drop a line in the shoutbox. I like hearing from my readers but just don't be a douche coz it gets deleted ^^b Constructive, funny, observant, questioning are all modes of comment I like to see.

See ya soon ^__^/

Thursday, July 24, 2008

SNORT! - Nyzul Update #9

So my biggest reason for people being on time to Nyzul has been reevaluated. It used to be that a) I HATE waiting around idly in FFXI and b) I HATE making other people wait especially when I know they need to be somewhere else and are doing the group a favour by being at the event in the first place. That said, the new reason is to avoid the downward spiral into insanity that we experienced this passed week while waiting for Booch (Fish) to get on.

The conversation as I remember it went from "Who are we waiting on?" "New guy" "FISH!" as Booch is now known as in the group to Loren shouting for people to say his name after our discussion about The Neverending Story and Sebastien having to call out the empress' name or something like that to Loren describing the average at work blogger...


I was even getting to the point where I thought that pressing my man boobs against Aless' would be a fun idea >.>


It was decided soon after that we would just enter Nyzul with the 5 that were there instead of descending even further into madness. So in we went and we did really well reaching the boss with like 12 mins to spare. An easy Behemoth resulted on Askar boots being dropped which I missed the screenshot of and Dyl got new boots for his upcoming SAM (45 at the moment?).

Booch had come to Whitegate by this time and was ready to go. We picked him up and proceeded to bomb through the next 2 runs without drops. I think one of those we reached the boss in like 11 mins or something. Last run of the night was prolly the roughest with us reaching Adamantoise with about 5 mins to go and Aless dcing the floor before. So 5 mins to go, 5 members and a big turtle in our way garnered a 2 hourfest. He went down without too much problem and again much to our general dismay, Askar feet dropped. We need like 3 or 4 pairs of Goliard and have seen one pair since we first started. I never thought I'd ever be sorry to see any Askar piece drop. But congrats to Aj, our last remaining member to get a pair. I'm sure you'll have a job high enough at some stage right?


No gear screenshot this week since neither of the guys who got the drops actually had a job they could equip them on high enough. More screenies next week with any luck.

In other news, Bubbo and I finished off our UFO organ farming. We got Aj to come along on THF for TH to make it a less painful ordeal. The fight itself is easy and fun. Its just brutal to do it and see no drop. So Aj would tap the UFO then just steal hate from me and TA once in a while. We even had him sub BRD on one for march and ballad. So 4 UFOs later we had our 3 organs needed. Bubbo had the other organs for her gorget all set too so she was good to go.



Now all I need to do is farm 20 shark organs, 5 Aerns and 5 Xzomits. Good thing BLM is the solo master is sea. I'll just see about having one of my THF buddies come help me out for some easy exp. And I'm sure my good buddy Snoochyfish will come and do this with me a bunch more too. Right?


Byany had asked me previously to solo him a UFO organ on BLM as well but since Bubbo and I were so good at duoing them, I asked Bub if she'd be keen on helping By out with me and she was good to go. Had By sub THF and one UFO kill later...


Grats man. Glad we could help you out.

After this...


...and this...


...I decided to go and start Campaigning again while looking for parties to join for exp. Its been a while since I dabbled in Campaign and it would seem that the Beastmen Confederate was gotten a LOT stronger. Nowadays, pretty much the whole world is in their control with constant attacks on the main cities. Heres one instance of Bastok getting pwnd with many dead bodies lying about.


Campaign is actually really good fun while waiting on parties as a SAM. Now that I can actually hit the mobs that is. And periodically, you see things like this Gigas that I hadn't seen before.


And of course there are the uber NPC bossed that make me jealous, especially this BST NPC from Windy with 2 normally uncharmable pets and my Guttler. /jealous on.



So thats about it for this post. I'll leave you today with some wonderful insight from my good buddy Ajninx while we were in the NA party I spoke about last post.


He qualified that saying ti was because I was out damaging both the WAR and DRG combined. Gimp NA players fail -.-

See you next time!

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

JP vs NA parties.

Ever since I started FFXI, on the semi-rare occasion that JP's invite me to join them, I am always amazed at how smoothly and efficiently and therefore fun their exp parties are. I can not recall a single party with JP players that I have not enjoyed. Almost as rare is the amount of equally smooth, efficient and fun NA parties. WHAT THE HELL?!

Why is it that there are so many more gimp, sub par, unskilled NA players that make getting into a group and working through the levels such a poor experience? Is it the general attitude of us westerner's of not taking pride in what we do, overall laziness and sloppiness, the mentality that "I do what I want, when I want, how I want and to hell with everyone else" that makes NA players as a whole so noticeably worse at this game than JPs?

I do concede that there are gimp, sub par, unskilled JP players but one has to admit they are far less common than their equivalent in the NA population. Even then, a gimp geared JP person is not always a bad player. Quite often I have noticed that a gimp JP will either do respectable damage while not pulling hate and being an MP sink or will keep up with mage duties such as healing, hasting, refreshing etc quite nicely.

Take my parties last night on SAM which got me thinking about this. Now it's not that the NAs in my first party were gimp. Well maybe the 63 WAR using a Great Sword and a Scorpion harness but everyone else was great. PLD, WAR, SAM (me), DRG, SMN (Aj from Nyzul group), RDM (JP). The PLD was very good, the DRG was respectable though should have used sushi for penta spam or so I reckon anyway, Aj did awesome keeping everyone buffed and assisting with the cures, and the JP RDM (who coincidentally was the RDM in the next party) was never out of MP before Convert was ready. The exp came nicely and I went away relatively happy with my progress towards 65 and GEKKO!
As I was running back from the party when the PLD had to go to bed, this JP BLM sent me a tell asking if I'd like to party even before I had put my flag up. I was actually going to go to bed but I couldn't resist the JPness so I said {Yes, please} and boy am I glad I did! NIN, SAM, SAM, BLM, BRD, RDM. OK, now I know you are going to say "Wait a minute Enna. The JP party was obviously going to be better with the RDM BRD combo" and I agree. But the exp was DOUBLE what we did in the respectable mostly NA party beforehand. The BLM never over-nuked and pulled hate but finished mobs off quickly, again the RDM never ran out of MP, the BRD though a little slow on finale's kept everyone buffed and assisted curing, the other SAM and I worked together to keep the hate on the NIN with TA-Yuki, and the NIN didn't seem to ever get hit except by Incinerate. The experience even between a decent NA party and a JP one was just so different though this is probably not the best example to use in proving my point below but its what got me thinking anyway.

I really understand why so many of the good NA players refuse to party with people outside their linkshells or circles of friends. The chances of getting a gimp NA in your party that you can't coach, instruct or suggest alternative ways of doing things (in a friendly manner!) is just too high. And Lord help you if you get one of these people and try to coach them in ways of playing better and enjoying the experience more themselves. "What do you know about doing this job?!", "I've got 2 level 75 jobs already so I know what I'm doing!" And my favorite "........" Silence.

Now I don't claim to know all the ins and outs of this game. I don't claim to be great at everything I do. But I do feel (and I think a lot of people would vouch for this) that I do things very well, pay attention to the little things and try to give my best effort gear-wise and play-wise in all parties and events.

If this post gets just one person who plays below the standard they a) know that SHOULD play at b) didn't realize they COULD play at, then I will be every happy. Until then, I'll just keep my fingers crossed, hope for a JP party or one of the few really good NA ones when my flag is up and continue to try set a decent example for other people that get to experience playing with me :p

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Nyzul Update #8 and more!

Well then. Quite the entertaining past few days to be sure. New weapons, SAM update, Nyzul run, Yovra farming, funny friends and more all in this post!

Lets get started with the Nyzul update.

Last night was our first night with Snoochybooch along with us after the debacle of the last posting. Things worked out just great. It's nice having someone like Booch join us where there is no need for any coaching on how Nyzul isle is done. Only things we had to talk about was little things we do specific to our group like who calls drop etc.
Anyway, Booch is coming WAR/NIN for a while till I get SAM to 75 at which point, he can swap over to RDM either permanently or periodically. We'll see. With Booch on WAR/NIN, that allowed Loren to go WAR/SAM and deal some extra damage. It worked really well having that extra damage and having him paired with a good tank like Booch for the "all" floors. Booch and Aless did great tanking the whole night.
After being with us for a while now, Ajninx hadn't received a drop yet and we were adamant that we wanted to see our primo BRD get the drop of his choice for his first drop so I gave him the choice of which boss level he wanted to farm. He really wanted to pimp it up with the rest of us in our Korazin's so it was decided floor 80 spam would continue till he got his Goliard Saio. Lets go!
Fist run saw Hydra waiting for us at floor 80. Yay not Cerberus! And usually Hydra drops something.....cept this time. >.> Round 2....Cerberus -.- This was kind of a good thing as I wanted to see how our WAR WAR WAR THF melee team did without SAM. Apparently it went great as Cerb went down without too much of a problem. Though we hate Cerb for all his Magma Hoplom spammage, he yet again garnered our love with a drop....GOLIARD SAIO! BAM! Congrats Aj! Well deserved indeed.


So now that Aj had his drop, we could start working on some other floors for the multitude of other drops we needed. I decided we'd finish our last 2 tags on easy floor 20's. Note the word "easy"? Floor 16 of our first try. ToAU bosses...Flayers. Hmm, ok. Lots of undead on the floor and we got some HP aggro which finally ended in lots of death. Took us like 15 minutes to kill the bosses. -.- Hate flayers. Floor 17, specific enemy. Oh good, an easy one. Floor 18, ToAU bosses again...Frogs. Orz. This isn't going to end well. Oh well, we'll finish this floor and leave. Just take the tokens. NOT SO FAST ENNA! Linked Frogs = no tokens for j00! Booch got charmed which he was happy about apparently...


...then after everyone was dead, Aj tried to get up for raises...



...well at least the frog is classy about it and we all got a bunch of laughs from it. lol

So we had one more tag for the night and I'll be damned if we were ending like that so we had another crack at 20. This time we BREEZED to 20 and happily saw behemoth standing there waiting. last tag of the night also = 2 hour spammage ^__^b. behemoth got his ass handed to him again and drop! Askar feet. Decided that Booch could lot them even though it was his first night with us. No one else had them on the list as something they really wanted so I felt good about that. he played well all night and looks to be a great addition to the team so its nice to be able to give him some incentive to enjoy the event with us on a long term basis. Right Booch??!!


Congratulations on the drops guys. Lets keep up the great work!




After Nyzul, I organized with Bubbo to go Yovra organ hunting. We both need 2 organs. 2 for Bubbos Light gorget and 1 for each of my Snow and Flame gorgets for SAM.
I had read that the Ul' versions can be duo'd "by a skilled MNK and RDM" so what the hell, lets give it a whirl!
Turns out they are actually quite easy though maybe thats more just a sign of how good Bub is on MNK. We got one drop from 4 UFOs last night which in hindsight I should have just let Bub have. I think it was the /random 5 that I had to beat that made me not think properly about just passing. Sorry Bub >.>


Anyway, I'll see about a THF for TH next time we go and make sure Bub gets her 2 before I get my last. And whoa! Slow II looks massive when cast on these things!


In other news, I'm loving playing on SAM. Even more so now that I have reached level 59 and can wear Hauby. One more level and GKT WS's won't suck so bad when I get Yukikaze. Penta Thrust is nice in the meantime. Just means so as not to be gimp for damage in an exp party, I only use Polearm so I grab a friend periodically to help me skill GKT to cap each time. Anyway, Anni ring is all used up now in my attempt to get to 59 and Hauby quickly ; ;


And can I say, Penta thrust is very nice both in terms of damage and skill up rate ^__^


We had our last sky run on Sunday with the LS as a whole before the infamous server jump. Went well for the most part. The Kirin fight was really slow as I don't think people were really into it cept those who stood to gain something. I like Kirin fights though. Its the reason I sank 3 merits into Tornado II.
I got lots of hate and I think I have become quite good at kiting him lol. Like this!


...though sometimes, his memory doesn't fail him as well and he comes looking for me after I think I'm in the clear. >.>


The funniest part was telling Bubbo to stand back as I go in to induce Astral Flow....like so....


The even was also made more humorous by Rath informing me of the following omission in one of my previous posts.


Before Sky, By had asked me to help him get his subligar for Gaudy harness (BRD48 at the time) to which I was more than happy to help with after he helped me skill GKT the night before. Got down there, charmed the IT slime and murdered the BST lickity split. My success rate on this is like 2/3 now. ^__^b


And to live up to my word in my shoutbox, here is my obligatory "make fun of By" section of the post lol.


Finally, check out these cool weapons that were added to the game recently.



See ya next time!