The Road goes ever, ever on…

Again, long time no see.
It’s been quite a time IRL, lost my job at the pet store, spending a lot of time job hunting.
When I’m not out and about, or gaming I’ve been reading a lot more, though I miss getting my monthly Naruto Manga…

In game has been going quite well:

• BST, RDM & SMN are all at 90 and each have a couple of AF3+1s.
• PUP is 68 and climbing… and has 4/5 AF3+1, more than any of my 90s…
• My little Sister is playing again, which means easy exp on LevelSync and a 2nd account to keep tabs on Jeuno when I want to.
• Got my SMN Nyzul WS, Garland fof Bliss. It is quite Shiny.
• Got Atma of the Raised Ruin recently~~ it’s so great to use when I don’t need my massive defense atmas. ^_^

And NOW a picture blitz montage!

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Trials and Tribulations

Well… it’s been a while, eh?

Turns out that Surplus thing in FFXIV is just about a non-issue, but they have other problems… glad I’m waiting for PS3 release.

Since last post:

• Hyozan has disbanded, kind of a shock, & partly reformed, in it’s former event shell, the IceBreakers.
• Leveled BST to 84 in Abyssea, then solo/duo/campaigned to 85 (on purpose, I have my reasons, crazy personal ones…)
• Leveled SMN to 78, getting Diabolos, Odin and Alexander to complete the set.
• Magian’d up my Soulsaber to a decent level, and have nearly completed my -Physical Damage Taken (for BST pet) Axe.
• Nyzul to floor 75! Finally got Death Blossom, somewhere around floor 50…
• AF3 seals are not being kind to me, have a set of RNG, PUP, nearly a set of DRK… and still need atleast 4 more RDM (all leg seals).
• Most recently joined a shell that does Atma farming  (I’m hoping among other things), Benediction.
• Helped Cakensmoosher (aka Chupacabra) get Drakesbane… I created a Weapon-skilling monster there…

It was kind of sad to see “Hyozan” go, but it had changed from when I joined it… not that I didn’t enjoy some of those changes, but I think the original intent was lost somewhere along the way.
Level cap to 90 in “early” December… ugh, I just finished getting 85 BST. Well there’s alwasys Abyssea, but… that’s kinda boring after a while. I really hope they add a nice BST friendly area in the “old” zones whith this next update.

Next Post, expect lots of pictures… according to my PS3 HDD, i’ve got 94 screenshots savedup… XD
Wonder how many are actualy good ones?

Ta Ta For Now~
(PS: Hey Vorz, play 11 more than once a month so I can mention you, besides the Nyzul run we did, Thanks BTW~)

Dear SquEnix, Regarding FFXIV Fatigue/Surplus

I hope you realize that the majority of your FFXI players play between 20 to 40+ hours a week. If you want to give bonuses to players who DON’T have that much free time fine, but penalizing your PAYING players is not something that will fly.

8th Anniversary Stats

So tell me… this isn’t alittle creepy… Moogle’s been watching me… all year. <.<;

Today I got a hold of his note book:

Chat Frequency: 321,508
Conversations with NPCs: 84,397
Parties Joined: 2,574
Alliances Joined: 365
Battles Fought: 75,275
Number of Times KO’d: 2,126
Enemies Defeated: 39,489
GM Calls Made: 13

But on the not so creepy side, he gave me a cool new Dinner Jacket and matching pants along with an Anniversary Ring. I think this year I’m dedicating my ring to leveling BST, it’s almost 71 as it is… *math* SO if I get 6k exp per charge, 10 charges is 60k, that’s about 2 levels… 73 is so close to 75 that I’d feel silly not “finishing”.

And~ OH CRAP! Mog Bonanza! Where the heck and I going to find space this year… Q_Q

Trial of the what-now?

When “Trial of the Magians” was first unveiled at Vana’fest 2010, I had high hopes for it.
The ability to “customize” gear in a game where inventory space is such a huge problem? Amazing!

Soon after it’s release we found out the sad truth.

<Magian Moogle> Oh hai, take a weapon and kill stuff, kthnx.
<Magian Moogle> When you kill enough something good might happen…

Seriously though, SOME of these weapons that can be made are REALLY good.
It’s just I didn’t want NEW good weapons, I just wanted to make my OLD stuff better…

Currently I’m “working” on 2 Magian Swords:

DO WANT...

Joyeuse Ver.2 /drool

I say “working” because I’m more or less ignoring them… yeah they’re really nice but personally I’d rather level my other jobs instead of: A. Standing around waiting to kill NMs (Trial for Antea) or B. Killing 750 Exp mobs in various weather conditions (the Soulsaber’s Trial).

Well I did manage to get the first step of my Antea done, although it took like 9+ hours over 2 days… hence why I’m back to leveling. =P

They’ll be back…

We’ve all been hearing about it for years, players bemoaning the fact that FFXI is dieing.
Well I for one don’t believe it. Yes, we are declining, but that is inevitable for any MMO. As your player base grows older they have less time to devote to a game, as the game itself gets older you have less new players joining.

Yesterday though, I saw the biggest blow to FF XI to date: FF XIII.
The overall server population of Hades was rather low all day and on top of that Hyozan was unusually quiet and lacking quite a few members.

However, this will pass, the next few days may be rather slow but as we all know, they always come back.

Toward the Future~

The future of FFXI is no longer as bleak as it once was. Between the new content, the server merges and the level cap being raised to 99, there will be plenty to do for all.

In March there’s the expected Wings Content: Missions, Areas & Campaign Rewards, and new Synergy recipies (…more useful ones please?)
In addition to that there are several things that came out of left field as it were: a BC style fight versus The Shadow Lord himself, Trial of the Magians, and the “new” Summoner Avatars.

I’m slightly dissapointed with the “New Avatars” since they are only going to be usable during Astral Flow (Smn’s 2hr), but that being said they present unique ablilties beyond the scope of normal avatar’s Astral Flow Attacks.

Trial of the Magians, a quest aimed toward level 75 players, will finally give us a chance to get USEFUL augments on our prized gear. AF and Rare/Exclusive weapons, I’m looking at you.

The Job updates must be prefaced with alittle bit of info, they are raising the level cap to 99 (in December). I think this is several shades of sweet and love it in every way EXCEPT that I now have to level my subjobs again… but so does everyone else, so 37-49 parties will soon be all the rage.

Also regarding the level cap;

Elmer the Pointy reports that:
The main reason the developers gave for raising the cap was to change the way the game is played.  Before, they needed to cap players or else each Notorious Monster that was introduced would quickly become child’s play as the players leveled past it.  However, with these new add-ons and a slew of NMs in the works, the developers want to focus on strategy over power and provide a unique experience for parties.  As Matsui said at the event, they feel it is time to let players get stronger so they can counter with powerful enemies and reward those victorious with new treasures and equipment.

Personally I am hoping to see a FORCED return of the skillchain-MB combo, for NMs as well as EXP beyond 75.
As for the Job adjustments, I think they are going to be a great addition to the game. Beastmaster and Puppetmaster, two jobs close to my heart, are getting some lovin’. As for the rest, they havent decided yet BUT the tentative info is in Elmer’s post (clicky the linky).

Even Mr. Negitivity: FusionX likes these updates. If you don’t, take a step back and look again at your reasons. Either that or STFU & GTFO.

FFXIV Beta Recruitment

It seems Square Enix wants more Beta Testers.
Two of the FF11 Premier sites have been given Recruitment pages, I recomend the FFXicylopedia page.

http://forums.ffxiclopedia.org/ffxiv/

Go now, while there’s still time! Good luck!
Time is up, but I’ll leave this up just in case…

QFT, seriously

After seeing a lot of negativity I was going to write up a post on my thoughts about the new level cap and content, but ZT’s comment on the PFA site reflects my feelings fairly well. (Also I have a lot to do this week and that post will becoming later~~)

ZT says: 03/02/2010 at 5:50 pm

I can’t help but think that most of the outrage we’re seeing is at things becoming more egalitarian. There are people who enjoy doing things for the personal challenge, and there are people who enjoy doing things to demonstrate their superiority over others. The former will always have level sync and such, while the latter aren’t going to adjust very well at all.

Can’t say I’ll miss them when they ragequit, though.

Let me rephrase…

It’s not that the game itself will become any easier (there will be new level 99 endgame, after all), but certain aspects of it will (like current endgame). With the way things are currently, it’s not just that it is difficult to do, but that there are actual barriers to entry (e.g. not having the right job) that prevent people from even attempting to do much of it. And once you overcome that initial barrier, it’s just zerg zerg zerg until you’re done.

There are a lot of players out there who got past that initial barrier, whether by skill or luck, and now have things falling into their laps. Some recognize the situation as such (and even move on to go find real challenges), but others feel that what they got was an “accomplishment” when all they truly accomplished was perfect attendance until it was their turn to cast lots. They are egotistical, they are vocal, and they have a sense of entitlement.

And now that there’s a chance that they’ll actually have to work in order to keep their ‘1337′ status, they are naturally the ones who will complain the loudest.

I think it would be educational to see what jobs are complaining the loudest.

Other games?!

As of late I’ve been playing alittle less FFXI. It’s still my favorite game sure,  but I need some variation now and then.

The loot collector in me is greatly satisfied by Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echos of Time on DS. The best part about this game is it’s replay value(difficulty modes) and the online and local multiplayer.

Then there’s Ragnarok Online, ah~ good old RO… I just love the archer and alchemist classes in RO, I could spend days perfecting my gear and skill setups. <3
If I weren’t spending my time in FFXI, I’d be on RO SO much…

Then there’s Final Fantasy Dissidia. Love the game but I think I burnt myself out on it. Still like to pick it up now and then but not as much as I used to. *sigh*