Whee... finally getting some decent Nyzul results from our farming!
Last night, we got:
Denali Bonnet (head) - Ascy
Goliard Clogs (feet) - Kurai
No drops on one run, and failed the final run because we basically had me weakened when we reached the boss floor and was running low on time.
Big thanks to Flayer & Zerofaith who filled in for a certain taru that decided to go play inside scary houses! It looks like we might have additional guests for the next few weeks too since both of our tarus are probably going to be out for at least part of the next few weeks. Flayer is going to join us as a replacement for most of these, including those next Thurs. He'll be wanting Goliard stuff!
Current armor pieces so far:
Ascy: Denali - Head
Ashle: Nothing
Ghiren: Nothing
Kurai: Goliard - Feet
Utaru: Askar - Body & Denali - Hands
Zurar: Askar - Feet
Guests:
Lazymashi: Askar - Head
Flayer: Nothing (wants Goliard)
Zerofaith: Nothing (wants Askar)
Ghiren & Ashle still have not gotten anything yet, so they're next up on the priority list. Ghiren would like Askar Feet & Body, so next week we're going to concentrate on floors 20 & 80. Ashle is being a nice guy as usual and is passing on stuff other people want, but he would like some nice Goliard gear for his up-and-coming RDM. Of course, when we have guests along, they're welcome to lot too for items that they can and will use.
Statistically speaking, if we get on average 2 armor drops per 4 runs, we should be done with getting everyone a full Nyzul armor set in about... 3-4 months... This is also assuming we maintain this drop rate and the items we want drop instead of getting a ton of Askar. That's not too bad given that we took 5 weeks to get up to floor 100 doing 7 runs a week. The climbing schedule was a little crazy, so I don't want to hold people to that for farming, but we can always still go on Sundays or Tuesdays.
Actually, I'd like to find out if there are any people who would like to go on Sundays or Tuesdays for farming runs. That way I can look out and pick up some guests to fill in for those who do not want to go and we can get some more armor for everyone. Sundays would be ideal, around 8:30-8:45pm PST gather time for up to 3 runs. That gives the tags enough time to refresh before Thursday. Let me know if you're up for that!
Friday, October 31, 2008
Monday, October 27, 2008
Scholar - 1st impressions
Hey! That's weird... results show a sudden influx of votes for RDM and BRD, but no supporting evidence in the comments of the last post! Someone's stuffing the ballot box!
Anyway, this post is about Scholar and my initial impressions for the lowbie levels.
Magic
First up... the magic side of things. Having access to both black magic & white magic at essentially the same time feels very much like playing RDM. Basic play seems to be the same in a party... throw out some enfeebles, regen the tank, maybe throw out some nukes. Unlike RDM, I didn't really feel like meleeing with the weak staff or club, so after taking care of the party, I'd end up /healing once I'm comfortable that the party has enough health to last till the end of the mob.
After getting Light Arts & Dark Arts, it took a little more thinking and planning as to when I was going to cast spells. Due to the 1 minute recast on switching arts, I'd throw out all the White Magic enfeebles and cast regen before switching to Dark Arts and finishing off with Black Magic enfeebles and nukes. Regen really makes main healing easy, and SCH getting it earlier than WHM makes me a happy schoolgirl!
As expected, I'm enjoying the healer side of the job a lot more than the nuker side...Nuking just isn't that fun, and level sync is making it even worse since my elemental magic skill is lagging behind what it should be. While level sync has made it a lot easier to put parties together, I'm finding it a little annoying cos my skills are lagging behind, and the satisfaction of leveling up is taken away when I realize that I can't use the new skills or spells I just obtained until the sync'ed person levels >.>
Strategems
So, I found that the fun part on SCH came with the various strategems... saving half MP cost when casting a big nuke makes for very efficient nuking, and being able to regen a couple of melees back to back helps a lot when you're trying to get through a cycle. Basically, it feels a lot like forcing Conserve MP & Fast Cast to come on whenever you want!
Tabula Rasa really shines with these active... It kinda feels like a miniture version of Chainspell or Manafont. I tried Tabula Rasa out twice in parties, once for an emergency situation where we needed some Cures fast among many people, and another to nuke the last mob in an exp party down. Being able to regen a whole party without waiting for that recast timer is quite effective, and doing a ton of nukes for half MP cost almost made it feel like a manafont nuke!
Sublimation
Sublimation is niiiiiiiiice! Being able to pool up a bunch of MP and taking it out when you need it is just too cool. It effectively expands my MP pool by 25%. Since I don't have Stoneskin yet, it's necessary to turn Sublimation on when getting up from /heal, then switching it out before /healing again. I've taken to essentially using up my MP while Sublimation is up, then taking out the store before /healing, or using it as necessary.
Subjob choice
I didn't realize what a difference the various subs would do for SCH. I had originally figured on just going SCH/WHM until level 40, then switching to SCH/RDM for en-ga spells. Turns out, there are good reasons for choosing one sub over another.
SCH/WHM: Gains access to White Magic enfeebles (Dia, Paralyze, Slow), the Bar-ra spells. Especially important when you need to Bar-ra groups of people. In the Jungle, I went as SCH/BLM once, and regretted it as I lost access to Barsleepra
SCH/BLM: Gets the Black Magic Enfeebles (Bio, Blind, Bind), and the other ones like Choke, etc. and of course, Elemental Seal. My last party had me coming as a nuker, but I showed up as SCH/RDM... could probably have done a little more damage if I came as SCH/BLM
SCH/RDM: Gets all the enfeebles from both schools of magic, but loses the -ra spells and elemental debuffs... probably still the best overall choice for versatility, but there are some situations that call for the other two subs.
Soooo... looks like I'll have to finish leveling /BLM & /RDM at some point so I can switch between all 3 as necessary. Both BLM & RDM are at level 18, so that's another 19 levels to finish them up as subjobs. I'd really want to get RDM up before leveling SCH past 40 since I still think Ascension & En-ga is nice and broken!
Scholar as a Sub
This will be quite interesting... the obvious benefit is of course, Sublimation. Other benefits include:
- Job traits: /SCH gets Clear Mind II, Conserve MP and Max MP boost. This means I no longer have to set my Conserve MP spells
- Light Arts: Since this boosts healing skill... supposedly it actually helps with BLU heals like Magic Fruit & Healing Breeze
- Strategems: Being able to cast Raise faster, or for less MP should be useful in various situations
- Addendems: Access to Dispel, and Aspir... this still needs some testing to see how effective it will be subbed.
The main place I'll be trying this out is Nyzul Isle since in Nyzul, just having Sublimation would be a huge upgrade as we do not have a RDM or BRD in our group!
Unfortunately, SCH will have to be put on hiatas for the time being... I want to level up at least the RDM sub, possibly both subjobs before going further, and I actually need to raise some gil! SCH spells are starting to get expensive, especially those that can only be purchased from vendors, and I do need some gil before taking it further!
Anyway, this post is about Scholar and my initial impressions for the lowbie levels.
Magic
First up... the magic side of things. Having access to both black magic & white magic at essentially the same time feels very much like playing RDM. Basic play seems to be the same in a party... throw out some enfeebles, regen the tank, maybe throw out some nukes. Unlike RDM, I didn't really feel like meleeing with the weak staff or club, so after taking care of the party, I'd end up /healing once I'm comfortable that the party has enough health to last till the end of the mob.
After getting Light Arts & Dark Arts, it took a little more thinking and planning as to when I was going to cast spells. Due to the 1 minute recast on switching arts, I'd throw out all the White Magic enfeebles and cast regen before switching to Dark Arts and finishing off with Black Magic enfeebles and nukes. Regen really makes main healing easy, and SCH getting it earlier than WHM makes me a happy schoolgirl!
As expected, I'm enjoying the healer side of the job a lot more than the nuker side...Nuking just isn't that fun, and level sync is making it even worse since my elemental magic skill is lagging behind what it should be. While level sync has made it a lot easier to put parties together, I'm finding it a little annoying cos my skills are lagging behind, and the satisfaction of leveling up is taken away when I realize that I can't use the new skills or spells I just obtained until the sync'ed person levels >.>
Strategems
So, I found that the fun part on SCH came with the various strategems... saving half MP cost when casting a big nuke makes for very efficient nuking, and being able to regen a couple of melees back to back helps a lot when you're trying to get through a cycle. Basically, it feels a lot like forcing Conserve MP & Fast Cast to come on whenever you want!
Tabula Rasa really shines with these active... It kinda feels like a miniture version of Chainspell or Manafont. I tried Tabula Rasa out twice in parties, once for an emergency situation where we needed some Cures fast among many people, and another to nuke the last mob in an exp party down. Being able to regen a whole party without waiting for that recast timer is quite effective, and doing a ton of nukes for half MP cost almost made it feel like a manafont nuke!
Sublimation
Sublimation is niiiiiiiiice! Being able to pool up a bunch of MP and taking it out when you need it is just too cool. It effectively expands my MP pool by 25%. Since I don't have Stoneskin yet, it's necessary to turn Sublimation on when getting up from /heal, then switching it out before /healing again. I've taken to essentially using up my MP while Sublimation is up, then taking out the store before /healing, or using it as necessary.
Subjob choice
I didn't realize what a difference the various subs would do for SCH. I had originally figured on just going SCH/WHM until level 40, then switching to SCH/RDM for en-ga spells. Turns out, there are good reasons for choosing one sub over another.
SCH/WHM: Gains access to White Magic enfeebles (Dia, Paralyze, Slow), the Bar-ra spells. Especially important when you need to Bar-ra groups of people. In the Jungle, I went as SCH/BLM once, and regretted it as I lost access to Barsleepra
SCH/BLM: Gets the Black Magic Enfeebles (Bio, Blind, Bind), and the other ones like Choke, etc. and of course, Elemental Seal. My last party had me coming as a nuker, but I showed up as SCH/RDM... could probably have done a little more damage if I came as SCH/BLM
SCH/RDM: Gets all the enfeebles from both schools of magic, but loses the -ra spells and elemental debuffs... probably still the best overall choice for versatility, but there are some situations that call for the other two subs.
Soooo... looks like I'll have to finish leveling /BLM & /RDM at some point so I can switch between all 3 as necessary. Both BLM & RDM are at level 18, so that's another 19 levels to finish them up as subjobs. I'd really want to get RDM up before leveling SCH past 40 since I still think Ascension & En-ga is nice and broken!
Scholar as a Sub
This will be quite interesting... the obvious benefit is of course, Sublimation. Other benefits include:
- Job traits: /SCH gets Clear Mind II, Conserve MP and Max MP boost. This means I no longer have to set my Conserve MP spells
- Light Arts: Since this boosts healing skill... supposedly it actually helps with BLU heals like Magic Fruit & Healing Breeze
- Strategems: Being able to cast Raise faster, or for less MP should be useful in various situations
- Addendems: Access to Dispel, and Aspir... this still needs some testing to see how effective it will be subbed.
The main place I'll be trying this out is Nyzul Isle since in Nyzul, just having Sublimation would be a huge upgrade as we do not have a RDM or BRD in our group!
Unfortunately, SCH will have to be put on hiatas for the time being... I want to level up at least the RDM sub, possibly both subjobs before going further, and I actually need to raise some gil! SCH spells are starting to get expensive, especially those that can only be purchased from vendors, and I do need some gil before taking it further!
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
More blogging for procastination!
The ironic part about being so busy is... that... sometimes I just get into a mood of not really wanting to do anything, and that tends to be when I update my blog ^^; I'm really busy this week, with deadlines on Thursday, plus lots of other things going on that I'm in no mood to really do, sooooooooooo... here's another blog post!
Yet another poll is up, this time focusing on the possible {Support Role Job}s that I might possibly pick up next. My exploration into PLD as voted did not end well. I ended up being super-bored with the job, partially because tanking at lower levels mainly consists of letting the PL take hate, partially because trying to cast spells while being hit is an exercise of frustration when your spell is interrupted. At least with NIN you know that if you're being hit, it's your fault for not counting shadows correctly!
So, going back to the jobs that seem enjoyable, at least to me...
Scholar
Ok, the main reason why I'm leaning towards this job is... it's brand new, seems really flexible and... it's not BRD4life or RDM4life >.> From what I've seen, it seems to be a weaker combination of both a WHM & BLM combined into one. You get all the -na spells, along with Raise II & Reraise II, but you can also switch to BLM mode and nuke to a reasonable degree, even Dispel. Just about the only utility spell you can't get at all is Haste.
Other considerations... how useful would it be as a compliment to my existing jobs? Considering that I can do a good portion of "Back Line Job" roles as BLU/WHM including -na spells, Diamondhide, and even an occassional Haste via Diffusion-Refueling, the WHM side of things wouldn't be too big of a deal. Dancer is of course, a frontline healer, so if it were a situation where I'd be main healing, I'd much rather take Dancer out. The other side is the nuking side, and I'm not certain how well SCH would hold out when it comes to nuking big things such as Proto-Omega. Anyone with any experience with this?
Red Mage
The big reason why I'm hesitant to level this, or BRD is... the attitude of RDM/BRD4life that seems to be around. I'd be really annoyed that... if after I leveled up RDM, that people would expect or demand that I play RDM only instead of BLU or DNC. The sad part is that I actually like RDM. It's a flexible job, capable of doing a lot of things both in a group and solo, and most importantly, is not dependent on /heal to get MP back.
The last time I leveled RDM was... during an age where WHM was the preferred healer, BLMs were the core of a party with skillchains & magic bursts, and a RDM was a last pick after you got the tank(PLD) and other melees. I was a frontline RDM that would keep up a haste/refresh cycle while fully enfeebling the mob, backup healing and magic bursting together with a BLM. That was also a time when I experimented with RDM/BRD for even more MP regen, even though it nearly drove me crazy xD
Leveling RDM again would have some other challenges. For starters, from what I understand, a full array of elemetal staves is now expected past level 50? I'd also probably want to pick up various +MND or +INT accessories for the job, which would represent quite bit of gil. Time for more NM camping? Moldy earring, Joy-toy... not sure what else I'd need for a RDM equipment wise. Oh, and finally I'd want to go unlock and level up a DRK sub o.o; That's a large investment of gil & inventory slots...
Bard
So, BRD seems to be an interesting job, if only for my recent interest in pulling. It's a great supporting job, and getting positioning right for the mages and melees is a headache at any level past 25. Being able to go out, pull a few mobs and sleep them without any concern about MP usage makes it seem like fun in a merit party situation. BRD equipment is mainly CHR based, so some of it would overlap with what DNC uses. I intend to pick up a Delta Earring from Einherjar just for the +2 Chr at some point.
My only concern about BRD is that it seems that it would get too boring under other circumstances. In emergency situations, there's not much a Bard can do to turn things around in a pinch. The nature of the job and the songs mean that the abilities take time to show effectiveness. Also, the job is basically performing the same 4 songs over and over again. It's busy, but it seems highly repetitive...
Conclusion
In any case, I won't be leveling anything seriously at least until December when this quarter of school is finally over @.@ Currently, the jobs sit at SCH12, RDM18 and BRD16, so they're all pretty low at the moment and really need some fun lowbie parties to get up to the levels which they start showing their own job traits... BRD25, RDM41, and... I have no idea when SCH starts becoming unique.
If you vote on the poll, put a comment in this post on why you voted for the job and try to convince me why I should level it :)
Yet another poll is up, this time focusing on the possible {Support Role Job}s that I might possibly pick up next. My exploration into PLD as voted did not end well. I ended up being super-bored with the job, partially because tanking at lower levels mainly consists of letting the PL take hate, partially because trying to cast spells while being hit is an exercise of frustration when your spell is interrupted. At least with NIN you know that if you're being hit, it's your fault for not counting shadows correctly!
So, going back to the jobs that seem enjoyable, at least to me...
Scholar
Ok, the main reason why I'm leaning towards this job is... it's brand new, seems really flexible and... it's not BRD4life or RDM4life >.> From what I've seen, it seems to be a weaker combination of both a WHM & BLM combined into one. You get all the -na spells, along with Raise II & Reraise II, but you can also switch to BLM mode and nuke to a reasonable degree, even Dispel. Just about the only utility spell you can't get at all is Haste.
Other considerations... how useful would it be as a compliment to my existing jobs? Considering that I can do a good portion of "Back Line Job" roles as BLU/WHM including -na spells, Diamondhide, and even an occassional Haste via Diffusion-Refueling, the WHM side of things wouldn't be too big of a deal. Dancer is of course, a frontline healer, so if it were a situation where I'd be main healing, I'd much rather take Dancer out. The other side is the nuking side, and I'm not certain how well SCH would hold out when it comes to nuking big things such as Proto-Omega. Anyone with any experience with this?
Red Mage
The big reason why I'm hesitant to level this, or BRD is... the attitude of RDM/BRD4life that seems to be around. I'd be really annoyed that... if after I leveled up RDM, that people would expect or demand that I play RDM only instead of BLU or DNC. The sad part is that I actually like RDM. It's a flexible job, capable of doing a lot of things both in a group and solo, and most importantly, is not dependent on /heal to get MP back.
The last time I leveled RDM was... during an age where WHM was the preferred healer, BLMs were the core of a party with skillchains & magic bursts, and a RDM was a last pick after you got the tank(PLD) and other melees. I was a frontline RDM that would keep up a haste/refresh cycle while fully enfeebling the mob, backup healing and magic bursting together with a BLM. That was also a time when I experimented with RDM/BRD for even more MP regen, even though it nearly drove me crazy xD
Leveling RDM again would have some other challenges. For starters, from what I understand, a full array of elemetal staves is now expected past level 50? I'd also probably want to pick up various +MND or +INT accessories for the job, which would represent quite bit of gil. Time for more NM camping? Moldy earring, Joy-toy... not sure what else I'd need for a RDM equipment wise. Oh, and finally I'd want to go unlock and level up a DRK sub o.o; That's a large investment of gil & inventory slots...
Bard
So, BRD seems to be an interesting job, if only for my recent interest in pulling. It's a great supporting job, and getting positioning right for the mages and melees is a headache at any level past 25. Being able to go out, pull a few mobs and sleep them without any concern about MP usage makes it seem like fun in a merit party situation. BRD equipment is mainly CHR based, so some of it would overlap with what DNC uses. I intend to pick up a Delta Earring from Einherjar just for the +2 Chr at some point.
My only concern about BRD is that it seems that it would get too boring under other circumstances. In emergency situations, there's not much a Bard can do to turn things around in a pinch. The nature of the job and the songs mean that the abilities take time to show effectiveness. Also, the job is basically performing the same 4 songs over and over again. It's busy, but it seems highly repetitive...
Conclusion
In any case, I won't be leveling anything seriously at least until December when this quarter of school is finally over @.@ Currently, the jobs sit at SCH12, RDM18 and BRD16, so they're all pretty low at the moment and really need some fun lowbie parties to get up to the levels which they start showing their own job traits... BRD25, RDM41, and... I have no idea when SCH starts becoming unique.
If you vote on the poll, put a comment in this post on why you voted for the job and try to convince me why I should level it :)
Monday, October 20, 2008
Nyzul - Completed floor 100, future farming
First up, good job in completing the 1-100 run in record time! Looking back at my blog posts, we started on 9/11, so we basically climbed up to floor 100 in about 5 weeks. We still have to finish Ashle's 91-100 disc, but that shouldn't be a problem this coming week.
Nyzul Farming
Going forward, we'll be doing Nyzul for the express purpose of farming armor. The schedule will be Thursdays only, gathering at Whitegate at 9:30pm Pacific. We're starting as soon as Ashle gets on, and we'll be doing 4 runs. Ge in Whitegate on time so that as soon as Ashles gets on, we can start our first run and people can get to sleep at a semi-reasonable hour. We won't be scheduling any more Sunday runs, freeing up assault tags so that people can do other assaults. Of course, if you actually want to do more farming runs on Sunday, just bring it up to people and if we have free tags available, we can do up to another 3 farming runs and pick up some friends to fill in for people who aren't around. Just be sure to pick up your 4th assault tag so that we can do 4 runs on Thursdays.
Farming schedule will generally be: 1-2 high floors (80/100), and the remaining lower floors. I'm not sure how bad token usage will be, but we'll continue to spread the floor picker around so that everyone has more or less the same number of tokens.
Farming Strategy
Strategy will be slightly different since we can't just spam 2-hrs on every single run! Basically, 2-hr at your discretion. If we hit the boss floor with only 5 minutes left, chances are everyone will have to use your 2-hr to try to get the win. If we have more than 5 minutes left, then it would be best to hold off and save your 2-hr for another run. I'm leaving it up to you all to use your best judgment on whether to 2-hr or not.
Item strategy remains the same. Melees might want to pick up additional damage drinks (like Soldier's Drink, Champion's, etc.) Jobs remain the same, though if you want to switch things around a little, let me know. I think we can have some flexibility in job choices.
Loot Lot Rotation - Round Robin
Simple round robin rotation... basically, everyone will lot on the pieces that they can and will wear. Once you have 1 piece of armor, you're out of the lotting pool until everyone has at least one piece, then we open up lotting again for the 2nd piece, 3rd, etc. This way, hopefully we can spread out armor to everyone so that we all finish up our sets at the same time.
Current armor pieces so far:
Denali: 1x Hands (Utaru)
Askar: 1x Feet(Zurar), 1x body (Utaru), 1x Head (Lazymashi)
Goliard: None
From a previous blog post, we have the following priorities for pieces:
Kurai: All except head for Goliard
Ascy: Denali feet & head
Ghiren: Askar body & feet
Zurar: Askar body & head
So... that probably means we'll be doing floor 20 the most since we have demand for all 3 armor pieces there, followed by 80 & 100. We'll catch up on 40 & 60 later once we get everyone a few pieces that they really want.
For weapons, I think almost everyone has already obtained the weapon for their main jobs, right? The only one I can think of that we haven't obtained is DRG for Zurar. Don't worry though, we'll get that easily... all Zu needs to do is get DRG to 75, then we'll have him start a 96-100 run. The floor 100 boss always drops two weapons, one random one, and the other will be for the job of the person who selected the floor. (Which is why Wightslayer dropped last night. I picked the floor after Utty DC'ed) If you have any other weapon desires, let me know, otherwise all weapons are free lot.
Nyzul Weaponskills - Pyrrhic Kleos & Expiacion
Very... very flashy! Both weaponskills put out a lot of light and are very flashy! Of course, I've seen Expiacion before since Varg demonstrated it to me right after the updated, but I've never seen Pyrrhic Kleos before, not even on youtube.
4 hits, flashy... my initial impressions of Pyrrhic Kleos was that it looked like a tiger slashing claws, similar to Claw Cyclone, just with a lot of light. I need to figure out a way to make videos in FFXI and upload it xD Or... at the very least, remember to take some screenshots :o I'll try to put some up soon.
Damage wise, Expiacion was what I expected, not as good as Vorpal Blade and more of a setup for a Darkness skillchain with Vertical Cleave. Pyrrhic Kleos on the other hand, was fairly decent... about 280-500+, depending. I need to experiment with it a little more to see if Building Flourish affects it, and if the damage can exceed Dancing Edge consistently, maybe try it with more accuracy in case I'm missing hits.
Big thanks to Ghiren who helped me with the points for this! My turn to return the favor now :)
Nyzul Farming
Going forward, we'll be doing Nyzul for the express purpose of farming armor. The schedule will be Thursdays only, gathering at Whitegate at 9:30pm Pacific. We're starting as soon as Ashle gets on, and we'll be doing 4 runs. Ge in Whitegate on time so that as soon as Ashles gets on, we can start our first run and people can get to sleep at a semi-reasonable hour. We won't be scheduling any more Sunday runs, freeing up assault tags so that people can do other assaults. Of course, if you actually want to do more farming runs on Sunday, just bring it up to people and if we have free tags available, we can do up to another 3 farming runs and pick up some friends to fill in for people who aren't around. Just be sure to pick up your 4th assault tag so that we can do 4 runs on Thursdays.
Farming schedule will generally be: 1-2 high floors (80/100), and the remaining lower floors. I'm not sure how bad token usage will be, but we'll continue to spread the floor picker around so that everyone has more or less the same number of tokens.
Farming Strategy
Strategy will be slightly different since we can't just spam 2-hrs on every single run! Basically, 2-hr at your discretion. If we hit the boss floor with only 5 minutes left, chances are everyone will have to use your 2-hr to try to get the win. If we have more than 5 minutes left, then it would be best to hold off and save your 2-hr for another run. I'm leaving it up to you all to use your best judgment on whether to 2-hr or not.
Item strategy remains the same. Melees might want to pick up additional damage drinks (like Soldier's Drink, Champion's, etc.) Jobs remain the same, though if you want to switch things around a little, let me know. I think we can have some flexibility in job choices.
Loot Lot Rotation - Round Robin
Simple round robin rotation... basically, everyone will lot on the pieces that they can and will wear. Once you have 1 piece of armor, you're out of the lotting pool until everyone has at least one piece, then we open up lotting again for the 2nd piece, 3rd, etc. This way, hopefully we can spread out armor to everyone so that we all finish up our sets at the same time.
Current armor pieces so far:
Denali: 1x Hands (Utaru)
Askar: 1x Feet(Zurar), 1x body (Utaru), 1x Head (Lazymashi)
Goliard: None
From a previous blog post, we have the following priorities for pieces:
Kurai: All except head for Goliard
Ascy: Denali feet & head
Ghiren: Askar body & feet
Zurar: Askar body & head
So... that probably means we'll be doing floor 20 the most since we have demand for all 3 armor pieces there, followed by 80 & 100. We'll catch up on 40 & 60 later once we get everyone a few pieces that they really want.
For weapons, I think almost everyone has already obtained the weapon for their main jobs, right? The only one I can think of that we haven't obtained is DRG for Zurar. Don't worry though, we'll get that easily... all Zu needs to do is get DRG to 75, then we'll have him start a 96-100 run. The floor 100 boss always drops two weapons, one random one, and the other will be for the job of the person who selected the floor. (Which is why Wightslayer dropped last night. I picked the floor after Utty DC'ed) If you have any other weapon desires, let me know, otherwise all weapons are free lot.
Nyzul Weaponskills - Pyrrhic Kleos & Expiacion
Very... very flashy! Both weaponskills put out a lot of light and are very flashy! Of course, I've seen Expiacion before since Varg demonstrated it to me right after the updated, but I've never seen Pyrrhic Kleos before, not even on youtube.
4 hits, flashy... my initial impressions of Pyrrhic Kleos was that it looked like a tiger slashing claws, similar to Claw Cyclone, just with a lot of light. I need to figure out a way to make videos in FFXI and upload it xD Or... at the very least, remember to take some screenshots :o I'll try to put some up soon.
Damage wise, Expiacion was what I expected, not as good as Vorpal Blade and more of a setup for a Darkness skillchain with Vertical Cleave. Pyrrhic Kleos on the other hand, was fairly decent... about 280-500+, depending. I need to experiment with it a little more to see if Building Flourish affects it, and if the damage can exceed Dancing Edge consistently, maybe try it with more accuracy in case I'm missing hits.
Big thanks to Ghiren who helped me with the points for this! My turn to return the favor now :)
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
WoTG "endgame" - Campaign Ops & Stronghold NMs?
So, one thing I've said about WoTG was that I would go about organizing whatever "endgame" event came out in the expansion. It seems that two events managed to sneak into the last patch without me noticing!
1. Stronghold Notorious Monsters (SNMs)
This seems to be a system similar to the ZNM system. In each [S] stronghold, there are 8 NMs that need to be killed for drops that are turned into key items once they are traded to a NPC. Once all 8 NMs have been killed, this unlocks an alliance Sealed Container NM (SCNM) battle in the stronghold.
It's similar to ZNMs as in you need to kill a bunch of mobs in order to go for the final battle. The good news is that there is no "zeni farming" that needs to be done. Besides dropping the key items, each NM also has their own two drops, and of course the alliance SCNM has some interesting drops as well. More info on the mobs & drops is available at http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Category:Stronghold_Notorious_Monsters
I'm thinking of gathering some people and going to play over in the past! I don't think we spend enough time in the WoTG areas... the beastmen stronghold are virtually deserted, and it should be easy to find these NMs, get some exp while playing around in the past! Given people's really filled up schedule, I'm thinking... Friday evenings, 7pm PST start time... any interest? Leave a comment or send me a /tell!
2. Campaign Ops
Apparantly when a nation has control over a beastman stronghold, there are offensive campaign ops that are opened up with rewards. There are two rewards that caught my eye:
From the Windy Op "Plucking Wings": Roundel Earring - Waltz Potency +5%
From the Sandy Op "Splitting Heirs": Cuchulain's Mantle - Str+4, Dex+4, Accuracy +5
Both of these items are really good for Dancer. Waltz Potency is something that only the AF body has right now, and that's the highest accuracy I've seen on a Dancer-usable back piece. The Str & Dex are also really good for Blue Mage.
Two small issues with doing these ops...
1. We need to own the beastman stronghold... given how slacks Hades is, it might be a while before this happens :) However, doing the Stronghold NM system might help with this... I have a feeling the Recall spells will become a little more used in the near future.
2. To do the op, you need everyone in the party to be affiliated with the nation. Hence, to do the Windy op, we'd need 6 people who are all affiliated with Windy [S], have the appropriate rank and have the op active in order to actually enter the battlefield. This takes a little more coordination compared to Assault.
Personally, once Hades gets control over Castle O[S], I plan on grabbing 5 other people and spamming that campaign op until I get that earring. After that, it'll be time to switch to Sandy and do the same thing for the mantle!
1. Stronghold Notorious Monsters (SNMs)
This seems to be a system similar to the ZNM system. In each [S] stronghold, there are 8 NMs that need to be killed for drops that are turned into key items once they are traded to a NPC. Once all 8 NMs have been killed, this unlocks an alliance Sealed Container NM (SCNM) battle in the stronghold.
It's similar to ZNMs as in you need to kill a bunch of mobs in order to go for the final battle. The good news is that there is no "zeni farming" that needs to be done. Besides dropping the key items, each NM also has their own two drops, and of course the alliance SCNM has some interesting drops as well. More info on the mobs & drops is available at http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Category:Stronghold_Notorious_Monsters
I'm thinking of gathering some people and going to play over in the past! I don't think we spend enough time in the WoTG areas... the beastmen stronghold are virtually deserted, and it should be easy to find these NMs, get some exp while playing around in the past! Given people's really filled up schedule, I'm thinking... Friday evenings, 7pm PST start time... any interest? Leave a comment or send me a /tell!
2. Campaign Ops
Apparantly when a nation has control over a beastman stronghold, there are offensive campaign ops that are opened up with rewards. There are two rewards that caught my eye:
From the Windy Op "Plucking Wings": Roundel Earring - Waltz Potency +5%
From the Sandy Op "Splitting Heirs": Cuchulain's Mantle - Str+4, Dex+4, Accuracy +5
Both of these items are really good for Dancer. Waltz Potency is something that only the AF body has right now, and that's the highest accuracy I've seen on a Dancer-usable back piece. The Str & Dex are also really good for Blue Mage.
Two small issues with doing these ops...
1. We need to own the beastman stronghold... given how slacks Hades is, it might be a while before this happens :) However, doing the Stronghold NM system might help with this... I have a feeling the Recall spells will become a little more used in the near future.
2. To do the op, you need everyone in the party to be affiliated with the nation. Hence, to do the Windy op, we'd need 6 people who are all affiliated with Windy [S], have the appropriate rank and have the op active in order to actually enter the battlefield. This takes a little more coordination compared to Assault.
Personally, once Hades gets control over Castle O[S], I plan on grabbing 5 other people and spamming that campaign op until I get that earring. After that, it'll be time to switch to Sandy and do the same thing for the mantle!
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Yet another random update
Whee... some randomish updates on my adventures.
New toys
Let's see... surprisingly, my Blue Mage has been getting quite a few upgrades recently. Besides the recent rash of gloves that I've picked up over the last few weeks, just last night I managed to (finally) learn Mind Blast and picked up a new shield from ZNMs. It was free lotted and I happened to win the lot xD
Legion scutum DEF: 16 MP +20 Enmity -2MP recovered while healing +5Lv. 71 All Jobs
Pretty good shield... It's weird to actually see myself running around with a shield since none of my jobs actually have any shield skill. I might try wearing it on DNC/SAM just for the -enmity. It should really help when I take on support roles on BLU. I've put together a enmity down equipment macro that throws on all of my cobra unit gear as well for use during heavy healing events.
Merit parties
Kurai has been trying to level SCH up to 75, so I've been tagging along for a couple of meritish parties on Dancer. We seem to also grab more or less the same people... Dexie, Zurar, and he's grabbed Ghiren, Savage and Styles in the past. I've been coming as DNC/SAM for these, and overall exp isn't too bad, about 12-13k/hour without band.
DNC/SAM allows me a little more freedom in using TP to basically main heal the party while I'm pulling. I think I'm a little rusty now since it's been a while since I've actually pulled for a merit party. Couldn't break chain #16, partly because our party wasn't full of 75s, but mainly because I still don't have the right timing down on when to go out to get another mob in order to keep the chain going without bringing a mob back too early and getting us all killed. ^^;
4 merits stored up right now... I might just keep storing merits for use when level 2 merits come out for Dancer... or I might put a few merits into sword for Blue Mage. I do need just a little more accuracy on Blue Mage to throw out those 7-800+ Disseverments more consistently xD
Nyzul
Floor 75 now! 3/4 of the way there. Just 5 more successful climbs before we hit floor 100 and finish climbing. Hopefully we should be done with that by the end of this week, and we can switch over to a lighter farming schedule. We had our first Denali piece drop on floor 60, the gloves. Good tanking piece for NINs I think, so it went to Utaru.
Coming up though, I think we may have a scheduling problem. Originally, I'd figured that we would simply switch to a 4-run Friday-only schedule for farming, but this poses a problem for people who want to sleep (relatively) early on Friday for work on Saturday, as well as for people who want to do other Assaults on Sunday since using up all tag on Friday would mean that you only have 1, maaaaaaaaybe a 2nd tag late at night on Sunday.
Right now, proposals are:
- Do 4 runs on Thursday night - Can't be done since we start too late for people with work on Fri
- Do 4 runs on Friday night - Samish problem as above, plus lack of tags on Sunday
- Do a split of 2 runs each night, allowing for 2-3 tags on Sunday for other Assaults
Nyzul people, let me know what you think.
ZNMs
Mild fiasco last night when the Experimental Lamia basically had her way with the whole alliance. We had a problem when the tank party was getting one-shot one at a time, leaving the Experimental Lamia to aggro the rest of the alliance and start taking us down. Didn't help that the pets spawned and immediately started attacking the tank party as well and tanks weren't able to grab them in time.
Next week we should have a better strategy that involves a very foolish Blue Mage getting the attention of a bunch of lamia at the same time... mmm... that sounds almost like the plot of a h-dojin o.o;
Meanwhile, since Aqqy has basically abandoned us for the evil World of Warcraft, I've put together a ZNM site to take over tracking of what's going on, wishlist items, etc. It's available at http://znms.blogspot.com. Right now, it is quite out of date as I need to get information about what has happened over the last few weeks, what items people have obtained, what pop items are available, etc. If you know of anything, let me know in game, in the comments, or even email at (my char name) at GMail.
New toys
Let's see... surprisingly, my Blue Mage has been getting quite a few upgrades recently. Besides the recent rash of gloves that I've picked up over the last few weeks, just last night I managed to (finally) learn Mind Blast and picked up a new shield from ZNMs. It was free lotted and I happened to win the lot xD
Legion scutum DEF: 16 MP +20 Enmity -2MP recovered while healing +5Lv. 71 All Jobs
Pretty good shield... It's weird to actually see myself running around with a shield since none of my jobs actually have any shield skill. I might try wearing it on DNC/SAM just for the -enmity. It should really help when I take on support roles on BLU. I've put together a enmity down equipment macro that throws on all of my cobra unit gear as well for use during heavy healing events.
Merit parties
Kurai has been trying to level SCH up to 75, so I've been tagging along for a couple of meritish parties on Dancer. We seem to also grab more or less the same people... Dexie, Zurar, and he's grabbed Ghiren, Savage and Styles in the past. I've been coming as DNC/SAM for these, and overall exp isn't too bad, about 12-13k/hour without band.
DNC/SAM allows me a little more freedom in using TP to basically main heal the party while I'm pulling. I think I'm a little rusty now since it's been a while since I've actually pulled for a merit party. Couldn't break chain #16, partly because our party wasn't full of 75s, but mainly because I still don't have the right timing down on when to go out to get another mob in order to keep the chain going without bringing a mob back too early and getting us all killed. ^^;
4 merits stored up right now... I might just keep storing merits for use when level 2 merits come out for Dancer... or I might put a few merits into sword for Blue Mage. I do need just a little more accuracy on Blue Mage to throw out those 7-800+ Disseverments more consistently xD
Nyzul
Floor 75 now! 3/4 of the way there. Just 5 more successful climbs before we hit floor 100 and finish climbing. Hopefully we should be done with that by the end of this week, and we can switch over to a lighter farming schedule. We had our first Denali piece drop on floor 60, the gloves. Good tanking piece for NINs I think, so it went to Utaru.
Coming up though, I think we may have a scheduling problem. Originally, I'd figured that we would simply switch to a 4-run Friday-only schedule for farming, but this poses a problem for people who want to sleep (relatively) early on Friday for work on Saturday, as well as for people who want to do other Assaults on Sunday since using up all tag on Friday would mean that you only have 1, maaaaaaaaybe a 2nd tag late at night on Sunday.
Right now, proposals are:
- Do 4 runs on Thursday night - Can't be done since we start too late for people with work on Fri
- Do 4 runs on Friday night - Samish problem as above, plus lack of tags on Sunday
- Do a split of 2 runs each night, allowing for 2-3 tags on Sunday for other Assaults
Nyzul people, let me know what you think.
ZNMs
Mild fiasco last night when the Experimental Lamia basically had her way with the whole alliance. We had a problem when the tank party was getting one-shot one at a time, leaving the Experimental Lamia to aggro the rest of the alliance and start taking us down. Didn't help that the pets spawned and immediately started attacking the tank party as well and tanks weren't able to grab them in time.
Next week we should have a better strategy that involves a very foolish Blue Mage getting the attention of a bunch of lamia at the same time... mmm... that sounds almost like the plot of a h-dojin o.o;
Meanwhile, since Aqqy has basically abandoned us for the evil World of Warcraft, I've put together a ZNM site to take over tracking of what's going on, wishlist items, etc. It's available at http://znms.blogspot.com. Right now, it is quite out of date as I need to get information about what has happened over the last few weeks, what items people have obtained, what pop items are available, etc. If you know of anything, let me know in game, in the comments, or even email at (my char name) at GMail.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
More random updates
Phew... caught up a little on my life, enough that I can actually watch some TV tonight instead of rushing from thing to thing... I had a few minutes, so I figured I'd put up another random blog post! Let's see...
Blue Mage - New Gloves
Seems that I need to throw a few merits into BLU... with my "physical nuking gear", I'm at over +30 Str & Dex with my new Enkidu's Mittens. However, that seems to be at the expense of accuracy as I seem to be doing more damage with my regular melee gear on. My nuking gear takes some accuracy off in favor of putting on more Str & Dex, so to get the best results, I'll need to raise my accuracy a little... probably through some sword merits since physical Blue Magic is dependent on main weapon accuracy. I might throw some into Blue Magic skill as well. I haven't touched either of these merits since... well, since I hit BLU75
Nyzul - floor 55
I was experimenting with gear in Nyzul. Of course, it didn't help that I was targetting high evasive rats, and I wasn't using Sushi since I'm very much a hybrid role in Nyzul, switching between healer to full-on DD to sleeper all during the same battle.
Still, we're just over the halfway point for Nyzul! Pretty good for 3 weeks of work. We have 9 more successful climbs to reach floor 100, then we can switch over to a slightly more relaxed farming schedule. We have 5 runs scheduled between tomorrow & Friday, so... with a ton of luck, we may actually hit floor 100 by the end of next week!
Other topics
People around me have probably noticed that I've been a lot more testy recently. I haven't been on as much, and may have been snapping at people ^^; Sorry for my behavior... it's just been a trying few weeks. Besides the crap going on with the stupid economy, I've also been really busy at school with basically taking the lead with my final project, which is going to be larger than any project that we've ever done.
About the economy... this is going to be bad. I think we're still at the beginning of what will be at best, a 1-2 year recession, and at worst, a 4-5 year depression. I've already taken measures to protect my investments, but it really does suck that I'm going to be graduating in the beginning of next year. If you're in school, try to delay graduation for at least another 2-3 years... by then we should be out of, if not climbing out of this mess >.<
Blue Mage - New Gloves
Seems that I need to throw a few merits into BLU... with my "physical nuking gear", I'm at over +30 Str & Dex with my new Enkidu's Mittens. However, that seems to be at the expense of accuracy as I seem to be doing more damage with my regular melee gear on. My nuking gear takes some accuracy off in favor of putting on more Str & Dex, so to get the best results, I'll need to raise my accuracy a little... probably through some sword merits since physical Blue Magic is dependent on main weapon accuracy. I might throw some into Blue Magic skill as well. I haven't touched either of these merits since... well, since I hit BLU75
Nyzul - floor 55
I was experimenting with gear in Nyzul. Of course, it didn't help that I was targetting high evasive rats, and I wasn't using Sushi since I'm very much a hybrid role in Nyzul, switching between healer to full-on DD to sleeper all during the same battle.
Still, we're just over the halfway point for Nyzul! Pretty good for 3 weeks of work. We have 9 more successful climbs to reach floor 100, then we can switch over to a slightly more relaxed farming schedule. We have 5 runs scheduled between tomorrow & Friday, so... with a ton of luck, we may actually hit floor 100 by the end of next week!
Other topics
People around me have probably noticed that I've been a lot more testy recently. I haven't been on as much, and may have been snapping at people ^^; Sorry for my behavior... it's just been a trying few weeks. Besides the crap going on with the stupid economy, I've also been really busy at school with basically taking the lead with my final project, which is going to be larger than any project that we've ever done.
About the economy... this is going to be bad. I think we're still at the beginning of what will be at best, a 1-2 year recession, and at worst, a 4-5 year depression. I've already taken measures to protect my investments, but it really does suck that I'm going to be graduating in the beginning of next year. If you're in school, try to delay graduation for at least another 2-3 years... by then we should be out of, if not climbing out of this mess >.<
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Gloves come in pairs!
This is kinda funny... I just got two new pieces of armor over the past couple of days from Limbus & ZNMs. What's funny is that both pieces are gloves!
First: Homam manopolas for my Blue Mage. Great stats on this for a BLU:
DEF: 20 HP +20 MP +20 Accuracy +4Enmity +3 Haste +3%
These are basically max MP + melee gloves for BLU. Haste & Accuracy, plus the extra MP basically means I can retire my Cobra Mittens, BLU AF gloves and Dusk Gloves on BLU. The Haste + Accuracy traits would actually make it really good for Dancer as well, but so far, Dancer & Scholar have not yet been added to the Homam/Narshima sets.
I'm surprised by how far I've come with Limbus. 2/5 so far on the armor set. When I first started it about 6 months ago, I figured I'd just try it out for a brief period of time and get bored of it. I never thought that I'd use Limbus to fund armor purchases and even end up with some pieces of Homam armor for myself!
Next: Enkidu's mittens for both Blue Mage & Dancer.
DEF: 24 STR +4 DEX +4Accuracy +5 Ranged Accuracy +5"Subtle Blow" +2
For Dancer, these are the most accurate gloves possible, replacing my Cobra Mittens. Unfortunately, they're bright red that clashes with my normal dark purple look, but at least they'll match my Scorpion harness! I'm not certain, but they may actually be better for Step Accuracy compared to my Dancer's Bangles. Dancer's Bangles only says "Increases Step Accuracy" and does not actually say how much it increases it by. Much testing is required!
For Blue Mage, the Str, Dex and Accuracy bonuses make these the best gloves to cast physical BLU spells. With Disserverment & Frenetic Rip with both Str & Dex modifiers, and Hysteric Barrage having Dex as a modifier, I'm expecting that the increase in damage should be quite noticable. This also means that the Light Gauntlets that I've been using since I hit 75 are going back onto the AH after months of use!
Other gloves I'll still carry with me are my Cobra Mittens for the -Enmity, and my Dusk Gloves for when I'm on DNC and I can actually use that extra bit of haste. Chances are that for both jobs, I'll be mainly in these two new... bright red gloves xD
Thanks again to everyone in Limbus & ZNMs for helping to get this gear! Still lots more mobs out there for us to kill to get everyone what they want! ^_^
First: Homam manopolas for my Blue Mage. Great stats on this for a BLU:
DEF: 20 HP +20 MP +20 Accuracy +4Enmity +3 Haste +3%
These are basically max MP + melee gloves for BLU. Haste & Accuracy, plus the extra MP basically means I can retire my Cobra Mittens, BLU AF gloves and Dusk Gloves on BLU. The Haste + Accuracy traits would actually make it really good for Dancer as well, but so far, Dancer & Scholar have not yet been added to the Homam/Narshima sets.
I'm surprised by how far I've come with Limbus. 2/5 so far on the armor set. When I first started it about 6 months ago, I figured I'd just try it out for a brief period of time and get bored of it. I never thought that I'd use Limbus to fund armor purchases and even end up with some pieces of Homam armor for myself!
Next: Enkidu's mittens for both Blue Mage & Dancer.
DEF: 24 STR +4 DEX +4Accuracy +5 Ranged Accuracy +5"Subtle Blow" +2
For Dancer, these are the most accurate gloves possible, replacing my Cobra Mittens. Unfortunately, they're bright red that clashes with my normal dark purple look, but at least they'll match my Scorpion harness! I'm not certain, but they may actually be better for Step Accuracy compared to my Dancer's Bangles. Dancer's Bangles only says "Increases Step Accuracy" and does not actually say how much it increases it by. Much testing is required!
For Blue Mage, the Str, Dex and Accuracy bonuses make these the best gloves to cast physical BLU spells. With Disserverment & Frenetic Rip with both Str & Dex modifiers, and Hysteric Barrage having Dex as a modifier, I'm expecting that the increase in damage should be quite noticable. This also means that the Light Gauntlets that I've been using since I hit 75 are going back onto the AH after months of use!
Other gloves I'll still carry with me are my Cobra Mittens for the -Enmity, and my Dusk Gloves for when I'm on DNC and I can actually use that extra bit of haste. Chances are that for both jobs, I'll be mainly in these two new... bright red gloves xD
Thanks again to everyone in Limbus & ZNMs for helping to get this gear! Still lots more mobs out there for us to kill to get everyone what they want! ^_^
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