Red looks better!

I think red looks better xD

Oh, and Fuuji is wearing the full MNK set. His outfit is almost completely red now, except for the boots!

Synergy stuff

Fuuji & I have been hunting some of the new NMs for Synergy "Aptants". These are the new NMs added... erm... I think last November which drop special rare/ex items that are used to turn the crafted "ebon/ebuir/furia" general-job armor into job-specific armor.

This armor is interesting because you can customize it using evoliths, and more importantly, change the color of the armor to better match your other gear. The gear itself is decent, but generally nothing game-breaking and there is almost always better gear to be had somewhere else. Still, Fuuji has gone and obtained the full MNK set, and in our camping of the NMs, I've picked up some of the Aptants for the DNC/THF set and we've both been getting the Aptants for the PLD set.

We finally got our Ebon Breastplates crafted yesterday morning thanks to Greysnake, so we took our Aptants and had them modified for PLD use.

Here's the base Ebon Breastplate:

The finished PLD version is called the Ebon Haubert adds shoulder pads, changes some of the upper arm details, and shifts the location of the hip guards. Overall, it looks very much like a WoW armor piece. Here's me and Fuuji:

I think these are also some of the few pieces of armor that actually cover the neck... which does make sense for an armor with a lot of protection :o

Now we're working on customizing the armor... Currently, we're working on getting dyes to change the color from black to red. I want to see how Fuuji's armor comes out first before dying mine. The black & red look isn't too bad, and my PLD kiting gear is almost entirely black and gold, so it actually matches this armor quite nicely. I'm not sure if the shade of red the fuira armor uses would match homam.

As for Evolith... well, that's where this system generally falls apart since there hasn't really been any significant evoliths discovered yet. Currently, the only evolith that looks interesting for this piece might be the "Divine Magic -recast" one, which is a pain to get as it comes either from a heavily camped NM, or a low-level random-pop 24-hour respawn NM. Currently, I do have a "Divine Magic +Accuracy" evolith, but I don't think that it's worth etching into the armor since... well... Flash is mainly cast for the enmity, and it's rarely resisted!

The "synergy" process itself actually seems like it's pretty fun! Like a mini-game instead of just throwing materials together to craft... I might look into it and try doing more food crafting with synergy if I get some free time xD

Other news

Not too much in other news... COR38 now, mostly leveled up with noob parties with the "new-returnees". Also mostly as COR/BRD... I need to start taking /RNG out now. It's fully geared up now that I'm above level 35, and from even a few experiments with shooting as COR/BRD, I think I will end up doing quite a bit of damage :o

Final bit of other news... AV decided to go on a rampage last Tuesday so...

Tornado II for the kill xD

Corsair status, musings

Yes, I decided on COR as my "support-type" job. Yes, I know it isn't as good as BRD at support-type roles, and in fact, I'll be naming all the reasons why in a bit. However, it does have some more interesting possibilities and game mechanics that caught my curiosity. There are also other, more tangible reasons behind choosing COR.

But first... status update!

Corsair status, impressions & prep

COR18 at this time after playing with the AlphaPrime "noobs" in the dunes. It's actually been a long time since I've been in the dunes since we normally do our 10-19 exping in the maze/tunnel these days. It was a nice change from the usual beating up of worms, and it was nice to be outdoors as it meant that we could do some FoV for tabs. I still have a really low amount of tabs, but it's enough to warp home once in a while.

I've been using COR/BRD for these levels, mainly from a lack of having anything decent to sub at this time. /RNG doesn't come in until at least level 20 when the accuracy bonus kicks in, and I may not even sub it then since I do have my Marksmanship skilled up to at least 37 from leveling RNG. Leveling RNG also taught me a lot about the ranged attack mechanic of FFXI... How far to stand, how much enmity Barrage & Sharpshot creates (a lot!), and even how useful Widescan can be. I also figured out how much of a pain it is for a RNG to pull for exp parties, between the high level of damage that is given up, to the long delay on bows and the risk of pulling the mob away when you actually go to pull.

And since I usually do not like to change between the jobs I'm leveling, I finished my RNG sub last night. Archery & Marksmanship are capped, so I do not really need to shoot on COR except for fun for a while.

Still, my initial impressions on COR are:

• The "gambling" mini-game with Phantom Roll is quite amusing and does require some thought on when you roll, when to "Double-Up" and how potent the effect is when on a lucky number or on 11. I also have a better idea of why people choose to use two attack buffs rather than Corsair's Roll. The difference in a party's performance and exp/hour is actually quite significant when using both Hunters & Chaos roll
• Shooting stuff at the moment just isn't worth it. Between a lack of ranged accuracy gear, not having the appropriate bonus, and the low damage on tin bullets, it's really not worth shooting stuff just yet. Maybe once I exceed 20 and start getting some +racc gear
• The 1 minute recast on Phantom Roll makes it difficult to experiment with various roll combinations since it takes (subjectively) forever to be able to change the combinations. It took me a while to satisfy my curiosity on Corsair/Hunter vs. Hunter/Chaos combinations
• Similarly, I can see the recast on Phantom Roll being an issue in the future when there needs to be a mix of mage/DD rolls. Basically, about half the time, the COR will end up with non-optimal rolls... either a DD-COR with Evoker/Scholar's roll, or a support-COR with DD rolls. I think meriting the Phantom Roll recast would be a high priority

Well, now all my COR subs are done, so it's time to start exping COR in earnest. Unfortunately, I'm also the lowest in my exp static, which consists mainly of Fuuji & Zurar x2, with pickups of Ghiren, Teia or Karou. There's also an issue with having too many people since a party is only 6 people, and we can't accommodate everyone all of the time. Basically, it's first come, first served. I also feel a little guilty since everyone else is going to be in the 30s-50s while I haven't even broken 20 yet. Maybe I can catch up a little with the "noobs" so that I won't end up causing everyone to have gimp skill :(

Speaking of which... strangely, last week a bunch of AP people decided to come back o.o Varga & Dakanna are back now with new characters, and Varga put on a ton of weight, going from taru-sized to a giant galka o.o Aquelia and Conceptx also decided to pop on as well, making AP surprisingly busy. Ironically, this also pushed the COR count from 1 (Fuuji) to now a total of 4 (Fuuji & Con at 75, me and Aquelia leveling it) which turns things upside down. Used to be that we had more Bards (Zurar & Calabolg) so having another COR would have been a good balance xD

The curse of the hybrid job

I always like hybrid jobs because of the flexibility that they tend to have, and the possibilities of doing different things. The only non-hybrid job I have is PLD, and even that job changes a lot based on the subjob. PLD/NIN plays completely differently from PLD/RDM and is used in different roles. (and yes, I consider DRG/mage to be a hybrid... one I really should use more often)

Unfortunately, the problem with hybrids is that they fall short compared to dedicated jobs, especially for large-scale events where you have enough space to bring dedicated jobs without needing the flexibility of a hybrid. Basically, any event that is larger than a party. Hybrids are great at low-man things when you need the flexibility. Corsair is an interesting hybrid... Its main draw is that it is a support-type job like Bard, but it has the capability of doing physical DD with bullets, or even magical DD with QuickDraw. Unfortunately, most people use COR to fill the role of a BRD, which it can't really fulfill perfectly.

Corsair limitations (at least, from my perspective)

• The big one is the recast time of Phantom Roll. The 1 minute recast time means that it takes time to put up all the necessary buffs, and it makes it impossible to do things like the Bard "Soul Voice" zerg setup
• This same recast also limited how fast a COR can react to a situation. To change the rolls on a party, it takes at least 2 minutes to completely replace 2 rolls. It's worse if you need to change 4 rolls. A BRD can just sing different songs immediately
• Corsair buffs are... well, random! It's all in the nature of the job... you can get a really good roll and get some crazy high buffs, or you could get unlucky. At least Bard songs are at least consistent, and can be boosted with Soul Voice
• One of the biggest buffs that you can get on BRD is 2x March for a ton of extra haste. If you've ever done a zerg on a DD, you'll know how effective this is and how much damage it puts out. COR lacks the haste capability, though the closest to this would be to throw in either the Double Attack roll, or the Store TP roll.
• Unfortunately, both of these rolls aren't exactly ideal. The Double Attack buff is fun, but it's unpredictable since you never know when you're going to attack twice. The Store TP roll, ironically, also affects predictability since the amount of Store TP added is random and changes the 2-hander "6-hit" or "5-hit" builds
• And of course, there's the usual lack of AoE sleep, unable to target specific rolls to specific people like a BRD can using Pianissimo

As far as I can tell, the only real buff that COR can give others that Bard can't would be the magical attack buff with Wizard's Roll. In most cases, a BRD would be a better dedicated support compared to a COR.

So, why choose COR?

Given that I know how much better BRD is compared to COR, it would seem that I'm being silly in leveling COR, right? Well... main reasons why I want to level COR are:

• It's a hybrid job -- This means that it has a more to do compared to regular jobs and can hold my curiosity. Reports on "QuickDraw soloing" definitely have my attention
• It gives me experience in two game mechanics -- I do not have any experience playing jobs that do AoE buffs, or with jobs that use Ranged Attacks. COR kills two birds with one stone
• This also gives me some flexibility in events where ranged attack is necessary. Right now, for certain events, I'm forced either into the PLD or SCH role and would like to give people the option to have fun tanking too
• Gear overlap -- I already have quite a bit of gear that I would end up using, including full Denali, Enkidu sets, as well as a Coffinmaker. This helps significantly with my inventory issues xD
• Most importantly: the AF looks sexy! At least, much better than the BRD one xD

Now, the silly part is... I'm pretty sure that even after I finish COR, I won't be taking it out to too many things... maybe the occasional merit party or event where ranged attack is needed. However, who really cares since I'll be having fun just leveling it xD

Maybe after COR is done I'll level something more "useful"... or... I'll follow the poll and level PUP :)

(oh, new poll on the right sidebar! Vote quickly! Poll ends Friday!)

Weird weekend

Well, this has certainly been a weird weekend... or at least, a weird Sunday. Lots of unusual things happened yesterday, most of which are good :o

MMM

After our usual Sunday afternoon ENM/ISNM runs (which we have down to virtually a science now), Fuuji managed to convince me to gather up some AP people to go /poke MMM again. I'm in the high double-digits for the drop for this event already, having soloed the weakened version of the NM more times than I want to remember, even back when Utaru was playing (expensive solo too since I need every bit of TP to WS it and use a lot of Echo Drops), to doing it many times in a single day with people copying my maze to go against it. Purushamriga is a pain to fight because it can one-shot most people with Stomp, has regular hits for 300-400, is highly accurate and can spam Healing Breeze for over 4000 HP per use. Soloing the weakened version on DNC/NIN is a very careful balance of counting shadows, using Fan Dance and using TP as much as possible to deal damage. Even then, luck plays a large part in the win since if he decides to use Healing Breeze, there's not much you can do to kill it.

This time, I took a look at the mazes that could be purchased by the goblin and found one combination that popped Purushamriga, but had more runes compared to mine and was very popular. Specifically, it had the Elemental Magic and Enfeebling Magic runes, which let the dhamel cast spells in addition to being a pain to kill. Took a small group of AP people, me on PLD/NIN, Fuuji on RDM/WHM, Teia on DRG/SAM and Yasu on SCH/RDM. Initially, it looked like we would not be able to kill it as Healing Breeze was keeping it at 100% HP for almost 10 minutes, then it used Berserk and managed to one-shot Teia xD Still, once it used Berserk, killing it wasn't too hard, especially when it stops to try to cast long spells like Flare.

First attempt dropped just some crafting runes, but the 2nd run FINALLY dropped it:

Whee... more evasion for DNC! Usable by DRG, COR, PLD and even PUP too, so it might have some amusing uses xD Compared to my Adder Jambiya, this is an additional +4 evasion, and higher damage and DOT. The minuses are that it does not have the HP+15, nor the evasion down effect, but the bigger problem is that it has a hidden "Beast Affinity" effect that means that plantoid-type mobs can possibly intimidate me. I'm not sure how often that has an effect, but it would make fighting mobs like Cactuars more dangerous.

Still, this is a very much wanted and welcome dagger! Big thank you to Fuuji for encouraging me to try again long after I'd given up, and thanks to Teia and Zu for helping with the fight! I'm currently debating whether I should sell my Adder Jambiya, or if I should keep it around for the... erm... occasions that I need my high evasion against plant-type enemies. I guess... that the specific scenario would be rare enough that it should not come up except against one specific cactus :o

Now I'm considering pushing my evasion build to an even higher level. In my full evasion setup, the only slots which I do not have any evasion gear in are the ring slots, so I'm considering picking up a pair of Wivre rings to get another +4 evasion(and +30 HP). This should push me up to an evasion level that can avoid 90% of Sabotender Corrido's attacks without using my Hydra Spats or relying on the nighttime evasion effect of Fenrir's stone.

Oh, and for those who might be interested in any of the MMM rewards... I'd say go look at the popular mazes that you can buy instead of trying to build your own. Chances are that someone else has already made the maze that pops the NM that you need to get your drop already so you can just buy it and use it. I'm holding onto my Ermine's Tail maze for now, and I might go back to try for a Koggelmander at some time in the future.

Odin

Sunday's Einherjar was an Odin run! This time, I asked to come as PLD instead of my usual support on SCH/RDM. Fuuji was the one who suggested this again xD I don't normally ask for specific jobs, though I had been wanting to fully tank Odin at some point. It's also been a while since I've tanked a serious fight, and Odin is about as serious as it gets considering that two tanks are holding down the fort for nearly 36 people! I think this was also the first time I've tanked with Fuuji as my partner. Previously, I've duo-tanked with many others, including Rooks, Weaponx, Talint, and even Wutangwarrior.

This is a PLD/NIN type fight, against a highly accurate boss that will definitely strip your shadows, and has lots of fun AOE moves that can give terror, curse, silence, as well as summon lots of fomors to come beat you up! With Fuuji and our support team, I'd say that this was a near-perfect tanking experience, trading off hate at perfect times when all shadows were down, keeping each other healed up, and even specific times when the alliance would hold off on doing damage so that mages could recover their MP.

I say "near-perfect" because of one little thing. At 10%, Odin can do a "death" move which kills anyone in range. The only way to avoid the move is to be out of range, or be in the /heal position. Of course, this is a little hard to do when you're being beat up, so the general idea is to disengage, use Invincible, then /heal and hope for the best. Well, we tried to do that, but... we were just a split second too late xD

I found it kind of funny that our macros came up next to each other, considering the battle spam xD Oh well... one second too late! The only drop of significance to me was the Hecatomb Cap abjuration. I considered spending points on it, but decided that if I were to get something from the Einherjar drops, I would want it to be something that only came from Odin like the Valkyrie's fork.

Gil draining activities (Part 1)

Late last night, Fuuji went to poke the silly cactus one last time before he went to sleep. Strangely, this was the time it dropped:

This is the piece that turns an Ebon Harness into the THF/NIN/DNC usable piece, the Ebon Vest with Synergy. This is a surprisingly revealing "vest" piece that Fuuji found one person wearing in Lower Jeuno. I managed to find a pic on Google of the full set:

The fun part about this system is that you can actually customize it somewhat... to add specific effects using Evolith, and more importantly, change the color to either a red, or white version! The vest itself is... well, it's okay, Dex+6, Accuracy & Evasion +7, Critical Hit Rate +2%. I'll probably get it and change it to the DNC specific piece just to have a unique look, though it would clash with the rest of my gear unless I try to get the full set! That unfortunately means that I do need to unlock Synergy now xD

The Evolith customizations are... well, complicated. To get evolith, you have to use the Hunt Registries, then go out and kill specific NMs. Some are always up, others are popped NMs, and yet more others have different requirements. I think the evolith system is nowhere near fully explored, and there are probably other types of evolith that have yet to be discovered, or have not yet been added to the game since, well, face it, there are even fewer people doing Synergy/Evolith compared to MMM when that first launched. Who knows, there may be a hidden +Haste or +Accuracy evolith that nobody has found yet. For now though, I can't figure out any interesting evoliths that would be useful on the Ebon Vest to fit in one of my DNC gear sets (on DNC, I'm mainly interested in either haste, accuracy or evasion).

In fact, the only evolith I've picked up so far is:

Unfortunately, not very useful for me since I do not have NIN leveled up. I've tossed it, and the +2 version that I also got. Each different NM that you can hunt seems to have their own specific evoliths. The only randomness is in the amount it enhances.

On the other hand, the PLD version of this gear might have some interesting applications in PLD/RDM... I have the Aptant for that (as does Fuuji), so we need to get it crafted and see what we can do with it :)

Gil draining activities (Part 2) - RNG & COR

Looks like AP's regular exp activities have started back up again. I've decided to go the COR route for a few reasons... the main ones being that it is a rare job, and that it exposes me to two new aspects of FFXI: buffer/support job and ranged attacks. Plus, there are tons of Bards out there, even mule-bards xD

Buuut... I ran into one little complication as soon as I tried to prepare to level COR. The NPC that sells the various dice in Al Zabi was kidnapped xD I've been checking since Saturday, but so far he has not yet been rescued, so I can't even buy the most basic of my dice x.x I'm not sure if he'll even BE rescued really, but... well, worst case I'll have to get some friends together and go on a rescue mission if I can't find a secret stash of dice x.x

Meanwhile, I've been leveling RNG. May as well get that to level 37 for subbing. Since AP is pretty much full of mules, a lot of PLing goes on so the more damage we bring out, the faster our exp flows and a COR/RNG would be more useful compared to anything else. I'm finding a couple of things interesting and amusing about leveling RNG:

• I have no idea what good gear is xD I *think* I'm making the correct decision on bow/arrow & crossbow/bolts, but the rest of my gear is... well... pretty much non-existant
• Constantly having to hit the "Ranged Attack" macro is annoying. There should be a way to automate this >.>
• Inventory management is surprisingly painful. Between keeping both bow & arrow, as well as crossbow & bolts on me, I have to keep on unquivering stuff to keep shooting and making sure I have room. I think right now I'm at 10 slots free in total among all my storage thanks to the extra gear from RNG & COR sitting around

At this point, I want to get RNG up to 37 as soon as possible so that I can get rid of the archery/marksmanship gear. At least with COR, it's only one type of ranged attack xD I have a feeling I'm going to have to go through my storage options carefully and sell pretty much everything that isn't immediately useful (like some random weapons, or my Scorpion Harness set) to make room for this new job x.x

Fun challenges on DNC

It's been a while since I've really used DNC for much since I finished both PLD & DRG. DNC excels in really small groups, party or less, and has basically infinite endurance. Recently, Fuuji has been dragging me around Vana'diel to hunt various NMs that drop stuff for the new armor that can be enhanced with Synergy. Fuuji really knows how to push my buttons since he told me that DNC/NIN would be optimal and that I'd be tanking.

After getting a few rounds of duoing the NMs for a feel of them, I decided to take poke at a few of

them solo today since I knew Fuuji wouldn't be around. Tegmine is a simple crab that is simple to kill, so I won't talk about him. Instead, a more fun challenge is Sabotender Corrido.

This is a little cactuar mob in Eastern Altepa Desert. 2-hour pop, and likes to link with one of his bigger friends:

So, it turns out that Mr. Rapido does not like it when you bully his friends, so he gave me a very quick lesson of eating sand! Of course, he just HAD to run by right after I provoked his little brother too! Smart cactus! A quick homepoint later and a better pull to the edge of the desert and I was ready for round 2.

Corrido is a surprisingly fun NM to play with. He's a MNK/WAR with constant double-attack,so yes, he does attack four times per round. He hits for about 100 each hit well, and he's fairly accurate. His attacks have an additional effect of slow that takes effect fairly often. Oh, and he does Hundred Fists 25%. With 4 hits per round, you can't really blink tank this conventionally, especially since slow would also do a number on your Utsusemi timers.

So, DNC/NIN, full evasion setup, Fan Dance up 100% of the time gives the following results during Hundred Fists xD

This isn't typical. I had to use my Hydra Spats to bump my evasion up 10 more points than normal, which is why all my "/equip feet" macros are /echo'ed out. Without the extra +10 evasion from Hydra Spats (compared ot my Dancer's Shoes +1), I get hit about once every 5-7 attacks. Even then, he can still hit once in a while since there's no such thing as 100% evasion (I think?), so shadows do come in somewhat useful. However, the recast timers on Utsusemi is much too long for 100 fists, so that's where Fan Dance and Trance come in.

You can see what happens when Fan Dance goes up, damage goes from 73 down to 9 due to the damage reduction nature of Fan Dance. Trance also allows me to spam Curing Waltz IV for the entire duration of 100 fists, so there's really no danger as long as I'm paying attention :)

Post-holiday.. erm... post

Whee... first post of 2010!

Since I had virtually no vacation time left after taking a long vacation this year, I didn't get a chance to go anywhere this x-mas/new years vacation and was home for most of it. I guess that's a good thing since the airports were screwy anyway with the TSA overreacting to terrorists they let through, and the weather generally sucked everywhere.

Anyway, AP was pretty empty last week, so I spent most of my time doing random things with Impact including some assaults with Jurgos/Helo/mday, helping with NMs, and even two merit parties. The two merit parties let me finish my last two HP upgrades, bringing me to 8/8 HP upgrades and completing that merit category.

Which means... well... now I'm at a place where I'm not entirely sure what to merit next. I think all I have left are job-specific merits, or attribute merits. I might throw some merits into a mix of str & dex to round things up since both are useful for DNC, DRG & BLU. For job-specific merits, I guess I could finish up Angon or Stormsurge, though I'm not sure what else I'd actually bother meriting further. I think I have the basics unlocked enough for my jobs.

In other fun news...

I'm 6/6 on Scholar relic now! Picked up the belt on Dynamis - Qufim last Wednesday, and finally the hands piece in Valkurm on Saturday! My head, hands and feet pieces are also the +1 type (well, hands will be come next Sunday). Unfortunately, these two piece are now adding to the complication of my SCH macros, which are already the most complicated out of all of my jobs due to the amount of gear that needs to be swapped in and out based on the situation, spell being cast, and even the weather >.>

(Yes, that IS what it looks like... at least to me! I think SE's choice of colors for SCH relic suck D: This looks a lot more elegant and refined.)

So, that's my 3rd full set of relic gear that I've obtained with BMO. I've been with BMO for just over a year now, and have completed DNC, BLU & SCH in that time, including quite a few +1 pieces. I'm currently... erm... 3/6 on PLD, and 2/6 on DRG as well, so those are coming along nicely.

ASA

Sunday night was ASA mission time again... 5th attempt at it, though 4th actual time we entered the BC. Thanks to doing assaults earlier, I had a Hi-potion tank which... well, was ineffective since the potency was not increased. Healing Breeze did slightly better, with 200ish HP healed, though I didn't see how much Magic Fruit did. I don't think healing skill was boosted at all, and any increases in healing done by mages was only due to to attribute increases, specifically MND being boosted by 150 points. In theory, this would mean that DNC would get a double increase since the formula for Waltzes takes into account the Dancer's Chr, and the target's Vit. A Tranced DNC might be a better choice for keeping the party cured during the "rage" portions of the fight since it lasts a whole minute, and isn't a one-shot heal like a WHM's Benediction. If I had the option, I'd probably bring a WHM & DNC for this fight as healers.

Anyway, FINALLY finished this fight... though it was a close one...

Not *quite* as close as my CoP airship fight where we finished with 3 seconds left on the clock, but pretty close :) I don't think we're doing this again anytime soon... at least, not with this setup or group.

So, another mini-expansion done... probably the last content for FFXI, not counting their overall laziness with WotG. I still haven't decided what leg piece to get, or what augments to get either. Unlike the other two mini-expansion pieces, I can't figure out anything good for DNC. The "Waltz TP Cost -5" isn't really that useful considering that I can generally get TP fast enough to not worry about cost of healing, and "Conserve TP". I'm not sure what else to consider here... movement speed for one of my "slow" jobs? Should I save it for a future job?

Anyway... at least that's over with now! Only missions I have left are the WotG ones, or the Bastok rank missions... The later I'm too lazy to really bother doing at the moment, though I guess at some point I *should* go do them. As for WotG... well, truthfully, the last update only released a couple of minor nation-specific quests, so I'm in no rush to bother going through them. Add to that the fact that my partner in crime for WotG, Vanh, is currently on a multi-month break from FFXI makes it very much more difficult to find people to do the WotG quests since just about everyone else is months out-of-date and are not bothering to do the legwork to setup parties to do them... oh well.

Newly released gear

Styles has been bugging me to "get Fuuji to fight fomors" -- his words -- for the new fomor-type weapons. I guess that the new etchable "synergy" weapons must be good if people are actually going after them... And there are more new things in the game. I saw someone wearing an Ebon Harness at Einherjar and thought that it looked quite stylish, though dark. After reading briefly about it and the methods for upgrading (hunting a NM for a rare/ex drop, then doing some weird synergy stuff to it) and how expensive it is (requires angel skin and other expensive pieces), I decided that it wasn't worth the hassle of researching it, camping NMs and farming gil to bother with.

There are also tons of other bits of gear that are relatively new to the game that might be interesting, but are a pain to go after. For example, the Cinquedea, a DNC-specific dagger that, if released a year ago, I'd be all over and trying my best to get. I mean, I did camp a Kard just for the +chr bonus when I was leveling DNC! However, the general pain in researching where these weapons came from, the hassle of gathering people, researching the fight, looking for the pop, and the questionable difference in performance just drained any desire for it. I guess I got burnt too often with SE's "new" releases with the complete waste of my time in MMM trying to get Ermine's Tail, and in their stupid Augment "fay weapon" system where I ended up with a dagger with -accuracy that I'm no longer interested in the weird new systems that they add to FFXI. It seems that every new system they add throws some weird wrench or has some weird hook in it, and the rewards rarely match the time spent, or are situational pieces or sidegrades from existing items.

At this point, I'm not sure whether it's worth bothering with any of the new "get shiny items" content... I think I'm geared well enough on all my jobs to tackle any situation, and getting another piece of gear isn't going to significantly change my effectiveness or how I play the game. I think right now, the harder thing is finding interesting things to do in FFXI instead of just doing the usual routine and being idle and bored...