Kreutzet.

Short update: my Wednesday was quite uneventful until the evening. I spent the day outside and then later looking up gear online. I started planning out what items I may be shooting for in the future as my gear becomes more important to me and endgame possibly rolls around.

Wednesday night, however, we had ToD on Kreutzet. This is a big, dumb bird in Cape Teriggan that only pops during wind weather. Sodako on WHM, myself on BRD, and Saruka on THF waited for the spawn. Sure enough we claimed and destroyed this NM handily. Congrats to Saruka, who deserves his new toy, the Sirocco Kukri!







As far as the topic of my gear is concerned... I've got a few pipe dreams at the very least. I was mainly browsing through things that would be best for Dragoon, despite the fact that I rarely use DRG in parties. However, I do use DRG a lot for soloing, events, etc. Thus I would like to heighten its efficacy, even though I'm pretty happy with it right now.

My motivational factors in gear are not necessarily what would be considered typical. Then again I am not sure what is typical anymore, since people change and the population of FFXI becomes enthralled with a new theory so often. I'm not a bandwagon kind of player, and thus I'm usually not following whichever trend is currently king. That said, I would like to have some Rare/Exclusive gear that is usable by more than one of my jobs. Pieces that are only useful to one job are not as important to me because I play so many jobs I can't afford to eat up a lot of inventory with gear I can't send to storage characters.

Disclaimer: My ideas and choices on gear do not stem from a complete lack of understanding of what the "best" statistical choices are. I like gear for my own reasons, and I'm not (yet) into endgame a ton nor am I looking at making the "best" setup. I am not trying to outparse anyone nor prove anything. I play my game the way I play my game. Thank you.





First up is the Askar Korazin. This is a Nyzul Isle Assault drop that may prove difficult to acquire. However it's one of my favorite body armors in the game for both my Dragoon and Paladin. Warrior, Dark Knight, Samurai, and Beastmaster can also equip this korazin and each of those jobs are conceivably ones that I would level to 75 if I get around to it. So in theory this body piece could be quite useful to me all around.

I like the fairly high defense along with the evasion for both tanking and soloing and +12 to each is pretty huge. My Dragoon wears +13 with the Barone Corazza as of this writing. Then there's the Double Attack +2% which I love. DA is one of the best job traits for a melee job in this game. I have a Pole Grip right now that adds 2% DA so stacking more will be nice wherever I can. Store TP +5 is a nice addition as well. I sub Samurai on my Dragoon more often than not, so I'm used to getting pretty darn good TP return for each swing as well as Weapon Skills. In my opinion, Store TP is not a make-or-break stat, but it's akin to shaving seconds off a lap time. Every little bit helps.



Sticking with the same set for a moment, the Askar Dirs. These pants are also a useful tool for PLD and DRG. This piece happens to have additions to Elvaan's three main weaknesses: MP, DEX, and INT. The Intelligence boost isn't important for PLD or DRG but if Dark Knight does get high enough, all three of those weaker stats are useful. HP and MP are always welcome, and the more MP I have on DRG/WHM when soloing, the longer I can last. And we're talking approximately 250 HP recovered for the cost of a 7 MP Dia spell, so that's a damn long time. Then of course anyone who knows DD jobs in FFXI knows that Accuracy and Attack are key to success, so a 5-point bonus to each on one slot is pretty nice. My wyvern will appreciate +10 defense, I suppose, but it's hard to know whether that's a very noticeable boost.

Perhaps as important as the stats, the Askar gear looks awesome. I love style pieces, which is one reason I love my Barone body & leg gear right now. I have to stare at my character for long periods of time, so having kickass-looking armor doesn't hurt my feelings one bit. The black is very cool and the purple accents here and there are nice as well as appropriate considering NecessaryForce (our sister-LS for events) is purple.




Moving down the legs to feet, we find Amir boots which will likely be the first of these goal pieces to acquire. It comes from Mamool Ja Assaults, and the tier 2 Mamool is easy enough that I can rack up points if I put in the effort. Not a lot needs to be said here. Accuracy +6 and Attack +5 are good boosts for any armor piece, but boots especially. The feet slot is generally unimpressive but this is a cut above. HP recovered while healing +1 is only worth mentioning because it almost makes me laugh. Such a silly stat to put only +1 for an otherwise great piece.




Yet another Assault piece, the Pahluwan Qalansuwa is maybe less important to me than the previous three but when added to the rest will be quite nice. Draco likes Accuracy and Attack gear. I'm growing a new affinity for HP bonuses. Gee whiz, take a look at that. Possible buzzkill with the fact that it's a possibly silly-looking cloth hat but we'll see. Sadly PLD can't use the qalansuwa but then, I like to wear my coronet with PLD and forgo covering my head when I play that job. (Don't know why exactly.) However, DRG and MNK can both use this and while it's marginally better than the Optical Hat's +10 Accuracy and Evasion or the +5% Haste that everyone likes from the Wal(mart) Turban, I still just prefer plain-jane Acc and Att bonuses. Call me crazy.




I'm not really interested in any particular hand armor just yet. People seem to love Dusk gloves but I'm not a big nut about Haste gear in general and there aren't many options for Dragoon in this armor slot. I own Spiked Finger Gauntlets which are Attack +12 and that may be the most effective piece I find, really. My Wyrm gauntlets I acquired from Dynamis are Accuracy +5 which is also decent but neither of those pieces really match the wow-factor of my other armor slots. Time will tell, I suppose.

I blabbed enough for now. I'll give my fingers a rest and get to harassing my Linkshell for scheduling out some events for gear acquisition. Until next time~