Ewe Boll is a Hack.

Starting off today are a couple various pictures, then I'll get to the events themselves. First up is my brother's character and mine standing near the Mog House with our new Dandy Spectacles from the event. The second is another display of him being violent. I dunno where he gets it...


My Monk is currently 37, with a possible situation coming up for a friend to level alongside it, maybe enjoy the job more than I have of late. To be honest I'm loving Monk but the slow pace of late is driving me batty. I want to get 40/41 for the gear and for Chi Blast & Raging Fists.


My Linkshell has adopted another goofball. I met Llewelyn in an EXP party with my Monk. The day had been treating us unfairly but we finally had some progress happening, even though the party was nowhere near as good as it should have been. We had a PLD, BRD, RDM, BLM, DRG (Llewelyn), and me on MNK. Llewelyn's name reminded me of Ewe Boll, the horrid director (read: hack), and therefore nicknamed him "Ewe" for the time being.

The PLD was Rank 10 and was apparently a friend of the BRD's. If you think that, by rule-of-thumb, this would spell out at least a modicum of success, you'd be wrong. Ewe was tanking most fights all the way down to roughly 25% HP before the Cure-bombing would take the mob off him. Yours truly was using Provoke on the links, since the PLD was incapable of tanking two at once (let alone one). Overall I'm surprised we even survived. The only reason I stayed in the party was because no one was dead and I was having so much fun chatting with TheSolonavi I barely cared about incompetence.

Later in the evening, Ewe mentioned Mission 5-2 and a few of us in the 'Navi were up for some Shadow Lord destruction. My brother happened to be on 5-1 and thus it became an eventful night. First we geared up for 50-cap battle in Fei'Yin against a skeleton horde. We had Valion on PLD, Saruka on WHM, Llewelyn on SAM, Anacalius on WAR, Bloodless on MNK, and me on BRD. This was easily the smoothest run I've ever done on this fight. There really was no contest. Bringing a Monk to a Skeleton fight is almost unfair. Here's a shot of us before entering the Burning Circle:

Then we regrouped and got prepared for 5-2 in Castle Zvahl. There isn't much to tell, as it was fairly unremarkable. Galbatorix swapped into the party for Valion, who went to sleep. Took the good ol' hike to the Keep where Shadow Lord resides, and we stomped him pretty handily. I was down to almost red HP by the end (some people were still in cut-scene).

Here's a shot of the cool-looking room that leads up to the Burning Circle:

Then there are a couple shots of me vs. Shadow Lord, not that the lighting is good enough for picutres:


Monday afternoon/early evening started out with my Bard getting an invite within one minute of changing to Bard. Yes, literally one minute. It's kinda disturbing. Caedarva Mire Imps are just too good for EXP during these levels, and I was 68 and a third toward 69 before the deed was done.


The evening was promised to Galbatorix, for meripo/EXP buffer party. He uses his Black Mage for most of his endgame, yet it's often difficult to get invites on BLM so he ends up deleveled more than we'd like. Thus, I took the crew to Mount Z to take on the Trolls. They're fun, if annoying at times. The party was overall kinda hectic and spazzy but we did a fair amount of XP. Saruka's WAR got some merit points, I got some more PLD buffer and one full merit point, and I'd imagine Galb just stocked up on EXP.

We brought Dyce's 72COR and his girlfriend Aynee's 71DRG along. They're always entertaining to have around 'cause they'll keep the party chatline going with some oddball stuff. Aynee did alright keeping up with the fact that Trolls are among the tougher mobs to fight for merit parties. We had many links due to the mobs respawning on us (kill time was pretty long so we'd still be fighting one when re-pops occurred). Despite this, we did pretty decent and I think everyone enjoyed themselves. Dyce hit 73, which of course I had to joke was time for him to retire (since he retired his PLD upon reaching 73).

There was only one death in the party, and it belonged to me. Mages were tapped on magic points and eventually I bought the farm. Damn Red Mage Troll popped me with a Fire III during my Invincible. To be fair, here's a pic of me dead since I've been posting my friends' deaths lately, heh.


Finally today, a little something to appreciate in Vana'diel: Jeuno's first gentleman's club:


Until next time~

50th Post Extravaganza!

I didn't think it had been so many already, but here we are: fifty posts! I considered doing a specially-themed entry but I'm going to keep with another update from my last week or so of FFXI. Let's get right to it, shall we?

First up is this week's Draco Raise Duty! My brother and our friend Saruka were duoing in La Theine Plateau and they got slapped around like little girls. I played nicey-nice and picked 'em up off the grass.

Just last night good ol' Dyce was out in Lufaise Meadows exploring carelessly. Silly pirates getting killed; you end up with a Raise and a screenshot for great justice! (By the way, props to Dyce for knowing ahead of time he was going to get blogged and being a good sport about it.)

I was in Northern San d'Oria (as I often am) and what do you know? I caught Illmatic outside the Mog House again! This time we were both on our alternate main jobs, so it was worth another screenie.

While traipsing through La Theine, I happened to run into a Notorious Monster that I've heard of but never have seen until now: Trumbling Truffle. It was nice enough to drop a Sleepshroom for me.



I have taken Monk back out and have been trying to get it through the XP grind. So far it's not going all that great, which is disappointing considering I've acquired quite a bit of nice gear for it. I've now done nearly two levels solo. Can't get an invite for the life of me on this job, it seems. When I go to build a party (which is how I usually level-up) I can't get all the components. However this leaves me with plenty of time to take screenshots of my Karate Kid moves.

Combo:

Shoulder Tackle:

One-Inch Punch:

Backhand Blow:

I got to 36, died minutes later which killed the level, and Galb came out to Raise me and get me back to 36 before we took off for the evening.



TheSolonavi now has a purple sister-shell called NecessaryForce for strategical events. Our focus at the moment is Assault, with ToAU missions as a secondary objective. It would appear our goal is to flow into Salvage runs and who-knows-what-else down the road. Thus far I've gone to a few Assaults and I enjoy them quite a bit.

Here's the party for my first run through Leujaoam Sanctum, which was won handily:

The next time out, we hit Periqia for one of the more interesting and enjoyable objectives I've done: Escorting a pirate through a dangerous area.

I'm very close to shifting away from events like Einherjar and Dynamis, despite only having recently gotten into each. There are many reasons for this. One of which is my current play time schedule. It's not terribly easy to set aside large blocks of time for events when I can't pick exactly when these events occur. Assault, on the other hand, is a 3 to 6-person ordeal that can essentially be done whenever I'm online assuming I have people available. This is just as easy as setting up an XP party, assuming of course each person has access to the mission in question.

Furthermore, Einherjar so far has been a massive failure. It's not that we're doing horribly, but we're sure as hell not doing very well. The LS is new and it's still learning... gaining experience with a battlefield proven difficult with few successes across all FFXI servers thus far. I think it's great to be on the cutting edge in this game, but quite simply that's not the kind of goal I have for myself. No one is going to look back at 2007 and say "Gee, I'm sure glad Draco helped break new ground in Einherjar." The only reason I have been going is for the fun and eventual rewards (See entry: Revelations) but it's not fun to get slaughtered every time and by corollary the rewards are nil.

Dynamis of late has irritated me more times than it has made me happy. When coaxing Sodako into joining up, I mentioned to him that Dynamis has an interesting property to it: At least for me, it seems that I dislike it during the run, but the day after I feel that it was fun and I'm anxious to get to the next effort. He agreed after attending a couple runs. I'm unsure if anyone else relates to Dynamis similarly but I'd be interested to find out. Overall I do like Dynamis but it's a long event. Couple that with my lack of getting anything I want and I'm looking at a cost/benefit analysis that sends me swirling down the proverbial drain.

It should be noted that the lack of proper attendance for endgame events is irritating. To be fair, I've skipped or missed a couple runs in the last few days but with specific reason. My rant involves the fact that some members just stroll in whenever they feel like it with no regard for anyone else's time. Life issues are more important than a videogame, of course, but the incidents I'm referring to are just kids who don't seem to care enough. Dynamis in particular is bad with this because if we're supposed to gather at 7:30PM, many of us show up at that time. What do we do? Wait. A lot. The LS may not enter until near 9:00PM which is just ludicrous. At most, a half-hour of getting everyone invited into the alliances and so forth is adequate. That a four-hour event is further marred by well over an hour of prep time is unquestionably distressing.

In job-specific news...
BST: Remains @24, stagnant since the first two duo sessions with Sodako.
BRD: Remains @67, though a Mary's Horn has been acquired in a joint venture with Fmtwo.
MNK: Now @36, with all gear except Jujitsu Gi (Lv. 40) ready to go if I could manage a party.
WAR & DRK: 52 & 41, gear sent to mules until needed which isn't going to be soon.
THF: Remains @65 with little reason to bother moving it.
COR: Now @13, possibly going to be leveling alongside my brother and/or some friends.

Wings of the Goddess is released soon. A related (propaganda) event has been unleashed upon the masses in promotion of SE squeezing a few more bucks from our collective wallet. The reward for a fetch-quest is a pair of sunglasses. Red ones, which actually look decent on yours truly.

Yes, I've purposely avoided discussing the speculation around any WoG content such as new jobs, events, areas, and storylines. Honestly I just don't want to bother putting thought into this expansion until it arrives and can be seen objectively. I had my fun speculating about the last couple packs and I'm just not that excited this time around.

Finally, I'd like to post this picture which originated in a forum thread and made me laugh quite a bit. I have been itching for an excuse to interject the pic into the blog, and now I have one. 50th post = crazy, random picture. Enjoy:


It's supposed to be Hideo, me, and Yojo (from left to right). I'm not going to bother explaining it 'cause it really wouldn't make up for the shock of seeing the image itself. Fifty posts in the books, and another fifty on the way. Until next time~

Bloody (Annoying) Sunday.

I'll save you the trouble of deciphering that the source of today's title stems from my Sunday being fairly rotten. I started out in a decent mood, with the 60-ish static planned. We were all up and online pretty early compared to a normal Sunday, so I got right to the party building.

I found a Puppetmaster first, someone I'd partied with on a different jobs a few days prior. I knew inviting a PUP would make Sodako jitter a bit, which brings a smile to my face of course. I wanted a Refresh source and finally did find a Red Mage named Skelly. I'd recognized the name because he started a new Linkshell and commonly does recruitment shouts in San d'Oria. Sodako interjected in LS chat that this RDM gave him a weird gut feeling. More on that in a minute. I found a Japanese player named Toch, who was seeking 63 Dark Knight. His search comment, however, revealed that he had roughly five jobs in the 63-65 range. He chose Dragoon and we headed to Bibiki Bay to fight Tragopan birds.

We started out decent, but it was apparently right away that our RDM wasn't always paying attention. I'd notice after a battle that he was still standing up and had full MP. This wasn't happening every fight, but often enough for me to be miffed. Then the unfortunate occurs: we get a pop, it sound-links to the one we're fighting. It would be nice if a RDM would cast Sleep on the link, but apparently that was too much trouble. So, on WHM I used Elemental Seal & Sleep to put it out for a short while. The guys killed the first target after a few of us had dropped already. The Toch, Soda, and I started to log off in order to reset hate. I was glad I had Reraise II up because I just knew that thing was gonna wake up and cancel my logout. I was right.

I cast Raise II on Galbatorix first, and went down the line leaving Skelly for last. I was irritated at him and had asked him in /tell channel if our little party was bothering him. He decided quote: "Something came up" and he had to leave. He home-pointed and disbanded. I didn't mind at all. After some wait time searching, another Red Mage was on his way. It got a lot better immediately after the new guy arrived, but then the next wrench is tossed into the day's gears.

Leaving out the details, I had "real life" (huh? what is that, anyway?) issues to take care of and had to go away from the keyboard. This angers me because I plan out my parties and events with schedules in mind. I do not like leaving without notice, and I don't like interrupting my day with someone else's problems. Nonetheless, I told the guys to replace me in the party and I disbanded. My day of XP was shot and while I haven't asked the guys, I'm sure they left the party soon after. I told them in LS chat to just go on without me but knowing them, I can guarantee they didn't. So I probably don't have to take a pickup party to catch up, though I wouldn't have minded doing so.

Hours later, it was SpiritsofEvolution's Dynamis time. They were going to Beaucedine, which I have yet to attend and therefore win. I have two pieces of Relic I'd really, really like to obtain from the zone. I barely made it back online in time to get to the Dynamis before entry time, but just a few minutes shy of bidding for Relic drops. To be fair, I'm unsure how many points were bid for PLD or DRG... But I would have been more than happy to bid as many as I could to get dibs. Thus, I stayed for the Boss and the win, so I could get the Key Item and leave. I didn't stay for farming (like I normally do). During the run, I died quite a few times. This was mildly annoying but was compounding the poor mood of the day. By the end of Sunday's run, both PLD and DRG had dropped and I'd like to congratulate Titoeo and Atia, respectively, on their new armors.


And now it's picture time! First off, I'd like to share a picture of something that actually happened quite a few months ago. We were getting keys in Ordelle's Caves for Jogace, doing the RSE quest. He had just gotten a key after a while of killing, as I recall. After he acquired his key, we get three in a row... Seen here:

Illmatic and I finally met ingame, after seeing each other post on forums for a while now. He's a cool guy and we had a nice chat. Hopefully we'll see each other around more!

Saruka and I take advantage of a photo op:

Soda, Dyce, and I help my brother (Anacalius) get a Quicksand Caves coffer key for his Aht Urghan access:

My brother's mule plays Patty-Cake with Saruka... I think they need something to do with their time.

Assault and Battery.

My Dark Knight needed to get from 38 to 40, for Promathia Mission 3-5: Darkness Named. This will be the battle against the avatar Diabolos, and will be a rite of passage into the Dreamworld Dynamis areas. On Thursday night, I had some time to use up, so I suited DRK and headed out to solo a bit. I got around 2K EXP before I finally got tired and went to sleep. It was a relaxing evening of just running around the Delkfutt Tower killing whatever was in the way.


Then on Friday I started going at it again a bit, but shortly after I logged in I got an invite from a Paladin. I liked the sound of some partying so I accepted, and even conceded to the request that I come /NIN. This wasn't thrilling to me at first but I did end up appreciating the choice. The Paladin was unimpressive right out of the gate, which is never good. It's one thing to not keep hate most of the time, but when you're not executing your basic duties and you're in the vicinity of a 75PLD, it spells trouble. Eventually I did get him to take some pointers and his overall proficiency increased to the point that we survived.

My DRK ended up chewing through a lot of Shihei casting Utsusemi so often, but I will admit I was enjoying DRK with the 2-hander update. I was tanking by sheer damage output alone, but using Drain & Aspir to keep me afloat. Camping on beetles meant free MP and plenty of EXP. I landed almost at 40 when the party disbanded. I figured that was cool, and I'd solo the last 1K or so. However, upon my exit of Crawlers' Nest, I get a Japanese tell. It was another invite, complete with a bilingual member asking me how long I can stay. I was up for plenty more if it meant a good killing session, so I accepted. Back in we went, and before it was over I had nearly hit 42.

This Junichi guy was a Puppetmaster and was quite hilarious with emotes and his arbitrary outbursts of poorly-constructed English sentences. Acsen seemed to be a friend of his, and the party all did quite well. I'm not sure how, but during this day of partying I ended up essentially doubling the damage output of the other DDs present... Samurai and Dragoon included (i.e. other 2-handers). My melee strikes, without food, were doubling the average swings elsewhere. My Weapon Skills were doing two to three times as much as those from my counterparts. It was an ego-fest and I was in just the mood for being silly, with not only my typing but my overdriven play style.

During the EXP party I had a discussion with Dyce about the possibility of an Assault linkshell led by yours truly. Now, I've wanted to do Assault missions for a while, but this was not something I jumped at right away, for a couple reasons: the first being that I was busy at the moment, and the second being that I've got quite a bit on my plate as is.

After the party, I did end up speaking with the 'Navi members a bit, seeing how they felt about the concept. The support behind the idea was strong enough that I ended up going for it. I headed to the same NPC vendor I used over three years ago, when I purchased TheSolonavi. I bought a "New Linkshell" and it was time to let the creative process take over. Before finally sleeping, some friends and I sat around thinking up a name. We were brainstorming to see what sounded good and was relevant enough for what I want.


We decided to sleep on it due to the late hour and the relative lack of my feeling comfortable with anything thus far. We had attempted AssaultandBattery but unfortunately it was already in use. More details on how this turned out will be posted at a later time, when I can clearly describe what's going to happen with it. It's still a melting pot of ideas at the moment, so I don't want to get ahead of myself just yet.

Countdown to Turkey Day.

November is off to a slow start, but hopefully the pendulum will get to swinging soon. There's not a lot to be told as yet, but I've got some pics of recent happenings for good measure.

Here's a run-in with Narasimha, an NM in the Labyrinth of Onzozo. FM and a couple random Beastmasters we met killed it while I ran around being silly.

After that, I saw another NM in the vicinity and snapped a shot. Don't really know anything about the NM and was too lazy to look it up but I figured documentation was worth my 2 seconds of screenshotting.


Einherjar is going poorly so far, with two runs attempted and zero victories. The first time, we fought ghosts and a Wivre NM that we fell just short of killing before time ran out. The next run was worms and a Malboro NM. This should have gone pretty well, but rather than listening to directions we had some goober run forward and aggro the boss. Needless to explain, we all died.


More EXP with the WHM | NIN | THF static in Bhaflau Thickets on Colibri. I didn't have Refresh in this party but we did fine. Then later Valion showed up and handed me a bunch of newly-crafted Yagudo Drinks so I could Refresh myself at will.


Dynamis - Windurst gathering time for SpiritsofEvolution. I wish people would show up on time so we could actually start, because investing so much time into one event is getting old, particularly when I show up at the official LS meeting time.
This particular Windurst run was lame and I ended up a little miffed on a few points, but I'll save the specifics for another entry. Until next time~

Red (Ribbon) Mage.

My White Mage's static has been running on Sundays mainly, with sporadic sessions if/when the opportunity presents itself. We had a good one this past week, camping in Aydeewa on Defoliator mobs. I invited Manders, who I have had on my Friend List ever since some merit parties a few months ago during which I found Manders to be a quality, experienced player across quite a few jobs.

We ended up with the static WHM | THF | NIN alongside Manders on RNG, a BLM, and a RDM. Seemed like a more "traditional" setup to me, what with half the party being mages. I can't remember the last time I was in a party with all three mage jobs in it. Anyway, the party went quite smoothly, perhaps most notably due to the Red Mage's quick finger placed on the Dispel trigger. We ran a good few hours at least, and when the mages got ready to head out for the night, we took a break.



As we often like to do, we went our separate ways, to get food/drink/etc. and see how we feel about another run. When I got back to the keyboard, I was pleased to find that the guys were still up for more. Manders was still around and still seeking for more. The second time we headed out we coincidentally got Aerroenu to come with, using her Red Mage. She had just happened to log in and heard us talking in LS chat about another run, I suppose. I had a blast partying with Aerro, or "Ribbons" as I like to call her. She kept saying she was rusty but she did great and kept me entertained so it was more than worth the invitation. Much love, Ribbons!


The static rests at 62/63, with me being just shy of leveling. I might catch a Besieged or two in order to catch up to the guys, but so far so good. I'm enjoying White Mage a fair bit, actually. Not my favorite job but due to the skill of the always-reliable Galbatorix it's a more relaxing experience than some people may have with such a responsibility.

As far as my own skill goes, I tend to do pretty well whether we have Refresh or not, with the one being obviously more efficient than the other. We don't see death often, if at all, clearly due to Galb being absolutely the best Ninja I've ever played with. Haste my Ninja, toss Regen around liberally, and watch the EXP roll in.

Finally today, I'll post a pic of my brother's character, who is now in a static with his Warrior. He was pretty proud of himself upon reaching 40 and getting some of the cooler-looking heavy armor:


Until next time~