On subject of different tarus and screenshots was helping taking down previously missing Gurfurlur for delusional Mythic makers. I’m pretty sure custom font or something else messed up the log and had visible names mixed up. Could swear Shaka was saying that.

Finished Daka +2 so my THF (and BRD!) can occasionally show off with Rudra’s Storm. WS doesn’t seem to be all that stellar but good news is it’s still probably better than great sword in the making. To clarify, that I would only be able to use on PLD.

Taking slow steps to upgrade sword, first farming Briareus’ helms and as it turns it’s made NIN my most frequently used job. What makes it more weird is that I actually like burning through ninjutsu tools and appreciate chance of skill up this gives and every other point that this class offers past the red !! utility. Could be worse I guess, symptoms could be of getting on WHM in full melee gear and atmas and Hexa Strike everything on sight.

Haven’t had time to look into what’s new, instead of surging through have kept feet really tight on the ground, leveled few jobs where they’ve mattered and spent merits on increased stats as opposed to trying out new WS’s, simply because again haven’t had time to research which ones offer more than couple backflip animations. In short as year’ve become 2012 I’m still playing partly by 2010′s rules. Even transition to Dynamis’ revamped 2005 content would show some progression as there are more than few AF2+2 to be happy about but I guess one breath at a time with no hiccups will get me there just as well.

Story is good. Sure, ending could have used little bit of beefing up for simple reason that it feels too much like its predecessor with ruins of ancient civilization eroding at extreme pace in hands of gun tourism. I suppose makers of the game knew better by letting story be slightly more about Drake instead of putting more weight on saving the world particle.

Graphical detail is worth of mention, so are chase scenes which are intense. Didn’t enjoy as much of impending cliffhangers that didn’t really happen much except for the chapter when Drake gets captured and intends to board a ship. You knew that was going to sink in the first place… There’s slight hint of B class disaster movie getting to that ship too but luckily that’s the only part, rest feels like solid adventuring which is the whole point of the series.

Better have those armlets and Thief's Knife.

Multi-player mode is addictive with co-op’s game modes changing on the go. Played that mostly as I didn’t enjoy competitive shenanigans of Deathmatch, although pages loaned from ballgames like powerplay and overtime if tied seemed like nice additives. There’s lots perks to keep upgrading, although what strikes me weird is that unlike in Uncharted 2 where some things performed even in single-player mode would transfer over nothing does in UC3, everything’s solitary. Cash is confined in their respective play modes, so is every possible upgrade. For someone who plays (rather, played) casually it didn’t seem like best possible balance.

As far as FFXI goes things have slowed down a little for holiday season. Recently unlocked WoE version of Blade: Hi, Bugbear Strongman is bottlenecking that of Rudra’s Storm. Went to visit ToAU kings in their strongholds, nice nippy feeling of camaraderie passing through all those hard-to-reach areas. Started collecting Bria helms for sword against previous preachings, guess broke few mental barriers by not claiming it to be full day thing, climb it slowly instead. Been to more Abyssea, more of Voidwatch but that doesn’t need saying. Update’s nearly here, again it’ll pay to keep ears close to ground. Some of revamped Nyzul +5 gear look absolutely del, if that proves to be true then can’t wait for them to bring the same cycle over to Salvage.

Joined devaluated club of people who have successfully fought Absolute Virtue. Fight was about timing shift from sac to zerg right after has used certain 2h (Benediction, Perfect Dodge, Invincible), at least in theory because we didn’t pay much attention to that after noticing how it was recycling things like Hundred Fists between sac person getting up again. Secondly its AI could be wise enough not to allow Benediction early on so without trying to lock 2h abilities it was still somewhat a roulette. Either way happy that everything we brought to the scene was enough to take it down twice, smoothly for first time and then with a hiccup of DD’s getting charmed the second time, forcing us to renew Biggy’s sac contract while folks went to use Revitalizer in Abyssea or hit Besieged.

This now leaves ToAU beastmen forts as only old 75 content that I haven’t properly grasped. Maybe in near future when SE’ve added other sources for Alexandrites, bringing someone’s crazy Mythic plans to life. And Carby Prime.

In other long-term plans I have finally managed to abandon need to carry extra Zenith gear for latent unlocks. This is due scoring augmented INT4+3 ring whilst unraveling both darkness staff trial and few Sedna sets for Hvergelmir 85 in Abyssea-Vunkerl. It should do well for nuking, should there be situation where I’ll have to increase MAB I can still manage to drop my HP in yellow and go back to Sorcerer’s with single spellcast variable. Carrying 4 pieces less on BLM is nice feat, one thing I had in mind along with creating PDT/MDT sets. Rajas ring is probably next step on this year old renovation plan, when SE will further allow to expand HP/MP merits.

I’ve also come to realize how big say temporary items have in Voidwatch. This is no stranger than maintaining tonics and powders in Abyssea, preferably via macro shortcuts to spare seconds possibly separating from life and death or worse yet, from being ridiculed for dishing poor damage. Had an assumption that game would return back its normal self sans temps but because of demanding higher tiers in Voidwatch this is untrue so I’ve gone to overhaul macro sets for temp items entirely. It’s amazing to have quickest access to desired enhancement, for example Fool’d Drink on Qilin to prevent getting petrified / slept / slowed / blasted with Stoneja. Procs often cater for everything that’s been  used spamming temps seems completely normal procedure, does nicely to chin up damage too.

If only there were fewer synthesis materials and more core drops. If only someone knew a way.

Unlocked Mordant Rime with presence of Haste, Haste Samba and Troubadour Marches. Need to claim patent on this for every other trial.

FFXI’s makeshift may come to an end with 99 surfacing not too far ahead on SE’s newest roadmap. At this point game has shaped into different balancing acts like whether it’s worth to drop couple mils on slightly better item when its resell prices will crash upon discovery of new and improved, lesson learned from every cap rise. Stuff like whether there’s point in spending time skilling parrying with NIN after finishing it on PLD when skill is going to be raised anyway. This isn’t discouraging from doing about everything in the game right now, just the big elephant in the room with its glancing eyes asks to use your resources better. In examples like Voidwatch it’s less enticing to grind low drop areas when that effort might be in vain, more alluring option is to get necessary clears done.

Voidwatch these days is public event that yet may not be publicly accepted when it comes to business of plates required for Empyrean stage. Either way there seem to be enough solid players shouting to deliver consistency. I don’t mind really because it allows to join without hassle of shouting for it yourself, never mind waiting for 18 people to appear to fill in procs.

Regardless of that ran some of Voidwatch with linkshell and fought Ildebrann couple of times, took little bit of trial and error to get it right. It needs to be treated like airborne Tiamat with 30 minute time limit – not that I’ve done that too many times but it follows same precautions. Managing hate to stay in one place without it scorching everyone else is extremely important. Finally seeing its silhouette go up in flames has probably been single most satisfying achievement in past few months, even after curing alliance through Jeuno’s version of Turul and that crazy cactus out of other new tier 1′s. More to follow I hope.

Spammed Walk of Echoes flux 7 with its better rate for coins till I had every remaining one for dagger, katana and great sword. This of course leads to wonderful time camping NMs, over 120 of them to be exact. Insanity. More so if damage rates on 99′s weapons or promised weapon skills leave this effort in the dust.

Still not gotten many of new scrolls and refusing to buy them at current prices. Right now it seems much easier and slightly more productive to roll sleeves and go do Dynamis or Salvage to finish missing armour while collecting currency/alexandrites for market, or so the elephant in the room would whisper.

Sign of change is puffing Sandworm with carefree Dark Ixion in the background they say. But that’s old news about in-game revolt, it’s what Abyssea had thrown off the throne and while few stayed to track aforementioned creatures for their marketwise spoils bigger question remained what could possibly kill this lifeless monster they resurrected from rubble of years of playerbase neglect.

Floodgates were open once again.

Nothing. Leveled few jobs from 90 in Abyssea since it remains excellent level and skill grinding ground by allowing every person to turn up and sit next to cleaver for same amount of exp and seize flooring +2′s. Collecting Empy mats is still making this worthwhile and anyone resourceful can think of trials and other things to tack along but truth be told I would have rather seen SE cap Abyssea to 90 to mark the change so people would go look out for it more away from Abyssea. Going to old venues doing mostly same things as before raises flags about whether update happened at all.

Biggy should be finishing Ochain not long from now. While this has without a doubt been daunting trial to follow…

it’s nothing compared to 1500 heavy metal plates they are asking for stage 4 of Empyrean weapon. Disproportionately heavy alright as it says on their description, 150 would have been more realistic not to discourage every wielder out of thinking about upgrading more than one of their weapons and also closer to progression of previous requirements of 50/50/75. Even Walk of Echoes require 100 Devious Dice for their stage 4 so one can only wonder why sudden change of heart. Honest mistake with gatecrashing zero at the end? Effect of old producer being back in charge and bringing back the days when players felt punished for trying to acquire best of the crop? Whether it’s this or general reappearance of low drop rates on new spells and armour that are obstructed by Voidwatch mechanics one can only wonder why go back to old ways when Abyssea proved that steep uphill jog is better than climbing up a wall. 150 would have been fine.

Renewed WotG earring since newly added Bruiser’s earring is essential for MNK, changed old counter +3 for additional tick of refresh that my small constellation of mage jobs can learn to appreciate. Duo on this last battle was fun, it also reminded me how fun it would be to have another story based expansion. Locale for last fight reminded me of changes they did on Walk of Echoes as an event. It went from being nearly uninhabited to being synonym for everything that stands for lag and Port Jeuno. While drop rates are unreasonably low few occasional runs keep on yielding coins and that’s a tempting thought considering it would spare me from devoting myself to hours of Abyssean grind for every weapon that I could possibly want. Having just finished all normal NM and VNM stages for Hvelgermir or as it’s also know as another SE’s joke response to whether mages could have honours of highly useful high end weapon just like every melee I’m not sure how much appetite I have left for going through same stages for umpteenth time but it doesn’t hurt to have these coins stored at the back of mog house.

WoE brings out better side of Campaign – and worst when everyone huddle in tight corridors fighting skeletons with access to Blood Saber and Malediction. It always needed more people, it got them now regardless of the clock.

On another unrelated note:

Extract from A True WHM Hero, novel by B.R. Hyzenthlay

Took up on leveling Ninja. I’ve always liked the job and these days it has regained some of its shadow tanking uniqueness when no other melee feels the need to sub it anymore, added with strategical use of Migawari when threatened by moves that possibly no other class would be able to survive without placement of Perfect Defense. In Abyssea NIN turns out to be one of the cooler kids with access to at least ten red !! procs and if I care to justify it any more next update will grant slightly enhanced parrying rate, something that has become one of last things left to toy with before lv95 washes previous achievements away – even if parrying rate floor is said to be fixed on 5% but rumoured to go higher than that with increased skill over mob’s level. Either way truth to why it’s convenient to have another assassin in my own stable at this time could be stranger than fiction I just wrote.

I had good setup ready from gaining one or two pieces of Usukane from recently revived impromptu Salvage runs. Treadmill included unlocking few katana WS’s doing pages for book home nation warp points and even signing certain smith to make lv87 great katana together with synergy. Or while he stood next to synergy furnace for sufficient smithing skill anyway. Went as far as unlocking Tachi: Ageha for butterfly effect.

At times gaining levels felt like crunch it normally is, perhaps to prepare myself to likes and dislikes soon brought by lv95 but I managed to do most of it while arranging different Abyssea objectives to help out with never-ending shield trials and sparks of new Empyreans in the making. That also allowed me to catch most of +1 and +2 mats while number of other people finished their missing bits from our old frenzy. If I can choose to level to 95 in same fashion even while doing new edition of CoP Dynamis then so be it.

Toolbags are bit expensive. While NIN attacks crazy fast total damage falls far behind my Verethragna it’s not funny. Thoughts of starting own Kannagi are definitely there but think I have enough perseverance to leave it there – instead I might have to eat my words again for something else. Something else that has given chance to farm better rings in A-Konschtat, beauties like this:

In-game I’ve been looking for some directions to avoid sketching waters entirely still which easily seems to be the case before new cap of 95. Weirdly enough most drastic of them might have been change of home point from Port Jeuno back to Windurst. First of all this would mean bidding farewell to Jeuno lag. I’ll be out of shouts from largest concentration of players but at the same time get easier access to:

• Synergy furnace. Anyone who’ve tried this in PJ knows what I mean.
• Bonecrafting guild. Work on points for missing +1 skill items.
• Outpost would be right out of the door.
• Storage space could actually be used for daily things.

All worthy things that weight. Shouts occasionally have grains of gold in the typical litter box, zero distractions would mean zero distractions though. There are few other good things in Jeuno but considering that I’m doing homage to certain linkshell NIN by leveling that job in near future the storage space is really appreciated.

Doing things in Abyssea more often again. Going to save a forest somewhere by telling about that in next post instead as more gets done before 95.

Attempted first ever group synergy with Wado and Seeum synergy thanks to that Wyrm Horn from Vrtra. If these are the signs then it sure pays to have synergy leveled.

Attempted something else too.

Just a flesh wound. And during that...

Survived.

Can everyone guess the mob in question by now? Good. Some may say the fight is remarkably easier than it would be at 75 but it’s still not entirely a breeze. For the challenge it gave when Medusa replica went on to charm half of the alliance and couple other novice’s mistakes like placing add holder PLD too close to Warden itself this required more attention than someone would expect from Empyrean caliber. We hesitated to have Perfect Defense placed before turning PW into its final form thinking that it would be easier to take out lamps first and that’s when Thundris Shreak set bill too high, leading to moments of good old zombie tactics while everyone else recovered. Then took it down in less of Hundred Fists’ duration. Even with level benefits it feels absurd to take down this bad boy that someone had pioneered for 48 hours. Epic.

Went for pet job Vrtra after being intrigued by low requirements at current level, only few Yulys. Despite that couldn’t can first few attempts because of having THF or someone else perform early action on Vrtra which backfired soon as hate was erased from pets by either Horrid Roar or pets dying and so it was Vrtra’s turn to dispatch its darlings after newly listed targets, ensuing in what could be described as social anxiety disorder and claustrophobia meeting in matchbox sized apartment. Did remarkably better when Vrtra was left for copies of Dipper Yuly and Garuda, if only shaky last 5% after adds gained interest in THF and the rest soon after. Good lesson of pet and master enmity, fun and easy fight, got t-shirt and wyrm horn to take synergy to 79 with Alcide’s Harness. Does anyone want to buy 100 Provokes from woo girl on the right?

Been slowly pursuing better PDT for both of my MNK and PLD without the intention of going completely broke. Did Alexander for PDT earring and helped few Summoner primes get their hands on this avatar for everything that requires such approach, ran it again to fine tune mantle into a MDT set, again giving out avatar to few who could be running into tough spot on their otherwise resting Summoners and laying Perfect Defense. PDT’s currently not the best but it’s has taken appreciated lift, mostly above 30% before Earth Staff understanding that using staff may not always be an option. And I haven’t yet spent a dime on Darksteel +1.

Happened to have more encounters with old content. Black belt was said to be needed so went on to help and got to try new KS99/Kings scheme. They’re all easy now and Wyrm’s complete joke compared to what pain it caused under old level cap, didn’t even really need fire build let alone a PLD. Speed belt dropped and few Black belts got made, best catch on starters until converting portion of NQ’s into HQ and crowning Behemoth. Picked up Pixie Earring for THF WS set.

Reached final destination for hobby bonecraft. Whatever updates have in store to allow another craft skill reach 100 this first one was fairly good run, albeit trade itself seems to have aged a little.

Tried augmenting some old abjuration pieces via synergy, like devs said most of best augments rank below pieces of Abyssean origin, just providing a quick easy pit stop before that. Crit. hit rate +1% and accuracy +4 to N.legs was a slight improvement but with new cap just around the corner I’m holding until newer gears are out of the door.

Pandemonium Warden awaits to have flag pinned on. Tinnin made that 2/3 of a trigger thanks to few other concerned individuals because to be honest my filming time has been spent on other things and I haven’t been able to accumulate complete amount of zeni.

Visited Salvage more than couple times. It is ridiculously easy with 3 people who are able to navigate on their own. It is hard to think of instance where Empyrean wielding DD, THF and WHM would struggle. Drop rate has pretty much doubled from old TH4 thanks to proc approach. Saw double run with 7 different 35′s dropping. Finished Usukane Hizayoroi for MNK WS (that future Sarameya could knock out) and Marduk’s Jubbah as for precast and SMN/BRD idle piece at a complete bargain and cleaned half a dozen other drops that now can be stored conveniently at Porter Moogle.

Completed current Voidwatch. Windurst path was undemanding apart from Lord Asag, had to bring rangers to secure sufficient amount of damage that was being resisted everywhere else. Thought Voidwrought would bring misery beyond belief knowing how chaotic Ironclad Smiter can be with growing number of people but turned out it was easiest out of 3 bosses.

Synergy. Or Voidwatch? Perhaps just Synergy, which now stands at 60. Can make most of VNM materials granted there is somebody to provide required craft ranks. Kind of cool, despite of catching up to this point a year after its introduction.

Voidwatch then. A bird named Celaeno, finished Bastok path for the impending new story arc of these creatures, leaving just Windurst to go. Harsh fight for needy nature of PLD subbing WAR and bunch of melees with just one dedicated WHM. Now I’m still not sure how stagger !!’s work here – other than being any from the list of called features but this fight made it seem like doing one of them would unlock bigger list. Definitely had more available after hitting first few. Got maximum red light on one of  the fights but it didn’t put out for anyone in the group. Need higher volume I suppose.

Right paw. Built some zeni. 100 a shot from Nauls in Abyssea-Tahrongi was pretty nice, should allow me to reach Sarameya for better Victory Smite pants. And beyond, for the love of lamp and other PW’s forms..

Azdaja. Ran some.

Threw it on the ground. Again. Amount of tusks and Kukulkan Fangs gone to bin is too shameful to be mentioned, seeing how it might have led to at least stage 85 staff for someone, perhaps even myself. Would have had an easy day finishing remainder. Yet realizing own aspirations is as important as knowing the limits. In cohort of everything pixels related personally it would have come down to if this would have made me feel any better and that’s relatively easy question to answer with own preference for fresher content. However while on subject of pure gear farming: Salvage. Feels much like dessert to regular activities, it lacks difficulty it posed at 75 so can just go dive in and enjoy it for what it’s worth. Hard to tell what augmentations would be so been picking up random pieces and helping others out with theirs. Finished Skadi’s Visor.

Dark rings. Spent good 10 hours of warm summer day chasing these things for PDT setup, amazingly got only one decent hybrid ring (5/5). Not all that bad when certain blue mage churned 2 refresh pins out of one pull.

Fishing. Went to.

I miss the days when we snuggled with only hot sand around us. Not a day goes by when I don’t think of how we used to take long kites, showing off our friskiness for each other, ending up in low HP. Brew was just another sign of tender affection. I wish I could have a minute back, a second. Even if locked to nearest Martello.

But you had to mistake last shield trial requirements. I can’t live my life knowing your summer will be spent with Azdaja. You just couldn’t be honest. How could you give your heart away so easily? You realize that Azdaja isn’t same mob as Apademak, correct? Don’t you ever read instructions? Do you not have wiki in your bookmarks you noob?

A dragon you used to know

Apart from priceless grand reveal of a royal fuck up when it comes to not having read what exactly was final Ochain upgrade stage here’s some other stuff that may have happened.

Not all hope is lost. Biggy can still make Almace with those mats. Will you take me back?

Yeah ok…

Did sea with intent to help Kankia get Rajas Ring and Hyz managed to stumble upon her lost cutscene for Apocalypse Nigh. Along the way tried to pop some of the jailers with Victorian era repops of whole 15 minutes, polar opposite to what Abyssea has done to NM availability. Didn’t pop but freshness of something that didn’t rely on Atma could be felt. Someone snapped great picture along the way.

Did San d’Orian leg Voidwatch boss, Hahava. Paladin was top choice for tanking and was an interesting fight, when there was no errors made and tanks kept up everything went smoothly – but blink for a second and it showed its merciless nature. It was Christmas again.

And generally I’m becoming fond of concept behind Voidwatch, it’s partly about having winning formula but also leaves room for other jobs to come around and enjoy the fight, in which they can prove to be useful by marking weaknesses. And there seems to be no other way to consistently build lights high enough for drops to matter so it’s different from Abyssea other than in lack of extreme buffs and disabled cruise control. Individual chests seems to be good idea as well, with perfect lights there can be several drops each fight and that doesn’t really ignite artificial loot drama.

Managed to set afoot new Dynamis, actually did few runs leading to flagging Xarcabard so few people could enjoy new daily access. At first having extensive proc scheme behind some drops seemed silly, especially for an event that previously was about spreading genocide without a thought of stopping by to perform specific kind of action on a single mob. After getting into the rhythm it didn’t seem bad at all. Dynamis is definitely worth checking for both Dynamis Lord drops that seem to be extremely easy to get now and new NMs they have planted in each of areas.

Attempted Absolute Virtue for the first time with some headache of a setup as healers/bards/summoners with Alex were hard to find. Didn’t go down so well as we didn’t really aim to block any of its 2hrs but that’s exactly what it had in mind for us. There’s Benediction, Perfect Dodge and Invincible as potential chain breakers out of 15 2hr abilities it’s got access to and it’s likely that it uses north of two per fight so it’s fairly risky business.

Is there any way I could link that small disappointment to the kind I felt by playing Final Fantasy XIII? I don’t think so.

Immersion in a game like FFXIII (a role-playing game, one would assume) is usually created by how well makers mask common role-playing elements. Things like quests that are by no doubt result of delivery errands by fetching X for Y and receiving Z. It can be masked with extravagant storytelling. A whole universe can be created around materials that characters receive from their journeys. It may consist of different guilds, maybe even crafts in order to produce something out of said items to hook player in by giving satisfaction of accomplishing something bigger in return.

FFXIII has poorest presentation in that I have seen. Shops or guilds appear randomly under same floating gadget that works second shifts as a save point. It’s no more than another menu and is scattered around as randomly as floating balls (snicker) that contain treasure, because, you know, it says that since the dawn of times dungeons are supposed to have treasure chests. There are no NPCs to interact with in entire game, it’s impossible to jump into role of good-willed hero or even egocentric too-cool-for-school half of main cast pretend to be when even in the busiest town most that NPCs are able to generate is irrelevant one-liners. No-one in this futuristic town that asks to bring Dragon Slayer DVD or Saving The Princess 3D, masked of course better to fit the theme than these examples, no-one to run errands for even for silly piece of cutscene that tries nothing more than to amp up feeling of being involved. It’s 100% driven by main story (that I don’t think had much quality anyway) but still it almost feels as if makers were too scared to drop old elements in favor of that vision.

I would have thought end game here would have changed that. Turns out Cie’th Missions are repeat over repeat, same re-skinned mobs. Challenging? Excluding what seems to be final 3, not really. To answer game’s objective to rank all five stars on these it’s possible to use game’s own mechanics to enter fight with mob staggered for short bit and deal as much damage for the kill. Short curriculum of instances when that’s not possible: start by buffing up with Synergist.

There’s one item coming from one mob that’s worth any farming, mainly for goal of creating ultimate weapon. It’s pretty looking weapon except if you control Fang as main character outside of battles she switches to regular pole she had since the start. Ever bought a Burberry bag to hide it inside TMNT backpack when you go out? Then when you change someone for another character every battle formation is lost as they’re not saved at any point for any configuration. They even fixed this with BLU spells recently.

To quote what wise man once said: I don’t even.