Aion is a pretty hardcore grind. Guess that's a bad thing and a good thing depending on your perspective. It weeds out a lot of casual bsers, but takes a lot of time to reach endgame (level 50).. Anyways, I'm on the home stretch...
I realize artistic expression is not a prime interest to those who frequent this journal, but the feelings derived from my writings have been a major contribution in my ability to remain sane and help provide freedom from lament when it is needed the most. If my writing provides one with a positive feeling or thought provocation than I can feel content that it's never in vain. _____________________________________________________________________
"Maybe we'll wake up with golden wings... and fly over the city screaming, "take me..." _____________________________________________________________________
What is art?
Ambiguous landscapes of analogy and metaphor encompass the author's thoughts while an ethereal canvas conjured by the mind absorbs the liquid brush strokes formed by cascading neurotransmitters. Aesthetically unappealing hand-written characters, confined and caged by the shackles of language lead to enigmatic passages providing shading and depth to the artwork. Once the painting reaches its final form it appears as nothing more than a few words scribbled on a page and the absence of orthodox visual appeal becomes a worthless puzzle of oblivion to the untrained eye.
The beauty of such mystery is contained in the excavating endeavors of the reader which often unearth treasures containing truthful realizations, paradigm shifts and even individual epiphanies. A lucid passage to one may appear opaque to another, yet neither can escape the deception of perception and its ability to create a questionable but undeniable equivalence in the value of opposing ideology. These excavations are not filled with the self-sacrificial siren songs created by my beloved yellow-winged martyrs, nor do they require any physical exertion. Each reader can paint his own portrait of what he feels the author is trying to convey and the differing results provide a beautiful collage of individual perspective.
The simplicity of a few words create such thought provocation that the result has become my passion. Writing, reading, deciphering, and learning the value of one of humanities most valuable gifts; Art.
Writing in many cases fits the definition of abstract like a painting by Picasso. These are my brush strokes. This is creation. This is my art.
I'm in a shitty mood and I'm bored so why not fill my time on an overdue update!? I'll try to at least include some useful info and sexy mithra pics.. I don't feel like doing cuts cuz they take an extra few seconds of my oh-so-important time..
Yeah, remade Solstice.. It's neat. We do Omegas and Ultimas and Kirins. Hey, sounds like 2005, maybe 6.. Lol, I feel like one of those emo faggots sharing their discontent and depression with people they don't know.. Hypocrital, yeah np... My disphoria's not caused by anything anyone does though, simply self induced chemical warfare of the mind. All sides always lose..
Anyways, since there is still not much new in game that poses a challenge and is feasibly won with very low numbers, I've spent most of my time on other ffxi endeavors, like rdm damage mitigation and such. I've become a bit tired of Ninja nuking just because its uses were so limited and typically it was just a hassle to carry around the gear and tools for it.. Well, if you don't know how to piece together multiple wiki pages to make your own pwnly rdm, here's the summary...
COOL GUY RED MAGE STUFF
Where to start.. First disclaimer - I don't know shit about Blu or really care to, but I know they have some good mitigation techniques. This is not going to include any of those. OK - Let's give some general information. It doesn't matter what job you are. That's right, aside from a small defense bonus, a paladin is not naturally going to take less damage than other jobs. A smn in -47% pdt will take less physical damage than a full koenig pld.. (I'm talking about real mobs here.. not level 1 bunnies) JA's not included. So every wiki page you look at that says, "XXX did XXX damage to a PLD/NIN!!!!" is fucking retarded and says absolutely nothing about anything.. Defense isn't negligible, it's just negligible in comparison to some of the spells and -pdt gear available. SO WHY RDM!?!?!?!?!?
Well, a couple reasons...
Phalanx
A nifty spell that blocks a static amount of damage from every hit. RDM can achieve a static -28 damage per hit (or spell or anything) with 300+ enhancing skill. This takes no merits, just certain gear. I opted to save money and not buy the augmenting earring and instead farm the level 50 subligar, which makes my phalanx setup look like this....
So, for an example.. here's what (good) phalanx alone will accomplish...
Now, add in other aspects....
BIO 3!
Won't go in to much detail here but many people think of Bio only for its damage over time properties.. It reduces enemy attack by 15% making it an important aspect in taking as little damage as possible... Raising dot damage is accomplished via higher dark magic skill.
FOOOOOOOD
Since there is no direct -pdt food and the cap is conceivable with gear alone, you're stuck eating towards defense.. which isn't bad. Tavnazian Tacos are the primary choice and give a good boost to defense, as well as some magey stuff like MP and HMP. Great food overall that every mage should carry imo... Sometimes if HP is an issue you may want to consider Pescatora.
Stoneskin
Cap your stoneskin.. Get Gorget and Mufflers if you can. I don't think much needs to be said about the awesomeness of Stoneskin.
GEAR
PDT PDT PDT PDT - Physical Damage Taken. Nothing touches it.. Max out on it if possible. The cap is -50% PDT
w/e, There is a lot available and it is absolutely vital....
Defense / Vitality - Can stick this where you can't get PDT to add a little extra (Also you likely won't hit Tav Taco cap without some defense gear)
SUBJOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOB
Usually you will be subbing Ninja for the obvious mitigation benefits of Utsusemi, but /war, /drk, /pld and probably /blu and /dnc all have their uses. The one I have the most fun with is /war to get ridiculously low numbers with defense bonus + defender.
EVERYTHING~!
All right, now lets see how it all works when used together! Not using stoneskin for the purpose of seeing differences in damage taken...
First - Completely unbuffed I pull a VT Aern in the garden and take a few hits....
Next I cast protect and eat a taco....
Finally.. Hit defender, cast phalanx, swap in -PDT gears and cast Bio 3.....
And there you have it.. laughable damage from a VT mob.. (Warrior Aern btw...)
So.. Why Red Mage? (Zoolander omgah)
Hope you learned something and hope you use it! You can return the favor with cyber sex or something =]
As I've stated before, Final Fantasy is such an oddity. It's addictive properties resemble that of Opiates, Nicotine, Alcohol, and the numerous other escapes we use to temporarily free us from our daily quandaries. It's really not much different in that it affects both your physical well being as well as relationships with those who surround you. All of this is fine and dandy, but then comes Square Enix; Business Ethics an illegal drug cartel would probably look down upon. SE's newest trend is a ban-spree focusing on RMT related activities, but catching numerous innocent bystanders in its wake. Unfortunately, customer service is a foreign term to the folks over at Play Online so any attempts at reacquiring the time you've spend on a character ends up in vain. I don't like Square Enix if you can't tell. I never really have. The funny part about this paragraph is the pages that will follow contain hours upon hours that I've spent utilizing their addictive product... Go figure. ( 赤 Red Mage 赤 )
After my long haitus, I've slowly gotten back into the swing of things in the world of Vanadiel. I originally applied to a top linkshell, then realized my girlfriend would never have a shot at getting in and I think my true passion for FFXI is leading. Surprisingly, I wasn't immediatly rejected, so thanks for at least considering my app and my apologies for wasting your time. Which brings me to my new linkshell, 2012.
The name 2012 is semi related to solstice, in that I just took the word solstice from the Mayan prophecy's prediction on the end of time. Winter solstice of December 21st, 2012 AD. (You got a lil over 3 years left bitches! :p) I don't really believe in it, but I think it's fascinating nevertheless.
My goal with the linkshell was to have a small contingency of really skilled players to make ordinarily mundane activities a bit more challenging. I bout half achieved my goal... we got some nubs, but hey.. everyone is capable of learning :) A good percentage of the linkshell are players originally from Solstice, who had quit or taken a break and returned recently. We've had a lot of fun kinda relearning the tactics of old, as well as picking up some newer strats. The problem with the low numbers is it makes some activities impossible and the really difficult ones will often get rescheduled.
A few pics...
Been playing around in sea.. So far had pretty crappy drops, cept went 2/4 on cape from Ix'Aern Drk... Was happy to get Feebs and Markos capes. Also managed to kill Justice with 12 pretty easily.
Been doing lots of Salvage.. probably the most fun I have in game. The update with the chest at the start is nice. Our drops have been pretty crappy there as well though.. lol
Of course I have to go back to my roots.. Ru Ann Gardens.. Done everything from 2 man Despot to 12 man Byakko to 15 man Kirin.. Kirin was pretty difficult, was actually 13 people with me and X both dual boxing whm's.. I solo kited Kirin as rdm/nin while the others handled the summons. Check out how gimp we are, lol.. half the alli in AF bodies...
Of course some pwnage from yours truly..
Finally I'll leave you with this.. joined a random KS99 and got a kick out of the alliance setup. When I inquired the guy acted like I was super NUB for not understanding.. lol. (Ended up leaving after the first orb)
Well, think i'm done with FFXI for the time being. I'm not gonna say that for sure i'll never play again because I hate it when people claim they are quitting once a month and come back a week later, lol. I won't really have much to post here, I don't want to bore everyone with stories bout bangin a bunch of sluts or w/e it is I do irl..lol. I've never been a fan of video games, only the social aspect of ffxi captivated me, so won't be playing any other games either. I've actually not logged on in a little over a week, but just posting now. This is a step I definitely need to take for the benefit of living a fulfilling life.
With the exception of a very select few, it's been a pleasure meeting you all.
Just posting pieces #3 and 4. Still a few more coming!
Kinda excited about the new merit update, because I really do love Rng and would love to be able to do some bow merits without losing anything from my Ninja. These are imo, the best shoes for rng. The highly elusive AF2 feet are close competition, but I gear my rng more towards Racc for the most part to utilize attack food most efficiently.
Geezus, I think the level 15 Nemain's crown was the hardest item for this piece. It makes me cringe thinking about having to do the Citadel route over and over to get an Usukane Body 35 drop. At least we have a good sac strategy to save time on that floor now, so might be able to do a few NM's on the way up.
Finally.. one of my hobbies is magic, mostly sleight of hand stuff. Recorded a couple silly videos for fun.. I've noticed one thing with the reactions of a lot of people viewing magic tricks. They get aggrivated because they don't understand how it's done and it causes them to get angry at the magician for making them feel stupid. Don't be like that! just enjoy the performance.. it's not meant to make you believe that its "actually" magical, but if it were really easy to understand, then it wouldn't be at all impressive :p Anywways, here's a few simple ones.. I think a lot of my others are better, but they require interaction and would be hard to put on film..
First I want to go over something. Not pointing fingers or placing blame, but hopefully can avoid getting GM's involved in the future. Holding a monster is not something that can be defined easily. Does holding equal dealing 0 damage? Does holding equal not having enough people to deal damage at a decent rate? What's a decent rate? We could call GM's on eachother every time someone claims an HNM and have them decide, but personally I'd prefer to handle this between ourselves. We all know how much most GM's understand about the game.. (lol) These monsters are not easy to hold.. they can't easily be slept, bound or gravitied. They require a tank and without elegy one tank alone is really going to struggle. They also require a healer and without refresh the healers are going to run out of MP. When you call a GM on someone, it opens them up to calling a GM on you and we are all going to be in the same situations sooner or later. Let's let the NM's decide whether or not the players holding him are capable of it and not the GM's please. If you disagree, at least try and talk with the LS holding the NM and work it out with them. Thanks!
The bad news... of our last 2 LBC's, we got 3 Phobos Mask's. Ares Mask is a pretty mediocre piece for War or Drk WS.
The good news.. On the last LBC we got the 25 piece to match Epoc's 35 piece to have the 2 rare pieces for the Ares body.
So, with our pld 2/3 we had to head to Zhayolm Remnants for some card farming. Along the way we ran into the 4f S Madame, which was fun to fight.
It's suspected this mob may have a rare drop on the Zhayolm level 35 items, but has never been confirmed. Dropped nothing for us except a treasure chest. We got the card we needed on floor 6, so it was off to Silver Sea to pop Don Porrogo. Went kinda similar to the Madame, but Don has some really killer TP moves too.. was somewhat of a difficult fight for the 3rd floor in Silver Sea.
Remember, half the players don't even have HP unlocked at this point. Finished it off for the guaranteed drops.
With Epoc 3/3, we had yet another task infront of us. 12 Imp. Wootz Ingots. The linkshell purchases the crafting ingredients to complete salvage pieces to give further incentive to attend, but there were only so many ingots in stock. We did a few ISNM's and went mining in Mt. Zhayolm and finally got all of the ingredients to complete our second piece. Big grats to Epoc..
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Dynamis
Same ol' shit, except we've been doing mostly CoP zones. Did squeek in a couple Xarc's which produced pretty average drops. I happened to be the winning lot of one of those drops and my PLD is pretty close to complete now.. (still looking for a hades earring +1 if you know someone selling!)
Also cleared a Valkurm and got a few more Tavnazia access. Did a couple Tavnazia, in both we were able to get all the extends and in both we got absolutely no drops.. /sigh..
When we get bored at night, we come up with various ideas. Originally we wanted to 6 man a Hydra, but a few extra came along for the ride and ended up being a 9 man. I had a blast though :D
Had a killlllller exp party late night as well. Was probably the best party i've had yet, gaining around 23k exp per hour. Hope TB doesn't get mad that I post the parse! <3
Not a whole lot has been going on. Maintenance has kept the Kings out of our time too far for us to even attempt. Got a few Khimaira and maybe 1-2 Cerberus'.. Finally got something to drop off of Khimaira, I think that's 1/10 or 1/11 and still not the good weapon. Glad we got something nevertheless aaaand it went to the cutest lil taru to ever play ffxi, Fifayyyyyy <3
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Also wanted to say welcome back to Vertoria, who made a fake come back a month or so ago, but then had computer problems and took another break. Now, armed with a new PC she is back to terrorize alongside me! :p Also the crazy canadians Rip, Magic and Siggy have returned, so wb to those guys too!
Sorry forgot to make a cut! Was way more pics than I expected .-.
Geez, after my last entry I got about 10 tells a day asking about if or why that i'm quitting.. I'm not quitting, i've just been taking a little more time to do rl stuff, goin out with friends 4-5 nights a week and it's working out pretty nicely. I have re-established my content with the game and don't have any immediate plans to stop playing completely or take a break..
We've been spending a little more time with HNM's, which led to a rather odd situation in Behemoth's Dominion.. We saw only 7 people in the zone, all RMT. We were told by some LS members that it was day 4 and a King Behemoth chance, so we said wth, let's give it a shot. We had no idea on TOD, not even a basic idea of when the window closed and sure enough KB popped and RMT claimed.. Like idiots, the RMT invited one of our parties to their alliance to "help".. I waited till KB was far away from most of the RMT, so that I would make sure and have the last action on it, and casted gravity and immediatly dissolved with claim. We reallianced the party and killed for another M legs.. Most people look for this from KB and this is all we ever get.. Not really complaining since none of his drops aside from D. Ring are really great.. Which furthers my belief that D. Ring does not drop for non japanese on Ragnarok.
I stuck a mule at Khimaira and we got a few claims. I finally got to fight this thing on our most recent kill. I'm definitely proud of the LS for killing it a couple times w/o me, but was eager to fight it myself. We pulled with 4 people at the pop location and it turned out to be a really smooth fight.. 0 deaths and 100% on stun accuracy for fulmination.. Drops have all sucked..not even the crappy club yet :(
Not gonna put too much crap in this update since I don't have a lot of time, but saved the most exciting for last... Our first completed Salvage piece! Big grats to Vencint.. there are quite a few others which will be completed soon as well. Gettin everywhere 12% faster than other beasts!
I started playing Final Fantasy about 3 years ago and as my first mmorpg was overwhelmed and amazed by the massive landscape of yet to be explored territory. Every day was a new adventure, traveling to different areas, killing new monsters and making our own personal quests and goals. This is what Final Fantasy is supposed to be about.
I'd say about mid COP release the fantasy aspect of the game started to wear off and the game became more about competitiveness. This in itself brought new challenges and though certain aspects of it (such as the drama involved between different people and groups) were not so pleasent, it was fun and I enjoyed the friendly competition. This was endgame FFXI at its best..
I've been an active endgame player for quite some time now and I guess you could blame SE for lack of competitive content, but eventually the fun from that came to an end. During this competitive phase items were granted, but the main goals were typically slaying certain monsters just to prove you could.
Finally, came the phase of items. No longer were these monsters challenging, aside from natural fuck ups causing failures, which were just frustrating to a battle leader. A cycle of reciprocity began where players would enter the linkshell and get items, then leave or quit and new players would enter wishing to acquire the same items. Obviously, to a veteran, a point arizes where this cycle becomes rather mundane and the paradigm of activities becomes too mindless to continue to be enjoyable.
So when does a player reach the point of having completed just about everything the game currently has to offer? For me it was right around... Yeah, pretty ridiculous I know.. but I did stay logged in when AFK..lol
Anyways, i'm not necessarily quitting, but quite a few have been questioning my recent mood and behavior and I would like to provide reasons for my discontent. Plain and simple.. im bored.. It seemed to have happened over night and I can't pinpoint what exactly caused it. I could blame SE for lack of content, but I'm not sure if that's what it is or not. Overall I think they did a pretty good job with the game and their current activities banning RMT are fantastic. I will keep this journal updated on exactly what I decide to do!
Well, we got our Prudence strategy down. I attempted to record one of our fights, but unfortunately forgot to start recording until around 50%. I also realized finding free high quality hosting is rather difficult. The video at such low quality, is a bit hard to see whats going on..
About the strat.. It's not really too difficult, but the required setup is rather specific and is composed of a tank party with a decent amount of healing and a small army of black mages filling the rest of the alliance. After showing the video to my linkshell, most responses were, "OMG, how do you play with no filters!?" Well, I never really use filters and have just grown accustomed to watching the chat log fly by and scanning for the information I need. Perhaps it causes me to miss a few tells, but w/e!
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sstellar's journal
