Tonight, we took a stand. Against none other than Bahamut. And... he just upped and left. After 30 minutes of conflict, he just flew and left, uncaring about the fate of Altana's children.
But he was a bleeder. We did get him good at least. We got back up from a Gigaflare, no less! Alas, there was very little left before we could claim victory. He was down to his last 1% of health. We lost by so little.
Yet, we pulled all the tricks out of the hat. They even had me bounce between the tanking and DD parties.... and there was our shortcoming, our Achilles' Heel, our fatal flaw :
I have a long-assed name.
Next time, much improvement will be found in making a macro just for inviting me to a party. That will help prove us victorious over the king of drakes. That... and recruiting a few more helpful hands. We did the fight with just 9 heads, though the island could accomodate a full alliance of 18.
Yeah... More firepower to counter the lack of time. That ought to help out.
Monday, May 17, 2010
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Wanted : Hunting Grounds
Looks like Trials of the Magians has taken full swing. And by "full swing", I mean "people obsessed over getting hundreds of kills of certain mob families".
What about me? Not really. I hated the quest for unlocking Dark Knight, so how do you think I feel about killing 400 mobs? Or 100 while there's a sandstorm? Of specific families that yield xp no less. Even worse, killing an NM 4 times over? Holy crap, I want nothing to do with that!
...Well, I'd better get used to it, 'cause now, people are everywhere mowing down those monsters. To make matters worse, we had a strong influx of adventurers from overseas, their lands having been decimated by some natural disaster. So yeah, we're back to the population from way back, which in itself isn't bad. But with the new system? People are stepping on each other's toes quite easily now.
I'm mostly disappointed because my "usual spot" is now hoarded because of the "kill 400 arcanas" quest. Yeah, I'm talking about my Ro'Maeve Fields of Valor quest. No way I can get those measly 6 kills anymore. It was hard enough already when there was a dozen people there, now imagine over 20! Nope, training won't work anymore, and apparently campaigning isn't a go either, as people want to get the highest ranks to be allowed to assault the ShadowLord himself.
So what's a Thief/Monk/Bard to do? Find another hunting grounds. And sadly, that other dozen regulars who did FoVs in competition with me will be searching for the same thing. Only one option seems to be made available for me.
I'm forced to train with Snuggleh. Right now, I'm working to help get his Dragoon in the higher levels. That should tide things a bit until more changes come, like that level cap increase. In so far, Level Sync seems to be the safest bet for statu quo.
What about me? Not really. I hated the quest for unlocking Dark Knight, so how do you think I feel about killing 400 mobs? Or 100 while there's a sandstorm? Of specific families that yield xp no less. Even worse, killing an NM 4 times over? Holy crap, I want nothing to do with that!
...Well, I'd better get used to it, 'cause now, people are everywhere mowing down those monsters. To make matters worse, we had a strong influx of adventurers from overseas, their lands having been decimated by some natural disaster. So yeah, we're back to the population from way back, which in itself isn't bad. But with the new system? People are stepping on each other's toes quite easily now.
I'm mostly disappointed because my "usual spot" is now hoarded because of the "kill 400 arcanas" quest. Yeah, I'm talking about my Ro'Maeve Fields of Valor quest. No way I can get those measly 6 kills anymore. It was hard enough already when there was a dozen people there, now imagine over 20! Nope, training won't work anymore, and apparently campaigning isn't a go either, as people want to get the highest ranks to be allowed to assault the ShadowLord himself.
So what's a Thief/Monk/Bard to do? Find another hunting grounds. And sadly, that other dozen regulars who did FoVs in competition with me will be searching for the same thing. Only one option seems to be made available for me.
I'm forced to train with Snuggleh. Right now, I'm working to help get his Dragoon in the higher levels. That should tide things a bit until more changes come, like that level cap increase. In so far, Level Sync seems to be the safest bet for statu quo.
Monday, March 1, 2010
Making the Best of the Worst
Yesterday, I was feeling extremely depressed. Heck, I was on the verge of tears after the news that came from the Adventurers Management Division party held in a private locale in Jeuno.
To learn that I haven't hit my cap on the jobs I spent so long to learn... It was devastating. It demanded an entire revision of my objectives.
...But what objectives were obliterated? People complained of my whining for no reason, mainly because I couldn't come up with a real one, most argument sounding like poor excuses. I mean, I'm not the only one whose potential will be further unlocked and in need of new training campaigns for improvement. And heck, most of my subjobs are already leveled, only exceptions being Dancer and Scholar. So why whine higher than my counterparts who settled for an expertise level of 37 for said needed subjobs?
Took me a few hours to figure this one out, and a day to plan my next few months of adventuring around this impending change. My major problem is my personnal need to be as polyvalent as possible. And the solution is to delegate some roles I traditionally fulfilled in a pinch to my companions.
Thinking through it, I have 6 different jobs at full competency at the moment, and I was planning at least another one in the near future, as soon as I completed my current objective to be able to wear a full artifact set of armor for the 15 first jobs I've grown to know. That would have set me up for Maat's ultimate challenge, and a chance to earn one of his fabled caps. That isn't too much hurt. But after that, I was thinking of picking up either Red Mage or White Mage, to add a supporting healer role to my already wide array of available relief I can bring to events. Seeing how I can already tank as a Paladin, support as a Bard, deal damage as a Monk, nuke as a Black Mage and pull as a Thief, that seemed like the logical completion of my available services.
But once the cap is hightened to new levels, I know for a fact I won't be able to keep up with all my competencies. I'll have to pick which ones I still want to fulfill.
In so far is at least Monk and Bard. Considering how a lower level Bard still adds a lot to a party, that will probably fall in the back of my focused roles. Monk is at the front of it, as the title of my news blog surmises. That leaves four other jobs. Time to eliminate a few.
Blue Mage is out from the get-go. I do love unleashing the beast within me (even if it got in by what I would call "surgical rape"), but it's a very situational job in most events I partake in. As for Paladin... I'd rather leave that to Bucer, and maybe someday Snuggleh would take up the sword and shield. This last drop out means I can merit out for reduced enmity, which will help all my other non-tanking jobs.
Leaves Black Mage and Thief. ...Considering my Thief is only "useful" as a puller, it does fall back near my Bard in terms of importance. However, farming runs with Snuggleh would benefit from my Treasure Hunter ability, which I can expect to be further improved at the incoming higher levels. So it's bound to stay. As for Black Mage... Do you even have to ask? Coupled with my Monk, I can shake'n'bake some Yagudos. What's not to love! Besides, we're likely to rekindle our Zi'Tah manaburns, meaning I'll have an easy ticket with that job specifically.
And for that White Mage or Red Mage? ...That falls short of making my list at the moment. Unless I work hard to get it to at least 75 by the time our potentials' limit gets upped, it'll have to remain in the realms of "I wished."
Plan for the moment :
To learn that I haven't hit my cap on the jobs I spent so long to learn... It was devastating. It demanded an entire revision of my objectives.
...But what objectives were obliterated? People complained of my whining for no reason, mainly because I couldn't come up with a real one, most argument sounding like poor excuses. I mean, I'm not the only one whose potential will be further unlocked and in need of new training campaigns for improvement. And heck, most of my subjobs are already leveled, only exceptions being Dancer and Scholar. So why whine higher than my counterparts who settled for an expertise level of 37 for said needed subjobs?
Took me a few hours to figure this one out, and a day to plan my next few months of adventuring around this impending change. My major problem is my personnal need to be as polyvalent as possible. And the solution is to delegate some roles I traditionally fulfilled in a pinch to my companions.
Thinking through it, I have 6 different jobs at full competency at the moment, and I was planning at least another one in the near future, as soon as I completed my current objective to be able to wear a full artifact set of armor for the 15 first jobs I've grown to know. That would have set me up for Maat's ultimate challenge, and a chance to earn one of his fabled caps. That isn't too much hurt. But after that, I was thinking of picking up either Red Mage or White Mage, to add a supporting healer role to my already wide array of available relief I can bring to events. Seeing how I can already tank as a Paladin, support as a Bard, deal damage as a Monk, nuke as a Black Mage and pull as a Thief, that seemed like the logical completion of my available services.
But once the cap is hightened to new levels, I know for a fact I won't be able to keep up with all my competencies. I'll have to pick which ones I still want to fulfill.
In so far is at least Monk and Bard. Considering how a lower level Bard still adds a lot to a party, that will probably fall in the back of my focused roles. Monk is at the front of it, as the title of my news blog surmises. That leaves four other jobs. Time to eliminate a few.
Blue Mage is out from the get-go. I do love unleashing the beast within me (even if it got in by what I would call "surgical rape"), but it's a very situational job in most events I partake in. As for Paladin... I'd rather leave that to Bucer, and maybe someday Snuggleh would take up the sword and shield. This last drop out means I can merit out for reduced enmity, which will help all my other non-tanking jobs.
Leaves Black Mage and Thief. ...Considering my Thief is only "useful" as a puller, it does fall back near my Bard in terms of importance. However, farming runs with Snuggleh would benefit from my Treasure Hunter ability, which I can expect to be further improved at the incoming higher levels. So it's bound to stay. As for Black Mage... Do you even have to ask? Coupled with my Monk, I can shake'n'bake some Yagudos. What's not to love! Besides, we're likely to rekindle our Zi'Tah manaburns, meaning I'll have an easy ticket with that job specifically.
And for that White Mage or Red Mage? ...That falls short of making my list at the moment. Unless I work hard to get it to at least 75 by the time our potentials' limit gets upped, it'll have to remain in the realms of "I wished."
Plan for the moment :
- Get my Beastmaster, Summoner and Red Mage to 60;
- Get my Dancer and Scholar to 50;
- Merit the hell out of my Black Mage;
- Get my White Mage to 75 if time allows.
- Get my Genkai 6 done (like there won't be one -.-;);
- Cap my Monk;
- Cap my Black Mage;
- Cap my Thief;
- Cap my Bard.
Monday, February 15, 2010
This is getting old...
Yeah, yeah... I know... I'm not keeping up with the news. Heck, where was I last time?
*checks*
Damn.... There's plenty of stuff needing mentionned. Like how we prevented an all-out war with the middle-eastern kingdom of Aht Urghan, and destruction of the world by the Crystal Seed. Yeah, this whole "Save Vana'diel" thing needs to stop from time to time.
Currently, plenty is going on. Foremost, Snuggleh's training is mostly done with, now he falls into perfectionism mode. He needs to cap his skills, merit them fully, and get missing pieces of gear. While he does that, I'm training myself on my first love job, Ranger. ...Yeah yeah, some would say I'm leeching off him, but hey, my damage output is actually catching up to his, and quite rapidly at that. And I must have went through about 20 stacks of Scorpion Arrows, so no saying I'm doing nothing!
Otherwise, activities outside of the Ro'Maeve grind include Assaults, Salvage and Dynamis. Assaults are now seen mostly as a formality, as our static already attained Captain rank amongst Salaheem's Sentinels.
Salvage is done for the gear, but such proceedings are taking their darn time. Charriot bosses are being a bit skimpy on the desired drops as of late, not to mention Bhaflau's abyssmal drops from the Astral Gate NMs (given if they do show up.) We do have a good static for that activity, hopefully we'll still be sticking together even after we get our first one or two pieces of desired gear.
And Dynamis? Ooooh-ho-ho-ho! I need to be careful with that one! My sense of self-importance is starting to inflate quite rapidly. I still need to start documenting how I'm doing the pulls in those areas. I might be a fast learner, but sometimes I have to learn from doing things the wrong way... Painful thing.
One thing I'm disappointed about Dynamis is the lack of other pullers in our current team. I'm always elected by default for the nights I do am available. So much for leveling my Black Mage, I thought I'd have fun nuking stones and running around like a headless chicken when slept mobs go mad. Well, Bootymaster's getting that fun now. And knowing that Waddles is also on that team... yeah, sometimes I gawk at how awesome Black Mages can be in Dynamis.
I've done my first Dyna-Beaucedine, and we got the win there with a team of 18 people. That time, I got lucky and Zoar was assigned for the final pull. Next time I'm the one who has to run all across the zone with four dragons in tow. We barely made it too, Angra Mainyu died with only 30 seconds left to our Timeless Hourglass. That Chainspell Death thing? ...not a pretty sight, especially with a skeleton crew.
I also pulled my first San d'Oria. ...really, that was my first! All those other times, I came around as a Bard, for those few moments we had to deal with those pesky Hecteyes pets. Now that zone is much trickier than it first appeared to me. Right off the bat, one of the pulls brought along quite a number of statues. Now I know why we sometimes went the long way around near the residential area.
So... kinda getting late, got some paperwork that needs be filed for my adventuring permit. I know this is more than likely an empty promise, but I'll try to keep on the ball with updating my blog. I mean, we are trying to save the world yet again from Dr. Shantotto's newly revealed evil wrath. ...and to think I used to like her brand of evil genius...
*checks*
Damn.... There's plenty of stuff needing mentionned. Like how we prevented an all-out war with the middle-eastern kingdom of Aht Urghan, and destruction of the world by the Crystal Seed. Yeah, this whole "Save Vana'diel" thing needs to stop from time to time.
Currently, plenty is going on. Foremost, Snuggleh's training is mostly done with, now he falls into perfectionism mode. He needs to cap his skills, merit them fully, and get missing pieces of gear. While he does that, I'm training myself on my first love job, Ranger. ...Yeah yeah, some would say I'm leeching off him, but hey, my damage output is actually catching up to his, and quite rapidly at that. And I must have went through about 20 stacks of Scorpion Arrows, so no saying I'm doing nothing!
Otherwise, activities outside of the Ro'Maeve grind include Assaults, Salvage and Dynamis. Assaults are now seen mostly as a formality, as our static already attained Captain rank amongst Salaheem's Sentinels.
Salvage is done for the gear, but such proceedings are taking their darn time. Charriot bosses are being a bit skimpy on the desired drops as of late, not to mention Bhaflau's abyssmal drops from the Astral Gate NMs (given if they do show up.) We do have a good static for that activity, hopefully we'll still be sticking together even after we get our first one or two pieces of desired gear.
And Dynamis? Ooooh-ho-ho-ho! I need to be careful with that one! My sense of self-importance is starting to inflate quite rapidly. I still need to start documenting how I'm doing the pulls in those areas. I might be a fast learner, but sometimes I have to learn from doing things the wrong way... Painful thing.
One thing I'm disappointed about Dynamis is the lack of other pullers in our current team. I'm always elected by default for the nights I do am available. So much for leveling my Black Mage, I thought I'd have fun nuking stones and running around like a headless chicken when slept mobs go mad. Well, Bootymaster's getting that fun now. And knowing that Waddles is also on that team... yeah, sometimes I gawk at how awesome Black Mages can be in Dynamis.
I've done my first Dyna-Beaucedine, and we got the win there with a team of 18 people. That time, I got lucky and Zoar was assigned for the final pull. Next time I'm the one who has to run all across the zone with four dragons in tow. We barely made it too, Angra Mainyu died with only 30 seconds left to our Timeless Hourglass. That Chainspell Death thing? ...not a pretty sight, especially with a skeleton crew.
I also pulled my first San d'Oria. ...really, that was my first! All those other times, I came around as a Bard, for those few moments we had to deal with those pesky Hecteyes pets. Now that zone is much trickier than it first appeared to me. Right off the bat, one of the pulls brought along quite a number of statues. Now I know why we sometimes went the long way around near the residential area.
So... kinda getting late, got some paperwork that needs be filed for my adventuring permit. I know this is more than likely an empty promise, but I'll try to keep on the ball with updating my blog. I mean, we are trying to save the world yet again from Dr. Shantotto's newly revealed evil wrath. ...and to think I used to like her brand of evil genius...
Monday, January 25, 2010
A Spiked Fist in a Boghertz Glove
Not to toot my own horn (I do prefer the harp), but so far I've done Boghertz's...
*takes a deep breath*
Striking-Sorcerous-Sneaky-Stalwart-Shadowy-Wild-Harmonious-Chasing-Loyal-Lurking-Dragon Hands...-*faints*
*takes a deep breath*
Striking-Sorcerous-Sneaky-Stalwart-Shadowy-Wild-Harmonious-Chasing-Loyal-Lurking-Dragon Hands...-*faints*
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Job Switch #228
Yeah, yeah, I know what you're thinking...
"Snuggly, when will you stop jumping ships like that?"
...well, this time, it's slightly different. Sure, I did switch back to my Black Mage duties, but then again, I was already fulfilling that on the occasional Zi'tah party. Nah, the switch is on a different level.
...I've become a drill sergeant!
Wai-wai-wait! No! I didn't fall down to my dark side! I keep that for my Dark Knight days. Heck, if you were to compare me to Rongelouts, it'd be like comparing a grain of sand to Valkurm Dunes. Nah, I'm working on a much more microscopic level.
One rookie. That's it. A Galka too.
And never mention the word "subservient" around him. He's not pretty when he gets angry and throw a tantrum... and even less 2 minutes later as he's crying it all out.
So, true to my militaristic mentorship, I gave him a drill soldier name.
Snuggleh.
Real name? Maedaro. Hume-given name is Wet Onion. But he seems to not mind me calling him Snuggleh.
The drill training isn't that hard. After helping him out for his first 10 levels, I accompany him as either a support job or a melee one, depending on which role he's taking. His progress has been interesting (and even moreso my own.) He's currently a lvl22 Monk and lvl18 Warrior. Current program plans are :
Monk to 30
Dancer to 37
Samurai to 75
Ninja to 37
I've also signed him up for taking my spot in our Lightsday evening static, both for his Warrior and Paladin.
So far, he's followed orders well, and performed well at keeping mobs' attention away from my spellcasting. Only incident so far was he attacked a new notorious monster (I share the blame, I told him to pull *all* the birds at the camp.) Let's hope he keeps this up.
"Snuggly, when will you stop jumping ships like that?"
...well, this time, it's slightly different. Sure, I did switch back to my Black Mage duties, but then again, I was already fulfilling that on the occasional Zi'tah party. Nah, the switch is on a different level.
...I've become a drill sergeant!
Wai-wai-wait! No! I didn't fall down to my dark side! I keep that for my Dark Knight days. Heck, if you were to compare me to Rongelouts, it'd be like comparing a grain of sand to Valkurm Dunes. Nah, I'm working on a much more microscopic level.
One rookie. That's it. A Galka too.
And never mention the word "subservient" around him. He's not pretty when he gets angry and throw a tantrum... and even less 2 minutes later as he's crying it all out.
So, true to my militaristic mentorship, I gave him a drill soldier name.
Snuggleh.
Real name? Maedaro. Hume-given name is Wet Onion. But he seems to not mind me calling him Snuggleh.
The drill training isn't that hard. After helping him out for his first 10 levels, I accompany him as either a support job or a melee one, depending on which role he's taking. His progress has been interesting (and even moreso my own.) He's currently a lvl22 Monk and lvl18 Warrior. Current program plans are :
Monk to 30
Dancer to 37
Samurai to 75
Ninja to 37
I've also signed him up for taking my spot in our Lightsday evening static, both for his Warrior and Paladin.
So far, he's followed orders well, and performed well at keeping mobs' attention away from my spellcasting. Only incident so far was he attacked a new notorious monster (I share the blame, I told him to pull *all* the birds at the camp.) Let's hope he keeps this up.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
I Saw the Sign
Snuggly has a new flavor of the month!
Slowly but surely, gutting anticans open started losing its appeal. So I wondered what else I could do that would be a fresh start on something entirely new. A week past, I tried my hand at Red Mage'ing, but alas, all those spells I needed to cast to somehow manage to deal decent damage didn't do me in. So I kept pondering for a while.
Last night, I got really tired and decided to go back to Windurst back in the Shadowlord Era, and train myself on my Black Mage upon the invading Yagudo forces. Suffice to say, my nukes weren't strong enough to make a noticeable difference. So I stepped back into the role of "gimped healer". How often I wished I had my Paladin's Cure IV at the very least...
That's when it hit me. Like a hammer blow to the back of my skull. Either that or a Yagudo got the jump on me. Why not try out White Mage? Once the battle was over, that's exactly what I did. I Warped back to Jeuno and geared myself up. I even crafted my own Holy Maul seeing how none were available on the Auction House. All I'm missing right now is a Holy Breastplate.
Signal and Tactics Pearls in hand, I swiftly 'ported myself to the desert to give this a shot. Target : Giant Spiders. Boy, those things are really squishy! Now I see why Mei-chan wants to melee that badly : hammer blows to the head are fun-fun-fun! I don't understand though how come it feels easier to do this as a White Mage than a Red Mage, but heh, no use complaining, right?
So far, I really appreciate the ease with which I can move about, with all those teleport spells handy. I can Haste and Erase myself, even Shell and Protect Sahyu! This is really cool.
Let's cross fingers that hype'll last longer than a month or two.
Slowly but surely, gutting anticans open started losing its appeal. So I wondered what else I could do that would be a fresh start on something entirely new. A week past, I tried my hand at Red Mage'ing, but alas, all those spells I needed to cast to somehow manage to deal decent damage didn't do me in. So I kept pondering for a while.
Last night, I got really tired and decided to go back to Windurst back in the Shadowlord Era, and train myself on my Black Mage upon the invading Yagudo forces. Suffice to say, my nukes weren't strong enough to make a noticeable difference. So I stepped back into the role of "gimped healer". How often I wished I had my Paladin's Cure IV at the very least...
That's when it hit me. Like a hammer blow to the back of my skull. Either that or a Yagudo got the jump on me. Why not try out White Mage? Once the battle was over, that's exactly what I did. I Warped back to Jeuno and geared myself up. I even crafted my own Holy Maul seeing how none were available on the Auction House. All I'm missing right now is a Holy Breastplate.
Signal and Tactics Pearls in hand, I swiftly 'ported myself to the desert to give this a shot. Target : Giant Spiders. Boy, those things are really squishy! Now I see why Mei-chan wants to melee that badly : hammer blows to the head are fun-fun-fun! I don't understand though how come it feels easier to do this as a White Mage than a Red Mage, but heh, no use complaining, right?
So far, I really appreciate the ease with which I can move about, with all those teleport spells handy. I can Haste and Erase myself, even Shell and Protect Sahyu! This is really cool.
Let's cross fingers that hype'll last longer than a month or two.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)