[Compendium of my “blog” posts on their site.]
Last month I world-transferred here from Caitsith at the invitation of a RL buddy when I had just about given up on the game. See, I played quite a lot in the good ol’ days—back when men were men, parties did skillchains and Black Belts couldn’t be bought, much less won in a lottery—then quit, came back to learn all my friends had left, too, solo’d BLM to 75 and found I had nothing to do.
Don’t get me wrong, my friend’s LS (which ought to remain nameless) are a great bunch; they generously allow me join them for Dynamis and lot their rots, but they’re too far along and hardcore for an old-schooler like me, and I’m careful not to ask for too much. Being the pearl-less guest all the time, however, gets a little lonesome. 
But maybe you guys can give me a home? I promise to keep my rants to a minimum. My 75 jobs: BLM, BRD, BST, MNK and PLD. Gear good on most, by aforementioned past standards at least. Sky, sea, but stuck somewhere in ToAU (I’ve only finished the first set of Assaults), and just barely started WotG. I do not have 1,000 merits, nor will I ever.
On the West Coast but like your late-night schedules. I can’t promise I’ll be on every night (in fact, I will that I won’t), but if you need me for an event, I’ll try and slip the wife something that’ll keep her asleep until morning.
Yours sincerely,
Time sinks like this are not at all marriage-friendly, so I hoped for better results from four precious hours of Thunder IV’ing every living thing in Sauromugue Champaign; I felt it’d be faster than chasing and punching, with the occasional Spirit Taker—not to mention all the fucking ethers in the caskets. I lost count, but I’d say the drop rate from the timely Mog Tablet “Super Kupower” was about once every five to ten minutes, the locked ones more or less alternating, and my success rate with them about 70%. I’m not sure what’s worse, getting only three attempts and two of the examinations yielding help of the “You have a hunch that the first digit is odd” and “You have a hunch that the combination is greater than 12 and less than 69” sort, or opening it to yet another spool of wool thread.
Minibuddha: Sorry Galka BST in that = scaring the kids.
Actually, turns out (fortunately) they’re not the Speedo-kind.
[Xolotl] …Totally jumped me from behind last night (or should I say this morning, as it was after 1am PST) while I was clearing the area of scorpions. Luckily I had one charmed at the time and managed to put it on him and ran for Boneyard Gully. I stopped halfway there to search the area if I could round up some help, then got chased down by his summons. Okay, they run fast. I zoned with less than 100 HP; I so thought I’d repeat what I hadn’t done since my noob days and appear inside Bastok Mines or wherever dead.I still like to think I have a shot soloing him if I had Skadi feet, looping his buddies around the long way while I 2-houred a Cave Antlion to fight him. Of course it’d be a heckuva lot easier (and worthwhile) with a THF to kite, Flee back and lend me his/her Treasure Hunter.
Because Super Kupower: “Treasure Hound” ain’t worth shit. At least that’s what I say, after popping Ravin Raven yesterday in my quest for Birdman Cape. (Wasn’t easy, either, surrounded by imps. The mob itself went down like ice cream outside these days against an Easy Prey Oil Slick. Why don’t they give BST an amorph jug pet—?! Almighty Apkallu is gonna eat Carrie alive, damnit.) Then again, my feeling is that Wiki has it wrong and he doesn’t drop it. Or else he does, only at the same rate you can get a Speed Belt from Bubbly Bernie.
[Keyah] Mithra RDM75/BLM32 who passed by me standing in Ranguemont and intentionally killed a Taisai—and only one—to throw off the NM’s post-maintenance timer. What a douche(tte). I logged there and what do you know, no Taisaijin this morning.Disgusted, I decided to OP to Yhoator to try for
My apologies for being distracted lately—this is how I get sometimes; even the least important thing can cause an obsession. Add-ons? They can wait. FOV augments? Bleh. What only matters now is I’m still 0/3 on Spelunker’s.
I just can’t keep watch all night long
For any douche who comes along
With no reason except hating me
Turns my wait from one day to three
And what if the Wiki’s got it wrong?
There’s not a chance that I will die
But how I pray you will not deny
That stupidest-looking of hats
With the worst possible stats
So I can finally say, bye-bye… Taisai!
All this talk about soloing… but this little dude popped on me while I was levelling DNC10 in Sarutabaruta and started smacking me good. Don’t laugh, my gear consisted of an Onion Knife, aketon and Cassie Earring. (Yeahyeahyeah, I should’ve subbed MNK.) Anyway, I ran for it and lost aggro behind a rock, had my late duoing RL co-worker come out on her 30-something RDM and get the Fruit Punches. Woo-hoo?
I’ve been saving this rant until I could publish it with the evidentiary screenshot of my near-septuagenarian Sean Connery model “getting jiggy with it” in Lv.25 Republic Subligar:
[Tres Duendes] …who hasn’t dropped anything for us the past couple of nights. I mean anything, not even gil. And it’s not like Rin’s TH is broken, because right afterwards we went to Gustav and got full drops from Taxim and Ungur. Becoming another Taisaijin it is, except it’s more difficult to solo (my slime actually did alright last time, but it all depends on whether he can take out the NM’s pet without incurring too much magic damage) but easier to get ToD. For an item I’ll use in only one place—that is, 1/4 floors in 1/12 Limbus areas—I’m on the verge of thinking it’s not worth the trouble anymore, and I’m better off camping Xolotl.
Again with the nada, this time for a few more EXP because I solo’d. I went down the ‘ducts planning on ghetto-ing him—meaning 2-hour a spill to kill the pet first, and since it’s not resummoned, waiting on Familiar for the main course—but looks like someone else did me the favor already and left the NM by itself. My jelly buddy can tank ’til the cows come home, but it’s awfully slow with the DMG, so thirty minutes is really pushing it to take out both: one Stegotaur that got in the way and Tres took about 25. Fuck, because I was hoping for one of those moments like when Charlie was all by himself and opened the wrapper with the Golden Ticket.
Minibuddha: I still think its nicer to select the move you want anyways but thats just me.
It is a nerf if you think of it this way: at least with the original Sic, you had a chance of doing any of your pet’s moves at 100% TP (no matter how acquired; for example, use Zoolater Hat and get it as fast as a SAM)—now you can pick the one you want for sure, but you have to wait for enough charges. That could be up to six minutes. Jugs are lucky to last that long, much less for a second shot.Like I said, they ought to have implemented this update with a “Sic II”, which would retain the option of a random Sic, as well as granting BST mains (say, by making it Lv.45 or whatever, preferably with or after Snarl) the additional control. And either beef up jug pets to make them viable in the wild, or let you use Sic II/Ready with charmed monsters.
I must’ve missed the game while I was gone—I mean, the game as I remember it: traveling to far-off (and yet familiar) places, meeting up with decent folks and having some sort of adventure together—because I had the idea of levelling WHM. Mine’s only at 44, for the pre-WotG teleports, but, um, my MND is fully merited? Seems no one does it anymore; everyone wants only to kill, kill, kill …then again, is White Mage even asked to EXP these days, and worse, that might mean I’d have to level SCH and SMN subs. Which alone might take longer than getting WHM75. All I’d probably be asked to do is come R3, anyway.
I’ve got to blame something (besides my advancing years) for crashing lately at 9-10pm. It gets me up at 5am, too, wtf. Hopefully I can sneak in a nap this afternoon and pull some late-nighters over the weekend.
My playtime lately requires precision scheduling; I just don’t have the time (or inclination) to sit in Whitegate waiting on shouts. Plus, I’m pretty discouraged I hadn’t received any response to my request on Alla to join a Nyzul group, so it’s either up to me to try and start something—which I admit I’m not qualified to lead—or just give up on that part of the game.
In the meantime, I’m thinking of investing in a new computer: this one. I like the mobility (for when I have to sneak out of the house to make an event), and while it may be more than I need to run FFXI, I’ll want it anyway if Star Trek Online does make it out in a few months.
The ACP body was a no-brainer to me—
[I’ll insert a stat-pic when I can get someone with Fraps to do it for me; Mirke Wardecors with Pet: Accuracy+15/Attack+15]
—Like I said, as awful as it looks, it’s simply the best body in the game for BST. (I only wish it came in the Nuevo Coselete model. The Fast Cast and Enmity are sexy, but PLD’s also have this and that to look forward to.) No argument, unless you’re a WAR-wannabe who’ll either get killed by pulling hate from your pet, or it killed by equipping DD over PetDef gear. Speaking of which, I’m still hoping to get those gloves and in on a Whitegate shout for these:
The MKE headpiece, however, I still haven’t collected. The augment that has me tempted to do BST again is the Defending Ring for your pet, but Accuracy+10 on top of Weapon Skill Accuracy+15 is too good to pass up for MNK. My rule is, go with any stat that’s the highest possible for its slot. Plus, I noticed a new item in today’s update (Spurrer Beret) grants the Pet: Haste+5% I probably would’ve complemented it with.
[Taisaijin (Part Deux)] First maintenance in a while, so I camped him from 21-24 hours, and he didn’t pop. He could’ve earlier, I suppose, as I saw a bazaar out in Rolanberry with both hat and title. I think I’m done with this NM, unless I absolutely can’t find anything else to do.
List of good gear for BST from the update:
Spurrer Beret [Head]/DEF:17 Accuracy+3 Haste+3% Pet: Haste+5% (Crawler’s Nest [S], I-10, nuke/zone at entrance)
Shepherd’s Chain [Neck]/Pet: Damage taken -2% (Misareaux Coast, G-5)
[Which, BTW, I’d much rather have over this crappy Beak Necklace with a measly Pet: Attack+3 I got from one of the add-on keys—
]Affinity Earring [Ear]/Latent effect: Enhances pet attack (Sauromugue Champaign, L-9, but seems to suck, anyway)
Fidelity Earring [Ear]/Latent effect: Enhances pet accuracy (Ordelle’s Caves, H-7, and yeah, it sucks)
Fidelity Mantle [Back]/Pet: “Store TP”+3 (Outer Horutoto Ruins, G-6)
Lyricist’s Gonnelle [Back]/CHR+3 Attack+6 (Ro’Maeve, N-9)
Selemnus Belt [Waist]/VIT+2 CHR+2 Pet: Magic damage taken -3% (Garlaige Citadel, H-8)
Everything’s Rare/Ex except the Rare earrings—meaning more unproductive time sinks. 🙁 Thing is, though, with pet-enhancing gear in almost every slot, it’s actually becoming conceivable to set up a snarled jug to tank, especially in a BST/WAR PT situation.
Some goodies for MNK, which I ain’t sharing because I don’t want any more competition than there already will be:
Birdbanes [Main]/DMG:+14 Delay:+84 Vs.birds: Accuracy+3 (Batallia Downs [S], I-9/J-9)
Kyoshu Kyahan [Feet]/DEF:9 Increases “Kick Attacks” damage Latent effect: Accuracy+20 Attack+20 (Batallia Downs [S], I-10)
Had more time online than usual this weekend, so I took the initiative to make some progress in Shantotto. (Not as much as overachievers like Eli and Marth, of course. What do those guys do when they’ve run out of content?) I guess I was motivated by not going the 0/20-something I expected to with my shitty luck crafting for that one mission; only lost one parchment with 0 Alchemy—make that 0.1!
I’m here now, after having got just the Zi’Tah NM’s, because (1) I forgot I had a slashing weapon for Ro’Maeve #1; (2) I didn’t know you could kill ranged-only Ro’Maeve #2 by Bio II-ing and zoning in&out; and (3) I was too lazy to make a third trip back on BLM for Ro’Maeve #3. Come to think of it, duh, I could do slashing with Axe on BST or a non-Joyeuse sword on PLD …wait, do I even have a non-Joyeuse sword on PLD? Company Sword?
Note to self: take BST/NIN for #1, because pulling these fuckers surrounded by weapons will suck.
Another note to self: update to Wiki says Steely Weapon depops if you try DoT method, so I’ll have to call in a RNG friend.
Yet another note to self: Formless Strikes is supposed to let you punch #3, so maybe I can save a trip by taking vamp claws for #1.
Dog barked Friday night during Limbus and I ran downstairs when I probably should’ve been nuking (who cares, we won, didn’t we) to find the front door wide open, wtf.
Beat the two Ro’Maeve NM’s on MNK, though the pot’s spikes and burn took me down to like 90 HP! Still helpless against Steely Weapon, so the add-on’s on hold until someone I know catches up.
Last night I got on late and spent all my time on campaign, which I still don’t know why I’m doing, other than because that asshole Alfred refused to give me the next medal. Wiki’s user-submitted chart is no help whatsoever determining what the requirements are for advancement. I ended up spending more notes than I was earning on teleporting all over the world for 10-minute battles, but I finally reached Emblem level, which allows me to buy Rare/Ex items. Too bad they’re about as interesting to me as Conquest Point gear.
Remove me of all my flesh
Rather than another Refresh!
Violate any of my holes
Instead of more of those scrolls!
[Repeat as chorus to thrashing guitar]
Well, there goes my need for Skadi feet …and Salvage, for that matter.
So you won’t give it up with TH4
Same crappy drops as the night before [the album version will say “shitty” instead]
If nothing’s gonna help, there’s nothing I can do
Then who knows when I’ll get to say bye-bye to you!
Figures Treasure Hunter would kick back in for nearby Mucoid Mass:
Adamantoise dropped shorts and were passed to me literally seconds before time ran out, upping my Pet Defense to +30. Which brings me to this request:
This NM drops these gloves, which are no replacement for this set, but I’m told no one ever does those hard-ass Assaults, anyway. The lizard dude hangs out close to zone and sounds pretty easy (after all, he’s a Beastmaster), once his pets are kited away; I could do that on BST, and a DD PT could probably take him down quick.
Zagen: I’m down for going COR unless we’re short healers
I think COR should be fine, thanks, because it sounds like the NM itself is cake once its bugard pets are taken away. (Supposedly even easier when the mirror is taken out, though I’ve never done that, either.) I have no idea what its spawn conditions are, or how often it’s up, but it has something to do with Besieged.
…Sorry, I read the map wrong and it’s not quite as easy getting there—you have to go through Alzadaal (teleport B):
Then a short zone through Bhaflau:
I remember being there for some reason or other and using that liquid to turn into one of them… maybe it was to get a staging point?
…Just a necrobump to add some more info about this NM. (Should I wait a year or two before I have Skadi feet to try and kite?) Author says to take Mamool Ja Staging Point instead because it’s safer, but I think my way is better.
Was another chance
I thought I might stop
When you didn’t pop
But I logged there again
To see what’d happen
With no Treasure Hound
And no THF’s around
I did nothing weird
And the hat appeared!
So before I die
I can say good-bye, Taisai!
[Holidays] In-game and IRL. That fucking bunny hat took me maybe 7 Roast Turkeys at 4am last night. Tip: try and do it when there aren’t fifteen other people in the field with you. For one thing, if you play on PS2 like I was, they lag the NPC’s. Why I kept missing the Smile Helper checkpoints is because if for some reason another player passes them up, they begin running from their original positions. Miss one searching for it, you don’t get Flee and no way you’ll beat the time.
Who else is bummed about Brittany Murphy? What a cutie.
Wife is not relenting about my playtime. Just might have to become this guy. (Except I’m not that old.)
After having passed on them years ago before I quit, I suddenly find myself 3/5 on Zenith (the three, of course, that don’t drop from Odin or one of the bot targets), but since I only have the mitts I bought for 90K a while back and will most likely not win the lottery, the rest’ll probably stay in storage. Like my Spelunker’s Hat.
…Dalmatica would be swell, but Rin’s right about the puke-green color. (Yeah, like I’m gonna turn one down on account of that.) I always thought the Ark Angels had the best-looking gear in the game, and doesn’t it look like EV is wearing a Black one?
In STO news (not that any of you care, but this is my forum, after all), I’ve reversed my decision to pre-order at Gamestop and go with Amazon’s Borg NPC. Cryptic’s forum rep made a cryptic remark about some of the bonuses lasting longer than the others, and I figured the starter ship wasn’t one of them. Plus, I had a nasty dream—whose details I will spare you—the other night about Seven of Nine from Star Trek Voyager:
Rinako: asian girls are way cute…
Merry Christmas!
1/7So I went 1/5 onTimeworn Warrior, completing (unless by some miracle I get a Ksi Sash from Assault after my waistpiece runs out of charges) my MNK/WHM MND set:
At last, Starlight Medal ∮!
Did it off-site anyway, because Rin was fuming that I won the five-way lot with 336… honestly, the urge to play dropped sharply after acquiring the shorts. There’s still much left to do, like blow the rest of my gil on currency for as far as I’ll get on relic, but maybe the reality settling in at last that my time’s limited, and better spent elsewhere. Note Valor Surcoat on mannequin. And Homam head.
[Levelling] …Scholar, to be specific. I spent no less than an hour moving non-Rare/Ex gear to mules to make space for all the crap that’s bound to drop, then got in another or two whacking rabbits and pugils until Lv.7. Hating every minute, even with the whole 300 FoV EXP with each Vana’diel day.
Was set on inching my way to 37 while watching something that wasn’t deserving of my full attention when I got a tell asking if I wanted to provide the Level Sync and leech in one such party, so now I’m 60K EXP ahead and eighty or so, at Lv.23, from my goal. Feel dirty? Not so much. But watching a 60-something THF level along with made me wonder what the point is anymore.
Just for completeness’ sake, I unlocked (i.e., started the quest for) my last ??? job: PUP. Sorta wished I hadn’t, because I was forced to watch a cutscene with the worst-looking NPC ever using my model—
Quikstrike: yea only thing that can really save this game would be an awesome expansion pack with like 5 new jobs lol buuuuuuut we all know that aint happening since all of SEs focus is on 14 now
5 new jobs wouldn’t save XI. People’ll just SMN-burn them all to 75 in a week. And most people haven’t completed all the WoTG storylines, so why would they go for more? […] What I do think would be neat, is to add a feature that’d let players be mobs, or even bosses. (IIRC EQ had something like this, except only GM’s manned NPC’s.) Not sure how to implement this without people exploiting it for drops, but imagine if you could level a Goblin “job” from lowly Leecher to genuine HNM! Maybe you could be called in at random to take the place of the actual mob, and you got EXP for wiping whoever’s camping you! I would be the most bad-ass Genbu ever!
Who says Western art can’t rock?
Was wandering around Batallia [S] after a particularly unsuccessful campaign battle (I showed up alone, against a bunch of orcs who set up a turret, so you can’t blame me for waiting for reinforcements that never came, then settled for -60 AN or whatever it cost to teleport there) and ran across the NM that drops Birdbanes. I take it down easily enough, only to see this:
Oldboy or an alliance member is participating in a union. Ineligible to obtain treasure from this enemy.
That “glitch” leaving my campaign icon was still up, of course, and maybe I needed to log or zone to resign for certain? Fuck that. Oh, and look, they’re giving away relics now. Another middle finger to players who’ve spent years collecting currency. I won’t miss this game.
0/5 on Birdbanes, so I’ll give it a rest. I’d write another ditty (No-no-no one speaks Aztec/It’s a long-dead dialect/Who knows how to pronounce-a/So bitch is called Shaniqua), but their free fora have slowed to a crawl, and took with it my interest in contributing.
Rinako: They also announced there will be new jug pets and charmable monsters added. Maybe even an ability to transfer enmity onto your pet.
Nothing for us, seriously.
More awesome artwork from Blizzard:
Oh and after I’m done with STO, and maybe torture myself in FFXIV if they have another lolBST-type class, here’s the MMO I mentioned a while back that I’m most interested in, The Secret World. Come on, Rin, it’s like your L4D!
Nyzul is complete, and an EXP party (in which I didn’t remember to equip Burning Fists until more than half-way into the hour or so) later, Ascetic’s Fury. Not actually my first new weaponskill—that would go to Uriel Blade, which required just as concerted an effort to campaign—but a once-thought unattainable goal of mine since returning nonetheless. Won’t get too ambitious, though, about ToAU. My “static”: SAM/NIN/PLD Rorien, reliable; SCH/COR/RDM Zagen, less so; and sexagenarian Jimmie and his dual-boxed WHM, who led with Aspir when the instruction was repeatedly given to Elemental Seal + Sleepga II.
Stargate Worlds is no more. Their collapse was hardly unforeseen, but taking almost two years of participation on the forums down with it, including my last confrontation with a staff member denying the situation until the very end, should serve as a reminder that not everything in this digital age is preserved for all eternity.
Props to Zag, Ror and Jim (and thanks to Inx for being our sixth man) for the ToAU wins so far. I’ve already gotten the key item coin from the cemetery and am ready for the next fight. If we have the same crew, I’d suggest the same zerg-like strat, with either me or Zag on RDM Diaga-ing the NIN clones.
***Note to self: buy Diaga.
After that, one JP day, two more BC’s, and we’ve got our rings!
Some conciliatory language after I scored Homam feet the day I laid the groundwork (read: pity campaign) for my impending departure. No baby of mine is keeping me away from you guys! Another FF vet I know just had one, too, and he still plays with her in his lap… then again, he’s not married to Absolute Virtue.
Here’s the video of a song, from a car commercial, my friend told me he thought was about Oldboy: (I wonder if her first name is Chun.) Lyrics fit, right? 😉
Well, what do you know, we won.
Really warmed my heart to hear that Iri’s trying to beat Shantotto with a BST (although as Zag suggests, he or she will probably be the first to go once they re-evalutate their strategy). I dusted off the Monster gear myself this weekend because I’ve capped all my other jobs in campaign, and yeah, it’s no MNK or PLD, but I blame my low returns on just being cheap and grabbing any ol’ TWTBW pets. I mean, why blow jugs when a battle can last as long as it takes for a wave of mobs to come drop off a few mines? They really ought to let you zone with them. Snarl’s changed things somewhat since the old days; I can go all-out with Rampage, then have my Ready-Stoneskinned Carrie tank, but I’m still too cautious to use a Juggernaut over a weaker axe that’ll at least help her survive.
Where’s my Nyzul weapon, Ror? And anyone want to make the scary trek up to Throne Room [S] together?