To My Side Wirbelwind!

SMN continues to progress towards 75. Slowly, but it is still progress!

As of right now I sit SMN74 about 6k tnl with some large chunks of vacation/free time coming up. Hoping to get SMN75 and a few merit points done on various jobs. I haven’t had all that much time for meriting due to a plethora of factors.

Helped Aerro get her Sapara of Trials broken and due to some rampant stupidity, I was unable to be there for the fight to get the Annals of Truth for it. But she got herself some Savage Blade loving for her RDM74.

Helped her skill up her dagger too, she just picked up the Dagger/Knife of Trials yesterday so we might work on that.

Limbus has continued to become more and more fun. Got my items and coins in order and even found out that I had enough to get me some Evoker’s Picgaches +1 which is much loving. Just need to get either the Proto-Ultima gloves or a Pluto’s Staff and I can have me a free Diabolos with Avatar’s Favor!

Been working on getting a YYR for my SMN too. Helped Malechai get hers and she seems quite determined to help me with mine. I’m okay with that =D

Dynamis continues to go well too. I am now 5/5 on 3 jobs (PLD, DRG, and BLU) and 3/5 (missing head and feet) on SMN.

I think I may have been overly-eager one day last week. I picked out which jobs I would like to level next. I picked 9 of them. That’s right. Nine. It took me 6 years to get 4 to 75… and I pick to level 9 more. What the hell is wrong with me?!? lol

Hope you all have a happy Thanksgiving. Enjoy the day, should be a good one!

The dynamis shell I’m in has been trying to do a Dyna – Beaudicine for a few weeks now. We either had too few members or another linkshell stole it right out from under us. However, we finally got to do one tonight.

I set my priority for BLU because I can use that piece right away. Only one person wanted SMN so if we got more than one I would probably get that. And no one wanted PLD… which means that if one dropped I could finish my set that I started 4 years ago!

The run starts off pretty smoothly, I came SMN to help with the boss fight. Summoning Magic skill ups came pretty quick at first, got to 231. It is way underleveled, but I’m working on it!

DRG drops. Aerro gets it because no one else wanted it. MNK dropped and it went to the one JP player we have. DRG dropped again, and it auto sorted to me. Because mine is in storage, I now have 2x DRG relic bodies lol. Then PLD dropped and I won the free lot!

We had another DRG drop, a RNG and a BRD before we reached the lake with the 8 NM’s just before the Mega Boss. We’re fighting along and after defeating the orc NM’s at the lake. SMN and BLU are called out! I got my BLU armor and the person in front of me got the SMN armor!

All in all, was a very successful run! I got 2 of the 3 pieces I wanted in one run and even got one that I’m not quite sure what to do with lol.

Get to toy with it all in the morning. Fun!

Still working on my BLU75 merits and such, chatting up with an old friend of mine that is an officer in the dynamis shell I’m in. It’s good to be talking to him again more often. I’ve truly missed the guy.

So we’re chatting away and we start talking about the state of the dynamis linkshell, which is basically falling apart. Over the last few weeks we’ve seen attendance drop from about 25-30 to the point where we’re lucky if we get 15. Which sucks. I like this linkshell. I came back for a reason: I had a lot of fun with the group of people who usually show up.

We then move on to how if we’re going to continue to function in dynamis we’re going to need a SMN, which he implied rather so subtle “MR SMN71 HURRY UP AND GET TO 75 KTHXBAI” So I’m working on that now instead of meriting my BLU. Got SMN72 the other day when Aerro and I were duoing in Ro’Meave.

Don’t get me wrong. SMN is a lot of fun, I enjoy it quite a bit. I think I just enjoy BLU more at this moment in time. Who knows though, with the updates they’re doing to the avatars SMN might get a whole lot more interesting.

Time will tell.

On a side note, one of my coworkers told me that the new slogan in Vegas is that “It is easier to beg for forgiveness than it is to ask for permission.” Food for thought lol

The Job Updates II is out and just… wow…

I have this sneaking suspicion that SMN are going to in a lot more of a demand if those Avatar’s favor things work out they way they sound like they are.

I’m not getting my hopes up too high… but it might make leveling SMN a lot easier XD

In other news, BLU merits are coming slow but steady. Trying to balance meriting via Campaign and leveling SCH (now SCH27 and missing a few teeth) between all of my school work and events in game. Dynamis goes well… just wish we’d do some Beaucedine and Xarcabark so I can try to finish my BLU relics… or even throw in some Windurst and San d’Oria so I can finish my SMN relics!

Did my first Limbus run on Monday. We did NW Apollyon manaburn style… well… the BLM’s manaburned and I, as BLU, kept using Diffusion + Memento Mori while throwing out a few Heat and Cold Breaths lol. Was a lot of fun and I look forward to doing more Limbus and eventual a full Homam set (because PLD, DRG and BLU can use it all in different ways. Yay for multi-purpose!).

Is what leveling SCH makes me feel like I am doing! Though, it has gotten easier since I hit 18… Regen helps a lot when soloing because well… On Odin I could not find more than 2 people looking for a party other than my self from levels 10-20.

I just hit 25 with it yesterday, things are continuing to go more and more smoothly, thankfuly.  I keep telling myself that it will make my SMN and BLU better… ends justifying the means lol.

Also picked up some more BLU relic pieces and am now 3/5 with only the body (glacier) and head (xarcabarkbarkbark) left. Cannot wait to finish the set… I like the way it looks.

It also seems that I am showing up to more events on BLU than I am DRG… shocked me becuase for the longest time I didn’t want to level BLU and it sat at 11 because I was so frustrated with it lol.

Ah well, tastes change. I guess =D

After much campaigning, BLU75 is mine!

Now begins the painstaking task of meriting it… Though with the powerhouse my BLU is, it shouldn’t be that difficult.

I just wish that Dyna – Glacier would have been more friendly last night… 3 mp/tick self refresh [Auto Refresh job trait + Mirage Jubbah + Sigil] (Can I add you to my friend list?)

I think once I finish meriting BLU it will be time for me to finish leveling my SCH (currently 16) to sub-job level for SMN and BLU. From what research I’ve been able to put together, Dark Arts will help me with my MP Drainkiss and I will still have reraise for Campaign. Not to mention a pool of 300 mp to use when I wanted… would come in handy when you’re the last one standing to Cobraclaw Buttsavage in Dyna – Glacier lol.

I had many pet peeves from the time that I spent playing WoW. One that irked me to no end was the constant demand that “You have a high level character, run me through this instance! IT IS YOUR DUTY TO DROP WHATEVER IT IS THAT YOU ARE DOING TO HELP ME NOW!” (edited for grammar)

I am a helpful person. I have no problems helping people out. One thing that I refuse to do is help people who want their hand held through the whole process because they are too lazy to be prepared and know what needs to be done. And it irks me even more so in FFXI.  It’s not like I can take my DRG75 and run someone through the Promys… they are level capped… I am at the same disadvantage as you… Well… I have an advantage… I am not lazy enough to not look up the info for it and not be prepared.

You want help for a mission? Gladly. No problem.

You want me to do all the work for you? No. We have a problem.

I was approached, many times until I almost wanted to reach through my screen and slap the person, about helping with the Holla, Dem, and Mea Promys. Every time they asked me, I told them “Pick a time and I’ll throw it in the /lsmes.” Not only was the person insistent that it was not enough to do that, but I was required to drop what I was doing (the last push to BLU75), plan the whole thing out for him (including recruiting people), and walk him through it like he was some child crossing the street.

After about 6 times of telling him to pick a time and I’ll put the message up, he finally did pick a time so the message is up. I told him that it is his mission, his event, he’s planning it. I just put up the announcement. Then I told him that I won’t be there…

Sometimes, I don’t mind having to work on Saturdays. =D

As I was running around doing some CS stuff for CoP and the Windurst missions (I miss my home in San d’Oria!) I got to thinking…

Shantotto Ascension is really going to be the last “new” content we’re going to get for FFXI.

This makes me really sad. They’ve opened up whole new parts and times of our Vana’diel to us. We’ve faught the Zilart and their schemes, we’ve reconnected with the lost nation of Tavnazia, we’ve explored the Near East of Aht Urhgan, we’ve faught in the Crystal War!

There is so much more to our world that we’re never going to be able to see! The Orc and Gigas homelands of the Far North.  Tenzen’s land of the Far East! Hell, we’ve gone into the past, why not the future!

/sigh

Didn’t help with the song that came on my mp3 player… “All Is Well” from the fantastic film Bubba Ho-Tep. The song is from the end of the movie, after the epic battle of Retirement Home Elvis vs Evil Soul Sucking Mummy.

CoP progression goes well!

This weekend we did the Airship fight… the dreaded airship fight.

We geared ourselves up, scared each other silly.

Our group of PLD, SAM, BLU, BLU, SCH and WHM marched forward… TO VICTORY!

1/1 and we are so proud of that. All the horror stories we heard and read about.

We even didn’t have any wipes, just 2 deaths by the SAM and the SCH.

Almost there… after all this time… can almost *taste* the salt water!

Some background information needed to make the following rant a little more clear:

- I have been playing FFXI since day 1 of NA PC release.

- While my memory isn’t perfect on everything, there is a shadow of things in my mind =>

- Which leads to me knowing where to find the version update history of FFXI for when I don’t remember exactly when things changed (See post where I went back through the updates to find good DRG related information)

The linkshell was having a discussion about BLM’s, well mages in general, that don’t have all their spells.  I was loosely paying attention because I was watching the Clerks animated series on the TV when someone said something that caught my eye, and my ire:

“I leveled BLM before the BCNM40’s. Didn’t need those spells.”

Now, I’m not one to go and pick a fight with someone. It’s not my personality. But something about that statement ate at the back of my mind, like I knew it was impossible but wasn’t completely sure. 6 years (almost!) is a long time to remember things, especially about something (FFXI) that has changed/evolved so much over that course of time.

So I asked our trusty linkshell leader, “That sound right to you?” to which she replied “Not really… but they know *everything* don’t they? lol”

Being the person I am, not liking people spreading wrong information or just don’t have the information correct, decided to comb through the updates to find the answer as to when, exactly, the BCNM battles were introduced.

Though I wasn’t surprised, the update for Oct. 21, 2003 was the first chronological updated listed (same with the Japanese site. I checked and had Google translate it for me so I could figure out where I was going lol) and in it they mention augmenting the behavior of monsters in certain BCNM’s.

Wow… they were in existence before the NA release two days later. Fancy that. I told the LS leader this, she laughed and said that I should ask him about that. I decided to be subtle, “Hey *NAME*, did you play on the JP client before the NA client?”

“No.”

“Oh, how did you play before BCNM’s? They were in there when the NA client came out. At least, that is what the update notes say for Oct. 21, 2003.”

“Maybe it was before they raised the level cap from 50 to 75, then.”

Once again, the “You’re-Wrong-O-Meter” went off. The next update listed, Dec. 16, 2003, mentions about adding the quest to increase the level cap from 70 to 75. Which implies that at the time of the NA release back in October, the level cap was 70.

I didn’t bring this up in the linkshell because there isn’t any update data to support when the cap was raised from 50-70 on both the NA or JP official Play Online websites. I told the LS leader this and she laughed some more and said that if she ever needed anyone to do any kind of data mining to find something, she would know who to ask.

I guess the moral of the story is that if you’re going to pretend to know everything, make sure you are correct. Otherwise you sound like an ass.

Also, if you’re going to argue with someone, take the time to make sure you are correct. Otherwise you make yourself into just as much of an ass as the person you’re arguing with.