Not too much happening, other than me finally getting used to mage jobs.
I've been having a little fun with SMN and Carby. Spending bunches of time on trying to figure out how I want to set up my macros. Treu thinks I'm wasting my time cuz I won't need to really worry about macros for resting gear-swaps, elemental siphons, etc... for at least a couple months, but I'd rather just try to figure it all out ahead of time so I don't have to constantly re-learn my macros as I level higher and higher.
I also got a little more xp on my WHM and BLM this weekend and had a little noob party while trying to figure out the jobs. It seemed to me that having my BLM as a melee still helped out greatly at that low of a level (still hanging around Gustaberg and the Highlands) but once I get into the Dunes, I'll probably just have to stand back spell-casting. (le sigh. sounds boring to me, but we'll see how it goes.)
So, what was actually accomplished over the past 2 or 3 days? SMN 11. WHM 11. BLM 11. (Hence the most-excellent, and most-appropriate, title to this entry.)
Well, I mainly just wanted a little more experience with mage jobs before I started partying out in the Dunes so now I'm gonna just get back to focusing on my SMN. Well, unless Hybrid is back online and wants to get back to duoing with his MNK 20 and my SAM 20. For tonight, I'm just going to head out and camp the NM to get me a Pilgrim's Wand. Figured that would help out greatly while leveling, so I might as well go camp that NOW to make leveling quicker/easier.
And yes, it seems as though meriting my MNK has been put on hold for a while. /cry oh well. Our little group probably isn't going to be doing any Salvage runs or anything major for quite a while anyways while Treu and Hybrid make their race for Maat's Cap. This gives me a good 4 or 5 months to level these 2 jobs, merit a bunch and start crankin out those Assaults. Hmmm. Maybe I should start setting out a schedule for I don't focus too much on 1 of my tasks. (Mondays, Sundays = SMN; Tuesdays, Saturdays = SAM; Wednesdays, Fridays = Assaults; any other time I have = MNK merits) ... We'll see how that works out. It'll probably change, but at least I can start thinking about this and trying to get statics together to make the process run more smoothly.
Monday, August 18, 2008
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
We came, we saw, we kicked its ass!
OMFG!!!!1!1!!11
Seriously, beyond a shadow of a doubt: AMAZING {Dynamis - Jeuno} run with HellsBells tonight. My initial worries about this LS have most-definitely been tossed out the proverbial window and I am certain I will be sticking around with them for a while as my Dynamis LS. (And yay! Another city clear! Just Windy left!)
The entire run had 37 - 41 members at any given time. Pretty much the whole run went smoothly, except for 1 wipe which was apparently triggered by a person or two going afk for a bit in the wrong area. No biggie. I've come to expect at LEAST 1 death upon every Dynamis entry. lol Hmmm. We got the full 3 hour time extension within about an hour and a quarter I think (if that means anything to how smoothly we were going through mobs). Itaevin and Liquidblue were our two PLD tanks again, and this time it really seemed like they knew what they were doing. (Who knows, maybe they were just both drunk/high on Sunday's run. Heh, or maybe I was.) Hermod, main puller, awesome job; don't think he screwed up even once. Retsujo was our secondary assist and had no troubles jumping right into the role the one and only time he was asked to. Bah, wish I could remember more names, but lots of people were performing well and with great efficiency. (look at me, the consultant, trying to analyze everything)
Drops. ... Drops? ... What drops? HERE'S what drops (in order): SAM, WHM, BLM, MNK, WHM, 100, WAR, RDM, BRD, DRG, SAM, NIN, BRD, NIN, RNG, BLM, THF, THF, SAM. The last SAM ended up going unclaimed cuz ppl were waiting for it to freedrop, but the mob was only killed like 30 seconds before we were booted. (ohwellz! lost a bunch of currency too cuz ppl didn't pass on it.) And the 2 THF pieces right before that actually dropped from consecutive mobs. I'm pretty sure 3 of the various AF pieces went to 1 person too. So, 18 total AFv2 pieces and a 100 currency piece dropped to us in a single run. IN A SINGLE RUN! The last time I went on a Jeuno run, we had 2 SAM feet drop. AND THAT WAS IT for the entire run! (Do I sound too exicited over this?)
Holy hell, I'm practically pissing myself I'm so pleased with these people! (like the alliteration there?)
Too bad we didn't get multiple MNK pieces. ; ; When we started the run, I thought I was 2nd in line for MNK Hands, but when they actually dropped, they ended up going to another person that was still ahead of me, so I was actually 3rd in line (and there was still another guy, Assasin, that was behind me wanting them too). But alas, MNK only dropped once tonight, not the necessary 3 or 4.
aight. enough of that. :) The past couple days haven't been very eventful, but still successful.
I did a couple more Campaign Battles but still wasn't good enough to even keep my rank, so I kinda gave up on Campaign for now, until they fix whatever it is that they broke with the last major update. I was reading a few blogs and forums where people are speculating that your rank-ups are strictly based on xp gained in Campaign Battles and Campaign Ops, but I think it's pretty clear that there has got to be more to it than that. So, the main theory going around is that it only takes 5k xp to gain a rank in Ribbons and 10k xp to gain a rank in Stars. If this was the case, then for Emblems, it should be 15k or maybe 20k to gain a rank. This is probably NOT the case because Treu was using his and Screamin's character in something like 15 Campaign Battles and still didn't have enough to even KEEP their Emblem status. (which is what's happening to me right now too. /sigh )
I keep trying to think of what else could be added into this calculation (assuming this IS the case). Do your "acquired rank points (from xp)" get reset every Sunday? If so, that would just be... retarded. That would mean, on Saturday you would probably have enough to rank up, but if you wait til Sunday, "OOPS! TOO BAD! You can't even keep your current rank now!" Once you reach Emblem, do they expect you to start doing Battles AND Ops? Maybe you don't get as many "rank points" when you are in parties when in Battles? Maybe the "rank point cost" increases for every person that already has that rank. (or something kinda like the whole ZNM Zeni-cost system.) Maybe a death resets your "rank points" back to 0? Maybe you have to start doing Battles in other cities' zones?? Who the hell knows! I'm getting a headache just trying to think of all the complexities that it could be... even when it's probably something just as simple as: you need to do 2 Campaign Battles in every zone your nation owns and 2 in a single zone owned by another nation and that's it!
So, to get back on topic, a few Battles done. One even got me 2,030 Experience Points and 1,016 Allied Notes. I'm pretty sure that's the best I've ever done. I typically only get around 1/2 to 2/3's of that amount. Oh, and I spent some merit points on getting my H2H combat skill to level 3. :)
I ran into Tekumel last night. We were talkin for a bit and he was explaining how he was kinda bummed-out and not playing much lately cuz he doesn't think he's really making any progress in-game. I'm pretty much on the same page cuz I've been having horrible luck finding merit parties lately... which is one of the reasons I'm more than happy to start leveling a couple other jobs. (I'm also leveling other jobs just to be able to level them with Treu and Hybrid while I have the chance, before they both get their Maat's Caps.) So me and Tek were about to go merit when some other LS ppl say they're goin on an Assault run. Woo Hoo! I join them, which becomes my first Assault! Of course, I broadcast my newb-ness by showing up at the staging point without my orders. :-p I thought all you needed was a tag, and you get the orders AT the staging point. Apparently you get them in the same office that you get the tags. We did Periqia - Seagull Grounded which consists of taking an NPC through some tunnels/rooms and killing a few random mobs. (a total of 12 mobs from what I recall.) I don't know, to me it seemed so easy, but maybe that was just because the guy taking care of the NPC really knew what he was doing. (Does 1155 Assault Points sound right for this one? Or is it higher than normal just cuz it's the first time I did that particular run?) Whateva. I enjoyed it. And it got me ever so slightly closer to being able to do Salvage and also getting Pahluwan and Denali gear. :)
In closing, I just want to mention the name of an NM we saw (or thought we saw) in Dynamis tonight: Dicklix Stickytoes. That is all. And goodnight.
Seriously, beyond a shadow of a doubt: AMAZING {Dynamis - Jeuno} run with HellsBells tonight. My initial worries about this LS have most-definitely been tossed out the proverbial window and I am certain I will be sticking around with them for a while as my Dynamis LS. (And yay! Another city clear! Just Windy left!)
The entire run had 37 - 41 members at any given time. Pretty much the whole run went smoothly, except for 1 wipe which was apparently triggered by a person or two going afk for a bit in the wrong area. No biggie. I've come to expect at LEAST 1 death upon every Dynamis entry. lol Hmmm. We got the full 3 hour time extension within about an hour and a quarter I think (if that means anything to how smoothly we were going through mobs). Itaevin and Liquidblue were our two PLD tanks again, and this time it really seemed like they knew what they were doing. (Who knows, maybe they were just both drunk/high on Sunday's run. Heh, or maybe I was.) Hermod, main puller, awesome job; don't think he screwed up even once. Retsujo was our secondary assist and had no troubles jumping right into the role the one and only time he was asked to. Bah, wish I could remember more names, but lots of people were performing well and with great efficiency. (look at me, the consultant, trying to analyze everything)
Drops. ... Drops? ... What drops? HERE'S what drops (in order): SAM, WHM, BLM, MNK, WHM, 100, WAR, RDM, BRD, DRG, SAM, NIN, BRD, NIN, RNG, BLM, THF, THF, SAM. The last SAM ended up going unclaimed cuz ppl were waiting for it to freedrop, but the mob was only killed like 30 seconds before we were booted. (ohwellz! lost a bunch of currency too cuz ppl didn't pass on it.) And the 2 THF pieces right before that actually dropped from consecutive mobs. I'm pretty sure 3 of the various AF pieces went to 1 person too. So, 18 total AFv2 pieces and a 100 currency piece dropped to us in a single run. IN A SINGLE RUN! The last time I went on a Jeuno run, we had 2 SAM feet drop. AND THAT WAS IT for the entire run! (Do I sound too exicited over this?)
Holy hell, I'm practically pissing myself I'm so pleased with these people! (like the alliteration there?)
Too bad we didn't get multiple MNK pieces. ; ; When we started the run, I thought I was 2nd in line for MNK Hands, but when they actually dropped, they ended up going to another person that was still ahead of me, so I was actually 3rd in line (and there was still another guy, Assasin, that was behind me wanting them too). But alas, MNK only dropped once tonight, not the necessary 3 or 4.
aight. enough of that. :) The past couple days haven't been very eventful, but still successful.
I did a couple more Campaign Battles but still wasn't good enough to even keep my rank, so I kinda gave up on Campaign for now, until they fix whatever it is that they broke with the last major update. I was reading a few blogs and forums where people are speculating that your rank-ups are strictly based on xp gained in Campaign Battles and Campaign Ops, but I think it's pretty clear that there has got to be more to it than that. So, the main theory going around is that it only takes 5k xp to gain a rank in Ribbons and 10k xp to gain a rank in Stars. If this was the case, then for Emblems, it should be 15k or maybe 20k to gain a rank. This is probably NOT the case because Treu was using his and Screamin's character in something like 15 Campaign Battles and still didn't have enough to even KEEP their Emblem status. (which is what's happening to me right now too. /sigh )
I keep trying to think of what else could be added into this calculation (assuming this IS the case). Do your "acquired rank points (from xp)" get reset every Sunday? If so, that would just be... retarded. That would mean, on Saturday you would probably have enough to rank up, but if you wait til Sunday, "OOPS! TOO BAD! You can't even keep your current rank now!" Once you reach Emblem, do they expect you to start doing Battles AND Ops? Maybe you don't get as many "rank points" when you are in parties when in Battles? Maybe the "rank point cost" increases for every person that already has that rank. (or something kinda like the whole ZNM Zeni-cost system.) Maybe a death resets your "rank points" back to 0? Maybe you have to start doing Battles in other cities' zones?? Who the hell knows! I'm getting a headache just trying to think of all the complexities that it could be... even when it's probably something just as simple as: you need to do 2 Campaign Battles in every zone your nation owns and 2 in a single zone owned by another nation and that's it!
So, to get back on topic, a few Battles done. One even got me 2,030 Experience Points and 1,016 Allied Notes. I'm pretty sure that's the best I've ever done. I typically only get around 1/2 to 2/3's of that amount. Oh, and I spent some merit points on getting my H2H combat skill to level 3. :)
I ran into Tekumel last night. We were talkin for a bit and he was explaining how he was kinda bummed-out and not playing much lately cuz he doesn't think he's really making any progress in-game. I'm pretty much on the same page cuz I've been having horrible luck finding merit parties lately... which is one of the reasons I'm more than happy to start leveling a couple other jobs. (I'm also leveling other jobs just to be able to level them with Treu and Hybrid while I have the chance, before they both get their Maat's Caps.) So me and Tek were about to go merit when some other LS ppl say they're goin on an Assault run. Woo Hoo! I join them, which becomes my first Assault! Of course, I broadcast my newb-ness by showing up at the staging point without my orders. :-p I thought all you needed was a tag, and you get the orders AT the staging point. Apparently you get them in the same office that you get the tags. We did Periqia - Seagull Grounded which consists of taking an NPC through some tunnels/rooms and killing a few random mobs. (a total of 12 mobs from what I recall.) I don't know, to me it seemed so easy, but maybe that was just because the guy taking care of the NPC really knew what he was doing. (Does 1155 Assault Points sound right for this one? Or is it higher than normal just cuz it's the first time I did that particular run?) Whateva. I enjoyed it. And it got me ever so slightly closer to being able to do Salvage and also getting Pahluwan and Denali gear. :)
In closing, I just want to mention the name of an NM we saw (or thought we saw) in Dynamis tonight: Dicklix Stickytoes. That is all. And goodnight.
Monday, August 11, 2008
What kinda hotel is this?
Just completed my first Dynamis (Bastok) run with the new LS: HellsBells.
Simply put: this experience was different from AstrumNovae's Dynamis runs. I actually thought that AN had their shit together better.
We broke the glass and went in. Total of 29 people when we first entered. They start pulling the first set of statues and THEN realize that we haven't determined who's going to be the main assist, secondary assist, tertiary assist.... Not only that, we don't even have any PLDs. So there's a little confusion and a little discussion while mobs keep coming and noone knows which ones to attack. So they tell us who the main assist is. Then a few minutes later, they name the secondary. Then a few minutes later they name the third. Then a fourth. I swear, I think there were 5 different ppl we were assisting, so up until the last 45 minutes, I wasn't even using assist macros, I was just typing in the name of whoever was blasting out "/assist me" and using "spacebar - up arrow" to assist on subsequent mobs.
There were other problems I saw too, like the main assists sometimes were saying "/assist me" and yet they weren't attacking anything so noone's macros were doing anything and we all stood around while other ppl got attacked and time was wasted. Mobs weren't being promptly slept. There didn't seem to be an actual order to the way mobs were being killed either. (I was always told that NINs should be saved for last, and yet there were a couple times where we were attacking NINs before even going after BSTs.)
I don't know. A lot of it just seemed like a big clusterfuck at times, and yet... I can't deny the results: we kicked ass. Went in at 8:00pm, came out at 11:30pm. Had plenty of time to beat the boss and do a bunch of farming. Didn't even wipe.. well, if you don't count the last 3 minutes before the timer ran out. lol) The drops? RDM, BLM, SAM, PLD, DRG, 4 wootz ores (practically all right in a row. it was freaky.), MNK (also freaky because like a minute before some says "wow, we haven't had a MNK piece drop yet"), another SAM, and another DRG.
I have no idea how we did so well with drops and AN always had such shitty luck with it. Just like in AN, we only had 1 THF, so it's not like TH really had that much of an affect on drop rates. Maybe it's just the sheer number of people we had? We had around 30 ppl the whole time tonight, whereas in AN we would typically have around 20. Then again, maybe it's just the number of mobs we killed or the rate we killed at? We were flying thru mobs so quickly that sometimes I didn't even have a chance to get a hit in.
I can't remember the full team setup, but I know we had 6 BLMs, 2 WHMs, 2 RDMs, 3 SMNs, 2 MNKs, 2 PLDs (when we realized we had no PLDs, 2 ppl left, switched jobs and came back in. not sure how they did that though; i thought once you left you couldn't come back in for 3 more days.)... hmm... 1 THF... and I think that's about all I remember checking.
All-in-all: I liked the old LS; I like the new LS. Since the old one is gone, I should stop comparing and get on with my life. Clearly these guys are successful in what they do, so I'm not gonna bitch. It's just gonna take me a little while to get used to the new peoples' personalities and get used to the way they do things. I'm glad Tekumel convinced me to join. (Just kinda wish I listened to him a couple months ago; I wouldn't have spent all that time building up LS points and not getting to spend them on anything. lol)
Hmm... what else... other stuff I've done since my last entry:
- few more Campaign Battles, but still not enough to even keep my current rank :-p
- did a bunch more leveling: WAR (37 FINALLY), SAM (20), DNC (13) and SMN (9)
- oh, and I applied to HellsBells. lol (I prolly shoulda mentioned that at the beginning of this post)
- Treu has his character back. Ced's back too. As far as I know, the rest of the others that got hacked are still waiting, but I'm guessing they'll be up-and-running before the end of this week.
And that's about it! The near future will probably be just leveling some of these lower level jobs to try to keep them up with Treu and Hybrid while they go for their Maat's caps. Treu already has all of his jobs at 30+ so I really gotta get movin on some of these.
Simply put: this experience was different from AstrumNovae's Dynamis runs. I actually thought that AN had their shit together better.
We broke the glass and went in. Total of 29 people when we first entered. They start pulling the first set of statues and THEN realize that we haven't determined who's going to be the main assist, secondary assist, tertiary assist.... Not only that, we don't even have any PLDs. So there's a little confusion and a little discussion while mobs keep coming and noone knows which ones to attack. So they tell us who the main assist is. Then a few minutes later, they name the secondary. Then a few minutes later they name the third. Then a fourth. I swear, I think there were 5 different ppl we were assisting, so up until the last 45 minutes, I wasn't even using assist macros, I was just typing in the name of whoever was blasting out "/assist me" and using "spacebar - up arrow" to assist on subsequent mobs.
There were other problems I saw too, like the main assists sometimes were saying "/assist me" and yet they weren't attacking anything so noone's macros were doing anything and we all stood around while other ppl got attacked and time was wasted. Mobs weren't being promptly slept. There didn't seem to be an actual order to the way mobs were being killed either. (I was always told that NINs should be saved for last, and yet there were a couple times where we were attacking NINs before even going after BSTs.)
I don't know. A lot of it just seemed like a big clusterfuck at times, and yet... I can't deny the results: we kicked ass. Went in at 8:00pm, came out at 11:30pm. Had plenty of time to beat the boss and do a bunch of farming. Didn't even wipe.. well, if you don't count the last 3 minutes before the timer ran out. lol) The drops? RDM, BLM, SAM, PLD, DRG, 4 wootz ores (practically all right in a row. it was freaky.), MNK (also freaky because like a minute before some says "wow, we haven't had a MNK piece drop yet"), another SAM, and another DRG.
I have no idea how we did so well with drops and AN always had such shitty luck with it. Just like in AN, we only had 1 THF, so it's not like TH really had that much of an affect on drop rates. Maybe it's just the sheer number of people we had? We had around 30 ppl the whole time tonight, whereas in AN we would typically have around 20. Then again, maybe it's just the number of mobs we killed or the rate we killed at? We were flying thru mobs so quickly that sometimes I didn't even have a chance to get a hit in.
I can't remember the full team setup, but I know we had 6 BLMs, 2 WHMs, 2 RDMs, 3 SMNs, 2 MNKs, 2 PLDs (when we realized we had no PLDs, 2 ppl left, switched jobs and came back in. not sure how they did that though; i thought once you left you couldn't come back in for 3 more days.)... hmm... 1 THF... and I think that's about all I remember checking.
All-in-all: I liked the old LS; I like the new LS. Since the old one is gone, I should stop comparing and get on with my life. Clearly these guys are successful in what they do, so I'm not gonna bitch. It's just gonna take me a little while to get used to the new peoples' personalities and get used to the way they do things. I'm glad Tekumel convinced me to join. (Just kinda wish I listened to him a couple months ago; I wouldn't have spent all that time building up LS points and not getting to spend them on anything. lol)
Hmm... what else... other stuff I've done since my last entry:
- few more Campaign Battles, but still not enough to even keep my current rank :-p
- did a bunch more leveling: WAR (37 FINALLY), SAM (20), DNC (13) and SMN (9)
- oh, and I applied to HellsBells. lol (I prolly shoulda mentioned that at the beginning of this post)
- Treu has his character back. Ced's back too. As far as I know, the rest of the others that got hacked are still waiting, but I'm guessing they'll be up-and-running before the end of this week.
And that's about it! The near future will probably be just leveling some of these lower level jobs to try to keep them up with Treu and Hybrid while they go for their Maat's caps. Treu already has all of his jobs at 30+ so I really gotta get movin on some of these.
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