Tuesday, November 25, 2008

When someone asks you if you're a god, you say "Yes!"

So, apparently November is the month for Khrone gear!
- Shura Togi, as stated in a previous post, was earlier this month
- Melee Gloves were obtained this past Sunday night on a Dynamis Jeuno run with HellsBells (no more using O Kotes for my MNK!)
- Destroyers were obtained last night with a bunch of friends from LolFail
- Dissector also fell to me during the Double Dragonian run, but apparently it's not that great of a sword so I'll prolly just end up dropping it
- Shura Hands (D Hands were auto-sorted to me cuz I wasn't paying attention and didn't pass them. Not like I'm gonna spend the gil to get the cursed item crafted for this though)
- Genbu's Shield (also auto-sorted to me, and again, it's not like I'm going to use this anytime in the forseeable future)

Oh em gee, I actually look like a {Monk} now!
(Wow, that was crazy-funny: Treu just sent me an instant message "you're like .... an actual MNK now" as I typed that last line out. lol)
Now I just need Byakko's Haidate to complete my MNK. Maybe some better feet, but honestly Dune Boots (dmg +30) aren't THAT much better than the Wu Long Shoes (dmg +27) that I currently have. Some haste+ feet might be nice, but again, aren't really necessary. (and I'm getting sick of camping Quu Domi so I doubt that'll happen anytime soon; too busy with {sky} farming and putting the smack-down on gods and meriting etc... to bother with that at the moment)

So, I'm happy with my progress for the month of November! I'm also only about 6k xp away from being able to put a 6th merit into H2H. ^^

The Double Dragonian runs went so smoothly, it was practically a joke to do. I think all 6 runs were completed in under 5 minutes each, but that probably is because the people that went on the run were all fairly experienced and well-equipped/merited for their roles. The one run we must have completed in like 2 minutes because I saw the message for "your focus affect wears off" after I had already left the BC! lol

Unfortunately, there seem to be some problems with the LS now. Mainly the fact that people have been showing up to fewer and fewer evenings, but we also just realized last night that apparently noone was taking attendance for a couple of our past few runs and now we might not get our points and payouts. This would, um, how should i put this... this would suck. I KNOW I went to enough evenings last week to make sure I got enough points for the payout, but I guess noone has any proof. /sigh Now I gotta go check my screenshots and see if I took any during the nights in-question and hopefully we can see the alliance list or something. At least get SOME proof that certain ppl were there.

Damn. I went from bein in a really good mood to a pretty bad mood fairly quickly there. /sigh

oh wells.
Near future plans: merit merit merit

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

In The Mood

Yeah, for some reason I've had that Glenn Miller tune stuck in my head all afternoon... anyways...

The past few days have been awesome, but maybe my view is a little skewed from normal just because I'm in such a good mood from getting my Shura Togi. ^^ Oh, and Treu FINALLY got his W. Legs (which means he had to rename his Blog from "le sigh w legs"; it is now "le sigh morrigan's robe" rofl. and yes, both of those were my idea. lol) But YEAH! We both got some SWEET gearz0rz from this new LS, and really quick too. I've also made an easy 200k with these guys just from farming. (altho I still owe True/Screamin 1mil in gilz now, which I borrowed to pay for Utsusemi: Ni and my cursed togi.) I don't mind sky farming with these guys; it's actually kinda fun and I'm getting good experience (and I'm not talking about just XP) out of it.

I did a bunch of Campaigning this past weekend as well, primarily just to make sure I got to keep my campaign rank, but also just to get some xp while I was sitting around waiting for merit party invites. Ended up dropping 6 more merit points into h2h, taking it up to 5/8 now. I'm planning on capping h2h before meriting anything else now, primarily for accuracy reasons. Next up will be just getting that 4th merit into Crit Hits (because this would be useful for leveling other jobs as well), followed by filling up Kick Attacks (just tacking on more dmg to what my MNK can already do). Counter will most likely be put on hold until after I get a couple merits into Invigorate and Penance which, from what I've recently heard, apparently would both be useful in Salvage... assuming we ever get around to it. Eh, I'm sure we will. I just need better gear *cough*Destroyers*cough*cough* and get more Missions done before I'm actually ready to hit it up tho.

I ended up doing so much campaigning this weekend that I not only kept my rank, but ranked up to Wings of Integrity (3rd Wings Rank) which means, if I decide to push it, I could be at the current rank-cap in less than a week... which would be cool if they finally decide to unlock the next set of ranks (Medals is the 5th and final group) in this upcoming update, otherwise it's kind of a waste. We'll see. I just really want to see the stats on the Cobra Unit Cap [Body] piece so I can figure out if it's worthwhile to save up Allied Notes for it (for leveling other jobs) or if I should just start spending the Notes on other pieces of gear.

Thursday, November 13, 2008

and that makes me a sad panda

Only 1 Kirin last night and 5 lesser gods. We didn't get to do the extra Kirin we wanted to do because we somehow were missing one of the pop items that we thought we had.

We were also informed last night that Vibion was quitting because of disputes in the LS rules. Hopefully he's just a little mad and will be back soon, but we'll see. I would assume he wouldn't just up-and-quit outright though, considering he's been around for a bit, done some outside farming, and yet still has only spent points on 2 items so far.

The whole dispute has to do with how many items can be obtained per person, which is something I've actually always wondered about since Treu first explained to me like a year ago how LS point-systems typically work. Typically, one person would only spend their ls points on a rare/ex item once, because, well, you can't have more than 1. Duh. But in this case, another member, Aguaa, has 2 characters and he wants one of the items (w.legs i think) for both characters.

I kind of have mixed feelings on this:

For Vibion's case: I guess he kind of feels like someone just cut in line ahead of him at an amusement park... someone that JUST got off the ride and doesn't have to go get back to the end of the line to ride again.

For Aguaa's case: Why shouldn't he be able to get the item? He's doing a TON of outside farming, which gets us more pop-items, which means more gods to kill every night. He could be selling these pop-items to other people and actually making gil, but instead he's just donating them to the LS. (yeah yeah, he still gets ls points for them, i know...) So, getting back to the "amusement park" allegory, Aguaa basically is paying for his VIP Ride Pass and has the right to jump ahead in line.

But now lets get back to the rules regarding other items; more specifically: Osode. Since this item can actually be acquired and sold, most LSs only allow an individual to obtain it once, thus making it essentially a rare/ex item in the eyes of the LS. If we apply the "multi-character is a different character and therefore can purchase an item again" rule, then what's to prevent people from saying "oh, I need an Osode for my 10 mules too!" and just buying a total of 11 of them with LS points and selling 10 of them for gilz.

This, however, is not exactly the situation Aguaa is in, because both of his characters can actually EQUIP the god-gear, so it's not like he's just making this up and doing it to screw other LS members frmo getting the gear they want.

Then again, back for Vibion's side of the argument: if it's an item for a different character, there should be a separate set of LS points for each character, no? Otherwise it's like 1 character sharing their points to bump another character up higher on the list to get their items quicker. Doesn't exactly seem fair.

For Aguaa's side: He IS playing multiple characters. (Altho, I'm not exactly sure if both chars are on the same account, or if he has 2 accounts and plays them simultaneously. Actually, it's probably the latter, because I think he does a lot of his farming on his own, so probably needs 2 chars at the same time.) So, if he is playing both characters at the same time, and they each have their own ls points pool, then should he be getting "outside farming points" for BOTH characters, eventhough it's just 1 person? That would mean he's technically making points twice as fast as other people.

... meh. And it just keeps getting more complicated from there. Like, what if Treu takes Screamin up into sky for farming? Does that mean Screamin gets ls points too? Prolly not, since he's not in the LS; ok, that was a bad example. What if I'm on vacation and Treu takes my char up into sky for outside farming? Does that mean (A) the farming points go to ME (because it was my char up there) or (B) do the extra points go to HIM (because he was playing 2 chars at the same time) or (C) does he still only get the normal points, as if there was just him up there? They ALL seem like valid options, and yet they ALL have problems with them. Option A might not seem fair to the player because he was one actually doing the gaming. Option B might not seem fair to the character owner because it's his character that's risking the loss of XP while up there. Option C might not seem fair because, lets face it, playing 2 characters is a little more difficult than playing just 1 character, so why would anyone do 2x the work and still get the same reward as 1x the work?

I was kind of on-the-fence about this topic last night. Then, as I was writing this, I'd take one side... then the other side... and it turns out, I still am not REALLY leaning towards one side or the other. Yes, I believe that anyone doing all of this extra outside farming work deserves the item for a character that can legitimately use it. But I can also see people trying to abuse the system if we allow this to happen. (Let's say Disdain want's an Osode and I have buckets of excess points. I can just tell the LS that Disdain is my 2nd account and I want to spend my points on getting the next Osode for him. Then BLAMO, I just cheated the system and got a friend an item essentially for FREE... which actually just rips-off everyoen in the LS.)

This is getting long-winded so I'll just end this part by saying: In my opinion (at least "my opinion at this time"), let Aguaa spend his points and get the item for his 2nd char. Vibion is still next in line for it, and at the rate we've been getting this gear, that would be MAYBE an extra day or 3 until he gets it. But we should just be careful that future ppl don't try to cheat the system, like I explained above, because that could severely delay anyone else getting the gear/items they want.

/em wonders if it might be a good idea to post all of this on the LS forum for discussion... or if it will just make some people MORE angry at others and potentially drive some ppl to quit.

ok, enough of the serious/depressing stuff...

There is some good news from last night though (besides the fact that I'm finally back into the positive with ls points, lol) is that we got another w.legs, osode, and haidate so that gets everyone else a little closer to getting their goodies... and the LS that much closer to being able to start selling these items and making some serious cash. ^^ Hell, we even sold d.hands a few nights ago to someone for 250k! Can you imagine how much people would be willing to spend for GOOD gear? lol I think Treu is next in line for w.legs, which means he might actually have to change the name of his blog! wthomfgbbq!!! Well... he MIGHT be next in line. There's still some debate as to who is actually in the lead right now considering the points db is behind by like a full week; it also depends on who wants what (someone might still be in the lead in points, but want something else first, or just might not be around when we do the desired god, etc...).

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Pretty Fly For A Rabbi

That's right. My Monk is all kindsa crazy pimped out now.
ok, well not "crazy" pimped out.
not even really "all" that much actually either.
ok FINE, just 1 piece of gear so far, but I'm ecstatic about it!

D. Body

w00000000000000000000000000000t!

Can anyone comprehend how happy I am with this new LS so far? I've been here all of... what... 9 nights! And I have a Dryadic Abjuration: Body piece already! Another quick little loan of around 800k borrowed from baby brother and I has mahself mah Shura Togi! I guess I can return this Scor... wait... heh, then again, it's not like Screamin really needs his Scorpion Harness back right now. Guess I'll hold onto it. I'll need it once my other jobs start getting higher anyways. Assuming I don't already have Campaign Body pieces for them by the time they get up to a high enough level.

So we were on a god run last night up in sky and when we got to Kirin, noone said they wanted the D Body. Sush assumed Naz wanted it eventhough he didn't say anything in LS chat, but Naz is apparently saving his points up for Haidate so the only other one up there that wanted it was lil' ol' me. Yeah, lil' ol' me who doesn't even have his Destroyers yet. rofl Treu just about pissed himself when he pointed that out to me... and followed it up with "ok, yeah, we REALLY gotta get you on a Destroyers run soon now. lol"

Thank you Sush for getting this LS together and keeping it so organized!
Thank you Naz for passing on the D Body. (meh, it'll prolly drop tomorrow night and you'll get it for 5 points instead of 50 now. lol)
Thank you Treu for yelling at me to "bid on 1 NOW". And also for loaning me the gils to buy the cursed item. (Hopefully with the rate we're collecting cash from the LS cash-outs though, you'll hopefully have your gil back within 2 months!)
And what the hell, Thank you Dis for finally logging back on! (Too many ppl have been quittin lately.)

...
Oops. This was supposed to be posted yesterday, but apparently I forgot about it. As of right now, I already bought the Cursed Togi (for 949k gil) and got my Shura Togi. ^^ Was usin it up in sky last night during farming and 3 Byakkos, and I could already tell the difference. Treu also mentioned to me that this is apparently only the 4th D.Body that ever dropped for this LS. And I got it in my 2nd week with them!

Oh, and have I mentioned: "i so happy"? ^^

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Change. Now it's time for change. Nothing stays the same. Now it's time for change.

[guitar] Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeew Bum Bum Bummmmmm...

This of course is in reference to not only aspects of my FFXI life, but also the political happenings currently happening in our.... wait... i'm not even gonna go there. No talking politics in here. No talking REAL LIFE stuff in here. All of that is insignificant! Must.... game.... MOAR!!!

So I joined another LS a couple days ago: lolFail. I've been having a good time so far. Everyone seems to be easy-going and don't get all bitchy when they happen to die because someone screws up. If you die, you die. Hopefully you learned something from the experience. You may pass on this knowledge to others, or you may not. You may laugh, or you may not. But at least there's no stressful cries of "wth? why'd our WHM not 2-hour ffs?!?" which usually just starts to put stress on everyone else. (or at least that's my take on it.) But I digress...

No, these guys are pretty good too. We spent my first night just farming for like 4 or 5 hours; maybe 20 of us split up into smaller groups to collect as many pop items as possible in the time we had. And because we do our runs so late, we basically had ZERO competition with other LSs when going after these NMs. Sweetness, pure sweetness. :) Then the next night (last night) we farmed a lil more then went and killed some gods (including Kirin) with basically no trouble at all. Supposedly we're doin a bunch more god-hunting tomorrow night, and hopefully that will include 2 more Kirin deaths.

Yay! Another LS that can get stuff accomplished with efficiency. I so happy.

I will most likely be spending all of my time up in {sky} for the next several months, with the rare occassion of maybe leveling some other jobs or meriting on the weekends. (And going on whatever Dynamis runs I can do with HellsBells.) Treu wants me to come help him asap on getting some of his BST AF gear too, so that'll prolly be what goes on this weekend. I'm still considering trying to do a bunch of Assaults and CoP and yadda yadda yadda... but I'll probably spend 90% of my game-time with these guys up in sky over the next several months.

Here's to hopin I gets me mah kitty pants and shura togi sometime in the foreseeable future!

"Ill change.
Not tomorrow but today..."