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011Samurai TP CatBeanie010MNK76/NIN386176767350486937801914143776765340236050
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HQ Adventure = Death+1 :D
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Beanie 's profile
Handlename
POL Handlenamegbeans
e-mailgbeans@pol.com
Homepagehttp://www.centragarden.net
CommentHydrabo (L80) and Tunafish (L80) (Windurst), Aisierra (L70) (Bastok), Ammoboxes (L80) (San d'Oria) are my assistants.

Maps: 79 || Nyzul: 100 || Cobra Rank: Medal of Altana § § § § || Maat's Cap (lol): 5/15 || Highest Fish Ranking: 18th Place || Synergy 35.2; Feed Fewell 5, Furnace Thwacking 2

QUESTS -- Windurst: 83 || San d'Oria: 67 || Bastok: 82 || Jeuno: 90 || Other: 51 || Outlands: 43 || Aht Urhgan: 52 || Crystal Era: 56 || Abyssea: 2
SCENARIOS -- A Crystalline Prophecy: Fin || A Moogle Kupo d'Etat: Fin || A Shantotto Ascension: Fin
CRAFTING KEY ITEMS -- Lumberjack, Chainworking, Sheeting, Gold Purification, Clockmaking, Trituration, Concoction, Iatrochemistry, Anima Synthesis, Patissier, Synergy Crucible, Frog Fishing
CRAFTING ITEMS -- Shaded Spectacles, Caduceus, Alchemy Apron, Portafurnace, Waders, Seagull Ring, Pelican Ring, Heron Ring, Fishing Smock
WEAPON SKILLS -- Asuran Fists, Retribution, Black Halo, Detonator, Empyreal Arrow, Evisceration, Decimation, Blade: Ku, Tachi: Kasha, Impulse Drive
MYTHIC WEAPON SKILLS -- Ascetic's Fury, Tachi: Rana, Blade: Kamu, Trueflight

Merit Points (469):
HP/MP -- Max MP OOOOOOOO
ATTRIBUTES -- STR OOOOO
COMBAT SKILLS -- Hand-to-Hand OOOOOOOO || Marksmanship OOOO || Katana OOOO || Evasion OOOO
MAGIC SKILLS -- Enfeebling OOOOOOOO
OTHER -- Critical Hit Rate Up OOOO || Enemy Critical Hit Rate Down OOOO
MONK -- Counter Rate OOOOO || Kick Attack Rate OOOOO || Mantra O || Formless Strikes O || Invigorate OOO || Penance OOOOO
RANGER -- Unlimited Shot OOOOO || Rapid Shot Rate OOOOO || Flashy Shot O || Snapshot OOOOO || Recycle OOOO
NINJA -- Subtle Blow OOOOO || Ninja Tool Expertise OOO
WHITE MAGE -- Cure Cast Time OOOOO || Barspell OOOOO || Devotion OOOOO || Protectra V O || Shellra V OOOO
SAMURAI -- Store TP OOOOO || Meditate OOOOO || Shikikoyo OOOOO || Blade Bash O || Overwhelm OOOO

Adventuring Companions:
* Sasavi -- Neglected Wyvern
* Raka Maimhov, lv.70 Soothing Healer, Katana -- Max Active Time OOO, Fashion Advice O
* Petra, Valoredge, Stormwaker -- Puppet that has more parts than ACE Hardware
* BestArcher, F, Chocobo adult -- Yellow feathers. Strength: First-Class, Endurance: First-Class, Knows Burrow and Treasure Finder :3
* NimbleArcher, F, Chocobo adult -- Black feathers. Strength: First-Class, Endurance: Outstanding, Recp: Average, Disc: Average, Knows Canter and Gallop

Diary Index
Beanie's diary (20 articles)

10/08/09 00:38(open)10/08/09 23:06(1483)
I did a lot of little and not so little things this weekend. I got RDM49 >.<9 I'm gonna push it to 50 so I can see the AF story, then prolly finish off THF since that's already at 45. I hit 3 Besieged on Saturday, which always makes me happy ^^ We helped Lumi and Beroe with their AF1s too >.>b I scooped up around 200 points in goldfish. I really like Scooping. It's my favorite Summerfest event ^^

The big event for me on Sunday was finishing Shantotto. I didn't need it, and I wasn't entering the BC, but that doesn't mean I can't fret over the group's success! I didn't have much to worry about in terms of the party. Solid players and all able to adapt to changing situations (which Shantotto's final fight does rapidly), but there's always that pesky luck thing involved >.>; I consider the first attempt to be a dry run to see how the flow of battle goes :E Second time around they curb-stomped the boss. Congrats on your new pants!

The next project I want to work on in the immediate future (and I'm trying to keep my goals modest since I keep getting broadsided by life this summer): help people change their ACP bodies. This is your last chance to poke me (preferably in game) if you want to change. Mages are understandably put out that the new um.. what is that called Aureal? the blue stuff.. set is better than what you can make with ACP. I'd like to get folks on the path to change their bodies so they're not stuck with a piece they're not going to use :E

P3P: I've been avoiding looking at FAQs 'cause I knew if I looked at one I'd want to restart my game. I looked at one on Saturday 'cause I couldn't figure out something and now I want to restart my game -.- I haven't done anything *wrong* per say, but I could've done it better :/

LO: I got to floor 15 of the Experimental Staff. I was aiming for 25, but got sleepy >.>; Jeni sent me a message telling me to leave the poor game alone. I've beaten LO to death already. I won't be content until I have Treasure Trove!

GoW2: Nif and I finished the Campaign in co-op o.ob That was an experience, lemme tell ya, though I must admit that I had fun. We're gonna do the add on scenario and at least unlock the co-op / method achievements for that. Even at the end I could still make Nif WTF at me. Things like, "Bean, did you just headshot two enemies with 1 bullet?" "Maybe D:" "Daaaamn..." or "Bean, you're worse at driving over-sized monsters than you were at Centaurs (tanks) :|" It's not like monsters were covered in driver's ed. >.>; I got stuck on the walls a few times .-.

GoW1: I popped this in 'cause I had a hard time following the GoW2 story and I was curious. I'm prolly digging in the wrong spot for story if that's what I want >.>; I made it through the tutorial by myself, then was promptly squished when I tried the Campaign on Casual setting. I'm really much better at this when Nif's got my back :| <3

Castlevania: Harmony of Despair: I tried the demo of this and I'm still not sure how I feel about it. I'm put off by the fact that it's $15 and they're already talking about additional DLC of characters and a stage from Portrait of Ruin. The game's been out for about a week now >.>; If the DLC isn't free I'm going to :/ even more. I've avoided Beautiful Katamari 'cause half the game is stages you have to buy. I can see Harmony of Despair quickly going that direction with how many characters aren't in the base game. And if they keep snagging stages from previous DS games I already own.... :/ Buying SotN off XBLA seems like a better investment at the moment. At least you're getting a complete game that you *know* is good...
CrcdhpGX > links/go.txt;25;25 (11/01/14 18:11)
sandra > comm (11/02/15 23:46)
sandra > comm (11/02/15 23:46)
frenky > comm (11/05/07 15:40)
jones > comm (11/06/03 22:52)
Samuel > DYHXNJFM (12/01/24 22:24)

Name
10/08/05 00:22(open)10/08/05 01:01(1482)
It took me two evenings, but I've gotten the three new event furnishings. Wiki has a guide, of course, but in a nutshell it's "go replay all the old events for new prizes" >.>; Though Goldfish scooping never gets old :E I do that every year regardless. I was able to solo the Mumor-chan one, but it took me about two hours between being by myself and messing up the dance because I was eating pizza at the same time >.> Pizza and dancing don't mix :x I tried doing the Windurst Chocobo chick gathering game on Hard and only managed 31/35 at best. I went to Bastok to do the (don't) shoot the Pixie game. That one was much easier for me. It'd been easier if the Pixies didn't get in the way :E But I dealt with 'em real gewd~

GoW2: Every night Nif tells me that we're getting close to the end, but this is the first night where it's felt like we're close to the end. We got to one of the big badasses introduced near the start of the game, so we must be getting close if we're taking down henchmen now. We've grown into a team of me providing covering fire while Nif goes all Rambo on whatever we're fighting. I'm still aces with a mortar :E

Yosa listened to Nif and me do the Centaur tank level. I drove. Nif had the turret. Yosa said we sound like an old couple >.>; It doesn't help that I'm a huge Crazy Taxi fan :E,

P3P: I picked up the 5th Old Document and I'm still in early August. I'm finally getting to the point where I can make some kick ass Persona :E

Since I'm in a babbling mood and I'm going to force Persona on Yosa, here's a quick crash course in the naming scheme in Persona games:

There are 7 "elements": Agi (fire), Bufu (ice), Garu (wind), Zio (elec), Hama (light / instakill), Mudo (dark /instakill), and Megido (nuclear / almighty / aka non-element magic damage whose name changes depending on game. In P3 it's called almighty).

Persona uses a prefix / suffix system in naming spells. The Hama and Mudo lines kinda fits this pattern, but not exactly. In nutshell:

Ma(r)- AoE (offensive)
- La/Lao/Ga - Second tier spell, single target
- Dyne - Third tier spell, single target

For example, and AoE fire spell is Maragi. Second tier, single target ice is Bufula. AoE second tier is Mabufula. Want a third tier elec spell? Ziodyne. It's AoE is Maziodyne. Each element has a Persona-specific uber spell of that element. Like Ice's is Niflheim and only Skadi can possess that spell (it can't be transferred to another Persona).

For the Hama / Mudo, the Ma- prefix is the same. The second tier single target uses -on: Hamaon, Mudoon. Then back to Ma- for the second tier AoEs. The final tier are Persona exclusive spells. (They have 80% chance of instant death unless the target is Block/Absorb to that damage type.) The name of the dark spell is Die for Me!, which is on Alice. The original story is that Alice (in Persona 2) was based off of a dev's daughter, but nowadays they're saying it's based on Alice of Wonderland fame. The Persona looks like her >.>

Megido are unique not just in damage type, but that all of the spells are AoE except the highest tier one. The spell is single target, Satan has it, and it's called Black Viper.

I won't go into buffs right now 'cause those can be brain breaking. I will note that the healing spell is called Dia. AoE is Media. Second tier, single target is Diarama. AoE is Mediarama >.>; Third is Diarahan, then Mediarahan. The ultimate restore all HP / correct all ailments spell is called Salvation. Interestingly, both Lucifer and Messiah learn this spell >.>a (A couple other Persona do as well.)
Name
10/08/02 01:27(open)10/08/02 01:50(1481)
We did a remarkable amount of missioning today o.o;

First off we went to ducts to farm some subligars for Beroe and Lumi at Resh's nudging. A lot more people showed up than expected. Thanks everyone o.o; Also the drop rate of subligars with TH4 can be best described as "ZOMG!" >.>

Beroe and Lumi needed Minotaru too. Y'all know how I feel about CoP now, but I relented when Resh nudged me to stop being a hardass. Doesn't mean I have to like it :| Or that my answer has changed >.> So don't take an exception as the rule! I was positioned closest to Minotaru, so I'd just run over and it'd draw us in and we'd slap it silly. Okay, this is a workable plan, we've done it before (under cap, mind you).

* I ran across the hallway and wasn't drawn in >.>
* I ran down the hallway and wasn't drawn in >.>
* I stood in front of Minotaru and /danced and wasn't drawn in >.>
Well, crap, I know how to fix this problem >:3
* I punched the Minotaru and wasn't drawn in >.>;
Crap, a not happy Minotaru was in my grill now :x So I Hundred Fisted to get it over with quickly (totally wasn't necessary, but I was feeling vexed at that point.) The reactions went roughly as follows:

Resh: Sweet! Let's head up to the libraries!
Lumi: Wait, WTF, we didn't fight anything?
Dem: That was cool :o
Bean: Oh, FFS, are you kidding me?

So, um, yeah, a lvl76 MNK doesn't aggro Minotaru if you're curious >.> And it's just as squishy to Hundred Fists as it was at 40 :E

In the afternoon we worked on ASA stuff. Folks were excellent at doing the homework I assigned them 2 weeks ago >.>b We started with Enemies of the Empire II. Sher joined up with us at Ro'Maeve for Shantotto in Chains 'cause he needed the NMs too. We smashed those, then rushed to Zi'tah with less than 3 game hours left to kill the NMs. Somehow we got them all. I killed Holey Horror with 15 game minutes left before despawn >.o Talk about cutting it close!

We went to FMF to do Battaru Royale. Since I didn't need the fight, people were kind about Sher taking my spot in the party. The fight didn't quite go as planned and Nif died immediately. Despite this set back everyone kept it together and they came out victorious. I'm proud of you guys! (We also learned that Odin isn't that great in Battaru Royale, if you're curious >.>; )

After that Nif and I (with Tharp) went to Gustav to help Tal with Enemies of the Empire II. Then Nif and I met Dem and Klai in Sac to pop the Mithra Swift Belt NM. I had maxed hate from earlier in the day and Nif had a Codex he wanted to be rid of. No drop, but it's the thought that counts? After Nif logged and I went to a Besieged, I ran back out to Ro'Maeve to Sidewinder Steely Weapon into the ground for Tal.

Whew, busy day @.@ And I got a Hi-Elixir from turning in the NM key items I'd gotten earlier in the day. I think that's one of the better rewards I've gotten this side of that pet earring I can't use (yet). Ha D:
Name
10/08/01 00:17(open)10/08/02 01:55(1480)
Today was a big day :o Resh's Aegis was completed ^^v Man, it feels good to see that done, even though it's not mine or anything. It's a big project we've all been working on and something we can all be proud of :D Big grats to Resh! Big grats to Howitzer! Really that makes the rest of my recent doings seem pretty bland >.>a

P3P: I just got Koro-chan and the 4th barrier is down. I've been putzing around Tartarus and :Oing at how fast my characters are leveling up. I know this will taper off. It's always fast when you first get to a new area. Also, the Tennis team trip to Yasoinaba rocked >.>v It was cool to see them go back and add a tie in, especially since you visit Gekkoukan in P4 :D That just tickled me ^^

GoW2: I'm getting better at this, but I'm still not very good at it. Thank goodness Nif is willing to do a co-op campaign with me while I learn the ropes. I haven't really played a shooting game since, um, Wolfenstein >.>; I've learned that I have a knack for mortars o.ov The rest is a craps shoot, but Nif it nice about pointing me to new weapons to try. He often tells me to come pick up something 'cause he says I'll like it (he's right ^^ )

I've done some cool things while playing with Nif. I mortared a boss. I mortared some snipers. I threw some grenades into an enemy encampment below me right as Nif was charging in >.>; So far this is what I've learned from GoW2:

* Is it moving? Shoot it.
* Still moving? Shoot it again.
* STILL moving? Find a bigger gun.
* Is it Nif? Oops, stop shooting at him :x

The worm chapter was pretty disgusting >.>; I'm not used to playing games like that D: I got squished, bowled over, suffocated, and drown every step of the way 2 or 3 times >.>; My biggest gripe so far is that Marcus has a magnetic butt for attaching itself to cover. This has killed me a few times in the aforementioned chapter and the one following it. *Running* in a straight line is remarkably difficult o.oa
Demandred > Yaaaaaay again on Neresh's crrepy face shield. I still say the owl has something to do with it. (o_o) And I must say I'd likely follow your philosophy in GoW2... it worked for me in Diablo II (thank goodness for no friendly fire). (10/08/02 00:04)

Name
10/07/27 01:15(open)10/07/27 01:59(1479)
I was busy this weekend >.>a Nif was on vacation so I glomped onto anyone I could find to keep me entertained while he was gone D: Resh dragged me to a lot of Campaigns. That was a mixed bag. On one paw, I really enjoyed myself, which is the most important point. On the other I went on RNG 'cause people continue to be asses about hiding mobs 'cause SE are lazy asses about addressing that issue :D Really, the biggest thing that vexes me about RNG in Campaign is that at most I only make 2/3rd the points of anyone else due to the nature of the job (get hit a handful of times and you die) and the natural inclination to "play it right" and stay back >.>; Then there's the whole ammo issue. I don't begrudge that. If the ammo costs bothered me then I'm playing the wrong job :P But I have blown through 50 quivers of ammo just to get to mid-78 via Campaign/Besieged/Abyssea.

So I spent a good chunk of Saturday making cheap ammo >.>; I have a ton of Venom Boltheads leftover from skilling Alchemy and I don't especially care if I poison a mob in Campaign or Besieged. That was a lot of cheap ammo. Plus I tossed together the odds and ends I've Scavanged up during Campaign. I ended up with 72 quivers. Maybe I'll get to 80 before I have to stop and make ammo again :D

With 78 I got Numbing Shot. First off, I want to note that Wiki (at the moment) is incorrect: It's skill 290 to get it just like the Archery skill >.>; Secondly, I somehow made Fusion with it. That's all I can tell you about it's SC properties. I haven't played with it much (why would I?), but so far it's missed more than it's hit >.>; If I want that frustration I might as well fire off Slug Shots, which hit more often than they miss :E Even when I stand next to the mob and club it with my xbow I somehow still magically miss. The MNK in me is ashamed .-.

More lessons from Campaign! For the PLD who was WTFing at how I was pulling hate against a Void (Elemental). Protip: When fighting an Elemental you'll do more damage and get more hate if your attack is magic based (or not physical damage based Mr. Vorpal Blade). In the case of a MNK, Formless Strikes is your friend. For myself on RNG, I was firing off Trueflights for consistent 300+dmg (yay, a use for that WS >.>; ) For a PLD, whip out ye olde Spirits Within, or, if you have it, Atonement. Then the RNGs won't humiliate you :E

I WHM'ed in Dynamis-Bubu on Saturday. Both Resh and Klai got splattered at least once due to my inexperience in that zone >.o; I just couldn't see them from the cliff. I asked Nif about it today and he said, yeah, the ramp is a good place to scoot over to so you don't lose sight of the folks you need to cure >.> Live and learn, I guess (except for Resh and Klai, sorry D: ) Um, we did Snails, and they made me curl up in the fetal position, but we got through them >.>; Even with Esuna they're no fun. SE can kiss my ass. Divine Bension doesn't apply to Esuna or Sacrifice, which makes it less than useful to me (yay, thanks for screwing up the simple, yet again...) [Tries to contain inner WHM rage] Even with Divine Bension being worthless, I had Celerity to curb the recast some, though it wasn't nearly enough. Despite wanting to beat a dev in the head the entire time we were killing Snails, we still managed to clear them out and no one in my party died. (I had a lot of back up healing help, especially from Resh and Yosa.) We didn't get any PLD capes :<

The other big project I've been working on is retiring Dirtnap. Don't really need his services anymore, especially now that you can sleepwalk your way through CoP, thus no need for capped armor, meds, etc. Congrats, SE, you continue to make decisions that cost you money (and here I thought the whole selling of Satchels was your crowning achievement in profit-over-time loss...) I might work on retiring Aisierra next month, but it might take a bit more time to get the stuff on her sorted out. The biggest bottleneck is the AH and selling off gear. All AH sales seem volatile right now.

The *other* thing I did this weekend was play more P3P. No, I haven't finished Seeker of the Deep yet, even though I keep talking about it >.> I figure that'd only take me an hour or two once I finally sit down to do it, so I'm not in a rush. I'm into July (pre-beach trip) in P3P. I've already picked up the 4th old document and completed most of this month's new quests that Theo offered >.>;

I also picked up Gears of War 1 & 2. GoW1 I found the Game of the Year edition with the bonus map disc for $4 >.>; GoW2 GotY edition was like $20 new, but eh, if I hate them I'll send Resh hate mail :E I'm really exceptionally bad at shooting games (go figure). Nif told me I can run over stuff in a tank. That encouraged me, except I'm really exceptionally bad at vehicle games too >.>; I'm hopeful Bean+Tank > anything I need to eliminate. Or that you can turn off friendly fire. Trust me, I've mauled Yosa many times in TMNT arcade and Castle Crashers >.> I'm not sure it's safe to play co-op with me......
Cydori > Waht kinds of stuff are you selling off? I might be interested in purchasing some things for future levelling. (You can just send an e-mail to cydori at gmail if you want rather than list it all out here.) (10/07/27 08:50)
Pisces > After getting war to 75, I started to hate Campaigning on WHM. WAR > WHM in terms of exp. About the only good thing was WHM gets the Reraise spell and WAR doesn't. (10/07/27 12:26)
Guppy > ...and I find that WHM is far preferable to BLM in Campaign. Good thing Abyssea XP groups need magic damage~! (10/07/28 09:19)
Klaital > I usually get in trouble for staying too far away from the cliff. I really do try to be mindful of where my mages are >< oh well, we won, and with only minimal death (10/07/29 11:31)

Name
10/07/17 08:02(open)10/07/17 15:09(1478)
FFXI: The AH has finally stopped peeing in my Wheaties, at least for one day. I've been camping several items and managed to pick them all up for a price I was willing to pay >.>v I got 2 Shell V scrolls for 30k each, Aisha: Ichi for 20k, ugly pink hat for 30k, matching ugly pink brais for 30k (I'm not sure I actually need these, but I have 3 jobs who could potentially use them), Perle footies for 35k, and Alky Bracelets for 400k. The Bracelets weren't really a *need* either, but I was kinda tweaked that I saved up a lot of gil for the update and then didn't spend any of it except on consumables >.>; Thew Bomblet is down to 1.4mil, which makes me :Q, but I'm gonna wait on buying one until I can actually equip it. At the rate I'm exping, it might be a few hundred thousand by then >.>;

[drags out soapbox]

Fellow RNG, I'm going to scream bloody murder if I see even one more of you wearing full Aurore armor. Did your Moogle dress you this morning? Have you even looked at the stats? Do you know what stats help RNG? Have you looked at your *AF* stats, for that matter? In short, what in the hell is wrong with you? Let's take this slot by slot.

Head: Aurore Beret: DEX+4, AGI+4, Haste+4%, Enhances Snapshot.
This is the best piece of the set for *RNG* IMO. Though, it's mostly due to Snapshot and that's available on three other head pieces (Anwig augment, Ebon Visor and Zha'Gho's Barbut). In the case of the Anwig there are other augments I'd recommend over Snapshot, oddly enough. So that leaves Ebon and Zha'Gho, and to be fair that's not as easy as moseying over to the AH and slapping down some gil. Hey waitaminute... More seriously, though, this is an okay piece for TP building due to the Snapshot, though the very same argument could be made for Hunter's Beret and it's Enhanced Rapid Shot ^^; If you're looking for a WS piece (looking at the AGI), I'd tell you to go with Anwig or Wyvern Helm instead. Haste and DEX are non-starters for RNG unless you're being a Kraken/M.Kris TP feeder. If that's the case, use a blasted Walahra Turban :E

Body: Aurore Doublet: STR+4, DEX+4, AGI+4, Acc+8, Racc+8, Eva+8, Double Attack+2%
Why on God's green earth are you subjecting our eyeballs to this for *these* stats? Not to sound elitist, but you can do better than this with even a little work (like getting your AF out of the coffer...) You can do *a lot* better than this with a bit more work than that. Let's take this stat by stat...

If you did ACP you'd get a body piece with STR, DEX, and AGI+5 before any augmenting. Though, with how prices have come down and the joke's on Kirin with the level cap going up, I'll go ahead and encourage you RNG out there not to settle for anything less than +10 for a WS piece. Even if that's outside your means, as I just pointed out ACP hands out +5 just for showing up, and RNG has a huge advantage in ACP. If you're a RNG you've prolly done the final fight at least a dozen times by now >.>; Trust me, just open up Wiki and look at body armors RNG can wear. You can do better.

My next bone to pick would be with the Acc and Racc. I have two points to make about this. The first is a not so gentle reminder that RNG gets Accuracy Bonus IV. That's +48 Acc / Racc. In other words, when doing your Racc load out you should keep in mind not to over Racc :x It caps at 95% and RNG gets a silly amount of cheap Racc gear. The other point I'd like to make is that if you got your AF out of the coffer you'd notice it has Racc+10 on it. And it's stylist IMO. There are a lot of Acc / Racc options on this slot including but not limited to: Pahluwan body, Kyudogi, and Mirke if you got those augments. In other words, stop blinding us FFS.

Evasion+8, unless you have a Kyudogi+1, this is the most Evasion on this slot. Though I'd also point out that you're a RNG, FFS. You have E evasion skill and the DEF of a wet paperbag. And Kyudogi has Evasion+7 >.> And looks sexier.

Double Attack+2%, unless you are one of the aforementioned Kraken/M.Kris RNGs, this stat shouldn't even enter the picture. It might be helpful when skilling up Axe or Dagger, but my eyes won't thank you D:

So, since I'm being an opinionated SOB, what would I recommend for this slot? It actually lends itself very well to macroing. I'd get the aforementioned Mirke with Snapshot and either Ratk or Racc as the second augment. That should be your TP building piece. Again, you could insert Scout's Jerkin here for the Rapid Shot bonus and make much the same justification as you could for Snapshot. Not that Snapshot and Rapid Shot are the same thing. (I'd rather have Snapshot personally.) But I'm trying to be equal opportunity delay/recast reduction here >.>; I'm usually carrying an Racc+10 body piece on me just in case (there are several, as I mentioned). I'd also recommend as WS body piece with emphasis on either AGI or STR. Preferably both. Thankfully, again, there are already several options.

Hands: Aurore Gloves: STR+4, AGI+4, Haste+2%
I suppose these are okay as a WS piece if you have access to absolutely nothing else. But let's pretend for a moment that Suzaku and Seiryu were like Kirin and missed the increase level cap memo >.> Scout's Bracers have AGI+5. Barbarossa's Moufles have Racc / Ratk +7, but dammit, everything I've listed is Rare/EX. What can you pick up off the AH? There's Deadeye Gloves for Racc+6. Sadly, this slot is a bit weaker in buyables, but totally worth the effort for Rare/EX. Just don't wear your AF gloves full time >.>; And get the +1 if you can for Enhanced Barrage :E

Legs: Aurore Brais: Acc+9, Racc+9, Haste+3%
This is another "It's okay, I guess" slot. RNG can get Racc +10 from Dusk, or Racc+7 from Scout's Braccae. If you desperately need Racc on the leg slot, this is a good place to get it. Buuuuuut, there are other, better, things you can get on the leg slot >.>; Desultor is a so-so starting point with AGI+2, but the augments are where it's at. You can pick up more Ratk or (even better) Barrage+1.

[brief off topic] Since Barrage is 6 projectiles @75. You can bounce that up to 8 with this augment and the Hunter's Bracers+1. Keep in mind that in any Barrage, if it doesn't tick you off and outright miss, you can fairly expect to lose 2 hits of it at any given time. With 8 potential hits and a 5-hit build you can do some RNG Meditate :3

The leg (and foot) slots with the use of Cobra / Enkidu's Subligar and footies, is where a lion's share of the Store TP will come from for a 5-hit build. But, Beanie, if I'm gonna talk Store TP, why not wear the entire Aurore set? Two reasons: 1, It's not enough (well, it is for Store TP since you need 8 if you're using the Store TP strap, Rajas, and /SAM, but go to point 2). 2, You're making some very hefty sacrifices in terms of STR, AGI, and Ratk to make that happen. What good is a 5-hit build if you hit like a kitten? In most situations, IMO, RNG has a greater need for fleshing out Ratk / STR than Racc / AGI. That's over-simplifying since AGI is a WS modifier, but there are much better places to dig up Store TP for a 5-hit build that won't gut your damage.[/off topic]

Anyhow, there are plenty of nice non-Racc leg options. A lot of RNG seem to like the Scout's Braccae, though I have yet to figure out why >.>; Pahluwan would give you STR+3, Acc+4, Racc+4 and would make a nice general / WS piece. (I use Barbarossa's Zerehs for that due to the STR+4, but that's not exactly reasonable.) Also on the unreasonable, but nice, list are Hachiryu Haidate for STR+10. Denali pants are AGI+3 and have Acc, Racc, Eva +3. If you were limited to AH only I'd tell you to look at War Brais (AGI+4/5), or reaching back to level 55 and look at the Salvars for the Racc, Ratk, Eva (+3/4). The really nice stuff does require effort, but it makes me die a little on the inside to devote this slot to Racc unless it's absolutely necessary.

Feet: Aurore Gaiters: DEX+5, Evasion+5, Haste+2%
Okay, this is the slot that makes me rage the most. Go look at your Hunter's Socks. Yes, I'm serious. Look familiar? Only with AGI (which is useful to RNG) instead of DEX and Haste (which aren't). Mmmmkay. Unless you're going for a Haste build to skill a melee weapon don't wear these freaking gaiters or I'll slap you, fool >:o This is your AF, only pink. PINK! /froths You people are killing me Dx

Now that I have that off my chest, AF is hardly the best piece for the slot. Beg your way into a Dynamis shell if you must, but get a pair of Scout's Socks. If that's unreasonable you can get some Gules Leggings off the AH. They're Ratk +8/9, Eva+5/6, Store TP+3/4, but Racc -5/6. As I've emphasized, that shouldn't be much of a deterrent considering all you're getting in return. Lithe boots have AGI+6 on them. Hachiryu have AGI+10, Eva+5, and I've seen them in bazaars for prices even I could afford (much like an Osode, floating between 1-2mil).

If you're a Mithra or Taru, go dig out your RSE 1 feet and use those. The STR on them is an upgrade for WS, trust me. I freely admit WTFing at Mithra RNG who get all excited at Rutter Sabotons (STR+3) at 67 when our RSE feet give us STR+3 at 29. Yes, Mithra get a really nice STR boost on that slot at 29. Don't knock it just because it's low level. If you're a Taru, Hume, or Elvaan look at your RSE 2 feet. Galka get no love here.

In a nutshell, I could go blue in the face pointing out all the *better* options for footwear on this slot. That's because Aurore Gaiters for RNG is such poop D: I didn't even point out Leaping / Bounding or anything dropped from Zilart this time! >.>

[/soapbox]

P3P: Wow, it's not the meat of the post this time >.>; I'm like a few days from getting Fuuka. I'm skilled at spoiling S.Links. Both Junpei and Rio are >:| at me right now =.= Just because I told Rio to grow a spine and Junpei to get his hand off my leg. Okay, not really, but that's what I was thinking >.>
Anoat > I wouldn't bother dropping any money on a Thew Bomblet, as the NM that drops it is pretty easy stuff for a group of 6-8 folks to handle, and his pop item is a very common drop from the nearby mandies. You'll definitely want to bring some TH4 action for the NM if you can, though. The first night we went out to kill it, our THF disconnected and we went 1/9 on drops :( Went back the other night with TH4 and we went 6/10 iirc. (10/07/20 10:56)
Beanie > If my tail actually went to Abyssea once in a while your advice might be reasonable. As it is, every Abyssea group I've looked at convienent meets while west coast folks are at work. Isn't that a kick in the shorts? And the Thew is down to under 800k last I looked. I suspect it'll continue to sink like a rock and I can pick one up at a later date. (10/07/27 02:13)

Name
10/07/16 00:59(open)10/07/16 01:14(1477)
FFXI: Um, I Besieged >.>a Yes, I know that's stunning and completely unexpected. I might get my axe recapped at some point, but I kinda doubt it :x Nif, Yosa, and I helped Val with a couple of the Shantotto in Chains quest/mission. RNG is such a one trick pony for that quest, IMO, compared to, like SAM/RNG >.>; RNG is great for Steely Weapon and that's it. A SAM can do that and Fired Urn, and the piercing NM in Zi'tah, and the blunt one with a club if push comes to shove (though Nif on WHM destroys that much faster than I would.)

Nif and I tried to work on his Mystic Boon before Pirates but kinda failed D: Note to self: Breaking Latents on Shades is about as productive as trying to break them on Colibri or a strip-ga happy Lamia / Merrow >.>; We'll get it done, just need to be a bit smarter next time and motivated. Motivation is the hard part...

P3P: I'm an idiot. I hadn't made it to June yet, I was still in May ^^; I'm in June now, though >.> I ended up in the top 10 during mid-terms. And doesn't it just figure I'd get Above Average Academics the day after mid-terms were over >.>;

I got to the second barrier before Aikhiko joined the party. Yeah, I'm impatient, but this isn't especially hard, as I noted :x The biggest problem I've had is with stalking the Treasure Hands and defeating them before they run. My inner cat isn't doing too well here >.>
Name
10/07/15 01:28(open)10/07/15 01:45(1476)
FFXI: I did Besieged and I'm like @12k to getting *a* job to 77 (RNG). Woot, go me >.>;

LO - Seeker of the Deep: I'm really trying to behave myself on this and not zerg it. Limiting myself to 5 floors a night (there are 25 + boss at the bottom). I've gotten to floor 10 and just mowing. The largest speed bump I've encountered so far are call Phoenix. They have like 95% counter rate with a 100% magic evade rate. Very annoying to try to kill them, even though they have almost no HP. I haven't figured out the trick of it yet other than to just keep swinging and sooner or later they'll fail the counter-attack check. When that happens I smack it in one hit >.>;

Still nothing is really hurting me with the skills I have set. Winners include: Absorb Guard, Counter Guard, Auto HP Recovery, Auto MP Recovery, Relax, and whatever the Defend=HP restore skill is that's escaping me at the moment. In a nutshell, if anything does manage to chip my HP, I get it all back the following round >.>; Have I mentioned how silly powerful you become by the end of Lost Odyssey?

P3P: My progress in this game has been limited as well. Pretty much I play until my battery goes dry, then I go to bed. Since I have a PSP-1000 that means I play for like 2 hours a night >.>; Yeah, it's paced, but I feel rested the next morning!

I just started June (did the full moon event). "DON'T look up!" isn't nearly as funny without Yukari motioning angrily at Junpei :(

So far my impression of them gluing a Staples "Easy Button" to P3 seems to be holding true. Academics increases *much* faster. In like 1/4th the time it seems like >.>; Also watching Tanaka on Sunday doesn't consume time anymore. That's a good change. No longer have to look up ahead of time (or reset) to see what his items are before deciding if you wanted to consume valuable Sunday time with mail-order shopping >.>; Characters don't tire nearly as quickly when in Tartarus. I got to the barrier on floor 16 in two trips during May. And one of those trips was mostly to do Theo (Elizabeth) quests and level >.>; I'm doing pretty well at opening up S.Links, though none of them are very advanced. I figure I can work on the development part once I have 'em >.>; Though with how eas(ier) time management is in this game, I'm not sure I'll have any problem maxing most, if not all, S.Links in one pass :E
Name
10/07/13 00:09(open)10/07/13 00:23(1475)
In FFXI I spent the weekend shooting stuff in the face (and butt) with arrows. That's always enjoyable. RNG will prolly be my first job to 77 at this rate >.> Anyhow.......

XBL is having a sale on DLC. Nif has a list of it up on the FI forums, but I burned through the odd points I had laying around (a lot of add on stuff for $1 >.>v ). I picked up "Seeker of the Deep" for Lost Odyssey, some dungeon and other thingy for Blue Dragon, found that Tales of Vesperia and Infinite Undiscovery had some free downloads already. Boy am I glad I have a 120G HD >.>; There was something for ME1 too, for everyone else on the planet, but me, who plays that game.

I started Seeker of the Deep. My first reaction was WTF. Not at SotD, mind you, but at the fact that Kaim was level 90. I totally don't remember doing that, but it's possible o.o Or it might be the cats' fault. For all I know they're playing 360 while I'm at work earning the kibble ;;~

I made myself stop at floor 5. I'm trying not to zerg it >.> Enjoy my $1 worth of expansion! But I'm stomping all over it so far, yeah. I'm level-freaking-90 and I have all spells / skills / your mom already >.> Actually this is giving me the itch to replay the game now that I have an HDTV and can read the menus and dialogue. I mustn't. I have other games to demolish even though LO was really, REALLY good ;;~

Also, WTF@85 hours of playtime. The cats have definitely been playing while I've been working. Damn felines...
Name
10/07/09 00:23(open)10/07/09 01:20(1474)
I've, uh, done nothing interesting in FFXI since my last post >.>; So let's skip over that and get to the meat of this post!

I picked up Persona 3 for the PSP. I have some real mixed feeling about it that I'm still trying to sort out. The only thing I've really decided is that between Persona 3, FES, and P3P, this is my least favorite version of the game. That's not to say it's a bad game; the source material is amazing. I'm just not sure I like how this version is presented.

I've been trying to pin down the source of my nagging repulsion, especially since there are so many things in this version that I adore. I love how they incorporated so many of the "small" improvements from P4. High points for me include direct command of all party members, being able to manage them from the Main's menu, the square button being a map shortcut, exploring progress being 'saved' based on floor reached instead of hitting a check point, and being able to pay Yen to restore HP/SP in the lobby. The list is long and makes one hell of a run on sentence >.>v I started both a Male and Female Main file, though I'm mostly playing Female. I don't think I'm far enough along to appreciate all of the "different perspective" that Female offers, but I'm intrigued. I joined the Tennis Club (instead of, say, Kendo). So far it seems like half of the music was changed and mostly removed the "rappish" pieces for more "j-pop". P3 just doesn't seem the same without Burning My Dread :|a

So, in short, there's a lot I like about this game, so why am I still feeling :/ about it? The nearest I can pin it down... I'm not sure I can explain this well... But realize I jumped into the Persona series with Revelations on PSX. I've played both Eternal Punishment and Innocent Sin (that was slow and plodding with my x.x understanding of Japanese.) One aspect that all of these games have in common are character interactions. As in... They're more than just a piece of dialogue being rattled off. You enter a room and you might witness a scene. The character fighting it out or just standing around. In P3 (meaning PS2 version, I'll call the PSP one P3P for clarity's sake.) This type of interaction, of setting the scene, was taken to a new level. For example, when you enter the lobby of the dorms you'll find your friends hanging out *doing* things. Each character has like 4 different action they might be emoting, ranging from eating something, lounging while reading a book, playing a hand held, etc. It was a charming and novel way to give your friends some personality rather than just gather all your characters in a room and have them hanging out in a static position.

In Persona, P2, P3, and P4, having your characters emoting and playing out the scenes did as much for telling the story as the dialogue. An early example of this in P3 would be when Junpei moves in. Aikhiko says a new guy is moving in and then Junpei comes into the lobby with his luggage in tow. Yukari is dismayed with sweat drops and all. It's a minor interaction, but the scene it played out for you.

In P3P the same scene is done entirely with sound effects and dialogue on top of a static wallpaper background. In fact, everything was changed to a "point and click" format when moving around (except in dungeons). I realize full well that such detailed emotes as characters eating wouldn't be reasonable to animate on the PSP, but they went full-bore in the completely opposite direction. Scenes are no longer acted out. It's just dialogue. It's not nearly as fulfilling when you've seen these scenes played out. In fact, I'm somewhat dreading the summer break trip. I don't imagine that (very humorous and plot advancing) adventure ported well at all :/

I probably wouldn't be feeling this so keenly if I didn't have a long history with Persona games, hadn't played P3 / FES a half zillion times, and was completely unaware of "could have been"s. I mean, if you've never seen the interactions played out, would you miss them if P3P was your first experience with Persona 3? I doubt it, especially since it's a solid game otherwise. It just leaves me feeling, on a personal level, like there's a gap in it; there's something *missing*.

Anyhow, would I recommend P3P to others? Well, there'd be a lot of strings attached to the recommendation... If the person had access to a PS2, I'd very highly recommend they go straight to the source instead. Get Persona 3 or FES. Buuuuut, if the person isn't really good at / keen on RPGs, then I might tell them to get P3P instead. There's a super easy Beginner difficulty and all of the P4-esque improvements eliminate potential system-related frustrations that P3 / FES might present (especially FES and it's lack of check points / save points with relation to boss battles).

In short I'd say P3P is the 'sanitized' version of P3 in terms of artificial system-related challenges. It also seems to be cleaned up in terms of creepiness. For an example, I'd offer up Thanatos' unexpected invocation early in the game. In P3 the scene is animated and Thanatos starts messily chowing down on an enemy. In P3P it's rendered and you can't really tell that the 'armor' around him are coffin lids. He does go down on the enemy and you could construe that he was munching. There's a bit of red around the mouth, but it's much tamer. Not as gritty or alarming. Scenes like this that were unnerving have been tamed or reduced to dialogue >.>;

So yeah, I need to finish the Female game. And play more Bayonetta and beat Nif's gamer score :E
Nimbex > The lack of FES makes me concerned about playing P3 on PSP. (10/07/09 17:13)
Nimbex > I've never played any Persona, but I have around P1 PSX, P1 PSP, P3 PSP, P3-no-FES, P3-FES, P4. I'm always concerned when there are multiple platforms for games. Disgaea, I haven't played because of Platform Paralysis. I've had similar issues for ALL BIOWARE GAMES. I do appreciate your discussions on the subject very much. (10/07/09 17:19)
Beanie > With how much they added / changed with the Female story I'm not sure FES would've fit. I was a bit put off by that as well, but have gotten over it. The Female story is like a third version of the game. For the completionist / Persona lover in me I want to see all the stories, but yeah, it can be numbing when you look at how much there is... (And go play P4. Best thing since slice bread on PS2.) (10/07/13 00:32)
Nayami > I bought P3P recently and it totally reminded me of you. :D I just started it so I guess I'm not too far in to have an opinion. I did finish P4 lately and wow, that was an amazing game. D: ... When do we get P5 on PS3? I just had to thank you for bringing up this game series, otherwise I don't think I would have went through the trouble of hunting down a copy of P4 and I would have totally missed out. o,o And now I feel like a creepy stalker for randomly dropping by like this. HI. D: (10/07/14 06:18)
Beanie > Hi! Many nights I think you and Ren had the right idea. Quezzy and I haven't always gotten along and FFXI has become IRC I pay $13 a month for. || P4 is such an outstanding game. I even got Nif to play it :o Looking forward to P5, though I dunno what console it'll be on. Last I heard they were just starting development on it (I'm really hoping it's on multi-console since I don't have a PS3, haha, but Altus doesn't usually roll that way.) I can hope! Since P5 is a lot more compelling arguement for me to buy a PS3 than FFXIV is :| (10/07/15 01:26)
Nayami > Whenever I read the updates for XI, it makes me glad that I quit, haha. D: I think they're just trying to get people to move on to XIV or something... they completely killed CoP. ;;; Oh well, at least it's a fancy iRC! Haha, Ren doesn't have a PS2 but I sent him a bunch of pictures and music from the game (and kept telling him about it 8D;;). We both agree that Rise's dungeon has the best BGM. Seriously, someone came to check what the heck I was doing when I played through it. Gotta love that questionnable music. 8Db P5 would make the PS3 worth it... and also The Last Guardian. Two good reasons! I actually got my PS3 for XIII. I'm not sure if I'll give XIV a spin. Knowing me, I'll probably end up checking it out once it comes out. 6_6; (10/07/16 19:53)
Nayami > Ironically enough, not long I posted this about XIV, I received an email from SE saying I was accepted as a beta tester for XIV. :| Haha. (10/07/17 10:25)

Name
10/07/05 01:34(open)10/07/05 02:12(1473)
Howitzer went to Xarc on Saturday. We only had ~15 folks, but we did remarkably well considering that we're used to running with more people. The zone treated us very generously. We got PLD, BLM, DRG, MNK, BRD, and BST o.ob I got flattened a lot, but that was my own fault. It's been *ages* since I've DDed in Xarc and I was in a rawr smash sorta mood D: The Kindred took advantage of my feisty-ness and got in a few cheap shots b'sides legit kills >.>; I don't think they liked my Warding Circle very much >:3

Sunday tasted like victory! Our Assault / Nyzul static only had 3 Assaults left for Captain's rank. We were doing The Price Is Right first since that one was likely to be the most troublesome, but we walked all over it o.o We had complete control of the fight the entire time. In fact, it started off *too* slow if anything. We weren't feeding King fartface enough TP to get him to do Hellsnap to summon a weapon to him. We shifted strategy and had Northy Joytoying and Resh Soboroing him while I waited in the hall to intercept incoming weapons. When Hellsnap happened, Resh ran back to me and we killed the weapon before he ran back to Northy to feed TP again. It was kind of surreal o.o; Once the weapons were down, our support line of Drax, Nif, and Yosa were aces at keeping Northy, Resh, and me upright so we could stick it to King fartface. It was great :D

After that Assault we had to do Demolition Duty and Waking the Puppet. Neither of them were high on my list of "fun", but we got them done easily. Yosa was kind enough to take control of the Automatons in both Assaults while the rest of cleared the way for him. Nif picked up an Automaton during Waking the Puppet and it stopped to emote at him. I'll admit I laughed while this Automaton was doing something, I think cheering or being happy or something, at Nif and Nif was fuming at it. It was a hilarious mental image since the Automatons are taller than Nif is >.>; Sorry.

I finished Bayonetta this morning, though it's one of those games that's meant to be replayed to unlock everything (I already started another play through). Nif wtf'ed at me since I finished it in 2 days, but it was only a 10 hour game >.> and it's a holiday weekend! But now that I've finished it, I can give some more informed impressions.

First and foremost I was surprised. I play a lot of button mashers, but Bayonetta has an incredible amount of variety in the game play. There's a motorcycle level (that gets sorta revised at the end), a shooter level a la Rez, you have to shoot down a boss with a turret, and there's even a Duck Hunt-esque mini-game. In short, the button mashing in the demo is only a fraction of the game play. There's also a good amount of jumping around and some mild puzzle action (nothing that'll strain your brain too hard, but it is there.) In short, this isn't Double Dragon or The Bouncer >.>;

The other thing that surprised me is that it actually has a story that isn't completely frivolous fluff like the demo might lead you to believe. Now, admittedly, you're not actually going to run into the story until Chapter 6 or so, but once you do it's engaging. Mostly I was pleased that it didn't boil down to "Blah blah, I'm chaotic and fighting angels for giggles." I was ready and waiting for that, but it went a bit deeper. The story got a bit weird / unraveled at the end, but no worse than what FFXIII did >.> In fact, I'd say it maintained coherence a lot better.

In terms of controls, they're pretty tight. My only quibble is that I wish the camera spun a bit faster when you rotate it. I died a couple times 'cause I couldn't get the angle I wanted fast enough. That's the other thing about the game play: You'll get used to playing at odd angles. During certain times, Bayonetta can walk on walls and that creates some interesting jumping puzzles, lemme tell ya o.o;

Learning more about the game: there seems to be a vast difference between the PS3 and 360 versions. The 360 version played smooth as silk (I always install whatever I'm currently playing to the HD.) I only had the game slow down oh so briefly *once*. Load times weren't horrible between stages, but when it was loading you could practice Bayonetta's moves. The PS3 version, on the other hand, has horrible load times. To the point that there's a disclaimer on the box that Platinum Hits didn't do the port ('cause it was *that* bad.) So if you have the option, get the 360 version definitely o.o;

I managed five paragraphs without mentioning the fact that Bayonetta gets down on it's knees and worships at the alter of fanservice. Well, yes, yes it does. But I would like to make it clear that once you brush past the fanservice layer it's an entertaining game. It's pretty clear while playing it that the devs had fun while making it. There's off bits of humor and sly references to other things. I'd definitely recommend Bayonetta for a rental if you like the genre at all.
Merton > Congrats on Captain if I'm reading that right. Hurray free Runic Portal! (10/07/09 01:51)

Name
10/07/01 23:11(open)10/07/01 23:35(1472)
Happy Canada Day! See? I'm not an insensitive American prick who always forgets our neighbors to the north. Okay, maybe I am, but at least my cat calendar is good enough to have holidays listed on it >.>b

FFXI life is still puttering. We got Cyd caught up on Windy line prep and Cyd and Yosa caught up on Sandy line stuff. There was a patch today. I lol'ed at it .-. I find it hilarious that for (however briefly) monsters had Fencer, but RDM don't get it. Way to keep poking jobs in the eye that you've already beaten down with a stick, SE >.>;

On a happier note, I've been practicing 360 ADD. Here are the recent games that've caught my attention:

Chime: A musical puzzle game on XBLA that's on sale this week, btw. Regular price is only $5 though >.> Worth every penny, it's a very relaxing game. The goal is to cover the area of a field with puzzle pieces. I've simplified it a lot, but once you get the hang of it, it's very addicting.

MiniNinjas: It's cute and it has ninjas. This game definitely falls in the same category as Kung Fu Panda. Perfect for children or adults who are as easily amused as a children. *cough*

Ninety-Nine Nights N3: It's rare when I feel that I was robbed when I bought a used game for $10, but that's definitely the case here >.>; I've written a lot about it in my Dynasty Warrior's fangirling thread on the FI forums. In a nutshell this game cheats like a whore and is buggy as hell (at least my copy of it is...) I downloaded the N3 II demo and there isn't enough there to know if it was actually debugged or not, but the 'cheat like a whore' aspect was left intact. (For me to even gripe about this says a lot considering what a huge fan I am of the genre and am used to being thumped for being under-leveled / bad approach / etc.)

Star Ocean 4: Discussed this one previously, but I keep floating back to it >.>

Bayonetta: I played the demo of this one and was amused and o.O;ed at the same time. A lot like Devil May Cry (not surprising considering the team who made it) with a greater emphasis on cinematic stylishness. I know, after DMC you may be wondering "Um.. how?" but they managed it. I also wouldn't let anyone under the age of 17 near this game. While I often shrug off ESRB, this one fully earned it's M rating.

Persona 3 PSP comes out July 6th. The fangirl in me can't wait :E
Pisces > Aslann borrowed the 1st Ninety-Nine Nights a year or two ago. He was 'meh' about it. It reminded him of a movie more than a game. I just remember it for the flashy graphics and the first character. If the first character was a real person, I'd probably hate her. As a game character, she was just annoying and her voice grated on my eardrums. (10/07/02 09:42)

Name
10/06/28 03:11(open)10/06/28 04:06(1471)
I know, my posts have become nearly non-existent now. This was probably the most busy and the most fun I've had in FFXI in easily weeks if not months. That's not to say that I haven't had fun with my Nyzul/Assault group. That's really the high point of the week for me and I'm so very proud of the progress we've made and the challenges we've met. I keep missing Dynamis lately, mostly due to a disagreeable work schedule :/

This weekend I finally sank my teeth into the new content from Monday. I've posted a lot of my thoughts on specific aspects on the FI forums. They range from ranting to not giving a rats ass. It's really a mixed bag for me >.>;

Nif and I did a lot of the prep work for the last set of WotG national quests. Let me start with Bastok since it'll be brief: We didn't get squat done and it's a bit more than a duo can easily handle. On the plus side, we found some nice Imps in Baileys to jump and I'd like to state for the record that I *was not* the one doing the jumping! Nif was out for Imp blood and what choice did I have but follow his lead? /innocent.

Windurst: We duo'ed that one on NIN/THF and WHM. When we went to farm the 3 keys each the mission requires, the outside of Castle Oz was picked clean of Yagudo and the interior had 30-40 people at a non-Campaign time >.>; Regardless, still plenty of mobs to kill. It took us about an hour to get 9 keys to drop and the farming did nice things for solidifying a buffer for 76. Popping the cells on the second level was exciting >.o; Much in the same way that being chased across Mire by a Qutrub is exciting. You *might* get to the door in time to zone out, but not likely. Yeah :x We got all our cutscenes and Nif died twice. I died once (Mijin) so it doesn't really count.

Yosa, Dem, Klai, and I went back on Sunday to get their keys. Klai was on THF so keys rained freely. The upper areas continued to be exciting, but hey, we got some Gnat Pellets! And hot death >.>; Curse the Yagudo >:| At least that's done ^^; We just need to kidnap Cyd now >.>b

Sandy: After the overall awesomeness of Bastok and Windurst, it's hard not to feel that SE just kinda gave up on Sandy and said "Eh, whatever." The last quests are a lot of running back and forth across Xarc_S. If you need to do it, I'd highly encourage going during peak XPing times. When Nif and I went you were hard pressed to find an unclaimed mob that wasn't a dragon or a NM >.>; Made dodging Imps (due to their extinction) very simple!

Sandy has two "fights". I put the word in quotes since both of them are cure bombs. Nif and I did the first one and spent the entire time competing for the larger Cure V (it was Light Day, which made it interesting). Taru won overall, but only 'cause of his HQ Nobles and Light Obi >.>; I DS+Cure V'ed once, but he said that didn't count ;; Anyhow, the very last Sandy fight, cure bomb, yeah. Nif and I didn't do it. We figured folks wouldn't be amused ^^; Plus why tie up inventory with a lvl80 ring long before we can use it?

Nif said something that absolutely tickled me (well, he does that often). We'd both gotten pixie bottles while farming the keys in Castle Oz. I told him we should go release them. He said we shouldn't because of pixie breeding in the past that has upset the delicate Valkrum eco-system in the present. What are the crabs going to eat if pixies are curing the newbs? I couldn't help it. I lol'ed >.> Then we set our pixies free :E Damn the Valkrum eco-system!

[drags over soapbox]

Now, for this Abyssea thing. Yes I got my cute little stone and jumped in the maw and immediately wtf'ed. If anyone asks my opinion I'm recommending they save their money for now for a few reasons. (Which, I must admit became clearer after arguing with someone who makes a habit of arguing for arguing's sake.)

First I'd like to state firmly that it'd incorrect to compare Abyssea to Dynamis. That's not comparing an apple to an orange. It's comparing an apple to a rock. If you want a better comparison. Think of it as Limbus, Nyzul, or MMM. You only get 30 minutes in zone and you can stack up your stones to give yourself a whole 1h30m in zone every 3 days. You can spend the local currency to extend this time limit, but understand you're under a restriction.

This is where my first frustration comes in. You enter this zone with many NPCs with *quests* to flag and you only get 30 minutes (or 1h30m if you stacked up). Are you shitting me? I thought I paid for content I could actually enjoy and explore. I'm handed a reskinned zone filled with mostly old mobs and a token handful of new ones and I'm supposed to be happy about this? I want to do the fscking quests. Not be kicked out when I've finally managed to run my way across the zone to go click a spot. In short, enter Abyssea with the mindset that it's like Limbus and you need to have a game plan because the clock's ticking.

Then thinking of it in terms of Limbus or Nyzul riled me. At least with those two examples (and MMM), I didn't have to pay extra for an expansion's endgame content. Maybe SE will add some endgame unique to WotG, but I kinda doubt it. So /welcome and please be depositing your $30 at the door (assuming you want it all.)

Which leads to the question, do you *need* it? The person I was arguing with went in such circles that he managed to argue it both ways. I was impressed to be quite honest o-o; I think the short answer is: Depend on what you expect of your character from here on out. Abyssea's currency bought items aren't rare/ex, so you can wait out someone selling them. But this is the first one. I wouldn't be stunned if the next 2 ones made it more compelling if you wanted to continue to advance your character. So at this point I'd put it in the same category MMM went in at launch: Wait out SE actually *fleshing* this out and then it might be worth your time. If you want to be on the bleeding edge, that's your choice, of course, but for such a restricted adventure I'm sure I can find other ways to spend my time. At least, hopefully?, Abyssea won't have MMM's problem of not being able to enter the zone due to it being too full!

But it was a disappointing way to end the weekend. I was hoping to explore these new zones rather than, um, get kicked out while running across La Theine >.>;

Also high on my disappointment list is Magian. I suppose it's okay if you don't mind stabbing a critter with 800 WS, but Nor has to do 1500 for her katana. Again, SE, are you *shitting* me? I mean, I hope FFXI is the polar opposite of your stated goal of making FFXIV more "casual friendly". If it has even a lick of the crap pulled in the last year you would have failed miserably. Just, y'know, pointing out the obvious >.>;
Sivara > Time limit = {Thanks for the offer, but I'll have to pass.} I was already leaning toward "no" and now I'm definitely not buying it. Two out of three of the mini-expansions already feel like a waste as it is. (10/06/28 11:06)
Elizara > What's worse with this mini that you may of forgot Beanie; It's required buy for a BLU if said blu wants all his/her spells. There's at least ONE spell if not more that comes from there. I haven't messed enough in there to judge it yet, however. (10/06/28 16:21)
Pisces > I have yet to purchase any of the mini-expansions. The first one I might do if only to tie up a loose end with the plot that started with the first FFXI trailer. But all the others? Just another way of SE trying to milk money. I think it's hilarious that the FFXI "Ultimate Collection" is no longer "ultimate". I'm at the point where I could just quit FFXI and not miss it. The social ls I had is dead, and I feel weird doing missions with my endgame ls. Most of the time I'm just duoing stuff with Aslann. Both of us are bored. (10/06/30 12:17)
Negata > That BLU spell is required for a Dual Wield Combo, just fyi~ (10/07/01 04:58)

Name
10/05/24 23:27(open)10/05/25 00:24(1470)
Well, what can I say, I called it. Today's teaser ( http://www.playonline.com/pcd/topics/ff11us/detail/5459/detail.html ) covered the CoP changes and it's much what Nif and I expected. Uncapped zones. Uncapped mission BCs. And mobs being adjusted "...the level and distribution of enemies in certain Promathia areas will also be adjusted to pose a worthy challenge to players level 75 and beyond." Which screams "Here's your new EXP zones." to me :x Hope you like Hippogryphs and Empties.

"Level restrictions imposed upon mission battlefields will also be lifted, making the Chains of Promathia missions more accessible than ever before. Adventurers who have yet to delve into the dark secrets of the Twilight God may now proceed with easier hearts!"

This made me lol IRL 'cause FI currently has two level 35ish members. While I'm sure we can now round out the party with 4 75s and do the missions for them it'll be unfun for them :D

"*No changes are being planned for the storyline or mission progression. Level restrictions will remain in effect for ENM quests." <-- Why bother? Many ENMs can already be soloed or shortmanned. See: Holy Cow, Test Your Mite, Pulling the Plug, Brothers, Sheep in Antlion's Clothing, you get the idea >.>;

You guys realize we're losing the Pso'Xja Goblin pet camp, right? I know, one little camp, but it was used a lot .-. Depending on what they do to the Cryptonberries you might have to scratch off the elemental camp too... I'm glad I got my BLMing out of the way, but plenty of guides will have to be rewritten D:

As I said earlier: Enjoy soloing CoP. Don't ask me to help. I won't. 'Cause you won't run into difficulty until potentially 8.3 and the infamous Pot fight. Then again, levels are going up to 80 so I'm sure with a few levels that'll be properly neutered too.

The only real question that's left is if SE will adjust any of the NMs in the formally capped zones. I'm guessing they won't bother. Though, it's worth chewing on the thought that while Swift Belts may now be soloable (they were already duoable), it might not be as easy to farm up Codex anymore. If mobs are going to be raised to EXP standards @75... I'd rather go toe-to-toe with a DC Taurii at 40 or 50 than 75 >.>; That goes triple for any mob that can cast spells (like the BLM Fomor that will now have access to -gaIIIs. Won't that be fun on a bun?)

I know I'm in a minority here, but CoP was really the high point of SE's expansion development for me. I won't harp on an old theme, just sit here radiating my extreme disappointment in SE for continuing the devalue player's accomplishments. The only way they could make CoP easier is to pull a Nexus Cape and reward you a Rajas Ring from the box in the Tenshodo for *BUYING* the expansion. Tell me I'm not the only one who looked at that carrot and >.>'ed at what accomplishment was really being rewarded.

But seriously, in one update SE is invalidating our work on 75 and to "complete" our characters. In the same update they're invalidating our accomplishments on a once difficult mission line. I mean, I realize they eviscerated CoP a while ago, but now the bar is so low you can crawl over it on your belly.

Even better, you could pay/beg people to take you from start to finish on a level 1 character if you really wanted. You prolly won't run into anything a few high levels can't shortman until the aforementioned Pots battle. And even then I'm betting 5 lvl80s > Pots when you get right down to it. With the level caps in place every party member actually had to pull their own weight. Sure, you could cheese some fights like Astral Flowing Promyvion, but the Airship fight? Yeah, everyone is pitching in on that fight and if they aren't you lost.

So now CoP is like every other mission line in this game. Broken. Gutted. Where victory is almost always assured unless you're doing a fight that flat out depends on luck (I'm looking at you, Alex). Sorry if I'm not thrilled. I want to be challenged and CoP managed that on a consistent basis. How can you *really* enjoy the taste of victory if you've never known defeat? It's easy to think you're hot shit if you've never been pushed to your limits. FFXI is becoming a grind to see where you rank on FFXIAH rather than a true playing experience .-.

(Then again, if it were me I'd put a level cap on *every* mission fight from this update forward. Like SL would be 60 cap, Ark Angels and the last Zilart fight would be 70 since that's what the cap was when they were introduced. I'd freeze newer fights at 75 rather than leave them uncapped. If I was being an ass I'd disable the backwards compatibility of merits, since that's what made capped CoP fights easier as players developed themselves...)

You should be glad I'm not a developer. You'd think I'm a rat bastard because I'd make you work for your victories, but at least you'd have something to be proud of!
Sivara > Yeah, I'm also rolling my eyes at the big CoP Nerf Bat. It kinda sounds like they're doing this to appease whiny folks or because they know some players want to rush through everything before dumping XI for XIV. At any rate, I refuse to have my work invalidated... *pins a button that reads "I beat CoP before it was ridiculously nerfed" to her Askar Korazin* (10/05/25 11:42)
Kireila > You do realize that there are still people shouting for promyvions and other CoP missions, right? They shout for like 8 hours on end and get like no one to help them. It's not their fault that like 90% of the FFXI population are done with CoP and therefore don't feel obligated to help other people. This doesn't include the handful of people that are still willing to help others with CoP missions. People finished CoP like 6 years ago. There are still people who aren't done with CoP and have been playing for at least 2-3 years, and are having trouble finding CoP statics to run the missions with. I didn't get CoP missions done until there were six people on CTY who needed it, which further proves that you can't really rely on random people to help anymore. I personally welcome this change. (10/05/25 13:47)

Name
10/05/24 00:37(open)10/05/24 01:15(1469)
Despite massive piles of crud happening on the RL-front, this weekend was pretty good o.ob In Vana'diel our Nyzul group hit Floor 100 tonight, which is super exciting. Thanks for helping us, Northy and Resh :3b Yosa, Drax, and I immediately turned in our Nyzul weapons to get the skills (Death Blossom, King's Justice, and Blade: Kamu respectively :3 ) Yosa went out and got String Pummel too >.>b I flagged the quest for Trueflight, but will wait to do it with someone who doesn't mind working with a RNG's paper-thin durability >.>; After that will be Mystic Boon, which is an actual useful skill (unlike Trueflight...)

Um, b'sides that, um, I finished meriting Enfeebling Skill o.ob I wanted to get that done before the next update. Now I'll prolly just stockpile any merits I get unless I land face first on 10 (not likely).

Also on the yay! front I got a new TV like I was talking about :o It's not huge, 26 inches, but it fits perfectly where I wanted it to and it's an astronomical improvement over the beat up survived-my-college-years 19 inch I had. It took most of Saturday (working on it off and on) to get everything hooked up properly. The only part that was easy was the HDMI to the 360 and the S-video to the GameCube. Everything else was fumbling though menus configuring or happily discovering that the diagram for the component cables on the back of the TV was upside down >.>;

Thank God for Nif <3 He really helped me get it figured out and then how to configure things I didn't realize I could configure o.o; We did the TV, the 360, and he taught me about using X and Triangle when booting (some) PS2 games to switch them to 16:9 o_o I honestly had no idea, but I'm glad he told me. Valkyrie Profile 2 is so pretty ; ;~

Now that I could read the menus in FFXIII without squinting I gave it another poke. How sharp and pretty it is was distracting. You get used to it after the first 10 hours or so, but changing TVs made a world of difference >.> The in-game map is actually readable now.

In celebration I took my over-leveled 4/6 Roles maxed, Ultimate Weaponed characters over to kick Attacus's ass. I had his head on my Kain's Lance in 6 minutes :x 5 starred it. That got me the Titan's Trials achievement. I moseyed over to Gigantuar and did a repeat performance :x Only I nailed it in like 30 seconds ^^; That gave me the Limit Break achievement, and the one for beating Gigantuar, and the one for beating all B ranked Marks. Talk about knocking them down :x If you haven't seen Gigantuar in action (more specifically it's introduction) you should check out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlM5BDaZN0g&feature=related The video is only ~2 minutes long, but very entertaining (or at least shows what sort of weirdness tickles me...)

The final victim for the night was Neochu (yes, I am 4/6 Roles maxed without the Growth Egg...) Neochu gave me a little trouble, though it was mostly user error and trusting Snow to do Fang's tanking job. I have no idea why, but Fang seems to take hits better / high prioritize Steelguard and Mediguard than Snow's AI does. No doubt they're likely the same thing, but still... Snow kept getting his tail kicked while Fang handled it like a champ.

One last thing! While I was out and about this weekend looking at TVs and buying cables I ran across the Guiness World Records 2010 Gamer's Edition ( http://www.amazon.com/Guinness-World-Records-Gamers-2010/dp/0744011833/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1274680760&sr=1-1 ). This book has been amusing me more than it should >.>; FFXIII is in it! Here's the entry:

"Category: Japanese RPG
(New Record) LARGEST DEVELOPMENT TEAM ON A JAPANESE RPG
Holder: FINAL FANTASY XIII (Square Enix, 2010)

Boasting the largest development team of any Japanese RPG (JRPG) in history, Final Fantasy XIII employed a crew of 100 to create the game's extensive CGI cutscenes, while a further 200 staff were involved in designing and coding the rest of the game. Producer Yoshinori Kitase claims that almost every member of the Japanese staff at Square Enix was invited to have input on the game's development to one extent or another."

Two thoughts on this: The first from Yosaroon "When you create a game by committee..." My thought was to wonder with so many people working on it no one had the idea (and insisted on it) for Paradigms to be editable during battle? Obviously the bean was not in the right place at the right time to toss that idea onto the pile :|
Name
10/05/17 06:54(open)10/05/17 07:51(1468)
I know I did stuff this weekend but heck if I remember what >.>; I know I got Fishing 70.

On Sunday I hung out with Resh, Sher, and Drax in Glacier_S doing Campaign. I got a merit in 3 Campaigns (got over 3k every Campaign.) Resh asked me why I Soboro in Campaign. Typically I'm very against the TP feed and I try not to do it if I'm with a tank I care about >.>; But honestly, I've stopped caring, especially about FFXI and being stuck on this crappy ass server. I want Midgard back .-. It wasn't perfect, but it was hella better than this. The other reason I Soboro is that Campaign (like Besieged) the scoring is *very* skewed towards WS and JAs vs. damage actually done and HP cured. With a Soboro (or KC, Joytoy, M.Kris, etc.) you can just crap out the TP and rocket up your reward with WSes done. Damage doesn't really matter. All that matters is that you took the action. Kind of twisted, isn't it? >_>

After Campaigned for a few hours I went to help Jeni with his Magian weapon in CN. We got it down to 6 kills to go by the time Earth day was over. We should've gotten it done .-. but I went to the wrong half of CN first. I knew where I needed to be and I just went down the wrong tunnel, sorry :/ We killed Demonic Tiphia while down there. That was sweet revenge. Last time I poked Tiphia I got a huge Final Sting shoved up my tail for like 2k dmg >.>;

Our Nyzul group continues to do well and spit in the eye of the idea that you have to be zomg intense to be successful. The 86-90 climb was @.@ The first floor was killing one of the NM Soulflayers and don't destroy the Gears that were littered about all over the place. We ended up with a pretty impressive train of Drax and Yosa controlled mobs while the rest of jumped the NM. Drax died, but we won. It was a shaky start to the climb, but we got several gimme floors after that. Floor 90 was a Free floor, which just made us lol >.> We'll never see that again. We made it to 95 o.ob Our run for 100 ended when we hit a bad kill all floor that included Unut, Vouivre, and Jolly Green in one maze >.>; And both Drax and Yosa got hit so hard so fast that they were left without Reraise. Stupid NMs. We Fireflied out and got them R3s. We'll get 100 next weekened o.ob

On the console gaming front I was bored and started the weekend playing Kung Fu Panda (yes, I was *that* bored.) It's not a horrible game, but it's no LEGO game either D:

I gave Star Ocean 4 another stab. Like every other game that isn't rated E for Eyesight, I can't read the menus unless I'm sitting on my TV. I really need to get a new TV or figure out a good way to hook up those cables Nif sent me. I'd kinda like a new TV, but I'm limited on space and I've already decided that my tax return is going towards finishing off my college loans >.>; It'll feel good to have that monkey off my back. (Plus saving up I could afford a nice TV in a few months of not having to make the college loan payment :D )

I wandered off topic >.> Star Ocean 4, yeah. Yosa asked about the series. I don't remember the question was but the gist was "I hear a lot of people playing it but I don't know much about it." Something like that >.> I prolly have it wrong, but let me answer that question instead >.>;

It's a tri-Ace series that was published by Enix that joined the game catalog when Square and Enix merged. Nowdays, if you want to play SO1 you can get it on the PSP. I'm not sure if SO2 is on PSP as well, but I originally played it on the PSX. SO3 was a PS2 title. SO4 360. All of the games take place in the same universe at various points in time (of man's exploration of the stars, if you couldn't guess). The games do loosely and generationally tie together, with SO4 being the first chronologically. IMO, the stories really aren't high art, but they are at least coherent and you won't be going "huh?" at the end. It's sad that the bar has fallen that low with recent games D:

In terms of battle, the SO series has always done the 3 character party where you control 1 and the other 2 go off AI with general strategy commands telling them what to do. I'm not fond of this system, but it's been refined since the days of SO2. Between battles you can select which character you want to control. You can freely move the character around the field of battle and attacks / actions / jumping / etc. are all button presses. I'd also note that your other two party members don't clump and then die like idiots *cough*like in FFXIII*cough*.

SO games always have a gather / synth system that would be very familiar to a FFXI player. You can harvest and mine raw materials at points. You gain skill in these disciples to increase yield. You use the materials you gather for making new items via Cooking, Alchemy, and Smithing. Sounding familiar, eh?

There is also a minor dating-sim aspect to the games. You can do interactions to raise the affection of characters for your main character. I'm not through SO4 yet, obviously, but one of SO2's selling points was that it had over 80 endings. Those variations were primarily based on how far you went with certain characters and who you did it with >.>; (There was only like 4 endings with 20 character variation combos. And I could be remembering wrong and 4 is too high...) I just remember playing through SO2 twice to get the two endings I wanted and that was that.

I decided this weekend that as a gamer I'm easy to amuse, but difficult to impress, thus how I could be amused by Kung Fu Panda but not FFXIII. FFXIII was all impress and precious little amuse. So far SO4 is hitting in the middle for impress and amuse. The graphics are beautiful. I'm enjoying controlling my character in battle >.>; There's some hilarious omake-like material with Welch once you get your spaceship. The downside of SO games is that they can drive a 100% completionist like me absolutely nuts. There's just so many little things to do and accomplish that your head could explode, but that's okay. It was the next RPG on my list to chew on, so *nomnomnom* :E
Cydori > SO2 got re-released on PSP shortly after SO1 did, yeah. (10/05/18 10:32)
Guppy > Dating-Sim? Oh, those wacky J-RPGs! (10/05/21 11:35)

Name
10/05/14 01:16(open)10/05/17 06:28(1467)
With Klai's help we did the WotG Count Bifron fight. They don't make demons like they used to, even in the past D: We had this beautiful plan of me making two Light chains for Klai to MB on with Burst II and Thunder IV. Klai missed the first Light chain due to a Stoneskin malfunction. Bifron didn't live long enough to finish the second chain. I didn't even get my Fragmentation. I feel gypped D:

I've looked ahead to the next fight and it makes me want to throw a rock at SE. It looks to be yet another NPC cure-bomb fest. It's already been noted that the NPC is not Prishe when it comes to durability, so cure-bombing them is required to win >.>; The cure-bomb thing was an interesting change of pace the *first* time it came up, but this is like the fourth now ^^; It's gotten old... (Actually, now that I think about it it's the sixth, though you can also zerg through the Windurst cure-bomb fest...) If you're curious what the six are: Fire in the Hole (B), A Feast for Gnats (W), A Nation on the Brink, Distorter of Time, Blood of Heroes (S) and now Darkness Descends. So no matter which national path you take you would've seen this gimmick four times now...

Yeah =.=

On a happier note I 100% finished LEGO Indy. I still have two Achievements to unlock, but they're minor things that just didn't happen to unlock while I was replaying levels. I can get them easily tomorrow.

EDIT: Forgot to mention two things. There's a lot of emotional satisfaction to be had in playing the Grail Knight on the final level and feeding the old bastard to his own sawblade and spear traps. Just saying... >.>

Secondly, in my last post I mentioned what I felt was the best level in LEGO Indy. The worst level, IMO and by far, is the Motorcycle Escape from Last Crusade. I'm sure you can guess the theme of the level. Yes, you are riding motorcycles around. The trouble comes in when you have to make a couple different jumps with the bikes. The controls are so loose that you will probably miss the ramp (and the jump) a good half dozen times. If you don't miss it due to the controls you will miss it because Player 2 was in your way or even better pushed you off the edge. If *that* didn't get you enough times, you'll respawn on the aforementioned ledge and immediately fall off again a two or three times before you can swap to Player 2 to stop the respawn => death cycle. (LEGO Batman had the same problems, but Player 2 is much more suicidal in this one...) There's also the fact that the level is genuinely bugged. It's the one I had to restart last night because a LEGO tractor I built wasn't appearing on the field >.>; At least there's a work around for that, but was still vexing. The level could be easily ignored except that it's a good place to get one of the two Achievements I'm missing :<
Pisces > I'm behind on the missions due to the original group I started quit the game. Ever since, I've been rather unmotivated to do the missions. I also hate that dancer so much that I want to slap her. Repeatedly. Even when she's pretending to be cute. (10/05/14 11:14)
Pisces > FYI, I'm on the "A Nation on the Brink" mission. As I'm the whm for these missions (all the time!!), I hate the "cure the npc" fights. ~_~ SE, I really don't like WoTG. You gave Windurst [S] crappy gear, San d'Oria's repeatedly FIRST in campaign (Bastok is 2nd), and I just HATE Lilisette! Gah, I've never hated any of the other female 'leads' until her. I also hate: the mini-expansions, the WHOLE evolith system, the WHOLE augment system so much that I've avoided buying/doing any of them! If this is a preview of FFXIV, I might as well quit while I'm ahead. (10/05/14 11:21)
Anoat > Aside from the Distorter of Time mission, I honestly haven't heard of people curebombing their way through the other fights you mentioned. o.o Although looking back on them, I suppose you *could* do it that way. As for the particular fight coming up, no, she's not Prishe level durable, but she's not squishy either, especially once she 2 hours. Melee damage doesn't hurt her that badly, its the -aga 3's and tier 4 nukes that do the real damage. (10/05/14 19:58)
Pisces > Well, the last "cure" the npc fight I did was the "A Feast for Gnats" one. I failed that one 2-3 times before passing it. But the reason why I failed was because I was duoing it with one other person. If you only have 2 people and one is the whm, there's not a lot of room for error. The npcs die very fast too. I have to go whm/blm for Sleepga... At least 2 of the times we failed, we failed because the npc died, not because we died. (10/05/15 15:17)
Pisces > The time we finally beat it was when we had a 3rd person to help us. (10/05/15 15:19)
Beanie > Fire in the Hole you have to escort the NPC and keep the dingbat alive. Same with Blood of Heroes. A Nation on the Brink you still have to keep at least 1 NPC hero alive or you fail. Any time your success hinges upon keeping the NPC alive more than keeping yourself alive (and the NPC is a dubious asset, which is especially true with Fire in the Hole), that's a curebomb in my book ^^; You didn't beat any of those missions by letting the NPC die and you didn't win any of them by zerging (like you can with Feast for Gnats or present day national missions). In short, if you have to take two healers to win, one of which is dedicated to keeping an NPC alive, that's a piss off. I want the PCs to matter more. When do we get a "helper" who keeps us alive, huh? I know various ones do minor random things, but they have yet to invent a Nif... (10/05/17 06:26)
Anoat > I see. We're just working off different defininitions of "cure bomb" then. My idea when I t hink cure bomb is "do absolutely nothing but cure the NPC, and eventually, they will win the mission for you"--implying you would take nothing but healer jobs into the fight. Working on that definition, I think you could still do all those you mentioned except Fire In The Hole, iirc the NPC runs away from the mobs instead of actually fighting them. But I don't know who would want to unless you had to lowman them, punching and stabbing things is fun! (10/05/21 10:10)

Name
10/05/13 10:35(open)10/05/14 04:01(1466)
I picked up Frog Fishing. Not that it helps with anything but one fish, but I had a lot of GP stacking up and like 9 levels of Fishing to go before I can start buying real key items. I'm pretty sure I won't miss the 30k by the time I get there D:

I look hella sexy in a Dinner Suit and Shaded Specs. Then again, everyone does. If you don't have Shaded Specs go do the quest "Son and Father" out of Sandy_S to get the Fishing glasses. Same model and you still look great >.>b I totally called them fixing the Moggiebag quest by giving the item to Kupipi, but I think everyone called that one too :x I have mixed feelings on this. This is prolly one of the more fun events in a while (at least for me, but I found the letters and item descriptions to be funny. If you don't care then it was prolly just blah to you...), on the other hand there were some unthinking mistakes too >.> At least I'm not the only one who makes those!

On Monday, Cyd, Nif, Tharp, Yosa, and I did the WotG mission where you run around in the tunnels with the tigers. I was the runner. I spent a good week~week and a half studying / memorizing a map of the route. That really helped. It also really helped that Nif, Cyd, Tharp, and Yosa ran the opposite direction as me and cleared out the tigers at the end of the route. I zoomed by them, but it looked like they jumped a tiger that would've been right in my way. Thanks!

Speaking of jumping things... I'm of the opinion that the Ruly Imps in Xarc_S were put there for the sole reason of pissing me off. No matter how careful I am they always seem to spot me from half a zone away. Poor Imps. They choose the wrong angry Bean to jump >.>; Fortunately, unless they get off a shower of -gas or immediately Amnesia me I can usually pin their ugly little ears back if I'm on SAM or MNK. Serves them right >:|

Onto other games: Still bouncing between FFXIII and other stuff. I'm about 200,000gil from having enough to make everyone 1 Ultimate Weapon. Not that the little ingrates will thank me for the effort >:| There are new FFXIII-themed downloads on XBL. The two "themes" are just wallpapers of Lightning and Snow. They're sweet wallpapers, mind you, but they don't go well with the white text of the XBL menus D: Can't read a thing when using them. There are also avatar outfits. On the female side there's Jihl, Fang, Vanille, Lightning, and Serah for a jaw-dropping $5 each >.>; I'm still tempted by Fang even though it lacks the bellybutton, but I'm balking at the price. There offering $1 t-shirts for Fang, Lightning and Vanille too. I don't remember the slogans on them, but they weren't what I would have chosen: "I survived the Purge and all I got was this lousy t-shirt" or "I finished FFXIII and all I got was this lousy t-shirt" <-- that's how I feel, only without getting the t-shirt >.>;

In other news, I'm almost done with LEGO Indy. I was trying not to zerg it out of joy for fun gaming, but failed. I'm at 97.5% completed now. I just have like 12 more Artifacts to collect in the last two Last Crusade levels, 1 locked character to buy, and 1 bonus level to unlock (which I assume will unlock once I have those last 12 Artifacts).

LEGO Indy is definitely the "middle brother" of the LEGO series. It lacks many of the bugs of LEGO Star Wars (I hit my first level breaking bug last night at 96% complete. I did that in the DS Star Wars on like the third level...), but after playing LEGO Batman you can see Indy's rough edges. In terms of difficulty the game is a lot easier than Batman. Batman made a habit of difficult jumps and 'augh!' moments. Indy only has a handful of those. I'd note most of those moments are in the Temple of Doom arc. At least they were true in making the Temple of Doom levels suck as much as the movie did :x Short Round became my new Robin. We got to see how many times I could toss him off cliffs or shove him into lava pits when he'd stand in front of me before a tricky jump >.>; Temple of Doom wasn't all bad. It also had the best level in the entire game IMO: The mine cart escape. You're racing around on tracks whacking baddies and switches with shovels. It's very cool and well done o.ob (It's also an easy way to get the "It's not the years honey..." Achievement since it's nearly impossible to die once you're in the mine cart >.>b ) My second favorite level is the bonus Ancient City destroy-anything-and-everything level o.ob

LEGO Harry Potter Years 1-4 comes out in June. I'm interested, but going to wait. I refuse to pay $50 for a LEGO game. I have my gaming-manhood to look out for :| But once it makes the Platinum Hits collection or the used bins for >$20 I'll pick it up. LEGO Batman 2 comes out later in the year. Same deal, though I suspect I'll prolly tear my hair out at Batman 2 with some of the difficulty ^^;
Name
10/05/10 00:44(open)10/05/10 01:03(1465)
I'm happy! The Fish Ranking request isn't a Legendary Fish for once, but it might as well be for the amount of grief involved >.> Well, I'm sure there will be lots of entries which was my biggest beef: The artificial restriction of participation. The fish to catch is the smallest Marlin in length. The same Marlin used in gutting for Charts.

The biggest reason I dislike Marlin is having to first go out and get the Bluetail to even make the bait >.o; I have a nice spot for fishing those, but it still took two hours and half a day's fish quota to get a healthy supply of bait-fish. Once I had that I went to the ship and puttered around and lost half my bait to non-Marlin (which is normal and another irksome aspect of the fish...) The upside is that Illumineko and Beroe caught the boat I was on and it just happened to be attacked by NQ pirates, so I got them both Sand Charms before they even have the fame to turn them in for maps, haha. Anyhow, once I was done I had a so-so entry (gonna hold onto it to see if I can do better) and a Brigard's Chart from gutting the not-good-enough Marlin.

Earlier in the day we did Jeni's Brigard's Chart and got the Penguin Ring for him. Nif and I went out to do my Chart. I was very dumb, but also learned something valuable I hadn't thought about (well, two valuable things...) The first is to never wear your Fishing Apron/Smock while doing this. The piece will cockblock catching the chests, which is what it's supposed to do (reduce frequency of items and monsters...), but you want the items in this case. The other thing is to change the locks on the house. My parents came over while I was fishing and I only caught one chest between those two factors. I needed to get four or five to even have a chance at my own Penguin Ring :( But if I keep trying for better Marlin for the Fish Ranking I'm sure to get another Chart eventually. It was just a very boneheaded not-thinking mistake on my part and I'm not used to doing those >.>;

I played a lot of LEGO Indy this weekend 'cause I needed a break from the grind of FFXIII. I mostly cleared Indy >.>; I'm at 84.8% completion, which means I just have to do the tying up of loose ends now. Go around and collect Artifacts I missed and do the bonus levels, crap like that. Nothing too hard, but also twinging my grind-reflex since it involves having to repeat nearly every level with a larger cast of characters >.o;

So I popped in LEGO Star Wars. I've played through this one on the DS. I'm hoping the 360 version is less buggy, but I don't have my hopes up too high on that. On the DS version in a fight vs. Darth Maul, Darth Maul never spawned >.> Everything else was there but him :x I obviously had to restart the level just so I could finish it D:

At least LEGO games don't kill you for taking too long to kill a boss :D If that were true I wouldn't have finished the Temple of Doom storyline since killing the boss on the bridge was gimmicky and time consuming trying to get the right conditions to happen >.>;
Name
10/05/06 16:23(open)10/05/10 00:43(1464)
I'm still plucking away at FFXIII. I finally crossed the 90 hour mark and it's still not fun >.>; Here are my notes on weapon upgrading. I'm sure there are FAQs with absolutely every detail noted, but I've been working this out on my own >.o;

Fang:
Punisher Lv1 (31,000g from Plautus's Workshop)
24 Demonic Tails (150g from Creature Comforts)
1 Ultracompact Reactor (50,000g from R&D Depot) (R&D Depot is only accessable after doing Mission 07, "Bituitus, The Pillager")
> Punisher * (Cost: 84,600g)
CATALYST: Scarletite (100,000g from The Motherload or common drop from Sacrifice)
> Banescissor Spear Lv17 (Cost: 100,000g or slapping around a Cei'th)
24 Demonic Tails (150g from Creature Comforts)
3 Ultracompact Reactors (50,000g from R&D Depot)
> Banescissor Spear * (Cost: 153,600g)
CATALYST: Trapezohedron (2,000,000g from R&D Depot)
> Kain's Lance Lv33 (Cost: 2,000,000g and several hours of your life)
24 Demonic Tails (150g from Creature Comforts)
25 Ultracompact Reactors (50,000 from R&D Depot)
> Kain's Lance * (Cost: 1,253,600g and several more hours of your life)

How poor Bean is: -3,491,800g (I saved 100,000g on my Scarletite!)

This will take you from start to finish on one Ultimate Weapon, but there are other paths, of course. I did a lot of working with Tears of Woe instead of Demonic Tails, but you can't get Tears of Woe from a shop >.>;

Once you have Kain's Lance * you can turn around and dismantle it (I cried when I did, trust me.) This will yield 3 Trapezohedron and about 200,000g worth of other stuff you can sell. Which means you can immediately turn around and recreate Kain's Lance Lv33. Then have 2 Trapezohedron left to use on other weapons. What I've done so far (and I didn't document it nearly as well, but it's pretty much the same pattern.)

Lightning:
Lionheart Lv1 (28,000g from Plautus's Workshop)
24 Demonic Tails (150g from Creature Comforts)
1 Ultracompact Reactor (50,000g from R&D Depot)
> Lionheart * (Cost: 81,600g)
CATALYST: Scarletite (100,000g from The Motherload or common drop from Sacrifice)
> Ultima Weapon (not sure what level, but prolly around 16 or 17) (Cost: 100,000g or slapping around a Cei'th)
24 Demonic Tails (150g from Creature Comforts)
3 Ultracompact Reactors (50,000g from R&D Depot)
> Ultima Weapon * (Cost: 153,600g)
CATALYST: Trapezohedron (2,000,000g from R&D Depot or from Fang's dimantled Kain's Lance *)
> Omega Weapon Lv36

How poor Bean is: -207,200g (I did better on this one with the Trapezohedron, Scarletite, and Lionheart already in inventory!)

That's all I've gotten on it so far >.>; Between Fang and Lightning my pocketbook (such as it is) is weeping. Though I would like to note that Ultima Weapon is ugly as sin, and Omega isn't much better :x

One more!

Hope:
Hawkeye Lv1 (Cost: 4,400g from Up in Arms. I think you also get one in the second dungeon of the game >.>; )
24 Demonic Tails (150g from Creature Comforts)
1 Ultracompact Reactor (50,000g from R&D Depot)
> Hawkeye * (Cost: 58,000g)
CATALYST: Perovskite (Cost: 30,000g from The Motherload or found in a soccerball chest)
> Eagletalon Lv 13~14ish (I forgot to write it down) (Cost: 30,000g)
24 Demonic Tails (150g from Creature Comforts)
4 Ultracompact Reactor (50,000g from R&D Depot) (Note: Eagletalon is a higher level weapon than Ultima Weapon or Banescissor Spear so it requires more EXP to *)
> Eagletalon * (Cost: 203,600g)

How poor Bean is: -257,200g (I had the Hawkeye and Perovskite already.)
Pisces > o_o Wow, that sucks. This is just a guess, but since SE mentioned about weapons being dismantled for parts in FFXIV... Do you suppose the system they'll use will be similar to the one in FFXIII? In which case, I think I'm going to hate it... (10/05/07 11:01)
Cydori > It's possible, or it could be something like Guild Wars, where it's fairly easy to salvage something from a weapon and you have things like hilts and blades that you can put onto an existing weapon or mix and match to create an entirely new one. I haven't really dabbled much with either FF13 or GW's systems. (10/05/08 08:14)
Sivara > Well, you can already desynth stuff in FFXI for various materials. I highly doubt it will be as expensive and complicated as FFXIII's system; that would only frustrate the average MMO player and run counter to SE's intention to make FFXIV friendly to casual players. (10/05/08 09:13)
Beanie > I honestly have no idea 'cause I'm ignoring FFXIV's existance. I hope to God it's nothing at all like XIII. At 95 hours I finally got bored of XIII and went to play LEGO Indiana Jones for a while instead. It's sad that in 2 days of LEGO Indy my gamer score for that game is higher that XIII. I realize it's comparing an apple to an orange, but the orange has made me a lot happier for a helluva lot less money... (10/05/08 15:54)
Cydori > After FF12, I've decided that if I am feeling that way about a game, then I am doing the minimum it takes to beat the final boss and then considering it done, regardless of how much optional content is left. I am, however, still enjoying FF13, though I may be the only person in the entire world. I always knew there was something wrong with me. ;) (10/05/09 09:17)
Fait > Demonic Tails aren't actually the best gil/multiplier ratio. You should use Sturdy Bone/Barbed Tail/Vibrant Ooze. You need 36 to hit 300%, and it works out 720g cheeper each time. I know it's not a massive saving, but over the course of 6 weapons and a million accessories it'll save you a lot. (10/05/09 11:47)
Beanie > Thanks for the heads up on the obvious, but as I mentioned I was using Tears of Woe, which are the fantastic price of free. To be blunt I only know 2 people who have actually even *gotten* to this point in the game 'cause it's such a shitty, boring game ^^; Quibbling a few thousand gil when you're spending millions (and having to return to the shop screen every *two* synths) is minor. Using a material that gives a better XP yield means you can do all your synthing without changing screens... (10/05/10 00:40)

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