Best made plans...

I had planned to spend my summer break leveling both PLD and BRD. Well, I've got PLD to 58 and BRD hasn't been touched. Normally I'd push ahead with this as much as possible but I've been sidetracked by merits. I figured that my WAR is good in most merit situations, although I'm not 100% comfortable using it at birds. I felt that my Dragoon could potentially be superior at the bird camp. So I decided to..

Use WAR at events that need heavy dd and non bird camp merits.

Use DRG at bird merit camp.

DRG is now full merit and I'm working on getting a pimp version of the Fay Lance. I managed to get a sidegrade augment of DMG 3 - SRT 2 - Dex 2. I have another Fay Lance in inventory and will endeavour to beat those augments. Using the damage calculator I've fine tuned the gear I have on DRG and have been slightly surprised by two things. 1. Askar body > Heca body at bird camp. 2. Cuchulain's mantle coming out ahead of Forager's at tp gain as well as ws. I know that neither is the case if I tried it on WAR.

Got my highest ever ws against a merit mob today using Drakesbane.





The LS I belong to SpiritOfTheWolf is still going strong. It has a real mix of characters and is well led. We are continuously successful at various tiers of ZNM and have skilled members in every department. We decided to take on Byakko for long term ls member Falk and won a very smooth fight. Now Falk has probably the best piece of armour in the game Byakko's Haidate. I've purchased 2 pop sets for Susaku and hopefully we can do them whenever we have a quieter slot on a Sat night.

A couple of screenshots

This guy NEVER waves back!






I should have checked there was water before I took the dive.

Kuptastic!

Walrus

Ok

BLM Returns

I have revived my BLM. Initially I retired my BLM and sold all the gear because i barely touched it the previous year. I have been busy levelling all sorts of jobs and BLM didn't have a look in. That was until our ls does regular ZNM fights most saturday nights, where a BLM is very useful. Armed gears in particular. So BLM is all geared up again. I have the sorcerer's latent active, although I no longer have the mp merits (which I can live without) All my macros were saved in a folder and the advent of elemental grips and one or two pieces have made BLM fun again.

Nyzul Isle

I must say that our weekly Nyzul Isle static is a weekly highlight. Excellent company. Nice gear and we know exactly what each other will do at any given time. We are all closing in on getting full sets of main gear and also have a variety of sub gear items. One thing I like about it is that we don't always lot when we are allowed. If someone is lagging behind in luck, others will pass when they don't need to. We have full confidence, that we will get what we need and being greedy shouldn't figure. Easy to say that now I and most of the ls have askar bloody head! Kudos to Aims, Steve, Marie, Mike and Jose for the fun. Honourable mention to Feli for seamlessly repping people on the occasion that we need to.

Fighting Byakko again

We did this fight so Falk (Sjiodjodjiodadadoodee) could get B Haidate. Was a smooth fight. Lots of newish people to gods and excellent drops. Was fun setting up a stun cycle with 3 other BLM. reminded me of when I first joined a Sky LS (GodblessYou) doing that fight has given me the idea that I could buy some pop items for Suzaku and have a chance at getting N feet, one of the few things i can realistically get to make my WAR better. Well, there are several people who are aiming to get sky this week, so It would be nice to let them have a go at killing a god and perhaps lot on an abj by us killing Suzy.

WALRUS

Are bloody ugly and evade like a Warrior!

Vepion

The man with the lowest PC skills out of anyone i've came across from his age group. Being 'flamboyant' is no bloody excuse ya radge!

Bollocks

The best word ever invented

Misery?

Sometimes I wonder why people bother. My pet peeve /moan at the moment is about people moaning or whining or forever feeling hard done by. - Yes I'm contradicting myself by moaning about the moaners, but hopefully I can do it with a bit of brusque style.

half full or half empty? Which kind of person are you?

Things people moan about

1. Not having enough time to endgame, farm, level etc.

We all live lives that use up time. I choose to watch very little in the way of TV and do what I can when I can. SE have introduced so much in last 2-3 yrs that we have no right to moan. Exp is so much easier to get nowadays. Sub dnc if you want to solo and more exp when you kill ep mobs. Campaign is another thing that we can get easy exp from. Never mind the fact that with ToA, FoV and Level synch, levelling a job has never been easier.

Nyzul isle is 30 mins a run. There are always shouts for it.

ZNM is a lot easier to get pops for than Sky ever was. Some good gear from it and good experience for players who haven't wet their feet in endgame up to now.

Assault is 30 mins a run. Some nice stuff to be had there and most are fun and doable.

Limbus, Sky, Sea, Dynamis, Einenenejjjaaar and salvage are all other avenues.

2. Not getting the gear they want.

Who does get everything they want? Nurturing a job was never meant to be an overnight thing. You can be solid at your job without breaking the bank in most cases. Many people have a 'main' job to put extra special effort into.

3. People who moan about people trying to become better at their main job.

How dare people parse results!!! How dare people seek out excellence!!! How dare people be good at their job!!! If people feel insecure about that then tough. I don't give a shit. To be honest I'd far rather be in a lol LS party any day than a 30k /hr party with strangers. But I'm not going to feel guilty about being decent at my job and being able to contribute to high chains and high exp. Give me PUP, PUP, anything anything anything anything any day if it LS.

4. People who moan about not getting drops.

We all suffer bad luck sometimes. I always assume I won't get anything. That way it's all a bonus.

5. People who moan about skilling up due to Level Synch.

Skilling up isn't that hard. I'd say i spent a max of 10 rhrs doing additional skilling up on my last 75 i took up. Some may take more but I'd rather have that than the party system we had before.

6. People who moan about jobs...

Every job can be good for different reasons.

PLD - beef merchant whahay!

SAM - Sexy dd

WAR - shit job.... It the only job that is absolute ... haggis!

COR - Cool hat

RDM - Another cool hat

DRG - I always think of 'Drag Queen' when I think of this

SMN - Has it's very own cuddly toys

PUP - I want to do a PUP burn some day

BLU - Janko - need I say more

BRD - The I-pod of the FFXI gaming world

RNG - bird death

MNK - Wail away to your heart's content

DRK - Goth

WHM - Samaratins of the game

SCH - My rl job kinda

NIN - A boxer rather than a slugger - full of win

BST - Seigfried and Roy of the game

Come on folks, we playing the coolest game in the world. A game that if you do something it MATTERS. If you achieve something it MATTERS. Characters that you can care about; a community that is strong and stable. If you are lucky to be a part of a LS filled with skilled nice people then it turns it from a game to a place to meet friends. I'm in a LS just like that and feel priveliged to be part of it and this game...

...but


........


...........I wish WAR could evade better than a Barn Door

Sleep deprivation and smiling through it.

Being from EU, it often means that if we wish to participate in end-game activity, we have to get up / stay up for 2-5 am starts. I've grown accustomed to this, although it does mean I generally only do one end-game activity at a time. None of this ... Limbus - Mon, Dynamis - Tue, Sky farm -Wed, Nyzul Isle - Fri etc etc etc. I'm not complaining or whining about it, because I love the game and I have fun with the people I play with and speak shit with. 'If you don't like, don't do' is my motto. (well, one of them) Whining gets you knowhere, moaning gets you knowhere.

That being said... I was almost 90 mins late for a Tinnin fight yesterday. I bow my head in shame and say sorry to a 'super dooper' BLU Janko (and everyone else who were there forming) Then we fought a floor on Nyzul Isle and lost due to us collectively not being 'on the ball'. Second night of mega early rise is much harder than the first. I've now got my alarm clock out loft.

Nyzul Isle is still my favourite thing in the game. We got 3/4 wins on Fri with a Denali head and an Askar legs drop. Good to see Drimer get something from this. She'd always win first prize for the cutest exhaltations of joy in the group. We'll still be doing this for a while. To be honest I'd like to end up being 5/5 on all three types of gear.

Maat... This is a long term goal. No longer will it be level to 75 > full merit, levelanotherjobto75 > full merit etc. I have a lot of levelling to do, but i can see it happening. Although i have a sneaking feeling that i won't be the first in the LS to get it.... ahem.... someone else beginning with Z...

Random nonsense

Newbs and new people to the LS

Us as a LS have been lucky enough to have several brand new players join us. Old veterans (Like many of the LS) love having new people to help. As long as they bear in mind that the main thing in the game is to have fun. Obtaining good gear etc is part of the fun and part of something we can all help each other with. But... It is our duty to let new people avoid some of the pitfalls or mistakes that can easily happen when you are new to a game.

1. Farming - We all have to do it. We have all done it. Quite often we can seek while doing it. Don't ask us for gil, ask us how to make gil.

2. Gearing up our jobs - No, you don't have to have +1 of everything, but try and fill the slots with stuff that is appropriate to your job. If in doubt as to what stats are best for what job? Ask, and ye shall recieve.

3. Gimping your job - A touchy one, but you are better off farming gil to get what you need, than gimping your job by not having an essential spell/tool/scroll etc. An example of this is Ninja 37+ You must have Utsi Ni or you are leeching off your party and not able to do what it 'says on the box'.

4. Skype - Several ls members regularly join skype. This is fun and it also helps when doing a lot of stuff. Don't feel like it's part of a leet club that you can't get in. If you want in skype, say and you can join in the .... revelry.

5. can't think of anything else and looking back, No 4 doesn't fit in with the title.

Notes

Whether Zer likes it or not, being poked inside Nyzul Isle got us a 4/4 run with 3 nice gear drops and a good weapon drop. Just relies on her being poked enough.

btw - Well done to all the Swift belt owners out their. I understand you went 3/3 - awesome job