A list of things stopping me from playing FFXI

Ever since my school start, I keep facing difficulties when I attempt to play FFXI, like there is some kind of being from higher plane that's doing everything it can to stop me.

First of all, my laptop broke, and my CC cancelled. I thought I can keep playing by buying a new laptop and apply for a new CC, but I was wrong. The internet in my house and my controller broke after I moved, and it took one week to fix the internet. After my internet finally fixed I thought I can happily play FFXI again. But I was wrong again. Yesterday when I tried to start the game I found my POL broke, some files are missing. I thought windows update broke it so I did a system recovery, and reinstalled POL. After all the update I got a msg from McAfee internet security says it removed certain trojan and my POL broke again. That's how I realized McAfee internet security was the suspect of killing my POL. I deleted McAfee, yes, I'm very determine to come back and keep playing, but that being from higher plane is even more determined than me. My mouse broke during the process of system recovery(although later on I found out it's just the touchpad function was turned off somehow). But that won't stop me, I used keyboard to log in to POL and start the game, but got stucked during the version check. I thought my McAfee broke my FFXI also so I deleted FFXI and reinstall it. Later on it turned out that it's not broken, it's just SE server problem. I guess a serious of event made me /panic and dumb. USUALLY I won't reinstall FFXI just because certain server error, but server error and POL problem just happened on the SAME time and that's how I ended up making a wrong decision.

Ok, so now I need to do the version update all over again, and for some reason I'm stuck on the version update. I can't update it, both XI and XIV. And my other website worked just fine.

Basically, every time when I solved a problem that's stopping me from playing FFXI, a new problem occurred.

In my culture people believe their ancestors have power to protect their descendants after they die, they're always watching and guarding their descendants from heaven. Now I wonder if my ancestors just want me to focus on school projects and stop playing FFXI, so they're doing everything they can to break my FFXI. They failed though, cuz I spent most of my time trying to get back to FFXI now, instead of just playing it, or focusing on projects. Let's see who'll win in the end.

Wishlist

Here is the wishlist and gear sets I need to work on after I ding 85. I know some of the items I list are not the best, but I'm being realistic and just skipped some of the harder to obtain/too expensive stuff, I also want to keep as many old gear of mine as possible because I'm too lazy, so some of the gears listed are not new but something I already have ._. All of the Mayhem+1 listed below are racc Mayhem+1. I know I should put Armageddon on the list, but Armageddon has same delay as Mayhem and it uses totally different WS. So I'll just put racc Mayhem +1 on for now. And of course, if anyone has better suggestion on gear set feel free to let me know XD.


First I need to work on my ranged attack TP set. If I /SAM I need +21 STP to reach 5 hit build. This set gives +21 STP.




Dream /SAM 5-hit build


Vulcan's staff/Rose strap/Racc Mayhem+1/steel bullet
Navarch's Tricorne+ 2/Faith torque/Hollow earring/Volley earring
Loki's Kaftan/Crimson finger gauntlets/Arewe ring/Jalzahn's Ring
Navarch's mantle/Commodore belt/Narvarch's Culottes +2/Praeda Sabatons


And Slug shot WS set, all the STP pieces are needed to WS to maintain 5 hit build.



Dream /SAM WS with 5-hit build


Vulcan's staff/Rose strap/Racc Mayhem+1/steel bullet
Anwig salade/Breeze gorget/Hollow earring/Volley earring
Loki's Kaftan/Crimson finger gauntlets/Rajas ring/Strigoi ring
Terebellum Mantle/Commodore belt/Narvarch's Culottes +2/Corsair's bottes +1



The Sept. update gives COR TP when using Quick Draw, therefore, instead of working on a traditional QD set with full AGI and MAB gears, I plan make a Quick Draw set with +21 STP so I can get to 100 TP 1 hit faster every time QD timer up. Although sacrificing some amount of MAB and AGI is needed in order to archieve 21 STP. My goal is to sacrifice as little MAB as possible and make up the AGI lose by HQ staff and QD acc merit.

Dream QD set when /SAM with 5-hit build


Vulcan's staff/Rose strap/Racc Mayhem+1/steel bullet
Corsair's Tricorne+1/Uggaleih Pendant/Moldavite earring/Novio earring
Mirke Wardecors/Cobra Mittens/Rajas ring/Hoard ring
Forban cape/Goading belt/Desultor Tassets/Navarch's Bottes

Mirke Wardecors has MAB+4, QD recast-5 augment, Desultor Tassets has MAB+4, Phantom roll recast -5

I choose to put STP on rings, hands and waist slots. Ring slots has only 1 MAB, so there is really very little dmg lose if I put STP on this slot. Hands has no MAB atm, just AGI and macc gears, so it's safe to put some STP on hands slot. Now it's choice between waist and back piece. I put STP on waist because I hate elemental obi, they don't always work and eat lots of inventory. Another waist option is Aquiline Belt, this item still has no info so it's equal to not exist XD. Then again, Forban cape also doesn't exist on my server, so I shouldn't even worry about it lol. If the right day and weather is up, use elemental obi on waist and use tactical mantle on the back still gives enough STP for 5-hit build and more dmg than Forban cape/Goading belt combo. No matter what combo is used, this set only lost 4 MAB to archieve 21 STP which hardly makes a difference for dmg per shot, I'd say it's worth it.

When fighting very high lv NM or solo, a strong QD set with lots of AGI are still needed. So full QD set here it is.



Dream QD set with /RDM



Aquilo's staff/Reaver grip+1/(MAB this time maybe?)Mayhem+1/Oberon's bullet
Corsair's Tricorne+1/Uggaleih Pendant/Moldavite earring/Novio earring
Mirke Wardecors/Rover's gloves/Blobnag ring/Auster's ring
Forban cape/Hyorin Obi/Desultor Tassets/Navarch's Bottes

I started to wonder if it's possible to make it /RNG 5-hit build, since I still /RNG most of the time. /RNG needs +36 STP from gears, so I mess around with all the STP gears, here it goes.




Dream (Or disaster?) /RNG 5-hit build

Mekki Shakki/Rose Strap/Racc Mayhem+1/Steel bullets
Navarch's Tricorne +2/Faith torque/Volley earring/Hollow earringLoki's Kaftan/Praeda Gauntlets/Rajas ring/Jalzahn's ring
Navarch's Mantle/Commodore belt/Narvarch's Culottes +2/Praeda Sabatons
Well.....this set actually has LESS rattk and racc than /SAM's 5-hit build set. /SAM's set has 24 racc more, which is higher than racc bouns from /RNG already, not to mention it's quite impossible to get 36 STP for QD unless dmg gimp. I'd say /RNG with 5-hit is not worth it, probably still should go for rattk or racc and 6-hit when subbing RNG. Maybe with all the racc Mayhem and QD TP, /SAM is now the best DD sub for ranged spam?

I also messed around with melee TP set, tbh I can't care about melee TP set too much atm. Maybe just upgrade some of the current ones and I'm happy.






It's not a dream melee set, just a small improvement to what I'm using now

Joyeuse//racc Mayhem+1/Steel bullet
Walahra turban/Peacock charm/Hollow earring/Brutal earring
Taranis's harness/Ocelot Gloves/Rajas ring/Adler ring
Sharpeye Mantle/Bullwhip Belt/Ocelot Trousers/Aurore Gaiters

I know this set is not the best cuz I skipped some of the very hard to obtain/expensive TP piece.

Also, PR macros!




Pants has PR recast -5

I also need a new MP set, but probably not going to spend money on it now, MP sets are always my last priority. If W body drop then I'll replace the body, everything else needs gilz so I'll just skip for now.


Tbh, I only have about 5% of the above gears, so needs to work on rest 95% of them. And btw, while I was writing this my laptop has problem again so i can't play, now I feel like I'll never finish those sets ;_________________;

Leveling in Abyssea

Hmmmm ok, so the first thing to do after coming back is grinding to 85 of course! I joined several Abyssea pt, and noticed the dmg output of COR has been up for a whole lot, because all the TP gained when doing Quick Draw. Oh my god I love this new QD update, not just because it increased the WS frequency a lot, also a cheaper option to skill up. (Skilling up is kinda shit now, my skill haven't been able to cap for a lonnng time)


We were EXPing on colibris, I especially love to Slug shot ---> Barrage ----> QDx2 (Actually with good STP setup it is possible to reach 100 TP without QD after barrage) ----> Slug shot, that's like 3k dmg in an instant without any atma, food and Minuet at lv 80. I also tested other ways of DDing, such as spamming /ra with Quicksilver(low delay gun) and high delay guns. Melee TP then WS in Slug shot, Detonator and Leaden Salute(actually that's because amber light were needed for AF3 farm). Long delay guns clearly gets more benefit from this update, since they gain more TP. Now this makes low delay type gun even weaker XDD. Those CORs with 5/5 QD recast merit and ACP body augmented for QD really gonna pwn in terms of dmg output.

I was a bit of D; after the last update because COR doesn't get any enhancement in terms of dmg output, now I'm ;D!

I also noticed that fire shot is more useful than it used to be, since I usually spam ranged attack in fire staff. Mobs die fast, no need to enhance the debuffs with ice or earth shot really.

Now here comes the real question, is Death Penalty still good, or even worth making? Theoretically (I don't own it so I can't test it, I'm just thinking in my head) it's not, at least it's not in pt situations. If it's soloing then it's another story. Armageddon seems to be better, with better aftermath WS, higher base dmg and higher delay, therefore easier to reach 100% TP along with STP gear and QD.

I was also thinking about doing QD in STP gear/roll instead of MAB roll/gear, to reach 100% TP faster. But I'm not sure if more dmg per shot is better or reach 100 TP faster is better. Getting TP when doing QD just opens up a lot of new options for gear build and play style.

I also tried to farm for AF3 feets in Abyssea, appearantly the drop rate is pretty lame and it's like another evil dyna - -. After last update some people said SE is making this game more causal and gears easier to obtain, apparently SE doesn't want this game to be causal at all- -. 4hr of abyssea farming and only 6 AF3 dropped, and most pt can't even drop 6, just 2~3. And that's just the base armor, and there's +1 and +2. Compare with old endgame gear AF3 is not any easier.



So, going to XIV? Not until XIV gets some kind of gun user or pirate class!




I really need to make myself a new magian gun before Armageddon and Death Penalty complete. Currently I'm leaning toward making racc one to replace martial. Racc is actually one of the less popular choice among CORs. WS dmg+10% seems nice and popular, also easy to make. But if I'm shooting this gun kinda lack any additional benefit to enhance the dmg. STR gun hits hard, but I doubt it's going to hit harder than Armageddon. Most important of all, I have no idea what will COR's main WS be at lv 99. If COR gets new pimp WS at lv 99 and it's magical WS or WS with AGI+75% mod then I'm screwed. Both guns can't really compete with Armageddon, and pretty much inventory -1 if I ever complete Armageddon. MAB gun is also a very popular choice, but this gun is even more situational than other magian guns. I'm not a big fan of QD soloing, unless I'm fighting a NM with deadly WS so I don't shoot and only doing QD I don't see much use of this gun. Racc gun seems to be the only way that has it's own way to compete with Armageddon, with much higher racc.

Of course, the best way is to make them all, WS dmg+10% gun when melee TPing and racc ok, MAB gun when only doing QD or Leaden salute spam, Racc gun when fighting high eva mobs and STR gun for ranged attack/slug shot spam. But if I have that kind of time to make them all then I'd better spend them on Armageddon .__.

Things planning to do after coming back:
1.Lv 85
2.AF3 and seal grind
3.Abyssite and Atma grind
4.Work on Captain
5.Get a new gun!

Back, and FFXI looks more beautiful than ever

I replaced my old laptop with a new one, now I can finally play FFXI again. This laptop is intended to play FFXIV, so it's very high-end. Even with highest resolution the game still runs smoothly. Even in Einherjar with 18 people the game still won't lag. It's probably my first time running FFXI with full effect on, and I realized the graphic of FFXI is actually very good, even though it's a 8 year old game.
The weather effect and lighting effect looks amazing, and textures are nice under high resolution. The most important thing is, finally no lag even in besieged or Einherjar, everything just runs smoothly. When there are 20 ppl fighting a mob with all the WS/magic special effect and it looks amazing. I guess I'm too used to my SNES resolution graphic on my old laptop, now I feel FFXI is like a new game - -
One of the most satisfying thing is, macro no longer lag. So I can swap gear more often and do more dmg, or sleep the mob quicker....if my controller stop acting weird.
Well, anyways. Now I'm back, time for level grind!

And.....MORE AF3 ahhh.....(Plus other items here and there)

Ok, I kept using AF3 in my recent blog post's title, but I don't really talk about my opinion about AF3s ._. Now I'm going to talk about Af3s....for real, lol.





Head.

Looks like new best TP piece for COR ranged attack, unless you prefer a Zha'Go's Barbut.
My MKE head is still better for WS, but for ranged attack TP, this wins. Super high racc and rapid shot just pwns.

Now, pirates have 3 pirate hats to use, AF1(+1) for Quck Draw, AF2(+1) for Phantom Roll, and AF3+2 for Shooting, hurray!

Long time ago my friend Agerknux was complaining about my char "doesn't look like COR", now this looks like a new piece to wear most of the time when I shoot stuff and make my char look like a COR more.

I also noticed the set gives Quick Draw augment. Maybe in the future CORs do QD in full set, and no need AF1(+1) hat?




Another "ahhh" piece for shooting.

I mentioned I want to work on a lower hit build for ranged attack set, and need a Skadi pants.
And now SE answered my call. Pants with STP+8 and Snapshot! 8 AGI is just a bouns. Now I can safely remove Skadi pants from my wishlist.



A piece for Quick Draw....err...a piece that pwns all the previous feet options for Quick Draw.
After the lv 80 update RNG gets access to quick draw by subbing COR, plus they have access to higher base dmg guns and bullets. So I was a bit worried about RNG subbing COR actually beats COR as main job for QD dmg, which is as ridiculous as WAR/BLM outnuking BLM main job. I hope COR gets more COR only gears to increase QD effect, so other jobs subbing COR won't beat COR for QD dmg, resulting job balancing problems.



Andddd....

Navarch's Mantle
[Back] All Races
DEF: 9 Ranged Accuracy +7 Magic Accuracy +7 Enhances "Snapshot" effect
Lv. 84 COR


WOW another Snapshot piece!
SE seems to realized that COR's greatest problem for shooting is that alfg9uq94ut@#$%;lk long delay, now giving CORs so many gears to make pirates shoot faster!

I admit I kinda hate shooting stuff and love to melee TP more, or else I'd lv RNG. Put all the costs aside, shooting in EXP/Abyssea EXP pt is kinda lame, I can hardly land any bullets on mobs before they die(assuming DDs in the pt are well geared and killed the mob fast enough). Melee TP gain is way faster with all the haste gear/song/magic. I mostly only shoot stuff on higher lv NM fights to avoid AoE and feeding too much TP. Now with so many gears to enhance the speed of shooting, new True shot JA and new snapshot rolls, bullet spamming CORs may beat melee TP CORs when DDing, unless SE release more powerful multi-hit melee weapons in the future. Damn, if I want to play COR the way I like in the future, using sword and gun instead of only using gun, I probably have to face a lot of "ahh you fail!" comment.

Well, for those who likes to melee for TP, this pwns the old Cobra unit harness:

Taranis's Harness Rare Ex
[Body] All Races
DEF:59 Accuracy+25 "Store TP"+5
LV 84 MNK THF BST RNG NIN BLU COR PUP DNC

Also a very good body piece for other jobs that can wear it if they need acc. All my Cobra unit gears confirmed dead.

I noticed AF3 has a lot of Enhances "X's roll" effect on.
As a support role job, I always believe the gear that enhances the roll effect(relic hat) is more important than DD gears, it's make or break to me. Therefore putting support stats on AF3 kinda makes me feel a little more comfortable, at least not having a relic hat(not having enough luck to obtain it to be exact) won't make me completely fail. And AF3+1 looks easier....or at least requires less luck to obtain than dyna-xarc items, hurray!

I also checked RNG AF3, appearantly it's much more powerful in DD aspect than COR AF3. COR used to be able to wear most of the good RNG gears, such as Skadi, w hands, Zha'Go's Barbut and ACP body. Just not higher base dmg bullets and osode. So some COR gets cocky, thinking they can outdmg real DDs with good gear, looked down on CORs subbing WHM, forgetting their role is always buffing ppl. Most of the DD jobs gets powerful DD AF3, and COR gets half DD half support AF3s, I think it's fair. The gap between a real DD and COR just gets bigger, time to accept the fact that DD on COR is for fun only, supporting the pt is more important.

Gear swap, inventory -1 and more AF3 ahh

I saw a lot of discussion on forums about how good AF3s are, and how old armor became an inventory -1, and how some ppl still believe it's situationally good, which means you can use it, but only like 5% of time. After reading all these I have more ahh.

Ok this game has been always like this, after your job reaches an endgame lv, you need more than just one set of gears, or else you fail, or at least everyone in this game thinks you fail. It's like a crime not to have many gear sets and do gear swaps, and it's also a crime that you don't have multiple jobs at endgame lv. So that's how it ended up ppl crying about more gears added and not enough inventory.

I never have enough inventory in this game, never, and I only had 2 jobs at endgame lv. I can't imagine the life of ppl with 10 or 20 jobs 80+.

I wish I can play blue mage like a pro: TP in one set, WS in another. Cast STR dmg spells in one set, cast DEX spells in DEX set, STR and DEX spells in STR and DEX set, Cannonball in a Cannonball set(STR VIT and def). Then when I get hate I quickly gear swap to physical dmg- set, when I see the enemy casting magic quickly swap to magic dmg- set. When I start casting Utsusemi I macro in fast cast gears, then when I'm casting Utsuseme I quickly macro in spell interruption set, and when it's almost done I quickly macro in haste gears for recast. When I heal I macro in MND gears, when I nuke I nuke in INT gears for INT nukes, INT and MND gears for INT and MND nuke, CHR gears for CHR nuke(Eyes on me). And+HP gears for breath spells. If you can do that, err...I mean, if you have enough inventory space to do that, ppl call you pro. LOL

Personally I like the system of mix and match the gear sets for best performance, instead of grinding the best gears, full time them and beat everyone else. I also don't mind WS animation disappearing after gear swap which a lot of ppl complain about. However, since this game has limited 80 inventory due to PS2 limitations, this gear swap system just gets painful. Job change system makes it worse.

In this game ppl with multiple jobs seems to have an easier life than ppl with 1 job. Even if that one job you have is very well geared. Now you lv mage jobs you need mage gears, you lv DD jobs you need DD gears. And there'are job specific gears also.
That's probably one of the reason why I was so scared of lving another job to endgame lv.

And SE just increased the lv cap, now everyone has to lv subjobs, and even less inventory.

And there are just way too many "situational" gears in this game. I saw a lot of ppl spending points(+ causing some drama sometimes) on a gear in endgame LSs, even though they know they're only gonna use it 3% of time.

There are many "situational" gears I have, but I hardly ever bring it with me. One example is COR relic body, it's only good for
using JA Random deal, but most of the time I don't bother to bring it with me. Wasting 1 inventory for a 20min recast time JA is just too much. In fact I kinda want to throw it away ._. And all those elemental grips I have, I rarely use them.

Now now call me fail if you want, cuz I don't nuke/QD with elemental grips and don't do JA in correct relic .____. Lol gear swap.

AF3 and ahh

Looks like even more current gears died after AF3 released, and this is just lv 85, not even 99 yet.

At least I'm sure my Enkidu's subligar(which is the only gear I obtained from Sinister, after joining them for 8 months), is totally inventory-1 if I get BLU and COR AF3+1 legs. Maybe throw it away for inventory+1? - -


Hmmmm so how do I feel? I probably feel more /tired than /rage. Gears become obsolete and inventory -1 is one thing, having to grind all the way up plus all the subjob and grind all the gears and rebuild a new gear set is another.


And I'm pretty sure by lv 99, SE probably will release new endgame events, and a set of godly lv99 gears that beats AF3.

Also, I bet Mythic is getting harder to finish now since no one wants to do Salvage anymore.(Or maybe become easier because Salvage pieces gets easier and cheaper to obtain)


Ahh probably time to take a break, my laptop is dead anyways.