Saturday 30 October 2010

Blitzer's roll

http://www.ffxiah.com/item/5500/blitzers-die

Apparently, this roll isn't too popular, like it's some kind of plague because of TP-. So time to defend for it.

I recently duo/trio with a MNK (Stealthkiller) a lot, he has cap haste(Full usu+ black belt), plus relic weapon and Atma of mount razed ruin(beast crit hit atma). His melee crit hit can do about 250~300+ dmg on abby NM, and if relic proc that's almost 1k, and crit proc A LOT.With haste/Blitzers roll, it looks like MNK 2hring XDDD. So imagine how powerful it is when combining with MNK with high haste+ crit-hit atma. Especially when his WS is only 1.2k but melee DoT way higher.

Of course, you can argue that BRD with march is better, guess that's why COR isn't exactly popular now.

Oh and btw, huge thanks to Stealth, I finally got both sea torque and a couple of Carabosse pop set. He is one of the nicest person you can find on this server, so don't be mean to him when you see him XDDD.

FFXIV

Haven't post for a while.....
I created a char in XIV after all, to start playing something new cuz I'm kinda sick of XI already. Currently lving Gladiator. Oh and btw, XIV does have COR, Musketeer has a guild, so it's likely that it'll be a playable class in the future. And it's not just random gun user called Musketeer, it's PIRATE! They all dress up like COR in AF!

Well, so far I like FFXIV a lot, although it got like 4/10 from Gamespot review.

Many ppl complaining about bad interface and limited game content, however, compare with FFXI is way better. Basically, if you can tolerate XI then you should be able to tolerate XIV..... I still have no idea how to play XI with a keyboard and a mouse, but I can play XIV with a keyboard and a mouse at least. As for limited game content... I thought XI has even less content when it launched? Ok, maybe we shouldn't compare XIV with XI, we should compare with WoW._.

As for lag in XIV, I d/c and r0 in abyssea or even other areas in XI everyday, so I already learned how to tolerate SE's crappy server._.

Otherwise I'd say XIV is very similar to XI in many ways. The menu, map, control, setting, auto translate, TP, everything. Just improved from XI in many ways. For me it's like FFXI-2, except it's less annoying, faster travel, easier to use map/quest log, more direction in this game. Some reviewers says XIV lacks in game direction so you don't know where to go, tbh, it's way better than XI, which you really never know where to go next for quest. Again, if you can tolerate XI then you should be able to tolerate XIV.

I actually like the class system a lot. In XI many jobs are stuck using same subjob over and over, which is kinda annoying. In XIV it's more flexible. Although I can expect once this game release for 1~2 years, every class will have to stuck with certain ability for efficiency again.

One thing I'm truely happy in XIV is, it's new, and have a lot of new stuff to explore, while XI is all dead and all about gear grind. Look at all the recent game content released in XI, WoTG areas are mostly old areas in the past, Abyssea areas are just old areas also, Add-on missions doesn't even have anything, only lolstoryline and gear. Abyssea looks like it can take a while to do everything, but the fact is, it's only recycling old map, put some Empyrean gear and NMs in it, and that's it. Takes a while to do, but not much stuff really.

So, why am I still in XI? Hmmmm.
Maybe I won't leave until all friends are gone, lol.

Sunday 10 October 2010

Port Jeuno=new WG? 83 stones go go!

I noticed many ppl now stay/set HP in Port Jeuno instead of WG because of abyssea, I also set my HP in Port Jeuno sometimes so i can warp back quickly. Since Abyssea is all that matters in this game I guess Port Jeuno is now new WG?

Anyways.

I obtained both Abyssite of Celerity, and ended up having 83 stones. So I decide to solo some easy NMs in Abyssea-La Theine so i can waste my stones. First NM that comes into mind is Baba Yaga, which is quite possibly the easiest mob(mob, not NM) in abyssea and it drops a key item for Carabosse.

At first I /WHM for magic def bouns and RR in case I die, in the end I found /THF is better for the drops. This NM spams Silencega a lot, so I was planning to save money of echo drops by kiting while silenced, apparently it doesn't work too well because of graviga. Well, this NM drops some nice stuff for sell anyways, so it's still profitable even with all the echo spam if lucky.

Other wise it's easier than any abyssea mob. /NIN is not needed because it only do WS moves and no melee attack. It's WS is very weak, so it's actually weaker than those mobs that melee. Aeroga III is easily stunable. With double refresh atma I almost never run out of MP. Basically just kill like usual, stun Aeroga III and magic fruit when MP gets lower than 75% and everything is gonna be fine.

Next easy soloable NM I gonna try is probably Nahn which drops BLU af3 neck piece. I also want to do La Theine Liege for Carabosse pop set as well, it's duoable but I'm not sure if it's soloable. However having atmas certainly make things easier. In fact because I'm too used to the power of atma and abyssea temp items, I keep forgetting to conserve MP in Einherjar >.>

I'm seriously considering lving a mage mule and dual box so I can take down abyssea NMs without asking ppl to help or something ._.

I also found new abyssea zone is now over populated. Getting ??? to pop seal NMs or claiming seal NMs is a pain, with pts occupying ??? everywhere. I think I'm probably one of the few player that's still farming old zones NM instead of new seal NMs, lol. Guess I won't be getting AF3+1s or a awhile.

Goodbye, GuardiansORagnarok

A few days ago I decided to throw away my GoR pearl for more inventory. This is my first LS, and the LS that helped me the most including unlocking advance jobs, getting subjob, killing rank mission 2~3 boss etc. Ppl like Hushigoshi, Cataclysm, Mesto and Ozment really helped me a lot.

It's dead for like 1 year already, but I still keep it in my inventory. As more and more gear/seals comes in and less inventory space I decided to throw away some stuff that is meaningful to me.

Goodbye GoR, my first LS.

Saturday 9 October 2010

JP BLU v.s NA BLU

One year ago when I made this char, someone (a none-JP player who's in JP community) told me he doesn't like to play with North American players/pts because due to the cultural differences, most of them sucked, only a few NA pts are good. And that's his 7 years of playing experience. I didn't believe it. However as I play more and more, I'm starting to agree with him.

Ok back to the topic.

Yesterday I had some lowman Abyssea NM killing action with Stealthkiller and his friends on BLU, and after yesterday's experience, I can't help but once again /rage when I saw thread like this. (And in case you misunderstand, Stealthkiller's pt is awesome)

http://www.ffxiah.com/forum/topic/12549/magic-accuracy/

Basically, if you ask how to gear a BLU, or what weapon trial to do for BLU, NA community will tell you this:
Go for STR sword, stack STR everywhere until you're fking awesome. If your dmg is too low, you're gimp.

And if you ask JP community they'll tell you:
Macc sword is more beneficial for BLU. On higher lv NMs and some new NMs head butt stun proc rate gets resist very often, so using MACC sword helps a lot. BLU can't proc stun=gimp.

This demonstrates the fundamental difference between JP's play style and NA's play style. They're willing to sacrifice personal epeen and dmg output for the benefit of the whole pt. And since this game is made by JP, JP's way of playing seems to be more successful. Just my personal experience.

Oh and btw, the point of view of 14th post of the tread is invalid, you can't stun shit with 4.5 sec casting time blitzstrahl. You can't stun any mob WS and most spells because the casting time is fking long, not to mention it dries your MP pool if you're not in Abyssea. 17th post is somewhat valid, no test has been done to prove how effective MACC is when trying to proc stun. If there is any reason to stop me from making a MACC sword(planning to make one after STR and PDT- sword done.) It's probably because I'm not sure about how effective it is, not because it gimps the dmg.

Many NA player view a player good or gimp by their dmg output. However, can we really tell if a player is good or not by looking at their dmg output? Can someone's contribution to the pt be determined by their dmg output?

Once I did a T2 ZNM run with Sinister, and when I arrived I saw the pt half broken, many ppl died and they're kiting the mob and waited for pt to recover. I saw Sabre in red HP so I tossed him some heal, and he was very surprised that he was healed, because no other mage in the pt was healing him, and he was healed by a BLU, a job traditionally used as a DD. When I farm for gilz in abyssea with Orih and Nabasheen, Orih was also surprised that I was able to main heal and keep everyone alive on BLU. I wonder what kind of BLUs they usually pt with? Spammy spammy BLUs?

Once I asked Serafyn why he choose to merit Diffusion to 5/5? The recast time is so long even when you get it to 5/5. He replied because he can buff and help his pt more often, and his pt member is usually very happy when getting buffed. And he is well aware that putting merit in Diffusion will make his dmg output gimp. I actually agreed with his opinion a lot. If I'm looking for a BLU in certain lowman NM hunt event, I'd rather find a BLU with 5/5 diffusion with a sense of what to do for the benefit of the whole group instead of a BLU with 5/5 Enchainment and aim for highest dmg output.

Sometimes when I DD on COR ppl told me I'm very good at this job because I'm able to pull out decent dmg output on COR. However, how good a COR is can not be determined by it's dmg output. In order to perform good dmg output a lot of sacrifice needs to be done. Such as using 2~3 buffs instead of 4 so DD buffs stay on COR as long as possible. Use fire shots + fire staff(HQ) combo when shooting for even more dmg instead of Ice/earth shots which makes Para/slow stronger but less dmg. /DD instead of /mage and lose support abilities and such. However, give 4 buffs to the pt is better for the whole group, using ice/earth shot is better for the whole group, and /mage is better for the whole group, even just for the sake of Stoneskin when getting hit.


In the end, dmg output has nothing to do with how good a player is. Dmg output is just epeen, but doesn't make the event more successful. (none-relic)DRK/SAM can do more dmg than DRK/NIN, but they become a MP sponge if they don't know how to control hate properly. Besides dmg output, there is something that's more important in the pt. This cultural and playstyle difference between NA and JP is possibly why every NA abyssea pt I joined was full of death and not going too well in terms of EXP/hr and drops, and every JP ones I joined went well and gives decent EXP/AF3 drops.

Last Abyssea - Attohwa run we wiped against Pallid Percy and someone said headbutt stun won't work. But I tried stun spammy spammy on Pallid Percy yesterday with Stealthkiller's group and it worked just fine. It works just fine all the way until the end. So stop just STR all the way then go D; when stun won't proc.

By the way, after yesterday's stun spammy spammy night I also found Blue magic skill seems to affect the proc rate way more than other stats when fighting higher lv NMs. I used to have very hard time landing stun when fighting abyssea NMs before I cap my skill lv. Yesterday my blue magic skill lv finally capped and the stun proc very often, now I feel like I'm pimp like a boss! If I can push my skill lv a bit higher, it'd proc even more, making NMs lose even more turns and reduce the number of members needed during NM hunt.

And since blue magic skill lv affects the proc rate a lot, I'd say this item is underrated.



Ah the image is a bit small, but it's

Symbios gloves
[Hands] All Races
DEF: 20 STR -4 DEX +4 AGI -4
Blue Magic Skill +5
Lv. 77 BLM / RDM / SMN / BLU

When this item was out, everyone was like oohh STR-4 on hands, inventory -1!
It dropped last time and no one bother to lot, like this glove is some kind of plague ><

No this item is underrated. Haste +3% on hand slot doesn't make a huge difference on recast time. And from my personal experience blue magic skill lv seems to outperform the MACC+ BLU can get on hands.



Oh and btw, I found BLU is actually easier to get EXP pt invite than COR now. Sometimes I can turn pt flag on whole night on COR and no invite :<, but once I switch to BLU I got invite fast D; Once I /anon(I forgot I was /anon) and sent a /tell to JP if I can join his abyssea pt, he straight ignored me like most of other JPs. 10 min later I run into him and when he found out I'm a BLU by checking me he sent me an invite right away. I guess that's probably because Azure light jobs are hard to find and many jobs can give perle/red light. I also found my LS asking me to come BLU for events more and more. And I'm so not used to such a big change :O

Wednesday 6 October 2010

Atma > Gear

I spent whole weekend to get my FFXI working again, and also got my Atma of the Stout Arm and second lunar abyssite. This atma gives STR+40 and lots of attk/rattk. Everyone, including myself was very excited when we got it, like we got some kind of god like gear. Now I wonder if the era of Atma > gear is here.

When new STR+6 ring was out, everyone was like :OOOOOOOOO, because it's 1 STR more than old Flame ring.
Now compare with STR+40 or STR+50 Atma, a few STR improvement on gears is so small that's is almost neglectable.

Probably the main reason why I'm focusing on getting COR AF3 seals instead of BLU AF3 seals. +8 STR +8 DEX 4% haste on BLU legs is so godly compare with old +4 STR +4 enkidu and 3% haste pants, but 4 more STR, DEX and 1 more haste doesn't make a huge difference when comparing with +40 STR or +50 STR atma.

Now with 2 lunar abyssite access, my BLU gets fast cast, 5MP/tic refresh, +40 STR and decent amount of attk for more DoT.
For COR, I used Atma of Heavens for MAB and Atma of Stout Arm for STR+40 and rattk+. But I found my Uggalepih pendant almost never active because of refresh, in the end it's only MAB+2 if I use Atma of Heavens. I'll probably try Atma of Sellsword + Atma of Stout arm combo next time, until I get Atma of the drifter.

Friday 1 October 2010

Annnnddd..... Problem continues

Just as I finally finished updating FFXI, I found it unplayable for no reason. The whole game now runs in 1~3 FPS, and I have no idea what happened. I guess this invisible power that's stoping me from playing FFXI just won't let me go huh?