Almace obtained!

After 6 months(yes, 6 months, probably one of the slowest empy on this server being made considering everyone else finish it in 6 days/weeks), Almace 85 completed!

There are many ppl that helped through the process, but I especially want to thank Zeig, who is the one started this project with me and helped the most.

I admit I started it because I feel it's impossible to DD in VW without it, then realized that BLU can totally leech through VW without empy, and kinda slowed down. Nyzul uncharted static forced me to push and finally done.

Sobek's stage is faster than I expected(at least faster than 80 stage), thanks to CW gold chest burn.....60%~70% of my Guk KI are from  gold chests.

It's been over 1 year since I finished a job changing empy, so it's certainly very exciting, although not as exciting as finishing Arma 1 year ago now that empy's everywhere. Still very fun to play with it and zorro all the things, plus that means new play style to explore.

I did an Audumbla challenge after it's done to see how fast I can solo kill as well!

This is the highest WS that popped, avg WS dmg is about 4.5k, if going all out and set every offensive job trait, can kill Audumbla in less than 3 min. 

I used to take 2 times longer to solo kill Audumbla on BLU, and vorpal only did 1/3 dmg CDC can do, guess it's nice and refreshing to play BLU in Abby and able to solo kill stuff.

Now time to practice new WS/TP/spell split on BLU, I tried a bit in dyna, but still not used to new WS/TP/Spell split and ended up soloed less coin than I used to be -"-, but after a bit of change and following old ways more, it's now better.

As for Nyzul, I removed auto-refresh job trait(but keeping AoE erase) for more offensive DD job trait. I still set "you never know when it will be useful" spells like Sudden lunge/magic fruit/AoE erase/AoE sleep. But I'm debating whether to remove refresh or not.....MP isn't an issue in Nyzul with sanction refresh+running around+items, but I still feel unsafe without it ;<  I'm also not entirely sure if I should set blank gaze, really want to remove it for extra tier of Store TP.

I felt BLU is a lot more fun to play with in VW after getting it too, hopefully I can do 3~4k on T3s one day~ But looking at my atmacite...../sigh, not another millions of cruors to upgrade atmacite for my BLU ;<

Provenance Watcher clear!

Learned mistake from last week, this time finally made a successful Provenance clear run! Provenance Watcher dead in 2.5 min!(note: this is fairly fast for a Provenance Watcher zerg, and fairly hard to have pt kill this fast for a PUG)

This time I learned to embrava before enter, and made sure I spam /p chat for everyone to do their CS before entering. Also all the DD in pt are fairly well geared as well, thus able to kill the dragon this fast.

Before I head out I did some research about JP pt(since JPs are pro at VW), it seems their setup is usually involve 2 DD pt with  WAR DRK x2 BRD COR WHM (DD pt) x2, at least 3 BLM, 1~3 RNG, 1 SCH. No usual proc jobs like NIN BLU DRG, and no SAM either. Sometimes have MNK.

I was kinda surprised that NIN BLU RDM no longer being used, and DRK became new bandwagon DD that alliance has to take 3~4x DRK(that's crazy don't you think?) to DD. And so many BLM too.

However I'm not all that comfortable without NIN and BLU, so I ended up still taking it and settle with 2 BLMs. That's probably less stun, but in the end it worked.

Pt setup:
DRK WAR WAR COR WHM BRD    DRK WAR MNK COR WHM BRD    RNG NIN BLU BLM BLM SCH, 1 DRK has rag, all WAR MNK COR has empy.


So 3rd atmacite slot obtained!

I've been trying to figure out which atmacite is the best for 3rd, personally I believe MAB+20 atmacite is the best bet if MAB+20 can give extra 200 more WS dmg, based on the fact that me and Ganu have exactly the same WS frequency, but I had a few more tick regain(from roll/earring/roller's ring), although WS frequency is also decided by how fast you're pressing macro under this condition(against another spellcast user I'm going to fall behind even if our gear is exactly the same). Also done some math earlier, that extra tick regain from atmacite only allow 3 sec faster WS, which may not give extra WS.

That also means regain earring from WoTG isn't as good as TP bonus+rattk, at least not in VW.(Plus TP bonus I can use on BLU too)

Now that's getting interesting ._.

Last Stand benefits from TP bonus, but I rarely use Last Stand, I still use WF a lot more. I can almost confirmed regain earring isn't needed in VW and doesn't give higher WS frequency with roll/atmacite/temp, unless in the future there is another event with no regain buff, and incredibly high eva that I have to TP with regain. I have to agree having a source for regain sometimes is pretty useful, but TP bonus may still have more use.

But Last Stand is also TOO situational to do TP bonus for. I'd say I probably use it maybe less than 20% of time in my life.(partly also because I rarely play COR on T3s where LS is more effective)

So it's really just for universal use, CDC+LS(although I rarely use LS).

Still facing inner struggle ;(

Another note, based on the fact that DRKs dominate the parse in many VW fights, I'd say DRK, especially Rag DRK, is probably the strongest DD atm in this game, or else JP pt wouldn't recruit 4x DRK in ally for Provenance. I'm not 100% sure how it compare with lv 99 Ukon WAR, but what's so amazing about DRK is, an easy to obtain GS like Ig-Alima GS or OAT can make DRK top the parse, almost like 2008 SAMwagon(or 2010 WAR and MNKwagon) coming back again.

Job adjustments

SE finally reduced the recast time of G2 merits as they promised.

BLU: Diffusion merit will strengthen buff duration.

Not sure how much duration is increased, but with relic+2 armor augment, it may be possible to fully haste your  pt members with 5/5.

For ppl that lowman a lot without a mage, it may be worthwhile, since enchainment doesn't make a super big difference in terms of dmg output increase IMO, especially when BLU's dmg moving towards TP/WS more nowadays.

COR:Extra Fold merit now makes reapplying buffs faster, while snake eye now makes next roll higher chance for No.11.

Snake eye is more powerful than it used to be, not that it wasn't 5/5 or gtfo before update already.

Extra fold merit now become a more convenient tool with faster recast I think. If 5/5 can have 100% chance of resetting PR recast time, it will make the process of buffing a lot faster, although I highly doubt it's worth merit to 5/5 considering I almost always carry a No.11 in VW on COR.

I guess my COR merit will stay the old way, although having extra fold to use is welcomed, I never need fold to roll No.11s in VW to begin with.

Kinda want to change BLU merit though......able to fully haste pt member without a mage in pt is pretty attractive ;<

Inventory 80

A discussion about "situational gears" on SE forum almost made me laugh XD

A while ago while I was soloing in dyna, I noticed that my inventory was completely full.


I mean, 80/80 for everything. MH, and all 3 extra inv I can carry.

And I only have 2 jobs 99, sharing a lot of common gears already. Imagine those with 10 jobs 99.

Of course you can argue that you can use porter moogle(although not everything can be stored), or just mule your gears. But that's incredible painful to change jobs if you need to mule your gears every time you change. I mean, what's so fun about playing a vid game if you spend 20 min to gear your job?

That's why I always believe it's only possible to have 1 "elite" job, and never possible to have more than 2. Even if a player is super hardcore with 12 hours of play time a day, he/she just isn't getting enough inv for all those gears, unless he/she enjoys spending 30 min to change job.

And that's why I typically cleared all my currency after a dyna run, because all that bazaar item is hindering gear swap ;<, some ppl call me undercutter, or being dumb to uncercut. But I don't really care, just hate to get inv-3 or -4 for a few thousand extra profit.

I decided to keep COR "elite" with all inv dedicated to it, so sorry my BLU has to suffer a bit and sit with multi-purpose set.

So in the end, time to toss some "situational" and none-storeable gears that all aren't all that useful to carry to streamline my inv/gear sets in general. Time to build some multi-purpose gear set for general use instead.

I typically only have 1 physical spell casting set for all spells except heavy strike due to inventory issues(still can't imagine how is it possible to carry one set for EVERY different spells). I may make an A.spike set after CDC done, but it's going to use existing gears instead of getting new gears. HS gets extra set due to how useful it is and I can't live without it ;< I don't carry B.typhoon set despite I have plenty of AGI gears for it, they're just a waste of spot IMO.

Twilight cape: /toss. I carried it for BLU, and besides dyna I don't see anywhere else I'd use it, even in dyna doesn't make a noticeable difference.

Loki: Very temp to toss. After I got Athos's body I almost never use it again. Kudzu Aketon also covered STP a bit if I ever need that STP for /ra......not that I do STP build on COR anyways.

But I decided to keep it, took me too much effort to get it ages ago(when Turul wasn't easily duoable by majority of players), and maybe, maybe one day I will happened to need STP+7 ;<

But yeah, Loki on the list next to toss.

Taranis's Harness: Kinda want to toss too, since sacrificing all that you can get in body slot for ACC+25 STP+5 isn't worth it.  Really couldn't think of anything with THAT retard amount of eva in game that need to  sacrifice so much in body slot.

Siegel Sash: Kinda want to toss this as well. I only cast Stoneskin when I /RDM solo a few times. But I rarely /RDM and rarely solo now. Additional +20 HP to SS doesn't worth inv at all, so it's really for enhancing magic casting time -8% for solo.

Rarely used item, I used it a few times, very few, but most of the time never bother to carry. I guess keep it for now if I ever need it.

My guns: I know I should stop keeping all those guns I loved, especially Martial gun and Veuglaire which are pointless to keep ;( But love is love ;(   KEEPING ALL MY GUNS!

Isador: I should toss this too, especially after Almace done. Even without Almace this sword is meh as well and only useful for fast cast set. I don't have enough inv for fast cast build set on BLU, I don't use spellcast for fast cast build anyways.

Acheron Shield: This item is also entirely pointless to keep. I don't use SATA cannonball anymore and don't see any situation that would need it, and now that BLU can DW with /THF there really isn't any need to equip a shield anyways, or just settle with genbu. This item is a gift from a friend very long time ago when my BLU ding 75(was my 1st job 75 too), and it was with me for many EG events when SATA cannonball was still useful. Maybe that's why I always cherish it. But for the sake of inv, old toy just has to go.

Good Bye Acheron Shield.

Navarch's earring and Navarch's choker: Both items are completely useless with better choices in that slot. I'm just keeping for the sake of wanting full AF3 set, but honestly, it's dumb to keep them >.>

1x Helm of Briareus: Long time ago when I did Almace I ended up having 51 helms, so that one extra helm just sit in inv. /toss I guess, not that I'm doing a Kannagi.

I noticed plenty of items to toss after digging in MH, I guess that's why my Inv is 80/80 with plenty of "emotional items" =( Time to do some cleaning in my house.

In the darkness

It's getting a bit frustrating....I mean, VERY frustrating that after a lot of planning and reading strat, that nyzul static still ended up falling apart.

I guess, maybe the way I lead the pt isn't quit right, that forcing/asking static members to lv SCH or getting certain gear isn't the right way of doing it, considering the main factor of success in Nyzul isn't all about dmg output....now that I just raelized.I'd say probably 45% luck, 45% organization, rest 10% is gear/individual skill. Now that with static falling apart and getting random replacements every week, it barely work when organization/team work consists 45% of success.

I tried /WAR for the first time, and borrowed some of the TP gear. Although I do noticed increased WS dmg, not sure if extra time spent on sneak/invis is worth it to use /WAR over /DNC, since Req--->QC or A.spike pretty much kill all mobs, that TP phrase is very short, and literally only get to do 1 WS per mob. Depending on the mob, lower WS dmg may not really slow down the killing speed. Maybe need to make all 3 items macro(swift shoes/sneak/invis items) for /WAR whenever going on new floors without kill all.

I have to say Req is awesome for Nyzul, and personally I'd rate it a must have WS for nyzul, I even start to think jobs like WAR or DRK should merit it for nyzul just in case if flan NM popped. My Req was doing 1.8k on flan NM(which has huge PDT-) compare with 400~500 resolution.

Big spike dmg spell is the way to go, not that MP is an issue, so spells like Delta Thrust isn't worth casting.

Was debating whether blank gaze is worth casting on soulflayers as well, it takes time, and other ppl often engaged and paraed before I cast it.

Honestly, compare with recent F100 clear vid I watched, I didn't notice much difference in terms of killing speed between super elite DD and decently geared DD during climb phrase, maybe it makes bigger difference on bosses.

I guess I'm guilty for being such an elitist asshole to my static(when I'm not anywhere close to elite myself either)

I'm sorry, Sziha and Bebetaro ;(

Status obsession

A few weeks ago I saw a CoP VW T1 /shout, I joined it on BLU. Although I already know one of the CoP VW T1(Fjalar) is hard and expected a potential wipe at it, I didn't expect the pt to wipe at other easier NMs, but it did. I immediately found what was the problem-just like how majority of PUG pt wipe, this pt had bad setup(DDs not getting BRD+COR buffs) and killing too slow.

However when I told the pt lead about pt killing too slow, leader immediately replied
"But all those DDs are relic/empy DDs!"

Another time when I see someone making T1 WG VW /shout, he asked for "lv 90 empy/95 relic DD only"

As if relic/empy DD automatically equal to good output, that every factor can be ignored.

I offered to remake the pt, dragged some of the better DDs I know of, and made a proper DD pt. This NM ended up extremely easy.

I found even after relic/empy became easier, it still hold some sort of god like status.....if your DD have relic/empy, you're good DDs, or else you're going to job change. Relic/empy is just like a degree, when the recruiter don't know anything about those applying for the position, relic/empy is the only thing they look at.

I guess that probably placed myself to "lower status tier" in player base. Much like a person with no degree, I have no relic/Mythic, and the only empy I have is the easiest one that everyone already have. If I'm an elitist EGLS leader, want to make a LS with best players, I'm probably not going to invite myself(hmmm sounds weird in this way kinda w) since Arma COR is everywhere on the street and BLU without strong DD build doesn't offer anything worth putting on the table.

And that's the blind spot created by status obsession.

IMO, if the recruiter have no idea how good the DD is when making /shout pt, the best way is not ask whether they have empy/relic or not. The best way is to ask "what is your TP/WS set and your atmacite?"

Earlier today I tried my first provenance run, one of the member complained about how many relic/empy DD do very bad dmg, especially one of the empy DD in the alliance who was pretty notorious.

I can only reply, not everyone care about their job that much to have good performance. Some ppl only do empy/relic well, for empy/relic, but doesn't have the elitist attitude to have the best performance. (note: elitist attitude =/= retard shitty attitude, elitists want to be the best, shitty retards flames everyone else when they see ppl idle in perle)

Of course, the run ended in failure(although as a lead I should take the blame as well, for not baby-sitting enough and not blabbering enough to make everyone do it right due to my inexperience for Provenance run). But this got me started thinking, when I make /shout pt, maybe I should ask for TP/WS set instead of relic/empy or not? Not to mention some of the empy, especially lv85 one doesn't worth shit at all.

One of the example is, during crystal dragon fight, our ally have 2 CORs, both lv 90 Arma. I managed to parse 2nd and 20% on COR, only behind a Rag DRK, plus double No.11 for 3 runs and 1 No.11+lucky No. for 1 run(I'm able to double 11 or lucky number in VW before pop nearly 100% now), while his COR only parsed 4%, didn't do chain No.11 to double 11 everyone as well. Despite both weapons are the same and same level, the performance is just very different.

Now I remember Returner once told me how much he hates his OAT GS because it has no status compare with relic/empy, despite it's stronger than 90 version Cala and apoc.

I guess time to get rid of status obsession. Maybe time to ask other questions besides relic/empy when recruiting for VW pt.

And I guess time to free myself from this status obsession mentality. I have to admit, doing Arma 99, Death Penalty and Almace is more or less because of status obsession. Although Almace is more because it's downright useful, Arma 99+DP is certainly because of it's status.

Obsession, obsession. It never ends, no? But who doesn't play an MMO for it?

Calm before the storm

As I slowly prepare for new nyzul and work on Almace, I checked AH.com for the price of some of the gears for WS(and other items I need for DD in general)

Moepapa Medal:800k  D;


Rancorous Mantle:1.8M   DD;


STR sword upgrade:2.1M  DDDD;


Oce head + 1: 5M    DDDDDDDD;

Hex keck -1: I have no idea (wait for it to be 20M+ due to how hard to HQ)    DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD;

And don't forget all the cruor cost and pop set cost for almace 90(since I will probably have to WF mass brew them to finish)


A few days ago that I was happy to be able to get 100 metals a week, now that I'm back to cheap/broke hell and unable to continue on metals D;

But.......have............to............be............hardcore............to...........clear........nyzul................

Nyzul...................................

/dies

New nyzul

In order to obtain Nyzul gear for new WF/LS set, I attempted first real* nyzul  pt....that means with real nyzul setup like DRK DRK DRG BLU SCH SCH.

I have to say the result is a bit frustrating, only went up to F77 highest with 14 clears, with lucky floors/jumps. In order to hit F100, need to avg 20 floor clears.

There are improvements to be make probably, such as change to /WAR for myself and go finish almace, since embrava + higher lv mobs makes BLU dmg came from WS/melee the most again, and heavy hitting DDs shine. I may also need to change merit to squeeze out few more dmg.

Either way, the most frustrating part isn't gear/skill requirement, it's about how much difference cheats(at least fillmode/Apradar) makes.

And of course, how much difference right pt setup makes.

I was forced to rep a member when he only has WHM BST SMN, and none of the above job works well in nyzul(tried both WHM and BST, just not cutting it)

Next probably have to rep the DRG if she doesn't do OAT polearm or lv SCH, since she is slightly expressing resistance to improve gear nor lv another job.

I've been trying to be a nice person all the time, and nice to my friends, but eventually have to face the cruel reality, that I can't win if I don't kick some friends.

And I can't win if I don't use 3rd pt tool, maybe even forcing others to use it.




God, I hate this event. I'm starting to think that SE wants VW be "causal" event, and Nyzul/legion be "hardcore" one.

"Hardcore" events that requires cheats ;(

And this event turned me into an elitist ass hole picking on friend's gear and kicking ppl, not that I'm not an elitist already, but this event made me actually have to do all the dirty work, kick ppl for real and speak out loud.

Hate nyzul ;(

/endrant

-------------------------------------------
Anyways, some additional notes.
Some discussion on BG talked about apoc v.s rag for DRK, and there are opinions about Rag being stronger DD weapon and apoc better for new nyzul.

It seems that with embrava, it's very easy to solo everything on any job. If rag does do more dmg than Apoc, failed to see how Apoc is better when survive-ability isn't an issue. I don't even bother to waste time on casting stun(unless the mob charms) sleep nor cure most of the time and just keep killing. Personally I doubt BLU is needed with embrava as well. Heavy hitters like DRK WAR still has slightly more dmg output, that BLU IMO is just there as a safety net, for stun/blue magic cure and dmg(in case white magic/WS lock popped)


Now need to seriously improve BLU's dmg, inc huge gil lose ;(