Looking back..

I found read this recently on gaming site, and they really captured the essence of playing mmo's, so im going to shamelessly copy/paste it here.

Because I feel like this too.

- Every player has that one special MMORPG. You can remember like yesterday as your eyes met over a crowded videogame store; you remember feeling your cheeks spread to an uncomfortable red; you remember as your palms became clammy; you remember holding the box and taking in its art for the first time, slightly trembling with nerves and uttering a wordless “hello”. And then time hurtles forward; you’re looking at a webpage, your hand gently hovering over the “end subscription” button, in your eye you feel a desperate salty tear, and yet your mind is focused and concentrated. Then you click. And it ends. You don’t look back.
But that is a lie isn’t it? You often wonder, dream, and feel nostalgic pangs for your first virtual love. You wander through forum posts, sometimes brave enough to write a message titled “Veteran Player Returning?” or “Is it worth it?” and yet you still feel doubt and fail to finish the re-install.

Good bye FF14!

No time/motivation to play it anymore so I canceled it today.

Merry Xmas!

I am sporting my new set of Dream Boots, Dream Hat, and Dream Tunic.

So now, I say to you, Merry Christmas!

An eventful day

I really made some progress yesterday.
First i got my Botanist from level 18 to level 20, then proceeded to do the lvl20 job-quest for it. With the wood gathered leveling this i took my Carpenter from 23 to 25. I did Willow Masks from level 13 to level 25, and once level 26 i started turning Oak logs into Oak Lumber and the lumber then into Oak Masks. The Oak synthesis was quite expensive in shards. By the end of the day I had used up roughly 1500 wind and 750 earth shards.

After this I started the lvl26 quest of the main-story. And damn, I love these quests. The story, characters and cut-scenes are amazing. The quests are well thought up too. Its a pleasure playing them. I am from Ul'dah so that is the arc I am doing. Politics, ancient deitys, murder and hot women.. How can it go wrong? ;)

Further testing of Firm Conviction

I did some more soloing today, and managed to take on mobs I had no chance surviving on before. Only drawback to Firm Conviction is you cant have any buffs on like spikes or anything. If you do you lose the trait. It is canceled as soon as you put 1 on. But I don't mind face-tanking without buffs, since I have Siphon MP, effectively making me sit at full mp every second minute or so.



Crabs was easy in FF11 and they are in this game also. They have no big surprise moves, and is mostly as tank&spank mob. They go in their shell now and then, making their defense go up but they wont attack in this stage. Once they come out their attack has gone up it seems, so just be ready to heal up the first 2 or 3 attacks which may hit a bit harder. Other than that, its a walk in the park.

Trait: Firm Conviction

Today I bought the Thaumaturge job-trait Firm Conviction, at a cost of 8000 guildpoints. The trait is potentially game-breaking and a must have!

It increases your defense while casting AND for a short duration after casting. Furthermore it stacks up to 4 times. 20%+20%+20%+20% for a total of 80% damage reduction.

Here is an example:
A mob hits you for 100 damage.
You cast Sacrifice and heal yourself up a bit. (The job-trait is applied)
The mob hits you again, but this time for 80 damage (20% reduction in damage)
You cast Sacrifice and heal yourself up a bit. (The job-trait is applied)
The mob hits you again, but this time for 60 damage (Another 20% reduction in damage)
You cast Sacrifice and heal yourself up a bit. (The job-trait is applied)
The mob hits you again, but this time for 40 damage (Another 20% reduction in damage)
You cast Sacrifice and heal yourself up a bit. (The job-trait is applied)
The mob hits you again, but this time for 20 damage (Another 20% reduction in damage)
At this point you have a damage reduction of 80% all physical attacks!
This is where you nod goodbye to the tank and AoE a few unclaimed mobs just to make your tanking a bit more interesting..

Thaumaturge - Time to bring out the staff!

I have come to realize that making my own arrows for my Archer is quite a feat, and I've decided to put the Archer on hold until I have several crafts at around 25-30. Gimping my way up with level 1 arrows is not something I want to do.

So, I decided to level Conjurer and Thaumaturge up. I am in the process of redistributing my points from STR and DEX towards INT, MND and PIE. Im gonna keep my VIT quite high still.
Its seem these jobs are a bit easier to solo on also, and as a level 14THAU i can solo stuff with ease that i was struggling on with my 18ARC :-)

Fun fun fun!

OK, so the start of my FF14 career was a mix of feelings. The was a big improvment of the game from the beta stage to retail. No more lag made a BIG difference. It took me 2 days to get comfortable with the UI. I still dont think its optimal, and i prefer how it was in ffxi. On the other hand I've had a lot of fun leveling different jobs and crafts. The questline is superb. Graphics and sound top-notch.

There are still things that I feel need to be added and soon for this to be a hit, like a functioning AH, a better party search funtion, a proper serach funtion for people, display of partymembers on the map and not just the radar.

Would be fun to see more friends from ffxi join in the fun, but we'll see. I think ffxi-players are notoriously conservative when it comes to other mmo's.

Aion no more, FF14 here i come!

OK so I got rid of my Aion account.. and got in the FF14 Open Beta.
The game looks really good, and I think this will be the one im sticking with now.

Im not going back to FF11, but instead I'm reviving the Wildmuffin in FF14.
Hurray!

More to come, and some shiny pictures also I sure.

Trying an new approach to Aion

Seraphi's move to Aion never really happened, something I really cant understand...But in hindsight it would have been better for me to join up with a legion earlier in the game, make some new friends and work my way up.

A few days I left the Seraphi legion in Aion, and joined with Zealous Iniquity (ZI). Its a big legion ranked nr 1 on our server, and since I joined I have done stuff Ive never done before, like sieges and dregdion runs, upper and lower Steel Rake. Its great fun, but at the same time, joining a BIG legion so late in the game makes it hard for me to make new friends. The legion consists of like 80+ people and I'm not sure I will ever feel the same connection to them as with Seraphi.. But this is the only option for me, since I want to keep playing this game.

I have begun thinking about what to do with my FFXI account, since im not playing much, and when I do, im not enjoying myself. It is also a monthly cost which I could live without. I lost my job recently and I need to cut costs. Paying for i game im not enjoying seems stupid.. So we'll se what happens..

Total cost of Mandau.

As you know I ran a spreadsheet detailing the progress of the Mandau project.

I have now managed to scrape together the currency borrowed from a friend, and I have the final number of gil I personally had to invest in this baby.

That is 42.716.486 Gil. (42,7 Million).
The rest of the currency was obtained with the Interlopers LS through our runs.

Aion, fun!

Ok, so those that check this page now and then, probably have noticed I'm not updating this blog much nowdays. The reason for this is as you probably guessed Aion.
It's a great game and I really enjoy it!<br>

I still play FFXI, but not very much. I do Einherjar twice a week, and Dynamis twice a week, and then I join some of the othr LS events if Im really needed, like Kirins and stuff..
I enjoy the Einherjar event, it short but intense and it doesnt take up the whole evening, giving me some time to play Aion also.

Dynamis is a drag, but I'm still doing it to pay my dues to the LS for helping me with Mandau.

But a lot of IRL stress, and then limited freetime, which is spent on something I dont want to do is not a good combo.<br>
I've noticed that when I play the game and dont enjoy it, Im not the most friendly/positive person and I dont like that.

I have a pretty good idea on what I still want to accomplish in this game and once thats done, I dont really see the point in staying on FFXI. I will still be able to talk to the people on Aion and vent. The day I quit FFXI, I have decided to sell the account, may aswell get something back for the time invested.. Should be roughly $2000, so that will pay for the Seraphi web and Aion subscriptions for awhile.

Augmenting Gear

My first one.. and WOW!
I only use this piece for my Evasion setup and for quick macro in piece for Utsu-Ichi casting. And the augments is spot on.

Paladin

I was bored, so i unlocked (yes it was not unlocked) Paladin, and Im planning on leveling that on and off when im bored.
But Aion is coming out soon, so I wont be bored now will I!

MNK75

I started leveling Monk a year ago, I was never in a hurry to finish it off. But I did last week. I have pretty much all the gear I need for it, just need to get a Black Belt and its done.

Started working on getting Captain Rank for Assaults also. Other than that, the game is still boring.

Not so much FFXI at the moment..

I have recently felt less compelled to login on FFXi. Could be the fact that I don't have much left to work for, or that the game is getting a bit old, I don't know.. Also some of the people I enjoyed playing with are no longer here..

I've recently started playing Aion (MMORPG from NCSoft), and I enjoy that very much.
Its a step in the direction of WoW i guess, but its still got the more adult feel to it that I liked from FFXI.

Several of Seraphi members are currently playing the Chinese version that is out, while we wait for a EU/NA release.

We got a site up at www.seraphi-aion.com 

So what to report from FFXI?
Well, we are still chipping away at the relic polearm Gungnir for Dixus, going slow but steady. Other than that, same old same old..

Assassin's Charge

I have avoided the "Assassin's Charge" job ability up until now, not really seeing the benefit of it. But yesterday I was reading up on it again, and noticed that it will proc on the first hit of weaponskills. (Making it a triple attack).
I never thought it would be worth meriting this since all the weaponskills I have been using up until now are multihit weaponskills..but now with Mercy Stroke, this is a whole new thing. MS is a one-hit weaponskill, so you will get full benefit of the JA.

I merited it to the first level yesterday, and only had time to do once test (since recast is 15min) before I had to go to bed.. but wow!
Testmob was a colibri in Wayom Woodlands.
Did a SA+TA+AC+HIDE+MS.
No food or any other buffs/debuffs on mob.



So today I need to find a better test subject with more HP to see what it will cap at.

Would also be fun to try with food and good bard songs.

Mandau

Last night marked the end of my biggest endeavor in FFXi, and probably any game I have ever played.



This could never have been done without the help and and encouragement by the Seraphi and Interlopers linkshells. Thanks everyone. Now we start on working on the garden fork!
I also want to make a special thanks to my friend Jamibian, I dedicate this one to you.

And here are some screen shots:




(more will be added later)

Animated Dagger! Yes I'm the one..

So, last night we finally managed to get the zone. We went in with less people that I wanted to but everyone did a great job, and this is what happens when everyone work together as a team!

So close, but still so far away..

Above: This is what would happen if I meet that idiot JP LS leader.

So, I have my stage 4 done, have the currency needed for stage 5 (including the last 3000 piece loan).

But, for some reason, it is impossible for us the get into bloody Dynamis-Xarkabard. Yesterday was the 3rd night in a row where we gathered in Xark, just to have the zone stolen right infront of our eyes by a party of jp's, aiming to lowman the zone. I tried to no avail to reason with them, explaining we needed the zone to do a fragment-run. They just ignored us, didnt even bother sending a reply.

I only need that fragment, and I got my Mandau, but..
Sometimes I just feel like giving up..

Woot!

We had an amazing run today with Interlopers. Got plenty of good AF, 2 100-pieces, a successful death squad run, and then we did 2 of the attestation NMs.

And what do you know, the frickin thing dropped! 1/1!
Unfortunatly the other NM didnt drop the Polearm attest tho, but its was a VERY good run.

New look

It's been more or less a year since I did something to the look of the blogg, so I thought it was time for a change.

Wildmuffin showing off his bellybutton while getting cheered on by Wildbone, its a sight for sore eyes. Enjoy!

Wow!

9th of March, It's a day to remember, the day I finally got the long awaited Homam Cosciales, making me 5/5 on the Homam Set.

This also means I got 2 things left on my wishlist now. Hecatomb legs and Mandau, and then my THF is done.

Ranged attack for my THF

When TPing as THF I use my Fire Bomblet, but when pulling and not using bolt (ie. Dynamis) I have been been a bit gimped until now. Really should have gotten this piece earlier but better late than never. Thanks to Daz, Aphy, Brinny and Khazar for helping out.



Ungur Boomerang

Getting good head.

Sagheera in Port Jeuno gives goood head.
It sucks you have to pay for it, but it was worth it. :-)

Dynamis-Valkurm

Today was a pretty awesome CoP run. We got a lot of accessories (incl Valor Cape) and I got 2 pieces.




Sorcerer's Petasos -1


Sorcerer's Belt

What neckpiece to wear for WS on THF.

Today I was browsing the web and found a very interesting Live Journal on what neckpiece to use on THF with Mercy stroke. Yeye, I know, I dont have the Mandau yet, but the point that I found to be was so interesting was that I was in fact correct (weird I know) all those times I've stated I'd use the Kubira Bead Necklace over a Sea gorget.

My summary of the ranking for neckpieces is (based on data below):
SA+MS: #1 Kubira Beads Necklace
SA+MS: #2 Justice Torque
SA+MS: #3 Love Torque
SA+MS: #4 Soil Gorget
TA+MS: #1 Justice Torque
TA+MS: #2 Kubira Beads Necklace
TA+MS: #3 Soil Gorget
TA+MS: #4 Love Torque

I'm just gonna paste the formulas and comparisons here below, but if you want to check the original link it is http://shamayaasura.livejournal.com/4151.html .
So all info below is credited to Shmayaasura.

1-Hit Sa+Mercy Stroke
Soil Gorget
1-hit Sa+Mercy = {(39bD + 12fStr + f[0.83 * f(0.6*125)]WSC)*3.1fTP + 103dex} * 1.914pDif * 1.25piercing
= ((113".25" * 3.1) + 103)*1.914 *1.25
= 1083dmg
To generalize this comparison, to make it more accurate for everyone and not just my own set, I can alternatively not truncate anything. Skipping truncation gives me,
= 1086.4dmg

Justice Torque
Additional 5str will not affect my fStr here. It will change pDif slightly, from a non-crit median of 0.914 to 0.924 with only 2".5" attack.
1-hit Sa+Mercy = {(39bD + 12fStr + f[0.83 * f(0.6*130)]WSC)*3.0fTP + 103dex} * 1.924pDif * 1.25piercing
= ((115".74" * 3.0) + 103)*1.924 *1.25
= 1077dmg
Skipping truncation steps to generalize this, I get,
= 1082.8dmg

So far it looks like Soil Gorget is better here for 1-hit Sa+Mercy. If Str is lower, Justice Torque will become better. Similarly if fStr is lower (ie you're fighting much harder stuff), Justice Torque will also become better. Same if pDif is lower. Given how close they are here for 1-hit, it's very likely that Justice Torque is better for anything HNM level. This, again, is also 1-hit. The more hits you add, the better Justice Torque becomes in comparison.

Now let's take a look at love torque and kubira bead necklace for 1hit SaMS, this time also skipping truncation to favor generalization for each example.

Love Torque
1-hit Sa+Mercy = {(39bD + 12fStr + f[0.83 * f(0.6*125)]WSC)*3.0fTP + 108dex} * 1.937pDif * 1.25piercing
= ((113".25" * 3.0) + 108)*1.937 *1.25
= 1084.1dmg

Kubira Bead Necklace
1-hit Sa+Mercy = {(39bD + 12fStr + f[0.83 * f(0.6*129)]WSC)*3.0fTP + 107dex} * 1.923pDif * 1.25piercing
= ((115".24" * 3.0) + 107)*1.923 *1.25
= 1088.2dmg

2.48-Hit Sa+Mercy Stroke
As mentioned earlier, /nin with traditional merits and WS gear (5/5 triple, brutal earring), the average mercy stroke is 2.48 hits. While there are a number of offhands available, the most common used for DD'ing is still probably blau dolch, which is also what I have.

Soil Gorget
2.48-hit Sa+Mercy =
({(39bD + 12fStr + f[0.83 * f(0.6*125)]WSC)*3.1fTP + 103dex} *1hit *1.914pDif
+{(39bD + 12fStr + f[0.83 * f(0.6*125)]WSC)*1.0fTP} *0.24hit *0.914pDif
+{(33bD + 10fStr + f[0.83 * f(0.6*125)]WSC)*1.0fTP} *1.24hit *0.914pDif)
*1.25piercing
= 1.25*(869.1 + 24.8 + 119.3)
= 1266.5dmg

Justice Torque
2.48-hit Sa+Mercy =
({(39bD + 12fStr + f[0.83 * f(0.6*130)]WSC)*3.0fTP + 103dex} *1hit *1.924pDif
+{(39bD + 12fStr + f[0.83 * f(0.6*130)]WSC)*1.0fTP} *0.24hit *0.924pDif
+{(33bD + 10fStr + f[0.83 * f(0.6*130)]WSC)*1.0fTP} *1.24hit *0.924pDif)
*1.25piercing
= 1.25*(866.2 + 25.7 + 123.4)
= 1269.1dmg

Love Torque
2.48-hit Sa+Mercy =
({(39bD + 12fStr + f[0.83 * f(0.6*125)]WSC)*3.0fTP + 108dex} *1hit *1.937pDif
+{(39bD + 12fStr + f[0.83 * f(0.6*125)]WSC)*1.0fTP} *0.24hit *0.937pDif
+{(33bD + 10fStr + f[0.83 * f(0.6*125)]WSC)*1.0fTP} *1.24hit *0.937pDif)
*1.25piercing
= 1.25*(867.3 + 25.5 + 122.3)
= 1268.9dmg

Kubira Bead Necklace
2.48-hit Sa+Mercy =
({(39bD + 12fStr + f[0.83 * f(0.6*129)]WSC)*3.0fTP + 107dex} *1hit *1.923pDif
+{(39bD + 12fStr + f[0.83 * f(0.6*129)]WSC)*1.0fTP} *0.24hit *0.923pDif
+{(33bD + 10fStr + f[0.83 * f(0.6*129)]WSC)*1.0fTP} *1.24hit *0.923pDif)
*1.25piercing
= 1.25*(870.6 + 25.5 + 122.7)
= 1273.5dmg

SUMMARY:


JUSTICE TORQUE
#2 for Sa+Mercy by this comparison (greater colibri march/madrigal no food), and #1 for Ta+Mercy. Should be the best mercy neck for HNM's.

KUBIRA BEADS NECKLACE
#1 for Sa+mercy by this comparison, and should be #2 for Ta+Mercy.

LOVE TORQUE
Lingers somewhere in between the above two necks and soil gorget for Sa+Mercy. Likely inferior to all for Ta+Mercy. When you're very high on pDif , gorget should be best, but I'm not sure if there's a point where love torque would ever be the best option. #3 by this comparison for Sa+Mercy, and #4 for Ta+Mercy.

SOIL GORGET
#4 by this comparison for Sa+Mercy, and #3 for Ta+Mercy. However, this is probably going to be the best mercy neck at some inflection point of pDif, when pDif is high enough. If not on merit level mobs, this might be the best option for very weak mobs, like too weak to even match. But then again, the first hit of mercy becomes less and less important as pDif rises. Either way, it doesn't matter.

Sky

I've gone atleast 30+ tries on this, so today I dropped my old Buccaneers Knife, got a new one, and voilá. I got it!

Did a 2 Byakkos and some farming done also.

Dynamis-Xarkabard

Today I finally got the much wanted BLM hat from Dynamis-X.




Also got the MNK headpiece (not so wanted, lol)

I bought this today, cost me 2 million, but they will work for both TP and WS gear setups until I get the Homam pants and the Hecatomb pants.