Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Nas with torrenting mmmm and bruu toof
http://www.gearlog.com/2009/03/iomega_storcenter_upgrade_adds.php#more

Ohio legislator proposes a bill to give $4k-$5k voucher for new car purchases
http://www.autoblog.com/2009/03/18/report-congress-members-drafting-cash-for-clunkers-bill/

Too bad I already get 40mpg with my 2001 Civic LX ; ;


Wow this is an amazing rendition of Sore ga Aideshou of the Full Metal Panic! Fumoffu OP:

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Get More Malmage from Your Equipment with Augmented Items! (03/17/2009)

Malm is a unit of measurement equivalent to miles




"As illustrated above, players will be able to customize certain pieces of equipment by adding two augments of their choice to supplement the item's base attributes. This new feature will allow for two pieces of armor bearing the same name to possess distinct capabilities, specially tailored to complement the skills of the wearer.
A wealth of heretofore unseen diversity in adventuring attire awaits you!"

This adjustment of potentially adding value to statless gear. Often these statless gear pieces are not cost productive to make and are usually used for upgrading other pieces of equipment through crafting or quests. The real questions remains:




1) How will this work with macros?

Two pieces of armor with identical names would be difficult to macro considering which armor piece would be picked. I can think of only 2 ways of handling this: A) Make that type of armor piece rare to the user and B) a uninque command of macro


2) Will this be limited to current gear that has stats already?

Current gear with stats already can be further overpowered with stats. I doubt this would happen and would be relegated to only a portion of available gear.

3) Will it include weapons?

Highly doubt it.


4) Is it worth speculating on an increase in value for stat-less gear prior to the update?

I doubt it. There are too many ways this can be implmented and speculating with purchases of these types of armor prior to the update would be extremely bad. It is entirely possible that SE will allow a person to pick an armor piece from an NPC and be given it based on either some type of new or existing point system, gil, or quest.

5) If the upgradable gear is not obtained by a quest, how will this impact the economy?

Some quasi mid level gears will be significantly impacted. There are huge ranges in levels where gear is entirely made of pure fail. There is too little info to make any assumptions on the impact, so it is better to leave it as is...




AIG and any failed business for that matter should be making public apologies. Let's put some faces for the financial burden us tax payers will have to face. Too bad Americans are too selfish to "man up":

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE52G3BQ20090317



WATER BALLOONS IN ZERO GRAVITY!!! :P

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1175950814378468079

Monday, March 16, 2009

Playing less FFXI, so figure I would upload some interesting tidbits I found interesting throughout the day =)


Listing of Intel motherboards over the years:
http://www.tomshardware.com/picturestory/498-intel-skulltrail-badaxe.html


Segway+Theo Jansen sculpture = this cool thing from Louisiana university ME group



I remember seeing these in an old commercial for BMW:



http://www.playonline.com/ff11us/addon/
New expansions coming out. Customizable stats on armor sounds sweet. Warning nifty site, spelling error (equipent wut?), and music playing. Expansion is expected to come out in the coming weeks and will be $10.



Came across some interesting reading. Apparently some renting corporations are also undergoing bankrupcy due to the dwindling property value versus income from renters. When renting companies default, what happens to the renters?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29697413/


Enjoying more and more anime these days. This essay has a good interpretation of where anime is heading towards in America and how some history. I would however, suggest copying and pasting it into Word or Open Offier writer, else your vision will get f'ed up and see blue:

http://www.animeyume.com/site_general/justwhatisanime.html

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

White mage sub scholar

WHM/SCH

Pros :

1) Cut in 10% to all light based spells
2) raise all appropriate enfeebling, dark, and enhancing skills to B+
3) Two 1-minute job abilities that can either reduce recast timer and cast time or reduce spell cost
4) Access to Drain, Aspir, Dispel and Sleep I

Cons:

1) Not switching to the correct “Arts” spell will cause a penalty in cast time and spell cost. Enfeebling is excluded
2) One of its strengths in reducing cast time and spell cost is a job ability
3) No access to /blm spells like warp, escape and tractor

White mage has come a long way throughout the years. With the addition of the scholar sub job, the abilities of a whitemages sustainability and autonomy in some situations are increased. The most notable benefit is immediately noticeable in dynamis for a whitemage. Setting up simple macros that can return 60-150 MP once a minute is incredibly useful. Another benefit during dynamis are quicker raises for those unfortunate who die. The negative side effects of subbing Scholar are negligible due to many black mages who can tractor the dead and escape is unnecessary. Also a side note about this entry, the presumption is that the reader utilizing information here is using a level 75 Whitemage with the appropriately leveled Scholar sub of 37.

Magic reduction vs Conserve MP:

In many arguments regarding sub jobs for white mage argued on mitigating MP usage versus MP returns from auto-refresh when using either black mage or Summoner sub jobs. Over time, Conserve MP returns roughly 8-10% MP but is only most notably useful when casting frequently as possible. There is much down time during dynamis and MP may or may not play as a factor. However, since the argument of procurement rate of conserve mp versus a straight reduction of 10% per spell. Overall, Light Arts, sublimation, and Aspir will always win over conserve MP or 1mp/tic auto-refresh (20 mp per minute).

Enfeebling:

With the increased skill in most magic based skills (Enfeebling, Elemental, Dark, Divine, and Healing Magic), many jobs can diversify their abilities and suit themselves into different roles. In the case of white mage, you can fulfill roles that were once exclusive for red mages. With a capped skill of only 225, a typical white mage would find it difficult to land any enfeebles like Silence, Paralyze, Slow, or Blind. Subbing scholar negates this shortfall. Due to skill enhancing gear and a boost of skill from C to B+, I found that enfeebling was laughable. While in either Light or Dark Arts, a white mage can perform these during situations in which time permits and especially if the red mages are fulfilling other roles.

There are some notable gears for a white mage subbing scholar, wishing to increase their flexibility and use:

Cleric Mitts (15), Healer's Briault (10), Enfeebling Torque (7), Alturistic Cape (5), Elite Beret (4), Avocat Pigaches (3), and Enfeebling Earring (3). My budget of using the appropriate HQ staff and the following gear yields a decent accuracy rate: Cleric Mitts (15), Healer's Briault (10), Spider Torque (5), and Enfeebling Earring (3). This gives 33 skill over 250 → 283 skill or 7 skill over A+ with no gear. I would suggest having one macro to equip all available enfeeble gear and it jumping to a different palette to select the appropriate staff + spell, explanation of this is in the Aspir section.

Aspir:
The first few things that need to be understood about Aspir is that it is based on factors independent from individual stats of a character. Dark magic skill, weather, day, magic accuracy, and gear are the only factors that impact Aspir returns. Apir is a 9 MP Cost spell during dark arts and 11 MP during light arts. Typical gear is Dark Staff (Pluto's Staff) / Diabolos Pole, Dark torque, Dark earring, Anrin Obi, Astute Cape*, and any magic accuracy related gear like Cobra gear from Windurst shadow gear and rings like Balhran's and Omega.

Macro for Aspir:

There will 3 needed macros to perform this. While many see utilizing a Windower based macro is more convenient, I will give tips on how to utilize elements within the game. The first macro is to change the gear needed to land an accurate aspir. Here you can set either 5 lines of gear of at least a dark torque and a Dark Staff, which are both quite affordable pieces of gear. The 6th line should be left available to change the palette set to the next one using /macro set 2. With the advent of 20 macro books, it is appropriate to give each job their own book. Presuming that you set your macro for whitemage on the first palette set, you can just press the macro a couple times in a row to perform multiple tasks. For example:

/equip main “Pluto's Staff”
/equip sub “Dark Grip”
/equip neck “Dark Torque”
/equip ear2 “Dark Earring”
/equip ring1 “Omega Ring”
/macro set 2

The next set of the macro should perform the task of the changing in Arts from Light to Dark and then performing the Aspir:

/ja “Dark Arts”
/wait 1
/ma “Aspir”
/wait 6
/ja “Light Arts”
/macro set 3

The final macro will undo the gear swaps from the first macro and return the palette set to your primary palette.

Final thoughts:

Target mobs vary in dynamis for an inexperienced white mage. I often see some whitemages utilizing an elemental seal then aspir, but the recast timer and gearing is not worthwhile. Also, most whitemages will not know which mobs to target. To have maximum return, I would recommend only aspiring during times that you are not needed to cure, haste, repose, or other normal duties. It will take you roughly 15 seconds to complete the Aspir routine. Your main target should be summoned avatar pets, claimed statues, wyverns, and monsters with mage jobs. Wyverns are often the most aspired mobs in dynamis. They only have roughly 1000 MP and will go dry many times before you get a chance to cast. Statues are strong in offensive damage but extremely slow – cast on them when they are far away and hopefully before they die. White mage, Red Mage, and Paladin mobs often cast shell on themselves and are generally more resistant. Avatars are prime targets, for their minimal resistance to magic to an element that no avatar in dynamis, sans Diabolos, will resist.


Sublimation:

Once again, returning to the need to sustain MP in upper levels and during extended fight situations like Dynamis, the Scholar sub job provides another method. This job ability available with a level 35 Scholar sub allows the user to drain HP to store up MP for later use. This storing process carries over during zoning, but lost during job changes or level capping areas, allowing the /SCH or SCH to store the available until it is needed. Stoneskin mitigates the lost HP during the Sublimation accumulation process. Entering your mog house while building the mp pool will cause the sublimation effect to wear off but a filled pool will not be lost.

There are some rules to the complex sublimation process that most be understood to effectively utilize it. Sublimation reduces the user's HP at -2HP/tic while storing 2MP/tic into a pool. The maximum pool is 25% of the max HP prior to any gear that gives MP to HP gear. Gear swaps during this process is not applied. Charging will stop if your HP drops to lower than 50%.

There are 2 stages of Sublimation used for the same ability. Going from Active to complete will not remove an invisible status but using the completed status to MP will cause invisible to drop. You can not have sublimation and receive refresh. Sublimation will negate or remove a Refresh status.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

It has been a long time...

Ohh so I decided to return to FFXI after 1 month in January...

Since then, SE has decided to step up their security a notch. They have been more liberally helping hacked accounts and implemented an in-game keyboard. (Ironically, I still recommend to save your password if you are lazy).

In over the 6 months since my last post, things have changed drastically in the game:

1) Einherjar is fixed! (*insert trumpets blarring*)
Sadly, Distant Beliefs hasn't really done any Einherjars. I did manage to obtain a Buccaneer's Belt.





Sadly due to retarded deflation, I can not play this job...
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2) Brings me to economic status
Seriously, everything is in huge deflation. Only big ticket items remain high. My coin purse is at a dismal level (sub 100k ; ;).

3) New Job additions
There were several newly added jobs with the new expansion (Wings of the Goddess). I first attempted to level DNC during a haitus from Distant Beliefs. In the duration of 1 month, I managed to level it to 67. The job is promising and entertaining, but overall, it has no merit in end game. I may discuss more about this in a later date. Dancing to buff and cure is an interesting twist to the standard format SE has implemented over the years.

I am more excited about Scholar! The main has become a formidable job. It has the ability to combine many of the benefits of RDM, BLM, and WHM into one job but lacking only Teleport, Tractor, Haste, Refresh, Stoneskin, Blink, Enspells, and Warp. The true benefits comes with subbing it to White Mage.

Up until Scholar's release, I have been lamenting over what jobs I have to keep my attention going. Scholar offers the unique trait in increasing magic skills to the main to at least B level. Coupled with Aspir and Drain, WHM/SCH can effectively sustain a decent MP Pool throughout a dynamis. On top of this, appropriate spells for White or Dark arts allows 10% reduction in casting and cost for spells. This totally over rides and true usuage of /blm besides warp, tractor and elemental seal. Enfeebling is also punched up a notch. I often bring appropriate gear for enfeebling and macro them in for silence, slow, or Paralyze when the time arises.

I'd recommend any WHM to have this macro:

/ja "Dark Arts" < me >
/wait 1
/ma "Aspir" < t >
/wait 6
/ja "Light Arts" < me >

You will have so much fun in Dynamis :)

Another benefit is a double edged sword called Sublimation. It effectively stores up 25% of your HP by reducing your HP overtime at a rate of 2hp/tic. Unfortunately, this can not be combined with Refresh. I have attempted whm/sch in a merit party. My results were mixed and recommend a whm to utilize this job combo on colibri's with caution. The real trick is to use Penury (reduces cost of MP by an additional 50%) on Cure V's n.n

3) Newly leveled jobs by the Pstix!
I have newly leveled Paladin and Black Mage to 75. I have to admit, trucking up the road for Paladin was a tad tough but decent in comparison to black mage. I would not have attempted to level my BLM past 67 if it wasn't for Anniversary Ring. This let me sky rocket my XP to 71 decently where I struggled through killing Puddings. Both jobs lack any real merits or gear worth mentioning and I am still learning to use them.

4) The battle is ever going in the past!
With Wings of the Goddess, there is a new battle system called Campaign. It is a mix of Besieged meet Conquest. Enemies and NPCs of the main cities are in constant siege against each other. The fun is that the Experience points are gained easily through certain actions on yourself and others. While this may be abused slightly (I'm looking at you bards!), it is exciting and rewarding! I'd suggest going here for a run down on how to obtain points effectively. My best recommendation is to use a job that can mix both healing and damage while sustaining survivability. Paladin subbing Dancer makes the best combo of this and are nearly impossible to take down :D

5) In closing
HNMs are now upon us in WoTG. We have Ixion and Sandworms spreading our linkshell thinly amongst events. While the fights are interesting, the loot pools are sometimes mediocre and requires a lot of effort to claim these monsters. SE has made the new monsters spawn in any of the 9 regions in the past every 24 hours and the fights are intense. I might add more on this later....

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Thursday, December 27, 2007

Killing the Popsicle

Account deactivated

Due to thread from here: http://bluegartrls.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=27042&start=990&st=0&sk=t&sd=a

It is apparent that SE is not doing anything about stolen accounts.

To avoid the loss of Popsiclestick and Haguen/Saintclaw, I have decided to deactivate my accounts in not only protest but for protection.

And as a quick update:
Got Duelist's Chapeau, Dalmatica, Fortitude Torque, Leveled SCH to 37 (best sub for WHM by far), and got Saintclaw level 75 through Campaign. WoTG is a decent expansion but small by far.

Hopefully my deactivation won't be a long time. I will miss my friends and helping my dad. Take care.


Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Slow couple days

Leveling a job can be pretty rough. Unfortunately, it feels like Corsair is one of the most expensive jobs to level up. With the parser program, I've become more skeptical of party performance. With my attitude towards people playing better, I often end up being very cynical of damage and experience points per hour...

1. Assault Sergeant Major
Started to do some Tier 7 assaults. We, my group, often does this in order. With only 3 tags, we did the first 3 of tier 7 and winning them all :D

Azure Experiments was a cake walk. The basic strategy is straight damage and clean pulls. Magic damage seems far superior in this one. 3 types of Lamia monsters, RNG, BLM, and some other job were easily taken down. Plus, we only had to fight 2-3 at a time, repeating the process 4 times. The enhancements/penalties were annoying, but nothing significant.

Blitzkrieg was by far the most fun I ever had in assault. Since the monsters rush at us 20 at a time and they only have like 400 HP total, they died ridiculously quickly with my BLU :D I wish I could of Screenshot it, but it was far too hectic. The primary damage comes from Battle Dance and Frypan. I had Grand Slam equipped, but it was marginal damage. Using those two and maybe Flying Hip Press would be sufficient damage. Our setup was BLU BLM BLM RNG and WAR. Two BLU and 1 WHM or BRD would be awesome and fun. We copped out and went for the quick win -- yielding only 700 points

Wamoura Farm Raid was a straight forward fight. The BLMs made the predominant damage on this one. Wide scan was a big plus here. Easy win.




Now I am 15/25 points until my Perdu Hanger!!!

2. Lighting the ole' gil purse
I took a short party again today. It was with Bigboy again. I tried to show them the parse damage and it was measly.
Setup:
Popsiclestick: COR/RNG
Bigboy: NIN/WAR
Tubooku: SAM/WAR
Knighthawk: BLU/THF
Exodius: PLD/WAR
Lynxo: RDM/BLM

We were fighting Defoliators which sucks without any WHM or /WHM. I had haguen with me to help with curing and -na spells. . . Our XP/HR was a horrible 3k/hr. Very very sub par...



I tried to explain that some of the other people were parsing extremely low. The Ninja parsed just 1500+ more than me. I was highly distracted with curing and doing my dice rolls to parse higher :/ This is sad... Tubooku did very well, and from what I saw on his non-/check'ed gear, it looked decent.

When I explained their parse results, no one in the party had a clue what a "parse" was. . . oh well...

3. Odd picture

I was farming with Saintclaw, and got 2 stacks of Tree Cuttings :D



4. SPOILERS ON RotZ Mission 16!!

So I did this with 3 other linkshell people. One suggested we do 2 RDM/NIN and whatever in the rest since him and his brother Heavencloud duo'd it. I went as the other RDM/NIN

Setup:
Popsiclestick: RDM/NIN
Cosworthrs: RDM/NIN
Spiqo: MNK/NIN
Rathclav: WAR/NIN
Nelsonp: WHM/NIN
Gamemasta: BRD/NIN

The fight was insanely easy. Gamemasta only died because he rushed the second form. . . Strategy is to just have 2 RDM's sleep the orbiters and melee kill the boss. It will cast -Ga spells and some Ancient Magic mostly. There are some Job abilities but I didn't notice much of at all...





Lion ; ; RIP




Yes I am horrible at taking screenshots at critical moments :P