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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