Popsiclestick of Kujata =3

2009-03-18T12:50:00.002-05:00

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:

2009-03-17T09:18:00.003-05:00

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

2009-03-16T12:29:00.004-05:00

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

White mage sub scholar

2009-01-28T14:22:00.002-05:00

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.

It has been a long time...

2008-06-17T21:29:00.006-05:00

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...

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....

Killing the Popsicle

2007-12-27T18:45:00.000-05:00

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.

Slow couple days

2007-07-31T20:29:00.000-05:00

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

VGCats

2007-07-29T23:00:00.000-05:00

Scott over at VGCats released a new comic strip related directly with FFXI :D

Adventure Log

Weekend - Serg. Maj, Dyna-Tav!

2007-07-29T22:29:00.001-05:00

Well weekend is just over. Here is a wrap up ^^

1. Dynamis-Tavnazia!
The linkshell did Dynamis-Tavnazia. This will be 1/3 this summer break. The ultimate goal is to do basic farming and such. The sponsor is Bahloo, who wanted the Bard Cannions -1. Fortunately we got it on our first run. Our only AF related armor..

2. Moar Corsair leveling!
I'm still working on my pirate job. I managed to get to level 59! This job costs boo-ko bucks. Shooting 120k worth of iron bullets has not been fun on the budget T T

3. Gimpy Red Mages
Whats with these guys?

At least make a little bit of effort in the gear. Get your afs ; ;

4. DVS parse!
I decided to download DVS parse. After playing with COR and PUP, I wanted to know how much damage am I doing in comparison to my party. I got one parse in, 1st one failed when I did with PUP due to Haguen getting parsed, and it shows my Cor is doing pretty well :D

I parsed top job!

Jobs were:
Bigboy: Ninja/war
Popsiclestick: COR/NIN
Akihumi: BLU/NIN
Yaapi: DRK/WAR
Roddick: RDM/WHM
Delphinas: BLM/WHM

End result is that

A) Eat food even if you lose it to the colibri.

B) Use your TP as soon as possible. For COR or RNG, this might not be wise with Slug Shots negative accuracy. I was shooting at mainly 150TP+ but occasionally I would risk it if the Drk ever weapon skilled :/

C)Don't suck and pay attention! The Ninja seemed afk 1/2 the fights :/ He barely held any hate, and I was tanking with straight shooting. I had to go to a 4 dice rolling. I was giving the BLM Wizard's Roll, Evoker's Roll, and everyone else got Rogue's Roll and Hunter's Roll

Despite lacking the available jobs for the melee's I think it works out for the best.

5) Sergeant Major
Thanks to Ifurita, Reaches, Sagia, and Elther, I have hit Sergeant Major! I'm one step closer to getting my Perdu Hanger

Yay update n.n;;

2007-07-26T16:13:00.000-05:00

Well I have neglected this hardcore...

I will try to catch up a bit since april. Basically, raided a lot with DB for the past 3 months. Non stop, nearly every day...I will just run through some quick news and updates..

1. Weeee quit ; ;
My friend in FFXI finally gave up. For years, we have played together in 3 different LS's and he finally gives up. He no longer wants to play games any more .

/goodbye

2. Starting COR. .
I tell you, this shit is expensive. 130k for a stacked bullet pouch? I can go through a stack in 1 hour easily. Working on AF right now :D

3. DB is on break.
We get the opportunity to level different jobs and such :D

4. Fanfestival is in California, Nov 15-17!
http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3161543

Hmmm not sure if I want to go :3 It's tempting n.n

TIMMAAAYYYYY

2007-04-04T06:34:00.000-05:00

Well I am officially a Distant Beliefs member now. Will take about a week before I can get into lotting items.

We did a little Ullikami. Managed to get like 2 stones in 2 hours! :D

Yesterday we were able to fight Timmy. I came home to see them aleady engaged with it.

Quickly into the fight, with The Blue Crew and Redifined sitting on our tails, we had a visit by GM Asikesos

There was some arguement on whether if the GM had removed the ability to allow us to sleep. Fortunately, when the GM had left, and some of the other linkshells left, it stopped removing sleep immediately... odd >.>;

Dorps! We got Herald's Gaiters which allows faster movement speed for mages and monks :D This went to Verenna. Congrats.

A strange thing happened with my mule, Cocoapuffs, who is being 2 boxed in Jeuno. My Popsiclestick's log was appearing on him. Go windower

Later that night we had very crappy drop rate for Dynamis Xarcabard. Demitras did receive Assassin's Armlets and Malinn got Saotome Kabuto
Congratulations to all :D

Stupid Gates of Hades >.<;

2007-03-29T22:00:00.000-05:00

Day after Tomorrow

2007-03-29T06:52:00.000-05:00

Well it was an interesting day after a maintenance.

Today I spend it in the Boyahda Tree. Notorious monsters that often take 21-24 hours to respawn are all magically up.

Voluptuous Vilma was up. It drops a rare ring called the Vivian Ring. We didn't fight, nor do I know if The Blue Crew got the drop.

We did however, get Fafnir!

Congratulations Phodoce

Tomorrow should be my last day as a trial. I think I did well. I missed no events... :D

Overdue update

2007-03-16T13:04:00.000-05:00

Overdue crap...

Beat COP finally. I got my Rajas Ring (which doesn't help out my 2 75 jobs, BLM and WHM) but helps out my BLU :D

This is what happens when you piss off Newb BLMs when they ding into WarpII Spell XD

I need to get more pics up. . .

Recently I joined DistantBeliefs linkshell and I am still on trial until the end of the week ^^;

New addition to Kujata n.n

2007-02-20T20:13:00.000-05:00

So I got my dad to play FFXI. As a gift, I got him FFXI for Christmas; 2 months later we set it up on a Sunday -- early in the morning.

Let me tell you, SE needs to make a tutorial guide like most RTS games. Game mechanics are pretty hard to explain through /tell's :/ We went through the basics of the Auction House, fighting, buying from NPCs, Home point, and where the mog house is. It took 3 hours all said and done. With a basic in game tutorial, I am sure it would much easier to explain the game playing mechanics more thoroughly for a new player

Hi Dad:

I also joined DistantBeliefs again on a Beaudicine Dynamis. This time I went as BLU!! It was a bit frustrating forgetting some gear because i was in such a hurry. Here are some pictures:

We also went for a Great Katana (?) mob for relic, but I don't think we had enough heads to get past there :P

Gaudy Harness is mine!!!, I also got my Subligar (panty) for COR/RNG =3 :

Oh and Dad, or anyone who cares, if you need windower go here: Windower Forum

For text/GUI skins go here: Brandson's Work

2007-02-06T23:47:00.000-05:00

Here are some pictures over the past weekend. In a nutshell: got bst to 37, finished some CoP missions, like Black Coffin, helped out DB in Dynamis, saw JoL and AV, skilled up some club to 216...

Me trying to seek for a party. . . /sigh, at the time it was me and another bard. I, unfortunately, DC just when I got to the camp for my party and it turned out that the dishwasher was causing an interruption for my Wireless connection:

GIMMMMPPPPP farming :3

CGFs easily taking down Ancient Goobbue :

Me being the last man standing versus Ultima on CoP mission 6-4, One to be Feared.

My Glory Crown being taken away during my ToAU mission ; ;:

I helped out Distant Belief with Dynamis-Xarcabard.

Unfortunately, Dynamis Lord owned us. They said that the melee's didnt' have poison potions on to avoid being hit with sleepga.:

Me /Welcome'ing Sokhunthea on his leg :3

My death log versus Absolute Virtue. I went with Weeee to watch him and his new LS, Distant Belief fight Jailer of Love.:

Hey its AV up :P

We did an ENM run Like the Wind which was incredibly easy:

My gimpy party members in Garlaige Citadel:

Airship

2007-02-01T00:20:00.000-05:00

XP'd halfway through 34 and decided to help out the LS on Airship Mission. This is undoubtably one of the hardest fights in FFXI. I decided to use my BLU despite the not so optimal party setup of NIN NIN WAR BLM WHM and BLU.

The first fight was a failure. We ran out of time. I noticed BLU wasn't that spectacular in the mamet portion. Those mobs were changing to BLM and -ga'ing us a lot. It was particularly hard to Head Butt stun them. The second time through, it was just the same for this for me. I kept head butt as often as possible.

Omega was very difficult for me as a BLU. With the constant AoE attacks, it kept knocking me shadows down. This time I managed to stay alive by keeping a very close eye on my shadows. However, we still wiped, but with far more time than the first attempt.

With only 21 minutes left (as opposed to 11) we took on Ultima. This was a cake walk the 2nd time around. I equipped my dispelling spell Geist Wall to knock off its defense boost. Stun locking with head butt proved invaluable. We were able to waste this mob with the following results:

Almost to 35 =D

2007-01-30T23:00:00.000-05:00

Almost to 35. Just hit 34 after a nice spurt of xp on Sunday and Monday.

Sunday was also spent on a lengthy and unfortunate NM/BCNM run. Me, Weeee and Heeeeeeee all had a ton of KS seals and decided to just piss a bunch away on the Up in Arms bcnm. This one is where you fight a Kraken type mob in hopes of getting the coveted and newly relocated Kraken club. Unfortunately, like 99% of the people who do this BCNM, we did not get it. Out of 3 runs, we yielded roughly 50k each

Here are two screenies from the first two, I gave up on Screenshotting the third :P

After this we went for Ancient Fagbu (Goobbue) but he was already dead. We spent some time in The Boyhada Tree and went to Quicksand caves to see if any other NMs were up.

We did manage to kill Proconsul but no significant drops here. After that, we gave up for the day :D 60 seals down, and about 60k richer :P

Monday I spent time just leveling up some more. I was able to use my Seedbed soil to call a Funguar Familiar pet, but I didn't see much improvement in that pet versus the tiger...

I utilized the spot I like to XP at in Yuhtunga Jungle at the outpost. I concentrated only on the ranger goblins for the weaker offensive and defense. I think they might be decent XP at 34, but I want to try gaining the next level in a party.

The rest of the night was spent farming teleports using Cocoapuffs. I also bought Erase for 30k!!! It is amazing how the price for this spell has dropped over the years. This was one of the most expensive spell, next to raise 3, and now it is cheaper than a stack of Sole Sushi...

Back up!!

2007-01-28T12:10:00.001-05:00

FFXI is back up. . . for now :D

Adelphia/TW doesn't work with Playonline

2007-01-27T15:01:00.000-05:00

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Hello who may read this. I enjoy FFXI a lot, but I am unable to connect due to my network connection through the former Adelphia connection. TimeWarner is strictly in belief that it is the services of Square-Enix's services called Playonline and not their own. This is false. Other people who have internet services with other companies in North America have no problems. The problem seems to be for those who are part of the former Adelphia services that are now owned by Adelphia.

If you fall under this, please try accessing the website: http://www.playonline.com and access the NA portion of the site. It will not work.

Other people have confirmed this same information. I have posted the following information on different websites, please spread the word!! Also, if you have any technical expertise, please comment...

I have posted the following info at Allakhazam.com and Order of the Blue Gartr's LS forum

For those who are not able to connect to the POL.exe or to playonline.com and are Adelphia/Comcast-> Time Warner please read this:

I personally made a call to Timewarner's support line. Since I am an Adelphia customer, I called 1-866-668-6044 to put a complaint.

o Bypass their tier 1 customer service level by mentioning it is a DNS issue. Inform the Tier 1 Customer service rep that the issue is beyond basic web browsing and a problem with a specific site that exclusively effects Adelphia users

o You will be given a workorder and transferred up

o Give the TIer 2 your work order to proceed with the call

o Tier 2 will give you information that this is a known issue and one of the engineers on Adelphia/TW's end has called Playonline and they determined it is a routing issue. This information is false. Networking doesn't work like that:
- Inform him that the service for both the website and FFXI works for Verizon (#1 competitor) users
- Switching DNS server on your router to Verizon's DNS servers of 4.2.2.1 and 4.2.2.3 works perfectly fine for viewing the website, but you are unable to access FFXI via POL

o They will note that if DNS doesn't work with Verizon after you switched it, then this is a Verizon issue. Inform them then why does the website work with Verizon's DNS but not Adelphia/TW's? This will put them on their back heels because their is no explaination of why the site works but not the game.

o The tier2 will reply back that this is a routing issue on POL's side and that not all traffic is being redirected. This is FALSE no information on the back end will be scoped out for just us, and if that is the case then the Engineer's with POL would have to call up to request that this be fixed.

IMPORTANT PART
o Request that they put the call up to their higher level network engineer's of a problem in accessing both gaming features and the website with Adelphia/TW"s DNS server information. If they reject this saying that it is a known issue on POL's end, demand that they put it up anyways.

o Key is in numbers. Technical support on upper level end will notice and issue if MORE PEOPLE REPORT. Trust me on this, don't take no for an answer.

Technical information regarding how to test Verizon's DNS and confirm that POL doens't work but http://www.playonline.com does:

o To check your configuration of your network:
- Click on Start > Run > type in without quotes "cmd" > click ENTER
- Type in without quotes "ipconfig /all" > hit the Enter key on your keyboard.
- Look at the DNS field. It should show up for Adelphia users: 68.168.64.21 and 68.168.64.22

How to Ping:
- From the CMD prompt mentioned previously, type out without quotes "ping playonline.com" > hit Enter you will get back a

C:\Documents and Settings\User>ping playonline.com
Ping request could not find host playonline.com. Please check the name and try a
gain.

- This will occur with Both Verizon's and Adelphia/TW's DNS. I can't explain this. However, someone pointed out in a different thread that the IP for playonline.com is 43.253.131.24

- Ping results fail from both DNS. Proof comes from NSLOOKUP

-Here is an NSLOOKUP of playonline.com from Adelphia's DNS

C:\Documents and Settings\user>nslookup playonline.com
Server: dnscache7.cdptpa.adelphia.net
Address: 68.168.64.21

DNS request timed out.
timeout was 2 seconds.
*** Request to dnscache7.cdptpa.adelphia.net timed-out

-Here is a NSLOOKUP of playonline.com from Verizon's DNS

C:\Documents and Settings\User>nslookup playonline.com
Server: vnsc-pri.sys.gtei.net
Address: 4.2.2.1

Name: playonline.com

Conclusion to NSLOOKUP info: Verizon's DNS is not allowing non-Verizon user's all features of thier DNS services. Other DNS server information from different ISP's be appreciated.

How to change DNS from Windows XP for non-router users:
-Start Control Panel (or Settings then Control Panel) > Network Connections.
* If you see Network and Internet Options, then click on that
* You will then click on Network Connections
- Locate your connection to the internet. It might be either LAN or wireless
- Right click on it and go to Properties
- Double click on Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)
- Your default settings will be set to "Use the following DNS servers"
* If you want to change this information to test Verizon's DNS, enter the two DNS servers spaced out accordingly with the Dots with 4.2.2.1 and 4.2.2.3
* Click OK > click OK

How to change your DNS for your router
- First identify your gateway's IP by going to Start > Run > type in without quotes "CMD" > click OK
- Type out without quotes "ipconfig /all"
- Identify the gateway server. Most likely will be 192.168.1.1 or can slightly be different
- In your web browser, type in the Gateway's IP address and when prompted for username and password enter without quotes "admin" (works for Linksys routers, may not work for all other brands)
- At the first screen will be your DNS servers. Enter the the correct IPs of 4.2.2.1 and 4.2.2.3 to change it to Verizon's for testing.
- To return back the settings change them to 0.0.0.0

***********Update***********
I made a big oversight that would really helped me prove my case with the customer support. I forgot "www" before playonline.com

With Adelphia's DNS server information:
C:\Documents and Settings\user>nslookup www.playonline.com
Server: dnscache7.cdptpa.adelphia.net
Address: 68.168.64.21

DNS request timed out.
timeout was 2 seconds.
*** Request to dnscache7.cdptpa.adelphia.net timed-out

C:\Documents and Settings\user>ping www.playonline.com
Ping request could not find host www.playonline.com. Please check the name and t
ry again.

With Verizon's server information:
C:\Documents and Settings\user>nslookup www.playonline.com
Server: vnsc-pri.sys.gtei.net
Address: 4.2.2.1

Non-authoritative answer:
Name: www.playonline.com
Address: 43.253.131.24

C:\Documents and Settings\user>ping www.playonline.com

Pinging www.playonline.com [43.253.220.30] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 43.253.220.30: bytes=32 time=233ms TTL=231
Reply from 43.253.220.30: bytes=32 time=221ms TTL=231
Reply from 43.253.220.30: bytes=32 time=222ms TTL=231
Reply from 43.253.220.30: bytes=32 time=220ms TTL=231

Ping statistics for 43.253.220.30:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 220ms, Maximum = 233ms, Average = 224ms

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Office space

2007-01-26T15:19:00.000-05:00

Not really on topic, but I really love Office Space.

I was first turned on to Office Space after seeing some scenes on the Internet. Almost all episodes can be found at Daily Motion. Last night, I tried watching it on broadcast TV. I set aside some time of FFXI for 1 hour, ate some chinese food, and find it was a repeat. . . /sigh

Next time I will check ahead of time if it will be a new show or not. I will probably get a DVD copy to watch it in its all higher definition glory (no more crappy 320). It would be ironic for broadcast stations to neglect and to shut down online web sites that put these on the Internet. If anything, they allow people to taste a show before going in....Test Drives, dating, fitting rooms, etc. why can't network broadcasters embrace this ?

Pictures :D

2007-01-25T23:53:00.000-05:00

MPK By CoP mission NM's near a tower. GG Furyspawn:

Pics of someone trying to MPK CGF in Batallia =D I'm too lazy to block names >.>;

This Gimp wondered why I bitched at her for not using Sneak Attack every minute /sigh:

Really old ones:

Hikikomori

2007-01-25T14:57:00.000-05:00

Someone posted on BG some pics of an Anime called Welcome to NHK NI YOUKOSOU

Which is based on the story of a hikikomori, or basically a social hermit. Although somewhat relating to his plight of being more social inverted these days, but not to his paranoidal schizo level, its somewhat a wake up of withdrawing too much :0.

If you want to see the scene related to him trying to play FFXI, they are episodes 14,15 and 19.

Videos can be seen here

Sample Video from youtube:

In FFXI News, I need to upload pics. I managed to level 25. MPK'd in an attempt to rid of FFXI of some CGF Fish botters.

Upgraded Axes to Tigerhunters. I am really enjoying duo with Carrie on Crabs. Nice Chain #3 with my NPC Mahoyaya (MNK).

Dinggg and out of the Valkurm Nubes

2007-01-24T11:58:00.000-05:00

Yay, got level 23 BST and now I am out of the Dunes :D Horrah.

Found my bird whistle on my mule, who was wearing it the entire time I was xping ; ;

Upgraded body with Beetle +1, and a nice shield Lantern. I've never heard of the latter before. 40k on the AH is a bit expensive for +5 Attk :3

I logged out last night near the CGF's who are fish botting. Where you may ask? Well near the coast of Batallia Downs. Take a gander on how it looks on other person's server:

LOL more:

Discussion: On the BG Forums

First entry

2007-01-23T12:08:00.000-05:00

Today, I decided, "what the hell" and start a blog. Ironically, I personally felt that blogging was kind of a lack for using Internet forums.

This particular blog will be more of a journal of playing FFXI. I may include other bits of info outside of the game as I see it fit. However, the main intent will center around my in-game character of Popsiclestick on the Kujata FFXI server.

History:
I started playing FFXI when it came out on the PS2 for US release. I decided to get this game to really interact with Japanese people. I noticed my Japanese started to detoriate(sp?) drastically.

When I heard that Square Enix was coming out with an online game that will allow people to interract with Japanese people, and it was FF, I decided to get it. I had previously played FFIX and Dragon Quest V (JP) and a very small amount of FFVII at the time. My PC was very slow and I decided a $200 HDD upgrade would be cheaper than buying a new PC.

I obtained my game and attempted to play. I remember the first few days, I couldn't even play. I didn't RTFM and was stuck figuring out how to create a POL account ( ._.); My first character was a white haired Elvaan in Windurst on the Kujata server by the name of Snky.

Snky is a shorter version of my post car friend's term for "Sneaky". It was abbreviated to snky for some reason, and I used that as my in game name (Raven was taken =3) .

I started off as a Red Mage and acquired to level 23 as RDM/WAR. At which point, I realized that I was constantly lacking gil (money) and went with THF. After level 51, I leveled all other jobs to 33. With the cap at 75, it was a painstaking process.

So Thief job wasn't netting me much gil, I thought of taking Bard to 40 to make money off of BCNMs. At this point, the invite process was fast and easy. I managed to make decent money. I was then encouraged to manaburn with Weeee and his Real-life Girlfriend Heeeeeeee. Manaburning is basically taking a collection of 4-5 Black Mages and a Red mage and a Bard to kill stronger than normal mobs for experience points.

Well we managed to get to the early 70's very fast, at the cost of some long XP sessions. In the end, I got burnt out and quit around December 2005 at level 72. I sold all my gear, deleted Snky, and cancelled my Content ID's.

A month roll's around and I got bored at home. My roommate went out on a 2 week ski trip and I had nothing better to do. I decided to start a new character on FFXI! I decided this time around, I will start as a Tarutaru and level all the mage jobs :D My first choice in a name was Popsicle, since a taru with a staff equipped 24/7 looked like a Popsicle to me :P Too bad the name was taken, and I picked Popsiclestick instead.

I managed to level each of my 3 mage jobs to 60, RDM, BLM, and WHM with ease. It wasn't until Weeee encouraged me to level 75 to participate in end-game. RDM was the easiest and the cheapest to level up.

At 75, I joined his linkshell at the time Purple Reign. It was a decently good shell, most were nice. The leader Hiruke is a real perv. I wouldn't be surprised to see his ass on Dateline "Predators". I left that linkshell after a couple events when I failed to get help on a CoP mission.

I cut my losses and the old StarOnionBrigade LS was converted to HNM status. We managed to kill a couple Sky NMs and get people some equip they wanted. The LS died off when Weeee quit during a Promy mission.

After that, I took a 1 week hiatus and came back with everyone off to other linkshells. I joined Alien's LS (a previous SOB memer) but never felt really a part of that shell.

It wasn't until I tried getting help for Charbydis that I felt backstabbbed when him and Heavencloud would not assist me. Camping for it also sucks, so we left.

We, me and Weeee joined a past SOB Officer's social LS, Insyder, called NotoriousEG. It is a small LS with mostly newer people. They seemed interested in completing CoP (I'm a little bit farther than them) and Genbu (Yawwn) but it seems like a nice place...