I’ve been doing a lot of thinking as to what jobs I want to be associated with and level. When they raised the level cap I had already gained level 75 with PLD, DRG, SMN, BLU, and RDM (in that order) and was working on BLM.  And with Abyssea style exp I knew I could [...]

You guys know I don’t usually comment on updates. I just let it roll, suck it in, hope for the things not to be IMPOSSIBLE to obtain and pray. For what I’ve seen so far, the new AFs are pretty cool. I really liked the PUP’s hat (…. I know) and specially Corsair’s pirate new

............................Looking a little closer here......this set seems to be based off the ShadowLord Armor from Campaigne. (Specificaly meaning the Head Gear)

........................... Incoming ShadowLord lookalike DRK AF3 Body! ~BAM


Picture from "Clicky"

With the recent preparatory update for Final Fantasy XI, players immediatly began scouring the data files in the hopes of uncovering some of the new gear we can look forward to with the game’s early September update. Among the things found were three new maps that are going to be used for areas in the Scars of Abyssea add-on. These maps are: Misareaux Coast Attohwa Chasm Vunkerl Inlet Does this [...]

........Black with Blood Red inserts

wild dragon chase: Dat Mining FFXI. Check this out for images of the new AF v3

Because of the Gyaiko incident a few months ago, several players transferred to other servers, namely Sylph, and thus cutting our Ballista population in half.  Since most of Ballista players are JP, matches during NA times are considerably smaller, but there are usually a handful of JP, like Aphar and Kyanos, who never sleep.  Sadly, [...]

Well, I got the same augment as before without the AGI-1, INT+1, and MND-1.  I guess I’ll keep this new one and dispose the old.

I feel tonight marks my undeniable descent into madness.
I purchased my first HQ Elemental Staff.
There is no turning back now.
God help us all.

Aquilo's Staff. I guess I'm a career mage now.

Yes, of course they are beautiful new weapon skills. Yes, everyone loves new and shiny stuff. But the question I have to ask is this: Do we really need more WS?

We got new WS in the last update, and for the most part they kind of sucked. Some were interesting but most were complete busts. I am left wondering after years and years of wishing that SE would give us more meaningful updates and just more stuff if we have gotten to the point where we don't need a whole lot more stuff. What we need is refinement, and we got a lot of that in the Job Adjustments update notes, but outside of the absolute beauty of these new weaponskills, is there anything substantial to them? The question boils down to this: Is it going to beat the WS I use right now?

What SE needs to show is a little less flash and a little more finesse. What is compelling about these new WS? After looking at a couple WS worth of butterflies, I haven't used Tachi: Ageha outside of testing and goofing-off. The problem is that the level of commitment in testing and figuring things out just isn't as high as it used to be. If there are any little tricks to these new WS then most people aren't that willing to put a ton of work into finding them out. I would like for SE to look over old WS's to make sure they were all usable, even if just situationally.

So, I guess what I am saying is that we have matured past candy and sweets and what we really want is meat and potatoes level improvements. The move to increase the level cap was a meat and potatoes improvement. New Job Abilities (as long as they are useful) are meat and potatoes improvements. New WS are just sugar and spice and everything nice, but they won't sustain you. At this point, a lot of new WS are all flash and no substance. Keep giving us meat and potatoes improvements. Give better ways to move around, give us more storage, give us more JA's (that don't share timers), don't give us more pretty stuff we are never going to use.

I am getting too used to SE giving us good content. I feel like I am looking a gift horse in the mouth.

The 42nd issue of the Final Fantasy XI newsletter is now available! Check out everything that’s been going on for this past month and read up on how the community has been making use of all the of the content contained in Vision of Abyssea from the desk of the community team!

When I got back from class today, ironically having an entire term of nothing but basic-level web design classes (really, college? Really?), I saw a bunch of information pop up on my twitter feed about the new weaponskills. Curious as well, I decided to check out the link and share two of the ones I’ll [...]

SE posted another "new WS!!!" video today.
Some of them look like they could be interesting.

Cloudsplitter - 1h Axe

Thundery axe weaponskill. Looks to be one-hit. Probably elemental and/or stun WS.

Chant du Cygne - 1h Sword

"Z for Zorro!" No, seriously. It means "Cry of the Swan" or something in french-ish and looks like a three hit physical WS. It appears a RDM is doing it because of the Teal armor.

Victory Smite - Hand-to-Hand

Looks to be 4 punches. It's being done on a Ghost, so I could be reading more into this than there is, but... maybe Monk will finally have a weaponskill that ignores physical damage reductions? Sort of like a Formless Strikes WS.

If nothing else Monks and Puppetmasters will literally get to smite shit next month. Which is pretty rad.

Rudra's Storm - Dagger

A two hit dagger WS that appears to be wind elemental. Rudra being a "wind god" and all. So maybe THF and DNC will get a fourth Wind elemental WS. Either Square-Enix is just fucking with Thieves at this point, with the level 83 Dual Wield I and all, or this one might actually do like 600-700 damage.

Torcleaver - Great Sword

A one hit GS WS. Looks like some sort of Stone stuff, so Added: Effect Slow (that never procs)?

Myrkr - Staff

This looks really goddamned cool! Hold your staff up Spirit Taker style and water pours all over the place from it! I wouldn't be surprised if it has a Magic Shield effect or something like Converts Damage to MP.

The name means "Darkness" in Norse mythology and is a forest planet in the Star Wars universe.

Jishnu's Radiance - Archery

A one hit WS that appears to be Burst II for your bow.

Jishnu's a dude's name. I can't find any significant ones. Perhaps some Bollywood guy got struck by lightning and it's gallows humor? :-P

Ukko's Fury - Great Axe

A two hit GA WS. It looks to be physical.

Ukko is the god of the sky, weather, and harvest in Finnish and Estonian mythology.

Quietus - Scythe

Looks to be a one hit physical or dark elemental WS.

Quietus was a guy who seized some power in Ancient Rome.

Camlann's Torment - Polearm

A one-hit Polearm WS. Looks a lot like the last new Polearm WS.

Tachi: Fudo - Great Katana

A one hit physical WS. Which means depending on mods/added effects/etc it could actually be good. Then again, Tachi: Butterflies.

Dagan - Club

Looks like some variation of Moonlight with five petal flowers. Could provide MP Refresh or Enmity Down?

Dagan is fishing/harvest deity or something.

Wildfire - Marksmanship

Looks like a single hit Fire elemental WS.

Blade: Hi

Looks like a one (read: two) hit physical WS. With some Attack multiplier and/or decent mods it could be better than Blade: Jin on things Ninjas....probably aren't meleeing anyway. Ninja could really use a boost if you're listening, Square-Enix.

And the video from Youtube if you haven't seen it already:

TTFN!

I was very bored yesterday. So bored, in fact, that I started crafting again. I made 36 venom potions to get a 0.1 skill up. I finally stopped, but only because the auction house was out of scorpion claws and farming them puts me to sleep.

After that, I decided to browse to check the price on a few spells. I'm after the 5th tier of spells, namely Protect, and I've been having the most horrible time with casting lots. I swear, I'll cast a 996 on a Dark Ring and a 112 when Protect drops. I could buy it, but we all know that I'm not exactly rolling around in gil.

I also decided to take a look at some other spells. Specifically, Aspir II and Phalanx. It goes without saying that I nearly screamed.

Not even a week ago, Aspir was 5k. Today, it's 90k. I don't remember what Phalanx cost pre-update, but that's now 300k. In perspective, Utsusemi: Ni is 130k. That's right. Phalanx costs more than Utsusemi. I think this should be emphasized because some people may not get it.

Phalanx costs more than Utsusemi: Ni.

Have people lost their damn minds?? This is absolutely ridiculous. Who's even going to use it? Oh that's right, Paladins can now use it. Before you move forward with the "duh" comment, let me ask you this? Who the hell considers Paladins useful?

I say this because if you look around forums for any given time, it's nearly a unanimous consensus that Paladin is a situational tank at best. Personally, when I think of a tank, Paladin is always what comes to mind. However, a vast majority of Vana'diel seems to think otherwise. RDM, SAM, WAR, or anything else seems to be better suited at tanking, while PLD is reserved for BCNMs or other specialized situations.

So if that's the case, why the price jump? Is there any justifiable reason for this? The same can be said for Aspir II. From 5k to nearly 100k in 4 days...and for what? All because Black Mages will be able to use it. These price increases rarely seem based on the actual usefulness of an item. Seriously, think about it. When's the last time you did an event that went wrong and saw this in your chat log:

"Damn...we would've won if only our PLD had Phalanx."

If I had to guess, my answer would be "never." Yet for some reason, this marginally useful spell is 1/3 million gil and rising. I imagine Aspir II will be 200k by the end of the week. At the very least 150k.

Haste and Refresh are sitting at 23 and 50k, respectively...yet they are a hell of lot more useful than Phalanx will ever be. It always amazes me that whenever SE adds a spell, armor, or weapon to a job that could never use it before, the price skyrockets to out of this world amounts, even if it's barely worth using.

.........I just hit the 30,000 veiwed Mark! Of coarse that would have been more then double if I didn't accedently delete my Blog like 2 years ago or so..... and yes I couldn't get the info back. Anyway....Thank you for reading my Blog! ;)

Trial Of Magians:
..............I just completed my Sumera GreatAxe. That's Weapon #6! I think this week I'm Gonna finish the -PDT Sword and Store-TP Axe.


Einherjar:
..............Another Odin Run.... and another M.Body I passed to a another friend. Congrats Rygar!
...and yet another Odin Run tommorrow!


Merits:
..............Merits recap'd! Wooooot! Next Jobs to Level to 75 and beyond... RNG and THF. Now just what do I do with these 9 extra Merits. I mean I can't even use them! SE please hurry and give us our 75 Merit Cap Increase!


5-Hit Builds:
..............Just completed my SAM's 5-Hit Build. It go's nicely with my Scythe 5-Hit'r !


Another PreUpdate CheckList:
(only 1 more of these before Update, I promise...lol)

1) All 5 Lvl-75's @ 80 now and Buffer Cap'd
2) All needed Subs @ Lv.49
3) All Merits completed with an extra 9 left over
4) WotG still unfinished
5) All my important Skills are recap'd except Enfeeb, GreatKatana, Sword, and Shield.
6) All my Magian Trial Weapons almost finished...

*Scythe #1 .......Fin "Ultimatium"
*Scythe #2 ......Fin "Reckoning"
*GreatSword...Fin "Kalaveja"
*GreatKataba..Fin "Keitonotachi"
*PolArm ..........Fin "Stingray"
*GreatAxe .......Fin "Sumera"
*Sword .............(on 7/8 trial)
*Axe .................(on 3/4 trial)
*Scythe #3 .......(on 2/8 trial)



Pics For Joo:
























....and thats it for today! See ya all Online!
~BAM

With the September version update fast approaching, the development team is putting the finishing touches on another set of formidable new weapon skills that will be added to the repertoire of adventurers wielding empyrean weapons, as well as certain arms upgraded through Trial of the Magians. As before, we’re pleased to be able to offer players a special video preview of these fourteen visually impressive and potent new skills. Don’t [...]

Information here… From the FINAL FANTASY XI Development Team More Marvelous Weapon Skills to Wield! (30/08/2010) With the September version update fast approaching, the development team is putting the finishing touches on another set of formidable new weapon skills that will be added to the repertoire of adventurers wielding empyrean weapons, as well as certain arms [...]

Bergi logged in last night, so of course I went off to die in new and interesting ways. It had been a great day;- DNC to 40, Wing 1 win with an abjuration drop which Mart won and Bahamut v2 dead in about 45s… We didn’t even see the 15min notice for Wing I. Hell [...]

Well, I don’t know what to say, but tough luck?  Someone needs to get this guy into Ballista.  Can anyone translate the hieroglyphics by any chance? EDIT: So apparently, it means somewhere along the lines of “Guess we can’t have an all JP server.”  Hey, man, we NA are people, too.  Don’t hate, bro.

I finally finished off my second Katana for my Ninja earlier tonight!
There's better Katanas out there to mainhand, obviously, but this one is pretty straightforward...if grindy as all hell to complete (800 fucking WS on Vermin for the last trial).

Now I've got:
DMG:43 Delay:216 Store TP+8
&
DMG:40 Delay 201 DEX+6 Accuracy+12Replacing my old:
DMG:38 Delay:227 Critical Hit Rate+6%
&
DMG:32 Delay:201 STR+2 DEX+4Which is a net differences of:
DMG:+13 Delay:-11 Store TP+8 Critical Hit Rate-6% STR-2 DEX+2 Accuracy+12Which is decent enough for me.

I did most of the last Vermin WS trial in Kuftal Tunnel on Spiders.
Which made me a decent amount of gil. Three Arachne kills and one Amemet in my time there. Four Arachne technically, but that was with a group and I didn't get any webs.I ended up moving to Mount Z and finishing on the awful (for melee) Wamoura Princes. Shenel is working on his OA3 Katana, so he was there as NIN/RDM and I went NIN/WHM. It was pretty slow with Sanction Refresh unable to keep up with our MP usage at times (and subbed Clear Mind, with no hMP gear, being rubbish).
But I finished mine obviously.

We should probably get a bunch of people to come and Manaburn the western island's Wamoura Princes for him. It would be crappy EXP with everyone being at or near level 80, but 300 more of those things any other way would suck pretty badly.

Anyway, it's ~1AM, so I"m off to bed. Hopefully we get some decent update teaser info tomorrow morning.

A LOT MORE AFTER THE………… JUUUUUUUUUUUUUUMP!

Been wanting to do this fight for a long time but never seemed to have the people around… HILARIOUSLY easy with no KC drks… Far easier than a Kirin or Valkurm boss zerg… Excuse the lack of music but the comments on vent made me laugh.