Final Fantasy XI Then...

[mackemansj1]

I just got this the other day for the 360, level 7 warrior. Now this is my first ever mmorpg, and at first i found it very very very hard. A mate got it as well who is a mmorpg vet which has helped me alot. And im really enjoying it, he says it really doesnt get good till you get to later levels is he right?. Anyway to the people out there who might be like me and a bit put off i would say read up alot if you dont have someone to walk you through it at first. As it can be hard to get to grips with but if you stick with it its a great game.

[sj33]

I'm really not much of an MMORPG man myself (really, an RPG with no real character development really ain't my thing), and true enough I found the FFXI to initially be a real slog when it first came out on the PC. I gave up actually.
But when the 360 beta came out, Silvergun and some other peeps here helped me through it, and it soon 'clicks' and you enjoy it. It's the least accessable genre, and you have to put a lot of work in, but there's a lot of enjoyment to be had.

Still can't stand other titles in the genre though (DoaC, EQ etc).

[Jusatsushi]

This really isn't a game to switch on and play drunk at 2am....

/level down

[mikewl]

To use a mine, have the person engage the Brittle Rock, use the Qiqirn Mine on it, and stay engaged while it blows it up. This will take out the wall in one shot.

[Darwock]

OK this is largely motivated by the difficulties I'm having, but I think it would benefit everyone so I need to make a

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT ^^

With hindsight I think we should have co-ordinated our efforts better regarding Arrapago Reef - given that we are each only able to obtain one Lamia Fang Key, and there are at least three reasons to go behind the first locked door, we should have made sure that we grouped together so only one key was used each time.

I used mine unlocking the corsair job and then died trying to get to the staging point, now I can't get back in unless I wait for someone else to open (and yesterday that took a while). I also failed again on the staging point as you do not get a clear line of sight in the last couple of rooms, and while I had two imps under observation I missed another one that came up behind me.

So all that frustration means it would be really nice to know when the next person is going to use a key so as many of us as possible can go through for the attempt.

[C']

Well, overall a cracking bank holiday weekend. Starting on Saturday with the Optical Hat run, everyone there should be proud of the relative ease with which it went by with few issues. I?m not sure how Meric felt (he went last) but being second to last I found the entire event rather nerve-wracking. I think both Darwock and Apathye were on the receiving end of my ever-increasingly anxious tells, whether it have been about my fears of losing my battle or the arrival of the other alliance (who showed extraordinary patience).

After 5 months, getting the pointy hat of uber was such a relief.

Also made another attempt at getting through Halvung for a second staging point. Turns out when me, Wedge, Rabs and Dammo tried we had a choice of left and right early on and we chose left taking us on a magical journey amongst lots of incredibly tough beastmen and doors that required the effort of 4 people to open. This time I took a right and within 2 minutes I was out of Halvung and a short trip away from the Staging Point.

Sunday morning I log on and immediately (within 10 seconds), without flag up, get a Japanese tell asking if I wanted to EXP. Realising I could now accept invites again I snapped up the opportunity. Was a nice party (BRD, BLM, RDM, SAM & WAR) and we headed out to Cape Terrigan to fight Manticores. Started off in my Scorpion Harness and the SAM was responsible for SCing with the WAR for Distortion and had me opening Darkness with Blade: Ten and the SAM finishing with Tachi: Gekko.

However it became obvious that the Manticores were attacking so slowly and the party allowed me to switch to Haubergeon. The Evasion-20 was noticeable as I rarely evaded anything but a combination of ninjutsu slow, Bard Elegy and the manticore?s natural slowness meant I was still going Ni > Ni mostly and when Ichi was needed I could cast in between attacks easily. My Ten was also hitting consistently higher than the SAM?s Gekko too so the SC was changed to a 3 parter Tachi: Enpi > Rampage (Distortion) > Blade: Ten (Darkness). My Darkness regularly closed for 400-500 damage (I peaked at 800+ and hit a few 700+ too) but the real damage came from the magic burst. At least one of the mages would burst the Distortion and both would burst the Darkness so it was 3-4 bursts per skillchain. Seeing a BLM burst Blizzaga 3 for 1000+ damage is nice. Easily got the 4k I needed for 71 and made another 12-13k. Could have been better but my hitting 71 made the manticores Very Tough so EXP took a hit.

Currently 16k/36k for 72 which should be attainable this week.

Few other notable events were finding my way through Mamook for Mamool Ja staging point, completion of Automaton Assault with Darwock and Wedge and getting a Quantz?s Earring drop (congrats to Darwock) and a couple of attempts at a rather bizarre Assault.

My plans for the short-term future (have a week off next week to aim for achieving some of this):

Finish stocking up on ninja tools.
Level to 72 (allowing me to finally equip my Fuma Sune-ate)

At 72 I think I?ll be taking another pause for the following:

Rank 10 ? will be nice to get a story completed and out of the way.
Zilart Missions ? Completion of Divine Might will get me a Suppanomimi but also I?d like to clear this story arc too
KSNM30 ? this is the biggie. I know Wedge and Apathye are both interested in this. The Rare/EX katana Senjuinrikio is only obtainable through these battles and it is the second most damaging katana outside of fully upgraded relic. However, we?d also like to make it a 6 orb, sell and split, run so fingers crossed we make a bit of money too. The katana is not sellable so hopefully if it drops on someone else?s orb that person will allow me to lot it.
Buji Soden ? at 72 my WSNM quest opens up so that will also be an aim as I will need to earn 300 WS points to be able to unlock Blade: Ku (which looks cool). I was thinking of combining this with maybe setting up parties in the Aht Urghan region with the aim of earning some Imperial Standing points as I am struggling to amass these to any noticeable degree.

I?m also going to give some thought to starting Dynamis and obtaining a full set of relic equipment (Koga garb).

[mikewl]

One solution is to just wait at the door for someone else to open it, probably quicker than farming another key.

That zone is nasty though.

[Darwock]

Yeah wedge that's what I did, but it was like a half hour wait. it's only going to get longer as more and more people on Seraph use their 'hand out' keys. Considering the extremely high probability of failure, it'd be better if as many people take advantage of remaining keys as possible. I'm fairly sure talizker won't have used his yet.. tsing said he hadn't done any staging points so I don't know if this means he's still got his as well... anybody else?

Farming one isn't even a possibility for me, I can't fight Lamias at all.

[C']

If I get 72 quickly (I envisiage getting it before Friday) we could combine farming a key with me earning WS points on my Kodachi of Trials. Would also give us some Imperial Standing points. Would need a group of us mind.

[Darwock]

Oh yeah, another announcement that may help somebody - never use Escape in Arrapago Reef. After finding my way to the backdoor of the reef through Talacca cove, I used escape to jump round to the front door. It dumped me on top of a Lamia and two skeletons in Caedarva Mire - I was already dead by the time the game had finished downloading data. 2K experience gone just like that.

[Tsingtao]

I've used my key t get COR and PUP, didn't realise it was a one time only deal. I need pretty much all the staging points bar the mire.

Rare, before you guys get rank 10 is there any chance of me catching up I'm on 7-2. Need some extra help there, Wedge Zavala and I tried but lost. WOuld really like to reach 10 with you guys if its possbile.

[Super_Hss]

hey

Is anyone playing me on the x box i can't seem to log in before maintinence.
Anyone know when x box live will start up again?
Cheers

[mikewl]

Yup Rare im up for KSNM30, got over 100 seals again so can do multiple tries.

Good setup outside of the BLM Manaburn would be: Nin, Nin, Blm, Brd and two DD jobs.

Blm handles the first sleep then Brd and Blm handle re-sleeping, nins take one scorp each with a DD on each, gradually working through all the scorps.

As for the weekend I think I played far too much, aside from a short break to get a pizza Saturday and a round of golf Sunday I was glued to FFXI.

The O.Hat run was great but I did feel slightly poorly planned but turned out good.

The Rdm we had was doing my head in though, not dispelling enough, it was hard for me to keep up with as being close to the action for mambo meant being paralyzed an awful lot.

The second Rdm that came was ace though, made things easier on me.

Also managed to get Bst to 69, found another place in the ToAU zones to exp, in Wajohm Woodlands the most northern part has a bunch of spiders and some tough, very tough trees, generally 200 to 330 exp a time, will be looking forward to going back with an exp band for uber exp.

Assault was good fun, even though we lost.

ENM Attohwa Chasm with Tobal and Apathye was slightly harder than previously but was worth it, we got the Maneater Axe, worth about 1.7mil.

ENM MEA though was poor, I just felt like the boss fight was rushed, no one asked if everyone was ready before attacking, I hadn't even got RR up yet and it was just a messy fight.

[Tobal]

I think the extra hardness of the ENM75 was due to me not using my 2hr (saving it for enm-mea, which I ended up not using anyway), that can getting hit with 4-aeroga3?s . Well I?m very up for KS30 if need a DD, but would only do it if it was a Share the loot thing, which should be possible if we?re doing this as an LS(hopefully) after hearing about your last KS30?s luck?s not been kind. Also BCNm60 for the torques, ready anytime for it.

DynamisEU on Tuesday is now off, and is just for the weekends now, as soon as i get my Leg Relic my quitting, I can justify wasting so much time we no chance of doing Xarcbard for the Helm with the EU crew due to cost of doing it(it has little return in coin?s, they barely do NA runs) unless they charge for farming runs in Xarcbard, which I wouldn?t mind doing. But getting 3/5 pieces in 3 months ain?t bad  and the legs shouldn?t take to long to get. I really hope SE change Dynamis outside the cities soon, after reading a lot up on it, the coin and Relic drop rate becoming sickening low and cost way to much in gill and exp to warrant doing it over and over specially with the lower time limit killing the chance of using different tactics out the norm, with Limbus and Assault I can?t see much of future for Dynamis outside the main cities.

For now I?m going to finish meriting Great Katana, 32exp to go. And level ninja from 28 to 37(maybe 40 for enm40?s) so I have useful sub for tanking in assault.

[Daragon]

Well, I'm finally back following my 10 day "break" from the internet - many thanks to BT and their careless employees. Currently on t'net from within uni and I'm hoping my new router shows up today so I can get back on at the old homestead and HOPEFULLY manage to register this expansion (hopefully my game codes will be recognised as valid this time round....)

My god, this past week hasn't been easy on me - I've resulted to dun dun duuuuuuuuuun COURSEWORK! ZOMFG!