The Smithy

I started smithing many many years ago, but I never really finished.

This weekend I decided to do something about it!

Someone in my linkshell also told there's this thing called a Smithy's Torque, so I of course spent my weekend at the cauldron farming those chests :P

Now there's the whole crafting thing.
Earlier the problem with powercrafting for me was getting the gils.
This time around though, seeing as gil comes easy to everyone, my problem was buying materials.

The auction house just simply doesn't have enough mats. Not when everyone and their mother wants to level Smithing at the same time to produce those ever so wanted Voodoo pieces.

Alas I managed to get enough mats, I pretty much scraped the AH of any materials I could get my dirty little hands on and I'm finally done!!

Now it's my turn to get some Voodoo pieces :P

If the AH could just stock up on some adaman..

I member

Jailer of Fortitude

I always wanted to solo this guy, or atleast low-man him.
for a long time I pondered on how to kill his adds while kiting him, then I read something on BG that made the fight more doable.

As it turns out his pets are as lazy as all the other ghrahs out there.
All you have to do is kite him to another tower, and his friends would just give up and go home. When his pets were alive, he had a reflect effect on him. At first I thought this was a bad thing, but this could be worked to my advantage. JoF will usually never stop running, but when you cast something on him he will stop and cast it back, giving you a good head start after a nuke. Long story short... this guy is a joke.

I would battle this guy alot, and it was alot of fun too.
I would feel proud and a sense of accomplishment after defeating him and various other NMs on my RDM. Alone or with a good friend.

I don't get that feeling anymore.
Soloing a tough NM today in FFXI mostly means nuking something down on SCH while 5 trusts assists you.

Todays FFXI is easy and maybe that's a good thing? I remember playing two days a week for a year before I could get my Duelist's Chapeau. Standing at a HNM ground and waiting for hours so that the ls with the best claimbot could get the HNM. Watching others claim the NM you wanted that you camped for hours.

Then again.. I remember the thrill when a NM popped. Adrenalin rush and seconds start to feel like minutes. Then you get the claim and it feels so good to stick it to the other campers. One of my happiest moments in the game was camping KV for Ace's helm. I was out there in the desert all alone on my RDM against many other players. I got the claim and had to kite him while my ls rushed to my aid. Just one small slip and the NM could go to another ls.  After tons of /tells from salty players we got the NM down and I got my helm. You do not get this kind of thrill anymore. Everything is popped and planned, no surprises.

So they took care of the claimbot issue, and today anyone can get anything done if they want to.
It all came with a price though.

FFXI has lost it's charm.

Leviathan

Joined a pickup group yesterday with Leviathan as the target.
There's a campaign going on now that gives increased rewards when you win in the hard mode mission battles.


The group was very efficient and we got alot of fights done in notime!
10/10 will join again :)

Got a good haul of Plutons, Beitetsu and Boulders.

Due to the campaign the prices for these items have dropped alot, so I'm going to have an inventory space problem until next month :P

I'm Back!!

So alot of things have happened the past few years.

Back in 2009 I met this girl and we got married in 2013, divorced in 2014 (thank god).

Had a bad rebound and decided to travel alone, met a new girl in October 2014 and we got married in April this year. (too soon?)

While the wife has a temper and can be a bit crazy at times, I really love her. She's also pregnant (death of gaming forever?).

Now my personal life is not going to be the topic of this blog, but I feel I should share some details of my life.

I have been on and off this game ever since Abyssea got released. Last break lasted more than a year.

There's a page on facebook for the Leviathan server, and after seeing lots of players returning to the game I started to miss it myself. So why not make a comeback?

They've made alot of improvements to the game. Some may say that the changes has made the game too easy, and while I might agree I find the game more appealing now than ever.

It's alot easier to be a casual player than before. We all remember shouting for 2-3 hours to get a party going right? Or having to be in a good linkshell to get stuff done?

Let's look at some of the changes and see how they change the gameplay for the better or worse.

Trusts:

Trust NPCs also called Alter Egos are excellent tools for you to level your jobs, and they can also be used for endgame content. They can be summoned almost everywhere.

The trusts do not affect exp, so you can kill mobs fast and not have any loss in exp as you would have if you were in a party with other players. This takes away the old charm of leveling in a party and making friends. It's alot harder to make friends in the game now than before. Seeing as all my friends have quit the game I find this a little sad. The leveling part has never been easier and as fast, but I really miss the social part of leveling.

Alas there's been introduced new mobs called "Apex" which gives you job points when killed. Killing these mobs feel nostalgic as it feels like being in the old merit parties.

While having a real player will at most times be better than a trust (shitty players still exist) they can get the job done if you lack certain jobs. Ever been in a group and the healer leaves, and you can't find a new one? Well call upon Apururu or Yoran-Oran. If you haven't tried these trusts yet you will be pleasently surprised.

Ambuscade:

Ambuscade takes you and upto 5 other players or trusts to a zone where you will fight a NM. The mobs to fight changes every month and so does some of the rewards. This is a great way for returning players to get entrylevel equipment to join in other endgame content. It also rewards players with other items that can be used to upgrade REMA equipment, and items to get and upgrade JSE capes. This makes Ambuscade attractive for both returning and veteran players. While it is possible to solo some of the tiers with trusts, the rewards are greater if you finish the fights with other players. Finding players to join through /yell is usually fast and easy.

New content:

While FFXI is an old game they still produce new expansions and content.

After the lates expansion "Seekers of Adoulin" they introduced "Rhapsodies of Vana'diel".
RoV encourages players to finish the missions from the previous expansions and also brings the chapters to a close. The RoV gave us three new zones: Escha-Zitah, Escha-RuAun and Reisenjima. Here you can fight various different NM's, some are soloable or can be fought with smaller groups. Other NMs will need larger groups to take down (or of course a few good players that know what they're doing). Some of the best gear in the game can be obtained in these new zones.

Now for a returning player like me it takes some time to adjust to all the new content.

My only geared job at the moment is DRK with an afterglow Ragnarok. While my weapon is great, my NQ Escha equipment / ambuscade gear isn't really that up to par. Having a job, pregnant wife, and a 11 weeks old puppy has made me a filthy casual. This leaves me little to no time to be in an endgame linkshell that relies on me being available at certain times during the day. This leaves me with shouts, gilmaking and hopefully some new friends, we'll see how this goes :)