ULTIMATE SHOWDOWN!!!!

Who remembers that video? Anyone? That video was awesome. That SONG was awesome. Don't know what I'm talking about? USE THE FUCKING INTERNET!!!

Anyway. Today was the day we took down Proto-Ultima.

"As if that's hard now"

Shut the hell up. Especially you Romyro... wiseass. An accomplishment is an accomplishment... no matter how small. I read that in a very advanced book on meditation. I'm deep like that.

"You took that from Dr Seuss"

You say Potato I say shut up. Moving on. Here's a shot of  us as we got within range of the nasty little bugger.

Look, I'm not sure if that's Rook's Garuda or mine... but if you could see her eyes right now you'd see that sparkle that says "I'M ABOUT TO MESS YOU UP!". Also: Mil... stop poking the goddamn chests...

After this serene moment of looking on in awe of such a wondrous creature from another dimension... we went to town beating on it's ass.

And in the end... we prevailed! Netting ourselves a lovely purse of prizes that included.... ULTIMA'S MOTHAFUGGIN CLAW!!! The one and only item I ever gave a crap about that dropped from either of the 2 Limbus Bosses and the one piece I've been itching to get my hands on since I turned 75 SMN back when Nashira's Gages weren't OBSOLETE.

Well I suppose that isn't entirely true.... they're still useful... just significantly less these days. That being said, I'm absolutely going to upgrade them into the SUPER NASHIRAS GAGES as soon as humanly possible. Those things are bitchin...

And lastly... I leave you with a shot of me obtaining the gages... and a little food for thought.

Because really...

Also: Grats Rook on your Nashira... legs... whatever they do.

Who wants a backrub?

If you don't understand the title, you've never looked into Mercenary Rank missions. Do yourself a favor and read up a little, why don't ya?

Since I've been back (less than a week now), I've been doing little things here and there... mostly old and out-dated content that everyone else these days forgets exists. To start, I joined up with Romyro and his LS to head into Limbus to take on Proto-Omega. We got the win with ease and I even walked out with Omega's Tail. Homam feet are junk, btw.

"Not if you have a DRG"

Fuck you and the wyvern you rode in on. Those feet suck. I'm only keeping them to inevitably trade in towards the Limbus V2 gear later. Again... do yourself a favor and look shit up every once in a while.

Anywho... on top of the feet, this was my first time winning against Omega, so I cashed in for his Atma... also junk.

Later, we helped out Squiggs in Nyzul Isle (NQ) and climbed from 25-35 in 2 runs. Afterwords, we ran through 2 assault Missions for me (SP ranked). Today I logged in and kocked out 2 more and flagged my Mercenary Promotion to LC.

In short... progress feels nice.

Like a bad case of herpes

I'm back! And I'm playing on Cerberus again. As of 10:52 this morning I resubscribed to FFXI to eagerly await the release of Seekers and bide my time until FFXIV: ARR re-launches. What do I plan to do first, you might be asking?

"We're not asking you anything... shut up already..."

I have no idea what to do first! That's the best part! I left off while I was in the middle of doing a ton of different things and now I can't quite decide what to do with myself. When I left, things were getting boring and stale and bordering on the repetitive.

"Welcome to FFXI... not to mention EVERY OTHER MMO EVER MADE"

Right. Noted. Anywho... now that I'm back I have so many options that it's sickening. My newly revived level of patience affords me the opportunity to take on a new job ...

... finish gearing the old ones I keep neglecting ...

... work on my kiss-ass skillz and earn Assault Ranks towards Mercenary Captain ...

... continue my progress in Limbus ...

 Salvage ...

... Einherjar ...

or just about anything else!

"You're just going to sit around in P. Jeuno and troll people most of the time and you know it."

Is there really any better way to spend an afternoon?

"Well yeah, you could go outside and get some fresh air ..."

I didn't think so.

Meet the Munsters!

And I'm back!

"In a few days"... "tomorrow"... "in a few hours"... whats the difference? I saved some pictures and I want to share them.

First of all, I'd like to thank the DEVs for not recycling old monsters and just reskinning them like they've done in the past. I really appreciate that. But then again this is a full fledged expansion and not just some cut and dry mini-crapolla.

So far I have some mixed reviews and a lot of unanswered questions. On one hand, I like the way they look and the originality that went into them all. On the other hand...

... thanks SE! I always wanted a game where I could play as a monster, level up as a monster and evolve as a monster while battling other monsters. I shall name this one Bulbaripoff. It seems fitting. Guess who's getting diabetes from eating to much rare candy? THIS GUY!

It's not all bad though... some of the monsters I'm seeing are recycled from older games... but on steroids. I seem to recall fighting something like this guy in Balamb Garden's training center...

That being said, I like it and I cant wait to fight it. Don't deny it... when you get there and I'm already kicking its ass... you're going to be all kinds of royal jelly.

"That was so lame..."

SHUT UP!!! I'M FUNNY AS SHIT!!!

"You're shit alright"

Bulbaripoff, I choose you! Use Blade of Grass! *Bulbaripoff hurts itself in the confusion*. Goddamn it Bulbaripoff. I'm never going to get any badges if you keep this up. 

Regardless, let's get back on track talking about stuff that isn't going to get me tied up in copyright laws...

We got a glimpse of the new Beastmen-type mobs. These ones are called the Velkk... and although they look strangely similar in design as the Orcs we already have... these ones have HORNS! Horns were my selling point. The immature jokes practically write themselves!

Honestly, they look like what would happen in a Mamool Ja got it on with an Orc and had hideous adorable mutant babies. Over-all, I approve. I'm just waiting for the sex tape to come out on VHS.

"They don't make VHS anymore"

Nice try, LIAR! I'm way smarter than that. You're better off trying to feed me some kind of bull about how we have electric cars and phones that don't need to be plugged into the wall. As if that would ever happen.

" Uhh... Yyg... I hate to tell you this but..."

Oh wait! hold that thought, I just remembered I have to make a phone call. BRB. Now what if they could figure out some way to be on the interbewbs and use your home phone at the same time? Wouldn't that be awesome? That's where the future's at! Someone call Bob Dole! 

I do love the dial-up sounds though... BoopWRrrrgGRRrrrrrEoooEooooWeedlieWeedliewoooo... so soothing. 

"Never mind"

But wait! Theres more! Check out all this stuff too! Because what Final Fantasy game is complete without a series of augmented RL creatures that have been redesigned to be bloodthirsty killing machines?

Matamata

Chapuli

Craklaw

And lets not forget the absolutely necessary "Amorphous Blob" ccategory of creatures we have all come to know and love. Not to be confused of course with the "The hell is that supposed to be?" category. Fear not! We got at least one of each!

Umbril (Amorphous)

This one looks as though it's water-based, judging by the cutoff at it's midsection(?). I'm curious to see how this one aggros and what exactly it does. Based on past experience... it's undoubtedly going to be a disappointment... but then... speculation is half the fun, right?

"No."

You gotta give me points for trying to keep a positive mindset about this though, right?

"No."

Oh come on! Nothing?

"No."

Do you want all the money in my wallet?

"Nooooooyes"

HAHA! No dice! You said no first! This crisp 2 dollar bill is all mine.

Acuex (The hell is that supposed to be?)

Spoiler alert on this one! They're sentient silicone breast implants.

"That's not true at all"

Listen, you. I watch Dr. Oz. I know what a boob implant looks like... and THAT is a boob implant. In fact that's 3 boob implants. You ever seen 3 at once? I did. That was the best carnival ever.

Last but not least, there's one more category of creature that SE has to put into their games to make us go "Dawwwwww". Yep... the "omgitssofreakingadorable" category. Enter:

Twitherym

Heartwing

Yep, purple butterflies and smiling golden hearts are this years "Mandragora". According to the Seekers Official site, the butterflies are deadly and the heart supposedly behaves similar to how Pixies from WotG and Fishies in Sea behave right now. They just follow you around... and maybe cast stuff on you? Maybe? The site also suggests that attacking them is a bad idea (you think?) as it will likely end in disaster.

I for one can't wait to try my hand at killing both of them.

"Didn't you just say it was a bad idea to try and kill the Heartwing?"

I don't take kindly to commands.

"It sounded more like a suggestion. Maybe even a warning"

A WARNING?! NOBODY THREATENS YYG! Those Heartwings are as good as extinct. Lets see them try to follow me then!

In conclusion, suffice to say I'm pleased with the monsters that we've been shown so far and eagerly await spoilers about other ones. Additionally, I wonder if any of the older (classic) mobs will resurface... reskinned in this new world. I suppose we'll just have to wait and see! 

Hide and Seeker

Hey guys! (all... what... 7 of you?)

As some of you may well know by now, or at least figured it out on your own (you're so smart!), I took a break from the game shortly after my move to Cerberus. I promise I didn't forget the blog was here... I just didn't have anything worth posting about until I knew for sure that I was coming back. Now that I'm out of hiding, I suppose I owe you an explanation. At the time I merged onto Cerberus, I was going through a job change IRL that took up a lot of my attention. As a regrettable result, I decided to eliminate any and all distractions that were not vital to the success of my new job. Sadly, that meant unsubscribing from FFXI for a little while.

To be honest, I think I needed a break from the game for a while anyway. There wasn't much to capture my attention and I was beginning to seriously consider working on a Mythic Weapon (Nirvana <3) again... and that's not good for anybody's mental health.

My time away has given me a chance to take up some more casual games in my limited spare time, but I'm soon to return to glorious Vana'diel once more! After all... no other game I've ever played has been as entertaining for as long as FFXI has been.

"Why now, Yyg?"

That's a very good question. Go get a cookie. When you get back, I shall weigh in on the newest Expansion, "Seekers of Adoulin" and the recent flood of information that we've received on it.

*omnomnom* "We're ready! Tell us what you think!"

Ok first... chew with your mouth closed. You're being gross. You're gross.

"Sorry?"

Thank you. Was that so hard? 

------------------------------------------------------------------

More Info

So we finally have a set release date! That was what got my blood flowing, my heart racing and my gamer hands shaking. March 26th 2013. Now I know that's still almost 3 whole months away... but it's still something to look forward to that's more than an arbitrary and ever-changing "Roadmap".

Speaking of the roadmap... where's my Cait Sith, SE? I WANT MY CAT!!!

*ahem*

Anywho, on top of the release date, we got a little more info regarding the new areas to the West including a little about how to get there (super important) and what we might expect to see (just cool). Here are some of my favorite highlights from the past couple of weeks:

   Proposed Adoulin warp locations

I like that there are more than 2 entrances (Here's lookin' at you, Swirling Vortexs... vortexi? Vortie? *insert correct pluralization of Vortex here*) but less than 1,000 (WotG...).

"You're exaggerating. There aren't 1,000 entrances. That's just stupid."

Well there might as well have been. The whole "Activate each one by traveling from the past to the present through it" crap made it sure feel like there were 1,000. There were few things as frustrating as trying to use a WotG maw to meet up with a friend quickly... only to find out it's one of the last ones you still haven't unlocked yet.  

"You wana talk frustrated? There's no goddamn entrance near Windurst!"

It's a new land TO THE WEST. You don't like it, take it up with Tenzen.  

Before (Concept)

After (Application)

Conceptual designs made actual are some of my favorite things to follow along with when it comes to games. Obviously the city is still in the development stages, but it keeps looking better every day. If I can find some better quality images (that I can access from the PC at work) I'll replace these tiny ones. In the meantime, just get really really close to the screen.

"My eyes!"

Suck it up, pansy.

Tree!!!

I call dibs! This will be my thinking spot. Think. Think. Think. Get it? Anyone?

"What the hell are you talking about?"

Damn youngins...

Yoshitaka Amano Art

I always have been and always will be a huge fan of Yoshitaka Amano's Art style. I especially enjoy the sprawling landscape pieces he does for FFXI for each of the expansions... and this is no exception. What's even more fun is going back and looking for all the small details and spoilers that he inserts into his art. It's like a game of Where's Waldo without Waldo... which is awesome... because I hate that guy. He thinks hes so good at hide and seek. I once hid in under the stairs for most of my childhood. Then I went to this magical school where I learned to become a wizard...

"That's Harry Potter, Yyg. Now we know you're just making shit up."

Oh yeah? Well then how to you explain this lightning bolt shaped scar?

"That's sharpie... we can still smell it"

*Huff* Quiet! Me being a way cooler wizard than you has nothing to do with my option on Seekers of Adoulin. Now let me finish my thoughts before I make you levio-shityourpants. Didn't know about that one, did you? 

"That's because it doesn't..."

WIZAHD!!!! 

----------------------------------------------------------------------



As a final note, among all the things that are announced for the expansion, I can't wait to play and level up as a monster. There's just something about the potential hilarity that something like this brings to the table that I just can't stop giggling about. Will it be worth the wait? Knowing the current team working on the game... probably not. Will it still be fun? Probably in limited capacity. Will I still rampage through the jungle beating the hell out of other players as a giant frog if possible? You bet your soon to be wart-covered corpse I will! Speaking of frogs... how was your cookie? *grin*

"What the hell is wrong with..."

WIZAHD!!!! 

 

I'll post again in the next few days with some more updates, opinions and hopefully better images.

Moving Day!

Moved to Cerberus. News at 11:00. Do you know where your Tarus are?

Pics A-Plenty As Promised: POW!

You'll have to excuse these being a little bit out of order. I didn't exactly upload them all at once. Either way... you get the idea. I'm not sure any of the pictures show it... but thanks to my funds running dry halfway through this afternoon, I wasn't able to make the goal i set out for myself. That being said... I did make it to Rank 52 before the night was over. I also did a Dynamis: Xarc run with a few people as well (pics below) to earn a little more spending money towards cooking. Currently, I'm stocked up on 5 stacks of each of the ingredients to make Beaugreen Sautee... as well as 5 stacks of each of the ingredients to make both Yagudo Drinks and Pet Food Zeta. Hopefully that will give me enough of a head start to kick tomorrow off strong! 

Journeyman Cooking! (Rank 48) 

Playing with Fire

I hate Baked Popotos

Big Badda Boom

So much Pie Dough

My first few Synths of cheese went surprisingly well... 

We got a what from that NM???

NO WAY!

Cookin' with Fire: Shattering Expectations!

As I posted yesterday, I took some advice from Hayde and picked up a craft to help fill in times when I'm online and nobody else is. My final decision was to take up cooking, since there seems to be a near constant need for consumables like pet food, jug pets and skill up food... not to mention the usual staples of Pizza, Tacos and Sushi (sounds weird to list those things together).

Yesterday morning I logged on, took off all my equipment and stored everything I had on me in my mog house and set off for Windy to make application to their illustrious Culinary Institute. In no time I was cooking my way from rank 0 to whatever I could manage to accomplish. 

Early in the day, I had set myself a goal of making it to rank 20 before the night was over. Those expectations were met... and then some. After crafting my ass off from 9:00am EST all the way to nearly 1:00pm. In the end, I walked away at rank 22, having broken the first 2 tiers of the cooking guild's ranking system. 

Now as many of you know, I have the luxury of a bit of free time at work that allows me to pull out my laptop near the end of the night and do whatever I want (as long as I maintain focus on work as well). This basically translates into "perfect conditions for crafting".

At the end of my shift here at work, I was able to log on from about 9:00pm and play on and off until 1:00am or so. Sound familiar? Yep, same times I had been playing not 12 hours earlier. 

During this sessions, I casually chatted with Hayde about my progress while he participated in a Fell Cleave Party somewhere. Letting my mind wander helped to alleviate some of the monotony of the task at hand. 

In the end, I closed my laptop at 1:05am EST and looked down at my screen at the very satisfying rank 35.5 Cooking I had achieved. I never would have thought that I could break the goal I had set out for myself so quickly. 

So what did I do then? I gave myself a new goal... a goal for today. I set it cautiously at 55 given that I wasn't 100% certain what some of the recipes I would need to make were. 

This morning I got up and started playing at 10:00am and burned my way through as much as I could before I needed to walk the dog, do a few things around the house and head to work. I managed to make it to rank 47.9 in that sitting. I'm eagerly waiting to play tonight so that I can see just how much I destroy the goal i set for myself today. Who knows... maybe I could even make it to 65 or 70 if I really buckled down and went for it. 

Now I know I promised screen shots last night... but I completely forgot and didn't upload them yet. If you care... I'll be posting them later this afternoon to catch you up on some of the things I've been up to. 

Crafting is turning out to be a lot more fun... and a lot faster than I ever would have expected. <3

It's life, Jim.

After last week, I have successfully upgraded the SMN and COR relic headpieces to +2.

That makes 5/5 for Corsair, 4/5 PUP, 3/5 SMN, 2/5 NIN, 2/5 THF, 1/5 BLM and 0/5 WHM.

For now, I'm happy... and I've moved on to a new project.

This morning I logged on (after not logging in for nearly a week) and thanks to the server being dead (as usual), I spontaneously started crafting. I managed to take Cooking from 0-17 in a little over 2 hours. Tonight I plan to try and break the 28 cap before I log off. That gives me from 9:00PM - 2:00AM to grind grind grind. Maybe I can even get higher than 28. We'll see. My goal is 28... any higher is a bonus.

I'll post later on my progress... hopefully with pictures.

HEY, YOU!

For those of you from the forum... as well as anywhere else in the far reaches of the internet...  I welcome comments. You know... that little comment section at the bottom of every post. I like reading them and knowing that there are actually people who read this blog.

So post damn it... post something.

Upgrade Chase!

Logged in ever-so briefly to do some of the upgrades I've been saving my Forgotten Items for. Here's what I did:]

Pantin Tobe +2: Awesome Melee Piece for both me and Yojimbo :3

Commodore Gants +2: Bastard ran through my screen shot...

Commodore Culottes +2: Great looking Melee piece

In addition to those upgrades, I also started the process of upgrading my Summoner's Pigaches +2. I only had 27 Forgottens on me at the time and they've been deposited. In an effort to save on the cost of making these, I'm always on the hunt for people selling forgottens for dirt cheap... so I checked AH.com for what was around in people's Bazaars. One guy... by the name of "Kud", was selling 84 Forgotten Steps for 4k each. If you're unfamiliar... that's insanely cheap. A quick search showed me that he was online just outside of Jeuno in the past. Unfortunately, he wouldn't respond to my /tells, so I decided to hunt his ass down. What followed was a 40 minute wild goose chase for a what turned out to be a NA hating JP player. He was apparently doing WotG missions, because I ended up losing him in Batallia Downs right near the Everbloom Hollow entrance is. Why he avoided me is anyone's guess. I used Auto-Translate the best I could to say:

<Stop!> <Bazaar> <Can I have it?> <Steps> <You can have this> <Money> <Gather together>

His only response to me was:  

<I'm sorry, I'm busy right now>  <Please>  <Leave>

So I guess he didn't want to make 350k off me today. His loss. Maybe I'll be able to catch a break later when I go searching again. We'll see.

Tree of Life vs King of the Dragons: Round 2

As I got to work today I had a strong desire to take revenge on Bahamut for killing my THF last night... so since I was almost 45 minutes early, I excused myself from the office, found a dark corner, plugged in and tuned out while I make a b-line straight for Bahamut on my SMN/WHM.

I made good time, only taking about 15 minutes to run to the Green Unstable Displacement. Upon arrival, I didn't waste any time. I entered, buffed with SS, Aquaveil, Blink, Protect III and Shell II, Siphoned to bring myself back to full MP, summoned Garuda and wen't to town on his big squishy ass.

The beginning of the fight was a little more difficult than I needed to be and I ended up wasting a lot of MP by trying to treat Bahamut like an Abyssea NM and spam Whispering Wind along with Predator Claws. I found out that his AoE's like Thrash and Firaga IV have some pretty huge range as I took both of them to the face and ended up with 120hp pretty quickly. After that it was a mad dash to the other size of the small zone to heal quickly before Garuda went down. I barely got SS back up before Garuda died and I was forced to resummon.

Apart from that little mishap, things went rather cut and dry the rest of the fight and I ended it with 4/1749mp.

Whisper of the Wyrmking: Mine! Now to wait until the next conquest update so that I can flag Apocalypse Neigh.

Contented with my accomplishment, I returned to Jeuno to spend some of the money I had been earning in Dynamis the past few days. I ended up purchasing about 15 Forgotten Steps, 7 Forgotten Hopes, 10 or so Forgotten Journeys and a whopping 49 Forgotten Touches. The whole lot of them cost me about 300k in total and put my totals through the roof.

First on my list of upgrades are the Summoner's Pigaches +2... because they're awesome.

"Avatar: Enhances Attack" and "Magical Critical hit Rate +5%"... on a piece that reduces BP delay by 4? I shouldn't have to explain how awesome that is. It's just awesome.

Following that will be the full set of Pantin Attire. I know I don't play PUP very often... but something about that job's potential makes me want to gear it to the teeth. It's also the one job that gains seriously huge benefits from it's full Relic +2 set. Some jobs got shafted here and their on their sets... but PUP got nothin but gold. Sure, most of them are macro pieces, but all of them are useful. The same can't be said for Summoner's Head, Body or Legs... or Koga Head, Body or Feet for that matter.

*Edit: Pictures added*

Screen shots! (...and other stuff)

Last night I decided to head back into Dynamis Xarc to make a little money. After all... as of yesterday morning I was sitting on a cool 3k total, I needed money. So this time, rather than try my luck again solo, I shouted for a Dynamis partner to farm with and ended up getting a BST name Jdhog. Although he mentioned quite a few times that his BST was gimp, he was wearing a mixture of AF3+2, Relic+2, assorted end game BST gear and Twilight Helm/Armor. I didn't think he was gimp at all, but hey... to each his own.

We actually did really great, walking out with 13 Forgotten Hopes, 84 Bronze, 83 Bills and around 79 or so Shells. Not at all shabby. After it all sold (quickly I might add) I walked away from the adventure with roughly 820k in my pocket.

After that was finished, I didn't really have any plans, so I stayed on my THF and headed into Riverne Site #B01 to try my luck at farming up Giant Bird Plumes (since they sell for 50-60k a stack) and wasted an hour or so in my attempt.

One good thing did come out of it, though. I was reminded (by cutscenes) that I hadn't yet killed Bahamut and advanced towards "The Final Verse". So I thought to myself... why the hell not... and went in to try my hand at the fight as THF/DNC. It was actually quite funny. Not only could Bahamut not hit me to save is life, but when he did it was for a meager amount. In the end I died to a Megaflare that I came to learn he continues to attempt to cast even after being stunned.

Tonight my plan is to go in again as SMN and sic Garuda on him. Hopefully I'll be able to kill him with minimal effort by kiting his ass around. If not, I may just ask Hayde to come with me on BST and guarantee a win that way.

In addition to that, I'm going to upgrade as many of my Relic Gear pieces as I can with the Forgottens I've been collecting before going back into Dynamis Xarc for another run with Jdhog.

And now... for the Screen shots I promised! There's really no specific order for them... they just happen to be Screens from some of my many various adventure. Enjoy!

My first Legion: 3rd Wave. We were all dead about 10 seconds later.

Voidwatch. This guy was a BEAST. One of his many AoE moves inflicts Doom. 

Found my twin. Nattack. :3

Jailer of Love. What a long and boring fight he is...

But on the bright side, after JoL was dead I got my first and only AV Kill!

Hayde and I farming in Sea. Ix'Aern (DRG) What a chump.

Bhaflau Remnants: Long Barreled Chariot win! And he damn near killed us too...

Beseiged CS. Not even 24 hours after this event, I hunted this guy down and killed him with a small party of 6.

More Voidwatch. I'm not quite sure what happened to the quality of this picture... but this was me after hitting Pil with Wildfire.

More to come soon. I have to sort through some of this stuff for the good shots. I have almost 3 gigs worth of screens, lol.