Nyzul Isle 1 - 100: Looking Back

On January 24th 2009, the Ansible Nyzul static finally cleared floor 100. I'm not sure of the exact date we started, but it was some time in August 2008. This means we've been at it between 3 - 4 months, althought because this only represents 2 hours a week, it feels a lot less.

Doing Nyzul in a static has been a great deal of fun, especially as we had the benefit of a Vent server. Although we are on farming runs now, I think I'll miss that curious buzz of climbing another 5 floors and getting ever closer to floor 100.

It was Feike who originally suggested a Nyzul Isle static. At the time (July 2008), there were rumours that the new weapon skills were to be tied to the mythic weapons that were dropped there, and no-one wanted to miss out on those. (Except maybe the mages). Furthermore, at this time Nyzul was far harder. Floor progression was on saved on one runic disc at a time, and mythic weapons dropped only from the floor 100 boss. Just to add to your delight, your disc was wiped after beating floor 100, forcing you to start from the bottom again. (Top stuff there, thanks Development Team)

Our first few runs were actually under this system, but within a few weeks a major update gave us the Nyzul Isle we have now - entire party has floor history written to their disc; disc is retained even after floor 100 and mythic weapons can drop from any NM, not just floor bosses.

With hindsight, one of the interesting aspects of our Nyzul quest was that when we began, information was pretty thin on the ground. The Wiki entry was brief and less than half the size it is now, and while there was anecdoctal advice available, there were few (if any) formal 'guides' to beating Nyzul. This made starting out curiously fun. For the first few weeks, we actually had a forum thread called "Nyzul Isle Notes" where we tried to collect our experiences and draw useful conclusions.

Our opening experiences of Nyzul were brutal, to say the least. Our original team was NIN SAM DRK MNK RDM RDM - a decent set up that was somewhat hampered by the fact that both me and Soran were gimped (SAM 74 and NIN 70 iirc). Amazingly, we actually managed to clear 1 - 5 with this set up, but soon came unstuck trying to go 6 - 10. Indeed, the first 10 floors were our worst period on Nyzul by far. Nyzul Isle has no learning curve whatsoever - sure, the wandering NMs you encounter are somewhat tougher at higher floors, but beyond that you are as likely to take on an enemy leader Soulflayer on floor 1 as you are floor 99.

Lack of knowledge was often our downfall in the early days. Caraway Custard wiped us out (prompting a memorable cry from Soran of "We got our assess kicked by a dessert!") because at the time we had no idea that he was far harder than regualr Custard NMs. We were frustrated by Psycheflayers Ice Spikes and the fact we couldn't dispel them, until we realised that they are totally immune to darkness based spells. We had no idea that the random NM Dahak is a dragon spawned from Satan's gene pool. We ran into monsters we had never seen before, such as the Mothras. We had to deal with the fact Colibri aggro'd in Nyzul (A memorable exchange on Vent - Me: "What do colibri aggro to?" Chuck: "Pieces of broken crackers in your pocket.")

Practice and perserverance told in the end. The random nature of Nyzul means there's always a chance of getting a total cockblock floor (thanks to Soran for that phrase) but you can prepare for most opponents. We picked up little bits of useful knowledge along the way, such as the need to use poison poitions to avoid ultra potent sleepga spells (I think Lukiki coined the term 'comaga' after an Ebony Pudding slept us for an incredible 3 minutes) and the value of splitting into 2 seperate groups to clear 'Eliminate All Enemies' floors. Its funny to look at the huge, detailed Wiki entry now, as so much Nyzul info now seems like common knowledge. For example, I was told by an old Samurai buddy about the use of the "WS Barrage" against floor bosses, and felt I had been let into a trade secret at the time - but now it is right there on the wiki front page.

The initial 20 floors are the toughest of the whole lot in some ways. They represented less of a learning curve, and more of brutal razor edge of broken dreams. It took us from August until mid-November to clear them and beat the Floor 20 boss (Fafnir in our case). However, from that point on our progress became rapid - It took around 3 1/2 months to do 20 floors, but then 2 months to do the remaining 80. While there is always the chance of getting a nightmare floor (such as an eliminate specified enemies w/5 psycheflayers, avoid discovery by gears and suffering a pathos effect for choosing the wrong option on the 'go left or right' choice) in general I think we approach each run with a lot of confidence now. In particular, our last day was a great way to end our 1 - 100 run. We beat the Floor 100 (Khimira) boss first time, Rokh got a BLU sword and I unlocked Tachi: Rana. Then we did a Floor 80 run and got Lukiki a Goliard body piece. Good stuff all round!

Nyzul isn't perfect by any means - the drop rates of treasure are miserly, the appraised items are pathetic (out of all the ??? items we have had, we have had ONE appraise into anything worthwhile - a rare/ex BST axe called Lohar. The rest of the time, we get junk like Self Bow and Bronze Dagger). Nevertheless, I have thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience. There's a real sense of achievement on making progress, clearing floors and getting the drops. The random floors and enemies keep things fresh and interesting - every run is different. It's also nice to have a FFXI event where there's no set "perfect party". Our regular floor runs have been mainly NIN SAM DRK MNK BST RDM, (changing BST for PLD/NIN on bosses) and it has worked like a dream. Indeed, having a balanced party is a distinct advantage - undead floors suit MNKs down the ground for example, bird floors would suit DRGs & RNGs, and so on. (And on one occasion we even ran into a NM crawler that was immune to everything except magic and h2h attacks).

The challenge of Nyzul has also encouraged me to get my XPing shoes on. I am the FFXI world's slowest player when it comes to levelling (I played for 5 years and my highest job was 67!), but the lure of getting merits to improve our Nyzul chances has me a lot more active. Equally my epic fishing efforts to get myself a Hagun were mainly motivated by wanting to maximise my WS Barrage on the Floor 20 bosses. Plus, it looks cool. ^_~ This motivation to 'do stuff' in FFXI is crucial I think, otherwise it is very easy to end up stuck in your mog house watching your moogle spin. (I know, it used to happen to me all the time!).

So now we approach our farming runs. I'm hoping this will be relatively quick and painless, but I have terrifying visions of us getting being screwed on drops 10,000 times over. The best we can manage is a subbed THF (which is better than no THF at all) but on the bright side, we've had 2 different floor 80 pieces drop so far. We also need a BST axe for Rokh, which incredibly hasn't dropped once in the 1 - 100 run. In some ways, that thrill of progress won't be there anymore, but I hope that it will be replaced by the glee at getting some groovy armour and being the envy of those who see us in the street. ^_^ And of course, if nothing else, there's always the fun of the conversations on Vent.

Also, Tachi: Rana is fun. It looks really groovy, and it allows for a beastly self-darkness skillchain. [Thanks to Demajen for making SCs with me on Colibri for about an hour (and getting killed in the process >.>) for helping me unlock this btw!] Entertaingly, using my standard Sekkanoki macro, which has a 4 second interval between WSes, doesn't give time for Rana to finish its animation, which means Gekko virtually glitches over the top and looks crazy! Still, I got a 1012 point Darkness SC on a Sea Puk earlier, so I can live with odd graphical quirks. ^_^

Until next time loyal readers, I invite you to take a gander at Lukiki's blog, which also discusses yesterday's Nyzul runs. ((> http://lukiki.livejournal.com/ <))

Keep smiling!

Six Months on - and I'm still here!

[[ WARNING: This blog post contains sentimentality. Read at your own peril. ]]



It's been a little bitover six months since Saikyo returned to FFXI after having a long break. 2009 marks the sixth year I have been playing the game (which is a fairly mind bending statistic) but I still thoroughly enjoy the game.

Why?



Friends!



I don't have an exhaustive friendlist in FFXI. Many of the players listed on it stopped playing years ago, and others are listed who I haven't spoken to since 2005. I've been lucky to be part of 3 excellent linkshells over the years (CactuarParagons, USAChan and Ansible). But also included on the list are a handful of true mates who make the game a joy to play.



These days, almost all of them are part of the Ansible linkshell, a tiny little LS with probably no more than 10 members total and around half a dozen regulars. Due to time differences, I spend most of my time on my own in the shell, which can get a bit lonely, but I wouldn't drop the pearl for the world.



Without a doubt, those core members - Charless, Demajen, Lukiki, Feike, Soran and Obsidion -are the friendliest bunch of FFXI players you could ever wish to meet. Without them, I doubt I would last another week in Vanadiel.



The list of cool things these fine people have helped out with could fill half a dozen blog entries. I'd list them all, but then the post may explode in a cloud of sentimentality, and that just wouldn't be British, would it? ^_~



So, just to say - thanks gents (and lady!) for making the last 6 months in Vanadiel such great fun. Hope you know how much its appreciated!

How Saikyo became a Samurai!

I never planned to level Samurai.

When Demajen introduced me to the world of FFXI back in early 2004, the first question I asked was "Are there dragoons?". Kain the Dragoon from FFIV had left a profound impression of coolness upon me, and if I was going to play any FFXI classes, it was going to be this one.

"There are," Demajen replied, "but they don't get many invites."

I wasn't deterred, in fact, I had no idea just what that simple sentence really implied. After levelling warrior to 30 (using a sword & shield and a gimped MNK subjob no less) I had bold plans of unlocking all the subjobs and then picking up Dragoon to be my 'main'.

The first advanced job I unlocked was Paladin, and then for reasons never entirely defined I went to unlock Samurai.

I am writing entirely from memory here, but if I recall correctly the Samurai advanced job quest was considered particularly tough. It involved a trip to Norg for starters. While that is a trivial issue now, back in early 2004 getting to Norg was not a task to be taken lightly. The map for the Jungle areas was hopeless, and even if you got to Sea Serpent Grotto there was much confusion about reaching Norg itself. Once you'd done that, unlocking the job required two NM fights - a Bomb in Konschat Highlands and a treant in Sanctuary of Zi'Tah. With this tough quest ahead, Demajen offered to help, and enlisted two of his chums, a RDM called "Maureen" and a PLD called "Trobian".

[A digression about Trobian. He was a complete cock end, the kind that now inhabits Warcraft PvP servers in monumental numbers. He spent the entire time boasting about his prowess in Ballista, and then demonstrated his awesome powers by nearly getting killed while trying to solo one of the statue mobs in Zi'Tah. I think I can trace some of life long mistrust of PLDs from this formative experience]

Anyway.

The Bomb was easy enough. The Treant was easy enough too, but ERK! I did not realise I had to click on the ??? that spawned it to get a crucial keyitem. I only realised my mistake when we got back to Norg, and the quest giver just repeated his usual chatter to me. HOSED.

So we went back out there. By this time Trobian had wandered away to cause mayhem and confusion on a Ballista field somewhere (and that was just amongst his own team...) and Maureen had gone offline. Me and Demajen lurked around the tree, wondered if we could duo it (iirc, I was a WAR 30 / MNK 12 and Demajen was a DRK 35). After some pondering and casting about, Demajen got a Japanese player called Kanseed to come and help us. He was a level 75 and a true god to us lowbie types. He quickly soloed the mob, bowed and said {Congratulations!}. We responded with /kneel and profuse {Thank you!}s. I made sure to click the ???.

[Kanseed still plays today incidently!]

All sorted!

NO! Part of the SAM flag quest required holding some rare/ex items that are supposed to be used to make your first Great Katana. Having beaten the mobs and got the key items, I thought they were no longer needed. I threw one of them away to make space for fantastic loot such as a bat wing or maybe an earth crystal. We got to back to Norg and I found myself insulted by an NPC who demanded expensive items to make me a fresh one. I can't remember what they were now, but I know it cost Demajen around 50,000 gil, which was a FORTUNE in those days. It took me ages to pay it back!

We got the item again, but then horror of horrors, we needed to go and fight that damned treant for a 3rd bloody time!

So off we trekked yet again, once again we had to cast around for help (Kanseed was still there, but we were too ashamed to ask him for aid again!). Eventually, Demajen found someone he had partied with in the past and asked for help. They were a mid-50s THF or NIN (can't quite recall) and came along soloed the treant for us. I clicked the ???, held onto the rare/ex item, and all was well with the world.

In a scenic twist, dawn broke in Vana time about the same moment, and the light filtered through the trees and looked damned pretty. It was a nice finish at least.

Unfortnately, the entire thing had taken an entire Saturday afternoon and had cost Demajen thousands of gil. I felt appalled and ashamed that my incomptence had led to such a long, torturous experience for my old friend. Although I still wanted to make DRG my main job, I felt I had a kind of duty to ensure Demajen's effort and gil had not been wasted.

Hence, I was going to level SAMURAI! [Although initially I did not intend it to be my main and only job].

What happened next?

Tune in next time to hear the first part of my rambling, self-indulgent story of how I spent four years getting from 1 - 75. And I know I said I was going to tell the story of the Tachi: Kasha NM, but it wasn't a very good story, and thus it is on the back burner for now.

Don't miss the next thrilling episode kids!

Maat Masher

One thing that draws FFXI players together so well is the shared experiences. There are certain events in Vanadiel that we all go through, and there's a distinct pleasure in taking time to reminisce with your linkshell friends. Perhaps its about your first ever party in the Dunes; maybe the first time you saw the Summerfest fireworks, your long hard struggle to clear Genkai 1, the first time you got a drop from a NM, and so on and so forth.

One of the biggest milestones in anyone's FFXI career is finally stepping up to take on Maat. This old fool has wasted hours of your life searching for ancient papyrus, and forced you to endure horrible alliance pickup groups to clear Genkai 2. It's good to finally get some payback.

I had long ago given up any hope of ever reaching 70 on Samurai, but while out killing Demons for Soran's BRD AF, a Samurai Testimony dropped. I was going to throw it away, but Demajen persuaded me to keep it 'just in case'. I was glad I did too!

So, I hit 70. Full of confidence born of having spiky blonde hair, Saikyo read the guides, checked his gear, and went in to teach the old goat a lesson. Everything I had read said it was an easy fight. Meditate > Tachi: Yukikaze > 2 hour > Tachi: Gekko > Tachi: Gekko > WIN.

So off I charged. Seigan & Third Eye up, I waded into Maat. In the panic and excitement I hammered my macros, hooting wildly, and then seconds later I was dead.

WHA?!

I glanced back through the log. What had gone wrong?

Then I saw it.

'Saikyo uses Tachi: Yukikaze, but misses Maat.'

At this point my language became unprintable and I did a little war dance of rage all around my computer, hoping from one leg to the other and making strange howling noises. Of all the bloody times, in the all bloody places... it had to let me down there!

And what is Tachi: Yukikaze anyway?! It generates a big block low res ice over the enemy! Is it even ice?! It looks cheaper than a nude Galka Ninja, tanking in Garlaige Citadel while wielding an onion knife in one hand and carrying an onion sword in the other. It sucks. The only reason us Samurai use it is that after 60 levels of Enpi this, Enpi that, it seems like the best WS ever.

It doesn't. It is tricksy, and false, and tells lies!

So down, but far from out, me and Dema set out to farm a new testimony from the demons in Castle Zhavl. "This shouldn't take long" said Saikyo.

Approximately 600 hours later, we had Coffer Keys, Whine Cellar Keys, every vareity of Keys, but no Testimony. "This sucks." said Saikyo.

Fortunately, help was at hand. Some cheeky fellows were in there farming for something entirely different, and word came they had just got a Testimony drop first mob. These kindly souls (Goshinki and Masterofshade) invited me to their party, allowed me to lot for loot, then wished me good luck.

{All right!}

Back in black to face Maat. I read the guides in exhaustive detail. I watched the example videos. I even bought an Icarus Wing, just in case. I took some depth breaths, took a big swig from a mug of tea, and headed in.

Once I got inside I got paranoid and rewrote my macros 'just in case'. Then I worried I was going to run out of time. I decided to use Sole Sushi for accuracy as the Mithakabobs had let me down before.

Setting my jawline in grim, heroic fashion, I charged into action. Seigan & Third Eye up, then I pummeled my WSes and screamed my defiance. A few seconds later, Maat was defeated, leaving Saikyo filled with a potent brew of joy and relief. I also broke the server clear time record (which was standing at 4 minutes + for some reason). I leapt from my chair and danced a passionate samba, recieving a polite round of applause.

Whereas before I had had rotten luck, on the second fight everything went to plan. Third Eye absorb all 3 hits from Maat's opening Combo. Yuki hit, and my follow up Gekko went off for 980 damage. Yeah, that's gonna hurt in the morning old man. Why not bandage it up with this friggin ancient papyrus?! And have your exoray mold while you're at it to...

As a postscript to this tale of triumph, I went forgot to go and talk to Maat to break my level cap. I subsquently got a party out in the Mire, and was mighty confused to be 1 tnl for several fights. Realising my error, I ran off to break it. Using the warp Taru in Al Zhabi, got to Jeuno, spoke to Maat, popped a warp scroll.... and reappeared in Port Jeuno. Had forgot to set homepoint >_<

So rest assured, that while Saikyo may be level 71 now, he is still a first class dope.

Tune in next time chums, when we'll be discussing the Tachi of Trials and how FFXI Wiki is not always to be trusted. Bet ya can't wait! ;-)

A Momentous Event

This evening I had one of those things that’s never ever supposed to happen in FFXI, simply because the statistical probability of it is 0.0001%

Let me explain.

Yesterday afternoon, I spent much of my time LFG on Dancer. I was at 4000xp to level 51, and since I have all my Artefact Armour waiting for me to put on, I really wanted to get to 52 so I could equip the first piece, the Dancer's Bangles (gloves), which are rather spiffy.

The whole afternoon went by, during which time I soloed all of that 4000xp, and then another 600xp on top of it, making sure I got to level 51, but not exactly quickly. Doing several more searches, I finally concluded that a party at that level just wasn’t going to happen that day, so I went back to the mog house and twiddled my thumbs for a couple of minutes trying to think what else I could do.

I’d been soloing the ladybugs in East Ronfaure [S] so I was actually in South Sandy [S]. I remembered that, soloing as DNC around lv.20, the worms and other critters in East Ron [S] had been pretty good, and since I’d been chatting to an old LS member about /SAM for DRK earlier in the evening, I figured I’d solo a few hundred xp on SAM.

Geared up in some shoddy put-together stuff (lv.20 headband, lv.13 power gi, scratty gloves off the AH etc etc) and headed out with /DNC to East Ron [S] to kill stuff. Almost as soon as I’m out there, I get an invite to a party from a guy in Jeuno.

I decide I have nothing to lose. After all, it’s Qufim Island. I hate Qufim Island most of the time, but there’s sometimes an odd party which does well. If I could just get a couple of levels to 23, I could use the Great Katana I’ve had sitting in the mog locker for about a year. That’s be quite cool.

So we meet up in Qufim and begin a roaming party. We quickly learn that our Bard, Clodus, is dual-boxing his high level RDM along for the ride. So we have a lv.75 PL. We also have the BRD himself, which always makes stuff fun. As well as a DRK, a NIN, and some other bits & pieces.

Basically, with the RDM taking care of any Banshee spawns, we ran laps round the lake for a couple of hours and absolutely raked in the XP. We started off at 21 mostly, and by the time the XP really dropped, we were all 24 or close to it. We decided to take it inside the tower.

Lower Delkfutt’s Tower is a place that some love, some hate. I’ve had some atrocious parties down here, but this party continued a-pace. We continued to level, but by the time some of us were nearing 25 and everyone was 24, we decided that perhaps Kazham would be a better base of operations. After all, the Mandragora in Yuhtunga Jungle are squishy and much better XP than scraggly goblins and giants in the Tower.

We then discovered that our tarutaru WHM hadn’t got Kazham keys. D’oh! He was a good WHM, so we wanted to keep him, even though we had our PLer, so I wracked my brains and knowledge of camp websites to find a viable alternate solution. Around this time our DRK had to go, and was replaced by her husband, a RNG. Another party member, who may have been a WAR or a BST (not sure) also had to go, so we replaced him with a JP DRK tarutaru (who was cute!).

The camp: a roaming party in Batallia Downs was the plan, killing tigers, orcs, and goblins. While everyone was gathering, the RNG disconnected. Waiting 5 minutes and he didn’t appear. Waited 10 minutes and replaced him with a JP THF. As far as I know, he didn’t come back on in at least the 30 minutes I kept checking for him, so it’s his loss.

So, we rode out to the barrows in Battalia Downs and started running around tearing stuff up. The mobs were a mix of Toughs – Incredibly Toughs, but the chains started coming. Then we realised that our WHM was being a little TOO slow. He’d been in Jeuno checking stuff while we rode out, and he hadn’t reappeared. Then he disappeared altogether.

So we’d rode all the way out here because he was the one that hadn’t got the Kazham pass, and then he dc-ed/disbanded. /sigh

Taking this initiative, we replaced him with a RDM, and sadly our BRD and PL had to go as well, so we replaced him with a DNC and moved to Kazham.

What happened next is a bit of a blur. You see, when I’m in a good party that seems enthusiastic, I don’t do a lot except kill stuff. Usually I’m the puller, and I’m a pretty decent judge of what a party can handle. Even with a RDM main healer and a DNC as backup, this party was the works.

We blew through Yuhtunga Jungle like a hurricane of steel. I have no idea what happened to the Samurai class from how I remember it, but it’s suddenly become a huge powerhouse of crits and massive weaponskills. I was really impressed. Our NIN tank was quite happy to let me take the beats too. Which was fine, cos I took less damage per hit than him.

We all hit 25 easily. And then we hit 26. And about an hour later we hit 27. And we started thinking “what the hell, let’s go to Yhoat while we’re all enthusiastic!” So we did. We went to Yhoater Jungle and started on the Mandies there. They were MUCH tougher, and at 26-27 they were fairly tough to kill. Thanks to Dancer’s “Quick Step” to lower their evasion, they were hittable, and they’re not exactly possessed of a lot of hit points. So we chained them slowly. Most we managed was a chain #3 at 27, but then we started hitting 28 and suddenly they got a lot easier. We were getting chain #4s for 280xp.

Sadly around now we had to start shifting party members around as people had to go to bed, etc etc. But the core of the team – the NIN, the RDM, myself the SAM, and the taru DRK carried on.

29 came and went, then 30, and before anyone really knew just what the hell had happened, most of us were sat at about 1000xp into level 31 before finally the RDM needed to go and we couldn’t find a main healer to replace him.

I don’t actually have a clue how long I was in that party. Nor does time really matter for events like these. Needless to say, that was one of the absolute best, most epic parties I’ve been in for however long I’ve played FFXI for now.

I expected to get to level 23. TWENTY THREE. And came away at level 31. That’s TEN levels in one party. That’s the entirety of the jungles out the way. I got the chance to play with Meditate some (it’s great fun!) and now I can sub DNC properly and go solo a few things. Not like I’ll run out of TP as a SAM. Only need to get it to 37 at the moment, though I’ve had a lot of fun with it so some day I might follow Saik’s lead and level it up a bit higher.

Before Saik buggered off on holiday, he set me a challenge. I believe it was to get DNC to 45. Sitting at DNC51 with full AF in the mog safe, and an extra 10 levels further on SAM than I was when he went away, I *think* I can safely say I met that challenge. And pwned it. Or something >_>

~Dema

Levelling & Search Comments

Hello chums!

On Sunday a momentus event occured in my FFXI career - for the first time in years and years and years, Samurai once again became my highest levelled job, surpassing Bard which is still at 67. Since I made a full return just over a week ago, I've gone from Samurai 65 - 69. Aside from the 1 - 12 soloing levelling run, this is probably the fastest I have ever levelled!

What's happened?

Back in the old days, I would easily spend hours a week LFG on Samurai without result or interest. Indeed, it was the misery of getting stuck at around level 46 or so that made me quit Samurai for Bard in the first place.

So what's the secret?

I have picked out three factors:

#1: Sheer blind luck. (I think is probably the most important)
#2: Momentum - partying with the same people over a period of time and being remembered. (This is also very important)
#3: A ridiculous search comment.

Now while #1 & #2 are important, they wouldn't make for a good blog. So I'm going to discuss #3. Search comments.

For years, my search comments were very serious and sensible. They might look something like this:

@3000 HP: {Jeuno} {Warp}OK!
SJ: WAR/THF/NIN
JP/EN/EU PT OK! {Please Invite me}

This got maybe got me 1 invite over the course of 25 hours+ lfg.

When me and Dema levelled as a duo on MNK & THF (and later SAM & THF) we used to prominently displayed that we needed to be invited as pair. So the comment might look like:

@3000 HP: {Jeuno}
{Friend}: Demajen 52 THF
{Team up?} Please invite us both!

No one ever, ever, ever read this, ever. So we had invites for one but not both. And then confusion when we pointed this out.

Now, upon returning to FFXI I couldn't remember how to play at all, I had no macros and no idea what I was supposed to be doing or where people XP'd these days. So more in hope than expectation I wrote a comment that stole unmercifully from 'The Producers'. It went like this:

@10000
Don't be silly, be a smarty,
Invite Saikyo to your party!

Since then, the invites have been literally pouring in. It's even reached the point where I have been getting invites when not LFG, something that hasn't happened to me since I quit Bard. Whatever the reasons, I'm attributing it to the awesome search comment!

Of course I am paranoid now that my luck is going to run out and I'll become stuck short of 70. I really want to get to 70 and beat up a humble old man. ^_^d

Till next time!

Dancing for Fun and Profit...

Well, fun anyway.

Hello ladies, gentlemen and multiforms. I have returned to FFXI with a view to trying out the two jobs introduced in the Wings of the Goddess expansion, to explore the events of the past, to try out some of the new missions, and generally see how much the game has changed since I left in November last year.

First thing's first, when I left the game was in a state of economic flux. Inflation was rife, though decreasing slightly, and decent items like the Scorpion Harness and Haubergeon were in excess of 2 million gil. I had around 500k gil to my name, and figuring this worthless, I gave it away upon my departure, along with all my equipment, which all went to two LS friends.

I came back to the game and one of the initial things I did, knowing I'd need equipment, is figured out what little I did have knocking around, and then checked the Auction House to see what the state of the economy was like.

And was duly shocked and, I admit, a tad depressed.

You see, that 500k I gave away I could now use to buy not one, but two scorpion harnesses. The economy seems to have crashed and then stabilised at a much, MUCH lower level than it used to be half a year ago.

So anyway, my impression of Dancer as a job is coloured by the fact that I cannot afford any cool equipment, and that I'm pretty darned broke. Nothing I've put up on the AH these last few days has sold (apart from crystals) so what little I have is now dwindling further. But without further adieu...

DANCER

There were two new jobs introduced in the expansion: Dancer and Scholar. After I got the game installed and updated, I basically opened up the latest model viewer, picked out the model of the female elvaan with the same hair as Demajen, and tried on the two sets of AF. Scholar struck me as quite cute but a bit weird-looking. For fun I tried it on Saikyo and thought it very much suited him and informed him of such via MSN. I even sent him a picture. I think he was quite taken and may well try it at some point.

But it was the Dancer AF that stood out to me. Perhaps its the fact that I have a female character and AF armour almost always looks better on female characters, but the Dancer AF caught my eye and captivated me. The very first thing I did was go and start the Dancer quest, and it is only now, at lv.30 Dancer, that I pause to write my initial impressions.

Dancer is fun. Pure and simple. It can solo like no other job I've played in the game. Yesterday, at lv.27-28, I was running round Qufim soloing the worms and crabs who are all DC-T with no problem whatsoever. Worms were nice and quick to kill. Crabs weren't. But the XP all added up. It's certainly not WoW-speed soloing, but for FFXI - where soloing was never really an option back in the day - it's certainly a breath of fresh air.

The job is based purely on TP, which is a great mechanic for solo play. When you're on your own, you're the guy getting hit. Always. And you're fighting stuff with generally low evasion, so the amount of TP you get is always pretty high. All your abilities as a Dancer use TP for some kind of effect. Curing Waltz, for example, is a WHM's Cure II (just about) for the cost of 20% TP. Dirt cheap when you have close to 300% TP knocking about quite regularly in solo play. Drain Samba, the staple spell of the solo Dancer at this level, puts a debuff on the mob that lets you constantly drain small amounts of HP as long as you hit it once every 6-8(ish) seconds. This only costs 10% TP, and lasts for about a minute and a half. Most fights last over that, but its a matter of seconds to recast it.

So yeah, soloing Easy Preys is just that... easy. Soloing Decent Challenges is also fairly easy, though it takes a while, and some mobs hit harder than others. The same with Even Matches. Toughs take a long time, and only worms seem to be viable targets for this at the moment, though this could simply be due to my lack of decent gear.

Partying, though, is another matter. See, most parties in FFXI consist of people who like to see big XP numbers. Only by the 70s do people start to realise that FAST XP is as good as BIG XP. The problem with fighting Incredibly Tough mobs on Dancer is that we only have a B+ ranked skill in our main offensive weapon. This means that, at lv.28 or so like I started today's party in Yhoator Jungle, I needed a lot more accuracy/dagger merits than I actually had to be able to hit. Sure, at 30 I get an Accuracy Bonus trait which I hope will help out a lot, but it's just really REALLY hard to hit anything, and I was feeling pretty useless and leechy for most of the party.

Still, I got to lv.30. Two levels in the bag, and some new abilities to play around with. Hopefully the lack of Accuracy will get better, as obviously I need TP to perform any kind of role in a party situation. We'll see how it goes as I go through the ranks.

But first, time to try out a bit of campaign and see if I can't find a way to make some kind of money ><

~Dema