Of Eggs and Relics

So I figured I should probably post something about, you know, FFXI once in a while, since that was the original idea behind this little project. I've forgotten that I haven't bothered to even post anything about my character, etc.

My in-game name is, obviously, Kadaj. Reference to FFVII:AC? Yes, even though 6 I still consider my absolute favorite of all the games.

5 75 jobs in FFXI: SAM COR WAR NIN PLD, leveled in that order. Samurai and Corsair are my favorite two jobs to play, and are also the most heavily merited and best equipped, though WAR looks pretty good in adaberk.

Like I said, you know, last year, I've taken over an HNM shell on Unicorn server that I've been a part of for years. Recently our concentration has been towards WotG HNM like Dark Ixion and Sandworm, though we continue to camp kings from time to time. Events like sky, sea, znm and often KS99, Bahamut etc come around in rotations.

I've also started up a Dynamis shell that our HNM shell basically hosts to help pay for relic weapons. I've started work myself on an Amanomurakumo (Currently stage 4, Totsukanotsurugi), and we're hoping to work on another shield soon (The first one went to Maestro, mostly funded from our old dynamis shell). I'm still in the very early stages of saving silver pieces, 70 of them is going to take quite a while.

Other than that, lets get some bitching in, I'm going through withdrawal.

Recently, the new mini expansion 'A Crystalline Prophecy' was released with this past version update. For those of you that have been working on the missions over the past week, you must know exactly why this is #1 in my oncoming bitch fest.

So, patch day. Update comes out. We dispatch ourselves a post maintenance Fafnir and procure an N.head. Pretty good right? Now to missions. Into Lower Jeuno for a CS, instructed to... uh, farm, apparently. The mission turns out to be a farming excursion in Jugner Forest, the Mountains, and Marshlands for 1 item from each, which drops from beastmen in those areas.

Now, I don't know what the development team thinks we like to do with our time, or if the people testing the mission realized that they wouldn't have oodles of mobs just waiting to be demolished for their items. But nevertheless, we found ourselves competing against 50 other people in each zone to claim Yagudo, Quadav and Orcs in order to get our items, with a pretty pitiful drop rate, perhaps under 20%. Well under 20% for most people, I heard.

After you turn in your three items, you say to yourself.. Thank God! No more farming! Now we can really play the missions!

Nope. Go farm goblins for a key item from the Fields, Downs and Champaigne whatever its spelled, and then pop a goblin NM with that key item for another key item at a ???

... Alright, fine. Another 3-4 hours spent trying to outclaim 50 other players to kill goblins and progress in the missions.

Oh the best part was that they busted the Qufim Island ??? spot you need to trade your items to, and check again later for a small fight. Busted it for 2 days, and nobody past that point could progress. That was rather irritating.

I dunno, guys. To me it seems like the implementation could have gone much better. Nobody wants to farm items for hours, I would have rather it be running to talk to NPCs, procuring key items and other items in that fashion. You would think that the development team would want us to enjoy the expansion, not leave a bad taste in our mouths so that after we finally farm up these items, we're so frustrated that we can't even enjoy the story.

So anyway, after that it was pretty straightforward. BC fight in Fei'Yin, that was pretty fun actually. After that, a semi-annoying facet was the climb through Delkfutt Tower, snagging key items along the way until you get to the Fulcrum, and trade all 12 for 1 key item to enter the BCNM. Wouldn't be so annoying if you weren't level capped to 30, but with sweeper players at 75 guiding it wasn't so bad.

One of the best things they did though, was allow players who weren't on the BC, or even had the expansion, to participate in the BCNM fights to help others without any prereqs. Very nice job on that.

So that has been my week, mostly. Got a Nuevo Corselet (One of three possible rewards, body pieces you pick after the final fight), and got to augment it with some stats that will favor use with my finished relic. Store TP+4 pushes me back into 6-hit range with Usukane boots, and Acc+10 since I'm Elvaan and, apparently, blind (As per a past post).

Early Easter dinner soon. Toodles.