My GF was never into games and updated in movies. She hasn't read Lord of the Rings, seen Star Wars or known about Final Fantasy until she met me. Well now, I've gotten her into Zelda (Windwaker and Twilight Princess) and soon Kingdom Hearts and FFX. Life is good :D

Her parents however do not like me very much. This is because:
1. I took 3 years off to be a concert pianist (playing at anime conventions and youtube-- only to be threatened by major corporations with copyrights to sue me), a very unconventional life path for an asian.
2. The other reason why they don't like me is because of this very superficial idea that I'm short. I'm 5'6 and apparently to her parents, that's too short. (She's 5'2 and her parents aren't much taller). Thus, between her and I, we make fun of each others' height.

Combine these two facts, one of our conversations lead to the fact that I called her short.
Her: You're short.
Me: At least I'm not a dwarf.
Her: You're a midget.
Me: You're a... Halfling! (**Note, she hasn't seen Lord of the Rings before)
Her: What the hell is a Halfing?
Me: It's very short people from LoTR
Her: Well... You're a... Quarterling!
Me: .......

Fishing has been my new past time. Along with Anomander, Goldey, Burban, and Aeowin, all hardcore fishing people, I've decided to return to fishing and hope for an Ebisu at one point. It has been extremely rewarding so far, it turns out that the guild Fish Rank contest is accepting Bhefel Marlins. Because of this, I've been doing basically nothing but fishing.

Reasons why!

1. I get skillups from Marlins
2. If I win the contest, I get Pelican Ring
3. Pirates are fun! I need revenge on the two HQ pirates, Blackbeard and Silverhook
4. Marlins can give Pirates Chart.

Sidetracks:

1. It turns out that fishing for marlins involves using Bluetails. Bluetails catches silver sharks, marlins, and RYUGU TITANS. By fishing marlins, I was able to get a penguin ring. When I use the penguin ring on the boat, it turns out that I can actually fish Ryugu Titans. Although I havn't gotten a sword yet, it turns out that I got something else instead... Broken Lu Rods. At first, I thought it was awesome-- I was kinda proud of my first broken Lu Rod.... However, it turns out that it was more of a hinderance than anything. When a Ryugu bites, my Lu rod will break almost 25% of the time. I've stacked up more lumbers just in case I catch one without the ring just in case I can't find any woodworkers...





0/6 on Kris so far.
Level 55 Fishing now!

HNM Scene

The endgame scene is quite interesting. One big improvement that I have received was Stone Gorget from the Promy-Dem. The strategy is very easy and fun. It turns out it only takes 4 SMNs to beat, you just bring the SMN's and you use Fenrir's 2 hour ability. Easy! Killing the NM is easy as well, in Promy-Vahzl, you only need 2 NIN and 1 RDM to beat it. I'm 1/3 on the NM for the gorget and now have a 410 stoneskin cap! I put the stoneskin cap to the test: I started killing the new NM's from the previous patch:

Oupire:

I've been asked to help on this NM by Tewl because he was after the pigments for his augment armors. Originally he had around 12 people killing which included 2 tanks. I've always helped on SAM and then after a close observations, I was thinking to myself.. "Hmm, I think this is soloable". My first attempt did not go so well... For some reason, Oupire had Blink up, and I couldn't cast Diaga since there were many Qiqrins in the area. Since Oupire is a MNK, my images went down fast, and because slow wasn't on, it was very hard to tank through the ga spells and mnk melee attacks. As a result, I died. I still wanted to try it however, but this time, I brought 2 other people: a BRD and a BLM. The BRD also brought a WHM in case.

The final party setup was this:
Keichan (RDM/NIN)
Shinote (BLM/RDM)
Tewl (BRD/BLM)

The final battle took approx. 45 minutes. The strategy is simple, the RDM/NIN keeps hate, the BRD keeps elegy on it + March + Ballad, and the BLM Stuns the ga's and nukes.




Finally, Scylla. Tewl also wanted this Pigment so I decided to help. He double boxed a WHM and a BRD. I was RDM/NIN once again.




We did not end up killing this NM. At 48%, one of the mobs (the one in the background of the picture) aggroed. It was not a safe location to fight unless you have someone to take links. After linking, tewl was double boxing so was unable to get the link off of me fast enough. My images were down by the time the link was off of me, and then 49% was when the NM starts spamming the frost fang move. I died slightly after. They are weak moves, only dealing 200 damage and I think images absorb them so it would have been brass borer all over again. I do plan on trying this again at a later date.

I recently found out that on Windows XP, 20% of your bandwidth is reserved for update downloads. When you're not downloading a Microsoft update, that 20% goes to waste. Now you can reclaim it in 3 steps.

STEP 1: Go to Start > Run > Then type: gpedit.msc
Now CLick o.k. And you should see the Group Policy Editor Window open.

STEP 2: Go To - Local Computer Policy > Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Network > QOS Packet Scheduler > Limit Reservable Bandwidth

STEP 3: Double click on Limit Reservable Bandwidth. Click Properties > Enable Reservable Bandwidth > Input "0" > Click OK

Enjoy.

The past week I received and email from SE saying that FFXIV beta is opening soon. Beta testing offers a huge opportunity to those who are set on playing a particular game. Some things will change for sure but the the large structure/design of the game will not change. I played part of Aion's beta after I got banned from FFXI. Prior to that I played NC Soft's Lineage 2 and recognized many of the features of the game from there. I remember when I started playing FFXI at a time when there was so little documentation on what to do and where to go.

One of my fondest memories was the crazy story of parties getting 200xp from crabs in the Dunes. That was fantastic compared to my 85xp from the crabs near Sandy and only a few people I knew at that time had even taken the trip down there. Not to mention we had no maps to guide us, on the the kind adventurer who was returning after days of partying. Those were great days of exploring a new world. And the bonds built while exploring a new world are hard to duplicate.

Unfortunately most of the games are laid out for new players without much mystery. This is one area that SE has done well with their games, MMO and otherwise. At times its frustrating, but look at how many people are still intrigued by Treasure Hunter or other other aspects of the game. That mystery is what creates a long game life. I'm not saying this is the only way to keep people involved, but it seems to be lost on many of the newer MMOs.

What where your fondest memories of MMOs? What really makes a good game? Is frustration really a bad thing? 

Here, I will discuss a strategy that involves a lowman strategy to take down Jailer of Justice. (Minimum of 4 players to execute)

This theory is based on my knowledge of game mechanics and I will go step by step to explain and prove the theory to be viable.

Abstract
Jailer of Justice is a Al'Tieu NM that is spawned by the Deed of Moderation(Ix'DRK) and Second Virtue(Jailer of Fortitude). Normally the strategy to down this NM requires an alliance of at least 8-12 players. This includes a tank party of 2 tanks, 2-3 support members, and a party of 6 BLM's. The idea behind this strategy is the fact that JoJ summons Qn'xzomits every 30 seconds. Tank jobs tank JoJ(and it sometimes Charms), and the BLM's kill the pets. When there is extra MP, BLM's will damage JoJ. If you are lucky to have several melees around, you can melee it down while the BLM's attends to the links.

However, there will be situations when this type of manpower is unavailable. In some cases, some players rather not join a large LS to gain a Justice Torque, waiting on long wait lists, and even abandoning a LS after a single piece of gear. Let's face it, many of the things that happen in FFXI are not very rewarding if done with a large number of people. Even more less amusing is boring kills of tedious NM's. In order to kill this NM, one important thing must be addressed: Pets. And we'll take advantage of the fact that they are a pack of 6, follow each other, and non-aggressive.

I will explain my method of pet lockdown in this article in several ways.
1. Mob AI
2. Charm
3. Shared Hate
4. Party Setup
5. Strategy

Topic 1: Mob AI: How do Mobs Link and Follow?

Before we venture into this theory, one important idea must be known. Jailer of Justice can only have 6 pets spawned at any one time. However, if one dies, a new one spawns. It is obvious that if Jailer of Justice does not charm or have pets, it would be easily soloed by a skilled RDM. So the first step: Keep JoJ pets at a stasis. But how will we do this? The only way we can do this is by holding all 6 pets based on the fact that the pets are on follow.

Mobs that “follow” each other have a very interesting AI and are distinctly different from mobs that simply link with each other. What do I mean? I’m saying that aggroing mobs that are on “follow” with each other are distinctly different than mobs that are simply in the same proximity that link. How can I prove this? Let me explain.

Let’s take a normal example of squid type mobs in sea. Your everyday Xzomits near the zone to Tavnazian Safehold has 3 baby Xzomits. This will be our initial model. One mommy Xzomit and 3 baby Xzomits.

Do they link?

Test #1: Aggro Mommy
If I happen to agro the Mommy Xzomit, I will get all three babies as well. Now the question is whether aggroing one of the babies will result in linking. It seems that the Xzomits link together in a “party”. However by the end of this article, you will realize that it’s not as simple as that.

Test #2: Aggro Last Baby
If you happen to agro the last baby Xzomit far enough from the pack, you will be able to “snipe” the baby and kill it. However, if Mom Xzomit wanders around and sees you killing her babies, she’ll come and try to kill you. Now you may think that this test is for naught now, but you see, we haven’t addressed all the babies yet.

Test#3: Aggroing Lead Baby only
If you tried to do this solo, this will be an extremely hard feat. Xzomits run at flee speed and it is very hard to claim the lead baby without claiming the mom as well. To do this effectively, you must have two players. To prevent Xzomits from depopping, I had to sacrifice my taru mule character Simozene. I casted Blind onto the Mom Xzomit on Simozene and let the pets and the mom kill him. I pulled the lead baby (on Keichan) from the pack during the 3 second period where the mob can not agro or choose a new target. I run far away from the pack.

This in itself proves nothing. However, the next step is critical. I reraise Simozene and he agros the Mommy Xzomit (with the remaining train). THE REST OF THE TRAIN DOES NOT ATTACK SIMOZENE DESPITE AGROING MOMMY XZOMIT! Meanwhile, Keichan is few squares away holding the lead Xzomit. This means that none of the Xzomits are actually aggressive. They are mearly mindless automations on /follow to the leader Baby Xzomit#1. If Baby Xzomit #1 does not agro the Mommy, the rest of the train does nothing.

Mommy<-Baby#1<-Baby#2<-Baby#3.

Baby#1 will always be an unrelenting follower to Mommy.
Baby#2 will link to ONLY Baby#1.
Baby#3 will link to ONLY Baby #2

Conclusion:
Baby#2 and Baby#3 will not attack players unless they link to Baby#1. They will also will not attack unless the babies. There is a possibility that dying and the “3 second agro reset” period may do something with the /follow mechanism of the mobs. However, it is irrefutable that this strategy works.

This type of strategy already exists. If you are not familiar with the 2 man Mother Globe strategy, the same concept holds true. If you use a RDM sacrifice to create that 3 second window where mobs can not link or agro, another RDM can easily pull the first slave to the south room. All the other slaves will be /following the main slave and Mother Globe will be all alone. The dead RDM will reraise and solo Mother Globe in the North room. I used to farm this NM daily with Terek when he was aiming to get Blood Cuisses.
If this strategy holds true, if JoJ has 6 pets out, the same thing would occur.

2. Charm

Originally, I developed this strategy for a duo. Unfortunately, even with a poison only strategy, this can not work because charm is particularly long lasting on this NM. Added on the fact that it is NOT a TP move (It has a dust storm animation so must be HP related) makes the minimum amount of players to do this to THREE.

3. Shared Hate

Shared Hate is a major concern to this NM. However, I speculate that shared hate is may be related to distance to mob. In Jailer of Fortitude, the Kh’Grahs are supposedly to have shared hate (or random hate?). However, even in this case, if the grahs are far enough, they will separate from the main mob.

This strategy will not work on mobs that are naturally aggressive. I do not expect this strategy to work on Xolotl since skeletons are naturally aggressive.

This strategy will not work on mobs that all follow the mommy mob. If they all follow the same mob, the mobs will appear that they “overlap” each other as in Vrtra or Experimental Lamia. They must make a very neat line such as Mother Globe or Jailer of Justice.

4. Party Setup

1. RDM/NIN
2. RDM/NIN
3. RDM/NIN
4. RDM/NIN

In the end, only 1 RDM will be tanking JoJ and 1 RDM will be tanking the baby. The other 2 RDM’s are used for Charm support as well as the initial blitz to 6 Babies.

5. The Strategy

The strategy involves one main RDM/NIN to tank JoJ. After each 30 second interval, a baby will pop and 1 RDM will claim and hold each individual. At around the 5th baby, it will be slightly hectic. Last 30 more seconds, and get the entire party to die. 6 Babies should be popped by the time the party dies.

One RDM will drop party and will hold JoJ to prevent a depop using Bio/Poison. Only 2 RR’s will be required.

After 3 of the RDM’s are unweakened, the holder RDM will attack JoJ one last time, leading to the “3 second agro delay”. 1 of the 3 RDM’s (solo party) will pull the #1 Baby and pull it far away so that the lead baby will not link to JoJ.

Finally, the remaining 2 RDM’s will tank and kill JoJ through Nuke/Tank. The sacing RDM can joy in the fray of tanking JoJ. The RDM holding the lead baby should remain in a solo party for the remainder of the battle (and tanking the baby). 3 RDM/NIN should easily kill JoJ through any sort of Charm incidents. The remaining 5 pets under theory, should not be aggressive.

arcdizzle, did you cancel kumar or unactivated him or something. tried logging on right now to say hey and basically tell you i'm quitting for serious now. D: like planning on never logging on again after new year. i got this message, i'm not mad or anything, just wanted to see whats up. was hoping to have one last goodbye and runaround sea before i made it official. just text me or respond here, tys man.

Salvage is still going at a steady rate. My second group is going more often than my main group does these days. This group does runs based on who has the highest attendance points - and the person doesn't get attendance points because it's for them. They definitely do things a little differently than my other group, but it isn't that much different. I like that rule though.  The people in this new group I joined are Sully (leader), Mors, Kaylee, Asha, Arsham, Starstress, Lenki, Nori, and as well as myself. Lately we've been doing SSR for Arsham (he has highest attendance). 

The Powderkeg pulls are a bit rough because the probability of mobs linking early on is pretty high.  Not to mention you have to kill 4 Devilets to port up - so most people just clear that whole room and then Powderkeg.  Needless to say, we have not seen Macha's Slops, not once.  Not to mention I haven't even seen it in my other group either (we have quite a few people 2/3 on it, but hey).  My other group consists of Leonstrife, Kenjiri, Orimi, Kajima, Stone, Sige, Asriel, Bostech, and myself.  I enjoy going with both groups, fun times with both of them.

I have yet to see any 35s since Citadel Chelonian dropped the Hikazu Hara-Ate.  However, I have killed a Long-Armed Chariot since then and it dropped stuff we've seen before - Ea's Brais and Usu feet - I lewted the brais for my future Marduk's Shalwar.

Also been working on SMN.  I've astral burned a lot of it (ok... most of it) and my summoning magic skill isn't too far behind.  It's sitting at around 165.  I'm currently level 64 on it, and I got this thanks to the Chroma linkshell:



That's right - Bahamut's Staff.  Go figure that I tried for Gulool Ja Ja for Mythic that day, only to end up going to Riverne - Site #B01! The NM attempt not working out actually helped me in the long run.  Not fun to finally arrive at the NM's location after countless aggro, only to have it despawn RIGHT as we're all past the door due to Besieged preparing to start.  Sucked, but I was able to take advantage of that.  Much thanks to Chroma for the opportunity to obtain that staff, because I have pretty much retired from the end-game scene.  Course, they got some gil for it - I was looking to buy it since I don't actively do events like those. I've had some things in mind for my Summoner.  Granted I don't plan to go out of my way to augment a Royal Redingote, Selenian Cap, nor Tatsumaki Sitagoromo (the A Shantotto Ascension legs) for SMN (I am considering the Elemental Siphon+20 augment though - that's a very nice augment, in fact, tests show it's like +20 skill), I still plan to gear my SMN as best as I can, examples:
SMN Perp Cost Wishlist - This is what I have in mind in the long run for SMN when it comes to Perpetuation Cost.
SMN Skill Wishlist - Mainly for Elemental Siphon, but I've decided against getting Summoning Earring. It's not worth it at all.
SMN Stoneskin (at 75/Wishlist) - Blame my Bard for this.  Like on BRD, I can easily cap Stoneskin on Summoner.  Just need the Marduk hands and feet.
SMN BP: Rage Wishlist - For BP: Rage.  Anyone that understands SMN will know what I'll use for a specific avatar, i.e: Garuda with the Garuda headpiece.  Sacrifice Torque will be on for Physical Blood Pacts - it's also worth carrying along because it can wake the SMN up from sleep (never know when this can come in handy).
SMN BP Delay- Wishlist - For BP: Delay reduction.  Any SMN that understands how to gear swap will know I can benefit from this and the BP: Rage setup at the same time. Hint: As soon as you have your avatar ready a BP, immediately equip the BP: Rage gear.  BP Delay- determination takes place as you ready the ability.
Ideal hMP Gear - Granted, this isn't specifically for Summoner, but yeah - still working on the perfect HMP build across my jobs to minimize resting time (imo, it's a stat a lot of mages overlook in favor of max MP - max MP is one of the most pointless stats in this game - granted, if I wanted to use a max MP set, I sure could, and I'd have a lot of MP - I just never use it because there's no real need for it).

There's only one thing I'm really trying to augment for Summoner: A Fay Crozier.  Now, some people may look at me and say, "Why try with a Bahamut's Staff?"  The answer is simple: I want pet augments (ideally boosting attack and magic attack by around 5), with avatar perpetuation cost -3.  I won't settle for anything else, because there can only be one Fay Crozier that I can actively use.  The game has ZERO ways to determine the difference between 2 items that are differently augmented when you use macros.  So it'll mess it up.

And here's something I know people've been wanting to see:
WHM Melee TP - Once I get the stuff I need, this is what you'll see my WHM use for meleeing.  I've had a lot of people ask me why I don't try to use it in events - the answer is simple, I didn't upgrade Mjollnir to use it in events when I know bloody-damned well what my job is - it's called healing (cause meleeing Odin is awesome amirite?), owning a Mjollnir doesn't change that, and I'm not moving to the front lines in everything just because I have it.  If I'm going to melee at an event I'll come on my DRK at 75.  The only thing I'd be willing to do as a melee WHM is melee in a merit PT (shit once I get the stuff I need I'll do that fulltime).

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