Eve of the revolution

Vana'diel shall be rocked to its very core! OK, well maybe not THAT dramatic, but this is some pretty big stuff coming down the pike. So in preparation, many of us have been hitting East Ronfaure (S) rather hard. Nothing is at 49 here yet, but NIN is close at 47. I figured I'd take that one to 49 first given that it's always been my least favorite. I'm sure there are many folks with BRD/RDM/WHM/BLM/SCH/PLD that plan to leave one or more of those parked at 75 after this update. I know I may fry for this, but my PLD is staying parked at 75. Nearly two years of having it at 75 and I still suck at it. I really don't use it that much outside of campaign and I just don't really care enough about it. If it's something where atonement isn't viable then a RDM is usually the better option if there's someone more comfortable playing the job that way. If it IS an atonement-friendly fight, a SAM could do it better. Even then, one could still defer to RDM. No I'm not exping RDM. Blow me.

As for which of the three remaining that will go past 75 first, definitely BLU. Of course I'll probably end up soloing most of the time. And the hang-up with SAM and DRG will be the fact every melee DD and their mother will be flagged up for the first few days/weeks. It will be interesting to see how congested exp camps get. But god help you if you don't do things during the "January sale rush" that is the first few days following an update. Which reminds me: I won't be able to go to walk of echoes on day 1! Oh noez! A few friends and I were doing Wings missions around early-April, but we stopped around "Crossroads of Time" for some reason. Shouldn't be too bad getting to that point with the level caps going up. That is, assuming the BC fights aren't capped at 75.

Cost-benefit analysis: Samurai

So it appears the last few months have found me bouncing back and forth between perfecting my DRG and my SAM. Actually this seems to happen with my other jobs too, even my largely-ignored PLD. However it is even more so prevalent between the two-handers. At one point, toward the end of last year, my SAM had been all but "retired" until roaring back to life around February. I'd seriously considered doing that to my DRG around October/November.

Yilbegan revisited

Last night, Beyond took two more shots at the void-walking Yilbegan. Our first encounters taught us two important things. The first big thing we learned was that PLD/NIN tanks were useless in this fight. Another thing was there wasn't enough incoming damage to keep up with his high regen. A faster Yilbegan kill is what we sought. But how do we get there? It was "back to the drawing board" so to speak.

Magi-what?

While several of my colleagues have been dutifully hacking away at magian weapons over the past month, there are a number of us (myself included) that have elected to boycott these pains in the ass altogether. Some of them are nice and give options to jobs that didn't have them previously (i.e. a multi-hit for BLU) but others are just WTF. Kill triple-digit mobs under weather conditions? Camp NM's with bullshit pop conditions and kill them x number of times? No thanks.

In other news, the past few days have found me plugging away at DNC sub, which as of this posting is 33. After hitting around level 20, the feeling of "why didn't I do this sooner?" began to set in. Certainly would've made my life on SAM a bit easier while leveling it up.

Yilbegan sucks

So last night Beyond took a crack at the new "big daddy" VNM, Yilbegan. The first time we popped, it despawned at 89% after the popper went too far away. The second time, we tracked it all the way to Xarcabard where a battle of epic proportions ensued. What did we get for our troubles? A gold ore and a couple dark crystals. So I've learned in the case of BLU, /THF and shoot cannonballs up its ass when it's casting.

Time to exp RNG now I guess. >_>

What a week

Well, for starters, Temenos was good to me this past Sunday. We did have a cobalt mithril sheet drop, but someone else won it. However, it did put out not one but two scarlet odoshi, meaning I'll have a pair of Myochin Haidate +1 this Sunday. :) But the fun doesn't stop there. Dhalmels, ponies, 3-headed dogs and fulminations, oh my!

Lots of stuff

So last month's Vana'fest brought us many interesting revelations. The first being that after several years at 75, we'll be making a climb to 99. So to safeguard against our current gear falling into obsolescence, SE had the foresight to add a series of quests called the "Trial of the Magians", which allow us to upgrade our hard-earned gear. Moreover, it looks like we're getting Walk of Echoes in June. Time to catch up on those damn Wings missions. Maybe getting help won't be so terrible now that we know the pot of gold at the end of that rainbow. But since the older stuff isn't being scaled to accommodate for the higher levels, I'm half-tempted to just wait until the level cap goes to 80 in June and bang out as many as I can solo.

So it seems I've got my work cut out for me in the next three months in terms of catching up on campaign and missions as well as leveling subjobs to 49. I'd already be hacking away at this were it not for being sidelined by PC issues late last month. But I should be back up and running Monday, or even Tuesday since I'd have to re-install and endure that 4+ hour patch-a-thon.