Sky is pretty

So I got access to Sky last week. It's been a fun set of missions to get there, barring the completely arbitrary "you need multiple people" switches in the Quicksand Caves. Other than that, it's been a lot of fun. There's no level caps on any of the fights, but even so I had a lot of fun with one of them which I was almost certain I'd need help with: Return to Delkfutt's Tower.

It took me two tries, but Bind/Nuking did the job just fine as a level 80 RDM/SCH. I'm still not sure if that should feel like a big accomplishment, but it did. During the first attempt he seemed to be breaking out of Bind rather quickly and finally got close enough to wallop me with Light Blade, which pretty much ended the fight. Second go around went smoother, although I'm not sure why. Fewer resists maybe? Dispelga was kind of obnoxious but I'm OCD enough about getting all my buffs up before battle that I was able to shrug off most of the ones that got dispelled. All in all it was a very fun battle and it felt good to not have to rely on bothering other people to take time out of their schedule to help me progress.

Soloing babble aside, the visuals from the Zilart expansion are utterly entrancing. I simply love the architecture and the cutscenes are very well done. Finally getting to Sky itself was pretty fantastic. There's all sorts of cool stuff up there. Unfortunately there's also tons of magic aggro and it's easy to get lost. It's looking to be a love/hate relationship, but it's one I look forward to.

A musty old temple.


Where did these headstones come from?


Shiny.








This is oddly reminiscent of Midgar.




Definitely one of the more serene places in the game.


The Bastokers are here to kick some ass.




I thought this was a really cool effect.






Sky.


I've also been working on Chains of Promathia. I hate this mountain so much, but it makes for good screenshots.


I found the ugliest hat in the game. Do I get a prize?

Dear Black Mages

Stop opening with Sleepga II.

It's like wearing a neon flashing sign that says "I am terrible at my job."

Why can't I have nice Dynamis runs?

Soloing in a Broom Closet

While it's not exactly a noteworthy accomplishment to solo a level 70 Notorious Monster when you're level 80, today's adventure feels noteworthy all the same.

I've been meaning to get to Sky and I've started the legwork on the missions. Today I've been going around to the Cermet headstones and collecting fragments. But enough with the exposition.

I wandered into Cape Terrigan and tackled Axesarion the Wanderer. He's a Shadow and takes reduced damage from magic, so my nukes weren't exactly melting his face. The tricky thing though, was that he's located at the end of a tunnel that's constantly patrolled by goblins, meaning I couldn't exactly kite him over long distances. In fact I couldn't really kite him more than a few feet. The room was incredibly tiny and the goblins were all breathing down my neck the whole fight, but I somehow managed to keep enough distance between me and the NM that he couldn't swing at me while bound.

This is sort of the problem I've always had with the concept of kiting NMs, there's always an entire zone full of aggro waiting to ruin your attempt if the NM doesn't. Today I started learning some basics of how to get around this. You really don't need much space at all if there's a clear spot that doesn't have aggro. Just enough space that the monster can't swing at you. It kind of blew my mind when I realized what can be done with just a broom closet of aggro free space.

It got pretty hairy when I got caught with Convert down.

That room is so tiny.

Dear Mages...

Cast Haste.

I'm tired of being the only competent mage in Abyssea pickup parties. Don't make me Haste the entire alliance by myself, stop slacking.

Even Quadavs know how to cast Haste. Why don't you?

Abyssea's effect on low level pickup parties

I have now seen the aftermath of Abyssea firsthand and it isn't pretty.

Tonight one of the newer players in our linkshell basically said that the lack of low level parties caused by Abyssea was discouraging him from logging in.

Sure we've all had nights where we sit around with our flag up and no invites, but I think it's reaching the point where there are enough people forgoing low level parties that it's actively driving players away from the game.

A little too easy

Well it's nice that the servers are back online again. I was beginning to go crazy from the lack of FFXI in my diet and had to find something else to fill the void. But now we're back so it's all good, right?

Wrong!

I've been dodging this whole Abyssea thing for a while but now that I'm past Maat I figured it was time to venture into that mystical place everyone's been raving about for the last few months. So after some time with my flag up I landed myself an Abyssea party.

My first impressions were not good. Actually seeing a whole alliance exping together shattered more than a few dreams. There was little to no organization that I could discern. People were constantly pulling in multiple mobs, but no one bothered sleeping anything. There didn't seem to be a designated /assist, it was more just a free for all of Damage Dealers with some Healers tacked on for good measure. I honestly had no idea what was going on and felt largely superfluous to the whole operation. Things were dying too fast to bother with enfeebles other than the occasional Dia, no one was coordinating Haste cycles, Cures were already thoroughly provided for. It left me wondering why I'd been invited in the first place.

Another issue I had was that with a group that large there wasn't much in the way of chatting. That's something I liked about the six man parties, you could usually get one where folks were laid back enough to shoot the breeze so everyone had a good time regardless of how the exp was. In Abyssea....not so much. It was pretty much just maul, maul, maul, oh have to replace someone, maul, maul, maul. That's no way to meet people.

The exp flow's pretty silly. I went from 72 to 75 + capped buffer in under two hours. I can see the appeal for folks looking to race another job to the level cap, but that kind of leveling speed really just took all the satisfaction out of finally hitting 75. You know, one of my big goals for the game...now it's totally not an accomplishment. I feel dirty for taking that party now.



My Little Pony: better than Abyssea.

The oddest of findings

There's something I've been noticing lately. I've recently added the following line to my search comments while seeking for a party:

{Support Job} : {Scholar}

Ever since I added that, I've started getting invited to Japanese exp parties more often. I can't be certain but I think there may be a correlation. It weirds me out a little but I don't mind since they bring me Paladins and usually make for more relaxed parties. You've got to love a tank that will cure itself for you.

The Bunnies are coming...