I hear you like belts… WoE, Voidwatch & Dynamis

Had a lot of fun in Dynamis last night, completely unplanned.  Helped Hank get up to speed with Abyssea a bit by getting him a celerity abyssite, introducing him to cruor and doing a few Grauberg pages. I got another level done on COR whilst Kai skilled up on PLD and Nia got some RDM xp.

After which, Ure asks if anyone wants to do Dynamis.  Like a lot of people, Ure is saving for various shinies and so is building up a ton of cash. Just like I did with gaiters.  People know Dynamis is easier now and whilst currency prices are dropping ( and I predict will continue to) quite a few people are creating weapons and so demand is pretty decent.

Ure asked Shiro, Nia and I if we wanted to go on shell.  Rin, Syrik and Thiery were planning to go quite soon too. Then a few people indicated they were interested so instead of 3 low man groups we ended up going as a 10 man alliance.  It turned into quite a fun session. And we walked out with the equivalent of  almost 600 singles. One of which was an epic white proc by Syrik.

Everyone walked away with 58 singles and a couple of people got a couple extra.  Along with a sea of ‘emo’ (DRK) capes. We saw so many accessories for PUP, MNK, BLM, NIN, DRG & RDM, it was crazy. We also got RIn’s  -1 THF hands out the way and saw a random Valor cape. To be honest though our efforts were bent towards farming crazy amounts of currency.

So far currency has helped me fund gaiters and some of my outstanding scrolls. I’ve picked up Curaga V, Boost STR, Ice Carol II and Comet from Walk of Echoes; and Thunder V and Breakga  from the AH.  I still need Blizzaja, Holy II, Temper, Gain STR, Pining Nocturne and the tier 2 lullaby. I possibly now need some dice for COR.

I sold 15 of dice from WoE so now I’m saving them in case I do the WoE version of the gun. I have enough coins to complete a staff should I want to but I’m 2/3rds done with the gun coins at least. In fact I have a ton of various coins and I’m just stashing them away. I should really do the sword at some point.

In terms of magian trials I now have 4 +3 staves. MAB for Dark, Ice and Thunder for BLM and Cure potency for WHM etc.  It’s nice to have that extra cure potency on my other mages. Should I get lucky and walk away with the new cure pot body, even my RDM should be seeing crazy Cure potency numbers.

Voidwatch continues steadily. It’s nice when we race through the mobs, procing a ton and getting KIs and slowly increasing loot. We still need to work on more procing but the difference to the fights is huge and we are seeing more loot out of the chests. I want to get moving a bit more on the Jeuno path but when we’ve had lower numbers we’ve ploughed through some of the others and that’s great to see.  Abyssites and Periapts for everyone!

This prompted a brief discussion about ls events which I think we’ll have in more depth soon but my only issue with Voidwatch right now is how long it’s going to keep us occupied. Eventually of course we’re going to get to the point where people are lobbying to spam certain mobs over and over and at that point I can see people getting tired of it. We’ll see though. If we can manage lots of nice shinies for all, I’m sure it will be appreciated.

Another thing we did this week which made a change was go with most of the Salvage group to do some assaults.  Nia and Ure were both pretty close to Captain and Ere needs assaults all over the place. We managed to find 4 which all 3 needed and that leaves Nia with 6, Ure with 7 or 8 and Ere with quite a few to do.  I don’t think Salvage interest has died completely but we’ve done a lot of it and with Mart and Eid gone for now,  me needing a break from organising stuff and Ere trying to buy a house – a few weeks off is welcome.

We’re back to Abyssea for November, with Rin and Doy now up-to-speed on how we run events and everyone having had a chance to get a few things out of the way.  Slaan and I have had a breather and now the sack team is back up to a respectable 5 we should see less pressure on any one individual.

Relic +2

Eld 6/6 WHM

Artifact Armor 4 idea – Page 6.

Square Enix is looking for your opinions on  Relic +2 and more to the point how we upgrade it if they went down this route. Please for the love of Altana, login and post your opinions.  This is their post…

The development team is currently looking into introducing relic equipment +2 in the form of synergy augments and would love to hear any feedback you have in relation to this system based on the below information.

Random Stats vs. Static Stats
Please let us know if you prefer static stats or random stats when adding your stats via synergy.

I will go into the specifics of the plusses and minuses later, but I’m pretty sure it’s along the same lines that you already have in mind.

Strength of the stats: Random > Static
Can obtain item with high stats, but spend time: Static > Random

Regardless of whether the stats attached are random, the whole idea is that it will give job-related enhancements. For example, there won’t be any “Enhances Berserk effect” on white mage relic equipment.

1. Random Stats Approach

・In order to get the best stats, you will have to repeat the process many times
・The amount of time spent and the stats received aren’t necessarily equal
・Have a possibility of getting the item in a shorter amount of time than static stat items
・There will be room to get higher stats than static stat items2. Static Stats Approach

・In order to get good stats, time must be spent working towards completion
・Depending on the stats, the time needed will be adjusted
・Can predict the time needed to obtain the item
・Won’t be able to add the stats of your dreams since it is static
・Will be able to store your equipmentWith all the above in mind, please let us know which system you prefer!

In regards to items not being able to be stored once augmented
We’re currently weighing the following two possibilities:

1. Make it possible to send relic equipment and enhanced relic equipment via delivery system
2. Make the stats static

This is mine…

The Basics of the new-style Dynamis (a guide)

I’ve been so busy, I haven’t had time to write much. I have a backlog of blog post topics to tackle, not least of which is my suddenly evolution into a 70 THF >.>  I’ve also made a lot of changes to my WHM gear.  In my last gear post I kinda got into a muddle trying to merge my two approaches for inside and outside Abyssea but I’ve cleaned up my act now so I’ll bring that up to date soon.

Dynamis

Ouch. Neo Dynamis Windurst

 

I’ve always enjoyed Dynamis. The results of which have led to a ton of relic gear. I really genuinely enjoyed the event and have beaten all zones. So when they changed the event, I was curious to see what was possible. I first ventured into Dynamis Xarcabard. For people who haven’t done much of this since the update essentially I went in furnished with the following information.

• It is now possible to proc !! on mobs in dynamis
• !! procs are possible only after getting 3 time extensions
• !! procs are improved by getting all 5 time extensions
• !! procs are either magic, job abilities or weaponskills
• WHM/BLM/RDM/BRD/SMN – magic
• BST/NIN/THF/BLU/MNK/RNG – JA
• WAR/SAM/PLD/DRG/DRK – WS

Or something.

So we did pretty well in Xarcabard and walked out with quite a bit of gear and currency. We even managed to pull Duke Berith and the NIN NM and kill them. NIN dropped but Berith didn’t put out RDM. 3 of us went to Sandy and that was ok too.

So a few days ago I decided to go and poke Dynamis Windurst because I need a few shells to upgrade some of my -1s from CoP dynamis. I’ve only actually upgraded my Cleric’s Pantaloons +1 and I have the hands and feet to do as well as the newly acquired Sorcerors Tonban -1.

Dynamis Windurst run #1 and #2

A short trip to Dynamis Xarcabard: xp version

Last night a small group of us went into Dynamis. For me it was the first time since the changes. Others in my shell have dabbled but I don’t think my head is round the idea I can go every day and I keep ‘saving’ it up.

We started with 6 and Hasi joined us shortly after. We had a RDM/WHM, WAR/SAM, DRK/SAM, BLU/NIN, BLM/SCH, THF/NIN and SMN/WHM. I should have subbed WHM really in that situ but it wasn’t dire. I was on BLM.

I’ve been following the BG threads about Dynamis and knew that you need to work on getting your time extensions first, before worrying about farming.  The first weirdness was being able to sneak and invisible past mobs. Oh and that there are a lot more mobs up in zone in general. For example all of the animated weapon adds are up all the time.  All mobs are pre-popped with the exception of the lotto pop NMs and the NMs you pop from ???

We went to Xarc.

The first time extension is in the south, in the dark elemental cave. Can be oneshot by a BLM. I would highly recommend sending 1-2 people to each time extension and then regroup. We ran the group as we weren’t sure what to expect. But even 2 people could manage just fine.

There’s a second time extension where Animated Shield used to hang out. Right at the back in the little cave there.

There’s one along the spine in the area of 055 in old statue talk. Basically at the top of the spine somewhere on the way to the NMs including Berith.  We were briefly confused cos there’s one back I think near where Animated GA popped but instead of being a statue its a Prototype Eye.  It’s alone though and pretty easy to take out.

The last one is pretty much tucked right around the corner at the top of the ramp down towards the castle.

We picked up the times and then worked on killing and proc’ing mobs.  Without procing, currency doesn’t drop. If you proc a mob, it does.  We went with this as a guide and it seemed to work.

• If the mob is: RNG THF MNK BST NIN — Weakness is a JA
• If the mob is: PLD WAR SAM DRG DRK — Weakness is a WS
• If the mob is: WHM BLM SMN BRD RDM — Weakness is Magic

Relic seems to drop whether you proc or not. Not sure if TH is helping but I assume it does.

7 of us stayed for 1hr 45mins and it was fine. We got 13 drops and a friend’s alliance offered us a free RDM hat for Nia as they didn’t need it…  So we walked out with 13 pieces of relic, a handful of currency each and some xp. Doyler even dinged 83 BLU inside.

Levelling instead of delevelling in Dynamis. Weird.

Next time we go, I’d like to work on killing NMs for drops for the new NMs. The two NMs we killed (RDM and NIN) didn’t drop hundreds but one dropped a Shadow Bijou which I think is the pop item you need for the Shadowlord. The NIN dropped his hands but Berith didn’t drop a hat. It’s really fun to do and I think you could seriously farm in there if you wanted or needed to.

A screenshot or two… of the last few months!

Morning World! Yes, actually pretty cheerful this morning. I’m sure work will beat it out of me eventually but whilst I’m enjoying the sunshine and feeling pleased with all the stuff I got done this weekend, I thought I’d write a blog post. With pictures!

I usually take the odd screenshot but recently I’ve not kept on top of them. I find I take them and then forget and when it comes around to writing a blog post, the images are not where I am. Last night, I managed to crop up a few and upload them so I could reference them here.

It’s certainly been weird not being on XI for over a week but not all bad. I think I’ve had a small wakeup call that I need to ‘protect’ some of my personal time for the real world. I kinda knew that and every now and then I’d make sure I did it but I’ve achieved a lot this week (including way too much Dragon Age) and I don’t want to lose that momentum.

Right, so I have a selection of images from the beginning of the year which depict some of the stuff we get up to inside and outside of usual events…

May you live in interesting times

Well wow. Quite a curve ball you’ve thrown us Square Enix. Alexander is to merge with Shiva. After six years of the same shell we’re to repearl and rename ourselves and we will no longer be from Alexander.

The End of Nova

Well, that’s it. Our sister shell is dead and gone.  But we went out with a bang! Pictures will have to come later. I keep putting off posting at the moment because I keep forgetting to edit and upload screenshots but if I do that, I’ll never post.

Nova was started in July 2008. We started with Dynamis Bastok.  Essentially the shell came into being because a few of us missed doing Dynamis and our old shell collapsed in March/April of that year.

Sigh of relief or Wind of change? Who knows…

So that’s it. After the Einherjar run this week, we announced that next week’s run is our last. Interest in Einherjar has died and a lot of people are skipping runs. I do understand it. As a format, the event is fun and quick. Alas, only going once a week makes it almost impossible to farm Odin regularly enough to pimp out peeps. So people start drifting away. The core group has been pretty reliable but only having 2 mules rather than 3, has really not helped.

We’re overdue an Adaberk, I hope we see at least one before it ends. We may not have enough people to kill Odin though if peeps decide not to show up. Quite a few have made it clear that they will be there, so we’ll see. Not like it takes tons any more. We’ll be low on RNG but we’re usually high on SMN.

And, we’ve decided to drop Dynamis as a separate shell event. So Nova will be done for now. If Square Enix decides to bring in another endgame environment with a larger group event, we may reinstate it, but with the way things have been going, I doubt it.

There’s a small, renewed interest in Salvage. I think there are at least three of us interested in going again. Initially we’ve asked the original group, once we know whether anyone else wants in, we can then see whether we want to widen it. There are plenty of good people out there but selfishly I miss our group a lot and would love to hang out. I doubt we’ll be spamming zones but maybe we could have a night a week where we have enough points to do a couple of runs or something.

The new plan for Dynamis is to choose a slot and go once a month. This is to help peeps pick up the odd pieces they still need and maybe to make a bit of gil to keep the wolves from the door.

There’s renewed interest in Walk of Echoes and the feeling that we’d all like something non-Abyssea to do occasionally. So that should keep us busy. We’re going to run some Limbus at some point, just to get the wins for Atma. Should be kinda simple to farm up Omega and Ultima pops now.

Shinryu

Our success in Abyssea is pretty awesome. We’ve managed to knock out a ton of Tier 1 wishes this month and quite a few complete or partial lower wishes. So, we’ll tweak the system, iron out the kinks and review. Nearly time for next month’s wishlist… not even sure what is going on it!

Running Dynamis. Is it worth it anymore?

Dynamis is changing. We can and still do run it but the fact is, we’ve gotten so much and completed so many sets of relic that interest is dying off. Markedly so since the announcement of the final EAF pieces.

We’ve beaten Xarc and are working On Tav. The suggestion is we change things up a bit. Making it easier on the people who have been running the show, allowing peeps to pick up their odd pieces they still need for newer jobs and make a bit of gil. Rather than run this on a weekly basis, we might move it to the main linkshell and just go once a month. Allowing peeps to join another shell as long as it doesn’t conflict with our main events. As we only have three a week, that shouldn’t be too bad. There is some talk of the occasional money run too. But peeps will have the choice.

Fact is, no one in their right minds should start a second linkshell but we’ve done well and until yesterday I was pretty proud of what we’ve achieved.

By the end of yesterday though, I was so burnt out with it all I just wanted to tell people where to get off.