Level Cap Increase (11/17/2011) :: Final Fantasy XI :: ZAM

Level Cap Increase (11/17/2011) :: Final Fantasy XI :: ZAM.

I laughed my head off at this

 

Let’s see if I can knock out all the potential Cure V rant points for both sides in one go!

-RDM and SCH healing magic sucks, we need Cure V!
-No screw that, WHM ONRY for major endgame healing!
-But but, RDM and SCH have no other place in the game, Cure V is the fastest fix!
-RDMs, you should be asking for buffs to your specialties, enhancing and enfeebling, and for enfeebling to be worth a damn again, then you won’t worry so much about healing! I thought you were sick of being Pink Mages? And SCHs, do you keep forgetting about how great your Dark Arts side is? You’re not useless! Also, Embrava.
-But WHM shouldn’t be the only job with Cure V! They’re the only viable healers because of it!
-Uh…PUP has Cure V too you know. Even Cure VI! (insert a I’m a moron here) And SMN with Light Spirit but they don’t really count. Also BLUs make pretty good healers too, they just don’t like to admit it.
-Who cares about those other jobs, RDM and SCH need Cure V so we actually get invites and will be useful in content!
-Last time I checked, Cure IV is more than enough for all the endgame content that isn’t VW and some of the bigger NMs in Abyssea. That’s a pretty sizable chunk of content right there that people wouldn’t mind bringing RDM and SCH to!

Hmmm…I think that’s most of what occurs whenever a Cure V debate erupts. Probably missed something though. >_>

Edit: Oh yeah, something about ToAU era and “SE already said you’ll never get it, shut up!” countered by “SE also said they would never raise the level cap past 75 and look at the game today!”

Yama, Yama, Yaaaammaaaa (aka trials for the MAB Darkness Magian Staff)

During the time we had a Nyzul Isle static, Firi and Ere instigated a good luck chant for drops. This involved them singing ‘Yama, Yama, Yaaaaammmaaa’. Whether it comes from something, I have no idea but it reduces me to giggles whenever I see the staff I have created.

 

So far,  I have a ‘Yama’s Staff’ which means I have one more mob trial and one more geode trial to finish. Not bad at all and sped up enormously by a) the bergicat and b) the Cataclysm brigade!

Trial 790: Treants, any weather.  Went to Grauberg [S]

Trial 841: 50 Slimes under the dark half of the weather so Ice/Darkness/Water/Earth. Level synched to 13 inside Ranguemont Pass and killed the slimes just inside the entrance.

Trial 878: 50 mobs on Darksday/Dark weather. Went to Castle Zvahl (present) and killed demons

Trial 879: 50 Beasts on Darksday/Dark weather. Went to Xarcabard [S] and oneshot Gigas pets

Curing for other mages

I wrote the world’s quickest guide on my ls forum for our RDMs and SCHs.  So I thought I’d repost here.  Especially in lighgt of the fact that RDM and SCH are not getting Cure V this update.

Where to find seals for: WHM, BLM, RDM, BRD, SCH, SMN & COR

Filling out the AFv3

This is more for my record than anything else but I wanted somewhere to post up compiled info on the AFv3 stuff for my jobs. I’m not sure I’ll take all 7 to 85 yet let alone quest this stuff for all. 

More AFv3 (BLM, BRD, RDM, SCH, COR & SMN)

Well, it’s all a bit overwhelming. Before I went to bed last night I managed to collect one Kindred’s Crest for the level cap and take a look around Miseraux and Attowha. I found so much stuff and will post a screenshot post later but wow. I particularly like the mini Orobon near the waterfall in Mis.

I’ve collected together the sets of AFv3 pics from various places (credit to peeps contributing to BG and to Evil Paul). Remember there are +1 and +2s. In most cases people have posted the uber +2s but even the +1s are remarkable.

Evil Paul's Pic of BLM Afv3

Base head pieces are bought with Cruor from the NPCs inside the new zones. I picked up an Orison Cap.  Then I guess you go to the Magian Moogle and get a trial set up. Not sure what happens next.

More WHM

ASA

I’ve been pretty busy in the real world so, as a result I’ve had to regain a lost Campaign medal and fall behind on missions. That’s not the end of the world – I’m sitting on the last fight for ASA, along with a couple of others. Perhaps we can get it done this week.

Of course then I have to get into the whole pants dilemma. The career WHM in me says…MP+25, ENM-4 and Cure potency +5%. But she also wants movement speed. So the compromise for the new ugly pants is movement speed +8%, cure potency +5%. But that’s really kinda bland and I lose the –ENM, even if the haste isn’t huge… Or I could say screw WHM (SCH, RDM…) and go for movement speed and phys damage taken down. It never hurts to be MP efficient and at this point Cure potency is pretty much the only way I can improve my cures. My Cure V is already at 906, and I’m not even an elvaan. If I were and if I hadn’t thrown so many merits into INT, I suppose it might hit 910? But at what point does it become ridiculous to throw more Cure potency in there?

For lesser cures, pretty much never I’d guess but for Cure V, outside of Besieged and the occasional uber-crisis, things rarely get that bad. I don’t think I can walk away from the cure potency but with WHM, RDM, SCH, BRD, SMN, BLM and SMN to hand along with my COR it becomes equally hard to turn down movement speed. Not like I have 12-16m to hand for gaiters and they only cover certain jobs. Ugly pants with Cure potency +5% and movement speed +8% just seem kinda wrong. /shrug.

/SCH again

I got a bit frustrated last night hearing someone I consider a decent WHM moaning about needing to cast more and faster. I mean we all want to be casting several things at once. Altana knows when you’re casting haste or regen III and so drops something nasty on your tanks or dds… but I suggested again, that /SCH helps a lot with that and sparked a small row.

The issue of contention is /SCH. This is not the first time I’ve come up against this kind of old school stubbornness against levelling what is currently without a doubt the best sub for WHM. The worst culprits are always long term WHMs. It doesn’t mean that all other subs are shit or there is no use for them, situationally you can squeeze out a few instances where there’s a reason for using something else. It certainly doesn’t mean the player is shit either it just means that something new has come along which has changed the job – nothing to take personally…

What especially irritates me is that there’s absolutely no consideration of it. I’m not faced with decent arguments (IMO there aren’t any but I’ll listen) or discussion or scheduling conflicts or in fact anything. Just ‘No’.

If you consider WHM to be one of your strongest jobs then you should seriously have SCH as a subjob. If you sub SCH and use the Arts, you will cast 10% faster, lower your recast by 10% and lower the cost of your spells FROM THE MENU by 10%. Let alone Conserve MP, Sublimation, access to other spells, raising of skills and penury/celerity.

So fine, tell me you can’t be bothered to level SCH subjob or you’re too busy right now. But don’t tell me no because you seriously think 20MP per min refresh is worth it. And if any WHM seriously thinks the very small amount of MP extra you get from /SMN makes it worth it – no matter which race you are, then they need their head examined. The figures prove them wrong over and over.

Why on earth doesn’t anyone want to make their considerable experience look even better instead of falling behind? Esuna is a prime example of a spell that suits /SCH well. It’s recast is long but it’s so damn useful. Not only can I cast it faster, I can recast it faster. Which means in Einherjar my freaking melee spend less time enfeebled.

I wasn’t sure about /SCH when it first came out but 2-3 sessions competing against another WHM in dynamis and the benefits to my barspells alone compelled me to level it. Then they made it even better… and I was glad I did. I don’t care if you’ve been a WHM since 1803… you would be an even better WHM,  /SCH. And having /SCH would show off that experience even more.

I don’t get it.

SCH v SMN v BLM : my WHM Subjob Guide for Alla

Let’s assume you have achieved level 30 at least once so you are able to unlock advanced sub jobs already. Or you’re close to it and are considering your next move. If you already have access to a sub job and have never levelled a mage job; make sure you level a relevant sub at the same time and keep them up-to-date. I don’t care how much hassle it is, if nothing else level BLM to 17 and live with that. At least that way you get Warp.

Charybdis soloed by a DNC, Dynamis & ZNMs

Gah, lost an hour’s sleep this weekend and although it doesn’t seem like a big shift I’d like to blame my sleepy state on that. Not on the late night skype chats after I logged!

Missed claiming Charybdis the other day for a friend. Annoying but he popped super early and we didn’t have enough people there anyway, or rather a great job setup.  The person who did claim it turned out to be a 75 DNC/NIN, solo.  Not sure whether they were going to be ok, and being honest reckoning if they weren’t, we’d have a shot; we hung around. I can honestly say, I really didn’t expect them to do it. An hour later, Charybdis died, the kitty had soloed it 100-0 and anyone left cheered/saluted, cos honestly we were damn impressed. I think their name was Nyanco. Half tempted by DNC having seen that but not really in the mood for levelling anything else.

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We had an epic Sandy Dynamis run this weekend.  Only saw one, hundred piece but it was pretty impressive. We cleared the entire zone before popping the Boss.  For all our hard work we saw 17 pieces of relic armour drop!

Mage gear

Gah my head is spinning about how best to use the gear I have for all of my jobs. The more gear you acquire, the worse it gets. I’m not complaining, just a little confused.

I play WHM, BLM, SCH, BRD and SMN. SMN and BRD are considerably easier than the rest and SCH is the toughest.