Faluzure's Hi-Res Shots (NOT BANDWIDTH FRIENDLY)

[CRtwenty]

I've been a witness to Eco-Warrior syndrome as well... I've only managed to complete 1 out of the 3 Eco-Warrior quests... it seems that stupidity increases exponentially as your number of people approaches 18.

[Faluzure]

Just gloating a win I just had. Not really important in terms of this thread, but I wantd to share with you this moment. I was leveling with a few friends of mine (as SMN) down in Onzozo when Ose spawned. Well, my PT wanted to grab him, but so did another party (PLD, RNG, SAM, BLM, WHM, RDM). They asked if we wanted to alliance up, but our PT wanted to solo him for a test of skill as well as loot. We got our TP to 300% and we did quite well (Nin, Ranger, Thief, WHM, SMN, RDM). Well, as you know Ose has high evasion and killer attack, so it got down to where we ran out of mana and Ose bopped our Nin and killed him (we had him at 10% too). The WHM promptly casted escape right when I enabled Astral Flow (not sure if that would've finished him off). We ran back and I saw the other party get smoked as they tried to take advantage of the low HP Ose. We went along our merry way and continued XPing for another 30 minutes.

Well, I want the Assault Jerkin for my Red Mage (not only for stylish looks, but it is a good solo'ing armor). I decided to swap jobs and run down there. Finding him unclaimed, I prepped myself for a 20 minute battle. A Japanese RDM was watching me finish Ose at the last 25% HP. I'm sure he wanted to get him too (just in case I failed), but it ended up that I got hit with Blaster and I couldn't get it off. He did Paralyna (which saved my ass) and I beat Ose. I tried to give the JP RDM a couple thousand gil for his help, but he wouldn't take it. What a nice guy. :spin:

Going to bed, see you guys tomorrow!

[kyle5547]

What subjob did you use for that fight?

[Vilurum]

Congratulations on the Assault Jerkin. Though I'll have to voice my disagreement when it comes to "stylish looks", that thing ranks up there with Justaucorps in terms of ugliness as far as I'm concerned. It is nevertheless a nice piece of rare-ex armor. Stats:

Assault Jerkin (rare/ex) Body armor
Level 67 WAR/RDM/THF/PLD/DRK/BST/BRD/RNG/SAM/NIN/DRG
42 Defense, HP -1%, Accuracy +3, Attack +18

In short ... pretty nice. +Accuracy is average (but always welcome nonetheless), but +attack is almost as high as NQ Byrnie (which is +20; HQ is +25), and that's saying something.

So again, congratulations on your new armor.

[Kyrial Arthian]

Oooh, congratz on the Assault Jerkin, Fal. ^^ That was really nice of that RDM.

And no Vil, it's my first one. >< Next time should go better, though. I've gotten myself an anima, and I'll have a much better group, as well. Like I said, the reason mine went so horribly was because some people couldn't make it at the last minute. I mean, we had to replace a SMN with a SAM. How bad is that? And yeah, I know what you mean by Eco-Warrior syndrome. I was long scared away from those quests by a bad alliance I got into for one once. I just did Windy Eco this weekend with one of my LSs though, and it was incredibly easy. We also do Garrisons weekly, so we don't usually have problems like that.

[Vilurum]

SAMs actually have quite a powerful 2-hour, only problem is getting them an opportunity to use it without dying for the AOE-spamming promyvion bosses. SAMs tend not to use NIN subs normally.

Well, regardless of whether it's your first or last, I wish you well on Dem. Mea was my least favorite boss, and Holla was my least favorite area. All the same, things should be easier if only because you increasingly know what to expect.

[Faluzure]

kyle5547 wrote:
What subjob did you use for that fight?
To kyle5547: White Mage subjob. I'll never ever subjob anything else but White Mage on my RDM. I absolutely hate being BLM sub. It is just my opinion and you Red Mages are free to choose whatever you wish. I have tons of RDM/BLM friends, but I find the use of WHM spells much better. I have only used BLM as a subjob when I was soloing in Temple of Uggalepih for my Coffer Key for SMN AF (for Aspir/Drain).



Vilurum wrote:
What subjob did you use for that fight?
To Vilurum: Haha, I guess it is ugly, but it is an extra piece of equipment nonetheless. The Justacorps is ugly... I like the Black Cotie. on Mithras, especially White Mages. I know a member in my LS used it when she was walking around. I've been lacking in solo equipment and this jerkin will benefit me greatly. My Red Mage (although it is my secondary job) is my "fashion" job. I know it sounds lame, but I have tons of outfits for him. Plus it is almost Halloween, so the orange color is great for this holiday. Haha.



Kyrial wrote:
Oooh, congratz on the Assault Jerkin, Fal. ^^ That was really nice of that RDM.

And no Vil, it's my first one. >< Next time should go better, though. I've gotten myself an anima, and I'll have a much better group, as well. Like I said, the reason mine went so horribly was because some people couldn't make it at the last minute. I mean, we had to replace a SMN with a SAM. How bad is that? And yeah, I know what you mean by Eco-Warrior syndrome. I was long scared away from those quests by a bad alliance I got into for one once. I just did Windy Eco this weekend with one of my LSs though, and it was incredibly easy. We also do Garrisons weekly, so we don't usually have problems like that.
To Kyrial: Thanks! The strategy I was using at the time would've worked until he showed up. Even though he helped me out, I'm sure he wouldn't have thought twice of trying to take an Ose at 50% HP. So I had to change my strat up a bit. I am glad he decided to help me out when I repeatedly tried to take off my damn Paralyze.

Good luck on your Promyvion. The Promathia missions sure seem to be more of a hassle than anything. Unlike Zilart (which required you to do a certain amount of missions to get to Tu'Lia), Promathia seems to offer nothing to power players or casual players. Yeah sure, Promyvion gives you access to Tavnazia, but that isn't really neccessary. What I'm looking for (besides the story) is a place where there's some uber HNM I can fight with my LS. The HNMs available now (the Wyrm Kings) are really tough and anyone P can just walk over and take a look at them.

Speaking of Eco-Warrior, I have to do Sandoria. I've had that freaking quest in my logs since I started this game.

[Vilurum]

So once you get access to Tavnazia, you already have full access to Phomiuna, Sacrarium, and Riverne A01 and B01? What about Promyvion-Vahzl? I realize that there may not be much POINT to wanting to go to these places (who, after all, would voluntarily hang out in Promyvion except to bazaar Hi-Potions etc. at a spire?), but don't you nevertheless have to make even more progress to get there? Or am I mistaken?

Since Al'taieu etc. is in the area data for the game and it's definitely not immediately available, I assume you'll have to do Promathia missions - perhaps missions not even released yet - to get access to it. (The layout of the place, as well as the internal areas, reminds me a great deal of Tu'Lia with the five-way symmetry.) And c'mon, a place where there's a thing called "Celestial Capital" marked on the map, has got to be important enough to have interesting enemies.

[Durion1]

Hiyas

Well, I've been following your adventures in Vana'Diel since it started, and i finally thought I would post on your thread. I don't post much :D. Anyways I just wanted to say that you are a cool person and it's awesome that you let everyone in on your game experience.

I Do have a question though, Where do you find the time to do all this?? You have two level 75 characters, some in the 40's and 50's and what not, and you document and REPLY to virtually everyone that writes to you. Amazing. I'm too used to being LFG on my DRG... lol.

I can't really play FFXI here at my school anymore because the school won't unlock the ports needed for me to recieve my character's data. So, i have been playing with fraps and making FFXI in game movies for my LS and I am also doing their webpage. If you ever think about branching of and doing your own FFXI page let me know =) Thats about it I guess, thanks for reading, and thanks again for all your time!

[Faluzure]

Vilurum wrote:
So once you get access to Tavnazia, you already have full access to Phomiuna, Sacrarium, and Riverne A01 and B01? What about Promyvion-Vahzl? I realize that there may not be much POINT to wanting to go to these places (who, after all, would voluntarily hang out in Promyvion except to bazaar Hi-Potions etc. at a spire?), but don't you nevertheless have to make even more progress to get there? Or am I mistaken?

Since Al'taieu etc. is in the area data for the game and it's definitely not immediately available, I assume you'll have to do Promathia missions - perhaps missions not even released yet - to get access to it. (The layout of the place, as well as the internal areas, reminds me a great deal of Tu'Lia with the five-way symmetry.) And c'mon, a place where there's a thing called "Celestial Capital" marked on the map, has got to be important enough to have interesting enemies.
To Vilurum: Well no, you don't have full access to the places you have listed unless you continue on with the storyline. There is one thing all those places have in common: level restriction. It is very and highly unlikely S-E will ever put an HNM with drops as good as the 3 Kings of Vana'diel (Behemoth/Faf/Adaman) or the 5 Gods in specifically in those places. Traditionally, to fight HNMs, you need either a huge alliance or at least a good group of 70s+. That was the point of me saying that because of this, there is no real need for anyone to go out of their way to do Promathia missions. This is why you see a lack of the majority of people going. I have several friends (both on our server and off) who have not been to a single CoP expansion area even though they have CoP installed. For high levels such as yourself and I, we still have no reason to go to any of these areas unless we want to do 3 things.
1) Explore or obtain items, such as maps, quest, etc.
2) Proceed to do missions to learn more of the story.
3) Fight an HNM (which is impossible unless you have a good alliance, as Jorg/Vrtra/Tiamat will eat you alive on your own.)

This is just the current situation. I'm sure as S-E unlocks the new areas for later missions, people will find a reason to do these missions. Maybe they'll add an uber HNM like Kirin in Al'Taieu. I mean come on, just because you have access to Al'Taieu doesn't mean it is going to provide you with anything exciting for extended periods of time. New monsters? Yes that's nice but unless they are actually worth killing, I guarantee you that you'll just sneak/invis dodge them for the majority of the time. Being able to explore the area? That's nice too, but it only lasts a little while until you get bored with it.

Look at our server population. Who has actual access to Tu'lia? Definitely not the lower levels. A lot of the high levels do but not all of them are in HNM Linkshells, so they rarely go up there unless they want to pop a coffer, level up, or explore. Only those of us who are fortunate to be a member of an HNM Linkshells can fully experience all that Tu'lia has to offer. Unless you're in a clique of people (whether friends, LS mates, etc.) that would also like to do these missions, HNMs, etc., you can basically kiss your Promathia exploration goodbye or at least put it on the backburner. You said it yourself Vil, it is hard to get people to go, even in your LS. Look at Kyrial, one of the few people I know that is hardcore into doing quests/missions. She couldn't get it done until she joined a new LS.

Personally, I think we that are interested in Promathia make up about 9-10% of the population. Unless there is an incentive to get it done, nobody will be pressured to do it and we that do want to complete it will struggle. We will struggle especially because the majority of the people *hate* repeating previous missions. I guarantee you that the minute S-E puts an HNM there, Ascension (as well as other HNM Linkshells) will rush through Promathia as fast as possible. As of right now? Those that are doing it are interested in the story.



Durion1 wrote:
Well, I've been following your adventures in Vana'Diel since it started, and i finally thought I would post on your thread. I don't post much :D. Anyways I just wanted to say that you are a cool person and it's awesome that you let everyone in on your game experience.

I Do have a question though, Where do you find the time to do all this?? You have two level 75 characters, some in the 40's and 50's and what not, and you document and REPLY to virtually everyone that writes to you. Amazing. I'm too used to being LFG on my DRG... lol.

I can't really play FFXI here at my school anymore because the school won't unlock the ports needed for me to recieve my character's data. So, i have been playing with fraps and making FFXI in game movies for my LS and I am also doing their webpage. If you ever think about branching of and doing your own FFXI page let me know =) Thats about it I guess, thanks for reading, and thanks again for all your time!
To Durion1: Thank you very much for the compliment Durion1. Hmm, I don't always play FFXI. FFXI is a timesink and you'll be surprised how much other things you can do when not playing FFXI. This is where I find the time to do all this stuff in regards to my thread.

Also... I think I have more time available to me than most of the FFXI players because I am not a student. A lot of the players are students (college, high school, junior high, etc.) Being a student is time-consuming. You put in the same amount of time in school as most adults who work 8-5 everyday. Typically college students have more time because of the sparingly spread out classes, but you have to study a lot more. So in turn, unless you're a responsible student, you end up putting more time into your "job" (classwork) than I do. I graduated from a university a little over a year ago. I work 40 hours a week. Sometimes I work more, it all depends on how much work needs to be done. However the minute I step out of my office, I don't have to worry about a thing. Just bills & life.

This is why I stress to all my friends in game that even though FFXI is fun and exciting, focus on your school work and get through college. Why? FFXI isn't going to last forever. I've been down that road as a student interested in video games. I've wanted to quit school, work and play my video games. That doesn't fly because my friend did it. Yes you can work at some place and get paid a meager $7.50 an hour and live off that. That leaves little money for you to do anything else. The difference between getting a college degree and dropping out is about at least a $25,000 pay difference in my area. Can you imagine what you can do with $25K in your pocket? I can say that busting your ass off, getting your degree, and getting paid a good salary to pay for the things you want (a car, a new computer, games, consoles, eating out, going to the movies, concerts, etc.) is a hell of a lot better than busting your ass off and getting a piece of paper with a letter on it.

[Faluzure]

Tu'lia God Battles
Just pictures of the Gods & drops. We smoked them hardcore but the drops were uber-lame.

Oh and by the way. I forget who, but someone told me I was a liar when I said my LS straight-tanked Genbu. Straight tanking Genbu with a Paladin is not impossible. As you can see in the few screenshots I have of Genbu, he has stood still in the same spot the whole battle (50% health, then death). We do have backup Paladins just in case the first one bites the dust (which is rare), but straight tanking is not a lie, so bite me.
:mad:

[Faluzure]

Promathia M3-3 - Part II (Windurst)
Since it's my birthday, I'll post these for you guys. This completes the Windurst part of Promathia M3-3.



SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT



































































































































To be continued...

[Durion1]

Wow, awesome, I really liked what you had to say about time consumption. 25 grand is definitely something you don't want to screw yourself out of, especially when it comes to real money, not gil . Great words of wisdom bud, keep it up~ and keep the screenies coming..

[Faluzure]

Durion1 wrote:
Wow, awesome, I really liked what you had to say about time consumption. 25 grand is definitely something you don't want to screw yourself out of, especially when it comes to real money, not gil . Great words of wisdom bud, keep it up~ and keep the screenies coming..
To Durion1: I didn't mean to sound like a parent or guardian figure, so what I said wasn't really meant to be a lecture. My apologies if it sounded like I was ridiculing you guys.

$25K was just a rough estimate from looking at starting salaries at job websites. I was making $9360 a year at Best Buy working 30 hours a week when I was in college. That's a decent amount of money and I assume it would be somewhat similar across the country. The point is, yeah I could live off that with roommates and lounge around, but I never really had a lot to spend on myself. I'm good with my money and I budget it well, but budgeting with that much money is kind of hard. You gotta start cutting back on eating out, having to buy generic brands of food (ramen noodles anyone), rewearing the same clothes, etc. Depending on the cost of living in your area, $9360 a year can be good or horrid. The position I'm in now (with my degree & job), i make a *lot* more than that. I still budget my money well but I can go out and splurge on something if I really wanted it. Being able to actually buy things and not daydreaming about it is a great feeling. Plus when that special someone comes along, if she's the right one, I can buy her a nice ring instead of a cubic zirconia.
:angel:

Now... what to do for my birthday. My coworker/friend bought me my lunch today. I'm supposed to do Dynamis tonight so... I may just postpone my celebration to the weekend since it is hard to get your friends to go out and stay up late during middle of the week when we all have daytime obligations the next day.

[Marvul]

Yay Fal, thanks for posting more HNM fights~