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

[CRtwenty]

Weird... I wonder why he splits into three parts? Ahhh! CoP is so confusing! It's making my brain hurt more then Xenogears or FFT ever did!

[Vilurum]

Hehehe ... oh trust me, I've seen CFH on an HNM firsthand. We did recover from it though, but it made an easy HNM far more challenging. Everyone does make mistakes, and life is hard. Move on and recover. In a game like this there's always (if you farm enough and try hard enough) a second, third, or gazillionth opportunity to fight anything. Enough of that subject though.

Correct me if I'm wrong (and I could well be), but weren't the .dat files that included Fenrir's attack names and such, not released until some time after SMN and the six original unlockable avatars? Even though it was yet quite a few months before Fenrir was actually legitimately available.

So yet-to-be-released data is still a possibility, although ... I'd have to agree that it'd help SMNs more to continue fixing up the existing avatars and overall job function, rather than adding new ones. I'm not as thrilled at the possibility of Bahamut as some people. I do acknowledge the possibility but I can also see how it would work just as well (if not much better) to have him never be summonable.

I have yet to hear of the reward of any quest being modified to the point where you're seriously screwed over if you did it early. About the only quest rewards I've ever seen changed were the amount of gil you got for certain quests (these were always *decreased*), or the time it takes before you can repeat it.

More likely it's that alternate theory - if it does have to do with those quests, they will merely be prerequisite. Or simply a non-prerequisite but definitely related side story, much like the Star Onion Brigade quests, the Windurst missions, and the Fenrir quest tie together (and you get a special cutscene if you do all three, too).

[Faluzure]

CRtwenty wrote:
Weird... I wonder why he splits into three parts? Ahhh! CoP is so confusing! It's making my brain hurt more then Xenogears or FFT ever did!
To CRtwenty: Well, you're supposed to be in a dream. When he starts talking to you, the camera angles change to show other Diablos' facing you. It is his world, so I guess he can do what he wants.


Vilurum wrote:
Correct me if I'm wrong (and I could well be), but weren't the .dat files that included Fenrir's attack names and such, not released until some time after SMN and the six original unlockable avatars? Even though it was yet quite a few months before Fenrir was actually legitimately available.

So yet-to-be-released data is still a possibility, although ... I'd have to agree that it'd help SMNs more to continue fixing up the existing avatars and overall job function, rather than adding new ones. I'm not as thrilled at the possibility of Bahamut as some people. I do acknowledge the possibility but I can also see how it would work just as well (if not much better) to have him never be summonable.

I have yet to hear of the reward of any quest being modified to the point where you're seriously screwed over if you did it early. About the only quest rewards I've ever seen changed were the amount of gil you got for certain quests (these were always *decreased*), or the time it takes before you can repeat it.

More likely it's that alternate theory - if it does have to do with those quests, they will merely be prerequisite. Or simply a non-prerequisite but definitely related side story, much like the Star Onion Brigade quests, the Windurst missions, and the Fenrir quest tie together (and you get a special cutscene if you do all three, too).
To Vilurum: I wouldn't know anything about specifics on if his abilities were there. So I can't correct you, even if you were wrong.

I just think they need to fix Summoner before adding new avatars. I've been through 65 (nearly 66) levels of it. Seeing it played by some of the best SMNs on my server while I was in my Black Mage and Red Mage career as well as playing it this far has made me realize there are lots of things that need to be tweaked with Summoner.

As for Bahamut, he's just too damn big & important. It would be impossible to have him as a SMN unless they made a chibi-type Bahamut. Who the hell would want that? That's like having a Hotwheels Ferrari. In addition, I would like to point out that so far in the story, there is no means of him allowing you to summon him. If you look at the past avatars, the ability to Summon was either granted to you (or stolen). The Prime Avatars grant you a power when you beat them, thus unlocking the ability to Summon them. Fenrir, was directly tied into the Mission storyline with Karuha-Baruha, who did experiments to 'control' Fenrir. Summoning magic is directly related to Fenrir. I don't think Bahamut would willingly grant you the ability to summon him. Thus far, I would say Diabolos is a big maybe. Phoenix & Bahamut? Phoenix isn't "whole" yet, so she is embued into Tenzen's sword. Unless you somehow gain Tenzen's sword, that would be a big maybe too. Bahamut is a live and flying at this point... Just my 2 cents... again you're making me assume things... so stop that!

I agree that if some Summoning buff/bonus/etc was granted, it would be a series of quests (like the Star Onion). It is just so hard to get one of those items... You need a party to do it...

Oh and since you're curious, Dynamis - Windurst was a defeat. We ran out of time. We got wiped quite early (a bad pull from the Auction House). Recovering from that took a good chunk of our Dynamis time. When the alliances had to split, both alliances that went separate ways got wiped a few times. The drops from this Dynamis were 3 Lungo-Nango jadeshells, Warrior AF, and 2 WHM AF. We are trying again next week.

[Vanalesca]

Wow! Diabolos /bow.
Everyone wants new avatars and I really cant see why...
I havent used Ifrit, Ramuh, Shiva in ages...(with good reason.. their blood pacts suck!)

Oh and Faluzure have you tried a 6SMN pt yet? You can start it from 65 on up. They are sooo much fun!

[Dua]

Originally posted by CRtwenty
Hmmm... what happens if you choose the second choice when talking to Diabolos? It also looks like something really weird is going on in the cutscene, there's multiple Diabolos's and then you suddenly get teleported out...

That's the problem with screenshots, you can see the text easily, but it's generally hard to see the action going on...

If you choose the second option when talking to Diabolos, the conversation loops around back to the choice again, basically forcing you to pick the 1st choice to move the cutscene along.

[neighbortaru]

wah? the dinky blue squirrel is a terrestrial avatar? who knew...

as always, excellent screenshots Faluzure

[Faluzure]

Vanalesca wrote:
Wow! Diabolos /bow.
Everyone wants new avatars and I really cant see why...
I havent used Ifrit, Ramuh, Shiva in ages...(with good reason.. their blood pacts suck!)

Oh and Faluzure have you tried a 6SMN pt yet? You can start it from 65 on up. They are sooo much fun!
To Vanalesca: Yeah. To tell you the truth, I had no clue who he was, but I do know he was a "summon" from a past FF game (specifically FF8). I never played FF8 because I never owned a Playstation. I don't own a Playstation 2 either, so I happened to miss FFX and FFX-2. Being a fan of the series since NES days, I'm kind of embarassed. :p

Yeah... I don't get why people want new avatars either. It is quite unnecessary and even still, there are dozens of people who don't even have Fenrir. As you and I both know (as well as the other Summoners across all servers), the job needs to be tweaked before adding even more Summons (some of which may be useless!) I haven't used Ramuh or Shiva in ages either. Their abilities are just not useful. As for Ifrit, I did happen to use him in the level 50s upon request from the JPs in my party. It was a dual Ranger party and they were already gaining accuracy bonuses from the bard. So in order to do more damage with Sidewinder/Slugshot, they requested Fenrir's Ecliptic Growl and Ifrit's Crimson Howl right before skillchain for better damage. That was a damn good party too.

As for the 6 SMN PT, no I haven't. I have heard of it working and seen level 75 JPs do it, but as for me...there are no other SMNs in my level range.



neighbortaru wrote:
wah? the dinky blue squirrel is a terrestrial avatar? who knew...

as always, excellent screenshots Faluzure
To neighbortaru: Yeah.. I couldn't believe it either. Carbuncle, despite his importance to many SMN-based storylines, doesn't seem like an "important" avatar. Then again.. feeling & seeing his Searing Light killing my Alliance vs Kirin made me reconsider the blue squirrel's capabilities. :angel:

Speaking of which, the Kirin & assorted pics are ready to go. I'll upload them in a bit.

[Faluzure]

Miscellaneous Shots (Charmodels, Request Fill, Kirin, & Drops)
This is a big medley of assorted pictures. Most of them being Kirin shots, but I did happen to toss in some things I thought were neat. Ore (Orestes from my server) requested a picture of a Ranger in Kirin's Osode. I got that one filled. A friend of mine on the same server asked if I would post a picture of him in my thread. Many of you may recognize him, so check him out below. Another is just a picture of a Hume Female BST wearing the new JSE. I thought she was cute. Anyway, here we go...

Cute BST Hume



My friend and his new armor



Orestes's Request of a Ranger in Osode




















Kirin's Astral Flow with Garuda (Aerial Blast)



Kirin being mad at me because of my unresisted Aero damage.







Stonega IV













Outcome of Kirin's Astral Flow with Carbuncle (Searing Light)











Kirin Drops - #1









Kirin Drops - #3 (I didn't get the #2 Drops)

[Vilurum]

IE crash ate my last reply. Being too lazy to be all wordy about it again, the main points:

Dynamis:
- Sorry on Dynamis-Windy, good luck next time.
- Many Dynamis failures are due to "bad pulls", what exactly is so tough about pulling there?

SMN:
- SMN does indeed need fixing in many aspects (that I personally do not have the experience with the job to speak on, with any authority anyway, but I'm interested in hearing your views), and new avatars would hardly "cure" it.
- Chibi summonable Bahamut would be cute but pathetic in its own way.
- Mega summonable Bahamut would be just plain laggy. Picture a few SMNs levelling on Yuhtunga Mandies and each of them having a Bahamut stomping around.
- More avatars would mess up the elemental balance that SMNs currently have.

Promathia:
- I am as always, more interested in how the avatars will play out in the Promathia plot (well, interested in the whole Promathia plot really), than in whether we as players actually get new perks.
- What was it you were mentioning about perks for SMNs as seen glimpses of in the trailer? I don't remember what specifically you're referring to, so could you clarify?

Kirin:
- That is one mean electric squirrel.
- It looks like a fun battle, but it also looks like you need a lot of people. 30+ or so? You'd need enough to handle Kirin *as well as* summoned-god-du-jour.

Diabolos and previous FFs:
- If you have the free time, and the money to invest, I've played the Playstation-PS2 era FFs and I do recommend playing them all. Some people like some, some people like others, but I believe they're all worth playing through at least once. Just be sure, if you do take the time to do so, that you learn to play the game well:
- FF8 in particular is often unpopular - there are a number of legitimate reasons (some plot points are just silly, and the female lead has to be rescued about a half dozen separate times), but honestly most of the complaints come from those who never learn the actual game system.
- Diabolos was a lot wimpier in FF8. Let's just say he did a whopping three things if left to his own devices: two percentage-HP gravity attacks that can't kill you, and a physical attack (that, of course, can). And he can be blinded so he'll miss like 99% of his physical attacks. Like I said. A lot wimpier.

[Samar]

Does anyone else think that hume males look like they're afraid of hurting themselfs as a Samurai? >.>;;, Mebbe its just the guy from the Prom screens (Tevan?) But, i wouldnt let him near me

2 real quick things....,

1. Fal, im assuming you didnt even need to bother with the lvl 20 avatars? =P, considering You had your BLM up high enough (i think, but i dont know when you started lvling SMN, so eh ) Shiva.......my god, i hate that damn beast, 0/5 on her, stupid lvl 20....solo fights /em continues to mutter incoherent threats


2. I may have missed these....but, i dont think ive seen a singal shot of you with a scythe, heh, those things are worth it just for the "kick ass scythe man!" comments >.>;;,

[Faluzure]

Vilurum wrote:
IE crash ate my last reply. Being too lazy to be all wordy about it again, the main points:

Dynamis:
- Sorry on Dynamis-Windy, good luck next time.
- Many Dynamis failures are due to "bad pulls", what exactly is so tough about pulling there?

SMN:
- SMN does indeed need fixing in many aspects (that I personally do not have the experience with the job to speak on, with any authority anyway, but I'm interested in hearing your views), and new avatars would hardly "cure" it.
- Chibi summonable Bahamut would be cute but pathetic in its own way.
- Mega summonable Bahamut would be just plain laggy. Picture a few SMNs levelling on Yuhtunga Mandies and each of them having a Bahamut stomping around.
- More avatars would mess up the elemental balance that SMNs currently have.

Promathia:
- I am as always, more interested in how the avatars will play out in the Promathia plot (well, interested in the whole Promathia plot really), than in whether we as players actually get new perks.
- What was it you were mentioning about perks for SMNs as seen glimpses of in the trailer? I don't remember what specifically you're referring to, so could you clarify?

Kirin:
- That is one mean electric squirrel.
- It looks like a fun battle, but it also looks like you need a lot of people. 30+ or so? You'd need enough to handle Kirin *as well as* summoned-god-du-jour.

Diabolos and previous FFs:
- If you have the free time, and the money to invest, I've played the Playstation-PS2 era FFs and I do recommend playing them all. Some people like some, some people like others, but I believe they're all worth playing through at least once. Just be sure, if you do take the time to do so, that you learn to play the game well:
- FF8 in particular is often unpopular - there are a number of legitimate reasons (some plot points are just silly, and the female lead has to be rescued about a half dozen separate times), but honestly most of the complaints come from those who never learn the actual game system.
- Diabolos was a lot wimpier in FF8. Let's just say he did a whopping three things if left to his own devices: two percentage-HP gravity attacks that can't kill you, and a physical attack (that, of course, can). And he can be blinded so he'll miss like 99% of his physical attacks. Like I said. A lot wimpier.
To Vilurum: Vil, you always make my replies to you very big... sometimes I hate replying to you... (Edit: Reduced & summarized due to the size of the reply).
Dynamis - Windurst: No biggie, Windurst has the reputation of being the hardest of the normal four. As always, we'll try again and press on until we win. As for "bad pulls", we pulled a bit too many statues (3-4), which in turn summoned about 3 mobs each. We killed them all, but they sure did leave their mark. The problem that we had with Windurst wasn't the bad pull (that only happened once). The problem with Windurst is the fact that Windurst Walls is split into two paths after the Auction House. Both paths making a circle around Heaven's Tower. Due to the time restraints of Dynamis, you cannot all take one path. You will likely run out of time and fail in your goal to defeat the boss mob there. So dividing the Dynamis alliance by exactly half and going your separate ways makes it harder. A lot harder. If it were primarly just for AF drops, then yes, we could all go one way & stick together. However, the primary goal right now is to obtain the key item so we can go to the Northland Dynamises.

SMN: I'll get into my views of SMN when I have a little more free time (it is already quite long already). All I'll say is this for now, the last patch upgrade for SMNs was utter crap. All these SMNs on all the forums were talking about it being a "Godsend" and allowing SMNs to take over the role of BLM, not having to be primary healer anymore, etc. Yeah, guess what? SMN is no different. The core job it has (healing/buffing) will always be there unless S-E does a major overhaul on the job. Yes it is nice to be able to do a SC with someone else and/or magic bursting, but doing it in party play regularly? You would have to be crazy. The only time I have ever attempted at doing an SC/MB in party play is when we had a WHM in the PT many levels ago. Having a WHM in the PT means you are now backup healer instead of primary. The last patch did indeed give the SMN little "toys" to play with, but it did nothing to fix the job. It was just candy but then it dissolved and went away.

Promathia: I don't know about perks (did I say perks?), but a clip involved something Summoners were familiar with. If you haven't unlocked the job, you may not notice it. Watch the clip again and look hard if you haven't noticed it. Note: The clip featured on FFXIOnline wasn't the same clip I saw though... I think there was another JP trailer if you can find it. I'll look around for it too.

Kirin: I don't know about fun... but it is an interesting and fairly easy battle. The less people you have, the longer the battle it takes. You don't need a lot of people. Other HNM Linkshells (specifically NA) on other servers have done them with their own roster of under 30 people. They said it took them about 3-4 hours. The one I went with (a guest with DrgnAsh) this week, took about 2 hours per battle (36 or so people). My LS in collaboration with an allied JP HNM LS did it in 45 minutes (about 42 people).


Samar wrote:
Does anyone else think that hume males look like they're afraid of hurting themselfs as a Samurai? >.>;;, Mebbe its just the guy from the Prom screens (Tevan?) But, i wouldnt let him near me

2 real quick things....,

1. Fal, im assuming you didnt even need to bother with the lvl 20 avatars? =P, considering You had your BLM up high enough (i think, but i dont know when you started lvling SMN, so eh ) Shiva.......my god, i hate that damn beast, 0/5 on her, stupid lvl 20....solo fights /em continues to mutter incoherent threats

2. I may have missed these....but, i dont think ive seen a singal shot of you with a scythe, heh, those things are worth it just for the "kick ass scythe man!" comments >.>;;,
To Samar: Tenzen looks like a real Samurai (he looks Asian). His sword is badass too. I wish my Joyeuse had some magic glow... Tenzen could own mad stuff I bet...

1. No, I got my Avatars the original way. I was BLM level 75 and upper 60s RDM long before that patch giving you the "Mini-Forks" Quests came out. My SMN started late Summer of 2004.

2. No, I don't have a Mandibular Scythe. I'm about to level DRK soon and I'd rather get skill ups during PT play at a non-glacial moving rate. In other words, our Scythe skill sucks really badly. The Scythe really does nothing for me. You can say "what about soloing/farming?" Well I have my RDM & SMN jobs for that. My RDM solos like a king. Plus, I'd rather use my Staff for farming because Spirit Taker gives me my mana (so I don't have to heal).

[Vinen]

nice Kirin drops!, how bad was Aerial Blast? Searing light sucked ass when he did it to my LS.

[Vilurum]

All righty then, I'll talk about less stuff each time I post.

I'll have to track down that preview clip this evening myself, I guess (if you haven't found a link before then). If it has to do with the circle of stones in La Theine I seem to recall overhearing something from our LS CoP mission group (which I'm not a part of ) about one of the chapter 5 missions involving going there.

Not sure if it's for a battle or cutscene or what have you. May simply be due to the five terrestrial avatars ... wouldn't be surprised if you also had to go pay a visit to Full Moon Fountain if so.

[Ore]

Thanks Fal, I appreciate the SS.

Also, congrats to Slacker on his Osode. It looks good on him.

[CRtwenty]

Of course Tenzen could own mad stuff, if what he's saying is true he has a freaking Goddess in his Katana!!!