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-- by Steve Hamner Big month. Lots accomplished, and then a BIG SURPRISE ENDING!! Read on! (Or go read testgame.exe, because someday it will be the greatest game in the Cosmos. It will!)
February 1
40th level and I'm still finding myself dragged
into the Crawler's Nest. I joined a party with Moesizlack (bwaa!),
Kyyra, Buddah, Stedron and a rotating DD in the secret room. Unlike
the Secret Beach in Valkurm (which really isn't that secret), the
secret room is actually behind a false wall in a large cavern deep
in Crawler's Nest.
This time, the secret room was freaking packed,
with three total camps crammed into a room that really shouldn't
support more than one. It was chaotic, spammy, messy and hectic. Not
only that, but I was asked to pull. I'm not a big fan of pulling as
it is, especially when I'm having to cycle four rolls on different
party members. Pain in the ass.
Just the same, it was good for about 5,000 xp and
41st level. I'm beginning to think I need a goal for level 50. It'll
probably be harder going, but I just destroyed 40 by 24. Let's go
for 50 by 15, two days before Erador's yearly Ides of March/St.
Patrick's Day Party. This year they'll have a third reason to raise
their glasses. By my reckoning I'll need to make a level every five
days. Piece of cake.
Tonight, Erador, Jinjo, Kaizersan and I are going
after my first AF item: the Trump Gun.
February 2
Last night I got together with Erador, Setsuni,
and Bobmarley (later replaced by Jellybean) to do the first Corsair
AF quest. It was a rocky road.
It begins with a walk through uber-treacherous
Caedarva Mire to Arrapago Reef. This place is filled with nasty
mobs, many of whom have 'true sight', meaning they see right through
invisibility. It's a dangerous walk, hard to navigate and downright
scary. I died three times on this trek, but we eventually made it to
the reef and to the first cutscene which opened up the quest.
Next it was off to the Maze of Shakarami, where
we absolutely annihilated an NM called Lost Soul. From there I
entered another cutscene where Finn picked up the Wheel-Lock Trigger
necessary to get the Trump Gun built.
Back to Arrapago. Setsuni fell asleep on us on
the ferry ride to Nashmau, so Erador navigated for Jellybean and me.
We would've made it, but I got myself lost and burned through my
Prism Powders (Invisibility) and Silent Oils (Sneak). Erador found
me and gave me some of his, but was aggro'd by a Lamia on the way
back out. We all died.
I'm going to try this again today since I'm home,
but I'm not sure how it will work out. It's a very dangerous hike
and I'll need some heavyweights to help out. Maybe I can solicit
some help from my friends in Hands of Fate.
February 3
Trump Gun! AF1 - Mission Accomplished!
With an assist from Vudoku (former Blackwind'er
and current member of Hands of Fate), I was able to trek across the
death fields of Caedarva Mire into Arrapago Reef and deliver the
Wheel Lock Trigger I acquired in my fight with the Lost Soul. A warp
back to Aht Urhgan Whitegate and I've got my Trump Gun! w00t!
And the Trump Gun is hot shit. It does better
damage than my +1 Darksteel Hexagun and is just as fast (though not
quite as accurate). Did I say 50 by 15 earlier? If this keeps up,
it'll be 50 by February 15...if not sooner—I’ve already reached 45.
Shadowblade rejoined us in Fruit Bat Revenge
yesterday, and I'm really glad to see him back. Seems he spent the
last month hiding away in Hyrule playing the new Zelda game on his
shiny new Nintendo Wii. Can't say that I blame him.
February 5
It seems like every day is breaking new ground.
Discovering new areas to xp, killing new monsters (or at least new
versions of old foes), and earning lots of tasty experience points.
Invites are plentiful and times are good; let's hope it stays that
way.
There are two places parties most seem to be
hitting at this level range. One is the Quicksand Caves off of
Eastern Altepa Desert - plenty of Beetles, Spiders and Anticans to
be slaughtered there. It's usually almost completely vacant, which
is odd. You'd think it would be packed. I think the reason for this
is vacation spot #2 on the list, which is the bottom floor of
Garliage Citadel just a stone's throw from Jeuno.
It's funny - when I was in the low-mid 30s I
absolutely panicked when running by the big holes in the floor in
the Citadel - an errant step resulted in a fall and a one-way ticket
to death. Now we jump right down, run across the bottom floor into a
series of small inlets in the large cavern, perfect for camping. I
picked up 47th and a little change.
February 6
The Monday Night Static Party met last night.
Good times were had by all. We spend much of evening we xp'ing on
various targets: damselflies, some goblins, and quite a few sheep as
Erador continued his quest for sheep meat. (Heh...sheep meat.)
Satharn had a rough go of it, dying twice during the campaign
despite Shadowblade's valiant efforts to keep us alive when things
got rough. Just the same, she made 17th. I double-leveled from 15 to
17, and Erador pushed to 15th.
I'm taking the next few nights off (really, I
am!) to get some well-deserved rest. Then it's back into the Corsair
gear for the long push from 47 to 50. I've already got a posse
rounded up for G1, and with any luck I'll have that cleared before
sundown on Sunday.
February 7
I know, I know. I wasn't going to play FF XI
yesterday. I was going to turn in early, catch up on some sleep,
spend some time with the family, etc.
Well, that didn't happen. I'm a bad man.
Instead I signed on for one hell of a ride. I
joined Luulu, Riios, Zaira and Deathwish in Garliage Citadel. With
Apis kindly PL'ing, it was near constant combat for about 90 mintues.
EVERYONE pulled, and we intentionally pulled links so we'd have mobs
waiting for us - our bard kept them asleep until we were ready to
execute the beasties. We beat down funnel bats and chamber beetles
like bullies at recess, practically impervious to their feeble
attempts to hurt us.
Over the course of the party, I made about
14,000xp, jumping from 47th to 49th level. I've already got backup
set for G1 this weekend; now all I need to do is make 50 by Saturday
afternoon. Piece of cake. Heck, I might even take a swing at my
second piece of Artifact gear before the weekend ends.
(And I thought this would take me through
mid-March...)
February 9
I took a break from my rabid xp'ing to finish a
series of ridiculous quests. They're necessary to really get into
the meat of the Aht Urhgan storyline, but that doesn't make them any
less boring.
Collectively, all four quests are called 'Lure of
the Wildcat'. It involves running around each of the four major
cities (San d'Oria, Windurst, Bastok and Jeuno), talking to a series
of people (about 20 different individuals) and pimping this
mercenary company out of Al Zhabi. In about two hours I did San
d'Oria, Jeuno and Windurst. I figure I'll take care of Bastok
tonight or tomorrow.
This is gonna be a busy weekend. I need to make
50th so I can do my first Genkai with Erador and Vudoku. Erador
wants to go after this NM called the Goblin Wolfman, and I'm gonna
ride shotgun. We want to get in a Beseiged and possibly take another
swing at Promyvion - Holla. Saturday's gonna be a busy day.
February 12
Mission Accomplished. I scoff at 50 by 15; I
spiked the ball at level 50 Saturday afternoon.
I joined Kaizersan (playing his Puppetmaster)
along with another unusually constructed party (two PUPs, a NIN
tank, WHM, BLU, and me playing COR) in Quicksand Caves to beat up on
Beetles and Anticans. We hit a few rough patches in the beginning,
but things eventually smoothed out and we slowly but surely started
pulling in some big xp. It took about two hours, but I made the
6,400 xp to make 50th level.
Immediately following, I joined Vudoku,
Blacksabre and Erador for G1. The first item on the list was Exoray
Mold found on the Exorays in the Crawler's Nest.
Next was a piece of Papyrus from the Eldeime Necropolis.
Finally was a bit of Bomb Coal from an Explosure in Garliage
Citadel. I snatched that from our treasure hoarde as well, returned
the items to Maat (the little dancing geezer who governs the Genkai
quests) and wrapped up G1 - my level cap is now 55.
We didn't get to Beseiged, so hopefully we'll do
that sometime this week. Erador and I did, however, help Satharn get
her magicked skull - the last item she needs for the subjob quest.
She's knocking on the door of 18th, so she'll probably pick up
subjobs pretty soon here.
At 52 I have my second AF (more trekking through
Caerdava Mire - ick), a whole new outfit becomes available at 55 and
a new gun at 56.
Tonight's the static party, but I might wave off
in favor of resting up.
February 13
It's Monday night and you know what that
means...time for the world famous static party!
As the cheering dies down, I'll run the credits
for last night's group by: myself (playing DRG), Erador (playing WHM),
Kaizersan (playing PLD), Satharn (playing WAR), Deadstop (playing
DRG) and Loads (playing RDM).
This was kind of a rocky ride. Satharn unluckily
bumped into a few ornery goblins on her way to camp and died.
Deadstop met a similar fate after we pulled aggro on a pair of
goblins we weren't ready for. It was a rough night.
The good news is the xp was top drawer, nearly
everyone picked up a level and Satharn finished the subjob quest. I
think she's going to level up Thief now, so the static party might
take a week off while she solos that job up. When we restart
(somewhere around level 10), I'm thinking I'll dust off my Blue Mage
gear and give it a shot.
February 16
Everyone tells me that Thursday is a bad night
for parties, and that not pulling an invite on a Thursday night
isn't anything to be worried about.
Still, I sat LFG for two whole hours yesterday.
While I had one party fall apart while forming, it was a complete
bust. Lame. The only thing I accomplished was getting flagged for
San d'Oria Mission 5-1, which I'm hoping to do this weekend.
I also did the unthinkable...I ordered a copy of
World of Warcraft with my new PC. Erador and I are going to try out
the free month and see if it has anything to offer. Nearly every one
of my friends who plays video games is either playing WoW or
planning to start soon, and I have heard a lot of compelling
arguments for giving it a shot. We'll see how it goes starting in
early March.
February 23
Has been nearly a week since my last update, and
it all traces back to San d'Oria mission 5-2 last weekend, which was
an unmitigated disaster in the complete and total sense of the
phrase. I know everyone in the party meant well and tried their
best, and a lot of the time it was just bad luck, but the mission
wound up being a complete and utter cluster fuck.
Yes, we did eventually kill the Shadow Lord
(well, they did...I lay there...dead), but on the way to the fight
we got lost numerous times, burned through dozens of Prism Powders
and Silent Oils (expensive little items that turn you invisible and
render you completely silent so you can sneak through areas filled
with dangerous monsters without attracting attention), and I wound
up dying five times over the evening. FIVE TIMES. This also took me
a level down back to 49, meaning I was completely unable to fire my
gun, so in the climactic Shadow Lord fight, I sat on my ass (at
least until I was killed, then I just sort of lay there).
Two days later I xp'd back through 50 to within
striking distance of 51, but the damage had been done - I didn't
really have a whole lot of fun.
So what to do? Why, buy a new computer, of
course. I bought a nice new rig from Dell which should arrive today.
Then it's time to begin my journey to the dark side....
February 26
This is it. The Dark Side.
I have (at least for the time being) forsaken
Final Fantasy XI and rolled a character in the most popular MMORPG
on the planet, World of Warcraft. Last Friday night, the Dwarven
Priest, Hale, was born on the Agrammar server.
Not to sound like too much of an idiot,
but...wow. I can see why Blizzard's money factory is number one.
World of Warcraft is fantastic. It does a lot of things right that
FF XI does wrong, and I've yet to really find an aspect of the game
that I truly dislike:
- It lends itself very well to solo play. Where
there is just no way most jobs can solo effectively beyond 12th
level (give or take) in FF XI, it's entirely possible for any job in
WoW to solo right on up to level 60 (or 70 with the new expansion).
This means on the day where I just have an hour or two to play, I
can solo instead of sitting around with the flag up, hoping I can
round up a party.
- The completion of quests awards experience
points. Finally, a quest system that is WORTHWHILE. The quests in
WoW aren't necessarily much different than those in FF XI (go here,
deliver this, kill this, etc.), but knowing there's a big chunk of
xp at the end makes it all worthwhile.
- Death does not bring with it a big xp hit and
the potential to level down. You have no idea what a relief that is.
Dying is no longer a stream of curses and the worry of how am I
going to get that lost xp back. Dying can be viewed as a much less
stressful learning experience and a jog from the graveyard back to
your corpse, or a resurrect (which Priests learn as early as 10th
level).
- I find the graphics and sound more appealing.
Some argue they are more 'cartooney', but I find that really
visually engaging. The wardrobe changes are more pronounced as well
- little things like belts and bracers actually show up on the toon,
whereas the FF XI avatar really only shows change when a big piece
of equipment is swapped out.
- Gryphon riding >>>>>> Airships
- Hale will always be just a priest, but I have
slots for seven other characters I could make at any time. I've
already rolled Gaelan, a Human Warlock, and have plans for other
characters in the future. While Finn can play any job, he's still
going to be Finn. This allows me to jump into the shoes of an
entirely new persona...and it doesn't cost me an extra $1/month per
character.
- Money isn't always a constant struggle. Farming
cash and/or items to sell is always a necessary evil, but in FF XI
it can take nearly half your playtime for an expensive job. In World
of Warcraft, nearly every mob drops something of value, including
crafting materials. Even the most basic of crafted items is useful
or can be sold at a nice profit.
So I don't think you'll see me on FF XI for a
spell...I've got business on Azeroth.
What’s next? Is this the end of The Vana’diel
Diaries? Stay tuned!
(or go read Zack’s
Cheat Codes for Life, because I could really use some advice on
throwing a Fade when confronted by some spouse aggro)
-- Steve Hamner {03-2007} Rate this article — |
