Our Daily ToDo List! Stalking People!

For those that don’t really click around enough, let me introduce you to the errr.. sort of complete function of FFXIAH Map!

What is it?! X_X

It’s a e-life stalking tool, well no, AH isn’t using your IP to trace you, but ask you “Where do you live!”. You can put anything you want, and participation is completely voluntary. If you put in say (10 Front Street, Toronto), it will translate a detail address into something simple, like “Toronto”. I mean… the point is you live in Toronto, and that’s kinda enough for others to know.

Well… to play with this feature, you got to signup/login!

Well once you login, you’d be able to see cool stuff like… where everyone on your server lives (well, of course only showing those that participated in entering their location). Remember, its only as accurate as the user entering the right stuff. Some might be lying =P

Well have fun stalking/connecting with people while the patch is being downloaded!

PS: Go grab The Star Onions – Sanctuary if you haven’t =P For ringtone, wake up music, HNM alarm music.. whatever :D

CD Cover for The Star Onions – Sanctuary!

Gotta Love It!

I like it =) Just errr… not really a fan of CD’s these days when I prefer things in hard drives :o Good thing I’m not register on SE’s whatever community stuff, can post RapidShare stuff.

I did however, find a Rapidshare link! (On TrafficShare.)

It’s a great piece and every single piece in there is really well written. I’ll let you critique the song/music itself, but here’s how I listen to these songs (below!).

Listen Time!

I’m a very music person, in fact, I only produce videos when I have a nice piece in my mind. I’ve still got a few solo videos to make but… no good music is like no motivation XD (well not the right one is really the word for it).

When I listen to music, I dream about a lot of stuff.. and for The Star Onions, it was really the past with friends enjoying a good time.

If you are already playing WoW, listening to Distant Worlds below really brings out the good old times. The more I listen to it, the more I think about the teamwork that went to beating Omega, the coordination, the hard work that goes into beating CoP missions.

I want to invite you to listen to Distant Worlds while like browsing your own old SS.

I know Violin and Piano, can play either, anyone wanna Duet with me someday? T_T;

Another one of my favorite, was actually Mhaura. For a lot of people, Mhaura was simply a place to logout, a place to get to Aht-Urghan Whitegate. But for serious Goldsmithers (probably another 32 out there), Mhaura was a gold mine for us. I made a living out of synthesizing rocks into Rubies and Diamond. I did that for almost everyday, for 3 years. I have stacks and stacks of paper of synth results, if digitize, I’m pretty sure I’d blow the 95% confidence interval to prove the directional synthesis theory.

But then I’m not Kaeko :D

So its cool beans. So yea if you’re also a Goldsmither and spent countless hours there, Mhaura version would definitely bring you those good memories of getting a HQ Diamond to have one chance on the Omniscient Ring ^_^; That’s where I earned my Kraken Club, the real deal hard way. (Not like some RMT, rips all the AH’s Rubies or Diamonds, all Orichalcum Ingots… =_=”)

If you’re not a goldsmither, no worry. Think about your first adventure, or how you felt when you just installed ToAU and wanted to goto Whitegate. You were with this music till the boat arrives… its just a pleasing experience.

Here it is, Mhaura from Sanctuary.

More Info:

• The Star Onions – Sanctuary Official Website + Buy
• The Chat with the Composer (JP)..
• JP Button on The Star Onions – Sanctuary.

The FFXIV Blog Team!

The FFXIV Blog :D

I’ve been amazingly busy :3 But I’d still like to let everyone know I’m part-time working on the FFXIV Blog :D Yes, it’s actually at www.ffxivblog.com! Not some random gil farming websites or stupid domain parking.

For me, playing the game is half the fun, the other half is making videos, documenting and writing about it! So I thought… hay why not write a Blog about everyone’s next Final Fantasy addiction =) most likely.. my next addiction (I’d hate to say it, but at least better than smoking XD)

Since June 2, there were continuous buzz on playing together and such. I don’t know who might end up on the same server, or hell even what job/class/whatever I’d play, but one thing I do know is.. I would blog, and same with Berrie, Jowah, Kimiko and Etain, so us taru girls decided to gank on one blog. All of us write different things and stuff so… I believe it would bring a very nice variety in terms of reads – from technical, strats to arts and game updates.

Although I’m blogging as Maiev for now, but I’d name myself different in FFXIV, just to have stuff easily separated from FFXi, just like Shantotto in WoW (lol). Perhaps call myself Illidan this time? XD

There’s one thing about everyone here though, and that is they’ve all Blog for over 3+ more years. Strawberrie’s Tarunation (now on berrie.papersealfury.com) was probably one of the most ancient WP FFXI-related blog, then all of us just kinda followed. We’re still around, still blogging because we… enjoy doing it =)

Yea if you have some firefox plugins, you’d see that ffxiv blog’s got the same server IP as ffxiah ads server =P That’s because that blog is on their server :) No, we aren’t planning to server you ads, they just happen to have server space and bandwidth and Scragg hates loading Mai blog =P cuz its shitty slow (I know -_-”) so he’s like fuk it put it on mines! Gotta thank them for the kind donation :D

Content would be kinda sloppy slow… and none of us reads JP like Elmer so no =P It’s hard to get info but when the game launches, we’ll update you with more fun stuff than just development stuff XD

And yea, that pic above is obviously photoshopped =P bored :D. Here’s the super-size version if you like it! Thanks Otak for halpin me on some stuff, and also Kimiko on his “making SS ready for the internet” post XD

PS: Sounds like they fixed their broken RMT Pwner 1.337 and “un-ban” gardening mules. Whatever it is, still a fail to begin with.

A Prototype of Shantotto and Star Sybil!

Whoa O.o

Well credits to Otak, but she showed me these two awesome pic. It’s in da Paris expo atm :o

Here’s other Windurst NPC that made it as a prototype.

That stuff is awesome :O I want to take Shantotto home ^_^; and blow me up! (Or, smack her with Mai REAL Kclub!)

Well seems like it kinda fits their.. survey 2 months ago. So they do care… but I guess only in the money aspect! Anything that makes em cash… they listen and do it quickly! Making ur account secure? Stuff like that takes a year cuz.. no money! lawl :D

PS: Also on BG.

Oh the Side

I passed my RL flying-mount tests :D now just one more written exam before I go fly around IRL :D but which is pretty much why June has been quite hiatus for me :x just busy studying etc! Anyhow, this mount is only 150%… the 280% (wow term) mount going to take more RL flying :x o well :D!

I’ll slowly surface again with contents la! For now, stay safe, and don’t randomly aggro strangers like Strawberrie, where she uses her twitter to harass you.

Kraken Club inside this box!

Real Club comes in Real Boxes!

For those that don’t know or haven’t been keeping up with Mai Blog, well there’s someone out there who can Dupe Kclubs! You can read more about it there.

Well for me, I got myself a Real Kraken Club! There it goes, all my 5 years of work… well a little less since I got Club in 2006… but yea, my objective of the game, to own one.. and I did! Now I even own one in RL =) satisfy all Mai desires XD

The cost? Well like the website advertise, its 150USD for one, then of course lame truck comes along like UPS and decided to charge shit like “Brokerage” fee, that’s for us Canadians… so if you want to buy one and you’re a Canadian… think a bit again because it almost came up to C 250 for me :(

Well away from the sad face, I just rip that thing open… and the next thing is “Stage Prop, Not Real” LOL. What? I thought I was buying a real KClub :O

Moving on…

So wow, that thing looked exactly as advertised… you really got what you really paid for.. it’s pretty fukin amazing.

Oww Real Kclub!!!

Well guess what, the first thing I did was.. I held it up… and start swinging (LOL), and no, I didn’t get the “Occasionally attack 2-8 times”. I thought about asking a refund but the creator made it very clear… that it may not swing 2-8 times… so I really just got a….

Shellbuster…

Here’s a picture with my BlackBerry Bold beside it, as you see… it’s pretty big in size. It’s “Hume” size. I’ve just placed it beside my 25″ MaiTaru Plushie! There, I’ve bought FFXi to RL =)

For the curious ones about the “actual” work, here are some closeups, unedited straight out of my cam. So lemme tell you, it’s not screen friendly, not ADSL friendly (no, not just 56k), but work friendly =)

Club View | Teeth | Joint | Handle

Blows you away huh =)

So yea, if you’re interested, go read this post and find out his stuff. He’s pretty booked as is and I also know Mistmonster from Fenrir is also getting one =) heat item XD

Aside: RL

I’ve been quite busy, trying to do projects on the side on top of work and preparing for flight tests :x so once I get that test out of the way, I’d have way more time to focus on the enjoyment stuff =) I know it’s summer, but I like my Air Con and my own time to do stuff I like (such as blogging) so I’ll promise I’d make a comeback :) and keeping people entertained.

In the meantime, browse the TTTO, always fun stuff around :) Stay classy ok? =)

Oh I did read those A Moogle Kupo’s Edat, sounds like a Cash grab… and I was surprised SE had the guts to announce less log-in times… and reveal how unfavorable missions were in their stats.

FFXI Economics (Lots of Problems)

Well can always read the detail (or I mean, fun) way of looking at SE’s stats are Starcade.

• I.. also have a few things I’d like to state. First thing is.. a few months ago SE announce some like “2million char creation”. Who judge development by char creation. Common, lets give us some “subscription” number =) Hence, PAID accounts.
• Notice the Pie, 1-3 hours, OR LESS. Oh I definitely know people who pay but don’t play.
• SE notice, still most popular is GRINDING, well why not open some merit points. Hell the game is already easier, doesn’t really matter if its even more easy. It’s not like KRT or Ullikummi skillchain party will every come back.
• 62.74% are level 1’s (PlayOnline, 2m CHARACTER in April, we’ll come back to that)


The Loser Train without Missions!

• As a RDM, I was surprise the amount of Lighting Acc, thought there would be more retards then that.
• 1 upgrade in Blind II fails LOL (just to get the animation? just get a DAT swap LOL)
• Monster Correlation kinda caught me off guard, I mean it’s nice enhancements (forgot number in my Blue guide) but damn you really got to hit the right mob with right spell to kick in :3
• I was hoping to see -1 in a relic due to ban LOL :D
• Clothcraft blew me away, cuz that shit is expensive… IMO it’s pretty close to Goldsmithing (Remember, I have like 6 char 100 crafts to play around XD).
• (Refer to Graph). See the PINK? That’s Excellence selling rights to lot items on Hades =)
• See the BLUE on the left side? Most people that got 50k or less is because they fail at BCNM LOL.
• YELLOW is OTHERS, 10m gil+/wk. Although some are pretty legit, the rest, GIL BUY? HAHAHA (or steal friends’ account rob then rich!)
• Digging 1m per week? Hay, hook me up!
• Synthesis fails.. because we have people that gil buy, robs the market’s mats in whatever price and just dominate that market’s synthesis. In RL, at least we have WTO, in-game, we have What The Fuck!
• Linkshell reason missing one. “Joined because I have a BOT!”

End rant. Stay safe, stay classy, and we’ll brb with MORE JUICY THAN USUAL!

However, just want to hook everyone up with a Starcraft II Battle Report. Pretty amazing! Looking at David Kim controlling his units is just amazing. Those blinks were so effectively used! Can’t wait to get into RTS again :D

Below: Video of Protoss and Zerg in Starcraft II actual battle gameplay!

Here’s another version :D

Official website here.

I see all 5 races, I see amazing graphics, I see SE learned some stuff.

I see it’s for both PS3 and PC!

Diablo 3, Starcraft 2, FFXIV (14). Holy shit this is going to chew up my life again XD

and yea lets all play on the same server k?

/end quickpost.

Update: The Trailer just looks like FFXI HIGH-DEF?!

This Screen for… CC Expiry? x_x!

A few hours ago, I posted someone duping Kraken Clubs. Although that won’t give you LM17, but apparently… these days, you can get LM17 for using a lot of CC”s on different accounts. Preparing for Rapture launch? :O

Well anyway… one of my LS member got caught and… posted the email, thought I’d share it.

Greetings,

=================================
PlayOnline Information Center
For the latest news, help, and support please visit:
www.playonline.com

Lets Continue:

It’s been mentioned a few place such as:

• Zomg Starcade.
• FFXIAH Forums.

I’ve previously paid for… SohMui, Eruki, Roranora, Jayashaya, Ciermel, Tazo, my brother and I…(all separate accounts, lets just say I’ve logged in over 50 accounts on my PC) so I’d definitely would have gotten flagged… so I guess they are looking for a set of other conditions. For one thing, all the above people do not have contact information that is similar to me. :O!

I’m just wondering myself why LM-17. There are so many other numbers they could use such as LM-00 <-- for no money, or LM-1337. I didn't know they ran out of numbers. For one thing 17 and not LM-16 already reveals its not a data size limitations xD They are probably just freaking lazy people. But if I got that stuff, I'd be so upset... :/

FFXI Server History! (Img from JPButton)

FFXI Server History

I found the image to the right on JPButton. The composition of FFXI Servers, how it merged (x_x) and expanded. Credit goes to JPButton.

Here’s a comment left on JPButton explaining the image on the right!

12/17/2001 – Chaos, Zande, Golbez, Xdeath PS2 Beta servers – Golbez + Xdeath merged with Zande. Beta ends 4/26/2002.
5/16/2002 – JP PS2 service begins. Servers 00-19 opened.
11/6/2002 – JP PC service begins. Servers 20-22 opened. (Pandemonium, Garuda, Cerberus)
12/19/2002 – Servers Kujata, Bismark, Ixion, Typhon, Kirin opened. Limited World Shift options: 2, 6, 9, 13 to Kujata. 5, 8, 15, 17 to Bismark. 4, 7, 11, 12 to Ixion. 3, 10, 14, 18 to Typhon. 0, 1, 16, 19 to Kirin.
1/14/2003 – Ixion merged to Bismark. Typhon merged to Kujata. Kirin merged to Bismark.
3/13/2003 – Servers 25:Seraph and 26:Lakshmi opened. World Transfer from servers 0, 1, 2, 3, 7, 8, 9, 10, 13, 14, 20, 22 to Seraph. 4, 5 ,6, 11, 12, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21 to Lakshmi.
6/10/2003 – 27:Midgardsormr created.
10/7/2003 – 28:Fairy created. World Transfer from any server.
12/9/2003 – 29:Asura created. World Transfer from any server.
10/7/2004 – 30: Remora and 31:Hades created. World Transfer from 0, 1, 2, 7, 8, 9, 10, 13, 17, 18, 19, 21, 23, 25, 29 to Remora. 3, 4, 5, 6, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 20, 22, 24, 26, 27, 28 to Hades.
6/18/2002 – 11/1/2002 – Glasyalabolas (Windows Beta test server)
6/12/2003 – 10/4/2003 – Cactaur (NA Beta test server)
12/10/2005 – ? – Hydra – Xbox 360 Beta test server
Chocobo – Public test/event server?
Atomos – Test server

Legend of FFXI Server Numbers

01. Bahamut
02. Shiva
03. Titan
04. Ramuh
05. Phoenix
06. Carbuncle
07. Fenrir
08. Sylph
09. Valefor
10. Alexander
11. Leviathan
12. Odin
13. Ifrit
14. Diabolos
15. Caitsith
16. Quetzalcoatl
17. Siren
18. Unicorn
19. Gilgamesh
20. Ragnarok
21. Pandemonium
22. Garuda
23. Cerberus
24. Kujata
25. Bismarck
26. Seraph
27. Lakshmi
28. Asura
29. Midgardsormr
30. Fairy
31. Remora
32. Hades

Damn…. duping Kclub for RMT!!

I = this Guy. Quoting from the guy:

I have recently come across a very reliable way to dupe Kraken Clubs, and I want to extend my newfound collection to the community, in the hopes of making some real-life cash in the exchange.

The only problem is that something seems to be borked with the “attacks X times” thing. Really, I can only get in 4-5 hits per round. Perhaps someone with a bit more STR or DEX than I have could get to 8… or even more!

If you’re still confused, no not in-game Kraken Club game item duping, but it’s duping Kraken Clubs IRL (or shellbuster… =_=) :O this guy does a pretty fukin awesome job in making it. I LOVE for the fact that he put some humor in his opening statement :D

Look at the detail here. :O

The picture looks amazing, the finishing, the prop coloring… wow O.o

Duping Kraken Club – 3 different Choices!!

He can offer 3 “levels” for your club. (and I thought these were already pretty fukin good)

1/Bottom) Cast only: this is a straight pull from the mold with only minor cleanup to the edges. As with any mold, there are mold lines and small imperfections that require sanding and cleaning. You would need to do this yourself, but anyone who is comfortable with spot filler, primer, and sandpaper would have no problem. My molds are quite clean and the amount of cleanup necessary is really minimal. This option is $75 per replica.

2/Mid) Cleaned cast: I take the mold out, fix all minor imperfections with spot putty, sand smooth, and shoot with a guide coat of primer. This adds about 2 more hours to my production time, but you get a resin pull thats ready for your paintjob right out of the box. This option is $100 per replica.

3/Top) Finished Replica: The pictures above. I wrap the handle, do all weathering and painting effects, and clearcoat the entire piece to protect against any wear and tear. This option adds another 5 hours to my production time, and (obviously) is the most expensive version. This option is $150 per replica.

—

Here’s the original post about price and all the jazz on BlueGartr.
Here’s his website O.o of his workflow and his equipment… so professional.

As a Kraken Club owner…. I REALLY WANT ONE O.o T_T

Check Out my Broken Gear!!

The Effect of Guild Bank Repairs!

So you see, not having too much time to play… you naturally don’t even have time to make money. So I’ve been running from 12k gold to now 4k gold, giving a few thousands to Takalo, my “instructor” LOL (yes, I have a variety of friend who plays on same server). So well.. where do I get free money? GUILD REPAIRS!

Okay you see, on the right I’m doing OS25 with PUGS, I think I’ll still beat a lot of meters with broken gear. This was on Monday!
Repair bills in WoW is kinda like errr… exp penalty in FFXI. Both games, you either need to spend time re-leveling or earning the gold to pay for the loss of your e-life. They are roughly the same… but see there’s a new feature, “Guild Repair”, meaning your guild will pay for your repairs :D and our guild leader turns on that feature during Raid.. naturally :) You want to take advantage of it!

Remember the JP Button Question?

3. Why does it seem like many foreign players (NA Players) do not bother to bring medicines and potions to Missions and BCs? Many Japanese players make sure to have Vile Elixirs, Hi-Potions and/or Reraise Earrings.

I mean common, I had a GUN (as Hunter), I had bullets, I had a living healthy pet, with pet food! What else do you expect? XD

So Tuesday came around, its time for our weekly Ulduar 25man Raid. So knowing Guild Repair is going to open “after 1st wipe”, I just went in with pretty broken gear. Not entirely broken, just the shoes… still good! 1/50 is completely working good gear!

We did Flame Leviathan. It was all good until the driver of the tank shot me at the wrong direction when I wasn’t ready. I died, and was probably the only 2-3 people that died…. well since it’s not a full wipe, I just got a Raise and… didn’t had time to repair! Well… that means I was 6 piece broken heading into XT De-constructor! NOT MY FAULT!!!

Wiping at 0.06398%! Knowing you could have done something!

So the fight began, I realize the damage was so… low :D. My AoE wasn’t even doing 1000 on normal hits XD but was more like The Burning Crusade-type damage XD holy moly XD Well… I thought a little bit ahead, since my damage is going to be low, I swap to marksmanship to cover it up XD (since Marksmanship isn’t known for good DPS, so they won’t really notice broken gear). Hay! You all get Trueshot Aura!

As you see on the right SS, we wiped with 14397 / 22,499,000 HP. Work the math out it’s 0.0006398% (ty Jackalman, I fail lawl)! Um… maybe repairing the equipment would have helped! Maybe if my SHOES was repaired, that would have made the difference! But then no :D

If an average repair bill for each person is 8g, then 25ppl is 200g :O I feel kinda horrible knowing I could have done better, simply repairing an item. :o It’s not like I’m broke poor, I’m just stingy. Hay! Stingy isn’t a bad thing :) You save money/gil/whatever!

So Gbank opened up after that wipe, I had a daily repair limit of 75g! I make sure I used all that :) I mean lookie! XD. My guild so nice, they even gave me 2 new shineys :D the 3rd best DPS staff [Twisted Visage] and the #1 DPS bow :D [Siren's Cry].

Actually I was a little sneaky about the best bow :D I totally had an under the table agreement :D Look :) Trading “Restaurant City” Ingredients for the bow! (lawl). After I got the bow, all the sacks/management were like “Shantotto, if you gquit (guild quit), I will come find you” hahaha! Gotta love my funny azn Toronto guild. XD

Sitting on a Bench talking about old-school FFXI!

Enjoying offtime with Takalo

Takalo was a long-term friend of mine. We knew each other back in the TLW days, 2004 of Fenrir. Him and Pdan would just come up to me, bring out his Kclub and wack stupid things infront of me! *grin* Well, he once play WoW, quit and FFXI, then quit FFXI for WoW again. One thing he enjoys, finding WEIRD stuff in-game, doing all the WEIRD quest, and getting WEIRD things. So in WoW, he enjoy finding WEIRD stuff, like WEIRD potion tnat turns you into tiny midgets. Or WEIRD food that turns you into an Alliance like ETAIN x_x

That’s about it for now XD Concludes my WoW update! We’ll be continue with our last-night 25-man Hodir tonight (which kinda cock-block last night!). Maybe I’ll eat Elixirs, use good bullets, take it a little serious and really pimp the meter tonight! We’ll see but for now… Cheers and stay safe :)

Maiev Soloing Heraldic Imp as Blue Mage!

WHOA!

I know right… wtf? I reactivated for like 10 days hahaha (waste of money!) just to buy marbles, say hi to a few tarus, burn some exp ring as well as do some admin stuff. However, I did realize my only free time is now during daytime (before work)… which is kinda useless cuz that’s when nobody is really around.

Surprisingly, I was still able to play it quite proficiently after not touching FFXI for 6 months. I enjoyed the time not playing though, mostly having a lot more time now doing what I always wanted to do :D and have a grasp at my own real-life job leveling other than just e-job leveling. Oh yea, gotta love how Windower still works XD after that like 3000 file updates!

Other than occasionally getting 2 imps.. it was pretty… typical ffxi day…

I didn’t play as much WoW either, it was really just real-life leveling instead. One thing that was cool though, that FFXI does feel like home “when played” :)

Speaking of Exping, someone got LM17 for Hardcore Exping! Wut? LOL

Problems with Playing Again…

COOL! Solo Chain 5 for 1034 Exp!

Coming back from WoW, there’s quite a few problems…. right away.

• I like Mai mouse, and I miss using it to pitch and turn cameras (although Windower 4 might change all that)
• M to bring up the map fails to activate minimap. Back to those Blip Blip menu… gotta get used to :(
• I like to see minimap… I miss minimap.. and having to install a bunch of crap just to get minimap is discouraging… couldn’t bother.
• I totally don’t miss FFXI macros. They suck, don’t execute, and don’t work without 3rd party addon.
• I miss inviting people globally in WoW just to have a chat in party. Well sorry you got to do it in the same zone =_=;
• I like the festival speed-walk buff, but it won’t last! Walking takes ages… and yea I hate it. Where’s my MOUNT!

I can go on and on but.. you get the idea. Just gotta get used to this slow-pace game again.

Hunting NM’s with Recheche on Midgardsormr.

Well being a WoW and FFXI cross-player, I’d know all that before I decided to subscribe again. But its not until you really play again to realize how primitive FFXI is. I just felt so constricted and limited in what I could do. What can you do? Other than getting your ass banned?!

I don’t even know where my 3x Royal Cloak went… I still got the Kclub…and all other jazz.

Now talking about spending a good time… well HNM ENM ZNM, whatever NM got pretty boring.. Fenrir DuckHUNT’s LS message looks pretty boring so I’ve decided to help my friend Recheche instead (on Midgardsormr).

Dying a few times, claiming and dying… zomg a typical day in FFXI. Nothing accomplished ugh…

It seems like FFXI needs so much effort to get things done. That’s what I feel like now… I just want it to be fun, not painfully hard to really enjoy it.

At least.. I still enjoy exping, although I capped the merit buffer too now… time to get boring.

So yea, I simply don’t feel like FFXI can reward the level of time I’m willing to give an MMO at this stage in my life. I personally feel more rewarding doing stuff “related” to ffxi, but not actually playing the game itself… its weird!! I think I’m just weird! Well.. moving on

Girl Power by Azjazo!

Azjazo’s Entry got Axed for Mythril Prize for Art Contest

Unfortunately, there was a misunderstanding although he gave fair warnings attached to the submission for the 7th year contest. Obviously someone in Squeenix mis-read and was sleeping on the job. Fukin fail.

Regardless, I still really like his artwork, composition, isometric as well as the coloring was very well done. Some might find the coloring a little weird, but I thought it was a very well composed piece of art.

But long story short, SE fucked up. The player as usual, pays the price by TAKING away the glory that he got. Imagine you got a drop for Kraken Club, then SE comes and say hay, we were testing the BC and spawn you a KC. We will now take it away. LOL?!

You can find the rest of the story here.

Mjollnir by konekonoarashis! Taru /firmly stare Squeenix!

Some 1Up Review of Crystalline Prophecy

Source is here. I like a few!

1UP: Now that the add-on has been out for a little bit, how has the feedback been? Will or could that affect how the next two add-ons are designed, or are they already complete in terms of gameplay design?

KO: Of course, we’ve heard a wide range of opinions. With regards to the aforementioned item-gathering, over-camping is a well-known issue.

On the other hand, the battles interspersed throughout the story have generally been well received. (orly) While the content of the upcoming add-on scenarios has already been determined to a certain degree, we are constantly listening to our users (orly) and looking to incorporate their opinions as best we can.

1UP: The token, while effective, adds yet two more passwords to enter, in addition to the already massive number of confirmation screens needed to begin playing FFXI. Was this really the most effective method you could offer players to protect their accounts?

TM: For FFXI, there was a need to make the token compatible with players’ preexisting PlayOnline IDs. This process of associating the two can be completed via the PlayOnline Viewer, and needs to be done once only. After this, players will be able to log in to their accounts with their Square Enix Account IDs, and, if using a security token, the one-time password that is displayed on that also.

In debating the best way to protect user accounts, we took both simplicity and security into consideration. Following a comprehensive discussion of the growing popularity of one-time passwords as a security measure, it was deemed that combining the user’s own password with the security token’s one-time password would provide the optimal level of security. In the future, we intend to continue monitoring user feedback as well as observe the ways in which one-time passwords are utilized in other industries, in order to constantly deliver the best security solutions to our players.

Mai: Did you really look around? Blizzard’s Authenticator only adds 1 more “enter” button to press during login phrase. Whereas SE, got us into typing our password (cool), but then they changed the “O”, the “accept password” button, then you gotta tab to another field and type in the number, then tab 2 more times. Jesus I don’t even want to log off because there’s so many hurdles. Obviously didn’t look around enough… stupid Squeenix.

Anyway, that’s it for now! Gratz to Jowah on her Manteel :) Enjoy mai new blog banner and see you next time!

PS: I think this dude got rocked haha. Gotta love comments in times.

Twittering for FFXIAH?!

Tweeting the AH

Twitter is a pretty weird place. For normal people, they’d tweet while they are in washroom taking a good dump, cutting hair, finish brushing their teeth, what they ate or more normal stuff like I’m shopping at XYZ, reading YYZ and meeting up with ZZZ tonight.

Anyway… well Tweeting in FFXI is actually a little bit better :D You tweet when you’re waiting amazingly bored while Dynamis start, completed a quest, got a drop, ding a level. It sounds pretty healthy tweeting.

There’s actually quite a community on Twitter related to FFXI. You can treat it like “talking in shouts”, but the difference is, you subscribe to the shouts that you like rather than forcing you to read them. There’s quite a lot of Japanese too. Not that I know how to read it anyway but it’s there.

So I brought up the idea to Scragg about integrating Twitter with FFXIAH.

Twitter Integrated to FFXIAH! (Just example)

Twittering Integrated to Profile

For those that uses Facebook, your “status” appears right beside your name. Well, the AH could do something similar :D It’d be like something on the right. So it makes each person’s profile a little more personalized :D Tweet can be parsed so just like there’s a tab for equipment, maybe there could be one for twitter to show all recent activities.

Twitter also offers a quick way to notify LS member. You cannot post on forums on the go, but a lot of people could tweet on the go via mobile phone texting. For those that’s got a smartphone, they can even tweet on the go, informing their LS member that they are a little busy, a little late for stuff. Twitter already got all that setup so for the AH, it’s just the matter of integrating it.

Perhaps a summary page like this one?! (This is Mai BlackBerry Version)

Summarize all your friends’ activity on a page.

I use Twitter for FFXI too, and sometimes you find interesting stuff people do. I have Twitter on my BlackBerry(BB) and it summarize all my friends’ activity in a chronological order (kinda like the Feeds in Facebook).

Twitter and AH

One thing remains is… Twitter is voluntary. You need to submit your username to FFXIAH (well at least that’s how I see it being implemented) in order to have it start feeding your status. Of course, you might be required to tweet a specific number like verifying character in order to add it in, so you aren’t tweeting other people’s stuff. AH can set that only friends can see status, so like those people that you add on FFXIAH are the ones that are able to see them (well, of course, they are on your Friend List (Some might have Twitter account that is mixed with both E-Life and RL). While Login, you can get a list of what all your friends are doing and definitely a good way to see what you miss in terms of events or fun stuff while you were away! I think its all win win!

What do You Think?

I submitted the idea to Scragg :D we talked over it and he’s thinking about it. What do you think about the idea? You personally like it? or is it going over the borders. AH should stay as AH :D?!

Entry to the Halls of the God in WoW!

Adventuring Deep Inside Ulduar

PS: This article relates my WoW Experience to well known FFXI bosses and content. Prior WoW knowledge not required for this read. =)

The feeling of adventuring once flourished in FFXI, has now returned in WoW (well… for me). You know how you want to take a further look in a specific place in WoW and your head in RL moved forward to try and see more on a SCREEN? Yea that’s the silly me :D

Another aspect I enjoy WoW is… dungeons really look like dungeons! In Ulduar, each wing got its own personalities and tiles. Although Salvage tiles are a bit boring… but it is somewhat fun to a certain extent. Well… if someone farms my Assault Points, I actually don’t mind going once awhile XD anyway back to WoW talks.

So lets adventure deeper into this wonderful dungeon!

Unblock some Cockblock Bosses!

Our guild always starts off with a 25man Vault of Archavon (VoA). This was always a quick kill :D Go in, do our business, come back right out with phat lewt. The way works is VoA is like an Instanced Nidhogg. You can go visit him once per week, but he will be there waiting for you! I really enjoy this quick raid :D fits my little busy schedule =)

After that, we head to Ulduar, beat the first few easy bosses and then onto Kologarn in Ulduar. He’s the person guarding the gate of the gods :D kind of like a Genbu standing just before the gate to Sky. Easy boss but then still, can’t screw around else Genbu can still wipe an alliance :D did that then move onto Auriaya.

Auriaya! One of the famous Cockblock Boss in Ulduar!

Auriaya is one TOUGH boss… a cockblock for two weeks for us. I don’t even know how to describe him. I guess imagine him being Nidhogg with 2 weak darters and Byakko as Auriaya’s assist.

The 2 Darters (Sanctrum Sentry) got an aura, when near each other, will buff each other 50% damage increase. So yea, buffing the boss 100% damage increase isn’t cool. It doesn’t respawn.

Then on top of that, you have Feral Defender. This thing respawns 1min after it dies (if you kill it), everytime you kill it, it leaves a manhole that does 9000dmg/sec. Basically, dead meat if you walk over it. Feral Defender can charge (1sec stun), can stun, and have a buff that increase its damage bey 50%, up to 9 times.

Auriaya is a boss that probably takes 8 minutes of continuous DPS (for us right now at least) to take it down. When engage, we have 4 tanks, 1 on boss, 1 on feral defender, and 2 on Sanctum sentry. Once all provoke (kinda like 5AA), spread them to 4 different corners (beyond 20 yards), first kill off 2 Sentry. After that, we stand infront of Auriaya and DPS there. The Feral Defender tank will tank that thing on the side. While we fight, we must ensure we are infront, because once he fear, it will be too far for AoE heal. When Feral Defender start getting his 500% damage buff, we go and kill that thing off, he creates a void zone at the middle of no where and we continue.

Now the dangerous is people at the back by accident. If they get fear into the Void Zone, its like instant spike flail… you die.

Feral Defender is quite annoying, it randomly charges from time to time, especially if you are on top of the hate list. In the case for me, I was always getting randomly charged by the Feral Defender. I had to have deterrance up if I want to DPS really quick. I was holding back already :x the mage got stoneskin… I got… flesh :( not gewd.

I wanted to record it because… it looks so funny when we are good at it. We get fear (spread way the fuk out), then all cluster again. Its like a dance from bird-eye view XD. Well since we get Fear occasionally, it allows me to buy time for my Black Arrow to become available, with Explosive Shot. So yea, rocked the parser with flying colors XD. I also didn’t even have elixirs (knowing we probably going to wipe) and shitty bullets :D

Hodir in Ulduar – 25 Man Raid in WoW

Hodir was an interesting boss to date. This boss doesn’t really do anything threatening, but the environment is. If you take a look at the screenshot on the right, you see light from the ceiling. Those are buffs :D some buff healing, some buff damage, some buff speed. You don’t know until you step on it but hay :D 14653 on Heroic Ulduar Boss.. I don’t mind =)

It’s not really a hunter fight since we got to strafe… and when you are strafing, you don’t get the damage buff from Sniper Training. The reason we strafe is because… there are rocks/snow balls falling from the ceiling so we must avoid. On top of that, its an ice chamber, you get a debuff if you do not move call “Getting Frozen”. The longer you stand,the colder you get and more damage you take. So that itself, makes you keep moving. So you got to keep moving and avoid fallin rocks/snow.

To make matters worse, he does something call a Flash Freeze, where whoever is standing on the FLOOR of the ice chamber gets frozen for 5 minutes. It’s kinda like CoP last fight to get the Twilight from both edge of Garden of Ru’Hmet to prevent being petrify on the fight. So the way to prevent it is… when snow/rock falls from the ceiling, it leaves a pack of snow on the ground. Right after that patch of snow appears on the ground, you have to step on it to avoid the Flash Freeze. You see a warning before it hits the ground, but then you can’t get there early else you’d get smash by the snow and instant death (which I got hit once :x so embarrassing since I’m like “don’t wanna blow my own horn“, but a lot of DPS gone, next thing is you get laughed at by 24 other people on vent hehe). It’s still not bad topping the meter, but yea obviously I lose 5%. Regardless, again no elixir XD and no good bullets.. I’m a very cheap ass XD

Steelbreaker with Marksmanship! Still rocking the Meter!

Marksmanship in Testing!

Everyone know on WoW forum that Survival is the Spec to top the DPS (Note the Rogues). There are no doubts about that fact but … sometimes you got to think in a Raid environment. What can I do to improve the Raid as a whole. Well for me, I started testing a Marksmanship Spec on trash mobs for Ulduar 3.1 25 man Raid. It’s the same reason why people invite Bards to party. They are here to buff :D

For those that’s interested, here’s Mai pending Marksmanship Talent Spec.

Marksmanship got an aura.. that buffs 10% damage. Marksmanship isn’t as strong as Survival, but simply that AoE Aura is worth a second thought. For me, I’ve proven myself already in multiple months of my ability to pull top DPS. I spent a lot of time crunching the numbers, optimizing shot rotation and optimizing buttons to push as much damage as possible. Well now I took that to Marksmanship, a secondary spec that buffs the Raid’s DPS output by a kick ass 5-6% (mages don’t benefit). If you look at the screenshot on the right vs the top (Note the Rogues), you see a bunch of them got DPS increase, by a chunk :D

Whenever I see a boss that we might get cockblock due to lack of DPS, I usually go Marksmanship :D but yea if everything is smooth sail, then I’ll go Survival. It is more fun :D

Regarding drop… well the [Fragment of Val'anyr] dropped for us :O! This is like the RELIC of WoW. It’s really relic, much more rare than FFXI relic. No its not done :D you need to collect 30 pieces to make [Val'anyr, Hammer of Ancient Kings]. I’m pretty sure Etain is drooling over it.

Look at the effects: Your healing spells have a chance to cause Blessing of Ancient Kings for 15 seconds allowing your heals to shield the target absorbing damage equal to 15% of the amount healed.

Here are more details if you want to read. But as if all “dropped” relic, all of these relic/legendary weapon comes with a Drama Rating of +500 :D Even debating who gets to use it is Drama +500!

Fucking awesome, mini Stoneskin on every heal. Now THAT is a MAGE relic. I’d get this if this was the case in FFXI, but no SE Dev fails. Mythics Enhance Convert hahaha! GTFO XD

Taiwanese Guild Pwnt Mimiron with Achievement!

Azn Guild Kills Mimiron

Taiwanese guild beat Mimiron in Hard Mode with Self Destruct… amazing. Here’s the original article if your interested.

Really great achievement. These guys took it so hardcore :O The last boss of Ulduar is weird. Mimiron is like FFXI Pandemonium Warden, but instead of disappearing, it’s got a self-destruct ability that you can turn on :D Well this puts on some challenge XD (think of it as switching on or off meteor on AV).

Here’s the article on WoW Wiki on Mimiron… just look at the ability list.. holy fuk.. 4 phases. So much to plan, and so many places that could go wrong.

I saw the video and the fact that the Priest go eat a rocket manually, die with Spirit of Redemption to free heal 15sec, revive and heal again is just amazing. He did it the right time too :D Now that’s skills :D I also wish WHM in FFXI could do that. Once you die, you can free heal for 15sec as a spirit. This would for sure make WHM very unique. But no… :D

Anyway, that’s it for the WoW talks, I’ll post more as I get more fighting experience with Ulduar! Stay tuned XD

Cake in Progress! by P-Taru

I’m pretty fucking amazed in this year’s top prize. Although some might have a different opinion and preference. But lets say at least, #1 was really #1, and there was no 3ds Grass and Ram as 2nd.

#1 was kinda what SE likes to see… how I see it is, can this artwork be used on a Sound-Track cover or… Game Cover? Cake in Progress definitely would be one, if you guys remember the FFXI Piano Collection.. well yea that :D closely resembles this one :D!

Although most of the art was good, but some was pretty crap. I just think SE is also skewed to Japanese players. There was um… maybe 8-10 NA winners only, and the rest was JP. The only thing I’d complain is… yea if all 30 drawings were good cool, but some were complete crap, especially the last one and those stupid cards.

Also, how does FINAL FANTASY IX (9) even be consider a valid entry. It’s celebration FF9, not FFXI.. such a fail. But then SE loves JP right? XD!

I estimated the nationality of the artist by looking at their names on the JP PlayOnline. NA players name were mostly in-tact, with a few in Katakana. The rest is purely JP as you can probably see due to their Hiragana names, cross-reference with the NA PlayOnline to confirm.

But whatever it is, we’ll see when the rest comes out, to see if SE really already picked all the good stuff, or horrible stuff simply because they are JP. I really just wanna shoot JP’s.

I also liked the fact that SE don’t just pick cluster fuk art. Some doesn’t even have a focal point, but just randomly placing stuff around. So at least this year is… a little more on the style, content, foundation and overall balance of the drawing.

The result (at least the good ones), you can tell they were prepared panda. They didn’t rush it for sure :D!

Girl Power! by azjazo

Anyway, here’s a few favorite of mines :D (no particular order)

• Firelight by Laifierr (I like the idea, the focus being on the fire/warmth feeling of celebrating together, the lightning and it’s something I’d do to celebrate IRL)
• Sentimental Sky by Fumi (JP). Such a romantic night to celebrate the 7th year of FFXI together. The people at the back just brings out the atmosphere so well! I like the pose too :D!
• A Handful of Hope by Ori (JP).
• Girl Power by azjazo. I love this one A LOT :3 I mean the details on that thing is just pure amazing :D. This is like such a quality piece of art :D every pixel :D.
• Like the First Morning by Buranchi (JP). I can see this as being the game cover :D It’s just so well balanced. Looking at the picture draws a lot of memories about “adventuring together”.

The rest are okay, some are debatable :D but that’s it XD

It’s also on BG forum :D if you want to see the discussion. Yvonne (the OP) got the shaft :( not even the top 30. I thought it was good material but then SE loves JP right? XD

Speaking of art, check out the hand-made arts and crafts that WoW player do :D.

There has been quite a big buzz for what ElmerthePointy posted on his blog. Well… although most of the answers are pretty… expected. However, I bet you would not know how would a WoW player answers the similar question :) So yea, let me present you the WoW answers of Elmer’s questions.

Runway Show in Timbre Timber by Lurazeda

JP Question in WoW Style.

1. Do foreign players have a lot of interest in joining social Japanese (lets just say other languages’) Linkshells? (Especially ones with only JP members) I ask because when I recruit for my shell in Japanese, I get a lot of tells from foreigners looking to join. Personally, I feel like even if they could understand my /shout, it still would be hard to keep up with regular conversation. They wouldn?t understand pop-culture references to old TV shows, for instance.

In WoW, any language used other than English gets yelled at. You’d hear “This is WoW and there’s only English kthx”. Or you’d shortly hear “Reported”. WoW can’t put up with other cultures unlike FFXI. You try anything over trade or general channel that is not English, you will get yelled at by the kiddies ;D

However, I do reside and live in an Asian linkshell. All of us are mostly from Toronto/near Toronto, but during raids, we use English as the commanding language, even though we all have our Asian ascents. We have Canadians/American that is English only so… it only makes sense to speak in English. We worked well together but… if its not within the guild, it better be in English.

However Lazy & Sleepy Taru such as this one should be replaced!

2. Parties that cycle in replacement members seem to be popular amongst foreigners, but a lot of times the party will just disband once the replacement arrives. Of course, there are times when the replacement is contacted before they get all the way there, but there are many instances when no one says anything. There are also many cases where inappropriate jobs are invited and the party can no longer function well.

You think member cycling is bad in FFXI (which I do not think it is at all), try WoW. People leave with merely 15second notice. 15sec? Yea just enough to type you a goodbye and Warp Cudgel. It is completely okay in WoW to ninja leave like that (and shit part is some people leave after they got their loot from 1st boss out of the 4). It happens SO OFTEN that you get used to it. However, that is why all instance have summoning stone, so people can be warped to the instance in a matter of seconds. There are also remote summoning too so… you can summon people right beside you, right now! Yea as much as people leave with 15sec warning, we also have fast summoning so to most WoW players, it is nothing but a party member died and need a raise/rest. Or lets just say, we will be up and running faster than waiting for someone’s sickness to wear off.

NA seems like a FAIL to JP!

3. Why does it seem like many foreign players (NA Players) do not bother to bring medicines and potions to Missions and BCs? Many Japanese players make sure to have Vile Elixirs, Hi-Potions and/or Reraise Earrings.

No one does it in WoW too. Guilds like mines even say, if you do not bring Flasks (Battle Elixir, Guardian Elixir) or Food, no loot! I guess it is just a natural tenancy for NA players to not bring shit. We are just all lazy mother fukers. I bring standard equipments like ARROWS, FOOD FLASK to RAIDS! but no I am not going to bring 15sec Speed Pump Elixirs, expensive Mana Potion for laughs and giggles (I bring the cheap ones, cheap bullets etc). I do not bring or carry Elixirs either in FFXI. When do I need them? Soloing! Other then that.. no thanks. What I save is mines :) I am with Kimiko here :D

4. Does not apply.

5. How many NA and EU players do Campaign (Quest for Rewards/Daily)? Any thoughts about the recent nerf to Fortifications?

Campaign is the latest “soloing” event where you can actually be any Job to go get some exp by yourselves without commitment to parties. We have that all over wow, in fact, we “campaign” from lv1 to 80 :o so no, if we see people using a camp, we’d do something else… well at least I would do something else and come back later. Campaign is a little different since it doesn’t continuous supply mobs. :D

Maiev is all about the looks and fashion! WoW Equip Look Sucks!

6. What equipment do you think has great stats but horrible looks? What equipment do you think has the best graphics?

Equipment is not as pretty as FFXI, so no I do not keep shit for shits and giggles. Nor do any WoW player goes for looks. However, I do go all the way for LOOKS in FFXI :) I got everything I wanted (well mostly), so I started hunting stuff for looks.. then next thing… the whole LS follows. As you all might notice, my favorite one is Nashira set :)

7. Outside of your normal party gear, is there any equipment that you go out of your way to get strictly for looks? What are your favorite pieces of casual equipment?

In FFXI, looks is yea.. body piece, head piece, legs and feet. You might put on something more HQ if you get checked in town but yea.. I do :) Nashira Manteel XD

In WoW, armor looks like crap (well, they tried to improve it recently with HQ dats) but still looks… not as great. So.. no not much people go into wearing it for looks. It is not like the Alliance can check Horde anyway. WoW is all about stats, so you better wear some good shit around. You want to show off? Just get a good flying mount. It is like… driving a BMW but in WoW.

8. I am a Mithra, and I find that a lot of foreigners seem to be into Mithra fashion. They examine me and ask where I got my equipment and such. Do you think male players enjoy dressing up their Mithra in cute outfits?

Lets just say Blizzard knows about it too :D I play a BE Female Hunter too… well put it even more simple. Just watch the video on the right :D

9. I wonder if you calculate the XP/hr of parties, and if so, do you think that Skillchain/Magic Burst or Weapon skill spam produces the best results? Before parsing became widespread, Japanese players used to think Skillchain/Magic Burst was the best.

I will jump back to FFXI for this part. I honestly loved the Skillchain/MB system that they have created back then. It was so horrible how they destroyed it with merits. Before, people would report TP, wait for TP and do WS, timed a magic burst to maximize damage for Fafnir or Sky Parties. Now… its all TP burn, reduce interaction and makes the game so easily played. Back then.. equipment selection and SKILLS comes hand in hand to execute everything right! You got to stand up and nuke when they do WS, time your rest etc. Now.. no skills at all… TP , swap equipment (which is not really a skill), WS, swap back and Exp.

I honestly hated today’s Exp system. They made exping easier, but took the FUN out of exping. Constantly scoring Chain 6 on Ullikummi camp was a challenge back then… now its like… a walk in the park. That is one thing I miss about FFXI, the old-school exping. Now, its exping with John Doe. You do not even need to talk anymore. You just.. do your own stuff.

WoW’s New LFP System! Rather Dummy Proof!

10. How come it seems like so many people do not utilize Search Comments properly? Why don?t they write their camp location for others to see? Also, it?s strange to see so many people seeking without basic information written like available jobs and where they can access. Don?t you want an invite?

I do not know… but see in FF, you only do merits. What else would you write in there other than the obvious one. If I am a Samurai, I am obviously a DD. If I am a RDM, I am obviously a healer. I guess ya, you see melee RDM’s and Tanking Samurai’s :D. Even with full parry, I would not go tank. Let the CD manufacturer make CD, Let the CD Case maker makes CD Case, and everyone gains in specialization and synergy. So if its so obvious… why do we write comments? Well I guess.. idiot proof. If you are writing because “I do not have this area’s access” in your exp comment, then maybe… work on it? WTF :x

That means I have 5000 AP, probably Naxxramax + gear, unbuffed means I am not cheating those AP bonuses, and 38% crit is just to show my gear is not all socked with AP gems, hence the 5000 AP. I actually also have high crit, meaning it must have been a ton of AGI gear.

11. If you know you are going to be busy, how come you don?t alert people at the beginning of the party instead of surprising everyone at the last minute?

I hate that when I see that, but then as explained above, in WoW it is completely OK. With summoning stone, everybody does it. It is completely normal to give as short as 15sec notice before you leave. Put it this way, even my friend Jayashaya who used to play on FFXI now in WoW pulled that on me.

I’d like to tell everyone this is just a game and take it easy, but then hay its a party (a pretty big e/virtual commitment), its for people who got the time and commitment to do so. If you do not then yea, please do not come budge in if you got 3 minutes. Honestly it is annoying. Both in FFXI and in WoW.

THANKS FOR GROUP!

12, Honestly, the largest difference in thinking between Japanese and foreign players exists in the Merit party. You often say 5 DDs and a RDM is so good, but having a single, solitary healer is hard on the RDM. Japanese realize that healers can be in short supply, so we make sacrifices to lighten their burden, like subbing a mage job, or using Utsusemi. I feel like many people don?t show proper respect to healers.

I as a healer, yea… I do not know because I have always single-healed parties in any difficulty, I do not know how it is really like to heal without the I guess… decent equipment. However, do what you do best. If you are a good DD, go as full DD. If you are healer, focus on healing. Do not try to meet half way :x because I do not think a CD manufacturer who are good in making CD cases are also good with singing and recording. Let the person do what they do best and not cross each others line. It makes distributing responsibilities easier!

Anyway, healing in FFXI never got the fun or respect too in my opinion… you would never get a “Thank You” even though as a healer, your constantly working. Falling asleep = dead party. Whereas if a DD fell asleep, well it is only less DD but the party would not die. Healing in FFXI is also not as fun.. in comparison to WoW. Although WoW could be easier, its more fun because the environment plays with you.

So yea that is my 2c. Time for sleep and finish up Kimiko’s code cleaning :3