Well, MogCompy is down… and so is the MogTop. D:  The only thing I have to work with right now with FFXI is my Xbox 360 and I’m pretty much using my Dad’s compy for internet access.  Hopefully the parts for my computer arrive soon.  I’m not really sure what I can do about my laptop at this moment since it is no longer under warranty.

This sucks, it really sucks D:  Hopefully my Xbox doesn’t RRoD or anything like that.  I don’t have much to report otherwise, mainly because I’ve been so busy with many things that I can’t hope to ever write down on this blog. D:  So many things, so so many things.

Anyways, I hope all of you guys enjoy the rest of your Holidays and stuff. :3  Keep it easy~

So, Allakhazam is holding the Allakhazam 2008 Player of the Year and JP Button’s own Elmerthepointy is a candidate.  :3  So I figure that I bring this to my blog reader’s attentions and give him a bit of support.

Now, who is Elmer?  Well, you might recognize Elmer from the BG forums or even his blogsite JP Button.  Along with being involved in translating various interviews and various interesting articles about FFXI, he also did the live coverage for Vana’fest 2008. :3  Neato~

But anyways, just tossing a mention here~  If you can, please vote for Elmer, he is going under the name of CactuarSensei.  The thread can be found here: http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=10;mid=1229981688237466240;num=71;page=1;viewresults=1

Well… I’m gonna the power supply is borked, considering that the computer won’t start up and I couldn’t find an electrical short anywhere.  So right now, I’m on the MogTop until my order gets processed at this one place so I can drive by and pick it up.

But anyways, my PLD has seen some significant upgrades lately.  I still need to get me a Terror Shield and a new head upgrade.  Hopefully that silly Turtle and that silly Bahamut drops it soon. T_T;  Though on that note: I kinda left my SAM/WAR/MNK a bit on the backburner, mainly because there’s only so many things I need to get for them to further improve them.

For my SAM, getting a Hauby +1 would be my next step and then fill in the rest of the blanks (I still don’t have an Alky… or a flame ring @_@  I should work on that).

For my MNK, I need a black belt D: and a faith torque.  I would focus on black belt but I have other priorities I want to concentrate on (mainly PLD stuff) before I take a step towards getting black belt items.

For my WAR… there’s actually quite a bit of things I need to get for it and it will probably be my next focus upon completing my PLD gear.  I’m just a bit meh over the fact that I have 4 Great Axe skill for it and can’t get any more than that due to merit limitations.  Some say it’s kind of a waste, I say… :3

So, I can either buy a bunch of stuff for my SAM/WAR or concentrate on long term for PLD.  “Long term on PLD?” 

There’s 3 major items (that just happens to cost a lot of gil) that I want to concentrate on after everything is all said and done (when I have nothing better to get).  Those 3 items are: Ares’s Body, Aegis and Burtgang.  I’ll have some sort of plan for them once I get to it.  Until then, gotta work on the rest of the stuff first before I even consider it, not to mention build up enough skill and experience to make use of these things.  I still feel as though I still have some refinement with my macros and my own skill.  :3  It’s an ever constant struggle to be the best~

Well, I might be a few hours late but…. Merry Christmas everyone. :3  Hope you had a great Christmas day and well, I hope you have a nice day after that too… and the day after that… and the day after that… etc etc ^^;

Eh, why not?  I’ll go with Elmer’s evil plan~

What is 「10大ニュース」？

10大ニュース (juu dai nyuusu), is literally a list of 10 big(大) bits of news(ニュース) or events that have happened to you over the past year.

In Japan, the end of the year is filled with parties and drinking, much more so than the beginning of a new one. As the next year fast approaches, people will hold a 忘年会 (bou-nen-kai) , or a gathering (会) to forget (忘) the current year (年). This is accomplished through copious amounts of alcohol, and often times, the telling of one’s 10大ニュース. It’s like a personal Top-10 list.

This list can contain any 10 events that you feel have affected you deeply, most often in a positive way. As we all close another year here on Earth, (and thus another 25 years in Vana’diel), I felt it would be fun to combine a little bit of Japanese culture with the community’s penchant for touting in-game accomplishments. Everyone likes sharing their success, so here’s a perfect chance!

Here’s an example of what a list might look like:

You can include equipment you’ve gotten:

10. Acquired Dancer AF Attire

9. Completed all Automaton attachments

You can include things that were special to you.

8. Got promoted to Sackholder in my LS

7. Convinced my friend to sign up for the game

Maybe you conquered some personal challenges, however big or small.

6. Beat all the Level-20 Avatar quests

5. Solo’d all my Scholar Artifact quests

Perhaps endgame is more your thing.

4. Completed Relic Weapon: Claustrum

Or e-peen.

3. SOLO tanked Cerb against ally of DD’s

The more creative of you out there could write from your character’s point of view.

2. Teamed up with Lilisette to catch Cait Sith

And game-related stuff is okay too

1. Opened a new website and received amazing support from the best MMO community in the world.

Well… for Moggie… lets see…

10. Got two of my jobs to level 75 (BLM and MNK)

9. Completed my PLD AF2 ^^

8. Cleared Dynamis - Xarcabard

7. Got an Ace’s Helm so Moggie can go Robo Mog

6. Got Askar Korazin too!

5. And a Valhalla Helm too!  I look almost like Mini-Odin!

4. And even a bunch of load of Usukane pieces, still 4/5 but getting there!

3. Attended Fan Fest and met all the cool peeps~

2. Helped take part in creating an awesome new LS in Carbuncle. :3

and finally… but definitely not least… in fact, it’s probably the biggest piece out of the entire post~

1. Finally meeting Liseth in real life after 2 years. :3  Happiest weekend of my life.

SO….

What’s your 10大ニュース？

And visit JP Button for all your international FFXI needs~

Oh and I should probably toss this in… D:

Pingback your forum or blog below!

This is a fun activity I would like to spread across the various forum communities and blogs related to Final Fantasy XI. There’s no contest or prize involved, but I thought it would be interesting to see the kinds of accomplishments that are important to each set of players. To kick of the idea, I posted on the “Big Three” as it were, but I don’t want to exclude any of the other communities out there!

If you want to run this thread on your forum or blog, just make a New Thread or blog post, copy/paste this explanation from JPButton (CLICK THIS LINK), and then Pingback/Trackback the page. A link to your forum will appear, and I will manually add it to the list of all forums and blogs participating. Other visitors can then check out your list, and the lists of your forum-goers.

Anyone can participate: big forum communities, Linkshell forums, personal blogs… just Pingback and you’re added! If you can’t Pingback, you can e-mail me at elmer@jpbutton.com and ask to be added manually.

Sometime in 2005: Moggie got Valor Leggings.
Also sometime in 2005: Moggie got Valor Gauntlets.
Sometime in 2006: Moggie got Valor Gauntlets +1.
Sometime in 2007: Moggie got Valor Coronet.
On Dec 22nd, 2008: Moggie got both Valor Breeches and Valor Surcoat on the same Dynamis - Tavnazia Run.

Life is good.

Okay, after napping all early and waking up in the middle of the night… time to compile a list. D:

This is what I need for PLD.

AH-Able Items:

Lamian Kaman (+1 if I had the gil to spare)
Cassie Earring (Full Time)
Bloodbead Earring (or Pigeon +1) (Also Full Time, switching in Ethereal for /WAR)
Ruby Earrings (Fire Set… and that’s if I can find them on the AH)
Bastokan Harness (Fire Set)
Tarasque Mitts (Fire Set)
Blitz Ring
Gigant Mantle
Materials for Ares Body (12 Imp. Wootz Ingots… oi)

NM/HNM (Or basically stuff I can’t get off the AH or better of not getting it from the AH) Drop Items:

Terror Shield
Bahamut Mask
Loquacious Earring (Shadow Casting)
Jelly Ring (I never got one @_@  Not sure why)
Bloodbead Ring
Koenig Cuirass (Mainly for /WAR for Dynamis + ohshi-)
Valhalla Body (Same as Koenig, though I’d take this over M Body)
Valor Surcoat
Valor Cape
Hauteclaire (/WAR)
Cerberus Bow (Fire Set)
Buburimu Gorget (Fire Set)
Water Belt (Fire Set)
Malflame Ring (Fire Set)

Okay…. I can probably increase the list or shorten it down but lets try to make sense of all this~

Fire Set Items:
All of these items are simply for Tiamat or KS99 Wyrm.  For the most part, it’s very situational as to when I need it but when I do need it, it helps a ton.

The HP Items:
From what I can understand, CE lost from damage is percentage based off of your max HP.  So, the PLD with lower HP would lose more hate compared to a higher HP PLD if they both took the same amount of damage.  For the most part, adding more HP helps me in two ways: It diminishes the amount of enmity lost due to getting hit and gives me enough buffer to stay alive.  Having HP gear also opens more possibilities of building more CE overtime when “nothing” is going on during the tanking process.  This happens a lot for PLDs because all we really consistantly have on /NIN is Flash.  Curing people would depending on them lacking the HP, which may or may not happen depending on how smooth the fight is.  So some of these things would be geared towards giving me some empty HP to cure myself with.  Neato~

Ares Body:
Ares Body for PLD is really just there for Refresh while idling.  I mean it’s also nice for my WAR but uh… :3  I think I’d rather have Ebody for WAR.  But anyways, back to PLD~  It would really just be an idle piece for me or in some situation where I need MP back.

Blitz Ring:
You know…. I don’t need this… but heck, 1% Haste for 300k (this is used to be like 1k back then) is just gonna help me more for Flash/Shadows.

Random small amounts of enmity:
It basically adds up.  D:  Nothing much to say there.

/WAR items:
These are all here just to make my life easier in Dynamis and Einherjar.  Though I heard of PLDs using other subjobs in Einherjar… but I haven’t read much into that one.  Maybe having all this damage down stuff will help with that.

Okay, starting to feel a little woozy~  Gonna nap it up now~

Let it be clear: The official title is “Dissidia Final Fantasy” not “Final Fantasy Dissidia” or what not D:

After playing the game for awhile, I can say that I am impressed, very impressed actually.  After such a long line of SE non-RPG games and most of them being fairly meh at best (except for Einhinder, remember that one?), it is surprising that such a game like this… is good, if not great.

For those who don’t know, Dissidia Final Fantasy is, for the most part, a fighting game of the action variety.  The game play might remind you of something like Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi.  Now note, I don’t like Budokai Tenkaichi at all.  Dissidia basically took Budokai Tenkaichi and made it better and even slapped a fresh battle system on top of that.  But anyways, Dissidia features 10 “hero” characters, 10 “villian” characters and at least 2 bonus characters, one of which you may know: Shantotto.  There is a story behind all this but I have the Japanese version so I have no idea what is really going on! :D  I just know how the basic fighting engine works.

That way that Dissidia’s battle system works is that you have your typical HP thing, just like all Final Fantasy games.  You also have a number unit called Brave.  You also have two types of attacks: the slow attacks which does HP damage and quick combo attacks that does Brave damage while increasing your own Brave.  The amount of damage that you do is based mainly on how much Brave you have.  The idea is: hit your opponent with quick attacks and get as much Brave as you can and then unleash it on your opponent.  This system, though it may sound complicated, actually gives both players a bit of uneasiness.  There is really no “safe” situation where you are guaranteed the win.  You may be at 1 HP but if you have a lot of Brave, you can one-shot your opponent.  You also may have a lot of Brave on you but if you can’t land a hit, you will eventually lose it or be defeated.  The game is really a matter of finding an opening and doing as much damage when you find it.

The characters in the game can be leveled up just like an RPG.  As you keep playing, the character will start developing more skills, become stronger and overall, very customizable.  You can make the characters  fit your own playstyle or many playstyles as the game lets you save multiple configurations with each character.  You can only take so many abilities in battle with you at a time so you don’t end up with everything in the book that you can throw at your opponent.  Finding the right combo that works with you and your own skill is the key to winning.  Each character in the game are diverse in what they can do.  For example: Terra (or Tina as she is known in JP) plays mostly keep away with her magic spells and lacks close up melee attacks.  Cloud is mostly a character that hit hards but leaves himself wide open to attacks so one would need to be careful in throwing out his attacks.  Unfortunately, like every fighting game out there, there are certain characters that are easier or harder to win with even if they’re leveled up.  Certain characters do feel a bit unbalanced and can get overwhelmed by certain others.

Aside from the actual battle, there are some nice features presented.  There is a story mode… I don’t understand it but… it’s there and some of the cutscenes are very well done, voice actors and everything.  There are a few unlockables to be attained in story mode such as unlocking Replay mode and Shantotto.  The story mode is divided into 10 paths, representing each Final Fantasy hero.  As you do these stories, your character will level up.  Unfortunately, the villian characters do not get a story path.

The replay function, once unlocked, gives a nice feature with it… you can take your replay data and record it into AVI format.  D:  This allows you to save awesome battles and upload them to something like YouTube.  The quality of it? D:  I guess see for yourself~  Here’s me (as Sephy… don’t throw tomatos at me) fighting Squall:

:3 Nifty~

The game can be pretty hard sometimes and unlike most of the newer fighting games, one small mistake can decide the outcome of the match.  This being said, comebacks are definitely possible and both players can equal out the playing field with some smart playing.  While the game can be fairly simple to play, the AI can be very unforgiving and it will teach you how deep the game can get.  There is also local multiplayer and even lets you use that new PS3 tunneling thingy for some distance fighting.

D: I just hope the American version comes out fairly soon, this one is definitely a buyer and I’d recommend it to anyone, even if they’re not an FF fan.

Okay… fire rig set, in case I need to face Tiamat or something. @_@;  LETS GO~

Weapon/Shield: So far, the only cheap thing I can think of is to slap a water staff on me and call it even.  I can push +3- if I had Hrotti/Numinous Shield +1.  There aren’t any other good one handed fire-resist weapon out there other than that Hrotti and with all these maintenances, Faffy has been hard to get. @_@;  Lets go with water staff (15)

Ranged: Cerberus Bow… our bank does have a few claws sitting around! D: But lets skip this for now.

Head: A green ribbon +1 would works well! (10)

Neck: I guess a Buburimu Gorget, I gets to camp somethin! (10)

Earring: Oh man.. my eyes hurt @_@  I’ll get back to this one later. (??)

Body: There doesn’t seem to be many good options so I’ll stick to Legionnaire’s Harness. (5)

Hands: Not many good options here… Tarasque mitts? (5)

Rings: Malflame for one… What about the other? (10+?)

Back: Cerberus Mantle :3  Got it and set! (10)

Waist: Time to pay a visit to Leviathan for Water Belt. (20)

Legs: W. Legs set! (20)

Feet: Power Sandals would be it, don’t even need to complete that quest at all X3 (7)

Altogether, that’s… 87 Fire Resist… @_@ Doesn’t that seem a little bit too small?  I must be forgetting something… Someone check my math!

:3

PLD has been that job that I always come back to whenever it is needed but at the same time, always a job that I somehow overthink things a bit too much.  One time I was stuck in a mode where I was like “okay, if I give myself a crap ton of haste, maybe it’ll make up for the lack of enmity in replacement for those haste items.”

By this time, I decided to go through my gear sets and my macros… and finally end up realizing that I should stop overthinking, go with the general flow of how shit works and make my PLD actually a bit more serious than it was.  SO… how will Moggie go about this?  Well, lets think this through~

First off, weapons and shields:

The Macuahuitl +1 (or Enmity Paddle) is pretty much the staple for PLD.  There’s also the Hauteclaire, which is good for /WAR purposes.  There’s always the Burtgang but uh… that will take awhile. :3

Shields range from Koenig Shield, Wivre Shield, and Terror Shield.  Koenig has the least amount of enmity (3) but is rather nice for tanking stuff like Cerberus (and I think Khimaira?).  Wivre Shield has the most enmity (5) while Terror Shiled is in the middle with 4 Enmity but has +20 HP.  Terror Shield is probably the prefered choice (heck, it even has stuff for Campaign!)

The Head pieces I have are Aegisdealie, Odin Head, and Walmart Turban.  The Aegis head (hopefully Bahamut Mask soon) is purely an enmity piece but hell… it’s a great piece!  Odin Head is one of those things I’d just walk around town with… but not only that, it’s good for stuff like Dynamis and things where hate isn’t so much of a huge issue.  Walmart Turban is when I need the haste for /NIN or need to pull out spells faster.

Neck pieces are all over the place for me but I grinded it down to 3: Shield Torque, Ritter Gorget and Parade Gorget, all swapped in in appropriate times.  Shield Torque I use when I cast Ichi primarily.  I have Parade Gorget full time and really only shove Ritter Gorget for abilities.

Earpieces I need to fix up a bit.  I have a NQ Pidgeon Earring and an Ethereal Earring :(  Help me out!  Need suggestions~

Body… oi… Valor Surcoat is your Bread and Butter body piece.  Ares Body is the perfect idling body (but that costs quite a bit of gil and some Salvaging) because of the refresh… otherwise, I can’t think of anything else here… well, aside from that Hydra dealie.

Hands I has Homam… I think that’s it. lol

Rings… kinda need a bit of guidance here.  I do have Herc, I do have a BQR, I need a Jelly and I think I’m missing something here…

Cape I have Cerberus Mantle, I still take a HBM with me and just use Cerb when I die prematurely or something.

Belt I have a Trance Belt and a Swift Belt.  Nifty!

Legs I have W Legs and Homam

Feet I have AF1+1, AF2 and Askar Feet

Now the question is… what else can I get to really amp up my PLD? D:  Is it more complete than I thought it was?  X3  Maybe I’ll sit on it for a little bit more.

All right, for the most part we can say that Brenner and Ballista aren’t exactly the most popular of events that exist in FFXI.  There are a multitude of reasons why they didn’t take off:

1. The time period to do both events are so sporatic that no one even knows when the heck those battles are going on.
2. The game was built around PvE (Player vs Environment) rather than PvP.
3. There was no incentive to do these things.  The rewards are just meh~
4. It’s not even fun sometimes when someone’s doing it wrong.
5. The rules were too confusing for a casual player to just sit down and play.
6. Certain jobs were too overpowered compared to others when dealing with 1v1 battles.

The reason why PvP tends to work well in other games usually revolves around the fact that:

1. It’s mindless yet it has a depth to it for those that wish to achieve it
2. There are some nice rewards given to players for constantly doing PvP
3. Even though jobs were overpowered, there was enough in the PvP battle going on that their strong points can be shattered by something that exists in there.
4. Having one person fuck something up doesn’t screw up the entire team drastically.
5. PvP occurred constantly and has a large amount of people partaking in it.

With all this in mind, lets take a look at some of my weird ass PvP ideas D:

1. “Duel” System

All right all right, before you FFXI purists jump at me again (I has a can of Raid this time), lets actually take a good serious look at dueling.  In other MMORPGs, you can initiate a 1 vs. 1 battle against someone but usually it must be to the consent of both players, kinda like offering a trade to someone.  Now, first thing you’re probably thinking of is “what about the balance?  Obviously there are some overpowered things for certain jobs.”  Well, there are a few adjustments that have already been made to the PvP aspect of the game but some of those adjustments don’t reflect short term battles (ex. Resistance towards certain debuffs).

A few exclusive rules would need to be in order just for duels.  We want duels to be fast, fun for both participants and at best, just to be novelty and doesn’t break existing game elements.  So if I were to make a duel system that is really just for shits and giggles, I would have it as so…

- Players must initiate a duel request in order to partake in a duel.  If both players consent to a duel, a duel battle will start.
- In a duel battle, no other outside PCs  (including party or alliance) will be able to interact with the duel.  Players partaking in the duel will no longer see any outside PCs until the duel is over.
- Duels can only take place in towns or outside areas (no dungeons).  The reasoning behind this is because it’s a huge matter of what can happen going in and out of duels that could be exploited and abused.
- Duels will automatically break if a monster aggros a player, the party that he is currently in (if he happens to be in one), or if an AoE hits the player.  Players will need to keep this in mind before dueling.
- Duels can be initiated at any % of HP or MP that either player has but none will be restored at the start or end of the duel.  Players should consider this before starting a duel.
- The player that is slain in a duel will be given an automatic reraise but no XP will be lost.  However, just like normal, they will be inflicted with weakness and cannot duel again until weakness wears off.  But, if the duel took place in a city/town area, no weakness effect will be given.
- If a player distances themselves 30+, the duel is automatically over.
- Both players will be immune to the following debuffs: Bind/Weight/Sleep (Remember, we want these things to be short)
- The following abilities will be banned: All 2hrs, Flee… I think that’s it D:
- The following spells will be banned: Any teleportation type spell~
- Spell interuption rate will be drastically lowered to the point that it would be a lot more reliable to throw out a Stun rather than interupting it with damage.
- Because of how FFXI handles targets, gear swapping will not be allowed.

D: On the next episode of “I Am MogKnight, I Am Awesome”, we’ll be talking about another PvP system he has stuck in his head… @_@;