One more quick note to throw in: in July, I posted a tally of a total of 179 spent merit points, which is pretty respectable. Since then I have added the following notches in my belt:
Enmity Down: from 3/4 to 4/4 (4 merits)
Enfeebling Magic: from 6/8 to 8/8 (8 merits)
Minuet Effect: from 0/5 to 4/5 (10 merits)
For those paying attention, this means that A) apart from useless combat skill merits, my SCH is fully, 100% merited (until Sept at least), with 8/8 MP, 5/5 INT, 4/4 Enmity Down, 8/8 Elemental Magic, and 8/8 Enfeebling Magic, and B) having spent 22 more merits on top of the 179 I'd previously spent, I've now surpassed the 200 merit mark and am sitting comfortably on 201.
For those keeping track, that means that I have earned over 2 MILLION MERIT POINTS!
(holy shit is that a lot of dead birds)
I should note that these numbers are nothing extraordinary for a good endgame player, as most will have their generic shit maxed out and have even more merits sunk into category 2 stuff. Still, that's a lot of fucking dead birds.
By the Sept update I should be situated nicely in Wisconsin and playing regularly, meaning that after I blow my initial 10 on whatever's useful, the following 20 that I'll want to spend right away should come relatively quickly (assuming the optimal SCH merit path will be to cap out two categories at 5/5, as is usually the case).
Here's hoping the SCH merits won't be totally lame.
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Up diggity date
So it appears to be time for what's rapidly becoming a once-a-month update on my goings-on in Vana'diel. I've been lax about documenting my progress for a few reasons, first of which being that for most of last month I wasn't playing much: I was focusing back on Poker; and this month I've been focusing on my move. I'm moving from Kansas to Wisconsin in under a week, and will be renting a room from my friend Brian, Andraana in game. He and I have been close friends for maybe 6 years, been playing FFXI together since its NA release (I credit the game with our keeping in touch after I moved to Texas), and with my career change bringing added flexibility I see no need to remain in an area of the country that I hate and where I know nobody.
As for what I've been up to in-game, the one event I've been unfailingly attending has been Einherjar, including four Odin kills, the most of any linkshell on Asura. This built me up enough ampoules to get me a shiny new ring:
That was cool enough, and I had to update my macros.
Then my dedicated participation in Nyzul Isle assaults finally paid dividends and I gained some fancy new footwear:
Seriously the best nuking piece both for my SCH and my BLM. Additional INT, added mAcc, and even hMP as well. I had to update my macros quite a bit.
Not long after, Remedy ended its long boycott of Dark Ixion fighting in order to claim and kill its first My Little Pony. We got its cloak and dagger, and amazingly I was the only person to send in a tell, earning me a fancy new body piece:
This sacrifices 1 INT from my normal nuking set on SCH but the +5 mAcc is more than a sufficient trade-off. I won't put up quite the gratuitous numbers on puddings that I used to (although I'm considering creating a special puddings-only macro set that just maximizes INT). This is also *by far* my best piece for light magic enfeebles (+3 MND and +5mAcc over my old set).
Unfortunately I also spent a shitload of remedy points on it, putting me way way down on the list for my #1 coveted item, the Novio Earring, but I was already way down on that list.
Hilariously enough, I mused for a while that the Ixion Cloak would likely be my best body piece in Thou-Shalt-Land-Elegy spots, and indeed it was for a time being. Then, on our most recent Odin kill, which happened to be last night, a Hadean Abjuration: Body was one of the dorps. Surprisingly, everyone on the list for it was absent, and so it went to auction. It's a 100 point item, and the bidding started at 5 and progressed at intervals of 5 until 30. I was like, ffs, it's not going to go that low, so I popped it to 50. Someone else bid 55, and I went to 60, and he decided to let me have it.
So, 70k (lol omg cheap!) worth of synth materials later and I have a shiny new BRD piece!
I *believe* this is only the 3rd Shadow Coat on the server, and that all three are in our linkshell (Artaxerxes and Xave being #1 and #2). Only one other linkshell has killed Odin on Asura (SpawnMoreOverlords, a conglomeration of mostly SuperMarioLand people with some outsiders); they have 3 kills and I don't believe they've ever gotten an H. Body to drop.
The only downside of this point spending spree is that I'm now way the fuck back to Tier 8, with only 131 points. The only item that I currently badly want that will cost remedy points, though, is the aforementioned Novio, which is a long ways away in any case. Asuraka got the last one, and he doesn't even have BLM or SCH, lol, though his obvious motive for nabbing it is to sell it and help fund his relic, which he inches ever more closely towards.
I'm now left pondering what to do with my Manteel. I've had it for a very long time now, and it has a certain sentimental value, but with them selling for 4.xM, it's hard to justify holding onto it when its CHR boost is something I'm never really going to use. The -12% song casting time is still sexy as hell, though.
Nevertheless my SCH is definitely pimped out now, just in time for the Sept update which promises Tier 1 merits. I'm currently 9/10, and the last 6000 merit points shouldn't be hard to get. Being able to pop one merit group immediately up to level 4 should hopefully fast-track my SCH pimpage. After that (assuming the correct path will be level 5 in two groups, worst-cast), it's only 20 more merits until my SCH is back to being fully pimped out.
On my list of items remaining to complete SCH pimpage:
1) Novio Earring, for pimping MAB.
2) Either Ixion Cape or Gleeman's Cape, +1 INT over my Prism.
3) Morgana's Choker, to tweak my MaxMP set by pumping me up an add'l 20MP.
4) Goliard Cuffs, sacrificing 1MAB from my Vicious Mufflers for 4mAcc
5) Prudence Torque, my best max damage neck piece when my UggaPendant latent isn't active.
6) Full set of elemental grips (currently I only have LoLEarth)
7 My last 3 remaining obis (Wind, Fire, Water)
8) Morgana's Cotehardie, despite the -8mAcc should be my best body for puddings
9) Goliard Trews, for -Enm while healing
10) Goliard Saio, my best MaxMP body piece as well as Conserve MP and -Enm for healing
11) Avocat Pigaches, a 20% drop from ZNM Iriz Ima (which I can solo), +Enf skill on boots.
12) Relaxing Earring, for hMP.
13) Loquacious Earring, for my MAxMP set, and for Fast Cast cures.
What's best about this list is that everything out of the top 5 is pretty nitpicky, and that #2-#4 are givens, just a matter of amassing ampoules and doing Nyzul.
I'm also looking at the possibility of amassing a -enmity set, given a renewed appreciation of the importance of -enmity gear when functioning as a healer (particularly when we don't have Cure V) which in turn is a result of a lot of the good work done by Kaeko and Ashira in determining the exact mechanics of enmity in FFXI.
As for what I've been up to in-game, the one event I've been unfailingly attending has been Einherjar, including four Odin kills, the most of any linkshell on Asura. This built me up enough ampoules to get me a shiny new ring:
That was cool enough, and I had to update my macros.
Then my dedicated participation in Nyzul Isle assaults finally paid dividends and I gained some fancy new footwear:
Seriously the best nuking piece both for my SCH and my BLM. Additional INT, added mAcc, and even hMP as well. I had to update my macros quite a bit.
Not long after, Remedy ended its long boycott of Dark Ixion fighting in order to claim and kill its first My Little Pony. We got its cloak and dagger, and amazingly I was the only person to send in a tell, earning me a fancy new body piece:
This sacrifices 1 INT from my normal nuking set on SCH but the +5 mAcc is more than a sufficient trade-off. I won't put up quite the gratuitous numbers on puddings that I used to (although I'm considering creating a special puddings-only macro set that just maximizes INT). This is also *by far* my best piece for light magic enfeebles (+3 MND and +5mAcc over my old set).
Unfortunately I also spent a shitload of remedy points on it, putting me way way down on the list for my #1 coveted item, the Novio Earring, but I was already way down on that list.
Hilariously enough, I mused for a while that the Ixion Cloak would likely be my best body piece in Thou-Shalt-Land-Elegy spots, and indeed it was for a time being. Then, on our most recent Odin kill, which happened to be last night, a Hadean Abjuration: Body was one of the dorps. Surprisingly, everyone on the list for it was absent, and so it went to auction. It's a 100 point item, and the bidding started at 5 and progressed at intervals of 5 until 30. I was like, ffs, it's not going to go that low, so I popped it to 50. Someone else bid 55, and I went to 60, and he decided to let me have it.
So, 70k (lol omg cheap!) worth of synth materials later and I have a shiny new BRD piece!
I *believe* this is only the 3rd Shadow Coat on the server, and that all three are in our linkshell (Artaxerxes and Xave being #1 and #2). Only one other linkshell has killed Odin on Asura (SpawnMoreOverlords, a conglomeration of mostly SuperMarioLand people with some outsiders); they have 3 kills and I don't believe they've ever gotten an H. Body to drop.
The only downside of this point spending spree is that I'm now way the fuck back to Tier 8, with only 131 points. The only item that I currently badly want that will cost remedy points, though, is the aforementioned Novio, which is a long ways away in any case. Asuraka got the last one, and he doesn't even have BLM or SCH, lol, though his obvious motive for nabbing it is to sell it and help fund his relic, which he inches ever more closely towards.
I'm now left pondering what to do with my Manteel. I've had it for a very long time now, and it has a certain sentimental value, but with them selling for 4.xM, it's hard to justify holding onto it when its CHR boost is something I'm never really going to use. The -12% song casting time is still sexy as hell, though.
Nevertheless my SCH is definitely pimped out now, just in time for the Sept update which promises Tier 1 merits. I'm currently 9/10, and the last 6000 merit points shouldn't be hard to get. Being able to pop one merit group immediately up to level 4 should hopefully fast-track my SCH pimpage. After that (assuming the correct path will be level 5 in two groups, worst-cast), it's only 20 more merits until my SCH is back to being fully pimped out.
On my list of items remaining to complete SCH pimpage:
1) Novio Earring, for pimping MAB.
2) Either Ixion Cape or Gleeman's Cape, +1 INT over my Prism.
3) Morgana's Choker, to tweak my MaxMP set by pumping me up an add'l 20MP.
4) Goliard Cuffs, sacrificing 1MAB from my Vicious Mufflers for 4mAcc
5) Prudence Torque, my best max damage neck piece when my UggaPendant latent isn't active.
6) Full set of elemental grips (currently I only have LoLEarth)
7 My last 3 remaining obis (Wind, Fire, Water)
8) Morgana's Cotehardie, despite the -8mAcc should be my best body for puddings
9) Goliard Trews, for -Enm while healing
10) Goliard Saio, my best MaxMP body piece as well as Conserve MP and -Enm for healing
11) Avocat Pigaches, a 20% drop from ZNM Iriz Ima (which I can solo), +Enf skill on boots.
12) Relaxing Earring, for hMP.
13) Loquacious Earring, for my MAxMP set, and for Fast Cast cures.
What's best about this list is that everything out of the top 5 is pretty nitpicky, and that #2-#4 are givens, just a matter of amassing ampoules and doing Nyzul.
I'm also looking at the possibility of amassing a -enmity set, given a renewed appreciation of the importance of -enmity gear when functioning as a healer (particularly when we don't have Cure V) which in turn is a result of a lot of the good work done by Kaeko and Ashira in determining the exact mechanics of enmity in FFXI.
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