Pretty much all I've been doing. Crafting, crafting and more crafting. Still working on subcrafts. Almost finished with Woodworking, Clothcraft and Bonecraft. WW and BC are very easy but tedious. CC on the other hand is a massive pain in the ass that is costing me a lot of money. I'm turning three Silk Threads into one Silk Cloth to make a Green Ribbon. The cost here, even when farmed, adds up pretty quickly because I'm losing all that money I could have made by selling the thread. It might be stuck at 54 for quite awhile.

Once I finish synthing all these Scorpion Arrows(I have about 500 arrowheads left) I plan to start Leathercraft. I was able to get it to 21 while farming the femurs for Bonecraft so I have a bit of a start but it isn't much. The main problem will be space I think. I turn non-stacking items into stackables and then back into unstackables.

I know I promised some pics but considering I gained over 50 full levels of crafting skill this week I don't think I'll post each level. Instead, here are my final dings(for now) of WW and BC.

Been a bit since my last entry about the game so this may be pretty long(or I may just sum up everything and keep it short. We'll see.

Beyond: Left. Great shell, got some great items in my time there and liked most of the people. Unfortunately a rule change thread turned into a discussion about what I felt was an unfair item distribution(I would not have been allowed to lot the item in question). Two people left the shell(one was the recipient of the item and the other was his maybe-gf? Not even sure). I assumed this was due to their issues with me. This lead to a lot of unnecessary drama that ended in a leader calling me greedy and saying that I had gotten more than I deserved in the shell. They also said I was ungrateful which I found funny considering I thanked the shell here on my blog and on BG whenever I got an item.

In order to restore peace, move on, etc. I dropped my pearl. Well, the two people who left never returned and they took a full Ultima set with them. I'm still curious as to why they left. Both of them received great items in the shell and supposedly had no problems with the shell up until my comments in that thread.

I considered quitting since I never had anything to do on the game after leaving Beyond. I despise most of the people who do endgame on my server so joining a new shell wasn't really an option. This has more to do with the attitude of the shells they choose to associate themselves with more than anything though so this wouldn't really be different if I changed servers. A friend returned to the game and convinced me to stay until we could both play FFXIV though so crisis averted. I had already sold a good amount of my more expensive gear so I retired a few jobs and now stick to BLM, MNK and DRK for almost everything I do.

In order to fill some of my game time I rejoined Calm for Dynamis. They're a great shell who can clear zones and get gear for their members without being complete dicks about job assignments and lotting rules(oh hai DynamisBums!). We've done two Northland runs and a CoP zone since I rejoined recently. Beaucedine(sp) was a good run with us clearing everything in the zone aside from the boss and a bunch of hydras that were out of the way. Xarc was even better with RDM and BLM and many other AFs dropping for us before we killed DL and got Ring, Mantle and a 100 piece. Cop was stingy as always but we did get some good drops with NIN Hands -1 x2, MNK Hands -1, BRD Hands -1, BLU cape, RNG belt x2 and a DRK cape. I'm probably forgetting something from Bubu as well.

I'm making some great progress with Crafting. I got Smithing to 82 and am now working on some subs that I need for common GP items and money synths. Clothcraft is up first and is currently 50.6 of 60. Next will be Woodworking and then Bonecraft. After that will be Goldsmithing and Alchemy. Alchemy would be easier but I need to do GS asap anyways so I may just eat the losses and power it to 60 from 27. I got a little excited when I was finally able to make a Haub and decided to just sign an NQ for now(my goal is a signed HQ). It was a painful loss but it's cool to have my name on one of the best DD bodies for my main job.

With BLM as one of my three jobs I have been trying to get that mythical INT+6 weskit. So far I've gotten an INT+3 and too many resist augments to count(with a few MND+ here and there). I'm starting to wonder if they removed it completely since I haven't seen any INT weksits in the augment thread in a long time. I'll keep trying though. It's only a 10k loss per weskit and I make more than that farming tabs most of the time.

I am attempting to start a Nyzul Isle static from Floor 0(I'm on 45) in hopes that I can get it to 100. A few members of the group are inexperienced with Nyzul but hopefully I can lead them well enough that they can keep up. Our first run is tomorrow so wish me luck. I'm not hoping for 0-20 but hopefully we can clear 5-10.

Sorry for the tl;dr/omg too much text entry. I'll try to have more pictures next time!

Someone asked me for this post so here it is. It's just going to be a list of all the programs/sites I use to get the most out of FFXI(in no particular order). Be forewarned that many of these programs violate the ToS(whether or not they should is not up for discussion). Here we go:


http://www.ffxiah.com/ - A Database and Community site for browsing the Jeuno AH and tracking your sales. Features include: Linkshell search, Item Sets, Achievements, Equip History and more.

http://bellsouthpwp2.net/k/i/kinematicf/FFXI/StatCalculator/ - Calculates the base stats of any Race/Job combo with a second list for comparison. Very useful for finding out how much INT those Tarus have.

http://www.ffxicalculator.com/ - My favorite offline app for FFXI. The feature list for this thing is huge so I highly recommend going to the site to look into it.

http://bash74.com/magic/ - An awesome tool for finding the best upgrade for your magic sets. Calculates magic damage and includes a back solver for finding target INT.

http://windower.net/ - Windows the game. Optional plugins include a Screenshot organizer, cosmetic race changer and more. My currently used plugins are: PlasticSurgeon, SpellCast, Chatmon, LightLuggage, ExpWatch, Cancel, and Recast.

http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Main_Page - A wiki for FFXI. All information is added by players. Sometimes trolls post false information though so be careful. Reading Discussion Pages on popular articles is recommended.

http://myffxigear.kicks-ass.org/ - A site for maximizing stats. This is not for creating usable gearsets in most cases but to find the most of a stat that you can get in a single slot.

http://ffxilinkshell.com/ - Home of ApRadar. This is more on the cheating side but I use it as a minimap. Use for good, not evil!

http://code.google.com/p/ffxidmgformula/ - An excel sheet for comparing melee damage. Very in-depth and can be customized. It's a little buggy for me but it works for most people.

http://emikoffxi.livejournal.com/ - Purely cosmetic but I love it. Cleaner fonts and window backgrounds plus more.

http://www.ffxiquery.com/ - Used for accessing data from your game. Most common use is for "live" signatures that update automatically.

http://www.tarutarutimes-online.net/ - Couldn't leave this one out.

http://forums.windower.net/forum/18-approved-programs/ - Saving this for last. Varying amounts of ToS violation here depending on specific program but many of them are useful.

If you have any good ones I'm missing feel free to share in the comments!

Head on over to watch The Speed Gamers play through the Final Fantasy series to raise money for ACT(Autism Care and Treatment). They're currently at 1800 viewers and have raised $3,200 of their $20,000 goal. FF2 is the current game with FF6 coming up next. FF11 will be played at the end of the marathon.

Just a couple days after I got around to posting my DRK gear! Thanks to Beyond and those who came out to help us bring him down.

Next: Paladin!

Keeping this one simple since...Well, WAR is a simple job. I use WAR mainly for Einherjar and Merit PTs. Honestly that's the only reason I use Fowling earring. Birds getting intimidated when you're waiting on Third Eye timer is win. I don't use WAR on mamools if I have a choice but if I do I switch the helm out for O hat and use a Flame RIng(on RR). I still don't have any Nyzul Isle Weapon Skills. Getting non-boss groups together is hell so if you know someone starting a climb static on Phoenix let me know.

Next entry: PLD or DRK. Not sure yet. If you have a preference let me know in the comments.

Okay so there are a few mistakes in this image since I was half asleep when I made that. I'll correct them in the listing.

1.) Idle set(Weskit for B Cloak)
2.) Stoneskin set
3.) Resting set
4.) Enfeebling set
5.) High-resist nukes
6.) Dark Magic set(Faith torque is supposed to be Dark Torque)

Quick notes: Idle cape is Cheviot. Obis are swapped in for ice, thunder and dark magic spells when appropriate. Current HQ staves are Ice, Thunder, Dark, Wind and Earth. That's most of my lolElvaan BLM. Not shown is ele DoT set since I almost never(ever) use it.

Next set: Warrior.

I'm pretty happy with my Chakra set where it is now. I get 460 initial HP + a full Invigorate back from it. I'd love to get more but the only upgrades would be Cassie to Robust and Topaz  rings to Soil/Robust.

Next time: BLM gear!

Nothing to show for it. Reasons to hate FFXI +1.

Still no homam legs! Omega needs to put out more double legs and give less head. Maybe I can get them(or more gil to buy them) from bonanza. Here's hoping.

On a similar note I'm leveling BLU now. I already have a lot of the good stuff for it(excluding BLU-only gear of course).  I took it from 35 to 46 so far which isn't too bad considering I just started a few days ago. It's pretty fun but I'm learning how hard it is to get help with spells like Frightful roar and Refueling. I might have to resort to /shouting for help and we all know how well that usually works out.

Got this last night. Second one for the LS with many more to come!

I know everyone is talking about it and you're probably sick of hearing about it already but I had to do this entry. Rapture was not supposed to be related to Final Fantasy at all let alone an FFXI sequel but now we know: Rapture -> Final Fantasy XIV -> FFXI-2.

So what do we know?

1. Our favorite races will be making a return. A worrisome detail from the epic teaser trailer showed us a Galka with no tail. Blasphemy!We also saw(at least I saw) a Male Mithra. Hopefully this means no more Manthra.

2. It is set in a new world or different dimension called Eorzea. There seems to be a lot more conflict in this world than in Vana'diel. The gods seem to play a bigger role in this world as well.

3. The job sytem will be returning in one way or another. From the FFXIV site we can see a WHM, BLM, PLD and a DRG. There appears to be a DRK as well but there's no way to be sure it isn't just a WAR in dark armor. There is also a belt of daggers which may indicate THF is set to return.

What does this mean?

Well it looks like they won't be changing a lot at first glance and this is what seems to be worrying most people. I want them to shake things up and go with completely new ideas. I know FFXI works from a financial stand point and they don't want to mess with a good thing for no reason but people will be less inclined to start from scratch for a prettier FFXI.

FFXIV has a lot of potential to be a great game if they don't make the same mistakes twice. But which mistakes you say?  Kings, gear that scales poorly, unbalanced jobs, a PvP system that is more inconvenient than fun, drop rates that defy reason, etc.. Basically we want more ToAU and less RotZ.

How will this affect FFXI as we know it?

The first blow seems to be to everyone's motivation. Why care about what I get done in FFXI if it won't matter next year? I know I'm feeling that way right about now.

Version updates will probably end with WotG completion depending on when it is completed. This doesn't mean that there will be no bug fixes or holiday events but I doubt we'll be seeing many "The Version Update is here!" messages after FFXIV is released. 

Cancelled accounts will likely come next. As the population continues to drop they will begin to consolidate servers. I doubt FFXI will ever "die" so long as people continue to pay to play but SE will reduce what the game costs them to run.

Will I play it?

The first deal breaker for me will be the interface. FFXI has a workable but far from optimal interface as we all know. I don't want an interface that makes me go out and find the best ToS-violating UI mods.

Next will be anything you can bot. This is a major problem in FFXI and SE's failure to correct it has lead to an "If you can't beat them join them" attitude about cheating. I don't want to see this in FFXIV and I'm sure very few others want to either.

Finally I want GMs that know what they're doing and have some real authority. Very few people have more than 5 GM calls after 7 years of playing. You think that's a good thing? It doesn't mean there's no problems. What it means is that GMs are so useless people would rather just say "fuck it" than waste their time waiting for a GM to be told "we're sorry for the inconvenience" and then ignored.


And there you have it. Comments are greatly appreciated if I missed anything(specifically about what we know so far).

Sorry about no pictures but Photobucket is being lame and doing maint when I decide to update my blog. As always you can check our screenshot forum: Beyond Screenshots!

First off we did a couple Ouryus. It was a lot of fun to do this fight as a BLM. Last time I did it I was MNK on worm duty which wasn't very exciting. We got some nice money drops to reward the members who donated the orbs.

Yesterday we did Sea to finish off two JoL sets. It would have been three but we had an unfortunate accident on the second Prudence which made us lose. Tonight we'll knock out those JoLs. Here's hoping for some torque!

Also, a little tip to everyone: Always check Bazaars. Even if you aren't looking to buy anything for yourself there are always good deals out there to make you some gil. This month alone I've made 880k profit from reselling items people were trying to get rid of fast. I'm not talking about small items like dynamis currency or sky triggers but stuff like armor and weapons.

Okay Slick wants an update so here is an update. We've been doing a lot since I last posted so I'm just gonna touch on everything in the order it happened. I'll probably miss some stuff so feel free to check Beyond's Screenshot forum. I'm also skipping stuff like NQ turtle kills. No one wants to read about D Feet.

Two days after my last post we downed our second Nidhogg.



He was stingy and only dropped an M Body.


The next day we were lucky enough to find a free Fafnir in the Aery.



He wasn't so stingy.

We did two more JoLs too.



The first dropped both earrings and the second dropped nothing. Still no Love torques but hopefully it puts out soon. We've had much better luck with the other torques. We've gotten 2/4 Fortitude torques and an astounding 5/8 Justice torques.

Proto-Omega 6, 7, and 8 died this month as well. It seems no one got pictures of the actual fight/pool for these unfortunately. Omega #6 dropped two lolheads but 7 and 8 both put out legs. I lost lot on legs but if Omega keeps being nice I should get them eventually.

Beyond returned to Tier IV ZNMs after a bit of farming and put down the dog for a 7th and 8th time.



Drops weren't very impressive but we'll be back for some more pants!

Horizon, the dynamis shell, has been doing very well. We've moved from low-manning cities to northlands and even have a CoP zone coming up soon. I'm on a break from dynamis but I can't wait to return to help everyone out.



The Beaucedine run was very successful netting a good yield of currency and 11 AF with only 16 people. They even got the win for those who needed it. Great job guys! If you're intereted in joining Horizon for Dynamis you can apply here.

I know...no updates for awhile and all that. Shame on me(for the lack of updates AND the lame title). I'll try to cover everything but going to keep it short and try to do more frequent updates from now on.

I joined a new endgame shell called "Beyond". We do pretty much everything from ZNM to HNM. The shell went active around the 19th of January and we've got a lot accomplished in a little over a month of activity.

Going to start with ZNMs since we do those on Mondays. We've done a wide range of Tier 1-3 ZNMs and even some Sarameyas. Our first Sarameya attempt ended in failure but the next time we came prepared to zerg it to death. We took the beast down in a little over a minute without using 2hrs. We killed two that night and the one with 2hrs died in a mere 48 seconds(That's more than 1k dmg/second!). The first only dropped the Aurum head but the second one put out with an Oracle's cap and robe. Hopefully many more to come. Click on the picture below to view the video of both fights(Watch in High Quality),



We also did a Tyger that night but I wasn't able to make it. It only dropped the Enkidu's cap.

As far ask SKy/Sea goes we've done a lot of Sky and are just getting started on Sea. We got several Kirin's osodes, a couple N Body Abjs., a few D Body Abj and one pair of red legs. I was lucky enough to get an Osode early on. We've also gotten lots of items from the lesser gods.

In Sea we've already gotten a Justice torque and fortitude torque. I got the Fortitude torque from Nakoa's pop since he only wanted the GA. We have plenty more to get from Sea so I'm sure we'll be doing more soon.

Limbus is an optional event but that hasn't stopped us from building up quite a roster of people for Homam/Nashira. Our first successful Omega rewarded us with a pair of Homam Cosciales and a pair of Homam Gambieras. Congrats to Hollowtips on his Homam Cosciales and to me on Homam Gambieras.I'm still looking to buy Homam Cosciales but at this rate I may get them from Beyond as a Tier II item first. We had some bad luck on our first Ultima but we'll get it next time(the fight went very smoothly until around 10% when it got turned and nailed the mages with an AoE).

We've claimed many a Fafnir but have been rewarded mostly with N Heads and other misc items. No Nidhoggs yet but we'll get some soon. Adamantoise/Aspid put out an A Body and 2x Wyrm body for us so far with more to come. We haven't claimed many Behemoths and no KBs yet but that's mostly due to us not camping it as much as we do other kings.

Yesterday we did 10 orbs of Early Bird Catches the Wyrm and each one was nearly flawless with the exception of one. Kisukesama's orb proved to be more difficult than expected but we still managed to win and he was rewarded with a Speed belt. Grats! We also cleared out most of our Wyrm beard list since the Wyrm was especially generous with them. You can see all the drops here: Wyrm Screenshots!

We plan to do more Wyrm tonight and some Behemoths on another day so look forward to those updates(Hopefully with more speed belts and BB items!).

I know posting about meripo PTs is pretty 'lol' but whatever. I don't merit very often. I had a couple PTs early on as WAR/SAM which were okay but pretty short. After Besieged I flagged up again as WAR but changed to MNK/WAR once I got an invite. The first PT was decent, 17k/hr. After it disbanded I was at four merits so I decided t do something I never do: Build a Party. It turned out to be a great 26k/hr PT. Setup was: WAR SAM MNK BRD BRD RDM.

Parses(for the MNK/WAR PTs):

Didn't expect to hit 75 so soon. It was at 37 when I started leveling it on Nov. 24, 2008. Level Sync ftw I guess(and no my skills are not behind and I do have Kasha!).

Once I hit 73 I had begun saving merits for SAM and was able to do this right after my pt ended:



I need three more merits to raise sTP to Level 4. Hopefully I can get those tomorrow.

I also bought two new items for BLM: Auster's Staff and Pluto's staff. I now have all the important ones and the rest will come as I have spare gil to spend.

Well, that's all for now. Hopefully more soon!