A Little Fun with AltanaView

So, over the past couple of days, things have slowed down a bit. We're sort of taking a break from camping KA, since his window overlaps LS event times now, and I've been trying to use the extra free time to get some MNK exp in. But alas, it would seem that no one wants to exp with MNKs until 75, even MNKs with capped hand-to-hand and crit rate merits and stuff! A couple days ago I was lfg on MNK for over 6 hours. 6 hours. that's like... 2338265090372123475032 times as long as it takes to get an invite on BRD. But eh... I do have a little something to help keep my mind on track.


















I recently acquired all the items for a Black Belt, and I really couldn't resist with something like that lying around in my storage. Besides, it's another job that I can show off my Usukane Sune-ate on. I'm still not entirely sure that using it on MNK at 75 would be better than Fuma, because I'd be lowering myself down from the +25% haste equipment cap to 24, and haste works best in increments of 5%, but then again, Asuran Fists is an 8-hit WS, and so accuracy and attack usually have more of an impact than STR or VIT. But I guess it's nothing that a few parsings wouldn't sort out.

Since my MNK is now level 50, I made sure to camp the Western Shadow to get myself a pair of these:
















The transition from Boreas Cesti at 49 to this at 50 was a whopping +13 base DMG, which will go a long way to increasing my Raging Fists damage, as well as my DoT. Still, the thing I'm most excited about for MNK is that I'll get Kick Attacks at 51! Woooooo~ I can't wait to kick people in the face!






















Aside from the occasional (occasional) party on MNK, Novus has finally started doing Sea again! Sea is my favorite event. Of all time. I'm not really sure why, but I really enjoy fighting Jailers. Some of them are relatively easy, but they're all pretty challenging in that they each have a specific strategy to them. Plus, I'd really love to get myself a Justice Torque for my SAM. As of right now I'm sort of stuck between first and second for it, but I'm not really that worried. I don't plan to lot much of anything until I get it, so I've been passing on a lot of other stuff I'd really like to have, like this:






The lucky recipient was actually our LS's leader, Legynd. This makes his second torque drop out of about 4 or 5 total that we've gotten so far, since starting Sea about a month ago. What a lootwhore! He's gotten a lot of stuff from the LS lately, at least, more than I've gotten so far anyway (0 drops so far! unless you count the buccaneer's belt I got from Einherjar ampoules). People in the LS like to remind him that he's gotten a lot of stuff lately, but I think what they sometimes forget is that a lot of the stuff he's gotten was FFA. No one even lotted the Fortitude Torque when it dropped, but he decided to spend 10 points on it, when he could have only spent 1. He also finished Ares's Flanchard in Salvage, but both the 25 and 35 pieces were completely FFA to all jobs that could use it when they dropped, and he just happened to win both. Still... I could do with a drop of some sort too! But oh well, I'm happy for him. I shouldn't really complain anyway, it's only a matter of time before some things I want begin to fall my way.

I also had a chance to use my Samurai when we helped a few of our new LS members with Storms of Fate. I do love a good zerg, especially when the chainstunning doesn't go exactly as planned. Still, we pulled off a fairly easy win, and I got to watch a few cool cutscenes again.



















I know that I want to finish MNK next, which'll open all new problems as far as getting more merits and such, but looking beyond that, I know I'll want to level another job again, but the question is... which? I guess if I really had to choose, it'd be between RNG and BLM. Ranger, because I really enjoy the job, and I also have a few key pieces of gear and merits for it, and Black Mage because I think it'd be nice to have a job that's useful for manaburns and such, and aside from BRD, which is a bit opinionative, I've never gotten a mage job to 75. Since I can't really decide, I'll add a poll to this and let some of you help me to decide!

Finally, my blog has a shiny new banner now, thanks to Abunaii! We were messing around with it for over 3 hours, trying to decide what would look good and what wouldn't. Since I like Sea so much, he stuck a few higher tier Jailers on it, and also put a really good image of my SAM as well. While we were messing around with AltanaView, I came across this emote under "others" in the Wings of the Goddess folder...






















I thought it was worth a good laugh. I still don't know why such a gay emote is listed under Hume M, but oh well. This is a JP game, after all. I look like such a schoolgirl... Wow. Just wow.

Where to Begin...

For the longest time, I remember thinking that I'd never make one of these things, but I think a combination of utter boredom and friends urging me to make one have led me to do so. So... where to begin? This is a blog about my FFXI counterpart, Sazaku. Since I'll assume that the only people that would be reading this are fellow FFXI players, I'll skip the boring introduction about what FFXI is and all that. I've actually been playing this game since 2004, but don't think I could remember everything that far back if I tried, so I'll just start with what I've been up to as of August, 2008.

A little over a month ago, I joined a new LS, after taking a 2 week break from FFXI to get some RL issues in order. It's called NovusCruento, which is latin for "bloody noobs" or something to that effect and I really like this LS. We're really active every week, but not to a ridiculous extent like most hardcore endgame LS's are. We do a wide variety of events, including Sky, Sea, Limbus, Salvage, Einherjar, ZNMs, and even sparse HNM camping when they come around into good windows. Events only last around 2-4 hours a night though, and 1-2 nights per week are completely free, so it has a really laid back atmosphere, but I think the thing that's most appealing to me about this LS is that they actually let me go something other than brd! what?! How dare they! But in all honesty, I think it's really refreshing to get some use out of my other jobs. It sort of makes me feel like capping STR and such instead of CHR wasn't a waste.

Speaking of Samurai, I've recently become set on gearing up my SAM with a /RNG set. I figure that since I have a Hope Torque that's just lying around and collecting dust in my mog locker, since I never play NIN anymore, I should put it to use by gearing SAM/RNG and maybe even leveling RNG as a main as well. I also snagged this little prize from Einherjar after finally getting 15k ampoules the other day:







To end this post on a positive note, I've also been very busy camping various NMs with my good friends, Abunaii and Tokii. Lately it's been pretty hectic because I've been keeping track of Centurio XII-I, Eastern Shadow, Simurgh, and King Arthro. The three of us have been camping KA for god knows how long, and with pretty good success. As of right now we're something like 2/50 or so on the belt. Just need one more! Too bad it happens to be mine. But that's fine I guess, I appreciate them sticking around to help me get one. Besides, I'm sure we'll get another... eventually... We've only recently been killing the Centurio and Simurgh, originally to get Abunaii the earring for his kraken DRK (did I mention that Abu is a fucking beast? seriously. go ffxiah that shit), and to help Krusk get Trotters for a job that I didn't even know he had. Still, I can't really complain because after getting both drops once, they actually helped me kill them both again and I made out with both of these:













I seemed to be on a lucky streak, because I also ended up getting this little toy after only 7 attempts (apparently 1/7 is pretty lucky, and I believe it):












Now to level RNG! Seriously, I'm considering it, what with the Hope Torque, Buccaneer's Belt, Vali's Bow, and Archery merits... hmm... yeah... Oh, not to mention I can run fast as RNG because I have Trotters as well! But I still have a lot more meriting I want to get done before I level a new job.