Magic Fencer Report

Last year, JPButton asked FFXI players to submit their 「１０大ニュース」”10-Dai News” or “Big 10 News” of the previous year. I didn’t do this last year and was looking forward to contributing this year, but Elmer and Corinth didn’t post an official post about it.

… I’ll list mine anyway.

Quoting Elmer’s post from last year:

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.
What’s your 10大ニュース？

10. Becoming a Multi-75
In January, my PLD hit 75, then as the year went on, BRD hit 75 as did DRK, so after sitting idle as just RDM75 for a very long time, I broke free and now have more jobs at 75. While it’s made inventory management not very fun, it’s made me a more versatile player. And fortunately, I have other useful jobs so I’m not pigeonholed into being BRD for everything like I’d feared.

9. Becoming a Leader of 3 Endgame LS
I eventually gave in to the temptation and went back to doing Dynamis, which led to eventually becoming a leader in the LS. Additionally, I helped start a new Sky shell and was privileged with leadership in a new Einherjar shell as well. I’m very grateful to my fellow leaders for putting enough faith in me to let me lead alongside them!

8. Finally Acquiring Crimson Cuisses
I’ve made a few posts about my “Three Old Sagas” regarding equipment I should have had by that point but didn’t due to quitting at the top of several lists. Being able to run 12% faster on 3 of my 4 jobs is quite nice for getting to places and getting out of bad situations!

7. Acquired a Runic Key
Climbed to the top of Nyzul Isle with a pretty well set up static. Only 250 WS points for Mythic WS ftw!

6. 6/6 Paladin Relic within 6 Months
Fortunately, the line for Paladin relic pieces in my Dynamis LS is rather short. But the real awesome is how I got my Valor Cape: a ludicrous Valkurm that dropped three of the things.

5. 6/6 Dark Knight Relic
This completed last night. Yay for inventory +5 and finally being able to feasibly work pieces into macros.

4. Bard’s Roundlet +1
Whitebox ftw. Also the best non-Salvage headpiece for a Bard. Doesn’t get used nearly enough, heheh.

3. Finally Got Into Doing Limbus
After a couple of false starts over the years, I finally got into doing Limbus on a regular basis. All I’ve gotten from Omega or Ultima is Homam Manopolas, but I’m sure I’ll get the rest of that set in due time. Nashira, though, not counting on it.

2. Got to Souleater+Blood Weapon Kraken Club Bahamut
This was just pure awesome. I need to get one of my own at some point!

1. Duelist’s Chapeau
Rightly considered to be one of, if not the, best drop from Dynamis, this item had eluded me for quite a while. Between not doing Dynamis for a very long time, the item refusing to drop period when I was at the top of the list years ago, and the line in my present LS being quite long with people leveling Red Mage and jumping ahead in line. Admittedly, I did spent a fair amount of points collecting other relic armor, but in the end, my spot didn’t really change too much for the hat. Finally having this drop to me just under two months ago was such a great day. Now I need to get a Dalmatica to finish the Old Sagas.

Happy New Year, Vana’diel!
あけましておめでとう、ヴァナ・ディール！

One common thought on leveling jobs up is to use a “set” or “static” party. I find this to be the most efficient, provided the group can meet more than one or two days per week, since the time spent finding members is removed completely if the set is six members. Additionally, knowing who the members are lets the leader pick out a camp ahead of time.

I’ve read several accounts of successful set parties and participated in several over the years. But with the advent of Level Sync and the removal of the restriction that all members must be within x levels of one another, are set parties really so necessary anymore? I believe so. Why do I say this? Is it an old bias against the general population of Vana’diel? I will tell you.

First of all, the removal of the wait for x job to pop on seek and pray you get them is a godsend. While Level Sync alleviated this slightly, the fact that a healer, or tank, or a Bard or Corsair may never pop still stifles the “awesome” parties. A very efficient set includes a Bard or a Corsair, so the lack of one being on seek alleviates that problem.

Secondly, familiarity with the party members works wonders for picking out a camp. Some camps in the game are just too out of the way or dangerous even to consider bringing a party consisting entirely of pick-up members to. Case in point is one of the older camps: bones in Gustav Tunnel in the late 60s. Another good example is Dragon’s Aery around 70. Having to walk through the entirety of The Boyahda Tree to reach this camp creates many opportunities for aggro. Aht Urhgan’s Runic Portal system alleviated this issue somewhat, but many camps exist before the Aht Urhgan levels that present this problem.

Finally, with the advent of Level Sync, the requirement that members could not do anything on their “party” job for fear of going too far ahead of the others no longer limits set parties. Did someone get an invite and get a level or two? Just sync them to the person with the most exp to level and go with it.

In general, I still find a set to be the most efficient way to level from 10-75. Provided you can find someone in your circle of friends to take up Bard or Corsair or a healing job, you can pretty much work your way up without too much difficulty. Of the four jobs I’ve levelled, three of them have been, at least in part, in sets. I had a set early on on Red Mage to get to 37, then later in the 60s got one with the same people. Bard was in a semi-set from 10 all the way to 75 and Dark Knight from 40 onwards to 75.

I suppose the vast disparity in party quality I’ve had on various jobs leads me to believe this. Flagging for a pickup really is leaving yourself to the masses. On some jobs, that is a very scary proposition.

Tonight is Dynamis-Bastok (/doze). I hope at least one pair of Abyss Sollerets and Saotome Kote drop. I need the sollerets to complete Dark Knight relic 6/6, and a good friend of mine needs the Saotome Kote for his SAM. Maybe multiple kote will drop and I can pay for them for my up-and-coming SAM. Hit 47 Monday evening in a party that ended badly. Ah well, such is life.

And now, we return to the grind of daily work.