Arrode.com # FFXI and AION

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Final Fantasy XIV

Jun 8

Posted by arrode in Crafting, General | 1 Comment

Woo-hoo! Unless you’ve been living under a rock and haven’t heard this year’s E3 news, Final Fantasy XIV: Online is slated for release in 2010 (read: 2011 cause we know Square-Enix never releases anything on schedule).

I can’t help but feel a tad disappointed in the fact that this is basically an upgraded FF11 experience. I also abhor the fact that Square releases its Final Fantasy Online games in numerical sequence with the non-MMO variety. I think they should’ve stuck with the name Rapture or at least given it the name “Final Fantasy: Rapture” or something along those lines, but alas I digress!

I feel a renewed vigor to continue playing the game once the newer version comes out. My only qualm is that sadly I will be a full-time employee in the real world by then so who knows how much free time I’ll have to offer. I remember starting FF11 as a high school student when I was 15. Now, at 22, my free time is a lot less plentiful and the reality of the real world awaits.

Regardless, I hope to see all you guys on FF14 when it does come out. :) *excited*

In-game, I’ve been doing veryyy little. I’ve repurchased a bunch of gear that I’ve been needing in addition to getting around to finally uncursing my Zenith Pumps. I had the Aquarian Aburjuation: Feet for about two years now sitting in my mog, but I didn’t see a point to uncursing them since there are better foot pieces for BLM and RDM. My WHM isn’t high enough level to utilize Zenith Pumps, so honestly it was a waste of 700k. For those who don’t know, I’ve had someone attempt to craft me Zenith pumps twice resulting in {Full Break} BOTH TIMES (curse my luck). This time I went with the safe route and bought them off the AH. At least they look snazzy.

Else I’ve been running around figuring out how to continue soloing BLM. I apparently left my BLM off at LV65, so too high now to level off of Goblin’s Rarab in Bibiki Bay. I decided to forgo the hell-maze that is Movolpolis and move on to the Qiquirns in Adeewa Subteranne (spelling on all these places/mobs is my best guess).  The archers are indeed stupid and suffer horribly from RNG nerf so soloing them isn’t bad, if a little slow since I’m probably a level or two under what I should be. I’m making good use of this year’s Anniversary Ring.

So much has changed

May 27

Posted by arrode in General | No Comments

Wow, I’ve been out of the loop for so long in regards to FFXI. So much has changed and honestly I think the game has made a turn for the better! :)

I don’t have much time now to explore the game and play around since I’m currently packing to move to Boston for the summer, but hopefully once I’m settled there I’ll have plenty of time to explore all the changes ingame and write some thoughts on ‘em.

All I’ve had time to do thus far was run around and start farming the En-spells II for my RDM. I have only Enwater II so far and I haven’t even had a chance to test it out. :( I need more timeeee.

5 hours 20 minutes of patching

May 21

Posted by arrode in General | No Comments

I’m currently re-installing FFXI on my brand, spankin’ new laptop. ETA till done-ness is about 5 hours and 20 minutes. I see patching hasn’t improved in my few months AWOL. :)

More updates to follow, more likely than not.

FFXI Plans

Dec 4

Posted by arrode in General | 1 Comment

Winter classes are back in swing, so we’ll see how much time I have to devote to FFXI at this point. I have some accomplishments I want to get done relatively soon:

  1. Get DRK back to 37. I lost a lot of levels on it when my character was reset.
  2. Finish Alchemy. I’m sitting at 98.6+2 right now. No reason not to finish this promptly.
  3. Finish making gil so I can repurchase all my gear. I sold off all my gear when I quit.
  4. Finish meriting RDM and BRD. I lost a lot of f’ing merits too. D:<
  5. Finish leveling BLM. Sitting at 65 is fun and all, but 75 would be lovely sooner rather than later.

Optimistic goals seeing as I haven’t even logged in at all this week due to classes. We’ll see how far I get!

.DAT editing

Nov 9

Posted by arrode in General | No Comments

For those who kept asking about .dat editing and what it is specifically there are a number of sites on the web that cater towards updating data models in the game with fan-made ones. For the most part this is harmless and easy to do. My resources page has a few links to rather good .dat sites.

FFXI Dats and MMO Xoops are two good sites to get dat files from. I’ll warn you the later has a lot of crazy Japanese hentai-esque stuff, so be careful, but the first is in English and has a lot of fun .dat models you can change your characters to.

TECHNICALLY dat editing is illegal according to Square, but I honestly see absolutely no harm in it if you just want to update the aesthetics of your character! Just a forewarning that it is against Square’s TOS, so use it at your own digression.

For those who aren’t sure how to update your dat files. Basically you’ll have to figure out what dat number corresponds to which specific piece of armor you want to update. Like if you wanted to update your character’s hair color you’d have to look for the specific dat that corresponds to your character’s face design. This can be done by finding the number in things like Model Viewer and then replacing the specific .dat with the edited one. Make sure to make a backup of the original and which folder it came from in case the custom dat isn’t what you were expecting. Obviously make sure you rename your edited dat to the same name as the one you want to replace and put it in the right folder.

Not so hard. So enjoy. :3

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Happy Halloween!

Oct 27

Posted by arrode in Dynamis, General, Rise of Zilart | No Comments

Happy Halloween everyone!

I took a break to do all the seasonal events Square’s released for us including buying the 3 pumpkins I didn’t get last year from each of the nations, finishing off the Trick Staves/Treat Staves, and getting the Eerie Cloak +1. Fighting Pyracmon was a ton of fun, actually! The cloak’s stats are kind of useless, but it was fun getting it. :3

What else have I been up to? Helping my boyfriend Arigh get rank 5. :) I took him through 4-1 yesterday and revisiting all the old areas for magicite was quite fun, actually.

And then of course, the obligatory Dynamis-Sandoria. :) RDM shoes did drop, but my lot was epic fail at 13 or 17 or something along those lines. It seems even after all these years my lots are suck.

Hey look, it’s a galka BLM. LOL :D

And that being said I leveled my WHM for the first time in two years a few days ago. LV62 > 63. Amazing!

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So what have I been up to?

Oct 9

Posted by arrode in Dynamis, EXP, General | 1 Comment

This week wasn’t really anything overly exciting. I’m getting used to the game again and playing on my off time, which is seldom thanks to it being mid-quarter at my college and as we all know: work first, play later. :D Well, sort of.

I’ve started doing Dynamis again with ED. Hopefully with more consistency since Dynamis times better fit my schedule now. I think before I had conflicts because I worked one of the days that Dynamis was held and the weekend time would often get taken up by social events with friends. So yes, hopefully I’ll have better attendance this time. :3 I’m still sad I lost my Duelist’s Tabard because the amount of people still lotting on it is quite substantial and I feel bad trying to lot a second one, but I guess it can’t be helped. My lots are epic bad anyway, so I won’t be surprised if it’s another 2 years before I get another tabard.

Level syncing is quite fun! I was leveling in Yhoator Jungle with a pick up party and hit level 61 on BLM (again) this way. I really, really can’t stress how happy I am with the level sync system and think Square should’ve implemented this years ago. I’m sure a greater player base would’ve stuck with XI had this been the case.

I also have been running around helping with SAM quests in Zi’Tah. I really like the samurai quest even though I still have severe trouble finding Norg. I hate the Elshimo maps with a passion. They’re just outright horrible. Retracing to areas that I remember a lot from my lowbie days is quite nostalgic.

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Hm

Nov 29

Posted by arrode in Dynamis, EXP, General | No Comments


Long time since I last updated. The newest expansion pack, Wings of the Goddess is sort of meh so far. I don’t really know how I feel about it. I spent some time unlocking the two new jobs: Scholar and Dancer, but have yet to try out either as I am still emo-ly leveling BLM. I’m up to 61 after having soloed my last 1k EXP tonight plus soloing Goblin pets in Bibiki Bay (which is now entirely desolate, compared to how it used to be when ToAU was released). EXP is pretty good soloing, averaging about 8k per hour without EXP bonus items and relatively safe, though boring and repetitive. Getting party invites has pretty much come to a screeching halt after LV58ish when leveling in ToAU areas becomes viable. It’s a darn shame because TP Parties are not as good as they say they are and I still parse doing 40% (or more) of the entire party’s damage without having any downtime. But alas, looks like I’ll be soloing to LV75 at this rate, with the occasional party invite.

In other news, I’ve acquired the RDM AF2 body and BRD AF2 feet in a week. Yay! So far, I’m 2/5 on RDM and BRD.

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Baby Chocobo

Oct 31

Posted by arrode in General | No Comments

I decided to give chocobo raising a hand and bought myself a slightly warm egg in Ru’lude Gardens. The cute thing hatched yesterday and I named it RisingSun. I was debating with all those funny name combinations to go with either FatMama or SouthernFatty, but I figured I’d get tired of those too quick and the novelty of having a stupid chocobo name would wear off. It’s a female, cute, and pretty pointless at the moment and I still think baby chocobos look like peanuts!Hopefully she’ll turn out to be something besides generic yellow. Only 25 more days to tell.Oh, and Happy Halloween everyone! :) Finals in a week, so I haven’t the time to really play XI too much. Talk about a trend here.

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The End (Or is it?)

Jun 12

Posted by arrode in General | No Comments

Unfortunately, the time has come. I am now finished with FFXI and put away that part of my life. I enjoyed my time playing, but I realize that my obsession is indeed over. Good luck and long live XI!