Arrode.com # FFXI and AION

Exploits of my online gaming

Posts Tagged EXP

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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{Reraise} Arrode, {Yes, please.}

Sep 28

Posted by arrode in EXP, Wings of the Goddess | 2 Comments

Hm, so where should I begin?

Ok, sometime after my last post I decided to deactivate Arrode to take a break for my co-op in college. I was also doing a lot of internety things that didn’t include FFXI, so I was going to take a few month break.

I decided to come back around May 2008 and discovered my password was changed. Strange, I thought. So I called customer support, found out my credit card didn’t match the information on my account and was stupidly told by the Square-Enix employee my account was lost and I should start over. I flipped out with /angry motion and decided that I was just going to quit XI all-together if Arrode was forever lost due to being haxxored.

A few months later after talking to my LS, I realized that I could get Arrode back and the woman I had talked to was just a flaming moron the first time. So I sent in my notarization, waited a while, and finally got Arrode back after a long, retarded process in the first weeks of September. I logged in and of course all my items/gil are gone.

YAY!

So I called a GM, asked for a character revert, got it granted and realized they had reset me to September 2007. So I lost a bit of AF2, missions for Wings of the Goddess, and levels on my BLM. I was 64 or so when I quit in January and I’m back down to LV58, but with the new Level Sync system, this hasn’t been a problem. I’m almost back to 60 after a few days of lol leveling with Valkrum Dunes and Qufim parties. 8D Being wanted in parties again is pretty sweet, imo.

So yes, I should be studying, but I just wanted to hop in and update this sucker and tell you all that ARRODE IS BACK FROM OUTER SPACE!

Woohoo!

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Happy (late) New Years!

Jan 6

Posted by arrode in EXP, Wings of the Goddess | No Comments

Yeah I realize I kind of suck at keeping this thing updated, but anywho!

I’ve been ever slowly leveling my BLM solo style. After 60 getting parties as a black mage is nearly impossible, so I decided to try out soloing and it wasn’t as bad as I thought. There are pros and cons to the method of course, the first con being it’s actually quite boring to solo for hours on end. But the pros are that if the camp isn’t taken, you can EXP at your own rate without any real worry of incompetent party members, LFG, etc. The EXP per hour solo is around 7,000-8,000XP without any kind of EXP bonus item, so it’s not awful yet not spectacular either. At the moment, my BLM is LV64 and leveling in Bibiki Bay. One more level and I can finally get out of there on to more fun areas!

I’ve been playing around with some .dat mods to make Arrode prettier. I honestly don’t like how all but two models of hume female look and I always thought my model was the most aesthetically pleasing followed by the one with the short bob-style hair. So I was elated when I found some nice .dat files online to make my character even more feminine and pretty. :D

Behold Arrode’s facelift!

Nice pretty long hair on Arrode as well as more sexy eyes. :) I’m 100% happier with the new design for Arrode. 8D Makes me feel like I’m a plastic surgeon, pwahaha.And some pictures I’ve finally got around to linking to from my quest to unlock the two new jobs in Wings of the Goddess!


Amazing, a floating book!


My future schoolgirl outfit. After I finish BLM and SAM of course.


Your target is always out of reach no matter how close you stand to it. :( Stupid Dancer quest.


Doesn’t the Maw kind of look like one of those Alien spawn babies that stick on your face?


Take me to your leader.


A really freaking long drop.


Cait Sith!


Falling randomly ala Kingdom Hearts opening FMV.


A pretty new zone with some very high fishing spots.


Old Ronfaure!


Some creepy ladybug mobs.


And of course, a random screenshot of GM Shanaela! Woot woot.

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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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The advancement of the black mage in training!

Aug 31

Posted by arrode in Dynamis, EXP, Salvage, ToAU | No Comments

So what’s been going on lately.. hmm. I head back to college in a few days, but I thought I’d share the quasi-interesting things going on in my life ingame.

When I quit XI two years ago, very few LSes had beaten Dynamis Lord in Xarcabard. I remember ED’s few attempts at it resulting in a total wipe at approx 90%. Of course, this was prior to the days of RDM/DRK being known to be useful for this kind of thing, so yeah, went to Dyna-Xarc with ED a few weeks ago and watched them decimate poor Dynamis Lord in under a minute. How things have changed! Of course Dyna-Xarc was emo and we got 0 AF2 drops that entire time. At least we got a Shadow Mantle. ; ;

Have since been catching up on AoAU missions. I can’t say I’m finding the storyline too interesting and it pales in comparison to the fun I had with Promathia’s storyline and BCs. None of the BCs have been overly challenging and I guess this is Square’s attempt to curb the anger produced by the “difficulty” of the Promathia missions (though I don’t think they were that hard, to be quite honest with you). I’m current with missions though I haven’t done the final BC yet just cause the final rewards suck and I don’t have the inventory space to hold yet another useless item (the lv50 rings + blue coronet). So perhaps I’ll never finish the missions because I just don’t care to. <_<;;

Salvage has been fun/stressful as always. We have a good set of constant players (about 12 of us who attend weekly) and we’ve got some pretty good drops thus far. We’re continuing to go every Friday and have got lots of gear so far though we’re still having a bit of trouble with the Long-Bowed Chariot NM thanks to our lack of healing. Otherwise, we’ve had some pretty cool drops so far (though I haven’t gotten anything as of yet) and I’m debating between getting Morrigan’s Robe or Cuffs first. Both are exceptional pieces of gear for RDM, so I’m having trouble deciding. Either way, the cost of the ores needed once all 3 pieces have been acquired is disgusting. D: Plus I hate having to do assaults to get points. Since I’m effectively 2 years behind everyone else, I’m still a PSC and killing rocks in Lebros Cavern every week to get my points. *dies*

I’ve been leveling my BLM rather arduously since I last posted. My BLM was 37 a week or two ago and now I’m up to 53 and having fun all the way. BLM is a lot easier to play than RDM and a lot less stressful. Being a good BLM really equates to two things: A) lots of INT gear and B) Elemental debuffs + not overnuking. I’m finding that a lot of parties have gotten stupid lately and don’t do Skillchains at ALL anymore. I mean I understand opting against a skillchain if it requires the melees to use gimp WS to form it, but if you have a Samurai, Ninja, and Warrior for melee, not having a skillchain makes me want to punch people. And LOLTPBURN is bullshit, I’m sorry. TP burn is effective once warriors get Joytoys + Ridills and merits and /NIN, not before. I’m so sick of people saying DMG is better just spamming WSes if their WSes are doing >100 dmg. I’ve had a number of parties that didn’t even know HOW to form Skillchains in the late 40’s-50’s. That’s ridiculous. LERN 2 PLAY people. I constantly parse my BLM’s dmg to be doing between 25-30% of the entire DMG in a party without a Skillchain. With skillchains, I easily am doing over 50% of the DMG in a party. BLM is a strong job, but it truly shines when melees skillchain.

And oddly enough, BLM is one of the most E-peen jobs I’ve ever seen. 2-3 BLMs in a party is pretty common now a days and it’s like.. everyone instantly /c’s your gear, checks your spell damage and tries to compete. I’m quite proud to say that while I don’t have nearly as much MP as tarus, my spells are always stronger. :D DD Yay for merits and +30 INT gear pwahaha.

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Smashed Zenith and Subjob leveling

Jul 15

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

So I had Asaka attempt my Zenith Pumps yesterday and ended up with a full break. ; ; Lol, just my luck! Oh well! There’s always next time!

Besides that, I’ve decided I’m going to take DRK to LV37 before anything else leveling wise. I got it to level 16 tonight in the Dunes (the horrors) thanks to Kayile and Malekai power leveling my poor party for a while tonight. Level 37 should be no problem at all with the EXP boosting items as well as the easier time people have leveling recently. I just feel totally inadequate as a melee job.

After finishing DRK, I’m probably going to complete leveling WHM to 75 since it’s been sitting at 62 for forever. After that, I’m leaning towards starting my first official melee job, SAM! ^_^

That is, if I have the time. I started my summer job to save up for college this week and haven’t had time for camps, farming, or LS events in general and I feel really bad about that. ; ; I’m going to try to make Friday Dynamis runs with higher frequency and attempt to get Tuesday work days swapped to Weds so I can go on Dynamis city runs with the LS and help out our members going for final stage relic weapons.

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What a pain!

Jun 27

Posted by arrode in EXP, Einherijar, Sea | No Comments

Current levelsWhat a pain! I transferred all my entries from my FFXI based livejournal over here the past two days so now you can view all of the entries here. I’m probably not going to post in that LJ anymore, so come here for updates from now on. I’m going to try to make it a point to make at least one entry per week in regards to my XI exploits! Current level statistics for my jobs to the left.
I’ve rejoined NotED and there are quite a few new faces and a number of people I remember from back before I quit.

A quick summary of the past month in XI:

  • I got my BRD to 75!
  • Did some meriting. I have Slow II now and some random BRD enhancements and I’ve upped my MP boost to +4 (40 MP). Meriting is kind of boring since everyone wants to do colibri and I’m sick of those banana birds. :<
  • Won a free lot for Zenith Pumps, which is nuts considering when I left these were in high demand and waitlisted now they’re free lot from Fafnir. I don’t have the money to uncurse them yet though.
  • I’ve done a little Al’Taieu adventuring with the LS. I participated in a Jailer of Love kill, which was incredibly boring, and today we ran around the palace and farmed spawn items.
  • MOAR dynamis. I’ll be honest; I never liked dynamis. It’s long, boring, and lags my poor lappy to death. Drop rate seems higher now though for AF2, but that could just be my insanity.
  • Einherijar (Did two runs, both wins). Saw some of the new abjurations drop (the ones for WAR and DRK)
  • Got to see one of the new HNMs (no claim though) Cerberus. Very cool looking! Hopefully I’ll get to fight it soon if we claim it in the future.
  • Lots of sitting around quasi-afk camping Fafhog/Aspidechelone
  • Got killed three times by Absolute Virtue.
  • Helped Zenshin reacquire Rank 6 by killing the Dark Lord. I love that battle, it’s so epic! I remember the first time I did it around level 50ish and was freaking out and we won by a sliver of health thanks to our LV60 PLD friend.

I’m considering what to level next after I finish meriting a bit. I want to get my RDM pimped out merit wise and pump out my BRD a little bit before I advance with another job. I’m thinking going melee now even though my WHM is 62 (I can’t stand how BORING it is). I’m debating between SAM (LV10) and NIN(LV37). I’ve always wanted to have a LV75 NINJARRR just cause… it’s a NINJA. Plus I’m a sucker for cool looking AF. >_> I love my reasoning. I also want to do SAM since it just seems like such an elegant melee job and I have AF2 for it already (lol at free lots). At the same time, I want to finish off WHM and be done with it… and yes, I have AF2 for WHM too which makes me all the more sad since I’m still 0/5 for RDM AF2.

Sea farming
Farming in sea. Pretty Hrii casting Stoneskin.

Jailer of Faith
Killing the Jailer of Faith.

Standing around in sea.
Standing around in Al’Taieu.

Killing pop mobs.
Killing some spawn mobs in sea.

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Expansion Arrival

Apr 30

Posted by arrode in ToAU | No Comments

Due to the new expansion, there’s a huge influx of the three new jobs (Blue Mage, Corsair, and Puppetmaster) leveling. Last I checked, fairy had new jobs in the 60+. Scary. Currently, I’m working on leveling my bard that I am in the process of re-gearing and making money to gear up all my other jobs. I wish I hadn’t sold my HQ staff set cause buying them back is going to be a pain in the ass.

Got my bard to LV69 today. I can’t wait for Mazurka. I’m such a lazy bum. :( Otherwise, no new pictures/movies for you guys yet. Going to finish up my finals and then focus on the new expansion.

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Dynamis Jeuno

Mar 27

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

Yeah. Anyway did Dynamis-Jeuno today. x2 NIN, DRK, THF dropped. ; ; No RDM sadly. Was a pretty smooth run.

Working on leveling my WHM now since I’m taking a break from BRD till a certain friend of mine gets back. Got to LV57 which wasn’t too bad, though I really hate pickup parties. ; ; I wish I could find a static, but so few people in the LS play at this time of night (JP time zone). Meh.

Hit 93.0 Alchemy a few days ago. Have to level on Papillion, which sucks since it’s like 40k a synth. -.- My first synth did go to good use though as you can see below. :3

We managed to claim Aspidochelone yesterday, which was pretty adrenaline rushing for me as this was the first time I’ve fought the HNM with the LS (Usually it’s always in NA primetime and I’m either asleep or at class). The drops were awful though, Shura Feet for what the LS says was the fourth time in a row. ; ; I was so praying for Dalmatica or Crimson (DROOL) or hell, even Koenig for our PLDs. But yes, turtle is a bastage. Arvin outpulled 2 other LSes out there for the turtle. Good job! ^^

Starting the fight.

Death to turtle.

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Leveling WHM

Mar 24

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

Leveling WHM recently, not much else to do honestly. Currently I’m at LV56 and close to 57, which is pretty awesome. I can’t wait to get to 58 so I can wear my Vermilion (I’m such a lazy butt XD). Aiming for reaching LV75 within two months, so hopefully I’ll get a range of good parties.

Attempted the notorious subligar (panties, whatever) farming again a few days back. A great deal of the people didn’t have Sacrarium open so we were forced to do the LV40 Phomiuna Aquaducts, which I hate with a passion. A lot of jobs aren’t very well geared at that level in addition to lots of death. And yes, we experienced full wipes numerous times, though the subligar drop rate was high. No RDM subligar though, the RDMs were the types of Formors that traveled in groups making taking them out nearly impossible after one of our NIN tanks went to sleep.

Getting close to Alchemy 93. I’m getting really tired of Icarus Wings at the moment.. There are approx. 3-4 other alchemists skilling up on those with me and some Alchemists (Not naming specific people) really are tards and undercut by like 3-4k per wing just to get their stuff to sell fast, which is ridiculous considering the Icarus Wings sell OVERNIGHT. Therefore, they control the market making a break even synth cost quite a considerable amount. It’s a tad annoying.

Real-life, today was my 18th birthday. :) Finally legal and I can honestly say it feels very odd. If anything, it’s just a reminder that I need to decide on which college offer to accept and get ready for my move back to the United States. Meh. Time really flies the older you get; that is no lie.

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