Dynamis and stuff

So, I did a little Trial of the Magians with my DNC, heading up to the Uleguarand Range for some bunny killing. Got bored of it real quick. Takes way too long to kill those things. I think I'll wait till I get NIN up to 37 first.

This morning, did Dynamis Bastok. Got a 100 Byne bill. I'm rolling in dough now~! :D We got the win, but our numbers keep dropping off early. :/ People have no stamina for these types of things anymore.

Levelled NIN some more. It's now up to 13. Time for some new katanas. I should probably get those NIN spells as well...

Reminds me, I need to clear some stuff out. My moghouse is way too crowded. :/ And I haven't even finished with the whole Trial of the Magians thing yet.

Quick Salvage Update

Just finished Salvage this morning. Got the 35 Marduk body. 4 pieces left to full Marduk: 25 head, 15 body, 25 body, and 35 feet.

Still no closer on Usukane for PUP, but soon, very soon, I hope.

Trial of the Magians frustration

Ugh...I've been trying to get the staves done first. Trying to get the trees done, but they're annoying. Still have about 40 left to go. That's just the first staff.

I found that the best place to go is Grauberg, south of the fortress. Weather happens frequently there, and trees are easy enough to handle. Can't stand the chigoes though.

I'm thinking about skipping the light avatar staff upgrade. The only light affliated avatar is Carbuncle, and I can get him free anytime anyway with just Apollo's staff. Maybe if Alexander wasn't just a two hour avatar, I could justify it.

Also, I'm levelling NIN finally. Yeah, I've been avoiding it, but I definately want NIN subjob for my DNC enfeebling build. Just need the 8 daggers, and NIN up to 37, and I'll be good.

I'm so not looking forward to doing daggers in addition to. And PUP upgrades going to be difficult.

Really want to hurt the guys who thought of this.

Return of Keyln pt. 2

So, Wednesday, I finally got my stuff from the U.S. Both my 360 and my PC are fully operational, and I updated to the latest patch.

Thursday morning, I got in my first run with Dynamis, and it was a blast, even if it was 3:30 in the morning.

Today I took a day of holiday leave so I can play with my stuff (things have been REALLY slow at work recently).

Now, to the guy who thought up the Trial of the Magians quest: You should be dragged out to the street and shot. 100 kills...treants...in weather? And I need to do it 25(!) times? Die in a fire.

Finally, to this Starcade dude who's posting two to three times on the tarutaru-times online site; Lay off the drama cookies. Seriously, this is a game, not real life.

The Return of Keyln

So, I've been out of FFXI for the past six months or so, and I really miss it (especially now with the big huge boost to PUP and SMN), but I'm aiming to return to it soon.

Long story short, since my last post, I lost my job, found a new one, moved to Poland, and waiting for my stuff arrive so I can come back. Won't be much longer, I hope.

Also, I joined Dawn, killed Bahamut, got DNC up to 75...and that's about it.

Trial of the Magians is going to make my inventory cry. 25(!) new staves (8+8+8+1=25), with some new H2H gear to boost my auto and daggers to make my DNC hawt. Not sure what to do with DNC, but my first order is to start working on the staves. Guess I'll start with decimating the treant population in Tavnazia area...

I'll try to post more often now that I'm online with my adventures in Vana D'iel! :D

Ranking the Avatar fights

So, since I'm an expert at soloing avatars cheaply, I'm going to rank them by ease of battle. This incorporates their defensive capabilities as well as any ward bloodpacts. This list will go from easiest on top to hardest on bottom. Please note that this is my own personal opinion, and results may vary from your own experience.

Fighting Avatars

Diabolos
Ifrit
Shiva
Ramuh
Titan
Leviathan
Garuda
Fenrir

Diabolos is the easiest because it's really a no-risk battle. The only way to lose is to either do something stupid (like let the puppet melee) or running out of time. And really, it is a special case, as the Diabolos fight is vastly different from the other avatar fights.

Ifrit is next because Ifrit has no defensive bloodpacts, and no healing bloodpacts, so really, it's just a matter of wearing Ifrit down.

I was debating between Shiva and Ramuh. Shiva has Sleepga, but it rarely lands on the avatar (especially if using Ifrit), and as a Summoner, it is something that I usually get out of easily (with the Sublimation ability, or the Sacrifice Torque), so it's not that much of a threat. On the other hand, Ramuh's Thunderspark ability does a little damage, but the paralyze effect can be more devastating (imagine failing to resummon Titan because of paralysis), so it can catch an unaware Summoner off guard, and it can potentially be more dangerous. However, it can be countered by either being out of range, and having Light Arts with Addendum: White up.

Titan isn't much more dangerous, but he has Earthen Ward, which gives him stoneskin. While not dangerous, it can lengthen a fight, and drain a Summoner's MP more than necessary. In any avatar fight, MP is important!

Leviathan and Garuda are next, and I was debating between those two as well. What makes those two a bit more dangerous is their healing BPs, which potentially can be used often, and lengthening fights (which in turn, drains MP). Garuda wins out though, as she also has a defensive ability which gives her shadows, AND Hastega, hurting your avatar more. Of the six avatars, Garuda is the most dangerous in terms of fighting.

Fenrir, though, takes the cake. Tougher than the six elemental avatars, fast, and dangerous, Fenrir, as far as I'm aware is not soloable. At least not by SMN or PUP. I have heard, though, of a THF/NIN soloing this fight. But still, this one does require a group.

Getting there

Of course, fighting the avatars is only one part, but getting to the cloisters is a different trouble entirely. Some are very easy to get to, with no aggro to 75 monsters, and a simple maze, while others require items, fights, as well as dangerous aggro to 75 monsters. Again, the list is by avatar from easiest to hardest, with easiest on top and hardest on bottom.

Titan
Shiva
Diabolos
Fenrir
Ramuh
Garuda
Leviathan
Ifrit

Yeah, the list is a bit different than before, but again, this is getting in AND out of the avatar battle.

Titan tops the list as the easiest to travel to. Straight shot from Bastok through the Korrokola Tunnel into the Altepa Desert and into the Quicksand Caves. While it's easy to get lost, there are no aggro to 75 monster straight to the cloister of Earth. The best part is that the exit leads straight back out to the Altepa Desert, where you can go to Rabao or back to Bastok.

Shiva is next, as the Cloister of Ice is fairly simple to travel to. However, it is a rather lengthy journey to Fei'yin, and on top of that, there are sound aggro monsters near the cloister, so having sneak, or just enduring the hits, is a must.

Diabolos is, again, a special case. It involves going through Pso'Xja, but the level 40 portion. While naked runs are no longer necessary, the level 40 cap is still in place. The only real danger, though, are the gazers which sound aggro. They're in two portions, so having a means of sneak (two silent oils) is a must. If ice weather is present, there is a single snowball to watch out for. Otherwise, it's a fairly safe journey to the Shrouded Maw.

Fenrir can be easy or hard, depending on if you have the right key item. Taking the route from Windurst Walls will involve sneaking past a few sound aggro mobs, and it's a little longer. On the other hand, taking the 3 mage gate is safer, and there are no sound aggro mobs to look out for.

Ramuh is in the Boyhada Tree. When entering the tree, the crabs there all aggro sound, so having a form of sneak is a must! The Goobue also aggro sound, and should be avoided. Also, elementals will frequently appear there, and they aggro magic. Watch out for them, and don't cast magic near them.

Garuda is in Cape Terrigan, and it's filled to the brim with sound and sight aggro. Having both Invisible and Sneak is a must. Fortunately, there are no special aggro mobs, and it's a fairly straight shot to the Cloister of Winds.

Leviathan is deep in the Den of Rancor, which is only available through the Temple of Uggalepih. While there are no aggro to 75 monsters in the temple, there is a statue which must be destroyed to get to the area. On top of that, the Paintbrush of souls is also required to open the door to the Den of Rancor. When in the Den of Rancor, everything is sound or sight aggro, making invis and sneak necessary. Also, be sure to NOT have sublimation up, as there are monsters on the way to the Cloister of Waters which will aggro yellow HP.

Ifrit may be the easiest avatar to fight, but the hardest to get to. First, one MUST have an ice cluster to get past the flame spout. Then past that, there are sound aggro bats AND sight AND magic aggro bombs. So, needless to say, it's a very dangerous spot. Fortunately, it's not too far from the entrance, but getting there is a pain. I would also strongly suggest having a warp of some kind, as leaving the Cloister of Flames is a bit more dangerous than getting in.

So, there you have it folks, my avatar battle ranking. What do you think? How do you rank the avatar fights?

XBox 360 crashes

I posted this in the Allakhazam forum, but I'm posting it here too so it can get more notice. This is about the 360 crashes that seem to plague Final Fantasy XI every once in a while.

Dear SE,

Hello, my name is Keyln, and I play Final Fantasy XI. I have been playing this game for well over 6 years now, and I play this game on all three platforms (PS2, PC, and 360). My platform of choice is currently the 360 as it has generally better graphics, and is usually more stable. However, one of the things that really bother me is the rate that the 360 crashes.

Specifically, I'm going to list the following:

1) The game crashes when I try to exit the game. This usually happens after extended (4+ hours) playtime. What happens is that I go to my Mog House, hit shutdown, and the screen goes black as normal. However, the console will never turn back, and the console will sit at this black screen for forever until I turn off my console and turn it back on again. When I log back in into the game, it tells me that the game did not shut down properly. This tells me that the console never left the game, and was stuck at the shutdown process.

2) Dynamis - Every once in a while, I or one of my Dynamis shell buddies will mysteriously crash during Dynamis. It seems to happens more often in Dynamis-Beaucidine than in others, but this crash has been seen in most Dynamis areas. It seems to happen near the end of Dynamis, and the really odd thing is that it hits all Xbox 360 users all at once. The fact that it is hitting all 360 users at once tells me that this is NOT a problem with my console.

3) Besieged - This happens constantly in Besieged, where all of the blue, my 360 crashes. It seems to happen right around the 55 minute mark near the end. What happens is that my game locks up, forcing a restart of the console, I try to log in, and all of my points that I earned are gone, and I'll be lucky to get any points at all. Again, the fact that it seems to be widespread tells me that this is, again, not a problem with my console.

Now, I work in the game industry as a QA person for well near 10 years now, and I can tell that by the fact that it's not just me that it's not a problem with the console, but a problem with the code. The fact that it's happening near the end or with extended play times tells me that there is a memory leak that is causing the 360 to crash.

Now, having said this, I don't expect an immediate fix. But I do expect a notice that you are aware of the problem, and that you are currently investigating and/or fixing it. The purpose of this post is to bring notice to this problem so that it can be addressed.

Thank you for your time,

Keyln, pet lover of Phoenix.

Maybe a bigger community site, like Pet Food Alpha will pick this up. This is something that needs to be addressed!