Everything is turned off.. WoW, FFXI, everything..
I hadn’t even thought about it much in a few months.. I started feeling nostalgic and was checking out a few blogs that I hadn’t in quite a long time.. I don’t keep up on everything… obviously … busy with real life
yet…
I’m intrigued by the discovery of FFXIV …
hmmm…
If the graphics are that good.. I may have to check that out!
Life is getting pretty hectic.. just wanted say I’m still alive, just been so busy I haven’t had time to do much of anything in game..
When things quiet down, I’ll probably get bored and have more to post.. lol!
I’ve read a few FFXI blogs talking about the new April updates, so I went online and checked out what they were. While the Whitemage got some things that sound a little tantalizing, I was however very disappointed in the Redmage updates. I was hoping they would have something that would help me convince my favorite RDM to pick up FFXI once in awhile again…. no such luck.. he just scoffed when I showed him what the RDM’s will get.
- Composure
(Lv.50 Ability Delay: 5 min. Duration: 5 min.)
Increases accuracy and lengthens recast time. Enhancement effects gained through white and black magic you cast on yourself last longer.
- Notes Activating Composure will impose a recast time penalty upon all magic, songs, and ninjutsu.
Many are saying that its geared for the soloing RDM, but I disagree. I don’t even think this really helps the solo’ing RDM either, as most of those like to sub /nin for survivability and it already takes long enough to be able to recast shadows as it is…
Its odd to me that they are taking Redmages gift of Fast Cast, and diminishing it.. It just doesn’t seem right. When you play other games compared to FFXI, you realize how much more challenging FFXI is. Unless you have a group of friends at your beckon call, or are cheating some way, you aren’t able to as easily just fumble your way through it quickly. But while I think a challenge is at times more fun, it isn’t fun to have to work so hard at every single aspect. It gets tedious and less fun, especially when real life steps in, and you have even less time available to spend on it. But then thats what Field of Valor is for I guess.. (definitely not knocking FoV.. I personally really liked that addition). The premise of FFXI is great, I love the feel of the game, but I think there is definitely room for improvements that would make it more successful.. Sadly, I’m not sure that they are going in that direction. Sometimes I really wish I could have an audience time with the developers and tell them what I really love about the game and simply offer up some small suggestions (no strings attached.. no money or credit involved.. just please think about this..). ah /sigh
But back to this job ability, Say you cast an enhancement of Stoneskin on yourself, and say it is supposed to “last longer”. Personally I’ve had my Stoneskin knocked off me in 1 or 2 hits in certain nasty situations.. so even if it lasts 3 hits, is it really going to be worth putting more time between you and your next possible Ninjitsu shadows cast?
I don’t know, I look forward to reading what you all test it and come up with.. I could be all wrong. However I doubt it will be that much better.. mostly because then if it really made stoneskin last that much longer, then later they may find it to not properly “balance” the game, and would then nerf it. Am I wrong?
I’m just really confused by what they are trying to accomplish..
The first tier of en-spells are not used that often, least it seems.. So I wonder if instead of adding new levels of en-spells, if they shouldn’t have instead looked at why it is that those spells get such little use. One reason is because most don’t want their cookie cutter RDM party members meleeing. They don’t think that people can effectively refresh and haste while fighting… In my opinion they are wrong, because I’ve known two or three that were very good at doing it – was it more a matter of macro set-up than anything. I really think that they should have thrown Redmages a better bone.. maybe something along the lines of offering a little of the versatility that Scholars have.. more like some of the situational things they are planning on giving Whitemages in this same update.
What if?
What if maybe give them two separate job abilities,
One that increased melee damage by a certain amount but maybe made white/black magic not quite as potent (if they have to have a negative in it somewhere to balance it).
Then a second that made magic more potient but diminished melee (again if they have to have the negative..)
Build up more support abilities to foster new and different playstyles.. Breathe some new life into the job and the game..
Here is another idea, maybe lower recast time of refresh & haste spells, so that people don’t think they have to spend their entire time in party concentrating on timing these just right.. Give them the opportunity to do a few other things… RDM has so much to offer, yet are so continuously limited.. and I don’t think these new updates really help alleviate any of that. …
Just my thoughts….
Sentimental week or something, I just really miss my old FFXI friends!
Blindrage/Kauri, Kinkykitty, Squeekers, Eliktro, Rainer, Mieka, Damiero, Cozmos, Puredarkness, Fuddyduddy, Jedafu, Velsol, Audessa, Frohike, Mirith, Darakonis, Angelulu, and countless others…
Just wanted to say I miss you all! Many have moved on, and things have changed for everyone. Its sad to think that even if I played again, I think I would probably just be disappointed as it can’t be the same.. It wouldn’t be like it was back in the day that I enjoyed it oh so much! Days where learning the game and being able to consistently spend time with friends that I really adored thrilled me…
But those days are over, and I’m just feeling nostalgic.. a small little twitch pushing me to try things once the April updates are done… but I realize it won’t and can’t be the same…
Anyways.. If anyone ever checks this.. just wanted you all to know that you still mean alot to me..
Monday night, my real life brother-in-law invited me to go with them to a Dungeon. I didn’t actually do much, I think I raised one of the other members once when they accidentally got aggro, and basically just looted when a certain things sparkled for me. The few times I tried to help with a totem, I think it really didn’t help, as my brother-in-law is an 80 Paladin, and honestly killed things too fast to be in one place very long.. so I stopped and just watched for the rest of the time. Ended up with a few nice pieces for when/if I ever end up healing. It was fun to watch though..
Before we went to the Dungeon, he had asked me if I had a mount yet. I told him that I didn’t but that it was ok because I had ghostwolf. He gave me some gold, and told me to go to Exodar and get my mount. Because I had done so many quests there, I ended up getting a discount and had enough left over to send to Katella and combined with what she had, got a mount for her too! Yay! That would have really taken a long time to earn on her! (Thank you Sesho! /bow) Purple is my favorite color, so I chose the purple elekk.
Later that night, I finished up a few more quests and got Karynna to level 40 Shaman! Yay! I was too tired, so I waited until Tuesday night to go to Stormwind and get spells and the ability to wear mail unlocked.
So here is the picture of Karynna in her first pieces of mail. (She has a mail head piece too, but I don’t have it displaying the helms on her.. (It would mess up her hair.. hehe)
I’m showing two pictures here for hopefully some feedback on a question. In switching up a few pieces to mail, I have gained more strength and lots more armor, but have lost some intellect.
I had Katella make Karynna the green shoulder pads because it has intellect +11, even though its cloth and only has 79 armor.
The red shoulderpads (leather) gave 103 armor with +2 strength, +2 agility & +10 spirit.
When I put the green one on, my intellect obviously goes up, my armor goes down slightly, but my power actually ends up higher.
I am thinking I might really be better off with the green ones.. does that sound right?
Also, what should an enhancing shaman’s priorities be? Strength, Stamina, Intellect I’d imagine, but I’m new, so very open to any constructive criticism.
How much mail should I be wearing? does it end up hurting my stats too much?
This past week, a few things have gone on. With Karynna, After completing the Missing Diplomat quest ( as I mentioned before), I had moved her to Theramore, and had worked my way through some of the quests in that area. I am currently located in Mudsprocket and working my way through those. She is now level 39.. I’m so proud of her.. hehe! I can’t wait to get her to level 40 so that I can start wearing mail. I’ve kept a few pieces that I’ve gotten off of drops to get me started. Here is a picture of her now though.. maybe the next shot I post will show her in some mail.
Katella and Blindedrage finished most of the quests in Duskwood. Here’s a picture of us and a random mage we met.
We also then moved on to Theramore this weekend. Here we are on the boat ride over. Aww..
Its funny how I still think of Blindedrage as Galka, even though a different game, but you gotta admit, Galka & Dreanei still look kinda similar.. hehe..
We got the Flight Path, which always makes things slightly easier, however the length of time spent flying has certainly increased.
By the end of the night, we had reached 35, and Blindedrage had been surprised with getting a mount – his paladin warhorse.. I was bummed that priests don’t get one.. its an awful lot of gold to come up with when you are first starting out.. >< I was further disillusioned to find out that when I do finally get that much gold, that I will basically have to start out with an elephant.. 
I want a horse too.. >< lol… Aw well, all in good time I guess. Here is his:
I’ve been working to try and finish up Karynna’s Quests, and it seems like no matter what I do, I always seem to have 21/25 quests in my log.. lol.
I ended up in the Barrens last night, Theramore I think it was called, some of the quests require a lot of running! lol.. I had to rough up two separate towns people in different areas who where defias affiliates.. Then while wandering about to find the last guy, I fought a Risen Spirit that actually dropped Mageweave Cloth, so I might go ahead and work the quests out there for a bit, as that is the next cloth that Katella will need for Tailoring.. I’m cheap, and I don’t like buying things.. lol. Although I might if I had more gold, but it is kind of nice to just have a dual purpose for leveling in an area. Karynna leveled to 36 Shaman last night before I logged.
I finished the Missing Diplomat quest… least I think, sometimes I click too quickly, and they didn’t have another one for me to pick up with the same name. I kind of wish that WoW had a function where you could go back and look at the list of quests you had finished like in FFXI. I’m also bad at just picking up quests, then looking at them later.. lol Anyhow, I got a ring out of the deal, and it was a decent one, except the combination of rings I was already wearing made it not worth it to trade it out, so least I can NPC it.
In the past week, I’ve gotten a few really nice swords.. Its sad as when I visited the weaponmaster they don’t give me an option to learn swords on my Shaman.. so either I haven’t talked to the right NPC, or Dreneai Shaman’s don’t get them.. if so thats too bad..
Was kind of busy in real life with a quasi-class reunion thing, but still managed to get a couple levels on a few things. I ran back to Forest Song with Karynna, and finished out a couple of the quests that I had a hard time with 3 levels ago… lol. Karynna also reached level 34! She now has to figure out how to get to the Wetlands from Darkshire… Started going North, but got to the point where I met up with ?? level Elementals that tried to chew me up and spit me out.. so I started looking for alternative routes. Still haven’t figured it out.. surely there is another way.. I’ll have to look online.
Karynna had gathered some spidersilk when she was walking through trying to finish her old quests, so I sent it on to Katella, and she was able to then make her new recipe “Lesser Wizards Robe” Its dark purple, and pretty I think, although slightly not a useful as my azure vest I had made the other day, so I’m keeping it to dress up with, and as a spare chest piece to enchant in my spare time when I am working on leveling it. Call me slow, but I figured out the other day that I can just enchant the same item over and over with the same enchant and level up that way, instead of waiting to enchant something else.
Katella & Blindedrage have now reached level 31, giving me three different characters around level 30 that need mounts.. Guess I’ll have to seriously farm something here pretty soon.. lol
I can’t sew worth anything in real life, but I’ve been a tailoring like crazy on Katella in WoW.. lol. I started with a hood last night, and then proceeded to make myself a whole new outfit. I just started being able to work with silk…
To support this new habit, I’ve been taking my Shaman Karynna out for the purpose of gathering needed cloth. With Karynna, I’ve been a frequent at the Dawning Woods Catacomb’s – which really reminds me alot of Eldieme Necropolis in FFXI (only not as stressful) – and funny enough because of that I feel really comfortable there.. lol. Despite the fact that I really disliked going to Eldieme when playing FFXI.. lol!
I was out there last night when a guild member asked me if I wanted to do a dungeon run.. (started with an R.. and is in “The Barrens” area – sorry don’t have these place names down yet).
I ended up going, they summoned me there to the Barrens, and we ran in. I kinda felt a little bad though because I don’t exactly have a mount yet, so they were all running in on their mounts and I was in ghostwolf form to try and keep up. They ended up getting off of their mounts and we fought our way in.
I had never really “partied” or “grouped” with more than one person before, so I really didn’t know what exactly was expected of me. Karynna is an enhancing shaman, so mostly I just kept Mana Spring Totem (for the paladin that was always out of mana) , Magma Totem, and Windfury Totem up. Honestly they killed things so quickly that I hardly got a chance to do much. Just hit, and a few heals here and there, and a few chain lightnings… Is there a trick to targeting in this game? It was insane the amount of mobs that were on us at a time, this was definately not the careful planning that I’m used to with FFXI. In WoW they just run in and grab a whole group… I was last in dps.. Maybe that is normal? Is enhancing a Damage dealer? or more of a support role? LOL.. I have no clue. Anyhow I got a few items out of it, I was passing on things first, then they said to roll greed all the time, so I rolled a few times.. I still passed on some stuff when people said that they wanted or needed it. Most stuff I got was lower than what I was already wearing, so I sent it to some of my other characters.
Hope I did ok.. lol. No one said anything, but I kind of have the feeling from listening to conversations in my own guild, that possibly rather than point out things to party members in WoW, that people are more apt to just complain about them in their guild chat, so who knows… Maybe there are total strangers out there that now think I suck… ah well.. lol! I’m willing to learn though.
One thing is that there is so much chatter on some of the channels, I have a real hard time noticing when someone is talking to me.. I suppose I’ll get used to it, but I’m sure they all think I’m slow.. lol.
When getting supplies on Karynna for Katella (since she generally has more money) I also picked up a hat for Karynna.. lol. I like it although I’m glad for the option to not have to display it..
On the otherside of things… I was walking trying to locate NPC’s for a quest that Shivasnow & Ifritsfire has, and got this picture and liked it! Thought I’d share…
Its funny, but I almost enjoy the crafting part of the game more than the leveling part. I have Katella doing Tailoring and Enchanting. My husband had found an enchanting recipe on one of his characters and gave it to Katella, so yesterday I ground through trying to get my enchanting to 90, which I did, but used most of my items I’ve collected in the process. So she and Blindedrage will be farming again soon.
It was exciting though because I was able to use the recipe he gave me to enchant my weapon with a +2 beastslayer, and now my weapon glows! Next time I login, I’m going to enchant his weapon with it too.
