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Kam'lanaut is a renowned hero, I'll have you know. 
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Feb 4, 2023 21:37
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Fat and Useless posted:Boy howdy do I! The first couple limit breaks he just asks for some fairly easy to get items. Papyrus... 
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Feb 4, 2023 22:35
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My prediction is that uh oh spaghettios these two goons are the actual villains and they want Beastman magicite so they can summon the Shadowlord or some such evilness. Also is any of the actual fighting/dungeoning worth showing off at this stage of the game or is it very bland?
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Feb 4, 2023 22:38
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PurpleXVI posted:My prediction is that uh oh spaghettios these two goons are the actual villains and they want Beastman magicite so they can summon the Shadowlord or some such evilness. Update 12 has video. There is exactly ONE quest I guarantee I will record in the third expansion. There are a lot of contenders for worst quest in the game, this one is my personal favorite worst quest. Also MarquiseMindfang posted:Kam'lanaut is a renowned hero, I'll have you know. Kam'lanaut has given reconstruction aid to all nations, unified the middlelands currency, solved housing by building straight up into the clouds, created air trade routes to Visaria's annoyance, taught not only Jeuno how to craft with crystals but gave it to the other 3 nations because he could, and fought on the frontline of the war 20 years ago while getting the other nations to work together. The man is a hero. He's at least 50 years old and looks like this:  But he is a hero. Now his brother is like 40 minimum. That one you can question. Fat and Useless fucked around with this message at 09:27 on Feb 5, 2023 |
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Feb 5, 2023 06:08
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Chapter 9: Magicite Although the war had ended, the long-suffering nations of Vana'diel pledged to maintain their alliance. Each nation built a consulate in their sister countries. The Duchy of Jeuno unveiled enormous airships based on ancient technology, bringing the nations of Vana'diel closer together, and promising a new era of peace and prosperity. Or so the nations of the world had hoped. In reality, the beastmen had regrouped and continued to construct strongholds throughout the world. Although they lacked the organization of previous eras, they launched a new campaign of looting, plundering, and terror against the people of Vana'diel. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Lets get to it! First magcite is in Davoi. It's at this time I do Maat's uncap involving the three beastmen strongholds mentioned previously. The annoying parts of each of these strongholds that I mentioned are mainly unique to the Maat areas, you don't need to go very deep to get to the magicite.  I find what seems to be a spine that has been broken. Inside of it...  Magicite? I grab th-    -e stone and p-      -ull a chu-  -nk off... The hell was that? What the actual hell was that? That was definitely the past but how and why? I'm not gonna puzzle this out now because it's sure as hell gonna happen at the next one too.   Beadeaux next. Like the previous magicite, it's housed inside a broken spine.  I brace myself for the flashback and pull...       Castle Oztroja last...   And upon walking in the drat door... ♪Sorrow♪     Breaking the cycle is hard Verena. As a show of respect I avoid spilling more blood and sneak into the magicite chamber, once again in a broken spine.  And once again...    That was the past... Karaha-Baruha "The Hero of Windurst" died summoning Fenrir 20 years ago in a battle of 30000 Beastmen vs 1000 Windurstians including cardians.     That was the present with current Orastery minister Ajido-Marujido, who was the one who taught me to hear Carbuncle. The last vision seemed to be the Star Sybil in recent days as well. I can't tell if that was more or less ominous than the last two since it involved the present or nearish past... Oh hey Lion, don't touch the shinny rocks. ♪Despair (Memoro de la S^tono)♪  Yeah Lion you are right I DO look like poo poo. What the hell are the beastmen doing with this stuff?   Yep, seems like it. At least it wasn't an out of body experience this time. We should probably report this.   One step ahead of us. Kam'lanaut tells me to return to my embassy. He'll have need of my aid again soon. But of course I can't just go peacefully...   ...  Dread washes over me. Next time: Visaria beats up an old man Fat and Useless fucked around with this message at 18:13 on Feb 6, 2023 |
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Feb 6, 2023 18:09
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I kind of enjoyed this mission because those massive spines are just all over the world, and you've definitely seem them everywhere. You've probably run along one or more of them just to see if you could (you can). You might even have worked out where they connect. But this is the first inkling you get of what they actually are. And nobody has drawn attention to it in a big heavy handed way, that I can recall, so far. XI has so many cool concepts that make you ask "what the heck is this thing?" before answering it further down the line, and this is just the first one. There are mysteries and secrets hidden everywhere. Sometimes those things are just lore for a quest. Sometimes those secrets try to murder you. Boy that Ulrich chap sure seems like a dickhead! Sure hope the consequences of his fuckery aren't too grand. MarquiseMindfang fucked around with this message at 20:07 on Feb 6, 2023 |
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Feb 6, 2023 20:02
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Huh, XI has more story depth than I expected. From all the tales of terror I kind of just expected a grindier Everquest.
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Feb 6, 2023 21:34
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PurpleXVI posted:Huh, XI has more story depth than I expected. From all the tales of terror I kind of just expected a grindier Everquest. FF11 has some amazingly good stories; it's just that for most of it's existence it was locked behind horrible old school MMO grind.
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Feb 7, 2023 00:47
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PurpleXVI posted:Huh, XI has more story depth than I expected. From all the tales of terror I kind of just expected a grindier Everquest. Melomane Mallet posted:FF11 has some amazingly good stories; it's just that for most of it's existence it was locked behind horrible old school MMO grind. As expansions go on the story gets much better and the access to the story is pretty easy nowadays once you get to max level which is no longer a huge process. That being said the roughest parts of doing FF11's story is that the game needs a wiki at times(there are two of them, neither is complete, use both for different quests...) because it was designed around people talking to each other and helping each other do quests together. A friend of mine's MOM had a binder of notes from when she played. If you like exploration puzzles, poo poo this is a game for you.
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Feb 7, 2023 11:17
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This was a time before quest markers, minimaps, zone teleports and map indicators. Half the areas you go to you wouldn't even have a map unless you went out of your way to get it. And all you had to use on it were map pins you set yourself. I liked it, the confusion could lead to you to places you might normally never have found. Obscure corners of areas where weird monsters lurked. It made the world feel alive, populated, and dangerous, where the overworld in XIV feels mostly vestigial after you're done with the MSQ and all the zones are pretty dead. Be honest, when was the last time you stepped outside a city in XIV for anything? In XI you would often run past other people just doing random errands because running or riding places was the only way to get anywhere. Or you would run past a whole linkshell on their way to kill a boss.
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Feb 7, 2023 18:03
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PurpleXVI posted:Huh, XI has more story depth than I expected. From all the tales of terror I kind of just expected a grindier Everquest. FF11 was a more approachable and less grindy game than EQ in most ways, not to mention that it looked and sounded much better -- perhaps unsurprisingly, since it was released 2½ years later. I'd say the base mechanics of 11 were more thought-out than EQ's. The skill chain chart might look overwhelming, but actually doing skill chains and timing XP chains in FF11 was a lot more interesting than hitting Kick once every 10 seconds. The problem is that FF11, especially the US and EU releases, came at the very tail end of that particular era of the genre. Repeatedly killing mobs in groups was the main gameplay loop and being able to control combat entirely through chat commands was still an expected feature to ease in the MUD players. All of that soon became very dated as the genre changed but it nothing about the gameplay loop was out of the ordinary compared to EQ, Lineage and the contemporary games that 11 was trying to compete with.
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Feb 7, 2023 18:28
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MarquiseMindfang posted:This was a time before quest markers, minimaps, zone teleports and map indicators. Half the areas you go to you wouldn't even have a map unless you went out of your way to get it. And all you had to use on it were map pins you set yourself. The overworld in FF14 could be completely deleted and nothing would be lost except some nice vistas and an awful lot of terrible fetchquests and visiting Minfilia, there's no meaningful gameplay there, no meaningful challenges, nothing interesting or relevant to discover. So yeah, mark me down for being nostalgic for the era of having to gently caress around, find out and discover things the hard way.
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Feb 7, 2023 18:40
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PurpleXVI posted:The overworld in FF14 could be completely deleted and nothing would be lost except some nice vistas and an awful lot of terrible fetchquests and visiting Minfilia, there's no meaningful gameplay there, no meaningful challenges, nothing interesting or relevant to discover. To be honest, playing Elden Ring after trying to play Morrowind again has made me realize that while actually having to travel by using landmarks and viewing beautiful vistas and interpreting direction which might or might not be subtly wrong is wonderful, after enough times close enough together, it winds up being a commute. Sure, make me travel and see things, but after a while I'm taking public transit, putting on headphones and reading a book. (Although I will visit places and routes again for the view when they are shockingly pretty.)
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Feb 7, 2023 18:46
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SIGSEGV posted:To be honest, playing Elden Ring after trying to play Morrowind again has made me realize that while actually having to travel by using landmarks and viewing beautiful vistas and interpreting direction which might or might not be subtly wrong is wonderful, after enough times close enough together, it winds up being a commute. Sure, make me travel and see things, but after a while I'm taking public transit, putting on headphones and reading a book. (Although I will visit places and routes again for the view when they are shockingly pretty.) I would not try to LP this without my zoops. Even with zoops I had a quest take me 5 hours knowing where I was going, having invis, and being 99. It was mostly travel. Doing it blind and capped at level 75 was probably both amazing and horrible way back when. 11 tends to make you visit every inch of the world. I swear I've been to Ordelle's Cave like 4 times so far for different things not including the one time I leveled there a bit. Some out in the middle of nowhere cave. Over the expansions maps start to evolve and I'll get to it when it happens. Base game maps are mainly normal straight forward maps, not a ton of puzzles/switches/gimmicks if any at all. Later on both dungeons and overworld get a little crazy. I absolutely understand how FF14 1.0 happened. When we get to interesting maps I will absolutely show them off. Also I still need to take pictures of Jeuno, I swear I will eventually. Also a bit of a status update. Zillart is done, need to write it all. The only Jobs not at 60 are Warrior(52) and Beastmaster(51). What this translates to is I'm gonna do some Job updates before we start expansion 2. If anyone wants to see more of certain NPCs or Jobs, sound off and I'll prioritize the associated Job/NPC quests. Crab kill count for expansion 1 is going places. Fat and Useless fucked around with this message at 19:23 on Feb 7, 2023 |
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Feb 7, 2023 19:10
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Chapter 10: Shattering Stars Still, the three great nations continued to mistrust one another. Rather than dispatching their own forces to deal with the beastmen threat, they began to employ a new generation of independent youth to deal with the situation on an individual level. These stalwart people are called adventurers. They are intrepid souls who follow their own beliefs, moving freely from city to city in spite of their own national allegiances. Truly, it is the dawn of a new era in Vana'diel history. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Needless to say the embassy sends me home immediately to figure out the situation. Curilla meets me at the Chateau.  As a former brigand I can't help but wince at that... Looks like the king is looking for Curilla while we stand here in awkward silence. While it seems like everything was under control the king informs her something was overlooked...  At this point a normal person would quit, take their bed if they had one, and find a hole to live in for the next decade. We knew the Shadow Lord was possibly comming back and somehow two orders of knights couldn't protect the magic dodongle that keeps him gone. 20 years ago was really really bad. Like very bad. What was I doing 20 years ago? I can't remember, but it was bad. Wait how old am I? Was I alive 20 years ago? That isn't important right this second. Balls have been dropped. While I have my inner meltdown the conversation continues.  Training? Better go hit up Maat for all he's worth. ♪Ru'Lude Gardens♪ At first he just has me go around talking to people all over the Middle Lands. No big deal each gives me a rock. After that however he finally gets serious.   Half his tasks are merely fetching random things, yes, but they do make me stronger undoubtedly. A testimony can be found on various high level monsters. Each monster, like people themselves can have one or more jobs like Black Mage or Dark Knight. I specifically need to hunt skeletons that have Dark Knight as a job in the caves on the Valkrum Dunes. "Games? You should talk, Wolfgang. Why, Visaria here could slice you up and eat you for breakfast." Yeah I probably could... Wait did I get a complement and/or affirmation? Maat that is the way to my heart. Also Gil but you look broke. He'll finish his business with Wolfgang while I grab the testimony. Visaria gets the testimony Not too hard, they have a reasonable drop rate. Without trusts or a party it would be impossible. I really should leave a positive review of the program at the Jeuno Institute of Magic Studies.  How hard could he be?  Maat is always level 70 and is always your class, he will always use hand to hand. He has most of the abilities of your job >INCLUDING YOUR ONE HOUR<. Once upon a time you had to solo him. Nowadays you can use trusts but he is still very rough if you aren't ready to be hit with a one hour ability. Student defeats master and we head back to Jeuno. I can't help but wonder what this old man's deal is. Why is he as strong as he is? He shares a story with me.   Doctor Monberaux had been listening in and has a question for Maat.  The Doctor tells Maat to keep safe and starts to head off.  "They say that where there is a beginning, there is an end. However I believe something like memories, don't have to end. That is where you young folk come in..." And that is all this simple old man can ask for. The Archduke and his brother aren't normal, that was certain the first time I met them. I have no idea what each of their goals are but they feel ominous. But I have a different problem to deal with. I go back to Halver to see what they came up with.  I doubt anyone would believe me about the flashbacks but I think some of that expedition is what I saw during my magicite adventure.  My fight with Maat actually took place in the ruins so I have a quick zoop to them. We just need to slap a fresh seal on a hell gate. Normal adventurer stuff. Before I leave I stop by and get Curilla's trust.  I can honestly say there is no one in this Kingdom who takes the knight stuff more seriously that her, even Trion. It actually makes me feel a little guilty for setting my standards for a knight to be so high that this is what I expect them all to be like. Ever striving for perfection for others sake, it actually feels a little like a curse.  Well... Off to Fei'Yin I go.  Oh look my friends are here, now we can gaze at the demon seal together.  Would you believe me if I said I saw it?    While they do that I have a seal to fix. ♪Boss Time!♪ A lich? Better kill it.  Okay so I got cocky and decided to rush down the lich while ignoring the two other skeletons. Problem is they are all casters and casters hit hard. Also as the lich gets closer to death he summons more...  I start fixing my mistake. Eventually I take them all down.  Good work team. Time to fix a seal. My Dark Knight teacher gives me poo poo over that poor showing.   This is a bit of a problem. I can't fix something that doesn't exist to be fixed. The heads of the knights are already mid conversation when I arrive.  This is going to end up with me being sent to assassinate the Shadow Lord, I feel it in my bones.    Yep I know how this story ends already, better prepare myself with some new armor. Also I still have to meet up with Lion at the crag and I have time while whatever this is *juggles hands at the knights* happens. Next time: Our Reason
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Feb 8, 2023 17:38
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I can never get over the goofy-rear end Elvaan proportions.
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Feb 8, 2023 18:41
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Fat and Useless posted:What was I doing 20 years ago? I can't remember Playing red light, green light with a cat or something equally silly, no doubt. Huh, you can use trusts in Maat now? That's nice. Let me tell you about Red Mage Maat... ha ha ha...
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Feb 8, 2023 20:38
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Monsters having classes also reminds me of Guild Wars 1. Do they have access to the full array of abilities that a player of equal level would have?
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Feb 8, 2023 20:47
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PurpleXVI posted:Monsters having classes also reminds me of Guild Wars 1. Do they have access to the full array of abilities that a player of equal level would have? Generally, no. Grunt or fodder mobs will usually only have the spell lists of the classes they ostensibly have -- except in the case of Summoner, where normal monsters cannot use the Avatars and can only summon one element of Spirit to assist them. Notorious Monsters can have some or all of the actual Job Abilities of the class, depending on which one it is. Some of these are nigh-useless to a monster (Manafont, for example, when monsters have huge MP reserves) and so in these cases the ability usually unlocks something else. Manafont might add new spells to the monster's spell list for the duration, or something like that. Mijin Gakure, the Ninja's selfdestruct ability, usually has its drawback of instantly KOing yourself removed in a monster's hands. There is also a (sadly abandoned) system in the game whereby players get to play as monsters and romp around the world killing other monsters. In these situations you DO have full access to the Job Abilities of whatever you're piloting, iirc. They forgot to give this system any useful rewards and so it died in the cradle.
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Feb 8, 2023 20:58
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PurpleXVI posted:Monsters having classes also reminds me of Guild Wars 1. Do they have access to the full array of abilities that a player of equal level would have? MarquiseMindfang posted:Generally, no. Grunt or fodder mobs will usually only have the spell lists of the classes they ostensibly have -- except in the case of Summoner, where normal monsters cannot use the Avatars and can only summon one element of Spirit to assist them. Notorious Monsters can have some or all of the actual Job Abilities of the class, depending on which one it is. Some of these are nigh-useless to a monster (Manafont, for example, when monsters have huge MP reserves) and so in these cases the ability usually unlocks something else. Manafont might add new spells to the monster's spell list for the duration, or something like that. Mijin Gakure, the Ninja's selfdestruct ability, usually has its drawback of instantly KOing yourself removed in a monster's hands. Half the monsters have Blue magic, sometimes multiple Blue spells. They can also have most normal rear end magic including the very angry Black Mage spells. NMs can have one hours sometimes. Some specific summoned NMs can SPAM one hours. Dragoon, Beastmaster, and Puppeteer enemies all have their pets. Lots of boss fights have one hours. All monsters have TP moves and use the TP moves at different intervals depending on their current HP; less HP = faster usage. A boss with a ton of HP gets very hairy at low HP. Monster TP moves are a topic we will go over in detail when we hit Blue Mage. Like MM was saying before, Maat with certain one hours like Red Mage which lets you just spam spells can be your doom. Even with trusts that one hour can end you. In White Mage's case you just had to live for 5 minutes while fighting him. You only need to do the Maat fight once on any Job but you can fight him again on the others for his trust. Fat and Useless fucked around with this message at 21:38 on Feb 8, 2023 |
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Feb 8, 2023 21:35
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Feels so weird seeing them called one hours. They were still 2 hour cooldowns last time I played.
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Feb 9, 2023 01:58
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IthilionTheBrave posted:Feels so weird seeing them called one hours. They were still 2 hour cooldowns last time I played. I was going to remark on this too. Even when it got changed down everyone I knew still kept calling them 2h abilities. Ah, I genuinely miss this game so much. There was a rumour that SE would unify the FFXI and FFXIV subs to be one sub, and that would get me playing again honestly.
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Feb 9, 2023 02:30
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MarquiseMindfang posted:I was going to remark on this too. Even when it got changed down everyone I knew still kept calling them 2h abilities. This and a combo of porting it to the ps4/5, yes. Helps I have a bunch of friends who went back to it during FF14's covid content drought.
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Feb 9, 2023 03:55
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Welcome to the first Job rundown. In these I'll go over how the Job works and other fun stuff to start then we'll do the artifact armor quests of the Job and in later expansions there is a level 75 uncap quest for new Jobs instead of Maat. Some of these will probably be in multiple parts, these early expansion ones aren't too deep so only one for them. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dark Knight  Role: Damage dealer and a bit of an off tank Dark Knight is a solid damage dealer. Doesn't do anything fancy other than doing big numbers. Main Weapons: Great Sword and Scythe Both are solid choices with Scythe being slightly better and for the most part being unique to Dark Knight at high levels of gear. In general for armor, Dark Knight can usually wear plate that Paladin and Warrior can. It also has heavy armor choices that are less tank focused and more damage focused. Magic: A little bit of Elemental magic and unique Dark magic The Elemental magic is nothing useful, but the Dark stuff is pretty neat. You can absorb various stats from enemies like strength, you can absorb MP, you can absorb HP, you can absorb TP, you can steal buffs, and like a Red Mage you can enchant your weapon but uniquely with Dark element. All this being said you aren't really a caster and as such your cool Dark magic is rarely used. Notable Abilities: Blood Weapon: (One hour cooldown) You absorb health from your attacks for 30 seconds. Soul Enslavement: (One hour cooldown) You absorb TP from your attacks for 30 seconds. *Last Resort: Raise attack and lower defense, later on a merit adds attack speed to it as do some traits. *Souleater: Sacrifice health on each hit to deal extra damage. The iconic Dark Knight gimmick! *Consume Mana: Use ALL your MP to deal extra damage on your next attack. You have ways to get back MP very easily and you don't use your MP for much anyhow. *Weapon Bash: A quick low damage hit that stuns. Scarlet Delirium: The next hit you take gives you a damage buff, the cooldown is low enough that this can always be up. If you take 50% of your HP you get a 25% damage buff as an example. Nether Void: Your next drain(not TP) drains 50% more *Can be used on other Jobs when set as a Sub Job Notable Traits As A Sub Job: Physical attack boosts, two hand attack speed with Last Resort on, two hand damage boosts, bonus TP from casting Elemental or Dark magic. Pretty good for any Job that uses two handers. Cool Weapon Skills: Infernal Scythe: Deals darkness elemental damage and lowers target's attack. Entropy: Converts damage dealt into MP Catastrophe: Drains Health Insurgency: Hits like a truck Cross Reaper: Hits like a slightly smaller truck but you get it early Everything you need, scythe skills are just kinda good. Summary: In general you enchant yourself with darkness as it makes sense and just go to town bleeding yourself to death and being surprisingly fast for swinging a two hander around. When needed you can off tank and self heal a little bit with your spells, weaponskills, and Sub Job choice. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ♪Metalworks♪ I need some new armor if I'm going to go run in and fight the Shadow Lord all by myself(and my trusts). The best place to go looking is the Metalworks in Bastok.  Darksteel? Sounds dark and strong. Perfect.  Frick, gotta go to Windurst and get it back.  Frick, gotta go beat up some birds. One bird beating later  I give Cid a bit to think on it.  Okay so to sum it up Gerwitz makes the good darksteel which is what Dark Knight armor is traditionally made from. Zeid is looking into some kind of "evil weapon" which is basically a weapon with a will of its own. They enslave earth spirits named kobolds who have telekinetic powers. The weapons get like that usually from exposure to powerful magic. Also did Cid say something about Zeid being the one who ended the Shadow Lord and not Volkner? No wonder Volkner thinks Zeid deserves his position. Also no wonder Zeid doesn't want to believe the current situation... Well if it gets me closer to the mystery of Gerwitz and some armor, Zeid hunting I will go! After I whole lot of searching I find him in Ordelle's Cave.   In other words I'm bait. I take a darksteel ingot and go to the reported spot. We just drop this bar here annnnnd...  That was an axe but its darksteel. So maybe we drop the axe oveeer heeere?  That's the sword, lets just drop this ovvvver theeere...  I successfully beat up a soul! Everyone knows that is how you fix em.  Zeid is skeptical that's all there was to Gerwitz sticking around.   Wait what am I doing? I just wanted some armor.  This whole thing has driven home what it is to be a Galka. Treated as lesser with fewer rights, borderline slavery, Hume given names, driven from their homeland by beastmen, the inherent rage that burns inside of them that is a struggle to control. Being a Galka means something, it means you still exist despite everything before. Reincarnation is a fine reproduction cycle, but yes, I'm sure it is scary when staring at the the end of your life knowing you'll forget everything. It would be for anyone, rebirth or no. The true burden lies with the Talekeeper. Not only do they remember their past life, they remember two centuries of every Galka's lives. Love, hate, fear, joy, sadness, death, and pain. 200 years of it. I couldn't do it. No one can do it. Never once has a Talekeeper lived to their rebirth. That is the real dark burden. As far as I know, Zeid mentioning it just now is the first I've ever heard of a new Talekeeper being found since Raogrimm. It's probably not something I should talk about if that is the case. Well now I feel awful. I did get boots out of this though. Before leaving Gerwitz tells me about a flanchard and cuirass hidden away in Davoi and Castle Oztroja. He also tells me of a armorsmith in Jeuno who might be able to get me some gloves. The two beastmen pieces are just locked away in coffers in high level parts of their lairs. A little invisibility gets me to them.  Now the gloves... I start at the obvious spot, the armor shop.   So Dragoon, Samurai, Ninja, and every one of the base jobs does this same quest for the gloves. Same with the two pieces in the beastmen strongholds.   I get the gloves from the necropolis by dropping down a pit into some very angry ghosts who give me a savage beating. Like the beastmen armor you just need to open a coffer. The fellow I talked to at the armor shop lacks the skill and proper tools to repair them however he heard a member of the Tenshodo found an old rusted toolbox that won't open. How convenient!  Yep she swiped it from a warehouse, she sells it to me for 1000 gil. She left it over by the item shop in the port. Turns out she forgot about it til I brought it up. Wonderful lets get this toolbox and find someone to...  Ghost smith huh? It's strange this is my second one today. He asks for a shadow flame from Castle Zvhal to fix the gauntlets. I don't need to go inside for the flames, the torch I need is outside of it.  I return to the ghost and he restores the gloves. Then just walks through me... You know what I'm excited for? More ghosts. Where my dark journey began... Well I didn't become a Dark Knight until I returned to Zeid in Beadeaux the first time I murdered 100 rabbits and it is easier to get to compared to the mines. Zeid is waiting for me there.  Can a blade of darkness truly defeat evil? I'm sure this has been asked as long as Dark Knights have existed. I hunt down a high level quadav mage for some blood while I think about the path I chose for myself. The place where crystals gather is Delkfutt's Tower, all crag spines connect to it.  It isn't for justice.  It's not love.  Not sorrow, nor guilt.  Is it all really just for death? At the spot Zeid told me about I summon the scythe with the blood. Once I've banished it I take the teleporter back and find a chest at the bottom of the stairs. A helmet and a letter is inside.   Should I ever doubt the path I've chosen I need but look at my blade and ask myself this: Does it glow with true darkness?  I choose to believe it burns with hope. Fat and Useless fucked around with this message at 16:30 on Feb 10, 2023 |
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Feb 10, 2023 15:51
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Next Time: Visaria's totally real disciple (I swear) who lives in the far east you wouldn't know her So Dark Knight... Well it isn't 14's Dark Knight and Zeid says that from the start, yours is not the blade of justice. For most of it Zeid really does just let on it's about making the blade darker, then right at the end there is something more to it and the game never tells you outright what you see when you look at your blade. This Job really ties in with the Galka themes of rage and memory. Something you'll notice in this and every other Job quest, it's usually not about you. Final thoughts? No your blade doesn't glow with true darkness, if it did you would be the thing you hunt. Using your own life force to fight, the struggle to live just long enough to see the end of it. Desperation? That might be what leads you to pick up that dark blade but at the end of the path you are just looking for hope. That's what Visaria thinks anyway. I'd love to hear your thoughts on it. What exactly is the dark burden? What is darkness? The next one of these will be Red Mage and then ???. Fat and Useless fucked around with this message at 16:34 on Feb 10, 2023 |
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Feb 10, 2023 16:24
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I'm pretty sure that FFXI's depiction of a Dark Knight is the first Job in the Final Fantasy franchise to use Scythes.
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Feb 10, 2023 17:37
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They're probably at least the first job to use a scythe that's actually classified as a scythe (I don't think the FFV Berserker weapon counts, since it's internally another axe), unless I'm forgetting something.
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Feb 10, 2023 17:47
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I have no idea why they decided to include scythes in 11 honestly. Great axes are right there. Dark is extremely based off Cecil and even Zeid uses a great sword. Warrior and Beastmaster can use a good chunk of important scythe weaponskills. Black Mage can also use scythes! It can in fact use some of the strongest damage scythes! However they lack the skill to use Entropy(the MP restore WS) and of course their gear is not tailored to melee so small numbers. 11 is neat in that a bunch of the best weapons and armor can be used by more than one Job which is cool for gearing other Jobs you may wish to play. The limit is usually unique weaponskills.
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Feb 10, 2023 18:56
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Fat and Useless posted:I have no idea why they decided to include scythes in 11 honestly. Great axes are right there. Dark is extremely based off Cecil and even Zeid uses a great sword. You could say the same about why do guns/crossbows co-exist. Why are archery and marksmanship separate skills? Honestly it's just a flavour thing as far as I can tell. Rule of cool.
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Feb 10, 2023 19:58
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MarquiseMindfang posted:You could say the same about why do guns/crossbows co-exist. Why are archery and marksmanship separate skills? Honestly it's just a flavour thing as far as I can tell. Rule of cool. They have not gotten around to making archery gooder, guns are still king. It's a shame because it's something unique to Rangers. I think Ranger might have a cool crossbow though when they aren't just using a gun. Also here is a salute to throwing weapons. They exist. They still do updates to the Jobs so there is always hope they make archery more unique and attractive over marksman's big numbers. Did guns exist before ToAU? I only have memories of Hexagun days and leveling crafting just to make bullets. I wonder how much it would break things if they tried to move archery into marksmanship and change the unique Ranger weaponskills. Fat and Useless fucked around with this message at 21:43 on Feb 10, 2023 |
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Feb 10, 2023 21:37
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Fat and Useless posted:Did guns exist before ToAU? I only have memories of Hexagun days and leveling crafting just to make bullets. The relic Marksmanship weapon was always Annihilator, so yeah. But there were very few of them. It would probably gently caress up a ton of things. There's loads of things the devs would like to do, but the FFXI codebase is a house of cards that is built on sand and covered in spaghetti. One particularly memorable version update resulted in Cure spells damaging undead for about 100x more than they were meant to, so for a hectic few hours everyone went out and soloed as many undead Abyssea NMs as they could until the emergency maintenance. Nothing in the preceding version update had anything to do with cure spell values.
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Feb 10, 2023 22:00
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Oh thank God, I thought you were going to end up with a goofy Batman mask like Zeid.
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Feb 10, 2023 22:42
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Chapter 11: The Rhapsodies Of Vana'diel I told Lion we'd meet at the crag to discuss time and space having a real one and we have some time while we wait on a Shadow Lord plan.  I'll try to explain the crags to the best of my ability. They are big, ancient, made of cermet, and each one has a Mother Crystal. What's a Mother Crystal? Well when you die you go to it I guess. They also have spines that span far beyond the crags themselves. The most noticeable case is in the Meriphataud Mountains where an above ground spine goes across the whole of 'em. Anyway each crag has a telepoint that takes you inside. As I walk in Lion is standing there a bit dazed. Apparently the crystal was speaking to her.   She says she saw people fleeing to the four corners of Vana'diel, futilely trying to escape an ever growing cloud of darkness. She was frozen, unable to do anything. A gloom covered a Mother Crystal from view.  "Not everyone is aware that our world, our Vana'diel, is protected by the benevolence of the Mother Crystal. Look all around you."  "This place is no accident. The technologies required to make these structures are beyond any known to us. Those who came before doubtlessly created the facility to shelter the crystal from harm."  Lion's vision does sound like Iroha's future. Speaking of which I bring her up to speed on that situation. We both have questions we'd love to fire off at Iroha but she has a mild case of not existing at the moment so we decide to try and find the spot Lion saw in her dreams. Remembering back to when I first met her she mentioned portals, these are them. She could pretty clearly see Jeuno so if I had to guess it was probably on Qufim.  Yep that ain't normal. Wanna touch it Lion? "You think it goes to the future?" Lion says as she touches the angry swirling vortex. *pop*   "Master! You must not get any closer!"  Oh hi Iroha!  So this is a REAL fight, most Rhapsodies of Vana'diel fights are in fact very real. This son of a gun uses frontal cone attacks that will take out a non tank in 3 or 4 hits and trusts tend to stand wherever you are when you start the fight, usually in a clump. Even with a dedicated healing trust like Kupipi this can be very rough if you don't take the time to try and adjust the trusts by turning off combat and nudging your tank away from the others. I attempted this on a 40ish Paladin and failed, came back 10 levels later and won but it was still rough.   Iroha cheers me on as I kill the beast. Right that was no problem at all kid. Master is awesome and whatnot. (I am in way over my head) Where the hell is Lion? Probably beyond the vortex where the monster just came from. Lets go touch the thing and find her.     Found her! And Zeid I guess!?  Hey Lion, I found my disciple. Told ya she was real. So where the hell are we?   More of a glimpse of what the swallowed world would be like. Hmm? A bell? Where is it coming from? Looks like it's making Lion and Zeid freak out...  The ringing stops and everyone calms down.  It marked the beginning of the end and I called it Escha. But it makes no sense the Emptiness was supposed to appear many years from now... Why is this here? Zeid puts forth that history might have started being rewritten... Meanwhile Iroha wonders if she caused it... Okay putting the two lines of thinking together. Maybe if we save the future we save the past, as hard as it is to wrap our heads around... The facts we have are this is Escha, we can't get rid of it to our collective knowledge, and that bloody bell is bad news.  Back to the big crystal then.  And Lion has a vision... It seems like she's triggering off the future orb Iroha gave me rather than the crystal. If what portends is true, then there is nothing we can do stop the darkness from approaching. But she wasn't able to see whether or not I was there to stop it. Iroha suspects it's because the orb isn't fully illuminated yet. We kinda opened the darkness box before we were ready for it.  Zeid is lost about what we are rambling about and asks the simple question of: what can we actually do? Well for now I can deal with the Shadow Lord. Maybe that will clear up some darkness or make my orb work better-er. Whatever will happen will get me closer to my future. I think. I'm still grasping that I live long enough in this hellscape of a world to be actually important one day. Anyway Zeid is gonna go report back to Gilgamesh and we'll all go deal with the Shadow Lord when the time comes. Iroha thanks both of them for their help in everything, she'll be looking into the bell while we make history happen correctly. >>> From now on all Rhapsodies of Vana'diel updates will be down in their own section on the table of contents. <<< Next time: The end of the start Fat and Useless fucked around with this message at 19:55 on Aug 17, 2023 |
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Feb 12, 2023 19:09
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The future is stored in the orbs. I like the crags and spines, they stand out from the rest of the world design in a way that makes you take notice of them.
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Feb 12, 2023 22:46
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Fat and Useless posted:Does it glow with true darkness? I loved (almost) all of the Artifact quests. During my original run they were fun and challenging in the 50-60 range, and even coming back at 99 I enjoyed the little stories that went along with them. The thing that kept me playing back in the day was that XI has so much heart. MarquiseMindfang posted:Playing red light, green light with a cat or something equally silly, no doubt. The missions for that expansion were so clearly divided between the interesting ones, and the ones with that loving cat... And yeah, beating RDM Maat back in the day was really fun. PLD was my first job but I wouldn't let myself level RDM past 69 until I beat him. I think it took me three or four tries, getting certain elemental staves, and copious amounts of potions/ethers. I had a buddy who tried it 30+ times because he insisted on meleeing and kept eating Asuran Fists...
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Feb 13, 2023 06:59
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Chapter 12: The Shadow Lord ♪Xarcabard♪ Trion's feathers are ruffled according to Halver and he wants to chat with me. He'll be in his chambers.  And just like that I have my go ahead to save the world.  Xarcabard is covered with demons, the closer you get to the castle the more there are. The front door is open so must be fine if I go inside. ♪Castle Zvhal♪  It's swimming with demons of course. However with my training I can easily slip through. Until I find the inner gate closed. Crap. To my left is a pit, I head down it and head through some maze like tunnels.  It leads to a room with 4 giant pits and beastmen of every race. Also it's a hell maze of slopes and trenches. I take it nice and slow(I get lost), none of the beastmen are brave enough to try my blade(I have invisibility).  Once I manage to bypass the trench mess I come to a room with goblins and gated rooms. The rooms aren't locked but it's a maze of doors. Through them I find demons and a strange platform. Is it a teleporter?  It sure is, it's not a maze though. There are a total of five of the teleporting platforms.  These demons are a little more feisty and some drop nice spells.  Still this is the last line of resistance. I head up the castle and come out outside again.  A bridge and a tall spire, ominous.  This is the final door. No turning back. No back up besides my bonds.   And Zeid. This is the tomb of the Shadow Lord.  The crystals in the tomb start glowing.  We put our guard up. We both know what is coming.      The vision I had at the magicite...    Before we can even react it's too late.  Shite. Well I can still summon a fake Zeid I guess.  Maybe once you fought death, but now you fight me. -Plot starts at 5 minutes in if you wish to skip the fight- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbCGjzd6-kI I... I feel like I blacked out a bit there... Lion is here? drat my head... They are headed back to Norg. I... I need to report the Shadow Lord is gone. But what the hell happened? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  ...And something else I needed to do? What is wrong with me?    I need to get to Lion.    It's just the sword Rochefogne was looking for... I have to go.  I can't remember...  My head is spinning but I gotta... I gotta get to Norg... Next time: Everything has already gone wrong Fat and Useless fucked around with this message at 21:13 on Feb 14, 2023 |
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Feb 14, 2023 21:04
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And that is the end of Final Fantasy 11. Thanks for reading. I know the video is quiet next one in a dozen updates will fix that probably. Crab count will update some time.
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Feb 14, 2023 21:12
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Remarkably short for a Final Fantasy game I have to say. 
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Feb 14, 2023 21:33
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Man it weirds me right out seeing convert in the JA menu on a drk.
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Feb 14, 2023 21:34
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The soundtrack is really quite solid.
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Feb 14, 2023 21:51
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