Melkire

I'll take what I can get, and if that's what I'm getting, I'll take it. Osric gave the man a little smile as he walked around the table, took up the bottle as he went, and refilled Nero's cup. "Simply put," he replied, his eyes fixated on the smuggler's glass as he poured, "my contacts' resources would become your resources. I run a network o' folks what treat favors as coin for trading, and I'm willin' t'incur whatever debt you rack up." He lifted the neck of the bottle just in time for the ale to reach the rim of the tumbler and no further. Satisfied, he circled around behind Nero as he resumed his trip around their table, then set to refilling his own glass as he sat back down. "Say you've reason t'acquire a special type o' munitions. I know the bastard that helped hit your warehouse; more often than not, he works for me, so there you go, home-made explosives, military grade. Mayhap there'll be need t'hunt someone down through the Shroud; I know enough Keepers for that, whole clan's worth. Better yet, I know their matriarch. Somethin' aetheric verified by a mage, white or black? Done, meeting arranged within minutes. Troubles in Coerthas? Hells, I know a dragonslayer or two, at least one o' which served with one of Ishgard's Great Houses." The sergeant rolled a hand as he set down the bottle of Admiral's Ale and picked up his drink. "Small network, but extensive. Reach exceeding the grasp, and all that nonsense. Shite, how do you think I'm able t'reach you? I'll tell you how. Made a history out o' makin' friends and acquaintances with these folk. I'm the man who knows most everyone, and most everyone knows me." He took a sip of his ale, then pointed at Lazarov. "Has its disadvantages, as y'said... but most o' those go right the window, crash, defenestrated, when the task at hand doesn't require m'own self." Melkire plucked a coin from his purse, set it against the table, and tapped it twice. "I'm no good with 'profits or loss thereof.' Why? Because I don't have to be. You need someone hit? Someone blackmailed? Bribed? A door opened? Althyk's Axe, you want a man placed in the palace, give me half a moon and enough breathing room t'get creative, and it's done." He took another sip, then leaned back in his chair. "Tell you what. Give me one o' them, what are they called, hypotheticals, give me a hypothetical and I'll tell you how my connections would get the job done."

...'cause it's getting harder and harder to breathe.

Agreed, holy shit. Ridiculously high drop rates for crafting mats is why collecting a full gear set for glamour (or leveling, if the person in question is new) from Brayflox HM, Halatali HM, Lost City of Amdapor, Stone Vigil HM, Tam-Tara HM, or Hullbreaker Isle is so infuriatingly difficult. The drop rate for mats and the respective drop rate for antique tokens for the latest set of dungeons is finally well-tuned, IMO... or maybe that's a false impression because tokens make getting the exact piece you want that much easier.

Perks of Being STR WAR #457: Being able to instantly shut Zomble Madison down with an Inner Beast. Perks of being a WAR in that fight in general: Storm's Eye for increased damage output. Berserk for increased damage output. Unchained for increased damage output. Infuriate so that you don't have to waste Wrath stacks on popping Unchained instead of going straight to Inner Beast. Fracture, a traited DoT worth using. Vengeance, so that the boss dies just a little bit sooner. Brutal Swing, an off-GCD stun to pop for just a bit more damage. Compare that to PLD's Sword Oath, Spirits Within, and Circle of Scorn. /SHRUGS

I noticed the similarities too, but handwaved them given how shiny and new the WP HM pally's set looks. ...if it's the same set de-aged, though, then my wish has been granted. Qarn HM tank gear. ; A ; EDIT: That's not a shirt, Howl, that's a strip of cloth, LOL. EDIT 2: Looks the same! Here's hoping we get the sweet helm, too.

Sez you. *pouts at shitty Flame Elite gear*

To sum up, there are five "sets" per GC. The Soldier's uniform (purchase with GC Seals) The Officer's uniform (purchase with GC Seals) The Elite Tank gear (purchase with Allied Seals) The Elite DoW gear (purchase with Allied Seals) The Elite DoM gear (purchase with Allied Seals) Everything else is a hodgepodge of mismatched pieces, some of which look really cool and thematically appropriate.

Goddamn. Maybe there's no hardcore content in the patch next week, but there is a BOATLOAD of content regardless. Thoughts and reactions:

I think this sums up the design problem with the current grindy tomestone system. I like the concept of tomestones -- buy what you want or need! don't be subject to the whims of the RNG! -- but having to do the same 3 dungeons over and over again for 2 weeks to get a chest piece is enough to make anyone grumpy. However, we play the game we have, not the game we might want. Luckily, more dungeons will equal a little less boredom. However, I also continue to blame SE for the number of really lame treasure drops in these three dungeons. Again. I'd be more excited about fighting Fenrir if I thought I'd be likely to get something besides Raziqsand. Again. The ilvl90 stuff is perfectly fine, but with only two per dungeon, if they'd throw in at least the occasional ilvl100 item for the big boss battle, maybe we'd spam ST a little less, too. The trouble with the new dungeons is that the gear they drop is ALWAYS outdated UPON RELEASE, meaning that unless you're a new player, or you're gearing out a new class, the only reason to be running the new dungeons on a daily basis is for the tomestones. Any last words? What do you want on your tombstone? Veteran players don't need the i90 tokens for anything other than glamour, after all. Crystal Tower raids have a similar problem: their gear is always outdated. Hence, it's fairly obvious that Square's intention is that 4-man and 24-man drops serve as bootstraps to catch you up in item level, while coil drops and tomestone purchases serve as the latest and greatest. I don't agree with their setup, but that's the way it is.

If it's not an Expert Roulette dungeon (read: the latest three to be released), I ask. Maybe I'm in Low Level and the healer is new. Maybe they rolled a new dungeon and this is their first time in ______ (my favorite is Pharos, ewwwwww). I DEFINITELY ask for Brayflox HM river pull, since with the right party composition you can save a lot of time but with a subpar healer you can wipe hard; I never ask for mass-pulling the goblin gliders, I just inform the healer of what to expect, then charge in balls-to-the-wall with Bloodbath+Vengeance. If we're in an Expert Roulette dungeon, odds are everyone is there to get their daily poetics bonus out of the way. They don't really want to be in there, running a dungeon for the umpteenth time. Most healers who queue for these are geared for them, as well, and are usually familiar enough with the content. So no, in these instances I don't ask, I just give the healer enough time to Stoneskin and Protect, and then we're off to long-pulling. If we wipe on a long pull, upon return I default to pulling one pack at a time. tl;dr: if I'm in there for Expert bonus, you're likely in there for Expert bonus, and if this ain't the first week or two of new dungeons, then we've both most likely been here before, so you know what's coming, and you probably don't want to be here, so brothers and sisters I am speedrunning this bitch until we wipe.

I can't speak for anyone else, but I know that when I'm pulling multiple packs on WAR in a single pull, I generally prefer for my healers to drop at least a heal or two on me once I've secured hate rather than going straight for mitigation (not that I ever tell pug healers this, I'd rather just pull and have them figure me out than waste time communicating by text). After all, I could be dead by the time your mit comes through (Brayflox HM river pull comes to mind), or maybe I just wasn't quite finished positioning the mobs and now your Sacred Soil is totally in the wrong place. tl;dr: some tanks have a love-hate relationship with healers, spoil us so that we can speedrun this content more efficiently okplzkthnxbai.

Cannot wait for the celebrations for The Navigator and The Wanderer. Hope everyone who attends for the Fury this Saturday has fun! EDIT: only just realized that there's art of what looks like the wind pony in the OP and I have the wind pony. Maybe I should show up after all. =P

My bad, you're right. Dude was around 115. I don't recall seeing a HA Crook or pants, but they had enough HA pieces and accessories to make me doubt that this was a "welfare player." And even if they were... Still. STILL. Dear healers who queue solo for 4-man content: if all three of your party members are telling your ass to suck it up, either suck it up and deal, or else leave so you don't waste other people's time on top of your own.

So last week a friend of mine asked if I'd like to help him clear a few dungeons for his Zodiac progress. It was 2 or 3 in the morning, so my brain had already checked out for the night. I told him sure, I'd be happy to help, but could he please tank for us and I'd zombie DPS (note to self, level cap a healer already, you lazy git). So we wait around in queue and finally hop into Wanderer's Palace. My friend the WAR pulled the trash up the first set of stairs. The NIN and I (on MNK) killed off most of the pack, whereupon my friend went ahead and pulled the rest of the corridor up to the first boss with the intention of locking the rest of that shit out. I have to take a minute to pause and note that our healer was well-geared. We all were. 110+ upon cursory inspection. Healer was def 120 or up around 115 or so, being geared in a mix of High Allagan and Ironworks. Wanderer's Palace is a level 50 dungeon. We were all at at least twice the recommended gear level for this instance, and despite the recent implementation of level sync to 110, 110 is still more than twice 50. So we reach the goobue and our tank stands at the entrance to lock out the trash, then tells me over VoIP to go ahead and pull the boss. The instant I did so, the healer flat out stopped healing. There where no outbound heals for at least 10, maybe 15 seconds. Needless to say, our tank died from holding the trash AND the boss. Trash got locked out at the point, leaving me, the NIN, and the WHM with the boss. So I go ahead using PB and the resulting GLIII to hold hate on the boss. Swapped into Fists of Earth. Popped Bloodbath. Popped Featherfoot. Popped Second Wind. Not once did the WHM heal me. They chose instead to let me die and let us wipe, then proceeded to argue with my friend and I that "monk tanking isn't a thing and my FC is telling me that you can't monk tank the first boss in here and I wasn't going to waste time on something that was going to fail." "What about just long enough to Swiftcast Raise the tank?" "I already used that to heal him on his first pull." ...bitch, we're wearing endgame gear doing a dungeon intended for fresh 50s that was only difficult a year ago, and monk tanking is most certainly a thing, and god damn I can definitely tank a lv 50 dungeon first boss with 5000+ health and my cooldowns, and you shouldn't have had to use Swiftcast on healing HALF A LONG PULL (wtf did you do, Swiftcast Benediction him?), and why don't you just STOP BEING BAD YOU DUMBASS NONE OF THIS WOULD HAVE BEEN AN ISSUE IF YOU'D JUST BOTHERED TO HEAL THE TANK WHILE WE LOCKED OUT THE TRASH. We were forced to clear the trash while we waited for the mandatory time to elapse before we kicked his/her ass for harassment. Because that's just what that was. Harassment by way of being an uncooperative schmuck who upon returning to the entrance decided to sit there and refuse to come heal for us. Shit, even the NIN pug started yelling at his ass to come help us finish the run. Nope. Obstinate WHM is obstinate. So we kicked him/her. Thankfully, the retard's replacement was competent (and actually, you know, a human being, with actual intelligence) despite being less well-geared, so we proceeded without any further difficulty, skipped most of the trash, burned the last two bosses down, and (luckily) got my friend his drop in that one run of WP. But goddamn. Never have I been so flabbergasted at someone's stupidity. You're an i115 healer, you can't be bothered to lock out trash, you've never seen a monk tank a 4-man instance boss, and you're going to waste your own time on top of everyone else's? How the FLIPPING FUDGE did you even get that well-geared to begin with? *cough*buyingruns*cough*

....that'll be your opinion, as the tanky Darklight gear is the horrible looking full body suit/flanchard combo. The tin can is the exception that proves the rule. =P

Dude, I'd hand them over in a heartbeat....but they can be turned in for monies? Hell, I'm sitting on 50k GCSeals RIGHT MEOW. See Kage's post above you. You can buy crafting materials from the GCs with your seals, then sell the mats on the marketboard. I honestly wouldn't turn in or discard my Darklight gear. They're not so easy to acquire as they once were, and many of them make for nice vanity/glamour/roleplay pieces.

Demon Wall needs its flies back. I have never before seen a fight's enrage mechanic so trivialized by a nerf.

This, so much. The two types of content are so different that using eight-man endgame as some sort of qualification for four-man instances is beyond stupid. Especially when it comes to long-pulling/mass-pulling trash. >.<;;

The look on his face... The lieutenant was passing around his medicinal herbs again, wasn't it? Smug bastard. Look at him back there, content with his dastardly work. Drugging children. Tut tut.

Added Mamushi. The only reason the "starting date" is on a Sunday is because I wanted to avoid scheduling conflicts with Jancis' Celebration of the Fury event. I say "starting date" because honestly, it just marks the day that we get started. This'll be an unconventional event in the sense that, other than the first get-together, there's no set time or date or schedule for when roleplay happens or when the employer will set employees to task. For example, you might receive instructions on Wednesday morning to deliver a package to a certain individual within a week's time, and to report back when the package is delivered. Or you might be instructed to meet up Saturday evening with another employee at a certain location, exchange a few seemingly meaningless words, then depart. Or maybe you'll be given a month's time to come up with a way to break into the Sultana's own vault and make off with jewelry (just an example, we won't be getting into anything this extreme). So while the date selected is Sunday, it's not a "weekly" time, nor will it be the last time that employer and employees will all be gathered together. (You are all, of course, encouraged to follow up with roleplay on the side. Maybe you want to do a little of your own digging to find out who your employer is, or why they're paying so much for these tasks, etc. Or maybe a bunch of hires just meet up for celebratory drinks.)

Chitter, chitter, chitter, squeak, chitter, squeak. The lone midlander crossing the cobblestones at Oschon's Embrace heaved a sigh as he adjusted his rucksack, shifting its weight over his right shoulder. He paused for a moment to stare at the sky and the setting sun. Satisfied, he then glanced back and down at his heel with a scowl. "Sod off," he growled. "Git." Squeak, chitter, chitter, squeak, squeak, chitter. Damnable. The rutting bastard, he had to admit, was a rather cute little beast: large beady eyes, buckteeth, a small coat of fur that looked like it would prove soft to the touch, a large fluffy tail... recipe for disaster. And the way it wriggled its nose up at him.... Kanaria'd love this. He had picked up the tail, so to speak, back at the warehouse in Candlekeep Quay, and the tiny fellow - who, on second thought, wasn't really all that tiny, being the size of his own head - had picked up a prize somewhere along the way. Looked like an acorn or some such thing. The midlander turned and knelt, drawing a knife and brandishing the blade in front of the nutkin's face. "See this? If y'keep this up, I'll have no choice but t'skin you and have me some mittens made out o' your pelt." The nutkin stared up at him with wide gleaming eyes, sniffed twice, spared a glance for the knife, then set its prize by the man's grip, clambered atop the acorn, leaned against his fingers, and sniffed his hand and the hilt, chittering all the while. Osric Melkire hung his head in defeat. He perked up at a sudden breeze that carried the fresh coastal air to him, and took his time in looking about. He'd been born here, more or less, five-and-twenty cycles ago, long before the destruction wrought by the Calamity had severed the Gods' Grip from La Noscea and forced the Lominsans to construct the Embrace. Though the moon had been wrong for it, his parents had chosen to consecrate their first-born son to Oschon, god of wanderers, for they'd been their way to the Torch when he'd arrived. He huffed a breath, now, an age and a lifetime later. "I ain't religious... but if the Old Man sent you, it'd be damned inconsiderate and ungrateful t'turn you away. So come on, then." He loosened his grip just enough to waggle his first two fingers. "If I'm t'be stuck with you, better that y'don't slow me down." The little beast squeaked an affirmative, climbed onto his fist, turned around to pick up the acorn, then proceeded to use it as a front leg to scramble up his arm and come to a rest atop his shoulder. The midlander rose and readjusted his rucksack. "I hope Jasper eats you, little poet king." Chitter, chitter, squeak, squeak, chitter, chitter.

Updated! Tentative starting date is Sunday, January 18th 2015. At that time, Private Messages will go out to all participants with instructions on how to proceed. Assistants, please look forward to PMs as early as tomorrow night so that we can work out the details of your respective contributions to the narrative. :love:

He rarely confesses this to anyone, but Osric wasn't truly gutterborn. His early childhood saw him a son to a caravan-guard-turned-caravan-master and his wife. That benefit coupled with living in Limsa Lominsa resulted in access to paid tutors from the Arcanist's Guild at Mealvaan's Gate. That all went south when Cenric Melkire committed suicide. The resulting fallout left his family destitute and drove his eldest son to the streets in order to support the small household. tl;dr: lucky to be born into the right family in the right city at the right time.

What happens in the tub, stays in the tub.

Technically speaking, mine was a letter of complaint, not a PSA. 8-)