Melkire

Fixed that for you.

((only just got back from xmas vacation, you folks have been busy)) ~Three Suns Ago~ A glass pitcher, appropriated from gods knew which table, sailed through the air across the tavern and struck some poor Sea Wolf sod on his thick noggin, spilling the pitcher's contents over many a patron throughout the chamber. Cries of disbelief and outrage preceded the inevitable fight that broke out and spread like wildfire throughout the Wench. Consequently, no one saw the small hooded figure in his mole brown robe skirt around the sea of bodies and dart into the chaos just long enough for a hand to shoot out, take the seated Seeker by the arm, drag the male off his chair and out into the cold Lominsan air. "Jin," breathed the man, his emerald eyes darting back and forth from beneath the hood as he guided Lon'qu along the upper decks, "we've been had. Was a setup after all. Captain and most o' the company headed back t'Aldenard, t'see what can be done. A'laric and I stayed behind, t'learn what we could. Ain't much, but I've a few leads." He pulled Lon'qu aside just enough to allow a warbling pair of drunk Yellowjackets to pass them by, then the Red Wings were on their way again, themselves passing into one of the glistening marble towers of Limsa. "I need you to draw from whatever personal funds you can, hire out a number of trusted men 'n' women. The sort o' mercs you'd take on as caravan guards. Send 'em t'me at Moraby Drydocks. I'll need them. Then make yourself scarce." The bearded midlander glanced at his companion, then scowled. "Someone's goin' t'get caught, Jin. Someone always gets caught. Then the bastards'll carve 'em 'til they talk, and that talk'll bring trouble. They'll be hot on our tails, but we can cut 'em off, maybe take a bastard or two alive and actually learn something. Anyroad, hands off the pearl from now on. They'll be listenin'." The company's sergeant gave the company's quartermaster a pat on the back, then broke away, turning the corner and mounting the steps headed towards the Aftcastle. Melkire stripped his robe off, revealing a lighter robe of mesa red underneath, then tossed the mole brown garment to another midlander who'd been reclining against the wall. The stranger caught the fabric, donned the robe, then leapt over the rails and made for the opposite direction. A moment later, the Hyur were out of sight... but a single voice sounded across the Red Wings' linkshell. "Noble, this is Shadow. Made contact with Merchant. We're going t'need knaves with knives. I'm too well-known in these parts, so you'll have to be the one t'cross palms. I want us ready within two suns. Same rendezvous as the last. Silence on this shell startin' now. Oschon guide your steps."

Yeah... too bad NO ONE does CT. Should get together groups to farm for the Fuma stuff. I definitely have friends that wouldn't mind running CT, some of us are farming various sets from there and I certainly wouldn't mind a premade group going in there! *raises hand* I need the healer sets, and a few Armor of Light and a few Onion pieces. Already have the full Fuma, so OP would have no competition from me. ^^

...you guys should snag E'khei Balduin for this very purpose.

Be prepared for this to happen a lot. It's become something of a running joke for my Flame characters.

Not to mention that Free Paladins aren't nearly as restrictive to roleplay as in comparison to the Flames who serve as Ul'dah's military force. Free Paladins are basically adventurers, after all.

On the "there are never any Flames around" side-note, I would totally stand around on Ul'dah's street corners, but given how my work and personal life have started eating up more and more of my time, how the PvE grind keeps calling to me, and how my main character is a covert irregular (and my alt is my alt, hence why I'm not usually on it), I've found it... difficult, recently... to make myself publicly available. Looking to change that after Christmas Starlight. It's also worth keeping in mind that, owing to their larger nature (multiple brigades, units, etc.) Flame roleplayers are a more diverse and disparate group than the Sultansworn, who are tight-knit by virtue of being a small elite unit of bodyguards led by a few individuals. I'm sure there are at least a dozen roleplayers out there playing as Flames who do their own thing on their own time and don't ever come together as a visible and cohesive entity. In contrast, if you're playing a Sultansworn, you're pretty much pinned by the tail to Ul'dah and forced to mingle and cooperate with fellow 'sworn courtesy of lore restrictions. Not to say they can't leave the city, but that it's rare for them to do so in an official capacity. More on-topic, I second Warren's suggestion. Stand around official-like in RP-dense areas. Take the initiative and have Kale react appropriately to what goes on around him. Eventually, you'll hit upon something. Hi Erik, hi Kiht, hi Xydane.

Sadly, the venue for the Ball was chosen and announced quite a while before the venue for the Eternal Bond ceremonies was. Damn you, Square-Enix! *shakes fist* Going to second Warren's advice here. I don't think the situation makes this event untenable at the chosen venue, but we'll play it by ear, I think. And yes, make sure your blacklists have room, I'm sure the event will feature at least one ignoramus. I should specify that that just now was a royal "we". Not sure if I'll be taking my laptop with me on xmas vacation, so not sure now if I'll be in attendance. I expect that the Red Wings will be looking to enforce Godmod-imposed peace and tranquility in my stead. Behave, trolls.

Bar events, as fun as they are, don't provide anything new or unique. Even themed ones like the Piquant Pumpkin get-togethers are structured similarly: people show up, people purchase drinks, people catch up with one another as if they're at the Quicksand, people disperse. I'm at a loss at the moment for ideas, but what we should be doing is brainstorming events and venues that provide unique roleplaying opportunities. As Berrod pointed out, you can take the Grindstone as an example, or Dogberry's Primals story arc events. tl;dr: There's enough sitting/standing around and chatting about ourselves already. There needs to be more getting up, going out and doing things. The only good thing to be said for bar events and the like is that they get people out of the Quicksand and into less frequently used spaces. This is just one man's opinion.

*shoves paladins to the side and boldly steps forth* Ahem. Common practice for leveling WARs / new players who are leveling WAR is as follows for pulls involving multiple mobs: 1. Tomahawk. 2. Overpower. 3. Overpower. 4. Start Butcher's Block combo. 5. If necessary, weave Flashes between weaponskills. 6. If Flashes prove insufficient, insert as many Overpowers as you deem necessary inbetween your combos. 7. If you're in real danger of losing multiple mobs, break your weapon combo in order to Overpower. 8. Remember that Skull Sunder and Butcher's Block have better single-target returns on enmity than Overpower. After each pull, reassess your need for snap aggro based on how quickly or slowly your DDs were pulling off you, and then adjust how often you Overpower and Flash accordingly. You'll need more if you're significantly outgeared and/or a DRG/BRD/BLM is getting lucky with crits or procs. You can settle for less if you outgear your DPS and/or your DPS consists primarily of single-target DDs. These are general guidelines, not rules: if on a particular pull you feel you need to adjust in a certain direction, DO SO. Do keep in mind that Overpower and Flash are both tools, not crutches. Don't mindlessly spam Overpower, and strictly speaking Flash isn't necessary (in fact, later on you'll want to swap it out in some endgame instances for different CDs) though it has its uses (snaps aggro on mobs behind you and to the side, doesn't wake slept mobs, can be used at any time without breaking weaponskill combos). Also keep in mind that, owing to its nature as a weaponskill, Overpower scales better with level and gear compared to Flash. I personally prefer to save my MP so that I can Flash after Berserk runs out, since the large majority of healers are either incapable of or don't bother with cleansing the four-second Pacification (and SCHs don't get Leeches until level 40 anyway). Tips to help manage your TP better: 1. Use Wrath-reliant weaponskills (Infuriate and Steel Cyclone) whenever possible. They are TP-free weaponskills, so the sooner you use them the more often you're saving yourself from using some TP AND giving yourself time to recover TP. You can only use them once you hit 5 Wrath stacks, which are built through combo'd SS, combo'd BB, combo'd Maim, combo'd SP/SE, Berserk, Vengeance, and Infuriate. In your case Gegenji, since you're only level 37 and don't have Steel Cyclone yet (a big help with AoE enmity), you should be using Inner Beast whenever you can unless there's a big hit you need to mitigate, in which case hang on to your stacks and time your IB. 2. Substitute Flash (and Steel Cyclone once you have it) for Overpower every once in a while. 3. Refrain from using Tomahawk unless it's for initiating a pull (standard practice) or following up a Provoke attempt to peel an errant mob off a DD/healer back onto yourself from range. Combo'd Butcher's Block peels better for less TP. Yes, you'll have to give up on all the hard work and effort that went into arranging the other mobs in the perfect positions, but walk on over there and BB that sucker anyway.

It always does. Like, I'm not even remotely competent. You just pick up certain tricks after running the damn thing 30 times in a week. There's less to complain about now that Flash and CoS got threat increases, but it always drove me insane to have two warriors in the make-up and still end up tanking packs of trash. YOU'VE GOT A CONQUEROR, YOU'VE GOT OVERPOWER, WTF IS THE PROBLEM "oops I forgot defiance XD"

Apple lover. Spear hugger. Spit taker.

D'awwwww, thank you Ilwe, those are too cute. :love:

omfg this. ATTN: FFXIV COMMUNITY Some of you like to pretend this game, outside of several coil turns, is hard. PSA: it's not. With all due respect, Melkire, I was referring to newbies that entire post. And for them, it can be very hard. You should know, because the fact remains: WE WERE ALL NOOBS ONCE. With all due respect, Edgar, I'm not saying that we shouldn't be friendly with newbies, or that we shouldn't be patient, or that we shouldn't help them, or that we shouldn't be understanding. I'm asking for a modicum of common sense before people open their traps to say stupid things. Maybe I should have written, "relative to many video games requiring certain levels of hand-eye coordination, communication, cooperation, and so forth, this game is simple enough to grasp, the learning curve mild enough to follow, and the tasks easy enough to execute that no one with a mild to moderate level of experience and history with gaming should find any cause to call the vast majority of this game's group content 'difficult', given a certain degree of attention and competency." There. Is that politically correct and specific enough to be clear? Queuing up for Stone Vigil Story Mode, dying to the first boss after being given a thorough explanation, and then claiming "lol this game is hard" as a defense when you've had forty levels to learn what's expected of you and acclimate yourself is about as ridiculous as claiming that J.K. Rowling's books are a "difficult read".

omfg this. ATTN: FFXIV COMMUNITY Some of you like to pretend this game, outside of several coil turns, is hard. PSA: it's not.

If your problem is that you're being drowned out, you might be trying to catch people's attention in a really crowded venue like the Quicksand. I'd suggest relocating (even if it's only to right outside the doors). The streets of a city, while not as populated, offer a better chance of one-on-one roleplay that sitting around a tavern where there's no guarantee that people will react to you even if you react to them. IMO, and contrary to popular opinion, you shouldn't go where the people are, you should go find the right people. The RPC Wiki can be an amazing resource for finding characters that your own would feasibly interact with, so I'd suggest starting there and then contriving to run into those folks. That, or poke them with an in-game /tell or a forum PM to see if they're interested in roleplaying with you.

This reminds me. No offense to you, but I hate it when casters put mobs to sleep in XIV. Hate. With a passion that cannot be put into words. The only reason to put something to sleep is to alleviate pressure on the healer. In most instances (read: dungeons), that should be absolutely unnecessary. If the healer needs less incoming damage on the tank, then either the tank is undergeared or unskilled, the healer is undergeared or unskilled, or both. No, the "well, if the healer has to heal less then they can DPS more so you get through the pull sooner" argument holds no water in the case of Sleep, because with Sleep you cannot reapply DoTs without waking the mob, you cannot AoE the slept mobs, you have no choice but to focus-fire down the mobs that AREN'T asleep. Trust me when I say that outgoing damage from the weaponskills and DoTs of a tank and two DPS on the entire pull is going to outweight the damage the healer can put out on a single mob. Sleep doesn't speed runs along, IT SLOWS THEM DOWN. Which makes sense, because - again - the entire point is to alleviate pressure on the healer. Are there edge cases? Yes. See the second boss (the drake) of Brayflox Normal. You sleep the boss until you've killed the add. I'm sure there are other edge cases, most of which I can't remember at the moment and many more I'm sure that I'm not even aware exist. THAT SAID, MAGES. PLEASE. FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS GOOD AND HOLY. QUIT SLEEPING THINGS. EDIT: Not to mention that every cast of Sleep is a cast that could have gone towards DPS. Goddamnit.

I try to do a reasonable job of using aetherflow stacks and using it on CD. Except, I've also learned where some big pulls are in Snowcloak. Or when speshul tanks insist on pulling the whole last room before Fenrir and DON'T STUN THE STUPID HARRIERS AND JUST LET THEM ALL BE SCREAMING PIECES OF SHIT THAT HURT OHGODWHY WITHOUT SAYING THEY WILL I forget is it Stun the Nightmare or Silence the Nightmare? I remember it being a difference. It's Stun? Nightmare (the one that puts you to sleep) needs to be stunned, yes. Never tried silencing it. Everything else you can dodge (Gravity Orbs by not being anywhere near where they get placed, Ultimate Terror by moving into melee range or waaaaay the hell away from Diabolos). He builds stun resistance after three or four stuns, IIRC.

You mean I actually get to see the Giant Ink Ball of Doom and Gloom now instead of staring at the floor? Thank God. That always pissed me off about Diabolos, especially after first seeing the trailer for it. I was all OMG SO PRETTY and then you get to do the actual fight and the door mechanic more or less forces your camera to the floor so you can't see his beautiful ultimate attack. ; A ;

Marking doors, sure. Opening doors? You don't want the tank doing that. INTERRUPTED INTERRUPTED INTERRUPTED INTERRUPTED INTERRUPTED (mind you, this is prepping a door. Once the cast starts, tank's free)

Agreed on rotational Rockbreaker on 4+ targets. 4 is the iffy point. 5 and up, I'm like, "nah, not taking the time to DoT that". It gets even worse when they tell you to shut up and do your own job, they'll "play how they want". *brings up Party Menu, right-clicks individual, and selects "Vote Dismiss" because I don't have time to wait around an additional 15 minutes worth of duty time because some asshole won't Flare like he's supposed to*

You get one instance of PB'd Rockbreaker x5 to go with my Howling Fist. Arm of the Destroyer is absolutely awful potency for its TP cost (and honestly should be reserved solely for silencing and for pushing away the bombs in Brayflox HM), so if I'm going to be going through the standard Raptor -> Coeurl -> Opo-opo rotation to reach Rockbreaker anyway, it's usually far more efficient for me to be Demo'ing and ToD'ing each mob before returning to Rockbreaker spam. People who expect Monks to AoE more than that need to be beaten over the head with a two-by-four. We're not BLMs, BRDs, or even DRGs. Technically speaking, even NINs have better AoE than we do.

Folks who rail against players with subpar machines/connections who then proceed to die to Landslide are my pet peeve. Dear sirs and madams, not everyone has a tower with top-of-the-line processors and cards, nor do they necessarily have god-like internet service providers. And let's not forget all the faulty nodes between them and the data centers. Oh, and the aggravating fact that this game features server-side positioning which requires you to pop CDs to force the servers to update your position from where you where ~1.5 seconds ago I think my ultimate gripe at this point though is still HOLY SHIT THE MAT DROP RATES IN THE HARD ROULETTE DUNGEONS ARE STILL REALLY HIGH JESUS F#&% SQUARE GET OFF YOUR ASS AND FIX THIS THE ONLY REASON FOR ANYONE TO USE THOSE GEAR PIECES FOR MORE THAN A DAY IS GLAMOUR, YOU STUPID SH*TS!

My understanding is that there is to be no roughhousing, no attacks, no bomb threats or explosions, etc. at this event. My understanding is also that one of the various reasons this venue was chosen was specifically to discourage this sort of thing. It's the Starlight Ball. It's a social function. It's for folks to relax and get together and hang out and meet new people and catch up with old friends and dance and sing and praise the Twelve and so on and so forth. I hope I speak of behalf of Erik when I ask attendees to please refrain from spoiling the festivities. If you've got grievances with other PCs who'll be attending, please either save them for after the event, or take them outside the Sanctum. You can work your stuff out in private. Likewise for anyone running their own plots, personal or FC, that might have violent outbursts coinciding with this event. Tensions are fine. You want to glare at someone all night, or speak in rough, whispered, agitated tones together, be our guest. Fair warning, though: if you insist on disturbing the peace, and on sacred ground no less, be prepared for me coming down on you with all the merciless god modding required to set the event back on track. And yes, that will include NPCs. EDIT: As an addendum, if we should be so unfortunate as to receive any of the usual trolls (generally PvE players who look down on and mock roleplaying), a notice will go out in /yell identifying the individual to be temporarily blacklisted for the sake of avoiding chat spam.

Look what we found in Limsa... and I'm technically there IC this week....