SunTzu7

Alex has been terrible in general this week, especially today where I ran Floor 3 seven times, each time rolling for the Spring in the high nineties and losing in every instance, but here's some general lessons to be learned. 1. If I or someone else does a Ready Check before the boss, do not decide you're going to be Main Tank by running in and pulling before the Ready Check is over. 2. If I go to pull Faust and you go to pull Faust at the same time, and I end up with more aggro than you when the first add appears, do not solidify your claim to Main Tank status by refusing to go pick up the adds. 3. If a bomb drops in Floor Two on one side of the party, it does not need to be dragged to the other side of the party. It especially does not need to be dragged through the middle of the party. 4. If you have a i160 weapon, and I have a i200 weapon, I am very likely to keep aggro despite your efforts to take it off me. Standing in the cleaves isn't helping your case. 5. Do not pull every single trash mob on Floor 3, then spam Unleash to hold them, if you can't then survive the resulting assault. 5b. Burning all your MP doing Dark Arts Power Slash to pull Living Liquid off me is a great way to lose your Darkside. 5c. Doing that, then refusing to turn the hand on the party, expecting me to run up and save you by soaking with you, is immensely presumptuous. 5d. I'm sure that on some planet, doing Dark Arts Power Slash during my attempt at a tank swap while you have 8 stacks, and continuing to do that, is a wise strategy. This is Earth however, your death shouldn't really have surprised you. 5e. Doing it all again the next time we get partnered in DF did not prove you any more of a badass than the first time. I suppose the overall lesson is, if you want to be the Main Tank, ask me if you can be the Main Tank before the pull. If you're a Dark Knight/Warrior and I'm a Paladin, I assume I'm the main because you will deal more damage than I will as an OT. But I will totally turn Sword Oath on if you ask first.

How will I deal with firearms? By setting their arms. On FIRE! Haha, sociopathic tendencies. And terrible puns. But lets be fair, we already had archers in the setting, and Longbows historically have been enough in many cases to punch straight through some kinds of armour. I imagine we live in a world where the bog standard human is a bit more resilient than our happy little species. So while a bullet anywhere in real life is going to require a fair bit of hospital time if it doesn't kill you dead, I don't think it's going to be that simple in Eorzea. Conversely however, you shouldn't be able to just 'shrug it off' and keep going. It's still a bullet. Possibly in your face.

Scholar is pretty easy to justify lorewise, since it essentially requires a trip to the Wanderer's Palace, or dealing with Nymian artefacts to justify getting the crystal. More difficult to justify might be getting the skills involved, although there are ways around that. The likelihood is that not all of the fairies are going to have the same problems as the Job Quest fairy (i.e. amnesia about her past). Your fairy will obviously not be Lily and you'll need to come up with your own name, but it's more than likely that their names are things the Scholars gave them in the past. Also, all modern day fairies are likely to have a previous Scholar from Nym. With regards to the fairy's sentience, when I RP them I treat my fairy as being as intelligent (probably more so) than Newton, free will and all. Scholars can command them to some degree, but they'd probably need to trust you enough to follow your orders. Obviously they can't talk, but they have a mental link with their Scholars and can communicate through that. All in all, go nuts. The main fun in having a floating sparkle machine follow you around is essentially creating a character in their own right, with everything that entails.

Day Two I have arrived in Limsa Lominsa after having thought my options over the previous night. This bares the markings of an intellectual problem, and in such matters my best recourse is to consult actual academics. With that in mind, I travelled to the Arcanist's Guild in Limsa Lominsa to consult with the deputy Guildmaster. Her name is... Several misspellings of the name follow, with a neat line through each. Eventually, a small scribbled note to 'Fix this later' is added. Mistress Thubyrgeim is a noted scholar with a small s, a master of academic principle, and above all else, an enthusiastic student of difficult arcane problems such as this one. Her advice will be invaluable I imagine. Getting a meeting was no problem as an old student. I don't flatter myself much to say I was never an outstanding student. I didn't find my calling in academia until I unlocked the full potential of my Scholar crystal, and in the basics of Arcanist practice, I am actually average at best. Some people are more suitable to put their aether into healing channels than destruction, and I am one of those. Shame really. I've been accused of pyromania before, but not being able to practice the discipline that truly involves burning many things makes it a poor accusation. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. To wit, my previous engagement with the guild granted me an audience, during which Thubyrgeim was able to both deal effectively with my problem, as well as deal with new students eager to master the summoning of their Carbuncle familiars. Sometimes I miss the Carbuncle that I had as an Arcanist, but it appears impossible to summon both fairy and minion at the same time. I still get him out for a round of fetch now and... On task before I am struck again. The Acting Guildmaster recalled the name of a scholar with a small s who was very familiar with Scholar with a capital S... Okay from now on, scholars are going to be academics. This is getting confusing. She knew of an academic who was familiar with ancient Nym and with Scholars, having come into possession of an ancient tablet long ago. While she attempted to arrange a meeting with said Scholar, she had a suggestion with how I could spend the rest of the day. Apparently the actual Guildmaster, frequently absent due to field studies, was in the region for a brief investigation of some sort. Perhaps I could learn something from encountering him? Apparently, she had sent the fabled Warrior of Light on a similar excursion when his travels brought him here to learn Arcanistry. I confess myself somewhat bolstered by the idea that I am, indirectly, following in the footsteps of the venerable Warrior of Light. I am going to end my journal here for the day. Apparently he's out in Upper La Noscea somewhere. Will set out on my search as soon as possible. A line is drawn under those words. When next the journal resumes, the text is far smaller and neater, almost certainly in a different hand than that which wrote the first section. My Scholar asked me to update her journal, shortly before collapsing onto her bed at the Mizzenmast. I have attempted to poke her awake to no avail. Unfortunately, she commanded me before falling unconscious, thus I must make an attempt. Our journey took us to familiar, yet strange territory. The Wanderer's Palace in the distance was a reminder of where the Scholars of Nym were once contained when the plague broke out. Disturbing memories haunt that place. Fortunately, we had no need to go there, our search contained on the other side of the lake. A great skeleton of an ancient beast rose up against the backdrop of Upper La Noscea. It was in a small hut that we received details of where our meeting with the Guildmaster was to be held. Apparently, the Guildmaster was conducting a geological survey of some kind near to our location, in a place called O'Ghomoro. This news appeared to cause my Scholar some distress. The explanation, which was delivered at great length because my Scholar cannot use one word where seventy will do, was that O'Ghomoro was the location of the Primal Titan, and all his Kobold followers. It was called something different in my day, and the Kobolds rarely bothered Nym, but that is beside the point. This sent my Scholar into something of a panic about 'Tempering', a process she was decidedly unhappy about. After ten minutes of panic, followed by some swift corrective action on my part, she calmed down enough to state that Titan was at least a Primal that did not use the process. The worst that could happen was that he could bury us forever under a mountain of rock or send us deep into the depths where none would ever find us or... I am certain at this point that you get the idea. Eventually rallying herself, we approached O'Ghomoro. The Guildmaster appeared to have entered the mine complex deep within, infested by Kobolds of all manner of ability, from crushing pickaxes, to earth breaking magics, to synthetic creatures that exploded at the smallest provocation. My Scholar was unhappy about this for some reason. We decided that a stealthy approach was the best solution, and made great progress under the cover of shadows. Strange lights are abundant, and even my glow did not attract much attention. A measure of confidence having returned to her, my Scholar made some comment about smooth sailing, and asking what the worst thing that could happen was. In my defence, how was I to know that she was unaware that O'Ghomoro was very much an active Volcano? This latest problem on a heap of her own problems caused her to give a shout, that shout surprised me and well. A burst of aetheric sparks in the gloom brought the attention of roughly the entire population of the mines. A fierce fight ensued and while a capable Scholar might have used tactics to elude her pursuers, at this point my Scholar had reached the breaking point and decided that the only reasonable response was fury and explosions. Her wish was granted when our fight accidentally stumbled on a factory that the creatures used to create the exploding creatures from earlier. When we emerged from the depths, charred and scorched by our ordeals, she took the note from the Guildmaster out with intent to tear it into as many pieces as possible, as if such a retribution would travel to the man responsible himself. Unfortunately, in so doing she found the reason that we were unable to locate him. On the back of the note was a postscript, noting that he had completed the geological survey a day early thanks to the assistance of his protege. Apparently someone called The Warrior of Light had encouraged her to join him in his fieldwork and as a result it had been finished early. He would in fact be waiting for us at the Guild the next day. The language that flowed from my Scholar at this point is unprintable. With that, we returned to the inn, where I am sure that my Scholar is contemplating terrible things. A new line is drawn under this, with a postscript added later which reads 'Why did I ask Eos to write this? This is all in Nymian or something. Completely illegible. Waste of paper.'

How does your character deal with killing? Newton's a bit of a paradox in that while she will try to avoid killing if it's within her power to subdue instead, she has been part of a military force. She fought at Carteneau. Killing is well within her power and she'll not hesitate in a war or battle. Outside though she'll try talking people down first. But push her too far and you'll soon see that Newton's silliness turns on and off in an instant. How did your character feel after her first kill? It was an ambush on her unit by a group of bandits, and reacting instinctively, she drove her blade through the first man. She was heavily armed and armoured, he was armed with a cheap sword and barely functional armour. She barely had a second to register it before another sword came at her and she had to deflect that. All in all, she killed three people in that skirmish before they broke and ran. They might have had their reasons, but they were attacking people she felt responsible for. In that respect, she didn't care much for the dead. Does your character mull over it later? Maybe the first time. Afterwards? No. Anyone who attacks something she's protecting is taking their lives into their own hands. After Carteneau though, there's a noticeable drop in people she kills in combat. Make of that what you will.

So this branches off the end of the Gogonji Gambit event, the conclusion of which saw Newton in possession of three Soul Crystals ostensibly drained of any worthwhile purpose. Lacking anything even remotely resembling a starting point, anything resembling a precedent, or anything resembling common sense in the matter, we join her in her ludicrous quest to try and reactive the stones for great justice. Or something along those lines. Day One Decided to keep a record of my attempts to be an actual Scholar for a change of pace. The problem presented before me are three Soul Crystals that have been drained of their soul energy and are therefore inert. Of the three in question, one is that of a Black Mage, which presents its own ethical dilemma with regards to the nature of Black Magic itself. One is that of a White Mage, which is also appropriately forbidden in nature. And the last, and most interesting to me personally is that of a Scholar. If nothing else, I'd like to get the last of these functioning at least. I have no way of knowing at present how much of the Scholar's art Chachanji's brother will retain without access to this Crystal, but it seems a shame to separate someone from their companion without at least some attempt to restore it. Perhaps he'll be able to call his fairy companion on his own. I'm not sure. To begin, I suppose it best to go over a few simple basics. A Soul Crystal, to give it the common term, is a multi-aspected Crystal brimming with all six elemental energies. Through processes heavily guarded and in some cases lost to antiquity, these Crystals can be utilized to store ancient techniques and arts through the experiences of their practitioners. To quote my own example, I can use the abilities of a Scholar because when I hold my own Soul Crystal, I can feel the memories of the Scholar who used it long ago in the distant past. My own fairy companion Hope was first contracted into this world from the aetherial plane by this Scholar of eld as well. So long as I hold the Crystal, I can use the Scholars arts as if I was a master. Though the theory remains strong in my mind afterwards, I cannot utilize them practically without contact with the stone. And to my irritation, I personally need a link to Hope in order to use Scholastic arts. What I wouldn't give to go wit The last letter suddenly trails off in a line, as if the writer had been struck on the head while in the process of writing it. I have been gently reminded that I'm getting off track. So to summarize, the Crystals are something of a shortcut, allowing access to arts without the necessary years of study involved. At the suggestion of some of my friends, I first attempted the simple solution, namely to channel as much aether as I could possibly muster through the stone in an attempt to reactivate it. Coralhaus was witness to my failure in that regard, as even breaking all three of my internal Aetherdams, I could not bring even the slightest inkling of light to the crystal. There was the possibility that I was simply exhausted from the various exertions of the day and the significant amount of healing involved afterwards, so having rested a night, I tried again in the morning with the same results. Arcanists, and Scholars in particular are host to remarkable quantities of Aether thanks to our ability to store reserves and call upon them at will, so I draw the following conclusion: No amount of my personal aether, or the personal aether of another, will activate the crystal. Which is a shame. Would it kill life to hand me the easy solution every once in a while? Apparently so. In retrospect, it isn't particularly surprising. These crystals have absorbed Aether for centuries, millennia in some cases. In comparison, putting my own Aetheric reserves into a crystal is like trying to water the Sagolii Desert with a thimble. On a hot summer day. With the Lord of the Inferno breathing down your neck. Not a particularly scientific conclusion I admit, but what can you do. The next question I had to ask was whether I could gather enough Aether from the environment to activate them. In the end I relented on this matter, partly because as Hope so rightly pointed out, only a complete monster would drain the aether of the land for purely selfish purposes like activating a couple rocks. But mostly because getting that aether is really hard. I'd heard rumblings of some kind of discovery from Sharlayan in that direction, research in gathering energy from the vast quantities of aether crystallized in the land from the Calamity. But sadly, I can't find anything further along those lines from my available resources. The irony is that an appropriate tool for the job is sitting right on the bleeding desk, namely the Black Mage crystal. But it's something of a self defeating situation to use the Black Mage crystal to draw enough aether from the land to activate the Black Mage crystal to draw aether t The same curious incident as last time with regards to the writing appears to have repeated itself, the t suddenly concluding in a sharp line to the right. On task. I'll spend the rest of the day in research with the available material here, but I think on the whole I might have to get some expert consultation going. The journal ends there for the day, except for a short, scribbled note at the end reading 'Limsa Lominsa in the morning. Possible help?'

I'm just throwing out a personal experience here, based on this discussion of buying the game for a specific reason. So when I got this game, way back in the mists of time of... like a year or so ago, I wanted to play as a Black Mage. When I do RPG's, I usually pick Mages cause mages turn out broken in the end. I imported a character from another RP who was a Mage. I started as a Thaumaturge, because it would lead to my ultimate goal of being a Black Mage. Fast forward fifteen or so levels and I realize, hey, I can't get into dungeons because DPS queues have this little sideways eight thing on them for queue times. So I putz around looking for other stuff to do in the meantime, and I realize that the game's opened up a bunch of different job options for me. It's not in character or anything, but maybe I can pick up Conjurer and do healing for a bit? Seems to get faster queue times and I don't EVER want to do tanking. I like big numbers and low responsibility for things. Present day here I am, a Paladin main so vastly diverged from the character concept that I originally intended that I have to start referring to my character by the surname that I made up for them for this game alone so I can keep the two wildly different interpretations separate in my mind. Sometimes you drift into things that you're not certain at the outset that you'll go into. The game does encourage you to try new things when they pop up, and it's making a real effort to keep old content relevant to you. People aren't going to be left in the dust in the old content while we're going nuts around the new stuff. People will go back into old stuff for glamours, for Zodiac stuff so they get the shortcut on the new relic gear, or even shockingly enough just to help out new people. Another thing to consider is that Ishgard, the new classes and new features are all things that we, the people who have been playing for about a year or so now, are very much looking forward to, and the reason is mostly that we've done everything that's in the old stuff. We putz around Extreme Primals for magic horsies for crying out loud. My question is for a new person, are they going to come in and want to play the new classes more than the stuff they have in Realm Reborn content? You can tout the new features of Dark Knight or the majesty of getting into Ishgard at last, but people need context for a lot of this. A lot of newcomers will still go 'I want to be a Dragoon' mostly for the sublimely simple reasons that Dragoons are awesome looking and jump real high. Will they be pinning hard for Astrologian? Machinst? Maybe, but it won't be a significant amount of people. And of those people, should the game be catering to them? The fact of the matter is that any game that wants to last as long as something like WoW has to do a tremendous balancing act of keeping the veterans happy, while trying to keep every newcomer happy, and let's face facts, it's impossible. Everyone has a specific set of requirements, and SE cannot possibly do right by everyone. While I never experienced it myself, remember that something like the transition to Heavensward has already happened. People who stuck with the game in Legacy still had to go through the main scenario like everyone else, even if they were poncing around low level dungeons with their Level 50 stats and gear. Maybe people took a different class through, but some people just want to level the one. Should they have been allowed to skip the main story and get to later content? I've talked for a while, so to sum up. We're jaded individuals. For a lot of people, Realm Reborn content is still going to be a new, shiny, exciting experience. As long as we don't spend ages flying over them poking at the groundbound masses. Cause that's when the torches and pitchforks get pulled out.

Sincerely enjoyed myself all the way through. I think I've got a good screenshot of everyone standing on the cliff looking over Castrum Centri, and if I do I'll upload it. I've had plenty of brainstorming time at work for something to do with those crystals.

Novels because I read at a hundred miles an hour and short stories go over far too quick. The eternal question. Pokemon Red or Blue?

AK HM is becoming that one dungeon for me if I don't tank. So we get an i120'ish tank, with over 11k HP. And on the first pull, he grabs the two birds. I run ahead as Bard, assuming that like on every other run, he'll go on and pull the Ochu. He does not. He stands still and holds the birds, then gets the ochu once they're dead. Okay I think, cautious tank. I just didn't realize HOW cautious. He pulled the wolves, then the goat thing after they were dead. And he did this for every mob. Breaking up mobs into even smaller pulls. As small as possible. I'm okay for new tanks. But at least have SOME balls. And even with these tiny pulls, with i120ish, and with a competent healer and DPS, he STILL couldn't hold my aggro. Quelling Strikes up, no buffs. I asked at the end if this was his first run or his first run as a tank. No. No it was not.

Well I'm sure that Eos will be more than up for healing people afterwards. Newton'll do... Something. I'm sure. Confronting another scholar promises to be interesting though. Fairy fight!

Yeah I didn't make it because I am a terrible person. If 9CST is going to be the norm, it might be slightly difficult for me cause of my GMT'ness. Well I can but try. If someone wants to sum up what happened, I shall contrive the highest quality of bullshit for why Newton was absent.

Past Newton would wonder why she's now an Elezan. Seeing herself as a Lalafell would probably just break her frail little mind and lead to many awkward questions with few sane sounding answers. In all honesty, she'd be proud because Future Newton has home, security and doesn't have to pick between eating and stealing from people. She would wonder when she got pretentious enough to go around wearing fake glasses all the time though.

Might be a slight issue since as far as I can gather, 9pm CST is 3am GMT. I'll be on, but if I suddenly start sounding like I faceplanted my keyboard, you'll know what's up.

Hmm, help Chachanji and stop a Garlemand invasion or... Nope, that's pretty much all I need to hear. Newton's in. Rolewise she can bring anything to the table, Paladin, Scholar or Bard/Ninja. Looks light on heals for the final assault, so I'll go down for Scholaring that.

I'll be back for sure.

Much like pokedollars, I think Gil is traditionally equated to the same value in Yen. I could be wrong, but that's how I usually imagine it.

Dude has a secret mech suit, as demonstrated on the entirely factual program Comic Relief. But on a on topic basis... The Knights of the Barracuda were the predecessors to the Maelstrom, the military body around which the Admiral strucured Limsa Lominsa's forces. Not an elite unit, more along the line of the Admiral's absolutely loyal forces.

Damned dirty apes? Sign me up.

I reckon I have about a 70% win record of the various kinds of fights I get into. Once dice get involved though, any fight I'm in takes about a minimum of half an hour to resolve because the dice gods are extremely passive aggressive towards Artemis. Oh look at you thinking you're all that. Well YOU'RE NOT. Have some terrible rolls. ... Actually you are all that, let's have the other guy have terribleier rolls! Rinse and repeat until the dice gods make a sodding commitment.

Well I can't do Garuda tonight cause I'll be sliiiightly drunk by that point, but I could probably do Titan and maybe a few others. Thursday's kinda a bad day for me, but I can work around it if need be. As for what I can do, anything but Monk. I've cleared them all on most roles. I have the Shiva pony already and I main tank, but as I said, any role.

Yet another WoD run, and this time I get to rage at my healer first for petty reasons, then actual reasons! Healer didn't endear themselves by beating my 95 roll on the Demon Circlet of Scouting with a 99. Then they locked themselves out of the Atomos fight. All's well for Cerberus, then CT syndrome claims more lives as meteors are failed and half the party does. Both healers are on minimal MP from healing MT. 'Raise me and I'll Mage's Ballad.' I said in chat. So of course they do immediately. Ha! No they don't. They instead wait for their cripplingly low MP to tick over, and raise all the other DPS one by one, leaving them with no MP at all and getting the MT killed. A kindly healer on another alliance got me back up. And just to rub it in my face, both the Puff of Darkness and the Demon Breeches of Maiming drop and go to, you guessed it, that sodding healer. I think that's comprehensively how WoD politely requests that you kindly go fuck yourself.

Problem is that they've stressed repeatedly that Heavensward content is going to be harder and require more co-operation. So having a minimum level of preparation before going into it isn't necessarily a bad thing. Steps seems rough, and it is rough (though not as rough as some people are suggesting 'STEPS IS HARDER THAN TURN 9' springs to mind). But it's essentially a training montage and there's not many more effective methods of encouragement than 'you will work together to get this right or we'll stand here and humiliate you for the next twenty minutes while a giant dragon stomps on your face.' No I'm not bitter. Not at all really. I suppose if you want to be mean spirited, it's the Realm Reborn team making damn well sure you've squeezed everything out of their old content by sitting in their Ivory tower dangling flying mounts and shiny new classes and shouting down 'Work for it plebeians!'

I appreciate that Warren doesn't hunt me down for continuously falling asleep before Grindstone start and therefore missing healing duties. Actually, I appreciate that the Grindstone continues unabated come rain or shine and the effort he and everyone involved puts into it!