When I got back from class today, ironically having an entire term of nothing but basic-level web design classes (really, college? Really?), I saw a bunch of information pop up on my twitter feed about the new weaponskills. Curious as well, I decided to check out the link and share two of the ones I’ll use most: Camlann’s Torment (DRG) and Tachi: Fudo (SAM).

Camlann was, mythologically, the final battle between King Arthur and Mordred. This goes along with Dragoon’s Empyrean weapon, Rhongomiant, which was the spear King Arthur owned and utilized in his battle against Sir Thomas of Wolford. I suppose that one could then call Camlann’s Torment an “Empyrean weapon skill”.

The animation is a little shoddy–being hardly anything more than a recolored Wheeling Thrust. As long as it’s situationally useful though, I’ll be happy.

Fudo can be noted as a reference to the Japanese “Fudo Myou-Ou”, is the Immovable King of Wisdom. This is seen, for any Rurouni Kenshin fans, in Yuukuuzan Anji–who called himself “The Bright King” and believed he was the reincarnation of Fudo Myou-Ou, also known as Acala in Buddhist belief. Acala is the destroyer of all impure and carnal on the path to Enlightenment, and he gives aide to those who seek it in search of self-control.

Masamune, the Empyrean weapon, was wielded by warriors who had mastered their inner-selves and could be at peace at all times. The blade was known to be placed in a river, and that a leaf that flowed downstream would simply be pushed aside rather than be cut–despite the blade’s fine craftsmanship. Combining this with Fudo Myou-Ou’s being the ‘Immovable King of Wisdom’, and the aide of self-control, I can hope for something like “weakens attack” or an aftermath that decreases the damage that the user takes.

A rehashed animation of Tachi: Kasha seems to hint slightly towards the tale behind Masamune, by the way.

Any thoughts? Share below!

-Kyon

I’ve been hearing a lot from both sides of the ball park about the recent patch notes, so I figured it’s nigh time to give my opinion on the matters.

White Mage

:: Divine Caress (WHM Lv.83 Ability Delay: 1 min. Effect Duration: 1 min.)
If the next spell you cast cures a status ailment, your target will gain enhanced resistance to that ailment.
:: Shield Def. Bonus Level 85
:: Cura II Level 83
:: Boost-VIT Level 81
:: Boost-MND Level 84

I’m a little excited about Cura II, as well as the boost stat spells, but what intrigues me the most is Divine Caress. If this same bonus applies to Divine Veil (or Yagrush as the case may be) and spreads to all targets within AoE range, then this could be a fairly amazing ability. I’d imagine that SE has already, in their infinite wisdom, foreseen this and may block the use of both abilities or keep the bonus only to the target. That would be quite a shame.

Red Mage

:: Saboteur (RDM Lv.83 Ability Delay: 5 min. Effect Duration: 1 min.)
If the next spell you cast is enfeeblement magic, its effect and duration will be enhanced.
:: Mag. Burst Bonus Level 85
:: Addle Level 83
:: Refresh II Level 82
:: Gain-VIT Level 81
:: Gain-MND Level 84
:: Aero IV Level 83

Saboteur sounds awesome, judging with my days back as a lowly RDM61. That will help immensely as well if your party/group tank is a seigan+shadow tank like myself, who relies very much on making sure that enemy stays slowed at all times. While I’m not too keen on the Magic Burst Bonus and a bit confused at the difference in “Gain” and “Boost” from WHM and RDM, I’m amused at Refresh II and what most Red Mages think of it. Some are rejoicing that they gain a new tier of Refresh, keeping them above other jobs since with the 85 cap all jobs can sub RDM and have the default Refresh. However, there are a few who believe that Refresh is not Red Mage’s defining spell, and are pissed that “it’s all they got”. Mind you these are the same people who would be furious if they didn’t get a Refresh II, likely using the excuse, “Now we have nothing unique to our selves!” Addle is interesting, however. By definition it means “to make or become confused.” I’m wondering if this will be a charm spell, or if Red Mages finally can give a “Confusion” ailment. Yes, I’ve been playing way too much Pokemon. Oh, and enjoy your new tier IV nuke, I guess.

Beastmaster

:: Spur (BST Lv.83 Ability Delay: 3 min. Effect Duration: 90 sec.)
Grants “Store TP” effect to pets.

People still play Beastmaster? I kid, of course. I’m not too sure how Store TP would be good for pets unless it’s a tremendous bonus. Those little buggers aren’t exactly known for chain weaponskills.

Bard

:: Tenuto (BRD Lv.83 Ability Delay: 15 sec. Effect Duration: 1 min.)
If the next song you cast affects yourself, it will not subsequently be overwritten by other songs.
:: Fencer Level 85
:: Mage’s Ballad III Level 85
:: Earth Carol II Level 81
:: Water Carol II Level 84
:: Sentinel’s Scherzo Level 82
:: Foe Lullaby II Level 83

So obviously someone over at SE plays on Team Bard. Tenuto is exactly what almost every Bard I know of has been looking for in many situations, so that’s a welcomed change. Fencer is a little lulz considering the mass effectiveness of BRD melee, and Ballad III will make any caster’s heart sing.

Dragoon

:: Soul Jump (DRG Lv.85 Effect Duration: 3 min.)
Delivers a high jumping attack on a targeted enemy which suppresses enmity. Effect enhanced when wyvern is present.
*The recast timer for Soul Jump is shared with High Jump.

I was honestly hoping for Lancet along with Faneelk, but I suppose beggars cannot be choosers. If Soul Jump were to stack with Wyrm Brais, then we would be able to shed 60% Enmity before having the enmity suppression kick in–allowing any Dragoon to really tear into the enemy without suffering any consequences. SE certainly didn’t let us down with Spirit Jump, with the highest recorded TP gain from it so far being my Triple Attacked Spirit Jump (1001 damage) giving 87 TP in return.

Summoner

:: Blood Pact: Ward “Earthen Armor” (SMN Lv.82 Ability Delay: 1 min.)
Mitigates the impact of severely damaging attacks for party members within area of effect.
:: Blood Pact: Ward “Tidal Roar” (SMN Lv.84 Ability Delay: 1 min.)
Lowers attack for enemies within area of effect.

It appears that SE is taking the concept of Summoner’s becoming a sort of “ultimate tank support” job to the next level with these two blood pacts. After all, Perfect Defense is only once every two hours per Summoner.

Blue Mage

:: Efflux (BLU Lv.83 Ability Delay: 3 min. Effect Duration: 1 min.)
If the next spell you cast is a “physical” blue magic spell, a TP bonus will be granted.
:: “Several new blue magic spells will be added.”

Being that I’m seriously considering leveling Blue Mage now, the idea of more spells to get is rather daunting. Efflux, however, sounds like it could be interesting if used properly. Then again–not many Blue Mages would seriously close their Chain Affinities with a weapon skill, so… meh.

Corsair

:: Courser’s Roll (COR Lv.81)
Enhances “Snapshot” effect for party members within area of effect. Lucky number: 3. Unlucky number: 9.
:: Blitzer’s Roll (COR Lv.83)
Reduces melee attack delay for party members within area of effect. Lucky number: 4. Unlucky number: 9.
:: True Shot Level 85

All of this makes it seem like SE is really wanting to boost the haste bar for the generic players. Not that I mind, of course, but I wonder if this would count towards magic haste or JA haste when it comes to the haste cap? As for True Shot, that’s nice and all, but I had a friend of mine who thought it had to do with ranged accuracy. It made me a little sad panda, but it’s not his fault for not looking it up before asking. I think.

Dancer

:: Feather Step (DNC Lv.83 Ability Delay: 15 sec.)
Lowers a target’s critical hit evasion. If successful, will earn you a finishing move.
*The recast timer for Feather Step is shared with Steps.

A critical chance bonus for everyone! Huzzah! Dancer just filled more of a supporting role than ever before.

Thief

:: Dual Wield Level 83

…And the crowd went wild! SE is being really generous to the jobs who have subbed NIN for all of these years for almost solely the purpose of Dual Wield.

Ninja

:: Skillchain Bonus Level 85
:: Myoshu: Ichi: NIN Lv.85
*Uses the ninja tool, “kabenro.”
:: Yurin: Ichi: NIN Lv.83
*Uses the ninja tool, “jinko.”

The more jobs that get Skillchain Bonus, the happier SAM that I’ll become. As for the spells, I haven’t an honest damned clue. Sorry!

Puppetmaster

:: Critical Defense Bonus Level 85

And it becomes more and more apparent that hardly anyone plays, or even cares about, Puppetmaster at SE.

Paladin

:: Enlight Level 85

Some friends of mine from yeaaars back would squeal at this if they still played. I remember we talked about it for a literal full week and wondered if SE would ever add it. The linkshell leader at the time commented if they did it would be much later on, and for Paladin more than anyone. Lo’ and behold! He predicted the same for Dark Knight–but not quite the full extent of this update.

Dark Knight

:: Critical Attack Bonus Level 85
:: Endark Level 85
:: Aero III Level 84

Unctgtg is going to jump around like a little schoolgirl for the Critical Attack Bonus, until he realizes that “relic crits” aren’t actually counted as critical hits unless they ARE critical. There’s still a chance of that +1 pDIF, I suppose. Endark is sort of nice, and Aero III is honestly just a joke at this point.

Black Mage

:: Aero V Level 83
:: Break Level 85
:: Stoneja Level 81
:: Waterja Level 84
:: Aspir II Level 83

It sure was a bad time for me to quit Black Mage, with Break and Aspir IIcoming around the corner. I’m still not going to revive it, however, since no addition will change the plain and simple fact that I utterly hate having to had play the job all the time. As Tira knows, even if you have a job that’s better than someone else’s, and they have a job that can be otherwise beneficial–you’re probably going to be stuck Black Mage anyway while they swing away with their full hachiman Samurai or something.

Scholar

:: Animus Augeo Level 85
:: Animus Minuo Level 85

Notably the enmity enhancing and suppressing spells that we’ve been awaiting. For those who can’t wrap their brains around it, Augeo is the increase version and Minuo is the decrease version.

Monk

:: Skillchain Bonus Level 85

…Hurray? Like I said with Ninja, I’m more than happy to see other jobs get this as it increases overall skillchain damage potential. However, this is sort of lackluster in comparison to the other jobs of this update.

Here’s to hoping the next portion, as well as the ToM updates, are just as good or better!

-Kyon

When I first met Starfaye and the request of Unctgtg to help her climb the quintessential tower of doom, she was a little lowbie Red Mage who was still in awe over Penta Thrust’s massive damage, to TWW mobs no less. Not like I was all the much better though, since my only job at the time was a measly Homam-less Dragoon 75. Nyzul Isle wasn’t even a flicker in anyone’s imagination back in those days. At the time I honestly thought that she was just a random nice newbie who Unc decided to spoil a bit but couldn’t help, so I had no idea that she’d eventually end up as one of my greatest friends and allies in Vana’diel.

I was rather pleasantly surprised.

If memory serves, it was the night that she got her Red Mage AF hat quest done and she, Unc, and I were chilling in quite possibly one of my favorite spots in Vana’diel when she brought up the idea that leveling with the linkshell would be nice. I mentioned I had my Samurai that I was slowly working on, and things went from there for a few parties here and there–mostly Linkshell-built parties. That didn’t last too long due to her schooling catching up with her.

Our next set was her Paladin with my Ranger, and we got started on an MSN conversation:

This was our longest set by far–going from Ranger 19 with Anniversary Ring to catch up all the way until the late 50s. Just before Star had to temporarily quit again we got her into an astral burn provided by Kenzo and his army, getting her to Paladin lv60 and letting her equip her full Artifact gear. Again most of the parties were built from Linkshell members and friends, and the only one that made me work for my parse numbers was Insertcliche. She’s one of the few mithra in Ragnarok where play flirting with her and having serious or friendly conversations without skipping a beat seems natural. It’s not either just ditzy, just friendly, or just opinionated, so gotta give her props for that.

This happens more often than you would think with Linkshell parties.

Anyway, it took a long time but eventually she’s gotten the hankering to level yet another job. We discussed it for a while and I eventually made a post about it on my FFXIclopedia blog to get a little more feedback since hardly anyone comments here, really.

Cemalidor said, “:XD Why on earth did you scratch Dnc? Real men wear pink and hopping around the scene in Aurore is a sight to behold! :XDD”

Unctgtg said, “Level dnc for a truly interesting job.”

Lukikii said, “I think DNC would be a good choice as well. :)”

Urthdigger said, “Level DNC, it’s awesome. And personally, I think DNC looks fantastic, but if the AF bothers you that much you’ll be happy to hear you can get away with macro swapping the pieces and using the kind of gear a THF would wear :P”

And finally, Veq said, “I say go with Blu. It’s actually great fun once you’re settled in with your spells (which can be hard to get admittedly) and it’s very versatile. Plus the Jse is sexy ;) But at the end of the day, you’re playing this game to have fun, so choose whatever job you actual enjoying leveling and partying with :)”

So… I got a whole bunch of recommendations for Dancer and I’m thinking that’s partially because of the copious amount of yaoi on the internet of my character model (/sigh), especially of him rendered as a Dancer. Unc’s hidden intentions are obvious to read, however–he just wants someone to call on at any time for Haste Samba.

I’d say overall my reasonings for not taking Dancer would be along the lines of that I just don’t feel the same rush as I do in a support role as I do with damage dealing jobs. Black Mage had a little bit of both, and so does Blue Mage, so I’m thinking that Blue Mage could be my next choice.

Plus I already have full homam and a significant amount of nashira gear for it–not to mention I can solo most of the NMs for special gear for leveling up. Star said she’d help on spells, and I’m starting to think that bludgeoning myself upside the head… or rather, doing two Trials of Magian swords, would be fun.

Either way, the Dynamic Duo shall be returning to the leveling scene soon. Watch out, Vana’diel!

Speaking of Dynamic Duo, God_Damn_Batman is probably the greatest thing to ever come to Twitter. I’d recommend checking it out!

-Kyon

Updates, eh?… I was really hoping for a level 90 cap, but I suppose they still haven’t quite grasped the revolutionary Abyssea Alliance EXP quite yet. 85 is decent though since it means I can still delay having to level Ninja since that’s at 42.

In Trials of the Magians we’re getting new weapons, new paths, and lower requirements on some of the older items. I’m hoping for a reduction in the amount of Two Leaf Chloris Buds needed for Rhongomiant, as that’s my Dragoon weapon of choice right now. With Samurai, the Keitonotachi sTP path better upgrade to some more damage and 5 more Store TP–that’s what I’m hoping for so I can tinker around with it and not have to rely on using Carbonara.

Samurai and Ranger have seemed to been sort of rolled out of this update all together, getting nothing mentioned at all in the patch notes. Dragoon, however, finally gets our coveted new Jump. Will it share any of the timers like Spirit Jump did, or will it finally have its own? What effects will it have, if any? All of these are questions that I cannot answer right now.

In Final Fantasy XIV we’re learning the true purpose of surplus points. They’re designed to lower your EXP gain after eight hours of continuous play. If you change your job, then your new job doesn’t have the fatigue–but your physical level EXP does. Square Enix is attempting to benefit the players who can’t spend much time in XIV, which is great and dandy–but you benefit people by harming others. That’s not exactly the “quality” customer service that we’ve all come to expect–no, wait, it sounds about right.

I’ve been in the XIV Alpha/Beta since A1, member #95 on the NA client even, and I can tell you that I really enjoyed it before this whole fatigue mess. With a PC that can barely handle playing it at default settings, and no real money to even pay for my own account without skimping my budget in other areas… I’m not too sure that I’m even interested in it anymore. I’ve still got a lot of ground to cover in XI before I make up my mind, but I’ll be sure to play that first free month to get Couch Gamers up and running smoothly.

Oh, and as promised:

Starfaye‘s random gibberish.

…But..but… you’re Asian! Have you been lying to us this whole time?! D: Who is that on your facebook page then?

-A very startled, Kyon

Almost every single day this past week I’ve gotten into some form of discussion in regards to the Perle Hauberk Set, usually with Faneelk. I figured it was nigh time to share my thoughts on the differences between style and functionality in gear, starting with a little teaser:

Taken from Unctgtg’s blog. I have no idea what we were dancing for, but as you can see I was never huge for style back in the day. I wore that bloody Assault Jerkin for years, so you’re never again going to see me wearing anything so gaudy. Except maybe Walahra Turban until they release a new Haste+5% hat or more.

That’s the honest trouble in regards to the Perle set. It’s a very sound set of equipment given two conditions:
1. You’re not a job that can use Byakko’s Haidate (or you are and don’t have a pair yet).
2. You don’t sacrifice any extra stats in retaining your 6-hit for 2HRs.

For Dragoon especially, this means sticking with the Store TP path of Stingray. I’m not a big fan of the Mezraq model either, and I’d rather not honor something that 1-up’d the Crocodile Hunter.

Luckily, AFv3 or Empyrean Armor is coming out soon–a full set for each job–and it’s all augmentable. This means that you can theoretically set your armor entirely around your play style.

What that actually means is that twinks will find the optimal path in a few scant weeks and everything that isn’t that inch better is wrong and should be disparaged.

I’m totally going to aim for the AFv3 in hopes that it can surpass my current gear, UNLESS it looks like:

Really hoping for a more midnight blue/black mix, like BLU AFv2. Anyway…

This is my current style, and it suits me well enough. Most of the players on Ragnarok are crappy enough to allow me to get by with losing some stat bonuses, and though many of you would fail to see that as an excuse I don’t want to look like I was on the “receiving end” if you catch my drift.

There’s only one place where I know that style and functionality reach a perfect balance–the equilibrium point:

AKA:

FLAVA FLAAAAAV!

My personal thoughts on which is better between style and functionality?

Obviously style–just don’t be so narcissistic that you wind up losing to players who you used to call gimp.

-Kyon FLAAAAV

Wow, everyone. Just wow. I put that counter in place a year ago and despite my usually slow rate of posting KyoNet managed to accrue 5,000 unique hits–all thanks to you guys. (And the various bots who come in and try to get my e-mail to share their assortment of watches and certain enlargement supplements with me.)

While that may not seem like much to larger sites that have communities and such, it’s a pretty big deal for my personal Final Fantasy XI blog. It’s not much but I’ve got a small token of appreciation for those who’ve supported me–and I abused Kyoshin and Liyel to make it so.

They’re a bit NSFW so I decided to link them instead. No one needs to go getting in trouble over me.

A slightly disgruntled Kyoshin. (NSFW)

Liyel is ALREADY guilt tripping me. (NSFW)

Once again, thank you all–and I hope to do my best to keep up this constant flow of entries for as long as I can. Please feel more than free to share your thoughts or comments whenever–your e-mail doesn’t even have to be one that exists, as you could tell from Gunblaze’s entries, and registration isn’t required. I just may draw inspiration from one of these when my own mind is rendered blank. <3

-Kyon

So, the description of my blog is basically “The adventures and studies of Kyoshin in Vana’diel.” I haven’t really done much research lately, but Trial of the Magians has given me quite a chance to do so. While I was going to delve into the world of Dragoon Polearms at first, I figured since I’m likely the biggest Hagun fanboy in the FFXI blogging community I’d go ahead and check that out. I took a mathematical approach to examine Hagun, Kokushitsunotachi (DMG+48 “Dbl.Atk.”+5), Hyogugusarinotachi (STR+6 Attack+20), Keitonotachi (DMG+11 Tachi:Kasha DMG+10%), and Keitonotachi (DMG+13 “Store TP”+5).

For these tests, all gear, the mob level/evasion/defense/AGI/VIT, etc. were all constant except for one variable: switching out some pieces for Store TP to give the Store TP version of Keitonotachi a 5-hit build. At the current 80 cap, it’s realistically the prime weapon to aim for a 5-hit on if you want to go that route. Like I suggested before, however, you really do need Usukane Haramaki if you want to make it run well.

Let’s start with Hagun since that’s what I’m comparing all of these darned trial weapons to:

There’s our “constant” factor. Mind you the tests were run in an environment where there’s absolutely no delay from engaging, spell lag, etc–you’re constantly swinging on one immortal enemy. You’re also awake and perfectly alert being focused on Final Fantasy XI for twenty hours or so, which happens to make people get sick in real life. In other words, Hagun is still going to rule in situations where you’re not on the mob full-time. Which is… almost all of HNM-based activity. That said, let’s examine the idiot’s little baby: Hyogugusarinotachi.

The extra DMG, STR+6, and Attack+20 really boosted melee damage up by a significant number. I was expecting as much, but it still pales in comparison on weapon skill damage even when it’s out full-time. Next up we’ll take a gander over at the Tachi: Kasha DMG+10% path Keitonotachi, which is used by a few members of the FFXIclopedia Samurai board community.

I lied a little–this was the only weapon where I had to change the weapon skill on. All others used Gekko, but when you’ve got a weapon that gives you 110% damage on one weaponskill, why use a different weaponskill? For the day of effort you put in to get it, this version of Keitonotachi is fairly sound. More so when you think of how long it takes most people to get their hands on a Hagun–especially back when they were selling for upwards of 3,500,000 gil on Ragnarok. We’re on the home stretch now with a favorite of the BG dramawhores: Kokushitsunotachi (DMG+48 “Dbl.Atk.”+5).

Again, this weapon really poured out in the physical and ability damages. (Subbing Dragoon for Wyvern Earring, mostly.) It lacked a little in weapon skill damage, but overall it proved better than Hagun for this test. Finally–the weird one of the weapon siblings, the 5-hit build Keitonotachi (DMG+13 “Store TP”+5):

While it doesn’t have the melee outputs that some of the others do, it still beat out Hagun in every category for this test. Here’s an overall comparison:

As you can see, Hagun triumphs for weapon skill damage still–and will be king of that market for quite some time. However, there are still at least two TotM updates coming our way. If the first doesn’t destroy Hagun, then the second surely will. Yet… who knows? Perhaps one of the updates will grant augments of choice onto our regular weapons as well. Only time will tell whether or not Hagun’s despair comes to fruition.

-Kyon

Once more procrastinating from having to do my business class project on lolMicrosoft, I decided to delve into the comparison of similarities and differences in the leadership styles of Linkshell Leaders and Sackholders alike. I’ll also be going over a little bit about my current goals for the remainder of the year-or-so given the information that we know now and/or can assume about the future.

Social Linkshells

Social Linkshells aren’t typically a good place to go looking for quality leadership. This is easily the biggest reason why I no longer have a linkpearl strictly for social endeavors–if I want to talk to my friends, I just talk to them. The first social shell I ever belonged to was led by Dreyvin, who is still a really good and long-standing friend of mine. He was a classic example of an uninspired leader: someone who wanted to make a pearl just to talk more easily with their friends, without having the charisma to really keep anyone in the shell instead of on their various other socials. We eventually disbanded and the remaining members were merged into “TheRogueKnights”, where I met people like Ckye, Whar, and Arcon. Cyke and Whar, who were married in real life, did and are continuing to do an utterly fantastic job of leading a social linkshell. For the most part, the people who had pearlsacks were deserving of one and actually used their power properly. They had a nice website all laid out thanks to another one of their sackholders (Sorry, I forgot your name!), and they even planned little group events that either helped members out as a whole or got everyone to know each other better. Meeting Arcon here also means that, out of all of the members that I met prior to the founding of MulletHaven, I’ve known him for the longest.

I was eventually dragged out of regularly entering the RK pearl by a certain someone which led me into joining the then newly-founded Recurrence Linkshell. This was the first pearlsack I ever received, and it was based on the notion that I ended up making their website and forums. Luckily there’s no record remaining of that awful existence, since it was one of the first websites I ever made that didn’t involve some sort of anime fandom–and thereby my first step up towards semi-professional-looking websites. This Linkshell was led by Zarathustraa, who was the prime reason for shattering my Lemming-like trait of simply following what anyone said for gear choices and actually doing the math and testing on my own. That’s right, people, you now know the source of my elitism. Anyway, he was a great man, and I’m saddened that he quit a long time ago, but I’ll never give up the Flame Ring that he gave to me as a memento. It has been, and probably always will be, one of my most treasured items.

My next “official” social Linkshell was DigitalBackSpin, and I’m sure anyone who was there can utter a few words about its leadership. I’ll sum it up in one: “Fail.” DBS disbanded not even a full month after I joined, and I while I was camping Mee Deggi the Punisher, Mirror came around and handed me a pearl to ItsAllGood. I can say a lot about ItsAllGood, and they can say a lot about me, but I still have many friends there so I’m going to keep that can of worms closed for the time being. After I left ItsAllGood I thought I would never again join another social Linkshell until I came across one of Reign’s earlier shouts for MoogleMayhem. Reign was an old friend of mine back from the days of having CoP groups shut down literally anywhere from half of a mission to one full mission after I joined them, so I decided to give it a shot.

I shouldn’t have done so, I don’t think.

Events came upon me rapidly, and I was able to spend less and less time in MM. Around this time there were a lot of issues to be resolved with my web host, and I was having a hard enough time juggling my jobs, the events, and keeping my main domain and this blog up. Eventually Reign contacted me about it and went into an assumption, and after that cold-shoulder experience I figured if I’m going to be treated like trash that I may as well act upon it, and shut down the MM subdomain instead of trying to restore it. Out of all the socials I was ever in, however, MoogleMayhem was the only one where virtually everyone had a pearlsack. “Invite your friends!” is not necessarily a great method of establishing long-standing linkshell quality control.

Event Linkshells

Event Linkshells are practically based on the solid support that a good leader should be able to provide. That, and your core members who are essentially the trusted advisers to Sackholders as it is. While they’ll improve much like how social linkshells will with a good leader, they can be built in any sort of manner: some event linkshells crumble without the leaders, and others can function just as well without them. A social linkshell without some form of leadership system is just an extension of the /tell system, I’d say.

The first event linskhell I ever joined was HighVoltage. This is where I met people like Treubaut, Ezekial, so forth and so on. At the time they were just a sky Linkshell, and I only had Dragoon–not even ZMs done to the point where I could run events with them! They were a very nice bunch of guys though, and they helped me complete missions so that I could enter and see just how great Ru’Aun Gardens was. I never got anything out of HighVoltage besides experience, but “the journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step.” HighVoltage started out as a social linkshell, but their form of leadership was divided up properly to where they could organize an event even without the linkshell holder there and get things done just fine.

After that was a brief stint with TriNova, where I met Tachys and Foxx. TriNova did crazy things like pop NMs, ground kings, so forth and so on–it was my true first HNM experience. Unfortunately the leaders were in it only for themselves, and ended up taking the bank when they left the server. They tried to come back recently and rebuild TriNova, but they ended up failing epically because many of the members were still around, and practically all of us noted to those we knew to avoid their linkshell invitation.

I didn’t get into traditional endgame again for a while, but during this time off I became one of the founding members (#4) of MulletHaven and even managed to nab sea access and join SuperYellow. MulletHaven started out as a group of six guys doing Nyzul Isle, and we’ve expanded in both members and events since then. We also booted out a little troublemaker, who has since sold his ex-girlfriend’s old WHM gear when she quit in order to pay for his Ares’s body. SuperYellow, on the other hand, was already a very old and established Limbus linkshell when I first joined. Tachys eventually ended up hinting at needing to make forums since the linkshell was expanding, so I took the initiative which eventually led into me getting promoted to a sackholder position. The leaders of SuperYellow are Tachys (leader), Leonadis (retired), Foxx (co-leader/lead sackholder), Bluetiger (MIA Sackholder), Scieska (MIA Sackholder), Kyoshin–myself (Sackholder/Site Administrator), and technically Tira who is likely the most “influential” normal member.

Tachys leads things like a family–he seems to expect everything to piece itself together. This works wonders with our core group, but as rapidly as the linkshell is growing (somehow…) it doesn’t work well enough anymore. Foxx leads events like a semi-dictator, but he does try to be as fair as he possibly can. Despite this, we still like to make fun of him. I’m the lazy one of the active leadership crew, with the sole exception of the website and ZNMs. I really want to see both of those succeed. Tira is the “sackholder adviser” that Foxx and I both chat with more often than any other, and between him, Ryousuke, Sziha, Estrellita, and Mxcnlink we get a very good grasp on how the general members of the shell feel about our activity and progress.

My next event shell was RealmOfChaos, led by Asthesis and Clawhaven. This was a strictly sky-only Linkshell, and it was the first time in sky that I ever got anything: hecatomb feet abjuration. Despite the words of many members who are friends of mine, I’ve never had any issues with them. Some of their sacks, yes, but those will remain unnamed for now. When I first joined they did a bank splitting system, and that kept everyone extremely happy. I was big into forum signatures at the time (I still am but with college I hardly have time to even check my queue anymore), and ended up making one for both of them. Although, here recently they both seem to ignore my existence. Meh.

I ended up leaving RealmOfChaos on good terms by the request of Reizan and Kedamonah to join Cabelas. Cabelas was my second HNM experience, and fortunately I had a lot of free time when I first joined since I was in college and leaving class early. When I got a job, I told Paimeii (leader) and he fully understood my time constraints. “Just attend every event you can, man. All I can ask is that when you’re on FFXI that you’re doing what you can to attend the event.” He also knew that MulletHaven and SuperYellow took priority for me, so he was a very understanding and compassionate leader. Unfortunately some of his sackholders were not so much, and I was more or less driven to the point where leaving the shell was my only option to retain sanity. I did, however, manage to nab Sorcerer’s Petasos and Zenith Mitts from them before making my exit.

After Cabelas I was still really driven towards getting things done in Sky. By recommendation of Foxx and Kurosama I joined up with ShibouJunsei, and as habit goes eventually made a website for them. Maizie and Koryu were always very secretive, going as far as to remove me from my Administrators usergroup in an attempt to remove my Admin access. Quality thing about phpBB boards is that the founding member can only by truly removed from administration by another founding member, and there’s no way in hell I’m ever giving anyone that authority. I managed to nab Crimson Finger Gauntlets freelot, and even earned my Byakko’s Haidate by risking wrecking early in the morning (and getting a few tickets along the way due to my inability to stay awake while driving to my morning shift job) from staying up so late for sky. Once I got them I told Maizie that I’d do events that weren’t going to run late, or ones that were before a day that I wasn’t working. Unfortunately being in customer service during the summer means you work six or more days per week and often 10+ hour shifts, so I was rarely able to attend. It got to the point where Mai just said to stop coming all together, so I did–which infuriated several members. “You just got your Byakko’s and ran!” Hell, even one member accused me of getting Kirin’s Osode and Zenith Mitts from them. The Zenith I got from Cabelas as earlier mentioned, and before buying my own later down the road, I had never before owned my own Osode.

Later on I heard rumors of Maizie and Koryu using their secret linkshell bank supply to fund their salvage bodies, but there’s no way to prove that they did–and no way they can prove that they didn’t–simply due to their inability and unwillingness to share that information with their members. This isn’t the real world, so “guilty until proven innocent” stands firm.

From ShibouJunsei, Kurosama, Estrellita, and Mandlorian got together and formed CeruleanDivinity. I was commissioned into making them a website and forums (seems to be a big thing with me), and between that, my knowledge of sky, and whatever other factors that I am still unable to see I was eventually given a pearlsack. Leading a sky linkshell full of people that I can hardly tolerate was not a good idea, but I made quite a few friends that I respect very highly, so it went well overall. Eventually my laziness got the best of me, and I was accused for stealing points when I hadn’t properly updated the points spreadsheet on the forums. Before I could fix it (and before the accusation) they removed my access from it, and upon a rather lengthy conversation with Estrellita I decided to quit the shell to prevent drama from spreading out of that one window. It was my dream to see a sky linkshell without drama, and I certainly didn’t want to be the cause of destroying that dream.

Unfortunately, it ended up being destroyed anyway. When I left they seemed to lose the same balance and drive the shell had before, and when Estrellita got bored of running it, it collapsed. Their Limbus linkshell also disbanded, and a few of their members–Estrellita included–merged into SuperYellow. I’ve since gotten back on her good side so all is well there–no drama there!

So there you have it… all of the leadership experiences I’ve ever seen or had in Vana’diel. My personal thoughts on the best form of leadership? It’s a very demanding type, but if you can assemble a core group of members who aren’t actually sackholders, but more the “sackholder advisers” that I mentioned before who can lead the shell in the absence of leadership, it’s great. They’ve also got the advantage of not having that sack icon near their names, so the regular members feel more at ease when chatting with them to allow a free flow of communication between the leaders/sacks and members. SuperYellow has this, and I love every minute of it.

Goals

First off are subjobs! I need these leveled fairly badly, since I haven’t really even tried to get them done yet. My Warrior is still 37, my Ninja is 42, my Blue Mage is 37, and my Dancer is 23. I’m thinking of paying for one of those Abyssea EXP AFK slots once I get my usu body debt paid off, just so I don’t have to level them on my own really. Plus, the cruor will help pay it off–more or less.

This should be the first obvious choice of items. The Varangian Helm is amazing for one-hit weaponskills with high STR WSCs, like those belonging to Warrior and Samurai.

I, like anyone else who has done an Abyssea EXP alliance, have a trigger for this NM. It’d be nice to finally replace both my Smart Grenade and my Olibanum Sachet.

This would be the most amazing thing to wear for Penta Thrust macro ever, and probably for Tachi: Rana as well–not counting the STR+5 Acc+10 belt.

Just as well, since I went for a Ranger hat in AMK this would be excellent for Penta Thrust. It seems that someone is still bitter over a failed AMK attempt, but after a very public note on twitter from them I’ve since decided to block and /blist them. I don’t have the time to deal with additional stress from people who hold grudges over trivial matters.

This would be awesome to have in my Elemental/Healing Breath gear swap macro.

I still need fifty Two-Leaf Chloris buds. /emo

As hard as Vali’s Bow was to get for Ranger, Siege Bow really does work wonders on weapon skill damage and sheer damage per arrow. Not to mention I really need the extra Enmity-5 at this point.

Trading 2 STR for 5 Ranged Attack and Enmity-1 seems fair to me.

I TP and WS at 95% accuracy on Ranger, so RAcc-10 for AGI+6 RAtk+8 Enmity-3 is really nice.

Isn’t this bloody obvious by now?

Anyone who is willing to help on the casual drops–just send me a /tell! I’ve got plenty of Traverser Stones ready and am more than willing to help those who help me.

-Kyon

So here lately I’ve been rather consistently busy in Vana’diel, yet between all of the events I’ve managed to find some time here and there to run through Campaign battles again. Even though there’s a supposed Store TP V coming for Samurai at Level 90, which would be an extra +5 of Store TP by default, I’m still gunning for some decent items out of this. Plus it’s always fun to do it with some friends, knowing that you don’t have to rely on strangers who will not assist you in any manner.

I do Campaign battles mostly for the end result rewards for my main–Kyoshin. There’s one item in particular that I’m aiming for, but the others aren’t all that bad either. I serve as the essential meathead tank for the trio, dishing out usually enough damage to let all the cowardly people sit back and save their TP to try and get that kill shot. Starfaye tries her best, but she’s seven levels lower than I am and not capable of spamming the same quantity of weapon skills that I can.

This is my main goal out of Campaign. Rose Strap is one of the two extra items that I would need right now to complete my 5-hit build with Keitonotachi. Granted at 90 with potential Store TP V I wouldn’t need any extra bonuses at all. Fortunately, getting Rose Strap for then still means that I would use something besides Usukane Sune-Ate for my weaponskill and still retain 5-hit. (20.4 x 4 = 81.6 + 19.6 = 101.2) This is all assuming that there’s not a better weapon released in future Magian trials that has more Store TP, though.

Fox Earring is something I noticed while browsing through FFXIclopedia‘s campaign items page. It’d be a definite improvement over my current lolDrone Earring without having to cash out any extra gil on a Triumph Earring. You might be thinking, “That’s gimping it up, Kyon!” Ranger, however, is a job I play solely for the fun of it.

I would get this for the sheer fact of having it. Plus, it’d be a ridiculously easy way to never take hate in Campaign: go DRG/NIN and dual wield with Lex Talionis in my main, and my Joyeuse in my sub. While I obviously do not recommend that, it’d be fun as hell for about an hour or so.

The one who has been pushing hard for getting me back into campaign is the only person I refer to as a sister–and that’s Starfaye. She’s awesome at whatever she puts effort into, but unfortunately there’s a lot of stuff going on in her life that prevents her from really going that extra mile in a game. Despite this, there couldn’t possibly be a better friend to have in Vana’diel.

While she’s all about getting the Iron Ram armor, which I think all she needs left is the hand piece, I’m pretty stoked about seeing her get Griffinclaw. Uriel Blade seems to be a really potent weapon skill, and getting a relic-level weapon bonus during Campaign is just plain hot. Not to mention that it’d be a new toy to make lv3 Light skillchains with, which seems to be one of her favorite activities in our duo/trio.

Since I’m far from being able to trust any mage out in campaign, I’ve been dualboxing on Liyel a whole lot. While I only really use her for Protectra/Shellra/Haste and the occasional Afflatus Solace Cure V, it’s handy as well to have her around for a Raise (shown above) before the Campaign battle ends. It’s rare to find someone who can Raise that is willing to actually be a team player and cut out some of their points for a bit more guarantee in success at the battlefront. This holds true when the only one tanking is me–if I’m unable to cure myself, then I never get cured at all. If I can heal myself (SAM/DNC, DRG/mage, Liyel standing next to me) then I get cure bombed so much that I literally can’t see my character anymore.

I don’t particularly have any item goals in regards to Liyel’s campaign rank. She’s just there for free EXP and to act as extra healing when Starfaye and I duo, basically. Though as I’ve pointed out plenty of times before to various people, she also doubles as eye candy when we’re just waiting for a battle to begin. Unfortunately she also winds up as eye candy for other people quite often, to the point of where it’s easier to lie and send them a tell from Liyel saying that Kyoshin is her boyfriend, rather than try to get through the hassle of explaining that I’m one person dualboxing both characters.

Yes, this actually happened.

-Kyon

As I was hanging around Bastok Mines gathering supplies for my night of crafting, I decided to take a look back on the birth of KyoNet–back when it was a simple blog on FFXIclopedia‘s forums. My first entry recorded there was August 18th, 2007.

For the mathematically challenged, that means my derivative of ‘KupoNet’ was first born just over three whole years ago. With just one-hundred and thirty three entries on FFXIclopedia, and now sixty five entries here on my domain I’m not much of one for blogging, but you slowly realize just how much information is documented over the years if you can manage to keep it up. Slowly but surely, I can see the evolution of “Kyoshin” from entry #1 on the wiki forums all the way to the present day here at the current KyoNet.

Going to go ahead and quote these entries for various things I saw.

Entry: “Thinking” Date: August 18th, 2007
“I really also need to find a CoP set soon. I’ve been stuck at mission 4.2 for quite a while and would enjoy unlocking Sea and getting a Rajas at the end, not to mention Brutal Earring and all of that lovely Homam gear.

DigitalBackSpin has been going through some more drama of late, with the whole Unctgtg thing. I don’t know the truth of the situation, and to be honest I don’t care. I’m friends with who I am friends with, no matter how potentially awkward of a situation it may cause. I won’t just shun a friend because the LS leader and a few others say he’s been causing problems for the shell.”

The first time I ever stood up for Unctgtg.

Entry: “A Renewed Adventure” Date: September 23rd, 2007
“I’ve finally done it. I have completely regeared (and upgraded in some terms) my Red Mage. I’ve decided that merit parties right now just don’t entertain me, but I don’t want to be stuck too deep in the newbie levels. To get another 75, I’m taking my second highest job- RDM 60- to the next level.”

What the hell was I thinking?

Entry: “Hundred Thrusts” Date: September 28th, 2007
“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ygt9OiAKdf8

This video rocks. I was thinking about a haste build before, and this simply proves my point. The only thing that could survive the full minute was one of those Assault walls…

Ohhh. This is going to be so awesome!”

Finally seeing what a haste+multi-hit weapon can do. XD

Entry: “Finally getting around to it…” Date: October 1st, 2007
“Unctgtg was so kind as to deliver me a Jujitsu Gi all the way over to Gustav Tunnel before I hit 40 so I wouldn’t be gimped. Granted I did pay him for buying it, but not just anyone would have gone such a distance for delivery without being in the service or just bored as hell. :-P”

Realizing that Unc has his good side.

Entry: “‘Cause Unc Said So…” Date: October 4th, 2007
“Helped Gutsman camp Pallas/Alky along with Unctgtg and Keda…something. Pallas dropped once, Alky didn’t drop at all, and when Guts stopped being slow we managed a double darkness. Impulse >> Gekko >> Cata. I almost did a fish out of both of those >>.”

Meeting Kedamonah for the first time ever.

Entry: “Ni! Ni! Ni! Ni!!!!” Date: December 17th, 2007
“*does a little jig*

I finally bought Utsusemi: Ni!”

I’m easily excitable about simple things like this.

Entry: “Moving Forward” Date: February 4th, 2008
“My best friend got hit by a train over the weekend irl, and died upon impact.

I’ve said this a million times in a million places, so I’m going to keep it short here.

I can’t look back into the past and expect to move ahead with the present. I’m going to do my best to help those who still mourn his death, but he’s not the kind of guy who would want to be cried over. Besides, I made him a promise months ago that I would never let anything happen to his girlfriend when we went on a choir trip to New York (he had already graduated, so he couldn’t go). I’m going to keep that promise and make sure she doesn’t do anything reckless.”

>< Re-reading this brought back memories I didn’t want to re-surface.

Entry: “Kyo?… Kyo?… Keeeeyoooo?” Date: February 16th, 2008
“That’s the sound I heard when Unc was trying to identify who was calling his cellphone. Lol. He recognized it after I said Kyoshin. :-P”

First phone call with anyone in XI. Also probably the key element to Unc and I actually becoming friends rather than mere acquaintances.

Entry: “Onwards and Upwards” Date: February 17th, 2008
“I’m now set with Starfaye’s Red Mage. I think I’m only like 1k or so exp ahead of her, and that’s only because I did one too many Campaign Battles. Oh yeah… picked up my Bronze Star the other day. I’m gonna do some more campaigns on Dragoon for merits and a rank up, since I don’t want to outlevel Star too badly. She’s a much better RDM than I was, considering she can’t really afford the kind of gear that I can.”

I had hung out with her a bit before this, but getting into a set together really started things up to where we felt more like siblings than just friends. She eventually had to stop playing, and I took my SAM beyond that. We eventually made a new set for our RNG and PLD, but the same thing ended up happening. XD It’s just bad luck, I think.

Entry: “Ding SAM75″ Date: April 2nd, 2008
“Thanks to Unc, Keda, and three others [sorry, forgot your names!!!] I dinged SAM 75 last night.”

True story: the Bard of this party was Kenzo. Likely the first time I ever met him.

Entry: “The Latest” Date: May 10th, 2008
“My dog, Sierra, had to be put to sleep. We we only had her for 3 years and turns out she was actually ten~ by then, so we gave a rescue dog a good last few years of life that she never could’ve had happiness in otherwise.
…
My first dog, Pepsi, died this morning. I’m still pretty bummed about it because we had her for almost thirteen years, and she and I grew up together. I’ve got objectives and a promise to keep, however, so I’m not going to slow down on my track towards Gungnir, even if it’s hard to see through the tears.
…
Joined a Nyzul Isle set with our typical meripo setup: Unctgtg, Kenzo, Kedamonah, and Zephiriz. Our sixth will probably be a WAR friend of Kenzo. This is the reason now why I can’t quit SAM for easy gil towards Gungnir- we need WS power on boss floors. ;~;”

Losing both of my dogs (and after this post, my last Grandfather), and starting MulletHaven… what a week.

Entry: “I’m losing my marbles!” Date: May 27th, 2008
“I joined SuperYellow Limbus LS and got 5 coins towards my first AF1/2 upgrade.”

It listed the date of this line as Sunday, and the entry was on a Tuesday… so I joined up with SuperYellow on May 25th. Been with them ever since. <3

Entry: “Moar e-Peen” Date: June 18th, 2008
“Gigie, the BRD, was quite competent… not as good as Kenzo, of course, but still she knew what she was doing. She’s a DRG75 as well so I knew I didn’t have to prove anything to her about the job.”

Meeting Gigie for the first time ever. Ironically she didn’t know Kenzo at the time, and they ended up dating for a little while later down the road.

Entry: “I see the future” Date: August 20th, 2008
“It’s been pretty hectic since my last update, which is why I haven’t been able to do much of anything I actually enjoy lol. My Composition professor loads me down with so much homework that I can’t breathe, and my Web Design instructor thinks that he can break down my ego.

Hah! Good luck to him.”

This comes off as excessively cocky, but we were ‘learning’ how to use line breaks and such in HTML. Techniques I taught myself back when I was only seven-years-old, shortly before the big .COM boom.

Entry: “Moved again” Date: December 3rd, 2008
“WordPress is the hardest blog system I’ve wound up using, but it allows for the most customization without even having to make a paid account like LiveJournal. :P I allowed open registration and comments are open to anyone, just because I know a lot of people don’t like replying when they have steps to register or NEED to register in order to do so. XD”

I used to think using WordPress was hard, apparently. This is the grand rebirth of KyoNet, gradually evolving into what it is today.

Seems I rode the melancholy rollercoaster quite a few times along this blog’s lifespan, but that’s to be expected. I was just eighteen when KyoNet started, and here I am going on twenty-two. Still a youngin’, but I suppose a learned youngin’.

Thanks for stopping by and reminiscing upon these past few years with me! Let’s go for another three, at least!

-Kyon