Xianthe is 75 OMG

Finally after all these years I reached a goal I have been waiting on - 75 WHM in FFXI. Why haven't I done it til now? Well I started raiding (read: Dynamis) before more North American players at level 70. Since you loose XP when you wipe in Dynamis, it was always a struggle to keep my level let alone advance while holding down a job etc. Had I known I probably would have finished the grind first before raiding, but live and learn. Now with all the game changes - Campaign, Field of Valor, Level Sync, Mob experience changes and just general buffs its far easier. Hey we even have experience rings now! Last night my group clocked in at 12.5k an hour in Garliage Citadel level 32 Level Sync party. In the "old days" I would have been happy with 5k an hour.



Thank you Myrr, Oblio, Midnightbomber, Duroren and of course, Laeral!~

What's going on?

I answer this question on a daily basis (and many times more than daily), folks want to know what I'm doing what my plans are -- I wish I could say. I don't have the answers myself. I can't wait til I'm more settled again. I'd like to be on a schedule, I'd like to know where I'm living will be where I'm staying for at least a year... Things some take for granted. It's hard to make longer term plans when you don't have things settled. I'm convinced I'm going to come out on the other side of this a better person though.



Until then I have been playing with friends as much as possible. I ran into my old friend Laeral last night and we did skill up party in Kuftal Tunnel my Staff skill went from around 139 to 142. I also managed to complete Gobbiebag Part VII, so now I have 65 inventory slots. Looks like I'll need a party to do Gobbiebag Part VIII since the Angelstone requires killing a NM.

I am now down to about ~6k tnl to 75 WHM! I have been working on Campaign here and there.

[Pics or it didn't happen].

Blood+

I finally finished Blood+ this week after two years of waiting to finish. I just haven't had time to watch something with subtitles. The series was an amazing roller-coaster of emotions and the ending was bittersweet, leaving me with tears in my eyes. The ending was what you wanted, and no it wasn't the worst of all outcomes, just leaves you with a feeling of loss. I'm very happy I watched it though and will definitely queue it up later again.










I also have been playingAtlantica Online in my downtime. It's a great MMO - F2P but feels like a pay MMO. There are a ton of little unique mechanics I enjoy - like giving quests to high levels to give lower levels gifts and become mentors, teach crafts, etc. Stuff that actually enforces community, but doesn't require anything difficult like forced grouping. When I hit 30, my mentor will receive about 200,000 gold in game currency. The game itself is a turn based strategy RPG where you control level up to 9 NPCs in battle. That also sets it apart from other MMOs and many mechanics are more similar to a console game, but you also get others to play with.


You level up various characters (or mercenaries) at once with one being your main hero with some separate rules. I like that the various mercenary ranks end up as a famous historical figures and the world itself is alternate reality earth so you end up in cities with names like Beijing, Rome, Tokyo, London etc all geographically spread out on the real world map.
This isn't the type of MMO you play for hours, its more something to play while watching TV, relaxing, or short 30 minute play sessions. You could play it that way but there is no need to. Plenty of mechanics like Auto Moving to NPCs, cities (think flight paths but many more destinations), auto battle - not to be used unless the mobs are lower than you but convenient for farming, and short quests make the game easily accessible. The complexity comes with the harder battles and party formation. Much like console RPGs, you can avoid battles by not touching monsters.

Below I have pictures of:
Pocahontas (Elementalist)
Morgan Le Fay (Witch)
Leonaidas (Spartan)