Moved~

http://forx.infoshell.net/blog/

Grips grips and more grips

Now that the update has sunken in, I figured it was time to try some of the other grips out. Finally settling on a mythril grip +1 for the time being (STR+2 VIT+2 ACC+2).

Had a good merit party with Sporx and Chuza while testing out the platinum grip, sadly the stun only went off twice in the entire party, so the mythril grip +1 seemed like the best choice, nice balance between axe grip and platinum.

Right now myself and Sporx are watching some chocobo races, and from that last race it seems pretty cool! Gonna go place some bets now, hopefully I won’t lose all my gil.

Update complete

And I picked myself up a sexy axe strap from the imperial standing guy. I knew I was saving up all that IS for something. I’m happy with this until we find out how to get the crit+ and double attack+ grips, then it’s a tricky decision as to which to get…

Went out and tested these weaponskill adjustments, wish I’d taken some screens now because the damage was insane. Sporx was hitting 1300+ pentas (1700~ at one point and a 700~ jump) and I managed a 1600~ kasha, with most of mine doing at least 1000 damage at 100% (using Hagun obviously). I am a very happy samurai right now, bard is on pause for a little while… Kekeke

Games to play while seeking party #1: Luminous Arc

Since we all know FFXI isn’t all constant action, I thought I’d start putting up some of the games I play while I’m in this downtime. I myself am a huge fan of the Nintendo DS, and that’s how I spend my party seeking time. I have a few games on the go at the moment after the massive wave of awesome these last few weeks, but my favourite first.

Luminous Arc is a strategy role playing game (S-RPG from now on) made by Marvelous Interactive and bought elsewhere by the awesome Atlus. The game has your standard fantasy setting, with knights from the church fighting against witches who they deem to be evildoers (and I’ll leave the story at that).

Luminous Arc has a nice Anime feel to it with character design by Kaito Shibano which is what drew me to the game in the first place. The characters are your standard Japanese RPG bunch. Protagonist with big sword and rifle, protagonists younger brother who is weaker and wants to impress him, priest girl who brings the cures, guy with spiky hair and big sword trying to impress priest girl, etc, but their artwork makes them all stand out. There is also a fair bit of voice acting, some of which is better than others, but it never gets too irritating (Theo and Nikolai do spring to mind though…).

There are a few nice touches to make this different to standard S-RPGs, like the flash drives (powerful attacks that require FP to use) and synergy attacks (team up attacks that are performed by certain combinations of characters) as well as the intermission sections where you chat to your party after battle for the chance to gain items.

Overall, Luminous Arc is a good, solid S-RPG and fans of the genre should get hold of it. The only problems with it being some of the voice acting and the fact that it’s not Final Fantasy Tactics A-2!

AF done

Well, except the body, but that requires a party and it’s hardly worth all the effort (I’ll make sure I get it later). Pointless feet and hat, as well as the excellent trousers and gloves. Now just to ding into them.

Sporx soloed dark spark for the second part and it didn’t seem half as hard as I remember it back on my samurai. Anyway, better get back to this party…

Bard: Now in widescreen

Oh I hope this new monitor doesn’t mess up my blog ; ; Also, behold my bard!

Temporary upgrade…

Since Pal isn’t going to be needing them for a while… I do hope he’s ok with me borrowing them though D: Hopefully I’ll be getting my own from Arsenal soon which will be cool, but until then I can try before I… Er… Kill gods to get drops to buy…

Did a few KSNM’s earlier in the week and made a few hundred thousand gil off them (only o. ingots sadly) and a nice heart snatcher for my bard (maybe). I just realised I have no pictures of my bard… Next time maybe.

Finally, we took someone to sky.

Doo doo de doo, doo de doo doo doo

Bard go!~

17 days after starting I hit 51, which is nice. Sold off BLU gear and got myself an Apollo’s staff and other assorted gears. I still need to invest in Terra’s staff and a wind torque, but the money is still coming in, and I’ll get those when I have the gil. All I need to buy after those are a few pieces of the sha’ir set and I’m done! Even less when I get Byakkos Haidate from sky (third on the list, gogo). Rostrum pumps run soon also, glee.

So, I start levelling bard since I’m annoyed with the whole two handed vs dual wield weapons gap and then SE go and drop this bomb on us.

The August version update will bring revisions to the use of two-handed weapons, as well as a number of modifications to several jobs.
In this edition of Topics, we would like to elaborate on the changes that will be made to the two-handed weapon system. Job changes will be described in length in a future Topics article.

Two-handed weapons

Up until now, there have been instances in which the attack frequency and speed generated by dual wielding would greatly surpass those of two-handed weapons. We have since examined this issue from every conceivable angle, and as a result have decided to reconsider the frequency and delay calculation methods for two-handed weapons.

This month’s version update will see the introduction of a new type of gear called “grips,” which players can equip in their offhand weapon slot when using a two-handed weapon. We are also planning to apply changes to associated weapon skills as well.

Attacking with two-handed weapons

The new modifications will be set up so that a character’s attribute scores will enhance attack benefits to a greater extent when wielding a two-handed weapon than when using a single-handed weapon. Further, when attacking high-level opponents or enemies with high defense, two-handed weapons will deal more damage than they have in the past.

A word on grips

While not designed to bring about radical improvements, grips are a new lineup of items which can be used in tandem with two-handed weapons as a means of wielding them more effectively. They accomplish this by enhancing a weapon’s benefits while compensating for shortcomings. Grips will not be limited to offensive weapons, as some will be tailored to mages and their indispensable staves.
Different grips will allow players to adapt to specific situations depending on the type of two-handed weapon they are using, as well as the type of enemy they are fighting. Players should be advised, however, that changing grips mid-combat will result in a loss of TP. Therefore, no grip’s benefits will be restricted to the execution of weapon skills.

Rethinking weapon skills

The majority of two-handed weapon skills already stand to see a vast improvement based on the changes described above. However, we will also be retooling the characteristics of several particular weapon skills in order to enhance their usability.

Now we just have to keep hoping that this is going to be as awesome as it sounds like it should be. I’m keeping my hopes up, could be a huge thing for samurai. And who knows, maybe grips will be a high(ish) level alchemy? (I hope you’re reading this SE…)

Just my luck

I was just sitting down to type out a new post when… My computer turns itself off. I pushed the power button a few times, but no go, off I dash downstairs. Into the back room and check the power meter.

£0.03

Shit.

Washing machine is off and full of water. Fridge is silent for a change. No matter how many times I flip the light switch it just wont come on. Grab the electricity key (for those who don’t know what I’m on about, its a way of topping up the electricity meter. You take the key to certain shops, and they put money on it, you put the key into the meter and the power is transferred to the house), sunglasses on and to the shops!

It’s a nice day, don’t mind the walk as much as usual. I get to the normal shop I buy the power from. The guy who normally serves there isn’t on, it’s the woman. She doesn’t know how to work the key payment machine. Great. The next shop is about twice the distance down the road. Off I go.

Thank god for sunny weather. The next shop is nice and cool, grab a milkshake, a loaf of bread and something to eat on the way back, get £20 on the key and head on back home. I get back in, key into meter, power into house. The fridge starts to sound like its taking off, so I know it worked. Upstairs, computer on, FFXI loaded, blog up, new post…

I forgot what I was going to type about in the first place.

No more BLU

Well that’s it for blue mage. Haven’t touched the job for months so it’s stuck at 66 and I think I’m bored with it. Time to sell off the gear and start bard. Didn’t realise just how much gil in sellable gear I had on blu (Came to around 500k) which can now be invested into my new venture.

Bard 2-10 went smoothly mostly thanks to paeon, very little resting time was a godsend. I was hoping to get a little further but sky came up so I had to abandon job and jump ship back onto samurai. I hope tomorrow I can rope a white mage into letting me borrow them… Don’t really want the dunes experience on this job. Still not sure why I’ve got my mind so set on doing bard, just looks like good fun, good merit opportunities and I can use it to help people out more than I could with samurai, which is a big thing for me. Also, I’ll get to look pretty damn hot while doing so. Got a subligar hunt this coming weekend with WoMD, so hopefully I can get my big gay pink harness!