shamayaasura

I guess I'll have no shame and admit to having been gluttonously divulging in SC2 as of late. Actually during my 2 month sabbatical after crashing from the life-sapping monotony of magian trials (aka the future of XI), I played SC2 pretty much every day.

If anyone out there also plays, hit me up online. I'm on there as joeflack4@gmail.com and my gamer tag is TagaJoe (play on words since my name's Joey and the city I live in happens to be called Tagajo).  I play Terran and started off beta in the freaking copper league, the lowest one.  But since then I've climbed to diamond, the highest league, with about a ~400 rating.  But that also doesn't really mean a lot considering that to the many truly great players, there is little difference to them whether you're diamond or silver.

This game is truly kickass and highly addicting. So much gratification and yet you can pick it up and drop it whenever you want, unlike an MMO.  So much goes in to playing well.  Micro(management), macro, memorizing build orders, scouting, response, overall strategy, actions per minute.  Sometimes it's fun just to watch other players' replays or tournament games.  I'm about off of work and about all I can think about is going home and blowing shit up until I pass out.

If you play it let me know :), would be fun to play with some people from XI.




On the other hand, XIV is coming out in exactly a month.  I haven't yet got a copy, but I think I'll get the lol collectors edition. I'm thinking I'll get the game in Japanese this time; that'll probably help beat the language into me a bit more, prolly a good thing.

If you're like me and you're studying Japanese and plan on playing XIV, I'd check out Eorzea Station.( Read more... )

Don't know about you guys, but I've been having a great time with this.  I guess it's SE's way of going out with a bang before XIV.
Anyhoo Rayix on Asura (formerly Ryx) wrote a pretty decent guide on how to manage EXP alliance runs, and I thought I'd share it here.

---

EXP'ing in Abyssea - A Guide by Rayix of Asura
Okay, now we've all heard the stories, of massive, long exp grinds in Abyssea. This isn't hard, but it isn't easy either. It does require some strategy & tact, but it's not dependent on gear/merit quality, it's all in the setup.
( Monsters )
( Chain & Lights )( Boxes & Box-Bitching )
( Setup & Job Advice )
( Yada Yada )
( Abyssites )
( In Closing )

So, for some of the people that check here, they'll think "finally", and maybe wonder why I've never written any advice/math on gearing WS's before.  I've had a couple replies, and a bunch of PM's and /tell's asking how to gear for thief WS's, or if the hardened-out SA/TA numbers could be applied to WS's.  My answer to that is--absolutely, they cannot.

WS is an entirely different ballgame than unstacked SA/TA. ( Read more... )

( How do you choose your WS? )

( What stats should I focus on.. ? )

( About "Style" )

So I just came back to the game. I've taken a break since early April, and had only logged on once in the entire period. I don't think that has happened for me and FFXI in like 4 years. Between long magian grinding, and SE's thinly veiled stalling of things until 'XIV, I didn't even have the heart to pick up my security token.  All this leveling of jobs to 99, and leveling of all these various weapons, killing 100's and thousands of mobs. Three new mini expansions to milk a last bit of money in exchange for a very small amount of content. I mean, in Abyssia they've simply rehashed old zones and mob models, and stuck them in an area you can only access 30 minutes to an hour every day. Even the gear you get in there is made from recycled .dats.

But nonetheless I think a lot of people are easy enough to please. People seem to be really content w/ the leveling and all of the new gear that's come out, even if Abyssia could be a bit more accessible and even if Walk of Echoes didn't completely suck (what a let down).

I've exp'ed in a lot of camps in the past couple days, and holy christ.  What's fucking nuts is that every camp in the GD world is packed tighter than a gnat's arse, even at midnight JST, no less. On Asura, 5 pt's at Mamool Ja staging point, 3-4 parties in friggin' mamook. All the new camps overfilled w/ more parties than they can support. People are even back at Deco's in sky. People are getting so desperate that they're leveling up at places like "death camp" on the way to Khimmy in the mire.
Out of all the exp'ing, so far I've enjoyed Promivyon Vahzl and Castle Oztroja [S] the most. But I still haven't tried Mixereaux birds or the other promy's. Apparently La'Vaule [S] is also relatively decent now.

As full as the camps are though, exp seems to be coming quickly.  So everyone will get back to eying the next pieces of gear they're trying to obtain.  So in preparation for that, I've written a guide.  A thorough list of the various sets that I usually use, and where I think they can be improved by the new equipment. So without further ado,

( Best Equip Sets of Summer 2010 )

ヾ(゜ー゜ゞ)( 尸ー゜)尸
( New Equipment Listing )

Personal Update
Not much.  I just got back and I haven't been playing /super/ hard core. But I did finish ( Read more... )

The 5 WoTG "Fomor Kings"
Five new Fomor NM's were added to the past.  They have 1 epic item each, and in addition they have synthesis materials, including the "base weapon" needed for the new "aern weapons."

Basic Fomor NM Facts/Tactics
These NM's are somewhat unique, and have several things in common.  (1)First of all, they level up (animation and all).  Different things will trigger the level-up depending on the NM, which I'll get to later.  In some cases, you want to prevent the levelup, and others you just let it happen.
( Read more... )

---

Pet Food Alpha - Episode 193 "The Evosode"
( Read more... )

---

Personal Updates
( Read more... )

Drama of the Day

( Read more... )

Since the Winter '09 update, I've been heavily involved with things like Evolith, Synergy, and new NM's.  A lot of people haven't touched this content, or have a difficult time understanding it, but I've made this guide to condense the information together, and hopefully it can be of some help.

Winter '09 Update - New Content
(new crafting system, new augment system, new gear, and new NM's)
( Browse... )

So I want to start out by showing the new gear they've come out with.  Might as well see what you can gain from the system before you take the time to learn about it, right?  After that I want to explain how making (synergizing) the gear works, since it can get a little complicated.  Then, how and where to get the evoliths, and then I want to explain how to make sense of all the shapes/elements that they come in, since this also seems complicated at first (it's not as complex as it seems).  And lastly, we should take a look at all the new NM's.

---

New Gear
The Ebon/Furia/Ebur Sets

( Read more... )

---

Synergy


What is Synergy?
Synergy is a new form of "crafting," only it's not based on crystal synthesis.  You use instead a "synergy furance" found in public locations, or your own summoned "portafurance."  The uses of synergy include new recipes (not many) including new "ebon gear" and "aern weapons", new HQ tiers for some stackable materials, and the addition of evolith to items.
( Read more... )

---

Evolith System
The Evolith system involves using a system called the "hunt registry" to sign up to kill a specific NM; And, on kill of that NM, you are 100% gauranteed an evolith of a pre-determined type, though the potency on the piece is random.
( Read more... )

---

New NM's
( Read more... )