Thursday, December 25, 2008

Preparing for the New Year

Well, its 4am on Christmas day and for the life of me I can't sleep at this hour. So I thought it was best for me to post another blog entry^^


Things slowed down alot for me over the holiday break and it was pretty much needed. I got some time to go out and get my holiday shopping done, finish some minor projects I had for school, and best of all had time to finish all the little things I wanted to do ingame for the longest while. The most notable thing ingame I did was the chance to get together with everyone in the social. Helping with missions, NMs, assault, you name it. There was never a dull moment and that is probably what I'm thankful about this shell.


Gear is something I need to work on by the new year. For quite some time now, I have been trying to bring my Warrior out of retirement (using it mostly for Nyzule) however I am starting to see its potential in the general area of melee DDing. Great Axe skill is a bitch to cap out I tell you lol. All in all, I think I'll have that finished in a few days, which will seriously pump out good numbers when I get the right gear for it. With my Nyzule static pumping out pieces at a remarkable rate, my eyes are set on the Askar head and body for my normal meriting pieces. I have been saving up gil here and there for my heca body, however the osode has been holding down for me on the Steel Cyclone build. I have talked with several HNM shells that are still doing Fafnir for the Heca Hat and personally I find it cheaper just to buy the damn thing than to go through the whole mess of participating in HNM events. The rest of the needed gear will be coming from ZNMs, something that I know the social shell will be getting into in mid-January.


Dynamis, for the most part, seems to be the highest priority at the moment. With the New Year starting, there are several goals I want to give out for that shell. Highest priority on my list is to get the leadership centered again as well as the members so that we're on the same page for alot of things. Since alot of people are finishing up their first 5/5 on their relic, I'm planning to go another cycle for the 2nd 5/5 set for them until I switch gears heavily into CoP and Tavnasia. Perfecting Dynamis strategies is another thing I want to do, that way we can go through a zone for maximum efficiency. The last thing on my mind in this field is probably going to finish Skeletor's relic. Personally, and this is just my opinion, having something like that is a sign of accomplishment for the shell and a trophy. I know by the time he finishes the T. shell part, him and I are gonna farm like crazy to get that last stage done fast.


Umm...other then that things are quite boring lol. Got nothing else on my mind about FFXI. Most of my spare time now I have been playing Starcraft getting ready for the next tournament when I go back to Korea. In addition, I have been saving up money for buying a house up in the hills of Newcastle, so with some help from my Parents I can bunker down there for the rest of my graduate school years.


Anyways, Happy Holidays to everyone, hope you all are having fun!

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Finals Are Over!

Finals are finally over and thats stress off my brain for the next few weeks. I think I took it pretty well, took a bunch of time out of the game dedicated to studying and personally it all payed out really well. In any case, I'm done with it, ready to move on to the next series of classes of which I'll personally enjoy: Third quarter to computer science, final quarter for korean, and last quarter for physical chemistry. After that, I graduate!


Ingame wise I got alot done. With the help of Skeletor's static, I managed to get floor 100 of Nyzule in a heartbeat. Lately I have been focused on breaking latents (even got into Skele's character to unlock his death blossom hehe) so I can see the new shinies and stuff. The most interesting weapon skill I unlocked was King's Justice on warrior. It may not compare as much to Raging Rush in terms of consistent damage output, but once I improve my gear then it will be a monster to use for merit parties and such. Anyways, my static is working on the HNM floors now to find the elusive Askar/Goliard pieces, but we're ready to transition to Assault for Captain's rank soon enough.


Dynamis seems to be picking up for me as well. Got my Koga Chainmail in our last very insane Beaucidine run (go me!). I think that night we cut the lines for nearly all jobs by half. I've been starting to notice that everyone is working really hard to make sure every corner is covered in terms of progress. Jaisel, Leeloo and Richybear have really helped my position as a black mage for sleeping mobs and all that stuff. Korremar has built a very fine tank team to handle pretty much every strategy I could throw at him. Chronicles/Mitsunari/Johnnyramone and everyone else have been focusing very hard to perfect our DD setup. Of course Elagost has perfected his pulling methods greatly for each zone so we almost rarely or never take in big links at any point of the run. So far I'm really happy with this since it allows me to focus on other areas with Caitir. Skeletor of course is nearing the completion of his Relic Dagger, of which I'm speculating he'll be done if we do about 7-10 really good city runs. In the meantime, I will be focusing on my Shadow Gear (ring and/or mantle) until he finishes, then will focus on Relic thereafter.


After a long talk with the leaders, it seems like January is gonna be the last month where everything stays as is until major changes will be happening. Sky will be ending on Jan 30th which will really take a load off of everyone. Einherjiar seems kind of questionable but its in the hands of Chronicles and Korremar at this point. February I'm taking the time for myself to help people rank up in assaults, levels, and possibly Nyzule. March/April I can see us entering Salvage full time. In between now and then, the social shell will be focusing on Sea, so I'm really crossing my fingers for the core ppl to get their torques and such. I'm saving my points for a Novio lol.


So thats about it for this update. I'm trying to figure out how to upload pictures onto here so I can post my screenshots. Take care everyone, will be posting a new one later!

Thursday, December 4, 2008

What Does it Take to Make a Relic?

A good friend of mine asked me this question the other day. So, with the extra time I had at school, I'll be posting the answer to that question lol. Seriously though, this is more of my own guideline and experience of how I would go about it and perhaps a little dandy guide for others to use whenever they come to the position of where I am now.


TTD Before Starting a Relic Checklist:

  • Pick a Job you want the relic for!
  • Have a dependable linkshell group to rely on!
  • Get at least 3 USEFUL 75 jobs for Endgame (ex: tank/brd/blm)
  • Finish Your Merits and Leveling!
  • Finish Your Major Missions, Quests and Poppable NMs!
  • Curb your spending habits.
  • Spend at least 2 days a week to Dynamis Fulltime.
  • Prepare a 5 month plan.
  • Establish Income of 250k+ per week.

Starting Out

I can't stress how time consuming relics are for most people. This is why I put up a checklist of things to do before you even attempt to start doing it. Before you even think about having a relic, understand that obtaining something of this nature requires three very important concepts: 1) Social Reliability, 2) Consistency, and 3) Determination. Each of these concepts plays an important role to how fast you can achieve a relic in a given amount of time.

The first major thing you must do is ensure that you got nothing on your plate. That means you gotta start cutting out meriting and leveling as that chunk of time can be better well spent on endgame events or money-making procedures. Having jobs and merits that are vital to linkshell functions is a one way ticket to solidifying your place within that shell and most importantly establishing your relationship with them. The type of endgame events you do are as equally important. Dynamis is a must for most relic goers. Others may find Sky, Social and to some extent HNM shells to be a fairly decent secondary option to relic people due to the number of profit-making potential there. Finding linkshells that does alot of stuff together is a huge plus especially when they invest most of their time into Dynamis. Such shells are rare as many people tend to flock over to them during early period of growth and create competition. As such, usually its either better to start a linkshell of your own (major time investment there) or climb up the ladder in an existing linkshell.


While that is all going on, you need to ensure that you establish a fairly good source of income to ride on. The common misconception about working on relics is that you really don't need a big budget to begin with (this will be explained later). For all you math and sociology majors out there, obtaining currency for the relic follows a very simple and fundamental rates model, where you yourself are the independent factor within it. Keeping everything in short perspective here, your ability to produce money to obtain currency per week will set the pace and a deadline of you achieving a relic. The higher amount of time you wisely spend on making short bursts of cash only simplifies the overall project. There are over 10 different money making schemes I can think off the top of my head that can produce 500k A DAY for myself with proper setup of friends.

One final note while we're on the topic is that this is seriously one LONG project to be on. You can think of it as an extra endgame event, except theres only you and is determined by you. So, pretty much in a nutshell, you need to build up the confidence to keep going in this, because a single sign of doubt can crush your entire operation.


Overview of Sponsoring in Dynamis:

Sponsoring in Dynamis is important and a position such as this should be obtained as soon as possible. Quite literally, dynamis shells are created generally to get this role as fast as possible. On the Fenrir server, many shells are sponsored by 2-3 people on average. This is kind of harsh competition overall because the average number of people in dynamis shells range from 25-40. Normally, obtaining sponsorship is not easy. You must establish a relationship with the shell (along with every single person lol), show that you care for the shell, and be reliable for the shell. Noone wants to help an asshole, its the universal truth. This is probably a good reason why officers and leaders tend to be picked over newer or unfamiliar people.

The next thing about sponsoring is that it accelerates your ability to obtain currency 2 to 3-fold. Dynamis shells are gauged by how well they obtain currency per run. Higher currency ratings leads to higher AF returns, thus making everyone happy in the end. From the numbers I have personally have seen from 5 different shells, the average number per city run (full farming post boss) tends to be close to 190-250 currency. This does not count 100 piece drops. On successive and/or full-cleared zones, expect to be walking out with 2-3 100 pieces automatically. Combine that with the lucky 100 drops, you'll be satisfying the relic requirement rather quickly.

A final note about zones before I move on. Over my experience with Dynamis, it was first believed that city zones were the best zones to get 100 pieces and thus above average currency count. That to me is not necessarily true. The fact of the matter is that ALL zones will eventually give out a very decent payout (CoP and Xarcabard) given that the dynamis shell focuses on the right areas. I have seen 5 100 pieces drop in Beaucidine 1 time. Xarcabard tends to drop 100 pieces too from time to time. Personally, I wouldn't be too picky about which zone I'm sponsoring especially on a 500k glass, cause you can never know when you'll get that extra boost.



Breakdown of Relic By Stage

There are 5 stages for creating a relic, first stage being the relic weapon obtained from dynamis and the rest being the stages you gotta work on for the actual relic. When discussing each stage, I will be assuming many things, most of which I'll detail it very carefully.

Please use this link as a resource to keep up on what i'm talking about.

http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Category:Relic_Weapons


Stage 1:

Pretty much go to any dynamis shell to pick up the weapon. Usually FFAs as many people considers it -1 inventory. Nothing needs to be done on this stage once you obtain the relic. A special note that you may want a friend to pick up a shield as you need x2 shields for upgrading the Aegis.


Stage 2:

Currency Need - x4 or x5 100 pieces of the same type except for Relic Shield

Probably the most easiest stage to do and can be accomplished by sponsoring 1 or 2 Dynamis City runs based on the pieces you need. This will require 4 100 pieces to be turned in of the same type. Through sponsoring, you can achieve this stage by pumping in 500k for glass and getting a return of 2-3 100s or by paying the market price for each 100 piece (averages 600k per piece). It is best you leave your currency in mog house also cause you won't want to touch them until you hit stage 4 relic.


Another thing to note is that depending on the weapon you're upgrading, synth materials are needed to reach stage 3. For instance, the dagger and the scythe upgrades requires an 0. ingot. Generally, relic upgraders don't worry about upgrading stuff like this since currency is priority 1 to get.

Lastly, the Relic Shield (Aegis) follows a different upgrade pattern compared to all other weapons as it will require all three types of currencies to upgrade to the final form. The amount of currencies needed however remains unchanged.

Stage 3:

Currency Need - x14 or x16 100 pieces

This is where you will probably want to sponsor more frequently as this is kind of a minor inconvenience to the wallet if you decide to buy from the market. In this stage, it will take approximately 5-6 sponsored city runs to complete this task assuming that the linkshell is capable of: a) full clearing dynamis sandoria & bastok and b) 45+ minutes post-boss farming for both Jueno and Windurst. The most important thing on this stage however is that you cannot necessarily sell the currency you have to purchase the next glass as this will significantly reduce your rate of getting through this particular stage quickly. This is where your income will first come in to supplement the 500k to obtaining each glass (totalling 2.5mil in all). The currency you earn can be used to trade with other people for the type of currency you need. Don't forget theres synth materials for each relic in this stage.

During this period of time, you pretty much want to establish yourself in the linkshell community and help out as much as you can for leader events like Dynamis. You should also get together with other Relic people as this is a good time to find sources of currenc you really need. Also, you will want to know who your competitors are especially if they're buying the currency you're needing in the market. Lastly, the more money you have, the quicker you can do to buy currency off the market to add 100 pieces to the mix.


Stage 4:

Currency Need - 60 to 62 100 pieces

A very difficult stage to do without the full support of the entire Dynamis shell and a few friends. During this particular stage, you need to be focusing on money making. Assuming you only sponsor a zone once a week (2-5 100 pieces per week through sponsor) alone, it will take approximately 22 weeks (5 months) to finish this stage. This means that if you want to reduce it to a more comfortable number of weeks, say 10-12 weeks (~3 months), you need to start making money on a daily basis to make that 2-5 100 piece per week to more like 4-7 100 piece per week. All in all, at minimum, you should try to shoot for buying 3 100 pieces per week from the market on top of the 1 sponsorship zone per week.

Now here is a little trick to get through this stage (and even stage 5) at record pace (10 weeks or less). Normally, Relic People will have secondary accounts that are level 75 to begin with. As such, if they find themselves secured in 1 big time dynamis shell, they will dedicate that secondary character to another dynamis shell in sponsoring. Sponsoring in both shells doubles the average rate of production on currency and hence lowers the time it takes to finish this stage. Many Dynamis shells have attempted to create simultaneous runs on the same day, however they find themselves short on critical jobs on the same day. Others remain very successful by doing this. You can pretty much imagine the potential and the workaround if you put thought into this thing.


Stage 5 (Last Stage):

Currency Need- 100 100 pieces

This is may seem like insanity but in reality it is very quite simple if you play your cards out right. If you're a long time member of a dynamis shell and you actually get to this stage, usually the Dynamis shell will give you full access to sponsorship, so realistically an increase from one time sponsor per week to two time sponsor per week (5-8 100 pieces). If this does not happen for you, YOU MUST FIND A 2nd Dynamis Shell to Sponsor! Otherwise it will take up to 5-6 months to finish this stage compared to an estimated 3-4 months.

In addition, you really don't need 100 100 pieces to finish this stage in cost. You actually need 70 (you get 30 100 pieces back when you trade the 10,000 piece in). This creates options for you. If you manage to produce enough 100 pieces as you did in Stage 4, you can literally borrow the rest of the currency from other Relic people and pay back later. Also, you can supplement the cost by selling your gear to pay about 10 100 pieces. And don't forget your income! It may provide little chunks of currency here and there but it certainly adds up. Most of these techniques should be learned in stage 4 already, so stage 5 should be a walk in the park for these techniques. Lastly, if you get full support of your Dynamis shell, Stage 5 might go faster than stage 4 to begin with.


Tips and Tricks in Dealing with Currency

- Never Buy Currency Without Doing Research on the Market a Day Before! Prices on market will always remain inflated due to other relic people buying em and prices fluxuates. Currency follows the rule of supply and demand. Find the mules that sells currency the cheapest and stay on them like white on rice.

- Figure out schedules of other Dynamis shells especially the new ones. New shells tend to have weak sponsors (aka no large income) and tend to sell their currency to make up for their glass. This is where you can get bulk quantities at the cheapest price by buying directly from the source. This will not work for more established shells.

- Find people to trade currency with. If you're on O. Pieces and others are on bynes or shells, you can establish trade right away to get the exact currency you want.

- Find friends to help pitch in for you. You don't have to do this alone. If you got more and more friends who honestly trusts you and such, work out an agreement involving this. Remember, the more help you get the faster you get done!

- Invest in other people's relics. The concept behind this is that if you help complete another person's relic, then they owe you equal amounts to what you put in. That means you establish an additional currency source from their dynamis shell, which means you can currency of the specific type you need! Make sure, above all, the relic person you're investing in will invest back to you.




Thats pretty much it for this post. I hope that this gives clarity for people on how to obtain their own relic. I'll be editing this post to add more details and such when I got the spare time.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Blarg! Almost Had Him!

Ugh, attempted Dynamis Lord on 12/1 and we wiped to him at 3% hp >< We would definitely have had him if it were not for one of his Oblivion Smashes going off during the chainspell stun. For me as a leader, some parts of the game you can't control and this is certainly one of them. In any case, that xarc run went well. Skeletor got his Dagger Fragment in this run though, which is a huge relief on my part. With fingers crossed, he'll be able to finish his relic sometime in February, which enables me to put full effort on my very own for the upcoming year. Time will certainly tell but I hope all for the best.

Sunday, November 30, 2008

First Post W00T!

Oh man, first time doing this. Well, I was thinking of starting up a blog during the first week of January for the whole New Year's routine, but sure enough impatience takes us all.

Anyways, I guess I should get the whole intro crap right out of the way so I can get on to my character. I'm 21 years old attending the University of Washington. I major in the Biochemistry field (please please please don't pick this as a major lol) with a minor in the Korean Language. My career aim is to become a researcher in the pharmacy field. Normally I tutor high school kids (not cheap cause I guarantee the A score for any AP class) and take a trip to South Korea occasionally to help my parent's business there. So far I'm pretty well off in everything and have lots of time to play FFXI before my internship kicks in ^^;


Now, back to business. I got so many things going on in the game I don't even know how I got myself into it lol. So far, with the awesome help of Skeletor's Static (Skeletor, Korremar, Nici, Johnnyramone, Elagost, and me^^), I'm breezing through the Nyzule Isle floors, currently at floor 55. Hopefully, we'll be cleared to 100 in 2-3 weeks assuming we get less than 2 failed tags per week. Once that is done, we'll probably spend a week or two on items but we'll go straight into assaults for the Captain's rank. From there, it is a matter of question whether or not we'll want to delve into making a Salvage shell in February.


Although I don't have pictures to show it, Kazoku Dynamis took a huge boost in confidence over the last few weeks. With a Dynamis Lord Kill with a no fail CoP zone after that, we're really coming together to perfecting our zerging strategies. I'm hoping that we can trim down the numbers at some point, but as far as I'm concerned with the linkshell's performance, we're going along exactly on schedule. What is really funny is that a month ago nearly 40% of the shell were new (courtesy of Caitir's Recruitment Campaign), but now I can put my honest trust in them to get the job done. Lastly, with AFs pouring in at a decent rate, I can focus my attention on other important aspects of our group.

EpicDestiny Sky and Einherjar took a slammer the past few weeks since people had to bail due to the holidays. Thankfully, with help of friends in the shell, they pulled through by recruiting new people and boosting our ability to go back into these events hardcore. For sky, we're slowly walking back to the good old days, but we still got those two competing sky shells on our back. Einherjar we're still 8 people away from a full setup, namely missing blms and other various critical jobs. We'll get back on our feet in no time, I still got ALOT of friends I can ask to come join us for the time being lol.


Lastly, being in Legends has helped me a great deal on my merits department. Over the past few weeks, whenever I get the time to merit on bard, I always end up with 5 to 7 merits per 3-4 hour session. So far I have finished capping my enfeebling magic for Black Mage (huge help in the dynamis department) and now working on bard merits for the next Dynamis Lord on Monday.


Well, thats all I have to say for this post. More will be updated later!