The Starlight Celebration is nearly here! (12/14/2007)

The Vana’diel tradition known as the Starlight Celebration is all set to kick off on Tuesday, December 18th.
The townspeople of all nations are already getting into the holiday spirit, decorating their cities with festive trees and dazzling lights. Street vendors are setting up shop with a plethora of special seasonal wares and everyone is going about preparing to make this year’s celebration an unforgettable experience for all of Vana’diel’s adventurers. And rest assured that the moogles would never let a holiday season pass without doing something spectacular!

The celebration is just around the corner. Don’t miss it!

For event details, please see the Topics posting on the day of the event’s kickoff.

*The Starlight Festival is scheduled to take place starting from midnight (24:00) on Tuesday, December 18th until 7:00 on Monday, December 31st.

Finally! This is my favorite event by far, I just love the christmas season and so I enjoy this event. It gives me time to just spend with friends and hang out and enjoy the game for what it is, which I rarely get to do anymore. I hope to see all of you guys together at least one last time for this one.

Nothing of particular interest today, felt like adding a festive image so I made a christmasy banner.

Managed to cap my Experience today thanks to Campaign. Now i’m 43,999 // 44,000 which is quite an accomplishment considering the endgame fun stuff.

Anyways. . . that’s all for now. As for the future, I’m gonna try to make at least one update per week, hopefully more but who knows. Not like anyone reads this anyway.

Well, it’s been quite some time since I’ve actually done endgame. . . but I’ve inevitably returned. This time it was at the request of a friend though. I had technically retired from endgame so I could explore the new expansion, and to level low jobs with friends, but he had a shortage of tanks and I said I’d come help him out. At the time I had no clue it was gonna be long term, but he’s a great friend so I don’t mind bein around. Today turned out to be quite interesting actually. Did Despot, Faust, Ulli, Olla, MG and the four gods all in one night. It’s nice to actually get things done. And it does feel good to be back here with the same group I started endgame with in the first place.

I wound up tanking the majority of Faust, which I had never done before tonight. Needless to say. . . I was nervous, he’s one tough bastard to deal with and I constantly felt like I was near death. I didn’t die though, which made me feel pretty accomplished. After all that we went up and destroyed Ulli, which was pretty uneventful actually.

Olla and MG went the same way as Ulli, uneventful and rather dull. (I wasn’t actually there for MG because I had to change subs, but the chat sounded boring.) And congrats to Chinevo on the Shiranui drop as well.

Suzaku went off without a hitch. . . a totally perfect fight, no deaths or nothing. Two Siren hair drops as well, along with a D.Abjuration and Scythe. Congrats to Kendu on the D.Abjuration hands and Chinevo on the Scythe that he can’t really use

Totally rapped Seiryu tonight. . . it had no hope against us. Period. Was over in a matter of minutes. Pretty weak drops though, nothing really worth mention, mostly just a shitload of crystals. Only good item was D.Abjuration: Head. Congrats to Drizztt on D. Head.

Genbu was next, which was a total joke as it always is. . . about a 7 minute fight. Best set of drops tonight came from him. We got Genbu’s Shield and Kabuto, along with Wyrmal Abj: Feet. I still to this day have yet to seen a single Martial piece drop, either Hands or Head, since I started sky last year. . . Congrats to Syaoron on Wyrmal:Feet, Sonja on Kabuto and Chinevo on Shield.

Finally. . . Byakko. The end of the event and my eventual sleep. Thank god, I’m getting kinda tired. So yeah. . . Byakko. . . stupid goddamn tiger. I died like a minute in because it wiped all my shadows and then used a Tp move on me. . . complete and utter humiliation. But, seeing as I was the only death till the very end, I’m not too bummed. Better me than someone who is actually needed eh? I’m happy knowing that much at least. Anyways. . . moving on to the rest of the fight. Was very short as well, AvantGarde LS doesn’t mess around, Aru’s made a pretty beastly Linkshell this time around. At the end we walked away with a pair of Byakko’s Haidate, an Aquarian Abj: Head and a Divine Log to prove we pwnd him. Congrats to Omni on Byakko’s Haidate and Elimoon for the Aquarian: Head.

Overall this was an awesome run. Shitload of drops and an awesome turnout, so I’m actually pleased with showing up this time around. I’m starting to enjoy Sky again, maybe next time though I’ll get me some equips. As for me. . . it’s time for another coma, so enjoy reading and I’ll enjoy sleeping. . .

No pictures this time around, didn’t have Fraps on sadly ; ; Maybe next time though.

It would appear that I’ve gotten absolutely nowhere with Paladin. That would be correct.

I’ve actually been doing more soloing with the job than anything because I can’t get or make parties. So yeah… that’s it, I’ve had better luck on Blue Mage

All I gotta say is… daaaaaamn.

I love the new Paladin updates. Sentinel gets some nice damage mitigation as well as improved enmity generation. Rampart gets a Magic shield (basically a 100-150 damage Stoneskin for magic) that affects the whole party plus the normal defense boost and enmity.

The Tp return on shield block isn’t all that great; about 3-4 tp each block. But the fact that spells don’t get interrupted when you block with a shield makes up for that. Very nice stuff. Very nice indeed.

On top of that we had a Besieged on Remora as soon as the servers were upped. Level 6 Undead Swarm. There were 100 people to start so we figured we’d wipe. Me, a Mnk/Nin, Mortama and one of the NPCs fought a Brd Lamia to death. We turned around to win the Besieged and I got 1080 exp out of it.

Then… the best part… I, Alphonze, your God, got a party invite! Yes, it’s true! I did and it was amazing. I was all like “whoooosh! stab, block, stab, parry!”

Okay it didn’t sound like that.. I think. But still it was amazing. I’m not 18,000 to 74 so I’ll be going to bed happily for once. The game is suddenly so much better now. If you don’t play, go get a copy and play it. If you do play, then stop playing whatever job it is you play because it sucks, and start leveling Paladin. We’re much cooler. >.>;

Yay! Now for another brief lapse into a coma.

I wrote the last one in the middle of the night, I was pretty tired and feelin depressed so it’s kinda pathetic. Figured I’d give it a rewrite just for kicks.

I’m not kidding that I haven’t had a fun time lately in the game. Yeah sure, I’ve hung with my friends and helped them get quests and stuff done; I helped one of my bests friends do 5-2 so he could get Rank 6 and start his ZMs. Me and Bendar (Taru Red Mage, come to Remora and meet us.. it’s fun) duo’d Shadow Lord and obliterated him.

I wish I had a few SS’s of that.. cuz Mort kept d/c’ing so we wound up needing to fight twice. It was still pretty fun though.

Partying as my Paladin has been fun… No really. It has. -_-; Seriously though, it’s been work. I’ve been making excuses not to join parties unless my friends are in them because I get so bored with the grind. The parties are slow because I can’t get in a decent one.

Like this last one I was in, I was partying in Caedarva Mire and it was Smn, Whm, Pld, War, War, Thf. Fast exp? Nope. I don’t know why either because usually 2 warriors and a thief would destroy mobs in the mire instantly. I mean.. it wasn’t me this time >.>; My 2 tick refresh because of Sanction kept me from healing; only time I had to was when someone got killed.

After that hilarious party I stopped and waited a few hours till a friend finished her sky run (she’s in the same shell I was, but that’s a later story) and we partied together. We were a traditional party like you have from 10 to 71 (cuz that’s about the time people go ape-shit and decide that a 6 person party isn’t the same as it was for the past 60 levels) and we were gearin’ up to kill those stupid Wyverns/Wyrms/Big-Ugly-Things-with-Teeth that are by the Mamool Ja Staging Point except for 1 problem. Our Rdm d/c’s (Bendar; he fell asleep at the keyboard) so we had a good laugh at that.

Afterwards we couldn’t find a replacement Rdm or Brd or Cor so we just trudged on fighting the Mamool Ja instead. That was a joke because I had to change to /nin and my god that was awful. We’ve got enough abilities to keep hate on us that we don’t need provoke but if you’re like me then you are what most people would call ‘retarded’ and you get so caught up in the shadows that you forget to do the other hate keeping things. And so the 2 warriors tanked it most the time with their Rampages and I just hit it for meager damage. After 2 hours we managed to get 4k exp and decided that we wasted enough time and went separate ways.

Had to say goodbye to ol’ AzureSkies. I miss the group a lot since I’ve made a ton of new friends, but I just can’t take the constant weekly runs at 3pm on a Saturday. I have too much to do =/

So I’ve decided I’ll post a few pictures from my last run (all of 1… 1 is now “a few”)

We were just standing around waiting for someone to pull whatever makes Steam Cleaner pop (I’ve forgotten already after 3 weeks of no runs)

Other than that, I’ve got enough time now to get a few PMs done and stuff and help other people do quests and missions. Which I’ve done. With some help, because I’m lazy. Okay, I was there for moral support.

Anyways. I’ve gotten Ninja to 37 but I found this picture and it made me smile so I figured I’d put it up:

Shige’s my best friend in RL, he lives a couple miles from me and so that pretty much explains that. Caitlyn is a great friend too, her and Mort live in England and they came to visit for a couple weeks last November. Littha is back there somewhere too, she’s from England as well but we’ve never met other than over the LS (I dunno… that Littha is one scary person… no meeting me >.>; )

As for my PMs… I’ve done all of the Promyvions, 2 of which I did with Skye and another that I did with Mortama and Satina. Wish I had SS’s of that but I don’t. I do have a SS of PM2.3 though, which I’m proud to say I will put here… even if it sucks.

We decided to fight a few things in the hallway. Actually… someone got aggro. Same thing right?

Well.. that’s all for the updated, less depressed post. Hope this one’s better and easier to read; it’s probably not >.>;

Read the one below at your own risk.

Yeah so I realize I haven’t posted a lot… meant to be haven’t and all that.

To be perfectly honest, I’ve not exactly had the greatest enjoyment from the game as of late. I’ve only played maybe 2 full days in the past month.

Getting a party as a Paladin is becoming a chore, I’ve been 73 since god knows when. And making them is even worse; I’ll assemble a group only to find that a key job is nowhere to be found. Ironic eh?

Nobody wants a Paladin anymore when they can get instant exp in Aht Urhgan. I do realize we slow down the exp rate because of all the mp and everything; I’ve even been told to go /nin. Personally, it feels awkward. We’ve got all the abilities we need to keep hate that we don’t really need provoke, so why not sub /nin? I got so caught up in the shadow casting that I forgot to do other things and lost hate constantly… man what a horrible job I did.

I even threw my Bibiki Seashell =/ Needless to say.. I was pretty pissed. I was so stressed from the party that instead of hitting the Weapon Skill tab I accidentally hit the Ranged Attack and threw it. Guess I’ve gotta go shell out 100K for the bow now (which I should have had at 71 anyways)

I’ve left my sky linkshell for the time being, I’ve needed a break from the weekly runs where we’ve accomplished nothing at all. I suppose if people would listen to our leader and the few of us that actually know what’s going on, then maybe it would work… wrong.

So now I’ve got all the time in the world to do nothing but actually play the game. I may start doing PMs or do DM maybe, if I’m lucky I’ll even get my rank to 10.

I’ve been lazy so yeah, I’ll try to post more providing something new happens. If I get lucky enough to hit 74 then you’ll know.

Till then… I bid you, adieu.

…And I still haven’t done anything with Paladin!

Yeah so, obviously nothing new has happened. I’ve gotten Ninja to 37, which I guess can help in the long run. But yeah, nothing else has happened.

Bah.

I have done absolutely nothing related to being Paladin. In fact, I haven’t been on Paladin since I went on a Dynamis-San d’Oria run with Curcible LS (yes, they’re that retarded.. since it’s probably supposed to be “Crucible”)

I swear to god that was the most pathetic run I’ve been on. They only won because of their insanely large numbers… and even then they barely won. 54 people in the Dynamis zone and they almost wipe to the final boss. Sad.

So they decided not to merge with my Sky Linkshell because they said that we were the gimp ones. Well fuck them, cuz we’re better anyways.

As for the rest of the adventures in Sky… I haven’t had many. I’ve skipped out on 3 Saturday runs, along with their corresponding Sunday runs. And we won’t go tomorrow since all of our Red Mages are on vacation or out of town for the weekend.

It’s cool either way, gives me time to play some serious Blue Mage.

God I wish I had something new to post here. /sigh

Well.. it seems I’ve forgotten to update in my days of sitting on my ass.

Let’s see… I’ve done… nothing on Paladin in the last month.. nothing at all. I’ve been playing with the Blue Mage.

Sure I’ve done my regular Sky runs.. but those are boring.

Genbu, Genbu, Genbu, Zipacna, Olla, Zipacna, Zipacna, Genbu.

That about sums it up too. That’s all this post.