A Nice Ending

An end to this chapter. My boyfriend and I have already cancelled our FFXI service and are looking forward to starting our new adventures in Eorzea. While I didn't get to complete all I wanted to in Vana'diel, I became unable to do most content alone, since my boyfriend had lost interest in the game for quite some time now. We did, however, finish one request. It was B's request to finally finish his Goetia Attire +2 Set. We farmed sets and fought Abyssean NMs as a final push. We wanted to do it before the Abyssea and Atma Axtravaganza, which we assumed would flood Abyssea with a large population. We finished it last week, after which my boyfriend immediately cancelled his FFXI service and unplugged his XBOX 360. I guess 11 years was enough for him. I, on the other hand, have not played as long as he. I must admit after years of playing, the game sort of turned into work rather than fun. For me, it turned into a game of never being satisfied. I would make a push to get gear that was decent, then once it was obtained I felt no more special than before, and rightly so, since better gear was out there but unobtainable for me. I'm not crying about never having had good gear, it's just that I came to the realization that even if I did obtain the unobtainable, I would not even be satisfied then. It was fun when it was fun. It sucked when it wasn't fun. Unfortunately the fun has completely run out for me and M in FFXI. Sorry, B! ;__;

I think XIV will be a new place to explore with M and B. See you in Eorzea!

Scenes from Vana'diel - Miscellaneous

The Rain in La Theine Stays Mainly in the, um, Plateau

Wajaom Woodlands - Fast Floating Clouds

Bibiki Bay - Dusk

Western Altepa Desert - Dust Storm

Grauberg [S] - Thunderstom

Attowah [A] - Full Moon Lightsday

FFXI Boredom

Early on in my adventures in Vana'diel I set out to level cooking skill. I made it as far as 94 or 95 and then retired it. At the time ingredients were very expensive and I didn't yet use the Wiki as a resource to find NPCs to buy ingredients or even completed meals from.

This year, I finally set out to build guild points again. Back in the day, I did acquire guild points, but I only used them to buy key items. I ended up with only Raw Fish Handling at the time before I stopped building GP. After a brief time away from the cooking guild (I switched to fishing until I got my waders), I came back, bought the rest of the key items (except Stewpot Mastery) and then set out to finally get my cooking gear. I can't tell you how many times I had Pamama Tart as a guild item, and the frustration of crafting Heart Chocolates over and over, when I specifically needed Bubble Chocolates. Needless to say, the Chef's Ring was my first piece of cooking equipment. After that I built points to get my apron next, then at last I got my hat. I'm going for the Cordon Bleu Set next, but I'm not as seriously building points anymore. I don't really play FFXI anymore and found that in my boredom, this is the only thing I log in for. If the item is too complicated, I just log out. I've invested countless hours to this game, that I think I'm burned out. I experienced this before, and I'm experiencing it again. I guess that's why my posts are about remembering what I did in the game rather than what I am currently doing and planning to do in the future. The dumb thing is that I was acquiring these things to help me to finish capping out the skill.

WAR, How I Hate Thee...

Here's a little gem from awhile ago. I'm guessing it must've been when the level cap was increased to 80. My subjobs were only leveled to their lowest possible level at 37. I hated leveling WAR but I needed it for my then main job, which was PLD. To give an idea of how much I hated WAR--I leveled to 37 in Garlaige Citadel in a horribly crappy party. I admit that I was partly responsible for making it crappy. I don't remember the backline jobs, but I'm guessing there was a WHM and some other mage job. I remember there being two NIN/WAR, one THF/NIN, and me, a WAR/NIN. The THF kept dying because the NIN weren't provoking. I didn't want to step in to tank since there were already two NIN tanks in the party, and I hated tanking as a WAR. The THF kept yelling at everybody in the party, and it got to the point where nobody wanted to talk anymore, so the party just let the THF die over and over again. I couldn't stop laughing. I mean, nobody would provoke. I don't think the WHM even cured him. It was hilarious. Admittedly, that was really uncool but I hated WAR so much, and I hated that THF for yelling at the whole party, so I warp scrolled out as soon as I hit 37. {Thank you.}{party}{See you again!} I had never insta-ditched a party before, and haven't since.

Anyway, that picture above is when I took my WAR out to solo in Altepa Desert. I think I was making it a point to level them to 50, since we had no idea at the time if SE was going to make the cap at 99 or 100 yet. I don't know what I could have been fighting that caused me to die, but there I am. Perhaps it was Karma, except I didn't die over and over again. /evillaugh

My First Love

Jeuno-bound, back when AH weren't connected yet.

I found this in a forgotten album.  I like how I tried to blur out my name.  I must have totally forgotten about /names at the time.  I can totally read what it says.  I guess I prefer anonymity because I don't want people making trouble to me.  Same reason for my first post, calling everybody by their characters' first initial, rather than their full names.  I guess it's because we were the only ones with these names even across servers, though I've found out later that there was a person with the same name as mine on one other server.  I was actually asked by another player if I was the same R.  Nice to know I was more liked as someone else, somewhere else.  Others have since created the same name as M and I think B's name is just popular in general.

Anyway, why is this post called "My First Love?"  My first love was being a paladin.  Yes, PLD was my first love in FFXI.  I wanted to be the one that the mob hit.  I wanted to be the one to die (though my friends for some reason never let me die).  They always died first. It's embarrassing seeing the stats of how few times I've K.O.'d.  My PLD is currently level 90-ish.  It might be 91, but the fact that I don't know should be an indication that I don't care about this job anymore.  Given how crappy my equipment was before, there is just no way for me to build both an Aegis and an Ochain, so I gave up on the job.  B seems to have taken a liking to PLD, though we never had need for a PLD tank anymore.  We have given what small amount of Iron Plates we've gotten to him.

Scenes from Vana'diel - Missions

Promathia Fight Entry Point

Hall of the Gods - First Access

Sky - Entrance

Ru'Lude Gardens - A Really Swell Fan

Xarcabard - On the Way to Shadow Lord

These are just a bunch of screenshots I took while we were doing missions. Got a few cools shots of some zones as we got access to them. It was exciting at the time.

Funny how I didn't take an image of Sea, but then again, I try to take pictures of scenes and structures, sans monsters. I don't recall a nice place to take a picture of Al'Taieu where monsters won't be in it. I guess I could have done the /names thing, but I usually do that anyway.

It was pretty exciting to get Sky access, though we never really spend time there. We've done magian trials, GoV, and fought one NM there. I got my Genbu's Shield, but I don't have any additional synergy stats on them. That crap is a mystery to me. I love the Hall of the Gods image, complete with the heavenly beams of light. Cheesy, yes, but I can't help it.

I don't remember which nation mission we were doing, but one of the consulates in Ru'Lude Gardens has this fan. Again, waiting and boredom set in, thus the screenshot.

We had to do that climb to the Throne Room more than once. I don't even know what missions they were for. I think one was to fight the giant moogle. And we also fought the Shadow Lord? I don't remember. I actually have another screenshot of this area, but the other one was taken using FRAPS, so the screenshot was huge. Unfortunately, I don't use FRAPS anymore.

Scenes from Vana'diel - Riverne Site B01

Riverne Site B01 - Sunset

Riverne Site B01 - Fluffy Clouds

Riverne Site B01 - Moon

I spent much time in Riverne Site B01 doing dagger Magian Trials. {Fun} I don't remember exactly which trials they were, but at the time I was doing an accuracy and evasion dagger, plus I wasted my time on the OAT dagger. I have faint memories of fighting only hippogryphs though. Long respawn time, and some spawning as too weak. Frustrating days.

When you are stuck in a zone waiting for rarely-occurring, short-lasting weather, you can commit yourself to a zone for hours, if not days. But, I did see beauty in my surroundings. The pictures are tiny because they were taken with the in-game camera. They might even be smaller yet, since I uploaded them to our LS page on Facebook and I ended up taking the images from there.