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CoP: A RetrospectiveFollow

#1 Mar 04 2006 at 2:10 AM Rating: Good
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Chains of Promathia: A Retrospective

1.0 Introduction

My name is Neocron and this is my story. This is the story of one Tarutaru’s journey not only through the Chains of Promathia expansion, but through Vana’diel. It is a story that spans eighteen months and recounts in detail the trials, tribulations, challenges, and victories I experienced in those months.

So please sit back and enjoy this story. It has been a long time coming and it is my sincere hope that my tale will provide insight and hopefully inspiration. Please be warned this is a rather long story. In Microsoft Word, it takes up 14 pages.

Also note that this retrospective contains spoilers... read at your own risk (I've avoided story-related spoilers but I do mention bosses by name).

2.0 In the Beginning

In August 2004 I entered the world of Vana’diel for the first time. I chose to play a Tarutaru because I knew I wanted to play Black Mage. And I knew from research on Allakhazam that Tarutaru had a distinct starting advantage in the areas of Intelligence and MP. Having friends (and a brother) who play FFXI, I joined the Gilgamesh server and made San d’Oria my home.

In September 2004, when Chains of Promathia was released, I was a level 30 Black Mage with a White Mage sub of level 15. There was much speculation and a great deal of mystery surrounding the expansion. Buzzwords like Blue Mage and Dancer were common place in those days as rumored jobs. Everyone was intrigued and excited by the assorted rumors and the prospects of a new challenge. When I purchased CoP, I must admit I had a great deal of interest in it, but felt I wouldn’t get very far into it due to my status as a new player.

At that time, I was in a linkshell called GobsMustDie. When CoP was released, a great deal of people expressed an interest in delving into it. Seeing an opportunity, I joined this group of explorers. However, things were not to be. By this time, WingChild had put together the first iteration of his guide, Promyvion: Get Your Game On, which was received by the masses with enthusiasm. In this first iteration, WingChild gave the locations of vital cutscenes needed to access Promyvion Mea/Holla/Dem as well as general information on the Promyvions, including the Memory Receptacles, the Spire Bosses, and the first confirmed information on the usage of Anima. After reading this, I was convinced the best way to ensure success against the Promyvion Bosses was via Anima.

The leader of GobsMustDie disagreed with this sentiment and a great deal of drama ensued. I left GobsMustDie in anger and vowed to show them all that I was right. Keep in mind I was a noob in every sense of the word. I was idealistic and had no idea of just how big Vana’diel really was at this time. The animosity that was created by that disagreement lasted for a very long time and it wasn’t until February 2006 that reconciliation between that individual and I took place.

3.0 Promyvion in the pre-nerf Era

When I did the first three Promyvions that make up Chapter 1, things were a bit different than they are today. Back in those days, the Promyvions were crawling with empty-mobs. Defeated Memory Receptacles would only keep their portals open for a mere 15-20 seconds. Due to these obstacles, the common belief at that time was to take an alliance of 18 people up to the Spire.

This proved to be the easiest way to make it to the Spire, but also proved to be the most time consuming. It was not uncommon in those days to see alliance leaders shouting for hours trying to get the required number of people. I organized my own Promyvion run on occasion during this time and my average shout time was right around four hours in the afternoon. In the evening during peak time, the average shout time was around two hours. These first Promyvion pioneers provided a great deal of information which would later find their way into WingChild’s Promyvion guide.

It was also in this time period that a number of misconceptions were first introduced. No doubt you (the reader) are familiar with the idea of “only using Rangers and Summoners” to beat the Promyvions. This idea came to being during the pre-nerf era by the pioneers of which I am counted among. Utilizing Rangers and Summoners proved to be the most efficient way to take down a Promyvion boss and… as it turns out… the most efficient way soon gave way to the only way. This idea still persists even now, despite clearly documented information that states otherwise.

Your typical Promyvion run to the Spire lasted about two hours once the alliance actually got underway in this era. Rangers were designated to be the “guides” since they had Widescan and everyone would follow their “guide”. The funny thing about taking an alliance through the Promyvions is undoubtedly, someone would fall behind, wander off, or just not listen to the instructions of the “guide”. This resulted in a variety of complications which would make getting the spire longer than it needed to be at the very least or stopping an entire alliance at the very worst.

It wasn’t uncommon for an alliance’s White Mages to die without re-raise for example. Such things happened with alarming frequency in those days and when it happened, an alliance was dead in it’s tracks. To combat this paticular problem, it was decided White Mages would huddle in the middle of the “pack” to ensure survival. If there was aggro, the alliance could fight the mob(s) and the White Mages could raise whoever died.

The Promyvion bosses also provided some interesting challenges that were unique to this era. I have often believed that laziness is one of the calling cards of your average FFXI player and this belief is directly tied to my experiences in Promyvion. Despite the growing popularity of WingChild’s Promyvion Guide, most people I partied with either didn’t know about it, didn’t care about it, or knew about it but figured they knew more than the guide. As a result, finding people with Anima in those days was a bit of a challenge. Those that did have Anima were highly contested… even to the point of alliances removing members to make room for people who had Anima if they made themselves known. It was truly a dog-eat-dog time in those days. And without Anima, the Promyvion bosses became much more difficult. It was because of this that another common misconception was introduced. To make up for not having Anima, most alliances compensated by stocking up on medicines in ludicrous amounts. When I beat Promyvion-Holla for example, the Paladin in my party invested in almost 30 hi-potions, which at that time was around 200k.

For myself, I was able to get through the Promyvions relatively cheaply. I don’t think I spent more than 150k to beat Promyvion Holla/Dem/Mea. But then again, I went as a Black Mage. My only financial overhead was in ethers, echo drops, and food (I utilized Reraise Scrolls rather than buying Reraise Earrings during this time).

My tallies for the first three Promyvions are as follows:

Promyvion-Dem: 1 win / 3 losses
Promyvion-Mea: 1 win / 6 losses
Promyvion-Holla: 1 win / 7 losses

Total runs: 19

It took me a month to beat the first three Promyvions. When I started, I was a level 30 Black Mage. When I made it to Lufaise Meadows in October 2004, I was a level 33 Black Mage. I was literally doing a Promyvion run every day. And when I wasn’t doing a Promyvion run, I was leveling my Black Mage. There is a picture that Robert took of me standing next to the Windurst Conquest Overseer in Lufaise Meadows. I feel it’s important to note that the gear I was wearing in that picture was my ONLY set of gear. It was all I had to my name. I look at that picture sometimes and whenever I do it brings back so many memories.

Looking back on those Promyvion runs, I honestly think I was possessed by some kind of dedication that borders on obsession. Ironically enough, I think obsession pretty much describes my entire campaign throughout CoP. I’m confident by the end of this, you will most likely agree…

4.0 My first CoP Static

After reaching Lufaise Meadows, a couple of people and I decided to form a static. We believed that a static would be the most efficient means for doing CoP. Since I had made a number of contacts through my Promyvion Runs, I had no problem securing 2 people to join the static. This static was comprised of the following people:

Angelic
Ephraim
Noirr
Robert
Thed
Neocron

Since I was the one who brought up the idea and got everyone together, I was elected to be the leader of this static. We met once a week to do CoP which worked well with everyone’s schedules.

By this time, a member of the FFXI community had stumbled across a CoP guide written in Japanese, which he/she translated into English. This guide covered everything up to CoP 6-4. It contained a great deal of information which covered Cutscenes and general boss strategies. However, it was generally used a guideline and not much else due to a lack of specific strategies. Used as a resource for completing cutscenes, it was invaluable. But that was pretty much about it. My static utilized this guide and tried to formulate strategies based around that guide only to meet with failure each and every time.

It was at this point that we (my static) came to understand the true nature of CoP guides… What works for one party may not necessarily work for everyone else. I make a specific point of mentioning this because there is a very unhealthy trend right now among the FFXI community to read a guide and then follow it verbatim. While that may work for some people, it has been my experience that doing so is unwise. Better to take what you read in guides and use it as a stepping stone towards formulating your own strategies rather than following someone else’s strategies to the letter.

But I digress….

We beat CoP 2-3 on our first run. Which, as I would come to discover later, is a bit of a rarity. During this run, I took a lot of rather detailed notes discussing party roles and mob activity. After completing the run, I took these notes and compiled my first CoP-oriented guide. It was lacking in some areas (most notably turn-by-turn directions for navigating through the Aqueducts) but I was pleased with the result. I submitted it to Allakhazam and it was added to the Mission listing a week later. This guide, coupled with the guide I wrote for CoP 2-5, was later integrated by WingChild into his second CoP guide, entitled Phomunia Aqueducts: Get your Game On!

And speaking of CoP 2-5, that mission proved to be a bit of a nightmare for my static. We tried a variety of strategies, but each run was met with failure. We won our 4th try, but due to a server “hiccup”, both myself and Noirr were booted right as the third and final Mammet was killed. When we logged back in, we found to our dismay that we did not get the win. The static reconvened the following day and we beat the Mammets a 5th time for Noirr and I. This was at the end of October 2004. I was a level 51 Black Mage when we started Chapter 3….

5.0 Into the Shrouded Maw

At the end of November 2004 after Thanksgiving, my static and I ventured into the Shrouded Maw to face Diabolos. At this time, our static formed under the banner of a CoP-linkshell, entitled PromathianGuard, of which I was the leader. The goal of PromathianGuard was to provide people an easy way to get together with other individuals to do CoP.

We had little trouble going through the other missions in Chapter 3 and before we knew it, we were at Diabolos. I’m sure you can imagine our excitement at getting this far. To our knowledge, the only people to have ever faced Diabolos on our server were the Japanese. To be a group comprised of North American and Canadian players on Diabolos was quite an achievement. Little did we know what awaited us…

At the time we got to Diabolos, Square-Enix had just issued a patch that modified certain CoP missions and bosses. Most notably among these was Diabolos. Prior to this patch, it was possible for a party to stand on the ledge overlooking Diabolos and send summoned avatars in to fight without being drawn in. Needless to say, this was by far the easiest way to beat Diabolos. Square-Enix, it’s infinite knowledge, decided this would not do. So they gave Diabolos the ability to pull people in once he was attacked. Not too big a deal… I just point it out as one of the things that used to be possible way back when.

However, S-E didn’t do anything about Diabolos himself. At this particular time, Diabolos was quite cheap. He would spam Nightmare every 3-5 seconds and beating him required the use of poison potions to counter the sleep-induced coma that Nightmare brought about. We did six runs before we finally beat him at the beginning of December 2004.

Robert, also known as Canadianmonster on the Allakhazam forums, took a picture of Diabolos while we were fighting him and also took a picture of the battlefield and marked the tiles that would drop (according to the translated guide). This picture combo still resides on Allakhazam to this day. Also to our knowledge, PromathianGuard was the first North American linkshell across the entire non-JPN playerbase to successfully defeat Diabolos. If anyone did it before us, they never talked about it.

6.0 Of Night Elves, Orcs, Ettins, and Mithra

Around the time we beat Diabolos, World of Warcraft was released. A couple of members fell prey to the lure and despite our efforts to keep things together, the static crumbled in January 2005. We were on CoP 4-2 when we finally broke up. In February 2005, I also succumbed to the lure and left FFXI. I was a level 60 Black Mage when I left Vana’diel.

My time in WoW was well spent in my opinion. It was nice to get away from FFXI for a while, especially CoP. By that point I was thoroughly obsessed with completing it. The storyline had me hooked and when my static broke, I ended up breaking to. My obsession with completing CoP had driven me to burn out on the entire game. So a break in WoW was a welcome change. I won’t discuss my time in WoW, but suffice to say I enjoyed my time there… but in April 2005, my heart yearned to return to Vana’diel. Of course, the subtle nudges of my two brothers might have had something to do with that… but nonetheless, I returned to FFXI.

However, rather than returning to my character, I decided to make a new character. I still felt the icy grip of burnout just waiting to rear it’s ugly head and I wanted to avoid that so I made a Mithra Thief named Neocronikia. From April 2005 to August 2005 I took Neocronikia to level 35. In this time, I was also introduced to CrimsonMercenaries, a social LS led by a remarkable woman named Stellazella. Her and I hit it off almost immediately and I regaled her with tales of my accomplishments in CoP. Word eventually got around the linkshell and once again I returned to the world of CoP.

I took two groups of linkshell members through the first 3 Promyvions. By this time things had changed quite a bit. Empty-mobs had been cut back, Memory Receptacles kept their portals open for a full minute, and the bosses were noticeably toned down. In fact, I dare say I was almost bored doing these Promyvions. The challenge that was once there was replaced by an almost carebear-esk jaunt. Where once Summoners and Rangers ensured a quick and clean success, now parties comprised of 6 Beastmasters could reign supreme. I am happy with these changes… don’t get me wrong. However, I feel that the Promyvions in their current form do little to prepare people for the challenges that await them later. After leaving the Promyvions the training wheels are taken away and your left to sink or swim. Because of that, I have always spoken out against the changes Square-Enix made to the Promyvions and will continue to speak out against them. People who beat the Promyvions now are most certainly not equipped to deal with the challenges in CoP. They expect easy journeys and easy fights because of the changes made to Promyvion. And when they don’t get what they expect… they quit. And that’s a shame…

But I digress.

In August 2005 I decided once again to take a break from FFXI. I had reached burnout point once again thanks to numerous failed attempts at taking pickup parties through CoP 4-2 only to be met with failure each and every time. This time, I chose to pass my time playing Ultima Online. But… in October 2005 I grew bored of Ultima Online and returned yet again to FFXI… this time to return to my original character, Neocron.

7.0 Melting Mist and Dodging Fomor

As luck would have it, on the day I came back to FFXI, I was invited to do CoP 4-2 with a group of people who staticed together but had recently lost their 6th member. Figuring why not, I went with them. And let me tell you…. the victory we had over Ouryu was nothing short of spectacular. Up until that point, I had dealt with pickup parties and had taken what felt like just about every conceivable party configuration known to man through Riverne Site B01. What was so different this time?

Black Mages

The party consisted of 4 Black Mages, 1 Red Mage, and 1 Ninja. I can’t tell you how easy that fight was and how foolish I felt for not having ever considered the manaburn route. I have no doubt CoP 4-2 can be beaten with other party setups, but it is my honest opinion that the best way to beat CoP 4-2 is with Black Mages.

After the victory, I bid my farewells and went in search of the Sacrarium… When I got there I was greeted by a static that consisted of 2 parties from 2 different Linkshells that had banded together to face the challenges of the Sacrarium. One of the statics was a person shy so I tagged along. The trip through the Sacrarium was relatively easy. We got our keys in no-time flat and killed the Professor. The next day, I helped the other static party do the Sacrarium for some of their other people and that went just as smoothly. I was later invited to join the static that was short 1 person, which consisted of the following people:

Duce
Lexie
Rovoc
Trk
Olan
Neocron

Ironically, I never did inquire as to what linkshell this static was with. I don’t think it would have mattered if I had known, but you know the old saying… hindsight is always 20/20…

8.0 The Long Road: Chapter 5

Nothing much to really say about the Promyvion-Vazhl run. It went smoothly enough, though we did have to do 2 separate runs because one of our members was absent from the first boss run. The key to beating this Promyvion is in the Anima. I would say at least 2 anima per person. If you bring enough Anima, the boss fight isn’t too bad.

I will say that going through Promyvion-Vazhl reminded me a lot of the other Promyvions prior to the change. Almost as if Square-Enix had forgotten about this Promyvion when they were doing the change. Empty-mobs loitering around everywhere in insane numbers was just the tip of the iceburg. The Promyvion bosses you fight in the Spire are definitely not the easy-to-beat jokes they were when you first encountered them. No… these bosses are cheap like the old bosses were prior to the change. I don’t envy people who do Promyvion-Vazhl who didn’t pass through the crucible that was the first Promyvions prior to the change…

But the real fun as far as I’m concerned isn’t in Promyvion-Vazhl… it’s in what’s **AFTER**. Entitled “Three Paths”, CoP 5-3 is by far the longest mission in the entire expansion. In this one mission you will traverse just about 75% of Vana’diel. My static first attempted the Mithra Tracker BCNM. This BCNM wasn’t too bad once we figured out the proper Sleepga timing. We are 1 out of 4 on it so I suppose I can’t complain. Next up we did the trek through Pso’Xja. Oh my what a nice long segment. Kudo’s to everyone for having the wherewithal to keep going. 3 hours later we completed the Pso’Xja segment.

Next up on the list was the Moblin BCNM. Amazingly enough, my static beat this on our Dry Run. I say amazingly enough because in my entire time doing CoP I never beat a CoP boss encounter on the first try. What’s even more amazing is we beat it without supplies. Go figure and enough said.

However, the great God Square-Enix exacted it’s revenge upon us for our victory against the Moblins in the form of the Snoll Tzar. I wouldn’t say the Snoll Tzar is the hardest boss in CoP, but it certainly is right up there in the top 3. This bugger was just plain unfair. Every time we tried it did something new. One time it even did some weird AoE move that ate through shadows and Invincible and did about 1k damage to everyone within range. And no, this wasn’t it’s explosion move either. This was something else entirely and I’ve never seen it do that move again.

And if it wasn’t the Snoll Tzar that was a royal pain it was the static. By this particular point we were having a small problem with attendance. Most of the members of the static lived on the East Coast which wouldn’t seem to be much of a problem except we usually didn’t get going until about 11pm EST. By the time we got to the Snoll and wiped, it was time for one of the members to head to bed to get her beauty sleep. And if it wasn’t that this particular individual (who I won’t name out of respect) would sometimes just not show up at all, forcing her boyfriend (who I believe either lived with her or lived near her) to login on her account and play two characters at the same time (they played on PS2 I believe). To make things more interesting, one of our other members was underleveled for this fight and so he wasn’t able to make it. In his stead we got the leader of an endgame LS to join us. This leader, who again, shall remain nameless (but certainly not out of respect) had a reputation for being a hard-***, but a knowledgeable hard-***. He came to these fights as a SAM/RNG so he could spam Sidewinder.

Now the way I understand it, this used to be a viable tactic. But the problem lies in the fact that we did this fight all through December and January 2005… well after the ranger “nerf”. So while everyone else was doing rather good damage, here’s little ole SAM/RNG spamming Sidewinder for 250-400 dmg per WS. And he thought this was good. Clearly it wasn’t.

I am 1/11 on Snoll Tzar, and of those 11 runs, that silly SAM/RNG was present for 8 of them. He refused to do anything different despite being called out on it. He did however call me out because at that time I was a level 68 BLM and he felt that I was a hindrance to the static. In his opinion, I needed to be level 75 prior to getting to the Tenzen fight. I disagreed, knowing from friends that level 73 was more than enough for this fight and as it was, I was busting my *** off leveling as fast as I possibly could (I went from level 60 to level 70 in about a month).

He also had the audacity to say I could go from level 68 to level 75 in 48 hours. I still get a kick out of this comment… because it shows just how ignorant and elitist some people can be. I suppose it might be possible to accomplish this… if I played for 15-18 hours a day and had a dedicated group of BLM’s to manaburn with. Oh and let’s not factor Maat into that equation…

Anyway, we beat Snoll in the second week of January 2006 and thus ending Chapter 5.

9.0 One to be Feared

Chapter 6 was the highlight and the bane of my existence. Getting flagged for it isn’t too bad… but the fight itself is insane. Let me divulge our party configuration for this lovely fight:

PLD/WAR
MNK/DRK
RNG/NIN
SMN/WHM
WHM/BLM
BLM/WHM

Now if you have done CoP 6-4 you can see right where there’s a problem. PLD’s have a hell of a time in this fight. Ultima and Omega can rip a PLD to shreds without even trying. The only way our PLD kept himself alive was by stocking me up with Hi Potions and me listing them in my bazaar for 1 gil each. It worked… but it was very very ineffective in the long run. We did 8 tries before we beat Omega Weapon (the mammets are a breeze so I won’t even talk about them).

However, as fortune would have it, one of my friends told me that his friends were going to do 6-4 and they needed a Black Mage. My friend thought of me and recommended me.

Now let me go on record here (since I know at some point individuals from my static will read this). I did not betray you by doing the fight with another group. If I wanted to betray you, I would never have told you I did the fight to begin with… let alone remain in the static.

I say this because I beat CoP 6-4 with this group on our 5th run. That’s right folks… 13 runs to beat CoP 6-4. After beating it, I told my static that I had done the run with another group because they needed a competent BLM and a mutual friend referred me. My static leader wasn’t very happy about this. I didn’t know **HOW ** unhappy until a few days later…

10.0 The Great HighCouncil Drama

During the time I was doing CoP 6-4 runs, a friend mentioned I should join the LS HighCouncil. I had heard some interesting and rather unflattering things about HighCouncil in the past, but I had a number of friends in that LS and knew the LS did Limbus and occasionally HNM runs. I applied to HC and was told that I had to be voted in by the Linkshell Officers before I could obtain a pearl. A vote took place and I was voted in. However, the leader of this LS (who again, I shall not name) told me I needed to be willing to become a full-time member (which meant discarding my sky LS and my social LS). At first I was unwilling to do this, so I was given a pearl into HC’s event LS, named “DeathFromAbove”. I did a couple of sky runs with DFA and even got an Aquarian Legs Abjuration.

Then, about a week later, I decided I wanted to be in HC and was willing to do what was necessary to do this. I had already thrown away my Sky LS (and thus forfeiting my points with them) when I joined DFA. But I threw away my social LS, which I was an officer of. After doing this, I received a pearl from the leader of the LS.

I was in HighCouncil for a grand total of 10 minutes before I was kicked for no reason. When I inquired as to why this happened, I was simply told “I’m sorry”. This from the leader of that LS. Needless to say, I was a bit angry as you can imagine. I had forfeited all my points in a good Sky LS and had forfeited my status as a Linkshell Officer in a social LS.
And like any individual who is angry, I lashed out the only way I knew how… but throwing insults at the LS leader and the majority of people in that LS who stood by and said or did nothing. I even went so far as to notify everyone on my Friends List of this travesty and all of them agreed that I should have been given a reason for being kicked, especially considering all the hoops I had to jump through to secure a pearl.

I found out why I was kicked from the LS a couple days later. As it turns out, the leader of my CoP static felt I had betrayed him and the group by doing CoP 6-4 without them. Apparently, since I was in their static I had an obligation to say no to help anyone else with CoP (although this was never mentioned) and that my “betrayal” was why I was kicked from the LS. Now I must pose a question to the people of my static (and hopefully the leader of HC):

If you all felt this way, then why was I given a pearl into HC in the first place?

I don’t expect an answer to this… but I will say it’s a pretty rotten thing to do… making someone jump through so many hoops only to deny them the prize right after giving it to them.

I was so disgusted by this that I left my CoP static. In fact, by this point I was disgusted with the whole concept of statics and endgame LS’s. I went back to my Sky LS and my Social LS with my tail tucked between my legs. They accepted me back with open arms, but honestly… things haven’t been the same since.

All because I helped another group beat CoP 6-4. I should point out that I would have helped this group even if I had already beaten CoP 6-4. When someone asks me for help, I help. I won’t turn down an honest request for help, especially from a friend of a friend

So let me go on record and say shame on you HighCouncil. And shame on you Duce for being a short-sighted child and not grasping the bigger picture.

As a side note, it has come to my attention that that static recently broke up and the other members have gone on to beat CoP 6-4 on their own.

11.0 The Final Push to Al’Taieu

The people I helped through CoP 6-4 came to my “rescue” as luck would have it. They let me join them to do Chapter 7. Things went nice and smooth right up until the Tenzen fight. The fight itself was easy… we won our second try. However, the issue here was HighCouncil. The leader of that LS was in Sealion’s Den when we got there and one of the people in the group I was with was a member of HighCouncil. Harsh words were exchanged between myself and the leader of HC, which included me being called an “LS leech” and a “tool” and him being called a “impotent figure-head” and a “asshat”.

At this point, the LS leader issued a decree that forbid any member of HighCouncil from helping me in any way. The HC member in our party was forced to leave us and we were left to do Tenzen with 4 people. We tried… but we failed.

Thankfully some friends came and we beat Tenzen with little difficulty.

I will point out that despite this decree, I still remain good friends with a number of people in HighCouncil and all of them share the same opinion: they are mature enough to decide for themselves who they will and will not associate with and/or help.

Moral of this story: Don’t become so infatuated with your ego that you become a demigod in your own mind.

I took my first steps in Al’Taieu on February 11, 2006. I was (and still am) a Level 72 Black Mage.

12.0 The End of All Things

I must say getting to Al’Taieu is probably one of the greatest achievements I have accomplished in the entire time I’ve played FFXI. I have a hard time thinking of anything that can compare to it. Yea I’ve beaten Divine Might, but honestly, that felt very hollow in comparison. Maybe with Treasures of Aht Urhgan I guess…

It took me a week to get CoP 8-1 done. Despite attempts at getting a pickup party via shouting in Jeuno and sending tells to everyone in Al’Taieu, I ultimately got help from the least likely of sources. One of my friends in HighCouncil was getting ready to do the mission and invited me along. Despite the commandments of the LS leader, the individuals who made up that run had no problem with me being there. All in all it was a rather enjoyable run. The NM’s themselves were a bit interesting. I still say anything that can charm you or reraise are things that should be respected and the Aern’s of Al’Taieu definitely fit the bill. We tried to attempt CoP 8-2, but got lost and that was pretty much that.

A few days later, while sending tells to people who were in the Grand Palace of Hu’Xzoi, I stumbled across a static that was 2 people shy of six. This group would ultimately be the group I beat CoP with. It consisted of the following people:

Kered
Zied
Kajim
Poypoy
Neocron
<open slot filled with individuals from the linkshell Osiris>

We went through CoP 8-2 like it was nothing. No getting lost… no funky sleep-n-run tactics. Just slow and steady progress. The NM at the end was taken down easily despite it’s ability to use two different 2-hours.

A day or two later, we tackled CoP 8-3. This proved to be the final road-block in CoP. Getting through the Garden of Ru’Hmet wasn’t too bad… but the Z’dei pot BCNM was a royal pain in the ***. 2 BLM-type Z’dei’s and 2 RDM-type Z’dei’s and no way to silence any of them. I lost count of the number of times we lost to this BCNM… but I do know it took us two days of tries to finally beat it. It’s an insane fight that I suppose could be viewed as easy if you do it with a lot of DD. But if your in a DD-light party you might run into problems.

The only other thing I can say about that fight is you don’t need 2 BLM’s to beat it. One BLM is more than enough to beat the BCNM. If you do it right, you’ll kill both BLM-type Z’dei pots before the RDM-type Z’dei pots wake up.

The final fight against Promathia was a nice lesson in the do’s and don’ts of tanking. We first tried to tank both forms. First form wasn’t too big of a deal… but tanking the second form turned out to be a sadistic form of ritual-sacrifice. We tried 3 times to tank the second form before we called it a day. The next day we decided we’d try to kite the second form and let me tell you, that worked out much better. By kiting we were able to avoid most of Promathia’s more annoying abilities and we never lost Prishe.

The final set of cutscenes in CoP are breathtaking. You get a definite sense of closure and at the same time a depressed feeling at the realization it’s finally over. All the headache… all the sweat, blood, and tears… all the experience points and gil… all have led up to these final cutscenes.

While watching them, I found myself recalling all the memories, good and bad, of doing CoP. I recalled with vivid clarity the adventures I had with so many different people. And when the absolute last cutscene rolled and that hauntingly beautiful song played, I cried. I don’t know if they were tears of joy or of sadness. The end of all things had finally come.

I realized while watching that cutscene that CoP may be a royal pain in the ***… but it’s all been worth it. People can say CoP has a great story or great item rewards, but I feel the greatest reward CoP has to offer is the adventure itself. And I’m not talking about scripted cutscenes or fantastical fights… I’m talking about the people you interact with and do CoP with. The highs and the low’s you experience with these people is what I’m talking about. Nothing in CoP can compare to the experience itself and that’s my honest opinion. Yes the rings and Sea are nice… but they would be hollow without the experiences that came with obtaining the rewards.

I also must say that because of the people I have had the pleasure of doing CoP with, I have become a better player. No other expansion in any MMO has ever succeeded in doing what CoP did, which is bring players of different skill levels together. I was doing CoP with high levels when I hadn’t even completed Genkei 1. And you know, I learned a lot from those people. And the kicker is I wasn’t even trying to learn from them. I just did.

I obtained my Tamas Ring and watched the final cutscene in Lufaise Meadows on March 1st, 2006. And that is the end of my journey… for now. I salute those of you who are still on your journey through CoP. Know that it is all worth it in the end.

I close this with a special thank you to the following people:

-> The members of PromathianGuard: Angelic, Ephraim, Noirr, Robert, and Thed. Even though they no longer play FFXI, they have not been forgotten.

-> Duce, Lexie, Rovoc, Trk, Olan, Hiepster, Athiest, Helooper, Bardon, Galmaximus, Bigk, Devon, Avalonshadow, Kered, Kajim, Zied, Poypoy, Docvicious, and Maiku – each of you contributed greatly to my completing CoP… without your contributions this retrospective would not have been possible.

-> Erecia’s For Glory CoP Guide – by far the best guide on CoP that I have ever seen.

-> WingChild – your work on the Get Your Game On! Guides is top-notch.

-> And to my brother Tygerstrike, who had to deal with me when I did CoP. He is the true hero of this retrospective… for without his silent words of encouragement I would never had finished CoP.

#2 Mar 04 2006 at 2:18 AM Rating: Default
oberonqa wrote:
It wasn’t uncommon for an alliance’s White Mages to die without re-raise for example. Such things happened with alarming frequency in those days and when it happened, an alliance was dead in it’s tracks.
which was in no way related to the spell being Lv.33.

tl;dr
#3 Mar 04 2006 at 2:22 AM Rating: Decent
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1,189 posts
Priran wrote:
which was in no way related to the spell being Lv.33.


{White Mage} {Reraise Earring} {You can have this}
#4 Mar 04 2006 at 2:30 AM Rating: Decent
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5,339 posts
While I am happy for you, it's not particularly exciting to read that a BLM accomplished anything. It's a given that you could get Sea at your own pace, as any CoP LS would take you in a second.
#5 Mar 04 2006 at 2:34 AM Rating: Default
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1,548 posts
SSubZero wrote:
/butthurt

Fixed.
#6 Mar 04 2006 at 2:36 AM Rating: Default
oberonqa wrote:
{White Mage} {Reraise Earring} {You can have this}
because whm is the only job that can wear this.

dude, you were wrong, just ******* admit it.
#7 Mar 04 2006 at 2:42 AM Rating: Default
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584 posts
Wow, that took a lot of thought. Grats on making it through the dramabullsh*tfest that is CoP.

Lots of striking similarities to my own CoP 'journey' and why only the end FMV took the sourness away slightly.

We had an LS 'leader' that was similarly sandyvaginaized when we decided that we wanted to see more of the story. He'd hollered and expected us all to jump to attention at his orders. Well, a couple of the people in our static didn't like getting barked at and had indicated before all this that they were a tad busy with RL.

Later on I asked them nicely to help me out and they put down what they were doing long enough to try ultima/omega. We lost, but the sand was firmly in the netherflaps on our 'leader'. As a result, two linkshells broke and a lovely grouping of many friends regrouped without the sand sprayer. But we made it to the final movie. ^^

I sincerely hope the next expansion is devoid of this kind of garbage.
#8 Mar 04 2006 at 2:55 AM Rating: Decent
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790 posts
Okay? It was interesting when it was a level 33 BLM beating Promies, but later it just turned into some guy getting Sea. Do you think anyone wants to hear my 1000 word post about how I got it?
#9 Mar 04 2006 at 2:56 AM Rating: Excellent
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140 posts
Oberonqa wrote:
I realized while watching that cutscene that CoP may be a royal pain in the ***… but it’s all been worth it. People can say CoP has a great story or great item rewards, but I feel the greatest reward CoP has to offer is the adventure itself. And I’m not talking about scripted cutscenes or fantastical fights… I’m talking about the people you interact with and do CoP with. The highs and the low’s you experience with these people is what I’m talking about. Nothing in CoP can compare to the experience itself and that’s my honest opinion. Yes the rings and Sea are nice… but they would be hollow without the experiences that came with obtaining the rewards.

I also must say that because of the people I have had the pleasure of doing CoP with, I have become a better player. No other expansion in any MMO has ever succeeded in doing what CoP did, which is bring players of different skill levels together. I was doing CoP with high levels when I hadn’t even completed Genkei 1. And you know, I learned a lot from those people. And the kicker is I wasn’t even trying to learn from them. I just did.


I agree 100%. Couldn't have put it any better.

Rate up.
#10 Mar 04 2006 at 3:02 AM Rating: Good
Congratulations on CoP!
I personally have only completed the promys and aquaducts but your story has inspired me somewhat to try and get further.
Best of luck in future endeavours!
#11 Mar 04 2006 at 7:02 AM Rating: Default
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486 posts
Isn't this the kind of thing blogs are for? Yeah...get one.
#12 Mar 04 2006 at 12:14 PM Rating: Good
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101 posts
Dezzimal wrote:
Isn't this the kind of thing blogs are for? Yeah...get one.


Or you could just not read it.

Nice story, I like reading these types.

Edited, Sat Mar 4 12:14:53 2006 by KMannKD
#13 Mar 04 2006 at 3:34 PM Rating: Good
Congrats, you are now included in the 5% of players that paid $30 for the CoP expantion to actually have access to all the areas it introduced. You are now also eligable to attain some of the most elite gear in the game that many have simply quit the game over knowing that thier job would never let them attain...

seriously tho, CoP is an amazing accomplishment, one that every person i know is absolutely unwilling to go back and help others to do once they have completed it because it is so time consuming and inconveniant thanks to lvl caps.

Edited, Sat Mar 4 15:39:04 2006 by stailcookie
#14 Mar 04 2006 at 4:16 PM Rating: Good
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5,339 posts
Quote:
Congrats, you are now included in the 5% of players that paid $30 for the CoP expantion to actually have access to all the areas it introduced. You are now also eligable to attain some of the most elite gear in the game that many have simply quit the game over knowing that thier job would never let them attain...

I must have missed the memo, I have no idea what "elite gear" is in Sea. There's torques, but they are not mind-bendingly awesome or anything. All the jailer weapons suck, I have no idea what they are even for.

I've had sea access for a while and I have no pressing need to go there.
#15 Mar 04 2006 at 5:16 PM Rating: Excellent
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4,049 posts
Quote:
I must have missed the memo, I have no idea what "elite gear" is in Sea. There's torques, but they are not mind-bendingly awesome or anything. All the jailer weapons suck, I have no idea what they are even for.

I've had sea access for a while and I have no pressing need to go there.

Jailer Torques - The best in the game for certain functions. Justice Torque gives the highest neck-slot STR boost in the game.
Justice Sword - One of the best swords in the game for certain jobs
Faith Baghnakhs - Formidable knuckles that rival destroyers
Ix'Aern Capes - The best in the game for a number of functions
Nashira Seraweels - Best enfeebling pants in the game
Nashira Crackows - Best HNM-nuking foot armor in the game
Homam Manopolas - One of the best TP gain hand armors in the game
Ninja Tekko +1 - One of the best WS swap hand armors in the game

Meh, there's more, and I could go on, but I'm sick of looking the stuff up. Suffice it to say there is quite a bit in Sea that's extremely good.

Edited, Sat Mar 4 17:17:01 2006 by Gildaren
#16 Mar 04 2006 at 5:20 PM Rating: Good
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739 posts
I'm just over halfway through CoPs at the moment, last part of 5-3 is on hold since a static member has a business trip. Yeah, CoPs are grueling and can be a strain on people at times, but personally, I prefer how CoPs are structured over the Zilart missions.

Problem with ZMs is most of them could be done in one day and then you got sky access. You can't just throw together a group in Jeuno and do CoPs, at least, not beyond the Aquaducts.

I've lead CoP missions for a bit now and its tests your skills not only as a player, but as a leader, too. You have to maintain a good pace, be selective about when to ally with other groups or pick people up along the way. I can't tell you how many times I've been spammed by random players asking to get in a group.

And the thing about all that is, you have to learn to say "no." to a lot of those people. These missions were designed with some real preparation involved, more than just buying some oils and powders, more than just bringing food. You have to farm, bring a flexible team of players and jobs, check your hate against certain mobs and be able to stomach long periods of play, too.

People can complain about the level caps, but I think it was a smart decision on SE's part, the only real flaw being instead of people turning to high levels for a win (SE's intention behind the caps right there), they now turn to a group of SMNs or BLMS to get wins. Its not needed, but some people will always look for an easy way out.

Its challenging and very satisfying in the end though, I look forward to completing the rest. Should be interesting, too, as our setup varies from mission to mission.
#17 Mar 04 2006 at 6:31 PM Rating: Decent
Nice story, but the one thing that stands out to me is:

--You're a Black Mage.--

Yes, I know they can be done as other jobs, I tanked every fight so far as DRG apart from Diabolos (and I even tanked him for some of the fight), but people just will not take anything else now.

Quote:
Congrats, you are now included in the 5% of players that paid $30 for the CoP expantion to actually have access to all the areas it introduced. You are now also eligable to attain some of the most elite gear in the game that many have simply quit the game over knowing that thier job would never let them attain...


Agreed.

For anyone that says CoP isn't hard, it *IS*. It's not meant to be easy. But the main problem with it is that it's too time-consuming.

Some missions require you to spend 4-5 hours, farming items, buying meds, etc... and if you don't win, you have to reload and spend another 1-2 hours trying again... if you don't have a static, expect to spend hours upon hours doing the same mission, killing the same mobs for items, only to die in the BC...

I know so many people who just don't care about it now. They flat out refuse to do it because, even though they want to see the storyline, they don't have the time to spend doing the missions.

I can't say I'm impressed with it to be honest. Prishe is an airhead and so far, the storyline's been uninspiring tripe. I read the cutscenes, but so far it's only been to see if Prishe is dead yet.

Unfortunately, she's not, but I'm hoping Ouryu got that package I sent him in the mail.

Sure, the fights have been fun, but I didn't enjoy the 2 hour trip to get to the damn boss area.

People are going to rant about CoP until the game ends. That's just how it is. Sales may indicate that it was a success, but for the majority of the playerbase, it's a failure.
#18 Mar 04 2006 at 7:26 PM Rating: Decent
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4,209 posts
WrathOfFoobar wrote:
Problem with ZMs is most of them could be done in one day and then you got sky access. You can't just throw together a group in Jeuno and do CoPs, at least, not beyond the Aquaducts.
People seam to froget this alot when they try and compare Zilart to CoP... ZM's were designed around a level 50-60 cap with ALOT less "uber" armor options than there are today. Simple as that. People 75 burn their way to sky now, that wasent possable when ZM was added to the FFXI world.
#19 Mar 04 2006 at 8:33 PM Rating: Good
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739 posts
Quote:
People seam to froget this alot when they try and compare Zilart to CoP... ZM's were designed around a level 50-60 cap with ALOT less "uber" armor options than there are today. Simple as that. People 75 burn their way to sky now, that wasent possable when ZM was added to the FFXI world.


Link to history on that? I don't quite buy that since most of the ZMs are uncapped. If the level cap was indeed 60 at the time, I think SE would have kept it that way for the sake of challenge. They didn't, so it I don't think it was that way.

Also remember that Rise of the Zilart was the expansion that raised the cap to 75, so its been easy since the RoZ to complete them. CoP armor and gear have little to nothing to do with that the ease in which ZMs can be done.

The forced capping of CoPs is a reaction to how broken ZMs were and still are. If there are missions for Tresures of Aht'Urghan, I can only hope the level cap trend continues, so people just can't throw 75s at everything to win. I just hope SMNs and BLMs get a little nerf for those missions, because CoPs opened up the manaburn exploit and its now reached all the way back to ZMs.
#20 Mar 04 2006 at 8:59 PM Rating: Decent
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1,548 posts
Quote:
The forced capping of CoPs is a reaction to how broken ZMs were and still are.


They're not broken if you do them at the appropriate level. You can choose how challenging or how easy the experience will be for you, and many people like that.

Quote:
If there are missions for Tresures of Aht'Urghan, I can only hope the level cap trend continues, so people just can't throw 75s at everything to win.

See above. With ZM you have a choice, but with CoP you do not. The majority of people have not enjoyed this.

Quote:
I just hope SMNs and BLMs get a little nerf for those missions, because CoPs opened up the manaburn exploit and its now reached all the way back to ZMs.


That's cool. Punish everyone for the actions of the minority. Excellent reasoning.
#21 Mar 04 2006 at 11:43 PM Rating: Good
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1,189 posts
There's some comments here that I'd like to comment on... because I find them to be rather disturbing.

1. On the whole "Your a Black Mage... you have no trouble getting through CoP" line of thought, I find this to be highly insulting. If you had read my retrospective you would certainly see that my journey through CoP was anything but trouble-free. The fact that I'm a Black Mage is irrelevant - I'm just as susceptable to bad runs as anyone else (as my retrospective shows).

In fact I find it disturbing to see my retrospective disregarded so quickly because of the job I took through CoP. Keep in mind that I didn't choose BLM just for the purpose of doing CoP. That was my job from the getgo.

Ultimately though, whether you choose to acknowledge my accomplishment for the accomplishment it is or disregard it as "another BLM gets sea.... B.F.D." is a choice only you can make. I neither want nor care about your acknowledgement (or lack thereof) of what has been done.

2. On the whole RoZ vs CoP conversation, your comparing two totally different expansions that, among other things, have different objectives and different approaches. What your doing is the same as comparing the movies Alien and Aliens. One being a slow-paced haunted-house sci-fi horror film and the other being a fast-paced Vietnam-themed sci-fi action film. While you can compare those two films, you probably shouldn't if you want to be taken seriously by hardcore Alien-saga fans.

The same principle applies to RoZ and CoP. RoZ is an expansion that applied a specific progression ideal. It's approach is more non-tiered than anything else. Whereas with CoP, your dealing with a very organized and tiered-approach to missions. More importantly, RoZ, while being a story-driven expansion, isn't nearly as involved as CoP. In CoP each and every mission, every fight and every BCNM has it's place. In RoZ for example, is it coincidental that you fight a trio of Antican's in ZM6? The storyline doesn't explain why you fight the Anticans. Nor, for that matter, does the storyline explain why you have to fight popped NM's to obtain 4 of the 7 headstone shards.

I'm not bashing RoZ and I apologize if I am giving that impression, but these questions don't exist in CoP. Your given very clear and concise reasons for why your going to each area and why your fighting what your fighting. Case in point: the NM's you fight in Chapter 7 prior to the final BCNM fight before getting Sea. In each instance your told what those NM's were doing there and why you had to fight them. There are a few cases where CoP doesn't do this, but for the most part, you are told who, what, where, and why for what it is your doing.

So please don't compare RoZ to CoP. The two expansions are totally different... and the only common ground the two share is the fact they both take place in Vana'diel. That is where the similarities end.
#22 Mar 04 2006 at 11:53 PM Rating: Good
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188 posts
Congratulations.

I know your pain.

Especially on Snoll :p

#23 Mar 05 2006 at 12:28 AM Rating: Decent
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4,049 posts
Quote:
Quote:
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The forced capping of CoPs is a reaction to how broken ZMs were and still are.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



They're not broken if you do them at the appropriate level. You can choose how challenging or how easy the experience will be for you, and many people like that.


Quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If there are missions for Tresures of Aht'Urghan, I can only hope the level cap trend continues, so people just can't throw 75s at everything to win.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


See above. With ZM you have a choice, but with CoP you do not. The majority of people have not enjoyed this.

I'd just like to point out that an extremely large portion of the current FFXI population does not have a "choice".

If ToAU's missions are uncapped, I'm stuck doing them with my level 75 jobs, along with my entire LS. And if they're tailored to be challenging for a lower level job, like RoZ, then I don't have any choice in the matter. I've got it easy whether I like it or not.

Hence the reason why many of us welcome and enjoy level-capped missions for expansions. They're challenging, rewarding, and prevent everyone and their grandmother from breezing through the missions because they paid a high-level RDM to solo most of it.
#24 Mar 05 2006 at 1:40 AM Rating: Decent
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5,339 posts
Quote:
Faith Baghnakhs - Formidable knuckles that rival destroyers

LOL! LOL LOL LOL!

Have you even looked at the stats on those?
Quote:
Justice Sword - One of the best swords in the game for certain jobs

"Certain jobs" being the 3 jobs that can even equip it; PLD, RDM, THF. This sword might be kinda nice for soloing, but if I catch anyone trying to use this in a party setting, they will have some explaining to do.
Quote:
Jailer Torques - The best in the game for certain functions. Justice Torque gives the highest neck-slot STR boost in the game.

Let's see, +5 STR on an item that is a BRUTALLY rare drop from a high-level NM that requires weeks of effort from an alliance to even get to, or.. +3STR/+3DEX I can buy at any AH for 10k.. hmm.. Oh and the scythe/GKT skill boost pretty much means "best in the game for certain functions if you're a DRK or SAM." Torques are cute, and I can see some benefit to them, but let's not fool around, Torques are not Osodes and they aren't Haidates. But they are more rare then both.

Limbus items, especially Nashira gear, are a whole other category of long-term commitment. A *minimum* time to even fight the NM's the drop those pieces is about a month if you plow thru the Limbus zones non-stop in the order it takes to get to P-Ultima and P-Omega. For gear you can maybe lot on once a month IF it drops, I dunno if that's really worth the hassle. AF+1 is mildly more interesting, some pieces are good "consolation prizes" for people who can't seem to get Osodes or whatever else is in Sky but real killer equip AF+1's are few and far between.
#25 Mar 05 2006 at 2:00 AM Rating: Decent
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5,339 posts
Quote:
1. On the whole "Your a Black Mage... you have no trouble getting through CoP" line of thought, I find this to be highly insulting. If you had read my retrospective you would certainly see that my journey through CoP was anything but trouble-free. The fact that I'm a Black Mage is irrelevant - I'm just as susceptable to bad runs as anyone else (as my retrospective shows).

In fact I find it disturbing to see my retrospective disregarded so quickly because of the job I took through CoP. Keep in mind that I didn't choose BLM just for the purpose of doing CoP. That was my job from the getgo.

Be insulted. You know what, you can be insulted all the way to the bank.
Quote:
The party consisted of 4 Black Mages, 1 Red Mage, and 1 Ninja. I can’t tell you how easy that fight was and how foolish I felt for not having ever considered the manaburn route. I have no doubt CoP 4-2 can be beaten with other party setups, but it is my honest opinion that the best way to beat CoP 4-2 is with Black Mages.

I'm a monk. How do you think this makes me feel? Do you think I appreciate this kind of opinion? You may not understand this, but the only thing worse than being called out because you used an overpowered job to get to Sea is having a job that is not overpowered and being passed over for missions because of it. Every time you don't invite a monk to do a mission, God uses Asuran Fists on a kitten.

I can summarize your entire story right here:

"I sorta played on and off for a while, casually did CoP missions, and even tho I quit playing a couple of times and started a new character and stuff I still managed to get Sea in about a year of playing. Oh and other jobs suck. That's my opinion. ^^"

As someone who did not "casually" approach the CoP missions and someone who watched BLM's blitz to Sea with hardly any effort while static after static fell apart because BLM's kept running off to do missions with other BLM's.. no, I don't appreciate your opinion at all. And since you posted it on a public forum, it is up to public scrutiny.
#26 Mar 05 2006 at 2:07 AM Rating: Excellent
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4,049 posts
Quote:
LOL! LOL LOL LOL!

Have you even looked at the stats on those?

Two monks in my LS have them. I know what I'm talking about. They have situational use.

Quote:
"Certain jobs" being the 3 jobs that can even equip it; PLD, RDM, THF. This sword might be kinda nice for soloing, but if I catch anyone trying to use this in a party setting, they will have some explaining to do.

Justice sword is the only other weapon in the game that won't water down Joyeuse's TP gain when dual wielding with it.

Justice/Joyeuse is the best RDM/NIN and PLD/NIN sword combination in the game.

Quote:
Let's see, +5 STR on an item that is a BRUTALLY rare drop from a high-level NM that requires weeks of effort from an alliance to even get to, or.. +3STR/+3DEX I can buy at any AH for 10k.. hmm.. Oh and the scythe/GKT skill boost pretty much means "best in the game for certain functions if you're a DRK or SAM." Torques are cute, and I can see some benefit to them, but let's not fool around, Torques are not Osodes and they aren't Haidates. But they are more rare then both.

A number of the torques are the best neck slot item in the game for certain jobs. What more do you want?

This is not a droprate discussion. Someone said Sea offered great gear, you said he was full of crap, and I corrected you.

Your most recent response is basically: "Oh, those don't count, and oh, Limbus doesn't count either." Could the droprates use a boost? Sure. Does all the gear suck like you seem to think? Hell no, and some of it is the best in the game for a slot or a function.

P.S. - Proto-Omega takes 2 weeks to get to for a single limbus group doing twice weekly runs, and he's relatively easy for a competent group. That's pretty damn quick.

P.P.S. - Oh yeah, the Jailer Great Axe is also arguably the best HNM WAR/THF GAxe in the game.

Edited, Sun Mar 5 02:11:55 2006 by Gildaren
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