Back on FFXIV

I'm back to playing FFXIV again. Still playing Ayame Miyumi, although I used a Fantasia and she's Xaela Au Ra now instead of Raen.

I did a couple practice runs of low-level dungeons (I think I did Copperbell Mines, Tam-Tara Deepcroft, and Haukke Manor) just to get used to healing again. And then I jumped right in and did Steps of Faith because I needed to in order to continue on in the story. That went surprisingly well. The party assigned me the role of main healer while the other healer did cannons. There was only one death, and that death was me because I was dumb and stood too close to the dragon's feet. Luckily, the other healer was able to pick up the slack while I ran back. If I remember correctly, I died pretty much right at the end and the dragon died soon after I got back, so I guess I wasn't missed too much there.

Upon getting into Heavensward content, I immediately made my way over to the Astrologian guild, and I am now an Astrologian (level 32)!

I'm loving AST. Have to say. I've done a couple dungeons (Tam-Tara, Haukke Manor, and Toto Rak), and I don't feel like I'm doing horribly. Bad, certainly, but not horrible. Although that Haukke Manor run went flawlessly, just saying. Tam-Tara was a bit hard because I hadn't healed on AST yet before and was having problems with taking enmity, and Toto Rak...well, we'll talk about Toto Rak in a minute because that run was horrible and I really don't think that was my fault. I think I did great!

I enjoy Draw way more than I should. Just working on memorizing what cards do what before Royal Road comes in and messes me up! And the skill animations just feel so satisfying. I know I'm not healing any more than I am on my WHM, but the skills just feel like they have more punch to them.

Ok, Toto Rak. That run was terrible. I just want to write this out and vent about this one because this was honestly the worst run of Toto Rak I've ever done. First of all, to set the stage, the group is all melee DPS, which is rough in Toto Rak because of the poison clouds from the microchu things. Tank and a DPS are both new, which is fine, I get that. I'm patient and lenient and all that, and I know my healing can pick up the slack when need be.

Except when everything is working against me. Then my healing can't pick up the slack at all.
First of all, I get walking into the poison exploding pod things once, not knowing that they'll explode and poison you and stress out your healer, but repeatedly running into them? Constantly? Even though I'm standing behind you frantically trying to dispose of them before you get there?

So, first tank death. Tank runs face first into some exploding pods, and I stop to try to heal/remove at least one poison stack. Everyone continues running on ahead and activates one of the web walls that pops up. I get stuck behind it because I stopped moving for a second to try to keep the tank alive. No one bothers to try and help me get past the web, so I'm frantically trying to break through with my meager healer DPS while watching the tank's health lower. Make it through with just enough time to start casting a heal and he dies. DPS is able to handle the mobs while I resurrect him.

Second tank death. Tank runs straight into at least three exploding pods and then into a group of mobs. Can't keep up with the poison damage and incoming mob damage. Tank dies while I frantically try to heal.

Third, group wipe. On the final boss. Goes fine for the first half. Once the tail comes out and starts shooting poison puddles it all goes downhill. Everyone stands in the puddles because they're melee and the tank doesn't move the boss. No one bothers to attack the tail. I get boxed in by puddles and the boss spawns an exploding pod on top of me. I die. Everyone dies.

Second time through the boss we miraculously make it through despite no one attacking the tail again.

Really though, the running straight into poisonous exploding pods knowing full well that they explode and poison you and stress out your hero is a huuuuge pet peeve of mine. Toto Rak can seriously be one of the most frustrating dungeons just because no one bothers to deal with those pods properly.

Long story short / moral of the story: Don't run face first into the exploding pods in Toto Rak. It annoys your healer. If no one has a range attack feel free to wait for your healer to dispatch it because they have a ranged attack and it only takes one hit. Please.

12/1/2015 PDP Guide Update Notes

• Found out Kaguya can be fought in Eientei after defeating Mokou and Marisa and then returning.
• In the grass in Eientei, Eirin actually appears to be more rare than Kaguya, and upon consulting the wiki, I found out that Eirin is 120 cost while Kaguya is 110 cost, so I suspect that is true.

PDP Guide 11/30/15 update notes

• Slowly updating the guide to change all instances of "healing spot" or things like that to Inns.
• Changed the titles of Parts 1 and 2 to reflect the Inn change and updated the guide links to reflect that as well.
• Slowly updating the guide to include proper trainer classes.
• Revamped Part 4's Forest of Magic guide to be more in-depth.
• Edited some bits for readability
• Most changes that commenters advised should be added in now.
• Fixed the link to Part 6 because it was broken apparently.

Couple quick changes

I just changed the style of the blog a bit because it was hurting my eyes. And if it was hurting my eyes, it was probably hurting other peoples' eyes. The black background and white lettering had its time, but it's time to change it for better readability.
...Which means the blog might look drastically different next time you load the page because I'm experimenting with backgrounds at the moment. Sorry for the inconvenience~

Also,  am thinking of changing the name of this blog due to some results I do not like popping up in Google Images. That, and I think there's another blog out there with basically the exact same name, so I'm brainstorming ideas.

I'll be sure to let you all know in advance before I make that drastic of a change, but I just want people to be aware that it is a thing that will be happening in the future.

EDIT: I think I like this one that I set it to now. I tried with a white background and that hurt my eyes a bit too, but this dark gray with light gray lettering feels okay.

Hello!

Happy late Thanksgiving to those who celebrate it!

I am going through this weekend and updating the guide taking into account the many comments that the parts have received.
Sorry for a lack of responses earlier, there has been a serious influx of comments so I wanted to just kind of do it all in one big batch!

Also, I finally got the English patch functioning in my game, so I will be going through and updating the guide a bit in some places.

Dragomon Hunter Review

I've been in a game-trying mood lately, so I decided to try Dragomon Hunter, since I noticed it was in open beta, and then I figured "Hey, why don't I write a review about it?" and so here we are.

Please be aware that this review is written during the Open Beta, and therefore some things are bound to change between this review being written and the full release of the game.

So first off, let me give a couple quite bullet points before going more in-depth:

Good

• The dialogue is well-written and comedic
• The sheer amount of references to other media (primarily anime) is great.
• The game itself looks quite nice from an aesthetic point of view. I thought the character models are nice (aside from the wonky hair, but I'll get to that later).
• The concept of capturing monsters to use as mounts and to raise on your Ranch is interesting.
• I really like the concept of Dragoncite inlaying.
• I like the concept of crafting.
• The Hoppalongs are adorable.

Bad

• Weird plot holes (talking to a character like you've already met them when in fact you never have).
• Lack of tutorials / explanation for the game's more complicated things such as crafting.
• Combat is kind of boring.
• The game overall feels a little too easy.
• No armor skins, just costumes.
• Holy gold spammers!
• Main town has a weird layout.

So first, let's talk about the good things about the game.

First up, the dialogue. The dialogue is magnificent. Usually I just skip over dialogues in these free imported MMOs because the dialogue is typically terribly localized and all around boring. This game, however, has quite enjoyable dialogue (most of the time at least). To top it all off, the dialogue and quest names frequently references to something or other (usually anime), which gives me an extra giggle when I get the reference.

The game looks nice. I really like games with vibrant colors, and this game certainly has that. The character models look quite nice in my opinion, although I know not everyone likes the chibi look. The game has a day/night cycle which is a nice change from other F2P MMOs too. The monsters in the game are well done and unique looking. I'm playing on Medium graphics settings and it plays decently. I do get some lag spikes, but they are mostly in town where there's tons of people, with the occasional spike in the instanced quest areas. But I also recognize that my computer is terrible, so there's that.

Character creation is a bit disappointing. There are a few hair and face options, plus eye colors and hair colors. The variety of the female hairstyles felt a bit disappointing though. I didn't feel like I really found one that I liked all that much. Faces were a bit better variety-wise though. The game also has voice options, but personally I turned off all voices in my settings because the game talks just a little bit too much. Also, the hairs have a bit of a physics issue sometimes. They go crazy in the character creator when you turn the character, and act wonky in-game sometimes when you turn quickly or enter a zone. They calm down significantly during normal play though (or maybe I just get too distracted to notice?).

Classes are pretty simple to grasp. You can select one of four base classes. You can use a different weapon with them at level 20, and at level 30 you can specialize into one of two specializations per class. The base classes are Mercenary, Mage, Scout, and Cleric. These are your typical Warrior, Mage, Rogue, and Healer classes. Mercs use Battleaxes or Greatswords, Mages use Staves or Magic Horns, Scouts use daggers (I think they have a different name though) or Rifles, and Clerics use Hammers or Cestuses (if you are familiar with FlyFF, they are the same things as Knuckles). Mercs can specialize as Barbarians or Vanguards, Mages can become Arcanists or Symphonists, Scouts can be War Dancers or Sharpshooters, and Clerics can be Crusaders or Monks. Personally, I've been really enjoying my Cleric, leaning towards Crusader.

Dragocite Inlaying is quite neat. Basically, every time you kill a monster you get a chance to pick up its Dragocite (it's rare though, as far as I can tell). These are gems that can be inlayed into different equipment. When you pick them up, they have an effect that isn't all that great on its own. But then you can take it to a Master Craftsman along with some materials and Transform it to give it more effects (such as an attack boost), and then they become significantly more useful. You then inlay it into the equipment type that it specifies and there you go! You are also able to separate the equipment and Dragocite at no cost and at no risk to either piece, so the Dragocite are reusable! You have 10 tries to Transform your Dragocite before you can't do it anymore, but it seems like those tries are hardly necessary if you aren't too picky. As an example of what I'm talking about as far as stats, I have, right now, a Rhinosker's Dragocite inlayed on my Frigid Cone Hammer. The base effect of this is +15% damage to Shellomon, but because I transformed it, it now also gives me +49 Attack, +54 Penetration, +20 Crit, and +5% damage to Humanoids. And at any time, I could remove it from my hammer and apply it to my Quintus' Devestation cestus.

Crafting has a neat concept, I think. Every time you kill a monster you get a chance to get materials from it. These materials can then be used to craft more gear. As far as I can tell, gear can only be made from dungeon boss materials, but I could be wrong. You can also Refine and Evolve your gear to make it more powerful. I don't know too much about this process yet, because I figure I'll wait until a higher level when my equipment will be more permanent than it is during the leveling process.

Hoppalongs are adorable bunnies that are adorable. You customize your own personal Hoppalong during character creation complete with naming. You can also change their class later on, but I haven't figured out how yet. I know it has to do with some books you can win in the Hoppadrome, but I have a couple classes unlocked for mine and can't figure out how to change his class.

And a lot of this leads into one of the big negatives of the game. That being a lack of explanation and tutorials! Yay! The game introduces you to these concepts like crafting, Dragocite, the Hoppadrome, your Hoppalong, the Ranch, etc. but then doesn't really go into detail about them. The only reason why I figured out how to use Dragocite was because I looked it up. And I still do not understand the purpose of the Ranch or how to use it properly at all.

There's also the occasional plot-hole, although I might have messed something up, maybe. The big one that I can think of is when I got the automatic quest to visit my ranch and there I met Fate and the dialogue acted like I already knew her when in fact I had never even met her until a later quest.  Or how the main quest sends you to visit Marvin/Martin/whatever-that-con-artist's-name-is long before he introduces himself. On the topic of quest, I also did not appreciate the automatic pop-up quest that led me to a quest that required me to purchase something from the cash shop. I promptly dropped that quest as soon as I figured out what it wanted. I also do not like this quest I have in my quest list that is listed as a main quest and wants to require me to join a guild. I can't get rid of it either because it is an auto quest. I'm going to hold off on it for as long as possible.

Outside of crafting, the game feels a little bit too easy. I feel like I just use Sovereign Blessing to give myself a buff, start the fight with Hammer of Judgement, and then just spam all my buttons until something dies, occasionally moving out of easy-to-escape attack telegraphs. And if I take damage I just use Healing Prayer and I'm done. I don't know, I went into this game expecting a little more difficulty than that. Maybe it'll get harder later, but the only decent challenge I've gotten has been in the Hoppadrome, but the only way I can tell to get tickets for that is through the daily quests, so I can only do Hoppadrome so many times a day.

Finally, my biggest complaint is that the game has some of those wonky MMO systems that I despise. Things like auto-movement to automatically bring me to my quest objectives. Or how I can pick up new improved armor but that armor does not include a skin, instead I need to get a costume to change my outfit skin, and those are few and far between in-game. This game takes this a step farther by having costumes actually have stat-bonuses on them. Not cool. If you're going to make me use costumes instead of gear, do not put stats on them and most certainly do not then sell said statted-costumes in a cash shop. Not okay. The game is also currently plagued with gold spammers, and when I say plagued, I mean an absolutely insane amount of gold spammers. I also cannot seem to find a report button and I've heard that there's a limited amount of space on the block list, so that's no good.

All in all, the game has the potential to be really, really good. It has the concepts and the bones, but it suffers from issues that plague many F2P MMOs. I'll be keeping an eye on it, for sure.

GW2 Heart of Thorns First Impressions

I've been up since 7AM EST playing Heart of Thorns, and I just thought I would type out my impressions of it for those who maybe haven't gotten to play it yet for whatever reason.

I'm going to try and remain spoiler free, but there's a couple things I do want to touch on, but I will be vague so as to not spoil things. Hopefully. Spoiler warning anyway.

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Revenant is fun, I think. Maybe. I'm actually not sure what I think about it yet. I'm quite enjoying mine at the moment. I'm using Staff and Hammer. I've seen people complaining about the Hammer, but I like it. I want to be a supportive-ey Ventari Revenant, and Staff / Hammer seems good. I love Staff, and I wanted to use Hammer because I refuse to not have one ranged weapon, and since that's the only one, I'll learn to love it regardless.

Maguuma itself is rather tedious. The events are okay. Gliding is fun. Exploring Maguuma is fun, but getting masteries seems too slow. I don't mind working for things, but I don't know, the amount of experience needed to get a mastery seems a bit excessive to me, but I'll end up doing it anyway, I'm sure. Gliding is too fun to pass up!

The story is good. I have to admit that one part actually terrified me. Without really spoiling anything, a character gets corrupted and you have to escape from them in a chase-obstacle-course thing, and you die instantly if they touch you. The corrupted version of that character creeped me immensely, and I hate when things in games chase me, so I was actually really scared during that story step. That said, I hope that is not the last we see of that character because I kind of expected more from their story. Seemed kind of anti-climactic.
Still on the topic of that chase bit though. That was hard. There was one part that I just couldn't figure out how to do until I looked it up. If you're stuck there, use 1 and then glide across. If you're at that part then you'll know what I'm talking about. I died so many times until I read to do that. And I mean a lot of times. All my armor broke and I completed it with a nude Sylvari! That hasn't happened to me since The Dragon's Reach Part 2!

I feel like I'm playing Mass Effect, what with the voice actress for female Sylvari player characters, and all the NPCs saying "Commander" at me constantly. Oh, and hey, Mordrem Husks. And indoctrina-- I mean corruption.

It seems like Maguuma is probably much more fun if you have friends to play with. I don't have friends to play with, so I wouldn't know, but it seems well suited for it.
That said, plenty of content is fine solo too. And currently everything is so crowded, so there's no lack of people at events. At least not in Verdant Brink. The later places are trickier since not that many people are up to that point yet.

Berserker gear feels very, very, very ultra squishy for this content. I suspect we'll be seeing a change in the most popular stats soon.

If I think of anything else I'll add it in!

Waiting for new Friday

I'm really excited about the Heart of Thorns release next Friday! Very very exciting!
That said, I probably won't get to play it at all since, you know, expansion release. Of course the one weekend that I purposefully go out of my way to try and be out and busy with friends, they're all busy. Of course. Instead I guess I'll go to Salem MA and take in the Halloween atmosphere or something. But that only takes up one day...hmmm.

Of course, I hope I will be able to play! I vaguely remember the actual launch of the game being pretty smooth, so maybe all will go well?

Also! My database design class is going wonderfully! I am not struggling with it at all, and have gotten 100% on all my assignments, so that's exciting!

Well then!

I've been playing Guild Wars 2 since launch day...
How is it that I only find out today that you can have two aquatic weapons equipped?
REALLY?
HOW DID I NEVER NOTICE THAT YOU COULD SWAP WEAPONS UNDERWATER.
ALL THIS TIME I HAVE BEEN USING ONLY ONE AQUATIC WEAPON AND COMPLAINING THAT I WISHED I COULD SWAP WEAPONS IN COMBAT UNDEREWATER.
IT TURNS OUT I COULD HAVE DONE THAT THE WHOLE TIME.
I AM DUMB.

Pictures of my GW2 characters!

I can't remember if I ever posted pictures of my GW2 characters post-makeover, so I'm doing it (again?)!


First, my main: My Mesmer Keiana Xiphium. Greatsword / Sword + Focus

My Necromancer, Dahlia Strelitzia. Dagger + Focus / Dagger + Warhorn. She's my second highest, at level 44.

Lucia Snapdragon, my level 31 Staff Elementalist

Camellia Orchid, my level 17 Engineer. Not my favorite class, I have to say, but spending real money on a customization has a way of making you keep your characters.

And finally, my level 14 Guardian, Lucinda Strelitzia. Greatsword / Mace + Focus



 

Back to GW2!

I'm back to GW2 at the moment, after playing Wildstar for a week (I would keep playing Wildstar but my computer is apparently boycotting the influx of new players, since it will not allow me to play). So, back to GW2.

I'm on the last step of Living Story Season 2 now, and having a whole lot of trouble. I'm doing the Shadow of the Dragon step in Point of No Return, and I think my full-Berserker Mesmer is just too squishy to do this bit on her own. Phase 1 is fine. I can kill the tendrils fine, and light the fires fine, and damage the head fine. It's Phase 2 that's the problem, when he start spawning the Shadow things. When I'm trying to light the fires, first of all, he's attacking me very often and I end up being knocked back while trying to light the fires, which eventually kills me. And while I'm busy trying to rally, the Shadow comes over and extinguishes the fire I lit! And I just can't seem to survive lighting the fires so I can be alive to extinguish the Shadows. It's frustrating!
I need a second person, I think. I think I specifically need a Guardian. Someone with support skills that can grant Stability and barriers and such, and that can survive more than two hits.
Or maybe I need to adjust my build or something? I can't afford a new set of gear, so I'm stuck with Berserker, but I could adjust my weapons or build.

My set-up is like this:
Weapons = Greatsword / Sword + Focus. I also have a Pistol to swap to Sword + Focus, a second Sword, and a Staff, all Berserker.
Build = Domination 221 (Empowered Illusions, Blurred Inscriptions, Imagined Burden) / Dueling 131 (Phantasmal Fury, Fencer's Finesse, Harmonious Mantras) / Illusions 122 (Compounding Power, Phantasmal Haste, Master of Fragmentation)
Healing Skill is Signet of the Ether
Utilities are Mantra of Pain, Blink, and Feedback
Elite is Time Warp

My equipment is full Berserker Aurora gear except the shoulders, which are berserker Carapace.
My weapons are Berserker's Iron Longblade of Air (transmuted), Berserker's Pearl Sabre, and Berserker's Krait Star.

Any tips?

EDIT: I read into it more, and people say things like "Don't play Berserker if you can't dodge attacks." I can dodge attacks. I got this far, didn't I? And I've been in full Berserker since I hit level 80 and splurged on a Masquerade set before I got my Aurora set with Karma. And until level 80 I was still using all Power items. The problem is the attacks that he puts directly on you constantly during Phase 2 fires. I tried waiting for him to do, say, 3 of his claw attacks before trying to light the fires, but he still gets me, and I end up running out of dodges + Blink being on CD. I'm confused :(

EDIT 2: Let's try this again. I didn't get the chance to grab my Staff since I wanted to rush back up before the Skritt tunnels closed again. But I adjusted what I could with what I have on me. I switched my Focus out for my Pistol. Swapped Signet of the Ether out for Ether Feast for increased base healing (I can't benefit from Signet of the Ether's passive during the parts that give me trouble since there's nothing to target and build clones off of). Switched Mantra of Pain out for Mantra of Concentration, and switched Time Warp out for Signet of Humility (to reduce duration of stun). As for traits, I swapped Dueling to 323 (Duelist's Discipline, Evasive Mirror, Deceptive Evasion) and Illusions to Chaos 213 (Illusionary Defense, Mirror of Anguish, Bountiful Disillusionment).
Hopefully, I can do it this time. My goal is basically just to have the slightest bit more survivability, hopefully make it through Phase 2 fires, and just take things slowly.

EDIT 3: Success! My strategy worked, although I maintain that it would have been easier with Staff instead of Sword + Pistol, if only because then if I accidentally swap weapons it wouldn't be the end of the world because I could still attack at a range, rather than flail madly wondering why I'm not doing any damage. Ether Feast was definitely better than Signet of the Ether for this, since it seemed like it recharged faster and did more healing when I needed it. And I also had more of an idea of what to expect this time, which made it much better. I was only downed once and I had already killed the Shadow, so I could take my sweet time getting up without losing any fires.

So...now what do I do? I have no gold, don't play well in groups because I get stressed...I guess I'll go run around Silverwastes or something. Definitely not Dry Top. I hate Dry Top. Silverwastes is fine and manageable. I would do the Mawdry crafting thing, but I need money to do that since I need the Foxfires and the Clay Pot. I already did the Thaumanova Reactor matrix cube key thing though, so at least that's out of the way.

Progress Update?

Hello, sorry, I've been quite busy in the past two weeks.
I had begun college classes for Hospitality and Event Planning, but then, due to various reasons, decided to switch to Programming.

Long story short, I felt quite uncomfortable in my hospitality classes since it seemed like everyone there was very outgoing and we were told that we shouldn't be in this class if we aren't a "people person."
I am not a people person and I am incredibly shy and introverted (and anxious!).
So, I decided to switch to Programming instead, which is honestly probably a better fit for me anyway due to my computer background.
So, we'll see how this goes. Hopefully, this will be my last major swap, and I can just get through with this. It's just a certificate course, so it's not like it's a huge time commitment.
This all hinges on if I get a decent grade on my computer skills accuplacer tomorrow though. Which I'm extremely nervous about. I've never actually had a computer class; everything I know about computers I learned from my dad or I taught myself. I just hope it's enough. It'll be discouraging to have a basic computer skills class blocking my way to the good stuff.
I'm particularly nervous since I haven't taken a test in...oh my goodness, 6 years. My high school wasn't traditional and we didn't have tests. And my animation school also didn't have tests. Well, that's suddenly more nerve-wracking.

Sorry, just venting a bit. I'm a nervous wreck.
Oh well, the cure for nervousness is playing Mass Effect, so I'll happily go do that. I'm doing a new playthrough this week and I'm about in the middle of ME2 right now. Just did the Collector Ship, and I'm off to complete loyalty missions before Reaper IFF. I really need to get around to getting the ME2 DLC. I have all the ME3 DLC (Citadel is the best thing ever), but I've never gotten around to getting the ME2 ones. I've watched my boyfriend do parts of Shadow Broker, but that's about it. I need to get it. Maybe I'll ask him for it for my birthday / Christmas.

Take that Garuda!

Guess who just completed the hard mode versions of Ifrit, Garuda, and Titan?!
ME.

If you had told me a couple months ago that I'd beat Garuda hard mode I would not have believed you at all.

But I did it!

And more impressively, my DF group got through Titan HM with zero wipes, although I'm not as proud personally of that one. I am proud of my group though.To be honest, I felt like dead weight in Titan HM because the Astrologian was amazing and pretty much solo healed the whole thing! She left me nothing to do! Well, that's a lie I guess I helped a bit during the AoEs and with keeping the tank up, but it didn't feel impressive. I hope she got a whole ton of commendations! I know she got mine. :)

More importantly, this all means I can continue in the main story questline to the "Before the Fall" questlines, meaning that I am on the precipice of the expansion content now!
And that Astrologian has totally inspired me to make one as soon as possible, so I'm excited.

Huge update on my FFXIV playing!

I am now level 50 (actually, 51 now, sorry, I'm late on the announcement)!
I am also about half-way or so through the level 50 personal story stuff. The Crystal Braves were just formed about one quest ago.

Healing is still going well, or at least I think so. It's difficult to tell if I'm doing well or not in these 8-person groups with another healer. I sometimes can't tell if I'm helping at all, or if I'm just deadweight. I hope I am helping and doing my job correctly, and I just am too nervous about it to tell! These past three Primal fights have been kind of rough, you see. King Moggle Mog is so confusing. I read guides beforehand, but I was so confused by all the different moogles, and once I got into the fight I got killed by something (still not sure what. I swear I was one-shotted, but I was the only who died...), but I felt like I was healing okay up until that point. Leviathan was fine, although I was a little more stressed out than usual because our tanks were arguing, and there is a serious lack of guides out there for Leviathan. I don't care that he's apparently so easy that I shouldn't need a guide, I need a guide because otherwise I get incredibly anxious. And then Ramuh was a big bunch of I-have-no-idea-what's-going-on-even-though-I-read-three-guides. I didn't die though, so that's good!

Also, has anyone else noticed that out of all the dungeons, Toto-Rak appears to have the highest chance of something going horribly, horribly wrong? I swear I haven't had groups wipe on any other dungeon as much as Toto-Rak. I mean, I was warned about Brayflox and Stone Vigil, but I have yet to wipe on those nearly as often as I do on Toto-Rak. The majority of the time I can get through Brayflox and Stone Vigil without someone dying, but I cannot say the same for Toto-Rak. And it doesn't ever appear to be the fault of my healing abilities because all the wipes we've had were completely out of my control. I'm talking people standing in the green poison puddles during the final boss, tanks running headfirst into the Fleshy Pods and then keep running ahead so I can't Esuna/Heal them, DPS pulling things, DPS accidentally pulling things and then running waaaay away from the rest of the group where I cannot safely take care of them and the tank, etc. Don't even get me started on ranged DPS standing in melee range of enemies that do poison AoEs, or the serious lack of picking up adds during the final fight.
And then, there was a lancer I was in a group with earlier today. You know how in the final boss room there are fleshy pods all around the room, and you're supposed to get rid of them with ranged attacks so no one accidentally runs into them / gets pushed into them? Yeah, those. Well, this lancer ran around the room purposefully running straight into each group of them. There was absolutely no way I could have saved him. He was dead before I could even recognize that damage was being taken. That one was impressive, and I'll give him credit: He did take care of about two groups of those things, and we did end up beating the boss. He just didn't get to participate in the boss because you can't Raise in battle at that level.

Really though, what is it about Toto-Rak that people can't seem to grasp? I don't have any trouble with groups in any other dungeon. Is it just because it's kind of the first one that's more mechanic-heavy and has AoE poison? Is it the Fleshy Pods? I just don't understand.

Well regardless, my character's name is Ayame Miyumi and I'm on Adamantoise. I'm happy to heal dungeons if I'm needed, just don't ask me for directions in those dungeons because I have no sense of direction. That's one of the reasons I like playing as a healer; I don't have to know where I'm going because my job is to follow the tank around :)

Playing FFXIV again! Hopefully

To celebrate my first successful day of non-online college (major in hospitality with a specialization in event planning), I've got myself a month subscription to my beloved FFXIV!
Yesterday it wasn't working at all though. I suspected my father was taking up more than his fair share of bandwidth with his ultra-graphics World of Warcraft raiding (plus he also has the settings set to prioritize his system over everyone else in the house's). I was able to get onto my game, and I queued for Sastasha just to get my feet wet in healing again, only to have it lag immensely and I actually got booted out of the game twice. I felt so bad. I hate failing people that I'm playing with like that. And, well, that wasn't happening before.
So, today I messed with my FFXIV settings, and managed to double my FPS from 20 to 40! Whoo. I hate my laptop.
But, how I had to double it is that I had to lower or turn off every graphical setting, and set my resolution to 1280x768. So, my game looks terrible, but at least I have double the FPS.

Maaaaybe, I can actually get through a dungeon now?

Edit: Everything's working great this way. No lag at all, in fact, less lag than I've ever had. Stressful duty roulettes today, for someone who hasn't played in over a month, though. Nice calm Sastasha run first, and then I get Ifrit and Titan right in a row. Everything's gone flawlessly thus far though. I just hope I don't get Brayflox, Stone Vigil, or Garuda next though. -_-

Edit 2: I just got Garuda twice in a row through roulette. I understand why Primals have to be in roulette (because otherwise no one would ever find a group for them when they do that quest), but I wish that they at least wouldn't show up when everyone in the group entered through roulette. I don't mind doing Garuda if someone in the group actually needs to do the fight, but if no one actually needs the fight, then why place us in there? It gets us no experience or loot, so it's just kind of a waste of time for leveling roulette. And I'll stress again that I don't mind doing it if someone actually needs the primal. But both groups were random roulette players that didn't need the kill.
Also, I never want to do Garuda twice in a row ever again. The fights went flawlessly, but I feel like I'm going to pee my pants whenever Garuda pops up. Bad memories.
Hey, but at least I'm back to my previous healing ability now! So much for easing myself into it!

You know what I think?

Lots of things.

But specifically, right now, I think that my problem with playing a Death Knight has always been that I've always been set on playing Frost.

I'm playing an Unholy Death Knight right now and it is so much more fun for me.

Restoring Theeriyi

A while back, in what I can only imagine was a moment of insanity, I deleted my first level 90 WoW character: Theeriyi.

Today, I have decided to restore her.

The difficult part?
She has no gear, no money, no bank bags.

She is a level 90 Pandaren Monk with no clothing or weapon.

So now I have to restore her completely.

This will be fun?

UPDATE:
I did a couple low level dungeons (Stormwind Stockades, Deadmines, and Gnomeregan) to get at least some semblance of clothing on her and some gold (I think I made about 4 gold total). I then decided to try my luck at attempting the starting quests for WoD, and, well, I can confirm that those starting quests are totally possible at level 90 with level 20 or so gear. I'm assuming this is as long as you know how to play the class decently enough.
I had apparently already done the very beginning of the quests and I was at the second part where you have to burn down the orc huts and rescue the Draenei captives from cages. And that part was hard because I only had level 20 gear, but as soon as I got even one piece of quest gear, things got a bit easier.
I only died once and that was in the arena part because I wasn't paying enough attention and couldn't find what enemy was actually attacking me. And luckily Khadgar revives you so long as you don't die again before 3 minutes is up.

I made heavy use of Touch of Karma to keep damage off of me, and kept Touch of Death for emergencies. If more than one enemy attacked me and I didn't have Touch of Death ready, I'm pretty sure I would have died. I used Tigereye Brew whenever it was at 10 stacks. I used Fortifying Brew and Energizing Brew whenever I was in a pinch. Expel Harm and Surging Mist after almost every fight to keep my HP up. Invoke Xuen on tricky fights. Crackling Jade Lightning to strategically pull enemies individually.
And, well, I made it. I'm about half-and-half with quest gear and level 20 gear, but I'm sure that won't be for too much longer. And then things will get a whole lot easier. Thank goodness.

Puppet Dance Performance Guide Updating, Go!

I'm updating the guide in light of the English translation patch! Whoo whoo!

I'm mostly just going through and updating trainer names so we have less "go past the brown-haired fairy" bits because those are confusing.

I'm also going through and editing based on feedback from commenters and such. Thank you to all who have contributed information! You will see more specific thank-you notes at the end of the article you contributed to, as soon as I get to that section!

Now, I just have to get through the game at a fairly decent pace. Going through with Miko as my starter this time around.

GW2 New Lion's Arch Vista: Farshore Ward

This one's kind of tricky, if only because you do not expect how to get there.
As a note, if you've done this one before in the previous incarnations of Lion's Arch, you already know how to do this one.
The closest waypoint is the Farshore waypoint.

So, you can't see the vista because it's hidden. But the important thing here is the windmill. Head up there, and around until you see some hay bales.

These hay bales, specifically. Jump up the ones to the right.

Then jump down into that little area there with the hay bales.

Turn to your right after getting down there, and look at this bush. Now walk through the bush. Just trust me here. Walk through it.

You'll come out in this grassy area. Jump up this little hill here.

When you get up here, walk through another bush that's up against the wall, and kind of run to the left too, because it's not exactly straight through.

Head up to these rocks, and then go up to the one to your left that is flat and leads up.

At the top, turn around and climb up this one last rock, and you'll have reached the vista!


As an added note, if you go past the vista up there you'll reach the entrance to the Sharkmaw Caverns jump puzzle. Which I'm not writing a guide for because jump puzzles are hard. Go look a guide up. There's tons.

GW2 New Lion's Arch Vista: Postern Ward

This one's pretty simple.
Closest waypoint is the Guild Bluff waypoint.

See the big black rocks?
Climb them.

And there you go.

GW2 New Lion's Arch Vista: Inner Harbor

Here's the Inner Harbor Vista! If I remember correctly, this one is identical to a Vista from the original and destroyed Lion's Arch. It looks like it's pretty much right in between two waypoints, so either should work. Gate Hub Plaza waypoint or Guild Bluff waypoint.

It's down on a rock in the middle of the water. No, you can't simply jump down there. Sorry.

Take note of the asura sitting right near you here. Talk to him, and he'll give you a gun with a single attack: a ground targeted jump.

Maneuver your ground target over to the rock where the vista is, and use that ability!

And there you go, you have the vista.

GW2 New Lion's Arch Vista: Eastern Ward

I don't really know what to call this one, but "Captain Theo Ashford Memorial Bridge Vista" seemed way too long and it's not even really over there anyway. The closest landmark is the Inner Harbor, but there's another Vista that is very clearly the real Inner Harbor Vista, so I'm calling this one Eastern Ward Vista. The closest waypoint is the Gate Hub Plaza waypoint.

Okay, so you can't see the Vista here, but you can see it on my map, and this is where you need to go to start the Vista.

Head through that archway and down some steps until you see the Vista itself.

Climb up onto the tallest box, and then jump across to the Vista.

You may miss this jump because it is rather far. If you do, just warp back to the waypoint. It's really not far, so it's not a big deal if you miss.

 

GW2 New Lion's Arch Vista: Grand Piazza

Waaaay long ago I attempted to make a completion guide for Lion's Arch, and I got bored and stopped doing it. And then Lion's Arch got destroyed. And now it's been rebuilt.

So, let's try and do that guide again, shall we?

Let's begin with the Grand Piazza Vista.

So, here we are, looking at the Vista. The closest Waypoint is probably the Gate Hub Plaza waypoint. Or Trader's Forum waypoint. They look about the same distance, honestly.

Now this one is actually kind of misleading because it looks like you can totally just jump up that stack of boxes to get up to it. Well, you can't, because that last box that it's sitting on is too high up to jump up to. So you have to find an alternate route.

That alternate route can be found on that rather large boulder to the left of it, behind that lamp thing.

 

Climb  up to the top of the boulder and then jump across onto the top of the lamp.

And then jump from the top of the lamp onto the box.
This might take a couple tries if you misjudge the distance.

Then just jump up onto the barrel that the vista is sitting on, and you have it.

I caved in and bought Total Makeover Kits in GW2

Just thought I'd share my updated characters. Oddly enough, I did not alter Keiana Xiphium at all because I think she was already perfect. Nothing else looked right for her.

So first off, here's Keiana Xiphium. I used some of the Transmutation Charges I'd been saving up from map completion to change her armor because I was kind of sick of Masquerade armor. It's all Cabalist except for the Seer Mask. And I changed her greatsword to a Glyphic Greatsword too. Didn't change her Staff because I don't care about her Staff.

This is my second highest level, Lucia Snapdragon, who is a level 26 Elementalist.

My level 9 Necromancer, Dahlia Strelitzia.

And my level 2 Guardian, Lucinda Strelitzia.

I figure that spending real money on them will keep me from deleting them.

I don't know what to do with that last slot. I just can't get into Ranger, Thief, Engineer, or Warrior.

I'll make a Revenant when it comes out because I really like the concept of the Ventari's Tablet's supportive abilities, plus heavy armor has always been my favorite armor type in games (even if I naturally gravitate towards lightly armored character classes...), so it seems like it might go well for me.

Very busy!

So, our puppy, Pacha, arrived yesterday, and I've been wicked busy with him. He's very sweet and not at all a troublemaker, but he is very clingy, specifically to me. He is also luckily very easily distracted. He is very excitable and active when he first gets up, but soon wears himself out and is sleepy the rest of the day (which the rescue center representative said is typical for Chihuahuas). So the problem isn't that he's trying to get into everything, it's more that he only wants to sit on my lap no matter what I'm trying to do!

Also yesterday, my beloved twelve year old cat was diagnosed with liver cancer. They didn't give us any sort of timeline, but he's on homeopathic medicine for now to ease the pain and hopefully make him feel a bit better. I'm absolutely heartbroken, and yesterday was a weird day because I was excited about the puppy, but also feeling like I was going to cry all day for my cat. This cat has been my best friend for so many years, and it's heart-rending to see him in pain, and to know that it's approaching the end.

Gaming-wise, I'm switching my time between FFXIV and GW2 because I am still enjoying FFXIV, and one of my close friends was begging me to play GW2 with him. So yeah, splitting my time.

Well, that's a conundrum

First and least importantly (to the conundrum that is), my family is getting a puppy tomorrow. Wicked exciting. He's all neutered and ready to come home. He's a rescue, so we aren't certain what kind of dog he is exactly, but the rescue center knows he's half Chihuahua; they just aren't sure what the other half is. He's a bit larger than a typical Chihuahua, so that's the interesting thing.

Now, to the conundrum, which I'm posting here because I couldn't find any information that was useful, and I tend to find that typing things out helps me think things through better anyway:

My boyfriend's internet often has problems. He lives in an apartment, so there's lots of other Wifi signals passing through that are likely interfering with his, and such. Works fine when plugged into the modem and all that, it's just his computer and mobile devices that have an issue (even then, some days they work fine, and others they don't).

But here's the conundrum-ey bit. On our 3DS systems the local wireless doesn't work at all when the internet isn't. As far as I knew, local play didn't require internet since we're sitting literally 2 feet away from each other. We get error code 018-0000, which means it couldn't connect to the internet, but I don't understand how it's relevant when we're literally sitting next to each other? He doesn't even have his apartment set up as an internet connection for his DS, so I don't know why his internet would even affect it.

Especially since we can go out to the park or something, where there's no internet, and it'll work fine. And it isn't our systems because they work fine anywhere besides in his apartment. It's fine at my house, the park, friends' houses, etc. Just not his.
It works if his internet is working fine, but if it turns off from whatever is causing the shut-offs then the systems stop working too. What's weirder is that it works fine if the power is out.
We make sure that there's isn't anything else on in his apartment that could be causing any extra interference too. It's just really, really odd.
My smartphone is still able to access to the internet no problem (it is not connected to his wifi either though), and I've been using my phone there for far longer than this issue has been happening, so I would doubt my phone has anything to do with it either (I've also checked and turned off my phone when we're testing the systems, and still nothing).

The only thing I can think of is that perhaps something about his modem itself is interfering with the DS signals, or there's some sort of outside interference (which I highly doubt would be intentional)?

Just throwing it out there, but I don't suppose anyone happens to know why this could be happening?

I also just thought I would put this out here because I read about people having similar issues but there were never any responses to their forum threads.

Um?

So I got my White Mage pants.
Kind of.
They aren't really pants.

Those aren't pants.
Those aren't even remotely pants.
And they don't even look anything like what they did when I clicked "Try On."
I kind of hoped they'd be a long skirt or something for White Mage.
But I guess no pants is okay too.
I'm really embarrassed walking around now. The Au Ra thigh scales just make it all the more obvious that my pants are not sufficient.

And Garuda is down!

Successfully beat Garuda today!

Well, by successfully I mean it took at least 5 tries, but it got done none the less. My group was very patient (all but one of us was new), and I don't think we did as terribly as we could have. I feel like a lot of our issue was that I just didn't have enough MP to sustain us, but I feel like a much better healer now that I've done it, and I feel like I have a better grasp for conserving MP. On our final attempt I didn't even come close to running out of MP until the start of the second phase because our Bard was very nice and kept Mage's Ballad up for me when he could. In the second phase I used Shroud of Saints to regain some, and I didn't end up running completely out of MP (I didn't run out to the extent that I couldn't Swiftcast + Raise one of our DPS when he died though, which I feel bad about).

Now, excuse me while I hyperventilate and regain my composure. I don't want to do Garuda ever again, so I'm a bit nervous about queuing for the dungeon roulette now.

Now I can continue on in the game though! Yay yay!

Not doing that again

SO I TRIED TANKING TODAY.
NOPE.

Not doing that again. Not ever. Nope nope nope. I felt really bad, but I had to leave my group after the first boss because I just could not handle it. Nope nope nope nope nope. It wasn't there fault at all, and they actually said I was fine, but I was on the verge on tears and I had to leave.

On a better note, my healing resolve has been strengthened. I feel like I can heal anything now since doing Titan and Brayflox for the first time were 100% less stressful than doing Sastasha as a Tank for the first time. I'm going to go do the three more levels I need on my Thaumaturge for Swiftcast, and then go back to my White Mage (with the occasional break for my Pugilist, because I really enjoy Pugilist too).

So, my classes are now:

White Mage level 41
Scholar/Summoner level 33
Pugilist level 27
Thaumaturge level 23
Gladiator level 15 (never touching again)
Lancer level 15
Archer level 7

White Mage is obviously my main. I leveled up Scholar thinking I'd like to try a different style of healing, but then I remembered that I really don't like pet classes, so now it's just kind of stagnating. If I use it it'll probably be as Summoner. If at all. Pugilist is my main DPS class, I think. I really enjoy it. Thaumaturge is really just being leveled so I an get Swiftcast. I don't know if I'll continue it after. Never touching Gladiator again. Lancer is just so I can become a Monk later. I really didn't like Lancer at all though. Archer will be leveled eventually because I like archery.

So, Ayame Miyumi is now primarily a White Mage / Pugilist (very soon to be Monk). And I'm pretty happy with that. Someday I'll get Astrologian too, and I'll probably enjoy that one. Maybe. Hopefully. I do like buffing people. I feel like I've tried most of the classes sufficiently enough, and if I ever feel like playing one of the others then I will (except tanks. Never again).

FFXIV Progress Update!

Still going strong!
Although I have to do Stone Vigil next for the main story quest, and I'm nervous about that one. I swear that dungeon guides are useful to learn about the mechanics, but they are terrible for anxiety. I just hope I get an experienced party that can easily blow through the dungeon. Please. Oh goodness, please. I'm generally okay with dungeons once I've gone through them once, but the first time is killer for me. I practically shake the whole way through. After one successful run I'm fine though. I still panic a tiny bit if Titan pops up in my roulette, but I get through it without issues, so even that's fine. And Brayflox? Psh, easy healing now. The only one that I would say still gets me a tiny bit anxious is Thousand Maws of Toto-Rak, but I only feel anxious on Graffias. To be fair, I rarely get a group that doesn't stand in the poison puddles, so I think that's an acceptable nervousness.

So, my White Mage is level 41, I have Scholar/Summoner at 33. Thaumaturge is currently 23, and I'm working on getting three more levels there for Swiftcast. I'm not going further in dungeons until I get that, so that's priority number 1 right now.
I also have Puglist at level 18, Lancer at level 8, and Archer at level 6 because I was too lazy to do dungeons last night, and I woke up today wanting to play a Pugilist, so I leveled it today. I'm not sure about it. I think I enjoy Thaumaturge more, but it certainly wasn't a terrible experience. Can't get into Lancer though. Not as fun to me.

So yup, still going strong over here. I have to work tomorrow,  so no Stone Vigil tomorrow, but perhaps Thursday.

In other news, my family is getting a puppy. He's a rescue, and very cute (we already did the home visit). The rescue center is having him neutered on Monday, and then they'll keep him while he recovers for a few days, and then he's ours. Very exciting!

Ok, yeah, I'm shaking

So, as an update to my FFXIV-ing (which is still going great with no sign of me losing interest yet, by the way), I'm doing very, very well.

Ayame Miyumi, my Au Ra on Adamantoise, is now a level 34 White Mage and level 32 Scholar. I'm working on leveling up Thaumaturge too for Swiftcast, but I just don't enjoy it, so it's slow going there. I also thought about attempting tanking for all of two seconds, so I have a level 2 or so Gladiator before I went back to healing dungeons again.

As I stated in a few prior posts, I'm almost completely cured of dungeon-phobia, and I'm running at least 3 dungeons per day with great success. Everyone is wicked nice and I haven't run into anyone rude or mean. I think I've only encountered two wipes total, and I don't mind telling the stories about them. The first was when I was DPS leveling up my Arcanist, and we were in Toto-Rak. We ended up wiping because the tank didn't pick up the adds during the final boss and they were attacking the healer, so he ultimately died, and the rest of us with him, but we cleared it the second time around.

And the second wipe I've been a part of was entirely my fault. 100% my fault, and I can't apologize enough to my party. It was literally 5 minutes ago from my time of typing this, and I was doing Titan for the first time. We died not even half way through because the tank let me know that I still had Cleric Stance on (hadn't even noticed, so embarrassed), and I turned it off and tried to type out "Oops, sorry. Fixed." I am a very fast typist, but I got hit with some bad luck there as well and happened to end up in the middle of one of Titan's Landslide (I think that's the one. Not the one where he jumps, the other one), and I tried to move, but I didn't realize I hadn't gotten out of the chat box yet, so I was trying to move but instead I was typing "wwwwaaaaaaaaawwawawa," and I got killed. I felt so bad. I apologized profusely afterwards. That was totally my fault, and I still feel really bad for it.

AND the reason why I'm shaking right now is that, on top of the fact that I also just did Brayflox for the first time a couple hours ago, and everything I had been reading about these two encounters is that they're really rough for the healer. As much as I appreciate the existence of guides for dungeon encounters, they also, at times, make me all the more anxious with all the warnings. I would never in a million years enter a dungeon blind, but I would perhaps be better off skimming the guides and then taking notes to memorize from rather than reading and rereading the guide to memorize things.

I also have no idea what to expect from dungeons past this point because I honestly didn't think I'd make it this far. Up until five minutes ago I didn't think I'd make it this far. I was saying earlier today that if I didn't "man up" so to speak (not a man, but you get the idea) and do the encounters today that I would end up quitting the game tomorrow out of fear. So I did, and now I can get on with the game. And I suspect this game will last me considerably longer than most, if only because I've invested so much emotional turmoil to it at this point that I don't feel like I can abandon it at this point.

I really do think FFXIV has cured my dungeon-phobia

I really, really do.

I have three dungeons available right now: Sastasha, Tam-Tara Deepcroft, and Copperbell Mines, and I'm doing them frequently as a Conjurer, with no anxiety. Well, except my first run of Tam-Tara Deepcroft (the tank was speed-running).

I actually did a pretty entertaining run of Copperbell Mines a couple minutes ago. We were doing the Ichorous Ire boss (I think that's what it's called), and our tank didn't get out of the explosion radius fast enough and she died and one of our DPS got disconnected. I couldn't Raise her in combat, and there was seemingly no way for us to get out of combat due to the nature of the fight. So I healer-tanked it. And it worked. The only other player in combat (due to one being dead and the other DC'd) was an Arcanist, so she helped keep my HP up, spawned the bombs, and killed the Spriggans. I'd grab the bomb with Stone and then keep healing myself until it exploded. And it ended up working out in the end :)

So yeah, I'm feeling more confident about going into dungeons. I'm still nervous when I enter a new one, and I'm dreading Brayflox because I always read about how hard it is. But, it seems like once I know what's going on in the dungeon I end up being okay.

Happy Heavensward Launch Day!

Whoo!

Okay, I've had early access for the past few days so today's not actually all that special to me, but for many people, it is!

Now, if only I was the right level / progressed enough through the storyline to go to the new content!

I'll just settle for playing as an Au Ra!

Yup, there's what I finally settled with. Kind of. My original character, Cardboard Viking, is a Xaela, but I ended up making this character here (Ayame Miyumi) because I wanted to heal and I'm enjoying this character a lot more as well. Probably going to use White Mage, although I might try Scholar, and I'll definitely do the new healing class when I get up there. :)

Exciting exciting, I say!

Ack!

For goodness' sake, if you see a healer with a sprout icon next to their name don't do a speed-run!

That was only the second dungeon I've ever healed and that was not a fun introduction!

People were running off before the dungeon had fully loaded for me / I was able to cancel out of the cutscene, so I had to use Protect while combat had already started, and I didn't have time to notice that Cleric Stance was on for half the dungeon because it was all going too fast!

But yeah, please don't speed-run if you see a newbie. It is very overwhelming! I thought for sure that we were going to wipe at least twice because I couldn't heal the tank fast enough for the damage he was taking and he lost aggro a couple times to the DPS who then proceeded to take a ton of damage too, and it was just very overwhelming to heal because I only have two healing spells and it's only my second dungeon.

Heavensward Early Access Day 1

Day 1 of early access!

Yay yay! I want to make my Au Ra but I don't have access to internet right now. So I am very sad.

Really proud right now

Well, I've successfully defeated the story mode Ifrit, and I'm really proud of it.

It wasn't even half as stressful as I thought it would be, although the part with the nail was a little scary because it didn't feel like we were killing it nearly fast enough, but we were okay, as it turned out.

So yeah, I'm feeling pretty good thus far.

Sastasha = Fine
Tam-Tara Deepcroft = Fine
Copperbell Mines = Fine
Story mode Ifrit = Fine

Feeling good right now :)

FFXIV may cure me of my dungeon-phobia

I don't know if this is normal for FFXIV dungeons, but the two I've been in (Sastasha and Tam-Tara Deepcroft, both for story quests) have been amazingly calm and non-stressful.

Everyone has been so nice. I have yet to run into anyone rude. And people see the little new-player sprout icon next to my name, and they emote pat me on the head and cheer me on and help me along, and it's great. Thus far, I am feeling very welcomed and it is putting me at ease and making me more comfortable with group play. Which is good because I generally actively avoid group play.

Okay, I've decided on a character!

After making 20+ different characters in the Heavensward Benchmark, I think I've decided what one I'm going to use my Fantasia for!

Xaela Au Ra

This one right here. I'm kind of torn as to if I want the nose scales or not. Same with the rings on the horns. I really like her eyes too. They look white from here, but if you see them closer up they are blue with grey limbal rings.

I am wicked excited. I've got my pre-order all ready and everything. Now, here's hoping the launch will be smooth (doubt it will, but I can dream), and the queue for Adamantoise won't be too long.

I might still post my other Au Ra designs because I liked most of them, it's just that this one is my absolute favorite of them.

Which do you like more?

So, in advance of FFXIV's Heavensward expansion, I was messing around in the Benchmark to decide if I need to get a Fantasia or not.

And I would like some opinions because I'm, as always, very, very indecisive.

So, here's what my character looks like now (recreated in the Benchmark, obviously):

Dunesfolk Lalafell

And here's what I'm thinking of changing her into:

Raen Au Ra

I like them both a lot, but I don't want to make the wrong choice and have to buy another Fantasia, you know?

So, just looking for opinions. Should Cardboard Viking (Adamantoise server) be Lalafell or Au Ra?

Oh hey, that's interesting

In case anyone was wondering, it's totally possible to solo Dragon Soul normal as a Shadow Priest with fresh-level-100 gear.

This was easier than the Lich King, honestly.

The boss fights up to Spine of Deathwing didn't pose any difficulty at on (especially since Power Word: Shield pretty much eats any damage I would possibly take). Spine is tricky because it has a learning curve and it takes so long, but aside from worrying about falling off, it wasn't too difficult. It was just a matter of getting a rhythm going as to when to move.
In case you're a Shadow Priest trying to attempt this, a little tip:
If you have the Glyph of Reflective Shield do not use Power Word: Shield when you're trying to collect Corrupted Bloods. It kills them before you want them killed. Just saying.

And then the final battle is easy.

So, the question is: "Toyosatomimi, Kingslayer" or "Toyosatomimi, Destroyer's End"?

HA!

LOOK WHO JUST SOLO'D THE LICH KING.

The raid itself gave me much more difficulty than I remember from when I first attempted this. The Lich King himself was easy though.

Of particular note was the Blood Queen. I died once on her because I didn't use everything in my arsenal to hit her. Killed her the second time around. I beat her at the last possible second. If I hadn't gotten a Devouring Plague right then I would have died again.
And then I died once on the Lich King himself because I got thrown off the edge because I forgot that you have to stand on the stairs. Oops.
Oh, and I also died once on the airship battle because I forgot to grab a jetpack. Oops.

Regardless though, I did it!

Once I got the Field Photographer achievement I'm then going to focus my efforts on soloing Ulduar, maybe. That is possible to do, right? Once I memorize the whole thing for fighting that first vehicle boss?

Ok, here we go. Serious time.

Because Toyosatomimi is now level 100 (Whoooooo!), I decided I would once again face my old adversary. I'm pretty sure I posted a while back about trying to solo the Lich King and failing at it. Well, it's time to try again, and time with a real motive to keep me going.

I want that Field Photographer achievement, which requires me to take a selfie on the Frozen Throne.

And I want it because I just made a new Druid on my server (Tanaris) named Shameimaru.

So, I would really like Field Photographer Shameimaru.

And I would really like to solo the Lich King as well, because he kicked my butt last time.

If I still can't do it, I'll ask my father to come online with his Paladin that is far better equipped than my poor lowly Priest, but I don't want it to come to that. I want to do it on my own.

Explain something to me.

Why do people in WoW find it fun to go to low-level zones and kill the questgivers on PvE realms?
I'm talking really low levels here. Like, the Pre-10 zones.

Because I have yet to hear a good argument for it. "PvP happened on a PvP realm," doesn't work because this is not a PvP realm. If the answer is "it's fun," then why in the world is that fun? There isn't any glory in killing low levels that have no way of protecting themselves, nor is it honorable to ruin someone else's fun by killing the questgivers.

And if you are killing low level NPCs, don't be surprised when one of them logs off and comes back with a max level. Sorry for ruining your fun, but you were ruining everyone else's fun, so it is quite utilitarian to then ruin your fun in exchange for everyone else's.

And I'm not going to guard your corpse or anything; I won't even attack you if you run off to do something else. But I am going to guard the area that was attacked for a while. You're free to get up and leave to do something else that isn't harming the fun of others.

Really though, I want to know the perspective of someone who enjoys this, because I certainly don't understand at all. Is there some angle to this that I'm just not getting?

Oh...

So, I was playing Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth 2: Sisters Generation, and let's just get it straight here that I knew very little about the plot of the game before going into it. I played Re;Birth 1, so I was familiar with the CPUs and CPU Candidates, and that's about it. Oh, and I knew this one was primarily about the CPU Candidates.

And silly me, looking up an ending guide (it was a non-spoilers one), and I read a recommendation that you do the "Conquest" ending first so you can get a good weapon. And, being that it was a spoiler-free ending guide, I innocently met all the requirements.

Nope nope nope nope. That was not expected by me at all.

I won't spoil what happens just in case someone else wants to go through it blind (story-wise at least). But I really was not expecting that. At all.

But hey, I beat the game...

Completely irrelevant but I am really bored today. Would anyone be interested if I made another separate blog and compiled a big list of roleplay spots in WoW? Just as something to do when I'm bored? I'm thinking at the most basic level I could do a little post about each Inn and just some basic information for roleplayers for it, like where it is, how many chairs there are, how many rooms there are, etc. Kind of like a list of venues for events and such. I don't know, it's just an idea that popped into my head.

I think I'm going to do it, actually. I don't care if anyone reads it, but I want to do it just for fun :)

EDIT: It's happening: http://innsofwow.blogspot.com/

And I'm back!

Hello, it's been a while!
I've been very busy with other things and haven't had the time to write on here, but I'll try to get back into the swing of things starting now.

Let's see...what's happened since I last posted..

I had the flu, which was initially made me stop writing for a while because I was just sleeping all day and couldn't really even play games. And when I'm not playing any games I don't really have too much to write about.

And then I got absorbed in GW2 for a while. I had another abnormally productive week and Keiana Xiphium, my Mesmer, is now level 80. Yeah, I don't know how that's possible either.

Then I played Skyrim with my boyfriend. Fun fun. I'm playing a High Elf who uses no magic, is a Stormcloak, and would probably best be described as chaotic good. She also may or may not be a Thalmor spy. We're not sure yet. We don't think she's sure yet. My boyfriend also says that my character has powers to manipulate alternate universes due to the fact that I have a tendency to save, kill off a character, and then reload. So that was fun for a bit.

I'm a terrible gardener in real life.

My cat is going insane in his old age. We give him plenty of food. We keep dry food out for him and our younger cat all day, and it's special cat food from the vet's office because of my cat's urinary problems. We also give them a can of wet food at night, which he eats all of in under ten minutes and does not let the younger cat near it. And yet he is constantly acting like he is starving to death. He isn't. He has plenty of food. He is just picky and doesn't want his food that he's eaten for years. He wants everyone else's food. He tried to eat my pizza the other day. And my cereal. And my Oreos. And anything else we have to eat. He also tries to take the dog's food. If we turn out backs for even a minute he'll take food off the table. Weird cat.

I applied to a college but never heard back. :|

I applied for a job but never heard back. :|

The most recent event is that we had to have our 14 year old Dalmatian put down last week. It was very sad. We knew it was coming because of his hip and spine problems that he developed in his old age. There wasn't much we could do about it. We did what we could. The last suggestion the vet had for us was acupuncture, which is the one thing we didn't try. Regardless, it finally got to the point where he couldn't move at all. This had happened a couple days in the past where it seemed like he wouldn't be able to walk again and that it was time, but in the past he had recovered after a couple hours and been fine. He wasn't fine this time. He could not put weight on either of his back legs and he did not show any signs of being able to again, because in the past it had only been one leg that had been bothering him, but this time it was both. And his front legs weren't looking great either. At 9PM my dad came upstairs crying and saying that it was time, so my parents went to the vet to get it over with and I stayed home to console our other dog. RIP Tango.

 So yeah, I'll get back to work on writing some stuff for the blog. Hyperdimension Neptunia Rebirth: 2 apparently comes out tomorrow on Steam, so maybe I'll do something about that once I get it.

Update on the Update!

YES, I am still working on the guide update!

I'm splitting my time a bit though, because Story of Seasons just came out and I was really looking forward to that, so I'm doing PDP at night and SoS during the day inbetween homework and classtime.

For PDP I picked Rin Kaenbyou as my starter, and I'm just now at Kappa Valley. Just so we all know, I swear the week I wrote the initial guide was the most productive week of my life. I wrote a guide while also taking an intensive animation class (which I got an A in, so I wasn't slacking!).

I never complete games that fast. Like I said: most productive week of my life. I'm a slow game-completer. I like to think I'm not, but I am.

And let's finish this off with a couple quick tips for Story of Seasons, because I've been wanting to make a list of these anyway.

•  This one is kind of obvious, but look up you love interest's likes and dislikes. Don't do what I did and assume they like flowers. Because then you end up like me and realize halfway into Summer that they hated the gifts you were giving them. :(
• Get a Sewing Studio as soon as possible. Start growing Flax. Turn it into Gold Linen Cloth. Sell it. Easiest way to beat Conquests and make money.  (this one is credited to http://fogu.com/hmforum/viewforum.php?f=30 <-- That forum)
• Save 5 Turnip Seeds before you're done with Year 1 Spring. You need it to make the Seed Maker. (also from the above forum).
•  In the Fall, grow Sweet Potatoes. After they're fully grown, they are harvestable every day with only one water per day.
• Once you unlock them, carry some Carrots in your inventory to instantly travel on your horse to town or the Trade Depot. You can either grow the Carrots yourself in the Fall or buy them from the General Store starting in the Fall (I think that's when they start being sold). 
• Participate in Conquests regardless of if you think you can win or not. No harm in trying. Even if you don't particularly want the field, it's a good idea to try for it just in case you want it next Season or something and the lease isn't up yet.
• For that matter, renew your leases regardless of if you're actually using the field or not. It doesn't cost anything, and you don't have to do another Conquest for it.
• Remember to water plants twice a day. At least your main ones. I'm at the end of Fall and I only grow Flax in my main field and Sweet Potatoes in the Root Crops field. I water the Flax twice a day (6AM, 6PM), and the Sweet Potatoes once
• Clear out the trees to the top right of your property ASAP. There's a ton of space up there and you can put your workshops / coop up there or something.
• If you have the spare Stamina be sure to chop any wood and crush any rocks you see for the lumber and stone.
• Collect Weeds that you find and store them. You can turn them into Fertilizer once you have the Seed Maker.
• For Conquests, definitely try and get the Honey/Mushroom field. In the Summer, you can start picking up Giant Honey Bees. Put three in each box. They seem to be better than normal Bees. Check back every week or so for honey. Mushrooms you just have to plant and come back every once in a while to check on. You can fertilize them too, if you want. But, basically, that field is passive income. You barely have to do anything, but you get honey and shiitake mushrooms out of it.
• Don't overdo it on the crops. Even just your little pre-fenced field on your property gives you 99+ crops per harvest sometimes. It doesn't look like much when it's planted, but it's a LOT when harvested!
• Don't grow trees on your main property. One of the Conqest-able fields is an Orchard. I don't have that yet, so I personally planted four trees (one for each season) on those four plots you can use at Ida's farm.
• Feed your livestock treats! This can make it so they give you twice the amount of product (2 milks per day, 2 eggs, etc.).
• If you have Rabbits, make sure you brush them.
• Pick up your chickens and rabbits every day to raise their heart levels.
• Once you unlock the Safari area, mine there every day for gems and metals. They're so useful!
• Also check the grassy area and stumps for Downy Tufts, which can be used to make clothing in the Sewing Studio.
• Once you have the Seed Maker save some of your harvested crops to dry and turn into free seeds.
• Grow two patches of grass early on in the game. I had so many stacks of 99 Fodder saved up from Year 1 Spring that I still have plenty of stacks, and I haven't grown grass in 2 seasons!
• Early on, go diving whenever you have spare Stamina. You need Bricks and Iron to build many things! Fish can be sold. Any gems you find can be kept or sold.