Being Saleh: (Not) One Left

My MMO shortlist only has one name left: Phantasy Star Online 2 which will have their english version-south east asia only beta on the end of the month, sure there will be Archeage on upcoming month, I also (mildly) interested in Elite: Dangerous but since one of them is a sandbox (open PVP) and the other is a space sim, I'll probably will be there just to try things out. Also PSO 2 is developed for console so probably  it'll be more action oriented like DCUO, the free to play is the perfect bait though.

With two MMOs crossed off my list is a real relieve. My latest encounter with ESO didn't really working, to be honest as i played the last beta months ago I can't seemed to understand the game, I can't even write a decent, coherent post about it, some of the player said that now the game has matured a bit despite all the fuss (especially about the free month fiasco), but still it didn't even piqued my interest yet. With Wildstar however I found a short-timed joy, before it got into the phase where internet connection become your biggest problem and I quit tanking, oh and also healing, how people can heal through those messed up telegraph amidst those jumping and dodging is still amazed me, I probably just sucked though

With only a week left in my sub on FFXIV I once again contemplating about my stand on MMORPGs, I burned out once three months ago because of all the things i must try at least once, including my steam games, and until now I still haven't finished any of it yet, I guess maybe MMOs has evolved into the next best thing and I'm just too lazy to keep up, or probably just too lazy to play

Update: I accidentally renewed my FFXIV sub, damn you auto payment

Now the smirk seems haunting...

Being Saleh: It's Not On Patch 2.2

The Sahagins has succeeded on summoning Leviathan as the next (hard) loot pinata, and so begins the lord of the whorl's saga (beside another plot twist). Patch 2.2 hits Eorzea a week ago and by my judgement (after playing it for twenty hours or so) it's.... enjoyable but I'm not here to talk about the things I enjoy, today I want to talk about everything not in this patch

Everything else vs mount
I dislike dismounting from my mount to talk to a vendor or quest NPC, or to teleport, or just to do anything, yes it's only a click away and give immersions in RPer's POV, and I agree not letting mounts inside capital cities, but really? every single time? they should make an auto-dismount option when they do anything, just an option so people can choose whether they want to manually dismounted or just automatically did it, I have heard reason that it was deemed exploitable but honestly that is up to SE to think a way out of this.

Cross-Server Duty Finder
My Free Company is a casual one, meaning we didn't even finish everything that patch 2.1 has to offer, and since we're small (like in a miniscule sense of view) and never not always online together so I spend my new nights searching for another clueless people on duty finder, but here's the thing: I played on a japanese server since their ping is more stable and below 200-ish, and I'm a tank so it's usually an insta-que IF I select all the language available, but Leviathan encounter needs clueless people to TALK to each other and guess what? I don't speak japanese and won't pretend that I do so I'm left with my 120 mins (and counting) DF queue, why? there's no cross server Duty Finder, it only search people from a cluster of Japanese Data Center server who queued with English as language selected

it's not mine!!

Oh yeah I'm sure I can watch youtube to learn the encounter and pretend I spoke japanese and after several wipe we could finally beaten it with the newly implemented Echo system (like those WoW fail buffs :P), but really? Moogle King was my evidence

Challenge Log
Oh wait it's in the patch, and I love it, I'll talk about it another time :D

image courtesy of: www.explosion.com

Final Fantasy XIV: ARR Crystal Tower: Labyrinth Of The Ancients Guide

Undoubtedly, Crystal Tower has been a major excitement for me for the past three weeks, It's one of the encounter of FFXIV that keeps my head from banging my keyboard, IMO it's perfectly balanced but hey even the easiest encounter is easily trolled right? So here's the breakdown of almost everything about Crytstal Tower

1. The Precursors
Before you can enter this 24-man raid instance, you must first open it's precursor quest, available at level 50 after finishing the main storyline quests, talk to NPC Outlandish Man (X21, Y28) in Mor Dhona, after that you'll have to do three fates and fetch-give typical quests until you unlocked it, pretty straightforward.

2. Trash Mobs (Pool)
Welcome to the first raid wing of Crystal Tower, The Labyrinth of The Ancients. When you first entered here with the other 23 clueless people you will see that you'll be divided in teams A, B and C, also you will be greeted by three pack of trash mobs. Pack one has two Valefors and lots of elementals, Team B should grab all the elementals and tank them in the middle paltform, Team A and C should grab these valefors and their tanks should tank them so their tail whip (AOE Cone from behind) and their front AOE cone doesn't hit anyone except the tanks, also make sure you're standing in one of the heightened platform because during the fights the entire area will be flooded with purple substance that will deal you about 200 damage per second, only the platform is safe. Pack 2 has greater Demon that will knockback the tanks and Valar that will slow everyone with their blizzard attacks. Pack 3 has two Diras that has AOE stun and Cursed Eyes that has petrify front AOE cone, just make sure their AOE didn't hit most of the party and healer shouldn't be petrified and you'll be fine, after that it's time for the first boss

3. Bone Dragon

This will be an easy fight if most people knows what to do, if not then it can be a nightmare, Bone Dragon is waiting at a center platform of the pool and should be tanked there away from the party, around the pools are heightened platforms which will play the role in later phase, as usual the pools will be flooded and drained some times, Team B tank should grab bone dragon and immediately tank it away from everyone (a.k.a turned it around) sine Bone Dragon has devastating front AOE cone that will inflict disease, when he reach about 50% he will summon platinals on his platform, these skeletons must be pulled away to the furthest platform from the boss and killed there, also makes sure that you only have one platinal on each platform, DPS should turn to platinals whenever they spawns, but hold DPS until tanks pulled them to the far platforms, after platinals died turn to Bone Dragon and continue DPS it until it died

When Bone Dragon died the platinals will be revived on their death platforms, here's some things that might happened
a. There's a platinal alive when the Bone Dragon died, when this happened it will RUN back to the boss and sacrificed itself, creating a massive AOE wide room that will nearly halved every non tank players, it can't be slowed, it can't be stunned so your only option is to have to kill it quickly
b. Two or more platinal died in the same platform, when they're revived they will RUN back to the boss, AOE things, etc etc, bad
c. The right one: only one platinal died in a platform, as this happens when they're revived they will WALK back to the boss, giving you time to kill them
After all platinal died for good the Bone Dragon will be revived and the cycle continues

After two phase of resurrection the Bone Dragon will not summon platinals, it will instead summon cursed eyes that should be ignored, it's a healer and DPS burn phase as the terror eyes cast AOE petrify, just keep pummeling the dragon until it bites the dust for good

TLDR:
Team A = Pummel Dragon, keep eye for platinals and pulled them to platforms at West and North West,
Team B = One of the Tank grab the dragon and tank it for the entire encounter, the rest should pulled platinals on platform South and South East
Team C = Pummel Dragon, keep eye for platinals and pulled them to platforms at East and North east,  

4. Atomos

Atomos is an interesting mini boss, there will be three of them in separated paths, which means Team A, B, and C has their own boss (and their own drama :P), in the room you'll see Atomos floating on a platform across the room and there is  another platform in the middle of the room, healers and at least two DPS should stand on this platform As soon as the raid entered their rooms, otherwise it will spawn Iron Giant that will insta-kill the team (9999 damage FTW!!), if one team got wiped everyone failed so it's bad. You will need FOUR people on the platform which means two healers and two DPS which can be a bit problematic if you have all melee DPSer, you can tried to switch with other team or just go ahead with it and have the other free DPS take down Atomos

Atomos doesn't need a tank, it doesn't even attack, but the catch is he'll spawn Valefors, Diras, and Greater Demons throughout the fight, and they should be tanked between platforms by the tanks so DPS standing at the platform can kill them without leaving it, if there's only melee DPS on platform tank should be tanking it near the middle platform so they can hit it, careful with their AOE though.

TLDR: Healers and two dps stand in the middle platform, tank grab adds, platform DPS kill adds, free DPS kill Atomos

5. Thanatos

Thanatos fight is a chaos and will put everyone (especially healers) on their toes, there are three magic pot that can be healed and buffed with stoneskin around the room, your job is to keep them alive, Thanatos can only be damaged if you have the 'Astral Alignment' buff granted by the magic pots, Team A should grab Thanatos first and tanked it in a corner of the room, their magic pot will surely give them the buff, after that it will be a random.
Throughout the fight there will be two type of adds: Sandman and Nemesis, Sandman will move slowly (can't be slowed, stunned, or provoked) to the pots and cast bravery on them, leading them to Thanatos (which will destroy it), Nemesis will spawn in great numbers, throwing AOE indiscriminately (also dangerous for the pots), non-buffed people should prioritize sandman and gain attention of the nemesis, leading them away from the pots, buffed people should burn Thanatos, healers must switch between pots and players which can be chaotic

TLDR: Tanks immediately grab Thanatos when buffed, careful when switching target when the buff wears off since the next buffed tank should grab aggro first, DPS when buffed = Thanatos, non buffed = Sandman > Nemesis, Healers = heal everything including the pots

6. Allagan Bomb

There are three Vassagos guarding The Allagan Bomb, The Allagan Bomb itself is invulnerable as long as the Vassago's alive, each team should grab their own vassago and tank it away from the team, throghout the fight there will be Allagan Bombs and Napalms, DPS should kill these immediately as they float slowly to the Allagan Bomb at the center and will explode inflicting room-wide AOE, Vassagos has strong cone physical attacks and they will occasionally cast desolation a randomly targeted AOE Line, they will occasionally filled a part of the platform with lava that force the tank to move and tanked him in a different position, avoid these three and you're done, when Vassagos died turn your attention to Allagan Bomb, kill it before it explodes and wipe you

7. King Behemoth

Meet the PUGbreaker, this is the hardest fight on CT, There are several mechanics that should be paid attention, otherwise, it'll be a wipe

a. There are towers around the outside Arena, throghout the fight you will be hit by constant DOT of electricity, when a tower glow red it adds several damage to your debuff, you can turn this off by simply clicking them, but this will deal you damage, so preferrably tanks should do this
b. Behemoth only needs one tank but there are several random hard-hitting AOE that comes from him, avoid these, the tank is usually is from team B

So when team B grabbed the behemoth and tank it on the corner, facing outside,  team A should be on the center since there will be two of an annoying adds called Puroboros, they spawned in the center and move slowly towards towers, if they arrived they will explode, damaging the tower and put you another stack of debuff, Team C should grab another add called the Iron Giant, tank it and kill it ASAP as it will destroy your only mean of survival, the comet

The comets will fall from the sky, indicated by green icon above a player head, wherever he/she is that's where the comet will be so tread carefully since you don't want it falls near the iron giant that will destroy it, sometimes during the fight the King will shout GGRRAAAAAGHH!!! (or something) as he cast ecliptic meteor (9999 damage again!), this your cue to HIDE BEHIND THE COMET, just put the comet between the behemoth and you, effectively cutting it's line of sight, when the Meteor hits it will destroy the comets and you're back to phase one, mind you at this hiding phase Puroboros will still spawn, and at about 25% there will be several tornadoes on the side of the room that will kill you and destroy the comet if you got near them

TLDR:
Team A = grab Puroboros, kill it before it reach the towers, deactivate red towers
Team B = tank and DPS behemoth
Team C = tank and DPS iron giant, help kills puroboros, deactivate red towers

8. Acheron

Acheron is the last boss and also a disappointment since he's the easiest boss in CT, but although his mechanic are so easy it also can be wiped. At first as usual Tank B should grab it and face it away, he has several line, cornered, and cone AOE, nothing unavoidable, their damage is also can be shrugged off if your healer's good, throghout the fight he'll summon Iron Claws that will grab one of your team member (usually healer or ranged DPS), drained their HPs and stunned them, this must be killed ASAP

After some damage Acheron will walk into the center of the arena and cast Ancient Flare, another insta-kill move, there are three patforms on the East, West and South corner of the arena, Team A should grab West, B = South, and C = East, when at least one person in the platform it will put up a shield that contains the Ancient Flare, after that an iron giant and occasionally an Iron Claw will spawn on the platforms, kill them ASAP as you need to move back to the arena and the platform will be drowned in lava

After that it's practically rinse and repeat, there are several unavoidable skill on last phase like Demi that will cut everyone's health in half and quake that will deal heavy earth damage but nothing that will taxed your healer, just burn him and enjoy the cutscene

Congratulations, you've beaten the Crystal Tower....well....not, it's only one area =))

Image courtesy of: USGamer
Their own guide:

Being Saleh: Reborn in Eorzea

Again, works get ahead of me (but this time I actually enjoyed it, maybe I'm getting older, well... whatever)

So yes, I finally got myself a copy of Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, the chocobos finally did it, or to be specific: my guildmates needs a tank :D.

Here's the thing, Square finally sorted all of their crazy-numbered error message and opened servers as well as resuming their digital sales, so I boot it up and created a gladiator with paladin in mind. Of course first I have a list of what I should do to be on level with my 15-days-earlier friends, so my twelve hours a day powerleveling begins.

this is my place to unwind after being used by my friends

The Quests
As I said before Final Fantasy has a solid story quest and numerous sidequests to choose about at the start, every five level you're also treated to your class ability/skill quest which also can be considered a side story, although ability quest takes place in a solo instance where's your allies are NPC (which sometimes rushes themselves to death) they can be quite hard to ge into if you're on a minimum level required, Square refunded your lost time with a buff that stacked every time you failed these mission which gives you expanded stats until you're finally on a level where mow down your enemies like hot knife through a butter, quite convenient

Apparently the sidequests stopped flowing on the last 10 levels, and the story quest required you on a specific level, this is where the grind begins, you can do FATEs, levequests, dungeons, or hunting logs. Stocked some rested xp under your belt also helps, food buffs aren't significant so you can do without it, there several FATE spots where people are LFG-ing, notably in Mor Dhona and Coerthas

The Grouping Content
Yes, apparently it's true: Sometimes your progress on the main quest storyline are halted on a content where you must find groups to tackle a dungeon, this is where the duty finder (LFG tool) comes in handy, although it's still a curiousity that I have to queue 20 mins on the late mandatory dungeons, side dungeons has more horrible queue time, more like hours, and I'm a tank, my DPS and healer buddies said "you don't want to know my average queue times"

This probably can be traced to the fact that dungeon on Final Fantasy XIV are... difficult, I'm not talking about mindbreaking diffcult, it's just that there are numerous way to screw up on some bosses and even some trash, the difficulties can be compared to early Cataclysm expansion dungeons on WoW (before they nerfed it to the ground) where I sat down to watch more drama than defeating Jin'do =))

Dungeons in FFXIV contains numerous mechanic, and nothing can be facerolled, as a tank you're completely dependent on your healer, the healer also dependent on your DPS ability to take down trash mobs before his/her mana ran out to heal you, AOE skills are almost non-existant on the first few level and since your level scaled down to a dungeon your late level active and passive skills are also locked out. Also: Dungeons have timers, sometimes it's like 60 mins or something and when it ran out you're kicked out of it, so when you wipe you risk your whole dungeon experience although you d get to keep your loot from defeated foes or bosses

Ability lag or sometimes called : "I'M OUT OF THE RED CIRCLE GODDAMIT, WHY AM I STILL GETTING HIT???!!!" is my bane of existence in FFXIV. Yes, the dreaded beta bugged red circles still has it's place on the live version. It's where the animation and the hit or miss situation isn't synhronized perfecctly, the result is you're still getting hit even when you're 100 yards out of the red circle, or cone, or line, whatever. Let's take a peek of Garuda, the primal of air, she has cone-wide slipstream that must be avoided or your healer will have double trouble healing you, when I strafed so I face her side, or her behind I'm still getting hit, it can be frustrated sometimes since the red circle isn't helping at all and all the late dungeon bosses will one shot you.

Taste my rage of Halone!! where you can one shot me while I strafe-gliding with this skill

Trials are where your party faces one of the primals of elements, there are three so far: Ifrit (fire), Titan (earth), and Garuda (air), they made a really awesome group and story content since it requires you to stay at your toes no matter what odds they throw at you (also the soundtracks are great), on the story content they're manageable with PUGs. On the hardmode endgame content however, they will wipe the floor with your face seconds after you engaged them if your full party (2 tanks, 4 DPS, and 2 healer) doesn't know what to do with them, it takes skilled and seasoned well-coordinated players to go toe and toe with them, and also: good gears. I used to against locked content but this thing? This is a wild ride that will keep you glued on your keyboard or flip it with frustration =))

I'm actually Diablo, this is my final form after Blizz took the auction houses down

  

Almost 50
I've only 6 level more from cap but I also found some flaw of Final Fantasy XIV, since there's only one story content and you exhaust it on leveling your first class leveling another class can be a completely tedious job, since there's no more story to follow, the side quest on another town however abundant they're only consist of your average kill ten rats quest, so you're limited to FATE and leve grinding (also hunting log if you prefer it). Leveling a diciple of land/hand is probably more manageable since they have their own leves and ability quests, also high-end crafting will requires you to take up some interesting sidequests

Overall it was a trip, I'm glad I finally bought it, the great soundtracks and story is probably the highlight of this game, I'm still curious of what SE will brought up with this game, the Crystal Tower raid and housing features seems promising for early updates, they still have a long way to go if they want to be on par with WoW and Guild Wars 2 as an AAA High Fantasy MMO

I will write a next post observing the aesthetics of FFXIV, another highlight (If i have time) :D

For now I'm just gonna stare at the fire and hope it yielded exp

Final Fantasy XIV Open Beta Test: A Hype Reborn

Final Fantasy is the most popular game franchise in the world, it's the only thing that have double digit number in the sequels (as I recall Ultima only got to 9) not to mention every other spinoffs, movies, crossovers, and so on. The latest installment is the MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV, they actually release it on 2010 after being in development for 5 years, and it flunked, they only live for several months before Square fired the director, revamped the development team and everything in the game and will relaunched it on 27th of August 2013 (If Square was an American company, they will shut it down after 2 months and never looks back), I guess they really don't want it to tarnish the 'Final Fantasy' name, Japanese can be scary determined demons sometimes =))

They also invented this thing

So let's talk about it, Square officially renamed it, Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, FFXIV takes place on a crystal covered/attuned/based/everything- revolved-around-it-world called Hydaelyn, the continet is called Eorzea, the original installment takes place in a peaceful era called Astral, the server pre-shutdown event which happens in November 2012 marked the 'transition' into the Realm reborn timeline, which can be called Umbral, marked with the unleashing of Bahamut (the dragon which exist all accross final fantasy series) and the destruction of Eorzea itself (after thet it's server shutdown to give time for development). The existing players are 'teleported' to the future, to the Realm Reborn chaotic Umbral era, while new player will also started here

The Beginning:

I participated on their latest CBT and OBT, due to hype on those MMORPG webs...   Anyway: There are three starting town which house the eight initial classses of FFXIV, first is Ul'dah: the desert area and home to pugilist (roguelike hand to hand specialist), Thaumaturgist (offensive spellweaver), and Gladiator (sword-shield tanker). Next is lush jungle of Gridania for Conjurer (healer), Lancer (spear/polearm DPS), and Archer (umm... archer) :D. The last is Linsa Lominsa the port piratey island of Marauder (melee DPS and off tank axe wielder), and Arcanist (summoner type). Continuing the footstep of Final Fantasy XI every class can be everything else, just equip their weapon and you become that class (axe for marauder, sword for gladiator, etc etc) of course you'll still need EXP to level up those class, not to mention specialized armor and weapons

On my first CBT test I first step up in Ul'dah as a pugilist and for a moment I return to Rabanastre (a place in Final Fantasy XII), as expected from Final Fantasy series the cities are breathtakingly beautiful (Linsa Lominsa could use a polish though), the early quests revolved around classical fetch and go and kill ten rats things, so there's not much to say about it.

The combat is another return to classical MMORPG, with hotbars and trinity system, rotation and don't stand in the fire things, pugilist delivers quick blows and stance change depends on it's condition and playstyle, Marauder just hack things but a good interrupter, magic class is the most boring IMO since they shoot bolts while standing still... (It made me miss my mesmer)

The combat system also doesn't require you to get party, although there's a vague chain kills system that multiplied your EXP every time you killed something, not sure how it works then. The basic is when you see someone punching a mob, join him/her, every hit you land is counted towards the "kill xxx mob" quest, you're also have personal loot which automatically gained after you kill something, so no kill steal and no loot drama (damn, no more popcorn...)   

The End:

What? It ended already? Well, Open beta lasted only three days and I have like 52 hrs downtime because of error 3102 and social time, but here's some highlights and perk of Final Fantasy XIV that started to grow on me at the end:

The Story so Far....
It's good, not really magnificent but I can tell they did it with passion, personal story quests takes place in a solo instance and introduces you to important NPCs, some are memorable than other, story dialogue are short and since our character didn't talk it feels like playing Half Life 2 combined with a little bit of The Sims, cutscenes are many although I prefer them voiced


Non Combat Class (Gathering and Crafting)

There's no gathering and crafting as a side job on Final Fantasy XIV, they have their own class!!! Non combat classes on Final Fantasy XIV are unlockable on level 15, there's gathering professions (Fisher, Botanist and Miner) called Disciples of Land, theres also crafting profession (Alchemist, Armorer, Blacksmith, Carpenter, Culinarian, Goldsmith, Leatherworker, and Weaver), you can switch back and forth of it anytime, just like switching combat classes, they have their own weapon (tool) and armor though.

Switching to gathering profession will enable you to see resource nodes on world map, although you might want to be careful since you don't have  combat abilities and battle armor and monsters can attack you, gathering from a resource node will display what item can you obtain from the node, along with their percentage, switching to crafting profession enable you to craft weapon/tools/armors/accessory, the crafting process is ... intriguing, it desn't involved RNG but it involved percentage like LOTRO style, you can add some additional materia to add effect on things, I don't manage to fully grasped the concept due to my low playtime on it but I believe Eorzea Reborn has good guide on it

Guildleves

How am I gonna level up my character? I ran out of quest for my level 14 character, fret not, you can grind repeatable quests called levequest or guildleves, unlocked at level 10 through story quests, levequest are bounty-like quests, they rated you based how you finish the quest, whether you're fast enough, have additional monster spawn, enemies have ++ level from you (just like City Of Heroes instance scaling) and many more. It's still a grind though but the reward is plausible enough to go on (it's the only thing there is now, btw) there are limited numbers you can do from it though, like 6 per day or something. Guildleves also have levequest for crafting and gathering professions so instead of grinding on making and gathering items, you can do this kind of grind instead :D

Guildhests and Dungeons

The Guildhests is basically a short (some of them long) instanced scenario created for group party, fortunately Final Fantasy XIV is generous enough to give us.. LFG Tool!!... errr they called it Duty Finder, usually they required one tank, one healer and two DPS, dungeon needs more and has longer time. Unfortunately: I only have time to tested out Guildhest, and it's pretty cool, not too special, not too hard (I guess those time on Ascalonian Catacombs taught me something)

You know the tune that plays everytime combat won, yep, they play when leveled up too

FATE system

It's Dynamic Event on FFXIV!!! a scalable open world event, and I LOVE IT!! YAY!! KILL ALL DODOS!!

Poor Dodos...

Armory

The armory system is revolutionary, it's a separate inventory for putting your armor and weapons, you can also create equipment set for all of your class of your character and shortcut it so they will automatically wear their intended armor and weapon when they switch class

Things To Smooth Over:

• The combat is still feel clunky but the animation has softened during Beta Phase 3 to Phase 4, I think they need to address this just for the sake of aesthetics, Final Fantasy style.
• The Aether Crystal is a waypoint system similar to Guild Wars 2 but you must remember the name of the waypoints because instead of displaying their location on the map they only listing names of the crystal which I found... hassling.
• Teleport Spell and Return Spell should be combined into one single spell, only with different costs, zero cost for home
• PUT...VOICE...ON...MY...CHARACTER...ON CUTSCENES!!!
• PUT...VOICE....ON EVERY OTHER CHARACTERS... ON...CUTSCENES!! (there's some that's been voiced though, they promised it on release it'll be fully voiced)
• Why is my starter armor looks awesome but the rest after it... looks sucks, unmemorable, bland, and bad?
• I really want to see an item icon (hovered for info) and animation of it being put in my bag whenever I received a loot, right now there's only text that tell me that I got something after a battle, it's not a link text too.

Last Words:

It's Final Fantasy after all, expect the lavish buildings, radiant colored worlds, Chocobos, Ifrit, Bahamut, and great soundtracks (it's the greatest thing in this game so far) but anyway let's do something about the hype: I can't really put my finger on Final Fantasy XIV, I don't know, it looks like there's not a thing that can keep me here, I guess it's wait and see since I don't mind buying another subscription MMORPG. It's a good game but there's nothing clicked with me... for now.

Although I'm sure the chocobos will bring me to it