Being Saleh: Lagging Behind Expansions (prologue)

Expansions are one of my main problems on MMORPGs, that beside laziness which is becomes so bad that I withdrew myself from MMORPG world completely for several months after finishing FFXIV main story, after that the flood of expansions get off, Guild Wars 2 will have Heart of Thorns, their storyline seems to pick up on Living Story Season 2. Warlords of Draenor is already on patch 6.2 which let player had their own ship, or several ships. Heavensward for FFXIV is out (and everyone is a dark knight now). Pay to play (they're not free) Star Wars The Old Republic will have Knights of The Old Republic 3 as their expansion pack, they just renamed it to Knights of The Fallen Empire. Archeage, Defiance, The Secret World, everything else.has new (paid) content

So I'm starting a new series of writing to catch up of being saleh (whenever he is) the first one will be my return to Nexus on Wildstar, I know I have a lot of hate/love about the game (uninstalling/reinstalling for like 9 times) so as they're going free to play they chipped a bargain on the last humblebundle E3 sale, I grabbed it and started over, now I'm officially an Exile, ready to (re)live my dying days as incompetent tank

Coming soon!!

my original blog name

Being Saleh: End of A Book

The final arc of the main story quest of FFXIV: A Realm Reborn has come full circle with the release of patch 2.5.7,  without spoiling anything I can safely say it ended with a bang, not the happy-ending kind one, but maybe for the best for the hero of Eorzea, after the crazy road trip and surprise acidic trip (minor spoiler, an awesome trial against another one of the Ascian), it gave us a very large picture. 

Sometimes the very large picture put you as a spectator :D

 Eorzea is just a continent, the story's shift to Ishgard not only to prove there are larger scheme at play, but also there are wars bigger than just on the continent, and characters that we always thought as a minor dismissable ones are suddenly show their true colors whether it's good or... Well .. Not so good, and it was revealed like "oh I know this will end like this, but s**t why isat guy become (spoiler)" kinda like in WOW if we suddenly discovered that Haris Pilton is a Titan. and I was thrilled to see there are some minor character that (hopefully) will take the center stage

My wind-up airship pet is actually the villain after all
look at it... on the back... always stalking... always scheming

It's good, it's deliciously good, not the best on story terms but yes, I'm satisfied, everything that has been overshadowed fall in nicely, there are some cast replacements, good twists, although it's too bad I wasn't there at the end of patch 1 so there's nothing to compare to the end of patch 2 in term of the story, I know they completely rebuild the world from scratch on patch 2.0 but still it'll be nice if I was there. On the other hand: Heavensward looks good,

So after a story act ended, where to go next until gates of Ishgard opened? Apparently I'm unsubbing, although there are tons of things I haven't done, like my Zodiac Gloves, but I decided to left some unfinished things from A Realm Reborn arc to see how's Square Enix deal with past contents, will they integrate them with all those level syncing things? Or just left them as it is

Being Kurogakure: An Obituary

I've lost a friend today, we've been gaming together since seven years ago.

2008 is the year I started to got into online gaming, my first game was Perfect World from PWE, local server of course and has really really screwed up community, so I began searching for another way to a more civilized talk with people, I found a forum called gozine (defunct), that's where I met Kurogakure, a moderator and regular contributor

As of 2009 there's a new game opened up on our local server, Lineage 2, we discussed the possibility to make a clan together, we did, the three of us, Kuro has a way with people, he's smart and authorative as clan leader, even as I discovered that he's three years younger than me. Our family quickly grows (he always used that term: family), we're succesfully maintained a casual type of play although Lineage 2 is labeled a hardcore grinding game, we had our first fight about PVP and I left for year, when I came back we enjoyed a moment before server politics, bad publisher, bots, exploits, cheats, and hardcore grind halted our progress. We had our first real meeting though, it's the first time I met him on solid ground, a year since it was all begin

I quickly jumped to WOW, while he relentlessly tried to find another game, 'to create a new family' as he again said, He never liked WOW as he deemed it as 'too mainstream', we tried some games, like Guild Wars, Aion and City of Heroes, but it didn't last, I came back to WOW while he tried some beat em up online. When he heard that a revolutionary game called Guild Wars 2 is coming, he ecstaticedly call me, 'it's awesome' he said 'it'll be great' he said again, 'we'll invite local players to our guild' and I was like 'a guild?' I'm always sceptical about locals in online games since they pretty much destroyed the 'social aspect' on online games, and as I just get off a really failed IRL relationship (which he helped me got through somehow) I really didn't trust local people both online or real at all. But in the end I said okay, 'let's get 10 people, raid size, we're already got three so let's find seven more' I laughed at that time, so he set up a thread on a local forum

In the end we got a hundred member, well more or less, but definitely more than ten =))

Some of my finest gaming moment was in Guild Wars 2, the PVE was great, the WWW was awesome, and even I started to enjoy PVP, our voice chat channel was always a party on Friday nights, unfortunately lack of content grow on us, we started to login less and less, my work and family matters started to tried my time, in the end I stopped playing, I influenced people to try FFXIV though, one thing he always indefferent towards me 'How the hell you pulled people for new game and then the first to bail out, idiot Blizz fanboy" I grinned all the time, can't help it, I'm always a game jumper.

We have several RL meetings with guild people, it was fun, but over a year we grew distant, it could be our works, it could be private, Our last conversation was bitter to the most, I never really knew his personal life, maybe we discuss it on occasion, but most of the time it was games, and when we have no similar game to talk about, it quiets down, then he got hospitalized, I tried to go (we live on distant cities) but sickness, accident, and works killed my time again

And six month later he was gone, just like that

I actually have no right to talk about him, since I knew very little about him outside of MMORPGs, but I recognized his passion on building a good community, although at the end he was indifferent towards it, I should be more tactful about it, he always said Guild Wars 2 will be his last game, not in term last MMORPG, last game, final, 'I always joked about it, why the hell fixed on a game when there are hundreds of them out there' I think  it was a sign and I dismiss it casually, I just hoped he find peace on his final moment, and hope he forgives me for not at his side

Rest In Peace my brother, Kurogakure, thank you for all the good times

Being Saleh: From Astral To Umbral a.k.a it's getting easier

Since my initial plan to upgrade to Warlords of Draenor is blown to bits by several... circumstances (like my social life and Guild Wars 2) I finally have time to get back to Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, It's not without several planning though, for one: FFXIV has been the most improved MMORPG I've ever played, and since I'm a filthy casual what I meant by "most improved" is "it's getting easier"

Except those pants, which made me hate ninjas

Since it's initial release on September 30th 2010, Final Fantasy has transformed from a total wreck into one of the most polished MMORPG ever created, at least that was all the review you can get from numerous website, I don't really care about it all, I played since A realm reborn beta (pre patch 2.0) and I can tell you from my own experience FFXIV has been most approachable, even than WOW, since I don't really raid and have a real piece of work internet connection from patch 2.0 to patch 2.5 FFXIV has been a great journey in term of casual gameplaying and story

The Story so far.... 

Final Fantasy XIV has numerous story quests, which it's names (like the F.A.T.Es) are homage to almost everything in pop culture, names like "Sudul Eht Nioj" or "Life is a Syrcus" almost get me chuckled every time, the writing (and translation, hello, it's a japanese game) work to this day was incredibly tidy and astonishing, if you're not into reading quests text like me you might skip them into oblivion, but really, slow down and read them all even when there are no voice acting (with sometimes regretfully awful, minor, nvm) I came across a line of dialogue which can or can't be tailored to my selection of race, it could be my imagination and since I'm too stupid to take a screenshot I just continue in hope to find another one, alas I never did.... maybe I'll ask around sometimes.

Please enjoy this Minfillia screenshot to ease your pain

So, in every patch (from 2.0 to the latest 2.5) there are at least five story arc in FFXIV, one is the main story arc where you as the good hero of Eorzea faced and confront threats from every not-so-good fellas, (minor spoiler) the latest patch offered a major plot twist which served as an opening into what we might expect in patch 3.0: Heavensward (yes it's an expansion). 

With Batman

Number two is the Hildibrand arc which we embarked in a gag journey (hey, what a hero without it's sense of humours) with Hildibrand Manderville: self-titled agent of inquiry and Inspector Extraordinaire Gentleman, which actually just a private detective with a penchant for disastrous and hyperbolic solution which (surprise) not always right, combined with numerous luck and colorful allies Hildibrand arc probably the most extraordinary (har har) arc Final Fantasy XIV has ever created simply because it get me laughing every single time =))

I'm so sorry for posting this

 Number three is the moogle courier stories, it puts up us as a mail courier for the good (and again, not-so-good) people of Eorzea, to deliver them letters which lead us to know more about their problems and woes, and --of course as a hero -- helps them, it's a short episodic goodness which the NPCs are described as more than just a quest giver, but also have life of their own.

A very GOOD life

Four is the Crystal Tower arc, where you embarked with a group of researchers known as NOAH to unlock the secret(and raiding) of crystal tower, as I said before the bosses are homage to Final Fantasy III
 

Five is another raid story: the Coil of Bahamut story act where we accompanied by Alisaie Leveilleur, the twin sister of Alphinaud Leveilleur which is a major story character, Allisaie takes us into a research facility which studies the impact of Bahamut's prison from the last era, it served as a hardcore raid instance but since the story is so good (I don't know, I don't raid) there are talks about to make it a soloable arc for casual players, I'm looking forward to this.

Even with such numerous story arc apparently Square knows where to stop and overshadowing people with what might be expected on Heavensward, the stories are not yet over, my eternal question is whether they will be continued or not, WOW has so much unfinished story arc and only a few of them has ever continued, things like Koltira's last stand to Sylvanas and Abyssal Maw has been scrapped and considered finished, no it's not finished, I refused to acknowledge that. Hopefully with much overshadowing here and there Square will actually resumed it

The (lazy) gearing and gameplay

Take a look at my post here, here, here, and here oh also here

As you can see from my numerous posts about 'dem gameplay on FFXIV you might see that I'm not too hot about it, I stopped playing in the beginning of patch 2.3 and as I came back gradually I just realized how I might be wrong, on the verge of patch 2.3 my chosen first class is a monk, a punch drunk dps guy, I have a sphairai which is a relic weapon a.k.a the strongest weapon on patch 2.0, with the help of the -then added chimera and hydra encounter on duty finder on patch 2.1(yes in case you forget it's a LFG tool)I zoomed through the steps of it and with my saved mythology tomes which I farmed from my days as paladin I obtained it in days, not weeks, not months, days, boom.

As square has numerous free weekend I mostly farmed the next upgrade of my weapon, atma (obtained by the old fashioned FATE grinding) on those days, sometimes it's going good, sometimes it's friggin frustrating (RNG sucks) I hit the jackpot on September free weekend.

So there's me and my atma weapon, as I renewed my sub I set myself another goal, another upgrade, the animus, which is another grindfest, yes bloodying my atma weapon with blood from numerous creatures is kind of sadistic way to upgrade a weapon but hey I need 9 books to be completed, each has at least 20 challenges ranged from killing X things and running dungeons (don't die on the last boss or it won't be count, blah), I decided that I will solo this thing, using DF and old-fashioned waiting game for fates, I got into 1/3 on the last books so it'll be awhile but the thing is, it's only takes three weeks to get into this phase and I don't even focus on it with numerous story arc to finish,

Animus is a level 100 weapon, you know another way to obtain 100 weapons on FFXIV on patch 2.5? Here's what I do on my Paladin: Run Crystal Tower --> upgrade gear with tomes --> run Syrcus Tower --> buy level 100 weapon with tomes --> run some more syrcus tower --> upgrade them to lvl 110 with tomes and stuffs found inside.

Yes it's easier, yes it's faster, but it just happened that I skipped patch 2.3 and 2.4 entirely!!! which means every good stuff of them is now available on vendors, so if I leveled another class now, on this patch, take it four weeks if you're a slow leveler (which can't be, because duty roulette bonus which will zoom you) add days for relic, run CT, buy weapons and armors, run ST, upgrades, voila, boom you're now decked in ilvl 110 in matter of weeks (probably one) if you skipped the entire leveling process entirely, on this ilvl you can access almost every single content on FFXIV, the first and second coil bahamut, the extreme primals, the odin, the hard and expert dungeons, The Hunt, world of darkness, latest PVP, anything, you see where this going? Yes FFXIV has become more approachable tiered-progress-based MMORPGs and that's VERY VERY GOOD

But what can I do on those content? I'm not fast enough to dodge things, or breaking things with heavy rotation, well just the point I want to make, Square tone down almost EVERYTHING in the latest patch, well not everything, hard still means hard and old dungeon can be irritating (yes I'm looking at you Aurum Vale) but the effort you pulled plus the gear you're wearing helped, the hardmode of Amdapor, Halatali and expert Wanderer's palace has a difficulty setting somewhere between sleeping in dungeon and breaking a keyboard, patch 2.0 Ultima battle was over the top and exceed all my expectation about how fun and engaging a dungeon battle is just because a) it's not too hard and b) it has a good song, the two latest trial and dungeon: The Chrysalis and Lake Keeper tops it, the balance was perfect, the boss battles are fun, last boss battle are somewhere between intimidating and brutally satisfying, there's no perfect way to win this, the one hit kill skillz was so few but if you don't entertain your footwork, you can still wipe, for a melee dps it's fun, for tanks and probably healer it's fun, yeah, that's only it, it's fun :D

Here's another SS to reward you, and no I don't even know what that is

Onward to 3.0

Well, I've written so much, so here's something, by scrapping everything that was on patch 1.0 FFXIV finally got a second chance and they used it well to gain acknowledgement from a solo (casually zerging in raid) player like me, by simplifying means and upping the rewards for activities FFXIV can continue to grow, but here's the thing, as you can see it's only the main game I'm talking about, come the expansion how approachable the state will be? Will the leveling process simplified? Up until now the main story arc requires you to get into dungeons and beat it but to be honest it's extremely worth it since the story is well written and enjoyable, For the story I think new player wants the whole experience too (Blizz cut the Undercity Siege story arc on Cataclysm, /rude), but LFG tool will probably without old players running around it (even if it's synced), so the fact that new players must open it all just to unlock high level dungeon can be.... discouraging, especially for new hardcores which tend to grind everything just to get into max level, and since max level dungeon in FFXIV tied to quests and main story quests and not the level, this can be a problem, at least for the powerleveler

Well there are solution, Blizz now sold instant level 90 on their website, it's also bundled with Warlords of Draenor expansion, but it's because they have 5 expansion pack and cataclysm rendered the old lore continuity useless for the sake of new graphics and eye candy, FFXIV still has a way to go, it's only the second expansion and since the main game bundled with patch 2.0 so it can be counted for a first expansion, it will be interesting if Square will go the same road as Blizzard (a.k.a make everything on the previous expansion obsolete, excluding Pandaria, they still have more content than all WOW combined)

But for now, I'll enjoy a little crystal action

On The Road

Since Archeage never really lived my expectation (as a free player) I decided to step back for a while from the world of MMOs, I still played some of them that's generous enough to gave me free login time (WoW, Wildstar, FFXIV) or continue updating their free content (Rift, Guild Wars 2), or just plain shield bash everything in Diablo's Torment III. But mainly I just burned through my list of (unplayed) steam games, thankfully, it's getting thinner

But my collection also grew with some of the newer (old) JRPG release like Final Fantasy XIII and Valkyria Chronicle, It was thoughtful for Sega and Square Enix to port their older games to PC, as I never owned Playstation 3 and also craving for them JRPGS, and yes it's mostly nostalgia but still they're good ports, Final Fantasy XIII will also have it's sequels ported to PC so I think I'm good for a while, I really think other JRPGS should follow their steps. For the MMOs I also have several long term plans with Warlords of Draenor it'll have to wait until Black Friday sale started =))

Being Saleh: Second year in Tyria

Happy Second Birthday, Saleh Mistreaver: Mindbender mesmerizer, Pioneer of fashionable purplish outfit, self-proclaimed troll king of Thelemic, and wielder of wide range of sharp (and sometimes big) pointy things, apparently cake gun is all the hype now

Saichotick's story

Yesterday, a fellow WOW player Saichotick post about his "adventures" in World of Warcraft with his wife Cillie, and in a shocking turn of event Cillie was recently diagnosed a rare form of cancer and only got a year to live, the thread got +237 like, one of the most highest rated thread in general discussion forum nowadays, in this post Saichotick describe his thanks for the makers of WOW and the player, the post was so gut-wrenching...

He wrote:

Seeing as how we have millions of players in WoW, I'm fairly positive that like 99.999% of you have no clue who I am. And that's ok, because I don't want to talk about myself.

I wanted to take a little bit of time to thank Blizzard. My wife and I both play WoW, she more so than I do. We've enjoyed this game together since TBC started, and it's been our main hobby and form of entertainment as she has gotten through nursing school. She and I even decided to run our own guild and raid team since Firelands, and we've been really enjoying that aspect of the game together ever since that decision was made. Her toon name is Cillie.

We've had the worst thing in our lives happen just a few weeks ago. Just after graduating school, she was diagnosed with Cholangiacarcinoma, a rare-ish form of cancer, especially for someone in their thirties and in good health to get. It is aggressive, and the initial prognosis from our first doctor was that she would have up to a year to live. Naturally, we weren't satisfied with that result. We're looking into multiple second opinions all over the country.

But she and I have had WoW as the one thing that we share and love together. We raid together (we're just 11/14 heroic, but we're working on the rest of them as hard as we can!), we run the guild together (she does like 99.99% of the work). She has loved meeting everyone she has come across in game, and she's so outgoing and nice, and she's what has kept so many people still playing in our little guild. We've got 3 (maybe a 4th) raid teams, from super casual to our casual heroic team, but really we have a LOT of really great, really nice, really awesome people that can all log on, hop into mumble, guild chat, do stuff, play games together, and it's mainly because she has had this great vision of what a fun guild can be.

We even managed to secure Blizzcon tickets for this year. We danced like 8 year old kids when I was able to hit refresh and enter my credit card info and lock down two tickets. We'd never gone before, just got the virtual tickets, and we were so pumped. Of course now treatments and doctors take precedence over that, but we're still going to try to go.

I wanted to thank Blizzard for their creations. These games, WoW, Starcraft, D3, Hearthstone, HotS (I'm in the alpha, it's amazing!), mainly just WoW but she and I have played them all together from time to time, we love them. You have created these wonderful, fantastic, tantalizing games for us to enjoy together, for us to share our time doing things we really enjoy together. Our relationship has been so strong, so amazing, and a part of that belongs to you guys and gals at Blizzard.

Besides these great games, you've created ways for us to connect to so many people all over the world. We've had people from every part of the planet in our WoW guild at one point or another. We've had people in Canada, South America, Europe, Australia, and even Japan as guildies, and all of that was to play this game we all love and enjoy.

Some of our guildies are throwing a benefit/fundraiser on August 30th. I'm not asking for people to come donate, but if anyone would like to come hang out with us on Eldre'thalas, we'd love to have anyone show up. We're going to be doing flex runs, a level 1 race through Azeroth, and all sorts of silliness like that. You can contact Raidwiper, our host for this event if you need more information.

I can't thank you all enough for giving us so much fun for so long. I'm hoping and praying that she and I will get to enjoy many more years of everything Blizzard. She and I both love WoW immensely, and we're hoping to see each and every expansion together. Please keep up the great work making these fun, enjoyable games for us. We love them, and we love all of you!

Stay strong Saichotick and Cillie, stay strong, I'll be there for the events, probably won't participate, but I will be there

/cried

link to full post

if you want to donate for Cillie, here's the link 

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