Thursday, September 30, 2010

Right before the Tsunami

As I write this, new players are flooding into Eorzea.  That's right it's the 30th.  Live day for the full version.  I fully expect the starting zones to be un-playable for a bit.  But oh well.

Some acquisitions:  A shield allowed me to unlock the sentinel "job" in the sense that I can now equip shields with my one hand weapon users and allow them to tank better.  I managed to get Lancer back up to 8, Archer to 6 farming sheep.  Then it was off working on various things.  I got some more clothes made and managed to get both leathercrafting and clothcrafting up to 11.  Amusingly I also managed to replace my skillet with a non-starter skillet.  I'm noticing that there will be a few bottlenecks in the upcoming plans.  I managed to get Botany up to 10.  This also yielded my first dye moss (5 lead-greys).  However to actually make the dye I need to get my alchemy up around 15 (it's at 9) and to do that I want to upgrade my alembic.  This however is being held back by my armorcrafting (need Brass Rivets) also at 9.

So the plan is:  Get armorcrafting up by any means necessary (guildleves and targeted crafting), Then get alchemy up.  A more long term problem is the problem of fish glue.  I can get the sea cucumbers without a problem (saltwater worm in the Limsa area grade 1 or grade 2 spearfishing have both yeilded sea cucumbers).  The problem is the bass.  That's either a grade 2 or grade 3 fish so I need to get my fishing seriously worked on as well.  Fun.

One thing I have discovered while harvesting.  One starts out getting 5 tries at grade 1 sites.  Eventually this is upped to 6.  Grade 2 sites start off at 3 tries per site.  Grade 2 Logging/Mining sites upgrade to 4 tries at level 9.  Grade 2 Harvesting/Quarrying sites upgrade at 10.  Grade 2 Harvesting sites yield the dye base materials for clothcrafting and grade 2 Quarrying sites yield the dye base materials for leather crafting.  Another thing I've discovered is the "3 site reset" phenomenon of crafting.  Basically this is if you hit a site and "exhaust" it (not make it disappear - that's something else), you need to hit 2 more different sites and you're access will "reset" and you'll be able to harvest from it again.  The type of resources site seems to have no impact on this.  So what I was doing was logging->logging->harvesting->logging->logging->harvesting.  Now grade 2 logging sites will eventually move on you (luckly there's a handy dandy "find the closest" action).  But so far once you find a harvesting site, it seems to be permanent.  I'll see if this holds true for my mining as well.  It should.  So quarry, hit 2 sites, back to quarry should allow me to get some dye bugs for leathercrafting as well.

An other thing:  To all he cheap bastards who are crafting in their undies, you realize of course that certain clothes have crafting bonuses?...  Twits.

Note to self: make non-beige undies for self (crap - need to get armorcrafting and alchemy up first...).

I'm getting the impression that once I hit 15 on all major crafts I will finally be able to retrofit all my equipment at least to level 6-10 equipment.  So far this consists of the weaving needle and the culinarian skillet.  Oh and the shield since there is no starter shield.

Oh and incidentally?  Having only 1 flunky?  When doing all crafts?  SUCKS!  I've been vendoring stuff I make to make place because it doesn't sell fast enough in a bazaar...  Also, anyone have an idea on how to "level up" your flunky?

Physical: 22, Hand to hand: 8, Sword: 8, Axe: 8, Archery: 6, Polearm: 8, Shield: 2, Thaumaturgy: 8, Conjury: 1, Woodworking: 8, Smithing: 9, Armorcraft: 9, Goldsmithing: 6, Leatherworking: 11, Clothcraft: 11, Alchemy: 9, Cooking 5, Mining: 9, Botany: 10, Fishing: 3

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Back to the sheep

Running dangerously low on crystals it was time to plan my next steps.  My recent crafting revealed how my lack of dye has hampered my crafting.  And I'm still in the need of Armorcrafting increases.  Then there will be the future fish glue situation.  All I can say at this point is that it looks like I will need to work on my Armorcrafting, Fishing and Alchemy, not to mention Botany.  One thing I have noticed is that there was a bit of a rollback at some point.  I seem to have lost an entire level of lancer at some point.  Very strange...

At any rate.  Low shard count means I could not do much of my own synthing without heading out to harvest appropriate mobs.  Luckily, it had been a bit since I did any local leves, so off to the Ul'dah to pick up local leves I went.  Got 8.  Failed one.  Crafted 12 synths of Chocobo Flies (in prep for fishing) 11 of which succeeded.  I also got lucky and some travel harvesting dinged my Botany to 7.  Then I discovered something really nice.  My last aetherite was in the Limsa region.  Using Return instead of Teleport only cost me 2 anima instead of the usual 6.  Very convenient.

I was then able to do some inventory management and follow that up with heading out to the sheep camp.  Once there I worked on my archery for a bit before logging.

Physical: 20, Gladiator: 8, Pugilist: 8, Marauder: 8, Lancer: 7, Archer 4, Thaumaturge: 8, Conjurer: 1, Carpenter: 8, Blacksmith: 9, Armorer: 9, Goldsmith: 6, Tanner: 10, Weaver: 10, Alchemist: 8, Cooking 4, Miner: 9, Botanist: 7, Fisher: 2

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Level 10s

So as per a lodestone post that got destroyed in their lodestone recovery, I spent most of the evening last night crafting.  As I mentioned, one of the critical skills to work on was Armorcrafting.  So after extensive examining of the situation I determined that starting with 8 Copper Nuggets and 12 Sheep Leather Straps, I could get some serious progress on Armorcrafting.

This turned out to be true.  I am left with some rather iffy materials to get rid of but at least the armorcrafting skill got to 8.  Here is what I did:

8 Copper Ore -> 24 Copper Nuggets (goldsmithing)
10 Copper Nuggets -> 2 Copper Ingots (goldsmithing)
2 Copper Ingots -> 12 Copper Wire
12 Copper Wires -> 36 Copper Rings (33 in actuality as there was a failure)
3 Copper Nuggets -> 32 Copper Rivets
2 Copper Nuggets -> 12 Copper Squares (4 copper nuggets used as there was a failure)
12 x Copper Squares, 12 Copper Rivets, 12 Sheep Leather Strap -> 12 Copper Throat Guard
(got 8 normal and 1 +1 and 1 failure)

Which indeed got me to level 8 Armorsmith.  7 of The rings and the 7 left over nuggets were then used in some Goldsmithing (Copper Wristlets).  I then got some more copper nuggets out of inventory and crafted some copper buckles.  These along with the rivets went into a major leathercrafting push.  This pushed my leathercrafting over 10.  This was immediately followed by a clothcrafting push which pushed it in turn over 10.  At the end of the session I had managed to craftmyself a new hat (Hempen Coif) as well as a Hempen Shirt +1, and some Hempen Slops.  There were plenty of Sheepskin Vambraces and Smithy's Gloves to go around.  My last synth was some Hempen Fent in order to make sure I could keep all this new equipment repaired.

I then finished the evening kicking off Archery and got it to Rank 2.  Wearing my new togs of course.  I also sold off the starter pants and the starter tunic.  Even if I get alternate hempen clothes to wear, there is no point to keeping the old starter equipment as anything is better than it is.  At this point the big thing is going to be killing a lot of things and searching for dye materials.  There were lots of synths I could otherwise have been able to do that I was blocked in doing because I did not have dyed leather or dyed cloth.

Planning is definitely necessary in crafting as you burn thru MASSIVE amounts of shards with simple clothes crafting.  I started the evening with over 400 earth shards.  I'm down around 100 at the end of the evening.  On the flip side I managed to get my first two jobs to 10, and good progress was had in both armorcrafting and goldsmithing.

I also no longer look like I just created my character.

Updated Look

Physical: 19, Gladiator: 8, Pugilist: 8, Marauder: 8, Lancer: 8, Archer 2, Thaumaturge: 8, Conjurer: 1, Carpenter: 8, Blacksmith: 8, Armorer: 8, Goldsmith: 6, Tanner: 10, Weaver: 10, Alchemist: 7, Cooking 4, Miner: 9, Botanist: 6, Fisher: 2

Monday, September 27, 2010

The broad base

This weekend consisted mainly of laying the foundation for the push past 10 of a lot of jobs this week.  I'm finding that the selection of local guildleves of the appropriate level is a little lacking.  On the flip side they are great for getting a craft off the ground and also for getting over certain "humps".  The biggest hump for all crafts seems to be that the materials for most low level synths are not themselves very low level and there are few "starter" synths.  The breakpoint seems to be around rank 9-10.  All of a sudden the major materials for a lot of low level synths seem to unlock themselves.

For example I used guildleves to get to level 5-6 or so in both carpentry and leathercrafting.  Then with some concentrated botanist work (that got botany up to 6) I harvested 3 willow logs and 9 maple logs.  The 3 willow logs gave me 48 willow chips (there was an HQ of one of the synths).  The maple allowed me to get a reserve of maple lumber and maple planks.  I used the maple lumber to make some parts for future crafting although inventory issues forced me to put these up on the bazaar.  This got my woodworking to 8.  Then I used the wood chips and the reserve of sheepskins I had accumulated to craft my entire reserve of sheepskins into sheep leather and some of that into sheep leather straps and sheep leather spetches.  The spetches were especially welcome as I have 3 pieces of equipment that are repared by sheep leather spetches.  I now have 5 stacks of sheep leather ready to rock.  A stack of 99 spetches and 50 odd straps.  And I put 50 spetches up on sale in the bazaar.  All this leather work rocketed my leathercrafting up to 9.  But then I noticed a tonne of recipies that needed materials from other disciplines that were not quite ready.

So I proceeded to buy some muddy water.  Between a stack of muddy water alone (to kick start my alchemy) and a 2nd stack, some of my reserve of bone chips (I still have over 2 stacks) and some incidental milling (chalk and rye flour) I was able to kick start alchemy and get over 140 animal glue (kept stack of 99, put overflow on bazaar for relatively cheap but sufficient to cover my muddy water expenses).

The next part was a serious mining kick.  This brought in a nice reserve of copper ore and some materials that allowed me to kick start my goldsmithing just a bit.  It's a good thing certain combat guildleves reward you with fire crystals.  Not to mention the occasional rat rewards you with 2 fire crystals at a time.  Unfortunately I blew through my reserve of tin.  I'm going to need to spend some time in the Ul'dah area this week mining.  Apparently tin is plentiful over that way.  This allowed me to make a reserve of copper nuggets, make some copper squares, add to my existing bronze nugget stash and have plenty of left over copper ore for when I get the tin.  The problem I am faced with is that I will need to do quite a bit of copper synthing to get over a hump in armorcrafting.  I have plenty of stuff that unlocks arround level 9-11 when I can start doing bronze squares and bronze plates.

All this synthing however left my reserves of water, wind and lightning shards rather destitute.  All 3 were down in the single digit range.  Also down to 3 fire crystals.  Guess what this looks like?  You guessed it.  Sheep.  Lots of sheep.  So Sunday evening was spent mostly over in the area of La Noscea that has all those sheep and that Goobue to dodge.  I have been developing a pattern for this camp that depends on the job I'm killing things with.  Basically I have been running each combat and casting job up to 8 grinding mobs in this area.  And oh lord how I plan to be beyond this area come the 30th.  It's going to be way way way over camped (lucky Puks seem to also be wind so they will do nicely as a substitute - I don't actually need the sheep leather any more - and marmots should substitute as a source of gil and moko grass).

At any rate the pattern is as follows:  Choose new job.  Kill Wharf Rats until level 4 (updating job change macros as you go).  Switch to Lost Wether/Ewe/Lamb until you hit level 8.  This gets me consistent drops of all crystals with double the amount of wind and earth.  I also seem to be lucky with the fire crystal drops (or it's intentional by SE) so I have a sufficiency for my smelting jobs.  Once I hit 8, I pick the next job and start the pattern over again.  I now have Marauder, Thaumaturge and Lancer all at 8.  This should give you an idea of exactly how much grinding I did in this area.  I stuck it out here until my wind crystals had recovered to over 200.  I'll be burning thru those with the upcoming push in weaving.  Guildlevel push also allowed me to get Culinarian up off the ground.  I also made myself a pair of Straw Hats (blew 2 up - but hey, that happens).  One to wear and one to put on the bazaar.  If I can get armor crafting up above 9 in the next stint, I should have enough material reserves to see me clear into cloth, leather and shoe production.  Which will allow me to finally ditch my starter togs (I've kept them way too long).  So hopefully the next portrait should see me looking nattier.



At the end of the weekend:

Physical: 18, Gladiator: 8, Pugilist: 8, Marauder: 8, Lancer: 8, Archer 1, Thaumaturge: 8, Conjurer: 1, Carpenter: 8, Blacksmith: 8, Armorer: 6, Goldsmith: 4, Tanner: 8, Weaver: 9, Alchemist: 7, Cooking 4, Miner: 9, Botanist: 6, Fisher: 2

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Bots!

And as per usual on the 5th day I find bots in FFXIV.  Hardly surprising.

Bots!

The observed behavior in this case is insta-pulling and squashing a set of mobs at the location I found them in.  Based on spawn behavior at other locations I posit they are after the spriggan spawn at this location (it's an alternate to some rat spawns).

Saturday, September 25, 2010

Bronze

And the pattern of the previous days repeats itself.  This time without the regional guildleves.  Mass slaughter of sheep ensues as I gather materials and crystals.  And rats (they do now drop fire crystals).  I also did the trek over to Ul'dah.  During the sheep slaughter I managed to get my Pugilist and Gladiator ranks up to 8.  It was then time to work on Marauder.  I did that mainly on the way to Ul'dah.  It was time to get some local guild leves over there.  I also did a lot of mining and some incidental harvesting/logging.

The mining got me some Tin and some Copper ore amongst other stuff.  The killing of rats and marmots got me some fire crystals.  I also had a 4 hour long power outage due to a storm.  Most inconvenient.  After all the running around I was able to settle down to some personal crafting at the end.  Mainly getting the moko grass converted into Hempen Thread and bow strings, and the ore converted into Bronze.  Picked up Jonel and teleported us both back to Limsa at the end of it all.

Also purchased more equipment.  I'm now only two jobs short of having all the jobs available.

End of the day:
Physical: 14, Gladiator: 8, Pugilist: 8, Marauder: 5, Lancer: 1, Thaumaturge: 1, Conjurer: 1, Carpenter: 1, Blacksmith: 8, Armorer: 5, Goldsmith: 1, Tanner: 4, Weaver: 7, Alchemist: 2, Miner: 6, Botanist: 3, Fisher: 1.

Thursday, September 23, 2010

The second night

So I get back in this evening.  I'm still killing sheep but that's cool.  I do that for a bit then eventually I decide to head to town and get some equipment so that I'll have more than one combat job.  Not to mention get some crafts going.

Step one is walking back to town.  Then I hit up the smithy which houses both the blacksmith's and armorer's guilds.  Holly crap prices of basic weapons have doubled from Beta...  Still the end of the first two quests and selling off all the +1 thru +3 stuff to the vendor (while keeping the rest for synth reserves) gives me enough to buy the equipment for Blacksmith, Armorer, Pugilist, Marauder, Thaumaturge and Conjurer.  Running low on gil at this point, I decide to get some leves.  So I get 5 local guildleves and do them.  This gets my Blacksmithing to 6 and my Armorcrafting to 5.

Local Guildleve: Got Ingots

The trip to the level 10 and 20 aetherites also allows me to start in on my Pugilist so it gets to 2.  Setting up the macroes for equipment and action swaps allows me to get Fisher, Marauder, Thaumaturge and Conjurer up to 1.

At this point I take a break so we can get Kalie in the linkshell and sorted out.  Jonel teleports us to Gridania so we're able to get the Aetherite there without the long trek.

 Kalie

Then we went our separate ways as she went to do some regional leves in the Gridania region and I went to do the same (gil now being rather low) near Limsa Lominsa.  Partying up with Etreus and eventually Legend for the guildleves we plow thru the level 1 ones.  The level 10 ones that Etreus were a little tougher (especially the dodo one - died 3-4 times during that one).  This helped with my gil situation and also with the materials situation.  I notice I have enough to craft some Bronze Nuggets.  I decide that I'll be crafting my needle for the Weaver class instead of buying it.  I buy the spinning wheel (the 2nd hand weaver tool), but hold off on the needle.

So back to my flunky to exchange some stored items and get the materials.  I have enough ore and cyrstals for 2 synths.  The first one blows up (naturally), but the second one succeeds.  This gives me enough material for 12 attempts but I figure 6 should be enough.  Impressively, my first synth blows up attempting to get a +1, but my next one result in a Bronze Needle +1...



Woot!  Not only my first successful end product synth (the bronze nuggets were my first non-end product successful synth) but also my first HQ!.  The next 1 is also a +1 and the last 3 are normal Bronze Needles.  The end result of all of this is that I sell Etreus a +1, keep one for myself and put 3 Bronze Needles up for sale in my bazaar.

At the end of the night:

Physical: 10, Hand to hand: 5, Sword: 7, Axe: 1, Thaumaturgy: 1, Conjurer: 1, Smithing: 7, Armorcrafting: 5, Clothcraft 1, Fishing 1.

A new start

Well after much waiting the official head start for FFXIV finally happened.  And I managed to get in game and create a character.  No guarantees for some of my future guild mates as SE seems to be throttling various worlds that are suffering from overcrowding.  So here I am on the Selbina server.

Letrange Strangeone


So I learned much in the beta.  But this is the live.  So I go through character generation again.  This time I decide to start at Limsa Lominsa as a Gladiator.  I would be crafting but this starts me off with a decent weapon to go out and harvest materials I will be going thru in massive amounts.  The location choice was mainly due to the proximity of sheep.  One thing I learned in Beta is that crafting (of which I will be doing a LOT) is rather wind and earth shard intensive at the start.  However there are few mobs that dropped wind shards in the early levels....  Therefore: Sheep.  Lots of sheep.

But, we don't start out with sheep.  We start out with getting in the linkshell.  Like many ex-FFXI players there were players I knew that would be playing.  Therefore there was a pre-arranged linkshell to join once I was in game.  So I got my client installed and updated.  My character created and my world chosen.  Then it was off to start the main quest line.

Right after I had barely started that (mainly for the startup gil and the skill) I heard that the linkshell had formed and it was off to get my linkpearl.

Hokuten

Lo, and the linkshell was started.  Jonel there is the LS leader.  So with my LS in place it was time to finish up the first quest line and then get over to the area with the sheep.

The first quest line gives you about 10k gil and gets you to level 2 in your profession (if you are not a crafter to start) and level 3 physical.  Which is fine but not quite enough to go after sheep out of the box.  So I headed over to the sheep area.  Holy cow is that camped.  The few sheep that managed to last longer than 30 seconds showed as "Red" to me.  So the first targets were Rats

Rats

I did this until I was Physical level 5 Gladiator 5 then it was off to the sheep

Sheep

So, I ended the first two sessions with a good supply of shards of all types and a preponderance of the two types I'll be going through the most at the start.

Incidentally no guildleves yet as I want to use this head start on the crystals to sell off some materials and buy all the rest of my starting equipment.  There is methods to my madness.  Honest.  10k is not enough to start all the jobs nor is it enough to start all the crafts.  So drops to finance that while targeting the mobs I need for the right shards.  The problem with leves is that you don't always have a large choice of target mobs and the ones you may want to concentrate on may not be available.  So That's why I started with rats and sheep in an out of the way place that is way overcrowded by ex-beta players.  Ah well can't have everything.

Anyways, welcome to my FFXI blog and we'll be following my adventures in Eorzea.

End of the first two sessions:
Phy: 6, Gld: 6